Speaker 1: Hey, hey, hey, we're black.
Speaker 2: We're black, We're brown.
Speaker 1: Am ambition ambition, ambition, ambition, ambition, and we're extra round in.
Speaker 2: The suit today because we have a guest.
Speaker 1: But before we hit the guest up, Mandy, you said
Speaker 1: you wouldn't talk briefly about Beyonce girl, And what a perfect.
Speaker 3: Time to bring what we have a guess on is
Speaker 3: we've been talking about her haircare business. But also I
Speaker 3: died the Internet was broken yesterday because first of all,
Speaker 3: I'm uncomfortable with how much Beyonce is talking to us
Speaker 3: right now, like just the she's producing like content and
Speaker 3: people are looking like we're all like, I think a
Speaker 3: little PTSD from the renaissance toward how much it costs
Speaker 3: and how it just like took over last year and
Speaker 3: we're all just like so many comments are like, not yet, Beyonce,
Speaker 3: I don't have any money, Please don't letnounce a tour.
Speaker 3: But yesterday she thought she would just set the record
Speaker 3: straight in the most hilarious way that she got inches
Speaker 3: inches for days, and you know, she launched her hair
Speaker 3: care brain and people started talking about, well she wears wigs,
Speaker 3: I guess, and I had no time to read any
Speaker 3: slander of Beyonce and her strands. But it was just
Speaker 3: so funny because she she posted a reel yesterday and
Speaker 3: parted her ways six ways from Sunday, like part in
Speaker 3: her hair so you can just see no tracks, no nothing,
Speaker 3: the inches are there, all natural, and it really broke
Speaker 3: the internet. I think it had over thirty million views.
Speaker 1: Being the craziest to me is that like girl we
Speaker 1: been knew what I knew because during the deathly child days,
Speaker 1: Beyonce the girl always had hair. It was never giving bald.
Speaker 1: It was giving protective styles for the girls that know that. No,
Speaker 1: it was giving protective styles. It was giving you're not
Speaker 1: going to put super heat on my hair. It was
Speaker 1: giving I do color. I'm always changing that life. You know,
Speaker 1: we're keeping the mothership where it needs to be. It
Speaker 1: was never giving balved, but it was giving hater to
Speaker 1: those of you who did not know.
Speaker 3: But now you know so, and stop asking questions about
Speaker 3: black women's hair, like just mind your business, like that
Speaker 3: is how I business.
Speaker 2: Mind.
Speaker 1: Remember that that's Will Smith. When he was on he
Speaker 1: was trying to teach and I think z Astley how
Speaker 1: to fight at school? Was it Will Smith trying to
Speaker 1: teach like like it was either Carlton or yeah. He
Speaker 1: was like just he said, actually first she had to
Speaker 1: tell them just mind your business.
Speaker 3: Just that was that where it comes from? Because I
Speaker 3: didn't hear, but I don't remember the reference.
Speaker 1: Yes, anyway, we have a guest in this dude today,
Speaker 1: Yes we do.
Speaker 2: We know as Kim.
Speaker 1: You're gonna know her as the CEO and co founder
Speaker 1: of carl Mix. She is successful, she is resilient, she
Speaker 1: has a strong work ethic, and she has the desire
Speaker 1: to always be teaching. All these are key key metrics
Speaker 1: for an amazing leader. Well, twenty fifteen, Kim, along with
Speaker 1: her husband and company co founder Tim, Look at that
Speaker 1: Kim and Tim, that's cute, launched curl Mix as a
Speaker 1: dey subscription box for natural hair care products. Okay, and
Speaker 1: within three years of switching gears to manufacturing, the company
Speaker 1: reached one million dollars in annual sales. First of all,
Speaker 1: we're going to pause there because I hope you understand
Speaker 1: the less than two percent of businesses ever make a
Speaker 1: million dollars. It's even less for women, even less for
Speaker 1: black and brown women. So it's like she's at that
Speaker 1: her percentage is like, what's your bank be paying out
Speaker 1: to you?
Speaker 2: Shade point zeros or zero one percent? But in a
Speaker 2: good way?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 1: So I remember Kim because during an appearance on Shark
Speaker 1: Tank of twenty nineteen, she declined a four hundred thousand
Speaker 1: dollars deal, and the following year, curl Mix received a
Speaker 1: twelve million dollar valuation for a seed.
Speaker 2: Round of funding.
Speaker 4: That's what we talk about.
Speaker 1: Curl Mixes sales catapulted to six million dollars in annual
Speaker 1: revenue and they have earned over fifteen million and lifetime
Speaker 1: sales all online aka She's bad Okay. In twenty twenty,
Speaker 1: the Lewises were included in Forest Coveted thirty Under thirty list,
Speaker 1: and she was named among Crane's Chicago Businesses twenty and
Speaker 1: their twenties, along with landing on Oprah's Favorite Things list okay.
