Scheananigans with Scheana Shay - Naked Sundays with Samantha Brett

Episode Date: September 30, 2022

This week, the Scheananigans pod is going Down Under! Scheana and Brock are joined by Samantha Brett, founder of Naked Sundays. Naked Sundays is an award winning SPF skincare company that started in Australia. Samantha talks about her career as a news journalist prior to getting into skincare and how she came up with the concept for Naked Sundays. What were Samantha's top non-negotiables for the brand? How did she grow her business? What products will she be launching next? Tune in to find out! Follow us: @scheana @scheananigans   Produced by Dear Media    Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Hey guys, it's Hunter and Mikaela, and this is the Model Citizen Podcast. We wanted to let the members of our community experience a different side of us, that they see glimmers of, but never the full force. Exactly. We wanted a place where we could talk unfiltered about anything and everything, including our lives and experiences in the modeling industry, beauty, fashion, dating, sex, marriage, a dash of political commentary, and of course, pop culture, honey. We're going all the way in. Tune in every Thursday for a giggle,

a laugh, and maybe even a tear or two. You've just found your new best friend, and we're so happy to have you. from Vanderpump rules to motherhood and everywhere in between it's time to catch up with Sheena Shea this is shenanigans and now here's your host, Sheena Shea. All right, we're rolling. How we doing, honey? It's getting adjusted here. I guess I should have done that earlier. So we are chilling back in the studio. We're not podcasting from home because we have a very exciting guest who I've already had the pleasure of meeting at an event earlier this week, which she flew all the way from Australia. From Australia. Just to be here with us. And now so much else has happened on your trip. So I would love to introduce the founder and CEO of Naked Sundays,

which is the dopest SPF brand. I'm going to talk all of, well, you're going to talk all about this. I'm going to ask all about it. There's so many products I want to get into. But welcome to Shenanigans, Samantha Brett. Thank you. Thanks, Sheena. Thanks, Brock. So nice to meet you guys earlier in the week as well. Actually, was it last week? Last week at the event? Technically, it was last week. Yeah. Yes. Feels like it was just a few days ago. It does. Well, let's rewind real quick. So obviously, Sheena's a big fan of the products.

You're back from Australia. Our team here reached out to you to do the podcast, Shenanigans. Yes. Take us through how we're now here in person four days later. Oh, my goodness. So I try to come to the U.S. often. I used to live here back in the day. I'm a journalist, so I worked. I did an internship here when I was in my early 20s,

and then I moved back to L.A., and I just loved it in my mid-20s. Then I met my husband and had a daughter. And then as you guys know, you can't just hop on a plane and live in LA. So I got sort of stuck in Australia. And then this opportunity came up and your people said, do you want to be on Sheena's podcast? And I said, of course I do. And then they said, all right, well, here's the address for the studio. And I said, oh, no, you know, it's in West Hollywood. And I said, oh, no, it's going to be on Zoom. And then I thought, hang on a second.

Wait a second. Should it be on Zoom or should I Zoom on a plane? Yes. Come and see you guys. So I was sitting at dinner with my family. It was my dad's birthday. And I said to my brother and his girlfriend, I might be going to LA, I've got an opportunity to be on this podcast.

They go, oh, what podcast? And I said, oh, you know, you won't know it. You know, it's, you know, they're very serious people. And I said, you won't know it, Sheena. And then instantly the girlfriend, shenanigans. And they both looked at each other. And they said every night in Australia, just loves, loves your show and loves you guys I you guys are just and they got so excited I thought all right the excitement on that just just for them I will fly

yeah I love that well I'm so happy to have you in person it's always better when you get to interview someone face to face because over zoom I mean there could be audio issues and camera and all of that. So I am so thankful that you are here. And I want to get into all things you. Because for me personally, I studied broadcast journalism in college. So being a news reporter was always a dream of mine. So that was one of the first things I'm like, okay, hold up. We got to talk about how you went from news reporter to beauty entrepreneur. So crazy.

