Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today we have another
Speaker 1: special guest. We have Rachel Jones from Trill Pause, owner, founder,
Speaker 1: creator of trill Pause, which is a luxury accessory lifestyle
Speaker 1: brand for our little pups and our guests. Right sure,
Speaker 1: So what caught my attention was a couple of things
Speaker 1: why we have Rachel here today. But one of the
Speaker 1: things that I like about your brand is can you
Speaker 1: share some of your dog tags? That is very I
Speaker 1: mean creative and just really cool so guests can get
Speaker 1: an idea.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, So. Our best selling tag is have your people
Speaker 3: call my people.
Speaker 2: We've had that tag.
Speaker 3: Since we launched the brand and it is still the
Speaker 3: best selling to this day. We have not not all
Speaker 3: who wander are loss but I am.
Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, that's the one I like too, Okay.
Speaker 2: Super cute.
Speaker 3: Another one that I love is Extra. It's so it
Speaker 3: has the word extra on it with an avocado, so
Speaker 3: it's like, you know when you're at chipolt and you
Speaker 3: ask for the glock and.
Speaker 2: They're like, it's gonna be extra.
Speaker 3: And it's also for those dogs like mine who just
Speaker 3: has a ridiculous over the top personality. Cuddly as fuck
Speaker 3: is gonna be a good one.
Speaker 1: I like that one, Love that one, love that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so a lot of them are funny, and I
Speaker 3: just the goal is to make people laugh and somehow
Speaker 3: associate the name of the tag to their dog somehow,
Speaker 3: And so I feel like we've kind of found that magic.
Speaker 1: Yes, And then when I look at your leashes, I
Speaker 1: did try to get my hands on some of your accessories,
Speaker 1: but even her leashes, like the materials like really soft.
Speaker 1: It looks very high quality, not your typical, you know,
Speaker 1: run to the pet store leash. So that's pretty exciting too.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, the leashes are great.
Speaker 3: I design them with the goal to be able to
Speaker 3: clean them, you know, because their dogs can get dirty
Speaker 3: or like get into things, and I wanted to be
Speaker 3: able to put a warm paper towel to it and
Speaker 3: clean it and it not be smelly.
Speaker 2: And so that's that.
Speaker 3: And the tolls that I can play with different colors
Speaker 3: with this material, like I love this red, but I
Speaker 3: can do like a deep forest green.
Speaker 2: I can do a neon green if I feel like it.
Speaker 3: And yeah, so it's great. I had a lot of
Speaker 3: fun designing the leashes and collars.
Speaker 1: I love the creativity you put into it because it
Speaker 1: like really brings the personality and matches the dog and
Speaker 1: the owner. And if I ever saw a dog with
Speaker 1: that type of name tag, no matter how cute and
Speaker 1: expensive that dog is, I feel like, oh, I have
Speaker 1: to return it just because of the tag. You know
Speaker 1: what I'm saying. You feel like, uh, yeah, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: return this dog. You know, you know there are little
Speaker 1: dog thieves, But I'm just saying like, if you saw
Speaker 1: a dog with that tag, you'd be like, you know what,
Speaker 1: this dog got just a little bit too much pozzazed
Speaker 1: in its ownership and everything's.
Speaker 2: Gonna miss the dog.
Speaker 1: Yeah, clear, the owner is gonna miss this dog definitely.
Speaker 1: So before I get into like the who, why and
Speaker 1: where you came up with this whole trill pause thing,
Speaker 1: we gotta know what you were eating when you were broke. Yes,
Speaker 1: So what is the dish you're gonna have me eating
Speaker 1: for breakfast today?
Speaker 3: So they are ground turkey tacos aka budget tacos.
Speaker 2: And it was a dish that I did grow up eating.
Speaker 3: My dad made a more elevated version of this with
Speaker 3: better ingredients. But when I stepped out on my own
Speaker 3: and moved into my apartment with no furniture. This was
Speaker 3: a meal that I would make.
Speaker 2: Every Tuesday, Taco Tuesday.
Speaker 3: And you know, with twenty dollars, I could feed twenty
Speaker 3: people with these ingredients. And so you know, over the
Speaker 3: years the recipe has been perfected. You know, I use
Speaker 3: better ingredients today if I do do it. But in
Speaker 3: the beginning, it was just ground turkey, taco seasoning, corn,
Speaker 3: tortillas and cheese, and everyone would be beyond satisfied. And
Speaker 3: it was just it was just a time back then.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Everyone would come over.
Speaker 3: Sit on the floor, yep, you know, and we would
Speaker 3: just eat our ground turkey tacos on paper plates and
Speaker 3: just you know, live our young lives.
Speaker 1: It's so funny when you say, like no furniture, you
Speaker 1: literally take me back to like every girlfriend of mine,
Speaker 1: when we get an apartment. It would be like a
Speaker 1: one bedroom apartment. They would literally be no furniture in it.
Speaker 1: It was like rent was paid and there was a
Speaker 1: bunch of blankets, but furniture was not an option. And
Speaker 1: even for myself, I remember all the way up to
Speaker 1: like I was twenty six, at the bed on the
Speaker 1: little square thing with the wheels. Do you know what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about? Like without the frame, it was just
Speaker 1: like that was what your been like sat on until
Speaker 1: one of my homies was like, you could do better.
Speaker 1: You can definitely do better. You feel much better off.
Speaker 1: It came home to a bad frame and I was
Speaker 1: like really, and he was like, yeah, get a bed frame,
Speaker 1: and then completely changed my life. I was like, oh shit,
Speaker 1: bad frames do matter exactly, but go ahead, you can start.
Speaker 1: I think our intros were so good that Jared's probably
Speaker 1: not gonna make us reallydo it, so you could go
Speaker 1: ahead and start cooking for us.
Speaker 3: You don't mind, yes, So first things first, it's always
Speaker 3: cooking the turkey first because it takes the longest.
Speaker 1: Yes. And then you don't put oil in your pan?
Speaker 1: Do you?
Speaker 2: I actually do. I just put a little bit of oil, so.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll just put put a hair back. In the day,
Speaker 3: it was definitely vegetable oil. To day when I make
Speaker 3: the talks, it's all oil.
Speaker 1: So you know what I learned after being on eating
Speaker 1: while broke is that I used to think olive oil
Speaker 1: is like, okay, you know, the better more premium oil.
Speaker 1: But what I've been learning is is that each oil
Speaker 1: burns differently, And I didn't know that. I think we
Speaker 1: had a couple of chefs teach me a couple lessons,
Speaker 1: like what oil to use for what? Okay, but if
Speaker 1: you asked me to tell you what oil is for
Speaker 1: what right now, I couldn't tell you, you know, But
Speaker 1: you're right.
Speaker 3: Like summer smokier. I don't have that knowledge. I just
Speaker 3: want to make sure the burner. I think it might
Speaker 3: be on too high. But yeah, I mean for me,
Speaker 3: if this is vegetable oil, yeah, no, it's canola.
Speaker 1: Oh there's a difference. Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 2: That's my knowledge. I guess know.
Speaker 3: It was like you can get this big bottle for
Speaker 3: what like three forty nine?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, and it's like you'll.
Speaker 1: Have it for months. Yeah. So it's funny because back
Speaker 1: in the day, if you went grocery shopping, it was cheaper.
Speaker 1: But now when I go grocery shop and I'm like,
Speaker 1: I don't know.
Speaker 2: Like, how did I spend two hundred dollars on nothing?
Speaker 1: On nothing? And usually when you spend two hundred dollars,
Speaker 1: you're like, okay, I walked away with like three things
Speaker 1: of protein. Yeah, it'd be like I didn't walk away
Speaker 1: with no protein, nothing, nothing, nothing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's wild. It's definitely wild.
Speaker 1: Oh that's sizzling.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So while you're doing these tacos, and I feel bad
Speaker 1: for all our listeners because I can literally hear the sizzle.
Speaker 3: Hear it.
Speaker 1: She's cooking, guys, it's a cooking show. Take me back to,
Speaker 1: like what was going on in the home of you
Speaker 1: when you were making these tacos. And I think you
Speaker 1: could take me back. I know you said you did
Speaker 1: it later on after you got your first apartment, but
Speaker 1: kind of take me back to you a little bit
Speaker 1: of your home life growing up.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I grew up. I grew up in La.
