This episode is brought to you by Sendlane.   Amanda McIntosh, the founder of Take My Face Off, says that at the beginning of developing her product, the key to getting good feedback is giving testers enough information to imagine the final product.   Other early hurdles included finding a producer, answering questions from retailers, and learning the industry terms, she says.   "I was a very, very lucky person who did some very brash things," Amanda says.   The entire experience taught her this: If you don't have a lot of buzz behind your brand, retailers won't have an incentive to make sure your launch is successful.   "I think it is a rude awakening for a lot of small brands to realize that just because you get into a retailer does not mean you've made it - far from it," she says.   In Part 2, Amanda talks about:   * How she struggled to test her product because colleagues couldn't envision the idea. * How an early breakthrough with a Sephora representative became a great lesson learned. * Why retail buyers are "deers in the headlights" right now. * Why small brands are in for a rude awakening when dealing with retailers. * The difference in customer acquisition cost in retail vs. your website. * Why some people giving advice are giving out outdated information. * Why testing the products to ensure they're genuinely green is essential. * Future plans, including waterless and powder-based products.   Join Ramon Vela and Amanda McIntosh as they break down the inside story on The Story of a Brand.   For more on Take My Face Off, visit: https://www.takemyfaceoff.com/    Subscribe and Listen to the podcast on all major apps. Simply search for “The Story of a Brand,” or click here to listen on your favorite podcast player: Listen now.   *   This episode is also brought to you by Sendlane.   If all DTC companies were forced to turn off Facebook ads, they'd be dead on arrival. Why is that?   They over-invest in paid acquisition and under-invest in retention.   Luckily, Sendlane makes it easy to solve this problem. Sendlane is an E-Commerce Customer Experience Platform helping hundreds of DTC brands to tighten their existing customer relationships.   Sendlane automates personalized customer experiences through Welcome and Abandoned Cart workflows, SMS, Deep Data Integrations with Shopify and WooCommerce, multi-store functionality, and much more.   Plus, they don't stand for lazy customer support. Their San-Diego-based team has an average 1-minute response time from a live human, making sure you never get stuck in a chat queue ever again.   Curious about how Sendlane can help your DTC brand grow? Schedule a demo with a Specialist. Visit https://www.sendlane.com/story