Speaker 1: Afro Tech is back in Austin, Texas this November is
Speaker 1: the place for all things black, tech and Web three.
Speaker 1: The in person afro Tech Conference experience is bridging the
Speaker 1: worlds of afro technologists, innovators, investors, corporations, musicians, and everyone
Speaker 1: in between. So pull up, grab your crew, and grab
Speaker 1: your tickets and join us at the largest black professional
Speaker 1: conference of the gear. This experienced the afro Tech Dot
Speaker 1: count to learn more. Okay, simon Seattle, as I kick
Speaker 1: off my end of Q three into Q for Traveling
Speaker 1: Sprint's typically the busiest time year for me, as I'm
Speaker 1: back on road doing all the things. I'm not in
Speaker 1: the studio this week Mountain Streets, but the show you
Speaker 1: Better Believe goes on. Currently. I'm here in the Emerald
Speaker 1: City of Seattle as a mentor for some black owned
Speaker 1: businesses and startups working to accelerate. Next week, I'm in
Speaker 1: l A for afro Tech Executive, a prestigious event for
Speaker 1: black leaders in business, and I'm super excited about that,
Speaker 1: and it's not too late to get your tickets to
Speaker 1: be there as well so we can meet each other.
Speaker 1: So this week's episode, I'm actually throwing it back to
Speaker 1: what I did with Courtney Adelaia, who was CEO and
Speaker 1: founder at the main choice of black wellness and hair
Speaker 1: care brand. Because I speak to so many consumer package
Speaker 1: good companies and the health and wellness space, even though
Speaker 1: it with hair care products like I'm doing this week
Speaker 1: here in seattle't I want to run this conversation back
Speaker 1: for anyone who missed it because there's so many gyms
Speaker 1: in it. It's full of thoughtful insights on why it's
Speaker 1: so hard to break from the pack, of all the
Speaker 1: people formulating hair and skincare products in the kitchens and basements,
Speaker 1: to how to get on the shelves of major retailers
Speaker 1: like Target. There's so much here and the content from
Speaker 1: Courtney's advice is so timeless that I'm proud to have
Speaker 1: this in the archives. So join me and then joining
Speaker 1: this runback. Afro Tech, San Francisco, California, Frederick Hudson, co
Speaker 1: founder and CEO at Pigeon Ley of technology that helps
Speaker 1: you affordably stay connected with your inmate from any phone, tablet,
Speaker 1: or computer. It's on the afro Tech stage telling the
Speaker 1: story of how he and his co founder, Alfonso Brooks,
Speaker 1: realized the opportunity for improving communications between loved ones and
Speaker 1: state confederal inmates, and found success by leaning into their
Speaker 1: unique perspective on the world. I'm gonna tell you how
Speaker 1: we hustled from idea to a product market fit. Essentially, Uh,
Speaker 1: the idea started with me. I started close to five
Speaker 1: years in federal prison for distribution to marijuana. Don't feel
Speaker 1: bad for me. It was lots and lots and lots
Speaker 1: and lots of lots of marijuana and um. And it
Speaker 1: was during that time I saw it this huge population
Speaker 1: of people that no one is paying attention to, and
Speaker 1: we all had the same problem. It was incredibly for
Speaker 1: cool and super expensive to stay in touch with your loves.
Speaker 1: So while I wasn't nice, I like to send the ladder.
Speaker 1: It's like, y'all got this idea. We're just gonna we're
Speaker 1: gonna make a million dollars. We're just gonna make it
Speaker 1: real easy for people to send photos and to the
Speaker 1: lowest in prison. No one's really done that yet. So
Speaker 1: we get to the halfway house. I hit the mouther
Speaker 1: and says, yeah, I'm with it. We take his student
Speaker 1: loan money. We take his student loan money, and we
Speaker 1: start building a product and you know, I just want
Speaker 1: to go through some of the steps and some of
Speaker 1: the things that we learned along the way, taking that
Speaker 1: grand idea that you have in your head to actually
Speaker 1: get something that has product market fit or more importantly,
Speaker 1: that can get some traction. Because early on I made
Speaker 1: the classics found of mistake. I thought my problem was
Speaker 1: I needed to get money. I need to get fund
Speaker 1: and I need to get fun, and I need to
Speaker 1: get fun. I spent a lot of my time chasing dollars.
