Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, ba fam, It's time for another Holla
Speaker 1: Back Monday, and this week we're featuring my girl, my friend,
Speaker 1: my like bestie in business, Brandis Daniel. She's the CEO
Speaker 1: and founder of Harlem's Fashion role you've heard of it,
Speaker 1: So we're gonna talk about how Brandis turned her love
Speaker 1: of fashion into her own business literal empire. Okay, she
Speaker 1: just had her annual fashion show and you know who
Speaker 1: was there in Naomi Campbell and the Inner Wintour. She's
Speaker 1: kind of a bigger deal. So if you want to
Speaker 1: figure out how to be a big deals well in business,
Speaker 1: give it a listen. Hey, hey, hey, we're back.
Speaker 2: We're black.
Speaker 1: Brown, We're extra brown today, ambition ambitionous, and.
Speaker 2: We are so brown. We are so black today.
Speaker 1: We blue black because we have somebody amazing in the
Speaker 1: stew today. But before we start, okay, Curls Pop and Mandy,
Speaker 1: did you like your hair?
Speaker 2: Uh?
Speaker 3: Huh no?
Speaker 4: But do you not see what I'm sending you? I
Speaker 4: sent you a picture, but I feel like I need
Speaker 4: to do the fixer upper for the BA fam. This
Speaker 4: is what it's gonna look like. I'm gonna look like
Speaker 4: I'm Miss Rachel's number. Two, because if you don't know
Speaker 4: miss Rachel, then just forget that joke ever happened. But
Speaker 4: I and our guest brain is you'll also see. I
Speaker 4: just made over my son's playroom. I made over my office.
Speaker 4: I fired myself, is what it felt like. I was
Speaker 4: doing the way that I packed up my boxes and
Speaker 4: shoved them to the side of everything I had, like
Speaker 4: in my little space. And I just devoted this to
Speaker 4: my four year old for his birthday. And honestly, it's
Speaker 4: kind of my aesthetic. Like I was like, I'm gonna
Speaker 4: wear pink, so I kind of fit in with.
Speaker 1: The planets in the background. It is preschool teacher approved.
Speaker 1: It's so cute and colorful. And I saw how was navigating.
Speaker 1: Everything is child friendly, so well done.
Speaker 3: I was so excited.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and my wild and crazy idea now they go
Speaker 4: on my TrailO board. I don't have to do every
Speaker 4: single one that floats into my head. But this was
Speaker 4: the big one that I really wanted to achieve. It's
Speaker 4: done now and we can move on and let's see me.
Speaker 1: Well we have well we have she's a mom as well,
Speaker 1: hers as well as little as yours. But I have
Speaker 1: a guest in the stew Today. Her name is Brandis Daniel.
Speaker 1: She has over fifteen years of experience forging brand partnerships
Speaker 1: with Fortune five hundred companies. Well you might know brand
Speaker 1: as best as the founder of hf R Harlem Fashion Row.
Speaker 1: If you are a brown person who loves fashion and.
Speaker 2: You don't know brand is what I mean? Do you
Speaker 2: them under a rock?
Speaker 1: Is it a rock?
Speaker 2: So brandis is amazing?
Speaker 1: Then so there is like before Harlem Fashion Role and
Speaker 1: after Hallan Fashion Role when it comes to black designers
Speaker 1: getting their credit and having access and brandis started Hallan
Speaker 1: Fashion Row to showcase the fact that there are people
Speaker 1: who look like us that are amazing, exquisite talented designers
Speaker 1: that if only given a little spot like could shine
Speaker 1: as well. And so she made her business to do so.
Speaker 1: So she not only has this brand is also as
Speaker 1: a friend of mine.
Speaker 2: But now has it been brandis?
Speaker 3: Oh my goodness, girl, I don't know. Maybe, oh you
Speaker 3: know what I do know?
Speaker 5: Twenty eighteen Okay, we had our very first conversation that
Speaker 5: changed my life.
Speaker 1: So Brandon is also a friend of mine and one
Speaker 1: of our favorite things to do is to walk and
Speaker 1: talk about business and so like you know, because you know,
Speaker 1: I have people in my life that, like, you know,
Speaker 1: these are like friends that you know, we might talk about.
Speaker 1: You know, they call me to ask me about like
Speaker 1: you know, they have kids who are preschool age, you know,
Speaker 1: I have my sisters. And then I have friends who
Speaker 1: are friends in general but also own businesses. So you
Speaker 1: have these really interesting conversations about what's working, what's not working.
Speaker 1: But what I love about my conversations with Brandis is
Speaker 1: then they're holistic conversations. So they're not just what's your
Speaker 1: return on investment? You know, it's if I do this project,
Speaker 1: will I have enough time for family and friends? You know,
Speaker 1: is the juice really worth the squeeze if I navigate
Speaker 1: in this way? How do I really want to show
Speaker 1: up for the people that I work for? And so
Speaker 1: Brandis is amazing at them. So she's really good at business,
Speaker 1: but also really good at showcasing black and brown designers.
Speaker 2: And she is the CEO of two companies, right, So it's.
Speaker 1: Harlem Fashion Row and then Icon three sixty, which is
Speaker 1: a five oh C three nonprofit organization. And so, but
Speaker 1: one of the things that Brandis is really good at
Speaker 1: outside from showcasing black and brown designers. So she has
Speaker 1: a new book that came out recently, Fashion in Color.
