How This Influencer Turned Her Following Into a Conscious Luxury Product w/ Caitlyn Chase

Show notes in order of appearance:

• Caitlyn’s last oh shit moment
• Who is the real Caitlyn Chase, what is she like, what does her day look like outside of a perfectly curated moment of a snapshot captured on camera?
• How did this all start? Caitlyn’s first job working for a magazine.
• Started her blog in 2011 about luxury lifestyle.
• Caitlyn’s first SEO trick. Backlinks from her magazine.
• How did the name Caviar & Cashmere come about?
• Why Caitlyn always knew it would go beyond the blog into a physical product.
• Caitlyn ended up leaving her job and living off sponsored posts and guest blogging. How important is it to be authentic even when you’re getting paid on sponsored posts guest blogs?
• How her full-time position at Glam Squad helped her discover an opportunity.
• Used market research pre-launch through her own reach.
• Caviar & Cashmere, the product. Conscious ingredients in beauty products.
• Conscious manufacturing practices and its importance.
• How worker’s output is affected by fair treatment
• The importance of a conscious brand to consumers
• What Caitlyn has to say to a girl listening who has a large following and is considering developing a product
• Caitlyn shares her top two traits for a conscious leader to embody

Visit caviarandcashmere.com  and find Caitlyn Chase on Instagram.

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SebastianNaum.com

Below is a transcript of the video podcast created by Seb’s Robot buddy, Zekton. He tends to make mistakes so please forgive him if you find errors or some funky sounding sentences. For the real deal, watch the video or click on your favorite audio Podcast platform above! Enjoy!

Sebastian Naum (00:10):
Welcome to the show Caitlyn

Caitlyn Chase (01:14):
Thank you for having me.

Sebastian Naum (01:16):
Yeah. You know, I’m getting right into, I’m going to ask you the first question. I always ask my guests, which is what was your last Oh, moment.

Caitlyn Chase (01:25):
Uh, this morning.

Sebastian Naum (01:29):
I just like the way,

Caitlyn Chase (01:33):
Yeah, this morning was definitely my last, Oh, moment. I feel like I have an Oh moment every day, but I always turn it around and make it a positive. But, um, it was definitely this morning. You want to share it?

Sebastian Naum (01:43):
Oh yeah, sure.

Caitlyn Chase (01:46):
I had a photo shoot this morning and I mixed up the call time. So I thought it was half an hour later than it was. And then they texted me and he said, Hey, are you on your way? And I was half ready, but it worked. And I got there and I was still on time. Very functional. Perfect. I like that, but I definitely want a moment.

Sebastian Naum (02:06):
Definitely. No, man. I feel, yeah, I feel, yeah. So Kayla, if somebody doesn’t know you and they’re just checking out, they just see your blog, they see your social media, they see a luxurious lifestyle. They can see a lot of things. Who is the real Katelyn chase? Like what is she like? What does she do on a regular day?

Caitlyn Chase (02:26):
Uh, well you met me last week, so why don’t you tell me who you really are? Uh, well I think that people that know me that are closest to me know that, uh, what I do for a living and everything that I put out is authentic, but it’s not the 60 full picture of who I am as a person and what my day to day looks like. So of course social media is pretty one dimensional and there’s dimensions to me. So I think the real me is I’m very driven and motivated, but at the same time, I’m goofy and fun and like to enjoy life and spontaneous and go with the flow. Uh, not so regimented. And I just like to enjoy myself.

Sebastian Naum (03:10):
I like that. That’s awesome. Thanks for sharing. Caitlin, what was your very first job that you ever had?

Caitlyn Chase (03:19):
So my first job was when I was 18 and I was interning at a magazine. I always knew I wanted to do journalism. I started writing from a very, very young age. And so I got an internship at a magazine here in LA and I ended up getting offered a full-time position at the end of the summer. And so I had to make a decision of whether or not I was going to take this full-time position or, uh, continue on with my schooling. And, uh, I like to take on more than I can chew. So I decided why not just do both? So I worked full time and I went to school. Full-time

Sebastian Naum (03:56):
Nice. And was the magazine,

Caitlyn Chase (04:02):
Uh, in touch weekly. So still around a celebrity, weekly magazine. And I was covering the beauty and fashion beat reporting on celebrity, fashion and beauty. And I was, I mean, I was 18 years old and I was able to be on the red carpet at the Oscars and the Emmys and golden Globes. And it was just such incredible, crazy, crazy experience for an 18 year old. Cool.

