- 1 day ago
This conversation will explore how beauty entrepreneurs guide their hearts and business decisions — you will learn the necessary tools for negotiation, how to find genuine people to build with, what green flags look like in business relationships, how to find balance, why building community matters, financial tools for business development, and so much more.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello. Hello. Hello, everybody. How are you? How is everybody doing?
00:11Great. Great. Perfect. B, I'm so excited to be here with you.
00:15Same. This is very exciting. I've been thinking about this for a month. I feel like I've posted
00:20like 70 times before I got here. Thank you, sister. That's so sweet.
00:24I know. I'm so excited. You know, I'm so inspired by you. I feel like
00:28what you've done is so monumental. It's so big for black women. It's big for women. It's big for
00:35people in general. I mean, for everybody here that is sitting and listening, we're looking at
00:40a founder that has exited and not completely exited, right? You're still in the mix, but
00:46$380 million, which is just such a big deal. Thank you. It's a huge deal. So I'm so happy to
00:54be here with you. For everybody who is new to who B. Dixon is, I'm sure you know her product line.
01:01It is called The Honey Pot. The Honey Pot Company. I'm sure you've seen it before in stores. It is
01:07everywhere. It is a company that is made by humans with vaginas for humans with vaginas.
01:14Yes.
01:14Yes. I love that you're so bold in the way that you say that. You say the word vagina often.
01:20Can you talk to me about that? Well, I just think that we need to be okay with it. You know?
01:26We do.
01:27Nobody would be here without a vagina, right?
01:31I agree.
01:32Every human that's walking around in here all came through a vagina, you know?
01:38Absolutely.
01:39And even if they didn't, even if your mommy had a C-section, it took a vagina and a penis
01:46for you to be here. So let's give it up for the vaginas.
01:49Let's give it up.
01:54Okay. That's a perfect segue into my first question, which is like, what did you learn
01:58about womanhood growing up as a, you know, as a woman? You just, you embody femininity to me.
02:05Oh, wow. Thank you.
02:06You really do.
02:07I appreciate you saying that because, you know, in business, you are pulling from a masculine
02:15place, you know? And it's a lot of masculine energy. And I think that, you know, I've often
02:25heard that I can be a bit masculine sometimes, you know? And I was just taught, my like besties
02:33are over here. I was just talking to them this morning about how I feel like we bring
02:39out the femininity in each other, which is why we spend so much time together, you know?
02:44But I really appreciate that. I appreciate you saying that because I'm working on that,
02:49you know?
02:49Yeah. I see it.
02:51Yeah, I see it.
02:52Thank you. But my mommy was, it was really important to her that I knew and understood
03:00my body, you know? She was excited when I got my cycle. It's wild, but she talked to me
03:10about masturbation when I was like, it's crazy. Like she talked to me about this when I was
03:17like 14 years old at IHOP with a table, with a table of my friends. Can you imagine the
03:26experience?
03:26With everybody around.
03:27Yes.
03:27Oh my God.
03:28And she's like, so what are you guys doing with that? How's that going? You know? And
03:32so I've never, she just wanted me to be in touch with my body, with myself, you know?
03:40And so I'm grateful for that.
03:41I love that. Being so empowered as a woman, part of that I believe is like really sitting
03:47with your sexuality, who you are, discovering yourself.
03:50It is.
03:51And so, yeah. Thank you for sharing that. That's so beautiful. I love that. You got
03:55it from mom.
03:56Maybe it was TMI, but it's a real thing.
03:59Yeah.
03:59Yeah.
04:00Okay. So, Honeypot was a manifestation of a dream. Your grandmother came to you. I know
04:06that for some of you who know Honeypot, you've heard this story before, but this is so beautiful.
04:10I would love for you to share how your grandmother came to you in a dream and kind of what you
04:15were going through health-wise and what happened.
