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Speaker 1: My neck. Guest is a successful person. Uh he's a

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Speaker 1: native of Oakland, California. That's home over black panther um.

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Speaker 1: Name of the company is Maven at California based Harry

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Speaker 1: Extension Company. Their partners with Stylus, who service the salesforce

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Speaker 1: for their hair extension their clients by please welcome to

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Speaker 1: money Making Conversation. The CEO and founder of Mavin, Deshaan Emira, Hello,

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Speaker 1: and thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Cool.

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Speaker 1: I really do you California and your mind telling me? Uh,

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Speaker 1: what's your educational background, your little history before we start

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Speaker 1: talking about Yeah, I was born and raised in Oakland. Um,

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Speaker 1: I went to high school there. After high school, I

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Speaker 1: went to Hampton University. So I'm an alum of HBC.

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Speaker 1: Is my executive producer. She's a Hampton grad. So happy

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Speaker 1: she's cheering in the background, sir, So all right, let's

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Speaker 1: go all day. Yeah. So I, um, I got really

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Speaker 1: interested in Um, you know, I wanted to travel when

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Speaker 1: I got to college, or I've always just sort of

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Speaker 1: wanted to. I've been curious about the world. So, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, sophomore year I traveled. I went to Japan

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Speaker 1: for for six months, I studied abroad there ended up

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Speaker 1: doing the same thing again the next year in Spain

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Speaker 1: when I after I graduated, I moved to China. UM

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Speaker 1: and then and we can get into you know what

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Speaker 1: I was doing over there later. But then education wise,

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Speaker 1: I ended up going back to school. I did an

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Speaker 1: NBA at Georgia State in Atlanta, UM in between two

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Speaker 1: thousand and eight and two thousand and ten. So, now,

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Speaker 1: when you went to those different places, did you are

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Speaker 1: you experienced the culture? Did you learn the language? I did?

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Speaker 1: I was in China for a year and a half straight,

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Speaker 1: and then for the next several years, I would be

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Speaker 1: going back in China, the back and forth to China,

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Speaker 1: probably every every couple two to three months. I was

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Speaker 1: going back and forth to China. UM and so I

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Speaker 1: learned a great deal both Mandarin at the time. UM.

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Speaker 1: You know it's it's it's worn off a little bit

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Speaker 1: since then, but I still can I stick it. I

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Speaker 1: still can get around. Oh good, good, Devin, is what

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Speaker 1: what you know? I always like to explore new opportunities.

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Speaker 1: That's a new opportunity from a social and a lifestyle standpoint.

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Speaker 1: What what if what did you learn from that experience?

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Speaker 1: Because you know that when we go out and travel,

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Speaker 1: you know, you are an African American male, and so

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Speaker 1: there are perceptions about us, um in different parts of

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Speaker 1: the country. I know I've experienced that. So were there

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Speaker 1: any perceptions that you had to overcome, you had to

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Speaker 1: deal with in your travels? Um, there were definitely definitely

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Speaker 1: a lot of you know, perceptions that people had or misconceptions.

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Speaker 1: I mean in China at the time and I got

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Speaker 1: in two thousand three, Um, there was hardly I was.

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Speaker 1: I went to the city called shen Jin, which is

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Speaker 1: now like a super popping city. Um. You know, at

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Speaker 1: the time, there was about four million people there. Now

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Speaker 1: I think there's like fifteen million people. So just in

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Speaker 1: the past, you know, ten years, it's it's uh, it's

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Speaker 1: grown quite a bit. But there was hardly any foreigners

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Speaker 1: there at all. Um, let alone had they ever seen

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Speaker 1: any any black people? You know? So uh, you know,

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Speaker 1: I had students were you know, I taught English there

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Speaker 1: for a little while, and the students would run up

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Speaker 1: to me and try to touch my my skin and

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Speaker 1: if they're rubbed off, you know, and they called me

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Speaker 1: Mr Chaka Lee you know. Um. And then I had

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Speaker 1: people there who just straight up didn't believe that I

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Speaker 1: came from America because they're from what they understood of

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Speaker 1: the world, and they don't get they didn't get a

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Speaker 1: lot of they don't get a lot of the media

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Speaker 1: and the images that everybody else gets. America's white people

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Speaker 1: and America is the land of white people in blond

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Speaker 1: hair and blue eyes. Um. And so they just didn't

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Speaker 1: even believe that there were black people there, um, let

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Speaker 1: alone all of the intricacies of like, you know, the

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Speaker 1: history of African Americans in America. So um, you know,

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Speaker 1: people tended to think I was either from you know,

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Speaker 1: Africa or you know, or or India or something like that.

