Day in my Life｜running my small business

It's great to film on right now not bumpy at all.

Hey everybody So today we are off to Ikea my favorite place ever.I'm really looking forward to it Oh, what are you noticing the angles kind of weird?I forgot my car tripod.So This is all we've got today.So as I was saying, today we're going to IKEA because we're on a very important mission.We recently got a fulfillment center for M -Phrase.

We've ran the last launches out of the basement.It's really awesome.And it's got a little room that I was hoping to make into a break room.I want it to have a little couch and a little spot to eat.And I want it to be cute and kind of an area you can go and just have a little sit down or have a nice little lunch break.And it feels calm.

and comfortable and nice this is obviously on the second channel because if you're expecting quality content you need to go to the main channel so yeah this is where we lock in yeah we gotta lock in here we actually need a couch it's very soft yeah this could work here's what she's liking that's how they get you I said never, never last time I was here too, but it's still here.That was like eight months ago.

You look so tiny.

White though, with our messy workers.My messy workers, they're all my friends, so I'm allowed to say that.I gotta see all of them, not leave until I see them all.

You could get some like, sleeping bags in there.

In case we can't make it home.

You have any inspo?I have no inspo.

I'm just allowing IKEA to pull me in whatever way it wants.

That's a pretty good idea.Whoa!Oh, not that one.

I got pulled.

It's not this one.

That's nice.It looks like pee.I'm not gonna lie, this one caught my attention in one of the showrooms.

Honestly, this one's pretty cool.

It's quite elegant.I'm excited! so we're canadian up you guys i had to the perfect fusion of swedish and canadian like i need this because i have some serious decisions to make i need to be powered up i'll smell this one bite i'll try the poo very nice what do you find left one for me this time This is my haul so far.Stuart had to go to the washroom, so I really freestyled.Look at this.I've seen these like a year ago, and they're so cute.They look like the jaded ones.

Seat cushions, because I have a flat butt.Cutlery, so people can eat.And this blanket, so people can nap, because napping is fun to do.It's all in, it's all green.

All right, Mia, show us your muscles.Nice form.Where are you going?The carts over here a few moments later what happened?

Yeah, I'm too broken up about it.

I can't speak about it The fruit was sold out.

So this is the beautiful warehouse up.There's where we pack orders I'll show you it in a minute.Come on in And this is gonna be the break room So it's quite small but I'm thinking we'll be able to have a little couch little table for us to eat at and there'sa little kitchen too so pretty convenient.Tomorrow I'm gonna go out and get a microwave.There's a lot more space and it's good for like receiving and sending out packages because we can pile them all right here.

So you can go up.So this is where we pack the boxes.Over here's all our fun tape sitting out and the little blueprint designs and then here is all of our And the shorts take off the t -shirt is form -fitting So it's more of like a tighter fit it like sits right on your skin and is tighter not uncomfortable, but it's tight form -fitting and some people love that fit and some people don't so if you don't like your shirts to be form -fitting definitely size up in the t -shirt but just know we listened to some of the comments about the form -fitting t -shirt and this time around with the tank top we didn't make it form -fitting it's more of like just like a looser fit not loose but looser fit.I'll put on the screen, this is how the extra small t -shirt fits me, and this is how the extra small tank top fits me.So as you can see, it's not as form -fitting.And it is also a little bit longer.

And for reference, my mom doesn't like the t -shirt super tight, so she just like sizes up one, and it fits more to her liking.So keep that in mind.As always, everything is ethically made.That is the most important thing to me.But on top of that, they are also sustainable fibers.We have recycled and organic cotton, and this ooey gooey t -shirt fabric.

fabric is tensile lyocell and all the fabrics are custom milled right here in Canada, which is super cool.And even it goes on into this room, which I'm the correct height here.We have the warning for this pole.Look at this.I am the perfect height for this room to not get injured.So we need a break room because it was your packing orders all day.

Where do you go to eat?And I want to paint this room.Everybody's telling me, including Mama Maples, not to paint it.

