Speaker 1: I started learning how to my makeup. I stopped booking
Speaker 1: makeup artists. I started to get my makeup collection up.
Speaker 1: My followers can ask them like, well, I'm about to
Speaker 1: give this company all this attention, I'm just going to
Speaker 1: come out with my own college.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Idea Generations All Angles, a podcast about culture's
Speaker 2: most influential brands and the teams that built them. If
Speaker 2: you're an entrepreneur, creative, or anyone interested in harnessing the
Speaker 2: power of collaboration, join me Noah Callahan Bever each week
Speaker 2: as we dissect the most dynamic companies in culture. Because
Speaker 2: the only way to truly understand success.
Speaker 3: Is to look at it from all angles.
Speaker 2: Idea Generations All Angles is a Will Packer media podcast.
Speaker 2: In twenty seventeen, Raynel Stewart, more commonly known by her
Speaker 2: social handle Supercent, launched the Crayon Case, a cosmetic kit
Speaker 2: for amateur makeup artists featuring bright, playful colors. In the
Speaker 2: ensuing five years, the Crayon Case would explode into a
Speaker 2: fifty million dollar business thanks to their confluence of innovative
Speaker 2: marketing approach, their vocal and hilarious founder, and a rock
Speaker 2: solid team of crafty individuals with unique professional experiences, including
Speaker 2: a partner who worked for the illustrious New Orleans label
Speaker 2: No Limit Records. But as with any company that enjoys
Speaker 2: rapid growth, mistakes were made, lessons were learned, and the
Speaker 2: Crayon case would be forced to navigate uncharted waters. On
Speaker 2: this week's episode of All Angles, we talked to founder Superci,
Speaker 2: business manager Russell Faker, and marketing director Iona Norris to
Speaker 2: hear how together they built one of the hottest makeup
Speaker 2: brands on the market. But before any of that happened,
Speaker 2: before the multimillion dollar cyber month or a spot on
Speaker 2: Oprah's Favorite Things, Supercent was just a young content creator
Speaker 2: in New Orleans trying to figure out how to code
Speaker 2: her MySpace theme.
Speaker 1: What drew me to social media early was Hurricane Katrina.
Speaker 1: When Hurricane Katrina happened, we had to keep in touch
Speaker 1: with our friends and our family. When my Space came out,
Speaker 1: That's how we kept up with our best friends, and
Speaker 1: I was able to see who was alive from Katrina,
Speaker 1: you know. And then the next thing was Facebook. They
Speaker 1: had statuses, So that's why I was more informative about
Speaker 1: my feelings and what's going on and how I feel
Speaker 1: about this than my opinions about relationships in life.
Speaker 2: Many of us took for granted Facebook's simple prompt to
Speaker 2: let the world know what we were doing, But for
Speaker 2: Super this created a new level of self awareness and
Speaker 2: inspired her to express herself on the Internet in a
Speaker 2: way that she hadn't before.
Speaker 1: Facebook really pushed me out there when it came to
Speaker 1: talking about me. Social media of pushed me out things
Speaker 1: to the world so bad. That was a very open, real,
Speaker 1: straightforward person. All my friends around me was doing funny
Speaker 1: ass kits. There was being Super funny, going out there
Speaker 1: way to be weird, and I was just I had
Speaker 1: work housekeeper and just showing them how I felt about something.
Speaker 1: And I guess they thought that was funny.
Speaker 2: Super started to build a fun, organic and loyal following
Speaker 2: on her socials by letting her followers into her everyday life.
Speaker 2: As her fan base started to scale, she realized there
Speaker 2: was an opportunity to productize her personality and offer something
Speaker 2: tangible to her audience, so she opted for something close
Speaker 2: to her heart, New Orleans Bounce music.
Speaker 4: Me.
Speaker 1: Being on social media, a lot of people did not
Speaker 1: know about different cultures or music. I didn't think Bounce
Speaker 1: music was for New Orleans. I thought it was for
Speaker 1: the whole world. But then me getting on social media,
Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, so it's just a New Orleans shot
Speaker 1: and they was like, what you're listening to me? Like
Speaker 1: why are you trying to song? Why this song sound
Speaker 1: like that? I'm like, this called Bunce music. So I
Speaker 1: started telling them where to find it a because they
Speaker 1: couldn't really find it no iTunes. They had to get
Speaker 1: it off of YouTube. But they was like, we want
Speaker 1: to hear Li's sit in our car. So I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: let me see if I can come out with some
Speaker 1: cvs and sell it to thee because I couldn't do
Speaker 1: it online, like I couldn't put no iTunes. And that's
Speaker 1: what I did. Start the Burns CDs and I sip
Speaker 1: until them and they just got enter into a whole
Speaker 1: different caution you love it.
Speaker 2: Super's burn CDs were a hit. She was moving units
Speaker 2: and she could barely keep up with the mand. Super
Speaker 2: had gone into the business expecting to sell a couple hundred,
Speaker 2: and within weeks she had orders in the thousands.