Speaker 2: If you are watching an IG.
Speaker 1: Which or to ig but on YouTube YouTube, you should like,
Speaker 1: look how beautiful this is?
Speaker 2: First of all, like this is stunning, not even just studying.
Speaker 2: This is the boss.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: You know, a book is fancy when it comes to
Speaker 1: the box, right, this is one of the right. Look
Speaker 1: it comes out of a box. And then what I
Speaker 1: love about it is that inside the book she's got
Speaker 1: these amazing designers and she has them illustrated right beautifully,
Speaker 1: so and then you get to see their work, you know,
Speaker 1: inside the book, and it's like, right, I know, that's
Speaker 1: why I feel like I'm like, that's literally and this
Speaker 1: is volume one right, so it's a it's in alphabetical order.
Speaker 2: Brandess right, yes, uh huh ye. So look D for
Speaker 2: Dapper Dan.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: If you don't know Dapper Dan, child, you're made from
Speaker 2: the East coast.
Speaker 1: Right, Dapper Dan is the one who used to take
Speaker 1: all the Gucci material and make all these things that
Speaker 1: were not you know, like he made he made Gucci fly. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's just say that she's amazing, right, But there's designers
Speaker 1: that you might not have ever heard of.
Speaker 3: It's like nicole designers. Yeah, I feel now, so you are.
Speaker 3: This is our collaboration that we just did with Abercrombie
Speaker 3: and Fitch.
Speaker 2: So brand is really low. So I'll give you some examples.
Speaker 2: When when Lebron James came out with sneakers for women, right,
Speaker 2: and he was like, I want a black woman designer.
Speaker 2: Who do you think?
Speaker 1: They reached out to brandis and so it was Kimberly
Speaker 1: who made the sneakers.
Speaker 2: Brandis who was that?
Speaker 5: It was Kimberly Golds and Feno Ale and Andre Duncan
Speaker 5: mm hmm.
Speaker 3: And so people out quickness.
Speaker 2: Sneakers sold down right.
Speaker 1: So when brands are like, hey, I want to do
Speaker 1: a thing, but I especially want to showcase black designers
Speaker 1: and brown designers, they come to She's the only game
Speaker 1: of town. They come to brandis, right, she'd be me
Speaker 1: here with Anna Wintour. My friend is fancy y'all. Like
Speaker 1: one time Tracy was like, isn't it crazy that brandis
Speaker 1: is like your friend.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm a big deal too. Don't blame me
Speaker 2: hiring your sister as.
Speaker 1: Honestly just has an amazing track record, and brandis is
Speaker 1: one of British and Mandy.
Speaker 2: You will really appreciate this. She is one of the
Speaker 2: best executors.
Speaker 1: That I have ever met, because Mandy is an amazing
Speaker 1: executor as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Manny, you'll be like Thrones execution, but.
Speaker 1: No, you be like Mandy Blue Green Dog. She's like
Speaker 1: got it, Like look what's behind her. She's like, Mandy
Speaker 1: is an executor. And so I'm not not so much,
Speaker 1: but so I love that I get to be bookend
Speaker 1: by two amazing executors. So I just want to welcome
Speaker 1: Brandon to the podcast and we're just so happy to
Speaker 1: have you here and Ana, So first.
Speaker 3: Of all, I'm just going to take you wherever I go.
Speaker 5: To My introductions was thank you so much, Tiffany. I
Speaker 5: feel like I'm in like the Brown Ambition living room
Speaker 5: right now.
Speaker 3: So thank you guys for welcoming me into your home.
Speaker 4: Oh we hope it's nice and cozy and you already
Speaker 4: feel like fam I can almost smell what your apartment
Speaker 4: or your your your home probably smells like right now.
Speaker 3: I know it's scented. I know it's something seasonal.
Speaker 4: I know you get the really luxury candles that you
Speaker 4: know that people are into. I just know it smells
Speaker 4: good there and yeah anyway, but she still yeah, okay,
Speaker 4: it's really topeak to you.
Speaker 3: I am. I am less familiar with Harlem Fashion Row.
Speaker 3: I want to know.
Speaker 4: I kind of want to start from the beginning of
Speaker 4: how did you how did you create Harlem Fashion Row,
Speaker 4: and then talk about what it actually is. I know
Speaker 4: it as Oh, if I want to find out you
Speaker 4: know about multicultural black designers, brown designers, I can find
Speaker 4: like your book for example. But the business of it,
Speaker 4: I'm fascinated by how that's been going.
Speaker 5: So you guys, you know what's funny, Mandy. When I
Speaker 5: first started at HFR, I had no idea. I was
Speaker 5: starting a business, no idea.
Speaker 3: So it was the idea was I want to do
Speaker 3: a fashion show in Harlem. That was it.
Speaker 5: So me and my friends were throwing events in Harlem.
Speaker 5: We were doing Harlem brunches. We used to host something
Speaker 5: called the Hotest Harlem House Party, and and so we
Speaker 5: were doing events and so I was like, you know what,
Speaker 5: I haven't seen a really dope fashion event in Harlem.
Speaker 3: And that was where it started.
Speaker 5: And then as I started working on this idea, I
Speaker 5: started to think, like, Okay, this is something bigger.
Speaker 3: I don't know what it is.
Speaker 5: As a matter of fact, I still have my journal
Speaker 5: from the year I started, which was two thousand and seven.