Sebastian Naum (04:24):
Well experienced. And then you started a blog put shortly after, right? It was 2011 when you started your blog. So yes. Was that soon after?

Caitlyn Chase (04:32):
Uh, that was a couple of years after. Yeah. Um, I graduated university, went to Pepperdine and then I worked at several other magazines before starting my blog in 2011.

Sebastian Naum (04:43):
And what was that blog about?

Caitlyn Chase (04:45):
So the blog is still around and it’s a luxury lifestyle blog focused mainly on fashion, beauty and travel a little bit of health and wellness as well. And I’ve been creating content now for 10 years, a decade, which is wild to me.

Sebastian Naum (05:00):
That’s a long time, you know, like blogs that have been around for 10 years. That’s not common. I mean, we’ll go to the O G blogs. Those are the one that like, Oh, gee, that’s right. Those are the odd ones. But I think we’re, we were chatting. You told me you bought, uh, you bought your domain name on, on [inaudible] or something like that. Yeah.

Caitlyn Chase (05:19):
Yes. Like I feel like no one knows what IOM is anymore, but I bought it on Ian on, well, actually my web developer bought it on ENR and hosted it on host Gator, which is still around as well. But, um, yeah, no one, no one knew what those were. I didn’t have many options back then.

Sebastian Naum (05:35):
Yeah. And obviously being an SEO, like I know you had a little SEO trick. I don’t know if you want to share that SEO trick with us that you had in the back in the day, get some backlinks going on.

Caitlyn Chase (05:44):
What did you call black hat,

Sebastian Naum (05:46):
Black hat?

Caitlyn Chase (05:50):
Um, yes. So the magazine that I was working for writing for at the time I was w running their website all over their web content and they announced that they were filing for chapter 11 and going out of business and in the industry, they say closing the book. So I had a month to figure out what I was going to do. I was freaking out a little bit, but I knew I didn’t really want to go to another magazine longterm. I think print at the time was slowly on the decline digital was going up. So I wanted to create a digital presence that was on my own. So I started the blog and I started linking from the magazine’s website, which had a tremendous amount of traffic onto my blog, which I now know is called black headed.

Sebastian Naum (06:31):
No. Well, first of all, it was really f-ing smart. Um, it really was what was black hat SEO now, and that wasn’t necessarily back then, you know, so duplicated content and things like that. That’s black hat SEO, but you were just being smart. You know, you were pioneer, like you said, I love it. And why you tell, tell us about the name?

Caitlyn Chase (06:56):
So the name, I thought of the name. I came up with the name in the middle of the night, the same day that I decided I wanted to do a blog. And I knew that I wanted to do a luxury lifestyle niche. And I wanted to think of two things that automatically denoted noted a luxury. So caviar and cashmere were the two favorite luxury weddings that I, I knew. And they also happen to be the same as my initial CC Lynn chase caviar and cashmere. And I never looked back. I scribbled it down on a notebook. I scribbled down the logo and just went for it. That’s kind of the way that I’ve always been in my entire life is just go with my first gut instinct,

Sebastian Naum (07:38):
Run with it. I love that. Yeah. It’s a really cool name. Thank you. It was right off the tongue. I’ve actually never tried caviar, to be honest. Isn’t that weird? I know. And it’s, I like, like I like salty. I feel like caviar is really salty, right?

Caitlyn Chase (07:53):
Yeah. Depending on the type of caviar, but that’s something everyone needs to try at least once it’s, it’s an acquired taste. I believe at first when I first tried it, I was pretty young. Um, my father’s side of the family is Russian. So I mean, you kind of have to write a fascia to try caviar and, uh, it’s, it’s really salty and kind of fishy at first. I’m not selling caviar very well.

Sebastian Naum (08:19):
Where were you wearing cashmere though? Yeah, of course. Got it. So that, that changes the experience.

Caitlyn Chase (08:24):
Yeah. No, you have to work casual And uh, you grow to love it. It’s kind of like me. You grow to love me.

