- 8 months ago
On this episode of Shop Essence Live in partnership with New Voices Foundation, we talk to Dawn Meyers a former Legal Professional and Founder of The Mint by Richualist.
NöNe:
But before we get into it, tell me about you tell me about how you came up with this incredible technology. I mean, this is Afro tech life-changing.
Dawn:
Yeah, well, I mean this is one of those like very typical founder stories. The founder has an issue and feel out to other people, they also have that issue. You realize that the market has a huge whitespace and you attack it. And you know, I'm a lawyer by trade, so I was coming from the legal space, ended up quitting my job. And I saw there was this book in people's eyes when I told them they were just pause,
NöNe:
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. We had in one show a former neuroscience researcher and a former lawyer.
Dawn:
That's right. (laughs)
NöNe:
Can we just drop some applause emojis in the chat right now to recognize how incredible Black Women are?! Okay. I'm sorry, continue.
Dawn:
No, yeah. So this was kind of thing where I saw that a lot of people have this problem. There was a whitespace and I just had this crazy idea that doing our hair doesn't have to be hard, right? Like we can streamline the process. We can make detangling easier. We can leverage heat differently, not that high heat that we see with straighteners and curling irons, but gentle warmth to open up our cuticle. Get that product to penetrate and make the wash day experience just more uplifted. And when I started telling people about this concept, when I tell you people's eyes would light up in this really special way, right? Like I've been starting businesses for a minute, right? But when I saw people respond to this, I was like there's something here. I left my job. I sold my house, which was also an investment property. And I've used that capital...that to build this technology which has taken, it's taken five years to perfect, it is taken five years to refine it. So we're finally getting into it and customers hands. We're very proud!
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NöNe:
But before we get into it, tell me about you tell me about how you came up with this incredible technology. I mean, this is Afro tech life-changing.
Dawn:
Yeah, well, I mean this is one of those like very typical founder stories. The founder has an issue and feel out to other people, they also have that issue. You realize that the market has a huge whitespace and you attack it. And you know, I'm a lawyer by trade, so I was coming from the legal space, ended up quitting my job. And I saw there was this book in people's eyes when I told them they were just pause,
NöNe:
Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. We had in one show a former neuroscience researcher and a former lawyer.
Dawn:
That's right. (laughs)
NöNe:
Can we just drop some applause emojis in the chat right now to recognize how incredible Black Women are?! Okay. I'm sorry, continue.
Dawn:
No, yeah. So this was kind of thing where I saw that a lot of people have this problem. There was a whitespace and I just had this crazy idea that doing our hair doesn't have to be hard, right? Like we can streamline the process. We can make detangling easier. We can leverage heat differently, not that high heat that we see with straighteners and curling irons, but gentle warmth to open up our cuticle. Get that product to penetrate and make the wash day experience just more uplifted. And when I started telling people about this concept, when I tell you people's eyes would light up in this really special way, right? Like I've been starting businesses for a minute, right? But when I saw people respond to this, I was like there's something here. I left my job. I sold my house, which was also an investment property. And I've used that capital...that to build this technology which has taken, it's taken five years to perfect, it is taken five years to refine it. So we're finally getting into it and customers hands. We're very proud!
Shop the full episode on Essence IG page NOW!
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00we're talking to black owned businesses week after week i'm seeing the comments as soon as
00:04the stream started y'all want to know about these curls that i have in my hair and who did you somebody
00:10was like who did your hair i did my hair with this incredible product today and we're going to be
00:17joined in a second by dawn um she is coming in she has this incredible new technology it is called
00:26the mint under the ritualist um dawn i am looking for you right now i saw you but i know you're in
00:34the comments if you can request to go live with me i will bring you in but i don't see you yet okay
00:41so i'm just gonna keep talking until i see you so shop essence live i see some of y'all in the
00:48comments like how can i possibly be featured oh i see it hold on how can i be featured on shop essence
00:54live go to new voices family they have a link in their bio you can follow them and then go to the
01:02link in the bio and there you will find out all you need to know about joining the new voices family
01:07you'll be put in the roster and then i could be talking to you in just a few weeks i would encourage
01:13you to take a chance on yourself okay so hold on i'm having trouble getting done in oh nope nope nope i
01:22just saw her get rich a list get rich a list dawn stay right there i promise i'm coming here we are
01:29i cannot wait to show you guys this incredible new technology now it has cut down my wash day
01:36by so much hey hey somebody's hair's looking good i called dawn i was like you gotta help me i want
01:46to make sure i get this right and i tell you and you guys have such great tutorials on your website
01:53um it is absolutely so user friendly and so incredible but before we get into it dawn tell me
02:00about you tell me about how you came up with this incredible technology i mean this is afrotech
02:07it is finest life changing yeah yeah well you know i mean this is one of those like very typical
02:13founder stories right the founder has an issue and we scale out to other people they also have that issue
