How to Become an Entrepreneur + I'm Starting a Jewelry Brand!

EP #54: Ellen shares her journey into entrepreneurship and the exciting process of launching her own jewelry brand. She discusses the challenges and motivations behind becoming an entrepreneur, especially for women, and offers insights and encouragement for anyone looking to start their own business. She also shares some women she follows on social media who are female founders to help get you inspired and motivated. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 0:47 What I've been up to this past week
• 15:45 Starting a Jewelry Brand
• 54:14 How to Become an Entrepreneur

Transcript

>> Ellen: 0:00

Hey, guys. Welcome back to Reasonably Certain. My name is Ellen. This is episode 54, and today we're going to talk about how to become an entrepreneur. This can apply to anyone listening, obviously, but I'm mostly speaking to my girlies because I think that we should become entrepreneurs. it can be in, like, literally any sense of the word. I'm gonna talk about it more, but it's just been on my mind this week, so I thought it would be a good topic to discuss and just motivate you, give you some ideas, some food for thought, maybe. You just never know. Like, one thought leads to another, leads to another, and all of a sudden, you are starting a new business. Like, you just. You just never know what curveballs or what opportunities life throws at you sometimes. So I thought it would be kind of fun to talk about that. And before we get into that, though, I will talk about a little bit about what I've been up to this week. and not very exciting. Heads up. If you didn't listen to the previous episode, episode 53, that's where I talked about the date that I went on for the first time in six years. I know, that I was like, was it a date? Was it. I don't know. I think technically, by a definition, it was, but it didn't feel like it. So that was an interesting episode. And. Yeah. Yeah. Spoiler alert. My life has been pretty boring this week, except I. I started a jewelry brand, so that's kind of why I wanted to talk about how to become an entrepreneur. Because, I don't know, I feel like it's just very applicable. I. Yeah, I'll get into that in a second. But really, the only exciting thing I did was yesterday I went. I was, like, in my apartment for five days straight. because I was starting my jewelry brand. It's just like, I have, like, the. I love. Like Jenna Marble says she has, like, the Too Much Jean. I feel like I have, like, the Too Much Jean, where when I get excited about an idea, I have to execute immediately, or it will be rattling around in the back of my brain and bothering the hell out of me if I don't do it. So I have to execute, it doesn't. I don't have an expectation that it will go anywhere. But if I don't e. I don't at least, like, suss out the vibe to see if it's gonna go somewhere. It will eat at my brain until I do something about it. So that's why I was just, like. I was right Here at this desk, in this chair with this laptop. Just like for like five days straight. Cause I have the too much JE I guess. And yeah, yesterday I just decided to finally get out of the house and go outside after hibernating for five days. And I went on like a five and a half mile walk. It was very chill and I was just kind of walking around the neighborhoods that I kind of want to move to to and see myself living there and also just explore parts of the neighborhoods that I don't ever normally go to. So I took a lot of pictures of the architecture and it's always just fun to see. Yeah, like new neighborhoods and stuff. And the buildings were so beautiful and I was like, what if I lived there? What if I lived there? It would be so cool if I lived there. We'll see. I mean really, it's all up to the cards in the universe and the Edista listings, so we will see. But it was fun to just walk around and be like, I will live here. This is where I want to live and just kind of visualize my life, listen to some good music, get some steps in. And then I just edited my previous week's podcast yesterday. Oops. I've been a little behind with like the editing also again, because I started my jewelryand this week so the podcast kind of fell on the back burner. And then today I just edited. It's like crazy how, if I want to put effort into the TikToks I post especially for fragrance brands because I really like being a fragrance content creator. But, I want to like do justice to the brands that send me perfume to review. but the problem is it just takes a long time to edit. So if I edit like a five minute video, like a raw video of me chatting about the perfume, then it takes me like 30 minutes to an hour to edit. Even though it's very simple edits, I always think like, ah, it'll just take me 15 minutes. No, because you have to listen to it all the way through, cut out all the ums and o'and pauses and restarts. That takes at least twice the time of listening to it. So that takes 10 minutes because you're listening, cutting, making sure you cut just the right amount for every little pause. And I know there's ways to do it a bit faster now, but there's certain pauses I like to leave in for effect. You know what I mean? So it's like, I don't think AI knows because you can. Capcut has some Tools now where you can remove all the ums and os, but I don't. I'm very particular with how I edit my us and os and some of them, some of the pauses I want to leave in. So if I only go by waveform, it's not really accurate. And if I only go by ums and oz, then it's not very accurate, but it does it get, you know, anyway. So yeah, just doing that takes at least 10 minutes. And then you have to add the captions, edit the captions. You don't have to do that obviously. But I find that I enjoy videos a lot more when they have like somebody put in