Topics: Starting a Product Business, Pivoting your Business, What a Host UK
Starting a product business…the windy road
Ever felt like you’re too late or too underqualified to start over?
I’m talking with Melanie Kalfaian—founder of What A Host and the absolute queen of pivots. Melanie went from running events in Argentina to building a product-based business in the UK in an industry she knew nothing about. Oh, and she did it after moving countries, leaving behind an established career, and starting completely from scratch.
She shares how she went from running events in Argentina to launching a cutlery and home décor brand in the UK—with zero product biz experience. We talk business pivots, cultural leaps, letting go of your “perfect idea,” and learning to show your face (literally) in your brand.
In this conversation, we unpack what it really looks like to:
- Shut down a business—even when it still has life in it
- Start over in a totally new space without connections or experience
- Make tough choices between passion and profitability
- Get comfortable being the face of your brand (even when it’s terrifying)
- Build social proof through brand partnerships and bold moves
🎧 Whether you’re mid-pivot, rebuilding from scratch, or just want to be reminded that it’s okay to change everything—this episode is for you.
TIMESTAMPS
00:47 From Services to Products: Starting a Business in a New Industry
04:52 Moving Countries and Starting Over from Scratch
08:15 Learning by Doing: Why Experience Isn’t Everything
13:33 When Your Idea Flops: Pivoting to What Actually Sells
22:00 The Marketing Mistake Every Founder Should Hear
LISTEN TO NEXT:
12 Years, 12 Lessons (ep 49)
RESOURCES
Instagram:@chardetryel
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MORE ABOUT THIS PRODUCT BUSINESS PODCAST EPISODE
“You can’t get married to one idea. That’s how you fail. You have to listen, pivot, and grow.” – Melanie Kalfaian, founder of What a Host
Connect with Melanie Kalfaian
www.whatahost.co.uk
https://www.melaniekalfaian.com/
LinkedIn: Melanie Kalfaian
IG: @whatahost
- Reinventing from Scratch
- Pivoting your business
- Visibility is Vulnerable—But Necessary
- Mistakes That Cost Us (And What we learn from them)
- Partnerships & Collabs to grow
Have you built something with heart, only to realize the market isn’t responding the way you hoped?
You’re not alone—and you’re not failing.
There’s this part of entrepreneurship no one really talks about: the heartbreak of pivoting. It’s not just about shifting direction—it’s about letting go of the thing you were so sure was going to work. That dreamy idea you nurtured? It may not be the thing that carries you forward. But sometimes, the pivot is what clears the way for something even better.
That’s exactly what this week’s guest on the podcast, Melanie Kalfaian, discovered—after moving countries, leaving her career behind, and starting a product-based business in an industry she knew absolutely nothing about.
No Experience? Don’t let it stop you!
When we think about how to start a business from scratch, the typical narrative goes something like this: get the degree, gain the experience, build the network, then launch.
But what if you skipped all that and just started anyway?
Melanie did. After a career in marketing and events in Argentina, she moved to the UK for love and found herself in unfamiliar territory—personally and professionally. With no local network and no roadmap, she made the bold choice to shift from services to products and launch a home décor brand called What A Host.
“If I had launched the wine company, I would’ve been a wine expert. But it turned out to be home décor—and I learned that instead.”
What unfolded was messy, brave, and beautifully unexpected. Starting a product-based business wasn’t part of the plan. But it became part of her purpose.
The Idea You Love Might Not Be the One That Works
Let’s talk about heartbreak of a different kind: when your business idea doesn’t land.
Melanie’s original concept was to sell curated tablescape bundles. She poured time, energy, and vision into the launch—only to find that her customers weren’t buying it.
“Sometimes what you love is not exactly what will work—and that’s okay.”
So she did what most founders resist: she pivoted.
And this wasn’t just any pivot. It was a masterclass in listening, testing, and letting the market guide the next move. She noticed that people weren’t buying the full tablescapes—but they were snapping up the cutlery. That’s when she leaned into what was working, let go of what wasn’t, and built a stronger brand from the ashes of the first draft.
