Hustle Her
Hustle Her
Hustle Her - Olamide
Embark on a remarkable journey with the effervescent Olamide Olowe, CEO of Topicals, as she recounts the ascent of her skincare empire and the discipline that fuels her groundbreaking achievements. From marking her territory on Forbes 30 Under 30 for 2023 to launching the fastest-growing brand in Sephora's lineup, Olamide's story is a testament to the power of bridging analytical acumen with creative business tactics. She opens up about her life as a 'left brain creative', offering listeners an intimate glance into the personal philosophies and skincare routines that mirror the innovative spirit of her brand.
The narrative takes a vibrant turn, exploring the pulsating beats of the UK rap scene and the inspiring rise of young African women in the genre. As I groove to the rhythms of London's rap culture, we also pay tribute to how Olamide's athletic background and strategic academic decisions laid the foundation for her entrepreneurial prowess. It's a tale of sportsmanship, education, and sheer resilience that has seen her brand Topicals flourish on Sephora's shelves, defying the initial doubts of naysayers and empowering those with chronic skin conditions.
Our chat winds down with heartfelt anecdotes about striking a balance between lofty business goals and personal life, including budding relationships and navigating self-awareness. Olamide's commitment to lifting women in business shines through, as does her love for Bermuda and how it plays into her vision for Topicals. Engage with us in this episode to hear how a visionary CEO continues to redefine the hustle while making strides in empowering others and imprinting her legacy in the beauty industry.
It's time for hustle her podcast. I'm your host, Deshae Keynes. Hustle her is all about inspiring women through real life experiences that have helped to mold and develop not only me but my guests into the entrepreneurs and leaders we are today. If you're an enterprising woman determined to succeed and looking for a bit of motivation, a bit of tough love and some actionable takeaways to be the best you girl, you are in the right place.
Speaker 2:Hey, guys and welcome back to hustle her podcast. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. I genuinely appreciate it. As always, big shout out to our season sponsors, brown and company and 59 front. So today I am super excited, one fanning, but also super excited for my next guest. Not only is she a Forbes under 30 30 under 30 for 2023. She also has the fastest growing brand in Sephora for 2023. She's also the youngest woman to raise 2 million in investor funding, as well as 10 plus million in VC funding. She also is a philanthropist who is literally given over $100,000 to around the world, and then also she's donated here in Bermuda as well. My next guest is a Lama day, the founder and CEO of topical. I'm so excited to be here, girl, so am I. How are you doing? I'm great, I'm great. I slept well last night.
Speaker 1:That's good.
Speaker 2:How are you? I'm good. Thank you for asking that.
Speaker 1:That's not always happening, you know it doesn't go both ways, so I'm actually good with that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I'm doing well in the gym, so day two I am not doing as well. I've been traveling so much this last six months that. I'm completely off my Pilates game, but as soon as I touch down I have like an intense boot camp for like a week. We'll have to go on another trip, but I'm going to do like maybe even twice a day to try and just catch back up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I feel it Definitely.
Speaker 2:Dirty. December is coming up and I definitely have to look good. So there you go.
Speaker 1:So we're all for that All right, so hopefully mine lasts a little bit longer than the two days but I'm committed as of right now, so we're good to go. All right, so we start with a few rapid fire questions and then we're going to jump right in.
Speaker 2:Okay, cool, all right. So I'm happiest when Ooh, I'm happiest when I am creating, when I'm a. I have this new thing that I say I call people who are similar to me left brain creatives. So a left brain creative is someone who creates new ways of doing business or new ways of talking to customers and just creating magic in the business world. And the reason why I have, like, coined this term left brain creative is the right side of your brain is actually the creative side, that's like the side that can sing and draw. The left side of your brain is more analytical. It's the one that does numbers, and I never felt like I was either one of the other right.
Speaker 2:Like I'm not the best person at finance. While I can read an Excel sheet, I'm not the person who's building the PNL.
Speaker 1:Got you.
Speaker 2:But on the other side. I can't draw, I can sing a little bit, I can hold the tune. I call myself praise team.
Speaker 1:Praise team.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I can do that, but I'm not necessarily the person who, like I, know how to like match colors together. Or I was talking about early about my content creator friends. I struggle with content and so this idea of a left brain creative is is match, matching them two together right. So, left brain being analytical and smart but then creative. How do you take that analytical skill and apply it to something that feels? Creative, so I definitely feel happiest when I am really in my left brain creative mode.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna steal that you coined it, girl, I'm gonna be your credit, but I'm gonna steal that one because I like that too, because I cannot draw to save my life, but you know you get, you get sparked, and you know, inspired.
Speaker 2:And so yeah, left. But I think the issue is that we shouldn't just look at creatives as just like one thing, like creative is not just a person who can see our draw or like design clothes, like you can be creative and kind of any see.
Speaker 2:Yeah absolutely Okay. So tell me your nighttime skincare routine. So, as you know, a founder of a skincare brand, like what do you do? I am such a function girl. It's so funny the reason why Topicals is the way it is, which is that we only create like the best product for each skin condition, like we don't create an entire line of products. We literally target that one problem you're having. So if you have dark spots, you know, faded serum for your face you missed for your body, for your under eye area, faded eye mask. Like we do not create like a full line. It's because I'm the same way. Like I have a very simple routine. I use the use of the people cleanser, I use the good molecules. It's a toner. I used to never be a toner girl, but like I'm been a toner girl recently.
Speaker 2:Let me tell you because I have such oily skin. The toner is really great because it really does help shrink the size of my pores and I noticed that I'm not as oily. And then I use faded because I literally still have dark spots. Yes you know, acne just pops up all the time.
Speaker 1:It's like you get rid of the dark spot and it comes back.
Speaker 2:So I use faded and then I use like butter as my moisturizer, if not like butter. The other moisturizer I've really been loving is the Charlotte Tilbury moisturizer. I can't remember what it is, but it's really good base for your makeup, yeah, so I use the Charlotte Tilbury one for my makeup as well.
Speaker 1:It's so great.
Speaker 2:It's like not heavy, not oily, and again I have super oily skin and then I use sealed which is our new, like acne scarring primer. I don't necessarily have acne scars, but again, I have really large pores, so it really just creates that film on my makeup and yeah, that's before I get into my makeup.
Speaker 1:So okay, all right, cool, all right.
Speaker 2:Who would you say is your closest friend or friends? Ooh, that's really interesting. So I'm really close with my family. My sister and my brother are really close to me. We all are very similar. Obviously, we were raised by the same parents, but we're also very different, yeah, and I love that about us.
Speaker 2:So I would say my siblings are definitely who I'm really close to. And then my best friend, donye. I always say she's like the other side of my brain, so while I'm left brain, she's very much right brain, but I think I'm teaching her how to be more left brain. She's teaching me how to be more right brain, gotcha. So I'd say I'm really close to her. And then my college friends that I ran track with. I still keep in touch with them. Yeah, I would say those are the people that I'm super close with. I think what's really fun about my life right now is like I'm exiting a lot of like old self in a sense and I'm like entering into, like a new self.
Speaker 2:And then entering into this new self, it's taken me to so many different cities and I think I, yeah, I'm just like learning so much about different cultures and different people. Yeah, so I take my best friends with me, I take the people that I love with me.
Speaker 2:Obviously we talk on the phone, we FaceTime, but it's been really fun to make new friends. Yeah, I think it evolves as well as you get older. Like you have your childhood friends, people that have been right or die for forever, but like in different phases of your life, as you get older you have different like segments of friends too, and I love when they all come together as well. That's one of my favorite parts, because it's like oh, you know, and then you like oh, now I see why you got all my exactly.
Speaker 1:It's super cool.
Speaker 2:All right, cool, so huge brand, all these things. What was like the first thing you kind of spent your first big paycheck on? Oh, first big payday. That's a great question. It's so funny. I am obsessed with shoes and handbags Same girl, so obsessed. So I think the first big girl purchase I made was a purse, and it was a purse that I needed because I was traveling a ton so I needed to put my laptop in there and all those things.
Speaker 2:It was a go yard tote and that to me was such a big deal. I was so excited about it. I thought go yard was such a cool brand. So, yeah, that was my first big girl purchase.
Speaker 1:All right.
