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Speaker 1: When you look at the field of black women and

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Speaker 1: men who start off in beauty, health wellness companies, do

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Speaker 1: you think they go hard enough? Like where what keeps

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Speaker 1: them from achieving the type of level of success you've

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Speaker 1: achieved in this industry generally speaking?

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Speaker 2: Do I think they go hard enough? I would have

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Speaker 2: to Unfortunately, I would have to say no. I think

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Speaker 2: for some reason, people think that when you operate on

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Speaker 2: an average level, or if you're able to excel by

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Speaker 2: just giving average. I think sometimes people think that's enough.

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Speaker 2: But in order to really scale something and take it

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Speaker 2: to the next level, it is going to require bloods

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Speaker 2: what in tears that I've come to the conclusion most

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Speaker 2: people are not willing willing to do, you know, or

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Speaker 2: they think that giving normal or average is okay and

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Speaker 2: it's not.

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Speaker 1: What are some of those mistakes that people cut corners

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Speaker 1: on that keep them from like what are some of

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Speaker 1: the typical things you see?

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Speaker 2: I think some of the typical things just the initiative.

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Speaker 2: You know, when I say you have to layer things on,

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Speaker 2: I mean you have to be from a social perspective,

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Speaker 2: you have to be you know, you have to.

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Speaker 3: Put yourself out there.

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Speaker 2: From a personal perspective, run your personal social media as

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Speaker 2: if it was a business, with strategy and timing and

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Speaker 2: when and professionalism.

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Speaker 3: And then on the flip side, you have the business,

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Speaker 3: you have to do the exact same way. So there's

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Speaker 3: a lot of bells and whistles that goes along.

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Speaker 2: With it that can be achieved. But you just can't

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Speaker 2: cut corners in regards to like the time. It's twenty

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Speaker 2: four hours a day, I have never since I've been

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Speaker 2: in business. But they do not disturb.

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Speaker 3: I'm out of town my email, you know what I mean,

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Speaker 3: I just.

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Speaker 2: Never have I'm going to respond to it or you know,

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna get to it a little bit later.

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Speaker 3: But it's just NonStop.

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Speaker 4: It's always, it's continuous. Now.

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Speaker 1: I love that you talked about the personal input, like

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Speaker 1: their personal profiles and the CET because I wanted to know,

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Speaker 1: how do you build a sellable asset, a sellable brand

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Speaker 1: without becoming so core to it that if you're not

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Speaker 1: the face of it any longer, it no longer works.

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Speaker 5: How do you do that?

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Speaker 3: You got to look at the bigger picture.

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Speaker 2: I think for me it was always about building a business,

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Speaker 2: building businesses and have an.

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Speaker 3: Ability to actually scale them, you know, So for.

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Speaker 2: Me, when I work on a project, you know, I

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Speaker 2: never get into it like, Okay, I'm about to build

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Speaker 2: this thing to sell.

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Speaker 3: But to be honest, this is how big business goes.

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Speaker 2: Like there's companies that's created strategically how do we position

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Speaker 2: this thing to sell? But I think for a lot

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Speaker 2: of people are entrepreneurs, it really doesn't work that way

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Speaker 2: because you have to attach yourself from a passion perspective.

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Speaker 3: And if you're constantly thinking, I'm going to sell it one.

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Speaker 2: Day, it's not going to necessarily do what you wanted

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Speaker 2: to do, you know what I mean. So you have

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Speaker 2: to keep your eye on the prize, which is being

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Speaker 2: passionate about what it is that you're working on, and

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Speaker 2: just again just give it, give it your all.

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Speaker 1: Is direct to consumer a better opportunity these days to

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Speaker 1: think about, like what is the process like to get

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Speaker 1: into retail? Like so many times you hear companies who

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Speaker 1: spend thousands of dollars getting booths at conventions and traveling

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Speaker 1: the shows to you know, do the Dog and Pony Show.

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Speaker 1: How is it really accomplished to get into retail? Like

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Speaker 1: how do you set yourself apart? When you got of

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Speaker 1: the brand?

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Speaker 3: I think the most.

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Speaker 2: The best way to think about getting into retail is

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Speaker 2: to not think about getting into retail.

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Speaker 5: Okay, if you start.

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Speaker 2: Your business and you're constantly thinking what can I do

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Speaker 2: to solely get into retail, retailers are looking for businesses

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Speaker 2: who are actually popping outside.

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Speaker 3: Of retail, so you have to think about it. These

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Speaker 3: are regular people, these buyers. There are people just like

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Speaker 3: you and me. They're taking a chance on you. This

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Speaker 3: is their job.

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Speaker 2: So if you have not shown that you can succeed

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Speaker 2: outside of retail, because for some reason, people think that

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Speaker 2: when you get on the shelf, oh my god, non,

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Speaker 2: the retail is going to take off. They go to

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Speaker 2: advertise for you. You have to drive your own business. So

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Speaker 2: if you can't survive outside of retail, you won't be

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Speaker 2: able to survive inside. So if you treat your e

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Speaker 2: commerce website as if it was a legit retail resources, strategy,

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Speaker 2: finding a team, how to build it, scaling it, making

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Speaker 2: an assessment, it's easy to get into retail. They know

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Speaker 2: who you are, The demand is there, people are talking

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Speaker 2: about it. But if you think about it a little

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Speaker 2: bit less and concentrate on your brand, on the growth

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Speaker 2: of your company, then retail is going to be inevitable.

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Speaker 2: It's almost like a DJ. If you got a hot song,

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Speaker 2: he gonna play it, you know what I mean. Look,

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Speaker 2: if it's hot, it's hot. So you have to focus

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Speaker 2: on making your brand that hot that once the retailer

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Speaker 2: hear it, it's automatic, like you're coming in here automatically,

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Speaker 2: you know, because we've heard about this brand.

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Speaker 3: The customers are calling.

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Speaker 1: No, we're going to come back to the main choice.

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Speaker 1: But I do want to talk about you've got a

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Speaker 1: master class now, and you're teaching people, you know, all

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Speaker 1: across the CpG, particularly maybe health and hair and et cetera,

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Speaker 1: how to do this. What can you give me, like

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Speaker 1: the elevator pitch for this master class and what people

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Speaker 1: get out of it?

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Speaker 3: I would say what they get out of is that

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Speaker 3: one on one giving you what.

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Speaker 2: You need that that's basically different from the next person.

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Speaker 2: I think it was hard for me to say, let

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Speaker 2: me pre record this stuff and just like sell some

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Speaker 2: type of master class. But everybody needs something that's different,

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Speaker 2: something that's customized. I work with people who have no

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Speaker 2: idea how to operate social media. I work with people

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Speaker 2: who have no idea what the EI in an entity.

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Speaker 2: Forming an entity is I work with people who have

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Speaker 2: no concept at all of a business. I work with

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Speaker 2: people who have sold over a million dollars. So it's

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Speaker 2: hard for me to pre record something to say, well,

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Speaker 2: this is a one size spit off success. It's not

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Speaker 2: a one size spit off when you look at the

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Speaker 2: root that journey. Every journey is going to be a

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Speaker 2: little bit different. And the only way that I'm able

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Speaker 2: to do it's by me physically sitting down, talking and

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Speaker 2: ask asking those questions individually, because the responses is going

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Speaker 2: to change.

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Speaker 3: It's going to be different across the board.

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Speaker 1: And I mentioned you grew up in Detroit, and I

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Speaker 1: think about the work that you've done based on your success,

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Speaker 1: like the philanthropy work that you getting involved in. You know,

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Speaker 1: you started to pay my bill program. How much of

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Speaker 1: you know, the work that you do today speaks to

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Speaker 1: where you come from, like being from Detroit, And because

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Speaker 1: I talk about this often, being from the Midwest, you know,

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Speaker 1: forty five minutes away from where you grew up, we

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Speaker 1: were so heavily inundated with the manufacturing and automotive and

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Speaker 1: et cetera. And at least in Toledo, maybe in Detroit,

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Speaker 1: it was different. We didn't have that entrepreneurial spirit you know,

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Speaker 1: percolating around us. But the people who were successful were

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Speaker 1: successful because they worked at GM or G or et cetera.