Did you ever get into it at all? Did you do an internship or anything? I did hosting when I first moved into out to Hollywood. I did like some Hollywood. What was it called? Young Hollywood. I did some hosting jobs for them and green screen little news reporting stuff. But then I started acting and then I started doing reality TV. And 10 years

later, here I am. Wow. Here we are. Look, you can always get back into it, right? Totally. Yes. But I said that San Diego, we love San Diego, but I'm like, what am I going to do for work in San Diego unless I'm a news reporter? So still putting that out there, you know, it could still happen. Look, it's a lot of standing outside in the gutter and waiting for bad things to happen, unfortunately, but that is the job. So I wanted, all I want to do is be a news reporter my whole life. I finished school. I went straight to the US. I did an internship at a couple of news networks because as Brock knows, it's much harder in Australia and we don't have, we have three news channels, right? Yeah, that's it. What is it? Channel nine, 10 and 7? Yes.

Look at us go. And Sky News, right? Sky News. So I desperately wanted to do that. So I came, and when I was in New York, all everyone wanted to talk about was dating and relationships. And I was only 22 years old and it's very hard to get into news and news broadcasting. But I thought, you know, what if I could write like a sex in the city type column for Australia? And so I pitched it to the newspaper and we launched Sam and the City. Oh, I love that. Yes. Wow.

Way back, way before there were blogs before that. I mean, there was no social media at all. And this was on our number one newspaper. And so I'd write it on every day online and people would write in. it was sort of like the first interaction and people met on the column, they fell in love. And I did that for six years. And then my own relationships completely turned to crap and everything I'd ever write about, like why guys lied to get laid or anything, why men cheat, everything happened to me. Everything happened to me. Oh, personal experience there, right? Everything happened to me after I'd write about it.

Same in the city. Wow. And guys would only date me to be on the column. I'm sure you experienced something like that where, you know, you're out there and people only, so I thought I'm quitting and I'm moving to the country and I'm starting. So you have to, when you want to be a news reporter, you have to do your dues in the smaller market.

So I moved to Wagga, Orange, Hobart. Oh my God, guys, this is like, this is like, I mean, in America though, we've got country and the thing about America is they've got country, but they just make a desert, a city like Las Vegas. They turn it into something, but yeah, that's like the whoop whoop that's out there, but you got to do your dues, you know? And I feel like a big, big one in and like everyone today especially around today's time is no one wants to do those dues anymore they're like i want to be here and they have this expectation and that they deserve

to be there and i'm like the dues are what makes people it shakes out like okay do you really want to do this as a job or a career are you actually into this it's not just a financial whatever it is you know? And I miss having that and like just hearing you going back to the whoops and doing your dues, you know, because you got to go home, you got to start and you got to work for it. So well done. Thank you. And yeah, so I think it really taught me that from the ground up, you've just got to know everything. And that's what happened with Naked Sundays, which I'll get to, I promise, Sheena. Yeah, no, no, we'll get there. So I did that. And then eventually I got a

job in the big city in Sydney and I worked at Channel 7 at the number one breakfast show. So that meant I got up at 3.30 in the morning, full face of makeup, went out onto the road for the leading news story of the day. Now, the leading news story is bushfires, floods in Australia. We had like if there was a murder or a crime scene and you'd be there and you'd be there for hours on end out in the blazing sun, full face of makeup till all out, you know, sometimes 5 p.m., 6 p.m. at night, sometimes even further. Sometimes I'd be out for weeks on end in the bushfires in 2019. I was in the bushfires for two weeks.

Yeah. Yeah. Wow. I remember that. Sleeping on the floor, sleeping in people's like houses in their kids bunk beds they had no water no food we didn't none of us had anything and you just wear your orange kind of fire suit and you're just out there you're just reporting and you're just telling the story of these people who have lost everything their homes everything you know how it is you have

fires here as well yeah so i started to see some of my colleagues so they'd get back after these like big stories and they'd come back and they'd have like cuts across their face and like big band-aids and one girl had huge cut across her head and all these stitches. And I thought, what's happening? And it was skin cancers being cut out of their faces or the top of their head from being outside in the sun and not thinking about sunscreen. Who thinks about it? You just don't. And I thought, oh gosh, do I even put on sunscreen? Maybe at 3.30 in the morning under my makeup? Maybe, probably not. And I definitely don't reapply. And so I started looking into it. And according to the FDA, you actually have to reapply every 80 minutes. And I'm thinking, oh God, how do I do that with

a full face of glam? You don't want to ruin it. Right. You know, you've got eyelashes on, like you can't start taking off putting on sunscreen. No. Especially that I'm on the news. I'm on live every half an hour sometimes. And in between, you're not putting on sunscreen, you're learning your lines, you're interviewing people, you're doing all sorts of other things. You're busy. Yeah. And so I thought, oh my God, how cool would it be if I could create some sort of a spray that like a rose water that you could spray over your makeup and it could protect your skin and it could be good for your skin and glowy and set your makeup and have sunscreen. And in Australia, we have, it's very hard. TGA in Australia, which