04:18Yeah. So, I had bacterial vaginosis for almost a year. I literally, it would come every single
04:27month right after my period. And so, I lived on antibiotics. I lived on clindamycin. I lived
04:33on flagyl. And nobody should be living on antibiotics, right? They wreck your microbiome, your gut, your
04:42vagina, everything. And you're not creating an environment to heal. And so, I never healed
04:50because medical doctors weren't necessarily taught the natural ways of healing. They're
04:59more so based in science. Like, let's just kill the bacteria, start over again. But when
05:05you're in the cycles of your period, you know, just two or three more cycles isn't enough for
05:14your body to recover. And part of my problem was I was using the wrong thing to wash myself every
05:20day. I was just using whatever I used to wash my body, right? And so, my pH was constantly off
05:28because I was throwing it off every day. And then when you get your period, your pH rises naturally
05:34because blood has a higher pH. And so, whenever my period would be going off, so when my pH was
05:45trying to go back down, it would go back down to the wrong place. So, I was constantly getting
05:52BV. Okay. So, that's how reoccurring infection happens. It could be BV. It could be yeast. It
05:59could be UTIs. It could be whatever because these bacterias don't really leave your body,
06:04right? They just go and hide until a beautiful environment is created for them to multiply. And
06:12they multiply by the billions. And here goes another infection, right? And so, I was living with
06:18that. And one morning, my grandmother, to call it a dream probably doesn't give it the respect that it
06:27deserves because we were there. We were together. You know what I'm saying? Like, we weren't dreaming.
06:32And she basically handed me a piece of paper, told me that this was what was going to solve my problem.
06:39And I just needed to memorize what was on the paper. And so, I did that. I repeated it like a hundred
06:44times. And then she told me to wake up. She yelled at me, wake up. And I was like, and I woke up,
06:51you know? And I literally woke up saying apple cider vinegar, lavender rose, coconut oil, garden. Like,
06:57I woke up saying this list. And I wrote it down. And I worked at Whole Foods at the time. So, I went to
07:04work. I bought all the stuff. I went home. I had no idea what I was about to make, by the way. And what I
07:11ended up making was a vulva wash. And that was our first wash. And I started using it because I had BV
07:20at the time. And literally within day, and the BV I had, you guys, was the worst. It was, like, smelly.
07:29I had a lot of discharge. It was bad. It was like, like, I was the person that stunk up the bathroom. You
07:35understand what I'm saying? I understand. Sometimes when you walk into a public bathroom and it smells,
07:39that could be a thing. I was that person. And so, I was constantly in shame. I was constantly
07:46embarrassed. You know, when you can't get your body right, especially when you can't get your
07:53coochie right, it's just hard. Honestly, it is. And so, you know, and so, it solved my problem
08:05within a few days. How long did it take? A few days. It took, like, four or five days. It's wild.
08:10And then it was done. Like, it never came back? It did not come back. It did not come back. And so,
08:15the moment that I realized that it had worked, I was like, wow, this is what I do now. You know?
08:23So, it wasn't like I was like, oh, I want to start a business and I'm going to make all this money.
08:27It wasn't that kind of energy. You know, I just felt like if it could work for me, it could work for
08:32other people. And, you know, I'm grateful because it's worked out for millions of people.
08:37Yeah, that's beautiful. And you know what? That makes me think about it. Thank you. Give it up.
08:42That's so beautiful. I love that you have such a connection ancestrally, right? Like,
08:47to your grandmother. Had she passed? Oh, yeah. My grandmother transitioned when my mother was a child.
08:54Oh, wow. I never met my grandmother until that moment.
08:57Oh, wow. Yeah. That's beautiful. Yeah. That's beautiful. Yeah. I'm just thinking about how
09:04powerful that is. Like, can you imagine? Yeah. I'm literally out there right now. She was like,
09:09let me go help this baby. Yeah. Because she don't know what she's doing with her poor little vagina.
09:15Let me go help her. Because she knew what to do. Yeah. But they knew what to do. You know?
09:21Yeah. Like, our ancestors just knew what to do. You know?
09:25You know, that makes me think about when sometimes you can solve things and you solve it for yourself,
09:31right? Like, you solve it for yourself and you're like, okay, good. You're going to tell all your
09:34friends and then you let it go. What made you want to turn it into a company?
09:38Because I was, so this is like pre what social media is today. Maybe like Facebook was out,
09:45but it wasn't, it was still a college thing. It wasn't, you know? And so you still had to go on like
09:50Google forums and talk to people, you know? It was, so I was going on these Google forums and I was
09:58like, we were all conversating and like telling each other what worked and what didn't work. And
10:03like, I was trying everything. I was like putting yogurt in a tampon applicator and freezing it.
10:10I was putting a piece of garlic and sewing a tampon string in and putting that, I mean,
10:16I was doing everything, wild things because I was desperate, you know? And it wasn't just me. I mean,
10:26I was talking to so many people and some of those people had been having BV for much longer than I
10:32had. Right. And so I just felt like there was such a need and I, I don't know, like I, I just,
10:41I like to share, you know, like what's the point of having such a gift if you're not going to share
10:50it? You know what I mean? Absolutely. I agree with you. I mean, the, the entire, the entire purpose of
10:56my show, It Takes a Village, um, for everybody who's new here is your first time ever hearing it.
