- 7 weeks ago
Join Mielle Organics founder and CEO Monique Rodriguez in a powerful conversation with media trailblazer and ESSENCE CCO Michele Ghee as they dive into the inspiration behind Monique’s new book. From building a beauty empire to navigating purpose through pain, Monique shares the lessons, leaps of faith, and leadership tools that have shaped her journey. This is more than a story of success—it’s a masterclass in perseverance, vision, and the power of betting on yourself.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, everyone. All right. So I don't know who's on the other side, but we're about to talk to
00:08the Monique Rodriguez, who built a billion dollar company. I can say that. You only look 30. What
00:17the hell? I'm an underachiever. Thank you. You know, you know, black don't crack. Yeah, black
00:21don't crack. Black don't crack. So I am Michelle G. I'm the chief content officer for Essence. So
00:28every stage that you encounter today, every what else did I do? Every social media post,
00:36our magazine with Susan L. Taylor, my team has constructed with love for all of you. So
00:42yes, Michelle has been working super hard, y'all. I have. I have. I thought slavery was over. What
00:48is happening? They got me running around here like this. Thank you for coming to me. Oh, yeah.
00:54Listen, they got to go, but y'all can stay.
00:57Activities of Essence Festival of Culture 2025. Vendors, please close out all sales. Guests,
01:05please find your way. We're going to wait for them, man. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.
01:10All right. See y'all with VIP so you can stay. So I'm going to start this conversation, your
01:15book, and we talked about this. I'm so glad that you had an opportunity to write this as a glory
01:20in your story to document all the things that you've been through. And people think that you
01:25wake up a success, but that's not how it goes. So there's something in here that I want to start
01:31with. First Corinthians 15 and 33. And it says, bad company corrupts good character. And you're
01:37talking about how it's important to surround yourself with great people. So let's talk about
01:42that. I want to dig right in because we know that we become like the people we hang around. So why don't
01:47you tell us a little bit about that? We're going to dig into your story. We're going to just talk
01:50about 15 minutes. Okay. All right. Great. No, it's also something that I tell my kids every day.
01:57Bad company corrupts good character, right? Because it's so true. Like you are the people who you hang
02:04around. And I am a continuous student of life. Like I'm always learning. I'm always curious. I want to
02:11always be inspired. And if my circle and the people that are around me are not inspiring me
02:17to be better, to be greater, if they're not adding value to my life, they're subtracting. And I don't
02:23want to be around people that subtract and drain. And I feel that in order to be successful, it takes
02:30a village. And that village consists of people that are smarter than you in certain areas that you're
02:38not. And if I am the smartest person in my circle, I'm not in the right circle.
02:43Can I give you a big compliment? Because I watch how you flow and I don't know if you're an introvert
02:48or you're, but, but, but I see Monique sitting at the table and she's paying attention to every single
02:54detail before she speaks, before she asks a question. She's not, you're not trying to be seen
02:58and heard. You're really like learning. So let's talk about it. You were a nurse, right? And you went
03:05through some life things that, um, you wanted to fill a void. Um, and you talk about that in the
03:11book. Talk about in just a couple of minutes, right? How you launched your company, the thought
03:15behind it, how you named it, because I think all that's important because I'm sure there are people
03:20here that, um, are not walking in their purpose and you are. Yeah. I think, um, I think you're
03:26referring to like the loss of my son. Absolutely. Yes. And you know, Mayo was birthed from pain and
03:31heartbreak. And like you said, I was a nurse and I was not fulfilled in my career. I became a nurse
03:37because it was what my mom wanted for me. It wasn't something that I chose to do on my own.
