Shaina Rainford, owner of BASK + LATHER

The latest Building Black Business podcast episode features Angela Yee in conversation with Shaina Rainford, owner of BASK + LATHER. In Partnership with @DriveToyota

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So what's up. It's Way Up with Angela Yee and

(00:02):
I mean way up.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
And I'm excited for this because this is somebody who
is for real, way up Shana Rain for this here.
She is the CEO of basket Lather. These are the products.
I actually took these products with me when I went
on vacation with my friends and we were in Saint Martin,
and so everybody had to borrow like a you know,
shampoo and conditioner from me because nobody else brought theirs,

(00:24):
but you know, I had to and they loved it.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
I was like, y'all can't be using all my products up,
But welcome to the show.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Thank you for having me.

Speaker 2 (00:32):
And I also, before we even get started, want to
thank you for your partnership with Way Up with Angela Yee.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
You know, I appreciate that Angela y Day is coming
up and we were just talking behind the scenes on
what basket Lather would be doing at Angela Ye Day.

Speaker 3 (00:44):
Yes, we're super excited. Am I allowed to share?

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yes? Please?

Speaker 3 (00:47):
Oh yeah, let's break the news. I mean, so, Angela
You Day is.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
All about the community, and basket Latter is also all
about the community. So we will be on site giving
away haircare products and book bags, getting the kids ready
for back to school.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Okay, and listen, and what's in the in the book
bags and.

Speaker 4 (01:03):
The book bags will have the edge control that the
kids need that way they go to school and come
home look in the same way. We'll have conditioner deep conditioner,
and we have book bags for boys, for girls, different colors.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
So we're excited every year.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
We're always looking for great ways to partner and do
back to school initiatives.

Speaker 3 (01:21):
We're also happy that you're gonna have.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
Braiders and barbers involved, so we're definitely looking forward to
being being able to have as many kids as possible
get their hair back to school ready.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, listen, I want to say this too. Last year
was a lot of adults as well. Let's let the
kids go first. Okay, Okay, but let's talk about your
history and your background and how you even got to
where you are, because I think people need to also
understand that this whole company basket in lather was something
that happened organically for you. So just talk about a

(01:53):
little bit about what Shae, what young Shana went through
to even lead you to come up with this product.
Because a lot of times it's home remedies that we
have coming up, and that is actually something that later
in life feels.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Like this could be a business.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
Yes, So our original product, our scalp stimulator oil, far
precedes the company actually becoming a company. So a few
years ago, my younger sister Leah lost all of her hair.
She had a really bad ring worm that spread all
across her scalp, and initially it looked just like dandriffs,
so that's what she was diagnosed with. And by the
time she got a proper diagnosis, she lost so much
hair that she had a big crop circle.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
She only had hair around the circumference of her hair dang. Yep.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
And then my mom finally found a black dermatologist who
was able to properly diagnose her, and the anti fungals
that she took cleared off the rest of their hair lost,
so our scalpsh yep. It was shiny's devastating yep. It
was shiny and smooth at baby skin. And my mom
was really desperate to regrow her hair. She was devastated,
and she took her to all different types of specialists

(02:51):
and they did scalp analysis and they said we don't
know that her hair is ever going to grow back, right,
Like the follicles could be scarred over.

Speaker 3 (02:57):
And she was too young to use anything pharmaceutical.

Speaker 4 (03:00):
So my mom did research about natural efficacious ingredients for
hair growth, whipped up a concoction in the kitchen which
is our scalp stimulator oil, and then her hair started
to grow back. That's amazing, but it was growing fine
and thin. So she did more research, like, okay, what
can I used to thicken her hair? And she came
across she making black castor oil, and so she created
our hair alixir and that helped her hair to grow

(03:22):
in faster and thicker. And now her hair is all
the way down to her bottom and she has four
seat hair. I know that's right.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
And you know, as much as we could feel like,
oh is this something that's just the idea of like
your hair. I remember I had a patch of hair
that was missing because somebody did my bun so tight
on the top of my head and it really like
ripped it out and then it grows back.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
It's like a little patch like right here that's super short.

