Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Kadeen and I'm Devout and we're the Ellis's.
Speaker 2: You may know us from posting funny videos.
Speaker 1: With our voice and reading each other publicly as a
Speaker 1: form of therapy.
Speaker 2: Wait, I make you need therapy most days. Wow.
Speaker 1: Oh, and one more important thing to mention, we're married.
Speaker 2: Yes, sir, we are. We created this podcast to open
Speaker 2: dialogue about some of li's most taboo topics.
Speaker 1: Things most folks don't want to talk about.
Speaker 2: Through the lens of a millennial married couple. Dead ass
Speaker 2: is a term that we say every day. So when
Speaker 2: we say dead ass, we're actually saying facts one hundred
Speaker 2: the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Speaker 2: We about to take philosof to our whole new level.
Speaker 1: Dead ass starts right now.
Speaker 2: Ladies and gentlemen, we have the astute pleasure to sit
Speaker 2: down today.
Speaker 1: Who I like a stupid?
Speaker 2: You like that?
Speaker 1: That's a good word? Yeah.
Speaker 2: With Melvin and Monique Rodriguez if you don't know who
Speaker 2: they are, Melvin and Monique Rodriguez started Mael following Monique's
Speaker 2: career as a registered nurse for nearly a decade and
Speaker 2: has created a haircare brand that has become the first
Speaker 2: in the industry to receive more than one hundred million
Speaker 2: in investment funding, and since has scaled to a household
Speaker 2: stable for consumers with textured hair through distribution at countless
Speaker 2: national retail locations in over eighty five countries around the world.
Speaker 2: I got to say this, Monique, you know real MVP.
Speaker 1: That's a fact that I got several products under my
Speaker 1: cabinet as we speak with all of these boys and
Speaker 1: all this hair and all these textures. Mayel is a
Speaker 1: household staple for us as well. Y'all help us. Welcome
Speaker 1: Melvin and Monique Rodriguez the Dead Ass Podcast. Let's start
Speaker 1: by tell you telling us about your love story here
Speaker 1: is pretty unique. I make guess everyone's love stories because
Speaker 1: ours is pretty Yeah, ye, love story. Let's start there.
Speaker 3: Well, I guess I'll go first because my version is
Speaker 3: the truth.
Speaker 4: We're gonna We're gonna tell her versions usually are, So.
Speaker 3: I guess where do we start.
Speaker 5: I'm going to go back to like ninety five. Melbourne
Speaker 5: and I we have known each other since I.
Speaker 4: Was twelve, A long damn time.
Speaker 1: He was thirteen five ninety five. That's awesome.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a long time, long time ago.
Speaker 3: And you know, and actuality. Like when we first met,
Speaker 3: you know, I thought he was cute.
Speaker 4: You know, you know the vibes.
Speaker 2: You know the vibe Melvine. I know the vibe because
Speaker 2: that's what was me too.
Speaker 4: She saw me.
Speaker 2: I wasn't even paying attention, right, she end up with
Speaker 2: me later on in life, you know, So I'll get
Speaker 2: you Melbourne.
Speaker 1: It was the way it was.
Speaker 4: That's what I'm time to tell you, man.
Speaker 3: I was sea sick.
Speaker 1: I was Sea sick.
Speaker 5: Okay, yeah, So you know when we were back in
Speaker 5: junior high school, I thought he was cute, but I
Speaker 5: thought that he was you know, in my version, I
Speaker 5: thought he was a little arrogant. So we call ourselves,
Speaker 5: you know, being friends at that time. But we had
Speaker 5: a fallen out when we were very young. And that falling.
Speaker 2: Out how you have a young falling out? What was
Speaker 2: going on at twelve and thirteen? It was like, you
Speaker 2: know what, I can't do this. I need to protect
Speaker 2: my piece.
Speaker 1: You know, I told you love.
Speaker 5: I felt that he was arrogant, so I had to
Speaker 5: protect my piece at the young age of twelve. Well,
Speaker 5: I had to show him. I had to play hard
Speaker 5: to get what we're from.
Speaker 4: When you see when you say things, man. You got
Speaker 4: to you gotta do things, man. So you know that's yeah,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, that's.
Speaker 5: What it is. But I think in actuality, the fact
Speaker 5: of like, because we couldn't be together and he really
Speaker 5: wanted to be with me, was the reason why we
Speaker 5: ended up falling out.