This is what pivoting your business idea looks like when done with clarity—not ego. Her story reminds us that the path isn’t linear. It’s layered, winding, and sometimes surprisingly profitable if you’re willing to adapt.
Visibility Isn’t Optional Anymore
If the product is the soul of your business, visibility is its voice.
But showing up isn’t always easy—especially when you’re still finding your feet in a new country, new market, and new industry. For Melanie, the idea of being the face of her brand felt like a stretch at first.
“I was hiding behind the brand because I didn’t feel confident enough to show my face.”
Sound familiar?
Whether you’re starting a product-based business or scaling a service, how to build brand visibility is one of the most important (and personal) parts of the journey. Visibility isn’t just about being seen—it’s about being known, trusted, and connected. And that only happens when you stop overthinking and start showing up, even if your voice shakes.
For Melanie, stepping into visibility meant building deeper connections with her audience. It also helped her form aligned partnerships, like a collaboration with the Manchester United Women’s team and the Women Built community—a move that positioned her as a credible, visible force in the home decor space.
Mistakes That Cost—And What They Teach You
Of course, reinvention isn’t a straight line. Melanie made her fair share of missteps—like investing heavily in paid ads without first building her infrastructure.
“I was putting money on ads without an email strategy, without organic traffic. I didn’t know how the pieces worked together.”
That part hits.
So many founders rush into scaling before they’ve built a foundation. No email list. No SEO. No cohesive content strategy. It’s like building a house with no plumbing and wondering why nothing flows.
If you’re wondering how to start a business from scratch and actually make it work—start with the strategy, not the shiny stuff. Grow slow, but grow smart.
“You need to know how it all fits together before you invest. Or you’re just lighting your budget on fire.”
FULL TRANSCRIPT WITH MELANIE KALFAIAN AT WHAT A HOST UK BELOW:
Chardét (00:00)
Imagine starting a business in a field which you had never been in before. And not only that, imagine that you used to work in the service industry and you went into products. But not only that, you also were coming from an entirely different country than where you were gonna have this business. That is the incredible story. Her name is Melanie Kalfaian. She is the founder of Whatahost.
in the UK, which is a home decor company that sells everything from tableware to flatware to table textiles, kitchen accessories, all of it very beautiful and kind of curated so you can give that experience of being a host in your own home or at your events. This is a story where we’re going to go over so many learnings, what you get from your failures, and then also this idea of resilience and to keep showing up and to keep innovating. I’ll see you inside.
Welcome to her first three years. From breakdowns to blunders, learn what worked and what didn’t. I’m your host Charday and whether you’re a new entrepreneur or you’re just starting something new, this is your space to learn and feel little less alone.
I’m really excited about your journey and all the transitions you’ve done. It’s super inspiring, so thank you for being here.
Melanie (01:30)
Thank you for inviting me. I’m really happy to be here today.
Chardét (01:33)
Now the audience doesn’t know it yet, but you are kind of a really unique person to speak to in that you have gone from services to product, went into an industry you had no idea about and made it work.
Melanie (01:45)
So in terms of my brand, would say that the big challenge for me right now on the big mission exposed myself a bit more. I was kind of like trying to hide behind because I was a bit shy. I was in a different country, as you said, and for some reason I was not really confident. So I was trying to stay on the back end doing all of the hard work, but you know…
hiding my face. So the big mission for my company, let’s go out, let’s show who’s behind being connected to other female founders, expand your network, but most importantly share your story because you have something to say because when you are a founder, when you have a company, you cannot really separate both. So showing myself, being out there, talking to other people about me, immediately makes me talk about my personal life and my personal story and all of the challenges I went through.
Chardét (02:35)
It
isn’t like you woke up day one and you’re like, is the industry I’m entering. So can you talk about where you started? I know a little bit, of course, but I think it’s interesting for anyone to hear.