Speaker 2 (03:45):
But it's things like that our edges. We know how
hard that is when it's like, look getting braids. Sometimes
not these though, shout out to Shot and.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
My girl Destiny.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
But you know there's times that things we do to
our hair can really affect that. And sometimes it could
be one style or something like you said with ringworm
that didn't get diagnosed and that she took the medication
and it really affected her hair. That can just cause
like damage that could potentially be permanent.

Speaker 1 (04:09):
But to also know.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
That there are holistic ways to approach growing your hair
back is important.

Speaker 4 (04:14):
Yes, but that's not even the reason we started the company.
So now fast forward to the pandemic. I'm working as
a nurse practitioner. I acquired COVID.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Can I say thank you for that first and foremost,
because no matter what, we always got to give praise
to all of the essential workers and nurse practitioners.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
And I want to talk about that before, but go ahead.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (04:31):
So I was working as a nurse practitioner, I acquired COVID,
became so sick. I was twenty seven on the back
of an ambulance on a nami breather, asking God to
let me live to raise my children. I recovered and
then a few weeks later my hair started to shed
and break.

Speaker 3 (04:45):
It was horrible, and I was devastated about my hair.

Speaker 4 (04:48):
And I'm like, okay, Well, for someone that was literally
just begging to live a few weeks ago to be
devastated over their hair, you would think that would be
the least of my concerns. But it was really embarrassing.
And I was like, mah, can you make me some oils?
I don't know what else to do. I tried emergency treatments.
I said, do I need protein, do I need moisture?

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Like?

Speaker 3 (05:04):
What can I do? And nothing was helping.

Speaker 4 (05:06):
So my mom made me the oils and I started
using them, and my hair reverted back to normal. Texture,
change back to normal, my hair started growing, the breakage
stop and I said, we have to share these products
with the world, and that's what we did.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Can we talk about your time though during COVID working
as a nurse practitioner. What were some of the things
that you experienced and so and then you really literally
put your life on the line.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
It was like living in the twilight zone.

Speaker 4 (05:29):
Like honestly, even thinking back to it, it doesn't feel
like a real lived experience. I went from working in
the office my specialty was GI and liver diseases too,
going into the hospital and seeing yes, older adults, you know,
critically ill, but even younger people whose lives were just
turned upside down overnight couldn't interact with their families. Imagine

(05:51):
being sick in the hospital and your closest relatives can't
even come touch you or see you, you know, on
your last days. Literally it was I can't describe it
as anything else than the toilight zone.

Speaker 1 (06:01):
Right. I'm sure some of those things stick with you
like to this day.

Speaker 4 (06:04):
You know.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
We just always got to give it up for that,
because that's such a difficult time to have been through.
And what you said and what I said earlier is
so too that you feel like, is this just vain
that I care so much about my hair? But society
has so much to say and even for ourselves, like
the value on making sure we take care of our
hair and keep it healthy. It's such a you know,

(06:25):
it's such a big deal.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
Absolutely so. Your hair is literally the crown that you
never take. So my grandfather always used to say, I
don't care what you're wearing. If your hair is done,
you look good. You don't even need makeup, just have
your hair done.

Speaker 2 (06:36):
Okay, so now as a nurse practitioner, but now you
have this product, right because after COVID, you see how
much it helped you.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
What was the next step that you took.

Speaker 4 (06:46):
Yeah, so this was summer twenty twenty that I was
able to regrow my hair using the product. So I
just started sharing my testimonies, my before and afters and
my sisters on my personal social media.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
And everyone's like, what are you using? What are you using?
I was like, oh, just my making them like can
I buy some?

Speaker 4 (07:02):
And I got bottles from Amazon and we were filling
the bottles and they didn't even have labels.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
People even asked me what was in it. They didn't care.
They just wanted it.

