Latest / QUESTION EVERYTHING / Profit From Your Passion: with Nancy Twine (Founder of Briogeo)
Transcript
- 0:04Speaker 1: Big things happen when you're pretty, pretty bold, pretty clever,
- 0:08Speaker 1: pretty strong. I'm Danielle Robe and each week my guests
- 0:12Speaker 1: and I have conversations that put a new spin on pretty.
- 0:17Speaker 2: This is pretty smart.
- 0:19Speaker 1: I don't know Latin, but I do know one Latin
- 0:22Speaker 1: phrase thanks to the film Dead Poets Society starring the
- 0:26Speaker 1: late Robin Williams. Gather you rosebuds while you may.
- 0:29Speaker 3: Old time is still a flying, and this same flower
- 0:32Speaker 3: that smiles today tomorrow will be dying.
- 0:35Speaker 2: Thank you, mister Fitts.
- 0:38Speaker 1: Gather ye rosebuds while you may. The Latin term for
- 0:42Speaker 1: that sentiment is carpe diem. I love that scene, and
- 0:46Speaker 1: I love that movie. Robin Williams plays an English teacher
- 0:49Speaker 1: at an elite prep school, and in that scene, he's
- 0:52Speaker 1: explaining to his students that karpe diem means seize the day,
- 0:57Speaker 1: and while many think that it's a direct translation, the
- 1:00Speaker 1: literal Latin translation is actually pluck the day, which is
- 1:04Speaker 1: perfect for today's conversation. It's not only about how our guest,
- 1:09Speaker 1: Nancy Twine built a beauty and hair care empire, but
- 1:12Speaker 1: also how she identified and seized her moment.
- 1:16Speaker 2: She plucked it. Nancy is the.
- 1:21Speaker 1: Founder and CEO of the beloved hair care line Brioggio Hare,
- 1:25Speaker 1: which is a leading authority on green beauty. Nancy, at
- 1:28Speaker 1: twenty nine, became the youngest black woman to launch a
- 1:30Speaker 1: product line at Sephora, and she loves what she does.
- 1:34Speaker 3: Work feels like an extension of myself as opposed to
- 1:37Speaker 3: something that I'm just showing up and doing and waiting
- 1:40Speaker 3: for the day to be over.
- 1:42Speaker 1: But Nancy didn't always love her job. She started in
- 1:45Speaker 1: finance as a VP at Goldman Sachs until tragedy struck,
- 1:50Speaker 1: and then it was time to return to her roots
- 1:52Speaker 1: and reprioritize.
- 1:54Speaker 3: I think I almost had this naivete that like, oh,
- 1:57Speaker 3: everyone grows old, of course, and you're to be able
- 2:00Speaker 3: to have all these different experiences in your life and
- 2:03Speaker 3: do so many things, and that's not always the case.
- 2:07Speaker 1: I was texting my dad the other day and he
- 2:09Speaker 1: replied to me, nothing lasts forever. And at first I
- 2:13Speaker 1: looked at the text and I was like, damn, Dad,
- 2:16Speaker 1: sort of depressing. And then I looked at it a
- 2:19Speaker 1: few more times and I realized what he meant.
- 2:22Speaker 2: Nothing is a guarantee.
- 2:24Speaker 1: We have to seize what we can when we can,
- 2:27Speaker 1: and that's exactly what Nancy did. So today she shares
- 2:30Speaker 1: the profound lessons that she's learned from loss and grief
- 2:34Speaker 1: that led her to creating not only an award winning company,
- 2:37Speaker 1: but a life of purpose. Today we're doing some soul
- 2:40Speaker 1: searching and identifying the fuel that we need to seize,
- 2:44Speaker 1: create pluck the lives that we desire. I want to
- 2:51Speaker 1: take a few steps back and back up to way
- 2:54Speaker 1: before Brigio, because you were on the sales and trading
- 2:57Speaker 1: team at Goldman Sachs. Yeah, and you are a highly
- 3:01Speaker 1: creative person. You just launched a site that we're going
- 3:04Speaker 1: to talk about, but it's beautifully curated and very creative.
- 3:08Speaker 1: So I'm dying to know how such a creative person
- 3:11Speaker 1: decides to go into finance.
- 3:13Speaker 3: Well, it's so funny because I remember people used to
- 3:17Speaker 3: call me like left right brains at work, because you're right.
- 3:21Speaker 3: I think it's oftentimes you're like in one camp or
- 3:24Speaker 3: the other. You're either the creative or you're the quantitative.
- 3:28Speaker 3: But I've always been a mix of both. And I
- 3:30Speaker 3: think my initial interest in finance stemmed from when I
- 3:36Speaker 3: was younger and I used to have all these like
- 3:38Speaker 3: little side businesses and I would like create different crafts
- 3:43Speaker 3: or jewelry or whatever it was. But it didn't just
- 3:46Speaker 3: stop there. It kind of ended with commerce. Like for me,
- 3:49Speaker 3: the satisfaction was being able to sell whatever it was
- 3:52Speaker 3: that I was creating. So there was this always this
- 3:55Speaker 3: combination of creativity but then the actual business aspect of transacting.
- 4:03Speaker 3: I've just always loved, you know, both of those things,
- 4:06Speaker 3: Like one wasn't enough on its own. I had to
- 4:09Speaker 3: have both, And you know, when I was coming out
- 4:12Speaker 3: of school, I know that for me, so much of
- 4:16Speaker 3: what I was thinking about was like, all right, how
- 4:19Speaker 3: am I going to take care of myself and support myself?
- 4:21Speaker 3: I have student loans, I have rent to pay, and
- 4:25Speaker 3: for me, so much of it was feeling like a
- 4:27Speaker 3: finance career was kind of my sure bet of being
- 4:30Speaker 3: able to like make money out of school so that
- 4:32Speaker 3: I could take care of myself. So even there were
- 4:35Speaker 3: a lot of things that I love that were creative
- 4:38Speaker 3: for me, so much of like my sort of job
- 4:41Speaker 3: and career choice coming out of school had to do
- 4:45Speaker 3: with like being able to be financially independent.
- 4:49Speaker 1: It makes total sense. Do you feel like there's a
- 4:53Speaker 1: lesson that you took away from your time there that
- 4:56Speaker 1: you still apply to your life and career or have
- 4:58Speaker 1: you sort of I've tried to Sadie that time of
- 5:02Speaker 1: your life.
- 5:03Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think ultimately what I learned, and
- 5:07Speaker 3: I really learned it through that experience, is that in
- 5:11Speaker 3: order to really find joy from your work, you have
- 5:15Speaker 3: to be passionate about the subject matter. And again, so
- 5:19Speaker 3: much of the reason why I chose a career in
- 5:22Speaker 3: finance was that, yeah, sure I was good at the numbers,
- 5:24Speaker 3: I was good at the business stuff, but the decision
- 5:27Speaker 3: was really predicated on the financial end result. It's not
- 5:32Speaker 3: like I signed up for that career because I was
- 5:34Speaker 3: passionate about finance and sales and trading. And ultimately, I
- 5:38Speaker 3: think that's why it was really hard for me to
- 5:41Speaker 3: find joy out of what I was doing every day.
