Speaker 1: Hello from the dark Side.
Speaker 2: Just kidding you, guys, it's still the bright Side. It's
Speaker 2: April Fool's Day.
Speaker 3: Hello Sunshine, It's definitely still the bright Side. And today
Speaker 3: we're talking to business bestie's Valerie Emmanuel and Rebecca Capudo.
Speaker 3: They're the two moms behind the period care company Riffcare
Speaker 3: and two of the stars in the Roku series Side
Speaker 3: Hustlers and later, Simone and I are going to take
Speaker 3: our relationship to a whole new level with a game
Speaker 3: of two truths and a lie.
Speaker 1: It's Monday, April First. I'm Simone Boyce and.
Speaker 3: I'm Danielle Robey. This is the bright Side from Hello Sunshine.
Speaker 1: D what's going on? How is your weekend?
Speaker 3: I mean, I've had Beyonce on my mind all weekend.
Speaker 3: I feel like we don't even have time to catch up.
Speaker 1: We have to just get into it. I think you're right.
Speaker 1: Should we just get into it?
Speaker 3: Hmm?
Speaker 2: Okay, of course we're talking about Beyonce's new album, Cowboy Carter.
Speaker 2: It's been out for three days. But y'all, this is
Speaker 2: more than an album. This is a genre bending, genre
Speaker 2: blending odyssey. Now, Danielle, I know that we both grew
Speaker 2: up listening to country music. Do any of these songs
Speaker 2: have you in a choke hold right now?
Speaker 3: First of all, the whole album is exquisite, and I
Speaker 3: haven't said that about a full album in so long.
Speaker 3: I have three major favorite tracks, and the first one
Speaker 3: I have to preface because I actually sang growing up,
Speaker 3: and for my first recital, I chose the Dixie Chick
Speaker 3: song Earl had to Die, and my mom wanted to
Speaker 3: die in the seat watching me because she was like,
Speaker 3: why did you choose this man hating song?
Speaker 1: But I really love a Delulu revenge fantasy. I cannot
Speaker 1: help it. So I have to call out Jolene.
Speaker 3: I love that Beyonce is bringing it to the next generation.
Speaker 3: And I also love the Miley Cyrus collab. I thought
Speaker 3: that was so beautiful.
Speaker 1: You did two.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those two that you just mentioned, those are up
Speaker 2: in my top three for sure.
Speaker 3: My only last one that I want to call out
Speaker 3: is sixteen Carriages, and she put that out early on
Speaker 3: as one of the singles. But it is so gorgeous,
Speaker 3: like it makes me cry in my car.
Speaker 1: It's so good. I love Blackbird.
Speaker 2: I think I love the nostalgia element that she's infusing
Speaker 2: this album with I mean, these are the the classic
Speaker 2: rock yacht rock country music songs that I grew up
Speaker 2: listening to, And I mean, she's just she's really not
Speaker 2: tiptoeing around here. She's totally declaring a rebirth of the genre.
Speaker 3: It's interesting you say tiptoeing because I usually think that
Speaker 3: Beyonce says things without saying them, Like she doesn't really
Speaker 3: put captions on her Instagram posts, she doesn't really do interviews.
Speaker 3: To me, She's always spoken through her music, and I
Speaker 3: think you're right, she's really doing that here. I also
Speaker 3: think it's interesting that you brought up Blackbird, because part
Speaker 3: of what I think she's saying without saying is I'm
Speaker 3: here and genre does not matter to me. I will
Speaker 3: inful trait any genre, like it was almost like a
Speaker 3: test and Blackbird's roots John Lennon was really vocal about
Speaker 3: how that song was inspired by the Civil rights movement.
Speaker 3: So I think she's saying something there. I think she's
Speaker 3: saying something on Spaghetti, which features the long absent black
Speaker 3: country singer Linda Martel, and I think that she's she
Speaker 3: never really states it explicitly, but I think she does
Speaker 3: with all the undertones, Like I think it was a
Speaker 3: really strategic and thoughtful album.
Speaker 1: Okay, I actually think she's very explicit here.
Speaker 2: I mean, she's coming out and she's saying I think
Speaker 2: she's calling out the whole country music industry. And I
Speaker 2: think if you look at the first track, American Requiem,
Speaker 2: like if we think about what does that term requiem mean,
Speaker 2: it means an act of remembrance for someone who has passed,
Speaker 2: and it can also mean a piece of music that
Speaker 2: has performed at a service for the dead. So she's
Speaker 2: truly deliberately burying these outdated ideas and she's saying, I'm
Speaker 2: giving you something new, and something new will be born
Speaker 2: from the ashes of this genre and what you thought
Speaker 2: it represented. I think that patriotism is actually something that
Speaker 2: she's addressing here very much. So we talked about how
Speaker 2: it was a deliberate move to feature the flag on
Speaker 2: the cover of the album, which the flag has become
Speaker 2: such a loaded symbol as of late, and I think patriotism,
Speaker 2: the word patriot that as an identity has become really loaded.
Speaker 3: Very and her holding it loudly and proudly says to me,
Speaker 3: this is my America, and that's like something no one's
Speaker 3: doing right now, and Beyonce's music has a way of
Speaker 3: uniting people, and with the explosion of this album on
Speaker 3: social media, I hope that we feel some unity here.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad that you mentioned that you're patriotic, because
Speaker 1: I am too. I'm really patriotic.
Speaker 2: Every fourth of July, I lead my family and friends
Speaker 2: in an a cappella rendition of Lee Greenwoods. God Bless
Speaker 2: the USA. I love this country. I love her, even
Speaker 2: though she's flawed, like this is my home, and lately
Speaker 2: it's been feeling like do I even get to claim
Speaker 2: ownership over that? Because it feels like all these other people,
Speaker 2: these groups that I don't want to associate with, are
Speaker 2: co opting patriotism.