Speaker 4 (07:10):
People were like, don't tell I arrest. They're like cash
apping me. They were doing drop offs, pickups. I was like,
this almost feels illegal, like and then I said, you
know what, we need to make this a real legitimate business.
So come around October November of the year, I was like, okay,
I'm sitting on the rug with my son and I
was like, we need to come up with a name.
I was like, I didn't want it to directly include

(07:32):
hair or anything relating cosmetics. I wanted it to be
kind of ambiguous. It's like, Okay, what exudes luxury for
the everyday black women that makes people, will make people
feel good. So I was looking on up synonyms for
the word relaxation and I came up with the word
bask and then my son, who was fourteen at the time,
came up with He's like, what about in lather? And

(07:53):
then we're like yes, yeah, so we came up with a
basket lather and then I remember after work one day,
I was going to the post office with they huge
bag of orders ready to ship, and the guy at
the post I was like, oh, basket in law, this
is a really nice name. And I was like, I
go trademarket before the postman does.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
Yeah, so we trademarket trademarked it.

Speaker 4 (08:12):
Within three months of starting the business, the one month
revenue from the business was replacing my one year salary
as a nurse practitioner. She yeah, and then within seven
months we became a seven figure business. And now we've
grown significantly. This year alone, we grew from grew to
twenty two employees and still hiring.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Yay, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yeah, just think about from tragedy something like this grew yep,
you know, And I want to ask you the process too,
because obviously as it goes from being like a at
home remedy that you can make yourself, but then it
just grew so fast it wasn't possible to do it
that way. And so how did things change when you realize, Okay,
now I got to ship out, like you know, I

(08:54):
got to get this mass produced, because that's something that
people consumers think about too, right, is it gonna be
different now?

Speaker 1 (09:00):
Is the formula changing?

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Like?

Speaker 1 (09:01):
What are the things that you had to do?

Speaker 2 (09:03):
Because then obviously you have to also make sure that
you know you can actually keep up with these orders.
It's one thing to have a bunch of orders, it's
another thing to be able to fulfill them exactly.

Speaker 4 (09:13):
So the first seven months we operated the business out
of my kitchen and living room, so we used to
have I was always blessed to have friends and family
and they would all come over every week and I
paid everyone from day one.

Speaker 3 (09:23):
They would come over on the.

Speaker 4 (09:23):
Week, we would fill oils all week and mine I
still had a full time job, and on week and
on weekends we would both ship all of the orders,
and Monday morning, trucks would back up back and back
to my house, like back up the driveway and pick
up truckloads for my house.

Speaker 3 (09:36):
I know the neighbors were like, what was going on?

Speaker 1 (09:39):
I guess out, but don't face a haircare exactly.

Speaker 4 (09:43):
And then as we grew, I said, Okay, it's no
longer sustainable for us to continue to fulfill the product
market and also fulfill the orders. So we got a
contract manufacturer and they have to we own all of
our formulas, so they have to benchmark and match all
of our products exactly as they're formulated, and then they
mass produce them.

Speaker 1 (10:04):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (10:04):
And then as the business continued to grow, I remember
one Labor Day, our Labor Day sale went so crazy.
You would think I would be happy.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
But no.

Speaker 4 (10:12):
I literally sat in my conference from and cried because
we have piles and piles and piles and piles of
orders just from everywhere, like we just could not keep up.
And it was after it was at that moment I said, Okay,
we need to find a fulfillment partner who can fulfill
and ship all of our orders. And they do that
within one business day. Where they were shipping, we went
from shipping two years ago ten thousand orders a month

(10:33):
to not over one hundred and fifty thousand order.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
You can't do that alone exact family yep.

Speaker 4 (10:38):
So they handle that for us because I know that's
a great part of customer experiences.

Speaker 3 (10:42):
Making everyone wants their things.

Speaker 1 (10:43):
Yes, they don't want to be like, it's two weeks,
where's my stuff?

