Latest / Work It Like A Mum / Curl Queen to CEO: Rachel’s Secrets to Thriving with Textured Hair

Transcript

Curl Queen to CEO: Rachel’s Secrets to Thriving with Textured Hair · Work It Like A Mum

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I think it was just not fashionable to have curly hair.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Back then it was, and that's what's great about what's happening now.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: There's this new wave for want of a better word there, but there's this new wave of appreciating curls and embracing it.
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: But back then I remember in secondary school it was my curly.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: I mean, I used to drench my hair in mousse to the point it was stiff and, you imagine, like a Lego head.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: You know, if it turns, the hair just goes with it.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: That was sort of what my head was like and because that's the only thing I knew how to do, just stick a load of mousse in it.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: I didn't want one bit of frizz, I just wanted it like defined and like flat.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: And then obviously, this whole straightening uh craze took off and it was yeah, the answers to everything, really like, oh, I can now have straight hair.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: And yeah, we started me, my sister, we started that immediately.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: It was, it was just easier.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: It was one, you felt it was easier, you didn't have to deal with your curls as much.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: And two, I think you could just fit in.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I grew up in a obviously I'm mixed, mixed heritage, so half Jamaican, half English, but I grew up in a predominantly white area.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: So my school there weren't many like me, there weren't many to reference.
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: So you just there's that little bit inside of you also that wants to fit in.
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: Hey, I'm Elizabeth Willits and I'm obsessed with helping as many women as possible achieve their boldest dreams after kids and helping you to navigate this messy and magical season of life.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: I'm a working mum with over 17 years of recruitment experience and I'm the founder of the Investing in Women job board and community.
• 1:49
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• 1:56
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• 2:09
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• 2:11
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• 2:12
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• 2:15
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• 2:16
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• 2:24
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• 2:34
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• 2:37
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• 2:44
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• 2:55
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• 3:01
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• 3:10
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• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Now back to the show.
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: Hi Rachel, welcome to the show.
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: It's so nice to chat with you today.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Hi Elizabeth, thank you for having me.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: I'm really excited to learn more about you and your business.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: Can you give people a bit of an overview as to Curl ID, who you are, who you help and the products that you make?
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, of course.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: So Curl ID.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Wow, I think whenever someone asks you to sum up your business in one line, you're gonna have a few.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I'll give you a few lines.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: The hardest thing to do.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: But I can definitely give you the who we help, which is people with textured hair, and that ranges from people with wavy hair all the way down to a tight coil.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: We try to help and include every type of curl within the group of people that we help.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: So it's the textured hair community and we help them try to embrace their natural curls but also empower them to understand or empower them to gain more knowledge in how to care for their natural hair.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: We're not the type of company that says you shouldn't wear your hair straight, don't straighten your hair.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: You have to embrace your curls.
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: But we give you the tools to say, if you are going to sort of wear your hair straight and choose that path, this is how you can do it whilst keeping your hair healthy.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: So we have a particular focus on hair health because my co-founder one of my co-founders is a trichologist, so they specialize in the health of the hair and scalp.
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: That's the area of expertise of trichology.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: So for us, it's about giving people that education and knowledge to say, right, this is what you should be doing with your hair so that you don't cause damage.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: So we do that in two ways.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: So we have our curl id hair analysis kit.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: So that's actually our USP, the thing that we first created and developed, which is where a person with curly hair sends us a sample of their hair and then we analyze that and send them back a report that has bespoke information to them, where it gives them a detailed images of their hair, telling them about the condition of it and then how they should be caring for it to bring it back to optimum health.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: So that's our hair analysis kit.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: So it's an at-home kit that you can order online and that's how we serve our curly customers.
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: And then we also have just launched our salon training.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: So that's how we're trying to sort of go both angles, so we go straight to the customer.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: But also we know that a lot of people rely on their hairdressers for that hair care.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: So how can we equip hairdressers and hairstylists with that information and the right education so that they can deal with their clients more effectively?
