The $10k mistake I'll never forget... Selina Ho, GTM strategist & fashion entrepreneur

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Episode Overview

In this week's episode, Stephanie Melodia interviews Selina Ho, GTM strategist, founder of Re:Closeted, a conscious fashion consultancy, and host of the Confessions of a Conscious CEO podcast.

Watch on YouTube via the link below or keep reading for the transcript, where Steph and Selina cover:

The $10k mistake I’ll NEVER forget

SM: What was your 10k mistake?
SH: Diving right in! Well, thank you for having me, first of all. I'm so excited. I love that intro.
I literally hired the PR agency from hell. lt was so bad. It was just a masterclass in how not to run a business. And so I'll give you the full detail.

When I was starting Re:closeted, my sustainable fashion consultancy, I was in the midst of trying to grow it and scale it. And so one of the problems I had was, like, okay. I wanna, like, increase my brand awareness. Started working with a mentor, and it was going well. But at some point, she was like, oh, you should talk to this person. They're really good at, like, getting you out there, really good with visibility. And it was positioned like a coffee chat, but I didn't know, like, this woman had her own PR agency and this was basically a sales call, which I would have been fine with if the mentor was just like, hey, she has a PR agency, talk to her, see if it's together. Whatever.

I get into this call and we talk, and then I kinda realised this is basically a sales call. And then I was like, okay, you know what? I'll give it a shot. Done PR before. It's worked for me. I'll work with you.

And I think that was my first mistake.

I should have definitely done more due diligence. And I think sometimes when things are referred to us, there's that trusted credibility, especially because this is a mentor. I just decided to dive in. And I can definitely talk about lessons learned afterwards. But, yeah, it was like a 10k investment, and I, like, pulled my big girl pants on. I was like, instalments, I'll pay you all upfront. I'm in this. I'm committed.

So I paid her 10 k USD upfront. And then she started the work. And, essentially, the first red flag was we were supposed to have a kickoff call where she was gonna get to know me, figure out the pitch angles, all that stuff. She ghosted me. She no-showed. And in my seven years of doing client facing work, I have not once no showed a prospect or a client.

And, like, I'm sitting on the Zoom call fifteen minutes in, I'm like, where the hell are you?

Like, I didn't hear from her until the next day. And she was like, oh, sorry. Like, I was on a flight. Like, I I just, like, wires crossed, that kind of stuff. And I'm like, okay. That's a bit weird. But okay. And I I think my mistake was I just kinda kept making excuses. And I did I wasn't, like, I didn't put my foot down. But anyway, so that was the first thing.

The next thing is we have our meeting, she learns about me, all this stuff. And then in PR, they develop a press pitch for you. So it's like a one pager. And then they sent it to me for review. And on that press page, like, there was mistakes, there were grammar mistakes, there were spelling errors. And this is what's being put out to publication, so like Forbes. Obviously, it's gonna look bad on me. All this is, like, inaccurate or whatever. So I'm like, okay. Can you send me the Canva link? Like, I'll go in and I'll go edit it, which is, again, something I shouldn't be doing as a paying client. Right? But I was just like, whatever. I don't I kind of don't trust your quality of work at this point, so I'm gonna go in and edit it.

And so that was the second thing. And I probably should have just cut ties there, but I I, again, I made excuses. I kept going. And then the straw that broke the camel's back was once the press page was fixed, and I was like, go ahead.

One week into them pitching, I get an email in my inbox pitching me on my own podcast.

I died.

When I tell you, my heart fell out of my body. I was like, what? Like, am I being pranked right now?

And it wasn't even I was like, oh my god. Like, how do you write this email? Is it like, hi, Selena. I would love to pitch Selena to me. No. They not even. It was like, to whom it may concern Oh my god. The person has the best name. I just got the worst. And then in the email, there were spelling errors. My name was spelled wrong as well. Oh my god. With an e instead of an I.

And then the kicker is as well, and part of it too, they were pitching me as, like, a female woman of color, which fine. But I had never, like, okayed that, and I always want to kind of be put forward as someone that has all these accomplishments versus being like, oh, she's a POC. Like, that's why you should have demographic profile. So reductive. And so it was just thing after thing after thing.

SM: Oh my god. This is crazy.
SH: I was like, I need to stand up for myself because I cannot make excuses anymore.
And I think that process of, like, standing up for myself, asking for a refund, being like, I'm done. Like, the the owner just took it so poorly. She threw all her team members under the bus. Specifically, she said the woman that sent that email to pitch myself to be on my own podcast, she was like, oh, she recently had a baby. She's like in baby mode. Like, I was like, as a fellow woman, how could you even do that? It was just like thing after thing after thing. So there's a lot there. I've learned so much.

SM: Oh, Selina. I'm so I'm like, so glad at least the story stopped there. I was like, if she keeps going, I can't take it. There can't be more anymore. I can't be more. That's it. I've got goosebumps listening to you. I feel absolutely horrified. As an ex-marketing agency owner myself is just unfathomable.

Lessons Learned

SH: Yeah. Like, I take accountability for the fact that I decided to work with them and I paid, so like, that's on me. But I think the big lesson is around referrals, and this is something that I think not a lot of people talk about.

