September 13, 2023 • 11 mins
In this episode, Vanessa Simmons shares the exciting journey of co-founding her first fashion venture, Pastry, alongside her sister. She delves into the inspiration behind building this sneaker brand, which targeted young women, and recounts the fun and innovative marketing strategies they employed, including mall tours. Vanessa reveals how the youthful energy of Pastry's brand ethos continues to inspire her in her subsequent entrepreneurial ventures.
Host IG:@itstanyatime
Guest IG: @vanessajsimmons
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks to MasterCard for sponsoring this episode. Head to MasterCard
dot com backslash Small Bids to learn how they're amplifying
and supporting black women entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What we were doing to give ourselves an edge as
we were working with the retailers to do these mall
tours where we would go store to store, retailer to retailer.
We're like, hey, you put our sneakers in your store,
We'll come do a meet and greet. We'll see who
shows up. You know, this type of marketing technique blew
up for us. We had thousands of girls in line
wanting to, you know, connect with us, and that really
(00:32):
gave us a chance to connect with our customer to
know exactly what they wanted so we can integrate that
into the business. And then once that became successful, we
were able to hire musical artists and we started expanding
the mall tours and making it more of like a
performance and an experience for the customers to come out.
And remember, they had to shut it down five thousand people.
They were blown away by the traffic we were bringing
(00:56):
into the mall.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
You're listening to My Powered by Greenwood, a finance podcast
dedicated to dropping all the knowledge and gems from the
world's leading celebrities, entrepreneurs and experts, and tech, business and more.
I'm your host, angel investor, technology enthusiast, and media personality
Tanya Sam. Each week we talk with guests who are
making significant strides in their fields and learn how they
(01:19):
are making their money move. If you're someone who's looking
to make your money move, you're in the right place,
So open up your notes app and lock us in
because this podcast will give you the keys to the
kingdom of financial stability, wealth and abundance you so rightly deserve.
Before we start the episode, I'd like to remind you
to check us out at gogreenwood dot com and follow
(01:40):
us on social media at Greenwood and me on all
things social at It's Tanya. Time to stay locked in
to new episode. I want to talk about pastry because
you know, you said it was about twenty years ago
and I remember it vividly. I'm sure we're probably in
and around the same age group. But let's talk about
(02:01):
building a business you know, at such a young age,
and how did you like, let's go back to like
how you decided like what this business looked like, how
did you know you wanted to build this brand and
how did you do it?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well? Okay, So my love for business definitely started from,
like I said earlier, just my family being involved in
it and seeing multiple fashion brands being built, and you know,
the rise of Deaf Jam and the different ventures my
family was getting involved in. And so we were young
at the time. I was just fresh out of Saint
John's University studying communications and business. I really fell in
(02:39):
love with marketing when I was in school, and I
was like, okay, fresh out of college, you want to
use your degree. I'm like, okay, how can I do this?
I was green as heck, but I was like, you know,
we really Me and my sister we got put our
heads together, were like, let's do something. My family, they're
in the business of fashion. We have these resources and connections.
(02:59):
Let's see what we can do. So we really got
really heavily integrated with like marketing, and we're like, let's
really theme out a brand and let's have fun. We
wanted to exude the fact that we were young, and
we wanted to show other young people who wanted to
build businesses. You one gotta be forty to start your
(03:21):
first business. You can do it now, you know, it
just takes the right steps. You got to take the
right steps, have the right team, and have the right
mindset above all. And so we birthed this brand pastry.
They gave us one sneaker mold. And if you're anyone
out there is in the sneaker industry, they know that.
You know, making a sneaker is kind of expensive. So
(03:42):
they gave us one mold. They say, we'll give you
a shot. We'll give you one mold. So we took
that one mold and we made four different colorways with it.
We had red velvet, we had sprinkles, we had chocolate,
and we had strawberry shortcake. We said, can we take
this one mold and do four colorways? So we got
ourselves a retailer with a pitch for sneakers. And I
(04:04):
don't think anyone could foresee, especially not even us, how
successful it would be. So they gave us a shot.
We put these sneakers out and they blew off the
shelves and within the first six months we were able
to scale up. And they said, we'll give you two more,
you know molds. Now that you guys have made this money,
we're gonna take this money and put it back, and
now we'll give you two more molds. And so then
(04:25):
we made fab Cookie and we made the glam Pi.
And the thing that really set Pastrio aside from other
companies and sneaker companies was not only was it geared
towards young ladies like ourselves and it exuded this young
fun energy, but we were really putting in the work
to really like theme it out completely. We were having
(04:46):
fun with the marketing. Yes, the business of it is
grueling and there are a lot of like details that
go into it, but we were sparing no parts of
our imagination when it came to really making each sneaker
feel like a pastry world. We had fun with the advertisement.