We'll see.I'm going to make it.furniture and then we'll see, but I think this room should be green.

My jacket keeps wanting to Winnie the Pooh me and become a crop top.

Yes, I see.

Let's see, where are the legs?See, this is the thing with Ikea, they always hide it within something.

Ow, you're dead.See like to me, this entire room is gray.

The floor is like a tone of gray.The walls are gray.My couch is gray.And I just so happen to be wearing a gray sweater, actually.I didn't even do that on purpose.But like, it's too much gray.

We need some lively green.It's so gray, I'm getting really scared.Wait, I'm really scared right now.Oh, interesting.Yeah, and then it becomes the bed like, oh!Yes, I like it.

Okay.So then if I'm like, okay done sleeping wait, wait In you go and that was a couch.I feel like I'm setting up like a boy's apartment Promise me though, like you guys believe in the vision Okay, because I have a picture to put up and I think it'll save it with just my back If anybody gets a boyin the center of their hand Thank you, I swear there cannot be one room with no peace in it It's already dazzling, but I think it's gonna make it dazzle even more Take off the little plastic piece No Come on in, you gotta see it.You gotta see it, it changed everything.It really livens it up in here.

Oh yeah, the break room.Come on in and take a break.Don't work yourself silly.There's donuts on the table, come take a break.Don't work yourself silly, come on now.Not done yet, obviously, but done for the day.

Be back again tomorrow.I'm not paying $200 for a microwave.

A few moments later.

We actually found a microwave, guys.I said we should get a cart, but...

I said no.

We found a microwave.I have never struggled in Home Depot like I did today to find nails.Couldn't even find them, so I had to get screws, but that's fine.And once we have a mirror, then we're good and we can finish the break room.

Why are you confused?

Like, I don't know which, like, I don't want it sitting on the edge.

You have that little plastic thing underneath it.

These little trays?

Yeah.

So ugly, okay Walmart, you're not winning me over a few moments later I'm back back back again in the beautiful break room.I got these to hang up that I got thisblanket cuz I thought it was pretty I got a mirror to hang here.

Hopefully to make the room feel a little bigger.

I'm not really sure Little thing yeah Whole things.I did get some bowls.These are literally so pretty they're from ikea and they're like three dollars each But they look just like the jaded some cutlery because we didn't have that here a scrubby This is just for me.If you know, you know, okay, and then we're gonna put this in the center like so That would be good.Okay.I don't worry too much when i'm hanging things You guys know this this can hold up to 30 pounds and this probably weighs like two pounds.

So this is gonna be very secure Okay, um, that's cute.Oh, yeah, like this blanket needs to like transform this couch real quick Kind of giving like the little grandma couch cover.

I think that looks cute.I think so.

Yes You know what?We're gonna go with yes That's pretty even I think okay Now there we go.It's giving like a cute little apartment Perfect.I think that like livens it up a little Yeah, nice, this is the micro a Fresh microwave, that's crazy if we'll even end up using these but they're here in case I go tightly wrap there and oh my goodness.This is my own personal

hellscape you guys unwrapping these Little these are by the way, they're so small.

Also have a little scrubber for dishes.This is my favorite scrubber By the way, I have this at home too and I just switch out this piece and it's just all wood So it's really convenient like that.So you wash your plate you can just set it on the sink like that I mean, it's not the most beautiful thing I've ever designed, but honestly, I feel like it's pretty cute.Like, I love the green.I like the wicker, because I wasn't sure if we were gonna paint the walls.I still want to, but I'm gonna just withhold for now.

The wicker and like the picture really livened up the gray walls and the gray floor.

I think it feels nice and warm.

