- 2 days ago
How can entrepreneurs and business founders go from a "me" to a "we" mindset and embrace the power of community with a "we" mentality? Hear from founders who have done this and learn how they prioritized mentorship, collaboration and support from their teams and customers and how instrumental it's been to their success
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Audience, any creatives? Any makers? Awesome. So are y'all familiar with Soko Jewelry and Milano
00:06Derouge? Yeah? So I'm really excited to bring them up on the stage. We're going to learn about the
00:12power of collaboration and putting together all those creative minds and endeavors. In this
00:18session, we're going to focus on collaboration and partnership, as well as elevating your business to
00:25create lasting impact. So I'm excited to bring to the stage our moderator, Ms. Insa Mooger from New
00:33Voices. Give it up for her, you guys. Give it up. And of course, we're going to bring up brands Milano
00:40Derouge and Soko Jewelry. Enjoy your panel. Hi, everyone.
00:55Hey, hey, hey. So I am super excited to host this panel with both Shamika from Soko and Milan from
01:02Milano Derouge, specifically because I've kind of watched from the first time that you two met in
01:07person. So a little background for you all. They met in person at a NASDAQ event where New Voices and
01:13Essence Ventures was being featured for the hard work that Rich Lou Dennis is doing in the community
01:19and investing in brands. So just a clap moment for the partnership and the fact that we've taken that
01:24from a moment of just meeting to turn it into a true collaboration. All right. So I want y'all to start
01:29out by telling me about this collaboration. What's the name of it? What does it mean? Give us a little
01:34background so we're grounded together.
01:38Hey, everybody. So the name of our new collection is the Amani Collection, and Amani means peace in Swahili.
01:46So I'm so excited to be on stage with Shamika. We started this collaboration. We started working on this
01:52collaboration in December of 2023, and the beauty of this collaboration is not only have we built a
01:59great partnership, we became friends. We built a sisterhood, and the partnership was so organic.
02:07And so we're going to talk about the four Ps when it comes to partnership, which is peace, pivoting,
02:14purpose, and profit, and profit. That's the big one. Always profit. Awesome. Awesome. So now that we
02:23know the name and the meaning, I think I know a little bit about both of you, but most of them
02:26don't. So before we go too, too far, tell me a little bit about your background stories, about your
02:31brand stories, so that we understand who Milan is and who Milano de Rouge is, and the same thing for
02:36you, Shamika, and Soko Jewelry. Happy to do so. So I'm Shamika. I'm a little bit nervous. I'm a
02:44trying my best to get this out without being too afraid. You got this, sis. You got it. And that's
02:50why she's amazing, y'all. Like when I tell you there are so many moments when I'm uncertain,
02:55or I'm like, Milan, I don't know how to do this. I'm not sure. How do we pull off a photo shoot in
03:00a week? She's like, girl, that's light work. I got this. You know what? Don't even worry about it.
03:03We'll do this. Watch. And so I really appreciate that about you in all ways. My background is a little
03:10bit corporate. So I started at Goldman Sachs as a trader. Then I went to American Express,
03:15went to business school at Harvard, got a call from a guy who was building...
03:19Let's stop right there.
03:21Because we know, I know both of them, they're not going to give themselves flowers. So we're
03:25going to stop and clap that up. Say it again. Where'd you go?
03:29I got my master's degree in business from Harvard Business School.
03:31And name all the other places you went that you worked, because those are great places to
03:34have worked in life. Okay, go ahead. I also went to the University of Pennsylvania,
03:39worked at Goldman. But despite all of that corporate experience, the most transformational
03:44experience for me was when I got a call about a guy who was building a business out in Long
03:50Island. And I remember thinking, I have no interest in shampoo. Met a gentleman by the name of Richelieu
03:56Dennis, told him I'd work for him for six months, and told him, you know, I'm going to leave. So
04:00I'll give you six months. And seven years later, was still working for him as he built Shea Moisture
04:06and Sundial brands into one of the largest hair care, skin care brands, and not just in terms of the
04:13black audience, but overall. So I learned a lot working at his foot for eight years. And it was an
04:20incredible experience. And I got a call one day and he said, hey, I'm looking at a jewelry company.
