- 2 months ago
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00well good morning everybody morning so we have the incredible fortune and
00:21pleasure to be talking to two women that are leading some of the fastest growing
00:29most impactful CPG companies in America not not black fastest growing period let's give them a hand a
00:42great welcome thank you so Beatrice and Monique we're here to talk about scaling your business
00:55you guys have built two incredible brands two incredible businesses that are now market leaders
01:05that now have the rest of the marketplace much larger competitors thinking about how to compete
01:13against you you're no longer the cute black women you know running around trying to get some shelf space
01:18you now dominate the shelf space what does that feel like as you think about hey how do I compete
01:28against the majors what are the things that run through your mind I think I don't necessarily think
01:41of it as competing against the majors I for me and our team we just keep our eye on the ball right we
01:50just want to we keep our eye on the ball we keep our eye on the data we understand we we like live in it
01:58constantly and you know and when I say the data when you every every cash register is called a POS system
02:07and all of that reports into Nielsen or IRI or whatever and so we just keep our eye on the ball stay focused on
02:18innovation we stay focused on growing our categories and being the category leader you know that that's the
02:26biggest thing for us because if we're the ones that are driving the growth on the shelf even if our numbers
02:35don't necessarily match what a summer's Eve is doing or Tampax is doing or a Procter & Gamble is doing
02:42because they're just such massive companies the data still speaks for the fact that we are still driving
02:51the growth on the shelf and so for us that's what we like to focus on yes same here you know it's like
03:00saying that it's a saturated market that you're entering in especially in the the beauty space but
03:05for me personally like I don't believe in a saturated market because I feel that you know there is
03:10something that I have to offer that someone else is not offering and I feel that you know what I offer
03:16is of value when I first created my Yale one of the things that I noticed in this space in this category
03:23was that there was the lack of relatability me as a consumer being a natural hair consumer myself I felt
03:30that there was no connection to me as a consumer and that was one of the boys that I felt that I can
03:36fulfill and I think about like the big conglomerates like P&G or you know the bigger names that you see on
03:43the shelf it's like okay can I be intimidated by it absolutely not because I know that what I have is of value
03:51and I can connect with my community like none other that's something that the big conglomerates can't do
03:56and that was a void that I was able to fill so you know a lot of people get intimidated by looking at
04:02the shelf and seeing all of these amazing brands and they kind of like kind of feel like they don't
04:11compete or they don't stand up to what's at the shelf but you have to believe in what you have to offer
04:17and what you have to offer is of value and for us it was the connection to the community and that's
04:22actually what helped grow and grew and scaled my Yale was because of that deep connection that we garnered
04:27on social media we are a very young digitally savvy brand and it was something that was not done in this
04:33space and the and the other thing is that the conventionals need us right they need us to be on the
04:45shelf there's enough business out here for every single person I don't I know that we have competitors
04:52but I don't think of them as that I'm just like look look we have some shelf you have some shelf we
04:59need to exist you need to exist they need smaller brands which is part of the reason why they buy small
05:06brands because a conglomerate can't if a conglomerate grows five percent that is an astronomical growth for
05:14them yeah right and so they buy smaller brands because because they want they need those brands
05:23they need their growth they need their profitability you know smaller brands have the capacity to grow
05:30quicker right and so they really need us to be on the shelf and I talked to a lot of founders and a lot
05:36of people are like well I want to do something different don't do anything different yeah honey pot is a
05:42conventional disruptor we do not reinvent wheels excuse me let me take that back we actually do
05:52we we we recreate wheels that are already there our objective is not to be super different we want to go
06:03into categories where there's massive growth potential yeah think about the things that you do on a daily
06:09basis you take a shower if you have your period you bleed every month like you got to always have
06:15something for your hair right the objective is to do what what is out there and and and that's really
06:23what Mo and I do we disrupt what the conventional players do so yeah I think I think my my takeaway is and
06:33I hope the audience's takeaway is is what I I know you two to be and that's really to be fearless right to to not you
06:43don't think of the competition as competition right you don't you don't think of you're not intimidated right you're
06:51you're you're you're you're you're you're standing in your own abilities right but in scaling right you know a wise man once told me
07:00um every person rises to their own level of incompetence and I've risen to that and many of the things that I've done
07:07all the time all the time and probably sooner than most right but I think I think one of the strengths of a of an
07:16entrepreneur and and and in scaling a business is knowing when you've hit those levels right what have you what have you
07:24levels, right? What have you one of you realize that you've gotten there? And what have you done
07:31about it? Or has it been a moment where you sort of didn't wait to get there and then took a step
07:37because you knew the importance of not creating weakness in the business? Yeah, I knew. So first
07:45and foremost, I think that any great entrepreneur has to have a spirit of humility, like knowing
07:52that you are the CEO of the company, but I am quick to say that, yeah, we're up here talking
07:57about scaling, but I'm still learning. Like, you know, I'm still learning and growing each and every
08:02day. And what I feel that I'm really good at is surrounding myself with people that are smarter
08:08than me in certain areas that I'm not. And I think that's important when you get to the point of scale
08:13is how do I surround myself, ask the right questions with people that have done it before,
08:19that have the right experience, the right expertise to help me grow and scale and achieve my goals.
