Ep. 211 Monique Rodriguez is the Founder Mielle Organics, a hair care and beauty brand that believes healthier ingredients encourage healthier hair and skin.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Monique Rodriguez, founder of my l Organics and author of
the new book The Glory and Your Story, Activating a
Fearless Faith to change your life, your career, and the world,
which is out this month.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome Monique, Thank you, Thank you for having.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Me absolutely And so I'm so interested in talking to
you because number one, you have this book out which
we're going to talk about. But I'm so interested in
wealth generation and the beauty business, the wellness business, and
this audience is super interested in building generational wealth and
you've accomplished so much of that, and so I'm interested
(00:34):
in your take on something. So I'm going to start here, like,
where do you believe this industry beauty and wellness fits
in our opportunity to create generational wealth in our communities. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I think it's a huge whitespaceed opportunity because I feel
that the trajectory of beauty in general is headed for
overall wellness holistically, and I think that as consumers, we
are looking at, you know, how do we take care
of our overall bodies that will eventually be a reflection
(01:09):
of our outward appearance. So everything that we put into
our bodies, you know, our skin our hair, our nails
is a reflection of like how well we take care
of ourselves. So I think that you know, if I
can talk to any aspiring entrepreneurs that is looking to
tap into this space and create generational wealth, I would say, like,
(01:30):
identify what is that need or that void, because there's
always a void in the market, right And I don't
believe in a saturated market. I feel that there's always
something that someone is not doing. That you have that
special spark or innovation that you can bring to the industry,
but you just got to figure out and sometimes it
takes for you to be still to figure out, like
(01:50):
what that innovation spark.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Is that you can bring to this space.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Because I can, I can speak from that because that
was definitely like my story. I saw a void the
beauty space and the hair space. Actually the void of
there was a lack of relatability. There was a lack
of access to high quality products that really focus on ingredients,
and there was a lack of education on how to
(02:16):
actually use the products. Because I felt myself, as a
product junkie was going through so many different products because
I didn't really understand how these products worked and performed.
For my hair texture because curly natural hair is a
different texture, is very unique, and it takes a special
type of product. It takes a special type of technique
in order to navigate dealing with textured hair, which makes
(02:40):
it really what makes it really special.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
But that was a void that I said, Well.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
You know, I can take my nurse and background, the
educational science background of what I'm doing, apply that to
what I love and the passion that I have for hair,
and I can relate to people in a way that
most brands at that time couldn't relate to people because
I was a consumer my so, so they were not
the consumer. They were just kind of putting products out
there and talking at consumers versus, you know, bringing the
(03:06):
consumers in on this journey with them and making them
feel like they were a part of it. So that
was a spin that I saw in the market, and
that was the void that I feeled. So when I
think about entrepreneurs entering into the beauty and wellness space,
identify like, what is that void? What is that problem
that you feel that you can solve and do it
better than anyone in your competitive landscape?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And you and you roll with that.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
So you said a couple of things that I want
to go a level deeper on because I've seen so
many entrepreneurs start or have an idea about something and
then when they realized that there's other people in the
market no matter they've heard, you know, you can still
do the thing, but for whatever reason, it's discouraging. And
so what do you feel is like typically the reason
(03:50):
for that discouragement and how do we get past it.
I hear you say, you know, figure out your innovation,
and I've heard people say that, but people still get
discouraged when they realize there's others in the marketplace.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, I mean, I think there are a lot of
different reasons why people get discouraged. I think one of
the reasons is lack of funding and lack of access
to funding and lack of resources. And I think that
we may tend to get discouraged because we are trying
(04:25):
to tackle this mountain head on. We're starting at the
top instead of like taking small little steps to climb
this mountain to.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Get to the top. And so when you look at.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
The mountain and you're down at the bottom and you're like,
I gotta do all this and it's going to require
all of this and I don't know how I'm gonna
get the equipment to climb this mountain.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Then you start getting into your own head.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And then that's when the discouragement and the fear and
the doubt sets in pep in because now you've opened
the door to it because you are not looking at Okay,
this is something that I'm going to tackle with little
small steps in order to get to the top. You're
looking at the top and trying to backtrack and figure
out how you got to put all this together to
get there.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So I think that's what contributes.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
To a lot of people's discouragement, and that's why entrepreneurship,
I feel, is one of the biggest faith journeys that
you can go on because it is the fear of
you stepping out on faith. You are the fear of
like normalcy and comfortability. You know, for me, I left
(05:41):
my stable, good paying job to start something that I
didn't know how it was going to go, didn't know
if customers were going to buy for me, didn't know
if you know, our income was going to go down
because now we have no nursing income that I was
dependent on. So it was a lot of different factors
(06:04):
that will cause you to be like, Okay, is this
really worth me stepping out? Or should I just stay
comfortable and stay safe because this is what feels good
and it's not scary. It's like I know, it's I
can predict. Well, we can't never predict anything, but we
feel like when we're in a safe space that we
(06:25):
can predict.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
But it's not really stability when you're not fulfilled. So
I think that's what you know, discourages a lot of
people because we get in our own way, we set
the limits on ourselves. When I feel that we operate
with a guy with no limitations. So once we take
(06:47):
the labels and the limits off, then we can fully
just flourish and thrive with whatever dream or desire we have.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Man, that just spoke to me, So yes, I have
to listen back to this too, you know, remind meself
of that. And so I've seen so many people building
you know, shade butter companies, hair companies, lotion companies, et cetera,
and so many get stuck at the kitchen, you know,
which is a great place to start, but they get
stuck there. Can you talk about what you would do
(07:18):
today if you were starting over again. Knowing what you
now know about how to successfully start that may be
helpful to some of these brands.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Yeah, I feel that sometimes what stops small businesses from
scaling to different levels is sometimes that person. I think
entrepreneurship it comes with the spirit of humility. And I've
seen several entrepreneurs that get in their own way because
they feel like they know everything. They don't like to listen,
(07:49):
And I think listening is very important.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I mean especially.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Listening to people that have gone down the path that
you're looking to go. I mean people that you know
have not necessarily been down that path. You may want
to have discernment with, you know, listening to them or whatnot.
But having the spirit of humility and asking the right questions,
surrounding yourselves with the right mentors. It was a huge
(08:16):
part of my success. And outside of like the funding.
