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00:30Good morning and welcome.
00:58Welcome back.
01:00For those of you who were able to join us this morning, thank you so much.
01:04My name is Rachel Davis, and I am the senior editor for Essence Festival and live events
01:09here at Essence.
01:10And we are so excited, you know, to be bringing you today our first ever Essence Entrepreneur
01:15Virtual Summit.
01:17And this next conversation, you know, kind of needs no introduction.
01:21You guys are really in for a treat with these two.
01:24And it's all about, you know, Black-owned businesses supporting each other, which is certainly
01:29something that's important during this time right now, but really it's just something
01:33that's important all year round.
01:34And so without further ado, let me tell you a little bit about our two speakers today.
01:39So first up, joining us is the founder and CEO of The Lip Bar, a vegan beauty brand that
01:44exists to disrupt an outdated industry.
01:47Bothered by traditional brands and their linear approach to beauty, she, without formal training
01:51or personal passion for makeup, began making products in her Brooklyn kitchen.
01:55She soon left her job on Wall Street to keep up with the demand, moved her business to Detroit,
02:00and hasn't looked back since.
02:01Please welcome Ms. Melissa Butler.
02:03Hey, Melissa.
02:04How are you?
02:05Hey, Rachel.
02:07Thank you so much for having me.
02:08Aw, Marcus is clapping for me.
02:11I'm over well.
02:11Yeah, sure.
02:15Thank you, Essence, for putting this on.
02:16This is amazing.
02:17I think connection and just like uplifting one another during this time is so important.
02:23And I think we're now realizing how much we actually love interacting socially.
02:28So thank you for even allowing me to be on a panel with the ever so talented Marcus Samuelson.
02:36Hey.
02:36Thank you, Melissa.
02:38And Melissa is basically introducing our next guest.
02:42So let me go ahead and just roll right into that.
02:45So also joining us is the acclaimed chef behind many restaurants worldwide, including Red Rooster
02:50Harlem, Marcus Montreal, Marcus B&P in Newark, New Jersey.
02:54He is a longstanding judge on the hit Food Network show, Chopped, as well as the author
02:59of multiple books, including the New York Times bestselling memoir, Yes, Chef, and his
03:04latest book, The Red Rooster Cookbook, The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem.
03:08His audio project with Audible, titled Our Harlem, is out right now.
03:13Everyone, please welcome, re-welcome, chef and restaurateur, Mr. Marcus Samuelson.
03:19Hey, hey, hey.
03:20Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey,
03:24we're here to take each other up.
03:25What else are we going to do?
03:27Thank you guys for your energy and thank you again so much for joining us.
03:31So let's jump right in to today's topic.
03:34So, you know, one of the most important things that we hear small business owners talk a lot
03:39about, and I've heard both of you guys talk about off of this forum as well, is the importance
03:43of your network.
03:44And I think, you know, in times like these, a lot of us are seeing, you know, just how
03:49important our networks are, people that we can go to specifically for small businesses,
03:53you know, your core network of other like-minded folks and individuals. So for the first question,
03:59I wanted to ask you guys, what are some things you've been doing or some of the things you've
04:03been seeing done within your networks to kind of whether some of the challenges that small
04:07businesses have been faced with during this pandemic? Melissa, we can go ahead and start
04:11with you. Yeah. So my business is not considered an essential one, right? So during this time,
04:21a lot of businesses are seeing huge upticks in revenue. So food, skincare, because everyone's
04:28thinking about taking care of themselves, vitamins, even cleaning and baking. Everybody's trying to
04:34learn a new skillset. Whereas my product makeup is typically reserved for when you're leaving the
04:40house. And if you're not leaving the house, you're like, well, why am I going to put on makeup? And
04:45why am I going to buy makeup? So we've had to pivot our conversation completely to really focus
04:51on the value proposition of what we're offering. And then to also make sure that our conversation is
04:57steeped in self care. Like, you know what, if you if you get dressed, if you put on a pop of color,
05:02you're going to feel better. It's that concept. If you look, if you look good, you're going to feel
05:07good. And then ultimately, you're going to do good. So we've completely transitioned our conversation
05:12into talking and having a more authentic connection and relationship with our customers to talk about what
05:20they're going through right now, not necessarily what they should buy right now. And thankfully,
05:26that's caused our sales on our dot com to stay pretty stable.
05:33Yeah, that definitely speaks a lot to the power of engagement and how far that that can go even
05:37beyond like you said, just marketing your products, but really creating that relationship with your
05:41customers. Marcus, what about you?
