From Garage to $1M: How to Scale a Handmade Brand | EP. 212

Kristy Miller 00:03
I survived covid Working 24 hours a day in my single car garage alongside my husband and my three boys, and by the time I looked up, we had surpassed a million dollars in sales out of my single car garage in less than a year.

Narrator 00:18
Welcome to the E comm Show podcast. I am your host, Andrew Maff, owner and founder of blue tusker, from groundbreaking industry updates to success stories and strategies. Get to know the ins and outs of the e Commerce Industry, from top leaders in the space. Let's get into it.

Andrew Maff 00:32
Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the E comm show as usual. I am your host, Andrew Maff, and today I'm joined by the amazing Kristy Miller, who is the founder and CEO over at The Scented Market. Kristy, how are you doing? Ready for a good show?

Kristy Miller 00:44
I'm good. Andrew, thank you so much for having me. Today we are going to have a great conversation.

Andrew Maff 00:49
Yes, I am so excited to talk to you. I, I I've only had one other brand on that was in the candle market, and it was like a year and a half ago. And it's always such an interesting conversation, because it's a very competitive and complicated product line to really get out there. And yet, here you are. So someone can do it, you can do it. That's awesome. We're going to learn about how you did it. Super excited. So I like starting these off kind of stereotypically. I'm going to give you the floor. Just tell us a little bit about your background. How you got started with scented market, and we'll take it from there.

Kristy Miller 01:26
Absolutely. So after high school, I started my first year of university, and I was in school, and I really thought to myself, you know, I don't want to be trapped in a nine to five job. I don't want to work shift work and holidays. So I was going to try out this thing called entrepreneurship. But the thing with that is it was about 20 years so before entrepreneurship was cool and really realized I kind of was the family failure. Everybody looked down on me. I dropped out of school. How dare I? I had this incredible career path set out for me, and so I was really looked frowned upon. Now. I started my very first business then, and I was running that business successfully. I grew it to seven,eight figures and well, I was on sort of a mat leave, whatever that looks like for entrepreneurs. I started really assessing the types of products that I was bringing into my home. So we had young kids, we had dogs, and so I was looking at the foods we were putting into our bodies and the cleaning products I was putting on my in my home. And I got the shower one day, and after a very long time, I got out, and I looked up at my ceiling, and I saw all this black soot. And I thought, what kind of toxic candles am I burning? And so really, that led me down a rabbit hole. And honestly, Andrew, I woke up one morning and I thought to myself, I'm going to start a candle company. I think I'm going to name it The Scented Market. We'll see. I better get on the phone to my lawyer. And so really, it was all built in a need to have a clean burning candle in my home that I could safely burn around my pets, around my young children, and something safe in my home.

Andrew Maff 03:13
Nice. It's always very interesting to hear how someone started a business, because, like, sometimes we'll have people on this show and they'll be like, you know, we had this idea, and so we went through, you know, 15 iterations of a business plan, and we mapped this out. We mapped that out, you started it similar to how I started my business, which was like, I'm going to go ahead and incorporate this and just see kind of what happens, and we're going to go from there. I love that model. I think it's better that way.

Kristy Miller 03:35
Honestly, I didn't expect for it to be a business at all because I already had a business that I was running full time, and, you know, I said to my husband, I'm like, I really love a car. I love coffee. My first business was a coffee business, and I loved coffee, but I was drinking way too much of it. And so I was trying to find a clean version of a coffee scented candle, and I couldn't find one, you know, one that I love to burn. I love the smell of, I love the look of, I love to decorate my home. And so I made one. And then what really happened from that was an unintentional business, because I wanted to educate the people and specifically the women in my lives about how harmful toxic candles really are to your health.

Andrew Maff 04:24
I agree. It's interesting, right? Like you, I know candles are a big thing. They've been around for forever, basically. And yet, for years, it was like you're just burning this plastic into the air. Like I know so many people, I used to make fun of them all time. Of like, they would be the type of people that are, like, always complaining about some, some someone's polluting this, someone's polluting that, and yet they're burning. Like, you know what would be like? One of the big ones, not bad bath, you I was confused Bed Bath and Beyond with the other guys, Bath and Body Works. Like they're candles just in their house, just in just in the air, plastics everywhere can't be good for you. So what? How'd you go through like, did you make it yourself? How'd you figure out that process?