Like I know, funding is a huge a huge undertaking
for small businesses and entrepreneurs and that's a huge sumbling block,
but it's not something that you can't.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Cross that obstacle, right.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
You know, We've gone through funding challenges and it just
takes for you to get out their network and connect
with the right people. But I feel that a lot
of people get stuck in that space of just operating
from their kitchen because they are they're not putting in
what they want to get out of it. Like it's
gonna whatever you put into it is what you're going
(08:56):
to get out of it. And that's gonna take you
getting out here, grinding, getting out here, going to networking events,
meeting people. It's going to take you also spending money,
and sometimes you will be spending money that you don't have.
But that's the risk. Everything comes with the risk. You
have to take calculator risk. But on the other side
of the risk is the reward. And you know, I
(09:18):
just feel that like people just like nobody's going to
know about your business if you don't get out there.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And talk about it. It's a fact.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
And you got to travel. And because my husband and
I we would travel everywhere. We would go everywhere to
talk about our business. We did events big and small
because we wanted to get the brand out there. And
sometimes it just takes you getting out of your own
way and put yourself out there and just you know,
go for it and not caring.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
About what people think about how you're.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Going to look I love that. I love that it's
a call I found where you said, you know the
glory in your story. You wrote that to encourage others
to see beyond their circumstances and tap into the inner strength.
And you also said winning in life and business requires
a kind of risk taking that money that many are
afraid to embrace. And I hear you saying so many
(10:09):
things along those lines, and I want you to talk
about if you can remember some of the most riskiest
decisions you've made in how you move through those things
and how you move past the fear that keeps most
people from going past.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yeah, I mean I could give you several examples of
like just risks that we took throughout the journey. I mean,
the first risk, like I talked about earlier, was leading
my career my safe comfortable. I was getting a paycheck
every two weeks. I knew that paycheck was coming, and
the risk was if this doesn't take off, I'm not
(10:44):
going to have a job. You know, Granted I have
a nursing license, so I had something to fall back on,
but you know, that was still a risk of like
just putting that career aside.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
And then when my husband left his job.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
That's when it really got real because he came from corporate,
so you know, it's not easy to just go get
a corporate job. So with both of us, leaving our
careers was a huge risk, but we focus on the
vision guide gave us, and we knew that we had
to plan, Like we didn't just leave our jobs and say, oh,
(11:18):
you know, we don't have a plan in place, or
we don't have income. We had to have a solid
plan in place to map out like how we were
going to get some type of income to still keep
our bills afloat and our.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Food in our kids' mouth. So we had to like
plan that out.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
But it was a huge risk of like the unknown
of like both of us turning away from our jobs.
We had the risks that we took when we entered
into retail. That was a huge risk because retail is
a whole different beast and if your brand does not
perform in retail, it can be very detrimental to your
business because if you don't perform and you have to
(11:58):
come out, that is not a call to the retailer,
that is a cost to you as the brand, And
depending on how many stores you're in, that can be
millions of dollars that if your brand doesn't perform that
you have to pay that retailer if you don't sell
or turn in those stores. That's a huge risk because
(12:19):
you know, it's like, we believe in our brand, but
the what if? What if it didn't sell and then
we take on this huge undertaking and do we have
over a million dollars to pay back at that time?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
No, we didn't. The risk of when we got a
line of credit.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
When when you're going to get a line of credit
and you're a small business, like you don't have banks
that are just trying to throw money at you. They're
very cautious because what they want to know is how
you're going to be able to pay it back and
what type of assets you have that we can use
as collateral. So the risk was we had to put
our house up for collateral, the house that we live in,
(12:56):
the house that we raise our family in, and if
that line is called do what happens next? They take
your house? That was a huge risk. The risk of
taking on investment and not knowing that this investment partnership
was going to work. Are we going to be able
to perform and grow the business to scale so we
(13:17):
can get these investors their return back on their investment.
So everything that we did was a risk, but we
had we focus on, like, you know, what is the
reward on the other side of it, and with proper planning.
So the risks that we take, we also make sure
that we do the proper planning in place to identify,
like what are the odds or like what is in
(13:40):
our favor if it does work. And that's why I
say you have to calculate your risk because everything that
you do pretty much is going to be a risk.
And I always say this to my kids. Everything that
you do is going to be hard. You have to
choose your heart. I could have chose the heart of
still working as a nurse, paycheck to paycheck, struggling, actually
trying to provide for my family and going to work
(14:04):
every day, miserable on my feet for twelve hours, not
getting sleep.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
That's hard. Or I can take the.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Heart of grinding building a company, taking red eye flights,
taking the risk of being criticized by my own people
in my community, having having to have thick tough skin.
You know, it's hard building a business, not knowing if
you're going to receive receive a return on what you're
building and what you're grinding for. It's still hard, but
(14:31):
which one is? Both of them are heard, but you
got to choose your heart. Everything that we do in
life is going to be hard.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah, you know, I'm interested in your take on this
because I've seen and I'm not going to ask you
a political question, but what I have seen is with
all these issues, people saying, well, why not just sell
your product, you know, direct to consumer? Why not just
going to just build a website and do that? And
I'm sorry, My question is what is the reasoning for
going in retail that people may not understand when they
(14:57):
just say, well, just put up a website and you
a'll tell people to buy it from there.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Well, the retail is national exposure, right, you know, that's
what it helps. What it helps with brand awareness. Mayo
became a global beauty brand because of our retail partners.
Because of that exposure. When you're in Target, Sally, CBS, Walmart,
we were in over one hundred thousand stores. When you
are just operating online, not saying that you won't be successful,
(15:26):
you will be successful, but the amount of scalability and
the amount of eyeballs and people people that come in
contact with their brand. It's not the masses, because you're
speaking to your own community. The people that come to
your website, they're in your own community and your own ecosystem.
Whereas people discovered our brand, a lot of people discovered
(15:50):
our brand by just going into the Retailers had never
heard of our Instagram, had never heard of our website.
They heard of us by going into the retail store
and then they look us up. Then they go to
our social media and website, and then they enter into
our ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
But I feel the.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Difference is what's in my own ecosystem versus the masses,
and so when I want the masses to know about
the brand, that's where retail partnership comes into play.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
How do you build infrastructure, inventory, supply, chain fulfillment before
you get major funding?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
If possible, Yeah, it's possible. It's very hard.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
We were fortunate enough in the very beginning to bootstrap
our company, and we have very high profit margins that
allowed us to just continue to reinvest as we build
infrastructure and scale to our point where we got into Salli's.