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Speaker 1: How how do you see your role as you know,

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Speaker 1: a role model to you know, and the giving that

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Speaker 1: you do as impactful for people who want to want

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Speaker 1: to have a kind of success that you've achieved.

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Speaker 2: I would definitely say, you know, one thing about you know,

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Speaker 2: being from Detroit, even if we didn't have what we

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Speaker 2: considered like that traditional you know, entrepreneurial leadership, what we

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Speaker 2: did have and what we continuously have, and I think

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Speaker 2: that's the same thing where you're from.

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Speaker 3: Is that hustle.

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Speaker 2: At the end of the day, we don't find a

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Speaker 2: way to make ends meet, we're don't find a way

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Speaker 2: to feed our family, you know. And I know for

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Speaker 2: sure my foundation being from Detroit and just not giving

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Speaker 2: up knowing that there's other opportunities that this door says, uh,

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Speaker 2: it's closed, or if someone says no, there's.

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Speaker 3: Another opportunity out there.

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Speaker 2: So I can't do it here, but I can go

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Speaker 2: around you and find someone else. So I definitely believe,

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Speaker 2: you know, having that that that hustle that I grew

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Speaker 2: up in definitely help achieve to kind of you know

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Speaker 2: where I am today.

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Speaker 1: You know, I think there's something there, and I don't

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Speaker 1: have a question mind it. I want to say that

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Speaker 1: I think there's something to that, because you know, if

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Speaker 1: you like research, like scientists scientifically.

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Speaker 5: About hair, it's like they call it dead follows.

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Speaker 1: It's like it's not really like a nerve in it, right,

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Speaker 1: And so you like your hair, you don't feel it

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Speaker 1: when it gets cut, that scientists will tell you, But

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Speaker 1: I really I have a lot of hair number one,

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Speaker 1: and I can feel something when my hair is cut,

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Speaker 1: and so I don't know what that is or if

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Speaker 1: I said spiritual or neurological. I don't know how to

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Speaker 1: define that. But the fact that people say, you know, well,

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Speaker 1: it's just hair and you can cut it, and it's

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Speaker 1: like it doesn't mean anything to you to your point

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Speaker 1: about confidence, like it's more than just you know, a

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Speaker 1: beauty thing, or it's more than just you know in

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Speaker 1: that way. But I do feel like there's something that

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Speaker 1: I don't know if you have anything to answer that.

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Speaker 1: I didn't really have a question, but I do feel

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Speaker 1: like there's something more to it. Than just something sitting

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Speaker 1: on top of my head.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, and many cultures your hair is like it's part

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Speaker 6: of your spirituality or ritual or even religion. And I

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Speaker 6: definitely think there's a lot of power in your hair

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Speaker 6: and it definitely tied to how you feel about yourself.

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Speaker 4: Right, you look good, you feel good.

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Speaker 6: I I think also here is also an area for creativity,

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Speaker 6: and so what looks this one is?

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Speaker 4: You know, it.

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Speaker 6: Allows us to like empower ourselves through creative like, hey,

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Speaker 6: my hair's turquoise because I love for example.

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Speaker 5: I love it.

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Speaker 1: So so when you get an idea for an app

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Speaker 1: like this, how do you start off?

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Speaker 5: So you like, do you.

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Speaker 1: Automatically think I need to go raise money? Do you

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Speaker 1: automatically think I need I need to go learn how

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Speaker 1: to code?

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Speaker 5: Why? What is what are the first steps you take?

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Speaker 1: Because I'm imagining because I did not read that you

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Speaker 1: were an engineer. I mean that's you're a scientist, and

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Speaker 1: so so talk to me about how do you how

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Speaker 1: do you get started in this way?

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Speaker 4: Yeah?

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Speaker 6: So, actually the reason why my engineer is I was

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Speaker 6: really passionate about solving. Like I said, I'm interested in

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Speaker 6: big problems that are overlooked and I was really interested

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Speaker 6: in building technology, and when I would talk to investors

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Speaker 6: that like, you're not engineer, so that fine, of give

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Speaker 6: a pha engineering, you can't tell me that. The journey,

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Speaker 6: I realized that in building a business you really need

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Speaker 6: a team, and so really you should really reflect on

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Speaker 6: your background and where your strengths are and just figure

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Speaker 6: out where, like depending on what you're building, what the

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Speaker 6: weaknesses are, and fill.

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Speaker 4: Your team with those weaknesses.

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Speaker 6: So like, holistically, you guys are rock solid in all

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Speaker 6: the errors that are required to build your business. But

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Speaker 6: to answer a question about how do you start, first

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Speaker 6: step always should be customer discovery.

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Speaker 4: One of the number one reasons. I think it's like

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Speaker 4: number two.

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Speaker 6: So I think number one reasons most businesses fail is

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Speaker 6: because they run out of money. Number two is because

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Speaker 6: they don't have customers. But I would argue the reason

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Speaker 6: that they don't have they run out of money is

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Speaker 6: because they're selling to they don't have customer enough customers.

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Speaker 6: So I really feel like the number one issue really

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Speaker 6: is you're building. Oftentimes people have these really amazing ideas

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Speaker 6: and sometimes they may come from like my self, founder

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Speaker 6: story or journey, but it may be that it really

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Speaker 6: doesn't happen to enough people that has a burning issue

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Speaker 6: or problem that they want to pay for. And so

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Speaker 6: customer discovery is the first step. And so customer discovery

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Speaker 6: is basically going out.

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Speaker 4: And talking to your potential customer.

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Speaker 6: And it's not asking them what your idea is or

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Speaker 6: telling what your ideas and asking for their feedback and

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Speaker 6: the idea.

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Speaker 4: That's the second third phase of customer discovery process. It's

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Speaker 4: really about understanding.

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Speaker 6: Their problems and listening for are they saying what you

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Speaker 6: think like your idea is or like coming somewhere close

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Speaker 6: to that, right, So really listening to the customer and

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Speaker 6: understanding what their problems are and building for that instead

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Speaker 6: of building and they will come.

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Speaker 4: That works sometimes if you're lucky. Nine times out of

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Speaker 4: ten it does not work.

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Speaker 1: So talk to me because I hear you. I want

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Speaker 1: to reiterate with you just said. It's not about telling

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Speaker 1: them what your ideas and asking them what they think.

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Speaker 1: Is really trying to dig into what their problems are

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Speaker 1: and what maybe they be doing today to solve those problems.

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Speaker 1: So so many entrepreneurs during that process can't help themselves

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Speaker 1: but to talk about.

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Speaker 5: Their idea and their solutions.

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Speaker 1: So how do you frame those questions to ensure that

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Speaker 1: you're not taining the responses that you're getting.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, so a good place to start is open ended questions.

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Speaker 6: So if I was starting here days over today again,

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Speaker 6: I may ask people like, hey, tell me about your

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Speaker 6: your hair, Like, do you face any problems or challenges?

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Speaker 4: What are the number one.

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Speaker 6: Things that you wish that you could solve? I would

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Speaker 6: also add that people are really good at telling the

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Speaker 6: problems with not necessarily solutions. So people may come up

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Speaker 6: with cool ideas, but oftentimes the ideas that come up

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Speaker 6: with may not even be things that they would use themselves.

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Speaker 6: Do You have to be careful with that when you're

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Speaker 6: asking people for feedback, because they'll come up with some

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Speaker 6: really cool ideas and then you ask them would you

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Speaker 6: use that? And they're like, maybe sounds cool, but in

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Speaker 6: reality it's just a cool idea, not something that they

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Speaker 6: would you really used.

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Speaker 4: So there's a lot of.

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Speaker 6: Bias there in feedback. So just listen to them talking

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Speaker 6: about their story and you have to extrapolate or figure

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Speaker 6: out what they really mean, Like we between the lines, So.

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Speaker 1: How did you come to a place where you knew

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Speaker 1: that people would pay for this? Because It's one thing

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Speaker 1: to say, hey, I have a conditioner for you. It's

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Speaker 1: another thing to say, hey, I have an educational tool

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Speaker 1: that actually helps you track to find the conditioner. How

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Speaker 1: do you get to a place that you knew they

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Speaker 1: would pull out their wallet?

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Speaker 6: Yeah, so I've I personally and maybe hundreds and of women.

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Speaker 4: Around their problems and concerns and so on.

