You know sometimes you have ideas, and sometimes you're ahead and people aren't ready for your idea yet. And it doesn't mean that if you put your idea out there and it doesn't get traction, that it's a bad idea, it just means that it's not the right time for your idea. So either you persevere or you say, I'm going to put this in my back pocket and I'm going to pull it back out when it's time, when I think it's time.
Do you consider yourself resilient? And what does that even mean to you? In this podcast, Resilient Entrepreneurs with Two Four One, we chat with business owners about what resilience means to them, and we go deep.
What we've learned running our own business, is you are never alone, even when it feels like it. So tune in anytime to this podcast. We're always here for you, celebrating resilient entrepreneurs, just like you. We're Laura and Vicki from Two Four One, a marketing company for early stage business owners who wants to launch, grow, and be resilient.
Welcome to our guest this evening is Michelle Vieira, who's a longtime friend of mine and I'm very excited to have you on the podcast with us today. Michelle is an entrepreneur and has been a serious one she says for the last 15 years, although she's going to tell us a story a little bit later about perhaps when she really started out as an entrepreneur, I totally understand that because I was like 10 with my first gig!
Michelle is a partner in a retail company called Soltrino. It is a sun protection business that specialises in tents, and fabulous sun shirts, and swimsuits and hats and all kinds of gorgeous things for the summer, and she is also the owner of Fluid Fitness, which is a water aerobics training class. So Michelle, welcome and thanks for being here today.
Yes, thank you for inviting me, I feel like, one of the things that you asked me in a preliminary questionnaire was, what are some achievements of yours, and I would say this, this tops the achievement list, you know, to be asked to do an interview as a business person, I just think that's just amazing. So thank you for having me on.
It's our pleasure. It's absolutely our pleasure. And you, in our view and in our mind are very much a resilient entrepreneur and so it's great to be together. So we usually like to start with a bit of an icebreaker Michelle, can you share with us what was your first job? And how old were you?
Okay, so I would actually say my first ever job that I was paid to do, hired by someone was, I was babysitting at the local gym while the moms went to the workout class. And I was the 14 year old babysitter, you know, in the room playing with two and three year olds, that would be the first paid job I had. But I've been an entrepreneur since maybe age 9 or 10. It started off with finding a very cool rock and I decided that I'm going to start painting rocks. And so I would paint pet rocks and sell them! And then it went from selling rocks to having lemonade stands and a babysitting club, and then I think the best one was my little brother, dressing him up as the Statue of Liberty and making him stand outside of our cul-de-sac panhandling for money!!
That is priceless!
Yeah. I've been a business person for quite a while!
Do you know a lot of our members and people listening to this podcast are in the early stages of their business, so can you take us back to what it was really like when you really got into business and realised this is what you're doing? This is your career? And what were those first few months like?
Well of course I never set out to be a business person. The goal after college was always to work for someone else and so when I decided to start my own business, it was very, you know, I was stepping into uncharted territory. And so there was a lot of well I would say, ideas, but I'm not one to dwell on planning too much. So if I have an idea I just pretty much jump in with both feet and then I learn along the way. I would say taking those first steps to promoting myself was very nerve wracking because I didn't know how people would, the perception would be of me teaching, say water aerobics, it's that, what do they call it? Where you feel like you're an imposter, so it's that fear of being looked at like, Oh does she know what she's doing? So that in the back of your head would make anyone nervous. So I would say just starting off, I took one step at a time, and I tried to perfect one thing as opposed to taking on many things. And I would say that was how I handled starting off in business, taking one idea and then building upon that idea.
Yeah, that's, that's amazing. I think that's a really smart way to do it. So did you start right with the water aerobics? Is that your first full time entrepreneurial start, business?
Yes it was. So I had no intention of ever teaching water aerobics. One of my girlfriends had a class that she taught in the evenings and asked me to teach and so it was just helping her out. As time went on and I started having children and I needed to find that work-life balance, someone had mentioned to me that the new pool, the National Sports Centre Pool, they just built it, and said I'm sure they're looking for activities and programmes at the pool, and so I thought, Well, why not? Let me see if I can start something. And then that was really what started Fluid Fitness, I think I called it something else at the beginning but basically that was my first step into starting a business. And it wasn't even, it wasn't that I had this grand plan, what I was working towards, I was thinking, Okay I'm just gonna take some fitness classes and see how it goes.
Yeah, like a little side hustle, it just started out like that.
Yeah because my main job was taking care of three babies. So this was a side hustle.
