What do you get when a broken makeup brush, a soldering gun, and a relentless mindset collide? A patented product, a marketing agency, and a franchise—all built by Erika Giuggio before the age of 30. In this conversation with host Jennifer “JJ” Sutton, Erika reveals the gritty reality behind her multi-layered entrepreneurial journey. From product development battles to starting a business mid-pandemic, she shares the mindset, mistakes, and moves that helped her keep building—even in chaos. It’s raw, real, and refreshingly honest.
Key Takeaways:
1️⃣ Know your worth.
Undervaluing your services invites burnout and micromanagement.
2️⃣ Hire slow, fire fast.
Clear expectations and quick decisions protect your business.
3️⃣ Routines = resilience.
Erika’s biohacking habits help her stay focused and avoid burnout.
Timestamps
00:00 Welcome to Hello Chaos
01:14 Erica's Entrepreneurial Journey Begins
06:00 Lessons from Starting a Marketing Agency
12:54 The Rewards and Challenges of Entrepreneurship
18:19 Navigating the Chaos of Business
21:04 Finding Balance in Entrepreneurship
22:40 Biohacking for Productivity
30:47 Celebrating Milestones and Future Goals
🔗 Learn more
Website: https://www.schooleymitchell.com/office/aegiuggio/about/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikagiuggio/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theerikagiuggio/
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (00:01.442)
Welcome to Hello Chaos, the weekly podcast exploring the chaotic and messy lives and minds of founders, entrepreneurs, and innovators. Each week I have the privilege to speak with founders across the spectrum, founders from different industries at various stages, from startups to mature businesses of all shapes and sizes. We get to hear the real, the raw, the unvarnished viewpoints and stories.
getting incredible insights on what it takes to start and scale a business, to become a better founder, a better CEO, just a better business leader. Today we have on our show, our guest is Erika Giuggio She is a franchise owner of Schooley Mitchell, started her own marketing agency and has a patent in the cosmetic industry, working towards a launch. So welcome Erika.
Welcome to the show. Welcome to the chaos. You're in it.
Erika Giuggio (01:01.137)
Thank you so much, Jennifer, for having me.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:03.246)
Well, start out and just tell us what inspired to get into entrepreneurship, becoming a franchise owner, starting an agency, and then getting into kind of the cosmetic business of, can't even imagine. So what inspired all this?
Erika Giuggio (01:22.171)
Alright, so when I was in school, that was unfortunately a long time ago now, but...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (01:27.15)
I don't want to date myself, but it happens during this podcast.
Erika Giuggio (01:34.75)
But when I was in school, was in urban planning. And at the time, this was towards like my final year. And I said to myself, what am I doing here? Like, what am I actually doing? I'm going to get into a job. I'm going to work for like a city or a municipality. And I'm going to make X amount of dollars per year. And.
I just, there was something unsettling about that. And I wanted to do something more and bigger and greater. And I wanted more power. Hence, I read my first book called, Invented, It, Sell It by Laurie Grenier, one of the ones from Shark Tank. And she said, the easiest thing to do is look around your house and find something that is a problem. And...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (02:19.053)
Yeah.
Erika Giuggio (02:30.437)
I said, okay, and she goes, that's how you're gonna create business solutions. Hence, one day I was putting on makeup and I was washing them and I said, I just spent $90 on this makeup brush. What's going on here? Why did the wood, like the handle, detach from the metal piece in the middle? And then you put it back on and then when you're applying, let's say, a blush,
it kind of like wobbles a little bit because now like the glue gets undone. And I said to myself, that's it. That's what I'm going to do. And that was the very beginning of what I thought was going to be easy, but had a lot of challenges along the way, especially
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (03:00.483)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (03:15.854)
Product development is like, yeah, it is so, I think so much harder than a lot of people realize. Any kind of product development, whether you're in food, beverage, cosmetic, packaging, a hard, tangible product. mean, it is, like we work in B2B a lot, so tires and cars, and I mean, it is.
It is very difficult no matter how small the brush or how if it's a car, it's a lot more work that goes into it. What was your aha moments through that journey?