Speaker 3: Because I was twelve, you know, I didn't.
Speaker 5: Have any bans, you know, having boyfriends or anything of
Speaker 5: that nature. So you know, we ended up not talking
Speaker 5: for like the entire year of his eighth because he's
Speaker 5: a year older than me, So his eighth grade year
Speaker 5: we didn't talk. He went into high school, we went
Speaker 5: to the same high school, and we saw each other
Speaker 5: and did not talk to each other all throughout high school.
Speaker 3: It wasn't until he all four years, all four years.
Speaker 5: You know, I was I was pretty popular in high school,
Speaker 5: and you know, I.
Speaker 3: Think I had to see me again. My version is
Speaker 3: the truth.
Speaker 5: So I had to let him know that I wasn't
Speaker 5: one of those other girls that he was going to
Speaker 5: have to really work hard to get me.
Speaker 3: And so we didn't talk.
Speaker 5: And then, uh, it was the summer of my junior year,
Speaker 5: going into my senior year, he had graduated. He was
Speaker 5: getting ready to go to college, and we somehow reconnected, rekindled,
Speaker 5: and we started off as friends and then we decided
Speaker 5: that we were going to start dating, and we started
Speaker 5: dating for a couple of months before I started school.
Speaker 5: We ended up breaking up right before I started my
Speaker 5: senior year in August because he didn't have a cell
Speaker 5: phone and I was one of those like I needed
Speaker 5: to be able to get in touch with you, and
Speaker 5: you know, he's sad. He also showed up late, very
Speaker 5: late for our first dates, and I ended.
Speaker 1: Up, oh, man, yeah, Melvin, what was going on?
Speaker 5: Bro?
Speaker 1: What was in your mindset?
Speaker 3: So he he was.
Speaker 5: Extremely late, but I let him know, like I'm not
Speaker 5: gonna sit around and wait for you. So I ended
Speaker 5: up leaving going out with my friends to the movies,
Speaker 5: and he ended up coming to my mom's house looking sad,
Speaker 5: puppy dog face like where did she go? And my
Speaker 5: Mom's like she left, she went to the movies with
Speaker 5: her friends. And it was because he didn't have a
Speaker 5: cell phone, so I didn't know how to get in
Speaker 5: touch with him. I didn't know if he was coming,
Speaker 5: like I was like, I'm not going to play games
Speaker 5: and anyway, So we ended up breaking up. We ended
Speaker 5: up breaking up for a couple of months, and then
Speaker 5: this was like in August, and then my high school
Speaker 5: homecoming was in October.
Speaker 3: And remember he's a freshman in college.
Speaker 5: And I went to the homecoming with my friends because I'm like,
Speaker 5: I don't have a boyfriend.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna kick it with my girlfriends. And guess who
Speaker 3: shows up at my homecoming?
Speaker 5: And guess who shows up with a cell phone.
Speaker 2: He had a plan, He had a plan, He had
Speaker 2: a man. I don't understand that when we have a plan,
Speaker 2: it don't be on your timeline. It's our plans, understand.
Speaker 5: But he knew that I had standards and he had
Speaker 5: to meet those standards in order for him to get
Speaker 5: me back. And so from October of my senior year
Speaker 5: in high school we've been together ever since.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: That's awesome, awesome, good stuff. Long time. Is there any
Speaker 1: part of the story, Melvin that you need to go
Speaker 1: in there and say, you know that wasn't so yeah,
Speaker 1: all of it, but.
Speaker 4: We don't got time.
Speaker 2: Correct story.
Speaker 4: I sat down and tell the real truth, like going
Speaker 4: all the way back, you know, when we were shorty
Speaker 4: seven eighth grade, when they used to stand on the corner,
Speaker 4: like waiting for brother mail, like real talking, like leaving
Speaker 4: brother now, like they on the corner, like come on now,
Speaker 4: I want to get to it. Oh my god. So no,
Speaker 4: but I would say majority is true what she's saying.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna give it to her, you know. And when
Speaker 4: I came back, you know, like she said, home coming,
Speaker 4: I had to get that old thing back, you know,
Speaker 4: and we were candling and everything, and we've been we've
Speaker 4: been doing it, doing our thing, you know what I'm
Speaker 4: saying ever since. So you know, I give it that,
Speaker 4: you know.
Speaker 1: That's what good for y'all.
Speaker 3: So how many years married?
