“Definitely I don’t know it all and as my lesson learned from my dad, I don’t pretend to know it all. I’m smart enough to know that I don’t know. You have to really have the strength to admit that you don’t know and ask for help and surround yourself with people that do know.“
Mariessa Mahfouz – CEO of Sylk USA; Being a CEO at 26; Working with a product that has critical impact on health; Spreading brand awareness through a cause.
Segment 1: (Length :04:00) – General Updates; Introduction to Mariessa Mahfouz and her journey as an entrepreneur; Her beginning with Sylk USA; Becoming a young CEO.
Mariessa’s finer points:
Through that time, I worked as an intern with a corporate job and started learning about social media marketing. It was a great experience and I learned a lot. Obviously social media's way different than it was six months ago, much less four, five years ago.
“I started as a business major. I realized that I had other interests, and so I decided to do an interdisciplinary studies route. I did a combination major with business, sociology, and international studies.”
“I was learning a lot and they (the company she was interning with) actually, while I was still in college, offered me a position. It was really exciting. I had the position before I would even graduate, but when I thought about what I wanted to do and where I would be in my office and just everything, I typed out my acceptance email and called my dad before I sent it and cried, knowing where I would be and how I didn’t want to be.”
“That corporate life was not something that I wanted to do and my dad said, which is amazing, ‘Don’t send that email. Whatever you do, don’t send that email. You can do this on your own.'”
I deleted the email and declined the position and then, two months later, started Toro Management before I graduated and decided to focus on doing social media for small businesses.
“I gained clients, a lot in the real estate space, and started doing training sessions. That was awesome. Got to learn and got to be in front of people and teach. I did that for two, two and a half years.”
“Always had thought I would really like to have something that was actually my own. I love helping people, but wanted something that was our own project.”
“And it all happened at the same time and we saw this product, saw it was something that can be brought to market, but then realized how many people that it was actually helping and acquired the rights.”
“Back in 2010, my dad was an investor in a pharmaceutical company with a molecular iodine pill for fibrocystic breast disease. Through a mutual friend, he was introduced to Sylk, and at that time my mom was actually going through menopause.”
“My dad’s idea was to take the two and combine the two companies, bring them onto a public market. The deal did not pan out.”
Then, four years later, the founder of Sylk USA came back and needed a team. That was at the same time that I was looking at something, my own identity, having all this experience. It kind of just happened all at the same time. We looked at it over the course of a few months and then decided to move forward.
“Just seeing the amount of people that we were helping, it took a turn and then it was now we have this greater mission to bring this product out to the people who need it.”
“Then when you look at your competitors, KY, they have the market. As people are becoming more conscious as to the foods they eat, to what they put on their skin to the household products they use to clean their counters, why wouldn’t you care about the ingredients that are going in an area that’s so intimate?”
Sylk is the only all natural water based personal lubricant made from New Zealand kiwi fruit vine extract. That's the differentiating ingredient that no other lubricant or product on the market has.
Segment 2: (Length :08:00) – Talking with Mariessa Mahfouz; Learning to be a great CEO; Learning the product and it’s customers; Getting an FDA clearance
Mariessa’s finer points:
“I started off working on my own. It was just me, doing social media for other companies. Now working with my family and getting this experience, it’s been an incredible journey.”
Definitely I don't know it all and as my lesson learned from my dad, I don't pretend to know it all. I'm smart enough to know that I don't know. You have to really have the strength to admit that you don't know and ask for help and surround yourself with people that do know.
“It also comes with some people think ‘Oh, you must know all of this” or that’s awfully young, and it’s just like no, I don’t know, but if you know, I want to hear about it.'”
“In November 2014, when we acquired the rights, we looked at customer feedback. We needed to improve the viscosity. We changed manufacturers. We improved the tube design, changed tube manufacturers. Did all that.”
