Businesswoman and Entrepreneur Lisa Richards shifted gears after 15+ years working for others. With experience in marketing, sales, digital, and distribution areas for both blue-chip domestic and international businesses, American Lisa Richards knew it was time for a change. She built Piper, LLC and today is an investment, marketing, and distribution firm. Piper, LLC focuses on beauty, wellness, and fitness start-up ventures, including Co-Founding RPZL.
It was through her work with You On Demand, a start-up company that she was inspired to create and launch Piper, LLC. You On Demand delivered Hollywood movies to mobiles and TV screens as a service provider in China. Learning everything about the start-up process, she knew she’d found her passion. From bringing a dream on paper to fruition, and culminating in You On Demand’s Nasdaq listing, she fell in love with the entrepreneurial life, along with its dramatic highs, lows, and frantic pace.
Tell us more about yourself and your brand.
I’m a seasoned media executive and have worked at companies including World Wrestling Entertainment, Starz Encore Group, and iN DEMAND. I have an entrepreneurial spirit with expansive corporate experience and have worked in almost every category from big-entertainment companies to start-ups. I have a reputation for creating, pitching, branding, selling, marketing & executing award-winning, highly effective integrated initiatives which I am doing now for my clients.
How did you create your brand? What inspired you?
Having worked in branding and marketing for 20 years, I always wished there was one company that did it all but more importantly tied it together–all the key performances and results.
I wanted an agency that was under one digital roof to specialize in performance marketing, brand testing, product development, influencer marketing, and fulfillment. I was running all of this for both blue-chip and start-up companies and figured out the key formula for integrating a highly cost-effective branding and marketing campaign from start to fulfillment.
When COVID hit, I had more time (albeit with two girls at home) and was introduced to an Australian company that wanted me to bring their top-selling products into the US. I was obsessed with the products and got excited to make it a household name in the U.S. I currently have 4 clients and a waiting list too.
How does your brand work?
We’re heavily involved in every detail. From the product to the packaging to the pricing (which is one of the most important elements of marketing) to naming the products, bundling the products, affiliate partners, the best influencers to partner with, along with stunting and mapping out a promotional and marketing calendar for the year.
We decide if we are going to launch direct to customers, business to business, or Amazon/other platforms and during which phase. We look at margins and marketing spend. We also test every creative. We create 4-5 ads and analyze which are the top-performing ones. We test verbiage, offers ($20 off or 20% off), timing, colors, a person’s face looking straight on to the left, hair color, etc… We test every detail of the campaign (with codes, backend). I can pretty much tell you where every sale came from. That is how to market both effectively and efficiently.
Do you have a giveaway thought for our readers?
Especially during this time, everyone wants to feel or look their best. There is nothing better than someone else doing your hair. RPZL created a safe and fun environment for girls to look their best. We also launched RPZL to go (if our customers did not feel safe coming to our space). And everyone is so health-conscious now, that is why we brought over Australia’s #1 selling lip balm (selling 1 per minute) to the US. The lip balms are 100% natural, and all Australian made. Featuring Australian-sourced Beeswax and Extra Virgin Oil in every balm. You can eat every ingredient.
What challenges did you go through while building your brand? What challenges do you face daily?
Some of the new brands we come up with have a great name but then can’t secure the trademark, URL, and/or social media handles (I have been successful in purchasing a few in China, but for one brand, I couldn’t get a minor radio station in Miami to sell it to me).
I am currently focusing on start-ups without significant marketing budgets so the biggest challenge is being smart with our funds and bartering services. We are working with companies in other countries so customs are always fun and product timing/delivery + marketing push is a careful delicate balance.
How do you handle your business finances and funding?
I am personally funding my company and have a revenue share model with each brand. I want us to all be in this together. It is the only way it truly works.
What’s your future vision for your brand? What’s the next level dream for you?
I am in a very good place in my career. That allows me to only work with brands that I connect with. At the end of the day, I am interviewing you to hire me. I do want to launch a teen division (one of my daughters is a micro-influencer) so I can help other teen influencers correctly connect and negotiate with leading brands and agencies. There are a lot of teen influencers who are being taken advantage of, and some of their parents do not have this skill set to help them navigate through this. I want to secure top brand partnerships, negotiate deals, manage contacts, execute deliveries, and more (just like I am doing for my daughter).
What message would you give to those people looking to create something of their own and make a living through it?
Go for it! I never wanted to be a cheerleader. I wanted to be a starting player. You are going to make so many mistakes, but from those mistakes, you will grow more than you ever would as a person (not with just work, but in every sector). The joy is in getting there. The beginning years of starting your business, the camaraderie when you’re in the pit together, are the best years of your life. So rather than being so focused on when you get big and powerful, if you can just get the juice out of that… don’t miss it.