Speaker 5: Now, we've been married for thirteen years. We've been together
Speaker 5: in twenty three years and two beautiful y'am.
Speaker 2: Run around the same time as us. We're thirteen years married.
Speaker 2: We've been together twenty two it'll.
Speaker 1: Yeah, dope, Yeah, yeah, we've been together. Well, we've known
Speaker 1: each other since elementary school.
Speaker 2: Since nineteen.
Speaker 1: Know each other since start in college.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's talking me to.
Speaker 2: You know, I was out here. I did you know
Speaker 2: they was waiting on the corner for your boy out
Speaker 2: like chill babies, listen. I went up.
Speaker 1: I went up like Steph Curry with the shot all bucket,
Speaker 1: old bucket.
Speaker 4: Yet we got some similarities, man, but you know, hey,
Speaker 4: I love that. Yeah. But God, God he aligned and
Speaker 4: he unified us, man, and so.
Speaker 2: We absolutely that's fact.
Speaker 4: Absolutely, that's so. That's that's what it is.
Speaker 2: And I always feel like I always feel like I
Speaker 2: want you know, I always give my wife a lot
Speaker 2: of grief with the stories because it's just funny. But
Speaker 2: I feel like I got the prize, you know what
Speaker 2: I'm saying. I feel like I feel like I won.
Speaker 2: I feel like I got the prize. So well, thank
Speaker 2: you definitely on the one but the most beautiful union
Speaker 2: birth as well.
Speaker 1: In addition to two beautiful daughters that you guys have
Speaker 1: and a wealth of love and years under your belt,
Speaker 1: Mayel tell us about how this came to fruition for
Speaker 1: you guys.
Speaker 5: So as we talk about, you know, the funny parts
Speaker 5: and you know the the happy moments. You know, Melvine
Speaker 5: and I have also gone through challenges together. In twenty thirteen,
Speaker 5: we went through a tragic loss of my son.
Speaker 3: When I was eight months pregnant.
Speaker 5: I had a high risk pregnancy, wow, and because of
Speaker 5: that high risk, unfortunately, my son passed away. And that
Speaker 5: was our third child, Thank you, but it was our
Speaker 5: third child, and you know, it was very devastating for
Speaker 5: us both and I remember at that moment really filling
Speaker 5: down and not really knowing what to do or why
Speaker 5: this happened to me. And I had to learn to
Speaker 5: change my narrative of asking God why did this happen
Speaker 5: to me? And ask him like, what are you trying
Speaker 5: to show.
Speaker 3: Me from this?
Speaker 5: And I knew number one was to develop my relationship
Speaker 5: and to have a closer relationship with God, which before that,
Speaker 5: you know, I really didn't have that close of a relationship.
Speaker 5: And you know, I realized that once I deepened my
Speaker 5: relationship with God, God revealed to me a vision to
Speaker 5: go on social media and talk about something that I've
Speaker 5: always been passionate about ever since I was a little girl,
Speaker 5: and that was hair care in the beauty space. And
Speaker 5: that was a creative outlet for me to take my
Speaker 5: mind off of what I was going through at the
Speaker 5: time with my son. And Melvin was super supportive because
Speaker 5: we were both going through this together and he would
Speaker 5: always come to me like when he would see that
Speaker 5: I was down, and you know, have my moments in
Speaker 5: the bathroom he would tell me like, go pick up
Speaker 5: your your plan and work on your plan, or go
Speaker 5: talk about here on social media. So he would always
Speaker 5: encourage me because he saw that it was bringing me joy,
Speaker 5: and that joy and that painful situation ultimately led me
Speaker 5: to my purpose and what you see here today. So
Speaker 5: you know, Mayel came from a place of pain, and
Speaker 5: you know it has blossomed into something that has been
Speaker 5: so beautiful and so purposeful because I chose to channel
Speaker 5: that and to really do something that was bigger than me.
Speaker 5: Because Mayel is not just about hair product. It's really
Speaker 5: about serving the community and ultimately bringing people to God's kingdom.
Speaker 5: And so that's what as I look back, I really understand,
Speaker 5: even though you'll never understand why you go through things
Speaker 5: like that, but I do see that God had a
Speaker 5: bigger purpose from that painful situation and that's how Mayel
Speaker 5: was birth.
Speaker 1: Wow, how'd you come up with the name.
Speaker 5: So the name is actually a combination of my kids' names.
