Helen Morrsion: Full Episode Transcript

‍

Hello, everyone. Welcome to Question Everything, a podcast all about learning from the successes and the failures of those who dared to, well, question everything. This podcast is part interview, part therapy, and part Price is Right. We have our own game board stacked with questions that'll make even the most successful CMOs totally sweat. I'm your host, Ashley Wolters, CMO and partner at Curiosity. On today's episode, I sit down with Helen Morrison, chief marketing unicorn of Frownies, the original facial patch designed to naturally reduce fine lines and wrinkles. Helen's journey transcends building a successful brand. It's about leaving a positive impact on the lives of those she touches. Today, you'll learn why you should always choose creator relationships over influencer deals, why a negative comment can cause you to be a failure, and why a negative comment can cause you to be a failure. And the secret to keeping your brand in the zeitgeist for over 100 years. So get ready to slide into Frownies DMs because this episode is all about how real community wins on social.

‍

Learn more about Frownies

‍

Helen Morrison: Helen Introduction

‍

Helen Morrison is the chief marketing unicorn of Frownies, the longest standing wrinkle treatment on the market, you know, since like 1898. No big deal. Helen is the official face of Frownies in the fifth generation woman in her family to fuel the brand's success, serving as the head of branding, content, creation and creative strategy. You'll soon find out the secret to Frownies' 100-year-plus domination lies in the brand's desire to instill love, confidence and a sense of community among women. Welcome to question everything. Helen, how are you? I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me. I'm really excited. Oh, man, we are so excited to have you here. I was a fan of Frownies before I ever even met you. And then we had a mutual connection kind of introduce us.

‍

He's like, I just think you need to meet her. I think you're gonna like her. And it was kind of love at first sight. I'm like, can we be friends? Because you're kind of amazing. All right, well, so you kind of know how this podcast works, right? We have 12 spicy questions on a game board. You don't know what's behind each of the numbers, through 12. We'll pull up the game board and you get to lead the show here. All right, where are you going to go first? Well, let's just start with number one. Number one right out of the gate. All right. You are quite literally the face of Frownies. How do you scale the business without losing that authenticity in the relationship with your customers that you've built?

‍

Learn more about Frownies

‍

Helen Morrison: How to scale the business without losing authenticity with your customers

‍

Well, to be honest, I think my kind of theme is 'scale the unscaled.' And so truthfully, I have been able to maintain that connection because I am literally in the trenches with the customers every day to some degree. When we first started taking off, I did everything all by myself. I didn't have a team. I didn't have people helping me respond to messages and DMs and comments. And to be honest, that's my love. My first love is connecting with people and connecting with the community. So at some point in every single day, I get on to the social and I make those customer touch points. And so I'm not just in stories or just in the content. I am in the DMs, in the comments.

‍

I pop in our VIP group and reply to a few things so that I am literally out there like shaking hands and kissing babies every day because that's my favorite part. My love for what I do lies in connecting with people and my ability to do everything that I do lies in my understanding and that connection that I do make. So even though you might think, 'Oh, man, you've gotten too big for you to be talking to one on one to a customer,' I prioritize still doing that because for every customer that sends a DM, there's probably hundreds, if not thousands of other people wondering that same thing. And when I make that touch point, the ripple effect throughout all of social as people share and people talk about the fact that they got to talk to me or to us, that it's it-you can't really put a price tag on it.

‍

It's so valuable. So for me, doing things that someone might think is like, 'Oh, well, you know, you don't have time for that.' I make time because it actually gives me back a whole lot more than the time it might take. So I love that scale-the unscalable. That's so I was talking with Sean Riley, who is the, I don't know, chief dude officer of dude wipes. And you guys have a very similar philosophy. He's a guy who's one of the founders. And he is in the DMs in the comments and he's on X. And, you know, like, people are like, oh, my God, are you really, Sean?