Speaker 2:What does love feel like? Love feels like a safe space to explore yourself. I think love in the past to me, I maybe have thought that it was a feeling right, but I think love actually is a practice. I've heard that a lot of people say that a love is a practice, and, yeah, I think that it's a place that feels safe enough for you to be yourself, get it wrong and for you not to be judged.
Speaker 2:I think it's difficult though, because, as humans, like you, want to see the best parts of someone. You don't always want to see the full 360. But I think, in those moments, being able to see people at their lowest or when they're struggling, and still choosing to love them. That's why love is a practice. You have to choose to still love that person or to love yourself. I think that's another thing. We talk a lot about external love, loving someone else, and I think the last two years have really been a journey of love for myself. And yeah, it's like accepting that I'm not always going to be the happiest, I'm not always going to be the most smiley, and that's okay. I was very much a people pleaser.
Speaker 2:I still kind of am, but I think love in myself has very much been like it's okay to set a boundary and say I actually can't do that Still working on it.
Speaker 1:But yeah, and it would not perfect.
Speaker 2:We will all get there one day. Yeah, all right. So what are you listening to right now? What's on repeat for you? Uk rap?
Speaker 1:So I moved to London.
Speaker 2:I moved to London in August and I've just been around so many people who are like really shaping the music industry A lot of my good friends that I'm with in London and so I've just been listening to so much music. So I was listening this morning. I almost feel like it's a morning playlist all the time plays, but some morning plays for me for sure to like amp me up for the day, and the playlist is literally called sounds from ends. I made that up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll take credit for that one, so corny but sounds from ends and on that playlist. The first song on that playlist is Park Chen-Wa by Hedy one and K trap. Such a good song. I really love it. The next song is Trojan horse by Dave and central C.
Speaker 1:So I'm not up on my UK rap so now I feel like I need to go and get up on it. Okay, send it to me.
Speaker 2:Who else do I have on there? I have unknown tea goodums. That's a really great song. Okay, rushy pressure, that's a great song. What else is on there? Starlight by Dave, clash by Stormzy and Dave.
Speaker 1:I'm really I'm really I'm a really big Dave. I'm invited for a name that.
Speaker 2:I like Dave and Tia Cola meridian. So, yeah, I'm listening to a lot of UK rap. And then, on the other side too, I'm listening to a lot of like young women who are like rappers. So, like I'm listening to Brazy, who's out of Nigeria. She has a song called OMG. That's really good and I tend in front of French. For what?
Speaker 1:is it Attention?
Speaker 2:I think attention is what. Oh not sure but it's. I'm listening to Detto Black. I'm listening to who else? Chi Virgo, I'm just really loving, like the young African women in rap and music. And then from South Africa, I'm definitely listening to Tyler.
Speaker 1:I'm listening to Elaine.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, it's been like a really cool mix, I think. My what I'm really realizing, though, is that, in all of these different geographies, I'm actually seeing a lot of African artists in a lot of different genres playing these spaces, and I'm having so much fun listening to them. Yeah, definitely, I'm loving how Afro beats is weaving into, and it's now more mainstream than it ever has been before. Like I went to Afro nation concert this year.
Speaker 2:Like I would have never, like two years ago, that wouldn't have even been on my list of things Right. So I absolutely love it. So, yeah, okay, and then finally. So this has become a thing this year. Well, the last two seasons, who is your celebrity? Well, I guess for you, who was your celebrity crush growing up? Cause I'm not trying to put you out there, child, you can't use celebrity crush now and that becomes a.
Speaker 1:thing.
Speaker 2:Who was my celebrity crush growing up? You know what's so funny and I always say this that like I just wasn't that girl who was like you know like people have like a fairy tale, like their wedding and all that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know what I was thinking about, but it wasn't that I think it was cause I was such a top Building this brand apparently. Like, from a sense, when I was little, I've been very entrepreneurial. I was very sports oriented. I ran track, I played basketball, I played volleyball, like I was so into sports Growing up, and again, not that I didn't have crushes on people, but I just can't for the life of me think of someone where I was like, oh, my goodness, it was you.
Speaker 2:You know this person? Yeah, the only. For some reason, the only person that's coming to mind is Troy Bolton from high school musical, and that can't be real. Man, I mean, if that's your thing I'm not hating, I mean, you know, but I'm like is it really him or is it just him? Because I was obsessed with high school musical.
Speaker 1:I mean it's a possibility. It couldn't be a possibility.
Speaker 2:So high school musical came out when I was a little bit older, so I only know about it because of my sisters who want. The two of them are close to your age, so yeah, that makes sense, but I don't remember a lot of people from high school musical, except for what's his name? Zac Efron, yes, but then it was another guy, the black guy Corbin Blue. Yeah, corbin Blue was cute too, let me tell you I was thinking Corbin Blue, but I was thinking, I was like I wanted to say the cordon blue.
Speaker 1:So I was like that's the wrong thing, so I didn't want to say that.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so that's why I didn't say it, because I was like maybe that's not his name, yeah, I'm trying to also think, and I also think the other issue is like there are other people that I'm thinking about, that Like, maybe I had a crush on her, I thought they were cute, but they're so problematic now.
Speaker 1:I can't even say their name, you sure?
Speaker 2:can't there's something like R&B singers that I would love to say are my, but they have done things over the years that I'm like, oh, unexcuseable, unexcuseable, 100%.
Speaker 1:And you say one thing and we're not trying to take nobody's brand today, so we don't.
Speaker 2:I would say the music stars were definitely like. You know, there's some songs that I know. Take you right back. I'm thinking of one particular artist who was dancing, and he was young.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know who I'm talking about. I got you.
Speaker 2:But it's just like, it's just so sad that like we can't even like people anymore because people are just doing Just not acting right, not acting right and doing the right. And the crazy part about it is what we live in, a day and age now, where it doesn't matter when you did something, yeah, so things are coming to light Exactly, yeah, anyway, all right. So you spoke a little bit about you know, playing sports, growing up, like, tell me a bit more about you as a kid. Me, as a kid, I have always been very ambitious. I think that I'm the oldest of three, I'm Nigerian, I'm a woman. I think, like all of those things shape your reality and shape my reality for sure, made me very responsible as a kid. I think my mom she has to say whatever's worth doing is worth doing.
Speaker 2:Well, so I think, from young, I've always wanted to do things well. I always wanted to be the best at something, and so I was definitely studious, got good grades in school, but I was a chatterbox Like definitely got the note home, notes at home that she's a great student, but she talks too much.
Speaker 1:Yeah, parent-teacher conference.
Speaker 2:Deshae's great, but that mouth yeah definitely. Definitely. So yeah, I was like very rambunctious. I was very like loud. There's pictures on my Instagram of me. I was always striking a pose and I never have wanted to be a model, but I was the goofiest kid that you probably and I'm still goofy. I think people see me as the CEO and trying to do a better job of like definitely showing my personality, but I have been told that I am funny and I've been told I'm funny by men. Okay. That's hard, Men that's hard.
Speaker 2:Men are kind of hitters, so they like even if you are funny, they act like you're not. But I've been told by multiple men that I'm funny Because. I think when we give each other blies when it comes to funny, right. So if a guy tells you you're funny, I feel like that's a really good thing, because men are.
Speaker 1:They can be haters when it comes to the funny thing, I agree with you.
Speaker 2:So definitely like, was this that silly kid would dress up in outfits? Like? I was very okay with being different, yeah, um, but I think I also still struggled with being different because I think it didn't make sense to me why maybe people didn't like me or things didn't really go the way I wanted them to, because I thought about the world differently. But, yeah, I was. I ran competitively in middle school, high school and then got a full scholarship to UCLA Wow, um, I ran the 400 and it was tough. Like I love sports and I love what it's done for me, because I definitely think I have a lot of resilience and I'm disciplined, um, and I have, like teamwork skills, um, but it also was just really, really hard. Now that I think back, and I think that's even why some parts of my life now are still very hard, yeah, I think I've become numb to things being hard, though, and that's served me well.
Speaker 2:We were talking a little bit earlier and I was like when people read my book. I'm like who is this girl?
Speaker 1:And how does she do all those things?
