Latest / Eating While Broke / SHONTAY LUNDY – Franks & Beans with Sugar

Transcript

SHONTAY LUNDY – Franks & Beans with Sugar · Eating While Broke

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome you all to another episode of Eating While Broke.
0:03
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Colleen Wit and today we have special
0:05
Speaker 1: guests Dante Lundie in the building, founder and owner of
0:09
Speaker 1: Black Girl's Sunscreen. What do you have us eating today? Well? Hello,
0:13
Speaker 1: thank you for having thank you for joining us. All Right,
0:17
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna prepare for you all, or you my
0:21
Speaker 1: favorite dish of all time, favorite dish, favorite dish of
0:25
Speaker 1: all time. Um, hot dogs and beans or to some
0:30
Speaker 1: beanies and wheenies and to others franks and beans. Franks
0:34
Speaker 1: and beans. So it could be called three things, one
0:38
Speaker 1: of three things to me different people, and it's your
0:42
Speaker 1: favorite dish, like to date, all the foods you've had. Yeah,
0:46
Speaker 1: because I'm not a cooker, and this is something that
0:50
Speaker 1: I can easily prepare, it's affordable, and so I'm curious,
0:58
Speaker 1: when was the last time you ate this? About a
1:01
Speaker 1: month and a half ago? Okay, okay, was it like
1:03
Speaker 1: the middle of the night or you were like, I'm
1:05
Speaker 1: craving it? No, straight up dinner? Yeah, straight up dinner. Um.
1:10
Speaker 1: I work a lot long hours, and um, I didn't
1:13
Speaker 1: feel like, you know, spending money on delivery, and it
1:16
Speaker 1: was something that I had in the fridge, and you
1:19
Speaker 1: can't go wrong with beans not perishable in the in
1:22
Speaker 1: the cabinet. You know, I used to live in South Florida, so, um,
1:26
Speaker 1: we would have to prepare for hurricane season, so like
1:29
Speaker 1: beans isn't essential, So I always have beans in the house.
1:32
Speaker 1: But you're originally from New York and then you lived
1:34
Speaker 1: in Florida and now you live in l A. That's right.
1:37
Speaker 1: Quite a journey, right, Yeah. You you're a mover and
1:39
Speaker 1: a shaker, a risk taker, a risk that's how I
1:42
Speaker 1: see those moves. Yeah, yeah, you're a visionary too. I
1:46
Speaker 1: like to consider myself as Yeah, that's amazing. So while
1:50
Speaker 1: you prepare this dish, I gotta know how you go
1:53
Speaker 1: from how you get to building black girls on the screen.
1:59
Speaker 1: This wasn't a first venture, was it? As an entrepreneur?
2:02
Speaker 1: It was? It was it was leaving upstate New York
2:07
Speaker 1: right after college to South Florida, pursuing my graduate degree
2:11
Speaker 1: in business, and um, being in the corporate space for
2:15
Speaker 1: twelve or thirteen years, transitioning out and then saying, you
2:19
Speaker 1: know what, I must continue on my life journey and
2:21
Speaker 1: that meant coming to Los Angeles because that's always been
2:24
Speaker 1: part of the plan. Um. While I got here, it
2:28
Speaker 1: was it was interesting because you can drive down the
2:32
Speaker 1: street whatever to three o'clock and see people having coffee, tea,
2:36
Speaker 1: eating and just kind of like, what do they do?
2:39
Speaker 1: Why are they not at work? How do they do
2:42
Speaker 1: what they do and live in these houses? Right? There's
2:46
Speaker 1: many different reasons, many different things. So it's kind of like,
2:49
Speaker 1: all right, So while I transitioned out of the corporate space,
2:54
Speaker 1: I had time on my hands because I moved here
2:56
Speaker 1: with no job, no place to live. I just literally
2:59
Speaker 1: got into my Twodor infinity with my my English bulldog,
3:03
Speaker 1: and I drove to Los Angeles and I said, I'm
3:05
Speaker 1: gonna find whatever I'm gonna do when I get there.
3:08
Speaker 1: And I got here to stay with a friend for
3:09
Speaker 1: legit two weeks, because that's the timeline I gave myself,
3:13
Speaker 1: found an apartment and started hiking and doing lots of yoga,
3:17
Speaker 1: and um, really appreciating the time that I had to
3:20
Speaker 1: myself because I'm coming from like a really structured you know,
3:25
Speaker 1: just time, right, Like most people are starting school at
3:28
Speaker 1: the age of five, then you go to twelfth grade.
3:31
Speaker 1: Some people go to college and some people don't. I
3:33
Speaker 1: choose to go to college, right, another four years. Then
3:35
Speaker 1: I did my graduate program two years. Right, so we're
3:38
Speaker 1: on like whatever, eighteen years of school right. Then I
3:42
Speaker 1: worked in corporate for twelve years, so waking up at
3:44
Speaker 1: six o'clock in the morning and going till four or five.
3:47
Speaker 1: I was also in extracurriculum activities such as whatever cheerlating track.
3:52
Speaker 1: I played the violin. My first job was, um, I was.
3:57
Speaker 1: I did a paper out. I was at fifteen years
3:59
Speaker 1: old and I had to get a paper out because
4:01
Speaker 1: I wanted my own things. So in the eighties and
4:04
Speaker 1: the nineties, I'm aging myself here. Um. One of the
4:07
Speaker 1: cool things was to have your own phone right in
4:10
Speaker 1: your bedroom, in your bedroom that is not a cell phone,
4:14
Speaker 1: like a phone that was like connected to the wall
4:17
Speaker 1: right with the caller I d But in order for
4:19
Speaker 1: me to get that that phone, I had to work
4:21
Speaker 1: for it. Right. It wasn't attached to my my family's
4:24
Speaker 1: phone line, like I had my own phone number as
4:26
Speaker 1: a teenage girl. Oh that's a big deal, A huge deal.
4:29
Speaker 1: So what are they like answering? You know, back in
4:32
Speaker 1: the day, they would just you know, everyone would answer
4:34
Speaker 1: phone hello, Hello, Hello, and you'll be like mom, my
4:35
Speaker 1: got it like one of those and you're like, I'm
4:38
Speaker 1: done with this. I'm dealing with it. And then your
4:39
Speaker 1: parents were like, get you know, if you want a phone,
4:42
Speaker 1: you better you gotta get a job, whether it's babysitting. Yeah,
4:45
Speaker 1: but I was always um wanted to be like independent,
4:49
Speaker 1: if you will. So first job, age of fifteen, And
4:52
Speaker 1: I'm gonna circle back to how we got to Black
4:54
Speaker 1: Girl's Sunsteen because all of these things that I'm sharing
4:57
Speaker 1: with you is part of the journey, right, So, first
5:01
Speaker 1: of all, having a job at the age of fifteen
5:03
Speaker 1: is huge sacrifice, especially as as a teenager. And if
5:07
Speaker 1: your job started at three o'clock in the morning, that
5:09
Speaker 1: means you can't have sleepovers like that's important for teenagers,
5:12
Speaker 1: especially teenage girls. But it also sounds like you're very
5:15
Speaker 1: popular because you you needed this phone, so you're popular
5:19
Speaker 1: giving up your right. I don't know how do you
5:20
Speaker 1: define popular? Well, did you have a bunch of friends? No,
5:23
Speaker 1: I like a few friends, but I was on cheer leading.
5:26
Speaker 1: I don't know. Popular weird, that's weird. That term popular
5:30
Speaker 1: was weird. But you did sacrifice, Yes, I did sacrifice.
5:33
Speaker 1: I did sacrifice, like not being able to go to
5:36
Speaker 1: those parties, not being able to sleep over and um
5:39
Speaker 1: having to roll up papers in the rain and deliver them.
