HAILEE CHAPMAN - Peanut Butter, Banana Rice Cakes - Eating While Broke

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Eating While Broke.
I'm your host, Colleen Witt, and today we have special
guests entrepreneur Haley Chapman in the building, owner of Winnie Benny,
CO of Winnie Benny, and I just want to point
out that Winnie Benny.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Is CEO is a three year old.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
So I got the phone call.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
And was like, hey, you know, I'm Haley, I'm the
chief operating officer of Winnie Benny. The CEO is three
years old. And I said, come again, my two year
old can't even count past five, but your three year
old is an executive. I was about to send my

(01:02):
daughter out to a job or something. Senator Harvard like,
what you know, I see some of these kids reading
at like one and two, and I'm like, you know,
my DNA wasn't strong or you know, I didn't get
the mom manual that the other moms got.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
But this is interesting. So Haley calls me up and
she's just.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
You know, she's telling me about Winnie Benny. You know,
the products and the hair care line and the accessories,
and you know, of course, like I hung up on
the three year old because my two year old is
just not executive material yet, you know, maybe when she's
like twelve. But I said, you know what, let's not
have Winnie Bennie on the show. Let's talk to you

(01:46):
because I have a feeling that if Winnie Benny is
anything like Zariah, this whole set will get destroyed in
a matter of minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
So I'm excited to have you on the show. Winnie
Bennie is hair products, hair accessories, hair care line. Am
I missing anything? Nop bose, haircare bows, haircare purses.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
I was excited about purses because my daughter, uh, she
wears hats because my husband wears hats, and so she.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Rocks hats.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
And now I now own a purse, and so if
she gets like a little paper bag, she walks around
like it's a purse all day. Okay, so she actually
doesn't own purses. So here can we see the purses.
These are the purses, guys. They're like queue and then
they have a little strap. And you can get these
all online at Winnie Binny dot dot com.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
And it's for all our listeners. It's w y n
n i E b y n i E.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
And do you also have hair accessory kits and the
cool thing about Winnie Bennie's Milestones is that Winnie Binny
you can actually buy some of the products in Walmart,
like conditioner, shampoo and this hair brush set.

Speaker 2 (03:01):
Yes, can I see it?

Speaker 3 (03:02):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (03:03):
Going through all this, I'm doing it things differently usually
I let you do a little bit of talking.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
I just wanted to show you, guys.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
It even has all the edge control brushes in this
hairkit brush.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
Not trying to make all these plastic sounds.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
And it also has I know you guys have seen
this brush before. It's like a Detangler type brush. I've
seen commercials. Okay, and this is the back that goes
on it. Okay, that's what you were talking about. So
it has all these cool things and now you can
get it in Walmart. And this is another black owned business.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
So all right. So before we.

Speaker 1 (03:37):
Get into the mayhem that it took to build this brand,
I want to know what you were eating while you
were broke.

Speaker 4 (03:47):
While I was broke, I was eating banana rice cakes.
Banana's rice cake covered with peanut butter with bananas on top.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
Okay, so I can assure you I think I've bitten
into a rice cake maybe once in my life. So
on today's episode. All right, well, it's three ingredients. It's bananas,
peanut butter, and rice cupcakes. It's definitely a cheap, affordable
dish because most of us have peanut butter in our cabinets.

(04:18):
I'm personally a chunky person, but I'm guessing on rice.

Speaker 4 (04:21):
Cupcakes it has to be creamy, okay, because of the
consistency of the texture of the rice.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
So we're gonna do this together. So, okay, you you
grab your rice cake. I'm gonna grab mine, and any
flavor will do. Yes, okay, awesome, And then I grab one.
This feels like it feels like toy food. Okay, So
then we put the peanut butter on.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
Yes, okay, you get your car.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
I'm sure for all the fitness people, they're like rolling
their eyes. They're like, this is what I eat for breakfast, lunch,
and dinner when I'm trying to build muscle. I was
in Walmart and that's what the guy said. He said,
this is a great protein snack. I slid these to
Jared and Jared. Everyone, you guys kind of know Jared
is the invisible man behind this the screen. Jared asked

(05:12):
me how many calories are in a rice cake, and
I said, boy, how would you come on? Man, come on,
just eat it. Okay, I'm eating it, we're all eating.
And then you take the banana. Yes, there we go.
I've had people make I had someone make a peanut
butter and banana.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
Yeah, oh okay, and then I just usually like cut
it into little pieces and then it.

Speaker 3 (05:37):
Goes on top of the rice cake like that.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
I think that this show is fascinated with peanut butter
and bananas for some strange reason. Like nobody on this
show likes jelly. Oh drives me crazy. What is this
peanut butter and banana obsession of.

Speaker 2 (05:54):
Sproke people have? I'm telling you, what is banana's protein? Like?
Why banana? Why you're not a fan of banana? I
just don't get the peanut butter in banana mix. Yeah,
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (06:07):
It's just a It's just been something I've had around
for years growing up. Put peanut butter on almost anything, waffles,
peanut butter, uffles, peanut butter.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Yeah, gosh, I'm so glad I'm not Lenny Bennie the Mini. Okay,
here we go, cheers, cheers, here we go. It's actually
not bad. I like the consistency way better than bread.

(06:38):
It's a consistency.

Speaker 2 (06:40):
Oh my god, that hit. Yeah, presently surprised.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
I wish Jared's a dry ass rice cake. I want
to know what it tastes like, Wow, that's really good.

Speaker 4 (07:03):
And some people even put like honey on top if
you want to like a little extra sweet.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
But I was always eating it like this.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
I think it's the texture that makes it good. Well,
now I look at rice cakes differently. Take me back
to what was going on at this time in your life.

Speaker 4 (07:26):
When I was eating while broke and just getting getting
started and everything. I was just really trying to hustle,
make it, find a way to make some extra income
I had just you know, I was in school, I
was in college, super super broke, and you know, just
trying to make it through like graduate, start a business,

(07:48):
kind of find what I wanted to do, and kind
of just kind of like find my purpose.

Speaker 3 (07:52):
That's what I was going through.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
It seems like you have been an entrepreneur for a while,
just based on the call that I received. So a
little backstory, Guys, we do get a lot of pitches
from entrepreneurs, you know, ask you to be on our show.
And usually what I'm looking for is certain milestones. I
don't like the blind leading the blind. So it's very
important for entrepreneurs that come on this show to have
hit certain milestones. Usually I'm looking for a millionaire status

(08:18):
right and above, and if it's not millionaire status, it's
like an almost unattainable milestone, like you know, getting distribution
in Walmart's that's a high milestone, especially for black brown people.
I remember a couple of years ago when Target was
one of the first people to put like black owned
feminine products in Target.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
There was like a huge upper Yeah.

Speaker 1 (08:42):
And I respect Target because they definitely take they take
one for us, yeah, pretty consistently, even though I mean
we're in twenty twenty three, you know. But when I
got the call from you, it was direct, which was different,
and I even asked, where did you get my number?
You're like on the website, straight straight, Yeah, And then

(09:06):
you called and you did your elevator pitch.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
You led with the three year old CEO.

Speaker 1 (09:11):
Which was fantastic because it was like, come on, girl,
what you're talking about my.

Speaker 2 (09:16):
Two year old?

Speaker 3 (09:17):
Just learn how to walk, you know, working.

Speaker 1 (09:20):
But at the end of the day, I think that
A huge component of entrepreneurship is sales, and you did
such a remarkable job on the sales call.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
I was like googling while you were talking and all
of that.

Speaker 1 (09:31):
Of course, now, when I hear stuff like hair products
as a mixed girl and a girl that has had
curlier her whole life and has struggled with, how do you.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
You know hair products that work? You know, we've had
mixed chicks.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
I'm not trying to shame them, but definitely I don't
really know a real mix chick that uses their products.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
I know I know some black girls.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
That claim to be mixed that rave about their product,
which is even worse because I know it definitely. If
it ain't working on me, it's not working on you.
So one of the things that we did talk about
offline was, and guys, I'm gonna keep it fully real,
is that when you have curly hair, you know, after
a certain amount of time, you start to know the
difference between conditioner that's gonna work, conditioner that's.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
Not going to work.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
Conditioner that's gonna work for curly hair has to be
an obscenely thick conditioner. I have fine curly hair, okay,
and I'm saying it needs to be thick fine, meaning
like you know, I'm gonna take off this hat and
the top half of my hair is gonna be straight.
That's how fine my curly hair is. So I asked
you off camera, I said, you know, okay, girl, but

(10:41):
we're gonna keep it real.

Speaker 2 (10:43):
How thick is this conditioner barely coming off the pump?

Speaker 1 (10:47):
And one of the things you pointed out, can you
pass me the conditioner in the new bottle?

Speaker 2 (10:51):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (10:52):
One of the things you had pointed out was, you know,
you for Walmart's distribution, you had to change to the
bigger bottle and for but the original bottle came like this.

Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (11:02):
And I was like, well that's a big difference. Would
it have to change a little bit? And you said yes,
And I was more concerned about the thickness of the conditioner. So,
guys who are listening, I literally took a pump and
just pumped a little bit into my hand to do
the test for all y'all that are thinking about getting

(11:24):
Winnie Bennie products.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
And I will say, yeah, you definitely passed the test.
This is this is the type of conditioner you want.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
And I go through a lot even I'd say the
closest I can get to thick conditioner is Froue tost Garnier,
which is still a little watered down a little bit,
but that's the thickest I've ever gotten. So this bottle, definitely,
I could see it lasting a lot longer because it's
so thick.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
And I liked.

Speaker 1 (11:51):
Her response was like, it's so thick sometimes you gotta
you know, really which really you may have to get
a butter knife and get it out of the bottle.
So Winnie Bennie products are being sold at Walmart, Yes,
and which is the conditioner of the shampoo and the
brush kits some of.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
The other products.

Speaker 1 (12:08):
Currently you will have to go to winnibinny dot com.
But walk me through that journey of marketing where you
thought about making your daughter CEO for marketing pitch and
then to like getting your distribution, what those calls look like?

Speaker 2 (12:23):
Start me from matter.

