Episode 150: Building A Sustainable Modern Brand in A Traditional Industry and Finding the Right Team, with Tartan Blanket Co. CEO and co-founder Emma MacDonald
In this small business interview episode, Fiona has a chat with Emma Macdonald, founder of Tartan Blanket Co., a company based in Scotland that brings a modern approach to the traditional Scottish tartan blankets. Listen to their conversation as they discuss how to create a great culture, how to do things differently, and how to look after the planet when you're creating a product-based business. We also talk about what it's like to work with her husband as her business partner, what it's like to grow a team, and what it was like also returning to her hometown.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Catching up
COVID's impact on her business
About Tartan Blanket Co
Creative background
Working with your partner
On doing blankets
Looking after the planet through the business
Managing people
On mentors, coaches and finding help from others
Tech recommendation
Most proud moment
Connect with Emma
What's next?
Tips on getting into Liberty
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Get in touch with Emma and Tartan Blanket Co.
Episode transcript:
Welcome to episode 150 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. I'm a business coach, a podcaster, and I'm an author. In 2020, if you were not aware, Heidi Grant Books published my first business book, Passion Purpose Profit: Sidestep the #hustle and build a business you love. That went out all over the world. It's selling well, which is good. Thank you so much.
I wanted to mention it early on in this podcast because we are heading into gifting season. This is a pretty awesome present for someone who's in business, maybe someone who's transitioning part of their business. Maybe they are hiring people, maybe they are moving into a different category, or maybe they are doing more online.
If you are looking to start a business or you have a cousin, a friend, or you know somebody that has said to you, “I'd love to start a business.” This makes the absolute perfect gift for them. You can find Passion Purpose Profit anywhere online. You can also find it in many wonderful book shops and gift stores. If you can, please support another small business owner by buying it from them. You can google Passion Purpose Profit or my name, Fiona Killackey, and it will come up. It’s a great gift idea.
Before we get stuck into this interview episode, I wanted to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on the land on which I'm lucky enough to record this podcast. Live, Play, The Blend that helped me so much when I was writing my book, the Wurundjeri of the Kulin nation. I pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been seated.
This is an interview episode. We're going all the way to Edinburgh in Scotland to talk with the wonderful Emma Macdonald. Along with her husband, Fergus, she has founded the beautiful Tartan Blanket Co. We get sent requests to be on this podcast quite often. I want to be like, “It's popular.” We do. We often say no because it's not necessarily a great fit. When we got the request from Emma at Tartan Blanket Co, it was such a good fit. I loved that in their request, they were clear. I'm often talking about this with my clients, “Be clear about what you're looking for.”
Also, they came to it with a different take on what you think of when you think of blankets. Particularly in that part of the world, Scottish, Irish English, that area is known for its heritage and its history and everything else that comes with the blankets and particularly Tartan. We're talking about Scotland. I wanted to know how had Emma and her husband created a modern brand in an industry where many of the competitors are not that at all. Maybe that was the point of difference.
Another thing that was brought up in the requested email that also piqued our interest was, how do we make decisions as small business owners that are deliberately sustainable not just for the business but for the customers as well? How can you create a product-based business that gives back to the planet and leaves a positive impact? All of this was feeling right for us so we said yes. It was my absolute pleasure to talk to Emma.
This was recorded many months ago. I know things have changed, particularly with lockdowns and not lockdowns. I've talked to somebody in Scotland and I know that they're going through many cases of COVID and many other things happening and a whole lot of uncertainty. Keep that in mind when we're talking. It was some time ago that we recorded this.
In this episode, we go into many things from how to create a great culture, how to do things differently, and how to look after the planet when you're creating a product-based business. We also talk about what it's like to work with your husband as your business partner, what it's like to grow a team, and what it was like also returning to her hometown.
Emma had lived in London and was living in London when she came up with the idea for this. The move from London to Melbourne is a lot longer. I know how she feels when you want to go home and you want to raise your family where you were raised. Edinburgh is still a capital city but it's a much smaller town than London. Also, what's that like? I loved talking to Emma. I love her beautiful Scottish accent.