11:00It is a show about creative centering gratitude, talking about your story of how you built your
11:05company, but who helped you build it. And part of that is like sharing, right? I live by that.
11:11I love that, that sharing is such a big part of who you are with each other. That's why we're all
11:17here, you know? Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So you're in the, you're in the business part of it
11:23and I'm sure that you had a lot of chaos in the very beginning. Who helped hold you down? Who was
11:29part of your village that helped hold you down? Oh man. Um, so Cy, um, my co-founder brother, he,
11:37he was like, he really held it down, you know? Um, he, he had his own business. He was doing his
11:45own thing, but he saw what I was trying to do, you know? And he was like, I would constantly go
11:51to him for advice. And I think, and I was broke. Like I was making like 10, $12 an hour working at
11:57Whole Foods. You know what I mean? Like I wasn't making a lot of money, but I, and I knew that
12:03it wouldn't be responsible to just take the product that I had made for myself and just put
12:09it out into the world. I had to test it first. I, you know, you have to iterate something like that.
12:15And so I worked on it for like a year and a half, you know, just making formulas, giving it away. It
12:22was like a hood clinical trial. It was hilarious, but it worked, you know? And, um, and so he gave me a
12:31credit card. It had like a $500 limit, you know? And then, um, it was like a capital one prepaid
12:39card or something. It was, but, you know, but it worked and that's what I needed, you know?
12:44And he would pay that bill for me every month and, you know, and he was, he was just like a rock,
12:49you know? And, but he was still doing his thing. And then, you know, so he was, he was a big part.
12:57This is kind of like, before we decided we were really going to do it, do it, you know? Um, so my,
13:04you know, my mommy, my, you know, I've, you know, when we finally launched Honey Pie at Bronner
13:12Brothers Hair Show, there, you know, my friends, you know what I mean? Like it was, it was just,
13:18everybody just came together. We made assembly lines. We, you know, we had bottles and caps and
13:23ingredients and we were putting it in like a, um, y'all know what the, when you, what you put
13:29iced tea in with the spigot? Cause I was like, how are we going to do this? You know? And we would
13:36just make Honey Pot and we would put it in there and mix it up. Cause it's a cold blend. It's not a
13:41hot blend, you know? Oh, right. Okay. Cause when you make products like, like for example, a body
13:46butter or a lotion or something like that, that's a hot blend thing. You can heat it before you,
13:52you have to heat it so that you can mix it and put it all together. But what, what, what
13:56Honey Pot was, was like something that was made from water and, you know, saponified oils
14:01and stuff like that. And so, you know, so it was, we just, we were just hustling. We were
14:08just thugging, you know? Yeah. And it, and, and, and it worked. Man, doing trade shows, you
14:15were, you were in it. Oh man. You were in it. Yeah. I remember the first Essence Fest.
14:22We had met, we were on like the hair show, like, um, like what's it called? We were just
14:29doing a bunch of hair shows. The circuit. Yes. Yes. Yes. Hair show circuit. The hair
14:34circuit, y'all. And so every, but every time you did one, you were getting ready for the
14:40next one. They would, somebody come by the booth to sell you for the next one. And this
14:45guy came by, I was like, you should have a booth at Essence Fest. Y'all, it was like
14:51a thousand degrees. It was outside on asphalt. We did not know until we got here. You weren't
14:59even inside the building? No, we were not inside the building. Oh no. And then the guy didn't
15:04have a license for, to be out in the parking lot. It was wild. It was like, it was, yeah.
15:12Was it, was it a side, was it a side quest to Essence or was it actually Essence? No sister,
15:16it was a side quest to Essence. But you know, we was at Essence. We was at Essence. Right.
15:22Y'all made it. Right. Okay. All right. So, so you're in the thick of it and then there's
15:30so much that happens before you actually get acquired. But I do want to skip ahead to that
15:34a little bit because I feel like for me, when I saw the day that you got acquired, I was like
15:40so excited for you. Thank you. I was, I was just like, oh my gosh, this is so amazing.
15:44Just to see a woman who looks like me, a black woman. And it was just like, it's such a big
15:49deal. And you're currently the CEO. Yeah. I'm still, you know, still the CEO. You're still
15:54with the company. Still the CEO, still the chief innovation officer. Yeah. Still working
16:0160, 70 hours a week, you know, because it wasn't a full acquisition. Okay. Can you explain
16:07this? Because we were talking about this backstage and I thought this was really, really interesting.
