>
In this week’s episode, Josh chats with Annabel Hay – finalist of 7NEWS Young Achiever Awards NSW/ACT – Off Trail Coffee Small Business Achievement Award 2023.
CLUTCH Glue, founded by determined entrepreneur Annabel Hay, addresses the shortcomings of traditional fashion tape with a water-soluble clothing adhesive. Annabel’s frustration with existing options led her to develop CLUTCH over four years, balancing it with a demanding full-time job. Collaborating with a freelance chemist, she created a patentable, water-soluble, vegan, and hypoallergenic adhesive. Manufactured sustainably in Sydney, CLUTCH quickly gained popularity after its December 2022 launch, with orders worldwide. Annabel’s focus extends beyond product innovation, advocating for fashion inclusivity and environmental sustainability. The brand’s rapid success is evident through global media recognition, influencer endorsements, and interest from major retailers.
Annabel, leveraging her background in Construction Management, collaborated with a freelance chemist from UNSW to create CLUTCH, revolutionizing the stagnant fashion adhesive market with a patent-pending, eco-friendly solution. CLUTCH’s innovative formula, boasting serious strength and sustainability features like being vegan, palm-oil free, and packaged with 100% recycled materials, has empowered individuals worldwide to confidently wear their clothes.
Links
connect with Annabel Hay on Instagram , Facebook
Follow us on our Inspirational.Australians Instagram Page
Want to recognise someone making a difference? Nominate them now in 2 mins!
Find out more about partnering with Awards Australia
Transcript
[00:00:08] Speaker 1
Welcome to inspirational Australians, where we share stories of Australians making a difference in their communities and in the lives of others. We get inspirational Australians acknowledge their will wondering and vulnerable people of the poor nation as their traditional owners and custodians of the lands and waterways on which
[00:00:28] Speaker 1
this podcast is produced.
[00:00:31] Speaker 1
We pay our respect to elders, past and present, and those who are emerging and extend our respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. At inspirational Australians,
[00:00:43] Speaker 1
we
[00:00:43] Speaker 1
are inspired by the world’s oldest living culture and pay homage to their
[00:00:47] Speaker 1
rich
[00:00:48] Speaker 1
storytelling history. When we share stories on our podcast.
[00:00:58] Speaker 1
Hello and welcome to your weekly dose of inspiration. You’re with us on the inspirational Australians podcast, and just getting back into the flow of recording podcasts for twenty twenty four. And I’ve got a guest who was meant to be with us in twenty twenty three. Unfortunately, I had to cancel, so I’m super excited to be chatting with Annabel today. Before we get into the episode, I just want to remind people that the seven news, young achiever awards is currently open in some states. So if you have a young person, you know, if you are a young person yourself and you’re wanting to be part of this incredible program, which we’ll touch on a little bit with Annabel later. Then head to young TV awards dot com. Check it out. There’s still time to nominate someone and you know what if you’re looking at a state where the nominations have closed, you can actually still refer someone for an award, and we’ll get to that next year. So certainly worth checking it out. And just remember the kind of impact you can have for a young person by nominating them. It’s a huge recognition for them. And you can really go a long way to, to making a massive difference with that person. So that’s it for that spiel Uh on to today’s guest. Annabel Haigh, who was the founder of Clutch Glue. Now I’m really interested here about this because it’s probably not a product that I would have used before. So um, actually got some interesting Uh questions in mind. For Annabel, who was a finalist in twenty, twenty three in the seven years young achiever awards pool in South Wales and act. Annabel was in the off trail, small business achievement award category. So as I said, Annabel invented and founded Clutch Glue, which has been labelled a game changer in the fashion industry. Clutch. Glue is a far more effective and sustainable alternative to fashion type, a largely uninspired and untapped market sector. Clutch of empowered everyone to wear their clothes with confidence. With a background in construction management, Annabel recruited the services of a freelance chemist out of Unsworth. That’s University of New South Wales to formulate Clutch a patent pending seriously, strong sweat resistant, but water soluble clothes, adhesive, which is hypoallergenic vegan, palm oil free, eliminates single use plastic and uses one hundred percent, recycled and recyclable packaging. Annabel, you thought of everything. Welcome to the podcast this morning.