This is an interesting interview regardless of where you're at in your journey, especially if you're a product-based business whether you're just starting and you're thinking, “How would this all work?” Whether you are in the product-based business but you're thinking, “How can we be more sustainable? How can we change our workplace culture? How can we get the right team in place?”
Also, it's a huge lesson for anyone reading with your product, service, or both to know that you can still create something and it can do well if you can find a point of difference. That point of difference isn't always that the product itself is the huge point of difference. I often hear from people who say, “I want to open a yoga studio but there's many around,” “I want to do fashion but there are many other brands,” or, “I want to do this but there's so many of these.”
Emma’s whole tale and the whole concept of Tartan Blanket Co. is proving that you can create something different and something that people want in an industry that, from the outside, looks like there's many of those and they've been around for hundreds of years. How can you compete? I loved chatting with her. You'll get so much from this episode. Here is my interview with Emma Macdonald, the CEO and Cofounder of Tartan Blanket Co.
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Welcome, Emma. How are you?
I'm good, thank you. It’s nice and sunny in Scotland for a change.
Thank you for getting up early to be on this podcast. I appreciate it, with the time difference.
It's not too bad. I used to get up early with the kids.
Given you are in sunny Scotland and we're still in this unfolding life with the COVID challenge, how is COVID impacting your life and your business? What’s it look like for you?
It's been strange. At the start, it was quite a challenge. We've got three kids. When this all started, they were young. We had a lot of challenges at the beginning. We have a nanny who helps us and she wasn't allowed to be here. Everyone stopped shopping for anything that wasn't essential. You’re worried about the business. We had a few weeks of scary times. It was quite intense to sort the business out and look after the kids full time. It’s a real juggle.
After the first initial shock wore off, people then started looking for alternatives online for shopping and for gifting. It helped us forecast. We furloughed some of the team because sales had died down and we wanted to try and protect the company and the team in the long run. We focused on the core essential need on what we can make work and what our customers wanted. They wanted this gifting aspect. We played into that.
Within another month, the whole team was back working full time. A few months later, we were hiring. It seems to have got grown from there. It's been a bit of a roller coaster. We've ended up having a successful year where we've managed to hone in on what our customers need. Gifting and sharing one thing has been a real focus for us and our customers. We enjoyed the fact that we're able to offer a gifting solution when all the shots have been shot and they want to send some gifts to loved ones.
It sounds like a full-on roller coaster. It must be hard to let go of stuff in that time as joyful as it must have been to be able to hire people later on as well.
Luckily, we didn't have to let go of anyone. We had a furlough scheme where it meant that people would not work but we would get government support to keep them paid. A lot of companies did that to make sure that they could protect the team in the long run by holding on to as many jobs as possible. We were lucky. We only had to use that for a couple of weeks while things were going a little bit crazy and everyone was buying toilet paper and not blankets. We managed to take all the team back on. We were lucky not to have to lose anyone at that time.
It's interesting that the toilet paper fiasco is worldwide. It’s the best thing that people can come to.
It's crazy.
Can you talk us through what the Tartan Blanket Co is?
We sell sustainably made woolen blankets and scarves. We work with our partners. In India, we work with partners who take all the landfill, wool, and textiles. We weave them into recyclable blankets. In Mongolia, we work with our partners who work with community farms that use traditional farming methods rather than machinery farming. It's much better for animal welfare. We work with them in all the processes right through from farming to weaving. We try and make it as sustainable as possible. We try and create modern designs. We work with different collaborators. We have an amazing in-house design team. We create lovely cashmere, lambswool, and recycled wool blankets and scarves.
How did you begin? When did you begin? Also, did you grow up in a family that was textiles-based? Were your parents in that home-wear space? How did your upbringing influence things? When did you decide to start? Is this a career that you've had and then you decided to create your own company or what?
My dad was a civil engineer. He was practical. He used to travel a lot and make sure that we had everything we needed. My mom was at home with three kids a lot of the time and trying to support the family a bit more. She went and also found her interior design habit because she loves interior design, which is probably where I got that love of textiles from. She used to look after children and also take students.