Speaker 4 (12:25):
Fact, start me from the beginning, jump.

Speaker 1 (12:27):
When you were like this, these conditioners are driving me crazy.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
Take me all the way back.

Speaker 4 (12:31):
Okay, So my background, I went to school for business,
so I have a that's kind of my background.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
I have a master's degree in business, so.

Speaker 4 (12:40):
I was always kind of like into business and into marketing,
but I never knew how to fit it for myself.
I was like, Okay, I'm learning this, and you can
only learn so much in school. But I really always
had that like entrepreneurial spirit. So you know, fast forward,
My daughter came February twelveth of twenty twenty, right before
for literally like two weeks before COVID came, right she

(13:04):
came out with a full head of hair just like me.

Speaker 2 (13:06):
She is.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
She's black, white and Jamaican and you know, being this biracial,
she had just like really like beautiful, thick, curly hair.

Speaker 2 (13:15):
Right.

Speaker 4 (13:15):
So I'm trying to do her hair as she's progressing,
she's getting older, and I'm like these none of these.

Speaker 3 (13:21):
Like hair products are really working.

Speaker 4 (13:23):
Like it's just it's either like changing her curl texture
or it's not leaving it soft. Like. I just was
so kind of like irritated with that with the hair care,
and you know, substantially I was dressing her up, like
putting like just like little head bambos on her hair
because all of the moms were like in the house,
they were bored. It's COVID working from home, and so

(13:45):
that was kind of like my thing to pass the time.
When you know, COVID was just starting. It was new,
nobody knew about it. And what were you doing for work?

Speaker 3 (13:53):
Her work? I was off because I had just.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Had my daughter. So but what were you doing before? Oh?

Speaker 3 (13:58):
Before, I used to work in insurance. I used to
do like insurance claims.

Speaker 2 (14:01):
Okay, were you a salesperson?

Speaker 4 (14:03):
I was an injury adjuster, So if someone got hurt
in an accident, I would be the person who would
like walk them through it, help them basically the payments
from the insurance coming.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
So being a mom wasn't hard enough. You had to
go and try to do something superhero MoMA. Okay cool,
because I'm the runaway mom. I am an avid runner.
So that is impressive because if something wasn't working on
my daughter, I'd be like, well.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
That's that, Like, that's that. I mean, luckily my daughter
is here.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Is definitely like I said, more on the fine side,
so you know, and it hasn't changed yet.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
You know, I'd be looking like, what is this going? Yeah?
Catch me, yeah, because.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
You know, I don't have that much hair care experience,
but you was like, there's a problem and I'm gonna solve.

Speaker 3 (14:48):
It because she has a lot thicker hair than me.

Speaker 4 (14:51):
It's just I don't know if it's just like from
my black side and then her dad being drinking, but
it's just really really kinky early hair. It's soft, but
it thick. And so the kind of like the finer
products just weren't really working. So like you were like
that work, I wasn't working. And so, you know, fast forward,
I was taking the pictures of her just wearing like

(15:13):
little headband bows, you know, just to pass the time.
I was posting it online and people were like, Oh
my gosh, she's so cute. Where did you get those bows?
And I was like, oh my gosh, all these people
keep asking me. She's blowing up on Facebook, getting like
ten thousand likes on her photos on a little photo
that I just.

Speaker 3 (15:29):
Would have wowed.

Speaker 4 (15:30):
Yeah, Like it just blew up on social media, and
I was like, oh, I should sell these bows. I'm
getting literally like a hundred messages like, oh where did you.

Speaker 3 (15:39):
Get those bows? Do you sell them?

Speaker 2 (15:41):
Is there outsourcing them?

Speaker 3 (15:44):
I was outsourcing them at first.

Speaker 4 (15:45):
And I was like, oh my gosh, like I should
sell some of these like little headband bows. So That's
how Winnie Winnie Benny started as just boats, like strictly
bows like bows, the headband bows.

Speaker 3 (15:57):
The bow clips came later, but it was just so.

Speaker 4 (16:01):
Then after the bows, you know, I was having the
problems with her hair care and I was like, we
need to come up with something. I was like, this
shampho was not working, this conditioner is not working, Like
I'm not even able to like brush it through. You know,
when you condition your hair, it should be soft and
you should be able to brush it through.

Speaker 2 (16:16):
So you're thinking next steps.

Speaker 1 (16:17):
But before we get to the next step of hair care,
I'm curious what were your sales looking like on the
bow side where you was it taking off to at
least pay your rent or your mortgage or what have you?

Speaker 2 (16:30):
Like?

Speaker 1 (16:30):
What made you like was it fully off the ground
enough where you could be semi addicted to going what
to post delivery?

Speaker 2 (16:38):
I want to know what a day in the life
of that bow experience was like.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
At the time, I was staying with When's father, so
we his parents kind of had like a backhouse a
casita that we were saying, and so I wasn't paying rent.
I had just had a baby COVID it happened just
you know, to be fully transparent, I didn't have that
burden of like a mortgage or rents or whatever. So
that staying there for sixteen months and being able to

(17:03):
save my money is how I was able to invest
in Whinny Binny. Because I wasn't paying two thousand to
thirty five hundred dollars a month on rent, I was
able to save that money. So, yes, the bows were selling,
but I you know, it wasn't making like thousands of dollars,
but you were.

Speaker 2 (17:19):
You were using it to reinvest right now, weren't You
weren't spending right? No? No, okay, got it.

Speaker 3 (17:24):
No, everything was like put back into the business.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
And you know, once I saw like one product would sell,
I was like, okay, like let me do another product.
And so we had like I think I started off
with something like just ten different colored bows. Literally it
was just ten, and it was just like a solid red,
a solid white, a solid green, just like solid colors
that I could put on my daughter and like market
and have her like take those pictures. And then we

(17:48):
went to like little prints and I actually had like
a ring light set up in her room. So when
she was finally able to like sit up. I would
just like sit her up on her crib, take pictures
with the ring light in her and then posted and
just the I don't know if it was because you
like more moms were in the house because of COVID
they weren't working, But that's when the social media aspect of.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
It really grew up.

Speaker 4 (18:11):
I mean we now have when if any on Instagram
has two hundred and ten thousand followers.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
In just three years, and that was all just organic.

Speaker 1 (18:18):
And how often were you posting to that type of traction?
Were you doing like once twice, three times a day.

Speaker 4 (18:23):
I was doing three times a day, and I came
that was kind of like my marketing side. I came
up with the times that I knew that everybody was
on there because I was like, okay, like I'm obviously
raising this infant, let me figure out what times would work.
So it was usually like breakfast time around nine, and
then it was twelve, which was lunchtime, and then.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
It was three o'clock and six o'clock.

Speaker 4 (18:43):
If I didn't get the three, I would do the
six because six it's like people are off work, it's
dinner time. They're scrolling on their phone they're looking. So
I was very strategic in the times that I would post,
and then I saw like the analytics on Instagram, and
I saw like, oh that those were the right times,
like the times that I guess actually like you know,
corresponding with what Instagram said. And that's when I could

(19:04):
see like the followers and I could see the shares
and that these like little pictures were just going like crazy,
and I didn't expect that. I mean, some of her
picks on Instagram, I mean Facebook, We're getting like twelve
thousand likes.

Speaker 2 (19:17):
It was just crazy. Yeah, so you're doing so.

Speaker 1 (19:20):
I'm so glad you are transparent about that because there's
a lot of entrepreneurs that are like literally going through
that right now. Yeah, and I love the fact that
you were like a hound dog on it. Okay, so
now I hate to slow you down, bus speed you up,
but now you can take me into the conditionery line.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Okay, Okay.

Speaker 4 (19:37):
So then, you know, after the bows were taken off,
I started, you know, trying to formulate the haircare. I'm like,
it's not working. What can I do? So, you know,
I went online and it was just a long process
of trying to find a manufacturer that could do it,
that could make the shampoo, could make the conditioner, could
make the entangler spray, because really it only.

Speaker 3 (19:58):
Started all with it.

Speaker 4 (20:00):
For products, it was shampoo, conditioner, detangler's braid, and hair
oil because those were the four products that I needed
most for my daughter. Shampoo condition of the tangler was
important because I need to be able to brush your
hair after I condition it, and then the hair oil
if I wanted to like braid it or if I
wanted certainly, you know what a brain no no, but
I got no little.

Speaker 5 (20:21):
Like no, yeah, no, I paid hair, I get it,
I get it.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
Yeah. Okay, so we in the same boat.

Speaker 1 (20:27):
Yeah, I'm curious what products were you using that weren't working,
like just so other moms and people can understand the
difference between your products and and the products you were using.
Like what products on the market were you using that
just stopped working for your daughter?

Speaker 2 (20:44):
I was using like.

Speaker 4 (20:45):
Swave Kids, like just a lot of Actually it was interesting,
a lot of affordable brands that you could get at Walmart.
So like the Suave Kids. There was I think one
was called like Curly Kids or Ozzy Kids. There were
just some some different products that just were not working
for me.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
I gave up on Swave when I was like the
second a girl of my parents' house. Yeah, I was like, yo,
this this ain't this water down mess and it sucks
because you end up paying a premium for the high.
Like obviously, Swave compared to Fruit told Garnier is a
definite difference, way different.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
But I remember, I'm lying.

Speaker 1 (21:22):
I definitely probably wasn't until I was like twenty two
when I started switching to Fruit Toast garniere. H.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
But now I'll be using Winny Minnie because.

Speaker 1 (21:31):
That's a way better products, right for my Like the conditioner,
I'll be using this.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
Yeah, you know it's probably for my daughter.

Speaker 1 (21:40):
I could see an adult being like, no, this product
could easily be for an adult. So yeah, So you
when you're thinking about entering into the conditioner line, what
are the the I want to say, the naysayers. What
are the people around you saying? They saying, girl, you're
doing too much? Or like what was the conversation around you?