Sebastian Naum (08:35):
I love that. That’s great. Had you ever compared yourself to caviar before? No, that was the first. There you go. First I’m salty though. Okay. All right. Well, that’s, that’s good to differentiate there. Just certain aspects of that. I gotcha. Okay. Um, you mentioned something last week. You said that you, Oh, you had a feeling that you always knew that the blog would turn into a physical product or that you ran recruiting to a physical product. What was this intuition that you had back then before? All of, you know, the further the success you had later on?

Caitlyn Chase (09:08):
I kind of had the foresight to know that I didn’t always just want a blog or a website. I knew I would always have it because my passion is writing, but I wanted to create a brand more of a lifestyle and have a physical product called by the same name. I just always knew it. And I was waiting for the right time to launch something and I didn’t want to be hasty about it. I didn’t want to just do something to do something. I wanted it to make sense. And for me to grow an audience and a following that would really resonate. And then I stumbled upon what I do

Sebastian Naum (09:46):
Love that. And, uh, for a while then after you left that job, you were essentially, you were living off of like sponsored posts and things like that. And guest blogging. Right. How important is it when you’re getting paid to do sponsored posts or guest blogs and things like that to remain authentic in what you believe in and what you put out there? Because it’s so easy to just get paid and just be like, I’m just going to put that out there that maybe doesn’t resonate fully with me because I’m getting paid

Caitlyn Chase (10:16):
Of utmost important importance. To me. It always has been, I never wanted to quote, sell out and I really wanted my content and whatever. I put my name behind to mean something and that for me to really like the product on my own. So, um, I go through like rigorous testing. If it’s a product that I need to try, I will try it for at least a month before I agree to work with them. And if it’s something right off the bat that I know isn’t on grant or something that I wouldn’t use in my daily life, I say no. So I’ve left a lot of deals on the table. A lot of money has been left on the table, but I’ve kept my integrity and what I plan to do for my entire career, because the moment that I sell out, I lose my dignity.

Sebastian Naum (11:01):
Hmm. That’s super important. Yeah. I was going to ask you, if you had left some interesting, some juicy deals on the table,

Caitlyn Chase (11:09):
I was going to ask you if you left any dignity, I have a shred left.

Sebastian Naum (11:19):
Um, people are watching, this are wondering what’s going on behind all this. Uh, anyway. So after that you took a full-time position yet at a company called a glam squad. I wrote it down cause I asked you like three times, but it’s, uh, you during this job though, you saw an opportunity, right? You saw Boyd. Yes. What was that?

Caitlyn Chase (11:42):
So we’ll take it back. Hey guys, I just want to remind you, if you want to find more content like this, you can visit Sebastian alm.com. That’s Sebastian N a U m.com. You can also get a ton of other marketing resources, myself and my

Sebastian Naum (11:54):
Agencies ranging from SEO to social media, influencer, marketing, branding, web development, and more again, that’s Sebastian nom.com. Thank you. And enjoy the rest of the show.

Caitlyn Chase (12:04):
I had the blog, I was mainly covering beauty, fashion travel, and I had a great mentor. And at the time she was she’s behind some of the greatest startups. And she came to me and said, look, I know that you are working on the blog and you love it, but I have a great opportunity that I think you would love and you would be passionate about. And I would love for you to join the team. And it’s a, it’s a startup, it’s a small team. I think I was employee number 10. Um, and so I said, yes, and, and the company was based out of New York. It’s called Glamsquad, uh, on demand beauty services. So essentially Uber for hair, makeup and nails. So you could get your hair, makeup and nails done wherever you were. I love the concept. I’m passionate about beauty. I love getting my hair, makeup and nails done.

Caitlyn Chase (12:52):
So I was like, it’s a fit. And, uh, I opened that helped open the LA office and run the, I helped run the marketing and the branding of the company. And I grew with it. I was there for three years alongside, still running the blog. And so I had a lot of experience to do or opportunity I should say, to do market research. And so I was being sent a bunch of beauty products for the blog to review and, and post on my social media. And then I was interfacing with a bunch of professional makeup artists with glam squad and then interfacing with a lot of the glam squad clients. And I was feeling personally really overwhelmed with skincare. I would be sent so many PR boxes every single day, and I would open them up and they would be 10, 15, 20 products in them.