I set her up on Airbnb and we all laughed because she was like, “What am I going to do with myself?” She had one of the highest ratings of Airbnb in Edinburgh. Everyone loved her. She loves cooking and baking. She would design some houses that were always lovely decorated. She'd always had that entrepreneurial spirit. My sister has her own fitness business. My brother is a head chef over in Ireland. My mom is Irish. We have family over there. He’s the head chef of Gregans Castle. It's a big, old castle in Ireland. He has his own little farm right there as well with some pigs and chickens.
We've all gone down our own roads and they've been supportive in us taking risks and trying things that we love. That's how I ended up going down this direction. Originally, I had moved to London with Fergus. I've gone after my career in buying because I love fashion and I also love the business side. I wasn't the greatest designer artist. I went into buying and loved it. It’s that combination of working with suppliers, working with different textiles, and creating products that people would love. I love that.
We wanted to start a family and settle down. We wanted to move back to Edinburgh where we were both from. We were like, “We’ll move back home.” There wasn't anything in the buying or retail industry in Scotland. It's all based in London. We talked about it. My husband had a quilting business up in Edinburgh at the time. We said, “Why don't we start another business that we both love?” That was how we got into the Tartan Blanket Co. We love Tartan Blankets. Fergus is working in the quilt industry.
You hire a lot of mills and things that made this incredible blanket but I wanted to modernize them because they were traditional in the industry and I thought there's a real gap in the market there. When we moved back up, we started this business and got married. It was all in for a penny, in for a pound, and go for it. Luckily, it's worked out well.
There's so much in that. What a creative family you come from. Your business will probably help all of them. Does your mom have a lot of your blankets in her Airbnb?
Yes. She used to say, “Keep the cards on the side. I’ll have the blanket from the bed. We can sell them.” I'm like, “Okay.” She was supportive. She loves it. We went into Anthropologie in the UK. My mom is a massive Anthropologie fan. She saw the blankets in there and lights and stuff. That's where she gets all of her interior design stuff. That was a moment where she was like, “We should make it here.” That was nice.
Massive congratulations. Anthropologie is huge. It’s a massive world out there. You mentioned Fergus who’s your husband and business partner. You mentioned that you've started this as soon as you got married. What do you love about working with him? Also, can you talk us through what was it like at the start? Did you decide, “He's going to do this part? I'm going to do this part.” Did you let it happen organically? Do you have any advice for anyone who is reading who's like, “I would love to work with my partner but I have no idea of the pitfalls or the great stuff that could happen?”
It's hard. There are a lot of ups and downs. It's not like every day is a dream. Having a young kid within that made it a bit more challenging because your attention is divided and there's so much to juggle. I'm lucky that Fergus is supportive. We divide everything equally. The childcare, business, and everything are divided equally. It feels like we're in a partnership. That's important because you need to be able to balance everything equally. We're lucky that we've had good skills and complementary skills and that is huge. If you’ve got two people who love doing the same thing, you're going to always step on each other's toes and you're not going to be able to balance out the skills that you're missing.
Fergus is amazing at systems and logistics. He loves making things work effectively and efficiently, which is brilliant. I’m more on the creative side. I like working with our partners. With my buying background, I learned a lot about positive working relationships with partners and how to negotiate the pricing. Also, making sure that it's a win-win for both situations so that can be a long-term partnership, which makes it quite unique. In the buying industry, there's a lot of negativity around if you work with partners. I'm lucky to work for a company that focused on that part.
We have complementary skillsets, which meant that it allowed us to both focus on the areas that we were great at and bring them together to form this business. That has worked well. You’ve got to be clear on people's abilities from the outset and also help each other through the more challenging times. The business didn't flourish as much when we had the girls. We had twins, which is unexpected. We had to take some time where we focus on the family and try to keep the business running. In the past couple of years, the girls quite have gotten a little bit older. We've got our nanny to help and we've been able to both be the back in the business and help it grow, which has been brilliant.
Twins, a pandemic, and running your business together, anything else you want to throw in the mix?
Hopefully, not.