When we entered into Sallly's, the thing when you go
(16:53):
into retail is that inventory that they placed the order
for you. As a brand, you are paying for that
inventory upfront before it goes into the retailers, and then
when it gets to the retailers, then you have to
wait for them to pay you. And sometimes depending on
the retailer, it can take sixty days, it could take
ninety days. It could take four or five months before
(17:17):
you get that payment. So you have to have some
type of operating capital. So when we decided that we
were going to test out in ninety five retail stores
and that was not that was a small amount, and
we needed funding even then for that small amount to
enter into those ninety five stores.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Because we had to pay for that inventory. We took
out a very.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Small loan from a friend of my husband's that was
an entrepreneur that believed in us, that believed in our vision,
and he gave us a loan for like two hundred thousand.
You know, now I look back, it wasn't a lot,
but that loan was very expensive, right because when we
did have an exit, you know, they made a lot
(18:00):
of money just off of that small loan. But we
needed it at the time, and no banks were going
to give us the funding to get into the stores
to fund that inventory.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
So we were fortunate enough.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
To have that, and then with my husband having a
background in logistics and operations, we were able to build
up i would say, a baby operations and infrastructure to
support us into retail until we started to bring in
more money to bring in more people that had the
experience and expertise to help develop infrastructure and operations that
(18:38):
prepared us for scale before we took on investment funds.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So I'm interested in why this book, why now? The
glory and your story activating fearless faith to change your life,
your career, and the world. So let's talk about why
you decided to write this book.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah, the why is I think like right now es
actually in the world that we live in, it's like
perfect timing because you know, I want people to look
at this book and look at me as like your
big sister that's giving you entrepreneurial advice and that's pretty
much giving you the road map to success and sharing
the trials, the tribulations, you know, the mistakes that I've
(19:21):
made because I want to be that person that I needed.
When I first started my business, there was no Monique
Rodriguez or Melvin Rodriguez that I can look to. When
I started my company, there were no mentors. To be
honest with you, I had to search for mentors that
(19:43):
were entrepreneurs and started up brands from their kitchen or
their house, from other places and other people that didn't
look like me, right, And I want to be able
to change that narrative. And I want back in Brown
Peace people to now have an example, a big sister
(20:03):
that they can look to and say, I want to
do what she's done, I want to do it even better.
But she's going to be my big sister to give
me the road map and share her learnings. All watch
it in her journey of faith, because I think it
all starts with the solid foundation that's going to help
set them up to do even greater in their careers.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah. I love that comment because you know I saw it.
You had said that before. You know, I wanted to
be the person that I didn't have in this space.
And there's so many of us who look for representation
with the journey we might be on and hoping we
can find somebody who looks like us, comes from areas
we might communities we might come from, and we don't
find it. And so I wonder, like, for those people
(20:47):
like yourself and others who are doing this for others
because you didn't have it, where do you go for
that strength? Because you're the first in many ways through
the door and you are being for others what you
didn't have, but you got to make it as you
have to find that strength.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Yeah, that's a great question, and it's so funny because
someone just asked my husband that.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Like last week.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
And we are very intentional about finding those people. And
we have a lot of friends that are older than us,
a lot of successful friends that are older than us
that we have met along this journey that we glean
to and that we learn from. But it takes intentionality
to go out and find and search for those people.
(21:31):
So we're always open to meeting people that look like us,
that have great success stories that may not be known
to the masses, but they're known in their individual circles
that we will be friends to just have that support system,
to have that mentorship, and to have those examples, because
(21:53):
you know, I still find myself like seeking and trying
to find those people. I have a few that are
close to me and I cherish those groups of people
that I have relationships with.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
But I'm still.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Like always intentional about like meeting and connect with people
that I can learn from. And if our model is
if I can't evolve from being around you, then I
don't need to be involved with you.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I like that. You know, there's there's concerning issues I
think concerning I'll put a label on it. In our
community where we have issues with selling. It says you
stopped recording, so it's like somebody's trying to call you
or something.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Oh, it's I declined it.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Okay, Yeah, I was waiting for it to okay. Now
it's back on them. You know, there are a lot
of comments when when black companies sell. You'll see it
in the comments. And like some of us don't understand exits,
and so you said, you know before you know, you
sold up, not out, And so can you describe the
distinction there and how can we reframe the conversation around
(23:07):
exit and liquidity for our community.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
I think we reframed the conversation by number one, normalizing
it and know that this is normal trajectory of businesses.
Other cultures build businesses with the intention to exit into
seal so they can do other things. I'm going to
(23:32):
use an example of a recent exit that was just
all over the news, and it was the brand called
Poppy Yeah, that had a successful exit and I think
they sold to Petsy and you know, obviously different culture,
but it was celebrated. You didn't hear all the negativity
in the backlash. And they do it all the time.
(23:55):
They build the exit and it's celebrated. We are the
only community that thinks that building exited is something bad.
And I understand why we feel that way because we
feel that because when a brand is built for the community,
we feel like it's ours, it belongs to us. But
(24:16):
that comes from a lack mindset. It doesn't come from
an abundance mindset. When we operate from a spirit of lack,
we feel like it's never going to be enough. We
have to gatekeep, we have to keep it to ourselves
because we're going to run out of it, or if
someone else comes in from a different culture and uses it,
(24:37):
it's not going to be enough for us. That's not
the mindset that God even wants us. He wants us
to have an abundant mindset to know that there is
always going to be enough.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
We're not going to run out our couple continue to overflow.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
So it starts with our thinking first and foremost that
when a brand is built for us, it doesn't mean
that other communities that other cultures can't use what's for us.
It doesn't mean that other cultures are going to come
in and take from us. It just means that what
we're building is great.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
That means that what we were building is great.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
When a conglomerate is interested in a brand like Mayel,
that means that what I have built is something great
for people to be interested in. So that is something
that should be celebrated within our community. And what I
want our community to understand is that when we don't
celebrate it, what we do is we create fear in investors.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
We create fear and conglomerates.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
That are going to be afraid to invest in black
businesses that are built for black communities because they're going
to be They're going to be fearful of how the
community is going to act if they invest or, if
they've become acquired. But then in the same breath, we
complain less than one percent of women or black women
(25:55):
entrepreneurs have less than one percent of funding. Venture capitalists
plain about the funding and the access that's given to
us as black community, but yet we're making them the
investors fearful to invest in the black community because of
how the black community tears another black brand down for
doing something that they have done for years.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
And so when we talk.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
About creating generational wealth, how do we create generational wealth?
