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Boss Moves & Breaking Points: Black Women, Business & Boundaries · The Breakfast Club

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  Speaker 1: I'm a homegirl that knows a little bit about everything
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  Speaker 1: and everybody.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: You know, if you don't lie about that.
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  Speaker 1: Right, Hey, y'all, what's up. It's Laura Rosa and this
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  Speaker 1: is the latest with Laura Rosa. This is your Deli
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  Speaker 1: dig on all things pop culture, entertainment, news and all
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: of the conversations.
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  Speaker 3: That shake the room. Baby.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: So you guys know, I've been in Miami for the
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  Speaker 1: Accelerate Her Awards, which is a global leadership conference with
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  Speaker 1: powerful women. These black women get together and I mean
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  Speaker 1: these are millionaires, billionaires, women that are making decisions. These
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  Speaker 1: are the decision makers, the who's who's were More importantly,
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  Speaker 1: these women are women that are coming together because they
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  Speaker 1: want to pour into each other. They want to fill
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  Speaker 1: each other's cups, They want to celebrate each other, and
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  Speaker 1: they want to uplift the people that are coming next.
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  Speaker 1: And I am so blessed to have been in conversation
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  Speaker 1: as one of those people that are coming next and
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  Speaker 1: to receive the and to receive the Bossy Award as
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  Speaker 1: a celebration in a notch, in an official welcome, you
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  Speaker 1: know to this leadership family. You know, this conference has
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  Speaker 1: been amazing, shout out to Kimberly Blackwell, who has an
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  Speaker 1: agency that puts all these things together. I mean, sponsors
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  Speaker 1: ranged from everybody you know, from Visa and you know,
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  Speaker 1: I got to do a fun activation with Meta Disney
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  Speaker 1: Travel Wells Fargo. I've met so many people this past weekend.
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  Speaker 1: Ran into my girl Tokara from America's Next Top Model
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  Speaker 1: as well. Yeah just I mean Pastor Jamal O'Bryant Kamala
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  Speaker 1: Harris spoke that I could go on for I've ran
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  Speaker 1: into Terry Vaughn, had a great conversation with her as well.
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  Speaker 1: I could go on and on for days. And thanks
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  Speaker 1: for supporting me. A lot of what they talked about
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  Speaker 1: while I was here at this conference was the podcast
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  Speaker 1: in our audience.
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  Speaker 3: So I appreciate you guys all.
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  Speaker 1: Day lady the Floridayrskay.
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  Speaker 4: Ladies, Hi, Hello, how y'all feeling amazing.
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  Speaker 5: I'm excited to be here. I love this conference. It's
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  Speaker 5: it's just a warm hug.
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  Speaker 1: It's my first year being here, and I I mean
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  Speaker 1: last night I came in and I was really tired,
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  Speaker 1: but when I walked in, I received like it was
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  Speaker 1: we were in church last night. When I walked in,
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  Speaker 1: and then just now I'm backstage. I told you guys
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  Speaker 1: that that was like the first like group conversation I've had,
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  Speaker 1: and that felt like a hug. So we were talking
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  Speaker 1: a bit, you know, backstage, and they were like, oh,
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  Speaker 1: what are we gonna talk about?
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  Speaker 3: And I was like, you know, I have prepared notes.
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  Speaker 1: And then when as I was coming in here, I
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  Speaker 1: was like, there's so much I naturally wanna know from
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  Speaker 1: you women, because you are so successful what you do,
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  Speaker 1: but you also show up so much that I'm like,
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  Speaker 1: we're not gonna do the notes. We just gonna talk.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: We're gonna have sister conversation. Y'all down for that, alright.
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  Speaker 1: So my first question, and anybody can take this, is
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  Speaker 1: when you are working in the industry where you have
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  Speaker 1: to show up so much, Like I know, you're in
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  Speaker 1: front of the camera a lot, you're modeling your own
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  Speaker 1: brand as well.
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  Speaker 3: You know, you face of your brand as well.
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  Speaker 1: But also I think when people here show up or
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  Speaker 1: be the face of they only think about like an influencer,
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  Speaker 1: someone who's taking a photo for a website or.
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  Speaker 3: You know, doing interviews.
