Latest / The Breakfast Club / Black Tech Green Money: Bea Dixon of The Honey Pot Co.

Transcript

Black Tech Green Money: Bea Dixon of The Honey Pot Co. · The Breakfast Club

0:02
Speaker 1: I'm with Lucas and this is black Tech, Green money.
0:05
Speaker 2: Beatrice Dixon is the co founder, CEO, and Chief Innovation
0:09
Speaker 2: officer of the Honey pot Kel, game changing feminine wellness
0:12
Speaker 2: brand that started with the dream. Literally from launching with
0:16
Speaker 2: a twenty one thousand dollar loan to building a multi
0:19
Speaker 2: million dollar business, Doctor made your retailers be as, navigated
0:23
Speaker 2: the challenges of fundraising as a black woman, scaled the
0:26
Speaker 2: company without losing its soul, and remained unapologetic about her
0:30
Speaker 2: vision with success. So I'm very interested in your take
0:33
Speaker 2: on this because I've lived by this idea of not
0:37
Speaker 2: being romantic about business, and I read that you also
0:41
Speaker 2: practiced unromantic relationships with the business. And you know, you said,
0:47
Speaker 2: you like, don't look at your business.
0:48
Speaker 1: As your baby.
0:49
Speaker 2: You know, I've read as you said, so many of
0:52
Speaker 2: us start because we're so passionate about the idea. So
0:55
Speaker 2: how do you admonish us to think about that?
1:01
Speaker 3: I think that, you know, because you know, every now
1:04
Speaker 3: and again somebody asked me do I have kids. I
1:07
Speaker 3: don't have kids, you know, and they'll be like, well,
1:10
Speaker 3: your business is your kids. I'm like, I mean, you're
1:12
Speaker 3: kind of you know, but at the same time, our
1:18
Speaker 3: businesses are not our kids. Our businesses our businesses. They're
1:21
Speaker 3: here to make us money. They're here to provide goods
1:26
Speaker 3: and services to human beings that we serve. You know,
1:32
Speaker 3: I think that it's really important too. I think it's
1:37
Speaker 3: really important to give respect to what a business is.
1:42
Speaker 3: But I also understand that it takes a lot of you.
1:47
Speaker 3: It takes a lot of your soul, a lot of
1:49
Speaker 3: your energy, a lot of your you know, especially when
1:52
Speaker 3: you're really trying to do the thing. You know, you
1:56
Speaker 3: give it all you have, so naturally it feels personal,
2:00
Speaker 3: right because you know, a lot of the shit is personal.
2:05
Speaker 3: You know, you have to sacrifice a lot when you're really, really,
2:10
Speaker 3: really in business, like when things are really at scale
2:13
Speaker 3: and you're growing and moving and shaking and raising money,
2:17
Speaker 3: and you know, in a lot of retailers or you know,
2:22
Speaker 3: you've got a huge brand online or whatever, it requires
2:26
Speaker 3: a lot of you. So it's like, on one hand,
2:31
Speaker 3: I understand that for the people that do it every day,
2:36
Speaker 3: it's not just business. There is a personal element to it.
2:39
Speaker 3: And on the other hand, we have to understand what
2:43
Speaker 3: the purpose of business is. Especially this is something in
2:47
Speaker 3: the black community you know, because we are held to
2:50
Speaker 3: a standard that frankly is not able to be. You know,
2:57
Speaker 3: it's a standard that's not reality. You understand what I'm saying.
3:02
Speaker 3: It's not based in reality, It's based a lot in emotion.
3:08
Speaker 3: You know, we don't necessarily always see ourselves as just
3:12
Speaker 3: business people. We see ourselves as black business people, when
3:16
Speaker 3: in fact, we're just business people like everybody else is.
3:20
Speaker 3: You understand what I'm saying. And so even though the
3:23
Speaker 3: world wants to put us in that box, we have
3:26
Speaker 3: to do a better job of unconditioning ourselves to stay
3:29
Speaker 3: in that box, you know, because we're just trying to
3:32
Speaker 3: run our shit like everybody else is, right, And so
3:36
Speaker 3: that's another part of it that's really hard, because you know,
3:44
Speaker 3: we grow up, we scale, we raise money, we do
3:47
Speaker 3: all the things. Well, what happens when you raise money
3:50
Speaker 3: and do all the things You have to have some
3:52
Speaker 3: kind of strategic partnership. You have to have a way
3:56
Speaker 3: for your shareholders to be able to become whole on
4:00
Speaker 3: their investment as well as yourself. You don't get rich,
4:05
Speaker 3: you know, I'm not saying that some companies don't, but
4:08
Speaker 3: typically you can be you can be. Let me rephrase this.
4:12
Speaker 3: You're not getting wealthy off of being a business owner.
4:17
Speaker 3: You might become rich, okay, okay, And when I'm when
4:20
Speaker 3: I'm when I'm talking about rich. You may have money
4:23
Speaker 3: in the in the bank, you know, you might, you
4:25
Speaker 3: might be able to stack a couple of million, right,
4:29
Speaker 3: But having the ability to stop twenty plus in your
4:33
Speaker 3: bank account, which is fu money right where it can
4:39
Speaker 3: just sit there, you never have to think about it,
4:41
Speaker 3: and you can just earn off of interest. You can
4:44
Speaker 3: just live off of that forever and ever. You understand
4:47
Speaker 3: what I'm saying. Having the ability to do to do
4:50
Speaker 3: that means that some sort of an event is happening, right,
4:56
Speaker 3: some sort of a strategic event. Is it that you've
4:59
Speaker 3: been acquired by a private equity fund. Is it that
5:04
Speaker 3: you've been acquired by conglomerate? Is it that you took
5:08
Speaker 3: your company to be to I p O, you know,
5:11
Speaker 3: and you were able to let it sit long enough
5:14
Speaker 3: and actually be able to make money off of that? Right? Yeah,
5:17
Speaker 3: these are the things that we have to do in business.
5:21
Speaker 3: Our skin color and what's between our legs shouldn't matter.