There was no social media back then, so we were
(05:07):
going on tours.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
I was just gonna say, like, to give people context.
It wasn't like you were saying, hey, we were just
doing a post posting to Instagram being like, people, this
is the gorilla marketing days, right, the gorilla marketing left
right right.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It's a totally different time, absolutely, And so what we
were doing to give ourselves an edge is we were
working with the retailers to do these mall tours where
we would go store to store, retailer to retailer. We're like, hey,
you put our sneakers in your store, We'll come do
a meet and greet. We'll see who shows up. You know,
this type of marketing technique blew up for us. We
had thousands of girls in line wanting to, you know,
(05:48):
connect with us, and that really gave us a chance
to connect with our customer, to know exactly what they
wanted so we can integrate that into the business. And
then once that became successful, we were able to hire
musical artists and already expanding the mall toors and making
it more of like a performance and an experience for
the customers to come out. And we were shutting malls
down five thousand people. We were in Miami Dade Mall.
(06:10):
I remember they had to shut it down five thousand people.
They were blown away by the traffic we were bringing
into the mall. And because of that type of you know,
gorilla style marketing, it really propelled the business to really thrive,
and we just kept the fun in it. We connected
with the customer. We really aim to give them exactly
(06:32):
what they wanted and to make sure like I said before,
that it exuded the young, fresh energy that Angela and
I exuded. We wanted that in the marketing, and I
think that's what really set it apart and was able
to make it a success. It was definitely a sweet
spot in time, all pun intended, and yeah, that was
(06:53):
a really really good time in my life and it
really set the stage for my love for business and
you know, the fun you can put into a business
and the imagination. So I keep that childlike energy when
I'm creating new businesses.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
What an amazing success story and I think just so
interesting the timeframe of it. Were you also, you were
on TV at this point, so do you think that
impactful piece to it that you had this audience in following?
But I'm trying to also was there Facebook at this
point or was all people who knew you from television
(07:29):
and then were actually coming out in real life to
be like, I want to see these people.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
There was Facebook, I don't remember it being a huge
part of what we were doing. I know YouTube was
rather in the early stages, so we did incorporate YouTube
as well, But it's undeniable that the show was the
most unlimited advertisement we could have and just really being
(07:55):
able to connect with our customer through that platform as
well doing runs house being the that was the ultimate
like press for us to be able to put it
on our show and to show and use that platform
in a positive way to really show other young ladies
that you know, this is possible and this is doable.
There weren't a lot of other young entrepreneurs at the
(08:17):
time who were doing and running businesses. It was not
really heard of. So yeah, the show definitely gave us
the push that we need and I'm you know, forever
grateful for that time and history.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Vanessa. One of the things that I think that it
was also so important that that was the representation because
you know, around that time, we were all watching the
same shows, and I mean, it was just so amazing
to see these young women being business people, owning their business,
making decisions. How long did you guys run the business?
And I know, you know with entrepreneurs, there's always cycles
(08:53):
of business, right your business is up, and then how
did you decide when it came to an endpoint?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yeah, you gotta go with the flow of the business,
and you know, sometimes things come to an end or
you need to pivot. And we had partners, and that's
just the reality is that, you know, it was time
to pivot out. You know, Fortunately, and amazingly Pastry is
still around. Then they just served the dance community. My
(09:21):
sister and I are no longer involved, but Pastry is
a heavy dance community sneaker. It is in universities on
you know, the NBA and NFL cheerleaders, like it's a
really truly functional sneaker. So it's amazing to say that
we started a brand that is still existing and still
(09:41):
serving a community to this day. But you know, it's
just not you know what it was back then. I mean,
maybe we'll see a revival one day where we get
to really dig in and use our imagination in a
big way. But yeah, sometimes it's about the pivot. And
we grew up a little bit and we pivoted out
both moms and you know, we have multiple other businesses
(10:04):
that we work on, and Pastry would just forever be
an amazing spot in history for us.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Honestly, what a great success story. I'm super proud and
I love that, and I think that's that's the beauty
of entrepreneurship. You know, I think oftentimes, like if there's
these ups and downs and waves, and I think once
you get the bug, you're like, what can I do next?
Where can I leave my mark on this world? And
that is definitely something that you have done. Thanks for
(10:32):
listening to today's episode. If we help you make your
money move, please share it with your community, subscribe and
leave us a review on iHeartRadio and Apple podcasts. Follow
us on social media at Greenwood and visit us at
Gogreenwood dot com for more financial tips and remember, money movers,
If this were easy, everyone would do it. So take
the lessons you've learned from this episode and apply it
(10:54):
to your life. Money Moves is an iHeartRadio podcast powered
by green Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc. For more
podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts from. Make sure to tune
in Monday, Wednesday and Friday and subscribe to the Money
Moose podcast powered by Greenwood, so that you too can
(11:16):
have the keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve.