5:43
Speaker 1: And then also like how do you get subscriptions to
5:46
Speaker 1: how do you get new customers? So that's where the
5:48
Speaker 1: salesmanship came in and that's how I learned. So anyway,
5:52
Speaker 1: fast forward to being in Los Angeles. UM, I said,
5:57
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm gonna take this time because I
6:00
Speaker 1: didn't have a job, I didn't have anything I wanted
6:02
Speaker 1: to do. But at this point, you quit Corporate America.
6:05
Speaker 1: I'm just curious, what is your thought process when you're
6:09
Speaker 1: deciding to quit, because it sounds like you're a clean slate.
6:12
Speaker 1: You moved to l a clean slate, So what is
6:14
Speaker 1: the triggering moment where you're like, I want to break.
6:18
Speaker 1: I felt like I've done everything I needed to do
6:21
Speaker 1: in Miami. I wanted to change the pace, different scenery.
6:26
Speaker 1: It was time to go. I finished what I was doing,
6:29
Speaker 1: And maybe I shouldn't even have stayed that long, right
6:31
Speaker 1: because I went to Miami to do my masters and
6:34
Speaker 1: I found a job, So it was just like okay,
6:37
Speaker 1: like continue on the path. Like I still don't think
6:40
Speaker 1: that Los Angeles is a final stop for me. Oh okay, okay,
6:44
Speaker 1: the story is gonna get I'm just open and I'm
6:47
Speaker 1: just open to to always expanding and building and trying
6:50
Speaker 1: new things. But now, when you're moving to l A,
6:53
Speaker 1: you're leaving stability at this point, so too, well, I'm
6:57
Speaker 1: curious you're leaving stability, right, I don't if I'll be
7:00
Speaker 1: leaving it. It was just like a piece, like a
7:03
Speaker 1: like a like a stopping point. Um, so I can
7:06
Speaker 1: always come back. Yeah. I go to New York very often.
7:11
Speaker 1: I go to South Florida, Miami very often. M Yeah,
7:15
Speaker 1: so I don't think I'm leaving anything behind. It was
7:17
Speaker 1: just kind of like a touch point. Yeah. Yeah, I
7:19
Speaker 1: made my mark, penetrated the market, you know, cultivated great relationships,
7:23
Speaker 1: and built black Girl's suncreen here. So now what if
7:27
Speaker 1: we have a team in Texas or a team anywhere
7:30
Speaker 1: in the country. That's how I see that. Well, let's
7:34
Speaker 1: start trying to whip up some of this dish. And
7:38
Speaker 1: I'm imagining this dish only takes like five minutes. You're
7:42
Speaker 1: just heating it or what how do you do this? All? Right,
7:46
Speaker 1: so we have our boiling water. It's not boiling, So
7:49
Speaker 1: let's turn this on. So I'm a non cooker, and
7:52
Speaker 1: that's why this is one of my favorite dishes a
7:54
Speaker 1: because I don't cook right, and it's just something really easy. Yes,
7:59
Speaker 1: all right, so and watch how because it gets hot?
8:01
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. So we got um two pots, one of
8:04
Speaker 1: them that will be boiling water and then the other
8:07
Speaker 1: one where we're gonna put the beans. So um, early
8:10
Speaker 1: eighties nineties dated we did not have like to flip, right,
8:14
Speaker 1: So that's good that it's just kind of like a
8:15
Speaker 1: regular like can just pop that open. There a lot
8:19
Speaker 1: of juice, but will make you someone's gonna pour the
8:22
Speaker 1: beans you Okay, I think this dish was less than
8:29
Speaker 1: ten dollars. It was definitely less and I don't want
8:32
Speaker 1: to say it was less than four dollars, uh, depending
8:36
Speaker 1: on exactly I was gonna say, depending on my hot dogs,
8:39
Speaker 1: Like I could have really came up. If I wanted
8:41
Speaker 1: a dollar store, this would have been a two dollar mail.
8:43
Speaker 1: So while those heat up, um, and I'll i'll help
8:47
Speaker 1: keep a close eye. And the water has to boil
8:49
Speaker 1: before you put the hot dogs in. Some people put
8:53
Speaker 1: that dog in the water while boils. I would literally
8:56
Speaker 1: watched my husband boil spaghetti and he put the spaghetti
8:59
Speaker 1: in the water before the water boiled. And I've never
9:03
Speaker 1: seen that done. Needless to say, it came out as spaghetti.
9:06
Speaker 1: But I would never authorize that. So now I ask.
9:10
Speaker 1: So I've been eating this meal since. UM. I can
9:12
Speaker 1: remember as a little girl being from upstate New York. Newburgh.
9:17
Speaker 1: UM is a place where you must leave if you
9:20
Speaker 1: have any aspiration of being anything. You know. I grew
9:23
Speaker 1: up in the early eighties, um, and that was like
9:27
Speaker 1: the crack academic um. And um. There wasn't much happening
9:32
Speaker 1: in Newburgh, so if you had like a decent job,
9:35
Speaker 1: you would have to travel down to Manhattan, UM, take
9:38
Speaker 1: the train and you know, find work. Um. So this
9:41
Speaker 1: meal was very affordable for my family. I am the
9:44
Speaker 1: oldest of six. Yep. That's also why you want another
9:48
Speaker 1: phone line. Four. There were four of us in one
9:52
Speaker 1: household and then the other two in another household. So
9:55
Speaker 1: my parents, Um, we're both in the military. So I
9:58
Speaker 1: was born in Fort Knox, Kentucky. My parents were only
10:01
Speaker 1: married for one year and got divorce, but at we
10:03
Speaker 1: stay they were married, and UM, I grew up on
10:06
Speaker 1: my mom's side. But there are six of us, so anyway,
10:10
Speaker 1: my mother had to feed you know, four of us
10:12
Speaker 1: with not much means honestly, um, not that she was
10:16
Speaker 1: a young mom. It was just kind of like she
10:18
Speaker 1: had to do what she do what she could. Um,
10:21
Speaker 1: and this was just our go to meal. Um. Hamburger
10:23
Speaker 1: helper was another go to meal. UM. We also love
10:28
Speaker 1: like grits and eggs, um and bacon for for breakfast.
10:31
Speaker 1: I can't say that word. It's really bizarre, but I can't.
10:35
Speaker 1: So um. You know, the thing is like I took
10:37
Speaker 1: this meal all the way through college because it was
10:40
Speaker 1: just something that reminded me of like being home and
10:43
Speaker 1: like feeling safe and just affordable and good. Yeah, and
10:46
Speaker 1: it didn't. It never gave you the instinct so like
10:50
Speaker 1: you know, I know, on eating well broke, we call
10:51
Speaker 1: these dishes like broke dishes, but you didn't ever feel like, oh,
10:54
Speaker 1: I'm eating this broke dish. She felt like this was
10:56
Speaker 1: like a homely this was your comfort meal per se. Yeah,
10:59
Speaker 1: you know, broke is a perspective because um, although um,
11:04
Speaker 1: we didn't have much when we were coming up, it
11:06
Speaker 1: didn't feel like we didn't not have much compared to
11:10
Speaker 1: you know, are my peers like people in my class, like,
11:13
Speaker 1: you know, they might have new sneakers, you know whatever,
11:16
Speaker 1: three or four times a year. My new sneakers might
11:18
Speaker 1: just come like in the beginning of the year for
11:20
Speaker 1: for school. So um. But my grandparents they taught us
11:24
Speaker 1: to have pride, you know, to keep our things nice
11:27
Speaker 1: and clean. Um. So it didn't feel like we were
11:30
Speaker 1: you know, broke if you will. It just felt like
11:33
Speaker 1: like this is what we have for the time being.