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  Speaker 1: But you show up every day sometimes even if you're
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  Speaker 1: behind the scenes, because your meetings phone calls, zooms, you
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  Speaker 1: have employees. How do you take care of yourself in
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  Speaker 1: the midst of all of that, And I mean, really
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  Speaker 1: take care of yourself, not I get a thirty minute nap.
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  Speaker 2: We were kind of talking about it, but for me,
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  Speaker 2: it's self awareness knowing what you need.
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  Speaker 4: We talked about like when you.
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  Speaker 2: Don't answer the phone or when you I'm a huge
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  Speaker 2: proponent of just like knowing what I need when I
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  Speaker 2: need it and being okay with that and not feeling
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  Speaker 2: like guilty about it. I don't I have slow mornings.
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  Speaker 2: That's something I promise myself as an entrepreneur. When I
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  Speaker 2: work for myself, I'd rather stay.
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  Speaker 4: Up all night.
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  Speaker 2: They didn't get up early in the morning, So I'm
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  Speaker 2: going to have a slow morning. But I also don't
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  Speaker 2: talk on the phone all day and just like chit
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  Speaker 2: chat with people, don't I don't have it to give.
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  Speaker 4: I'll call you back, and that's just what.
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  Speaker 2: But also people know that, Like when I'm around other people,
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  Speaker 2: they're like, your phone never rings because I'm busy. This
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  Speaker 2: is the workday.
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  Speaker 4: I have to work.
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  Speaker 2: So I feel like being aware of like what you
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  Speaker 2: have to give people and when you need to kind
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  Speaker 2: of like risk. There's also like where you say you're
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  Speaker 2: on the go all the time and you get home
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  Speaker 2: you just.
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  Speaker 4: Kind of like close off to the world.
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  Speaker 2: That is very much me also, and that's okay, that's
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  Speaker 2: what I need to kind of like rejuvenate myself so
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  Speaker 2: that I'm not only giving to my audience but also
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  Speaker 2: my team and making sure I can show up for
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  Speaker 2: them and be on one hundred percent.
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  Speaker 6: I love that that came natural for you because you
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  Speaker 6: were what a year in.
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  Speaker 4: Ten months my brand. Yeah.
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  Speaker 5: So I've been doing the lip bar for fourteen years,
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  Speaker 5: and I think I grew up in hustle culture, where
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  Speaker 5: it's like you're supposed to give, You're supposed to grind
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  Speaker 5: all night, you're supposed to wake up early in the morning,
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  Speaker 5: and taking care of myself really took a back seat.
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  Speaker 5: It wasn't until COVID that I even gave myself permission
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  Speaker 5: to be Melissa. That's why if you notice if people
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  Speaker 5: if you've come up to me, you're like, you're the
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  Speaker 5: lip barker. I'm like, I'm Melissa. Because I had to
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  Speaker 5: remind myself that I was a human first, not a
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  Speaker 5: business owner. And I think as a black woman, we
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  Speaker 5: grow up in this world where we are used to
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  Speaker 5: wearing the weight, we're used to carrying so much for
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  Speaker 5: our families, for our teams, for our communities.
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  Speaker 6: Et cetera, that it was not natural to me.
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  Speaker 5: I actually had to go through a breaking point to say, Melissa.
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  Speaker 6: You deserve more of you.
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  Speaker 5: Yeah, And in that breaking point, I just created serious boundaries.
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  Speaker 5: I'm like, oh, I don't. I don't work after five
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  Speaker 5: o'clock anymore. I don't work on the weekends when I'm tired.
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  Speaker 5: I'm comfortable saying that I'm tired. When I don't want
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  Speaker 5: to show up, I say no. But that wasn't necessarily
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  Speaker 5: the and I don't think that that's how a lot
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  Speaker 5: of people grow their careers, grow their businesses. Because we
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  Speaker 5: didn't know that we had permission to do that.
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  Speaker 4: It's a lot of unlearning.
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  Speaker 6: Yeah, it's a lot of learning.
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  Speaker 4: From my previous career.
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  Speaker 2: The first year of like working on my own, I
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  Speaker 2: would have to tell myself, like, it's okay to take
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  Speaker 2: a break, it's okay, it's okay to sit down, it's
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  Speaker 2: okay you feel like you need to feel every hour
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  Speaker 2: of the day.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Because you're like, well, I would.
