Why Most Brands Fail When They Try to Crack the U.S. Market | Ep. 435 with Nicole Eckels Founder of Glasshouse Fragrance

Daniel opens the episode with a simple but loaded question: has Nicole made it? Nicole admits that from the outside, many people would say yes, but from her own perspective, she is still close, still building, and still figuring out whether she will ever fully let herself acknowledge it. She reflects on gratitude, luck, hard work, and the fact that her background and education did not obviously set her up for the level of success she has achieved. The episode then moves into Nicole’s biggest milestone: bringing Glasshouse into the U.S. market. She explains why America was her hardest goal, why she waited nearly 15 years before entering, and why many international brands fail because they underestimate how different U.S. consumers are across regions. From there, Daniel and Nicole discuss her early experience at the Chanel counter at Saks, how she learned luxury consumer behavior, what it means to create a category, how AI is changing creative production, and the personal cost of building a business that has taken everything while also giving her purpose. Key Discussion Points Nicole says she has made it from other people’s perspective, but she is not sure she will ever fully say that to herself because life feels like a journey of continuing forward. She admits one of her fears is that life will go by and she will realize too late that she had already made it but never stopped to acknowledge it. Nicole says that when she looks at her education, background, and where she came from, none of it obviously set her up to be where she is today. Her biggest recent milestone is bringing Glasshouse to the U.S., moving from the smaller Australia and New Zealand market into one of the largest and most competitive consumer markets in the world. Nicole says cracking the U.S. took patience and experience, and that she waited nearly 15 years before entering the market. She believes many brands fail in America because they do not understand the competitive set, the consumer, or the fact that the U.S. is not one unified market. Nicole explains that the U.S. behaves more like five different countries, with major differences between the Northeast, Southeast, Midwest, South, and West Coast. She says brands need to understand product market fit, consumer thinking, regional preferences, and the price points required to win. Nicole explains that smaller brands can compete with giant fragrance companies by looking where no one else is looking and identifying gaps before they appear in the data. She says if a category is already visible in the data, a smaller brand may already be too late, because emerging categories often do not show up until someone creates them. Nicole saw that the U.S. fragrance market was split between very expensive niche brands and large prestige brands, which helped Glasshouse carve out a space around quality, abundance, and accessibility. She describes Glasshouse as a brand for people who love fragrance, want a lot of it, and value quality, beautiful scents, different styles, and accessible price points. Nicole says working at the Chanel counter at Saks helped her understand consumer brands, luxury expectations, service, and what drives highly discerning customers. She compares fragrance to food, saying there is a difference between an average burger and one where every ingredient has been carefully chosen, and that same level of discernment exists in fragrance. Nicole says appearing on the Today Show was one of the moments where she truly stopped and smelled the roses, calling it a pinch me moment at Rockefeller Center. She says she was not overly nervous because she focuses on speaking her truth, being authentic, and talking to the people in front of her rather than thinking about the millions who may watch. Nicole shares that she had her son at 19 and moved from upstate New York to New York City as a single mother with little support nearby. She says people often asked how she did it, but to her the answe