11:36
Speaker 1: And broke is a mindset. Um. So if you're feeling like, hey,
11:40
Speaker 1: I'm down and out, I don't I don't have any money, Um,
11:43
Speaker 1: in my situation isn't going to change. I think that
11:46
Speaker 1: that is that is the definition of broke. It's not
11:49
Speaker 1: just monetary thing. So even today, like I choose to
11:53
Speaker 1: eat this meal, but it is a choice. Yeah, it's
11:56
Speaker 1: a choice. As it's definitely a choice because you have
11:58
Speaker 1: black Girl sunscreen. And again this is all relative, right
12:02
Speaker 1: because is I mean, are we the Muska of the world?
12:05
Speaker 1: Are we the um what's this dude from Meta um
12:09
Speaker 1: Zuckerberg's of the world, right, Like this is all relative
12:13
Speaker 1: because that money and our money is we were broke. Yeah.
12:19
Speaker 1: I was just on the phone call with someone today
12:21
Speaker 1: and I no one judged me on this show, but
12:24
Speaker 1: I've been going through my own personal But I said
12:27
Speaker 1: something like, well, you know, a minimum in l A market,
12:29
Speaker 1: I have to make like at least a hundred fifty
12:31
Speaker 1: And the guys stopped me and he was like, a
12:32
Speaker 1: hundred fifty thousand, and he started laughing. He was like,
12:34
Speaker 1: you mean a hundred fifty million, and I said huh,
12:37
Speaker 1: And then I said no, facts like you're right, Like,
12:40
Speaker 1: why is my my parameter so low? Yo? Not even
12:44
Speaker 1: one percent of the population of the United States makes
12:46
Speaker 1: a hundred thousand dollars. But that's a real statue, that's
12:50
Speaker 1: a real statu Yes, So again, it's all relative. It's
12:54
Speaker 1: relative on where you live, you know, how you spend
12:57
Speaker 1: your money. All of that six figures for a person
13:01
Speaker 1: is is an accomplishment. Yeah, except for in l A.
13:05
Speaker 1: It feels like because this is this is this is
13:08
Speaker 1: La La ly and then you have to understand that,
13:11
Speaker 1: and it's it's hard to remain ground it here because
13:14
Speaker 1: when you drive around and you see t G wagons
13:18
Speaker 1: and everyone has a test, You're like, oh shit, what
13:20
Speaker 1: am I doing wrong? Am I doing something wrong? Or
13:22
Speaker 1: what am I not doing right? And how do I
13:24
Speaker 1: get that? It's all about your mindset. Though. Speaking of mindset,
13:27
Speaker 1: I want to circle back to you at Corporate America. Yep,
13:30
Speaker 1: you have a graduate degree. Clear, I'm gonna just assume
13:33
Speaker 1: you're making great money, You're moving up the corporate ladder.
13:37
Speaker 1: You decide you want to exit. What is the reason
13:40
Speaker 1: you wanted to exit? Um? I felt like I learned
13:45
Speaker 1: a lot from my corporate positions, and I felt like, um,
13:49
Speaker 1: there was nothing more for me to do there. M
13:52
Speaker 1: So she's adding sugar to the thing. I sure, I am.
13:56
Speaker 1: We're gonna sweet it even more. A lot of then was.
14:00
Speaker 1: And I used white sugar because that's what it was
14:03
Speaker 1: in the eighties and not brown sugar. It wasn't brown.
14:05
Speaker 1: It wasn't brown sugar. So now when you make it
14:07
Speaker 1: to use brown sugar, do you still use white? Um?
14:09
Speaker 1: I still use white. I use white sugar actually for everything,
14:11
Speaker 1: and um, people on me like why are you using
14:14
Speaker 1: And I did not have a wooden spoon. Also, I
14:17
Speaker 1: would just probably shake it up or use a metal spoon.
14:20
Speaker 1: It is what it is, right, Um. So you know,
14:24
Speaker 1: transitioning out of corporate was a realization of Hey, like
14:28
Speaker 1: I learned some valuable Um, I had some valuable takeaways
14:32
Speaker 1: from from that position, and it helped me to where
14:35
Speaker 1: I am today in terms of how to run my business,
14:38
Speaker 1: how to establish different departments, how to hire, how to
14:41
Speaker 1: build corporate culture. So it wasn't that, hey, I have
14:45
Speaker 1: this awesome idea for a product, because that's that's just
14:48
Speaker 1: one piece of it, but how do you run? How
14:49
Speaker 1: do you run the business? So you were able to
14:52
Speaker 1: get that experience. So it sounds like while you were there,
14:54
Speaker 1: you looked at your job is more of almost like
14:57
Speaker 1: another form of education. You are just trying to catch
15:00
Speaker 1: a check. You were over there like observing absolutely and
15:05
Speaker 1: um the space that I was in you had to
15:07
Speaker 1: be a top performer. And what that meant was you
15:09
Speaker 1: had to perform at a high level in all aspects.
15:12
Speaker 1: So there was different like measurables, whether it's like customer
15:16
Speaker 1: service or sales, or retaining employees, recruiting employees, you know,
15:20
Speaker 1: gaining accounts. So if you were like in the top
15:23
Speaker 1: of kind of like your class and like you would
15:25
Speaker 1: always not advance, but you were doing well. But if
15:29
Speaker 1: you were in the bottom of your job was in
15:30
Speaker 1: jeopardy of getting termed. UM. So it taught me like
15:35
Speaker 1: I was always competitive, but this is not a different
15:38
Speaker 1: This is not a different level. Right. You're competing against whoever,
15:41
Speaker 1: people you don't know, for money, for bragging, race, for promotability,
15:46
Speaker 1: and um, I've just learned a lot from that space.
15:49
Speaker 1: I have nothing bad to say about my corporate experience,
15:53
Speaker 1: um at all. And again, like I wouldn't be here
15:56
Speaker 1: if it wasn't for those things. Now, while it was
15:59
Speaker 1: a corporate I also wasn't rolled into a pH d program. Um.
16:05
Speaker 1: So one of my goals in life is to become
16:08
Speaker 1: a doctor, a professor if you will. And I had
16:13
Speaker 1: to transition out that as well because it was a
16:17
Speaker 1: lot it was corporate PhD and then Black Girls sunscreen.
16:21
Speaker 1: So you're working on a Black Girl sunscreen this whole time, Um,
16:24
Speaker 1: not the whole time two thousands in fifteen SI. So
16:27
Speaker 1: I transitioned out of the one job after like whatever
16:31
Speaker 1: ten years, moved to Los Angeles and then I mean,
16:34
Speaker 1: your money kind of runs out, of course. So I
16:37
Speaker 1: didn't work for four months, best four months of my life.
16:39
Speaker 1: And that's how I came up with the concept the
16:41
Speaker 1: Black Girls Sunscreen because I had the freedom to let
16:44
Speaker 1: my mind just run wild, right, So when people go
16:47
Speaker 1: on vacation from their jobs, it's kind of like, oh,
16:49
Speaker 1: all right, I have seven days off, great, like disconnect,
16:53
Speaker 1: do whatever you want. But guess what on that if day,
16:56
Speaker 1: you're back at work. So when you take time them
17:00
Speaker 1: all four months, five months, there is no like, oh, shift,
17:03
Speaker 1: I gotta go back. You're just doing whatever you do.
17:06
Speaker 1: And I've never had that freedom before because I've been
17:08
Speaker 1: so structured school, school work, you know what I mean.