My parents are from Bray, which is outside of Dublin in Ireland. I grew up in the first part of my life in England and then came out here. We have these beautiful Tartan blankets from Ireland and England, mainly from Ireland, that were brought out to Australia. We have many memories with them, camping, and traveling.
When my parents both passed away and we were going through all this stuff, my siblings and I were getting quite emotional about the blankets because we're like, “There are so many memories in these blankets.” They’re beautiful. They last forever. You wanted to do it a bit more modern. With so many other blanket brands on the go, especially in your part of the world in Scotland, the UK, and Ireland, why did you decide to do blankets? What did you think you're going to be able to do differently?
What we saw was a lot of the traditional blankets. At the time, everyone was getting into designing and interiors. There wasn’t something that was fitting into that aesthetic. One day, I’m like, “There is a gap here.” At first, we were like, “This is the product we love.” Everyone needs a blanket, when a baby is born or when you wrap a loved one up in it. When someone's rescued, they're wrapped up in a blanket. My granddad used to be wrapped up in a blanket when he was old.
It's that comfort level where you want to keep loved ones warm and comfortable. It's that aspect of a blanket that we loved but we want it to be like, “It doesn't have to be that traditional work. It can be a combination. Also, we can make Tartan more modern. There's are so many different Tartans. We’ll make it a bit more modern.” That’s where the idea came from.
We started looking into different mills that we could work with. We looked into Scottish mills. What we've found was that in Scotland, we tried to trace it from the source. Where do they get the wool from? How was it woven? It’s important for us to understand the process and the sustainable aspect, which was becoming a bit popular but also important to make. Coming from a buying background, these things are all the aspects of how things are made and where they're bought from and how people are treated. I was keen that we weren't going to work with people in a negative way. We wanted to make sure it was a completely positive way of working together.
When we looked into the traditional mills, what we found was that the mill was bought from overseas. We'd ask for the treatability of it but it's hard to do that because the mill was often combined. In Scotland, the mill tends to be coarse because of the climate. A lot of Scottish mills need things like upholstery and carpets and things. You wouldn't find them as much in blankets. The mills were from overseas, from warmer climates like Australia, New Zealand, Mongolia, all over. They wouldn't be able to choose the buyer. Some of the farms might use machinery farming or things that weren't great for the animals. We weren't able to know where that will come from, which was important to us.
Once we learned the different types of mills and their limitations on what they could work with, we realized that there was a real opportunity to work directly with partners who knew where the wool was coming from like in India where it comes from landfills. It’s amazing that we’re cultivating something unwanted and creating waste. Also, in Mongolia, we've got family and friends that we’re partners with. They got their own family farming communities and farms around them. You can see the whole farming process.
That was important to us. We learned a lot about the industry. It took off on this journey, which ended up meeting partners, which might not feel as traditional. Our team is all based in Scotland. We've created this hub of creativity there. The retail industry in Scotland is small, like a head office. There are not many design jobs, buying jobs, merchandising jobs, or marketing and retail. Being able to create these jobs there was important to me because I wanted to do that. We've had that balance of the right partners that might not be in Scotland but also creating this industry in Scotland through the company being based there.
I love that it's come full circle. You're like, “Now, I'm creating jobs for people who were in the same position as me coming out of London.” I have my first son in London and I have a mother's group over there. Everyone moved out of the UK. A lot were from Europe. One of them was from Ireland and she was working for a big fashion retailer in London. When she went back, she’s like, “There’s nowhere to get a job.” It's amazing that you've been able to do that as well.
That was nice. I love being in Scotland. We love Edinburgh. It's nice that we get to stay here and do what we love and create jobs for other people to do what they love.
When you talked about the process of finding these partners and working with people where it's more sustainable and ethical, part of what attracted us to bring you onto the podcast was because we get pitched all the time. When I read you, I was like, “They're doing something a bit different.” You not only researched all of that but you now have this pledge that you have made to the planet as well as to people. What is that?
One part is getting them made and then the second part is like, “When we're working, how do we look after the planet? How do we give back?” Can you talk us through the nuts and bolts of making that reality rather than, “We'd like to give back. We'd like to do something for the planet.” How did you make it happen? Can you talk us through the pledge that you have?