Speaker 2:And like that girl is me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I think the reason why it's so hard is that I I said that I have stress induced memory loss, which is like I've just like compartmentalized so much for better or for worse and I spent the last year really focusing on like getting out of that compartmentalized compartmentalization. But, um, yeah, sports, sports made me definitely who I am today and like just there's so many things that have come out of sports going to UCLA. You know I talk about meeting um Rochelle, who was my business partner at the previous company um, we started which was called Shea Girl, in partnership with Shea Moisture. I would never have met her if I didn't play sports, because we're together because she was also an athlete.
Speaker 2:She was a gymnast, and so it's just crazy how sports has made me who I am, but also it's like open doors for me that aren't even specific to sports.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so when you went to UCLA, you were playing, you know you're running track, sorry.
Speaker 2:So what was your major Girl? That's another thing, I'm just. I am a polymath like to the T, so I'll tell you my majors, where we actually ended up. Okay.
Speaker 1:Walk me through it.
Speaker 2:I went into uni as a neuroscience major. Okay, I wanted to be a brain surgeon. Hmm, again, something about things being really hard just attracts me to it. And I want to give that up. I want to give.
Speaker 1:I want to be a soft girl. I'm passing it on to somebody else.
Speaker 2:So I was neuroscience at first, went in, really enjoyed it because I loved psychology in the brain, but realized that it was like something that I wasn't sure I wanted to do. So I switched over to cognitive science, which is a little more a mathematic, a little bit more modeling of just like data. So it basically takes the data that you would get in like a psychology study and it turns that into like analysis as that. I do not like like any of that. What is it? Just like data entry and just analysis, r studio, all those different softwares you got to use to get out, I don't know. Then I switched to psychobiology because I was like psychobiology was this idea of the connection between and this was in how long over time frame this is a year and a half.
Speaker 2:Okay, this is freshman to half of software. Okay, okay, okay. Psychobiology yeah, I was like, what is it? Psychobiology is the connection between mind and body and I thought it was so fascinating and I thought that's where I was going to actually stay. And then people don't realize. But when you're an athlete, your coach is pretty much pick your schedule Really, like you have times blocked out where you cannot take classes, and all the science classes were in the middle of practice. So basically that meant I could go to those classes.
Speaker 2:So I ended up. Even though I really liked that major, I ended up having to get out of it. And UCLA is a special school where it's really good in the sciences, but there isn't a business major there. The only the closest thing to business is business econ, which is economics. Right, I wasn't going to study economics.
Speaker 1:I don't care about the trends or none of that stuff.
Speaker 2:So I wanted to learn about like business if I was going to be in it. So the other major that UCLA is really popular for people call it party sigh, because it's the major people do when they want to party but it was poly side political science.
Speaker 2:But as I got deeper and deeper into political science, I really started to like it, because the I had this, this theory that if I, if you could get someone to vote for you, for president, you could get someone to do anything. And so I thought, okay, while political science isn't the exact root of what I want to do, I don't necessarily want to be a lawyer, I don't want to be in government. I was like, what can I learn from poly side? And I'm so glad I did it, because my concentration was in race, ethnicity and politics, and what was so fascinating is that I really learned about the history of how racism, classism and colorism has impacted the way people's socioeconomic, like living, and so it was just so fascinating to understand how media actually has been used so much in political science to change the way people think. I think the most, the most memorable thing that we learned about was about, like, the food stamps and how, although food stamps are actually primarily used by white Americans, it had been branded as this black woman thing.
Speaker 1:Single mom.
Speaker 2:Single mom, black single mom thing, and it was just fascinating to me because I think another thing that I was understanding about politics and media was this idea that you could change the narrative of something and completely change the way people viewed something. And it sounds like I knew all of this at the time and that it like laddered up to what I'm doing now but it really was just the way the wind blew me, and so I ended up graduating UCLA with a BA in political science with a concentration in race, ethnicity and politics.
Speaker 2:I had spent the first two years of my time at UCLA doing science classes, so I had my pre-med recs. Oh my gosh. And then I added an entrepreneurship minor, because it got introduced to UCLA like my. The last year I was there, so I like packed all the minor courses. I had to into like one year, but I was able to finish with an entrepreneur entrepreneurship minor from the business squad UCLA. That's good, really cool. So it was a very well-rounded academic experience. My friends, though, thought I was insane.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:New major, huh Another one. Like DJ Khaled over there, like every time.
Speaker 1:Literally. Another one. Yeah, I'm smiling so hard because I did PolySci in uni, so did Maxi and so did my uncle. Literally.
Speaker 2:Interesting. So I wanted to be a lawyer and my uncle ended up being one Maxi was, she wanted to be a lawyer, kind of, but didn't end up going that route either. But yeah, so when you're talking about that I never looked at it through that lens, though, but it's very interesting because everything you're saying is what you get taught in a PolySci major at all times. Yeah, so if you're the mayor of a town or the president of a country, you have to get people to like you. Yes, and we learned so much about median voter theorem, which is like this idea that, like, at the end of the day, everyone becomes a centrist because you don't want to pander too much to one side or the other, because you'll never get the majority of people, you won't win.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it was just again. So many things that are fascinating about politics, and like politics sometimes aren't even about the policies and laws that go out. It really is about who's interest and who has the most money. Like lobbying wasn't anything I learned a lot about? Whoever has the most money and can literally spend hours and hours, days and days, weeks and weeks in Capitol Hill, basically getting people to do what they want to do. That is how you like get things done.
Speaker 2:And so it was just really interesting to start to take that lens and apply it to other business industries and so, simultaneously as I was doing that, all of that that's cool. I was also starting a brand.
Speaker 2:I talked about this a little bit earlier in partnership with my friend and her dad's company, which is Shea Moisture, we started a brand called Shea Girl and it was really it was her idea. I was actually I had never even thought about who made soap. I didn't think about the fact that you could sell it in a store. Like, I was definitely into dermatology because I loved science and after I switched out of neuroscience when I was doing psychobiology, I realized like, okay, like I'd love to do something skin oriented, because I feel like your skin, like your mental health, affects your skin. So I had definitely gotten into wanting to do something dermatology. But then, when I kind of gave up the hopes of being a doctor, I was like, eh, whatever. But when she brought this idea to me, she was like I know that you like dermatology.
Speaker 2:My dad has his company. I've watched him do this for years. Do you want to do it with me? And I think that's when this light bulb for me around business and skincare and beauty really became a thing. The Shea Moisture had done an amazing job at bringing inclusivity to the hair care industry and then 2017, which is the year before I graduated college Fenty Beauty had launched and we'd seen the pre-order of Shea Moisture.
Speaker 2:And then I thought to myself Shea Moisture, did it in hair Fenty, did it in makeup, who's doing it in skin? And although I loved skin, that's really actually how I arrived at like skincare as the category that we wanted to address and came to the idea around even dark marks right, dark spots, yeah, because that was something I knew was really really affecting myself other black women, absolutely, and that was one of the areas in skincare that I felt people aren't looking at.
Speaker 2:Black women To overlook us yeah, and like really trying to solve their issues. Someone came and sat next to me yesterday at the conference and she was saying I've used vitamin C serums like everything and nothing worked. And I use faded and it started to go down and she was like why is that? And I was just telling her like we actually do testing and like we put things together with black women in mind and I always tell people when you make a product that works really well for people on the fringes, you actually make a better product for everybody.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure no.
Speaker 2:I think that's really important because we were speaking about it yesterday as well about the products and how long it takes for a product to kind of come about. So you graduate from university, right, and then you have this other, the other brands.
Speaker 1:so Shea Girl, so Shea Girl was sold.
Speaker 2:Yes, and she was the shade moisture acquisition. So that was sold. And what year was that? That was 2017. Okay, so the end of my fresh sorry, the end of my last semester of college, yeah, ok. So then Topicals then starts to form. Then, or what happened between then and the launch? So brands like Glossier were launching, and I was fascinated with Glossier because I thought it was the first real example of a modern day brand that felt lifestyle, that felt like it wasn't just about the products and the efficacy, it was about packaging, storytelling, community. I've also been a huge lover of streetwear since I was young. I have so many Jordans, so many sneakers. I was definitely like the sneaker head girl.
Speaker 1:I wish.
Speaker 2:I always try to get into it, but I like it. Oh, I love it, Even now like I'm a big sneaker.