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Speaker 1: And then they had certain you know, they had certain perceptions, um,

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Speaker 1: of of those countries, right, um, which weren't always so good. Right.

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Speaker 1: If they think they think America is the land of

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Speaker 1: the white then you you also have to think that

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Speaker 1: that that there was a backwards view of Africa, you know,

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Speaker 1: very backwards ignorance, slavery, poverty, violence, you know, exactly need

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Speaker 1: to be Also they're I'm sure they're aware of the

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Speaker 1: slave slavery too. So so all those negative things dominated

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Speaker 1: Joe presence. So you are you are a torch bearer. Um, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean it was it was you know, it definitely

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Speaker 1: felt very you know, pioneering to be out there. That

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Speaker 1: was hardly as I said, hardly any other foreigners there was.

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Speaker 1: You know, there was about three or four other black

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Speaker 1: people that I met when I was out there, you know,

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Speaker 1: in the city of four million people, and we all

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Speaker 1: abandoned together and there was two or three. How did

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Speaker 1: you find them? Now? Well, you know, there would be

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Speaker 1: certain places in the city where only you know, only

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Speaker 1: were like foreigners would go to these boarders restaurants or whatever.

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Speaker 1: We're foreigners would convene so they can you know, um,

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Speaker 1: and you know, they would just be a random black

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Speaker 1: person in there and we were just automatically connect and

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Speaker 1: be like, hey, what are you doing here? You know?

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Speaker 1: So um yeah, it was crazy. It was crazy, but

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Speaker 1: it was you know, it ended up being one of

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Speaker 1: the most transformative, um and informative periods of my life.

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Speaker 1: You know, I learned a lot about myself. I learned

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Speaker 1: a lot about what I was capable of. Um, you know,

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Speaker 1: I learned a lot about you know, they put into

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Speaker 1: context where I came from the country that I came from. Um,

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Speaker 1: and what was going on outside of America, you know,

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Speaker 1: and that America wasn't the center of the world. UM

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Speaker 1: and uh. And I grew tremendously from that, and it became,

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Speaker 1: you know, China just became sort of the platform from

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Speaker 1: which all of my my business and entrepreneurial endeavors kind

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Speaker 1: of sprang from relationships there, that's what you're I made

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Speaker 1: amazing relationships there, um, you know, and and also learned

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Speaker 1: how to navigate UM sourcing products UH. You know, so

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Speaker 1: I went to hundreds of factories, UM figured out you know,

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Speaker 1: the first thing I started importing from China because I

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Speaker 1: just wanted to make some money where like sneakers, and

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Speaker 1: so I saw they had sneakers out there. I started

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Speaker 1: buying them and sending them back home. And through that

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Speaker 1: process learned all about you know, shipping from from China

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Speaker 1: and freight forwarding and customs and tariffs UH and all that,

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Speaker 1: and learned how to negotiate with with the Chinese and UM,

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Speaker 1: how to find different factories and source different products and

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Speaker 1: figure out you know, quality control and who to trust

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Speaker 1: who not to trust. UM. It was an incredible it

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Speaker 1: was an incredible UM educational experience. You knew the language

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Speaker 1: as well. Well. I learned it as I went, you know,

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Speaker 1: like I just um, you know, I decided I wanted

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Speaker 1: to make some money while I was over there. I've

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Speaker 1: seen these shoes, I said, I'm gonna start trying to

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Speaker 1: sell these shoes. So I just had to start learning

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Speaker 1: how to say shoes in Chinese and how much you

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Speaker 1: know what I mean? And so I literally I just

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Speaker 1: had to teach myself based on what it was that

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Speaker 1: I wanted to say, and I just would I would

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Speaker 1: point at stuff and then I would say, how do

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Speaker 1: you say? You know UM? And you'd be surprised how

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Speaker 1: fast you can learn um the basics of a new

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Speaker 1: language UM or or I should say, you'd be surprised

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Speaker 1: how much you can really communicate with people if you

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Speaker 1: just know a few phrases. And also if you make

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Speaker 1: it also if you make an effort, and if you're

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Speaker 1: make an effort, Yeah, people really appreciate that as well.

