May 8, 2025 • 50 mins
From kitchen dreams to a global beauty empire—Monique Rodriguez, founder and CEO of Mielle Organics, joins Brandi Harvey for a powerful conversation on purpose, perseverance, and the faith it takes to scale greatness. 💫💼✨
Monique opens up about the obstacles she faced as a Black woman in business, the power of divine alignment, and how she turned pain into purpose after personal tragedy. This episode is for every visionary ready to build with boldness and lead with impact.
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Monique opens up about the obstacles she faced as a Black woman in business, the power of divine alignment, and how she turned pain into purpose after personal tragedy. This episode is for every visionary ready to build with boldness and lead with impact.
Watch the full episode here: https://youtu.be/Ii3ZVvATTTU
Follow us on social media for more inspiring stories ⬇️
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vaultempowers
X: https://twitter.com/vaultempowers
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vaultempowers
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@vaultempowers
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/
Stay connected with Brandi Harvey ⬇️
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iambrandiharvey/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/vault-empowers-talks--5932708/support.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You rolled down in your journal that Maya would be
acquired by Procter and Gamble.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Before I even knew that we were going to have
a meeting with Procter and Gamble.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
This acquisition was the largest of any black beauty founder ever.
There have been people who have made so many comments
about this acquisition. Well, what are you going to pass
down to your children? What do you say to people
who are the critics that have said the formula has changed,
it's not the same since she sold out, she.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Sold her business. What do you say to those people?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
People look at you, they see this beautiful, very polished,
for together woman, and your mother as a child was
telling you to hide your jewelry in your money so
your father didn't steal it.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
My dad has been using since he was fourteen.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Have you ever talked to your father about what happened
at fourteen years old to your father that took him
down this journey that has really set him up for
this life. You know what the loss of Milan, your son,
that birth, your assignment, what that greed propelled was my organics. Yeah,
you have this spirit of never giving up.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
You know growing up how I grew up, you know,
surviving I knew that there was no options. You have
to have the spirit of resilience. God, he doesn't want
us to give up. He wants us to trust him
and have faith. He does not want us to give up.
He didn't give us that spirit. That spirit is from
the enemy.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
What is that one link that if you give any
entrepreneur who's listing that says you need this one piece
in the recipe to be the best that you cannot
absolutely be, what would it be?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Welcome to Vaughdenpower's talks. So we don't just scratch the surface.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
We dive deep into the lives of some of the
world's most influential change makers.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I'm your host, Brandy Harvey.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Y'all, we got a fantastic show for you today. Monique
Rodriguez is the founder and CEO of my l Organics,
one of the fastest growing hair brands in the textured
hair category. After launching the brand with her husband in
twenty fourteen, Monique saw immediate success. Monique has notably secured
the largest exit ever for a black beauty founder when
(02:05):
Mayeo was acquired by Procter and Gamble in twenty twenty three.
As a part of the deal, p and G and
Mayel have both committed ten million dollars to the nonprofit
Mayo Cares, which is focused on providing resources and support
to advanced education and economic opportunities in black and brown communities.
Monique has been featured on The Steve Harvey Show, tammeron Hall, CBS, Forbes,
(02:28):
and Essence Magazine, just.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
To name a few.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Monique believes, if you want to dream big, you've got
to act big.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Bought in Power's Talks.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Welcome wife, mother, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Monique Rodriguez to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Thank you, how goose bums reading by.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I want you to feel that way when you sit
in the seat. You've done some amazing things in the world.
Thank you. Thank you definitely made me feel that way.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
My job is done.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
We can cut the show right now. We're done. We're done.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Thank you for joining me. You are on your world
tour right now.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yes, yeah, this tour. Life is a it's a lot. Yeah,
I can imagine these entertainers do this, but you know
it's worth it. It's worth it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
You are promoting your new book, and there is so
much glory in your story, and there's been so much
that you've endured to be able to sit in this
set as a founder, as a CEO, as a philanthropist.
But twenty two years old, you were a nurse, a
registered nurse. Your husband was working for UPS. He started
(03:36):
working there in high school, in.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
High school when he was like sixteen.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, it's a great place to work out here, UPS,
you it is, but he eventually became an engineer. You
were a nurse, I mean, but the entrepreneur spirit has
always been there. You so cable, you so avon. You
was a Mary Kay lady. I know we all had one.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
At the Pink Cadillac list.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Everybody wanted that pin Catialac. You saw candles. Yes, but
you have the spirit of never giving up.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yes, yes, it's you have to have that spirit. That's
the tenacity, you know, that's what it takes to be
an entrepreneur. Like you have to have the spirit of
resilience because when you finally find something that works, you're
still going to have obstacles, right, You're still gonna have
hurdles that you aren't going to need to overcome, and
(04:29):
you have to have that spirit of like, I'm not
going to give up, because giving up is not an option, like,
you have to take that out of your vocabulary. And
you know, growing up how I grew up, you know, surviving.
I knew that there was no options. Once I left
my nursing career and gave one hundred percent of my
time to Mayo. There was no looking back because I
(04:49):
was not going to go back to the career that
I was not happy with, and so I had to
keep pushing forward. You know, my husband and I we
built the company together and we made a commitment to
each other that we were going to give this brand
one thousand percent of our time, effort, and energy and
just continue pushing it forward because we knew that God
(05:09):
gave me this vision and that he was going to
equip me with everything that I need to be successful.
He's going to give me the resources, the money, the people. Right,
it wasn't for me to figure out how everything was
going to come together, but I knew that it would
eventually come together. I just had to trust and God,
he doesn't want us to get up. He wants us
(05:29):
to trust him and have faith. Right, So I feel
like if I'm giving up, you know, I am doing
a disservice. I'm not being obedient because He does not
want us to give up. He didn't give us that spirit.
That spirit is from the enemy. Now there are times
where you have to like make sound decisions and ask
yourself like is this something that I need to do
(05:51):
right now? Or do I need to pivot right So
I know that there are entrepreneurs that may be in
a place in their business where you know they they
have been doing it for fifteen plus years and they
haven't really been getting any traction, and you have to
get still and ask yourself and ask God, like what
is your purpose for me? Like is this something that
(06:12):
I should be doing? Or do I need to pivot?
So it really is based on like your direction and
being still with God, Like what is God directing and
telling you to do? Is He telling you to move
on to something else? And some entrepreneurs will look at
that as like giving up, But you're not giving up.
That's just a chapter that's ending and God has taken
you to a new beginning.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah, a new beginning.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I mean you talk about the pivot because there were
two moments when you thought you were supposed to go
back and get your master's degree in nursing and it
was like, uh, yeah, I need you to focus here.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah, focus all your attention here. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And that's that's a great point because you would look
at the fact that I went back to school twice
that I gave up, but I was being redirected because
every time I went back to school to further my
nursing career, I would get pregnant, I would have the
baby early, and I would be forced to withdraw from
(07:07):
my program because my priority is my kids. I want
to take care of my kids. So the first time
I went back to school, I got pregnant with Mackenzie,
my youngest daughter, and she was born prematurely. She was
born two months early, and I was in the middle
of the program and she had to stay in the
hospital for two months. So my focus is not on
finishing school. My focus is on making sure that my
(07:30):
baby is thriving and she's going to grow and come
home with us. So the second time I went back
to school, I had actually just enrolled into a master's
nursing program and I found out I was pregnant with
my son, and I remember thinking like, wow, like I
just entered it, I just enrolled in school, and like
(07:51):
now I'm pregnant, and like what's going to happen here?
And unfortunately, you know, my son passed away and I
had to withdraw for the program because that was so
far from my mind. And I just look at that
as like God was just redirecting me and I wasn't
being obedient to the calling. I always felt felt that
(08:12):
God was pulling me in a different direction because I've
always had the entrepreneurial bug, as you talked about the
direct sales, Mary Kay Sincy, that bug has always been
nugging and pulling at me. But I wasn't obedient because
of fear of doubt, of not being confident, of not
(08:34):
trusting the process, not believing in myself, not seeing entrepreneurs
that look like me that were building and operating multimillion
dollar businesses. So in my eyes, you can't be what
you don't see. That was my thinking, and I didn't
see it. So it was like, Okay, let me just
go back to what's comfortable and what's safe, right, And
(08:57):
God does not want us to just live a comfortable
and safe like life where we're scared to take risks
that are going to change your trajectory for the better
for our lives. Like God wants us to have faith
and to trust him right. And I was playing safe
because that was all that I knew. I was afraid
to take risks. I was afraid to step out on faith.
(09:19):
And God had a way of showing me like, that's
not your purpose. This is the purpose in the path
that I'm leading you to. But you're not listening.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
I mean, we have to go back because the book
is dedicated to Milan. Yes, you dedicate the book to Milan.
He is your son. He was born in twenty thirteen
and then he passed after eight months. He was eight
months old.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So I was eight months pregnant when I had him,
So he was born one month early and then he
was born with the brain injury from the high risk pregnancy.
We kept him on life support for six months.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
That was such a pivotal moment in you and your
husband's life. I mean your entire family, because your daughter.
Everybody was affected in this moment when your son is
on life support. The stress, the grief, the loss. But
you said a line in the book and you said,
grieving loss while still having hold on I'm gonna get
(10:21):
a right grieving loss while holding on to a miracle,
Grieving loss while holding onto a miracle because that birth
to your assignment. You said in the book, the loss
of Milan, your son, and what that grief propelled was
mayo organics.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, and at the time, obviously when he passed away,
I didn't know that Mayo would be birth right. That
wasn't even like something that I was focused on. But
what brought me joy in the midst of pain and
what kept me from being depressed because also postpartum depression
(11:01):
was very real and I'm just so thankful that I
didn't get to that point because I feel like God
kept me. I had two girls that I had to
be mentally saying for Yeah, they were so young, they
were four and eight when he passed away, so I
had to like behold for them. I didn't want them
(11:24):
to see me break. And I just felt that I
had to do something and focus and shift my focus
on what brought me joy and shift my focus from
going through the grief. And the first thing that we
did was we started going to church. After the passing
of my son, my husband and I we both got saved.
