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Limited Supply
S14 E3: Inside Comfrt’s $700 Million TikTok Playbook (with Hudson Leogrande, Founder of Comfrt)
00:38:26
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- [00:01]
Nick Sharma
Welcome back to Limited Supply, the podcast where we get deep into the tactical and strategic side of e commerce, digital marketing and building consumer brands. I'm your host, Nick Sharma. I've spent the last nine years building, scaling and investing in brands. And through this show and my weekly newsletter at Nick Co Email, I'm here to share everything I've learned. The wins, the losses, the experiments, the tactics and the insights. All so you can unlock your next.
- [00:26]
Podcast Sponsor/Ad Host
Hundred thousand dollars in revenue.
- [00:28]
Nick Sharma
Today's episode is a good one, but before we dive in, let me tell you about our chosen sponsor for this week's episode.
- [00:35]
Podcast Sponsor/Ad Host
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- [01:22]
Nick Sharma
Sharma.
- [01:27]
Welcome back to another episode of Limited Supply. My name is Nick Sharma and I'm your host for this week. However, fun, fun little change up. One of my best friends is going to actually be taken over shortly as host. We are going to insert a talk here that happened with Hudson, Hudson Leogrande. He's the founder of Comfort. Comfort is one of the biggest brands to exist on TikTok Shop. I believe the top apparel brand. If not right now, it was one of the top. It's probably still top five. He's done over 500 million in TikTok Shop sales. He expects to do just over probably between 100 and 200 million for the remainder of this year. So between October, November, December and so I thought, you know, let's dive into Hudson's Q4 playbook. I'm curious, what is a brand of his caliber doing? How are they planning and thinking about Q4? How does he think about merchandising, pricing, sales? TikTok Live, TikTok, TikTok creators TikTok affiliate. All the things that are, you know, known that we should be talking about, thinking about, doing, researching, diving into, but still a lot of brands are not. So today's conversation, I'm going to dive all to, or rather Troy's going to dive all into the Q4 strategy and plays behind what Comfort is doing and what Hudson has orchestrated. And if you have any questions, you can reach out to myself, you can reach out to Troy, or you can reach out to Hudson directly. But I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Next week we're back with our regularly scheduled programming and yeah, have at it. Let me know if you have any questions. I hope you enjoy this episode.
- [03:01]
Podcast Announcer
Most brands dream of cracking social commerce. Our next guest didn't just crack it, he mastered it. His company, Comfort Clothing, has generated over a half a billion dollars a year in sales through TikTok Shop alone, making his brand TikTok's fastest growing apparel brand worldwide. And the craziest part is he's not even 30 years old. This man proves what's possible when product, brand and culture collide. And he's about to tell you exactly how you can apply that same playbook to your brand. This Q4. Ladies and gentlemen, let's give a round of applause for Hudson Leogrand.
- [03:49]
Hudson Leogrande
I had a little out.
- [03:51]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Yeah, I had a good feel of. Yeah. But if we being rid out.
- [04:04]
Troy (Interviewer)
All right, got the king of TikTok Shop right here. Glad to have you, Hudson.
- [04:09]
Nick Sharma
This is nice.
- [04:11]
Troy (Interviewer)
We'll just jump right into it. So as a king of TikTok Shop, when you started TikTok Shop, what did you do to start driving those initial sales that got you? Obviously you didn't hit originally, but what actually got you those initial first few sales? How do you get started within TikTok shop?
- [04:26]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
It was, hi, everybody.
- [04:29]
Hudson Leogrande
I'm really fucking happy to be here right now. This is sick. First time I've ever done this.
- [04:34]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
So, yes, when we, when we started.
- [04:36]
Hudson Leogrande
On TikTok, it was, it's hard, right, because you don't really have that track record. So what we did was we would reach out to micro affiliates, like very, very small affiliates that never really worked with a big brand before. So they weren't used to usage rights or rates or managers. And we just pitched them on the idea. We kind of dangled the carrot of where the business was going because we didn't have the track record, we didn't have the sales. But we knew TikTok was early on and people were really excited about it and you could Take anybody that has a 9 to 5 that's wanting to break out of that and start making money on their own, even if it pays their rent or their car. And that was the vision that we kind of planted that seed in everybody's head and we just started making an abundance of content. The key to TikTok shop is quality and quantity. You need to have both. The algorithm does not know if it's a high quality piece of content. Maybe you think it's going to win, but it doesn't. So the quality and the quantity is what gets you in the door and gets your business out there enough to start generating sales.
