Latest / Earn Your Leisure / How Invest Fest Transformed Pink Nookie's Business, from 5 Figures to Millions

Transcript

How Invest Fest Transformed Pink Nookie's Business, from 5 Figures to Millions · Earn Your Leisure

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: This episode is brought to you by P and C Bank.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: A lot of people think podcasts about work are boring,
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: and sure they definitely can be, but understanding a professionals
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: routine shows us how they achieve their success little by little,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: day after day. It's like banking with P and C Bank.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: It might seem boring to safe plan and make calculated
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: decisions with your bank, but keeping your money boring is
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: what helps you live or more happily fulfilled life. P
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and C Bank Brilliantly Boring since eighteen sixty five. Brilliantly
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Boring since eighteen sixty five is a service mark of
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the PNC Financial Service Group, Inc. P and C Bank
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: National Association Member FDIC.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Erness What's Up?
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: You ever walk into a small business and everything just
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: works like the checkout is fast, the receipts are digital,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: tipping is a breeze, and you're out the door before
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the line even builds. Odds are they're using Square? We
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: love supporting business is that run on Square because it
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: just feels seamless. Whether it's a local coffee shop, a
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: vendor at a pop up market, or even one of
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: our merch partners. Square makes it easy for them to
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: take payments, manage inventory, and run their business with confidence,
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: all from one simple system. If you're a business owner
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: or even just thinking about launching something soon, Square is
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: hands down one of the best tools out there to
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: help you start, run and grow. It's not just about payments,
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: it's about giving you time back so you can focus on.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: What matters most ready.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: To see how Square can transform your business, visit Square
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: dot com backslash go backslash eyl to learn more that
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: Square dot com backslash, go backslash eyl. Don't wait, don't hesitate.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: Let's Square handle the back end so you can keep
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: pushing your vision forward. Let's talk about this monumental moment
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: in the pink Conky journey. You hear about this thing
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: called vest Fest. Walk us through it.
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Our social media manager, her name is Juisa. She sent
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: me a post on Rashad's page and it was like
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: talking about invest Fest and it was like a week
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: away and you guys still have vendor slots open. But
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: I'm like, well, I've never heard of Rashai or invest
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: Fest and I clicked on this link. It's two thousand dollars.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: I'm not doing it, And she said, read the comments.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: So I'm looking at the comments on your post and
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: so many people like invest Fest changed my life, and
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: it did this, and it did that. And somebody said, well,
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: I moved to Atlanta after I did invest Fest, and
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: that struck a nerve with me because we just came
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: to Atlanta like a few months before we moved to
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: do a vendor event and just seeing like the culture
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: there and how people really support black businesses and yeah,
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: that's not natural where we're from.
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: So I'm like, forget it, We're moving to Atlanta.
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: So that specific comment made me say, okay, let me
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: just go ahead and buy the table. And then when
• 2:53
  Speaker 3: I got the table, you know, we got there the
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: way invest Fest is.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: You know you can come set.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: Up a few a day before, Well we want walked
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: in and everybody's booths are like outrageous.
• 3:04
  Speaker 4: Here we come walk We're walking out.
• 3:07
  Speaker 3: We have as a banner with the Pinnooky logo on
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: there and a pink tablecloth like nothing. So while our
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: team was bringing in products, we I left and went
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: to hobby lobby like different little shelves to put on
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: the table and everything. It was so crazy, but we
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: sold out. That event worked at Yeah, we did, and.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: So all right, so that was your first year.
• 3:29
  Speaker 5: And then next next year, which was last year, what
• 3:33
  Speaker 5: was the thought process going So you was a seasoned veteran,
• 3:36
  Speaker 5: you had one year under your belt, what was the
• 3:37
  Speaker 5: thought process going into your two?
• 3:39
  Speaker 3: We invested in a totally different setup, Like the we
• 3:42
  Speaker 3: had like a backdrop it lit up with the logo
• 3:44
  Speaker 3: and everything on there. I actually had people come down
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: and like my mom came, my social media manager came.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: We made sure we had like we shut the website
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: and store down for a few days just to be
• 3:57
  Speaker 3: able to make inventory for invest best only because it's crazy,
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: like you have to have enough business card.