Erika Giuggio (03:57.21)
I would say my aha moments because there was a lot of steps along the way is just every time I hit a new milestone. So for example, when I did the search and then I found out that I didn't have a lot of competition, I had a little bit of competition, I was like, perfect, I know that there's a market out there. So that means that someone had did market research prior. And then every time I would go back to the patent offices in Canada and the US,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:16.77)
Yeah.
Erika Giuggio (04:26.981)
I actually get a little discouraged because they would say, listen, like, you're going to go back and forth a lot. But every time we would back and forth, it just meant that they were looking at it. So that was, I would say, yeah. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:33.293)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:37.806)
That's a good insight.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (04:42.158)
So what was, so where are you in the process now? I mean, you've filed a patent, you have it issued, now it's okay, I gotta go to market. Is this where the agency came into play?
Erika Giuggio (04:57.815)
Yes, and actually I went back to school again. Because this is where and going back to your last question about the aha moment, I realized what what am I doing? I don't I don't know anything. There's so much to learn here and I was 21. I had an urban planning background, went back to school, learned a whole bunch of things about marketing and I figured if you're in that space, then you're going to start connecting with more and more people.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:06.478)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:26.926)
Yeah.
Erika Giuggio (05:27.879)
Hence, and then the pandemic came to top it all off. So that's when I started the agency and I started learning, okay, like this is how I'm really gonna get this out to market. And I failed a lot through that time. And I'm glad I failed on that side and not the patent side.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:30.968)
Yeah
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:40.462)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (05:47.434)
Yeah, yeah, secure that. So what were the biggest lessons learned of starting even the marketing agency? I try not to say fail forward anymore, but I used that phrase, I think, for a decade when I started my agency. Now I just go, no, no, it's just lessons. It's just lessons learned. Failure is not in my vocabulary anymore. I'm not gonna put it in there.
But I feel ya, what were your biggest lessons?
Erika Giuggio (06:19.805)
Three things, charge what you wanna charge and don't go for the cheapest and the very bottom line because people will drive you crazy. If you have a social media package, that's $500 and you're just trying to get testimonials out there and start getting into the space, but that particular package for the value it's worth, everyone else is charging 15.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:22.67)
Mm-hmm.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (06:43.171)
Right.
Erika Giuggio (06:49.371)
The people that are gonna end up coming to you are also small businesses. Nothing wrong with that. And startups, but when people are in startup mode, sometimes they micromanage. And you cannot scale when people micromanage. It is a disaster.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:01.59)
Yes.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:07.81)
Yeah, I just wrote a post on this. think I just posted it on LinkedIn and Facebook, whatever it was. It was everybody's a marketer until it's time to market. It was my was my post. And because, I've been in marketing for 30 years and it's you know, you get in there, it's like they hired an agency and you're right. Small, no matter if you're small business or you're a big business. They're all the same amount of time.
Erika Giuggio (07:18.845)
Yep.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (07:37.386)
And sometimes small businesses take way more time and energy. So when people are like, can I get a small business package? You know, thinking that it's a problem like actually our small business package sometimes is priced a little bit higher. Not every time, but you know, it's like you're not you're not going to save us time like it's not. You have to do a lot more hand holding a lot more education and.
you do have less experienced people. And that was my post was like, the CEO is like, my nephew just got, you know, took a marketing class or my daughter's and, you know, she does her own social. I think she should do mine. You you get all of that. And it's like, or our CFO just read a book on storytelling. And then you're sitting around a room with a lot of people with a lot of un.
informed opinions or let's see I did write one because we did have a client mention the other day of you know should we should we go and survey what your audience what your customers actually want and think before you make some decisions no why would I want to do that I'll just make the decision
And then we'll survey afterwards and then I'll just manage the complaints from there. And we're like, that's not how that's supposed to work. Anyway, sorry. Go on, what are some other, yeah, those are really good lessons, but you're right of charge what you like, know your value, know your worth. We've heard that from so many founders of price it, make sure you know what's like.
if you're gonna do an hourly rate, know how to mathematically calculate that hourly rate that covers your overhead, your expenses, and so that you actually make money. And you've gotta include some padding, because if you charge a $50 hourly rate, but yet all your overhead is actually
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:00.022)
ends up being like $85 an hour, well then you lose money every time you touch that client. So yeah, the calculations, the math, the math doesn't math, is that.