- [05:45]
Troy (Interviewer)
That makes perfect sense. People usually do one or the other, they don't do both. Both are essential, of course. And do the tactics that you use when you first started still apply today or has the game changed within TikTok shop drastically since?
- [05:57]
Hudson Leogrande
No, it's the same. I don't want to work with celebrities. I don't want to work with macro creators or a list creators. I want to work with people that are the most relatable people on the planet because my demographic, I have a huge tam. It's everybody and anybody and I want people, I want to evoke emotion in the content. I don't want someone to look at my content and say oh that celebrity is getting paid. That's why they're making this content. It's not organic, it's not authentic and people can smell that. We've been doing the same thing with, with E Commerce for a very long time thinking celebrities are going to drive sales for the brand. But I'd rather have like right now we have 600,000 affiliates. We have, that's a lot. We have 500 core people in our company. They're all the faces of the brand. So I just want to add more people that are like minded, that fit in our community, that get excited, that wake up, you know, wanting to win. And you get that with people that haven't really seen that much success yet because they're looking at of not things for what they are but for what they're becoming and they're growing with you instead of they're already at the top and you're this smaller brand trying to figure it out.
- [07:09]
Troy (Interviewer)
Yeah. And it's interesting because the big like influencer celebrity side of things usually people steer away because of it's too cost per hit of the ROI is usually not there. But for you it's more of the authenticity then correct?
- [07:21]
Hudson Leogrande
Yeah, 100%.
- [07:22]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Well you're going to get both, right?
- [07:24]
Hudson Leogrande
Like with TikTok, I think it's one of the biggest levers on the planet for growth for a company. Like if the halo effect of TikTok to all the other channels is unbelievable. Like I spend half a million a day on Meta. Not one person says, I saw you on Instagram. Everybody says, oh, I saw you on TikTok. You're the TikTok brand.
- [07:49]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
First click, amazing.
- [07:51]
Hudson Leogrande
Sales profitability is key, but the influencers.
- [07:53]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
We just repurpose all of their content.
- [07:56]
Hudson Leogrande
From TikTok to Meta to Snapchat to AppLovin to Pinterest. So TikTok is really a great origin for all content.
- [08:04]
Troy (Interviewer)
I love that. And with the content that you're making on TikTok, what creative formulas or hooks are you seeing working best right now? Was it like street interviews? Anything that you're doing, you guys are testing right now. What do you see? Going to queue for?
- [08:17]
Hudson Leogrande
Yeah, that's a great question. So I look at the layers of content, right? So you have a hook, you have a middle of content which is more like virtual try ons for my product, more of an experience, right? Because you want to evoke emotion from the consumer. You want them to feel something when they're watching that content, that they're like, oh my God, that's how I feel. Or showing every color of that collection in a video. Like if we have someone wearing a black hoodie, but we have a pink, a yellow and a green hoodie, we're going to show all those hoodies in the video to say if someone was in the market for a pink hoodie, they just found it, it. So we're trying to always cater the videos to. The quote that I like to use is people don't need time to make a decision, they need information. So the information basis is hook, evoke emotion through middle of content and create FOMO and scarcity at the end of the content, which is the call to action. So I always look at that and then the street interviews and the podcasts.
- [09:18]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
It shocks the consumer. They don't fucking see that. You know, they don't. Like they're so used to scrolling and being desensitized. And then you see somebody in the middle of the street like, hey, can I grab you for a minute? Like you, you want to watch it and by the time you find out it's an ad, I've already hooked you and you're already buying my product. So it's really like you want to play the game of click through, rate, watch time even if it's top of the funnel and then you have the more like dense UGC videos in the middle and the bottom of the funnel that are bringing them back in. But like, yeah, you want to just do something different than everybody else. I feel like everybody feels like this playbook. Everybody wants to do the same shit and expect different results. And it's like you just got to try things and you just can't be, can't procrastinate that, you know. So we didn't know street interviews would work, but we have one ad that has made us over $70 million.
- [10:11]
Troy (Interviewer)
Street interview.
- [10:12]
Hudson Leogrande
One ad. Street interview.
- [10:15]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
That's, that's, you know, it just. No one's seen it before.
