Latest / Influencer Confidential / How Julissa Prado Built @RizosCurls & What She Looks for in Creators [Creator Currency Ep. 17]

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How Julissa Prado Built @RizosCurls & What She Looks for in Creators [Creator Currency Ep. 17] · Influencer Confidential

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Speaker 1: If you've been to Target or any other big retailer,
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Speaker 1: chances are you've seen Rizzo Curls. And today I'm going
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Speaker 1: to interview Julisa Pratto, the founder of this mega beauty brand.
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Speaker 1: Not only are we going to talk to her about
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Speaker 1: the creative perspective and what she can learn, Julissa is
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Speaker 1: the total package. She was born and raised in Los Angeles, California.
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Speaker 1: She's the founder of Rizzo Curls, an award winning clean
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Speaker 1: hair care line that embraces and celebrates the beauty of curls, coils,
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Speaker 1: and waves everywhere. As a cultural change maker in one
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Speaker 1: of the leading faces of modern entrepreneurship, Julisa has been
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Speaker 1: named one of TikTok's Visionary Voices, Cosmopolitan Magazines New C
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Speaker 1: Suite Women of Color who are Changing corporate culture, Beauty
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Speaker 1: Independent Beacon Awards Entrepreneur of the Year, and awarded the
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Speaker 1: for the People Impact Award by the National Hispanic Media Coalition.
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Speaker 1: Julisa's popular haircare brand, Rizzo Curls, ranks among one of
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Speaker 1: the top performing textured haircare brands. Leading with community first
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Speaker 1: authenticity resonates with her customers. It is one of the
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Speaker 1: top ten most followed Hair Carried Brands on TikTok. It's
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Speaker 1: available more than four thousand locations at all to Beauty, Target,
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Speaker 1: Nordstrom across the country. And Julyssa is an active national
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Speaker 1: speaker with speaking roles at TED, Talk, Create and Cultivate,
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Speaker 1: Harvard University, the un and more. You guys, let's talk
1:20
Speaker 1: to a beauty founder. Let's talk about setting up our
1:22
Speaker 1: own brands. Let's talk about what she looks for in creators.
1:26
Speaker 1: Let's talk about it all. Let's welcome Julyssa to the podcast. Hi, Hi,
1:33
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, thank you so much.
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Speaker 2: Guys.
1:35
Speaker 1: By the way, before we jumped on here, Julissa is
1:37
Speaker 1: such a sport because we had some serious tech and
1:42
Speaker 1: she saw me like shaking, so she is like, it's
1:46
Speaker 1: been a minute to get us on here, but we're
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Speaker 1: so happy she's here. Julissa, I am so pumped to
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Speaker 1: pick your brain for all the creators in our community
1:54
Speaker 1: and the entrepreneurs that listen in. You are a wealth
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Speaker 1: of knowledge and you've done some major things in your
2:02
Speaker 1: career and one of the things I kind of want
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Speaker 1: to start today's conversation about is really about like building
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Speaker 1: a brand.
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Speaker 2: There's so many.
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Speaker 1: Creators that are the Julysses of twenty nineteen, Oh, I
2:12
Speaker 1: want to do this, or twenty seventeen, right when you started.
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Speaker 2: I want to do this.
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Speaker 1: I want to start a business.
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Speaker 2: I want to start a.
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Speaker 1: Brand like and especially now in the creator economy, we're
2:19
Speaker 1: seeing so many influencers and creators become their own businesses.
2:23
Speaker 1: So I kind of want to start from the beginning,
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Speaker 1: from the beginning, when the idea was just a little
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Speaker 1: baby idea. Walk us back to those beginning days where
2:36
Speaker 1: this idea kind of came from and what you had
2:39
Speaker 1: to do to kind of get it off the ground,
2:41
Speaker 1: at least at the beginning.
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Speaker 3: Yeah. So it's really interesting because I've been drawn to
2:48
Speaker 3: hair since I was a teenager, like I've been not
2:50
Speaker 3: not even probably even before that, like my whole life,
2:53
Speaker 3: I've been drawn to hair. And when I was in
2:55
Speaker 3: high school, I was even when I was a freshman
2:58
Speaker 3: and my brother Tony was a senior, all his friends
3:01
Speaker 3: during like homecoming and prompt season, a bunch of them
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Speaker 3: would book me to do their hair because I was
3:06
Speaker 3: just like naturally good at styling hair and just doing hair.
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Speaker 3: And back then, you know the majority of people's hair
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Speaker 3: that I was styling, it was like everyone was straightening
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Speaker 3: their hair, like nobody was wearing their hair natural, including myself.
3:19
Speaker 3: And initially, my first like inspiration to even try to
3:23
Speaker 3: learn how to style curly hair naturally was almost like,
3:30
Speaker 3: you know, offering another service to my high school clientele.
3:36
Speaker 3: And I was practicing with my own head and I
3:39
Speaker 3: and back then, you know, the industry was completely different.
3:42
Speaker 3: There was clean beauty wasn't a thing you would go
3:45
Speaker 3: to the grocery store or like Target or these stores,
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Speaker 3: and it wasn't like there was an aisle or a
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Speaker 3: whole section for texture and hair that just that just
3:54
Speaker 3: didn't exist back then. So it was really limited. And
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Speaker 3: on top of that, you know, growing up in an
4:01
Speaker 3: immigrant household, something that I feel like anyone who grew
4:04
Speaker 3: up an immigrant household has in common, is that so
4:06
Speaker 3: many of us grow up with these like you know,
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Speaker 3: remedies and traditions, rooted and natural ingredients. Whether it's like
4:15
Speaker 3: my stomach hurts, Oh go cut this herb, We're gonna
4:18
Speaker 3: make a tea. My hands are dry. Let me get
4:21
Speaker 3: some sugar and lemon and oil. My scalp is dry,
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Speaker 3: Like I'm gonna put aloverra on it. So I think
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Speaker 3: it's something that came very natural to me to turn
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Speaker 3: to natural ingredients, turn to the earth, to care for myself,
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Speaker 3: because it's it's how I grew up and what I
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Speaker 3: was used to. So when I remember, you know, going
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Speaker 3: to different stores and looking for products and not finding anything,
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Speaker 3: and also at the same time knowing that I care
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Speaker 3: deeply about ingredients, and I care deeply about what ingredients
4:52
Speaker 3: are in formulas. So I was like, I'm just gonna
4:55
Speaker 3: make my own. I'm gonna make my own in my kitchen.
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Speaker 3: So I just started making my own little concoction at home,
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Speaker 3: and I just remember, you know, putting a bunch of
5:04
Speaker 3: different stuff together. I felt like a little like chemist
5:07
Speaker 3: in my in my house, I was like boiling flaxied
5:10
Speaker 3: and doing all these different things. And yeah, I came
5:15
Speaker 3: up with like my own little versions of concoctions that
5:18
Speaker 3: and practicing on my own head. And I remember the
5:21
Speaker 3: very first day that I went to school and I
5:23
Speaker 3: was still I think I was by a sophomore by then,
5:26
Speaker 3: and I went to school with my hair curly down
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Speaker 3: for the very first time. After you know, all of
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Speaker 3: middle school, all of all of my freshman year, always
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Speaker 3: straightening it, and it changed my life forever. Like that
5:39
Speaker 3: day going to school with my hair down curly completely
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Speaker 3: changed my lif Like that was the biggest turning point
5:46
Speaker 3: in my life. Because after that day, I started attracting
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Speaker 3: what I call undercover curlyes, which are people with naturally
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Speaker 3: like wavy, curly, courly hair textures that you either a
6:00
Speaker 3: have no idea they have curly hair because they strain
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Speaker 3: it so much, or be they themselves don't even know
6:06
Speaker 3: they have wavy curly or hair because they like just
6:11
Speaker 3: you know, never wear it natural and they've been straightening
6:14
Speaker 3: it so much and they just like don't realize the
6:17
Speaker 3: potential of their hair. So I started meeting these people,
6:20
Speaker 3: these undercover curlies everywhere from in bathrooms, like for the
6:24
Speaker 3: rest of my life. I feel like till this day,
6:26
Speaker 3: I'm like a magnet for these undercovered curlies. So that's
6:30
Speaker 3: where the idea initially came from. And I went through
6:34
Speaker 3: throughout high school throughout college, I was still making my
6:37
Speaker 3: own little concoctions. I was still attracting undercover curlies and
6:41
Speaker 3: helping them with their hair, whether it was like in
6:42
Speaker 3: the bathroom my dorm rooms, I would hold little curl
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Speaker 3: classes like forever, anybody with textured hair that I would
6:49
Speaker 3: attract in elevator, at the grocery store wherever, I was
6:53
Speaker 3: always helping them with their hair, and so that was
6:56
Speaker 3: the initial inspiration. So when I started trying to make
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Speaker 3: my form most professionally, it was something that I had
7:02
Speaker 3: already been doing for a long time that I just
7:05
Speaker 3: never had taken seriously before.
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Speaker 2: What I love.
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Speaker 1: About this is kind of what you touched on. You're like,
7:12
Speaker 1: I'm not a chemist, Like I'm not you know, You're like,
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Speaker 1: I found a need, I started figuring it out, and like,
7:18
Speaker 1: by the time I got to where I needed to be,
7:20
Speaker 1: like I already had experience what I find in the
7:22
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship journey air all the mindset blocks around starting, Oh
7:27
Speaker 1: while I'm not this, Oh, well I don't have any experience.
7:30
Speaker 1: Well I don't know what to do. And it seems
7:32
Speaker 1: in your story and most successful people, I get to
7:34
Speaker 1: chat with the imposter syndrome.
7:37
Speaker 2: While we all probably carry it.
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Speaker 1: You told it to shut the very early on and said,
7:41
Speaker 1: you know what, I'm going to build a beauty brand.
7:43
Speaker 1: I'm going to develop these sort of homegrown products because
7:48
Speaker 1: it's important for people listening that finding the need, finding
7:51
Speaker 1: what you're passionate about, that's the secret recipe because you
7:54
Speaker 1: can hire people to help you perfect the chemistry potentially right,
7:59
Speaker 1: or you know, all the things that you may need.
8:02
Speaker 1: So I love to hear the true foundation story of
8:05
Speaker 1: how this was something that you built based on your passion,
8:08
Speaker 1: based on a moment.
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Speaker 2: You know.
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Speaker 3: Really interesting about what you just said is that it
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Speaker 3: was something that when I first started it, it came
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Speaker 3: from such a personal space where I didn't even intend
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Speaker 3: to share it or to sell it, or it was
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Speaker 3: something that if I even if I was never to
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Speaker 3: make one penny off of, like, I would have still
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Speaker 3: done it because it was something that like came from
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Speaker 3: my heart, you know.
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Speaker 1: And I think that right there is the key like
8:35
Speaker 1: people always looking for, like the magic and the sauce
8:38
Speaker 1: and the hidden things, and it's like really just deep
8:40
Speaker 1: diving into that space because everything else is figure outable, right,
8:45
Speaker 1: But like what it seems like in your scenario, I
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Speaker 1: love to hear that I read somewhere that you mentioned
8:52
Speaker 1: and we talk about that too, you know, especially in
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Speaker 1: immigrant households, we're told we're conditioned, you know, as women,
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Speaker 1: certain aesthetics look better, right, straightening our hair.
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Speaker 2: So I feel like you've also shaped.
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Speaker 1: The narrative on beauty in a way for many women
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Speaker 1: and change that up, you know, embracing the curl. And
9:11
Speaker 1: we'll dive deeper as we go in today's conversation. But
9:14
Speaker 1: the importance of how that in your brand also probably
9:19
Speaker 1: created a seed to get it to where it's at now.
9:22
Speaker 1: So in terms of the early stages, we're talking.
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Speaker 2: In the beginning, beginning.
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Speaker 1: Before target, before ALTA, before the pr you know, little
9:32
Speaker 1: do you listen her kitchen and her this putting these concoctions.
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Speaker 1: What was the moment when you were like, wait a second,
9:38
Speaker 1: like we gotta get this could be something like this,
9:42
Speaker 1: there's something here. I gotta really put some focus and
9:45
Speaker 1: energy into this, because there is a world where if
9:48
Speaker 1: you didn't, it just stayed as a hobby. Like how
9:51
Speaker 1: did you kind of jump from I love to do this.
9:54
Speaker 2: This is fun too.
9:55
Speaker 1: I'm putting my business woman hat on and we're going
9:57
Speaker 1: to get this off the ground.
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Speaker 3: So it's really interesting because I am a piscey through
10:03
Speaker 3: and through and my brother and I always say my
10:06
Speaker 3: brother is my co founder. By the way, my brother
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Speaker 3: Tony is Mike, my co founder and my like right
10:10
Speaker 3: hand man and this whole journey. But something that both
10:14
Speaker 3: my brother and I always say is that the same
10:18
Speaker 3: the same characteristic that is your strength can also be
10:22
Speaker 3: your weakness. It just depends on how you use it.
10:24
Speaker 3: So with me, something that I always say, like, I'm
10:28
Speaker 3: very authentic, very almost like simple minded. For me, the
10:32
Speaker 3: reason why I even wanted to make it professionally was
10:35
Speaker 3: because it was inconvenient for me to make these concoctions
10:39
Speaker 3: and it like I have to refrigerate it. It goes
10:42
Speaker 3: bad so quickly. Like whenever I would tell other people
10:45
Speaker 3: share it with other people for them to do it
10:47
Speaker 3: themselves that you know, weren't in front of me, they
10:50
Speaker 3: would like mess up the like how the blend or
10:53
Speaker 3: like it wouldn't come out the same, and it would
10:55
Speaker 3: make me up. Sex I'm like, no, you're not doing
10:57
Speaker 3: it right. You have to do this, you have to
10:59
Speaker 3: boil it for exactly this long and then you do that.
11:01
Speaker 3: And so it was more so something that was like
11:05
Speaker 3: it was at a convenience. It was out of like
11:07
Speaker 3: like I need this, I need it done, and I
11:09
Speaker 3: needed done perfectly. And so that was my initial inspiration
11:15
Speaker 3: for why I wanted to make the foremost professionally. It
11:17
Speaker 3: was because I was like, I need them to be
11:20
Speaker 3: perfect because this is like, this is what I need,
11:24
Speaker 3: Like I wanted to be really good for me. And
11:27
Speaker 3: then and then my brother his he's a scorpio, so
11:31
Speaker 3: he oh yeah, and we're actually very credible, like Piz's
11:36
Speaker 3: a scorpio. But his mind is more like long term thinking,
11:40
Speaker 3: like in the ways that like my mind is very authentic,
11:43
Speaker 3: very like in the moment, in the present, very like
11:48
Speaker 3: you know what I meant, what I'm what I said
11:50
Speaker 3: by simple minded is that is that I'm thinking about
11:53
Speaker 3: like my my world's my existence, my needs right now.
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Speaker 3: And he looks at things as like so fewteristic. He's
12:01
Speaker 3: looking at it like ten years down the line. So
12:04
Speaker 3: when I went to him and I said, so I've
12:06
Speaker 3: been doing He's seen me. You know, he's he's been
12:09
Speaker 3: seeing what I've been doing my whole life. So when
12:11
Speaker 3: I went to him and I was like, I really
12:12
Speaker 3: want to make my form as a professional because it's
12:14
Speaker 3: so annoying and look at this and then it went
12:16
Speaker 3: batter reading and I had it. I didn't put it
12:17
Speaker 3: in the fridge, and look like I'm just like wow,
12:21
Speaker 3: like this is so annoying. He's like being a scorpio
12:25
Speaker 3: that he is. He's like, so it sounds like a
12:30
Speaker 3: lot of people would have the same problem. It sounds
12:33
Speaker 3: like it sounds like what your experiencing would be a
12:37
Speaker 3: solution not only for you, but for so many others.
12:40
Speaker 3: And I was like, yeah, like can you help me
12:43
Speaker 3: like this do this together, like I want to know
12:46
Speaker 3: if this is a good business idea or not. By
12:49
Speaker 3: that point, I was already you know, kind of like
12:52
Speaker 3: working and saving some of my money. And so I
12:54
Speaker 3: was like, you know, I started working and I'm saving money,
12:57
Speaker 3: Like maybe I could use some of my my savings
12:59
Speaker 3: on on trying to make this professionally. And so my
13:03
Speaker 3: brother Tony was like, Okay, give me one of two
13:06
Speaker 3: business days. I will get back to you with the
13:07
Speaker 3: after I do a full malysis of the market. Like
13:10
Speaker 3: he's just that isn't him to a team? So my brother,
13:13
Speaker 3: mind you, my brother Tony, he's a true scorpio, like
13:17
Speaker 3: poker face poker face of the max. Like it's like
13:21
Speaker 3: he he does not overreact. He's just very like to
13:26
Speaker 3: your like very to your face, like what you get
13:29
Speaker 3: is the truth is the truth? Like you're gonna get
13:32
Speaker 3: it exactly how it is. And so he comes back
13:35
Speaker 3: the next day and he's like, I cannot believe no
13:41
Speaker 3: one has ever done this like you. This is a huge, huge,
13:45
Speaker 3: huge white space in the market. Not only is the
13:48
Speaker 3: like you know, the market size so big, but like
13:51
Speaker 3: there's you literally have no competition within this demographic in
13:54
Speaker 3: this space that you're trying and this this this product
13:57
Speaker 3: that you're trying to to create. And he's like, you
14:01
Speaker 3: need to do this, and you need to do it fast,
14:03
Speaker 3: and I'm going to help you. So once I saw
14:07
Speaker 3: the seriousness in his face and that like sense of urgency,
14:11
Speaker 3: I was like, say less, like that's okay, Like I
14:15
Speaker 3: don't have let me go. I was like, send me in.
14:19
Speaker 3: I'm ready, coach, you know. So yeah, So once my
14:23
Speaker 3: brother got involved, it was like needed that confirmation to
14:27
Speaker 3: just like full set.
14:29
Speaker 1: I love that and I love to hear how involved
14:31
Speaker 1: he is in your biz, like as a co founder,
14:33
Speaker 1: because it's hard doing things alone, and I think that
14:36
Speaker 1: it's a great shout out to him and his work ethic,
14:38
Speaker 1: but also just to all of us, like I have
14:40
Speaker 1: a business partner, you know, I have a co founder
14:42
Speaker 1: in my company, and it's like we balance each other.
14:45
Speaker 1: We're not the same, our strengths are so different. So
14:48
Speaker 1: maybe for those of you listening in, I've been very
14:50
Speaker 1: clear about the pros and cons of always you know
14:53
Speaker 1: what that looks like, you know, having that business partner.
14:56
Speaker 2: Or doing it solo.
14:57
Speaker 1: And some people decide to go their own route. But
14:59
Speaker 1: for those of you that are on the fence or
15:01
Speaker 1: maybe thinking about developing your own brand, I love what
15:05
Speaker 1: Julyssa is talking about about this idea of like finding
15:07
Speaker 1: someone to that believes in you, that has, you know,
15:10
Speaker 1: a different skill set than you, that can join you
15:13
Speaker 1: in this journey, because this journey is long and hard, baby,
15:16
Speaker 1: and God knows, there's been so many nights, and I'm like,
15:19
Speaker 1: I'm so grateful I have a co founder, especially when
15:22
Speaker 1: things are tough, or just to like have someone in
15:25
Speaker 1: your zone that's so invested as you know, as you
15:28
Speaker 1: are in terms of building the brand. Like once you
15:31
Speaker 1: guys decided okay, like we're in. You found your co founder,
15:34
Speaker 1: he's in. We're excited, especially for those again that are
15:38
Speaker 1: like I.
15:38
Speaker 2: Want to like get up and going.
15:40
Speaker 1: Did you guys like quit your jobs, Like did you
15:42
Speaker 1: decide did you, you know, decide like we're going in, baby,
15:46
Speaker 1: or was it like some of us are working, Like
15:48
Speaker 1: what did those early.
15:49
Speaker 2: Stages look like?
15:51
Speaker 1: And was there a mindset needed, like we're going in
15:54
Speaker 1: and we're going because you said fast. And I just
15:57
Speaker 1: want to briefly mention that word speed is a word
16:00
Speaker 1: that I keep hearing a lot of and I can't
16:03
Speaker 1: tell you guys listening in my word for twenty twenty five,
16:06
Speaker 1: I think it was focused. If I could change it,
16:08
Speaker 1: I would call it speed because the people who are fast,
16:11
Speaker 1: the people who respond to emails fast, the people who
16:13
Speaker 1: are fast.
16:14
Speaker 2: There's so much success in speed.
16:16
Speaker 1: And I love that Tony said we got to move,
16:18
Speaker 1: We got to move. We can't just be sitting on this.
16:20
Speaker 1: There's no one here now, but who knows who's going
16:23
Speaker 1: to come to the market. So talk to me about
16:24
Speaker 1: those early stages and kind of what the mindset around
16:27
Speaker 1: launch was.
16:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I think that from the beginning, to be
16:32
Speaker 3: completely honest, like I think Tony saw the future, saw
16:36
Speaker 3: the vision, saw the potential, and I mostly was like, oh, yeah,
16:41
Speaker 3: I know exactly which farmer's market I could go and
16:43
Speaker 3: sell at. And like I feel like I was more
16:47
Speaker 3: like you know, I was more innocent in like just
16:51
Speaker 3: just even thinking what our potential could be because you
16:56
Speaker 3: know that I wasn't exposed to that yet. I didn't
17:00
Speaker 3: see like the full thing. And I'm a very very
17:02
Speaker 3: very present person, like I am very like when I'm
17:06
Speaker 3: when I when I'm when I'm existing in what I'm
17:08
Speaker 3: doing right now, like that is my whole world and
17:10
Speaker 3: that's all that exists, and I'm just so zoned in
17:13
Speaker 3: on that. So for me, I I was still working
17:20
Speaker 3: full time at Nestley, and I one hundred percent thought
17:24
Speaker 3: I was going to be able to do both. Like
17:26
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, this is like the perfect balance,
17:29
Speaker 3: like and back then I was like mostly working from home.
17:31
Speaker 3: I was like, I'm working from home with Nestleie love
17:34
Speaker 3: my job, love my benefits. And then when I get
17:37
Speaker 3: home in the evenings, I could work on my little
17:38
Speaker 3: side business and on the weekends, like I could go
17:40
Speaker 3: south the farmer's market. Like I feel like that was
17:43
Speaker 3: more so my mindset and and a girl within. I
17:49
Speaker 3: think within like three months of launching, there was no
17:53
Speaker 3: way that I could do that full time, Like there
17:55
Speaker 3: was no way that I could. I'm sorry that I
17:57
Speaker 3: could work at my corporate jobs time because I'm such
18:02
Speaker 3: like a present person, I'm so intentional, I'm so like passionate,
18:05
Speaker 3: and like in the zone. I had been doing grassroots marketing,
18:10
Speaker 3: like I had literally been doing the work of building
18:13
Speaker 3: a community, building trust, building all of that since I
18:16
Speaker 3: was in high school. And by that point it had
18:19
Speaker 3: already been you know, at least like fifteen years of me,
18:23
Speaker 3: not fifteen years let me not, let me aid myself
18:26
Speaker 3: that much like ten okay, was like ten years of
18:31
Speaker 3: me just like meeting people and recommending and really building
18:37
Speaker 3: that that trust. And by the time I launched, like
18:42
Speaker 3: I'm not even kidding, the very first day that we
18:45
Speaker 3: just you know, turned on our website, mind you like
18:50
Speaker 3: the website, my brother and I may the models on
18:52
Speaker 3: the website were my cousins and I my brother took
18:56
Speaker 3: the photos.
18:58
Speaker 2: You know.
18:58
Speaker 3: The product was like in my parents it's backyard, you know.
19:02
Speaker 3: The drawing on the bottle of like our packaging, my
19:05
Speaker 3: cousin Vanessa drew it by hand and we scanned it.
19:07
Speaker 3: Like it was very diy very like low budget, very
19:13
Speaker 3: you know, very very like uh you know, Sunday market
19:17
Speaker 3: kind of selling at the Sunday Market kind of small
19:21
Speaker 3: small business start and by the on the very first
19:24
Speaker 3: day that we launched, within that week, we started receiving
19:28
Speaker 3: like hundreds of orders from people that you know, all
19:33
Speaker 3: I did was I posted on my social channels. By
19:35
Speaker 3: back then, I didn't really have a following, but I
19:39
Speaker 3: had enough of people that had seen me do the work.
19:43
Speaker 3: I had done their hair, I'd helped them with their hair.
19:45
Speaker 3: We had so many orders from these people that were like, Hey,
19:47
Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember me, but at the
19:49
Speaker 3: UC Student conference six years ago, you helped me with
19:53
Speaker 3: my hair in the bathroom, and I've been wearing my
19:57
Speaker 3: hair clearly ever since, Like, of course, I'm gonna suppor
20:00
Speaker 3: your products and I'm sharing with like my whole family. Hey, Julisa,
20:04
Speaker 3: I don't know if you remember me, but you did
20:06
Speaker 3: my hair for homecoming this year, and then you told
20:08
Speaker 3: me and you helped me with this, like of course
20:11
Speaker 3: I'm gonna support you, like literally, And then these people
20:14
Speaker 3: that I had helped, like even though it was small
20:16
Speaker 3: and it was very community, and it was like literally
20:18
Speaker 3: just humans that I had interacted with, and you know,
20:21
Speaker 3: my following was was small, but it was all people
20:23
Speaker 3: that really trusted me and believed in me. They became
20:28
Speaker 3: like our avon ladies. Okay, like they were on their facebooks,
20:32
Speaker 3: like on their pages just like hey, I just tried
20:37
Speaker 3: Griso's curled. I just tried ju Lisa's uh. Sharing this tisimonials.
20:40
Speaker 3: I met Julisa Uh six years ago and she did
20:43
Speaker 3: my hair. I've wred my hair nature ever since. Like
20:45
Speaker 3: I used your products, Look how amazing my results are.
20:48
Speaker 3: And then all of their people are buying and purchasing
20:52
Speaker 3: because they trust the person that they're seeing and they
20:54
Speaker 3: know them firsthand. So definitely, I would say, like in
20:58
Speaker 3: the beginning, it was one hundred percent word of mouth marketing,
21:02
Speaker 3: and it was so so grassroots, and I till this day,
21:07
Speaker 3: we're still one hundred percent self funded. And when people
21:10
Speaker 3: are like I'm afraid to start because I don't have
21:12
Speaker 3: enough money, Like we literally started with like zero marketing dollars,
21:16
Speaker 3: but so much passion. We had social media and we
21:21
Speaker 3: were in until this day, like I interact with people
21:24
Speaker 3: all the time, Like in the beginning, we were holding
21:27
Speaker 3: curl classes, like you know, everywhere anything that I could
21:31
Speaker 3: do to like help people with their hair. I was
21:33
Speaker 3: going to people's houses and like getting friends together and
21:35
Speaker 3: playing them to bring friends like I was doing it
21:39
Speaker 3: so grassroots, but like there is a path to scale
21:43
Speaker 3: from that, you know, and we're love this.
21:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you guys are a testament.
21:47
Speaker 1: No, I love that you guys are one hundred per
21:49
Speaker 1: self self funded and like this this also realization of
21:53
Speaker 1: like damn, like I am going to have to put
21:55
Speaker 1: in the time and the effort because that corporate job balance, right,
21:59
Speaker 1: like when do I quit?
22:00
Speaker 2: Do I quit?
22:00
Speaker 1: Like how do I take a chance on myself? All
22:02
Speaker 1: of these are scary moves, but fear it's like you're
22:06
Speaker 1: scared and you do it anyways. You know, there's that Hey,
22:08
Speaker 1: we're all kind of scared, like you didn't know it
22:10
Speaker 1: was going to take off.
22:11
Speaker 2: You just like are like fingers.
22:12
Speaker 1: Crossed, baby, like let's go and in this and in
22:15
Speaker 1: this case it obviously did so talk to me about
22:19
Speaker 1: like you know that big retailer moment that twenty twenty
22:24
Speaker 1: Target knocks on the door or maybe you pitch them
22:28
Speaker 1: and now you're in.
22:29
Speaker 2: A whole new level or world?
22:31
Speaker 1: Is that a right assumption? Like was Target the first
22:34
Speaker 1: big retailer?
22:36
Speaker 2: And like did you die?
22:38
Speaker 1: Because I'm pretty sure like Nina of you know, five
22:42
Speaker 1: years ago? Are you a five years ago having that moment?
22:46
Speaker 1: Like how did that come to be? Because it seemed
22:49
Speaker 1: was that like a pinnacle moment for you?
22:52
Speaker 3: Yeah. So so it's really interesting because we've been a
22:57
Speaker 3: community brand since I was in high school, Like we've
23:00
Speaker 3: or I even had a brand like I was like
23:02
Speaker 3: grassroots community, like interacting with people, like getting to know them,
23:07
Speaker 3: helping them personally, et cetera. And until this day, we
23:13
Speaker 3: are a thousand percent of community brand. Like I say,
23:16
Speaker 3: our three pillars are Curls community culture, because that is
23:20
Speaker 3: that is what we are. And I also another thing
23:22
Speaker 3: that I always say is like our customers, our community
23:25
Speaker 3: call the shots. We just like follow their orders because
23:29
Speaker 3: even getting into Target or any retailer, it was them.
23:33
Speaker 3: So by that point, by like twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen,
23:36
Speaker 3: we launched in twenty seventeen, so it had been a
23:39
Speaker 3: couple of years and we're just loving the formulas. They
23:42
Speaker 3: were having those aha moments as soon as they tried it.
23:45
Speaker 3: They're like, wow, I've never seen my curls look this good.
23:49
Speaker 3: And they were going on social media and telling commenting
23:55
Speaker 3: on targets pages, dming them, messaging them or like whatever
23:58
Speaker 3: retailer they wanted us to be, and they were like,
24:01
Speaker 3: we need you to carry Liesels Curls. I use their products,
24:03
Speaker 3: they're so good. And She's and I went to her
24:05
Speaker 3: curl class and Lahla and so Target was getting especially
24:10
Speaker 3: Target and it's really interesting because I don't know why
24:13
Speaker 3: the city trows Target, but they chose Target specifically. They
24:17
Speaker 3: were like bombarding them. I was like these and a
24:20
Speaker 3: term of endearment I call the girls is like rios renas,
24:24
Speaker 3: which is crow queet Spanish. And I was like, yo,
24:26
Speaker 3: these viseels regnas are out here harassing these retailers, asking
24:32
Speaker 3: them for us to be in their store. So we
24:33
Speaker 3: actually met Target at at a trade show, Cosmo Proft.
24:39
Speaker 3: We were just like there. We didn't even have a booth,
24:41
Speaker 3: but Tony and I were just like walking it. You know,
24:43
Speaker 3: we didn't have enough money for a booth. We just
24:45
Speaker 3: had like our little name tags. And we actually met
24:48
Speaker 3: somebody that was that was one of the distributor reps
24:51
Speaker 3: that looks for new brands for Target, and they're like, oh, hey,
24:57
Speaker 3: Risos Curls, Targets are getting bombarded with like that. So
25:02
Speaker 3: they actually, you know, came up to us because they saw,
25:05
Speaker 3: you know, our names and we were giving out samples
25:07
Speaker 3: and stuff, and we saw them on a trade show.
25:09
Speaker 3: And I know it's a very old school way of
25:11
Speaker 3: like meeting a potential like retailer, but that was I
25:17
Speaker 3: don't have to tell me.
25:18
Speaker 1: I'm like live events to the day I die. I'm like,
25:20
Speaker 1: put me in the room, coach, like I fully believe
25:24
Speaker 1: in that. So it would seemed to be very serendipitous.
25:26
Speaker 2: But you still were in the room.
25:28
Speaker 1: You guys still went, you know, you still showed up,
25:31
Speaker 1: and then you had that.
25:31
Speaker 3: Moment exactly exactly, and then the rest the rest is history.
25:36
Speaker 3: When opportunity and preparation meet.
25:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, the rest is history. And I also love
25:42
Speaker 1: to hear this advocacy from your audience. You know, a
25:45
Speaker 1: lot of our community they're the influencer, they're the creator.
25:49
Speaker 1: They have these built in audiences that would vouch for them.
25:52
Speaker 1: So to hear how your audience was like knocking on
25:55
Speaker 1: the doors. You're not asking them, you're not paying them,
25:58
Speaker 1: like they're literally just doing that on their own, I
26:00
Speaker 1: could see how influencerer brands, especially in this world nowadays.
26:04
Speaker 1: You know, we're a lot farther along than when you
26:07
Speaker 1: first started seeing that potential for creators who have these
26:11
Speaker 1: built in audiences that would go to bat for them,
26:14
Speaker 1: especially if there's people listening in that are trying to
26:16
Speaker 1: get into the product space.
26:17
Speaker 2: So that is amazing.
26:18
Speaker 1: And I think since then, now you guys sell a
26:20
Speaker 1: you know OULTA, I believe Nordstrom as well, Like now
26:24
Speaker 1: you're kind of like really have gone all the way.
26:26
Speaker 1: And I remember seeing you at Target and I was like,
26:28
Speaker 1: I need to bring this girl on the podcast because
26:29
Speaker 1: she know a thing or two about the biz side. Now,
26:34
Speaker 1: speaking of creators, how you know it's interesting because you
26:39
Speaker 1: have your own page and your own personal brand, and
26:42
Speaker 1: then the company has its page and its business account.
26:45
Speaker 1: And I'm assuming that you guys also work with different
26:47
Speaker 1: hair creators and YouTubers maybe and like all the content
26:51
Speaker 1: creators that are talking about hair products, right, So just
26:55
Speaker 1: to kind of peel back working with creators or talking
26:58
Speaker 1: about like that perspective as a founder, how does your
27:02
Speaker 1: team currently look at influencer partnerships or creator partnerships and
27:06
Speaker 1: are there things that you look for in creators? Is
27:08
Speaker 1: this something that is part of your marketing mix, you know,
27:11
Speaker 1: working with hairstylists and hair bloggers and hair people like
27:15
Speaker 1: tell me about how your company is actively working with creators.
27:20
Speaker 3: So it's actually a huge, huge, huge part of the business.
27:25
Speaker 3: Like creators, like social media and creators are such a huge,
27:29
Speaker 3: huge integral part of our business. We actually have two
27:34
Speaker 3: internal programs called One of them is a pro Squad,
27:37
Speaker 3: which is like almost like an ambassador program, but for
27:40
Speaker 3: professional hairstylists only. And then we have an Ambassador program,
27:45
Speaker 3: which are content creators, like doesn't matter what you're following
27:48
Speaker 3: is but content creators that are also resols ambassadors that
27:52
Speaker 3: we have special events, special seatings, special stuff for. And
27:58
Speaker 3: I would say those two programs are like so such
28:03
Speaker 3: a huge part of our business. A lot of the
28:06
Speaker 3: you know, paid content collaborations that we do, they come
28:09
Speaker 3: from like people that are within the Ambassador program. We
28:12
Speaker 3: do a lot of like challenges with them within the
28:15
Speaker 3: pros as well, Like if you see a lot of
28:17
Speaker 3: content that we have, you'll see both both types in there.
28:22
Speaker 3: And we genuinely like we don't care about especially with
28:25
Speaker 3: like TikTok, how TikTok is kind of evens out the
28:28
Speaker 3: playing fields for a lot of creators, regardless of your
28:31
Speaker 3: following size and it puts it on the quality of
28:33
Speaker 3: your content and how much people resonate with them. So
28:36
Speaker 3: we generally don't care about following size. It's all about
28:39
Speaker 3: the quality of the content. And yes, sometimes that is
28:43
Speaker 3: you know, bigger creators, sometimes the smaller creators, but in general,
28:47
Speaker 3: we just really really love the rawness, the like the quality,
28:52
Speaker 3: like what what what we're getting, what the viewer is
28:54
Speaker 3: getting out of your video, So that is what usually
28:57
Speaker 3: what we look for is like authenticity and like transparency
29:01
Speaker 3: and just like good vibes. I guess yeah.
29:04
Speaker 1: I want to actually like get like kind of dig
29:07
Speaker 1: in because one thing that you said is so important
29:10
Speaker 1: and my community knows. I teach pitching, I teach brand deals,
29:13
Speaker 1: I teach partnerships. I'm like, y'all, we need to like
29:15
Speaker 1: hit up these brands. How can you hit up a
29:17
Speaker 1: brand if you don't follow the brand, if you're not
29:20
Speaker 1: invested in the brand, if you don't use the brand.
29:22
Speaker 1: And what we're hearing Melyssa say is the opportunities are
29:26
Speaker 1: going to the people that eat, breathe, and love the
29:29
Speaker 1: brand already, right Like you're choosing these paid opportunities from
29:33
Speaker 1: your current ambassador program, from the people who you know,
29:37
Speaker 1: love the brand and are going to talk about it anyway.
29:39
Speaker 1: So it really seems a lot of creators, you know,
29:42
Speaker 1: kind of forget the importance of being in the brand,
29:47
Speaker 1: being invested in the brand because at least how it
29:50
Speaker 1: sounds like your ambassador program, these are the these are
29:53
Speaker 1: the people that are going to get first dips, you know,
29:55
Speaker 1: people that are already part of it.
29:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, we wanted to be authentic. Like, if you don't
29:59
Speaker 3: like the like, it's okay, Like that's fine. But if
30:02
Speaker 3: you do like them and you they they've made a
30:05
Speaker 3: difference in your life or in your hair, and you
30:07
Speaker 3: think other people would like them, Like, that's who I
30:09
Speaker 3: want to work with, and that's why I want to
30:11
Speaker 3: collaborate with. Is like when it it's something true, it comes,
30:15
Speaker 3: it's genuine for you. Yeah.
30:17
Speaker 1: And in terms of like the types of creators, especially
30:20
Speaker 1: in the hair space, like I've.
30:21
Speaker 2: Seen so many like YouTube.
30:23
Speaker 1: Hair creators or Instagram or TikTok, does your company have
30:28
Speaker 1: a preference or as long as they're creating really natural
30:31
Speaker 1: hair content, you know.
30:32
Speaker 3: It literally doesn't matter. Honestly, a lot of them don't
30:36
Speaker 3: even make their pages or not even about hair. They're
30:39
Speaker 3: like lifestyle like, so especially the ones that are obviously
30:42
Speaker 3: the hair Most of the hairstyleists like their pages are
30:44
Speaker 3: about hair, but a lot of the content creators, they're
30:47
Speaker 3: just like lifestyle people like talking about you know, whatever anything,
30:52
Speaker 3: and uh, you know sometimes once in a while they'll
30:56
Speaker 3: share about their beauty routines or their hair routines or whatever.
30:59
Speaker 3: And so yeah, so we we have no preference of
31:03
Speaker 3: whether it like cares your focus or not.
31:06
Speaker 1: I love that because it opens up the pool. And
31:08
Speaker 1: it seems like content is the most important thing for
31:11
Speaker 1: you guys in terms of what makes a collaboration like successful.
31:16
Speaker 1: It seems that content is the primary marker. Like you
31:18
Speaker 1: guys are looking for really quality content from the creators
31:21
Speaker 1: that you partner with. But have you ever had an
31:24
Speaker 1: example or an experience or just red flags in general
31:28
Speaker 1: that you've seen with working with creators or something that's
31:31
Speaker 1: kind of stood out that you're just kind of like,
31:33
Speaker 1: you know, this wouldn't be a good fit for us,
31:36
Speaker 1: or you know, in terms of those partnerships, because I
31:40
Speaker 1: think a lot of times creators, especially those listening in,
31:43
Speaker 1: like we try to teach them how to be a professional,
31:45
Speaker 1: how to be a business, how to approach brands like
31:48
Speaker 1: you with you know, with professionalism, has anything like ever
31:51
Speaker 1: stood out or like maybe to flip that question, are
31:54
Speaker 1: there things that you've seen in creators that you're like,
31:56
Speaker 1: that's amazing, love that like that gets you excited about
31:59
Speaker 1: working with them?
32:01
Speaker 3: Yeah? I think that. I I think like when it
32:07
Speaker 3: just doesn't feel authentic, it's just like okay, like I
32:12
Speaker 3: don't know. I sometimes when when the content that we
32:16
Speaker 3: love and like we we love working with these type
32:18
Speaker 3: of creators are when they kind of share a little
32:21
Speaker 3: bit about themselves. You know, they're like, oh, this is
32:25
Speaker 3: my hair is they share the good and the bad.
32:28
Speaker 3: You know, they're like, my hair is damaged from this,
32:31
Speaker 3: like it's going through this like and I'm and I'm
32:36
Speaker 3: working on getting it healthier or like like a perm
32:38
Speaker 3: or they'll have like other yeah, I don't know, like
32:40
Speaker 3: do you know what I mean where, Yes, Well, they'll
32:42
Speaker 3: they'll have like I don't know, like curly like they're
32:46
Speaker 3: all pretty much most of their hair is like curly
32:48
Speaker 3: curly extensions. And I'm like, at least like i'd rather
32:51
Speaker 3: you say that, Like I don't like I get it.
32:53
Speaker 3: We are fooling anyone because we in the same way
32:57
Speaker 3: that I don't like when people don't reveal that. We've
33:01
Speaker 3: also worked with people that are like, hey, I have
33:03
Speaker 3: natural career hair and I added curly extensions, and like,
33:06
Speaker 3: look at the way that they're blending. And I'm able
33:08
Speaker 3: to love that on both my extensions and my hair,
33:11
Speaker 3: Like that is what we're looking for. Is that like
33:15
Speaker 3: raw honesty, that like transparency and on like you know,
33:19
Speaker 3: being able to be transparent with with with the audience.
33:22
Speaker 3: I love that.
33:23
Speaker 1: So that's really helpful for creators to know that it
33:26
Speaker 1: doesn't have to feel like an ad.
33:27
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to.
33:28
Speaker 1: Be like I like this because of that, but really
33:31
Speaker 1: integrating the brand not only as a solution, but as
33:34
Speaker 1: part of your routine because brands are looking for that
33:37
Speaker 1: human connection.
33:38
Speaker 2: I love that.
33:39
Speaker 1: So now let's pivot to your own personal brand. Outside
33:43
Speaker 1: of building, you know, your business, you've also kind of
33:46
Speaker 1: built your own strong personal brand. Was that intentional from
33:50
Speaker 1: the beginning to have like these two pages or did
33:53
Speaker 1: it just come as a byproduct?
33:55
Speaker 3: It was just genuinely came naturally.
34:00
Speaker 2: Yeah.
34:00
Speaker 3: I And then even now I think I should be
34:02
Speaker 3: posting more on my personal page, but a lot of
34:04
Speaker 3: the time it just kind of like you know, goes
34:07
Speaker 3: a lot into into risos. But but yeah, I found
34:10
Speaker 3: it really interesting that the more we grew, the more
34:12
Speaker 3: people wanted to know more about me.
34:14
Speaker 1: They're like, I know, I'm like, you could like pitch
34:19
Speaker 1: your own brand Partnership's.
34:21
Speaker 3: Like like, oh okay, guys are interested in who is
34:25
Speaker 3: behind the brand. And that's something that sometimes I'll hear
34:28
Speaker 3: founders that you know, start small and they don't have
34:31
Speaker 3: big budgets and they're like, and I don't want to
34:34
Speaker 3: be in front of the camera. I'm like, girl, I'm
34:37
Speaker 3: telling you people care like that is that is your
34:41
Speaker 3: competitive advantage. Like having a real person that people can
34:45
Speaker 3: relate to running the business and being the face behind
34:48
Speaker 3: the business is what is going to draw people in
34:51
Speaker 3: and it's what gonna is what's going to make you
34:54
Speaker 3: stand out. So I that's something that I learned along
34:57
Speaker 3: the way that that people people care about who is
35:01
Speaker 3: behind the products that they are buying.
35:03
Speaker 1: Yeah, and in your scenario, you're literally like a walking testament,
35:07
Speaker 1: Like you're a walking model for your brand. So it's like,
35:10
Speaker 1: you know, they see that you eat, breathe, and live
35:12
Speaker 1: what you're selling as well.
35:15
Speaker 2: But would you say that, like.
35:16
Speaker 1: At least for you know, for your social presences, do
35:20
Speaker 1: you feel like social has been one of the biggest
35:22
Speaker 1: drivers of your guys' growth. I know you mentioned the
35:25
Speaker 1: word of mouth, but like, is social media also, like
35:28
Speaker 1: is that also part of the word of mouth bucket?
35:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, So it's it's interesting because I feel like it's
35:36
Speaker 3: changes with like the trends and world and what, you know,
35:40
Speaker 3: what's been going on. I would say our first stage,
35:43
Speaker 3: you know, the first year of it, it was like all
35:44
Speaker 3: word of mouth, like literally word of mouth, like maybe
35:47
Speaker 3: Facebook was really big for us, you know back then,
35:50
Speaker 3: and then it turned into maybe just like Instagram and
35:54
Speaker 3: in person in live events, and then it's you know,
35:58
Speaker 3: there's different phases depending and then take talk was really
36:00
Speaker 3: huge for us, especially in like twenty twenty, twenty twenty one.
36:05
Speaker 3: And then I would say, now it's you know, there's
36:08
Speaker 3: different things like sometimes it's you know, our retailers like
36:13
Speaker 3: presence within the retailer, like you know, end caps and
36:17
Speaker 3: like signage and all of that stuff within the store
36:20
Speaker 3: itself or the or these retailers like posting us on
36:23
Speaker 3: their pages, which have you know, a higher reach. It
36:26
Speaker 3: could be billboards, it could be you know, influencer marketing,
36:31
Speaker 3: it could be really large skill seatings. Like there's so
36:35
Speaker 3: many like different ways that that you know, you can
36:40
Speaker 3: you can market and you can get the word out
36:43
Speaker 3: and you can raise awareness. And honestly, the biggest advice
36:47
Speaker 3: I can give to somebody is like be nimble. Like
36:49
Speaker 3: as much as you want to plan like three years ahead,
36:52
Speaker 3: you have to be nimble with like what is trending
36:55
Speaker 3: right now? Like what is what is going on? Like
36:58
Speaker 3: for example, we just got on a new platform called
37:00
Speaker 3: tyb and it's like a community. I don't know if
37:03
Speaker 3: you've heard of it, but like it's a platform that
37:05
Speaker 3: a lot you know, it's it's new, but some big
37:08
Speaker 3: brands are on it, like Rare Beauty and stuff, like
37:10
Speaker 3: they're on it as well. But you know, that wasn't
37:12
Speaker 3: on my plan last year, but it came up and
37:15
Speaker 3: I was like, let's make an account, let's go on it,
37:17
Speaker 3: let's do this, like let's try it out. So we're
37:20
Speaker 3: very open to being flexible with what is currently happening
37:24
Speaker 3: at the moment. It's so important, especially why in the
37:29
Speaker 3: metaver on roadblocks, we're like that was one of Tony's
37:32
Speaker 3: my brother's passions of like having a presence there, so.
37:36
Speaker 1: You know, that's so good, like just trying things and
37:38
Speaker 1: seeing what works and what doesn't, because like you said,
37:41
Speaker 1: there's so much you know, and I know that social
37:44
Speaker 1: media and the creator economy, Like you see a creator
37:48
Speaker 1: go on and do her morning and get ready with me.
37:50
Speaker 1: It's like these are these powerful activations to these super
37:54
Speaker 1: powerful videos because I know, like someone will post something
37:57
Speaker 1: and I'm like immediately like what is she using? You know,
37:58
Speaker 1: it's just human nature, right, And I think that's why,
38:02
Speaker 1: especially bringing businesses onto the podcast, so like our podcast
38:06
Speaker 1: originally was talking to you know, influencers about their journey,
38:09
Speaker 1: but I always love to share the brand perspective because
38:12
Speaker 1: a lot of the creators are looking to pitch to
38:13
Speaker 1: brands or become their own brands. So we're super grateful
38:16
Speaker 1: for everything you're sharing. One thing I do want to say,
38:19
Speaker 1: and I think maybe it's the third see of your business,
38:22
Speaker 1: which is culture. I wanted to talk a little bit
38:25
Speaker 1: about just using your platform, your voice. You've always been
38:30
Speaker 1: really vocal about the causes you care about, which I
38:34
Speaker 1: love about you, and has that always just been like
38:37
Speaker 1: a natural like extension of you and I think a
38:40
Speaker 1: lot of times when it comes to topics of social
38:43
Speaker 1: justice representation, all of that founders get scared to touch it.