Speaker 5: I got the original journal downstairs, and in that journal
Speaker 5: there were several times where I wrote, this is so much.
Speaker 3: Bigger than me. I don't know what this is. It's
Speaker 3: so much bigger than me.
Speaker 5: And the second year we did the fashion show, I
Speaker 5: started looking for black designers.
Speaker 3: I couldn't find them.
Speaker 5: Started going down department store websites, because of course.
Speaker 3: They would be in our favorite department stores, right wrong.
Speaker 5: Going down the list of designers and realized that less
Speaker 5: than one percent of the designers that were on these
Speaker 5: major department stores where.
Speaker 3: I shot my mom shop, my sister's shop were black designers.
Speaker 5: And then I went and I was like, okay, let
Speaker 5: me go do some research. The only place I knew
Speaker 5: to go was the USNS, And I was like, how
Speaker 5: much are we spending a year on apparel? Because maybe
Speaker 5: we're not spending what I think we are. In two
Speaker 5: thousand and seven, we were spending twenty two billion dollars
Speaker 5: a year.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, wait a minute.
Speaker 5: We're spending twenty two billion dollars a year as people
Speaker 5: of color. However, we represent less than one percent of
Speaker 5: the designers that are sold in major department stores. And
Speaker 5: you know, I feel like sometimes your passion is in
Speaker 5: that place where you're so irritated that you're.
Speaker 3: Just like, I gotta do This is just stupid. I'm
Speaker 3: trying to think of another word but the vision, but
Speaker 3: this is insane. What do you mean?
Speaker 5: We're less than one percent, but we're spending all this money.
Speaker 5: And for me that was really the catalyst too. I
Speaker 5: don't know what this is going to be, but I
Speaker 5: know I have to do something. I have to be
Speaker 5: a part of the solution. And that was really kind
Speaker 5: of the launch pad for Harlem's Fashion Row. I didn't
Speaker 5: realize it was going to be a business until years
Speaker 5: later when I had a coach who said, please don't
Speaker 5: start a nonprofit.
Speaker 3: We have enough non profits that are broke. We need
Speaker 3: more successful businesses.
Speaker 5: He said, once your business become successful, then you start
Speaker 5: a nonprofit.
Speaker 3: So that was really how the business was born. I
Speaker 3: love that piece of advice too.
Speaker 4: It almost feels like if a woman comes up with
Speaker 4: the idea, people's initial thought is it could be a
Speaker 4: nonprofit because it's huge yeah, it's usually something that is
Speaker 4: servicing or you know, it has that element of it's
Speaker 4: good for us, not just me, like you said, and
Speaker 4: people want to slap a nonprofit label on it and
Speaker 4: be like, okay, go beg for money now. Okay, So
Speaker 4: talk about how did you You didn't know it was
Speaker 4: a business. Clearly you had some coaching.
Speaker 3: We love that.
Speaker 4: So talk about that transition from idea to it's happening
Speaker 4: to okay, let's turn a profit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's my My road was longer than most.
Speaker 5: Mandy, I like don't even like to say this out loud,
Speaker 5: but I think it's really important that I'm honest. It
Speaker 5: took us, really, it took us until about year ten
Speaker 5: for me to actually realize. I was like, okay, this
Speaker 5: is a business and I have to like really treat
Speaker 5: it as such. We were having brand partnerships, but at
Speaker 5: the time, again, my mindset wasn't around profitability. My mindset
Speaker 5: was very much I just want to cover my cost
Speaker 5: that was my goal. And I used to actually say
Speaker 5: that out loud, like I just want to cover my cost.
Speaker 5: If I cover my costs, I'm good, and don't ask
Speaker 5: me how I'm good. If I cover my costs because
Speaker 5: I didn't have.
Speaker 3: A yeah, what were you doing? Also, on top of it, George,
Speaker 3: I had a nine are right?
Speaker 5: I had a nine to five for the first five years,
Speaker 5: But after that I was really struggling, and me being
Speaker 5: in this mindset of I just want to cover my
Speaker 5: cost was really putting my family at risk, It was
Speaker 5: putting me at risk, It.
Speaker 3: Was causing tention in my marriage. It was just really,
Speaker 3: really tough.
Speaker 5: Twenty nineteen was a really hard year for us, and
Speaker 5: going into twenty twenty, I said to my assistant, we're
Speaker 5: to close a million dollars in business for twenty twenty.
Speaker 5: And the reason I said earlier that, like my talks
Speaker 5: with Tiffany really changed my mindset and changed my life,
Speaker 5: is because she made me start looking at millions as
Speaker 5: if they were thousands, and so I actually started to think, oh,
Speaker 5: this is possible for me. And that year twenty twenty
Speaker 5: ended up being our best year because we went so
Speaker 5: hard with brand partnerships at the end of twenty nineteen.
Speaker 3: To set us up for twenty twenty, and thank.
Speaker 5: God we did, yeah, because who knew the pandemic was coming.
Speaker 5: But when the pandemic came, I was sitting with you know,
Speaker 5: we didn't make that goal. I think we got like
Speaker 5: to seven hundred and fifty thousand, but I didn't make
Speaker 5: a million. But I was sitting with seven hundred and fifty
Speaker 5: thousand dollars of contracts in my hand, which was a
Speaker 5: game changer for us.
Speaker 3: And what what do you do with those contracts? Like
Speaker 3: what is it? What's the business arm of HFR.