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: So we've just launched our salon training, which is on textured hair and scalp health.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: So it's delivered by Samantha Stewart, our trichologist, and it takes them through really an introduction into the scalp, the importance of its health when you want to achieve and maintain healthy hair, being able to spot the signs of really you know bad scalp conditions.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: You're the first point of contact, so giving them the tools to be able to do that and then how to basically care for textured hair in general.
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: So that's you know.
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: Like I said, you can't do it in one line, but that, no, I wasn't expecting.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: So.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: It's like an education business really, so helping people, whether that's empowering them to do it themselves or through their hair, just how to care for hair.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: So do you sell any products, then?
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: so we have a range of hair tools that we sell, so that's what we would call our sort of starter kit for people with curly hair.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: So they are tools that we recommend that don't cause damage to the hair and enable you to like a silk scrunchie, for example, so that it's less abrasive on the hair shaft, or a special type of flexible detangling brush so that you're not like ripping through your hair.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: So we have a select number of tools that we sell.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: We don't sell hair products per se.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: We recommend hair products that we recommend from other brands, and we do that.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: We choose a select group of brands very carefully and we talk to those brands and get education on those products, how they've been developed, how they actually work, because you wouldn't really you don't often understand the big gap between the brand and the production of the product and how it's made and developed and the customer.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: We sort of pick up a bottle and we read the back of it.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: It's got a list of ingredients we have no idea what they are a lot of us and it's got a list of sort of instructions and that's sort of where it lies.
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: But Samantha likes to take a deep dive into those products.
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: Get more of the data, how they've been tested, how they work, and she's Once.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: You know and understand a product at that level, it's a different type of recommendation you're giving, because you actually know exactly what hair type you should be recommending it for.
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: So that's why we don't sell them, but we recommend there's enough out there.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Some people often ask me would you create your own products?
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: I say no, there's too many out there.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: I don't want to add one more to the shelf.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: How are you monetizing it then?
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Is it like a subscription model that people get personalized advice?
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: No, are you?
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: monetizing it, then is it like a subscription model that people get personalized advice.
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: No, so it's a one-off purchase the kit, so that's 299 pounds and that includes the hair analysis yeah, so that includes the hair analysis and all the recommendations and then any products that we recommend.
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: You will then automatically gain access to discounts on those products that we've worked out with the brands that we try and get the best prices into our clients hands.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: So that's that.
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: Obviously, you pay for the tools as individual tools and then cut to the other side.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Salon training is a salon or a stylist will just pay for their, their slot at our training course, yeah, and then they can say they've done it as part of their credentials.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: It's interesting, is it?
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because, like you said, you know there's a lot of people that have you know.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: I was saying I was watching Dragon's Den and it was a replay from a couple of weeks ago, but it was a lady selling products designed for Afro hair and they were saying it's quite a crowded market and the products themselves were expensive.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: They were like 30 pounds, which sounds quite expensive when you can get something quite cheap, you know, from boots or whatever, and it's then how you market a more expensive product.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: It was, yeah, it was an interesting episode I would recommend there are so many out there and I think, even with the cost, what's what's difficult is it's not just the cost of the products, it's the quantity that most people with textured hair have to use so you can get through.
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: You know, you sometimes read I'll use a pea-sized or a 50p, a coin-sized amount.
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: I mean, when I go into my conditioner I've got a shovel in my.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: I'm really getting to the bottom of it and I can put.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: You have to put so much in my hair to condition it so that cost, that one-off cost, is actually even more because you have to buy a lot of product if you have textured hair interesting.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: So what was it like growing up with curly hair?
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: So you were working out, we were a similar age and we were of the age when ghd came out with huge martin splash, when we were teenagers and it was all about straight hair.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: And I remember before that getting magazines and it would be advice on how to how to straighten your hair with an iron.
