Ep. 204 Beatrice Dixon is the co-founder, CEO, and Chief Innovation Officer of The Honey Pot Co., a game-changing feminine wellness brand that started with a dream—literally. From launching with a $21,000 loan to building a multimillion-dollar business stocked in major retailers like Target and Walmart, Beatrice has navigated the challenges of fundraising as a Black woman, scaled her company without losing its soul, and remained unapologetic about her vision for success.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
I'm with Lucas and this is black Tech, Green money.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Beatrice Dixon is the co founder, CEO, and Chief Innovation
officer of the Honey pot Kel, game changing feminine wellness
brand that started with the dream. Literally from launching with
a twenty one thousand dollar loan to building a multi
million dollar business, Doctor made your retailers be as, navigated
the challenges of fundraising as a black woman, scaled the
(00:26):
company without losing its soul, and remained unapologetic about her
vision with success. So I'm very interested in your take
on this because I've lived by this idea of not
being romantic about business, and I read that you also
practiced unromantic relationships with the business. And you know, you said,
(00:47):
you like, don't look at your business.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
As your baby.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You know, I've read as you said, so many of
us start because we're so passionate about the idea. So
how do you admonish us to think about that?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I think that, you know, because you know, every now
and again somebody asked me do I have kids. I
don't have kids, you know, and they'll be like, well,
your business is your kids. I'm like, I mean, you're
kind of you know, but at the same time, our
businesses are not our kids. Our businesses our businesses. They're
(01:21):
here to make us money. They're here to provide goods
and services to human beings that we serve. You know,
I think that it's really important too. I think it's
really important to give respect to what a business is.
(01:42):
But I also understand that it takes a lot of you.
It takes a lot of your soul, a lot of
your energy, a lot of your you know, especially when
you're really trying to do the thing. You know, you
give it all you have, so naturally it feels personal,
right because you know, a lot of the shit is personal.
(02:05):
You know, you have to sacrifice a lot when you're really, really,
really in business, like when things are really at scale
and you're growing and moving and shaking and raising money,
and you know, in a lot of retailers or you know,
you've got a huge brand online or whatever, it requires
(02:26):
a lot of you. So it's like, on one hand,
I understand that for the people that do it every day,
it's not just business. There is a personal element to it.
And on the other hand, we have to understand what
the purpose of business is. Especially this is something in
(02:47):
the black community you know, because we are held to
a standard that frankly is not able to be. You know,
it's a standard that's not reality. You understand what I'm saying.
It's not based in reality, It's based a lot in emotion.
(03:08):
You know, we don't necessarily always see ourselves as just
business people. We see ourselves as black business people, when
in fact, we're just business people like everybody else is.
You understand what I'm saying. And so even though the
world wants to put us in that box, we have
to do a better job of unconditioning ourselves to stay
(03:29):
in that box, you know, because we're just trying to
run our shit like everybody else is, right, And so
that's another part of it that's really hard, because you know,
we grow up, we scale, we raise money, we do
all the things. Well, what happens when you raise money
(03:50):
and do all the things You have to have some
kind of strategic partnership. You have to have a way
for your shareholders to be able to become whole on
their investment as well as yourself. You don't get rich,
you know, I'm not saying that some companies don't, but
typically you can be you can be. Let me rephrase this.
(04:12):
You're not getting wealthy off of being a business owner.
You might become rich, okay, okay, And when I'm when
I'm when I'm talking about rich. You may have money
in the in the bank, you know, you might, you
might be able to stack a couple of million, right,
But having the ability to stop twenty plus in your
(04:33):
bank account, which is fu money right where it can
just sit there, you never have to think about it,
and you can just earn off of interest. You can
just live off of that forever and ever. You understand
what I'm saying. Having the ability to do to do
that means that some sort of an event is happening, right,
(04:56):
some sort of a strategic event. Is it that you've
been acquired by a private equity fund. Is it that
you've been acquired by conglomerate? Is it that you took
your company to be to I p O, you know,
and you were able to let it sit long enough
and actually be able to make money off of that? Right? Yeah,
(05:17):
these are the things that we have to do in business.
Our skin color and what's between our legs shouldn't matter.
But but this is another way that I think business
is romanticized and emotional, emotionalized. I don't even know that
that's a reason or a word, right, but you know,
but you understand what I'm saying, like we have to
(05:38):
we have to stop. I shouldn't say we have to
do this is just my opinion. I think that we
need to do a better job of respecting what it
takes to make this shit happen, because it takes a
lot and and and and if you're lucky enough, which
most companies, whether you're white, purple brain, most companies will
(06:02):
never ever ever experience what that is to go through
some sort of event of an event like that, because
it just doesn't happen every day. But we shouldn't be
penalized because we do. You understand, like we shouldn't. We
shouldn't be in a position where investors are afraid to
invest in us, or strategics are afraid to acquire us
(06:25):
because of what the community is going to say. You know,
I think that that that that's another way that business
has been romanticized because once you do it, then then
you're penalized for doing it. And that's not really cool
because you're just doing what you have to do in
order to run your business. And in order to, you know,
(06:48):
go through the motions of what it means to take
in venture capital or private equity money. The day you
do that, that's the day that you've just signed that
you've just you've just signed the dotted line to say
that you're either selling your company or your IPO in it.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Right, Yeah, I think I'm gonna throw away all the
questions I have prepared and just let the spirit movie
on this one.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
This was this okay you okay.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
So I think, listening to at least the beginning of
your talk, you're a statement there that some of so
many of us get.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Into whatever business we start because.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
We're so passionate about it. And I wonder your take
on do we even have to be passionate but or
can we also be opportunistic also like our counterparts might be,
they just see an opportunity and go because I see
an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
No, no, go ahead, No, I don't really have a question,
but I wanted to have this conversation.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah. I absolutely think that there's businesses that are what
they are, you know, because of opportunity. Look at Jeff Bezos,
the richest man in the world, right there may be
somebody wealthier, but like you know, he's high up, right.
(08:09):
He got to where he is because he saw an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Right, Do you see enough of us doing that?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Or because I believe, at least from my perspective, that
we are more tall, Like what do you care about?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
What are the things that move you? And then go
start to business?
Speaker 3 (08:24):
So bad? Yeah, I actually agree with you. Right. We
are brought up to care about things. We are brought
up to feel responsible for what we put into the
world to you know, we're more We're I don't want
to say more. We're a communal community, right, We those
(08:48):
types of things are important to us. So I'm not
going to say what anybody should or shouldn't do. You know,
I'm kind of both, and I can only speak for myself. Right,
I'm very much passionate about what I do. I think
that this is part of the reason why I was
put on this planet, is to do what I do.
(09:10):
I am very lucky to have found my passion, right,
I am very lucky to have found what my purpose
is on this planet. Right for me to be alive?
I feel that way, and you know I am a
(09:30):
conscious capitalist, right, I do believe in wealth. I do believe,
you know, I do believe in what it can do
for you. I believe in how it can change your life.
I believe in how it can change others' lives, you know.
And I deeply believe in business and what the capacity
(09:51):
of running a business, how that can make you wealthy,
and how if you do that right and with the
right responsibility and the right care and the right love,
can do all those things be wickedly successful or wildly
successful rather and still care right, So you can you
(10:12):
because you have to. If you want to be successful
in business, you have to be opportunistic. You have to
be able to see the shit that most people don't see.
You have to be able to be able to be like, huh,
you know. You have to be able to see a
white space. You have to see twenty steps ahead. You
have to know the direction that something is going right.
(10:34):
So you have to be I believe that you have
to be both right. I believe that. I believe that,
and I'm not projecting that onto anybody else, but as
it relates to me, I believe that being able to
be opportunistic and also being able to be relatable and
also being able to be responsible and loving and caring
(10:58):
because I make products that people use on their bodies,
that people use on their vaginas. Right, that's not something
that I think is to be taken lightly, you know,
So that has to be done with a lot of care, love, responsibility.