Speaker 5: So I have Mia, and I have Mia Gabrielle and
Speaker 5: then Mackenzie Aril. So they're my l's because they both
Speaker 5: had E L L E at the end of their
Speaker 5: middle names.
Speaker 1: It's very nice. Did you ever see ma L becoming
Speaker 1: what it is today? I know you said it was
Speaker 1: coming to you as I guess, like a form of therapy,
Speaker 1: right in a sense, when you were dealing with the
Speaker 1: loss of your son. So was the goal for you
Speaker 1: to eventually end up on shelves and you know, to
Speaker 1: be where you are today or was it just kind
Speaker 1: of something that kind of spiraled out of control in
Speaker 1: the best way for you?
Speaker 5: Yeah, I think it's a combination of both. Because I
Speaker 5: knew that, you know, whatever I did, I was going
Speaker 5: to be successful because I'm a hard worker, even when
Speaker 5: I worked as a nurse. You know, I knew that
Speaker 5: I would be successful working as a nurse because that's
Speaker 5: just the type of determination that I have, you know,
Speaker 5: coming from the nursing my nursing background into this business world.
Speaker 5: It was totally foreign to me. I had no experience
Speaker 5: running or operating a business. Neither one of us did.
Speaker 5: So it was kind of like on the job training,
Speaker 5: learning as we as we did it, and of course
Speaker 5: we made a lot of mistakes, went through a lot
Speaker 5: of challenges, but I knew that my ultimate goal was
Speaker 5: to make it to be bigger than larger than life.
Speaker 5: I just didn't know that it would happen in ten
Speaker 5: short years.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: We took off literally after launching the brand a year,
Speaker 5: you know, we entered into Solid Beauty a year later,
Speaker 5: and I was really just focused on how do I
Speaker 5: serve my community, how do I help women that look
Speaker 5: like me?
Speaker 3: How do I add value? How do I build community?
Speaker 5: And I always tell people when you focus on, how
Speaker 5: do you overserve people that are underserved? Because in the
Speaker 5: multicultural hair care space, I felt that there was a
Speaker 5: void and the community wasn't being served how I thought
Speaker 5: they should have been served. And because I slowly focused on,
Speaker 5: you know, just community building and staying engaged and being
Speaker 5: trust a trusted, reliable source, that community grew very fast
Speaker 5: and in spiral. To your point, it spiraled out of
Speaker 5: you know, it just spiraled into something that was great,
Speaker 5: which is the company that we've built here today.
Speaker 3: So I would say it's a combination of both.
Speaker 5: And you know, it's been been truly a blessing just
Speaker 5: to see everything unfold because we've done something that hasn't
Speaker 5: been done in less than ten years, and you know,
Speaker 5: we're truly happy to have done it together.
Speaker 1: Yeah, man, less than ten years.
Speaker 3: It's crazy.
Speaker 2: That is amazing, and it's less than ten years. I
Speaker 2: have a question, how were you able to pivot so
Speaker 2: seamlessly from a romantic relationship into a business relationship. We
Speaker 2: get this question so many times from couples. How do
Speaker 2: you guys work together and still remain romantic partners?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because Deval and I have struggled sometimes all the
Speaker 1: years with as we build our businesses and our brands.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes he doesn't know when to clock out,
Speaker 1: like you know, usually within a duo, there's one person
Speaker 1: who might be like the you know, work ethic through
Speaker 1: the roof, it never clocks out, and then you have
Speaker 1: the person that's just like babe, you know. So knowing
Speaker 1: each other's strengths and weaknesses, how have you guys been
Speaker 1: able to navigate that space from going romantically into business.
Speaker 1: That's a good question, babe.
Speaker 4: When you think about the merits, you think about the
Speaker 4: covenant keeping God at the center of that. So the
Speaker 4: love life the business life number one. That's us. We've
Speaker 4: developed that. So we obviously love and are in love
Speaker 4: with each other, but we understand that what success persecution
Speaker 4: is to follow, so we align and rebuke to those
Speaker 4: negative weapons that try to form against our union, the
Speaker 4: covenant that we made together for God first and foremost.
Speaker 4: That's the honest God truth. And you know, as we
Speaker 4: think about how do we balance those things, it's really
Speaker 4: how you all prioritize your lives. So for us, it's God, family,
Speaker 4: then work right and so and so we live and
Speaker 4: stand on those principles, you know, as best we can.