(11:46):
So our journey with our walk with Christ is what
saved us. That's what saved me, because there was no
one for me to lean on, like, of course my
support system, my mom, you know, my husband, he was
super supportive during that time, but they still couldn't help
me get through that. The only spirit that helped me
(12:08):
get through that journey was leaning on my faith in God.
And then the second thing was once I surrendered and
we let go, that's when God started giving me visions.
And my visions went back to things that I used
to do as a child. I used to love hair care.
I used to love the beauty space when I was younger.
(12:30):
I wanted to be the little girl on the just
for me relax or kid. That was my aspiration because
that's what I saw. I would beg my mom to
take me to model calls when I was younger, so
that it was reminding me of like, this is what
brought you joy as a kid. Like when I tell
people about like finding and discovering your passion, I always
(12:52):
tell people what was the thing that you did as
a child that you did effortlessly that everyone knew you
for that didn't feel like you had to work for it.
It was something that came naturally and for me, that
was being in the beauty space. It was something that
brought me so much joy. So I started on social
media talking about hair, you know, not creating the brand
(13:13):
that you see here today. But it was really just
let me go on here and talk about how I'm
styling my hair today, and that eventually continued to evolve
into the brand that you see before you. But it
really just started as a way to creatively express myself
and an outlet to get my mind off of the pain.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Yeah, the pain.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
I think that there are so many people they look
at you and your husband and they see you all
out in the forefront together, and there are some critics
out here who talk about why her husband all in
the video, why he all individual? Yes, not understanding that
through this birthing of this business, you all did this
(13:55):
hand in hand together.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
This was not just you.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
You had the support from the very beginning, and you
pulled on a skill set that he had that you
didn't have in birthing this business.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah, and that's what people don't truly understand how big
of an impact he had with building my l You know,
I am a visionary, I am a creative. I am
not a logistical, operation analytical. I don't use that part
of my brain. But he does. He's very analytical, he's
(14:27):
very detail oriented. He's an executor, he's an engineer. He's
an engineer, right, So I just think that's how his
brain works. And you know, when I had the vision,
I told him my idea, and when we put everything together,
I started working on like formulations, product testing, packaging. That's
(14:48):
what I was. I was doing the creative part in
the very beginning of just like Okay, this is what
I'm going to do to get this out there into
the world. So he did not have any input from
like the thought idea to bringing it to for from
a creative standpoint. The website designed like that was all
me just getting things off the ground. And then when
we launched. We launched on May twenty third, twenty fourteen,
(15:13):
and we had one product, and the day that we
launched the oil, just like, we sold out of every
bottom of inventory that we had. And here I am
and I'm like, okay, just got to ship out. So
now I need the operational aspect of come on engineer,
And he came on board like immediately without a question,
(15:35):
and just implement it processes and systems. We had a
full operation at that time out of our basement right,
and then we moved to the garage and he set
up a full supply chain system, time time clock where
people can come in and clock in and out, set
up payroll system, finances like he did all of that
(15:55):
operational back end stuff that I quite frankly didn't want
to do, don't like doing. I want to stay in
my creative line. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs,
you know, that's something that they tend to suffer with.
It's because as an entrepreneur, you feel like you need
to do everything right. You have to be the visionary,
the marketer, the pr you have to be the operations,
(16:18):
the finance, logistics. There's no way you can do all
of that together right. You have to be able to
understand where your strengths are, what are you good at,
what are the areas that you're not good at, and
how can you find the right partner to compliment you
so you can be a dynamic duo and build something great.
And I think I've always been very good at identifying
(16:39):
where I'm strong and where I'm weak and finding the
smart people in the areas that I'm not weak. And
it's okay to say I'm a CEO, and I don't
know everything. You're not supposed to know everything. You can't
know everything, right, because what you do is you'll take
the time and energy that takes away from the areas
that you're good at. So if you are the visionary,
you are the career. You need brain space to create, right,
(17:02):
and if you're focused on trying to figure out how
to balance this P and L statement, that's not a
great use of your time. And so that's how we
complimented each other, and I really wanted people to understand that.
You know, he's just always been very supportive, right because
he didn't have to support my vision. He could have
just said, Okay, this is great, this is what you're doing,
(17:23):
go ahead and build this company. You figure it out yourself.
But he's like, no, you're my wife, I'm going to
support you and we're going to grow this together. So
from the very beginning, from when we started shipping, he's
been one hundred percent by my side on the backside
of the business, which is what people don't see.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, I mean you all met when you were in
eighth grade.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, well I was in seventh he was in eighth grade.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, and you all start dating in high school. Yes,
you said the qualities that he had, he was a
great listener, and he adapted accordingly. All the time he
listened to you, he was always there for your needs.
And so I think that that kind of speaks to
how he's always been this constant in your life. But
you said in the book that you all bonded under
(18:08):
some traumatic childhood experiences and those were the things that
really kind of brought you all together at a young age.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
What were some of those experiences?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Excuse me? Yeah, So he grew up without his mom
being president in his household, and he grew up by
a single dad that raised him and did the best
that he could to try to provide for him. And
we were both pretty much low middle class families that
lived in the same area. We went to the same
junior high school, same high school, so we didn't have
(18:37):
a lot, you know. He tells me stories that there
were times where he didn't have running hot water. There
were times that he had to eat syrup sandwiches. Right,
So we had like those childhood experiences that we bonded
over because we came together at a very young age
and said like, this is something we want to do.
Something different for our family. You know, when we do
(18:59):
get to that and we start having kids and get married,
like we want to have a two parent household, Like
we want to be together and raise our kids and
just change the trajectory of our family lineage and generations
that's moving forward after us, right, And then he came
to my household, and I remember being young and I
was actually like embarrassed. I used to be embarrassed to
(19:19):
invite people over because of my dad's struggle. And I
used to feel that people would judge me for his
addiction and they would count me out or put me
in that same category that that was my future plan
as well. And actually asked them recently, I said, when
(19:41):
you would come around, and you know, you would obviously
see my family dynamics and environment and see my dad
and how he operated, why didn't you run? Because like
I'm just thinking, like if that was me at a
young age and I didn't come from this, and I
came into an environment where I saw this drug addiction
and this was not something that I'm used to seeing,
(20:03):
I would probably be like, oh, like I can't be
a part of this family, Like I'm I don't want to.
I can't deal with you, yeah, right, because I don't
know what your trajectory looks like. But he was like,
you know, honestly, that's what drew me closer to you,
because he's like, I didn't see those qualities in you.
And he's like, I came from that too. My family
had that, and we had that in my family. So
I understood that it's not a reflection of you, right,
(20:25):
It's a reflection of the choice of that that person made.
It doesn't have anything to do with you. And I
was like, oh, but I never asked him that question.
But I just reflected after writing this book, I'm like,
man writing this book and actually like reflecting on everything
that I went through as a child, Like you should
have ran like ran fast.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I mean your father's addiction, I mean, and you stayed
in the book. He still even, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Struggles to this day.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
But there was a couple stories in the book and
talking about your dad, and he was very he wanted
you to share this. You said that he wanted you
to this part of your life. He didn't want you
to hide that in his addiction. Your father was like
the Uba before Uber.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Right, he was a visionary, a visionary right.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yeah, he was Uber before Uber, he was doing rides,
he was ride sharing, yes, before ride share was a thing.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Exist. Yeah, but that always.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Got him into trouble, right, There was things that always happened, right,
And there was moments where he got sober over the
years and you got to learn him and know him.
But then there was a moment in high school, your
sophomore year of high school, and he was shot four times, Yes,
while he was driving some people where he had the
feeling when they got in the car that this was
(21:43):
not a good idea. He drove them to the location
that they asked him to drive them to and they
wanted him to wait, and he sped off afterwards, and
they shot in the car, correct, and he was paralyzed
from the waist down.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I remember it was just a
very dark time because I thought I was gonna lose
my dad, and I just knew that after experiencing that
with him, that he was gonna get his life together,
he was gonna get clean, and he did, and he
(22:17):
was clean for the time that he was healing from that,
and he went right back to using once he was
able to get right back on his feet, and it
was hurtful. And that's why I have the self awareness
to know, even as an adult, I have trust issues
(22:38):
because when you have your dad, your first love, that
continues to lie to you, continues to say that they're
gonna get clean, they're gonna get their acts together so
they can be whole and present for you, and then
they continue to disappoint you. That was my first example, Right,
So if he can't tell me the truth and he
can't get itself together, like, how can I trust people
(23:01):
on the outside? Right? But I had to learn to
overcome that, and I had to learn that it's not
a matter of him lying to you. It's a matter
that he has a disease. He has a sickness that
has a stronghold over him. Yeah, and it's a very
My dad has been using since he was fourteen.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
And so the younger you are, when you start using,
the more impressional obviously impressionable, your brain is, right, and
so when you start using at that age, that's kind
of the age that you stop growing. So he has
technically not matured since the age of fourteen because he
has damaged his brain cells. Right, that has like the
(23:46):
frontal cortex where we make sound decisions has probably never
developed because he started using so young, so he didn't
give his brain an opportunity to develop.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
I mean, you talked about in the book that it
was your mother's resilience. You learn so much from your
mother's resilience in dealing with that and coping with your
father and learning how to navigate space with your father.