the effort to like actually make the captions beforehand. And it's not just auto generated captions. So I find especially for people that are watching the video on mute u, that the captions make a big difference for like viewer retention. And then making sure you add like a fun hook in the beginning with like a title with like some fun title text presets from capcut and all of a sudden like 30 or 45 minutes has gone by that by the time you just do simple jump cuts to get rid of all the pauses and shit to just like clean it up and then you add the captions and then you add maybe a title and then posting, I guess is what. It takes time as well. So then maybe the next 15 minutes is like getting a thumbnail doing the caption, tagging everyone, making the thumbnail, look nice, put text on the thumbnail. And by the time you do that for each video, it's about an hour per video. So that took me a couple hours this afternoon because I did a TikTok for Marlou perfumes, which is a French fragrance brand. And their perfumes, like one of them literally physically made me gag, like an automatic gag response. I was like, who? And it's because, I don't know, it wasn't even that stinky of a perfume, but something in it just like vehemently does not agree with me. And then the other brand was Ju Parum and they are a Gourmand fragrance brand. Marlow is more like an animalic body SC brand and Juset is more of a Gourmand brand, which if you're not familiar with the word gourmand, it just means like food scent. So in more recent years, like Gourmand scents have become more of a thing in the fragrance community. So that's why like I think Ju Parfum is probably the most like they literally Just do gourmand perfumes and they do extreme gourmands. Like I like some gourmands where it's like, I'm not sure that I would even classify them as goremands because they might technically be like, I don't know where we're drawing. I don't know that there's a definition of where we draw what is a gourmand and what's not. Because in my opinion, I don't like gourmandds at all. But I've heard some people refer to some of the perfumes I like as gourmand. So I guess you could technically refer to like Juice by commodity or choose Happiness by Emil Elise as gourmand because they're like extremely fruity. But I don't find that the fruitiness is like a tasty fruity, if that makes sense. It's not a fruity that makes me want to like bite into it. It's just like a fruity scent. I don't know. So for me, I guess, like, yeah, technically those are gourmand because they have heavy fruity notes and fruit is edible. But what I find a lot of people mean when they're talking about gourmand and what I don't like in Gorman sense is like extremely realistic food sense. Like an Oreo milkshake, an apple pie, a cake, yeah, stuff like that. I don't want to smell like that. I don't want to smell like that. So I really appreciate the art behind it because like Juomm, for example, the perfumer behind the brand, like his mission was to make like the most realistic food sense in the version of a perfume, to make it like also wearable to the right person. Obviously I'm just obviously not their target customer, you know what I mean? Or their target audience. But there are people who like really love that and some of them smell like, like really extremely realistic, like Nutella on toast or something. You know what I mean? So some people like just love that. I'm definitely not their target audience, but I will say it is very impressive how realistic the scents are because they sent me three different scents and the one I liked the most was the one they sent me in a full size bottle, which is accident Laani. And yeah, it smells extremely like sweet, buttery, cakey. And it even though that like, if you just were to look at the notes on Parfumo for example, or Fragranica, you would see just vanilla and like a wood and styrax. So if you look at the notes, you'd just be like, oh, okay. Like a nice, slightly woody vanilla scent. No, no, no, no, no. It smells like buttery cake, so. It does. Yes, it smells like vanilla, but it smells like a buttery vanilla cake. So, it's extremely sweet and buttery, and I just. I like it. But to me, it smells like. Almost like vanilla extract in a cake. And. Yeah, I don't want to smell like that on my body. So anyway, that's the adventure I went on with perfumes this past week, I guess. And, today I went after, you know, editing those two perfume TikToks that I was just talking about. About. I ended up going to Barcelontta beach or. Well, I don't really know what. What is the area you call behind, like, south of the W? I'm actually curious, so I can tell you guysuse I find, like, not a lot of people go all the way down to the W, and not a lot of people go past the W because, well, to be honest, there's not much past the W except for like a marina and like three. No, like, two restaurants and like a big concrete plaza. So there's. There's not much past the W. So it's not, like, weird that people don. Go past it, but it is kind of cool. So where I went is, like, if you go down to the W in Barcelona and you go past it, like on the backside where you would think, like, is there even anything back there? No, there's not really, like I just said, but it's called Plaza de la Rosa, El Benz. And the little path is called no, Passage de la Culera. It's basically just like a giant rock wall. What. What would you call that? Anyway, it's like a barrier for the entrance of the marina. So there's like a, you know, a walking path that you can go on that goes all the way down the length of the marina, and then it just ends and it's like a dead end. but everyone. Which I was like, oh, I'm being so smart. I'm not just gonna go to the beach to see the eclipse. Oh. Because I went there to see the lunar eclipse. I was like, I'm not