Melanie (02:47)
So I’m from Argentina. So basically I was living in Argentina before moving to the UK where I live now and I have my company. So I was providing a service. I used to run the marketing, communication and events department of different companies within different fields. So life made me go through the fashion industry mostly. So I was helping like Givenchy, Mac, Hilton, different makeup artists, TV channels in my country. So that what I was doing before I was helping them.
on how to scale, how to grow using marketing and communication tools. And at the same time, I was organizing events, different experiences to enhance the brands and also to keep growing. So that’s basically where I come from. That’s what I was doing. At this point, I believe I have so many life inside one life because every time I move to another country or I do something new, I’m like, that was a different Melanie. That was like Melanie from another life before, because it seems like so long ago. So that was before 2020. And then in 2020, I moved to the UK. I moved for
Personal reasons, I fell in love with a guy that has nothing to do with the brand, but that was the reason why I moved to the UK. You know, it happens. I used to live in Spain before, so I had lots of friends here in Europe and I was happy to move here and give it another try. So at the time, I decided to stop my company and delegate everything to different colleagues and move to the UK and have a fresh start and do something new.
So at the beginning when I moved here, I thought maybe the best would be for me to get a nine to five job because I don’t know anyone here. I don’t have a network, but deep inside I knew at some point I would do something by my own because that was in my DNA somehow. So I thought, let’s just give it a try. Let’s see how it goes. And then maybe later on I can do something. And COVID started and this delayed all of my paperwork, my residence card for my industry, communication, marketing events. It was absolutely dead.
So then I went through like a very sad period of my life where I was at home and I thought if I don’t do something, if I cannot find something, a purpose to wake up for every single day, I will just go crazy. So this is when I thought maybe this is the right time for me to take a step back and think about doing something else, like creating another company. But this time I don’t want to sell a service anymore. And the reason why is because back in my country I was working
more than what I should have. Offering a service, especially in the events industry, is really, really hard. So was working Saturdays, Sundays, Friday nights. It was fine when I was 20 years old, to be fair. It was like super nice. I met lots of interesting people. But towards my 30s, I wanted to find something more established. Not that selling a product makes your life easier. Don’t get me wrong. It’s like a full mind, full soul job all the time, 24-7.
but I wanted to have like a more organized life if you get what I mean. So this is when I thought about selling a product and I had no idea of what to sell. If I need to be transparent here, if I can be transparent with you, I had no idea of what I wanted to do. But somehow because I’m Argentinian, I thought maybe I could do something, I don’t know, wine related. So I started digging into that, wine tasting boxes, providing bits and bytes of home decor. So that was my first kickoff.
And I started digging on that. I started working on my business plan during this sad period of being at home. I bought a tiny desk on Amazon, like a 20, 20 pounds one, like very bad quality, I need to be honest, like very bad quality. So I was sitting there every single day, nine to five, trying to develop my company. And this is how it started. The wine didn’t work out because the taxes were too high here in the UK. I would have needed to invest lots of money on…
how to store those wines, big fridges, big storage space, so that was not doable for me. But I got to understand when I was doing my cash flow that the home accessories, the home decor part of the brand was the one actually bringing the most margins within that business model. And I thought, well, maybe I should do more like a tablescape kind of like a bundle selling different home accessories altogether for people to buy these.
open it at home and recreate that special corner, that nice tablescape to host at home, and then reality checks again. And when I launched my company, and I can talk about that later on, that idea that I thought it was amazing and people would love didn’t exactly work out that way, was not what people were trying to buy, that was not the need, so I immediately changed. I had no idea about Home the Core before, and I think at this point, I was already almost 30 when I started.
I could learn and I encourage everyone to learn at any point of their life. There is always time. You can always learn something new. If I had launched the wine company, I would have been a wine expert. But in the end, it was home the court. So now I know about materials. I know about manufacturing processes. I know how to import in the UK. I know about logistics. I didn’t even know about e-commerce. I learned something new. And if I ever exit and I enter into another field, I know that I have the time to learn a new skill.
And that’s what I always try to say to other people when they come to me and they tell me basically, but I’m like 35, I’m 40, not sure if I can start my business now because I don’t come from that. My background is in, I don’t know, PR, it’s in IT. But yes, you can, you just need to learn or find the people that can help you.
