Walking the Path to Growth: Building a Fast-Growing Retail and Direct-to-Consumer Brand
- Harvest Growth
- 4 days ago
- 18 min read
Today, we’re talking with Laina Gossman, the innovative founder of Soul Insole, who tackled a problem many of us know all too well: uncomfortable shoes and foot pain that make every step a struggle. Her brilliant solution? A compact, micro-sized orthotic that provides powerful support—without hogging space in your favorite shoes. Yes, even those chic sandals and stylish dress shoes.
Laina walks us through her journey, from the spark of an idea to building a successful brand that's now featured online and in retail stores across the country. And she didn’t stop at one breakthrough product—Soul Insole has expanded to include metatarsal pads, heel lifts, and full-length insoles to meet a variety of foot care needs.
Tune in for Laina’s inspiring entrepreneurial story and gain valuable insights on everything from landing media spots like Good Morning America to getting the most out of marketing agencies. She also shares the power of being your brand’s biggest advocate—and how smart follow-ups can get your product onto the shelves of your dream retailers.
In today’s episode of the Harvest Growth Podcast, we’ll cover:
Strategies for landing major PR opportunities like Good Morning America through persistent follow-up
Tips for vetting marketing agencies to avoid wasting resources on ineffective campaigns
The power of building genuine relationships with distributors to access retail channels
Leveraging trade shows and conventions to prove product effectiveness to key industry players
Balancing persistence with respect when pursuing business growth opportunities
You can listen to the full interview on your desktop or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Or, click to watch the full video interview here!
Are you struggling with foot discomfort or pain? Visit www.soulinsole.com to discover how Soul Insole's innovative micro-sized orthotics can enhance comfort without cramping your style or your shoes.
To be a guest on our next podcast, contact us today!
Do you have a brand that you’d like to launch or grow? Do you want help from a partner that has successfully launched hundreds of brands that now total over $2 billion in revenue? Set up a free consultation with us today!
Prefer reading instead of listening? Read the full transcript here!
Jon LaClare [00:00:00]:
If you'd like a mini masterclass on growing your product business, then you'll love today's interview. We dive right into recommendations for landing huge PR opportunities with shows like Good Morning America. We talk about how to choose good partners and agencies that you can trust to grow your direct to consumer sales. And we dive into how to convince the best distributors to take on your product and get you into brick and mortar retailers.
Announcer [00:00:27]:
Are you looking for new ways to make your sales grow? You've tried other podcasts but they don't seem to know Harvest the growth potential of your product or service as we share stories and strategies that'll make your competitors nervous. Now here's the host of the Harvest Growth podcast, Jon LaClare.
Jon LaClare [00:00:47]:
Welcome back to the show. I'm really excited to be speaking with Laina Gossman today. She's the inventor and founder of of Soul Insoul S O U L Insoul and you can find her products@soulinsole.com as well as retailers across the country, et cetera. Really cool line of Insoul products. We're going to dive into the product and some great stories behind her business as well that I think you're really going to enjoy. Before we dive in though. Laina, welcome to the show.
Laina Gossman [00:01:14]:
Thank you, Jon.
Jon LaClare [00:01:16]:
Yeah, thanks so much for joining. I'm really excited to dive in. So before we get into the story side of it, could you describe your insoles? I think people know what insoles are in general, but how are yours different and how did you come up with the idea in the original in the first place?
Laina Gossman [00:01:30]:
Well, our main insole that we're known for is a micro sized orthotic. So it only goes in midsection of the shoe, not under the heel and not under the ball of the foot. So it provides support, but also it offloads pressure from the heel and the ball of foot. The main difference is that it doesn't take up a bunch of space in your shoes like all other insoles. So it'll add support, but it won't crowd your feet in the shoes. But also you can put it into sandals and flip flops and ballet flats and dress shoes and shoes that just don't have space for a full length insole. That being said, we also have other products now too. We've got metatarsal pads, heel lifts, heel wedges, and we have our first full length insole. We do still keep in mind that we don't want to squish your toes in the shoes. So it tapers down at the toes and it's customizable and soft and cushioned. So that's what we're mostly known for and how we're different from the other brands that are out there on the market.