Speaker 3: My parents were together until I was thirteen, and after thirteen,
Speaker 3: you know, my dad moved out. He didn't move far,
Speaker 3: but he moved out, and he was the sort of
Speaker 3: disciplinarian of the family. So the second he moved out,
Speaker 3: all hell broke loose in my head. I went from
Speaker 3: being a straight A student to oh, well, I guess
Speaker 3: I don't have to do anything because my mom was
Speaker 3: so busy, you know, working forty fifty hours a week,
Speaker 3: and so I briefly became a degenerate and I just
Speaker 3: so my whole school career was sort of in the
Speaker 3: toilet and I was just focused on anything but and so.
Speaker 2: It took me.
Speaker 3: I just had a lot of trouble in high school,
Speaker 3: a lot of trouble, and you know, got out of
Speaker 3: high school, enrolled myself in La Valley College, which isn't
Speaker 3: far from here, decided to study child development meant and
Speaker 3: completely turned everything around somehow, by the grace of God,
Speaker 3: turned everything around.
Speaker 2: And I was like, okay, I'm setting child development. I
Speaker 2: need a job. Let me get a job as a nanny.
Speaker 3: I hear it pays well, I hear it's paid cash. Like,
Speaker 3: let me try this out during and so nanny's let
Speaker 3: you live with them, right yeah yeah, travel with them?
Speaker 1: Oh wow, you know.
Speaker 3: And so I was like, this is interesting. I want
Speaker 3: to learn about children, and I need money. And so
Speaker 3: I got a job with a family and stayed with
Speaker 3: that family for ten years.
Speaker 2: Stop school, yep, stop.
Speaker 1: Like or was it were they paid enough where you
Speaker 1: were like cool?
Speaker 2: Or they were paying they were paying enough? And it
Speaker 2: was it was cushiony. It was.
Speaker 3: I was very comfortable the kids, and I grew to
Speaker 3: be very pardon me, the kids and I grew to
Speaker 3: be very close, and I just, yeah, I like quit
Speaker 3: all of my school ambitions and did this full time.
Speaker 1: Wow, And how old were you at the time I started?
Speaker 2: When I was twenty nineteen twenty jeez.
Speaker 1: Yes, that's a long dedication. It just long. Yeah, So
Speaker 1: what makes you at that point decide, Okay, I'm gonna pivot.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna pivot out of this because that's that's a
Speaker 1: lot of comfort. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So I was very as comfortable as I was.
Speaker 2: I wanted more and I just didn't know how to
Speaker 2: get it.
Speaker 3: I didn't know what to do to get more, and
Speaker 3: I didn't know what that more was.
Speaker 2: And so I would.
Speaker 3: Look for different jobs, and every job that I was
Speaker 3: interested in required a degree, and so I was just
Speaker 3: so discouraged, you know, I'm like, damn, like, what am
Speaker 3: I gonna do? And so I sort of figured that
Speaker 3: if I wanted to be successful, I had to start
Speaker 3: a business because everything, you know, if I wanted to
Speaker 3: go work here, they there were just so many.
Speaker 2: It was just so impossible for me.
Speaker 3: And so I just started to idate and think about
Speaker 3: different businesses that I could start in. A friend of
Speaker 3: mine attempted to start a bikini brand, and you know,
Speaker 3: there was a juice company that I wanted to start,
Speaker 3: and I just didn't really have the skill set and
Speaker 3: the knowledge too. I could start something, but to fully
Speaker 3: execute with something that I just I couldn't refine that task.
Speaker 3: And so I got to a point in my late
Speaker 3: twenties where I was like, okay, like something has to give.
Speaker 1: So I'm surprised you did you see an entrepreneur something,
Speaker 1: because usually people don't just well, I don't know if
Speaker 1: people do this, and people could correct me, but like
Speaker 1: I didn't know. People just randomly will say like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I think I want to start a business, because that's
Speaker 1: such a big feat. No, I didn't.
Speaker 3: I did not grow up with any entrepreneurs in my
Speaker 3: family at all. But I was very entrepreneurial as a
Speaker 3: kid when I sat and thought about my.
Speaker 1: You were in school like sodas and chips or something exactly, Okay, Yeah.
Speaker 3: And I at our elementary school were sitting around one
Speaker 3: day and I think.
Speaker 2: We saw on TV at like the cooler kids in high.
Speaker 3: School had student stores and we were in elementary school,
Speaker 3: and I was like, well, why can't we have a
Speaker 3: student store? So we literally built out a student store
Speaker 3: that remained at the school years after, and every.
Speaker 2: I think it was once a week, let's just call
Speaker 2: it Thursday.
Speaker 3: They cleared out a classroom and brought in books, pencils, paper,
Speaker 3: Domino's Pizza would come in and sell pizza.
Speaker 2: And so we we did that, you.
Speaker 1: Know, and I think there were a handful of things.
Speaker 3: That things like that that showed me.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like, yeah, you had it in you
Speaker 1: you were Yeah, it was already there.
Speaker 3: It was there, it was, and it was it was
Speaker 3: definitely dormant during my twenties. I was just focused on
Speaker 3: anything but personal growth. And I think once all the
Speaker 3: noise sort of you know, quieted itself, I was like, okay.
Speaker 2: Like let's let's let's revisit that and let's.
Speaker 3: Focus because you've got I have so many ideas. I
Speaker 3: will always have an idea. Let me just figure out
Speaker 3: how to execute. Yeah, And so I actually started a
Speaker 3: business prior to the pet Tag company where I saw
Speaker 3: the girls that I was babysitting, they were wearing Air
Speaker 3: Force ones and we wore Air Force ones back in
Speaker 3: the day. And I started to see this trend where
Speaker 3: everything that we did back then they were doing now
Speaker 3: I'm like, Okay, so if they're wearing this now, I
Speaker 3: can kind of predict that this trend that I'm familiar
Speaker 3: with will become a thing too. And so I don't
Speaker 3: know if you remember putting like Louis Vuitton Gucci luxury
Speaker 3: prints on air Force ones?
Speaker 1: Remember I remember people doing it, you know, And so
Speaker 1: I was like.
Speaker 3: If that was pop And then I think I can
Speaker 3: make this pot now. And it was just a hustle.
Speaker 3: It was, yeah, trying to figure out how you can
Speaker 3: get extra cash. And so a friend of mine and
Speaker 3: I did all the research, figured out how to get
Speaker 3: faux luxury prints, but learn we wanted to make it
Speaker 3: more feminine, make it more cool, make it more trendy.
Speaker 3: So we added a few details to the air Force one,
Speaker 3: and we sold so many air Force ones, so much
Speaker 3: so that Kylie Jenner.
Speaker 2: Were the Air Force ones. And what it was just
Speaker 2: it just it made us a lot of money fast.
Speaker 1: And you did it before the trend hit.
Speaker 2: Before the trend hit brilliant, So yeah.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's that's that's extremely impressive to see the eye
Speaker 1: for that, to even have the eye.
Speaker 2: For that, And I was, I guess I was hungry
Speaker 2: at that.
Speaker 1: You were hungry, but you were you were paying attention.
Speaker 1: That was like natural, little little bit of natural in
Speaker 1: you right there. I would definitely say, yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: even know how to say that, because that's that's really
Speaker 1: natural for you to pick up and observe that.
Speaker 2: I'll take it.
Speaker 1: So I guess you know what, I will say, the
Speaker 1: hustle are in you because because it would take a
Speaker 1: hustle to like even peep that. But very impressive move.
Speaker 1: I would say, very impressive, like if you were on
Speaker 1: a basketball court, I would say that that's a that's
Speaker 1: a strong pivot game. And how are you selling them?
Speaker 2: So we sold.
Speaker 3: Them online, created a website, sold them online primarily Instagram,
Speaker 3: just all the like hot Instagram girls loved them.
Speaker 2: We would give them a lot just for organic marketing.
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, okay, we made that business acumen was good, right,
Speaker 1: That business agument was good. Okay, that wasn't That wasn't
Speaker 1: your average business acumen, to be honest.