Speaker 1: What I realized is if I focus more on the product,
Speaker 1: all those other things come a lot easier. Whatever you're
Speaker 1: working on has to be personal. You have to have
Speaker 1: that strong way to win. For me, it was really
Speaker 1: personal because I lived in and I had that experience.
Speaker 1: I knew how it felt to be there. I knew
Speaker 1: how it felt too, how important it was. And I
Speaker 1: saw the direct connection between people being able to staying
Speaker 1: in touch with the loaves on the prison and not
Speaker 1: returning back to prison. There was a direct connection between
Speaker 1: communication and the recitizens a break. And you need that
Speaker 1: when those things gives out, because when it gets funky,
Speaker 1: and it will get funky, you need that really strong wine,
Speaker 1: that that real hard desire to win to kind of
Speaker 1: get you to those moments, because ship will go sideways
Speaker 1: more than you think. You gotta look for your unfair advantage.
Speaker 1: For me, it was I was there, I understood it.
Speaker 1: I've been there. I was the best person to fix
Speaker 1: that problem because I knew what people needed. I knew
Speaker 1: what they wanted, I knew what the market needed. Sometimes,
Speaker 1: when we were early on, we went to our first
Speaker 1: investors that our first pictures, Uh, people couldn't really wrap
Speaker 1: the around or the brain around investing in number one
Speaker 1: a black men, Number two a black men. That's also
Speaker 1: a feling. I never went to college, so I had
Speaker 1: to use my unfair advantage of because I knew this
Speaker 1: market better than anyone else, I was the best person
Speaker 1: suited to fix and adjust this problem. Your unfair advantage
Speaker 1: can't be copied, that it can't be bought as uniquely yours.
Speaker 1: Figure out and look internally and figure out what is
Speaker 1: your unfair advantage or whatever idea of problem met you're
Speaker 1: looking to solve and leverage that. I'm Will Lucas and
Speaker 1: this is black tech, green money. I'm gonna introduce you
Speaker 1: to some of the biggest names, some of the brightest
Speaker 1: minds and brilliant ideas. If you're black, in building, or
Speaker 1: simply using tech to secure your bag, this podcast is
Speaker 1: for you. As founder and CEO of the main choice,
Speaker 1: Courtney adelaide A Build her Hair empired in that sales
Speaker 1: of over twenty five million her the last reports we
Speaker 1: could find from September twenty nine. The company was acquired
Speaker 1: by Math Beauty Brands. Her products are sold in over
Speaker 1: twenty tho retail stores and boast a lineup of more
Speaker 1: than ninety hair treatments vitamins. I asked Courtney about how
Speaker 1: to scale of health, hair care or beauty brand and
Speaker 1: remain profitable when the consumer is increasingly particular and highly
Speaker 1: interested in the chemicals involved in making the products. I
Speaker 1: think it's it's very important just to stay true to,
Speaker 1: you know, really where you started. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: different companies have a different initiative and how they get
Speaker 1: to that growth. And a lot of companies say, well,
Speaker 1: we'll get to that growth by changing the product a
Speaker 1: little bit, making it more economical. Someone said, well, we'll
Speaker 1: get to that growth by going international, by doing other things.
Speaker 1: So for me, it's about staying true to what I
Speaker 1: what I started saying two to my products and look
Speaker 1: at those races to grow that we're not just jeopardized
Speaker 1: or you know, paying to any type of thing that
Speaker 1: I started, you know with the actual product itself. So
Speaker 1: you really have to know your growth strategy and there's
Speaker 1: different ways to get there. But you know, changing the
Speaker 1: product for me that was never that was you know,
Speaker 1: something that I just wouldn't stand for. When you look
Speaker 1: at the field of black women and men who are
Speaker 1: often beauty health wellness companies, do you think they go
Speaker 1: hard enough? Like where what keeps them from achieving the
Speaker 1: type of level of success you've achieved in this industry
Speaker 1: generally speaking, do I think they go hard enough? I would,
Speaker 1: I would have to Unfortunately, I would have to say no.