04:25And I'm like, okay. And so I got a chance to really get to know the SoCo business. So SoCo in Swahili
04:33means market. So when you see SoCo marketplace all around here, it's because what we're doing is
04:39thinking about how do we bring brands to manufacture their products on the continent. So SoCo jewelry in
04:45specific, our mission is we bring the global market to Kenyan artisans and Kenyan artisans to the global
04:52market. The biggest thing we're trying to prove is that luxury quality goods can come out of the
04:59continent. We have the ability to beat China on time, on quality, and more importantly, all SoCo jewelry
05:07is handmade. No factories, no China, completely handmade. So sometimes we talk about being a black
05:15business and being black owned, but I'm trying to say that in 2024, that's not enough. Being black owned
05:20is one thing, but are your products black made? So when you think about, thank you, baby. It's a
05:26moment. When you think about circulating the black dollar, the fact that SoCo products are made by
05:32Kenyan artisans, we are circulating the dollar globally. And that's our mission. That's what we're
05:38here for. And that's what we do. And so with Milan, it was an incredible partnership. I want to give
05:44Milan a moment to talk about the incredible work that she does. Yes. Give us the background.
05:49Hey, everyone. So I am Milan Harris. I am the CEO and founder of Milano de Rouge. Milano de Rouge is a
05:56unisex lifestyle clothing brand. I started Milano de Rouge in 2012 with two sweatshirts. I wore one and I
06:02sold the other one. And I would drive around Philly making deliveries out the truck in my car. Today, we have
06:07over 80 million in sales. So my mission with Milano de Rouge is to inspire dreamers to never stop
06:14dreaming. I did this with limited resources and not a lot of money. I just reinvested back into
06:19my stuff. And when I heard about SoCo, it was very inspiring to me because as I was learning about it,
06:24I was learning about what they were doing for the artisans. So not only are they paying them well,
06:30they're building villages. They're getting life insurance. They're really changing the trajectory of
06:34the artisans' life. So I was really inspired and excited when they asked me to do this partnership.
06:40I'm going to take a two-second pause. Tell us about the ways you're changing people's lives as well,
06:44because you go a little bit further with some of the things you do and have been putting on shows
06:48and holding your community down for a while. So give us a few seconds on that.
06:53So anything I can do to inspire someone else, that's my goal. I come from the hood. I come from
06:58West Philadelphia. And a lot of the things... Shout out to Philly. I didn't have the privilege of seeing a
07:04lot of things when I grew up. So once I got on Instagram, I was inspired by seeing the girl
07:08bosses that was buying the cars and that was living in their mansions. And I was doing this
07:11on their own dime. I just thought that they work hard. And I'm like, okay, if they did it,
07:15I can do it too. What's stopping me? The only thing that's stopping me is me. So one of the
07:19things that Enzo wanted me to bring up was every year I've had a fashion show. And I didn't wait for
07:25no one to validate me with these shows. I don't get press coverage with these shows.
07:28I do these. I pay my own money for the shows. And I just do it because I believe in myself.
07:35I validate in myself. And every year they have grown bigger and bigger and bigger. So I wanted
07:39to share that with you because I don't want you to wait for someone to validate your existence.
07:43You validate your own stuff and just continue to grow as you go.
07:47I also want to just highlight the fact that Milan does her shows every year. She also has
07:52community portions that are part of her shows.
07:54Exactly.
07:55And when you think about it, a lot of people may say, like, I remember at one point you were like,
07:59oh, you know, I'm just kind of figuring it out. But I want to reiterate that she just said her
08:04business has done $80 million direct to consumer, no retail.
08:08No retail.
08:08That is incredible for any business of any size. Like, I want us to really take a moment. And part
08:14of her success is because how many of you guys follow Milan on social?
08:18So you all know she is a marketing powerhouse. She's putting out 10 carousels a day, 14 videos. Like,
08:27I mean, the work that you do is incredible. But I think why it's really powerful is it is
08:32authentically you. And that, I think, speaks volumes to your success.
08:37Thank you. I feel like it's so important to when you are partnering with someone, make sure that the
08:43relationship is authentic. Make sure that you guys have a mutual interest. When me and Soko partnered,
08:48the first thing, the first word that I heard was Soko is all about the journey. And so is Milano
08:55Divuge. And we were already aligned when they first mentioned it. I'm like, wow, like, God put us in
08:59this position for a reason. So it's definitely important to align with people that's authentic
09:06to you and that's authentic to your brand as well. And I hear a lot of people talking about, like,
09:11being authentic. Don't get confused with being real and unprofessional. Like, authentic, authenticity,
09:19you can be professional and authentic. Our partnership work because we both value each
09:24other's time. We're both professionals. So we show up as professionals and we are authentically us.
09:30I think it's also because there's not a place, a lot of spaces where, I mean, maybe you guys have
09:38had different experiences, but I often feel there are not a lot of partnerships where I can be vulnerable
09:44and where I can say, you know what, girl? I don't know how to do that. I don't know if we can do that,
09:50but can we figure it out together? So case in point, we will ship products. Our products are handmade in
09:56Nairobi. For the Amani collection, we shipped the product direct from Nairobi for this show.