Speaker 5: So the business arm of HFR, we really act as
Speaker 5: an agency almost like a bridge where we're can connecting
Speaker 5: designers of color with brands, and so we do that
Speaker 5: through events and that model is brands actually sponsor our event,
Speaker 5: So that's the revenue model for that. We do that
Speaker 5: through collaborations which I'm wearing the Nicole benefitl Abercrombie and Fitch.
Speaker 5: So if you go to Abercrombie and Fitch's website right
Speaker 5: now and type in Harlem's Fashion Row, you'll see the
Speaker 5: products there. If you go to American Doll, I think
Speaker 5: American Girl, I think we're still in there and type
Speaker 5: in Harlem's.
Speaker 3: Fashion Row, you will see outfits there. So we I know,
Speaker 3: so do you guys?
Speaker 4: The reason that Target does those things now with designers
Speaker 4: that capsule collections.
Speaker 3: Is that what they're called, they do capsule collections. I
Speaker 3: don't know. I can't take that credit.
Speaker 5: Because they've been doing it for a long They've been
Speaker 5: doing it for a long long time.
Speaker 3: Wait before us.
Speaker 4: Okay, I thought that was like post twenty twenty, or
Speaker 4: maybe it just came to my attention after twenty twenty.
Speaker 3: But I think you started to seeing more black designers Mandy. Yeah,
Speaker 3: they've been doing it for a long time.
Speaker 2: But I think.
Speaker 1: No Isaac Jack was the first one. You remember because
Speaker 1: it was a big deal because he was this big
Speaker 1: time designer and people were like, why would you be
Speaker 1: in Target? Because I have still some of the dresses
Speaker 1: from that collection.
Speaker 4: Yeah, now I remember, yes, but they switched, Okay, that's right.
Speaker 3: Now, they got the having more black designers.
Speaker 5: It was Christopher John Rogers, than it was at Berdio Hudson,
Speaker 5: and then it was Pheno l So we do we
Speaker 5: do collaborations events, and then we do pipeline programs with
Speaker 5: HBCUs where we pair brands up with HBCU Fashion Department.
Speaker 5: So we've got six of those going right now with
Speaker 5: Tiffany and Cole Levi's Coach American Eagle saxophth Avenue just
Speaker 5: did one, and I feel like there's.
Speaker 4: We're basically the fashion industry's black friend, is what you're saying.
Speaker 2: Yes, I was just.
Speaker 4: Listening to Leslie's Leslie Jones's audiobook in the car had
Speaker 4: just started it, and the forewords by Chris Jones. Chris Jones,
Speaker 4: Chris Rock. Leslie Jones is from SNL. She's a huge
Speaker 4: comic and he was that for the comedy industry. He's
Speaker 4: like when people when Lord Michaels wanted to know who's black,
Speaker 4: female and funny, he texted me because of the backlash
Speaker 4: against SNL. So that's immediately what I thought of when
Speaker 4: just you were describing the mission and the work that
Speaker 4: you're doing. It's so necessary. I don't mean to trivialize
Speaker 4: it at all because it's so crucial. But you found
Speaker 4: this great gap in the marketplace. Fashion industry literally needed
Speaker 4: a black friend and here you are.
Speaker 2: So is that how you got to the book?
Speaker 3: Like that? And I'm like, I don't want that, man, Is.
Speaker 2: That how you got to the book?
Speaker 3: Right? Like?
Speaker 2: How? What?
Speaker 5: So?
Speaker 2: You you know?
Speaker 1: So you are this connector right of the main fashion
Speaker 1: industry and in black brands, right so is that, Like,
Speaker 1: how did the book come about? Because that's something that
Speaker 1: seems totally different than what you were doing before.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So one of the things that I thought was really
Speaker 5: important is for us to preserve our history and fashion.
Speaker 3: I've always felt like, man, we need to tell our stories.
Speaker 5: We need to make sure that there is something that's
Speaker 5: left behind for like the next generation. So when I say,
Speaker 5: around year two of HFR was when I started really
Speaker 5: digging into Okay, not okay, this is an issue we're
Speaker 5: less than one percent.
Speaker 3: I'm like why, Like what happened?
Speaker 5: Like were there are no black designers in the seventies
Speaker 5: and the sixties and the fifties, Like what's going on?
Speaker 5: And I started buying all of these books, discovered this woman,
Speaker 5: Lauris Alexander Lane, who created the Black Fashion Museum and
Speaker 5: the Harlem Institute of Fashion. She wrote the only book
Speaker 5: that basically chronicles and provides information on black designers.
Speaker 3: That written in nineteen eighty two.
Speaker 5: There had not been a book written since then that
Speaker 5: specifically highlights black designers, not one. And I kept kind
Speaker 5: of waiting like, Oh, somebody's going to come out with that.
Speaker 3: Somebody's going to come something, you know, and it just
Speaker 3: never happened. And then I was somebody.
Speaker 5: And then the thing that really I think lit my
Speaker 5: fire was I walked into a bookstore over by my
Speaker 5: offices and I'm looking at this bookstore and I'm like
Speaker 5: so excited because I see this book called Fashion Legends.
Speaker 3: So I pull it off.
Speaker 5: The bookshelf and I'm so excited and I'm going through
Speaker 5: and it's a to z and there's one black designer
Speaker 5: in there, and I was just, I mean, y'all the
Speaker 5: way that we become so angry it Olivier the Olivier Resting,
Speaker 5: the creative director of Ballmain.