Speaker 1: I think for some reason, people think that when you
Speaker 1: operate on an average level, or if you're able to
Speaker 1: excel um by just giving average. I think sometimes people
Speaker 1: think that's enough. But in order to really scale something
Speaker 1: and take it to the next level, it is going
Speaker 1: to require blood, sweat and tears that I've come to
Speaker 1: the conclusion most people are not willing willing to do,
Speaker 1: you know, or they think that giving normal or average
Speaker 1: is okay and it's not. What are some of those
Speaker 1: mistakes that people cut corners on that keep them from like,
Speaker 1: what are some of the typical things you see? I
Speaker 1: think some of the typical things, uh, just the initiative.
Speaker 1: You know, when I say you have to layer things on,
Speaker 1: I mean you have to be from a social perspective,
Speaker 1: you have to be you know, you have to put
Speaker 1: yourself out there from a personal perspective, run your personal
Speaker 1: social media as if it was a business, with strategy
Speaker 1: and timing and win and professionalism. And then on the
Speaker 1: flip side, you have the business, you have to do
Speaker 1: the exact same way. So there's a lot of bells
Speaker 1: and whistles that goes along with it that can be achieved,
Speaker 1: but you just can't corners in regards to like the time,
Speaker 1: it's twenty four hours a day. I have never since
Speaker 1: I've been in business. But they do not disturb I'm
Speaker 1: out of town email, you know what I mean. I
Speaker 1: just never have I'm going to respond to it or
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna get to it a little bit later.
Speaker 1: But it's it's just NonStop. It's always, it's continuous. Now,
Speaker 1: I love that you talked about the personal input, like
Speaker 1: the personal profiles and et ceterer because I wanted to know, like,
Speaker 1: how do you build a sellable asset, a sellable brand
Speaker 1: without becoming so core to it that if you're not
Speaker 1: the face of it any longer, it no longer works.
Speaker 1: How do you do that? You got to look at
Speaker 1: the bigger picture. I think for me, it was always
Speaker 1: about building a business, building businesses and have an ability
Speaker 1: to actually scale them, you know. So for me when
Speaker 1: I work on the project, you know, I never get
Speaker 1: into it like, Okay, I'm about to build this thing
Speaker 1: to sell. But to be honest, this is how big
Speaker 1: business goes. Like there's companies has created strategically how do
Speaker 1: we position this thing to sell? But I think for
Speaker 1: a lot of people entrepreneurs, it really doesn't work that
Speaker 1: way because you have to attach yourself from a passion perspective,
Speaker 1: and if you're constantly thinking I'm gonna sell it one day,
Speaker 1: it's not going to necessarily do what you wanted to do,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So you have to keep
Speaker 1: your enterprize, which is it's being passionate about what it
Speaker 1: is that you're working on and just again just give it,
Speaker 1: give it your all. Is direct to consumer um a
Speaker 1: better opportunity. These days, I think about, like, what what
Speaker 1: is the process like to get into retail? Like so
Speaker 1: many times you hear companies who spent thousands of dollars
Speaker 1: getting boots at conventions and traveling the shows to you know,
Speaker 1: do the Dog and Pony show. How is it really
Speaker 1: accomplished to get into retail? Like how do you set
Speaker 1: yourself apart when you got I think the most the
Speaker 1: best way to think about getting into retail is to
Speaker 1: not think about getting into retail. If you start your
Speaker 1: business and you're constantly thinking what can I do to
Speaker 1: solely get into retail, retailers are looking for businesses who
Speaker 1: are actually popping outside of retail, so you have to
Speaker 1: think about it. These are regular people, these buyers, There
Speaker 1: are people just like you and me. They're taking a
Speaker 1: chance on you. This is their job. So if you
Speaker 1: have not shown that you can succeed outside of retail,
Speaker 1: because some for some reason, people think that when you
Speaker 1: get on the shelf, oh my god, not a retail
Speaker 1: is gonna take off, the gonna advertise for you. You
Speaker 1: have to drive your own business. So if you can't
Speaker 1: survive outside of retail, you won't be able to survive inside.
