Speaker 1: Your wife forgot the song.
Speaker 2: It's not the be a no no, hey, hey, sorry mommy, Okay,
Speaker 2: hey hey hey, we're back.
Speaker 1: We're black.
Speaker 2: Brown, we're extra brown today, ambition ambious, and.
Speaker 1: We are so brown. We are so black today.
Speaker 2: We blue black because we have somebody amazing in the
Speaker 2: stew today.
Speaker 1: But before we start, okay, curls popping, Mandy, you know
Speaker 1: how your hair?
Speaker 3: Uh huh no, but do you not see what I'm
Speaker 3: sending you? I sent you a picture, but I feel
Speaker 3: like I need to do the fixer upper for the
Speaker 3: BA fam.
Speaker 4: This is what it's gonna look like.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna look like I Miss Rachel's number two, because
Speaker 3: if you don't know Miss Rachel, then just forget that
Speaker 3: joke I ever happened. But I and our guest braind is
Speaker 3: you'll also see. I just made over my son's playroom,
Speaker 3: I made over my office. I fired myself, is what
Speaker 3: it felt like I was doing. The way that I
Speaker 3: packed up my boxes and shoved them to the side
Speaker 3: of everything I had, like in my little space. And
Speaker 3: I just devoted this to my four year old for
Speaker 3: his birthday. And honestly, it's kind of my aesthetic. Like
Speaker 3: I was like I'm gonna wear pink, so I kind
Speaker 3: of fit in with.
Speaker 2: The planets in the background at it. It is preschool
Speaker 2: teacher approved. It's so cute and colorful. And I saw
Speaker 2: how was navigating. Everything is child friendly, so well done.
Speaker 3: I was so excited. Yeah, and my wild and crazy
Speaker 3: idea now they go on my trolo board. I don't
Speaker 3: have to do every single one that floats into my head,
Speaker 3: but this was the big one that I really wanted
Speaker 3: to achieve. It's done now and we can move on.
Speaker 2: Well we have well, we have see the mom as well.
Speaker 2: Hers is not as little as yours. But I have
Speaker 2: a guest in the stew today. Her name is Brandis Daniel.
Speaker 2: She has over fifteen years of experience forging brand partnerships
Speaker 2: with Fortune five hundred companies. Well you might know brand
Speaker 2: It's best as the founder of hf R Harlem Fashion Row.
Speaker 2: If you are a brown person who loves fashion and
Speaker 2: you don't know brands, what I mean, do.
Speaker 1: You live under a rock?
Speaker 2: Is it a rock?
Speaker 1: So brandis is amazing?
Speaker 2: Then so there is like before Harlem Fashion role and
Speaker 2: after harm Fashion role when it comes to black designers
Speaker 2: getting their credit and having access and Brandis started Harllan
Speaker 2: fashion role to showcase the fact that there are people
Speaker 2: who look like us that are amazing, exquisite, talented designers
Speaker 2: that if only given the little spot like could shine
Speaker 2: as well. And so she made her business to do so.
Speaker 2: So she not only has this brand is also as
Speaker 2: a friend of mine. We've been now long has it been?
Speaker 1: Brandis?
Speaker 4: Oh my goodness, girl, I don't know.
Speaker 5: Maybe, oh you know what I do know twenty eighteen. Okay,
Speaker 5: we had our very first conversation that changed my life.
Speaker 2: So Brandon is also a friend of mine, and one
Speaker 2: of our favorite things to do is to walk and
Speaker 2: talk about business and so like, you know, because you know,
Speaker 2: I have people in my life that like, you know,
Speaker 2: these are like friends that you know, we might talk about.
Speaker 2: You know, they call me to ask me about like
Speaker 2: you know, they have kids who are preschool age. You know,
Speaker 2: I have my sisters. And then I have friends who
Speaker 2: are friends in general but also own businesses. So you
Speaker 2: have these really interesting conversations about what's working, what's not working.
Speaker 2: But what I love about my conversations with Brandis is
Speaker 2: then they are holistic conversations, so they're not just what's
Speaker 2: your return on investment. You know, it's if I do
Speaker 2: this project, will I have enough time for family and friends?
Speaker 2: You know, is the juice really worth the squeeze if
Speaker 2: I navigate in this way? How do I really want
Speaker 2: to show up for the people that I work for?
Speaker 2: And so Brandis is amazing at them. So she's really
Speaker 2: good at business, so really good at showcasing black and
Speaker 2: brown designers. And she is the CEO of two companies, right,
Speaker 2: so it's Harlem Fashion Row and then Icon three sixty,
Speaker 2: which is a five oh C three non profit organization.
