The Business of Making Money w/ Bea Dixon

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Calling all my sweeties to the forefront. I'm your host, Christopher, and this is the Keeping Positive Sweetish Show.

00:00:10
Speaker 2: Whether you're tuning in from your couch, your car, or a quiet moment of peace, I want you to take a deep breath and get ready for a little soul work wrapped enjoy because today we're not just talking, we're transforming. Let's get into it and remember keep it positive.

00:00:25
Speaker 3: Sweetie.

00:00:26
Speaker 2: She is a visionary behind the Honey Pop Company, a feminine care brand rooted in plant based healing and sexual wisdom and fearless innovation. What started as a spiritual download became a movement that is now stocked in homes, shelves and hearts across the world.

00:00:42
Speaker 1: Sweet please give.

00:00:43
Speaker 2: A warm welcome to be a Dixon Via. Thank you so much for taking time to be with us today.

00:00:49
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me.

00:00:50
Speaker 2: Of course I've been trying to get you on. Our schedules have been crazy. Yes, this has been a crazy year.

00:00:56
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, flying by. Yeah, I feel like it was just January and we're in June.

00:01:01
Speaker 3: I'm wild. I'm grateful, but it's crazy.

00:01:04
Speaker 1: Yes, so grateful.

00:01:05
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:01:06
Speaker 2: So, for those who don't know, you are the founder and creator of Honeypot. Yes, I went to a panel at the Gathering Spot years ago when you first started, and I remember you telling the story about how this idea came to you in a dream. Can you tell us a little more about that and how Honeypot came to.

00:01:23
Speaker 3: Be the megabusiness? Thank you, honestly, it's it's interesting.

00:01:28
Speaker 4: So I had back to your vaginosis for almost a year, and I tried everything that you can imagine. I tried medicine, so I basically lived on antibiotics for almost eight months, which is.

00:01:44
Speaker 3: Probably part of the reason why I.

00:01:45
Speaker 4: Had problems here, right, because I never really gave my body the time to replenish its microbiome, right, whether that was my gut, my vagina, everything, So I did that. I lived on flagile or cleandamizing or metronide is all you know, for anybody who's had TV, you know what I'm talking about. I also lived on Google, right, which is definitely not the place where you should be when your vagina's acting up.

00:02:18
Speaker 3: And you know, and I tried everything, I mean everything.

00:02:23
Speaker 4: I was talking to people on Google forums trying to figure out what worked for them. We were all just trading advice on what would work.

00:02:30
Speaker 3: It was. It was wild.

00:02:31
Speaker 4: But nothing worked, obviously, because none of the things that I was doing was really sustainable for my body. Until one day my grandmother came to me one morning and basically have told me that she had been walking with me and seeing me struggle, and.

00:02:47
Speaker 3: She knew what to do. You know. It's funny.

00:02:51
Speaker 4: I always imagine her being like, let me go help this baby, because I really I was because what the BV that I had, you know, because there's all different kind of strains of it. There's different variations of how bad or you know, how light it can be. Some people don't even know they have bb right, the kind that I had. Yeah, I mean I was the person that stunk up the bathroom, right, I was the person when I got in a car you could smell me like that happened to me a couple of times.

00:03:23
Speaker 3: And it wasn't just me in the car, you know.

00:03:26
Speaker 4: So it came with a lot of shame, with a lot of stigma, you know, with a lot of embarrassment.

00:03:33
Speaker 3: You know, I just was It just wasn't great, you know.

00:03:38
Speaker 4: And and so when my grandmother came, she literally handed me a piece of paper and she told me that what I needed was on the paper and I needed to memorize it, and so I just started repeating the ingredients over and over again. I had no idea what it was going to be, you know. Yeah, and then finally she told me to wake up. She like, yo, wake up, And so I woke up and I wrote it down. I went to work that day because I worked at Whole Foods, I bought all the stuff. I went home that night made myself. So I have a background in pharmacy. I used to work in ivy rooms and compounding pharmacies and chemo lie. I did all kinds of stuff, and so she knew that if she gave me the ingredients, I would be able to figure out the math to figure out to make myself a formula, you know. And it turned out to be a wash and I started using it right away, and within a few days my symptoms were gone.

00:04:39
Speaker 3: It was wild.

00:04:40
Speaker 1: That's too crazy.

00:04:41
Speaker 3: Wow.

00:04:41
Speaker 2: What do you think is like the most common misconception when it comes to BV because a lot of women struggle with this, But there's so many different Like people think it's something wrong with them.

00:04:52
Speaker 4: People think it's something wrong with them. People think that something's wrong with their partner that they may be having sex with. A lot of relationships can end because of it. And literally it could just be a chemistry thing. You know, if the person that you're having sex with, whether they're from the opposite sex or not, right, yeah, you know, especially if they're from the opposite sex, if they're you know, pH is too high and they're semen, which is normal. The semen is carrying what life right, and so sometimes their pH can be a bit higher. And if your pH was already off and then you had sex, even if all of that didn't come inside of you, right, like, even if it's just the chemistry of pre right, yes, yes, it can still affect you, you know, And so it could just be a chemistry thing. It doesn't mean you're dirty, It doesn't mean they're dirty. It just means that, like the phs aren't matching up, you know, I think you know. Another misconception is people not understanding that whatever you're doing on a daily basis is probably throwing you off.

00:06:06
Speaker 1: Right, can you give us some examples of things that throw people so, Like.

00:06:10
Speaker 4: Examples of things that throw people off are using body wash, your everyday body wash, right, using things like bron or soap. And I used to use that, and it's fine to use it on your body, but it's not made for your volva or your vagina. Right, even though you're not putting an inside of you where your vagina is, whatever you do on the outside is affecting the inside. So using soaps, even bar soaps, certain bar soaps, if they have a high pH, then they're probably gonna throw you off because again, the chemistry of that soap isn't made for that part of your body. It's no different than you're not going to use the same thing on your body on your face. Right, used to use everybody, but you were thugging it out like you didn't have any money. That's what you had to do now, right, and so you know, and even then, I'm sure it was stripping your skin, you know, because the pH of the vaulment and the face are actually very The vagina excuse me, and the face are actually very similar. Yeah, And so you know, So whatever you're doing on a daily basis, pay attention to that.

00:07:17
Speaker 3: You don't need to use washcloths.

00:07:18
Speaker 4: You should just use your hand just when you're you know, cleaning inside your lips and everything.

00:07:24
Speaker 3: You know and actually like after you have sex.

00:07:29
Speaker 4: Actually getting especially if you're a person who's susceptible to any kind of infection, you need to get up.

00:07:35
Speaker 3: You need to go peep, You need to get in the.

00:07:37
Speaker 4: Shower and wash off, right, even if you're gonna get busy again, just you know you have when you're a person who's prone to infection, you have to be hyper vigilant. The moment you're done working out, you need to be changing your panties, right, bringing some wipes, cleaning yourself up a little bit. You know it sounds gross, but after you who don't just use toilet paper bag, you know, no, I mean, use some wipes. If you're in a pinch and all you got is toilet paper, because that happens sometimes the moment you get home, clean yourself up, right, especially if you're wearing a thong or something like that.

00:08:17
Speaker 3: You know, these are all you know.

00:08:19
Speaker 4: It's a lot of misconceptions, right, but when you think about it, if depending on the type of panties you're wearing, especially if it's a thong and you did go to the bathroom and didn't clean up that bacteria, it's just you understand what m something. So like you know, a lot of the issue is overgrowth of bad bacteria. And when the pH is not is above four point five, you have just created an environment. Because our microbiome, whether it's our gut or our vagina, right, our microbiome has good and bad.

00:08:59
Speaker 3: But it's supposed to.

00:09:00
Speaker 4: Yes, and they should be yin and yang, they should be even right. But the moment the right environment presents itself, they will multiply. And they don't multiply by the tens, they multiply by the millions, by the billions. So that's how that's how quickly an infection can come. So that's why using things like our washes are important.

