Today on The Breakfast Club, Monique Rodriguez Talks 'The Glory in Your Story,' ‘Mielle Organics,' Hair Loss Controversy. Listen For More!
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Everybody is dej Envy Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne, the gud We
are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in
the building. Yes, indeed have Miss Monique Rodriguez.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Welcome, Thank you. How are you feeling this.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Morning, I'm great. How are you doing well?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Doing well?
Speaker 4 (00:19):
She's also got a new memoir out now, The Glory
and Your Story, Activating a fearless faith to change your life, your.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Career in the world.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Yes, yes, now you turned a kitchen recipe into a
multimillion dollar brand.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
What was the moment you realized you weren't just selling products,
you were actually building a movement.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Well, you know, I went into this knowing that I
was building a movement.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
You know.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I created this brand out of necessity. You know, I
felt that there was a lack of relatability in the
haircare space. There was a lack of great products, healthy
products for women that look like me, and I wanted
to fill this boy, but I always operated with a
multimillion dollar mindset, operated with the mindset of like, I'm
(01:02):
going to be on the shelf with these bigger brands
one day eventually, and the day that we launched, which
was May twenty third, our anniversary is actually next week,
and we sought out of every oil that we had,
and we had a small amount of inventory, about one
hundred bottles because I was a small business, didn't know
that it was going to take off the way that
it did. And the day that we launched, we sought
(01:23):
out of every single product. And I knew at that moment,
like I'm onto something because I knew that it was
a need for it.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
I loved the multimillion dollar mindset. Explain that to people
for those who may not have one.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah, you know, I think success is when I talk
about like activating fearless faith to change your mind. Success
is all about mindset. And you know, I grew up
basically in the hood, right, you know. I didn't come
from a lot, but I always dreamed big. And I
would look at other successful people and say, oh, they're
successful because they're lucky. And I knew that I had
(01:58):
to change my mindset and shift thinking that no, they're
not just lucky. They worked for it, right, you know.
They had to step out and be bold and go
after their dreams and pursue their purpose. And I shifted
my mindset from thinking that I didn't deserve success to
thinking that I do deserve it. And I realized that
once that started to shift my level of thinking and
I operated from a level of abundance and not lack.
(02:21):
More things flowed to me.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Now, in twenty fourteen, you were a registered nurse. Yes,
So what made you say, you know what, this is
not for me? And what put you to mind frame.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
To actually create these products? Right?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Because people could say, you know, they could take a
product and sell it, but you actually had to make it.
You had to try it. I'm sure it didn't work
right away the first time. I'm sure your daughter was
sitting back then. I'm sure you burnt your hair a
couple of times even trying it out.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
I don't think I birthed it, but you know, she
was a definitely a guinea pig.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
So talk about that procedure and how that came about.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah. So, actually, so I was a labor and delivery
nurse and I was a nurse for eight and a
half years. And I became a nurse because my mom
encouraged me to be a nurse. She was very traditional,
you know, go to school, go to college, do you
need to do get a real job so you can survive.
My mom was basically about survival. She had that mentality,
which no fault because most of our parents' generation, they
(03:10):
came from that type of generation. And even though when
I was younger, like I've always had this dream and
passion to be in the beauty space, my mom would
always tell me, like, it's cute, but you know, that's
not a stable career. So I kind of like put
my dreams to the wayside and pursue what my mom
wanted me to do. So it was never something that
(03:30):
I saw myself doing. So when I did graduate college
and I started work in labor and delivery, I knew,
I'm like, this is not a career path that I
want to do for the rest of my life. And unfortunately,
after doing that for eight years, I was pregnant with
my third child, my son, and unfortunately it was a
high risk pregnancy, bless you, and he passed away from complications.
(03:53):
And when you go through pain, it's something thank you,
something that's so traumatic. It's catapulted me to live life
on my own terms and not to live my life
on someone else's dream, which was my mom. Because you
only get one shot at life, and my pregnancy was
high risk also for my life, and I decided to
(04:15):
pursue my dreams, do something that I love, something that
was purposeful, something that I can wake up and feel
like I have fulfillment and enjoy doing. And I went
back to that love as a child being in the
beauty space, and I started creating. I'm a creative by nature,
and I would just go in my kitchen and mix
together like different ingredients and study and research like what
(04:36):
ingredients work well on our hair? And I started posting
it on social media and while people were following me
and thinking like, well, what is this girl doing, Like
she's posting all these recipes. It was really a creative
outlet for me to express myself and to take my
mind off of grief, the greed and process. Yeah, and
that's how Mayo became what it is.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Where did Mayo come from?
Speaker 5 (04:57):
The name?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
The name? Oh, so that's a great question. I love
answering that question. It's actually a combination of my kids' names.
So I have Mia, Gabrielle back there, Mackenzie Aril. My
son's name was Milan. It's a combination of all their
names and their middle names L. So they're my l's.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah did they charge you?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
They did, because I'm still paying for it today, Like
they are always asking for something, right, but you know
they get paid.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, how did you go?
Speaker 4 (05:28):
I feel like I'm skipping steps and I want everybody
to go read the book The Glory in your story
go from the kitchen to actually getting your products on
the shelves.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
What were the steps?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Like?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
What did you do? Like?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, so you know, my way of going into retail
was not a traditional way. I started in twenty fourteen.
We entered into retail in twenty sixteen, which number one
is very rare for a brand, a small black owned
business to start and not have any type of momentum
or leverage and to go into retail. So it was
(06:02):
very risky and my goal was to go into retail
year five. I wasn't even expecting to go into retail
the year that we did, but we had built up
so much momentum and we had built up this great
community and it got the attention of the retailers. So
our first retail partner was Sally Beauty, and they heard
about us on social media, and of course retailers they
(06:25):
want to be a part of brands that can add
value to them. So you can't just go into a
retailer saying, oh, I want to put my products on
your shelf and expecting them to do the marketing for you.
You have to have something that you can bring value
or add to their shelf. And we were a brand
that was a disruptive brand and it caught their attention
(06:47):
and then they called us to have a meeting with them.
And it was so divine because when we got the
call to have a meeting with Sally's, their headquarters is
in Denton, Texas, we were actually there in Dallas for
my daughter's gymnastics competition, not there for any business media.