Caitlyn Chase (13:43):
And I was just feeling an incredible amount of overwhelming for someone that’s pretty, well-versed in beauty for me to feel that way. I was thinking, well, everyone must feel that way if I’m feeling that way. And I know a lot about skincare. So I started a candid conversation with the Glamsquad clients, with the makeup artist and then with my community. And everyone resoundingly felt the same way as I did. They were so confused and they found skincare to be really complicated with these multi-step routines. And, um, these regimens that were being marketed for morning and night versus, um, you know, there was some sometimes products for the afternoon and like who, who has time for products in the afternoon? Um, so I started researching and speaking with the dermatologist that I had a great relationship with and really digging in and, and just really like getting into the nuts and bolts of skincare.

Caitlyn Chase (14:34):
And I realized that a lot of the skincare on the market was just marketing and all of these products essentially were repackaged and they were using the same ingredients, but marketed for morning and night or to address one concern. But then you need another product to address a concern, but they were all the same ingredients. So I thought to myself, I kind of had an aha moment and I said, I can do this better. I can streamline it. I can simplify it. And I can make sure that I formulate things that are straightforward, easy to use and simple. So that’s what I did. And I was able to formulate a line of only three products that can be used morning and night, and they address a variety of the most common skincare concerns.

Sebastian Naum (15:17):
I love that it’s so important too, to get inspiration when you’re in a, in another job or another business opportunity to just find a hole, right. To see a void. Um, I think a lot of young entrepreneurs can get caught in just wanting the success or just wanting a product or just winning in business. And maybe they’re like, you know, I never want to have a regular job or, you know, but having, you know, a regular quote unquote job can really give you the insight into a whole different, you know, world. And you can see what things can be improved from, you know, large scale corporations or, or even a great startup, like the one you were working for and just seeing the voids and getting inspiration from there and taking that, you know, running with.

Caitlyn Chase (15:59):
But I don’t think that I would have come up with the idea if I wasn’t in the position that I was with wad. So I am thankful that I had that opportunity. I learned a lot too about running a business. I also learned that I don’t want to ever be in a corporate environment. Not that they weren’t corporate, uh, when I first joined the team, but as you raise money and the team grows, and then we went from 10 to 65 and it was a completely different company by the, by the end. And I realized that I was a lot more entrepreneurial than to be in a big corporation. Yeah.

Sebastian Naum (16:33):
Yeah. And you needed that experience. So that was great. How important is it to have you mentioned a mentor, um, how important is that to you or is that, was that

Caitlyn Chase (16:43):
Yeah, I think that having a mentor is really important and I think that the relationship with a mentor can work in a variety of different ways. We had this discussion. I think you asked me if I had a sit down conversation and asked her if she would be my mentor and it didn’t really happen like that. We just had a relationship, a friendship, a rapport, and she gave me great advice. And she still to this day, I can text and call her whenever I want, if I have a question and, uh, I consider her a mentor, but I never sat down and said, will you be my mentor? Will you be my bridesmaid? Um, but I have now people approaching me that that wants me to mentor them. And I think it’s great that people are coming right out of the Gates and just asking for that relationship too. So there’s no right or wrong relationship to have with a mentor. But I do think it’s really important to have someone to look up to and to learn from,

Sebastian Naum (17:38):
Do you get turned off? If somebody comes in and just ask like, Hey, can I pick your brain on something? Cause I, you know, I know that’s like not really a phrase you want to say to people, but it can be tough sometimes because you want to, you want to give advice, you want to give value, but you can also get bombarded and you have to have that self-respect and you know, there’s a fine line sometimes, right?

Caitlyn Chase (17:57):
There’s a fine line. I’m a natural born giver. So I have a hard time turning people down, but I also know boundaries. So I’m happy to have a conversation with someone, but I know how to say no when it’s getting too much and it’s taking too much of my time where I feel that they are taking advantage of my time. We’re not respecting it. So I’m always open to a conversation. I love providing value, but there is a very fine line between me saying, okay. Uh, I think, uh, I think this has been enough.

Sebastian Naum (18:27):
Yeah. Yeah, totally. So Katelyn, let’s talk about the product, the, when I started researching your product, um, one of the reasons I reached out to you that I found fitting to the, you know, to the podcast and to what I believe in, uh, into conscious business and into profit and purposes that I saw from the get-go was you had conscious ingredients. So, you know, tell us about these ingredients and why you chose them.