10:04And we were watching the product every single day, like, okay, it's landed. Okay, it's cleared customs.
10:09Okay, we're good. And then we got an email that said the Fish and Kill Wildlife Conservation Group
10:17has pulled our product and has decided that we were randomly selected for inspection.
10:22This week, y'all. This week. That was two days ago. So things happen. So then I've got to call Milan and say,
10:34I know we were gonna have the product here, but it's now been pulled by customs randomly.
10:41That's a conversation that, and when I said it, I was like, yo, I'm so sorry. Like, we planned everything out.
10:47We had it down. Like, we knew when it was gonna clear customs. We had everybody waiting. And I had to say,
10:53yo, I'm really sorry that the product didn't get here in time for festival. And Milan said the most
10:59powerful thing back. Because I was like, well, you know, if you don't want to do the panel, you know,
11:04I kind of understand. She said, what? She said, no, no, no, no, no. This is bigger than us having product
11:10on a shelf in a booth. And what she said was, we'll be good. It's okay. And sometimes when you
11:17partner with somebody, those moments can be very tough. When you have to go and say, things were
11:23beyond our control, something messed up. And when your partner comes back and says, don't worry,
11:28we'll figure it out. We got this. I literally looked at the phone and was like, that's why she's so dope.
11:35Thank you. So I think we've heard communication. We've heard collaboration. We've heard vulnerability.
11:43We've heard overcoming challenges together. What would you say is the thing that you want to make
11:48sure we all take away from this as kind of the key to your lasting and impactful partnership amongst
11:53each other? Something that we can all tactically go do to start partnering with one another?
11:58I think partnerships can be interesting. If anyone in here owns a small business,
12:04and you've tried to work with creators, you know how much of a challenge it can be.
12:09You know how it is. I see the hands. You know how it is when you get the rate cards back and someone
12:13says, it's 25,000 for an Instagram story. And you're like, what? You're like, oh, we can't afford that.
12:21What's incredible is with Milan, we were so aligned from the beginning that it was never about.
12:27And I was kind of nervous because I was like, yo, she has a lot of followers. She's done 80 million.
12:31I'm like, her team's gonna hit me with a rate card. That's crazy. And she was just like, nah,
12:36this is bigger than us. We're doing this so that we are impacting lives globally. We are
12:41impacting the artisans we work with so that they can build homes and buy real estate, send their
12:46children to school. It was never about a rate card. And so that to me is what I think makes a big
12:52difference. If your interests are not aligned, everything else is rocky. So anytime someone sends
12:58SoCo something, they're like, we want to collaborate. Here's my rate card. I'm like,
13:01that's cool and all. But your posts don't equal my profits. So I can't do it. And a lot of times
13:09I have to say no. But I'm thankful that with Milan, she was like, yo, let's do this. Let's do this
13:15meaningfully. And we'll figure out a way to make the partnership profitable for both of us.
13:21Yeah. So I think sometimes something we've often heard is if you want to go fast, go alone. If you
13:29want to go far, go together. And so we really have to remember that as a community, not just in a
13:35metaphoric sense, but in a literal sense. I hear we need our passports and visas. What should we be
13:40getting ready for ladies? I hear we got to go somewhere. Where are we going? So we are going to
13:45Kenya. So Kenya. So we're so excited because so like being in a partnership, you really have to
13:52invest in a partnership. And like Shamika said, like, we have to invest in going over to the
13:58continent because I think it's so important. Storytelling to me is so important. I want you
14:03guys to see how the jury is made. Do y'all see this piece on my neck? I want you guys to see how the
14:08jury is made. I want you guys to feel how the artisans are working. I want you to feel the energy in the
14:14room. So we want you to feel it. And it's so important that we tell this story accurately
14:20so that when you're buying this jury, you understand what went into it. You understand
14:24the hard work and dedication that went into it. And not only do you understand that, you understand
14:28the lives that you're changing when you buy it. So we're definitely going to the continent. We're
14:33going to share the journey. So make sure you, so we, we put in some inserts on y'all chairs. So if y'all,
14:38if y'all can scan the QR code, so that way y'all can follow along the journey and y'all can sign up to
14:44the newsletter. So when the jury do drop, you can have first exclusive access to it. But yeah,
14:50we're so excited. It's also important for us to show the world that Nairobi is an incredibly
14:57beautiful place. And there are so many aspects to Nairobi and to Kenya that you don't see.