Speaker 1: Curl Mixed products have been featured in Essence on Essence,
Speaker 1: dot Combit dot Com, Like Enterprise, dot Com, Refinery, to
Speaker 1: name a few, and in twenty twenty one, curl Mix
Speaker 1: was listed at number ninety three on the Ink five
Speaker 1: thousand lists of Growing Companies.
Speaker 2: Amazing.
Speaker 1: The company continues to make headlines by offering shout us
Speaker 1: is a lot just so she's bad at me.
Speaker 2: You know I'm reading.
Speaker 4: I'm glad girl, I gotta get you a new bio too.
Speaker 4: I was like, this will sound a few years old.
Speaker 2: I'm like, but either way, kim Is just I mean
Speaker 2: some of you. If you saw you'd be like, oh, yes,
Speaker 2: I remember.
Speaker 1: She's got a Gorcia head to hair herself. So welcome
Speaker 1: to the studio, Kim.
Speaker 4: Thank you for having me. I'm such a fan. I
Speaker 4: have such a fan. You are so good at talking.
Speaker 4: I want to club, but I'm trying to be mindful
Speaker 4: of that. This is a listening podcast.
Speaker 3: Wait to y'all. So if you want to see the
Speaker 3: curls that kim Is has slay and is just providing
Speaker 3: us all the glory of today, go to YouTube check
Speaker 3: out Brown Ambition podcast. But it's so great to meet you, Kim.
Speaker 3: I haven't met you before, so it's it is lovely
Speaker 3: to meet you.
Speaker 4: Mandy. Yes, likewise, I love the big hair. I'm such
Speaker 4: a big hair fan and a lock fan. I almost
Speaker 4: got I almost got lot of s Tiffany, and then
Speaker 4: they said, no, ma'am, it's not in your contract. You
Speaker 4: can't change your hair.
Speaker 3: We what for real?
Speaker 4: No, I'm joking.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm about to say because I was like the
Speaker 3: curl Act of twenty twenty four.
Speaker 4: That is so funny, right, No, I'm my own board
Speaker 4: of directors and I my boards on me. I cannot
Speaker 4: change my hair.
Speaker 2: It is the brand.
Speaker 4: Thank you, yes as well, we welcome you here.
Speaker 1: So Kim kind of sounds like the inception story, like
Speaker 1: you know, like what made you start? Like were you
Speaker 1: already married when you and your husband started it? And
Speaker 1: like I'd love some little background on how it was
Speaker 1: to be on It was Shark Tank.
Speaker 4: Right yeah yeah, yes, so so Chromix today. We help
Speaker 4: you master your curves in twenty one days. And so
Speaker 4: many women want this hairstyle. They want the hairstyle they
Speaker 4: can wear it to work, to their kids soccer game,
Speaker 4: to their date night, and they want to be natural, right,
Speaker 4: And so my customers typically a black Woe number forty.
Speaker 4: She doesn't really want to wear like a lot of
Speaker 4: synthetic things in her hair, but she also wants to
Speaker 4: have something she can do on her own. And I
Speaker 4: have to go to a stylus every time she needs
Speaker 4: to done. But we didn't start that way. We started
Speaker 4: to do it yourself box with curly hair like you
Speaker 4: mentioned some thing like blue apron, but for her hair.
Speaker 4: And then our flasuw jail was our number one selling product.
Speaker 3: And essentially we boil the seed jel.
Speaker 4: Oh do you a wonderful It's like a lightweight gel
Speaker 4: and it's basically we boil real flax seeds in our
Speaker 4: manufacturing facility and then we extract the gel gigi jael,
Speaker 4: and then we put it in a bottle. And people
Speaker 4: wouldn't do that for us early on, like no many.
Speaker 4: If we went to three manufacturers, they all said no.
Speaker 4: And so I was about seven months pregnant in my
Speaker 4: kitchen making thirty different We're fifty different batches of flax jail,
Speaker 4: and so we landed on one that do dot could scale.
Speaker 4: And then we launched our customers and sold hundreds of
Speaker 4: the amount of hours and I was like, oh, we
Speaker 4: should be doing this, and so we pivoted the business.
Speaker 4: I given birth that that December, and we pivoted in January. Yeah,
Speaker 4: I was a crazy person, my ma. It was in
Speaker 4: factory with me till like two three o'clock in the
Speaker 4: morning at like a couple of six weeks. You know,
Speaker 4: that's six weeks. It's gonna be like two months, you know.
Speaker 4: But still I worked like in the hospital after I
Speaker 4: actually gave birth. I am not proud of that. I
Speaker 4: am not promoting that. I am not telling you I
Speaker 4: would not do that again. Okay, I don't know that girl.