Speaker 2: And so, but one of the things that Brands is
Speaker 2: really good at outside from showcasing black and brown designers.
Speaker 1: So she has a new book.
Speaker 2: That came out recently, Fashion in Color. If you are
Speaker 2: watching an IG which or no IG but on YouTube YouTube,
Speaker 2: you should like, look how beautiful this is?
Speaker 1: First of all, like this is stunning, not even just studying.
Speaker 1: This is the box.
Speaker 2: You know, you know a book is fancy when it
Speaker 2: comes to the box. Right, this is one of the
Speaker 2: box right, Look it comes out of a box. And
Speaker 2: then what I love about it is that inside the
Speaker 2: book she's got these amazing designers and she has them
Speaker 2: illustrated right beautifully so and then you get to see
Speaker 2: their you know, inside the book and it's like.
Speaker 1: Right, I know that's why I feel like.
Speaker 2: I'm like, that's literally and this is volume one, right,
Speaker 2: so it's a it's in alphabetical order.
Speaker 4: Brandess yes, uh huh yep.
Speaker 1: So look d for Dapper Dan.
Speaker 2: Right. If you don't know Dapper Dan child, you made
Speaker 2: from the East Coast, Right, Dapper Dan is the one
Speaker 2: who we used to take all the Gucci material and
Speaker 2: make all these things that were not you know, like.
Speaker 1: He made he made Gucci fly.
Speaker 2: Okay, let's just say that she's amazing, right, But there's
Speaker 2: designers that you might not have ever heard of.
Speaker 5: It's like Nicole, yeah, I feel now, so this is
Speaker 5: our collaboration that we just did with Abercrombie and Fitch.
Speaker 1: So brand is really low.
Speaker 2: So I'll give you some example. She when when Lebron
Speaker 2: James came out with sneakers for women, right, and he
Speaker 2: was like, I want a black woman designer. Who do
Speaker 2: you think they've reached out to? Brandis And so it
Speaker 2: was Kimberly who made the sneakers.
Speaker 1: Brandons who was that?
Speaker 4: It was Kimberly Goes and Penoele and Andre Duncan mm hmmm,
Speaker 4: and so people out quitnes.
Speaker 1: Sneakers sole down.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: So when brands are like, hey, I want to do
Speaker 2: a thing, but I especially want to showcase black designers
Speaker 2: and brown designers, they come to She's the only game
Speaker 2: of town.
Speaker 1: They come to Brandon's right, she'd be meeting with Anna Wintour.
Speaker 1: My fan is, Sayancy, y'all. Like, so one time Tracy
Speaker 1: was like, isn't it crazy that Brandon is like your friend.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I'm a big deal too. Don't blame me.
Speaker 4: You're hiring your sister.
Speaker 2: Honestly, just has an amazing track record, and Brandon's is
Speaker 2: one of and brittish and Mandy. You will really appreciate this.
Speaker 2: She is one of the best executors that I have
Speaker 2: ever met, because Mandy is an amazing executor as well.
Speaker 1: Yes, Manny, you be like execution.
Speaker 2: Now you be like Mandy blue Green, don't. She's like
Speaker 2: got it, Like, look what's behind her. She's like the
Speaker 2: baby is an executor. And so I'm not not so much.
Speaker 2: But so I love that I get to be bookend
Speaker 2: by two amazing executors. So I just want to welcome
Speaker 2: Brandon to the podcast, and we're just so happy to
Speaker 2: have you here and Ana.
Speaker 5: So first of all, I'm just going to take you
Speaker 5: wherever I go to do my introductions.
Speaker 4: That was Thank you so much, Tiffany.
Speaker 5: I feel like I'm in like the brown Ambition living
Speaker 5: room right now.
Speaker 4: So thank you guys for welcoming me into your home.
Speaker 3: Oh we hope it's nice and cozy and you already
Speaker 3: feel like fam. I can almost smell what your apartment
Speaker 3: or your your your home probably smells like right now.
Speaker 3: I know it's scented. I know it's something seasonal. I
Speaker 3: know you get the really luxury candles that you know
Speaker 3: that people are into. I just know it smells good there.
Speaker 3: And yeah, anyway, but she still, yeah, okay, it's really
Speaker 3: to meet you. I am. I am less familiar with
Speaker 3: Harlem Fashion Row. I want to know. I kind of
Speaker 3: want to start from the beginning of how did you
Speaker 3: how did you create Harlem Fashion Row, and then talk
Speaker 3: about what it actually is. I know it as oh
Speaker 3: if I want to find out you know about multicultural
Speaker 3: black designers, brown designers, I can find like your book,
Speaker 3: for example, but the business of it. I'm fascinated by
Speaker 3: how that's been going so you guys.