Speaker 1:I don't even know where to start.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there are some classics.
Speaker 1:We'll talk about that.
Speaker 2:We'll talk about classics, but yeah, I'm such a sneaker girl, but I really was obsessed with Supreme and Stussy.
Speaker 2:And these brands, that again they were selling a t-shirt with a box logo but people were lining up down the block to buy them and to buy into this lifestyle and so a lot of these things were happening and I was just super fascinated after having that experience. At Shea Moisture, I was like one I knew I wanted to do skincare, but two I was like what would it look like if we could create a modern day skincare brand that was specifically inclusive to people with skin of color, inclusive to people with really chronic skin conditions? And then we made it feel like it was culturally cool, like a streetwear brand. What would that look like? So many people laughed me out the room. They were like girl, that doesn't even make sense. How are you going to make a streetwear brand like a beauty brand? Are you going to make it inclusive and you're going to show skin conditions and it's going to be colorful? People were just like it's never been done before. It doesn't make any sense. Three years later in the fastest growing skincare brand at Sephora.
Speaker 1:At Sephora. It clearly makes sense.
Speaker 2:It clearly makes sense, exactly.
Speaker 1:And as a consumer of the product one, it works and two, I use it for I have psoriasis right and to your point.
Speaker 2:It really hit home a little while ago when you said your mental health affects your skin. When I'm stressed out, I have a psoriasis outbreak, Same Every time, like clockwork I'm going to say like crack, I don't know why Like clockwork, and so literally on my back, and so I use a few of your products on that and it was one of the fastest things outside of what was prescribed to me. That helps clear it up and it's the craziest thing. And Maxanne helped me as my producer of the show, but she's also my sister-cousin and she was who put me on from the ingrown here. Serum first Favorite.
Speaker 1:Absolutely favorite, so that works like a charm.
Speaker 2:So between the sugaring shout out to Sugarbush and that literally amazing product, so like when we found out. Anyway, I'm jumping around, but we're going to get back to that, but yeah, definitely as a consumer it definitely works. So it's so crazy to me how people can tell someone something's not going to work and then a few months or years down the line the product is selling and doing well, like.
Speaker 1:do you ever see those people that tell?
Speaker 2:you, it's not going to work. You know what it's so funny? The success is so much right now that I can't even stop to say I love that. But it's so funny because they'll come to me and they'll be like we can't believe. We saw this before everyone else and we passed on it. Or we didn't want to invest, or because I pitched to like 100 investors before people were like, yes, 100? 100. 100. Yeah, people were just like no Beauty's saturated. Also, I think people won't say it out loud, but I was 21.
Speaker 1:I was a young black girl, but never.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I worked at Shameware. Shouldn't done that. But people were just like, what do you do, what do you know? Like why wouldn't have the bigger incumbents already have done this if it?
Speaker 2:was such a great idea and it wasn't until I met Caitlin, who is at Larry Hippo, who invested. They wrote a check and she actually ended up getting other people to invest as well and that's how we raised the first $2 million. And this was. It was so wild because I met her on Zoom during the pandemic. It's crazy Met her on a call and the next call she fast tracked me to the head of the firm and probably two weeks after meeting her they said yes, that they were going to invest, and she just used like I just knew that it was you, I knew that you were going to get it right and that it was going to be successful.
Speaker 2:And we talk about this now and I always tell her thank you for believing in me when no one else really would. Yeah, and it's so crazy because I'm thinking now, knowing your background and the PolySci major, like you got someone to love you right. You got her to love you and to believe into a product. So it's a two-pronged thing at all times and that's a lot of times why some people talk about other brands and like, why can't? When certain people launch certain things, it doesn't stick Because it's the you part of it.
Speaker 2:That it isn't working and you nailed that before anyone knew who you were.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I would say that is what investors.
Speaker 2:If you don't have a track record of selling a business before or being extremely successful, or you don't actually know these investors personally, the way you can build trust is by establishing authority and credibility within yourself. So I was really adamant to them about the fact that I had worked at Shea Moisture. Look at all these gaps I had understood from working there. Look at how fast Shea Moisture grew. Look at the exit price of their acquisition. Look at the fact that they took hair care, which was saturated, but because they brought in a new market that no one was serving, look at how quickly that grew. And look at how the community actually helped them grow the business, versus them having to spend every dollar on marketing. And so I also talked about the fact I went to UCLA. I was pre-med, I had done a business school program at Harvard. I really wanted to create this narrative that I was the best person to create this.
Speaker 2:And that's exactly what investors if they don't know who you are. That's the story you need to get them to understand, because if anyone else does this, they're not going to do it right, and I think that's what I sold to the investors. It was like I'm the only one that understands streetwear, skin of color, yeah, the current cultural zeitgeist around brands like Glossier Harry's and product development. I'm quite literally the embodiment of what this brand should be.
Speaker 1:And it works, yeah, literally, but it was very a holistic approach to how you went out to people.
Speaker 2:And the thing it also goes back to the point about being 21 at the time and that happened is also crazy. And but thinking about it, because I can think of a few instances when we look at people who frown upon age right, when you're younger, you're just not seen as knowing anything. Or what do you bring to the table Because you haven't been around the sun? All those types of things that we like to tell people and, in certain cases, actually isn't relevant. I was just going to say that if you think about tech CEOs and tech guys who raise a ton of money, they actually love the Wonder Kid story. Yeah, they love when you're young and fresh and whatever. But I always say when you're young, black and woman. Now, all of a sudden, it's oh no, like we.
Speaker 2:That's a little too foreign of a concept for us, but when you're, you know, a Mark Zuckerberg, we should have the same, and I'm not shading Mark Zuckerberg.
Speaker 1:I get it.
Speaker 2:Young people should be able to start businesses, because we really do see the future. Why would you give Mark Zuckerberg hundreds of millions, billions of dollars if? Not and then, when I come and ask now, it feels as if there's more of a risk profile and so I think there's a lot of investors that have to actually check their bias, because I don't think they mean to do it, but they, their brains, work so quickly and they pattern match and if you don't fit the pattern, it's like they can't calculate it immediately.
Speaker 1:They cannot complete it.
Speaker 2:And the numbers are not making the sense and so okay, so Topicals. Now is launched 2020, right, and so you've launched middle of the pandemic. Yes, how did that go? It was so stressful, like it was so stressful because our launch actually got pushed back from. March of 2020 to August because of the pandemic.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I say that like I'm so glad we launched during that time, but also I literally lost my mind during that time because, everything that could be delayed was delayed, whether it was packaging, the formulation, even the funding did not come until a month before we launched.
Speaker 2:Oh my, gosh we were literally scrapping the smaller checks that we had gotten up till that point. I remember running out of money in November of 2019. And I was so fortunate because three days before Christmas, an investor his name is Glenn he is. He's such an interesting guy because he worked at Google in the machine learning and AI department before.
Speaker 2:It was really a big thing and really made his success off of that and for some reason he literally has the Midas touch when it comes to inclusive beauty brands. He's invested in this hair care brand for women with super curly hair Us, like he just really understands it. And he's a white man from like Northern California, but like when I tell you that he's so committed to understanding and he just he gave us a $300,000 check and like for an individual not a fund to give you that money is like it's mind blowing.
Speaker 2:And he always tells me he's like you're like, you're like you can't have favorites, but he's like you're one of the people in my portfolio that you're just amazed me every time that the check I gave you look what you've like done with it, but we literally ran out of money in November. That check came three days before Christmas, like Merry.
Speaker 1:Christmas, merry Christmas.
Speaker 2:And then I remember the next thing was just March 2020.
Speaker 2:It was almost like every single time, I felt like I was going uphill. Something would happen Crazy. So what I really loved about that period, though, is that, because we couldn't physically get the product, we tried to figure out ways to create community before then, so we launched this game. It was like a quiz, a horoscope quiz called skin, sun and stars, and it was basically, again a horoscope quiz, so you'd give us your time of birth, your date of birth and then you would fill in your skin conditions, and we'd print out like a natal chart for you based on that. So, if you're rising was, let's say, virgo, we'd specifically, we talk about a specific ingredient that was really great for your skin.