00:09:24
Speaker 3: Right.

00:09:25
Speaker 4: You know, if you're a person who shower, or excuse me, if you're a person who's susceptible to infection, taking a shower in the morning, take a shower at night. It may feel like a lot, right, but it's not. You know when you think of when you've slept all night, you've sweated, you've yes, right, you maybe you didn't wear panties, Maybe you did.

00:09:47
Speaker 3: Maybe maybe you're a person who wears full pajama. You understand what I'm saying.

00:09:51
Speaker 4: All those things create environments, and so you know, it's just important to keep yourself clean, cleep, yourself dry, you know, yeah, take care of yourself.

00:10:02
Speaker 1: No, I use your product.

00:10:03
Speaker 2: Ever since that panel that you spoke on with Malika, I started using your phone wash And that was the first time I'd heard that we were supposed to wash with our hands and not with our rags. From a kid to the do you know, my mom did teach us, like, use a different rag for your face and your body, but we were using the same rag for everything, not thinking that you're especially like when you're not washing the rag, you're done, brand new rag every day, which you should be, yes, right, exactly every shower.

00:10:34
Speaker 3: Right. If you're a person who uses wash cloths, then you should change your wash cloths, yes, every day.

00:10:41
Speaker 4: And you probably should be at least every year, you know, or if you're a crazy person like me, every six months changing your washcloths.

00:10:50
Speaker 3: Right, you should be changing your panties at least once a year.

00:10:54
Speaker 4: Like that means ones that you frequent and wear all not the cute ones, not the fly ones when you like, you know, get dressed up and all the things, but like, you know, the panties you wear on a daily basis, yes, because we all have those. You should be recycling those like like the like that should be happening every six months. Yeah, right, and these are things that we aren't aware of when right, and even if you can't do it every six months, at least do it once, you know, once once.

00:11:23
Speaker 1: A year good refresh.

00:11:25
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you.

00:11:26
Speaker 4: Know, bacteria, whether you watch it or not, it's still present.

00:11:32
Speaker 2: And then it goes like to even like your detergents of her detergents.

00:11:35
Speaker 3: Oh yeah.

00:11:35
Speaker 1: And then the fabrics of your underwear.

00:11:38
Speaker 4: Cotton, yeah, should be what you wear on a daily basis. Again, when you're trying to be cute, be cute, you know, wear your cute little les, do your thing, but on a daily basis, you should.

00:11:50
Speaker 3: You should wear a cotton panty.

00:11:51
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, our vaginas just aren't set up for all these different types of materials.

00:11:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm learning so much, as like to have these conversations and even like Instagram on how they'll let you know, like even though tampons in the paths, which I love that you use pure cotton. You know, like everything that you that you put out is good for us down there, you know, And as we get older, Like for me, I'm getting older. I sweated at night, I sweat throughout the day, and I keep those whites on me yes, and they're good for everything. You can use those on your face, your arms, everywhere everything. That's why I love to see I've used them. I know, of course no, but that is something that you have to keep with you. You know, when you got this idea from your grandmother, you built this with your brother. What was that like working with him and building because I know a lot of times family dynamics can be weird when it comes to working. What was it like building this, this this brand with him?

00:12:48
Speaker 3: It was beautiful?

00:12:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, you started in your apartment, where did you guys?

00:12:53
Speaker 3: Start with this in my in my.

00:12:57
Speaker 4: House, and then in his office and then back to my house.

00:13:02
Speaker 3: Wow.

00:13:03
Speaker 4: And then and then we rented like a loft and then he was moving, was moving and decided to get an apartment, and then we we used the loft as our where he lived is the office. And then yeah, so that's amazing, but it was beautiful.

00:13:25
Speaker 3: I love that.

00:13:27
Speaker 2: Were there ever any moments where you were like all right? Like of course, because I feel like everybody that works in the family.

00:13:33
Speaker 1: It's always like those little moments where you're like, I.

00:13:36
Speaker 4: Think, whether you're working with family or not, those moments are gonna happen. Yeah, and when and normally you spend a lot of time with the people you work with, you know, and so sometimes you're not gonna.

00:13:48
Speaker 3: Agree, you know.

00:13:49
Speaker 4: Sometimes things are gonna be hard. Sometimes you're gonna go through periods of not talking. So you know, like all kinds of things can happen, no, for sure, Yeah, but when the love is there, you know it'll get back eventually.

00:14:01
Speaker 1: Absolutely.

00:14:02
Speaker 3: Yes.

00:14:03
Speaker 2: Being a honeypot was it came through a spiritual download. How has your purpose for this brand grown over the years.

00:14:11
Speaker 4: It's always been grounded in that it still is, you know, because I you know, I just feel like it has to be many times, anytime the ancestors gift us with anything, I think that it has to be held with a certain care or regard, you know, because normally when that happens, there's probably a lot of purpose behind it, absolutely, you know, And so it remains to be the most important part of what we are and who we are.

00:14:46
Speaker 3: You know.

00:14:46
Speaker 4: Our goals here are to serve humanity, to serve humans first, you know, to be good to each other, you know what I mean, And so you know, and so it's at the helm of what.

00:14:58
Speaker 2: We do and piggybacks off my next question stand in alignment with your why in an industry that's constantly shifting, how do you stay focused on this is what we're doing, but it's so many different things happening and shifting in the beauty industry and in the wellness industry.

00:15:16
Speaker 4: We work really hard to stay focused because it's, like you said, it's easy because of the industry, and it's just easy to want to do everything, but you can't do everything. If you do everything, you're doing nothing, you know. And so we've worked really hard to you know, to create rules of engagement for ourselves for how we operate as a company, right. We've worked really hard to create rules of engagement for how we innovate products, right, for how we speak to people, for how we sell things to our retailers, for you know, And so everything is pretty much done with a lot of order, you know, kind of because it just has to be, you know, because we do know that we are in an ever changing environment, and that doesn't mean that things don't shift and change, Because things shift and change all the time, you know, especially when it comes to how we bring products to market.

00:16:22
Speaker 3: Sometimes we need to pull things up.

00:16:24
Speaker 4: Sometimes we need to push things back, you know, because you have to pay attention to what to what your customers are telling. You have to pay attention to what's happening in the world. You have to you know what I mean, and so you know, and so things constantly ebb and flow. But I think we really try to keep our finger on the pulse and really have values about us that we don't deviate from, you know, that kind of just sit at the cornerstone of who we are and what we do.

00:16:58
Speaker 2: That when the noise gets lacked, I know, it can get loud sometimes and you have to make these big business decisions.

00:17:05
Speaker 1: How do you stay true to your truth and say no?

00:17:07
Speaker 2: Because I know, like sometimes when they throw the right dollar amount or it's like this is an opportunity of a lifetime, how do you like stay true to your truth and how you say where it started was founded off of.

00:17:19
Speaker 4: I think, look, if something is thrown at us and it makes sense and it can be done, yeah, then we'll find a way to do it. But if something is thrown at us, it can't just be about money. Yeah, you know, it has to be It has to be layered. It has to be able to serve the humans we serve. It has to be able. Money is a part of the conversation because it needs to be especially if we're going to rush something or whatever the situation is, right, it needs to be able to work operationally. It needs to be able to you know, to flow through our through our kind of through our system of how we innovate and how we bring things to market. You know, there's a whole system, like we're working to be two three years ahead, right because when you're constantly kind of hand to mouth, especially when it comes to creating products, especially the way we do it, because we need to clinically test and we need to you know, and sometimes we have to like choose a different type of test or you know what I mean.

00:18:30
Speaker 3: And so it's so it can be.

00:18:32
Speaker 4: Difficult, you know, but I think that it still has to It still has to check the boxes.

00:18:42
Speaker 3: Yea.