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: When you think about god, I have done that, but yeah, so what was it like growing up with curly hair in like the 90s and the early 2000s?
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: I think it was just not fashionable to have curly hair.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Back then it was, and that's what's great about what's happening now.
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: There's this new wave for want of a better word there, but there's this new wave of appreciating curls and embracing it.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: But back then I remember in secondary school it was my curly.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, I used to drench my hair in mousse to the point it was stiff and, you imagine, like a lego head.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: You know, if it turns, the hair just goes with it.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: That was sort of what my head was like and, because that's the only thing I knew how to do, just stick a load of mousse in it.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: I didn't want one bit of frizz, I just wanted it like defined and like flat.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: And then obviously, this whole straightening craze took off and it was, yeah, the answers to everything, really like, oh, I can now have straight hair.
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: And yeah, we started, me and my sister, we started that immediately.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: It was just easier.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: It was one, you felt it was easier, you didn't have to deal with your curls as much.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: And two, I think you could just fit in.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: I grew up in a obviously I'm mixed, mixed heritage, so half Jamaican, half English, but I grew up in a predominantly white area.
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: So my school there weren't many like me, there weren't many to reference.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: So you just, there's that little bit inside of you also that wants to fit in?
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: yeah, especially as a teenage girl yeah, you're going through a lot then, aren't you?
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: You're discovering who you are.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: There's that mini identity crisis at that age.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: So it was how do I go unnoticed and fit in with all these girls with straight hair, I guess?
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: And so, yeah, I've straightened it, and I straightened it for the best part of gosh, probably like 10 years actually.
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: I would just straighten it is that the same for you?
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: Well, I still straighten mine.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: Mine is probably more.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: It is more naturally straight than yours, and then I'll just finish it off, okay, yeah it's a bit different?
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: yeah, it is.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: You know it is interesting because you just get used to having your hair in a certain way, don't you?
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: And then, like you think, oh, it's just easier.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: But actually I think this is what's quite nice about your company is people embrace who they are, and it's actually not necessarily about changing yourself or fitting in.
• 12:34
  Speaker 2: It's actually making the most of what you have.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: And I don't think we had that very long when we did with magazines and like I'm trying to think what they were called, but it was all about girls being a certain way and, yeah, similar way, and not about the differences you definitely didn't have a point of reference for someone who looked like not like nowadays, where, where you look, it's a lot more diverse and inclusive with different types of people.
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: Back then there was one sort of image type of person that was always shown and so, yeah, that made it harder.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: Definitely was that another name of a magazine I want to say glass, but maybe I'm wrong there.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: So when did you?
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: start embracing your curls, then so probably when I had, after I had my first yeah, I sort of.
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: So that was around 28, I think 28, 29 and then 30s to me was the big changing point.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I don't know if you've felt that as well, but I felt I definitely came into knowing myself a bit more and 20s was discovery.
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: And then 30s was sort of like no, I'm going to be confident in who I am.
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: And so in my 30s, after I'd had my first, it was sort of like, okay, enough is enough, I'm going to, I'm okay.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: And I think it was having my first and there was a small gap between my first and my second.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: My second was a girl and I knew that I didn't want to put that sort of idea on her because I knew she'd have textured hair.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: I didn't want her to feel that, looking up at me, you know, they do what you do, don't they know what you say?
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: yeah so it's like I needed to create that positive example for her.
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: So around that time, and like.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: So it was basically like the role modeling.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: A lot of it was being a positive role model to her and yeah, pretend to be you know someone.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: You weren't yeah, definitely.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Just it's sort of finding confidence in myself a bit more, which was great yeah, so what?
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: so you started embracing your curls and then, obviously, this was before you founded the business.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: So what then, prompted you to find the business?
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Were you struggling to still find products that worked for your hair and no, this business came from.
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: So after having it.
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: So I had my son, I had my daughter, I had my other daughter and then another son.
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: I could tell you I probably got every texture under my roof.