Caitlyn Chase (18:55):
So I, uh, started formulating and I had the notion that since I got the idea from, from speaking with other people, I wanted these other people to work as my focus group and my market research. So I started asking a lot of questions mainly on my social media, because at that time I had built up the audience and on the blog, a big readership. So sending out email blasts, doing polls on Instagram stories and really finding out what people wanted in their skincare in terms of ingredients and results. So I came to the conclusion that a lot of people wanted clean non-toxic skincare, and I myself really appreciate and value beauty products that are non-toxic. I mean, our skin is the biggest organ on our body and we ignore everything that we put onto it. So I believe that we should be more conscious about what we’re putting in and on our bodies.

Caitlyn Chase (19:52):
And my, my concern was that it was going to be difficult to find effective gradients that were also non-toxic and clean. So, um, I went through a lot of different formulations. I tested with a lot of different labs and I was able to find a really great lab that had ingredients that were not only clean, but they were also clinical. So clinical meaning medical grade. And, uh, that’s when I found the jackpot. And, uh, I felt very, very fortunate because I knew I wanted the products to be made here in the States. I said, even better if they’re in California, even better, they’re in Los Angeles. And it just was kismet that I found this lab that’s located right outside of LA, I’m helping the local economy and they made exactly what I wanted.

Sebastian Naum (20:42):
Yeah. So what those, what makes your ingredients, what would make them conscious ingredients? Like, are we talking, um, you know, cruelty-free, is, are they vegan and what’s going on with that?

Caitlyn Chase (20:54):
Yes. So, uh, alongside being non-toxic, they are also, uh, vegan and they are, cruelty-free so never tested on animals. Um, they are tested in a lab in vitro and with, uh, small studies of human participants and that of course are willing participants and, and all of the ingredients are vegan, so no animal byproducts are used.

Sebastian Naum (21:20):
Great. And you mentioned something about being important to that. It’s, you know, LA base supporting the local economy. Uh, you mentioned to him when we were chatting about, you know, the, in the manufacturing, uh, in the facility, workers are paid well as well. Um, how do you see, I guess, I mean, you haven’t seen the, the other side of that necessarily maybe, but do you see that, um, portrayed through when you visit your facility, when you see the workers, like, do, do you feel that people are more effective or, you know, just happier working in a company like that? Of course.

Caitlyn Chase (21:58):
Yeah. I think that, um, the quality of the product starts before the product is even being made. So, um, it really takes a village, a lot of people to make a physical product, especially skincare. Um, and I truly believe that the product is made with love and because we have ethical practices and the people in our facilities, whether it’s the shipping and fulfillment down to the lab, the chemists, everyone is happy and in a great working environment. And I think that it shows in the products and then on the customer space. Yeah.

Sebastian Naum (22:33):
Yeah. That’s huge. I think it totally carries, carries through. That’s awesome. And, um, naturally I have to ask you too about, you know, your customers, uh, what, you know, what about everything that we just talked about, conscious ingredients, you know, workers paid well happy, you know, all that authentic brand. Do you see that, you know, through, in the reviews, do people, you know, do you hear about it in general about, let me rephrase that question. So what I’m seeing a lot is con conscious consumerism is increasing, right? So are consumers voicing to you that they really resonate with your product because it has conscious conscious ingredients or resonate with you because it is a local LA brand supporting, um, the economy and things like that. Yeah.

Caitlyn Chase (23:24):
I think the answer is twofold. I think that it resonates with people because it’s a small business, especially last year during COVID, there was such a, I’m so grateful for a shift of, of focusing on supporting small businesses. And then on top of it seems little owned. So I am really grateful for the support and people rallying around behind the brand and realizing, and I think that part of it is from the outside, looking in, it could look like a huge brand, but at the end of the day, I’ve been so authentic and transparent about how small the team is and how this is, you know, started literally in my living room and as grown. But I think a huge part of it is messaging to the customer and really having interface and being able to share the story and share the, share the journey with them and then realize it’s really, truly at the end of the day, just me and I’m a small business.