Erika Giuggio (10:14.799)
Yes, this is where the girl math does not exist. Like it's you got to do the actual math.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:17.986)
That's right. That's right. Must do the math. What were some of the other lessons learned?
Erika Giuggio (10:24.633)
I would say hire and fire fast.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (10:28.364)
Yeah, it's so hard.
Erika Giuggio (10:32.141)
It's you know what it's it's hard but I've learned within that things that I made mistakes in myself on what to look for certain characteristics on what not to look for you what I've noticed and even in myself even when I'm when I've worked for people in the past you'll see on resume on like job postings
an entrepreneurial spirit. And we can expect people to think like us at the rate that we're going to pay them. They're not going to, you know, answer calls at eight o'clock at night. And not that I expected that. But that was that was the first thing I expected them to have like a goal and ambition and to go. And I did not know how to channel that.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:12.323)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:25.153)
Mm-hmm.
Right.
Erika Giuggio (11:28.079)
with them and how like how do we get them motivated? I say that's the first thing. Second thing I would do differently this time because now there's a lot of marketers out there. But instead of asking questions in an interview and saying like what are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Like let's go over your skills and portfolio. I'm going to pitch to them this time. And say here's why you should work for me.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:40.888)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:47.81)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (11:53.294)
Erika Giuggio (11:57.05)
and do it all in one shot. If they're interested, then they'll come back. And then you have like a smaller interview, but that's another piece. And then also in the hiring and firing stage, I would still try to create as much a motivation as I could and, you know, kind of filter them out pretty quickly. But I do, you got to give them a chance as well. But some people,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:04.749)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:21.153)
Yeah.
Erika Giuggio (12:23.673)
I think within a month you like, you know, you have to say like,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:26.85)
within 30 days, you really do know. By 90 days, yeah. It should be, those are lessons that we've all had to learn so well. Chandler's like, yeah, Jennifer.
Erika Giuggio (12:38.717)
you
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:40.622)
Chip chop. What do you feel like has been the most rewarding part of your journey?
Erika Giuggio (12:49.903)
I think the most rewarding for me is the fact that during the pandemic, I started a business when everything was just going to shits. Like everything around us was just going to shit. And just trying to keep your head above water. I think that's the first and I'd say biggest thing that I'm proud of. And I'd say the second thing is, you know, like how many people have patents at 21?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (12:59.427)
See.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:07.118)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:18.486)
Yeah, that's impressive. How was that process, by the way? What did you have to do to, I mean, were you just at the library going, like, did you seek out resources in your community? How did you know even how to go through that process to put all the things together to issue or to submit the patent? What was that process like?
Erika Giuggio (13:45.392)
Okay, this is, this is a loaded question. So after I read Invent and Bank and Sell It, in the book it said like, go get a patent lawyer. Like before you even like start creating everything, make sure you do like a search. So I did like a preliminary search on like Google patents.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (13:50.274)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:02.882)
Okay.
Erika Giuggio (14:08.061)
And I found about nine and the law office that I found, found 16. So they found seven more than I did. And I just, you know, did an old fashioned like Google search, like top patent offices in Toronto. And they helped guide me in terms of what to do next. But what I would say was even, oh, and then I had to do, then I had to file.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:17.773)
Okay.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:22.253)
Yeah.
Erika Giuggio (14:36.221)
And then I did the prototype and then we would go back and forth between the law office and then the patent offices in the US to say like, hey, like make tweaks here. Cause it's similar to this one. So that was just the beginning. Like that's nothing.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:44.611)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (14:51.96)
just the going back and forth, back and forth. How did you build your prototype? Did you have resources like in Toronto that you're like, there's somebody like right down the street that can build these things for me?