Kristy Miller 05:11
So I was really fooling around with making candles myself. I've ruined plenty of candles in my day trying to figure it out, but I was more so concerned with the phthalates in our products, specifically in our candles. So phthalates are an endocrine system disruptor specifically causing hormone issues. So if you have teenage girls going through puberty, if you're like me and you're a woman, maybe going through perimenopause or menopause, these phthalates are really messing with our endocrine system, which is causing us hormone issues. They're also directly linked to infertility issues. And so what I was looking for in my household was, Oh, my goodness, I love scented products. What has phthalates in them and what doesn't? And so naturally, over the past eight years, I've been eliminating all of the phthalates from my home, and that did start with a candle. So I think that before I ever set out to make a candle to sell it for $1. I really wanted to educate the community on what types of candles to look for, or what types of candles to burn. And you know, I heard you say earlier, candles have been around forever. You're right, candles have been around forever. But the fact is, is that soy wax candles have only been around for about 30 years now, and we've been a part of that industry for the past eight years. So soy wax is fairly new to the market. So I think that's the thing. When people say, what ingredients are in your candles? Number one, we use 100% soy wax. I don't blend it. And some candle companies will call themselves a soy wax blend. We do not blend. Soy wax is, in fact, the most expensive wax on the market. And fun fact, I'm Canadian, and we're in Canada right now. We don't have any soy wax farmers in Canada. So all of our soy wax is created in the US, to which we have a very great relationship with our supplier. It's renewable. It's sustainable. There's no animal byproducts. So all of those things that I want to look out for in soy wax is that and such. Our oil fragrances that we use to scent our candles are all 100% phthalate and paraben free, because those are the things that were near and dear to my heart.

Andrew Maff 07:31
Wow. Interesting. So you're eight years into a 30 year product line, but technically an industry that's been around for I don't even know, like, I said, forever, how so this was, this was one of the things I was always really interested about that I knew I wanted to ask you about when we were doing this episode. How do you differentiate, right? Like, it's like, it you have to educate the market on the benefits of a soy candle versus other, like, the original candles from way back when that are polluting the house. Like, how are you differentiating that and kind of getting that message out? Like, what did you do to kind of help you get to this point?

Kristy Miller 08:08
I think the answer to your question is, I just I built a community. I very strongly felt passionate for educated women and building a community, not only who women who care about the ingredients in their products, but also how to decorate with candles, and how to incorporate candles in your home decor, and how to playfully, you know, make a tray that looks nice on your coffee table in your living room. So I think it was a combination of the community I want, I knew I wanted to build because of health reasons, and also the decor community that I love so much, and incorporating those two worlds.

Andrew Maff 08:46
So when you say building a community, is there a specific area you're bringing that community that allows you to kind of, typically, it's social media, is that? Is that kind of what your main approach is? Or have you developed something else on how you're kind of staying in touch with them?

Kristy Miller 09:00
So fun fact, eight years ago, when I decided I wanted to make the scented market a business, my son, who was 16 at the time, said to me, Hey, Mom, you should really get on this platform for old people. And old people got money. I think you should really get on there. And I was like, Oh, what is it called? And he's like, called Facebook.

Andrew Maff 09:20
Nice.

Kristy Miller 09:21
So we spent time and effort right developing, developing our Instagram page and our Facebook page. And I think, you know, a lot of the differentiating, differentiating factor is on Instagram. I get on Instagram stories each and every single day. I say, Good morning. I lay out the plan for the day. I tell people what they can expect. I tell people what's going on. And I think a lot of the differentiating factor is that I'm a really great communicator. And I communicate with my community like I'm in a relationship with, you know, in my marriage or in my business, I'm just really great at communicating. So my community knows what's coming or what's coming up, or what sneak peeks I'm dropping, and I think that makes a huge difference.

Narrator 10:06
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Andrew Maff 10:39
That's awesome. That's crazy that you do that, that frequently, not a lot of brands and not a lot of founders definitely do that at all, nearly enough. So that's pretty cool that you're doing that. So that's obviously how you're staying in touch with them. You said you started eight years ago, obviously discovering Facebook do that was, it's 2005 so effectively, like, what, two, three years before covid, was covid like a big like, Oh, this is everyone's sitting at home, so they're trying to explore new products. Was that kind of a big launch for you guys?

Kristy Miller 11:10
Yeah. And here's the thing, I survived covid working 24 hours a day in my single car garage alongside my husband and my three boys, and by the time I looked up, we had surpassed a million dollars in sales out of my single car garage in less than a year. And I thought, hey, Molly, I'm onto something here. This isn't sustainable for my own health and the health of my family, and what are the next steps that we need to grow?