Speaker 1: So if you treat your e commerce website as if
Speaker 1: it was a legit retail resources, strategy, finding a team,
Speaker 1: how to build it, scaling it, making an assessment you
Speaker 1: it's easy to get into retail. They know who you are.
Speaker 1: The demand is there, people are talking about it. But
Speaker 1: if you think about it a little bit less and
Speaker 1: concentrate on your brand, on the growth of your company,
Speaker 1: then retail is gonna be inevitable. It's almost like a DJ.
Speaker 1: If you got a hot song, he's gonna play it.
Speaker 1: You know what, if it's hot, it's hot. So you
Speaker 1: have to focus on making your brand that hot that
Speaker 1: once the retailer here, it it's automatic, like you're coming
Speaker 1: in here automatically, you know, because we've heard about this brand.
Speaker 1: The customers are calling. Now we're gonna come back to
Speaker 1: the main choice. But I do want to talk about
Speaker 1: you've got a master class now and you're teaching people,
Speaker 1: you know, all across the CpG particularly may be helping
Speaker 1: your hair and et cetera, how to do this. What
Speaker 1: can you give me like the elevator pitch for this
Speaker 1: master class and what they well, people get out of it.
Speaker 1: I will say what they get out of UM is
Speaker 1: that one on one giving you what you need, that
Speaker 1: that's basically different from the next person. I think it
Speaker 1: was hard for me to say, let me prerecord this
Speaker 1: stuff and just like sell some type of master class.
Speaker 1: But everybody needs something that's different, something that's customized. I
Speaker 1: work with people who have no idea how to operate
Speaker 1: social media. I work with people who have no idea
Speaker 1: what the E I N and entity form and the
Speaker 1: entity is. I work with people who have no concept
Speaker 1: at all of a business. I work with people who
Speaker 1: have sold over a million dollars. So there's it's hard
Speaker 1: for me to prerecord something to say, well, this is
Speaker 1: a one size fit all. Is not a one size
Speaker 1: at all when you look at the route that journey,
Speaker 1: every journey is going to be a little bit different.
Speaker 1: And the only way that I'm able to do that
Speaker 1: is by me physically sitting down talking and answer actually
Speaker 1: those questions individually, because the responses is going to change.
Speaker 1: It's going to be different across the board. UM. And
Speaker 1: as I mentioned, you grew up in Detroit, and I
Speaker 1: think about the work that you've done based on your success,
Speaker 1: like the philanthropy work that you getting involved in you know,
Speaker 1: you started to pay my bill program. Um, how much
Speaker 1: of you know, the work that you do today speaks
Speaker 1: to where you come from, like being from Detroit, And
Speaker 1: because I talked about this often, being from the Midwest,
Speaker 1: you know, forty five minutes away from where you grew up,
Speaker 1: we were so heavily innundated with the manufacturing and automotive
Speaker 1: and etcetera. And at least in Toledo, maybe in Detroit
Speaker 1: it was different. We didn't have that entrepreneurial spirit you know,
Speaker 1: percolating around us. But the people who were successful were
Speaker 1: successful because they worked at GM or G or etcetera.
Speaker 1: How how do you see your role as you know,
Speaker 1: a role model to you know, and the giving that
Speaker 1: you do as impactful for people who want to want
Speaker 1: to have the kind of success that you've achieved. Um,
Speaker 1: I would definitely say, you know, one thing about you know,
Speaker 1: being from Detroit. Even if we didn't have what we
Speaker 1: consider like that traditional you know, entrepreneurial leadership, what we
Speaker 1: did have and what we continuously have, and I think
Speaker 1: it's the same thing where where you from is that hustle.