Erika Giuggio (15:04.633)
So I went down to, it's called the DMZ, now called Toronto Metropolitan University, formerly called Ryerson, and they have a fantastic entrepreneurship center where they have like the 3D printing and you can do all that stuff. But my very first draft was in the garage using a solder gun and apparently solder guns are just for electrical work, not to fuse things together.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (15:11.767)
Okay.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (15:18.808)
Nice.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (15:33.166)
Yeah
You're like, I don't care, I did it. That's impressive. Yeah. Do you have to submit the actual prototype with the patent? Like with the paperwork or is it just the drawings? Okay. Okay. And then where, so now where are you, you trying to find, okay, how do you then build it in mass? Like your manufacturer, how are you, where are you in that process?
Erika Giuggio (15:39.834)
Yes.
Erika Giuggio (15:46.916)
No, you-
Just the drawings.
Erika Giuggio (16:04.731)
So that's the next piece. Now, I've gotten some advice and a lot of companies or a lot of investors, the manufacturers will create whatever you want as long as you have your mold. But you need money to go to these manufacturers. And a lot of people in the cosmetic space, when you get investors,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (16:23.682)
Yeah. Yep.
Erika Giuggio (16:32.237)
They sometimes don't want to invest in your product because you're going to go and turn it around quick. You're going to create the patent, create a business out of it, and then you flip the business. Because what ends up happening is sometimes things become a trend and then it dies out.
So right now it's finding investors, it's the manufacturing. The next piece, now that I have the marketing piece, you still have to do the finance and everything else and to market it globally. But one thing I found to be helpful is all of these little entrepreneurship accelerators. You get, it's not about like the $10,000 that you get in the grants and everything else. It's the connections.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:08.205)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:17.229)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:23.992)
That's right.
Erika Giuggio (17:24.901)
and building it forward. So yeah, that's the next piece, but everything kind of intertwines. And sometimes you don't know which piece of the Jenga to take out first. that's, that's, those are, that's the next stage.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (17:40.11)
But you're in the chaos right now. You are completely in the chaos. Well, yes, and I, if you haven't done an accelerator, do an accelerator, an incubator. I'm a coach for one in our community and I sponsor another one in our community. So we're highly involved in that. is.
It's so rewarding, mean, for me as a coach, but also just to see people that come in there and even with it, some of them are coming in with a post-it note of a scratch of an idea and it's, you get so many resources that are just circling around you and wanting to support. And I think that's where you find in the entrepreneurial community and I'm sure Erika, you've seen that too.
entrepreneurs want to help other entrepreneurs. It is a weird, you don't see that as much like in the corporate business environment unless you have like a entrepreneurial spirit, but it's like off the charts when it comes to entrepreneurs and innovators want to help other entrepreneurs and innovators. is the most wonderful benefit.
of kind of entering into this ecosystem.
Erika Giuggio (19:06.525)
Absolutely, and you're absolutely right about the corporate piece as well. Nobody's that motivated or I don't want to say wants you to move forward because that's not that's not the right way to say it but you are a little bit in competition with each other but when you're on the entrepreneurship side that's your baby. That's your passion.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (19:26.53)
Right, right. And you'll find you'll have people that will give. They're so giving with their time. You could send out 100 emails to go, I just wanna buy a cup of coffee. The people that will respond back are the entrepreneurs. Almost immediately and go, let's do it, sure. Let's have that cup of coffee.
I don't, yeah, that's been, that's what we've heard from a lot, but that's been my experience too, and I think it's just a, it's a wonderful mindset to have. So what do you think has been the most challenging part of your journey? Was it starting the marketing agency? Was it the patent? And kind of you're in that middle of that chaos of like, how do I go to market?
Erika Giuggio (20:02.672)
Absolutely.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:19.82)
with this product or is it you bought a franchise? Talk about that, what's been the biggest challenge?
Erika Giuggio (20:28.231)
So I would say a challenge now from the marketing agency to Schooley Mitchell, the franchise, what I've learned is also when you're starting a business from scratch, you have to create processes and systems in place. And sometimes it's better just to have a turnkey solution.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (20:36.078)
Yeah.
Erika Giuggio (20:51.395)
where you can go in, those are done for you and all you have to focus on is a few elements. So on that side, it's the accounting, it's sales, and just making connections and making sure that of course, like at the end of the day, they're getting what you promised them.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:08.547)
Right.