Speaker 2:That was very Virgo oriented, and that game went viral on the internet, on Twitter, we had 10,000 people play the game before we launched. And that's how we were able to even show investors that summer that like, hey look, we're struggling to get the product out because of supply chain, because of X, y and Z, but you should believe in us and this brand and write us a check, because look at what we've been able to do with like no product, no money is no product, and so I always give people the advice that like in those hard seasons when you're trying to get that money, you're trying to get people to buy in.
Speaker 2:Think like a marketer If you have no physical product and I think a lot of people think that when you get the physical product, that's when the money's going to come. All of a sudden, you're just going to put it on your website If people are going to be like, oh my gosh, I found this brand, I love it. No, learn how to be a good marketer before you get a product. So by the time you get a product, you can just start selling on day one. Love that. And so you start selling on day one and you sell out Crazy. Yeah, I call it that feel. You know this whole experience has been. Again, I am a spiritual person, so I always say, like God, really God wrote the script, I'm just acting it out.
Speaker 2:It's what I really believe because you would think that even my background of polysty pre-med all that meeting my friend who's dad owned Jane Weissher, like you would think that I put myself in those positions and I didn't. And I think similarly with this, even the skin set in stars game, like while, yes, we've always been really smart and kitschy about how we like put things together, I didn't know that game was gonna get 10,000 people to play it Exactly, yeah.
Speaker 2:I didn't think when we launched people were gonna be so excited that they were gonna sell us out in 48 hours. It's crazy. I didn't know any of those things would happen and it's so funny. I look back at what our forecasts were for that first month and we 10xed that in that first month Wow, and I just could not believe that it happened. But I also, again, while I do think faith and luck and all of those things in favor play into it, I also do like to tell people again be really strategic about how you're putting your energy into something, because if you do something for long enough and you have consistency, it will be, successful, absolutely so then.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we said at the beginning, right around your topicals, being the fastest growing skincare brand this year in and I'm gonna say 2023, because obviously this will live online forever in 2023, right? So how do you get from selling out into 48 hours into Sephora? Yeah, that's a great question. So when we sold out in 48 hours, we were actually in Nordstrom through like a pop-up, so we weren't officially in Nordstrom, it was just like a holiday summer pop-up that they did.
Speaker 2:So we were only in there for I think it was only three months that our agreement was, and so when we sold out in 48 hours, a Sephora buyer actually reached out to me because they had seen that. And I think that's also why I always say be a good marketer even before your product comes out, because trying to get a Sephora buyer to get their attention is really, really difficult because it gets sent a lot of pitches.
Speaker 2:You also don't want to be that brand that's sending a pitch. You want to be the brand that they find out on the internet and they're like, oh, we have to get that. And so shout out to Shelly, who works at Sephora. But she saw us online do this 48 hour sellout thing and was like, sent it over to her team and was like this brand is really great. And so we ended up having a conversation with them. We ended up getting into the Sephora Accelerate program, which is like an accelerator for beauty brands at Sephora, and that program was really phenomenal because it teaches you everything about the business of Sephora, the business of beauty how to market, how to finance your company, how to run a P&L how to do manufacturing.
Speaker 1:I love that they do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's an amazing program and now it's very it's specific to underserved founders. So it used to just be in general for beauty, but now they've specifically made it for underserved founders, which is really great, because they do need to increase the number of brands they have in their stores that are started by black and brown founders. But yeah, that's really how we got into Sephora. So I also tell people these opportunities to get into these programs, make sure you're taking them up on them, apply to them, talk to people who've been in them before to get a good idea of how to build a really good application. But make noise on your own so that someone sees you and then when these opportunities come for these programs, apply. Yeah. And then the cool part about the Sephora thing that I like and I said this to you yesterday, but I'm going to say it again is I remember being into for a few months ago and it was like two shelves right of your products and we were in there in New York last month and it was like this entire section.
Speaker 1:now it's got the big Topicals brand at the top and as soon as you walked in we were like, okay, cool, there are Topicals, we go over there, we get our products.
Speaker 2:And so the evolution of the product in Sephora as well, has also grown incredibly fast. Like online and you know Amazon, it's everywhere right Like how I mean that's got to be an amazing feeling.
Speaker 2:But how does that really feel for you? I always feel like I sound so morbid, but I do like to be really realistic for people because I think that it's been so hard, like getting from the outside, and even sometimes I pinch myself right Because in three years, for all this to have happened does feel like I've had an easy ride. But if I could, if the walls of my apartment could talk, if my brain, if I could really say what I wanted to say about all the different things that have happened to me.
Speaker 2:It's been hard and I think what's amazing about that Sephora expansion is that we actually started Sephoracom. We were not in Sephora stores when we launched in March of 2021, when we launched with them. And we sold out in 48 hours. There too, shout out to the 48 hours, I don't know what.
Speaker 1:God does, but in two days. Two days he works it out. That's a sermon girl. We can start that out In two days.
Speaker 2:there's something about that 48 hour mark for us. But we sold out in those 48 hours at that. 2021. Sephora March launch. And again, Sephora usually just tests brands online. They don't automatically mute you into stores. I'm sure you shop some brands where you can only get it online at. Sephora and not in stores. But we did so well that they were immediately like let's go into all stores. We went into 500 doors in under six months. That is not normal.
Speaker 2:And it is quite literally almost impossible. And there's just so many things that happened during that time. We had a flood that impacted our warehouse, that flooded out some of our ingredients. We just had so many things happen, and so it's been hard like just pulling the brand from the next phase to the next phase. But I think again, externally it looks like it's flawless and seamless it does.
Speaker 1:It's what you want, right.
Speaker 2:But it's definitely been difficult. But I think it's so exciting because so we rolled out into all 500 stores by the end of the summer in 2021. And then in 2022, we got a second placement in the store which is in the Beauty on the Fly, which is basically the by the counter. So we have many faded in there. And then this year, earlier this year that's why you're saying that what you're seeing is that we now have end caps in over 250 doors in the US and more coming, and so it's just really amazing because we're quite literally selling through our inventory so fast. They actually have to have us on the wall in that little shelf. They have to have us with our own end cap and on the Beauty on the Fly because if not we run out of product too fast.
Speaker 2:So it's been just so cool that, like we're getting all this expansion and more footprint in the store, because our community is really going out and selling us out day after day, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I was telling you yesterday, like you know, because obviously we're not here, you're not here in Bermuda, so you go away, you go and you stock up before the next time that you're going away.
Speaker 2:So you have people buying in bulk. And I remember walking around the last time because I knew we were doing this and the last time I was there well, at the time I was hoping we were going to do this I remember walking around Sephora and almost every person that we were looking and had something topicals in their bag.
Speaker 2:I remember that, remember specifically, and remember because I was looking, because you know, for this and I was like this is actually really cool, because it's not just us coming in here to just get topicals, you know what I mean. It's other people buying into it too, which was really cool. I'm so gassed when people say that and so funny because I feel like I get really shy. It's just like I've never had an office. I've worked at my apartment for the last five years on this brand and again, our team is fully remote. We've done this over Zoom. We do meet in person, I do fly into town to see people, but it's just wild.
Speaker 2:What can happen when you again consistency and resilience and excellence. Yeah, and that's another thing people don't take into account. It's like people want to just put something out. Yeah, yeah, just make quick cash. Like I'm so meticulous, our team is so meticulous. Like, shout out to Julia, our creative director. She's extremely meticulous about how things look, how we put things out, and so I think it's yeah, that makes me so happy to hear that people are buying topicals. Something that just like started in my brain, is now a physical product that people spend their.
Speaker 1:Yeah, my shelf in the bathroom. Yeah, spend their hard earned money on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that and we were talking as well, like Maxie brought up like how involved are you in like the day-to-day running of the company, Because we have some CEOs are like oh, I created it, I'm just kind of like the face of it now. So how involved are you? Maybe more involved that I need to be to?
Speaker 1:be quite honest.
Speaker 2:And I think that, like I'm more involved than I need to be, but also I've really loved this last year. I've also been able to step out of a lot of things, like we do definitely have expertise in a lot of different areas sales and marketing, the finance, product development Like we have people down, so where I don't actually have to day in, day out. But I will tell you, the inception of every product comes from my mind, and if not from me, it's like me, in partnership with our product development, lead Every campaign that topicals comes out with, except for a couple of them that the creative director really leads, if it's like E-com or comes from my mind, and I think what I'm super excited to is like to kind of let that go. I think the team is super brilliant and it's been fun though, because I just really actually love branding and marketing to be a part of it, but I think I'm really excited to also let people on the team let their ideas that they have come to life as well.