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: It just ranges, and I was trying to do for one what I wanted to do for the other, and this product wasn't working for them.
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: All the while I'm just figuring out the start of my own journey.
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: So it just felt so overwhelming with all the different products I was trying and not really getting the results that I wanted, and I just thought there must be a different way.
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: This doesn't make sense.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: There's a million products on these shelves and I don't know how to navigate them at all, and so that's where I guess it's that little light bulb moment that people have.
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: I think most people have them like oh, wouldn't it be good if?
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: And then, a couple of years later, you usually see that that idea has come out.
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: So my light bulb was wouldn't it be good if?
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: And then, a couple of years later, you usually see that that idea has come out.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: So my light bulb was wouldn't it be good if you could actually look at a person's hair before trying to choose the products before trying to, yeah and waste all that money.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah and waste all that money.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: So what if we actually look at the hair and understand it?
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: And so that was in around 2021 and that's when we decided.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: I decided to actually move forward with it and I knew that I didn't sort of want to go the hairdresser route.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: I wanted to go the science route because I sort of wanted to be able to.
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: I just thought in my mind, I thought it'd be really cool to have, like this massive Bible of all the curls around the world, like one curl helping another.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Once we've mapped out your hair profile, if we find somebody else with that hair, we know how to help them and just do something more for curly hair.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: That's ever been done like a lot, put more research in for it.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: So I knew I wanted to take a science-based approach and that's why I went for it was like hair science, who is that?
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: so I just remember going into google like who, what's the person that you know, the most scientific sort of person for hair, and then trichologists came up, and so that's why I contacted so how did you meet Samantha?
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: I was going to say, how did you connect with her?
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know talking about cold calling earlier today and it's just literally, institute of Trichologists is where I first looked and I remember scrolling down the names and then I saw one and I thought, okay, and I was like, okay, let me call this clinic.
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: And I remember scrolling down the names and then I saw one and I thought, okay, red, and I was like, okay, let me call this clinic.
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: And I just picked up the phone, called her and I landed on her on the right day and at the right time, where she had the time to give me, and I asked her the question okay, this is going to sound crazy, but if you take a sample of someone's hair, can you match them with the exact right products for them?
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: She was just sort of no, you couldn't, okay, you know, just hardened immediately.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: Then she said but hold on a minute, there are things you can look at and it's more important to think about the condition of the hair than the hair type per se.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: So and then from there she was interested and we started conversations and the conversations we've had just going through how we developed this was a minefield, but we got there.
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, did she live locally?
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: Did you meet up online, oh?
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: actually at the time I was living in Belgium and for my husband's works, we were there for two years and so I called, but I knew I wanted it to be a London based or UK based business, and so at the time I was in Belgium, she was in the UK.
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: I had no idea where she was.
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: I knew her clinic was in South Kensington, but I didn't know where she lived.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: Eventually, when I returned to the UK and we met up, I found out she was in Welling Garden and I was in somewhere in we're both in Hertfordshire, so we were like miles apart, which is just a coincidence, yeah yeah, so how's the business structured now?
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: then you've got her, you work with her, so is it just you two, or is there other people involved?
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: right, okay, so I've got two co-founders.
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: So I've got Samantha Stewart and she heads up the trichology, she's our lead trichologist, so she's all hair, all science and everything in between that.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: And then we have Jasmine Marcellin as well.
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: She came on as jasmine curly, which is great, because that was her last name oh my god, yeah and then she actually married my brother-in-law, so she's jasmine marcellin now, so she heads up our customer operation site.
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: And then we have somebody called josephine and she heads up our business operation.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: So there's four of us working in the business yeah, wow.
• 18:49
  Speaker 2: And how are you selling the service?
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: Where are you marketing it?
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: right now we just use usual sales channels.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: We do a lot on our socials and we do a lot of collaborations as well with brands.
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and we also go to some pop-up events, and so we recently worked and we still are working at white city soho, like white city house I don't even know soho house group, so we do pop-up events.