Speaker 4 (22:02):
Like? It just was really interesting because you know, I
was living with my child's father. We're not together now,
but we were living together and you know, I hate
to say, but he kind of like turned into like
my biggest hater, like you're doing too much, Like you're
not selling that much because I was, you know, taking
stuff to the post office, but it only be like
twice a week, you know, and so you know, in

(22:23):
his mind it was like, oh, like you kind of
like focus on raising our daughter, like you're it's you're
doing too much, like you're trying to do hair care
and bows and this and that. But you know, people
were working from home. There was COVID like people had
a lot of extra time to figure out like should
I start a business? Should what can I do extra
you know for my kids or you know. It kind
of gave people like a clarity or they either switched

(22:45):
jobs yeah, or moved or whatever.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
So he was was he saying like, Okay, you're doing
too much. Just be a stay at home mom type.
Is that what his expectations or the sounding was coming out.

Speaker 4 (22:58):
It was kind of that, and it was more are
like you're not you know, like making like you're not
making a lot of money, Like I don't see you
you only go into the post office like twice a week.
Like it just turned into like something that was supposed
to be like so positive for my daughter just kind
of turned into like negative and like his dad would
like complain that packages were coming, you know, from overseas,

(23:19):
because like I would order the products, it would have
to go to their house first and then my house
our house because our house was in the back, but
it was still on the same property. So the dad
was like, oh, Hayley's getting packages like every two days
because I was ordering different products.

Speaker 2 (23:34):
I love it.

Speaker 6 (23:35):
I absolutely love it.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
So you're so for all the entrepreneurs out there, I
have a rule of thumb a lot of people. I
encourage everyone to incorporate, but one of the things I
always talk about is, you know, don't incorporate until you
have your customers. I'm not saying you got to make
a million dollars, but once you found your customers and
there's a little bit of a consistency there, I always say,
incorporate so you are one hundred percent on the right path.

(24:12):
And it takes like a lot of I guess an
entrepreneur mindset to persevere through that, especially from someone that
you were in love with and just had a baby with,
because yeah, I'm like, if I have a baby from you,
I'm sorry to say.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
But I own you. Yeah, I own you.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
I have this scar on my body for the rest
of my life. Even though I love my child, it's
still like, yeah, that's you and me.

Speaker 6 (24:36):
Like nah, man, that.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
Was a super sacrifice. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
So you're engaged your love and the person you love,
and I want you, I want to highlight this the
person that you love. You still have to perseverance see
through that to keep going, which takes a lot of strength,
a lot of vision, and you must be onto the
fact that you're starting to live in your purpose.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Yes, okay.

Speaker 4 (24:57):
I would say that went on for a long time time.
We broke up when when my daughter was sixteen months
and so that's when I moved, you know, from Long Beach.
I moved to Orange County, And I would say during
that move, I was still in the process of like
the formulations and the factory and stuff. But I would say,
like when I finally left, it was just so weird,

(25:20):
Like the stuff that I was applying to when I
was with him, I wasn't getting it like I was
like applying to whether it was jobs, opportunities, scholarships, you know,
just things that they do to help these little black
owned brands like I kept getting denied, and I was like,
this is so weird, but maybe it was because I
was in such like a negative environment. And then there

(25:40):
was all these burdens on me of like being a
new mom, raising a daughter during COVID, like having the
stress of living in his parents' back house.

Speaker 1 (25:47):
It was just everything, and then your managing heartbreak? Are
you gangster? Or something like how are you not? Like
does devastated over heartbreaking too? I mean, are you going
through that or do Yeah?

Speaker 4 (25:56):
No, I was no, for sure I was going through that,
And you know, I just have a really strong like
family and support system all my all my I'm from Sacramento,
all my family's up north. But I did go up
there for a little bit, spent some time with my
family in Sacramento in the Bay Area, and then I
came back to Orange County because I lived in Orange
County before I got pregnant. Had went in Long Beach

(26:18):
because that's where my child's father is from and his
family stay there. But then I went back to Orange
County when we were separate, so it was just me
and my daughter and then obviously he would.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
See her or whatever, but we were together.

Speaker 4 (26:30):
Just Win and I but it was hard. I'm like,
I'm doing this business. A couple of times, I'm like,
my god, it would just be so much easier to
just like quit and just you know, focus, get a job.
I mean, that went through my head a lot because
I'm like, I have this baby. She was around like
sixty months, almost almost two, and so she's.

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Like walking, yeah, walking, she's walking. My daughter was like,
I don't know what to do.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
But when he definitely yes, the CEO, when he she's
walking walking, And then how much we're Now you're a
single mind at this point, right, yes, and you're fully
on your entrepreneur kick yeah no no jobs right right?
And then your your child's father, she is well he's

(27:11):
still participating as a father, yes, okay, awesome. And then
your positive messaging is coming from your family yep. So
that's that's the little seed that keeps you going awesome.
So I think everybody needs that. The cheerleaders, you know.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:27):
I mean I would say I talk to my mom
and dad every day, multiple times a day, like we're
just like this, but that's just kind of always how
my family has been, so and I just really kind
of try to instill that and win, like having a
strong family and having that you know, support system, because
that's what was able to pull me through. A lot
of people are like you hear my story and they're
like single mom, heartbreak, still doing entrepreneurs in entrepreneurship and

(27:52):
feeling orders like how did you do that? Like, and
I just really look back and I'm like, man, that
was one of the hardest times in my life.

Speaker 3 (28:00):
Like to be able to be like, Okay, I gotta
get my daughter up, get her ready, whatever she did.

Speaker 4 (28:04):
Whether it was the swimming lessons or gymnastics, you know,
take her do that, and then I need to like
feel these orders, and then I have to go home
and I have to make sure I have a smile
on my face even though I'm sad because I just
broke up. It's like, you know, oh, if you're gonna cry,
cry in the shower or you know.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
I call it science silenteers, I call it. I tell
my friends I do the Silenteers tears. Yeah, but I
think I remember one time I did Silenteers in front
of my daughter, and I just couldn't stop silenteering, Like
I was just like no sound, but definitely the waters
just couldn't stop. And I remember just thinking like, gosh,
I gotta get a grip on this because she's getting

(28:38):
to the point where she's.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Got to know what tears are, you know. But that's
very courageous of you.

Speaker 1 (28:45):
I feel like every time I meet a mom on
this show, and I just had a mom, the cupcake Millionaire,
Yeah awesome story. Yeah she she was going through the
thick of it. And I mean the resilience on women,
the amount of respect I had for women after having.

Speaker 2 (28:59):
A before having a time, I had no respect for you.

Speaker 3 (29:02):
Yeah, I was.

Speaker 1 (29:02):
I literally didn't even understand what was so great about
us until I had a kid, and I soh shit,
Like you see, we're like gangsters, like we're gonna do
whatever we gotta do.

Speaker 2 (29:12):
Like you know, I don't.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
I don't know if it's because the baby comes from us,
but that that or live, you know, lives inside of
us for so long. It's just like, nah, man, this
person is legit helpless, and you know, I'm gonna do
whatever I gotta do to be that soldier.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
And so that's that's that's that takes a lot of strength.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
So now you enter the conditioner arena, the hair products arena.
Take me through what that process was like.

Speaker 4 (29:41):
It was just a long process of trying to find
the right manufacturers. So it was just like trying and
ordering samples and you know, uh, testing it on myself,
testing it on my daughter, like saying oh, like cousins
or friends like hey, can you try this out?

Speaker 3 (29:56):
Or can you try this out on your child?

Speaker 4 (29:57):
It was a lot of just like back and forth
and like oh, but I wanted to like smell like this,
and the condition I needed to be this consistency because
I don't want to sell like a running conditioner.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
It was a lot.

Speaker 4 (30:09):
I mean, I would say it took me maybe like
seven months to get just to get it, even the
formula right.

Speaker 2 (30:17):
And what capital are you using to fund it?

Speaker 4 (30:21):
It was the money that I had saved by with
living with my child's father. So the bow's the bow's,
but the not paying the rent saved me that money.
So if I was getting like a check or if
I was on my maternity leave, it was just I
was saving it. And then the money that came in
from shopify and the bows would just go back in
the business. But I was able, and I tell everybody this,
you know, I was able to save up forty five

(30:43):
thousand dollars staying there for sixteen months, and that gave
me the capital.

Speaker 3 (30:48):
And so I never even though like you were great
with money.

Speaker 4 (30:51):
Yeah, but but I didn't have any bill, like the rent.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
That's really what was your phone bill?

Speaker 4 (30:56):
Now?

Speaker 6 (30:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah, like phone bill, but the.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
Cable and thisnet was paid because it was attached to
their house.

Speaker 3 (31:02):
So I literally just had like a phone bill.

Speaker 4 (31:05):
And that most of the people that you know, I
don't want to say, like you know people are like
house poor, but a lot of your money goes to
your rent. You once you pay your rent, it's like
I'm tight, you know what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (31:14):
And it's also the cash flow of making sure that
you know, every four weeks you have that money. Now,
I get you not saving, but I do think that
money management played a key role here. You could have
easily went and kept up with the Jones, just got
on a plane, put your kid in some kind of
special Ivy League daycare or some craziness. You didn't do that.

(31:36):
You stacked your chips. You pursued your entrepreneur hustle. Did
your man at the time know that you were stacking
chips or did you do what I suggest all women do,
which is have some purse money. I call it person money,
but like, you know, your man should never know, oh
your money. I don't care if there's men listeners out here.

Speaker 3 (31:54):
I suggest the.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
Same for men too, but no, I don't. I'll take
that back. I don't take it. I'll suggest it for.

Speaker 1 (31:59):
Men, but I think for women we should always have
some money that no one knows about it, or you know,
maybe a trusted best friend or whatever, but not your man.
Like you should definitely have an emergency fund, especially you know,
you just never know, shit hits the fan. You know,
you got to have your own back as a female.

Speaker 4 (32:18):
Yeah, you know, I would say that was definitely a thing.

Speaker 2 (32:21):
Like we were we were engaged, but we.