just gonna go to the beach. I'm gonna go behind the W so I can get a clear shot of the water. No one walking in front of me. Nada. And I mean, I thought, there wasn't that many people back there, but I was actually shocked that there was so many people back there. And I guess we all had the same idea of like getting a spot on the passage. I don't know no Passage de la sculera. And ah, we all had an idea to get along that because the moon was rising right U, like the. Oh my God, am I stupid? The moon was gonna rise right above the water on the horizon as the eclipse was going to happen. So you couldn't really just see it from anywhere. You kind of had to go towards the water to see it because it was so much like I can. Am I like I'm out of brain cells. The moon was literally eclipsing as it passed above the horizon. So you kind of had to be at the beach or somewhere where you could easily see the horizon of the sea of the ocean to like see it come up. so it was almost like a sunrise but a moonrise because the moon was coming up and over. And so everybody wanted a, you know, a view of the horizon. The unfortunate part is it was cloudy on the horizon. So when it was in its like peak blood moon stage, nobody saw it in Barcelona because the clouds covered it up. But then maybe 30 minutes after peak eclipse it got above some of the clouds so then you could finally see it. And I'll insert a picture on the YouTube video if you're watching. I brought my tripod and everything. Cause I was like I'm gonna use night mode on my phone and it's gonna slay so hard. Yeah, I, I'm lucky. That was the one photo I got that my phone gave me a nine second option for night mode. all the rest of the photos that only gave me a three second option and I was like, I, I wish you could manually adjust it. I was, I brought my tripods so that I could try and get my phone as still as humanly possible without my hands shaking to try and get like the longest exposure time. so the only photo I got that turned out really well was like just. It worked out really well. My phone was focused correctly and I got the nine second timer and it worked out really well. The rest of the photos kind of turned out like shit. But it was cool to see with my own eyes. Although a little disappointing because like the only cool eclipse looking part was like right when it appeared when it was still pretty low on the horizon. But I waited longer to see if it would like look any cooler, I don't know. And then it just kind of looked like a sliver moon. Like it was pretty bright. Still, despite technically Being an eclipse, so I'm glad I went. But I mean, m. You can't predict though if it's gonna be cloudy on the horizon, like right when it comes up. Like it's just by chance. So, yeah, I just, I walked all the way down to the beach. It was like a 45 minute walk. So I got a walk in and I took a few photos and I got to see it technically. and I also just want to give a shout out to the app called Night Sky. I always forget that I have it on my phone, but when I got down to Barcelona to beach, I realized like, wait, I don't know where the hell the moon is supposed to be. Like, I knew I was supposed to be able to see it somewhere, but I was like, wait, where's the moon? Where did it go? And it wasn't high in this sky like I said. So I opened the Night sky app. It's actually so cool. Like, I forget that I have it all the time, but it's so, so cool. You have to like put your location in, but then when you do it just like, I don't know, it's like you have a little map of the sky and when you move around it shows you like based on the angle you're looking, where everything is. So yeah, right now, where's the moon? it's about like a fourth up in the sky. But yeah, literally when I first checked it at like

8: 14:56

30 when it said it was supposed to peak, it was still just below the Horizon. So by 9, no, by like 850 it should have cross the horizon, but it was cloudy. So that would have been the best time to see it. but unfortunately us in Barcelona did not to get us such a great view. Yeah, it's very cool. So if you guys are wanting to nerd out about the universe, you should download the app called Night Sky U. yeah. And then I came home and then I ate dinner and now I'm filming my podcasts. So

it's 11: 15:25

45 in the evening. but I already have my makeup on, so we're gonna film. And that was what I did this week. No, now I'll tell you about the jewelry brand. So that's kind of why I wanted to start. Start or do this topic. because I was in, I say like in my cave, but literally I was just like here at my desk like for five days straight. So, yeah, why did I start the brand? I mean, I've. For probably a year now, I've had the idea, well, probably longer than that, but more realistically, like, more seriously. For the past year, I've had the idea to do a jewelry brand. Like, I've brought it up with my friends a few times of like, oh, my God. Just kind of like in passing, but not actually seriously, like, just complaining about how I'm always so annoyed that there's no hypoallergenic, jewelry that I. That is actually like, affordable and also in a style that I like. Because really the only hypoallergenic jewelry that's out there is piercing jewelry. So if you go to like a piercing shop or a tattoo shop, you can find hypoallergenic jewelry. But usually it's just the stuff that they sell you for, like your first piercing or two. And it's not like jewelry that's more fashion jewelry, if that makes sense. And it's not fine jewelry. There's like, I would say there's like three, no, four categories of jewelry that I've learned. Body piercing jewelry, that's gonna be number one. That's like the piercings I have in now. That's just like the titanium dark gray studs or like simple dark gray tiny hoops or like a simple rhinestone. Or it's just