Latest / Earn Your Leisure / EYL #302 $100 Billion Licensing Industry: April Showers on Building Afro Unicorn, & Licensing Business Model

Transcript

EYL #302 $100 Billion Licensing Industry: April Showers on Building Afro Unicorn, & Licensing Business Model · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
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  Speaker 1: Donald J.
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  Speaker 2: Trump's leadership.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Christy nom the United States Secretary of Homeland Security.
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  Speaker 2: Leave now.
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  Speaker 1: Under President Trump, America's laws, border and families will be protected.
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  Speaker 3: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security.
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  Speaker 4: All right, guys, welcome back. We are in the home
• 1:04
  Speaker 4: studios and we have a special guest today. April Showers
• 1:07
  Speaker 4: rings made flowers.
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  Speaker 5: That's a fact.
• 1:10
  Speaker 4: That's what they say.
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  Speaker 5: How many times you heard that growing.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Up less than a million.
• 1:15
  Speaker 5: Maybe somewhere around there, somewhere around.
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  Speaker 4: There, is that your real name? Born and raised April Showers.
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  Speaker 2: My first serf, Herman Showers, is my father.
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  Speaker 4: So what what? That's why they named you April Showers.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: Got to the same.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, because if I was a boy, I would be
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: Thunder because I'm born in July.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: Thundershower.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: That's crazy, you know, a running back or something like that.
• 1:38
  Speaker 4: Yeah, thun the Showers off boxer box definitely in a
• 1:42
  Speaker 4: w W. You don't even need a boxing name. That'll
• 1:44
  Speaker 4: be a boxing name and think about that. Yeah, Thundershowers all.
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  Speaker 5: You could work for. Okay, see, okay, some of the possibility.
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  Speaker 5: It's a fat and I just had everybody know. She
• 1:55
  Speaker 5: walked in with a different type of energy.
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  Speaker 6: Today we'll get into that, but there's definitely a West
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  Speaker 6: Coast flavor.
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  Speaker 5: To it for sure.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, West Coast states on you.
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  Speaker 2: I have been oh last before you got here.
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  Speaker 4: All about my take on this battle. Shout out to
• 2:15
  Speaker 4: the West Coast.
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  Speaker 5: Yo, I'm happy for y'all. I'm happy for hip hop.
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  Speaker 4: Shout out to l A man.
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  Speaker 7: But we're from New York, so.
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  Speaker 2: I know, I know We're good though, all right, your
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  Speaker 2: birth park.
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  Speaker 7: So that's a fast let's not forgot we're claiming that.
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  Speaker 4: So April is a pioneering entrepreneur, founder of Afro Unicorn,
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  Speaker 4: are the first black woman on fully licensed character brand
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  Speaker 4: and major retail And this is simple.
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  Speaker 5: Oh, in case you were wondering, wondering, Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: In case you were wondering. So you know, it's groundbreaking brand,
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  Speaker 4: celebrates diversity and empowered women and children of color, and
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  Speaker 4: has sold over twenty million of sales. It's part speaker.
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  Speaker 4: You've been on numerous platforms like over thirty. I saw
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: in the bio, Yes, sir, everything from.
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  Speaker 2: This was it though I saw it on the board,
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: like this was on my board.
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  Speaker 7: So I saw it in the bio. It said at
• 3:16
  Speaker 7: least twenty twenty four. Yeah, I said, we spoke this
• 3:18
  Speaker 7: into first, and we've met before. I think at the
• 3:21
  Speaker 7: time you were about to do or you had just
• 3:23
  Speaker 7: done CBS in.
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  Speaker 2: The morning, right, Oh you remember me. We met at
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: what's it called New York Fashion Week Haarlem at Apollo.
• 3:34
  Speaker 5: Yes, yeah, and you had just done it. Yeah, that's true.
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  Speaker 4: So this is going to be a dope conversation talking
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: about you know, the motivational speaking the products entrepreneurship, your journey.
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  Speaker 4: So thank you for joining us, appreciate.
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  Speaker 2: It and thank you for having me.
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  Speaker 4: Yes. Sure, so all right, let's get into it. Where
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: does this start? Right? Because you're from La, south central LA.
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: We just found that out.
• 4:00
  Speaker 5: The albums might have given it in a way as well.
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  Speaker 4: Shot to my La family all money and you know
• 4:08
  Speaker 4: those guys the ice cube. You know, we got a
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: lot of friends in La. But okay, how do you
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: get the vision to become an entrepreneur? What's the first
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: steps to actually, you know, achieve this goal and explain
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  Speaker 4: the actual product behind the unicorn?
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  Speaker 2: Okay, that's a lot so first off, entrepreneurial it was
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: in me. It's a spirit that I've had since I
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: was about fourteen years old. My first gig was I
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: was nineteen and I hired a bunch of young ladies
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: that were like my mini means to be PA's for
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: other people in the entertainment industry. So I started that
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: at nineteen and then from there I just was always
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: trying to find a hustle. I really do think it's
• 4:55
  Speaker 2: in you because a lot of people think when they
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: work nine to five, like I just don't want to
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: work for nobody else. But if you not working the
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: nine to five, how the nine to five is supposed
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: to be worked, you're not going to work for yourself
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: more Like, I think that that's so false. Fast forward
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  Speaker 2: a little bit too where how I got to afric unicorn.
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  Speaker 2: I own to operate a state farm agency about to
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: hit year thirteen. I'm also a licensed real estate broker.
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  Speaker 2: So a friend kept referring to me as a unicorn
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  Speaker 2: on the Most Important Single Mother Too Amazing Young Black
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  Speaker 2: Boys on a row student boys shout out to Jesse
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  Speaker 2: and Christopher and so my friend kept telling me I
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  Speaker 2: was a unicorn. He was like, you're a unicorn. Your
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  Speaker 2: unicorn said for like two years, Like why you keep
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: calling me that? He's like, well, because you have the
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  Speaker 2: businesses that you're maintaining, you're raising the boys. You know
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  Speaker 2: you're doing it. I said, well, I'm a woman. That's
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  Speaker 2: what I'm built to do. Like He's like, nah, April,
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  Speaker 2: you do it an extraordinary level. That's what makes you
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  Speaker 2: a unicorn. So the idea of being a unicorn came
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  Speaker 2: from my friend. I googled it because I didn't really
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  Speaker 2: know what unicorns were. I saw they were unique. They
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  Speaker 2: were I'm like, I'm definitely unique. I'm all things black
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: girl magic, and I started using the emojis in our
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: phone until one day I was like, dang, why is
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: it white? Like it don't resonate with me anymore. So
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  Speaker 2: I actually went to go find one that looked like me.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: I couldn't find one, so I said, complaining about it,
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I said, I'm gonna create one that looks like me.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: And then during the creation of it, we had different
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: shades of it, and I'm like, Yo, this looks like
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  Speaker 2: a movement, and I bet it's so many other women
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  Speaker 2: out there that felt like I was feeling, didn't know
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  Speaker 2: that they had the unicorn within them. I'm gonna go
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  Speaker 2: find my tribe. So that's how it kind of started
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  Speaker 2: with me creating a platform in twenty nineteen to highlight
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  Speaker 2: other entrepreneurs, to shine light on them, to let them
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  Speaker 2: know that anything is possible, and to give them something
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  Speaker 2: that represented who they were that they could physically wear.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: So at the first drop was just apparel. It was
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  Speaker 2: just a T shirt, and then the like to Tiffany Haddis,
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: Sherry Shepherd, Lisha Keys, all of them jumped on board
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  Speaker 2: immediately because I would just be in their comments and
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: DM saying, hey, have you ever sent after Unicorn? Before
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  Speaker 2: I created a brand of women of color who hustle
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  Speaker 2: follow the movement, they already resonated themselves with either Black
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: Unicorn or super Mom or super entrepreneurnewers. When they slid
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  Speaker 2: over to my page, they were like, dang, that Unicorn
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  Speaker 2: represents who I am. So now fast forward maybe a
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: year or two later, and I'm skipping the line. We
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: could always go back, but Walmart reaches out after a
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: video went viral of a little girl wearing afric Unicorn
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  Speaker 2: shirt and they saw all the comments. I said, that's
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  Speaker 2: Africancorn's baby, that's after Unicorns apparel. And she reached out
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  Speaker 2: and was like, hey, can you what you consider doing
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  Speaker 2: party supplies with us? And that's what got me into
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  Speaker 2: licensing again. I said a lot, But we could go
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  Speaker 2: all the way back, because it's it's.
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  Speaker 5: Deep twenty nineteen.
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  Speaker 6: We launched you, right, but then twenty is the pandemic,
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  Speaker 6: So how are you navigating through that?
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  Speaker 7: Because is it just is it still T shirts during
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  Speaker 7: the pandemic or did you have to change the business.
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  Speaker 6: Model or adapt to Obviously e commerce might have worked
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  Speaker 6: into your benefit. What was that like during pandemic time
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  Speaker 6: as you had just larger Brent?