00:18:42
Speaker 4: If it doesn't check the boxes, then it doesn't make sense. Then we can't do it right exactly. You're you said something clinically testing things. I'm really interested to know, like what is the whole process of going from the kitchen to the labs to the shelves, because it seems like it's not. It's a million things happened before a product goes on the shelf. Hundreds, if not thousands of man hours have gone in. You know, we are validating with customers, We're validating with our retailers. We're validating with data, We're validating with gut, we're validating with team. You know, we're running pilots to make sure that it's going to flow right in production were before it even gets there where we have to do probably multiple iterations of the thing to make sure it has the right feel, it has the right smell, it has the right amount of herbs in it, it had you know, like.

00:19:45
Speaker 3: You know, we have a.

00:19:48
Speaker 4: Whole system for how we even start to vet things right that that is a multi that's a multi kind of prong process us. You know, like we have different we have gate cards, and before a product can even get to everything that I just described, it has to go through a gate process.

00:20:10
Speaker 1: Oh wow.

00:20:11
Speaker 4: And that you know, like we have to bring it to market or we have to bring the idea up.

00:20:16
Speaker 3: We have to love it, we have to you know, we have to lock it.

00:20:19
Speaker 4: We have to, like, there's so many things that happened, so many things that happen. We have a brand team, our you know, our brand team has to be involved. Our sales team has to be involved, our ops team has to be involved, Marketing has to be involved.

00:20:34
Speaker 3: Campaigns have to be built. Like it's wild, you know, yeah, it's crazy.

00:20:39
Speaker 2: So how did like, as an entrepreneur, I'm just fascinated, how do you go about building all those different departments to make this machine run?

00:20:48
Speaker 4: It takes time, you know, it takes time. It takes it takes money, it takes years.

00:20:59
Speaker 3: Yeah, it takes having the right.

00:21:04
Speaker 4: It takes having the right leadership team and the right strategic minds in the right place, you know, because when you have that, when you have the top built, then then it's easier to build out through the rest of the organization because you have the right minds that are hiring the right people.

00:21:22
Speaker 3: You know.

00:21:24
Speaker 4: But it takes time, you know, I mean it, what's the same Rome wasn't built in a day, right, I mean we're we started in twenty twelve. Was this thirteen years later? You know, we're just now in the past. Couple of years able to have a brand team and you know, like we've always had a sales team and a marketing team, and you know, but we've we've really built out a beautiful marketing structure that kind of operates like an agency kind of, you know. But again, it just takes time, and you have to you have to you have to let the time. You kind of have to let it take the time that it's gonna take because there's a lot that you need to know before you even get there. Yes, you know, you know, and so it's it's I think it requires a lot of patience, you know, but it's really important because that's one of the hardest things right about being in business is having the right team.

00:22:33
Speaker 1: Yes, so important.

00:22:35
Speaker 4: We've always been lucky to find the right people at the right time based on where we were, you know, and when we when we worked with VMG, which was you know, our first private equity fund, not our first round of funding. They weren't our first investors, but they really they really brought a ton of expertise and they were able to really wrapped their arms around us, not that our previous investors couldn't.

00:23:04
Speaker 3: But VMG just had a.

00:23:08
Speaker 4: They had they had an internal head hunting service. They had access to really expensive data they had they had the access to the need to the things that we needed that we wouldn't have been able to afford, right you, You cannot afford a head hunting service at when you're eight or ten million dollar business, right like, like you maybe can do it for one or two employees, but it's just hard.

00:23:35
Speaker 3: It's hard to do, you know.

00:23:37
Speaker 4: And when we got with them, that's how big we were, you know, or small we were rather.

00:23:43
Speaker 3: You know, a big or small.

00:23:44
Speaker 4: I guess it is relative based on what the size of your businesses. But for in CpG, that's a that's a pretty small business, you know. And so because they were able to come in and really help us to build structure around our team and help us to build structure around the way we built the business, help us to build structure around our operations. Because in our type of business, because we sit in all different parts of the regulatory system through the FDA, you know, regulatory is really important and that really lives in ops, you know. And so I think it's having it's not necessarily always about you knowing what you need, but having the right people surrounding you that, you know, which they were the they were the type of.

00:24:35
Speaker 3: Investors that it wasn't just about money.

00:24:37
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, we were at the stage in our business where, you know, like we didn't we didn't just need money, We needed all the things because that's what we were about to hit scale, you know, and we did after that, you know, and we were poison.

00:24:56
Speaker 3: We weren't ready for it, but we got ready.

00:24:59
Speaker 1: Got ready. How did you get ready for that?

00:25:01
Speaker 2: And what did that pressure feel like knowing that it's here and we're not ready at.

00:25:08
Speaker 3: They felt wild?

00:25:11
Speaker 4: But we've always been able to do things we weren't necessarily technically ready for. I think I think we were ready to do it because if if we weren't ready, the opportunity wouldn't have presented itself.

00:25:25
Speaker 3: But when you looked at the business.

00:25:28
Speaker 4: Where we were as a company, and like the way that the way our team was set up and all that kind of stuff, like if you were just looking at us, you would be like, oh, y'all are ready?

00:25:36
Speaker 3: You know what I mean? Yeah?

00:25:38
Speaker 4: In fact, you know, uh, we had we had talked, we had pitched VMG at first, and they had just they had told us that it wasn't the right time. And then we got that, we got that commercial with Target, and then it went viral and then they were like.

00:25:54
Speaker 3: Yep, you know what we said. You know what we said it one time.

00:25:59
Speaker 4: You know it's probably time, you know, And it was because our business tripled that next year, you know.

00:26:06
Speaker 3: It was it was a wild so so like even though we weren't.

00:26:10
Speaker 1: Ready, we got ready.

00:26:11
Speaker 4: And I think, I think when it comes to business, that's the important part, is that you know that you have the ability to get ready and do whatever it's gonna take. And that's hard because not everybody is set up that way.

00:26:26
Speaker 1: They're not. You know, that's so true.

00:26:28
Speaker 2: Yes, from the time that you got the ingredients, how fast did you jump on it and take that leap of faith to say, I'm gonna quit my job at Whole Foods and I'm going for this full throttle.

00:26:40
Speaker 3: None of us quit our jobs. We didn't. We didn't. None of us quit our jobs. I was the first person.

00:26:46
Speaker 4: Well, Antoine was working full time, Honeypot, me, Si, Linda, We all still had our full time work. And by this time I wasn't working at Whole Foods anymore.

00:27:05
Speaker 3: I was a broker.

00:27:07
Speaker 4: And then I had gotten a job as a as a as an area sales manager for a company called Rhythm Superfoods, and that was actually my last job. I didn't stop working that job until we were seven months into target.

00:27:24
Speaker 3: Wow.

00:27:25
Speaker 1: See, I love to hear that because a lot of people think that.

00:27:27
Speaker 4: You definitely shouldn't quit your job, right, Yeah, honey Pop wouldn't have been able. It couldn't have.

00:27:35
Speaker 3: I don't believe that you should quit.

00:27:38
Speaker 4: Your job until your business can pay you at bare minimum, at least eighty percent of what your current salary is enough to get by. You know, I think my salary at the time was, I don't know, fifty thousand wasn't a lot of money.

00:27:58
Speaker 3: I had a job, though, and.

00:28:01
Speaker 4: So unless honey Pot was going to be able to pay me that, then I couldn't quit my job because, you know, because I needed to eat, I needed to keep a roof. You know, I was in I was in a marriage then. I'm completely out of that marriage now, thank god, But you know I was. I was doing a lot at that time. You know, if I was a just rely on honeypot, I would have been it was already desperate situation.

00:28:27
Speaker 3: It would have been even more desperate.

00:28:28
Speaker 4: And that's not really a position you want to put yourself in when you're running.

00:28:32
Speaker 3: A business, No, for sure.

00:28:34
Speaker 2: So we talk about going from fifty thousand dollars a year to millions, and I love talking about financial literacy. What were some of the things that you had to learn fast from going from that much money to millions of dollars and what were the adjustments that you had to make.