That has to you know, because we're not just making
things for people to use like there have. There has
(11:19):
to be beautiful energy and fused into these products. So
it's actually helping to heal their lives. Yeah, that you know,
and that that's a very esoteric view of business. But
that's how I see it, you know, which which makes
the way we run our business very special and beautiful
and hard, you know. But but yeah, to answer your question,
(11:44):
I think you need to be both.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Have we dangerously over no pun intended romanticized raising money?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
I think we have, howso.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Because it was too easy to raise it over the past,
you know, call it, you know, for when when all
the humans you know, starting with starting with George Floyd,
even though this has been happening for thousands of years,
the brutality and killing of black men, right the world
(12:24):
saw it. Everybody wanted to do something. Nobody was doing
anything else because COVID had happened, So we were all
sitting at home, so everybody only had the ability to
pay attention. Well, what happened from that? D Diversity, equity,
and inclusion happened. Companies were sprouting up the whole departments
around it, right, you know, venture capitalists and investors, all
(12:52):
types of investors were putting together funds for BIPOC humans,
not just for black people, just humans, you know, diverse
humans all the way around. Whether that meant you know,
think of all the different cultures and ethnicities, LGBTQ plus
community veterans, women, you know. I think money was just
(13:21):
falling from the sky. Everybody could just go out and
raise it. Even if you just started your business, that's
not really the time to raise money because you don't
even really know what you have yet, right, I think
that raising money. I don't think that we shouldn't have
access to money that's out there. You know, I'll speak
(13:42):
now for our race as black people. I think that
access should just be should just access should be access.
It shouldn't have to there shouldn't have to be funds
that are focused on only black and brown humans. It
doesn't matter because it needs to be right, because this
is the world we live in, you know. But you know,
(14:04):
I am very much a believer and know how hard
it is to raise money and how hard it should
be to raise money because you literally, you literally are
asking people whether it's angel investors who that's typically money
that they've made in their life that they're taking out
(14:26):
of their bank account to invest in your business. Right,
those are typically the first ones then invest right. Then
there's venture capital, which in my mind, you shouldn't be going.
I don't personally believe that it's time to get venture
capital money until you've actually proven that you have something
(14:48):
because venture capital money typically comes with rules. And I'm
not saying that you know, seed capital and all those
things aren't important, because they are. But I just I
personally think think that when it comes to bringing capital
into the business, you should know what you have. You
should know where it's going, right, you should know how
(15:11):
you're gonna invest it, how you're going to grow your team,
all those different types of things that I think for
a few years, money was just falling out of the
sky and people didn't necessarily have the education. I mean,
I can say that because at one point we didn't
have the education right, you know, and my brother sire.
I remember I used to say to him, bro, we
(15:31):
need to raise some money, and he was like, we
don't need to raise no money yet, what are we
raising it for. We like, we're selling on our on
a website into some into some small natural stores. We
don't need no money. When Target came, that's when he
was like, Okay, now we need some money, right because
now we have we have somewhere to hang our hat.
(15:54):
Like we that when when when a when a mass
market retailer comes, that's when you have the ability to
really scale your business because they've got thousands of doors. Right.
So you know, I mainly speak for CpG, which is
consumer package goods. You know, I don't believe that people
(16:15):
should raise money in CpG until they've at least figured
out how to make a million dollars on their own, right.
I just you know, maybe I'm old school for believing that,
but I think that it's important for you to understand
the logistics, the operations, what do you actually need the
money for? Where's it going? If you figured out how
(16:38):
to make a million, you can figure out how to
make ten. You understand what I'm saying, yea and so
you know, I do think that it was over romanticized,
but it was also a beautiful thing because so many people,
you know, the gap was able to kind of be
filled a bit. But the problem is is that a
(17:01):
lot of those brands that were getting all that money,
where are they today?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Yeah, because it kind of sets you up for failure
if you don't know how you're going to execute those
funds and actually grow the thing. You understand what I'm saying.
So if you getting money is just a very small
fraction of it, you have to and having an investor
(17:28):
that wants to be more to you than just money
is also equally important. They need to be invested in
helping you build your leadership team, which helps you build
out the rest of your team. They need to be
invested in helping you understand how you're going to operationally
run your business right. They need to be invested in,
(17:49):
you know, regulatory and helping you understand what that road
map is and how you're going to grow it. You know,
because even if you just make a face wash at
this point, it's the way that the FDA is moving.
Everything is heavily regulated. You understand what I'm saying. And
so if you don't have the tools and the resources
(18:11):
to understand how to do these things, it makes it
very hard for you to make money. You know.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Yeah, what is the difference between what you did or
what you see as a as a better road map
versus people who make a potion do it in their kitchen,
sell it out of their kitchen, sell it out of
their trunk, you know, quote unquote paverbial trunk, and they
don't get past that.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I think because we were that right, we started in
our kitchen selling it out of our trunk. You know, Honestly,
some of it some of it is luck, some of
it is the know how, you know, Like I, I
(19:06):
was lucky enough to be I worked in whole Foods
as a salesperson and whole body, so I knew how
to talk to a customer. Right. My brother was my
you know, it is my co founder. He was an accountant,
so he knew how to deal with money. He knew
(19:26):
how to talk to high network individuals. Right. Linda had
worked in marketing. She's one of our other original co founders.
Not necessarily with the business anymore, but you know, she
she knew how to build. At that time, we considered
(19:46):
her to be our CMO. Right, But we were young,
so we were just you know, we were just creating titles.
That's another thing you do when you're young, right, as
a business owner. But I think we as a collective
have the know how within our respective fields because it's
(20:08):
what we did every day, you know. And then after
I worked at Whole Foods, I went on to be
a broker, so I knew how to talk to a buyer,
you know what I mean. So I think, you know,
I think some of it's luck. I think some of
it's having to know how of how to like at
least be able, whether it's going into a small retailer
(20:30):
or a big one, knowing how to talk to them,
knowing what they're looking for. I think, you know, it
requires a lot of grit. I think having access and
having something really it goes down to mostly is having
a product that has the ability to really catch fire
(20:52):
and really go you know, like it's having a product
that people need. I think on an every day basis,
I think that that's also something to it. And again
I can only speak to this in CpG. I don't
you know, it's what I know, you know what I mean?
But I think, you know, I think it's a combination
(21:12):
of a lot of things. You know, and some people
have really dope products that people do use every day,
but it's just so hard because there's so many products
out in the world. It's just so hard to get
off the ground. Some people have all that stuff and
they may still never be able to get it to
(21:33):
where we have it. It's not because what I have
is better than what they have. I think. Also it's
also about what's in order for you in your life,
you know, and some of those things you know aren't predetermined.
You know, some things you just it just kind of
is what it is. So that doesn't make it a
(21:56):
bad thing or a good thing. It's just the thing.
You know. Some people will continue to do the same
thing for the next ten years and and they maybe
maybe they don't get past a few hundred thousand. Maybe
they can craft a million, but it's hard for them
to get past that, you know, and that that's that,
And that's not a bad thing because that means you
(22:18):
still have something. You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, I think that's the question that I asked about.
Like our relationship with raising money is like if you
if you look pre Covid and George Floyd and almost yes,
we're post Covid and George Floyd. Now we've because we
romanticized what tech Crunch was talking about. This company raised
Oh I can't. I might to switch cameras, but I'm
gonna get this question off first, because they're recording with
(22:42):
the concept of raising money was glamorized. When you saw
these companies raising a million dollars, you know, five hundred
thousand dollars, then we start to think that that's the goal,
and profit isn't the goal. And I'd love to hear
you speak to that.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Right right, Profit is the goal all the way every day.
You know it used to be. It used to be
that profit. You know, you think of like the dollar
shave clubs of the world. You know how they were
able they had the ability to scale their business I
(23:20):
don't know, to like one hundred and fifty million or
something like that, and then they were able to sell
to I think they sold to Unilever somebody like that
for like a billion dollars. I don't know that they
were necessarily profitable, right, but they came up at a
time right where profitability was not necessarily what the strategics
were looking for, what they were excited about when it
(23:44):
came to Dollar Shave Club is the fact that they
had over a million subscribers, right, yeah, yeah, And that
was a time when directed consumer was really hot. Right.