Speaker 2: It was.
Speaker 3: It was wild and it was fun and we at
Speaker 3: some point were going to get shut down because we
Speaker 3: were selling you know, these fo Gucci and it was
Speaker 3: and it was blown up and so we may or
Speaker 3: may not have got a few like cease and desist letters,
Speaker 3: and our website was like, we can no longer accept
Speaker 3: your pain. You gotta find, you know, a third party.
Speaker 3: And so it just we kept running into these roadblocks.
Speaker 3: And my husband boyfriend at the time but now a
Speaker 3: husband would joke and say like this is cool, but
Speaker 3: like this is gonna burn fat. So you need to
Speaker 3: figure you need to figure out what else to do.
Speaker 1: I love it, and so it's funny.
Speaker 3: We sat down and we went to coffee one Saturday
Speaker 3: morning and he was like, let's figure it out.
Speaker 2: Let's sit down and let's figure it out.
Speaker 1: He was like, let's let's turn you legitimate.
Speaker 2: We got we got your.
Speaker 1: Your your your illegal side out, we got your hustle
Speaker 1: spear because you had and I could see why he
Speaker 1: did it. You had all the ingredients of a successful entrepreneur.
Speaker 2: Who was it.
Speaker 1: We were interviewing a country Wayne and he was doing
Speaker 1: like a legal activity and he just his focus was
Speaker 1: like I want to get out of a legal activity,
Speaker 1: and that was like became his focus. He was good
Speaker 1: at it, but he needed a transition. And it sounds
Speaker 1: like you, I mean, you're a legal activity. Obviously sounds
Speaker 1: prettier than what he was doing. But you know, you
Speaker 1: had obviously the skill set for your husband to sit
Speaker 1: there and be or your you know, boyfriend at the time,
Speaker 1: to say, okay, let's see where we could apply it
Speaker 1: to something more legit. So when you not that I
Speaker 1: want to spend a lot of time on your pre
Speaker 1: pre entrepreneur brand, your little your sneaker hustle, but I
Speaker 1: am curious. So you get the prince, what is your
Speaker 1: first step to take it to market and promote it?
Speaker 1: Because it sounds like you started moving a lot and
Speaker 1: you're talking e commerce, internet, social media. How did you
Speaker 1: do it?
Speaker 3: So we tried to move quickly because I understood that
Speaker 3: it was a trend it was a trendy product. So
Speaker 3: source the fabric from overseas, bought a bunch of air
Speaker 3: force ones retail.
Speaker 2: And just spent a week two weeks.
Speaker 3: Trying to find someone that could actually sew these these
Speaker 3: prints onto the shoe. So that took about two three weeks,
Speaker 3: and then at that point it was just all right,
Speaker 3: let's start the Instagram. Let's take as many photos as
Speaker 3: we can. So we were putting on the shoes and
Speaker 3: going to what's that street Beverly to like take photos
Speaker 3: in front of the pink wall, and let's just do
Speaker 3: as much as we can get the website going, upload
Speaker 3: those photos to the website, and let's just press go.
Speaker 3: And obviously there was no real action the first day
Speaker 3: or two that we launched. So you know, my idea was,
Speaker 3: all right, let's spend time engaging with accounts on Instagram.
Speaker 2: Let's let know, let people know that we exist.
Speaker 3: And I still use that tactic today.
Speaker 2: You know, it's going on.
Speaker 3: Someone's page who appears to be the ideal customer, liking
Speaker 3: a few photos, commenting and basically saying.
Speaker 2: We're here, Like, hey, we're here. And so we did
Speaker 2: a lot of that.
Speaker 3: We did a little bit of gifting to macro and
Speaker 3: micro influencers, people that weren't asking.
Speaker 2: Us to pay them for these posts.
Speaker 3: And it just slowly took off and eventually it caught fire.
Speaker 3: And so you know, it was a lot of organic,
Speaker 3: a lot of learning on the fly.
Speaker 2: I knew nothing.
Speaker 1: Did you end up when you were buying the sneakers?
Speaker 1: Did you wait for people to place the order to
Speaker 1: buy the sneaker or did you end up with like,
Speaker 1: oh damn, we're out of size eights.
Speaker 3: It was we were sold out a lot, and so
Speaker 3: there would be mind you, I was still working as
Speaker 3: a nanny full time, so after I got off work,
Speaker 3: I would head to the mall and hit this foot locker,
Speaker 3: that foot locker, this foot locker.
Speaker 2: Do you have a size eight all white air Force one?
Speaker 3: No, okay, lady footlocker might And so it was just
Speaker 3: a lot of me running around town grabbing as many
Speaker 3: women's all white shoes as I possibly could.
Speaker 1: And women were your top purchase.
Speaker 3: Ye, And we had I mean, we definitely had men
Speaker 3: that were inquiring.
Speaker 2: But the whole brand, and I say that in quotes
Speaker 2: that we established it was for women.
Speaker 1: The name of the company was v okay okay, you know,
Speaker 1: so if you can.
Speaker 2: Read between the lines, and it was just it was
Speaker 2: just a brand for women. Yeah. So and that helped
Speaker 2: because otherwise.
Speaker 3: I can't imagine running around town trying to find both sizes.
Speaker 1: And well, I would definitely say you for your first business,
Speaker 1: that was the most gangst the first business I've seen,
Speaker 1: and you you did it great. So now let's talk
Speaker 1: about trill pass so or the conversation with your husband
Speaker 1: or your boyfriend at the time kind of walk me
Speaker 1: through what's going on. He's like, baby, girl friends are
Speaker 1: about to pull up on us.
Speaker 2: Yes, in so many words.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And so we sat down for coffee and the goal
Speaker 3: during that session was we can't leave until we figure
Speaker 3: it out. Because I had been scratching my head for
Speaker 3: months knowing that this wasn't practical, this wasn't real.
Speaker 2: So I was like, what is it? I don't know,
Speaker 2: I don't know, I'll think about it later.
Speaker 3: But he was like, no more, I don't know, Like,
Speaker 3: let's sit down and figure it out. And so, you know,
Speaker 3: I started to ask myself in that conversation, what do
Speaker 3: I love? You know, when people you hear established entrepreneurs
Speaker 3: talk about their business, they often go back to, well,
Speaker 3: you know, they say like, do what you love? And
Speaker 3: I hated that thought because I love, I truly love
Speaker 3: so much.
Speaker 2: Like I love food more than anyone I know.
Speaker 3: I love music more than anyone I know, Like I
Speaker 3: love there's just you know, there's just so that's that's
Speaker 3: so difficult for me to just sit and think about
Speaker 3: a thing that I love.
Speaker 2: But when I thought.
Speaker 3: About my everyday life and what I spend most of
Speaker 3: my time thinking about, were like, what brings the greatest
Speaker 3: reaction out of me. It's dogs.
Speaker 2: I will pet you, I will ask you, but I
Speaker 2: will pet your dog. I will pet your dog. I
Speaker 2: will ask you, but I will pet your dog.
Speaker 1: If you're trying to get a nice quiet walk and
Speaker 1: you passed Rachel, you're probably.
Speaker 3: Like, so I'm that person. You know, to this day,
Speaker 3: I'm that person. And so I was like, Okay, that's.
Speaker 2: Interesting, maybe there's something there.
Speaker 3: And so I started to think about when you have
Speaker 3: a dog, what are the things that you need to
Speaker 3: get for that dog. You need the food, you need
Speaker 3: the bulls to put.
Speaker 2: The food in. You need the you know, you need
Speaker 2: the least, you need, the collar, you need this. And
Speaker 2: so I'm like, okay, the pet. You need a pet.
Speaker 2: You need a pet. Tack, God forbid your dog gets out.
Speaker 1: You need one. But I think what I like about
Speaker 1: Trail Pause is the flavor in like the and I
Speaker 1: say flavor as in like the lifestyle, the trend that
Speaker 1: you have of just the uniqueness of you know, like
Speaker 1: when I describe my dog, it's like he's a muck
Speaker 1: with attitude, or he's you know, of course everyone thinks
Speaker 1: their dog, especially I'm like my dog could join the Olympics.