Speaker 1: I agree, I totally agree.
Speaker 2: So I think in the same way that certain groups
Speaker 2: have co opted patriotism, she's rejecting the co opting of
Speaker 2: country music culture because we have black cowboys, we have
Speaker 2: black rodeo queens, we have always had black country music legends.
Speaker 2: And she's saying, listen, black folks, we have always been
Speaker 2: the genre. This genre is rooted in black blues music.
Speaker 1: Mm hmm.
Speaker 3: I think she's very much saying that I agree with
Speaker 3: you and with that I think sometimes we forget this
Speaker 3: is her eighth album. She has this unwavering presence in
Speaker 3: the pop culture zeitgeist and has for over two decades. Like,
Speaker 3: we grew up on Beyonce, and she's one of the
Speaker 3: few artists who when she drops an album, the internet
Speaker 3: and the world stops for a minute. It totally transcends age, genre, race, gender,
Speaker 3: any of it. And so in this moment in our
Speaker 3: country where so many people are craving unity, I actually
Speaker 3: think this album means more to people than just a
Speaker 3: musical album. I actually think it music has the power
Speaker 3: to bring us together, and so I'm looking forward to
Speaker 3: seeing what this album does for people this entire year.
Speaker 2: She brought her daughter Roomy into the track Protector. You
Speaker 2: hear her voice at the beginning of that song, And
Speaker 2: as we're talking about this event, the cultural impact of
Speaker 2: this album, I'm thinking about all the little black and
Speaker 2: brown kids who are growing up in the country or
Speaker 2: in the South who are going to feel protected by
Speaker 2: Beyonce's lyrics. I was once a little curly haired, barefoot
Speaker 2: chick in Tennessee, and I had to have my own
Speaker 2: requiem for my relationship with country music. Because as she's
Speaker 2: talked about I didn't always feel welcome in spaces where
Speaker 2: country music was being played, and I see a huge
Speaker 2: bright side here. I think that this is also a
Speaker 2: past the mic moment, like she is just one voice
Speaker 2: in the music industry, but her voice is so powerful.
Speaker 2: I'm looking ahead and thinking about all the ways that
Speaker 2: this can open up opportunities for black creatives and country music.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this is a legacy moment for her.
Speaker 2: All right, Jelle, Cowboy Carter is out in the world.
Speaker 2: Now do you agree with our take or do you
Speaker 2: have a different one? Send us your thoughts to Hello
Speaker 2: at the bright sidepodcast dot com.
Speaker 3: Now we can talk about Beyonce for this whole podcast,
Speaker 3: but I think the Internet has declared this the year
Speaker 3: of Queen Bee, so we're gonna circle back to her soon.
Speaker 3: But simone, do you ever fight text aka fext Are
Speaker 3: you a fexter?
Speaker 1: I have a history of fexting.
Speaker 2: I am always working on myself, you know, I'm on
Speaker 2: my personal development tip, so I try not to do it,
Speaker 2: but I will say, the urge to fext is strong
Speaker 2: with this one.
Speaker 3: I get it, people have I've been fixting since the
Speaker 3: years of flip phones and Blackberries, but recently the site
Speaker 3: Every Girl looked at fexting in relationships to try and
Speaker 3: determine whether it's beneficial or not.
Speaker 1: So the takeaways were very much as expected.
Speaker 3: Some people say you can't really e gauge tone or
Speaker 3: body language, and then other people say it helps them
Speaker 3: gather their thoughts and respond rationally.
Speaker 1: But you know who's a fixter?
Speaker 3: The first Lady, Doctor Biden, told Harper's Bizarre that she
Speaker 3: and the President fexed get out, yet they do it
Speaker 3: to prevent the Secret Service from knowing about.
Speaker 1: Which I love. This is so juicy. I know, who
Speaker 1: do you fix? Do you fix your husband?
Speaker 2: We don't fix anymore. I have fexted with him. It
Speaker 2: never ends well. I don't think fexting is the pathway
Speaker 2: to a sustainable marriage or romantic relationship.
Speaker 1: So I'm doing better in that department.
Speaker 2: But I will say I have the temptation to fex
Speaker 2: my friends a lot, Like if they do something that
Speaker 2: bothers me, you know, or hurts my feelings, I just,
Speaker 2: you know, a text. This is the problem with texting.
Speaker 2: It's so easy to just fire one off really quickly
Speaker 2: without being really thoughtful about how you're doing it. So
Speaker 2: my solution is to write a draft in my notes
Speaker 2: folder and then just delete it. Like I think the
Speaker 2: act of actually texting it out but not sending it
Speaker 2: to anyone is actually healthy for my brain.
Speaker 3: That send you always regret it. Yes, I have a
Speaker 3: no fexting policy, no matter how much I want to
Speaker 3: do it. But here's the reason that I have a
Speaker 3: no fexting rule. I actually fixed it in the past
Speaker 3: and it just really didn't end well. Tell me, and
Speaker 3: I'm going to tell you the last time I fexed it,
Speaker 3: but I have to warn you that the story is
Speaker 3: going to make me.
Speaker 1: Sound a little nuts. Let's go.
Speaker 3: So I was dating a guy and we were in
Speaker 3: two different cities, and he had work in La so
Speaker 3: I let him stay in my apartment while I was gone.
Speaker 1: I was actually with my dad on the.
Speaker 3: East Coast, and in my apartment, I have a ring
Speaker 3: which is like an alarm system, and part of the
Speaker 3: ring system is motion detectors, and so I could tell
Speaker 3: when he was in and out of my apartment even
Speaker 3: if he didn't set the alarm, And so I would
Speaker 3: kind of look on my phone every so often, like
Speaker 3: where is he is he.