- 5:45Speaker 3: And that's why I knew that whatever I was going
- 5:47Speaker 3: to do next, it had to be rooted in passion,
- 5:50Speaker 3: because we spend so much of our life working that
- 5:54Speaker 3: if we don't find joy from what we're doing, life
- 5:57Speaker 3: is just too short. It's not worth it.
- 5:59Speaker 1: Well, speaking of passion, I read that you said, if
- 6:02Speaker 1: you're not passionate about what you do, it's just not
- 6:04Speaker 1: worth it in the grand scheme of things, which is
- 6:06Speaker 1: kind of what you are saying. Now, how do you
- 6:09Speaker 1: think finding one of your callings has changed your day
- 6:12Speaker 1: to day life?
- 6:14Speaker 3: I think for me, so much of being able to
- 6:17Speaker 3: do something every day that's rooted in a vision and
- 6:22Speaker 3: a passion and purpose has really turned what used to
- 6:29Speaker 3: feel like a job or work for me into an
- 6:32Speaker 3: extension of my life. Like I really feel like every
- 6:35Speaker 3: day when I go to work, I feel like everything
- 6:38Speaker 3: I'm doing is contributing to some sort of greater good
- 6:43Speaker 3: that I ceded the vision for. And I feel like,
- 6:46Speaker 3: for the first time becoming an entrepreneur, work feels like
- 6:50Speaker 3: an extension of myself as opposed to something that I'm
- 6:53Speaker 3: just showing up and doing and waiting for the day
- 6:56Speaker 3: to be over. And so I think that that's been
- 6:59Speaker 3: sort of the most powerful impact that starting my business
- 7:04Speaker 3: and becoming an entrepreneur has had.
- 7:06Speaker 1: Is it a multiplying force in your personal life? Like
- 7:09Speaker 1: I find when I'm happier in one area, another area
- 7:12Speaker 1: that is thriving to usually.
- 7:14Speaker 3: Yeah completely, I mean just even the conversations that I have,
- 7:18Speaker 3: like at the end of the day with friends, it's
- 7:20Speaker 3: more like you know, oh my gosh, what are we
- 7:23Speaker 3: going to name this product? Or which retailer is going
- 7:27Speaker 3: to take this? Versus when I felt like I was
- 7:30Speaker 3: just working a job, I was either not talking about
- 7:35Speaker 3: work at all or I was complaining about work. And
- 7:38Speaker 3: so that has been such a big difference. I feel
- 7:41Speaker 3: like I'm bringing that part of me to other relationships,
- 7:45Speaker 3: and I think because of that, I've had a lot
- 7:48Speaker 3: more depth with my friendships and that you know, people
- 7:52Speaker 3: around me are genuinely interested in what to at work
- 7:56Speaker 3: because they can tell that it fuels me.
- 7:59Speaker 1: That's very cool, because if it's such a big part
- 8:01Speaker 1: of your identity, it's nice that you can share it
- 8:04Speaker 1: with your friends in a meaningful way.
- 8:07Speaker 3: Completely, And I think you said that perfectly, and that's
- 8:09Speaker 3: the word I was looking for, is when your career
- 8:12Speaker 3: really becomes part of your identity in a good way. Yeah,
- 8:16Speaker 3: that's how it really kind of extends your talent, your spirit,
- 8:20Speaker 3: and your skills to be able to do something even greater.
- 8:25Speaker 3: So it's really powerful.
- 8:26Speaker 1: I think career as part of your identity gets a
- 8:29Speaker 1: bad rap because you said it perfectly right in a
- 8:33Speaker 1: good way. If it's in a good way, it's Okay, I.
- 8:36Speaker 3: Think exactly like I think for a lot of people,
- 8:40Speaker 3: career being part of their identity. You know, oftentimes you know,
- 8:44Speaker 3: has to do with title. It's like, oh, well, I'm
- 8:46Speaker 3: the VP of something, or I'm the CEO of something.
- 8:50Speaker 3: You know that makes me relevant or you know, gives
- 8:54Speaker 3: me purpose in my industry. It's part of who I am.
- 8:58Speaker 3: Or sometimes the work is viewed as identity because sometimes
- 9:02Speaker 3: people are just workaholics and that's not a good thing either.
- 9:06Speaker 3: It's like, oh my gosh, I pour everything into this
- 9:09Speaker 3: job at who I am. So I definitely think that
- 9:12Speaker 3: there are two sides of the coin we're having. It
- 9:15Speaker 3: be part of your identity can be a great thing
- 9:18Speaker 3: if you're serving people, if you're leveraging your talents in
- 9:21Speaker 3: a way that feels good, or it can be the opposite.
- 9:25Speaker 1: So you're working in finance and you have this idea
- 9:30Speaker 1: to start briogio. Where does it bubble up from?
- 9:37Speaker 3: So if anyone had ever asked me do you think
- 9:40Speaker 3: that you would have a career in beauty or hair care,
- 9:44Speaker 3: I would have said absolutely not because it was never
- 9:47Speaker 3: on my sort of career vision board at all. And
- 9:51Speaker 3: there were sequence of events that happened that really led
- 9:54Speaker 3: me to doing what I'm doing, And unfortunately, it started
- 9:59Speaker 3: with the sudden passing of my mom, which was a
- 10:04Speaker 3: tragic passing that really forced me to think about how
- 10:10Speaker 3: I was spending my time, how I was spending my
- 10:15Speaker 3: life because at the time I was working at Goldman,
- 10:19Speaker 3: I was working grueling hours, I was under a lot
- 10:22Speaker 3: of pressure, and I was spending so much of my
- 10:26Speaker 3: time at work doing something that wasn't really filling my core.
- 10:31Speaker 3: And after my mom passed, I did a lot of
- 10:34Speaker 3: soul searching to figure out what it was I wanted
- 10:37Speaker 3: to do next and how I could mirror my career
- 10:40Speaker 3: with my passions. And one of the things I kept
- 10:44Speaker 3: thinking back to was actually my childhood memories with my mom,
- 10:48Speaker 3: who was a chemist and a physician, and with her
- 10:52Speaker 3: chemistry background, she knew all about how to emulsify water
- 10:56Speaker 3: and oil and create textures and formats, and grow up,
- 11:00Speaker 3: we used to make so many of our beauty products
- 11:04Speaker 3: at home. We would literally go to the health food store.
- 11:07Speaker 3: We'd buy all of these different oils and extracts and
- 11:10Speaker 3: butters and like all of these raw ingredients and then
- 11:13Speaker 3: transform them into these really wonderful beauty products that were
- 11:19Speaker 3: customized for our hair type, our skin type, our needs.
- 11:24Speaker 3: And I absolutely loved like being the sous chef to
- 11:28Speaker 3: my mom, measuring out ingredients, mixing things up, pouring them
- 11:31Speaker 3: into jars and bottles. And when I was thinking about
- 11:35Speaker 3: what it was I wanted to do next, I kept
- 11:37Speaker 3: thinking back to those memories, how much fun I had.
- 11:40Speaker 3: But also as a consumer, I was starting to see
- 11:43Speaker 3: the shift that was happening in beauty and personal care
- 11:46Speaker 3: for the first time, which was the shift towards clean.