And I actually almost turned down a meeting because we
were there with our kids and we're like, well, we
don't have a babysitter to go into this corporate meeting.
(07:09):
And they wanted us so bad. They were like, bring
your kids to this meeting. So they were like five
and nine at the time, and they did, and I
told them, like, you guys better not say anything going
there and sit with your hands folded, like don't move,
because this is a really big deal. And I went
in there with no presentation, just talked about my love
and passion for this space. And they tested us in
(07:31):
ninety five stores and they said, we're going to test
you out because you're a new brand, and we'll see
how the brand goes. We launched in February and every
store that we were selling in sewed out in less
than two hours.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
It was just because of social media.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
It was just because of social media Instagram at that.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Yeah, when you were in your early stages, that early grind,
what was harder getting capital or getting people to believe
a black woman could dominate the beauty space?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Actually both, you know, those were some of the challenges.
I say this all this. My challenges were I'm a
black woman and black women don't have access to capital.
And we actually bootstrapped our company from twenty fourteen until
twenty twenty, so we had no big name investors, you know,
no one that was I didn't have a rich uncle,
no one was handing us money. We built this from
(08:18):
the ground up and we took everything that we made
and invested that back into the business. And when you
are a small black owned brand, you know, we have
to like earn our trust with the community, and you know,
being someone that had no celebrity status, and you know,
I was a a regular everyday person, a nurse working,
(08:38):
so it was hard to convince people to believe that
what I was putting out there was actually a real
legit product that did well, you know on our hair.
But I just kept focus on the people that did
support me, the people that wanted to know more, that
wanted to be educated on their hair routine. And you know,
it's it grows from there. Like your community and your
(08:59):
your evangelists are the best marketing tool that you can use,
and that's how the company grew. Like we didn't have
any money to invest in marketing, we really focused on
like serving people and being purposeful in our mission and
serving people were like great products, and I think that
people also felt my passion and knew like, Okay, she's
(09:21):
a nurse, Like she's not going to do anything to
damage or to to harm us, and like we can
see the results on her hair, so like we can trust.
But it took building a relationship. I think that when
you are building a brand, it's all about you're in
a relationship with your customers. You have to date them,
you have to get to know them. You have to
know their needs and understand who they are as you
(09:44):
know the consumers that you're serving, and then you overserve
right with your brand. And that's how Mayeo, you know,
sowed and disrupted the industry.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
And did you.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Why did you decide to sell it to PNG, you know,
prop Down Gamble.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Yeah, that's a great quest us. So when we decided
to sell, it was all about scale and global infrastructure.
When you are growing a brand, in order to scale,
it's all about access to capital and having the great
infrastructure and people to help execute your vision. And so
the thing is like we didn't need to sell. We
wanted to sell because we wanted to invest in innovation.
(10:23):
We wanted to have global reach, and we wanted to
be able to create more accessibility for the consumers that
we serve. You know, when you look at the Texture
Haircare aisle, it's a small space and our community, like
we complain that we don't have access to great products.
And my whole goal from the very beginning of building
(10:43):
Mayo was to build a global empire. And I know
that as founders, we did our best to take the
brand as far as we could with our resources. And
this is a normal trajectory of business. The goal of
building a brand is to either IPO or eggs, and
I've accomplished that goal. And the great thing about it
(11:04):
is I've been able to negotiate my contract to where
I'm still on board, I'm still making the decisions, I'm
still running the company, i still set the vision for it.
So it's a very unique structure that you know, not
everyone sees, and I know the community tends to be
scared of brands that are acquired, but it's really a
great win for us, especially as a black brand, a
(11:26):
black girl from the South Side of Chicago. Right to
even have the opportunity to have a conversation a seat
at the table with the conglomerate like a PNG is
a huge win of it in itself, because we don't
get opportunities like that often. We don't see it all
the time, And you know, I wanted to show the
possibilities of what's possible, like we can take the heat
(11:48):
us as founders. I can take the heat of breaking
glass ceilings because I know that I'm also paving the
way for my daughter's generation so she can build a
brand and create something great and have a successful exit.
Because we build thriving communities. When we build brands, scale
them exit, we build generational wealth, not just for us,
but for the community we serve.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Preach Monique. But let me tell you something.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
One of the hardest things to do in life is
to explain business to people who ain't up.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Who don't understand business. That's the hardest thing. Wow, and
I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
How did that affect your business?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Right?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Because people see it differently. Where did you lose a
lot of people or people hating on it? Did it
mess business up?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
How did that affect y'all?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
No, when we soda didn't mess business up. And that's
the thing. Like when we made the announcement, you know,
I really took the time to try to educate the
community on the why, like why businesses scale up, Why
you know we become acquired, and it's to create generational
wealth and so we can have more access to help
our community. So I put this whole message out to explain.
(12:50):
And while we did have a huge amount of support
from the community, I mean, you know, like the bigger
you are, the more eyeballs are you, You're also going
to have people that don't like it, that don't understand it.
And I feel that if you know, there's so much
access to information out here, right, so if you really
want to know how business works, you can research it
(13:10):
right and you can take the time to listen when
someone's trying to educate you. And I say this all
the time, ignorance is a choice. Sure, you can choose
to be ignorant when you have information in front of you,
and if you just choose to not pay attention to it,
then that is your choice and you have a right
to your choice. But I'm going to choose to focus
and educate those that want to be educated, that want
(13:31):
to understand the why, and also those that want to
start a business have an idea and what is the
trajectory of that. I want to show that by example
because it's not normal in our community. We have to
normalize this because when I did my deal, it was, oh,
you're a unicorn. Yeah that's almost great, but it's not
great because we don't want to be unicorns. We want
(13:53):
this to be a normal conversation for us. And so
it didn't hurt the brand. But you know, I think
it also comes with the territory. And I say this
all the time. Two things if you don't want to
be copied, if you don't want to be great, I mean,
if you don't want to be copied or criticized, then
don't be great. Sure it was.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Did you say?
Speaker 5 (14:11):
I'm sure you saw the TikTok trends of people saying
that they lost their hair after you did sell to PNG. Silently,
you know, did they have something to do with the formula?
They said, this is not the same male, this is
not the same formula. And people, you know, it was
a lot of people saying that they had lost their
hair behind And what would you say to that?