Speaker 1: In the apartment?
Speaker 3: Is he out of the apartment, and on a Friday
Speaker 3: or Saturday night, he was out of the apartment, and
Speaker 3: he was out of the apartment for a long time,
Speaker 3: and then the clock struck midnight and then one am,
Speaker 3: and he wasn't replying to my text messages, but I
Speaker 3: could tell he was out of the apartment.
Speaker 1: So I started fixing, and I got so mad. I
Speaker 1: couldn't help myself, and it just.
Speaker 3: Didn't end well because I ultimately had to admit to
Speaker 3: him I was monitoring him through my ring camera.
Speaker 1: It's not good. And that was the last time you
Speaker 1: ever fixed.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was the last time, because I really felt
Speaker 3: like psycho.
Speaker 1: It was a tiny bit unhinged nunched.
Speaker 3: Anyways, I think the moral of the story is fixting
Speaker 3: doesn't end well.
Speaker 2: Leave fexting to the president and the first lady.
Speaker 3: Are you a psycho like me? Or are you normal
Speaker 3: like Simone? Are you a fexter? Do you have any
Speaker 3: rules around it? Please let us know.
Speaker 4: Chime in.
Speaker 1: I'm dying to hear your thoughts on this.
Speaker 3: Hit us up at hello at the bright Side podcast
Speaker 3: dot com. We'll be right back with a side hustler's
Speaker 3: success story. We're talking to Valimanuel and Rebecca Caputo about
Speaker 3: going from best friends to business partners.
Speaker 1: And we're back talking about Hustlers.
Speaker 2: Our guests, Valemanuel and Rebecca Kuputo are mom's best friends
Speaker 2: and they're also in business together now. A few years ago,
Speaker 2: they each left their day jobs to start the organic
Speaker 2: period care company Riffcare.
Speaker 3: Valen Rebecca join us fresh off this season of the
Speaker 3: new Roku docuseries Side Hustlers. This show is all about
Speaker 3: female entrepreneurs turning their side hustle into their main hustle.
Speaker 3: It's also produced by Hello Sunshine. So Val and Rebecca
Speaker 3: Welcome to the bright Side.
Speaker 5: This is Rebecca's first podcast.
Speaker 1: This is my first first, This is my first podcast.
Speaker 2: Good.
Speaker 1: I love that you guys are best friends.
Speaker 6: Yes, Oh my god, I think it was best friends
Speaker 6: from the get go.
Speaker 2: Okay, can we get into that. Can we get into
Speaker 2: your friendship story a little bit?
Speaker 1: How did you meet? How did you become bessies?
Speaker 6: We actually met at a community picnic in Culver City
Speaker 6: and we were in line getting food and we were
Speaker 6: both complaining honestly about how bad the food was and
Speaker 6: the options, like nothing was vegan, and like they cut
Speaker 6: the watermelon.
Speaker 1: All wrong and so la I know exactly, and we
Speaker 1: just got.
Speaker 6: It, started talking and we honestly fell in love, like instantly.
Speaker 7: Rebecca had a car, We became partners in crime. We
Speaker 7: drove everywhere together. We started going to the club together,
Speaker 7: many dances, like teenage dances.
Speaker 2: You know what's so funny about your story. I've met
Speaker 2: some of my best friends either in lines or bathrooms.
Speaker 2: I feel like that's that's the place you got to go.
Speaker 2: If you're looking for friends, just stand in line and
Speaker 2: start talking exactly. Yeah, I have to say I tried
Speaker 2: your tampons and I think they are fantastic.
Speaker 1: Y'all have that stealthy cotton. What does stealthy cotton mean?
Speaker 1: It was like it was in there. I didn't even
Speaker 1: know it was in there. Like it's really comfortable.
Speaker 5: Yeah. No, I feel like there's itchy.
Speaker 7: There's like itchy, you know, yeah, irritating products, and then
Speaker 7: there's comfortable products. And so when people are always like, oh,
Speaker 7: would you switch, would you pay like a dollar more,
Speaker 7: I'm like, when you feel the difference seventy two hours
Speaker 7: a month, like, come on, you would.
Speaker 1: One thousand percent? Yeah. I have yet to find a
Speaker 1: tampon I.
Speaker 2: Like you got to try theirs. Okay, So we talked
Speaker 2: a little bit about your friendship history. But when did
Speaker 2: you decide to start a business together and why period care?
Speaker 7: The start in the business conversation was kind of random
Speaker 7: with Rebecca. So I had the idea to start a
Speaker 7: reusable period care brand that was made out of hemp
Speaker 7: a few years ago, I think in like twenty nineteen.
Speaker 7: But then I was looking at the market and I
Speaker 7: was like, h the market's not that big. And then
Speaker 7: I tried to trademark the original name, which was Reef,
Speaker 7: because I thought the company would be all like recycled
Speaker 7: ocean plastics mixed with hemp and we'd have this whole thing.
Speaker 5: And then it just wasn't working.
Speaker 7: And in twenty twenty, I had the idea that I
Speaker 7: wanted to make disposable products, but then I emailed hundreds
Speaker 7: of factories and everyone's like, you can't make hemp into cotton,
Speaker 7: Like you can't.
Speaker 1: Do that yet.
Speaker 5: So I was like, Okay, I kind of dropped it.
Speaker 7: And then I had the idea again and I told
Speaker 7: this guy about it who just happened to be an investor,
Speaker 7: and he's.
Speaker 5: Like, oh, I want to give you a check, and
Speaker 5: I was like, what stop, No.
Speaker 2: Really, I've never heard of an investment in a startup
Speaker 2: happening that way.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I just offered you money.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 5: He was like, what do you need to make this happen?
