Why shop owners, not influencers, build lasting brand trust. Kate Assaraf of Dip on honest marketing, small retail partners, and protecting what you build. For small brand owners and product founders.
GROWTH PILLAR: Marketing & Branding
WHO THIS IS FOR: SMB owners / Solopreneurs / Corporate escapees / Leaders building systems
WHAT THEY'LL GAIN: Plain lessons on honest marketing, working with small retailers, shipping and packaging smart, and keeping control of your formulas.
Most brands think influencers build trust. They don't. Dupe a customer once or twice, and they're gone for good.
Kate Assaraf is the founder and CEO of Dip, a plastic-free hair care brand that grew to seven figures without Amazon or paid ads. In this conversation, Kate shares the brand mistakes she sees most often, from half-truth marketing to fast-buy websites. She explains how honest marketing builds trust, and why small refill shops carry that message better than ads can. She talks about packaging, from plastic-free bars to shipping boxes sized so no air gets shipped. She also tells how her contract manufacturer going bankrupt led her to build her own factory and protect her formulas. This episode is for small business owners and product founders who want to grow on trust, not tricks.
Key topics covered:
Guest links:
Supporting persons mentioned: Deanna of Good Bottle Refill Shop (the first shop to carry Dip), Herb Mitchell (Kate's business mentor), and Marilla (Rochester and Geneva, New York, home of the local-only lilac bar).
— PARTNERS ON THIS EPISODE —
Next Steps
Bernie (00:24)
Question to the audience. What if every dollar you spend is either saving your community or quietly killing it? That's not a guilt trip. That's just how it works. Today we we sit down with a founder who built a seven-figure brand by betting on Main Street, and she's going to show you exactly what that looks like in practice. Kate Assaraf is the founder of CEO of Dip.
A hair care company that is rewriting the rules on what beauty can look like. After years inside the beauty industry, Kate got tired of watching brands greenwash their message and leave real women out of the story. So she built something different. Dip makes salon quality shampoo, conditioner bars, plastic free, travel ready, and built to last.
But here's what sets Kate apart. She does not push her products through Amazon or big box stores. Instead, she funnels customers directly to small, woman-owned refill shops across the country. She's funded store build outs. She has created scents that are only available locally. She's turned her brand into a lifeline for Main Street. Named NJ Mompreneur of the Year.
She's a Forbes Business Council member and earned Oprah's 2025 number one pick for curly hair. She's also been featured in Allure, Vogue, and mindbodygreen. Kate's also a mum, a builder, and proof that doing things right and doing things well are not mutually exclusive. Find her at dipalready.com at spelt DIP, the word already dot com on Instagram and TikTok at
@dipalready and connect with her on LinkedIn at Kate Assaraf. That's K-A-T-E, A-S-S-A-R-A-F. Kate, absolute pleasure having you here. Welcome. How are you doing today?
Kate (02:06)
man, I'm doing so great today. Thank you for asking. How are you doing?
Bernie (02:10)
It's it's a fantastic day. You know, always on the right side of the lawn's always a fantastic day. It's just you know, just a just a minor thing. Do you have a favorite quote or saying?
Kate (02:18)
Do I have a favorite quote or saying? I think probably it would be, who better than you? my mom used to say that to me when I, you know, when you sit around as a kid or a teenager and you're like, someone should do this or someone should do that. My mom would always say, Who better than you? And I have always loved that and I've passed that on to my own children. I love this idea of just not complaining about something, like putting, you know, putting your shoes on and going after it.
Bernie (02:41)
So this whole industry about the the beauty industry, you know if from an outsider looking in and if you're unaware of you know what's behind the thing, it's all about, you know, looking better or good or enhancing what you have, I guess is might be the better way to You s you saw there's a need for change. What w what was the trigger? What was the stimulus for that?
Kate (03:01)
Well, for me personally with Dip, I I had been in the beauty industry for about twenty years and I knew that plastic free could be done really well. And my frustration actually came from trying bar after bar in in the effort to do better for the planet, but only to get disappointed by the products and kind of feeling duped by the marketing. It's like there's no way these things have five star reviews. There's no way. You know? and so I I Dip was built basically out of frustration because I was
I think you can only dupe a customer once or twice or maybe if you're lucky, five times on sustainability before they're just like, I don't want any part of it anymore. I'm tired of spending more to get less.