Speaker 3: Who wrote the foreword for this book and so incredible.
Speaker 5: I know, it's an amazing and so he the only
Speaker 5: one in the book, and.
Speaker 3: I was it made me so angry.
Speaker 5: I put it up at the top of my desk
Speaker 5: and I was like, I'm just going to keep this
Speaker 5: right here so that every morning I come in, I'm
Speaker 5: going to be angry enough to go I got to
Speaker 5: do something about this. And so that's really how the
Speaker 5: book came about. It's kind of like the next phase
Speaker 5: for us as media. So we just launched a fashion
Speaker 5: and color show, a podcast, and a YouTube show. And
Speaker 5: now we've got the book, the Fashion and Color Book,
Speaker 5: and so really it's like, now how do we I've
Speaker 5: worked so closely with the industry and brands and designers.
Speaker 5: Now I'm like, I really want to meet the people now,
Speaker 5: like you want to actually go to the people. And
Speaker 5: so that's that's where we're at. Now, that's what the
Speaker 5: book is all about.
Speaker 1: Brands does what so many black and brown women do
Speaker 1: they drop that heat like like everybody's just be doing it.
Speaker 2: They don't. So one look at this book. I told
Speaker 2: you the book comes with its own case. It's amazing.
Speaker 2: And the fact is.
Speaker 1: That Branda doesn't have just some little pot cast her show,
Speaker 1: No go follow Brandes's.
Speaker 2: What's your ig?
Speaker 3: Brandon Daniel if you.
Speaker 2: If you see this quote unquote, it's just a little show.
Speaker 2: It ain't a little show.
Speaker 1: First of all, Brandon shows up wearing a black designer
Speaker 1: in every show. The set looks like, okay, Oprah, we
Speaker 1: see you now the eighties, Oprah. I'm talking about Oprah
Speaker 1: like last year, best set ever, Oprah. And then she's
Speaker 1: interviewing these amazing designers that you're like, how does she
Speaker 1: get isn't.
Speaker 2: That didn't he Yes, yes, and yes.
Speaker 1: So the fact that she's like, oh, something light, that's
Speaker 1: something light for brandess, So I have a non profit.
Speaker 1: Oh and then I introduced the world to black designers.
Speaker 1: Oh and just some Harlem flash were oh and no,
Speaker 1: this is what I mean that she is the master executor.
Speaker 1: Then you know there are some people and I tell
Speaker 1: this to you all the time, Mandy, Right then you know,
Speaker 1: once you decide you're going to do a thing, I
Speaker 1: could lead because you're gonna get it done. That's that
Speaker 1: is just your personality that like, once you've decided on
Speaker 1: the thing, you're gonna get it done. Really, the struggle
Speaker 1: I find with both of you is you don't actually
Speaker 1: have to do all the things. You could leave something
Speaker 1: on your own.
Speaker 4: And I would add to that because I love criticizing myself,
Speaker 4: but we I'll speak for myself. Also, sometimes you're so
Speaker 4: busy doing the thing that you forget to zoom out
Speaker 4: and strategize a lot of ties or like what to create.
Speaker 3: And you know that's to congratulate.
Speaker 1: Yourself, like what you've done is amazing, like for real,
Speaker 1: like zoom out to be like, look what I did.
Speaker 1: This thing in my head I saw a book said hey,
Speaker 1: this doesn't look right. I you know, I realized that
Speaker 1: the last book was in the eighties, and now you've
Speaker 1: you didn't just like this is not some slap together.
Speaker 1: This book is literally brand is like every single picture
Speaker 1: is illustrated beautifully. So you know, and I remember you
Speaker 1: were like you were you delayed it coming now because you're.
Speaker 2: Like, that ain't right, Do it better? Make it better?
Speaker 1: Like so she's making it sound like, you know, like
Speaker 1: Instagram University. How they'd be like, you know, here it
Speaker 1: takes this dollar dollar and make it a million.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: It was so much work and you can see the
Speaker 1: fruit of her labor in the work of how beautiful
Speaker 1: this book is, how intentional she is about including designers
Speaker 1: you know that maybe some that you know very well,
Speaker 1: some that you might have never heard about.
Speaker 2: She is keeping the history of this.
Speaker 1: Part of of of blackness. Like you know, when Brands
Speaker 1: you're no longer here. This will stand the test of
Speaker 1: time when people say, and who were the designers in
Speaker 1: this time? It's because of you that we're going to
Speaker 1: be able to say, Oh, not only do I get
Speaker 1: to read it in the book, I get to watch.
Speaker 2: It on the show.
Speaker 5: So first of all, Tiffany, all right, fine, I'm gonna stop.
Speaker 3: Be careful.
Speaker 5: I know, I'm like, you know, it's so it's so
Speaker 5: hard because you're just in it and you're doing it,
Speaker 5: and even listening to you, I like felt myself getting
Speaker 5: emotional just listening to you because.
Speaker 3: You're just I'm just doing the stuff that I feel
Speaker 3: like needs to be out in the world.
Speaker 5: And when I think about black designers, you know, we
Speaker 5: work with black and LATINX designers, but when I think
Speaker 5: about them, I feel like they should be framed a
Speaker 5: certain way.
Speaker 3: And so even you know, when we came up with
Speaker 3: the first book, which.