Speaker 4: That girl don't exist no more. But I was doing
Speaker 4: this back then. In that year, we pivoted the business
Speaker 4: and I thought we would fail. But that January we
Speaker 4: were doing like three thousand dollars. I think the next
Speaker 4: month we did eight thousand, and a month after that
Speaker 4: and I said, we just get to sixteen thousand, I'd
Speaker 4: be our bet month in business ended up doing like
Speaker 4: thirty thousand, and we had I spent a dollar on
Speaker 4: Facebook aheads and I was like, oh, this is what
Speaker 4: we should be doing. And so that year we stedued
Speaker 4: a million bucks. And that was the year we were
Speaker 4: actually filmed for Shark Tank, and then we appeared the
Speaker 4: year after and that's when we hit our first like
Speaker 4: five million revenue. We had gotten an investment from the
Speaker 4: former CEO of LinkedIn, Jeff Wiener from one point two
Speaker 4: MILI and some other partners, and then we crowdfunded. After
Speaker 4: that four point five million from about seven thousand customers,
Speaker 4: and that's when we hit our first ten million in revenue.
Speaker 4: And then we just launched an ulti beauty last year.
Speaker 4: So we waited about seven years to go into retail.
Speaker 3: Okay, hey, be a fan, We're going to take a
Speaker 3: quick break and we'll be right back. How is business
Speaker 3: now like? So kind of going back, it's been twenty
Speaker 3: almost ten years, right, you launched in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 4: Almost, but we pivoted in twenty eighteen. So those first
Speaker 4: three years, I didn't know what I was doing the business,
Speaker 4: you know it was It wasn't even like the same business.
Speaker 4: And that's incredible since twenty eighteen for sure.
Speaker 3: To be brave enough to make that pivot and to
Speaker 3: see where the marketplace when like say, oh hey people
Speaker 3: want this, You're not too tied to the original vision
Speaker 3: that you had to say let's pivot and let's change.
Speaker 3: And it was such a smart business. I feel like
Speaker 3: some businesses close themselves by not listening and not following
Speaker 3: the numbers. You know, I watch those shows. I love
Speaker 3: that show. My husband and I the prophet on CNBC
Speaker 3: with that guy was bald and goes to places and
Speaker 3: they're all, yeah, Flomonis and you know, it's a struggling business,
Speaker 3: and so many of them are in denial, like literally
Speaker 3: doing the same thing without being willing to change. So
Speaker 3: I just wanted to call that out. How brave and
Speaker 3: smart that was. But so now since twenty eighteen to now,
Speaker 3: how do you feel about how things are going now?
Speaker 3: And sort of I don't want to be the one
Speaker 3: who's like what's next and what's the next big thing
Speaker 3: on the But how is life now? You got two
Speaker 3: older kids, right, got you and your husband working together
Speaker 3: for so long? How is life? And how is business
Speaker 3: today versus you know when you guys started business?
Speaker 4: Is? Okay? This is a tough year. These last year.
Speaker 4: Last year was tough. We we did ten million of
Speaker 4: the year prior and then we went down to six
Speaker 4: last year out.
Speaker 1: I'm just telling because last year almost broke my soul.
Speaker 1: You won't fake my soul.
Speaker 4: Girl, girl, I had learned, you know. I that was
Speaker 4: like my first real recession as a business owner. And
Speaker 4: so now I'm like, I was just I want to
Speaker 4: stop to dinner with my homie last night, divine. I've
Speaker 4: been friends with this guy because I was twenty twelve
Speaker 4: years old. We bought the business owners and in twenty
Speaker 4: and one we would have to get it together. We
Speaker 4: was fighting over who was picking up the tab. It
Speaker 4: was like, you know, it was like no, sorry, you
Speaker 4: got the bill was like three hundred dollars, you know
Speaker 4: what I mean? There was so good. It was drinks.
Speaker 4: This is my homie, just like my brother. This time
Speaker 4: we both ordered a meal that was like under fifty bucks.
Speaker 3: I had one drink.
Speaker 4: I was like, we ain't got to do to go
Speaker 4: too crazy. Just give me a little burger. We don't
Speaker 4: need no oysters and I don't need that. No no dessert,
Speaker 4: no apps deserve You're trying to get swim. And I'm
Speaker 4: just like, I'm like, he was, like, he's telling me
Speaker 4: about all these investments. Right, he's invested I don't know,
Speaker 4: millions of dollars in lots of different places, but he
Speaker 4: has no liquid cash because he just put it in
Speaker 4: so many investments, which is good, but it's like you
Speaker 4: still need twenty percent liquid at least, you know. And
Speaker 4: so now he was just and I agree with him,
Speaker 4: same thing. And so now he's trying to divest in
Speaker 4: some of these things so he can get some liquid,
Speaker 4: you know, liquidity but anyway, that's just I don't know,
Speaker 4: it's it's tough out here, and so were the business
Speaker 4: is now we're in retail and so that's going well.