is like your FDA is basically impossible to get a sunscreen approved. There's so many rules and regulations testing rigorous. Rigorous. It's not like FDA, but it's not like the FDA. It's actually rigorous. No comment. No comment. So I went to manufacturers and we don't have all the brands that you guys have here. We have nothing in Australia basically. And so I went to all the manufacturers and everyone said it couldn't be done. And look, it was two years. And I remember I was out in the bushfires and the work, the news that I was doing was just, it's gut-wrenching, it's sad, it's the worst day of people's lives. And then back home, I was thinking, okay, how can I make this brand like the most fun, exciting thing anyone has ever seen? I want it to be lilac and rainbow and pink and

purple and just the prettiest, coolest thing. And so it gave me this outlet away from my life on the news to do something different and maybe help people. So anyway, I eventually came up with the Hydrating Glow Mist, which you can spray. So I'm just spraying it now for people who are listening, but you just spray it over your makeup and it just makes you look a little bit glow. Don't put it in your mouth, Brock. Don't spray it in your eyes.

Men just spray it straight in their't put in your mouth, Brock. Don't spray your eyes. Men, men just spray it straight in their eyes. And I'm like, no, you gotta close your eyes when you're spraying stuff in your face. But also I want to just point out because you guys are just listening. So you can't smell how good these products smell. They're like watermelon.

Yes. And I had one of the bottles of these on the yacht on labor day and brock goes to put some on he's like oh what is this and i was like no it's sunscreen he's like oh what he's like but it smells good i was like yeah honey it's a cute bottle and it smells good it wasn't like perfume i was putting on well that's the that's the thing when you're talking about your skincare especially being from australia sunblock like we're very aware of what the damage the sun can do and so you want to make sure you're applied it and and i think we've spoken about this when we met the other day we i like the fact that i have sunblock that's white like if i put it on me i'm like oh i've got sunblock on who likes that well i mean and

someone that is aware of the sun you know like and i sit in the sun all day long so i kind of get it but when the fact that this is spf 50 plus my biggest one is like when I spray stuff on summer, I still rub it in. You don't have to do that with this. No. So the whole brand, sorry, Brock is invisible. So everything that we do, you cannot see it's not white. Most of it's invisible. The spray is invisible. I've got an invisible serum over here, which is also SPF 50. So in America, I find a lot of the sunscreens are 40 and below, but ours are 50 or above because that is the only thing you can wear in Australia. And I feel like in the US they appreciate that everything is 50 and we've focused on that. So we've got world first, like the world first SPF 50 and now lip oil with three

different flavors, the world first clear SPF 50 sun serum. So it's just a clear sunscreen. So sorry, Brock. My husband's the same. He wants white. I just don't get that. I hate that. We were in Vegas recently and I only had white sunscreen in my bag. And I'm just like, can you just rub it in for me, please? Like it was just exhausting. That's why I love these products so much. Cause you can just spray it on. So you spray it on and you can spray it on. So we've got the body of the spray, but you can use this face spray for your legs when you're out. So you're at the pool at Vegas and you only have your face spray with you. Cause you had one product in your little handbag.

You just spray it on your legs, your arms, your husband's. You can spray it on your daughter's limbs. Like you can spray it on her arms and legs when she's out, you know? So, and cause they love it. The kids love it. My daughter loves, she loves she hates the white you know and so we're talking about that actually because obviously when when as a parent when you're like oh can i use this product on kids so you is that something you guys are looking at doing going down an avenue trying to do that obviously this is fine for kids you just got to write yes but as a parent i want to read it and say for kids yeah so so i personally would not put a But as a parent, I want to read it and say for kids. Yeah. So, so I personally would not put a spray on their face, but you can definitely do it on their body.