‍

Like, is this really him? And like the success stories that he's been able to pull from just like that one little post has been really remarkable. So it sounds like you got to make time for it, right? Like, that's part of your just like you schedule it in your day to make sure it happens and like be really intentional about it. All right, let's go back to the game board. Okay, so let's do number seven. Number seven. You've mentioned that to win on social, you need to show your audience you truly care about them. What are some ways brands can win the trust of their audience? Great question. Okay, I'll tell you how we do it. And then we can apply it to brands.

‍

Learn more about Frownies

‍

Helen Morrison: How brands can win the trust of their audiences

‍

But for me, personally, I don't only share and promote frowning, all day, every day. I show up in my stories. For example, I wear these heatless curl bands on the internet, literally almost every day. And that's not a product we sell, but it is something I'm using all the time. And so when I'm willing to share, not just something that is selling frownies, but I'm willing to share, oh, you know, this is my life. Here's what I do. I wear this in my hair. This is the foundation I use. This is my favorite brand of coffee. This is my favorite, you know, whatever it is. I think that helps people understand I'm not just here to sell them something, but I am genuinely sharing just what I use and what I love.

‍

And so I love partnering with other women-owned brands as well, doing lives or doing collaborations where I meet them. I love their product. I love what they're doing. So I'm like, 'Hey, let's go live together because I want to share. I want my people to know you and to know about what you're doing, because it's exciting and it's, you know, highlighting. Other women who are doing amazing things. And so I think sharing other products, sharing the behind-the-scenes of my life, and then also being willing to reach across the table to other brands and say, like, 'How can we do this together? How can we support each other?' Because your goals for women are the same as mine.

‍

Maybe you're selling lashes and I'm selling frownies, but women, really the goal here is like giving women tools to feel beautiful, confident, you know, good, to feel good, all while supporting other women-owned brands. So I just think that that collaboration and that willingness to be okay, taking up some space where you're not always just selling your product, you know, but you're just talking about what's going on in the world of social and women and trends and things like that. Yeah. I am really surprised about like how connected and supportive the small business community is. I love when I say that. I love when I say that. I love when I say that. I love when I say other founders talking about other products too.

‍

There's just like so many examples running through my head, but I think that's really awesome when you guys can like band together, support each other. I even feel it on the small agency side of the world. Like the small independent agencies we do like tend to stick together and support each other and promote each other. That's really cool. Any like future collabs or anything that like you can tease today or any new products you're trying right now that you're obsessed with? Well, my new obsession is actually face massage. And now a lot of people talk about like face yoga, face massage, gua sha, all of this, and it's not all created equal. So there is a girl we're going to be doing a live together on Friday.

‍

But her, just to give her a little shout out, her Instagram and TikTok is AnastasiaBeautyFasha. And I paid for her program about a year ago and I've been doing it. And I am. And I am obsessed. And she is an absolute super genius in this realm. And I have really discovered that this is legit. Like truly, if you're using the right techniques and you know what you're doing, you, um, you can really make a huge impact on your face and not just your face, even your whole body, like all the systems in the body and the musculature and the fascia, it all works together. And frownies is very much like a part of that conversation, but I'm just obsessed with face massage.

‍

I'm obsessed with facial massage now and how it can; it's kind of like, to me, the, the fountain of youth, it's like, everybody wants a product or what's, what's your concealer that you use? I'm like, my goal is to have my skin look so good. I don't even need concealer. And so she is kind of my favorite new thing. And we're actually going to be doing a live together on Friday, which this podcast will probably come out after that happens, but you should go check her out. Her content's incredible. Um, just the free value that she has. And I'm so excited to be able to do that. But even beyond that, um, she has a paid program. That's amazing. That's great. We'll link to her handles in the show notes for sure.