Until next time,
Thanks to MasterCard for sponsoring this episode. Head to MasterCard
dot com backslash Small Bids to learn how they're amplifying
and supporting black women entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
What we were doing to give ourselves an edge as
we were working with the retailers to do these mall
tours where we would go store to store, retailer to retailer.
We're like, hey, you put our sneakers in your store,
We'll come do a meet and greet. We'll see who
shows up. You know, this type of marketing technique blew
up for us. We had thousands of girls in line
wanting to, you know, connect with us, and that really
(00:32):
gave us a chance to connect with our customer to
know exactly what they wanted so we can integrate that
into the business. And then once that became successful, we
were able to hire musical artists and we started expanding
the mall tours and making it more of like a
performance and an experience for the customers to come out.
And remember, they had to shut it down five thousand people.
They were blown away by the traffic we were bringing
(00:56):
into the mall.
Speaker 1 (00:59):
You're listening to My Powered by Greenwood, a finance podcast
dedicated to dropping all the knowledge and gems from the
world's leading celebrities, entrepreneurs and experts, and tech, business and more.
I'm your host, angel investor, technology enthusiast, and media personality
Tanya Sam. Each week we talk with guests who are
making significant strides in their fields and learn how they
(01:19):
are making their money move. If you're someone who's looking
to make your money move, you're in the right place,
So open up your notes app and lock us in
because this podcast will give you the keys to the
kingdom of financial stability, wealth and abundance you so rightly deserve.
Before we start the episode, I'd like to remind you
to check us out at gogreenwood dot com and follow
(01:40):
us on social media at Greenwood and me on all
things social at It's Tanya. Time to stay locked in
to new episode. I want to talk about pastry because
you know, you said it was about twenty years ago
and I remember it vividly. I'm sure we're probably in
and around the same age group. But let's talk about
(02:01):
building a business you know, at such a young age,
and how did you like, let's go back to like
how you decided like what this business looked like, how
did you know you wanted to build this brand and
how did you do it?
Speaker 2 (02:16):
Well? Okay, So my love for business definitely started from,
like I said earlier, just my family being involved in
it and seeing multiple fashion brands being built, and you know,
the rise of Deaf Jam and the different ventures my
family was getting involved in. And so we were young
at the time. I was just fresh out of Saint
John's University studying communications and business. I really fell in
(02:39):
love with marketing when I was in school, and I
was like, okay, fresh out of college, you want to
use your degree. I'm like, okay, how can I do this?
I was green as heck, but I was like, you know,
we really Me and my sister we got put our
heads together, were like, let's do something. My family, they're
in the business of fashion. We have these resources and connections.
(02:59):
Let's see what we can do. So we really got
really heavily integrated with like marketing, and we're like, let's
really theme out a brand and let's have fun. We
wanted to exude the fact that we were young, and
we wanted to show other young people who wanted to
build businesses. You one gotta be forty to start your
(03:21):
first business. You can do it now, you know, it
just takes the right steps. You got to take the
right steps, have the right team, and have the right
mindset above all. And so we birthed this brand pastry.
They gave us one sneaker mold. And if you're anyone
out there is in the sneaker industry, they know that.
You know, making a sneaker is kind of expensive. So
(03:42):
they gave us one mold. They say, we'll give you
a shot. We'll give you one mold. So we took
that one mold and we made four different colorways with it.
We had red velvet, we had sprinkles, we had chocolate,
and we had strawberry shortcake. We said, can we take
this one mold and do four colorways? So we got
ourselves a retailer with a pitch for sneakers. And I
(04:04):
don't think anyone could foresee, especially not even us, how
successful it would be. So they gave us a shot.
We put these sneakers out and they blew off the
shelves and within the first six months we were able
to scale up. And they said, we'll give you two more,
you know molds. Now that you guys have made this money,
we're gonna take this money and put it back, and
now we'll give you two more molds. And so then
(04:25):
we made fab Cookie and we made the glam Pi.
And the thing that really set Pastrio aside from other
companies and sneaker companies was not only was it geared
towards young ladies like ourselves and it exuded this young
fun energy, but we were really putting in the work
to really like theme it out completely. We were having
(04:46):
fun with the marketing. Yes, the business of it is
grueling and there are a lot of like details that
go into it, but we were sparing no parts of
our imagination when it came to really making each sneaker
feel like a pastry world. We had fun with the advertisement.
There was no social media back then, so we were
(05:07):
going on tours.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
I was just gonna say, like, to give people context.
