Cat Meyer, Founder & CEO Head South

Cat Meyer turned her (literal) dream for a product line into launching her brand ‘Head South’ within two years - setting out to disrupt the sigmas in sexual health and pleasure.

Cat is an advocate for sex education and stepping into a new role as founder and podcast host to add her voice to the conversation.

On this episode, Cat shares more of her founder and brand story (which involves a pretty epic pivot in product categories), why she’s so passionate about sex education, and how she wants to help people have less friction in her encounters.

Cat also shares about her brand strategy, packaging design, and steps to building a sustainable brand.

Listen

watch

shop

website

instagram

transcript

00:02 Hi everyone, welcome back to a new episode of Emerging Brands podcast with Kelly Bennett. I am a brand strategist and what I love to do is hear the behind the scenes, founder stories, brand stories of cool emerging brands. 00:19 Today we have Kat Myers, founder and CEO of Head South on the show and Kat, thank you so much for being here. 00:28 Kelly, thank you for having me. You're so welcome. When we spoke prior to recording, I was so inspired and your story really sparked a lot of creative ideas on my end of the street, so I know that everyone listening will definitely take away some great information and sources of inspove. 00:52 So to dive into it, could you give us a little behind the scenes of your brand story of why you started the brand, your background. 01:01 I love also the really massive pivot that you took also to start your brand. So could you dive into all of that juicy stuff? 01:10 Third. Yeah. Oh a big dive. Yes. Luckily, I was a swimmer a competitive swimmer as a child. So I love that. 01:18 I did dive. I did dive in. So yeah, we'll start actually there. So when I was in high school I was really frustrated with sex education, and what was offered. 01:29 I went from Catholic school as a child, and then transition to a public high school, and neither of these institutions provided the information that I was seeking. 01:39 So around 1617, when I was ready to start having sex, I started to research for myself and for my friends. 01:48 And so I started going to Barnes & Noble's, while the books, and the library, and collecting as much information as I could around pleasure about oral sex things that like we weren't actually instructed on we were pretty much given information about like preventing pregnancy and preventing STIs and that's 02:07 about it and then like junior high was more about like the you know I'm going through puberty yes right and so that was that was pretty much it and so there was nothing about pleasure nothing about consent there was no comprehensive sex education. 02:26 And so I was finding myself doing a lot of that. And I was really passionate, and I think back now, and I probably would have become a sex therapist that I know and that that was a path one could take. 02:38 And instead, I took a path of art and painting an illustration. And then I got into cosmology, became a hairdresser, and then sort of working in hair care. 02:47 So I've worked in hair care with brands for a little over a decade. Amazing. So, yep, and so I was working with a brand called Hair Story. 02:56 I was a producer, so creating content, working with the brand all the way through from ideas on products, through, you know, working with models and production and photoshoots and collaborating with publications, like the Finer 29 and King Boat. 03:12 So, I was in all of those little roles and work with all those people, yeah, and that was a lot story and started consulting and I was developing over the course of five years a another hair care brand with the business partner and they part of their company got sold and so they got locked into a knock 03:37 and pee and so that's the pivot you mentioned. It was a it was like this crazy point where I you know woke up and it's like what am I gonna do? 03:49 And I had been thinking about sex education, sex therapy, wanting to maybe even go back to school to study that and I realized that I didn't want to give up the past 10 years in all of its learning and I worked very closely with Michael Gordon, who was the founder of Bumble Mobile and Hair Story and 04:05 we were working on this new brand together and so I had learned so much about building a brand and all of the different parts of it from manufacturing supply chains all the way through to customers and working with retailers. 04:20 And so I literally woke up in my dream about Loub, and I was like, oh, that's a link. That's what I could do, though. 04:28 I can take this and all of this knowledge and wisdom that I have and intuition for building a brand and bringing in my passion for sex education through Loub's and sexual wellness. 04:40 So kind of combining two things that I'm very, very passionate about. So you had this dream about Lube, and you're like, okay, this is it, this is the meat in the middle, this is how I can merge my passion, my insight, my experience. 04:57 So walk us through a little bit from having that dream to launching the brand. Yeah, so that was exactly two years ago, I had been on it. 05:09 Yeah, I was in London in 2021 and we were talking to investors about the hair care brand when all of this transpired with the non-compete. 