WEBVTT - Bea Dixon: How a Dream Launched a Feminine Care Revolution 0:00:00.440 --> 0:00:03.120 Welcome back to She Pivots. I'm Bea Dixon. 0:00:13.600 --> 0:00:17.119 Welcome back to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk 0:00:17.200 --> 0:00:19.759 with women who dare to pivot out of one career 0:00:20.120 --> 0:00:24.400 and into something new and explore how their personal lives 0:00:24.480 --> 0:00:33.880 impacts these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. I'm 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:38.160 delighted to welcome Beatrice or B Dixon to the podcast today. 0:00:38.880 --> 0:00:41.400 When I first interviewed B, I was blown away by 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:45.040 the complexity of her life story. Her story was so layered. 0:00:45.159 --> 0:00:48.319 I did something I've never done before. I asked if 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.760 she would come back and do a second interview. So 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:54.640 this episode that you're about to hear combines these two 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:59.680 interviews into one chronological episode, covering everything from her start 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:03.800 as a pharmacy technician to her cleaning business, to her 0:01:03.840 --> 0:01:08.880 personal experience with chronic bacterial vaginosis and how that inspired 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:12.720 her to create the Honeypot Company. From an early age, 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:16.039 B realized two things. One that she needed to have 0:01:16.080 --> 0:01:18.800 a strong work ethic, something she learned from her mother, 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:23.320 and two that she wanted to build wealth. With these 0:01:23.440 --> 0:01:26.319 two truths always in the back of her mind, B 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:31.080 spent years living paycheck to paycheck, grinding it out, unsure 0:01:31.120 --> 0:01:33.720 of what her next step would be, and on top 0:01:33.760 --> 0:01:37.120 of that, she was dealing with her BV, an infection 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:40.679 that just wouldn't go away no matter what she tried. 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:46.880 Then something happened that changed everything. Her grandmother came to 0:01:46.920 --> 0:01:50.040 her in a dream and gave her the recipe for 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:54.200 a natural remedy for her BV. Having just come into 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:59.120 her spirituality, b took this message from her grandmother, mixed 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:02.320 up the potion, tried it, and for the first time 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:07.040 in years, she found relief. True to her nature, she 0:02:07.240 --> 0:02:11.680 hustled and turned this dream into the Honeypot Company, the 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.680 first plant based feminine care brand to be sold at 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:20.880 major retailers like Target, Whole Foods, and Walmart. Since launching 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:24.359 in twenty fourteen, the company has grown into a multimillion 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:28.040 dollar business, which has sold for a massive three hundred 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:30.800 and eighty million dollars and is on the shelves of 0:02:30.880 --> 0:02:35.320 over thirty thousand stores. She earned a spot on Forbes's 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:39.000 Top one hundred Female Founder's list and has been featured 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:43.480 in Essence, Ink and Fast Company, and even Grace the 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:46.200 Ted stage to talk about the power of listening to 0:02:46.240 --> 0:02:49.680 your intuition. I'm excited for you all to hear be 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:53.320 talk about the power of listening to yourself, building a 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:58.160 business rooted in purpose, and how leaning into her spirituality 0:02:58.520 --> 0:03:01.959 has shaped not just her company, but her entire life. 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:05.160 You won't want to miss this one, so let's get 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:05.680 into it. 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:13.840 My name is Beatrice Dixon, and I am the CEO, 0:03:14.400 --> 0:03:18.000 chief Innovation Officer, and co founder of the Honeypot Company. 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:21.560 We're going to rewind. We're going to go back. Okay, 0:03:21.760 --> 0:03:24.400 where were you born, Where did you grow up? What 0:03:24.480 --> 0:03:27.040 was your family like? Like, tell us a little bit, Yeah, 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:27.919 we're going way back. 