Speaker 1: At the end of the day, we're gonna find a
Speaker 1: way to make ends meet, We're gonna find a way
Speaker 1: to feed our family, you know, And I know for sure,
Speaker 1: uh my foundation being from Detroit and just not giving up,
Speaker 1: knowing that there's other opportunities that this door says, uh
Speaker 1: it's closed, or as someone says, no, there's another opportunity
Speaker 1: out there. So I may can't do it here, but
Speaker 1: I can go around you and find someone else. So
Speaker 1: I definitely believe, you know, having that that that whustle
Speaker 1: um that I grew up in definitely helped achieved to
Speaker 1: kind of you know where I am today. Sure, Yeah,
Speaker 1: And I read that you a registered nurse, you know,
Speaker 1: are in by background, and I imagine you probably didn't
Speaker 1: imagine that that you would be doing what you're doing today,
Speaker 1: Like how does that how do those looking back, how
Speaker 1: do those steps piece together to allow you? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: definitely believe having my my science background. One thing about
Speaker 1: nursing is we're so rare around it, Like we have
Speaker 1: to do science, chemistry, statistics, sociology, like there's so many
Speaker 1: things that we have to go through, um, just to
Speaker 1: become a nurse. And sometimes we hear about the nursing
Speaker 1: shortage out there is not really a nursing shortage. It's
Speaker 1: just that the people who are nurses are not entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: and they're doing something else. It's one of the only
Speaker 1: fields you can go in. And the day you graduate
Speaker 1: and start working, you're now responsible for like many people live,
Speaker 1: so you grow up overnight. Now you're thinking has to
Speaker 1: be crisp, you have to be on point. You can't
Speaker 1: make mistakes. There is no you a fresh new nurse,
Speaker 1: We're gonna allow you room to have a mistake. Like,
Speaker 1: that's not an option. So I know for sure, having
Speaker 1: my medical background, just understanding even learning here from a
Speaker 1: science perspective, I'm like, can we grow hair? Can black
Speaker 1: women grow long hair? I never thought that I could
Speaker 1: have hair all the way down to my waist. I
Speaker 1: didn't think it was possible. But as I as I
Speaker 1: started to mature and just really um just doing research,
Speaker 1: I'm like, yeah, we can't achieve it if we do
Speaker 1: things a little bit different. So now my science bright
Speaker 1: ground is kicking in. Now I'm mixing things and and
Speaker 1: and and testing things, and I'm like, no, we can
Speaker 1: grow hair. And to grow my hair from here. All
Speaker 1: my life as an adult, it's been here too, down
Speaker 1: to my waist definitely tells me that there's a science
Speaker 1: to it. We all know somebody who started their health
Speaker 1: and wellness company, whether it be haircare or skincare, and
Speaker 1: there's a point to where it makes sense for them
Speaker 1: to make the products in their kitchens. There's also a
Speaker 1: point to where it makes sense to go big and
Speaker 1: find the manufacturer. But how do you know which manufacturers
Speaker 1: a copactors to trust when the wrong batch can ruin
Speaker 1: your brand for good. Courtney speaks on it. One thing
Speaker 1: for me, um and that could say, you know, different folks,
Speaker 1: different strokes. When it comes to anything that's like chemical
Speaker 1: bound water base, I have to have that stuff done here,
Speaker 1: Like when it comes to international I never felt comfortable
Speaker 1: when necessarily doing any type of chemicals elsewhere. I made
Speaker 1: this stuff in my kitchen. If someone is going to
Speaker 1: duplicate it for me on the on the largest scale,
Speaker 1: I must have the ability to walk in to see
Speaker 1: if they're doing the right thing, using the right thing.
