Latest / The Growth Class with Phil Masiello / Niche Product Development: Solving an Overlooked Hair Care Problem with Chimere Faulk

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Niche Product Development: Solving an Overlooked Hair Care Problem with Chimere Faulk · The Growth Class with Phil Masiello

• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, and welcome back to the Growth Class.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Phil Massiello.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Every entrepreneur dreams of finding that one wide open space in a crowded market, a problem so serious once you see it, but completely ignored by the major industries.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Our guest today did exactly that, and she built a powerhouse brand by filling it.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Shamir Fok is a professional lactician.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: I made that word up, I think.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: No, known to thousands of her of her loyal clients and followers and natural hair lady.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Back when she was styling hair, she kept hitting the same frustrating wall.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: The market was flooded with heavy, oil-clogged, wax-heavy products that built up and damaged locks over time.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the industry simply wasn't making products designed for the actual physics and health of locks.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: So she combined her hands-on expertise with her background in creative advertising and mass communications to build a solution from scratch.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: And she formulated a plant-based water-soluble line that completely disrupted the natural hair space.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: So today, she's a founder and CEO of Dr.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Locks, beautiful, a beautifully scaled, booming direct-to-consumer brand that stands as a masterclass of product market fit and community-driven growth.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to take a look at how she transitioned from a specialized service provider to a global product founder, how she scaled her digital brand and the real grid it takes to find a pro to build a product line from the ground up.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, Shamir, welcome to the growth class.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for taking the time to come on.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_00: I really appreciate it.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so happy to be here.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, why don't you, I'm sure I butchered your whole background with the intro, but why don't you uh take us through it?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's an interesting category, not one that I'm extremely familiar with, but let's uh let's see.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_01: So I have been so you said it right, lactan.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_01: So lactitian is someone that is a stylist that deals with locks.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: Locks are matted hair, commonly known as dreads, and um a lot of people don't like that term.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we go from dreads to locks, whatever, it's the same thing.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I've been a lactician for the past 20 years, and about what was it, 2000, it was like 2010, um, I think Chris Rock came out with his movie, Good Hair.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it came out, and around that time, people were discovering what they were putting in their hair, and so a lot of people went natural.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that, people that are um in the African-American community, when we're we're deciding we don't want to perm our hair, chemically processed it to make it straight, we're realizing that's damaging to us health-wise, and we want to go natural, wear hair naturally.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: But when that was happening, a lot of regular product lines were actually creating natural hair products, but they weren't understanding the lock community.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_01: The lock community is a smaller community, so you have the hair industry, you have a natural hair industry, and you have lock.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's commonly not really understood.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of um brands were like, oh, it's too much of a niche market, we don't really understand it.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's you know, or we'll offer this one thing to them, you know.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_01: So that was what was happening.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: While I was doing hair, all these natural hair products came out, and my lock clients were like, Oh, I heard this was cool because this one little jar, it was like something like kind of an afterthought.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: So at this time I was traveling doing hair as well, and um, I I'm an SEO nerd.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I got, I, you know, I created a website to have people call, you know, fly me out and you could do their hair.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_01: But what was happening after I would do the hair, they were like, Shmi, what am I supposed to use now?
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: Really excited.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, okay, well, use that and use that.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_01: And every time I would tell them to use that, they'll FaceTime me and then they're showing me what would be buildup, product buildup.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: So what happens when someone with locks uses a conditioner that uh someone with um loose hair will use, that product would get stuck in their hair.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then create a stigma that they don't wash their hair.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's a kind of an old time situation, not so much now, but it's been like a, oh, you you have locks, you don't wash your hair, you don't clean your hair.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_01: So, but what I have, I have clients that are like lawyers, doctors, teachers, they're, you know, they want to be at their best.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so what was happening, I would tell them to stop use that, don't use that.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: I changed my mind.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: And after saying that 33 times, they're like, Shamir, what the hell am I supposed to be using then?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, all right, let me just make something.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: I never in a million years thought I was gonna make a product line.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to make something so I wouldn't have to deal with this anymore.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: So I went online, looked, did some research as far as what oils would create, like soft hair, what wouldn't be harmful for pregnant women, all just about my target audience.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I literally put all the ingredients I love in a bottle and shook it up and used the water from the sink, shook it up and then started using it.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: And at this time, my salon was in my living room.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm using it on their hair, and I'm like, would you mind?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: I made this, like, sure, they love me, sure.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: So after time, they were like, Shmia, I really like that.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Can you can you sell me some?