03:43It was kind of like, that's what she instilled in me growing up. And the thing is like, we all have a
03:48purpose on this earth, right? Our purpose is ultimately to glorify God and to bring people to
03:53his kingdom. Now the vehicle and the vessel that we use to do that is different for each person. It's
03:59unique to your own journey. And for me, that's where my passion and my purpose intersected because
04:04I feel that God used hair care as the vehicle and the vessel for me to build this community,
04:11to connect with people. And ultimately, if anyone followed me knows that I'm very vocal about my
04:17faith. And I always knew that the higher I get that I would never forget about showing who brought
04:24me through that testimony and it was nobody but God. Yeah. I mean, you say that lightly, but you
04:30have been through a lot. And, uh, when I first, you know, heard the story and we can say that Richard
04:35Lou Dennis who purchased essence is also an investor in your company and a mentor and a mentor to all of
04:42us. Like he's such a, the whole family is an amazing family, how they move, how they roll. Um, I want to
04:48talk about really quickly that in the word it says, have patience. Yes. And Monique, I didn't know this,
04:56but I saw you speak someplace and I know you well, our daughters know each other. She's an intern with
05:00essence. Listen, we have power to hire our own, um, Mia and you could have jumped to get financing for
05:10your company, but God said, be still. Yeah. And it's bigger than that because I want to share that story
05:14because I think there's somebody that's going to hear this, that's wants to do something, but God is
05:19saying, just wait, wait for the right opportunity. Can you talk about that a little bit? Yeah. And
05:24in actuality, before we partner with Richard Lou, before he became an investor, we actually were
05:30working with a different investment group. And at that time we were operating in the negative. And I
05:36talk about how much we were operating in the negative in my book, which is crazy because you're moving a
05:42lot of product, right? You're building something great, but you can't just, you can't build it fast
05:46enough. Yeah. The company was outgrowing our infrastructure, right? And also outgrowing to
05:53the point where we needed more expertise to come on, right? Because neither one of us came from
05:57business. My husband, he was a project engineer. I was a nurse and you have to have the humility to
06:02raise your hand and say, I need help. Right. And so by the grace of God, this investment group that
06:07came before Richard Lou, they actually told us, no, they turned their backs on us at the last hour
06:12when we really needed that investment. But in my spirit, I felt that the Holy Spirit was saying,
06:19just stop, just pause because I have something better. So it's also a story of rejection. You
06:26know, sometimes our rejection is really God protecting us because if we would have went with
06:31that first investment group, we wouldn't have had the, we probably wouldn't have had the success
06:35story that we have here today because they wanted basically 40% of my company. I would have diluted
06:40my shares a lot, which I was, I didn't have to do that with taking on Rich from New Voices. And then
06:46we did the historic partnership with Berkshire and then our historic partnership with P&G.
06:51That wouldn't have happened if we would have went with those other investors. So sometimes when we get
06:57a no, it doesn't mean like you're denied, it's just not right now. Like God has something bigger and
07:05better in store for you. And you know, I'm just so grateful that God spoke to me and said, just be
07:12patient because during that patient period is building character, right? You're learning, you're growing
07:18and God is watching how you're going to react during the waiting period.
07:22Yeah. So how many people in here have had a no before? Right. Everybody's had a no. I've been
07:29fired. Oh, I'm so glad that very marginal company fired me girl because it allowed me to be
07:35come something great. Right. Um, I love that story. And I think it's really important to understand
07:42that when we are patient, it does build character. So let's talk about this because it was in the news
07:48and we talked about this. You sold your company. Um, but I love the fact that you've sold your
07:53company, um, and required them to do certain things. That means not to change your formula,
08:00not to change your packaging. You're still the CEO because it's not the company without you and what
08:06you built. Uh, and I know that there was folks that were like, why would Monique sell her company?
08:12Uh, and I love the fact that you pushed back really hard because you built a company to sell it and
08:18people that don't look like us do that every day, but you're still giving back to the community. You're
08:23still investing in small businesses. You're still here at essence festival and doing all the things
08:28that you're supposed to do. So I want to, I want everyone to hear why it's really important
08:33that we understand the value of equity of selling of generational wealth. And we're not going to shy
08:40away from that. Yeah. I think the bottom line is growth does not mean you have to lose your
08:45authenticity. It doesn't. It doesn't. And, and a part of growing is taking on resources, taking on
08:51investments, taking on capital. And as the black community, we already have a lack of access,
08:57capital and expertise. And we complain about it. We cannot complain and then tear down black
09:04businesses for scaling up and being acquired and having successful exits. We can't have it both ways.
09:09And when you scale up and you have a successful exit, it really allows us to do more for the
09:15community. So when you mentioned, you talk about Richard Lou Dennis and how he was able to
09:19purchase essence. He purchased essence because he was able to sell Shea Moisture to Unilever.