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah? And you know, hair loss is you know, traumatic
in it of itself, and I can empathize with anyone
that has suffered with hair loss. I myself has suffered
with postpartum shedding hair loss right, And I think I
want people to realize, like, this is the reason why
I created the brand, Right. I created this brand to
(14:52):
serve women with healthier products for their hair. When I
made the decision to partner with PNG, it was very intentional.
A lot of thought went into the decision making process.
This was not a fly by night decision, you know,
it was a lot of due diligence done on both ends,
my end and their ends. And we have to realize,
like when you think of PNG, a lot of the
(15:14):
products that are in our household are by PNG. They
are a brand that's been around for hundreds of years
that creates longevity, sustainability across generations with their brands. So
I would never sell to a company that I knew
that I thought would harm my creation. Like Mayel is
(15:37):
my baby. Mayel was birth out of heartbreak, Like this
is something that's near and dear to my heart. I
would never sell to a company that I thought was
going to ruin you know, my brand. So, and the
thing is, like people have to realize that I'm also
a nurse, right Like I lead with empathy, I lead
with compassion, I lead with caring about the community that
(15:59):
I serve. We would never put anything in our products
that are going to damage or disrupt any woman's hair.
And the people that are saying the formulas change, the
formulas have not changed. You know, if people would actually
take the time to see our products that were in
twenty twenty twenty twenty, right, and you look at now
(16:20):
since after the partnership, the formulats are still the same.
So the thing is like misinformation is spreads like wildfire,
and people don't take the time to like do their
homework and do their own due diligence before coming to
their own assumptions. But I can confidently say that our
products do not cause people's hair to fall out.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
And also people just be hating.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
You mean to tell me that after you get acquired
by product in gam before undisclosing mound, they know you
got that cake all of a sudden. It's just all
of these TikTok videos online people saying, yeah, the product
make my hair fall out all of a sudden.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah, it came out of nowhere. Come on, man, and
it's the same product.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, come on.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
And it's like I use the products. My daughter she used,
Look at her hair, HER's beautiful. Like we my family
uses the products Like this is I don't take this lightly.
And this partnership has always been led with honesty and transparency,
and I'm gonna be honest with you guys. What people
also don't realize is that when you are a smaller brand,
a lot of the things that you do can go
(17:13):
under the radar because you don't have a lot of
eyeballs on you. I've seen brands that are smaller that
have products out and they don't even have the ingredients
listed on their products. Right when you are a bigger brand,
you can't do that. So the level of compliance and
processes and the level of strictness that we had to
be in compliant with to even talk to p ANDNG.
(17:36):
The safety regulations were like through the roof. So people
have to understand, like this is a large company, they
operate with the highest level of safetiness, right and they've
even helped us operate even more safer so people can
trust like these products are good to use. Nothing has changed.
We operate with the same level of integrity. Everything's the same,
(17:57):
other than we just have access to more and see all.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
The brands that Procting and Gamble has just just my
stuff makes your hair fall out.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Allegedly the black women own products making it. The Gamble
been around for years.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I would also also say that every hair products not
for everybody. Like what you use in your hair that
might work for you or your daughter might not work
for me or my daughter. You know that doesn't mean
that it's it's it's all in people's hairs are different, Yeah,
and yours, like there's nothing that to work for you.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
All proct and Gamble have been around forever and nobody's
made those complaints, but now all of a sudden, come on, man,
of course, do you think the black community puts too
much pressure on black owned businesses to be perfect and
they'll give grace to like other billion dollar brands that
don't ever even.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Show up for us?
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Oh? Absolutely, Like I mean we can see it all
the time, Like we see millionaires, billionaires that build companies
exit all the time, and we celebrate it.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
That's the point of business.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Like, that's the point of business. But when a black
person does it, like we tear them down. And the
thing is like, we gotta choose our heart, we gotta
pick our battles. We complain as a community that we
have a access lack of access to capital, mentorship, expertise,
(19:18):
But then when we're trying to create these avenues of
creating wealth so we can create access to capital, expertise
and mentorship, there has to be more of us to
do it. Then we tear it down. So either you
don't want the access or then when we do get
the access, you can't tear us down. Forgetting that access.
And that's why I said, we gotta choose our heart
as a community, because we can't have it both ways,
(19:41):
because what happens is we stifle our community when we
tear black brands down for doing what other cultures do
all the time. We stifle us because now it causes
fear in investors, It causes strategics to say, oh, now
you're more risky, so now I'm going to de value you.
(20:01):
So me, if I was a different culture, my value
could have been more if that risk wasn't there. So
all we're doing is we're setting ourselves back because the
next mony Grodriguez that comes forward that tries to do this,
they're going to ask the question like because they asked me,
how is your community gonna feel about this? Right? And
now we have to come up with a whole strategic
plan on how to relay this message in an educational way.
(20:24):
When I ask them back, do you have to do
this with any other cultures? Their response was no, right,
sow dis.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
You expound on that one, because I think what you're
speaking to is whenever it's something like this happens, right,
like you know, you do get acquired by p ANDNG.
The backlash from social media can be so bad that
it makes these companies be like, whoa should we have
done that situation?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
And they'll think about doing that, you know, to the
next person.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Right, And that's why it's important that when black brands
scale and are exited, we have to show up even
more as a community to support those brands because now
they're looking at these brands as a case study. They're
looking at my L now as a case study of
like what happens when you're acquired and does the community
still ride for you? Do? Does the community still support you?
(21:08):
And again, if we don't support and they start to
see sales drop off, then it stifles opportunity for a
next entrepreneur that wants to scale. And that's the part
we have to realize. And again to your point, we
can't expect people that you know, don't understands, not in business,
to understand business. But again, like we're creating platforms like
(21:31):
this to help spread the word and to educate, right,
We're taking the time to educate you. So you should
say in your mind, I'm gonna support this black founded brand.
Like let's not just say we support black owned let's
also support black founded brands right, because we're all a community.
We're all in this together. In order for us to
create these thriving communities, we got to support us right.