08:26You know, being a founder and CEO, you're the visionary. Like I'm the creator. I do amazing
08:32products and I do it very well. I'm really good on social media. Like I know what my strengths are
08:37and I also know what my weakness is. I run my company with my husband who is COO and we have two
08:45completely different skill sets. He is more operations, logistics, finance. I am more of the
08:51creative, the innovator, the visionary for the brand. And I feel that, you know, we work so well
08:58together because we have those complimentary skill sets. And it's important that when you are scaling
09:03that you find people. And when you're building a team, number one, not to build that team too fast
09:08because you don't want to, um, have more people than your business and your infrastructure can
09:13support. But you want to find the people as your business starts to scale and grow. How do you find
09:18those skill sets to put in place to help you scale? Because everyone that you bring on should add value
09:24to help you grow to the next level, um, to, to help you reach and achieve those revenue goals.
09:28And so I am the first to admit that, um, I don't know everything and I like to ask questions. I have
09:36amazing mentors like Richie Lou Dennis where, you know, I can just pick up the phone and say,
09:40I don't know what I'm doing. Can you help me? And you have to have that, that spirit to say,
09:46I just don't know. And it's okay to not know. Don't be afraid to fail because you're not going to
09:52always get it right. And I think a lot of entrepreneurs want to feel like this is their baby. They want to
09:57keep everything to themselves. They want to feel like they know everything. And I've seen it with
10:01my own two eyes that businesses and companies that feel like they have the founder and the founder wants
10:06to keep everything to themselves and not delegate that those businesses will not make it very far
10:11and they will quickly fail. So just being open and, um, surrounding yourself with great people. I feel
10:17like it's so important as a part of skill. I completely agree. I think, um, so at Honey Pop,
10:25we, we, we've experienced a lot of growth and what that has done is forced us to be a reactive company.
10:33I don't know. Nothing about that.
10:38Oh, it is the worst and it's the best because we, because, you know, Mr. Cummings, Alexander Cummings,
10:50who's like, I love him, you, he's the best. He's dropped so many jewels on me, but one of the main
11:00jewels that he dropped was it's really good to be chasing after your business, to be chasing after
11:06your growth. But it's also what I'm learning now is it's also really, really, really important
11:13to be proactive. So now what we find ourselves doing is thinking about the future
11:20and not necessarily we're thinking with, you know, we're thinking five, 10 years ahead,
11:24but we're also thinking about like, okay, what is our company going to look like in the next two to
11:29three years? And how do we build our team to be able to accommodate that? Right? How do we put systems
11:34in place to be able to accommodate that growth? You know, like you, my brother and I, my brother
11:40was a CFO. You know, I'm, I'm the, I was the CEO because I'm the, I was the visionary. He was in
11:47charge of finance and, you know, so, you know, Cy was excellent at that, right? He is excellent at that.
11:54With me, you know, one of the, one of the things that we just did to be proactive, like maybe a year and a
12:00half ago is, you know, I actually brought on a president, we brought in a president and she was
12:08already there. She's our CFO, Allison. Um, but it, it kind of got mentioned that that would be a good
12:14idea to do. And, you know, at the onset, you would think as a founder, you're, you know, you're like,
12:21wait, what does that mean now? But it has actually probably been the best decision that we could ever
12:26make in our lives because it helps. It's really important as a founder to be able to do the work
12:33that you are extremely good at and not be trying to do the work that you don't necessarily understand.
12:40And so, you know, so now I'm CEO, I'm the chief innovation officer and the face of the brand.
12:48Um, you know, and that comes with a lot, but bringing in Ali to actually be the president and CFO
12:55has been really beneficial for us because it helps me to be able to be freed up to do the
13:00things that I do well. And so I think that, you know, I think being proactive, being able to make
13:06decisions like that, that can impact the business because at the end of the day, it's all about the
13:10business, whatever's going to make the business be healthy, whatever's going to make it move,
13:15whatever's going to make it grow. Me having a title or anybody having a title doesn't really matter.