- 11:50Speaker 3: So even in twenty ten, like no one was really
- 11:52Speaker 3: talking about clean beauty, it was like very much the
- 11:55Speaker 3: early stages of it all. And so from that moment,
- 12:00Speaker 3: the light bulb went off and I was like, I'm
- 12:02Speaker 3: going to start my own clean beauty brand. And that's
- 12:05Speaker 3: what inspired Brioggio.
- 12:08Speaker 1: I have someone in my extended family who was diagnosed
- 12:12Speaker 1: with cancer and is passing, and my mom went over
- 12:15Speaker 1: to visit her, and she called me after and said,
- 12:19Speaker 1: you know, I think she's okay because she's really proud
- 12:22Speaker 1: of her two boys, her two sons, Like I think
- 12:24Speaker 1: she knows that they feel settled and she's proud. And
- 12:29Speaker 1: I immediately thought and I didn't ask her, but I thought,
- 12:32Speaker 1: I wonder if my mom feels that way about me?
- 12:36Speaker 1: Do you feel like your mom feels that way about you.
- 12:40Speaker 1: Did she like really see you and feel you before
- 12:42Speaker 1: she passed?
- 12:44Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean absolutely. I remember having like a very
- 12:48Speaker 3: sort of profound conversation with my mom actually before she passed,
- 12:52Speaker 3: just about my career and my challenges and all of
- 12:56Speaker 3: those things, and she was just so encouraging, uplifting and
- 13:02Speaker 3: just really you know, almost kind of gave her blessing
- 13:05Speaker 3: that like, you know, Nancy of Finance, isn't it Like
- 13:07Speaker 3: that's okay? And that was really huge for me because
- 13:11Speaker 3: getting that job at Goldman Sachs straight out of school,
- 13:14Speaker 3: like I felt like I had a lot to live
- 13:17Speaker 3: up to, a lot to prove, and so kind of
- 13:20Speaker 3: having that blessing that it was okay to step away
- 13:24Speaker 3: from that and do something else. Even though ultimately she
- 13:27Speaker 3: this was before Briogio, it definitely gave me a lot
- 13:31Speaker 3: of confidence.
- 13:33Speaker 1: There's this great talk that I encourage everyone to listen
- 13:35Speaker 1: to online that you gave where you talk about the
- 13:39Speaker 1: story of her passing and how it sort of inspired
- 13:43Speaker 1: the start of your company, and you talk about being
- 13:46Speaker 1: fearless for the first time in the face of grief.
- 13:49Speaker 1: What about grief inspired the fearlessness in you?
- 13:53Speaker 3: Yeah, I think just for the first time I really
- 13:57Speaker 3: realized that, you know, this life isn't guaranteed to anyone.
- 14:01Speaker 3: I think I almost had this naivete that like, oh,
- 14:05Speaker 3: everyone grows old, of course, and you're going to be
- 14:07Speaker 3: able to have all these different experiences in your life
- 14:10Speaker 3: and do so many things, and that's not always the case.
- 14:15Speaker 3: And so for me, I just started viewing time differently
- 14:19Speaker 3: and how do I maximize my time here and eventually
- 14:22Speaker 3: one day be able to look back and be proud
- 14:25Speaker 3: of how I spent it. And so in a lot
- 14:28Speaker 3: of ways, that means taking risk. It means doing things
- 14:31Speaker 3: that make you a bit uncomfortable, doing things that perhaps
- 14:34Speaker 3: you typically want to do because they're risky or out
- 14:38Speaker 3: of the norm, and all of those feelings really just subsided.
- 14:42Speaker 1: For me, I was interested to learn that you actually
- 14:45Speaker 1: didn't quit your job at Goldman until you got into Sephora.
- 14:49Speaker 1: And I'm curious, in hindsight, with everything you know now,
- 14:53Speaker 1: would you do it that way again?
- 14:55Speaker 3: Yeah? I think for me and a lot of people
- 14:57Speaker 3: starting businesses, it can be so risky to leave your
- 15:01Speaker 3: paycheck to venture out into something that was so uncertain.
- 15:05Speaker 3: And again that was definitely the case for me. I
- 15:08Speaker 3: had a lot of responsibilities. I had student loans, I
- 15:11Speaker 3: had rent to pay. I just I had a lot
- 15:13Speaker 3: that I was responsible for, and so I just wasn't
- 15:17Speaker 3: quite comfortable making the leap until I had some sort
- 15:22Speaker 3: of validation that what I was about to do could
- 15:25Speaker 3: actually you know, survive and provide income. So for me,
- 15:29Speaker 3: that turning point was definitely getting Sepphor on board, and
- 15:33Speaker 3: I knew from that moment like, wow, I could probably
- 15:37Speaker 3: turn this into something bigger. And I'm going to need
- 15:41Speaker 3: the time to really focus on making this big, so
- 15:44Speaker 3: I need to be all in, one hundred percent.
- 15:47Speaker 1: I find that to be a really interesting anecdote because
- 15:49Speaker 1: you hear so many people, particularly online, saying go all in,
- 15:54Speaker 1: no plan B, and it's really it seems like a
- 15:58Speaker 1: really personal decision. It's not It can be the right choice,
- 16:01Speaker 1: but it's not always.
- 16:03Speaker 3: Yeah, no, it's not. I mean, especially too. I mean
- 16:07Speaker 3: I think everyone sort of financial situation is different, you know,
- 16:11Speaker 3: especially I was single. You know, I wasn't married, I
- 16:14Speaker 3: didn't have a dual income and there were just a
- 16:17Speaker 3: lot of different, you know, considerations that I needed to make.
- 16:21Speaker 1: But I knew that at.
- 16:22Speaker 3: Some point I was going to need to go all
- 16:24Speaker 3: in because it really is hard to give a business
- 16:28Speaker 3: or project air shot if you're not focused on at
- 16:32Speaker 3: one hundred percent.
- 16:34Speaker 1: You must have been so excited to put in your
- 16:36Speaker 1: two weeks.
- 16:38Speaker 3: I know it was like, Yeah, it was like it
- 16:41Speaker 3: was just so exhilarating.
- 16:43Speaker 1: Because you put so much on the horizon. Yes, exactly exactly.
- 16:49Speaker 1: You mentioned that you launched the company at an economically
- 16:52Speaker 1: uncertain time, and given that you were straddling the world
- 16:57Speaker 1: of finance and what you were building, how did you
- 17:00Speaker 1: avoid getting spooked? Yeah?
- 17:03Speaker 3: I mean, you know, it's interesting because I think I
- 17:07Speaker 3: got spooked definitely after I left my job. After that
- 17:12Speaker 3: first order came in, I was like, Okay, well, when's
- 17:15Speaker 3: the next order going to come in? And there was
- 17:17Speaker 3: definitely a period of time where there was just like
- 17:20Speaker 3: nothing going on. There were no orders, there was no movement,
- 17:24Speaker 3: and I did get spooped out. I remember I had
- 17:26Speaker 3: like an intern at the time, and we were both
- 17:28Speaker 3: kind of like, Okay, this is weird. What are we
- 17:30Speaker 3: supposed to do? And you know, especially in the beginning.