Speaker 5: I have with me I'm showing when we did the
Speaker 5: first book, you know, it was nice and I was like,
Speaker 5: this is okay, but it just I was like, this
Speaker 5: isn't it. I can't put this out in the world
Speaker 5: because every time we put something out in the world
Speaker 5: that frames designers of color is not about HFR right,
Speaker 5: it's so the frame has to be right. And so
Speaker 5: in this new one, you know, we actually found an artist.
Speaker 5: She used to volunteer with HFR back in the day.
Speaker 5: Her name is Ashley Buttercup and she actually these are
Speaker 5: actually the original paintings that were scanned into the book.
Speaker 5: So we have an original painting for every last one
Speaker 5: of these. Like I'd say to people all the time,
Speaker 5: like get the book, get to cut out the pictures
Speaker 5: and frame them like it's.
Speaker 2: It's a prince.
Speaker 3: Beautiful artwork.
Speaker 4: It's beautiful art and additional product you can add to
Speaker 4: the website wherever these are sold. Just want the Prince
Speaker 4: here you go. Also an incredible contract for Ashley. Also,
Speaker 4: what a delicious name, Like I just want to save
Speaker 4: that for when I write a novel.
Speaker 3: She just like, I don't know, but she is actually.
Speaker 4: To get her that opportunity as well. It is just
Speaker 4: so in line with the work that you're doing. That's amazing.
Speaker 3: It was. It was dope.
Speaker 5: So since she did this book, she's actually been commissioned
Speaker 5: by the Renaissance Hotel in Harlem to do paintings for
Speaker 5: them because they saw the book at the fashion show.
Speaker 2: Look at that.
Speaker 3: So you know, I love.
Speaker 5: It when just like you know, loves women make everything bad,
Speaker 5: just say that Black women make everything. Let me tell you,
Speaker 5: you know, like we had seasoning and so like Troy
Speaker 5: from Earnier Lizer always says saw sold separately, Yeah, we
Speaker 5: you know, we bring that sauce and so like the
Speaker 5: fact that you have pictures commissioned like that is another
Speaker 5: level of excellence.
Speaker 1: You know, people don't go that extra mile, but it's
Speaker 1: that's why you're here. For some of you might be
Speaker 1: listening and saying, why hasn't something X y Z happened
Speaker 1: for me? Sometimes it's not just the work, it's the
Speaker 1: extra mile, like for bretdis to have picked I mean,
Speaker 1: there are all of these paintings in here. You could
Speaker 1: have easily been like, we're not doing all that. That's
Speaker 1: too much work to have someone paint each designer. And
Speaker 1: I know because you told me that you would not
Speaker 1: put the painting in the book unless the designer said
Speaker 1: I like it.
Speaker 3: No, they all had to sign off.
Speaker 5: I have a signature for every designer had to sign off,
Speaker 5: including Olivier from Paumain had to say this is approved.
Speaker 1: So imagine all the creatives and how long that must
Speaker 1: have taken. That extra mile is why you where you
Speaker 1: are where you are, and that's why this book is
Speaker 1: so beautiful. Literally, it's on my coffee table. I had
Speaker 1: to run before. I had to run down and come
Speaker 1: back up because I keep it on my coffee table,
Speaker 1: because it's really of this book that I want.
Speaker 2: When people come in, they're like, oh, what's this.
Speaker 1: I'm like, it's my friend, I love it.
Speaker 4: Are you going to be in that fancy store in
Speaker 4: flat Iron? Do you know what I'm talking in the
Speaker 4: Flat Iron district?
Speaker 5: I know exactly what story you're talking about.
Speaker 4: I mean, yeah, yes, I just googled it. But I'm
Speaker 4: not going to pretend like I knew it before I
Speaker 4: googled it. Yeah, I'm like, you always.
Speaker 5: Got well actually produced the book, and since we produced
Speaker 5: this one ourselves, well we'll see.
Speaker 3: I want to hear about about She.
Speaker 1: Was in the front of Macy's Okay, the flagship store
Speaker 1: in New York. I don't know if it was it
Speaker 1: was a week that it came out, right, brand is right,
Speaker 1: and we all came by and she was like, let's
Speaker 1: walk around the corner to the flagship Macy's Blackship meaning like.
Speaker 3: The first the like the most thanks Giving parade.
Speaker 2: I mean it was not.
Speaker 1: Only the book, it was they had these huge screens
Speaker 1: of the inside of the book. I mean, how are
Speaker 1: you in front of Macy's. Like that's what I'm just saying, But.
Speaker 2: It's all here like just something like, you know, just nothing.
Speaker 2: It's nothing over here.
Speaker 3: You know what's crazy about that?
Speaker 5: So once I said we weren't going to do the
Speaker 5: first book, Macy's kept reaching out to us to tell
Speaker 5: us that they really wanted to feature HFR and their
Speaker 5: windows for Black History Month. I kept telling my team,
Speaker 5: we don't have anything, like tell Macy's we have nothing, right,
Speaker 5: which is crazy, but I'm like, if I'm gonna be
Speaker 5: in the windows of Macy's, it needs to be significant.
Speaker 5: I'm not just gonna put anything in there. And then
Speaker 5: my team kept meeting with Macy's and I kept saying,
Speaker 5: why what are you guys talking about when you meet,
Speaker 5: because we don't have anything.
Speaker 3: And finally, you know, somebody from my team was like,
Speaker 3: what about the book.
Speaker 5: I was like, there was no way that book is
Speaker 5: going to be ready in time for Black Issue Month.