[00:03:11] Speaker 2
Quite the mouthful. You got that right though. Thanks for havingme. No, that is seriously impressive. Stuff. Uh, I got so many questions. So you know, I’ve got to think about where I want to start. What was there a moment that you that clicked for you was like, I need this product or was it something that been on your mind? Um, because you know, going from having a good idea to actually going ahead and bringing on a chemist to create it. That’s a big difference.Yeah, so I think um, I definitely did have that moment where I was just trying to use fashion tape to Uh, essentially Uh, tape my clothes to my skin because I was wearing a jumpsuit and I was going out one night. And I just thought, wouldn’t it be so much easier if I could just Glue myself into these? And I sort of went about my business and sort of didn’t really think about it too much. And then the next day I was kind of like, Uh, it’s actually, it’s actually not a bad idea. So I thought though that we kind of live in a world where most things, especially products have kind of, you know, already been done. You know, if I’ve thought about it, somebody else has totally thought about that right. Um, so I Googled it, and I just couldn’t really find the solution that I was looking for. Of course adhesives have been around for, you know, hundreds of years um, but not for the kind of use that I specifically wanted it. There was plenty of adhesives um, in sort of the, Uh, more special effects market that the main crux of it was that they had latex in them, and they didn’t wash out of your clothes when you’re done. Right. So it was either these, I could have a water based Glue like an eyelash Glue, but that’s going to come off with sweat instantly and then they would use, well, I could have a really strong Glue, but it’s actually going to ruin my clothes. So I kind of then sort of got thinking a little bit more and at this point I sort of didn’t really know that I was going to Execute it. It’s sort of just one thing that kind of led to another and it kept on being, it was just always in the back of my mind. I couldn’t, I couldn’t get rid of it. And I was like, you know what? ? It just came one day when I was talking to my parents about it and they were like, well kick yourself if you don’t try it, just try So I think it was a lot of work, took me four years um between conception and then launch Uh to actually invent Glue um, Clutch Glue. I know that we all know and love today. But yeah, I sort of knew that with a construction management background, I’m not a chemist. Um I have no idea how to invent Glue So I emailed you and I said, Uh, I know you’ve got some people that come in for research tasks. Is there someone, Uh that would be able to invent this product idea that I have and they said, yeah, okay. Like try and email this guy. He’s probably the only person that could probably do it. Email him and see what he says. So I did, I got him to sign an NDA, and we jump on a teams call. And on the other side of the screen is freakishly smart, a guy with nine PhDs from the USA. That didn’t mean to you and ask you for a few years to work on fire retardants so totally, nothing related to Glue at all. But I kind of explained this issue to him. And he was like, yeah, like okay, sure, I can do it for you, but I don’t really understand it, but like I’ll do it. I was like, I need to understand this is actually probably perfect because then I know you’re not going to run off with this. So the condition was essentially everything that you said in your intro, um, but it also needed to meet my IEP and my formula, like at the end of the day. So yeah, took him about ten months and I’d say just so many reiterations and so many failed attempts, and probably a few ruined clothes every, every now and then. But um yeah, we finally then got the Clutch formula. So once we had that, it was then all about the branding, the marketing manufacturing. It, um, it was really hard to get manufactured. That was a Uh yeah, I didn’t realize I was going to come across was that Uh adhesives and even just um, manufacturers in general are only certified for different types of things. So because the pH was like over a certain level that rolled out like half the manufacturers that I could possibly go in for, then they were the ones that said, we don’t have machines that Uh, can work for adhesives. It’ll block the tube. So we can’t make that so literally, I think I went through thousands upon thousands of manufacturers to try and get them to make it for me. And there was only two at the end of the day that could one of them was in Melbourne and one of them was in Sydney. And I live in Sydney and I was like, you know what? Let’s just go with them. So now Uh we got them to make it and since then we’ve actually had to scale up and now we get it made at a pretty high, you know, a very serious manufacturing place in Perth. For the first launch we ended up getting, getting it made locally in Sydney and it’s sold out in about three months. Nice. It was pretty intense. I’ll tell you that.
[00:08:05] Speaker 1
Yeah, that is Uh, just incredible journey and did you have moments where, you know, especially working with a chemist in a field that you’re not as familiar with, you know, technically speaking and probably thinking, you know, Where’s the progress on this like having to follow up? Probably trying to Yeah. You know, put the guy off side, but hey, I need this.
[00:08:25] Speaker 2
It was, it was an interesting just like learning environment where I’m sure he’s probably not used to people just like Quite literally asking him what that Uh like, what is that chemical? Like? ? I don’t know what you’re talking about right now. What do you mean that only one place in Philadelphia can make one of the ingredients that you know, that goes into Clutch? So it’s so interesting that there were these different nuances and I learned a lot about like the supply chain and even just the different quality chemicals that you can get. Because like a lot of Clutch cheese is a pretty basic um adhesive formula. But then there’s a few special bits that go into it to make it, you know what it is. And it’s a first of its kind um patented formula. So it needed to have that, um, inventive sort of element to it. But yeah, there was a lot of just, Uh, I guess, quality control that went into it that I didn’t really realize existed um, even things like the method of, you know, needing to stir it with this kind of paddle versus this kind of paddle and it needs to be made in glass and not plastic and you know, all of these just onesies that I actually found really exciting. I think that I’m Quite curious and Uh yeah, I don’t know. I appreciated the learning for sure. And actually it’s probably the main thing that I realized I love the most out of this entire process isn’t necessarily operating the company, but um, I absolutely love the r&d side of
[00:09:40] Speaker 1
things. Yeah. Okay. You’ve really got into that side.
[00:09:43] Speaker 1
Yeah. It’s really cool.
[00:09:45] Speaker 2
That is cool. So you’re talking about a couple of failed experiments and you know, even Uh, um, ruined clothes and things like that. Um, you know, is that a bit dicey going out in public testing?