00:28:51
Speaker 3: I'm still adjusting.

00:28:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah, I can imagine.

00:28:56
Speaker 1: It's a lot.

00:28:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, it is a lot. But I'm grateful, you know. I think.

00:29:04
Speaker 4: You know that's saying money, more money, more problems. I won't say it's more money, more problems. But things present themselves based on where you are in your life, and you know, and you just have to do what you have to do.

00:29:23
Speaker 3: You know.

00:29:24
Speaker 4: I've had several things present themselves and I've been able to handle it and take care of it. But the good thing about when you are a multi millionaire is that you're not necessarily touching your money. Your money sits in the market, and you borrow against your money right while your money is growing, and then and then you you know, and then you you you pay your your your low interest rate, and you just keep it pushing, you know, and and then you pay it off as you go. But you don't put yourself in a position where you're where you're spending your own cash. Sometimes you might have to dip into it, and that's that's okay. But I think that that's a positive adjustment.

00:30:11
Speaker 3: You know.

00:30:11
Speaker 4: That was something that I had to learn that I had to wrap my mind around because you know, I you know, I come not from nothing, but you know, my mom never had money.

00:30:25
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying. We were homeless when I was a kid.

00:30:28
Speaker 4: I was homeless when I you know, at one time when I moved to Atlanta, you know, for we were homeless for a couple of months.

00:30:35
Speaker 3: You know.

00:30:36
Speaker 4: So I'm saying all that to say that, like, I know what it is to have like to be at bottom at zero, you know, And so it makes you value what it is when you have amassed wealth.

00:30:54
Speaker 3: But also what.

00:30:54
Speaker 4: Happens when that happens, which is interesting, is you have to work with yourself to not have the mentality of you know.

00:31:06
Speaker 3: Of when you were rubbing wooden Nicholas together.

00:31:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you have and I don't have a scarcity mindset at all. I have a very abundant mindset. But that doesn't mean that every now and again some scarcity creeps in for a little bit of fear creeps in, or you forget what you have or how to or like, you know, I don't necessarily know how to handle all this like it's new to me, very new, you know.

00:31:34
Speaker 3: And so.

00:31:37
Speaker 4: You know, I'm just I'm growing as I you know, just doing my best.

00:31:41
Speaker 3: I love it.

00:31:41
Speaker 2: Who are some of the people that you reached out to say, Hey, like, I've I recruit all this income, now I need help trying to manage it.

00:31:48
Speaker 3: Well.

00:31:48
Speaker 4: I was able to set us up pretty good with our trust and all the stuff, which I'm grateful for. And then you know, you just have you have your wealth advisors around you. You have you know, you should keep other people around you, other kind of advisors that you can talk to, because you should never just trust what one person is saying. You should always get a couple different opinions. You should always be taking your portfolio and maybe taking it somewhere else for somebody to look at so they can be like, hey, you know, maybe you should think about it like X, Y and Z.

00:32:21
Speaker 3: That doesn't mean, you have to move it, but.

00:32:23
Speaker 4: You should, you know what I mean, Like you should you should keep yourself aware of what's going on. And you also should make sure that the people that are managing your cash value it and appreciate it, because you can take that anywhere, you know. But just having the right people around you, I think is important. And one thing that Side taught me a long time ago is to kind of forget about my bread. So really, honestly, unless it's a big thing, that shit don't even exist, you know. I just live off of what I make, you know, you know, and so and if and if I need something, which is normally it has to be a big thing. Yeah, and normally that big thing is another asset or something like that. So really I'm just taking one asset and moving into another asset, you know. You know, And so that that's the way I think about it. But that's very rudimentary, you know. But but yeah, but thank you for asking.

00:33:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, no, I'm telling you.

00:33:31
Speaker 2: I'm this is because I'm a growing entrepreneur making a lot more money than I've ever made before. So I love asking yes and having the community community to ask, so like to have access to you to be able to say, hey, bea what did you do?

00:33:45
Speaker 3: What are you doing? Yes? Exactly, yeah, I mean.

00:33:51
Speaker 4: We we all each want to teach one absolutely, yeah, definitely don't.

00:33:55
Speaker 3: I don't know anything at all. I'm just doing my best, you know.

00:33:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, you're doing an amazing job.

00:34:00
Speaker 3: Yes.

00:34:01
Speaker 2: When it comes to owning beauty brands, especially in the black space, oftentimes when owners sell, our community says all they sold out instead of selling up. You know, it is very much ridiculous. You sold honeypot for three hundred and eighty million dollars, mind blowing. Take me to that moment when you inside decided, hey it's time.

00:34:24
Speaker 1: Who approached you? How did it like? How did it come about?

00:34:28
Speaker 3: So here's the thing you need to know.

00:34:29
Speaker 4: Because we built, because we we had several rounds of funding. One of those investors was a venture capital. One of those investors was a private equity fund. We have the original investors from the beginning, right. Nobody is investing money in your business to just let it sit there come nobody is so. So if you invest your money in the stock market, you invested in the stock market for what. If you have a four oh one K, you invested in the four oh one k for what because you want it to grow, so it grows hopefully you have investments that have dividends and pay you back. Hopefully you have enough even if you just had one hundred thousand dollars in the market. And if you know, if you had one hundred thousand dollars in the market, easy numbers, and you're able to get I don't know, seven percent on that, that's seven thousand dollars, right, ten percent on that's ten thousand dollars. Yeah, that's that's money that you're getting back every year if the market's doing well. Right, So, having a business and having an investor is the same exact thing. But the only thing is is these investors have to wait much longer than putting their money in the market. Right they could they could put their bread in the market and it could just grow and then they don't even have to think about it.

00:36:01
Speaker 3: They don't have to be involved. Or what if a business fails?

00:36:05
Speaker 4: What if it doesn't, but if there's terrible moments, what if something anything can happen? Right, So when when I hear that that statement, or even when I when I've experienced it and passed it makes me a little bit sad because we should be happy because it does not happen every day that you know.

00:36:30
Speaker 3: And even what we did it wasn't a full sell.

00:36:33
Speaker 4: It was it was a strategic It was a partnership with another public private equity fund, right, but we needed to make our investors that had been along the journey with us since the beginning, we needed to make them whole. So when it comes to who, you know, how did it come about? It had to come about because when you sign with a private equity fund, when they invest money, they need that return on their investment within four to five years.

00:37:05
Speaker 3: We were coming up on that time.

00:37:07
Speaker 4: You never want to be in a position where you've signed a contract and and and it said that you have to wrap it up within four to five years, either i PO and or selling. But nobody they don't really want you to i PO. They want you to sell because they want to get their money back now.

00:37:25
Speaker 3: And so.

00:37:29
Speaker 4: You never want to be in a position where they are on you to do the thing.

00:37:36
Speaker 3: Right.

00:37:37
Speaker 4: You never want to be in a position where you sign this, you sign this, it's not your choice. We're going to take you to market. Not that they would have done that, but they could have done that, absolutely right, and we didn't want to put ourselves in that situation. Plus, once your business gets to you know, high numbers, you know, in the in the early nine figures, that's also when it's time because you don't want your business to be so big that you can't find the right partner for the time that you're in business. Ends, right, We were lucky that we found a private equity partner, in the private equity partner that we did, because that gave us the opportunity to have a second bite at the apple.

00:38:22
Speaker 3: Right.

00:38:22
Speaker 4: And so you know, I'm giving you details so that we can understand as a community what these things look like.

00:38:29
Speaker 2: Yeah, because and that they're speaking from ignorance because they don't know.

00:38:33
Speaker 4: Don't understand what it looks like. And that's okay. But when you don't understand, say you don't understand, yes, don't hold founders to a to a standard that you think is right in your mind. But you have no idea. Nobody's selling out. We're just doing what people in business do. Take my color out of your mind, take my vagina out of your mind. I'm a businessman like anybody else, right, right, And you're a business person like anybody else, right, and nobody should expect you to do anything because you're a black woman. These are constructs that aren't real, right. So we are doing what we have to do. We're minding our business, right, we're growing our company.