Speaker 1: And I was like, start a business. Someone's just coming
Speaker 1: in business. Someone's just gonna hand us a chat. But
Speaker 1: what do you think he saw?
Speaker 3: Like what did you tell him and what did he
Speaker 3: see that he just wanted to write you a check
Speaker 3: because there must have been something.
Speaker 7: I started talking about this to this guy who was
Speaker 7: an investor and he had a and he didn't know
Speaker 7: any of this stuff. So I think even though he
Speaker 7: couldn't relate, you know, there are a lot of men
Speaker 7: who are very empathetic to women's situations because we're learning
Speaker 7: so much about women's health right now and it's in
Speaker 7: the news and everyone can see it. And then I
Speaker 7: was like, Okay, I have my first like twenty thousand dollars,
Speaker 7: but I can't make a product with that. I'm going
Speaker 7: to do a kickstarter. So I made the kickstarter and
Speaker 7: Rebecca's like, this is amazing, but like you can't spell gee,
Speaker 7: I bet the kickstarter up and there were so many
Speaker 7: typos and Rebecca was like, what the heck is this
Speaker 7: and so she just kind of started working on it
Speaker 7: with me. I've never had anybody come into anything and
Speaker 7: work so hard on it, and I had other people
Speaker 7: ask me if they could be my co founder. But
Speaker 7: I mean, when I Becka started working on it, I
Speaker 7: was like, there's no way this business is going to
Speaker 7: exist without a Rebecca in it.
Speaker 6: I'm going to chime in on that because I was
Speaker 6: literally on break at my real job.
Speaker 4: It was I was a scientist.
Speaker 6: I was a pito geneticist before coming on as a
Speaker 6: co founder for Riffkaren, and I was like, you just
Speaker 6: need some help, and you were my best friends, so
Speaker 6: I'm going to just take the extra hour out of
Speaker 6: my day and work on this.
Speaker 7: And you know, we had this relationship as best friends
Speaker 7: where like we saw each have every few months, and
Speaker 7: we did stuff with our kids. We have kids the
Speaker 7: same exact age, we're pregnant at the same time, so
Speaker 7: I think there was also that trust there. There was
Speaker 7: never any time where I was like, oh, I'm out
Speaker 7: of money, we have to try to, you know, make
Speaker 7: this look perfect. There was like this is my best friend.
Speaker 7: I already call her when my tampon is stuck, like
Speaker 7: why can't I call her about any and everything? And
Speaker 7: so that's how our friendship and like business partnership works.
Speaker 7: We are pretty much married.
Speaker 3: Now I want to talk about the name of your company.
Speaker 3: So RIFF stands for Regenerative International Female. Why regenerative regenerative?
Speaker 3: It really is like using hemp is a regenerative crop.
Speaker 3: It sequesters carbon, it regenerates our soil, meaning like it
Speaker 3: adds nutrients to our soil. It's antibacterial, no pesticides, all
Speaker 3: this stuff, and so it's like super sustainable. But it's
Speaker 3: also like, as women I think we regenerate the planet
Speaker 3: in a lot of ways, you know, by bringing in life,
Speaker 3: you know, And that's so much about our story and
Speaker 3: like our vision for what we want to impact on
Speaker 3: the world is that, like it's full circle. It's more
Speaker 3: than just like this one thing.
Speaker 1: Here at the right side.
Speaker 2: We love talking about second acts, when a woman pivots
Speaker 2: into her truest self and discovers new goals that really
Speaker 2: excite her and bring her alive. So you both had
Speaker 2: full careers before you started riftcare Rebecca, you talked about
Speaker 2: how you were a scientist before and then val you
Speaker 2: started a talent agency out of Los Angeles, And sometimes
Speaker 2: we can be in a job that we don't really
Speaker 2: want to be in, but we also don't realize how
Speaker 2: much we're learning and how those learnings and skills can
Speaker 2: help us at that next stage. So I'm curious to
Speaker 2: hear how did those jobs that you had before prepare
Speaker 2: you to launch this company.
Speaker 6: I think for me it was I had such a
Speaker 6: strong background in research and just environmental and sustainability practices,
Speaker 6: and so that just came naturally. I think it's like
Speaker 6: being a first generation, like you just get things done
Speaker 6: and you just don't take no for an answer, and
Speaker 6: you just keep going like, oh, that didn't work.
Speaker 7: Rebecca's also the organized one, which I think comes from
Speaker 7: being as scientists.
Speaker 5: You have no idea how organized she is.
Speaker 7: Like we would have phone calls and we'd get off
Speaker 7: the phone call and she'd have Excels with like every
Speaker 7: note and then all the tangents, and she typed so fast,
Speaker 7: and I was like wow. I was like, that's a
Speaker 7: corporate job skill that I never had because I never
Speaker 7: worked in corporate.
Speaker 5: I've never worked in corporate.
Speaker 1: How did you guys know when to quit the main
Speaker 1: job and turn Riff into the main job.
Speaker 7: When Riff started becoming more successful than my other business,
Speaker 7: and also when the other business changed in twenty twenty,
Speaker 7: when no one could work in person anymore, models and actors,
Speaker 7: like we weren't making any money. I mean, it wasn't
Speaker 7: an industry that I enjoyed being in. I created the
Speaker 7: Talentations because I wanted to have change within the entertainment industry.
Speaker 7: I feel like I really successfully made that change, me
Speaker 7: and my partner, and so this was just a new
Speaker 7: change that I need to make in a different industry.
Speaker 7: I started working on this and I was like, this
Speaker 7: is not passive at this point, right because we're putting
Speaker 7: so much work into it. We have to be there
Speaker 7: every single day, even on the weekends. But I was like,
Speaker 7: I think we could really build something that not only
Speaker 7: creates something that people can use right now, but also
Speaker 7: creates wealth for us in the future.