Speaker 4: You know it's funny, Mandy. When I first started HFR,
Speaker 4: I had no idea. I was starting a business, no idea.
Speaker 4: So it was the idea was I want to do
Speaker 4: 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 Hottest Harlem House Party, and so we were
Speaker 5: doing events and so I was like, you know what,
Speaker 5: I haven't seen like a really dope fashion event in Harlem.
Speaker 4: 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 4: 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
Speaker 5: much bigger than me.
Speaker 4: I don't know what this is. It's so much bigger
Speaker 4: than me.
Speaker 5: And the second year we did the fashion show, I
Speaker 5: started looking for black designers, couldn't find them, started going
Speaker 5: down department store websites because of course they would be
Speaker 5: in our favorite department stores.
Speaker 4: Right wrong, Yeah.
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 I shot my.
Speaker 4: 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 US Census, and I was like,
Speaker 5: how much are we spending a year on apparel? Because
Speaker 5: maybe we're not spending what I think we are. In
Speaker 5: two thousand and seven, we were spending twenty two billion
Speaker 5: dollars a year.
Speaker 4: So I'm like, wait a minute, we're spending twenty two
Speaker 4: billion dollars a year.
Speaker 5: As people of color, However, we represent less than one
Speaker 5: percent of the designers that are sold in major department stores.
Speaker 5: And and you know, I feel like sometimes your passion
Speaker 5: is in that place where you're so irritated that you're
Speaker 5: just like.
Speaker 4: I gotta do This is just stupid.
Speaker 5: I'm trying to think of another word mission, but this
Speaker 5: is insane. What do you mean We're less than one
Speaker 5: percent where we're spending all this money? And for me
Speaker 5: that was really the catalyst too. I don't know what
Speaker 5: this is going to be, but I know I have
Speaker 5: to do something. I have to be a.
Speaker 4: Part of the solution.
Speaker 5: And that was really kind of the launchpad for Harlem's
Speaker 5: Fashion Row. I didn't realize it was going to be
Speaker 5: a business until years later when I had a coach
Speaker 5: who said, please, don't start a nonprofit.
Speaker 4: We have enough non profits that are broke. We need
Speaker 4: more successful businesses.
Speaker 5: He said, once your business becomes successful, then you start
Speaker 5: a nonprofit.
Speaker 4: So that was really how the business was born.
Speaker 3: I love that piece of advice too. It almost feels
Speaker 3: like if a woman comes up with the idea, people's
Speaker 3: initial thought is it could be a nonprofit because it, yeah,
Speaker 3: it's usually something that is servicing or you know, it
Speaker 3: has that element of it's good for us, not just me,
Speaker 3: like you said, and people want to slap a nonprofit
Speaker 3: label on it and be like, okay, go beg for
Speaker 3: money now. Okay, So talk about how did you you
Speaker 3: didn't know it was a business. Clearly you had some coaching.
Speaker 3: We love that. So talk about that transition from idea
Speaker 3: to it's happening to okay, let's turn a profit.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's 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, like, Okay, this is a
Speaker 5: business and I have to like really treat it as such.
Speaker 5: We were having brand partnerships, but at the time, again, my.
Speaker 4: Mindset wasn't around profitability.
Speaker 5: My mindset was very much I just want to cover
Speaker 5: my cost that was my goal. And I used to
Speaker 5: actually say that out loud, I just want to cover
Speaker 5: my costs.
Speaker 4: If I cover my costs, I'm good. Now, don't ask
Speaker 4: me how I'm good.
Speaker 5: If I cover my costs because I didn't have a yeah,
Speaker 5: what were you doing?
Speaker 1: Also, on top of.
Speaker 5: It, I had nine right, I had a nine five
Speaker 5: for the first five years. But after that I was
Speaker 5: really struggling. And me being in this mindset of I
Speaker 5: just want to cover my cost was really putting my
Speaker 5: family at risk, It was putting me at risk, It.
Speaker 4: Was causing tention in my marriage. It was just really
Speaker 4: 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: going to close a million dollars in business for twenty twenty.
Speaker 4: And the reason.
Speaker 5: I said earlier that like my talks with Tiffany really
Speaker 5: changed my mindset and changed my life is because she
Speaker 5: made me start looking at millions as if they were thousands,
Speaker 5: and so I actually started to think, oh, this is
Speaker 5: possible for me. And that year twenty twenty end up
Speaker 5: being our best year because we went so hard with
Speaker 5: brand partnerships at the end of twenty nineteen to set
Speaker 5: us up for twenty twenty. And thank god we did, yeah,
Speaker 5: because who knew the pandemic was coming.
Speaker 4: But when the pandemic came, I was sitting with you know,
Speaker 4: we didn't make that goal.