(21:52):
Things that are made by us, created by us, not
just owned by us. Because you should have the freedom
and the opportunity to do whatever it is that you
want to do with your brand. If you want to
stay small and local you have a purpose to serve,
you should be able to do that. If you want
to stay online and serve just online consumers, you should
be able to do that. If you want to scale
and exit and be acquired or IPO, you should have
(22:13):
the freedom and flexibility to do whatever it is that
you want to do with your brand without being criticized.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I was going to ask, you know, besides Procter and Gamble,
what are other companies trying to acquire you?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
And why did you choose Procter and Gamble.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
So we were a hot commodity, so we had lots
of strategic companies that were like chomping at the bits
trying to acquire us. What made us choose Procter and
Gamble was because, you know, one of the biggest thing
was that there were people that looked like us that
were in high C suite level executive positions and decision makers,
(22:44):
so people that had an input or say and what
we were valued at had an input to say, like, yes,
this brand should be acquired. Were people that look like us,
and we also need those type of advocates on the
other side of the table that can stand up for
us and say, yes, this is a great investment. That
was one thing. And then their mission of being focused
(23:07):
on good and their employees. The longevity of the people
that has been in that company for many years right
also shows that you know, this is a company that
has great value and they respected us as founders. They
did not want to take away from the DNA of
the brand, They didn't want to disrupt the authenticity, and
they even put in our contract we want to keep
(23:28):
the Mayel magic. You guys are going to stay on bord.
You guys are going to see this vision through because
we didn't have to stay on board. That's another thing,
like I want people to understand, like we could have
sold the brand and left, but because we are passionate
about what we do, we wanted to continue on our
legacy in this vision and they allowed us to do so,
so they did not you know, say that we that
(23:51):
you guys have to sacrifice who you are in order
to growth. Growth does not mean you have to lose
your authenticity. And that's what stood out, you know, with them,
amongst the many others you know, that we had talked to.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
You know, Yeah, you know, I think there's a lot
of people feel like, well, a lot of founders get
pushed out when the big money shows up, so they
just want to make sure that y'all still calling, you know,
the shots, and it's not just a black face on
like a white white boardroom.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah no, Like I'm on zoom calls pretty much every day,
still talking about my l and product innovation and development
and marketing and different events and activations and how we
can show up for the community. So you know, I mean,
of course, I am the face of the brand. I
created the brand, but I'm more than just a face.
I'm also the strategic vision behind it as well too,
(24:39):
so I have I make the final decisions on everything
that touches the consumers, and I do it because I
made it that way. So we put like those safeguards
in place to protect our brand, to protect our legacy.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
And you do through with your husband, yeah, I was saying,
And it frees up a lot more of your time,
so you can do things like write your book and
then I'm sure delve into other business endeavors and things
like that. Because with PNG also, it's like like good
partners for you, Like they take on the bulk of
the factory. You had to do all of this by yourself.
Yeah at one point, you know, I'm sure you had
a team, but that's the part that they take on
(25:12):
as well. Like they make it I don't want to
say easier, but a little bit more easier to run
the whole shit.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Yeah, Like they free up a lot of my mental capacity,
so I can have the mental capacity to make the
hard decisions, the decisions that matter. And you mentioned something
about manufacturing, like we still manufacture our own products, So
manufacturing was not even P and G doesn't manufacture our products,
That's what I'm saying, Like everything is still the same,
(25:38):
Like we still manufacture in Chicago, right where I'm from.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
So yeah, and you built it with your hugband, right.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yes, So my husband we've been together since I was sixteen,
on each other since we were twelve and thirteen, and
so we've literally like grown up together and when I
had this dream, he supported it from the very beginning.
Like he operates from a very logistical finance operations mind said,
and I'm the visionary, the creator, and like when you
just merge those two different sides of the brain, you know,
(26:05):
skill sets, like we've been able to build this, you know,
amazing company and be this dynamic duo because you know,
we both add different value to the company and different
skill sets.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
A lot of don't mix business in marriage.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
You say that, I say the wedding rings says it
all that crazy.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Crazy yours is too, thank you said about mixing.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Business business with marriage. What do you think I mean?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I don't. I think you have to know, like what
works for you and your marriage. Like I've met some
married couples that are like, well, we can't work together
and they're happier not doing so, And that's totally fine.
I don't think there's no wrong or right answer. For us.
It works well for us because you know, the things
that he does for the company, I honestly don't even
(26:53):
want to do. And of course he knew nothing about
hair care and products, so he couldn't really operate in
my space, and I think if you want to make
it work, you have to like take your egos out
of it. You know, you can't be in competition with
your spouse. And my husband, he was always big on
like pushing me to the forefront. He's like, listen, this
is your time to shine. Women. You guys have been
(27:15):
held back for so long, Like I'm okay with putting
you out there and letting you be at the forefront
and now just helping support you on the back end.
And I just think that it takes a real man
to say, you know what, I'm okay with being behind
the scenes and you being out there and I'm gonna
just support your vision and him not feeling like, well,
I'm the man, I'm the protector, like you can't be
(27:35):
out there. Like he was very comfortable saying I'm just
gonna support you, and he's done just that. And you know,
my mentor told me, she's like, there will be no
may l if it wasn't for you, Melvin and you
or you you like you guys had to build this
together and you know it's I think it works for us.
And you just have to know like what works for
you and have respect for each other, respect each other's
(27:58):
roles and lanes and and you know, just be aligned
with your vision.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Melviourne. He's also a black man too.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
He's also a black man. Yesdriguez come from so his
mom is Puerto Rican. Oh yeah, you're black.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
He's black.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
But all right, yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Pick up the book right now.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
The glory in your story.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Man.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
You are an inspiration, Monique, you and your husband Melvin.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
I really respect what it is that y'all are doing
and have done, and I wish and pray for.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Much more successful.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
I appreciate that. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Rodriguez. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, Wake that ass
up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.
Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Everybody is dej Envy Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne, the gud We
are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in
the building. Yes, indeed have Miss Monique Rodriguez.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Welcome, Thank you. How are you feeling this.
Speaker 3 (00:16):
Morning, I'm great. How are you doing well?
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Doing well?
Speaker 4 (00:19):
She's also got a new memoir out now, The Glory
and Your Story, Activating a fearless faith to change your life, your.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Career in the world.
Speaker 4 (00:25):
Yes, yes, now you turned a kitchen recipe into a
multimillion dollar brand.
Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
What was the moment you realized you weren't just selling products,
you were actually building a movement.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Well, you know, I went into this knowing that I
was building a movement.