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm looking at them like, okay, I guess this is what retail is, because you could do it yourself, but okay, whatever.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: So I went to Sally's, I bought some bottles, and I just made some for$5, not any math into it, just doing it.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so this one day, Miss Brenda, this is when Dr.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: Locks was born.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_01: Miss Brenda, my elder client, she came in.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_01: I always touch my client's hair before I take it to the sink.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: And she's just going on about something.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm looking at her hair, I'm touching it, I'm like, why is her hair so soft?
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: I did not think about the thing I sold her.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, Miss Brenda, why is your hair so soft?
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, that's stuff, girl, that's stuff that you sold me.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, oh, okay.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: And after this time doing hair for about eight years, I've never felt hair like that, even with my own.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I realized now I have something.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_01: So my background with marketing clicked in.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: I started, my goal was to all the issues, my clients were coming to me.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to create a solution in a bottle.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: So what I discovered and I started looking into this, every most women have a system.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_01: They want, they, they, they do this, their mom used this system, but there was no system with the lock community.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't, it was like a jar of something.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I wanted to create a culture, create a um a community that says, I understand you and I have what you need.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_01: Not an assumption that this is who you are.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because that was what was going on at the time.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, you're from the Caribbean Islands and you and you are a rebel.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I know my clients.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I knew at some point down the line they're gonna be other bigger brands because they weren't understanding what was happening in my world.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: They were like, oh, natural hair, but I knew what was happening, what was coming.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: So let me nestle myself in this community and let me blog about things.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I started blogging and using keywords and talking about just simply answering all the questions my clients were asking me.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so eventually the product line came up, drlocks.com.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: I started with Etsy and DrLoxK um.com launched in 2014, about that.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_01: And it just blew up.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: It blew up.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I wasn't really into YouTube.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, everyone was YouTubing and all that.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: And so I quickly discovered the power of YouTube because uh um an influencer reached out to me and didn't realize how big she was.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, hey, can I do a video?
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, uh, what is this about?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because what at the time, I don't know if you remember, they was like brought a bunch of shakes and people were like, Oh, I lose weight for this shake, and you know they weren't using that shake.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: So with me, I'm like, I keep it real.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, um, I need you to really be a customer.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_01: So let me give you a trial.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Let me give you some and you tell me if you like it or not.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I gave her some.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: She gave me the ABC, what she loves about it.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, cool.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: So then we decided to do a video.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: She made a video on how to use it, what her opinions are about it, posted it, and then it was like Wall Street.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: Numbers are rolling.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, wow.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I learned her influence.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: She were able to influence her village.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: And so my village was my client.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I um did well with my clientele, but then I realized what this marketing thing was was different from what I went to school with.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, oh, we have these, everyone has a village, and then if we team up, we can, you know, share what we are offering and stuff.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: So from there, other YouTubers wanted to do a video, and then eventually I was in a magazine, in Ebony magazine, and it just blew up.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: And now at this point, I'm in my living room.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: So it reminds you, I had my salon in my living room.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: So then now I have to set up shop, a manufacturing situation in my living room as well.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_01: So now I have friends and family um coming and helping bottle.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my little daughters, they're like three and four, they're like watching this whole process.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: And so I had a whole house full of people manufacturing, getting their hair done.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: And I created this whole universe essentially where I am now going online because I'm not a saleswoman, but I am an educator.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm educating them, telling them what works well, you have a problem.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: I created a solution.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so in 2020, 2020 happens.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm at now I'm at a bigger apartment.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: And um, at this point, I have five employees.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I literally have learned how to grow this business on its own.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: I never took a business course at all.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: I just went to school for marketing and I'm a hairstylist, so that's what I had.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I at this point, things are going bananas during COVID.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: People buying more product online.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh my gosh, um, two clients, two employee, um, two employees didn't feel comfortable working in that they wanted to work from home, so they did that.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: Then I had other two in my house, and it was just crazy.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and so I was like, all right, I need a warehouse.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I saw the growth and I was like, all right, this is not going anywhere.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: I did not realize 2020 was a unicorn year, but here we are.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I got me a 72 square foot warehouse and I built it out.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of learning lessons right here, and it took me about a year to finish it, and then we finally moved in.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Amazing.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: I bought all the things, all the shelves, and I was gonna have a call center, and it was just all these things.