Speaker 3: It also sounds to me, tell me if this sounds right,
Speaker 3: but it sounds to me like you really wanted ownership.
Speaker 7: Yeah, And I think with the other business, you know,
Speaker 7: as much as I did own it, I was always
Speaker 7: under the pressure of casting directors and producers and like
Speaker 7: working on those timeframes of the entertainment industry is extremely difficult,
Speaker 7: but it's just very different. It's a much less stressful industry,
Speaker 7: where like there's different stresses, but the stresses are not
Speaker 7: people in entertainment industry.
Speaker 6: I think for me, it was a little bit different
Speaker 6: because the effects of the pandemic were so harsh on
Speaker 6: my family life. So I actually stepped down from my
Speaker 6: role as a scientist to take care of my family
Speaker 6: because my grandma had to gotten diagnosed with dementia. So
Speaker 6: that's actually like my full time hustle is taking care
Speaker 6: of my family. And I think about that because I
Speaker 6: beat down on myself to think like I'm not doing enough, right, So.
Speaker 4: I'm like doing riff.
Speaker 6: I'm taking care of my family, taking care of my grandma,
Speaker 6: and it's okay, but I should still be doing more.
Speaker 6: And I think the point in which, like, oh, when
Speaker 6: you turn like your main hustle into your side hustle,
Speaker 6: it's like do I believe in myself enough to do that?
Speaker 6: Do I love myself enough to like believe that I
Speaker 6: can do that? That's really what it is, especially in entrepreneurship.
Speaker 6: If you don't think that like this is it. If
Speaker 6: you don't believe that, like this is your golden ticket,
Speaker 6: you are not going to succeed in anything, because it's
Speaker 6: like you don't actually feel confident enough that there is
Speaker 6: so much energy around what you do and what you
Speaker 6: say that like, if you don't put one hundred percent
Speaker 6: of your time into something, it's not going to succeed.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I would also say that we do have a bit
Speaker 5: of a safety net, right.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 7: Rebecca had obviously like had her job which she had
Speaker 7: a steady income at before this. I kind of came
Speaker 7: with like no steady income. But I also am the
Speaker 7: content creator, so I know that for me, that's something
Speaker 7: I can do like when I need to, when I
Speaker 7: want to, and then I can do this because I
Speaker 7: know a lot of people who want to jump into business,
Speaker 7: but they're like, I don't have savings, But I always
Speaker 7: tell people to having a little savings is also could
Speaker 7: be really smart when you're jumping into your next thing.
Speaker 6: I was just thinking about that because if you have
Speaker 6: savings and stuff, so much of our lives, I think
Speaker 6: we're so focused on survival mode that like you can't
Speaker 6: focus on your energy. You can't supplit your energy unless
Speaker 6: you feel safe. Yeah, and so I think establishing that
Speaker 6: safety like for me, it's within my marriage, you know,
Speaker 6: for you, it's knowing that like you can support yourself,
Speaker 6: and I think that helps us.
Speaker 2: Rebecca, I'm so glad that you brought up being a
Speaker 2: caretaker because caretakers are often invisible in our society. But
Speaker 2: there are so many people who are listening right now
Speaker 2: who I'm sure can relate to that. It's such a
Speaker 2: worthy job.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and caretaking is also unpaid labor. What I'm hearing
Speaker 3: from both of you is that this really fit into
Speaker 3: the lifestyle that you wanted to create for yourselves totally
Speaker 3: or did you.
Speaker 1: Make it fit?
Speaker 2: Sometimes you have to make the moves and make the
Speaker 2: changes to make it fit.
Speaker 1: And get work for you.
Speaker 4: You definitely have to leap, you have to jump.
Speaker 7: Yeah, we make our own eighteen hours a day that
Speaker 7: we work now instead of being on someone else's.
Speaker 3: I want to hear about besties in business. I want
Speaker 3: to hear about what it's like to work with your
Speaker 3: best friends. Yes, it is one way that working with
Speaker 3: your best friend has empowered your business.
Speaker 7: Okay, So I think the main way that I'm empowered
Speaker 7: in my business because I'm working with my best friend
Speaker 7: is because Rebecca has a different skill set.
Speaker 5: Than I do.
Speaker 7: And I realize that I meet a lot of other
Speaker 7: co founders where they're both really good marketers, right, but
Speaker 7: like who's the digital marketing expert, who's the influencer, and
Speaker 7: then who does the finances. So I think knowing that
Speaker 7: you have a different skill set in your back pocket,
Speaker 7: holding hands with the person who has that different skill
Speaker 7: set every single day helps me walk with so much
Speaker 7: more confidence I had the person with the missing skill
Speaker 7: set that I don't have.
Speaker 5: Who's with me twenty four to seven.
Speaker 2: I think acknowledging where you compliment each other is half
Speaker 2: the battle, especially when it comes to resolving conflict when
Speaker 2: you work with your friends in business. Can you offer
Speaker 2: our listeners any advice as to how to resolve conflict
Speaker 2: when you're working with a friend.
Speaker 4: You can't have any ego about it.
Speaker 6: You can't think like, oh I'm right and you're wrong,
Speaker 6: that there is a right and wrong. There's just what
Speaker 6: works best, what makes the most sense. And I think
Speaker 6: we both are able to get into that mindset every
Speaker 6: single time, and it makes it so much simpler.
Speaker 4: Like we disagree on things for sure.
Speaker 5: Once a day. We disagree on things, but it's always
Speaker 5: links to day.
Speaker 7: We'll have like ten times a day, but it's always
Speaker 7: like within five texts, it's like, what's the best for
Speaker 7: the business. And then that's when it's like, oh, the
Speaker 7: easy answer is right in front of us all the time.