00:39:23
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, y'all.

00:39:24
Speaker 4: Anybody that's in business, hopefully you're in it to make money.

00:39:28
Speaker 3: So that's what business is for. Right.

00:39:33
Speaker 4: When you look at what it takes to get to even the level of success that we are at now. The amount of stress, the amount of time, the amount of energy, the amount of manpower, the amount of money, the amount of investors, the amount of airplanes, the amount of hotels, the amount of eating out, the amount of weight, the the amount of sacrifice that it takes to do this.

00:40:11
Speaker 3: It should make you rich.

00:40:13
Speaker 4: That's the point, he said, Listen, that's the point.

00:40:19
Speaker 3: What is the point.

00:40:20
Speaker 4: I'm supposed to just put myself through slavery and broke and be broke. And I'm not belittling what our ancestors had to go through. But if I was doing this just to do it, that would be a version of enslaving myself. I'm sorry, and I'm not a slave to anything. I'm definitely not a slave to what people think about me when I'm just doing what I'm supposed to do.

00:40:47
Speaker 3: Right.

00:40:47
Speaker 4: If you decide that you don't want to sell your business, that is your business, but you don't tell me what to do with mine, right, because it's none of yours your business, it's mine.

00:41:02
Speaker 3: Right.

00:41:03
Speaker 4: If you decide that you want to have a business, it's around for the next hundred years that you only own.

00:41:09
Speaker 3: Do that. Do that?

00:41:11
Speaker 4: That's that's beautiful that you want to do that. I want to I want to build dope things. And this isn't the only dope thing I want to do, right and so, but but it's probably the main thing that will that will help me to amass the wealth that will make it possible for me to do the other things that I dream of doing right. Right, So then in those other things, I can just be creative. I don't have to do it trying to trying to be wealthy because I'm already wealthy. And I'm not saying that's a flex I'm just saying that because it's true truth. I can just do dope shit with my friends because that's what I want to do, right, not because I need this to I need this to need. I don't want to operate like that. But if you want to operate like that, do that. I don't want to live and struggle. I like money, Yes, I like having multiple houses. I like traveling, I like you understand. I like beautiful art. I love beautiful clothes. I like somebody cooking me food. I like getting my house cleaned every day. What does it take to do that?

00:42:25
Speaker 3: Money? I like that. I need that.

00:42:30
Speaker 4: Right and I've experienced that, and there's no back sies on that. Yes, true, so you know, but that's what I want for my life. And that's nobody's business but mine. So nobody should have any say so about what I'm deciding to do. It's just not cool, you know. And I feel like we need to do a better job. I met with my best on my best friends her mom is like a meditation coach, and we were talking about we were talking about meditation, but how there's a lot of things that you need to do before you even get to sit down to the place where you're sitting. There's so many different types of meditations that you need to do before you even sit down to meditate.

00:43:19
Speaker 3: You need to you need to let go of some baggage.

00:43:22
Speaker 4: You need, you know, like there's some things that you need to address, you need to understand when you're what are the things you're doing when you're not minding your own business? Come on, right, what's the what's the she? What does she say? It was like emotional something. She she was saying, how we like, we're in conversation with somebody with a friend and they're telling us how something's wrong, and we just want to jump in and fix it. And she's like, that's none of your business unless somebody ask you.

00:43:54
Speaker 3: You should just mind, George, because.

00:43:55
Speaker 4: You know what, you probably don't even have the emotional bandwidth to do that at And it's so true, you know so when so, I'm not trying to just I'm not trying to be mean or disrespectful, but I just think whenever any of us as black people are able to be successful and are able to grow our companies and scale them and make millions of dollars and sell them or I p O them or whatever it is that we're trying to do, that should only be good for our culture. That should never be And sure, whoever you, whoever goes in to buy it, sure they may change something right. But change is inevitable, you know. It just it just is, you know, and you know, and and so I just think that we need to do a better job as a community, lifting each other up, not not putting these expectations on one another, that that we wouldn't put ourselves, we wouldn't hold to ourselves. It's easy to hold an you know, to hold a mirror up to somebody else and tell them what you think they should be doing.

00:45:11
Speaker 3: But it's not easy to look in it, you know.

00:45:14
Speaker 4: And I just I just want us to do better, you know, because I listen. Because let me tell you something. I'm not a I don't sell out. That's not what I do. I'm true to myself. I'm true, you know. I'm true to myself. I'm true to my ancestors. I'm a good person. I'm good to people. Sometimes I'm too good, you know what I mean. And I know that about myself. So there's nothing that anybody can say to me that's gonna make me think different. But it is something. When millions of people are putting their energy in your direction, we need to be more responsible with that because that's not very kind. That we need to do better about this cancel culture stuff. We need to do better about it. Because when when all these lies are spread in this big, massive game of telephone is happening, there is a person at the other end of that. And you should treat people how you want to be treated, man, and you should also treat them the way that they want to be treated. And nobody, nobody wants millions of people, millions and millions of people talking about them and their business and their company and what they're doing and they sold it and they did this, and you know, or or all the other lies that can spin out of that. Nobody wants that.

00:46:40
Speaker 3: Right.

00:46:40
Speaker 4: I'm an EmPATH, I'm an intuitive. I can feel all that stuff and it just doesn't feel good.

00:46:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was gonna ask you, how does it make you feel?

00:46:48
Speaker 3: It just feels it feels I don't.

00:46:50
Speaker 4: It just feels weird, you know, like it's like you don't even know why you're feeling the way you're feeling kind of feeling, you know, you know. And then not only that, it's hard for the people who have to who sit and so who sit in our social media, who have to cite, who have to siphon through these terrible, terrible, terrible words, and and and and people just being mean for no reason. What we what we would will allow ourselves to do in a group is wild, you know, And so I I would just ask. And that's why every time, you know, we've had any viral moment or anything like that, we're always told by pr you know, you should just be quiet. And I'm saying, but those days are dead, man, because because social media is alive, and if you don't get out and say something, right, you have to be careful about what you say. You shouldn't you shouldn't feed into it, but you should, you you know. But speaking your truth, you know, I think is important and not speaking it because you expect something in return, right, But I think you actually saying what's real is important, you know, because you don't want people just coming up with their own narratives. Some people may not care, but I care because what we do is important. The business we're in is important. We make products for people's vaginas that matters. That matters, and the energy that is sewed into these products matter. So my team cannot be their their vibration can't be low because people have heard a lie and and and and are doing all kinds of wild things on the Internet and saying all kinds of wild things on social media.

00:48:53
Speaker 3: At least what we can do is.

00:48:54
Speaker 4: Say our piece and then we can leave it, you know, you know, because it's just important and it's hard. You know, this work is hard to do, especially when you're doing it with care, yes, you know, and love and like when you're really putting good energy into it for real, right, you know, so that when these so that when people use these products. I'm not trying to be super estheteric, because not everybody believes in the things I believe in. They don't have to when they use these products. These products are healing for that reason, not just for the ingredients that are in the bottle, but because of all the things that surrounded it, that went into it, you know, so you know, not to I'm sorry for the tangentcy.

00:49:39
Speaker 1: No, this is no people need to hear that.

00:49:42
Speaker 3: It's real.

00:49:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so true.

00:49:44
Speaker 2: You talked about the stress, the weight of carrying all this, and I want to get into that because I'm also big on mental health and just hearing you talk it's almost like a therapy session, like you're letting it all out, and I want to know as you're going through these emotions and trying to carry all this weight, what do you do for you?

00:50:08
Speaker 3: I do a lot of stuff, you know. I I.

00:50:16
Speaker 4: Have to have a lot of order in my house, which we're going through renovations right now, so that's hard.

00:50:23
Speaker 3: But it's working out. Eating well is really important. Drinking water. You and I both are like fanatics about.