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  Speaker 2: So at first I was printing shirts right, and then
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  Speaker 2: I realized that that wasn't gonna get it for me
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  Speaker 2: because the orders were coming in. There's three different shades.
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  Speaker 2: I couldn't figure out, Okay, how many at the time
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  Speaker 2: I have vanilla, Mocha and caramel, Like, how many Vanilla's
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  Speaker 2: gonna be three xls? How a man gonna be two xs?
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  Speaker 2: So it was very complicated. So I immediately switched over to
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  Speaker 2: print on demand. And when print on demand, they have
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  Speaker 2: other accessories that I added. As soon as I dropped
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  Speaker 2: the shirt, people were like, oh, do you have this
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: on a notebook? Can I get it on the backpack?
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  Speaker 2: Can I get it on this or that? And so
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  Speaker 2: I was like, well, whatever, they got it on print
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  Speaker 2: on demand, I'll find it and I'll get it out.
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  Speaker 2: So my focus from day one was just to put
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  Speaker 2: it on as many people that's possible, so I could
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: have walking billboards, gotcha.
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  Speaker 4: So talk about all the product lines that you actually
• 9:06
  Speaker 4: have within the umbrella of the Unicorn. You have the
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: merchant tell.
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  Speaker 2: By everything, so there's We've put out probably about five
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  Speaker 2: hundred different skews categories about twenty five. So we have haircare,
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  Speaker 2: have a full line, magical tresses, sham food conditioner, edge control.
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  Speaker 2: Then we have toys, plush, coloring books. I just dropped
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: another book with Random House yesterday, stepped my step into
• 9:34
  Speaker 2: reading book. That's my sixth book with Random House. Graphic
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: novels with Andrews McNeil coming out in July. Of course,
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: the apparel, backpacks, suitcases, fruit snacks, cakes in every grocery store, cookies,
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: I leave pajamas. That's a whole different category in itself.
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  Speaker 2: Women's lines a different category. Am I leaving out? We
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: had and pellines at one point. We're working with ride
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: alongs right now, so you'll be able to have like,
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: you know, the little RVs or whatever they call the kids,
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: some cars, like the little escalades and stuff.
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  Speaker 4: Oh like the toy trucks.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, the toy trucks. We're getting into that, ya said.
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: The hair hair accessories, so like you got bowls and
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: clips and all of that. And I know I'm leaving
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: a lot of things, puzzles, trying to walk out. I
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: got bandages, So how does this okay?
• 10:29
  Speaker 4: So you have an idea for a unicorn, right, just
• 10:33
  Speaker 4: the symbolicness of a black unicorn, which represents strength and
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: uniqueness and black women pretty much paraphrasing, right. So then
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: you start with a T shirt, which that's easy to
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: print up. Anybody can do T shirts, right, and people
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: start wearing a T shirt? Right, So how do you
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: go into all of these other different are you just
• 10:56
  Speaker 4: licensing your name to products? Like is it like white labeled?
• 11:00
  Speaker 4: Like how are you going to like all these other
• 11:03
  Speaker 4: different verticals?
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  Speaker 2: So I love that we're going to dive into this
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  Speaker 2: because I always say that licensing it's a ninety eight
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  Speaker 2: billion dollar industry, and forty six percent of that is
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: character licensing. But it's still like a two percent of industry, right,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: so only really two percent know what licensing in the
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: character space really is. But so now I tell people
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: I'm the owner of a fully licensed character brand, They're like,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: oh great, now, what is that? My direct competitors are Disney, Marvel,
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: and Nick. So to find out for Unicorn, wherever you
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: see Mickey Mouse, you will see after Unicorn next to it.
• 11:43
  Speaker 2: Those companies they are licensed character brands, meaning that they
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: are the license sore they own the intellectual property, and
• 11:53
  Speaker 2: then they find licensees who either directly manufacture or they
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: have manufacturing facilities abroad or domestically where they ship directly
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: into retail. What they do as a licensee, they get
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: the license Sore, Disney, Marvel, and Nick. They give them
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: an upfront minimum guarantee to be able to say, Hey,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: if you allow me to do I have underwear too.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: If you allow me to do underwear with your logo
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: on it, with your character artwork on it, I'm going
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: to pay you X amount of dollars in advance in
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: addition to also a royalty for every item. So so
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: that is what licensing is. I always try to bring
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: it back to a little bit of hip hop to
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: make people really understand that infamous interview with Kanye and
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: Sway when Kanye was saying, look, I'm trying to get
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: like the Ralph Laurens and the Calvin Kleines of the world,
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: and Sway was like, but you're rich, Kanye, just go
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: take all your millions and make your own products. Kanye
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: was like, you ain't got the answers, Like I lost
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: twenty seven million trying to do it that way. That
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: ain't it? They doing something that I don't know what
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: they're doing to get it out to mass distribution. Fast
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: forward six or eight maybe eight years later, he does
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: the licensing deal with Adidas and becomes a billionaire. On paper,
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: we could talk about how good or bad his deal was,
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: but in essence, licensing allows you to get mass distribution
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: very quickly without having to have the upfront cost.
• 13:39
  Speaker 5: All right, I got that.
• 13:40
  Speaker 6: So you said your item Unicorn is going to be sold.
• 13:44
  Speaker 6: So I imagine the a's a shelf. Disney is licensed
• 13:46
  Speaker 6: to Mickey Mouse, right, Nigga's going to license doorally Explore,
• 13:50
  Speaker 6: and I got Spider Man. And then you're just sitting
• 13:52
  Speaker 6: on the shelf. You take it to somebody, you stay,
• 13:54
  Speaker 6: say here's the amount of money.
• 13:56
  Speaker 4: Now so you oh, so you are licensing or you're
• 13:59
  Speaker 4: not licensing?
• 14:00
  Speaker 5: Our license?
• 14:01
  Speaker 4: Your license.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm the only black woman to have a fully
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: licensed character brand.
• 14:05
  Speaker 5: Now you choose the retail or. How does that work?
• 14:08
  Speaker 4: Right?
• 14:08
  Speaker 6: So we get in Walmart, how do we get the target,
• 14:11
  Speaker 6: how do we get to how do we get into
• 14:12
  Speaker 6: those How does that work?
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: So traditionally it will work with the licensees would have
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: the relationship. So there's one there's one guy that does
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: underwear for everybody, for all retail, for the majority of it.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: He does all the underwear for every single character that
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: that you see. If you flip over the package, you'll
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: see I open into this new world. Like now I
• 14:34
  Speaker 2: know when every I go through the stores, all I
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: do is flip over packages because I want to know
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: who's actually distributing these packages. I mean, this product. So
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: the way that it will work is that in your
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: contract you will specify the retail channels that they're allowed
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: to sell into.
• 14:49
  Speaker 5: Gotcha.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: But being new to the space and not really we
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: learned it from the gate. So me and my partner
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: at Skia Fountain, Hey, Skia, Me and the Skia watched
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: the toys that made us on Netflix and that was
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: the behind the stories behind the scene of like Ninja, Turtles, Hello,
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: Kitty he Man and all these other great properties. Right,
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: and it talked about licensing because I didn't know anything
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: about it when Walmart presented it to me. Right, So
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: we learned that we had to build relationships quickly and fast.
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: We understood that if we wanted to get to target
• 15:30
  Speaker 2: or we wanted Okay, I think the first thing we
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: first thing we had was party supplies, right, So I
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: had two licensees to prepare the party supplies, and when
• 15:38
  Speaker 2: we dropped in Walmart, we had twenty two skews. So
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: when you say party, you're like, you know, napkins and plates,
• 15:44
  Speaker 2: but that those plush that was also in party. And
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: then from there we went to apparel. The unique thing
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: about licensing, it's such a small industry. They all know
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: each other. That's what Kanye was saying, like they got
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: this information that's not getting out. I say, it's never
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: lack of talent with us, it's always lack of information
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: because we always have what it takes to succeed, but
• 16:14
  Speaker 2: the information does not trickle down to us. And I
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: felt like, look, I know how it works, so we're
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: gonna go out and find as much information as we
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: possibly can. So I just started going to stores and
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: flipping over packages. I would see who manufactured. I would
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: go on LinkedIn. I would find that company. I would
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: search the people that worked there. I would see who
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: were the buyers. I'll DM them saying, hey, Walmart's bringing
• 16:38
  Speaker 2: us in. We're a new brand. I would love to
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: have a conversation, but they were already talking, so they're
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: also like two degrees removed. So if you're on the
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: underwear side, you know the pajama guy because he's probably
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: your cousin or your uncle. And then the pajama guy
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: knows the shirt guy. And that's how it's just word
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: of mouth really, but it's the information that we just
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: don't have and that doesn't come down this way.
• 17:05
  Speaker 5: So what's the first product? Right?
• 17:07
  Speaker 6: Because I imagine and people listen to the story, Now
• 17:10
  Speaker 6: out your trademarket, right, and then the first product is
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: what after the T shirts?