Speaker 2 (10:46):
And that's also hard as a business owner when you're
trying to understand the balance of like, we want to
get these orders in, but we also want to make
sure that we have enough time to actually fulfill and
have enough Also, I think during the pandemic some things
were hard to get, like supplies also exactly.

Speaker 4 (11:03):
So we started the tail end of the pandemic, so
December twenty twenty, so that's when supply chain and things
were easing up. But even so, it wasn't until twenty
twenty three that I actually got a fulfillment partner to
fulfill and ship. They called third party logistics centers, and
there they have half a million square feet where our
products are shipped from and they fulfill and ship and
they handle the fulfillment portion of us.

Speaker 3 (11:24):
That way we could focus on other parts of the business.

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Speaking of other parts of the business, you said you
have friends and family over helping you, you pay them.
What is that like Because some people would say family
and business and friends in business don't always mix.

Speaker 4 (11:38):
So I would say, I think that so they always
showed up, right, I think it's no different. Right, then
at the end of the day, they were being paid, Right,
they showed up. I think the difference is is that
we have friends and family that are not.

Speaker 3 (11:52):
Doing a good job.

Speaker 4 (11:54):
It's easier when it's an employee that you don't have
any outside ties to right to kind of go your ways.
But now I wanted your friend's family a loved one.
That's where the issues arise. I've never particularly had an
issue with the friend or family member trying to get
paid and just not do anything because of our relationship.
But you have to hold everyone to the same standard,
and that's where the issue lies.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Oh so you did have like some growing pains because
that is a hard balance. It's one thing where you're like,
I want to put my people in position, we're going
to do this together, and we have these great lofty
ideas of how it's going to happen, but a lot
of times it doesn't happen that way.

Speaker 4 (12:30):
Yeah, I definitely have my breaking point with the friends
and family and I said, no, I have to hire
real employees. I still remember the Sunday I saw that
on my computer and I went on the job posting
sites and I posted, we need warehouse associates, we need
fulfillment associates, because I just say, you know, I have
to if I want to continue to grow this business,
I have to do things the formal way, right because

(12:51):
we're friends and family too. They had their own jobs
and I'm having to work around their schedules and we
can only fulfill on the weekends. So I remember that
turning point where I actually said, okay, no, now I
need actual, real employees.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
How are you able to maintain those relationships? Or where
you after that? Because sometimes those are hard conversations.

Speaker 4 (13:07):
I actually did lose my best friend yeah during this process,
because I remember it was one Sunday and she knew
I really relied on her, and she told me like
two hours before she knew everyone was coming over the
pack orders, like oh I'm not gonna be able to
make it today. And I personally feel like it was
done purposeful to let me know very last minute know
this ex happened, why happened, whatever it was, and then

(13:31):
I said, okay, don't worry about it. But then she
never followed back up after that, and I literally have
to this day have not spoken to her.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
So she just called out and never spoke to you again. Yep,
that is wild that something like that would happen. And
that was your best friend.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
She was in the delivery room with me when I
gave birth to my son.

Speaker 2 (13:51):
I'm sorry that happened. Let me tell you something about business.
It will really show you. You know, people's two colors.
I wonder what that was about.

Speaker 4 (13:58):
I wondered, But you know what men above knows, all right,
and that's only for him to know, not me.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
What do you want to when you think about that.
I know you have your son, like you said, it
was forced to do. You have other children to.

Speaker 3 (14:09):
Yes, to have a seven year old and a five
month old.

Speaker 2 (14:11):
Oh and in the midst of all this having a baby.

Speaker 3 (14:15):
I have one day of maternity leave this year.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
Oh my gosh. Man.

Speaker 2 (14:19):
So when you think about how you want this business
to grow, I also think about how we've seen things
like you know, with Carol's daughter, we saw Lisa Price
people looked at it like, you know, she did give
up some control of the company, but now she has
it back.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
Right.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
And when you think about getting to the point where
it's like, are you doing this forever, it's it's going
to be handed down from generation to generation. I've always
been taught that you build a company in case one
day you want to sell it, or like you would
sell it, because that's how you want to build it,
regardless of what your plan is.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Do you have a bigger plan?