Jon LaClare [00:02:29]:
And is the first product that you mentioned still your bestseller?
Laina Gossman [00:02:33]:
It is, yeah. It's our most popular product still and we have different thicknesses, different sizes. Our newest full length insole though, is catching up.
Jon LaClare [00:02:46]:
Oh, good, good. Do you see a lot of people coming back and buying more from you? I imagine people keep insoles, I assume, different shoes, et cetera. Or maybe you want the full insole for some shoes and some sports or activities and the partial insole for others. Do you see people buying multiples over the course of time?
Laina Gossman [00:03:03]:
Yeah, people buy multiples of the same product. So a lot of times they'll buy one product and test it out, see how they like it. You can move it from shoe to shoe. It's washable. The adhesive comes back after washing. But then after a little while you decide, oh, I don't want to move it around all the time. I've got three, four pairs of shoes that I wear most often and they're very effective and affordable. So it's very easy to just have a few pairs, one for each of your favorite shoes. But then again, people will also buy different products. So let's say they do have space for a full length insole on one of their shoes. Then they'll use the full length insoles for those shoes. And then for their dress shoes and sandals will use the micro sized orthotic called the shoe bubble.
Jon LaClare [00:03:46]:
And you've had a lot of growth and success with this business both on the direct to consumer side, on your website, on Amazon and E commerce platforms, and then also in brick and mortar retail outlets as well. And I want to kind of separate those. We'll talk about both and how you know, how you found success in both. First question I have is on the on the direct to consumer side, my understanding you've worked with a few marketing agencies over the years and have some learnings to share. So you know, I were chatting about this before we hit record on this. I think it's a great story or great maybe learning for a lot of our listeners as they might be hiring marketing agencies, things to watch out for. So some ups and downs I think is how you worded it. Can you speak a little bit to your experience on maybe some learnings of things to watch out for when you're making a selection of agencies to work with?
Laina Gossman [00:04:32]:
Yeah, I Feel like when you have your own business, you almost get contacted more by people that want to sell things to you. And so you've got to be really picky and choosy about who you work with. I've definitely learned my lessons in hard ways. I've had plenty of companies or people that have told me that they really feel that my product is going to be a great fit for their platform and they know exactly how to market it and they're going to drive tons of traffic and you have to throw a few thousand dollars in to get started on this marketing platform. And I finally say, okay, I'm going to give them a chance. And then all I get back from that $3,000 is a bunch of bot clicks and maybe $100, $200 worth of sales and you just have to take a deep breath and move on. And sometimes it can create a little bit of hesitation to give other people a chance so you get burned and then you might miss out on other good opportunities that come your way. So I always try to learn lessons from the experiences that I have and keep an open mind and continue to give chances. But next time use my experience from before to make better decisions of who I'm going to work with in the future. I've had some really great experiences with platforms like the grommet. They do more of a commissioned based, a commission based program where they, or it's performance based, I guess you would call it, where they only take a percentage of the sales that they generate. And I feel like working with companies that do that can be better because they really believe in what they can do and they prove it to you by saying, we're not going to take anything up front, we're going to just earn. If we help you earn.