Bernie (03:40)
So when you're coming up with products, what was the first product that you that triggered Nicola, uhha, here we go. Was it was it soap, was it shampoo, what?
Kate (03:48)
It's the conditioner bar. For me, I I have long hair. I've always taken care of it. It's my one indulgence is was expensive conditioner. And expensive conditioner, if you have especially if you have curly hair or long hair, I mean you glob it into your hand and because it's in liquid format many times, a lot of it that you know runs off your hair and down the drain. So there's a lot of waste, even if you're using it properly. And again, it comes in glossy plastic bottles.
And fast to consume bottles at that, and they're priced more expensively. So for me, I wanted a conditioner bar that would have that same performance as some of the really high end brands that you find in salons and in Sephora, but also I wanted it to be so good and save someone so much money that the plastic free part wasn't really part of the story. and so in particular, our conditioner has so much slip that it can detangle my hair after surfing.
or after swimming. and it can also, replace a full year's worth of conditioner for me. So that thirty two dollar bar I sell saves me personally five hundred dollars in very expensive conditioner. And the plastic, the twelve plastic tubes.
Bernie (04:55)
So how do you come up with a recipe for this? Is this something that you formulated? Is there
And obviously you have more than one product, right? So it's like this begs the question, well, I okay. Is it just some animal fat? And and this is me just kind of shooting the breeze here, right? Is it you know, is it a bit of lye that's mixed in here that's diluted? You know, because it there are a lot of things that go into making cosmetics.
Kate (05:17)
Yeah, so so it doesn't have lye and it doesn't have animal fat. those are traditional soap ingredients. This is real shampoo and conditioner, not soap. So soap has saponified oils and shampoo and conditioner are just different formulas altogether. But what I did because I'm a strong believer in hiring someone better than you to do to help you with your business. And in that case, I I I had a lot of industry experience, you know, in the two decades. I had met a chemist that I really liked.
That had 40 years of experience and he he had formulated some of the the traditionally best known suppl salon products out there. So I knew I was in good hands with him, but I also I he had never made bars before. So this was like a new challenge for him that's exciting. And he only made bars for us before he retired. And you know, he i I I challenged him. I was like, what if we can make one bar for all hair types? So a family that has
s someone with type one hair, someone with type four hair, which is like str type one is like straight, type four is like the kinky coily hair, and they say they have a gaggle of kids ev with all different curl patterns in between. That one family only needed one set of bars. 'cause for me that's what sustainability is about. It's about buying better stuff and buying way less of it. And that's that was the challenge. And we went through 40 iterations before we got to
what Dip is today. And I had about 400 people testing different iterations along the way. And Dip did not launch until every person with every hair type was like, this is amazing.
Bernie (06:44)
That's fantastic. So y forty iterations, like is that within the first year or first six months? Like
Kate (06:50)
Yeah.
Bernie (06:51)
what's that life cycle look like?
Kate (06:52)
It's a lot of waiting, right? It's like so, you know, a lot of starting a company is waiting. You're waiting for trademarks. You're waiting, you're building the formulas, and it's not like the formulas and they're not handed over one at a time. Sometimes they're handed over, you know, five or ten versions at a time. So 40 iterations sounds like it took about a year, but the forty iterations came in batches. And so it's not one at a time and having four hundred people test one and it's so
We c we we're able to figure out, you know, get closer and closer very quickly. And the last batch was like the, you know, all-star batch. but it was it was really fun because my my chemist was personally invested in this because he had you know, a mixed family, mixed grandkids. So he had every type of curl pattern in his own household. So
not only did he have his forty years of experience, but he also had everyone in his house using it and we worked together. And that actually made the process a lot more fun. sometimes when you work in in beauty, the the formulation process is like so sterile and doesn't have a lot of like, I don't know, fanfare around it, but we made it really fun to have, you know, my closest network and his own family try everything.
Bernie (08:00)
Well that's that's fantastic. So the the other kind of part of this journey is how you distribute the product. an anybody that manufactures anything has to have a a distribution model. And you decided not to go with the big box stores, you decided to go with the local stores. What drove that decision? Because one seems like it would get you faster returns, but that's not the point, if I'm not mistaken.