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then so at this point, I had um around this time I had migrated, I created like a content team, I had people running my systems.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: The but the business was running on its own at this point.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_01: And um I had a lot of ads.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: We had a lot of ads.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: We were like spending like$900 every three days, and it was coming in, coming in, coming in.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: Lo and behold, in April 2021, I got a phone call, and um my ad person said someone hacked into my ad account.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so I didn't know how that was gonna impact me, but it was a huge deal.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: So somehow someone hacked into it.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Then that had they shut down my ad account, and I didn't realize how much that was a that was I was bringing in from my ad.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: So at this point, I was making six figures each month, and I was scheduled to move into my warehouse by September.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: This is April.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: So when that happened, my revenue shot down that summer, damn near like 50%.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: And um, and then also during that summer, Apple um had some type of something happened.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't like something with meta, so they um made it so people needed to get the data.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: They restricted where how we could target.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: So at that point, all the people running ads went out of business because they didn't have data anymore.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so me trying to kick up.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we still had data, we just didn't have as specific to data as we did before.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: We just had to shift.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: And people didn't understand what they were being asked as as well.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to shift, and um that time I shifted more back into my emails, and I recognized that's the best place to be.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then eventually I moved out of that warehouse because I realized my with my expenses I need to be profitable.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I had to cut my expenses down.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: I moved into a smaller warehouse, 450 square feet, and I love it.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: And this worked.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: And but I also had to let go of my employees as well.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that happened, and I've literally that's where we're kind of where I've been since then.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_01: And so my business essentially shot up fast in the beginning, and then now, and it was right under a million, and then it's been like this ever since.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: And one thing someone told me a long time ago, they said once to get to that, to break that million, you have to get more people.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: You have to be bring people in.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't really understand what that meant.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I'm this is where I'm at the business.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: I've recently learned how like my return customer rate is high, it's 70%.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I realized, like, okay, I'm doing pretty well.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: There's been a lot of things going on with me as a CEO.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so yeah, it's been, I got a lot of things I've learned about things.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, steadily cut people are calling and ordering and ordering online.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Retailers, we grew our retail.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: I had about 35 retailers around the world.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we're during this transition with the economy, um, a lot of businesses weren't uh in business anymore.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that affected me.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been doing things a little kind of or organically um to grow my business.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: But I'll pause right there because I know you have some questions, but a lot of things.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, I mean it's I I understand exactly what you went through, and it's fairly common.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I don't understand what you mean by somebody told you that when you get to a million, you have to start bringing people in.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like in what way?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Let me just say this.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: I'm learning, okay?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like um I'm learning, but also I gotta realize I know what I'm doing as well.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_01: So what they're meant by that is like someone coming in with I believe in staying in your lane and in your in your like my lane is marketing and my lane is like the educating hair, you know.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: But when it comes to finances, that's not my area.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_01: Or um operations, that's not my area, you know.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I learned that I took the Goldman Sachs program um in 2024, learned a lot, learned a lot about me as a leader, um, operation-wise.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: I never had SOPs, didn't even know what that was.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: So what they meant by that is bringing people in that can help me get to that scale.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Because my way I'm doing it is like, all right, let me hire this person, let me do, but like the bigger picture.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: And where I'm at now, I can honestly say I don't know what button to press to get me to that next level.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: I have a beautiful apple tree, but I don't know which apple to pick right now.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: So, um, so yeah, that's what they meant by that.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can understand that.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, uh, you know, when it comes to things like finance and operations, you know, you you want to sort of bring in people to do it, but not necessarily full-time when you get to that million.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: You sort of want to outsource it, but you want to keep control of it, right?
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: You you want to start acting like a CEO at that level, but at the same time, you're still growing and you still have to be in it every day, right?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Until you get to the like ten million dollar range when you become more of a CEO and more of a delegator.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: And but that's where your SOPs and your processes come in, come in, uh come into play a little bit more.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um but uh just getting back to the product real quick, but the product's also applicable to Rose, right?
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because they have the same that that's the same problem, right?
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: When people do yeah, like the Rose.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Cornrows.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um so isn't it the same thing?
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because I have a friend who has one and like they have to put uh like oils and stuff on it to keep because it's they're twisting it or something.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so someone with locks can cornroy their hair back, but I think that you're not talking about that.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think you just that's another hairstyle.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_01: But it's different.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's I don't know if your friend, when they take the cornrows down, is it loose or is it locked?