[00:09:57] Speaker 1
Yeah.
[00:09:58] Speaker 2
That kind of Uh, product or are you doing mainly testing at home a lot of testing at home, but um I actually had a lot of my I had a panel of friends that I could trust with this that actually tested it for me as well. Because it needed to be hyper energetic and I didn’t, I wanted to make sure it’s something that literally everyone can enjoy. So yeah, I had a whole panel of friends that had different skin types and skin um sensitivities that I really wanted to test out. So yeah, I had plenty of, of you know, attempts for people having bad reactions and needing to come back from that was, you know, a bit serious but, but yeah, I don’t know. It was just um, something that I guess it was all character building at the end of the day. And then when you finally find that one that, that everybody that works with everybody and everyone’s as invested in it as you at that point, it was actually Quite a nice celebratory moment. It made it feel really real that we were able to get something that worked. We genuinely at the end of the day it was the, it wasn’t the like, can I run a business and can I can I, you know, do this, it was literally, is this like, actually, legitimately possible? Was probably Uh the, the, the main question on everybody’s mind. But hey, we did it.
[00:11:11] Speaker 2
Yeah, I loved how you sang at the start about, you know, everyone has had an idea and then you look for a product you think, oh, has that? ? And of course it exists on Amazon. It’s on, you know, somewhere. Uh, it’s probably in Japan because they invent everything incredible. Um, over there with their innovation and technology. But I can see now why this probably hasn’t happened just with what had to go on the ingredients, how limited they are. Yeah, yeah, it makes sense.
[00:11:38] Speaker 1
It’s, it was just such a tall order and there were things as well that which is really hard to come across um, in terms of Uh, the actual packaging. So I wanted to make sure because fashion tape, which was the only alternative to this to begin with was um, so much single use waste. It’s awful, it just goes straight in the bin and it doesn’t work half the time all the time. And all of these things, and I just thought, yeah, it’s one thing to provide like actually a reliable solution and keep your clothes attached to you when you need them. And then it comes off when, when you’re done. But it was another thing that we really wanted to make sure that it hit those sustainability cuz it’s something that I really take seriously in my day to day life. And it just would have been. Yeah, I think that startups especially have such um, Uh, I guess like a leg up when it comes to creating something that’s sustainable because we don’t need to reverse engineer what we’ve currently already got. We, we, I had the criteria from the get go. Um, and as long as I didn’t sort of compromise on that, I was able to Execute something that hit all of those bases. So I think having finding a packaging manufacturer, um that actually made packaging made of one hundred percent recycled, packaging and is then still recyclable. Was really hard to find um, but a lot of that comes out of China, so our packaging is made in China and then it gets shipped to Perth within it’s fulfilled and sent out.
[00:12:53] Speaker 2
Yeah, well that’s a good point you made because it is a little ironic sometimes when you say the product and it’s talking about how sustainable it is. But it comes in all this plastic, you got to rip off and totally, and all this unnecessary packaging. And so that is something that’s, you know, it does show that mystic approach that you’ve got.
[00:13:12] Speaker 1
Yeah. And even just little decisions such as, um, it doesn’t have a usually when you get a tube um that you twist off, it might have like that safety cat. So that, you know, Yeah, chops aren’t, you know, unscrewing something and you know, using it or whatever it might be. You had to even get rid of that. You know, there were just little things where it was like, it cannot be the, there cannot be an element of single use waste here. Even down to how we ship it out. Everything is recyclable.
[00:13:37] Speaker 2
That’s yeah, that’s, Uh, that’s very cool. Did you have a moment along this journey of you know, from Uh, from starting the idea to actually having a product you can sell where you thought it’s just not going to happen.
[00:13:49] Speaker 1
One hundred percent like every day.
[00:13:51] Speaker 2
Oh,
[00:13:51] Speaker 1
, really? I was, and I was in Hong Kong at the time, was like working for a big construction firm. And it was really hard being away from my family, especially because everything that I had to do and communicate had to be over text and email and stuff. Sometimes it’s so much easier just to, you know, have a meeting, sit there, bang out like let’s, let’s do this thing. I had none of that. So I found the kind of communication aspect to it incredibly challenging. That’s for sure, because it’s all make sense. You had but actually, you know, eloquently putting that into an email and something that someone else also understands as much as you, it’s really hard, really hard. So um and yeah, I have my fair share of definitely some miscommunications. But I think um, yeah it was it was it was challenging for sure to try and um yeah. Execute for sure. For sure. I think that there was just so many moments, not even and bit even at moments where it was just like, how am I even going to afford this because I pay for it all myself. So there were moments where I literally couldn’t progress until I got my next paycheck. Like there was just moments that strung it out and strong and out. So there was definitely moments where I was like. I’ll be so much easier if I could just like getting investors and this and that whenever and, and, but I kept on just coming back to the one constant which was like, I know I can do this. I know how well this is going to go and this is my baby and I’m going to do it. But yeah, definitely easy sometimes to take the easy way out. That’s for
[00:15:13] Speaker 2
sure. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, a lot of, Uh, startups these days, they get to a point where they, it’s actually investment is now required to scale and get to the point. They’ve got incredible concepts. They’ve actually got working, you know, service or products, but they can’t actually get to that stage. So even just that by itself is a really good achievement
[00:15:31] Speaker 1
for sure. And I think I liked having that autonomy as well. I think that’s also um, just go in really good stead as well and how we’ve scaled up. Everything that we’ve done has been really Quite natural. Um and it’s just really Quite freeing that I didn’t have to answer to anybody else. It was just me doing my own thing explaining to my sister really like you know what we’re going to do and this is what we’re going to do. I had a sounding board if I needed it, but it was just, it’s just been a really organic journey and I think that that is something that I um take Quite seriously. It’s not something that I would recommend to everybody just like that’s you know there, there are a thousand ways to skin a cat. That’s just how I did it. And I appreciate the way that I did it.