Speaker 5: I think we got like to seven hundred and fifty thousand,
Speaker 5: but I didn't make a million. But I was sitting
Speaker 5: with seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars of contracts in
Speaker 5: my hand, which was a game changer for us.
Speaker 3: And what do you do with those contracts? Like, what
Speaker 3: 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 connecting designers
Speaker 5: of color with brands, and so we do that through
Speaker 5: 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 Fashion Road, you'll see outfits there.
Speaker 4: So we I know, so are you guys.
Speaker 3: The reason that Target does those things now with designers
Speaker 3: like capsule collections is that what they're called.
Speaker 4: They do capsule collections. I don't know. I can't take
Speaker 4: 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 4: Wait before us.
Speaker 3: Okay, I thought that was like post twenty twenty, or
Speaker 3: maybe it just came to my attention after twenty twenty, but.
Speaker 4: I think you started to seeing more black designers.
Speaker 5: Mandy, Yeah, they've been doing it for a long time.
Speaker 4: But I remember.
Speaker 1: No Isaacwahi was the first one.
Speaker 2: You can't remember because it was a big deal because
Speaker 2: he was this big time designer, and people were like,
Speaker 2: why would you be in Target because I have still
Speaker 2: some of the dresses from that collection.
Speaker 3: Yeah now I remember, yes, but they switched, okay, that's right.
Speaker 4: Now, they got more black designer.
Speaker 5: It was Christopher John Rogers, then it was Bergie Hudson,
Speaker 5: and then it was Phenol. So we do we do
Speaker 5: collaborations events, and then we do pipeline programs with HBCUs
Speaker 5: where we pair brands up with HBCU Fashion Department. So
Speaker 5: we've got six of those going right now with Tiffany
Speaker 5: and Cole Levi's coach American Eagle, saxophth Avenue just did one.
Speaker 4: I feel like there's.
Speaker 3: You're basically the fashion industry's black friend, is what you're saying.
Speaker 1: Yes, I love that I do have a black friend.
Speaker 3: I do, And God bless you because they're like, I
Speaker 3: know Brandes's.
Speaker 1: Name, brand is, we need to we need to brown
Speaker 1: up the joint.
Speaker 4: But they tell you to please come through for.
Speaker 3: I was just listening, Sorry, tiff go ahead ahead. I
Speaker 3: was just listening to Leslie's Leslie Jones's audiobook in the
Speaker 3: car just started it and the forewords by Chris Jones.
Speaker 3: Chris Jones Chris Rock Leslie Jones is from SNL. She's
Speaker 3: a huge comic and he was that for the comedy industry.
Speaker 3: He's like when people when Lauren Michaels wanted to know
Speaker 3: who's black, female and funny, he texted me because of
Speaker 3: the backlash against SNL. So that's immediately what I thought
Speaker 3: of when just you were describing the mission and the
Speaker 3: work that you're doing. It's so necessary. I don't mean
Speaker 3: to trivialize it at all because it's so crucial. But
Speaker 3: you found this great gap in the marketplace. Fashion industry
Speaker 3: literally needed a black friend and here you are.
Speaker 1: So is that how you got to the book?
Speaker 5: Like that?
Speaker 4: And I'm like.
Speaker 1: That, man, it is that how you got to the book?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 1: Like how what?
Speaker 2: So you you know, so you are this connector right
Speaker 2: of the main fashion industry and black brands, right? So
Speaker 2: is that, like, how did the book come about? Because
Speaker 2: that's something that seems totally different than what.
Speaker 1: You were doing before.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 5: So one of the things that I thought was really
Speaker 5: important is for us to like preserve our history and fashion.
Speaker 4: 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
Speaker 5: say around year two of HFR was when I started
Speaker 5: really digging into Okay, not okay, this is an issue.
Speaker 4: We're less than one percent. 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 and on black designers that
Speaker 5: was written in nineteen eighty two. There had not been
Speaker 5: book written since then that specifically highlights.
Speaker 4: Black designers, not one.
Speaker 5: And I kept kind of waiting like, Oh, somebody's going
Speaker 5: to come out with that, Somebody's going to come.
Speaker 4: Some you know, and it just never happened. And then
Speaker 4: I was the somebody. And then the thing that really
Speaker 4: I think lit my fire was.
Speaker 5: I walked into a bookstore over by my offices and
Speaker 5: I'm looking at this bookstore and I'm like so excited
Speaker 5: because I see this book called Fashion Legends.
Speaker 4: So I pull it off the bookshelf.