Speaker 4: It's not you know, always going to be you know,
Speaker 4: go perfect and what have you. But but we have
Speaker 4: that alignment. We we have that that you know, call
Speaker 4: it that north star goal in mind, that that keeps
Speaker 4: us in check. And so and so what we do is,
Speaker 4: you know, we we try to keep work work. Now
Speaker 4: granted it's not always you know, gonna be that way,
Speaker 4: but we try to. We try to fight to keep
Speaker 4: it that way. We try to hold ourselves accountable if
Speaker 4: I'm if I'm at home, if I'm in the bed,
Speaker 4: I'll pull my lab about she gets on me and
Speaker 4: vice versas. We so we do those things and have
Speaker 4: done it. But I think it's it's it's really the
Speaker 4: respect that we have for each other's talents and gifts. Right,
Speaker 4: So Moni has her own you know, set of skill
Speaker 4: sets such as I do, and we respect that and
Speaker 4: we're aligned to it. But outside of the business, we're
Speaker 4: a husband and wife and as well as parents. So
Speaker 4: so we had to, you know, understand that if we
Speaker 4: were going to do this, we have to agree to
Speaker 4: a set of call it boundaries to adhere to so
Speaker 4: that the marriage doesn't get left behind the family, the
Speaker 4: kids don't get left beside, and that ties into who
Speaker 4: we are. See, we're not we're not money driven. We
Speaker 4: never been money driven. We're purpose driven. We're mission driven.
Speaker 4: You know. We feel as though we've been blessed and
Speaker 4: put in position for purpose and not profit. Right, that's
Speaker 4: how we think, that's how we operate. And so it's
Speaker 4: really the mindset, right, the mindset and aligning uh to
Speaker 4: to you know, those particular goals that you gotta, you gotta,
Speaker 4: you gotta continue to stay on it. And most importantly,
Speaker 4: prayer for one another. Right, Prayer is the foundation of
Speaker 4: all things in all our lives. And so we we
Speaker 4: do that whether we do it together or we do
Speaker 4: it for each other our families when we're not together.
Speaker 4: But we do that because, I mean, the fact of
Speaker 4: the matter is we know life, life be life, in
Speaker 4: life has its issues and trials and tribulations, so you
Speaker 4: constantly try to have to have that fight for your
Speaker 4: you know, fight for your blessing, fight for your union,
Speaker 4: right because outside your household, we know the challenges that
Speaker 4: I mean, first of all, we don't know what's to come.
Speaker 4: We wake up in the morning, we have no idea
Speaker 4: what the day will be, but we try to prepare
Speaker 4: ourselves for what's to come.
Speaker 1: Oh, for sure, that was a great answer, Melvin thinking.
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that we see a lot of
Speaker 1: similarities even with the way that we conduct you know,
Speaker 1: are just our life, you know, God, family, you always
Speaker 1: have to question what are we doing it for? Right
Speaker 1: when you go back to that purpose driven approach, that
Speaker 1: really really helps to keep things grounded. And that's important
Speaker 1: for us too as business partners as well. So Mayel
Speaker 1: now today ten very very short years, but I'm sure
Speaker 1: long in a sense for you guys, what made you
Speaker 1: decide to interrut Proctor and gamble with the future of
Speaker 1: Mayel And what plans do you have with Proctor for
Speaker 1: the future?
Speaker 4: Now, why in the world will we do that? Why
Speaker 4: would we? Why would we do that? But why in
Speaker 4: the world? No, No, because we're black. Oh yeah, because
Speaker 4: because we will become a sellout.
Speaker 2: Why would we do that? No, that's last, folks, And
Speaker 2: I never I never want. I don't want this conversation
Speaker 2: to become that. But I will say this. I went
Speaker 2: to school for business. The first rule of business was
Speaker 2: that you create a business to sell it. That was
Speaker 2: the first rule that they told us in business class
Speaker 2: at Hofts University. Was like if and it was an
Speaker 2: entrepreneurial class, if you're going to start a business, do
Speaker 2: not start a business to say, I'm gonna give this
Speaker 2: to my grandkids' grandkids. The reason why is because business
Speaker 2: is changed, industries changed. You always create a business with
Speaker 2: the idea to sell it. So I know why you
Speaker 2: did it because that was always you know, and I
Speaker 2: understand and I respect why. But I would love for
Speaker 2: you guys to tell.
Speaker 1: The audience, give them clarity. We know, we know, we
Speaker 1: don't understand.