You're not going to do it by building a business.
You create generational wealth by getting your business acquired, because
what your business earns, that money should be going back
into the business. And when you have if you are
(26:36):
operating correctly, you should be on payroll for your business
and you should receive a paycheck, not the profits from
the business. So if you're continuing to operate on payroll,
it's harder to build generational wealth.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Operating that way.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
The real wealth is when you build your business and
you exit and you sell it to a major conglomerate.
That is how all other cultures have been doing it
for years. That is why we are behind, because we
have to catch up and become educated on why it's
important to build something and become a choir.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
What's in your everyday carry like, what is your eedc
I like to call like the things that Monique always
has to have, Like, no matter if I'm leaving the house,
if I'm in the car, if I'm at work, I'm
in the gym, I got these things with me, Like
what are the things you always got to have? You
can't say your phone. You can't say your phone.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Oh yeah, that's so.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
I always have to have some water. I gotta stay hydrated.
And I always have to have my sunscreen because I
think sunscreen is like you want to have great skin
and not have damage, and that causes you to look, Oh,
you got to have a nice good sunscreen. Is this.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
No, we actually don't have a sunscreen anymore.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
So you can give a brand if you want, if
you want right.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Now, I use Tula.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
I love their sunscreen, and I also use another brand
call I think it's Kay Brown, but I could be
quoting it wrong. And those are my two sunscreens. And
then I also have to have a good lip gloss
because I don't like being dry, so I would say water,
you know, sunscreen, lip gloss, and lotion.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
All right, I got two more easy ones for you,
Like I want to know how does spirituality guide your
business decisions? How does your faith direct you.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Yeah, my faith is everything, and we were very vocal
about my faith. My faith is what allows me to
stay grounded. My faith is what allows me to have
the confidence that I have. It has allowed me to develop,
like I talked about earlier, the thick skin that I
(28:52):
have to deal with, you know, criticism, to deal with
the naysayers, and my faith helps helps to dry decisions.
Any decisions that we make, we always pray on it,
we consult with God. And so that's how I can
be as confident as I am to talk about the
things that I've done because I know my internal drivers
(29:14):
is my faith and not you know, moniques own ego.
And don't get me wrong, sometimes my ego can get
in the way. But I have to go back to
being rooted and grounded and my source, and that's God,
Jesus Christ, and that humbles me and keeps me at
a place of humility knowing that I don't operate in
(29:34):
my own power, but I operate from a power that's
been given to me through God and the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
So it's everything for me knowing that.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
And finally, you know, what's one lesson in the book
you wish you knew back in twenty fourteen and then
in those early days. And what's that thing that you
think every founder, every person who's trying to build something
should memorize, get deep within them, you know, resonate.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
One thing I would say, I mean, it's a couple
of things, but I'm gonna say too. So one thing
I would say is that you know, every success story
that you see all started with humble beginning. So don't
despise humble beginning. Don't despise the fact that you're still
in your kitchen and you're grinding, you know, if you
keep being consistent and have discipline not motivation, because every
(30:24):
day you're not going to be motivated to get up
and work on your business. You're not gonna be motivated.
You have to have a certain level of discipline and
consistency and it will eventually pay off because discipline is
going to equate the freedom that you're ultimately looking for
when you are building and growing a successful business. So like,
(30:46):
focus on how can you be a more disciplined person
in every area of your life, and knowing that everyone
had to always start from somewhere small. And then the
second thing I would say is one that piece of
advice that a CFO told us, and this is also
in my book, is the best time to raise money
is when you don't need money.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
And I think that.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
When entrepreneurs are growing and they're in a position where
they feel stuck and they don't have funding or resources,
they may be quick to take on outside funding quickly
on because they feel like there's no alternative and there's
no way out, and they take on investments and they
dilute their shares early on. So I always caution entrepreneurs
(31:32):
to be careful with diluting your shares very early on,
because what will happen is by the time you do
have a successful exit. Let's just throw a billion dollars
out there. Let's say you have a billion dollar exit
and you have diluted your shares to own like one
percent of Now you own one percent of the company. Yeah,
one percent of a billion dollars is still really great money,
(31:53):
it's really great. But having thirty percent of a billion
is much more lucrative than one percent. And if you
can get to the point where you can at least
maintain more of your company towards the end, when you
start getting closer to having an exit, the greater outcome
(32:13):
you will.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Have in the long run.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
I mean, but if you're okay, we'll having one percent,
that's fine. But just know that you don't drive decisions.
You don't control anything. The people that have given you
that money, they're the ones that's making the decisions. So
it just it just depends on the type of autonomy
you want to have and the type of exit you
want to have in the end. For us, we kept
(32:36):
all of our shares. We did not dilute our shares
until twenty twenty. Wow, we exited in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Thank you. We exited in twenty twenty three, so that
was three years.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
So just imagine how much ownership we had in our
company when we finally exited, versus just having a very
small percentage. So weigh your eyes. But don't be so
quick to take on investments. And when you don't take
on investments and money early on, it also makes you
more resourceful and it makes you more scrappy. You become
more creative and innovative when you don't have money. And
(33:11):
for me, I feel like not having it, I learned
a lot more and I learned how to appreciate it
and respect the money and operate from a place of
creativity versus if money was just handed to me a
paraty just threw money to a lot of different places
and had frivolous spending, So just be cautious.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
The book The Glory and Your Story, activating fearless faith
to change your life, your career in the world. It's
out April fifteenth. Black Tech Green Money is a production
of Blavity, Afro Tech with the Black Effect podcast Networking
night Heart Media. It's produced by Morgan Debonne and me
Well Lucas, with addigital production support by Kate McDonald, Saarah
(33:55):
Urgan and Jada McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis
in Love Beach learn more about my guess the tech
this shop is an innovators at afrotech dot Com. Video
version this episode will drop to Black Tech Green Money
on YouTube. She'll tap it in Enjoy your Black Tech Green Money,
Share us to somebody, go get your money.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
He in Love
Monique Rodriguez, founder of my l Organics and author of
the new book The Glory and Your Story, Activating a
Fearless Faith to change your life, your career, and the world,
which is out this month.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Welcome Monique, Thank you, Thank you for having.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Me absolutely And so I'm so interested in talking to
you because number one, you have this book out which
we're going to talk about. But I'm so interested in
wealth generation and the beauty business, the wellness business, and
this audience is super interested in building generational wealth and
you've accomplished so much of that, and so I'm interested
(00:34):
in your take on something. So I'm going to start here, like,
where do you believe this industry beauty and wellness fits
in our opportunity to create generational wealth in our communities. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I think it's a huge whitespaceed opportunity because I feel
that the trajectory of beauty in general is headed for
overall wellness holistically, and I think that as consumers, we
are looking at, you know, how do we take care
of our overall bodies that will eventually be a reflection
(01:09):
of our outward appearance. So everything that we put into
our bodies, you know, our skin our hair, our nails
is a reflection of like how well we take care
of ourselves. So I think that you know, if I
can talk to any aspiring entrepreneurs that is looking to
tap into this space and create generational wealth, I would say, like,
(01:30):
identify what is that need or that void, because there's
always a void in the market, right And I don't
believe in a saturated market. I feel that there's always
something that someone is not doing. That you have that
special spark or innovation that you can bring to the industry,
but you just got to figure out and sometimes it
takes for you to be still to figure out, like
(01:50):
what that innovation spark.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Is that you can bring to this space.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
Because I can, I can speak from that because that
was definitely like my story. I saw a void the
beauty space and the hair space. Actually the void of
there was a lack of relatability. There was a lack
of access to high quality products that really focus on ingredients,
and there was a lack of education on how to
(02:16):
actually use the products. Because I felt myself, as a
product junkie was going through so many different products because
I didn't really understand how these products worked and performed.