‍

Learn more about Frownies

‍

Helen Morrison: Dos and don'ts for building a community on social

‍

All right. Thanks for that. Let's go back to the board. Okay. Let's do number two. All right. Give us some do's and don'ts for brands who want to build a real community on social. So first, talk about your community because it's super impressive. You have the VIP community. You also have very active social channels. And then like, what lessons can you share for other brands trying to build that kind of social following, but that like, I don't know, like super loyal, super engaged kind of an audience. This is my favorite thing about our community. And it's the thing that I don't have a background in marketing per se, but I do have a ton of background in connecting with people. I was an elementary special education teacher as my first like official profession.

‍

And you got to connect with parents. You got to connect to the community. You got to connect with your family. You got to connect your students. You got to connect with other teachers because I was in and out of all their classrooms. And I just genuinely love people. And so in building our Frownies community, I just came at it like a human being who wanted to connect and build community, not like a marketer who was trying to figure out how I strategically build community to grow my brand. Right. So in the do's and don'ts, I think that you do need to truly cultivate your love for people. I think that you do need to truly cultivate your love for people. And I think that you do need to people.

‍

So somehow you need to do this inner work of like the gratitude for humanity. I mean, right now we're the whole buzz on social is the TikTok ban and I'm scrolling through posts and I am like shouting out. I just love human beings. They are so smart and so creative. And this is hilarious. Like I genuinely see content that I'm like, that was genius. I love people. They are so funny, you know? So you've got to be like, I don't know, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. So you've got to build this true, genuine love for your community and the people you're going to serve or it's just, you know, authenticity. You either have it or you don't.

‍

And so you've got to find a way to cultivate that inside. So there's that. Don't underestimate the value of creators and their communities and their connections with people, because I can only connect with so many people and I'm not necessarily relatable or aspirational to everybody. And we want our product to be relatable to people. And so my connection to other content creators, I've done a ton of like intentional work around connecting and networking with content creators because I am that's what I started as at the beginning of the day was our content creator, the face of brownies. And I have made a ton of connections with other creators. And it's so valuable for your brand because you can have brand deals and influencers or you can have a community of creators that you're connected to.

‍

And that's what we have. We don't really do influencers and we don't really do brand deals. We do relationships with creators. And for us, especially, it's so important. And because you can't get results just instantly overnight. This is not a miracle patch. It takes actual work and use. And everybody knows that. So if I just find an influencer who has a huge following and I want to tap into their networks, I'm like, hey, I'm going to pay you. Here's your brand deal with us. Can you just talk about brownies? That's going to fall flat because they haven't used it for two to four months or six months or a year or two years. You know what I mean? But if I reach out to the content creators that I've connected with.

‍

And I have continued to stay connected to over the course of the past four years. And because of our connection, they know about brownies. They decided to try it for themselves. They also love it. And then I'm like, 'Hey, how can we support each other? What do you need? Here's what I can. Here's what I can do for you here. Like you're doing this for me. We're in this together. Like you said, this sort of brands coming together, small businesses coming together, creators coming together. So don't underestimate the value of true relationships. Relationships with creators, not just finding influencers.' That's great, I mean, gratitude for humanity and create in relationships over deals like those are two. Absolutely. Also, don't underestimate the power of comments and DMs.

‍

Our goal with our ads, we are not happy if an ad only makes a lot of money, like has a high click through rate. We want comments and we want DMs. We want social engagement because that also builds our community. Because for us, maybe you see that ad, you click through and you buy. Well, we made some money. But if you see that ad, you comment, we engage back with you. Then you send us a DM and then we're chatting with you about like what's going to be your best fit for this product. You're entering the doorway to our community. And then once you're in, not only did you have an incredible experience and you felt like white glove all the way to checkout, you then know how to use your products.

‍

You love your products. You love our community. You want to be a part of it. You try more. Now you're a raving fan. And then you're sharing on your socials and you're bringing in your friends and you're introducing them to this white glove experience. So comments and DMs are really the gateway to building your community right from the start, even in your ads and your organic social, everything. It's that engagement more than just a purchase. Because if you'll engage with me, we're going to be best friends and you're going to love this. If you're just going to purchase, I don't know if you're going to know how to do it, if you're going to really like it, if you're going to stay consistent, if you're just going to fall through the cracks.