Speaker 2: But it is important that you tell the audience why
Speaker 2: you guys went and did that with Procter and Gamble.
Speaker 4: I'll say this, in order for us as as African
Speaker 4: Americans or within our black communities to get something we've
Speaker 4: never had, we got to do something we've never done,
Speaker 4: and we got to work to normalize things we've never done.
Speaker 4: As we think about not yielding being rich, but creating wealth,
Speaker 4: and not just on a month side, but creating wealth,
Speaker 4: and the thinking the mind set in order for us
Speaker 4: to do those things right, we have to accept the
Speaker 4: challenge because if they were able to do it, why
Speaker 4: not me, right, And so it's that mindset that that
Speaker 4: Monique and I have been aligned to for a very
Speaker 4: very long time. And so as the brand had began
Speaker 4: to grow and the momentum was just so extraordinary, you know,
Speaker 4: we got to a point where, if you go back
Speaker 4: to our inception, right twenty fourteen started from the garage,
Speaker 4: humble beginnings. Right started from the idea, started from the pain.
Speaker 4: Good thing. Good things come out of pain, the pain,
Speaker 4: the trial, the tribulation. Oh but God kept us. God
Speaker 4: gave Monique the vision. I supported that vision, and that
Speaker 4: vision was elevated. Elevation creates expansion, expansion, and so we
Speaker 4: want to increase. We asked God to enlarge our territory right,
Speaker 4: and he blessed us exceedingly abundling above who can imagine
Speaker 4: or think. So it happened. So from the garage, to
Speaker 4: a small facility three thousand square feet. From there to
Speaker 4: a building a one hundred. Now we have one hundred
Speaker 4: thousand plus square for the warehousing right now. Increase and
Speaker 4: so as the brand continue to grow by year six,
Speaker 4: year seven, we're like, wow, we've done some extraordinary things.
Speaker 4: But you know something. We know what we know, but
Speaker 4: we also know we don't know. And we know that
Speaker 4: we're trying to tell this story. We know that we're
Speaker 4: trying to normalize black excellence. We know that we're trying
Speaker 4: to normalize and shift the thinking, the thinking to your
Speaker 4: point about creating businesses to a path to an exit. Right.
Speaker 4: But we need help showing this right, We need help
Speaker 4: scaling this and so we made the decision to take
Speaker 4: on a private equity partner called Berkshire Partners right back
Speaker 4: in twenty one. And so we did that, which was
Speaker 4: a historical nine figure, non controlling standalone partnership. So what
Speaker 4: does that mean. That means that.
Speaker 2: Now I don't want to cut you off, but I
Speaker 2: think it's important that you really tell people why that's
Speaker 2: important because people remember our biggest podcast was selling Grandma's House,
Speaker 2: and it was typically the same thing when you live
Speaker 2: in grandma's house. It was like, this is an heirloom,
Speaker 2: this is something you shouldn't sell. But it's like, hey,
Speaker 2: if you sell it, so you can scale it. And
Speaker 2: now it's when we sell grandma's house and we buy
Speaker 2: three four more properties, Now we have more properties. It's
Speaker 2: pretty much the same exact thing. When you take on
Speaker 2: a partner. Now you can scale your business so you
Speaker 2: can grow, but it's still yours. Continue. I just wanted
Speaker 2: to make that clear to the order.
Speaker 4: No, no, absolutely, because the point is this, in order
Speaker 4: for us to get some things that we never had,
Speaker 4: we got to come to agreement to doing things we've
Speaker 4: never done. And so we knew we had great momentum.
Speaker 4: We knew we had great opportunity to do something special.
Speaker 4: But we also knew this, we need to help. The
Speaker 4: Bible tells us what you have, not because your asks not.
Speaker 2: That's not Monique and n I.
Speaker 4: We are student. We are students of this life. We
Speaker 4: are students of this blessing of life. And so and
Speaker 4: so we made the decision to do this. Raise our
Speaker 4: hand right, and we reached out for help to help
Speaker 4: us scale, to help us scale, and we understood that
Speaker 4: we had leverage because We built a profitable, sustainable.
Speaker 2: From the ground up business. From the ground up. These
Speaker 2: are the things that people don't understand. As a business owner,
Speaker 2: you built it from the ground up, so you had
Speaker 2: leverage to then bringing a partner scale it and still
Speaker 2: have ownership these And this is what I try to
Speaker 2: explain to my wife. When people get upset at us,
Speaker 2: or get upset at you for selling out for example,
Speaker 2: you can't then get upset at them for not understanding business.
