Haley Hoover: Challenging Throwaway Culture in the Baby Industry

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio. It’s my pleasure to introduce you to Haley Hoover, founder and CEO of Winnie. And Lou Haley is an award winning entrepreneur, recognized as one of the 100 Women to Know in America and one of the 50 women to know in Texas. Inspired by her own journey through motherhood and family, she founded Winnie and Lou to challenge the throwaway culture of the baby industry by creating timeless luxury home essentials that grow with families long after the baby years. Through thoughtful design. Sustainability and a commitment to building products that become part of a family’s story. Haley is proving that great businesses can be both purpose driven and beautifully practical. Haley, welcome to the show.

Haley Hoover: Thank you so much for having me.

Trisha Stetzel: I’m so excited. And you know, ships passing in the night. You and I have been in the same places at the same time.

Haley Hoover: It is wild.

Trisha Stetzel: And we never knew. We love the no organization. And shout out to all of the ladies who, uh, are a part of that organization. And those of you who knew that Haley and I needed to meet each other.

Haley Hoover: Yes. Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: All right. So, Haley, before we get started, tell us a little bit more about what we should know about you.

Haley Hoover: Yeah. So I like to say first that I am an event inventor. I’m a business owner. I am a mom. I am a wife. I’m a workout fanatic. I love to travel. I have all these different hats that I wear, but I think by far the second most challenging is being a business owner. The first by far is being a parent. Um, but I think that all of the different identities that I carry, uh, really have helped me become the businesswoman that I am today.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Okay. So as a woman who’s doing all of the things, all of the things momming and business running and event planning and all of the things that you’re doing, how do you keep it together? Haley.

Haley Hoover: I will be fully transparent that I have a lot of behind the scenes help. There was a period in time in my business where I was very much just grinding myself into the ground, and everything around me looked like it was succeeding, and my business was expanding and my kids were excelling, and internally I was just crumbling, I was overstimulated, I was exhausted, I wasn’t taking care of myself, despite thinking that I was eating right and working out and reading and trying to be mindful in all the things and the buzzwords that we hear about. But really, I was trying to do too much. And so I had a very honest conversation with myself, which then turned into a very honest conversation with my husband. And I just said, like, this is not sustainable. I am not willing to give up the trajectory that my business is on. And I’m not willing to sacrifice being a present mother. And so I needed to call in the troops. And so I have a lot of behind the scenes help that allow all of this to happen so that I can be a good business owner and a very present mom and a kind wife and all the other things.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. How did you know? How did you know it was time to just say time out?

Haley Hoover: Um. Well, for one, I have always been a very positive person. I’ve always been able to find the silver lining in situations. I’ve always been able to find the fun anywhere. And I realized, like, as I took a step back sometimes that none of that was happening and that I, as a person, my personality was like unrecognizable. And I had all of these things to be grateful for and a full and blessed life. And I was miserable, I was fried, I didn’t feel like I had time for myself. And so I had to have the really hard conversation internally and realize I, I can have it all, but I can’t do it all. And so trusting, um, just that intuition to call in some extra help has been honestly game changing in every facet of my life.

Trisha Stetzel: I know that your, um, you’re. And you are such a positive person. And thank you for bringing such positivity to LinkedIn. And your posts often encourage founders through the difficult seasons of building a business. You’re sharing your own experiences. What is being a business owner? Entrepreneurship taught you about resilience?

Haley Hoover: Oh my gosh. Well, I’ll start by saying that I never intended to be a business owner. I wanted to be a nurse practitioner. I wanted to always provide care for others. My background before entering into entrepreneurship was in healthcare on the business side. And it wasn’t until I became a mom that I realized that all of my superpowers had been unlocked, and I had both of my children. I had pretty rough postpartum periods. Um, which kind of leads into why I started Winnie and Lou, which we can get into later. But I realized like, man, I am stronger than I’ve ever given myself credit for. And we get hit with things that we’re not expecting. But that’s life. And I’ve always lived by the quote, you only ever grow if you live outside your comfort zone. And I feel like that has made my life more fulfilled and more exciting and worth living every day because of the resilience that comes from learning through hard situations.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Well, and thank you for being so vulnerable and sharing your own story. I think that’s so important and purposeful to other women in particular, to know that they are not alone. So talk to me about why you engage because you’re part of the no organization, and that is about supporting other women both behind us, beside us and in front of us. Why is it so important for you to support other women as they move through this journey?