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:33.440 I was born in Arlington, Virginia, and I was raised 0:03:33.560 --> 0:03:38.120 in the DMV area probably until I was like, I 0:03:38.160 --> 0:03:42.760 don't know, like ten, I think. And then we moved 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:46.400 to Phoenix, Arizona because my mother fell in a manhole 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.840 and broke her back, and her doctor told her the 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.240 best place for her to live would be a place 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:55.320 that didn't have a bunch of seasons, and so she 0:03:55.440 --> 0:03:58.680 chose Phoenix, and we moved to Phoenix, and so I 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:04.280 was raised as a child to an adult in Phoenix, Arizona. 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:07.840 Your mom breaking her back feels like it must have 0:04:07.840 --> 0:04:10.200 been a pretty big event in your families. 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:14.000 It was. It was a massive event. She worked on 0:04:14.080 --> 0:04:17.679 a construction site. She was kind of like a nurse 0:04:17.800 --> 0:04:20.760 or like a medical aid on a construction site. And 0:04:21.320 --> 0:04:24.760 that particular day, because it was in Maryland, there was 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:29.240 ice on the ground and somebody else had fell and slipped, 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:32.760 and so she was called to go and get help 0:04:32.839 --> 0:04:35.640 the person who had fell and slipped. But then she 0:04:35.920 --> 0:04:39.880 fell slipped. It's not funny, but it's wild when you 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.559 think about it. And yeah, I mean she was down 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.359 for a little while, she was paralyzed, she got she 0:04:46.400 --> 0:04:50.159 got several surgeries, not just one, and then you know, 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:52.840 she made a full recovery. Like my mother walks, she 0:04:52.880 --> 0:04:57.080 does everything, but she will always have a ride in 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.520 her back, you know, she will always have back shoes, 0:05:00.960 --> 0:05:02.719 you know. But she deals with it really well. She 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:05.560 doesn't live on medication. She's not you know what I mean, 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:06.760 Like she takes care of herself. 0:05:07.320 --> 0:05:09.800 If you were so young, nine or ten, did that 0:05:09.839 --> 0:05:12.279 turn you into a caretaker? Like did that grow you 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:13.080 up quickly? 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:17.040 It's funny. I never thought about it like that. I mean, 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.000 I was there to help her because she was my mommy. 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:22.200 She is my mommy. She's not a us. But I 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.800 don't know that I looked at it as being a caretaker. 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:28.280 I just looked at it as though, you know, it's 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:30.640 your mom, Like what are you gonna do? My mother 0:05:30.680 --> 0:05:36.880 has always been like the ultimate hustler, rightly, She's always 0:05:37.279 --> 0:05:39.640 didn't matter what it was, she always found a way 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.160 to survive, to take care of her family, to take 0:05:42.160 --> 0:05:44.840 care of herself. But I did start working when I 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:48.400 was like fourteen going on fifteen, and the reason for 0:05:48.440 --> 0:05:50.680 that was because I wanted to get my driving permit. 0:05:51.720 --> 0:05:54.240 And my mom was like, you know, that's cute, but 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:56.599 I don't have money for you to go to driving school. 0:05:56.600 --> 0:05:58.880 And you're not getting the driving to permit unless you 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:01.760 go to driving school. So if you want to go 0:06:01.800 --> 0:06:04.159 to driving school, then you have to pay for driving school. 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:05.920 In order for you to do that, you got to 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:07.960 get a job. And so I got a job at 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:11.240 McDonald's and I loved that job. 0:06:12.360 --> 0:06:13.080 What about it? 0:06:13.800 --> 0:06:18.000 I just loved that my mom had empowered me to 0:06:18.120 --> 0:06:21.200 go out into the world and make money from a 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:23.440 young kid. I mean even in high school, I was 0:06:23.480 --> 0:06:26.840 in Future Business Leaders of America. You know what I'm saying, Like, 0:06:27.080 --> 0:06:31.680 I love being able to take care of myself and 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.719 I have been that way since I was a kid. 