But I have created, so I love mineral sunscreen and I especially, minerals natural, but it's very hard to create a mineral that is not white, that rubs in well. And it's not the white that men like, it's a thick white. So we created the mineral for the face so for women so this is our number one bestseller and basically it's got like a slight little tint in it but it's not meant to be tinted just hides the white cast you put it under your makeup yeah I've used that do you like it yeah the color I will say at first kind of freaked me out because it just when it is a darker color you know that you have to rub in yeah but I just used a beauty blender and rubbed it in and then put my makeup and everything over it. And it was great. So it blurs your fine lines and wrinkles. It blurs everything. And you just don't look at the color

because the color is not color. It's iron oxides. So it's blue light protection. It's all sorts of cool things that actually help your skin. So now for kids. So what I did was I created a mineral, so 100% natural stick. And so Summer can put on herself. Oh, love that. Yeah, so we'll bring that out next year. So yeah, that will just, so that is for kids.

And Brock has got little stickers that they can put on as well for themselves. Oh, that's so cute. No white cast. Look at you putting on your mineral. And you see, Sheena, how it rubs in. Like you can't see the color at all. But it now makes him look glowy and sexy.

No, I shouldn't say that. Women's skin looks sexy. Brock, I'm not sure it helped there. Makes you look handsome. Brock's trying to. It feels nice though. You're trying to figure out how to get rid of these lines on your face. Oh, yeah.

I got to start being more aware of these things up here. Yeah, but you also do need to moisturize more and put sunscreen on. So that one I made for me really selfishly but it has become the best seller. At 3.30 in the morning I get dressed

but everyone else like you who has a daughter and you're busy and you have to go out it's just one product. You don't need your moisturizer,

your primer, it's got collagen in it, vegan collagen. Oh wow. So you don't need any serums or anything it's just one product you put that on and it's everything and. Oh, wow. So you don't need any serums or anything. It's just one product. You put that on and it's everything and you put your makeup over and you go.

That's great. Yeah. Or like with no makeup on, girls wearing it for their no makeup makeup days because it's just that slight tint that does give you a bit of color. Yeah. Okay. I love that. Yeah.

I had tried it when we went on the boat that day i was like wait i know i have a fake sunscreen in here somewhere and then the color but then once i put it on i mean it was great and like i said he took my sunscreen and didn't realize it was sunscreen there you go yeah i think we need a white one for men no it's just to be educated you know like obviously you just i just want to make sure it's on me properly and I've covered all my spots, but like, this is an amazing product. And the fact that I get, like you said, SPF 50 on everything. So what was the hardest part for your first product? This one here, the spray. Yeah. What was the biggest challenge for you for this one? It's a great question. There were so many challenges. So firstly, the manufacturers sent me samples and it was white

and sticky. And I said, this is exactly what I don't want the brand to me samples and it was white and sticky and i said this is exactly what i don't want the brand to be it is no white cast so i had my wish list no white cast non-sticky uh hyaluronic acid watermelon extract as you said uh smells amazing it smelled terrible it was white it was sticky and now every man every manufacturer gave the same thing okay you know and that's that's what people are making. That was the standard. It's the standard. So how did you change there and be there?

So I had to try and find different formulations that would work because sunscreen cannot work with every formulation because they can only work in specific formulations. Hyaluronic acid can't work with sunscreen in a see-through format. It has to be in a thicker format. So I was like, I have to have hyaluronic acid.'t work with sunscreen in a see-through format. It has to be in a thicker format. So I was like, I have to have hyaluronic acid. It has to be glowy. That's the whole point of this spray.

And so anyway, it took two years. I went to multiple different people. It was a very big process trying all the different fragrances. Everything else doesn't have fragrance. All our products, I don't love fragrance on my face. Everything else doesn't have fragrance except for that because when you're spraying it on your face and in that formulation, you have to put certain things in there that don't smell the best. So we just put a bit of fragrance there to mask all that. We are coming out with a very secret formula soon that won't have fragrance

and won't be sort of as strong. Yeah. So we're constantly, I like to say that Naked Sundays is at the forefront of SPF innovation and it's Australian innovation that you can't get anywhere else in the world. You can't do it anywhere else. So we do it in Australia. We make everything in Australia locally. And we have some of the best sunscreen chemists in the world that are like sitting in this room. I like to think of them just making like my dream, my dream formulas. And then we put it out there.