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: In retail party supplies parties, Walmart reached out and asked,
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: can we create a line for party supplies?
• 17:22
  Speaker 6: So after they do the party supplies, they see the
• 17:24
  Speaker 6: sales of that, they say, do you.
• 17:25
  Speaker 5: Have more what?
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: They didn't even see the sales. So we were in
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: a unique position after George Floyd and we were part
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: of that whole push for DEI right where everyone wanted
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: to bring something to check the box off. And I'm okay,
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: I'm okay with being brought in like that. I'm just
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: gonna make sure I stay in right. So I believe
• 17:51
  Speaker 2: that they were trying to find diverse properties at the time,
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: so it aligned that they found after Unicorn, and they
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: brought us in that way, right, So that's party Supplies
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: was the first and immediately when Walmart is the largest
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: retailler in the US. I don't know if people know that.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: They think target. Target has about eighteen hundred doors, Walmart
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: has about four thousand. They're huge. So if Walmart has
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: your attention, everyone's talking now. So before we even went
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: to sales, we already had our deal for apparel before
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: we so Walmart reached out August of twenty twenty one.
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: We launched in May twenty twenty two, and we were
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: already in maybe four categories before we sold anything.
• 18:44
  Speaker 5: Okay, so each category you're getting the check.
• 18:47
  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, So how does the licensing actually work? Like?
• 18:51
  Speaker 4: Can you break it down? Like the deal structure?
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: So you get a minimum guarantee. It could be anything
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: from ten thousand to a million.
• 19:03
  Speaker 4: That no matter even if it doesn't sell anything, you're
• 19:05
  Speaker 4: gonna get That's what minimum guarantee means. You're gonna get
• 19:08
  Speaker 4: ten thousand dollars no matter what, or you get a
• 19:10
  Speaker 4: million dollars no matter what.
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: Right, right, And then you get a royalty. So hopefully
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: the licensee will be able to recoup that minimum guarantee
• 19:21
  Speaker 2: based off of sales, and then once they get that
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: minimum guarantee back, then you start receiving your royalties from that.
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: Royalties for a character bran can go anywhere between eight
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: percent to about fifteen fifteen percent.
• 19:36
  Speaker 4: So okay. So you get let's say a half a
• 19:39
  Speaker 4: million dollars no matter what happens, and then you get
• 19:43
  Speaker 4: a fifteen percent royalty. But now that fifteen percent doesn't
• 19:48
  Speaker 4: kick in until the first half a million dollars is
• 19:51
  Speaker 4: actually recooped. Correct, That's how it works.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: Correct.
• 19:54
  Speaker 4: After that five hundred thousand is actually recooped, then you
• 19:59
  Speaker 4: start to earn in the royalty. You don't earn royalties
• 20:01
  Speaker 4: from day one.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: Only against the minimum guarantee. I don't receive. I earn it,
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: but I don't receive You don't.
• 20:07
  Speaker 4: Receive it until the minimum guarantee is met, correct, and
• 20:10
  Speaker 4: then you start you personally start to get paid or
• 20:12
  Speaker 4: whoever personally starts to get paid. So okay. So in
• 20:17
  Speaker 4: your opinion, why is that better than like actually starting
• 20:24
  Speaker 4: a shampool brisoness yourself.
• 20:27
  Speaker 2: Well, let me explain something. With licensing. I'm the one
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: hundred percent owner of the brand, so creatively and quality control.
• 20:35
  Speaker 2: Nothing moves without me. So it's one hundred percent owned
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: by afro Unicorn, which is owned by me.
• 20:42
  Speaker 4: So, but it's produced by somebody else. And right, so
• 20:47
  Speaker 4: it's produced by somebody else, You own it, but they
• 20:52
  Speaker 4: they'll get the majority profit because they're actually producing it.
• 20:55
  Speaker 4: They're putting all the money up, right in a sense.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: In a sense, but like Kanye said, he lost twenty
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: seven million trying to do it the other one. No.
• 21:03
  Speaker 4: No, But I'm trying to educate the people. So I'm
• 21:05
  Speaker 4: not saying that that's a bad thing, but I'm saying, like,
• 21:07
  Speaker 4: why is that more beneficial to me? It was more
• 21:10
  Speaker 4: beneficial because obviously it's less overhead, right, and you don't
• 21:14
  Speaker 4: have to put the money out yourself. It's less risk
• 21:17
  Speaker 4: and you can scale quicker as opposed to you focus.
• 21:22
  Speaker 4: Like if you try to do everything yourself with one
• 21:23
  Speaker 4: particular product, that might take five years to get that
• 21:25
  Speaker 4: product off the ground, where now you can do thirty
• 21:28
  Speaker 4: different products. Right, but you have other people that's actually
• 21:32
  Speaker 4: putting up the money, doing all of the the labor
• 21:35
  Speaker 4: and stuff like that, So that allows you to move quicker.
• 21:37
  Speaker 4: So you're getting less money, but you're moving faster.
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: You could expand faster, and now you can really be
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: a CEO and market the business because once you're once
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: you have a warehouse and you're trying to you know,
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: you got fork lips and boxing and moving units and
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: this got to go out. And then also is capacity
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: because if you got a call today that that little
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: notebook that y'all have right there, the little sticker book.
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: Target ordered over a million of those, So it's also capacity.
• 22:10
  Speaker 2: So if someone called and said, I will I love
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: y'all shirts, I need y'all to deliver five hundred thousand
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: of them in two months.
• 22:20
  Speaker 6: Let me so as you were saying, I'm thinking to
• 22:22
  Speaker 6: myself on top of everything Shaty just said, because I
• 22:24
  Speaker 6: think those are all brilliant points as to why.
• 22:27
  Speaker 5: It makes sense.
• 22:28
  Speaker 6: It's a lot of times when we start businesses, we're
• 22:31
  Speaker 6: not ready to scale, right. We don't have the infrastructure,
• 22:34
  Speaker 6: we may not have the capital to scale.
• 22:35
  Speaker 5: Right. So you're saying that a video went viral.
• 22:37
  Speaker 6: A lot of times in our businesses, we go viral,
• 22:39
  Speaker 6: but we don't even have the inventory to match the demand.
• 22:42
  Speaker 6: Sorry for the unicorn, right, But in.
• 22:45
  Speaker 7: Your case, you don't even have to worry about that, right,
• 22:47
  Speaker 7: because they're going to match the demand because they're the
• 22:50
  Speaker 7: retailer that's providing the actual product.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, not the retailer directly, but the licensee. Yes, licensee
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: is going to But one thing. When I build Afriancorn,
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: I built it to sell. I believe every business should
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: be built to sell, and there's certain things that you
• 23:04
  Speaker 2: have to set into place. I didn't know about licensing again,
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: so the only option that I knew because I knew
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: day one, twenty nineteen, I said, I've been recorded after
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: yourcorn wild be a household name in a worldwide brand.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: I knew that from the beginning. I just didn't know
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: how it was going to happen. I thought the only
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: option at that time was to sell it to a
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: Mattel or to a Hasburrow.
• 23:27
  Speaker 4: Like.
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: I had no clue that Disney did not manufacture their
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: own products, that Marvel did not manufacture their own products,
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: no clue. I thought I had to sell it to
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: one of those guys in order to get it out there.
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: But hell, they're selling it to other people. Well, they're
• 23:44
  Speaker 2: renting it to other people. Basically, that's what licensing is.
• 23:47
  Speaker 2: So yeah, what are you gonna say.
• 23:50
  Speaker 5: Well, I was gonna you brought up those two.
• 23:51
  Speaker 6: So I'm thinking to myself, at some point, if you
• 23:53
  Speaker 6: already knew I want to sell this thing, at some
• 23:55
  Speaker 6: point where you approached by those brands, because those are
• 23:57
  Speaker 6: the two largest toy companies that I know, Hasbro and Mattel.
• 24:02
  Speaker 6: Were you approached by them as they saw what was
• 24:05
  Speaker 6: happening inside of retail?
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: So again they're like me, they are intellectual properties. So
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: Hasboro is a toy company that I would do a
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: licensing deal with. Again, I didn't understand how they operated
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: to even know that that wasn't even really an option. Okay, So,
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: like we had conversations when we first launched with Nickelodeon
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: and they wanted to work on the animated series. Now
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: that's where it gets a little bit different. So like
• 24:42
  Speaker 2: Disney can come in and Nick can come in and say, hey,
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: we want to make this a series. What will happen?
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: Sometimes in those deals you'll lose ownership. But so that's
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: not something we were interested in because Nick definitely wanted
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: the property in the beginning, but they knew that I
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: didn't want to lose any type of ownership in the brand.
• 25:03
  Speaker 6: So if they actually made an animated show about the character,
• 25:06
  Speaker 6: they own the IP of the character now or just
• 25:08
  Speaker 6: the show, because even if they have the show, don't
• 25:11
  Speaker 6: you still own the license for the products.