Subscriptions were also a hot thing at that time. You know. Well,
now we're at a time where you know, you see,
(24:04):
I mean, we all saw what happened when we were
right that ship was wild, right, you know, and and
and those guys are going to be fine that you know,
they're going to just go out and do a million
other things and be wickedly successful. You know. But now
I think that it's really important to strategics that it
(24:28):
makes that that companies do have a do have at
least if you're not profitable, you have a lot like
you you've got, you've got, you've got the what's the
word I'm looking for? You at least have profitability in
(24:48):
your view. You may not be profitable yet, but you
have to be a story how you're going to get
over there, right, you know, you you you, you know,
you have to be making a dec margin. And these
are things that you want anyway, even if the world
was still the same back when Dollar Shave Club was
able to go out and sell their company for billions
(25:10):
of dollars away. Just because we see that, in my mind,
it's better of you to be a responsible business person
and make sure that you have a company that's making
a great margin, that's got this able to put money
in the bank. Right, because money in the bank gives
(25:32):
you access to lines of credit. It makes you a
sexy It makes you sexy to be able to go
out into the world when it is time to raise money.
To be able to raise that money, it makes it
so that your investors know that because you've already built
the you've already kind of put yourself in a position
(25:57):
where you've built your busines business to be profitable. You've
built your business to be lean effective, to be able
to drive revenue, to be able to print money. Right
when you build a business from that point of view,
that's going to make it so whatever you decide in
the future, Right, especially if you've brought in private ectuity,
(26:20):
your venture capital money, knowing that you're going to have
to have some sort of an event. That makes it
so that you've built the muscle to be able to
go out to market, to be able to potentially sell
to a strategic or to be able to go out
in IPO, because IPO is really hard, right you know,
(26:40):
I know, I mean, I've got of several friends that
have IPO. You know, some of them have penny stocks
right now, you understand what I'm saying. That's not a
terrible thing. It is what it is. But it's a
very hard market to be in because everybody is in
your business at that point. All it takes is one
(27:01):
viral moment that can make the stock plummet, you know,
and so you know, amongst many other things, you know,
all the all the regulations, all the things you have
to uphold on a monthly, daily basis. It's wild. So
you know, I think building the muscle to be profitable,
to be lean, to make sure you're covering a high margin,
(27:23):
to understand your business inside and out is really important.
You know. Building that muscle from the beginning is really
important because that's where that's where we are at this point.
I think the strategics of the world learned that profitability
is actually really important because you have because that tells
them that you have a business.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, yeah, you know what is missing, Like when you
see these conversations around and you don't have to say
the name, but I'll say the name target. And you
see that, you see all these things happening. What's missing
from that conversation that you wish we understood? Mm, because
we're all looking at the targets and you're like, y'all
need to understand this.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
But what should we understand?
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I think the thing that's important to understand. I'm not
going to speak from a target point of view, because
I'm not. You know, my brand isn't target. We sell there.
I think what's important to understand in a time like
this is what it takes to get the opportunity to
(28:34):
be in a target, what it takes to get on
shelf at target, what it takes even bigger than that,
because getting on the shelf is actually it's not easy,
but it's easy. What's hard is staying there. And what's
really hard is when your business is not when your
(28:57):
velocities aren't growing and turning, when you're not meeting your
dollars per store per week, right when your cells are down.
You know when your cells are down, and then when
(29:18):
you know and then when how do I give this
example without alienating anything? When your when when you as
a brand, not not just Honeypot, just in general. Right
when your numbers may be down due to what's happening right,
(29:39):
but they're actually seeing that their numbers aren't so down.
It makes it look like your numbers are down because
of another reason, when in fact, your numbers are probably
down because of what's actually happening.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
I got it.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
It makes it hard for bring to be able to
survive in a space like that.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
They don't take into account the landscape.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
You have to take into account the whole landscape of things,
what it takes to get on shelf. Like a lot
of people are talking about right now how they're seeing
a lot of the brands marked down. People are saying,
you know, they're seeing a lot of the black brands
marked down right, Well, right now is the time, right
(30:27):
before they're about to launch all their new stuff on
the shelf. So quite naturally, typically the things that are
gonna be discontinued off the shelf are happening right now.
So what do they do. They mark it down. They
try to sell through it until right before they're gonna
set the shelf for the rest for the new things
(30:49):
that are gonna come on shelf because you have to
make space on shelf for the new stuff, right, But
the average person doesn't know that. To them, they think, oh,
they just made an announcement about D and I, now
they're mocking down all these brands and throwing all these
brands out. That's not the case. These brands were going
to be marked down whether they continue their D and
(31:10):
I practices or not, because you have to make room
on the shelf because some of these brands probably have
new innovation coming or some of them maybe weren't meeting
their requirements. Right. There's there's a multitude of reasons why
a brand has to discontinue things or why they have
to come off shelf. Why. Because it's really hard to
(31:33):
be in mass market retail. It's very very, very very
very hard. Right, There's a real art to it, there's
a real intellectual side to it. There. It's heavily operational,
it's heavily logistical. You know, it's heavy with trades spend.
You know, not understanding trade spend can literally murder your business.
(31:56):
Have You could have a million dollars worth of purchase
orders and only get paid back a hun undred thousand
because it may have been late, may not have showed up,
it may have not showed up on time, it may
not have been stickered the right way. It may like,
there's so many things that can happen that can cause
for them to just charge you, charge you, charge you.
You understand what I'm saying, The chargebacks, right, and so
(32:18):
you know, so trying not to, trying not to even
though they just made the announcement that they made, trying
not to make everything so literal, because some of these
things are just things that just not likely. We were
talking about earlier, These are just things that just naturally
(32:39):
happen in business, right. It's not that they had a
plan to let some of these companies go. They are
literally making space on the shelf for new products that
are about to be launching because April May is the time, right,
and so you know, so it's so, I mean, some
(33:00):
of what I mentioned is something I think that needs
to be taken into account. I think the biggest thing
that needs to be taken into account is to not
make brands pay for something that a retailer chooses. But
I also understand that like companies don't necessarily always listen
until their bottom line is affected, and so I also
(33:23):
understand the point of these things, you know, so I
also want to preface what I'm saying with you also
have to make your own decision about what you want
to do. Some of the things that I'm saying is
just my own opinion, but I'm not trying to tell
people what they should do. You have to choose where
(33:46):
you want to shop, where you want to spend your money,
who you want to spend your money with. I just
think that it's important to understand the life of a
business owner, who is who is essentially renting real estate
from Target, from Walmart, from these you know, these retailers
in order for us to run our business. It's not
(34:08):
if we were if you tried to just pull your
products out of a Target, that literally would be deaf
to your brand by a million cuts, right, because you
wouldn't survive. You don't just pull your products out. They
charge you to pull those products out. Wow, and then
what are you gonna do? Some people say, well, you
can just sell your products online. Well, when you sell
(34:30):
products online, that's only one store you have to pay for.
You have to pay your your three pl fees, you
have to pay for shipping one unless you have a
product that that is an expensive product. It's very hard
to make money directed consumer. It's a misnomer to say.
(34:51):
People it's a misconception. People think that you make so
much money by selling directed consumer. But if you make
a product that's under twenty dollars, I'm sorry to tell
you that's just not the case.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah, So I guess my question then is you know
I've heard and I don't know, so you maybe you
know more about this, Like they're taking away.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
The section of those products.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Like the black section, you know, and then putting it
in with other like they will just not not be
a section.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
But maybe the question is and we want.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
That, we want that. We don't want to be in
a black section.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Yeah, that's my question, that's my question.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
We want to be we want to be. If you
make if listen, if you make body wash and body lotion,
where is your product best sold.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
In the body wash the body lotion section.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
If you make hair care products, right, where's your hair
care best sold? If you make shampoos and conditioners, it's
best sold in the place that you go and buy
shampoo and conditioners. I make vagine a wellness products. Why
would my products work in an area of the store
that's allocated for humans of color. That's weird. That's not
(36:02):
weird to you.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, I guess you take it to the level of like,
why is there an organic section of the grocery store?
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Like this is just the Yeah, but brother, they all
the all the retailers stopped doing that. I don't know
where you live, but I remember back in the and
this is only because I come from retail. I remember
back in the day Kroger used to sell used to
have an organic section, right. Well, they found that people
didn't want to just go to the organic section. People
(36:30):
wanted to buy their organic potato chips in the potato
chip aisle. They want to get their organic cereal they're
they're caschi or whatever in the cereal aisle. I want
to buy my organic milk in the milk section. I
don't want to have to go over here and then
go over there. It's it's a better shopping experience when
(36:53):
when you can buy when you can walk a store
and navigate a store and navigated the way that you
would typically navigate and experience the way that you would
when you can just buy your things where you traditionally
go to buy them otherwise you're trying to get a
human consumer to practice a different way of shopping, which
(37:15):
your condition, which makes it harder for them to do.