17:12
Speaker 1: Like up at six bed eleven twelve repeat, coming to
17:17
Speaker 1: Los Angeles, who was like, la la la la la
17:20
Speaker 1: la la la la la. Yeah, I don't have ship
17:23
Speaker 1: to do today. I'm going to do yoga. I'm gonna
17:25
Speaker 1: go to Balwa Hills and and take a hike. Um,
17:29
Speaker 1: I'm gonna walk my dog. I'm gonna just be aimlessly like, oh,
17:34
Speaker 1: buildings are pretty. And that's when I was able to
17:37
Speaker 1: like just think of different ideas. I have a lot
17:39
Speaker 1: of ideas always, and my friends would ask me like, hey,
17:43
Speaker 1: we see here out in the sun pretty often, like
17:46
Speaker 1: are you protecting your skin? And my my response was
17:49
Speaker 1: like do you see the sun screens that on the market,
17:52
Speaker 1: and do you see my complexion? And they're like, yeah,
17:55
Speaker 1: but you should probably do something about that because you're
17:59
Speaker 1: gonna be And they would say like, oh, let's go
18:02
Speaker 1: to this rooftop party or let's go to the beach,
18:04
Speaker 1: and I'm like, okay, so we need an umbrella or
18:08
Speaker 1: I need it any because I'm not getting darker and
18:11
Speaker 1: I don't want to burn. And that's what your friends
18:13
Speaker 1: were saying. They would ask me put on sunscreen because
18:16
Speaker 1: I have a very day, verst group of friends that
18:20
Speaker 1: do wear sunscreen, right, and they're not all my complexion,
18:23
Speaker 1: and I would be very hesitant, but Legit paid twenty
18:27
Speaker 1: five dollars for an umbrella because I didn't want to
18:29
Speaker 1: get darker, and that was my own security, Like I'm
18:33
Speaker 1: a dark skinned woman, what does that mean to get darker?
18:37
Speaker 1: And why don't I want to get darker? And that
18:39
Speaker 1: that wasn't beautiful in society in two thousand and fifteen. No,
18:43
Speaker 1: it wasn't, not, not at all. I don't know if
18:45
Speaker 1: one hund dogar was enough for you. But you got
18:49
Speaker 1: to cut this up in there, okay, And then we're
18:52
Speaker 1: gonna add more sugar because I'm a sugar fanatic kind
18:54
Speaker 1: of sugar. I'm a sugar person too. So you're you're
18:58
Speaker 1: out there, your friends are like, hey, you know you
19:01
Speaker 1: should be wearing sunscreen, and then you're doing all these
19:05
Speaker 1: things to protect your skin, but you're not wearing sunscreen,
19:07
Speaker 1: essentially negative. We didn't. So first, first off, black people
19:11
Speaker 1: don't grow up with the words suntreen in their house. Um,
19:15
Speaker 1: with the notion of wearing sunscreen. Most don't anyway, And um,
19:19
Speaker 1: we have been taught that melanin is built into our skin. Yeah,
19:24
Speaker 1: that melanine is our protector. It's our superpower. So why
19:28
Speaker 1: are we taking away our superpower? Right? Like that's the
19:31
Speaker 1: feedback today that we would get as a corporation, like
19:35
Speaker 1: why are you doing this? Not so much anymore, they
19:38
Speaker 1: still say it today. Of course, there's always gonna be
19:41
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie. I was that girl that would
19:42
Speaker 1: be like people be like, do you wear sunscreen? But
19:44
Speaker 1: like I'm black? What what? But every once in a while,
19:50
Speaker 1: like my nose would burn, you know, it would be
19:52
Speaker 1: like every other year hit or miss I would get
19:54
Speaker 1: a burn, but burn when my skin started appealing off.
20:01
Speaker 1: So that means it was too late, right. So so
20:03
Speaker 1: if that's another thing you got, you got sunburned, you
20:06
Speaker 1: didn't know what was sunburn had on and then you know,
20:08
Speaker 1: started to peel or whatever part of your body started
20:10
Speaker 1: to peel, and you're like, oh, crap, I have to burn.
20:14
Speaker 1: I had no idea it was possible. And that's the
20:16
Speaker 1: disconnect between you know, professionals, industry, health care professionals, and
20:22
Speaker 1: our population is that it's not caught until it's too late.
20:26
Speaker 1: So that's why there hasn't been marketing or communication to
20:30
Speaker 1: people of color because it's detected at later stages. Yes,
20:35
Speaker 1: and then I did realize for the first time ever
20:38
Speaker 1: in my life. Shout outs to Kidding's wife Asia, she
20:42
Speaker 1: owns a uh smooth skin lounge, And I want to
20:44
Speaker 1: get my first facial, and you know, I asked what
20:46
Speaker 1: was your age? It was like a couple of weeks ago.
20:52
Speaker 1: Seven seven. There's no judgment, but listen to that, and
20:55
Speaker 1: you got your first facial at have you been to
20:59
Speaker 1: the dermot oologist before? No? Okay, So this is an
21:03
Speaker 1: issue within our community that people of color are not
21:06
Speaker 1: going to the dermatologists. They're not having annual check ins
21:09
Speaker 1: in terms of like full body skin. Right, We're not
21:12
Speaker 1: taking care of our skin the same way of our lighters.
21:15
Speaker 1: Can counterparts. And this is why Black Girls sun Screen
21:18
Speaker 1: exists because we're here to talk about the y y
21:21
Speaker 1: wise instead of the bye bye byes. So like, set
21:24
Speaker 1: aside suncare, right, think about your skin, exfoliating, moisturizing, toning.
21:31
Speaker 1: There's so many things that you need to take care of.
21:32
Speaker 1: You look fantastic. Right, We're not gonna give you thirty seven.
21:36
Speaker 1: We're gonna we're gonna we're gonna backwards aids you to
21:38
Speaker 1: twenty seven. Right, because you do have melonated skin. Typically
21:42
Speaker 1: our skin doesn't wrinkle, it will start to drop before anything.
21:46
Speaker 1: But let's say you catch that pre and you're like, hey,
21:50
Speaker 1: I got my skin care regiment, and then you're adding SPF,
21:53
Speaker 1: you're gonna be fifty looking like your third five. Yeah. Well,
21:57
Speaker 1: one of the things I realized at the when I
21:59
Speaker 1: got the face so was the number one recommendation was
22:02
Speaker 1: where sunscreen every day? And I was like every day,
22:05
Speaker 1: they were like every day where sunscreen? And I was sure,
22:10
Speaker 1: I'll do a little bit more sugar a little bit
22:12
Speaker 1: so I can be like I can experience you. All right, Well,
22:14
Speaker 1: here's my dish, here's what it looks like. Sugar topped delicious,
22:22
Speaker 1: got it got it. Now, let's try it. It's gonna
22:25
Speaker 1: taste like hot dog and beans, beanies and whenies. You
22:29
Speaker 1: know what. I like it. I didn't even mix the sugar,
22:32
Speaker 1: and I like the little pasty sugar frosting. I mean,
22:35
Speaker 1: I don't know if you just would have fourk course boom,
22:37
Speaker 1: but I'm gonna do it a four. Yeah, I'm doing
22:39
Speaker 1: my work. It's delicious. M I love this dish. This
22:42
Speaker 1: dish can't grow old. So that is a turkey hot
22:46
Speaker 1: dog and I've never had a turkey hot dog ever. Um.