But your father taught you empathy. And so have you
ever talked to your father about what happened at fourteen
(24:15):
years old to your father that took him down this
journey that has really set him up for this life?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
You know what? I have wanted to and I feel
like I have when I was younger, but he doesn't
talk about it. Yeah, and so that's something that I
also deal with. But I know it's not my battle
to fight, but I do deal with, Like, man, I
wonder what happened, Like, just tell me your story.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Because something happened.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Something happened, fourteen something happened, And I'm not judged. I
don't want to judge you. I just want to be
able to empathize with you and try to like help
get you the help that you need. But I can't
help someone that doesn't want to be help or someone
that doesn't want to open up and tell me, like
what caused the addiction? Because to your point, I one
hundred percent agree. I want to know what caused you
(25:01):
to even start using What pain were you masking at
the age of fourteen? Yeah, and I have not been
able to get to that point yet. Wow.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I mean, maybe there will be this opportunity because I
think more and more as you start to share your
own story, this might really give him the permission slip
to say, Okay, I'm I'm a grandfather. You know, I
have these beautiful children who have survived and thrived, you know,
in so many different ways. But I want you to
(25:33):
talk about your mother because you talk about your mother's
resilience because even growing up, I mean, people look at you,
they see this beautiful, very polished, pule together woman. And
your mother as a child was telling you to hide
your jewelry and your money so your father didn't steal it.
You know, y'all was hiding car keys because he was
real good at stealing cars.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yeah, he was greater at what he did.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
You know, I mean, when you deal with addiction, you
will they will get very creative on how they you know,
satisfy their habit. Yeah, and when it came to jewelry,
because he would he would steal it and he would
pond it and he would get the money to do
(26:17):
whatever he wanted to do with it. And his thinking was, well,
when I get my check, I'm gonna go get it
out the pawn shop and I'll replace it, so they'll
never know that it's missing, but we will see that
it was missing. So then we came to the point
of like, okay, we got to put stuff up so
you know, he can't get access to it. And if
he needed to make a run, because that was his thing,
(26:39):
I got to go make a run. Or if he
needed to pick up someone, if somebody gave him a
phone call to meet him up somewhere, if he had
access to a car, he would take your car and
go joy riding and probably do things like uber Like
you know, it was he wasn't trustworthy, Like we couldn't
trust him because of the addiction, and we knew that
(27:00):
he would be willing to do anything and didn't care
if it hurt our feelings or my mom's feelings. But
again it affected me with trusting people, right, I can't
trust my dad in the house with my stuff. So
even when I was younger, and you know, we would
have you know, cleaning people. When I first started like
being able to have people come clean my house, I
(27:22):
would be nervous because I would like high stuff, and
you know, I'll be like, oh, well, I don't want
them to steal myself, So I gotta make so those
same type of like childhood traumas and habits would come
to fruition and I had to like stop myself in
my tracks, like you don't live with a drug addict.
This is their job. These are people that have background checks,
Like I have to retrain my brain to heal from
(27:45):
all of that growing up, because it really did affect
me as a kid growing up, because no child should
have to grow up with the parent afraid that that
parent is going to steal from them.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
How is your relationship with your mother because she taught
you this resilient and these coping skills and how to
navigate in the world. How did that really transfer over
into your relationship with your mom?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yeah, my mom and I we have a great relationship.
She has taught me to be the woman that I
am today, to be strong, to be resilient, to be focused,
because my mom was always very adamant of making sure
that we stayed busy to try to distract us from
what was going on at home. And I do feel
(28:30):
that a lot of the ways that she coped with
my dad's addiction were probably not necessarily healthy. And I
do feel that, especially my brother and I's two of us,
we tend we tend to pick up some of those
unhealthy coping habits, which I've learned through therapy. Right. You know,
(28:51):
in black families, you just sweep things under the rug.
That's not okay.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Yeah, what are some of those coping.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Sweeping things under the rug, acting like it didn't exist
because it was like for her, if we don't talk
about it, it didn't happen, And that's not healthy.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
I mean we all have experienced that, right and families.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah, yeah, And that's not something that I want to
pass down to my kids. I want to pass down communication,
like you get through situations by communicating, not acting like
it didn't happen. But that was all that she knew
growing up because that's she's from her family's from the South.
That was the Southern way of like, you know what
(29:31):
goes on in this house stays in this house. We're
not going to talk about it. Do as I say,
not as I do. Don't question me. You know, that
was kind of like the rules that were in our house,
and it wasn't necessarily like a healthy coping or a
way to deal with the situations. Like I feel that
even at a young age, my brother and I should
(29:51):
have been in therapy. Yeah, you know, but as we're
adults and now we're seeking therapists to heal from the
therapy that we should have got and the trauma that
we should have gotten as a kid. But again, I
can't blame her for what she didn't know. What I
can focus on is how she raised me, the values
that she's instilled in me. The mother that I am
today is because of the mother that she was to
(30:14):
me and that she still is. And you know, just
teaching me and passing down wisdom you know, from her
mom and from generations to generations. That has taught me
to just always be on guard, which sometimes can be
not good too, because you can be so guarded that
you miss out on potential blessings. Yeah, because it's a wall, right,
(30:37):
But she's taught me that and so I am guarded
to a certain extent. But I've also learned to have discernment.
So I pray that God gives me the discernments so
I don't have this wall up, and I'm able to
be more open to people, to let them in and
trust that God is going to give me the guidance
of knowing who should be in my inner circle and
(30:57):
who shouldn't or who I should just keep at a distance.
She's taught me, you know, how to be the polished
individual that I am. My mom was very big on
appearance and making sure that you show up, like when
you don't leave this house with a bonding on your head. Yeah,
it wasn't about it then, but she was very old school,
(31:17):
like very old school, like, you know, make sure that
your hair is always maintained, make sure that you look presentable,
be on time. So just like values that I feel
like you said old school parents was teaching us when
we were younger. She did that and she kept us grounded,
she kept us sane, she kept us whole, and she
(31:39):
had no other choice because we were her focus, not
my dad.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
I love the way you know.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
I was at your event, your ten year anniversary event,
here in Atlanta when you celebrate ten years, I mean, I.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Feel like I mean money.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
I've been a part of this journey because when you
launched in Target, we were both at the U Big
Conference in DC. You had a big event, like Giselle
Brant myself, we were all there that event that was
like twenty eighteen, maybe like twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Maybe seven years ago.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah, And then to celebrate your ten uyear last year
here in Atlanta, and you said something that really stood
out when you got on the microphone. And there have
been people who have made so many comments about this
acquisition with Procter and Gamble of my Yell Organics, and
there have been people who said, well, what are you
(32:33):
going to pass down to your children and the legacy
for your children? You said, this was my dream, not
my children's dream. This was my dream, not my children's dream.
I want them to dream their own dream of what
they want for their life. And I think that that
was when I listened to you said, I said, man,
that's so powerful because so often as black people who
(32:55):
start these you know, amazing companies and they become acquired
and oftentimes we forget that that's the thing that we
want to do.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
We want to have our businesses acquire.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
We want to scale them in a way that they
are profitable, that can you know, generate money we've never
even dreamed of. Right, And you said that this was
your dream, not your children, and you wanted them to
have their own dream. I thought that that was just
so powerful. What do you say to people who are
the critics and the naysayers that have said the formula
(33:29):
has changed, it's not the same since she sold out, she.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Sold her business. What do you say to those people?
Speaker 2 (33:36):
What I say to the critics is that I understand
why you criticize me, because if I wasn't doing something great,
people would have nothing to say. Yeah, So I understand
that it comes with the territory criticism, and you know
people that want to criticize your decisions but have no
(33:57):
idea what it takes to be in your shoes or
to get to your position. Right. People tend to criticize
what they don't understand, and criticism also comes from a
place of internal projection. So people will tend to internalize
and project what they may be insecure about and their
fears and their lack of courage because they don't have
(34:19):
the courage to walk a day in my shoes, or
to make the decisions that I've made right. And I
don't do things for the cheers of the crowd. I
do things with purpose and intention, because when you do
things for the cheers of the crowd, you fall by
the criticism of the crowd. And people are very fickle.
People are very emotional. And I know that.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
I came from a nurse and background, so I understand
the empathy and the psychology of like people. And you
cannot be driven by the emotional instability of the social
media world because one minute they love you, the next
minute they hate you. And and they did that to Jesus.
(35:02):
So if they loved Jesus one minute and crucified him
the next, what makes any of us think that we
are exempt to being criticized in this world? Of course,
criticism hurts, it sings. But I know my purpose and
my purpose and my calling is very divine, and I
know that God has called me to do this work.
(35:24):
And I know the prayers and the conversations and the
journaling that I had with God. And this is the
direction and the steps that God has ordered and ordained.
And when you criticize that you're criticizing his purpose and plans.
So it's not my battle to fight. It's not my
battle to deal with. You have to deal with the
creator who put me on this earth to accomplish this.
(35:46):
So what I say to the criticisms is thank you.
You only push me and motivate me to go even harder,
to be even stronger. And when people question the legacy
that I'm leaving for my kids, the legacy that I'm
leaving is freedom. The freedom that I didn't have to
be eighteen, graduating in high school and saying, oh, I
(36:08):
want to explore and really discover what my passions are
and really find my true purpose versus no, you have
to go to school to be a nurse, you have
to finish college. The structure that was put on me
and not even giving me the choice to identify and
know myself. Before I was able to even grow up
(36:29):
to being a doe and come out into this world,
it was already written of what my mom wanted me
to do. I don't want to do that to my kids.
I want to give them the freedom and the flexibility
to do whatever it is that's positive that they enjoy
doing because that is living a fulfilled life. It is
not fulfilling doing something and just going with the everyday
okie dolk of getting up doing the same routine and
(36:52):
you're not happy doing it. That's why there are so
many critics, because people have not found their true purpose
and they're not happy in their lives. Because happy people
don't criticize other people. I don't go on social media.
