Kaila Uli

Kaila Uli is an e-commerce business builder and the Founder of Puffie Slippers. She also founded Brillies.co, a vintage and retro sunglasses brand she lost in a cyber attack. As a TikTok content creator, Kaila educates entrepreneurs on building their businesses.
  

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 Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn: 

  • [0:00] Kaila Uli appears on What The Teck? to share crucial online business do’s and don’ts 
  • [5:47] How Kaila’s business underwent a cyber attack
  • [11:43] The rise in cyber attacks among small businesses
  • [16:31] An inside look into reality TV show casting
  • [19:51] Strategies for preventing and mitigating cyber threats
  • [23:59] How to generate sales from viral content
  • [28:52] Tips for acquiring capital and starting a new business venture
  • [40:16] The truth about multilevel marketing schemes

In this episode…

Some small business owners believe they’re safe from cyber attacks because of their size. Yet, 50% of attacks occur against small businesses since attackers aren’t always after just revenue. How can online business owners mitigate these threats and recover their companies?

After multiple failed business ventures, content creator and online entrepreneur Kaila Uli was confident her next company would prosper. However, an unexpected cyber attack from a competitor caused her to lose everything. The attackers flooded her site with bots, overwhelming the servers and kicking her offline. Kaila recommends investing in services like Cloudflare, which can limit excessive traffic directed at a network or server during an attack and ensure your business remains online. You can also purchase cyber insurance to secure personal information and pixel data. 

In today’s episode of What The Teck?, Rolando Rosas speaks with Kaila Uli, the Founder of Puffie Slippers, about how she navigated a cyber attack and rebuilt her online presence. Kaila also talks about generating sales from viral content, how to acquire capital for a new business venture, and firsthand insights into multilevel marketing schemes.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Quotable Moments:

  • “I failed a lot of businesses to get to the point of having one that made it as big as that did.”
  • “50% of all the cyber attacks are against small businesses.”
  • “I was raised in the kind of place where Avon meant you were a business owner.”
  • “If you don’t have pixels, which a lot of people don’t, get your pixels up.”
  • “Being small doesn’t mean you’re safe; they’re hitting everybody.”

Action Steps:

  1. Enhance cybersecurity measures: Investing in cybersecurity tools like Cloudflare can help protect your business from cyber threats like DDoS attacks. By limiting the amount of traffic that can be sent to a network or server at one time, you safeguard your online presence and minimize the risk of data breaches.
  2. Leverage community support: Engage with online communities on platforms like TikTok to crowdsource solutions to business challenges. This approach allows you to tap into a diverse pool of expertise and receive real-time feedback on your issues, fostering a supportive network.
  3. Secure business insurance: Obtain cyber insurance to mitigate potential financial losses from cyber incidents, ensuring your business remains financially stable during crises. This preparation allows you to recover more swiftly from disruptions, maintaining business continuity and protecting your reputation.
  4. Focus on revenue-generating activities: Prioritize tasks that directly impact your business’ revenue, such as marketing and customer engagement, instead of getting bogged down by nonessential work. This aligns your efforts with growth objectives, boosting your financial performance and scalability.
  5. Seek mentorship and guidance: Reach out to more experienced business owners or financial advisors who can provide valuable insights and strategies. Overcoming the mindset of doing everything alone can accelerate your learning curve and help you make informed decisions.

Sponsor for this episode…

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Episode Transcript:

Kaila Uli 0:00

I was like, I I don’t know. I was devastated. Really was my first business that hit six figures a month. I thought it was gonna be like my forever business, but just celebrities were wearing this. It was popping. It was popping. I didn’t even know I was going through a cyber attack. I woke up with no sales, and I was like, This is crazy. This was all because

Intro 0:23

Kaila Uli is a Dutch Indonesian entrepreneur who overcame personal tragedy and financial hardship to build a successful business. She shares what it takes to be a small business owner on TikTok. 

Kaila Uli 0:35

In my 20s, I was using the money that I made as a model to bankroll a business I like genuinely had to choose between rent or inventory and didn’t have money for groceries. I was raised in the kind of place where Avon made more a business owner. It was just ridiculous. I hate that part of social media that turned it into like, the only way you’re gonna actually be successful is to be a business owner. This is why I started my TikTok. I failed a lot of businesses to get to the point of having one that made it as big as that did. If I had to start over right this second, I would immediately,

Rolando Rosas 1:08

the longer you’re in business, you’re gonna get hit with something 50%

Kaila Uli 1:11

of all the cyber attacks are against small businesses, the attacks, the

Rolando Rosas 1:15

trolls, the failures. You’re putting it all out

Kaila Uli 1:18

there. I’m on social media teaching other people how to run their businesses, and I just lost my business. What the heck is an online hitman? Okay, this story is wild.