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.040 And I also love money, Like let's let's call the 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:40.080 shit what it is, like, I love I love money, 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:43.320 and I love the ability. I love the ability to 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:45.360 be able to go out into the world and make it, 0:06:46.080 --> 0:06:48.680 not just make it meaning just like cash, but just 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:51.440 going out into the world and making it as a 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:55.120 human being, you know, and surviving. I think because I 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:57.760 saw my my mom was such a strong woman. It's 0:06:57.839 --> 0:07:00.840 such a strong woman, and I saw things that she 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:03.719 was willing to do to make sure that we ate. 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:06.400 And you know, that's just some stuff that you can't 0:07:06.480 --> 0:07:10.960 unlearn and that you have to respect. Like she did everything. 0:07:11.280 --> 0:07:16.000 She cleaned hotels, she worked in the hospital. You know, 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:18.040 sometimes she might have had to drop in on somebody 0:07:18.080 --> 0:07:21.280 to you know, like she just did whatever she had 0:07:21.280 --> 0:07:24.240 to do. You know, she did that. She work in 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:29.320 laundry mats, she was a medical biller. She she just 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:33.640 did everything. She did whatever she needed to do to 0:07:33.680 --> 0:07:36.320 make sure we ate. Like when I was a baby, 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:40.640 my mother had three jobs and she would literally come 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:43.200 home between them, get a little bit of rest, like 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.119 take a nap, wake up, go to work, come home, 0:07:46.320 --> 0:07:48.920 take a nap, eat, wake up, go to work like that, 0:07:49.160 --> 0:07:51.320 like it was just you know, and so. 0:07:52.080 --> 0:07:57.800 Yeah, these mother's influence continued to be a motivating force 0:07:57.880 --> 0:08:00.480 for her. When it was time to graduate school and 0:08:00.520 --> 0:08:03.640 move on with her education, you followed the advice of 0:08:03.680 --> 0:08:04.080 her mother. 0:08:05.000 --> 0:08:08.760 Look, I don't know about every other culture, but having 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:11.880 a black mother, either you're gonna be a doctor, you're 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:15.480 gonna work in the medical field, you're gonna work in law, 0:08:15.560 --> 0:08:18.040 you're gonna work in it was like, you need to 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:22.920 choose a field that will never be obsolete. And so 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:26.160 my mother conditioned me into that. At a young age, 0:08:27.000 --> 0:08:30.000 I thought that I wanted to go to school to 0:08:30.040 --> 0:08:34.040 be a doctor. But the only caveat was is I 0:08:34.080 --> 0:08:37.240 hated academia. I just did not like it. I didn't 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:41.320 enjoy it. And so from a young age, if I'm 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:45.880 not passionate about something, I cannot do it. I just can't. 0:08:46.160 --> 0:08:50.200 And I'm lucky enough to have a mother that didn't 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:52.960 force me to do things that I didn't want to do. 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:55.839 Her thing was if you're not going to do that, 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.160 then what are you going to do? Because if you're 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:01.000 not going to school, but you're going to have a 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.840 job because you can't live with me forever, right, So 0:09:04.880 --> 0:09:07.120 that was okay with me. That just meant that I 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:09.560 had to work really hard. And then I worked in 0:09:09.559 --> 0:09:12.800 pharmacy and I did that for like ten years of 0:09:12.800 --> 0:09:17.400 my life. But I knew being a pharmacy technician I 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:21.400 would always have work. But then I kind of proceeded 0:09:22.000 --> 0:09:25.080 in working in hospitals and things like that until I 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:28.440 moved to Atlanta when I went to work at an 0:09:28.520 --> 0:09:35.520 oncology pharmacy where I basically made chemotherapy drugs for chemo patients. 0:09:35.720 --> 0:09:41.160 And that was actually my last job in pharmacy technician work. 0:09:41.840 --> 0:09:44.200 It didn't burn you out and it sounds very heavy. 