Speaker 5: And I'm so excited and I'm going through and it's
Speaker 5: a to Z and there's one black designer in there,
Speaker 5: and I was just, I mean, y'all the way that
Speaker 5: became so angry. It Olivier the Olivier Resting, the creative
Speaker 5: director of Ballmain, who wrote the foreword.
Speaker 4: For this book, so incredible.
Speaker 5: I know, it's an amazing and so he regulate the
Speaker 5: only one in the book, and I was it made
Speaker 5: me so angry. I put it up at the top
Speaker 5: of my desk and I was like, I'm just going
Speaker 5: to keep this right here so that every morning I
Speaker 5: come in, I'm going to be angry enough to go
Speaker 5: I got to do something about this. And so that's
Speaker 5: really how the book came about. It's kind of like
Speaker 5: the next phase for us as media. So we just
Speaker 5: launched a Fashion and Color show, a podcast, and a
Speaker 5: YouTube show, and now we've got the book, the Fashion
Speaker 5: and Color Book, and so really it's like, now how
Speaker 5: do we I've worked so closely with the industry and
Speaker 5: brands and designers.
Speaker 4: Now I'm like, I really want to.
Speaker 5: Meet the people now, Like I want to actually go
Speaker 5: to the people. And so that's that's where we're at.
Speaker 5: Now that's what the book is all about.
Speaker 2: Wait, Brandon's hold that thought, because we're going to pay
Speaker 2: some bills, as we're apt to do, and we'll be
Speaker 2: back and black in.
Speaker 1: A moment, and we're back and more brands for y'all.
Speaker 1: You're welcome.
Speaker 2: You're going to pause for a moment because Brandon's does
Speaker 2: what so many black and brown women do.
Speaker 1: They drop that heat like it like everybody just be
Speaker 1: doing it. They don't. So one look at this book.
Speaker 1: I told you, the book comes with its own case. Okay, amazing.
Speaker 2: And that fact is that Brandon's doesn't have just some
Speaker 2: little podcast or show, no go follow Branda's.
Speaker 1: What's your ig?
Speaker 4: Brandes Daniel if you.
Speaker 1: If you see this quote unquote, it's just a little show.
Speaker 1: It ain't a little show.
Speaker 2: First of all, Brandon shows up wearing a black designer
Speaker 2: in every show. The set looks like, okay, Oprah, we
Speaker 2: see you now the eighties, I'm talking about Oprah, like
Speaker 2: last year, best set ever, Oprah.
Speaker 1: And then she's interviewing these amazing designers that you're like,
Speaker 1: how does she get isn't that didn't he?
Speaker 2: Yes, yes and yes. So the fact that she's like,
Speaker 2: oh something light. That's just something like for brandess. So
Speaker 2: I have a nonprofit and then I introduced the world
Speaker 2: to black designers. Oh and just some Harlem flash. Oh
Speaker 2: and now this is what I mean that she is
Speaker 2: the master executor. Then you know there are some people
Speaker 2: And I tell this to you all the time, Mandy,
Speaker 2: Right then you know, once you decide you're gonna do
Speaker 2: a thing, I could lead because you're gonna get it done.
Speaker 2: That that is just your personality that like, once you've
Speaker 2: decided on the thing, you're gonna get it done. Really,
Speaker 2: the struggle I find with both of you is you
Speaker 2: don't actually have to do all the things. You could
Speaker 2: leave some for the other girl own.
Speaker 3: And I would add to that because I love criticizing myself,
Speaker 3: but we I'll speak for myself. Also, Yeah, sometimes you're
Speaker 3: so busy doing the thing that you forget to zoom
Speaker 3: out and strategize a lot of ties or like what
Speaker 3: to create. And you know that's even congratulate.
Speaker 2: Yourself, like what you've done is amazing, like for real,
Speaker 2: like zoom out to be like look what I did
Speaker 2: this thing in my head, I saw a book said hey,
Speaker 2: this doesn't look right. I you know, I realized that
Speaker 2: the last book was in the eighties, and now you've
Speaker 2: you didn't just like, this is not some slap together.
Speaker 2: This book is literally brand is like every single picture
Speaker 2: is illustrated beautifully. So you know, and I remember you
Speaker 2: were like you were you delayed it coming now because
Speaker 2: you're like that ain't right?
Speaker 1: Do it better? Make it better?
Speaker 2: Like so she's making it sound like, you know, like
Speaker 2: Instagram University. How they'd be like, you know, here it
Speaker 2: takes this dollar dollar and make it a million.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: It was so much work and you can see the
Speaker 2: fruit of her labor in the work of how beautiful
Speaker 2: this book is, how intentional she is about including designers
Speaker 2: you know that maybe some that you know very well,
Speaker 2: some that you might have never heard about.