5:24
Speaker 3: But but this is another way that I think business
5:28
Speaker 3: is romanticized and emotional, emotionalized. I don't even know that
5:32
Speaker 3: that's a reason or a word, right, but you know,
5:35
Speaker 3: but you understand what I'm saying, like we have to
5:38
Speaker 3: we have to stop. I shouldn't say we have to
5:43
Speaker 3: do this is just my opinion. I think that we
5:46
Speaker 3: need to do a better job of respecting what it
5:50
Speaker 3: takes to make this shit happen, because it takes a
5:53
Speaker 3: lot and and and and if you're lucky enough, which
5:57
Speaker 3: most companies, whether you're white, purple brain, most companies will
6:02
Speaker 3: never ever ever experience what that is to go through
6:05
Speaker 3: some sort of event of an event like that, because
6:08
Speaker 3: it just doesn't happen every day. But we shouldn't be
6:11
Speaker 3: penalized because we do. You understand, like we shouldn't. We
6:17
Speaker 3: shouldn't be in a position where investors are afraid to
6:21
Speaker 3: invest in us, or strategics are afraid to acquire us
6:25
Speaker 3: because of what the community is going to say. You know,
6:30
Speaker 3: I think that that that that's another way that business
6:35
Speaker 3: has been romanticized because once you do it, then then
6:39
Speaker 3: you're penalized for doing it. And that's not really cool
6:41
Speaker 3: because you're just doing what you have to do in
6:44
Speaker 3: order to run your business. And in order to, you know,
6:48
Speaker 3: go through the motions of what it means to take
6:50
Speaker 3: in venture capital or private equity money. The day you
6:54
Speaker 3: do that, that's the day that you've just signed that
6:56
Speaker 3: you've just you've just signed the dotted line to say
6:59
Speaker 3: that you're either selling your company or your IPO in it.
7:02
Speaker 1: Yeah.
7:03
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, I think I'm gonna throw away all the
7:06
Speaker 2: questions I have prepared and just let the spirit movie
7:09
Speaker 2: on this one.
7:10
Speaker 1: This was this okay you okay.
7:12
Speaker 2: So I think, listening to at least the beginning of
7:16
Speaker 2: your talk, you're a statement there that some of so
7:20
Speaker 2: many of us get.
7:21
Speaker 1: Into whatever business we start because.
7:23
Speaker 2: We're so passionate about it. And I wonder your take
7:27
Speaker 2: on do we even have to be passionate but or
7:29
Speaker 2: can we also be opportunistic also like our counterparts might be,
7:33
Speaker 2: they just see an opportunity and go because I see
7:36
Speaker 2: an opportunity.
7:37
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I think I think.
7:43
Speaker 2: No, no, go ahead, No, I don't really have a question,
7:46
Speaker 2: but I wanted to have this conversation.
7:48
Speaker 3: Yeah. I absolutely think that there's businesses that are what
7:53
Speaker 3: they are, you know, because of opportunity. Look at Jeff Bezos,
8:01
Speaker 3: the richest man in the world, right there may be
8:04
Speaker 3: somebody wealthier, but like you know, he's high up, right.
8:09
Speaker 3: He got to where he is because he saw an opportunity.
8:13
Speaker 1: Right, Do you see enough of us doing that?
8:16
Speaker 2: Or because I believe, at least from my perspective, that
8:19
Speaker 2: we are more tall, Like what do you care about?
8:22
Speaker 1: What are the things that move you? And then go
8:23
Speaker 1: start to business?
8:24
Speaker 3: So bad? Yeah, I actually agree with you. Right. We
8:30
Speaker 3: are brought up to care about things. We are brought
8:33
Speaker 3: up to feel responsible for what we put into the
8:36
Speaker 3: world to you know, we're more We're I don't want
8:41
Speaker 3: to say more. We're a communal community, right, We those
8:48
Speaker 3: types of things are important to us. So I'm not
8:51
Speaker 3: going to say what anybody should or shouldn't do. You know,
8:57
Speaker 3: I'm kind of both, and I can only speak for myself. Right,
9:02
Speaker 3: I'm very much passionate about what I do. I think
9:05
Speaker 3: that this is part of the reason why I was
9:07
Speaker 3: put on this planet, is to do what I do.
9:10
Speaker 3: I am very lucky to have found my passion, right,
9:14
Speaker 3: I am very lucky to have found what my purpose
9:19
Speaker 3: is on this planet. Right for me to be alive?
9:23
Speaker 3: I feel that way, and you know I am a
9:30
Speaker 3: conscious capitalist, right, I do believe in wealth. I do believe,
9:37
Speaker 3: you know, I do believe in what it can do
9:39
Speaker 3: for you. I believe in how it can change your life.
9:42
Speaker 3: I believe in how it can change others' lives, you know.
9:46
Speaker 3: And I deeply believe in business and what the capacity
9:51
Speaker 3: of running a business, how that can make you wealthy,
9:54
Speaker 3: and how if you do that right and with the
9:56
Speaker 3: right responsibility and the right care and the right love,
10:00
Speaker 3: can do all those things be wickedly successful or wildly
10:04
Speaker 3: successful rather and still care right, So you can you
10:12
Speaker 3: because you have to. If you want to be successful
10:14
Speaker 3: in business, you have to be opportunistic. You have to
10:18
Speaker 3: be able to see the shit that most people don't see.
10:21
Speaker 3: You have to be able to be able to be like, huh,
10:25
Speaker 3: you know. You have to be able to see a
10:27
Speaker 3: white space. You have to see twenty steps ahead. You
10:30
Speaker 3: have to know the direction that something is going right.
10:34
Speaker 3: So you have to be I believe that you have
10:36
Speaker 3: to be both right. I believe that. I believe that,
10:41
Speaker 3: and I'm not projecting that onto anybody else, but as
10:45
Speaker 3: it relates to me, I believe that being able to
10:50
Speaker 3: be opportunistic and also being able to be relatable and
10:54
Speaker 3: also being able to be responsible and loving and caring
10:58
Speaker 3: because I make products that people use on their bodies,
11:01
Speaker 3: that people use on their vaginas. Right, that's not something
11:06
Speaker 3: that I think is to be taken lightly, you know,
11:09
Speaker 3: So that has to be done with a lot of care, love, responsibility.
11:13
Speaker 3: That has to you know, because we're not just making
11:16
Speaker 3: things for people to use like there have. There has
11:19
Speaker 3: to be beautiful energy and fused into these products. So
11:22
Speaker 3: it's actually helping to heal their lives. Yeah, that you know,
11:26
Speaker 3: and that that's a very esoteric view of business. But
11:31
Speaker 3: that's how I see it, you know, which which makes
11:35
Speaker 3: the way we run our business very special and beautiful
11:38
Speaker 3: and hard, you know. But but yeah, to answer your question,
11:44
Speaker 3: I think you need to be both.
11:47
Speaker 2: Have we dangerously over no pun intended romanticized raising money?
11:54
Speaker 1: I think we have, howso.