Speaker 4 (14:49):
I do, So I would say that what really people
need to understand is that sometimes US founders don't sell
because they want to. It'scause they're when you get into
a certain part. So one of the reasons we strategically
not going into retail yet. Retailers have been after us right,
and we are very e commerce heavy, very profitable and

(15:11):
successful online. We purposefully have not gone into retail because
when you go into retail right, retailers will order a
million dollars worth of product.

Speaker 3 (15:18):
You don't get your money for two to three months
if you're lucky.

Speaker 1 (15:22):
And then if you don't sell through, they.

Speaker 4 (15:24):
Will return it back to you. And that's inventory and
things that you could have sold online. And now you
have inventory that's aging at their mercy. They also have
significant fees product placement fees to be on the shelf
distinuition their promotion fees.

Speaker 3 (15:37):
Right.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
So for us, right, we're like, Okay, we spent our
first five years in business accumulating cash and being profitable
and understanding our business and our consumer and strengthening our
supply chain.

Speaker 3 (15:51):
Right.

Speaker 4 (15:51):
For example, this year we grew one thousand percent year
over year compared to last year, and we had stock issues.
We had this marketplace wanted product, and we have number
one products on TikTok, and we have our own e
commerce site.

Speaker 3 (16:04):
And then I didn't even.

Speaker 4 (16:06):
Ever realize that wholesale beauty supply stores they want fifty
thousand units of this and they want that, and we.

Speaker 3 (16:13):
Our supply chain got stretched in.

Speaker 4 (16:14):
We all got stretched in, right, and we've had to
find now some of the biggest manufacturers that do textured
hair care in the.

Speaker 3 (16:20):
US to be able to keep up with our demand.

Speaker 4 (16:22):
If you are in retail and you tell them you
don't have product and they're used to selling X amount
of product per week in their stores, they will charge
you full retail price for every product sale.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
That they lost.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Oh I've never heard of that.

Speaker 4 (16:35):
So when you go into retail, it looks glamorous, it
looks great, but you need to be fully prepared. You
need to know what you're doing. You need to make
sure that you have cash. Otherwise what happens is right
stores can you can go into retail, go into all
these stores. It looks great, you need cash and things
to support that because what happens also now is that
you don't get your money back from them for months,

(16:55):
and then you'll end up in a place where you
need investors to sustain your business. And you got to
set up this piece of business and take this loan
and this and basket allard that we have zero dollars
in debt and we have no investors.

Speaker 2 (17:06):
What a nice that is, such a relief to be
able to have that. And I want to say people
have to understand also because I've seen businesses actually go
bust because they got into retail and that was really
like the biggest mistake that they've made. Exactly, it looks great,
but I'm glad you brought it downlight that thing, because
I don't know if a lot of people understand that.

Speaker 4 (17:26):
They don't and it's because they're other founders, right, great
black owned businesses that got themselves into that situation because
they thought retail was the end all, be all, and
then they end up in really tight spots or they
had to sell off significant parts of their business, and
sometimes it's not that they wanted to, but they had
to sustain. So for example, at Carol's daughter, you see
she brought her company back right, right, So that's great

(17:48):
when it happens. It even happens outside of you know,
beauty and things like that. We've seen it with other founders, right.
It just something you have to tread lightly. And I'm
a person that I move when God tells me to move,
and I'm going to continue to be strategic and make
sure that I'm setting the company up for success and
my team.

Speaker 1 (18:05):
You know, Wow, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
I appreciate you for sharing all of that because there's
people listening that are thinking about how they want to
structure their business. And that was a lot of great insight.
Another thing that's been really great for you is TikTok. Yes,
and you just mentioned that, so can you explain how
TikTok has been really vital for the growth of basket
lad absolutely.

Speaker 4 (18:26):
So we love TikTok. That's my favorite social media platform.
I feel that TikTok gives everyone a chance. We actually
just they flew us out.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
This week.

