Why building a brand is a marathon, not a sprint, with Mandy Watkins, Founder and Creative Director of Hush Homewear

Conversations of Inspiration

Holly Tucker MBE

Education, Society & Culture, Entrepreneurship, Self-improvement, Business, Personal Journals

5.0 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2022

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What makes a brand like Hush Homewear stand out from the thousands of fashion and e-commerce businesses out there? Yes it's the quality and style of the clothes, but it's also another key element that makes them truly one-of-a-kind — and that's the brand. If you want to know the secret to building an identity that makes thousands of customers return again and again, and remain loyal to you for life, hear Mandy Watkins' hard won wisdom on the subject...

Mandy started her laid back clothing and lifestyle brand from the kitchen table back in 2003 with a redundancy cheque, a huge dose of ambition and a desire for warmer clothes. Growing up in Australia, Mandy spotted a gap in the market after moving to the UK where she struggled to find relaxed, stylish and cosy clothing suited to living in our changeable climate.

After years of perseverance, determination and orders ever so slowly trickling through, Hush started to become a recognised and successful brand. However Mandy opens up about how her business' success was by no means easy, and explains the different routes to market she took in order to achieve the sales she so desperately wanted.

Now, after having such a strong identity in the clothing industry, Mandy explains how she has not only built and maintained her brand, but also why as a small business you have the power to make sure the brand heart of your business is beating louder than ever, which as Mandy shares, is a game changing advantage if used effectively.

Holly and Mandy share a passionate belief in sustainability, responsible consumer shopping and the positive effect that a work ethic can have on achieving your dreams. It is apparent that Mandy is, and always has been her true authentic self, and might that have had an effect on her business? You’ll have to listen to find out…

If you enjoyed this conversation, you might also enjoy Holly’s episode with Liz Earle, founder of Liz Earle.

This Conversations of Inspiration podcast episode is brought to you with support from Adobe Express.

Enjoying listening to these unfiltered chats? Subscribe to Holly’s weekly newsletters on our website, where she shares small business inspiration of all kinds, exclusive nuggets of wisdom from her and her guests, plus offers, creative ideas and topical, 'ungoogleable' business advice.

Transcript

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0:00.0	this week I have the greatest pleasure of speaking to Mandy Watkins founder of Hush.
0:06.3	Now Hush has been in my life for the last 19 years and I recount buying my first ever pair of
0:13.2	pajamas with her and how much I adored them. And you know what, it is amazing to speak to female
0:22.2	founders where their brand DNA is literally who they are and who have built brands for over decades
0:31.8	and they're still as excited as they were on the first day. It's a conversation that really makes
0:38.8	you realise that brand, that DNA, that brand heart I always talk about is so imperative to build a
0:48.9	company that lasts a lifetime. I think we haven't seen anything yet when it comes to Mandy
0:56.0	and what she's building at Hush. So get your notepad, pen, tea and enjoy.
1:09.8	I'm Holly Tucker and welcome to Conversations of Inspiration. Back in 2006 I founded Not on the
1:17.0	High Street for my kitchen table and since then I've gone on to launch Holly and Co. I'm the UK
1:23.2	ambassador of creative small businesses and I believe that having a business doing what you love
1:28.9	is the key to a happy fulfilled life. My dream is to help everybody start theirs.
1:35.2	I'm here to offer advice, inspiration, wisdom and encouragement and in my view the best way to do
1:42.6	this is by sharing stories. So I've reached out to my favourite small businesses, entrepreneurs
1:49.3	and those who simply inspire me and ask them to share theirs. With thanks to Adobe who've helped
1:56.2	bring this podcast to life. Here are my Conversations of Inspiration.
2:03.2	Hi Mandy, it is wonderful to talk to you. You and I met, well it must have been a couple of months
2:10.0	ago and I gushed over my first experience of Hush. I know all our listeners are going to absolutely
2:19.6	love this tale. So welcome to Conversations of Inspiration. Thank you very much Holly.
2:24.7	I was telling you and I'm sure everyone listening is thinking what was my first piece of Hush that I
2:30.8	bought. I was telling you about I had brown pajamas with the blue stripe. Yeah I loved it because
2:38.0	it came in a bag. Yeah. Like the actual pajamas came in the bag and I had, I felt very grown up.
	...

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