05:43Yeah, really quick. And then I think everyone is kind of seeing this, this higher level of
05:49connection online, like we're going to the babyface concerts where we're in the D nice parties, and
05:54you're realizing how close and connected we actually all are, because we're all just we're yearning for
06:01the same things. Mm hmm. You look great. We're fantastic. You live in your brand. So thank you,
06:09thank you. You got to look good in the D because you never know who's the D is one of my favorite
06:15cities. So yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Oh, I love it. Yeah. Well, I think I mean, first of all,
06:22as black entrepreneurs, you know, you have to you learn with you have to redefine everything, right?
06:30First of all, these words like small businesses, my business to my family or my community is not defined
06:37by gross sales. It is the only business, right? So I don't think about it as a small business. It is my
06:43business. And and I think that's so these defining words that people are putting on labels on our us,
06:52it's everything that we do, you know, so it's important to you kind of carve out your own space,
06:56right? And I think as black people, we have an advantage there because we always we used to be
07:01put into labels. So it's important to fight out of those labels, right? And because otherwise, we
07:08wouldn't have Melissa wouldn't have created her business if she would have settled with a product
07:11that was out there in the marketplace. I wouldn't have created Red Rooster if I thought that there was a
07:16space for us that fitted that energy that our incredible culture has to offer, right? So it's
07:23important not to be a linear thinker to think outside the box, especially at times like this. I also,
07:30you know, for me, restaurants, the key word to restaurant, I mean, restaurant means to restore
07:36your community. And when we have to pivot, Red Rooster from being, you know, the layered experience
07:44that Red Rooster is from the gospel choir to the cooks, to the open bar and to all that stuff. I knew
07:51we can still be a restaurant, we just had to change our customer to people, everyday people to the most
07:59neediest. So it took us about a week to pivot and Red Rooster in Overtown and Marcus B&P in Newark,
08:07and Red Rooster Harlem to pivot and partner with World Central Kitchen. And we served 27,000 meals
08:15over the last four weeks in these three communities. And it wouldn't have happened unless we had
08:23relationships and kept them going. And I mean relationship in both on the corporate side,
08:28because in Newark, we needed Audible to do it. But guess what, I looked in my phone book,
08:33and who's from Newark? Michael B. Jordan. So Michael B. Jordan stepped up and helped me launch
08:38the program and raised over a million dollar. So we've got to be able to serve people 500 people a
08:44day until June, right? So I think, you know, I'm very fortunate that I have, you know, I know the
08:52dishwasher, but I also know people like, you know, there are there are celebrities, but also on
08:57corporate side. And I think it's important as a community leader to look both up and down in your
09:01Rolodex to really be like, okay, how do we battle ourselves out? How do we help the most neediest? And I
09:10think Red Rooster's work during COVID-19, it's actually the most important work. And who knew that
09:19you had pandemic for us to really find our most important work.
09:24Yeah, no, and and thank you for what you've done in Harlem. I was gonna definitely throw back to you
09:32to speak to that a little bit later. But I'm glad you brought it up. You know, you guys have really
09:36showed up there and and some of the other restaurants. No, no, no, it's fine. No, that's
09:44the name of the game, right? That's just beautiful. Like that's hard not to acknowledge it.
09:52Mark has that line where he's like, misusing your influence. And like this is this really speaks to
09:58the idea of really knowing when you have power, when you have people who are looking to you for
10:04for light in whatever form, and then really making sure that that not only you but your business is a
10:12part of shining light on our communities on making sure that people have the bare necessities of life.
10:17So I love that. I just want to say thank you for all that you're you're doing. And I'm not even into work.
10:23Yeah, and you guys are really touching on the heart of the matter, which is Melissa starting with what you said
10:29just engaging and just and then obviously with you Marcus as well, you know how you guys are
10:34just as entrepreneurs, stay engaged with your customer base that has essentially helped to grow
10:39your business outside of times when you can put a product in front of them or tell them to come
10:43check out your latest dish. It's just really letting them know like, hey, we're really here for you in
10:47times when even maybe you can't make us a profit quote unquote. So and that's that's amazing. And that's
10:52that's such a so important to do. So staying kind of on the same topic, right? Like you see on CNN,
11:01it's almost like you get blind when you see the numbers, we're going to hit 50,000 deaths.
11:06And it's almost too big numbers to comprehend. But as black people, it for me, it's so much about
11:13humanizing those numbers. Like we have two people last night out of our Sunday band died in COVID-19.