- [10:17]
Troy (Interviewer)
Yeah, well, it's funny because like everyone always, you know, the cliche is like thumb stopping creative, quote unquote, but everyone to your point does the same shit. So how do you come up with these ideas? Or how do you. Are you looking at trends? Are you looking what other people are doing? You're looking at organic things that you can apply and see, like your ads. Like, how do you actually come up with these unique ideas?
- [10:35]
Hudson Leogrande
So I don't have TikTok. Ironically.
- [10:42]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
I don't really like it that much. But I believe that when you build.
- [10:47]
Hudson Leogrande
Such a community and a culture within your organization, you can rely on those people to be able to help you. So I have 500 people that know how my brain works, what we're doing with the company, what we're coming out with, what's worked, what hasn't worked. And they're the people that are saying.
- [11:05]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Oh my God, you have to look at this or look at this trend or look at everyone starting to buy these products. Like when we think about product and.
- [11:13]
Hudson Leogrande
We think about coming out with something new, there's market data that goes into that. You know, it's. You want to mitigate risk at all cost. And one of the ways we do that is we use an app called Particle. I don't work with them. I don't get any money if you guys sign up.
- [11:27]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
But you can really see what everybody else is doing. You can see what their top sellers are, how much revenue they're making. You can look at the TikTok shop sales and the reviews and how much they've sold that month. Like when you think about product, they kind of give me the idea of what I should do. And then I just make sure that it hits all of those checkpoints for the company of like, we're bootstrapped. I don't have any Funding like if we fuck up an order, it's on me. So yeah, I think the research of content and data and what works is really coming from the people that are making the content. And then just like us going through on the back end what we really.
- [12:02]
Troy (Interviewer)
Have to look for and our programs like Particle and those. Is that how you're picking your next product Skus? Because I know you guys expanded from the hoodies. You have a bunch of Skus right now. Is that how you're expanding, looking at the data on that side?
- [12:13]
Hudson Leogrande
Did you say the first part?
- [12:14]
Troy (Interviewer)
I don't want how you're expanding product skus past the hoodies.
- [12:17]
Hudson Leogrande
Yeah. So we ask like out of the affiliates that work with the company, we will ask them what they want to see next. And when everybody. There's an app on Shopify called Fairing and when anybody checks out on your website, you can ask them a questionnaire of what. Is there something that you look for today that you couldn't find? Is there something that you would like us to come out with next? And that's kind of how we came out with blankets and these waffle tees. And also my creative director is here and she's unbelievable. So she definitely helps me with stuff.
- [12:56]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Like that too because I'm a little crazy. I want to come out with a bunch of shit. And sometimes it doesn't align with the vision the way that it should. So for us it's like a one.
- [13:06]
Hudson Leogrande
Stop shop for everything comfortable.
- [13:08]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
And then we look at the market blankets, there's no real leader in blankets. Like if I say what's the number one blanket company, everyone here is not going to have the same answer. So we want to go capture that market and take over. So I think it's just whatever aligns with the customers and a lot of what we do, if you guys don't know we're a mental health brand, we donate to every single order. We have a portion of proceeds that goes to a mental health charity we partner with the adaa. Like we do a lot of really fun stuff. So when you, you know, when we're working with certain products, we want maybe a weighted feel or something really soft or something with someone who has sensory issues or we came out with a five pound hoodie that children with autism would wear a vest but they would get embarrassed. So we made a weighted hoodie that they can wear in school and nobody would know the difference. So there's like there's those places in the market that really align with the vision. And I feel like we're more worried about that. But of course it has to be profitable for the brand.
- [14:02]
Troy (Interviewer)
I love that. And it's also what I personally love doing is looking at people's search for on your site because a lot of people are searching intentionally looking for it. Maybe they've been searching blank. Is there something related that they didn't find on your site but also informs you the future, like what products you should be adding as your next sku, but now they're on your site making that purchase. You, you said you that fixed prices and constant discounts destroy your margin and you adopted more of a dynamic pricing model. You dive into your dynamic pricing because that's.
- [14:33]
Hudson Leogrande
Dynamic pricing is something that we've kind of, we've been testing a lot. So the problem with Comfort was we were selling too fast, which is a great problem to have, but it's a real issue.
