00:00Honestly, it feels like a fever dream.
00:03I feel like I'm going to wake up and all this is going to be like, you know, not real.
00:08Hi everyone.
00:09But it's surreal seeing something that I spent months creating from the ground up, you know,
00:15being a little kid, creating these little lip glosses to where it is today and to see
00:19people actually use it and enjoy it and say that it's good quality.
00:24It helps me know that what I'm doing isn't for nothing.
00:27But it's sold out twice.
00:33My name is Leah Arnold.
00:34I am 18 years old and I am the CEO and founder of Bossip Cosmetics.
00:39I founded it in 2018 here in Cono, Texas, and it is now valued at $700,000.
00:45Hi everyone, welcome.
00:49My family helps me a lot with formulations and everything, especially my cousins.
01:02I remember making my first batch and I was like, hey, try this out.
01:06Let me know how it is.
01:07And she's like, girl, this is not good.
01:09And I was like, okay, so I have to go back to square one.
01:11So after then I did some more research, researching ingredients, formulations, lots of trial and
01:17error.
01:18But in the end, we finally, we finally got it.
01:21I changed my formula, I want to say like 20 times before I got to the final one that I
01:25have right now.
01:33In second grade, I started selling like little rainbow loom bracelets that I used to make
01:38myself.
01:39I used to have a business called Sticky Business where I would sell duct tape wallets and phone
01:43cases.
01:44And I feel like there I kind of was introduced to the world of, oh, you make something here,
01:49you can sell it and make a profit out of it.
01:51I remember she came home once and told me that they used to call her the Dollar Tree
01:56because she would buy snacks and resell them to the kids at school.
02:00Honestly, I would get upset at her like, how can you do this?
02:05Like buy stuff and resell it.
02:07But it was whatever, whatever made her happy and whatever made her feel more comfortable
02:12at school because she would always get bullied.
02:15I went through bullying since I can't even remember.
02:19She got bullied since she first went to school because she has really bad eczema and they
02:24used to make fun of her.
02:28The last thing that happened with her in school was a kid pulled a knife on her when she was
02:34in line to go to the bus.
02:36That was the last thing for me.
02:38I figured the teachers are not doing anything.
02:41I'm not going to take the risk because even though they're kids, there's kids that know
02:45what they're doing.
02:59When I was 11, I had a sign business.
03:01I sold it over on Etsy and that's when I really started to receive, I want to say like real
03:07orders in like the real world.
03:09It really brought like happiness with me and I knew that I wanted to continue doing that.
03:15She would leave a mess and I would get so upset.
03:18But then when I started seeing that, okay, well this is going somewhere because she keeps
03:22getting orders and I keep taking stuff to the post office.
03:25So I kind of started being more understandive of the mess.
03:31The day before my first day of homeschool ever, Hurricane Harvey hit.
03:35So it was a whole thing of trying to figure out how to do homeschool because it was my
03:40very first year doing it.
03:41And then also losing my home of 10 years and everything in it.
03:45I couldn't take none of my slime supplies, none of it.
03:48Everything was lost.
03:49So I did have to rebuy a lot of my supplies and I kind of had to go back to school.
03:55I was like, I'm going to go back to school.
03:56I'm going to go back to school.
03:57I'm going to go back to school.
03:58I'm going to go back to school.
04:00And I kind of paused the shop while we could get into a hotel and my viewers of my shop
04:07on Etsy knew about that.
04:08I closed it because I just wasn't interested anymore.
04:10I'm a firm believer if you don't like what you're doing, then don't do it.
04:20So I went a year without having anything.
04:23And it was honestly probably the boredest year of my life.
04:26And that's how Boss Up came to be, was out of boredom.
04:29I was bored because I had nothing to do.
04:31And as a kid, I wasn't allowed to wear very much makeup, but I was allowed to wear lip
04:35gloss.
04:36So I decided, hey, why not make it and sell it?
04:39And I knew that I needed to create something that I was going to like, that I was going
04:43to use, and that I wasn't going to get bored of.
04:46I didn't get my first official order till two, almost three months later, and that was
05:03just one order.
05:04At the time, I wasn't doing it for that.
05:06I was doing it more just because it made me happy to make something.
05:11And I was just posting on my Instagram.
05:13On Instagram, especially for small businesses, there's these things called promo pages.
05:18And basically, you pay them, and they promote your product.
05:21At the time, the promo page that I used was not charging.
05:24It was completely free.
05:25So I was like, you know, why not?