Speaker 4: So that's that's that's on the positive side. And then
Speaker 4: we just crowdfunded about one point five million from about a.
Speaker 2: Couple of customers.
Speaker 4: Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 3: Oh wow.
Speaker 4: And then we are working on we work with this
Speaker 4: foundation to move our factory to a more a newer
Speaker 4: facility Sana size, but like more affordable. But it's going
Speaker 4: to be like brands making new and we're partnering with
Speaker 4: the foundation. And then as far as like the business,
Speaker 4: what's next, I think really putting in that executive team
Speaker 4: to run the businsiness while I can be the face
Speaker 4: because right now, you know, the last two years I've
Speaker 4: been trying to do the face, the fundraising and running,
Speaker 4: and then my team has been doing the operations. But
Speaker 4: it's like I found out, the companies that are doing
Speaker 4: twenty thirty million to twenty to thirty forty million dollars,
Speaker 4: they have about four people who are basically off CEOs.
Speaker 2: Running the company.
Speaker 4: Yes, one person to face, one person's a fundraiser, one
Speaker 4: person running the business, and we have a makefactured for so,
Speaker 4: so one person you run that so and then you
Speaker 4: need a lot of money to do that. And I
Speaker 4: only raise one point five million of the five on
Speaker 4: the crowd fund, so I need to raise like another
Speaker 4: five to ten million dollars and so I'm trying to
Speaker 4: do that over the next ninety days. So I got
Speaker 4: the foundation to help with media, you'll probably be a
Speaker 4: few million, and then I'm going to reach out to
Speaker 4: some other folks who believe in the category and know
Speaker 4: what we're doing, they want to invest. So that's what
Speaker 4: I'm working on. And then as far as personally, my
Speaker 4: babies are good. They're four and six. Say have little boys,
Speaker 4: they love their mama. I'll do you. They're the best.
Speaker 4: Boys love their mamas. And as personally as me, I
Speaker 4: have been soul searching because I've been working for so
Speaker 4: long and I gave up so much. And I'm thirty
Speaker 4: two now, but I've been ch since i was twenty one,
Speaker 4: so and I was only able to do it because
Speaker 4: I was married, right, Like, there's certain privileges of being married.
Speaker 4: That was one of them. I could work on the
Speaker 4: business and not make anything, and he was making money.
Speaker 4: But in that, you know, we became parents young, We
Speaker 4: were founders young. We were taking care of our parents.
Speaker 4: You know, his mom has Alzheimer's and his dad passed away,
Speaker 4: and my mom is mortgaging. We're just taking care of everybody,
Speaker 4: you know. So we didn't really get to live, you know,
Speaker 4: a twenty something life. And I think we both are like,
Speaker 4: how do we live the twenty something life in our
Speaker 4: thirties or maybe not exactly the twenty something, but just
Speaker 4: that that individuality and that freedom that we didn't get before.
Speaker 4: So that's what I'm doing right now.
Speaker 3: That's that's so incredible. Okay, So I want to hear
Speaker 3: more about that. Have you guys been on your own
Speaker 3: journey in that way or like, are you what does
Speaker 3: that look like to be? It's almost better because at
Speaker 3: least now you got money, but also there's stakes, You
Speaker 3: got kids, you got a mortgage, so it's a little
Speaker 3: bit hard. You're never going to capture that freedom of
Speaker 3: like having the nothing to do and then figuring out
Speaker 3: what to do. But what is that like? Because I
Speaker 3: think I'm thirty six. I would love to have another
Speaker 3: stab at my twenties and see what I could play
Speaker 3: what I could do, So, yeah, what have you come
Speaker 3: up with so far?
Speaker 4: Maybe this is a good question. So I read it
Speaker 4: was after the pandemic in like twenty twenty one. I
Speaker 4: read Richard Rodgery as we shall be millionaires and.
Speaker 2: That's my homie. I just start her this weekend.
Speaker 4: I love her. And I read it and I cried, Yeah,
Speaker 4: this is actually had like fifteen thousand followers. Like, so
Speaker 4: it was like in the beginning and I crab and
Speaker 4: I read it because it was just talking about women's
Speaker 4: economic development and how we've been left out of society
Speaker 4: and it's just understanding that we have to be really
Speaker 4: like men contol our lives essentially, like we haven't. We
Speaker 4: grow up thinking you have to be married, you have
Speaker 4: to do all these things, and you never really consider
Speaker 4: you as an individual, right, and then somehow you're less
Speaker 4: valuable in society if you're not married, if you don't
Speaker 4: have these things. And so I was just AND's been
Speaker 4: a really good partner to me. So it's not like
Speaker 4: it's not like I'm like trying to escape him or
Speaker 4: anything like that, but it's more like, well, dang, like
Speaker 4: what do I like? What are my hobbies?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 4: And I looked up and I didn't have any and
Speaker 4: I was like, oh my god, I want my own apartment.
Speaker 4: I was like, I love you, You're great, but like,
Speaker 4: I don't like the way our house looks. I want
Speaker 4: to see a viewer every morning when I wake up,
Speaker 4: you know. And I can't live in Cape Town right
Speaker 4: now because we have the business. So what's the next
Speaker 4: best thing? And I'm like a high rise in Atlanta?
Speaker 4: And typically people are like, well, why do you you know?
Speaker 4: There's like you you should be at home. You should
Speaker 4: be this is this is what your life should look like.
Speaker 4: A woman's not supposed to have her den, or have
Speaker 4: her space in the house or have her own place.
Speaker 4: And everyone looked at me sideways. All the men were like,
Speaker 4: he's okay with that, And I'm like, you know, and
Speaker 4: when you hear that, it's just like, you know, like,
Speaker 4: I'm a grown woman.
Speaker 3: What is it?
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 3: Did you are you renting like an office space or
Speaker 3: do you have an apartment.
Speaker 4: Like I have much an apartment for my family like.
Speaker 3: You're doing like the Charlotte. The Charlotte moved from Sex
Speaker 3: and the City. Do you remember or no? Yeah, because
Speaker 3: she like moved into Carrie's apartment that was like her
Speaker 3: mama space, her quiet space. I didn't know I was
Speaker 3: so smart not just have a coworking like a workspace,
Speaker 3: but like a life, a zen den. I call it
Speaker 3: a zen den. You deserve.
Speaker 4: I love that because because I just want children, right
Speaker 4: so like and I didn't and I've been at home
Speaker 4: with my kids, you know, while still running the business
Speaker 4: for several years. And I don't regret that. I wouldn't
Speaker 4: change that. And I'm not saying I didn't I regret
Speaker 4: how I lived my when I said that at all either,
Speaker 4: But yeah, so you build a house that's comfortable for
Speaker 4: kids when you do that. Yeah, so it's not.
Speaker 3: Tell me nothing.
Speaker 4: This used to be my zen den, Kim, but I'm
Speaker 4: st in the background.
Speaker 3: It is and it's not mine. And my hair is
Speaker 3: so big because I got a lot of legos to
Speaker 3: hide on the phone another way that I have. But
Speaker 3: my space has shrunk so much, and however it was.
Speaker 3: It's temporary. But I'm really excited because I'm starting to
Speaker 3: take back the bathroom. And my house is small, okay,
Speaker 3: very small, sixty hundred square foot. It's it's puny, but
Speaker 3: so I'm making it I'm maximizing and anyway, we're putting
Speaker 3: the kids in one room together so that I can
Speaker 3: have an upstairs room again to myself. But I just
Speaker 3: think that's that's brilliant.
Speaker 4: Now.
Speaker 3: I also could see what people could have thoughts about that,
Speaker 3: but I'm also like, ah, none of their business, right,
Speaker 3: And let me.
Speaker 1: Ask you this, Kim, Like, I feel like so many
Speaker 1: of my entrepreneur friends are on the same journey of
Speaker 1: like those who've been doing it for like ten years
Speaker 1: plus around that they're in this soul searching component where it's.
Speaker 2: Like, okay, so here I am.
Speaker 1: You know, I've done all this work I've had, this
Speaker 1: says I guess, And so my sister and I call it.
Speaker 2: I am I'm happy. I guess that's what you call it.
Speaker 2: You're like, this is great. I guess you know. It's
Speaker 2: not like nervous.
Speaker 1: Left or like, oh shit, I dedicated so much time
Speaker 1: and I'm not You're not unhappy because I've only been here.
Speaker 2: It's like, well, I'm not unhappy.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: There's success and I've done all the things that collected
Speaker 1: the awards and that's great.
Speaker 2: But it's kind of like is that it? I mean,
Speaker 2: I thought I was supposed to be like, Whooo, I'm
Speaker 2: not getting that feeling.
Speaker 1: And so you realize that there's something this internal work
Speaker 1: necessary because it's not going to happen from the outside end.
Speaker 2: And so what you're saying, I just hope for.
Speaker 1: Those of you who are listening to who have businesses
Speaker 1: or careers or whatever understanding that like the the acquisition
Speaker 1: of all the things is actually not the thing, not
Speaker 1: the thing. You know that it's not the thing, And
Speaker 1: so are you figuring out for you what the thing is?
Speaker 2: And what is it? What have you figured it out
Speaker 2: for yourself?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: And you know, and mindie, like I'm not living in
Speaker 4: this department full time, right, so like I'm still going
Speaker 4: back and forth per sent you. I go, I'm probably
Speaker 4: in this apartment maybe like a week at the month,
Speaker 4: or if I need to do deep work, I come
Speaker 4: to it, or if I need to be inspired, or
Speaker 4: I'm just because you know, my house in Chicago is
Speaker 4: more like it's gray walls. It's it's narrow because it's
Speaker 4: a city house. It doesn't get a lot of sunlight,
Speaker 4: and it's baby five, so there's like a climbing while
Speaker 4: in the basement and there's kid like number lines and
Speaker 4: how to pronounce valves everywhere you know you was a
Speaker 4: school teacher tip, and you know what the rooms look like.
Speaker 4: That's how my basement was, the whole basement. And so
Speaker 4: I looked at it. I said, I don't have a
Speaker 4: space in the house. And I also don't do things
Speaker 4: I loved anymore. Before we had kids and it was
Speaker 4: just us. We would travel every quarter to a new country,
Speaker 4: like I had been to twenty countries by the time
Speaker 4: I had kids, and so and then we had our
Speaker 4: first baby, and we still went to We took it
Speaker 4: with us to Italy and to Belize and to Yosemite
Speaker 4: and all these places. But baby number two made some
Speaker 4: of that stuff like almost impossible. While building the startup,
Speaker 4: and I realized, you know, I did one of Rachel
Speaker 4: Cargo's meditations where you think about you talk to the
Speaker 4: seven year old version of yourself seven d oh okay,
Speaker 4: And it's like if you were in you know, you're
Speaker 4: talking to the seven year old version of yourself, and
Speaker 4: she's where is she sitting when you visit her? You know,
Speaker 4: is she in a house? Is she an apartment? Is
Speaker 4: she on the beach? You know, what does her cup
Speaker 4: look like, what is she drinking, what is she wearing?
Speaker 4: You know, how does she smell? Who's in the house
Speaker 4: with her? And all these like questions. And then it
Speaker 4: was like, now you sit down, and what's the first
Speaker 4: thing you ask her? And then you realize that that's
Speaker 4: the thing that you're missing, that's the thing that the
Speaker 4: thing that's keeping you up. The first thing you ask
Speaker 4: the seven year old self, you know, the first thing
Speaker 4: I asked her, you know, do my kids love me?
Speaker 4: It was like the first thing then you know they
Speaker 4: still love me?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 4: The next thing I asked myself was did you see
Speaker 4: the world? You know? And then and then it just
Speaker 4: became clear to be like, oh my gosh, like these
Speaker 4: are the things I worry about. These are the things
Speaker 4: I'm not prioritizing. And it was not about was chromis successful?
Speaker 4: That was like number six or seven?
Speaker 2: Ooh.
Speaker 4: And then I imagined her answering, right, I'm thirty two,
Speaker 4: seventy year old version of me lives another thirty eight years,
Speaker 4: and Chromix has been the last five of my life.
Speaker 4: And I imagine her laughing that I was even asked
Speaker 4: that just because I can barely remember things that happened
Speaker 4: to me ten years ago, you know, and to think
Speaker 4: I'm going to be seventy and broken up about anything
Speaker 4: that may have happened with Kromax in thirty eight years,
Speaker 4: you know. And so it just gave me so much.
Speaker 3: Perspective, great perspective, I mean, amazing perspective.
Speaker 1: Hey, ba fan, we're gonna take a quick break and
Speaker 1: we'll be right back. I like, as she was saying
Speaker 1: the meditation, I don't know many of you were doing it,
Speaker 1: but I was doing it. And the first thing, like
Speaker 1: I was, I amadine mind because I often imagine my
Speaker 1: seventy year old self were sitting on a rocking chair, Wanda,
Speaker 1: that's what I call her, sitting on a rockum chair.
Speaker 1: She's wearing this flowy white dress. I know exactly what
Speaker 1: the house looks like. It's on her property. And the
Speaker 1: first thing, when you were saying the first thing I
Speaker 1: asked herself, I was like, were we happy?
Speaker 2: Are we happy?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 2: Like, and it's like and then the second thing like
Speaker 2: did we find love again? You know?
Speaker 1: And so like these are the things that you're right,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, okay, these And I didn't even think
Speaker 1: until you said about I didn't even ask about Kromas.
Speaker 2: I just was't like, I didn't.
Speaker 1: Ask anything about budget Essa, Like, as I was playing,
Speaker 1: that didn't even come up because I'm like, girls, she'll
Speaker 1: getting out my no budget, Lissa, like I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know how my niece's a nephew, like you know,
Speaker 1: like did we travel even more?
Speaker 2: Because I traveled a lot, you know so, But my
Speaker 2: main thing was are we happy? Are we peaceful? Are
Speaker 2: we settled? You know? Do we have love connectedness? And
Speaker 2: that's really it.
Speaker 1: So that was like, such, if you are listening, where
Speaker 1: can we find that meditation by Rachel Cargo.
Speaker 4: I just heard her talk about it on stage at
Speaker 4: Rachel Rogers Ros Summer a couple of years ago. It
Speaker 4: wasn't even like online or anything. It was just and
Speaker 4: she was just saying, I started imagining myself like you, Tiffany,
Speaker 4: And I'm like, she's in living in a mountainous area
Speaker 4: overlooking like something like a cape town with several mountains
Speaker 4: and beaches and water, and she's wearing a cute, little
Speaker 4: fit cited black dress with a big gray afro with
Speaker 4: big jewelry, and you can tell she's traveled, and she's
Speaker 4: speaking languages and she's joking to you in French, you know,
Speaker 4: and I'm like, yeah, I was like, I'm not living
Speaker 4: that life right now? How do I take steps to
Speaker 4: be that woman? You know?
Speaker 3: I would get lost in that visual and then I
Speaker 3: would come back and be like, oh wait now I
Speaker 3: got to get her there? Like dang, but how did
Speaker 3: we do it? Why can't you answer me?
Speaker 2: Excuse me?
Speaker 3: How did they get done? Ma'am? Mandy man hard of hearing?
Speaker 3: Please give me some Can you just tell me how
Speaker 3: we do it? Now that we told me what? Yeah,
Speaker 3: that's so huge, Okay. And the perspective on your business too,
Speaker 3: because I feel like sometimes when you were an entrepreneur,
Speaker 3: it's so easy to create another nine to five where
Speaker 3: you feel like you are tied to this thing and
Speaker 3: I'm going to retire here. I'll be loyal to this
Speaker 3: for twenty thirty years. But it sounds like you got
Speaker 3: a lot of fire in you and this may not
Speaker 3: be the end. So are you thinking, hey, let's potentially
Speaker 3: come to places where we can sell and then spin
Speaker 3: this off into something else? Like how are you thinking
Speaker 3: what needs to shift now for you to get that
Speaker 3: version of yourself?
Speaker 4: My biggest goal is returning the money to my customers
Speaker 4: who can invest to be a cross fund. I don't
Speaker 4: really care how much money I end up with it.
Speaker 4: At the end of the day, I care about them
Speaker 4: getting at least their money back and then some So
Speaker 4: I would love to give them. You know, if you
Speaker 4: put in five hundred, would love to get someone back
Speaker 4: a thousand dollars and then so yes, exiting or sell
Speaker 4: in a company in the name of my nine thousand
Speaker 4: customers who invested, Like, that's what I want to do,
Speaker 4: return their money. And then after this, I definite need
Speaker 4: to travel more. I'm I'm trying to. If you guys
Speaker 4: were crushing it by Gary ve No, No, they just
Speaker 4: talked about like, figure out what the thing you love
Speaker 4: and make your job making content around that thing and
Speaker 4: so so you can get paid to do that thing
Speaker 4: and it never feels like you're working, but you're working
Speaker 4: a lot type of thing. I don't know if that
Speaker 4: makes sense, But like for me, I love basically right,
Speaker 4: I love travel. You know, I would love to be
Speaker 4: paid to travel. That would be that would be happy
Speaker 4: for them, That would make me happy. Or travel show.
Speaker 4: Zac Efron has this travel show where he's going around
Speaker 4: did y'all see it? It's like sustainability and he's visiting
Speaker 4: different countries.
Speaker 2: And I've heard of it. I think I see the episode.
Speaker 3: Who has it? Zach?
Speaker 4: Yeah, Okay, And he's going to different countries about and
Speaker 4: lot about sustainability. But it's just so cool and it's
Speaker 4: crazy because this guy and the show is just like
Speaker 4: really earthy, really like knowledgeable guy about sustainability. And at
Speaker 4: the end of the series, this man's house burns down
Speaker 4: in Malibu because of.
Speaker 3: A forest fire. Who which zach Efron's house?
Speaker 4: The guy who he's with guide the guide and it's like,
Speaker 4: this is like we're not taking care of our planet.
Speaker 4: And it was just like a really meaningful documentary. And
Speaker 4: I would love to be something like that around like
Speaker 4: business and travel for black folks in the diaspora next right,
Speaker 4: But then I'll probably start another product company because it's
Speaker 4: my expertise. But I won't be so I won't be
Speaker 4: killing myself to do it, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: It'll be like ten hours a week or something. You know,
Speaker 4: like my goal is not to give myself another nine
Speaker 4: to five.
Speaker 3: You know, you're only thirty two.
Speaker 4: Holy shit, you're only thirty People will say say, I'm
Speaker 4: like you're a young too.
Speaker 3: No, I know we are. And if you're only forty,
Speaker 3: what iy four? But I would see.
Speaker 2: I'm like, girl, I don't now.
Speaker 3: Let's that you're figured it out. We're not, don't.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'm not doing that, Like I know the number.
Speaker 2: That's all the team though for we having some real
Speaker 2: come to Jesus talk.
Speaker 1: I know they listen to, hey girl, we're talking on
Speaker 1: Wednesdays about the time you hear this, and I'll be
Speaker 1: the cat is out of the bed.
Speaker 2: But I've been honest with them.
Speaker 1: I said, I'm not breaking my back anymore because low key,
Speaker 1: high key I could just be me, myself and I
Speaker 1: and have a few handful of people and still make
Speaker 1: my seven figures. I could do that, but I'm trying
Speaker 1: to create a place where black women, especially have a
Speaker 1: place to make good money in a sustainable way that
Speaker 1: helps other black women, And so I extend myself a
Speaker 1: little further to make sure there's room for more.
Speaker 2: People to be paid. But I don't need to that.
Speaker 1: Like if I just showed up just as Tiffany speaking
Speaker 1: engagment as both first work, that's seven figures for me.
Speaker 2: So I could just be like La La la la,
Speaker 2: I go sit down somewhere, you know.
Speaker 1: But I want that, but not if I'm the only
Speaker 1: one gonna be working, cause why you know, like no,
Speaker 1: you have to adjust, Like my expectation is, is that
Speaker 1: you arise to the occasion or I quite honestly, people
Speaker 1: can't stay here anymore. I'm not doing that anymore. I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna break my back. I'm not going to kill myself.
Speaker 1: So everybody can eat and I can eat less. You know,
Speaker 1: like no that if I'm going to put in the work,
Speaker 1: my expectation is, so will you or don't you know?
Speaker 2: And so there's huge shifts.
Speaker 1: Coming because I get to have joy too. I get
Speaker 1: to wake up, I get to not feel stressed. To
Speaker 1: your point, Kim, I have identified my four I called
Speaker 1: my four horsemen. These are the four people who are
Speaker 1: running the company where I feel comfortable. I'm going away
Speaker 1: all and all. I already told Manny, we were talking
Speaker 1: about this briefly yesterday. Where my aim is, I want
Speaker 1: to take four months off a year. I'm taking like
Speaker 1: moving forward, going to take May in June. I'm already
Speaker 1: taking May off and then November and December off every
Speaker 1: single year. I'm talking about like off off, don't call me,
Speaker 1: don't reach out though nothing girl is going you know,
Speaker 1: to do whatever, either to lay at half in the
Speaker 1: house or like really to travel the world. And what
Speaker 1: do I have to do? How often do we have
Speaker 1: to take the podcast for example, in order to like
Speaker 1: cover those times dates in May? Yeah, girl, your girls,
Speaker 1: I'm going to South Africa. Actually, like I'm going to
Speaker 1: South Africa, and beyond going to South Africa, I'm going
Speaker 1: to Namibia, I'm going to Zimbabwe and like yeah, so
Speaker 1: just because if not now, when like after my husband
Speaker 1: passed away, it was such a highlight where it's like
Speaker 1: I didn't think to myself, oh my gosh when I
Speaker 1: was sitting next to him that like oh what you know,
Speaker 1: like what is that much of these have to do tomorrow?
Speaker 1: None of that came up. All that came up is
Speaker 1: I wish I had more time to love on him.
Speaker 1: I wish I had more time to stay connected like
Speaker 1: physically to him. And that's it. It was just loving connection.
Speaker 1: That's the only thing that came up. So if that's
Speaker 1: the only thing that came up, that's the only thing
Speaker 1: that matters, because like what else are we doing? Like
Speaker 1: of course, if you don't have enough money to support
Speaker 1: yourself and feed yourself, and all those things are going
Speaker 1: to come up, you know, But like I that is
Speaker 1: not my reality. I have enough to support and feed myself.
Speaker 1: So why am I still navigating from a place of like,
Speaker 1: gotta go get it? Go get what sis the refrigerators full?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 1: And so so many of my of my business friends
Speaker 1: are in that space where I'm like, why are you
Speaker 1: still working so hard when you've done the thing already?
Speaker 2: We get it. You're a bad ass girl. You don't
Speaker 2: got to prove nothing else.
Speaker 1: You don't got to collect the not nan other award,
Speaker 1: you know, like your major of millions, like congratulate regulations,
Speaker 1: but like and what you know, and the fact that
Speaker 1: like I'm glad you're you're figuring this out so young,
Speaker 1: so you can really focus the rest of your life on,
Speaker 1: like the accumulation of love and connectedness and adventure and excitement,
Speaker 1: and that the business is just one of the tools
Speaker 1: to accomplish that larger life. The business is not the thing.
Speaker 4: It's not, you know, I always tell people, it's the means.
Speaker 4: It's like, a business is only a means to an end.
Speaker 4: What is the end? You know, figure that out and
Speaker 4: then figure out the means you know.
Speaker 2: Yes, thank you, Ken, thank you, you're the best. Thank you.
Speaker 1: We're gonna let you hop because I know you all right.
Speaker 2: By