22:49
Speaker 1: And also, turkey was not available in the eighties, so
22:54
Speaker 1: it wasn't like turkey bacon, turkey hot dogs. It was
22:57
Speaker 1: not turkey burgers. It was none of those things. Like so,
23:00
Speaker 1: food has evolved, just like everything else. At thirty eight,
23:12
Speaker 1: I'm just now realizing how important sunscreen is, which as
23:15
Speaker 1: a testament, and I still occasionally make the joke that, hey,
23:20
Speaker 1: I'm black, what do I need sunscreen for? So you
23:23
Speaker 1: are facing this celemma, and I'm trying to corner you
23:27
Speaker 1: into figuring out you face the cellamma, you realize that
23:31
Speaker 1: when do you realize that there's a space that needs
23:34
Speaker 1: filling or a problem that needs addressing. When does this
23:38
Speaker 1: epiphany head? After hiking every single day and being beat
23:44
Speaker 1: in the head of hey where sunscreen were? Sunscreen? Just
23:48
Speaker 1: jumped on onto onto Google and putting keywords such as,
23:52
Speaker 1: you know, sunscreen for Melania skin and sunscreen for black girl,
23:54
Speaker 1: sunscreen for brown girls, sunscreen for dark complexions, and came
23:58
Speaker 1: up just underwhelmed. Um. So there was nothing on the
24:01
Speaker 1: market that spoke to me. Of course there are products
24:04
Speaker 1: that say, hey, sunscreen for all, but like, it wouldn't
24:09
Speaker 1: have worked. So then I had to decide if there
24:12
Speaker 1: was something I can do about this white space there,
24:16
Speaker 1: if there's something I can do about the information that
24:18
Speaker 1: I just found that there's lack of information and a
24:21
Speaker 1: lack of product. So I had to determine if I
24:23
Speaker 1: had the resources, if I had the confidence. Now confidence
24:31
Speaker 1: is a big one. You have an idea, you might
24:36
Speaker 1: even have the resources, but like, are you bold enough
24:39
Speaker 1: to do this and to name it black girl sunscreen? Um? So,
24:44
Speaker 1: once I was able to decide and muster up the courage,
24:48
Speaker 1: and I talked to a few people like like, hey,
24:51
Speaker 1: what do you think about this? What do you think
24:52
Speaker 1: about that? And everyone that just had good spirits and
24:56
Speaker 1: good energy. Was like, yes, we had a few naysators,
24:59
Speaker 1: even within my s goal. Um, I was like Okay,
25:01
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do this and it was like lightning in
25:05
Speaker 1: the bottle. So you decide. And then at this point,
25:09
Speaker 1: had you gone to a dermatologist, had you get god facials?
25:13
Speaker 1: I just want to know, like, okay, okay, So you
25:15
Speaker 1: were doing this consistently and being asked all the time
25:19
Speaker 1: whether you wear sunscreen. No, I wasn't asked to wear sunscreen.
25:23
Speaker 1: Um in my first dermatologist appointment. So I am older
25:27
Speaker 1: than you, right, Um, but you would never know, yeah,
25:32
Speaker 1: you would not. You look amazing, Thank you. So my
25:38
Speaker 1: first dermatologist visit was at the age of twenty five,
25:42
Speaker 1: and um, it was just more of like, hey, here's
25:45
Speaker 1: how to take care of your skin. SPF was never
25:48
Speaker 1: recommended to me. Wow, it's the lack of education. And
25:53
Speaker 1: I think studying of a brown skin skin dark skin.
25:57
Speaker 1: That's interesting because especially coming from where I just had
26:01
Speaker 1: a facial and they're like sps. But but this was yeah,
26:06
Speaker 1: this was fifteen years ago. So I just used myself. Right,
26:09
Speaker 1: that's amazing. So the conversation has transitioned right now, people
26:13
Speaker 1: have started to incorporate it, uh, incorporate SPF into their language.
26:19
Speaker 1: And it's also being received from the community. It's not like, no,
26:24
Speaker 1: I'm not using this, women are asking about it now.
26:28
Speaker 1: I'm I didn't do a lot of research into this,
26:31
Speaker 1: but I would imagine you're the first to market when
26:33
Speaker 1: it comes to black girls on screen targeted right. So
26:37
Speaker 1: you're the first to market, which can be very scary
26:40
Speaker 1: because you know, the question is is their market for this? Right?
26:46
Speaker 1: That's the immediate question you met with. So how did
26:49
Speaker 1: you discover whether the market was there? I mean quick
26:52
Speaker 1: math um, So deciding who your total addressable market it's
26:58
Speaker 1: called tam um. And you can do by you know,
27:02
Speaker 1: figuring out the population of the United States, which is
27:06
Speaker 1: fo million people, A lot of people, right, Um of
27:11
Speaker 1: us are black. Fourteen percent of us are black, Right,
27:14
Speaker 1: So that brings us down to about four million people. Okay,
27:17
Speaker 1: black people. Then you say, all right, half of those
27:20
Speaker 1: people are women. So now we're at twenty million potential customers.
27:25
Speaker 1: How many of those customers do we need to be successful?
27:29
Speaker 1: That's how I determined if this made sense or not
27:32
Speaker 1: to go to marketing. But now you're also faced with
27:37
Speaker 1: one other question, because yes, you have the market, but
27:40
Speaker 1: the market has been sold a bad bill of goods,
27:43
Speaker 1: right because through culturally we're taught oh we're melani. So
27:47
Speaker 1: now you have this obstacle, right you have to overcome.
27:52
Speaker 1: So what is your thought You're like, well, we're gonna
27:55
Speaker 1: obviously the name was brilliant, but what was your thought
27:59
Speaker 1: were not or not that was? Yeah? What was your
28:03
Speaker 1: thought process though? Going Okay, we have this huge demo,
28:07
Speaker 1: but this demo has been lied to four years, even
28:10
Speaker 1: me myself. You know, you said you went to the
28:12
Speaker 1: German college. They basically they didn't have the education to support.
28:17
Speaker 1: So what was your like thought process going in like okay,
28:21
Speaker 1: not not only do we have a product that's viable,
28:23
Speaker 1: that has a market, but the market has now been
28:28
Speaker 1: they have been misinformed. So how do you go? How
28:32
Speaker 1: do you do you get what I'm trying to write, like,
28:35
Speaker 1: how do we get over that? That obstacle? Um, it's
28:37
Speaker 1: just something that we think about today, and you know,
28:40
Speaker 1: it's all about the y y y not to buy
28:41
Speaker 1: bye By and to educate and to get to the
28:44
Speaker 1: to the folks that are at least open minded. That's
28:47
Speaker 1: who we want to speak to. Not necessarily people that
28:50
Speaker 1: are like f sunscreen, I don't need it. Our ancestors
28:53
Speaker 1: never board. That's literally our biggest competitor. Literally, our biggest
28:57
Speaker 1: competitor are people that like, hey, I don't want to
28:59
Speaker 1: wear it. Not other sunscreen brands. Think about that, right,
29:04
Speaker 1: I think that, um. Like, So, the number one obstacle
29:07
Speaker 1: is the education of sun safety within black and brown
29:12
Speaker 1: people period. So we are slowly chipping away. However, it's
29:19
Speaker 1: taken more than just Black Girl Sunscreen too continue on
29:24
Speaker 1: with the mission and mission and vision. We need other brands,
29:28
Speaker 1: we need other advocates to hold hands on Hey, not
29:33
Speaker 1: just black people and brown people, all people, because literally
29:37
Speaker 1: this is a universal problem. It's not just within our community.
29:41
Speaker 1: A lot of people don't wear sunscreen. Yeah, because because
29:45
Speaker 1: we're well, it's because we forget. Yeah, we forget, and
29:49
Speaker 1: we're also very miss informed. I would imagine why people
29:53
Speaker 1: don't forget because they, like I said, the appealing and
29:57
Speaker 1: the burns and the red or whatever. But with us,
30:00
Speaker 1: because there's no there's not as much I would assume,
30:04
Speaker 1: not as much burn the actual but they're also we're
30:11
Speaker 1: also overlooking the huge thing of skin cancer. Right, Okay,
30:15
Speaker 1: So I think the resounding message here is understanding the
30:19
Speaker 1: journey that you're on, not taking nose as final answers.
30:23
Speaker 1: And we are about five and a half years old,
30:26
Speaker 1: and we've made a lot of traction because we are bold.
30:30
Speaker 1: Our name is writing your face, and that was intentional.