Erika Giuggio (21:09.241)
So that's, that's where I made that transition there. But I would say like the biggest challenge and why I've gone from like the patent to the marketing agency to now assist a business where it's turnkey is balance. And I've been so unbalanced for quite a long time. So you talked about entrepreneurship.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:30.606)
Talk about that, what do mean?
Erika Giuggio (21:34.813)
and how we all come together. And there's a reason why we all come together. Sometimes it can be a lonely place. Like when I was 21, who's creating a patent at 21? Everyone's still partying. Everyone's in the downtown core going to clubs and.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:35.018)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (21:50.222)
Great.
They're like, Erika, come out. You're like, I've got to focus. I got a plan.
Erika Giuggio (21:58.366)
Exactly, exactly. you got to find it's like making new friends again, you got to find people that align with those particular goals. But when you're in that space, you're not working a nine to five job anymore. You're working 24 seven. And what I learned throughout that whole process is you got to find balance. And I started doing some like biohacking.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:04.142)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:14.21)
Right.
Erika Giuggio (22:27.247)
elements to it and then it really started to pick up and actually work. bio- So biohacking is basically again, like systems and processes and habits that you create for yourself that allow you to work and be more productive without burning out.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:32.398)
What's biohacking? I don't think I've heard that term. Chandler's like, you haven't heard that term? What are you, crazy?
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:44.545)
Okay.
Erika Giuggio (22:53.413)
So you'll see like those people do like cold plunges and then they go in the sauna. So yeah, so there's certain.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:53.675)
Okay.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (22:58.326)
Okay, yeah. So what's yours? What's your routine?
Erika Giuggio (23:06.137)
My routine is, so when I get up in the morning, I go for a walk and I do around like nothing crazy, just like 10,000 steps just to get some fresh air. I don't pick up the phone. Like if it's an emergency, like call 911, like that's it.
Erika Giuggio (23:24.921)
And then I just sit down, I have a coffee, I write down what I want to achieve personally, professionally, and I get it done. And then what I'll do is I'll go to, let's say like a sauna once a week. I don't do the cold plunges, that's too cold for me. I'm in Canada, cold is enough.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (23:42.38)
Yeah, I can't do it. I'm a hot salt bath person once a week. It's my Sunday routine of I gotta do this. Getting in the cold is just getting out of the tub. That's as much cold as I can do.
Erika Giuggio (24:01.853)
I'm Jennifer. I'm with you. I'm with you.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:04.898)
I can't do it, but a sauna, yeah. And are you doing like the wet sauna or are you doing, I go once a week to a red, the red light sauna. Is that what you do? I'm just curious.
Erika Giuggio (24:21.885)
The sauna I have has the red light and then they have a steam room with eucalyptus. So I go back and forth. Yeah, it's bordering me. And then I also take, I started taking supplements from Bulletproof Labs and that really helped, especially for focus. So throughout, I didn't even know this. Sorry. I'm taking Lion's Mane.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:29.474)
Dream.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (24:43.086)
What are you taking? Yeah, what are you taking?
Ooh, Taylor's all interested in this, okay. Lion's Mane, I'm taking notes, because I don't take pills. I do liquids, droplets, gummies, teas, powders. I'm just not a pill taker, can't, I don't do that very well. But I have been into a supplement game the last year, and juicing.
Erika Giuggio (24:50.17)
I take a lot of high-end.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:19.032)
Chandler's not because I bring all these weird juices into the office. Yeah, so okay, Lion's Mane, clearly I need it for focus.
Erika Giuggio (25:30.813)
by the way, I'm not good with pills either. I have to literally open them up and then I just, shoot them back with water.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:35.598)
my goodness, I can't even do that. But if it comes in a liquid form, I'm all in that.
Erika Giuggio (25:49.831)
Vitamin D does, you can get that and your omega-3s.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (25:51.51)
Yes, that's what I, yeah, that's what I do. The vitamin D and the K3, I have that in liquid. I take that twice a day. It's my jam. And it doesn't taste bad, so. Well, okay, so if, what other routines do you do? mean, that is, that's wonderful.