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  Speaker 5: Have productivity, Mom, absolutely eating productivity. Like pac Man and
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  Speaker 5: so I have leaned into wellness. I've leaned into fitness.
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  Speaker 5: I work out a ton. I realize that if I
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  Speaker 5: don't work out, I'm an angry person.
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  Speaker 6: I journal.
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  Speaker 5: I rely heavily on my journal because sometimes it's like
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  Speaker 5: you just have that emotion that you want to get out.
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  Speaker 5: It's not that you don't have anyone to talk to.
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  Speaker 5: I am so fortunate to have a great group of
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  Speaker 5: friends and family and even my team. I couldn't do
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  Speaker 5: this without my team. But sometimes you just want to
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  Speaker 5: be with you. You want to sit with your emotion.
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  Speaker 5: And I have found that fitness, meditation, massages, rey fee.
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  Speaker 5: I've done all the things, but working out and journaling
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  Speaker 5: and also just sleeping has been a game changer. Like
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  Speaker 5: I tried, I tried really hard to prioritize seven eight hours.
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  Speaker 3: Of sleep at night.
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  Speaker 1: We talked about a breaking point, and I don't know
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  Speaker 1: if you had one that you want to share, but
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  Speaker 1: it made me think about I caretake for my mother
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  Speaker 1: and my grandmother, and I remember I gotten to a
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  Speaker 1: point where like I physically passed out because I was
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  Speaker 1: trying to keep up with work, and that you know
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  Speaker 1: that space was new for me as well too, and
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  Speaker 1: I felt like if I didn't keep up for work,
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  Speaker 1: I was out of sight, out of mind. And because
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  Speaker 1: you know, at the time I was in the newsroom,
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  Speaker 1: I was the only black girl there, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: I was like, if I did, they're going to just
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  Speaker 1: replace me and get rid of me.
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  Speaker 3: And I can't afford that. Right when you're in that
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  Speaker 3: breaking point.
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  Speaker 1: It feels like, oh my god, my world is over
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  Speaker 1: if I don't learn how to get back on the horse.
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  Speaker 1: What was your self taught in that moment where you
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  Speaker 1: got yourself to your a point where you're like, I
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  Speaker 1: don't want to come back here again.
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  Speaker 3: Here are the things I need to do, and I'm
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  Speaker 3: okay with that.
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  Speaker 6: It was really that I'm worthy.
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  Speaker 5: So like the way I think about the lip bar
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  Speaker 5: is like I had the nerve to serve. I had
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  Speaker 5: the nerve to centerre black women. I had the nerve
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  Speaker 5: to say that our beauty was enough. Like that took
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  Speaker 5: a lot of gumption, That took a lot of confidence
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  Speaker 5: because it's not what the broader industry was doing fourteen
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  Speaker 5: years ago. And so when I think about the how
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  Speaker 5: and why I started, it's like, well, Melissa, you have
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  Speaker 5: to have that same nerve to love yourself enough to
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  Speaker 5: show up for yourself, not just your customers, not just
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  Speaker 5: your community, not just your team members. And I think
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  Speaker 5: that's a hard thing to do. But it was just
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  Speaker 5: a moment of defiance. It was a moment of defying
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  Speaker 5: what the world said success looked like. And I think
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  Speaker 5: that you know now twenty twenty six, fourteen years later,
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  Speaker 5: I love that wellness is being prioritized because that certainly
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  Speaker 5: wasn't in the case. And so it's just a matter
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  Speaker 5: of like deciding that you are good enough for the
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  Speaker 5: fruits of your labor. Frankly, cause like we all work
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  Speaker 5: so incredibly hard. Why why wouldn't I take the vacation.
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  Speaker 5: Why wouldn't I do the thing. Why wouldn't I sit
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  Speaker 5: back and and look at the world that I've built and.
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  Speaker 4: The vision and passion that you have for your brand?
• 9:19
  Speaker 4: No one can replace that. Like you're saying, you do
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: feel like you have to be visible.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're gonna get passed by and people are gonna
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  Speaker 2: forget about you, But no one's serving the community I'm
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: serving in the way that I'm serving them, so they
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  Speaker 2: will be there.