00:50:32
Speaker 4: Not drinking out of plastic. Yes, I stay on top of it. With my health, I work out multiple times per week. I you know, I go to the chiropractor. I got to do better about that, get active puncture. I have. I had a therapist, but I kind of go in and out of having a therapist because like I feel like there's seasons in my life where I need it, and then there's seasons in my life where I don't just want to be I do different types of therapies like oxygen therapy.

00:51:12
Speaker 3: I do when I can, red light therapy or.

00:51:21
Speaker 4: You know, I got out of practice of like sitting down and being quiet is because things were really busy.

00:51:29
Speaker 3: I just kind of wou get to it.

00:51:32
Speaker 4: But I'm now working on, uh, change creating whatever my practice is now, not going back to what it was, but wherever. You know, I'm I'm in a really beautiful relationship. I spend time with my family when I can. I have a beautiful dog, Zero, spend a lot of time with her, you know, spend a lot of time with my amazing team, you know.

00:52:00
Speaker 3: And you know, I'm just I'm just I just do stuff. Yeah, you know, I just try to take care of myself. Yeah, you know, go to bed, take.

00:52:10
Speaker 1: Baths, Listen, going to bed.

00:52:14
Speaker 2: That is so big because when I were as entrepreneurs, our brain is always going with creative thinkers. Sometimes it's hard to shut this thing off, you know. Yeah, So getting that rest. Last week, we were going, going going, I've been filming and this left I would not stop twitching. Finally it stopped because I took a few days just to sleep, like, didn't get at it, just literally slept and eight and that was it.

00:52:36
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I was like my body was like this is what we need. I needed that.

00:52:39
Speaker 3: Yeah. I stopped drinking a time me too.

00:52:43
Speaker 1: I LetGo of hard liquor. That helped me a lot.

00:52:45
Speaker 4: Yeah that doesn't mean I don't drink, but it's literally like maybe a couple times a month.

00:52:50
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:52:52
Speaker 1: Moderation is good. Yeah, I agree, you.

00:52:54
Speaker 3: Know, I don't. I don't really. I don't smoke the green anymore, Like I don't do any of it. Yeah, you know, I want to be well, yes, and I want to grow old.

00:53:06
Speaker 2: But there's something in your life that sparked those moments where you're like, I don't want to drink anymore.

00:53:10
Speaker 1: I don't want to smoke anymore.

00:53:12
Speaker 4: I think some of those things just kind of happen naturally.

00:53:15
Speaker 3: I've never been.

00:53:16
Speaker 4: A great drinker, like I've always been person where it's like a cute drinking like that looks cute.

00:53:22
Speaker 3: I try it, and I never finish it.

00:53:26
Speaker 4: I think, just as my wellness journey has kind of intensified, Yeah, you know. And it's also like the company I keep, you know, I feel like you are who you hang with. So the company I keep also doesn't do a lot of those things, you know what I'm saying. And so, you know, I just think as you're taking care of yourself, you're paying attention to your body and how it feels, and when when something doesn't feel right, like I don't really have the luxury of being sick.

00:54:04
Speaker 3: I have things to do.

00:54:07
Speaker 4: And so, you know, so like it's like I can go, I can go out, or I can go to bed. I'm probably going to go to bed, you know, and then a couple of times a month or something, I'll go out, you know. But you know, but I but you know another thing that I love sitting down and watching TV.

00:54:25
Speaker 3: What are your favorite shows.

00:54:28
Speaker 4: It's like one of my favorite pastimes because it's like brainless.

00:54:31
Speaker 3: Yes, Godfather, Parlem it's so good in this new season.

00:54:36
Speaker 1: Yes, I love that show.

00:54:38
Speaker 4: Yes, I love where it's going because they really set it up to be able to continue to have seasons. Yes, you know, I like British detective shows so good.

00:54:51
Speaker 2: The writing on those shows is so good. Yes, it's so good. Yeah.

00:54:56
Speaker 3: I don't know. I just you know, I just I like to I just like the chill man.

00:55:01
Speaker 1: Are you a binger?

00:55:02
Speaker 2: Do you like shows where you just sit there and watch episode after episode after episode.

00:55:05
Speaker 3: Depends if it's a weekend.

00:55:06
Speaker 1: Okay, I might be yeah, if you have time. Yeah, but like.

00:55:10
Speaker 3: During the week we try to be responsible.

00:55:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, and then we've we've been like me and my partner, we've been like keeping our phone out of the bedroom.

00:55:19
Speaker 3: That's new.

00:55:20
Speaker 2: Okay, So I can right, So do you wake up to like do you run like when the moment you wake up and you're like, okay, I gotta get to the phone, or do you take.

00:55:29
Speaker 3: A make up and look at the time.

00:55:31
Speaker 4: Because our dog she's not technically a puppy because she's like eight months old, but she's still a puppy.

00:55:37
Speaker 3: She's still a baby, you know, and.

00:55:40
Speaker 4: So she wakes up early sometimes a couple of times a night, and so you know, so I might find myself like checking the time.

00:55:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, but I'm getting more used to it, and I actually we have a house phone.

00:55:54
Speaker 2: You are probably one of the only people in the waking out in the world.

00:55:58
Speaker 1: But like no, I'm very people still have a house phone.

00:56:01
Speaker 4: Have a house phone, and there's like there's a way you can do it just with the internet.

00:56:05
Speaker 3: You're okay, yeah, oh cool, look.

00:56:07
Speaker 2: It up because you know how like on different like forms you have to feel that they ask you the home fun I'm like, yeah, cell phone is the thing.

00:56:14
Speaker 4: Yeah, but yeah, I think I think having the house phone helps.

00:56:18
Speaker 3: So like if it's really an emergency.

00:56:20
Speaker 4: But the people who need to get to you can yeah, man, but it's you know, it's so good, yeah, because it's not really good sleeping with all that.

00:56:28
Speaker 1: That's what I'm hearing the NF and I was.

00:56:31
Speaker 2: Mine was literally like right at my knight stand, like probably this far from my head.

00:56:35
Speaker 4: And they say it's not good Bluetooth and all that stuff.

00:56:39
Speaker 3: It is, it's not really great.

00:56:40
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm finding out the wireless routers aren't good, and I've got those all over the house.

00:56:43
Speaker 1: I'm like, Lord, have mercy everything.

00:56:45
Speaker 3: It's killing yes, because our bodies aren't set up for all of this. Yeah, our bodies.

00:56:50
Speaker 4: Aren't set up for all this five G and you know, it's just not set up for that.

00:56:54
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:56:55
Speaker 4: So it's you know, so I just being cognizant of that. I don't wear the of the.

00:57:01
Speaker 1: The electric earbuds. Yeah, the cord ones.

00:57:05
Speaker 3: I'm old school with it.

00:57:07
Speaker 2: It's not easy, but it's not I recently bought one with the cord and my friends make fun of me. And I was telling a friend of mine, Brenda. She was like, do you have the cord earbuds? And I said yeah, And I was like, because they're really bad for you, and she was like, oh my gosh. And then like a week later she's like, I got them.

00:57:23
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:57:23
Speaker 4: I mean, we need to be cognizant, like like you know, it's people are just starting to become aware.

00:57:31
Speaker 3: Yes, your phone needs.

00:57:32
Speaker 4: To be what was it like a certain amount of likething away from your body and it's in the phone, like it's in the by looss of your phone, but people never knew that it was there, telling us don't have this, Like so if your phone shouldn't be that, And then we got these ear pieces.

00:57:48
Speaker 1: Like penetrate our brain.

00:57:50
Speaker 4: Yeah, let me stop there, because I don't want nobody coming after me. You know, you love all providers exactly.

00:57:59
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's funny.

00:58:02
Speaker 2: How do you in these moments stay grounded, like with everything that you have going on.

00:58:08
Speaker 1: I know you do the.