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Speaker 1: So now you're you're setting a basis. Now it's interesting

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Speaker 1: thing about it, because we're gonna get to the company

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Speaker 1: that you launched here in California, Maven, was this w

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Speaker 1: you was headed because you was over there teaching English.

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Speaker 1: And then you started, like I said, becoming that entrepreneurial

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Speaker 1: side started popping up, seeing opportunities to business. You started

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Speaker 1: learning to learning certain key terminologists or you can negotiate

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Speaker 1: or communicate. So we get back to the States. What

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Speaker 1: did you when you return back and say I'm gonna

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Speaker 1: stay over here permanently, what did you What did you

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Speaker 1: immediately go when in Oakland? Um? No, I actually went

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Speaker 1: to Miami. Um. And I just honestly, I was. I

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Speaker 1: was in China for a year and a half straight.

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Speaker 1: I think I had got to the point where I

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Speaker 1: was like, I need to get the hell out of China.

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Speaker 1: I can't. I can't do this anymore, you know, like

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Speaker 1: it just got it just got all the way to

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Speaker 1: that point. I loved it for a while, and then

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Speaker 1: it became like I just became super homesick and I

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Speaker 1: wanted to go somewhere beautiful. You know, time is not

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Speaker 1: the like you know or shinin. I say, it's not.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's not the most beautiful environment to be.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's manufacturing, it's it's crowded, full of people,

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Speaker 1: it's polluted. Um, there's a lot of beautiful things in

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Speaker 1: that country. I don't want anybody, you know, they got

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Speaker 1: out of context. But um Shinjin is just it's a

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Speaker 1: it's a crazy and hectic metropolis. And I wanted to

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Speaker 1: go somewhere beautiful. I know some people down in Miami. Um.

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Speaker 1: I had started to develop some some contacts in China

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Speaker 1: around importing furniture. It was the housing um bubble was

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Speaker 1: like in full gear, and everybody was building and buying

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Speaker 1: condos in Miami. And I said, I'm gonna go to Miami.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna import a couple containers of furniture and I'm

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Speaker 1: gonna start selling furniture UM in Miami. And that's literally,

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Speaker 1: that was just literally how I was thinking. Just I

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Speaker 1: want to go somewhere nice. Nice. Now you wouldn't say

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Speaker 1: one nice. Now. Are you with Miami two thousands? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: you're with someplace nice Now that's the that's the beauty

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Speaker 1: capital of the world down there, brother. Yeah, beautiful. It's

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Speaker 1: just beautiful, just beautiful. Just pretty things. Just walking around now,

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Speaker 1: just pretty things, just walking around, just walking around, going

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Speaker 1: to Burkey, Oh you're so pretty. Oh, just walked to

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Speaker 1: the coming Oh you're so pretty, walked down on the beach,

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Speaker 1: Oh you're so pretty Oh, just so much better than child.

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Speaker 1: But when you come back, we're talking about man. He's uh,

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Speaker 1: he's he's the CEO and he's the founder of Mavin,

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Speaker 1: a California based Harris stitching company. Will be right back

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Speaker 1: with my man to Sean, I love talking about I

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Speaker 1: just wanted to make sure that we understood his roots

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Speaker 1: before we start talking about the roots that he's using

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Speaker 1: to make a lot of money with Harry Stenchons. I

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Speaker 1: just ro Sean McDonald's having a very great conversation with

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Speaker 1: the CEO and founder Mavin. He's on the phone talking

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Speaker 1: about his uh, his past, his roots, which I think

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Speaker 1: is important when people try to understand how people are successful.

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Speaker 1: It's not people can pop up and be successful. They

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Speaker 1: develop a traits that they pick up along the way.

