We’ve covered the story of how Twinkie Tush came to be. Let’s now talk about what’s really made it work as a business. As I talked with Gretchen and Mike, a few themes stuck out, namely commitment, heart and serendipity:
Commitment
Solving a need of her own
From the very beginning of the business, Gretchen committed to solving an issue she herself was experiencing as a mother. She understood the features her product needed to provide because she (and her twins) were the users. While larger companies rely on consumer research and ethnographic studies to deeply understand consumer needs, Gretchen had an intuitive feel based on her own experiences. She was her own design target and didn’t try to overextend the product by designing to meet other peoples’ preferences (for example, some moms prefer velcro fasteners rather than snaps, some moms prefer diapers and covers combined into one unit, etc.)
Because she was her own user, she was also able to rapidly create and test multiple designs with her own twins as testers. She could see what leaked, what type of fabric combinations and layering worked the best, what pattern shapes and elastic placement and tension gave the best fit. She could iterate and test quickly until she found a winning design.
Because of this focused design, Twinkie Tush diapers were able to stand out even though, at the time, there were numerous makers of cloth diapers competing for dollars and attention.
Shopper happiness
In normal business speak, this would be called “Customer service,” but what Gretchen commits to shades from mere service into a feeling of responsibility for the happiness of her shoppers. If there was any humanly possible way to ensure that everyone who wanted a Twinkie Tush diaper could have one, Gretchen wanted to find it. Barring that, she worked all hours of the day and night to make as many diapers for as many people as possible.
As Gretchen says, “I think this is one thing that does separate us from a lot of the companies that stay really small, that stay essentially a hobby company. It is that I really, really like to make people happy, sometimes even at the expense of my own sanity. So there’s this idea that I was going to make them happy and they wanted more, so I was going to give them more!”
As another example, in the early days of adding clothing to the Twinkie Tush line-up, Gretchen designed “…the most intricate, glorious dress. I love it so much. But it is an enormous pain to sew. A huge amount of time goes into cutting it. A huge amount of time goes into sewing it. A huge amount of fabric goes into it. It is not cost-effective. And I knew immediately once we started making it that it was not cost effective, but we still make it because the customers love it. But that particular design we basically break even — we don’t make money on it.”
Quality
Twinkie Tush diapers were a quality product from day one, and, unlike with larger businesses, there is no external investor pressure to reduce margins by reducing the cost and quality of the raw materials. In addition to this, adding new product lines, even when there is extremely high customer demand, isn’t done unless the quality of each product will be just as high.
Gretchen has recently added underwear to the Twinkie Tush line-up, but when I interviewed her in 2017, she and Mike were still struggling with how to bring a quality product at a fair price: “I have actually developed an underwear pattern. One of our seamstresses used to work in a lingerie factory so she had a lot of input on it. We developed something that is beautiful, but it would take a lot of time per pair of underwear. It would take more time than it takes to make a shirt. Now, can I sell underwear for a child for more than I can sell a shirt for? I don’t know, but the labor cost means it will cost us more to make than that shirt. So then I have to look at do I come in pricing underwear at 30 dollars so that we can make a profit on it, or do I not do it?”
Professionalism and Integrity
Even from it’s earliest days, Gretchen was committed to presenting Twinkie Tush as both professional and full of integrity: “We had a reputation of having a lot of integrity. We obviously never didn’t fulfill an order. There was so much drama in a public space about stores that didn’t fulfill their orders. We’ve never had that and still don’t. So people were starting to learn quickly that in addition to having good products, they could trust us and they could trust that we knew what we were doing, and we would follow through on what we said we would do. And we were reasonable adult people, I think that is just as important as everything else.”
This integrity branches into the way Twinkie Tush treats its employees as well. As Mike says, “We’re honest with our employees, we’re honest with our customers. If we say we’re going to do something, we do it, and if there’s a reason we can’t, we explain that honestly. I worked in an industry where it wasn’t so honest; where bosses weren’t always telling me the truth. I didn’t like the way that felt. We’re customers of other companies that we didn’t feel were respectful or had integrity when we would bring issues. Either they were too small, they couldn’t do it, or they were too big and we felt like a number. We want everybody that that’s in our community to feel like they belong, that they’re special, that we hear them.”