Andrew Maff 11:38
Yeah. So at this point now, are you, are you still doing fulfillment, or are you doing it at a 3PL, do you ship and strip and like, manufacture? What's that approach, now?

Kristy Miller 11:48
Yeah, that's a great conversation. Back in 2022 I was on a program called Dragon's Den. It's essentially the US Shark Tank. And so I had all six offers from all six dragons. And so that really, you know, the covid wave hit, and we grew and then Dragons Den hit, and all of a sudden we had national recognition right across Canada. And so right now we're currently so we had to move to a storefront in our local town, and so we had manufacturing there 500 square feet of manufacturing and a little 750 square feet foot retail store. So after Dragon's Den aired, we had to move into a 5000 square foot warehouse. And so we have a team there that makes all of our candles and all of our products, everything's handmade, and we manufacture and we fulfill out of our own space.

Andrew Maff 12:49
That's awesome, which, yeah, pros and cons. That definitely a lot of pros. And that's a whole other podcast we can get into that's pretty interesting. I we've had, if I had to guess, probably close to, like, two dozen Shark Tank guests on this show. I don't know that we've had anyone on Dragon's Den yet, so I'm very interested. What, because I got pros and cons on the Shark Tank side. What? What was the experience? Was it totally worth it? Was it kind of a hassle? Like, what was that like for you?

Kristy Miller 13:18
1,000% worth it, if anything, it really gave me the kick in the butt that I needed to get my numbers in front of me. It set me up for growth and success in the future. And so I think that's exactly what I needed. You know, I was just a girl doing a couple million bucks out of her garage, and then all of us, and that was from, like, a gut feeling with no, like, marketing strategies, no Omni channels, none of that. So it really forced me to put my business hat on. And, you know, I was mentioning before, I had a business before this, I've never officially had any business training or business schooling, and I just thought it was normal if you start a business that you make it into a seven, eight figure business. Like, isn't that what everybody does? And it was only until after Dragon's Den that I was like, oh, wait a second, maybe I'm special here. Because, no, not everybody does that. I just it was hard work. I grinded. What's the secret? The secret is, I put the hours in. I showed up at the shows, I showed up at the markets. And I think that's something easily forgotten in today's society, especially with social media the way it is.

Andrew Maff 14:26
Preach, so true. So okay, so I got, I got some of the backstory. Makes a ton of sense. Obviously, you've built a community. What other like? I always like talk about the marketing side, because it's that's my area. So what's like? What has worked really well for you do, like influencer marketing, or is it more on the advertising side or content creation, like, what's kind of been what's been working well for you so far?

Kristy Miller 14:49
I mean, I would love to say that those were my answers, but I feel like between social and email, that's where we really strive. I actually am maybe embarrassed to say that I haven't put my finger on influencer marketing, UGC content yet. I think that is going to be very popular for us. Yes, we do ads. And actually, I met a girl that owns another business. She's an eight figure business, and she's spending mad money on ads, and that's her only marketing strategy, which I thought was very interesting, because, you know, our, you know, little company compared to hers. We aren't doing as much in ads. We aren't doing as much in UGC content, really, it's like me doing socials and really, great email marketing, and email flows brings us, generates a lot of our revenue monthly. So I love doing that, and I wish I had a better marketing answer for you. But very strategically, very we have a lot of incredible product drops that really give us, like, the boost we need every single month. And I think with me, like just staying on my toes and staying creative. You know, not so much working in the business, but a little bit working in the business, working on the business, while keeping in touch with the roots and the core of my community. Example, I show up on Instagram stories every single morning.

Andrew Maff 16:21
Yeah, how often are you doing drops?

Kristy Miller 16:24
Usually every Friday, once a week. We do drops. Yeah, it slows down a bit summer, like maybe in the summer, we only do two drops a month, but typically anywhere from September to February, we're doing drops every week.

Andrew Maff 16:39
Oh, it's wild. Who's coming up with all the different smells? Are you doing that too?

Kristy Miller 16:46
I'm like bit of a mad scientist, right? We even have, like, a cent of the month subscription membership, and I've already developed the entire 2026, year, four scents of the month for each month, and a lot of it is just being organized. You know, I go into the lab, I create scents, I make them, I make the candles, I let them cure, I burn them, make sure they have a good burn. And so it does get easier. It's not as hard as it once was.