11:58
Speaker 3: Because it was too easy to raise it over the past,
12:02
Speaker 3: you know, call it, you know, for when when all
12:07
Speaker 3: the humans you know, starting with starting with George Floyd,
12:13
Speaker 3: even though this has been happening for thousands of years,
12:18
Speaker 3: the brutality and killing of black men, right the world
12:24
Speaker 3: saw it. Everybody wanted to do something. Nobody was doing
12:28
Speaker 3: anything else because COVID had happened, So we were all
12:30
Speaker 3: sitting at home, so everybody only had the ability to
12:33
Speaker 3: pay attention. Well, what happened from that? D Diversity, equity,
12:39
Speaker 3: and inclusion happened. Companies were sprouting up the whole departments
12:44
Speaker 3: around it, right, you know, venture capitalists and investors, all
12:52
Speaker 3: types of investors were putting together funds for BIPOC humans,
13:00
Speaker 3: not just for black people, just humans, you know, diverse
13:04
Speaker 3: humans all the way around. Whether that meant you know,
13:08
Speaker 3: think of all the different cultures and ethnicities, LGBTQ plus
13:12
Speaker 3: community veterans, women, you know. I think money was just
13:21
Speaker 3: falling from the sky. Everybody could just go out and
13:24
Speaker 3: raise it. Even if you just started your business, that's
13:27
Speaker 3: not really the time to raise money because you don't
13:29
Speaker 3: even really know what you have yet, right, I think
13:33
Speaker 3: that raising money. I don't think that we shouldn't have
13:37
Speaker 3: access to money that's out there. You know, I'll speak
13:42
Speaker 3: now for our race as black people. I think that
13:45
Speaker 3: access should just be should just access should be access.
13:50
Speaker 3: It shouldn't have to there shouldn't have to be funds
13:52
Speaker 3: that are focused on only black and brown humans. It
13:57
Speaker 3: doesn't matter because it needs to be right, because this
14:00
Speaker 3: is the world we live in, you know. But you know,
14:04
Speaker 3: I am very much a believer and know how hard
14:09
Speaker 3: it is to raise money and how hard it should
14:13
Speaker 3: be to raise money because you literally, you literally are
14:19
Speaker 3: asking people whether it's angel investors who that's typically money
14:23
Speaker 3: that they've made in their life that they're taking out
14:26
Speaker 3: of their bank account to invest in your business. Right,
14:30
Speaker 3: those are typically the first ones then invest right. Then
14:35
Speaker 3: there's venture capital, which in my mind, you shouldn't be going.
14:41
Speaker 3: I don't personally believe that it's time to get venture
14:44
Speaker 3: capital money until you've actually proven that you have something
14:48
Speaker 3: because venture capital money typically comes with rules. And I'm
14:52
Speaker 3: not saying that you know, seed capital and all those
14:55
Speaker 3: things aren't important, because they are. But I just I
14:59
Speaker 3: personally think think that when it comes to bringing capital
15:03
Speaker 3: into the business, you should know what you have. You
15:06
Speaker 3: should know where it's going, right, you should know how
15:11
Speaker 3: you're gonna invest it, how you're going to grow your team,
15:13
Speaker 3: all those different types of things that I think for
15:15
Speaker 3: a few years, money was just falling out of the
15:17
Speaker 3: sky and people didn't necessarily have the education. I mean,
15:22
Speaker 3: I can say that because at one point we didn't
15:24
Speaker 3: have the education right, you know, and my brother sire.
15:29
Speaker 3: I remember I used to say to him, bro, we
15:31
Speaker 3: need to raise some money, and he was like, we
15:33
Speaker 3: don't need to raise no money yet, what are we
15:35
Speaker 3: raising it for. We like, we're selling on our on
15:38
Speaker 3: a website into some into some small natural stores. We
15:43
Speaker 3: don't need no money. When Target came, that's when he
15:47
Speaker 3: was like, Okay, now we need some money, right because
15:51
Speaker 3: now we have we have somewhere to hang our hat.
15:54
Speaker 3: Like we that when when when a when a mass
15:57
Speaker 3: market retailer comes, that's when you have the ability to
16:01
Speaker 3: really scale your business because they've got thousands of doors. Right.
16:06
Speaker 3: So you know, I mainly speak for CpG, which is
16:11
Speaker 3: consumer package goods. You know, I don't believe that people
16:15
Speaker 3: should raise money in CpG until they've at least figured
16:18
Speaker 3: out how to make a million dollars on their own, right.
16:24
Speaker 3: I just you know, maybe I'm old school for believing that,
16:28
Speaker 3: but I think that it's important for you to understand
16:31
Speaker 3: the logistics, the operations, what do you actually need the
16:35
Speaker 3: money for? Where's it going? If you figured out how
16:38
Speaker 3: to make a million, you can figure out how to
16:40
Speaker 3: make ten. You understand what I'm saying, yea and so
16:44
Speaker 3: you know, I do think that it was over romanticized,
16:49
Speaker 3: but it was also a beautiful thing because so many people,
16:54
Speaker 3: you know, the gap was able to kind of be
16:56
Speaker 3: filled a bit. But the problem is is that a
17:01
Speaker 3: lot of those brands that were getting all that money,
17:05
Speaker 3: where are they today?
17:06
Speaker 1: Yeah?
17:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, because it kind of sets you up for failure
17:12
Speaker 3: if you don't know how you're going to execute those
17:15
Speaker 3: funds and actually grow the thing. You understand what I'm saying.
17:19
Speaker 3: So if you getting money is just a very small
17:22
Speaker 3: fraction of it, you have to and having an investor
17:28
Speaker 3: that wants to be more to you than just money
17:32
Speaker 3: is also equally important. They need to be invested in
17:35
Speaker 3: helping you build your leadership team, which helps you build
17:37
Speaker 3: out the rest of your team. They need to be
17:39
Speaker 3: invested in helping you understand how you're going to operationally
17:44
Speaker 3: run your business right. They need to be invested in,
17:49
Speaker 3: you know, regulatory and helping you understand what that road
17:52
Speaker 3: map is and how you're going to grow it. You know,
17:55
Speaker 3: because even if you just make a face wash at
17:59
Speaker 3: this point, it's the way that the FDA is moving.
18:03
Speaker 3: Everything is heavily regulated. You understand what I'm saying. And
18:07
Speaker 3: so if you don't have the tools and the resources
18:11
Speaker 3: to understand how to do these things, it makes it
18:15
Speaker 3: very hard for you to make money. You know.
18:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, what is the difference between what you did or
18:21
Speaker 2: what you see as a as a better road map
18:24
Speaker 2: versus people who make a potion do it in their kitchen,
18:30
Speaker 2: sell it out of their kitchen, sell it out of
18:31
Speaker 2: their trunk, you know, quote unquote paverbial trunk, and they
18:35
Speaker 2: don't get past that.
18:38
Speaker 3: I think because we were that right, we started in
18:43
Speaker 3: our kitchen selling it out of our trunk. You know, Honestly,
18:51
Speaker 3: some of it some of it is luck, some of
18:56
Speaker 3: it is the know how, you know, Like I, I
19:06
Speaker 3: was lucky enough to be I worked in whole Foods
19:09
Speaker 3: as a salesperson and whole body, so I knew how
19:12
Speaker 3: to talk to a customer. Right. My brother was my
19:18
Speaker 3: you know, it is my co founder. He was an accountant,
19:24
Speaker 3: so he knew how to deal with money. He knew
19:26
Speaker 3: how to talk to high network individuals. Right. Linda had
19:33
Speaker 3: worked in marketing. She's one of our other original co founders.
19:37
Speaker 3: Not necessarily with the business anymore, but you know, she
19:43
Speaker 3: she knew how to build. At that time, we considered
19:46
Speaker 3: her to be our CMO. Right, But we were young,
19:49
Speaker 3: so we were just you know, we were just creating titles.
19:53
Speaker 3: That's another thing you do when you're young, right, as
19:55
Speaker 3: a business owner. But I think we as a collective
20:03
Speaker 3: have the know how within our respective fields because it's
20:08
Speaker 3: what we did every day, you know. And then after
20:11
Speaker 3: I worked at Whole Foods, I went on to be
20:13
Speaker 3: a broker, so I knew how to talk to a buyer,
20:16
Speaker 3: you know what I mean. So I think, you know,
20:22
Speaker 3: I think some of it's luck. I think some of
20:24
Speaker 3: it's having to know how of how to like at
20:27
Speaker 3: least be able, whether it's going into a small retailer
20:30
Speaker 3: or a big one, knowing how to talk to them,
20:32
Speaker 3: knowing what they're looking for. I think, you know, it
20:38
Speaker 3: requires a lot of grit. I think having access and
20:44
Speaker 3: having something really it goes down to mostly is having
20:49
Speaker 3: a product that has the ability to really catch fire
20:52
Speaker 3: and really go you know, like it's having a product
20:57
Speaker 3: that people need. I think on an every day basis,
21:01
Speaker 3: I think that that's also something to it. And again
21:04
Speaker 3: I can only speak to this in CpG. I don't
21:06
Speaker 3: you know, it's what I know, you know what I mean?
21:09
Speaker 3: But I think, you know, I think it's a combination
21:12
Speaker 3: of a lot of things. You know, and some people
21:16
Speaker 3: have really dope products that people do use every day,
21:20
Speaker 3: but it's just so hard because there's so many products
21:23
Speaker 3: out in the world. It's just so hard to get
21:26
Speaker 3: off the ground. Some people have all that stuff and
21:30
Speaker 3: they may still never be able to get it to
21:33
Speaker 3: where we have it. It's not because what I have
21:38
Speaker 3: is better than what they have. I think. Also it's
21:42
Speaker 3: also about what's in order for you in your life,
21:45
Speaker 3: you know, and some of those things you know aren't predetermined.
21:49
Speaker 3: You know, some things you just it just kind of
21:52
Speaker 3: is what it is. So that doesn't make it a
21:56
Speaker 3: bad thing or a good thing. It's just the thing.
21:59
Speaker 3: You know. Some people will continue to do the same
22:01
Speaker 3: thing for the next ten years and and they maybe
22:06
Speaker 3: maybe they don't get past a few hundred thousand. Maybe
22:09
Speaker 3: they can craft a million, but it's hard for them
22:12
Speaker 3: to get past that, you know, and that that's that,
22:15
Speaker 3: And that's not a bad thing because that means you
22:18
Speaker 3: still have something. You understand what I'm saying.
22:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's the question that I asked about.
22:22
Speaker 2: Like our relationship with raising money is like if you
22:26
Speaker 2: if you look pre Covid and George Floyd and almost yes,
22:29
Speaker 2: we're post Covid and George Floyd. Now we've because we
22:33
Speaker 2: romanticized what tech Crunch was talking about. This company raised
22:37
Speaker 2: Oh I can't. I might to switch cameras, but I'm
22:40
Speaker 2: gonna get this question off first, because they're recording with
22:42
Speaker 2: the concept of raising money was glamorized. When you saw
22:47
Speaker 2: these companies raising a million dollars, you know, five hundred
22:50
Speaker 2: thousand dollars, then we start to think that that's the goal,
22:54
Speaker 2: and profit isn't the goal. And I'd love to hear
22:56
Speaker 2: you speak to that.
22:58
Speaker 3: Right right, Profit is the goal all the way every day.
23:05
Speaker 3: You know it used to be. It used to be
23:09
Speaker 3: that profit. You know, you think of like the dollar
23:13
Speaker 3: shave clubs of the world. You know how they were
23:16
Speaker 3: able they had the ability to scale their business I
23:20
Speaker 3: don't know, to like one hundred and fifty million or
23:22
Speaker 3: something like that, and then they were able to sell
23:24
Speaker 3: to I think they sold to Unilever somebody like that
23:28
Speaker 3: for like a billion dollars. I don't know that they
23:30
Speaker 3: were necessarily profitable, right, but they came up at a
23:34
Speaker 3: time right where profitability was not necessarily what the strategics
23:39
Speaker 3: were looking for, what they were excited about when it
23:44
Speaker 3: came to Dollar Shave Club is the fact that they
23:46
Speaker 3: had over a million subscribers, right, yeah, yeah, And that
23:51
Speaker 3: was a time when directed consumer was really hot. Right.