Come on and criticize people. If you see a comment
from Exquisite Mode, you will see something positive. I have
never said anything negative. Yeah, I don't have time to
(37:14):
do that. So if you are living in a life
of misery, of misery and being unhappy, yes you're going
to criticize. So I pray for them. I wish them well,
but just know that they're not stopping anything.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
I love that you're setting them up for a life
of freedom, a life that you didn't have. I mean,
and you mentioned this in you saying this, that you
journaled this, because you journal talk about manifesting the desires
of your heart, talk about manifesting the.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Life that you that you deserve.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
You rote down in your journal that ma Yell would
be acquired by Procter and Gamble.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Before I even knew that we were going to have
a meeting with Procter and Gamble. Yeah, so this is
what I'm saying. These are the conversations that I have
with God. My journal is a place, a sacred space
where I can sit down and write. God says, write
the vision and make it plain right. If he's telling
me to do that, then I'm gonna go in my
closet and I'm gonna just start writing. I'm gonna write
(38:12):
the vision. I'm gonna put the work in, I'm gonna
pray over it. Faith without works is dead. And before
we even knew that we were we would be meeting
with Procter and Gamble, we met with a lot of
different conglomerates right in choosing our partners. So we started
this process in August of twenty twenty two. In May
(38:34):
of twenty twenty two, I wrote in my journal and
I have proof that Mayo will be acquired by PNG.
Where did that come from? That came from God. God
gave me that inspiration to write that down, and I
actually forgot that I wrote it down right. And God
will always confirm his work. He will always this is
so powerful. He will always remind you because when we
(38:55):
were in negotiations with two different companies of the which
way we were going to go, we went to our
church and we had our pastor pray because we were like,
we're torn between these two companies. We don't know which
direction we want to go in, Like give us some
guidance and prayer. And my pastor started saying, like, there's
(39:16):
something about P and G that's jumping in my spirit. Wow, right,
I cannot make this up. Yeah, And so that when
we got confirmation from my pastor, that's when we went
back and we made the decision. Mind you, this was
like at midnight. We were in negotiations at midnight on
Zoom because we had to make a decision. And once
we finally made the decision, you know, we signed all
(39:39):
of the documents, did all the negotiations, and we closed.
And I happened to be in my closet getting ready
to journal again after the transaction closed, and I'm flicking
through my pages. Why the page that I flicked through
is a page that reminded me of what I wrote
down in May was twenty twenty two. When I tell you,
I had chills. I ran and told my husband. I
(40:02):
said Melvin, You're not gonna believe this. I said, look
what I wrote down. And this wasn't the first time
that I did something like that, right, I said, look
what I wrote down. And he looked at the journal
and he saw the date and he was.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Like, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Oh wow. I mean I got chilled while you were
telling the story. I get chills every time I tell
the story because I'm like, listen, I have chilled, like
this is nothing but God, this is God ordained. So
when people want to criticize that, man, I've been through worse.
I've been through much worse. Like there's nothing that anyone
can say on social media that doesn't know me from
(40:38):
a can of paignt can do to like hurt me,
because it's not like I know, I know why I'm here.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I mean, this acquisition was the largest of any black
beauty founder ever and undisclosed amount.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
I mean, you know, so we you know we can't
get in them coins, y'all. You know, I just know.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Was I not for some freedom?
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Right?
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Okay, it's enough of freedom. She paid for her freedom paper.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
It's okay, just.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Know that that part.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yeah, I mean, but in this deal, you you and
p ANDNG MYO Cares.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
You guys have worked.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
To set aside ten million dollars from black and brown communities.
What is that work that you plan on doing and
how is that money going to be dispersed? What kind
of learning tools, what kind of activations can people expect
from myle Cares.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Yeah, so, so P and G they came to the
table when we were in negotiations and they committed without
us even asking ten million dollars to MAO Cares. And
then Melvin and I we matched it, so in totality,
it's twenty million dollars to give back to black and
brown communities. And so I really wanted to focus on
mental health and tweens and teens because I feel like
there's a gap. And we started with our alma mater,
(41:53):
our high school that Melvin and I went to together,
Thornton Township, and we created a my Mental Mindset program
where kids can come together after school and discuss whatever's
going on with them mentally. And then we're providing resources.
We're providing therapists into the schools to help kids navigate
(42:14):
through whatever circumstances or situations that they're going through, because
some of these kids are going to school and they
can't focus on school and getting good grades or a scholarship,
or even being an entrepreneur when they don't have the
basic necessities when they're coming to school and they can't
they don't have deodorant, or they don't have lunch, or
they don't have just anything basic that we may take
(42:35):
advantage of or take for granted. I'm sorry, And these
kids are going to school trying to focus on their education,
but also their home environment. We have kids that are
the mom because they have six seven brothers and sisters.
So we want to be able to provide a safe
space and an environment to help create a positive, resilient mindset,
(42:58):
to set these kids on the right path and the
right trajectory with the right tools and resources that they
have for mental health. To put down social media, because
I do feel that social media is it's a lot
for these kids, right and encouraging them to put down
their phones and to really get back to being a teenager,
being a kid and doing what doing the kid things
(43:21):
that kids do. And let's then set them up for
scholarships and showing them the path and the ropes to
becoming an entrepreneur. But we can't do that if we
don't get them mentally sound and Melvin and I have
always felt that a huge part of our success has
been contributed to our mindset. So we want to create
and shift the mindset and these teams and help them
(43:43):
so they can progress in the future.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
When you say your mindset, you and Melbourne's mindset, what
is that?
Speaker 1 (43:51):
What is that one piece that one link that if
you give any entrepreneur who's listing, it says you need
this one piece and the recipe for your mental for
your mindset to be the best that you cannot absolutely be.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
What would it be?
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Ooh, one piece? I would say. I would say, you
have to be able to dream big. I'm actually gonna
say to two things, and you have to know that
you deserve success.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Yeah, you say one of the chapters in the book
is dream big, Act Big. I mean, well, that's one
of the lines in the book. You have to dream
big and actig. So I think it's two things.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
You have to dream big and you have to know
that success it comes to me like I deserve it.
And I say that because when I was younger, I
used to see people that were deemed successful, right, And
I would say, oh, they were lucky, or you know,
they had parents that helped them, or they came from
(44:54):
a wealthy background and that's why they become successful. No,
they just had a different mindset. They're not just lucky, right,
they felt in their spirit that they deserved success, that
they had the ability to dream big. And that's another
thing with our kids in the My Mental Mindset program,
(45:16):
They're not in environments and circumstances that are conducive of
them dreaming big. I wasn't in an I come from
the same neighborhood that they come from. But I want
to encourage them to think outside of the box, to
see beyond their current circumstances, and to be exposed. So
a lot of the things that we do also is
exposing them to different environments, Like we take them on
(45:39):
field trips and we put them in communities and environments
that came to our warehouse. So we're a huge part
of helping them see like the possibilities. Right that someone
that came from the same area that I came from,
that we're not taught how to dream, but look at
what they've accomplished. So if you dream big and you
have the mindset that I deserve success. Success comes to me.
(46:01):
I don't operate from a space of lack. I operate
from a space of abundance. It's gonna flow, It's gonna
come to you. So you gotta start just speaking things.
Speak things that are not as though they were. That's
what the Bible tells me.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
I mean you talk about it so much in the book.
You talk about especially as you get towards the end
of the book. I mean it becomes all about the abundance.
The mindset shifts. Yeah, how you can start to activate
your faith in a greater way. And your faith is
so activated, I mean you've done you used to do
the live prayer call every morning, you know, and so
your faith has really anchored you in previous seasons, but
(46:36):
it's carrying you in this one as well.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
For sure, absolutely, And I feel that my faith has
just kept me so strong even in the midst of
criticism and public criticism. Right more everyone is seeing what's
going on. But I do feel that God has also
using me as an example to show that my child
(46:59):
can remain that fast and she knows her anointing no
matter what the world says about her. Right And I
feel that it also shows other people that man, despite
you know, situations or the public criticism or the ups
and downs, like that's what people see. But people also
don't see the back end. So there are people that
are going through things on the back end of their
(47:19):
business and entrepreneurship that the public doesn't see. And if
they can look at me and say, oh, she's still standing,
she's still pushing forward. She's handling this with such grace,
class and poise, like I can do the same thing.
So that's why I don't like acknowledge it or or
even like feed into it, because I know that I
(47:41):
am a leading example of what God wants his children
to see, how to stand firm in the face of adversity.
And so I want people to understand that my faith
is the only thing that has anchored me and has
kept me grounded.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
Yeah, your faith has kept you grounded. As we've been
into goals.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Out this interview, I ask everyone who sits in that
seed one word you were committed to in this season
of your life.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
One word that I'm committed to in this season of
my life is love. Why Because we're here to love everyone.
We may not like everyone, but as long as we
are loving, we will receive that back. And so I
(48:28):
just want to move with intention and be able to
extend love into this world because we live in a
world where it's so much going on, so many people hurting,
And if I can just make someone's day by saying, girl,
look at your outfit. You look so cute, like you
look amazing, that may be the only thing that they
(48:49):
have heard positive for that day. And I want to
receive that energy back. So I feel that the energy
that you put out there, you will get right back
to you. So I want to move with love into
this world of a lot of hate.
Speaker 1 (49:01):
Monique, I think that this book, I mean, everything that
you've talked about in this interview today, you sum it
up in this book. You know, you give so much
of your life story that people would never even imagine,
from the addiction to all the hurdles that you've had
to jump to every move that you've made, but the
love that you and your husband have shared with each other,
(49:23):
the bond that you've created, the love that you've given
to your children, you know, and that same love that
you've poured out into your business. So I think for
every person who is watching, for every brand, every girl
who's an influencer, every CEO. If you think you want
to start as something, if you got you with some shade,
butter in your basement, if you got your hair all,
(49:45):
this is the book you need the glory in your story.
Monique Rodriguez, thank you so much for joining me today.
Absolute pleasure, much continued success. You are phenomenal. Thank you
for sitting us. Sevevaught Empowers Talks another good one for
the books. There are some glory in your story, but
make sure you love in somebody today. Be sure to
share this with somebody who needs a little more love
(50:06):
in their life. Until next time, I'm your girl. Brandy
Harvey eat well, give a damn move your body every
single day. Peace,
You rolled down in your journal that Maya would be
acquired by Procter and Gamble.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Before I even knew that we were going to have
a meeting with Procter and Gamble.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
This acquisition was the largest of any black beauty founder ever.