‍

So don't underestimate comments and DMs. That's awesome. That's awesome. You know, the other real benefit that we see on comments and DMs are insights. Yes. So oftentimes, you know, consumers can say things that you can't say in an advertisement. They are real and raw and honest. And sometimes there's like a hidden gem in there that we can actually level up to some of that creative. Have you found that too? For sure. And even with that, you can only say so much in a quick 15 to 30 second ad. Yeah. And then if somebody is interested, they go to the comment section and people ask questions or maybe even they have complaints. But if you handle that with grace and educational information that maybe that person who watched the video needs to know, you just then had this opportunity to kind of go deeper on so many more questions and thoughts and, you know, maybe issues people are having and they get so much more out of that one ad.

‍

Yeah. And then if you handle that with grace and educational information that maybe that person who watched the video needs to know, you just then had this opportunity to kind of go deeper on so many more questions and thoughts and thoughts. And then if you handle that with grace and educational information that maybe that person who watched the video needs to know, you just then had this opportunity to kind of go deeper on so many more questions and thoughts and thoughts. And then if you handle that with grace and educational information that maybe the person who watched the video needs to know, you just then had this opportunity to kind of go deeper on so many more questions and thoughts and thoughts.

‍

Now, we do use some DM automation as far as like many chat and for the comments and stuff, because there are times where it's just that people want to link, right? They want the info. And so you can use that automated response for that kind of thing. But otherwise, we just have those two girls who they are all day, every day in the DMs and in the comments replying. And I it was very, very important to me because they are my voice. You know, it's that's how we build. It was like Helen is answering you. And so I was very particular on training them and making sure they were educated. And I am like this with them, like all day. They slap me if they have questions.

‍

And at this point, they're really good. And in fact, a lot of people think our girl who answers all the messages in Instagram that she is me. And they say, 'Thank you, Helen.' Even her own mother thought she was talking to me. And then I replied to her and she's like, 'I know you're tricking me, Gracie.' And I'm like, 'This. This Helen, like you're confused, your own daughter's voice.' So I don't know if we sort of have the same voice inflections and everything. Now we just say it the same. But it was very important to me that people get the response that I would have given them because that was my baby. Taking care of the customers was my favorite part. And so handing it over was hard for me.I love taking walks and answering all the comments and answering all the DMs. I was voicemail people. And so she does the same thing. And it's amazing, that's cool, that's really cool. 

‍

Learn more about Frownies

‍

Helen Morrison: How Frownies is marketing towards men getting into skincare 

‍

All right, let's go. Let's go back to the game board, OK. Let's do 12. Alright, with more men getting into the skin care game, how is Frownies thinking about reaching this audience? You know, this is a current question we have right now. So at the moment, the main reach for men is wives, girlfriends, and partners, right? There are a ton of our customers that are women who tell us, yes, my husband uses these two. I put them on him. Yes, my boyfriend uses these two.

‍

Men are different because not as many men are on the Internet sharing their skin care routine and their, you know, their wrinkle treatments and all the things like that, the way that women do. So that is something that we have been heavily in the realm of marketing to women, building the community with women. But that's definitely. Still a question mark for us out in in our whole, you know, future plans. Cool. I can't wait to see you guys do. We have a client who is they're focused more on like the bathtub and making the bath experience really remarkable. And we did some research on like how many men take baths, but like not a lot of men talk about taking a bath. And I'm like, God, there's a.

‍

It takes your best than me. Right. He's all about kind of like. Yeah. Yeah. But he's he's all about it. But no, he would definitely not be on Instagram sharing his bath time routine. I do feel like there's a market for it. There is a beautiful campaign that needs to happen there at some point. Cool. All right. Let's go back to the game board. 