05:19 And so then I returned and we were scheduled to speak with the lawyer and that's when I had the dream about the loom. 05:24 And then I had already had the head south name trademarked for Michael, who is my partner at the time. He had all these ideas when we were at hair story. 05:35 So I started having my trademark lawyer trademark all of these different brands and ideas and really incredible things that he was, you know, coming up with over decades of time. 05:44 And so the head south, my name actually came from, he lived in South Africa in the 70s and there was a dampen brand. 05:50 And it was called Head South. And so he loved the name and was like, oh, someday it would be cool to do a sunscreen brand. 05:56 And so that was essentially what head south originally was. It was supposed to be a sunscreen brand, heading south for winter, kind of idea, like, travel, skin care. 06:06 And so it never happened. And so it was just sitting on the shelf. And so I called Michael up and I was like, hey, the hair care things aren't happening. 06:13 I actually wanted you sexual wellness, can I use the name? And he was like, absolutely. And so I called my lawyer right after to extend the filing and kind of changed the ownership. 06:22 And then that got the ball rolling. And then that was October, in November, November, I went to an event for founders in beauty out in LA. 06:31 And I met a supply chain consultant, and so she was helpful in connecting me in helping me find my manufacturer for the loops. 06:40 So by January, we had like, secure to manufacture. It was a little bit of a wild goose chase with finding that manufacturer, because it wasn't the same. 06:48 I had now even thought like, oh, the people that I've worked with over the years doing hair care can do this. 06:52 It doesn't actually reach that way. And so we had to kind of do a needle in a hay and I was like calling all these different manufacturers and she had found this business out in LA and I so appreciate them and I'm really excited to have been working with them and found them so quickly and kind of developed 07:11 this relationship with them. And the founder of that company has been in the industry this sexual wellness industry for about 30 to 40 years. 07:19 So he has been really integral in like mentoring as well. What an amazing connection. Yeah, yeah, and so it all kind of started like exactly that like coming together very quickly and organically and I had lots of different interactions like that with like meeting people and then all of a sudden it kind 07:36 of snowballed into like You know connecting people and I I have to say that's something I really really appreciate And these two years of doing this is the the generosity of all of the people have come across even like My lawyer, my trademark lawyer who I've been working with for a long time, but my 07:53 corporate lawyers who helped me kind of establish some of the paperwork and LLC information that was introduced me through another female founder, who I've known for many many years, who has a shower cap brand. 08:05 So it's kind of like this really interesting experience of networking and people being so generous and offering their help or pointing in the right direction. 08:13 And so I think that's in a way how a lot of this had come together pretty quickly for me. I mean, to me, it feels like a very quick turnover of two years from a dream to launching product for other people might not be and, you know, it's something that I've been bootstrapping this and also with some 08:29 help from family and close friends to kind of make this all happen. So for me, it's like pretty incredible and pretty quick. 08:38 Absolutely, literally to go from a dream to launch in two years is incredible. So absolutely, I, I, I second that, so let me ask you this because I think what you just touched upon is really important, but also a pain point for a lot of emerging grand founders is putting yourself out there and saying 09:00 , hey, this is what I'm working on. I don't have a product yet, I don't have a manufacturer yet, I have a name, I have a concept. 09:09 What give you the courage to even go on those rooms and put yourself out there like that? So you could connect with the right next person. 09:19 What advice would you give someone who's like nervous of even just that step alone? Yeah, I think I'm probably an expert on that because I'm an introvert. 09:29 I would categorize myself as someone who gets very shy and think, say yeah, and so this is a great question because I feel like I would love this advice for myself. 09:41 Yeah, I think and it's something that like I had to and I still kind of work through. I'm still working through holding that title of founder because it's something like I have predominantly done supporting the founder. 