Speaker 4 (18:33):
We were at the US Black Chambers with them representing
the company and we actually got to speak at the Capital.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
I let's say politicians. Good so when we.

Speaker 4 (18:42):
Were speaking with Schumer's office about and all that is
done for our business. And so we were early adopters
of TikTok shop and TikTok is a huge acquisition channel.
We have video after video after video organically with no
paid dollars behind it, go viral, blew us up.

Speaker 3 (18:59):
We have three sellers on TikTok.

Speaker 4 (19:00):
Our edge control is the number one styling job in
the country now that on TikTok, but all platforms because
of TikTok. We have the number one unhair grow throws
sold on TikTok and the number one scalping hair bomb.
And I just love TikTok because it's a place where
the everyday average person could.

Speaker 3 (19:16):
Roll out of bed make a video.

Speaker 4 (19:18):
We have creators who've been able to leave their jobs
and they just promote products full time, right and they
get commissioned. I just love the platform. I love what
it's doing for businesses. For us, it's got us in
front of audiences that no other platform would allow us
to get in front of for free. Right everywhere else
is heavily off of you got it, you pay to play.

(19:39):
So we absolutely love TikTok. We have a great partnership
and relationship with them, and we really do hope it's
around to stay.

Speaker 2 (19:45):
Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that now seeing
all the At first it looked like.

Speaker 1 (19:49):
Remember TikTok went off for who had long? Was it gone?

Speaker 3 (19:52):
Hours?

Speaker 1 (19:52):
It's like a day. People were losing their minds.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
But now we're also figuring out what's gonna happen like
with TikTok and so. But I also think when things
like that happen, it also makes you realize I gotta
have and I know that's that's what twenty five percent.

Speaker 4 (20:07):
So last year, actually TikTok was about sixty percent of
our business, Okay, And funny enough, Mi, so I told
you we grew one thousand percent year over year. So, first,
when we went viral on TikTok back in twenty twenty three,
that's when I first got to the point in business
where I'm like, Okay, I have to stop trying to
do everything on my own.

Speaker 3 (20:25):
I was like, I'm going to hire a social media manager.
Hire a social media manager.

Speaker 4 (20:29):
My son, Jayden, who was fifteen at the time, he said,
my your social media manager sucks. I can do your TikTok.
I say, you don't know anything about woman or hair.
You cannot do TikTok. He says, it's not about women
and it's not about hair, it's about content strategy. Sure enough,
he took off our TikTok viral video after viral video.
I swear we would post out like seven pm on
a Monday and by Tuesday morning have like half a

(20:51):
million views on the videos and he's a shoppable video.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
To hire him.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
Exactly, Well, now he's our head of growth. So that's
why we grew and.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
We get him over here.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
To one thousand percent year over year he took over.

Speaker 4 (21:02):
Now he leads all paid media strategy across all of
our marketing channels, Like we have agencies with cmos and
people with more experience than he's been alive, and he's
leading the strategy. He lives in BREATHS Marketing and he's
a straight a student.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah, what's his salary? I'm kidding.

Speaker 3 (21:22):
So fast up.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
As for a raise?

Speaker 4 (21:25):
Okay, but literally, and not only that, like he's looking
at our profit margins and making sure we're advertising profitably.
And he's even like, I don't come from a corporate world, right,
I come from nursing, and I knew nothing about team structure, right.
So I remember I promoted my operations manager to director
of operations and he's like, Mom, what is she directing
the circus?

Speaker 3 (21:44):
You have no one under her? You can't have a
director without.

Speaker 1 (21:48):
That's so funny.

Speaker 4 (21:49):
But now we have operations manager and operations coordinator under her.
So he's always like he loves business and structure, and
he's always studying and always watching podcasts like he lives
and breathes it. And he's grown the company like crazy.
No one believes he's seventeen. He's been on some podcasts
with me. Very smart, he like, so great, great kid.
But again he's the one, right, So I actually do

(22:10):
think we're gonna end up in international retail markets before
we're in US retail stores. And that's also a strategic play.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
So what's his title?