16:10So anybody who has a business, if you have a business, if you, or you want to have a business,
16:14this is a really cool story. Could you go into this? Yeah. So basically the way it works,
16:20right. You have like, you've, you've been running your business and you've had multiple rounds of
16:26funding, right? You've got your original people that was probably there 10 years ago. Then, then
16:32we, then we, you know, shout out to the new voices fam, uh, you know, venture capital, they came in.
16:40Then after that, a private equity fund came in, right? So when you raise venture capital and private
16:47equity money, there's rules that come to that, the venture capital is a little bit more lenient.
16:56Private equity is like it, when, when their growth seed private equity investors,
17:03their timeline is like four years, right? And so when you sign on to do an investment like that,
17:14it's like, Hey, if we're going to do this, then you have to have an exit or an IPO, but IPO is far and
17:25few between, right? You have to have some sort of event within four years. So, and the reason for
17:34that is because they have to turn their money. That's how quick they got to turn their money,
17:38right? Venture capital can go a little longer than that, right? Okay. Growth or seed investors can go
17:45longer than that. Um, family and friends investors, they just know that they're there for the long
17:50haul no matter what, right? And so the type of, the type of partnership that we had was a majority
17:59acquisition. So what that means is they came in and they bought out all of the previous investors.
18:08Okay. And then they gave us an opportunity to have a cash event as well, because imagine you're
18:18running your business, you're growing it, you're comfortable financially because you're making
18:22good money because the business has gotten to the point to where, you know, we, we became a big
18:29business, right? Not big, like a conglomerate or something, but for us to be a small company,
18:36we, we, we became a big company, right? What size were you at that, at that moment? We were around
18:41a hundred million. Okay. Um, and that, when you get to that point, that normally signifies
18:50that it's time, right? Because you, you don't want to be so big that you price yourself out,
18:58right? And so we went through a majority acquisition. So they bought out everybody
19:04and then they, and then I sold 50% of my equity, which you guys, I did not own 50% of the business
19:10by now, just so you know, right? Cause that's, that's not how it works. And then, and then it
19:17gives you an opportunity to go out to market again. And so the next time that we go out to market,
19:24it would be a full acquisition, which that's when you're getting bought by a strategic like Unilever
19:32or, you know, a Procter and Gamble or a Kimberly Clark or something like that. Um, and, and the
19:39thing about it is, is there, you don't have a choice, right? Because it's private equity once
19:44again, and these people don't invest the kind of money that they've invested to just let you
19:50sit, right? It needs to turn because they have, they have limited partners and the partner that
19:57we went with is a, is a publicly traded company. And so, you know, it, at some point they have to
20:04get a return on their investment. So that's how it works. Okay. Uh, this makes me think about, um,
20:12investing as a whole, because I think as a community, as a black community, especially,
20:15I think we have really heightened and like, and glorify the idea of investing or, or getting
20:22an investor. Can you share who you think would be the right person or the right company to get an
20:30investor versus like, how did you know it was right? Essentially is what I'm saying. Not just because
20:35of the amount of money you were making, but like the fact that you were like, okay, it's time to have
20:38an investor. How did you, how did you know? Yeah. I mean, you, you mean in the beginning?
20:43Well, yeah, because I think once you start taking, right. My, my understanding is that once you start
20:48to take money, the idea eventually is to sell. Is that right? That is right. Okay. Yeah. Because
20:56what's the point? Right. Like who, like how do it, how does an investor make their money back?
21:02They don't make their money back by just investing and leaving it into your business. Right. And so,
21:10and that's the thing that's interesting because in our communities, a lot of times when you do
21:16sell, it can be looked at as a sell out, which is absurd because this is just how business works.