like, like the silver balls, you know what I mean? Like, they're not super fancy, they're not super cute, but they, they do the job. And they keep your holes. They keep your holes open while they heal, you know what I mean? Without irritating them. So you have body piercing jewelry and then you have fine jewelry, which is going to be like your engagement rings, your diamond necklaces, your tennis bracelets, your. Anything that's considered like, pretty fancy, usually very expensive, usually made out of like solid gold or silver. And it's, yeah, more expensive and fancy. Then you have demi fine or semi fine or demi fine, whatever. You get the point. I'm gonna say demi fine because I think that's what it was called. And it's like a newer group that's popped up. But demi fine jewelry is a, newer group that's like, geared towards making fine jewelry more affordable. So maybe it doesn't have the same materials used, but it's trying to evoke the same vibe, maybe with still nice materials, but just not like, as nice so that you don't have to spend, I don't know, $5,000 on a necklace. So it's like instead of $5,000 on a necklace, you spend 200. You know what I mean? So it's still, it's still not cheap, but it's, like, a lot more affordable than$5,000 for a necklace. You know what I mean? So you have body piercing, fine jewelry, demi fine, and then you have costume and fashion jewelry, which is what most brands are. You're gonna have. Most brands on social media that sell jewelry aren toa be in the fashion costume jewelry category, even if they claim to be, like, Lux 's Fine Jewelry. Whatever. You can claim whatever you want. There's no, like, board that's like, no, you are this kind or you are this kind, or you are this gu. Like, no one's in charge of it. It's just kind of like, it kind of falls into one of those groups. And guess what? No one focuses on hypoallergenic jewelry and any of those groups besides body piercings and body piercings. The problem there is that they don't really have the styles, the colors, the vibe that, ah, I want for everyday jewelry or even just jewelry that I want to wear when I want to look nice. So I'm finding that there's a huge gap, and I've been complaining about this for a while, that there's no truly hypoallergenic jewelry that, like, gives the same vibe as. I don't even care if I mean. Fashion and costume jewelry is not a bad connotation. I think that could even be split into a bunch of subgroups, but it just covers basically all the other jewelry that doesn't fit into the fine jewelry category. Because I think finde jewelry is a bit more specific. So I'm like, okay, how hard can it be? Like, I'm gonna start a jewelry brand. I know what you guys are probably thinking. Like, didn't you just start a swimwear brand? A lot of my friends are like, wait, girl, what happened to the swimsuits? They're coming. They're coming. But the issue with swimsuits is I want my swimsuits to be, like, very well made and custom to my designs. And I would have been done by now. Like, I would have been done by now. They would have been already ready. But you. I just need so much money to get it, launched off the ground that even if I start with one swimsuit, the minimum order quantities are still like, 50 per piece or no, 50 per size. Sorry. So I would need. And if I want to have a very inclusive size range, let's say I go from small to 3x to start. So that's small, medium, large, extra large, extra extra large, 3X, that's six sizes, 50 each size. And I don't really remember what the wholesale price would be or like the. From the manufacturer. I can just do the math for you really quick. So if I need 50, and that's a very low MOQ, most minimum order quantities are like in the hundreds, if not thousands. So to find, and I found a manufacturer that allows 50, and I'm like, oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. I want to use them for sure. Like, I already know which manufacturer I want. But let's say we have 50 of each size. So I need to order 300 swimsuits. That's actually not that much like in the grand scheme of things in the manufacturing world, that's really not that many swimsuits. But if I have to order 300 swimsuits, and that's just me selling one swimsuit, not a whole line, not a whole range one, I was like, okay, I can launch with like one signature. Oh yeah. And that's one color. So if I just. I was likekay, what if I parir it down really small, I launch with one signature black bikini and that becomes like my pillar product. And then I just eventually build around that as people get their get interested for it, you know, And I could do pre orders as well. But even just in the beginning to like, do the iterations to make the swimsuit perfect will probably cost me a couple thousand euros to like just perfect the first model. Because I don't want to white label my swimsuits. I want it to be something that I designed from like literal trial and error and making it like perfect. And I also have to make it work on a lot of different body sizes. And especially when it comes. It's just, it's not as easy of a product as jewelry, for, for example, but so if we do 300 of just a black bikini to cover all the sizes and have 50 of each size, and let's say they charge me, I don't even know what the number would be right now, but let's just say they charge me €25 per swimsuit. That's€7,500 just to get the swimsuits for one color of one bikini. So and that. And that's like the bare minimum. The bare minimum. So yes, I could do pre order, but even just to get this, this the design down for one bikini, because I want it to fit everyone. One of all, like, I have a big goal that I want to meet. And I was like, okay, this is feeling a bit overwhelming without the budget to just freely order samples. you know, so I was like, I'm not a. I'm not a pattern