09:52 I've always championed a founder and works for a brand and that I believe in and work for people that I believe in and so then to have it be Just me, I don't have a co-founder, you know, I've been advised by people of like, oh, maybe you should have a co-founder For a lot of different reasons and so 10:08 I just want to those things of like, oh, wow, I'm so not used to having this Responsibility having this role I'm also not the person that feels confident and comfortable in a space and holding Holding people's attention in that way of like Listen to me and energy with I don't I don't it's not natural 10:30 for me, and so it's something I've kind of had to hone in on and work through and Luckily Michael who was my mentor is that also a shy person and it was interesting to watch and learn that like you don't have to be the loudest person in the room and I think when you speak authentically and Clearly like 10:52 you have that's that's to me is really important. Like I have What they're I had money funding whether I had the products already developed whether it's just an idea Whatever it was like I had a very clear vision of What I wanted and I have a clear vision of who I want to be in that role So even if I'm 11:10 like still fumbling and trying to figure it all out. It's like I know I know when I kind of like sit and get quiet But this is what feels right. 11:18 So knowing my intuition and then speaking from that place is my best advice to anybody is like, I think there's so many people that offer great advice. 11:27 We have so, like, that's something I think was so important for me is having mentors and people that I can call, but also knowing that sometimes it's just about sitting and listening to yourself and like it's in your gut and like you don't need the validation and you don't need all of the cooks in the 11:45 kitchen. And that's kind of why we set out to do this as on containers or like as founders and sometimes like you want to be the head and chef. 11:55 And so it's you have to kind of embody that and take on that role and envision that for yourself and kind of hold true to that and then I love that you said that I really do because I think that's so many founders who exactly what you just said this is their first time stepping into that founder role 12:12 . You can feel all the feelings, and most of the time, the loudest feelings of that is who do you think you are, you don't know enough, you don't have enough information, needing that validation, not seeing themselves as a founder yet either. 12:30 So I think you just touch upon such an important piece of listening to your own intuition, getting quiet with yourself and what it sounds like is because you have such a clear vision of where you want to go, you're able to trust yourself in the process of taking that right next step or side step or back 12:52 step or whatever the step may be, right? We know it's not a linear process, but it sounds like that's a big part of how you're stepping into this role of founder and CEO. 13:02 And then using that information like the insight from within to them communicate. I mean, that works in business that works in intimacy. 13:10 Like if you're writing to work through some things or bring introduce things into the bedroom, it's kind of like you have to hone in on what your needs are to then communicate that to your partners or partner or partner, or you know what you're talking about. 13:25 It's all kind of translates to the correlation, but I'm here for it. Okay, I could follow that. So let's go back to the Loub and the products that you're releasing. 13:39 Because I really like how you described it to me and the way that you look at this product category. So could you tell us a little bit more about what the product actually is and what you're doing differently within your industry? 13:56 Yeah, the products are intimacy serums, so there's two intimacy serums, one massage oil. And so the two interviews terms, one of them is a water base. 14:05 The other one is a silicone base and the massage oil, you can stack it out, it's a massage oil. So it's three products. 14:12 They're a monodotua. You can order them all together as a bundle or you can order them separately. And I think what differentiates this right now on the market is that it's a really fillable concept. 14:23 And so you receive a glass vessel that you keep. And I wanted the design to look look like beauty and skin care rather than like something that people would stash away in their bedside table or a hide or put away. 14:39 And so I wanted it like if it was on your nightstand to look just like your, you know, night oil or night cream or any kind of beauty product that you might leave out. 14:49 And it's refillable. We use a plastic tube to fill the glass container. You keep the glass container over time and recycle the plastic tube. 14:58 So that's essentially the concept, right, kind of goprenchates us, and so I wanted to kind of bring in, you know, sustaining ability of sexy. 15:07 Yes. And you know, I think that there's, it's a step in the direction. I don't think it's a solution. There's, you know, bigger solutions to needed to be found, but it's kind of, what can I do? 15:20 I kind of also, to your question of, like, as a founder, how do I approach these things? It's like looking at things as to what you can do as an individual, how can you be responsible and like if I'm going to create a brand I kind of try to be as intentional as possible within the means and limitations 15:36 that I have those with funding as well as access to you know manufacturing and product and packaging. So just trying to do what I can in the best way that I can or at least with this with this concept it's introducing refillability into a category that it hasn't been yet and kind of working from right 15:57 up great upgrading the packaging, seeing what works with doesn't work. It's kind of it's I actually enjoy that part of the process of like this is like a known territory. 