• 25:13
  Speaker 2: That's why I did not pull the trigger on it.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: I figure if we build as much as we could
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: on our own, once we get to the table, there's
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: not much they can negotiate with as it relates to
• 25:25
  Speaker 2: owning the IP. They could only own the rights for
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: the animated series because we have too much product out
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: in the marketplace for you to own Afro Unicorn.
• 25:35
  Speaker 4: So you said you started with the attend to sell right, Yes,
• 25:38
  Speaker 4: so what you do early to set up systems in
• 25:41
  Speaker 4: place that you knew that you would be beneficial to
• 25:45
  Speaker 4: actually sell it?
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: On first thing trademark. A lot of people aren't prepared
• 25:51
  Speaker 2: because they don't own their products. And I knew from
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: the gate if I have to sell them, you can't
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: sell anything you do not own. So even if like
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: you're talking about viral moments, people could have them all
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: the time. But if you're not ready, I'm from LA
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: you stay ready, ain't got to get ready. Shout out
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: to sugar Free we side of Promona. But knowing that
• 26:12
  Speaker 2: in order for me to sell it, I have to
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: first own it. So my first step was, I know
• 26:16
  Speaker 2: this is gonna be big, I need to own it.
• 26:18
  Speaker 2: So it was the trademark. The first person I actually
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: hired was an accountant. I am terrified of going to prison,
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: so I'm like, I've heard too many stories of taxes.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: So I got my account on from day one, just
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: to make sure the books were clean because I know
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: that's what they're going to want to look at to
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: see you know your numbers. And then I worked, I hustled.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: I wanted to get my numbers up so I could
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: make sure that there was a there was a valuation
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: for the company. And so that's what my focus was,
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: just to work hard and eventually someone was gonna notice,
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: and they did. They just showed me a different route
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: to get it.
• 26:57
  Speaker 6: So every time you added another vertical, another category, you're
• 27:00
  Speaker 6: adding to the valuation of the company. Is there a
• 27:03
  Speaker 6: number that you're looking to get to, Because we talk
• 27:06
  Speaker 6: about technology companies and we always hear, oh it's a
• 27:09
  Speaker 6: fifteen xt multiple, it's a ten x multiple in this category,
• 27:14
  Speaker 6: Like what is the multiple for this industry? And is
• 27:18
  Speaker 6: that the goal to build as many categories to have
• 27:20
  Speaker 6: that valuation go up.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: So my goal is not to sell afric Unicorn. It's not.
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: We have opened up different legs and arms like African
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Corn Entertainment where we will build the hotels and the
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: live location based entertainment like the family attraction centers, and
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: that is something that we want to get funding behind
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: and eventually sell and make that public. But the IP
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: itself will forever just be owned unless they come in
• 27:53
  Speaker 2: with one hundred billion. Then I'm like, okay, want to
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: be hundred bees. Because the thing about Afro Unicorn and
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: what I really believe in is that it is a
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: It's true. The reason why the buyers love it is
• 28:10
  Speaker 2: because it's organic, like we built this from the ground up.
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: It's not a major, major mass Sudio pushing it, and
• 28:19
  Speaker 2: it's really owned by a black person, and if you
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: remove me from the equation, it kind of just waters
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: down the brand, and I don't want that.
• 28:33
  Speaker 4: So you talked about Kanye and he became a billionaire
• 28:36
  Speaker 4: because of Yasy licensing deal with Adidas. He owns one
• 28:41
  Speaker 4: hundred percent of Yeasy, but it was distributed through Adidas,
• 28:46
  Speaker 4: and when Adidas dropped him, he lost four billion dollars
• 28:51
  Speaker 4: in his net worth right, So what does that speak
• 28:57
  Speaker 4: to as far as on a licensing side, did he
• 29:00
  Speaker 4: have a bad licensing deal?
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: One thousand percent?
• 29:05
  Speaker 4: Explain?
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: So, if I remember correctly, in his contract, he gave
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: up creative control, and which means in his contract he
• 29:17
  Speaker 2: also didn't have the language stated that anything that was
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: developed by the licensee was owned by the licensere. So
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: when I go to the table with my licensees and
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: like we're looking at haircare like bowls and stuff, right,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: and they'll develop a different look of the unicorn, maybe
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: a different polls or a different pattern or something, I
• 29:42
  Speaker 2: still own it. So when they made any variation of
• 29:46
  Speaker 2: his product, they immediately grabbed ownership. I'm dealing with a
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: situation right now with the company not on the consumer
• 29:55
  Speaker 2: product side, but it's on a different side on the
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: production side. And I saw how in the beginning they
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: were trying to change the look of the unicorn and
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: trying to change a lot of things about the unicorn
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: because they wanted to own as much of the property
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: as they possibly could. So they probably tried to pull
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: that on him, and I believe he said something like
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: he don't read contracts, so.
• 30:21
  Speaker 5: Have there have there ever been any issues in terms
• 30:24
  Speaker 5: of trademarking. We're like when when I mean we come
• 30:27
  Speaker 5: from everywhere.
• 30:27
  Speaker 7: It was like it was my little pony right like
• 30:29
  Speaker 7: that that was and then it was I guess my
• 30:32
  Speaker 7: daughter kind of fell into this like Rainbow Dash and
• 30:34
  Speaker 7: all those things. And so have you come into contact
• 30:37
  Speaker 7: with with people trying to make a similar product or
• 30:41
  Speaker 7: similar trademark and how's that process been.
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: I did. It's hurtful for one, Like I take this
• 30:52
  Speaker 2: personal because what I we didn't talk about how I
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: started the whole, why Nipsey and Tupacer up here, like
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: how my arathon continues, How I have this ad gas
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: no breaks mentality that I launched this brand. My son
• 31:05
  Speaker 2: was in the hospital for twenty days. When he got out,
• 31:08
  Speaker 2: my favorite uncle died a massive heart attack. Seventeen hours later,
• 31:11
  Speaker 2: my uncle died. Six months later, my grandmother died, and
• 31:14
  Speaker 2: then we were in a global pandemic. I have a
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: lot of heart and soul into this brand. So when
• 31:20
  Speaker 2: someone tries to come out with their version of Afro Unicorn,
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: it's a serious problem. And so yeah, I had to
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: first I tried to ignore it. My thing was, I'm
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: just gonna work harder, Like, I'm just gonna outwork them.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna outwork them, but it starts to become confusion
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: in the marketplace, and so the trademark attorney was like, April,
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: you have confusion in the marketplace because people were purchasing
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: this other brand believing that they were buying Afro Unicorn.
• 31:48
  Speaker 2: So then we had to take it to We had
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: to sue. Yeah, we had to the year.
• 31:54
  Speaker 5: Because it's domestic trademark or is it international as well?
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: Only some countries. You know, you have to trademarket in
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: every single country you go to. Right now, we're only
• 32:05
  Speaker 2: in the US and Canada, so we have to strategically
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: get to the other countries and we're working towards it.
• 32:11
  Speaker 2: But it's it definitely is a process. But this particular company,
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: it took us a year to get to to get
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: to a positive resolution that I'm still not really that
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: much happy with. But I'm back to my tham, I'm
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: just gonna outwork them, So.
• 32:27
  Speaker 4: So don't worry about the how. Yes, what does that mean?
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: I didn't know how it was going to be. On
• 32:34
  Speaker 2: this interview with y'all, I knew it was gonna happen
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: because I saw it. So you have to as an
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: entrepreneurs and well entrepreneurs, that's what we're speaking to. You
• 32:44
  Speaker 2: have to see the end goal what it is. I
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: knew African Crome is gonna be a household name in
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: a worldwide brand, point blank period. You couldn't tell me
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: that it wasn't. I didn't know how it was going
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: to get there.
• 32:57
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  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
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  Speaker 2: Security is getting there through licensing right. I'm just a
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: real manifestor. I truly believe that whatever I see already
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: exist in the future. Because you cannot see anything, you
• 36:02
  Speaker 2: can't like. You can't tell your right foot to go
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: like you got it. In order to walk, your brain
• 36:06
  Speaker 2: gotta tell your right foot to take the step right.
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  Speaker 2: So I truly believe that before anything can happen, because
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: it already exists, and I prove it to you. I
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: know there's so many people out there that have seen
• 36:17
  Speaker 2: ideas that're like, dang, I had that idea because the
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: moment you thought about it, it already exists. The problem
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: is are you going to be there to see it through?
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: So I don't worry about the how once I see it,
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: and everybody knows this around me, they know it's April.
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: If April says it's going to happen, all money in,
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: all money in, that's a fact.
• 36:43
  Speaker 4: No money out. So are you using different companies for
• 36:46
  Speaker 4: like the licensing or is it the same company?
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: I have over forty five different licensees. Licensing is by category.
• 36:55
  Speaker 2: So there's a company that does underwear, handcraft, there's a
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: company that does apparel, mad Engine, every single category. When
• 37:05
  Speaker 2: you start going into stores, start flipping over those packages.
• 37:08
  Speaker 4: So how'd you find these companies?