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  Speaker 1: Let let's let's stay there for a second too, because
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  Speaker 1: one thing I noticed about your brand not even just
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: twelve PM Studios, but like you know, you're vlogging on YouTube.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: You are very present on across social media as well too.
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  Speaker 1: Everything right, No one can do that like you because
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  Speaker 1: when we are fans of you, it's physically like you.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 1: That means you have to pick and choose when you
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  Speaker 1: allow that to be shut off. And realizing that you
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: l just walking outside of your house could turn into
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  Speaker 1: u AU a.
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  Speaker 3: Photo op moment or like w where's you're on? And off?
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  Speaker 1: Switch on the influencer side of it, right, because if
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: I'm a fan on YouTube and you're out and about
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  Speaker 1: in your blog and you're not blogging, but I see you,
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  Speaker 1: it's like I want that interaction. I want that, but
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: that may be your off day. So how do you
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  Speaker 1: figure that out? In the space of twenty twenty six
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: we take out our phone, we live you know.
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  Speaker 2: It's so funny because I also am very aware of
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  Speaker 2: my community, like this, this is my community, right, it's
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  Speaker 2: black women. So I know when I need to be
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  Speaker 2: on and that's just a part of my job and
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  Speaker 2: responsibility and I'm happy to do it.
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  Speaker 4: But I know I'm like, hey.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: If I'm going to Tyson's Corner, that's like the luxury mall,
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna see the queens.
• 10:34
  Speaker 4: I'm gonna see my audience like that. So that's what
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  Speaker 4: it is. So I need to be prepared.
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  Speaker 2: I need to make sure I look ready for photos
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  Speaker 2: or I'm just in a headspace and if I don't
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: got it that day, then I need to stay home.
• 10:43
  Speaker 4: Because or I need to go.
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: There's parts of town where I'm like, my audience is
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: not going to be here. I might go to a
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: barbecue place this in the little hole in the wall.
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  Speaker 2: I'm like, this is I'm good here. No one's gonna
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: ask for a picture. Like these people don't know who
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  Speaker 2: I am. So I that's just like a part of life.
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  Speaker 2: But I make sure I can show up and go
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: places when I know my people are going to be there.
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  Speaker 5: You know what's interesting about that, Like I have been
• 11:06
  Speaker 5: so antisocial from the beginning of time, Like I know
• 11:10
  Speaker 5: that the lip bar would be so much bigger if
• 11:13
  Speaker 5: I were to truly step into being the face of
• 11:16
  Speaker 5: the brand, Like I'm the face of the brand.
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: I know you got that advice on Shark Tank.
• 11:19
  Speaker 5: He remember me Shark Tank. But I'm not the person
• 11:23
  Speaker 5: like camera to the face all day. I'm not the
• 11:26
  Speaker 5: person who's creating content. It is not natural to me,
• 11:29
  Speaker 5: and I have struggled with that over the years, mostly
• 11:33
  Speaker 5: because that is where a lot of the growth is
• 11:35
  Speaker 5: coming from. It's like, oh, you're supposed to create the content.
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  Speaker 5: You have to invite people into your world.
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  Speaker 6: And I have been so.
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: Intentional about deciding to keep my world private, Like, people
• 11:45
  Speaker 5: don't know that much about me. People know, like Melissa
• 11:49
  Speaker 5: was on Shark Tank. People know what I allow them
• 11:52
  Speaker 5: to know, and like, yes, I'll be vocal about things
• 11:55
  Speaker 5: that I think that my broader community needs to know.
• 11:58
  Speaker 5: But people don't even know I'm Miami right now. But
• 12:01
  Speaker 5: I think that one of the things I want us
• 12:04
  Speaker 5: to get out of the habit of is thinking that
• 12:07
  Speaker 5: there's only one path to success. There are many paths
• 12:12
  Speaker 5: to success. There is not ever going to be one
• 12:15
  Speaker 5: singular way to get it done.
• 12:18
  Speaker 6: Like math.
• 12:20
  Speaker 5: Math is incredibly complex, and I think that you have
• 12:23
  Speaker 5: to be comfortable with leaning into the thing that you
• 12:27
  Speaker 5: are good at. I am good at understanding the community,
• 12:31
  Speaker 5: I am good at connecting dots, I am good at
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: understanding emotion, and understanding the gas in which our community
• 12:38
  Speaker 5: are not being served.