‍

Learn more about Frownies

‍

Helen Morrison: What happened when Frownies went viral on TikTok 

‍

OK, let's do number six. All right. So tell us your first smash hit on social. Did you expect it? And what about it do you think connected with your audience? I mean, you just threw out the word viral. So like, how the hell did that happen? OK. 2020 end of 2020 Instagram reels was not yet released, but it was like coming and tick tock. Obviously, I was on it. Personally, Frownies did not have a TikTok account. I did not want to do TikTok because that was before I dove into pretty much my day to day is short form content. Right. But that was not my expertise at that point. And I knew that it required a lot of work. So I was like, 'I just was like, no, we're just we're just going to wait until we have.' And I was like, 'OK, we're going to do that. Do that.' Anyway, somebody sent me what I call the first brownies tick-tock and it had like two point two million views. It was someone else's right. But it was a video of a young girl and her mom.

‍

She had done a video and it had done well, maybe 60,000 views. And it was her own application of brownies. She was sharing brownies. And somebody commented, 'Show this on somebody who's old. You don't have any wrinkles.' Right. So she's like, 'Well, she does a comment reply. She's got her mom.' And she's like, OK, this is my mom. She's old, but not old. She's not older than me. You can tell. I've watched this a lot. I could tell you the script. Anyway, she does the whole brownies thing and it works great. And everybody just was going crazy. So they're asking in the comments, what is this? Where did you get it? How do I buy it? And I was like, we have to have a TikTok now.

‍

Like so that day I go and I start a TikTok account. I post our very first TikTok. And at the time on Instagram, you know, putting up content, but it wasn't really doing anything. You know, if we got 50 likes, that would have been great. Like it was very low engagement. So I post this. I post this video and right away, immediately like 60,000 views. So for me, that was like viral. I was like, what is happening? Oh, my goodness. So then I keep on posting every day and it just kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. But it was like 60,000, 80,000, 100,000, it just was, you know, this steady cadence of like this is happening, like this is what we're doing. I guess people want this content.

‍

But the first what I would say where I was shocked by the virality, not too long into it, we had a video that got over 2 million views. It might be like 3 million views. But what happened was my mom had sent me a message and a picture; I guess, Pilar Wayne, who is John Wayne's late wife, like ex-wife. She's in her 90s now. She had handwritten on her stationery writing into us saying the place where I bought my frownies is closed down. How can I get some? And so she's like, here, call her. So I call her. She answers the phone and I have this whole conversation with her. So then I go and I record a piece of content about it and I was like, but my mom calls me and she says, Pilar Wayne just wrote us a letter.

‍

She says, Pilar Wayne, it's P-I-L-A-R. I don't know how you say her name. I don't even know who she is. And so she's like, call Pilar Wayne and I was like, all right, fine. So when she answers, I said, Mrs. Wayne, because I'm being respectful, she's in her 90s. So I didn't even say her name to her. I don't know. I make this video. I'm like, I just got off the phone. Pilar Wayne. I had never even heard the name Pilar and every woman on the internet named Pilar watched that video because there were literally hundreds of thousands of comments from people telling me that's not how you say it. You said it wrong. This is how you pronounce it. I mean, people were just going off.

‍

So this is a good example of how like even a negative comment section can be very beneficial to you. Because I can also tell you our sales went through the roof from that one video. Now, most of the comments were just all fixated on how I said her name, but the world started seeing frownies and they started like, you know, 3 million people found out about it from that video. And the reason 3 million people found out about it was because there were so many comments. And the reason there were so many comments because I said her name wrong, you know, and I didn't get to go like, well, my mom told me that. Did you say it? You know, I just I was like, oh, that makes sense that that is how I probably would have pronounced it.

‍

But I didn't know, you know. So that was our first really true viral over a million views kind of a moment. And since then, there's been so many even bigger than that, that every time, though, it blows my mind. It's not I was like, yeah, I didn't think that was going to happen. So but we pretty much were viral all of 2021. It was a crazy year. Wow. Have you been able to upkeep that kind of enthusiasm? Has that been hard? No. Honestly, most people say about frownies, it's kind of this known thing that other people say about us. But it's sort of like Frownies has a cult following. That's that's how it is out in the world. We are customers, literal raving fans, cult following type of people.