It wasn't like you were saying, hey, we were just
doing a post posting to Instagram being like, people, this
is the gorilla marketing days, right, the gorilla marketing left
right right.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
It's a totally different time, absolutely, And so what we
were doing to give ourselves an edge is we were
working with the retailers to do these mall tours where
we would go store to store, retailer to retailer. We're like, hey,
you put our sneakers in your store, We'll come do
a meet and greet. We'll see who shows up. You know,
this type of marketing technique blew up for us. We
had thousands of girls in line wanting to, you know,
(05:48):
connect with us, and that really gave us a chance
to connect with our customer, to know exactly what they
wanted so we can integrate that into the business. And
then once that became successful, we were able to hire
musical artists and already expanding the mall toors and making
it more of like a performance and an experience for
the customers to come out. And we were shutting malls
down five thousand people. We were in Miami Dade Mall.
(06:10):
I remember they had to shut it down five thousand people.
They were blown away by the traffic we were bringing
into the mall. And because of that type of you know,
gorilla style marketing, it really propelled the business to really thrive,
and we just kept the fun in it. We connected
with the customer. We really aim to give them exactly
(06:32):
what they wanted and to make sure like I said before,
that it exuded the young, fresh energy that Angela and
I exuded. We wanted that in the marketing, and I
think that's what really set it apart and was able
to make it a success. It was definitely a sweet
spot in time, all pun intended, and yeah, that was
(06:53):
a really really good time in my life and it
really set the stage for my love for business and
you know, the fun you can put into a business
and the imagination. So I keep that childlike energy when
I'm creating new businesses.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
What an amazing success story and I think just so
interesting the timeframe of it. Were you also, you were
on TV at this point, so do you think that
impactful piece to it that you had this audience in following?
But I'm trying to also was there Facebook at this
point or was all people who knew you from television
(07:29):
and then were actually coming out in real life to
be like, I want to see these people.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
There was Facebook, I don't remember it being a huge
part of what we were doing. I know YouTube was
rather in the early stages, so we did incorporate YouTube
as well, But it's undeniable that the show was the
most unlimited advertisement we could have and just really being
(07:55):
able to connect with our customer through that platform as
well doing runs house being the that was the ultimate
like press for us to be able to put it
on our show and to show and use that platform
in a positive way to really show other young ladies
that you know, this is possible and this is doable.
There weren't a lot of other young entrepreneurs at the
(08:17):
time who were doing and running businesses. It was not
really heard of. So yeah, the show definitely gave us
the push that we need and I'm you know, forever
grateful for that time and history.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
Vanessa. One of the things that I think that it
was also so important that that was the representation because
you know, around that time, we were all watching the
same shows, and I mean, it was just so amazing
to see these young women being business people, owning their business,
making decisions. How long did you guys run the business?
And I know, you know with entrepreneurs, there's always cycles
(08:53):
of business, right your business is up, and then how
did you decide when it came to an endpoint?
Speaker 2 (09:01):
Yeah, you gotta go with the flow of the business,
and you know, sometimes things come to an end or
you need to pivot. And we had partners, and that's
just the reality is that, you know, it was time
to pivot out. You know, Fortunately, and amazingly Pastry is
still around. Then they just served the dance community. My
(09:21):
sister and I are no longer involved, but Pastry is
a heavy dance community sneaker. It is in universities on
you know, the NBA and NFL cheerleaders, like it's a
really truly functional sneaker. So it's amazing to say that
we started a brand that is still existing and still
(09:41):
serving a community to this day. But you know, it's
just not you know what it was back then. I mean,
maybe we'll see a revival one day where we get
to really dig in and use our imagination in a
big way. But yeah, sometimes it's about the pivot. And
we grew up a little bit and we pivoted out
both moms and you know, we have multiple other businesses
(10:04):
that we work on, and Pastry would just forever be
an amazing spot in history for us.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
Honestly, what a great success story. I'm super proud and
I love that, and I think that's that's the beauty
of entrepreneurship. You know, I think oftentimes, like if there's
these ups and downs and waves, and I think once
you get the bug, you're like, what can I do next?
Where can I leave my mark on this world? And
that is definitely something that you have done. Thanks for
(10:32):
listening to today's episode. If we help you make your
money move, please share it with your community, subscribe and
leave us a review on iHeartRadio and Apple podcasts. Follow
us on social media at Greenwood and visit us at
Gogreenwood dot com for more financial tips and remember, money movers,
If this were easy, everyone would do it. So take
the lessons you've learned from this episode and apply it
(10:54):
to your life. Money Moves is an iHeartRadio podcast powered
by green Executive produced by Sunwise Media, Inc. For more
podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or
wherever you get your podcasts from. Make sure to tune
in Monday, Wednesday and Friday and subscribe to the Money
Moose podcast powered by Greenwood, so that you too can
(11:16):
have the keys to financial freedom you so rightly deserve.
Until next time,
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