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: Flip over the packages? And I literally was in the stores.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: I would shoot pictures to a ski and be like,
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: this is who I'm gonna get on LinkedIn. I'm gonna
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: find this company and we're gonna find who handles licensing.
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: And then you reach out to them, yep, directly.
• 37:26
  Speaker 4: And then you so you negotiate with being that they
• 37:30
  Speaker 4: didn't reach out to you, you reached out to them. They
• 37:33
  Speaker 4: have more leverage in this situation, right.
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: Sometimes, But once you have Walmart. So my my spade
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: was Walmart, like that was my eightes. I have Walmart.
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: And once you know you have the attention of Walmart,
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: their antennas are up. Okay because everyone wants to get
• 37:50
  Speaker 2: in Walmart. And people I know look at Walmart like
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: it's Walmart because we don't really shop at Walmart. I know,
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: it's not a big thing here in New York. But
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: for retail, they are the god. Walmart is the god
• 38:03
  Speaker 2: the retail and if you can't get your like everyone
• 38:07
  Speaker 2: it used to be is different now, but they're like,
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: in order for a property to be successful, it has
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: to be in Walmart.
• 38:12
  Speaker 4: But so the relationship with Walmart is for every product
• 38:15
  Speaker 4: that you have, for one product, we have.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: About fifteen categories at Walmart.
• 38:20
  Speaker 4: So explain that deal though. So you go to Walmart
• 38:23
  Speaker 4: and they're like, Okay, We're going to give you open
• 38:26
  Speaker 4: range for a variety of different whatever you want.
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: Every category has a buyer. So even at Walmart. Walmart
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: is located in Bentonville, Arkansas, and I want to say
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: they probably have shoot out. They own the city, like
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: that's how many campuses they have, and every single category
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: like that button there, there's a button.
• 38:48
  Speaker 4: Buyer, So you got to go pitch to them.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: You have to pitch the actual buyer. So this is
• 38:52
  Speaker 2: what happened for us. When the buyer that brought us
• 38:56
  Speaker 2: in for party supplies. I remember that Hot Topic had
• 39:00
  Speaker 2: reached out to me the spring before, right, and I
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: didn't respond to them because when they told me the
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: royalty rate, I was like, that don't make no sense.
• 39:07
  Speaker 2: I'm making more on my own, like I'm not doing that,
• 39:10
  Speaker 2: And I didn't really respond. I just let it hang.
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: They came back around the same time. Walmart came to
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: me and they said, hey, you never you know, rolled
• 39:19
  Speaker 2: this back. You didn't complete the contract. I said, okay,
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: hold on. I went back to the buyer Walmart. I said,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: Hot Topic is interested in the after Unicorn product, which
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: was apparel at the time. I said, I wanted to
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: let you know before I respond to them, and her
• 39:35
  Speaker 2: response was, wait a minute, give me to Monday. She
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: then sent the email out to all of her friend
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: buyers to tell them about this property after Unicorn, so
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: then they reached out to me, and I didn't have
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: Like when the fruit snacks got reached out, I didn't
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: have a fruit snacks manufacturer at the time. But you know,
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: stay ready, you ain't got to get ready. So I
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: went to the store and I flipped th some fruit
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: snacks to find out who could I work with. But
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: that's how it works. And again, it sounds complicated, but
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: it only sounds complicated because it sounds so easy. So
• 40:11
  Speaker 2: you're like, it can't be that easy. It is once
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: you have the information on how it actually works. But
• 40:23
  Speaker 2: every single category has a buyer. And what you were
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: saying is when I reached out to the on LinkedIn,
• 40:29
  Speaker 2: So true. I'm very very strategic. I'm a marketing genius.
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: So I knew when Walmart brought us in with party supplies,
• 40:39
  Speaker 2: and then Apparel came in. We met with a Parel
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: buyer and she immediately was like, I'm ordering this for
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: all doors, one hundred thousand units. It's needed. So I knew.
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: I had Party, which you had two licensees. Apparel had
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: three licensees, and I think Party pulled in like cups
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: or something, So we have four we were meeting with again,
• 41:00
  Speaker 2: so agents were coming to try to meet with us,
• 41:03
  Speaker 2: and I would listen to what they were saying, like,
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: I didn't understand how why we need to pay y'all
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: X amount of percentage for bringing business that we have Walmart.
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: Like.
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: So they're like, well, we're gonna do a press release.
• 41:15
  Speaker 2: I'm like, what, I could do a press release? So
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: that's what we did. We did a press release to
• 41:21
  Speaker 2: the licensing trades that said we couldn't say Walmart. We
• 41:24
  Speaker 2: just said new property is set to launch in one
• 41:28
  Speaker 2: of the largest retailers. Everybody know who's the largest retailer
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: and this is their property out for unicoranties are the partners.
• 41:35
  Speaker 2: So once that went out on the trades, there's like
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: six six magazines in that trade. They all read it
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: and then they started to reach out. And the ones
• 41:44
  Speaker 2: that didn't reach out are the ones that went to
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: the store and started flipping over packages to let them know,
• 41:49
  Speaker 2: and then they just verified us with their cousin and
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: uncle because they all know each other. It's a real
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: small knit community.
• 41:57
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 41:58
  Speaker 7: So in terms of because we spoke about twenty million
• 42:00
  Speaker 7: in sales, do you have a say, in the price
• 42:04
  Speaker 7: points for each of the items in the categories, How
• 42:07
  Speaker 7: does that work or does the retail decide this is
• 42:09
  Speaker 7: the price point we're going to put it out.
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: The margins decide to the retail. The Walmart they have
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: at a dollar amount that they don't want to go
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: over because they are the low cost leader.
• 42:20
  Speaker 7: And so in terms of the sales then, is that
• 42:23
  Speaker 7: they are obviously tracking the sales you have.
• 42:26
  Speaker 5: Privy to that. How was that first.
• 42:29
  Speaker 7: Year when you were in the retail, right, because you're
• 42:31
  Speaker 7: talking about this is quick twenty nineteen we launched obviously
• 42:35
  Speaker 7: the pandemic.
• 42:36
  Speaker 5: You know what happens with Jeordan Spoyd. They're looking for
• 42:38
  Speaker 5: products twenty twenty two year in the stores. This is
• 42:40
  Speaker 5: three years. How are we looking in that first year?
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: It was five million from July to December. Wow, fifteen
• 42:46
  Speaker 2: million last year.
• 42:48
  Speaker 4: So when they buyt a product, they're buying it it's
• 42:51
  Speaker 4: on consignment or they're just buying it, and then they're
• 42:54
  Speaker 4: buying it for a certain price, and then they're just
• 42:57
  Speaker 4: selling it for whatever price that they want and then
• 42:58
  Speaker 4: they get the product on that.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: So Walmart buys it from the licensee at whatever the
• 43:06
  Speaker 2: the price costs over. So like let's say that plush
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: cost the manufacturer a dollar twenty five to make, they'll
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: probably sell it to Walmart for two seventy five, and.
• 43:18
  Speaker 4: Then Walmart sells it for five dollars and keeps the difference.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, but I'm actually when I say twenty million, I'm
• 43:26
  Speaker 2: giving you the price that we're selling it to the retailer,
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: not the manu not not the actual sales price at
• 43:33
  Speaker 2: the retailer store. That's a whole that's higher, that's way higher.
• 43:36
  Speaker 4: But you're not included in that. You're included in it.
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: Ok.
• 43:39
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and so would the price be the same. Like
• 43:43
  Speaker 4: let's say this for instance, right, you sell this outside
• 43:46
  Speaker 4: of Walmart or only in Walmart?
• 43:48
  Speaker 2: We can we sell it outside on a website. I
• 43:51
  Speaker 2: think that's a store called Kangi and some other stores
• 43:54
  Speaker 2: it pops up at.
• 43:56
  Speaker 4: Is it the same price everywhere or it's Walmart's price.
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: Walmart always wants to be the low priced leader. So
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: even with my hair care line, like we always got
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: to make sure even if it's one penny less, that
• 44:09
  Speaker 2: Walmart is a low price leader.
• 44:13
  Speaker 5: So you can sell it for four ninety nine, but
• 44:14
  Speaker 5: they can sell it for four eighty nine.
• 44:16
  Speaker 7: Yeah, are their product exclusivities inside of the other space.
• 44:21
  Speaker 2: So when we first launched with Party with Walmart, they
• 44:24
  Speaker 2: asked just as a courtesy, there's nothing in writing that
• 44:27
  Speaker 2: we gave them a six months exclusivity. I knew it
• 44:30
  Speaker 2: was game time when the buyer came to me and said, April,
• 44:34
  Speaker 2: you need to get this out to different retailers, because
• 44:37
  Speaker 2: they truly if you're smart, you believe that you understand
• 44:41
  Speaker 2: that competition it's healthy. That's why I don't know how
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: it is out here, but in La every Chick fil
• 44:49
  Speaker 2: A you see now they're building a raisin Canes directly
• 44:52
  Speaker 2: across the street. Every McDonald's has a burger king, Every
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: Starbucks is a coffee bean. Competition is healthy.