There are so many challenges. So yes, so making the the formulation getting the right spray like think about when you're spraying it on your face you do not want something too thick you do not want something too thin you don't want something that gets in your eyes you don't want something that's gonna fall apart oh sheena i don't know if you ever tried beauty it's literally the packaging is the hardest part i mean yeah just for my eyelashes i know the packaging i mean there part. I mean, yeah, just for my eyelashes. I know the packaging. I mean, there were so many different things that I had to look at for that. How did you get it right? I had a vision and I had a team send me a lot of different mock-ups and

it was the colors I wanted. It was the design I wanted and it just ended up working out. But yeah, but I mean, we looked at several before we picked the one I was like I want something rainbow but I want it kind of pastel but I want something like outdoorsy like palm leaves or I want this and then right as we're designing it Tarte came out with a similar eyelash box that I'm like someone stole my vision but we made it even better. So I was happy about that. So yeah. So then I finally got the right formula and I decided to launch in January last year. And I didn't tell anyone that it was me, the news reporter, because I'm out on the road at these crazy stories. And a lot of them are like crime scenes and like very gritty stuff.

And here I am launching a sunscreen, did not tell anyone. And basically I hired a PR and I said, right, get me some, just give it to some micro influences and see how they go. And two weeks before we were supposed to launch, they started posting about it. And people were writing into us, into the official Instagram that I'd set up with like two followers saying, oh my God, I need this product. Not I want this, but I need this. I need this spray. Where is it? And I thought, oh my God. So I said to the PR, can we launch early? And she's like, yeah, I'm ready. Let's go. So we ended up launching two weeks early, completely sold out within three weeks. My husband and I sort of put all our money into it. That's incredible. And then I thought,

oh God. Okay. So we said, either we sell out and we're screwed or we don't sell any and we're screwed. So we ended up selling everything out. And so then it was kind of very hard to get to the next point. You know, it's expensive. The MOQs, the minimum quantities that you have to make with sunscreen are so big. Anyway, pretty soon after that, Mecca came on board. So that's Australia's number one beauty shop. They're massive and they're very high end. And, you know, I could not believe it was like an absolute dream. Like here I am, I've made

this product and now I'm going to be in the number one retail in Australia. Wow. I was in the middle of lockdown. So you couldn't go out, you couldn't even go to the shops. So for the next few months, I really just built the brand presence. And then we launched into Mecca in October and last year and the day after we launched the stores opened and just people flooded. No way. Wow. Flooded for Naked Sundays and we sold out of our mineral and our mist in 24 hours, three months worth. Oh my gosh. Wow. That's incredible. Wow. Congratulations. Thank you. So there I am again. No stock. Yeah, right. No staff. I was doing everything myself. Everything.

So with your distribution and all that for all of the on-properties, for all your products that are in the stores and all that, how are you stocking all that up as well? Were they coming from your manufacturers delivering straight away? Yes. No, well, not straight away yet, but it takes six months to make the next round. So I'm just freaking out. So I thought I'm going to have to hire a team.

So I ended up hiring just, there's only, there's a couple, there's a handful of us now, very small. And then it just took off from there. So I came to the US in May and we did an influencer launch and I launched into Revolve this week. Yes. Congratulations. Tell us about your, first off, key hires as a startup, as an entrepreneur and all that, what was the hardest part about going through and selecting the team that you wanted to do? Did you sub hire? Did you go out and hire a marketing team first and foremost,

and then grow internally your team? Or how was that process? So I think the most important thing for me, as I said, right at the beginning when I was, when I, oh, I forgot the most important part. So when we launched into Mecca, they said, oh, we want you on the website. And I said, okay, so quit my job. I was going to be in usual. I was going to die on the newsroom floor. I was the girl that was at every news story for the last 10 years, the lead news story. I was all over the world. I went to like terror attacks and all sorts of things all over the world. And then I quit and I quit to focus on Naked Sundays full time. Yeah. So that was just such a big decision. Yeah. So, okay. You've reported all over the world as you said. So I didn't even know that. I just learned that I thought, you know, you were a local news reporter

in Australia. So you did this all over the world. You must have seen and reported on so many crazy things. What's the craziest or the weirdest like type of story you've ever had to report on? Oh my God. You know, there's difficult things like there was terror attacks in Indonesia. I was there. Wow. I was on holiday in Bali and my boss sent me on a plane to go to where it was. And was that for the bombings? There was bombings. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Bali bombings. No, no, not for that. That was before. That was before. Okay. That was when I was a kid.

Yeah, I was just like, I don't know that one. I was a kid too. There was, yeah, no. So it wasn't in Bali. It was just in a different part of Indonesia. And I just, it was before I had my daughter. So you just get on a plane and you would go. And I remember people texting me going, stay away from the terror attacks.