16:06 Yeah and I think that's a really important piece to share that you're starting here. You'll see how you could grow and evolve and giving yourself the permission to start here with what you have access to, what you can deliver on, what you can be consistent with and feel good about the product and the 16:27 brand experience you're delivering to consumers and then building from there. And I think that transparency alone really engages with your ideal audience. 16:38 And I feel like we have a similar audience of like they would rather know your intentions and support you now and grow with you because they're really bought into who you are, what your vision is, what's the intention behind the product, and also share feedback so you can develop and grow and evolve 17:00 with your consumers and I love that approach. I love that brand strategy. I appreciate that and exactly that and to put it out into the world and then with the hope of like, hey, I might not even know that there's certain packaging coming on the market that's innovative and can kind of be complementary 17:17 to what we're producing and kind of work as an upgrade for our packaging. So that's absolutely coming out with it not being like the grand vision that's in my mind of how I want my brand to function and the products to function were to be packaged. 17:35 But yeah, to be transparent and like I have a vision of where this can go in the future and excited and want to work with our audience on how to improve this and how to make it better. 17:49 Which I totally dig. And then the other part of your brand strategy that I really love and it's something similar that you touched. 17:57 I remember when we were talked first, you talked about it and then a brand strategy I'm working on currently. We're doing a similar approach of starting with a podcast. 18:05 Yes. And so could you give us a little bit of how you started your podcast and how this is now essentially help is going to help launch the product line because I, again, love that strategy. 18:20 Yeah, that came to me last summer when I was starting to kind of work through like developing the products and thinking about my own experiences. 18:30 I mean, one thing I will say for founders, I don't know if it applies to other types of industry, but working with in sexual illness. 18:38 Like, this has had me evaluate my personal relationships, my relationship to sex and plunger. It's kind of shifted. And I've had to do a lot of deep diving for myself and kind of exploring and understanding. 18:51 And so I realized when I was in the process of floating around, living in Pennsylvania, going to Brooklyn in New York and recognizing like, oh, and seeing doctors in Pennsylvania when I had, you know, for 10 years, he's been seeing doctors and you're kind of like, oh, I had so much access to a really 19:11 amazing healthcare team when I was living in New York and I really appreciated my OBGYN and my primary care physician understanding that I also wanted to take a holistic approach and respecting that I wanted to work with like a natural path as well as a Chinese medicine practitioner and a natural dermatologist 19:29 . And so this team of women and doctors, there was five or six of them all understood my vision of like how I wanted to take care of myself and I was so lucky and appreciative that they were willing to work together and communicate. 19:42 They weren't in the same networks, but they were willing to like work through me and share information and kind of come up with plans to resolve issues like I was dealing with endometrics as I had had surgery, a procedure to remove all of some and system my ovaries. 19:56 I was dealing with a lot of health issues down there. And so right to have this team of women completely understand when in my 20s I had been seeing I had a male gynecologist who just kept trying to put me on birth control and wouldn't listen to me and so to find like these five women who all work together 20:14 , long story short, that then became like my realization of like oh I want to share this with people. I want to talk to These women, these doctors, these experts, and share this because people might not know that this type of care is available or that one doctor might actually be willing to work with 20:31 another doctor to create a healthcare plan or a healing plan. And so that's where it started. So the first person in the interview was my Chinese medicine practitioner, and then I started interviewing all, like my gynecologist, I interviewed, and so working with all of these different medical professionals 20:49 and then started going into, like, I worked with a sexual confident on who's somewhat like a sex therapist, a little bit different using hypnotherapy and she's a woman