For a long time, we've been working with different charities and donating at different times. That was good but it felt like we weren't being as consistent with it. Before the pandemic, we were like, “We need to make this pledge.” We decided that we're going to make a positive impact pledge. We want to be a positive impact company, which meant that we wanted to have a positive impact on every aspect of the business.
Part of that was that we wanted to make sure that giving back was integrated into the business. As we grew, giving back will grow with it. That's when we made the commitment that it’s 1% for our people and 1% for the planet. 1% of revenue goes to charities supporting people and 1% goes to charities supporting the planet. It's not about the profit, it's about the revenue, which is key. 1% of every purchase is going to give back. Having that integrated into the business felt like the best option because it doesn't mean that you constantly give back.
We also wanted to make sure that our positive impact goes out into everything else. We've focused on making our packaging as sustainable as possible and making sure that every aspect of our business like how we are as a partner is getting more and more sustainable. We’re applying for a B-Corp. I feel like we’re ready to do that. We want to make sure that we’re checking all boxes and thinking about every single aspect, which we already are. It's great to be involved in an organization focusing on that.
Also, it's been important to show the business that you can focus on people, the planet, and profit. As a business, we're profitable. It's important in the new age of businesses that you're able to show that when you start a business, people don't just start a business to give back. They also want to succeed and they want to have their own goals and their own journey. It's important to show that you can still be profitable and do good because that needs to be the future of businesses. It can't just be about the profit. It can feel like you're having to sacrifice profit if you focus on people and the planet. We're focused on ensuring that all three are possible at the same time.
That speaks to me so much. I put out a book and it’s called Passion Purpose Profit. It can have a passion and purpose but if there's no profit, you're going to burn out, or you're going to get resentful. Also, you're not going to have the time to put towards passion and purpose because you don't have any money. It's what you're saying about those things coming together.
I've realized how people get scared about giving back because of that profit aspect or the flip side as well. It's being able to show that it's possible. Yes, I'm proud that we were able to do that and continue to do that as we grow. Although profit is important as a business. The more we grow, the more we probably would give back if we're like, “We need to be profitable but we could be giving back more.” We want to make sure we get that balance right at all times.
What advice might you give to someone who is reading this and maybe has looked at your website and thought, “With a big team, that's fine for them to do that? I'm starting out. I'm trying to make ends meet.” Is there anything that you think they could do now or some small step that they might take to help in the direction of what you're able to do there?
That's the only thing that you can do. It's important to focus on what is the message that's important to you and your customers rather than trying to do everything. This was important for us. Doing this project, it was like, “What’s one thing can we do that gives back and gives that message to our customers?” If you can build it into your business, it means that you might only give a small amount to begin with because your business is small. That amount will grow as your business grows. That could be a good way of integrating it and not feeling that you're having to give a huge amount when you're still small.
Also, remember that the customer feels that they're getting that value. They feel when they're buying something, they're also giving back and it's a positive thing. They'll pay a bit more for that. It's about not being afraid to potentially increase your prices if you're adding that value to the customer and to society and making sure that it's about what you can make and lose. Also, there's an element of testing markets, growing, and your profit will come slightly later on. It’s a bit of a balance of both. You do need to make sure that you're able to survive and give as much as you think you can. Also, make sure that you're valuing your product and your services and that the customer sees that as value and not undervaluing yourself.
There’s so much good advice. Thank you. One thing that you mentioned is you look after the planet but also look after people. You do have quite a large team. I was looking at it on your website. From the website, it looks like there’s quite a chunky amount of people that work there. People management can be a challenging part of people running a business, particularly if maybe they've come to the business organically and it was just them and now they've got to manage people. Also, perhaps in their career before starting a business, they didn't manage anyone. How have you expanded? How do you create this amazing place that people want to work in and want to stay in even through challenging times?
Getting the right people can be the hardest part. It’s not like making sure that your margins are okay or your sales are okay. It's tricky to find the right people for you because the right people for you are not the same as the right people for someone else. What’s important is getting your culture right. We worked on our values and what was important to us as a company. When we look for people, we make sure they align with those values. Understanding that is important.