Erika Giuggio (26:06.757)
Nice.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (26:18.478)
I aspire to be that way. have more, I have more week. I need to get in more daily rituals. I have more weekly rituals, but it's a 20, 25 need to adopt. I try to adopt a habit every quarter. So this, my Q1 when I started at the end of the, I started early at the end of the year, but it was to write every day, post every day on,
social media, which I feel like that was for someone that was doing it maybe once a week and people were like, your voice needs to be heard. We're not hearing. And sometimes it'd be like, I think last year I think I might've posted on LinkedIn. When I say post, actually creating content, not just reposting something else. But I might have written six times last year. But this year was a, need to write every day.
and express myself and get my expertise out there. And I have done it like every day. I'm proud of myself for that. And a couple years ago, one of my quarterly adoptions was similar to you. You said that you write like in the morning. I write every night before I go to bed. It's a de-stressor of, have a just.
in my notes journal, I answer three questions of what moment brought me joy, what moment or anything that's in my head that's causing me anxiety, like anything that I'm anxious about. And then what am I most looking forward to? And just kind of answering those three have released a lot of and then when I now go back and look at stuff, it's interesting of things that
caused me angst two years ago. It's like, I don't even, so it's also just, it's created more self-confidence and expanded my mindset very differently. that was one of my quarterly adoptions of, I have this little like six, four, one theory for the year of,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (28:42.432)
Adopt a adopt a new habit every quarter. So like I said this quarter I'm doing I'm right now I'm thinking about what do I need to adopt for my next quarter? It might need to be walking every day. I need to do something daily Posting daily I should do something daily So was like trying to think of what's gonna be my next habit that I start adopting because once you adopt it Like and you do it for a whole quarter. They be they stick with you every at every
habit that I've adopted the last couple of years, they've become new habits and good habits to a routine. But that's kind of my, you four adoptions of habits. The six is create six mini adventures in the year, trying to space them out like every other month, do something different with the kids or maybe something I've not done before, but just do six mini adventures, day trips, weekend trips, just real short. And then
defined and have like one defining like epic thing for the year. So is that like a big family trip or like this year I'm working on a book that's like my big epic thing for the year. Last year was a family trip. But yeah trying to what's going to be a redefining moment that sets the year. So when I look back and go 2025 was X. That's my.
Six, four, rule.
Erika Giuggio (30:13.723)
I'll join you on the big trip, as long as you're staying.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:16.108)
Yeah, which, okay, so if we met like a year from now, Erika, and I'm gonna come up to Toronto, because I've never been, it's on my bucket list to come visit, if I showed up next February, what would we be celebrating?
Erika Giuggio (30:33.341)
that's a great question. I'll be honest, if you come to Canada in February, you gotta go to Quebec. Toronto is kinda dead, like January, February. If you go to Quebec, they have like a huge festival called Bombe Dénage, and I'm probably not even saying the French words correctly, but it's like this huge festival with like ice castles and...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:43.886)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (30:59.502)
Erika Giuggio (31:00.221)
Yeah, it's and you can get like your typical like Canadian staples like your poutine your the maple syrup like rolled up on a stick
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:10.104)
So that needs to be an adventure I need to plan for. Yeah. All right.
Erika Giuggio (31:14.333)
Yeah, but I would say like if you did come to Toronto, you probably would want to go to Blue Mountain, which is like an hour away from here because they have skiing. have like a whole it's like a little like a Switzerland village that they tried to replicate. But I would say there's for February, it's a little for activities. It's a little difficult. I'll be honest.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:31.438)
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:39.534)
Well, okay, so what would we be celebrating you for? We're gonna toast a celebration of some milestone, what is it?
Erika Giuggio (31:44.125)
Erika Giuggio (31:49.469)
Ooh, I would say that I hit seven figures on the Schooley Mitchell side.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (31:56.844)
Nice, nice. We're gonna manifest it. See, we're putting it out there.