Chardét (08:20)
I hope people hear this message twice. And this is honestly one of the biggest reasons I wanted to talk to you because to me, it was fascinating that someone could have zero experience in a product based business. Because services, we, you whatever, we figure it out, but in a product business and then have it work. Incredible. And it makes more sense to now that you explain it, how you got to that idea that you had one idea in the wine industry.
and the accessories were a compliment. But then you actually looked at the margins, financials, everybody here, and you saw like, okay, this makes sense. And I also like it. It’s a passion for me. Why not? And let me learn. I will get this stuff because so many times I think we see the features of entrepreneurs who, they had 20 years in the furniture industry and then they set up their boutique.
And that’s not encouraging to someone who’s like, I’m 45, I’m 55, I don’t know, like I wanna do this, but I have zero experience in it.
Melanie (09:18)
Maybe like call me crazy, but I think you can always start again. I moved to another country, in fact, twice in my life, and I’m open to move to another country again if that opportunity comes. So, I mean…
Obviously it’s in your personality at the same time. I am not scared because I know that I will find the way and this applies to everyone. But you need to make sure that you have that with you because otherwise it’s easy to fail. It’s easy to put yourself down because during the process, during that moment where you move to another country, where you launch a new company, you will go through different ups and downs and you need to deal with that because it’s very easy to just give up because it’s not easy.
I mean, as I was telling you, I moved to the UK. I didn’t have a job. I was living with two different guys that I barely knew. And I thought, I mean, maybe the easiest move for me is to go back to my country, but I stayed. So it’s not easy, but you eventually get there if you push yourself towards that. So.
Chardét (10:14)
when you move country to somewhere else and you’re not going already with a job, you’re not going with built-in friends, you’re not going because you’re going to do a post-grad, you’re literally going because you know one person and I did that too and it’s hard. It is, I’m sure you probably did this too, like we can say, ⁓ we’re strong now and we did it, but I remember looking at flights back to New York. I was living in London too. I looked at flights back to New York like every other month, maybe every week in the beginning.
Melanie (10:43)
Yeah,
it happens, it happens. And I asked myself many, many times, and especially during COVID, I had my whole family in Argentina and I thought, maybe I’m not to see my granny ever again. So I was dealing with all of these thoughts in my head. And I was even thinking like, did I make the right decision by shutting down my company there and moving here? Because I was building something in Argentina when I moved. that was, that was like, yeah, not the best moment of my life when I just moved, but it turned out to be good. And I’m happy with.
with the choice because it lead me to be where I am now. But it took time and that’s what I always try and say to other people, like it takes time. Building something takes time and finding the right way to do things.
Chardét (11:24)
What was it that allowed you to leave the business in Argentina? Was there something else you were thinking about? Like, I don’t know, new opportunities or you’re just excited? I’ve also left a business behind in my former country in the States and it’s not an easy decision. I mean, even if you get sick of that business, it’s hard. was there anything that was kind of also drawing you to maybe something new or something different?
Melanie (11:49)
Well I think I need to be in a constant change. I always need to be challenged. So I think it’s part of the way I am. It’s in my DNA. And obviously in Argentina I was very happy. I was quite established. To be absolutely honest with you, in my country sometimes having your own company is a struggle. There are lots of financial problems and it’s not the same. Things in the UK are really made for people to succeed. So you have the tools here.
I was a student in my country, I got my degree there, so I am extremely grateful for all of the opportunities I had. But at the same time, I believe that here in London, in a few years time, I managed to achieve many, many goals that in my country would have taken me maybe like 20 years and not even getting there potentially. So obviously that for me was a huge opportunity to try something new. I don’t know if I would have thought about it if that guy was not in the scene, but I think…
somehow, and this is what my dad was telling me at some point, he told me, that was actually written for you. You were not supposed to stay in Argentina. So all of the decisions you were making, the way you were moving, the people you were hanging out with, everything was moving you towards, you know, looking to another country and moving somewhere else and start something new. So I think somehow it was written as per him and I can see it now that somehow I was supposed to move.