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: And so we recently worked and we still are working at White City Soho, like White City House I don't even know Soho House group, so we do pop-up events there each month.
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: So that's a chance to get into people's hands.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's sort of our main.
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: But more recently we were starting to talk to salons because we've had interest from salons and actually them selling the kits because it's sort of a journey that they can go through with their clients.
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: So we're looking into that.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Now we're talking to a few salons to work out the mechanics of that.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: Let's say, so is it a hair analyzed in a lab then?
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: yeah, we work with the open university in Milton Keynes yeah they're great, they're really supportive.
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: So we use an SEM machine, which is a scanning electron microscope, so it it's really high intensity powered.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: You see your image, the close up of your image, really close up, and they've got that there.
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: So you know, to go and buy one of those machines is no small change.
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: So we've just partnered with them and, yeah, they're really supportive, they're helping us.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: There's a great gentleman there, james Bowen.
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: He's, uh, one of the scientists there and he's also helping us with our research, which is great.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: It is interesting because it could obviously I'm just thinking it's like a bit like the dna thing, isn't it, and everyone sure has different things you could all put it on like this database and match up with people that have your hair types and yeah, yeah, you never know quite when it's gonna go, but it could you know, sort of does remind me a little bit of that and doing the DNA.
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: And so when you started the business, were you self-funded?
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: How did you get it off the ground?
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: no.
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: So we had initially had an investor and so we had a small amount of investment to start with, an angel investor who knew of the idea and said would invest a certain amount, and then that was the the first bit, and the thing with that was we're now, I say, self-funded or we're just running.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: The business is running itself, because we decided to move from going after any more investment, because I think there's a certain amount of freedom that comes with being an entrepreneur, which is why I chose that.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: I guess I like that flexibility.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: But when you have investors, it's no longer just your voice or your decisions and the pressure is different.
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: And, like I say, I've got four kids, one on the way you have to make the business work around you.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: So how are you making the business work?
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: Because now you homeschool as well, don't you?
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: yeah, oh, just the big juggling act is this uh, it's crazy at the best of times but you sort of survive in your own chaos sometimes.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: But just planning, I do a lot of my work in the evenings.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: I saw really at first actually I got the balance really wrong yeah, I was gonna say what have you learned?
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: yeah as well.
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: So how was it wrong?
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: so I'd say the first, the first year, where there was a lot more involvement from one, from the investor, and I felt the pressure was a lot higher.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: It's also a male investor, so there's a difference there as well, but I found the pressure was on, so I would a lot more.
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: I felt into the business at that point where I'd always said to me I would never put the business over the family or my children.
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: I started to see that creep in to the point where by the end of the year I was exhausted and I definitely done that, and I took a break over Christmas and just had a massive read.
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: I decided I'm not lifting my laptop at all, I'm not touching it, I'm resetting and I need to readjust this somehow.
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: And yeah, so coming into 2024 and to the towards the end of last year, I sort of made many tweaks.
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: It was family first and business second, and so I do all my work in the evenings, like I'll do calls, like this, I'll do some meetings in the day, but most of my work takes place in the evenings.
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: I do a lot of scheduling.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Scheduling is my best friend, so that you know I can always just be ahead of the game in that way, and what do you mean?
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: social media scheduling so well, yeah, I don't take care of the social media but in terms of even just emails because you don't really want to be emailing people at 11 o'clock at night but I'll be there writing the email.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: So it's like scheduling them all to send the next day, or scheduling, yeah, outreach emails, things like that, and there's just some meetings that I'll do during the day.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: But I've definitely found the balance now.
• 24:15
  Speaker 2: Do you feel like because I sort of do get this because I work in the evenings, but sometimes it's bloody hard.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: You know you're working and then you have to get up and then move on, and then do you finally have time for you?
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: no, I don't in a way, but I did say to my husband the other day this is like my hobby too.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because I'm so passionate about it.