• 12:40
  Speaker 6: That's my superpower.
• 12:42
  Speaker 5: Being a content creator, and editing is probably not it.
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  Speaker 6: I also know that it's not it because that shit
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  Speaker 6: as hard as hell.
• 12:50
  Speaker 5: Yes, like you have ever tried to like create content.
• 12:54
  Speaker 5: I'm like, oh, I have so much respect for Janey,
• 12:58
  Speaker 5: because wow, if harder when.
• 12:59
  Speaker 4: You don't like it, I love it.
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  Speaker 2: So it's not like I'm like I can't wait to
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: get in bed and like start editing.
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  Speaker 5: And it's that hard thing and I'm like, I'm kind
• 13:07
  Speaker 5: of unwilling to do it, Like I will give myself
• 13:10
  Speaker 5: in many other ways, but that's that's not gonna be
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: my ministry.
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  Speaker 6: And that's okay.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: And you know, one of them talking about creating content
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: in Janee like even before meeting you here, like you're
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: one of the people that like you're consistent. I know,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: like when she coming, she is coming, and I mean
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: the details are together, the look is together, it's like
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: and it doesn't feel like the aesthetic is forced.
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: Now.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: I love people who make content that way. Right, I
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: was on your website. I was telling you this. I
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: was on twelve PM Studios website preparing for this conversation,
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: and the first thing I was I thought, I'm like,
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: as I'm like, I don't know if people understand the
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: importance of a product shot when you were a entrepreneur
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: trying to sell the products. But I was like, wow,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: her photos are amazing, like but they're so simple, but
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: the details are there. And both of you, ladies, I know,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: because I know you were making things out of your
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: kitchen forever, right, because the details are.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: So important to you. Guys.
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: I want to hear about the time though, because you
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: do details so well that the details weren't done right.
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: And how did you deal with that internally, because if
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: you take it so serious, I know it hurts when
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: it don't go well.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: This is something I'm still learning because I feel like
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: nothing in this process has gone exactly the way I've
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: wanted it to. And it's I think just learning as
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: an entrepreneur, Like obviously you don't know as the consumer
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: what my goal is and what my hope is or
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: my vision is.
• 14:34
  Speaker 4: But from launch day, we didn't launch with the.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: Products I wanted to, Like, there were certain things that
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: weren't ready and we couldn't push it back anymore. The
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: first shoot didn't go well, and we had to scrap
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: it and hire a whole new team and do a
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: whole different shoot. Obviously no one knows that, but that
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: was devastating to me. And we spent most of our
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: budget on that shoot and then had to like basically
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: ask for favors and my husband had to hop in
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: and do stuff. So there's so many things, and I
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: kind of was holding myself very accountable and like being
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: very difficult on myself, and I had to say, like,
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: this is new, this is new for you, but also
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: this is the way of business. Like things are not
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: always going to pan out how you expect it and
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: how you hope for it, but you need to just
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: keep it moving and elevate. Right, Like the website you're
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: looking at that was not the website we launched with.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: But we also needed to launch with what we were
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: capable of and what we had the capacity to do.
• 15:22
  Speaker 4: So I'm still in the learning phase of that.
• 15:26
  Speaker 5: I think one of the most important characteristics of a
• 15:31
  Speaker 5: leader of an entrepreneur is resilience. And with that resilience,
• 15:38
  Speaker 5: there's an understanding that things will go wrong, Like I
• 15:41
  Speaker 5: expect things to go wrong. I don't freak out when
• 15:43
  Speaker 5: they go wrong, I'm like, oh, okay.
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: I'm still in the freak out.
• 15:45
  Speaker 5: Yes, that went wrong. I've accepted it. Now what is
• 15:49
  Speaker 5: the solution? I get very action oriented.
• 15:53
  Speaker 6: Also.
• 15:53
  Speaker 5: I think one of the things is just like reliance.
• 15:56
  Speaker 5: So there's resilience, and there's the reliance, the reliance on
• 15:59
  Speaker 5: your team, and like, no one is in your brain
• 16:01
  Speaker 5: but you, no one has your exact vision but you.