23:56
Speaker 3: Subscriptions were also a hot thing at that time. You know. Well,
24:01
Speaker 3: now we're at a time where you know, you see,
24:04
Speaker 3: I mean, we all saw what happened when we were
24:08
Speaker 3: right that ship was wild, right, you know, and and
24:14
Speaker 3: and those guys are going to be fine that you know,
24:16
Speaker 3: they're going to just go out and do a million
24:17
Speaker 3: other things and be wickedly successful. You know. But now
24:23
Speaker 3: I think that it's really important to strategics that it
24:28
Speaker 3: makes that that companies do have a do have at
24:34
Speaker 3: least if you're not profitable, you have a lot like
24:39
Speaker 3: you you've got, you've got, you've got the what's the
24:44
Speaker 3: word I'm looking for? You at least have profitability in
24:48
Speaker 3: your view. You may not be profitable yet, but you
24:51
Speaker 3: have to be a story how you're going to get
24:54
Speaker 3: over there, right, you know, you you you, you know,
24:58
Speaker 3: you have to be making a dec margin. And these
25:01
Speaker 3: are things that you want anyway, even if the world
25:05
Speaker 3: was still the same back when Dollar Shave Club was
25:08
Speaker 3: able to go out and sell their company for billions
25:10
Speaker 3: of dollars away. Just because we see that, in my mind,
25:17
Speaker 3: it's better of you to be a responsible business person
25:21
Speaker 3: and make sure that you have a company that's making
25:25
Speaker 3: a great margin, that's got this able to put money
25:28
Speaker 3: in the bank. Right, because money in the bank gives
25:32
Speaker 3: you access to lines of credit. It makes you a
25:37
Speaker 3: sexy It makes you sexy to be able to go
25:41
Speaker 3: out into the world when it is time to raise money.
25:43
Speaker 3: To be able to raise that money, it makes it
25:46
Speaker 3: so that your investors know that because you've already built
25:52
Speaker 3: the you've already kind of put yourself in a position
25:57
Speaker 3: where you've built your busines business to be profitable. You've
26:01
Speaker 3: built your business to be lean effective, to be able
26:04
Speaker 3: to drive revenue, to be able to print money. Right
26:08
Speaker 3: when you build a business from that point of view,
26:13
Speaker 3: that's going to make it so whatever you decide in
26:16
Speaker 3: the future, Right, especially if you've brought in private ectuity,
26:20
Speaker 3: your venture capital money, knowing that you're going to have
26:23
Speaker 3: to have some sort of an event. That makes it
26:26
Speaker 3: so that you've built the muscle to be able to
26:29
Speaker 3: go out to market, to be able to potentially sell
26:32
Speaker 3: to a strategic or to be able to go out
26:34
Speaker 3: in IPO, because IPO is really hard, right you know,
26:40
Speaker 3: I know, I mean, I've got of several friends that
26:44
Speaker 3: have IPO. You know, some of them have penny stocks
26:47
Speaker 3: right now, you understand what I'm saying. That's not a
26:50
Speaker 3: terrible thing. It is what it is. But it's a
26:53
Speaker 3: very hard market to be in because everybody is in
26:57
Speaker 3: your business at that point. All it takes is one
27:01
Speaker 3: viral moment that can make the stock plummet, you know,
27:05
Speaker 3: and so you know, amongst many other things, you know,
27:08
Speaker 3: all the all the regulations, all the things you have
27:11
Speaker 3: to uphold on a monthly, daily basis. It's wild. So
27:15
Speaker 3: you know, I think building the muscle to be profitable,
27:19
Speaker 3: to be lean, to make sure you're covering a high margin,
27:23
Speaker 3: to understand your business inside and out is really important.
27:28
Speaker 3: You know. Building that muscle from the beginning is really
27:31
Speaker 3: important because that's where that's where we are at this point.
27:35
Speaker 3: I think the strategics of the world learned that profitability
27:39
Speaker 3: is actually really important because you have because that tells
27:43
Speaker 3: them that you have a business.
27:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you know what is missing, Like when you
27:48
Speaker 2: see these conversations around and you don't have to say
27:50
Speaker 2: the name, but I'll say the name target. And you
27:52
Speaker 2: see that, you see all these things happening. What's missing
27:55
Speaker 2: from that conversation that you wish we understood? Mm, because
28:00
Speaker 2: we're all looking at the targets and you're like, y'all
28:02
Speaker 2: need to understand this.
28:03
Speaker 1: But what should we understand?
28:07
Speaker 3: I think the thing that's important to understand. I'm not
28:16
Speaker 3: going to speak from a target point of view, because
28:18
Speaker 3: I'm not. You know, my brand isn't target. We sell there.
28:24
Speaker 3: I think what's important to understand in a time like
28:27
Speaker 3: this is what it takes to get the opportunity to
28:34
Speaker 3: be in a target, what it takes to get on
28:39
Speaker 3: shelf at target, what it takes even bigger than that,
28:42
Speaker 3: because getting on the shelf is actually it's not easy,
28:45
Speaker 3: but it's easy. What's hard is staying there. And what's
28:52
Speaker 3: really hard is when your business is not when your
28:57
Speaker 3: velocities aren't growing and turning, when you're not meeting your
29:01
Speaker 3: dollars per store per week, right when your cells are down.
29:11
Speaker 3: You know when your cells are down, and then when
29:18
Speaker 3: you know and then when how do I give this
29:21
Speaker 3: example without alienating anything? When your when when you as
29:27
Speaker 3: a brand, not not just Honeypot, just in general. Right
29:31
Speaker 3: when your numbers may be down due to what's happening right,
29:39
Speaker 3: but they're actually seeing that their numbers aren't so down.
29:44
Speaker 3: It makes it look like your numbers are down because
29:48
Speaker 3: of another reason, when in fact, your numbers are probably
29:52
Speaker 3: down because of what's actually happening.
29:55
Speaker 2: I got it.
29:58
Speaker 3: It makes it hard for bring to be able to
30:00
Speaker 3: survive in a space like that.
30:03
Speaker 1: They don't take into account the landscape.
30:05
Speaker 3: You have to take into account the whole landscape of things,
30:09
Speaker 3: what it takes to get on shelf. Like a lot
30:11
Speaker 3: of people are talking about right now how they're seeing
30:15
Speaker 3: a lot of the brands marked down. People are saying,
30:19
Speaker 3: you know, they're seeing a lot of the black brands
30:21
Speaker 3: marked down right, Well, right now is the time, right
30:27
Speaker 3: before they're about to launch all their new stuff on
30:30
Speaker 3: the shelf. So quite naturally, typically the things that are
30:34
Speaker 3: gonna be discontinued off the shelf are happening right now.