Fair pricing
With such high demand, a typical business response would be to raise prices, increasing profit. This, however, is completely contrary to Gretchen’s vision for Twinkie Tush: “There are times where the demand has been so great that yes, we could have charged two or three times more than we did, but we don’t do that. Any time we have raised prices, we have explained why they’re being raised. It is not an arbitrary thing to us just because we can. That is not a good enough reason for us to raise prices.”
Heart
Nurturing the community
Within the first few months of launch, Twinkie Tush had a cult following, with shoppers anxiously awaiting the days that Gretchen would stock the store and buying all the offerings within minutes. While, as Gretchen says, when talking with retailers in other fields, “It’s funny because at the time, that seems like a problem, but if you talk to anyone who is in regular retail and they’re like, that’s not a problem!”
Some shoppers, however, found this extremely upsetting, “Yeah, after stockings, we would get, like, 15 people who would say, ‘This is BS! I’ve been trying for six months for diapers.’ And meanwhile, I was killing myself!”
Gretchen was able to navigate this potentially negative situation using clear and consistent communication, serving as her own public relations representative to calm the high emotions. She had a personal feel for this community, because, as she reflects on what it’s like to a be new mother, “Being a new mother or a mother at all can be super isolating. And so I am all about creating a product that can make being a mother more enjoyable and fun and beautiful and comfortable and exciting. And then, the other just as important aspect is creating this space, creating this community where mothers can feel connected. And if it’s a product that connects them, great. But then what they end up connecting on, like, having babies raising babies. And like celebrating that time that goes so quickly, and not being alone.”
To this day, Twinkie Tush maintains a Facebook group with 82,000 members, and a Buy/Sell/Trade group with 8,000 members, all passionate about Twinkie Tush, Gretchen, the community, and her products.
Putting good out into the world
Gretchen describes her business philosophy as “putting good out into the world.” In times of stress or difficulties with the business, she says, “I try to remind myself that from day one this has been a very natural, organic process and if I just trust the universe, it really is going the way it’s supposed to. So I keep trying. And Mike and I tend to try to like live our lives that way too in general. And it’s like we just keep putting good out into the world and just keep doing the next right thing. And that has, has served us really well.”
As Mike puts it, “I thing Gretch does an amazing job leading. This is always, has always been and always will be her baby, her heart. And she shines the light that we all follow. And she does an incredible, incredible job. She has never not reminded me or reminded any of any of the team, any of the community. Even if the community starts to go off kilter she is so honest and understands why she’s doing this so well, that she is able to communicate in a way with our community, with our employees. That reminds people that we are here first and foremost because we respect each other, and we want to create beautiful things together. And that has always guided us.”
Keeping the “Why” front and center
Even with a heart-led business, the day to day worries and business can be a distraction. When I spoke with Gretchen and Mike, they were in a crunch week, with a special order of hundreds of items going out on top of their usual orders. Gretchen mentioned:
“It’s a tremendous amount. We’re sewing things right up until Thursday that are shipping Friday, which is not normal for us. Usually, we’re a week or two ahead. So this is a crunch week and it’s a crunch week for everyone.
It’s this very like, ‘Aaaah!’, time. And I can lose sight, we can lose sight as a company, of “Why are we really doing this?” One of the things that we did when we first moved into the space, I hung up all these pictures from past photo contests of babies in our stuff because I feel like it’s so important to always remember that this is why we’re doing this.
We’re doing this because they were bringing joy to these families. And that is really the whole story. Sometimes we’ll have someone email that’s says, ‘My daughter has had reactions, skin reactions to everything we’ve ever tried except your diapers. You’ve totally changed our lives,’ or people who can finally sleep through the night because their baby is dry in one of our nighttime diapers.
Those things are even more amazing and awesome. That we’ve positively impacted in such a tangible way. Yeah, it’s just all about that. So I think I really do think that in general we really stay focused on that.”
Serendipity
Organic growth
One of the themes that came across in my conversation with Gretchen and Mike was the idea that the business growth and development has been very organic. I think there is a level of humility in this as Twinkie Tush would not be the success it is without the commitment and heart we’ve already discussed. Still, there are many small businesses that have the other two ingredients and may have lacked the serendipity and timing that Twinkie Tush has enjoyed.