Speaker 1:But everything up to now. Yeah, it is hard.
Speaker 2:But I would say like the team is actually super, super strong and I think what's really great is a lot of the people that are on the topical team. We share the same mind. So even if I don't come up with the idea, it's an idea I feel like I would have come up with, or an idea that I like a lot because they get me.
Speaker 2:Julia gets me. She knows how to translate. Again, I was not a creative when I started this brand. I was definitely more of like a science business girl, and she's really helped me learn how to translate my ideas into the world. Now, again, I struggled so much with that the first like two years of the brand. But, yeah, the products I would say pretty much everything that you see has come from.
Speaker 2:I like plant the seed because I don't want to take credit for the full thing Because, again, julia, stella, our creative team is excellent. Yeah, but I'll plant the seed or something and then they'll go out and, like, reference it and see what it looks like, see the colors, and then they're the ones that truly bring it to life. Got it? I love that. So I mean, we've talked about all this stuff and how crazy the past five years of your life have been in terms of like business and growth and taking all of this on and like when do you find time for family and friends and a personal life and dating, all of that Like? When do you find time to do any of that?
Speaker 1:type of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think that there's so much I've learned about myself in the last like two years, really, and one is that I'm quite a selfish person, and that's okay. I used to beat myself up so bad because I knew I was selfish, and not necessarily selfish in that I wanted the glory, but just that like I was so committed to this dream becoming a reality, like I was so protective and selfish of it, that I definitely think that there's relationships that I didn't foster well, there was family that I haven't, didn't see for a while. But I also think that I am allowed to do that and I was talking to my parents over Thanksgiving that you come into this world alone and you die alone. And while I think community is really important and family is really important, I never want to stand before God and for God to tell me did you do what you were sent to Earth to do? And for me to start saying like, oh, but God, I really had to like hang out with my family. I really had to have a man I really had to like.
Speaker 2:All those things to me are secondary to the gift that God has given me, and so, again, I spent a lot of time beating myself up for being selfish about really, really wanting this dream to exist, and what I realized is that, while, yes, it was selfish because I wanted it to come to fruition, look at how this brand has touched so many more people than I thought I could ever touch Absolutely and so I think sometimes you do have to be really set boundaries and I think your 20s is the perfect time to do that and so, unfortunately, that means that not everyone is going to understand you. Not everyone can come with you.
Speaker 2:And I think that has been the hardest part of this journey, but also the most just like eye-opening and rewarding, because it's also really great when you do meet people who do want to continue on and people who do want to adapt in the same way you're adapting. But I will say I don't think I'm the best at staying in contact with friends or with a man or all of these different things, even with my family. But this last year has allowed me to breathe a lot more. I talked a little bit early about compartmentalization and I started to realize through therapy that I was compartmentalizing not just work, I was compartmentalizing life, everything that was happening to me, because it's really hard to switch it off. Yeah, yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:And so I committed to myself this year that I was going to feel all my emotions, the good ones and the bad ones. I was going to feel all my wins and my losses, and that I really was going to unpack my life Like I wasn't going to go through life successful on the outside, but like not internalizing what was going on. And I think because of that I have also again let go of a lot of things at Topicals, like there are things at Topicals where I'm like I wish I could do that, like myself, I could do it a specific way, but I can't Like I just can't. If we want this to scale, I can't do that. What I can do is lay a foundation and a groundwork and communicate with that person and coach them up so that it gets to where we need to go.
Speaker 2:But it's not going to be perfect on day one and that's okay. But what that's allowed me to do is I can date now. I can go on vacation, I can. I'm living in London now. I was living in LA for the last 10 years Living in London. Now I've been able to live in London and not skip a beat, because people can be in person in different places. I don't have to be at anymore. So I'm definitely getting better.
Speaker 2:But I would agree with anyone in my past who might say that I was not exactly the most. I was definitely like more of an absent partner. But I'm really glad that I can say that because I think, yeah, the self-awareness is there, just about to say because I mean, you said something earlier about being selfish and then I was like in my mind I'm like I don't know if that's selfish or setting the boundary because you're so focused on the vision. But then you said boundary and I was like perfection, because selfish also has this negative connotation towards it, which sometimes I think it's okay to be, especially when you're in growth mode, like a lot of people don't understand growth mode when you're running a company right or in your career, anything like that. People just kind of let life happen to them.
Speaker 2:But when you're in growth mode and you have a vision that you're trying to go on, sometimes other things fall to the wayside of you know everything else while that's happening. So how would you say your parents feel about you and what you've created? They're definitely happy. So I think my mom was. When I first told her I wasn't going to med school, she was so upset because she was like you got the UCLA, you got there on a full ride, like you can go to school for free. Like go do the hardest thing that you can do. My dad is an entrepreneur and he was like you'll figure it out, yeah.
Speaker 1:Like he literally was. Like he's an entrepreneur, so he was like you'll get it.
Speaker 2:You'll figure it out. And so I think now they're extremely proud of me. I think they, because they're first, I'm, first gen, and they came from Nigeria and, like, created a new life. They wanted me to be what they couldn't be, but what they thought they could be was very limited. So me being, you know, beyond their wildest dreams. Now for them, I think they it's opened their eyes to see that, like even my dad, he's had tons of companies, but my dad is raising capital right now for his business and, like he only started raising capital for businesses instead of funding them himself or getting bank loans when he saw that I did it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, again, it's this idea that, like even them, their view of themselves has been expanded by what I've done, and I think that that's so amazing. Does my mom still nag me about getting a man? Absolutely Of course she does. She does 100%. Does she nag me about spending more family time? She does 100%.
Speaker 1:We adore her for it, though, because I think that's what moms are supposed to do, that Right. I feel like they're supposed to do that Right.
Speaker 2:And I think again in this year I've very much evolved. I said growing up, I was never the girl who thought about a fairy tale wedding, like I always thought about beating the boys in sports, I thought about school. But now, like I would love a fairy tale wedding, I would love, like you know, to be in a relationship with someone and be just, you know, locked in with that person and, like I, have a heart.
Speaker 1:Like.
Speaker 2:I think that's what I could. You think that was me.
Speaker 1:I think that was. I think people don't think that would work.
Speaker 2:I would say, like a lot of people might think, that I do, and not that I'm like rude or mean, but just like that I'm so focused.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that people are just like, oh, like you don't have time for anything else, but I definitely like I want to have kids. These are all these things that again like if you asked me two years ago, I didn't want to have kids, I didn't like I just didn't know about a lot of things because I just hadn't even given myself time to think about that and it just felt like so many things were like being thrown at me in life and I just was like felt like I was being backed into a corner and I think now I, because I've been given the space to be able to think about my life and care for myself, I definitely am like I want to be a mom, yeah, I want to be a wife. Yeah, I want to be a sister, more of a daughter, to people around me. I still want to make money though. Yeah, that's on the top.
Speaker 1:That's on the list.
Speaker 2:That's hey. You know, I think when you create something right and it's yours and you're like that's just a baby too, you know what he's kind of seeing come to fruition, you want to make sure that that continues to do well, and regardless of what that looks like after that. So I guess quick pivot though on. So last year around this time you came to Bermuda.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So how you?
Speaker 2:ended up here. Yes, so in I think it was May, I went to a business conference in Nashville and I met a woman and I need to reconnect with her actually. But I met a woman and we were sitting on like the bus as we were traveling out to this estate that we were going to for the business conference and she was telling me about Bermuda. She was like her cousin lives in Bermuda and she went and visited him and she was like, yeah, you know, it's only 90 minutes off the coast of New York. And I was like 90 minutes off the coast of New York, like how come I've never really heard of Bermuda? Yeah, and no one's ever talked about it as like a vacation destination.
Speaker 2:And so she was like, yeah, like I really love it and it's a small island, but like it feels like home for the community and I don't know why that stuck so much with me.