30:38
Speaker 3: So what do they do. They mark it down. They
30:41
Speaker 3: try to sell through it until right before they're gonna
30:45
Speaker 3: set the shelf for the rest for the new things
30:49
Speaker 3: that are gonna come on shelf because you have to
30:51
Speaker 3: make space on shelf for the new stuff, right, But
30:56
Speaker 3: the average person doesn't know that. To them, they think, oh,
31:00
Speaker 3: they just made an announcement about D and I, now
31:02
Speaker 3: they're mocking down all these brands and throwing all these
31:04
Speaker 3: brands out. That's not the case. These brands were going
31:07
Speaker 3: to be marked down whether they continue their D and
31:10
Speaker 3: I practices or not, because you have to make room
31:14
Speaker 3: on the shelf because some of these brands probably have
31:16
Speaker 3: new innovation coming or some of them maybe weren't meeting
31:20
Speaker 3: their requirements. Right. There's there's a multitude of reasons why
31:26
Speaker 3: a brand has to discontinue things or why they have
31:30
Speaker 3: to come off shelf. Why. Because it's really hard to
31:33
Speaker 3: be in mass market retail. It's very very, very very
31:36
Speaker 3: very hard. Right, There's a real art to it, there's
31:42
Speaker 3: a real intellectual side to it. There. It's heavily operational,
31:46
Speaker 3: it's heavily logistical. You know, it's heavy with trades spend.
31:51
Speaker 3: You know, not understanding trade spend can literally murder your business.
31:56
Speaker 3: Have You could have a million dollars worth of purchase
31:58
Speaker 3: orders and only get paid back a hun undred thousand
32:00
Speaker 3: because it may have been late, may not have showed up,
32:03
Speaker 3: it may have not showed up on time, it may
32:05
Speaker 3: not have been stickered the right way. It may like,
32:07
Speaker 3: there's so many things that can happen that can cause
32:10
Speaker 3: for them to just charge you, charge you, charge you.
32:13
Speaker 3: You understand what I'm saying, The chargebacks, right, and so
32:18
Speaker 3: you know, so trying not to, trying not to even
32:24
Speaker 3: though they just made the announcement that they made, trying
32:28
Speaker 3: not to make everything so literal, because some of these
32:34
Speaker 3: things are just things that just not likely. We were
32:36
Speaker 3: talking about earlier, These are just things that just naturally
32:39
Speaker 3: happen in business, right. It's not that they had a
32:43
Speaker 3: plan to let some of these companies go. They are
32:46
Speaker 3: literally making space on the shelf for new products that
32:49
Speaker 3: are about to be launching because April May is the time, right,
32:55
Speaker 3: and so you know, so it's so, I mean, some
33:00
Speaker 3: of what I mentioned is something I think that needs
33:02
Speaker 3: to be taken into account. I think the biggest thing
33:05
Speaker 3: that needs to be taken into account is to not
33:07
Speaker 3: make brands pay for something that a retailer chooses. But
33:12
Speaker 3: I also understand that like companies don't necessarily always listen
33:20
Speaker 3: until their bottom line is affected, and so I also
33:23
Speaker 3: understand the point of these things, you know, so I
33:31
Speaker 3: also want to preface what I'm saying with you also
33:34
Speaker 3: have to make your own decision about what you want
33:37
Speaker 3: to do. Some of the things that I'm saying is
33:40
Speaker 3: just my own opinion, but I'm not trying to tell
33:42
Speaker 3: people what they should do. You have to choose where
33:46
Speaker 3: you want to shop, where you want to spend your money,
33:48
Speaker 3: who you want to spend your money with. I just
33:51
Speaker 3: think that it's important to understand the life of a
33:55
Speaker 3: business owner, who is who is essentially renting real estate
33:59
Speaker 3: from Target, from Walmart, from these you know, these retailers
34:05
Speaker 3: in order for us to run our business. It's not
34:08
Speaker 3: if we were if you tried to just pull your
34:10
Speaker 3: products out of a Target, that literally would be deaf
34:13
Speaker 3: to your brand by a million cuts, right, because you
34:17
Speaker 3: wouldn't survive. You don't just pull your products out. They
34:22
Speaker 3: charge you to pull those products out. Wow, and then
34:25
Speaker 3: what are you gonna do? Some people say, well, you
34:27
Speaker 3: can just sell your products online. Well, when you sell
34:30
Speaker 3: products online, that's only one store you have to pay for.
34:34
Speaker 3: You have to pay your your three pl fees, you
34:37
Speaker 3: have to pay for shipping one unless you have a
34:41
Speaker 3: product that that is an expensive product. It's very hard
34:46
Speaker 3: to make money directed consumer. It's a misnomer to say.
34:51
Speaker 3: People it's a misconception. People think that you make so
34:54
Speaker 3: much money by selling directed consumer. But if you make
34:57
Speaker 3: a product that's under twenty dollars, I'm sorry to tell
35:01
Speaker 3: you that's just not the case.
35:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I guess my question then is you know
35:08
Speaker 2: I've heard and I don't know, so you maybe you
35:11
Speaker 2: know more about this, Like they're taking away.
35:13
Speaker 1: The section of those products.
35:16
Speaker 2: Like the black section, you know, and then putting it
35:18
Speaker 2: in with other like they will just not not be
35:21
Speaker 2: a section.
35:22
Speaker 1: But maybe the question is and we want.
35:25
Speaker 3: That, we want that. We don't want to be in
35:27
Speaker 3: a black section.
35:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's my question, that's my question.
35:29
Speaker 3: We want to be we want to be. If you
35:32
Speaker 3: make if listen, if you make body wash and body lotion,
35:36
Speaker 3: where is your product best sold.
35:38
Speaker 1: In the body wash the body lotion section.
35:41
Speaker 3: If you make hair care products, right, where's your hair
35:46
Speaker 3: care best sold? If you make shampoos and conditioners, it's
35:49
Speaker 3: best sold in the place that you go and buy
35:51
Speaker 3: shampoo and conditioners. I make vagine a wellness products. Why
35:55
Speaker 3: would my products work in an area of the store
35:58
Speaker 3: that's allocated for humans of color. That's weird. That's not
36:02
Speaker 3: weird to you.
36:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess you take it to the level of like,
36:06
Speaker 2: why is there an organic section of the grocery store?
36:08
Speaker 3: Like this is just the Yeah, but brother, they all
36:11
Speaker 3: the all the retailers stopped doing that. I don't know
36:14
Speaker 3: where you live, but I remember back in the and
36:17
Speaker 3: this is only because I come from retail. I remember
36:19
Speaker 3: back in the day Kroger used to sell used to
36:22
Speaker 3: have an organic section, right. Well, they found that people
36:27
Speaker 3: didn't want to just go to the organic section. People
36:30
Speaker 3: wanted to buy their organic potato chips in the potato
36:34
Speaker 3: chip aisle. They want to get their organic cereal they're
36:39
Speaker 3: they're caschi or whatever in the cereal aisle. I want
36:43
Speaker 3: to buy my organic milk in the milk section. I
36:46
Speaker 3: don't want to have to go over here and then
36:48
Speaker 3: go over there. It's it's a better shopping experience when
36:53
Speaker 3: when you can buy when you can walk a store
36:56
Speaker 3: and navigate a store and navigated the way that you
37:00
Speaker 3: would typically navigate and experience the way that you would
37:03
Speaker 3: when you can just buy your things where you traditionally
37:06
Speaker 3: go to buy them otherwise you're trying to get a
37:11
Speaker 3: human consumer to practice a different way of shopping, which
37:15
Speaker 3: your condition, which makes it harder for them to do.
