Episode 277 - Courtney Folk/Todd Westra

 

Todd Westra

Courtney Folk

 

02:13 I have got an amazing guest on today. She is one of those folks. As I said, one of those folks who has a lot of experience in growth and scaling. And ironically, as part of her name, she's just one of those folks that we all like to get to know. So, Courtney, tell us who you are and what you do?

 

02:35 My name is Courtney Folk. I am the owner of Renewal Logistics, and we are a fulfillment company for the fashion industry. So, we help we help brands make sure that their products make it to their customers on time.  

 

02:50 All right. Dive deeper. I mean, that’s so generic. What do you do to solve that problem? What's the problem that your solve?

 

02:58 So a lot of brands have factories in Asia or somewhere else offshore, and they need a place for their goods to land when they make it to the US. And then they are selling goods e-com, as you know, which means directly to you and I right now Amazon drops packages at your doorstep and then they're also selling packages or goods to wholesalers. And so there's a lot of technical component to making sure that the goods that are being sold to Dillard's or Macy's or whoever fit their very specific requirements. The result could be chargebacks if that's not done properly. So we help manage that process. And then also companies do a lot of dropship. So like brands like Dillard's or Macy's or whoever, who they don't want to own the product, but they still want to bring on a new brand and try them out. They will actually set up like a dropship account with that brand, and then it feels like a like we're shipping something e-com, but it's actually it looks like it's coming from Macy's or Dillard's or whoever.  

 

04:05 Awesome! And I mean, that's fascinating because I had never been in the fashion world. However, I have I have known people on the China side who work in the factories getting product ready to ship and then sent them over. You're helping companies on this side who, you're basically the receiver. You catch the products, you kind of prep them for delivery both to wholesale and to direct consumer. 

 

04:31 Exactly. Yeah, that's exactly right. So we work with factories in Asia and South America to, you know, coordinate and make sure that things are going to come over properly for our customers. We can get involved with the actual shipping component. Like if someone needs help finding someone to globally, you know, someone who's going to ship from that factory to the port and then from the port over the ocean to us, we can kind of get involved with all of that. I kind of say we do everything that a brand just doesn't want to do. So like, you know, like a lot of people who start businesses and this changes over time, but you become an entrepreneur because you have a passion and something that you love to do, and then you start to become a manager, right? Like you end up having to take out all the operational piece. So, we do as much as we can to bring relief to that, to that designer or that company to take off as much of that as possible so they can just continue to accelerate their brand and get to know their customers and come up with new really cool products.

 

05:31 I love it. It sounds very Michael Gerber ask with the e myth, that kind of what you're solving?

 

05:38 Yes, 100%. So like I tell people all the time, people will always be like, Oh, I just don't know if I'm ready for fulfillment. Like, right, I really don't want to do it, but I just don't know if I'm big enough or whatever and or, you know, oh, it's going to be more expensive than what I'm doing now. And I'm like, you know what is also more expensive than what you're doing now is if you were to clean your house yourself, you know, but who wants to do that? And you really want to have to deal with a bunch of like warehouse workers every day and take a warehouse management software and sign a commercial lease. Like, there's just so much to it and it's just so much easier if you can just, let someone else that be someone else's problem.  

 

06:18 Okay. I love your solution. And I love I love the new my my, my reference there because the e myth to me, those of you have not read it is like a guidebook for everyone trying to grow and scale out of launch phase into some type of a growth area in their business. And so, I love that you knew that and I love that you live that because it sounds like you were describing to me that girl in the story is the pie maker. And she, you know, loves to make pies, but she's a horrible manager.  

 

06:46 Right, exactly. That's about how to go from being a single a single person to having an actual company that's got lots of people. And that that that's a hard process for most companies never get there. So, yeah.  

 

07:03 I think it's because they don't learn that lesson that they never get there.  

 

07:07 Yeah, well, it's so hard. You know what, the two things that are hard about it. Number one, can you afford to hire someone? Can you really afford it? And then number two, when is it time to hire someone? And. And, you know, like.  People are so scared of, like, letting go of control of any level. 

