Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Terresa Zimmerman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Terresa, thanks for joining us today. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?
“Can I show you my underwear?” My pitch. Walk in and ask the owner/buyer if I can show them my underwear. This was my pitch then and it’s still in use today. It’s a great ice breaker for a cold call. (all puns intended)
One day in the first 6 weeks of my business, I started trying to sell to stores. After a very long, full day driving around Los Angeles, stopping into stores and hearing rejection after rejection and feeling more and more dejected, wondering what the heck I had just done with my career and my life…I was given hope. I walked into Douglas Fir. It’s a beautiful store. They are wonderful people. The owner was kind and let me tell my story, and right there placed an order that I was able to fill on the spot from stock in my car. My business is Wood Underwear, underwear, undershirts and lounge wear for men. A douglas fir is also a tree and the owners have some other fun story tie-ins to trees and woods as well. So, once the ice was broken, we had a lot of fun and great conversation.
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?
Wood Underwear is 10 years old this year! It’s hard to believe that 10 years have gone by since launching our line of men’s underwear, undershirts and lounge wear.
You may have chuckled when you heard our name – Wood. We wanted to have fun with our name, and we have certainly achieved that! We closely identify and relate to the outdoors whether its beach, ocean or mountains – it embodies our brand, but we also think about fashion and comfort.
Traditionally men have had less choices and options when it came to their underwear – especially when compared to the many options presented to women. Wood gives men the choice they want and deserve. Wood is a premium product and it’s also affordable. Whether it’s briefs, biker briefs or the ever-popular boxer brief – Wood offer them all in many exciting colors and patterns. And let’s not forget our undershirts and lounge wear. And yes! There is wood in Wood.
Wood Underwear supports causes that promote healthy and active outdoor lifestyles. We proudly advocate for small businesses, main street. We encourage everyone to support their own ‘main street’ however they can. These stores are the lifeblood of our communities and neighborhoods. Wood Underwear plants trees in partnership with One Tree Planted. We are part of the 1% and Female Founder Collective communities.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
“Can I show you my underwear?” My pitch. Walk in and ask the owner/buyer if I can show them my underwear. This was my pitch then and it’s still in use today. It’s a great ice breaker for a cold call. (all puns intended)
One day in the first 6 weeks of my business, I started trying to sell to stores. After a very long, full day driving around Los Angeles, stopping into stores and hearing rejection after rejection and feeling more and more dejected, wondering what the heck I had just done with my career and my life…I was given hope. I walked into Douglas Fir. It’s a beautiful store. They are wonderful people. The owner was kind and let me tell my story, and right there placed an order that I was able to fill on the spot from stock in my car. I also had to figure out how to produce an invoice on the fly. I am sure it was a scribble on the back of an envelope. Show how prepared I was for a ‘yes’ that day. The fun part – My business is Wood Underwear, underwear, undershirts and lounge wear for men. A douglas fir is also a tree and the owners have some other tie-ins to trees and woods as well. So, once the ice was broken, we had a lot of fun and great conversation.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
My biggest pivot? I went from corporate consulting to selling mens underwear.
I spent probably the first 20 plus years of my career working with creative agencies all over the world. I moved myself to other countries in some cases, and in some cases, my position took me there. But it was just an amazing experience. You get to mentally juggle all the time because you basically have to learn your clients’ businesses, and I had clients in a lot of different areas all the time. So, it was wonderful. Great for those of us who are a little attention deficit prone.
It’s also very entrepreneurial because within big companies, you get to work with teams that feel like separate businesses. So you do feel like you’re running your own show. In fact, you are always working on someone else’s project, no matter how involved.
At some point, I decided I did want to run my own show and started Wood Underwear – my big pivot. I think there are many mini pivot points in life and maybe they add up to a big one. This happens to be a little bit more dramatic than that because in my creative agency life, most of the stuff I worked on was business-to-business, never consumer. I don’t even like to shop. If I can avoid going into a store to shop, I do. So a very big deal. But I started this search for more ‘ownership’ and ‘depth’. Literal ownership, yes, but more like, it’s my project to work on, I can live and die by it and I can claim it at the end. That search led me to founding Wood Underwear….and a great pivot. A pivot that has led me down a path to writing a book, co-founding another company and other entrpreneurial pursuits.
Contact Info:
- Website: woodunderwear.com
- Instagram: @woodunderwear
- Facebook: @woodunderwear
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wood-underwear/
- Twitter: @woodunderwear
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/Woodunderwear
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/terresachristensonzimmerman/ www.sayhii.io www.ohlords.com