‍

There are a few videos on the Internet with maybe like a plastic surgeon or an injector talking. They're talking bad about frownies and they go viral. And everyone in their comments section is like, well, like coming to our defense. You know, they're like, I use brownies. I love frownies. How dare you? You know, it's just it's kind of crazy. So we definitely still have such a raving fan energy out there. And it's really fun to see. And there are people, you know, I've obviously gotten attacked in the comments about like, oh, you know, Botox, you're a liar, you know, whatever. And man, our customers. I don't know. I hardly need to defend myself. And I, you know, I make funny response videos, but our customers go off and they are just they're obsessed.

‍

And so I think just because we've continued to prioritize that relationship building where I am so accessible to them if they want to reach out and people know that and that's kind of reputation. So they just love it. They are. And I think our story being a fifth generation woman-owned. And even though, in the origin story, my great-great grandmother's husband died, and then she had to provide for her family. Like, it's just very strong female spirit that's all through the brand. And people want to see that, you know, I feel like as a woman, don't you want that? Like, I want my daughters to see that; I want that to be known, not just some company that comes along and they're marketing the next new great product, right?

‍

Like there's a history and a story that people want to see themselves in. Yeah. Which I imagine you battle with from a competitive standpoint-a lot of these brands that are popping up on Amazon or Instagram that, you know, were just created last night and their garage. I mean, we do and we don't. It pops up and we're like, 'Oh, no,' but then you look and you know, you can see the different insights on Amazon. You're like, 'Oh, yeah, they're selling like twenty-five a month.' It's fine. Well, your whole story about like the negativity. I mean, when you say like gratitude for humanity, I think when it all ladders back up to that. That you can take some of that negativity and turn it into such a positive opportunity for you, which I love.

‍

It also reminds me of the Coors Light campaign. I don't know if you just saw that that came up like they purposely made a mistake. You know, yours was a little bit more genuine, but they purposely made a mistake. They misspelled refreshment on an ad, a billboard in Times Square, and the Internet just went wild. Like, how do you not know how to spell that? Like, surely somebody needs to get fired. And it was all a huge stunt, which I thought was pretty clever. People do love your failures, though, more than your wins, I think, in general. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Let's go back to the board. Okay. Let's knock out number four. All right. So Frownies has been around since the eighteen hundreds.

‍

Learn more about Frownies

‍

Helen Morrison: How to sustain business success for over 100 years

‍

What do you think is the secret to keeping the brand relevant for that long? Honestly? I think it is the product efficacy, the results. I am very proud of the results from Brownies. And honestly, even myself, though I've known about this product my whole life, I still get shocked when I see the customer results that come in. It's mind-blowing. I you know, we have to be careful not to make too many claims or, you know, things like that. But. I scroll through the results. I mean, like I can pull up my phone for you. We have a channel where we save all the results and I would just be here like this for the next five minutes, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, and they don't stop.

‍

And truly today I was looking at a comment on the video I posted on TikTok yesterday. The girl, she's somebody that I met in real life a couple of years ago, and she just was like, oh, Helen was so great. So when I saw the brownies, I thought I would try them and her results are insane. And I posted. And a lot of times people say to me like, 'Oh, you have Botox.' Yeah. When I read about her before picture, they're like, 'Oh, I see that old, like the old lady filter on that picture.' Like they were trying to say, not that she had Botox, but that like that or her before picture had the aging filter on it. And I was like, 'No, no, like this is a screenshot from our Facebook group.

