Made By Women Preview: Coco & Breezy

These are challenging times that call for new ways of thinking. We're excited to announce our new podcast about women and entrepreneurship, Made By Women. Enjoy this preview and a valuable lesson from the twin sisters who founded one of the most fashionable eyewear lines out there, Coco and Breezy. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome to this episode of Here's Something Good, a production
of the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio.
Each day we aspire to bring you the good news,
the silver lining, the glass half full, because there is
good happening in the world everywhere, every day. We just
need to look for it and share it. Here's something

(00:26):
Good for Today. These are challenging times, difficult times that
call for new ways of thinking and doing. That's why
we are so excited to announce a new addition to
the Seneca Women Podcast Network. Tomorrow, we launched Made by Women,
a weekly podcast about women and entrepreneurship. As a treat today,
we're going to give you a special preview of the

(00:47):
first episode of Made by Women. It features twin sisters,
incredible women of color from Minneapolis who started a chic
line of eye wear. They went from waitressing to seeing
their designs on the red carpet, to wondering how they'd
pay their and then back again to success. In today's episode,
we'll take a look at the mindset that allowed these
sisters to ride what they call the roller coaster of

(01:07):
business ownership. But first, why a show about women entrepreneurs Well,
there's never been a more important moment for women owned businesses.
The US has over twelve million women owned businesses, and
their resilience and ingenuity have the potential to lift us
out of this current economic crisis. Made by Women provides
the tools for women entrepreneurs to successfully navigate today while

(01:29):
preparing for tomorrow. It showcases the experiences of legendary entrepreneurs
as well as fierce up and comers. Made by Women
is for all entrepreneurs, whether you're looking to start a business,
pivot and existing one, or expand with an eye to
the future. Consider it a real world NBA designed for
the new now. The first episode of Made by Women
features a conversation with the dots and sisters who started

(01:51):
the eyewear line known as Coco and Breezy. There are
looks have been worn by the biggest names from Lady
Gaga to Nicki Minaj and have been featured everywhere from
to Forbes. Today, their business is thriving, but not so
long ago. At the very moment they were posing for
the glossy magazines, Cocoa and Breezy were wondering if they'd
have enough money to buy their next meal. But the
sisters have developed an incredibly valuable trait the ability to

(02:14):
turn every experience, good or bad, into a useful lesson.
Here's a short excerpt from my conversation with them. I
would say growing up in the Midwest, especially being women
of color, and not only did women of color, but
being black women in Minnesota, not only did we get
bullied for having eclectic styles, but we also got bullied
for being black. I think if we didn't have such

(02:36):
supportive parents, it would have been a very tough time
for us as kids. And something that we're really grateful
for is that even though our parents couldn't necessarily financially
support us, they they support us emotionally, like so well,
because they really pushed us to show our individual styles

(02:57):
and they pushed us to really under stand the menia
of being an individualist. And so I'm really grateful for that.
And I think when you grow up with not a
lot of resources, you like create your own resources and
you create your own world. So if you're in a
world where you feel like you're not accepted, on top
of in a world where you may not be in

(03:17):
a financial place to get what everyone else has, you're
almost like forced to be creative. And I'm very grateful
for the way that we grew up because it made
us the entrepreneurs that we are today. I would say
that what really inspired us to actually being eyewear is

(03:39):
from being bullied. Like if you look at our old photos,
we are super like punk like mohawks, you know, black boots,
all black, black lipstick, and people would stare at us,
point at us, and we were so from the outside
we looked so confident, but internally we were torn to pieces.
And we would buy cheap sunglasses to kind of give

(04:00):
us this level of confidence, and then we started making
our own glasses. One thing that we did always have
is that we had tenacity. The way that we look
at life and we've been we started practicing this since
we were kids. Our way of life is that any
situation you go through, you make it your own. So
if it's a quote unquote bad situation, the way that

(04:21):
we look at it is that it's just part of
the story and it's part of the journey. And I
know that that's a huge part of being an entrepreneur
is once you like grow that emotional intelligence and the
understanding that you're gonna go through so many roller coasters
and it's Okay, I always say whenever we go through something,
I'm like, this is just part of the book in
the movie Amazing, And there's so much more to learn

(04:44):
from Cocoa and Breezy. When you listen to tomorrow's episode
of Made by Women, you'll hear how the sisters learned
to fake confidence until they attain the real thing, how
they developed the mindset necessary to succeed, and how they
bounced back from a bigger setback than they could ever imagine.
Every sort of Made by Women brings you lessons you
won't get anywhere else, and you'll have a unique window
into the thinking of entrepreneurs that can help you turn

(05:06):
every experience into an opportunity for success. So here's something
good for today. Women entrepreneurs have the potential to propel
this country to the next great era, and we can
each find valuable insights and lessons from the experience of
these incredible women entrepreneurs. Listen to tomorrow's episode of Made
by Women with Coco and Breezy, and listen to Made

(05:28):
by Women every week on I Heart Radio. Thank you
for listening, and please share Today's something Good with others
in your life. This is Kim Azzarelli, co author of

(05:48):
Fast Forward and co founder of Seneca Women. To learn
more about Seneca Women, go to Seneca Women dot com
or download the Seneca Women app free in the app store.
Care Something Good is a production of the Seneca Women's
Podcast Network and I Heart Radio Have a Great Day.

(06:10):
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