Chardét (13:11)
How did I want to slightly back up because I know that we paused in part of your journey, which was you had this new idea of let me have a pre-basic sets, right? Things to help you host essentially dinners and events like that. And then you wanted to sell it as bundles, but people didn’t really buy it. And then what was the next step after that?
Melanie (13:33)
So first I needed to deal with how disappointed I was and all the efforts I put on that because the website and everything was made for me to sell tablescapes, my small testing I would say, but I knew that somehow this would eventually change so I was open to that. However, I was very confident with the idea and I loved it and sometimes what you love is not exactly what will work.
So I put that on the website and just in case I put those products individually so people could buy them even though they didn’t want to go for the whole bundle. And I started realizing that people were just looking to buy the cutlery set, the buses, the table textiles, the candle holders individually. So when I realized about that and I just had like 10 % of the clients buying the whole set, then I changed the whole strategy and that was pretty much straightforward because
Thanks God I didn’t put What a Host Tabelscape in the name. So it was just what I host. It was an easy way to change because I just changed the website, changed the pictures, the whole description on the website and then all of the social media posts that I was doing at a very early stage. Yeah, it was a bit disappointing at the beginning because my first idea and I thought it was like amazing. People will love that. They didn’t love it. But it happens, know, and the same happened
with the products I was selling. For some reason, my feeling was that, cutlery people might not buy and I just brought cutlery just in case, you know, as a nice accessory. Let’s see how it goes. And then people were buying cutlery big time. And I got to understand that in the UK, there was a gap for stylish and nice cutleries. I mean, there was a gap between the very, very cheap versions and the very, very expensive.
flatware. So within that range, in the middle, if you wanted to find something that was actually nice and better quality, there was nothing. And that’s why people were willing to buy cutlery from me and that’s why I went full on on that. And now I have many, many different models, but I started just with one set. And that’s how you learn. And I think you can’t really get married with one idea because that’s when you will fail. You need to be open to your customers to give you feedback.
and you need to be open to take it. You cannot be like just very close to think about the only idea that you have that’s the best. need to listen to what people are really looking to buy when you sell a product because that’s how your company will grow. And that’s when I thought about just focusing on what people were willing to buy. And over and over I was removing the products that people were not buying that much. I was putting them in discount. I was trying to get rid of that stock to bring more. And then again,
The more I was growing, the more I was testing the market, the more I was including new stuff. When I was having a chat with a client and they were telling me, actually, the candle holders that you sold to me are really nice. Maybe I should dig more into these metal products. And then I brought more of that. So I think over the past five years, I get to develop different products based on what I was getting from the people that were buying from me.
So think you need to be open to that when you sell a product and obviously that takes time. You cannot know for sure in one year. You need to live, you need to give enough time to gather all this information and then the most important thing is to work on giving an answer to that because if you gather information and you don’t do anything about it, well, that’s when you lose.
Chardét (17:11)
It’s such an important lesson because it’s like this idea of what you did, like you looked at the numbers, you listened to the feedback, you explored, you didn’t stay wed to the idea of the tablescapes even though you really wanted to do it. I confess to you, you learned this a lot sooner than I did. I think it took me like, I don’t know, it took me like seven years. Maybe longer.
Melanie (17:34)
At least you managed to know. I mean at some point this hits you and then you realize it doesn’t really matter how long it takes.
Chardét (17:41)
It’s exactly that. And you have this mindset, which is really great. I always say this is a great mindset to have of where you’re open to looking at it as just, are the variables and I’m going to play with the variables and I’m going to create from there versus going in with like, this is the design.
It has to be this design. And it’s hard. I’ll admit, especially like the more personal stuff you put into what you sell, the harder it is to admit that people don’t want it, which you found with your tablescapes, right? And it was a great idea. Like I think it’s a great idea.
Melanie (18:12)
Yeah, it happens. It happens a lot. It’s good that you are flexible enough and open to change.
