Chunks Chats: About Building a Creative Business

For any creative business owner who has ADHD (probably a good chunk of you), Tiffany discusses her own experiences and thoughts on navigating a growing business with ADHD, why it's actually a superpower, the challenges it may present in work life and the tools she uses.

Tiffany and Liah Yoo, founder of KraveBeauty, go in depth about what their manufacturing processes actually look like and how they chose to treat the product that came out less than perfect. In celebration of AAPI month, when you purchase $60+ at chunks.shop you will receive a KraveBeauty Lip Barrier Relief from the Waste Me Not Collection. When you purchase $60+ at kravebeauty.com you will receive a Chunks Clear Checker Claw from the Oopsies Collection. This crossover promotion runs from May 24 until supplies last!

Tiffany (Owner), Lupe (Brand Director), and Tasha (Social Media Manager) chat about how our marketing has evolved over the years. Tiffany started her business as a solopreneur, using solely organic social media marketing. As the business and team grew, Chunks has evolved and experimented with all the marketing options while staying true to what keeps Chunks magical.

...you do some soul searching and try to figure out what those lemons are telling you, lol. In 2023, Tiffany went through a separation, a house fire, 2 moves, team shake ups and CANCER. Tiffany looks back on the year, from where she was at the beginning vs. the end. She reflects on things that have changed, things that have stayed the same and things she's had to let go of. Tiffany reflect on her health crisis and how it's affected her personally and in the business. And finally, Tiffany share the biggest lessons she's learned from all of it. After years of being a maker and designer, Tiffany Ju built a creative accessories brand, Chunks, out of her basement in 2019 and grew it into a 7 figure business. Tiffany shares her unique experiences through her creative entrepreneurship journey. Follow Chunks on IG Follow Tiffany on IG

Kristen Pumphrey started making candles out of her apartment over a decade ago and has since grown that business into a self funded, multi-million dollar success by constantly evolving and embracing change. Tiffany reached out to Kristen a couple years ago for mentorship and advice and the two have since formed a genuine friendship. We catch up for the first time in 6 months and chat about managing difficult personal life events and our businesses during tough times. Follow Kristen and P.F. Candle Co. + ⁠Tiffany ⁠and ⁠Chunks⁠ Shop Kristen's beautiful candles & Chunks⁠

Tiffany, Alistair and Michael celebrate their new puzzle collaboration called "Love is in the Hair" by chatting about how the puzzle came to be and why we we call ourselves long distance BFF's. Tiffany also gets the scoop on how Alistair and Michael manage their partnership, their inspiration for creating LePuzz and how all the puzzle pieces came together. Pun intended.

As the Chunks Brand Director, Lupe Wright directs and produces all Creative and manages the marketing. She chats with Tiffany about her role at Chunks and how its evolved over the 2 years she's been with the team. (She actually started as a Shipping Specialist!) Tiffany and Lupe chat about what Lupe was doing pre-Chunks, the day-to-day nitty gritty, and how she likes her eggs (and other fun facts!) Find us at chunks.shop or on IG and Tiktok

Tiffany and Shannon chat about their design process, creative inspo and what's coming up in the future. Shannon also talks about her path at Chunks, starting out as a Shipping Specialist in 2021 to now as a Product Designer. Hear about Shannon's biggest lessons and obstacles as her role has evolved.

I set out with a vision for a highly ambitious year but then April hit and I've spent the last 3 months on a rollercoaster of the biggest ups and downs of my life. I have Breast Cancer, AND I'm simultaneously living in complete magic and flow like I've never felt before. I'm now separated from my partner of 10 years, living on my own AND I've never been richer in connection with others. The last three months look like a dumpster fire AND I now I know deeply that the universe has my back. With all the self development turned spiritual work I've been diving into over the past couple years, hear about the new leg of the journey I'll be starting (and how the rest of the team is handling it). Connect with Tiffany on instagram

From touring the craft fair circuit to building her candle EMPIRE, Kristen knows a thing or two about branding, mood boarding and steering the ship of her not so small (but still scrappy) biz. Come for the small business chats but stay for the hair stories, bc we're also talkin' hair today. Candle lovers, follow: https://instagram.com/pfcandleco?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA== Kristen lovers, follow: https://instagram.com/_longbranch?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