00:58:09
Speaker 2: You're ritual you I'm saying, you have your your rituals, but like even with like your family and friends, Like.

00:58:16
Speaker 4: I want to be grounded, man, Yeah, I want to be Yeah I am crownded.

00:58:20
Speaker 1: I mean I'm just out here like everybody.

00:58:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, no for sure.

00:58:25
Speaker 4: Honestly, like like I'm a human being like everybody else, having experience like everybody else. Yeah, you know, I'm I have problems like everybody else. There's no there's nothing about my lived experiences different than anybody else. I you know, the only difference maybe is that we've been able to experience a level of success that doesn't.

00:58:52
Speaker 3: Happen every day.

00:58:53
Speaker 4: Yeah, but that doesn't make you immune to anything.

00:58:57
Speaker 3: It's just money, you know.

00:58:59
Speaker 4: Yeah, and I think people put put money on such a pedestal. Money is it provides you, you know, with with resources, it provides you options, but it doesn't stop life from happening. It doesn't make things less hard.

00:59:16
Speaker 3: You know.

00:59:17
Speaker 4: I shouldn't say it doesn't make things less hard, because it can make things less hard, but things will.

00:59:24
Speaker 3: Still be hard whether you have a lot or a little.

00:59:27
Speaker 2: You know, you are not like a lot of people feel like once you make it, it gets easier, Like we talked about that more money my problems, but it really does like it it gets heavier, like.

00:59:35
Speaker 4: What is making it? Honestly, everybody defines that differently. Everybody is relative, you know, and you know, and I'm not going to sit here and say that I that I haven't accomplished what I want to what I wanted to accomplish, but I have so many more things that I want to accomplish. You know, there is no such thing as a level. There is no you know there is, you know, this invisible table that people want to sit around like. You know, I'm not saying that it doesn't exist, but it's not for real, you know. You know, so I think that just keeps me grounded because I'm on the ground. I'm on the ground like everybody.

01:00:23
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, what is one piece of advice that you wish you had have known when you started off building this brand that you're like, if you could pass it on to another young woman or a man that's trying to get their business off the ground, what would you tell them?

01:00:39
Speaker 4: I would say, take care of yourself and keep yourself out of debt. Yeah, because dad is hard when you're a business.

01:00:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, yeah I was where were we?

01:00:58
Speaker 1: I just had a dinner.

01:01:00
Speaker 2: Emm agreed, and she was talking about the importance of like, when you're building, don't spend all your money. There's people who want to support you and spend theirs.

01:01:11
Speaker 3: How do you feel about that, when you're building, don't spend your home money? Yeah, I agree with that. I agree with that. I mean, you know, Emma, Emma has Emma has the right circle for that. She does. Yeah, So I think that statement is relative, you know. Yeah, she is brilliant.

01:01:37
Speaker 4: The way that she built herself, the way she built her people, the way build the illness businesses that she's built.

01:01:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, she she is a genius when it comes to knowing how to go to people to spend their money. Yeah.

01:01:58
Speaker 4: Not everybody has that genius, you know. So, so I think if you're a person who has that, do that. And if you're a person who doesn't have that, and you have the capability to learn how to do that, do that. You know, and there's some people you know that that that may not work, you know, because you have to you have to have a gift for Yeah, you know, I mean my friend John John Craig, He's he's gifted with that, you know, so gifted with that.

01:02:36
Speaker 3: I'm not.

01:02:37
Speaker 4: I'm not particularly gifted with it. I'm just being honest.

01:02:41
Speaker 3: You know.

01:02:42
Speaker 4: Me and side have raised a ship ton of money. I'm gifted with that, But I'm not necessarily gifted at, uh, spending somebody else's money if it's not like an investment into the business, right, Yeah, for sure. Yeah, so I applaud it. I think it's great, you know, I really.

01:03:10
Speaker 3: Do the way for sure it is.

01:03:13
Speaker 4: But and I guess I'm just saying the dead thing because when you're growing and building, you really need to you know, you just you need to make sure that you can take care of your household. Yes, you know, because when you're not well, like when when when you're in a desperate situation, it can like make you're also building a business, which is also a desperate situation within itself, right, and that's hard enough even within itself. So you just want to make sure that you're being responsible with what you have. That's why not just quitting your job and keep you know, keeping your job, running your business until your business can take care of you know, or or until you can raise the money or whatever the situation is. So I think that I also think making sure you take care of your health so important.

01:04:03
Speaker 3: And your weight and your fitness and and and keep the extra curricular activities to to to a minimum. You know that that's also something that's you know, some people live by the work hard, play hard. But play hard.

01:04:24
Speaker 4: Comes back to bite you, it does, it does, So you know, work hard, take care of yourself, you know, play every now and again.

01:04:34
Speaker 3: You know that. But that's that's my mantra for myself.

01:04:37
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I feel like that also helps keep your focus sharp.

01:04:39
Speaker 3: It does, you know. It the distraction too, it does.

01:04:42
Speaker 4: It does because when you when you're out every night, you're running, you know, you're smoking, you drinking and you you know some people you sniffing. Whatever you're doing, you're not thinking with your right mind.

01:04:55
Speaker 3: You can't be.

01:04:58
Speaker 1: You're not.

01:04:58
Speaker 3: You just can't be, you know.

01:05:00
Speaker 4: So if you've got if you have issues with any of those things, whether it's a pill or whatever the thing is, I would say, if you wanting to be successful, get a handle on that, you know, talk to somebody, get some help, take some medicine, do whatever you need to do, you know, because it can because the other thing is you don't want to get successful or not be happy.

01:05:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, and sometimes you can come like if you're already doing those things, you can end up becoming dependent on those.

01:05:35
Speaker 3: Things because then you can afford more. Right.

01:05:38
Speaker 4: So, you know, I'm not here to tell anybody what to do, but you know you're asking my opinion. Those are those are things that I think because it's happening more and more these days, and especially in our community, and there's a reason for that, and we need to be thinking about what we're to do when we're sixty five, you need to be thinking about how are we going to retire?

01:06:07
Speaker 3: Right? You don't.

01:06:09
Speaker 4: You're not going to get there by living a soft life, you know, so you know, or or just being out outside doing any and everything. You know. So I just think it's really important that you care for yourself and really look at all the things you're doing, because if you want to, if you know, you can. Plenty of people have reached success doing all kinds of stuff, so let's be clear about that. But a lot a lot of those people are leaving this place, whether it's by their own hand or not. And so that's also something that we need to look at you, you know, and why why try to achieve success and you're not happy, you're not really enjoying it?

01:07:01
Speaker 1: No, And that's the point.

01:07:03
Speaker 3: What's the point? Yeah, it's silly.

01:07:05
Speaker 1: It really is. It really is.

01:07:08
Speaker 2: How have the recent changes in d I impacted your business? We know that there's so many stories you're you're everywhere, you know, And I'm asking this because I also want to let our audience know, how can we support how can we make sure that we champion you?

01:07:23
Speaker 1: Absolutely? Yeah, because I know it's impacting everyone.

01:07:25
Speaker 3: It is, Yeah, it is. It definitely impacted us.

01:07:29
Speaker 4: Traffic is definitely down at that retailer, you know, which impacts everybody.

01:07:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know.

01:07:37
Speaker 4: So in that particular space, sales are down. You know, it's starting to improve, which is great. Yeah, because we have an omni channel business, we are in a really great position because we're not reliant normally when when when something like this happens, if it's down in one place, is probably up in another place because people are just leaving that place and going to the other place, and so, you know, so that that gives us the ability to be successful and make up for you know, this DEI stuff is hard because it's for people who aren't who don't have an omni channel strategy. It's difficult, you know, but that's why you have to have an omni channel strategy and not reliant on just one thing. People people will say, you know, why can't I just go to your website? Going to the website is cute, but websites aren't as profitable as you think. Yes, you make more money, you may make your full margin on your site, but what what it costs for somebody to pick and pack and box and tape and do all that right, you've lost a lot of that margin that you that that that you so called just made right.