Also, we had about twelve people at the start and before the epidemic. Now, we’re nearly 40. It's been a huge growth, which has also been a challenge. Trying to find the right people during that time virtually has been a challenge. We've gotten a lot better at it and we've learned. The first few years, we had so many mistakes. One of the things I've learned is to go with your gut. If you feel like someone's not right, don't go there even if they've got the most amazing experience.
Also, value the culture, skills, and experience. Whenever we've gone with someone because they got great experience but we're not sure if they're going to fit with the company or the skills might not be as clear somewhere else, it's never been the right fit. There’s not a lot of people that we’ve had are people that have these amazing skillsets. They may be not utilizing them in the same way that you're looking for them to be used but you know that they can put them to that use.
We've taken a lot more chances because we believed in the pupil versus being like, “They tick that box. They've got that experience.” That's paid off so much. I always have to come back to that when I'm looking at people. I get overwhelmed by some just by singing and dancing but it’s not the right fit. Always go with your gut. That has been a massive lesson. If someone isn't the right fit, it's important to address that quickly, have this conversation. Try and get it to be the right fit.
At the end of the day, if it's not the right fit, you let it go on, which we’ve done a lot of times. It ends up being quite stressful both for you and them. If it's not the right fit, it's not going to be right for either party. They're better somewhere else that's a better fit for them and you're better to focus your time on finding someone right rather than constantly trying to get someone to fit when it isn't working. It's not about them being a bad person. It’s just business. The way that you work might not work for them. Trying to get the right people is important. It's a massive journey to figure out what people you need in the business. If you can figure that part out, it makes it a little bit easier.
It's true that it's two-sided. I'm sure no one wants to come to work when they know they don't fit either. Extending their time there to not have to confront things isn't good for anyone.
You think that you're making it easier and it's better for them. You end up with many sleepless nights or stressed trying to figure out how to make it work or getting frustrated. Sometimes you need to be like, “This is not working, unfortunately.” I always believe that they will find somewhere so much better fitting. Luckily, since we've managed to find out who they are, our team has grown and grown. We've not had that many people who haven't fit in because we've been clear on who we are as a business and our culture. We attract the right people and then we know who the right people are. That's made things a lot easier.
It’s important to look at those brand values and align with them. With your business, you talked about your background and your partner's background. You've got this creative family as well. Have you had any mentors or coaches or even a book that completely changed the game and helped to build this business?
Trying to learn how to be a leader has been quite a challenge but it’s such an important thing. Try to figure out what is great leadership and how you can motivate and guide your team without telling them what to do. They need to grow and learn so that you can pass on those responsibilities and trust them and guide the brand and the business. We're lucky to have an amazing team. People have grown with the business and flourished. It's been a journey.
We joined business groups. We've got a business coach who's amazing. He helps us address problems and self-reflect and become stronger and better leaders. The group helps us get different perspectives and see other people's challenges and realize that they're going through something similar or something we’ve been through. That makes it feel less alone.
The other thing is there are a few key books through the business groups. Jim Collins wrote a book called Good to Great and some other amazing books. They've got some classic ideas and perspectives about getting the right people on the bus. He was talking about that. It’s true. That never gets off. Simon Sinek’s book, Start With Why. Also, podcasts. I love How I Built This and The Diary of a CEO. They're good for getting other people's stories and perspectives and seeing where how you can grow and scale your businesses, which is exciting.
There are many good ones. I was talking to a client about Good to Great and she was like, “I'm rereading it. It's incredible. I'm learning all these things that I missed the first time.” In terms of technology tools, is there anything that you can't run this business without? What tech tools do you use in the business?
Fergus is the king of systems. He knows all the systems that do everything. We're lucky that he was focused on that. When everyone started working from home, we went virtual. It was easy because everything was on a couple of systems already. One of the key systems that he introduced that has helped us is ClickUp. It’s a little bit like Trello if you ever use that. It enables us to manage projects across different departments. You can allocate people, dates, and have subtasks. There are loads of different things integrated into that. That has been a powerful business to offer us as a growing team. I recommend that.