Erika Giuggio (32:01.505)
And I want to just like you, maybe maybe I'm going to I'm write it down today, but I do want to create a book as well. So maybe by then it'll be done. I don't know.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:09.006)
There you go.
It might be, yeah, we can do it. We'll celebrate that. Okay, so if you had to sum up your entrepreneurial journey in just one word, what would that word be?
Erika Giuggio (32:25.241)
I would say growth.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:28.088)
growth.
Erika Giuggio (32:28.941)
And because entrepreneurship is you never stop learning, you never stop growing. And once you stop growing, you're finished. just, just.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:34.691)
Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (32:40.46)
Yes, right. You have to have a growth mindset. always say kind of and Chandler's heard this a thousand times, but it's my lesson that I try to tell all new entrepreneurs or anybody I coach. You have to get in a growth mindset. You've got to learn, unlearn, relearn, rinse and repeat. It is a continuous cycle. But a lot of times you have to unlearn things that you thought, I thought that's way it was done.
you know, not in this industry or yeah, so it's a lot of learning, unlearning, relearning to really have that growth mindset. So I love that, that's great. And then if you had to look at the next chapter in your journey, what word would describe that chapter?
Erika Giuggio (33:30.819)
I'm going to say adaptable.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:34.83)
That's a good one.
Erika Giuggio (33:36.218)
And with all of this growth, you do have to be adaptable. And through my entrepreneurial journey so far, I feel like I've gone through a really bad storm. And not just me, but a lot of people you had. And I would say...
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (33:54.37)
Yeah, it feels like it a lot of times, yeah.
Erika Giuggio (34:01.106)
post pandemic or during the pandemic, felt like you're in a stage five hurricane Katrina. And now when I've gone through that experience, when I think about even what's to come, there's a lot of politics going on right now about like tariffs between like Canada and the US and it's, and you have to, and this is gonna be another, if it does go through, this is gonna be another storm for both sides.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:21.87)
Right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:29.016)
Yeah.
Erika Giuggio (34:29.435)
But what I feel now is, okay, I'm just like, all right, here we go. Here's another fire. So if you go in with that mindset of, know what, I'm just gonna focus on what I need to do and just move around that obstacle and be adaptable, then you're fine and you don't stress out as much. Yeah.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (34:47.79)
That's right, pivot. You gotta learn to pivot, absolutely. Well, this was fantastic. I loved hearing your story. What's the best piece of advice you have received from people that have been around you helping you through this journey? Anything that you wanna share with others?
Erika Giuggio (35:08.367)
Yes, it takes discipline to become an entrepreneur. You don't need any, I don't wanna say real talent, but you can always hire those people out. And as long as you're doing the time for the crime, you will get there. And if you don't get there with that business, you'll get there with another business.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:22.456)
That's right.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:31.438)
That's right.
Erika Giuggio (35:32.249)
and this is not going through university or college and you have to get like an 85 and once you get your high GPA like you're in this great job when you you're the C student that hires the A students.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (35:48.6)
Right, that's a good point. That's right. I love it. God, this was so good. I enjoyed the conversation, Erika. Before we go, where can people find more information about you or Schooley Mitchell about what you offer or where do you want them to find out, like how can they help you with your patent journey, your cosmetic beauty product?
Erika Giuggio (36:16.817)
So you guys can reach me on LinkedIn, so Erika Jujo. And my last name is a little difficult, but it's G-I-U-G-G-I-O. You can also reach me with my first name, lastname, at gmail.com. And I'd love for you guys actually to reach out and provide me with some advice on my next steps as I'm moving the gender pieces. And for anyone else starting the journey as well,
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:37.632)
Yes.
Erika Giuggio (36:44.801)
reach out to me. I'll even, I can share like where I went to get a patent, you know, some of my mistakes, more of my mistakes, my wins, all that stuff.
Jennifer "JJ" Sutton (36:54.666)
Absolutely. that's so great. We will also make sure we tag and put all that in the episode notes so that people can reach out. For everyone listening and watching, thank you for joining us. Again, this podcast is available on all your favorite podcast platforms. So give us a five-star review on Apple or Spotify. Share this great content and help us build a more connected entrepreneurial community.
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