Speaker 1: He's so fast, you know, he can out run a groundhog.
Speaker 1: Like he's he's a little I think, you know, but
Speaker 1: when you think about your dog, especially when you first
Speaker 1: get him, I mean, I don't know about ten years
Speaker 1: in because you know, my daughter just shattered one of
Speaker 1: his balls. I need to replace it. But like, but no,
Speaker 1: you know you you love to spoil your dog. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's like a nice guilty pleasure. Like I go
Speaker 1: into the dog food to the dog store, and I like,
Speaker 1: what treat looks the best. We're gonna just hook him up.
Speaker 1: Like I never buy a dog without just bawling out
Speaker 1: on dog treats.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, Like how can you make your dog's day? It
Speaker 3: is the mentality for a lot of people these days.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know. And so I think that I grew
Speaker 2: up with dogs. We've I was born into a house
Speaker 2: with dogs.
Speaker 3: We've never not had a dog, And so I'm very
Speaker 3: familiar with going to the pet.
Speaker 2: Store and just going crazy.
Speaker 3: And I'm also familiar with, you know, we've got this
Speaker 3: new dog and we need to put a tag on
Speaker 3: him or her, and I'm you know, going going onto
Speaker 3: the kiosk and purchasing like that standard bone tag tag.
Speaker 1: It's like, ill, like you never look at tags the same, right, right.
Speaker 3: I know I've become that person too, But it was
Speaker 3: it was that, It's like, okay, that.
Speaker 2: Was cool, but it was boring.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: After you, you know, you get the tag, it's like okay,
Speaker 3: and it's just a bone and it starts to rust
Speaker 3: and it's not special.
Speaker 2: And so I'm like, okay, how can we make that special?
Speaker 3: They will wear it every day, you know, I mean,
Speaker 3: it can be so much more than what it is.
Speaker 2: And so that's when I started to explore. After we
Speaker 2: left the coffee.
Speaker 1: Shop, I was gonna say, so, like at the coffee
Speaker 1: shop where you like, you know what I think it is?
Speaker 1: We gonna make dog tags? Cool? Was it that? Or
Speaker 1: was it like I think I'm going to go in
Speaker 1: the arena of dogs.
Speaker 2: Nope, it was I think we're gonna make dog tags.
Speaker 2: I was pumped.
Speaker 1: I was like dog tags. So we went from Air
Speaker 1: Force once the dog No.
Speaker 3: He I mean he also grew up around dogs and
Speaker 3: he gets it.
Speaker 2: He's like that's it. Yeah, like you got it.
Speaker 3: And so I left the coffee shop high off of
Speaker 3: coffee and caffeine, like we're going, and so I just
Speaker 3: started to do the research. How do I make dog tags?
Speaker 3: How do I make them special? How do I make
Speaker 3: them durable?
Speaker 2: How do I you know?
Speaker 3: So I did about, you know, two three months of
Speaker 3: R and.
Speaker 2: D, and I was like, okay, I think, I think,
Speaker 2: I think I have a product.
Speaker 3: Now I need a website. And so just going back
Speaker 3: to the basics and that stuff I learned from my
Speaker 3: side hustle business.
Speaker 2: So that was easy to do.
Speaker 3: And put the tags up on the site, launched the
Speaker 3: site crickets for a while.
Speaker 1: Did you start doing the Instagram?
Speaker 2: Did the Instagram?
Speaker 3: But it was it was harder going from marketing you know, shoes.
Speaker 2: Two cool girls to like dog tags to dog owners.
Speaker 2: It was very different.
Speaker 3: So it took me a while to figure it out
Speaker 3: and I'm still figuring it out, but it was I
Speaker 3: did take it to Instagram and eventually we got a sale,
Speaker 3: and we got another sale, and then I learned, okay,
Speaker 3: I need to be in these pet stores too, so
Speaker 3: I would awesome.
Speaker 1: Okay, so what'd you do? You went door knocking?
Speaker 3: I went door knocking. Okay, yes, I was door knocking
Speaker 3: any pet store. I'd be, you know, driving whatever, going
Speaker 3: to the gym, and if I saw a pet store,
Speaker 3: I would write it down and then I would call
Speaker 3: the pet store and I would just pitch. Wouldn't work,
Speaker 3: I would refine my pitch, and sometimes I would go
Speaker 3: into the store because a lot of times the owners
Speaker 3: don't want to be bothered, and so I'd bring the display,
Speaker 3: bring some tags.
Speaker 2: Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't.
Speaker 3: So I would engrave the stores a name with the
Speaker 3: store's and phone number on the back of the tag,
Speaker 3: and you know.
Speaker 2: And so eventually after doing.
Speaker 3: That, that worked. And it was also it's also of marketing.
Speaker 3: I myself, if I walked into a pet store and
Speaker 3: saw this cool display, maybe I won't buy it immediately,
Speaker 3: but I might say, oh, what's the name of the company?
Speaker 2: Oh, okay, okay, cool, you know.
Speaker 3: And so even if the stores, some stores don't perform well,
Speaker 3: some stores knock it out of the.
Speaker 2: Park, but it's a it's a billboard, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3: You know, and so yeah, and so just between the
Speaker 3: retail marketing, the Instagram, just all of that stuff, I
Speaker 3: started to figure out, you know, just just what my
Speaker 3: angle was.
Speaker 1: Were you still nannying during this?
Speaker 5: I quit?
Speaker 1: Oh, you got to wait.
Speaker 2: The pressure was on The pressure was on. Geez, yeah,
Speaker 2: the press.
Speaker 1: You know what I will say about that though, like
Speaker 1: jumping off the cliff and like just building your wings
Speaker 1: on the way down. Like I will say that nothing,
Speaker 1: nothing motivates you more than no backup playing.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, it's like burn the boats.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, it's definitely like think or swim yep.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Damn. That pressure must have been real because I can't
Speaker 1: imagine how many dog tags you'd have to sell to
Speaker 1: make rent.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, the pressure like two and fifty dogs.
Speaker 1: We're at forty nine.
Speaker 2: The pressure was on, and you know, to be honest,
Speaker 2: that first year was really slow.
Speaker 3: I was just trying to figure it out, which is
Speaker 3: in that first year when I was like, Okay, I
Speaker 3: need to sell these tags to people into store, which
Speaker 3: is where the idea came about.
Speaker 1: And are you going to markets and stuff too.
Speaker 3: I did a market and the market was so much
Speaker 3: fun because I had been selling online, you know, there
Speaker 3: was no real interaction with people, and it was so
Speaker 3: special to have people come up to the booth look
Speaker 3: at the tags, laugh at the tags, you know, like
Speaker 3: like bring their daughter over and say like do you
Speaker 3: think this tag would work for you know, Buster and
Speaker 3: then pick out a tag and me engrave it and
Speaker 3: then them Actually it was just so special.
Speaker 2: I should do more of them, but they're just it's
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, new mom too, now.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's it's not happening all your listeners.
Speaker 1: If you're thinking about it, baby, you could damn region.
Speaker 1: So what would you say was the hardest part in
Speaker 1: building your business? Was it the first couple of years
Speaker 1: or was it like, what was the part where you
Speaker 1: were like, seriously, I'm going to cry off all my makeup.
Speaker 3: Now if I'm being honest right now is yeah, I
Speaker 3: just think it's like I am a new mom and
Speaker 3: so balancing being a new mom and trying to run
Speaker 3: a business that my only focus was this business for
Speaker 3: the last you know, four and a.
Speaker 1: Half year baby.
Speaker 3: It was my baby, you know, and I now have
Speaker 3: a real baby, and so it's hard to think about
Speaker 3: dividing my time.
Speaker 2: You know. It's it's it's a lot. So I feel
Speaker 2: like now is when I'm experiencing the just a lot
Speaker 2: of anngst, a lot of anxiety all as well, you know,
Speaker 2: but just it's a it's.
Speaker 3: A new challenge that I am currently just trying to
Speaker 3: figure out.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I'm glad you spoke on that because we
Speaker 1: were talking before we were taping. Like that pressure of
Speaker 1: you know, sink or swim gets real real when there's
Speaker 1: a baby sitting in front of you that's helpless. Like
Speaker 1: I didn't ask to be here, you summoned me.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 1: It's one of the things that caught my eye about you.