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe in it so much and I it's.
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: You could make a choice, can't you sit down and watch some tv and find enjoyment through that?
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: I actually get enjoyment through doing this, so it's not a chore to do and that is time for me, I guess yeah, I 100% get that, I do get you yeah, did you want to be an entrepreneur when you were growing up?
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: if I did.
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: I didn't know it.
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: I think I've always had it in me.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: My grandma was the real sort of entrepreneurial type.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: She had multiple businesses and she's just had that way about her.
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: So I think I sort of went leaned towards her.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: I knew that, working in workplaces and I've worked at some great places there was something that never sort of hit.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: I don't think you can believe in anyone me personally.
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: I couldn't believe in anyone else's business yeah, as much as your own, as much as my own.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: And so this is the first thing that I did and it was like oh, that's what it feels like to actually, you know, have that passion to keep going every day, because when you're working for somebody else's business, you're not, you don't take part in the decisions, you just follow, you just fall in line.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but this is like you actually make your decisions and you get to make change and decide the direction it's.
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I definitely prefer that aspect so what makes you think for KLID then?
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: gosh.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: Well, right now, our biggest focus is the salon training.
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: That's our our biggest priority right now.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: So we've got our first one coming up on the 22nd of April yeah and then we have a couple more dates mapped out throughout the year.
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: So we're just focusing on that at the moment building our relationships with salons and stylists and trying to get our training into the right hands, basically so that we can help as many as possible.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: And that's just the focus for this year.
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: That's as far as like one year at a time, you know so where can people find you, connect with you, maybe purchase your starter kit?
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: so our website, just wwwcurlidcom.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: You can just log on there and you can purchase the kit.
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: If you're a salon or a stylist or even a hair care brand and you just want to have more information, then you can also go on and there's a salon elite page and that's where you can find out on, and there's a salon elite page and that's where you can find out everything about the training.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: And we also have our Instagram pages where we're most active, so that we just provided a lot of educational content on Instagram for free.
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: So that's at Curl ID.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: So we have a lot of, you know, myth busters, because one of the biggest things with curly hair is just the misinformation that's out there and there's so many new trends that take off that can just be really damaging for the hair.
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: So we address a lot of that on our instagram page as well actually, before we finish, I might just say any tips for anyone listening um to this with curly hair.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: What would be your top couple of tips to look after curly hair?
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: gosh tips for people with curly.
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Just if you haven't done it yet, there is a lot of freedom in embracing your curls.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Don't buy into the idea that it's harder to take care of curls it isn't.
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: It's just having the right information on how to do it.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: And also don't feel pressured into having to be curly.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: If you want to wear, wear your hair straight, also have that.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: You have the freedom to do so.
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: But just make sure that you're doing it in the safest way, with using the best products and under the best guidance, really, so that you're not damaging your hair, because the last thing.
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: That's one of the things we see under our microscope, which is like a hair shaft exploding and people are sort of saying, oh, my hair's looking dull and oh, my hair just keeps sort of like it's not growing and it's like well, when you look at these images, we're starting to understand why.
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: So it's just get a deeper understanding of your exact hair.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Don't compare yourself to others.
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: Your hair is very unique to you.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: It's got its own unique profile.
• 28:22
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, just understand you, be you and embrace that, yeah brilliant.
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: Well, such good advice.
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: I'll put all the links in the show notes.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: Rachel for joining me today.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, no, worries at all.
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: Thank you for having me, elizabeth thank you for listening to another episode of the work.
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: It like a mum podcast.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: If you enjoyed this episode, please rate, rate, review and subscribe, and don't forget to share the link with a friend.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: If you're on LinkedIn, please send me a connection request at Elizabeth Willett and let me know your thoughts on this week's episode.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: You can also follow my recruitment site Investing in Women on LinkedIn, facebook and Instagram.
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: Until next time, keep on chasing your biggest dreams.