Speaker 2: You have a responsibility to empathize and then teach. Like
Speaker 2: you said, we're doing. You guys are doing something that's
Speaker 2: never been done before in the beauty industry. Of course,
Speaker 2: you're gonna have naysayers and detractors because they've never seen it.
Speaker 2: Anytime you break a glass, yep this and they say
Speaker 2: it because they've never seen this. Years from now, history
Speaker 2: will tell the story of Mayel and everyone will say
Speaker 2: this is the blueprint. I want to applaud you. I
Speaker 2: just want to before you continue. I do want to
Speaker 2: applaud you as a couple who came from tragedy. My
Speaker 2: wife and I have lost a child in uter row,
Speaker 2: so we know what that's like. I watched my wife
Speaker 2: have to struggle to get back to who she was.
Speaker 2: To watch you as a man say you know what,
Speaker 2: in this moment, I'm going to support my wife and
Speaker 2: whatever she wants to do because it will help.
Speaker 4: He's the pain.
Speaker 2: I think it's something that's part of the story that
Speaker 2: needs to be told often. You didn't wake up one
Speaker 2: morning and say, you know what, I want to be
Speaker 2: a millionaire, so I'm gonna do haircare products. No, you
Speaker 2: needed a distraction from real life because, like Melvin said,
Speaker 2: life be life in so through that distraction, now you
Speaker 2: have a supportive partner who's not saying we'll get over
Speaker 2: it already. He's saying, Yo, I got you, babe, go
Speaker 2: do it. And now the two of y'all create an
Speaker 2: empire yep, and scale it. I think this is amazing.
Speaker 1: You're pretty much mental health protection and therapy and try
Speaker 1: to get through it.
Speaker 2: Which is why I'm excited to have you guys on
Speaker 2: because we talk about this all the time on Dead
Speaker 2: Ass podcast. But there needs to be other stories so
Speaker 2: people realize we're not the anomaly. You guys aren't the anomaly.
Speaker 2: Anybody can do it if you just first be a
Speaker 2: servant to God and listen to God's words and when
Speaker 2: he gives you a vision follower. So I just I
Speaker 2: appreciate y'all. Your story is amazing to me. Y'all are
Speaker 2: the blueprint. Kadeen and I stay purpose driven, yes, but
Speaker 2: we're also entrepreneurs and we want to create wealth. I
Speaker 2: don't want to pass just the house. I don't want
Speaker 2: to pass an idea to my kids. I want to
Speaker 2: pass wealth and be able to say to my sons, hey,
Speaker 2: you want to start something, Daddy got you. You don't
Speaker 2: better go to the bank, come to mom and dad.
Speaker 2: You know we got you. So I really want to
Speaker 2: uplaud you guys.
Speaker 1: And this is dope, super inspiring to super inspiring. All right, y'all,
Speaker 1: I think this is a good spot to take a
Speaker 1: quick break. We're going to hear some words from Mayel
Speaker 1: and get back to conversation with Melvin and Monique. Stick around,
Speaker 1: all right, and now we're back. We're back. So we've
Speaker 1: heard so much about your story, about Mael's inception and
Speaker 1: where you are today. Let's talk about what's going to
Speaker 1: happen in the future. You now have that much bigger
Speaker 1: of a team behind you. Guys. Where are your passions
Speaker 1: leading you to now, what what can we expect for
Speaker 1: the future of my own.
Speaker 5: Knowing what we've accomplished for us, we like to say
Speaker 5: that we're just getting started. You know, the best is
Speaker 5: yet to come, you know, as we approach our ten
Speaker 5: year anniversary. You know, we have so much in store
Speaker 5: that's coming down the pipeline with amazing partnerships, you know,
Speaker 5: amazing activations.
Speaker 3: I don't want to talk about you know everything.
Speaker 5: I want you guys to stay soon and follow us,
Speaker 5: to be surprised and delighted on the amazing thing that
Speaker 5: Mayo's has coming down the pipeline. And more importantly for us,
Speaker 5: it's also focused on, you know, our philanthropic initiatives as
Speaker 5: a part of the partnership. What we didn't get a
Speaker 5: chance to mention was the commitment that P and G
Speaker 5: made to us to show how committed they are to
Speaker 5: our passion. And that's the community that has gotten us
Speaker 5: to where we are today. So it was very important
Speaker 5: that when we set up the table and negotiated with them,
Speaker 5: it wasn't just about Okay, how can we create generational
Speaker 5: wealth for our families, but how can we create generational
Speaker 5: wealth for our communities? And how can you help advance
Speaker 5: black and brown communities with education and more importantly, mental health.