Speaker 1: Was my favorite rapper of all time. Okay, so my
Speaker 1: favorite rapper of all time. You walked past it. I
Speaker 1: don't know if you saw it, but there's a huge
Speaker 1: jay Z painting in Yes, it's literally the only one
Speaker 1: in the world. I think Sypher sounds he's gonna try
Speaker 1: and get jay Z to sign it for me, but
Speaker 1: you know, I still got to follow up on that.
Speaker 1: But it's a picture of jay Z in a lawn
Speaker 1: chair in Brooklyn with some like those remember those kool
Speaker 1: aids with the little silver Yes, if you go out there,
Speaker 1: it is literally custom. I paid my mom to do
Speaker 1: it when I was like twenty five, and when I
Speaker 1: bought my first house, she mailed it, so I didn't
Speaker 1: see it for like years. Okay, but jay Z, hands
Speaker 1: down is like I love him. I mean, I can't
Speaker 1: even I don't want to get into the love obsessive
Speaker 1: love relationship I have for Jay. I still email his
Speaker 1: team and be like, it'd be really great to have
Speaker 1: a billionaire on eating wall broke as should And I
Speaker 1: always like, well, not right now, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: you know a couple while Yeah, I'm like, how great
Speaker 1: would it be to have jay Z a billionaire on
Speaker 1: eating while broke? Make it broke this as I still
Speaker 1: shoot my shot and I will continue to shoot my
Speaker 1: shot shout outs to his publicist, who, by the way,
Speaker 1: always responds, and then I always try to do a
Speaker 1: nice closer like I'm gonna rereach out again in a
Speaker 1: couple of months. But I was watching a music video
Speaker 1: and I saw you, and I say, oh, okay, that
Speaker 1: was different. And I saw a couple of other entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: a couple other people in the video. What was the
Speaker 1: video again?
Speaker 3: The song was called Entrepreneur by Pharrell featuring jay Z.
Speaker 1: Yes, and of course all all I saw was jay Z.
Speaker 1: But back to the most iconic So, if you're a
Speaker 1: huge jay Z fan, this moment for you had to
Speaker 1: have been like, holy shit.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I thought, well, so I received an email from
Speaker 3: the director's assistant and they kind of spelled it out
Speaker 3: enough for me to understand what this was, and I
Speaker 3: thought it was fake.
Speaker 2: No, there's no.
Speaker 1: But like, how did they know you?
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I don't know, so I do not do know that
Speaker 3: the director of the music video is also from LA
Speaker 3: and I do know. I don't know him personally, but
Speaker 3: I absolutely know that we have a lot of like
Speaker 3: mutual friends. So I don't know how I appeared on
Speaker 3: his radar. And I should have asked, but I was
Speaker 3: just so like just shocked.
Speaker 1: Well, first you said you did you didn't believe it.
Speaker 2: I didn't believe it.
Speaker 1: So like, did you ignore or did you still respond?
Speaker 3: I know I and I do this generally. If I
Speaker 3: receive an email, I have to sit on it, you know.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, I'm sitting on it, I'm thinking about it,
Speaker 3: overthinking this can't be real. Well, if it is real,
Speaker 3: you can't miss your opportunity, so.
Speaker 2: You need to respond.
Speaker 3: So of course, I, you know, at some point, responded
Speaker 3: quickly thereafter, and you know, it was very it was
Speaker 3: it was real, clearly, you know.
Speaker 2: So who did you.
Speaker 1: Reach out to first when you got that? Obviously your
Speaker 1: husband or your boyfriend?
Speaker 2: Yeah, fiance at the time.
Speaker 1: Oh shit, mab, look at this.
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was the first person I probably forwarded him
Speaker 3: in the email, knowing me and our relationship, and he
Speaker 3: knows how much I love jay Z, you know, and
Speaker 3: so it is.
Speaker 2: I just know how.
Speaker 3: Happy he was and it didn't really feel real. And
Speaker 3: I think that's just a lot of how I'm wired.
Speaker 3: Until it happens, I'm.
Speaker 1: And you don't want to get your hopes up and
Speaker 1: then it pops.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly.
Speaker 3: So it took the crew arriving to my house for
Speaker 3: me to be like, oh, this is happening, and you know,
Speaker 3: it's funny.
Speaker 2: I'm having this thought. I huge jay Z fan. He
Speaker 2: must be aware of who I am.
Speaker 1: Like, first of all, jay Z, the way he's so meticulous,
Speaker 1: there's no way he did not He does not know
Speaker 1: who you are. Definitely watched the video.
Speaker 2: That's crazy, you know, just thinking.
Speaker 1: About that, you're even doper and.
Speaker 3: Did you just realize that just I just realized that
Speaker 3: that's crazy.
Speaker 2: Wow, Okay, that's really crazy. That is so crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm just I don't imagine your hero knows you.
Speaker 1: That's crazy. I mean, I don't know if he's your hero,
Speaker 1: but like, yeah, you know, it's.
Speaker 2: Someone that I've looked up to forever.
Speaker 1: So so you get your feature in this video, what
Speaker 1: impact does it have on your business?
Speaker 3: So I at the time, I was also receiving a
Speaker 3: lot of press just for other reasons, and so it
Speaker 3: just I feel like the press at the time, and
Speaker 3: then the music video was just a culmination of the
Speaker 3: work that I had been doing for the last few years,
Speaker 3: and so I got more opportunities from it, and I
Speaker 3: just think it it sort of validated things for me.
Speaker 3: I'm you know, just at the time, I was just
Speaker 3: working with my head down. I didn't have help at
Speaker 3: the time. So I'm receiving every order, handwriting thank you
Speaker 3: cards to every single customer.
Speaker 1: Very important, very important. Remember Johnny Cupcakes brand Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: he blew up and he his thing was like he
Speaker 1: would even take like a random toy from his house
Speaker 1: and like throw it in a box or.
Speaker 2: To make it personal.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he would just scribble whatever or you know
Speaker 1: it like literally built his brand to like a gigantic brand.
Speaker 1: And he was like he'll be in London, He'll see
Speaker 1: someone with a tattoo of his brand on him. Wow,
Speaker 1: Because he was just like, you know, I think I'm
Speaker 1: just gonna throw this mug in there. I have to
Speaker 1: look into that just like really built like this personal
Speaker 1: connection with his people writing notes. So I love that
Speaker 1: you were writing the thank yous.
Speaker 3: Yes yeah, yeah for for a long time. And so
Speaker 3: I when that happened, I think things got a little
Speaker 3: too a little too hard for me to manage. So
Speaker 3: it actually pushed me to, Okay, I need to hire someone.
Speaker 3: I can't do everything. So I ended up hiring someone.
Speaker 3: So it really it really helped me take things to
Speaker 3: the next level where I am now. So I'm I
Speaker 3: will forever be grateful for that opportunity and just the
Speaker 3: just the acknowledgement. It was like a validation for me
Speaker 3: that i'd be doing something right.
Speaker 1: Did you frame like a screenshot of the vie?
Speaker 2: You should?
Speaker 1: Oh, come on, I should? Are you Like, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm one of those people that I definitely won't do it.
Speaker 1: But I remember the first company I had was a
Speaker 1: high school magazine called Celebrity High And like, every time
Speaker 1: something went wrong, this is how I operate. I never
Speaker 1: call anybody when something's going good. I'm like, something went wrong,
Speaker 1: It'd be like a parking ticket that would just mess.
Speaker 2: Up my day.
Speaker 1: I'd be like, yo, I'm already struggling. You're gonna give
Speaker 1: me a fifty dollars parking ticket. I'd be like calling
Speaker 1: my dad from the backseat of car, and my dad
Speaker 1: would always be like, I don't think you can see
Speaker 1: how far you came. And that was always even with Nick,
Speaker 1: my partner, I felt like that was always a thing
Speaker 1: for me, like I just couldn't see how far it came.
