Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Michele Ragenklint. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Michele thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you take vacations? Why or why not?
For me, being married to a pilot I may not vacation a lot but travel was the driving force behind my vision of THONGO. I feel it is so important to take time to see as much of this world as possible. I have been taking my children with us since they were born. Every vacation or trip we take may not be the most glamorous but it is a break from everyday chaos and a bonding experience that is irreplaceable to anything I know. Work ethic is extremely important to me, a quality I got from my dad, but so is down time and being able to wind down for a bit.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Michele. I am a wife of a pilot and a mother to two grown daughters. I worked as a hair colorist for over 30 years. I loved it and made the best of friends that I now consider my second family. I have always been interested in health and fitness and traveling the world. My story is so simple. I think my product was something so many women needed and I was determined to bring it to life.
I have always started my day with a workout. It was my 30 minutes of “me time” before I set off running to either work, picking up kids from school or grocery shopping. As many mothers and women can relate to, there were many times I just didn’t have even a few minutes to shower and I would find myself in the same workout clothes 8 hours later. Due to this, I suffered from UTIs constantly. Finally, one doctor suggested I should be changing my underwear more frequently, especially after a workout. He was the first to tell me how bad it was to be sitting in sweaty underwear all day. This conversation caused my habits to change and I started to change my underwear right after working out. I would take an extra pair of underwear if I knew I had a super long day at work or would take an extra pair if I knew I’d be sitting for long flights. I definitely thought to myself that this was a complete inconvenience but I did it for my health. To my surprise, it helped a lot. From that moment on, I knew this was something other women and girls as well, must be dealing with and could relate to. I would see my friends from the gym in the food store at 3pm in the same clothes as well. Were they wearing the same underwear all day also? That was the first time I realized this is a real problem that no one talks about.
Fast forward to COVID lockdown, it was the first time in my life I had some free time. I literally started taking apart my undies and sewing hooks and clips on them. How was I going to make a product that looked beautiful, was comfortable and had the function it needed? When I felt I had a good prototype, I was determined to head to NYC and start the process of making this a reality; and what a reality it has become!
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
As I mentioned, I was working as a hair colorist and selling THONGO DTC. It was a very slow go. I had sales but nothing like I expected. I was working harder than ever before. I would work at the hair salon all day, and at night and weekends work on THONGO. I vividly remember at my 52nd birthday dinner I broke down for the first time and questioned what I was doing. Sales were slow, I was exhausted, and no one seemed to understand the need for this product. I was starting to feel pity towards myself (something I never do). A little while later, I decided to ask my boss if I could sell the product in the salon. The high end salon was an excellent fit for this high end product. To my surprise, he said no! A loyal employee and friend for over 25 years and he said no! I was devastated and knew right then and there that if I believed in this product I was going to have to stand behind it and leave my job. And that is exactly what I did. It was the scariest moment of my life as I hadn’t been without a paying job for as long as I could remember. I thought to myself “now what”?
I went home and started using all my free time to send emails to ask people to look at my product. I sent out close to fifty emails that day. No response. I did the same thing the next day and received nothing again. I started to resend again and again. I remember sitting there at my computer and sending an email to Bobbie Thomas. I wrote, “I am sending this email in hopes that you didn’t receive my other three messages.”
Within the next minute, I got a response saying “wow this is genius” and she further explained that she had not seen my last email.
THONGO was then featured on Bobbies Best on the TODAY SHOW and it was the breakthrough moment I needed. It completely legitimized my product and me as a business owner. I was never so thankful to anyone in my life. To this day, I don’t think she understands the impact she had on THONGO. If I hadn’t stood up for myself and left my job I would have never taken that moment at home that day to send email after email. I believe everything happens the way it is supposed to.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I certainly had to learn a lot of things but some very big lessons I learned is that a support system and a team are necessary to be successful, and you cannot accomplish everything on your own. However, with that being said, not everyone is going to like your ideas. I compare it to having a baby. You want to do everything for this baby. I started out designing this product, financing it, building a social platform, building a website and so much more. I thought I could do it all. Big mistake. I was so nervous to let anyone in because I was scared of losing control. I learned that you cannot do everything on your own and the importance of asking for help and advice. When I came to this understanding, THONGO began to flourish like never before, and I began to grow as a business owner and leader. I am growing and learning something new everyday; it is amazing. I look back 3 years ago and see how much I have learned and I can’t believe it. Yes, you always need to be in control of your business but you can’t grow if you don’t allow other people’s ideas and knowledge in.
As I said, one other big thing I needed to learn was you can’t make everyone happy. There will always be the person who says I don’t get that, or why do I need it, or it seems silly. That is okay, and it is okay for not everyone to love everything. The criticism makes me shift my focus to the people that do understand it. The sooner you realize you can’t satisfy everyone, and instead direct your attention to the ones that want to hear more and are cheering you on, the sooner you will seek your own happiness.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thongo.store
- Instagram: @thongo.store
- Facebook: thongo.store
- Linkedin: Michele Ragenklint
- Youtube: thongo.store
- Other: TikTok @thongo.store THONGO, WE HOOK YOU UP THONGO, THE UNDERWEAR YOU NEVER KNEW YOU NEEDED