Kate (08:21)
Yes. So so I have been living a sustainable lifestyle since twenty fourteen. That's when I discovered real the real like horrors of plastic, not only the accumulation, but also, you know, the human health consequences that came from using things in plastic and heating your food in plastic. So I have been in this sustainable a sustainable consumer for a very long time. And in twenty nineteen I walked into a store called Good Bottle Refill Shop. It was forty-five minutes from my house.
And it was I just remember seeing something in a New Jersey newspaper. It's like a zero waste store, plastic free stores opening up in New Jersey. And I thought, wow, that's like like I'm I've been begging for something like this. I'm so excited about this. So I went to their soft opening. I met the owner, her name is Deanna, and I fell in love with what I saw there. I saw like this possibility of really like learning about sustainability and
And and doing it in a way that seemed, you know, accessible for people, right? Like you you just a refill shop is exactly what it sounds like. You bring your empty jug of laundry detergent and you go there and you fill it up with something that has vetted ingredients that are safe for your family. and not only do they have, you know, laundry detergent and hand soap, which families churn through very quickly, you know, refill stores have things like pasta, they have things like mango cheeks, they have, I don't know.
I they I can go on and on spices. there's so many things that you can refill. Deodorant, like I it it's everyone is different. But I just through Deanna and Good Bottle Refill Shop, which was the first shop to ever carry Dip, I met all of the other amazing refill store owners around the country. And I went to go meet them in person as we were starting Dip. And I, you know, I w flew to Ohio, I flew to Virginia, I went I went everywhere I could to meet.
this type of store owner because Deanna was so wonderful. I was like, I I want to meet the other people that are on board with this. And I discovered that this movement was was the only way for it to succeed is to get people aware of it. And I because I it's so dear to me and I love these store owners so much, I I wanted to create a product or use my product basically to get people exposed to other vetted sustainable swaps. Cause as I said in the beginning, you know, people are
be we starting to get disenchanted with sustainability very quickly. The more times they buy things, bit digitally coerced to buy something that ended up disappointing them. But the refill stores are like the truth tellers in sustainability. They they vet everything that goes on their shelves. So for me to make a bigger impact in sustainability beyond shampoo and conditioner, I had to get people into these stores. And that is like the bigger story of Dip. And it's actually the most fun part of it.
Bernie (10:56)
you're talking about vetting is there a a a standard like for example if I buy gasoline right the there's a certain rating yeah that the the fuel has and so and and then even then you know different manufacturers do different things I mean gasoline is not exactly you know I'm not gonna be washing in there but but
Kate (11:15)
Right.
Bernie (11:16)
w when when you're when you're talking about vetting is there is there a kind of a guideline
you you hear that about or organic foods and stuff like that. Go ahead, sorry.
Kate (11:24)
It varies between store owner, but they pretty much have this same kind of sentiment that they want to carry things that are considered, you know, low tox or non-toxic for families, and that have more that lean more towards the natural side of things, but not totally natural. Like they still want things to work, but they they take great care in making sure that the ingredients used, the preservatives used, all of those things are safe for families. And
for me, I, you know, I have a family, right? Most people ha come from somewhere and they have people that they love around them. And I want to make sure that whatever I can do to reduce exposure to things that are gonna hurt myself and my children and my husband, like I'm we do whatever we can. I mean the simplest form of that is washing fruit, right? Like everyone pretty much washes their produce because they don't want to be exposed to to pesticides.
and it's like that when you think about just everything, you have to go beyond washing your fruit. There's other ways to reduce your exposure to harmful things.
Bernie (12:20)
So you you found this network, how b how many refill stores are out there in in the US?
Kate (12:26)
So it varies. Sometimes it's, you know, they're always opening and closing, right? because it's it's tough. It's like a tough gig, I think. so between 400 and 600 at any time. So there's several of them. It's a pretty robust network. there's not as many doors as say, like, you know, a Walmart, but hopefully in the future there are, you know, and I don't mind sharing like Dip success with these, you know, 400, 600, however many there are at the time.
business owners 'cause they're doing exactly what I want to see in the world.