“Got all logistics in place and saw, okay, by the summer or a couple months, we’ll be able to bring the product to market. We’re fresh. We got the new products. We have everything in line. Then we were hit, kind of, not necessarily blindsided, we knew about it, with the importance of getting a FDA 5-10K clearance for our product.”
“All personal lubricants need to have this 5-10K clearance by the FDA to be sold over the counter. Many are being sold without that clearance, as ours had been previously, but we realized in order to bring it to market in the way that we have this plan and here’s where we want to go, we need to get this clearance.”
“That took about, from the time we decided to do that to the time that we actually received our letter, was about a year. During that time, we shut down all marketing. We didn’t go out and get any new clients.”
The product has this 30 year history. It's been sold in New Zealand and Australia for 30 years. In the UK, it has its CE certification, is actually on prescription there. It's a safe and effective product, but that's just something that we needed to do, so we shut everything down, which was probably the biggest challenge.
“It’s all patience, and not really feeling like you’re growing your business because you aren’t, but it’s just the necessary steps to take it where you want to grow it.”
Segment 3: (Length :10:00) – The family’s involvement with the business; Austin Mahfouz; Watching the company grow.
Mariessa’s finer points:
When we received our clearance, we also got on Amazon, which is its own beast. My brother Austin has been taking care of that, doing an awesome job, and my mom does shipping, customer service, and the accounting and things like that.
“My dad is Chairman. He does a lot of the overseeing. My brother, as he’s come onto the team, I’ve been passing off fulfillment and logistics. That was all me and my dad prior to that. He’s come in and he’s been doing that, as well as doing online.”
“My mom is really involved with them and she’ll get off the phone and tell us a really inspirational story about somebody who’s using our product. It just also serves as a reminder to us when we’re in the middle of where are we going, how are we marketing? In the middle of logistics and manufacturing, we hear these stories that she’ll bring it. It really puts everything back into perspective.”
From Austin (brother)
“My entire college career, my whole goal was to make it to Wall Street. I figured that was where I wanted to go, that’s where all my studies were going.”
After my junior year, I ended up getting a summer job offer to be a research analyst for Credit Suisse. Did that for 10 weeks, it was awesome. I learned so much from it, but I also learned that it wasn't something I wanted to do long term, which was kind of a shock.
“After three years of thinking this is your path and then you go and do it and then you’re like, “Well, maybe not.'”
“At this point, Sylk was becoming closer and closer to its FDA clearance. I had seen the hard work that they had been putting in, and I approached my family and I thought, where can I help out?”
“Through a few months after that up until my graduation, they figured out where I could help out and I came in January, February of this year, and it’s been a cool year seeing it grow.”
“What we acquired and inherited along with Sylk was, it was being sold here so it did have a distributorship and a small following. Purchasers from small pharmacies or individual doctors. We continued that, and then when we received our FDA clearance in March, we also opened up for the first time direct to consumers on a website, as well as our own Amazon store.”
We definitely want to have the product available to the most amount of people. Our distributor partnerships help with that, as well as our own education for the audiences, and then giving them the ability to purchase directly from us.
Segment 4: (Length :10:00) – Understanding the social media influencers; Working with the bloggers to gain awareness; Pursuing their mission.
Mariessa’s finer points:
“Something that we quickly realized is that in the autoimmune disease space we were receiving feedback randomly from people who had gotten ahold of our product and loved it. We decided to explore that.”
“We got in touch with influencers and bloggers within the autoimmune disease space. We partnered up with the Sjogren’s Syndrome Foundation, and actually that was sparked from a Amazon review. A random Amazon review that we check because when it’s your baby, you’re always checking what people are saying about your baby.”
“We got this really powerful review from a woman with Sjogren’s Syndrome. We looked at that and said, “First off, what is Sjogren’s Syndrome?” We looked that up and found it was an autoimmune disease affecting millions of people, mainly women.”
We thought, if we've helped one person with this, how many other people need help?