For my hair texture because curly natural hair is a
different texture, is very unique, and it takes a special
type of product. It takes a special type of technique
in order to navigate dealing with textured hair, which makes
(02:40):
it really what makes it really special.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
But that was a void that I said, Well.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
You know, I can take my nurse and background, the
educational science background of what I'm doing, apply that to
what I love and the passion that I have for hair,
and I can relate to people in a way that
most brands at that time couldn't relate to people because
I was a consumer my so, so they were not
the consumer. They were just kind of putting products out
there and talking at consumers versus, you know, bringing the
(03:06):
consumers in on this journey with them and making them
feel like they were a part of it. So that
was a spin that I saw in the market, and
that was the void that I feeled. So when I
think about entrepreneurs entering into the beauty and wellness space,
identify like, what is that void? What is that problem
that you feel that you can solve and do it
better than anyone in your competitive landscape?
Speaker 2 (03:27):
And you and you roll with that.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
So you said a couple of things that I want
to go a level deeper on because I've seen so
many entrepreneurs start or have an idea about something and
then when they realized that there's other people in the
market no matter they've heard, you know, you can still
do the thing, but for whatever reason, it's discouraging. And
so what do you feel is like typically the reason
(03:50):
for that discouragement and how do we get past it.
I hear you say, you know, figure out your innovation,
and I've heard people say that, but people still get
discouraged when they realize there's others in the marketplace.
Speaker 3 (04:03):
Yeah, I mean, I think there are a lot of
different reasons why people get discouraged. I think one of
the reasons is lack of funding and lack of access
to funding and lack of resources. And I think that
we may tend to get discouraged because we are trying
(04:25):
to tackle this mountain head on. We're starting at the
top instead of like taking small little steps to climb
this mountain to.
Speaker 2 (04:35):
Get to the top. And so when you look at.
Speaker 3 (04:38):
The mountain and you're down at the bottom and you're like,
I gotta do all this and it's going to require
all of this and I don't know how I'm gonna
get the equipment to climb this mountain.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Then you start getting into your own head.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And then that's when the discouragement and the fear and
the doubt sets in pep in because now you've opened
the door to it because you are not looking at Okay,
this is something that I'm going to tackle with little
small steps in order to get to the top. You're
looking at the top and trying to backtrack and figure
out how you got to put all this together to
get there.
Speaker 2 (05:15):
So I think that's what contributes.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
To a lot of people's discouragement, and that's why entrepreneurship,
I feel, is one of the biggest faith journeys that
you can go on because it is the fear of
you stepping out on faith. You are the fear of
like normalcy and comfortability. You know, for me, I left
(05:41):
my stable, good paying job to start something that I
didn't know how it was going to go, didn't know
if customers were going to buy for me, didn't know
if you know, our income was going to go down
because now we have no nursing income that I was
dependent on. So it was a lot of different factors
(06:04):
that will cause you to be like, Okay, is this
really worth me stepping out? Or should I just stay
comfortable and stay safe because this is what feels good
and it's not scary. It's like I know, it's I
can predict. Well, we can't never predict anything, but we
feel like when we're in a safe space that we
(06:25):
can predict.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Right.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
But it's not really stability when you're not fulfilled. So
I think that's what you know, discourages a lot of
people because we get in our own way, we set
the limits on ourselves. When I feel that we operate
with a guy with no limitations. So once we take
(06:47):
the labels and the limits off, then we can fully
just flourish and thrive with whatever dream or desire we have.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Man, that just spoke to me, So yes, I have
to listen back to this too, you know, remind meself
of that. And so I've seen so many people building
you know, shade butter companies, hair companies, lotion companies, et cetera,
and so many get stuck at the kitchen, you know,
which is a great place to start, but they get
stuck there. Can you talk about what you would do
(07:18):
today if you were starting over again. Knowing what you
now know about how to successfully start that may be
helpful to some of these brands.
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Yeah, I feel that sometimes what stops small businesses from
scaling to different levels is sometimes that person. I think
entrepreneurship it comes with the spirit of humility. And I've
seen several entrepreneurs that get in their own way because
they feel like they know everything. They don't like to listen,
(07:49):
And I think listening is very important.
Speaker 2 (07:52):
I mean especially.
Speaker 3 (07:53):
Listening to people that have gone down the path that
you're looking to go. I mean people that you know
have not necessarily been down that path. You may want
to have discernment with, you know, listening to them or whatnot.
But having the spirit of humility and asking the right questions,
surrounding yourselves with the right mentors. It was a huge
(08:16):
part of my success. And outside of like the funding.
Like I know, funding is a huge a huge undertaking
for small businesses and entrepreneurs and that's a huge sumbling block,
but it's not something that you can't.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Cross that obstacle, right.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
You know, We've gone through funding challenges and it just
takes for you to get out their network and connect
with the right people. But I feel that a lot
of people get stuck in that space of just operating
from their kitchen because they are they're not putting in
what they want to get out of it. Like it's
gonna whatever you put into it is what you're going
(08:56):
to get out of it. And that's gonna take you
getting out here, grinding, getting out here, going to networking events,
meeting people. It's going to take you also spending money,
and sometimes you will be spending money that you don't have.