Bernie (12:56)
So is that where the build outs, where you're funding build outs for small retailers comes into play? Is that like a kiosk or is that like a full store or what's going on there?
Kate (13:03)
Well, I do I h do as much as I can to help with merchandising and then the and in the store. And then the other piece of what I do as a as a brand is I celebrate these store owners in any any any way I can. So whether I host retreats where they can all come, because you know, to me they're the real influencers in my space. Like there's sustainable influencers that just like, you know, they'll hawk every shampoo bar that's out there, but I don't really care for that.
so much. I really care for the people that are on the ground in communities explaining the features and benefits of all the different products that they have. And I I often say that refill stores are the new record store. You know, that feeling when you would go into a record shop and you know the person behind the counter you could tell them you liked one band and then they'd be like, you'd also love this other one and this other one. Like that's kind of what's happening in sustainability at these
refill shops. some someone can be at any different level of sustainability, walk in and say, I'm I'm just dipping my my toes into this. can you help me make a couple, first timer swaps? And so I do whatever I can to make that conversation easier in store.
Bernie (14:07)
Do you find that a lot of them also do online or is it just walk ins that they deal with or or or a hybrid of both?
Kate (14:14)
So a lot of them do online business as well. The tricky part about that is it's very difficult to compete online against an Amazon. it just is because, someone someone's ordering something from one of these brick and mortar stores, that person still has to receive the order, ship it, I don't know whether they're able to run away from their store and go to the post office in between. I'm not trying to tell someone to not order from one of these stores, but it is like
Of course it's incremental growth for them and and it's great, but it's very difficult for them to to compete. So something I've done as a brand to help them with that is I create I work with this different retailers that are that are in the top tier of sales for Dip, and we create custom scents for them that you can only get in their store. And so that helps like we do in there's one called Marilla's.
and she's in Rochester and Geneva, New York, and there's a lilac festival there. So we do a lilac scented Dip bar that only she has. You can only get it from Marilla. And she's sold it in like all 50 states, which is so cool. Cause otherwise she'd just be in Rochester and and Geneva. But now she has Dip customers everywhere. So that's how I helped that.
Bernie (15:21)
I was gonna ask how do you pick a scent? the the lilac that makes sense. Yeah. No pun and no pun intended. That was a dad joke, sorry. but how how do you find a how do you find a scent that works? you know, obviously people are coming to a lilac festival, that's that's what they're into. But if you're somewhere else, right, and there is no there's no mass driving for a certain scent, how do you how do you find that smell that
Yeah, that's gonna work really well, even if it's gonna be unique to that that storefront, which is a great idea, by the way.
Kate (15:49)
Yeah. Well, thank you. I I do it with the store owner. So the store owner kinda knows their customers and what they buy, whether they have a history of candle sales or they have a history of, other scented products that they have. So for example, GoGo Refill in Maine is one of our top retailers, and they did a coastal Maine pine scent. And they sold a ton really quickly. I think when we were there, they s we we went to do like a kick.
kickoff launch party with them and they sold $5,000 worth in, the two hour party, which is insane. And that for me is the best way to support an independent retailer. You go there, you show up, you have something that only they have and it's exciting. It's exciting for the town. The people these stores aren't aren't like they're not starting from zero. A lot of them, have a big community base. So when when they launch something that's special and they know that Dip supports their store.
people come. People come to support that store. Cause it means it's a very emotional thing to have something like this, a refill store in your town. You want to take care of it.
Bernie (16:47)
So honest marketing versus greenwashing. What do you define as greenwashing? I already have an un I have a guess out of it, but but what's your take on that? What what does that look like?
Kate (16:57)
Green greenwashing just means, lying or telling half-truths to get to to get someone to buy something. We try and not tell any half-truths to get someone to buy something. Like, that's kind of the laziest marketing way to get anyone to buy something, right? Is telling the half-truths. where you can kind of get away with, like, yeah, I th I told you that. I made it clear, but it wasn't wasn't clear. And so we talk to our customers as if they're smart.
