012: Building A Scalable E-Commerce Business, Developing A Niche Product, & Intuition with Jacob Soto And Natalie Rogers

Today we’re joined by husband and wife duo Natalie Rogers and Jacob Soto: the founders of the viral fashion brand, Klassy Network.   Klassy Network is a solution-based clothing brand focused on bringing comfort and style together by designing classic necklines and fashionable staples with their signature built-in padding. Their inclusive range of brami (bra + cami) tops provide stylish solutions so that you can have full coverage and support, without any bra lines.   In this episode, we chat about how they started a multi-million dollar fashion brand featured in Buzzfeed, InStyle Magazine, and more, as well as how they balance their business and personal lives.   If you’re a current or aspiring entrepreneur, you’re going to LOVE this conversation with Natalie and Jacob that’s raw, real, and inspiring. They’ve proven that if you can dream it, you can do it!  

Natalie and Jacob’s Humble Beginning

Natalie and Jacob met when they were fifteen years old while coaching a youth soccer team. From there, they started their first business when they were eighteen and nineteen, teaching kids how to play soccer. This experience ignited a passion for entrepreneurship, and when Natalie found herself wanting to experiment with selling blue-light blocking glasses, they decided to take a leap and start their own fashion brand in their early 20’s.   Since then, Klassy has pivoted from selling fashionable eyewear to providing stylish clothing with their signature built-in padding.   Running a business together can be a difficult endeavor, but Natalie and Jacob have found a way to make it work. They both bring different strengths to the table, with Natalie having a knack for knowing what products women would want and Jacob’s expertise in online marketing and Facebook ads. Their success is a testament to their dedication and hard work!  

Trust Your Intuition

One of the biggest lessons this power couple has learned since starting Klassy Network is to trust your intuition when designing, marketing, and selling a product.   Years ago, Natalie had an idea for their now-viral brami tops and felt that it could be successful, but she was unsure of how to bring it to life. Jacob trusted Natalie’s intuition and encouraged her to take action, making two TikToks of their prototype to test the market.   The next day, the videos had 1.5 MILLION  views, proving that Natalie’s intuition was correct!   Since then, in just 5 years Natalie and Jacob went from shipping products from their garage to now shipping them in a 40,000 square foot warehouse.   Due to trusting their intuition and taking risks, they learned the ropes of the e-commerce space, scaled their business, and have even experienced their biggest sales day ever: $1  million dollars in ONE day.    This story is a reminder that trusting in your intuition is an ESSENTIAL part of business. All of us have an inner voice that guides us and helps us make decisions, and it’s there for a reason!  

Find Work/Life Balance

In addition to trusting their intuition, Natalie and Jacob have learned to set boundaries with their work and prioritize their relationship.    Some ways they do this are:

• Turning their phones off at night
• Having regular date nights
• Taking time to talk and connect at the end of each day
• Staying active and working out together

  If you work with your spouse, it’s important to remember that we CAN be successful AND have a balanced life. As entrepreneurs, we create our own schedule and it’s important to take breaks, make time for each other,and find creative outlets we enjoy in order to be successful.    To hear more about working with your spouse, watch Episode 12: The Real Truth About Working With Your Spouse on Youtube!  

Trust + Support Each Other to Succeed

Something we loved hearing Natalie and Jacob speak about in our conversation was how they work with their families and each other to build their business.   Natalie’s dad manages the Klassy Network warehouse, her mom is a fashion designer on their team, and Jacob and Natalie’s sisters both work in the Klassy office. Because they have built a family business, their family members understand their world and can be there when things (inevitably) get difficult.   Natalie and Jacob are also each other’s rock, pushing each other to succeed and motivating each other when times are hard.   Of course, trust is essential in any relationship, whether it be with family, friends, romantic or business partners. Trust in each other, combined with their strong support system, is one of the biggest reasons why Natalie and Jacob are successful!   Connect with Natalie and Jacob If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out Klassy Network on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/klassynetwork or shop online at https://www.klassyshop.com.    Thanks to Creator Source for Sponsoring This Episode Are you creating content on social media that your followers LOVE, but don’t know where to start when it comes to monetizing it?   Creator Source builds each creator a custom game plan with tools and strategies to create consistent income through brand deals.   Their platform has everything you need to monetize, including a Media Kit that helps you stand out, a Rate Calculator that teaches you how to price yourself for any brand deal, trainings, templates, a contact database for you to find the contacts at the brands you love, and SO much more.   Most creators are full-time professionals, full-time parents, or both, like us. So Creator Source is designed to be easy to use and to help you grow at your own pace.   We have LOVED using the Creator Source tools to explore our monetization options. Erika wishes she had had this when she first started out as a creator, which is why we’re so excited to share it with Trust Issues listeners! To get access to the Creator Source tools, invest in yourself at https://www.getcreatorsource.com/trustissues.