02:20you realize that the market has a huge white space and you attack it and you know i'm a lawyer by trade so
02:27i was coming from the legal space ended up quitting my job and i saw like there was this look in people's
02:34eyes when i told them can we just pause hold on hold on hold on hold on hold on we had in one show
02:40a former neuroscience researcher and now a former lawyer that's right we just can we just can we drop
02:47some applause emojis in the lateral magic out here okay i'm sorry continue no yeah so i mean this was
02:58this kind of thing where i saw that a lot of people had this problem there was a white space and i just
03:03have this crazy idea that doing our hair doesn't have to be hard right like we can streamline the
03:09process right we can make detangling easier we can leverage heat differently not that high heat that we see
03:17with straighteners and curling irons but very gentle warmth to open up our cuticle get that product to
03:24penetrate and make the wash day experience just more uplifted and when i started telling people
03:31about this concept when i tell you people's eyes would light up in this really special way right like
03:37i've been starting businesses for a minute right but when i saw people respond to this i was like there's
03:41something here i left my job i sold my house which was also an investment property and i used that
03:49capital and capital to build this technology which has taken it's taken five years to perfect it it's
04:03taken five years to refine it so we're finally getting in it in customers hands we're very proud
04:08so incredible and when i tell you i believe it that people's eyes lit up because when i i did my
04:16whole head i can't remember the time maybe like a half an hour 20 minutes but it was like a fraction of
04:25what i normally have to do in my like this completely changed what my wash day routine is and my curls are
04:32just like they look so good they look healthier than it just looks so incredible and it literally
04:40feels like when you're and i thought looking at this i was like all right it's like a flat iron for uh
04:46curly hair i was like dawn where's the smoke he was like is it smoking it because i haven't applied heat
04:54to my hair in like five years so this is literally like a spa for your curls all in the palm of your hand
05:03so i would love and if you guys want to purchase this right it's a brand new product so it's not
05:09even up on instagram shop yet so you do have to go why don't you tell them how they can purchase this
05:14dawn you guys can go to www.ritualist.com we spell ritualist r-i-c-h-u-a-u-a-l-i-s-t almost got me
05:26and then you can also follow us and find us and get the education that you need this is a new concept
05:31right so people are gonna have questions you can get all the education that you need at uh at get
05:36ritualist that's r-i-c-h um on instagram and i'm just gonna type a little comment here so that folks
05:43yes please it's just so just out there she can be in the comments as well i do see that um there
05:50she is yes so your partner could be in the uh comments there you go with the website where people
05:56can purchase i would love to show everyone the product in action a little bit yes absolutely
06:04and i'd like to know that we both did our hair we both did it today so i'm gonna volunteer as
06:09tribute i'm gonna take a little section of my hair just so people can kind of see i feel i did it one
06:14time but i'm like i know how to do this i'm a pro so watch me so as you said it's good on damp hair so
06:23i'm just gonna wet my hair just inspection on my hair right here so after that i just got out of the
06:29shower right and this has been powered up two buttons that are kind of bling bling flashing in there
06:36i have my product that's loaded here so that could be whatever product they gave me some amazing product
06:43that i'm probably gonna what was it again camille rose camille rose they have their it's amazing
06:50amazing it's so good so as you press the buttons it heats up the conditioner so these plates as i
07:00thought it was like oh it's a flat iron no the plates heat up it heats you shouldn't be explaining
07:06i don't want that's okay i got you as you do you do the demo i got the i got the narrative okay
07:12please so so let's talk about this technology our technology turns on these really innovative pods
07:19which you can see here and these pods come you can refill them with your own product or um you can
07:26order them from our website pre-filled with various brands products and have them delivered straight to
07:31your door now when you load that pod into place and put this cover back on um you're going to wet down
07:38your hair uh if you're not just getting out of the shower if you are just getting on the shower your
07:42hair is nice and juicy you're ready to go right and so you're going to use this kind of like you would
07:47any other detangling implement right you're going to detangle from the bottom up so you're going to
07:52start at the bottom and you're going to do small sections until you get to the top and then you can
07:59smooth it all down so you can use this in a variety of ways i'm looking at stephanie and she's using it
08:06with the minting arm this is the minting arm this arm gives you added definition that's why her curls
08:12are popping like that um this minting arm gives you added definition it makes your curls clump just a
08:17little bit better um or if your hair is really thick and maybe that doesn't work for you you can take
08:24this arm off and you can just use it as a brush so the idea is for this to be as tailorable as possible
08:33we have multiple bristle heads right now when you purchase a set you get all of the attachments you
08:40get uh three of these minting arms you get three of these different bristle plates um so that you
08:46can tailor this for your texture or let's say there are two people in your house or three people in your
08:51house with curly hair maybe you got two daughters maybe you got a daughter and a son everybody got