Speaker 1: Across the board.
Speaker 2: That's the advice that I hear whenever I talk to
Speaker 2: entrepreneurs or listen to entrepreneurship talks on that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a trust.
Speaker 6: I think that makes it really solid, you know, Like
Speaker 6: that's what's empowering about this friendship and this partnership, you know,
Speaker 6: it's that we have this layer of trust that is
Speaker 6: not going to be broken down by somebody saying no,
Speaker 6: by something hard, something challenging.
Speaker 4: We're always going to get over it together.
Speaker 3: Okay, So we're all here because of the show Side Hustlers,
Speaker 3: which is hosted by entrepreneur Emma Greed and model Ashley Graham.
Speaker 1: So how has the show changed your business?
Speaker 5: I mean leaves and bounds.
Speaker 7: Honestly, it's doubled our sales, which is wow, amazing. So
Speaker 7: we are like, Okay, people are going to continue watching
Speaker 7: the show and it's going to continue to bring people
Speaker 7: to our website, you would have never heard about us before,
Speaker 7: and we're hoping that also is happening in retail. I mean,
Speaker 7: like we check our retail numbers quarterly, so we don't
Speaker 7: know yet and it's only been a month since the
Speaker 7: show came out, but we're really excited to see what
Speaker 7: it's going to continue to do for our business. I
Speaker 7: think just being affiliated with Ashley and Emma is huge
Speaker 7: for any female owned business.
Speaker 2: So if you haven't seen the show, Rebecca and Val
Speaker 2: are mentored by Emma and Ashley alongside some other entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2: But in the final episode, you have to present your
Speaker 2: final pitch to Emma and Ashley with the hopes that
Speaker 2: they will invest in your business. And I was really
Speaker 2: inspired by the way that you both advocated for yourself
Speaker 2: in that negotiation session. Because Ashley throughout an initial offer
Speaker 2: for you, you were like, this doesn't work for us.
Speaker 2: You took some time to talk about it, come back
Speaker 2: and present her with a new officer, and she wound
Speaker 2: up taking it.
Speaker 4: That was the scariest twenty minutes of my life.
Speaker 1: I'm not even gonna lie to you.
Speaker 6: We knew how much like equity we could part with
Speaker 6: and when we had to step out. We talked maybe
Speaker 6: again five ten minutes, and then we had to walk
Speaker 6: back in. And fully that walk there, we were both
Speaker 6: just praying because we knew if she didn't accept those terms,
Speaker 6: we would have to walk away.
Speaker 7: So that was the scariest Yeah, And the scariest part
Speaker 7: about that too, is we realized if we were gonna
Speaker 7: walk away, we're gonna have to go back into fundraising.
Speaker 7: We're like, we're gonna have to start at square one.
Speaker 7: And the fact is, you know, we have all these
Speaker 7: retail launches that have happened this year. We have so
Speaker 7: much that's going on, so we're really counting on getting
Speaker 7: an investment in the show. It wasn't like, oh, we'll
Speaker 7: be fine, We're like.
Speaker 5: No, we need this to happen.
Speaker 7: So yeah, as Rebecca said, we knew how much equity
Speaker 7: we could part with, and when she said yes to it, honestly.
Speaker 5: The chills that went through my body and we were
Speaker 5: just like, thank you God.
Speaker 2: She also said, I really have faith in your business.
Speaker 2: What is your relationship like with Ashley now now that
Speaker 2: she's an investor and also involved from a talent perspective.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean her team is so incredible. You can't
Speaker 7: see this on the show, but her team was there
Speaker 7: the entire time going in there talking to her about it.
Speaker 7: There were so many ideas she was giving us. She's like,
Speaker 7: this is what I think we should do for talent,
Speaker 7: for your size inclusivity. So she has so many great ideas.
Speaker 7: Also because she's invested in other consumer products. She also
Speaker 7: invested in a period care company that ended up being
Speaker 7: solds worth like half a billion dollars. So we trusted
Speaker 7: her and her team know exactly what to tell us
Speaker 7: with our specific category to get us to the next level. Right,
Speaker 7: It's like, now we're trying to get to the first million,
Speaker 7: but they also know what it's like to be on
Speaker 7: a team that goes from five to one hundred million,
Speaker 7: So that's really exciting.
Speaker 1: Can you tell everybody what you walked away with?
Speaker 6: We got Ashley to sign on for one hundred thousand
Speaker 6: dollars at five percent equity, so it was exactly what
Speaker 6: we wanted. And I still can't describe how it feels
Speaker 6: because I've been following out since she was on Sports Illustrated,
Speaker 6: you know, like the first front cover, and so it
Speaker 6: was just like a dream come true on like so
Speaker 6: many levels.
Speaker 1: Did you splurge on anything to celebrate ice cream?
Speaker 4: Ice cream?
Speaker 2: No, well I'm talking like, you know, did you treat
Speaker 2: yourself to a nice bag or something.
Speaker 4: I'm like, wait, that was the truth.
Speaker 6: We're on a budget, right, respected We're like all the
Speaker 6: money goes into the business.
Speaker 7: I mean, honestly, this is one of the reasons that
Speaker 7: we do need to fund raise more this year because
Speaker 7: we don't take a pay check. I mean like sometimes
Speaker 7: when we've got an investment, we've paid ourselves like one
Speaker 7: thousand dollars a month for a few months, and they're like.
Speaker 1: That was enough.
Speaker 4: Now the money must go back into the business.
Speaker 1: Only.