Chardét (18:18)
What do you think about now? Because I think one of the really interesting ways is that you have brought in your previous experience and events with the partnerships and the way that you promote the product. And the one I’m thinking of specifically is like the most recent one, right? But we had talked about before. If you want to share a little bit about that, because I think it’s super innovative as someone who’s selling products to think in this way.
Melanie (18:42)
I was invited by the Manchester football team and by Women Built. That’s a community of female founders here in the UK. Very, very big and very interesting with lots of interesting women that built product-based companies. And I’m a part of this community and this opportunity came to the table and they contacted me to see if I wanted to design their tables for a private dinner.
they were hosting for Women’s Day and to dress up the tables for about 60 guests for this nice and private event they hosted in Manchester. And I immediately say, yes, this is amazing because somehow allow me to merge my previous experience in events and my passion because I love that. That’s something that I still need to find the right angle to merge it with what I host because I think there is something there to explore. So I was literally going with my luggage on the day.
preparing and then going, taking a shower and come back for the event to be there as a guest at the same time. Coming back to the question, I think somehow when someone buys a candle holder, a plate or a cutlery, they buy it because they want to create an experience around the table. So I think being involved in this type of event is actually the purpose behind my brand and what I like and I love the most.
So even though home decor was not my field, I think events, yes, this is my background, this is what I love the most. Also marketing-wise, being related to these brands is very important because you get to have exposure, you get to be featured in different portals, in different social media accounts, and obviously this helps pushing your brand, building the brand awareness that takes time.
Chardét (20:26)
And it’s more, I think this collaboration’s for any field, whether your services or products is the way forward for sure. Because like you said, you amplify your reach, you have all these now interesting people too that will probably refer you for something else. And you get even more social proof in a lot of ways because they see what you can do and they also, there’s something like you said that…
If you’re getting nice cutlery, you’re doing it because you’re creating your own mini experience and event. And if I can take inspiration from a big event that you did, that’s great for me. That’s, I’d like to create this feeling at home. And it’s what you’ve captured. It’s so interesting. You’re not in events, but you kind of are.
Melanie (21:09)
Yeah, yes, absolutely. And I think at the same time, working with these brands give you as well the validation. People believe that what you’re selling, it’s immediately related with what they think, right? They believe that what you’re selling is high end, like everything that you’re doing. So I think it helps in many, many ways. I am trying to build a brand. I want people to think about what I host when they need to buy, I don’t know, a set of cutlery, plates, whatever they want to buy for the home, right?
So if you want to build that, if you want people to be, you know, to have your company at the top of the mind, then you need to be doing these type of things.
Chardét (21:44)
So this is a question I’m asking more and more now. I think it lets people feel more relatable in their business journeys, not so isolated. And the question is, what is the most awkward or cringe moment that you’ve had as an entrepreneur?
Melanie (22:00)
So I could speak about a really bad mistake I made because I didn’t really get the full picture of my brand. So basically a few years ago, about two years and a half ago, I decided to hire a marketing agency at the time because I thought if I want to grow, I need to be doing the ads in a good way. I need to be investing lots of money there to scale up fast. And I thought that by putting money on that, I would grow.
and I didn’t know much about digital marketing at the time or how to put that piece of the puzzle all together with the rest of the things I was doing. I didn’t really have a proper strategy behind. So I went on the market and I try and find a marketing agency and obviously lots of marketing agencies show up because they want to sell the service. So I decided to go for quite a big and established one because I thought I need to invest money on that for someone to do it in a proper way. I don’t want a freelancer, I want a proper agency.
So I signed a contract for six months with high retainer, high monthly fee, and that was a huge mistake for over six months. I didn’t get any result. I didn’t get any money back. I was literally throwing money out of the window. And I think this agency sold me the dream. So these guys and many other people that I spoke with were telling me, if you do that, you’ll see in three months time, you will be smashing it.