Jon LaClare [00:06:40]:
Yeah. I think it's a great maybe separation to go down a couple different paths as we talk about this because I agree with you. I think if you can find channels that are willing to take risk with you. Right. And we've had many clients be on the grommet over the years and it's an example of a good platform. I mean, kind of like Walmart or.com or Amazon.com etc. You know, it's a platform people go to to buy. Right. So there's costs associated with Amazon, of course, but when you get it to work, it becomes a percentage of sales as opposed to an upfront cost. Right. The other side is driving traffic to your website. Right. So. Or to your business. And that becomes like a, a paid media type Strategy. And over the years we've, we've had a lot of conversations with people that like, have gone down the path like you, right. Where they feel like they were burned, they spent a lot of money and got not a lot of results, maybe traffic, right. So it could be bots, sometimes not even that and just not a lot of sales. And so it, we might be the, I don't know, 5th, 10th, whatever agency that they've worked with or talked to. And sometimes they get so burned out where they look at, they're looking only for free strategies. And I think the grommets a great example of a channel that if they accept you, fantastic. It's like selling to a retailer, right. They do the marketing and they deliver a lot of traffic. Fantastic. And then to scale your business by driving your own traffic, it does take cost, right. So we have people approach us and say, hey, can you guys pay for our media? Right? Pay for everything up front, pay for our video. And it's hard to find a good agency that's going to drive paid media for that because, you know, as an agency you don't have any control over the business. Where in our early days we tried that a couple of times, drove a lot of traffic, drove a lot of sales, and then they ran out of inventory and then, you know, we kind of lose our money. Right. But you have no control. So there are good agencies as well that drive traffic and it's just about finding the right fit and getting past the traffic trust level. Right. Asking the right questions. Have you learned over the years after making a couple mistakes. Right. Or learnings along the way, some good questions to ask that help vet and find good agencies to work with?
Laina Gossman [00:08:42]:
Yeah, definitely. But also, you know, just certain things like if somebody's going to make a social media post, you have to ask the question, well, how long does the post stay up? We learned the lesson with one big influencer that they looked like they always got over a thousand likes and hundreds of comments on all of their posts and they looked amazing. And we paid for a post and didn't get very many comments or likes and it disappeared in 24 hours or less. I think it was less and it was there and then it was gone. And we didn't realize that there was that every post that they post up just disappears if it doesn't get a thousand likes. So you, you learn some questions to ask to make sure that you don't get burned at least in the same way again.
Jon LaClare [00:09:35]:
Yeah, that's interesting. And I can see from Their side. They want to make it look like every post has a lot of interactions, likes, et cetera. And so who knows what percentage don't get those and they hide the posts or turn them off. How would you, I don't know, have you been able to overcome that? Because it's. How do you ask the question in a way where you can get an answer, you can trust that that's not going to happen?
Laina Gossman [00:09:55]:
Oh, it's tough because you might get really far along in negotiating if you're going to work together with somebody and then you get to a point where you say, hey, can you at least make some sort of guarantee that if you generate nothing, then at least we won't lose on what we're paying you? And a lot of companies aren't willing to do that, but some are. Right. And some are willing to take a little bit of risk because they believe in what they can do. And I tend to want to find a company that's willing to have some skin in the game a little bit, not just full. You give us this many thousands of dollars and we'll see what we can do. And we have no guarantees.
Jon LaClare [00:10:46]:
Right, right, absolutely. And I. It's a good point you bring up is, you know, in the contracting phase, right. Getting commitments or promises of. Once you learn what to ask for, it's just those key questions, making sure, hey, can we get a guarantee that content will stay up at least? Right. Because you can always send traffic to it or point if it's good content. Even if they don't get a lot of followers from their post itself, you know, you can send some to it or it could be something if they're a well known influencer or if it's just good to show on your own website, can you have partial ownership of the content? So there's ways around it to make sure. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. And content itself can be very powerful. You know, you take their content, put it into your paid media strategy. That can work really well. So you've got a big opportunity that you've had to be on the Good Morning America show, which is fantastic. It's a great PR strategy. But I think there's a story on how you got on there. How did you, how did you do that? I want our audience to hear this story because sometimes we think, hey, I've got a great product, I get a right connection, referral from somebody or whatever and boom, I'm on the show. But sometimes there's a bit more process that goes into it. Still a great Avenue or great opportunity to search after to getting that type of pr, whether it's Good Morning America or whatever, depending on your demographics, what TV show or station or online channel, whatever it might be, that fits you well. But these big PR heads, can you talk a little bit about your process and how you effectively got onto the show?