11:22We've had family members in our extended Red Rooster family already passing because we are in and of
11:30our community. There's a lot of stuff in our community, but not of our community. COVID,
11:34even when this is fashion to media anymore, this will be long in our communities. And that's why
11:42this is not going to just pass and we move on. So it's really important to do everything we can
11:52right now in terms of supporting one another. Yeah, sure. Now, earlier this week, you know,
11:59we saw I know that things are fast moving, but we saw or we know that there's Congress is really
12:04close to approving a second round of funding. I believe the last report I saw yesterday said
12:08the House still needed to vote on the second kind of stimulus bill and funding package that
12:13will benefit small businesses during this pandemic. But what we saw with the first package, of course,
12:18is that not everyone has a chance to kind of take advantage of that. And per usual, you know,
12:23we've seen a lot of our black owned businesses speaking out to say that they were unfortunately
12:27in that number that didn't have the chance to really take advantage of that. So, Melissa, I wanted
12:32to kind of get your thoughts on what are some of the things that we can kind of do to rally together
12:36as a community of both businesses and also the consumers who love you guys' businesses to kind
12:41of lift ourselves up and make sure we're not leaning too heavily on the expectation of government funding
12:46or other resources that unfortunately just may not come when we need them as soon as we need them.
12:50Yeah, I mean, I think there's there's so many things, especially as most small business owners
12:56are not funded, right? So it's like we're living, we're operating our businesses paycheck to paycheck for
13:02the most part. And even if you do get a round of funding, it doesn't mean that you're necessarily
13:07going to get another round of funding, or maybe you don't even have the the the expertise to know
13:12what to do with that with that round of funding. So I think it's a matter of first of all, of course,
13:18apply for those loans, apply for those grants, like apply, but don't rely, like you cannot accept you,
13:25you can't expect that this money is going to be the money that carries you through. So that next quarter,
13:31when you can see some returns or see increased sales. So make sure that you're doing everything
13:36you can to make sure that people know, whether that is like the banks and the government or down
13:42to your customer base, like, don't be shy. This is not the time to have ego. This is the time to really
13:48lean in on your audience and let them know like, hey, we're a small business owner, and we need your
13:52support. You know, you you love you love having us around, you know, these are some ways that you can
13:58support a small business. And some of those can be financial, but also like there are tons of ways
14:02that small business owners can lean on support from their community that don't require money. So
14:09whether that's engaging on social media, whether that's sharing your story, whether that's forwarding
14:15your email, there, there are lots of ways that we can and should be reaching out to our very community
14:22to say, Hey, this is this is why we need support. And these are ways in which you can support. I've
14:28always thought about relationships from the mutually beneficial standpoint, it's like, you need to let
14:34people know, you know, why they should help you how they should help you, and then what's in it for them
14:40to make it as easy as possible for you to ultimately get your outcome. Another thing is just like as a small
14:46business owner, you got to know that right now, if you're not an essential business, like right now can be a
14:51little bit murky. So so prepared for that. Like we did some salary reductions across the board, because
14:58we didn't want to let go of any of our people. Like the reality is, it's it's tough to find a job right
15:04now. So we're like, Okay, well, we're seeing our sales decrease. And you know, we operate the lip bar
15:10like a family essentially, I'm like, I don't want to let anyone go. So what if we did just like a 15%,
15:15a 20% salary reduction across the board for a couple of months, so that we can all maintain
15:21some some sort of semblance of normalcy. So I think the moral of the story is transparency,
15:27being transparent with your community, and with your audience and with yourself to make sure that
15:33your business is able to survive during this time. And then and then reaching out to not only your
15:38community of of people who are your customers, but people who you can collaborate with like
15:45networking laterally, like I reach out and I talk to other small business owners all the time. And we
15:50talk about how we can help with each how we can help each other. So it's like, should we do a giveaway
15:57together? Should we do a beauty box together? Should we produce content together? There's so many ways
16:03to essentially skin the cat to make sure that we're all in this together. And that we're all making
16:09sure that, you know, not one person is bearing the brunt of the entire organization of the ecosystem,
16:17essentially. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. And the line I'm going to take is apply, don't rely. And I thought that
16:31was amazing. Because I think we need a t shirt. And everything you just said, if you break that down,
16:40can we do a giveaway box together? Can you partner? Right? That's, that's amazing. It's like,
16:45yeah, you know, and I mean, I think the blessings of being a black man is that you never think anything's
16:53going to be given to you. And I think there's a lot of blessings of being immigrant and being black
16:58that I draw from that right now, right? Because I have to, we all pull our strength from different
17:04places. And I think there is, as black people, we, we've had a pandemic for a long time about haves and
17:14don'ts haves. So I think that there is, it's horrible, but it's also strength there, you know,
17:20and I choose to look at it from a sense of strength. I haven't gotten my, I never thought I would get it.