Yeah I don't know how you've done it. Michelle has three boys, they're now 10, 14 and 15 and you spent a lot of years homeschooling them too. So you have been juggling that work-life balance for a long time. Any tips on how you made that work?
Well this is probably one example of, I mean we all do it, where you sacrifice some things in order to get other things accomplished, and there were many times where I would shut myself in a room and work. And you know, I don't think that was always the best way but at the same time, I was trying to accomplish a goal and have something of my own at the same time taking care of three children. So there was a lot of sacrifice, you know I did a lot of sacrificing and sometimes I sacrificed doing things with the kids. Looking back on it now could I have changed it? Yeah, definitely. So there's always a learning process.
Absolutely there is. And we can't change what was the past, we can only take the lessons from the past and apply them to the future and we still have lots of time to do that. One of the questions we do like to ask people is, if you were to jump in a time capsule, and go back, I don't know, 15 years, 20 years? What would you have told your younger self? Whether it's about business or life? Is there anything in there?
Yeah I would have told myself, don't block off an idea, take opportunities when they arise, learn whatever you can, because you don't know when that will be useful. So always try to absorb as much as you can, even if you don't think that you'll ever use it, and there may be a time that you will use it, and there'll probably be times where you, well you learned it, so it doesn't hurt but you're not using that skill. But I always think there were times where I could have taken an opportunity and didn't and so that's what I would tell my younger self is, just if the opportunity arises jump in with both feet and learn that skill or educate yourself.
It sounds like there might be a story there Michelle, is there something that, an example that you can remember that you'd like to share?
Well, yeah so in college I had a girlfriend who suggested that I should teach water aerobics with her at the YMCA! And my initial response, because I was someone who went to the gym and I was a runner and I was like, Don't old women do that? I'm not going to teach that, that's not a cool workout. And here I am teaching water aerobics, but I love it and I love what it does for people and had I not said 'no' to that opportunity that was presented to me, I could have many more years underneath my belt and more experience, and also just that knowledge.
Ha, I wonder what your girlfriend would say now?
I think she's still teaching water aerobics too.
She'd have said told you so told you. Told you it was cool!
Exactly. Look at what you're doing now.
We want to talk about your retail business Michelle, that has gone leaps and bounds. Right at the beginning of the pandemic you were ready to, I recall, you were ready to say, this is it, and I don't even think it was pandemic related was it, the business itself was at a brink of closure. Tell us a bit about the story, it's fascinating.
So Soltrino actually was born because of Fluid Fitness. I was teaching throughout the day, so lunchtime in September, October and I was getting burnt to a crisp and I noticed a lot of my participants were also burning, and they weren't set up for being out in the middle of the day, with the white tile reflecting the sunlight. And so someone who was coming to my class had melanoma and she said, You know, I'm really worried about you and I think you should start covering up. So I looked into it, I found a company that I wanted to order from and I thought, well, I should also invite my group to order and we'll just send it in all at once. Well, of course, everybody jumped on it and so the idea kind of clicked and like, Okay, wait a minute, if everybody's interested in having this stuff, maybe there are more people out there who want to cover up and who are concerned about their skin health, safety. So I started, along with my business partner Linda Cook and we decided, as moms of young children that, we didn't enjoy going into town with our three kids or her two kids and what was an easy way to shop when you have children? And so our solution was to have an online store.
Well, you know, we set it all up, we did all of our purchasing, we got the website beautifully done I mean, we even did the website, we worked really hard on it and it was hitting that that button - that publish button - we were like, oh my gosh, are we ready for this? And it was I could feel myself sweating as you're hitting a button on a computer, I'm sure you know what that means?
Oh, yeah, very, very familiar.
Yeah. So we went for it and we were using a lot of advice from business advisors and one thing that stuck out is, and I'm not gonna mention names, but this person said, Oh, it will never work in Bermuda people have tried it, and you're going to fail within a year. Well, didn't that just drive me to say, Oh, I'll show you! So fast forward a couple of years down the road, we were really struggling to get people online, we found that so many people wanted to be shopping in a store, feeling the product, making sure it fit before they bought it, and so we were juggling with this, do we go into a store but then have to raise our prices because not only do you have the rent, the electricity, the land tax, the sewage bill, you have an employee, you have to pay them, all of these costs add up and then you understand why prices in Bermuda are much higher. And so we thought, well, are we going to struggle with people shopping online or are we going to struggle with people going, Oh, that's too expensive I'm gonna go shop away. And so we just hit this point where, it was 2019 and I said to Linda, let's just wrap it up, we're not finding success in this, let's just liquidate. And then March, April, everything shut down and I was sitting there and I thought this would be a really good time to try to revive Soltrino and so I threw it out to Linda and I said, Look I know we said we were going to shut it down but everyone is stuck on the island, summer is coming up, let's do a pre-order. Let's tell people that okay you can go to our vendors websites, you can pick out exactly what you want in the size you want and then we know that we're going to sell those things because they've picked those items out themselves. And so that really just turned us around. And so then we became more excited about re-marketing ourselves and it really sent us in the other direction and we're so grateful for it because so many people had such a different experience than we did.