- 17:34Speaker 3: It takes time to ramp things up, and I think
- 17:38Speaker 3: it's so important too for so many brands to kind
- 17:41Speaker 3: of figure out you got to test and learn with
- 17:43Speaker 3: a lot of marketing because a lot of things are
- 17:46Speaker 3: not going to work. But then once you find what
- 17:49Speaker 3: starts to work, and you continue to sort of build
- 17:52Speaker 3: the momentum on that, that's when sort of, you know,
- 17:56Speaker 3: the wheels start moving. But there was a period in
- 17:59Speaker 3: which they were and I was definitely spooked.
- 18:02Speaker 1: How long was it not moving for?
- 18:04Speaker 3: I remember like it really wasn't moving for like a
- 18:07Speaker 3: period of like four to six months, and then it
- 18:12Speaker 3: started moving a bit and started.
- 18:14Speaker 1: Moving some more, but it wasn't.
- 18:17Speaker 3: Happening at a pace that felt like it was gonna,
- 18:22Speaker 3: you know, really turn into a viable business until we
- 18:26Speaker 3: started to crack the code on a few marketing strategies
- 18:29Speaker 3: and then from there, I mean, it just it took off.
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- 20:46Speaker 1: five percent of startups fail because of lack of market demand,
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- 20:55Speaker 1: is selling and such a key element of growth is
- 20:59Speaker 1: understand your buyer and developing products that they actually want. Yeah,
- 21:05Speaker 1: And on the other hand, sometimes people don't know what
- 21:08Speaker 1: they want, and you were one of the first clean
- 21:11Speaker 1: brands out there, people didn't necessarily know that they needed
- 21:14Speaker 1: or wanted that. I mean, there's a producer of music,
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- 21:20Speaker 1: ago on innovation and creativity, and he always says, don't
- 21:23Speaker 1: listen to your customer. They don't know what they want
- 21:25Speaker 1: until they see it. So there's so much sort of
- 21:29Speaker 1: different advice out there. I'm wondering where you fall on
- 21:32Speaker 1: the scale. Yeah, totally.
- 21:35Speaker 3: I mean I definitely had a product that either people
- 21:39Speaker 3: wanted or didn't know they needed, and so my job
- 21:46Speaker 3: was to one educate I had. I remember I used
- 21:49Speaker 3: to like, I was like hustling so hard. I used
- 21:53Speaker 3: to go to like every Sepphor store before they would open.
- 21:56Speaker 3: I would train all the cast members. I was like
- 22:00Speaker 3: going to every trade show, Like I was just out
- 22:02Speaker 3: there educating on our products, educating on clean, educating on
- 22:06Speaker 3: the why it's different, who it's for, all of that stuff.
- 22:10Speaker 3: So education was definitely a big part of it. And
- 22:13Speaker 3: then number two was just building the brand awareness because
- 22:17Speaker 3: I knew that when people became aware of Briogio and
- 22:20Speaker 3: educated on the why, like the conversion was just there.
- 22:24Speaker 3: And ultimately that's what happened. But I was missing those
- 22:27Speaker 3: two ingredients for a while, and that's what I had
- 22:29Speaker 3: to double down on.
- 22:32Speaker 1: Were you willing to forego all your sleep? Is that
- 22:34Speaker 1: what happened?
- 22:35Speaker 3: Yeah? Pretty much. I mean I just remember it was
- 22:38Speaker 3: like it was crazy, but that's what you do when
- 22:40Speaker 3: you're building, like you just you're giving it all you have,
- 22:45Speaker 3: like there's nothing that's beneath you or you just you
- 22:50Speaker 3: literally give it all you have. You put it all
- 22:53Speaker 3: on the line.
- 22:54Speaker 1: I was reading that in twenty fourteen, you were the
- 22:57Speaker 1: youngest black woman to ever launch a line at Sephora.
- 23:01Speaker 1: That statistic, Like, I was happy for you, but it
- 23:03Speaker 1: was kind of a bummer of a statistic, to be honest.
- 23:07Speaker 1: Do you remember where you were and when you found
- 23:10Speaker 1: that out for the first time and what did that
- 23:13Speaker 1: milestone mean to you?
- 23:15Speaker 3: I do remember, because there was some sort of press
- 23:21Speaker 3: that we were doing and we had to fact check it,
- 23:23Speaker 3: so I needed to like run it up the flagpole
- 23:25Speaker 3: at Spot and they like fact checked it, and I
- 23:28Speaker 3: was like, I mean it was it was monumental. Yeah,
- 23:33Speaker 3: And I just knew though that this was the start
- 23:39Speaker 3: of so much change just just in general. Clean you know,
- 23:44Speaker 3: black owned brands in prestige, Like I knew that I
- 23:49Speaker 3: wasn't going to be the last.
- 23:52Speaker 1: I knew that.
- 23:53Speaker 3: And also too, I felt even more pressure to be
- 23:57Speaker 3: successful because I'm like, wow, if I'm success, and retailers
- 24:01Speaker 3: are going to take more bets on founders of color
- 24:04Speaker 3: and so you know, ultimately that's what has happened, which
- 24:08Speaker 3: is incredible, but it definitely made me feel that much
- 24:12Speaker 3: more responsible for making you know, the retailers that took
- 24:17Speaker 3: a bet on me proud.
- 24:19Speaker 1: There are a lot of black owned brands in Sephora now,
- 24:22Speaker 1: I mean they're part of the fifteen percent pledge too,
- 24:24Speaker 1: which Aurora Jane started. I know that's she's your friend.
- 24:28Speaker 1: So it's it's really pretty amazing that you started that pipeline.
- 24:34Speaker 3: Almost Yeah, yeah, definitely, And you know, now I believe
- 24:40Speaker 3: it or not, I actually invest in over thirty percent
- 24:43Speaker 3: of the black founded brands at Sephora, and that's been
- 24:47Speaker 3: a big part of you know, my motivation and passion
- 24:52Speaker 3: is like how do I carry that torch and help
- 24:55Speaker 3: to support other people? So I do a lot of mentoring.
- 24:58Speaker 3: I'm in the Sephor Accelera program. I teach actually finance
- 25:02Speaker 3: and ops for the up and coming brands, but then
- 25:05Speaker 3: also investing and giving capital I think is so so important.
- 25:10Speaker 2: That's so cool.
- 25:11Speaker 1: I didn't know you did that.
- 25:12Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 25:14Speaker 1: So one thing I realized with selling my card deck
- 25:17Speaker 1: is that if a product is on a retail shelf
- 25:20Speaker 1: and it doesn't sell immediately, they're kind of done with you.
- 25:24Speaker 1: It's a it's a brutal business retail. So what are
- 25:27Speaker 1: a few things that you did besides education to ensure
- 25:32Speaker 1: that you were maximizing your retail footprint and really attracting
- 25:35Speaker 1: these in store buyers.
- 25:38Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean what you said is so true. And
- 25:41Speaker 3: you know, starting out, it's so important that you drive
- 25:45Speaker 3: you know, traffic to your priority retailers. So even though
- 25:48Speaker 3: I had briogio dot com, my retailers came first. I
- 25:51Speaker 3: wanted them to get the sale before I got the sale.