Speaker 7: Probably total, since we've started this business, we've paid ourselves
Speaker 7: each about ten thousand dollars.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: I also want to note that our business is one
Speaker 7: hundred percent women owned still, so me, Ashley, and Rebecca
Speaker 7: own one hundred percent of the business, which I think
Speaker 7: with a startup, a lot of people raise money very
Speaker 7: quickly and they raise a lot. There's not many businesses
Speaker 7: that can say that when they're growing like we are.
Speaker 7: So that's also something that we're very proud of.
Speaker 2: So as a working mom, I know it's hard not
Speaker 2: to think about how our kids factor into all this.
Speaker 2: What is the legacy that you want to build for
Speaker 2: your kids through this business.
Speaker 4: I think the.
Speaker 7: Legacy I want to leave for my daughter in particular,
Speaker 7: like having a little girl, I just know that she's
Speaker 7: so persuaded my images she sees and products that she sees,
Speaker 7: and I just would love if she was in a
Speaker 7: world where everything that she wanted was safe for her.
Speaker 7: And so I'm just trying to create a product that
Speaker 7: is safe for her and that maybe encourages other women
Speaker 7: who are starting companies to do something sustainable.
Speaker 5: Also, if my daughter.
Speaker 7: Can look and go, wow, my mom created something that
Speaker 7: actually made the earth better, that makes me happy.
Speaker 6: I think for me, it's more because of the journey
Speaker 6: that we had to go through to get to this point.
Speaker 6: Being able to provide something to somebody that makes that
Speaker 6: part of the month a little bit better.
Speaker 4: If I can help one woman with.
Speaker 6: Her like health journey and wellness journey, like I did
Speaker 6: my part, just that one little.
Speaker 1: Thing, caretaker through and through. Yeah, it's beautiful. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for being here with us today.
Speaker 5: Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 4: It's been an honor.
Speaker 3: You guys brought some environmentally safe sparkle to us.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 5: As we try.
Speaker 7: We literally just drizzle drizzle like pads everywhere, like you
Speaker 7: need a spin the padre goods.
Speaker 5: Wherever we go, you can see that there was pads there.
Speaker 3: Valamanuel and Rebecca Caputo are founders of the period care
Speaker 3: company Riffcare. Season one of Side Hustlers is available to
Speaker 3: stream for free on the Roku channel. Now, all right,
Speaker 3: bright siders, we're back and Simone, We've been on the
Speaker 3: air for a full week now and working together for
Speaker 3: a few weeks. So now that we know each other
Speaker 3: a little bit better, I think it's time to put
Speaker 3: our knowledge to the test with a classic game. We
Speaker 3: both really love games. We are gamers, So drum roll please.
Speaker 3: Simone and I are going to play Two Truths and
Speaker 3: a Lie.
Speaker 1: I'm so excited for this. Let's go, let's get into it.
Speaker 3: So the rules of two Truths and a Lie are
Speaker 3: really simple. You and I are going to take turns
Speaker 3: reading three statements to each other. Two of the statements
Speaker 3: will be true and one will be false, and it's
Speaker 3: up to us to guess which one of the statements
Speaker 3: is the lie.
Speaker 1: Let's do it.
Speaker 2: I'm ready Okay, I'll start us off, Danielle. I grew
Speaker 2: up in Miami. My favorite band is in Sync, and
Speaker 2: my first job was working in a haunted corn maze.
Speaker 1: Whoa uh. I know you grew up in Miami for
Speaker 1: a lot of your childhood. The corn maze feels you.
Speaker 1: So I'm gonna go in sync is the lie? Whoa whoa?
Speaker 1: Shots fired? Yeah? That is so rude. Yeah, okay, it's true.
Speaker 1: It's true. I did work in a haunted corn maze.
Speaker 1: In Sync.
Speaker 2: I love that band, but not my favorite band of
Speaker 2: all time. So you nailed it.
Speaker 3: Yes, okay, next up. My first pets name was Lola.
Speaker 3: My favorite movie is First Wives Club, and my go
Speaker 3: to breakfast is egg whites with the side of avocado.
Speaker 2: Okay, I know that your favorite movie is First Wives
Speaker 2: Club because we discovered this in one of our first
Speaker 2: chats together.
Speaker 1: My mom told me never to tell anybody on a date.
Speaker 2: Might scare them off a little bit. I'm gonna go
Speaker 2: with the lie. Is your pet's name?
Speaker 1: Yes, I never had a pet. You were petless. I
Speaker 1: was petless.
Speaker 2: Okay, moving on. I like my coffee with oat milk.
Speaker 2: I have zero point five siblings, and I prefer cold pizza.
Speaker 1: You can't call someone half a person. What do you
Speaker 1: mean you have point five siblings? Just answer the damn game.
Speaker 3: No, okay, well, I know you like your coffee with
Speaker 3: oat milk. I've gotten I've seen you drink it. I
Speaker 3: feel truly confused about the slings. And if you prefer
Speaker 3: your pizza cold, I think you prefer your pizza hot.
Speaker 1: I'm going to say that's the lie. You nailed it,
Speaker 1: that's the lie. Can you please explain the point five sibling?
Speaker 2: This is a very long story, but I have a
Speaker 2: half sibling that I did not grow up with.
Speaker 1: Wow, yes, where do they live? He lives in Philadelphia. Hi, Jason,
Speaker 1: I love you. That's awesome. Yeah, I get the point
Speaker 1: five Now it makes more sense. Yeah, okay, moving on.
Speaker 3: I was voted most likely to be a lovable in
Speaker 3: high school. I can play the cello, and if I
Speaker 3: could have dinner with one person dead or alive, it
Speaker 3: would be Hillary Clinton.
Speaker 1: Most likely to be a What a lovable? A lovable
Speaker 1: like a noun? Yeah? Like what are the Laker girls called?
Speaker 7: Oh?