Speaker 1: She is keeping the history of this part of blackness,
Speaker 1: like you know, when brand is you're no longer here.
Speaker 1: This will stand the test of.
Speaker 2: Time when people say, who were the designers in this time?
Speaker 2: It's because of you that we're going to be able
Speaker 2: to say, Oh, not only do I get to read
Speaker 2: it in the book, I get to watch it on
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 4: So first of all, Tiffany, all right, fine.
Speaker 6: I'm gonna stop, be careful I know, I'm like, you know,
Speaker 6: it's so hard because you're just in it and you're
Speaker 6: doing it.
Speaker 5: And even listening to you, I like felt myself getting
Speaker 5: emotional just listening to you because you're just I'm just
Speaker 5: doing the stuff that I feel like needs to.
Speaker 4: 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. And so even you know, when we came
Speaker 5: up with the first book, which I have with me,
Speaker 5: the first book, you know, it was nice.
Speaker 4: And I was like, this is okay, but it's just
Speaker 4: I was like, this isn't it.
Speaker 5: I can't put this out in the world because every
Speaker 5: time we put something out in the world that frames
Speaker 5: designers of color is not about a jam bar 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 original paintings that were scanned into the book. So
Speaker 5: we have an original painting for every last one of these.
Speaker 4: Like I'd say to people all the.
Speaker 5: Time, like get the book, get to cut out the
Speaker 5: pictures and frame them like.
Speaker 4: It's it's a prince. Beautiful artwork.
Speaker 3: It's beautiful art additional product you can add to the
Speaker 3: website where sold. Just want the Prince here, you know.
Speaker 3: Also an incredible contract for Ashley. Also what a delicious name,
Speaker 3: Like I just want to save that for when I
Speaker 3: write a novel.
Speaker 4: She just.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but she is. But to get that
Speaker 3: opportunity as well, it's just so in line with the
Speaker 3: work that you're doing. That's amazing.
Speaker 4: 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 3: Look at that.
Speaker 5: So you know, I love it when just like you knows, women.
Speaker 1: Make everything, just say that Black women make everybody.
Speaker 4: Let me tell you, you know, like we had seasoning and.
Speaker 2: It's like Troy from from Earner Lisa always says, saw
Speaker 2: sold separately.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we you know, we bring that sauce.
Speaker 2: And so like the fact that you have pictures commissioned
Speaker 2: like that is another level of excellence, you know, people
Speaker 2: don't go that extra mile.
Speaker 1: But it's that's why you're here.
Speaker 2: For some of you might be listening and saying, why
Speaker 2: hasn't something X y Z happened for me?
Speaker 1: Sometimes it's not just the work, it's the extra mile.
Speaker 2: Like for Brendan's to have picked I mean, there are
Speaker 2: all of these paintings in here. You could have easily
Speaker 2: been like, we're not doing all that. That's too much
Speaker 2: work to have someone paint each designer. And I know
Speaker 2: because you told me that you would not put the
Speaker 2: painting in the book unless the designer said I like it.
Speaker 4: 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 Palmain had to say this is approved.
Speaker 2: And so imagine all these creatives and how long that
Speaker 2: must have taken. That extra mile is why you where
Speaker 2: you are where you are, and that's why this book
Speaker 2: is so beautiful.
Speaker 1: Literally, it's on my coffee table. I had to run before.
Speaker 2: I had to run down and come back up because
Speaker 2: I keep it on my coffee table because.
Speaker 1: It's really of this book that I want.
Speaker 2: When people come in they're like, oh, what's this, I'm like,
Speaker 2: it's my friend, I love it.
Speaker 3: I remember when Christian Siriano his book launched. Are you
Speaker 3: going to be in that fancy store in flat Iron?
Speaker 3: Do you know what I'm talking in the flat Iron district?
Speaker 4: I know exactly what story talking about is.
Speaker 3: I mean, yeah, yes, I just googled it. But I'm
Speaker 3: not going to pretend like I knew it before I
Speaker 3: google it.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Always, I'm like you.
Speaker 5: Always, well actually produced the book, and since we produced
Speaker 5: this one ourselves, well we'll see.
Speaker 4: I want to hear.
Speaker 2: She was in the front of Macy's okay, the flagship
Speaker 2: store in New York. I don't know if it was
Speaker 2: it was a week that it came out, right, Brandish right,
Speaker 2: so had event and we we we all came by
Speaker 2: and she was like, let's walk around the corner to
Speaker 2: the flagship, Macy's flagship meaning like the first, the like
Speaker 2: the most. I mean it was not only the book,
Speaker 2: it was they had these huge screens of the inside
Speaker 2: of the book. I mean, how are you in the
Speaker 2: front of Macy's. Like, that's what I'm just saying, brand
Speaker 2: It's all here like just something like you know, just nothing,
Speaker 2: it's nothing.