Haley Hoover: I think, well, for one, I’ve had incredible women supporting me in my life. My mom is such a great role model. She no matter what age we were, she didn’t need to work, but she was always working. She was always wearing a different hat and always telling me like, you can do all of these things. You just have to believe that you can and have the work ethic behind it to do it. And I felt very fortunate to grow up with that model. And then as I got older, and especially when my I had a background in healthcare practice management, and a lot of the staff that I managed were single moms. And specifically, um, during Covid, I had an entire staff where most of my team were single moms and they didn’t know they’re coming to me. Do I come to work and potentially bring home, you know, these germs that we don’t really know much about? To my children and my kids school or daycare is closed. Like, what should I do? Do I put food on the table or do I risk my job to be home? And I did not feel equipped to help guide these women in that time. And so I made a promise to myself and to my community that moving forward, I would find a way to make that more possible for other women.

Trisha Stetzel: Wow. Just wow. Wow. That feels so good. How important is it to be surrounded by the right people? You’ve been the person in the room that was surrounding others who needed you at the time. And I heard you talk about your mom being a very big supporter of you. How important has it been for you to have the right people in the room supporting you?

Haley Hoover: I think that we all learn from each other. One of the things, if you ever follow on my social media, I always compare how having a product business is a lot like motherhood, and the parallels and the skill sets are very similar, oddly enough. And I think that, um, you know, when I was growing up, you were taught like you can have this all star career, but you really do need to be like an all star mom. And yes, both are possible. But we were handed that that token, but never given like a tool book to figure out how to make that happen and to make that successful. And I do think part of that is because it’s never been done before, we can’t manage and do all of these things at the top performance level without having people to support behind us. And whether that’s sharing your experience and your trials and tribulations, or providing money for businesses that are just getting off their, their feet, um, whatever it is, you having the right people around you who believe in you, who support you, who can educate you. And sometimes, like all you need is somebody who’s like, hey, you may feel down right now, but I’ve always believed in you from day one. It’s such a simple statement, but it can completely change your mindset. And so I have always been one to believe in paying it forward. And I think that I just owe it to this next generation of women and moms and entrepreneurs to believe in the process and to share my knowledge and help support people wherever I can.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. And bring the right people into the room to support you. Yeah. And if they’re not the right person, kick em out.

Haley Hoover: And I do think that women have a hard time with cutting relationships. And I think that it takes a huge it’s a huge lesson to learn that just because I may not lean on this person right now, or they may not be the right contact for what I need in that arena, that doesn’t mean that I won’t break bread with them and and share in their success. They’re just not the right person for me at my table.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Oh, I like that. Sometimes we do have to cut ties and it is hard. It is hard.

Speaker 4: And it’s not personal.

Haley Hoover: Especially when it comes to business. And I think that’s one of the biggest lessons that I like to talk about in having a business to especially younger women that are interested in entrepreneurship, is that you have to remove the emotion. The boys at the table are not emotional and we we have a gift by having the emotion. But you need to learn where to play it and where to let it sit back.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Well, I like that we may have to dive into that in a minute, but before we get there, I want to talk about Winnie and Lou. And I know that Winnie and Lou has a really personal origin story. So let’s go there and tell us about founding Winnie and Lou. Can you hear me? Are we back? All right. I know that you have a really personal origin story with Winnie and Lou. I’d love for you to share how this all started for you.

Haley Hoover: Absolutely. So I had been a nanny for 11 years, and then 15 years later went to have my own children and was incredibly disappointed when I went to go build my registry in the bottle. Drying racks were exactly the same as they had been 15 years prior. And being a nanny for so long and with so many families, I had worked with all of the bottle racks and they were ugly. They were dirty. They didn’t hold all the capacity of what you needed them to. And I always was confused why they were designed to look like they belong in the Child’s Play kitchen, and not like an adult modern kitchen because the child never touches it. It’s really for the caregiver. So I had always had this idea like, I’m going to make this better one day. And it was just kind of like a thought in the back of my mind. And after I had my kids, I realized after the postpartum had lifted with my first one, like, I don’t know if I, I probably had a little bit of postpartum anxiety or postpartum depression, but never really thought about it. And then my second child, I really had a hard time with postpartum anxiety.