- 25:55Speaker 1: So it which is just for everyone out there. You
- 25:57Speaker 1: make less money on the retail sales. So it's an
- 26:00Speaker 1: interesting thing definitely. But you know, the volume and scale
- 26:04Speaker 1: that you can have if you, you know, really become
- 26:06Speaker 1: successful with a retailer is you know, incredible. So really
- 26:11Speaker 1: knowing what your priorities are supporting the retailers also knowing
- 26:16Speaker 1: what levers work in their environment, like some retailers, you know,
- 26:21Speaker 1: sampling is huge, or some retailers, you know, social and
- 26:24Speaker 1: TikTok moves the needle, or some retailers investing in like
- 26:30Speaker 1: really incredible visual merchandising moves the needle. So really understanding
- 26:34Speaker 1: what levers you know drive your retailer is important. You said,
- 26:39Speaker 1: creating a product isn't rocket science, but it does take
- 26:42Speaker 1: a ton of perseverance, dedication, and focus. If you have
- 26:46Speaker 1: those three things, anything is possible. So I think focus
- 26:50Speaker 1: is hard because the nature of launching something can pull
- 26:52Speaker 1: you in so many different directions, and you also get
- 26:55Speaker 1: a lot of unsolicited feedback. I can only imagine what
- 26:59Speaker 1: you dealt with because I have one little card game,
- 27:02Speaker 1: and the amount.
- 27:03Speaker 3: Of feedback I received from people who I've never watched something,
- 27:07Speaker 3: it's unbelievable.
- 27:09Speaker 1: So how did you determine whose opinions matter and whose
- 27:15Speaker 1: opinions don't? I mean, I've got to tell.
- 27:19Speaker 3: You, And I don't know if it's just because of
- 27:22Speaker 3: the nature of my product and business, but I've really
- 27:25Speaker 3: felt like everyone's opinions matter, Like I remember like going
- 27:30Speaker 3: on support dot com looking at every review and being like, Okay,
- 27:35Speaker 3: five out of ten people said this, I need to
- 27:37Speaker 3: go to the lab and we've got to fix this,
- 27:40Speaker 3: or you know, the retailer made a comment about something,
- 27:43Speaker 3: or even one of my employees made a comment about something.
- 27:46Speaker 3: And while you can't please everyone, I've always taken note
- 27:50Speaker 3: and like sometimes it's like someone's like, oh, this cat
- 27:53Speaker 3: bothers me and I'm like, okay, noted, and am I
- 27:57Speaker 3: going to fix the cap? Not immediately, but I feel
- 28:01Speaker 3: like I need to listen because if it becomes a trend,
- 28:04Speaker 3: then it's my responsibility to look into it. So I
- 28:07Speaker 3: basically listen to everything, but where I see sort of
- 28:10Speaker 3: momentum and the feedback, that's when I'll put it into action.
- 28:15Speaker 1: I've always loved the Hillary Clinton quote about taking criticism
- 28:19Speaker 1: seriously not personally. Yeah so good. So the perseverance part
- 28:28Speaker 1: launching something you hear NO a lot. I was on
- 28:31Speaker 1: TikTok the other day and I heard this guy say
- 28:33Speaker 1: no stands for next option, and I was like, that's
- 28:37Speaker 1: sort of clever. I like that one. What happens when
- 28:41Speaker 1: you hear no? What do you immediately think?
- 28:43Speaker 3: I mean, I just feel like there's always a way
- 28:45Speaker 3: I mean, I always want to understand, like why is
- 28:48Speaker 3: it a no. So if it's a retailer and they're like,
- 28:52Speaker 3: we're just not taking on any new brands right now, I'm.
- 28:55Speaker 1: Like, oh, but why is that the case?
- 28:57Speaker 3: And it's like, oh, we don't have enough shelfs and
- 29:00Speaker 3: I'm like, well, what about online placement until you get
- 29:02Speaker 3: shelf space, Or if they're like, oh, it's because we
- 29:07Speaker 3: don't have enough open to buy dollars to place an order,
- 29:10Speaker 3: well maybe we can do consignment and I'll only get
- 29:13Speaker 3: paid when you get paid, Like they're just they're just,
- 29:16Speaker 3: I feel like, always a solution. And then if you
- 29:20Speaker 3: come up with every creative idea to sort of you know,
- 29:26Speaker 3: counteract someone's no, then sometimes I'm like, you know what,
- 29:30Speaker 3: maybe this just isn't meant to be and like I
- 29:32Speaker 3: can't see it right now, but I'll see it later.
- 29:35Speaker 3: Like I've had those instances where it was just a
- 29:37Speaker 3: hard no for no reason, and then I look back
- 29:39Speaker 3: at it and I'm like, oh, my gosh, I'm so
- 29:41Speaker 3: glad we didn't do that. They actually saved me.
- 29:45Speaker 1: So you sold your stake in the company and you
- 29:50Speaker 1: weren't super public about it. You were very low key,
- 29:53Speaker 1: talk to me about your decision.
- 29:57Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, we had been scaling the business, you know,
- 30:02Speaker 3: tremendously over the years, and in twenty nineteen, we took
- 30:06Speaker 3: on a private equity investment with a firm called VMG
- 30:11Speaker 3: and they were such great partners to me for a
- 30:14Speaker 3: lot of different reasons. Obviously, they helped put money into
- 30:17Speaker 3: the company to help us continue to grow, but they
- 30:20Speaker 3: also helped me build out a management team for the
- 30:23Speaker 3: first time because I didn't know at the time what
- 30:25Speaker 3: I didn't know, and bringing on people that could help
- 30:29Speaker 3: fill those gaps was so monumental to the business. And
- 30:34Speaker 3: I think what a lot of people don't realize, especially
- 30:37Speaker 3: when you have businesses that are inventory intensive, so much
- 30:42Speaker 3: of your capital, your dollars, are actually sitting in a
- 30:45Speaker 3: warehouse in the form of inventory, and you can't turn
- 30:49Speaker 3: it into cash until you sell the inventory. So when
- 30:52Speaker 3: it comes to things like hiring people, paying people, investing
- 30:56Speaker 3: in marketing, office space, all those other things, you got
- 31:00Speaker 3: to make sure that you have the cash to do
- 31:02Speaker 3: that readily available. And so oftentimes, you know, entrepreneurs will
- 31:08Speaker 3: continue to raise money up until some point, or they'll
- 31:12Speaker 3: bring on a strategic partner that can help provide them
- 31:16Speaker 3: a capital base and hopefully provide other synergies to help
- 31:20Speaker 3: them to continue to scale without you know, the pressure
- 31:24Speaker 3: of being diluted as an entrepreneur. You know, I've heard
- 31:28Speaker 3: so many instances in which I've met you know, founders
- 31:31Speaker 3: that have built these incredible companies and you come to
- 31:35Speaker 3: find that they only own five ten percent of this
- 31:39Speaker 3: incredible business that they get their entire life into. And so,
- 31:44Speaker 3: you know, I think selling a business or even raising
- 31:47Speaker 3: money is a very personal decision. But we made a
- 31:50Speaker 3: really great decision and found a partner that's so synergistic
- 31:54Speaker 3: with what we do. Our core focus is hair care,
- 31:57Speaker 3: and it's really really been fantastic.
- 32:00Speaker 1: I know that one of your considerations was like you
- 32:03Speaker 1: really didn't want the product and the quality to change
- 32:05Speaker 1: in any way.