Speaker 4 (00:41):
You know.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
I created this brand out of necessity. You know, I
felt that there was a lack of relatability in the
haircare space. There was a lack of great products, healthy
products for women that look like me, and I wanted
to fill this boy, but I always operated with a
multimillion dollar mindset, operated with the mindset of like, I'm
(01:02):
going to be on the shelf with these bigger brands
one day eventually, and the day that we launched, which
was May twenty third, our anniversary is actually next week,
and we sought out of every oil that we had,
and we had a small amount of inventory, about one
hundred bottles because I was a small business, didn't know
that it was going to take off the way that
it did. And the day that we launched, we sought
(01:23):
out of every single product. And I knew at that moment,
like I'm onto something because I knew that it was
a need for it.
Speaker 4 (01:31):
I loved the multimillion dollar mindset. Explain that to people
for those who may not have one.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Yeah, you know, I think success is when I talk
about like activating fearless faith to change your mind. Success
is all about mindset. And you know, I grew up
basically in the hood, right, you know. I didn't come
from a lot, but I always dreamed big. And I
would look at other successful people and say, oh, they're
successful because they're lucky. And I knew that I had
(01:58):
to change my mindset and shift thinking that no, they're
not just lucky. They worked for it, right, you know.
They had to step out and be bold and go
after their dreams and pursue their purpose. And I shifted
my mindset from thinking that I didn't deserve success to
thinking that I do deserve it. And I realized that
once that started to shift my level of thinking and
I operated from a level of abundance and not lack.
(02:21):
More things flowed to me.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
Now, in twenty fourteen, you were a registered nurse. Yes,
So what made you say, you know what, this is
not for me? And what put you to mind frame.
Speaker 1 (02:29):
To actually create these products? Right?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Because people could say, you know, they could take a
product and sell it, but you actually had to make it.
You had to try it. I'm sure it didn't work
right away the first time. I'm sure your daughter was
sitting back then. I'm sure you burnt your hair a
couple of times even trying it out.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
I don't think I birthed it, but you know, she
was a definitely a guinea pig.
Speaker 2 (02:46):
So talk about that procedure and how that came about.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah. So, actually, so I was a labor and delivery
nurse and I was a nurse for eight and a
half years. And I became a nurse because my mom
encouraged me to be a nurse. She was very traditional,
you know, go to school, go to college, do you
need to do get a real job so you can survive.
My mom was basically about survival. She had that mentality,
which no fault because most of our parents' generation, they
(03:10):
came from that type of generation. And even though when
I was younger, like I've always had this dream and
passion to be in the beauty space, my mom would
always tell me, like, it's cute, but you know, that's
not a stable career. So I kind of like put
my dreams to the wayside and pursue what my mom
wanted me to do. So it was never something that
(03:30):
I saw myself doing. So when I did graduate college
and I started work in labor and delivery, I knew,
I'm like, this is not a career path that I
want to do for the rest of my life. And unfortunately,
after doing that for eight years, I was pregnant with
my third child, my son, and unfortunately it was a
high risk pregnancy, bless you, and he passed away from complications.
(03:53):
And when you go through pain, it's something thank you,
something that's so traumatic. It's catapulted me to live life
on my own terms and not to live my life
on someone else's dream, which was my mom. Because you
only get one shot at life, and my pregnancy was
high risk also for my life, and I decided to
(04:15):
pursue my dreams, do something that I love, something that
was purposeful, something that I can wake up and feel
like I have fulfillment and enjoy doing. And I went
back to that love as a child being in the
beauty space, and I started creating. I'm a creative by nature,
and I would just go in my kitchen and mix
together like different ingredients and study and research like what
(04:36):
ingredients work well on our hair? And I started posting
it on social media and while people were following me
and thinking like, well, what is this girl doing, Like
she's posting all these recipes. It was really a creative
outlet for me to express myself and to take my
mind off of grief, the greed and process. Yeah, and
that's how Mayo became what it is.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Where did Mayo come from?
Speaker 5 (04:57):
The name?
Speaker 3 (04:58):
The name? Oh, so that's a great question. I love
answering that question. It's actually a combination of my kids' names.
So I have Mia, Gabrielle back there, Mackenzie Aril. My
son's name was Milan. It's a combination of all their
names and their middle names L. So they're my l's.
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Yeah did they charge you?
Speaker 3 (05:18):
They did, because I'm still paying for it today, Like
they are always asking for something, right, but you know
they get paid.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, how did you go?
Speaker 4 (05:28):
I feel like I'm skipping steps and I want everybody
to go read the book The Glory in your story
go from the kitchen to actually getting your products on
the shelves.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
What were the steps?
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Like?
Speaker 1 (05:37):
What did you do? Like?
Speaker 3 (05:39):
Yeah, so you know, my way of going into retail
was not a traditional way. I started in twenty fourteen.
We entered into retail in twenty sixteen, which number one
is very rare for a brand, a small black owned
business to start and not have any type of momentum
or leverage and to go into retail. So it was
(06:02):
very risky and my goal was to go into retail
year five. I wasn't even expecting to go into retail
the year that we did, but we had built up
so much momentum and we had built up this great
community and it got the attention of the retailers. So
our first retail partner was Sally Beauty, and they heard
about us on social media, and of course retailers they
(06:25):
want to be a part of brands that can add
value to them. So you can't just go into a
retailer saying, oh, I want to put my products on
your shelf and expecting them to do the marketing for you.
You have to have something that you can bring value
or add to their shelf. And we were a brand
that was a disruptive brand and it caught their attention
(06:47):
and then they called us to have a meeting with them.
And it was so divine because when we got the
call to have a meeting with Sally's, their headquarters is
in Denton, Texas, we were actually there in Dallas for
my daughter's gymnastics competition, not there for any business media.
And I actually almost turned down a meeting because we
were there with our kids and we're like, well, we
don't have a babysitter to go into this corporate meeting.