In my in my experience in marketing and 20 years of marketing, I was always told to talk to customers like they were in fifth grade or at 10 years old. And I don't do that with Dip. I talk to people like they're grown adults, as I think you should. And I think you can be very honest with someone about the reason you chose one ingredient over another. and they might not agree with it and you trust them to make that decision. If they don't want to purchase, that's okay. Like it's not
end of the world, but at least you are able to explain we did made this decision over that decision and here's why. Now you have the toolkit to make your decision whether you want to purchase or not. and I I don't think it's worth hiding hiding information that might make you uncomfortable or or someone I don't know not buy something. it's just not worth it.
Bernie (18:02)
it it's interesting when I I think about my travels in Europe when I was a kid visiting family. You would never buy the loaf of bread the way we do here in North America. You'd go to the local bakery or, you know, the local, you know, whatever whatever it is that you're getting your supply. And you don't buy five weeks worth. You're not doing a lar large box store run. Do you find that do you see that coming on the horizon where
That's gonna happen more and more through North America. And do you also see that perhaps your your reach might be go into Europe, perhaps?
Kate (18:34)
Maybe. I'm a very small team, so I don't know whether my team is gonna be able to handle all the growth that comes when you go overseas. and but for to your point, like once someone discovers how easy it is to make bread, it almost seems like ridiculous to buy it in plastic. You know, it's so cheap and easy to make bread. it require I mean my husband makes a loaf every day. And like this morning it was focaccia. we send their kids out with fresh focaccia and it's not
hard. It just requires one day, 20 minutes to dough prep. And you just get in a routine of doing stuff like that, it's easy. but when you, you know, have you ever seen those those videos where people show like a fresh loaf of bread versus like commercialized bread and how you know the fresh loaf of bread molds as it should and the commercialized bread just sits, I mean, because it's shelf stable. It's not, you know, it's not sinister, but it just sits there forever. And you know,
There's nothing there's nothing wrong with sliced bread. I hear it's the best thing. but I
Bernie (19:28)
that sounds like
Kate (19:29)
But I think I think fresh bread, and to there's a lot of different things that you can slide into this conversation. I think people are gonna return to more simple, easy things, especially as the economy gets weirder.
Bernie (19:42)
Yeah. Well that that can't be happening, can it? I'm gonna leave that alone though.
Kate (19:45)
Leave it alone. But it is getting weird up there.
Bernie (19:47)
Yes. Yeah, everywhere. A founder wants to founder wants to start a business and typically everybody has you know good intent and they want to build with value. How do you stay true to steadfast? I mean, you had a comparison model to work from, right? From you already were in an industry going, I don't like that. This is why I don't like that.
But if I if someone's starting up and then going, Okay, I'm here. I'm I'm I'm bright eyed and bushy tailed and I haven't been exposed to the dark side of too many things in life, how do I stay true to the the values? Is there somebody like do you look at somebody as as a role model? Do you have a it's a mentoring or you know, do provide workshops and this stuff?
Kate (20:26)
I do. I have people I look up to that I really, I really respect them in all different categories of business. I think it's very difficult to exist siloed, right? Like my business mentor, his name is Herb Mitchell. He's I've known him for a lot of my life, and he's always been a great North Star for me. to to figure out, you know, how to stay true to the brand and all of these things. and I also think that.
What's the hardest part about being an entrepreneur or the reframing you have to make when you start something is people will come from all over the place pitching opportunities to you and telling you this is the way you make money and this is the way you make money and let me help you and all these they'll they'll a million carrots will get dangled in front of you and you you have to decide like if you're gonna take a nibble or not or what what your next move is. And I think it's really important to reframe that people will come to you and they're always self-motivated.
And once you they're looking at you and figuring out how you can make them money that instead of them making you money. And I think if you start to reframe those opportunities as my gosh, they're looking at me as a way for them to make money, it's easier to say no to things. I know a lot of entrepreneurs that say yes to things because they sound like opportunities and they're not. And I've I've been a victim of it too. Like, don't even get me started on the SEO agency I hired. It was a joke, you know, but like.
The the the you make those mistakes and sometimes they can be very expensive and sometimes you realize, my gosh, that person was siphoning stuff off of my brand, not contributing.
Bernie (21:53)
Wow. so if someone wants to s shop local and I I'm I'm thinking where I'm living is totally different than where you're living. Yeah. How do I how do I find that? Is is there is there like a is there an association of local shop owners? Is that a business improvement agency association that you ta tap into? Like how do you find that? If if wherever you are on the globe, how do you figure out I'm gonna go over there?