Speaker 1: What's heavy over here?
Speaker 4: 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 hf R and
Speaker 5: their windows for Black Castreet 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 4: I'm not just gonna put anything in there.
Speaker 5: And then my team kept meeting with Macy's and I
Speaker 5: kept saying, why what are you guys talking about when.
Speaker 4: You meet, because we don't have anything.
Speaker 5: And finally, you know, somebody from my team was like,
Speaker 5: what about the book. I was like, there's no way
Speaker 5: that book is gonna be ready in time for Black
Speaker 5: History Month. A week go by and everything on my
Speaker 5: spirit is like, Branda's do it.
Speaker 4: 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. We had a conference
Speaker 5: call on Christmas Eve. It was bananas and nuts and
Speaker 5: Ashley had to paint her little heart out.
Speaker 3: But one time, what was the timeline?
Speaker 4: It was?
Speaker 5: It was like six weeks for us to get basically
Speaker 5: all of this for us to redo this book and
Speaker 5: do the new one. I actually had to crank out
Speaker 5: like one or two paintings a day, which she says
Speaker 5: she's never done in her life.
Speaker 4: She was like, I was like, how did you do this?
Speaker 4: And she said, Brandon is, I don't know. Something came
Speaker 4: 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 4: 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 god, should I be doing this? This is I
Speaker 5: don't even know if we could 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. I didn't know
Speaker 5: what I was doing. That was how our 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 like
Speaker 5: sometimes you just have to I say, Cliff jump.
Speaker 4: Sometimes you just have to go.
Speaker 5: And you really have to have faith that if I
Speaker 5: put forth the work on my end, that is all
Speaker 5: going to work out.
Speaker 3: So you produced it yourself. So first you created this book.
Speaker 3: How much did you sink into that book? And then say, okay,
Speaker 3: we're gonna we're going to keep working on this. And
Speaker 3: then when you got the Macy's deal, like you were
Speaker 3: you literally were printing your own book, like getting doing
Speaker 3: all the work of a publisher.
Speaker 4: All the work of a publisher.
Speaker 3: Well this isn't like self publishing on Amazon. This is like, well,
Speaker 3: you're creating a bit book.
Speaker 5: Yeah, we had to call one hundred printers in order
Speaker 5: to find one that could print. Because the top of
Speaker 5: it is metallic. It was a certain quality that we wanted.
Speaker 5: So there's like a finish on.
Speaker 4: Here that feels almost like satin.
Speaker 5: There are so many different things that we wanted that
Speaker 5: it was hard to find.
Speaker 4: People will go, we can do it, but we can't
Speaker 4: do the metallic. We can do this, but we can't
Speaker 4: do that.
Speaker 5: And so yeah, we have to find all the things
Speaker 5: and we work with mind matters which is a small
Speaker 5: black owned publishing company too.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know we lifting.
Speaker 2: I just love that that, like you know, your your
Speaker 2: determination to lift as you climb, you know, like because.
Speaker 1: It could be easy to be like, well we'll just
Speaker 1: do this.
Speaker 2: It's like no where we can find there has to
Speaker 2: be someone of color that can do this thing. Like
Speaker 2: you know, I can't say this is the mission and
Speaker 2: then abandoned the mission. You know that's huge, Like look
Speaker 2: what you've done for you know, for Ashley as a result,
Speaker 2: you know, this exposure, and so I just love that.
Speaker 2: So what so where I know you and I always
Speaker 2: talking about, like you know, the direction of like where
Speaker 2: you want to go into and so where do you see?
Speaker 2: So you know you have Harlem Fashion role, you have
Speaker 2: your nonprofit. You know you I know for a fact
Speaker 2: that you've been teaching people how to get their own sponsorships.
Speaker 2: You've taught a class to my you know, my company
Speaker 2: brands came in and sold at about because we want
Speaker 2: to do more, you know, we want to align ourselves
Speaker 2: with the brands that we like even more.
Speaker 1: And so like what's next?
Speaker 2: So you have this book that people can purchase like
Speaker 2: we're and I also know that you have, it's a
Speaker 2: HFR dot co where if you're black.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we have HFR and co.
Speaker 5: And then I just released this this book to help
Speaker 5: people who want to do brand partnerships.
Speaker 4: So it's small business big partnerships.
Speaker 5: And where where I see myself personally going is doing
Speaker 5: more coaching, doing more teaching people. The number one question
Speaker 5: I get is how do you get big brands to.
Speaker 4: 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.
Speaker 4: I want to teach more.