30:34
Speaker 1: I am proud to be a black woman. I am
30:36
Speaker 1: proud UM to be who I am and to represent
30:40
Speaker 1: UM a group of people. I don't speak for all,
30:43
Speaker 1: but by by no means, but at least I understand
30:47
Speaker 1: from the consumer perspective of what we could be looking
30:51
Speaker 1: for in a sun screen product. So with that being said,
30:54
Speaker 1: UM we secured our first major partnership in two thousand
30:59
Speaker 1: and nineteen. UM we are the number one selling sunscreen
31:03
Speaker 1: in that retailer. UM UM. I didn't say the name
31:09
Speaker 1: until I'll leave it, but what I can say is that, UM.
31:14
Speaker 1: You know, our distribution stems across the United States and
31:17
Speaker 1: we're in about ten thousand stores and that's accumulation of Target, ALTA, UM, Walgreens,
31:24
Speaker 1: and CBS. That's major distribution. Yeah. Yeah, and and scaling
31:29
Speaker 1: and scaling meaning you know, just starting from a certain
31:33
Speaker 1: number and continuing to climb UM, which means you need
31:37
Speaker 1: the capital, which means you need the manpower, which means
31:39
Speaker 1: that you need to be organized and um fulfill your
31:42
Speaker 1: commitments to whoever it is that you know you're partnering with.
31:46
Speaker 1: So there's a lot that I learned very quickly now
31:51
Speaker 1: to grow your business from you know what we're talking
31:53
Speaker 1: about capital. Um, So the capital piece of it is, uh,
31:59
Speaker 1: it's interesting. I hate to use the race card in
32:01
Speaker 1: the gender card, but but it's a real thing. Um.
32:04
Speaker 1: You know, I could never have walked into a meeting
32:08
Speaker 1: with an angel and Lester or a VC fund um
32:13
Speaker 1: based off of like concept in a power point whereas
32:17
Speaker 1: you know, tech and other folks can say like, hey,
32:20
Speaker 1: this is my idea. You know this is a seed round,
32:23
Speaker 1: meaning like you know, pre market and get millions of
32:26
Speaker 1: dollars black Girls Sunscreen. We had to go in with
32:28
Speaker 1: traction um sales numbers, but now you had to get
32:34
Speaker 1: distribution to So did you get your distribution and your
32:36
Speaker 1: sales numbers first before you actually raised capital? That's crazy?
32:40
Speaker 1: So UM, I started Black Girl Sunscreen with like thirty
32:43
Speaker 1: three thousand dollars fifty dollars something like that, and that
32:47
Speaker 1: was your savings. That was my savings from working in corporate.
32:51
Speaker 1: That was a hard journey now, which like because you
32:55
Speaker 1: had to use your own capital. Then you built the business,
32:59
Speaker 1: you sold, you got your distribution, you got your sales numbers,
33:01
Speaker 1: then you went and you've got the capital. Then there's
33:05
Speaker 1: plenty of businesses where it's the opposite, and we're still raised.
33:09
Speaker 1: So we're going on our second round now to raise
33:12
Speaker 1: double digit capital and it's still really hard lessons even
33:17
Speaker 1: when all the distribution in sale. Let me tell you,
33:18
Speaker 1: let me let me tell you something right now, So
33:21
Speaker 1: the top sunscreen brands are like the generic market brands
33:24
Speaker 1: right like we all know them that are in every store.
33:28
Speaker 1: Black Girls Sunscreen has done an insane job of changing
33:32
Speaker 1: the mindset on sun safety and how it's feud and
33:36
Speaker 1: even wearing it on a day to day basis. So
33:40
Speaker 1: we're coming in with velocity, meaning our cells through numbers
33:44
Speaker 1: are like, wait, wait, how much do you sell in
33:47
Speaker 1: these stores? And yes, people are they don't believe And
33:54
Speaker 1: for me, if you don't believe in that's okay. We
33:57
Speaker 1: don't need to be partners, right Like it's like you're
34:00
Speaker 1: going out with with a person and they just kind
34:03
Speaker 1: of like you, now, we're cool. That's insane out of
34:08
Speaker 1: your entire journey with Black Girl Soundscame for the last
34:10
Speaker 1: five and a half years, what would you say was
34:12
Speaker 1: the hardest feet of your of your entire company. What
34:16
Speaker 1: was like the hardest thing where you were like I
34:18
Speaker 1: kind of want to quit, or I'm crazy, I'm crazy
34:21
Speaker 1: and delusional. No, I don't think I'm crazy or delusional.
34:25
Speaker 1: Um I canswer that out loud anyway, right, Well, no,
34:29
Speaker 1: because I know as a business owner, like I always
34:31
Speaker 1: feel like, oh Colleen, you're tripping, like you're you know,
34:35
Speaker 1: maybe you're just crazy, you know, or you're delusional if
34:37
Speaker 1: you think you can accomplish this. You've accomplished so many
34:40
Speaker 1: amazing milestones that either you're Kanye West or you had
34:47
Speaker 1: to have that point of maybe this is um. No,
34:55
Speaker 1: I think that I was literally put on this planet
34:58
Speaker 1: to make this impact, so um it is all worth
35:02
Speaker 1: it to me. But there was never a moment that
35:05
Speaker 1: was a little too challenging because you're scaling. No, there
35:09
Speaker 1: was no part of the scaling part that was like no, um,
35:13
Speaker 1: I think that I think that one of my really
35:17
Speaker 1: um my best attributes are keeping composure. There have been
35:21
Speaker 1: times where I just kind of want to throw a
35:22
Speaker 1: candle against the wall, whether it's deciding on what partner
35:25
Speaker 1: to bring on. UM. I mean there are there are
35:28
Speaker 1: bad days. There are really bad, bad sheety days. When
35:31
Speaker 1: I look at it in from a holistic approach, if
35:34
Speaker 1: there's three d and sixty five days in the year,
35:36
Speaker 1: and um, only five of them the bad are bad,
35:39
Speaker 1: then this is totally worth it. So when when you
35:43
Speaker 1: asked me like, hey, what's challenging, I would say currently
35:45
Speaker 1: today is really like retaining talent within the company, because
35:49
Speaker 1: there's like great resignation of just people just finding out
35:53
Speaker 1: like hey, this is truly my passion and not being
35:55
Speaker 1: here helping you grow the business or people pretending they
35:59
Speaker 1: can do something really well and they can't, and it's
36:02
Speaker 1: just kind of like, oh you don't find out until
36:04
Speaker 1: you know a days in UM. But that's really the
36:09
Speaker 1: challenges now. I think everything else is just really fun,
36:12
Speaker 1: really fun. We celebrate, you know, um, all the small
36:15
Speaker 1: winds to the big winds, but the small ones equal
36:19
Speaker 1: the big ones. UM. I would say that, you know,
36:22
Speaker 1: work life balance for me is non existent, um, because
36:27
Speaker 1: Black Girls Sunscreen is is who I am and what
36:30
Speaker 1: I'm doing. So I'm always thinking about different ideas, product innovation, um, marketing, Like,
36:37
Speaker 1: I don't look at anything without a marketing hat. I
36:39
Speaker 1: just can't. So when I'm driving, like looking at billboards,
36:43
Speaker 1: bus stops, you know, car wraps, I'm just I look
36:46
Speaker 1: at what people wear in terms of trends, like you
36:49
Speaker 1: know what storeship black Girls sunscreen being it's it's black
36:52
Speaker 1: where my mind is? So this is all fun? Yeah?
36:56
Speaker 1: So you you're is it safe to say that your
36:59
Speaker 1: last vacation was the four months before Black Girls on screen? Uh?