Laina Gossman [00:12:14]:
So a couple years ago, a woman reached out to me saying that she could possibly get our products on the Tamron hall show. And just like we were talking about before, sometimes you get a million marketing emails, you think everyone's trying to scam you or get something from you, but you have to just have an open mind and read the emails and respond back and learn more. I. I decided to email the person back even though I thought it was a scam and turned out it wasn't. She actually got our products on Tamarind hall and it was great. We sold, I don't know, I think it was over 1000 products just from that airing. And they let you keep all the email addresses for the customers that make the purchase. So you get to build your email list a little bit from that too. And it was a wonderful experience. Just kind of a whirlwind where they have you give them a bunch of content, text, pictures, graphics, all in certain specs, and they build a website for you for that Flash sale and you kind of build up to it and then it's shown for a few days on their website. And then they gave us a chance to extend it for one more week. So it was maybe a week and a few days up there and it was a great experience. And then they told us, you know, if you want, there might be other future opportunities, but we'll need you to have more inventory. And they wanted to wait until we had our next product, the full length insole, available as well. So once that product became available, I reached out again and she said it wasn't a good time and to reach out again at a later date. So every few months for about a year and a half, I would reach out to her. She'd say, thank you, it's not a good time. And I said, thanks for getting back to me. I appreciate it that she at least got back to me, but I didn't want to pester her and I waited and patiently, consistently, every few months reached out. And finally, about a month and a half ago, she gave me the okay. She said, okay, this is a good time now, and squeezed us into a show. And March 22 is the date, it's going to be a Saturday Which I'm really excited about. I think a Saturday is going to be a really good day on Good Morning America. And we are, I'm not personally going to be on the show, just my products. The host is going to show them and talk about them and we've made some video and pictures and text and sent it all over and, and it's about to, about to happen. So we'll see how it goes.
Jon LaClare [00:15:06]:
That's exciting. It really is. And we've had quite a few of our clients and POD show podcast show guests as well that have been on today's show, on Good Morning America and other big shows like that. And they can be real game changers. They're real growth drivers for the business. Both short term, they're great opportunities, especially like the deals and Steel's program where it's literally focused on sales and volumes can be great, but also long term, it gives you a lot of credibility. People will see it, maybe not buy it right away, but remember it and come back or look for it on Amazon or whatever it might be. So it can, if you do it right, can lead to some good long term opportunities as well. So congratulations, that's fantastic and I think kudos to you and a great example to our audience of persistence. Right. No right now doesn't mean no. Right. So be persistent on follow ups, especially for the bigger opportunities. And follow up keep going back and there really isn't the right time for them. Especially, you know, more professional or larger organizations. They're quick to say if it's a true no. They'll let you know, hey, this isn't a fit for us or whatever. And even then sometimes you can overcome concerns or issues potentially. But if they're telling you it's not the right time, it really probably is. That's true. Right. They're not just trying to push you off to be nice. Like that's their job. Whoever you're speaking with, they're vetting people all day long. They're okay to say no. So trust them on that and do follow up. So many great opportunities are left behind simply because we don't do the right follow up.
Laina Gossman [00:16:31]:
Yeah, persistence is really important and also not annoying people. You have to find that balance between following up but not bothering too much.
Jon LaClare [00:16:40]:
Right, Agreed. Yeah, absolutely. I'm glad you clarified that.
Laina Gossman [00:16:43]:
Telling people how you want to be treated.
Jon LaClare [00:16:45]:
True, true. So now let's shift gears and talk about retail. So you've had this great strategy. The business has really grown direct to consumer, but also even in the early Days, I believe you had some success in retail and have grown that piece as well. And specifically, there was one interaction you and I discussed before about a distributor and how you were able to get on board with them. And I'd like to first of all say to our audience, if you haven't gone into brick and mortar retail, you can do it direct. And we've had some clients and again, guests that have done it on their own, making the phone calls. A, it takes a lot of time and B, it's hard without relationships. So these distributors, really, what you're paying them for, usually it's a percentage of sales, is to have those relationships, to have the communication that you just, you're not going to have, at least not in the early days. So they're very, they can be a very effective way to grow the brick and mortar retail side of your business. And sometimes E Commerce, right, like Walmart.com etc can also be helpful during or from distributors. So let's back up and talk about your specific experience. How did you land your first big or successful distributor?