15:03Like a lot of people don't get a chance to see that. If you ever look at the Diani Beach
15:07and you look at images, you would think that's what the world is marketing at the Maldives. No,
15:12that's Diani Beach. Like there's so many beautiful aspects of this country that we want to show you
15:18guys. We want you to experience. And there's nothing like being able to have a piece of
15:23jewelry that was completely made by someone's hand. The time that goes into that craftsmanship,
15:29it's impeccable. So you guys come with us on the journey on social. We're off to Kenya. We're
15:34getting our passports stamped. We're getting them stamped. All the visas, everything. So we want you
15:39guys to come and join us on that journey where you can see the products being made. I want to just
15:45remind everyone, not just for this stage, but for everywhere we go, you know, if we can see it,
15:49we can be it. Exposure is everything. So these journeys are about exposure, exposing us to
15:55Shamika's background, Milan's background, and how there's not a competition in the backgrounds,
16:00but a collaboration in that background. We all have something to do together and value to add.
16:05So I'm going to leave the audience with one tactical question because I want them to have this
16:08and go do something with it. If you had $3,000, because we know Milan just said we got to invest,
16:14right? But everybody doesn't have an unlimited budget to invest. So if you had $3,000 to invest in
16:19a marketing campaign or budget, what would you do to leave them with something to go do in their brands?
16:24So what's funny is, I think a lot of founders out there can appreciate the fact that she said
16:33$3,000. We all have our $3 million budget dreams and what we would do, but the reality is sometimes
16:40we don't have $3 million to spend on marketing. So to get very tactical, if I had $3,000 and that's
16:47all I had for marketing for an entire year, I would actually break that up into two chunks. I would first
16:53spend $1,000 on digital marketing, but I would only run ads with a $5 budget. And the reason why I would
16:59do that is because I want to see, am I solving a consumer's need with my product? Who is my exact
17:05target market? And are they willing to buy? I would run probably about 20 to 30 different creative
17:11tests. You can use AI for this. You do not have to be an incredible creative, but I would run a variety
17:16of tests on that $1,000 in order to say, is my audience responding? The other $2,000, I'm going to
17:25find, you know, your brand and you know that there are stores that align with your brand. So if you have
17:32a brand today and you're not talking to Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, I mean, even places like going to your
17:38local mall, there are stores that align with your brand that don't have traffic. So I would negotiate
17:44deals with each of those stores to do a trunk show in their store for free in order to sell my
17:50product to the people who are passing by their store. That doesn't cost you anything at all,
17:54other than the hustle. So it's going to take some time to do that. And then I would also make sure
17:59that I'm going to all of my local markets, the local pop-ups. That's where I would invest because
18:04at the end of the day, you have to make sure somebody wants to buy your product. A couple of years
18:09ago, you could sell anything because everybody had money. Money was flowing. In this economy,
18:14people are like, what problem does your product solve? And if you can figure that out and you
18:20figure out where to put it, you're golden. But there are stores and malls that are having trouble,
18:26so you can negotiate deals with them to do a trunk show in their store for free, use their real estate
18:33in order to sell your product. So that's what I would do with the other 2,000.
18:36Well, speaking of golden, that was a golden nugget. I really appreciate that. And I want
18:41everybody in the audience to give a hand to the two of these ladies for their partnership,
18:46their focus on profit and collaboration. And I want each of you to take that spirit with you.
18:50Today is the last day of festival, but it's not the last day of our lives, right? So continue to live
18:55on in the spirit of partnership and joy with one another. We love us. Make sure you head over to the SoCo booth.
19:01Actually, Milan, how would you spend that $3,000? Oh, let's do it. Okay. How would I spend the $3,000?
19:08So I would definitely do the $1,000 digital strategy for sure. Running those ads. That was a gem. I hope
19:14y'all took notes on that gem. But what I would do is, so I would do the $1,000 for the digital strategy.
19:20I would spend $800 on content creation. And with the content creation, I will figure out what is my story?
19:26Like, what do I want people to feel when they purchase this product? Because I feel like that's
19:31the most important thing, giving them a feeling. And once I create that content, I would use that
19:37content and I would use that to run the ads with. Then I would spend $500 to $1,000 to give to some
19:44micro influencers. So, hey, I got this amazing product. I will see who aligns with my brand. And
19:49when I say micro influencers, those are influencers that have under 10,000 followers. So they have an
19:55audience. You got to look at their engagements, people asking them different questions about
19:59when they post things. So I will look for those type of people. And I will see if I can give you
20:03a hundred dollars to post or to send my product to you. And then I would go grassroots. I would
20:11start printing out flyers and business cards and go put it on people's chairs like we just did today.
20:15So that's how I would do if I had $3,000.
20:18All right. Well, I appreciate you both ladies. Clap it up. Thank you so much for sharing the stage,
20:24giving us all these golden nuggets. And everybody, make sure you go over to the SoCo booths to our
20:28right, right here. Thank you so, so much. Thank you all. Thank you guys.
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