Because when there's one, there's usually more. And I was like was like oh no i'm actually going there and you know sheena like anything that happens it's like stay away from the streets and you're like no i'm actually going to those streets that's you front and center tell the story so outside our office one day it was uh do you guys have the lint cafe it's a chocolate lint anyway oh i know what you're talking about yeah they had a cafe outside my office and this guy walks in now you gotta remember in australia we don't have stuff we have nothing people don't have guns no one has anything it's like the violence is like someone might hold up a scissors or something you know it's very tame and outside my office was our lint cafe where we go to every day and get our coffee. And this guy walked in and he held up the whole cafe with, with, with a gun. Do you remember this

story? This is the Sydney held up? Yeah. Yeah. I remember this. Yeah. So our whole newsroom got evacuated from our office and we stood outside the whole newsroom, set up a newsroom out the front and we reported for 48 hours straight. It was a long time. It was a long time. And so I didn't sleep and I'd be up all night reporting and then at about 2 o'clock in the morning the siege ended. People died.

They got shot and killed, two people. And when it's outside your office and you go to that cafe every day and you kind of know the waiters who got killed, you know, yeah. So it was bad and it affected us in a bad way. Anyway, I'll never forget. So the next day my job is to be a live reporter. I'm excellent at live, you know, maybe not so much reading a script but I can do live.

And you're at the hospital and, you know, you're talking and all the people, the survivors came to. So you're racing from place to place, whatever the hospital and, you know, you're talking and all the people, the survivors came to the, so you're racing from place to place, wherever the story is, you know? And so I raced to the hospital and the survivors were coming in and they gunshot wounds. And I'll never forget this one woman on the wheelchair coming in and the family, and you're saying, how do you guys feel? And it was just such a tense time. You know, it was just like that right at my office. And then every day after that, I walk past and you just, you feel it, you know, it's very grounding being, being on the road like that. I can't imagine. And even just being a reporter, you know, in the pandemics, I know this is when you started Naked Sundays, but

I think what you were saying the other day at the event was that was also kind of a turning point for you. What was the hardest part for you making the career transition? The day that I was in the Western suburbs and they said to me, you need to go and interview the people with COVID. Western suburbs is really far from where I live. And I remember breaking down and just going, I cannot do this anymore. And so I think the hardest part was letting the team down. I'm such a team player. And when you're a news reporter, it's not about you. It's about the people, their stories, the producers, the camera people. It's so many people and I just

felt like I let everyone down and that was the hardest part but then they gave me a couple of months off to make to kind of see how I felt and you know being with my daughter every day and being able to pick her up at normal times and not fearing that I'm going to be stuck on the road was he wasn't you know I thought it would be harder, really, you know, but I've been doing it for, I don't want to give away my age, but almost 20 years. Wow. News. Yeah. You know, from that time I came to America and did the internship.

Oh my gosh. To the end. To now having your collaboration with Revolve on Friday. I love hearing these kind of stories, you know, too, of people who have been in the same career for so long, but then branch out and do something. A lot of people don't take a chance on like their dream and, you know, wanting to create something like this. And you followed it through. And now you have a very successful line of products that not only look good, they smell good, they work. So seriously, congrats for creating this.

And I can't wait to see what's next for the brand. Like what else are you working on? Thank you. So I just wanted to preface by saying it's hard to find that motivation to say I can do it. But as a journalist, I also wrote a couple of books. I wrote six on dating with Sam in the City. And then I wrote six more on women, female empowerment.

One of them was The Game Changers. And I interviewed 50 women. One of them was Meghan Markle before she was. No way. Yes. Wow. Before she, literally just before. So I'm reading the morning news and I had the book in my bag and it was about to be released.

And the lead story was this unknown actress, Meghan Markle, is dating Prince Harry. And I was like, oh my God. And I screamed across the whole newsroom. I interviewed her and I held up the book. That's funny. But in the book, so I interviewed 50 women. You'll know like Ariana Huffington and those kind of types. It was back before the women empowerment exploded a couple of years ago.

But all of them said, I had an idea. I went for it and I kept on going even with the challenges. And there were so many challenges. I haven't even scratched the surface with this with you guys, but that all these women saying I kept on going and I know you're the same, right? You have something and you have it in you. And I didn't really have it in me, but after reading all these stories and interviewing all these women, I just thought I've got to keep on going. And that drive just really pushed me. So I'm the same place now. So I've come to the US. It's obviously a completely different market to Australia. We've had such good reaction from all the influencers and all the retailers.