 

07:25 Totally. Now, now, that being said, you solve this problem. Tell us about your business, because you have you have been a part of a business for a long time. And then you started this additional almost like a supplemental logistics management company to kind of help other people doing a similar process to what you do or have been doing for years. How how do you, but tell us about your own journey. I mean, how has that gone? How what parts of it did you really enjoy? Well, start with the stuff you enjoy first.  

 

08:01 Okay. So I'll get I'll try to give you like 32nd spiel on what our journey was. So, my husband and I started working with his parents that their four itty bitty dry cleaning stores 20 years ago. And we were like, we know we can do something great. We just don't know what. And this is our one opportunity we've been afforded. So we're going to take it and figure out where it can go. And then we realize that in insurance restoration, we could be cleaning, you know, 400 units per one customer rather than four units per customer, which is what it was at the retail driving business. Yeah, we grew that to become the largest restoration dry cleaning company that's independent in the U.S. And we have an 85,000 square foot dry cleaning facility in Atlanta, as well as a 30,000 square foot one that's in South Carolina. And then in 2013, we were someone reached out to us that had a really large problem in the apparel space, like it was like a top three company that sells apparel. And they had just this really big issue. No one in the whole world could solve it for them. And so they had to look outside of their normal network and they found us online randomly and we were like, this is our big break. This is our break to go from doing 400 units per customer to 4 million units per customer. So we took it and we ran with it. And now we have, you know, we're one of the largest apparel specific distribution companies in the U.S. at this point.  

 

09:37 Congratulations! I love that. I that just gave me, like, goosebumps. I mean, it's so cool. 

 

09:44 Oh, thank you!

 

09:45 No, seriously, it's as a founder and I'm sure you do the same thing. It's like it's so fun to hear how someone goes from solving a simple problem, like a dry cleaning and to solving a little bit bigger problem, helping other dry cleaners into a bigger problem, which is like, Hey, you guys got processes already in play? How do I tap into your expertise and then take this to a much bigger solution that has a much bigger problem, right?  

 

10:12 Yeah. And you know what was so cool? It was just being so hand in hand with our customers over the years is what led us to that. So like, our business now is getting in and having just a really intimate relationship with apparel companies that are out there and okay, what's your process? Tell me everything about it and then how how can how can we do the exact same thing that you're doing, replicate exactly the same success that you have, but break it out across of a much larger team so that it's more scalable, like, you know, a brand that has, you know, a like someone gets featured at like this happened to us. We also have a brand that that is one of the top most reviewed products on Amazon. And we would get we're crazy. We just we can't -

 

11:00 It's awesome.  But what is it? What does that tell us?  

 

11:02 Thank you. Is Beam Electronics is the brand. It's on Amazon and we sell cellphones and car mounts and we have, I think about 85,000 reviews on Amazon right now.  

 

11:13 Shut up…

 

11:14 Yeah.  

 

11:15 It’s so cool! Way to go. All right. All right. That's that's amazing. Back to the story. That's so cool. So, so what is that? What is the next thing? So you you go into these companies, you're helping them solve this logistical problem of how do I take what we're doing and spread it out even broader, is that right?

 

11:34 Right. So these brands have internal fulfillment processes they're fulfilling out of their retail store and they're out of room and they don't know how to, you know, do they open a facility and do it themselves or do they hire someone else? And the concern is always, you know, ah, is this really going to be an extension of my business or is this going to be, you know, what, if I make the wrong mistake and they can't fill orders? And and so my point was just if they stay where they are and they get featured in like we did in Rolling Stone magazine, you know, we ended up having like a huge spike the next day. And for the next few days after that feature, how are they going to manage that if they have two people in a really teeny, tiny retail store? So we have a team of like 100 full time workers and 300 associate workers. And, so basically we can scale from day to day and never even break a sweat.  

 

12:29 Love it. Yeah, systems,  processeses and people, right? I mean, you have kind of mastered that logistical nightmare that most people let's face it. I mean, a lot of people in fashion, a lot of people in business are more the creative, artistic side. They're not so much a logistics like operational type of mindset, would you say? 

 

12:52 Oh, yes, 100%. 