Speaker 5: I have not really leaned into I'm very inspirational on Instagram,
Speaker 5: so you follow me, there's like, you know, tons.
Speaker 4: Of inspiration, but I really want to lean into the
Speaker 4: teacher in me.
Speaker 5: I want to lean into the person who can really
Speaker 5: help people, you know, work through some of these ideas
Speaker 5: that they have and how do they bring them to
Speaker 5: light and then how do they work with really large
Speaker 5: brands to help them basically amplify their ideas because there
Speaker 5: is nothing like partnering.
Speaker 4: Like when we partner with Nike and Lebron James.
Speaker 5: That's skyrocketed our business, our reputation, our visibility.
Speaker 4: 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 5: They were just like, this is insane.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 5: And so when you get those kind of numbers, you
Speaker 5: get those by working with or by collaboration and partnership.
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.
Speaker 4: On for.
Speaker 1: Well, don't forget Mandy.
Speaker 2: We are gonna have Brandon's is actually gonna stay for
Speaker 2: our Friday episode VIAQA. So even as we wrap, like
Speaker 2: know that she's going to stay on and answer some
Speaker 2: business questions.
Speaker 3: What about for questions?
Speaker 4: Because I hate question.
Speaker 3: Sorry, I have been mentally cataloging seventeen thousand questions to
Speaker 3: ask you. I haven't asked the simplest one yet. What
Speaker 3: were you doing before Harlem Fashion?
Speaker 4: Bro?
Speaker 3: What's your background in in terms of the skills you
Speaker 3: were bringing to HFR.
Speaker 4: So I was working in apparel production.
Speaker 5: So everything that it's if you look at the back
Speaker 5: your back label and you see like it's made in somewhere.
Speaker 5: You know, I was the one who was handling that
Speaker 5: production at the factory for a company that worked with
Speaker 5: Victoria's Secret.
Speaker 4: 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 3: Okay, So you were in like the you were in
Speaker 3: the bones of the fashion industry, like this is how
Speaker 3: the sausage is made sort of on that side of.
Speaker 4: Okay, very glamorous part.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I just picture like the factories with the bedazzled
Speaker 3: push up bras, just like you know, and I love that.
Speaker 1: All.
Speaker 4: 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 2: Okay, well, brand as you are an inspiration not just
Speaker 2: to me and Mandy, but to so many people who
Speaker 2: are going to listen and think like wow, like you know,
Speaker 2: we are capable of more.
Speaker 1: Than sometimes we give ourselves credit for.
Speaker 2: My final question is, like for those people who are
Speaker 2: struggling with execution, because to me, that's the that's the
Speaker 2: thing that I'm always most impressed about when it comes
Speaker 2: to you, is that you know, you don't just have
Speaker 2: an idea. A lot of people are ideas people, but
Speaker 2: you know how to see something through all the way
Speaker 2: through to execution. And so like, what are some things
Speaker 2: that folks who are struggling with execution, what are some
Speaker 2: ways to start to build that muscle, you know, if
Speaker 2: they want to start to execute better.
Speaker 5: So I would announce like we're having an event this date,
Speaker 5: and then I would have to then figure out how
Speaker 5: to do that. But I would basically set a deadline,
Speaker 5: make the deadline public, and bring in some accountability.
Speaker 4: If you do that, quite frankly, like you will execute.
Speaker 1: Okay, set a deadline.
Speaker 4: Okay, set a deadline, make it public, make your deadline,
Speaker 4: announce it.
Speaker 2: I'm literally taking those I'm like me because when I
Speaker 2: say people, I mean me. I'm not the worst executor,
Speaker 2: but I could be better.
Speaker 4: Amazing executor.
Speaker 2: No, I'm just good at like and you know, like
Speaker 2: get my team together to be like, so this is
Speaker 2: what we're gonna do, as in, you're.
Speaker 4: Part of it, that's part of it.
Speaker 1: Okay, settle deadline, make it public said, make it public. Yeah.
Speaker 2: And if the people want to follow you, they want
Speaker 2: 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 4: And then if you want.
Speaker 5: The Fashion and Color book, you can go to Harlem's
Speaker 5: Fashion Road dot com and you can get the book
Speaker 5: from there.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Brand Is guys, don't forget that.
Speaker 2: If you want some more brown ambition with Brandis, she's
Speaker 2: gonna be on with us on Friday. And I know
Speaker 2: that because we're about to take it right now and
Speaker 2: so you can get some more We're gonna really dive.
Speaker 1: Deep into some business questions.
Speaker 2: So thanks for If you thought this episode is awesome,
Speaker 2: please share it, Okay, don't be greedy, share it with somebody, Okay,
Speaker 2: All right, bye passssssssssssssssssssssss