- [14:48]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Bootstrapped went broke every other month ordering inventory, had a ton of problems with scalability. And then last year we went from 16 million to 170 million in revenue. And we had to create these different methods to keep items in stock and then also take revenue into the business. So there's two key things that we do at Comfort. One is pre order. So we will put pre order on the website. And even if the item is in stock, you can get it at a cheaper price if you're willing to wait two months. So we act as the bank, we take cash up front, we defer the sale out two months. And that's how we're able to fund the business and fund our pos. When it comes to dynamic pricing, you want to maximize profitability for the business, but you also want to maximize the amount of stock that you have in so that you're not always out of stock. And people say, well, you know what, I'm not a customer anymore because this company never has stock, which we used to get. So the dynamic pricing model will change depending upon the stock availability. So we want a slow velocity on some of our higher selling products. For instance, we had an airplane mode hoodie that we did about 100,000 units in 48 hours. It was our biggest drop ever. We thought we ordered a lot. We did not order enough. That item, even on pre order stayed at the same price as what we sell it at retail for, where normally we would really discount it. And just last month alone we did like $14 million in pre order. So when you think about the hype and the excitement around a product, people are willing to pay and it's Still a really affordable price because our whole thing is affordability and having that feeling of like, wow, this is a luxury product. But for anybody here that is like in a business that you're seeing a lot of scale and you're looking to, you know, maximize profitability but also stay in stock, like you have to start to build models that are very unique to your brand. There isn't like a one size fits all. So that's just kind of something that we've come up with to kind of help with our scaling.
- [16:49]
Troy (Interviewer)
That's great because a lot of brands kind of steer away from pre sales because people think pre sales less, you know, less purchase coming in. But like, if you don't mind sharing, like what percent of. Or like what roughly what percent of your sales actually come in from pre sales versus we want to share.
- [17:03]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
No, no, I'm happy to share. We've had months where 50% of our orders were pre order. Like, fuck. It's a lot. Like, it's, it's a lot. Because, you know, you got to remember we're running ads still on Meta and TikTok and Snapchat that are the product that is no longer in stock. And you're still looking at the CPA in the roas of someone who's buying to wait two months and if it still stays profitable or there's a color that's hot. Like, we're not going to stop running the ad because the product's out of stock. We're going to keep running it and hope that we're still profitable on the pre order side of things. So there's months where it's, where it was 50, we like to stay under 20, but it's still really good for the brand just from a cash flow thing.
- [17:49]
Troy (Interviewer)
And are you doing these through the holiday? Pre orders through the holidays? Because obviously people are buying for Black Friday because they want to be gifting that or wear it for Christmas or whatever the holiday might be. Are you still running these pre orders through the holidays or how does that take effect?
- [18:02]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
So we will, we will have that. There's a deadline. So there will be a deadline to pre order a product and get it, you know, before Christmas and then once that. So the way that we do pre order is the dates get structured as we place POS. So if it's November 10th, once we max out that amount of orders for that date, the date moves up and then the date moves up and the date moves up. So when Christmas is about a hit, we really try to place huge orders so that everybody can kind of fit in. Even people who bought a month out or three weeks out could still get a better price. And it's kind of like they feel like they're like hacking the system by ordering in three weeks in advance and getting a better price. But yeah, you have to be very clear with the customers. I learned this very early on in E Comm. Somebody asked me, hudson, are you being proactive or reactive? And that has stuck with me. Like I say it every Monday morning meeting with my team because it's the truest statement. Like when it comes to pre order, you have to be so fucking proactive or those customers get back, where's my order? Where's my order? And then they're going to go to Reddit and then they're going to go here and they're going to go. So we know the game by now. Well, we've messed up enough. But yeah, pre order is a very, very interesting model. I would recommend everybody try to build that out.
- [19:22]
Troy (Interviewer)
No, I love it. Like I said, it's not as common. Most people try to steer away from it because they assume pre order equals less sales.
- [19:29]
Podcast Sponsor/Ad Host
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- [19:38]
Hudson Leogrande
Why?
- [19:39]
Podcast Sponsor/Ad Host
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- [20:06]
Troy (Interviewer)
So with the holidays coming up, pre orders crushing it clearly. What other like are you doing bundles? Are you doing any kind of other special offers for the holidays? Any special program like campaigns you're running?
- [20:17]
Hudson Leogrande
Yeah.
- [20:18]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
So the key to the brand is.