Kate (22:15)
Yeah, well, first thing you just do is you go out your front door. It's a lost art. People are not going out their front door anymore and exploring their towns. But if you want to find Dip specifically, you can go to dipalready.com and then there's a store locator and that will pull up the store, the the refill store, the salon, or the surf shop if there's one closest to your closest to where you live. but I think a lot of people, you know, forget because COVID really
really isolated so many people and got them very comfortable with that add to cart life, that impulsive shopping life. But if you can just slow down and go out your front door, find the little quirky places in your town. that it's just I think it's better for your mental health also, you know, besides the the economic health of where you live. you know, it's not that great to send all your money off to the Amazon gods, right? You wanna you want to keep it circulating where you live.
Whether that's your favorite little sandwich shop or of your favorite little country store, whatever whatever it is that that's in your town that makes it cute and fun to live there. Just it's just a matter of going.
Bernie (23:16)
just add to that, in the last couple of weekends, my spouse said, you know what? Let's go to this town. It's Merrickville. So I'm doing a plug for Merrickville, Ontario. And they have a whole bunch of artisanal storefronts in there. It's a small town, and that's that's what draws people in. And it speaks it speaks to that point, you know, and that might be that might be the key, finding the the artisanal group and actually search for that word.
But as I'm going through these different stories, I'm looking at the different products and I'm going, okay, artisanal, this they'll have local artists producing it could be a craft, whatever the craft might be. And and it looks very attractive. And they'll have other products in there. And then looking where it's made, I'm going, man, it is not even from in this case, not even from Ontario or Canada. It's from overseas. How do you know that, whether you're the retailer, you should know, but or the buyer, how do you know that it's a sustainable product band a brand?
Kate (24:08)
Well, a lot of that is on the back end of the brand. So if they're coming so if a a store owner is coming to me to look for a wholesale purchase, a lot of that stuff or th I lay my cards out for them. this is what we do. This is, when you buy from us, we contribute to Surfrider, we contribute to the Great Lakes, we do all of these activations to to keep, beyond shampoo and conditioner, beyond, driving people into your store. And we hope that someone chooses Dip in that, you know.
beauty pageant you have to enter in when you want to get into a store over a different brand that doesn't do so much for the community and doesn't, you know, that might undercut them online. So, you know, we you you give all of that information when you're to the buyer.
Bernie (24:47)
Yeah. So as as a manufacturer then this establish your differential between the rest of the marketplace being sustainable, which you which you've done. How do you obviously you you you're not next to them when when you deliver. so how do you find the best way to the ship of the goods? Is it you know is it a certain size and you ship or do you ship small? Do you ship by
Certain carriers, is is there some ideal formula that you use, behind the scenes?
Kate (25:12)
So I have the most amazing shipping person. So I have my own manufacturing facility. So I have my own factory and I have my own team. And we ship from our own manufacturing facility. So we're able to co control that it's plastic free. And we're able to ship my shipping person. She's my she's my right hand woman in my warehouse. She has several different boxes. So I think she has like forty-eight different box sizes to make sure that she's not shipping air.
She's so good at what she does. She makes sure that any retailer that purchases that box is Tetris to its most efficient way. She checks all of the different delivery services to make sure that it's the most affordable for the retailer or the most affordable for us. There's different arrangements for different stores. And that I mean, that's something that like if we scaled too far, we went too, you know, o in over our heads, we couldn't take that kind of care. But because we keep the company
tight and small and and we we prioritize these these small stores, we're able to offer that kind of like white glove shipping service to them.
Bernie (26:13)
Like that.
Kate (26:14)
It's fine. it's I would lose that if I put it all in a three PL. So actually it makes more sense if we do scale and grow to bring people like hire people for our warehouse instead of getting rid of that white glove service and and just sending it off to someone who doesn't care to pack it.
Bernie (26:29)
Is there a a misconception about building a sustainable product brand that some people have?
Kate (26:34)
there's many. There's many. They think one, I think a lot of people think it might be easy as a ma like, you know, just making something plastic free and or the plastic free f free version of something and just putting it out there or drop shipping and all those things. But the thing about the sustainable consumer is that they read, they're very smart, they want to know more than what you're just presenting on your homepage. They want to know a lot about the company before they put their hard earned money there.