13:23Yeah, you know, it's all about forward movement. So they're putting up the wrap up sign. So,
13:30but I do have one one more question that I'd like us to just take a quick stab at because I think
13:38that this question within itself is a separate session and panel and we should
13:43and do it and do it somewhere. Um, but that is the whole purpose. I think my experiences has been,
13:54um, that we, we as a community sometimes lose sight of why we build these businesses or why these
14:03businesses are built, right? At the end of the day, um, a business is built to provide service,
14:10to provide product, to fill a gap, to do all of those things. But it's number one purpose and
14:16function is to create value and wealth for the people that are building the businesses
14:23as well as providing those, those products and services. And a lot of times I think in our
14:29communities, at least I know I'll speak from my personal experience. There's been a lot of backlash
14:36whenever we've done things, whenever we've taken an investment, when we've sold a company, when we've,
14:42when we've, um, uh, uh, uh, changed our leadership, um, in order to unlock that wealth so that we can
14:50invest it back in our, in our communities, right? And so I think when you think about normalizing wealth,
14:59right, when you think about it being okay for us to build businesses that make money that we can then
15:06have our families be able to make whatever decisions they want to make economically,
15:10right? What are the, what are the things that you think about that you would do differently from what
15:18I did, right? Because when I did it, I just did it. I didn't talk to nobody about it. I didn't have,
15:23I was just like, yo, this is what it is, right? Um, but I think we also learned the flip side of it
15:28is that we also have a community that deserves to come on the journey with us, at least the
15:34understanding of what we're trying to do. So how are you guys thinking about doing that differently?
15:38What have you learned from my screw-ups is the question? Can I, so look, here's the thing.
15:47We're going to wrap up, y'all, but this, um, wrap up, wrap up, right? Here's the thing.
15:56We are running and operating businesses,
16:01and when you think about literally just the clothes that you have on right now,
16:06the skin care that you used in the bathroom this morning, right? The sanitizer that you use,
16:13the food that we're eating, the chairs that you're sitting on, all of those are businesses
16:20that operate, that don't communicate, that don't take you on a journey.
16:24Yep.
16:25I do think that it's important for us to go on the journey together,
16:30and I think that it's important for us as a community to give grace for growth,
16:38to give grace for the fact that we're operating like every other business that you operate on
16:44every single day. If you think about all the things that you use in a day and how many of those things
16:51are owned by black-owned businesses, right? It, I think it's really important if you're,
16:59because the thing that we have to think about, you guys, that's really hard,
17:02is that, like, we, I want to take you on the journey. Yeah. I want, I, I'm a communicator.
17:09Honeypot is a communicating brand. That's what we do.
17:15But if we don't address the elephant in the room,
17:19that when we do need to make those changes, and there is a fear there as a founder,
17:26because you don't want to be the scapegoat of what sellout looks like or what people
17:34deem it to look like. So there's a fear. We're afraid to say that we've had an acquisition
17:43or we've had a major, um, you know, a major investment. And this is some real shit, y'all.
17:49Let's have a real conversation. If we really gonna do it, we really got to talk about it.
17:53We, as black people, need to understand that we are a part of the human race. That is also,
17:59it's, you know, us being called black people is a part, it's a, it's a systematic thing.
18:04We're human beings. All that we are trying to do is, is, is, is, is, is grow our companies. And did,
18:13like, I just found out, Rich, there are only nine businesses that are black-owned
18:21that are publicly traded on the stock market. This is just my research that I did.
18:25Out of those nine, only one of them is a woman.
18:28And is it Cynthia Hughes? Yep.
18:33Cynthia Hughes has been the only black woman.
18:36Kathy Hughes.
18:36Kathy Hughes, excuse me. Kathy Hughes has been the only black woman that has been publicly traded,
18:43black-owned business that's been publicly traded on the stock market since forever.
18:47Right? That's part of the reason why, y'all. There's so many other reasons why
18:55we don't get the capital. But that's one of the biggest contributors. And, and Honeypot,
19:02and Myel, and Sundial, and every other black-owned business out there that has the opportunity to
19:08have an exit or to have an IPO. Understand that is not selling out. That is selling up.
19:19That is the only way that, that the capital keeps flowing. Because understand, if we don't do that
19:25shit, they're going to be like, Oh, see, that's why we didn't do that.
19:32So I'm going to see the value. They won't see the value.
19:35Exactly.
19:36The next black-owned business that steps up.
19:37Exactly. So it's so important.
19:40We're going to do a part two of this because somebody's going to come out with a gun in a minute.
19:45So we got to do a part two of this. But thank you to both of you. Thank you, everybody.
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