• 4:03
  Speaker 4: I mean, it's just.
• 4:05
  Speaker 6: Like we hustled. Like because we hustle, we gonna were
• 4:08
  Speaker 6: standing in the middle of the.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: Crowd stopping everybody walking by. I come here, let me
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: show you.
• 4:12
  Speaker 6: We had to be extra prepared because we know we're
• 4:14
  Speaker 6: gonna hustle. We got a big goal, so we can
• 4:17
  Speaker 6: come to play.
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: Year one was was their nerve? Right?
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Was it anxiety built up of like hope of this
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: worked because you didn't have the best experience.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: That's the that's the first question.
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: And the second one was as far as inventory because
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: I always wonder, right when when people are doing their
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Vena boost, do they realize what's about to happen? Did
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: they over prepare or did they underprepare? So did you
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: guys sell out all products like day one, day two
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: or by day three? It was like, we gotta figure
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: something out. I gotta go to the shopping.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: First year, we had to go home that night and
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: make stuff at the fronduct. Yeah, the first year, okay,
• 4:49
  Speaker 3: we had to make more, go home and make more stuff.
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: And then the parking situation for investments is crazy, so
• 4:55
  Speaker 3: we had to walk with carts of stuff.
• 4:58
  Speaker 4: You have to walk a while.
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: So I don't think anybody prepares for investments. But last
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: year I had when I seen you guys announced the date,
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: I shared it. I'm like, I'm going to this event again.
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: Changed my life And people from all over were writing
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: me like how did it change your life? And I
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: gave them the same story that I told you guys.
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: But I think they still underestimated because when I went
• 5:20
  Speaker 3: by their booths, they're still like sitting back in their phones,
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: not missing people. I'm showing them all the pictures of
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: everybody I've seen them, like I didn't see that person
• 5:29
  Speaker 3: because you're in your phone, you're not paying.
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: I mean, and it's not just for investments. This is
• 5:35
  Speaker 5: just a lesson in life, right. I felt like as
• 5:37
  Speaker 5: an entrepreneur, like you got to hustle, like it's not
• 5:39
  Speaker 5: nothing is going to just fall into your lap. And
• 5:42
  Speaker 5: it's something that I learned I was in sales before this,
• 5:44
  Speaker 5: and that I couldn't just sit behind my desk and
• 5:46
  Speaker 5: just expect people to call me. I would have to
• 5:49
  Speaker 5: go out and get out of my comfort zone. And
• 5:51
  Speaker 5: I feel like a lot of vendors don't fully understand that, right,
• 5:54
  Speaker 5: and they feel like, Okay, well Rashad didn't come talk
• 5:57
  Speaker 5: to me like yes, it's like it's twenty thousand people
• 6:01
  Speaker 5: that yes, I'm not the person that I'm not the
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: only person.
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: They told me that.
• 6:08
  Speaker 4: Other people there. The thing about it is that's the part.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: When you guys, anybody, when you're thinking about doing the
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: best face, look at the pictures of the people who
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: you say are going to be there, or if you
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: don't even sometimes y'all don't have the pictures, but you
• 6:22
  Speaker 3: have the names. Get from Google those people because they're
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: gonna walk through the marketplace.
• 6:27
  Speaker 4: That's how you have it.
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: Subconsciously, y'all have it set up for the vendors to win,
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: but the vendors aren't paying attention because the way to
• 6:34
  Speaker 3: get to all the speakers you have to go through
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: the marketplace. Nobody can get anywhere without going through. I mean,
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: Steve Harvey, Tyler Perry, everybody walked through the markets.
• 6:44
  Speaker 5: That's unintention We always try to walk the big names
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: through just to create that buzz, create that you never know.