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: Uh well, they don't really take them down.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: They just they've had them like it is braided back every time.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: So it's braided back and they grow them, they're growing them longer in the back.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: But uh they put they I know that they said, you know, they have to go and they have to get special products so that they don't A, dry out.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: B, it doesn't get gunked up with stuff because they can't like scrub their head.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: And uh so I didn't know if it was the same.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: So it's not.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um that person just simply has natural hair and they just want to make sure it's moisturized.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_01: But when someone has locks, they can do styles, but when they take it out, it doesn't look like this.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: It looks it's combined.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: So they might have they might be bigger, smaller, but each lock is a bunch of strands together that um will hold on to product with your friend.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: When by them having cornrows, what's happening when they go back to their person, the person takes the cornrows out and then re-corn rolls it back.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: And in between time, while they are not with that person, they're maintaining the rows and making sure it's moisturized and stuff.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: But so they could use any product, but for them, it's probably safe for them to use like natural product.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: They probably want to use those things and making sure it's not flicking up, but lock community is a whole nother thing.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: You're talking Bob Marley locks.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, so that's another.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: So with when you have locks, there's different sizes you can do.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: So some people may have them like really, really tiny, you have sister locks, you have free forming.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: So Bob Matt, Bob Marley had free forming.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so there's certain people, they might even have a religion as well where they don't want to retwist and you won't see their scalp.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's just freely growing as it wants to, and all of them can be healthy.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: So where I come in, I want us to just provide something that their hair is clean and the the thing that they're putting in it is not getting stuck in their hair.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I can I I can understand that.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: So so where you're at right now, how many people are you you have working?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Is it mostly just you and and now you're just focused on one other person.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: You have I mean you have strong retention.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: If you've got 70% retention, I mean you got strong uh um uh uh long-term value from from your customers, which is uh a great thing.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now you just have to expand it.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: They it's so dope where I when I I love to call customers instead of emailing them back.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: They have a problem with their order.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, you know, and just they hear the stories of like, I've been using, you're the owner, I want to, I've been using this for 10 years, and so yeah, they're not playing.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: Like they love that I I answer their questions, the things they're thinking about in their emails.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so yeah, where I'm at now, I have one other person.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: I what she does is fulfillment, bottle, label, and um, and unpackage ri raw material when they come in for me.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_01: I'm maintaining the inventory, the our marketing, um, the emails, uh, and customer service.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: So that's where we we're at right now.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_01: So, and the goal is to increase her hours so that she can make the product as well, and also hire someone that could they can tag team so someone's not doing everything all so you're actually manufacturing the product.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, I'm the manufacturer as well.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: You're manufacturing and bottling.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_01: Send help.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to have any um like certifications to do that or anything?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: I've looked that up.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: People ask me that for forever.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_01: And so it's only when you are trying to go into certain retail stores, meaning they have certain requirements that um, like for instance, wholesale um Whole Foods, I know there's certain ingredients that they don't allow.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I haven't gotten to that.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: My retailers are like small beauty supply stores, they're not like Target or anything like that.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: So they're like, they want it because the customers want it.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: And um, but no, it has been not no requirements.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: So have you looked at outsourcing that manufacturing?
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: So yes, but where but since that happened, I I need the money to pay for it.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: So um that I have, and I've reached out to people in different states and stuff, but I just haven't been ready yet.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: At that point, I was ready, but I didn't think about that at the time.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: So um that's something I definitely want to take my time with because the my customer base, they cherish the fact that I'm very um responsible with what I'm using.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, they trust what I use.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I've seen the history with people shifting from in their kitchen to a manufacturing facility and then things change.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: So this is me listening and trying to figure out what how I could do it and make sure it maintained the integrity of the product.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I mean a manuf a contract manufacturer is gonna do what you tell them to do.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: So the people who make the change.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: They're letting the manufacturer say to them, Oh, I can save you some money if I do this and this and this.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know, but when you go into a contract manufacturer, if you say, This is what I'm doing and this is what I want to maintain, they do it.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: But what I've learned, because I got my ears to the street, what happens, what has happened, specifically Carol's daughter, for instance, I know people that literally would go and buy it from her personally in in New York.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: But they said when it got bigger, it was just the like it things shift when you are making huge amounts.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: What?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: So there has to be some adjustment.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it depends.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there's no question that when you it's no different than food.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: If I make, you know, potato salad and I make two pounds of potato salad that I use in my house, right?