17:26I just never. And I hope we get it because we need it. But I just don't, you know, it's somebody
17:38wise told me apply, but don't rely, you know what I mean? But this is really serious.
17:45Really, I feel like this, I'm very fortunate, there's many ways for me, as an individual,
17:51my family to take care of ourselves. But then it's about our staff and our crew, the 180 people
17:57that work at Red Rooster, the 90 people that work at Red Rooster and Overtown, the 50 people that work
18:02at DMP and they don't, the dishwasher, the bar back, they didn't really need us. So I want to do this
18:09hustle for that extended community. And think about it also, the whole food supply chain is today
18:17because 80% of all restaurants are closed. So you have people closing, you know, burning up
18:24and burning, you know, there's some, some feedback here, but anyway, there we go.
18:34There is, there's so many challenges that we're up against right now. But once we come out of that,
18:41there's also going to be the strength. Like I'm going to, I'm going to just want to finish on this.
18:46My grandparents' moments was the Second World War. So when I grew up in Sweden, you can't relate to
18:52Sweden as a poor country, but my grandparents were very poor. And even into the 80s, all they talked
18:58about it was those defining moments during the Second World War, when they had to wait one hour
19:02to get into the store. Well, guess what, every morning when I get up, I now have to stand outside
19:08and hold food to wait one hour to get into store to get food for my family. And it links back to that
19:13conversation to have with my grandparents when I was a kid. And I never thought that would happen to me.
19:18So once we get out of this, there's enormous amount of strength. I mean, think about Melissa,
19:25when you tell your family that during this difficult time, your brand, you know, survived
19:33and thrived. And on the other side of that, I do want to jump in. Yeah, I do want to jump in, Marcus,
19:41to kind of piggyback off of that note that you said about, you know, how your brand can thrive.
19:45And I think that does go back of really knowing the needs, go back to, excuse me, knowing the needs
19:50of your community. You know, during this time, I think it's easy to, or during any time of hardship,
19:56it's kind of easy to, you know, see things that everyone is doing and think that there may be a
20:00blanket solution as a small business owner or try things that maybe are not for your business or not
20:05for your community. And so Marcus, if you could quickly give us two kind of ways that business
20:12owners can assure that they're properly accessing the needs of their customer base, their business,
20:16and really, you know, leaning on that to fulfill the specific needs of their community, very similar
20:21to what you've done in Harlem with the way that you've been operating the business and being able to
20:25feed people during this time. So I want to get one quick tip from you, Marcus, on how, you know,
20:30you, uh, business owners can make sure to properly assess the needs of their community.
20:34And then I also want to get a quick one from you, Melissa.
20:36Well, I think if I don't look at it from a traditional customer anymore, that didn't mean
20:43that I don't have experience and I don't have worse, right? So I think about my restaurant in
20:47terms of skillset. I can still cook. Well, let's figure out how to do that online. We can still
20:53coordinate. Well, let's figure out how to do that. So you can still help out in your community
20:58because you have the skillsets that you obviously worked on for years and years.
21:02So I do think that there's so everyone can help out at this given time and it's never been more
21:08important and it's probably never going to be more fulfilling either to help out during this time.
21:16Nope, that makes no sense.
21:17In terms of making sure that you're, you're serving your community to Marcus's point, like,
21:25you should know your customer, like as a business owner, you know, this isn't your first rodeo. So
21:30yes, this is, this is unprecedented. We can't, we couldn't have imagined, imagined this, you know,
21:35five months ago, but also like you should have data that lets you know why your customers, you know,
21:43why they rock with you, why they shop with you, why they eat at your restaurants, whatever service
21:48or product it is that you provide for that customer. You should know why. And I think that
21:53this, and if you don't like, it's always fine to collect more data. So we're always surveying our
21:59customers, you know, and we do that in very formal ways, like by sending out email surveys, but also
22:05we do it very simply on social media. So it's like, talk to your customers. Like, don't be afraid to reach
22:11out and say, Hey, how can I help you? What do you want from the lip bar right now? What do you want
22:17from red rooster right now? Um, like one of the things I want from red rooster right now is for,
22:23for me to be able to buy a meal that I can just pop in my oven and bake it, you know? So
22:27how do we think about and make sure that we're actually asking them? Like, I think one of the
22:38biggest mistakes you can make as an entrepreneur is just to assume that you know everything about
22:43your customer. No, you have to constantly touch base. You have to constantly revise your business
22:48plan. You have to constantly think about, okay, how do I make sure that I'm not relying on what
22:53happened yesterday to get me through tomorrow? Because that's not how the world works. We,
22:58we change every day. Like the only thing in life that's constant is change. So it's like,
23:02you got to be ready and willing to, to adopt. Can I just talk a lot? Sure.