08:55different textures in the hair everybody can tailor this to work for their hair some people are going to
09:00want to use it as a brush start from the bottom and very slowly work your way up some people are going
09:05to want to use this with the minting arm you've got options and there will be an option that works
09:10beautifully for you this is curly girl hair luxury i tell you that's right that's right and that's what
09:18we wanted to do stephanie you know this process is so fraught with frustration for us right like when we
09:25think about wash day we're like oh it's a dreaded it's a dreaded time you know like this thing again
09:32and not only that this is the thing that got me uh it's not just about how time consuming it is this
09:40is a real pain point in our lives right like if you're traveling for example all of us know what it
09:46is to have to have to pack all your stuff you got to re pack your stuff into three ounce things these pods
09:53are tsa compatible so you can just throw yes so you can just throw a couple of these pods into your
09:59purse you can throw your mint into your purse and you can be on your way you can take this gym you can
10:05take this wherever your life takes you that's the point is to make our lives easier i love it black
10:11women we could travel and not have to get box braids that's right you know get box braids if you want to
10:18but if you don't want to you save a whole lot of money with this yes we absolutely have options that's
10:25so incredible i want to remind everyone once again this is shop essence live we are talking to dawn
10:32creator of this incredible project uh product the mint of the ritualist so incredible and she's a part of
10:40our new voices family i would love for you to share what has that experience been like for you
10:46being a part of such an incredible ecosystem such an incredible community that is the new voices
10:52foundation i mean it's transformational um we i i don't think it is an exaggeration to say that i
11:00wouldn't be able to do this without the people that new voices has brought into my my business life and
11:07into my life um we are building tech enabled uh products this usually takes a couple million
11:15dollars to develop um so you got to have venture backing and you got to have funding and new voices
11:22has been instrumental they were my first pitch competition wow my first pitch competition my first
11:28check um that first ten thousand dollar check when i tell you that i mean we got our first ip
11:34filing our first website our first everything off of that check um there are members of my board
11:41that are on my board uh who i met through new voices who are leadership at new voices i mean these guys are
11:48helping me really chart my path i mean they've been they've been instrumental that is so incredible so you
11:54went in with an idea you pitched that idea and through joining new voices it's now come to fruition
12:01that is so inspiring because i guarantee there are people that are watching this right now that are
12:06sitting on something so incredible but they just don't know how to make it happen and there are
12:12companies like the amazing new voices foundation out there that can help people like that so i'm so
12:18excited okay we have questions here amber she wants to know do i still use a diffuser after would you
12:24recommend that or or air dry would you think you can our experience has been so look we're catering
12:31to people of different hair textures and different hair lengths different hair densities right so
12:35everybody's experience is a little bit different but we've heard from a lot of people that their hair
12:39dries a lot faster using the men why because their product is heated and that it's very gently warm
12:46let's watch the nomenclature and that gentle warming really does help dry your hair a lot faster what
12:52what do you say you have you're our new resident expert um how did you feel did you feel like you
12:59needed a diffuser after no so once again i haven't put heat on my hair that includes diffusers in five
13:05years so i always air dry and it usually takes me a lot longer because my process is wash deep condition
13:13leave in condition then i do twist a twist out like i don't ever i usually never wash and go
13:19i never will just comb product through and just let it because i want my curls to find however today
13:25that's right all i did was get out of the shower we got my little sections going and i literally just
13:32let it air dry i didn't do twists like this just cut my wash day down when i tell you like this is just so
13:40incredible and again i could feel the product just like sinking into my hair like butter because it is
13:48warmed for you and it's almost like sitting under the dryer with your deep condition you know how we
13:53do ladies um with the little plastic cap on but you have it right here and i just let it air dry and
13:59this is all just air dry no twists no anything and this is just oh this is my favorite washing goes my
14:07favorite it looks so good thank you i'm this is just so life-changing so i do see i'm murphy i don't see the
14:14link you're not seeing the link because as i explained a little bit earlier this is a brand
14:18new product so it's not even on ig shops yet so you guys got to go to their website if you can give
14:24them a website one more time i know you're putting it in the chat as well remind you um dawn if you can
14:31put it in on the replay as well because unfortunately all these amazing comments go away and we get all
14:36those bots on our on our replay so if you can go and put that uh link in there after the fact for our
14:42replay watchers incredible is there anything else that you want to share um maybe how often how often
14:49do you you recommend uh yeah such a great question so again we're catering to people with different
14:55routines different scalps lots of different uh kind of textures here so it's going to be different from
15:01for every person but what we're seeing is that people are able to go a few more days without
15:06having to redo their hair without having to redo wash day um so if you usually go every other day