21:25Like, you know, and so, and so, you know, you, you, you have to do that. And also that's how you obtain
21:32your wealth. Yeah. And, and what is the reason why all of us work is because we have to make money
21:40and what's the reason to go so hard, as hard as you have to go to build a multi, multimillion dollar
21:50business. Like you're living on planes, trains, automobiles, hotels, eating out, you're living
21:59under a level of stress that is not normal or natural, right? It, you're stretching yourself
22:07in ways in your mind, in ways that you didn't even know were possible, you know? And so the investment
22:15of time and energy and stress and life and sacrifice and hustle and grind and gut and intuition and all
22:23the things that have to happen in order for you to be successful, you know, it's, it's, yeah, like you,
22:31you, that's, that's the point, right? It should make you wealthy, you know? But the way that you know
22:37is your business is constantly growing. If the business is constantly growing and needing capital in
22:45order to grow, that's when you know that you need to raise some money, you know? For us, what the
22:52indication was, we got into Target, right? If you're going to get into a mass market retailer, you
22:58literally are buying things to sell things. That's, that's what you're doing. In CPG, you got to buy
23:04things to sell things, to buy things to sell things. It's, it's constant, right? And so. You needed the
23:09money to scale. You need the money to scale because you're not going to scale. Like there, there's some,
23:15there's some people like, like Janelle from Camille Rose, right? She has built her brand. She's built it
23:22and she hasn't had to raise tons of money, right? But she made a conscious decision that, that that was
23:29what she was going to do. And she's built a ridiculously beautiful company doing that,
23:34right? Then you have Honeypot, right? Like, like it was a decision to scale and grow and want to be
23:46a multi-hundred million dollar brand. And you know, like it's, it just depends on what you want
23:52because you can do both and you can be successful at both, right? But like, for me, I, I like money y'all.
24:06I, I really do. I really do. Yeah. And, and, and, and, and I also at some point in my life want to use
24:17my brain for other things. Like Honeypot is not the last thing that I'm going to do. You understand
24:23what I'm saying? I definitely understand what you're saying. And so like, you know, in order to
24:27do that, Honeypot needs to be insanely successful for me to do that, right? Because I don't ever want
24:36to have to have another Honeypot again. Anything else I do, I want it to be successful, but I don't
24:42want to have to grind myself into the ground to make it that. You understand what I'm saying?
24:46Absolutely. I've heard you also use the term conscious capitalist, which I love because I
24:52didn't make that up. I didn't make that up. Yeah. I've heard you use it before though. And I liked it
24:56and I said, okay, yeah. So that's kind of what it makes me think about because it's, you're creating
25:01a product that's good for women. It's good for wellness. It's good for people, humans with vaginas
25:07and we're able to benefit from that. But you're also like, this is a business I got into make money
25:13and I love that. Yeah. Well, I didn't get into it to make money, but then when I got into it,
25:18I was like, I could probably really make some money, you know, but I'm into making things for
25:24humanity and I want to do that more. I like making staples for people, you know, it's, it's one of the
25:33things I enjoy. What do you think is the most misunderstood about you as a founder?
25:40That's a hard question. Um,
25:44I think that
25:50I think that sometimes, cause we've gone viral a few times and I think sometimes just put all of us
26:04people, all they put, especially black women founders, for some reason we're like on a,
26:10in this place that like, how do I put it? We get held to a standard that is insane.
26:22You know, it's almost like we aren't like people or humans sometimes, you know? And I think that,
26:33so I'm not just saying this for me. I'm saying it for like humans with vaginas that,
26:40look like me and that, that are building businesses and growing and doing the things.
26:45I think the thing that I can't speak for everybody, but I'm just going to speak to the experience.
26:50I think the thing that's misunderstood is that we're human beings like everybody else
26:54and we're just trying to build a business and we're just trying to create wealth for ourselves
26:59and our family. And we're just trying to, you know, be healthy and run things and make things that
27:07work for people and improve people's lives. And, you know, we're no different than the old school
27:14brands that we're, we're no different than what Vaseline was when it first came out, right? Or
27:20what cream of nature was when it first came out. Or think of all these brands that are in here
27:25that have been around for our parents, our grandmas, our mommies, our aunties, right?
27:33Think of, think of us the same way you think of them. You're not tripping at them if they change
27:40something. You understand what I'm saying? Yeah. Give it up. I like that.
27:44Okay. Yes. Yes. We're going to talk about that.
27:50Um, okay. While growing as a woman and a leader, because obviously there's been so much time as
27:57you've been working on this. Um, I mean, it's grown quick. I'm not going to say it's been so
28:01much time. It has grown quite quick, but sister's been 13 years. Okay. It's been 13. You're like,
28:07listen, um, my blood, sweat and tears. It's been a while. Um, what are you doing differently now to
28:13protect your peace versus year one? I am really caring for myself. You know, I'm eating well,
28:22I'm working out, I'm making time to be with my, my friends, my man, my dog, my family. I'm, um,
28:32I'm just like, I'm caring for myself, you know? And that only has happened in the last five years,
28:40to be honest. You know, um, I, I was just going for it before. And I, I think, um, I had to really
28:49like stop because it's not really sustainable to, uh, to just go, go, go, go, go. You know,
29:00your body can fail you. You can get sick. I mean, it's exhausting, you know? And so I'm just making
29:07time. Yeah. Making time for you. Yeah. Um, currently the wellness space is at a certain
29:15place, but like within the next five years, what do you expect to see? What do you hope
29:19to see? I, I think where, where, uh, I was, I can speak to my type of business. I think where
29:29skincare, skincare, beauty, um, vaginal wellness, I think where things are going is actually in
29:37a really beautiful place. I think it's going to be like functional. I think function, I
29:46think simplicity, um, you know, I think, uh, you know, better for you is the new conventional,
29:56you know? And so I think people are going to use things less that are full of toxic chemicals.