(07:09):
And they wanted us so bad. They were like, bring
your kids to this meeting. So they were like five
and nine at the time, and they did, and I
told them, like, you guys better not say anything going
there and sit with your hands folded, like don't move,
because this is a really big deal. And I went
in there with no presentation, just talked about my love
and passion for this space. And they tested us in
(07:31):
ninety five stores and they said, we're going to test
you out because you're a new brand, and we'll see
how the brand goes. We launched in February and every
store that we were selling in sewed out in less
than two hours.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
It was just because of social media.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
It was just because of social media Instagram at that.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (07:46):
Yeah, when you were in your early stages, that early grind,
what was harder getting capital or getting people to believe
a black woman could dominate the beauty space?
Speaker 1 (07:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
Actually both, you know, those were some of the challenges.
I say this all this. My challenges were I'm a
black woman and black women don't have access to capital.
And we actually bootstrapped our company from twenty fourteen until
twenty twenty, so we had no big name investors, you know,
no one that was I didn't have a rich uncle,
no one was handing us money. We built this from
(08:18):
the ground up and we took everything that we made
and invested that back into the business. And when you
are a small black owned brand, you know, we have
to like earn our trust with the community, and you know,
being someone that had no celebrity status, and you know,
I was a a regular everyday person, a nurse working,
(08:38):
so it was hard to convince people to believe that
what I was putting out there was actually a real
legit product that did well, you know on our hair.
But I just kept focus on the people that did
support me, the people that wanted to know more, that
wanted to be educated on their hair routine. And you know,
it's it grows from there. Like your community and your
(08:59):
your evangelists are the best marketing tool that you can use,
and that's how the company grew. Like we didn't have
any money to invest in marketing, we really focused on
like serving people and being purposeful in our mission and
serving people were like great products, and I think that
people also felt my passion and knew like, Okay, she's
(09:21):
a nurse, Like she's not going to do anything to
damage or to to harm us, and like we can
see the results on her hair, so like we can trust.
But it took building a relationship. I think that when
you are building a brand, it's all about you're in
a relationship with your customers. You have to date them,
you have to get to know them. You have to
know their needs and understand who they are as you
(09:44):
know the consumers that you're serving, and then you overserve
right with your brand. And that's how Mayeo, you know,
sowed and disrupted the industry.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
And did you.
Speaker 5 (09:55):
Why did you decide to sell it to PNG, you know,
prop Down Gamble.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
Yeah, that's a great quest us. So when we decided
to sell, it was all about scale and global infrastructure.
When you are growing a brand, in order to scale,
it's all about access to capital and having the great
infrastructure and people to help execute your vision. And so
the thing is like we didn't need to sell. We
wanted to sell because we wanted to invest in innovation.
(10:23):
We wanted to have global reach, and we wanted to
be able to create more accessibility for the consumers that
we serve. You know, when you look at the Texture
Haircare aisle, it's a small space and our community, like
we complain that we don't have access to great products.
And my whole goal from the very beginning of building
(10:43):
Mayo was to build a global empire. And I know
that as founders, we did our best to take the
brand as far as we could with our resources. And
this is a normal trajectory of business. The goal of
building a brand is to either IPO or eggs, and
I've accomplished that goal. And the great thing about it
(11:04):
is I've been able to negotiate my contract to where
I'm still on board, I'm still making the decisions, I'm
still running the company, i still set the vision for it.
So it's a very unique structure that you know, not
everyone sees, and I know the community tends to be
scared of brands that are acquired, but it's really a
great win for us, especially as a black brand, a
(11:26):
black girl from the South Side of Chicago. Right to
even have the opportunity to have a conversation a seat
at the table with the conglomerate like a PNG is
a huge win of it in itself, because we don't
get opportunities like that often. We don't see it all
the time, And you know, I wanted to show the
possibilities of what's possible, like we can take the heat
(11:48):
us as founders. I can take the heat of breaking
glass ceilings because I know that I'm also paving the
way for my daughter's generation so she can build a
brand and create something great and have a successful exit.
Because we build thriving communities. When we build brands, scale
them exit, we build generational wealth, not just for us,
but for the community we serve.
Speaker 1 (12:08):
Preach Monique. But let me tell you something.
Speaker 4 (12:09):
One of the hardest things to do in life is
to explain business to people who ain't up.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Who don't understand business. That's the hardest thing. Wow, and
I don't understand.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
How did that affect your business?
Speaker 1 (12:19):
Right?
Speaker 2 (12:19):
Because people see it differently. Where did you lose a
lot of people or people hating on it? Did it
mess business up?
Speaker 1 (12:25):
How did that affect y'all?
Speaker 3 (12:26):
No, when we soda didn't mess business up. And that's
the thing. Like when we made the announcement, you know,
I really took the time to try to educate the
community on the why, like why businesses scale up, Why
you know we become acquired, and it's to create generational
wealth and so we can have more access to help
our community. So I put this whole message out to explain.
(12:50):
And while we did have a huge amount of support
from the community, I mean, you know, like the bigger
you are, the more eyeballs are you, You're also going
to have people that don't like it, that don't understand it.
And I feel that if you know, there's so much
access to information out here, right, so if you really
want to know how business works, you can research it
(13:10):
right and you can take the time to listen when
someone's trying to educate you. And I say this all
the time, ignorance is a choice. Sure, you can choose
to be ignorant when you have information in front of you,
and if you just choose to not pay attention to it,
then that is your choice and you have a right
to your choice. But I'm going to choose to focus
and educate those that want to be educated, that want
(13:31):
to understand the why, and also those that want to
start a business have an idea and what is the
trajectory of that. I want to show that by example
because it's not normal in our community. We have to
normalize this because when I did my deal, it was, oh,
you're a unicorn. Yeah that's almost great, but it's not
great because we don't want to be unicorns. We want
(13:53):
this to be a normal conversation for us. And so
it didn't hurt the brand. But you know, I think
it also comes with the territory. And I say this
all the time. Two things if you don't want to
be copied, if you don't want to be great, I mean,
if you don't want to be copied or criticized, then
don't be great. Sure it was.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
Did you say?
Speaker 5 (14:11):
I'm sure you saw the TikTok trends of people saying
that they lost their hair after you did sell to PNG. Silently,
you know, did they have something to do with the formula?
They said, this is not the same male, this is
not the same formula. And people, you know, it was
a lot of people saying that they had lost their
hair behind And what would you say to that?