Andrew Maff 17:14
I got to give you a lot of credit for being prepared all the way through 2026 right? Now, that's wild. I know brand, so as of the recording of this, it's middle of October, and I know brands that still have no idea what they're doing through the end of this year, let alone the end let alone next year. That's awesome. That is very cool. So the alright, so we got most of your revenues coming from, obviously, you from a social media perspective, staying in touch with your audience, and then obviously making sure you're retained through email marketing. It's awesome. So you mentioned the influencer side is not working as well. The advertising side you're doing a little bit with. So what are you just on your website? Are you selling anywhere else?

Kristy Miller 17:54
So we're on our website. We do B to B. So we do wholesale across Canada, and there's a few major players that we work with, which I think is really great, like we have, so you in the US have QVC.

Andrew Maff 18:09
I live, like, right next to them, 20 minutes up the road.

Kristy Miller 18:12
Well, I'm going to come visit you one day. Um, so I live sell on TSC, which is today, shopping choice, which is the Canadian version of that. And for instance, you know, two days ago, I had three, one hour shows throughout the day, and we sell, sell, sell, sell, sell in that hour. And so that's a really big account for us. And I love going into studio and live selling that, because I'm really, am passionate about the product, about the ingredients, about the safety, all of those things. So it's really easy for me to do, and I love doing that.

Andrew Maff 18:45
Cool. That's awesome. I know someone that could probably get you on Good Morning America. So if you do the QVC thing, let me know. I'll introduce you to them, and we'll do a whole US launch. It'll be great. And we'll lean in on the influencer side too. I think that could do well for you, the advertising side, I could see being interesting. You know, I know, like, like you mentioned, like, there's brands out there that they spend stupid money all the time, and that's all they do. I'm more of a fan of the direction you're going in where you do more like, long tail, less expensive to be able to actually kind of make sure that you're not spending too much on it, otherwise, your cost per acquisition gets insane. What's so you've already planned out 2026, but like, what's your plan for scale? Where are you going from here?

Kristy Miller 19:29
Yeah, I think that's the thing. Is that right now we look at our production facility and how much we can work at capacity, and so right now we're only about 50% capacity. So as far as advertising goes, we are going to lean very heavily into it in 2026 because we are seeing results directly from it and really looking at, like, AB testing our ads, and I think having eyeballs on it every single day to look to see what's going on, what's going right and what's going wrong. But I also agree with you, I think that we are definitely jumping into UGC, and what that looks like for us. I mean, we just started an affiliate program on our website, which I'm super proud of. So that's just like another avenue of funnel channels we have money coming in. We also do this program. It's called the candle fundraiser. So like, think of like, you know, the kids hockey teams, or the school looking to raise money for Chromebooks, things like that. So really, I started the Kindle fundraiser as a passion project to be able to give back money to the community. And I think in the last year, we did back $45,000 in donations back to organizations. So I really see that being a large part and a large staple of where we're growing and getting more into the fundraising side of things, because it's a good revenue generator and it's also a really good give back to the communities

Andrew Maff 20:55
Yeah, this was awesome. Kristy, you're so you're so well prepared for next year. It's like, it's like, I'm listening to you. I go, all right, you're guaranteed to have a good year next year based off of everything you just told me. So many brands don't do enough of that. And I think that your game plan going forward sounds awesome. I really appreciate having you on the show. I know you're super busy. You've got a lot going on, so I'd love to give you the floor one last time tell everyone where they can find out more about you and more about The Scented Market.

Kristy Miller 21:26
Absolutely. So if you're looking for a good morning story, you're going to find us on Instagram and Facebook @thescented market. You can also shop online at www.thescentedmarket.com!

Andrew Maff 21:40
Perfect. Kristy, thank you so much for being on the show. Everyone who tuned in, thank you as well. Please make sure you do the usual thing, rate review, subscribe all that fun stuff, whichever podcast platform you prefer, or head over to the Ecommshow.com to check out all of our previous episodes. But as usual, thank you all for joining us. See you all next time. Have a good one!

Narrator 22:02
Thank you for tuning in to the Ecomm Show. Head over to Ecommshow.com to subscribe on your favorite podcast platform or on the BlueTuskr YouTube channel. The E comm Show is brought to you by BlueTuskr, a full service digital marketing company specifically for E commerce sellers looking to accelerate their growth. Go to Blue tusker.com now for more information, make sure to tune in next week for another amazing episode of the E comm show!