But that's the risk. Everything comes with the risk. You
have to take calculator risk. But on the other side
of the risk is the reward. And you know, I
(09:18):
just feel that like people just like nobody's going to
know about your business if you don't get out there.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And talk about it. It's a fact.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
And you got to travel. And because my husband and
I we would travel everywhere. We would go everywhere to
talk about our business. We did events big and small
because we wanted to get the brand out there. And
sometimes it just takes you getting out of your own
way and put yourself out there and just you know,
go for it and not caring.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
About what people think about how you're.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Going to look I love that. I love that it's
a call I found where you said, you know the
glory in your story. You wrote that to encourage others
to see beyond their circumstances and tap into the inner strength.
And you also said winning in life and business requires
a kind of risk taking that money that many are
afraid to embrace. And I hear you saying so many
(10:09):
things along those lines, and I want you to talk
about if you can remember some of the most riskiest
decisions you've made in how you move through those things
and how you move past the fear that keeps most
people from going past.
Speaker 3 (10:21):
Yeah, I mean I could give you several examples of
like just risks that we took throughout the journey. I mean,
the first risk, like I talked about earlier, was leading
my career my safe comfortable. I was getting a paycheck
every two weeks. I knew that paycheck was coming, and
the risk was if this doesn't take off, I'm not
(10:44):
going to have a job. You know, Granted I have
a nursing license, so I had something to fall back on,
but you know, that was still a risk of like
just putting that career aside.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
And then when my husband left his job.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
That's when it really got real because he came from corporate,
so you know, it's not easy to just go get
a corporate job. So with both of us, leaving our
careers was a huge risk, but we focus on the
vision guide gave us, and we knew that we had
to plan, Like we didn't just leave our jobs and say, oh,
(11:18):
you know, we don't have a plan in place, or
we don't have income. We had to have a solid
plan in place to map out like how we were
going to get some type of income to still keep
our bills afloat and our.
Speaker 2 (11:31):
Food in our kids' mouth. So we had to like
plan that out.
Speaker 3 (11:35):
But it was a huge risk of like the unknown
of like both of us turning away from our jobs.
We had the risks that we took when we entered
into retail. That was a huge risk because retail is
a whole different beast and if your brand does not
perform in retail, it can be very detrimental to your
business because if you don't perform and you have to
(11:58):
come out, that is not a call to the retailer,
that is a cost to you as the brand, And
depending on how many stores you're in, that can be
millions of dollars that if your brand doesn't perform that
you have to pay that retailer if you don't sell
or turn in those stores. That's a huge risk because
(12:19):
you know, it's like, we believe in our brand, but
the what if? What if it didn't sell and then
we take on this huge undertaking and do we have
over a million dollars to pay back at that time?
Speaker 2 (12:30):
No, we didn't. The risk of when we got a
line of credit.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
When when you're going to get a line of credit
and you're a small business, like you don't have banks
that are just trying to throw money at you. They're
very cautious because what they want to know is how
you're going to be able to pay it back and
what type of assets you have that we can use
as collateral. So the risk was we had to put
our house up for collateral, the house that we live in,
(12:56):
the house that we raise our family in, and if
that line is called do what happens next? They take
your house? That was a huge risk. The risk of
taking on investment and not knowing that this investment partnership
was going to work. Are we going to be able
to perform and grow the business to scale so we
(13:17):
can get these investors their return back on their investment.
So everything that we did was a risk, but we
had we focus on, like, you know, what is the
reward on the other side of it, and with proper planning.
So the risks that we take, we also make sure
that we do the proper planning in place to identify,
like what are the odds or like what is in
(13:40):
our favor if it does work. And that's why I
say you have to calculate your risk because everything that
you do pretty much is going to be a risk.
And I always say this to my kids. Everything that
you do is going to be hard. You have to
choose your heart. I could have chose the heart of
still working as a nurse, paycheck to paycheck, struggling, actually
trying to provide for my family and going to work
(14:04):
every day, miserable on my feet for twelve hours, not
getting sleep.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
That's hard. Or I can take the.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
Heart of grinding building a company, taking red eye flights,
taking the risk of being criticized by my own people
in my community, having having to have thick tough skin.
You know, it's hard building a business, not knowing if
you're going to receive receive a return on what you're
building and what you're grinding for. It's still hard, but
(14:31):
which one is? Both of them are heard, but you
got to choose your heart. Everything that we do in
life is going to be hard.
Speaker 1 (14:36):
Yeah, you know, I'm interested in your take on this
because I've seen and I'm not going to ask you
a political question, but what I have seen is with
all these issues, people saying, well, why not just sell
your product, you know, direct to consumer? Why not just
going to just build a website and do that? And
I'm sorry, My question is what is the reasoning for
going in retail that people may not understand when they
(14:57):
just say, well, just put up a website and you
a'll tell people to buy it from there.
Speaker 2 (15:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
Well, the retail is national exposure, right, you know, that's
what it helps. What it helps with brand awareness. Mayo
became a global beauty brand because of our retail partners.
Because of that exposure. When you're in Target, Sally, CBS, Walmart,
we were in over one hundred thousand stores. When you
are just operating online, not saying that you won't be successful,
(15:26):
you will be successful, but the amount of scalability and
the amount of eyeballs and people people that come in
contact with their brand. It's not the masses, because you're
speaking to your own community. The people that come to
your website, they're in your own community and your own ecosystem.
Whereas people discovered our brand, a lot of people discovered
(15:50):
our brand by just going into the Retailers had never
heard of our Instagram, had never heard of our website.
They heard of us by going into the retail store
and then they look us up. Then they go to
our social media and website, and then they enter into
our ecosystem.
Speaker 2 (16:05):
But I feel the.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Difference is what's in my own ecosystem versus the masses,
and so when I want the masses to know about
the brand, that's where retail partnership comes into play.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
How do you build infrastructure, inventory, supply, chain fulfillment before
you get major funding?
Speaker 2 (16:26):
If possible, Yeah, it's possible. It's very hard.
Speaker 3 (16:32):
We were fortunate enough in the very beginning to bootstrap
our company, and we have very high profit margins that
allowed us to just continue to reinvest as we build
infrastructure and scale to our point where we got into Salli's.