Speaker 3 (14:31):
Yeah? And you know, hair loss is you know, traumatic
in it of itself, and I can empathize with anyone
that has suffered with hair loss. I myself has suffered
with postpartum shedding hair loss right, And I think I
want people to realize, like, this is the reason why
I created the brand, Right. I created this brand to
(14:52):
serve women with healthier products for their hair. When I
made the decision to partner with PNG, it was very intentional.
A lot of thought went into the decision making process.
This was not a fly by night decision, you know,
it was a lot of due diligence done on both ends,
my end and their ends. And we have to realize,
like when you think of PNG, a lot of the
(15:14):
products that are in our household are by PNG. They
are a brand that's been around for hundreds of years
that creates longevity, sustainability across generations with their brands. So
I would never sell to a company that I knew
that I thought would harm my creation. Like Mayel is
(15:37):
my baby. Mayel was birth out of heartbreak, Like this
is something that's near and dear to my heart. I
would never sell to a company that I thought was
going to ruin you know, my brand. So, and the
thing is, like people have to realize that I'm also
a nurse, right Like I lead with empathy, I lead
with compassion, I lead with caring about the community that
(15:59):
I serve. We would never put anything in our products
that are going to damage or disrupt any woman's hair.
And the people that are saying the formulas change, the
formulas have not changed. You know, if people would actually
take the time to see our products that were in
twenty twenty twenty twenty, right, and you look at now
(16:20):
since after the partnership, the formulats are still the same.
So the thing is like misinformation is spreads like wildfire,
and people don't take the time to like do their
homework and do their own due diligence before coming to
their own assumptions. But I can confidently say that our
products do not cause people's hair to fall out.
Speaker 1 (16:37):
And also people just be hating.
Speaker 4 (16:39):
You mean to tell me that after you get acquired
by product in gam before undisclosing mound, they know you
got that cake all of a sudden. It's just all
of these TikTok videos online people saying, yeah, the product
make my hair fall out all of a sudden.
Speaker 3 (16:48):
Yeah, it came out of nowhere. Come on, man, and
it's the same product.
Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah, come on.
Speaker 3 (16:53):
And it's like I use the products. My daughter she used,
Look at her hair, HER's beautiful. Like we my family
uses the products Like this is I don't take this lightly.
And this partnership has always been led with honesty and transparency,
and I'm gonna be honest with you guys. What people
also don't realize is that when you are a smaller brand,
a lot of the things that you do can go
(17:13):
under the radar because you don't have a lot of
eyeballs on you. I've seen brands that are smaller that
have products out and they don't even have the ingredients
listed on their products. Right when you are a bigger brand,
you can't do that. So the level of compliance and
processes and the level of strictness that we had to
be in compliant with to even talk to p ANDNG.
(17:36):
The safety regulations were like through the roof. So people
have to understand, like this is a large company, they
operate with the highest level of safetiness, right and they've
even helped us operate even more safer so people can
trust like these products are good to use. Nothing has changed.
We operate with the same level of integrity. Everything's the same,
(17:57):
other than we just have access to more and see all.
Speaker 4 (18:00):
The brands that Procting and Gamble has just just my
stuff makes your hair fall out.
Speaker 1 (18:05):
Allegedly the black women own products making it. The Gamble
been around for years.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
I would also also say that every hair products not
for everybody. Like what you use in your hair that
might work for you or your daughter might not work
for me or my daughter. You know that doesn't mean
that it's it's it's all in people's hairs are different, Yeah,
and yours, like there's nothing that to work for you.
Speaker 4 (18:25):
All proct and Gamble have been around forever and nobody's
made those complaints, but now all of a sudden, come on, man,
of course, do you think the black community puts too
much pressure on black owned businesses to be perfect and
they'll give grace to like other billion dollar brands that
don't ever even.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Show up for us?
Speaker 3 (18:42):
Oh? Absolutely, Like I mean we can see it all
the time, Like we see millionaires, billionaires that build companies
exit all the time, and we celebrate it.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
That's the point of business.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Like, that's the point of business. But when a black
person does it, like we tear them down. And the
thing is like, we gotta choose our heart, we gotta
pick our battles. We complain as a community that we
have a access lack of access to capital, mentorship, expertise,
(19:18):
But then when we're trying to create these avenues of
creating wealth so we can create access to capital, expertise
and mentorship, there has to be more of us to
do it. Then we tear it down. So either you
don't want the access or then when we do get
the access, you can't tear us down. Forgetting that access.
And that's why I said, we gotta choose our heart
as a community, because we can't have it both ways,
(19:41):
because what happens is we stifle our community when we
tear black brands down for doing what other cultures do
all the time. We stifle us because now it causes
fear in investors, It causes strategics to say, oh, now
you're more risky, so now I'm going to de value you.
(20:01):
So me, if I was a different culture, my value
could have been more if that risk wasn't there. So
all we're doing is we're setting ourselves back because the
next mony Grodriguez that comes forward that tries to do this,
they're going to ask the question like because they asked me,
how is your community gonna feel about this? Right? And
now we have to come up with a whole strategic
plan on how to relay this message in an educational way.
(20:24):
When I ask them back, do you have to do
this with any other cultures? Their response was no, right,
sow dis.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
You expound on that one, because I think what you're
speaking to is whenever it's something like this happens, right,
like you know, you do get acquired by p ANDNG.
The backlash from social media can be so bad that
it makes these companies be like, whoa should we have
done that situation?
Speaker 1 (20:42):
And they'll think about doing that, you know, to the
next person.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Right, And that's why it's important that when black brands
scale and are exited, we have to show up even
more as a community to support those brands because now
they're looking at these brands as a case study. They're
looking at my L now as a case study of
like what happens when you're acquired and does the community
still ride for you? Do? Does the community still support you?
(21:08):
And again, if we don't support and they start to
see sales drop off, then it stifles opportunity for a
next entrepreneur that wants to scale. And that's the part
we have to realize. And again to your point, we
can't expect people that you know, don't understands, not in business,
to understand business. But again, like we're creating platforms like
(21:31):
this to help spread the word and to educate, right,
We're taking the time to educate you. So you should
say in your mind, I'm gonna support this black founded brand.
Like let's not just say we support black owned let's
also support black founded brands right, because we're all a community.
We're all in this together. In order for us to
create these thriving communities, we got to support us right.