There have been people who have made so many comments
about this acquisition. Well, what are you going to pass
down to your children? What do you say to people
who are the critics that have said the formula has changed,
it's not the same since she sold out, she.
Speaker 3 (00:28):
Sold her business. What do you say to those people?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
People look at you, they see this beautiful, very polished,
for together woman, and your mother as a child was
telling you to hide your jewelry in your money so
your father didn't steal it.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
My dad has been using since he was fourteen.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Have you ever talked to your father about what happened
at fourteen years old to your father that took him
down this journey that has really set him up for
this life. You know what the loss of Milan, your son,
that birth, your assignment, what that greed propelled was my organics. Yeah,
you have this spirit of never giving up.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
You know growing up how I grew up, you know,
surviving I knew that there was no options. You have
to have the spirit of resilience. God, he doesn't want
us to give up. He wants us to trust him
and have faith. He does not want us to give up.
He didn't give us that spirit. That spirit is from
the enemy.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
What is that one link that if you give any
entrepreneur who's listing that says you need this one piece
in the recipe to be the best that you cannot
absolutely be, what would it be?
Speaker 3 (01:33):
Welcome to Vaughdenpower's talks. So we don't just scratch the surface.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
We dive deep into the lives of some of the
world's most influential change makers.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
I'm your host, Brandy Harvey.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Y'all, we got a fantastic show for you today. Monique
Rodriguez is the founder and CEO of my l Organics,
one of the fastest growing hair brands in the textured
hair category. After launching the brand with her husband in
twenty fourteen, Monique saw immediate success. Monique has notably secured
the largest exit ever for a black beauty founder when
(02:05):
Mayeo was acquired by Procter and Gamble in twenty twenty three.
As a part of the deal, p and G and
Mayel have both committed ten million dollars to the nonprofit
Mayo Cares, which is focused on providing resources and support
to advanced education and economic opportunities in black and brown communities.
Monique has been featured on The Steve Harvey Show, tammeron Hall, CBS, Forbes,
(02:28):
and Essence Magazine, just.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
To name a few.
Speaker 1 (02:30):
Monique believes, if you want to dream big, you've got
to act big.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
Bought in Power's Talks.
Speaker 1 (02:36):
Welcome wife, mother, entrepreneur, and philanthropist Monique Rodriguez to the show.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Thank you, how goose bums reading by.
Speaker 1 (02:46):
Listen.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I want you to feel that way when you sit
in the seat. You've done some amazing things in the world.
Thank you. Thank you definitely made me feel that way.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
My job is done.
Speaker 2 (02:57):
We can cut the show right now. We're done. We're done.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Thank you for joining me. You are on your world
tour right now.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
Yes, yeah, this tour. Life is a it's a lot. Yeah,
I can imagine these entertainers do this, but you know
it's worth it. It's worth it.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
You are promoting your new book, and there is so
much glory in your story, and there's been so much
that you've endured to be able to sit in this
set as a founder, as a CEO, as a philanthropist.
But twenty two years old, you were a nurse, a
registered nurse. Your husband was working for UPS. He started
(03:36):
working there in high school, in.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
High school when he was like sixteen.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yeah, it's a great place to work out here, UPS,
you it is, but he eventually became an engineer. You
were a nurse, I mean, but the entrepreneur spirit has
always been there. You so cable, you so avon. You
was a Mary Kay lady. I know we all had one.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
At the Pink Cadillac list.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
Everybody wanted that pin Catialac. You saw candles. Yes, but
you have the spirit of never giving up.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Yes, yes, it's you have to have that spirit. That's
the tenacity, you know, that's what it takes to be
an entrepreneur. Like you have to have the spirit of
resilience because when you finally find something that works, you're
still going to have obstacles, right, You're still gonna have
hurdles that you aren't going to need to overcome, and
(04:29):
you have to have that spirit of like, I'm not
going to give up, because giving up is not an option, like,
you have to take that out of your vocabulary. And
you know, growing up how I grew up, you know, surviving.
I knew that there was no options. Once I left
my nursing career and gave one hundred percent of my
time to Mayo. There was no looking back because I
(04:49):
was not going to go back to the career that
I was not happy with, and so I had to
keep pushing forward. You know, my husband and I we
built the company together and we made a commitment to
each other that we were going to give this brand
one thousand percent of our time, effort, and energy and
just continue pushing it forward because we knew that God
(05:09):
gave me this vision and that he was going to
equip me with everything that I need to be successful.
He's going to give me the resources, the money, the people. Right,
it wasn't for me to figure out how everything was
going to come together, but I knew that it would
eventually come together. I just had to trust and God,
he doesn't want us to get up. He wants us
(05:29):
to trust him and have faith. Right, So I feel
like if I'm giving up, you know, I am doing
a disservice. I'm not being obedient because He does not
want us to give up. He didn't give us that spirit.
That spirit is from the enemy. Now there are times
where you have to like make sound decisions and ask
yourself like is this something that I need to do
(05:51):
right now? Or do I need to pivot right So
I know that there are entrepreneurs that may be in
a place in their business where you know they they
have been doing it for fifteen plus years and they
haven't really been getting any traction, and you have to
get still and ask yourself and ask God, like what
is your purpose for me? Like is this something that
(06:12):
I should be doing? Or do I need to pivot?
So it really is based on like your direction and
being still with God, Like what is God directing and
telling you to do? Is He telling you to move
on to something else? And some entrepreneurs will look at
that as like giving up, But you're not giving up.
That's just a chapter that's ending and God has taken
you to a new beginning.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Yeah, a new beginning.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I mean you talk about the pivot because there were
two moments when you thought you were supposed to go
back and get your master's degree in nursing and it
was like, uh, yeah, I need you to focus here.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
Yeah, focus all your attention here. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
And that's that's a great point because you would look
at the fact that I went back to school twice
that I gave up, but I was being redirected because
every time I went back to school to further my
nursing career, I would get pregnant, I would have the
baby early, and I would be forced to withdraw from
(07:07):
my program because my priority is my kids. I want
to take care of my kids. So the first time
I went back to school, I got pregnant with Mackenzie,
my youngest daughter, and she was born prematurely. She was
born two months early, and I was in the middle
of the program and she had to stay in the
hospital for two months. So my focus is not on
finishing school. My focus is on making sure that my
(07:30):
baby is thriving and she's going to grow and come
home with us. So the second time I went back
to school, I had actually just enrolled into a master's
nursing program and I found out I was pregnant with
my son, and I remember thinking like, wow, like I
just entered it, I just enrolled in school, and like
(07:51):
now I'm pregnant, and like what's going to happen here?
And unfortunately, you know, my son passed away and I
had to withdraw for the program because that was so
far from my mind. And I just look at that
as like God was just redirecting me and I wasn't
being obedient to the calling. I always felt felt that
(08:12):
God was pulling me in a different direction because I've
always had the entrepreneurial bug, as you talked about the
direct sales, Mary Kay Sincy, that bug has always been
nugging and pulling at me. But I wasn't obedient because
of fear of doubt, of not being confident, of not
(08:34):
trusting the process, not believing in myself, not seeing entrepreneurs
that look like me that were building and operating multimillion
dollar businesses. So in my eyes, you can't be what
you don't see. That was my thinking, and I didn't
see it. So it was like, Okay, let me just
go back to what's comfortable and what's safe, right, And
(08:57):
God does not want us to just live a comfortable
and safe like life where we're scared to take risks
that are going to change your trajectory for the better
for our lives. Like God wants us to have faith
and to trust him right. And I was playing safe
because that was all that I knew. I was afraid
to take risks. I was afraid to step out on faith.
(09:19):
And God had a way of showing me like, that's
not your purpose. This is the purpose in the path
that I'm leading you to. But you're not listening.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
I mean, we have to go back because the book
is dedicated to Milan. Yes, you dedicate the book to Milan.
He is your son. He was born in twenty thirteen
and then he passed after eight months. He was eight
months old.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
So I was eight months pregnant when I had him,
So he was born one month early and then he
was born with the brain injury from the high risk pregnancy.
We kept him on life support for six months.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
That was such a pivotal moment in you and your
husband's life. I mean your entire family, because your daughter.
Everybody was affected in this moment when your son is
on life support. The stress, the grief, the loss. But
you said a line in the book and you said,
grieving loss while still having hold on I'm gonna get
(10:21):
a right grieving loss while holding on to a miracle,
Grieving loss while holding onto a miracle because that birth
to your assignment. You said in the book, the loss
of Milan, your son, and what that grief propelled was
mayo organics.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, and at the time, obviously when he passed away,
I didn't know that Mayo would be birth right. That
wasn't even like something that I was focused on. But
what brought me joy in the midst of pain and
what kept me from being depressed because also postpartum depression
(11:01):
was very real and I'm just so thankful that I
didn't get to that point because I feel like God
kept me. I had two girls that I had to
be mentally saying for Yeah, they were so young, they
were four and eight when he passed away, so I
had to like behold for them. I didn't want them
(11:24):
to see me break. And I just felt that I
had to do something and focus and shift my focus
on what brought me joy and shift my focus from
going through the grief. And the first thing that we
did was we started going to church. After the passing
of my son, my husband and I we both got saved.
(11:46):
So our journey with our walk with Christ is what
saved us. That's what saved me, because there was no
one for me to lean on, like, of course my
support system, my mom, you know, my husband, he was
super supportive during that time, but they still couldn't help
me get through that. The only spirit that helped me
(12:08):
get through that journey was leaning on my faith in God.
And then the second thing was once I surrendered and
we let go, that's when God started giving me visions.
And my visions went back to things that I used
to do as a child. I used to love hair care.
I used to love the beauty space when I was younger.
(12:30):
I wanted to be the little girl on the just
for me relax or kid. That was my aspiration because
that's what I saw. I would beg my mom to
take me to model calls when I was younger, so
that it was reminding me of like, this is what
brought you joy as a kid. Like when I tell
people about like finding and discovering your passion, I always
(12:52):
tell people what was the thing that you did as
a child that you did effortlessly that everyone knew you
for that didn't feel like you had to work for it.