[00:16:14] Speaker 2
Yeah, for sure. So you mentioned your sister and Uh, one thing I noticed in doing some research Uh about you and Clutch Glue is that you’re the founder. Yep. Um, but you also the co-owner. And so Quite often in startups I’ve seen Uh, in my journey and I say, you know, I get to, I guess, come across all the stories through the young achiever woods, which is, you know, I just love that. And you often see co-founder. And so yeah, tell me walk me through that journey of how you were the founder, but actually now, you know, you and your sister are co-owners.
[00:16:43] Speaker 1
Yes. So what the, because the whole Uh, I guess the whole idea to begin with was really just me kind of chipping away at little bits and bobs just niggly bits when I got the time and sort of whatever. And it was kind of didn’t really have any rhyme or reason I had you look at all these startups that have like these really serious, you know, plans and things like that. It was just not like that for me. I just like did it when I did it and I remained um, I guess I remained focused and I had a goal in mind, but I didn’t give myself any of the time pressure. Um and yeah, so when it got to actually the bit of I had the product. Um, but I needed the packaging and I had no design skills whatsoever. But my sister, who was a copywriter in her day job Uh very much, has those very beautiful design skills. Wanted something that was really well marketed. It needed to be something that was really inclusive. It needs to be something that was, you know, celebrated by everyone and everyone and could reach everyone around the World because this isn’t just an Australian problem. This is very much something that, that affects majority of the population. And I thought no one else better to that I can trust them. I see. So we and I’m sure that not everybody has that kind of relationship with their siblings, but I’m very lucky in that my older sister is absolutely brilliant. Um and there’s no one else I would have trusted with the creative. So I sort of just, I didn’t really even ask her to be honest. It was just something that we were just chatting. I’ve got it’s so funny. I was going through old messages on my phone and I Quite literally found the ones just being like, hey, do you reckon you could maybe do a mock up for this? ? And could you do that and what colours do you think? And I don’t know and it again, it kind of just happened. It was just like this. Oh yeah, she’s involved now and she was just doing me a favor for the longest time. Um and then it got to a point where she really, really believed in this product and believed in me. And I actually really loved her being a part of it. So just decided to Uh, give a bit of the company and now we run it together. So she is the creative director, marketing manager co-owner, and I do SEO um Foundry type stuff. But I think at the end of the day it’s actually really lovely to have somebody to bounce off because it can be really isolating, doing things on your own. Um and I really value her opinion. So yeah, yeah,
[00:18:58] Speaker 2
yeah, you Uh almost all the words out of my mouth because I was going to say, I just love hearing the difference between you know, various startups and I hear Uh this, that kind of concept. It can be a lonely, isolating journey, but you hear from others who, even if they are solo founders, or just solo owners of their business. Who say it’s not um isolating because they have, you know, really intentionally brought people along. And I think you’ve touched on it there, you have to have people involved to bounce those ideas off to utilize their expertise. And so, you know, if you’re close with your family who better?
[00:19:33] Speaker 1
Totally, I mean, and that’s the thing is that she cares just as much Uh about it as I do. And that’s something that you definitely find is really tough. Uh, in just the normal day to day corporate world. There are so many people that really care about their jobs, but there are plenty of people that don’t. And that’s something that as a small business, as we start scaling up, it’s actually one of my like greatest fears right now is that I’m going to have to hire someone that isn’t my sister. And then I’m going to have to like, try and make them care about it as much as I do. But that’s just really probably not possible. But yeah, that’s probably a conversation for later down the line. But
[00:20:04] Speaker 2
um there’s Uh no other sister you can bring in brothers
[00:20:06] Speaker 1
unfortunately not although, you know, I’m never say never got plenty of amazing cousins and you know, partners and things like that. That would also be pretty, pretty incredible to bring on board. But um yeah, hopefully we’ve still got a little while until I need to think about that. Yeah, my mind though.