Speaker 4 (32:24):
Didn't have like a joint bake account, and so he
didn't really even give me money because he knew that
my money was stacked from not paying rent. So it
was kind of like, okay, like your bread is yours
and mine is mine. It was kind of like that.
And he wasn't paying rent either, No, he wasn't paying
rent either, so because there was his people's house or whatever,
so you know, and he still lives here, so you know,
because yeah, let's just yeah, it's lucky if you have

(32:46):
family that you know can do that, or back houses
or whatever. But I always tell people like that sacrifice
is what catapulted me to the next level. Like, sometimes
you have to stay somewhere that's uncomfortable.

Speaker 3 (32:58):
That house was not comfortable. It was a back house.

Speaker 4 (33:01):
It was a two bedroom, one bath, no central air
in Long Beach. No.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
Like, it's also uncomfortable if you're staying with people. My
little brother, who's a stand up comic, who's who's successful
in New York and you know, I'm sure this will episode,
but he's also on walling out now. They haven't released
it yet, but everyone's gonna find out, probably within another
couple of weeks. But the I say all this to
say is that I remember my older siblings like being

(33:28):
harder on my little brother because he was like cert
couch surfing at my dad's house and living off dollar
slices of pizza.

Speaker 2 (33:34):
And I'm like, bruh, Like.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
I'm telling my life, but I'm telling my siblings, like
you hating on him? Do you know how sucky it
must be to be like twenty five CouchSurfing on your
dad's you know, couch to pursue your dreams.

Speaker 2 (33:46):
Like that's a sacrifice cent of itself.

Speaker 1 (33:48):
I mean, we could all get a day job and
be roommates with somebody. So I know that everything you're
describing is all I'm hearing is sacrifice.

Speaker 2 (33:56):
Sacrifice.

Speaker 1 (33:57):
Your eye was on the price, you were very gold
orient did so now that I know that you got
the you stack your funding, and you're investing in your business.
So seven months of grueling process of testing products, then
after you finally approve your product, what happens next?

Speaker 4 (34:14):
I just you know, I didn't have like a lot
of extra disposable income to like pay these influencers and
so what for the baby influencers for Wennie Binny.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
So but the page was like slowly growing.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
You know, we were maybe I think thirty or forty
K at the time, right, So I'm like, okay, I
do have like a good following, which because that's a
good following, I was like, I do have a good following.
Let me like figure out a way to introduce this.
So then I started doing like pictures and videos of
the products on my daughter. I'm like, oh, let's do
a little watch video, Let's put win a little swimsuit,
bout up or whatever. I'm like, let me figure out

(34:47):
like free ways to promote this, to like get this
out and like talk about it. I was doing like
little videos like oh, this is the conditioner, and I
would show at the time. Right after the haircare came,
I was working on the tools because I was like, oh,
it'd be great to like do the conditioner and then
be able to like brush through it. And I was like,
I need some like Detangler brush this and that. That's

(35:09):
kind of where so like that was coming right after, right,
So I was like I had like samples of the brushes,
but I didn't have a kit, right. I had samples,
so I was like, okay, let me use the haircare.
I would show the brush, but I wouldn't talk about it.
I would show the Detanglar brush and people start asking
like where is that, and I'm like, oh, like coming sooner, just.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Wait on you. I will kind of like dismiss it,
like yeah, like but yeah.

Speaker 4 (35:31):
So people started with saying like, oh, like my daughter
is mixed too, that she has really kinky, curly hair.
I want to try this or whatever, and then it
kind of like just took off from there from like
them seeing me use it on my daughter.

Speaker 3 (35:44):
Really, I only had one model I could have used
on me. But it's not it was supposed to be
marketed for kids.

Speaker 2 (35:48):
I do use it. Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah,
it's definitely.

Speaker 1 (35:53):
Like I said earlier, it's definitely the consistency. I could
see why it was targeted kids, right, but this is
definitely a product that adults. Yeah, adult use sure curly hair.
As an adult, you're sleeping on a very good product.
And I'm just yeah, I'm touching it with my fingers.
I'm thirty nine years old. I'm gonna tell you just
by touching with my fingers, I could I could guarantee
this product is gonna be good.

Speaker 3 (36:13):
Yeah, because I.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
I I promise you I'm getting good at telling good
conditioner from bad conditioner.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
I don't even use detangling spray or I just started
using like lavender oils or what have you, because I did.
I was doing a lot of braids and my hair
started breaking off and someone said, rolls rolls oil.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Rose water or something. But uh, a conditioner this good.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
You probably won't even need the detangling spray. But is
the detangling spray for when the water the hair is dry,
it's like damp, so when you get okay cool, and
then I could brush.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
It yeah okay, and then.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
You would brush it with that detangling Okay.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
So I'm gonna I'm gonna check that out because my
daughter doesn't let me do her hair, not because it's painful,
it's just she just she just does. She's a hater. Yeah,
but I so I'll use the detangling spray on her
hair when it's damp and then spray down in this way.
Okay cool, because the only time I do comber hair
is when she's in the bath.

Speaker 2 (37:08):
It has to be conditioned.

Speaker 1 (37:10):
Think yeah, but now I know how to use detangling
spray because of you.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
Okay cool.

Speaker 1 (37:15):
So now that you have the line and it's now
being purchased directly from what social media, people are going
to your site and they're just buying the products direct,
what's the next step.

Speaker 4 (37:27):
The next step was trying to get it into like
a store like and that people think like, oh my god, Haley,
that's crazy because it's like you're just like a little
Shopify store, Like.

Speaker 2 (37:37):
What are you doing?

Speaker 4 (37:37):
And I was like, okay, well I want I want
to have it like in mass retail or whatever, and
and ironically, like I just started doing stuff myself, like
reaching out in like cold phone calls like how I
called you, like cold emails. Like I was doing like
the research and the stuff myself to figure out who
I needed to connect with, what I needed to do.

(37:59):
And it was actually interesting because when I did finally
connect with that Walmart person, like, they didn't even take
the hair care at first. They were like, oh, you know,
we'll revisit that later. It was the brushes that they
were interested in because they were like, oh, we don't
have a brush kit that is specifically designed for children
like African American children or biracial children, or just children

(38:22):
in general that have kinky, curly or wavy hair.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
So like my product filled a white space.

Speaker 2 (38:28):
And the lady told me.

Speaker 4 (38:29):
She was a Caucasian lady, super nice, love her to death,
my Walmart buyers. She was like, I've been looking for this,
like when we were on Zoom. She like grabbed the
box and was like, Haley, I've been looking for this,
Like we don't have anything like this, like we just
have like little baby brushes or whatever.

Speaker 2 (38:44):
But she was like, this is exactly.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
They have the picks and Walmart. They have the way
they have picks in Walmart though, right, uh, yes like that.

Speaker 2 (38:51):
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (38:52):
I like this kit because when I was looking at it,
it has the baby hairs and then it has the
hair clampy things I don't know their call, and then
it had that detangling brush. Like if I saw this
one hundred thousand percent in Walmart, I'd be like, so right,
you know, and it's gonna be It's like.

Speaker 4 (39:09):
A nineteen ninety seven for eleven eleven pieces eleven, So
it's like a detangling brush, a big paddle brush, a
hard comb, pintail comb, edgebrushes, and then the five hair clips,
the big big clamp.

Speaker 3 (39:22):
So it's like if you're partying styling Brady any.

Speaker 4 (39:26):
That one yeah, Like it's basically everything you would need
to do their hair. And then the boys one is
will be available in Walmart as well, and it has
everything like a curl sponge, a hard.

Speaker 6 (39:37):
Wave, has a spinees, a neck bro.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Game change. Okay, so now.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Look I'm switching around the hats. Okay, so take me.
Can I be the call? Can I be your Can
you do the call with me?

Speaker 2 (39:50):
Like I Walmart?

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Yeah, so I'm what's your name of your buyer, Blakely.
Blakely shout outs to Blakely. Is she black or white?

Speaker 2 (39:58):
White?

Speaker 1 (39:58):
Okay, shout out, So, so I'm Blakey.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Hello to your call.

Speaker 3 (40:04):
Well, it was an email at first.

Speaker 4 (40:06):
It was email because it's really hard to find their
phone numbers, so it was an email at first, and
then the email was like, oh, I love the email,
let's get on a call.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
So but when I did, what did you put in
the email?

Speaker 7 (40:18):
I mean, I'm just really good at saying so like
you you you you had to have start, I say,
in sales, you know, don't sell products to customers that
don't want your products.

Speaker 2 (40:27):
So so you you hit up this person.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
What how did you position the need, like you know,
the need because because obviously you didn't get them on
the phone, so you couldn't tailor it. So how did
that email express that, hey, I have a solution to
a need. Did you say like, hey, I've been in
ten walmarts today and like I want I want you
to take us with you.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
Just you know before I jump into that what I
did with the cold email has rarely been done. I've
been talking to like a brand rep and she was like,
I've been doing this for twenty years. Nobody gets into
Walmart on their own. It's usually Walmart reaches out to you.
She was like the fact that you did that, she
was like, I've never seen that in twenty years. So
whatever I put in that email like had to been

(41:11):
gold because it was able to like buyers get emails,
cold emails all the time, thousands of cold emails. It's
like what I said to her, I guess was really
captivating and that's what just what made her say, Oh,
let's hop on a zoom call.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
Let's explore this.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
What did you see?

Speaker 4 (41:27):
What I said, I'll get done to done, get into it.

Speaker 2 (41:34):
Where's the team?

Speaker 4 (41:35):
So I just told her, I said, Hi, Blake Lee.
I said, my name is Haley Chapman. I said, I
am the founder and creator of Winnie Benny.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
Said.

Speaker 4 (41:43):
Winnie Benny is a three generation black owned business. I said,
founded and inspired by my daughter. When I said, she
is three years old and I and I went into
the process. I said, I have a hair care line.
I said, a full hair CareLine. I said, shampoo, conditioner,
detangler's spray, and hair And I said, and I also
have these hair brush kids.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
I said, these hair brush kids are the first of
their kind.

Speaker 4 (42:06):
I said, it's an eleven piece kit that does everything
that you need to style, part de tangle and do
a child's here.

Speaker 3 (42:14):
I said a child's here.

