00:00Hello, hello. My name is Dijon Smith. I'm the founder and CEO of My Block Skin and I'm here
00:04with Ebony. The name My Block Skin comes from a few different areas. One, it's paying homage to
00:10my Jamaican heritage and My Block Skin has been a brand that has been primarily focused on community
00:15around education, dispelling misconceptions and making sure that everyone's protected
00:19when they're on the block. Back in the summer of 2022, I read a report from the American
00:24Dermatology Journal showing that black men were dying from higher rates of skin cancer and
00:29melanoma. And I knew any dermatologist will tell you, wash your face and put on sunscreen. So we
00:34know we always hear black don't crack, but black don't crack if you wear sunscreen. I launched the
00:38brand overseas first. I had an amazing opportunity to do that with Soho House. I knew they were having
00:43their big festival in 2023. After I launched the brand on Juneteenth, we popped up with them the
00:48first week of July. And it was really a way for me to test the brand in front of thousands
00:52of people
00:52to try the product, figure out the formulation and really experience the brand firsthand. And it was
00:58that feedback from the community that really helped propel the brand to where it is right now.
01:02I think the road to your first million as a black founder, it's like climbing Mount Everest,
01:08getting to base camp and just seeing the peak and trying to figure out how you can get there. I
01:15think
01:15for so long, we have been building ourselves, building community, building opportunities for us
01:22to succeed and being thrown down. So I think when you finally do achieve it, it's a wonderful thing.
01:27And it's a representation to show that once you can do it, there's so many other people behind you
01:31that you can pull up. For me specifically, it's a combination of all the things. It's around
01:36ownership. It's around developing intellectual property. It's around accumulating wealth and just
01:43abundance and having that financial freedom to do whatever you desire. For me and my black skin,
01:48that's really what we've been building for the last three years, working with my black chief science
01:52officer out of UCLA to build intellectual property in a space that needs some innovation. The Red Bull
01:58thesis for my black skin is simple. I want to be the Red Bull of the sun care industry. I
02:04know y'all see
02:04Red Bull literally everywhere. Extreme sports, dance, dance, revolution, competitions, summer series.
02:11You see them everywhere. It's a lifestyle. That's where I want my black skin to be. When you're going
02:17to Coachella, when you're going to Afropunk, Afrotech, wherever people are outside convening,
02:22building community, I want you to think about my black skin. If my black skin could collaborate
02:27with any black icon, one would be like a Diana Ross. New Age right now would probably be like a
02:32Kaytranada. I love both music. My black skin, I want to have a follow the sun tour. And these two
02:39artists, I just think about being outside, being under the sun, community, music, vibes, energy, all that good
02:46thing. If I could put one my black skin product in every black household, it would be the clear coat
02:51face. It's the OG product. It's our hero product. And it's the one thing that's going to protect
02:56that mud when folks are going outside. Black skin deserves products that were formulated
03:01and developed with us as a forethought and not as an afterthought.