Speaker 5: A week go by and everything on my spirit is like,
Speaker 5: Branda's do it.
Speaker 3: It's going to be crazy, just do it.
Speaker 5: And so we did it and it was crazy, and
Speaker 5: I worked over all the holidays.
Speaker 3: We had a conference call on Christmas Eve.
Speaker 5: It was bananas and nuts and Ashley had to paint
Speaker 5: her little heart out.
Speaker 3: But one time. What was the timeline?
Speaker 5: It was it was like six weeks for us to
Speaker 5: get basically all of this.
Speaker 3: For us to redo this book.
Speaker 5: And do the new one, Ashley had to crank out
Speaker 5: like one or two paintings a day, which she said
Speaker 5: she's never done in her life.
Speaker 3: She was like, I was like, how did you do this?
Speaker 3: And she said, Branda's I don't know. Something came over me.
Speaker 5: And the funny thing is, as our team was working
Speaker 5: on it, like I cannot explain it, it was like
Speaker 5: we were in this army marching towards the same goal.
Speaker 5: There was no bickering, no hostility. It was I don't know,
Speaker 5: it was just something bigger than us. And sometimes you
Speaker 5: know that happens when you're working on something that's bigger
Speaker 5: than you.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 5: I feel like you start to get like this drive
Speaker 5: and there are gonna be moments where you're like, oh
Speaker 5: my gosh, should I be doing this? This is I
Speaker 5: don't even know if we can find a printer to
Speaker 5: print the book. But I just feel like, you know,
Speaker 5: I feel like that's how HFR started.
Speaker 3: I didn't know what I was doing. That was how
Speaker 3: Brand Partnership started.
Speaker 5: I didn't know how to do brand partnerships, and our
Speaker 5: first partner was Target, you know, and so it's.
Speaker 3: Like sometimes you just have to I say, Cliff jumps.
Speaker 5: Sometimes you just have to go and you really have
Speaker 5: to have faith that if I.
Speaker 3: Put forth the work on my end, that is all
Speaker 3: going to work out.
Speaker 4: So you produced it yourself. So first you created this book.
Speaker 4: How much did you sink into that book? And then say, okay,
Speaker 4: we're gon, we're gonna keep working on this. And then
Speaker 4: when you got the Macy's deal, like you were you
Speaker 4: literally were printing your own book book like getting doing
Speaker 4: all the work of a publisher, all the work of
Speaker 4: a publisher.
Speaker 3: Well this isn't like publishing on Amazon. This is like,
Speaker 3: well you're creating a bit book. Yeah.
Speaker 5: We had to call one hundred printers in order to
Speaker 5: find one that could print because the top of it
Speaker 5: is metallic. It was a certain quality that we wanted.
Speaker 5: So there's like a finish.
Speaker 3: On here that feels almost sattin.
Speaker 5: There are so many different things that we wanted that
Speaker 5: it was hard to find. People will go, we can
Speaker 5: do it, but we can't do the metallic. We can
Speaker 5: do this, but we can't do that. And so yeah,
Speaker 5: we have to find all the things and we work
Speaker 5: with mind Matters, which is a small black owned publishing
Speaker 5: company too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know we lifting.
Speaker 1: I just love that and like you know, your your
Speaker 1: determination to lift.
Speaker 2: As you climb, you know, like because it could be.
Speaker 1: Easy to be like, well we'll just do this, It's
Speaker 1: like no, O, where we can find There has to
Speaker 1: be someone of color that can do this thing. Like
Speaker 1: you know, I can't say this is the mission and
Speaker 1: then abandoned the mission. You know that's huge, Like, look
Speaker 1: what you've done for you know, for Ashley as a result,
Speaker 1: you know, this exposure.
Speaker 2: And so I just love that.
Speaker 1: So what so where I know you and I always
Speaker 1: talking about, like you know, the direction of like where
Speaker 1: you want to go into and so where do you see?
Speaker 1: So you know you have Harlem Fashion role, you have
Speaker 1: your nonprofit. You know you I know for a fact
Speaker 1: that you've been teaching people how to get their own sponsorships.
Speaker 1: You've taught a class to my you know, my company
Speaker 1: brands came in and solved it a lot about how
Speaker 1: to like about because we want to do more, you know,
Speaker 1: we want to align ourselves with the brands that we
Speaker 1: like even more and so like, what's next? So you
Speaker 1: have this book that people can purchase like where, and
Speaker 1: I also know that you have it's an HFR dot
Speaker 1: co where if you're looking for a black designer.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have HFR and co.
Speaker 5: And then I just released this book to help people
Speaker 5: who want to do brand partnerships.
Speaker 3: So it's small business, big partnerships. And where I.
Speaker 5: See myself personally going is doing more coaching, doing more
Speaker 5: teaching people. The number one question I get is how
Speaker 5: do you get big brands.
Speaker 3: To partner with you?
Speaker 5: Like, hands down, no matter what I'm doing, people want
Speaker 5: to know what does that look like and how does
Speaker 5: that work? And so that is really what I'm diving
Speaker 5: into personally. HFR is going into the media space. So
Speaker 5: we talked about the show, but I want.
Speaker 3: To teach more. I have not really leaned into.