It was something that came naturally and for me, that
was being in the beauty space. It was something that
brought me so much joy. So I started on social
media talking about hair, you know, not creating the brand
(13:13):
that you see here today. But it was really just
let me go on here and talk about how I'm
styling my hair today, and that eventually continued to evolve
into the brand that you see before you. But it
really just started as a way to creatively express myself
and an outlet to get my mind off of the pain.
Speaker 3 (13:31):
Yeah, the pain.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
I think that there are so many people they look
at you and your husband and they see you all
out in the forefront together, and there are some critics
out here who talk about why her husband all in
the video, why he all individual? Yes, not understanding that
through this birthing of this business, you all did this
(13:55):
hand in hand together.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
This was not just you.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
You had the support from the very beginning, and you
pulled on a skill set that he had that you
didn't have in birthing this business.
Speaker 3 (14:06):
Correct.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
Yeah, and that's what people don't truly understand how big
of an impact he had with building my l You know,
I am a visionary, I am a creative. I am
not a logistical, operation analytical. I don't use that part
of my brain. But he does. He's very analytical, he's
(14:27):
very detail oriented. He's an executor, he's an engineer. He's
an engineer, right, So I just think that's how his
brain works. And you know, when I had the vision,
I told him my idea, and when we put everything together,
I started working on like formulations, product testing, packaging. That's
(14:48):
what I was. I was doing the creative part in
the very beginning of just like Okay, this is what
I'm going to do to get this out there into
the world. So he did not have any input from
like the thought idea to bringing it to for from
a creative standpoint. The website designed like that was all
me just getting things off the ground. And then when
we launched. We launched on May twenty third, twenty fourteen,
(15:13):
and we had one product, and the day that we
launched the oil, just like, we sold out of every
bottom of inventory that we had. And here I am
and I'm like, okay, just got to ship out. So
now I need the operational aspect of come on engineer,
And he came on board like immediately without a question,
(15:35):
and just implement it processes and systems. We had a
full operation at that time out of our basement right,
and then we moved to the garage and he set
up a full supply chain system, time time clock where
people can come in and clock in and out, set
up payroll system, finances like he did all of that
(15:55):
operational back end stuff that I quite frankly didn't want
to do, don't like doing. I want to stay in
my creative line. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs,
you know, that's something that they tend to suffer with.
It's because as an entrepreneur, you feel like you need
to do everything right. You have to be the visionary,
the marketer, the pr you have to be the operations,
(16:18):
the finance, logistics. There's no way you can do all
of that together right. You have to be able to
understand where your strengths are, what are you good at,
what are the areas that you're not good at, and
how can you find the right partner to compliment you
so you can be a dynamic duo and build something great.
And I think I've always been very good at identifying
(16:39):
where I'm strong and where I'm weak and finding the
smart people in the areas that I'm not weak. And
it's okay to say I'm a CEO, and I don't
know everything. You're not supposed to know everything. You can't
know everything, right, because what you do is you'll take
the time and energy that takes away from the areas
that you're good at. So if you are the visionary,
you are the career. You need brain space to create, right,
(17:02):
and if you're focused on trying to figure out how
to balance this P and L statement, that's not a
great use of your time. And so that's how we
complimented each other, and I really wanted people to understand that.
You know, he's just always been very supportive, right because
he didn't have to support my vision. He could have
just said, Okay, this is great, this is what you're doing,
(17:23):
go ahead and build this company. You figure it out yourself.
But he's like, no, you're my wife, I'm going to
support you and we're going to grow this together. So
from the very beginning, from when we started shipping, he's
been one hundred percent by my side on the backside
of the business, which is what people don't see.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, I mean you all met when you were in
eighth grade.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, well I was in seventh he was in eighth grade.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
Yeah, and you all start dating in high school. Yes,
you said the qualities that he had, he was a
great listener, and he adapted accordingly. All the time he
listened to you, he was always there for your needs.
And so I think that that kind of speaks to
how he's always been this constant in your life. But
you said in the book that you all bonded under
(18:08):
some traumatic childhood experiences and those were the things that
really kind of brought you all together at a young age.
Speaker 3 (18:14):
What were some of those experiences?
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Excuse me? Yeah, So he grew up without his mom
being president in his household, and he grew up by
a single dad that raised him and did the best
that he could to try to provide for him. And
we were both pretty much low middle class families that
lived in the same area. We went to the same
junior high school, same high school, so we didn't have
(18:37):
a lot, you know. He tells me stories that there
were times where he didn't have running hot water. There
were times that he had to eat syrup sandwiches. Right,
So we had like those childhood experiences that we bonded
over because we came together at a very young age
and said like, this is something we want to do.
Something different for our family. You know, when we do
(18:59):
get to that and we start having kids and get married,
like we want to have a two parent household, Like
we want to be together and raise our kids and
just change the trajectory of our family lineage and generations
that's moving forward after us, right, And then he came
to my household, and I remember being young and I
was actually like embarrassed. I used to be embarrassed to
(19:19):
invite people over because of my dad's struggle. And I
used to feel that people would judge me for his
addiction and they would count me out or put me
in that same category that that was my future plan
as well. And actually asked them recently, I said, when
(19:41):
you would come around, and you know, you would obviously
see my family dynamics and environment and see my dad
and how he operated, why didn't you run? Because like
I'm just thinking, like if that was me at a
young age and I didn't come from this, and I
came into an environment where I saw this drug addiction
and this was not something that I'm used to seeing,
(20:03):
I would probably be like, oh, like I can't be
a part of this family, Like I'm I don't want to.
I can't deal with you, yeah, right, because I don't
know what your trajectory looks like. But he was like,
you know, honestly, that's what drew me closer to you,
because he's like, I didn't see those qualities in you.
And he's like, I came from that too. My family
had that, and we had that in my family. So
I understood that it's not a reflection of you, right,
(20:25):
It's a reflection of the choice of that that person made.
It doesn't have anything to do with you. And I
was like, oh, but I never asked him that question.
But I just reflected after writing this book, I'm like,
man writing this book and actually like reflecting on everything
that I went through as a child, Like you should
have ran like ran fast.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
I mean your father's addiction, I mean, and you stayed
in the book. He still even, you know.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
Struggles to this day.
Speaker 1 (20:51):
But there was a couple stories in the book and
talking about your dad, and he was very he wanted
you to share this. You said that he wanted you
to this part of your life. He didn't want you
to hide that in his addiction. Your father was like
the Uba before Uber.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Right, he was a visionary, a visionary right.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Yeah, he was Uber before Uber, he was doing rides,
he was ride sharing, yes, before ride share was a thing.
Speaker 2 (21:19):
Exist. Yeah, but that always.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
Got him into trouble, right, There was things that always happened, right,
And there was moments where he got sober over the
years and you got to learn him and know him.
But then there was a moment in high school, your
sophomore year of high school, and he was shot four times, Yes,
while he was driving some people where he had the
feeling when they got in the car that this was
(21:43):
not a good idea. He drove them to the location
that they asked him to drive them to and they
wanted him to wait, and he sped off afterwards, and
they shot in the car, correct, and he was paralyzed
from the waist down.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And I remember it was just a
very dark time because I thought I was gonna lose
my dad, and I just knew that after experiencing that
with him, that he was gonna get his life together,
he was gonna get clean, and he did, and he
(22:17):
was clean for the time that he was healing from that,
and he went right back to using once he was
able to get right back on his feet, and it
was hurtful. And that's why I have the self awareness
to know, even as an adult, I have trust issues
(22:38):
because when you have your dad, your first love, that
continues to lie to you, continues to say that they're
gonna get clean, they're gonna get their acts together so
they can be whole and present for you, and then
they continue to disappoint you. That was my first example, Right,
So if he can't tell me the truth and he
can't get itself together, like, how can I trust people
(23:01):
on the outside? Right? But I had to learn to
overcome that, and I had to learn that it's not
a matter of him lying to you. It's a matter
that he has a disease. He has a sickness that
has a stronghold over him. Yeah, and it's a very
My dad has been using since he was fourteen.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (23:23):
And so the younger you are, when you start using,
the more impressional obviously impressionable, your brain is, right, and
so when you start using at that age, that's kind
of the age that you stop growing. So he has
technically not matured since the age of fourteen because he
has damaged his brain cells. Right, that has like the
(23:46):
frontal cortex where we make sound decisions has probably never
developed because he started using so young, so he didn't
give his brain an opportunity to develop.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
I mean, you talked about in the book that it
was your mother's resilience. You learn so much from your
mother's resilience in dealing with that and coping with your
father and learning how to navigate space with your father.
But your father taught you empathy. And so have you
ever talked to your father about what happened at fourteen
(24:15):
years old to your father that took him down this
journey that has really set him up for this life?
Speaker 2 (24:21):
You know what? I have wanted to and I feel
like I have when I was younger, but he doesn't
talk about it. Yeah, and so that's something that I
also deal with. But I know it's not my battle
to fight, but I do deal with, Like, man, I
wonder what happened, Like, just tell me your story.
Speaker 3 (24:38):
Because something happened.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Something happened, fourteen something happened, And I'm not judged. I
don't want to judge you. I just want to be
able to empathize with you and try to like help
get you the help that you need. But I can't
help someone that doesn't want to be help or someone
that doesn't want to open up and tell me, like
what caused the addiction? Because to your point, I one
hundred percent agree. I want to know what caused you
(25:01):
to even start using What pain were you masking at
the age of fourteen? Yeah, and I have not been
able to get to that point yet. Wow.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I mean, maybe there will be this opportunity because I
think more and more as you start to share your
own story, this might really give him the permission slip
to say, Okay, I'm I'm a grandfather. You know, I
have these beautiful children who have survived and thrived, you know,
in so many different ways. But I want you to
(25:33):
talk about your mother because you talk about your mother's
resilience because even growing up, I mean, people look at you,
they see this beautiful, very polished, pule together woman. And
your mother as a child was telling you to hide
your jewelry and your money so your father didn't steal it.