So launching into retail next summer, 2023, there'll be a lot more action and we'll have a team in the US, but then launching all over the world. So the UK and Asia, lots going on. That's amazing. Even thinking about it makes me tired. So what advice would you have for other entrepreneurs out there? Like what was also the biggest challenge doing this career switch? I think when you have an idea and you believe in it, you have to keep on going. Do you know how many people said, absolutely not, it cannot be done? Who do you think you are? I hate the color purple or, you know, this smells terrible, whatever it is, whatever it is, whatever it is going to be somebody there. Yeah. As Brock said to me the other day, there's always going to be someone there saying, I hate it. No. Who do you

think you are? This is the wrong idea. But if you have, if you believe in it and people who are listening, like if you have that idea and you believe in it, keep going. There's going to be so much crap that comes your way and that tries to stop you and trip you up, but you've got to prove that you're the person in the universe that's not going to let that stop you and you're going to keep on going. And I just live by that philosophy for good or bad and I keep on going and you remain positive.

And I know it's so easy you know remain positive but like really you know well so remaining positive what was what was a moment where you had a dark day during during you know what I mean you know no it's serious every day you're right every day you gotta wake up with conviction of like I'm doing the right thing because no one else sees your vision no but, but, but also, you know, you have like a customer who like writes an email, like, oh, I didn't like something, whatever. And then suddenly your heart drops and you're like, oh my God. Well, and there's one person out of the 50,000 people that bought something that, you know, the last two weeks. And you're like, it's one. And my, what do I call her? My everything,

my chief of staff, she's like, it's one person. And I'm like, but it's one, I want everyone to love it. And it's just like, there's so many, and I go dark. That one person makes me in the, like I get dark and I'm just such a perfectionist and I just want everything to be perfect and everyone to love everything. So I work so hard at just making each product better and just, I just keep on going. I don't know where that comes from, but I just think, you know, people who are listening, like you've got to find it in you to just keep on going. Cause it's going, there's going to be those dark moments constantly. Yeah, definitely. What about the name Naked Sundays? Let's get stuck in this stuff real quick.

How did you come up with it? What was it? What was the name before it? What was it? How did we get to here? So it was always naked sundays because sunday was like the day that i didn't have to wear makeup and i didn't have to go to work and i just could have that bare face that naked skin now how do you get make good bare naked skin on a sunday you wear your sunscreen yep every day and so i wanted people to feel that like just beautiful fresh skin when they heard the name i mean i love that there you go yeah or what you guys do maybe on a sunday i don't know just putting it out well i

mean it's different because we don't work a normal job so sometimes on sundays we're just at home watching football or just at home sometimes you know we're at the pool sometimes we're at the football game sometimes we're just naked the naked part i take into account naked every day clothes are an option in my house if he wakes up in clothes i'm like what happened did you need to go outside in the middle of the night why are you dressed yeah i probably fell asleep by accident with them on you know yeah i know and our daughter takes after him oh really she loves the free life loves to run around naked i'm like no no you're not potty trained yet we're working on it but not yet so we get there eventually we get there eventually yes so you have a five-year-old daughter yes yeah harper harper yep oh i love that name yeah so she thinks

all sunscreen now is lilac and smells of watermelon. And she loves, yeah. You've set the standard up there for her now. I have. Yes. And I did a talk at their school the other day about news reporting and the weather because I did the weather as well. Oh, I love that. And one of the kids who's my friend's kid in her class stood up. We were doing it on Zoom and one of them stood up and he goes,

I know what she does now. She makes sunscreen and he yelled it out. And the teacher was so embarrassed. She's like, carry on with the news reporting, carry on. And I was, I was like, yes, good, good, good advertising. Way to get it out there. That's great. He was so cute. So we've gone over that. What's on the horizon coming forward for you? What's the next big steps, milestones for you as a business, for you as a mother? What's coming for you? You know, Brock, I always, I'm a person with grand plans. You know, I've always like the books and the columns and like my dream, all my dreams have

come true. And this was never in the pipeline. I never thought I would be doing beauty ever. You know, I love beauty, but I'd never thought I'd be doing it. And so I am now one foot in front of the other, to be honest, and just really trying to make sure that, as I said, like going back and going, every product needs to be perfect. The web, like the website, the customer service journey. And I know it's a bit boring and I can't, I just feel like I'm, I'm still focused so much in the business. I'm not on