Speaker 3 (22:18):
Head of growth?

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Okay? And he has a team under him. He's the
director of well he leaves.

Speaker 4 (22:23):
Our agency, so he strategized stay execut That.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
Was he always liked that? Or was it from watching you?

Speaker 3 (22:29):
I think I think it's innately in him.

Speaker 4 (22:31):
Like when I had Jade and I was seventeen, I
graduated high school, he was one years old on my hip.
I graduated with honors. He then watched me go through
my first bachelor's degree. I went to Leman College in
the Bronx, and then I went back got an accelerated
nursing degree from Patrie University. So we literally in the
summers were in my living room with the blinds closed,
and nursing is the hardest batcher's degree you can get.

Speaker 3 (22:51):
I was literally studying morning tonight. Thank god.

Speaker 4 (22:54):
He was a good kid, and he watched me study
from morning tonight. Graduated, became a nurse. I was working
for time nights in the er while getting my master's
degree to be a nurse practitioner. Then I became a
nurse practitioner, started the business. He watched me always grind
on NonStop. So I think it's just really in him, right,
that grind in that hustle, and he loves marketing.

Speaker 2 (23:14):
Right and a relationship wise, how is that for you?
How do you have time to even he's the boss.

Speaker 3 (23:20):
My son.

Speaker 1 (23:21):
No, I'm just talking about outside of it.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
I'm talking about like chromatically you like leg we got,
but how do you have time for that? Just and
what type of what would you tell people who are
trying to balance like, because it is true being an
entrepreneur where being a founder and wanting to have and
having the success that you have, uh, that does cut
into your social life.

Speaker 4 (23:42):
It cuts into your social life. And I also think
that when you're at certain levels, you're pool of people
that you could even entertain. Should well, not that it is,
but it should be this small, right, because especially when
you're a woman, it's difficult to date a man. And
like men naturally right to be needed, they need to
be the leader, right. And if you're a woman and

(24:04):
now you're a boss and you're powerful, you know you
need someone who's like on your level or higher, right,
And I think that creates friction now but right now
I'm very very focused on okay, business.

Speaker 2 (24:16):
So all right, all right, you now you might have
some itches, That's all I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (24:23):
But no, and I do want to say, I love
this guy.

Speaker 2 (24:25):
When I have braids, this is when it is the
best time for me to use the scalps because I
come in here every day, so I keep this here
and I come in here every day in front of
the mirror, and I'm always like putting this in my
scalp because I'm like perfect. You can see every single
part of my scalp and it feels so good. Yes,
but like I told you, you know, your products have
been absolutely amazing. It's all I use now, thank you,

(24:45):
So I appreciate that. Are there plans for expansion of
the line to other products that you're going to be introducing,
because that's another thing, like how do you know when
it's time to, you know, add more products to the
line we create.

Speaker 4 (24:56):
So we never just sit around and say, oh, well
we want to create this. It's always what the customers
act for. So every single product in our line now
is complimentary and customers have asked for it. And now
next year we have about three products coming out per quarter.
It's been long overdue and these are all products that
customers have asked for.

Speaker 3 (25:15):
They're all about strengthening your hair healthy scalp.

Speaker 4 (25:18):
Scalp first products and we'll make sure you're amongst the
first to use them.

Speaker 1 (25:22):
I know that's right, all right.

Speaker 2 (25:24):
Well, I appreciate you so much, and again, are you
going to be at Angela You Day?

Speaker 1 (25:27):
When people see you there will.

Speaker 4 (25:29):
Be at Angela You Day, the entire basketball of the team,
along with myself, very very excited.

Speaker 2 (25:34):
Okay, Well, I'm excited for it, and I appreciate you
so much and thank you and just amazing. Your story
is just incredible, and that's what weigh Up is all about,
to highlighting these incredible stories. And your success is well
deserved and I love to see it.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
Thank you, thank you.