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Speaker 6: So that's kind of through the customer discovery process, I

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Speaker 6: realize that we have something here that we're building. So yeah,

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Speaker 6: so then we push forward with the development process.

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Speaker 5: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: So there was this quote I found you were doing

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Speaker 1: another interview, and I'm going.

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Speaker 5: To tell you what you said and have a question.

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Speaker 5: You said.

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Speaker 1: You said, there's a classic inventor's mistake of being so

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Speaker 1: caught up in problem solving that you take for granted

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Speaker 1: that the way your solution is built and the way

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Speaker 1: your customer may find it most useful may be slightly different.

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Speaker 1: So many of us, you remember saying that. First of all,

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Speaker 1: so many of us start off in business because we

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Speaker 1: have an idea that we just know.

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Speaker 5: Will work, or we assume it will work in the marketplace.

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Speaker 1: And what you're saying is, you know, often we're wrong

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Speaker 1: and So how do.

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Speaker 5: We ensure that we avoid that trap.

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Speaker 1: Of being so romantic about the idea, because what will

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Speaker 1: happened to your point about customer discovery is we'll get

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Speaker 1: so romantic.

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Speaker 5: About our ideas, will.

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Speaker 1: Taint our questions in a way to get the answers

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Speaker 1: that we want.

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Speaker 6: Yes, we will ask leading questions, and when you ask

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Speaker 6: the question, we always hear what you want to hear.

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Speaker 4: Always.

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Speaker 6: I mean, I tie oftentimes you use like dating analogies,

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Speaker 6: but I think it also happens in like the right.

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Speaker 4: Oftentimes you're like, does he really like me? Does she

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Speaker 4: really like me? Do they really like me?

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Speaker 6: And you everything they do, you're kind of wrapping around

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Speaker 6: this fantasy of them loving you or wanting to be

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Speaker 6: with you, But they're telling you through their actions, through

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Speaker 6: their feedback, through everything, that they're not interested. But you

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Speaker 6: really want them to say yes, right, or really want

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Speaker 6: them to be with you. That happens in business too, right.

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Speaker 6: It's just a human nature that we want people we

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Speaker 6: want to be right, and it's not necessarily about always

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Speaker 6: about ego.

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Speaker 4: It's about like we're so passionate about what we're doing,

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Speaker 4: we don't want to be wrong right.

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Speaker 6: Well, in business, and especially if you're building a high

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Speaker 6: tech adventure, you have to be okay with realizing that

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Speaker 6: you're wrong and pivoting and doing that quickly.

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Speaker 1: So I log into the app the first time, talk

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Speaker 1: to me about some of the questions you ask or

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Speaker 1: things you ask me to do to help develop a

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Speaker 1: profile for myself.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, so today we're asking a lot about your symptoms

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Speaker 6: and concerns. So when you log in, and of course

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Speaker 6: you cut your profile, and now you could also log

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Speaker 6: into social and then once you're in the app, we're

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Speaker 6: asking about your symptoms, concerns, and goals, and then we're

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Speaker 6: curating our educational insights based on that. Later this year,

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Speaker 6: we'll be also introducing a lot of the hair analysis

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Speaker 6: related AI tools to help even further enhance your product discovery.

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Speaker 4: Here, durneying process.

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Speaker 1: Is this something that you knew you always wanted to

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Speaker 1: start a business, or you saw, hey, I got an

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Speaker 1: issue here and I don't see a product in the marketplace,

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Speaker 1: so let me figure it out.

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Speaker 7: I always knew that I was entrepreneurial, although I didn't

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Speaker 7: know what that word meant. I didn't know entrepreneurship was

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Speaker 7: a career until I went to college and so I

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Speaker 7: studied business management and got a minor and entrepreneurship, and

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Speaker 7: then I went to USC and got a master's in

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Speaker 7: social entrepreneurship. So I definitely knew I wanted to start

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Speaker 7: a business one day, but I couldn't have predicted that

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Speaker 7: it would be this business, for like the heart business

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Speaker 7: to start as a first time founder, so many uncertainties,

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Speaker 7: there's so much unknown about this space, and the innovation

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Speaker 7: that was needed in this industry was not going to

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Speaker 7: be cheap, and so I just kind of jumped in

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Speaker 7: full force from there.

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Speaker 1: I mean, as somebody who's done like a lot of construction,

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Speaker 1: I've heard the term PVC often, and what I've read

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Speaker 1: about you is you've you've discovered like a lot of

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Speaker 1: hair braiding. You know, products that are on the market

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Speaker 1: have PVC in it, and so talk about like, you

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Speaker 1: know what's in the market today and why those things

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Speaker 1: are issues for us.

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Speaker 7: So from what I understand and what I've been able

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Speaker 7: to find in my research, the majority must say none

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Speaker 7: times out of ten, your hair extensions, your plastic hair

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Speaker 7: intensions are going to be made out of PVC. There

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Speaker 7: are some brands that use pet but for the most part,

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Speaker 7: it's PVC, and I just couldn't believe, based on what

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Speaker 7: I was learning about the way PVC was using other applications,

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Speaker 7: that it was okay to use it in a product

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Speaker 7: that sits on our scalps. I was just kind of

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Speaker 7: blown away that not enough people were either aware or

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Speaker 7: calling attention to the potential risks that we were assuming

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Speaker 7: as consumers wearing these products on our scalps. The other

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Speaker 7: half of the market is going to be human hair,

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Speaker 7: which are also coded in certain chemical The story behind

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Speaker 7: human hair is like it's a lot more secretive because

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Speaker 7: of where it's being sourced, how it's being sourced, to practices, how.

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Speaker 8: It gets this way to the states.

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Speaker 7: So you know, some people have an aversion to wearing

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Speaker 7: another human beings hair on their head. And so I

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Speaker 7: just recognized that there were these two opposite ends of

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Speaker 7: the spectrum in the hairs into the industry that both

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Speaker 7: had sort of nasty histories, and I wanted to know

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Speaker 7: was or was there a lane for something completely different

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Speaker 7: that wasn't made out of neither plastic or human hair.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, so so often we think of, you know, our

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Speaker 1: scalp itching or irritation as just a byproduct that have

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Speaker 1: in natural hair.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, this is not normal.

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Speaker 5: This is not normal. Yeah, so talk more about that.

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Speaker 7: I knew it wasn't normal, and I knew that most

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Speaker 7: people probably in their in their gut knew like this

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Speaker 7: wasn't normal. But it was sort of like an expectation

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Speaker 7: that if I get braids, and it's just something that

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Speaker 7: you have to do it almost like the beauteout pain

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Speaker 7: phrase that has been debunked in other areas, but it

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Speaker 7: was it's sort of an expectation like if I get

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Speaker 7: these braids, I know my scouts can be irritated, and

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Speaker 7: I'm gonna be patent. I know I'm gonna be like

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Speaker 7: oiling it down, doing an apple cider, vinegar rants, just

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Speaker 7: doing the whole nine.

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Speaker 8: And I wasn't willing to do any of that one.

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Speaker 7: And I was also just really curious, like I wanted

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Speaker 7: to know more of the why than to how am

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Speaker 7: I going to like continue to wear my braids and

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Speaker 7: go the extra model do that? Like I wasn't down

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Speaker 7: to do that. I understand, know what's the reason that

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Speaker 7: my scopot itching and what can I do about it

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Speaker 7: so that it doesn't happen again ever?

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Speaker 8: In for anyone?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was looking at I was doing research for

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Speaker 1: this conversation. I was looking at some other studies that

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Speaker 1: was done around products that are in your category, not

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Speaker 1: your products, but products in your category. And so many

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Speaker 1: synthetic chemicals are using these things that in many cases

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Speaker 1: are banned in other countries, right, and so things that

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Speaker 1: we allow, for whatever reasons in the United States to

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Speaker 1: be sold and to be put into people's hair. And

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Speaker 1: one of the things that I'm really interested in is

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Speaker 1: what is it about products that are that are not

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Speaker 1: plant based, that we may not even be aware are damaging?

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Speaker 1: Like what are they doing to like what are the

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Speaker 1: products doing to us in our skin? Because I was

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Speaker 1: before you answered, I was talking to my dermatologists several

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Speaker 1: years ago and she said this statement that stuck with

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Speaker 1: me ever since. Like, our skin is our largest organ.