So do you understand what makes.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Sort of sense?
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Yeah, in a few minutes I have left. I want
to ask about, like your leadership style, how that's evolved,
you know, over time from you know, let's say a
small company you know you talked about in your kitchen
pervertiably to now seventy plus people, and how has be
had to change.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Mmm, that's a good question. I think that I think
that my leadership chop style has definitely is constantly changing.
You know, in the beginning, you kind of have to
be everything. You know, when you're when you're scaling your
(37:59):
typically bringing in people who have more expertise, So then
your leadership style has to redevelop a bit because you're
bringing in leadership. So you need to give them the
ability to lead. You have you have to be able
to step back and not be You have to be
(38:19):
trust You have to trust them right, and you also
have to have the ability to be open to them
making mistakes because that's how we all learn. So, you know,
but it's hard when you go from doing everything to
bringing somebody in, especially bringing somebody in that's probably replacing
(38:42):
you a bit, right, because you know, in the beginning
it was it was me me inside, but then over time,
you know, I'll speak for myself. My investors felt like
we needed a president, which they weren't wrong. We did.
I've never I've never ran a multimillion dollar business before.
(39:03):
This is my first time, you understand what I'm saying, So,
like my my understanding of running a company has limitations.
So they were like, hey, we really feel like we
need to bring in a president because and the president,
the person that they brought in, Alison Savajah, who's incredible,
(39:26):
you know she I mean, she's worked at she's she's
worked at multi billion dollar businesses, right, and so she
knows she's gonna know what needs to be done, how
to build this team, how to strategically, how to strategically
(39:46):
grow it, How do we put in services and tools
in order to be able to grow our teams and
give them the resources that you know, she's just gonna
have a different level of experience than I have, and
so I have to have the ability two respect that
there's only so much that I know and if I
(40:09):
want this business to go where I know it can,
I have to let her lead. I have to step back, right,
you know, And I have to still know what know
and respect what I do because nobody can do what
I do right as it relates to this business, you know.
(40:36):
And I have to realize that there's things that I
don't have the ability to do. And so the art
of being a good leader is understanding what you don't
know how to do so that you can get the
right people into the job so that you can trust
them and give them the ability to grow, you know,
(40:57):
but also understand what it is you know how to
do and you know how to do best, so that
you can do that shit all the way. You know.
So I think, you know, if I had to give
it a name, I'm probably very much a transformative leader.
(41:18):
You know. I really respect the leaders on my team.
I really respect their opinion. I really respect their you know,
their backgrounds. I respect what they bring to this business,
you know. And I and honestly I welcome it because
you know, in order for this to be what I
know it can be. You know, honey Pot is a
(41:40):
conglomerate brand within itself. Even before we sell to a
conglomerate at some point you understand what I'm saying, which
which would be the final home of Honeypot, Right. But
in order for us to get there, you know, we
(42:01):
have to be able to ebb and flow. We have
to die to our egos. We have to we have
to know why we're here and who we're serving and
keep that human at the forefront of why we do
everything that we do, you know, because that's what's most important.
That human with the vagina is the most important to us,
(42:24):
right yeah, And so you know, and then also our
team is very important. It's also the most important, right
Like we we we we work really hard to make
really beautiful, efficacious, beautiful skincare, vaginal care, menstrual care, personal care.
(42:51):
But we have to treat each other well in the process.
You know, if we're in if we're working in a
toxic work environment, the output of that is going to
be toxic. And so also how we treat each other
within the company is very important. How we respect each other,
how we talk to each other, how we build our
businesses with each other. You know, it's so it's it's
(43:13):
a it's a culmination of a lot of things. You know,
you know, but I but, but but it definitely changes
all the time. And and you know, for some people
change can be really hard. For me, change is not hard.
(43:34):
I actually welcome change. I'm a very very very hyper
present person. And but I know, you know, the evolution
doesn't happen without change, you know. And and I and
I want honey Pot to be here for the next
(43:54):
however many hundreds of years, you know. And in order
to do that, you know, I think, I think that
you have to be able to.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Flow, to be respectfully a time.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
I'll get one last question for you, And I think
about I have this conversation with friends a lot and
this idea of building a business on support, and I
feel like we have to at.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Some point get past support. I buy this because I
support it.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Like, but even before this whole Target thing, I was like, like,
you don't go to Target because you support Target.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
You go to Target because it's they at what you need. Both.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
So many of our businesses are like you got I
need your support to you know, keep the lights on it.
And I'm like, we got to move past that. So
I love your thoughts to hear your thoughts on how
on that and how we get past just support.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Yeah, I mean, I agree with you. I think that. Look,
I think I have a few thoughts about that. I
think that I think for the brain, and that is literally,
Target is about to be their very first retailer, their
very first mass market retailer, right, and they're about to
(45:11):
go on shelf, and maybe they're a decent sized brand
on their own, right, Like they've they've figured out how
to make some real money and they've gotten into Target
and they're looking to grow their business. That company needs support. Yeah,
(45:33):
your first few years, your first few years in retail,
you first of all, you may not have tons of money.
Even if you're making money, it's hard to it's you know,
marketing and all those things costs and absorbing an amounts
of money, right, so you may not have all the
tools and resources that's going to take you to the
(45:54):
next level as far as like being able to support
your product on shelf. Those companies we're just figure you're
just trying to figure out how to do that. Right,
If you're only in one hundred doors, it doesn't make
sense to pay Target or any other retailer twenty five
thousand dollars for their in store marketing programs. Because you're
only in one hundred doors, you pay that amount of
money when you're in at least eleven hundred doors or more. Right,
(46:19):
and so when it comes to support, that brand needs
support because they're testing right now potentially so that next
year they can go back to Target and say, hey,
you tested me in one hundred doors. Now I want
to be in two hundred doors or five hundred doors.
(46:41):
But in order for them to get that five hundred doors,
what has to happen, Those hundred doors have to produce.
So that brand needs support because they don't have the
resources to go out and do big, huge marketing campaigns
and do all the shit that you know that that
a big brand has the abilit do. Wouldn't even make
(47:01):
sense for them to do because they're only in one
hundred doors. So in the beginning, they really need the
support of their of their customer that's been following them,
that's been supporting them the whole time, that's been buying
their products online or buying it out of their trunk
or whatever the circustances situation is. Now, I agree with
(47:26):
you that you have to get to a point where
where it's not just like you're just living off of support.
You have to get to the point to where you're
living off of velocity, where where you are, where you
are scaling and growing. Right, you started one hundred doors,
(47:46):
now you're out in the five hundred doors. Following year
you got into a thousand. Now you're going to go
talk to Walmart. Then you're going to go talk to Kroger.
Then you under sound I'm saying, now you want to
go talk to CBS. But in the beginning, you need
some support, right because because you gotta get, you gotta
get off the ground you got. You have to move
(48:08):
past the support phase. But that is one of that
is phase one of getting into mass market. And I
don't and I think that and and that is one
of the things to your earlier question of things that
we have to realize as consumers that buy products off
of shelves, because you're right, targeted target their machine right
(48:34):
like they they they they are they are kind of
the the mother retailer, and then the sisters and brothers
are on the shelves. Right, we need to in order
for target to be what it is, it cannot survive
(48:54):
without brands. Brands cannot survive without human beings consumed our product.
It just doesn't work that way. We all all of
we need we all need each other, right and so
you know, I agree with you. The goal needs to
(49:15):
be getting out of the support phase, but every single
business has to go through the support phase before they
get to the next one.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity, Afro
Tech on the Black Effect podcast Networking Night Hire Media.
It's produced by Morgan, Debaonne and me Well Lucas, with
the additional production support by Kate McDonald, Saarah Ergan and
Jayda McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and Lovebeach.
Learn more about my guessing other Tech. This show is
an innovators at afrotech dot Com. Video version of this
(49:44):
episode will drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube,
So tap it in, enjoy your Black Tech Green Money,
share us to somebody, go get your money.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
Decent Love
I'm with Lucas and this is black Tech, Green money.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Beatrice Dixon is the co founder, CEO, and Chief Innovation
officer of the Honey pot Kel, game changing feminine wellness
brand that started with the dream. Literally from launching with
a twenty one thousand dollar loan to building a multi
million dollar business, Doctor made your retailers be as, navigated
the challenges of fundraising as a black woman, scaled the
(00:26):
company without losing its soul, and remained unapologetic about her
vision with success. So I'm very interested in your take
on this because I've lived by this idea of not
being romantic about business, and I read that you also
practiced unromantic relationships with the business. And you know, you said,
(00:47):
you like, don't look at your business.