• 45:03
  Speaker 4: So what's the scaling model for your brands? Is it
• 45:09
  Speaker 4: more corporate partnerships like Walmart? Is it online presidence? What's
• 45:13
  Speaker 4: what do you look for as far as like you know,
• 45:17
  Speaker 4: taken to next level?
• 45:19
  Speaker 2: Well, definitely expanding in retail, But what's really going to
• 45:23
  Speaker 2: help the brand is the production deals that we're going
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: to get out of this because we have to have
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: the content. We're the only licensed character that doesn't have
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: the actual show behind it. So we are working on
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: my show, Miss April's Book and Crown Shop Crown Store.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: But then the location based entertainment, so the hotels, the
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: we want Chuck E cheesus. We want to franchise out
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: our own Afronia places.
• 45:52
  Speaker 4: So you own you own this unicorn. You own a
• 45:55
  Speaker 4: black unicorn.
• 45:56
  Speaker 2: Afro Unicorn. I gotta be very careful with that because
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: that was the problem Afro.
• 46:02
  Speaker 4: There's a black unicorn already.
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: Let's focus on Afro Unicorn. No, it was African Carl
• 46:07
  Speaker 2: was always the original Afro Unicorn.
• 46:09
  Speaker 5: Yes, so we're black unicorns.
• 46:12
  Speaker 4: So this, this, this image of this is what you're own. Yes,
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: and this could be in a cartoon, a movie, whatever.
• 46:21
  Speaker 4: Afro Unicorn.
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: Yes.
• 46:23
  Speaker 7: And then when you're talking about the retail space is
• 46:26
  Speaker 7: instant because I'm thinking Nintendo created Nintendo World, right, So.
• 46:31
  Speaker 2: Okay, I got excited because I forgot to tell you
• 46:33
  Speaker 2: about them stickers right there because we're talking gaming now,
• 46:35
  Speaker 2: you don't even see it. Pull those stickers out. We
• 46:38
  Speaker 2: launched our roadblocks. We have a full Roadblocks experience.
• 46:41
  Speaker 5: Yes, because I was going that's where I was going.
• 46:43
  Speaker 6: I'm like, now, if it becomes the Afro Unicorn World
• 46:48
  Speaker 6: where now you can see the characters, see them come
• 46:50
  Speaker 6: to life.
• 46:51
  Speaker 5: The other part is that are you because we have
• 46:53
  Speaker 5: three unicorns, are we introducing more unicorns?
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, so even in the books now, so we
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: have we even have boys. We have our Afrosaurus line,
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: we have Rex, we have Sore, we have Madame Empress,
• 47:08
  Speaker 2: we have Superior Majestic. Again, I just dropped the sixth
• 47:12
  Speaker 2: book yesterday, So we are telling the stories of the
• 47:16
  Speaker 2: unicorns for sure.
• 47:18
  Speaker 4: How dodes Nipsy also come into play here? He said
• 47:20
  Speaker 4: that was motivation or something. Yeah.
• 47:22
  Speaker 2: So Nipsey died March thirtieth March thirty first, thirty first,
• 47:28
  Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, Africa. Acorn's birthdate was April twenty nineteen. So
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: he definitely resonated with me with what he was building
• 47:38
  Speaker 2: for us. And he was really all about the knowledge
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: and the information, and once you have that information, you
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: were supposed to go out and you're supposed to share
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: it so that you could put somebody else on. I
• 47:51
  Speaker 2: took it really, really hard, but I also took it
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: like I gotta I gotta carry what's it called the
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: little torch thing? Was it when you were in a mirror,
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: you know, the the relay, the baton. I got to
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: keep it going. And so my whole theme when I
• 48:07
  Speaker 2: brought When My Birth after Your in Corner On April
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: twenty eighth, I had a table similar to this with
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: folding cheers around, and I invited twenty five women to
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: my house and I said, we're building, We're building a platform,
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: or we're going to pour into each other to help
• 48:22
  Speaker 2: support your visions, to find out what you're passionate about,
• 48:26
  Speaker 2: so we could find out how we commodetize what you're
• 48:28
  Speaker 2: passionate about. Those that had businesses, I purchased from them
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: to give to the other ladies. And I have volding
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: cheers because there was a quote that said if they
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: don't bring you, if you don't get to see at
• 48:41
  Speaker 2: a table, you bring your own folding chair. I had
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: Nipsey playing. I'm like, you know, we're about to continue
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: this marathon. We're building something. And I remember that day
• 48:49
  Speaker 2: they were like, you know, volunteers, everyone was living in
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: it goes what's the Instagram account so I can tag you?
• 48:54
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, huh, I didn't even have Instagram. I
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: just wanted to start this movement. And then my son
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: went into the hospital a few days later, so then
• 49:04
  Speaker 2: we could back up a little bit to talk about
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: the nipsey and I remember I had a date to
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: launch the e commerce business on May seventeenth. When he
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: went in the hospital on May eleventh, I was like,
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: I can't launch the business. And three separate people came
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: in three separate times. Was like, hey, I know the
• 49:21
  Speaker 2: devil was trying to distract you from launching what you
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: was trying to do. You gotta move forward. First person,
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: I was like, no, he just got food poison. Then
• 49:28
  Speaker 2: we're gonna be out of here soon. So I kept disregarding, disregarding,
• 49:31
  Speaker 2: until finally I was like, Okay, I don't know how
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna do this. I got an eight year old
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: the hospital. My twelve year old is at home. I
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: don't have anybody to really watch him. He can't stay
• 49:44
  Speaker 2: in the hospital. I can't leave my baby. My mom
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: wasn't around, my daddy was in his eighties. What do
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: I do? Marathon must continue all gas, no breaks. I'm
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: a state farm agent. I had a policy that allowed
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: me to have it's called hospital indemnity, that paid me
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: every day he was in the hospital. So I hired
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: an assistant while I was in the hospital to go
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: downtown to get the shirts to fulfill the oars. I said,
• 50:10
  Speaker 2: because clearly, if all this is coming at me, it's
• 50:13
  Speaker 2: coming at me because something way bigger is about to
• 50:17
  Speaker 2: really happen. So I really got to push forward on this.
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: We were there twenty whole days. They ran every test
• 50:24
  Speaker 2: that they could on my baby. Just to give you
• 50:26
  Speaker 2: an idea, his life pace number should have been like
• 50:29
  Speaker 2: under two hundred. He was at seventeen thousand. So we
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: were in a critical situation that no one could figure out.
• 50:35
  Speaker 2: We get out of the hospital on May thirtieth. May
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: thirty first, my uncle dies of a massive heart attack.
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: Seventeen hours later, my other uncle dies of pneumonia, and
• 50:44
  Speaker 2: my cousin kept reminding me who it was, her father. April,
• 50:48
  Speaker 2: the marathon continues, like, we cannot let this distract us,
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: and so I take it personal when they come for
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: the West, because one thing about us, for show, it's
• 50:59
  Speaker 2: always going to be all gas, no breaks. Even if
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: you look at us as the underdog, we gonna always
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: find a way to you know.
• 51:08
  Speaker 5: Not like us.
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: Thank you. I didn't say it, you did, and we
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: built different.
• 51:15
  Speaker 4: I don't think anybody the West. You know, I got
• 51:19
  Speaker 4: a lot of French out to stick watch. I was
• 51:21
  Speaker 4: telling him, like, it's interesting because the West coast, right,
• 51:26
  Speaker 4: it's literally like California alone is like would be essentially
• 51:31
  Speaker 4: Boston to North Carolina. Right, So the West coast it's
• 51:38
  Speaker 4: kind of it's like the South does this too, Like
• 51:41
  Speaker 4: it's a lot of states that kind of like encompass this, right, Yeah,
• 51:47
  Speaker 4: but you never hit that on the East coast, it's
• 51:49
  Speaker 4: just New York like this, no, no, no, But so the
• 51:54
  Speaker 4: West coast like, yeah, it's like a voltron, right, but is.
• 51:57
  Speaker 5: It even that?
• 51:59
  Speaker 7: It's like is it really the West coast or is
• 52:01
  Speaker 7: it it's l A, it's.
• 52:02
  Speaker 4: L A in the bank. Yeah, we're not the West.
• 52:06
  Speaker 4: I mean, no disrespect Arizona, San Diego.
• 52:09
  Speaker 5: Who's an artist though, bro, Like huh, I can't name artist.
• 52:12
  Speaker 4: No, just I'm saying just there.
• 52:14
  Speaker 5: I mean, it's it's a territory.
• 52:16
  Speaker 4: It's very territorial.
• 52:18
  Speaker 5: But I've never seen it disunited. I'm happy to see it.
• 52:21
  Speaker 4: But it's not an attack. I don't think nobody's ever
• 52:23
  Speaker 4: attacked the West coast in history, right, who's ever attacked
• 52:29
  Speaker 4: the West Coast, Like, who's ever attacked the West Coast?
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: What do you mean like physically there's been.