You've had this business for a little while. What are you most proud of from your journey with The Tartan Blanket Co?
Probably the biggest thing is the team we now have. Getting the right people is such a challenge. Now that we have this amazing team, I'm seeing people grow and flourish in their roles and being able to lead the brand and take the brand somewhere that I can never do. I'm not the best designer or the best person at marketing or any of these things. I love pulling all these aspects together and being able to create this amazing brand and amazing team. They are the ones who are driving the business and the brand for it. Seeing our team flourish is amazing. That's the proudest moment for me personally.
Also, for your children, to be able to see their parents working on something is amazing and you never know what role model they're going to see in you and this business as well. Congratulations on doing that.
Thank you. Having three girls, I feel a slight weight on making sure that they see what mom's role is in the business and what's possible for them. Even when I grew up, it wasn’t that way so much. I feel that responsibility but also the pride of being able to do that for them.
It’s huge. I love learning about this. I love blankets. I'm going to go and check them out more. Where can people connect with you and also see your amazing blankets? If they wanted to connect with you personally, if they wanted to say, “Emma, this resonated with me,” is it Instagram? Where do you hang out?
Our biggest community is on Instagram. We've got @TartanBlanketCo. Also, I'm @Emma_TartanBlanketCo. You can reach out there. We have quite a big Australian market as well, a big growing market there, which is amazing. You can shop online. We've got an Australian part of the website. I do want to mention that we do fast shipping. All of our shipping takes only a few days. I don't want anyone to be put off that we're far away because we've got such amazing courier partners that allow us to send overseas. Everything's personalized in Scotland, we can do embroidery and personalization there and then build gift boxes that can be sent all over the world.
What's next for the brand?
I don't know. There are many things going on at the moment, which is exciting. We're seeing a lot of growth from our overseas market. Australia and the US are probably our two biggest markets that are growing at the moment, which is exciting. We launched into Anthropologie. We're in Liberty London. We've got some exciting partnerships and collaborations coming up and design collaborations. We launched Pet Blankets. It's been amazing. There are lots of exciting avenues. Who knows?
It sounds like it. I'm going to be sneaky and add one more question at the end. I know that people reading will be like, “How did that happen?” I'm wondering if you could briefly go through how did you get into Liberty. If anyone hasn't been to London, Liberty is a complete institution there. To get into Liberty is no mean feat and likewise with Anthropologie. Was it a long process? Were you pitching them? Did they come to you? I know there'll be people reading that think, “I'd love to get into X, Y, Zed.” Any tips or insights you have on there? You don't have to give us all your IP. How did that happen for you?
When we were smaller, it used to be like, “How do these people do this? What is the secret?” In a way, there isn't a secret. With Liberty, if you’ve ever gone to London, it was our first physical space because we've always been online. We didn't expect too much from it. We met some great people but it wasn't a massive sales opportunity. It was good to meet people and network. We did create some new partnerships.
A few weeks later, we got contacted by Liberty. They had seen us there. We had no idea that we would be on the stand. That was a little bit out of the blue. We didn't know exactly how we managed the opportunity that we had. They almost find you in that situation. With Anthropologie, we've been lucky to grow our full sales department. One of the team got an amazing background and she went out. She’s been reaching out to some amazing partners. She reached out to Anthropologie and managed to build that relationship.
Both sides work, the persistence of going out there and putting yourself out there. Also, showing up at these events like trade fairs and things like that and having a presence. Even though they've gone virtual, we focused on the virtual ones and try to make that an exciting experience as possible. We'll start going back to physical. Don't be put off when you feel like, “I didn't convert that much at the fair.” You don't know what impact you had in the long run. Sometimes it's the small little meetings that can lead to much bigger things.
Thank you so much. I always work with clients and we talk about pitching. Sometimes people get overwhelmed and you're like, “It could work. Imagine if it works.” If you go and do these trade shows, you’ll never know who's going to show up. Put yourselves out there. It's all possible. Sometimes from the outside, it seems big. Imagine being in there or imagine having this many clients or whatever the objective is. It's nice to hear from people saying, “It didn't take seven years to get there. This and this happened and it happened.” They're normal people like everyone else.