Speaker 5: I'm very inspirational on Instagram, so you follow me, there's like,
Speaker 5: you know, tons of inspiration, but I really want to
Speaker 5: lean into the teacher in me. I want to lean
Speaker 5: into the person who can really help people, you know,
Speaker 5: work through some of these ideas that they have and
Speaker 5: how do they bring them to light and then how
Speaker 5: do they work with really large brands to help them
Speaker 5: basically amplify their ideas, because there is nothing like partnering.
Speaker 3: Like when we partner with Nike and Lebron James.
Speaker 5: That skyrocketed our business, our reputation, our visibility.
Speaker 3: That sneaker.
Speaker 5: God, I believe it was seven billion press impressions, So
Speaker 5: that means I mean Nike had really not seen those numbers.
Speaker 3: They were just like, this is insane. Wow.
Speaker 5: And so when you get those kind of numbers, you
Speaker 5: get those by working with or by collaboration and partnerships.
Speaker 5: And people think that it's harder than what it is,
Speaker 5: but it really is, you know, having the right deck,
Speaker 5: understanding your why, being able to communicate your why, understanding
Speaker 5: what value you can bring to the company, and communicating
Speaker 5: that well, and it opens so many doors.
Speaker 3: How long are we allowed to have this episode go on?
Speaker 2: Well, don't forget Mandy.
Speaker 1: We are gonna have Brandy is actually gonna stay for
Speaker 1: our Friday episode VIAQA. So even as we wrap, like
Speaker 1: know that she's going to stay on and answer some
Speaker 1: business questions.
Speaker 3: About for questions because I hate our question.
Speaker 4: Sorry, I have been mentally cataloging seventeen thousand questions to
Speaker 4: ask you. I haven't asked the simplest one yet. What
Speaker 4: were you doing before Harlem Fashion Bro? What's your background
Speaker 4: in in terms of the skills you were bringing to HFR.
Speaker 5: So, I was working in apparel production, so everything that
Speaker 5: it takes. If you look at the back your back
Speaker 5: label and you see like it's made in somewhere, you know,
Speaker 5: I was the one who was handling that production at
Speaker 5: the factory for a company that worked with Victoria's Secret.
Speaker 3: So I worked on I didn't work for Victoria's Secret.
Speaker 5: I worked for the vendor that Victoria's Secret bought from,
Speaker 5: and I handle all our peril production out of Indonesia
Speaker 5: and Sri Lanka.
Speaker 4: Okay, So you were in like the you were in
Speaker 4: the bones of the fashion industry, like this is how
Speaker 4: the sausage is made sort of on that side, okay,
Speaker 4: very glamorous part man. Yeah, I just picture like the
Speaker 4: factories with the bedazzled push up bras, just like you know, and.
Speaker 3: I love that.
Speaker 2: At all.
Speaker 3: And I'm from Memphis, right, yep, I'm from Memphis.
Speaker 5: And so before that, I was working as a I
Speaker 5: was an associate buyer for Catherines.
Speaker 1: Okay, well, brand as you are an inspiration not just
Speaker 1: to me and Mandy, but to so many people who
Speaker 1: are going to listen and think like wow, like you know,
Speaker 1: we are capable of more.
Speaker 2: Than sometimes we give ourselves credit for.
Speaker 1: My final question is like for those people who are
Speaker 1: struggling with execution, because to me, that's the that's the
Speaker 1: thing that I'm always most impressed about when it comes
Speaker 1: to you, is that you know, you don't just have
Speaker 1: an idea. A lot of people are ideas people, but
Speaker 1: you know how to see something through all the way
Speaker 1: through the execution. And so like, what are some things
Speaker 1: that folks who are struggling with execution? What are some
Speaker 1: ways to start to build that muscle, you know, if
Speaker 1: they want to start to execute better.
Speaker 5: So I would I would announce like we're having an
Speaker 5: event this date, and then I would have to then
Speaker 5: figure out how to do that. But I would basically
Speaker 5: set a deadline, make the deadline public, and bring in
Speaker 5: some accountability if you do that, quite frankly, like you will.
Speaker 2: Execute, Okay, set a deadline.
Speaker 3: Okay, set a deadline, make it public, make your dead
Speaker 3: aunt it, announce it.
Speaker 2: I'm literally taking notes.
Speaker 1: I'm like make because when I say people, I mean me.
Speaker 2: I'm not the worst executor, but I could be better.
Speaker 3: If you're amazing executor.
Speaker 1: No, I'm just good at like and you know, like
Speaker 1: get my team together to be like. So this is
Speaker 1: look we going to do as a you part of it,
Speaker 1: that's part of it.
Speaker 2: Okay, settle deadline, make it public, but said make it public.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And if the people want to follow you, they
Speaker 1: want to get your books, where can they do that?
Speaker 5: Yeah, if you want to follow me, you can go
Speaker 5: to at Branded Daniel. You can go to Brandisdaniel dot com.
Speaker 5: That's where you can get my book Small Business, Big
Speaker 5: Partnerships if you're interested in building partnerships with brands.
Speaker 3: And then if you.
Speaker 5: Want the Fashion and Color book, you can go to
Speaker 5: Harlem's Fashion Road dot com and you can get the
Speaker 5: book from there.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Branded all right bye.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, guys, wasn't that just so awesome? Wasn't
Speaker 1: brand It's just amazing? What a fun trip down memory lane? Okay,
Speaker 1: so make sure that you never missed any of our trips. Right,
Speaker 1: every Monday, every Wednesday, and every Friday, we are here
Speaker 1: be a fam in the stew for you