Speaker 1: So my CDs is seven dollars and I got them
Speaker 1: printed everything I got my I was playing list printed.
Speaker 1: I got all that printed. Then I had to buy
Speaker 1: the yellow packages from Walmart. Then I had to buy
Speaker 1: papers to write your address on and tape the tape
Speaker 1: it and then stamp to ship it. Like it was
Speaker 1: so much and I didn't realize how much it would
Speaker 1: be because that was my first time actually doing right.
Speaker 1: I was supposed to corporate the website price. I was
Speaker 1: supposed in corporate so many prices that I did so
Speaker 1: I think I made fourteen thousand, but I probably spent
Speaker 1: probably twenty probably twenty five. It was just reckless and crazy.
Speaker 1: I don't know what I was doing, but it was
Speaker 1: a great thing to do because a lot of people
Speaker 1: got the CD. I didn't think the CGU was going
Speaker 1: to sell that fast, but it sold out so fast
Speaker 1: that I was happy about that.
Speaker 2: Supers venture into Hawking CDs wasn't necessarily a success financially,
Speaker 2: but the lesson she learned it fulfillment and customer service,
Speaker 2: would pay dividends down the line. As her social media
Speaker 2: following scaled, super continued to idate on how to capitalize
Speaker 2: on her magnetic persona.
Speaker 3: For her next venture.
Speaker 2: She would utilize a popular catchphrase from her handle, known
Speaker 2: for liberally blocking detractors, super slogan Hye block hose became
Speaker 2: a rallying cry within her comments section. Now equipped with
Speaker 2: an entrepreneurial eye, she knew it could be more than
Speaker 2: just a hashtag. It could be a brand. So what
Speaker 2: did you do next? Of course, she put it on
Speaker 2: a T shirt.
Speaker 1: So our black holes came down because I was very
Speaker 1: known for blocking people on social media. Still am I
Speaker 1: just cannot tolerate disrespectful from somebody I can't see, don't know,
Speaker 1: never heard of it, but it just don't make sist
Speaker 1: to me to allow them to be on my page.
Speaker 1: And you got so much and amosity towards me and
Speaker 1: I can't even see you. I don't know you, so blocked, right,
Speaker 1: But the blocking came from a way deeper, meaning I've
Speaker 1: been blocking people to a house. So the term came
Speaker 1: about with people saying, oh, why are you blocking it?
Speaker 1: Because which I block over? And then people said, oh,
Speaker 1: you gotta put that down shirt. People used to tell me,
Speaker 1: I don't think a curse word on a shirt is
Speaker 1: going to sell them. I'm like holes, Like, technically it's
Speaker 1: not really curse work. Well, you know, so I just
Speaker 1: made it work. I started getting the shirts printed. I
Speaker 1: finally supplied in New Orleans, got my shirt print, and
Speaker 1: I started incorporating every price, every price. I even incorporated
Speaker 1: gas one time. I'm like, okay, I'm just being paid.
Speaker 1: So I had to go pick up the shirts right
Speaker 1: after he made them. So it came with my website.
Speaker 1: I got my website done. I put so much effort
Speaker 1: into that business, and I think I was just trying
Speaker 1: to be better than the CD right, and it was perfect.
Speaker 1: I'm doing all this in my house, all this in
Speaker 1: my living room. I probably had some of my friends
Speaker 1: more every now and then, but I did all this myself.
Speaker 1: I didn't even have a labor printer. Still, I didn't
Speaker 1: know about a labor printing until way lived on and
Speaker 1: in my life so much easier, Oh my god. And
Speaker 1: I was having fun with everything. I was shooting like
Speaker 1: maybe thirty orders a day, and I wasn't happening late.
Speaker 1: It's a lot of orders, you know. The thing is,
Speaker 1: it was so many orders at the time, but for me,
Speaker 1: it won't that many orders because I did the whole
Speaker 1: day to do yet, so it was really nothing. But
Speaker 1: at that time it was a greater amount orders. I
Speaker 1: was in a better head space. I was able to
Speaker 1: pay rent beforehand and not have to wait for it
Speaker 1: and had to find out when rent coming. I was
Speaker 1: able to pay it off quickly, and I was able
Speaker 1: to do a lot of stuff that I wasn't able
Speaker 1: to do in my other years, you know. So I
Speaker 1: felt like that was the great.
Speaker 2: Starting the iblock host t's were a massive success. Super
Speaker 2: had figured out how to tap into her fan base,
Speaker 2: create a fun, desirable product, and deliver it without issue.
Speaker 2: It was a blueprint that could be repeated, and her
Speaker 2: potential was not lost on those in the local scene either.
Speaker 2: One person in particular who took note was Russell Baker,
Speaker 2: a former artist manager who worked with Mac and C
Speaker 2: Murder from Masterpiece legendary label No Limit Records.
Speaker 5: I was introduced to Supa and late twenty fifteen a
Speaker 5: mutual a friend of ours say, Man, you need to
Speaker 5: check and check out. She is so hilarige. I think
Speaker 5: she'd be a good client for you to manage. And
Speaker 5: at that time I had taken the hiatus on managing talent,
Speaker 5: and I told a note. I told him no, and
Speaker 5: then I told her no, just because I was kind
Speaker 5: of burned out on a business. I started off a
Speaker 5: friend of mine who was signed to No Limit Records,
Speaker 5: McKinley Phipps, now known as Mac Phipps. I started with
Speaker 5: him in ninety nine two thousand and then he was
Speaker 5: unfortunately incocerated for a crime he didn't commit. And then
Speaker 5: I assisted see with his label and that mutual friend
Speaker 5: that introduced SUP and hour would running his label and
Speaker 5: managing him, and then he was arrested. So at that time,
Speaker 5: I was like, you know what, Uh, maybe this is
Speaker 5: not for me. And so after a while I just
Speaker 5: kept watching her. And as I was watching her, I said, man,
Speaker 5: she is so talented. She has natural comedic talent. No
Speaker 5: matter what she touches, she has that what you call
Speaker 5: the it factor.
Speaker 1: She has.
Speaker 6: She put her mind to it, it's gonna strike. She
Speaker 6: was starting to sell a mixtapes. She always loved music,
Speaker 6: so she'll sell mixtapes. That was a crazy time.
Speaker 5: Now because I'm the closest thing that you will get
Speaker 5: to an attorney that.
Speaker 6: Doesn't have a law degree.
Speaker 5: So a little while I'm saying, I'm like, man, okay,
Speaker 5: we're infringing on these people copy right, They're gonna come atter.
Speaker 6: That sometime.
Speaker 5: She made ten thousand dollars off the first REPD the
Speaker 5: first day she released me ten thousand dollars. At that point,
Speaker 5: I'm not fully full time with her yet. Again, my
Speaker 5: managing style is different than most. When I managed someone,
Speaker 5: I have a personal relationship with that person, So I
Speaker 5: was always just observing, making sure that she was.
Speaker 6: Straight, making sure that she was okay.
Speaker 5: Just an advisory role, just someone to talk to on
Speaker 5: a daily basis.
Speaker 2: As Superstar continued to rise and social media evolved into
Speaker 2: a twenty four to seven medium, super started using live
Speaker 2: features to broadcast her life. Super would stay on Periscope
Speaker 2: and later Instagram Live for hours every day, even going
Speaker 2: live during her daily chores and most mundane moments.
Speaker 1: Before Instagram Live, before Facebook Live, it was Periscope. So
Speaker 1: that's when I was on Periscope all the time. Maybe
Speaker 1: made me a damn hashtay for Paris school scrib I
Speaker 1: kind of showed everything. I would bring my son in
Speaker 1: school in the morning, I was on live pick my
Speaker 1: son up for school. I was on live, and that's
Speaker 1: how people really was able to see my son book
Speaker 1: because I literally recorded this guy whole lifely since he'd
Speaker 1: been born right, so that he'd loved to see what
Speaker 1: he was thinking about and what he saying when he
Speaker 1: was two, when he was a street when he was four, right,
Speaker 1: they seen me go and pick up the shirts. They
Speaker 1: seen me having a problem with the shirts. I used
Speaker 1: to ask them, like, what should I pull off a
Speaker 1: battle dun day? And they would help me, and I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna put this out. I was getting my mock ups.
Speaker 1: I was showing the mock ups. I started paying for
Speaker 1: more people to help me. I paid for graphic design.
Speaker 1: It was just like those two years on my fast.
Speaker 1: But it was so important to me because I actually
Speaker 1: learned the motion of business from our black bodies.
Speaker 2: As her follower count rose from the thousands to the
Speaker 2: hundreds of thousands and she grew from a local celebrity
Speaker 2: to a national star, Super started getting booked for IRL
Speaker 2: appearances across the country. It was during these travels that
Speaker 2: Super would find herself with a need, a need that
Speaker 2: would spark her next entrepreneurial endeavor.
Speaker 1: I was getting booked a lot, so that's when I
Speaker 1: kind of got into the makeup. I was getting booked
Speaker 1: so much. It was very hard to find somebody every
Speaker 1: state to do my makeup. I learned how to do
Speaker 1: my makeup from being alive so much. And I'm doing
Speaker 1: my makeup and they watching me mess my face up.
Speaker 1: They thought it was funny. I thought it was funny.
Speaker 1: And see, eventually I started getting it right, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh that, Oh, your brothers looks so much better today.
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, thank you, Like, oh, you know, you
Speaker 1: kind look way better to the I'm like, thank you.
Speaker 1: You know. So I started being okay, well, let me
Speaker 1: keep being all live to see the process and the progress. Right.
Speaker 1: I started learning how to my makeup. I stopped booking
Speaker 1: makeup artists. I started getting my makeup collection up. My
Speaker 1: followers kept asking, I'm like, well, I'm about to give
Speaker 1: this company all this attention. I'm just gonna come out
Speaker 1: with my own stuff.
Speaker 3: The idea for the Crawern case was born.
Speaker 2: Super wanted to do her own makeup, and she wanted
Speaker 2: to do it her own way, and that went with
Speaker 2: her own unique color palette, and straight up, the market
Speaker 2: was bare when it came to the bold and bright
Speaker 2: color she was looking for it, So she took matters
Speaker 2: into her own hands and started the arduous process of
Speaker 2: fabricating a line of makeup that she's desperately needed.
Speaker 1: My first two things can Sprawled You and Highlight. That
Speaker 1: was it. I feel like I could sell that forever,
Speaker 1: and my mind designed I was gonna make a good
Speaker 1: twenty thousand dollars off that, and I was gonna be happy.
Speaker 1: So that's all I wanted to come out with. And
Speaker 1: then when they was like, well when you put on
Speaker 1: your brows or bush reviews, I'm like, oh, that's true, right,
Speaker 1: So that's why I said, Okay, I'll get a brush.
Speaker 1: By the time it released, I came out with seven products,
Speaker 1: the eyebrow jail, the eyeshadow, the cream, the lashes, just
Speaker 1: stuff that needed to go with the eye. Basically, that's
Speaker 1: all I came out with. I dropped on June first,
Speaker 1: twenty seventeen. I made thirty three thousand dollars and that
Speaker 1: was the most I ever made it one day. And
Speaker 1: I was so shocked about that because I'm like, damn,
Speaker 1: I can make money like this for the rest of
Speaker 1: my life to be happy right now. Twenty seventeen it
Speaker 1: was so big for me because I never made that
Speaker 1: much money in one day before. I had to learn
Speaker 1: how to put money back into the brand too, Like, look,
Speaker 1: don't go spend that money on the trip. You have
Speaker 1: to put the money directed back into the bran. That's
Speaker 1: what I did. So when I made it thirty dollar dollars,
Speaker 1: I didn't spend it. I just kept it and bought
Speaker 1: more products. I realized everything you have in stock doesn't
Speaker 1: have to be the same count. I has to learned.
Speaker 1: If one paddle is selling better than the other, you
Speaker 1: should all make it ten thousand of the pallet that's
Speaker 1: selling better than others. The other palt you probably only
Speaker 1: five thousand, and you may not brought me twenty five
Speaker 1: hundred be it's selling to I learned all that in
Speaker 1: the Crown case. So that was a big thing for
Speaker 1: me about June first of twenty seventeen, because I realized
Speaker 1: I'm about to spend all this money on all these
Speaker 1: products at the same time when I don't need all
Speaker 1: these projectives. And that was important to me because that's
Speaker 1: how still how I'm doing it. Like if this is
Speaker 1: not selling to one and I got a lot of
Speaker 1: these in our house, it's no need for me to
Speaker 1: re up on this. I need to put this money
Speaker 1: into a different product.
Speaker 3: The Crown case was a hit, the product was innovative.
Speaker 2: Super's personality did the marketing for her, and her followers
Speaker 2: quickly converted into die hard consumers. So as the brand flourished,
Speaker 2: Super and Russell looked a family to help build out
Speaker 2: the company's infrastructure.
Speaker 1: My Veri's first high all family, and I only picked
Speaker 1: the family who I had the big get from another job,
Speaker 1: and I never picked the fawnily member who didn't have
Speaker 1: a job, needed a job. Everybody I picked was at
Speaker 1: certain jobs for years, but I felt like if they
Speaker 1: kept that job for all the years, still keep mind.
Speaker 5: All management everyone that worked at the facebool family of friends.
Speaker 5: As we grew, we started taking resumes, and even as
Speaker 5: we started taking resumes, we interviewed collectively as a whole,
Speaker 5: as a.
Speaker 6: Team, and never were individuals. It was everyone from the
Speaker 6: management team.
Speaker 5: You had your different departments where her sister Raven ran
Speaker 5: the customer service apartment, her aunt team ran the packing department,
Speaker 5: her cousin Jason ran the warehouse as a whole, her
Speaker 5: cousin Brandy ran human resources, and I was just the
Speaker 5: overseer of all of them.
Speaker 2: The grand cases overnight success for Super to learn how
Speaker 2: to build a company on the fly, once living paycheck
Speaker 2: to paycheck. Then a year Super found herself at the
Speaker 2: helm of a multimillion dollar corporation. She needed to plan
Speaker 2: for the future of the business and also for the
Speaker 2: future of herself.
Speaker 1: Once the current case started, I definitely started thinking more
Speaker 1: about the future. And again I was never a future person.
Speaker 1: I was always I'm going to live in a moment.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna enjoy it, and that's it. I never saved money,
Speaker 1: but I did save money. It was only because R
Speaker 1: was doing it me. That was it. Like that was
Speaker 1: my lifestyle before the current keys. I just felt like
Speaker 1: if I die, I can't keep nothing anyway, That's how
Speaker 1: I felt. But once the current case started, it really
Speaker 1: grew me up into an entrepreneur, and it grew me
Speaker 1: up to way more strategized on me. So I felt like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that this biness is going to be around for plenty
Speaker 1: of years. I need to do something to make it
Speaker 1: stay around for plenty of years. So that's when we think,
Speaker 1: you know, about the future. Like I had to scale
Speaker 1: my business, I had to hire the right people, I
Speaker 1: had to fire the right people. I had to do
Speaker 1: so much, Like I didn't just want to keep doing
Speaker 1: warehouse work. I even thought about me doing drop shipping.
Speaker 1: I wanted to get in stores like it was a
Speaker 1: lot that I had to do by the pettations of
Speaker 1: the business for me to get further and not just
Speaker 1: build a social leadia business. I wanted people to know
Speaker 1: about the current case without knowing me. That was real
Speaker 1: big for me. This past two years. I tried to
Speaker 1: detach myself from the currentcas because if something happened to me,
Speaker 1: I done wanted to reflect on my business. It was
Speaker 1: no more me just speaking my mind on celebrities nowhere
Speaker 1: because I didn't know who I was going to run
Speaker 1: into and lead partnership with. That's when I started about
Speaker 1: a long time and let me not talk about these
Speaker 1: people anymore because I may need them what campaign, I
Speaker 1: may need them to help me with them right, And
Speaker 1: that's when I started building my HAVST relationships with all
Speaker 1: different entrepreneurs, celebrities, athletes, all these people. I probably would
Speaker 1: have talked about twenty and fifteen super but I didn't
Speaker 1: because I wanted my business to stay intact.
Speaker 2: As the company scaled, its consumer based super social network
Speaker 2: of DIY makeup artists became an army brand ambassadors in
Speaker 2: real life. Seeing the opportunity to use other people's platforms
Speaker 2: to help market her products, super brought in social media
Speaker 2: strategist Iona Norris to help spearhead the content.
Speaker 4: We sent them a huge box of products. They got everything.
Speaker 4: No brand has ever just sent them everything in their rerehouse.
Speaker 4: So they would get this huge box and they would
Speaker 4: push videos and lives for us and we would just
Speaker 4: use their comment saying on our Instagram sitters in now,
Speaker 4: TIKSI or five years ago right now. I like to
Speaker 4: be relatable to a brand, Like when I see Super
Speaker 4: Bowl'm like, okay, I've been through that. I could do that,
Speaker 4: And you get to know the brand.
Speaker 1: It's very open and.
Speaker 4: No other brand is really open. She's relatable. We don't
Speaker 4: get to know too many brands behind the scenes, very transparent.
Speaker 1: So that's what draws me to the brand.
Speaker 4: And she's herself. You know, she could be herself and
Speaker 4: you know be a millionaire business owner and that's why
Speaker 4: people gravitates to the brand. And then on top of that,
Speaker 4: I mean it's catchy, the crawn.
Speaker 1: You get to have fun.
Speaker 4: Her sogn is coloring out southe the lines. That's always fun.
Speaker 2: With an army of micro influencers behind the brand. It
Speaker 2: wasn't long until the Crayon case started picking up national attention.
Speaker 2: As the orders continued to roll in, it was obvious
Speaker 2: that this was bigger than burnt CDs, T shirts or
Speaker 2: any of Super's previous endeavors. In no time, the Krayon
Speaker 2: case was doing numbers like ninety seven no limit.
Speaker 5: Those numbers were undeniable. So when I told you, for
Speaker 5: the first six months, I was like, it's her thing.
Speaker 5: Let's see the BLOGO. I think it was March twenty eighteen.
Speaker 5: That's when I really opened my eyes. I looked at
Speaker 5: the numbers on one hundred the numbers, It is dumb numbers.
Speaker 5: So I managed my friend MATC Phipps a no limit
Speaker 5: and those numbers were dumb. For ninety eight nineteen ninety
Speaker 5: eight things that they did there to do what she
Speaker 5: was doing and for it to be one hundred percent
Speaker 5: e commerce, it was crazy numbers because the stuff was
Speaker 5: just flying up the shelves, flying up the shelves, We're
Speaker 5: averaging eight hundred thousand a month averaging that was just ridiculous.
Speaker 6: And so yeah, I was like, yeah, we may be
Speaker 6: on or something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the team was firing on all cylinders, and it
Speaker 2: all came to a head. On their twenty nineteen Cyber
Speaker 2: Monday launch, the crayon case did one million dollars sales
Speaker 2: in just ninety minutes.
Speaker 6: It was ridiculous.
Speaker 5: It was surreal because again, like I said, we had
Speaker 5: to make it eight hundred nine hundred thousand a month,
Speaker 5: but to make it in ninety minutes, it was like crazy,
Speaker 5: you know, But I don't know super to ya. I
Speaker 5: was pissed because we sold out, because I'm like, damn,
Speaker 5: we could have made two million, So.
Speaker 6: I'm always looking at numbers, you know.
Speaker 5: It was a very unusual but pleasing feeling to see
Speaker 5: that accomplishment and then only see at that time we
Speaker 5: made it that Monday, and then the following tax my cell.
Speaker 6: At following lunch we made another million dollars and I
Speaker 6: think it.
Speaker 5: Was sixty minutes, and then I followed cyber Money we
Speaker 5: made another one point three in sixty minutes. So it
Speaker 5: started becoming a regular feed, and I'm like, you know,
Speaker 5: this is some unusual stuff that we're doing, so let's
Speaker 5: not get used to it.
Speaker 6: But it was gratifying.
Speaker 2: After back to back multimillion dollars. Cyber Monday launches the
Speaker 2: Crait cases. Explosive growth and market share was undeniable. But
Speaker 2: just as the business achieved maturity, the COVID nineteen pandemic
Speaker 2: hit and brought the world to a hull.
Speaker 1: Once COVID hit, people just like, yeah, I'm just going
Speaker 1: to take on unemployment and take the loans and I'm
Speaker 1: not going to come back to work. And I understood
Speaker 1: I would have done the same thing if I was employee.
Speaker 1: Right the most employees I had was probably nineteen, and
Speaker 1: that was s lot to pay nineteen people every week.
Speaker 1: Now I think we have five. As COVID was passing by,
Speaker 1: I kept it in mind too, all right, I don't
Speaker 1: need all his employ All these employees is not needed.
Speaker 1: These employees is here right now. They've been getting a
Speaker 1: job done for the whole COVID period. So I'm just
Speaker 1: going to keep these employees and get them raises and
Speaker 1: be found with them. I learned that, and I cut
Speaker 1: back on payroll. I coupled on a lot of things,
Speaker 1: and I started seeing what my money was going for them.
Speaker 3: But a bright spot of merged during the pandemic.
Speaker 2: A feature on Oprah's Favorite Things propelled the Crown case
Speaker 2: even further, putting a national brand.
Speaker 3: On a global stage.
Speaker 2: However, it also brought some unwanted attention in the form
Speaker 2: of a cease and desist from Crayola. The iconic crayon
Speaker 2: maker claimed that super had infringed on their copyright. Super
Speaker 2: quickly and amicably settled the matter, adjusting her branding and
Speaker 2: marks and making sure to tread more lightly in the future.
Speaker 5: We have issues with Criola as far as they say
Speaker 5: we infringed on their trademark. I actually learned some things
Speaker 5: from that, and then later on they infringed upon our trademark,
Speaker 5: and that early experience with us infringing.
Speaker 6: On theirs prepared me to defend us against them.
Speaker 5: We had another situation was to Farrow when they didn't
Speaker 5: infringe on our trade mode, but they infringe on our
Speaker 5: trade address.
Speaker 6: So those things prepared me for anything that came out way.
Speaker 5: As far as that's concerned as people trying to attack
Speaker 5: our style and do things the way we do it, it.
Speaker 6: Won't stop them.
Speaker 5: Won't stop people because that's the compliment I see is
Speaker 5: if people try to immolate what you're doing, it's a
Speaker 5: compliment to your success.
Speaker 2: As other companies started to release similar products, and the
Speaker 2: brand grappled with growing up with their consumers while still
Speaker 2: appealing to younger, newer ones. Super In the team pushed
Speaker 2: themselves to keep innovating. She also started to hone in
Speaker 2: on a new release strategy that would continue to differentiate
Speaker 2: the crayon case in the market.
Speaker 5: But I do constantly learn and evolve with the time.
Speaker 5: If you don't evolve with the time, you will get
Speaker 5: stuck and possibly fail. You have to understand what we started.
Speaker 5: It was six years ago. Those people that were enamored
Speaker 5: with us at that age are six years older. They
Speaker 5: have different interests. As they grow and have different interests,
Speaker 5: we have to evolve with them to make sure that
Speaker 5: we keep them keep their palette interested in our brand.
Speaker 5: And then we also have to see those that's coming
Speaker 5: behind them. Their interest is going to be different from theirs,
Speaker 5: but we have to make ourselves attractive to their palate.
Speaker 5: So you're constantly evolving as a business to stay relevant
Speaker 5: in every realm and in every.
Speaker 6: Demographic, so you can survive.
Speaker 5: Because the younger demographic has more disposable income, the older
Speaker 5: demographic has a larger income that may not be as disposable,
Speaker 5: but you still want to be able to be attractive
Speaker 5: enough to them to they have extra, they have something
Speaker 5: to spend, they want to spend it with you.
Speaker 1: Well, oh you know, of course you pay attention to
Speaker 1: other calculated brains. But I would notice I started payition too,
Speaker 1: and I didn't think I would. Is how long it's
Speaker 1: taken to drop from the new right, because I never
Speaker 1: had a strategy for dropping stuff. I have an idea,
Speaker 1: I tell my supply it, I tell my graphic designer
Speaker 1: it get made. Then I just wait for it. Right,
Speaker 1: But I never had a strategic way of dropping new product.
Speaker 1: So I started watching other brands. I start to watching
Speaker 1: the most popular brands do that I open They come
Speaker 1: out with a product, damn there every three months, and
Speaker 1: I ain't doing that because then when you come out
Speaker 1: with a product so much so fast, it kind of
Speaker 1: drawing away from the last product you dropped. Right, That's
Speaker 1: like I already dropping the CD. Didn't drop another one.
Speaker 1: But I didn't even get the enjoyed person.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 1: That's what I had to learn. So I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: y'all dropping a lot of products, but that don't mean
Speaker 1: I know how you're doing the business too. But then
Speaker 1: I found a brand that dropped literally once a year,
Speaker 1: and I'm like, Okay, that makes more sense for me
Speaker 1: because that product will be talking about for a long
Speaker 1: time once the YouTube videos get made and they start
Speaker 1: doing reviews, once the reals started coming out, they had
Speaker 1: so much time to love and fall in love with
Speaker 1: the product.
Speaker 2: Soon, a huge opportunity presented itself when Walmart asked to
Speaker 2: carry the line. The IRL visibility and large upfront order
Speaker 2: appeared to be very enticing. However, Super would soon learn
Speaker 2: how selling wholesale would challenge her margins and supply chain,
Speaker 2: as well as the expectation that she would show her
Speaker 2: the market costs within their marketplace.
Speaker 1: Once I stepped into stores, a lot of things changed.
Speaker 1: I felt like that was a bad move and I
Speaker 1: should have waited, probably like a few more years, because
Speaker 1: I didn't realize me going into Walmart, I have to
Speaker 1: stock Walmart and I have to stock my warehouse, right,
Speaker 1: And I don't think I was too ready for that
Speaker 1: because Walmart was very neat, very needy, like if they
Speaker 1: need ten thousand pallets on Thursday, and they may need
Speaker 1: ten thousand pallets next Thursday too, and the production time
Speaker 1: take at least forty days, right, So I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: so I got to keep up with Walmart inventory and mins,
Speaker 1: and I don't think I was ready for that.
Speaker 2: The Walmart deal didn't go the way Super expected it,
Speaker 2: and she realized that she still had much to learn.
Speaker 1: It just don't make sense, especially if I'm doing so
Speaker 1: well on e commerce. It don't make sense to go
Speaker 1: and say story the stores me, that's more than we
Speaker 1: need them. I want to currank Instay way way bigger
Speaker 1: than Instagram, way big in Facebook, way big in Twitter.
Speaker 1: I wanted to be seen by people who's not even
Speaker 1: on social media. So official Crown Case is pulling things
Speaker 1: out the stores. It don't make sense. When you go
Speaker 1: in the store, you gotta do all the marketing yourself.
Speaker 1: They're not help you remarking at all. Gotta pay for
Speaker 1: everything you want in there. Like if I sell wipes
Speaker 1: and all my wife's next to mes Gina, I gotta
Speaker 1: pay for that, you know, so everything is very costly.
Speaker 1: It cost so much to upkeep. The best thing would
Speaker 1: have been also, you know, which is the makeup store?
Speaker 1: People going there for a makeup Walmart people don't really
Speaker 1: be thinking about cosmetics. You know, they're going there for
Speaker 1: the tissue, a little peroxide, you know, like maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit charger, and it's it. You know, it's not
Speaker 1: really them going there like let me get some make up.
Speaker 1: Aout walking The best move probably would have been also,
Speaker 1: even though would have been the same problems, but at
Speaker 1: least it would have been in the auto because they're
Speaker 1: actually going in there for a makeup, right. I just
Speaker 1: want Crown Case to be like Navelings, to be like Revlong,
Speaker 1: just to be like the makeup brains have been around
Speaker 1: for years and it made the impact in cosmetic world.
Speaker 1: I wanted the current case to be a saying.
Speaker 2: As the Crown Case looks to the future, the team
Speaker 2: is hyper focused on learning more about the business, continuing
Speaker 2: to innovate their product line, and also giving back to
Speaker 2: their community.
Speaker 1: I still need to learn about business funding, you know.
Speaker 1: I need to learn about is that a great move
Speaker 1: of business? Is that needed? I'm thinking about actually taking
Speaker 1: classes for it to find out about business funding. I
Speaker 1: just want to know just the right move to teake
Speaker 1: because I don't want to have to have a bad
Speaker 1: year in business and then I just getting flushed out,
Speaker 1: you know, So I'm trying to learn this.
Speaker 6: Near future is to offer our new mood lines.
Speaker 5: We're known for colors and not being afraid to color
Speaker 5: outside lines, but we also, like I just said, know
Speaker 5: that our demographic is getting older. They're going to work
Speaker 5: there in their careers now, so they can't wear blue
Speaker 5: eyeliner and blue lipsticks. So we have to offer and
Speaker 5: meet them or they are because we're going to offer
Speaker 5: new collections and starting this fall as well as we're
Speaker 5: starting an HBCU collection to pay homage to the HBCUs
Speaker 5: and give the student just to feel that we support.
Speaker 6: Them and that we meet them where they are.
Speaker 4: We are trying to reach a different audience. So everything
Speaker 4: that we have right now is very colorful. So we're
Speaker 4: going to be dropping a nude collection that will cater
Speaker 4: to different makeup artists, a lot of makeup artists who
Speaker 4: make up for weddings and things like that, and then
Speaker 4: we think that they're maybe scared to purchase, you know,
Speaker 4: a big box of crayons and things that are colorful.
Speaker 4: So we're catering to the everyday woman or guy. So
Speaker 4: that's our goal to get a new audience. People are scared,
Speaker 4: they're saying like, Oh, my skin is mature, so I
Speaker 4: can't really wear that product. So we're catering to them.
Speaker 4: We take polls on Instagram and see what they want.
Speaker 4: As a realists Facebook and we listen to our audience
Speaker 4: and we get the job.
Speaker 2: Having been through the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, Russell
Speaker 2: and Super are happy to reflect on their own experiences
Speaker 2: and share advice for young creatives looking to start their
Speaker 2: own businesses.
Speaker 5: My advice would be to trust yourself. Block out all
Speaker 5: that outside chatter, and you're going to get so much
Speaker 5: of it.
Speaker 6: Some of it's going to be good.
Speaker 1: Some of it.
Speaker 5: You have to really stay grounded. You're going to have
Speaker 5: some failures across the road, You're gonna have some tribulations.
Speaker 5: Do not let that discoverage you, let that strippen you,
Speaker 5: and keep going, keep pushing and learn as much as
Speaker 5: you can. Learn as much as you can, and don't
Speaker 5: take no class.
Speaker 1: But I think it's very important to learn as much
Speaker 1: as you can about entrepreneurship, head to the price points,
Speaker 1: just all types of things that you didn't think was
Speaker 1: important in business. So if I want took business classes
Speaker 1: and I would went to school, or maybe if I
Speaker 1: would have just hit a sension more we can entrepreneurship.
Speaker 1: I probably would have flourished way more in business. I
Speaker 1: just learned a lot from trial and error. The current
Speaker 1: CASS is not my first business. I had many businesses
Speaker 1: before the current case and failed tremendously. So you still
Speaker 1: got to keep working. You still got to do more.
Speaker 1: You still got to write your owns and find out
Speaker 1: what you could do better. And that's what I had
Speaker 1: to do as well. So I feel like people rush
Speaker 1: into the entrepreneurship for money and not for the passion.
Speaker 1: I feel like the currankings was my biggest passion. I
Speaker 1: had a lot of business, but I know the currentness
Speaker 1: was my paston the crnkings was the easy marketing for
Speaker 1: me because I actually get up and do my wake
Speaker 1: up you know, I actually fall in love with product.
Speaker 1: It's not a passion for you. It's not going to
Speaker 1: be because when it's a passion for you, spend so
Speaker 1: much time money. Everything is on YouTube, and that's why
Speaker 1: I mean by researching, take a few months out before
Speaker 1: you actually put all your money into it and learn
Speaker 1: this first so you can know what's going to happen.
Speaker 1: I think if I would have done that first, Oh man,
Speaker 1: I'll be like Michael Jordan.
Speaker 3: Humility.
Speaker 2: Aside within the conversation of self made entrepreneurs, Super is
Speaker 2: certainly a go contender. Her magnetic persona and willingness to
Speaker 2: put herself out there has engendered a cult like following,
Speaker 2: with Fiz not just interested in her personality, but invested
Speaker 2: in her success. By giving her audience a front row
Speaker 2: seat to the minutia of her everyday life, She's inspired
Speaker 2: them to see her as a relatable human being, not
Speaker 2: just as a transactional marketer. And when the Crayon Case
Speaker 2: launched and Super delivered a high quality product to an
Speaker 2: underserved audience, her fans were eager to open up their
Speaker 2: wallets and support. With the addition of Russell to help
Speaker 2: legitimize and organize the business, along with Iona's innovative approach
Speaker 2: to merchandising, Super managed to put all the right pieces
Speaker 2: in place and now together they've made the Crayon Case
Speaker 2: a global brand by maintaining their authenticity and always coloring
Speaker 2: outside the lines for idea generation. I'm Noah Callahan Bever.
Speaker 2: Thanks for listening to the All Angles podcast presented by
Speaker 2: will Packer Media. If you've enjoyed this episode, Please don't
Speaker 2: hesitate to like, comment DM, or tell a friend to
Speaker 2: tell a friend about Idea Generation and the All Angles Podcast.
Speaker 2: We can't do any of this without your help, and honestly,
Speaker 2: your support means everything. We do this for you, and
Speaker 2: we can't do it without you. This episode was brought
Speaker 2: to you by Will Packer. Executive produced by John Valachick
Speaker 2: and Helena Os. Original music by Valentine Fritz, edit and
Speaker 2: sound mixed by Nonsensible Production, and hosted by me Idea
Speaker 2: Generation founder Noah Callahan Beveret Idea Generations.
Speaker 3: All Angles is a Will Packer Media podcast