[00:20:22] Speaker 2
Well, I’m lucky enough to work with family as well. Um with what we do is a family owned business that has a great Uh, purpose that we work towards. I’d say I do love it and has, you know, far, far more pros and cons. So the main one I can think of con wise, is when you really, there’s not about, Uh, an argument or, you know, anything like that. But it’s really where you might have a different idea. What you think is going to work better and addressing that. Have you got to overcome that hurdle? Yep.
[00:20:51] Speaker 1
Yeah, Uh certainly, and certainly, you know, we, we clash a lot of the time when it just comes to little. It’s little, it’s never big decisions. It’s never, you know, we’re never making these like crazy big things being like we should go to the moon and I’m like, let’s go to Mars. You know, it’s not like that, but we definitely have conversations about like, Uh, you know, I want to post this TikTok. It might be, and she’s like, Nah, that’s actually a really terrible idea or just different things like that. And I find that, um, you know, we overcome those little problems like Quite quickly, I’d say for us our main problem is we don’t ever stop talking about it. Uh, because we don’t have those boundaries like you normally would with Uh, just a colleague. So when it comes to Yeah, we’re sending those messages to each other Quite literally twenty four hours a day. It never stops but couldn’t have it any other way to be honest, I Quite enjoy it.
[00:21:39] Speaker 2
Yeah. Do you um, do you have partners that roll their eyes and you’re like, you know, you’re out for dinner or something like that and talk to them again. It
[00:21:46] Speaker 1
happens all the time. It happens all the time. Um, but look, they also do very interesting things in their own right. So Uh they do definitely add a really nice insight Uh to our business. It’s refreshing actually that they care so much but also provide just a really nice outsider perspective is really I find that really important to just have people that aren’t involved, that Quite literally you can just see very objectively and just be like hmm actually maybe do this and sometimes you like and sorry, duh, so thank you for that. Yeah. And they really helpful. And when we also utilize that network as well, you know, it’s amazing how many people you know when you pull a few minds together.
[00:22:25] Speaker 2
Yeah. Very true. You mentioned TikTok before and I think it’s something that you know, Clutch, glues, kind of become really well known for is you’re engaging social media content. People just really, you know, Uh, I guess what’s the word um relate to it, I suppose. Yeah. Yeah. Has that been fun? Is that something that you’re directly involved with the outsource? ? How does that work for you?
[00:22:44] Speaker 1
Yeah, it’s, um, it’s exhausting. It’s constant and especially considering TikTok is again a twenty four hour Uh you know, platform because it reaches so many people from across the globe. Uh, my sister and I still manage the all the socials. So we do the Instagram, the TikTok, the TikTok was where we saw success so quickly I. And it blew everybody’s mind, like I knew obviously that I’d done something good, but I thought I was giving myself, you know, a couple years for this thing to sort of really be something that people would get to know. And honestly it just, I woke up one day overnight, I had a video that got eight point eight million views and it and I could not my phone stopped working because I got too many notifications, sales notifications on my phone. It just like stopped working. It was insane. It was like there’s, there was that moment where you’re like, oh, I’ve like done it. And that was like, seriously when I was like, okay, this is, this is the first day of the rest of my life, I think. Yeah. And so we still manage the socials, mostly because I think that being a small business, people really love seeing just the authentic, not glamorous, beautiful content that you might see on Instagram. It’s just like the pure just talking to each other. It’s really candid. It’s really engaging and that’s what I like about TikTok is that everyone feels relatable. Uh, on their you know, whatever, whatever algorithm you’re on, there’s something that you know, that appeals to you and you like to see. So we really been able to tap into that, and I really enjoy engaging with our audience directly. I want to know what they have to say. I want to know their feedback, whether it’s good or bad, and they give us so many good ideas. They like they, they help us, they’re there, they’re being like, I really want to say in this store or this would really work for gymnastics and all of these kinds of things. And just, they’re interesting and they, and they give us so much more than we ever think to think about. So we actually really use them to leverage our own business plan and goals. So I think it’s been, Uh, an amazing place. I don’t think that everyone’s going to find that kind of success on TikTok. I think that because we had a point of difference and it’s a solution to their problems which is very much what tiktok’s flavor is, is that it’s like life hacks is essentially totally what people want. Um, that’s why we saw that kind of success. But we, on the, on the, on the other side, we kind of struggle on the Instagram because it needs to be cushy, and it needs to be kind of a bit more aesthetic. And it’s a bit more about the brand. But that takes years to build out these kind of brand of, of what you want your image to be. So that’s kind of what we’re working on. But at least we were able to do TikTok kind of quickly because the TikTok is based like I just can’t wrap my head around the app. So rich, if you, if you show me eight point eight million people in a room, I would probably just want the graph to swallow me whole, you know? ? Yeah. And especially I would say when it is the main use case of Clutch is certainly Uh, keeping your tops to your chest. Yeah. And as a girl and as someone that’s, you know, just, I don’t know just a twenty five year old girl just, you know, in one day it can sometimes be Quite um, scary and daunting when you have those moments knowing what people can see of your body over the Internet and it’s not something that I really wanted. Um yeah. I try not to let that get to me. There’s definitely cons to it for sure. Um, but yeah, it’s kind of, it has its bad sides when people are sort of commenting on your body and things like that and you know, a lot of that we just try and censor and monitor it. But um yeah, for the main part we’ve seen a lot of success on a ninety nine percent success, about one percent weird, but that you’re going to get that anywhere. It’s the Internet,
[00:26:23] Speaker 2
, right. I know it’s a shame, it’s a set. It’s Uh the, it’s an unfortunate one, but I’d say at least you got ninety nine percent positive. That’s a good
[00:26:30] Speaker 1
way and look, our community truly is just so lovely. It’s so lovely.