designer. I don't know that I have the budget to keep playing around with, ordering samples and not getting it right for at least a few tries. And so it might take me, like, six months to get the sample right. And I don't have money to be blowing on, like, just trial and error, like, hee, ha ha, let's see what works. So I was like, okay, this is overwhelming me a bit. It's coming. If I had the budget to blow and, like, had a few thousand to just blow on samples and stuff, it would be going well, but it's not quite there. So then that's kind of the backstory on the swimsuits. They're coming. It's not something that I've given up, but it's kind of like on pause until I can get more money. Because, hey, every dream could be easily lifted off the ground with just a little bit of money, right? But I'm all the way there. I just need money. So I was like, okay, how do I get money in the meantime? And it's not to say that I'm starting my jewelry band just being like, I need money. But it is another idea that I've had that I put on the back burner because I started the swimsuit brand. So then I was like, oh, no, I can't do that now. I already have the swimsuit brand thing going on, blah, blah, blah. But then what was it? Yeah, just last weekend. It feels like it's been weeks. It was literally just like eight days ago. It was just eight days ago. I was like, oh, what did I do this past week? Oh, yeah, I sent like two or 300 brand emails. Like, in addition to the hundreds and thousands I've already sent this summer, I sent, like, I found maybe 200 more brands to send emails to last Saturday afternoon. And then I emailed them all, like, with cold pitch emails. So they were mostly jewelry and fragrance brands that I was targeting last weekend. And yeah, So I did 200 emails to outreach, but again, I would say probably over a hundred of those were, jewelry brands. And then as I was looking through the over the 100 jewelry brands, in addition to all the other jewelry brands I've already reached out to this summer, I was just like, okay, if all these jewelry brands can do it, then I can do it and I can do it better. Sorry if that sounds cocky, but that's kind of the attitude you need to start a business, because everyone's like, oh, every industry is so saturated. Okay? You're never going to find an industry that's not saturated. So can we just drop that? Like, everything is saturated everywhere. Everything is oversaturated. It just is what it is. So if you're going to start a business, you better have a good plan of how you're going to make it better than everyone that already exists. Because there's always going to be about 50,000 million people who thought of the idea before you. But how are you going to make your idea better? So I was like, yeah, I mean, and also, I'm not selling to the same people as these other jewelry brands. But as I was looking through all of their websites, all of their Instagrams, like, seeing the vibe that they give, I was like, you know what? It's been bothering me. And, even if these brands respond to me and say that they want to do a collaboration with me, it doesn't even feel that authentic because I'm pretty sure most of their jewelry is not hypoallergenic. So I can't even really, truly say that it works for me and that I love it because it's not going to be something I can realistically wear without causing myself pain. So then I was like, what am I actually doing so that I don't know what it was? I think on Monday night or Tuesday morning, I was like, okay, well, realistically, what would it take to start a jewelry brand? Is it hypothetically easier than a clothing brand? Is it possible? Could I do a hypoallergenic jewelry brand? Because that's been on my mind for a while. What if? What if? So then I got down with my friend Chat chbt, and I was just like, heay, girl, what exactly do I need to know to start a jewelry brand? What metals are hypoallergenic? And I already know the brand Tiny Lux. So I do recommend them, like, even though they would technically be one of my competitors. But I do think that we have different vibes in, like, different markets. So not really, but kind of. I think they're the only other brand on the market that's selling, that's doing kind of what I want to do. But I recommend checking them out because they do have good educational content on what is hypoallergenic and what isn't. U and I've already ordered some earrings from them because I was just so desperate for earrings that I can actually wear every day. And then that was a few months ago that I ordered those. And then this week I was like, okay, I think tinyux is like the only other brand that's actually trying to close this gap, you know what I mean? Because I don't, I don't really know of any other hypoallergenic brands. And so when I was doing, I did copious amounts of research this week and every free minute I had, I was researching, trying to figure out how to find supp. Suppliers, manufacturers, if it makes sense to go straight to a manufacturer, if it makes sense to go to a supplier, how to get the brand off the ground with like the minimum viable product, minimum investment, and if I can go straight to a 3PL provider, like a fulfillment provider. So you know how there's like fulfillment by Amazon. So you could technically start an Amazon shop and be completely hands off. All you do is like start your Amazon shop. You find a product, you find a manufacturer, you link up with the manufacturer, get them to create your product, maybe you get sent a sample, you approve it, you say, okay, I like this. Send, you know, blank amount of orders or pieces to this Amazon warehouse and Amazon does the rest. They do all the packaging, they do the order management. Like, hands off. Literally hands off. So I was like, girl, I'm not trying to, like, I'm not trying to package