30:05And, and, you know, the average person is looking for clean and efficacious and, and function. And
30:13there, you know, people are looking for herbs and plants and things like that. People want to know,
30:19they want to be able to pronounce the ingredients in their direct, in their ingredient deck. You know
30:25what I mean? Absolutely. And so I think that, I think that that I'm so grateful that we're here,
30:32but I think that that's where things are going. Yeah. I, um, I'm such a fan of your products. I
30:38use them. I really love the panty liners. The size of them is what I like so much, but it's also,
30:45I was thinking about, you have a new product that's coming out. Yes. Yeah. Can you talk about
30:50that? It's, it's out. Okay. Out. Okay. So we, in, in March of this year, we launched the most
30:56beautiful herbal blend of pads. So we, so historically we've had our cooling pads, which
31:03everybody, that's what everybody loves and knows, but we just launched a new herbal blend and it's
31:08called calming. Like I was just talking about with function. Um, and they're infused with ashwagandha,
31:15which is an adaptogen herb that helps with like stress and calming, you know, um, lemon balm,
31:23lavender. It's, they're just really beautiful. And they've actually been clinically proven
31:28to help to ease skin irritation, you know? And so, cause some people get irritated by wearing pads,
31:37you know? Um, the good thing about our pads is that they're made with beautiful organic cotton,
31:42and then we infuse them with these herbs and then you get the benefit of the herbs. And the other
31:47thing is, it's like aromatherapy for your vulva is beautiful. And like, when you open it up,
31:54you should smell it cause it's gorgeous. I'm excited. I love lavender. My mom, um, always gave
32:00me lavender when I was little, like she would like spray it on the pillow. Yeah. Or like I have the,
32:05I'll take the essential oil. I'll put it on my wrist. I'll like smell it before I go to bed. It's one of
32:09my favorite, favorite, um, scents, favorite herbs. Yeah. Um, okay. So a lot of people want to be an
32:19entrepreneur. They've romanticized it. I think it's become like on social media. I feel like it's
32:23everywhere where people are like, be an entrepreneur. You can live this life. But you know, as somebody
32:29who's worked for myself personally for like over 10 years, I know what it's like, you know? I mean,
32:34as a makeup artist, I started my career as a makeup artist. I used to literally carry like a 50 pound
32:39bag up like five flights of stairs for seven years because like that was the place where I could
32:45afford to live. You know what I mean? So I want you to share, what do you think we're romanticizing
32:51and, and how can you kind of like give it, give it to us straight in terms of like, how,
32:57how do you know someone's going to make it? Can you see it in their eyes?
33:00I am not the sensei of, if somebody's going to make it. Um, I think, first of all, I think you
33:10have to know if you're going to make it right. Um, I, you know, I'm not a, I can't say that.
33:17Um, but I do think it's very important when you want to be in business that you have the ability to
33:24focus. A lot of times when we go into business, we want to be like, I want to do this. And then
33:31you start doing that. And then you realize what it actually takes to make money and be successful
33:38at the thing. And you're not necessarily making the amount of money you want to make. So you're
33:42like, okay, maybe I can go start this thing. Right. And I'm gonna go start this thing. And then it's
33:48gonna feed into this thing. And then, you know, and then the same thing happens with that. And then
33:54you go and do the next thing. And you're like, I got five businesses.
34:02Yeah. But y'all, if you want to be successful at a thing, you got to put your head down.
34:10Now you can have a job, right? Because it's, you know, I believe that it's important, especially
34:18when you're first starting a company and it's your first one, you know, and you're, and you're
34:22hustling and grinding at it. It's okay. If you got to have a, if you got to have a job that that's
34:29your, that, that that's your side hustle so that you can eat so that everything your business makes
34:35can go right back into your business. But you're not gonna, I don't want to, I don't want to say
34:42what you're not going to do, but I will, I want to be responsible with my words, but I will say that
34:48it's really hard to be successful when you're all over the place. Right. I think the art to being
34:56successful is knowing, it's knowing when is being really tapped into your intuition. It is deeply
35:03believing in yourself. I mean, like, like in a religious way. Right. Because, you know,
35:11no disrespect to what anybody believes. This is just what I believe. We are all made in the image
35:17of God, which means that we are God. Right. And so we all have the ability to do and dream and be the
35:27things that we want to be. But there is some stuff that you got to have because not everybody's going
35:37to be successful. Right. Not everybody's going to have a multi hundred million dollar or billion
35:43dollar exit. Right. Not everybody's going to be able to raise millions of dollars. Right.
