Skimpies did $6,000 in its first year. Over the next 12 months, it did $570,000, with no paid ads and no agency—just Bette Bentley standing at a folding table in her kitchen, live selling three hours a day.
Bentley spent her career writing comedy before inventing Skimpies, a first-of-its-kind organic cotton liner for leggings now carrying a $10 million valuation. Her approach to live selling comes straight out of comedy: Test in public, treat every flop as information, and know exactly what your brand is for.
Below, she breaks down the eight-second video that redirected her whole strategy, the commitment she set for herself afterward, what she salvaged from a first live sale with two viewers, and the three behaviors she says separate a live sale from a sales pitch.
On the video she cut specifically for TikTok:
I was building in public on Instagram, and we had hits. We went mini viral once and sold out of preorders. But nothing hit the way I felt like it should.
Instagram is also where all the moms from my school are, so you’re exposed. I’d made a pact with myself that that was Bette 1.0, and now we’re Bette 2.0. If [sweatiness] from the gym offends someone from carpool, then they’re not meant for me and I’m not meant for them.
TikTok was getting my scraps. TikTok was getting my “This is glossy for Instagram, and then I’m putting it on TikTok even though it’s three minutes long.” TikTok was not getting my attention.
Then I had this video I totally cringed out for, because it was a close-up of a camel toe—a before and after in a pair of Lululemon leggings I love. I thought, this should go viral. Why don’t I make it for TikTok? First time I ever did that. I took 30 seconds down to eight. The first thing you saw was, whoa. But it was funny and cute and on game for our brand, and it helped women with a problem.
I put it up and went to sleep. The next day I woke up and our lifetime sales had doubled. The video had almost 7 million views. I wasn’t ready, and all the good things happen before you’re ready.
On what that taught her about how people buy on TikTok:
On TikTok, people have their credit cards out. And it’s the group chat. It’s the best of both worlds—it’s where people get real, unfiltered advice, not a glossy billboard.
A lot of people feel like they can’t be as real on Instagram as they can on TikTok, and that leads to more honest, meaningful conversations about what’s actually working for them. Perfect for the brand I’m building. I was like, I need to dedicate my time to this.
On the goal she set after going viral:
I prayed on it. I meditated on it. I turned the lights down and I was like, ‘God, what is the next path?’ I closed my eyes and had this visual of me standing in front of a folding table in our kitchen.
Live selling. Which checks out, because I’ve been live selling in front of my bathroom mirror with my hairbrush since I was six years old. I loved QVC. “This mug is going on sale for only $5.99.” Those women were so fun, the way they’d banter with each other. How fun to cosplay my QVC life.
I’m very goal-oriented, so I made a goal: I’m going to go live every single day for six months, three hours a day. At the end, I’m buying myself a nice pair of shoes.
And I didn’t watch anyone else’s lives, on purpose. I don’t jump on trends. I wanted it to be how Skimpies would do it—a woman in her late 30s starting a business, figuring it out with you.
On the metric she pulled out of a live sale with two viewers:
Crickets. Two people came. But one of them stayed the entire time.
That’s actually something. That was a metric I could hang my hat on. There’s always a silver lining in everything that happens in your business.
On the three things she does on every live:
When people ask me for tips, I watch what they do and I’m like, You’re sitting down the whole time. I stand up the whole time, literally. If you’re sitting comfy on your couch and you’re asking people to spend their hard-earned money on something, it feels like you’re not putting in any respect—and I’m big about respect—or any effort. You should be in service of these people. Get up and show them that you work for them.
Second, don’t hard sell. No product is for everybody. It’s like saying, this is a great blazer, but it’s not your everyday blazer. You’re not wearing it to your kid’s soccer game. You’re wearing it to the Shopify podcast, when you wanna feel really cool. Telling people when something doesn’t work for them is how they know you’re authentic, and that you’re not just going, Yeah, this is for you, and you, and you. I care about you. I want this to be a success for you.
Third, flash sales, on a consistent schedule. People feel like they’re getting a really good deal, and when they come back, they know the timing. They know if they show up at certain times, they can hit those sales.
On live selling as her marketing testing ground:
All of my talking points have come from live selling. I tested all my marketing material IRL, in real time. When you say something everybody likes, you get flooded with hearts, and you get ding, ding, ding, ding—people are purchasing.
I learned that the organic cotton element of the leggings liner is really important. I learned that my personal story is really important. And I learned that people will watch me live sell for three hours with one product if we make it real and authentic and we bring in the whole community. It felt like girls getting together who love each other, who needed a break.
On why she doesn’t hard sell her own community:
It’s not about the sales. You don’t have to buy a box of Skimpies to be a Skimpie sister. Some people don’t have $9.99, but they still wanna come and be a part of your brand story, and they are always welcome. Come to the live events, come to the live sale, like the videos, watch the videos—you’re 100% part of the Skimpie Sisters community.
If a sister is going through a hard time or a major loss, we get DMs about it, and we treat her to something. A box, a note, a prayer.
When people get so caught up in, “I need to sell 300 boxes today,” people start to feel very used, and it doesn’t feel authentic. Live selling is about bringing the community together and having fun.
On treating every live like an open mic:
You have to view live selling, creating socials, adding platforms—whatever the thing is—as a test, the same way a comic tests jokes at an open mic. You’re doing it to perfect the routine. When something doesn’t work out, it’s actually a blessing, because it tells you: Cross it off the routine. That doesn’t belong in my hour-long special. You have to test things in public to find out what’s gold.
My first year I made $6,000. You could not tell me I wasn’t Beyoncé. Six thousand dollars of people’s hard-earned money, for a product that did not exist until I brought it into this world. The moment you get that first sale, you’re like, I did something. And then you build off that momentum.
Bentley gets into the rest on Shopify Masters, including the double mastectomy that pushed her to go all in, why she defends in-person events to advisers who’d rather she spend those hours live selling, and the part of the business she calls a buzzkill.