23:09I just want to say one quick. I do think that brand equity is very, very important and pivoting,
23:14being able to pivot and you look around you. People do big brands do that all the time, right? They
23:20pivot and that's because of, like Melissa said, the data they have and they've been able to look
23:24forward. So brand equity and pivoting just a little bit. Thank you for that. Now we've talked
23:31quite a bit today about, you know, leaning into your network. We've talked about building your customer
23:36base and kind of connecting. Melissa, you talked about connecting with other businesses often to just
23:40kind of exchange ideas and see, you know, how they're working within their own businesses as
23:47entrepreneurs and really keep that conversation going. Uh, but I'm sure you guys can both also
23:51remember, you know, the beginning of your journey when you just kind of work just starting out,
23:56not sure where to start in terms of how do I build this network? How do I properly assess my customer?
24:01How do I kind of connect with other business owners, um, to partner, to see what different things
24:06that we can do. So, um, before we wrap up here, what, or as the last question, actually,
24:12what, what advice would you guys have for people who are looking to, um, do that to kind of start
24:18building that network and start, um, really just connecting with other businesses in their,
24:23in their orbit to see what partnerships are available to take things to the next level for them.
24:27Uh, Marcus, if you want to go ahead and start. Well, if you have, if you have the bandwidth and emotional
24:36and strength, this is actually an interesting time to start a business because out of this
24:43it's going to come a new need skill set and needs going to be different, right? So, um, I think it
24:50is a time where you can actually start thinking slowly what is next and every business will change
24:58a little bit. So whether that's being more online, being more tech tech savvy, whatever it might be,
25:03if there is an opportunity after this, and this is might be a moment to start a business as crazy
25:09as it sounds. That is great. That's very succinct advice. And Melissa, what about you?
25:16Um, well, I would say, like I mentioned earlier, I think all relationships, you have to look at it
25:22from a mutually beneficial standpoint. So reach out to those people and let them know how you can help
25:27them. I think that's like one of the best ways to get a mentor. That's the best way to collaborate with
25:32someone. Let them know that you're not only thinking from a selfish perspective, but you're
25:36also seeing an opportunity within their business that you can perhaps feel like I can fill this,
25:42this gap or this white space. Um, and I think that's the best way to approach any relationship.
25:48Well, thank you guys so much for joining us today. You guys have really, um, provided a lot of advice
25:52that, you know, will equip people to not just think of outside the box, but also act outside the box,
25:57right. Which is where it really starts when you start putting what, you know, and what you've
26:02learned, um, into motion. Um, so thank you guys for that really, really quickly. They're wrapping me
26:07up here, but I did want to want you guys to let people know where they can find you on social. And
26:12if you want to quickly mention anything that you're working on that people can should know about and
26:16support shoot. Um, well, you can find the lip bar on the lip bar.com and target stores across the
26:25country. So shop at target for the lip bar when you're, when you're buying your groceries or other
26:30essential items. And then on social at the lip bar across all platforms. Cool. You can find me at
26:37market cooks and, um, yeah, we do a bunch of stuff there. We announced there. So, um, yeah, man,
26:43thank you so much essence for hosting us. This was amazing. And, um, I, I, I miss you guys. I miss
26:49my community. So thank you. Yeah. Thank you guys so much. I can't wait to get out of quarantine,
26:55go back to red rooster. If you've been to Harlem, everybody needs red rooster is a spot. You've never,
26:59not been to Harlem and not been to red rooster. It's not a thing. And same thing with the lip bar. I
27:03can't wait till we can go back outside and, you know, get our faces beat again. I have lip bar colors,
27:08can't wait to buy some more. So thank you guys so much for joining us today.
27:12Thank you. I see you in the D minutes. I'm going to see you in the D.
27:15All right. And everyone watching, be sure to stay tuned for our next segment. Um,
27:21and please, please, please come back for our pitch competition today, uh, where you'll be able to see
27:2610 black women entrepreneurs kind of vibe for their chance to win, uh, thousands of dollars in
27:32funding. It'll be super exciting. Please come back and thank you guys.
27:42I'm going to see you in the next segment.
27:45I'm going to see you in the next segment.
27:47I'm going to see you in the next segment.
27:49I'm going to see you in the next segment.
27:51I'm going to see you in the next segment.
27:53I'm going to see you in the next segment.
27:55I'm going to see you in the next segment.
27:57I'm going to see you in the next segment.
27:59I'm going to see you in the next segment.
28:01I'm going to see you in the next segment.
28:03I'm going to see you in the next segment.
28:05I'm going to see you in the next segment.
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