Speaker 1 (00:48):
As your baby.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
You know, I've read as you said, so many of
us start because we're so passionate about the idea. So
how do you admonish us to think about that?
Speaker 3 (01:01):
I think that, you know, because you know, every now
and again somebody asked me do I have kids. I
don't have kids, you know, and they'll be like, well,
your business is your kids. I'm like, I mean, you're
kind of you know, but at the same time, our
businesses are not our kids. Our businesses our businesses. They're
(01:21):
here to make us money. They're here to provide goods
and services to human beings that we serve. You know,
I think that it's really important too. I think it's
really important to give respect to what a business is.
(01:42):
But I also understand that it takes a lot of you.
It takes a lot of your soul, a lot of
your energy, a lot of your you know, especially when
you're really trying to do the thing. You know, you
give it all you have, so naturally it feels personal,
right because you know, a lot of the shit is personal.
(02:05):
You know, you have to sacrifice a lot when you're really, really,
really in business, like when things are really at scale
and you're growing and moving and shaking and raising money,
and you know, in a lot of retailers or you know,
you've got a huge brand online or whatever, it requires
(02:26):
a lot of you. So it's like, on one hand,
I understand that for the people that do it every day,
it's not just business. There is a personal element to it.
And on the other hand, we have to understand what
the purpose of business is. Especially this is something in
(02:47):
the black community you know, because we are held to
a standard that frankly is not able to be. You know,
it's a standard that's not reality. You understand what I'm saying.
It's not based in reality, It's based a lot in emotion.
(03:08):
You know, we don't necessarily always see ourselves as just
business people. We see ourselves as black business people, when
in fact, we're just business people like everybody else is.
You understand what I'm saying. And so even though the
world wants to put us in that box, we have
to do a better job of unconditioning ourselves to stay
(03:29):
in that box, you know, because we're just trying to
run our shit like everybody else is, right, And so
that's another part of it that's really hard, because you know,
we grow up, we scale, we raise money, we do
all the things. Well, what happens when you raise money
(03:50):
and do all the things You have to have some
kind of strategic partnership. You have to have a way
for your shareholders to be able to become whole on
their investment as well as yourself. You don't get rich,
you know, I'm not saying that some companies don't, but
typically you can be you can be. Let me rephrase this.
(04:12):
You're not getting wealthy off of being a business owner.
You might become rich, okay, okay, And when I'm when
I'm when I'm talking about rich. You may have money
in the in the bank, you know, you might, you
might be able to stack a couple of million, right,
But having the ability to stop twenty plus in your
(04:33):
bank account, which is fu money right where it can
just sit there, you never have to think about it,
and you can just earn off of interest. You can
just live off of that forever and ever. You understand
what I'm saying. Having the ability to do to do
that means that some sort of an event is happening, right,
(04:56):
some sort of a strategic event. Is it that you've
been acquired by a private equity fund. Is it that
you've been acquired by conglomerate? Is it that you took
your company to be to I p O, you know,
and you were able to let it sit long enough
and actually be able to make money off of that? Right? Yeah,
(05:17):
these are the things that we have to do in business.
Our skin color and what's between our legs shouldn't matter.
But but this is another way that I think business
is romanticized and emotional, emotionalized. I don't even know that
that's a reason or a word, right, but you know,
but you understand what I'm saying, like we have to
(05:38):
we have to stop. I shouldn't say we have to
do this is just my opinion. I think that we
need to do a better job of respecting what it
takes to make this shit happen, because it takes a
lot and and and and if you're lucky enough, which
most companies, whether you're white, purple brain, most companies will
(06:02):
never ever ever experience what that is to go through
some sort of event of an event like that, because
it just doesn't happen every day. But we shouldn't be
penalized because we do. You understand, like we shouldn't. We
shouldn't be in a position where investors are afraid to
invest in us, or strategics are afraid to acquire us
(06:25):
because of what the community is going to say. You know,
I think that that that that's another way that business
has been romanticized because once you do it, then then
you're penalized for doing it. And that's not really cool
because you're just doing what you have to do in
order to run your business. And in order to, you know,
(06:48):
go through the motions of what it means to take
in venture capital or private equity money. The day you
do that, that's the day that you've just signed that
you've just you've just signed the dotted line to say
that you're either selling your company or your IPO in it.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Right, Yeah, I think I'm gonna throw away all the
questions I have prepared and just let the spirit movie
on this one.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
This was this okay you okay.
Speaker 2 (07:12):
So I think, listening to at least the beginning of
your talk, you're a statement there that some of so
many of us get.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
Into whatever business we start because.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
We're so passionate about it. And I wonder your take
on do we even have to be passionate but or
can we also be opportunistic also like our counterparts might be,
they just see an opportunity and go because I see
an opportunity.
Speaker 3 (07:37):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
No, no, go ahead, No, I don't really have a question,
but I wanted to have this conversation.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Yeah. I absolutely think that there's businesses that are what
they are, you know, because of opportunity. Look at Jeff Bezos,
the richest man in the world, right there may be
somebody wealthier, but like you know, he's high up, right.
(08:09):
He got to where he is because he saw an opportunity.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Right, Do you see enough of us doing that?
Speaker 2 (08:16):
Or because I believe, at least from my perspective, that
we are more tall, Like what do you care about?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
What are the things that move you? And then go
start to business?
Speaker 3 (08:24):
So bad? Yeah, I actually agree with you. Right. We
are brought up to care about things. We are brought
up to feel responsible for what we put into the
world to you know, we're more We're I don't want
to say more. We're a communal community, right, We those
(08:48):
types of things are important to us. So I'm not
going to say what anybody should or shouldn't do. You know,
I'm kind of both, and I can only speak for myself. Right,
I'm very much passionate about what I do. I think
that this is part of the reason why I was
put on this planet, is to do what I do.
(09:10):
I am very lucky to have found my passion, right,
I am very lucky to have found what my purpose
is on this planet. Right for me to be alive?
I feel that way, and you know I am a
(09:30):
conscious capitalist, right, I do believe in wealth. I do believe,
you know, I do believe in what it can do
for you. I believe in how it can change your life.
I believe in how it can change others' lives, you know.
And I deeply believe in business and what the capacity
(09:51):
of running a business, how that can make you wealthy,
and how if you do that right and with the
right responsibility and the right care and the right love,
can do all those things be wickedly successful or wildly
successful rather and still care right, So you can you
(10:12):
because you have to. If you want to be successful
in business, you have to be opportunistic. You have to
be able to see the shit that most people don't see.
You have to be able to be able to be like, huh,
you know. You have to be able to see a
white space. You have to see twenty steps ahead. You
have to know the direction that something is going right.
(10:34):
So you have to be I believe that you have
to be both right. I believe that. I believe that,
and I'm not projecting that onto anybody else, but as
it relates to me, I believe that being able to
be opportunistic and also being able to be relatable and
also being able to be responsible and loving and caring
(10:58):
because I make products that people use on their bodies,
that people use on their vaginas. Right, that's not something
that I think is to be taken lightly, you know,
So that has to be done with a lot of care, love, responsibility.
That has to you know, because we're not just making
things for people to use like there have. There has
(11:19):
to be beautiful energy and fused into these products. So
it's actually helping to heal their lives. Yeah, that you know,
and that that's a very esoteric view of business. But
that's how I see it, you know, which which makes
the way we run our business very special and beautiful
and hard, you know. But but yeah, to answer your question,
(11:44):
I think you need to be both.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Have we dangerously over no pun intended romanticized raising money?
Speaker 1 (11:54):
I think we have, howso.