the orders and deal with returns and like all that. I don'tnna do that. I justnna design the jewelry, create the vibe, do the marketing T. I'm not trying to do the logistics of it and the supply chain. I don't care about that like somebody else do it. But when I was talking to like, I had a few phone calls and emails back and forth and like, whatever quotes from different three PL providers, which I understand, why they were kind of like, oh, you don't have any orders yet. And I was like, girl, no, I kind of wanna just get it started with you and then you do it. And they're like, ah, you, you guess you technically could, but we don't really do that because they were saying like, you kind of have to already have like a set number of orders coming in per month that you can rely on on average so that they know how much space in their warehouse they need. They know how many employees they need to like cover your brand. So you kind of have to have an idea of like, what, what type of supplies are gonna be in there, how much of it, how many orders, like what, what's the statistics? And I was like, m. I don't know yet. And they're like, okay, well we can't really Work with that. And I'm like, o, damn it. Fine. So I guess I have to be the one to manage all the orders and everything, which I've come around to. I'm kind of excited to do that. So, yeah, I've done so much research and essentially what I've learned is that pretty much no brand out there except for Tiny Lux. And if you guys know of any other brands, like, please send them my way. But I have not found any other brands that I. I mean, I'll keep looking. Obviously. I'm sure there are others out there, but the only one I'm aware of is Tiny looks right now that do actually hypoallergenic jewelry. A lot of people will say it or they'll be like, oh, for sensitive ears. Or it's like waterproof, or it's tarnish free, or it's like blah, blah, blah. So then it makes you think like, oh, maybe it's good quality. And it's not that it's not good quality, but like, for example, I think I'm even allergic to 925 sterling silver. sterling silver. For a long time I thought I was not allergic to sterling silver because I was like, no, it should be hypoallergenic. But I can get away with wearing it like on my skin as like a bracelet. Like, I have a bracelet that I brought to Miami earlier this summer, and I've been like, basicallyare testing all these metals, seeing how they react to or how I react to them. So I would know if I'm sensitive. Definitely someone else is going toa be sensitive as well if they're already having, you know, metal allergies. So my mom got me this really cute horseshoe bracelet. It says 925 sterling silver. I was like, oh, this is bougie. Like, it's probably nice. It's not going to bother me. But then in Miami, it's kind of hot, it's kind of humid. So I'm wearing my bracelets all day with like the humidity and that like super accelerated the absorption of whatever metal into my skin and gave me like the most nasty rash on my hand for like multiple days afterwards. And I could tell by like where the location of the rash was that it was from the horseshoe bracelet. And I was like, oh my God, like, it doesn't bother me so much if I wear it for like two hours at night and I'm not sweating, it's not gonna give me a rash. But especially with me walking around in the heat and it was on for probably like eight hours. Because I was out all day at Miami swim week. It gave me the craziest rash, and I was like, oh, oh, my God. I guess I'm allergic to 9, 25 sterling silver or whatever's in it. Because 9 and 25 sterling silver isn't necessarily nickel free. It's sterling silver, but it's not necessarily nickel free. You know what I mean? And even a lot of jewelry that says nickel free still bothers me, and I don't think that it's actually nickel free. I'm like, are you guys lying? Like, I. I think I am also allergic to cobalt. So it's possible that it has cobalt in it, but it could have other things in there that are just really irritating. And so even if I buy jewelry, because, you can go to Target and see a lot of jewelry that claims it's nickel free, but I don't know what they're using as the base metal. And there's no, like, at least in the US in the eu I think there is, like, an overseeing, like, certificate of what is considered nickel free and safe for people with nickel allergiesus the you always has more and better regulations. But I'm thinking of, like, the jewelry you would find at Target in the US like, so many of them say nickel free. And I've bought so many earrings from Target over the years, and they always irritate my ears. And I'm like, okay, well, it says nickel free. And I just got patch testing done last year, almost exactly a year ago to today, and I got patch testing done where she put, like, 36 patches on my back. And. Or, the allergist put 36 patches on my back. And we patch tested, and I was extremely allergic to nickel where it left, like, a scar on my back. And you can see where the allergy reaction was for, like, three months after the patch was on my back. So I'm like, okay, now I know for sure I'm extremely allergic to nickel. And then the only one that kind of reacted was the cobalt patch. So I know that I'm like, severe, severe allergy to nickel and then, like, sort of mild allergy to cobalt. So that's been my path to my, reason why I want to create a hypoallergenic jewelry line. Because, like, I just have so much jewelry that people have even gifted me over the years that I've bought thinking, like, oh, this. This brand says that it's like, blank metal. That means it should be safe from my ears. And then I buy it and I put it in my ears and it's like so irritating that my ears bleed. Even if, even if I keep it in for a couple days and it doesn't seem to bother me so much at first, it still