Sometimes you get rejected. We've been turned down by some people. One of the biggest things is to ask for feedback because you can go back and you can do it again a year later. You can take all that feedback on board and it’ll help you so much to grow. It might be how you photograph your products. You don't know what they're looking for. Any feedback you can get along the journey, take it positively. It's not necessarily a lot of permanent rejection. It's them saying it's not right for now. You've got this massive opportunity to work with their feedback.
I could not agree more. Thank you so much for your time and for all the insights and tips that you've shared. I hope that everyone who's reading will go on over and check out The Tartan Blanket Co. Thank you so much again for getting up early. I hope you have a great rest of the day.
Thank you, too. It's been lovely to chat. Thanks for having me.
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What a wonderful woman. There are many ideas and inspirations. I don't sound cliché but many things are possible. I know how often I hear people saying, “There are a million other people doing what I'm doing. There are a million companies that already do what I do.” I remember saying to a friend of mine who was struggling with that comparison and worrying. I remember saying, “Look how many Irish pubs are out there. There's always room for another. Look how many cafes.”
Melbourne being the coffee capital, we still have new cafes that open all the time and people find the right one for them. What The Tartan Blanket Co are doing, the way that they're pledging with their sustainability factor, the way they're modernizing Tartan, they're saying, “We are here. We are a bit different for those people that want that.” I love that story. Thank you, Emma, for coming on to the podcast.
I would love to know what stood out for you. Please send me a DM. I'm @MyDailyBusinessCoach on Instagram. Many things stood out. Many things were interesting from that conversation. Two that I wanted to bring up is, one, the idea that they went from 12 to 40 staff during a pandemic is huge. Also, they're invested, Emma, Fergus, and the rest of the team in creating a culture and creating a place that people want to be part of.
There's all this talk of the great resignation in the US and some statistics around 76% of people don't enjoy the career that they've chosen, and all these things that come up about people leaving their jobs and people wanting more purpose and meaning. I love that The Tartan Blanket Co is honing in on that and creating that from the get-go.
I loved everything that Emma talked about in terms of looking at people's values. Whenever I work with people on hiring, we look at what are the competencies that you want people to have not just the skills. Also, what are the values that you want them to bring into the business? Often, you can have somebody who looks perfect on paper, has the right skills, and they're not on board, they don't have the same values. That's key.
The other thing that stood out was the pledge, the fact that it's not just something that we're going to talk about lightly. We're going to pledge to do these. How can we do this? Let's get curious about that. Often, we go through life, create these businesses, and think, “Maybe I'll take a percentage and give it back. Maybe I'll do this or maybe I'll do that.” We can easily get caught up in the day-to-day.
Right from the start, I love that they wanted to build a business that gives back to the planet and helps people who come through as customers and clients to also give back. I love that idea. That's why I called my book Passion Purpose Profit. There has to be a purpose behind any business to make it long-term and successful in my eyes at least.
I loved hearing from Emma. I'm sure that Emma would love to hear from you. If you're not already following them, you can find The Tartan Blanket CO at TartanBlanketCo.com. Over on Instagram, it's the same, @TartanBlanketCo. You'll be able to find that at MyDailyBusinessCoach.com/podcast/150. You'll also find a link to the book. Passion Purpose Profit makes a good gift idea.
Please get in touch if you want to buy it from a small business owner in Melbourne anyone that’s signed because I will be doing a bit of the rounds and happy to go in and sign a copy for you. If you want to buy it from them, send me a DM, tell me who you're thinking of buying it from, and I'll connect with them and go in and sign your copy.
That is it from me. If you are new around here, please make sure you hit subscribe so you don't miss out on any future episodes including these interview ones, my longer coaching ones where I dive into one element of business in detail, and The Quick Tip Tuesday's. Those episodes are usually ten minutes or less and give you a tip, tool, or tactic that you can implement immediately. Thank you so much for reading. I'll see you next time.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach.