In Gretchen’s words: “The whole progression of the company from day one until now I really have experienced as being very like organic. Like wow, this is supposed to work out this way. I don’t feel like I have been controlling it. I mean obviously I try to steer it because I have stakes in it but I don’t feel like I’m responsible for it, for it’s growth. I don’t take credit for it.
The things that have happened that have made it possible, the perfect storms that have all happened along the way. Like the right people being involved and meeting the right people and hiring the right people and it’s just been amazing to me. Like I still don’t really believe the way it’s happened the way it has.”
When Mike talks about the early growth of the company, he says, in amazement, “And the thing is it just kept growing. Like it kept growing and we didn’t spend a dime on advertising until we moved to Ithaca. Really, I mean nothing. All we were doing was putting our stuff out where it was, and, shipping our stuff, and posting on our own Facebook pages. I mean, Facebook advertising didn’t even exist yet. We hadn’t bought the banner ads on Hyena cart at that point yet. None of that. We weren’t doing any of it. It was all just growing from word of mouth. It was like, man, we’re getting emails from people that are angry. They can’t get what they want!”
Reading the signs
Timing-wise, several things came together to enable the expansion of Twinkie Tush into Ithaca:
- The difficulties Gretchen had with trying to expand in New Jersey: between her ‘assembly line at a distance’ falling apart, not being able to hire capable seamstresses in the area, and the longer-term goal of moving to Ithaca, expanding in New Jersey was not appealing, leaving the Ithaca option as something to explore
- The immediate location of Kim, the head seamstress: Without identifying such a capable person, who also happened to be looking for a way to stay in Ithaca, it would have been extremely difficult for Gretchen to feel comfortable running her business at a distance. As it turned out, Kim put in her notice because of another perfect opportunity just after Gretchen moved back to Ithaca. Although this was scary for Gretchen, she “tried to remember that I really do trust the universe. It ended up being exactly right for both of us, and we hired another seamstress who is still with us today. It’s like Kim was a guardian angel for us, one of many.”
- Mike being laid off: This made Mike’s full commitment to Twinkie Tush and inevitability, and the timing was such that it was already clear that Twinkie Tush would be viable in Ithaca.
- The house: Even finding a house in Ithaca worked out well for the family. In Gretchen’s words: “When we looked at our house up here that we moved to, it was like everything about the house was exactly perfect for our needs and somehow no one had bought it, and it was waiting.”
Skills & connections
The last piece that fell into place for Twinkie Tush was the combination of skills and connections that Gretchen and Mike brought to the business.
Gretchen used her sewing and craft skills to create a unique, desirable product that filled a need for young mothers. She used her connections to the online infertility community to test products. This community also served as the initial spark of sales when she first began stocking.
Gretchen also had connections to the costume department at Ithaca College and used those to find her head seamstress Kim.
Finally, she has used her mindset about putting good out into the world, and combined them with her the energy and skill to be in constant communication with her community to keep the demand alive over the course of years.
Mike’s experience in advertising and marketing were crucial at several points, especially in the move to Ithaca. In order to make the move, Gretchen and Mike needed to decide what their production level should be. This would determine how large of a space they should look for, how many people they should hire and how much equipment they should buy. As Mike says: “What I had been doing for at least the last two years in marketing was running these huge budgets for events, and these huge P&L’s. So I was comfortable understanding this is what something’s going to cost, this is what we need to mark it up, this is how it needs to sell. It was crazy how, all of this time that I’ve spent doing a job that I thought was only putting food on my table was actually preparing me for what I do now.”
He continues to use these skills now, managing marketing and advertising for Twinkie Tush.
Twinkie Tush Wrap-up
It all started with twin babies and diaper rash. From that beginning, Gretchen and Mike have combined their skills, hard work, heart-led vision and a pinch of luck to create a thriving, sustainable company. Their growth is driven by customer demand rather than investor demand. This allows them to focus on meeting the real needs of their shoppers, employees, and the community in a way that is deeply satisfying for all involved.
Thank you to Gretchen and Mike for taking time out of their busy schedule and sharing their story with us!