bothers me after like two days and I'm like, okay, that shouldn't be happening though. So even like I love the brand Maria Black, I absolutely love their jewelry and their jewelry is like much better for me. But I've kept their earrings in for like just 48 hours before where I'm like, oh, I put it in one day and I just want to see how it does if I keep it in for like longer than just a day. Cause normally I'm the type of person that takes my earrings out at night. Except for the ones I have in now, these are body piercing ones that are just titanium. But even the Maria Black ones irritate me and make my ears really, really swollen and itchy after about 48 hours. But it's not as instant as some other brands where some other brands are itchy within 30 minutes. So I can tolerate M. Maria Black earrings much better than I can tolerate other brands but won't like majority of brand's earrings make my ears bleed within an hour or two of wearing them. So yeah, safe to say I'm pretty, I'm pretty fucking annoyed. I'm pretty fucking annoyed that I can't wear any fucking cute earrings. So that's, you know, the catalyst for me making this jewelry brand. I'm not sure that I want to say the name yet because I kind of want to still keep it a secret until I like fully launch. But I think it will be much quicker. Like I already have the supplier, items that I want to purchase to start because I do want a custom design but obviously that is more expensive. And the moqs for jewelry are still quite high, like in the hundreds. So it lowers the initial cost a lot if you go with products that are already made. But the main challenge here is finding suppliers that are truthful about the metals that they're using and finding earrings that are actually made with non allergy causing metals. And, and the supplier that is actually telling the truth because I don't know, I think a lot of them lie to get your business. So I have to be like, no, you really need to show me the certificates and I need to try them in my own ears as proof to like know for sure that they're non allergenic. So I want to clarify anything made with a base metal that says it's plated probably going toa cause allergies. Literally anything, any brand that's like we use 18 karat gold, we use 24 karat gold. We plate everything in gold. Literally that doesn't fucking matter. Literally that doesn't matter. It's the base metal that's underneath the gold that leeches out. And no matter what, if it's plated with anything plated with a metal, it will leech through the metal. So that's why even like plated with rhodium, I think, I think Maria Black, I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I got Maria Black because it was like, you know what, why am I trying to guess? Let me just look it up. I really like them though. Like if you guys are not super, super sensitive to earrings but you still want to buy something that is probably not going to cause you any issues. Maria Black for the most part is not causing me too many issues. But I think the reason why it still causes me issues is because of the base metal. But just one second. Okay, so yeah, that's why. Because a lot of brands preach sustainability. So they always say like, hey, we make our jewelry with recycled sterling silver. A lot of brands use sterling silver as the base metal and they claim or they promote that it's recycled sterling silver to be more like sustainable. Which it pro. Maybe that is. But for me, I am gonna try to be as sustainable as I can. But like I don't know that. I mean a lot of it is just buzzwords anyway, right? Like we don't actually know how sustainable the recycled sterling silver is compared to other metals. Like we don't actually know like the eco friendly report on that. So do what you will with that information. But I think most of their, that's what I was remembering though. Most of their jewelry is recycled sterling silver. and it's plated with rhodium. So like for most people that's a pretty good combo. It's not going to cause too many issues. It's good that it's plated in rhodium. It's a good combo. It's not bad at all. I think it's, I think for them it obviously works. And if you don't have severe nickel allergies or silver allergies, then I think their earrings would be fine. Even for me. Like I, like I said, I can tolerate their earrings for about 48 hours before it really starts bothering me. And I think it's because that there is still trace nickel in the sterling silver. And it eventually starts to like leech out through the rhodium plating. So the rhodium plating is not like a seal. It still can leak, if that makes sense. But maybe the rhodium plating just like slows the leaking. And there might be a smaller percentage of nickel in the sterling silver. So like it's not bothering me as much. Whereas other, other jewelry is made with brass. Oh my God. Brass is what turns it green. So if anything turns your fingers green or your ears green, it's made with brass. Just avoid that'it's. Like the literally cheapest base metal. I would never recommend. I any jewelrybrand uses that. Now that I've done my research this week. Just don't use anything with brass. And even if something is plated, doesn't matter. The plating literally doesn't matter. But there's a difference between plating and coating. So I've learned the only hypoallergenic materials that are truly hypoallergenic is titanium and neopbium. Titanium and neiobium. The reason why there's no truly hypoallergenic jewelry brands out there is because hey, guess what I found out. It'really fucking hard to make jewelry out of those two metals. Niobium is too soft and titanium is too hard. Well actually there's also platinum and palladium, but those are so much more expensive. Its like titanium and neiobium. Okay, I want to Ill do a visual graph here. Brass, super fucking