Haley Hoover: And thankfully, I had a very great provider who recognized it before I recognized it in myself. And she really made sure that I was taking care of and that I addressed it. Um, but I realized like, there were so many things around me that were contributing to that postpartum period and hardship. And so I realized like, well, a way that I can probably support some other women is by helping come up with things that make that period easier. And so I had hoped to have a third child, but unfortunately had some postpartum complications after both of my children and doctors recommended that I don’t have any more on my own. And so my family. Instead, we adopted these two border collies. Their names are Winnie and Lula. And I decided to create. So I’d already had a virtual assistant business that I still run and was like, well, this is easy. I can I can start another business. And so at my kitchen counter with babies under my feet. I came up with Winnie and Lou and sketched out the Heiress Drying Rack, which is our hero product. And, um, that’s how we are here today.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my goodness. So you saw I maybe it wasn’t a gap, but there was a gap in the marketplace. You knew personally that there was a gap for products that are nice, that are elegant, functional, that are more adult like than child like and things that you’ve, you have now designed beyond just the baby years. What, what was everyone else missing?

Haley Hoover: A lot of things. So I think we’ve been conditioned, especially with baby products. You know, people spend so much money building these registries and getting every little thing that you need for this baby. And then you’re just expected to toss it after a couple months. And I try to be very mindful about consumption. And I always thought that that was crazy. And the other thing too is, you know, I’ll use I always use the example of like the rocker that I rocked and nursed both of my kids and my kids are five and seven, and I still have that little glider because I grew up in that chair. I felt like I became the woman that I was truly meant to be by all of the hours that I spent in that chair. And there’s so many memories in that chair. And I started to think about all of these baby items that become part of the daily fold that we’re just so quick to toss away. And really, they can be a part of your home and a part of your family’s story, and especially something that’s utilized as much as a kitchen item. I realized like, we can make this better and actually serve the full function of the job.

Haley Hoover: That was one thing that drove me so crazy is I was a breastfeeding mom, so I would go to work and I was pumping at work and I’d come home and I’d have all these bottles from, you know, my kid being at school all day, plus all my pump parts, and I had like two different drying racks and then like a drying mat and then like a separate little washer for all of those parts separate from the dishes. And there was just all this clutter all over my counter and I couldn’t wait to get rid of it. And so for me, it was very important to design something that is timeless, that is durable, that we hold on to, not only for just the sheer sustainability aspect from an environmental perspective, but even just the memories, like my hope. And maybe this is far fetched, but that you one day are putting your child’s bottle on that drying rack. And then years down the road, you’re sharing a glass of wine with them and putting your wine glasses on the same rack. And it just kind of becomes this full circle memory holder for great times in your family.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my goodness. Okay, before we go any further, I know people are already excited about either connecting with you or seeing your products. Where is the best place for them to learn more about Winnie and Lou?

Haley Hoover: So we are very active on Instagram. We are@winnie.and.lu dot home, so it’s WINNIEANDLU home. And there’s dots in between each word. And then we can also go to our website. If you really want to hear more about the history of Winnie and Lou and see more of our products, and that is Winnie and lou.com.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh, okay. I want to go back to this idea of pieces that are becoming part of a family’s everyday life. You talked about your glider. You talked about the rack that you could put a wine glass on many years down the road. Why was it so important for you to make that distinction between a baby product or something we call a baby product and something that becomes part of a family’s everyday life.

Haley Hoover: I think that we we put so much value on money, and sometimes we don’t put value on the things that we spend our money on. And so for me, it didn’t make any sense that you’re spending 30, $40 on a plastic drying rack that you’re going to toss after a year. I wanted for your dollar to stretch farther. I wanted for the memories to be held. And so I felt that it made more sense. You, you already incorporate that drying rack into your life in a snap of a finger. And it it continues. And then you just eventually get rid of it. But why do we have to get rid of it? Like the air is drying. Rack holds your baby bottles and then it holds your sippy cups and snack cups. Your lunchbox organizers, water bottles, tumblers, skillets like it can truly grow with your family. And so it may be an investment piece up front, but it’s truly Valuing your dollar because it’s extending for such a longer period of time.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. So can you tell me about some other products? Like I’m super curious now.