‍

Like she posted this, she paid for these.' We didn't ask her to say this. And that's how all of our results are. I mean, people are so blown away by the results that like they, we are flooded every single day with before and after photos and they would blow your mind. And sometimes people will send in a picture and they'll be like, here's my face. What do you think is possible? And I'm like, Ooh, I don't know. I mean like your lines are really deep and I don't want to give false promises, but then they use the products and I'm like, Whoa. So I truly, if you have a product that is this amazing and you have a product that really does what you say, it's going to do.

‍

It will stand the test of time. Unfortunately, there's a lot of things that just have all these like claims and hype, and it's like a drop, like a, you know, something that makes a big splash and goes viral. So everybody buys it. And then it dies because it didn't really do much. But frownies, they've been around for 130 years. Because they work. I mean, that starts and ends with the product has gotta work. Yes. Alright. Let's go back to the board. Okay. Number three, number three. 

‍

Learn more about Frownies

‍

Helen Morrison: How CMOs can make a big impact with a smaller budget

‍

As the marketing leader for a growing brand, I have been following this brand for almost what advice would you give to other CMOs looking to make a big impact on a smaller budget? I personally have a deep love in my heart for organic social.

‍

That is how we got on the map. That's the thing that put a bunch of like fuel on the fire for us to start making money that we could then put into paid ads. But for me, our strategy has always been, like I said first, we got our big boost on organic social. If you have really good organic social content, it can be even more valuable than an ad. Particularly, I would say don't sleep on TikTok as long as it is around. For us, TikTok is very much an opportunity for reach and Instagram is the place where we build a community. As far as organic social goes. Now, we do have those moments on Instagram where we'll have some viral reach. Also, YouTube, we've had really great reach there.

‍

And then you have a lot more longevity of a piece of organic content. So just organic social can be so huge if you can't afford a big paid ad budget. So whether that means you get good at making content or you have someone on your team who is, or you build relationships with maybe some small business, you can build a community. I have a lot of clients who are smaller creators who have lower costs for content. I will say, because I am so heavily involved in organic social, even as a consumer, so that I can understand trends and I can understand what's going on in the world that we're in. I very early on, I feel like I pride myself in being able to find the gems where maybe they have a very tiny following, but I'm like, oh, they're going to do great things.

‍

And there was a girl that I found and she posted just saying like, you guys, like she was in her twenties. She's like, 'I'm getting these little wrinkles.' What should we do? And she only had 3,000 followers on TikTok, which is not very much for TikTok. And, but I start looking at her content. And so of course people commented, saying 'use brownies'. So I replied to her and she reached out to me and was like, 'Would you send me some product?' Which normally we never do at that stage of the game. We just didn't do because we found it just sits on people's shelves and they don't use it. So I was like, 'You know what? I think you're going to do something great.' I will send you some product.

‍

So she was like one of the only people that whole year I sent a product to, she uses it. She posts about it all the time. Within a few months, she started really growing and taking off. And she was at like 60,000 followers. And now she's somewhere around 300,000 followers. She talks about Frownies all the time. Still for free. She has multiple, multiple videos that have millions and millions of views about frownies. And, um, she also just on her regular content every single day, she gets over a hundred thousand views almost on everything that she posts. So her exposure to just all these people and that they all know she just uses frownies. That's all she's. And because we started early on building that relationship with her, she just has always done it for free.

‍

She loves us. We love her. And, but she was like, you know, somebody that someone would be like, nah, what, what, what am I going to waste my time on you? She also has her whole account is all about acne. She has really bad acne. She has really bad acne. She has really bad acne. She has really bad acne. She has really bad acne. And so you might not look at her and be like, Ooh, this is the influencer that I want. I was like, Oh no, no, she's going somewhere. So I think that really building those relationships, organic, social content, taking a chance on smaller influencers who you can see do really quality work, but they just haven't taken off yet. All of that. There's so much opportunity that is super affordable.