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:47.280 That actually was like one of my favorite places to 0:09:47.320 --> 0:09:50.200 work because you got to interact with people and you 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:54.920 got to face a version of mortality. And I think 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:58.600 when people are terminally ill, you know, they look at 0:09:58.640 --> 0:10:00.800 life a little different. So got to talk to people 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:05.280 all the time and hear their stories and see them fight, 0:10:05.840 --> 0:10:09.600 which I think is really it's so beautiful. It's hard 0:10:10.000 --> 0:10:13.439 obviously because they're not well. That that part isn't beautiful, 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:15.960 but the way that you look at your life and 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:21.200 spend your time when you are potentially dying that is beautiful, 0:10:21.440 --> 0:10:24.000 you know, when you can be able to see that 0:10:24.080 --> 0:10:27.160 and experience that. So it was actually that was actually 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:31.440 a really good time for me because I learned a lot, 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:35.360 you know. Even working in hospital pharmacy, you learned a lot, 0:10:35.600 --> 0:10:38.320 you know, because when you're working in a hospital as 0:10:38.320 --> 0:10:41.440 a pharmacy technician, you're seeing all kinds of things. 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:41.760 Right. 0:10:41.840 --> 0:10:45.120 Sometimes you know, you might be servicing somebody that's like 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:48.120 in the ICU, you could be servicing a child that's sick. 0:10:48.200 --> 0:10:50.240 You can be you know, there's just. 0:10:50.240 --> 0:10:51.160 A lot, you know. 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:56.040 So it was heavy. It was heavy, and I think 0:10:56.679 --> 0:11:00.200 that I got to a place where I've always been 0:11:00.240 --> 0:11:03.520 a natural born healer, which makes sense when you look 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.840 at my work life, even where you look at where 0:11:06.880 --> 0:11:09.679 I went after I left working in the world of pharmacy, 0:11:10.200 --> 0:11:12.920 I think I just needed You're right, I needed something else. 0:11:14.800 --> 0:11:18.120 So Be made her first pivot and left the medical field. 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:21.360 She knew deep within her that there was more out 0:11:21.360 --> 0:11:24.160 there for her to explore, but she also wanted to 0:11:24.280 --> 0:11:25.840 enjoy life. 0:11:26.000 --> 0:11:29.040 I wanted to work within wellness in a different way. 0:11:29.640 --> 0:11:32.880 I wanted to figure out how to heal people, but 0:11:32.960 --> 0:11:37.800 not necessarily from a Western medical point of view. Even 0:11:37.840 --> 0:11:40.319 though I deeply believe in Western medicine because I think 0:11:40.320 --> 0:11:44.880 that it's necessary, right, I also think that the other 0:11:45.000 --> 0:11:48.520 side is necessary too. And I think that even though 0:11:48.559 --> 0:11:51.320 I was a young person and I was like really 0:11:51.440 --> 0:11:54.640 enjoying my life living in Atlanta, you know, this was 0:11:54.679 --> 0:11:58.120 a very very very fun time in Atlanta in two 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.360 thousand and five to two thousand. It was like crazy 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:04.800 fun and I was out till like three o'clock in 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:06.439 the morning. I would have to be to work at eight. 0:12:07.040 --> 0:12:09.880 I got to experience that, and it was beautiful. But 0:12:09.920 --> 0:12:12.320 in order for you to be entrepreneurial, you have to 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.160 have a strong work ethic. And so I think that 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.760 that part of my life was the get your work 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:23.160 ethic in line, get that together. I think that that's 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:26.000 the phase that I was in, and so, you know, 0:12:26.440 --> 0:12:30.840 I think I went from work ethic to how do 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.040 I make my own money and not have to necessarily 0:12:34.440 --> 0:12:35.640 punch somebody's clock. 0:12:38.000 --> 0:12:42.600 Eventually be founded her first pivot into entrepreneurship. 0:12:43.640 --> 0:12:45.360 And then I remember, like, you know, I was on 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.360 my way out from working at the pharmacy, and I 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:50.840 remember me and my friends would just hang out with 0:12:50.880 --> 0:12:52.880 some people and they were talking about how they needed 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:55.200 to get their house clean, and I was like, well, 0:12:55.840 --> 0:12:58.360 I think clean your house, pay me, I'll do it. 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:01.400 And me and my best friend and we just did it. 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:04.120 And it was like, oh, well, we could probably do this. 0:13:04.920 --> 0:13:07.480 So then we started a cleaning business, and then that 0:13:07.640 --> 0:13:11.679 became what I did. That was my entry way into entrepreneurship. 0:13:13.280 --> 0:13:15.800 We had figured out how to work on her own time, 0:13:16.240 --> 0:13:19.400 but between her social life and the unpredictability of cleaning, 0:13:19.920 --> 0:13:22.600 she was struggling to make ends meet. 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:25.280 You know, we had been cleaning houses for a while, 0:13:26.000 --> 0:13:28.559 but we weren't able to make our rent. We got evicted, 0:13:29.120 --> 0:13:31.720 didn't have a place to live, but we had like, 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:35.160 we had really cool clients. So sometimes our clients would 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:38.280 let us stay. Sometimes our friend, you know, my one 0:13:38.280 --> 0:13:41.960 of my best friends, Rachel, she would let us, you know, 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:48.040 sleep on her couch. Sometimes we would literally clean people's 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.640 house to get a Motil six or like Motil six ish, 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.520 it wasn't always Motil six, but like we never like 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:58.440 lived on the street, but we didn't have anywhere to live. 0:13:59.160 --> 0:14:01.920 And that that on for a couple of months. But 0:14:02.040 --> 0:14:06.120 that right there was the moment that I was like, 0:14:06.679 --> 0:14:10.080 I gotta get it together. That was when I was like, 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:14.400 this can't be my life. It was the beginning of 0:14:14.480 --> 0:14:17.360 when it was like, this can't be my life. And 0:14:17.400 --> 0:14:20.120 then we met. We were cleaning this guy's house and 0:14:20.160 --> 0:14:22.920 he was telling us, you know, pretty wealthy guy, and 0:14:22.960 --> 0:14:25.600 he was telling us how he needed to find somebody 0:14:25.960 --> 0:14:28.320 to rent one of his houses. And he was like, 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:31.040 you know, if you know anybody, let me know. You know, 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:32.800 I don't really need a ton of money. I just 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:34.680 want somebody in there. It's going to take care of it. 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:37.080 And so we ended up being able to rent that 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:40.280 person's house. Maybe it was like fifteen hundred dollars a month, 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:41.920 which isn't a lot of money for the type of 0:14:41.920 --> 0:14:44.120 house this was. I mean, this house was absolutely beautiful. 0:14:44.600 --> 0:14:47.640 And I think once we got into that house, maybe 0:14:47.720 --> 0:14:49.720 we had lived in another place right before that, but 0:14:49.760 --> 0:14:52.680 once we moved into that house, it was during that 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:55.680 time that I was like, I got to change my life. 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.520 Change didn't happen overnight for me. She slowly started to 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:05.200 shift the puzzle pieces of her life, changing her scene, 0:15:05.480 --> 0:15:08.600 picking up more odd jobs, and finding her way to 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:12.080 her spirituality through a Lakumi reading. Her friend invited her 0:15:12.120 --> 0:15:13.360 too and. 0:15:13.280 --> 0:15:15.760 I went and got myself in reading and it was 0:15:15.840 --> 0:15:18.960 beautiful and it really kind of just changed my life 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.720 and it made me wonder what it would be like 0:15:22.560 --> 0:15:26.040 to potentially practice the spirituality, and so that came into 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.440 my life. So there was a lot of things that 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.600 were changing and ebbing and flowing, and you know, I 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:34.160 was just in the next phase of whatever that was. 0:15:34.840 --> 0:15:37.720 And then I started working at Whole Foods and I 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:44.240 really enjoyed that work so literally, I remember I was 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:47.880 working at Whole Foods and there would be brands and 0:15:48.000 --> 0:15:51.520 companies that would come in all the time, and they 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:54.120 would like come in and they bring their reps or 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:56.640 sometimes it would be the owners of the brand, and 0:15:56.680 --> 0:15:58.600 they talked to you about what they did and why 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:02.280 it works and why it's so, and sometimes Whole Foods 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.640 would send us on immersions. So one of the biggest 0:16:05.640 --> 0:16:08.240 immersions that I remember was when I went to the 0:16:08.320 --> 0:16:12.359 Gya Farms because Gaya is like one of my favorite 0:16:12.640 --> 0:16:16.760 herb supplement companies, right, and so I'm doing all this 0:16:16.920 --> 0:16:20.600 work and I'm like, I want to do this, like 0:16:20.760 --> 0:16:24.160 I think I could do this, And that was when 0:16:24.160 --> 0:16:26.480 I got the itch. That was when I was like 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:29.640 I want to do this. I could have a brand. 0:16:29.840 --> 0:16:31.360 I didn't know what the brand was going to be, 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:34.640 but I was like, I could totally have a brand. 0:16:35.560 --> 0:16:39.240 That's when the second itch, entrepreneurial itch, came into play, 0:16:39.520 --> 0:16:41.760 because I knew that I couldn't be in the service 0:16:41.800 --> 0:16:44.280 business because from my point of view, the type of 0:16:44.320 --> 0:16:46.320 service that I did, the only time I was making 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.040 money was when I was serving people. I needed to 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:52.560 be in the I make money in my sleep business, 0:16:52.880 --> 0:16:55.440 and I learned quickly that that was through products. 0:16:56.840 --> 0:17:00.200 When we come back, Bee walks us through just how 0:17:00.200 --> 0:17:05.239 her personal medical issues and spirituality inspired what was to 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:10.600 become her multi million dollar business, the Honeypot Company. Stay tuned. 0:17:21.480 --> 0:17:24.840 Before the break, we left off with b dreaming of 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:28.399 something bigger for herself, a way to make money in 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.680 her sleep. She knew there was something more out there 0:17:31.720 --> 0:17:35.800 for her, and the stars finally aligned when she searched 0:17:35.880 --> 0:17:39.479 inward for a way to heal her BV. So. 0:17:40.440 --> 0:17:47.960 I was dealing with bacchio vaginosis for like a year almost, 0:17:48.200 --> 0:17:51.199 and it was really bad, Like it was like I 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.080 stink up the car bed, I stink up the bathroom bed, 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.359 like I just walked in went to go pee. It 0:17:57.400 --> 0:18:01.320 was very embarrassing, a lot of shame, and I was 0:18:01.320 --> 0:18:05.639 trying everything. I was like living on Google. I was 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:10.119 living on Google forums. I was like wrapping garlic with 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:14.399 cheesecloth and like sewing tampon streams on and like putting 0:18:14.440 --> 0:18:19.640 that in. I was like freezing yogurt and an applicator 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:25.320 and tampon applicators. I was living on antibiotics. It was wild. 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:29.600 So my microbiome was shot. And then I was trying 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:35.240 all of these like old wives tale type of recipes. 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:36.680 It was bad. 0:18:37.320 --> 0:18:40.520 And then one morning my mom had moved with me 0:18:40.600 --> 0:18:43.840 to Atlanta and we had a cute little house, and 0:18:43.920 --> 0:18:49.000 one morning I was having this dream. It felt like 0:18:49.040 --> 0:18:52.080 a dream, but it wasn't a dream. It was you know, 0:18:52.160 --> 0:18:55.480 in the morning, right when you're in that really beautiful sleep, 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:57.920 like the sun is starting to come up and you're 0:18:58.000 --> 0:19:02.520 just like in a really beautiful, very relaxed, you're in 0:19:02.600 --> 0:19:06.600 that kind of rim sleep, and your consciousness at that 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:09.560 time in the morning is a bit high. And so 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:12.800 my grandmother, who I never met in this life because 0:19:12.840 --> 0:19:15.920 she died when my mother was a child, she came 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:19.840 and she told me it was wild because she looks 0:19:20.280 --> 0:19:23.720 just I look just like her, even more than my mother. 0:19:24.359 --> 0:19:27.119 I look the spinning image. If you saw pictures of 0:19:27.200 --> 0:19:29.879 my grandmother, I am the spinning image of her. And 0:19:29.960 --> 0:19:34.639 so I remember us looking a lot alike. And I 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:36.880 remember her telling me that she had been walking with 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:40.040 me and she saw me struggling, and she knew what 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:42.480 to do. And she handed me piece of paper and 0:19:42.640 --> 0:19:45.439 had a list of ingredients, and she told me that 0:19:46.119 --> 0:19:48.800 this was going to solve my problem because she she's 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.480 one of my guides too, obviously, and she had been 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:53.600 seeing all that I had been doing for that year. 0:19:55.800 --> 0:19:58.439 And she handed me a piece of paper and it 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:02.080 had this list of ingredients and a lot. The wild thing, Emily, 0:20:02.200 --> 0:20:06.000 is that a lot of the ingredients were a lot 0:20:06.080 --> 0:20:09.240 of the things that I was doing singularly. But what 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:11.639 the problem was was I needed to put them all 0:20:11.640 --> 0:20:14.919 together and make a potion. And she told me to 0:20:15.000 --> 0:20:18.479 memorize the paper, and so literally I just kept repeating 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:21.520 the ingredients over and over again, and I literally woke 0:20:21.600 --> 0:20:24.919 up saying out side of vinegar, lavender, rose garlet like 0:20:24.960 --> 0:20:28.280 I literally woke up saying that, and I wrote it 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:32.760 down and I went to work because I worked, and 0:20:32.840 --> 0:20:37.040 hope foods obviously, and I bought all this stuff and 0:20:37.160 --> 0:20:40.959 I went home that night and I made myself whatever 0:20:41.000 --> 0:20:42.399 this was, I didn't know what it was going to 0:20:42.440 --> 0:20:43.440 turn into. 0:20:44.000 --> 0:20:48.240 We tried different measurements and concoctions before she finally found it. 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:52.520 She tested it out and like magic, her grandmother's gift 0:20:52.600 --> 0:20:53.280 to her work. 0:20:55.160 --> 0:20:58.320 And once it did what it did for me, I 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:00.080 was like, Oh, this is it. This is what I 0:21:00.119 --> 0:21:04.040 was supposed to be doing. So I very much knew 0:21:04.040 --> 0:21:08.159 that I wanted to be in the consumer packaged good space. 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:11.479 The other reason why I knew it is because I 0:21:11.600 --> 0:21:14.320 worked in the service business. I used to clean people's houses, 0:21:14.359 --> 0:21:17.320 I organized. I mean, we talked about this, right, I 0:21:17.359 --> 0:21:21.920 did everything that you can imagine, but I knew that 0:21:21.920 --> 0:21:24.320 that was not the way to make money for me. 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:27.359 Where the only time I make money is if I 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:29.640 do a service. I knew that I wanted to make 0:21:29.680 --> 0:21:32.399 money in my sleep, and what's the best way to 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:37.080 do that is through products? And so yeah, like my 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:40.000 brain was doing on I want to do this. And 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:42.760 the wild thing is I was dead broke, like I 0:21:42.840 --> 0:21:45.639 was living check to check, you know, Like, how was 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:47.840 I going to start a brand? I wasn't even thinking about. 0:21:48.200 --> 0:21:51.480 But I knew that I could do it somehow, some way, 0:21:52.080 --> 0:21:55.560 you know. And then my granny came man, and here 0:21:55.600 --> 0:21:55.920 we are. 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:01.360 Timing is everything, and context is im So I want 0:22:01.400 --> 0:22:07.720 to contextualize whereb was both personally and spiritually. We briefly 0:22:07.800 --> 0:22:11.960 mentioned be spirituality, but when everything changed for her was 0:22:12.000 --> 0:22:14.399 when she was most connected to her new faith. 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:21.119 So I had just initiated into Santadi or Lukumi, and so, 0:22:21.680 --> 0:22:24.880 you know, and that initiation is pretty It's it's serious, 0:22:24.960 --> 0:22:27.320 you know, like you shave off all your hair, you 0:22:27.320 --> 0:22:29.280 wear white for a year, you do that, you know, 0:22:29.400 --> 0:22:33.000 you really go in. And the way that our spirituality 0:22:33.040 --> 0:22:37.880 works is you can't do anything without content without It's 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:41.359 like you your ancestors. Then the spirits, right, like it's 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:44.960 like anything that you do, you call them in first. 0:22:45.840 --> 0:22:49.960 And so I think I was pretty wide open. The 0:22:50.000 --> 0:22:55.399 women in my family are intuitively gifted. I believe that 0:22:55.440 --> 0:22:58.160 all of us are, right. I think I think every 0:22:58.240 --> 0:23:01.359 human is. The the ones in my family, though we 0:23:01.920 --> 0:23:05.640 have tended to really cater to that part of them, 0:23:05.680 --> 0:23:08.240 and so it's really just kind of a thing that's 0:23:08.280 --> 0:23:12.200 just in my blood. I think that when it comes 0:23:12.240 --> 0:23:17.720 to the relationship that I have with my ancestors, it's 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:22.240 actually a part of my spirituality, which means that it's 0:23:22.359 --> 0:23:25.640