- 32:07Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean that's super important, and that's why I think,
- 32:10Speaker 3: you know, if you're making the decision to sell your company,
- 32:14Speaker 3: you know, making sure that you have those aligned values
- 32:17Speaker 3: and for me, product quality, putting the customer first, you know,
- 32:21Speaker 3: innovation and hair like have your laundry list. It's like
- 32:25Speaker 3: going into a marriage, right, It's like, Okay, if I'm
- 32:27Speaker 3: going to marry this person through the things that like
- 32:31Speaker 3: have to be true, and then these are the things
- 32:33Speaker 3: that don't have to be true because I can live
- 32:36Speaker 3: with them. Like the same thing is so important when you're,
- 32:40Speaker 3: you know, deciding on who you're going to sell your
- 32:42Speaker 3: company to.
- 32:44Speaker 1: So I was on a plane a few years ago, coincidentally,
- 32:47Speaker 1: and across the aisle was Conan O'Brien and he was
- 32:52Speaker 1: like sleeping most of the play. And then before we
- 32:55Speaker 1: got off, I was like, I have to ask him
- 32:56Speaker 1: a question, and we were like, Conan, if you were
- 32:59Speaker 1: to do it all over again, what would you do?
- 33:02Speaker 1: Would you do anything differently? And he thought about it
- 33:05Speaker 1: for a second and he was like, I wouldn't do
- 33:07Speaker 1: it. It was too hard, and he laughed. And I don't
- 33:12Speaker 1: believe him, Like I think, you know, he loved his career.
- 33:17Speaker 1: But I do think that that's a very common feeling
- 33:21Speaker 1: that people have when they do something big, because there's
- 33:26Speaker 1: so much hardship and sacrifice that it requires. And so
- 33:31Speaker 1: the latter part of this conversation, I really want to
- 33:34Speaker 1: focus on how you feel and what you're thinking about
- 33:39Speaker 1: in hindsight, and so I know that manifestation is something
- 33:46Speaker 1: that is close to your heart. And there's this Ariana
- 33:49Speaker 1: Huffington quote that life is a dance between making it
- 33:52Speaker 1: happen and letting it happen. I'm dying to know how
- 33:56Speaker 1: you think about what you're willing to let happen versus
- 33:59Speaker 1: make happened, because you're such a doer. That is such
- 34:02Speaker 1: a good question, and I feel like I was really
- 34:06Speaker 1: faced with this for the first time in a profound
- 34:09Speaker 1: way when I built out my leadership team at Briogio,
- 34:14Speaker 1: Because there was one point where I was overseeing sales, marketing,
- 34:19Speaker 1: HR operations, finance, technology, I mean, you name it, and
- 34:25Speaker 1: I just you know, had my hands on everything, and
- 34:27Speaker 1: I had a way of doing things.
- 34:29Speaker 3: And when you hire people at the executive level, you know,
- 34:34Speaker 3: part of being able to set them up for success
- 34:38Speaker 3: is building trust and letting them do it their way.
- 34:43Speaker 3: So I had to really back off and empower my
- 34:47Speaker 3: team because if I didn't, they were not going to
- 34:49Speaker 3: stay right. You know, you have to hire talented people
- 34:53Speaker 3: to do what they do best. And so that was
- 34:55Speaker 3: really the first time where I was like, you know,
- 34:57Speaker 3: I got a let go. I got to trust they've
- 35:00Speaker 3: got it. If someone fumbles, it's okay. We'll figure it
- 35:04Speaker 3: out together. But I know that that's hard for a
- 35:07Speaker 3: lot of entrepreneurs, but it was really pivotal for me
- 35:11Speaker 3: and the brand to be able to, you know, have
- 35:14Speaker 3: a talented team lead the future of the company.
- 35:19Speaker 1: On a scale of one to ten, when you look back,
- 35:23Speaker 1: how hard was it all?
- 35:25Speaker 3: It was very hard. It was very, very very very hard.
- 35:30Speaker 3: Probably the hardest thing I've done in my life, probably
- 35:32Speaker 3: the hardest thing I will do in my life. I mean,
- 35:36Speaker 3: it's still hard. It is definitely intense. I mean it
- 35:40Speaker 3: is like life's boot camp spiritually, mentally, physically, all of
- 35:45Speaker 3: the above.
- 35:46Speaker 1: Would you do it over again?
- 35:49Speaker 3: You know, knowing that again that everything worked out for
- 35:55Speaker 3: the best.
- 35:56Speaker 1: Yes, I would. And I'll tell you too.
- 36:00Speaker 3: It's so interesting because I used to tell people, especially
- 36:03Speaker 3: I remember when I first started my business, I really did.
- 36:07Speaker 3: I felt like I was in I don't know, if
- 36:08Speaker 3: you're familiar with the term flow state. You were just
- 36:12Speaker 3: going and you're going with such passion and vision and
- 36:17Speaker 3: belief that all the right doors open up, all the
- 36:21Speaker 3: wrong doors closed. And I remember, like I even stunned
- 36:24Speaker 3: myself sometimes I was like, how the heck did I
- 36:26Speaker 3: do that? Like, is this really happening, so, like you know,
- 36:33Speaker 3: and so that was pretty cool to watch.
- 36:36Speaker 1: So you launched Nancytwine dot com, which is a content
- 36:40Speaker 1: site dedicated to sharing your expertise on leading, learning and
- 36:44Speaker 1: living an inspired life. And I think you could have
- 36:49Speaker 1: done so many different things, and you decided to go
- 36:53Speaker 1: all in on this, and I'm wondering why you wanted
- 36:55Speaker 1: to launch it.
- 36:57Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, well, first of all, I'm still you know,
- 37:00Speaker 3: full time founder and CEO with Briogio, which is my passion.
- 37:06Speaker 3: But I've also been very passionate and intentional about leveraging
- 37:11Speaker 3: my success and my abundance to help other people. Like
- 37:15Speaker 3: I feel like it's something that I've been called to do.
- 37:17Speaker 3: It's something that's very important to me. I don't think
- 37:21Speaker 3: I would feel right if I didn't allocate part of
- 37:24Speaker 3: my time to help other people, whether it's financially or
- 37:27Speaker 3: through mentorship. And one of the things that I've actually
- 37:31Speaker 3: found that has been a bit difficult, like most people,
- 37:34Speaker 3: is scaling my time. I do have a lot of
- 37:36Speaker 3: people who reach out to me for mentorship and advice,
- 37:40Speaker 3: and I try to help as many people as I can,
- 37:42Speaker 3: but I can't help everyone. And part of what I
- 37:45Speaker 3: wanted to do with Nancy Twine was to really sort
- 37:48Speaker 3: of dive into a lot of the most commonly sort
- 37:52Speaker 3: of asked questions in themes and things that people ask
- 37:57Speaker 3: for my perspective on to actually memorialize my perspective through
- 38:04Speaker 3: the art form of article writing, which is a little
- 38:08Speaker 3: old school, but I love writing, and I love the
- 38:12Speaker 3: fact that I don't have to limit myself to you know,
- 38:16Speaker 3: one hundred and sixty characters or you know, a caption bandwidth,
- 38:20Speaker 3: that I can really pour it out and have something
- 38:24Speaker 3: that people around the world can have access to. And
- 38:27Speaker 3: so that was the first part of the inspiration. But
- 38:30Speaker 3: the second part of the inspiration that I think really
- 38:34Speaker 3: hits home to me is that one of the lessons
- 38:38Speaker 3: I had to learn the hard way is that you
- 38:41Speaker 3: cannot be successful as an entrepreneur if you pour yourself
- 38:47Speaker 3: into your business or your company and you don't create
- 38:51Speaker 3: the balance to create that space of self care for yourself,
- 38:56Speaker 3: because you will get to a point where your business
- 38:59Speaker 3: will suffer and you as a person will suffer. And
- 39:03Speaker 3: I see so many entrepreneurs, especially female entrepreneurs, that are
- 39:08Speaker 3: trying to juggle everything and they're putting themselves last, and
- 39:12Speaker 3: it's actually not helping them, it's hurting them. And part
- 39:15Speaker 3: of what I want to do with this content, while
- 39:18Speaker 3: most of the content is focused on entrepreneurism, is to
- 39:23Speaker 3: really put out content that helps to support this three
- 39:26Speaker 3: sixty of what it means to be sort of a
- 39:29Speaker 3: well rounded entrepreneur so that you can get the most
- 39:32Speaker 3: out of your business but also feel your best doing it.