Speaker 1:but in October my birthday is, october 27th, which I think you said your dad, my dad, my uncle's brother. Crazy yeah, I was just like crazy.
Speaker 2:Crazy, but I mean you connect with people.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:But it was my birthday and at the time I was just really going through a lot of like soul searching and like that year had just been so hard, like extremely hard, in so many different areas. And so I was like, okay, I want to do a trip for my birthday. Usually I like stay home. But I was like, no, let me just go somewhere, just have a good like four days. And I ended up going to Bermuda because I was in New York.
Speaker 2:So I was like, okay, let's I took my friends and I was like, let's go to Bermuda. I took three of my friends and I had. I stayed at St George's, at the St Regis, and I loved it Like I was just like this place is beautiful. And at the time too, I was getting connected with the BTA, the board of tourism, and they invited me to come to the PGA tour after I just kind of told them a bit about myself and some of the people I was bringing because all my friends are also like influencers.
Speaker 2:So I was like, yeah, we'd love to like attend. And Kaewon was like, yeah, of course. So we went to the PGA tour. I got really close with the BTA office and then I just started thinking to myself like I actually have to come back to Bermuda and I have to bring people with me, and so fast forward the next year. A couple months back in August, for our third birthday, we brought 18 influencers out to Bermuda from the UK and the US, a mix of, again, content creators, some of our philanthropy partners, experts that work with us, so estheticians and we celebrated our third birthday and I think it was the first time for me, too, that I actually like stopped and paused and was like, wow, this is three years old and we have the enough money, we have enough resources to bring folks, on all expenses paid, trip to an island like Bermuda and they got to experience the culture, the food.
Speaker 2:And I just felt so proud because we are the first I would say black owned brand to do a brand trip of that size. And I just again, I hate that we're the first because I wish that more black owned brands had the opportunity to do those kinds of things. Again, funding is lacking for founders of color, but because we have the funding, I always tell my team we have to be good stewards of the funding we've been given, the opportunity we've been given, and I was just so glad that we brought brown and black influencers, some people first time out of the country to a place like Bermuda.
Speaker 1:And then to you were here.
Speaker 2:You fell in love with Bermuda and I feel like you've kind of you know, bought into Bermuda. You know what I mean. Like you were so like cool. We saw you obviously yesterday at the BTA summit, the Bermuda Tourism Authority summit, and some of the things that you were saying about the culture and exposing people to the culture while they were here is something that doesn't really happen. When you think of brand trips, Like why did you want to authentically kind of show Bermuda to the people that you bought? I think it's because I am someone who's not from like the US right, I'm not from European culture.
Speaker 2:I'm from African culture, I'm Nigerian, and so when someone comes to Nigeria, it's not just about staying at the like super expensive, high end places and only eating at high end restaurants Really immersing yourself in the culture. That's how you're really going to get a great experience. And so when we came here, I think just because of my own background, I was like I want to live like a Bermudian while we're here, and so I think that's really what it was. And I think, again, because the audience that came was also black and brown content creators, they could see themselves reflected in the people who were on the island, and so I think they really enjoyed that and were really just like happy to come and experience. And there's definitely people who have been like next Bermuda brand trip, make sure you call me Make sure you call me, make sure you call me.
Speaker 2:I know it's so crazy because you know we are off the coast of New York, right, it's 90 minutes away. You know we joke around, I joke around telling my colleagues in the US I can get to the city faster than you can from Connecticut.
Speaker 1:Like you know what I mean.
Speaker 2:From Bermuda and like it's so. I love that you came here, because so many people still don't know how close we are to Bermuda. Right, and I feel like that trip put it Bermuda on the map from the influencer perspective and obviously for Topicals, 100%, but also from a Bermuda perspective, like everything online was Bermuda that week Like it was Topicals, bermuda.
Speaker 2:Everyone was like, oh my God. I had friends reaching out to me from uni that were like yo, topicals is in Bermuda. Like you know what I mean. I got to come all those types of things so that reach expanded like so far. Like how was the numbers for you from a marketing perspective? Yeah, 9 million impressions, which?
Speaker 1:is wild.
Speaker 2:Like 9 million impressions, like there's not any other campaign that we've ever done that has had that kind of reach ever Wow, and so I think for us we were excited. One because people had a great time here.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And then also as a business, like we got a lot out of the trip and so I think that it again left brain creative right this idea of like. How do we marry creative ideas? Yeah, like a brand trip with business fundamentals, reach, impressions, conversion. How do we marry those two? And we're going to continue to try and drive those things home together, but it's just a great example of being a left brain, creative and thinking about what are the new ways.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't say that brand trips are new, but I think the way that we executed that brand, I totally agree with you 100%.
Speaker 2:And like I don't think I've ever seen a brand trip that anyone's going on where all of the creatives were black and brown people Right, I don't think I've ever seen that, so I feel like that was intentional, right. And then the other thing about it as well was also coming here. Like we have other brands that come here, but not as often do you see people kind of the way that they tourist in Bermuda is, you know, ingrained into our culture, and I think that was also the really cool part, like I think you guys meant to stars you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Like we went to the local clubs, exactly, we were in it with everybody and then but you'll say the Hamilton princess, and all those types of things too.
Speaker 2:So I think that was really cool and, like you know, as a Bermudian one year proud, right, Because it's like finally someone gets it, you know, like they're showcasing us authentically. And then two is just like this was really cool, Like you know what I mean and like you want more, it to happen more often. So when you guys come back, oh so, announcement that we made yesterday and I will make it here as well is that we have committed to Bermuda being our annual birthday brand trip, so you will continue to see us in.
Speaker 1:Bermuda every year.
Speaker 2:So again, I know my phone is going to ring when this goes live because we were going to say okay, we know you're coming to bring it.
Speaker 1:We know you're coming. You can't even lie to say you're not coming to.
Speaker 2:Bermuda. So call me yes, exactly, and we'll definitely want to bring back some of the core group. We'll try. I think brand trips are hard because you want to bring new people but we definitely want to continue to celebrate with some of the core people from that group, and so we'll probably like we want.
Speaker 1:We actually loved everybody, so we'll try to, you know, mix and match the different trips, but yeah, it was amazing. And it was your first brand trip, first ever. I was nervous yeah.
Speaker 2:Nervous because we, you know, we had seen other brands do brand trips and like things go wrong and influencers not be happy, and so I think we also did a really great selection of the people on the trip shout out to Alyssa on the social team, tony and Imani on the influencer team at Topicals.
Speaker 2:They really decided like okay, this is who we're going to bring and it was absolutely the best group of people, and I think that is something to also keep in mind, as an influencer is like these brands, it costs a lot of money to do this. So, like, if you come on these trips, like, yes, obviously you should have a level of expectation of these brands, but you also have to give them grace, because there's so many things that you don't think will go wrong. That may go wrong on these trips and the brand is new to this island as well, or they're new to the location, where they don't know everybody and they've tried their best to, you know, get acclimated and prepared. But I think that's what's been amazing, though, is a lot of the influences we bring on the trips have never really been invited on trips, so they were also grateful.
Speaker 1:And so happened. I love those types of people. I got that too. I got that as well when I was following a follow of a few of them on TikTok, and I felt that too, they were like super excited to be here, which is what you want, right?
Speaker 2:You also want people to be respectful, too, right? You don't want anyone who's coming representing your brand and then tearing up the hotel.
Speaker 1:Exactly. You know what I mean. People were so polite.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's like kind of even our criteria for influencers.
Speaker 2:It's not even just about reach, because we didn't have not every influencer on the trip had even north of 100,000 followers. We had some people who had less than 100,000 followers who came on the trip, but they meant something, they represented something in the culture, in their community and they were also extremely polite and I think, like this is an exchange right, like brands bring you on this trip, you create content and again, the stories that people told, I was so glad because it wasn't even just about our product. These trips aren't just okay. Sell topicals, products Like I love Destiny who goes by O'Wawa.
Speaker 1:She's a travel influencer on.
Speaker 2:Instagram and TikTok. She literally made a video on TikTok talking about how it was the best brand trip she's ever been on, because she actually felt included and I think, that.