Tiffany and her brother Chris (aka Kato Producer) chat about their similarities in running creative businesses that were primarily grown on social media. They reflect on how their childhood may have had a role in shaping their entrepreneurial tendencies, how Kato's beats exploded on TikTok in 2020, how to brand yourself on social media, and why does Chris not EVER seek validation from others??? MUST BE NICE. See how Kato went from making beats in college to landing 6-figure brand deals as a Producer/Influencer. Follow Kato Producer: tiktok instagram twitter youtube

Liah Yoo, self titled content creator turned entrepreneur founded the skincare line KraveBeauty with a mission to slow down the beauty industry. Tiffany and Liah bond over their frustrations with the US recycling system and the realities (and temptations) that ensue from valuing impact over profit in business. How does Liah stay grounded in her values, what metrics does she use to measure success for KraveBeauty, and how did she even start caring about sustainability in the first place??? And to celebrate each other even further, we partnered up with KraveBeauty to bring you a special gift with purchase. Spend $50 on chunks.shop⁠ and get a FREE Beet the Sun Suncreen, spend $50 on KraveBeauty.com and get a FREE Flower Power hair claw. From 5.29-6.5 (or while supplies lasts).

Yowei Shaw spent 2 years producing and hosting NPR's Invisibilia podcast which dives into the “unseeable forces that control human behavior and shape our ideas”. Yowei and Tiffany get into a wide ranging conversation including her hair clip and claw preferences, what it was like to get laid off and her show cancelled at the same time, awkward goodbyes and being red pilled by NPR. Keep up with Yowei, post NPR via: https://yoweishaw.substack.com/ https://twitter.com/yowei_shaw https://www.instagram.com/yoweishaw/

This was a juicy one for Tiffany because she couldn't wait to tell Emma about all the fun commonalities they share and needless to say, Emma's mind was blown. Emma talks about her plan to marry a BTS member and how she got to be a host at NPR (while still a student at Harvard and making Asian parents around the country proud as sh*t). Tiffany and Emma also discuss NPR x Chunks new hair claw and clip collaboration that JUST dropped on May 19, how it came about and Emma's mom stealing the show at the photoshoot. Keep up with Emma Eunjoo Choi: https://www.instagram.com/emmaeunjoo/ https://www.emmaeunjoochoi.com/

Tiffany answer's some of your Frequently Asked Questions! How did you come up with the name, Chunks? Where do you find inspo? How did you know you were ready to start a business? How do you maintain a work life balance? What does "responsible manufacturing" actually mean? How did you find your manufacturers? Advice for someone who's starting a creative business? Advice on selling wholesale and reaching out to stores? What did you mean by "breaking up" in one of your recent posts?

Tiffany talks about fundraising for Chunks, having awkward conversations with our vendors, a crazy Aries season in her personal life and challenges at work. It's a casual, off the cuff episode of what's been going on behind the scenes and how Tiffany is reflecting on it all.

Lisa Li talks about how her flower tea business was inspired by her trip to the tea farms in Yunnan, China and her mission to change the tea game in the West. Tiffany and Lisa reflect on the fact that as Asian women, they both created businesses that tell an Asian story and what that has been like. They also go into their eastern wellness philosophies and experiences with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). Follow The Qi: https://www.instagram.com/drinktheqi/ Follow Chunks: https://www.instagram.com/chunks.shop/

Chunks is a small business that creates joyful, responsibly made hair clips and accessories. Tiffany Ju, a fashion and accessories designer, started Chunks out of her house in 2019 and grew to over $1M annual revenue in just two years. Running a fast growing business while being a true creative at heart is not an easy task. How do you run an efficient, goal oriented business while having the time to do what you do best? Through interviews with other founders, tactical small biz advice and fun, casual behind-the-scenes chats, Tiffany brings you open, honest episodes that run the gamut of creative entrepreneurship. Follow along the Chunks journey on socials at: www.instagram.com/chunks.shop/ www.tiktok.com/@chunks.shop And Tiffany's personal journey at: www.instagram.com/t.ffanyju/

Tiffany talks to one of her biz besties, Fiona Co Chan of Youthforia, a gen Z beauty brand famous for their color changing blush oil. They discuss Fiona's journey in creating Youthforia, launching to crickets but then finding an audience on Tiktok which is now under the threat of being banned in the U.S. Fiona gives her take on social media, working with large retailers like Ulta, her appearance (and Mark Cuban deal!) on Shark Tank, and dupes!

