- 2 days ago
The Girls That Got It is a love letter to the culture, the creativity, and the chaos that shaped Black beauty. This main stage moment will spotlight the iconic storytellers, founders, and insiders whose lived experiences not only defined eras but now sit proudly on shelves at Target. Through an intimate and honest conversation, this panel will celebrate the cultural moments that laid the groundwork for today's beauty landscape. Told by today's women who lived them, created through them.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00There is a project called The Girls Got It, and it is a love letter to the culture, the creativity, and the chaos that has shaped black beauty.
00:10Now, the main stage moment will spotlight an iconic storyteller, founders, and insiders who lived experience not only defines eras, but now sit proudly on shelves at stores.
00:22Our next panel is Black Beauty Storytelling, featuring the beautiful Melissa Butler and my friend, Ms. Lawrence.
00:31Give it up, y'all.
00:43Hello, hello, hello.
00:46Happy Essence weekend.
00:48How y'all doing?
00:50Well, listen, we're going to get right into it, right?
00:53Because we ain't going to be before you long.
00:55So, listen, this obviously has not been an easy time for a black founder at Target.
01:04And I want to know, what has this time felt like for you as a founder, a creative, a part of this community?
01:11How are you moving through it?
01:12Me and my board, we've been joking that we've been dealing with three primary challenges.
01:20Trump, tariffs, and Target.
01:23So, the lip bar is the largest owned, black-owned makeup company in Target.
01:28We have been in Target stores for like eight years.
01:32Wow.
01:32Before, DEI was even three letters that I ever heard of.
01:37Right.
01:38Which, I want the community to know that that means that a company like Target has been standing for black-owned businesses, small businesses, since before it was actually cool.
01:50Right.
01:51Because I didn't hear about DEI until 2020.
01:53No, me either.
01:54And as much as I know about it, we've not always been on the best receiving end of it either.
02:01No, absolutely not.
02:02So, it's been a challenging time because it is incredibly disappointing when your largest retail partner decides to roll back DEI.
02:12And you are questioning, what does that mean for my business?
02:15What does that mean for my community?
02:18What does that mean for my customer?
02:19And I will say that I am up here today because every conversation that I have had with Target has been largely about how they are continuing to commit to black-owned businesses, to small, local communities.
02:34Now, should they have said that?
02:36Absolutely.
02:37Right.
02:38I think everyone is like, well, what does this mean, Target?
02:41And when will you say something about it?
02:43Right.
02:43And that is something that is very fair, that the community is waiting on, that I am personally still waiting on.
02:51But I can confidently say that they've been doing this.
02:55It has been in their DNA.
02:57The Lip Bar is not a DEI business.
02:59We've been in business for 13 years.
03:01Y'all know how hard that is?
03:02It's a long time.
03:03Like, to be in business 13 years is wild.
03:04That's a long time.
03:05And I have to say, as a proud black gay man who developed my confidence through the prism of black women at a very, very early age, I would be remiss to not stand with a beautiful black woman, a beautiful black business who owns a successful black business, who needs all of our support.
03:26It makes so much sense to be here in support of the Lip Bar.
03:30When I was younger, let me say, I would not be who I am had it not been for black women.
03:37When you talk about the beauty industry, it is the most liberating and free space to self-explore.
03:43And that is how I became Ms. Lawrence.
03:45I don't get to be Ms. Lawrence without the beauty industry by way of black women.
03:50And so when I think about where my confidence came from, where I think about, you know, how to navigate through life and just not worry where I get my strength from, it's black women.
04:01And a couple of songs come to mind, because I was asked to tell one of my favorite songs, and that is Diana Ross' Love Hangover.
04:08She says, if there's a cure for this, I don't want it.
04:13I don't want it.
04:16Let me see.
04:17But where does that confidence come from?
04:19So as a black gay man, you know, you are not always celebrated in the same way that black business owners are not always celebrated.
04:28I tell people all the time, like, yes, I create and I center black women in everything that the Lip Bar does.