- 39:36Speaker 3: And that's why on the site, you know, we talk
- 39:38Speaker 3: about topics of health and wellness, personal relationships, personal finance
- 39:44Speaker 3: because a lot of people's business p and ls are
- 39:47Speaker 3: looking good, but their personal balance sheet is not looking
- 39:51Speaker 3: so good. It happens a lot, and really just talking
- 39:55Speaker 3: about sort of you know, entrepreneurism from a more dynamic
- 39:59Speaker 3: per perspective. And I'm really really excited for what's ahead.
- 40:04Speaker 1: I am too. I've been reading a lot of the
- 40:05Speaker 1: articles one launch today that I really loved. It's very
- 40:09Speaker 1: esthetically beautiful too, which just like adds sort of like
- 40:13Speaker 1: a sparkle on top. But one of the things that
- 40:16Speaker 1: has come up on the site a few times in
- 40:18Speaker 1: different ways is really creating your best reality, and it
- 40:23Speaker 1: seems that you feel like it's through intention and action
- 40:26Speaker 1: So what's the best actionable advice on how to set
- 40:30Speaker 1: intentions and follow through? And I asked this with a
- 40:33Speaker 1: caveat because I think manifestation has become such a buzzword
- 40:37Speaker 1: in our sort of zeitgeist and you live it. So
- 40:42Speaker 1: what is the actionable advice?
- 40:45Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the actionable advice and just you know,
- 40:48Speaker 3: bringing some perspective, like, so often we just get bogged
- 40:52Speaker 3: down and trying to be productive and get things done
- 40:56Speaker 3: and check things off the list, and oftentimes we are
- 41:00Speaker 3: not setting intention about what we want the outcome of
- 41:03Speaker 3: our actions to look like. And just this simple task
- 41:08Speaker 3: of defining what north Star success looks like subconsciously will
- 41:14Speaker 3: guide your actions and ultimately the outcomes towards that. I
- 41:18Speaker 3: like to use the analogy of you know, if you're
- 41:21Speaker 3: trying to drive to a business meeting, you don't just
- 41:24Speaker 3: get into your car and start driving. You make sure
- 41:28Speaker 3: that you know the address and you put it in
- 41:30Speaker 3: the GPS system and you let that GPS system guide
- 41:33Speaker 3: you there. And the same thing is true about setting intention.
- 41:37Speaker 3: You need to know where you want to go in
- 41:40Speaker 3: order to make sure that you're taking the right steps
- 41:42Speaker 3: and also being aware of what's happening around you, right,
- 41:46Speaker 3: because you may be in a room and you're like, wait,
- 41:49Speaker 3: I heard that person say that she's a publisher. One
- 41:51Speaker 3: of my goals this year, I want to be intentional
- 41:54Speaker 3: about writing my book. Let me talk to her. So
- 41:56Speaker 3: it even helps to there's actually, like I forget, there's
- 41:59Speaker 3: like a nerve in the brain actually that gets activated
- 42:04Speaker 3: when you come in contact with things that are relevant
- 42:08Speaker 3: to something that you set as an intention.
- 42:10Speaker 1: Oh, that's very cool. Do you feel like there has
- 42:14Speaker 1: been specific ways that you've reinvested in yourself? Yeah.
- 42:18Speaker 3: I mean I think reinvesting comes into a lot of
- 42:22Speaker 3: different forms, you know, for me and I'm sure you too.
- 42:25Speaker 3: So much of being able to maximize your day and
- 42:28Speaker 3: being productive is having the energy. So it's investing in
- 42:32Speaker 3: eating right, exercising, carving out the time to do meditations, affirmations,
- 42:37Speaker 3: whatever it is you need to show up as your
- 42:40Speaker 3: best self. I also, you know, invest a lot of
- 42:44Speaker 3: time and just talking to people. You Know, sometimes I'm like, oh,
- 42:48Speaker 3: I really don't feel like going to this dinner, and
- 42:50Speaker 3: then at the end of the night, I'm like, I'm
- 42:52Speaker 3: so glad I went to that dinner. I got like
- 42:54Speaker 3: four nuggets that are going to inspire X, Y and Z. Yeah,
- 42:59Speaker 3: and so you know, part of being able to invest
- 43:03Speaker 3: in yourself in the right way again comes down to
- 43:05Speaker 3: really knowing, like how do you want to show up
- 43:08Speaker 3: and where are you trying to go?
- 43:10Speaker 1: I feel that way about almost any dinner that I
- 43:13Speaker 1: am like gratefully invited to. I'm always so tired at
- 43:17Speaker 1: the end of the day, and I come home so
- 43:19Speaker 1: much more energized. Completely.
- 43:22Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 43:23Speaker 1: I also wanted to go backwards for a second when
- 43:26Speaker 1: you were talking about self care. Was that something that
- 43:28Speaker 1: you experienced personally or something that you see often You
- 43:32Speaker 1: were saying, you see a lot of founders put themselves last.
- 43:35Speaker 1: Is that coming from like a personal pain point or
- 43:37Speaker 1: is it something you've seen.
- 43:38Speaker 3: It's actually come from both. It was definitely a personal
- 43:40Speaker 3: pain point for me, where oh my gosh, Like you know,
- 43:44Speaker 3: I wasn't sleeping enough, I wasn't eating right, I wasn't exercising.
- 43:50Speaker 3: I just I wasn't even making time for friends and family.
- 43:53Speaker 3: I had a lot of relationships that were on the
- 43:55Speaker 3: rocks because I wasn't showing up as a good friend
- 43:58Speaker 3: because nothing came before my business. And I hear that
- 44:01Speaker 3: so often from other especially female entrepreneurs, and it doesn't
- 44:06Speaker 3: need to be that way, and you will not sacrifice
- 44:09Speaker 3: your success by putting other areas of your life first
- 44:14Speaker 3: when you need to. You can only boost your success
- 44:16Speaker 3: by doing that.
- 44:18Speaker 1: So I forgot what I was chatting with my mom about,
- 44:21Speaker 1: but she said something like, I'm a CEO, and I
- 44:24Speaker 1: was like, no, you're not. You sell mortgages, you don't.