Haley Hoover: Yes. So we do have a whole host of products that are in the hopper waiting to be designed. We have one that’s in early development right now. Um, the next product coming out will be it’ll start like a baby bottle. And then you just change a component of it that will become a sippy cup. And then we’ll also turn into a water bottle. So I don’t know how your house is, but we always have the lid or the bottle, but not a matching piece. And so it’s meant to kind of eliminate that. Um, and then also in my experience, when I was a nanny, I had a lot of children that would had a hard time going from a baby bottle to a sippy cup just because of how the cup felt different in their hands. And that was a big transition for them. And so to kind of keep that familiarity there. I think just kind of helps alleviate a little bit of that hurdle.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my gosh, it’s so exciting. I would love to have my like baby bottle, sippy cup, water bottle and get rid of all of the when you said you might have this problem. And yes, we have the lid and the cup problem, but we also have a too many water bottles problem, too many. Um, you mentioned sustainability earlier and often when we think about sustainability, we’re thinking most people. What pops into mind is environmental perspective. But I’ve also heard you use a phrase and post and talk about emotional longevity. So tell us more about that.

Haley Hoover: Yeah, it kind of ties into the the glider. And I feel like we, especially in these early years of raising babies, we become so many emotions are happening and so many physiological changes are happening at one time. And so to be able to hold on to and sustain those memories just through muscle memory alone, I think it really helps us to just almost like, solidify those memories a little bit further within us. And so I just think that it’s just an added little gift that we’re able to offer through our products.

Trisha Stetzel: I remember having a little conversation with you about the rocker that I still have, and our son’s 35. Yeah. But there’s something about that comfort when you talked about your glider.

Speaker 4: Mhm.

Haley Hoover: Yeah. And my, you know, my kids are are still young enough, but they’ll still ask me to sit with them in that little glider, and so I it will be with us forever. But I, I think that, you know, kind of going back to talking about baby products and the baby industry as a whole, uh, just I think that we, Because we’re conditioned to think that, well, this is just for a temporary period of time, we don’t ever give it the opportunity to realize the emotional attachment that we can have to some of those items. And I think that the more that you can hold on to those things, the more fulfilled and the more just enriched your home will feel.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So you’re really, you’re creating products with intention. Do you think that consumers are becoming more intentional about what they buy and how, how does that influence future brands?

Haley Hoover: Yeah, I will admit there’s been a, an almost like an educational learning curve on what the air is drying rack is. And some people just immediately see like, whoa, that’s like a higher price point than a lot of the other ones that we’re used to seeing on the market, but they’re missing the educational piece that this is not just a baby item. And so that’s one of the biggest hurdles that I, if I can be so candid to share that I have encountered in trying to, um, sell and market this this item to people. But I think that the commitment to families to make sure that we’re creating products that are durable, that, you know, our, our drying rack comes with a lifetime guarantee. So there’s, you know, some risk mitigation and having such a piece. But I, it’s important for me, for the consumer to kind of shift that mindset. And I do think that the next generation of parents are more mindful about what they’re buying. They’re not just going on, you know, the click bait and like grabbing stuff quickly. I think they really do want to be intentional about where their dollars are going. The brands that they’re supporting, what those brands stand for, and truly, are they going to get benefit from the product in the long run?

Speaker 4: Mhm.

Trisha Stetzel: So with some of the challenges of people not necessarily understanding what your product is. What are some of the things that you’ve done to mitigate that?