You know, y'all was hiding car keys because he was
real good at stealing cars.
Speaker 2 (25:52):
Yeah, he was greater at what he did.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
You know, I mean, when you deal with addiction, you
will they will get very creative on how they you know,
satisfy their habit. Yeah, and when it came to jewelry,
because he would he would steal it and he would
pond it and he would get the money to do
(26:17):
whatever he wanted to do with it. And his thinking was, well,
when I get my check, I'm gonna go get it
out the pawn shop and I'll replace it, so they'll
never know that it's missing, but we will see that
it was missing. So then we came to the point
of like, okay, we got to put stuff up so
you know, he can't get access to it. And if
he needed to make a run, because that was his thing,
(26:39):
I got to go make a run. Or if he
needed to pick up someone, if somebody gave him a
phone call to meet him up somewhere, if he had
access to a car, he would take your car and
go joy riding and probably do things like uber Like
you know, it was he wasn't trustworthy, Like we couldn't
trust him because of the addiction, and we knew that
(27:00):
he would be willing to do anything and didn't care
if it hurt our feelings or my mom's feelings. But
again it affected me with trusting people, right, I can't
trust my dad in the house with my stuff. So
even when I was younger, and you know, we would
have you know, cleaning people. When I first started like
being able to have people come clean my house, I
(27:22):
would be nervous because I would like high stuff, and
you know, I'll be like, oh, well, I don't want
them to steal myself, So I gotta make so those
same type of like childhood traumas and habits would come
to fruition and I had to like stop myself in
my tracks, like you don't live with a drug addict.
This is their job. These are people that have background checks,
Like I have to retrain my brain to heal from
(27:45):
all of that growing up, because it really did affect
me as a kid growing up, because no child should
have to grow up with the parent afraid that that
parent is going to steal from them.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
How is your relationship with your mother because she taught
you this resilient and these coping skills and how to
navigate in the world. How did that really transfer over
into your relationship with your mom?
Speaker 2 (28:09):
Yeah, my mom and I we have a great relationship.
She has taught me to be the woman that I
am today, to be strong, to be resilient, to be focused,
because my mom was always very adamant of making sure
that we stayed busy to try to distract us from
what was going on at home. And I do feel
(28:30):
that a lot of the ways that she coped with
my dad's addiction were probably not necessarily healthy. And I
do feel that, especially my brother and I's two of us,
we tend we tend to pick up some of those
unhealthy coping habits, which I've learned through therapy. Right. You know,
(28:51):
in black families, you just sweep things under the rug.
That's not okay.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
Yeah, what are some of those coping.
Speaker 2 (28:57):
Sweeping things under the rug, acting like it didn't exist
because it was like for her, if we don't talk
about it, it didn't happen, And that's not healthy.
Speaker 3 (29:06):
I mean we all have experienced that, right and families.
Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah, yeah, And that's not something that I want to
pass down to my kids. I want to pass down communication,
like you get through situations by communicating, not acting like
it didn't happen. But that was all that she knew
growing up because that's she's from her family's from the South.
That was the Southern way of like, you know what
(29:31):
goes on in this house stays in this house. We're
not going to talk about it. Do as I say,
not as I do. Don't question me. You know, that
was kind of like the rules that were in our house,
and it wasn't necessarily like a healthy coping or a
way to deal with the situations. Like I feel that
even at a young age, my brother and I should
(29:51):
have been in therapy. Yeah, you know, but as we're
adults and now we're seeking therapists to heal from the
therapy that we should have got and the trauma that
we should have gotten as a kid. But again, I
can't blame her for what she didn't know. What I
can focus on is how she raised me, the values
that she's instilled in me. The mother that I am
today is because of the mother that she was to
(30:14):
me and that she still is. And you know, just
teaching me and passing down wisdom you know, from her
mom and from generations to generations. That has taught me
to just always be on guard, which sometimes can be
not good too, because you can be so guarded that
you miss out on potential blessings. Yeah, because it's a wall, right,
(30:37):
But she's taught me that and so I am guarded
to a certain extent. But I've also learned to have discernment.
So I pray that God gives me the discernments so
I don't have this wall up, and I'm able to
be more open to people, to let them in and
trust that God is going to give me the guidance
of knowing who should be in my inner circle and
(30:57):
who shouldn't or who I should just keep at a distance.
She's taught me, you know, how to be the polished
individual that I am. My mom was very big on
appearance and making sure that you show up, like when
you don't leave this house with a bonding on your head. Yeah,
it wasn't about it then, but she was very old school,
(31:17):
like very old school, like, you know, make sure that
your hair is always maintained, make sure that you look presentable,
be on time. So just like values that I feel
like you said old school parents was teaching us when
we were younger. She did that and she kept us grounded,
she kept us sane, she kept us whole, and she
(31:39):
had no other choice because we were her focus, not
my dad.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
I love the way you know.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
I was at your event, your ten year anniversary event,
here in Atlanta when you celebrate ten years, I mean, I.
Speaker 2 (31:53):
Feel like I mean money.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
I've been a part of this journey because when you
launched in Target, we were both at the U Big
Conference in DC. You had a big event, like Giselle
Brant myself, we were all there that event that was
like twenty eighteen, maybe like twenty eighteen.
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Maybe seven years ago.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah, And then to celebrate your ten uyear last year
here in Atlanta, and you said something that really stood
out when you got on the microphone. And there have
been people who have made so many comments about this
acquisition with Procter and Gamble of my Yell Organics, and
there have been people who said, well, what are you
(32:33):
going to pass down to your children and the legacy
for your children? You said, this was my dream, not
my children's dream. This was my dream, not my children's dream.
I want them to dream their own dream of what
they want for their life. And I think that that
was when I listened to you said, I said, man,
that's so powerful because so often as black people who
(32:55):
start these you know, amazing companies and they become acquired
and oftentimes we forget that that's the thing that we
want to do.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
We want to have our businesses acquire.
Speaker 1 (33:06):
We want to scale them in a way that they
are profitable, that can you know, generate money we've never
even dreamed of. Right, And you said that this was
your dream, not your children, and you wanted them to
have their own dream. I thought that that was just
so powerful. What do you say to people who are
the critics and the naysayers that have said the formula
(33:29):
has changed, it's not the same since she sold out, she.
Speaker 3 (33:33):
Sold her business. What do you say to those people?
Speaker 2 (33:36):
What I say to the critics is that I understand
why you criticize me, because if I wasn't doing something great,
people would have nothing to say. Yeah, So I understand
that it comes with the territory criticism, and you know
people that want to criticize your decisions but have no
(33:57):
idea what it takes to be in your shoes or
to get to your position. Right. People tend to criticize
what they don't understand, and criticism also comes from a
place of internal projection. So people will tend to internalize
and project what they may be insecure about and their
fears and their lack of courage because they don't have
(34:19):
the courage to walk a day in my shoes, or
to make the decisions that I've made right. And I
don't do things for the cheers of the crowd. I
do things with purpose and intention, because when you do
things for the cheers of the crowd, you fall by
the criticism of the crowd. And people are very fickle.
People are very emotional. And I know that.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
You know.
Speaker 2 (34:41):
I came from a nurse and background, so I understand
the empathy and the psychology of like people. And you
cannot be driven by the emotional instability of the social
media world because one minute they love you, the next
minute they hate you. And and they did that to Jesus.
(35:02):
So if they loved Jesus one minute and crucified him
the next, what makes any of us think that we
are exempt to being criticized in this world? Of course,
criticism hurts, it sings. But I know my purpose and
my purpose and my calling is very divine, and I
know that God has called me to do this work.
(35:24):
And I know the prayers and the conversations and the
journaling that I had with God. And this is the
direction and the steps that God has ordered and ordained.
And when you criticize that you're criticizing his purpose and plans.
So it's not my battle to fight. It's not my
battle to deal with. You have to deal with the
creator who put me on this earth to accomplish this.
(35:46):
So what I say to the criticisms is thank you.
You only push me and motivate me to go even harder,
to be even stronger. And when people question the legacy
that I'm leaving for my kids, the legacy that I'm
leaving is freedom. The freedom that I didn't have to
be eighteen, graduating in high school and saying, oh, I
(36:08):
want to explore and really discover what my passions are
and really find my true purpose versus no, you have
to go to school to be a nurse, you have
to finish college. The structure that was put on me
and not even giving me the choice to identify and
know myself. Before I was able to even grow up
(36:29):
to being a doe and come out into this world,
it was already written of what my mom wanted me
to do. I don't want to do that to my kids.
I want to give them the freedom and the flexibility
to do whatever it is that's positive that they enjoy
doing because that is living a fulfilled life. It is
not fulfilling doing something and just going with the everyday
okie dolk of getting up doing the same routine and
(36:52):
you're not happy doing it. That's why there are so
many critics, because people have not found their true purpose
and they're not happy in their lives. Because happy people
don't criticize other people. I don't go on social media.
Come on and criticize people. If you see a comment
from Exquisite Mode, you will see something positive. I have
never said anything negative. Yeah, I don't have time to
(37:14):
do that. So if you are living in a life
of misery, of misery and being unhappy, yes you're going
to criticize. So I pray for them. I wish them well,
but just know that they're not stopping anything.
Speaker 3 (37:27):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
I love that you're setting them up for a life
of freedom, a life that you didn't have. I mean,
and you mentioned this in you saying this, that you
journaled this, because you journal talk about manifesting the desires
of your heart, talk about manifesting the.