So in, like, a good scenario, like, if you were looking for someone and I referred you to someone and it worked out, that's great. It's like you found someone, they got business, and there's good fights on me. But I find that the percentage of that going well is maybe, like, 50 to 60%. And so now I tread very carefully with referrals because I have been on the side where I have been referred a business, got burnt, and it kind of tarnished my relationship with that person that referred it. And then I've also now been on the flip side where I have referred a company to one of my clients.

And I learned from that experience that I am never taking a referral bonus, nothing like that. If I recommend someone, it's because I genuinely know they're gonna do a good job and not because I'm gonna owe them bucks or whatever. Right. So I don't do that, but I referred someone to a client. And, like, this person is someone I've known for years.

I've had past clients work with them, and so I trusted them. And they just had, like, a lot going on, which is fair enough. And then they hired some new team members, and just things were very chaotic. And so my client had a really shitty experience. That's such a shame.

It was just so tricky. Like, I was just in the middle of trying to manage it. And so now, I guess, my takeaway with referrals is I would still do it. But if you're, like, recommending it to friends or clients, I would recommend you maybe have options, maybe, like, one to two. And then just be like, hey.

I have had past people work with them or I know people that have worked with them, but still please do your due diligence. Yeah. And then at least it's, like, less on you. Yeah. I think the way I kinda positioned it was, like, it was a no brainer to work with that person.

Lots of people have worked with them before. And the thing with referrals is you can't control how other people act. Yeah. You can only control yourself. And so, yeah, it's really, really tricky because when it goes well, it's great.

Yeah. But there are situations where it doesn't, and then it it just puts you in such a weird situation. Yeah. Because you can't control how other people act. And, like, I was literally mediating in the middle.

I spent so much time. I like to make it up for my client, it's so much pro bono work and because I can only control what I do. Right? Yeah. But it's just it's just frustrating.

Yeah. That was, like, a big lesson around referrals. And it's I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just saying tread carefully. You sort of do your due diligence.

Transitioning to Full Time

SM: What worked for you in terms of managing your energies, especially as you are starting to, like, feel that candle burning at both ends, but also from a, I guess, a business development, a sales perspective to get it generally, like, generating enough revenue to be able to quit the day job.**

SH: Oh my god. There's so much there. Okay. So I think from a managing the workload perspective, let's start there. I think in my early twenties, I was so hungry and I was ready to grind and hustle. And the one thing looking back I wish I did differently was I wish I worked smarter and harder.

So as hard as it may be because you are time strapped, I would recommend you set aside a couple hours a week just to do the strategy piece. I think because I felt so time constrained, I would just continuously go, go, go, go, and then some of it would just be wasted work. And so it like, really, really set aside two hours to really make sure the strategy is correct. Yeah.

And then from a balance perspective, I used to burn out so much. I mean, just listening to it, it makes sense. I used to burnout so much. I mean, just listening to it, it makes sense. Right? You're sleeping four hours.

You're working two jobs, two demanding jobs, and you're still trying to, like, have a social life, live you. How I would manage it now and how I try to do it now is I really try to be more preventative versus reactive. Yeah. With burnout, I would just, like, work, work, work, work, burnout, fall off a cliff, rest, and then, like, have enough energy, work, work, work, work, work again, and then fall off again. And every single time I burnt out, I would also beat myself up over it because, like, it comes across as you can't take care of yourself.

So now I'm more preventative. So what that looks like is every morning and every evening, I ask myself on a scale of one to 10 how over how burnt out or how exhausted I am. And I think that check-in's really good because otherwise, again, it just sneaks up on you, and then you're burnt out and you haven't planned for it. And the thing that really, really resonates with me is the fact that your body needs to rest regardless, and so you either rest on your own terms or your body will force you to rest. And so the preventative piece is important.

So if you're at, like, a six or a seven or an eight, you know things are getting dire. You're about to fall off the cliff. So implement some self care. And I think the thing with self care is it doesn't have to look like again, it have to look like going to the facial or the spa. It's like, I I like to do like, I have, like, a little menu on my phone and I have like, low lift things, medium lift things, and high lift things.

So low lift things are literally things that are easy and free so just like sleeping more, walking outside, eating better food, you know, all those things, meditating. Meditating is huge. And then the medium thing is just like doing a face mask, going to workout class, going you know, maybe doing a staycation, seeing your friends. And then, like, the high lift thing is maybe actually going on holiday, doing this and all those things. And so I think planning that out in advance before you're burnt out is really important.

And then when you feel overwhelmed, you can take a look, pick something from the menu. And I really think self care is not selfish. Like, you cannot pour from an empty cup, so you really do have to take care of yourself.

Conclusion

SM: This really ties into the mission of your show. Right? This is advice I wish I was given sooner. This ties in so perfect. This is like big sis energy. This is like the caring kind of mom just like, I've been there. I've been through it myself.

SH: Exactly. That reframe, the $4,000 lesson. I feel like that was a bit of a gut punch to me. I feel like, ugh. I feel like the wind's knocked out of me.

Tune in to Strategy & Tragedy wherever you get your podcasts to listen to the rest of the interview.