15:12you're able to go every four or five days if you usually go every week a lot of people are stretching
15:17it out to two weeks right so it kind of depends on your routine my scalp gets really grody so i gotta
15:22wash that every day so you know i'm not going more than seven days but you know it just kind of
15:28depends on your chemistry and how your body works but you're definitely going to see uh the time
15:33between your wash day stretched really great is there anything uh coming up next for you guys this
15:40is a product under the ritualist the mint are there any other products that you are developing or you
15:46already have out that you like to let the audience know about well we're developing partnerships with some
15:51really fun brands and so like i said you'll be able to go onto our website and rather than having to fill
15:56your pod with a little spoon and it's kind of annoying uh you'll be able to go on order products
16:03directly from our website and then they'll come pre-filled in your pod you can just plug them right
16:07into your pod and go it saves you even more time makes it even more easier and makes it even more
16:11convenient uh and then in addition to that we are also this is the big announcement i'm so excited we
16:16just launched a week ago and we are about to be in retail at show fields in washington dc so that's
16:27super exciting the launch is going to be on november 17th if you want to come out and see us and try it
16:31and do the demos and all the things come play with us oh my gosh i would absolutely encourage everyone
16:38follow the ritualist you guys are so inspiring you launched a week ago and you're already in a big
16:45box store like that is determination that is perseverance that is knowing and being passionate
16:51about your products i already see in the future that every curl friend in the world is going to have
16:57one of these just like every straight hair girl has a flat iron like this is such a game changer you guys
17:03please i recommend go and check it out go check out their tutorials ask questions make sure you ask
17:10the questions in the replay um and i'm sure that the beautiful ladies uh at the ritualist will answer
17:16all of your questions but this is worth giving it a try it is so incredible i am converted for life
17:22amazing that's what i like to hear you've added time to my life that's right this is game changing we're
17:28giving you your time back and we're giving you some of that money back because these products are very
17:32gently warmed right you're you're stretching your products so you don't use as much so normally we
17:39did a study before we developed and the average person was using about 2.6 ounces of product every
17:45time they styled we got that cut down to about 1.3 ounces that's 50 savings that means you're going to
17:51the hair salon less that means you're buying products less often that means you're saving money so there's a
17:57lot of value here i already told you i'm guilty of using the whole bottle so that's definitely for me
18:06and that is so incredible i see writer for life wants to know is this recommended for children yes
18:12absolutely we can we develop this with parents in particular in mind we want to make sure that you
18:19guys can use this on your baby's heads it's super gentle it makes the detangling process a lot easier
18:26so all those screams and the fidgeting and the i don't want to we've cut down on that too so yes
18:31this is absolutely recommended for kids all this time i was just thinking about myself but i have a
18:38four-year-old curly girl and when i tell you if anybody hates wash day it is her so i cannot wait
18:47to try this on her hair um that's going to be a game changer and it's even like you know something fun
18:52that we can make a game maybe she could do it herself as well but yes it was just such such an
18:58easy process like there was not the big tech first of all hold on i didn't even talk about fallout yes
19:06i didn't even talk about that so that's such minimal fallout usually when i'm detangling and
19:12combing it's like a whole doll's head of hair in the comb that didn't even happen here so that is another
19:18incredible uh feature that you get can i share something with you stephanie please so i am
19:25actually currently undergoing treatment for cancer oh my goodness yes and um you know i'm fine everybody
19:34it's okay i'm okay uh but you know one of the big issues was hair loss i wasn't i was never going to go
19:41completely bald for my type of chemo but i did shed a lot a lot a lot so much that it was concerned
19:48about what my hair was going to look like is it going to be patchy i believe that the reason i've
19:52been able to keep so much of my hair is because i was using my mitt for most of my treatment all right
19:58now you took me out you are just the fact that you can be on here you're literally the light at the end
20:06of the tunnel for so many people and uh just incredible just sharing your your beauty your joy
20:16your incredible products here on shop essence live so amazing and i just see nothing but incredible
20:24things nothing but an amazing recovery for you um there's no other way there's no there's no other
20:31alternative so that's right so great and thank you for sharing your story with us and being so
20:37open with us this is why this is why i love this community stop essence live this is a safe space this
20:43is for black women and allies of black women and let's make sure that we support this just launched
20:49a week ago you want to get it on the first trial a couple years from now everybody's going to have one
20:54and you can say i had i had i had it first i had it in the first week right um so make sure you go
21:00to their website they're pinning it in the comments so make sure that you go and you support this is
21:05shop essence live we shop with you on a weekly basis we will be back next week with more black-owned
21:11businesses in partnership with the new voices family thank you so much thank you oh you are incredible
21:19you are amazing all right i'll see you good luck to you thank you bye