Tiffany gives her experience and opinion about designing products, especially as the company has grown. As both the business owner and designer, it can be really hard juggling the two. Designing, quality control and time management have all gotten trickier and Tiffany gives her advice on how to make sure that creative, high quality product are always priority number one.

Mihana Johnston, the creator of beaded jewelry line Bizu, chats with Tiffany about her creative path. From Honolulu to Denver to Los Angeles, Mihana brought her childhood inspirations to life during the pandemic and learned how to make beaded jewelry from 'bead moms' on Youtube. See how she transitioned from her 9-5 marketing career in Denver to now a full time jewelry artist, living in Los Angeles. Tiffany and Mihana casually chat about the difficulties along their similar paths and how to keep things in perspective.

Tiffany's still out of town so Tasha and Christine are swapping seats from last week to tell you ALL about what Christine gets up to as Chunks' Operations Director. From e-commerce strategy and financial planning, all the way to shipping oversight and navigating our impact strategy. Christine does it all. She'll also share the learning curves she was faced with when she left the world of corporate medicine to direct the operations of a small baby hair clip biz of 15.

Today Christine's talking to Tasha, our resident Chunks social media manager. Social media is a growing field in the marketing industry, but do you REALLY know what a SMM does?? Tasha will tell you all about her day to day tasks, learning curves that she's faced, what traits she thinks are most important in a SMM, and how she got hired.

Tiffany goes into how she personally grew her social media following for Chunks, a cult favorite hair clip brand. She also shares the important things all small businesses should be asking themselves in order to grow their business using social media (hint: the question actually IS NOT 'how do I grow my social media following?') Tiffany also shares some healthy and holistic points of view about social media and how to approach it as a small business owner, a creative business owner or maker/artist.

We wrote our first impact report! In this episode we'll talk you through how we developed our goals for 2022, what we learned, and how we are approaching impact in 2023. We've come a long way, and have farther to go, but we couldn't be more excited to share this report with you!

Introducing: Chunkonomics. Are we economists? Do we have formal training in this area? No. No, not really. But we have hot takes, and we're giving you our thoughts on the possible recession (is it coming? are we in one...? whats happening? ) We're just a small baby business but we're coming out of January with some big plans and we have to take all factors into account. If you're a small biz owner or just wanna hear about the wild wild world of influencer marketing, have we got an episode for u!

Today Tiffany's chatting with our first EVER guest, Rebecca Schwartz Altholz. Rebecca studied Sustainability Management at Columbia University and now devotes the majority of her time to environmental sustainability education as well as Sustainability Consulting. She's passionate about shifting the mindset around the expectation of perfection that we hold ourselves, others and especially brands to as we're all finding our way on this sustainability journey. So..what can we REALLY expect from brands? As a brand, how can we best approach the way we talk about sustainability? What does the word "sustainable" even mean and should we still use it??! We still don't have all the answers either, and that's okay. This one's for creators and consumers alike.

In this episode, Tiffany and Christine talk about our experiences working with our Chinese manufacturers. Listen to how Tiffany found her overseas manufacturers and now that her team has expanded, how they approach relationship building and vetting new manufacturers as a small company. Sponsored by Chunks.

Today we are ONE WITH THE UNIVERSE. We gave Chunks a tarot reading, talked about our astrological charts, and Tiffany might have talked about Aliens. Taking a look at our team's charts, we also discussed how we approach the dynamics within our fun lil company. We can't totally remember because we were astral projecting ¯_(ツ)_/¯

How do we know what's really going on with our manufacturers? Especially when we aren't onsite with them?? Today we're talking about Social Audits. These are the audits used by many companies to better understand how manufacturers' pay and manage their workers. We'll discuss who creates the criteria for audits, how they work, and what they look like for both buyers and suppliers.

One of Tiffany's most frequently asked questions is where she gets her design inspo from. She talks about her general approach of finding inspo, her experience in fashion school and how she puts a collection together. She shares her opinions on what trends and style actually are and has some strong feelings about fashion's role in society.