 

12:55 So, when you pick up a new client and you go in and you sit down with them like you were talking about and you talk about what their current processes look like and where, where they're going and how they're doing it, I got to imagine that for you, every new client, you're just like, okay, there's the problem. There's a problem. They got they got the five red flags that I'm seeing right now. What's maybe two or three of those big red flags that you see that you're just like, oh, my gosh, we can totally help these guys.

 

13:25 Man, what a good question. Well, you know, one of our core values is bring relief and thought. That's I talk about that all the time. If you hear anything else that I have out there, it's always about bringing relief and like, so people come to us. I have a great example right now. It's a subscription box company. They've been with two different facilities. They you know, what's happening is they they came in at one price. The facility gave them one price, and then they tried to actually operationalize the process of kitting these boxes for them. And then now they're like charging them twice what they what they originally said. And so that's one that's one thing is just really making sure you have a really clear understanding of what the customer's looking for. And yeah, for us what we do is we say, okay, what are the results that you're looking for? What do we have to make sure on the backside you're going to have in terms of final results after we sign the contract? Because the contract is the beginning of the relationship is not the end, right? So that's one. And I think the other is like you see people and they just still don't quite know how to figure out like how many SKU’s they should have should they hold on to inventory for years and years. And there's definitely a point where if you're not selling inventory and you're paying carrying costs on it for storage every single month, you get rid of it and, you know, really kind of like be proactive and assertive about how you manage your SKUs so that you can, you know, make the best of the space that you have yourself. And also certainly whenever you outsource to someone else. So I think those are two places that we can really kind of help a lot of people. And, you know, uhm  

 

14:59 I love it.  

 

15:00 And like I said, a lot of times customers will call us and they'll say, Oh my gosh, like recently I had one a company that sells end to a lot of the big box retailers. They were like, have 800,000 pairs of shoes. They have more contamination. I need to handle this return. What do I do? And they're stressing like crazy. Like, I just wish that I could convey to you how much excitement that we have when we are able to provide that relief and all of a sudden they have someone they can trust and they know it's going to work out and you can see it come over their face that it's just awesome. It's the best. 

 

15:36 Love it. And I love I love that. That's one of your core values. I think that, you know, growing and scaling takes a lot out of out of a person, out of a company. And as you start to add ahead to your own operations. And how many core values do you have? This is not part of the normal podcast, but you brought it up. So, I want to dive into it just a little bit. Tell us about your core values and what has that done with your ability to attract the right people and to kind of grow your organization the way you want it to be seen?

 

16:10 That’s awesome. An awesome question. So I'll tell you my three top favorite core values, and then we have a couple extra that we're always kind of playing around with. But bring bring relief, you know, always promote trust. So like our decision filter that we make every day is if we do this, is this or, you know, like for me with you as it or for me with an employee is whatever I say to them, I'm going to promote trust or is it going to break down trust from my employees to their boss for from us to our customers, everything we should do and everything we do to promote trust. And so that means sometimes telling people the truth, like what you're asking for, is just not realistic. And here's why. Or, you know, but just a good example. We had an employee who, you know, didn't tell us that they needed a Friday afternoon off. Well, right. That went against our core values because it didn't promote trust. It actually degraded trust. And then the third one is discretionary effort. So like I always say, you know, discretionary effort is the lift that takes a business from one level to the next level as having people who truly have discretionary effort. And certainly you can't have, you know, bring relief or promote trust if you're not putting in a significant amount of discretionary effort. So those are three main ones. We also have like no entitlement and, you know, deliver excellence. But I think those all kind of go into the main three. And from a perspective of like hiring, I think it's just so great to you tell someone upfront this is what it's going to be like to work here and you know, and then if you have to have a conversation later, you can. But it's like I already told you, this is the environment you're coming into, and like deliver excellence. Like, you know, it's you're going to have four or five drafts. We're not going to just take your first work product and you're going to have to get to level two, where you're used to working at that level, at that high level of quality to be here. So, you know, I think core values are incredibly important.  

 

18:23 I appreciate you sharing that. That was totally not something you prepared for. And and you mentioned four core values that I think are awesome. And I got to believe that your clients can see into that. How often do your clients hear about your core values? Do they hear about it at all? 