09:25And then he created a fund. I am a recipient of his fund. And so now we are also using our proceeds
09:32to invest back into the black community. We have our Miel Cares nonprofit organization that focuses
09:38on mental health and black and brown communities. And we're also investing in other black and brown
09:43entrepreneurs as well. So you're creating this domino ecosystem. And if we don't have successful
09:48exits, how are we going to get ahead as people? And I'll tell you, I feel like I've been talking
09:53about this since I've exited my company, right? And being a black founder is exhausting because we have
10:00to keep explaining ourselves, keep explaining ourselves for what our counterparts do all the time on an
10:07everyday basis. And they don't have to explain to no one. Yeah. I wanted to just bring that up
10:12because I wanted people to hear from you so you don't have to, you can stop explaining yourself or
10:16doing something brilliant. It's, it's, and I feel like if you've been following me, I've done more
10:22than enough explaining, right? Yeah. And you know, there are people out there that are just setting
10:26their ways to misunderstand. And those are not the people that I'm talking to. I'm talking to the
10:31people that want to know the importance of starting something. I started this in my kitchen
10:35to even have the opportunity to have a conversation with a company like a PNG is a huge
10:41accomplishment that you wrote in your journal that I wrote in my journal. And so when people
10:46decide to criticize me, you're really criticizing our creator God, because he's the one that did all
10:53this. I can't take any credit for this. Yeah. That was a, that, that was like perfect timing
11:01because the enemy didn't get to say, cut off the word God. It came right after the D. Amen.
11:06Amen. So just a final question. And I want to, it's not even a question. It's a thank you. So,
11:13you know, we can talk about, I can interview, but you have personally seeded into everywhere that I've
11:18been. Myelle has been a supporter, a client. You stood on the stage at HBCU honors and gave Hampton
11:25University girls basketball team, $200,000. I don't hear it because we want to complain about
11:35blah, blah, blah. But then when we do something magnificent and it doesn't go viral. No, no,
11:40exactly. This is my point. That, that doesn't want to go viral. And then you gave another $100,000.
11:45So from that stage, was it 300 or 350? I think it was $300,000 from that stage that you gave through
11:52your, I mean, like you're doing the work and you're not even asking for people to say thank you. So
11:56I want to give you some of your flowers here. Thank you. You're also a sponsor of Essence. You
12:03are a sponsor of Ebony. You were my first partner at BET, her, when I launched that, when I was at BET,
12:09you gave me $150,000 when they told me not to create the network. So sis, not only has God blessed
12:16you, but you are blessing all of us. Thank you. Thank you. And I mean that. Like she's putting
12:24her money, her power, her position in all of us. So I love you. I thank you for that. Support this
12:31book. Tell everybody how amazing she is. Buy my L hair care product. My kids, listen, I put a video
12:37washing my son's hair. I was like, damn, my son's hair look good. Anyway, he cute too. Anyway,
12:42but I want to thank you, but I want to give you the final word. And then I'm just going to, I want
12:47to lay hands on you because it says where two or more are gathered. I'm going to ask God to continue
12:51to bless you because you are doing amazing work, Monique Rodriguez. And we love you, sis. Thank you.
12:59Love you. We love you. Final word. Final word. Final words. You can purchase the glory in your story
13:05at Amazon, Target, anywhere you can purchase books, or you can go to the glory in your story website and
13:11purchase as well. So please support. I know that this book. Oh, and here as well too. And I think
13:16I'm doing a signing. Yes. Yes. Yes. And when I tell you that this book is literally, it will change
13:22the way you think. Someone told me that this book was literally her life support. It's not a self-help
13:29book. It was life support. So I'm very happy to have the support that I've had. I'm very vulnerable
13:37in this book, very transparent. And if you really want to know how do you build, scale,
13:42and do historical things, all with keeping God at the foundation, you have to read this book.
13:49All right. Everybody, Ms. Monique Rodriguez, she's signing her book. Please make sure. Oh,
13:56hey, Melvin. Hey, Mackenzie. I see you. Where's Mia? Hey, Mia. Mia, stand up. I'm just doing that
14:04because she's our intern and she, listen, I want to say this because we did a poll there. Okay. All
14:10the interns are great, but people, they know you working hard. We love her. All right. Thank you
14:14guys for coming. Monique will be signing books on the other side. Be blessed. Thank you for supporting
14:19Essence.
14:34zasad. Thank you. You're listening.
14:38You
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