Speaker 1: And I think Nick Cannon started putting up the celebrity
Speaker 1: highs in his office, and you know, I'd walk down
Speaker 1: the hallway of his office and be like, selevery high,
Speaker 1: pictures high, selevery high, and I would see all these
Speaker 1: covers and I felt dope, like you know, bragging rights
Speaker 1: if someone came to the studio, be like, this is
Speaker 1: our hallway, you know, but it well, you know, it's
Speaker 1: just But then eventually my dad was like, I think
Speaker 1: you need to start doing it for your house because
Speaker 1: it got to the point where I just could not
Speaker 1: see how hard I hate how far I had come. Everything.
Speaker 1: Even I remember Nick pulling me to the side. I
Speaker 1: would do these huge talent shows and he would be like,
Speaker 1: I don't think you can see it, and I really couldn't.
Speaker 1: All I could see was putting out a fire. Putting
Speaker 1: out a fire.
Speaker 2: Your head is just in it. Yeah, you don't come
Speaker 2: up for air.
Speaker 1: And I say all this to say, Rachel, if I
Speaker 1: don't get a text or an email with a nice,
Speaker 1: beautiful blow up picture of that moment, like you know,
Speaker 1: you need to do it for yourself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, you're right, You're right. It's yeah, I've
Speaker 2: got like a perfect spot on my wall. I can
Speaker 2: see it, like I can.
Speaker 1: You have to, because like it's so easy to get
Speaker 1: caught up in the weeds in the next milestone and then,
Speaker 1: like I feel like as entrepreneurs, once you accomplished one
Speaker 1: thing that a little bit of confidence goes, well, let's
Speaker 1: go try something else.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah, you gotta.
Speaker 1: Do it for yourself. I mean it's an iconic moment.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: That's great advice, it really is. I don't I don't
Speaker 3: stop and smell the flowers. I'm just like, go go,
Speaker 3: go next XX. You're not doing enough.
Speaker 2: It's not enough.
Speaker 1: It's never, it's never. Yeah, And I feel like there's
Speaker 1: always those challenges. How did you deal with Oh, well,
Speaker 1: I haven't eaten yet, let's try these tackles. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: take a BikeE okay. And these are corn tortillas everybody,
Speaker 1: which I usually don't eat a lot of, so I'm
Speaker 1: excited to Yeah.
Speaker 2: Mmm, it don't do on a budget. Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1: I know we were talking recently.
Speaker 5: And I said, I like salta and then I feel
Speaker 5: like it's a real deal. Right, But I like that
Speaker 5: you didn't add salsa because it was like I taste
Speaker 5: brokeness that.
Speaker 2: Was the goal.
Speaker 3: You nailed it, Like if I do, if I do
Speaker 3: it today, I've got all that. I've got an onion, yeah, avocado,
Speaker 3: let it. But like this is this is the the
Speaker 3: bare minimum here.
Speaker 1: Taco mhm wit taco. My reviews on this is even
Speaker 1: with inflation, this meal cost me, I would say ten
Speaker 1: eleven dollars and you get like, I don't know how
Speaker 1: many tacos coming that thing, like fifty or one hundred
Speaker 1: a lot. And the meat was six dollars. I think
Speaker 1: the seasoning was a dollar or two, and the cheese
Speaker 1: was a couple of dollars. So you nailed it because
Speaker 1: on this budget, guys, if you are at home thinking
Speaker 1: about doing your own business and you want to survive
Speaker 1: the week. This will land you there.
Speaker 2: I agree, well, I agree.
Speaker 3: If you refrigerate the meat, the juices kind of solidify
Speaker 3: is better the next day.
Speaker 2: It will get you through.
Speaker 1: You will get you through.
Speaker 2: Yes, shout outs to this dish.
Speaker 5: And then you know, if you really broke, maybe you
Speaker 5: can throw some ketchup on it.
Speaker 2: Mmm?
Speaker 1: Does that work?
Speaker 2: Why not? I love that?
Speaker 1: So, looking at your whole entrepreneur journey, what is something
Speaker 1: you would tell your younger self? Like, what was that
Speaker 1: miles somewhere you us? I'll give you an example. I
Speaker 1: was having a conversation with somebody yesterday and the debate
Speaker 1: for my whole career. I feel like, is will I
Speaker 1: bring Celebrityhigh Magazine back? But I always people know absolutely not.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, guys, but I said, if I could go
Speaker 1: back in time and talk to my younger self, I
Speaker 1: would have definitely adopted digital. During that era, Instagram was
Speaker 1: coming out of, social media was taken off, were doing
Speaker 1: we were doing all these celebrity interviews. But I was
Speaker 1: so inundated with the print in the everyday overhead of
Speaker 1: paying the bills and the cash flow and everything that
Speaker 1: I was just like, I ain't got time to add this,
Speaker 1: and I know seeing you, I feel like you're one
Speaker 1: step ahead of the curb. So maybe your paint area
Speaker 1: isn't that. But I am definitely curious, like if you
Speaker 1: had to go back to that time or anytime and
Speaker 1: even with your previous business, like, what would you have done?
Speaker 1: What piece of advice would you have given yourself?
Speaker 2: That's a good question, you know. I think it's think bigger.
Speaker 3: I think that I often, maybe to prevent myself from ache,
Speaker 3: I will just kind of put limits on myself, whether
Speaker 3: it's you know, putting limits on the product line or
Speaker 3: you know, okay, I'm only going to order a thousand
Speaker 3: of these pieces, or I should be ordering five thousand.
Speaker 3: I just always think small, just to kind of put
Speaker 3: the the bumpers around me. But I think I would
Speaker 3: tell myself just think bigger, you know, and inevitably, if
Speaker 3: you think bigger, you're kind of forced to level up
Speaker 3: up to that goal that you set for yourself. But
Speaker 3: I'm always like, no, let's keep it safe.
Speaker 2: So I definitely need to start killing myself that now.
Speaker 1: I can see that. I think coming from being you're black,
Speaker 1: you're mixed. Yeah, you look like me, We look like
Speaker 1: you just have like really cute freckles, so like that
Speaker 1: would make us like not be sisters. But yeah, you
Speaker 1: look like me, so you're mixed. But I will say, like,
Speaker 1: I think part of the for lack of better words,
Speaker 1: the hinderance is that black culture has, like as far
Speaker 1: as opportunities prior to the Black Lives movement has been
Speaker 1: way less. And I think the fact that we don't
Speaker 1: have these huge economic backgrounds, it's harder to see like
Speaker 1: the big picture. But I remember reading books and like,
Speaker 1: you know, other companies were asking for millions of dollars
Speaker 1: and you're like, how the how can they build or
Speaker 1: dream so big? And it's hard to dream and build
Speaker 1: so big when you don't have that background. But I
Speaker 1: will say I just interviewed an entrepreneur and they were
Speaker 1: talking about licensing. I would love to see trill pause
Speaker 1: in every Walmart, every Target, uh, you know, every store
Speaker 1: that people can purchase pet tags for absolutely, you know.
Speaker 1: And one thing I just learned recently with which I
Speaker 1: didn't know about was in my last interview, was licensing,
Speaker 1: And like, I really feel like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: you're already entertaining it, but I really feel like you
Speaker 1: could knock that beast down, and I would love nothing
Speaker 1: more than to see you against big dogs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's it's so I toyed with that thought.
Speaker 3: I'm going to say two three years ago was on
Speaker 3: my New Year's you know, these are the goals that
Speaker 3: I want to reach and I would love I would
Speaker 3: love like an NBA license where I can you know,
Speaker 3: make tags out of the players and just different jerseys
Speaker 3: and do it legally because.
Speaker 1: I am I've done things, yeah, okay, or just.
Speaker 3: You know, it's like I yes, that is such a key,
Speaker 3: key way to grow.
Speaker 2: I love it.
Speaker 3: And that's just you know, there's the NFL, there's san Rio.
Speaker 3: There are like so many ways that we can take it.
Speaker 3: But it's to you know, to your point, it's like
Speaker 3: it's just it's doing it, you know, and it's just
Speaker 3: like putting myself up against.
Speaker 1: The putting it out there, you know, like putting it
Speaker 1: out there that like this is what I want to do,
Speaker 1: and you never know who's listening or who's in the room.