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Life that you that you deserve.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
You rote down in your journal that ma Yell would
be acquired by Procter and Gamble.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
Before I even knew that we were going to have
a meeting with Procter and Gamble. Yeah, so this is
what I'm saying. These are the conversations that I have
with God. My journal is a place, a sacred space
where I can sit down and write. God says, write
the vision and make it plain right. If he's telling
me to do that, then I'm gonna go in my
closet and I'm gonna just start writing. I'm gonna write
(38:12):
the vision. I'm gonna put the work in, I'm gonna
pray over it. Faith without works is dead. And before
we even knew that we were we would be meeting
with Procter and Gamble, we met with a lot of
different conglomerates right in choosing our partners. So we started
this process in August of twenty twenty two. In May
(38:34):
of twenty twenty two, I wrote in my journal and
I have proof that Mayo will be acquired by PNG.
Where did that come from? That came from God. God
gave me that inspiration to write that down, and I
actually forgot that I wrote it down right. And God
will always confirm his work. He will always this is
so powerful. He will always remind you because when we
(38:55):
were in negotiations with two different companies of the which
way we were going to go, we went to our
church and we had our pastor pray because we were like,
we're torn between these two companies. We don't know which
direction we want to go in, Like give us some
guidance and prayer. And my pastor started saying, like, there's
(39:16):
something about P and G that's jumping in my spirit. Wow, right,
I cannot make this up. Yeah, And so that when
we got confirmation from my pastor, that's when we went
back and we made the decision. Mind you, this was
like at midnight. We were in negotiations at midnight on
Zoom because we had to make a decision. And once
we finally made the decision, you know, we signed all
(39:39):
of the documents, did all the negotiations, and we closed.
And I happened to be in my closet getting ready
to journal again after the transaction closed, and I'm flicking
through my pages. Why the page that I flicked through
is a page that reminded me of what I wrote
down in May was twenty twenty two. When I tell you,
I had chills. I ran and told my husband. I
(40:02):
said Melvin, You're not gonna believe this. I said, look
what I wrote down. And this wasn't the first time
that I did something like that, right, I said, look
what I wrote down. And he looked at the journal
and he saw the date and he was.
Speaker 3 (40:14):
Like, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (40:16):
Oh wow. I mean I got chilled while you were
telling the story. I get chills every time I tell
the story because I'm like, listen, I have chilled, like
this is nothing but God, this is God ordained. So
when people want to criticize that, man, I've been through worse.
I've been through much worse. Like there's nothing that anyone
can say on social media that doesn't know me from
(40:38):
a can of paignt can do to like hurt me,
because it's not like I know, I know why I'm here.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
I mean, this acquisition was the largest of any black
beauty founder ever and undisclosed amount.
Speaker 3 (40:53):
I mean, you know, so we you know we can't
get in them coins, y'all. You know, I just know.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
Was I not for some freedom?
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Right?
Speaker 3 (41:01):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (41:02):
Okay, it's enough of freedom. She paid for her freedom paper.
Speaker 3 (41:05):
It's okay, just.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Know that that part.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
Yeah, I mean, but in this deal, you you and
p ANDNG MYO Cares.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
You guys have worked.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
To set aside ten million dollars from black and brown communities.
What is that work that you plan on doing and
how is that money going to be dispersed? What kind
of learning tools, what kind of activations can people expect
from myle Cares.
Speaker 2 (41:30):
Yeah, so, so P and G they came to the
table when we were in negotiations and they committed without
us even asking ten million dollars to MAO Cares. And
then Melvin and I we matched it, so in totality,
it's twenty million dollars to give back to black and
brown communities. And so I really wanted to focus on
mental health and tweens and teens because I feel like
there's a gap. And we started with our alma mater,
(41:53):
our high school that Melvin and I went to together,
Thornton Township, and we created a my Mental Mindset program
where kids can come together after school and discuss whatever's
going on with them mentally. And then we're providing resources.
We're providing therapists into the schools to help kids navigate
(42:14):
through whatever circumstances or situations that they're going through, because
some of these kids are going to school and they
can't focus on school and getting good grades or a scholarship,
or even being an entrepreneur when they don't have the
basic necessities when they're coming to school and they can't
they don't have deodorant, or they don't have lunch, or
they don't have just anything basic that we may take
(42:35):
advantage of or take for granted. I'm sorry, And these
kids are going to school trying to focus on their education,
but also their home environment. We have kids that are
the mom because they have six seven brothers and sisters.
So we want to be able to provide a safe
space and an environment to help create a positive, resilient mindset,
(42:58):
to set these kids on the right path and the
right trajectory with the right tools and resources that they
have for mental health. To put down social media, because
I do feel that social media is it's a lot
for these kids, right and encouraging them to put down
their phones and to really get back to being a teenager,
being a kid and doing what doing the kid things
(43:21):
that kids do. And let's then set them up for
scholarships and showing them the path and the ropes to
becoming an entrepreneur. But we can't do that if we
don't get them mentally sound and Melvin and I have
always felt that a huge part of our success has
been contributed to our mindset. So we want to create
and shift the mindset and these teams and help them
(43:43):
so they can progress in the future.
Speaker 3 (43:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
When you say your mindset, you and Melbourne's mindset, what
is that?
Speaker 1 (43:51):
What is that one piece that one link that if
you give any entrepreneur who's listing, it says you need
this one piece and the recipe for your mental for
your mindset to be the best that you cannot absolutely be.
Speaker 3 (44:06):
What would it be?
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Ooh, one piece? I would say. I would say, you
have to be able to dream big. I'm actually gonna
say to two things, and you have to know that
you deserve success.
Speaker 1 (44:25):
Yeah, you say one of the chapters in the book
is dream big, Act Big. I mean, well, that's one
of the lines in the book. You have to dream
big and actig. So I think it's two things.
Speaker 2 (44:33):
You have to dream big and you have to know
that success it comes to me like I deserve it.
And I say that because when I was younger, I
used to see people that were deemed successful, right, And
I would say, oh, they were lucky, or you know,
they had parents that helped them, or they came from
(44:54):
a wealthy background and that's why they become successful. No,
they just had a different mindset. They're not just lucky, right,
they felt in their spirit that they deserved success, that
they had the ability to dream big. And that's another
thing with our kids in the My Mental Mindset program,
(45:16):
They're not in environments and circumstances that are conducive of
them dreaming big. I wasn't in an I come from
the same neighborhood that they come from. But I want
to encourage them to think outside of the box, to
see beyond their current circumstances, and to be exposed. So
a lot of the things that we do also is
exposing them to different environments, Like we take them on
(45:39):
field trips and we put them in communities and environments
that came to our warehouse. So we're a huge part
of helping them see like the possibilities. Right that someone
that came from the same area that I came from,
that we're not taught how to dream, but look at
what they've accomplished. So if you dream big and you
have the mindset that I deserve success. Success comes to me.
(46:01):
I don't operate from a space of lack. I operate
from a space of abundance. It's gonna flow, It's gonna
come to you. So you gotta start just speaking things.
Speak things that are not as though they were. That's
what the Bible tells me.
Speaker 1 (46:13):
I mean you talk about it so much in the book.
You talk about especially as you get towards the end
of the book. I mean it becomes all about the abundance.
The mindset shifts. Yeah, how you can start to activate
your faith in a greater way. And your faith is
so activated, I mean you've done you used to do
the live prayer call every morning, you know, and so
your faith has really anchored you in previous seasons, but
(46:36):
it's carrying you in this one as well.
Speaker 2 (46:38):
For sure, absolutely, And I feel that my faith has
just kept me so strong even in the midst of
criticism and public criticism. Right more everyone is seeing what's
going on. But I do feel that God has also
using me as an example to show that my child
(46:59):
can remain that fast and she knows her anointing no
matter what the world says about her. Right And I
feel that it also shows other people that man, despite
you know, situations or the public criticism or the ups
and downs, like that's what people see. But people also
don't see the back end. So there are people that
are going through things on the back end of their
(47:19):
business and entrepreneurship that the public doesn't see. And if
they can look at me and say, oh, she's still standing,
she's still pushing forward. She's handling this with such grace,
class and poise, like I can do the same thing.
So that's why I don't like acknowledge it or or
even like feed into it, because I know that I
(47:41):
am a leading example of what God wants his children
to see, how to stand firm in the face of adversity.
And so I want people to understand that my faith
is the only thing that has anchored me and has
kept me grounded.
Speaker 3 (47:55):
Yeah, your faith has kept you grounded. As we've been
into goals.
Speaker 1 (47:58):
Out this interview, I ask everyone who sits in that
seed one word you were committed to in this season
of your life.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
One word that I'm committed to in this season of
my life is love. Why Because we're here to love everyone.
We may not like everyone, but as long as we
are loving, we will receive that back. And so I
(48:28):
just want to move with intention and be able to
extend love into this world because we live in a
world where it's so much going on, so many people hurting,
And if I can just make someone's day by saying, girl,
look at your outfit. You look so cute, like you
look amazing, that may be the only thing that they
(48:49):
have heard positive for that day. And I want to
receive that energy back. So I feel that the energy
that you put out there, you will get right back
to you. So I want to move with love into
this world of a lot of hate.
Speaker 1 (49:01):
Monique, I think that this book, I mean, everything that
you've talked about in this interview today, you sum it
up in this book. You know, you give so much
of your life story that people would never even imagine,
from the addiction to all the hurdles that you've had
to jump to every move that you've made, but the
love that you and your husband have shared with each other,
(49:23):
the bond that you've created, the love that you've given
to your children, you know, and that same love that
you've poured out into your business. So I think for
every person who is watching, for every brand, every girl
who's an influencer, every CEO. If you think you want
to start as something, if you got you with some shade,
butter in your basement, if you got your hair all,
(49:45):
this is the book you need the glory in your story.
Monique Rodriguez, thank you so much for joining me today.
Absolute pleasure, much continued success. You are phenomenal. Thank you
for sitting us. Sevevaught Empowers Talks another good one for
the books. There are some glory in your story, but
make sure you love in somebody today. Be sure to
share this with somebody who needs a little more love
(50:06):
in their life. Until next time, I'm your girl. Brandy
Harvey eat well, give a damn move your body every
single day. Peace,
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