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Speaker 1: They develop relationships they pick up along the way, and

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Speaker 1: then you turn around you look at your past. I

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Speaker 1: always tell people, if you want to find out your future,

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Speaker 1: looking to your past and you understand why you can

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Speaker 1: be successful because it's the roots that you established in

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Speaker 1: your twenties. There really was such a stage of what

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Speaker 1: you're gonna make economically in your financial life and your forties,

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Speaker 1: in your fifties. A lot of people look always looking ahead.

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Speaker 1: They're always looking at here, go what I'm gonna do?

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Speaker 1: Just look backwards. It's all established like that, because what

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Speaker 1: happens to Sean is there a lot of people they

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Speaker 1: start shifting, they get married, they have kids, they move away,

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Speaker 1: and so they've dreams kind of that those original dreams

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Speaker 1: kind of go away, and so you have. So you

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Speaker 1: have just done that in yourself. And so to launch

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Speaker 1: this company wasn't an idea that you created by yourself

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Speaker 1: or you brought in other people to help you, to

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Speaker 1: motivate you and financially support you. So I UM, I

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Speaker 1: the way that I ended up in the world of

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Speaker 1: hair extensions and hair stylists and salons. Um you know,

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Speaker 1: I had this. I had this incredible background in supply

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Speaker 1: chain and importing stuff from from China, and and by

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Speaker 1: this time, and this is about around two thousand, UM

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Speaker 1: twelve or so, after I had finished grad school, got

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Speaker 1: my n b A, I was shut of just trying

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Speaker 1: to figure out what I wanted to do. UM. I

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Speaker 1: knew that I wanted to start a company. I knew

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Speaker 1: I wanted to build a company that was going to

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Speaker 1: be large and impactful. Um. I had the I had

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Speaker 1: the notion that I wanted to raise venture capital to

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Speaker 1: do it. I wanted to be a venture capital scale business,

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Speaker 1: but I didn't know exactly what it was yet. Um.

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Speaker 1: So I took sort of just like some odd in

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Speaker 1: jobs so that I didn't have to take up like

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Speaker 1: a corporate nine to five, which would just like suck

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Speaker 1: all my time in my my brain space, you know,

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Speaker 1: away from me. And so I literally just had an

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Speaker 1: n B A and spoke Chinese and I just started

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Speaker 1: like valeting cars because I could just do it for

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Speaker 1: a few hours make some money, and then I could

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Speaker 1: just go to Starbucks and be on my computer research

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Speaker 1: and stuff all day. Um. And I just tried different things. Um.

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Speaker 1: And then someone in my family who was a hairstyle is,

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Speaker 1: asked me if I can help her get some hair

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Speaker 1: extensions from China, and so I did, yeah, And so

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Speaker 1: I did, And in the process I took the hair

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Speaker 1: extensions to these hair salons and I said can you

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Speaker 1: uh and they you know, and they say, I said

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Speaker 1: this is good quality, and they said it's great. Can

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Speaker 1: you get some more? Um? And so I said, yeah,

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Speaker 1: How did you say yeah? How did you say did

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Speaker 1: you say, lightbulb, Yeah, yeah, yeah, I can work this out. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: At the time, at the time, it was yeah, yeah

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Speaker 1: I could, Yeah, I could do that. And the way

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Speaker 1: I looked at it at that point was I'm balanting cars.

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Speaker 1: I can make more money just selling some of his

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Speaker 1: hair to these hair stylers right now. So I ended

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Speaker 1: up just like selling hair off the trunk of my

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Speaker 1: car to these hairstylers, um all through Oakland. And as

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Speaker 1: I was doing that, the lightbulb started to get brighter

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Speaker 1: and brighter and brighter, and then I saw something much

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Speaker 1: bigger than and then really than just hair extensions. UM.

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Speaker 1: You know what I had been taught to see through

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Speaker 1: all these you know, all the years of like importing

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Speaker 1: from China and you know, going to BIS school, B school,

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Speaker 1: I had been trained to see how products were distributed.

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Speaker 1: And and that was the part that was the lightbulb

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Speaker 1: for me, because what I saw was, Okay, we're buying

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Speaker 1: you know, six billion dollars of hair extensions, nine billion

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Speaker 1: dollars of just beauty products in general, you know, as

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Speaker 1: in the African American community. However, all these salons that

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Speaker 1: I'm going into to sell these products, they don't they're

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Speaker 1: not selling products in there, they're not selling the hair

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Speaker 1: extensions in the salon. They're not they don't have a

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Speaker 1: big old retail section in their salon, which you might

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Speaker 1: see in some of the more mainstream you know should

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Speaker 1: he you know salons, um. And the main reason for

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Speaker 1: that is because they just can't afford inventory or manage it.