04:34But that doesn't mean that a white woman or an Asian woman or a Latina woman can't wear the Lip Bar.
04:40We're creating products for everyone, but we center black women because we want to drive the confidence for our core customer.
04:47So where does your confidence come from?
04:49Now, listen, it got to be God.
04:54It has to be, because growing up in the South as an 80s baby, I didn't have a community of people cheering me on to be as gay as I was.
05:03I didn't have that.
05:04But I did apply the principles that my mother taught me when I was little, and that was to always go to God first, pray and ask for his protection, pray and ask for vision, and with that vision, ask for his provision.
05:16And through that, I've been able to journey along, and I found so much inspiration from all walks of life, but more in particular, again, black women.
05:25Because I fully embrace the femininity that lives in me, or I always tell people there's a man and a woman that lives in me.
05:34And I don't know any other way to be but confident and comfortable and honest in my walk every day.
05:43So listen, before the glow up, there's always been the grind, you know, and obviously you've been in business, you've grown your business to a large scale, which is amazing.
05:57But who has been that person, or those people, or that village to hold you down?
06:04I mean, my village, I think about it as like the people who are within reach, but then the people I just draw inspiration from.
06:12And I may not know that person.
06:14Oftentimes people think that a mentor has to be someone who you actually know, and that couldn't be further from the truth.
06:20Madam C.J. Walker is a mentor, right?
06:23I don't need to talk to her to learn from her.
06:25And so while I've had mentors from afar, I've also had an incredible community.
06:31My team is all women.
06:32That's something that I'm incredibly proud of.
06:35And the goal was like, at the end of the day, I wanted my core consumer who was going to be using the product to create the product.
06:43And so my village includes my team.
06:45It includes my mother.
06:46It includes my aunt.
06:47I remember as a kid watching her treat lipstick in such a ritualistic way and in such a beautiful and glamorous way.
06:56She used to keep her lipsticks in little cases where you can open it up and there was a glass mirror for her to apply it.
07:06So, you know, there's no reason that I can stop, no way I can stop doing what I do at the lip bar because I have thousands of black women behind me rooting me on.
07:17I have millions of black women customers in front of me saying, I have confidence because Melissa did.
07:23I have confidence because Melissa showed me that a dark-skinned black woman can wear a red lip.
07:28I have confidence because she created my perfect nude lip, et cetera.
07:32So I think about my village in ways that are both near and far, the actual customers who are supporting me every day, the retailers that are supporting us, my mentors, my investors, but also all of the people who came before me.
07:45I have to tell you, when I learned that I was going to be working with you, having this conversation with you, I'm always enamored and so inspired by black business owners, but more particularly black female business owners in the beauty industry.
08:01Because you mentioned Madam C.J. Walker.
08:03I grew up knowing about Madam C.J. Walker.
08:05I grew up knowing about the Carson, Softsheen Carson, that whole brand, and the developers.
08:12But more importantly for me in my era, it was the Bronner brother family.
08:16I grew up as I was a hairstylist for over 20 years, and I would walk the hair shows every year, and it was just such a magnetic space.
08:26And I'm like, how do we this generation grow to get there?
08:31And so to see you as a walking example of what all is possible, especially for a black woman, it's very, very inspiring.
08:40And I would have to say that would also add to my confidence, and it should add to anybody's confidence, to know the possibilities.
08:46At the end of the day, everyone can do it, right?
08:49Everyone has the ability and the goal and the gift to go after their dreams.
08:53You just have to decide that your dreams are worthy.
08:55Like, I didn't come up with a silver spoon in my mouth.
08:59Both of my parents were actually incarcerated.
09:02Wow.
09:02Like, literally.
09:03My father was in jail for 23 years, and then my mother was in jail for three years.
09:07So you can't tell me that something is impossible.
09:11You can't tell me that you aren't worthy of going after your dreams because I am a living example of deciding to create my own path,
09:21deciding that my journey was something that was worth my sweat equity.
09:25So did it take a long time?
09:27Yes.
09:28I didn't pay myself from the lip bar for the first six years.