(21:52):
Things that are made by us, created by us, not
just owned by us. Because you should have the freedom
and the opportunity to do whatever it is that you
want to do with your brand. If you want to
stay small and local you have a purpose to serve,
you should be able to do that. If you want
to stay online and serve just online consumers, you should
be able to do that. If you want to scale
and exit and be acquired or IPO, you should have
(22:13):
the freedom and flexibility to do whatever it is that
you want to do with your brand without being criticized.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
I was going to ask, you know, besides Procter and Gamble,
what are other companies trying to acquire you?
Speaker 1 (22:21):
And why did you choose Procter and Gamble.
Speaker 3 (22:23):
So we were a hot commodity, so we had lots
of strategic companies that were like chomping at the bits
trying to acquire us. What made us choose Procter and
Gamble was because, you know, one of the biggest thing
was that there were people that looked like us that
were in high C suite level executive positions and decision makers,
(22:44):
so people that had an input or say and what
we were valued at had an input to say, like, yes,
this brand should be acquired. Were people that look like us,
and we also need those type of advocates on the
other side of the table that can stand up for
us and say, yes, this is a great investment. That
was one thing. And then their mission of being focused
(23:07):
on good and their employees. The longevity of the people
that has been in that company for many years right
also shows that you know, this is a company that
has great value and they respected us as founders. They
did not want to take away from the DNA of
the brand, They didn't want to disrupt the authenticity, and
they even put in our contract we want to keep
(23:28):
the Mayel magic. You guys are going to stay on bord.
You guys are going to see this vision through because
we didn't have to stay on board. That's another thing,
like I want people to understand, like we could have
sold the brand and left, but because we are passionate
about what we do, we wanted to continue on our
legacy in this vision and they allowed us to do so,
so they did not you know, say that we that
(23:51):
you guys have to sacrifice who you are in order
to growth. Growth does not mean you have to lose
your authenticity. And that's what stood out, you know, with them,
amongst the many others you know, that we had talked to.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
You know, Yeah, you know, I think there's a lot
of people feel like, well, a lot of founders get
pushed out when the big money shows up, so they
just want to make sure that y'all still calling, you know,
the shots, and it's not just a black face on
like a white white boardroom.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
Yeah no, Like I'm on zoom calls pretty much every day,
still talking about my l and product innovation and development
and marketing and different events and activations and how we
can show up for the community. So you know, I mean,
of course, I am the face of the brand. I
created the brand, but I'm more than just a face.
I'm also the strategic vision behind it as well too,
(24:39):
so I have I make the final decisions on everything
that touches the consumers, and I do it because I
made it that way. So we put like those safeguards
in place to protect our brand, to protect our legacy.
Speaker 5 (24:50):
And you do through with your husband, yeah, I was saying,
And it frees up a lot more of your time,
so you can do things like write your book and
then I'm sure delve into other business endeavors and things
like that. Because with PNG also, it's like like good
partners for you, Like they take on the bulk of
the factory. You had to do all of this by yourself.
Yeah at one point, you know, I'm sure you had
a team, but that's the part that they take on
(25:12):
as well. Like they make it I don't want to
say easier, but a little bit more easier to run
the whole shit.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Yeah, Like they free up a lot of my mental capacity,
so I can have the mental capacity to make the
hard decisions, the decisions that matter. And you mentioned something
about manufacturing, like we still manufacture our own products, So
manufacturing was not even P and G doesn't manufacture our products,
That's what I'm saying, Like everything is still the same,
(25:38):
Like we still manufacture in Chicago, right where I'm from.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
So yeah, and you built it with your hugband, right.
Speaker 3 (25:43):
Yes, So my husband we've been together since I was sixteen,
on each other since we were twelve and thirteen, and
so we've literally like grown up together and when I
had this dream, he supported it from the very beginning.
Like he operates from a very logistical finance operations mind said,
and I'm the visionary, the creator, and like when you
just merge those two different sides of the brain, you know,
(26:05):
skill sets, like we've been able to build this, you know,
amazing company and be this dynamic duo because you know,
we both add different value to the company and different
skill sets.
Speaker 1 (26:17):
A lot of don't mix business in marriage.
Speaker 5 (26:20):
You say that, I say the wedding rings says it
all that crazy.
Speaker 3 (26:24):
Crazy yours is too, thank you said about mixing.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Business business with marriage. What do you think I mean?
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I don't. I think you have to know, like what
works for you and your marriage. Like I've met some
married couples that are like, well, we can't work together
and they're happier not doing so, And that's totally fine.
I don't think there's no wrong or right answer. For us.
It works well for us because you know, the things
that he does for the company, I honestly don't even
(26:53):
want to do. And of course he knew nothing about
hair care and products, so he couldn't really operate in
my space, and I think if you want to make
it work, you have to like take your egos out
of it. You know, you can't be in competition with
your spouse. And my husband, he was always big on
like pushing me to the forefront. He's like, listen, this
is your time to shine. Women. You guys have been
(27:15):
held back for so long, Like I'm okay with putting
you out there and letting you be at the forefront
and now just helping support you on the back end.
And I just think that it takes a real man
to say, you know what, I'm okay with being behind
the scenes and you being out there and I'm gonna
just support your vision and him not feeling like, well,
I'm the man, I'm the protector, like you can't be
(27:35):
out there. Like he was very comfortable saying I'm just
gonna support you, and he's done just that. And you know,
my mentor told me, she's like, there will be no
may l if it wasn't for you, Melvin and you
or you you like you guys had to build this
together and you know it's I think it works for us.
And you just have to know like what works for
you and have respect for each other, respect each other's
(27:58):
roles and lanes and and you know, just be aligned
with your vision.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Melviourne. He's also a black man too.
Speaker 3 (28:05):
He's also a black man. Yesdriguez come from so his
mom is Puerto Rican. Oh yeah, you're black.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
He's black.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
But all right, yeah, that's a great question.
Speaker 1 (28:17):
Pick up the book right now.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
The glory in your story.
Speaker 3 (28:21):
Man.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
You are an inspiration, Monique, you and your husband Melvin.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
I really respect what it is that y'all are doing
and have done, and I wish and pray for.
Speaker 1 (28:31):
Much more successful.
Speaker 3 (28:33):
I appreciate that. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Rodriguez. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, Wake that ass
up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.
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