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Speaker 1: And so we have all the customers going outside of

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Speaker 1: our of our hair salons and outside of our community

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Speaker 1: to buy all of our products. And so across the

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Speaker 1: street from the hair salon, you have a beauty supply

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Speaker 1: store that is owned by Koreans. And that happens to

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Speaker 1: be the case for eighty five of all of the

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Speaker 1: beauty supply stores that cater to to African Americans across

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Speaker 1: the country. Like in every black neighborhood there's a Korean

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Speaker 1: owned beauty supply store. And we all know them, and

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Speaker 1: we've all been there, we all know what what what

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Speaker 1: they look like. But the important thing what I saw

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Speaker 1: was that all those dollars we're just flowing directly out

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Speaker 1: of the community. Um. But but conversely, what I saw

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Speaker 1: was that these hair stylers, right, we're incredibly powerful, but

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Speaker 1: just lacked a certain tool and they had they have

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Speaker 1: the expertise, they had the relationships with the customers. Um,

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Speaker 1: they knew what they were talking about when it came

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Speaker 1: came to the hair, and the customers trusted them. They

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Speaker 1: were the natural point of sale for these products. They

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Speaker 1: just didn't have the infrastructure for it. And so I said,

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Speaker 1: if I can use technology to basically turn all of

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Speaker 1: these hair salons into retail distribution points for these products,

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Speaker 1: we can shift all the dollars retail dollars to the

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Speaker 1: salons and they can be selling it and making money

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Speaker 1: from it, and we can create a really large business

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Speaker 1: and own our own distribution. Was that hard? Was that

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Speaker 1: a hard spin? When you when you approach the salons

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Speaker 1: because you approach one at a time, or you got

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Speaker 1: a group of together to make this pitch. Um, it

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Speaker 1: was one at a time to begin with, It was

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Speaker 1: one at a time. I mean I started with like

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Speaker 1: three hairstyles. I had the idea and I said, okay,

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Speaker 1: let me just sort of validate whether or not this

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Speaker 1: could work or not, you know, and I built I'm

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Speaker 1: not a technical guy, like I don't make websites and stuff,

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Speaker 1: but I I pieced together this really Jankie, you know

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Speaker 1: a little you know m v P. You know we

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Speaker 1: call a minimum viable product and just something where I

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Speaker 1: could test what the you know, the premise was of

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Speaker 1: the entire business, which is, if I give a stylist

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Speaker 1: this tool, a stylist can sell that the product. Let

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Speaker 1: me just test that and then I'll figure out later. Okay,

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Speaker 1: how about I go get all the hairstylus. UM. But

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Speaker 1: if I could just prove that, then maybe I can

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Speaker 1: get somebody to fund me to go and get all

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Speaker 1: the hairstylus. And so I did that, and I did

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Speaker 1: that with like, you know, three hairstylists, and then it

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Speaker 1: was like five or six or seven um. And then

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Speaker 1: I really started to say, you know what, I can

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Speaker 1: turn this into a huge business. And I think we

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Speaker 1: can build a billion dollar enterprise by owning our own

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Speaker 1: distribution and networking up you know, all of our hair

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Speaker 1: salons and our stylists to to to participate in the

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Speaker 1: retail economics of our of our beauty industry. This. You know,

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Speaker 1: we have four minutes left in this interview I want

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Speaker 1: to talk about Okay, it's a great interview. By the way,

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Speaker 1: I just want to make sure I don't miss some

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Speaker 1: of the key points of why I brought you. I'm

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Speaker 1: going on and on. No, no, you're not, because your

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Speaker 1: story is important to have to be valid, you know,

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Speaker 1: in other words, because we're talking about how you who

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Speaker 1: you are as a person, which is credibility. Why are

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Speaker 1: you able to sell this brand? How are you able

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Speaker 1: to grow this brand? Because you know the culture you

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Speaker 1: took the time to live the lifestyle. Now through what

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Speaker 1: I always tell people, opportunity, It's only there if you

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Speaker 1: if you work hard to understand, seek out, seek it out.