[00:26:35] Speaker 2
I love it. Yeah. Yeah. Like even just as a um you know, not even my product just looking at comments. So actually just to be fair with the younger, cheaper ones as well. We do get sometimes someone putting a negative comment about a young person. Yeah. It’s really, it’s Quite horrible like
[00:26:52] Speaker 1
it’s awful, but if you think about it, I was when I, when we first sort of went crazy on TikTok and I was taking a lot of these comments just really personally which I, I’m getting better at now. But I, somebody told me they were like, no successful person is sitting behind their computer, leaving a high comment. It’s only people that are jealous that just don’t have anything going on in their lives that are just bring people down. And honestly, at the end of the day it’s true, like when have you sat there and thought actually to comment something hateful because I haven’t, it’s never crossed it.
[00:27:25] Speaker 2
Yeah. I just, I don’t know what goes through people’s minds to a
[00:27:29] Speaker 1
it’s that the anonymity I guess, you know, on social media is definitely a bit scary, but you know, as long as you sort of aware it, it aware of it and you sort of know how to manage it, that’s probably the best advice that I can give, but yeah, just know that these people are just, you know, low lives. That’s kind of the only way that I sort of just brush it off if I can.
[00:27:48] Speaker 2
Yeah. No, that’s for sure. That’s um, taking it back another step to what you were saying about you getting ideas from your audience as well. That’s interesting. You talked about gymnastics as these things, you know, didn’t kind of have in your mind when you’re creating it, but there’s all these uses that must be really rewarding.
[00:28:05] Speaker 1
Really cool and we sort of and we tap into that a lot in terms of our own content, you know, keeping it interesting and keeping New ideas there. So the, the main use cases is definitely on your chest. And um, also your bike shorts. Just belt them riding up, but um, other main uses that I’ve seen have been amazing like people keeping their saris on um a lot of sort of hair and makeup type things that people will use Clutch for. Um, hemming pants like temporarily hemming things on the go. So because you can use it fabric on fabric and I’ve just found, you know, it’s been so exciting seeing that kind of feedback from people being like, oh my God, I can use it here. I can use it there and I’m like, of course you can like we have people that um on their wedding days, like instead of like on their stockings like on their God is they just like Glue the stockings now, like around their leg versus like actually attaching them and I think that that’s really cool is just, you know, so many use cases because it’s Glue at the end of the day. Like do anything you want um,
[00:28:58] Speaker 2
, keeping it most
[00:28:59] Speaker 1
telling is on the back of your neck. You know, like, it doesn’t come to your front just so many do
[00:29:05] Speaker 2
it, jog my memory because I remember back in Uh, I mentioned at the start last year, you know, we did have a recording time scheduled and I was telling my wife about this and Uh, that’s the exact um example, she used was like those long um kind of stocking things. Yeah. Yeah. She’s like, oh, that’d be perfect because it’s like the ones that have that like grip. They never like they might work for the side of the night. Yeah. But then after that then you realize that all fallen down that actually grip properly. So
[00:29:29] Speaker 1
yeah, exactly. It’s just plenty you can do that is so cool and I don’t know and even just like different product ideas that people have now to being like, oh my God, can you do this with me and can you do that for me? ? I’m like a pussycat. You’re doing my job for me. How good is that? Yeah.
[00:29:42] Speaker 2
Now this is a dumb question. Where is like, Uh, like a little tube makeup brush. Like how do you store it, how is it the, what’s the product come in?
[00:29:51] Speaker 1
So this is a fifteen mil tube is Quite small, it’s kind of the size of like a lip balm but a little bit goes a long way with this. So yeah, we’ll have this for a while. It shelf life is two years. So you’re definitely going to use it up before anything. It’s got no special storage requirements either. Um you can, you know, do anything with it, go anywhere with it. The actual applicator, I mean this one’s a bit gross because I’ve used it a bunch of times, but um, you can see that it’s kind of like actually a lip gloss like it’s
[00:30:17] Speaker 2
yeah, really
[00:30:18] Speaker 1
it’s a liquid and it, you kind of just apply it like to your skin first and then it goes Quite tacky as you can kind of see like that. And it’s just like clay nothing. It’s got Uh it’s got no fragrance in it or anything like that. So doesn’t really smell like anything. And then once it’s sort of nice and tacky and a bit thick, that’s when you can literally just overlay a fabric over the top. You leave it for about five minutes and then you’re stuck in good to go and then it’s not going to come off. So you Quite literally peel it off at the end of the night. You can also, if you don’t want to like rip it off, which can definitely sort of irritate your skin a little bit depending. You know, if you’ve used Quite a lot. We just recommend using a damp cloth and you can Quite literally just pat it off and it’ll just lift off. So yeah, we’ve got it in a fifteen mil tube at the moment. We’re actually making a bunch of thirty mil tubes because the main problem everybody had was that they just wanted more more more
[00:31:12] Speaker 2
more. What a problem
[00:31:14] Speaker 1
we now are making thirty mil tubes. So those will be available in April.