35:50Some people don't even need to raise. Some people just need to build a business that's a lifestyle
35:55business and it makes a couple hundred thousand a year and you can live on that. And that's dope.
36:00Right. I think that we romanticize the things that we see, not realizing that it's almost an anomaly
36:10to be able to sell your business, to be able to make hundreds of millions of dollars. That's why
36:16everybody can't do it. Right. It's not meant for all of us to do. But that doesn't mean that all of us
36:25can't be successful at doing what is meant for us to do. Does that make sense? Yeah. You know.
36:32Follow yours. Follow yours, man. Like, like, like, get, dream, keep your eye on the prize, stay focused,
36:42grind, grind, hustle, do what you got to do, but don't compare yourself. Right. Don't be like, oh,
36:49I see that. I want to do that. You know, or I think that's one of the ways that social media
36:55has plagued us because it sells a dream because nobody tells you what it really takes in order to
37:07scale. You know, it's rough. Right. By the time you've scaled and made a hundred million dollar
37:15business, you might own 10% of your company. You may, if you own 20, you're winning. You understand
37:23what I'm saying? Now, don't make me wrong. 20% or 10% of a pie that could sell for multi hundreds of
37:33millions of dollars. That's a lot of money. So don't, so don't be afraid of that. Right. But you,
37:40but, but, but just know that it, it, it, it's not, it's not sweet. It's not, it's not in me. It's not
37:48amazing. It's not, it's not fun. There's fun moments. There's amazing moments, but most of the time
37:57is really hard, you know, and anything can happen. Anything can fall out of the sky. Tomorrow, all of
38:06this stuff could just leave. Right. And I think you also have to be humble enough and kind enough with
38:15yourself to understand that, you know, and I think the other thing that's important is that you're good
38:22to the people that help you get there and you treat them like human beings and you love on them and you
38:31respect them and you appreciate them because we can't get anywhere without help, without the people
38:37that help us to, you know what I mean? And so I, there's a lot that goes into if you're going to be
38:44successful in all the things, some of it's luck, some of it's God, some of it's just pure hustle and
38:51grind. Some of it's stuff that nobody can teach you. You just have to, you just have to be born
38:56with it. You know, you just have to be born with it, you know? And, and so it's like, I can't say
39:04what those things are, but if you got it, you got it, you know? I love that. Thank you. I love when
39:13V talks. I've been like, so, you know, I love when you talk and you just like, you go into this mode
39:19where you're just like, it's like stream of consciousness and it's such a beautiful experience.
39:23Just, I was just like sitting like, thank you. Yes. Cause you know, I, I, I really appreciate
39:29that, but it is a stream of consciousness and I, I don't, I don't take this lightly.
39:36Um, build that, you know, I'm, I'm extremely grateful that I was born with the gifts that I've
39:42been born with, you know, that, that it was destined for me to, to, to create honeypot. I'm,
39:48I'm just grateful for that. And I don't, I don't say any of it with ego, you know? Um, but it is a
39:55stream of consciousness when you're making things for people to use on their body. You have to do that.
40:03Well, you know, you just have to, because this is, I make things that people use on their vagina,
40:11on their baby's vaginas on that. You understand? So it's, it's, it has to be a stream of consciousness
40:17because, you know, it's just, it's not, it's not something to take lightly. This is how we come
40:27here. This is a portal. It's a universe. It's a beautiful thing. And so I, so this is, you know,
40:34this is like a religion for me, y'all, you know, I love that. Um, what changes do you think we need
40:41to make as women with our, with our bodies? Like specifically black women, what do you feel like
40:47we don't know about ourselves? Actually quite the opposite. I think we do know about ourselves.
40:53Okay. Tell me more. I can, I'm never going to say what somebody doesn't know about themselves.
40:58Cause I don't know what you don't know. I don't even know what I don't know, you know?