Haley Hoover: Um, I’m very candid online. I do a lot of consumer trade shows. I love to meet the families. Uh, there’s a bunch of expos for people who are expecting and new families. And it’s my favorite thing to do to go to those shows and to engage with folks who are just about to embark on their parenthood journey. And a lot of the time, it’s interesting because I’ll meet folks that are like, I didn’t even think I needed a bottle rack because I’m just planning on breastfeeding. And so there’s some education there. And, um, really, and I’ll do this for any product. Obviously your child’s going to outgrow their clothes, but can you convert a onesie into a blanket? Can you convert it into a rag that you use? Can you hand it down to a cousin or, you know, I’m constantly trying to come up with ways that we’re not just immediately thinking like this goes to the trash first.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. This leads me to my next question. If we’re we’re kind of moving away from Winnie and Lu, and this is more general, if you will, but I know that there are listeners and particularly some ladies out there who are sitting on an idea. What’s one piece of advice that you would give to someone who’s just waiting for the perfect time to launch?

Speaker 4: There is no perfect time.

Haley Hoover: It’s just like, there’s no great time to have a kid. There’s no great time to move. There’s no great time to start a business. If you have the idea and you think it’s great. Research what it would take to bring it to market. I had no background in business. Everything that I have learned has been self-taught. I consume endless books and podcasts. I put myself in the right rooms with the people who know more than me. I ask a ton of questions and everything I have learned has been on the route to getting it to where we are today. And there’s so much value in just taking the jump. I think that we’re so scared of putting ourselves out there. We’re scared of failing. And like, I’ve had failures in this business, but that’s part of the journey. It’s just like weight loss. You’re not going to just immediately, you know, go from, you know, 150 to 125 pounds. You’re going to have ups and downs and business is the same way. And I think that any business owner who tells you that that’s not the case is not somebody that you should trust to get business advice from. And I think women especially are so good with coming up with great ideas. And it’s just a matter of finding the time. And it’s just like self-care. You just have to make the time if it’s important to you and go for it.

Speaker 4: Oh.

Trisha Stetzel: Oh my goodness, I love this. All right. So, um, I’ve seen you describe every career as an apprenticeship for entrepreneurship, I love that. Tell us more.

Haley Hoover: Yeah. So I started at, um, I was in my late teens, early 20s as a temp, working at a medical office, doing medical records and scheduling appointments. And they are still one of my clients on my virtual assistant business. I sat in every seat in that office besides delivering the baby, and I learned I was constantly hungry to learn the seat, but every role that I picked up in that job opened the door for an opportunity to me to take a pharmaceutical sales job. And then that in turn led me to in hospital business development jobs, to insurance, consulting, everything. I just was hungry to learn the process and the business and to make the relationship connections. And I now have the great opportunity to talk to college students exactly about this subject that I think that kids especially. And I think that my generation was the same. You think you’re going to come out of college with this like manager title and six figure salary, and you have to do the dirty work. You have to get your feet dirty and your hands dirty. You have to do the hard work because that is what’s going to make you a better leader in the end and a better business owner in the end, because you’re learning the hardships as you go. And if you’re afraid to fail, you’re going to fail no matter what. You may as well learn to accept it and brush it off as something you learned and keep on moving forward.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. It’s an opportunity. Yes, failure is an opportunity. Oh my goodness. Our time has gone by so fast. This has been such a great conversation. I’ve got one more thing for you. I know you talked about, um, a new product launch. You’ve got that in the design phase. You’ve got some other things maybe coming up. But what really is next for Hayley Hoover.

Haley Hoover: Who I am excited to get out and to meet the people more. I didn’t have last year, my business really took off running with retail, and that was the direction that I wasn’t anticipating that I’m so fortunate for. And this year, I’m really focused on getting back to our customer and understanding what their needs are. And so really pouring into those opportunities where I can meet folks face to face and share about Winnie and Lou and hear what families needs are so that we’re always developing products that are going to benefit this next generation of families.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you so much for spending the time with me today. It’s so amazing to hear your journey and your story, and how you got where you are today and all of the things that, uh, that you bring to the table. And I can’t wait for what’s next for you.

Speaker 4: Thank you. I enjoyed our conversation very much.

Trisha Stetzel: All right. One last time. I know that there are some folks out there that want to connect with you or learn more. Where shall they go?

Haley Hoover: Yes. So our website is Winnie and lou.com. And Instagram is the easiest way to get in touch with me. We are@winnie.and.lu dot home. And Lou is l u perfect.

Trisha Stetzel: Thank you again Haley. This has been awesome.

Haley Hoover: Thank you Trisha.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, you guys, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Haley and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston business leader ready to grow. Be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.