• 16:05
  Speaker 5: And so when you trust people, when you are hiring people,
• 16:09
  Speaker 5: when you are giving entire functions like I don't own
• 16:12
  Speaker 5: a single function of the lip bar, that means that
• 16:15
  Speaker 5: things will go wrong, and that's okay because you have
• 16:19
  Speaker 5: to have room for people to learn. It also allows
• 16:22
  Speaker 5: you to grow as a leader. So when things go wrong,
• 16:25
  Speaker 5: it literally doesn't bother me. I love it when things break.
• 16:28
  Speaker 5: I love it because it means that my team is
• 16:30
  Speaker 5: going to get better. It means that I learn how
• 16:32
  Speaker 5: to communicate my vision, my goals a little bit sharper,
• 16:36
  Speaker 5: so that the next time we can fail at a
• 16:38
  Speaker 5: different thing. I think that failing is so beautiful as
• 16:41
  Speaker 5: long as you feel forward. Now, if you're continuously making
• 16:44
  Speaker 5: the exact same mistakes, then maybe you're you might be
• 16:48
  Speaker 5: in the wrong business. But the goal is to get better.
• 16:51
  Speaker 5: I mean that is the name and game of capitalism.
• 16:55
  Speaker 5: There's always more and I think that that has been
• 16:58
  Speaker 5: the most painful part of being an entrepreneur because you
• 17:01
  Speaker 5: don't realize that when you're starting this business with the
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: goal to serve or to show up for a specific
• 17:07
  Speaker 5: community in a way that they are not currently being served.
• 17:11
  Speaker 5: Like you start in a very purpose driven way, and
• 17:14
  Speaker 5: then you start growing and then you're like, WHOA, I
• 17:18
  Speaker 5: hit that milestone, what's the next one? And every single
• 17:22
  Speaker 5: year there is a new milestone, which means that every
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: single year you have to work slightly differently to reach
• 17:28
  Speaker 5: that new goal.
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: So you got to get comfortable with shit.
• 17:31
  Speaker 5: Break down.
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: When you talk about, you know, starting out with this
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: like purpose and you want to help everybody, and you know,
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: I just think about like someone who's like really really
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: young in business, not even like the age, but just
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: like first six months out right of their first business.
• 17:47
  Speaker 3: It's like such.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: A green eye, like I can solve every problem, I
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: can do all these things, and then you get to
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: the point where you're making money and you bring in
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: the capitalism conversation. I think that that's the or capitalist conversation,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: and I think for a black people one for black women,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: that conversation has always been one that like, some people
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: are willing to have and some people aren't, because there's
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: the whole conversation about it gets to a point where
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: some industries are like they lean in on what people
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: are weak with, right, So, like you guys are in
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: beauty fashion, they appeal to what they appeal to people's
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: weaknesses to make them want to buy.
• 18:20
  Speaker 3: Right. But you guys remain good people throughout it.
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: And I think a lot of people are scared that
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: once you start making that money and you are okay
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: with making your money, you're a black woman out here
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: doing it, that now people change how they think about
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: you as a person. Worldly How do you guys deal
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: with that as successful Black women.
• 18:37
  Speaker 4: Go ahead?
• 18:40
  Speaker 5: Well, I mean, I think the first thing is that
• 18:42
  Speaker 5: we can't be afraid of money. Money is not a
• 18:46
  Speaker 5: bad thing. We need money to eat, to feed our families,
• 18:51
  Speaker 5: to fuel the future generation. And I do think that
• 18:56
  Speaker 5: we have condemned making money and so facet it's like,
• 19:01
  Speaker 5: you know, you root for that person when they're on
• 19:04
  Speaker 5: the ground floor and as soon as they are trying
• 19:07
  Speaker 5: to grow, which requires a different version of them. It's
• 19:12
  Speaker 5: kind of like you expect them to stay in that
• 19:13
  Speaker 5: same place. Yes, And I approach that with honesty. I
• 19:19
  Speaker 5: approach it with integrity. I am a very transparent person.
• 19:23
  Speaker 5: I've made it my personality to be honest because like,
• 19:26
  Speaker 5: I never want people to assume things about me. Ask
• 19:30
  Speaker 5: and I will give you the real answer. And I've
• 19:33
  Speaker 5: used that with my family, with my friends, with my customers,
• 19:38
  Speaker 5: and my community.
• 19:39
  Speaker 6: And so it's like, yeah.