Speaker 1: But I tell to get that little bit of a
Speaker 1: roadblock mentally on like you know, but I think it's
Speaker 1: also like a lack of knowledge.
Speaker 2: Yeah right, yeah, experience.
Speaker 1: Like, like I said, I met this other lady and
Speaker 1: looks like you and me. You know, she's obviously the
Speaker 1: first black and she's she's the first black licensed character
Speaker 1: in all these stores. And it's like we're in two
Speaker 1: thousand and twenty three, you know what I'm saying. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so that's why I have to drop the blackness in it.
Speaker 1: Like I know some people don't like it, but it's
Speaker 1: like we still are breaking barriers in twenty and twenty one,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two, twenty twenty three. Yeah, I just I
Speaker 1: want to see you up there with the rest of
Speaker 1: the break barrier people and just kill it, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I appreciate that. I do. I do, And I
Speaker 2: think the business has so much potential.
Speaker 1: You know, it's grown too much flavor. Yeah, it's too
Speaker 1: much flavor. It's too much flavor. So where do you see, Well,
Speaker 1: I guess you see yourself doing the NBA Like.
Speaker 3: Sure, yes, absolutely, I mean that would be yeah, another
Speaker 3: dream come true to have those partnerships.
Speaker 2: But where I see myself down the line.
Speaker 3: Just more, just more growth. We have such a huge
Speaker 3: market in the US, but I know that there are
Speaker 3: dog lovers across the globe. So it's you know, in
Speaker 3: my head at some point figuring out how to really
Speaker 3: get product to the Canadian customers, to just every market,
Speaker 3: the UK, the you know, Australian market, to really figure
Speaker 3: out how to get it out there. Shipping is so
Speaker 3: expensive these days, so it's not it's not as easy
Speaker 3: as you think or I thought it would be. So
Speaker 3: really just expanding more retail partnerships. We're on Chewy, which
Speaker 3: is so beautiful. There's so much exposure there. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: we are. I can probably say it now, but we're
Speaker 3: launching product in Petco at their flagships or in New York.
Speaker 2: So it's happening. Yeah, it's happening.
Speaker 1: It's just now, are you going after these deals yourself
Speaker 1: or they coming to.
Speaker 3: A little bit of both Chewy I you know, I
Speaker 3: inquired and they took us on immediately. They were happy
Speaker 3: to and I have been selling product with them for
Speaker 3: three years and all as well.
Speaker 2: Pet Co approached us.
Speaker 1: Chewy is the box that comes to your house.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, well, Chewy is the so they're the online
Speaker 3: pet retail store. They're the go to so you know,
Speaker 3: they're like the the pet Co of the online world.
Speaker 3: They're actually owned by pet smart. But anything you need
Speaker 3: is you know food, literally anything you need. And then
Speaker 3: they also do like dog prescriptions if God forbid, your
Speaker 3: dog has any you know need for it.
Speaker 2: So they're they're a big they're a huge player in
Speaker 2: the game.
Speaker 1: So you go and then you drop ship.
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, so yeah, that's a lot of our business
Speaker 3: is chewy. So just the big retailers. I think for
Speaker 3: a while that it was big, that was big.
Speaker 1: Well, it's like the day when you found out that
Speaker 1: deal went through, where you like run into the house
Speaker 1: and girl, you would not believe what happened today.
Speaker 2: I was pumped. I was, and it just there.
Speaker 1: Have a group text that you have your family on
Speaker 1: that you stream it through.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I celebrate like the winds with my husband, you know,
Speaker 3: whether it's just like acknowledging it, like talking about it.
Speaker 2: And I have like a handful of friends.
Speaker 3: Where we just share our winds on a phone call
Speaker 3: or like when we're out whatever it is.
Speaker 2: So I definitely, you know.
Speaker 1: Really humble. They're really humble because I'd be like hello world, No,
Speaker 1: I will say, you know, I take it aback. I
Speaker 1: have a little brother that I'm very close with, so
Speaker 1: we definitely jump on a text. Matter of fact, we
Speaker 1: he's like literally my best friend, so like we jump
Speaker 1: on text all the time, and we talk about our
Speaker 1: losses together, and we talk about our wins and our
Speaker 1: insecurities together. Yeah, but he's definitely my goal to for both,
Speaker 1: but I have a core group that, yeah, we may
Speaker 1: jump on a text.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's funny saying that my brother is my go
Speaker 3: to is what I actually call him on the way
Speaker 3: here just to talk about the mommy stuff. So he's
Speaker 3: definitely that someone that I share my my.
Speaker 2: Wins with as well.
Speaker 3: But it still is kind of small, you know, for
Speaker 3: for whatever whatever the reason.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so from an outside perspective, this brand looks larger
Speaker 1: than life. What is a day in the life of
Speaker 1: you now, especially with you being a mom, because that's
Speaker 1: a whole nother And I just became a mom now, guys,
Speaker 1: so I'm learning it's like thug life over here, Okay, right,
Speaker 1: it's thug life. Like literally, mom life is like I
Speaker 1: promise you, I don't even think girls have a sense
Speaker 1: of humor until they become a mom, right, because like
Speaker 1: everybody all of a sudden has like a WTF attitude
Speaker 1: or whatever. But I think being a mom just I
Speaker 1: don't know, it brings that something out of you, some
Speaker 1: some something different. So can you just tell me a
Speaker 1: day in the life.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I have we currently have what is it
Speaker 3: for employees, So I've got someone she's incredible. She handles
Speaker 3: all of the fulfillment so all you know, all the
Speaker 3: Chewy orders, everything that comes in online, She's engraving, packaging
Speaker 3: and making sure it gets shipped out. I have someone
Speaker 3: that handles customer service, so just every everything is being handled.
Speaker 3: And for me now it's just thinking about growth and
Speaker 3: product development and what I can do to just take
Speaker 3: things to the next level. So that's where I spend
Speaker 3: a lot of my time, you know, like just just
Speaker 3: all the things like I spend time with SEO and
Speaker 3: you know, just like email, marketing and like all that stuff.
Speaker 3: I really spend every single day there. So it's it's
Speaker 3: really helpful to have like a team where I don't
Speaker 3: really have to think about the.
Speaker 1: You're not in the weeds, but you're in the You're
Speaker 1: definitely in the executive suite. You're out there. You're the
Speaker 1: CEO cml C. Yes, yes, well are you the CEO?
Speaker 4: Well yeah, all of it, yeah, all of it, and
Speaker 4: I you know, and I feel it, but that's what
Speaker 4: comes with being an entrepreneur, like you took this on,
Speaker 4: you know, like you decided to do this.
Speaker 1: Do you ever struggle with cash flow? Because I feel
Speaker 1: like cashlow has never discussed, especially when you have employees.
Speaker 1: I think it can be a little strenuous, but I
Speaker 1: I'm just curious, do you deal with it?
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I the beauty of the product, and that
Speaker 3: was one of the things that I thought about when
Speaker 3: launching the business was my profit margin, because.
Speaker 2: I struggled with that with my little illegal side hustle.
Speaker 3: It just it wasn't, you know, like it just it
Speaker 3: didn't the math didn't math. Whereas when I started this business,
Speaker 3: I just wanted to make sure I was profiting a lot,
Speaker 3: so the cash flow was never an issue.
Speaker 2: We profit a lot.
Speaker 3: And my employee, I've had two employees in the fulfillment seat.
Speaker 3: This employee's part time and she can like power it
Speaker 3: out and get it done, so you know, I'm not
Speaker 3: paying a forty.
Speaker 2: Hour a week salary.
Speaker 3: And then my person that handles customer services actually based
Speaker 3: in the Philippines. I found her on upwork and so
Speaker 3: she you're not paying what you would You're not paying
Speaker 3: a US salary, You're you're paying a Philippine salary, and
Speaker 3: so it makes sense.
Speaker 2: So no cash flow, We're okay.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, So what's a day in the life.
Speaker 2: A day in the life is okay, so.
Speaker 6: You can include.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I need all the moms to like still
Speaker 1: be listening, like know that they can do. Yeah, you're
Speaker 1: living and I don't care if you cry every day.