that I've known for 10 years and had worked with. 21:02 And so, yeah, just finding people in my life as the start of the podcast to help educate, be stigmatized, think around sexual health, as well as relational wellness, and then started branching out and reaching out to people I didn't know in interviewing and reading their books and connecting with them 21:20 through Instagram and the enthusiasm to be on the podcast has been really wonderful in the support around the podcast. And I've had moments where I'm walking down the street in New York and people were like, hey, listen to your podcast in the episode about, and I'm like, oh, wow. 21:34 Like, oh, my gosh. That is so cool. And it's exactly the intention behind it. And so while the podcast and the products are, I look at them as siblings, I don't ever want the podcast to be about selling head saw products. 21:54 And so it's not a conflict for me to interview somebody else who has a sexual wellness brand. It's to me it's like there is so much room in space and information that needs to be shared. 22:04 And so I kind of separated them slightly. They share the same Instagram account, but I have a separate website. I wanted it to be a space where people can share their information, their knowledge, their experiences, and it didn't have to be about necessarily my product being like the framing of it. 22:23 You know, if people want to talk about other loops or other products that would be considered a competitor to head south, I'm more than happy, like, I want to hear about it. 22:30 Like, I want to try it. That's cool. Like, I want to interview that founder and I think that speaks volumes to you as well as far as being more collaborative and listening. 22:42 And I think your approach is just more of the new gen of founders of cool. You do something similar, awesome. 22:52 I would love to get coffee with you or have you on my podcast. And just the other day, someone hit me up and said, I love what you do, how did you start this business? 23:01 And I just gave her voice, and I was like, oh, hey, so this is how I started, this is how it works, this is how I partner with certain other, you know, industry professionals, and she wrote me back. 23:12 She's like, I can't believe you actually did that question. I was like, yeah, of course, if you are inspired by what I'm doing, I would rather help you and give you some inside versus feeling like I have to gatekeep my business, right? 23:27 So I love that approach and I just feel like that's just the new vibe, you know? It's So life is even better with that energy because you're just focusing on what you bring to the table And what you bring is endlessly you and unique and I think that also touches upon that inner work that you're doing 23:45 as a founder to show up in that way Yeah, totally. I think the generosity of spirit that I've received so I think you know how people pointed me in the right direction Like why wouldn't I do the same and I think I don't know Maybe it is the vibe of what where industry is going, whether it's beauty, whether 24:04 haircare, skin care, consumer package goods, or sexual wellness, but in the past two years of doing this, I have felt so much warmth and generosity and support from other brands, from other founders, and I think that's so incredible. 24:22 Like people that would normally be considered competitors in, you know, history of time and Pepsi Coke, you know, it's like right people. 24:32 People, you know, under I think there's an understanding too that there's there's so many people and there's, you know, there there is over saturation in certain markets but I also feel like there's so many people that certain things might speak to an individual and so it's okay to have a few options 24:49 on the shelf because one product to my appeal to this person and another product to wear a podcast or whatever that brand brings to the table, it might speak to another and so there's so much room. 25:00 And so I think that's better to kind of view it that way, versus viewing it and like I have to it when or like we have to be the best of everybody. 25:12 It's like, well we're the best for somebody. Right, I love that. I love that. That's a good mantra. That's a really good mantra, and I think also is a much more encouraging way of looking at it while you're building a business, especially in the early years and especially when you have the vision you 25:31 have some steps, but it's still not fully there yet. That's a really good reminder. One last thing, most important question, how can people now buy your products? 25:47 So starting October 24th, Tuesday afternoon, we'll be launching online and so you can find it. I've been south. World is the website and heads off that world is also our Instagram and TikTok. 26:01 Congratulations. Thank you. From a dream to two years of launch is really remarkable. And I appreciate your generosity of sharing your story, your strategy, what you're doing differently in your industry, and the inner work you've done as a founder, because I know that it's going to inspire so many others 26:22 . So thank you so much, Kat. Thanks, Kelly. You're so welcome. Thank you everyone for listening and I'll see you on the next episode.