the business yet. And so I'm doing everything still, you know, almost over a year on, but the next step will be to build out that team, bring the team to the US, expand globally. But yeah, I'm just so involved in like the everyday. And as a founder, like that's what you need to be, you know, because there's no one else that knows this brand or the value that you want to deliver to your customers. Because again, you're providing a product for customers. So no one else that you can hire is going to have the same amount of passion or the critique that you have or the eye for it. And then as you grow your team, obviously that's where you have to be able to now take that skillset and then transfer

it to teaching your team the same passion that you have or translating that by leading by example. And that's exactly what you're doing. So so congratulations so you did ask me who was my team so we'll get back to your brilliant question so the first thing i did was i hired the pr and my pr jesse uh in australia she's just like my best friend now and i speak to her every day but she's just the absolute life of the brand i always say to her like you're the success of the brand and really she just took what we created and she put it out there into the universe and the press and the influences. And we don't, we don't spend a lot on advertising on Facebook or Google. We don't spend a lot of influences. We really it's word of mouth and they spread it with their friends because they want to

and because they think it's cool and they like it. And to make sunscreen cool when it's so boring and white and sticky is something I'm super proud of. So we've changed that conversation. Yeah. It's a different, you know what I'm realizing now? I don't think I forgot it on the yacht. I think someone probably just put it in their bag. Cause I left it sitting out and I didn't just see it sitting there because it is, it's one of those products. I'm like, Oh, no one has this. I'm going to take it. It's cute packaging. I love the lip oils, the face sunscreen, the mist, all of it. Seriously. I mean, it's such a good product.

So I'm so happy to be able to talk about this on Shenanigans. I will continue to talk about this. We will support home for you. Definitely. Let's bring it to America. And you know what? You always have these conversations over here. You are making sunscreen fun, you know?

Yeah. Well done. They're very, like, they're Insta-worthy pictures that you can take with these products, you know? Like, exactly. They're very like they're Insta worthy pictures that you can take with these products, you know, like they're really it's really cute. And so I did some studies and 70% actually interviews 2000 millennials and 70% of them said that they do not wear sunscreen every day. And there were three reasons because they think it's bad for their skin. It's uncomfortable to wear.

And because sorry, Brock, it's white. But so I thought, OK, let's take all those things and take that all away and make it fun simple easy to use not white not sticky lilac and as you said sheena insta worthy and when they're proud to sell it to when they are proud to share it share it that's who was looking on social media and if we can change so the statistics are that people who are most at risk of melanoma are the 16 to 35 year olds. And they're the ones that are not wearing SPF every day. Yeah. So if we can change their habits now and maybe at our daughter's ages as well. Yeah. And get people to love and use sunscreen because it looks a bit cooler than everyone else's sunscreens, then maybe we can change that statistic around and start, you know,

starting to prevent that melanoma for those young ages. Definitely. Well, I will continue to post your products, wear your products, and spread the word because they're amazing. Tell everyone where they can find you, please.

NakedSundays.com or Revolve. You can go to Revolve now. Yes. All the products are there. I'm so excited. Oh, what a great partnership. That's huge. I know. All of us girls, too. We love Revolve. You can go to Revolve now. All the products are there. I'm so excited. That's huge. I know. All of us girls too. And next week we'll be on Flip.

Tell us about Flip. Flip is it's like the TikTok but for shopping. So you post a video, influence post a video of them using their products and then you can actually buy from it. So it's super cool. Really new app. A lot of big brands are on there now. You can find Naked Sundays there. That's perfect. Look at the evolution of business and marketing. Seriously. app and a lot of big brands are on there now okay you can find naked sundays there nice perfect look

at the evolution of business seriously well thank you so much for making the trek all the way thank you to l.a it was worth it with us it was so much fun that's how it's so much respect for you just taking initiative because if anyone all the listeners out there you got to do that you got to find what you believe in and then take that step. And like you said, you don't know what's on the horizon. Obviously, you got a vision, but focus on those steps one by one. You're doing it. It looks great.

Congratulations. Thanks, guys. Love you guys. Thank you guys for listening. Bye. Bye. Thanks for listening to Shenanigans with Sheena Shea. Download new episodes every week on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and

services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.