Speaker 3 (11:58):
Because it was too easy to raise it over the past,
you know, call it, you know, for when when all
the humans you know, starting with starting with George Floyd,
even though this has been happening for thousands of years,
the brutality and killing of black men, right the world
(12:24):
saw it. Everybody wanted to do something. Nobody was doing
anything else because COVID had happened, So we were all
sitting at home, so everybody only had the ability to
pay attention. Well, what happened from that? D Diversity, equity,
and inclusion happened. Companies were sprouting up the whole departments
around it, right, you know, venture capitalists and investors, all
(12:52):
types of investors were putting together funds for BIPOC humans,
not just for black people, just humans, you know, diverse
humans all the way around. Whether that meant you know,
think of all the different cultures and ethnicities, LGBTQ plus
community veterans, women, you know. I think money was just
(13:21):
falling from the sky. Everybody could just go out and
raise it. Even if you just started your business, that's
not really the time to raise money because you don't
even really know what you have yet, right, I think
that raising money. I don't think that we shouldn't have
access to money that's out there. You know, I'll speak
(13:42):
now for our race as black people. I think that
access should just be should just access should be access.
It shouldn't have to there shouldn't have to be funds
that are focused on only black and brown humans. It
doesn't matter because it needs to be right, because this
is the world we live in, you know. But you know,
(14:04):
I am very much a believer and know how hard
it is to raise money and how hard it should
be to raise money because you literally, you literally are
asking people whether it's angel investors who that's typically money
that they've made in their life that they're taking out
(14:26):
of their bank account to invest in your business. Right,
those are typically the first ones then invest right. Then
there's venture capital, which in my mind, you shouldn't be going.
I don't personally believe that it's time to get venture
capital money until you've actually proven that you have something
(14:48):
because venture capital money typically comes with rules. And I'm
not saying that you know, seed capital and all those
things aren't important, because they are. But I just I
personally think think that when it comes to bringing capital
into the business, you should know what you have. You
should know where it's going, right, you should know how
(15:11):
you're gonna invest it, how you're going to grow your team,
all those different types of things that I think for
a few years, money was just falling out of the
sky and people didn't necessarily have the education. I mean,
I can say that because at one point we didn't
have the education right, you know, and my brother sire.
I remember I used to say to him, bro, we
(15:31):
need to raise some money, and he was like, we
don't need to raise no money yet, what are we
raising it for. We like, we're selling on our on
a website into some into some small natural stores. We
don't need no money. When Target came, that's when he
was like, Okay, now we need some money, right because
now we have we have somewhere to hang our hat.
(15:54):
Like we that when when when a when a mass
market retailer comes, that's when you have the ability to
really scale your business because they've got thousands of doors. Right.
So you know, I mainly speak for CpG, which is
consumer package goods. You know, I don't believe that people
(16:15):
should raise money in CpG until they've at least figured
out how to make a million dollars on their own, right.
I just you know, maybe I'm old school for believing that,
but I think that it's important for you to understand
the logistics, the operations, what do you actually need the
money for? Where's it going? If you figured out how
(16:38):
to make a million, you can figure out how to
make ten. You understand what I'm saying, yea and so
you know, I do think that it was over romanticized,
but it was also a beautiful thing because so many people,
you know, the gap was able to kind of be
filled a bit. But the problem is is that a
(17:01):
lot of those brands that were getting all that money,
where are they today?
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Yeah, because it kind of sets you up for failure
if you don't know how you're going to execute those
funds and actually grow the thing. You understand what I'm saying.
So if you getting money is just a very small
fraction of it, you have to and having an investor
(17:28):
that wants to be more to you than just money
is also equally important. They need to be invested in
helping you build your leadership team, which helps you build
out the rest of your team. They need to be
invested in helping you understand how you're going to operationally
run your business right. They need to be invested in,
(17:49):
you know, regulatory and helping you understand what that road
map is and how you're going to grow it. You know,
because even if you just make a face wash at
this point, it's the way that the FDA is moving.
Everything is heavily regulated. You understand what I'm saying. And
so if you don't have the tools and the resources
(18:11):
to understand how to do these things, it makes it
very hard for you to make money. You know.
Speaker 2 (18:18):
Yeah, what is the difference between what you did or
what you see as a as a better road map
versus people who make a potion do it in their kitchen,
sell it out of their kitchen, sell it out of
their trunk, you know, quote unquote paverbial trunk, and they
don't get past that.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
I think because we were that right, we started in
our kitchen selling it out of our trunk. You know, Honestly,
some of it some of it is luck, some of
it is the know how, you know, Like I, I
(19:06):
was lucky enough to be I worked in whole Foods
as a salesperson and whole body, so I knew how
to talk to a customer. Right. My brother was my
you know, it is my co founder. He was an accountant,
so he knew how to deal with money. He knew
(19:26):
how to talk to high network individuals. Right. Linda had
worked in marketing. She's one of our other original co founders.
Not necessarily with the business anymore, but you know, she
she knew how to build. At that time, we considered
(19:46):
her to be our CMO. Right, But we were young,
so we were just you know, we were just creating titles.
That's another thing you do when you're young, right, as
a business owner. But I think we as a collective
have the know how within our respective fields because it's
(20:08):
what we did every day, you know. And then after
I worked at Whole Foods, I went on to be
a broker, so I knew how to talk to a buyer,
you know what I mean. So I think, you know,
I think some of it's luck. I think some of
it's having to know how of how to like at
least be able, whether it's going into a small retailer
(20:30):
or a big one, knowing how to talk to them,
knowing what they're looking for. I think, you know, it
requires a lot of grit. I think having access and
having something really it goes down to mostly is having
a product that has the ability to really catch fire
(20:52):
and really go you know, like it's having a product
that people need. I think on an every day basis,
I think that that's also something to it. And again
I can only speak to this in CpG. I don't
you know, it's what I know, you know what I mean?
But I think, you know, I think it's a combination
(21:12):
of a lot of things. You know, and some people
have really dope products that people do use every day,
but it's just so hard because there's so many products
out in the world. It's just so hard to get
off the ground. Some people have all that stuff and
they may still never be able to get it to
(21:33):
where we have it. It's not because what I have
is better than what they have. I think. Also it's
also about what's in order for you in your life,
you know, and some of those things you know aren't predetermined.
You know, some things you just it just kind of
is what it is. So that doesn't make it a
(21:56):
bad thing or a good thing. It's just the thing.
You know. Some people will continue to do the same
thing for the next ten years and and they maybe
maybe they don't get past a few hundred thousand. Maybe
they can craft a million, but it's hard for them
to get past that, you know, and that that's that,
And that's not a bad thing because that means you
(22:18):
still have something. You understand what I'm saying.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Yeah, I think that's the question that I asked about.
Like our relationship with raising money is like if you
if you look pre Covid and George Floyd and almost yes,
we're post Covid and George Floyd. Now we've because we
romanticized what tech Crunch was talking about. This company raised
Oh I can't. I might to switch cameras, but I'm
gonna get this question off first, because they're recording with
(22:42):
the concept of raising money was glamorized. When you saw
these companies raising a million dollars, you know, five hundred
thousand dollars, then we start to think that that's the goal,
and profit isn't the goal. And I'd love to hear
you speak to that.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
Right right, Profit is the goal all the way every day.
You know it used to be. It used to be
that profit. You know, you think of like the dollar
shave clubs of the world. You know how they were
able they had the ability to scale their business I
(23:20):
don't know, to like one hundred and fifty million or
something like that, and then they were able to sell
to I think they sold to Unilever somebody like that
for like a billion dollars. I don't know that they
were necessarily profitable, right, but they came up at a
time right where profitability was not necessarily what the strategics
were looking for, what they were excited about when it
(23:44):
came to Dollar Shave Club is the fact that they
had over a million subscribers, right, yeah, yeah, And that
was a time when directed consumer was really hot. Right.
Subscriptions were also a hot thing at that time. You know. Well,
now we're at a time where you know, you see,
(24:04):
I mean, we all saw what happened when we were
right that ship was wild, right, you know, and and
and those guys are going to be fine that you know,
they're going to just go out and do a million
other things and be wickedly successful. You know. But now
I think that it's really important to strategics that it
(24:28):
makes that that companies do have a do have at
least if you're not profitable, you have a lot like
you you've got, you've got, you've got the what's the
word I'm looking for? You at least have profitability in
(24:48):
your view. You may not be profitable yet, but you
have to be a story how you're going to get
over there, right, you know, you you you, you know,
you have to be making a dec margin. And these
are things that you want anyway, even if the world
was still the same back when Dollar Shave Club was
able to go out and sell their company for billions
(25:10):
of dollars away. Just because we see that, in my mind,
it's better of you to be a responsible business person
and make sure that you have a company that's making
a great margin, that's got this able to put money
in the bank. Right, because money in the bank gives
(25:32):
you access to lines of credit. It makes you a
sexy It makes you sexy to be able to go
out into the world when it is time to raise money.