When we entered into Sallly's, the thing when you go
(16:53):
into retail is that inventory that they placed the order
for you. As a brand, you are paying for that
inventory upfront before it goes into the retailers, and then
when it gets to the retailers, then you have to
wait for them to pay you. And sometimes depending on
the retailer, it can take sixty days, it could take
ninety days. It could take four or five months before
(17:17):
you get that payment. So you have to have some
type of operating capital. So when we decided that we
were going to test out in ninety five retail stores
and that was not that was a small amount, and
we needed funding even then for that small amount to
enter into those ninety five stores.
Speaker 2 (17:35):
Because we had to pay for that inventory. We took
out a very.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Small loan from a friend of my husband's that was
an entrepreneur that believed in us, that believed in our vision,
and he gave us a loan for like two hundred thousand.
You know, now I look back, it wasn't a lot,
but that loan was very expensive, right because when we
did have an exit, you know, they made a lot
(18:00):
of money just off of that small loan. But we
needed it at the time, and no banks were going
to give us the funding to get into the stores
to fund that inventory.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
So we were fortunate enough.
Speaker 3 (18:12):
To have that, and then with my husband having a
background in logistics and operations, we were able to build
up i would say, a baby operations and infrastructure to
support us into retail until we started to bring in
more money to bring in more people that had the
experience and expertise to help develop infrastructure and operations that
(18:38):
prepared us for scale before we took on investment funds.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So I'm interested in why this book, why now? The
glory and your story activating fearless faith to change your life,
your career, and the world. So let's talk about why
you decided to write this book.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
Yeah, the why is I think like right now es
actually in the world that we live in, it's like
perfect timing because you know, I want people to look
at this book and look at me as like your
big sister that's giving you entrepreneurial advice and that's pretty
much giving you the road map to success and sharing
the trials, the tribulations, you know, the mistakes that I've
(19:21):
made because I want to be that person that I needed.
When I first started my business, there was no Monique
Rodriguez or Melvin Rodriguez that I can look to. When
I started my company, there were no mentors. To be
honest with you, I had to search for mentors that
(19:43):
were entrepreneurs and started up brands from their kitchen or
their house, from other places and other people that didn't
look like me, right, And I want to be able
to change that narrative. And I want back in Brown
Peace people to now have an example, a big sister
(20:03):
that they can look to and say, I want to
do what she's done, I want to do it even better.
But she's going to be my big sister to give
me the road map and share her learnings. All watch
it in her journey of faith, because I think it
all starts with the solid foundation that's going to help
set them up to do even greater in their careers.
Speaker 1 (20:23):
Yeah. I love that comment because you know I saw it.
You had said that before. You know, I wanted to
be the person that I didn't have in this space.
And there's so many of us who look for representation
with the journey we might be on and hoping we
can find somebody who looks like us, comes from areas
we might communities we might come from, and we don't
find it. And so I wonder, like, for those people
(20:47):
like yourself and others who are doing this for others
because you didn't have it, where do you go for
that strength? Because you're the first in many ways through
the door and you are being for others what you
didn't have, but you got to make it as you
have to find that strength.
Speaker 3 (21:04):
Yeah, that's a great question, and it's so funny because
someone just asked my husband that.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Like last week.
Speaker 3 (21:10):
And we are very intentional about finding those people. And
we have a lot of friends that are older than us,
a lot of successful friends that are older than us
that we have met along this journey that we glean
to and that we learn from. But it takes intentionality
to go out and find and search for those people.
(21:31):
So we're always open to meeting people that look like us,
that have great success stories that may not be known
to the masses, but they're known in their individual circles
that we will be friends to just have that support system,
to have that mentorship, and to have those examples, because
(21:53):
you know, I still find myself like seeking and trying
to find those people. I have a few that are
close to me and I cherish those groups of people
that I have relationships with.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
But I'm still.
Speaker 3 (22:05):
Like always intentional about like meeting and connect with people
that I can learn from. And if our model is
if I can't evolve from being around you, then I
don't need to be involved with you.
Speaker 1 (22:20):
I like that. You know, there's there's concerning issues I
think concerning I'll put a label on it. In our
community where we have issues with selling. It says you
stopped recording, so it's like somebody's trying to call you
or something.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Oh, it's I declined it.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
Okay, Yeah, I was waiting for it to okay. Now
it's back on them. You know, there are a lot
of comments when when black companies sell. You'll see it
in the comments. And like some of us don't understand exits,
and so you said, you know before you know, you
sold up, not out, And so can you describe the
distinction there and how can we reframe the conversation around
(23:07):
exit and liquidity for our community.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
I think we reframed the conversation by number one, normalizing
it and know that this is normal trajectory of businesses.
Other cultures build businesses with the intention to exit into
seal so they can do other things. I'm going to
(23:32):
use an example of a recent exit that was just
all over the news, and it was the brand called
Poppy Yeah, that had a successful exit and I think
they sold to Petsy and you know, obviously different culture,
but it was celebrated. You didn't hear all the negativity
in the backlash. And they do it all the time.
(23:55):
They build the exit and it's celebrated. We are the
only community that thinks that building exited is something bad.
And I understand why we feel that way because we
feel that because when a brand is built for the community,
we feel like it's ours, it belongs to us. But
(24:16):
that comes from a lack mindset. It doesn't come from
an abundance mindset. When we operate from a spirit of lack,
we feel like it's never going to be enough. We
have to gatekeep, we have to keep it to ourselves
because we're going to run out of it, or if
someone else comes in from a different culture and uses it,
(24:37):
it's not going to be enough for us. That's not
the mindset that God even wants us. He wants us
to have an abundant mindset to know that there is
always going to be enough.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
We're not going to run out our couple continue to overflow.
Speaker 3 (24:52):
So it starts with our thinking first and foremost that
when a brand is built for us, it doesn't mean
that other communities that other cultures can't use what's for us.
It doesn't mean that other cultures are going to come
in and take from us. It just means that what
we're building is great.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
That means that what we were building is great.
Speaker 3 (25:10):
When a conglomerate is interested in a brand like Mayel,
that means that what I have built is something great
for people to be interested in. So that is something
that should be celebrated within our community. And what I
want our community to understand is that when we don't
celebrate it, what we do is we create fear in investors.
Speaker 2 (25:32):
We create fear and conglomerates.
Speaker 3 (25:35):
That are going to be afraid to invest in black
businesses that are built for black communities because they're going
to be They're going to be fearful of how the
community is going to act if they invest or, if
they've become acquired. But then in the same breath, we
complain less than one percent of women or black women
(25:55):
entrepreneurs have less than one percent of funding. Venture capitalists
plain about the funding and the access that's given to
us as black community, but yet we're making them the
investors fearful to invest in the black community because of
how the black community tears another black brand down for
doing something that they have done for years.