- [20:20]
Hudson Leogrande
Every single hoodie has a matching pair of sweats. So you really want the AOV to be very high for the brand. So we want to always incentivize a bundle purchase. And again for you guys, like, if.
- [20:34]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
You'Re having issues with Meta, your product may just be too. It might just be too, like the prices might be too low where you don't have that delta to be able to scale and actually acquire a customer at a profitable purchase. So for us, we try our best to be able to really build value in the bundle and build big discounts so that we can spend more money to acquire a customer at a profitable rate. So I think for us, it's like the bundles have been really good because also people like wearing a set at the airport. I see it all the time. I've never seen someone in a comfort hoodie and not have the matching sweats on. So for us, bundling for our brand in particular has been. Has been very productive.
- [21:19]
Troy (Interviewer)
Yeah, I mean, I'll say firsthand, I always see everyone in the set and it looks great. Is there any big changes you're doing that you did Last year for Q4 versus you're doing this year?
- [21:30]
Hudson Leogrande
I'm starting earlier. One of those, dude, I was screwed in Q4 last year. 75% of our products were sold out before Black Friday.
- [21:41]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
We, yeah.
- [21:45]
Troy (Interviewer)
Hear the reaction.
- [21:46]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
We, no, no, this is true. We had to put everything out of stock on Black Friday and didn't run any SMS or any email. It was the most depressing thing. I woke up, I'm like, we're gonna do 10 million today. And then everyone was like, my CEO was like, we're gonna go out of business. So we, we had to turn everything off. So I've never had a successful Black Friday. I think a lot of people have said that. But this Black Friday, we're starting early with the notion of they're always sold out by Black Friday. So buy it now and then the goal is to not be sold out on Black Friday and then play Cyber Monday and then play Cyber Week and then play the whole fucking month and then, you know, just do that. So hopefully that can work.
- [22:31]
Troy (Interviewer)
Last year might have worked out in your favor. You never would think it's going to be sold out. So that could work.
- [22:35]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
I mean, it could work.
- [22:37]
Troy (Interviewer)
Accidental strategy. So how early are we talking? Like Halloween next week?
- [22:43]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
I'm October 15th, pre Black Friday sale.
- [22:48]
Troy (Interviewer)
Got it.
- [22:48]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
And then like a week before Black Friday, we're gonna go all in and then we're gonna keep that through to.
- [22:57]
Hudson Leogrande
Like, just the week after Cyber Monday.
- [22:59]
Troy (Interviewer)
That makes perfect sense.
- [23:00]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
I love that.
- [23:00]
Hudson Leogrande
Yeah, because I want to be first.
- [23:03]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
What the fuck are you gonna do with everybody else is doing it? Like, why are you doing what everybody else is like, oh, it's time to do it now? Like, no, I want to be there first to market. You know, everyone else is going to do at the same time. CPMs are going to go up. Everyone's going to be spending a shit ton of money. Why don't we get in early, get our fucking teeth in and then, you know when that starts to happen, we're already ahead of the game. We're already spending our Q4 budget in October and we're just winning all those auctions.
- [23:28]
Troy (Interviewer)
Agreed. But do you have any concern next year not to keep pushing it up?
- [23:33]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
No, no. Our customers are really, they're, they're, they're really like understanding of the way that we do business. Like, they're very understanding of dynamic pricing, how we run sales, when products come in stock, how quickly they really do sell out. So we're always super transparent with them. But Yeah, I think October 15th is kind of like, I might just keep that moving forward. And also remember I'm, I'm a clothing brand. Q4 for us is like the bread and butter. It's getting cold out. Everybody wants to buy, everybody wants a hoodie. So that's kind of like even though we are not really a seasonal brand, Q4, of course we're going to see more growth or.
- [24:10]
Troy (Interviewer)
So you have the, Any of the hoodies, like holidays coming up. Who doesn't want to wear a nice comfort set to their Thanksgiving dinner? So now we're actually going to open up to the floor to anyone has any questions for Hudson. I got one right there.
- [24:28]
Hudson Leogrande
Great question. I don't know.
- [24:33]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
I started with that. So when I started in e. Comm About 10 years ago, the first five years, I failed epically, probably worse than anybody else. I literally was brain dead.
- [24:46]
Hudson Leogrande
I knew nothing. So when I started, it was the Snapchat game.
- [24:50]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
I had people posting on Snapchat.
- [24:53]
Hudson Leogrande
We were, don't laugh at me, Mike.