Sebastian Naum (24:23):
Yeah. Brand story is so important, especially for conscious brands, customers and consumers can really connect. And that’s what, you know, basically ends up educating them and deciding whether they want to purchase a product support or,

Caitlyn Chase (24:38):
And I love connecting with the customers. I’m very fortunate that we have great reviews, five stars across the board, and people are happy to review because they love the product. And the most important thing to me is that they keep coming back. So with skincare, um, there’s just so much of it on the market that you could easily not have brand loyalty, but people are really, really true to this brand. And it makes me so happy and grateful that people keep returning.

Sebastian Naum (25:07):
That’s awesome. I think I want to try some out for myself.

Caitlyn Chase (25:11):
Yes. Honestly,

Sebastian Naum (25:14):
I was going to ask you, is this a, you know, obviously such a women focused industry, but it’s growing, uh, for men. I think that it’s more okay. Quote, unquote, for guys to talk about that they have a skincare routine, right?

Caitlyn Chase (25:25):
Oh my God. I mean, I wouldn’t, I wouldn’t date someone that doesn’t have a skincare routine. No, it’s, it’s the stigma I think is dissipating for sure. And then, and women are focusing more on their skincare and men love the products that they are unisex, so they can be used by both male and female. However, I think that the way that men are being introduced to it is kind of like backdoor. They will see the products on their wife or girlfriend or partners counter, and try to use them and then fall in love. So I’ve gotten the most like hilarious emails from girls saying my boyfriend stealing all my product. So I need to re up and he’s used, all of my friends are now, so I need to refill. And it just, it makes me so happy. And I have, I have a good amount of male customers now and, uh, I love that. They love it. I love it. That’s really cool. Do you do refills? No. I mean by refills, I mean, just to reorder.

Sebastian Naum (26:27):
Got it. Got it. I was just curious. Got it. That’s cool. So what do you say to a girl that’s listening who is, has an important following maybe on our blog or social media and is making that decision of potentially starting a product or creating product. Is there any like advice that you can give that maybe, you know, you would have liked to know and, you know, beforehand, because honestly from your journey, it sounds like it was such a, um, carefully thought out journey. Like you didn’t just go launch yourself into something, you had some good product research. You, I feel like you really took the right steps and, and helped you also have you had the chance to talk to people about the product beforehand and kind of that product research aspect. So are there any tips that you would give to someone out there trying to do the same thing?

Caitlyn Chase (27:14):
There’s a fine line. I think it’s really important to do your research, but also not wait until it’s perfect because it’s never going to be perfect. And if you wait until the right time, there will never be right time. You will never feel fully ready. So I think there’s a really good balance that you should prepare and research, but also not hold until it’s too late, because you’re really going to regret if you spend way too much time in the preparation phase. So I think there’s a balance. Um, the other piece of advice that I would give is if you plan to self fund, which I did is make sure that you have enough savings to move forward and focus on this. Full-time because I believe that I wouldn’t have gotten to where I am today. If I had to have stayed at my corporate job, because I put my heart and soul and 14, 15, 16 hours per day, pre-launch on this. And I wouldn’t have been able to do that with a full-time job. So having, um, a cushion was really important because again, you’re not going to start making money the first month, two months. I mean, uh, it’s going to be sometimes a long road.

Sebastian Naum (28:31):
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. That’s some good advice I want to congratulate you and all of your success that you’ve had on something that served with a passion with a blog in 2011 into an actual physical, tangible, conscious product. That’s now a Macy’s, you can buy it on Macy’s dot com and of course we’re not buy it on your website directly, obviously, but you are clearly a conscious leader. What do you believe are two traits? The two most important traits that our conscious leader must embody

Caitlyn Chase (29:00):
Two traits that I think conscious leader needs to embody is authenticity and passion,

Sebastian Naum (29:10):
Authenticity, and passion. Well, you definitely have both of those. So, um, congrats on the success Kaitlin and where can people find you?

Caitlyn Chase (29:18):
So on my blog is caviar and cashmere.com. The e-commerce site is shop caviar and cashmere.com. And then my personal Instagram, which all of my blog content lives on is my name at Caitlin chase. And then the skincare is at caviar and cashmere. Everything is linked together. So you can find one to find

Sebastian Naum (29:37):
Yeah, with the black hat links. I’m kidding.

Sebastian Naum (29:43):
Thanks so much for being on Caitlyn. It was wonderful chatting. Thanks so much and keep doing you. Thank you.