09:31Wow.
09:31But at year seven, we popped.
09:33Wow.
09:34The number of completion.
09:35The number of completion.
09:36That was the number of completion of the no's, of the struggle.
09:41Then you started to see some return.
09:43And you are a walking example of when someone says no, you turn it into a yes.
09:50I know about your journey with Shark Tank.
09:53And you said no.
09:54Well, they said no.
09:55You saw an opportunity for a yes.
09:58Yeah, absolutely.
09:59So the way I've always thought about our Shark Tank experience, and so many people have come up to me and said,
10:04how did you keep going after that public rejection on Shark Tank?
10:07And at the end of the day, I didn't start my business for Shark Tank, so I wasn't going to stop my business for Shark Tank.
10:13Even thinking about, you know, the fact that black women are so underfunded in the investor space.
10:22Thinking about how hard it is to get retail shelf space.
10:26Like, all of those things are odds that are stacked up against the average black founder.
10:31Does that mean it's impossible?
10:33No.
10:34And so I went on Shark Tank.
10:35I pitched.
10:36We didn't get a deal.
10:38Was I supposed to stop?
10:40No, you don't stop at the first no.
10:42You don't stop when you get it wrong the first time.
10:45Life is a journey.
10:47And if you are lucky enough, you get to continue to journey on.
10:51And at the end of that journey, you are so much better than when you started.
10:54And that is how I think about life.
10:56Wow.
10:57That's beautiful.
10:58So to the new generation of young, beautiful black women that's taking notes, that's paying attention to the stage that you've set, the bar that you've set.
11:09Come on, Lip Bar.
11:10The bar that you've set.
11:12What is your love letter to them?
11:15Ooh.
11:16So I started the Lip Bar based on confidence.
11:20Like, I was working on Wall Street, y'all.
11:22And I was so frustrated with the beauty industry.
11:25It's lack of diversity.
11:26It's excessive amounts of chemicals.
11:28This idea that beauty looks like one thing.
11:31I was like, that is bullshit.
11:33Beauty looks like everything.
11:34It looks like you, and it looks like me, and it looks like her and her.
11:37No matter what your shape is, no matter what your size is, no matter what your complexion is, no matter if you have kinky hair or straight hair or coily hair.
11:47Like, at the end of the day, you are enough.
11:50You actually just have to believe that you are enough.
11:52So I hope that my legacy that I'm creating with the Lip Bar in terms of our ability to show women who are not always the main or the default standard of beauty is that those women walk away saying, I am enough.
12:08The Lip Bar showed me a model who looks like me.
12:11The Lip Bar showed me a model with a gap in her teeth.
12:14The Lip Bar showed me a model who was dark-skinned with a hot pink lip on.
12:18The Lip Bar showed me a plus-size model, and I want that customer to know that there is beauty in all of us.
12:25So that is my love letter, because at the end of the day, if you don't look good, you don't feel good.
12:31It's literally not about the beauty product.
12:34I don't care about makeup.
12:35I'm not passionate about makeup.
12:37It's fun.
12:37It's the cherry on top.
12:39But you are the cake, and you have to know that you are the cake.
12:43And so the goal in everything that I do is to make sure that our customers walk away just a little bit more inspired to be themselves.
12:51Yeah.
12:51That's real.
12:53That's real.
12:53When you talk about you are enough, when you talk about it's beyond just the business of it being Lip Bar, you said beauty is healing.
13:02Yeah.
13:02When I would watch my mother, my sister, and a lot of the women in my life growing up, the transformation from when they went into a hair salon versus when they came out, that was the thing that propelled me to get into the beauty industry.
13:18And it is so magnetic to watch.
13:21And again, I'm so grateful that you walk honestly in your truth, in your walk, and that you are obedient to your assignment with Lip Bar.
13:30And it's still hard, right?
13:32Yeah.
13:32Like, being honest is hard.
13:34Because sometimes your community doesn't want to hear honesty.
13:37They don't want to hear that at the end of the day if everyone boycotts Target that the black-owned businesses will suffer.