• 52:35
  Speaker 4: So many know what I'm saying, like as far as
• 52:37
  Speaker 4: like attack, like there's no verbal attacks on the West
• 52:41
  Speaker 4: Coast ever.
• 52:43
  Speaker 5: Ever, Yeah, I thought he was going back to camp.
• 52:45
  Speaker 2: There was never there was never an East Coast West Coast.
• 52:49
  Speaker 4: No, that's that's a narrative, that's the vibe.
• 52:52
  Speaker 5: Actually purpose they put that on the copy.
• 52:54
  Speaker 4: That was that was that was Tupac Tupac vmently dis
• 52:58
  Speaker 4: East Coast. But Biggie never dissed the West Coast. He said,
• 53:01
  Speaker 4: I'm going back to Kelly was going back like it
• 53:03
  Speaker 4: was never it all.
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: It's all you're saying, it's.
• 53:05
  Speaker 4: All of it. It was never. It was never any
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: if it might be one particular artist that they have
• 53:11
  Speaker 4: an issue with, but it was never like it's.
• 53:14
  Speaker 7: The whole moment. There's never been an issue. Yeah, man,
• 53:17
  Speaker 7: if you if you consider fifty in game, but that's different.
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's very different. But I'm talking about the mentality
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: that we have.
• 53:24
  Speaker 4: You're like you look at yourselves as underdogs or under like,
• 53:27
  Speaker 4: not not as respected as you should be.
• 53:30
  Speaker 2: I mean, you got your man's here saying your wild
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: saying you know when when you when you fight low
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: or fight under or fight whatever you said today some
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: some cath.
• 53:44
  Speaker 5: I could have just put the Good Kid, Good Kid
• 53:46
  Speaker 5: Mass City album. We just could have completed this whole thing.
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: But for us, or at least for me, for Nip,
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: for Katt, it's all like we see brick Wall, we
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: see Drake with all his gimmicks. It means we go
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: right through them because we're not surface. It's one of
• 54:08
  Speaker 2: my favorite songs. A Nip is Real and I.
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: Yeah the whole thing. Yeah, that is one of.
• 54:16
  Speaker 2: My favorite because it embodied young young young Yeah yeah
• 54:21
  Speaker 2: no no no no no, didn't I say it wrong?
• 54:23
  Speaker 4: Young No no no no.
• 54:25
  Speaker 8: Real rap rap rap rap, rap and words rap and
• 54:34
  Speaker 8: words rap and.
• 54:35
  Speaker 2: Work those lyrics.
• 54:40
  Speaker 5: The video was solid to.
• 54:41
  Speaker 2: It resonates because we're just different.
• 54:44
  Speaker 5: We jigg in thevests. That sounds like.
• 54:49
  Speaker 4: Inspired inspiration. But for the reason why, you know, I
• 54:58
  Speaker 4: think he's not getting Californ like I always I always
• 55:01
  Speaker 4: like California.
• 55:02
  Speaker 5: Are you trying to like clear not New York though?
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: No, nosriy no.
• 55:15
  Speaker 4: So the mind frame is kind of like, you know,
• 55:18
  Speaker 4: for the entrepreneurs, for the hostels. Like I feel like
• 55:20
  Speaker 4: Cali has always been it's separated, right, it's on the
• 55:23
  Speaker 4: other side of America. So you kind of feel like
• 55:26
  Speaker 4: it's a chip on your shoulder, right, like you gotta
• 55:28
  Speaker 4: actually put on because it's not East Coast, it's not Atlanta,
• 55:33
  Speaker 4: it's not New York City. So it's like I feel
• 55:36
  Speaker 4: I just feel that, especially like now, I just feel
• 55:38
  Speaker 4: like that that West Coast pride is like, you know,
• 55:43
  Speaker 4: it stands out. It's like Brooklyn. It's like Brooklyn. Like
• 55:46
  Speaker 4: people from Brooklyn have like a sense of pride that
• 55:49
  Speaker 4: is different. Like you ask anybody else where they're from,
• 55:52
  Speaker 4: and they'll say, like New York, like somebody from Queen,
• 55:54
  Speaker 4: somebody from the Bronx, somebody from Manhattan, they'll say that
• 55:57
  Speaker 4: from New York. You ask somebody from Brooklyn where they're from,
• 55:59
  Speaker 4: they'll say Brookland. So it's like every other sports team
• 56:02
  Speaker 4: is the New York Giants, it's the New York Jets,
• 56:04
  Speaker 4: it's the New York Mets, it's the New York Yankees.
• 56:08
  Speaker 4: But it's the Brooklyn Nets. That's the only sports team
• 56:11
  Speaker 4: that identifies.
• 56:12
  Speaker 5: As the Brooklyn Dodgers.
• 56:14
  Speaker 4: So yeah, But so I feel like that West Coast,
• 56:18
  Speaker 4: that West thing started here. You know that West Coast pride.
• 56:22
  Speaker 4: That West Coast pride is similar to that right where
• 56:24
  Speaker 4: it's like West West West up like it's like the West,
• 56:30
  Speaker 4: that West is heavy on their pride.
• 56:32
  Speaker 6: I want to tie it back in right, because all
• 56:34
  Speaker 6: we're talking about now is really marketing. He says, you're
• 56:36
  Speaker 6: a marketing genius. Social media played a huge role. That's
• 56:40
  Speaker 6: something that we can resonate with. How has the marketing
• 56:43
  Speaker 6: plan changed adapted to present day from twenty nineteen.
• 56:50
  Speaker 2: So the model that we had in twenty nineteen was
• 56:53
  Speaker 2: I highlighted you my platform, So if you was rocking
• 56:58
  Speaker 2: the afric Unicorn shirt, I would talk about what makes
• 57:01
  Speaker 2: Troy unique, divine and magical, why you should check in
• 57:04
  Speaker 2: to earn your leisure, why you should follow what he
• 57:07
  Speaker 2: got going on. When people saw, they're like, oh, if
• 57:10
  Speaker 2: I get her shirt, she's gonna talk about my brand.
• 57:14
  Speaker 2: So not only did I get the followers, I got
• 57:16
  Speaker 2: to sell So we built That's how we continue to
• 57:20
  Speaker 2: build the platform highlighting other people. Now it's more of
• 57:24
  Speaker 2: highlighting the children who want to be brand ambassadors and influencers.
• 57:30
  Speaker 2: Because I've never paid anyone to Rock or support Africa
• 57:32
  Speaker 2: in a corner. All the celebrities that I name, they
• 57:35
  Speaker 2: do it because they believe in the messaging. I find
• 57:37
  Speaker 2: people where the brand will resonate with you to where
• 57:40
  Speaker 2: you just got to do it because you want to
• 57:43
  Speaker 2: be part of this movement. The thing that we have
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: to triple x now is when I tell y'all, I
• 57:50
  Speaker 2: compete against Disney, Marvel and Nick. Every single week they
• 57:53
  Speaker 2: drop reports like if we're in party supplies, you got Batman,
• 57:57
  Speaker 2: Disney Princess Spider Man is over there, Lol, And we
• 58:02
  Speaker 2: get reports and they're like, after Unicorn, out of the
• 58:04
  Speaker 2: nine properties, you're at the bottom. Well, of course, Sherlock.
• 58:10
  Speaker 2: They've been here fifty plus years. They got billion dollar budgets.
• 58:14
  Speaker 2: So now we have to be very strategic on how
• 58:18
  Speaker 2: we market. We got to work on getting content on
• 58:20
  Speaker 2: the marketplace, got to get our YouTube. But we have
• 58:23
  Speaker 2: to We just spent a ton of money developing our
• 58:26
  Speaker 2: Amazon store. We're gonna spend a lot of money developing
• 58:28
  Speaker 2: our Walmart store on the digital side. With a lot
• 58:31
  Speaker 2: of money to get into roadblocks, like, we have to
• 58:35
  Speaker 2: find other ways to try to compete against a billion.
• 58:38
  Speaker 6: Yeah, they got the shows, they got the movies, they
• 58:42
  Speaker 6: got a streaming service.
• 58:44
  Speaker 2: And that's why platforms like this matters because I'm now
• 58:48
  Speaker 2: able to tap into y'all one point five million followers
• 58:53
  Speaker 2: to say, hey, go support this brand because I'll tell
• 58:55
  Speaker 2: you the DEI is dry. It was just a George Floyd,
• 59:05
  Speaker 2: just the moment.
• 59:06
  Speaker 4: Did you did you benefit from that?
• 59:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's how they brought the break. I feel like I.
• 59:10
  Speaker 4: Did after George Floyd.
• 59:12
  Speaker 5: Heck yeah, they're looking.
• 59:13
  Speaker 2: For but that we all did. I think if you
• 59:16
  Speaker 2: had an e commerce brand during that time, everybody was like,
• 59:19
  Speaker 2: support black businesses, we want to support Black Tuesday and
• 59:22
  Speaker 2: all that blackout?
