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Today, I want to discuss why I quit promoting Tiege Hanley, my skin care company. I’m also going to tell you why I’m pissed off and what I’m going to do about it.
For those of you who have been around for a while, you know about my skincare company that I started 10 years ago. It was something that I decided to do with two partners, technically three partners. I was asked to promote the business on my YouTube channel, and I wanted to get into the skincare game. It’s something that I believe in.
The Spokesperson
So we created the product, and I served as a spokesperson. The chemist developed the products with premium ingredients. We didn’t want to charge what other skincare companies were charging. Men wouldn’t buy and use them, but in all transparency, it didn’t cost much to make these amazing, high-quality products.
My equity was to vest over 3 years as a 30% owner of the company, during which I was to promote the product and company on my YouTube channel, posting two videos per month for 3 years. After 3 years, we would see where we were.
I started talking about starting the business and letting entrepreneurs see what we’re doing. I started vlogging every week, the process of building the brand before launching. Viewers provided input on the packaging, testing, products, and more. Viewers believed in us and what we were doing as we pulled the curtain back and let everyone see four regular dudes creating skincare. We wanted to uncomplicate the process.
The company grew into a $9 million business in 3 years. Our customer acquisition cost was basically nothing because it was just me. We realized that at some point, my audience would be tapped out, and I wouldn’t be as effective. As a side note, the meme culture surrounding the company was amazingly incredible.
Enter the Copycats
To build our team outside of me, we hired a few people. Keep in mind, we’ve never raised a dollar of private equity or outside investment. We bootstrapped the company. Copycats came out of the woodwork when we started to become successful. So many skincare companies started, tailored toward men.
We used influencers to grow the business, as we needed me to step back because we didn’t want a brand built around a person. I decided to give my salary back to the company so they could use it for other things, and I would step back into an advisory role in the business.
Back in the Ring Again!
During this time, e-commerce got really hard. Organic traffic was going down, views were plummeting, COVID hit, and competition started to ramp up.
Long story short, I have started questioning why I stopped talking about Tiege Hanley. It wasn’t a good idea to let it go because Tiege Hanley is in my DNA. I love the product, I’m not going to let some tech startup or someone with celebrity friends come in and pee on my turf. That said, I’m back in the ring and starting the fight again.