- [24:56]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
People were like, we were on Snapchat doing videos. We would put a cold traffic link. We'd have creators go to the website. I used to manage it all myself. And then Kimberly, who's my director of influencers, she started with me very early on, like before we had any success. We were packing orders in my mom's basement and we were every day going on our phones and we were like just trying to recruit more and more creators. And, and it would be imessage. And then it went to Discord. And then it went to weekly calls.
- [25:25]
Hudson Leogrande
The whole thing is this right?
- [25:28]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Managing is the key word. You are not a babysitter. These creators, you have to incubate and train and make them really fucking good. And they have to understand every construct of your business. So for us, we have me, Kimberly, my director of influencers, and we have Erica, who's our affiliate manager. And then we have about 10 Discord moderators now, 600,000 people. They're not all in our discord. They're not all posting. You know, I would say if I get half of those people to post, I'm really happy. But a lot of them are customers. And I'm gonna give you guys like a really good tip that I kind of wanted to keep to myself.
- [26:04]
Hudson Leogrande
And I'm not gonna do it. So we run ads on meta to recruit affiliates, right? So we want affiliates, we're profitable on.
- [26:16]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Those ads on sales on the company to get affiliates who then buy again with the 30% off discount code. So you're like, it's like killing two birds with one stone. You could get 3,4000 affiliates a day profitably and then bring them into your community and have them earn money. So I think for like that's not your question, but your question was kind of what I just answered. But yeah, you just have to like start really small. I think businesses that have 10 key affiliates, like really, there's a difference between affiliates and creators. Core creators are the people that you build a relationship with. The affiliates are more like, if you're on TikTok shop, go use Yuka AI, go RIP 4000 messages a day, bring people in your business, have them post your for your brand, and then maybe they join your discord. So in your target outreach, you'll just write, hey, like join my discord. And then they come into the community and then they get to meet you. But all of the growth of comfort was not from seeding product. It was from creating a community and a culture of people that believe in the brand as much as you believe in the brand. So I think when you have those people, it's less management, it's more just, hey, this is what you do. This is the process that we've built for you to go do that thing. And then they just all do it and then they're all kind of together in that together. So I just said together like five times. But that's what you have to do. So. Great question. Yes.
- [27:47]
Hudson Leogrande
Yes. Oh my God.
- [27:54]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
It was a nightmare.
- [27:58]
Hudson Leogrande
Yes, yes, yes. So three plus we have a. We've had a three PL. So from a shipping perspective, we were good there.
- [28:09]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
16 to 1 70.
- [28:12]
Hudson Leogrande
I was really in a rough spot. Like the business last year could have failed. I didn't believe it could have, but it, but it really like looking back on, I'm like, well, that was pretty fucking like, that was crazy.
- [28:24]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
We pre order saved us pre order.
- [28:27]
Hudson Leogrande
Saved my life because we were able to fund the growth of the business. But the question that you're asking me is like, infrastructure, right? So I had nobody at 16 million. I had me, my director of influencers, and I had a couple people on fiverr and upwork. That was how I started, right? So a lot of people know that fiverr and upwork hustle. Then my friend Davey Fogarty, who's the owner of the Oodie, said, your business is going to fail. You have a great brand here that's a rocket ship, but you have no infrastructure. Hudson, I don't care how good you think you are at E Comm, you're going to fail.
- [29:02]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
He goes, I need you to go.
- [29:03]
Hudson Leogrande
Spend half a million dollars in the next two weeks, find a COO and a cfo. So that's what I did. I hired a COO and I hired a cfo.
- [29:11]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
And I was able to fund and understand the way that we were funding.
- [29:15]
Hudson Leogrande
Inventory because I was sitting in my kitchen with napkin math trying to figure out what we were going to order for the next month.
- [29:19]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
And I don't know. I failed math every year in high school. Actually, I dropped out of high school.
- [29:23]
Hudson Leogrande
So even.
- [29:23]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Even better, I think for infrastructure, you need to go ask questions of people.
- [29:31]
Hudson Leogrande
Who have done it before you.