Speaker 2 (26:15):
And so when we talk.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
About creating generational wealth, how do we create generational wealth?
You're not going to do it by building a business.
You create generational wealth by getting your business acquired, because
what your business earns, that money should be going back
into the business. And when you have if you are
(26:36):
operating correctly, you should be on payroll for your business
and you should receive a paycheck, not the profits from
the business. So if you're continuing to operate on payroll,
it's harder to build generational wealth.
Speaker 2 (26:52):
Operating that way.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
The real wealth is when you build your business and
you exit and you sell it to a major conglomerate.
That is how all other cultures have been doing it
for years. That is why we are behind, because we
have to catch up and become educated on why it's
important to build something and become a choir.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
What's in your everyday carry like, what is your eedc
I like to call like the things that Monique always
has to have, Like, no matter if I'm leaving the house,
if I'm in the car, if I'm at work, I'm
in the gym, I got these things with me, Like
what are the things you always got to have? You
can't say your phone. You can't say your phone.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
Oh yeah, that's so.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
I always have to have some water. I gotta stay hydrated.
And I always have to have my sunscreen because I
think sunscreen is like you want to have great skin
and not have damage, and that causes you to look, Oh,
you got to have a nice good sunscreen. Is this.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
No, we actually don't have a sunscreen anymore.
Speaker 1 (27:57):
So you can give a brand if you want, if
you want right.
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Now, I use Tula.
Speaker 3 (28:02):
I love their sunscreen, and I also use another brand
call I think it's Kay Brown, but I could be
quoting it wrong. And those are my two sunscreens. And
then I also have to have a good lip gloss
because I don't like being dry, so I would say water,
you know, sunscreen, lip gloss, and lotion.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
All right, I got two more easy ones for you,
Like I want to know how does spirituality guide your
business decisions? How does your faith direct you.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Yeah, my faith is everything, and we were very vocal
about my faith. My faith is what allows me to
stay grounded. My faith is what allows me to have
the confidence that I have. It has allowed me to develop,
like I talked about earlier, the thick skin that I
(28:52):
have to deal with, you know, criticism, to deal with
the naysayers, and my faith helps helps to dry decisions.
Any decisions that we make, we always pray on it,
we consult with God. And so that's how I can
be as confident as I am to talk about the
things that I've done because I know my internal drivers
(29:14):
is my faith and not you know, moniques own ego.
And don't get me wrong, sometimes my ego can get
in the way. But I have to go back to
being rooted and grounded and my source, and that's God,
Jesus Christ, and that humbles me and keeps me at
a place of humility knowing that I don't operate in
(29:34):
my own power, but I operate from a power that's
been given to me through God and the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
So it's everything for me knowing that.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
And finally, you know, what's one lesson in the book
you wish you knew back in twenty fourteen and then
in those early days. And what's that thing that you
think every founder, every person who's trying to build something
should memorize, get deep within them, you know, resonate.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
One thing I would say, I mean, it's a couple
of things, but I'm gonna say too. So one thing
I would say is that you know, every success story
that you see all started with humble beginning. So don't
despise humble beginning. Don't despise the fact that you're still
in your kitchen and you're grinding, you know, if you
keep being consistent and have discipline not motivation, because every
(30:24):
day you're not going to be motivated to get up
and work on your business. You're not gonna be motivated.
You have to have a certain level of discipline and
consistency and it will eventually pay off because discipline is
going to equate the freedom that you're ultimately looking for
when you are building and growing a successful business. So like,
(30:46):
focus on how can you be a more disciplined person
in every area of your life, and knowing that everyone
had to always start from somewhere small. And then the
second thing I would say is one that piece of
advice that a CFO told us, and this is also
in my book, is the best time to raise money
is when you don't need money.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
And I think that.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
When entrepreneurs are growing and they're in a position where
they feel stuck and they don't have funding or resources,
they may be quick to take on outside funding quickly
on because they feel like there's no alternative and there's
no way out, and they take on investments and they
dilute their shares early on. So I always caution entrepreneurs
(31:32):
to be careful with diluting your shares very early on,
because what will happen is by the time you do
have a successful exit. Let's just throw a billion dollars
out there. Let's say you have a billion dollar exit
and you have diluted your shares to own like one
percent of Now you own one percent of the company. Yeah,
one percent of a billion dollars is still really great money,
(31:53):
it's really great. But having thirty percent of a billion
is much more lucrative than one percent. And if you
can get to the point where you can at least
maintain more of your company towards the end, when you
start getting closer to having an exit, the greater outcome
(32:13):
you will.
Speaker 2 (32:13):
Have in the long run.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
I mean, but if you're okay, we'll having one percent,
that's fine. But just know that you don't drive decisions.
You don't control anything. The people that have given you
that money, they're the ones that's making the decisions. So
it just it just depends on the type of autonomy
you want to have and the type of exit you
want to have in the end. For us, we kept
(32:36):
all of our shares. We did not dilute our shares
until twenty twenty. Wow, we exited in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
Thank you. We exited in twenty twenty three, so that
was three years.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
So just imagine how much ownership we had in our
company when we finally exited, versus just having a very
small percentage. So weigh your eyes. But don't be so
quick to take on investments. And when you don't take
on investments and money early on, it also makes you
more resourceful and it makes you more scrappy. You become
more creative and innovative when you don't have money. And
(33:11):
for me, I feel like not having it, I learned
a lot more and I learned how to appreciate it
and respect the money and operate from a place of
creativity versus if money was just handed to me a
paraty just threw money to a lot of different places
and had frivolous spending, So just be cautious.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
The book The Glory and Your Story, activating fearless faith
to change your life, your career in the world. It's
out April fifteenth. Black Tech Green Money is a production
of Blavity, Afro Tech with the Black Effect podcast Networking
night Heart Media. It's produced by Morgan Debonne and me
Well Lucas, with addigital production support by Kate McDonald, Saarah
(33:55):
Urgan and Jada McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis
in Love Beach learn more about my guess the tech
this shop is an innovators at afrotech dot Com. Video
version this episode will drop to Black Tech Green Money
on YouTube. She'll tap it in Enjoy your Black Tech Green Money,
Share us to somebody, go get your money.
Speaker 2 (34:12):
He in Love
Host
Will Lucas
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