“We contacted the Sjogren’s Syndrome Foundation, and said, ‘We have this review. This is a random review and we want to help. How can we help?’ We partnered up with them, sponsored a blog post that was written by one of their doctors talking about intimacy and Sjogren’s Syndrome, and then presented that women with Sjogren’s have been using Sylk.”
“From there, it’s expanded. We worked with other bloggers and influencers with other chronic illnesses and autoimmune diseases.”
“Marisa Zeppieri with Lupus Chick. There’s Julie Ryan. I met her, I believe through Lupus Chick, or actually just through our online searches. Julie Ryan runs Chronic Illness Bloggers. It’s an entire network. She actually sent our product out to 10 bloggers with autoimmune diseases and chronic illnesses, and they were all able to try our product and write reviews and their experiences with our product. It’s been really amazing to see the feedback.”
What we noticed is women are on social media, is that women are on there saying 'Thank you so much for talking about this. My doctor doesn't and I felt like I was alone.'
“We’ve been just really excited to help women and educate and spread the word out.”
“Then on top of that, the product is a very real sex and intimacy product. I’ve had a couple who have called me, so excited about my product that they wanted to distribute it.”
“I had them on the phone just saying … The husband actually told me, he’s like, ‘Mariessa, no bullshit, your product has changed my life.’ When you hear feedback like that, it’s amazing that you’re doing something outside of yourself.”
“The sex and intimacy side is very real. We work with Dr. Lori C. Ebert, with Sextacular You. She loves the product.”
“We’ve also, most recently, been working with Anne Grey (She’s a bestselling Amazon author). She talks about sex and intimacy and dating for what she says, the slightly older girl. It’s about, in this time where it’s divorcees and getting in the dating game where it’s online and different, and learning to love yourself. We’re really excited about the sexual wellness aspect of the product as well.”
Because this product does have this history, when you're out there and networking and saying 'Here's what I'm doing,' people want to join in with you.
“They want to help you with their mission. They make those introductions. I’ve talked to other doctors. Sylk is actually recommended randomly by gynecologists that I’m like, “I didn’t even know that you knew about our product,” but patients go in talking about our product or the doctors know about it like Dr. Christiane Northrup, a very well known gynecologist.”
“When you get people joining you on your mission, the introductions and networking, it’s really fun to do and to experience, to get other people who also see this other side.”
“It’s not just selling a sex lube. It’s actually wanting to go on this bigger mission about product ingredients, about wellness and taking care of yourselves, so it’s really awesome.”
Segment 5: (Length :03:00) – Hustler Thought of the Day:
When you innovate, you’ve got to be prepared for everyone telling you you’re nuts. – Larry Ellison, Oracle
Just because you are CEO, don't think you have landed. You must continually increase your learning, the way you think, and the way you approach the organization. I've never forgotten that. - Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo
GENERAL NOTES:
Mariessa Mahfouz – CEO of Sylk USA
- Mariessa Mahfouz founded Toro Management, LLC in 2012. As the Founder and Managing Member, Mariessa created, designed, and formed a company specializing in Social Media Consulting for small and mid-size businesses.
- Toro obtained prominent business clients within the first two months of operations and maintained these clients’ (among others) social media presence and marketing message to the public.
- Mariessa also created and conducted various social media classes in which Real Estate agents learned how to use social media platforms to expand and market their business.
- The entrepreneurial venture and spirit of Toro Management, LLC fueled Mariessa’s spark to be able to take the marketing prowess and experience from Toro to her own products.
- Even more profoundly is that Mariessa, and her team (family), identified this product to be helpful with women who’ve had auto immune diseases and other health complications, so we’re going to talk about that.
- Mariessa could not be more thrilled to bring a product with life-changing value to the mass market here in the United States and the additional select Territories.
- Her marketing skills, entrepreneurial vigor, and passion for the SYLK mission of sexual wellness and education all prove to be invaluable assets to accelerate SYLK’s market share here in the United States and other Territories.
- Check Mariessa out at http://sylkusa.com | Sylk USA Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
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