Speaker 1: Nothing is changing, no chemicals, no extra chemicals, And I
Speaker 1: think it's really about finding the right partner. This is
Speaker 1: you literally can google right now a manufacturer and every
Speaker 1: one of the biggest players in the game is going
Speaker 1: to pop up. The problem is people don't sit down
Speaker 1: and do the research and actually interview because at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, they're working for you now. So
Speaker 1: I think sometimes we feel a little intimidated, like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, who do I reach out to. They're not
Speaker 1: gonna think I'm big enough? But you're paying them. They
Speaker 1: shouldn't have that. They can't change anything without your ability
Speaker 1: to do so. Unfortunately, I was able to pay attention
Speaker 1: to my e commerce dot com before I really needed
Speaker 1: to go mass manufacturing because I was able to make
Speaker 1: a lot of money right at home without necessarily cutting
Speaker 1: the check to someone else. So when we look at
Speaker 1: what is a tech to actually scale and to lose money.
Speaker 1: But by this point, fortunately I have enough money to
Speaker 1: start doing testing and making sure that chemists are doing
Speaker 1: what they're doing. But I ran my company at home
Speaker 1: for three years. I made ten million dollars at home,
Speaker 1: so I'm gonna I'm gonna correct the twenty five because
Speaker 1: I got to do that. So we hit a hundred
Speaker 1: We hit a hundred million sales, but I was able
Speaker 1: to do a lot of that at home. Like so again,
Speaker 1: this is why if you don't let me express anything,
Speaker 1: pay attention to your dot com that is just as
Speaker 1: vital today as a retailer. It's even more vital today.
Speaker 1: So so is it important that these people, women and
Speaker 1: men who are building these wellness, haircare, beauty brands be
Speaker 1: just as good at the craft as they are at
Speaker 1: they at social media and marketing. How do you do that?
Speaker 1: That's that's the tough part, and I think that was
Speaker 1: one of my initiatives. But even having like the master classes,
Speaker 1: because I understand that everybody may not have everything, and
Speaker 1: I can say I have everything, but one thing about me.
Speaker 1: When I look to expand my team, I'm looking at
Speaker 1: the areas where I know are my weaknesses, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So instead of me looking for to
Speaker 1: hire someone to do what I do, I don't necessarily
Speaker 1: need that. You if you if you know you're struggling
Speaker 1: in some areas. And one thing about social media is this.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they scare as people and they said, well, you know,
Speaker 1: let me hire your social media manage I'm like, note,
Speaker 1: if you tell my massive class, I'm like, no, we're
Speaker 1: gonna learn it because this is the one of the
Speaker 1: areas that you can do for free. The key is
Speaker 1: necessarily sometimes not how much money you make, but how
Speaker 1: much you can keep so if you don't necessarily have
Speaker 1: to pay extra people to do these things. I want
Speaker 1: to teach you how to run this thing yourself. And
Speaker 1: once you start needing some help at this point, it
Speaker 1: should be a man power help because you've got so
Speaker 1: many orders you physically can't ship them yourself. But for
Speaker 1: the things that you can do do I think people
Speaker 1: can learn them? Yes, is it? It's it gonna be harder, Yes,
Speaker 1: it's gonna take extra time. Yes. So I don't like to,
Speaker 1: you know, tell people get them like false holds, like
Speaker 1: this is so easy. It's not easy, but this is doable.
Speaker 1: So if I if I can do it, I'm legit
Speaker 1: telling you you can do it too. You can learn
Speaker 1: how to do it too. Definitely, I'm glad you bring
Speaker 1: this up because I've I've seen a lot of people
Speaker 1: you know, with shape butter companies and lotion companies and
Speaker 1: hair companies in the center, and I'd like you to
Speaker 1: speak to like knowing your numbers a little bit, because
Speaker 1: like how do you price in early? How do you
Speaker 1: get to figuring out what those unit costs out? Like
Speaker 1: what does it cost to make one bottle? Right? That
Speaker 1: is such an interesting conversation and topic because it's the
Speaker 1: number one pain point when I do the master classes,
Speaker 1: I ask somebody their costs. Most people can't answer it.
Speaker 1: How much does it cost you to make this this product?