- 44:28Speaker 1: You're not a CEO of a company. And she's like,
- 44:31Speaker 1: who do you think runs this whole house and family?
- 44:33Speaker 1: I am totally, like I've produced the whole thing. I'm
- 44:36Speaker 1: totally a CEO. And so I asked this question with
- 44:41Speaker 1: the sort of that lens, because I think you probably
- 44:44Speaker 1: have great advice for founders, but for anybody who isn't
- 44:48Speaker 1: a founder and is a self starter in their life,
- 44:50Speaker 1: even what tactical advice do you have for being in
- 44:54Speaker 1: the trenches day in and day out.
- 44:57Speaker 3: One of the things that I've had to really get
- 45:00Speaker 3: better at is making sure that I maximize my day,
- 45:04Speaker 3: because when you're in the trenches, you need to get
- 45:07Speaker 3: a lot done, and you've got to be super protective
- 45:10Speaker 3: of your time. One of the techniques that I've been
- 45:12Speaker 3: using is time blocking. So it's literally being intentional about
- 45:17Speaker 3: like every half hour one hour time block throughout my
- 45:20Speaker 3: day so that I don't find myself like scrolling on
- 45:23Speaker 3: Instagram for a half hour during the middle of the
- 45:25Speaker 3: day or getting distracted by something. I feel like, when
- 45:29Speaker 3: you're in the trenches and you have things to do
- 45:31Speaker 3: and people are dependent on you, you have to make
- 45:35Speaker 3: sure that you're using your time well. And part of
- 45:37Speaker 3: time blocking, too is making sure that you're carving out
- 45:40Speaker 3: that space to do what you need to do for you,
- 45:43Speaker 3: Otherwise it's going to go to the bottom of the
- 45:45Speaker 3: list and probably is not going to happen.
- 45:48Speaker 1: You have a polite way to say no, I'm still
- 45:51Speaker 1: trying to figure it out. It's hard, you know.
- 45:55Speaker 3: Again, I have a lot of people who reach out
- 45:57Speaker 3: to me who are starting beauty brands that want to
- 46:01Speaker 3: get my advice in perspective, and I really do. I
- 46:04Speaker 3: want to help as many people as I can, but
- 46:06Speaker 3: I don't always have the capacity to review someone's business
- 46:10Speaker 3: plan or to spend an hour with them on the phone,
- 46:12Speaker 3: and so sometimes I have to let people down and
- 46:15Speaker 3: just say I don't have the capacity right now. But
- 46:18Speaker 3: I wrote a really relevant article on the site that
- 46:21Speaker 3: you may want to check out, or if I know
- 46:24Speaker 3: someone who has similar expertise, expertise and capacity, I'll point
- 46:30Speaker 3: them their way.
- 46:31Speaker 1: I'm still trying to figure it out too, Okay, I
- 46:34Speaker 1: do a little rapid fire. So I always think of
- 46:37Speaker 1: networking as relationship building. What is your best tip for
- 46:41Speaker 1: relationship building?
- 46:43Speaker 3: So I think for relationship building, you have to remember
- 46:45Speaker 3: it is a two way street. If you're going to
- 46:48Speaker 3: ask someone for their time or their help, ask how
- 46:52Speaker 3: you can help that other person.
- 46:54Speaker 1: What is the best negotiation tactic that you've learned throughout
- 46:58Speaker 1: the years.
- 47:00Speaker 3: I think it's been when you come to the negotiation table,
- 47:05Speaker 3: make sure you build in all of that other person's
- 47:09Speaker 3: concerns or doubts into your ask. So just like make
- 47:13Speaker 3: the yes for them, like drunk the yes.
- 47:17Speaker 1: That's like the first thing they teach you in debate too,
- 47:20Speaker 1: is like make the alternative argument. Yes, what is something
- 47:24Speaker 1: we should know about our hair that we probably don't.
- 47:28Speaker 3: A lot of people don't realize that your diet and
- 47:31Speaker 3: what you ingest affects your hair growth and hair health.
- 47:36Speaker 3: Which is why for people that maybe don't eat certain
- 47:40Speaker 3: types of foods or just aren't following a very healthy diet.
- 47:43Speaker 3: Taking a supplement is really important.
- 47:46Speaker 1: That's a great call. I wouldn't have thought of that.
- 47:49Speaker 1: A beauty splurge you cannot live without. Okay.
- 47:52Speaker 3: I'm a sucker for massages, and there's like this two
- 47:56Speaker 3: hour massage at the Mandarin Oriental that is so damn
- 48:00Speaker 3: I'm expensive, but it's like the best.
- 48:03Speaker 1: An item on your bucket list that you want to
- 48:06Speaker 1: get this year, or something you want to do not
- 48:08Speaker 1: necessarily get.
- 48:10Speaker 3: I really want to go on an African safari and
- 48:12Speaker 3: I'm trying to make it happen.
- 48:14Speaker 1: What is a book that changed your life, something you
- 48:17Speaker 1: think everybody should read.
- 48:19Speaker 3: Oh, my gosh, The Four Agreements changed my life and
- 48:23Speaker 3: crazy story. Someone randomly sent me the book, no name,
- 48:29Speaker 3: no note, The book was just sent to me. I
- 48:31Speaker 3: still have no idea who it's from. And I brought
- 48:35Speaker 3: it with me on vacation a few years back and
- 48:37Speaker 3: it was transformative.
- 48:39Speaker 1: That is so spooky in the best way. Yeah, Okay,
- 48:43Speaker 1: we're going to do a pretty smart question, so you
- 48:45Speaker 1: just let me know when to stop stop. Okay, what
- 48:52Speaker 1: is the biggest sacrifice you've had to make on your
- 48:54Speaker 1: path to achievement?
- 48:56Speaker 3: Wow? I mean, it's definitely been brioshi and it's been
- 49:00Speaker 3: sacrificing so much. And I'm not saying this is a
- 49:04Speaker 3: good thing, but I definitely, you know, sacrificed aspects of
- 49:08Speaker 3: my self care. I sacrificed some friendships. I sacrificed being
- 49:15Speaker 3: able to travel and do fun things, you know, for
- 49:19Speaker 3: the sake of creating success with my business.
- 49:23Speaker 1: My hope is that you're able to sort of play
- 49:25Speaker 1: catch up on some of those things in the coming years.
- 49:28Speaker 1: But I know what you mean. Yeah, the last question
- 49:31Speaker 1: is what's the smartest decision you've ever.
- 49:33Speaker 3: Made along those lines, like honestly betting on myself. You know,
- 49:39Speaker 3: I invest in a lot of brands and businesses and
- 49:42Speaker 3: all sorts of things, but I still think number one,
- 49:46Speaker 3: the best bet that you can make is on yourself.
- 49:49Speaker 3: And when I decided I wanted to start Briogio, that
- 49:52Speaker 3: was the best decision I've made.
- 50:00Speaker 2: I want to thank the people that make the show possible.
- 50:03Speaker 1: Colleen O'Neill, Jill Salama, Karrie O'Keefe, and Phil speed Tech. Okay,
- 50:08Speaker 1: you know what time it is. Today's a good day.
- 50:11Speaker 1: To have a good day.
- 50:12Speaker 2: I'll see you next week.