• 19:40
  Speaker 5: One day I do want to sell the lip bar,
• 19:43
  Speaker 5: and I actually think it's a great thing. I understand
• 19:45
  Speaker 5: that some people may think it's bad, you know. So
• 19:48
  Speaker 5: it's like it's just about approaching things with honesty, integrity,
• 19:51
  Speaker 5: and integrity.
• 19:53
  Speaker 6: But also it's.
• 19:54
  Speaker 5: Understanding that our broader community may not know the why,
• 19:58
  Speaker 5: and so I take a very serious responsibility in helping
• 20:02
  Speaker 5: to educate them, like why are these beauty brands selling?
• 20:07
  Speaker 5: Why are these beauty brands failing? Like what does it
• 20:11
  Speaker 5: require to raise capital? Like we don't really know the
• 20:14
  Speaker 5: ins and outs of business beyond rooms like this, right
• 20:19
  Speaker 5: so we are in a very privileged room right now,
• 20:22
  Speaker 5: but the masses for black people in this country have
• 20:25
  Speaker 5: no idea how any of this works, and so it's
• 20:28
  Speaker 5: a lot of assumptions that go into it, and I
• 20:31
  Speaker 5: think that we as leaders in this space, we have
• 20:34
  Speaker 5: to approach it with honesty and integrity and with a
• 20:38
  Speaker 5: heart in educating our people if we want to see
• 20:40
  Speaker 5: more from our communities and.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: If you want them to stay on your side. Like
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: you said, I feel like it's also a balance of
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: I think we both have this in common with our brands.
• 20:48
  Speaker 4: Where we are serving, it's community first is the goal.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: So even when we do promotional assets or campaign shoots,
• 20:57
  Speaker 2: I'm never trying to dig at the emotion of insecurity
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: to get you to buy something right, It's about building
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: a community and you being a part of something. I
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: want to make sure you feel seen with diversity in
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: our campaign, so it's always community driven and I'm here
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: to serve you. I want you to feel have a
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: luxurious experience at an approachable price point. So I'm I'm
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: offering more than I feel like I'm trying to get.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: So I feel like there's a good balance with like
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: the yes, money is kind of the byproduct of what
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: I'm doing and that's what comes in.
• 21:24
  Speaker 4: But my goal is to make you feel good and
• 21:26
  Speaker 4: make you feel seen.
• 21:27
  Speaker 3: Gotcha. I love those answers.
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: I do, and I was excited to come to this
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: space to feel that as well, like cause we do.
• 21:34
  Speaker 3: Like you get to a certain point and you see it.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: You see people have conversations about women who have acquired
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: a certain amount of success financially or whatever. As if
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: this isn't the same person who you know, may come
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: from whatever she came from or what I read the
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: case may be.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: And it's very.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Unfortunate when if you guys could talk to yourselves way
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: back when your first day of business, what would you
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: tell her as the well, I mean you were sitting
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: here today as today.
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: Trust people to help you. Failure is okay, and don't
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: be so hard on yourself. I was talking to you earlier.
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: The last fourth quarter, I feel like almost broke me
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: because it's also a balance of my business is new
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: for my brand, but I also have a creator business
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: and that business has been thriving since twenty nineteen when
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: I became a creative full time. So I'm also on
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: the journey of learning to balance to businesses and clocking in,
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: clocking out of this job and into this job.
• 22:35
  Speaker 4: And I do both all day long.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and trying to do that and learn how to
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: be the CEO of this new brand was very difficult.
• 22:42
  Speaker 4: So just giving myself more grace.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: Would you would, girl, give yourself some grace. You're doing
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: it in front of the world too. In that part,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: I need to tell myself that. That's why I said
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: it to you.
• 22:52
  Speaker 5: You said fourth quarter almost broke you. I'm gonna tell
• 22:55
  Speaker 5: y'all a really quick story that's in a side. So
• 22:58
  Speaker 5: Jane and I did a collapse last holiday. It was November.
• 23:01
  Speaker 6: It launched. It was beautiful, it was fabulous, She was fabulous.
• 23:05
  Speaker 5: All the things, our items got held up in customs
• 23:12
  Speaker 5: for six weeks for drugs.
• 23:15
  Speaker 6: Why I don't know.