Speaker 1: Or they'll tell me, oh, it's this. I'm like, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, are we talking about the top, the bottle,
Speaker 1: the lead, the ingredients? And they're like, okay, well you okay,
Speaker 1: let me add the Wait a minute, who ship this stuff?
Speaker 1: Did it shipped from there to you? And who paid
Speaker 1: for this shipping? Why pay for it when you have
Speaker 1: to put this shipping costs in there? So if you
Speaker 1: don't know your numbers, if you don't price your stuff right,
Speaker 1: I've seen it once and I would definitely say that
Speaker 1: is one of the leading causes why people cannot scale
Speaker 1: their company. There are some people out there who have
Speaker 1: good products, good services, but this stuff is not price
Speaker 1: right and they're like, oh my god, I Legit had
Speaker 1: ten thousand dollars in sales this month, but I have
Speaker 1: zero dollars in my account. How your numbers is not right.
Speaker 1: You can't even afford to run a sale if you
Speaker 1: wanted to. You can't even get off. You can't get
Speaker 1: free shipping if your numbers is not price where it's
Speaker 1: supposed to be. So I think that's that's that's that's
Speaker 1: definitely up. There is number one. There's number one. So
Speaker 1: does it require building a CpG company consumer package of
Speaker 1: good company? Does it require venture funding? How they? How
Speaker 1: can you bootstrap this? No? I think nowadays, and I like,
Speaker 1: I got a philosophy that says grow as you go.
Speaker 1: That means you could go out there on social media.
Speaker 1: You can, And this is why it's important that I
Speaker 1: teach how to run social media and grow it because
Speaker 1: these are quote unquote free ways to market. If you
Speaker 1: make a dollar, and this is one thing I was
Speaker 1: always committed to for years. Every dollar that I made,
Speaker 1: I put it right back into my company. You spend
Speaker 1: to five thousand dollars to build your company. And let's
Speaker 1: say you you had four thousand dollars worth to sell, Well,
Speaker 1: you still haven't made any money yet, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, because you spend five So that again, that's
Speaker 1: that's that's the tough part. But can you grow as
Speaker 1: you go? You don't necessarily have to get funding, you know.
Speaker 1: And the one thing I always say, especially African Americans,
Speaker 1: we don't need funding. We need support. That's what we need.
Speaker 1: We need support. And I think if you have a
Speaker 1: good connection with your consumer, which is one thing that's
Speaker 1: top of my priority, I'm gonna make sure I give
Speaker 1: a good product, make sure I ship on time, make
Speaker 1: sure I'm transparent if there's any hiccups along the way.
Speaker 1: You have to be transparent with your consumer. We have
Speaker 1: we all have them. I never asked for someone to
Speaker 1: give me a pass or I need two weeks to
Speaker 1: get this product to you. If there's a hiccup, I'm
Speaker 1: going to come to you directly as the owner. We've
Speaker 1: had a hiccup. This is how I'm going to resolve it.
Speaker 1: And when you do that, no one can. They can't
Speaker 1: help but to respect that and appreciate it and support you.
Speaker 1: So do you have to have funding? You don't. You
Speaker 1: just need to really learn communication and relationships. And I
Speaker 1: think that's key. Love it, Love it. Um. There's a
Speaker 1: company I won't mention their name, but you'll know who
Speaker 1: I'm talking about. Um. They were recently sold about a
Speaker 1: year or two ago, and they put they were a
Speaker 1: black company, put a white put a white woman in
Speaker 1: an ad and it kind of set their audience off, like,
Speaker 1: you know, black people are, particularly black women are really
Speaker 1: really loyal. Um, but they but they put a white
Speaker 1: woman in an ad after they have been sold. And
Speaker 1: as as as companies grow, how can they grow without
Speaker 1: risking that loyalty from being jeopardized? Like? Is there enough
Speaker 1: market inside black communities with black products where we don't
Speaker 1: have to look at other demographics? Well, it's it's a twofold.