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Speaker 1: You know, lot of people don't think of it that way,

445
00:20:57,440 --> 00:20:59,800
Speaker 1: but the things that you put on it ultimately get

446
00:20:59,840 --> 00:21:02,439
Speaker 1: in it. And so we think of exactly like we

447
00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:04,000
Speaker 1: think of you know, in our nose or in our

448
00:21:04,040 --> 00:21:06,400
Speaker 1: mouth or etce. Like these are gateways, but your skin

449
00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:07,360
Speaker 1: is a gateway.

450
00:21:07,040 --> 00:21:11,560
Speaker 7: Also, and that's what's sort of like that's what scared

451
00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:14,560
Speaker 7: me once. So all these years ago. Was in twenty

452
00:21:14,880 --> 00:21:16,439
Speaker 7: started working on this in twenty nineteen. I think I

453
00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:19,240
Speaker 7: ordered this for parting. In twenty twenty, I sent to

454
00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:22,639
Speaker 7: two brands of plastic hair to a lab. I was

455
00:21:22,640 --> 00:21:23,960
Speaker 7: living in North Carolina at the time. I sent to

456
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:26,199
Speaker 7: a lab in North Carolina for them to tell me, like,

457
00:21:26,359 --> 00:21:28,240
Speaker 7: you know, what is the what is the makeup of

458
00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:34,320
Speaker 7: these materials? And the results scared me because it got

459
00:21:34,320 --> 00:21:40,360
Speaker 7: me thinking about if I'm having a topical reaction itchiness, redness, bumps,

460
00:21:40,400 --> 00:21:43,719
Speaker 7: that is one of my bodies my immune system warning

461
00:21:43,760 --> 00:21:49,160
Speaker 7: me that something is wrong. But I was terrified about

462
00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:52,439
Speaker 7: what my body wasn't telling me right in that moment,

463
00:21:52,560 --> 00:21:56,800
Speaker 7: about what was possibly being absorbed from my skin into

464
00:21:56,800 --> 00:22:00,520
Speaker 7: my body, how I was impacting my organs, how it's

465
00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:04,800
Speaker 7: impacting my my immune system overall, and what sort of

466
00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:08,080
Speaker 7: connections that the chemicals found in these products have to

467
00:22:08,960 --> 00:22:13,760
Speaker 7: certain cancers and illnesses like breast cancer. And so that

468
00:22:13,760 --> 00:22:16,719
Speaker 7: that just became like really eye opening to me that

469
00:22:16,840 --> 00:22:19,520
Speaker 7: not only could I not allow myself to continue to

470
00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:22,359
Speaker 7: wear these products, but I have to warn other people

471
00:22:22,560 --> 00:22:26,520
Speaker 7: that there are questions that needs to be answered in

472
00:22:26,560 --> 00:22:28,960
Speaker 7: the same way that studies have been done about permanent

473
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:31,400
Speaker 7: hair dyes, about relaxes. One of about relaxes I think

474
00:22:31,400 --> 00:22:32,960
Speaker 7: has been done a couple of times, but it just

475
00:22:33,240 --> 00:22:35,280
Speaker 7: gained a lot of traction this last go around, like

476
00:22:35,320 --> 00:22:37,960
Speaker 7: a couple of months ago, And so that same level

477
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:41,760
Speaker 7: of discovery and research needs to be done with plastic

478
00:22:41,800 --> 00:22:45,879
Speaker 7: hair extensions so that we can know definitively if I'm

479
00:22:45,920 --> 00:22:47,800
Speaker 7: gonna continue to use these products. At least I can

480
00:22:47,840 --> 00:22:50,680
Speaker 7: make an informed decision about the risks that I'm assuming

481
00:22:50,720 --> 00:22:51,920
Speaker 7: as a as a consumer.

482
00:22:53,200 --> 00:22:57,360
Speaker 1: I am interested because somebody who has your background education,

483
00:22:58,680 --> 00:23:01,160
Speaker 1: how you settle on this, this is the idea I'm

484
00:23:01,200 --> 00:23:03,480
Speaker 1: going to pursue. Like, You've been doing technology for a

485
00:23:03,520 --> 00:23:06,159
Speaker 1: long time, went to school for it, obviously had interest

486
00:23:06,200 --> 00:23:09,120
Speaker 1: in it growing up. How did you decide that I'm

487
00:23:09,119 --> 00:23:11,160
Speaker 1: going to solve his hair problem for us?

488
00:23:12,119 --> 00:23:12,320
Speaker 4: Yes?

489
00:23:12,400 --> 00:23:15,639
Speaker 9: Well, actually I went natural when I was in college

490
00:23:15,760 --> 00:23:19,440
Speaker 9: at Ordia Tech, and I was using all these products

491
00:23:19,440 --> 00:23:22,439
Speaker 9: like from my roommates, my line sisters, and it was

492
00:23:22,480 --> 00:23:26,080
Speaker 9: like drying my hair out and breaking off. So I

493
00:23:26,119 --> 00:23:28,359
Speaker 9: was like, Okay, there has to be a science to

494
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:34,359
Speaker 9: how different products react on your hair. And it just

495
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:37,160
Speaker 9: inspired me to study like the science of hair because

496
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:40,639
Speaker 9: I originally wanted to be a hair stylist when I was,

497
00:23:40,800 --> 00:23:43,760
Speaker 9: you know, in high school thinking about my career path.

498
00:23:44,440 --> 00:23:47,840
Speaker 9: But I was also very in love with technology and

499
00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:51,199
Speaker 9: software development, so I decided to go that route. But

500
00:23:51,280 --> 00:23:54,399
Speaker 9: I always wanted to go to cosmetology school at some point,

501
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:57,960
Speaker 9: and so I was thinking, Okay, this could be my

502
00:23:58,160 --> 00:24:01,960
Speaker 9: chance to you know, put my mytology brain on. And

503
00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:05,400
Speaker 9: when I researched the science of hair, discovered that your

504
00:24:05,400 --> 00:24:08,960
Speaker 9: hair is as unique as your fingerprint. So that's why

505
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:12,200
Speaker 9: the curl pudding for my hair wouldn't be the same

506
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:16,040
Speaker 9: as yours as any other person. And that just really

507
00:24:16,080 --> 00:24:20,119
Speaker 9: truly inspired me to create an algorithm that could match

508
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:23,080
Speaker 9: your type of hair with the products that will work

509
00:24:23,160 --> 00:24:26,200
Speaker 9: best for you. And so that's how it all started.

510
00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:30,400
Speaker 9: And this was actually right before the natural hair movement

511
00:24:30,800 --> 00:24:31,440
Speaker 9: started too.

512
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:32,520
Speaker 5: Wow.

513
00:24:32,680 --> 00:24:35,040
Speaker 1: Wow, Before I get in on the next question, can

514
00:24:35,080 --> 00:24:37,480
Speaker 1: you get more centered in the camera or turn the

515
00:24:37,480 --> 00:24:40,040
Speaker 1: camera or you screw over to your left a little

516
00:24:40,040 --> 00:24:46,720
Speaker 1: bittle a little bit more to your left. There, you

517
00:24:46,800 --> 00:24:48,840
Speaker 1: are all right, And if you need to stop any point,

518
00:24:48,840 --> 00:24:51,439
Speaker 1: we can stop any point. So so we are having

519
00:24:51,760 --> 00:24:55,960
Speaker 1: a huge conversation in our social discourse about AI and

520
00:24:56,000 --> 00:24:59,760
Speaker 1: how AI is changing everything, and I wonder how you

521
00:25:00,040 --> 00:25:04,560
Speaker 1: aught about it, implemented AI into your technology solutions, Like

522
00:25:04,640 --> 00:25:07,000
Speaker 1: what are you doing when you're thinking about this is

523
00:25:07,000 --> 00:25:07,640
Speaker 1: something that can be.

524
00:25:07,560 --> 00:25:08,480
Speaker 5: Helpful for our people.

525
00:25:09,960 --> 00:25:13,240
Speaker 9: Yes, well, we are the inventors of hair AI, which

526
00:25:13,320 --> 00:25:17,880
Speaker 9: can identify your unique hair type, texture, and condition and

527
00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:21,520
Speaker 9: so think about like all the unique variables of your

528
00:25:21,560 --> 00:25:25,000
Speaker 9: hair being able to instantly capture that and map it

529
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:29,240
Speaker 9: to the right products based on your hair goals, hair challenges,

530
00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:33,680
Speaker 9: and product preferences. That's what our technology does. And we

531
00:25:33,680 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 9: were actually on the path of creating this before AI

532
00:25:37,720 --> 00:25:42,000
Speaker 9: started to take over the world essentially, so we ended

533
00:25:42,080 --> 00:25:45,240
Speaker 9: up being, you know, the market leaders in terms of

534
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:49,879
Speaker 9: bringing hair AI to market. And actually our first major

535
00:25:49,960 --> 00:25:54,160
Speaker 9: client was Unilever and we licensed it on shaemoisture dot

536
00:25:54,160 --> 00:25:59,439
Speaker 9: com and so integrating it with the textured haircare brands

537
00:25:59,480 --> 00:26:03,400
Speaker 9: at the time was very pivotal because again we were

538
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:06,679
Speaker 9: all in this phase of figuring out our hair and

539
00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:14,639
Speaker 9: understanding like again, what shampoo, conditioner, gel, cream, butter, you

540
00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:16,360
Speaker 9: know which which one.

541
00:26:16,160 --> 00:26:16,720
Speaker 4: Works for me?

542
00:26:17,280 --> 00:26:20,800
Speaker 9: Because the product the product junkies were essentially starting to

543
00:26:20,880 --> 00:26:23,919
Speaker 9: retire right. Like in the beginning, it was fun to

544
00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:29,040
Speaker 9: figure it out from experimental standpoint, but now, uh, with

545
00:26:29,119 --> 00:26:31,679
Speaker 9: the timing in the market, we want to eliminate the

546
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:34,639
Speaker 9: trial and error, and so that's exactly what hair ai

547
00:26:34,840 --> 00:26:40,000
Speaker 9: does by Mayavana, and it also starts your personalized journey,

548
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:43,200
Speaker 9: meaning the next time you change your hair, you can

549
00:26:43,200 --> 00:26:46,480
Speaker 9: get new recommendations as well. So we're excited to be

550
00:26:46,560 --> 00:26:50,320
Speaker 9: the market leaders of that, especially because it's so important

551
00:26:50,320 --> 00:26:53,919
Speaker 9: from a development standpoint for us to own the development

552
00:26:54,040 --> 00:26:56,560
Speaker 9: side of this. We are a team of black and

553
00:26:56,600 --> 00:27:01,320
Speaker 9: brown engineers. It's our culture, it's our pri and we

554
00:27:01,400 --> 00:27:08,080
Speaker 9: know that we can train the computers to essentially understand

555
00:27:08,119 --> 00:27:12,840
Speaker 9: the cultural differences of our hair because for a long time,

556
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:18,439
Speaker 9: of course, our hair category, textured hair rather was always

557
00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:23,679
Speaker 9: an afterthought. So this was specifically designed to identify the

558
00:27:23,840 --> 00:27:27,119
Speaker 9: uniqueness of our hair because women of color have the

559
00:27:27,119 --> 00:27:30,480
Speaker 9: greatest hair texture variety out of any ethnicity in the world.

560
00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:33,720
Speaker 9: So we really wanted to own that and make sure

561
00:27:33,800 --> 00:27:36,920
Speaker 9: that it was done well and done right.

562
00:27:36,800 --> 00:27:39,679
Speaker 8: With all textures, all types represented.

563
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:42,520
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm interested in the.

564
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:44,760
Speaker 5: Foresight, the forethought like you had, like.

565
00:27:44,680 --> 00:27:49,200
Speaker 1: You you're doing this before you know chat ept changed

566
00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:51,520
Speaker 1: everything for everybody. Yeah, and this is like, you know,

567
00:27:51,560 --> 00:27:54,840
Speaker 1: two three years ago now, and so you saw something

568
00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:58,879
Speaker 1: coming and you started working on it pre all that.

569
00:27:59,520 --> 00:28:02,840
Speaker 1: So I wonder like, what was the trigger, Like this

570
00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:04,680
Speaker 1: is where we should be spending resources?

571
00:28:05,040 --> 00:28:05,760
Speaker 5: What was that?

572
00:28:06,160 --> 00:28:09,720
Speaker 8: Yes, yes, that's a really good question.

573
00:28:10,880 --> 00:28:13,000
Speaker 9: I believe it was at the time where you know,

574
00:28:13,080 --> 00:28:16,600
Speaker 9: e commerce has taken off, a lot of retailers are

575
00:28:16,640 --> 00:28:21,840
Speaker 9: starting to expand their categories. But I know what set

576
00:28:21,920 --> 00:28:27,120
Speaker 9: out for me was personalization and being able to incorporate massive,

577
00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:28,760
Speaker 9: massive amounts of data.

578
00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:31,760
Speaker 8: To personalize the results.

579
00:28:32,640 --> 00:28:36,800
Speaker 9: Meaning this is a many to many analysis, meaning the

580
00:28:36,960 --> 00:28:39,680
Speaker 9: many types of variables in our hair strands map to

581
00:28:39,720 --> 00:28:44,280
Speaker 9: the many type of variables in products. And I actually

582
00:28:44,320 --> 00:28:49,080
Speaker 9: saw this being done in other markets, in other industries

583
00:28:49,600 --> 00:28:53,239
Speaker 9: well before this. So I think it was just a

584
00:28:53,280 --> 00:28:56,520
Speaker 9: matter of you know, having the foresight to know that

585
00:28:57,560 --> 00:29:00,320
Speaker 9: eventually technology is transfer.

586
00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:01,240
Speaker 8: Farming every industry.

587
00:29:01,440 --> 00:29:04,960
Speaker 9: Right So, we had already went through the ride sharing transformation,

588
00:29:05,760 --> 00:29:10,440
Speaker 9: with Uber and Lyft now leading the transportation category. Airbnb

589
00:29:10,720 --> 00:29:16,920
Speaker 9: is now the leading marketplace for travel accommodations, right, So,

590
00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:23,280
Speaker 9: seeing how technology was so disruptive, I knew that it

591
00:29:24,160 --> 00:29:27,320
Speaker 9: was bound to hit our market at some point in time, right,

592
00:29:28,360 --> 00:29:31,400
Speaker 9: and what better way to do this by again catering

593
00:29:31,440 --> 00:29:35,080
Speaker 9: to the unique needs of the consumer, because we are

594
00:29:35,160 --> 00:29:38,840
Speaker 9: the heartbeat of this industry, meaning we spend all the

595
00:29:38,880 --> 00:29:42,840
Speaker 9: money in it, right, We're spending it is a part

596
00:29:42,880 --> 00:29:47,240
Speaker 9: of our culture, right, It's a part of how we

597
00:29:47,480 --> 00:29:51,120
Speaker 9: express who we are. And so it was just a

598
00:29:51,200 --> 00:29:56,800
Speaker 9: matter of seeing the solution, but also being in sync

599
00:29:56,840 --> 00:30:01,840
Speaker 9: with the market. Timing was the most important part of

600
00:30:01,880 --> 00:30:06,560
Speaker 9: this because again with technology, you do have to be

601
00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:10,760
Speaker 9: a few years ahead to really make a stamp, you know.

602
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:13,840
Speaker 9: Like so even if you look at the history of

603
00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:19,520
Speaker 9: social networks, right, like, before these companies reached mass adoption,

604
00:30:20,520 --> 00:30:23,800
Speaker 9: they had to start in a particular niche that they

605
00:30:23,880 --> 00:30:28,360
Speaker 9: were catering to. And so with social network and even

606
00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:32,320
Speaker 9: like for example, Facebook starting on a college campus, Pinterest

607
00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:35,479
Speaker 9: started with a group of stay at home moms. You know,

608
00:30:35,880 --> 00:30:39,840
Speaker 9: there was always a niche that became the drivers of

609
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:44,120
Speaker 9: adoption for that platform. And given that, you know, black

610
00:30:44,160 --> 00:30:47,080
Speaker 9: women spend nine times more than the average consumer on

611
00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:51,000
Speaker 9: hair products, we're the ones searching, where the ones buying,

612
00:30:51,520 --> 00:30:52,360
Speaker 9: and so.

613
00:30:52,280 --> 00:30:55,200
Speaker 8: We became the niche group to cater to.

614
00:30:56,360 --> 00:30:58,880
Speaker 9: But it ended up putting us, you know, in a

615
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:02,840
Speaker 9: position to now the market for AI in hair care.

616
00:31:03,960 --> 00:31:06,680
Speaker 9: And actually the way we did it was we started

617
00:31:07,120 --> 00:31:10,480
Speaker 9: exhibiting at trade shows. So our first trade show was

618
00:31:10,520 --> 00:31:14,760
Speaker 9: the Brown Brother's Hair Show, and this was in twenty twelve,

619
00:31:14,920 --> 00:31:18,440
Speaker 9: but we came with our first demo of our product.

620
00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:22,800
Speaker 9: It was a hair journey platform, and so you know,

621
00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:27,560
Speaker 9: the way we greeted everyone was, you know, tell us

622
00:31:27,560 --> 00:31:31,760
Speaker 9: your hair journey story, because everyone has one, right and

623
00:31:31,840 --> 00:31:36,000
Speaker 9: so that actually became part of our secret sauce because

624
00:31:36,040 --> 00:31:39,440
Speaker 9: we realized that not only do I need to understand

625
00:31:39,480 --> 00:31:42,360
Speaker 9: your hair, I need to understand how it changes over

626
00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:47,600
Speaker 9: time and why, because that is what's driving this buying behavior.

627
00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:52,480
Speaker 9: And so by us tapping into those things.

628
00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:53,520
Speaker 8: Again, it's just like you have to.

629
00:31:53,840 --> 00:31:59,080
Speaker 9: That's why I truly believe founders have to follow their conviction, because,

630
00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:04,000
Speaker 9: like you know, by following that, we ended up becoming

631
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:08,080
Speaker 9: in the forefront of this trend not only for hair

632
00:32:08,120 --> 00:32:11,240
Speaker 9: care but for all of beauty and now as we

633
00:32:11,280 --> 00:32:14,840
Speaker 9: see multiple industries too, So that's how it came together.

634
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:17,280
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love that because I think, like what you're

635
00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:22,400
Speaker 1: displaying is both the need to have that foresight being

636
00:32:22,560 --> 00:32:24,840
Speaker 1: that almost you know, prophetic, you know, view of the

637
00:32:24,880 --> 00:32:28,720
Speaker 1: future and be able to move fast because I think

638
00:32:28,760 --> 00:32:32,320
Speaker 1: about just a few years ago and for a while

639
00:32:32,360 --> 00:32:34,480
Speaker 1: we were talking about we just need products.

640
00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:35,840
Speaker 5: That serve our texture at all.

641
00:32:36,280 --> 00:32:39,200
Speaker 1: And what you've gone to is like, Okay, it's not

642
00:32:39,240 --> 00:32:41,720
Speaker 1: just about us as a people, it's about you as

643
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:46,200
Speaker 1: an individual. And so we've like you know, super fast

644
00:32:46,320 --> 00:32:50,360
Speaker 1: went through black hair care products, African American and African

645
00:32:50,520 --> 00:32:52,560
Speaker 1: hair care products that you know, our type of hair,

646
00:32:52,600 --> 00:32:55,280
Speaker 1: our type of skin, our type of whatever. To you

647
00:32:55,480 --> 00:32:58,600
Speaker 1: the individual, We're getting down to the U. And so

648
00:32:58,960 --> 00:33:04,200
Speaker 1: my question is that for people who are building for us,

649
00:33:05,440 --> 00:33:11,400
Speaker 1: how fast and convicted to use your words, do we

650
00:33:11,520 --> 00:33:16,680
Speaker 1: need to be in order to be competitive in the future,

651
00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:20,960
Speaker 1: because it's to the individual now exactly.

652
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:24,920
Speaker 9: Yeah, you have to move on it immediately. And what

653
00:33:24,960 --> 00:33:28,000
Speaker 9: I mean by that is, you know, the moments of

654
00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:32,600
Speaker 9: conviction is all leading up to something, and so on

655
00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:36,520
Speaker 9: the consumer side, you know, we can observe many trends,

656
00:33:36,560 --> 00:33:39,360
Speaker 9: you know, even when it comes to TikTok, right, like,

657
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:45,440
Speaker 9: there are many aspects of how certain features on other platforms.

658
00:33:45,520 --> 00:33:50,680
Speaker 9: You know, there may have been a a certain part

659
00:33:50,720 --> 00:33:53,760
Speaker 9: of the feature available on other platforms, but by focusing

660
00:33:53,800 --> 00:33:59,760
Speaker 9: on this one thing, which is to me the consumer

661
00:34:00,120 --> 00:34:07,320
Speaker 9: is engagement on small consumable content. I believe that again,

662
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:10,840
Speaker 9: as a builder, you see something and once you start

663
00:34:10,880 --> 00:34:14,160
Speaker 9: building towards it and create a platform that caters to

664
00:34:14,200 --> 00:34:18,240
Speaker 9: that one thing that drives a person. This is all

665
00:34:18,320 --> 00:34:23,160
Speaker 9: like human psychology. My focus was human and computer interaction

666
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:27,480
Speaker 9: because it's that one thing typically that is setting your

667
00:34:27,560 --> 00:34:31,960
Speaker 9: platform apart, even in a saturated market. Right, Like if

668
00:34:31,960 --> 00:34:35,080
Speaker 9: we look at social media, there was a reason why

669
00:34:35,360 --> 00:34:38,719
Speaker 9: you know, originally with Twitter it was basically like the

670
00:34:38,760 --> 00:34:42,440
Speaker 9: Facebook status. You know that all gravitated us to Twitter,

671
00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:47,279
Speaker 9: the one little, small consumable, consumable chunk of information. So

672
00:34:47,719 --> 00:34:50,960
Speaker 9: what is the one thing that is driving your customer?

673
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:53,839
Speaker 9: Is what I feel like every founder needs to know

674
00:34:54,200 --> 00:34:59,680
Speaker 9: and follow that thing. And so for us, the one

675
00:34:59,760 --> 00:35:01,280
Speaker 9: thing is the hair journey.

676
00:35:02,239 --> 00:35:02,359
Speaker 8: Right.

677
00:35:02,520 --> 00:35:05,520
Speaker 9: One of my quotes, my favorite quotes is every hairstyle

678
00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:06,360
Speaker 9: has a story.

679
00:35:07,360 --> 00:35:09,680
Speaker 8: Right, So if you go back, you look.

680
00:35:09,520 --> 00:35:13,040
Speaker 9: At your your photos, your moments over time, you know

681
00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:16,640
Speaker 9: the story behind that style, Like what was going through

682
00:35:16,640 --> 00:35:22,000
Speaker 9: your mind? You know what error were you in? Use

683
00:35:22,080 --> 00:35:23,719
Speaker 9: it exactly?

684
00:35:23,920 --> 00:35:24,200
Speaker 4: Yes?

685
00:35:24,320 --> 00:35:28,240
Speaker 8: And so that is the.

686
00:35:27,560 --> 00:35:33,520
Speaker 9: Driving force because our whole experience is personalized, meaning it's

687
00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:34,680
Speaker 9: it's catered to you.

688
00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:37,839
Speaker 8: It's the care system. Those are the steps we take

689
00:35:37,880 --> 00:35:38,360
Speaker 8: you through.

690
00:35:38,560 --> 00:35:44,160
Speaker 9: Consult, analyze, recommend, educate, and when we have our consultations,

691
00:35:44,760 --> 00:35:48,719
Speaker 9: we know that it's it's more than just hair, right,

692
00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:52,440
Speaker 9: It's about you. It's about who you are at this

693
00:35:52,560 --> 00:35:57,880
Speaker 9: point in time. It's about how you're evolving. Some questions

694
00:35:57,880 --> 00:35:59,680
Speaker 9: we like to ask, is if you could give your

695
00:35:59,680 --> 00:36:02,279
Speaker 9: hair name, what would it be and why?

696
00:36:02,800 --> 00:36:03,000
Speaker 6: Right?

697
00:36:03,640 --> 00:36:08,520
Speaker 9: Because your hair has its own personality too, but it

698
00:36:08,680 --> 00:36:13,759
Speaker 9: usually reveals something about you, right, Like mine's is Sunshine

699
00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:19,160
Speaker 9: because I love to do blonde, big hair. Also, the

700
00:36:19,239 --> 00:36:21,719
Speaker 9: name of my journey is rebirth because I feel like

701
00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:26,160
Speaker 9: every style shows how shows the rebirth that I'm having

702
00:36:26,320 --> 00:36:30,719
Speaker 9: over time. And so find the one thing that is

703
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:36,840
Speaker 9: driving your customer because typically your platform is going to

704
00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:39,880
Speaker 9: be built around that one thing. And it just so

705
00:36:40,080 --> 00:36:43,359
Speaker 9: happened that for us to get to the one thing,

706
00:36:43,480 --> 00:36:48,799
Speaker 9: there's this major algorithm that's involved that took you know,

707
00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:53,120
Speaker 9: twelve years of research and development. But now imagine we

708
00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:57,440
Speaker 9: can unlock this for every person. Yeah, so that at

709
00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:00,080
Speaker 9: every stage of their journey, not only do they know

710
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:03,319
Speaker 9: what products they need, but they are supported in who

711
00:37:03,400 --> 00:37:06,840
Speaker 9: they are at that stage of their journey. And that's

712
00:37:06,880 --> 00:37:11,719
Speaker 9: what I love the most about Mayavana. And I feel

713
00:37:11,760 --> 00:37:15,279
Speaker 9: like we're just getting into that phase too, because first

714
00:37:15,320 --> 00:37:18,839
Speaker 9: we had to build it. But now the idea of

715
00:37:19,040 --> 00:37:22,680
Speaker 9: catering to the unique needs of every person on a

716
00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:26,160
Speaker 9: personalized level, that that gives me.

717
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:27,000
Speaker 8: So much excitement.

718
00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,560
Speaker 1: And so I've seen so many people building, you know,

719
00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:35,279
Speaker 1: shade butter companies, hair companies, lotion companies, et cetera, and

720
00:37:35,360 --> 00:37:38,879
Speaker 1: so many get stuck at the kitchen, you know, which

721
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:41,280
Speaker 1: is a great place to start, but they get stuck there.

722
00:37:41,680 --> 00:37:44,880
Speaker 1: Can you talk about what you would do today if

723
00:37:44,920 --> 00:37:47,080
Speaker 1: you were starting over again, knowing what you now know

724
00:37:47,239 --> 00:37:51,279
Speaker 1: about how to successfully start. That may be helpful to

725
00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:52,280
Speaker 1: some of these brands.

726
00:37:53,520 --> 00:37:57,600
Speaker 10: Yeah, I feel that sometimes what stops small businesses from

727
00:37:57,640 --> 00:38:03,919
Speaker 10: scaling to different levels is sometimes that person. I think

728
00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:06,640
Speaker 10: entrepreneurship it comes with the spirit of humility. And I've

729
00:38:06,640 --> 00:38:11,480
Speaker 10: seen several entrepreneurs that get in their own way because

730
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:14,440
Speaker 10: they feel like they know everything. They don't like to listen,

731
00:38:14,920 --> 00:38:17,879
Speaker 10: and I think listening is a is very important. I mean,

732
00:38:18,520 --> 00:38:22,160
Speaker 10: especially listening to people that have gone down the path

733
00:38:22,200 --> 00:38:25,440
Speaker 10: that you're looking to go. I mean people that you

734
00:38:25,440 --> 00:38:28,000
Speaker 10: know have not necessarily been down that path. You may

735
00:38:28,080 --> 00:38:32,040
Speaker 10: want to have discernment with, you know, listening to them

736
00:38:32,520 --> 00:38:37,200
Speaker 10: or whatnot, but having a spirit of humility and asking

737
00:38:37,239 --> 00:38:41,160
Speaker 10: the right questions, surrounding yourselves with the right mentors. It

738
00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:44,319
Speaker 10: was a huge part of my success and outside of

739
00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:46,720
Speaker 10: like the funding. Like I know, funding is a huge

740
00:38:48,400 --> 00:38:52,600
Speaker 10: a huge undertaking for small businesses and entrepreneurs, and that's

741
00:38:52,640 --> 00:38:56,120
Speaker 10: a huge stumbling block. But it's not something that you

742
00:38:56,360 --> 00:39:01,080
Speaker 10: can't cross that obstacle, right. You know, We've gone through

743
00:39:01,080 --> 00:39:04,440
Speaker 10: funding challenges and it just takes for you to get

744
00:39:04,480 --> 00:39:07,000
Speaker 10: out there, network and connect with the right people. But

745
00:39:07,040 --> 00:39:09,560
Speaker 10: I feel that a lot of people get stuck in

746
00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:14,000
Speaker 10: that space of just operating from their kitchen because they

747
00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:18,279
Speaker 10: are they're not putting in what they want to get

748
00:39:18,280 --> 00:39:21,120
Speaker 10: out of it. Like, it's gonna whatever you put into

749
00:39:21,160 --> 00:39:22,560
Speaker 10: it is what you're going to get out of it.

750
00:39:22,800 --> 00:39:25,920
Speaker 10: And that's gonna take you getting out here, grinding, getting

751
00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:29,520
Speaker 10: out here, going to networking events, meeting people. It's gonna

752
00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:32,160
Speaker 10: take you also spending money, and sometimes you will be

753
00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:36,479
Speaker 10: spending money that you don't have. But that's the risk.

754
00:39:36,840 --> 00:39:39,479
Speaker 10: Everything comes with the risk. You have to take calculator risks.

755
00:39:39,520 --> 00:39:41,840
Speaker 10: But on the other side of the risk is the reward.

756
00:39:42,520 --> 00:39:46,920
Speaker 10: And you know, I just feel that like people, just like,

757
00:39:47,000 --> 00:39:48,880
Speaker 10: nobody's gonna know about your business if you don't get

758
00:39:48,920 --> 00:39:50,040
Speaker 10: out there and talk about it.

759
00:39:50,040 --> 00:39:50,640
Speaker 5: It's a fact.

760
00:39:51,360 --> 00:39:52,920
Speaker 4: And you gotta travel.

761
00:39:53,160 --> 00:39:55,719
Speaker 10: And because my husband and I we would travel everywhere.

762
00:39:55,840 --> 00:39:58,640
Speaker 10: We would go everywhere to talk about our business. We

763
00:39:58,680 --> 00:40:02,239
Speaker 10: did events big and small because we wanted to get

764
00:40:02,239 --> 00:40:04,560
Speaker 10: the brand out there. And sometimes it just takes you

765
00:40:04,640 --> 00:40:06,680
Speaker 10: getting out of your own way and put yourself out

766
00:40:06,680 --> 00:40:09,120
Speaker 10: there and just you know, go for it and not

767
00:40:09,440 --> 00:40:12,520
Speaker 10: caring about what people think about how you're going to look.

768
00:40:13,600 --> 00:40:14,759
Speaker 5: I love that. I love that.

769
00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:17,480
Speaker 1: It's a quote I found where you said, you know

770
00:40:18,400 --> 00:40:20,920
Speaker 1: the glory in your story. You wrote that to encourage

771
00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:23,640
Speaker 1: others to see beyond their circumstances and tap into the

772
00:40:23,760 --> 00:40:27,480
Speaker 1: inner strength. And you also said winning in life and

773
00:40:27,640 --> 00:40:31,120
Speaker 1: business requires a kind of risk, taking that money that

774
00:40:31,200 --> 00:40:33,960
Speaker 1: many are afraid to embrace. And I hear you saying

775
00:40:34,160 --> 00:40:36,320
Speaker 1: so many things along those lines, and I want you

776
00:40:36,400 --> 00:40:39,160
Speaker 1: to talk about if you can remember some of the

777
00:40:39,160 --> 00:40:42,440
Speaker 1: most riskiest decisions you've made, and how you move through

778
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:44,640
Speaker 1: those things, and how you move past the fear that

779
00:40:44,719 --> 00:40:46,400
Speaker 1: keeps most people from going past.

780
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:49,839
Speaker 10: Yeah, I mean I could give you several examples of

781
00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:52,680
Speaker 10: like just risks that we took throughout the journey. I mean,

782
00:40:52,719 --> 00:40:56,000
Speaker 10: the first risk, like I talked about earlier, was leading

783
00:40:56,080 --> 00:41:01,040
Speaker 10: my career my safe, comfortable. I was getting a paycheck

784
00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:04,040
Speaker 10: every two weeks. I knew that paycheck was coming, and

785
00:41:04,560 --> 00:41:09,680
Speaker 10: the risk was if this doesn't take off, I'm not

786
00:41:09,680 --> 00:41:11,840
Speaker 10: gonna have a job. You know, granted I have I

787
00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:14,080
Speaker 10: have a nursing license, so I had something to fall

788
00:41:14,120 --> 00:41:18,040
Speaker 10: back on, but you know, that was still a risk

789
00:41:18,080 --> 00:41:20,880
Speaker 10: of like just putting that career aside. And then when

790
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:23,279
Speaker 10: my husband left his job, that's when it really got

791
00:41:23,320 --> 00:41:27,640
Speaker 10: real because he came from corporate, so you know, it's

792
00:41:27,680 --> 00:41:29,680
Speaker 10: not easy to just go get a corporate job. So

793
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:32,799
Speaker 10: with both of us, leaving our careers was a huge risk.

794
00:41:33,480 --> 00:41:37,799
Speaker 10: But we focused on the vision guide gave us, and

795
00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:42,640
Speaker 10: we knew that we had to plan. Like we didn't

796
00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:44,799
Speaker 10: just leave our jobs and say, oh, you know, we

797
00:41:44,840 --> 00:41:46,760
Speaker 10: don't have a plan in place, or we don't have income.

798
00:41:46,840 --> 00:41:49,440
Speaker 10: We had to have a solid plan in place to

799
00:41:49,560 --> 00:41:52,920
Speaker 10: map out like how we were going to get some

800
00:41:53,040 --> 00:41:56,160
Speaker 10: type of income to still keep our bills afloat and

801
00:41:56,520 --> 00:41:59,359
Speaker 10: our food in our kids' mouth. So we had to

802
00:41:59,400 --> 00:42:02,439
Speaker 10: like plan that out. But it was a huge risk

803
00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:04,640
Speaker 10: of like the unknown of like both of us turning

804
00:42:04,680 --> 00:42:08,480
Speaker 10: away from our jobs. We had the risks that we

805
00:42:08,520 --> 00:42:11,600
Speaker 10: took when we entered into retail. That was a huge

806
00:42:11,719 --> 00:42:15,640
Speaker 10: risk because retail is a whole different beast and if

807
00:42:15,680 --> 00:42:18,400
Speaker 10: your brand does not perform in retail, it can be

808
00:42:18,520 --> 00:42:22,719
Speaker 10: very detrimental to your business because if you don't perform

809
00:42:22,880 --> 00:42:25,319
Speaker 10: and you have to come out, that is not a

810
00:42:25,360 --> 00:42:27,640
Speaker 10: cost to the retailer. That is a cost to you

811
00:42:28,239 --> 00:42:32,640
Speaker 10: as the brand. And depending on how many stores you're in,

812
00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:37,040
Speaker 10: that can be millions of dollars that if your brand

813
00:42:37,080 --> 00:42:39,440
Speaker 10: doesn't perform that you have to pay that retailer if

814
00:42:39,480 --> 00:42:42,719
Speaker 10: you don't sell or turn in those stores. That's a

815
00:42:42,800 --> 00:42:47,840
Speaker 10: huge risk because you know, it's like, we believe in

816
00:42:47,880 --> 00:42:50,680
Speaker 10: our brand, but the what if? What if it didn't

817
00:42:50,719 --> 00:42:53,440
Speaker 10: sell and then we take on this huge undertaking and

818
00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:55,400
Speaker 10: do we have over a million dollars to pay back

819
00:42:55,440 --> 00:42:58,480
Speaker 10: at that time? No, we didn't. The risk of when

820
00:42:58,480 --> 00:43:02,400
Speaker 10: we got aligned the credit. When when you're going to

821
00:43:02,400 --> 00:43:05,160
Speaker 10: get a line of credit and you're a small business,

822
00:43:05,200 --> 00:43:08,800
Speaker 10: like you don't have banks that are just trying to

823
00:43:08,800 --> 00:43:12,000
Speaker 10: throw money at you. They're very cautious because what they

824
00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:13,319
Speaker 10: want to know is how you're going to be able

825
00:43:13,360 --> 00:43:15,400
Speaker 10: to pay it back and what type of assets you

826
00:43:15,520 --> 00:43:18,919
Speaker 10: have that we can use as collateral. So the risk

827
00:43:19,120 --> 00:43:21,040
Speaker 10: was we had to put our house up for collateral,

828
00:43:21,239 --> 00:43:22,880
Speaker 10: the house that we live in, the house that we

829
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:27,040
Speaker 10: raise our family in, and if that line is called,

830
00:43:27,080 --> 00:43:30,400
Speaker 10: do what happens next? They take your house? That was

831
00:43:30,440 --> 00:43:33,480
Speaker 10: a huge risk. The risk of taking on investment and

832
00:43:34,640 --> 00:43:38,080
Speaker 10: not knowing that this investment partnership was going to work.

833
00:43:38,120 --> 00:43:40,719
Speaker 10: Are we going to be able to perform and grow

834
00:43:40,760 --> 00:43:43,720
Speaker 10: the business to scale so we can get these investors

835
00:43:43,760 --> 00:43:46,359
Speaker 10: their return back on their investment. So everything that we

836
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:50,319
Speaker 10: did was a risk, but we had we focus on, like,

837
00:43:51,239 --> 00:43:53,600
Speaker 10: you know, what is the reward on the other side

838
00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:57,160
Speaker 10: of it, and with proper planning. So the risks that

839
00:43:57,200 --> 00:43:59,000
Speaker 10: we take, we also make sure that we do the

840
00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:04,040
Speaker 10: proper planning and place to identify like what are the

841
00:44:04,160 --> 00:44:06,520
Speaker 10: eyes or like what are what is in our favor

842
00:44:06,640 --> 00:44:09,080
Speaker 10: if it does work. And that's why I say, you

843
00:44:09,120 --> 00:44:12,400
Speaker 10: have to calculate your risk because everything that you do

844
00:44:12,640 --> 00:44:14,840
Speaker 10: pretty much is going to be a risk. And I

845
00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:17,480
Speaker 10: always say this to my kids. Everything that you do

846
00:44:17,600 --> 00:44:20,080
Speaker 10: is going to be hard. You have to choose your heart.

847
00:44:20,280 --> 00:44:22,920
Speaker 10: I could have chose the heart of still working as

848
00:44:22,960 --> 00:44:27,000
Speaker 10: a nurse, paycheck to paycheck, struggling financially, trying to provide

849
00:44:27,080 --> 00:44:31,120
Speaker 10: for my family and going to work every day, miserable

850
00:44:31,320 --> 00:44:33,800
Speaker 10: on my feet for twelve hours, not getting sleep.

851
00:44:34,080 --> 00:44:34,640
Speaker 4: That's hard.

852
00:44:35,200 --> 00:44:38,680
Speaker 10: Or I can take the heart of grinding building a company,

853
00:44:38,880 --> 00:44:43,040
Speaker 10: taking red eye flights, taking the risk of being criticized

854
00:44:43,040 --> 00:44:46,680
Speaker 10: by my own people in my community, having having to

855
00:44:46,760 --> 00:44:50,520
Speaker 10: have thick, tough skin. You know, it's hard building a business,

856
00:44:50,560 --> 00:44:53,640
Speaker 10: not knowing if you're going to receive receive a return

857
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:56,080
Speaker 10: on what you're building and what you're grinding for. It's

858
00:44:56,120 --> 00:44:59,040
Speaker 10: still hard, But which one is Both of them are hard,

859
00:44:59,080 --> 00:45:00,600
Speaker 10: but you got to choose your he hard. Everything that

860
00:45:00,640 --> 00:45:01,919
Speaker 10: we do in life is going to be hard.