Speaker 1: Okay, like Laker girls? Laker girls? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Every team has one. The Chicago team is lovables. Oh, Okay, ls.
Speaker 2: I thought that was uh prediction about like your character
Speaker 2: or something.
Speaker 1: I was confused that I should have explained it.
Speaker 4: Okay, it's hard.
Speaker 1: In this game.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I know Hillary Clinton is true because I
Speaker 2: know you're a stan. I'm gonna say that superlative is
Speaker 2: accurate because I could totally see you crushing it courtside.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna go with you did not play the cello.
Speaker 3: I did play the cello for like six months, but
Speaker 3: I cannot play the cello. And what's funny is I'm
Speaker 3: five to one, and so I kept my cello in
Speaker 3: my bathroom. I never played it. You had to pick
Speaker 3: an instrument in high school. I never played it, and
Speaker 3: the cello was bigger than me.
Speaker 1: You relegated it to the bathroom.
Speaker 3: I had no other place to put it. I never
Speaker 3: wanted to see it. I hate I was so terrible,
Speaker 3: But yeah, I was voted to be a lovable I
Speaker 3: was on dance team in high school and was very smiley,
Speaker 3: still am today.
Speaker 2: Yes, I love that about you. That's one of my
Speaker 2: favorite things about you. Can you teach me how to
Speaker 2: be a dancer, how to do like TikTok choreography?
Speaker 1: Here's the thing.
Speaker 3: I think I have some trauma because my mom one time,
Speaker 3: I think we were like at a wedding and my
Speaker 3: mom was like, you forgot how to dance? Like what's
Speaker 3: going on here? And now I feel like I'm a
Speaker 3: bad dancer, so I never dance anywhere.
Speaker 2: Shoot, I think we need to work on some TikTok
Speaker 2: choreography together and get back.
Speaker 1: I think so too. I feel like this Beyonce album
Speaker 1: is going to give us that mm hm and how
Speaker 1: Danielle got her groove back? Next?
Speaker 2: When I played basketball in high school, Disneyland is my
Speaker 2: favorite amusement park. I've broken zero bones in my life.
Speaker 1: Disneyland. I know you love You're a Disney adult and careful, careful.
Speaker 1: What was the first one I played basketball in high school?
Speaker 4: That's not true.
Speaker 1: It's true. You don't think I can ball. I feel
Speaker 1: like you told me you didn't play sports growing up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's true. See, we know each other too well.
Speaker 2: At this point, I didn't even play this game.
Speaker 1: I feel like you should have played basketball. I should have.
Speaker 1: They all tried to recruit me. You just never wanted
Speaker 1: to be a baller. Not all tall girls can ball.
Speaker 3: Okay, my favorite subject in school was English. My first
Speaker 3: car was a Jetta, and I love to hike on
Speaker 3: my downtime.
Speaker 1: Girl, I know you ain't hiking in that downtime. How
Speaker 1: do you know that you told me you.
Speaker 2: Don't like to go outdoors. Don't even lie, don't even
Speaker 2: try this.
Speaker 1: No, I lay outdoors.
Speaker 3: Everybody thinks because I'm like a really active person. Everyone
Speaker 3: thinks that I'm a big hiker. But I wear these
Speaker 3: ridiculous sun hats. Like if I go walking outside, I
Speaker 3: have like so much SPF on ridiculous like walking sun hats,
Speaker 3: and so hiking for me feels just like so much sun.
Speaker 1: This is so high maintenance. It's so high maintenance. But
Speaker 1: I'm like so scared of the sun.
Speaker 3: I used to like be in the sun tanning all
Speaker 3: the time when I was younger, and I realized it's
Speaker 3: not good for you. So I just became a psycho
Speaker 3: about it. Like the bigger the hat, the better. And
Speaker 3: hiking seems like a lot of sun.
Speaker 1: So if I invite you on a hike, you're gonna
Speaker 1: embarrass me.
Speaker 3: If we go at six am or like seven thirty pm,
Speaker 3: when the sun's down, I won't But otherwise one hundred
Speaker 3: percent I'm wearing my son hat and I'm probably bringing
Speaker 3: one for you.
Speaker 2: Oh my gosh, this is what I deal with you, guys.
Speaker 2: Is host of the bright Side, Danielle. That was actually
Speaker 2: really fun.
Speaker 3: That really was and I feel like there's a lot
Speaker 3: more where that came from.
Speaker 1: I'm here for it.
Speaker 2: Okay, bessies, that's it for today's episode of the bright Side.
Speaker 1: Here's our daily spark, just a little parting thought to
Speaker 1: take with you throughout your day.
Speaker 3: And that is the best investment you can ever make
Speaker 3: is in yourself.
Speaker 2: That was the best investment I ever made. So I
Speaker 2: just think it's universal.
Speaker 1: It compounds over time, and you will never regret it.
Speaker 2: All right, don't forget to send us your friendship dilemmas
Speaker 2: because we've got an expert on all things friend related
Speaker 2: coming for our new segment called Asking for a Friend,
Speaker 2: and she is amazing. You don't want to miss this,
Speaker 2: but write us a note or send us a voice
Speaker 2: memo to Hello at the bright Side podcast dot com.
Speaker 3: Listen and follow the bright Side on the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 3: Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts so you
Speaker 3: never miss an episode. And if you're enjoying the show,
Speaker 3: please leave us a little love note in the review section.
Speaker 3: I'm Danielle Robe and you can find me on Instagram
Speaker 3: and TikTok at Danielle Robe.
Speaker 1: That's ro b a Y. And I'm Simone Boye.
Speaker 2: You can find me at Simone Voice, on Instagram and TikTok.
Speaker 2: We'll be back tomorrow with a new episode, same time,
Speaker 2: same place.
Speaker 1: Keep looking on the bright side.