Speaker 5: We realized that a huge part of our success is
Speaker 5: the mindset shift.
Speaker 3: We had to shift our mindset.
Speaker 5: You know, growing up, we came from an environment of survival.
Speaker 5: We were not taught to follow dreams and pursue dreams.
Speaker 5: It was you have to survive, not thrive. And we
Speaker 5: want to be able to shift the mindset of our
Speaker 5: community to show our community that you can be successful.
Speaker 5: We can change that narrative that we can be black,
Speaker 5: we can be successful, we can build great companies, and
Speaker 5: we can have successful exists and you know, pass that
Speaker 5: down to generations, so the next generation doesn't have to
Speaker 5: grow up thinking they have to survive. They can have
Speaker 5: the freedom and flexibility to do whatever it is that
Speaker 5: they want to do. And so in order to have that,
Speaker 5: you have to shift your mindset. And so for us,
Speaker 5: mental health is extremely important because we started with our
Speaker 5: neighborhood that we're from, the high school that we came from.
Speaker 5: We know that those kids are in an environment where
Speaker 5: they're not they don't have the ability to dream big,
Speaker 5: and so to go back to that school to create
Speaker 5: programs to help shift their mindset to make sure that
Speaker 5: these kids are mentally sound so they can see two
Speaker 5: people that walk the same halls as them, to do
Speaker 5: what we've accomplished, and to show that we're tangible, you
Speaker 5: can touch, you can fill us with relatable people. And
Speaker 5: this is what we were able to do because we
Speaker 5: shifted our thinking and we want support that back into
Speaker 5: the community that supported us. So the goal is to
Speaker 5: expand that program to multiple high schools across the United
Speaker 5: States and continue on building up, you know, our youth,
Speaker 5: making sure that they're mentally sound.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So P ANDNG didn't only invest in the company, they
Speaker 2: invested in your idea of bringing a better mental health
Speaker 2: initiative to the community, which to me, I think is dope.
Speaker 2: I think that's amazing. Yeah, because me and Coady always
Speaker 2: talk about how our blackness should not only be defined
Speaker 2: by the amount of struggle we've occured in life, and
Speaker 2: the minute you remove yourself from that and start to thrive,
Speaker 2: that's when people want to call you a sellout. So
Speaker 2: it's like, I'm only black if I'm struggling. The minute
Speaker 2: I'm no longer struggling, now now I'm gonna sell out.
Speaker 2: I agree with you changing that mindset from a young
Speaker 2: age is the way you build future leaders.
Speaker 4: That's what's what I'm gonna tell you all this for
Speaker 4: your listeners. M change your mind, change your life, walk
Speaker 4: with Christ and watch what he would do on your life.
Speaker 1: I love that, love that. Thank y'all so much for
Speaker 1: your time today. I hope you had a great time
Speaker 1: chatting with us, and I hope our listeners have more
Speaker 1: insight into my l and all of your efforts. Just
Speaker 1: to round things out, how can people connect with your efforts?
Speaker 1: I know we have some things going on in schools,
Speaker 1: but is there anywhere specific that they can go to
Speaker 1: to get more information about what's available to them in
Speaker 1: their community or specific areas.
Speaker 5: Yes, so of course they can follow us at Mayel
Speaker 5: Organics on all social media platforms, and then we have
Speaker 5: Mayo Dot Cares and then Melvin and I social media
Speaker 5: mizes at Exquisite Mode and Melvin's is the Melvin Rodriguez
Speaker 5: All right.
Speaker 1: Continue to protect yourselves, protect each other, protect your family,
Speaker 1: protect your brand, protect your community. We love you guys.
Speaker 1: You know where to follow Mayel and their story emine
Speaker 1: Y Podcast. What'll see y'all soon.
Speaker 2: Appreciate y'all chirst, take Care. Dead Ass is a production
Speaker 2: of iHeartMedia podcast network and its produced by Donor, Opinia
Speaker 2: and Triple Follow the podcast on social media at dead ass,
Speaker 2: the podcasts, and Never miss a Thing