• 6:49
  Speaker 5: So last year, Jeez did a book signing. We walked
• 6:51
  Speaker 5: Steve Harvey through.
• 6:53
  Speaker 4: And Kathy walked through.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: You met Kathy? Yeah, tell us about that.
• 6:58
  Speaker 4: I feel like I did.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: It was you tell the story then, because he did
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: bring him to me.
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: It was a Sunday. It was Chick fil A. Chick
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: fil A is clothes on Sunday. And I'm like, who
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: is this man walking through here with Chick fil A Sunday?
• 7:13
  Speaker 6: Like nobody wasn't even there's probably like three four venders out.
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: I remember he had bags in his hands of Chick
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: fil A.
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: That is the thing that got me.
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: Like, So we're setting up our booth and Ricky's like,
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: who is that man? I said, I don't know. He
• 7:25
  Speaker 3: got chick fil a. So he like, shot, let's throw something.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: We're throwing products in the bag to catch because he's
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: all the way past. So we went and took pictures
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: with him and everything, and he when it came time
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: to take the picture, of course me and Ricky are together,
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: He's like, oh, put the rows in between the two thorns.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: And he was just so cool, Like he.
• 7:43
  Speaker 6: Talked about the products and we got him men's products
• 7:45
  Speaker 6: and women's products.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: That's the thing is and what you're saying is correct, right,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: So like even in the lobby part, everyone's face who's
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: speaking is there, and so the names of there, the
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: faces there. Like I remember last year walking through Robert
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: Smith and I brought him over to a book and
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: I won't say the business, but they had no idea
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: who he was.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, all right, let let's just keep going.
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: Let's could go.
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: Even if I don't know who a person is, I
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: still you can kind of tell. So I still I'm
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: gonna take a picture and then I'm google image church it.
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: Later I'm like, oh, I got a picture with this person.
• 8:17
  Speaker 6: That's how I did too. We took it was like
• 8:20
  Speaker 6: five people we took pictures with. Later on I'm like.
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: Oh, okay, because I didn't know who Mike's wife was
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: at first, but I took a picture with.
• 8:27
  Speaker 4: Her, and then Mike came around and then he you know.
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: He's so cool, and he's like, yeah, I gotta bring
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: my wife back, and he brought her back.
• 8:35
  Speaker 4: I'm like, already talk to her.
• 8:37
  Speaker 6: Screen did that first year he bought, we talked to
• 8:41
  Speaker 6: him about our story and products.
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: He said, I don't bring my wife's back.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: All right.
• 8:45
  Speaker 6: He came back, brought his wife back. This was the
• 8:49
  Speaker 6: first time we went to investment in him.
• 8:50
  Speaker 5: How important is it you talked about giving giving product
• 8:53
  Speaker 5: away fel like, you know, celebrities and stuff like that.
• 8:57
  Speaker 5: How important is that? Like talk about that as a
• 8:59
  Speaker 5: marketing strateg.
• 9:00
  Speaker 6: Like, see, I'm cut from the streets, so you know
• 9:03
  Speaker 6: in the streets, you you get it. You get it
• 9:05
  Speaker 6: the junkies, the free products that make them something. And
• 9:08
  Speaker 6: it's the products good. It's gonna sell itself.
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: Fact.
• 9:11
  Speaker 6: So that's that's that's really a big part of us succeeding.
• 9:15
  Speaker 6: It's just like coming from where we come from, coming
• 9:19
  Speaker 6: from poverty that helps. That really is a plus for
• 9:22
  Speaker 6: like the hustle. So it's always in my eyes, like
• 9:26
  Speaker 6: what's what's How is it gonna hurt? What's gonna hurt?
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: Or even if you don't take it, because I've had
• 9:31
  Speaker 3: celebrities like oh I don't want to take it, or
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: you know, obviously I'm in FMN hygiene lane. So sometimes
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: it's kind of sketchy on it, but not I team.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: I'm gonna have on a pin looky shirt. You're gonna
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: take a picture with me. Your face is click bait.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: So I'm gonna post a picture and it's gonna bring
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: more people to my page just because you know it's
• 9:49
  Speaker 3: a celebrity there. Like I took a picture with Dane Dash.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: I had gave him the men's products and it's called
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: the Law Cleanser, and he was like law cleanser.