05:27I think I received like 10 orders that same day.
05:30And I remember thinking that it was just so many orders.
05:33I was just so happy.
05:34And I remember calling my mom, like, Mom, we did it.
05:37We sold lip gloss.
05:39It was so crazy.
05:40And so I remember taking a picture of the orders and saying, OK, everybody, your order's
05:44going out really, really soon.
05:46And I feel like people seeing that people were buying, that kind of built trust in me
05:51as well.
05:52People were like, oh, OK, people are actually buying this stuff.
05:54Let me try it out.
05:55The first gloss that I sold was for $3, and I was barely making any cents for my profit.
06:01A lot of my customers were like, hey, I have every single one of your glosses.
06:05I need something else.
06:06Come out with more things so I can buy more.
06:09And I was like, oh, dang, that's crazy, you know?
06:18I was evolving to skincare, and I just feel like Boss Gloss Cosmetics didn't really resonate
06:23with me anymore.
06:24And my cousin showed me a song, and it said, Bless Up.
06:28She's like, oh, you should do Boss Up.
06:30And I was like, that sounds good.
06:32So I changed it to Boss Up Cosmetics.
06:35And that's when I decided to change all my product names to all names that have to do
06:40with women empowerment, uplifting, and positivity, and just, you know, bossing up.
06:46I hope you guys are having a good day.
06:47We are packaging orders.
06:48Your name's Aliyah, too?
06:49Me, too.
06:50No problem, girly pop.
06:51Tips on how to start a business?
06:54Stay patient and be consistent.
06:56I feel like without social media, my brand wouldn't be where it is today.
07:00It was actually my first video that I posted on TikTok of me making my gloss.
07:05I had never posted a video like that using my own voice, and it went absolutely viral.
07:11I looked at it last time, and it had 22 million views.
07:14And I just remembered orders were coming in, and that's when my mom started to come help
07:19me even more.
07:20When she started getting lots and lots of orders, she was at the office by herself.
07:26I seen that she was getting stressed out.
07:29And even my mom was like, there's no going down no more.
07:33Everything from here on now, it's going to go up.
07:36And so when my mom said that, I'm like, you're right.
07:39I got to take the risk and just be with her.
07:42This is the most we've spent together since she moved with my mom.
07:48So every day, I look forward to spending time with her, being at the office.
07:52Sometimes we bump heads, like, you know, every mom and daughter.
07:56But we always work through it, and I just love it.
07:59And she loves it, too.
08:00So she tells me.
08:03Meghan Trainor just bought from my small business.
08:05What the heck?
08:07I am in so much shock, but let's package her order.
08:10She is the first celebrity to actually notice me and buy my product.
08:14I went live on TikTok, and she joined.
08:16Meghan Trainor's on the live.
08:18I love the letter you wrote me, Meghan!
08:22Hi!
08:23Hi!
08:24Hi!
08:25Hi!
08:26And she had received her products, and she was saying how she loved it.
08:29It was honestly a highlight moment of my life.
08:32Up until the day we were mutuals, you know, she likes my posts and everything, likes my
08:36stories.
08:37It's crazy.
08:38So in 2019, we made a little bit less than $10,000, but in 2020, we went with $16,000.
08:51In 2021, we went a little bit up, got around $89,000.
08:56And in 2022, which is our biggest year yet, we hit $500,000.
09:01Today I shipped two to Japan, and then I shipped one to Qatar.
09:06We have a lot of overseas.
09:07Like this one's to Canada.
09:11I hope they feel happiness, you know?
09:14That's why I do what I do, and they feel beautiful in the products that I create, you know?
09:20I feel like the importance right now is to get those orders out.
09:23You know, people pay for their product.
09:25They want their product as soon as possible.
09:28So if it takes for us to work 10 hours, 12 hours, 14 hours, that's what we're going to
09:34have to do.
09:35We have to bring someone else in.
09:37So hopefully, that'll help.
09:40I'm a big dreamer.
09:42I like to manifest things, like to speak things into existence.
09:45I have huge dreams.
09:47But ultimately, the goal right now is to get into retail stores, Sephora, Ulta, Target,
09:55source my products out to them.
09:56That's the ultimate goal.
09:58I never take what I do for granted.
10:00I'm very grateful and very blessed to be where I am today and to have the supporters that
10:05I do, and to have the family that supports me in doing it as well.
10:10My mom has finished a lot of Blink cups, and it's time to start shipping them.
10:15Cute, and inside the cup, it has instructions, a little care kit, and everything.
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