• 59:25
  Speaker 4: And then and when did you start to see it
• 59:28
  Speaker 4: fading away?
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: What last last summer? It lasted like two years.
• 59:34
  Speaker 4: Countries back to business, regularly scheduled programming.
• 59:39
  Speaker 5: I hope you guys have fun.
• 59:40
  Speaker 4: Yep, so what we're about to say home.
• 59:42
  Speaker 2: But you have to make sure. So the one that's
• 59:44
  Speaker 2: the difference, that's the mindset that I have. I'm gonna
• 59:46
  Speaker 2: max it out. Your problem was letting me in the door.
• 59:51
  Speaker 2: You ain't gonna be able to give me out.
• 59:53
  Speaker 5: How many different options did they have to choose from?
• 59:55
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 59:55
  Speaker 5: Because if they're looking for a character of the license.
• 59:59
  Speaker 7: Was is there a lot of competition or was it
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 7: just the right time, at the right place we have
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 7: this thing already, or did you see the influx of
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 7: Oh I didn't even realize that there were other people
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 7: that looked like me that had characters.
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 2: I think the first part. Did you say the right time,
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 2: right place? And the buyer because I'm really good friends
• 1:00:17
  Speaker 2: the buyer. Now, she told me that I saw how
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 2: organic it was behind you, so that's why she chose
• 1:00:24
  Speaker 2: Afro Unicorn. But now that we're in this space, I
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: hit people hit me up with my dms all the time.
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 2: I have this character, I have this book. I want
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 2: to get it, you know, into products. How do I
• 1:00:33
  Speaker 2: do it? I'm learning more so I tell everybody, look
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 2: follow me. I am Aprilshowers dot Com. I'm whatever information
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 2: I have, I want to share it with y'all. We
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: have the licensing expo. The problem is information, right, like
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 2: I said from the beginning, So we don't even know
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 2: that these things exist. So you sitting at home with
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 2: a character that you have, but then you like, but
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 2: how do I get it out there? You got to
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 2: come to the licensing next pot when is that that's
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 2: in Vegas May week of May Twentieth's your event? No, No,
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 2: it's your industry. Industry event Licensing exits every every year,
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: every year in Vegas, and they also have one in London,
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 2: the bl But I try to find out every single
• 1:01:13
  Speaker 2: show if it's if it directly affects my industry. I
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 2: need to be in the building.
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 5: What's the audience look like? Predominantly whatever YEA said? Yeah, them,
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 5: they are an attendance.
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 4: So how'd you get into motivational speaking?
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 2: Probably Saturday, Small Business Saturday. When I started in twenty nineteen,
• 1:01:41
  Speaker 2: Every Saturday, I would go live on my platform just
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 2: encouraging other female entrepreneurs to get out there and get it.
• 1:01:49
  Speaker 2: And I would bring professionals on the podcast with them
• 1:01:52
  Speaker 2: to talk to them. And I just want to share information.
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: I believe in zig Ziggler's if you help enough people
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 2: get to where they want to be, you'll get to
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: where you need to be. So I just believe they're
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: pouring into people. The university is gonna open up, and
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: everything's gonna fall into my lap. I told you I
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: was with oprahly yesterday, right to live my lap. So
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 2: I just I put things out there to help people
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 2: and it just comes back. So why not. That's how
• 1:02:21
  Speaker 2: I got into motivation speaking because I want to help people.
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 4: So you still have your insurance practice. I do, and
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 4: it's property and casualty insurance.
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 2: It's State Farm.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 5: We do it.
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 2: Do it all.
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 4: You have your own State Farm agency or you work
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 4: State Farm agent. So explain talked about that business.
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 2: Interesting. I wanted to talk about this, So I'm happy
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 2: you Broughady back. So State Farmed the model, and I
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: hope I'm getting in trouble about this. So the model
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: with State Farm is independent contractor. Right. You have to
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: find your own building, get your ownmployees, do your own marketing.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 2: I'm very thankful to Stay Farmed because I learned how
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 2: to do global marketing through them. Like if you look
• 1:03:07
  Speaker 2: at State Farm, every every NBA court goal is State Farm,
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 2: every any baseball MLB, the big banner state Farm, Like
• 1:03:18
  Speaker 2: we are a marketing they are a marketing beast, right,
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: and I learned how to tap into their global marketing.
• 1:03:26
  Speaker 2: To my little small office in Long Beach, Right, I
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 2: would run ads on radio with Steve Harvey was really
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 2: promo promoting State Farm corporate wise, and i would run
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: my local ad. People call me. Yeah, Steve Harvey was
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 2: talking about your agency. I'm like, he was. So the
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 2: problem with State Farm, though, is if I die, they
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 2: gonna find somebody else to to to sit in that seat.
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 2: So when I was at home thinking about how am
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 2: I going to live live, leave a legacy for my children,
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 2: I said, I have to figure something else out. I
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 2: have to create something that I actually own. So it
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: was really me understanding that I did own State Farm,
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: that I needed to figure something else out. And I
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: read an article and Lemonade stand where it say you
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 2: should never rely on one source to dictate your livelihood
• 1:04:24
  Speaker 2: and it taught us about shopify in an e commerce business.
• 1:04:28
  Speaker 2: I was like, I got this unicorn, that's throw it
• 1:04:30
  Speaker 2: on the shirt and see what to do.
• 1:04:35
  Speaker 6: Powerful testimony. You spoke about legacy, got two sons. Obviously,
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 6: how are they viewing this this? I mean we could
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 6: call it success, but how they view in this moment
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 6: watching you go from obviously twenty nineteen stage farm to
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 6: now having afro unicorn and where it's headed.
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 2: They are loving it. The youngest thirteen doesn't truly understand
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 2: everything I talked to me yesterday. I say Hey, I
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 2: sent you that picture of Oprah. You didn't say nothing.
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 4: He was like yeah.
• 1:05:07
  Speaker 2: I said, well do you know where? He was like nah,
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 2: but madea told me all about her congratulation. I said, well,
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 2: thank you. But then Jesse is all in the business.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 2: He's been like tapped in state farms. In real estate days,
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 2: people know they can call on Jesse before they even
• 1:05:22
  Speaker 2: call me. He was looking up properties for people for
• 1:05:26
  Speaker 2: me and he's going out to He's going off to LSU.
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 2: I don't know what I'm gonna do, because he's definitely
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 2: been full force in this business. Me and him have
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 2: a special bond. I have a special I'm thirteen year old,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 2: but Jesse's part of a different relationship. During the time
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 2: of my life where I discovered I was a unicorn,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 2: where I was basically told that I wouldn't be nothing,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 2: and I was told that in order for me to
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 2: be successful, to be with a certain person, I would
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 2: have to leave after Unicorn alone. And I chose after
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 2: Unicorn over the certain person. And here we are today.
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 4: So how can people follow? What's the website and everything
• 1:06:07
  Speaker 4: else that you got going on?
• 1:06:09
  Speaker 2: Follow on afric Unicorn Undersquare Official tap in with me
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 2: got April Showers the websites afrounicorn dot com. If you
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 2: want to get motivated and join my dream Manifestors collective
• 1:06:24
  Speaker 2: for free, let just give foul free information. That said,
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 2: I am Aprilshowers dot com and y'all shop because I'm
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 2: gonna tell y'all they don't really care about us, like
• 1:06:34
  Speaker 2: MJ said, So if afri Unicorn does not do well
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 2: in retail, they will not let another one in. Again.
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 2: I'm competing against legacy brands that have been there between
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 2: fifty and one hundred years, and it's me. I'm here
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 2: now right. If we don't make it, it's gonna be
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 2: very difficult. There was another black character brand, not FEMA own,
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 2: the Male Own that was on the shelves, and you
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 2: can't even find them anymore.
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 5: Do you have this license in perpetuity? Yeah?
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 7: Because I mean it made me think of I know,
• 1:07:09
  Speaker 7: Disney there was a case where the license for Mickey
• 1:07:13
  Speaker 7: Mouse was coming up and they had to try to.
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 5: Figure out how they're going to renew it.
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 6: I'm pretty sure that they will, but it just made
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 6: me think of the perpetuity so important, and it took them.
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 2: They took walk. I think the family seventy five years
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 2: before they went public. It was a long time before
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 2: they went public.
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 4: Yeah, well, thank you for joining us. We appreciate it.
• 1:07:33
  Speaker 4: And yeah, shout out to the west Man's fast.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 5: We had it.
• 1:07:37
  Speaker 4: Back to Callis songs were sure for sure. Thank you guys,
• 1:07:42
  Speaker 4: rocks to see you next week. Peace.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 5: Peace.
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: An illegal alien from Guatemala charged with raping a child
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from Al Salvador
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  Speaker 1: accused of murdering a Texas man of Venezuelan charged with
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  Speaker 1: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
• 1:08:00
  Speaker 1: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: Donald J.
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  Speaker 2: Trump's leadership.
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  Speaker 1: now under President Trump, America's laws, border and families will
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: be protected.
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  Speaker 3: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,