Yeah, you were definitely so far ahead of other people because when everything did shut down and all of a sudden retail stores were closed, most retailers were not ready for online shopping. You know some had barely a social media page and big retailers, not even small mom and pop shops, it's big retailers were just not ready for it and they were scrambling, and here you were with your website ready and all you had to do was just let people know you were open for business and it's amazing. I think that's a really cool story because a lot of stores did close, a lot of businesses did suffer, and you were able to thrive through the pandemic. And your timing was just spectacular.
I couldn't believe it, I mean you couldn't have written a better timeline. But one of those lessons I think that we learned was that sometimes you have ideas, and sometimes you're ahead and people aren't ready for your idea yet and it doesn't mean that if you put your idea out there and it doesn't get traction, that it's a bad idea, it just means that it's not the right time for your idea. So, you know either you persevere or you say I'm going to put this in my back pocket and I'm going to pull it back out when it's time when I think it's time. So that was that was a lesson for us was definitely, you know, if you have an idea just go for it and then if people aren't ready for your idea, then either keep chugging along or put it in the back pocket.
Michelle, aside from the timing of the pandemic it sounds like it's really a marketing success story as well, because you're really pushed your marketing at that point and that's, from the sound of it what pivoted your business into success, yes?
Yes. I think because we became excited about our business again it was easy to promote it. Back in the very beginning of Soltrino we promoted, we promoted, we spent a lot of time doing pop-ups and going to, where someone else hosts, vendors, we were doing a lot of that and it was tiring and when you don't get the reaction that you want then you think, oh it's not working. So yeah, that really motivated us to keep it up.
And tell us where you are now, you're doing pop-ups, you're going great guns, you're bringing in different products.
So we had a month-long pop-up in the Washington Mall which was so much fun and it surprised me actually how many people follow us on social media. Again, you know not everybody shops online so I got to meet so many people that said, Oh, I follow you, I've been a follower since you started and I'm so happy that you're you're doing in-store, you're doing brick and mortar and so you have two camps, you have people who like to try on and feel the fabric and see what they're buying before they buy it, and then you have people who are, just bring it to me I'll order online I'll make this super easy. So yeah there's two camps and you have to appease both when you're in business, it's not just your idea of who it should be, you have to make sure that you're covering all bases.
And I think it's easier for people to order online in the future once they have seen it in person, they know their size fits right, they've felt the material, so it definitely works well together.
And that's what happened after we closed the pop-up I got a lot more orders from people who had stopped in the store and so I think once they knew what the quality of product we were bringing in they were like Okay now I know what they have and that it's good quality.
So guys, just wanting to tap into whether there's any big plans for the future, a slightly new strategy. Can you open the lid on that for us?
Yeah, so I think I've convinced Linda that this needs to be a permanent thing so I believe probably next spring, we'll start, hopefully we'll find a place that we can rent and we will hopefully have a brick and mortar store. So we're bringing in new brands, as Laura mentioned, and we are expanding what we're bringing in, so now we have these awesome UPF tents that are so easy to put up. I went to the beach with my son the other week and watched these two ladies just struggle with this tent and we had already put up our Nesso tent so we were just watching them, you know sitting back. And so when it was time for us to leave and they had finally sat down, I just took the poles out and I folded it up and I'm like, see you later!
It sounds so mean! Sitting there sipping cocktails and they're taking an hour to put up their tent! It sounds like a really funny and a little bit cruel TV ad! That's fun. But that's really exciting, you heard it first here guys, that there could well be a bricks and mortar version of Soltrino, very exciting. So that's growth. What would you say about the secret to growing your business? Because it seems that it's a bit of a bumble in some ways, you kind of do things, you try it out, it comes back, you expand, I think that's what entrepreneurship really is.