[00:31:19] Speaker 2
So very convenient to hold in your handbag. And the reason I’m thinking about that is a friend. Shared a story that recently it was a he was up. I think it was like North of you are my geography shocking that coffs harbour is that North of the South of it. And Uh he come out of an ice cream shop with two ice creams, one for him, one for his girlfriend. And as he’s stepping over for some reason, instead of going around so it’s Quite crowded. The park bench is Quite tall so I can’t step over the park bench Mhm where she was sitting to deliver the ice cream. His body’s just completely ripped to the front, which is not where they normally, you know, normally you think of a box at the back. And Uh, you know, she had some Clutch Glue in her handbag.
[00:31:58] Speaker 1
Could have
[00:31:58] Speaker 2
just because he was in a world of problem. He’s like, I didn’t have a tail, I’d left it like we just popped it for work.
[00:32:04] Speaker 1
Glue the same back together,
[00:32:06] Speaker 2
glued and he would have been rotten to the get back to the hotel. So, you know, there’s a lot of applications.
[00:32:10] Speaker 1
Exactly, exactly. You just never know when you might come unstuck. Right?
[00:32:14] Speaker 2
Exactly, that’s a good. Uh, I like the tagline. Thank you. So, you know, part of what we, Uh, love it, the young achiever. What is his share in these kind of stories? So amazing what you were doing, working, you know, in your day job, your career founding. This kind of Uh, amazing business and going through the trials and tribulations. And now the successes. Um, you know, what was it like when you I kind of found out that you were a finalist in the Uh, the young achiever was
[00:32:43] Speaker 1
really cool. And that was the first thing that I ever like applied to. I don’t really know. I sort of never really thought about applying to awards and things like that, but there was someone at my sister’s work who was like, oh, I know about this award, you should, you should apply. So I did, and I didn’t really think anything of it, but I actually found it was a really good exercise, especially in those answering those questions that you submit. And that was a really cool exercise in Uh like remembering all of the things that you did and all of that. And I actually still refer to this day, a lot of that application that I wrote, I actually still use different things like, wow, really. Even if I’m giving like, Uh, if I’m doing PR things or whatever and I need to give just like email responses, so much of it I still use and it’s still relevant. So um I found that that was just a really handy thing to have. Um, I would say it was just, it was surreal to you know, be selected and then you know, as a semifinalist being a finalist, it’s like how is that like even possible and, and also the such um an award that I sort of mostly look at is people that are genuinely doing such incredible non-for-profit things like this is so this is a business, but like it’s way more impressive and cool to be in a room with all these people that are genuinely doing so much good, greater good for and impacting their communities, impacting people around them, you know, it’s just such an amazing room to be in. So it was really special to me to then be invited to that awards. You know, where I could, you know, mingle and make friends with all of these really impressive . And to this day, the table that I set up at that finalist, you know, I still know and still say to this,
[00:34:25] Speaker 2
, really, it was, I’m sorry, remember because I was there at the gala dinner. So who was there? Who
[00:34:29] Speaker 1
was literally um Harry and Anna coats who um he won the first award, which I think was was it a charity? He’s um it was a consent and sexual yeah. Um and it was just that just so impressive that just moving mountains, these people and I just think that their work day in day out is just so important.
[00:34:53] Speaker 2
Yeah. Was it, am I getting the rise of Harrison that’s Harrison. Yeah, he’s amazing. I’ve interviewed him on the podcast. Um and his work is incredible. So if anyone is interested look up the Harrison James episode. Uh and yeah, he’s talks about, um consent. How important it is. He had a huge parliament. Um yeah. You know, when, when something got raised in parliament for a New bill. So changing, you know, making positive change, but Uh, you know, touch what you said small businesses, that’s why we love this category because it gets to showcase, you know, someone who’s making a difference through their business. Because as you said yourself earlier, your product is actually helped so many people who had, you know, Quite a serious deficiency in the market. And that’s giving them confidence. It’s giving them self esteem and the ability to go out there. And you know, sometimes is a little old fashioned to have that Uh, sort of dress to impress or whatever, but yeah, I think it’s still true if you look good and you’re proud of how you look, you’re going to feel good
[00:35:54] Speaker 1
wearing things with confidence as well right, it just brings out such a certain edge that like you could be wearing anything, but if you’re wearing that with confidence and you know that it’s the way you want to wear it and you’re rocking it, I think that there’s nothing better. There’s nothing better watching somebody strut down the street and you’re just like, hell yeah, that’s good stuff. And um, I don’t know, it’s just, yeah, giving people the confidence. Do you know where that thing that’s in the back of their wardrobe, that they just don’t touch because it doesn’t sit on them, right? Or whatever, like this is a solution to all of that. And I think it’s just really important. And also, you know, in this day and age we still have such a problem with inclusivity in the market. You know, there’s so many, um, I guess, plus size labels nowadays. But they still only, you know, they’re just making them bigger. They’re not actually shaping them in any way in them yet. These people confidence to wear these things. It’s still just really disheartening to me to see this huge, you know, subset of society really suffer in something that should just be, you know, an everyday essential. It’s just like a no brainer to me. So being able to just encourage everybody to wear whatever they want and you know, have these trusty stayed by their side that can give them, you know, the confidence to shape something in or take something off or whatever it might be. I think that that’s just, you know, really nice and it’s, and it’s positive, you know, sometimes there’s, there’s so many scary, you know, Uh bad things happening in this world. But sometimes I just feel like if you look good, that’s always just like I never have a bad day when I feel like when I’m feeling my best.