And I think that that is something that a lot of sustainable brands get wrong. They do a very fast conversion like con like conversion intensive website where it's like buy, bye, buy, buy, buy. And that's like not how the sustainable person shops. The sustainable person's like n I mean, I c I'm broad strokes, right? But I find them to want to know a little bit more about ingredients, a little bit more about, you know, what their purchase supports. And I think that that is like
something that a lot of brands get wrong and and underestimate how important that is to people when they're shopping.
Bernie (27:32)
So does that mean then because when you look back at at your bio, right, you you you had l access to a lot of different very large name names like Oprah or Vogue. Is that where you're going in and you're talking about other than the fact high dips here, this is you know, this is what it is, but is that where you go into depth then and talking about the the the backstory behind products and your
Is that i is that TikTok? Is that is that Instagram where you feed that information into?
Kate (27:59)
it's mostly through our retailers. That's how we get most of our information to our customers. and that protects us a little bit from extreme copycat brands, of which there are many in my space. there's a lot of people that are like, shampoo bars, they're trending. So like let's make a shampoo bar. And it's very easy to do that. Many of the brands are made in the same few contract manufacturers. And it's very easy if you want to start a shampoo bar brand, it'll just be like everyone else's and it'll you know, it'll be like a you know.
So that I I'm very protective of the brand and that's why I have my own manufacturing facility now. so
Bernie (28:30)
Your own manufacturing facility. It sounds like there was a bit of a journey there too.
Kate (28:34)
There was my contract manufacturer with my amazing chemist that you know we initially started with eventually went bankrupt and I had to make a decision, you know, a year and some change into the company. Am I going to, you know, find another contract manufacturer who will take what happens a lot is they take the formulas. If you don't have a long term relationship with them, they'll
keep 95% and change five percent of that formula for another customer and sell it, say to some sweet talking, deep pocketed entrepreneur that comes in, right? And so I didn't want to put my formulas, which were custom to us, at risk. So we I worked with a team. We have our own factory. And you know, a year after starting our factory, we had to double it in size and
my team helped me with that too. And it's it's I don't take credit for the factory. They built it and they did they are it's it's truly incredible. and it's really a testament to my team and how important this mission is to them as much as it is to me. but but it's that's that's how it went down.
Bernie (29:33)
Well congratulations. Thank you. Well no, but congratulations. Have having everybody going in the same direction, right? So that that's really key key. So where do you see the the Dip brand in five to ten years out?
Kate (29:45)
I hope it's the brand that is known for championing small retailers around the country, and Canada. Like I hope it's of course I hope that's the reputation it builds builds and I hope that's the reputation it keeps and I hope that when you walk into a store and you see it, you understand why it's there.
Bernie (30:02)
So if s if someone's listening to this and they're they're they're a small retailer and by the way, define a small retailer. What's a small retailer?
Kate (30:09)
Small retailer is independently owned. it could be a so refill store. I would say, it could be less than twenty doors. We're not in many places that have multiple doors. Usually it's just an independent person owning an independent brick and mortar store or a salon. And then I also say surf shops because we're in Dip is in many surf shops. but yeah, even salon owners. That's usually one person who's who has the weight of
sales and marketing and all these things on their shoulders, just like me. I identify with these people that own these stores because we do, you know, y there's a camaraderie in entrepreneurship, whether you own a brand or whether you own a store. so so yeah, if someone is listening and wants to stock Dip or is like interested in trying it, we always let small store owners have a have a free set so they can try it themselves. and so
Yeah, you go to our website and you can just click on wholesale, it'll take you exactly where you need to go.
Bernie (31:01)
Well, that's excellent. if someone's setting up a a business relationship, what do you what is their profile gonna look like? We just kind of covered the you know, s the small retailer, but what else are you looking for from them? If someone to collaborate with you or or they're looking to help the the build out component, like how is that structured? What shape does that take?
Kate (31:20)
I'm it's it's so varied among different entrepreneurs. Cause everyone comes with their own vibe and flavor and set of expertise and merchandising rules and backstories. Like we we I talk to everyone as if they are special because they are. and that's actually the most fun part of of it all. so so yeah, I can case by case we we uncover and unravel what the opportunities are.
