WBW19: To Get Rich, Do What You Love, Plus Serve Others What They Love

"Serve something of value and you'll make it big", that's marketing common knowledge. Problem is, value is subjective. That’s why successful marketers go through so much work in figuring out what fancies the target market. Thus, if you've hit the right spot and serve an unmet need, the product or service has higher chances of succeeding. Finding that unmet need is that “eureka” moment that gave birth to many successful endeavors. In today’s episode, Darlyn Sandra Ty of famed Belle De Jour Power Planner talks about her personal unmet need that turned into that great business opportunity adding real value to the lives of many Pinays.

Who Is Darlyn Sandra Ty?

UP-trained veteran inter-university marketing competition champion and “newly-converted” start-up business woman Darlyn Sandra Ty, is the brains – and beauty – behind the Belle De Jour Power Planner, a tool to help the “fashionista Pinay super achievers” lead their ultimate dream life, empowering to manage their time well with what’s most important to them, alongside discovering what kind of life and goals they truly want to achieve.

A “Pinay super achiever” herself, Darlyn once tread the path to corporate life, and once thought that climbing the career ladder was her destiny. But as fate as had it, and after crying for hours in front of the human resources department, she found more fulfillment and happiness outside corporate work. She put to good use her strong marketing background and corporate work experiences to read her target market – initially herself, then realized it’s an unmet need of fellow "Pinay super achievers". Therefore, came the birth of the Belle De Jour Power Planners, which according to Darlyn has evolved to more than just planner but a “community of empowered women who dares to achieve their goals, live their dream lives, make a difference in the community, and do it in great style”.

And while she has chosen to take the road less traveled, she believes that she is headed in the right direction, and will be taking this path for many years to come, especially with the newfound meaning of helping fellow Pinay super achievers realize their own dreams.

*Darlyn, as stated on the session title, is a REAL OC-OC. She is officially the first EntrepBuff.com speaker to have asked us to send the write-up to her first before publishing it online. Now we know where the idea of a "Power Planner" comes from :)

When asked what's her greatest challenge?

When asked what's her greatest success?

Show notes:

Corporate Destiny

• "In college, I was so decided to go up the corporate career and work for multinational companies."
• "In UP, my course was Business Administration and Accountancy, and the usual track was to go corporate after graduation."
• joined marketing competitions, internships, felt that her training was really toward the corporate world.
• "To my disappointment and frustration, I felt that I was unhappy. It wasn’t what I thought it would be. You work all your life for something like that, and it wasn’t what you expected it to be."
• "But because they said there was gonna be a transition, I forced myself to be happy. But eventually, I realized life is too short to be doing something I’m not happy and contented with. So I resigned, and without much of a safety plan, I just really felt “sakal” that I really had to leave."

The Birth of BDJ

• There was one book that she read, about time management, and it was talking about the things that had to have in a planner.
• Found it interesting and told herself she'd apply it when she found her dream job – so "I would be able to maximize my lifestyle and do what I really love to do."
• Was looking around for planners, but even after a week, she couldn’t find a perfect planner. So she made her own planner.
• "I was editor-in-chief in college (of our college paper), and we had experience making a planner. So I spent two days gathering articles and poems that I would put into my planner, so that it would inspire me to work."
• "When I completed it, I was so proud of it that I brought it with me everywhere I go. My friends saw it and thought it was a good idea. They said I should make more of it and sell it. So I thought I’d do that."
• Did a research and one of her findings was that guys aren’t that particular in looking for a planner.

My Target Market

• "I wanted to target girls who were like me. Girls were the ones who’d spend time looking for a planner. They don’t think like guys, that any planner would do."
• "So I tried to do the 'perfect planner' for the girls. It was based on research and grounded on the time management principles that I had read."
• "It was a hard couple of months for me; I felt that my life had no direction. So instead of poems, which are open to criticism and interpretation, we just put weekly “affirmations” in the planner – to feel good about yourself, to persist."
• "Right now, there’s only two of us running the business, because our other business partners had pursued opportunities abroad, for work or for further studies."
• "My friends and my parents gave me full support, so I feel I’m very lucky with this business."

The BDJ Epiphany

• "When I was presenting to a client – to be part of the coupons inserted in the BDJ planner – I felt I was on the right track, that I’m where I’m supposed to be."
• "It’s rare; you don’t get that feeling a lot. Some people don’t even get that feeling ever."
• "We presented with no product; just a mock-up. It’s 'Belle De Jour', in French fashion lingo, 'it girl'."
• "We were pushing a 'live the it-girl' lifestyle. So we wanted to get clients who wanted to associate themselves with the 'it girl' lifestyle. We were lucky enough that they believed in the concept, the vision – it’s the ultimate planner to help you live your dream life."
• The planner will help the it-girls figure out what they want. And when they do, they will manage their time well too. So that they will be able to work, and to also spend time doing what they love to do.

Perfect Planner

• "Because our vision is to have the “perfect planner”, we consider this to be a work-in-progress. Every year, it keeps on changing. Or at least listen and adapt to the girls’ needs."
• "Now we do a comprehensive survey every year, hoping that girls would take time to accomplish this, to help us at arriving at the 'perfect planner'."
• "We also ask them to give new ideas and suggestions that would help improve the product. Our special pages came from that. Like the menstrual tracker. It was a suggestion from the Belle De Jour community, the users of the planner. Even the health checklist, 'I’m thankful for' page."
• "We acknowledge the girls who give these suggestions, and we recognize their enthusiasm in the BDJ community."
• "So now we have BDJ community events, a 'rendezvous'. We get to meet them, we given them a venue to learn. We bring in speakers on fashion, career, time management. We have games that allow them to get to know each other, to socialize, make new friends, and just be crazy.
• "That’s what I want the BDJ community to grow into. They help each other fulfill their dreams. So we’re developing the website to be as a support group. We don’t just want to sell a planner in December. Year round, it’s a community."

Lessons

• You are your first client. If you imagine yourself using it, then go to the next level of...
• Market research. It is super-important.
• Listen to your consumers. Just as much as the idea came from my own personal experience, I can’t be in love with my life and assume that this is the life of everyone else too. I have to listen to what’s going on in their lives. When you listen, you will develop products that are meaningful and of value to them.

"The Board" message: