Speaker 1: I'm Sam Edis and I'm Amy Nelson. Welcome to What's
Speaker 1: Her Story? With Sam and Amy. This is a show
Speaker 1: about the world's most remarkable women, their professional and personal journeys. Together,
Speaker 1: we'll hear from gold medalists, best selling authors, and leaders
Speaker 1: of the world's most iconic brands. Listen every Thursday or
Speaker 1: join the conversation anytime on Instagram at What's Her Story Podcast.
Speaker 1: Arianna Pierce is an entrepreneur turned Web three expert. She
Speaker 1: has seamlessly transitioned from starting and growing a successful, now
Speaker 1: polished business to becoming a pre eminent leader and educator
Speaker 1: on the blockchain. One of the remarkable things about you
Speaker 1: is that you transitioned from being this beauty entrepreneur to
Speaker 1: being this sort of queen of Web three. How did
Speaker 1: that come about? Really? I still do both. So I
Speaker 1: love entrepreneurship. I love inspiring others to own businesses and
Speaker 1: to have multiple streams of income. But through that I
Speaker 1: also started investing. So I believe naturally investing came, you know,
Speaker 1: just as a part of being in business. You know,
Speaker 1: I'm in business now, I want to know how to invest.
Speaker 1: So I was day trading and I was doing four
Speaker 1: X trading and crypto trading, and I said, wow, this
Speaker 1: is really awesome. And of course that is male dominated.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, of course I'm getting into another industry
Speaker 1: that is male dominated. I'm taught now. It was good
Speaker 1: because I met my fiance, So maybe that was awesome
Speaker 1: that it was male dominated, because when I went to
Speaker 1: the meetings there was no competition, so no UM. But
Speaker 1: on the other hand, I said, man, we need some
Speaker 1: more women in this space to dominate, just like in
Speaker 1: the entrepreneurial world, just like how I helped them to
Speaker 1: build six and seven finger brands, Let's bring this over
Speaker 1: into the investing world. So I got really good at that.
Speaker 1: I ended up creating a strategy that goes along with
Speaker 1: trading and UM foreign currency and how to move in
Speaker 1: the markets. I end up creating my own strategy, which
Speaker 1: led me to teaching and creating a group for young women.
Speaker 1: And of course the men wanted to join as well,
Speaker 1: so we let them join, and then which caused me
Speaker 1: to get into n f t S because that comes
Speaker 1: naturally with being in the crypto world. And so when
Speaker 1: I got into n f t S, I said, okay,
Speaker 1: yet again, this is a male dominated space. We need
Speaker 1: to train up the ladies on how they can win.
Speaker 1: Because I was talking to someone the other day and
Speaker 1: I said, you know what, this really is an opportunity
Speaker 1: for us to build wealth at a very early stage.
Speaker 1: For example, what do I mean by that? You know,
Speaker 1: there was the oil and gas industry. Those who took
Speaker 1: advantage of that early they're uber wealthy. Right then you
Speaker 1: had the car right industry. Then you had the software
Speaker 1: or internet or the tech industry that launched. And those
Speaker 1: that invested in that early, I mean now they're super wealthy. Okay,
Speaker 1: Now I feel like we are on the brink of
Speaker 1: another industry with Web three, with crypto, and those that
Speaker 1: get in on it early, they're gonna be able to
Speaker 1: change the financial legacy of their entire family. Why not
Speaker 1: have women get involved in this because they can do
Speaker 1: it now. In the past, there may have been some
Speaker 1: restrictions and you know, restraints on women, But now they
Speaker 1: can get involved with this because the one thing about
Speaker 1: Web three and n f t S is that it
Speaker 1: doesn't know your face, it doesn't know your background. It
Speaker 1: doesn't know if you're a criminal or if you have
Speaker 1: a squeaky clean background. And I'm not saying anyone should
Speaker 1: be a criminal, right, But what I'm saying is is
Speaker 1: that it does not know and you can really win
Speaker 1: in this space, and I wanted to help my ladies win.
Speaker 1: I feel like you're constantly learning and you're constantly challenging yourself.
Speaker 1: If you ever get exhausted and not want to learn
Speaker 1: the next definitely, oh yes. I mean there comes a
Speaker 1: time where I'm just like, listen, I just want to
Speaker 1: chill out. I want to watch some movies, and I
Speaker 1: just want to do nothing. Don't bring a question to me.
Speaker 1: I don't want to read an email. I don't want
Speaker 1: to answer anyone today. That definitely happens. And what I
Speaker 1: try to do is, at least once a week have
Speaker 1: a brain break right where you just say, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna chill out. I'm going to not answer any calls,
Speaker 1: I'm not going to rush to do any emails. But
Speaker 1: after that, I'm gonna get back to work. And I
Speaker 1: look forward to those days. They're awesome. I spend time
Speaker 1: with my family. We normally go out to a brunch
Speaker 1: every single Sunday, so that gives us time to get
Speaker 1: away from the office, focus on us, and really, you know,
Speaker 1: what's really important and focus on our health and um,
Speaker 1: you know, just our relationships with each other. So definitely, yes,
Speaker 1: there are those times. But then I said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I gotta get back to work because it's bigger than me.
Speaker 1: It's not you know, I have to get out there
Speaker 1: and help others really understand this. So, Marianna, you referenced
Speaker 1: that you were again in a male dominated industry. Were
Speaker 1: you referencing the beauty industry. Well, funny that you asked that,
Speaker 1: because the beauty industry really is, or at the time
Speaker 1: was male dominated. I remember going to meetings and it
Speaker 1: would be a meeting with maybe another cosmetic company or
Speaker 1: maybe we were doing some type of deal, and I
Speaker 1: remember sitting there one being the of course the youngest
Speaker 1: in the room, you know, I'm at the head of
Speaker 1: the table like you know, the youngest, and them looking
Speaker 1: at me like oh, because they didn't really know my face.
Speaker 1: I didn't put my face with the company, so people
Speaker 1: didn't know who was running it because I knew being
Speaker 1: a young minority woman, right, young girl. Really at that time,
Speaker 1: they may not take me seriously, so you didn't see
Speaker 1: my face. This wasn't oh, Arianna, No, it wasn't that.
Speaker 1: So when they contacted us and said, oh, we would
Speaker 1: like to do a deal with you all, or we
Speaker 1: would like to discuss this with this reality TV show,
Speaker 1: maybe doing some type of collaboration. I would go to
Speaker 1: the media with my assistant and they would be very
Speaker 1: surprised and say oh wow, right, and it would be
Speaker 1: a lot of men in the room, and of course
Speaker 1: people to three times my age, So that definitely was
Speaker 1: was something that was a factor. So you make Web
Speaker 1: three seem like something that's approachable for anyone, right, and
Speaker 1: you're encouraging everyone to participate. But what's the first step.
Speaker 1: How do you get over that hurdle of feeling like
Speaker 1: you missed the boat already? Well, let me tell you this,
Speaker 1: you have not missed the boat. When it comes to
Speaker 1: Web three. We are still in the very, very very
Speaker 1: beginning stages of it. But I would advise people to
Speaker 1: get in on it now, because of course, the earlier
Speaker 1: that you get in, the more you are going to
Speaker 1: be able to absorb absorb it, and the more that
Speaker 1: you'll be able to win in this space. But the
Speaker 1: first thing that I tell people is one follow those
Speaker 1: who are already in this space. You don't want to
Speaker 1: go on this journey alone because there can be a
Speaker 1: lot of hiccups that come along with doing this. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about n f t s being stolen, crypto being stolen,
Speaker 1: you know, weird things happening to your wallet. You're like,
Speaker 1: what just happened? How did that happen? So definitely find
Speaker 1: some people that you can connect with. One of the
Speaker 1: people that I really love, her name is board Becky
Speaker 1: and you can look her up on Instagram, but she
Speaker 1: has a great podcast on you know, n f t
Speaker 1: s and this entire space, so it's really really awesome.
Speaker 1: So really getting that education so that way you can
Speaker 1: do this journey with someone who's already have navigated this space.
Speaker 1: So follow those who are already in this space. You
Speaker 1: can follow me as well. I do a lot of
Speaker 1: UM teaching on how the basics of this. And then two,
Speaker 1: I would say setting up your wallet, which would be
Speaker 1: something like a meta mask. That's the one that I
Speaker 1: recommended the industry standard learning how to set up meta
Speaker 1: mask because if you're gonna be in web three, they're
Speaker 1: always going to ask you, hey, where is your wallet?
Speaker 1: So you want to be able to have a wallet
Speaker 1: to participate in this space. Then the third thing that
Speaker 1: I would say that's a basic is learning how to
Speaker 1: buy ethereum. Now there are n f t s and
Speaker 1: web three can be on many different block chains and
Speaker 1: coincide with different cryptos, but the majority of them, again,
Speaker 1: the industry standard is ethereum as of right now. That
Speaker 1: may be changing, but right now ethereum. So learning how
Speaker 1: to buy your ethereum would be something that's very important
Speaker 1: as well if you're going to be in this space.
Speaker 1: You said you met your fiance in the crypto space.
Speaker 1: How did you meet and how did you know he
Speaker 1: was the one for you? So we actually met in
Speaker 1: New York City. I'm from Orlando, and so I was
Speaker 1: traveling to New York for a tour that my mom
Speaker 1: and I both hope it's our success tour. So we
Speaker 1: host a success tour every single year, and we were
Speaker 1: doing this one in New York at that particular time.
Speaker 1: I remember it was in May of that year, and um,
Speaker 1: we went to New York and I was asked a
Speaker 1: few days before our meeting to speak on fifth AV
Speaker 1: at a trader's event. Okay, so it was day Traders.
Speaker 1: So I went there and I spoke about my story
Speaker 1: with day trading, how I got started being in the industry,
Speaker 1: wanting to impact more women's lives in this industry. Just
Speaker 1: giving my full story about how I started with day trading. Well,
Speaker 1: after that, we ended up going to dinner, you know,
Speaker 1: all of us, and I of course was the only
Speaker 1: lady there. So it was nice, you know, there was
Speaker 1: a lot to choose from, I'll say that. And Um,
Speaker 1: I went to dinner and there was a guy that
Speaker 1: was sitting across from me, and he kept looking at me,
Speaker 1: and so I'm like, is he looking at me because
Speaker 1: I have something on my face? Or is it because
Speaker 1: he like me? And so we just kept talking and
Speaker 1: you know, just sharing within the room about day trading,
Speaker 1: about crypto and different things like that. Then afterwards he
Speaker 1: came up to me and said, hey, you know, UM,
Speaker 1: I really enjoyed talking with you tonight. Can I connect
Speaker 1: with you on Instagram? Now? Why he didn't ask for
Speaker 1: my number? I guess maybe that's our generation's way of
Speaker 1: connecting with one another. So he did that and I
Speaker 1: said okay, and then I knew them when he asked
Speaker 1: for the Instagram I said, oh, yeah, he really likes me, um,
Speaker 1: and so and so we did that, and a few
Speaker 1: days later, I invited him to our event uh that
Speaker 1: my mom and I were hosting in New York, and
Speaker 1: he was the only man that came, and I said, okay, awesome,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you came. He was the only individual that
Speaker 1: came from that group, and I said, all right. So
Speaker 1: we were just flirting the entire day, and then that
Speaker 1: evening we all went to dinner with our staff to celebrate,
Speaker 1: and I invited him to come along with me, and
Speaker 1: so we sat there we talked all night. It was
Speaker 1: like no one else was in the room. He lived
Speaker 1: in New York, I was in Orlando. So in the
Speaker 1: back of my mind, I'm like, okay, this is nice,
Speaker 1: but I don't really know how this is gonna work out,
Speaker 1: but I'll try it anyway. And so we talked and
Speaker 1: we have never stopped talking since. Well fast forward about
Speaker 1: six months later, he said, you know what, I really
Speaker 1: am serious about this relationship. I want to be with you.
Speaker 1: I see myself marrying you. So I'm gonna move from
Speaker 1: New York to Orlando so that way you can know
Speaker 1: that I'm serious about this. Because he said, I know
Speaker 1: that if I don't move You're gonna find someone else
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna lose you. And I said, okay, So
Speaker 1: I never told him that he had to move. I
Speaker 1: just let it be his decision, and he did it
Speaker 1: within that first year of us being together, and the
Speaker 1: rest is history. And now we're engaged. So what is
Speaker 1: a success tour? You said that you and your mom
Speaker 1: were going to New York and success to her? What
Speaker 1: is that? This is our tour that we host every
Speaker 1: single year, and it's our tour where we inspire ladies
Speaker 1: from around the world and we teach them about business
Speaker 1: and marketing and branding, and so that's really our specialty.
Speaker 1: We have an entire business school where we teach women
Speaker 1: how to do this with taking their businesses from you
Speaker 1: know where it is today to leveling up to that
Speaker 1: next um you know, profit bracket or whatever that may
Speaker 1: be for them, creating products, creating digital products, marketing in
Speaker 1: their brands, getting into stores, all of those types of things.
Speaker 1: We help them with that. And so we decided, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is awesome. We love having our business school, but
Speaker 1: let's take that on the road. And so we took
Speaker 1: it on the road and we were able to travel
Speaker 1: with that and so we call it our success tour
Speaker 1: because we're helping them to be successful in their businesses
Speaker 1: and in their brands. And now a quick break. Are
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Speaker 1: learn more at Join the W Marketplace dot com. One
Speaker 1: of the threads start what you've done is really the
Speaker 1: marketing to all of these customers. How do you attract
Speaker 1: the people on your success tours? Or how did you
Speaker 1: attract your nail customers, your no polish customers? How do
Speaker 1: you attract your now crypto audience? Well, of course, like
Speaker 1: I mentioned with starting that nail polished company, it all
Speaker 1: started with realizing, Okay, if I can connect and build
Speaker 1: relationships with people who I have never met online, then
Speaker 1: that that I can also attract people into my business
Speaker 1: that I have never met through social media as well.
Speaker 1: Of course we have ads that are going out, but
Speaker 1: really under all of that, because you can have the ads,
Speaker 1: you can make the social media post and still attract
Speaker 1: little to know people. But really it's building a lifestyle
Speaker 1: around your product and service. And that's been something that
Speaker 1: has really helped us and really helped me go to
Speaker 1: the next level with my um business. So what do
Speaker 1: I mean by that? Not just delegating or telling people
Speaker 1: what they should do, but really demonstrating it in our
Speaker 1: own lives. And when they say okay Ariana or Dr
Speaker 1: Station that happens to be my mother, um Ariana and
Speaker 1: Dr Staa, they're doing this. They're succeeding in this there, Okay,
Speaker 1: they are building wealth in this area as an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: You know, they're doing their conferences, they're teaching women this,
Speaker 1: they're starting their business school. I want to do that,
Speaker 1: so let me connect with them. I think that is
Speaker 1: my secret sauce that I'm letting out today with more.
Speaker 1: You know, of course you want to do those other
Speaker 1: things when it comes to marketing and branding, but when
Speaker 1: you can really show people the lifestyle that you are
Speaker 1: also I guess quote unquote selling that is really where
Speaker 1: you take your business to the next level. How do
Speaker 1: you show people that lifestyle? What are they looking at
Speaker 1: if they go to your Instagram or follow you? So
Speaker 1: when you come to my Instagram, you see a lot
Speaker 1: of travel, right, because I love being able to travel.
Speaker 1: I love being able to really live a freedom based lifestyle.
Speaker 1: What do I mean by that? You know, because we're
Speaker 1: building our wealth portfolios because we have our own businesses.
Speaker 1: That means that in the middle of the week, something
Speaker 1: as simple as I can go get my nails done
Speaker 1: and it's not bragging. So I don't want it to
Speaker 1: sound like, oh, she's just bragging on her page. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: that's not it. I want to show them that it's
Speaker 1: real because I can tell you what to do all day.
Speaker 1: But if I don't show you how it's done and
Speaker 1: what it's done for me, then one you're probably not
Speaker 1: gonna believe it, and too you may not believe that
Speaker 1: it's possible for you. And again, I don't want to
Speaker 1: sound like I'm bragging. So when you come to my page,
Speaker 1: you're gonna feel motivated and not defeat it because I'm
Speaker 1: not just showing you that I can do it, or
Speaker 1: that we can do it, but that you can do
Speaker 1: it too. Are you ever afraid of failing? Absolutely, especially
Speaker 1: when I am launching something new, when I am maybe
Speaker 1: introducing something new, when I have to get on stage
Speaker 1: and tell others something about maybe I'm invited in to speak,
Speaker 1: I'm like, man, I really hope that I don't disappoint
Speaker 1: the crowd. I really hope that they get, you know,
Speaker 1: what they came for. So definitely I do have that fear.
Speaker 1: But then I also remember that I personally believe that
Speaker 1: we were all created to help inspire others, and I
Speaker 1: believe that when you're being authentic to what you know,
Speaker 1: authentic to your destiny, authentic to your purpose, then you're
Speaker 1: always gonna show up and deliver because you're being authentic
Speaker 1: to you. It's only the times where I try to
Speaker 1: be something else or someone else that I really end
Speaker 1: up failing. And so I go back and I tell myself, Okay,
Speaker 1: remember you don't have to try to compete against this
Speaker 1: person or them because of their industry. You show up,
Speaker 1: do what you were called in to do, and you're
Speaker 1: going to be successful. How did you end up in Orlando?
Speaker 1: Did you grow up in Michigan, which is how you
Speaker 1: ended up at Michigan State. So I did grow up
Speaker 1: in Michigan. I'm originally from Grand Rapids. Went to Michigan
Speaker 1: State University, and then once I graduated from college, I
Speaker 1: ended up moving down to Florida. And so my parents
Speaker 1: always had this dream of, uh somewhat being in Florida.
Speaker 1: I don't want to stay retiring in Florida because they
Speaker 1: still are very active and busy and entrepreneurs, but they
Speaker 1: always had this dream. You know. We would come on
Speaker 1: vacation all the time when I was young girl, and
Speaker 1: they said, I would love to live in Florida. We
Speaker 1: were in the heat, There's Disney, there's Universe, so you know,
Speaker 1: there's all these different things, and we're like, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: we would love to be in Florida. And it manifested
Speaker 1: for us later on, and so the opportunity came up
Speaker 1: and we ended up taking that dive and moving to Florida.
Speaker 1: And I'm so happy that we did because I love
Speaker 1: it here. I love having, you know, the warm weather
Speaker 1: all the time. One of the most incredible things about
Speaker 1: your story is how early it began. You started your
Speaker 1: first business in high school. What made you think you
Speaker 1: could do that? Yes, I did, so I started this
Speaker 1: journey very very early. And what inspired me was seeing
Speaker 1: my mom really as a female entrepreneur, I mean ever
Speaker 1: since I can imagine growing up just UM, seeing her work,
Speaker 1: seeing her be a mom, seeing her be a superhero
Speaker 1: to myself and my younger brother. I wanted to be
Speaker 1: just like her. And so when I was younger, I
Speaker 1: would put on those Lemonates ends and I would ask
Speaker 1: her to buy me the entrepreneurial books from American Girl
Speaker 1: Doll and all of those things, and she said, Okay,
Speaker 1: you have a bent that you want to go into,
Speaker 1: and I see that it's entrepreneurship. And so of course
Speaker 1: that's what launched UM. What made me launch my business
Speaker 1: as a teenager, but really seeing my mom being this
Speaker 1: superwoman made me want to do the same. What was
Speaker 1: the first business and how did you come up with
Speaker 1: the name. So my first business was the Billionaire Girls Club,
Speaker 1: And we came up with that because we wanted every
Speaker 1: young girl to feel rich, to feel wealthy. But also
Speaker 1: this was a business UM that was centered around proper etiquette,
Speaker 1: how to relate to your teachers, how to relate to
Speaker 1: your parents, things that young girls go through. So what
Speaker 1: happened was, over time, chapters almost like a sorority. Chapters
Speaker 1: were started around the country, which was really awesome. We
Speaker 1: would go and speak at these various events where young
Speaker 1: girls would be, their teenagers would be, their high school
Speaker 1: students would be there, and it really just exploded around
Speaker 1: the country and we started chapter. So that's where the
Speaker 1: name came from. And really just wanting, like I said,
Speaker 1: wanting every every young girl to feel like they were wealthy,
Speaker 1: that they were queens, that they were princesses, and that
Speaker 1: they were worthy of success in their dreams. How did
Speaker 1: that all become important to you? When I was younger,
Speaker 1: I was bullied somewhat in school, in middle school and
Speaker 1: in high school because of my weight at the time.
Speaker 1: You know, young boys would come up to me and
Speaker 1: laugh and they would say, oh my gosh, you look
Speaker 1: like this, or you look like that, or we don't
Speaker 1: like you because you know you're overweight or whatever those names,
Speaker 1: and they would call me me names or you know,
Speaker 1: I would go to class and they would say, why
Speaker 1: do you look like that? Or why is your hair
Speaker 1: like that? Right? Um, and so it it just made
Speaker 1: an impression on me, and I said, I would come
Speaker 1: home and I would talk to my mom about it
Speaker 1: all the time, and really both of my parents and
Speaker 1: I would say, I don't like how this makes me feel.
Speaker 1: I'm sure I'm not the only person going through this,
Speaker 1: and um, because of that, that's what inspired me to
Speaker 1: really do this. How did you handle the nays I mean,
Speaker 1: definitely it did come with some naysayers. It came with
Speaker 1: people saying, oh, you think you're better than us because
Speaker 1: you have a business now, or you know, I was
Speaker 1: traveling at a very young age. I remember organizations would
Speaker 1: bring me in to speak maybe to their young girls,
Speaker 1: to say, oh, you know, this is what we can do.
Speaker 1: This is an inspiration and they would say, oh, you
Speaker 1: think you're better than us. But again, that came to
Speaker 1: having an open, open conversation with my mother. And I'm
Speaker 1: glad that she was in my face. Let me just
Speaker 1: say that, I'm glad that she didn't just send me
Speaker 1: off to school and just say, Okay, whatever happens happens,
Speaker 1: let me not check in on you. But every day
Speaker 1: when I came home, she would say, what happened at
Speaker 1: school today, What did the students say to you today?
Speaker 1: How did that make you feel? And so that opened
Speaker 1: up the conversation for us, and it helped me to
Speaker 1: do with it now. On the other hand, my parents
Speaker 1: gave me great advice and they said things like, listen,
Speaker 1: you don't have to worry about that. Yes, that's easier
Speaker 1: said than done. But people are going to talk about
Speaker 1: you when you're doing something in life. And then they
Speaker 1: would show me real life examples. So because they were
Speaker 1: in business, they would show me conflict or different things
Speaker 1: that would happen with them as entrepreneurs. And I would say, Okay,
Speaker 1: it's not just the kids in high school or middle school.
Speaker 1: This is just what happens in life. You go to
Speaker 1: college and you launched an entirely new kind of business.
Speaker 1: Did you do that right away or did you first
Speaker 1: become a college student and acclimate to the culture there.
Speaker 1: I jumped right in. Okay. So when I was seventeen
Speaker 1: years old, graduating from high school heading into Michigan State University,
Speaker 1: I had already launched Superstar Nail Laquer, which is our
Speaker 1: current nail polished company. All right, So I launched that
Speaker 1: and it was let me tell you, it was not
Speaker 1: easy because I didn't have the normal college experience. So
Speaker 1: what it was like for me was, Okay, you study
Speaker 1: early in the week, make sure your classes are on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Leave the weekends for your business. So sometimes I would
Speaker 1: try to make it to a game. But when people say,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, you went to Michigan State, I know
Speaker 1: they throw great parties, I'm like, I don't know about
Speaker 1: those parties because I was doing my business right from
Speaker 1: the jump. So it was something that I wanted to do.
Speaker 1: And how that came about was I launched that business
Speaker 1: with my mother, but because her career really took off
Speaker 1: as a motivational speaker and entrepreneur, she said, Okay, you
Speaker 1: really wanted to start this thing, so you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to take it over. And I'm like, wait, wait, I
Speaker 1: thought this was both. She said, nope, you're taking this over.
Speaker 1: This is your baby. You're responsible for it. You gotta
Speaker 1: make sure that it goes well. And I love that
Speaker 1: she didn't baby me through that because it made me
Speaker 1: into who I am today. So that's how it started.
Speaker 1: So it was a much different college experience, but I
Speaker 1: love it. It was amazing. So tell us about the business.
Speaker 1: How did you first begin? And here are your customers.
Speaker 1: I remember us wanting to get into the nail polish company,
Speaker 1: and now it may be a little bit easier because
Speaker 1: and that's not to put any other business down, but
Speaker 1: now it's you know, it can be one of those
Speaker 1: things where you pick some colors, you throw your name
Speaker 1: on it, and now you have a company. Back then,
Speaker 1: this was no you're picking the bottles, you're creating the colors.
Speaker 1: You're doing the entire thing from grassroots. I mean, this
Speaker 1: was serious. And so that first step was really gaining
Speaker 1: the capital um to even start the business, because it
Speaker 1: was a whole lot of money to get into the
Speaker 1: beauty industry to break into that um. So that happened,
Speaker 1: and really how we raised capital was by having garage sales. Um.
Speaker 1: We did it the old school way. We didn't just
Speaker 1: walk into the bank and say hey, can we have
Speaker 1: a loan. That wasn't how that was working for especially
Speaker 1: as a young girl. No, that wasn't happening. So it
Speaker 1: was like, okay, sell some clothes, sell have a garage
Speaker 1: selle put this out and sell it product, create a
Speaker 1: product and sell it and make money for it. And
Speaker 1: so that's really how it started. And then from there
Speaker 1: are customers. What happened was the Instagram was not out
Speaker 1: at the time, but we did have Twitter and we
Speaker 1: had Facebook at the time, and this was at the
Speaker 1: beginning stage of social media marketing, and so I said,
Speaker 1: I was on there, and I said, man, if I
Speaker 1: can make friends from around the world on Twitter, why
Speaker 1: can't I get customers or gain customers from around the
Speaker 1: world on Twitter and Facebook? And so I started to
Speaker 1: use those platforms because at the time, I did not
Speaker 1: have enough capital to just create a billboard or you know,
Speaker 1: to do all these magazine ads in Vogue where people
Speaker 1: would buy nail polish, and so I did that and
Speaker 1: people started to test it out and say, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: you gotta buy it in order to test it, let
Speaker 1: me give you a discount because there were you know,
Speaker 1: you couldn't try it on in the store. And um,
Speaker 1: it blew up from there. And then I remember the
Speaker 1: ah ha, my big aha moment was I opened up
Speaker 1: Glamour magazine and I remember Eva Longoria was on the
Speaker 1: cover of that magazine and they had our pink nail
Speaker 1: polish and featured in that magazine. One of the editors
Speaker 1: had picked it up. They put it in the magazine
Speaker 1: as one of their UH Summer favorites, and so that
Speaker 1: was really the aha moment that took it over the top.
Speaker 1: What was unique about your nail polished compared to the others.
Speaker 1: It was the first time where it was a vegan
Speaker 1: type of nail polished. And I remember being teased about
Speaker 1: that when I would go on these news stations, right.
Speaker 1: So I would go, let's say, on a news station,
Speaker 1: and they would want to interview me because they're like, man,
Speaker 1: this young girl, she's you know, she's in my minority,
Speaker 1: she's this and she has a nail polished company. We
Speaker 1: want to interview you. So we were getting all these
Speaker 1: interviews and I remember the news cat and it was
Speaker 1: a woman as well. And remember I'm a young college
Speaker 1: student and she's like, oh, it's vegan, does that mean
Speaker 1: you can eat it? And she was making fun of it,
Speaker 1: and literally on TV she makes fun of me, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, wow, so I'm trying to keep my composure. Really,
Speaker 1: what you need is proper education. A lot of times
Speaker 1: when nail polished companies are creating polished with glitter and shimmer,
Speaker 1: they use fish scales. We decided not to use fish scales,
Speaker 1: and we decided to use other things that create glitter
Speaker 1: or you know, something to that effect, and this is
Speaker 1: why it is vegan plus. It was uh Famil to
Speaker 1: hide Free and all these toxin free um in the
Speaker 1: nail polished and she said, oh, okay, now I understand.
Speaker 1: So um that's really what made its special show. It
Speaker 1: was toxin free. It was one of the first vegan
Speaker 1: nail polished companies, and we really created it with moms
Speaker 1: and moms to be in mind. So how at your
Speaker 1: age in college did you have this idea for something
Speaker 1: that was really made partly with moms to be in mind?
Speaker 1: What drove you down that path? Seeing my mom, she
Speaker 1: was pregnant, right, So I always was praying. I was
Speaker 1: praying for a younger brother, and I remember learning about
Speaker 1: nail polish and learning about the toxins and nail polish
Speaker 1: and what they do, even having friends around me who
Speaker 1: were pregnant or aunts and you know, different relatives that
Speaker 1: were around and them not being able to wear nail
Speaker 1: polish win you know, they became conscious of it. And
Speaker 1: of course you know that's where that idea came from.
Speaker 1: So he said, okay, this will be perfect because we
Speaker 1: can answer that question, um, but also just the nail
Speaker 1: polished industry overall. I remember I wanted to be a
Speaker 1: fashion designer at the time, and I knew aching into
Speaker 1: the fashion industry it's pretty tough even now, you know,
Speaker 1: even with as many opportunities that there are out there,
Speaker 1: breaking into that industry now can be really, really hard.
Speaker 1: And so I thought, I said, hmmm, if I created
Speaker 1: a nail polished company, which was still not easy, but
Speaker 1: it's a lot easier than trying to come up with
Speaker 1: a clothing company at that time, let me do this
Speaker 1: to break into the industry. And I ended up falling
Speaker 1: in love with nail polish and now a quick break.
Speaker 1: We are going to have to go to our speed around. Now, Aim,
Speaker 1: do you want to ask the first question? What book
Speaker 1: are you reading? Asked by Mark Victor Hansen. So your
Speaker 1: parents dream was to move to Florida one day? What
Speaker 1: is your long term dream? I would love to have
Speaker 1: a home or maybe spend summers in Europe. I went
Speaker 1: to school uh Impair Ris and London, Belgium, and um
Speaker 1: a few other places in Europe, and so it was
Speaker 1: the best experience that I ever had. So I would
Speaker 1: love to be able to do business and still be
Speaker 1: able to live in Europe and just have this amazing
Speaker 1: summer in Europe cooking and you know, touring and doing
Speaker 1: all these amazing things. So that would be my my
Speaker 1: long term dream. Wait, when did you go to school
Speaker 1: in Europe? When I was at Michigan State University my
Speaker 1: last year, my senior year, I took pretty much the
Speaker 1: entire year, almost the entire summer and fall to study
Speaker 1: in Europe. And so I did that, and it was
Speaker 1: a marketing program abroad, which really taught me more being
Speaker 1: overseas and marketing in real life than being back on campus.
Speaker 1: So stay at college. But it was a great experience.
Speaker 1: If you can do study abroad, definitely do it. Who
Speaker 1: leaves you start strack? Well, someone that inspires me would
Speaker 1: be Sara or Blakely. She's absolutely incredible. I would love
Speaker 1: to meet her one day and talk with her about
Speaker 1: how she created her brand and how it became this,
Speaker 1: you know, how she became like the superhero. Because as
Speaker 1: I navigate, you know, getting married and of course having children,
Speaker 1: I want to be a super mom like that. So um,
Speaker 1: not someone that I'm really I look up to and say, wow,
Speaker 1: she's amazing. What is your top and f T pic
Speaker 1: right now, I would say Boss Beauties by Lisa Mayor
Speaker 1: because of how amazing it is the utility that comes
Speaker 1: with it, I mean what they have already giving us,
Speaker 1: and not that you just get an n f T
Speaker 1: for what they can give you. I'm not saying that,
Speaker 1: but the utility and the community that comes with being
Speaker 1: in the Boss Beauties community is absolutely incredible. Another one
Speaker 1: that I really love is maybe on as well UM
Speaker 1: with Michelle Reeve. So that's really awesome. That's nice one.
Speaker 1: But I would say those would be the top my
Speaker 1: top picks right now. Well, lu Burns has been listening
Speaker 1: to this interview and he always comes on at the
Speaker 1: end with the final question from the male perspective, I
Speaker 1: want to know more about like what are you doing
Speaker 1: with all this money you making? Like what are you
Speaker 1: spending on? What are the charities that you fund? Really
Speaker 1: I'm pretty conservative. Again, like I said, investing in women
Speaker 1: UM really helping them to build their businesses and their brands.
Speaker 1: And we do have some scholarships for those that are
Speaker 1: in our business coaching or those who are who attend
Speaker 1: our events, those who are in our Women in Wealth Club.
Speaker 1: We do various things for them UM all throughout the year.
Speaker 1: So that's where a lot of our money and a
Speaker 1: lot of my money is going to. Of course I
Speaker 1: love to give to UH. It's a place for young
Speaker 1: girls who are troubled and who are struggling at home,
Speaker 1: but they still to be in school, they still want
Speaker 1: to go to the next level. So we recently just
Speaker 1: paid for their entire prom for them to have their
Speaker 1: own prom because we wanted them to experience those things
Speaker 1: as well. Because you don't have to UM. Just because
Speaker 1: you had a shaky pass doesn't mean that your future
Speaker 1: has to be shaky. So that and then, of course,
Speaker 1: on the other hand, spending money on n f T s,
Speaker 1: learning these different projects, seeing what's out there, and buying
Speaker 1: up crypto. So that's also what I'm doing, so a
Speaker 1: lot of investing right now for my future, especially as
Speaker 1: we're getting married. That's really what I'm spending a lot
Speaker 1: of my money on. I don't know if you remember
Speaker 1: in but the reason we first got connected to Arianna
Speaker 1: because my best friend from high school, Larra sask she
Speaker 1: is following Arianna. She's like super into crypto and she's
Speaker 1: been following Arianna for a long time. Now. One of
Speaker 1: the things that I think Arianna does exceptionally well is
Speaker 1: she is the first person in the world who has
Speaker 1: given me a basic understanding of Web three because she
Speaker 1: breaks things down like everyone else. I'm like, you're speaking
Speaker 1: German and I don't speak German, so we're not going
Speaker 1: to be able to do this. And but like, Mariana
Speaker 1: does an incredible job. And I think part of it
Speaker 1: might come from the fact that she is clearly somebody
Speaker 1: who is curious and learns and like really dives into things.
Speaker 1: I mean, this is a woman who was constantly learning. Well.
Speaker 1: She has an excellent way of describing things too. I
Speaker 1: mean we saw that when we interviewed her a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks ago on stage, and she just really is
Speaker 1: able to pare it down without being condescending or patronizing.
Speaker 1: She's just she want to learn more from her, You
Speaker 1: want to spend more time with her, and I mean,
Speaker 1: I want to take her course now. She teaches these
Speaker 1: incredible courses online and in person, and she's really remarkable.
Speaker 1: One of the things she shared amy that was so
Speaker 1: fascinating to me was, especially with my background and personal branding,
Speaker 1: I was like, Okay, she's a genius. The way she
Speaker 1: shares her lifestyle and why she shares it was unlike
Speaker 1: anyone I've heard about that before. It is okay to
Speaker 1: plan what you share about your life and to be
Speaker 1: intentional about it. In building your personal brands, like you
Speaker 1: don't need to like put every single thing onto the internet, right,
Speaker 1: share the parts of you that tie it all together.
Speaker 1: Like that was really that was really interesting, Like building
Speaker 1: a personal brand is great. You can monetize various parts
Speaker 1: of your life and we all want everybody to make
Speaker 1: a lot of money. Thanks for listening to What's Her
Speaker 1: Story with Sam and Amy. We would appreciate it if
Speaker 1: you leave her review wherever you get your podcasts, and
Speaker 1: of course, connect with us on social media at What's
Speaker 1: Her Story podcast. What's Her Story with Sam and Amy
Speaker 1: is powered by my company, The Riveter at the Riveter
Speaker 1: dot Co and Sam's company, park Place Payments at park
Speaker 1: place Payments dot com. Thanks to our producer Stacy Para
Speaker 1: and our male perspective, Blue Burns