Speaker 4 (42:16):
Of I said specifically of color, So I said, African
American kids that have kinky curly here. I said that
are multi I said what I said, biracial and multicultural.
So I kind of I spun it that way, but
it was true because I had been Yeah, I had
been to these Walmarts.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
And I also said in the.

Speaker 4 (42:35):
Email, I said, I am an avid Walmart shopper, and
I said, I have not seen this at your store.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
I did say, you did pay?

Speaker 4 (42:43):
I did, yeah, y'all, y'are okay.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
Now I'm curious, and this is going to touch into
the race discussion, but I have to go there. So
at the time, was this around the time of the
Black Lives Matter movement?

Speaker 2 (42:57):
No?

Speaker 1 (42:58):
Oh, it wasn't, okay, awesome, So this was after after? Okay,
it was after okay, because I know that brand started
to I hate to be a hater here, but brands
started to be more support supported of black people after
you know, the whole Black Lives movement and you know,
you know, for whatever reason. I think if we weren't

(43:18):
trapped in our homes, it would have been another issue
swept under the rug. But luckily no sports for going
on in America. Had to face America head on, like,
I'm like, yo, this, we've.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
Been sending these clips for thirty years. Now that's going on.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
We're trapped and there's no sports, you know, and athletes
were like, you know, like I love Jordan and all,
but like athletes were like, f this, this is bulls
and I'm gonna I'm gonna use my platform to say
that there's a problem here and shout out to all
those athletes and everyone that you know. Took one for
the team. But so you made this captivating sales email.
I wanted you all to pay attention to the email and

(43:53):
the tenacity she had to like do this. Now you
send this email, You're not doing a million follow up.
You're just waiting for the email or the callback.

Speaker 2 (44:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (44:03):
I just didn't want to seem like as buyer. Yeah,
and they're super busy, so they get that all the time.
I think it took her about if I remember correctly,
it took her like a week and a half to
respond to my email. And I know most people are
like email two or three days. They're kind of like like,
I'm like, and you start you on negative?

Speaker 3 (44:21):
Yeah, like they didn't.

Speaker 1 (44:22):
Yeah, so you so you're on it now? Are you now?
So you get the email back?

Speaker 2 (44:26):
Where are you? What are you doing?

Speaker 7 (44:28):
Like?

Speaker 2 (44:28):
I want to know exactly what was going on when
you see that email. I actually was at home.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
I was at home because you know, I'm single, my home,
I'm at home. I I think I had just put
one down for a nap, and that was like my
like worktime. So it's like when she sleeps her two
three hours, like that is my money, Like, let's go time.
So I was like on my couch in Orange County.
I'll never forget I lived in the city Orange. I
was like on my couch on my laptop, just like

(44:53):
looking up my Shopify and just trying to figure out
like different like marketing schemes like little ads and stuff
I can run.

Speaker 2 (44:59):
Right.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
And then when you're paying rent again, Yeah I'm paying
rent again.

Speaker 6 (45:02):
Okay, so the pressure is ass because.

Speaker 4 (45:04):
Get into a twenty nine hundred dollars a month like okay, yeah,
so I'm paying rent again.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
In twenty nine hundred.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
Yes, I don't even pay that much. Jesus, I'm sorry,
shout out a guy. Sorry guy, go on, so paying.

Speaker 4 (45:19):
On my laptop and I was looking and I see
the email back. I was like, hey Haley, but I
see the ending of it, and I was like, oh
my gosh, it's Walmart. And she was like hey Haley,
like thank you so much for submitting this, Like are
you available to do like a Zoom call because that's
you know, all the stores are all into Zoom and Microsoft.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
Oh damn. NEAR had a heart attack.

Speaker 1 (45:40):
Like I was like, what did you try to pretend
your corporate you start a stage in your house.

Speaker 2 (45:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (45:45):
It was just so like a Zoom call with Walmart,
Like this is not happening.

Speaker 3 (45:50):
Like I remember, like I called my mom, like mom,
like she was my first.

Speaker 4 (45:54):
Vocal Like Mom, I just got that email. She was
like no way, Like she was so like yeah. She
was so excited because she had you know, there was
ever times like I didn't have it or whatever. She
put a lot of money into helping with Winnie Bini two,
So it was like she was just so ecstatic. It
was just like, let's get the call. So I think
I would say, like the zoom call happened like a

(46:16):
week or so after that, but it was so intimidating
because it's like my buyer and then three other buyers.
So do you think you're just having like a one
on one zoom call. It's like, oh no, hey, like.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
No, and are these buyers? I hate to bring it
back back. I got asked are they all white or
is any of the black or men?

Speaker 4 (46:34):
Two of them were white and then one was I
think I would say like Pacific island Erma. Yeah, but
you think that it's just like a phone call or
a zoom with one person, It's no, it's like three
or four people every time. And so you get on
the zoom and it's like box box box box spots
and then you're like in the media.

Speaker 2 (46:52):
And then did you where did you take the zoom call?
I actually took it at home? Like did you did
you stage your back?

Speaker 3 (46:58):
Yeah, a little bit like I've no I forget.

Speaker 4 (47:00):
I had like a kitchen island, so like I have
my laptop up and then the back all you could
see was like the couch what I like took the
pillows off so it didn't look super like, oh, she's
in her bench.

Speaker 1 (47:10):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, so you did the I'm on
fakes all.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
That's my motto.

Speaker 4 (47:16):
Fake itsin't make it like no, but my mom say
no today, it's not no tomorrow. That was always like, yeah,
that was always my hustle because I saw, like my mom.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
Is a hustler.

Speaker 4 (47:25):
You know, she does real estate and she works her
ass off and like makes a great living from that.

Speaker 3 (47:29):
So I always had that like I want to be
a hustler.

Speaker 2 (47:32):
I want to be like that like my mom. And
so yeah, I take the zoom call.

Speaker 4 (47:36):
There's all these people on there, and it was just
kind of like an introduction, like hey, like what are
you about, Like we got this email. You could just
tell it was I don't want to say like foreign
for them, but it was just not something they do
a lot. It's usually like oh, these brands submit through
a certain platform or we reach out to you. It's
not a lot of like cold emails. Like I said,

(47:56):
this lady, who had been the industry for twenty years,
was like I've never seen that.

Speaker 2 (47:59):
Yeah, like this is something new.

Speaker 4 (48:01):
And she even said, like my relationship with my buyers
or and with Walmart is like a one off.

Speaker 3 (48:07):
She was like, we've never seen that.

Speaker 4 (48:09):
Okay, So it was it's just rare basically, is what
she was trying to say.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
So what happens on the call.

Speaker 4 (48:15):
She was just like, oh, I love the idea of
the brush kids and the haircare.

Speaker 3 (48:20):
Can you send me samples?

Speaker 4 (48:21):
And I was like yeah, like yeah, I'm having a
heart teach Like I'm like, yeah, I can send you samples.
She's like, we would love to see it in person,
like that's you know, and so I was like okay,
and then she just was kind of about the background.
I told her, like, you know about me three generation
Black on business, my daughter, and you know, she was
asking me about her, and I said, you know, she
has a lot of involvement even though she at the

(48:44):
time she was two. Right, So at the time when
I found out that I was going into Warmer, she
was two. But now she's three, so you know, we
changed you know, changed it up a year. But I
was just telling her, I said, you know, ever since
she was little, she had a lot of involvement with
like she loved like playing dress up bows and stuff,
so she would like pick the colors and stuff.

Speaker 2 (49:01):
So she didn't have involvement with you know, yeah, Okay, yeah,
that's how she earned her CEO title.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
Yes, technically, if you think about it, now I get it. Okay, Okay,
now I get Okay, Now I get why my daughter
is uh okay, okay, because your daughter was technical.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
Videos.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
Okay, you had it on Michael Jackson over there. Okay, working, Okay,
she started working early. Okay, got it?

Speaker 2 (49:30):
So yes, okay, so continue. Sorry.

Speaker 4 (49:33):
So you know I was telling her about the involvement,
telling her with everything, and then she was like and
then the call, she was like I love it. She
was super fun, super bubbly.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
She was like, I love it. Let's she was like,
can you send in the samples?

Speaker 2 (49:44):
Right?

Speaker 3 (49:45):
So I'm like, okay, like let me get this.

Speaker 4 (49:47):
But I'm like my heart is racist, right because I'm
like this is Walmart, Like this address is like Bentonville, Arkansas,
Like this is you know, like this is like big time.
And you know, I'm not even at that point. You know,
I'm just on shop of, but I'm not in like
a local beauty supply.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
I'm not in.

Speaker 4 (50:02):
Anything where you would think people would do their regular
milestones like it went from zero to one hundred, you know,
So I send the stuff in, They're like Okay, we'll
review it, we'll get back to you. Give us like
it might have been like two months. It was a
substantial amount. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so you know you're.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
Like on edge every day. Am I gonna get an email.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
Refreshed and yeah, like you know, and do a follow up.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
No, make it there exactly. You know.

Speaker 3 (50:26):
I'm like, hey, just want to let you know.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
And even how you send stuff, it has to have
like a certain label, department number, the like the buyer's name.
It's very like because that campus, that headquarters is so huge,
you have to like if you just send it to
the address, it's not going to go anywhere. It has
to have like Walmart has their own label that says
like department number, i'll number, buyer name, send her name,

(50:49):
business name.

Speaker 2 (50:50):
Like it's very deep.

Speaker 3 (50:52):
Yeah, it's very detailed.

Speaker 2 (50:53):
So she got it.

Speaker 4 (50:55):
She was like, Okay, We're going to schedule a call
for another Zoom call and I'll never forget because this
is two months later. This yeah, no, she said, she said,
we'll schedule zoom call. We schedule another Zoom call. She
was like, I like it, you know, we we know
to test it. It was kind of just like a temperature
check what's been going on.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
I just told her.

Speaker 4 (51:17):
I was like, yeah, like the hair cares, you know,
selling out on shopify, you know whatever.

Speaker 2 (51:20):
Whatever, and they asking like real numbers.