37:06
Speaker 1: So I like to do work trips and then a
37:08
Speaker 1: little bit of play on the back end of a
37:11
Speaker 1: work trip. Okay, but I will have my laptop. I'm accessible,
37:16
Speaker 1: So there is no just like disconnect. No, we're we're
37:20
Speaker 1: too popping to like just be like I'm out of here. Yeah,
37:25
Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. So where do you
37:28
Speaker 1: see yourself five years from now? And I feel like
37:33
Speaker 1: you've shifted the culture, You've shifted the discussion. So you've
37:35
Speaker 1: already done like an amazing job because people are talking
37:38
Speaker 1: about screen. Um, just just continuing to play on all
37:45
Speaker 1: the piece press podcasts people, Right, but within black Coat, Sunscreen,
37:49
Speaker 1: not necessarily in the gritty the nitty gritty of it all,
37:52
Speaker 1: in the weeds of it all, but more of like
37:54
Speaker 1: you know, higher higher, higher level if you will, okay,
37:59
Speaker 1: and then what if vice would you give to an
38:01
Speaker 1: entrepreneur that has a similar background from you? What is
38:06
Speaker 1: similar meaning I like what I like about you, and
38:12
Speaker 1: not knocking any of our other guests, but I like
38:14
Speaker 1: that you come here. You are very educated, and you
38:18
Speaker 1: know you went to school for a lot a lot
38:20
Speaker 1: a long, long long time, and so you have you're
38:25
Speaker 1: not dropping out of school and selling stuff out the
38:28
Speaker 1: trunk of your car. You have a very diverse But
38:31
Speaker 1: I would have if if I couldn't sell sunscreen on
38:35
Speaker 1: Black Girl Sunscreen dot Com, I would have totally put
38:38
Speaker 1: the sunscreen in my book bag and gone down to
38:40
Speaker 1: South Beach and sold the ship out of my book bag.
38:43
Speaker 1: You have to do what you need to do in
38:44
Speaker 1: order for it to work, right. It just so happened that,
38:48
Speaker 1: you know, our s c o ing on on on
38:51
Speaker 1: the web was strong. You know, people were writing articles,
38:54
Speaker 1: people were writing reviews, and that's how we got discovered.
38:57
Speaker 1: So currently like it's from it's it is fantastic that
39:01
Speaker 1: we don't actually have to ask a retailer to be
39:03
Speaker 1: in their store. They're coming to us, but that's because
39:06
Speaker 1: we make so much joys that you you can't avoid us.
39:09
Speaker 1: We're also like revitalizing the suncare um departments in a
39:15
Speaker 1: couple of these stories because they're just kind of old
39:16
Speaker 1: and crusty. Like it's the same brands. So we're bringing
39:19
Speaker 1: a different five as well as a different consumer. Right
39:23
Speaker 1: because black people did not go down the sun aisle
39:26
Speaker 1: of any store before ever, So when you say, like, hey,
39:30
Speaker 1: you didn't start with selling um, you know, the product
39:34
Speaker 1: out of your trunk, how I did start with with
39:36
Speaker 1: just Shante alone picking up her first palette of sunscreen,
39:40
Speaker 1: which is five thousand units, packing it into an suv.
39:44
Speaker 1: At this time, I lived in Miami in a high rise.
39:47
Speaker 1: I unloaded it. It took forty bell card trips up
39:52
Speaker 1: and down to my loft apartment. I unloaded it into
39:55
Speaker 1: my second bathroom, into the bathtub, impacked every damn order myself.
40:00
Speaker 1: So you you had your website, you built it, or
40:02
Speaker 1: you I didn't build it. That was one thing that
40:04
Speaker 1: I do encourage any person that is starting this is
40:08
Speaker 1: to probably bring in somebody for web deb That was
40:11
Speaker 1: my forte and wis dot com was not around, right. So,
40:15
Speaker 1: um so in terms of like the hustle, the greediness,
40:18
Speaker 1: the scrappiness, that I had to have all of that
40:22
Speaker 1: before I where I am today. I do have a
40:24
Speaker 1: team of fifty, right, but in two thousand in sixteen,
40:28
Speaker 1: I didn't have the resources. So I had to do
40:31
Speaker 1: everything that I possibly could. I was Black Girls sn
40:33
Speaker 1: screens first model. Did I want to be the model? No?
40:35
Speaker 1: I didn't, but but I had to. Yeah, but that's
40:39
Speaker 1: not I'm not the face of the brand. Right. So
40:42
Speaker 1: when it came to email marketing, like I had to
40:44
Speaker 1: make the emails like I had to, I was writing
40:46
Speaker 1: handwritting notes to all the consumers. We had to go
40:49
Speaker 1: away from that because it's just it's it's high volume. Um.
40:53
Speaker 1: But yeah, like my hustle maybe a little bit different
40:56
Speaker 1: than selling CDs out of a trunk, but my hustle
40:59
Speaker 1: is it's still a hustle. And I did not start
41:03
Speaker 1: off with being able and fortunate to hire a team
41:07
Speaker 1: to go, hey, you know what, here's a turn case,
41:10
Speaker 1: turnkey solution. I designed the logo, I did market research
41:15
Speaker 1: on what colors UM were highly desirable, what symbolized luxury UM.
41:23
Speaker 1: I did the research on hey, like, this is how
41:26
Speaker 1: many people we need to make to make money. I
41:30
Speaker 1: did the research on Okay, so price points, right, what
41:33
Speaker 1: is a comfortable price point for this type of product
41:36
Speaker 1: where people feel like, okay, like I'm cool with it,
41:39
Speaker 1: doesn't feel like I'm overspilding. Black Girl sent Screen is
41:42
Speaker 1: a brand for the for the people, right, like it's
41:46
Speaker 1: it's relative, but the price is relative in terms of
41:49
Speaker 1: affordable now, but we feel like it's affordable. So there
41:51
Speaker 1: were a lot of things that Shanta and I'm speaking
41:53
Speaker 1: in third person because sometimes I don't believe it's me,
41:56
Speaker 1: but yes, Shanta had to do so much to get
42:01
Speaker 1: where I am. I love it today when the black
42:04
Speaker 1: lives matter, when that whole during the pandemic happened, what
42:09
Speaker 1: did that do for your sales? Okay, So in the
42:12
Speaker 1: beginning of the pandemic, I was in South Africa and
42:16
Speaker 1: we were pitching to um department stores in an s
42:20
Speaker 1: A and every single meeting got canceled. And also like
42:24
Speaker 1: ship um do I come back to the States because
42:26
Speaker 1: I heard it was just like pandemonium in South Africa.
42:30
Speaker 1: I hadn't hit the same way yet, and so I
42:32
Speaker 1: stayed a few days and then I caught a flight
42:34
Speaker 1: back and it was only seven people on my flight
42:36
Speaker 1: from South Africa to the States. Yeah, because you could
42:39
Speaker 1: only why you can only fly if you were an
42:42
Speaker 1: American citizen. And anyway, I got back and um, the
42:48
Speaker 1: tone from our partner, our retail partner, was hey, you know, UM,
42:52
Speaker 1: we're probably not going to be ordering too much more
42:55
Speaker 1: from you because, um, right now we're essentials or at
42:59
Speaker 1: the four front. So essentials were you know, toilet paper, dish,
43:02
Speaker 1: so whatever, they were like, okay, like totally get it. Um.
43:06
Speaker 1: And then we just had to re strategize, Um, how
43:09
Speaker 1: do we become an essential? And because folks were working
43:12
Speaker 1: from home, um, parents were schooling UM from home, we said, hey,
43:20
Speaker 1: what about when you go for a walk, you gotta
43:23
Speaker 1: lader up and you're standing bout your window. You know
43:26
Speaker 1: mom's dads that are um having their kids do recess
43:30
Speaker 1: in the front yard or the backyard, you gotta you
43:33
Speaker 1: gotta put on your sunscreen. So we were able to
43:36
Speaker 1: SUFFI to SUFFI from from that messaging, right, So that's
43:39
Speaker 1: one aspect of it. And then of course Bill m
43:42
Speaker 1: brought attention and awareness not just from black people but
43:46
Speaker 1: from our lighter skin partners right now. For for them,
43:50
Speaker 1: it was more about like retaining them, like how do
43:53
Speaker 1: you keep them focused on your brand because it's kinda wait,
43:57
Speaker 1: it's dissolved, right, And and that's why even so Covid,
44:00
Speaker 1: I don't think you know was the was part of
44:03
Speaker 1: the demise of some brands. But even if you got
44:06
Speaker 1: that attention, how do you keep up with those sales?