Rolando Rosas 1:33

Welcome to What The Teck?, your gateway to business strategies and tech secrets shaping today’s workplace. You know, every now and then somebody comes along that catches not only your breath, but captures your attention in a way that somebody else has it. And that’s exactly who I’ve got today. Kaila Uli, you know, she creates content, but is also a small business owner, and that combination of founder and content creator, makes her absolutely lethal. Welcome to the podcast. Kaila Uli

Kaila Uli 2:12

sounds way than I am.

Rolando Rosas 2:15

Yes, see Si, si se puede. Des de Los Angeles, California. I mean, I

Kaila Uli 2:21

understand the Los Angeles part.

Rolando Rosas 2:26

Thanks for joining me today. 

Kaila Uli 2:29

Thank you for having me. That intro made me sound dope, but you

Rolando Rosas 2:35

are. You’re dope, you’re dope. Look, you’re dope for so many reasons. You drop such good nuggets that are that anybody could understand that wants to start a business or wants to be successful in the business, or even more important, what not to do in your business, and you’re loaded with stories of your challenges, the attacks, the trolls, the failures, and you’re putting it all out there for people to learn, absorb and then take back and use some of that in what they do. I

Kaila Uli 3:11

hope so. I really hope that’s what people get out of it, because my sister and I have this conversation regularly where it’s like, how do you have such high quantity of these strange occurrences? And I think it’s just because I keep doing like, I go out and I talk to people, and I go online and I try to get PR for the businesses, and I’m always around people, and it just increases the odds of strangeness happening. I think, like, honestly, I You’re not the first person who’s told me that I speak plainly, and I love hearing that, because in the early days of TikTok, the bros and the gurus and all of the fancy people were like, you’re never gonna No one’s gonna let you come off super that. And I’m like, first of all, I’m from Pomona, so suck, my Irish

Rolando Rosas 3:50

you and I had a chance to talk earlier. And the Pomona that I had in my brain is not the Pomona that you’re saying, right?

Kaila Uli 3:59

No, okay, so the Pomona you had in mind was the Pomona colleges, which is very nice. It’s part of ivy league. There’s this collection of these four very expensive colleges that’s beautiful over there. Super great. I’m from Pomona. Pomona, like downtown San Bernardino Ave is a totally different scene, like where I’m from, if you hear a loud noise, everybody goes down on their stomach, and the last one down loses an ear. Oh, is that

Rolando Rosas 4:24

right? Sir soup. Oh, wow. He knows what you’re talking about. He knows the part of the neighborhood you’re talking about.

Kaila Uli 4:31

Yeah, but it’s not, it’s weirdly not like that anymore. It didn’t get super gentrified like everything else in LA like, if you go through most of Pomona now, unless you go, like, down to down, down, down. It’s actually weirdly nice. You see, like, corvettes, they like renovated the YMCA into the luxury housing. So it’s there’s a disconnect. Now, when I tell people I’m from Pomona, because initially they’d be like, oh Pomona,

Rolando Rosas 4:54

and now they’re like, oh Pomona is nice. There’s nothing wrong with that. You. But you know, the plain nature of your manner of talking is what I find so in not just endearing, but refreshing, because when you’re trying to cut across the noise and trying to reach people, they’re people of all stripes, shapes, sizes, colors, and you’re able to take your experience and just dole it out like here, yeah, you have your wit, you have your humor, you have your dose of reality thrown in there. And that’s what caught my attention, specifically that you were talking about as cyber attack on your business. And you had a video that talked about it, and you mentioned something that I had not heard before, online? Hitman, yeah, I was like, What? What the heck is an online hitman, let me okay,

Kaila Uli 5:47

this story is wild. First of all, I didn’t even know I was going through a cyber attack. I just knew. I was like, why don’t I have any sales for today? And why are all these fake websites attached to my Pixel? Like, what is going on? I woke up with no spells, and I was like, This is crazy. And then we spend two days probably, like, texting everyone, calling everyone, and now we have ChatGPT. I probably could have asked ChatGPT if it came out sooner, but Google didn’t know what I was talking about. And, like, the layers of the nonsense was so weird, and all of my friends were like, trying to on peel it. And eventually I was like, Dude, I don’t understand. So I went on TikTok, and I posted about it, and I was like, guys, I don’t know what’s wrong. Somebody helped me. And then tech people started jumping in, and they were like, This is what’s happening. And everyone is bringing little pieces to the equation. And then there’s this guy that, Oh, my God, I wish I knew his name. He’s like, this big Samoan guy, and he was talking about online hitman. And I was like, wait a minute, wait a minute. And then he started, like, breaking down kind of what I was going through. And that was my first ability to start figuring out what’s going on. And like, honestly, TikTok solved the problem for me, but tick solved the business problem for you. Oh, they did, but then I figuring out how to solve it. After figuring out what it was, was a whole nother problem, which I did not recover from. So how

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