13:45It's a fact.
13:46Target sales are down, what, like 6%?
13:49Yeah.
13:49The Lip Bar sales are down 35%.
13:51Yeah.
13:52And so when you think about it that way, it's like who's actually being hurt from the boycott?
13:57It's hurting Target a little bit, but it's hurting the black-owned businesses a lot of it.
14:01It's hurting the black-owned businesses a lot.
14:02And I talk to a lot of founders, and we're all like, okay, what are we going to do?
14:07Do we have to fire some people?
14:09Do we have to reduce our marketing budget?
14:11Do we have to reduce our level of innovation?
14:14And so those are some of the tough conversations that we're having to have.
14:19It's scary because when you look, again, like she said, Target's a $100 billion company.
14:25But when you talk about those sub-companies and brands that are in there that have worked so hard to just land a spot in a major retailer like that,
14:34and for them to have to suffer, it's scary because there is somebody, myself included,
14:39there are people out there who has dreams of creating a brand and landing their brand in spaces like Target or in spaces like Macy's and da-da-da-da-da-da.
14:48But for it to, you know, be tainted and be affected by political propaganda is very disheartening.
14:59Yeah, it's tough.
15:00And to be clear, we still want to hold them accountable.
15:04You still owe us an explanation.
15:05We still need to know what it means.
15:07But I want to make sure that the community understands how it is actually impacting our businesses.
15:15Yes, 100%.
15:16Well, listen, this lady right here, honey, I'm going to go ahead and call her a bona fide icon because it ain't easy to do what she's been able to do.
15:26It is not easy to create a product that actually heals our community because healing is in beauty.
15:34Beauty products, you name it, how you feel about yourself is essential and it is key.
15:39So I'm so grateful that I was able to have this conversation with you.
15:43And we're going to do more of this.
15:45We need to.
15:46And we have to be honest with each other, guys.
15:49Like, that is my charge to the community.
15:51I want all of us to approach life in a more honest and a more transparent fashion.
15:56Like, when I get on the internet and I talk about what's actually happening in business, it's not from a selfish perspective.
16:04It's really selfless.
16:06Because at the end of the day, I don't expect you guys to know how retail works, how being a small business owner works, how to make lipstick.
16:15Like, that's not your job.
16:16Like, all of us have our own unique capabilities and our own unique passions that we bring to the world.
16:22Yes.
16:23And so when something goes down, I take it very seriously and I take the responsibility very heavily that I have the ability to empower and educate and make sure that people know how it works.
16:35Now, when I come to your place of business, I'm going to expect that same level of trust and that same level of engagement.
16:43So when I'm speaking on things, I really want you guys to know that it's not just because Melissa is trying to let you guys know something about the Lip Bar.
16:53It's something that affects our entire community.
16:56The Lip Bar is a community-based business.
16:58Last year, we gave away $40,000 to small business owners.
17:02We basically hosted our own pitch competition.
17:04Wow.
17:04Like, we haven't been in business for 13 years because the products are just good.
17:10The products are great.
17:11That's fine.
17:11But we've been in business for 13 years because of my honesty, because of my transparency, because of my ability to actually connect with the community and let them know that we are in this together.
17:23Like, there is nothing that you would want for the community that I wouldn't want for the community.
17:28We are all in this fight together.
17:30So before I leave y'all on this stage, I want you guys to be empowered to operate with more transparency but also more kindness.
17:38There's no reason for us to be fighting each other on the Internet.
17:41Right.
17:42Why?
17:43So let's think about that.
17:45When we have questions, let's ask them with kindness.
17:48When we have a problem in our community, let's address our community with kindness because then we can actually go further together.
17:56Right.
17:56Y'all give it up for Ms. Melissa Butler.
17:59Woo!
18:00Thank you guys so much.
18:02You guys are amazing.
18:03I'm Ms. Lawrence.
18:04And you all enjoy this festival.
18:17Bye.
18:18Bye.
18:37Bye.
18:38Bye.
18:38Bye.
Comments