Speaker 3 (51:22):
No they don't.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
No, no, no, no, no, no, they don't have real numbers.
I would have been lying, you're like a millionaire, like no,
I'm not.

Speaker 3 (51:30):
I'm not.

Speaker 4 (51:30):
I'm not gonna see her, you know, yeah, cat, But yeah,
they were just asking how's it going. It's okay, and
then I'll never forget. They were like, okay, we'll follow
up with you in April. Right, So this was you know,
if it was maybe like from that call, maybe like
another two or three months. We're like, we'll have like
more information with you for you in April. Right, I'll
never forget. So I'm in these apartment complexes and this

(51:53):
our fire alarm.

Speaker 3 (51:54):
So it's like beep, beep, beep.

Speaker 4 (51:55):
I don't know what's going on, but it's been going
off and on for the last two days. Right, I
get the email from Walmart that says, hey, we need
I'll never forget April fifteenth, because that's good Friday, that's
the friday right before Easter. I'll never forget it. So
she's like, hey, well, we need the call on April fifteenth.
I told my mom because at the time that was
like her dad's weekend or.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
So she was in Lawn Beach to my mom was
like hey.

Speaker 4 (52:19):
I was like, I don't even have it like that
right now, but I'm going to get a hotel or something,
because I was like, I don't want this fire alarm
to go out. I don't want to look ghetto on
this call, Like I ended up staying at a hotel, right,
So I get a hotel.

Speaker 2 (52:31):
I take the call, and.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
I like and again, it's four buyers.

Speaker 4 (52:35):
It's not just it's not just her, it's four different buyers, right,
And I'm like nervous, like I'm like dress up. I'm
like I'm in this hotel room my mom, like you
know they have the little desk or whatever. And they
were like okay, so and I was like, oh my god,
Like what is she gonna say?

Speaker 3 (52:50):
And she was like I love it, like I love it,
like I love the brush kits. She was like this
is amazing.

Speaker 4 (52:55):
I'm like literally like I'm biting my tongue because I'm
a very I'm a leo, very expressive loud. I I
like biting my tongue literally, so I don't scream, like
I'm like like, She's like, I love it, like it
feels a white space. This is exactly what we need
or whatever. The actual hair care buyer is on there
as well. For the shampoo conditioner. They passed on it

(53:17):
the first time with those bottles because the bottles were
like too small so you can tell the difference or whatever.
So he was like, I love it, and I love
the idea and the formulation. He was like, but I
don't want to have to add and delete you. He
was super I have a great relationship with him. He's
like a divisional manager, high high up with Walmart now,

(53:38):
But he was like, I don't want to have to
add and delete you. So he was like, I'll give
you some feedback that can help you. He was like,
if you can make your bottles bigger, because Walmart does
all about value, is what he said. He was like,
so if you can like rework that, you know, you
can send it back to me or whatever whatever, And
that's like, you know, I'm in the process of you know,
doing that now. But it was just so crazy because

(54:00):
the relationship that they had with me was just different.
You wouldn't expect people at corporate and so high up
that have these like life changing decisions about if you're.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
Gonna get picked up or not.

Speaker 4 (54:11):
I just and I was just so shocked, and he was.

Speaker 3 (54:15):
Super cool on the call.

Speaker 4 (54:16):
And then when Blakeley said oh, well, let's pick up
the brush kits or whatever at the end of the call,
never gets She's like, Okay, well it's gonna go in
the Walmart stories.

Speaker 2 (54:24):
And I was like, that's when I finally was like
how many or what. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (54:29):
I just was like okay at that time, and she
was like, well, because she said I think I did say.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
I said, oh, how many stories? She said, we'll get back.

Speaker 2 (54:36):
To you, right, Okay.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
So I'm talking to some other people and you know,
I'm looking up some things online. They're like, usually if
Walmart's like really iffy about you, they'll do a test
of like fifty two hundred stories, because obviously, you know,
Walmart's the largest retailer in the world. They have forty
five hundred stores just in the United States alone, So
they're like usually they're like, oh, maybe it'll be like
fifty one hundred stories.

Speaker 2 (54:56):
We'll do a test. Say I would take that I
ain't gonna lie. I just what happen. I would have
been like she I'm in Walmart, I'm gonna get go ahead.

Speaker 4 (55:03):
Yeah, like but no, like and then I get an
email that's like, hey, you just wanna let you know
that we're putting your kids in eight hundred ninety stores.

Speaker 3 (55:10):
Nation almost had a harder time.

Speaker 7 (55:12):
I was like, girl, I almost I almost fell out,
like eight ninety Nation called to your MoMA again yes,
because I didn't know what to I was just like mom,
matter of fact, it was a FaceTime call.

Speaker 4 (55:26):
My mom thought something had happened to my daughter. When
because I'm booho crying, She's like it went okay. You know,
her anxiety is like forget yeah, like it's not. I mean,
she's literally her anxieties on ten And I'm like, mom,
like we just got like the yes, official yes from Walma.

Speaker 2 (55:43):
She not know you were gonna have the call that day.

Speaker 3 (55:46):
She she knew I was gonna have the call.

Speaker 2 (55:48):
But she I just saw the tears.

Speaker 4 (55:49):
Yeah, she just she was freaking out because she I
never call her in FaceTime cry like that, and I
just told her I said yeah, like because at first,
like they're like okay, wee we's gonnay.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
It's like yeah, but like how many stories.

Speaker 4 (56:02):
It's still a great accomplishment, right, But you're kind of
like if he like, is it just like a little
test or am I gonna be him?

Speaker 7 (56:07):
Like not?

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Girl, so proud of you. I'm running for you all
the way, like everyone's driving a car like, yes, Haley, that.

Speaker 4 (56:15):
Ship, that's what I said. That was my name, Haley
the hustler.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
Hustler, I'm gonna save your number. You are a hustler though,
because your follow up game is vicious. I think this morning,
I gotta.

Speaker 4 (56:27):
Tell girl, but I'm here.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
You not get the email?

Speaker 1 (56:30):
No, I did not get the email, said, well, damn right,
because she she she definitely didn't get the email.

Speaker 2 (56:38):
But your your follow up game was vicious. I respect
a good follow up game.

Speaker 1 (56:43):
There's nothing I appreciate more than a good follow up
game because it just shows like, look, man, I ain't
gonna stop until I hear no.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
Yeah. I think that's the yeah.

Speaker 1 (56:52):
And you also got to tell people too. It's like,
don't don't just hear no, one stop. Make sure that
the person that's saying no has the billy to say
yes in the first place. Right, Yeah, because you know
how many gatekeepers.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
Do you get to no? No, no, but they never
had the ability to say yes. And you stop fuck that.

Speaker 1 (57:08):
You keep going, keep going, show up flowers, balloons, cookies,
whatever you gotta do if that's the only gatekeeper, or
or go around the gatekeeper. But if they don't have
the authority to say yes, do not accept no from them.

Speaker 4 (57:23):
Yeah, and that's what I was saying, like, you know,
no today, it's not no tomorrow. That was always her saying,
and it suck with me. And so like, you know,
I just I had applied, you know to I don't
like other stores, or I was just using like little platforms,
but you know I wasn't ready or this, so they
wouldn't even take my meeting or whatever. And so you know,
when I got that and I did you know, the
follow up and then the Zoom calls, it was really

(57:45):
you know, their corporates really into Zoom, Like they want
to see your face, they want to talk to you,
show the product, what's it looking like? Do we need
to change your label? You know, they're very visual, That's

(58:09):
what I can say. And yeah, so she told me that,
and I like, damn near passed out, Like, I called
my mom. I was crying, and then she said, hey,
because I had showed her the boy I had sent
her the boys one too, the kit, and she was like, hey,
what do you think about like selling some of these
like individually online. I'm like, yeah, so you know, whatever

(58:29):
I need to do. I'm like, whatever I need to
do or whatever. And so there there's gonna be six,
like four of each of the brushes of individually online
as well. Just if you want like certain ones, like
say you want a curl sponge or like a pick,
you'll be able to like just get that online.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Now you're the only one in Walmart selling the curls punge, right,
that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (58:50):
The curlspunge is kind of a big deal.

Speaker 6 (58:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (58:52):
Can Now if people go online, Like if they listen
to this interview and they're like, Okay, I want to
get the Winnie Benny hair kit, can they buy the hair?

Speaker 2 (59:00):
Can't online or they have to find those retailers.

Speaker 4 (59:02):
It's Walmart, Walmart dot com and then online with all
Winny Winny dot com.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
Yeah, so it'll be so yeah, you can always go
to win Yeah, you.

Speaker 4 (59:09):
Go to Winnie Binny dot com and then it'll be
in Walmart and then walmart dot com. Yeah, and it's
Winny Y yeah O y n N I E and
then b Y and I E because Whn's name her
name is w hy n n and that.

Speaker 2 (59:21):
Was her nickname.

Speaker 4 (59:22):
People like how you came up with winny be And
I'm like, well, my daughter's name is when she's named
after my mom.

Speaker 3 (59:26):
My mom's middle name is when that the name got
passed out.

Speaker 2 (59:29):
You love your mom? Yeah, you love yeah, Zerah take notes.

Speaker 1 (59:34):
My daughter Betta take notes because she she always gives
me a hard time.

Speaker 2 (59:37):
But now I hope my daughter loves me the way
you love your mom.

Speaker 1 (59:40):
She will.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Yes, you're doing a great job.

Speaker 4 (59:42):
And it's just like, you know, I have so much
respect for just like women who are entrepreneurs and they'll
get up and work and you know, you don't have
to be a single mom is just a working mom.
In general, it's so hard to have, you know, a
child and you have this person that's, like, like you said,
helpless looking up to you every day like mommy, and
like I don't say, like mammy, you're my superhero, like.

Speaker 5 (01:00:02):
She says yes, like she said she see material, bro,
like not saying yes, or she'll.

Speaker 3 (01:00:07):
Be like, Bennie, I'm Bennie bounced Walmart.

Speaker 5 (01:00:10):
Like she'll say yeah, woah, yeah, she'll be like I
need can you send those clips into our team?