Bernie (31:42)
That's perfect. so what is the Dip product like what are your all all your products? We we talked about the the the bar for the hair. as you as you can see, I I don't have long dangly hair. I you know I I've got a beard, but thank you. Thank you. I try, I try. It keeps growing though, which is good. It's a sign of health. Yeah. What else do you what else do you offer in in your in your product line?
Kate (32:03)
So we have so the shampoo bar, and that solves the problem of you don't have to press hard on your s scalp so it doesn't tug on your hair. A lot of people are dealing with hair loss, especially as you get older, and you know, people don't like the friction of a bar on their head. So it's made so that the less you press, the more it lathers. And it's also safe to use every day. That was something very special the and intentional of the brand. I wanted it to be so gentle that for me, like I run every day and I wanted it
and train for half marathons and I wanted to make sure someone didn't have to choose between their run and a good hair day, which is something most women, this is like this toss-up they have to do if they're gonna go exercise or not. But think about a preschool teacher or someone you know, is around a lot of germs or someone who works in an ER or someone who works in a kitchen and you you just you know, or even in like somewhere a nursing home where you have to shower daily, the Dip shampoo bar is made
For that person. And then there's the conditioner bar, which is just my magnum opus, leaves your hair so beautiful and shiny and lasts forever. And it also detangles as soon as you come out of the ocean, pool, or lake. And then we have a hair and body dry oil, which is it's like functional perfume. It leaves a kiss of scent on your hair or your skin and it also leaves it shiny and soft. And it also leaves your hands dry. So even if we apply, you know, when apply lotion,
Then you have that dry down period. It doesn't have that. You can apply it and immediately touch paper or your phone. which is really cool. But we took us two years to develop that one. I love it. we have a face wash, we have body wash, and we have an enzyme spray, which is in dead stock plastic. It's plastic that was gonna go to a landfill. I overheard a conversation. I bought all these empty bottles that to me are very ugly, but I filled them up with something cool. And so they got one last life before.
They do, you can you're welcome to refill it if you buy it. But what it is is is an enzyme spray called the secret sauce. You can use it to replace a shower. So if you have like a broken leg, or if you have a parent in a nursing home, or if you have braids or locks, or if you are in theater and you have to clean your wig, the enzyme spray, you just spray it on and you can, you know, move on with your day.
Bernie (34:06)
I'm gonna have to remember that wig. So I've never I I would I would not have gone into the wig mode on that one.
You're doing marathons. What's your longest marathon?
Kate (34:15)
and we have done an ultra, which is a fifty K. but I do mu if I have to choose, I like a ten K the most, you know. but I do a half marathon every once in a while is good for the for the soul. But there's one year I did ten of them. It was like too much.
Bernie (34:29)
Wow. Well congratulations. And you're still smiling. And you look like and you look healthy as a po I I've seen s I've seen some runners, man.
Kate (34:39)
Yeah.
Bernie (34:39)
If they get any more narrow, they'd be tiny.
Kate (34:42)
Yeah.
Bernie (34:43)
okay. You know what, folks, if if you're listening to this podcast, right, head over to dipalready.com, D I P, the word already.com, and find a refill store near you. your next shampoo, you there's a whole bunch of products out there. And if you if you can't take a shower, there's an enzyme that'll help you know keep you fresh. Right. Follow Kate on Instagram and TikTok at at
@dipalready and Kate has built a seven figure hair care brand without selling her soul and that means she's not trying to pull the wool over your eyes she's trying to sell you a product that you can use has a benefit doesn't wreck things in the way because sometimes you know
You you might have enjoyed that good meal, but you know, the plastic wrapper afterwards is not so good, right? And it causes causes headaches, right? So that's that's kind of the key. And she's helping small stores. So if you're looking at, you know, what supports your local community, this is a product. It's it's geared for that. It's the whole the whole way it's shaped and designed. All right. And and she's still paying the bills, right? So it's not it's not a lost cause, you know. Just yeah,
So go go find her at dipalready.com and also check us out us at knack4business.com to reach us and that's knack knack, the number 4 business.com to reach us. Use our chat bot to find out about other episodes, book a guest spot or connect with our community.