Yeah I think what you have to do is you have to keep trying different ideas I think. My father is an airline pilot and I kind of look at business like an airport. So we know the word standby. Standby has been part of my vocabulary since I was little and if your goal is to get from point A to point B as a passenger, then what happens when you don't get on the flight? Well then you have to have Plan B and if Plan B doesn't work well then Okay, so let's do connecting flights, or lets, you go - so we were old enough at one point to say, you go through Detroit I'm gonna go through Atlanta and we'll meet in New York. The way I was brought up is you always have to have flexibility in your planning and I think with running a business you have to have that same flexibility. You have to know when something's working when you need to tweak something, if something doesn't go as planned, okay what's your back pocket plan? Maybe it's time to pull up that idea you had that didn't work two years ago but now's the time that you can use that plan. I think that's a huge, that's a big part of running a successful business is that you're willing to try different plans, when something doesn't work then you move on to something else.
Yeah, that agility, agility is really key isn't it, being able to pivot, when things happen like pandemics or whatever could potentially be next, right? So it is really important to have that in your back pocket. And what for you is the best part about being an entrepreneur, what lights you up about being an entrepreneur?
I love the creativity, I love just shooting out ideas and especially when I'm on my walk or my run and ideas are just flowing, and you're like, Okay I gotta try that, I love being in charge of my own thing and I love when I don't have to get approval for an idea. Okay I'm going to try this, it may work, it may not work, I love that. Also with my water aerobics business what I really love and one thing that I missed when I was working for someone is, is that connection to people or making a difference in the community. For me that's a huge thing. If I don't make a difference, or if I don't feel like I'm making a difference to someone, or if I'm not helping someone out, to me what's the point? I feel like if you have a platform then you need to use it and you need to do good things with it.
Oh wow. I love that impact. You're an impact-driven entrepreneur and that, to me is just so beautiful yeah, I love that. One question we always love to ask is what does resilience mean to you? Resilience can mean a lot of different things to different people but this podcast is really about entrepreneurs who have become resilient and just by being in business for 15 years definitely proves how resilient you have had to have been to survive that long, because a lot of people don't survive that long in entrepreneurship but Vicki and I are on a mission to make sure that every entrepreneur does not quit! And so what does that mean to you to be resilient?
Well I think it's just that. You have to get up when you get knocked down. You have to have that plan A, plan B, plan C, and you have to ask yourself, and this is one thing that I did when I homeschooled my children, I said to one of my homeschooling friends, how, how are you not throwing your kids back in school? Because, you know you have those ups and downs through everything, including business, but what I can relate from homeschooling my kids, she said to me, you have to ask yourself Why did you do it in the first place? And when I ask myself that, when I start anything now, I say if I'm feeling like, oh the world's just getting too heavy on my shoulders, or I feel oh I gotta quit this - I'm not a quitter by the way - but when I feel that way I have to ask myself, What got you, what made you make this decision in the first place? Why did you start this? And then if you can go back to that initial reason, why did you start this, then it seems to validate everything for you.
Because I'm not a quitter, my parents sometimes say that I'm too loyal sometimes and it's because I don't like to see something I've worked at just fall to pieces, to me that sad, when you work so hard at something and then you just let it go, all those hours that you put into something that meant something to you at one time and then to give it up, that keeps me going even when I am down in the dumps and I'm thinking, Oh it's not worth it anymore, I have to say Now pick yourself back up, you're doing this because A, B and C.
Yeah, tap into your why, right, and it helps. It helps to be very persistent as well and that sounds like that's definitely one of your strong qualities is persistence.
I don't know if my husband would say the same!
Well thanks Michelle, this has been so insightful and I really think that our listeners will get a lot of juicy nuggets of motivation and inspiration. It's wonderful to hear your journey, your story, your insights, how do you keep going? How do you grow? And that's what this this podcast is all about so thank you for your time and for honouring us with your energy.
Well thank you, this was so much fun and I thank you for having me on.
Thank you, Michelle and I'm definitely going to always remember the standby analogy that you gave, just always be on standby and be able to shift and move on a different flight, a different plane, a different path, whatever you need to do to get through.
And the end is the same thing, you just got there differently.
Yeah, that's it. That's it. That's awesome. Oh, thank you so much.
Thank you.
So thanks for joining us on Resilient Entrepreneurs, we are Laura and Vicki from Two Four One. We love supporting entrepreneurs especially with mindset, marketing and motivation, which is why we've built an incredible community of business founders who meet weekly in the Level-Up League. If you'd like to know more about it look us up at www.twofouronebranding.com