41:02And the, the, the, the, you know, Erica said it and somebody else wise said it before. If we know
41:08anything is that we don't know anything. Um, I think that, I think that we do know, I think that
41:16we have to tap into our bodies. I think that all of us are intuitive. Um, I think that when your body
41:25has, when your body has an illness, all that it's doing is communicating to you that something's wrong,
41:31that there is a dis-ease, that there is a, uh, that something is off balance, that some hormone is
41:38off, that something is broken. Right. And so I think that like, for me, the impetus of Honeypot,
41:51I was getting BV every month. Something's not right. Right. Um, you know, and so I think,
41:58I think it's tapping into yourself is tapping into your intuition. I think that, um, it's looking
42:05at what you're eating. Are you drinking water? Right. Are you stopping to take a breath? Are you
42:11going to bed? How much sleep are you getting at night? You know, uh, what did you eat yesterday?
42:17You know what I'm saying? So I think just being really tapped into your, to your body, because
42:23this is what we came here. This is really like, all we have y'all, like all the other stuff is made up.
42:31Right. The, the money, the, the, the experiences, the things we use on our body, all that stuff
42:38is made up, but our, our bodies are real, you know, and, and it's a part of nature. And so I,
42:50so like, I would say that you do know, and when you know, I think that it's important for you to go
43:00and seek counsel, follow your intuition, follow your intuition, go to the doctor,
43:06take supplements. If you can afford it, don't just see a red, a regular medical doctor,
43:12see an integrative medical doctor or a functional medical doctor, not just a naturopath. That's a
43:20different type of doctor, right? A functional doctor actually practices, um, Western medicine
43:27medicine and they practice Eastern medicine, right? They're an actual MD that's gone to medical
43:33school, but they see the balance of both, right? The thing that's unfortunate is that those doctors
43:40don't typically take insurance. So you might have to stack up your bread to go see a, see that doctor,
43:47right? But that might mean not doing something else so that you can do that. But like, so what I would
43:55say is just invest your money and your time and your body and your soul and your gut and, you know,
44:03and taking, cause your, our gut is where everything lives, you know? And so, you know, so I think we
44:10know we just, we just have to tap into ourselves and we have to be willing to make the sacrifice
44:16to do it. Cause self-care is real hard. These are easy words that we've been conditioned to,
44:22but really caring for yourself. It's hard and it can be expensive.
44:27Yeah. Um, I want to finish this, uh, with one last question. Thank you so much. Um, thank you
44:33everybody for being here. Thank you guys. I appreciate your time. Yeah. Give yourself a round of applause.
44:38I'm actually curious how many people in the audience, if you want to raise your hand,
44:41are entrepreneurs right now? Like you have your own business. Okay. What about anybody who is
44:47thinking about starting something, but you haven't started it yet? Raise your hand.
44:52Okay. Okay. We got more people that have already started it. That's cool. I like that.
44:57All right. So the last question I have is, um, this show is called It Takes a Village and I love to
45:03highlight different people as you continue to grow your business, but I would love for you to
45:08highlight somebody specifically, either personally or professionally, that has really helped you
45:13along your journey. I would say, I would say right now the person that's coming to mind is my president
45:22of the company. Uh, her name is Allie and she, um, she's really tapped in, you know, like she's really,
45:32and she really, she wants to, she wants to us to be successful. She wants to, you know, um, and I,
45:42I just, I wouldn't be able to do it without her, you know? Um, and so she's a person that,
45:49and not, it's not just her, like the entire team is the village, you know? Um, you know,
45:56but I, if I shouted anybody out, it would probably be her at this moment. That's amazing. Okay. Can you
46:02tell everybody where they can follow you, where they can buy Honey Pot? Yes. I hope everybody buys
46:07it today. I love it so much. So we, thank you, sister. Um, so you can find me at, I am B E A
46:16Dixon, D I X O N. Um, or you can find Honey Pot at the Honey Pot Co. On all the social handles. Um,
46:26Honey Pot is sold nationwide in Target, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Meijer. I mean, honestly,
46:36if you go to the Honey Pot dot co and go to the store locator, you can literally just put in your
46:42zip code. And I am so grateful to say that we have finally made it y'all. There's probably a store
46:49real close to your house. Amen. Anywhere that you can go. Yes. Amen. I love that. I say I'm
46:56grateful. I love that. And you can, you can follow me at Delina Medhin, D E L I N A M E D H I N.
47:03The name of my show is It Takes a Village. You can follow us on all social media. Thank you so
47:07much B for doing this. Thank you Delina for, for bringing me here. Thank you. Thank you everybody
47:12for listening and for being here. I really, really appreciate it. Thank you. Have a great day.
47:19Bye.
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