New year, new thoughts from our founder.

Thoughts from a morning walk. 

Over the weekend I was discussing with friends our goals for the year, or at the very least, our attempts to make them.

Goals are a funny thing, because with them, there’s a chance we’ll fail, and yet without them, we’re guaranteeing a success rate of zero. If there’s nothing to work towards, what are you working on?

This morning I reflected on my overarching goal, or vision, whatever you like to call it, for Fluff that I set some seven years ago. It was two fold:

-Create a beauty brand that encourages people to wear less makeup.

-Create content that encourages people to spend less time on their phones.

It was (and is) a backwards business and marketing model. And yet today it still feels like the best thing I can point to and work towards. Ironically, it seems to be working for us.

This brought up another personal reflection: the idea of what’s ‘working’ and by whose definition are we talking about success.

How many emails and DMS do I have to receive from customers telling me that they no longer use foundation, or don’t wear makeup on several occasions where they never would have thought that would be possible, before we can hang our coats and call it a day? What revenue milestone, team headcount, or office m2 do we have to hit before the industry says we’ve made it?

I don’t know, and I’m grateful that most days, I really don’t care.

Looking to the next five years, both for Fluff and the beauty industry in general, I feel motivated in a way that feels more calm than any year we’ve had in business. This is reflected in the way we’ve set goals for the year, similar to my friends’ discussion over the weekend. They’re realistic: while they’re exciting they’re quite straightforward, with actions that to some (especially me) might seem quite boring. And this is what I’ve realised:

Lofty, overly ambitious and exciting, stretch goals are easy because we often know from the start they’re never going to eventuate. They impress others, but they often let us down (or should I say it the other way around). These goals are often for people who are scared or lazy or both.

Realistic, practical and sometimes boring but actionable goals are hard because we know exactly what we have to do today, tomorrow, and the next day, and unless we put our head down and get to work, they won’t eventuate. They don’t really excite anyone, but they often compound, and before you know it, you’ve achieved the lofty, overly ambitious stretch goal anyway. It just took time.

And yet today, despite how much we all claim to want to slow down, not many people do. Or they do in the wrong areas, perhaps distracting themselves from the area which needs it the most. Accepting the reality that slowing down means things don’t happen quickly is hard.

Our goals for Fluff this year are simple:

-100% Growth;

-Re-introduce our skincare range with updated primary and refill packaging

-Introduce 3 new collaborative refills, one new compact collaboration, and an archival collection.

-Relaunch our Issues Page.

-Follow and focus our attention towards our organic market traffic.

That’s it. It’s both boring and exciting. Straightforward but ambitious. We might achieve more, but if we achieve only this, we’re happy, and I hope, still calm. To maximise our output we’ve chosen to minimise our inputs - but in a considered, intentional way. There’s fewer things to focus our attention on.

There’s not a whole lot of product innovation, and to be honest, I’m relieved. To be even more honest, I don’t know what’s really left to innovate, anyway. I don’t think anyone needs another step to their routine, or to wear SPF in an office, or an anti-aging body wash. Have we noticed that we’re all still getting older anyway?

What I’m seeing in our industry, is that while there’s plenty of growth, I think there’s pockets of beauty consumers who are beginning to care less. And this is great. With little products left to innovate, I think this forces consumers to evaluate what it is they’re buying, and more importantly, who from. As one content creator recently put it: if you’ve tried one PH colour changing lip balm, you’ve tried them all. So who is it you’re going to keep buying from? What’s their overall message around beauty, identity, consumption, and their delivery of such.

On a personal note, my words for this year are consolidation and consistency. Last year I took on too much of everything: work, hobbies, people; and this year I’m trying to reduce what I commit to, so that I can commit to showing up consistently to the things that I do, including writing, of course.

I’m interested in:

-What would happen if our primary, historical texts were written by women. Cassandra Speaks, by Elizabeth Lesser.

-How men connect beauty to their own identity, specifically balding or thinning of hair.

-My own screen/phone time, and how simple an app like this has been both from an aesthetic point of view, but also the idea of will power vs going cold turkey on apps.

I think what we’re doing is interesting:

-We spent much of last year focused on consolidating our product line and focusing our marketing efforts on our Cloud Compact. This year, I’m hoping to refocus my energy on storytelling across our campaigns, Issues Page, and a new archival collection which points to the origin of our compact design, and traditional makeup usage and value.

-We will be moving to a hybrid always on/drop model by Q2, to test customer demand for product evolutions vs our core range.

-We’re trying to understand what the future of the iconic ITG Top Shelf/or Vogue 73 Questions interviews are. More on this later.

If you like these updates, please share them with someone you think might appreciate them too. Thoughts or questions? Say hi.