This is a casual episode where Tiffany and Christine discuss their thoughts after having a couple weeks off for Holidays. They chat about relaxing (and why it's so hard), New Years Resolutions, good habits they want to cultivate and bad habits they want to let go of. They also share their mindsets going back into work at Chunks and looking ahead into 2023. Tiffany and Christine ask themselves, can goals be reached successfully and easily?

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery...supposedly. How does Chunks deal with the dupes of our products? Is there anything we can do about it? How much does it matter? On this episode, we discuss our history with dupes as individuals (knockoffs, anyone?) and how they have affected our business. This one is a wild ride, you've been warned.

Planning for an entire year can definitely be daunting, so we're talking about how we make our Master Plans at Chunks. Taking the big vision of our company and connecting it to each team member and their work, we talk about the value of planning, even when it doesn't pan out *quite* how you thought it would.

We love our manufacturers and having our products proudly "Made in China," but we wanted to delve into the origins of negative stereotypes about Chinese manufacturing. In this episode, we discuss the nuances that come into play when international trade policies, human rights, industrialization, and consumerism meet.

2021 was a great year for Chunks so, naturally, Tiffany decided to spend a light 100K on a few things to *hopefully* boost the business to the next level -- email marketing, a branding refresh and a business consultant. Did it work or was it a fail? Investing back in your business can be scary but sometimes necessary. Follow along as Tiffany recounts her investments, one by one.

Nobody's perfect--including us! Tiffany and Christine get real about the things the team has discovered on our journey to be as sustainable, ethical, and transparent as possible. While we've learned a lot, there is so much room for improvement, and this episode is about owning our contradictions, being honest about where we are in our journey, and expanding our perspectives.

We LOVE an All Hands Meeting because our small business has a big vision and it's imperative that all our team members are on board. Building a work culture that emphasizes collaboration and creativity relies on transparency at all levels and a safe place for us to dream, and our All Hands meetings are a core part of making this happen. Listen to all the topics we covered in our meeting and how we're manifesting big 2023 goals as a team.

Tiffany's got craft shows on the brain as she starts her 2022 Holiday Tour. Craft shows like Renegade and West Coast Craft are held every season to bring together local makers and artists to offer the most unique and fun shopping experience to thousands of people. Knowing how to get prepared for these shows can be a bit overwhelming so Tiffany, who's been vending at craft shows for 8 years, gives all her tips and tricks.

Benefits can be a black hole for a lot of leaders and business owners -- they're intentionally complicated to enroll in, it can seem like you need a degree just to understand what your insurance covers, and who even knows what their 401k is invested in?! Christine and Tiffany discuss how tf to make sure your employees know how to use their benefits, and how to center the values of your business in an incredibly complicated system.

Tiffany recently came back from a psilocybin weekend and returned with some wild self discoveries. Listen to Tiffany and Christine discuss their thoughts on self development, what led them to trying ~substances~ to enhance their journey, and what inner knowledge has to do with their outlook on business and career development. Disclaimer: we don't endorse drugs, but like, do what you want.

We've got collaborations on the brain! We're in the middle of doing several at the moment and this has Tiffany and Christine thinking about all the collabs we've done over the years. Brand collaborations come in all shapes and sizes. Tiffany and Christine share their approach when it comes to collabs, what pitfalls to watch out for, and how to maximize the value exchange of partnerships.

Chunks has been on a journey to be an environmentally conscious brand from the beginning, and now we're taking the next step to be Climate Neutral certified! What does that even mean? What is involved? What is greenwashing? What does it mean to be a brand trying to sell a product AND trying to reduce emissions when the majority of emissions come from businesses? Listen to our Operations Director, Christine explain what Climate Neutral actually does, the process of how we joined, the ins and outs of the carbon credit market and how our membership is helping our small business define our bigger impact goals.

Tiffany recounts her personal journey from her previous business started in 2012 and through the past few years building Chunks. A fashion and accessories designer by trade, Tiffany has been full time in her small businesses for the past ten years. From her astrological destiny (a STELLIUM in Aries), to being Tumblr famous, to growing a business from 1 to 14 employees--she discusses being broke, going viral, and all the hard lessons that she's learned from.