37:17
Speaker 3: So do you understand what makes.
37:19
Speaker 1: Sort of sense?
37:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, in a few minutes I have left. I want
37:23
Speaker 2: to ask about, like your leadership style, how that's evolved,
37:26
Speaker 2: you know, over time from you know, let's say a
37:28
Speaker 2: small company you know you talked about in your kitchen
37:31
Speaker 2: pervertiably to now seventy plus people, and how has be
37:35
Speaker 2: had to change.
37:37
Speaker 3: Mmm, that's a good question. I think that I think
37:44
Speaker 3: that my leadership chop style has definitely is constantly changing.
37:49
Speaker 3: You know, in the beginning, you kind of have to
37:51
Speaker 3: be everything. You know, when you're when you're scaling your
37:59
Speaker 3: typically bringing in people who have more expertise, So then
38:02
Speaker 3: your leadership style has to redevelop a bit because you're
38:07
Speaker 3: bringing in leadership. So you need to give them the
38:10
Speaker 3: ability to lead. You have you have to be able
38:13
Speaker 3: to step back and not be You have to be
38:19
Speaker 3: trust You have to trust them right, and you also
38:24
Speaker 3: have to have the ability to be open to them
38:27
Speaker 3: making mistakes because that's how we all learn. So, you know,
38:33
Speaker 3: but it's hard when you go from doing everything to
38:37
Speaker 3: bringing somebody in, especially bringing somebody in that's probably replacing
38:42
Speaker 3: you a bit, right, because you know, in the beginning
38:46
Speaker 3: it was it was me me inside, but then over time,
38:51
Speaker 3: you know, I'll speak for myself. My investors felt like
38:55
Speaker 3: we needed a president, which they weren't wrong. We did.
38:58
Speaker 3: I've never I've never ran a multimillion dollar business before.
39:03
Speaker 3: This is my first time, you understand what I'm saying, So,
39:07
Speaker 3: like my my understanding of running a company has limitations.
39:14
Speaker 3: So they were like, hey, we really feel like we
39:18
Speaker 3: need to bring in a president because and the president,
39:21
Speaker 3: the person that they brought in, Alison Savajah, who's incredible,
39:26
Speaker 3: you know she I mean, she's worked at she's she's
39:31
Speaker 3: worked at multi billion dollar businesses, right, and so she
39:37
Speaker 3: knows she's gonna know what needs to be done, how
39:43
Speaker 3: to build this team, how to strategically, how to strategically
39:46
Speaker 3: grow it, How do we put in services and tools
39:49
Speaker 3: in order to be able to grow our teams and
39:51
Speaker 3: give them the resources that you know, she's just gonna
39:55
Speaker 3: have a different level of experience than I have, and
39:57
Speaker 3: so I have to have the ability two respect that
40:05
Speaker 3: there's only so much that I know and if I
40:09
Speaker 3: want this business to go where I know it can,
40:12
Speaker 3: I have to let her lead. I have to step back, right,
40:18
Speaker 3: you know, And I have to still know what know
40:23
Speaker 3: and respect what I do because nobody can do what
40:27
Speaker 3: I do right as it relates to this business, you know.
40:36
Speaker 3: And I have to realize that there's things that I
40:41
Speaker 3: don't have the ability to do. And so the art
40:44
Speaker 3: of being a good leader is understanding what you don't
40:47
Speaker 3: know how to do so that you can get the
40:50
Speaker 3: right people into the job so that you can trust
40:52
Speaker 3: them and give them the ability to grow, you know,
40:57
Speaker 3: but also understand what it is you know how to
40:59
Speaker 3: do and you know how to do best, so that
41:02
Speaker 3: you can do that shit all the way. You know.
41:06
Speaker 3: So I think, you know, if I had to give
41:10
Speaker 3: it a name, I'm probably very much a transformative leader.
41:18
Speaker 3: You know. I really respect the leaders on my team.
41:20
Speaker 3: I really respect their opinion. I really respect their you know,
41:26
Speaker 3: their backgrounds. I respect what they bring to this business,
41:31
Speaker 3: you know. And I and honestly I welcome it because
41:34
Speaker 3: you know, in order for this to be what I
41:37
Speaker 3: know it can be. You know, honey Pot is a
41:40
Speaker 3: conglomerate brand within itself. Even before we sell to a
41:45
Speaker 3: conglomerate at some point you understand what I'm saying, which
41:48
Speaker 3: which would be the final home of Honeypot, Right. But
41:54
Speaker 3: in order for us to get there, you know, we
42:01
Speaker 3: have to be able to ebb and flow. We have
42:05
Speaker 3: to die to our egos. We have to we have
42:09
Speaker 3: to know why we're here and who we're serving and
42:12
Speaker 3: keep that human at the forefront of why we do
42:16
Speaker 3: everything that we do, you know, because that's what's most important.
42:21
Speaker 3: That human with the vagina is the most important to us,
42:24
Speaker 3: right yeah, And so you know, and then also our
42:30
Speaker 3: team is very important. It's also the most important, right
42:34
Speaker 3: Like we we we we work really hard to make
42:41
Speaker 3: really beautiful, efficacious, beautiful skincare, vaginal care, menstrual care, personal care.
42:51
Speaker 3: But we have to treat each other well in the process.
42:54
Speaker 3: You know, if we're in if we're working in a
42:57
Speaker 3: toxic work environment, the output of that is going to
43:00
Speaker 3: be toxic. And so also how we treat each other
43:04
Speaker 3: within the company is very important. How we respect each other,
43:07
Speaker 3: how we talk to each other, how we build our
43:09
Speaker 3: businesses with each other. You know, it's so it's it's
43:13
Speaker 3: a it's a culmination of a lot of things. You know,
43:21
Speaker 3: you know, but I but, but but it definitely changes
43:25
Speaker 3: all the time. And and you know, for some people
43:29
Speaker 3: change can be really hard. For me, change is not hard.
43:34
Speaker 3: I actually welcome change. I'm a very very very hyper
43:37
Speaker 3: present person. And but I know, you know, the evolution
43:45
Speaker 3: doesn't happen without change, you know. And and I and
43:50
Speaker 3: I want honey Pot to be here for the next
43:54
Speaker 3: however many hundreds of years, you know. And in order
43:58
Speaker 3: to do that, you know, I think, I think that
44:04
Speaker 3: you have to be able to.