44:08
Speaker 1: So like you can't even really include that in your
44:12
Speaker 1: balance sheet. It's false. The numbers are false because it's inflated. Yeah, right,
44:18
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, people want to be your ally,
44:20
Speaker 1: they want to be your friends, so they're going to support,
44:22
Speaker 1: but they don't come back, got it, right, So you
44:24
Speaker 1: can't really compare your numbers to one. You gotta do
44:28
Speaker 1: like one to like nineteen yeah. Yeah, So so Black
44:32
Speaker 1: Lives Matter the movement really really catapulted um Black Girls
44:36
Speaker 1: sunscreen in terms of what waren is. But we were
44:38
Speaker 1: able to keep it up, thankfully, Yeah, thankfully, And well
44:42
Speaker 1: you have a great product, and it was just about
44:44
Speaker 1: letting people know about it. I love your background, I
44:48
Speaker 1: love everything you stand for. You worked your butt off
44:52
Speaker 1: to be really and still do right and they'll still
44:55
Speaker 1: do I love that. And I don't know if the
44:57
Speaker 1: listeners actually heard that pivot they're like and they said, okay,
45:00
Speaker 1: we're looking for essential. You were like, okay, well how
45:03
Speaker 1: can we be essential? Like it wasn't like, oh, well
45:06
Speaker 1: that's I guess that's it, you know. I was like, no,
45:08
Speaker 1: we're gonna pivot. We're gonna change our marketing approach and
45:11
Speaker 1: and resell. And that that probably comes from also you
45:15
Speaker 1: learning sales from a very young age. So sunscreen is
45:18
Speaker 1: over the counter drug. So um, don't know if you know,
45:22
Speaker 1: but you can bring a six out sunscreen and t
45:25
Speaker 1: s a. I'm a I'm an avid traveler, so um,
45:28
Speaker 1: you know, with our formulations and stuff, you can't just
45:31
Speaker 1: like make it at home and put it on the
45:33
Speaker 1: shelves like it has to go through rigors testing. Wow.
45:37
Speaker 1: So we're sold on like hospital websites right because it's
45:42
Speaker 1: a preventive measure for for for cancer. Right. And I'm
45:45
Speaker 1: not talking about that because it's a scary thing. We're
45:48
Speaker 1: not here, too scary to wear sunscreen at hall. And
45:52
Speaker 1: also melanoma cases are very low within you know, the
45:55
Speaker 1: black and brown community. We talked about, hey where so
45:58
Speaker 1: you don't get somewhere and and then on because excite, Hey,
46:01
Speaker 1: we want to prevent premature aging. Women want to maintain
46:03
Speaker 1: their youth. That's how I got a facial right, premature
46:07
Speaker 1: aging filines and then hyper pigmentation, and that's what we're
46:11
Speaker 1: really running with. We try to stay away from, Hey,
46:14
Speaker 1: you're gonna get melanoma died like we don't. We don't
46:16
Speaker 1: want to talk about that. Of course, Well, I'm so
46:20
Speaker 1: excited for you to come and feed me. You ate
46:23
Speaker 1: it all? I ate it all, of course I did.
46:25
Speaker 1: I loved it. I loved it, okay, and I loved
46:28
Speaker 1: What would you have made? I think about this all
46:32
Speaker 1: the time. I'm saving it for an episode, but I
46:34
Speaker 1: have been thinking all week. I think my dish would
46:36
Speaker 1: be in cornmeal porridge. That sounds complicated, you know what.
46:43
Speaker 1: I don't know how to make it. I'd have to
46:44
Speaker 1: call my mom. But my mom used to make it.
46:46
Speaker 1: I used to love it when I was a kid,
46:48
Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure it was broke dish. I don't
46:51
Speaker 1: think i've had pordge. It's like it reminds it's like
46:55
Speaker 1: a Grits but not Brits. It's it's like Grit's cousin smoother.
47:02
Speaker 1: You know, I'm not a real big fan of Gress.
47:05
Speaker 1: I didn't know about this yellow right it's yellow, yeah,
47:07
Speaker 1: And you could add sugar and then the sugar has
47:10
Speaker 1: like a little syrupy look on the top. It's bomb okay,
47:13
Speaker 1: and then you just get that first layer so it
47:15
Speaker 1: on burn yourself. But UM, thank you so much for
47:19
Speaker 1: coming out, Sante, and for all our listeners. If you
47:24
Speaker 1: are trying to get black girls sunscreen, where can they
47:28
Speaker 1: get it? How can they reach out? And if you're
47:30
Speaker 1: an investor, you may wanna halla, Um, how can they
47:36
Speaker 1: all get it? How can people get ahold of you
47:38
Speaker 1: and get ahold of the product hold of me? So
47:42
Speaker 1: Seante does do mentoring sessions, UM complimentary and you would
47:48
Speaker 1: send a note to contact that black Girl Sunscreen dot com.
47:52
Speaker 1: And the reason why I'm sharing that is because UM,
47:54
Speaker 1: coming up on this journey or in this journey, UM,
47:58
Speaker 1: I didn't have anyone to talk to ask questions, to
48:01
Speaker 1: bounce ideas off of. And UM I allocate you know,
48:05
Speaker 1: twenty to thirty minutes every Tuesday and Thursday to someone
48:08
Speaker 1: that jumped in the inboxes, like, hey, I just want
48:11
Speaker 1: to talk to Shante about whatever. And my assistant does
48:15
Speaker 1: oversee that that scheduling process. UM, but so many folks
48:18
Speaker 1: UM take advantage of it. And sometimes it's just more
48:22
Speaker 1: about like validation if they're on the right track and UM,
48:26
Speaker 1: you know, do they are their ideas good? What? What
48:28
Speaker 1: do they if they're what they're doing is good? UM.
48:31
Speaker 1: So that's how you can actually reach me personally. I'm
48:34
Speaker 1: pretty accessible, UM assensible excuse me. And then in terms
48:39
Speaker 1: of the product, I mean, we're nationwide, so you can
48:41
Speaker 1: find us in you know, one of four stores which
48:44
Speaker 1: is UM Target Autumn, UH, Walgreens and CBS UM. And
48:50
Speaker 1: then of course, UM black girl sent to being dot com.
48:53
Speaker 1: And then UM, what we really really value is our
48:56
Speaker 1: special TV tail partners, and those UM folks consist of
48:59
Speaker 1: you're like local Astetian salons and other UM dot coms
49:04
Speaker 1: that speak to UM, brown and black women. Awesome. I
49:08
Speaker 1: can't believe you. Mentor that's amazing. I won't be in
49:13
Speaker 1: the inbox real quickly. UM, that's amazing. You know. I
49:20
Speaker 1: think people say things too and they're not like about
49:23
Speaker 1: the action and we're about the action. Have black girls
49:26
Speaker 1: on screen? I like that. I like that? All right, Well,
49:30
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on Eating wall Broke
49:33
Speaker 1: and sharing your franks and beans and wig and beans
49:38
Speaker 1: with sugar. All right, he said by For more Eating
49:44
Speaker 1: wall Broke from I Heart Radio and The Black Effect,
49:47
Speaker 1: visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
49:50
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows,