Latest / Earn Your Leisure / Untold Story of Curl Fest: Black Women Plan to Bounce Back After Shutdown | DEI, Hurdles & Funding

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Untold Story of Curl Fest: Black Women Plan to Bounce Back After Shutdown | DEI, Hurdles & Funding · Earn Your Leisure

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1:51
Speaker 2: All right, guys, welcome back. Special episode of Earn Your Leisure.
1:56
Speaker 2: Fat Yes, we have two of the co founders of
1:59
Speaker 2: Curly Girl Collective and curl Fest, Mellie and Simone. And
2:03
Speaker 2: Simone somebody that's been on the show.
2:04
Speaker 1: Early early, like episode maybe fifteen. Ye. I got the
2:09
Speaker 1: number right, I think so.
2:10
Speaker 3: I'm not sure the number, but it was early.
2:12
Speaker 1: Yeah. Shout out to the.
2:12
Speaker 4: Hometown so first and one, Well, thank you guys for.
2:14
Speaker 5: Joining us, thank you for having us.
2:17
Speaker 2: So okay, so for people that might not be familiar.
2:20
Speaker 2: Right before we get into it. Can you talk about
2:23
Speaker 2: what Curl Girl Collective is and curl Fests and how
2:27
Speaker 2: it came about, like how it hit origin story?
2:30
Speaker 5: Yeah?
2:30
Speaker 6: Okay, So Curly Girl Collective is an organization that we
2:35
Speaker 6: founded and created with our business partners, and what we're
2:39
Speaker 6: most notably known for is curl Fest, which is one
2:43
Speaker 6: of the largest natural beauty festivals. And essentially we created
2:48
Speaker 6: a space for a population that literally had no exposure
2:53
Speaker 6: to and really it's an opportunity to be educated, celebrated,
3:00
Speaker 6: provide resources for women with natural hair.
3:04
Speaker 1: So this is I know last year, celebrated year ten,
3:08
Speaker 1: year ten, which is a huge accomplishment from gradulations to that.
3:13
Speaker 1: It would start out with five women, how what is
3:17
Speaker 1: the situation now? I know you to it here and
3:19
Speaker 1: there are other partners. What do we look like now
3:22
Speaker 1: present day?
3:23
Speaker 3: Yeah?
3:23
Speaker 7: Sure, so there are there will always be five founders,
3:27
Speaker 7: five beautiful black women.
3:30
Speaker 3: Right now.
3:30
Speaker 7: We have three operating members Melody, myself, Simone and Sharis
3:35
Speaker 7: who couldn't be with us today.
3:37
Speaker 1: Gotcha? Gotcha?
3:38
Speaker 2: So okay, so you started it and it got really big.
3:42
Speaker 2: I went I think like three years ago in Randalls Island. Yes, right,
3:47
Speaker 2: so tens of thousands of people there, a bunch of sponsors,
3:51
Speaker 2: and then the pandemic hits, so you have to kind
3:55
Speaker 2: of put things on a whole for that because you
3:58
Speaker 2: can't do events in New York, especially at that time
4:00
Speaker 2: during the pandemic. And a lot of stuff happens. So
4:02
Speaker 2: now we're in twenty twenty five. You'd made a decision
4:05
Speaker 2: to postpone it this year and reconvene next year, right,
4:11
Speaker 2: So what happened in that timeline and what was the
4:14
Speaker 2: decision to actually, you know, put it on ice for
4:17
Speaker 2: this year and look at twenty twenty six.
4:20
Speaker 7: Yeah, so a couple of things happened in the timeline.
4:24
Speaker 7: I think since COVID, the event's business and industry has
4:29
Speaker 7: been quite difficult.
4:30
Speaker 4: It has changed and never fully recovered, No, never.
4:33
Speaker 7: Fully recovered, and it's becoming increasingly more difficult. And this
4:39
Speaker 7: specific year, I think with the political climate, with the
4:43
Speaker 7: rollbacks and d and I, the economy, all these things
4:46
Speaker 7: make the perfect storm. While it's becoming almost impossible to
4:51
Speaker 7: have events kind of that scale without certain levels of
4:56
Speaker 7: like sponsorship backing. And so when we saw a lot
4:59
Speaker 7: of our big ticket sponsors saying, you know, we're not
5:02
Speaker 7: moving in that direction and being very black and white
5:06
Speaker 7: about not having a budget for events that look like ours.
5:12
Speaker 7: We had to make a decision that we have to shift,
5:15
Speaker 7: take a pause and shift and see what Curfez could
5:17
Speaker 7: look like maybe without that level of sponsorship backing, really
5:20
Speaker 7: pull the venera away and talk to our audience about
5:24
Speaker 7: support and what it looks like with entrepreneurship, because there's
5:28
Speaker 7: a narrative out there that is like super easy and
5:31
Speaker 7: we have this like big, big company and we're you know,
5:34
Speaker 7: doing this with our eyes closed, and we're all like
5:37
Speaker 7: super wealthy and rich. But it's still been a passion
5:40
Speaker 7: project even for ten years later. And so this specific
5:45
Speaker 7: year we decided to it was important for us to
5:48
Speaker 7: kind of just take a pause, take a beat, and
5:50
Speaker 7: restrategize a bit.
5:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's important that it's a reschedule, right, So it's
5:54
Speaker 1: definitely gonna be back in twenty twenty six. But most
5:57
Speaker 1: people don't understand the business of live events. And I
6:00
Speaker 1: was telling me, I was telling you, I said, mal
6:02
Speaker 1: because we're friends now that you know, when you get
6:06
Speaker 1: into this space, it looks it looks great on the
6:08
Speaker 1: day of yes, but it's a full year process to
6:12
Speaker 1: get to show day. Sponsorships is one way that you
6:16
Speaker 1: get money, obviously selling tickets to the event. Break down
6:20
Speaker 1: the business of how it looked for you from year
6:22
Speaker 1: one when it was sitting in the living room to
6:25
Speaker 1: leading up to COVID. I think we're there in twenty nineteen.
6:27
Speaker 1: I think right before, Yeah, that was a massive one.
6:30
Speaker 1: It was in New York Times and I was like
6:32
Speaker 1: so proud, like I know what, she's from our high school.
6:35
Speaker 1: So talk about the business structure and how it's changed
6:39
Speaker 1: obviously pre COVID post COVID.
6:42
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I mean I think, yeah, pre COVID post
6:45
Speaker 6: COVID is literally a thing, right, And it's like I
6:48
Speaker 6: think especially Anyonet from an entrepreneur's stamp trip or business
6:52
Speaker 6: standpoint could understand sort of the magnitude of of what
6:56
Speaker 6: that created.
6:57
Speaker 5: That created for us.
6:58
Speaker 6: I think when we think about our scale, our scale
7:02
Speaker 6: is the biggest thing. Like I think our first one
7:04
Speaker 6: maybe had like we had two sponsors.
7:08
Speaker 5: On the lawn.
7:10
Speaker 6: We had a thousand people maybe mostly you know friends
7:13
Speaker 6: and friends, and then you know, you scale to let's
7:16
Speaker 6: say twenty nineteen, where there's over forty you know, sponsors
7:20
Speaker 6: on the lawn. There's activations. There's people flying in from Ghana,
7:25
Speaker 6: from South Africa, everywhere, And I think what we noticed
7:30
Speaker 6: was that it scaled quickly, and so when you have
7:33
Speaker 6: something and you build the infrastructure, you almost need to
7:36
Speaker 6: have that foresight of like how far can it go?
7:39
Speaker 6: And it wasn't something that we could have ever imagined
7:41
Speaker 6: that it got to them. So we had to adapt
7:44
Speaker 6: as it scaled and figure out are the different ways
7:47
Speaker 6: to work when it came to the pandemic. I mean,
7:51
Speaker 6: we were the largest natural beauty festival in the world,
7:54
Speaker 6: right and you're like, okay, wait, the whole thing is
7:56
Speaker 6: about being in person and connecting in person. What does
8:01
Speaker 6: that look like when we can't do that on a
8:02
Speaker 6: global scale, like the world is shut down? That year,
8:05
Speaker 6: we actually did a virtual curl Fest, which was a
8:09
Speaker 6: success at a Kaba Du game, and so it taught us.
8:14
Speaker 6: What it taught us and validated was that what we
8:17
Speaker 6: were doing was still needed, right even in the midst
8:21
Speaker 6: of not being able to have it. But when you
8:23
Speaker 6: break it down in terms of like what does that
8:25
Speaker 6: mean to produce a live event? Skyrocket costs Skyrocket everything
8:31
Speaker 6: from porta potties to vendors, all the behind the scenes stuff,
8:35
Speaker 6: right that doesn't look like okay, day of beautiful sunshine,
8:38
Speaker 6: beautiful people. But there's a lot of a lot of
8:41
Speaker 6: actual work logistics that go into pace and everything is
8:45
Speaker 6: that dited line to our finances.
8:47
Speaker 7: Yeah, and as we've gotten bigger, there's been more and
8:52
Speaker 7: more expenses that we never thought right, Yeah, increased insurance,
8:56
Speaker 7: all sorts of things that pop up us line items
8:58
Speaker 7: that never.
8:59
Speaker 3: Existed before when we were a couple thousand strong.
9:02
Speaker 7: So as the expenses continue to increase, the line item
9:07
Speaker 7: for those expenses. Also, there's inflation in those things too,
9:10
Speaker 7: but the income doesn't necessarily inflate at the same level. Yes,
9:15
Speaker 7: you know, sometimes we have this, like you know, dichotomy
9:18
Speaker 7: where we have to decide and make a decision what
9:20
Speaker 7: things need to be cut, what one needs to be kept,
9:23
Speaker 7: how do we keep people safe, et cetera. Those are
9:25
Speaker 7: the tough decisions.
9:26
Speaker 1: And y'all are five. This is pre COVID, this is
9:29
Speaker 1: five working women, and this is not your Was this
9:32
Speaker 1: full time or did this ever become full time? No?
9:35
Speaker 3: A lot of people think it is.
9:36
Speaker 7: It's full time for us, but no, and entrepreneurship looks
9:39
Speaker 7: different for everyone. But yeah, it was we were still
9:43
Speaker 7: working women with you know, seasoned careers, yes, also doing
9:49
Speaker 7: this on the side. So it was you know, working
9:51
Speaker 7: nine to five in your day job and then you know.
9:54
Speaker 3: The six to four in the morning the next day, right,
9:58
Speaker 3: especially in.
9:59
Speaker 5: Crophesies, especially in Crawford season.
10:01
Speaker 4: Yeah.
10:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, So talk about the DI cutbacks like out locked,
10:06
Speaker 2: when did that hit? Like, walk us through that whole thing,
10:10
Speaker 2: because a lot of people when they heard about it,
10:12
Speaker 2: it didn't they couldn't relate to it. So that was
10:15
Speaker 2: a narrative that was pushed a lot where it was like,
10:18
Speaker 2: this isn't something that even affects black people because we
10:20
Speaker 2: never benefited from DI. Only people that benefit DI. It
10:24
Speaker 2: was like white women. That's that's popular on the internet.
10:28
Speaker 2: So you guys actually has been affected by it. So
10:31
Speaker 2: can you like walk us through that.
10:33
Speaker 7: Yeah, that's a good point. I think it affects people
10:36
Speaker 7: in different ways. Our direct impact would be kind of
10:39
Speaker 7: sponsorship impact. And we saw it before a little bit
10:43
Speaker 7: trickling it before kind of the this widespread rollback. We
10:47
Speaker 7: saw you know, shifts and like oh, we don't have
10:50
Speaker 7: budgets for you guys this year, or you know, our
10:53
Speaker 7: budgets are tight you know, what can you do for
10:56
Speaker 7: ten dollars?
10:56
Speaker 3: Right?
10:57
Speaker 7: So, I mean some ridiculous conversations we have to have, right,
11:02
Speaker 7: like all the time, we're justifying our worthiness all the time.
11:06
Speaker 7: But it's been like a little bit egregious sometimes this year,
11:09
Speaker 7: this year, and last year about like what they are
11:12
Speaker 7: offering or not offering anymore, And then this year was
11:15
Speaker 7: a complete we're just not moving in the direction at all.
11:19
Speaker 7: We don't have a D and I budget, We don't
11:21
Speaker 7: have a budget any longer for multicultural events. It just
11:26
Speaker 7: doesn't no longer exist. And they've been pretty like black
11:30
Speaker 7: and white about it, and we've seen it and we've
11:32
Speaker 7: seen it quietly happening to a lot of our fellow
11:36
Speaker 7: kind of event producers, but nobody's really talking about it.
11:40
Speaker 7: So that's why we thought it was important for us
11:42
Speaker 7: to kind of have this conversation because a lot of
11:44
Speaker 7: people are suffering in silence and no one is talking
11:47
Speaker 7: about it. So for us, our direct impact was just sponsorship,
11:52
Speaker 7: and sponsorship for us is more than just money. That
11:55
Speaker 7: also is as a part of the activations that are
11:59
Speaker 7: part of curl Fest, right, and so folks come to
12:02
Speaker 7: the event to experience these activations you know, like the
12:06
Speaker 7: big box.
12:07
Speaker 3: Brands like the Targets, et cetera, and will.
12:09
Speaker 7: Come and build out these beautiful spaces for our guests
12:12
Speaker 7: to interact with, provide input all of these things. Even
12:17
Speaker 7: and I'll also add it's not just like folks who
12:20
Speaker 7: are also rolling back with Dee and I. There are
12:22
Speaker 7: also other smaller brands that are affected by just the
12:25
Speaker 7: economy in general and are unable to you know, the
12:29
Speaker 7: maybe the mom and pop beauty brands that are also
12:32
Speaker 7: unable to participate in Curlfest because they just don't have
12:37
Speaker 7: the fund the fund and they're also not being funded
12:39
Speaker 7: by other partners that they've had in the past, like
12:42
Speaker 7: the Targets, et cetera.
12:44
Speaker 1: You're in a unique space. And it's interesting because when
12:48
Speaker 1: we talk about who is a prime target and we've
12:52
Speaker 1: seen this in the UAE for consumers and people of wealth,
12:57
Speaker 1: and it's black women. And when you go to curl Fest,
13:01
Speaker 1: I mean, it is see of black women. And so
13:05
Speaker 1: you said you had to explain to your audience what
13:07
Speaker 1: support looks like. Can elaborate on that. Are you talking
13:12
Speaker 1: from a standpoint of like, hey, it's not just come
13:15
Speaker 1: to the event. It might be Hey, we need to
13:16
Speaker 1: have community initiative. What does that look like? What did
13:19
Speaker 1: you have to explain to the audience.
13:21
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean I think it's layered right.
13:22
Speaker 6: So first I want to say, we have gotten to
13:26
Speaker 6: where we've gotten because of our community. And so at
13:29
Speaker 6: the onset when we created this, it was all in
13:32
Speaker 6: service of our community.
13:34
Speaker 5: What do we need? And the good part about it
13:35
Speaker 5: is we look like our community.
13:37
Speaker 6: We're literally a reflection of what we've built, right, And
13:41
Speaker 6: so when we talk about what we might need from
13:45
Speaker 6: our community, I think, you know, people probably aren't really
13:48
Speaker 6: thinking about it, like they're thinking, oh, tickets out, I'll
13:51
Speaker 6: get a ticket, come to the event. But support looks like,
13:55
Speaker 6: you know, bringing us up in rooms that we're not in.
14:00
Speaker 6: Support looks like maybe just taking a little beat to
14:03
Speaker 6: understand what it takes from a financial standpoint to put
14:07
Speaker 6: on something at the magnitude that we're putting it on, right,
14:11
Speaker 6: And so support looks like sponsorship, you know, support looks
14:16
Speaker 6: like understanding, right, giving grace when we have to make
14:21
Speaker 6: a very difficult decision to you know, have to postpone.
14:26
Speaker 5: And so I think I think if we if we got.
14:29
Speaker 6: Granular support, is a ticket literally is purchasing a ticket
14:33
Speaker 6: if you can't come, maybe purchasing a ticket for a
14:35
Speaker 6: friend or bringing a school, you know, and and it's
14:40
Speaker 6: only a fraction of it, but but it actually is,
14:43
Speaker 6: like it's really important for us to continue to support
14:49
Speaker 6: by us for us.
14:51
Speaker 5: And so.
14:53
Speaker 6: You know, with the rollbacks with DI yes, a lot
14:57
Speaker 6: of large corporations are not able to to fund things
15:02
Speaker 6: that we've been doing. However, what does it look like
15:06
Speaker 6: if we just funded it ourselves as a community, right,
15:10
Speaker 6: And so we know we've been validated by our community
15:14
Speaker 6: that what we've created is like magic and it just
15:16
Speaker 6: feels good and it feels good, but it's also education. Right,
15:20
Speaker 6: we're very very mindful of the thumb print that we're
15:23
Speaker 6: putting on for you know, the next generation, right, the
15:27
Speaker 6: little girl who will wear her hair natural, because now
15:30
Speaker 6: she sees that, and so how do we keep that going?
15:36
Speaker 4: So what's the pathway forward?
15:38
Speaker 2: Because Okay, in the climate, Donald Trump's still president for
15:42
Speaker 2: the next three years, right, so the d I think
15:45
Speaker 2: probably is not going to get any better. And it's
15:49
Speaker 2: also a recession, so spending habits is actually decreasing as well, right,
15:54
Speaker 2: Like that's having an effect on events across the board also,
16:00
Speaker 2: So from consumers spending less money in corporation spending less money,
16:03
Speaker 2: how do you see a pathway forward to actually.
16:06
Speaker 4: Rent back up?
16:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I mean we're working through what that looks like.
16:11
Speaker 7: I think it's just setting expectations that curl Fest may
16:14
Speaker 7: look a little different in the years. I think a
16:17
Speaker 7: big thing that Melody mentioned was having grace and part
16:21
Speaker 7: of these conversation is to kind of humanize what it
16:24
Speaker 7: looks like to be an entrepreneur.
16:26
Speaker 3: And it's not this big corporation.
16:27
Speaker 7: These are three black women who are trying and you know,
16:30
Speaker 7: carrying this business on our backs because it's bigger than us.
16:33
Speaker 3: And so when curl Fest does.
16:36
Speaker 7: Look different, right, and the reasons why, let's have these
16:39
Speaker 7: conversations now proactively about why it's looking different. And may
16:43
Speaker 7: not have you know, thirty five sponsors on the law,
16:46
Speaker 7: we may have three, right, but what we do have
16:49
Speaker 7: and will always have is community, which was the heart
16:51
Speaker 7: of the event anyways, and you know, we'll just build
16:55
Speaker 7: it back. I think we've got through We've got through COVID,
16:58
Speaker 7: We've got through a pandemic, right, Yeah, all of these
17:01
Speaker 7: things and the economy, inflation, all of these things and
17:05
Speaker 7: we'll get through this too. It's just you know, being
17:08
Speaker 7: for us. I think for the last several years, we've
17:11
Speaker 7: gone through so many hurdles that we haven't talked about everything. Yeah,
17:15
Speaker 7: everything that we could happen has happened, But we've always
17:19
Speaker 7: kind of take the stance like let's have like this
17:21
Speaker 7: very polished message, pr message to the audience and a
17:26
Speaker 7: little bit like ambiguous.
17:28
Speaker 3: About what's happening.
17:30
Speaker 7: But I think we wanted to take a shift away
17:32
Speaker 7: from that this year and be a little bit more
17:34
Speaker 7: transparent about the process and the struggles and where we
17:37
Speaker 7: need support, because it's not a victim story.
17:39
Speaker 3: It's really just like this is what it is.
17:41
Speaker 7: This is the reality, and we know everyone also has
17:44
Speaker 7: their own reality. Because if you have to decide between
17:47
Speaker 7: a curlf has taken and buying eggs, obviously you buy
17:49
Speaker 7: the eggs, right, But we're not asking folks to do that.
17:52
Speaker 7: But support could look like a different number of different things.
17:55
Speaker 7: If it's not a ticket, it's alike on a post.
17:57
Speaker 7: Because also the algorithm has changed from few you to
18:00
Speaker 7: go to back from when we used to launch the
18:03
Speaker 7: event and used to sell out thirty thousand tickets in
18:06
Speaker 7: two days, now a post could be out for our
18:10
Speaker 7: month and no one sees it, and so resharing, you know,
18:14
Speaker 7: using you know, the different ways to have organic reach
18:18
Speaker 7: is also a way to support.
18:20
Speaker 3: Us as well.
18:21
Speaker 1: Was there anything that surprised you. I mean, you're very
18:23
Speaker 1: much grounded in reality, but you've had I don't even
18:26
Speaker 1: want to call them sponsors at this level, right because
18:28
Speaker 1: somebody's with you for more than five years. This is
18:29
Speaker 1: a partnership, partnership, so like, were their partners who you
18:33
Speaker 1: were with and you come to, you know, the past
18:37
Speaker 1: couple of years and they're no longer there Was there
18:39
Speaker 1: a surprising factor or are you just like this is
18:41
Speaker 1: somehow sometimes out of cooking crumbles a little bit.
18:45
Speaker 3: So we were surprised. We were very surprised.
18:48
Speaker 7: Surprised folks who have been with us since the Beggay
18:50
Speaker 7: one and said all of a sudden they can't work
18:54
Speaker 7: with us, and sometimes it's not their decision. We've also
18:56
Speaker 7: saw a lot of businesses get acquired in the last
18:59
Speaker 7: several years, and.
19:02
Speaker 3: That's just the nature of the way you do business.
19:05
Speaker 7: Sometimes too Nobody talks about like exit strategies and like
19:09
Speaker 7: the goal is sometimes to get acquired, you know, and
19:12
Speaker 7: maybe if that does happen, you may not have to
19:15
Speaker 7: say to say I really want to do crow Fest
19:18
Speaker 7: this year, you may not have that level of power anymore.
19:21
Speaker 7: So we've seen that happen with a number a number
19:27
Speaker 7: beauty brands in the past that have been with us
19:29
Speaker 7: since they won.
19:30
Speaker 1: So the other part of it, it was like a
19:32
Speaker 1: second part of the question, is that from a competitive landscape.
19:35
Speaker 1: Obviously crow Fest was for me the first and the biggest,
19:39
Speaker 1: and I'm still going to look at it that way,
19:42
Speaker 1: but from a competitive landscape, as you start seeing people
19:45
Speaker 1: pop up with beauty festivals and beauty conferences and they
19:49
Speaker 1: don't look like you tell me the realities that you
19:52
Speaker 1: face when you see things like that happen.
19:54
Speaker 6: Yeah, I mean, it's just the reality, right of if
19:57
Speaker 6: you've built something, at some point, at some turning point,
20:00
Speaker 6: there will be something that perhaps maybe mirrors it or
20:04
Speaker 6: it touches it. I think one of the things that
20:07
Speaker 6: has also been interesting for us is, you know, we
20:10
Speaker 6: talk about obviously our women are our number one supporter,
20:15
Speaker 6: but the men are there too and right, and so
20:18
Speaker 6: we've you know, we've had events where we've had activation
20:22
Speaker 6: specifically for men for hair and beards and things of
20:24
Speaker 6: that nature. We also have an empowerment stage right and
20:28
Speaker 6: there we talk about very real aspects of our community
20:31
Speaker 6: that isn't necessarily centered on here. But is it about
20:35
Speaker 6: you know, empowerment, Is it about self image? Is it
20:38
Speaker 6: about you know, mental capacity? And so I say that
20:42
Speaker 6: to say that when you look at the aperture of
20:46
Speaker 6: who our audience is, it actually is larger than just
20:49
Speaker 6: the black female with natural hair. And because of that,
20:52
Speaker 6: that means there's competitive when when when sponsors, depending on
20:56
Speaker 6: who they are, if it isn't just a black hair brand,
21:00
Speaker 6: there's choices for them to where they spend their money, right,
21:03
Speaker 6: And so I think one of the challenges that we've
21:07
Speaker 6: had over the years because we were fortunate enough to
21:10
Speaker 6: be trailblazers in this space is, you know, brands are
21:15
Speaker 6: now seeing the importance of the black female, the importance
21:19
Speaker 6: of the billions dollars of money that is spent on haircare.
21:24
Speaker 6: So they'll maybe have a little portion of their regular
21:27
Speaker 6: event in a pop up of a hair a here
21:30
Speaker 6: moment there, And I think everything can still coexist. I
21:34
Speaker 6: think what makes crow Fests different is literally the community.
21:38
Speaker 6: I think it's our community. I think it's the need
21:40
Speaker 6: the voids that we're feeling that at scale, I feel
21:45
Speaker 6: like some of the other places or touch points that
21:48
Speaker 6: here brands may show up, it's not it doesn't feel
21:52
Speaker 6: quite the same as when you support crow fests.
21:54
Speaker 7: Yeah, and I think we get that question a lot.
21:57
Speaker 7: You know, what's your differentiating fact?
21:59
Speaker 3: There?
21:59
Speaker 7: Somebody else could come up with a festival that looks
22:01
Speaker 7: and we've had a number of you know, Ceasyn desists
22:04
Speaker 7: going out last several years.
22:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, folks are coming out with the.
22:07
Speaker 7: Exact name right, curl Fest, Diana, cral Fest, right all over,
22:12
Speaker 7: right logos everything, So that's another conversation. But I think
22:17
Speaker 7: it's you know, our authenticity is part of our differentiating factor,
22:21
Speaker 7: and there's no one that can kind of recreate that.
22:23
Speaker 3: And there's something special.
22:24
Speaker 7: About the fact that this this is for our majority.
22:29
Speaker 7: Our demo is black women, and it is created and
22:31
Speaker 7: founded and run by black women. I think that's also
22:33
Speaker 7: something that sets us apart.
22:36
Speaker 3: But it's a it's a challenge.
22:37
Speaker 7: I'll be lying if I say it wasn't a challenge
22:40
Speaker 7: that when somebody does come up with an event and
22:42
Speaker 7: we're like, wait, this looks like curl Fest, you know,
22:44
Speaker 7: and then we question like, are we doing the right thing?
22:47
Speaker 7: Do we need to add something different? You know, will
22:50
Speaker 7: our fans know the difference and all of these things,
22:52
Speaker 7: and we have these conversations.
22:54
Speaker 3: All the time.
22:55
Speaker 7: But there's also something you know that you I think
22:58
Speaker 7: there's there's a there's a level of like.
23:04
Speaker 3: I was, there was a level.
23:05
Speaker 7: Of comfort in knowing that what you created was created
23:09
Speaker 7: by us and no one else can recreate that magic
23:13
Speaker 7: something that's might be not even tangible, just like no
23:17
Speaker 7: one could create another investments.
23:19
Speaker 3: It would never be another Troy.
23:21
Speaker 7: Look into chemistry, create another investments, right like they could try,
23:27
Speaker 7: but it will never be the same.
23:29
Speaker 2: So yeah, So what's the state of black women's hair
23:33
Speaker 2: like as far as when we first talked, I mean,
23:35
Speaker 2: obviously there was a lot of attention. I think Chris
23:37
Speaker 2: Rock did that documentary, you know, billions of dollars. Is
23:42
Speaker 2: it the same level of enthusiasm in regards to the
23:47
Speaker 2: business of the hair or has that kind of died
23:51
Speaker 2: down a little bit? Yeah?
23:54
Speaker 3: So the business of hair is I want to say
23:57
Speaker 3: it has died down.
23:57
Speaker 7: There's ebbs and flows about like the natural movement when
24:01
Speaker 7: it had you know, just caught on, and I think
24:04
Speaker 7: we're a little bit spoiled being in New York.
24:06
Speaker 3: You know, it's just kind of the norm now, you know,
24:09
Speaker 3: and everybody is so Fluidou's not the norm though all
24:11
Speaker 3: around the world either.
24:12
Speaker 7: There's still conversations. There's still conversations being had in boardrooms
24:17
Speaker 7: in corporate you know, walls as well about hair and.
24:21
Speaker 3: What is deemed kept and unkempt. And so there's still
24:24
Speaker 3: work to be had.
24:26
Speaker 7: But I think the business of here care in general
24:28
Speaker 7: hasn't died down at all, is actually increased, right, I think.
24:31
Speaker 3: I think this last stat I read.
24:33
Speaker 7: Was like Black women spend nine times more than any
24:36
Speaker 7: ethnic group in beauty and personal care, and it's just
24:40
Speaker 7: continuing to move in that direction. What that looks like
24:43
Speaker 7: with beauty, whether you're wearing curls or twenty inches, you know,
24:47
Speaker 7: bust down, it really doesn't matter. Like a black woman,
24:50
Speaker 7: I think hair is an identifying factor for black women
24:54
Speaker 7: much more than just aesthetics. It represents like who you are,
24:59
Speaker 7: represents where you come I'm from, and represents my mother
25:01
Speaker 7: and my mother's mother, you know, and stories.
25:04
Speaker 5: And creativity, relativity.
25:06
Speaker 7: And growing up and I remember this, you know, there's
25:09
Speaker 7: a nostalgia with you know, your hair as well.
25:13
Speaker 3: So I don't think that's going anyway going anywhere.
25:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm not sure if twenty inches is a bus
25:17
Speaker 1: down gotta be like thirty.
25:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been a long time.
25:22
Speaker 1: I know when you give those numbers, obviously have a
25:25
Speaker 1: watch over. Dough to braise is expensive. It's just expensive.
25:31
Speaker 1: And like you said that, that number is going to
25:34
Speaker 1: continue to increase as more people look at opportunities for
25:37
Speaker 1: entrepreneurship to create in that space.
25:39
Speaker 7: Yeah.
25:40
Speaker 1: I want to talk about something that is important and
25:42
Speaker 1: it's something that we've obviotually had looked into when we
25:46
Speaker 1: were creating the event. Is the timing of it because
25:50
Speaker 1: summer is usually when you see a lot of music festivals.
25:53
Speaker 3: Yeah.
25:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, a lot of people are going on tour, a
25:57
Speaker 1: lot of black events that happening. Yeah, and so you're
26:02
Speaker 1: right and smacked in the middle of that. And so
26:04
Speaker 1: talk about the timing of it in terms of why
26:07
Speaker 1: you chose to do it when you did and competing
26:10
Speaker 1: with some of those people who are fighting for those
26:12
Speaker 1: same sponsorship dollars that you are looking for.
26:16
Speaker 2: Yeah.
26:16
Speaker 6: Yeah, Well, when we think about when we think about
26:19
Speaker 6: New York, Crow fests.
26:23
Speaker 1: It.
26:23
Speaker 6: You know, it's funny, right when we first first ponjured
26:27
Speaker 6: up the whole idea, we called it a picnic in
26:29
Speaker 6: the park, like if I gave you the flyer that
26:32
Speaker 6: I made back then, we literally said crow Fest a
26:35
Speaker 6: picnic in the park, which is kind of ironic, right
26:38
Speaker 6: because we called it crow Fest. So it almost manifested
26:41
Speaker 6: itself before we even realized what it had the potential
26:44
Speaker 6: to be. And I only bring that up because the
26:47
Speaker 6: grass aspect of it, the summer aspect of it, is
26:50
Speaker 6: actually a pillar for what we've been able to create,
26:54
Speaker 6: and so that puts us in the summer month for
26:56
Speaker 6: New York. Obviously, you know what goals and asked rations
27:00
Speaker 6: to expand to other countries and continents. You know, we'll
27:04
Speaker 6: have a little bit more leeway in terms of that.
27:06
Speaker 6: When we did Atlanta, Atlanta was in what's it September.
27:13
Speaker 1: Twenty was that twenty nineteen?
27:16
Speaker 3: Yeah?
27:16
Speaker 5: Yeah, twenty nineteen.
27:18
Speaker 6: And so you know when we think about, okay, what,
27:21
Speaker 6: you know, what's the formula for crow Fess, Like what
27:24
Speaker 6: has to be true for it to feel like Crowfests
27:26
Speaker 6: to not feel like maybe a convention inside, right or
27:31
Speaker 6: a symposium and so the outside, the outside sort of
27:35
Speaker 6: grounding of the earth is a part of it. So
27:38
Speaker 6: what you know, what that means is tough decisions, right,
27:42
Speaker 6: What that means is early pitching. What that means is
27:45
Speaker 6: continuing to try and to be honest, convince some partners
27:52
Speaker 6: that there's a need. Our audience is a spending audience.
27:59
Speaker 6: They come with an tension. We have stories for days
28:03
Speaker 6: of you know, partners that come on the grass, whether
28:05
Speaker 6: that's a small business or a large business, they bring
28:08
Speaker 6: in boxes and boxes and tons of products. When they
28:12
Speaker 6: when it's time to load out, they're loading out with nothing.
28:16
Speaker 6: And so I think when we think about it from
28:18
Speaker 6: there's an economic part of it that we can deliver.
28:22
Speaker 5: We know that we have a primed audience who is
28:26
Speaker 5: in need of service.
28:27
Speaker 6: And so you're going to check that box when you
28:29
Speaker 6: come to Curl Fast as a sponsor. I think when
28:32
Speaker 6: you think about there always will be something. So so
28:38
Speaker 6: so it's like, Okay, well if we don't do it
28:41
Speaker 6: in June, what if we're doing in July, oh something else?
28:44
Speaker 6: Oh okay, how about August? There's always going to be something.
28:47
Speaker 6: And so I think for any entrepreneur out there, yes,
28:50
Speaker 6: there's ebbs and flows. There's things you have to ship,
28:52
Speaker 6: you have to be fluid, but at the same time,
28:55
Speaker 6: at some point you have to feel confident in what
28:57
Speaker 6: you've created.
28:58
Speaker 5: Otherwise why wake up and do it?
29:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was going to say the same thing.
29:01
Speaker 7: There's every month we've entertained, we've moved Curlfest from July before.
29:07
Speaker 7: But there's always something right. There's always something there's always
29:10
Speaker 7: proximity to another event. And in the boardrooms where we're
29:14
Speaker 7: not in, you know, they probably have conversations like, listen,
29:17
Speaker 7: we only have money for one black.
29:18
Speaker 3: Event this year, which one is it going to be?
29:21
Speaker 4: Right?
29:21
Speaker 7: And so it's really just being steadfast and like what
29:24
Speaker 7: you offer, keeping and maintaining those relationships with the partners
29:28
Speaker 7: that you have so far, and just moving forward with
29:31
Speaker 7: what you believe that you feel like it's offering the
29:33
Speaker 7: most value to your audience and your consumer everything else. Like,
29:39
Speaker 7: there's always going to be competition. There's not in really
29:41
Speaker 7: much we can do about that. But it doesn't I
29:44
Speaker 7: want to say that it's easy either, like's not. That's
29:47
Speaker 7: probably part of what is part of the nature of
29:52
Speaker 7: business everding flowing over the last few years as well
29:55
Speaker 7: for us and not really kind of getting back to
29:57
Speaker 7: where we were in twenty nineteen yet will but not yet.
30:01
Speaker 7: But that's part of the conversation too.
30:04
Speaker 2: So what is the business model to expand like even
30:07
Speaker 2: outside of a physical event, Like are there like tangible products,
30:11
Speaker 2: is their online community? Like is there anything outside of
30:16
Speaker 2: just the one event?
30:18
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's a great point.
30:21
Speaker 7: We do have, you know, some merchandise that we offer
30:25
Speaker 7: what we are working on this year, and part of
30:28
Speaker 7: the kind of strategy is to like put more time
30:31
Speaker 7: and effort into the other you know, ancillary things like
30:35
Speaker 7: having a membership. We already have a community, right, but
30:38
Speaker 7: we want to like amplify that in a bigger way.
30:41
Speaker 7: So we're working on that and hopefully that will be
30:43
Speaker 7: launched also with next year all of.
30:46
Speaker 3: The other things.
30:47
Speaker 7: I always say the melody that you know, crow fest
30:50
Speaker 7: may not it be it's our biggest, you know, identifying
30:54
Speaker 7: part of our brand. But sometimes festivals and things of
30:57
Speaker 7: that space may not be the money maker. Somebody can
31:00
Speaker 7: have an event that large and bring in millions of dollars,
31:04
Speaker 7: but the money maker.
31:05
Speaker 3: Are is the T shirt sales and the food and beverage.
31:09
Speaker 7: And your membership community and whatever ancillary things that you
31:13
Speaker 7: can branch off of your main kind of like identifying
31:18
Speaker 7: brand position.
31:19
Speaker 6: Yeah, yeah, I think I think we have a plethora
31:23
Speaker 6: of ideas. Yeah, we are no shortages of ideas over
31:26
Speaker 6: the years. I think if we haven't a real conversation,
31:29
Speaker 6: it's the capital. And so even the non yes, Crofast
31:34
Speaker 6: is our tempole, A physical event is our tempole. I
31:37
Speaker 6: still will forever think there's such power in human in
31:42
Speaker 6: person contact, right, and so you know, I don't see
31:47
Speaker 6: a world in which that doesn't exist. But when you
31:49
Speaker 6: talk about the other pillars, right, whether it's a product,
31:52
Speaker 6: whether it's merged, whether it's you know, online sessions, they're
31:57
Speaker 6: still capital that's needed to make those happen as well.
32:00
Speaker 6: They're almost little subsets of businesses. And so some of
32:05
Speaker 6: the work that we have been continuously doing is strategizing.
32:09
Speaker 5: On how do we increase capital.
32:12
Speaker 1: One of those ways is you know, I'm sure as
32:15
Speaker 1: you're growing this business and people are seeing the size
32:18
Speaker 1: of the audience, I'm sure people are approaching you trying
32:21
Speaker 1: to figure out how they can acquire the brand, perhaps
32:27
Speaker 1: merged with the brand and added to their portfolio. However,
32:30
Speaker 1: those conversations going for you posts in pre COVID.
32:36
Speaker 7: Yeah, we've had conversations fairly early on even I think
32:40
Speaker 7: probably it to curl Fest. Maybe on our firs you
32:42
Speaker 7: have curl fees. We've had investors probably approach us and
32:48
Speaker 7: you know those those we've gotten pretty close with conversations
32:51
Speaker 7: with investors. We've never We still are own one hundred
32:55
Speaker 7: percent ownership of our business, which is also you know,
32:57
Speaker 7: I want to make sure that it's clear.
32:59
Speaker 1: But the.
33:04
Speaker 3: It's difficult, right because it's a learning curve for us.
33:09
Speaker 3: We have been building.
33:10
Speaker 7: We didn't start out this business thinking it was gonna
33:12
Speaker 7: be a business. We started out this business.
33:14
Speaker 3: It was something that we felt like we needed. It
33:17
Speaker 3: was a hobby. Let's do this fun thing.
33:18
Speaker 7: We need this community, and it turned into a business.
33:20
Speaker 7: So it was and sometimes it happens that way, and
33:23
Speaker 7: so there was a little bit of like learning and
33:27
Speaker 7: unlearning that had to happen. We're building the plane as
33:30
Speaker 7: we fly it. And so if you asked us maybe
33:32
Speaker 7: six years ago, like what's your valuation.
33:35
Speaker 3: For your business?
33:35
Speaker 7: There will be some off the wall numbers, like our
33:37
Speaker 7: partners probably would have said at the time, like I'm
33:40
Speaker 7: not again an investor until we get you know, two
33:42
Speaker 7: hundred million dollar valuation, which is not realistic, right, And
33:46
Speaker 7: so I think part of the conversation is, really, you know, what,
33:53
Speaker 7: what are the real valuation numbers that you can assess?
33:55
Speaker 1: What is it?
33:56
Speaker 7: Is the exit strategy or something that you thought of
33:59
Speaker 7: that it's probably something that we think of more lately
34:02
Speaker 7: than we have in the past, because we built this
34:05
Speaker 7: baby up, and we start to stop saying calling our
34:08
Speaker 7: business the baby, because there's a there's a connection there.
34:12
Speaker 7: As much as we feel like it's much more than
34:15
Speaker 7: a business, it's still a business, right, and so there's
34:18
Speaker 7: still impact that you can do even if you move
34:20
Speaker 7: in different directions. So I think the investor conversation it's
34:26
Speaker 7: something we still get approached daily. We're working on making
34:29
Speaker 7: sure that we have we have the best numbers to
34:34
Speaker 7: back up an evaluation that folks kind of try to
34:37
Speaker 7: offer us.
34:38
Speaker 3: I think as black women, we also have the barrier to.
34:45
Speaker 7: Have to overprove our worthiness in those spaces, and so
34:49
Speaker 7: we'll get low ball numbers all day, right, and our
34:52
Speaker 7: counterparts may get you know, like some crazy, you know,
34:56
Speaker 7: nine figure valuation for something that hasn't made a dillarg
35:00
Speaker 7: learn profit, right, And so it's a it's a space
35:05
Speaker 7: that we are still kind of navigating, and yeah, it's
35:08
Speaker 7: it's it's still a learning curve for us.
35:10
Speaker 6: But yeah, yeah, I mean the only thing I would
35:13
Speaker 6: add is there's also when you think about any partnership
35:18
Speaker 6: in any any capacity, if you're still going to be
35:21
Speaker 6: a part of it, whether it's you know, sometimes the
35:24
Speaker 6: approach where the offers were a majority, right, and so
35:28
Speaker 6: we know we do know to a certain degree what
35:31
Speaker 6: that means, right, and so knowing communities at our center
35:35
Speaker 6: and what we've done to build this empire that we've
35:38
Speaker 6: been able to create, this movement that we've been able
35:41
Speaker 6: to create, how do you scale grow potentially do you know,
35:47
Speaker 6: a shared a shared investment, but also keep the integrity
35:51
Speaker 6: of it.
35:52
Speaker 5: And that's a very that's a very real thing.
35:55
Speaker 6: And I mean most you know within our community, specifically
35:58
Speaker 6: Black communities with typically we can all think of numerous
36:02
Speaker 6: brands that were for us, by us and they've you know,
36:06
Speaker 6: sold to big corporations and you know, there's mixed feelings
36:11
Speaker 6: from the you know, community as to whether or not
36:13
Speaker 6: was right choice or not has their product changed. That's
36:16
Speaker 6: a big headline. It's no, this is no longer the
36:19
Speaker 6: same they sold out, change the formula, and so of
36:24
Speaker 6: course life is about change. We're not expecting to look
36:28
Speaker 6: and be exactly what we were. However, I think when
36:32
Speaker 6: we think about something a big decision like that, because
36:35
Speaker 6: when we started it wasn't a business.
36:38
Speaker 5: That means the drive, the passion, all of that.
36:42
Speaker 6: What our core is isn't just a money driving thing, right,
36:46
Speaker 6: and so I mean, if it was, we would be
36:49
Speaker 6: doing it full time.
36:50
Speaker 5: But this hasn't been.
36:51
Speaker 6: We haven't been able to do it full time, right
36:54
Speaker 6: in terms of paying our our personal salaries and things
36:57
Speaker 6: that nature. But what we know is what we created
37:00
Speaker 6: is bigger than us and that's the fuel that keeps
37:02
Speaker 6: us going. But when you think about, you know, a
37:05
Speaker 6: potential investor, I think it is important that like whatever
37:09
Speaker 6: that partnership is, that there's core values that are shared
37:13
Speaker 6: that we feel as if the next evolution of what
37:17
Speaker 6: we built will at least come from the same space.
37:23
Speaker 2: What about like the elements as far as rain, stuff
37:26
Speaker 2: like that, as that play in insurance and you know,
37:30
Speaker 2: doing an event. We never did an event outside and
37:33
Speaker 2: one of the reasons why is because of that, right,
37:35
Speaker 2: So how.
37:36
Speaker 4: Does that plan?
37:38
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's tough.
37:42
Speaker 7: I was like the director of operations, right and the
37:45
Speaker 7: creative director for the business.
37:48
Speaker 3: It's super tough.
37:51
Speaker 7: There's so much unpredictability in an event in general, and
37:56
Speaker 7: adding the weather is another element.
37:58
Speaker 3: That you.
38:00
Speaker 7: Sleepless nights we've had, you know, oftentimes venues that we
38:04
Speaker 7: work with you can't there's no rain day, right, that's it.
38:08
Speaker 7: And then you know, we have insurances that you know
38:12
Speaker 7: that are enormous numbers that we have to pay for
38:15
Speaker 7: in case that there's a natural disaster or weather condition
38:20
Speaker 7: where folks have to evacuate, and then they may get
38:23
Speaker 7: some of the portion of the ticket sales back. We
38:25
Speaker 7: may get that, but we wouldn't get fully one hundred
38:28
Speaker 7: percent reimbursed at all. It would be a significant loss
38:31
Speaker 7: even with the insurance and some weather conditions we've gone
38:36
Speaker 7: through everywhether yeah monsoon right, yeah, I mean it was
38:41
Speaker 7: literally like I mean, through God's grace, no one got hurt.
38:45
Speaker 7: But probably one of our very first crol fests back
38:48
Speaker 7: in and Prospect part. We don't really talk about it much,
38:51
Speaker 7: but we have pictures of those times and right when
38:56
Speaker 7: Curlfest was about to be over, when it was we
38:59
Speaker 7: had a great day and then the sky opened up
39:02
Speaker 7: and it was literally a hurricane that came through, trees,
39:06
Speaker 7: falling things. Everybody had to run to safety and we
39:11
Speaker 7: couldn't clean up the place. The cleaning crew had to leave, right,
39:15
Speaker 7: and everyone had to go run to safety, like things
39:17
Speaker 7: flying literally everywhere. We get back to should I tell
39:22
Speaker 7: the story, it's over, So we get back to, you know,
39:27
Speaker 7: like four in the morning. Okay, guys, the skun the
39:30
Speaker 7: stop raining, let's go clean up. And it's a disaster. Disaster,
39:34
Speaker 7: it is a disaster. There are things everywhere. At that time,
39:37
Speaker 7: Curlfest was free and so folks could bring in whatever
39:40
Speaker 7: they could bring in, right, And the one thing they
39:45
Speaker 7: called it in Brooklyn was they called them the dog walkers. Right,
39:50
Speaker 7: there's demographic of folks that would be up at five
39:54
Speaker 7: in the morning, just make sure the place is clean.
39:57
Speaker 7: That Prospect Park is back to where it used to be,
39:59
Speaker 7: what it looks like before the first dog walker hits
40:01
Speaker 7: the grass, And that did not happen. And all we
40:05
Speaker 7: saw were the dog walkers out there with pictures with
40:09
Speaker 7: our brand on the ground, right, taking pictures and sending
40:12
Speaker 7: them to all these communities all over social media, all
40:16
Speaker 7: of their you know, not in my backyard. Communities that
40:18
Speaker 7: were like, we don't want this kind of debauchery back
40:22
Speaker 7: in our space, even though we it was literally a hurricane, right,
40:26
Speaker 7: and so those are the types of things that started
40:29
Speaker 7: curw fends and it was.
40:31
Speaker 3: Like, we can never get through this again.
40:32
Speaker 7: We were like in tears picking up trash with our hands,
40:36
Speaker 7: you know, like they might have been like, you know,
40:39
Speaker 7: we didn't have security at that time. So there was
40:41
Speaker 7: a liquor bottle next door crow fest from Banner. That's
40:44
Speaker 7: what they associated, right that. They didn't associate community and
40:48
Speaker 7: like beautiful spaces and family event. They associated you know,
40:52
Speaker 7: this this event of color that came into our backyard
40:55
Speaker 7: and destroyed our part. So we had to get through that,
41:00
Speaker 7: you know, we did. We had to rebuild the brand
41:03
Speaker 7: and move right. We begged and begged and begged.
41:06
Speaker 3: To stay in Brooklyn. We're still here to this day,
41:08
Speaker 3: ten years later.
41:09
Speaker 7: We hear people saying it's never been the same since
41:11
Speaker 7: you left Brooklyn, right, And the fact that the thing
41:15
Speaker 7: about it is, I mean, listen, I'm such an open
41:18
Speaker 7: book and I've gotten spank for saying so much, but
41:20
Speaker 7: I don't care, Like you know, we have tried, We
41:23
Speaker 7: went all the way up to you know, the tops
41:25
Speaker 7: of the offices to beg to stay in Brooklyn and
41:28
Speaker 7: Prospect Park specifically.
41:30
Speaker 3: And they just won't don't want our type of event
41:32
Speaker 3: in that space.
41:33
Speaker 5: Well they wouldn't allow us.
41:34
Speaker 3: They wouldn't allow us too.
41:36
Speaker 6: And so obviously once we scaled beyond you know, eight
41:39
Speaker 6: hundred people, there's safety, right, and so every human that
41:44
Speaker 6: touches on the grass we are responsible for, right. And
41:47
Speaker 6: so yeah, the sea of crowds when you see our
41:50
Speaker 6: videos and you actually don't see the grass because it's humans,
41:54
Speaker 6: every single human we're responsible for. And so we had
41:59
Speaker 6: to make decisions that have their safety, our safety at
42:02
Speaker 6: the forefront.
42:03
Speaker 3: Yeah.
42:03
Speaker 6: But yeah, I mean, I think the great part about
42:07
Speaker 6: a story like that is when that happened, it felt
42:10
Speaker 6: like there was no return. It felt like close up shop.
42:13
Speaker 6: How are we ever going to come back? And we
42:15
Speaker 6: did and we will continue to do it. So when
42:17
Speaker 6: we talk about like what is the landscape now? Okay,
42:20
Speaker 6: DEI the Orange Man like all of it, it's roadblocks.
42:27
Speaker 6: It's roadblocks, and we will figure out a way to
42:29
Speaker 6: push past it.
42:31
Speaker 1: Does crow fests is this synonymous with New York? Does
42:36
Speaker 1: it have to stay in New York. I know you
42:37
Speaker 1: did Atlanta. What did we learn? What did you learn
42:40
Speaker 1: from moving it to a different city? Right, we did
42:44
Speaker 1: invest Fst London. We learned a lot, yes, right, Like
42:47
Speaker 1: it was like, okay, obviously it's a shortened, more concise event,
42:51
Speaker 1: but there was a lot of different things. You're doing
42:53
Speaker 1: something international? Is that an option as well? Oh for sure?
42:57
Speaker 6: Yeah.
42:57
Speaker 7: And we always loved like it's the birthplace of girl
43:00
Speaker 7: us to have at least at least one curl fez here,
43:02
Speaker 7: but yeah, curl Fez on the road for sure. What
43:05
Speaker 7: we learned in Atlanta is that we have a beautiful
43:08
Speaker 7: community in Atlanta too that loves us there. Right if,
43:11
Speaker 7: I feel like the hair capital of the world of
43:13
Speaker 7: the United States at least, and you know, they loved
43:17
Speaker 7: us there. They opened us with you know, open arms
43:20
Speaker 7: in Atlanta, and we love to come back. We love
43:22
Speaker 7: to be in a lot of places. And you know
43:24
Speaker 7: that's on the that's on the map.
43:27
Speaker 4: Well, thank you guys for coming.
43:29
Speaker 2: Before we leave, tell her what can they expect as
43:33
Speaker 2: far as you know, twenty twenty six is any waiting
43:36
Speaker 2: list website like you know, pre sale?
43:39
Speaker 4: Yeah, all of the doing Oh yeah, all those things.
43:42
Speaker 7: So there's a pre sale on curlfest dot com c
43:46
Speaker 7: U R L F E SD should I talk to
43:47
Speaker 7: you guys. There's a pre sale and curlfest dot com
43:53
Speaker 7: special for folks who are riding for us for.
43:55
Speaker 3: Curl Fest twenty twenty six. We need your support.
44:00
Speaker 7: We need your support early, right and if you can't spare,
44:03
Speaker 7: you know, buy a ticket, Tell your friends, share that
44:06
Speaker 7: Curlfest is coming back. You know, understand like who is
44:10
Speaker 7: behind the brand that we're here for y'all and we
44:13
Speaker 7: are not going anywhere. We're also working on smaller kind
44:17
Speaker 7: of community initiatives this year as well, So look out
44:21
Speaker 7: for announcements on Curly Girl Collective, our Instagram page, sign
44:25
Speaker 7: up to our mailing list on curlfest dot com and
44:27
Speaker 7: buy a ticket.
44:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I want to say that we appreciate y'all.
44:31
Speaker 1: And I told you just before someone we probably had
44:34
Speaker 1: this conversation that watching you guys create an event helped
44:37
Speaker 1: inspire us creating events. And there was some details when
44:40
Speaker 1: we went to curl Fest when you bought the kids
44:43
Speaker 1: from the community center, right, and I was like, Wow,
44:46
Speaker 1: that's incredible. I was like, we're doing an event. We
44:49
Speaker 1: gotta do the same, and so we've been finding kids
44:51
Speaker 1: down from the community center to investors. So we appreciate
44:54
Speaker 1: y'all for kicking down the doors and we're gonna support
44:57
Speaker 1: you anyway we can.
44:57
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you for having us us.
45:00
Speaker 4: God, thank you for rock Rooster seeing next week. Peace.
45:03
Speaker 1: Peace.
45:04
Speaker 8: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
45:08
Speaker 8: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
45:12
Speaker 8: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with
45:16
Speaker 8: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
45:20
Speaker 8: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
45:24
Speaker 8: Donald J. Trump's leadership. I'm Christy nom the United States
45:27
Speaker 8: Secretary of Homeland Security. Under President Trump, attempted illegal border
45:32
Speaker 8: crossings are at the lowest levels ever recorded, and over
45:36
Speaker 8: one hundred thousand illegal aliens have been arrested. If you
45:39
Speaker 8: are here illegally, your next you will be fine nearly
45:43
Speaker 8: one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned and deported, you will
45:47
Speaker 8: never return. But if you register using our CBP home
45:51
Speaker 8: app and leave now, you could be allowed to return legally.
45:54
Speaker 8: Do what's right.
45:56
Speaker 3: Leave now.
45:57
Speaker 8: Under President Trump, America's laws, board and families will be protected.
46:02
Speaker 1: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,