I mean, like, I could pack orders and then come in here, have my lunch, Sit on the couch, maybe take a little nap.Also while I'm here, I'm gonna handle some of the outstanding returns.It's been a very long time since we launched because in the last launch, it was very bad timing because...I laugh now, but at the time it was very stressful.We launched after the De minimis was removed in America bad timing for sure And if any of you guys don't know what the diminis is, it's very complicated previously when Americans would purchase from Canada They would have like an $800 threshold and anything that clocked in under $800 would get like no customs on it But then they removed the de minimis so that anything under 800 or over 800 would get the customs on it And then obviously the tariff is quite expensive of 35 % at the time and so we put a bunch of warnings on the site we sent out emails we did instagram posts like warning people shopping this is all stuff that's out of our control that we're just trying to work around and just trying to make sure that the people shopping knew about this and some people who don't fully understand customs think that we were charging it but like we weren'talso to any Americans watching right now I've been spending a lot of time trying to figure out how we can make the shopping experience for M phrase easier for you when it comes to like Shipping and everything because I know that like customs is like a new experience for a lot of American shoppers here in Canada We've been getting customs for like a very long time So like I mean, it's still a shock when you order something and it gets like $80 of customs on it Like it's disappointing, but I know that this is like newer American shoppers, and so I've been looking for a 3PL to potentially ship the Embrace pieces from within America.

As I'm filming right now, I don't have it sorted out, but hopefully by the next launch we do.

I got work to do.

Ah, look.

Sweet, sweet, naive Mia, thinking that this would be an easy fix.

Well, here I am reporting that it took eight months for me to find a solution to this problem.As a small business, this is a problem.definitely shook us to say the least.All of this to say is if you are shopping from the U .S.for this launch, you should not get any customs on your order because we have found a 3PL in America to ship our orders.

Now obviously you may be asking yourself, Mio, what about this beautiful fulfillment center that you just introduced us to and decorated the break room?Can you say Horrible timing our dream was to fulfill all the orders out of this warehouse.That's why we moved from the basement to the warehouse originally our plan was to find a 3PL to fulfill all of the American orders and then we would keep the fulfillment center and fulfill the Canadian and international orders, but That logistically is like very complicated and the fulfillment center costs us monthly to keep and so having both of them we just don't have the budget to do both.We have decided we're going to cover the customs of our Canadian shoppers just because when we originallyplanned out this business it was going to be all fulfilled from in Canada so none of the Canadian orders would get customs and none of the American orders would get customs and then of course the international orders would still get customs but don't worry we still have something that we worked on for that too.So yeah I just decided it was important to not have it be like, oh, super positive.

Yay, American orders are customs free.And then be like, sorry, Canadians, yours are going to be customs now.So we're going to cover that charge.And then for all of the other orders, like whether it's in Europe or in South America, Australia, wherever you might be shopping that's outside of Canada and the US, we have it so that your duties and customs will be calculated at the checkout.So there'll be no like shock when it comes to the door.Because for me, a big thing with customs that I don't like is when you purchase something and it arrives at the door and then you have like $80 to pay at the door.

It's like, what?I wish I would have known that sooner because then maybe I would have chosen to not shop it.Hopefully this launch is smooth.We have two new pieces coming out, the shorts and also the tank top.And honestly, if you would have asked me about this five months ago, I would have been a lot more sad about it.But because I've had so long to kind of digest it and come to terms with the fact that this big endeavor of the Fulfillment Center won't actually be used.

It's unfortunate, yes, but I'm just gonna be thankful that we found a new way to do it that now a lot of the customers won't be getting these huge charges at the door because that really bothered me because I know these are luxury garments.They're expensive, although worth it because how they're made and what they're made of, but they're expensive.And then when customers, when it arrives at the door, would get like 30 % charged on top of the price, I was like, fulfillment from the U .S.so U .S.

customers don't get any customsthe Canadian customs we've decided to cover just so that we're not going back on what it originally was, and we have the duties tallied at checkout for every other customer so that there is no shocks. when itwhen it comes to the door.

Guys, we have somebody here trying to raid the place.Oh, yeah.You like that one?I like it really slouchy and oversized.Girl, we're getting suited up.