To be able to raise that money, it makes it
so that your investors know that because you've already built
the you've already kind of put yourself in a position
(25:57):
where you've built your busines business to be profitable. You've
built your business to be lean effective, to be able
to drive revenue, to be able to print money. Right
when you build a business from that point of view,
that's going to make it so whatever you decide in
the future, Right, especially if you've brought in private ectuity,
(26:20):
your venture capital money, knowing that you're going to have
to have some sort of an event. That makes it
so that you've built the muscle to be able to
go out to market, to be able to potentially sell
to a strategic or to be able to go out
in IPO, because IPO is really hard, right you know,
(26:40):
I know, I mean, I've got of several friends that
have IPO. You know, some of them have penny stocks
right now, you understand what I'm saying. That's not a
terrible thing. It is what it is. But it's a
very hard market to be in because everybody is in
your business at that point. All it takes is one
(27:01):
viral moment that can make the stock plummet, you know,
and so you know, amongst many other things, you know,
all the all the regulations, all the things you have
to uphold on a monthly, daily basis. It's wild. So
you know, I think building the muscle to be profitable,
to be lean, to make sure you're covering a high margin,
(27:23):
to understand your business inside and out is really important.
You know. Building that muscle from the beginning is really
important because that's where that's where we are at this point.
I think the strategics of the world learned that profitability
is actually really important because you have because that tells
them that you have a business.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Yeah, yeah, you know what is missing, Like when you
see these conversations around and you don't have to say
the name, but I'll say the name target. And you
see that, you see all these things happening. What's missing
from that conversation that you wish we understood? Mm, because
we're all looking at the targets and you're like, y'all
need to understand this.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
But what should we understand?
Speaker 3 (28:07):
I think the thing that's important to understand. I'm not
going to speak from a target point of view, because
I'm not. You know, my brand isn't target. We sell there.
I think what's important to understand in a time like
this is what it takes to get the opportunity to
(28:34):
be in a target, what it takes to get on
shelf at target, what it takes even bigger than that,
because getting on the shelf is actually it's not easy,
but it's easy. What's hard is staying there. And what's
really hard is when your business is not when your
(28:57):
velocities aren't growing and turning, when you're not meeting your
dollars per store per week, right when your cells are down.
You know when your cells are down, and then when
(29:18):
you know and then when how do I give this
example without alienating anything? When your when when you as
a brand, not not just Honeypot, just in general. Right
when your numbers may be down due to what's happening right,
(29:39):
but they're actually seeing that their numbers aren't so down.
It makes it look like your numbers are down because
of another reason, when in fact, your numbers are probably
down because of what's actually happening.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
I got it.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
It makes it hard for bring to be able to
survive in a space like that.
Speaker 1 (30:03):
They don't take into account the landscape.
Speaker 3 (30:05):
You have to take into account the whole landscape of things,
what it takes to get on shelf. Like a lot
of people are talking about right now how they're seeing
a lot of the brands marked down. People are saying,
you know, they're seeing a lot of the black brands
marked down right, Well, right now is the time, right
(30:27):
before they're about to launch all their new stuff on
the shelf. So quite naturally, typically the things that are
gonna be discontinued off the shelf are happening right now.
So what do they do. They mark it down. They
try to sell through it until right before they're gonna
set the shelf for the rest for the new things
(30:49):
that are gonna come on shelf because you have to
make space on shelf for the new stuff, right, But
the average person doesn't know that. To them, they think, oh,
they just made an announcement about D and I, now
they're mocking down all these brands and throwing all these
brands out. That's not the case. These brands were going
to be marked down whether they continue their D and
(31:10):
I practices or not, because you have to make room
on the shelf because some of these brands probably have
new innovation coming or some of them maybe weren't meeting
their requirements. Right. There's there's a multitude of reasons why
a brand has to discontinue things or why they have
to come off shelf. Why. Because it's really hard to
(31:33):
be in mass market retail. It's very very, very very
very hard. Right, There's a real art to it, there's
a real intellectual side to it. There. It's heavily operational,
it's heavily logistical. You know, it's heavy with trades spend.
You know, not understanding trade spend can literally murder your business.
(31:56):
Have You could have a million dollars worth of purchase
orders and only get paid back a hun undred thousand
because it may have been late, may not have showed up,
it may have not showed up on time, it may
not have been stickered the right way. It may like,
there's so many things that can happen that can cause
for them to just charge you, charge you, charge you.
You understand what I'm saying, The chargebacks, right, and so
(32:18):
you know, so trying not to, trying not to even
though they just made the announcement that they made, trying
not to make everything so literal, because some of these
things are just things that just not likely. We were
talking about earlier, These are just things that just naturally
(32:39):
happen in business, right. It's not that they had a
plan to let some of these companies go. They are
literally making space on the shelf for new products that
are about to be launching because April May is the time, right,
and so you know, so it's so, I mean, some
(33:00):
of what I mentioned is something I think that needs
to be taken into account. I think the biggest thing
that needs to be taken into account is to not
make brands pay for something that a retailer chooses. But
I also understand that like companies don't necessarily always listen
until their bottom line is affected, and so I also
(33:23):
understand the point of these things, you know, so I
also want to preface what I'm saying with you also
have to make your own decision about what you want
to do. Some of the things that I'm saying is
just my own opinion, but I'm not trying to tell
people what they should do. You have to choose where
(33:46):
you want to shop, where you want to spend your money,
who you want to spend your money with. I just
think that it's important to understand the life of a
business owner, who is who is essentially renting real estate
from Target, from Walmart, from these you know, these retailers
in order for us to run our business. It's not
(34:08):
if we were if you tried to just pull your
products out of a Target, that literally would be deaf
to your brand by a million cuts, right, because you
wouldn't survive. You don't just pull your products out. They
charge you to pull those products out. Wow, and then
what are you gonna do? Some people say, well, you
can just sell your products online. Well, when you sell
(34:30):
products online, that's only one store you have to pay for.
You have to pay your your three pl fees, you
have to pay for shipping one unless you have a
product that that is an expensive product. It's very hard
to make money directed consumer. It's a misnomer to say.
(34:51):
People it's a misconception. People think that you make so
much money by selling directed consumer. But if you make
a product that's under twenty dollars, I'm sorry to tell
you that's just not the case.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah, So I guess my question then is you know
I've heard and I don't know, so you maybe you
know more about this, Like they're taking away.
Speaker 1 (35:13):
The section of those products.
Speaker 2 (35:16):
Like the black section, you know, and then putting it
in with other like they will just not not be
a section.
Speaker 1 (35:22):
But maybe the question is and we want.
Speaker 3 (35:25):
That, we want that. We don't want to be in
a black section.
Speaker 1 (35:28):
Yeah, that's my question, that's my question.
Speaker 3 (35:29):
We want to be we want to be. If you
make if listen, if you make body wash and body lotion,
where is your product best sold.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
In the body wash the body lotion section.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
If you make hair care products, right, where's your hair
care best sold? If you make shampoos and conditioners, it's
best sold in the place that you go and buy
shampoo and conditioners. I make vagine a wellness products. Why
would my products work in an area of the store
that's allocated for humans of color. That's weird. That's not
(36:02):
weird to you.
Speaker 2 (36:04):
Yeah, I guess you take it to the level of like,
why is there an organic section of the grocery store?
Speaker 3 (36:08):
Like this is just the Yeah, but brother, they all
the all the retailers stopped doing that. I don't know
where you live, but I remember back in the and
this is only because I come from retail. I remember
back in the day Kroger used to sell used to
have an organic section, right. Well, they found that people
didn't want to just go to the organic section. People
(36:30):
wanted to buy their organic potato chips in the potato
chip aisle. They want to get their organic cereal they're
they're caschi or whatever in the cereal aisle. I want
to buy my organic milk in the milk section. I
don't want to have to go over here and then
go over there. It's it's a better shopping experience when
(36:53):
when you can buy when you can walk a store
and navigate a store and navigated the way that you
would typically navigate and experience the way that you would
when you can just buy your things where you traditionally
go to buy them otherwise you're trying to get a
human consumer to practice a different way of shopping, which
(37:15):
your condition, which makes it harder for them to do.