Speaker 1: You're a living proof. You're like literally like what jay
Speaker 1: Z is to us, Like you gotta think there's a
Speaker 1: mom out there that is trying to figure it out,
Speaker 1: Like do you inspire pitch? Tell us what a rael is?
Speaker 2: Okay, so so you know what I'll do.
Speaker 3: Yesterday is a great example of a day in the life.
Speaker 3: My son woke up at.
Speaker 2: One in the morning and three in the morning, and
Speaker 2: I I eventually had to figure out how to put
Speaker 2: him back down. I then woke up, it.
Speaker 3: Woke back up a let's call it six thirty worked
Speaker 3: out at seven. My husband knows how much work I
Speaker 3: needs to get I need to get done, so he's
Speaker 3: very great about like letting me leave the house and
Speaker 3: he you know, he can deal with like whatever's left,
Speaker 3: and so he did ran to the office, and I
Speaker 3: was in the office from I don't know, let's just
Speaker 3: call it ten till five point thirty, and you know
Speaker 3: it's I always have hundreds of emails every day, hundreds,
Speaker 3: and so I'm just getting through all of the emails
Speaker 3: and then talking to my manufacturers that are overseas, so
Speaker 3: just kind of planting seeds and then when they get
Speaker 3: in the office they respond. So it's just a lot
Speaker 3: of that, and I need to think more about TikTok
Speaker 3: and just creating content, you know, the reels and all
Speaker 3: that fun stuff. And so I do spend a lot
Speaker 3: of time thinking about what I can do, what kind
Speaker 3: of interesting content I can create. So it's a lot
Speaker 3: of hats throughout throughout the day.
Speaker 1: Do you go now, do you go to your desk
Speaker 1: with do you initially pull out a pad and do
Speaker 1: a list? I know I used to do that back
Speaker 1: in the day. I need to go back to doing
Speaker 1: that because I can get distracted all over the place,
Speaker 1: but that used to be my go so I'd be like,
Speaker 1: you're not leaving this desk, You're not getting on any
Speaker 1: social media, so this list is done? Yes, yeah, I'll
Speaker 1: just add to the list even throughout, like and I
Speaker 1: do the little checks.
Speaker 3: Do you still, Yeah, So when I'm when I am
Speaker 3: my most efficient self, I have a list for the week.
Speaker 3: We're all just go on to Google calendars and I
Speaker 3: will plug in. This is what so timee blocking like
Speaker 3: you need you know, you'll get the emails done between
Speaker 3: ten and twelve, and then at twelve you'll have a
Speaker 3: fifteen minute lunch and then you know. And so when
Speaker 3: I'm like yesterday, I was incredibly efficient and that was
Speaker 3: because a few days prior I.
Speaker 2: Planned you know.
Speaker 3: Now, when I don't do that, I'm just rolling with it,
Speaker 3: you know, and I get things done, but it's not
Speaker 3: in an efficient way. And so yesterday it was just
Speaker 3: a remind or that this is this is the way
Speaker 3: that works for me.
Speaker 2: And so I need to spend more time.
Speaker 3: And it takes time to create the list and to
Speaker 3: think about the next week, the next month, the next year,
Speaker 3: what needs to get done? What can I do today
Speaker 3: or next week? So that takes time in itself, but
Speaker 3: that's I am.
Speaker 2: I can.
Speaker 3: I feel like I can conquer my world when I'm
Speaker 3: checking checking things off of the like I'll have I have.
Speaker 2: I used to.
Speaker 1: I'm a dry erase board fanatic. If you went into
Speaker 1: my room, it's definitely not girl. But I definitely have
Speaker 1: like the perseverance poster, the integrity poster at that time.
Speaker 1: And then I have I do have a TV, but
Speaker 1: I have goal board, which is the long term goals
Speaker 1: for the whole year, and then it has like the
Speaker 1: micro goals all broken out. It's like, you know, and
Speaker 1: I don't even like if I updated some mom, I'm like,
Speaker 1: you ain't coming in my room because it's too personal.
Speaker 1: Two yeah, yeah, because it was a point where I
Speaker 1: did put like a family and a kid on my
Speaker 1: my goal board. I put a Lamborghini Urs.
Speaker 2: By the way, absolutely you got more color, more color.
Speaker 1: I think I just did a black and white one,
Speaker 1: but I think the picture was actually black and white.
Speaker 1: But I if you see my cards, black on black,
Speaker 1: so I'm probably gonna get the black on black, clean
Speaker 1: Lambo with the white interior. Though the only thing that
Speaker 1: scares me about white interia is like I wear a
Speaker 1: lot of jeans and if you've seen white interaar cars
Speaker 1: the jeans like message. But no, I remember at one
Speaker 1: point I did put personal goals and one was a family.
Speaker 1: When I put that family up there, I was like, hell, no,
Speaker 1: ain't no dude coming into.
Speaker 3: Her room because he's gonna be like a family, right,
Speaker 3: that's a lot of pressure.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I put like a mixed family too, because
Speaker 1: I didn't know what race like the person I was
Speaker 1: gonna be with was gonna be. But I was like, well,
Speaker 1: I'm mixed, so we was gonna just do a mixed
Speaker 1: family and uh. And then I put like investment property
Speaker 1: and usually I don't do that, but I just was
Speaker 1: like one year, I was like I'm gonna put pictures
Speaker 1: or whatever, and I ended up with a family and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh wow, this isn't little too. I
Speaker 1: couldn't get the lambeau before the kid.
Speaker 2: Is that the order? Or maybe you should have been
Speaker 2: more specific about the.
Speaker 1: I should have Yeah, I should have pulled one. And
Speaker 1: it's funny because I did put eating walk Broke. We
Speaker 1: had the drawings of eating while broke, and it's it's
Speaker 1: on there. And then the only thing is I just
Speaker 1: I can't believe I didn't get the lambo first. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna take all
Speaker 1: the other pictures down, just put the lamba, you know,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for feeding me and just sharing
Speaker 1: your greatness with me and mom to mom mad respect,
Speaker 1: you know, to think of it. You in the think
Speaker 1: of it. And uh, I'm really excited for your future
Speaker 1: and any possible connections I may have. I'm definitely gonna
Speaker 1: reach out to them because I definitely want to see you,
Speaker 1: you know, do your thing on a big, huge, gigantic scale.
Speaker 1: Thank you, but you're already doing, you know, And then
Speaker 1: hopefully I'll get a random text or email from you
Speaker 1: with a blow up of your jay z M.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I need to do that.
Speaker 1: I'm going And you know, I know it's not gonna
Speaker 1: seem like a priority because that's how I am. But
Speaker 1: you gotta make it a priority because those mama days
Speaker 1: when they will as you won't be like okay I was,
Speaker 1: I okay, yes, But shout out to all my listeners.
Speaker 1: Take check out Rachel Jones. Trill pause. How can they
Speaker 1: keep up with you? How can they follow you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So if you are looking for direct if you're
Speaker 3: looking for a pet tag, anything for your dog, pet tag,
Speaker 3: leash collar, and we're expanding the line, so anything that
Speaker 3: you would.
Speaker 2: Need for your dog.
Speaker 3: You can go to troll Pause dot com and if
Speaker 3: you want to follow us on Instagram, it's at trill Pause.
Speaker 1: Yes, so get all those cool trendy lifestyle pieces personality
Speaker 1: pieces for your pet at trill Pause. So it's not
Speaker 1: your traditional pet accessories. So I want y'all to think,
Speaker 1: very exciting, very cool, very hip personal ad your dog
Speaker 1: with a little bit of flair when he's walking around
Speaker 1: the block being lost. You know, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I let my dog out of the garage and my
Speaker 1: friends are always like, a Coita is gonna get him,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, don't speak that. You know, he's eight now,
Speaker 1: you know he knows how to get his way back home.
Speaker 1: But I can't wait for my dog. My Dog's gonna
Speaker 1: be rocking a trill pauls yep tag soon. So thank
Speaker 1: you all listeners.
Speaker 6: Peace out
Speaker 1: For more eating while broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect,
Speaker 1: visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.