Speaker 1: First of all, I'm gonna say, obviously this is a
Speaker 1: very it's a very uh sensitive topic. Let me just say,
Speaker 1: let's start up by saying that two. I would say,
Speaker 1: someone always told me you always want to begin with
Speaker 1: the end in mind, and you don't know what that
Speaker 1: necessarily is. The very first ad that I created when
Speaker 1: I started out, had a black lady and a white
Speaker 1: lady on the ad. My very first ad, I didn't
Speaker 1: know what the future help for me. It was about
Speaker 1: healthy hair, not necessarily a certain demographic. I'm African American,
Speaker 1: so of course I'm going to get more African American support, right.
Speaker 1: I think the problem happens is when you do something
Speaker 1: abruptly out of the blue, never done it before, and
Speaker 1: it's like, where where did this come from? Now it's
Speaker 1: already sensitive, even if you haven't even even me having
Speaker 1: that when the add day one is still sensitive. But
Speaker 1: on the business side, I would like to flip it
Speaker 1: and say this. I think sometimes people generally speaking, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna have to sympathize a little bit with the beauty
Speaker 1: industry because I think they go a little bit harder
Speaker 1: on the beauty industry when you take entertainment. When you
Speaker 1: go to these concerts and you see these tickets, Let's
Speaker 1: say these tickets, you know they are best entertainers who
Speaker 1: we love. Who's at the concerts? Is it just who's
Speaker 1: who would it sell them to. I have yet seen
Speaker 1: a billion dollar company that's not diverse, that doesn't sell
Speaker 1: to more than one one demographic. I don't care who,
Speaker 1: what color of the owner is. I have yet to
Speaker 1: see it. Entertainment, liquor, you name it. But I think
Speaker 1: what happens is and which which Which is cool? Because
Speaker 1: I love the beauty industry. I think we're really passionate
Speaker 1: when it comes to the beauty industry, especially hair care.
Speaker 1: Hair care, you know, they're not giving us no passes.
Speaker 1: That's pass They're like we we were like you know, cosmetic,
Speaker 1: We'll go a little bit entertainment, clothing, but hair care,
Speaker 1: it's suchy obviously, it's it's it's a very touchy and
Speaker 1: I get it. At the end of the day. I'm
Speaker 1: I am my consumer before anything. And I think if
Speaker 1: a person know me, they know my initiative, they know
Speaker 1: what I stand for, they know my track record. I
Speaker 1: think it speaks for itself. Um. One thing about in business,
Speaker 1: if you think about it, what's really a slap in
Speaker 1: the face. And one thing I say about African American people.
Speaker 1: Two things. What our shrimp is we're passionate. Our weakness
Speaker 1: is we're passionate. You know what I mean. But but no, no, no,
Speaker 1: Like I said, it's it's the beauty. It's it's a
Speaker 1: very touchy. It's very touchy. Um. And the only thing
Speaker 1: you can do is give your chee authentic self. And
Speaker 1: again I think my track worker, you know, basically speaks
Speaker 1: for itself. Black Tech Green Money is a production to
Speaker 1: Black the Afro Tech and it's produced by Morgan Dubon
Speaker 1: and meat Will Lucas, with additional production support by Love
Speaker 1: Beach and Raven Nearport. Special thank you to Michael Davis.
Speaker 1: It's the cars of Mine, Young you know, like the
Speaker 1: wine and yes that's his real name. Learn more about
Speaker 1: my guests and other tech disruptors and innovatives at afro
Speaker 1: tech dot com. Go, get your money, peace and love.
Speaker 1: Afro Tech is back in Austin, Texas this November is
Speaker 1: the place for all things black, tech and web three.
Speaker 1: The in person afro Tech Conference experience is bridging the
Speaker 1: worlds of afro technologists, innovators, investors, corporations, musicians, and everyone
Speaker 1: in between. So pull up, grab your crew, and grab
Speaker 1: your tickets and join us at the largest black professional
Speaker 1: conference of the gear. This experienced the afro Tech dot
Speaker 1: coun To learn more