This feels wrong to be raiding your cupboards like this.You're taking all of the clothes from the people.

Just kidding.You're not.There's more than enough.Thank you very much.

Mom's stocking up.She already has green, but now she's getting them in another size and she has the pink already So she's set up now.I'm really set up.She was already set up been living in this stuff So now I'm really set up mom likes them to be not her actual size.

She likes to size up Whereas I usually wear my exact size I get the extra small one I think because you put a jacket over top of yours a lot of times whereas I will layer up Under it and then this will be my outer.

Okay, I'm gonna pack some orders now, so What do we need here?T -shirt, crew neck, scrunchie, on it.This is so fun, you guys.

I feel like I never show any of this.

Grab three.This is the most exciting part, other than the actual pieces, obviously, but we have the Prada Prada.This is what makes it so that we don't have to wrap everything in plastic It protects the piece and it's also cute and it has been hand drawn by mama maples.Look how freaking cute that is It's a little bear with the sweatpants.It's so cute.So now I gotta pick the pieces.

So we have cucumber seed t -shirt in medium Got it.Then we've got the cucumber skin in medium I always double check the label like a hundred times and then a green scrunchie.They literally picked everythinggreen option.

No pinks!What the heck?Come on, no pink?We're just gonna fold these, put them in so they fit, and we're gonna close it up.

And then we always put a little blueprint.This shows off some of the details of it that make them ethically made and sustainable fibers, and why we do what we do with the custom pieces.

Also, this tape is custom too.

It says comfy things inside, and we tried to match the box so that it would look like a scalloped edge.And there you go.That is one package packed.It takes a while.This is why sometimes when we do a launch, something doesn't ship for like a week to three weeks, because depending on how many orders we have, each one takes a while to pack.Okay, so now I'm just gonna pack a few more, just the loose odds and ends, and then I'll be going home to edit.

Let's go marry.The first person to do the pink by first.I don't mean first but like the first right now that i'm doing watermelon flesh large, which by the way guys we changed this color it is now strawberry milk as Chosen by you guys.So goodbye watermelon flesh.You're now strawberry now Cute right?Yeah That's how you pack them.

Okay.So now you guys have seen me set up the break room And you've got to see a little behind the scenes of the M phrase.I always say like when I show you behind the scenes I don't know if it makes you want to shop here or if it makes you scared to shop here I'm really not sure but this is the truth of it.And honestly, this is a hugeupgrade from the basement We used to ship out of so this is awesome for anyone wondering also if I will miss fulfilling and like packaging the packages to send out Yes, and no for instance when we would do a launch if you guys would sell it out We would be like, oh my gosh, it's sold out everywhere Hey, everybody come here, let's pack these orders.It would take us like a month to pack all the orders.

Whereas with this 3PL that we're using, not only will it be better for shoppers not getting customs and being able to prepay them, but also they have more staff where they can ship it out faster.Like if you order something, it won't take as long to get to you.There's pros and cons to everything.And what I found like having this small business is you do have to be adaptable.and kind of like move with the changes.I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't sad that we didn't get to use the fulfillment center as much as I wanted to, especially because it was a huge decision to move out of the basement.

Hopefully this will be better moving forward so yeah the new launch is live right now so if you want to check it out be sure to go over there one thing i do want to note is sometimes people comment they're like oh i would love to support you by buying the sweatpants and like i just want to be clear Only purchase a piece from M -Phrase if you genuinely love it and want it.You guys support me enough by watching the videos, you don't have to do anything extra.M -Phrase is solely to make these sustainable ethical pieces on the market available and make these custom pieces that I love and stand behind.I don't want you to overextend yourself to support me.You watching the videos already supports me more than I can ever say thank you for.You guys do more than enough already.

If you like the pieces and you're in the market for it, they are beautiful, the fabrics are incredible, and they took a long time.make.And yeah, cross your fingers and your toes for me that nothing crazy happens during this launch.It needs to just go smoothly.

Smooth.