‍

Learn more about Frownies

‍

Helen Morrison: The perks and oddities of being a part of a family-owned brand

‍

Great advice. All right, my friend, I think we have time for one more. Okay. Let's do number nine. It's my favorite number. Okay. So what are the perks and maybe some of the oddities of being part of a family business? I plead the fifth. This is the part where I would be like, yeah, edit that out. I mean, it's really, it's really cool. Like the situation that you're in, like you work with your mom and you work with your husband and you work with, uh, brothers and sisters. And, um, how, how is that? I mean, is it, is it completely normal? Is it like, you know, we're all sitting around the dinner table and life is fine. Do you always talk about business?

‍

Well, um, first of all, I am one of five and it is the five of us who own Frownies. I'm the only one who actually works or is paid by Frownies. Um, and I have to be careful even saying I'm the only one who works in the business because that is a sensitive statement for people. I feel that they do, but they don't. So it's, yeah, it's challenging. Um, but being one of five, there's five different personalities. And then there is my mom, my dad, my sister-in-law, my husband, my cousin works like, you know, there's, there's a lot of different people there. Um, and some people are super easy to work with and it's great. And if I had another business venture, it'd be like, sure. You want to work together?

‍

And then there are other people who are super easy to work with. And it's great. There are others that are like, ah, this is so hard. Um, so yeah, it is definitely very challenging personally. I think my husband and I are committed after this never to go into business with family or friends. Um, because to me, it's not worth it. Yeah. I didn't know this was going to happen. Right. I was like, sure. I'll do some Instagram stories. I had no idea. And here we are. And I'm the face of Frownies. I didn't get hired to be the face of Frownies. And I, even if I sort of was, I didn't know that that would mean this. And so, you know, I think that things happen for a reason and I think you have to make the most of it.

‍

So there are definitely positive and negative to everything, but it is extremely challenging and the stakes are high. And that's, I think what makes it so challenging. You know, if you work with people who are difficult to work with, but you don't have to decide whether or not you want to eat Christmas dinner with them, that's okay. You don't have to like each other, but in your family, if there are work conflicts, you do need to like each other. If you want your kids to grow up together and you want to spend holidays together. So it's just one of those difficult, challenging elements, but I am grateful that we do have a really wonderful family and so far, so good. So far, so good.

‍

I mean, it's funny that you say, like, I know this was like, kind of like thrust upon you, but like, I, I do think like with your background as an educator and even being like a yoga instructor and a youth, a youth pastor, I think is also in your past. Like you are just so perfect for this role because you're empowering like younger generations, older generations, you're bringing women together, you're educating them. And that's not an easy role to fill. And I kind of feel like your history and your experience has kind of led you exactly to where you need to be right now. Yeah. I think looking back, you see it because I had never been in business before like this. I didn't, I didn't realize, I didn’t know, you know?And so I do understand why it happened and I can see all of that now, but you know, when I walked into it, I was walking into it naively. Yeah. Why me? Yeah. I totally get that. Um, but that's probably why you're so good at it too. 

‍

Learn more about Frownies

‍

Helen Morrison: Closing Remarks

‍

All right. So we always love to end our podcast with a little 'this or that we have just a few questions. You are just going to rapid fire, whatever comes to your mind first. Um, and it's just a fun little way for us to get to know you even more. Are you ready? Yes. Okay. Let's go. All right. TikTok or Instagram? TikTok. Okay. I had a feeling. Trends or original content? Original content. Love that. Scorpion or dancer pose? Dancer. Okay.

‍

Working with your husband or working with your mom? My husband. He's amazing. I've gotten the chance to meet him as well. Oh, Helen, this was amazing. Thank you for sitting down with me today. What's the best way for our viewers and our listeners to get ahold of you? Yes. Well, of course you can find me on all of Brownie's socials. Easiest is Instagram for sure. Their DMs are, much better, even though I like TikTok content better. So message me, um, on Instagram at frownies on all channels, or you can even message me personally on Instagram. It's just Helen K Morrison. Awesome. We'll make sure we link to that too. Thank you so much for your time, for your transparency. This was a great conversation. Thank you. I loved it. Yay.

‍