38:48
Speaker 1: How have you brought actually embraced these this messaging and
38:54
Speaker 1: turned it into such a positive way.
38:56
Speaker 3: I think that again, being a pisces like I do
39:01
Speaker 3: it like I don't even think twice about I don't
39:03
Speaker 3: think about the consequences. I don't think about like down
39:06
Speaker 3: the line. I'm like, this is what's in my heart
39:09
Speaker 3: and I'm seeing this happen in my community, and I
39:11
Speaker 3: want to help, and I want to people to know
39:14
Speaker 3: that I'm helping, and I want to post about it,
39:16
Speaker 3: and I want people to know this is what I
39:18
Speaker 3: support and this is what I stand for. And I
39:21
Speaker 3: don't know, I just feel like that's just who I
39:23
Speaker 3: am as a human. So I do understand that something
39:27
Speaker 3: that can be a little bit scary because every time
39:30
Speaker 3: we do that, obviously there's people that love it and
39:33
Speaker 3: there's also people that hate it, and I'm sure we
39:35
Speaker 3: lose customers over it. But it's honestly me living in
39:39
Speaker 3: my most authentic self and me allowing myself to like
39:44
Speaker 3: be me, and the me is someone who like, deeply,
39:48
Speaker 3: deeply cares about these social issues, Like I mean, just
39:52
Speaker 3: this past Saturday, we created a really cool movement called
39:56
Speaker 3: United for Immigrants with another brand called Because of Immigrants,
39:59
Speaker 3: and we're donating one hundred percent of our website profits
40:02
Speaker 3: from June twenty first to immigrant orgs that are uplifting
40:06
Speaker 3: and helping immigrant communities right now. And then we invited
40:10
Speaker 3: other brands to join us in these efforts, and we
40:13
Speaker 3: had almost two hundred brands join this movement, and we
40:18
Speaker 3: had an event too. We've collaborated with Mid City Mergado.
40:22
Speaker 3: There was like hundreds and hundreds of people that came,
40:24
Speaker 3: but there was like fifty different uh you know, small
40:28
Speaker 3: businesses that came and sold in person as well. We
40:32
Speaker 3: sold we made T shirts for the movement and they
40:35
Speaker 3: sold out within minutes. Like it was just insane how
40:40
Speaker 3: much traction it got and how much how much how
40:44
Speaker 3: much people wanted to get involved in support. So that's
40:47
Speaker 3: something that we're going to be We haven't calculated everything yet.
40:50
Speaker 3: We're still waiting for some brands to to update us,
40:53
Speaker 3: but but yeah, we're we're hoping that we were able
40:56
Speaker 3: to raise a lot of money and make a really
40:59
Speaker 3: big impact.
41:00
Speaker 1: I love that and I think it just fits, like
41:03
Speaker 1: you said, is part of your pillar, the culture, you know,
41:06
Speaker 1: especially with all that's going on, it feels so natural
41:10
Speaker 1: for your brand because of your origin story. You know,
41:14
Speaker 1: of this tale of strengthening and embracing our heritage, and
41:19
Speaker 1: I mean, it all really fits in.
41:20
Speaker 2: It's not random.
41:22
Speaker 1: It seems very part of woven into who you are
41:25
Speaker 1: as a person, but also what the company is. And
41:28
Speaker 1: so much of building a brand is also weaving your
41:31
Speaker 1: breath into it.
41:32
Speaker 2: So I think it's been really.
41:33
Speaker 1: Cool to see that you've been able to balance it
41:36
Speaker 1: really well.
41:37
Speaker 2: For those people that.
41:38
Speaker 1: Are looking to start a brand, especially the creators in
41:43
Speaker 1: our community, any less words of wisdom or advice to
41:47
Speaker 1: them as they embark on their creator product journey.
41:53
Speaker 3: Honestly, I would My biggest piece of advice is like
41:57
Speaker 3: that one thing that you may be into care about
42:00
Speaker 3: because it makes you different, That is your special sauce.
42:04
Speaker 3: Like literally that thing that you might be insecure about
42:10
Speaker 3: or self conscious about because you're like, oh, it's different
42:12
Speaker 3: from everybody else, Like whether it's like starting small or
42:15
Speaker 3: like you know, not having a lot of funding or
42:19
Speaker 3: some kind of trade or whatever it is, Like, know
42:21
Speaker 3: that that is what makes you the most powerful and
42:24
Speaker 3: that is going to be your competitive advantage. And I
42:27
Speaker 3: feel like the fact that Risso's Curls is where it
42:31
Speaker 3: is today is just testament to when you are authentic
42:35
Speaker 3: and genuine and passionate. People see that and they support it,
42:39
Speaker 3: and they like they want to trust you and they
42:41
Speaker 3: want to support you because they see how genuine you
42:46
Speaker 3: are about what you are doing.
42:48
Speaker 2: I love that. I'm like, like, all inspire.
42:51
Speaker 1: First of all, I'm all, should I document my curly
42:53
Speaker 1: hair journey?
42:54
Speaker 2: It's funny. I found this.
42:56
Speaker 1: Hairdresser the other day and she's like, I do curly blowouts.
42:59
Speaker 2: I was like, what it's not.
43:00
Speaker 1: She's like, you know, we blow it out, but we
43:03
Speaker 1: but it's like with the diffuser and like we put
43:05
Speaker 1: all the products and all the things.
43:06
Speaker 2: I was like, that's a thing.
43:07
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my gosh, it's it's definitely something
43:11
Speaker 1: that I think You've inspired so many people to take
43:13
Speaker 1: a strong look in the mirror and fight you know
43:16
Speaker 1: what we've been told.
43:17
Speaker 2: But like your your product is.
43:19
Speaker 1: A reflection of you guys, of your family, of the strength,
43:23
Speaker 1: and like you said, the community and the culture. So
43:26
Speaker 1: congrats on all the good things coming your way and
43:29
Speaker 1: thank you for sharing with our community of creators a
43:32
Speaker 1: little bit more about your brand journey and things that
43:35
Speaker 1: you looked for when working with creators, and we're so excited.
43:39
Speaker 1: Where can people find Youjulyssa. I'll put all the links below,
43:42
Speaker 1: but let us know, like where they can connect with
43:44
Speaker 1: you the or the brand.
43:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're at Diiso's Curls on Instagram, at NISA's Curls
43:51
Speaker 3: Hair on TikTok and then I'm Julia Thunderscore Prodo on
43:53
Speaker 3: both platforms.
43:55
Speaker 2: Awesome. Well, thank you again, thank you bye,