And that was really sad for them to say because on the other side it’s you with all the hopes of building something, having a big company, achieving those results, achieving those sales. So I was very frustrated when this didn’t happen to me. You need to be careful on what you hear and what people tell you because it might not be exactly what you need. And this comes to the second lesson I’ve learned, which is you need to know exactly how things work out within the company and being able to take a step.
back and understanding the whole digital field because at the time, mean, this might sound silly, but I was putting money on ads without an email marketing in place. So I was making people to go to the website. I was generating traffic, but I was not really converting or taking the most of it because I didn’t have an email marketing strategy in place. I didn’t know much about SEO organic traffic. So I was not putting my efforts there that would eventually help my ads to perform better.
So I think not understanding the full picture, not understanding how the whole puzzle work and all of those pieces to be put together, that was the big mistake from my end. And even though I needed to pause the ads for a little while and I was not generating enough traffic or enough income at the time, I needed to put things in place. So whenever I was making an effort on that and investing money, everything would work out better. So I think this applies to everything, not only for ads, it applies to any initiative you want to do in your company.
You need to ask yourself that if all of the rest of the things you’re doing, all the rest of the efforts are following your strategy.
Chardét (24:55)
It’s funny because you answered the second question as well really. I was thinking more like what’s a silly thing you did but you actually answered the deeper question which was what was a big mistake that you learned from investing so much money when you don’t have infrastructure in place for something that can benefit you but if you’re not ready in that age it doesn’t help. That’s a big one.
Melanie (25:17)
Well,
the same happened to me, I don’t know if I can add one more, but the same happened to me with content creators and affiliate marketing. So I was not having a proper strategy in place. And when I just started, I was paying to different profiles to do some content online and some of them were just gifted. just…
had my products, they were generating content. I had no experience on that. So the type of content they were generating was not really good. I didn’t have a proper brief. A piece of advice I would tell anyone starting a company is like, don’t go through that path at the beginning because unless you’re a big brand and you can put lots of money on content creation and you can have many, profiles speaking about you, that won’t work because it won’t necessarily drive sales. This will build your brand awareness.
But if you cannot allow yourself to have 20, 30 profiles speaking about your brand every single month, this is not going to work out for you. So again, everything comes down to the point, are you ready for that? Are you following and having a proper strategy behind? All the rest of the things you’re doing are in place for this to be a success? I’m not saying working with content creators or influencers is wrong. I’m just saying that you need to be sure that
this is the right stage to do that. And if you do it, make sure you do it right, because then you will fail and you will blame the content creators, you will blame other people when actually it’s your fault for not having thought about it properly.
Chardét (26:41)
The two things you said, one is being ready for and the second thing is having the strategy behind it. Even things like Instagram, right? Like you can blame the algorithm and I do, but you can also say like, do I really have a strategy behind this? Am I actually following the strategy and looking a little deeper for that? And so I think that’s such good advice and you’ve shown.
examples like beyond examples of how let me ask you final one because i think it’s worth getting to know what you’re doing for anyone listening not just even as customers but just to see someone who’s innovating so much where can they find out about your company they
Melanie (27:18)
go to whatahost.co.uk that’s the website or they can find us on social media at whatahost even on LinkedIn they can find me by my name I’m always happy to share my story and I have no secrets I’ve been frustrated many times before when I was approaching people and they were not giving me the answer I was looking for so me I don’t have that me I’m like I’m gonna be fully transparent with you and if I can give you a piece of advice a contact or whatever I can do for you I’ll do it
Chardét (27:45)
I encourage everyone to do both and thank you so much for being here. I love the energy you bring. It just like fills up our little virtual room. Yes.
Melanie (27:54)
I loved it. Thank you so much for inviting me in first place.
Chardét (27:57)
Thank you so much for listening. I hope this story inspired you. It got you ready to think about how are you going to innovate? How are you going to refine? If you really found value in this, if you liked Melanie’s story, if you were inspired by it,
connect with her, find her, support her there, and also let us know in the reviews how this episode has helped you. Maybe if there’s a piece of it that you just wish you heard sooner, we read all of them. It really makes a difference. Not just me reading them, it’s any female founder who comes across this podcast and if you feel like other people could benefit from it, we’d really appreciate you sharing there. Thank you for being here and I will see you in the next one.
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