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: But yeah, he took a picture with me.
• 10:01
  Speaker 6: Everything some like like it from the shot. He didn't
• 10:05
  Speaker 6: even want the products, but I still got a picture
• 10:08
  Speaker 6: with it.
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:09
  Speaker 6: I tell him to hold it like I'm aggressive, so
• 10:11
  Speaker 6: hold it. Don't a chance to say no, un sniper
• 10:15
  Speaker 6: pick all right? Cool? The people gonna think he got it,
• 10:18
  Speaker 6: you know what I mean. So it's really it be simple.
• 10:21
  Speaker 6: People make stuff so hard. It's just so it's a
• 10:24
  Speaker 6: room full of people. What's so hard? Twenty thousand people,
• 10:28
  Speaker 6: hundred celebrity audience is there and they coming to spend money, right,
• 10:33
  Speaker 6: So all you gotta do is just sell the.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: Product, so that that's important. The money part is important.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: So how many products do we have? Well for him
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: as the men's brands, and then Pink Nukey, how many
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: products does does each brand have?
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: Pink Nugky has about thirteen.
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: But I have a top six that I take everywhere
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: ord that I push the most. So that's what I
• 10:52
  Speaker 3: bring and I always sell out of them.
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: So when you bring it, I'm assuming when you're thinking
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: about an event, let's say fest, you're saying I'm gonna
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: bring the top six or the top three, And then
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: how are you managing price points?
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: Right?
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: Because we want to make sure that this is profitable
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: for us when we make sure when.
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: We get the booth.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Is that like the team meaning before, Is it like
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: a strategy that goes into preparing for event like.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: That, I sold the products at the same price I
• 11:18
  Speaker 3: always do. But I you know, you kind of gauge
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: the person you're talking to and if I can kind
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: of tell like, okay, they want to buy what they
• 11:26
  Speaker 3: maybe can't afford it at the moment. Then I'll change
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: the price, you know, I'll give them a discount or oh,
• 11:32
  Speaker 3: we're an investments, use investments to get thirty percent off
• 11:35
  Speaker 3: or whatever the case may be, to secure the sale,
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: because like you said, once you get the product, you'll
• 11:39
  Speaker 3: come back. So and I can tell that that worked
• 11:41
  Speaker 3: because every year our business double after investments.
• 11:46
  Speaker 7: An illegal alim from Guatemala charged with raping a child
• 11:49
  Speaker 7: in Massachusetts. An MS thirteen gang member from El Salvador
• 11:53
  Speaker 7: accused of murdering a Texas man. A Venezuelan charged with
• 11:58
  Speaker 7: filming and selling child pornography in Michigan. These are just
• 12:02
  Speaker 7: some of the heinous migrant criminals caught because of President
• 12:05
  Speaker 7: Donald J.
• 12:06
  Speaker 4: Trump's leadership.
• 12:07
  Speaker 7: I'm Christy Noman, the United States Secretary of Homeland Security.
• 12:11
  Speaker 7: Under President Trump, attempted illegal border crossings are at the
• 12:15
  Speaker 7: lowest levels ever recorded, and over one hundred thousand illegal
• 12:19
  Speaker 7: aliens have been arrested. If you are here illegally, your
• 12:23
  Speaker 7: next you will be fined nearly one thousand dollars a day, imprisoned,
• 12:27
  Speaker 7: and deported. You will never return. But if you register
• 12:31
  Speaker 7: using our CBP home, app and leave now. You could
• 12:34
  Speaker 7: be allowed to return legally. Do what's right.
• 12:37
  Speaker 4: Leave now.
• 12:39
  Speaker 7: Under President Trump America's laws, border and families will be protected.
• 12:44
  Speaker 2: Sponsored by the United States Department of Homeland Security,