We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Emily Clawson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Emily below.

Emily , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

For as long as I can remember, I would put my shower hair on the shower wall. It seemed just to be instinct; I did it for years and years and didn’t think anything of it. One day, while showering, I had a thought come into my head… why isn’t there a place to put our shower hair other than down the drain or on the wall? This thought would not get out of my head! It stewed in my mind for 5-6 months. Each time I would wash my hair, ideas of this hair catcher concept flooded my mind. Finally I decided to fully jump into solving this problem and chasing my idea. In late 2020, I started my journey.

Why hide the shower hair? More often than not, individuals forget to remove their hair from the shower wall. It then remains on the shower wall and either grosses the next person to get in the shower, Or it dries, falls onto the floor, and ends up down the drain anyway. So the idea of giving you a place to put it and hide it was the key to this idea.

I knew I thought this was a brilliant idea but how did I know it wasn’t just me having this shower hair issue? So I decided to do my research. I asked friends and family “What do you do with your shower hair?” and posted that same question on different social media platforms. What do you think people’s responses were? They were having the same problem!! Surprisingly people were already trying to solve this issue. Someone posted saying they hang a brush in their shower to put their hair on, another individual said they hang a grocery bag from their shower rod that acts as a garbage for all their hair. Seeing this validation motivated me even more to develop this product. I knew that I wasn’t the only one having this shower hair problem as well as I wasn’t the only one trying to solve it.

I then decided to file a patent to protect my idea. Just over a year later my patent was issued and I am currently a patent owner! It is crazy to look back at how my idea started to where it is today. A patented product and a growing business.

Emily , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a wife, a stay-at-home mom, a registered nurse, and now the creator of Porcupine.

My brain is always creating and coming up with new ways of doing things. I am a dreamer with my head in the clouds. Not only am I a dreamer but I am a doer. I learn everything I can to see my visions and creations come to life. I have had many ideas and projects that I have worked on but there is something special about this one.

Porcupine is not just a product, it can be a piece of your everyday story. Porcupine has helped me realize that there is more to our hair than just being an accessory on our head. Many people don’t talk about the hair they lose in the shower. Sometimes they are ashamed, self-conscious, or scared. Most hair loss is normal. I am here to say it’s ok and you are not alone!

I want to not only keep your shower wall clean but give you a place to put our shower hair and hide it for when those unexpected visitors decide to drop in. I want to help those who are going through something on a deeper level. If you see that hair on your hands and it reminds you of your struggles and the things you are going through…I see you!

Let Porcupine hide your hair for whatever story it may be and enjoy your time in the shower again.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Early on, after opening up orders, and customers receiving their product. I learned quickly that there are so many different shower wall surfaces. The suction cups on the back weren’t suctioning as well as they should with certain types of shower walls. If I had a customer complaint or a return this was the only issue I was hearing about. Honestly, I had a hard time hearing this, I took it personally. I felt like I had let people down. Something that I truly believed in and worked so hard on wasn’t working to its full potential. So I quickly started working on how to solve this. I also didn’t keep it a secret. I acknowledged the feedback and brought it to my community on social media. Within a couple of months and with their help, I created a back piece that attaches to the wall via semi-permanent tape. The Porcupine then slides down on it and stays in place no matter your shower wall surface. I sent all previous customers experiencing issues with the suction cup a new backpiece. Now knowing that I don’t know what types of shower walls people have, I include a backpiece in every box.

This was a scary hurdle for me, getting feedback that my product wasn’t working like it should was not a good feeling. But I decided that it only hurt me if I let it. And that is something I wasn’t going to do. I was able to pivot and help solve the problem, and now customers are even happier because their Porcupines aren’t falling off their shower walls.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media is a tricky thing. This was one of the scariest things I did when started my business. I had a social media account before but I would only occasionally post things. When I started my account reels were just starting to take off. So I found a couple of accounts that talked about how to grow your social media, how to find trending audio, how to create viral reels, etc. As I started educating myself on this and figuring out what the best approach would be I set a date for when I would post my post or reel. Well, guess what, I pushed that date back at least 3-4 times. I was intimidated. I was afraid people might think my idea was silly. I was afraid they might not see the value I have in creating this new product and idea. I finally posted because I knew if I didn’t do it I would just keep pushing it back and it would never happen.

Oct 1 my very first @your.porcupine post went live. And every day after that I just kept posting. Every day I posted trying to follow the advice and tricks I had learned. 2 weeks later I had a video take off. Over a 2 week time frame, my video had 36 million views and my following grew to over 20k followers. I couldn’t believe it! People saw and liked my idea, they were excited about it and were interested enough to hit follow and see what my business was all about!

If I could give any advice regarding social media it would be to just show up and be consistent. It turned out to be a good thing that I kept pushing it back. Because I kept pushing it back I continued to create content and when I hit post on Oct 1st I already had a month’s worth of content ready to post. Not only stay consistent but pick 1 day a week to batch and create content. Always have at least 1-2 weeks’ worth of content ready to post. This way you can stay consistent but then you won’t get burnt out either!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.yourporcupine.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/your.porcupine/profilecard/?igsh=OXd2OWU2ODRmNXls
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@your.porcupine?_t=8qmyIlizsaM&_r=1

Image Credits

Flake Photos and FilmGarage208