44:05
Speaker 1: Flow, to be respectfully a time.
44:09
Speaker 2: I'll get one last question for you, And I think
44:12
Speaker 2: about I have this conversation with friends a lot and
44:15
Speaker 2: this idea of building a business on support, and I
44:19
Speaker 2: feel like we have to at.
44:20
Speaker 1: Some point get past support. I buy this because I
44:23
Speaker 1: support it.
44:24
Speaker 2: Like, but even before this whole Target thing, I was like, like,
44:26
Speaker 2: you don't go to Target because you support Target.
44:28
Speaker 1: You go to Target because it's they at what you need. Both.
44:31
Speaker 2: So many of our businesses are like you got I
44:34
Speaker 2: need your support to you know, keep the lights on it.
44:37
Speaker 2: And I'm like, we got to move past that. So
44:38
Speaker 2: I love your thoughts to hear your thoughts on how
44:43
Speaker 2: on that and how we get past just support.
44:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I agree with you. I think that. Look,
44:53
Speaker 3: I think I have a few thoughts about that. I
44:56
Speaker 3: think that I think for the brain, and that is literally,
45:04
Speaker 3: Target is about to be their very first retailer, their
45:07
Speaker 3: very first mass market retailer, right, and they're about to
45:11
Speaker 3: go on shelf, and maybe they're a decent sized brand
45:16
Speaker 3: on their own, right, Like they've they've figured out how
45:20
Speaker 3: to make some real money and they've gotten into Target
45:23
Speaker 3: and they're looking to grow their business. That company needs support. Yeah,
45:33
Speaker 3: your first few years, your first few years in retail,
45:37
Speaker 3: you first of all, you may not have tons of money.
45:40
Speaker 3: Even if you're making money, it's hard to it's you know,
45:43
Speaker 3: marketing and all those things costs and absorbing an amounts
45:47
Speaker 3: of money, right, so you may not have all the
45:52
Speaker 3: tools and resources that's going to take you to the
45:54
Speaker 3: next level as far as like being able to support
45:58
Speaker 3: your product on shelf. Those companies we're just figure you're
46:01
Speaker 3: just trying to figure out how to do that. Right,
46:03
Speaker 3: If you're only in one hundred doors, it doesn't make
46:06
Speaker 3: sense to pay Target or any other retailer twenty five
46:09
Speaker 3: thousand dollars for their in store marketing programs. Because you're
46:12
Speaker 3: only in one hundred doors, you pay that amount of
46:14
Speaker 3: money when you're in at least eleven hundred doors or more. Right,
46:19
Speaker 3: and so when it comes to support, that brand needs
46:25
Speaker 3: support because they're testing right now potentially so that next
46:32
Speaker 3: year they can go back to Target and say, hey,
46:36
Speaker 3: you tested me in one hundred doors. Now I want
46:38
Speaker 3: to be in two hundred doors or five hundred doors.
46:41
Speaker 3: But in order for them to get that five hundred doors,
46:43
Speaker 3: what has to happen, Those hundred doors have to produce.
46:48
Speaker 3: So that brand needs support because they don't have the
46:51
Speaker 3: resources to go out and do big, huge marketing campaigns
46:55
Speaker 3: and do all the shit that you know that that
46:58
Speaker 3: a big brand has the abilit do. Wouldn't even make
47:01
Speaker 3: sense for them to do because they're only in one
47:03
Speaker 3: hundred doors. So in the beginning, they really need the
47:11
Speaker 3: support of their of their customer that's been following them,
47:16
Speaker 3: that's been supporting them the whole time, that's been buying
47:18
Speaker 3: their products online or buying it out of their trunk
47:21
Speaker 3: or whatever the circustances situation is. Now, I agree with
47:26
Speaker 3: you that you have to get to a point where
47:30
Speaker 3: where it's not just like you're just living off of support.
47:34
Speaker 3: You have to get to the point to where you're
47:37
Speaker 3: living off of velocity, where where you are, where you
47:42
Speaker 3: are scaling and growing. Right, you started one hundred doors,
47:46
Speaker 3: now you're out in the five hundred doors. Following year
47:49
Speaker 3: you got into a thousand. Now you're going to go
47:51
Speaker 3: talk to Walmart. Then you're going to go talk to Kroger.
47:54
Speaker 3: Then you under sound I'm saying, now you want to
47:57
Speaker 3: go talk to CBS. But in the beginning, you need
48:00
Speaker 3: some support, right because because you gotta get, you gotta
48:04
Speaker 3: get off the ground you got. You have to move
48:08
Speaker 3: past the support phase. But that is one of that
48:10
Speaker 3: is phase one of getting into mass market. And I
48:14
Speaker 3: don't and I think that and and that is one
48:18
Speaker 3: of the things to your earlier question of things that
48:22
Speaker 3: we have to realize as consumers that buy products off
48:26
Speaker 3: of shelves, because you're right, targeted target their machine right
48:34
Speaker 3: like they they they they are they are kind of
48:41
Speaker 3: the the mother retailer, and then the sisters and brothers
48:47
Speaker 3: are on the shelves. Right, we need to in order
48:51
Speaker 3: for target to be what it is, it cannot survive
48:54
Speaker 3: without brands. Brands cannot survive without human beings consumed our product.
49:02
Speaker 3: It just doesn't work that way. We all all of
49:05
Speaker 3: we need we all need each other, right and so
49:11
Speaker 3: you know, I agree with you. The goal needs to
49:15
Speaker 3: be getting out of the support phase, but every single
49:18
Speaker 3: business has to go through the support phase before they
49:21
Speaker 3: get to the next one.
49:23
Speaker 2: Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity, Afro
49:26
Speaker 2: Tech on the Black Effect podcast Networking Night Hire Media.
49:29
Speaker 2: It's produced by Morgan, Debaonne and me Well Lucas, with
49:32
Speaker 2: the additional production support by Kate McDonald, Saarah Ergan and
49:35
Speaker 2: Jayda McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and Lovebeach.
49:39
Speaker 2: Learn more about my guessing other Tech. This show is
49:41
Speaker 2: an innovators at afrotech dot Com. Video version of this
49:44
Speaker 2: episode will drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube,
49:46
Speaker 2: So tap it in, enjoy your Black Tech Green Money,
49:50
Speaker 2: share us to somebody, go get your money.
49:53
Speaker 1: Decent Love