Speaker 4 (01:00:14):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Cool, we're gonna put that in the video.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
And then so now that you have executed your Walmart,
what is the aftermath look like as an entrepreneur for you?
Like what's the day in the life and like, how
did you need I'm gonna ask this and then I'm
gonna turn over white t you. But did you need
like another and another chunk of money to like take

(01:00:38):
it to the next level?

Speaker 4 (01:00:39):
Yeah, that's I mean, honestly, that's kind of like where
my mom came in because it's like my money was
going to like my rent and stuff, and then I
needed her to help me fulfill the purchase order because
you know, when you get a purchase order, like you
can either do one or two things, like you can
go to a bank.

Speaker 2 (01:00:55):
Yeah, or get a bad runner yeah, or get like.

Speaker 4 (01:00:57):
Raised some type of funding because Walmart doesn't pay you
until you invoice them, and an invoice is invoice is like, oh,
they've picked up the product.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
Your product is on the Walmart truck.

Speaker 4 (01:01:08):
You have to invoice them and then they pay you,
but your payment terms might be like one hundred sixty
one hundred and twenty days. Now, they do have programs
where like once you invoice them, they can you can
use like a program for smaller suppliers where they just
take like one percent of your purchas order. So I'm
so thankful for that that Walmart does look out for
smaller suppliers because they know, like I don't have one
hundred I don't have four months until you guys pay

(01:01:30):
me for the inventory.

Speaker 3 (01:01:31):
So they do.

Speaker 1 (01:01:32):
Really help small so they'll like do like a bridge
loan for you and then just do the one percent.

Speaker 4 (01:01:38):
They do a company that once you send the invoice
into Walmart, say your payment terms are like one hundred
and twenty.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
Days or sixty days or whatever.

Speaker 4 (01:01:47):
But you're like, hey, I can't wait that long, Like
I need to like either pay off my cards or
pay off whatever I use to you know, to do that.
So they have a company that once you send them
the invoice, they set up an account. They will just
take one percent of your purchase order, but they will
pay you in one to two businesses. So if you
have like what one hundred thousand dollars purchase order, they're
gonna take what one percent of them?

Speaker 2 (01:02:08):
That's it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:08):
And people they're like, oh, they're only gonna take you
know whatever, whether it's one thousand dollars too, though it
goes off.

Speaker 3 (01:02:14):
Of what your purchase order amount is.

Speaker 4 (01:02:16):
But that really helps like smaller suppliers, because you know,
I don't want people to think like, oh my god,
how how do I front this? Like how am I
gonna be able to fulfill one hundred thousand dollars purchase order?

Speaker 2 (01:02:26):
I don't have that. Yeah, So it's like you can
either you know, go you can go to the.

Speaker 4 (01:02:30):
Bank just so that you can get it, or either
you could maybe open up a business credit card, do it,
and then just know that there are ways that Walmart
works with you to get your money back, like to
get your money back too.

Speaker 3 (01:02:40):
Quicker quicker.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
I want I want just the listeners to know, Like
you know, and I have this conversation with a lot
of people. I mentor is just don't put the cart
before the horse. Like if you pay attention to Haley,
what was Haley saying is you know, she she moved
with what she had and she didn't put the future
expectations as roadblockers herself. And I know, like a lot
of entrepreneurs would be like I want to open this,

(01:03:03):
I want to do this, but I don't have that
or I need this. It's like, don't put your roadblocks
before yourself pick up the phone. You start with what
you got, and that's what you did. Now Walmart years ago,
I mean plenty plenty years ago. I'm not trying to
slander the Brown but years I would say, like at
least twenty plus years ago, so this is a long
time ago. They did have a little bit of a
reputation where they would place an order with a supplier

(01:03:27):
and then maybe like renie on it or like down
down down the order and then maybe the supplier is
like stuck holding the bill. I'm assuming that since I
haven't heard those stories in twenty years that that has
clearly changed.

Speaker 2 (01:03:44):
Yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (01:03:46):
I can't really speak to that because it's not something
that happened with me. It was just, you know, the
store count was a lot larger than I expected. I mean,
if anything, it was opposite, because I was you know,
people are in my ear like oh, like you know,
you might get fifty to one hundred stores, and here
I am getting something that says no, you're going eight
hundred and ninety nationwide. That was just kind of like,

(01:04:06):
you know, that just showed that the buyers and that
team really believed in me because they could have put me.
It's really up to that buyer's discretion into how many
stores they want to put you in.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
And so now now they're doing a whole like a
lot by right, so like a wholesale buy right right now,
how did you come up with the figures on how
much to charge them? And then also are you responsible
for once once they place the purchase order?

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
Are you responsible to.

Speaker 1 (01:04:34):
Ship it to get it into their possession or is
Walmart picking up that bill?

Speaker 4 (01:04:39):
What it is is you're responsible to get it to
your warehouse Walmart can you can do Walmart owned inventory
where they come pick it up, but you have to
have a warehouse. And so that's like the main difference
between having like a product owned business and like a
licensing deal because like licensing people, they don't have warehouses,
like they just all basically they just approved designs all day.

(01:05:02):
Like having an owned product like how like bbe Judy
has Kaleidoscope and she has all her products and stores.
Having an owned product is like three times the amount
of work because you're responsible to like you're responsible for
the designs, the packaging to make sure everything's okay.

Speaker 3 (01:05:18):
The formulation.

Speaker 4 (01:05:18):
You're responsible for getting it physically from wherever it's coming from.

Speaker 3 (01:05:22):
Where it's overseas, whatever country too.

Speaker 4 (01:05:25):
It's gonna have to be you know, cleared by US customs,
and then you have to worry about it going to
your warehouse, and you have to worry about Walmart coming
to pick it up to make sure it goes to
their DCS, their transportation. So it's like that transportation and logistics.
You're responsible for that because it's your product.

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
And you're learning, you're learning all this. You're not are
you now at this point? Are you bringing in specialists
or are you just learning your day by day?

Speaker 2 (01:05:46):
You're learning as you go on. You're bumping your head.

Speaker 4 (01:05:48):
I was learning as I go And then I talked to,
you know, my Walmart buyer, and he was just super
helpful and was like, hey, like, I know you're a
new supplier.

Speaker 3 (01:05:59):
Here's here's a list of people.

Speaker 4 (01:06:01):
They can't like formally tell you, but they can say like,
here's people that I would recommend, so he gives me
a list.

Speaker 2 (01:06:07):
I call this guy Alan.

Speaker 3 (01:06:08):
He is like a rock.

Speaker 4 (01:06:09):
Star, has lived in Benonville his whole life, has worked
with Walmart for fifteen years, knows the Walmart.

Speaker 3 (01:06:15):
System like this.

Speaker 2 (01:06:16):
I mean when I say he was like.

Speaker 4 (01:06:18):
Kind of like my saving grace and just help, I
mean he just was so just amazing. I still work
with free services or no, no, you have to pay,
but his services are affordable. They're like baby a thousand
and fifteen hundred dollars, and he works with a lot
of smaller suppliers that are getting into Walmart, and it's
just great. He was just such like a blessing to

(01:06:39):
me because he was able to like tell me like, hey,
this is the purchase order, this is this, this is
the logistics transportation.

Speaker 3 (01:06:44):
Like he's still on my team.

Speaker 4 (01:06:45):
He's definitely a part of you know, Winnie Bennie, and
so that having him was just like a big help
for me because it's like I'm doing it myself. But
I wouldn't even really suggest that to people because it's
just so hard.

Speaker 2 (01:06:58):
You just don't know what you don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
Yeah, yeah, so how did you calculate the numbers.

Speaker 4 (01:07:05):
The numbers was just like they usually want a they want.
I would say, most retailers want like a sixty five
percent like margin. That's you know, that's like that's like
the bread and butter fifties too low.

Speaker 3 (01:07:17):
They usually want sixty five percent.

Speaker 4 (01:07:19):
So I had to figure out what would be like
an affordable price point for Walmart, what I would pay
for that with other people would I think other people
would pay for that?

Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
And just the value.

Speaker 4 (01:07:29):
So when I did that, I'm like, Okay, I want
to get this kit, like under twenty dollars. Yeah, it
has nineteen ninety seven and especially the boys one has
wood brushes. I don't have it here with me, but
it has wood brushes and curl sponge and a pick.
Like it's just the value of it. If you were
to go to a beauty supply, it'd be way more
to pick up the individual brushes. And so that's why,

(01:07:50):
and that was also in my pitch. I was like, hey,
you can get this, but why do I have to
go to a beauty supply and buy eleven different things?

Speaker 3 (01:07:59):
I don't want to do that.

Speaker 4 (01:08:00):
I'm like a working mom, I'm a single mom, Like
I just want to be able to like Boom one
and done.

Speaker 2 (01:08:05):
That's it. That's how I am.

Speaker 1 (01:08:06):
Yes, if I saw this at Walmart, just like I've
been sold period, especially because it has everything I can
possibly need. And I hate going to the beauty supply stores.
I personally just hate going and it's such an out
of the way trip. And if you're a mom, you're
going to be a Walmart and Target, You're going to
be in those stores. So how convenient I actually was.

(01:08:27):
It was a random thought. Today I was buying Yahoo everyone.
I don't know why I like Yahoo's but I do.

Speaker 2 (01:08:33):
I don't know why.

Speaker 1 (01:08:34):
But I was in Walmart and I was buying the
stuff for the show, and then I bought like a
case of Yahoo. And then I went to Food for
Less for the bananas.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
Yes, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):
For whatever reason, this Walmart doesn't sell produce, and so
I was looking at the Yahoos and I was like, dang,
it's crazy, because you know, if I'm in Walmart at
the time, technically, if Walmart wanted to come up, they
could overcharge for the Yahoo just because I don't want
to go to three different stories to save money, but
to be able to go to Walmart and get a
full hairkit, steal to get quality hair products.

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
Steal.

Speaker 3 (01:09:05):
Yeah, so I'm glad.

Speaker 2 (01:09:06):
I'm glad for you, But.