So do you understand what makes.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Sort of sense?
Speaker 2 (37:20):
Yeah, in a few minutes I have left. I want
to ask about, like your leadership style, how that's evolved,
you know, over time from you know, let's say a
small company you know you talked about in your kitchen
pervertiably to now seventy plus people, and how has be
had to change.
Speaker 3 (37:37):
Mmm, that's a good question. I think that I think
that my leadership chop style has definitely is constantly changing.
You know, in the beginning, you kind of have to
be everything. You know, when you're when you're scaling your
(37:59):
typically bringing in people who have more expertise, So then
your leadership style has to redevelop a bit because you're
bringing in leadership. So you need to give them the
ability to lead. You have you have to be able
to step back and not be You have to be
(38:19):
trust You have to trust them right, and you also
have to have the ability to be open to them
making mistakes because that's how we all learn. So, you know,
but it's hard when you go from doing everything to
bringing somebody in, especially bringing somebody in that's probably replacing
(38:42):
you a bit, right, because you know, in the beginning
it was it was me me inside, but then over time,
you know, I'll speak for myself. My investors felt like
we needed a president, which they weren't wrong. We did.
I've never I've never ran a multimillion dollar business before.
(39:03):
This is my first time, you understand what I'm saying, So,
like my my understanding of running a company has limitations.
So they were like, hey, we really feel like we
need to bring in a president because and the president,
the person that they brought in, Alison Savajah, who's incredible,
(39:26):
you know she I mean, she's worked at she's she's
worked at multi billion dollar businesses, right, and so she
knows she's gonna know what needs to be done, how
to build this team, how to strategically, how to strategically
(39:46):
grow it, How do we put in services and tools
in order to be able to grow our teams and
give them the resources that you know, she's just gonna
have a different level of experience than I have, and
so I have to have the ability two respect that
there's only so much that I know and if I
(40:09):
want this business to go where I know it can,
I have to let her lead. I have to step back, right,
you know, And I have to still know what know
and respect what I do because nobody can do what
I do right as it relates to this business, you know.
(40:36):
And I have to realize that there's things that I
don't have the ability to do. And so the art
of being a good leader is understanding what you don't
know how to do so that you can get the
right people into the job so that you can trust
them and give them the ability to grow, you know,
(40:57):
but also understand what it is you know how to
do and you know how to do best, so that
you can do that shit all the way. You know.
So I think, you know, if I had to give
it a name, I'm probably very much a transformative leader.
(41:18):
You know. I really respect the leaders on my team.
I really respect their opinion. I really respect their you know,
their backgrounds. I respect what they bring to this business,
you know. And I and honestly I welcome it because
you know, in order for this to be what I
know it can be. You know, honey Pot is a
(41:40):
conglomerate brand within itself. Even before we sell to a
conglomerate at some point you understand what I'm saying, which
which would be the final home of Honeypot, Right. But
in order for us to get there, you know, we
(42:01):
have to be able to ebb and flow. We have
to die to our egos. We have to we have
to know why we're here and who we're serving and
keep that human at the forefront of why we do
everything that we do, you know, because that's what's most important.
That human with the vagina is the most important to us,
(42:24):
right yeah, And so you know, and then also our
team is very important. It's also the most important, right
Like we we we we work really hard to make
really beautiful, efficacious, beautiful skincare, vaginal care, menstrual care, personal care.
(42:51):
But we have to treat each other well in the process.
You know, if we're in if we're working in a
toxic work environment, the output of that is going to
be toxic. And so also how we treat each other
within the company is very important. How we respect each other,
how we talk to each other, how we build our
businesses with each other. You know, it's so it's it's
(43:13):
a it's a culmination of a lot of things. You know,
you know, but I but, but but it definitely changes
all the time. And and you know, for some people
change can be really hard. For me, change is not hard.
(43:34):
I actually welcome change. I'm a very very very hyper
present person. And but I know, you know, the evolution
doesn't happen without change, you know. And and I and
I want honey Pot to be here for the next
(43:54):
however many hundreds of years, you know. And in order
to do that, you know, I think, I think that
you have to be able to.
Speaker 1 (44:05):
Flow, to be respectfully a time.
Speaker 2 (44:09):
I'll get one last question for you, And I think
about I have this conversation with friends a lot and
this idea of building a business on support, and I
feel like we have to at.
Speaker 1 (44:20):
Some point get past support. I buy this because I
support it.
Speaker 2 (44:24):
Like, but even before this whole Target thing, I was like, like,
you don't go to Target because you support Target.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
You go to Target because it's they at what you need. Both.
Speaker 2 (44:31):
So many of our businesses are like you got I
need your support to you know, keep the lights on it.
And I'm like, we got to move past that. So
I love your thoughts to hear your thoughts on how
on that and how we get past just support.
Speaker 3 (44:47):
Yeah, I mean, I agree with you. I think that. Look,
I think I have a few thoughts about that. I
think that I think for the brain, and that is literally,
Target is about to be their very first retailer, their
very first mass market retailer, right, and they're about to
(45:11):
go on shelf, and maybe they're a decent sized brand
on their own, right, Like they've they've figured out how
to make some real money and they've gotten into Target
and they're looking to grow their business. That company needs support. Yeah,
(45:33):
your first few years, your first few years in retail,
you first of all, you may not have tons of money.
Even if you're making money, it's hard to it's you know,
marketing and all those things costs and absorbing an amounts
of money, right, so you may not have all the
tools and resources that's going to take you to the
(45:54):
next level as far as like being able to support
your product on shelf. Those companies we're just figure you're
just trying to figure out how to do that. Right,
If you're only in one hundred doors, it doesn't make
sense to pay Target or any other retailer twenty five
thousand dollars for their in store marketing programs. Because you're
only in one hundred doors, you pay that amount of
money when you're in at least eleven hundred doors or more. Right,
(46:19):
and so when it comes to support, that brand needs
support because they're testing right now potentially so that next
year they can go back to Target and say, hey,
you tested me in one hundred doors. Now I want
to be in two hundred doors or five hundred doors.
(46:41):
But in order for them to get that five hundred doors,
what has to happen, Those hundred doors have to produce.
So that brand needs support because they don't have the
resources to go out and do big, huge marketing campaigns
and do all the shit that you know that that
a big brand has the abilit do. Wouldn't even make
(47:01):
sense for them to do because they're only in one
hundred doors. So in the beginning, they really need the
support of their of their customer that's been following them,
that's been supporting them the whole time, that's been buying
their products online or buying it out of their trunk
or whatever the circustances situation is. Now, I agree with
(47:26):
you that you have to get to a point where
where it's not just like you're just living off of support.
You have to get to the point to where you're
living off of velocity, where where you are, where you
are scaling and growing. Right, you started one hundred doors,
(47:46):
now you're out in the five hundred doors. Following year
you got into a thousand. Now you're going to go
talk to Walmart. Then you're going to go talk to Kroger.
Then you under sound I'm saying, now you want to
go talk to CBS. But in the beginning, you need
some support, right because because you gotta get, you gotta
get off the ground you got. You have to move
(48:08):
past the support phase. But that is one of that
is phase one of getting into mass market. And I
don't and I think that and and that is one
of the things to your earlier question of things that
we have to realize as consumers that buy products off
of shelves, because you're right, targeted target their machine right
(48:34):
like they they they they are they are kind of
the the mother retailer, and then the sisters and brothers
are on the shelves. Right, we need to in order
for target to be what it is, it cannot survive
(48:54):
without brands. Brands cannot survive without human beings consumed our product.
It just doesn't work that way. We all all of
we need we all need each other, right and so
you know, I agree with you. The goal needs to
(49:15):
be getting out of the support phase, but every single
business has to go through the support phase before they
get to the next one.
Speaker 2 (49:23):
Black Tech Green Money is a production of Blavity, Afro
Tech on the Black Effect podcast Networking Night Hire Media.
It's produced by Morgan, Debaonne and me Well Lucas, with
the additional production support by Kate McDonald, Saarah Ergan and
Jayda McGee. Special thank you to Michael Davis and Lovebeach.
Learn more about my guessing other Tech. This show is
an innovators at afrotech dot Com. Video version of this
(49:44):
episode will drop to Black Tech Green Money on YouTube,
So tap it in, enjoy your Black Tech Green Money,
share us to somebody, go get your money.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
Decent Love
Host
Will Lucas
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