[00:37:18] Speaker 2
Yeah, definitely. Well, I know you’re a busy, busy person. Um, so we do have to wrap up the, the conversation shortly, but I do have a couple quick questions. I wanted to squeeze in, you know, is there anything that as a, Uh, a mid twenties, business owner, you know, who was really juggling so many balls. Uh, up in the air while you’re getting your business launched. Is there any kind of advice for you to pass on to people who might be listening to this going through, you know, somewhat of a similar kind of founding journey.
[00:37:48] Speaker 1
I just think just just do it and I think that there was always this thing in back of my mind that was just like, what’s the worst can happen? Like I’m not going to die. I’m really not going to die doing this. Sure, I might lose a bit of money. My ego might be bruised and things like that, but just go and do it because I wouldn’t, you wouldn’t be able to sleep at night being left wondering when you’re fifty six years old like my what if I did this and what if I did that? ? So just don’t have any of those regrets and I think that while you’re young and you don’t have any dependents, you don’t have, you know, maybe a mortgage, you don’t have children. These things. This is when you’re most financially, you know, free to make these decisions for yourself. So I just think go ahead and do it because there’s also you won’t fail, you just learn. And once when you have those skills, you can just transfer them into something else.
[00:38:31] Speaker 2
I love that you won’t fail, but you’ll learn
[00:38:34] Speaker 1
very much so.
[00:38:34] Speaker 2
Good advice. Well yeah, Annabel, thanks for joining us and giving up your time today. I really appreciate it. Obviously. Uh yeah, you’ve been part of the inspirational Australians podcast, which means you’re an inspirational person and Uh, I’ve certainly been inspired just by your tenacity and your Outlook, the positive outlook. Um yeah, I just think there’s so much that I will take and other people will take from this conversation. But you know, is there someone in your life or people or you know, a quote, something that inspires you Uh, you know, when you’re feeling like you need a bit of inspiration.
[00:39:07] Speaker 1
Do I think he’s like something that I believe five was this one. Like, I don’t really know, it sounds like corny, I don’t, I don’t like really get too bogged down in sort of, you know, things to keep me going. Um, I would probably just go back to what I said earlier, which was just what’s the worst going to happen? ? It’s just like always the way that I kind of look at situations and I think that having good people around you that you can trust is key as well to, you know, creating a good life for yourself. And yeah, just do it. Just do those things like live short. I just think that, you know, living with regret is just not worth it.
[00:39:43] Speaker 2
Yeah. So true. Well, thank you, Annabel. People are wanting to, you know, buy your product and we’ll connect with you. What Uh, where should we send them?
[00:39:51] Speaker 1
You can send, send your, Uh, queries across to either Uh, Clutch Glue on Instagram or on TikTok if you’re interested. And we Uh, Clutch Glue dot com for all of your purchasing needs. We are also available in Priceline, Australia, Uh all around Australia, if you would like to purchase them in stores and keep an eye on us. We have plenty of other New products that we’re developing in the background. So if you’d like to be a part of this Uh, journey, we’re only just starting out. So I think that you know, in a couple of years time it’d be cool to cool to be an OG as a part of our Clutch Clutch tribe.
[00:40:25] Speaker 2
For sure. Well, thanks and look forward to following along your journey and Uh, keeping an eye on all the exciting things to come.
[00:40:31] Speaker 1
Thanks very much, Josh. I’ll speak to you soon. The inspirational australian’s podcast is brought to you by awards, Australia. We recognise, celebrate and share the stories of inspirational Australians
[00:40:47] Speaker 2
throughout awards
[00:40:48] Speaker 1
programs across the country. To find out more to nominate an inspirational Australian in your life, or to partner with our awards, visit awards, Australia dot com. If you enjoyed today’s story, we’d love it if you could subscribe rate and review to make sure you don’t miss an episode. And to help our
[00:41:07] Speaker 2
guests
[00:41:08] Speaker 1
reach more people with their inspirational reach more people with their inspirational stories. stories.