Speaker 1 (01:09:08):
I think when it comes to pricing products, it's a
tricky thing, especially if you, uh, what's the term when
you imposter syndrome? Like sometimes I think everyone low key
has imposter syndrome. I mean, maybe there's someone that was
born with the world's greatest confidence, but you know, when
you're stepping outside of your comfort zone, it's easy to

(01:09:30):
get imposter syndrome.

Speaker 2 (01:09:31):
Are you familiar with the term.

Speaker 1 (01:09:32):
It's like where you it's almost like you feel like
you're lucky to be at the table versus you earn
your seat. And so when it comes to the numbers,
I think that sometimes as entrepreneurs, and I'm speaking for myself,
maybe some of y'all are great at it, but not me,
it's easy to kind of cut off our own air
supply because we feel like maybe we're just so lucky

(01:09:55):
to be there. So when you did your numbers, where
you did you do it from a place of like
maybe imposter syndrome, or did you do it from a
place of like, my shit's the shit? So this is
you know, I'm making sure my numbers make sense.

Speaker 4 (01:10:08):
It was more of just like what is practical and
what they're going to take. Like I know that Walmart
is obviously affordable. That's like their key marketing, that's the
core behind the store. So I'm like, what would be
affordable that people would buy it at, and then what
would be a good price where they would still have
that like sixty five percent margin that just came from
Like honestly, I want to say, like google most of

(01:10:30):
the stores and then like kind of getting into retail now,
that's usually what they're looking for, that like sixty to
sixty five.

Speaker 3 (01:10:36):
Percent profit margin.

Speaker 1 (01:10:39):
Were you able to get a comfortable profit margin with
those percentages taken out?

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:10:44):
Okay, cool, that's that's all I want to know, Like,
because it's easy to trim off yourself, right you know.

Speaker 2 (01:10:52):
Unfortunately, well I'm the type I trim off myself all day. Yeah.
I don't know if everyone's like that.

Speaker 1 (01:10:56):
Can't speak for everyone else, but I'm happy to hear
that you're still able to to carbaut a prophet. Now,
I gotta take it back to the haters before we
close out. What does the haters say?

Speaker 4 (01:11:09):
Now? Is there like I'm proud of these speeches, like
I just it's just you know, I still never got
the congrats you know from my you know, child's father
who said I was never gonna make it in a store.

Speaker 3 (01:11:23):
He said my products would never make He now knows, yeah,
he now knows.

Speaker 4 (01:11:26):
Still never got that, like what it is just a hater,
just a complete hater, Like never said that I was
never gonna make it with my products in the store.

Speaker 3 (01:11:34):
And now his like daughter's in there, and I never
got like a congrats like.

Speaker 4 (01:11:38):
Nothing, but you like childhood, yeah, like oh, like I'm
not stopping until when even he's in like every major US.

Speaker 3 (01:11:47):
Like I've always just had that hustler spirit and you
know a lot of the haters what I've heard, like
you know through the.

Speaker 4 (01:11:53):
Great finess, like oh, well she's in Walmar, but she's
not in Target, like she's in she's.

Speaker 3 (01:11:57):
You know, yeah, that's all real real like that girl.

Speaker 2 (01:12:02):
You know that kind of sucks because.

Speaker 1 (01:12:05):
I think just taking it back to being a woman
and having a child, like I think that that would
hurt a little bit. But then again, you know sometimes
when your haters, hey, it kind of does feel good,
like yeah, you know, like you trying.

Speaker 2 (01:12:18):
It's a far reach, but.

Speaker 1 (01:12:19):
What you were able to accomplish was simply amazing. I'm
Haley the hustler, I'm on your team. And I was
back and forth, I'm not gonna lie in my head
because i do have certain requirements to be on the show,
And I was thinking back and forth, like she does
deserve acy at the eating while broke table. But you know,

(01:12:40):
sometimes you know, I question, like you know, I don't
want the blind leading the blind. I don't want someone
on the show that's currently broke talking about being broke.
I don't think it's all about dollars at the end
of the day, I do think it's about milestones, and like,
you know, like I said, it goes back to the
tenacity of like finding my phone number, which apparently, honestly,
you can actually google my name and pull up you

(01:13:02):
can just call you phone number.

Speaker 2 (01:13:04):
It says a little too much information.

Speaker 1 (01:13:06):
But but the truth in the matter is, like your
tenacity is what got you here, your entrepreneurship, this is
what got you here, your hustler, Your mommy is you know,
she's she's dope for producing a child like you. You
know that has like integrity and then to be able
to bounce back from heartbreak. And I know because my

(01:13:26):
husband drives me absolutely crazy. My husband is like the
dog of dogs, so it's impossible to keep up with
his level of crazy. Yeah, not trying to talk shit,
but he knows what I'm talking about. But but the
truth of the matter is, like, I applaud you and
I'm so honored to have you on this show and
to be able to like.

Speaker 2 (01:13:46):
Touch the price give my daughter a purse her first
person babe for the page. Yeah, and I've always been
weird about promoting my child. And I don't know why.
She's adorable.

Speaker 1 (01:13:59):
Yeah, she's He's got a lot of personality and I
do a lot of cool stuff with her, and people
tell me, like, how do you find this cool stuff?
Like I dedicate my weekends to my daughter during the week.
If it was up to me, I would work thirty
hours a day, which is impossible. And I'm a hustle
like yourself, and I'm a Jamaican. We have so much
in common.

Speaker 3 (01:14:16):
I know.

Speaker 2 (01:14:19):
We have the same birthday. But I will say, like.

Speaker 1 (01:14:24):
My team and the listeners, like, I know we all
appreciate stories like yours.

Speaker 2 (01:14:28):
It's important.

Speaker 1 (01:14:29):
It's important for these stories to be told. It's important
for Miles On to be broke. We did have April
Showers from Afro Unicorn, who has a licensing deal in Walmart.
That was another huge breakthrough for black and brown communities
and minorities.

Speaker 2 (01:14:44):
So thank you and your dish for all y'all listeners.
That dish is amazing. Like, I'm not even gonna lie,
I do not think I like peanut butter.

Speaker 1 (01:14:54):
I'm starting to realize that after mouse is Jones, dish
shadows mouse. But if you are broke and hungry or
just want a snack that seems to be healthy, and
I can imagine does Winny eat this?

Speaker 2 (01:15:07):
She does?

Speaker 3 (01:15:07):
Yes, she loves rice cakes, she loves peanut butter.

Speaker 1 (01:15:10):
Yes, okay, well I will honestly approve the banana and
peanut butter with the rice cake recipe.

Speaker 2 (01:15:17):
It's also going in the cookbook.

Speaker 1 (01:15:19):
That's what that little way where you say yeah, all
thish is going to the cookbook and will probably pull
your mama's quote if they say what is it?

Speaker 4 (01:15:26):
If they say no, today is not no tomorrow. No
today is not no tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:15:32):
That's the truth.

Speaker 4 (01:15:33):
Like don't don't stop when the door closes on you like,
keep going. I've heard a million nose and it was
that one yes from Walmart, and I was like, and.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
What I like is that I have a secret thing
that I do. I've said it a couple of times.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
I pitched Jay Z at least once every six months
because he's my favorite person in the world.

Speaker 2 (01:15:52):
Yeah, I look up to him, al jay Z.

Speaker 1 (01:15:55):
Yeah, there's a big painting in the lobby that of him.
And even though he's a big shark, even my twin
people are like always like, one day you'll get Jay
And you know what, I think it's important to not
just shoot your shot at this level, shoot at all
levels because you never know, Like you got the Walmart call,
you never know, there may be a day where.

Speaker 2 (01:16:17):
Jay calls back.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
Now I joke on his publicist, I'm like, yeah, it
didn't happen this month, but you know, in a couple
of months, I'll try again. Yeah, you know, But no
shout outs to you guys. Check out Wynie Benny online.
You could google it, follow her on Instagram. Also, definitely
take the time to go to Walmart if you see
I say this, whether you need the product or not,

(01:16:38):
it's important to show support I have developed. I don't
like to call the listeners on my show fans because
they're really supporters. I get the sweetest dms. Yeah today,
I think this young lady, she's sending me a box
of wine, and their messages are constantly don't quit cod
we need your voice. And I'm always like, but I'm lame.

(01:17:00):
You know, I'm not really as popping. But the truth
of the matter is, like, it's so important for us
to support the entrepreneur, whether we need the products or
not in our homes, like to be able to go
into Walmart later and go and say, oh, Wennie Benny's
on the shlf, let me buy it. I did the
same thing with Afro Unicorn. My daughter is like two
years and they only had like an eighteen month old PJS.

(01:17:22):
I didn't give a crap. I was like, I know
this is probably barely gonna fit her, but hey, I
want to be a supporter. Yeah, And I think it's
important when we have these brands like Wennie Binni, Afro
Unicorn in Walmart, whether we need the products or not.

Speaker 2 (01:17:34):
Still still swipe. You're gonna need it eventually.

Speaker 1 (01:17:37):
You know, my daughter's gonna lose some of the brush
kit eventually, or I'm gonna need the dad's gonna need one,
the mom's gonna need one, or the auntie or the
cousin or whatever. I'm excited for the boy kid because
I have a nephew and I'm excited.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
To be able to give him his love. He has
long hair and in his do you have the like
the what do they call it?

Speaker 1 (01:17:59):
The thing that divide the ca okay and the boy
kind yep, Okay, awesome, all right, guys, thank you for
listening to another episode of Eating While Broke. Check out
Hayley Chapman. I guess the only way you could find
you is under Winnie Benny's.

Speaker 4 (01:18:12):
Profile, Yeah, Winnie Benny or my Instagram which is Wifey Chanel.

Speaker 2 (01:18:16):
Wifey Chanel. Yes that's my middle name, Chanel. Okay, okay, okay,
all right, thank you guys, peace out. Thank you for

(01:18:44):
more Eating While Broke from iHeartRadio and The Black Effect.

Speaker 1 (01:18:48):
Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen
to your favorite shows.

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HAILEE CHAPMAN - Peanut Butter, Banana Rice Cakes

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}HAILEE CHAPMAN - Peanut Butter, Banana Rice Cakes