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Speaker 1: How does how does this salesforce work for you? And

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Speaker 1: can other people around the country or is it localized

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Speaker 1: in the Oakland area? So? Um, so the Hairstylus are

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Speaker 1: we've we've over the past five years, we've grown to

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Speaker 1: over fifty thou hair stylusts all over the country. Who

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Speaker 1: just Stylus who distributing Maven products. We actually this year

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Speaker 1: just lost a very new and transformative service UM leveraging

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Speaker 1: our our stylus network UM that essentially will cut the

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Speaker 1: cost of getting your hair done are getting hair and

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Speaker 1: getting your hair done in half for customers. So now

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Speaker 1: you can as a customer, you can come directly to Maven.

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Speaker 1: You can buy hair directly from us. You can put

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Speaker 1: in your zip code. Uh, the hand selected Maven stylus

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Speaker 1: in your zip code will pop up. You can look

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Speaker 1: at their pictures, you can look at their work um,

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Speaker 1: the stars and reviews. And then if you choose any

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Speaker 1: one of those stylus, Mayven will pay for you to

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Speaker 1: get your hair um your hair installed. Okay, repeat that

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Speaker 1: one more time. So if you buy hair from Maven,

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Speaker 1: we will pay for you to get your hair installed

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Speaker 1: with anyone of our thousands of hairstylists who are across

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Speaker 1: the country. Tell us that website because I'm gonna just

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Speaker 1: cut this little part out and put it on my website. Okay, okay,

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Speaker 1: on my website, on social media dot com, M A

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Speaker 1: Y V E N N dot com. Yeah and so,

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Speaker 1: uh and so this opportunity. You know, I'm gonna tell

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Speaker 1: you so. Man, when I when I listen to you,

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Speaker 1: I hear am WI, I hear you know avon, I

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Speaker 1: hear tup of ware, I hear conferences, I hear the

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Speaker 1: you know, the pink Cadillac for the top hair salesperson

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Speaker 1: in the country. You know, recognize is that the is

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Speaker 1: That's the next step for your brand. UM. No, I

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Speaker 1: would say, you know, I say that has been UM,

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Speaker 1: that's been the core of it for a while. But

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Speaker 1: what we've what we've decided to do is to continue

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Speaker 1: to UM move more in the direction of creating a

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Speaker 1: platform and a marketplace. So the more you see what

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Speaker 1: we're what we're building now and specifically with this new

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Speaker 1: product where customers can match themselves with any stylist in

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Speaker 1: their area and it will be half to you know,

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00:22:09,040 --> 00:22:11,000
Speaker 1: they only have to pay for their service. It just

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00:22:11,040 --> 00:22:13,960
Speaker 1: comes with the hair. It will start to look more

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00:22:14,040 --> 00:22:17,680
Speaker 1: like you think more like Airbnb, right, or think more

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00:22:17,760 --> 00:22:21,600
Speaker 1: like fla lift or uber or finding a hair stylist.

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Speaker 1: We're gonna make it super easy and we're gonna make

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Speaker 1: it half the cost. Obviously this is a jankie website.

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Speaker 1: You have modernized your abilities and you've taken it to

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Speaker 1: the next level. And just y'all, man, I you got

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Speaker 1: myself number, gave it to your off air. I live

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00:22:38,440 --> 00:22:41,280
Speaker 1: in Atlanta, live in Houston, Texas. Uh, please use it,

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Speaker 1: your talented person. Your story is incredible and very seriously,

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00:22:44,480 --> 00:22:46,920
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take that look clip and we're gonna get

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Speaker 1: some images of you. I'm gonna put it on my Facebook.

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Speaker 1: I almost got a million followers Instagram and Twitter, and

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00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:54,359
Speaker 1: to promote your brand and you keep winning, Okay, that

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00:22:54,400 --> 00:22:56,679
Speaker 1: will be amazing and I appreciate that, and I appreciate you,

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Speaker 1: UH give me the opportunity to use your platform to

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Speaker 1: spread the message and tell my story. I appreciate it.

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Speaker 1: This story is awesome.