- [29:32]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
I'm a huge believer in that. Now. I take intro calls all the time where people book calls with me for a half hour. I'm not the cheapest, but I will give you the best advice on planet earth for where you are in the business. I think where. And it could be anybody, right? It could be a friend that you know in E commerce, Someone in this room that is maybe a little bit more advanced in that place in life. We now hired 50 people in 12 months. Huge roles, headhunter. Every single person in my company, I poached. Hopefully not from any of your companies, but we poached. We built a lot of, you know, we just built a lot of value in the brand, where we were going, what we were doing. And I think as you kind of understand where your business needs help, you can throw it into chat GPT, talk with friends, and then hire a headhunter. Like, ChatGPT for me is my best friend. I just, like, unload on it. And then I'm like, all right, just make this make sense. So I think for you or anybody else that's having, like, infrastructure issues when it comes to hiring, you have to have a really good sense of understanding if that person's gonna fit the culture. Because if you bring a cancer into your business, it could fucking annihilate you. So definitely need to make sure that you have people in your business that understand the vision and want to grow with you and know where it's going.
- [30:48]
Hudson Leogrande
Sorry, that was long. Yes, yes.
- [30:58]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Yeah, it was in house. But there is an app.
- [31:02]
Hudson Leogrande
I don't know the name, someone I consult for, they use it, it's on Shopify, where you can set up pre order on the pdp.
- [31:09]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
But everything that we did was in house.
- [31:11]
Hudson Leogrande
We had an agency that had built it for us. Yes.
- [31:24]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Thank you. Yes.
- [31:31]
Hudson Leogrande
I was homeless when I was 16. I had no money. I was broke. I was abused. I was in the worst physical place I ever was in my entire life. And E Commerce saved me.
- [31:45]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Actually, the car business saved me. Whoever's going to start that clap, I.
- [31:48]
Hudson Leogrande
Appreciate you, but I'm not there yet.
- [31:52]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Car business saved my life. I had no purpose.
- [31:55]
Hudson Leogrande
I didn't know what I wanted to do. I walked around with this feeling that I had something special to offer the world and had no idea how to put it into words. I started in network marketing an MLM company with my friend Mike, who's actually here today. And he was actually the person who got me into the whole law of attraction and thoughts become things. And I was in this really hard place in my life and I was like, fuck, if I could just think about it and I could just envision this amazing life for myself. And I just go to bed every night. I would get in my Honda Civic, I would close my eyes and imagine it was a BMW.
- [32:29]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
The stories I would have for you guys would take.
- [32:31]
Hudson Leogrande
You'd be here for five days straight. So I knew I had that thing.
- [32:35]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
And I knew that I would get there.
- [32:37]
Hudson Leogrande
I just didn't know how I would. And when I know how I felt during that time when I was like, feeling.
- [32:44]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
And I was so in such a.
- [32:45]
Hudson Leogrande
Bad place and I was so depressed.
- [32:47]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Even suicidal, I was like, I never would wish that feeling upon my worst enemy.
- [32:53]
Hudson Leogrande
Like, I never want someone to feel that.
- [32:55]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
So with comfort, we wanted to create a feeling of calm. We want people to feel like it's their shield. People wear comfort to chemotherapy. People wear comfort to funerals. Like, our brand is so much deeper than I can say. I did 700 million this year. Like, who gives a fuck? Like, that has no meaning. It's more about, like, what is your purpose and what is your passion.
- [33:15]
Hudson Leogrande
And my passion is helping people.
- [33:16]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
My lifestyle doesn't change. It's to retire my mom, make sure that my family's good and make sure that I can inspire and empower other people. That's it.
- [33:24]
Hudson Leogrande
So that's why I've decided to donate to mental health charities and partner with them. And I've really put a lot of energy and effort into that. But thank you for your question.
- [33:33]
Troy (Interviewer)
Also, I. I've known Hudson for a few years now. That is the authentic him. He's one of those humble, smart. One of the most humble, smart people I know. And I've seen his journey the past few years. So I'm super proud to see him on the stage now where he is today. So I love that you're giving back, too. Thank you.
- [33:48]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
I used to DM Troy.
- [33:50]
Hudson Leogrande
Sorry I'm calling you out here.
- [33:52]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
I DM Troy for, like, five years straight, because he was killing it. He's been killing it forever. All right. Don't let the hair fool you. He's been doing this for, like. Like 50 years. And I used to DM him. I was like, this guy is so successful. He's doing all this cool stuff. Like, I just wanted to know more. Like, you feel defeated at points. Like, you just do. You wake up sometimes. You're like, man, I wish I was. Really. If you just believe you're gonna get there. You just get there. Like, I'm on stage with this guy now. Like, you know, like, I used to. I used to be like, this guy's the. Like, now he's my friend. We're gonna go to dinner later. Like, that, to me is like, thoughts become things. If you think about it enough and you believe it enough and you have no fucking doubt, you win. That's it. Every time you win, I know someone else had a question in the back.