01:08:58
Speaker 3: So, you know, and.

01:09:00
Speaker 4: Even even Amazon, Amazon's is an incredible It's a huge part of our business.

01:09:07
Speaker 3: It's a huge part of everybody's business.

01:09:09
Speaker 4: But also those FBA fees are on another level.

01:09:14
Speaker 3: Right.

01:09:15
Speaker 4: So it may it may seem like you're you're making more money through those channels, but when you look at when you take a step back and look at the profitability of that, you have to look at the whole thing, and that whole thing paints a picture, you know. So it affects businesses in a huge way. But it goes back to some of the things we were talking about earlier, people's lack of understanding, you know.

01:09:45
Speaker 3: So you know, I'm not here.

01:09:47
Speaker 4: I can't tell people what to do with their money or where they should go and shop.

01:09:52
Speaker 3: That's none of my business. All that I'm saying is is.

01:09:55
Speaker 4: That when when, when when we decide to do what we did, you know, or to just stop shopping somewhere, how it affects the businesses that you may have shopped there, you know, it deeply affects them, and a lot of those businesses are newer businesses.

01:10:15
Speaker 3: We're just getting started, you know, and and and and.

01:10:19
Speaker 4: The retailers look at those sales, right, they're looking, are you meeting your dollars per store point? Are you are you hitting your velocities that you need to hit? Right, They're giving grace because they know what's going on, you know, But there's also only so long and so it can it can deeply affect that. And then how that affects that brand growing is if you didn't do good in that one retailer when you go normally, the other retailers are basing how you did based off of how you did with that one, right, And so just so people, no, that's what that's what can happen when when we decide aoycott, when we decide that we want a boycott, you know, you know, and it's not just as easy as like I'll just shop on their website or I'll buy them on Amazon. It's much deeper than that, because what it takes to get into a retailer like Target or Walmart or anywhere else is astronomical.

01:11:26
Speaker 3: It is astronomical.

01:11:28
Speaker 4: You have to work with the manufacturer because it's really hard to do that.

01:11:32
Speaker 3: On your own.

01:11:33
Speaker 4: Some people do it, but it's really hard to do it. You have to raise money. You don't get paid for like ninety to one hundred and twenty days, depending on in the beginning, you know, you're not getting a purchase order where they're going to pay you right away. They don't pay you before it goes into their store, right Like, that's not how that works, you know. And so and then because you've probably a mass some sort of debt, or you've raised money or whatever trying to prep for that, you don't even realize, especially if you're new to retail, mass market retail, you don't even know, Okay, when am I going to have to go back and order more product the way?

01:12:14
Speaker 3: You know?

01:12:15
Speaker 4: And then and every time you do that, that costs tens of thousands of dollars. So and if you haven't gotten paid from the retailer yet, maybe you were able to raise enough money to get it started. And I'm projecting because that's what happened with us, But that happens. So like boycotting is a really big thing to do. I understand the point, and it is driving the point. Believe me, it's working. It's driving the point they're getting themselves together, you know, because I'm sure nobody thought it was going to get to where it is, but.

01:12:53
Speaker 3: Here we are, so it did work. So I do commend us for that.

01:12:58
Speaker 4: At the same time, I'm not trying to talk out of both sides of my mouth, understand, but just from a business point of view, it's hard, you know, It's really hard, even though I get it. Sometimes unless you unless you you mess with somebody's money, they're not going to understand, you know, And so I think it was necessary, right, But I also know that it's hard, you know, you know, and so it's you know, I.

01:13:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I get it.

01:13:34
Speaker 2: In closing, I want to ask you about the legacy that you want to continue to build and the impact that you want to leave on our community.

01:13:45
Speaker 3: You know. As far as impact, I just.

01:13:50
Speaker 4: I deeply believe in making staples things that people need every single day, you know. And I believe in it so much because I'm crazy enough to think that I or we can do it really well, and it turns out we can, you know, And so you know, like, so I guess the impact that I want to make is that I think I was brought to this planet for that and I want to just continue to do that, you know, and continue to serve humanity in that way and make products that actually benefit people's lives and make them better and help them to be proactive with their health.

01:14:36
Speaker 3: And things like that. And as far as a legacy, I don't know, man. You know, I.

01:14:45
Speaker 4: Want honey Pot to be here into infinity, you know. I want honey Pot to be a conglomerate brand within itself, you know. And whether I'm whether I'm here with my team running it or not, you know.

01:15:02
Speaker 3: Yeah, And so you know, I you know, I'm grateful to do it.

01:15:07
Speaker 4: And I'm grateful for all the success that we've had and all the support that we've been given and to everybody that's gotten us to where we are, to my brother, you know, I'm grateful to all of it.

01:15:18
Speaker 1: Yeah. I love that.

01:15:20
Speaker 2: Now you have some new products that you guys have launched. Let's get into it so they can know what to look out for. You have the new panty liners or pads.

01:15:30
Speaker 4: Yes, so we have our long liners that that are in cooling and also are in calming.

01:15:37
Speaker 3: Yes.

01:15:39
Speaker 1: So you want a little tingle, you can get the tangle if you want to.

01:15:41
Speaker 3: Call exactly exactly.

01:15:43
Speaker 4: The We have our calming pads, which are absolutely beautiful that are infused with astra ganda, lavender, lemon bom, so they're not gonna you know how the cooling pads you get like a it's like kind of like a peppermint patty. Yes, with the calming, you're not necessarily getting You're not you're not getting any kind of a sensory in the same way you would get with the cooling, right, you know. But studies, clinical studies, the clinical trials on this were insanely like like and those are numbers that are astounding from a clinical yeah, you know, but they were literally clinically tested and proven to be able to.

01:16:22
Speaker 3: Ease irritation on the skin. Oh wow, you know.

01:16:25
Speaker 4: And then they have those beautiful adaptagens. You know, Astraganda is an adaptagen great for stress, you know. But there is just infused with really really really beautiful herbs. And then the prebiotic isn't really new but kind of news. It's been around for two years.

01:16:45
Speaker 2: Now, Okay, because I don't see it, I don't see it often.

01:16:47
Speaker 3: I see the because it's growing.

01:16:50
Speaker 4: Okay, so we I believe we launched it last early last year and then you know, and so this is its second year. And normally when you launch something, you know, like it takes time for it to grow and yield.

01:17:06
Speaker 3: But it's beautiful. It's my favorite.

01:17:09
Speaker 4: Oh my god, it's so good, awesome.

01:17:14
Speaker 3: Yeah.

01:17:15
Speaker 2: Some of my favorites are the phone wash I use that, I use your whites and then after my cycle, I would like to use the Borg acid suppositories.

01:17:21
Speaker 3: Yes, I love it.

01:17:26
Speaker 1: Yes, thank you so much.

01:17:27
Speaker 4: Bia.

01:17:27
Speaker 2: I thoroughly enjoyed this conversation with you. You've impacted me, You've inspired me, and I appreciate you taking the time to sit with me.

01:17:34
Speaker 3: You.

01:17:35
Speaker 1: Yes, this is good, so good, Oh my goodness.

01:17:39
Speaker 3: Girl.

01:17:46
Speaker 2: All right, y'all, let's get into the bit today. I am wearing a yellow Jack Moose polo. I'm wearing black jock Moose Bermuda shorts and leopard print patent leather Cheetah pumps by Adultching and my signature jury earring to Bible take a Vanetta and my signature rings.

01:18:05
Speaker 1: And van Cleeve bracelets. Listen.

01:18:12
Speaker 2: Today was a reminder that we need to listen to our intuition, trust the guidance of our ancestors, and we will find our purpose Hughes. Thank you to be A Dixon for joining us and sharing her energy, her light, and her story. Whether you're building something from scratch or just trying to pour back into yourself, I hope today you find the room to breathe, to reflect, and choose peace. Until next time, keep it positive, sweetie,