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I scale that up to 200 pounds, yeah, there's going to be a difference.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because but what happens with beauty products is that people that are doing it in there in a small batch, like Carol's daughter, when they started to scale up and got on uh HSN, was it HSN, I think, or QBC, one of those, and they started to sell, the ingredients that they were using in your house can't flow through the supply chain.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: So it had the product has to change for your own safety and the customer's safety because like you can't um you know, you can't just put any product out there.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: People, it's got nothing to do with, you know, trying to change it.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's got to do with being safer.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_00: So you just have to come up with a solution.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you, we um we uh we faced that problem when we were doing beauty products and we had a manufacturer in Florida, and you know, we said we don't want to change this, and they they said, well, you're gonna have to change this because you know, we were on the shopping channels, they said HSN's not gonna allow it, and Whole Foods is not gonna allow it, and Walgreens and Target, nobody's gonna allow this ingredient.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to change it.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: And we can give you an item that's identical.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's just gonna, it's something that did it change the product a little bit?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: A little bit.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you're always gonna have a few customers, but the reality of it is when you think about how many customers you have now and how many you can have by scaling up, it's a small price to pay.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_00: And if you explain it correctly to people, they'll understand it.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's when you it's the people who you hear the horror stories, the ones who go in and say, um, okay, I want to make this, and the and the manufacturer says, Well, I can save you 50 half your cost if we change to this, and then they dummy down the product.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: That's where you get into trouble.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm very, very open.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: I've done some research, I've talked with people, and you're right.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: And so, and then this always gonna be have some someone's you're not gonna satisfy everyone, you know.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I this happened.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: So my thing is transparency and just education.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: So during 2020, I also um consulted with a chemist because I wanted to make color-based products for the color with people that color their locks.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: And so, and I wanted to make a cream.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_01: So historically, I've always been like, no creams for locks, no creams.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: But I was like, no one's made it specifically for locks.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: So me and him teamed up and we made three formulas, and but what happened?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: There were like ingredients that no one really understood.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so historically, also everyone in our community will say, you don't use something you can't pronounce, right?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know, da da da da, right?
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_01: But what I learned through working with a chemist that there's people that studied hair, they know what they're doing, you know.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I was so what I did instead on the um the ingredients, I'll simply explain to them after each ingredient, what this is what this is doing.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_01: This is what this is doing.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: So they feel people just want to know, you know.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_01: So you don't have to Google, I'll tell you what this is, because, you know.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm really excited about doing that because my customer base trusts me and because I actually use it myself or my clients.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I do understand that it's just I I've had to get over the fact that I can't satisfy everyone, and in order for me to grow, that will happen.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: But it's not about satisfying everyone, it's all it's just about following like the regulations, you know.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: Like we um uh when we did, you know, the beauty products, there were certain items that we just didn't want to ever have in the product, and uh because we were raw, and we said, you know, we didn't want to have a preservative system that because we could have easily put in a less expensive preservative system and it would have altered the product because it was raw.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't we we didn't cook, we didn't heat the product and emulsify it like everybody else does.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we had to do it in a specific way, and that's that was like something that we would have never flexed on.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: But it caused us problems as we went to Europe and other places, Canada, because they looked at what we were doing in a different way.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we had to explain it, we had to go through a whole bunch of stuff before they finally understood it.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: So but there's ways to do it, but there are certain things you just don't want to give up.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: But you can always, you know, you're not you're never gonna satisfy everybody, but what you want to do is be able to satisfy the people that matter.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: And because there's always gonna be vocal people.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Heck, we we were probably one of the cleanest uh products out there, and there was a database that people looked at, and they would take some of our ingredients and run it through the database and say, oh, this is a terrible product, you know, and you're going, no, it's not.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't know what you're looking at, and and you have to explain it.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like those people, the people that are that are that fanatical about every single you you don't even want them because you're never gonna please them, because they're always gonna find something and they look for it.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're not gonna be satisfied until they find something to be mad about.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I've learned I've evolved as a CEO so much for the past 14 years.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like I can't, and then it a long time ago when I first started, it was like I try to tell people these terms are marketing, natural, virgin.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: And so knowing I can't sell something as virgin through the mail.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like that needs to be in a refrigerator.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: And so I try to explain some uh preservatives.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_01: I can't sell it to you.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm selling mold to you, you know?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I I love to break things down so people understand.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I understand what you're thinking, but you may need to make your own stuff if you want that raw.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know?
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: Well, we're pretty much out of time.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I appreciate you coming on.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: Any last words?
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: Any how do people find you?
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: They go to drlocks.com, L-O-C-S.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, uh D-R-L-O-C-S dot com.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: And um on Instagram, we're very active on there.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Me directly is Shamir Falk, C-H-I-M-E-R-E-F-A-U-L-K.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: But everything online with Dr.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Locks is the same name, D-R-L-O-C-S.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, so I that's just about it.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: There's so much more I can say, but like I'm here and I love educating.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: I actually am still doing here.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: I went back and started doing here again.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so um it's my why.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I will I'll leave off by saying this always tell new entrepreneurs never start a business because of money.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: It has to be something out of money because your why has to be for me, it's the education of the lock community.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: But because businesses will go up and down, fluctuate, and you'll you'll drive yourself nuts because it will go up and down.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: So it has to be your why has to be something other than money.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I I again I appreciate you coming on.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was a great discussion.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: I hope everybody got something out of it, and uh, you know, good luck in the future.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much.