- [34:37]
Troy (Interviewer)
Except that for one.
- [34:38]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Or maybe you. Maybe.
- [34:39]
Hudson Leogrande
Maybe not anymore. Okay.
- [34:40]
Troy (Interviewer)
Oh.
- [34:55]
Hudson Leogrande
You'Re talking about the core affiliates.
- [34:57]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Like, like the core creators, or you're talking about like, the hundreds of thousands affiliates. Oh, yeah, it's 30% off. Yeah, we do 30. No, it's weird, right? It should be that people just go buy. We said, we'll give you 30% off, sign up as an affiliate. They don't even get to the affiliate page to sign up.
- [35:27]
Hudson Leogrande
They just buy the product. I couldn't tell. I wish I knew why. But.
- [35:35]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Yeah. Yes.
- [35:38]
Troy (Interviewer)
Last one last question. The heads up, because we gotta.
- [35:40]
Audience Member/Question Asker
One last question I had was, thanks for sharing my story. That was really beautiful. When you're reaching out to affiliates, do you give them a script or do you give them full creative control of, like, there's no hooks? Just do what feels most authentic to you?
- [35:53]
Hudson Leogrande
No, Great question.
- [35:55]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Look.
- [35:55]
Hudson Leogrande
Look at this, right? So my hand's here My hand's here. I want them to stay in between here. Just go like that. Don't ever go outside of it. I'm going to give you information.
- [36:05]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
I'm never going to give you a script because I don't want you to.
- [36:08]
Hudson Leogrande
Sound like a robot. People can smell when it's scripted.
- [36:11]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
You just know. You're like, my fucking script. You don't want that. You want to have people that are like, this is me. This is my authentic feeling. I'll tell you what works. I'll show you what works. I'll say, this video didn't do well from you. This video crushed it. Look at these 50 videos that have done amazing in the business. I want you guys to go emulate that video. And then you got to remember everybody's different, right? So there might be one creator that joins, that looks at someone that's been with you for six months, and they're like, oh, I'm just like her. That's the content that I want to go make. So it's really just like, again, it's the information that you give to the creator or the affiliate that makes them feel like, oh, this is exactly how.
- [36:51]
Hudson Leogrande
I'm going to get it done.
- [36:52]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
And the other thing is, if you guys are going to go with an affiliate model, your top creator may not make money for the first 30, 60 days. I have a girl that's worked with me for about two years now. Took her nine months. She was making a couple hundred bucks a week, maybe at most. She makes over 150,000amonth. The girl is a millionaire and made no money for almost a year. So why did she stay?
- [37:20]
Hudson Leogrande
I don't know. Right?
- [37:21]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
It's my belief in the company and my belief in her that got her to believe in herself enough. Someone told me the other day that my superpower is that I make people.
- [37:30]
Hudson Leogrande
Believe in themselves more than they ever have.
- [37:32]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
And I think it's because that's what I did to myself when I was this young kid that had nothing. I'm like, you can be anything you want. If you just believe it, it's actually the truth. It might be the most cliche thing of all time, but if you believe it, you'll win. So I always say that to my creators. I'm like, how fucking bad do you want to change your life? I get it. You're not making money right away, but it's at no expense to you. Like, you want to make this work, right? Yes. Okay, so let's go make it work. So I think for the script or even the community and culture. It's like everything has to go hand in hand. They have to feel like themselves so they can be themselves, so that they can feel like when they wake up, they're not coming to a job. But that was a great question. And I know where we're going to wrap up.
- [38:14]
Nick Sharma
Or wrapped.
- [38:15]
Troy (Interviewer)
Yeah.
- [38:15]
Troy (Co-host or Interviewer)
Guys, thank you so much.
- [38:16]
Troy (Interviewer)
Thank you, everyone.
- [38:18]
Podcast Outro Host
Thanks for listening. We'll be back next. Time to cut through the noise on cpg, retail and E commerce. If you enjoyed this episode, why not share it with a friend? And be sure to subscribe wherever you listen so you don't miss the next one.