 

18:40 You know? I don't honestly, I don't think we talk enough about it to our clients. That is something that I'm working on in terms of like certainly the way I provide relief I think is something we talk about all the time, but like really codifying that and it's something that everyone can kind of roll off their tongue. We need to do a better job with that.  

 

19:05 I think that I think that you've done a great job in the fact that you off the cuff were able to roll out four of them. And you do have a couple more that you mentioned and referred to. But listen, I think that, in a company's journey to try and grow and scale. Those things right there that you just mentioned are what unite your company. They unite your brand. They kind of say what you are and it brings the right kind of people in. And when you get more vocal about sharing this with your clients, I know you're going to find that your clients are going to come to depend on your values to be an extension of their business. I mean, if you're if you're going out there to be an extension of someone's business like you are, it's important for them to say, Oh my gosh, yeah, I totally need to rely on that from them because maybe I should incorporate some of those into my business, you know what I mean? And I think that you're going to see a tremendous more amount of growth because people, when they rely on you on an emotional level, not just on a logistical level, they do. Gave you more trust, which means more business, which means a just a better united front. And so I hope that I'm going to challenge you on this podcast. We'll check in with you in a few months to do that. And I think that if you do, you're going to see some awesome things happen. 

 

20:21 Well, I will absolutely take that challenge and I think that's great advice. And that's the that's the beauty of things like this. Meeting people like you is is learning, you know, having like an external lens to show you where you can improve. And and so that's that's awesome! I will absolutely do that and I will let you know how it goes. 

 

20:38 I can't wait to hear about it. I can't wait to hear about it. Hey, listen, Courtney, I asked you ahead of time to be thinking about someone, as you've gone through these growth pains and and as you help other clients in growth pains,there's someone in your circle, someone in your network that you look at that kind of inspires you to kind of keep you going and put you on the, on the line that you wanna be on. Who is that person? Give us that shout out. 

 

21:04 Um, I would say Esther Kestenbaum, she was the former CRO I think. What was she? She was the former president for Ruby Has, which is another fulfillment company. She scaled that business from like 17 million to 170 million in three years, and she is just incredible to work with. She is so great, yeah! 

 

21:27 That sounds like an inspiration, right? 

 

21:28 She, she totally is. And, and, you know, and like being a company that's, um, about the same size as the one that she started with, like Um, just knowing what I don't know and having Yeah. Someone to go to and say, you know, why do I keep getting stuck with this issue? How do I get past it? Yeah. You know, and like, and that's really what I strive to be with people who are smaller, who are trying to get their business off the ground. But, um, it has just been a game changer for me to have her as an advisor. 

 

21:57 I love it. Wooh! That's a great one. I love, I love good shout outs and I love what you're doing. I love the trajectory you guys are on, and I am so excited to check in with you in a few months and hear about what changes you've been able to see from just really magnifying those core values. But for those listening, I hope you found some value in this conversation. I know I did. And Courtney, how did people hear more about what you're up to? Are you active on LinkedIn, Instagram, like where are you at? 

 

22:26 Yep. So we are definitely on Instagram and LinkedIn. Um, I would say actually LinkedIn more so, um, you can follow me at Courtney D. Folk, um, on Instagram, um, our LinkedIn handle and our Instagram handle for our company is @RenewalLogistics. And then I believe on Instagram that I'm either Courtney or Courtney D. Folk, but um, I post a lot on there. So, um, I would love to have anyone..

 

22:51 We'll put in the show notes so people, we'll look you up and, and make sure the right one's in there. 

 

22:55 Okay, great! Thanks. I should've known that!

 

23:00 That's ok. You sound like me. It's like, ah, crap. I know where I'm at on LinkedIn, but on Instagram? Hey, we appreciate you so much and, and I am just so proud of your growth and what you've been able to do. It truly will be an inspiration to those listening today. So those of you listen. Go follow up with her, see what she's up to, see what you can learn and glean from her experience as she's been able to grow and scale her companies, and help other people grow and scale their companies. So thanks again for being here on the What It Takes Scale podcast, and we will catch in with you later. Thanks Courtney. 

23:29 Thank you Todd. So great to be here.