• 23:18
  Speaker 3: We're we smuggling drugs?
• 23:20
  Speaker 5: Know why they decided to search them and hold our
• 23:22
  Speaker 5: items for six weeks for drugs?
• 23:25
  Speaker 6: I don't know. Still don't know.
• 23:27
  Speaker 5: But when I tell you, that was a time that
• 23:30
  Speaker 5: I was panicking because we had to be very vulnerable
• 23:33
  Speaker 5: and open, and I don't know if you were getting
• 23:35
  Speaker 5: crazy messages like my order is taken too long, and
• 23:38
  Speaker 5: we had to just address people and you know, sometimes
• 23:40
  Speaker 5: people don't necessarily want.
• 23:42
  Speaker 6: To read or you know, but we are sending.
• 23:46
  Speaker 5: I don't know, maybe five different emails on sort of
• 23:48
  Speaker 5: like what's happening? And when I say Q four almost
• 23:52
  Speaker 5: took me out, I mean it almost took me out.
• 23:56
  Speaker 5: I don't even remember the question. But when you said that,
• 23:58
  Speaker 5: I had a flashback to what was happening my Q
• 24:00
  Speaker 5: four and I was like, oh, yeah, last you know,
• 24:03
  Speaker 5: four months ago. It was it was a it was
• 24:06
  Speaker 5: a storm. But I would tell myself to just be confident,
• 24:11
  Speaker 5: to be confident and who I am and the mistakes
• 24:15
  Speaker 5: that I would make and my ability to do exactly
• 24:18
  Speaker 5: what I set out to do. Beauty is so male dominated.
• 24:26
  Speaker 5: It is dominated by white french Men, so period, and
• 24:32
  Speaker 5: so going into it, even though they were not thinking
• 24:36
  Speaker 5: about my customer when we started, you know, it's been
• 24:39
  Speaker 5: really challenging to navigate, you know, pushing on our suppliers,
• 24:44
  Speaker 5: pushing on our retailers to remind them that, like I
• 24:47
  Speaker 5: actually know more about my customer than you. And sometimes
• 24:51
  Speaker 5: it gets really easy to listen to the powers that be,
• 24:56
  Speaker 5: those manufacturers, those suppliers, those retailers, and so in those
• 25:02
  Speaker 5: early days, I wish I would have reminded myself that,
• 25:06
  Speaker 5: like I am starting because there is a gap that
• 25:09
  Speaker 5: they don't see and to just do it scared. And
• 25:13
  Speaker 5: so I was so scared in those early days because
• 25:16
  Speaker 5: I didn't know anything. I was on Wall Street. I
• 25:18
  Speaker 5: went from Wall Street to beauty. I knew nothing about it.
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: And so if I would have had the confidence those
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: early days to keep pushing on some of those more
• 25:29
  Speaker 5: challenging conversations, I think we would have had a different path.
• 25:34
  Speaker 5: And our path was still fine, it was still ours
• 25:36
  Speaker 5: and I'm still very proud of it, but early on
• 25:39
  Speaker 5: it would have been a confidence conversation. Isn't it crazy
• 25:42
  Speaker 5: when you look back at those times though you talk
• 25:44
  Speaker 5: about confidence and not being harding yourself, once you make
• 25:46
  Speaker 5: it out of it, it's like you had no idea
• 25:48
  Speaker 5: what was on the other side.
• 25:49
  Speaker 3: But God, I'm so grateful I made it to the
• 25:51
  Speaker 3: other side.
• 25:53
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: I think that's a great note to end the conversation
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: on ladies. You guys have been amazing, and I hope
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: you know, for everyone who been out here listening to
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: this conversation, you realize, number one, that nobody has it
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: all figured out. Because these ladies right here, if you
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: follow them anywhere on social you buy any.
• 26:08
  Speaker 3: Of their product. I swear by lip Bar I love
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: your content.
• 26:11
  Speaker 6: It it.
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: It feels like they have it all figured out, but
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: you hear them say they're figuring things out as well.
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: They're figuring out, they're fixing their maneuver room.
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: But they're doing it. They're doing it's scared, they're doing
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: it in front of the world. So we commend you ladies.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Congratulations on everything and yeah, girl, you got it. Y'all
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: a birthday Okay, thank you,