Speaker 2:That to me weighs more than her talking about oh, I love the fated eye mask. You should buy them, you know, like she took the time to hopefully show people the heart behind topicals, the spirit behind topicals, and not just like the money side and I think it can be very difficult in a capitalist world where, yeah, we have to make money, Like that's the only way we get to keep these salaries keep the lights on you know pay people through the trips.
Speaker 2:But it's just this way of again left brain creative how do we create new business models. How do we create new ways of doing business so that it feels closer to community? Keep talking about this idea of community-centric business. How do we do that? How do people win as a community and not just us as a brand? And that's why, even with the Things with Bermuda, we're coming back. We're going to be doing master classes for the founders on the island, young founders on the island. We are going to be donating to charities.
Speaker 2:We already donated to the Women's Resource Center while we were here in August, and so we have to leave something. We have to give back to people when we're coming to these islands and partnering with influencers, because if we give to them, they'll give back to us Absolutely. We're the fastest growing skincare brand because somebody's buying the product.
Speaker 1:Exactly, somebody's buying it Exactly and so far buying the product. There you go, and it makes sense. But it also goes back to your point that you made earlier about creating community right Before you even had product.
Speaker 2:you did the quiz that you had online. You created that community and I think you're doing that with the brand trips that you're well, the trip with. Tuber Muta that you had here. You created a community, like the one thing that Dion said, the content, the photographer that you guys had. He was talking about how he just felt. It felt like a family, like everyone that was there, and how he still keeps in contact with everyone. Dion is in with all the influencers.
Speaker 2:I see who our shared followers are, and it's like so many people like the filmmakers on the team were like Dion, next time I come to the island. Like can we shoot a film together, can we?
Speaker 1:You know and.
Speaker 2:I love that too, because it's this idea of even without topicals. Now, people still get to come back and get something to the island and they get to get something out of the island. I love them. Ok, girl, we are running out of time.
Speaker 1:We have a lot to talk about. You know what I can talk. We can do a part two next time you're in Bermuda Next time I'm here, yeah, yeah, yeah, ok.
Speaker 2:So just being conscious of time, like all of my guests right before they leave the couch, the one thing I want to know is when you know knocking wood, it's a very long time from now, when you're no longer here on this planet and topicals is doing amazing whatever it's doing at that time, what do you want people to say about Alameda when they mention you? I want to be known and I want to feel like an empty vessel. I want to make sure there is nothing left in the tank. There was nothing that I should have, could have, would have done. That is in my personal life, that is in my professional life, particularly my professional life.
Speaker 2:Like I think topicals is just the beginning for me, like it's so much fun, but it's just one of the multiple things that I will do and if you know me, you know I'm busy with things already. But like I really want to have explored all parts of myself and I really want to challenge myself to be the best version of myself, the most creative, the most business oriented, the most just, community oriented. And again, there are moments where I'm going to choose to be selfish and I'm going to set those boundaries, and I think people will not like me for those moments, and I think that's OK. I also don't want to lose myself while trying to gain all of these things, and so that's what I really want to be known for. Like, I want to be known for saying this. I just said something really deep, but I'm about to say something that is so goofy but I want to be known as the baddie who funds baddies there you go, I want to.
Speaker 2:I really love fashion. I love, like y'all know, the ginger hair is my thing. But, I have a specific look. I like nice things. There's nothing wrong with liking nice things Not at all. But I think how do I acquire these nice things? And then my situation help to fund someone else to acquire nice things is kind of the way I think about it.
Speaker 2:Again y'all. I'm really a scripture girl, but the scripture says we're blessed to be a blessing. I feel like I've received so many blessings because God knows I'm a good steward and he knows I'm going to give it right back when I'm going to disperse it and share it. So that's what I want to be known as the baddie who funds baddies, and there's no gender around baddies.
Speaker 1:So exactly there you go, it goes with the coin tier.
Speaker 2:You heard it on hostile hard podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I'll say one more thing about why I call out the fellas is that I do think that men don't always respect me as a business person, and I think it was the same thing in sports, right, where like, oh, you're a girl, like physically you can't run faster, even though I could be most of the boys in my grade, right. But I think in business has been super interesting as well and I think a lot of men would take business advice from me even though my company probably makes more money than the things that they've
Speaker 2:done Right. And again, money isn't the only metric metric of success, but it's a big one. And I just think that men that's what I would challenge a lot of Like the men in the world to do, because there's so much you can learn from women because we've had to figure it out with so much less that, like, if you took your power and the privilege you have as a man and you listen to a woman and you actually gave it to her to guard it and steward it, you would be out of here. Out of here, that's kind of biblical to child.
Speaker 2:You know the problem is, a problem is 31 wife Yep, she multiplies her man stuff Like I think a lot of people think of profits.
Speaker 1:31 wife is missing and weak and allows the men to do whatever and she has no say. And that's not what a proper 31 woman is.
Speaker 2:The scripture says she surveys the land, which basically means you tell her I want to buy this land and she goes and looks at the land to see if it's good land, and then you make the decision based off what she said. Yep, and again, not to say that there's like a power imbalance, yeah, yeah, it's this idea that like a profit or hardship.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:A profit or woman. Woman is. She's smart. Yeah, like she's the type of person you want in your corner, because if you were building a team, she's. She's the the shack to your Kobe. There you go. She's the. Who are the other duos that? When was it LeBron and and?
Speaker 1:Dwayne Wade.
Speaker 2:Yeah, at the heat.
Speaker 1:Like that is the. That's what you're trying to go for, and so I do. It's good mesh.
Speaker 2:Right. So I do challenge men to like look at women business owners. Don't think of beauty or think of these different categories as like just these fluffy categories, the women are printing cash. Yeah, there you go. I don't know if y'all heard. Skims this year is on track to do $750 million in sales, up from $500 million last year. That's crazy. Which one of y'alls the men's businesses do?
Speaker 1:we see.
Speaker 2:And even celebrities. We don't see you printing cash the way Kim Kardashian knows how to print cash. So we need to respect women in business and we need to stop seeing again certain categories and certain businesses that women do as like less than our 40. Cause that's not the case. And also, women are massive consumers. Okay, they control 80% of the household spending. There you go, which is crazy to think about. If you are, this is hustle her, but if you are a hymn, a hymn you need to be listening to, to the women.
Speaker 2:I'm glad you said that too because I have so many men that say to me all the time, stop me in the street.
Speaker 1:When are you going to have some men on there telling people what to do? And it's not that I'm a gangstman in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 2:But we thank you, we have it right, and I love me some black men right Respect, respect, respect and love us.
Speaker 1:We love this.
Speaker 2:It has nothing to do with any of that, but sometimes, you know, it's also okay for us to have a bit of shine and showcase the amazingness that women are. Yeah, I think that that's fine. I agree, I agree. Anyway, thank you, elamade. I am so excited we got to do this. I really appreciate you. No, thank you. You asked me so many questions and we've explored so many topics that I don't typically talk about in episodes and podcasts. So thank you so much for the insightful questions as well.
Speaker 1:I appreciate that. Thank you, All right guys. So I know I always say I'm super excited and that was like such a great episode, but I genuinely mean it again this time and I'm so grateful for Elamade spending some time with us today.
Speaker 2:She is the founder and CEO of Topicals, the fastest growing skincare brand at Sephora this year in 2023. So make sure you guys head over to Sephora. You can have her to the website.
Speaker 1:You can buy all of your own products there and you can support.
Speaker 2:if you're in Bermuda, Let me tell you I get mine sent to mailboxes and then I go pick them up at mailboxes and I use it every single month on that Amazon repurchase every month, all right. So make sure you guys go out and you support Topicals and all the different brands that, all the different sorry products that they have there.
Speaker 1:Make sure you head over to the website. The have the show notes out there on the website for you guys to check out.
Speaker 2:Also, you can sign up to be a VIP member on the podcast for the podcast and you can get some more interesting things that we have coming up, have some giveaways, some of our sponsors that we have coming, and then also you can see the blog from some of the behind the scenes that we did here today, as well as some some of my additional thoughts about the episode. Maybe you can give me some feedback of some of the questions you wished I would have asked her while she was here and then hopefully the next time she's in Bermuda she'll come back and grace the couch and we can sit down and chat about them. As always, big shout out to 59 front and Brown and company for sponsoring this season and thank you again for spending some time with me and along the day today on hustle hard podcast.