Laina Gossman [00:17:51]:
So there was a distributor that when I worked at a comfort shoe store, I used to be a buyer and buy products from this distributor. So now that I had an invention that I was coming out with, soon, I reached out and got a hold of the owner and called a few times to try to get an appointment, just to talk with him and pick his brain and learn from him what he's looking for in products in order to pick them up and distribute them. That was my kind of intention in the beginning. And so finally I got a meeting with him. I drove up to LA and he said to me, do you know how many people try to get me to sell their insoles? And I said, I don't know. And he said, a lot. And then he hucked his catalog at me and he goes, do you know how many of those companies I say yes to and carry their insoles? And I said no. And he said, not that many. I was like, okay. And so I just kind of continued the conversation with him. I showed him what I had, my prototypes, and then we started chatting about his kids and where he grew up and the bagel shops he likes in New York. And we got along pretty well. He was a really nice, funny guy. And at the end of the conversation, I knew he wasn't ready to pick up the product at that moment, but I asked him if he was going to be at an upcoming shoe convention called Magic. And he said, of course I'm going to be There I've been going since it started. And I said, well, I'll stop by your booth and say hi. He paused for a second and he decided to give me a little chance. He said, hey, if you get your packaging done, you have a functional prototype and you want to stand at my booth, and after I do my sales pitch, I'll pass my customers over to you, let you do a little sales pitch, and if you get it into some stores, then I'll pick it up. I got really excited. I got everything ready in time. I went out to the convention, and sure enough, we got it into 14 shoe stores. @ that first convention, he picked up my product and every other product that I've come out with since he's carried. And it's been such a wonderful friendship and relationship and business partnership since the very beginning of my business.
Jon LaClare [00:20:22]:
It's a great story. I love how you started off with a relationship. Right. So you knew him from a previous job, but you also built a relationship of trust and really getting to know him, even talking personally, realizing this is not just a transaction, rather to pick up the phone, hey, let's get this deal done. But getting to know them first, it kind of breaks down some barriers. And especially when we're dealing with whether it might be a distributor that is well known and, you know, has people calling them all the time, or maybe it's a buyer at a retailer or, you know, of any kind of whatever it might be. Right. But breaking down those barriers is so much easier when you start off with a relationship right now, it's not enough to keep it going. You have to have a great product like you do as well. Right. And so being able, I love that it gave you the opportunity to do the pitch at the trade show and to prove it. Right. So relationship got you in, and then the success of the actual product, the design, is really what drove success. Well, this has been a lot of fun. A great interview. I really appreciate you taking the time, Lane. I know how busy you are. Is there anything else I didn't ask that you think could be helpful for our audience?
Laina Gossman [00:21:28]:
I'm just so happy that you decided to have me on the show. I feel honored. And I appreciate that you're inquisitive about my business and how it got started. And I'm so happy to share, share my story with other entrepreneurs and other people out there. If anybody wants to reach out, you can go on my website and send a message to Laina. It'll get over to me if you have any questions. I'VE had so many people in my life that have mentored me and given me advice and if if there's something that I can do to help you, feel free to reach out.
Jon LaClare [00:22:03]:
Fantastic. Thank you again. Laina and I do encourage our audience. Please check out Soul S O U L Insole. I love the name soulinsole.com you can check out the line of products that Laina has developed and see some of the work she's done. And if you have problems with your feet, it's great. Insoles for free to try out certainly. Also, did you know you can meet with a member of my team absolutely free for a 30 minute strategy consultation? We've launched and grown hundreds of products since 2007 and learned some of our strategies while growing OxiClean back in the Billy Mays days. We're here to help, so please go to harvestgrowth.com and set up a call if you'd like to discuss further.
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