cheap. Stainless steel, little less sheap. Sterling silver, little less cheap. Then you have like sterling silver with plated with 18 karat gold. Then you have like gold verme which is like a thicker plating of gold. And then you have like pure gold. And then you have well no, no, no. Then you have like titanium andobium probably somewhere in like the gold plating territory. And then you have pure gold. And then you have like palladium and platinum. Wo those are real expensive. So yes, they are hypoallergenic. But no one makes jewelry with them because it's like the base price, you know, like the base price that the wholesaler or the manufacturer gives you. And then the retailer marks it up like 500%. The base price, like skin and bones price for a palium piece of jewelry or a platinum piece of jewelry is like 3 or€400 for a ring before you even like. So then you would have to order a hundred rings for 340 or 400 a piece. So you can see why the math would not be working for me there. It would not be working for most people. Because most people, unless you're working in extreme fine jewelry, do not need like that nice of a metal. So that's why most people are working with brass, stainless steel, or sterling silver with gold plating on top. That's pretty much every single brand is using some combination of that. And then body piercing jewelry uses titanium. So there's like pretty much just those two worlds. You have like sterling silver, brass, stainless steel, or titanium. And those are kind of like your options to work with. So titanium starts on fire when you try to melt it down. So that's why it's only available in really basic shapes and patterns and stuff. Because, you have to like laser cut it out of a sheet of titanium. So you can't get really, crafty with the shape of it and stuff because you can't melt it down into a mold like you can with sterling silver or stainless steel. You have to laser cut it. So it just really limits the creativity you have with titanium. That's why there's just not a whole lot of options for titanium jewelry. Because it's really hard to work with and it starts on fire. And it's just like most, most manufacturers don't even bother working with it. Cause it's a pain in the ass. So then I've run into that, you know, u, ah, roadblock. And then the only other option that some companies s claim is hypoallergenic is 316L stainless steel. Which means it's like, it has, it still has like kind of a crazy amount of nickel in it potentially. But like, maybe it doesn't. And so it's all depending on like the alloys and like how distilled it is. And like each factory that gets the stainless steel, maybe it has 4% nickel, maybe it has 15% nickel, but it's like all the way up to like 20% nickel. And I'm like, what? That's a lot. That's a lot. Hello. How is that hypoallergenic? It's not. It, it literally has nickel in it. But I will be using stainless steel on my jewelry brand. But just listen to me. So the earrings, everything that goes through a hole in your ear, everything that goes through a hole will be titanium or at the very minimum, have a titanium post so that the part that actually touches the very sensitive part of your ear will be titanium no matter what. The other thing is stainless steel. I guess if it's the specifically. Cause there's so many different types of stainless steel. Not every brand is gonna disclose what type of stainless steel they use. The only stainless steel that can kind of maybe a little bit be considered hypoallergenic is if it's 316L stainless steel, which means that it's vacuumed so tightly, which just means that the nickel is vacuumed and like incorporated so tightly in the way that the stainless steel is made that it can't escape. So I'm like, yeah, but there's still nickel in it. So I don't consider that, allergy free. And nowhere do most like official standards. But a lot of just be aware of that, Be aware of that when you're, when you're shopping for jewelry, that if it's just made with stainless steel, that literally does not mean that it's allergy free at all. It actually has nickel in it. Like literally every stainless steel is like stainless steel soup and you have no idea what's in it. Like, there's no, like exactly this percentage of this and this percentage of this and this percentage of this because it's still an alloy. So it still literally has nickel in it. Every single stainless steel still has nickel in it. None of them are completely nickel free. If anybody is trying to claim that, they are a liar. So then what I discovered is that on top of the stainless steel, so the stainless steel, since it's the specific version that has it so tightly packed that the nickel cannot escape it is sort of, you know, we're getting there. It allows you the room for more creativity with your pieces. Because titanium, like I said, you can't really do much, because you just got a laser cut it. So you get circles and sticks and maybe a ring and maybe something a little interesting, but you pretty much get circles and sticks. With titanium, you're not going to be able to do anything really artistic or interesting with it. So stainless steel is where I'm going to be able to be afforded some creativity. And I'm sure, I'm sure like most of you, if you do have a nickel allergy, you're able to tolerate something on your skin for longer periods of time. And typically for most of us, I don't think we're wearing like a ton of rings and a ton of bracelets and a ton of necklaces day in and day out for like months at a time. Some people do, I know, but I think for those of us with allergies, we're probably not doing that for the most part. So we're already not going to be in the habit of just wearing things for like months on end. I don't even know how people do that. I can't stand the feeling of stuff like, like I'll put it on for, you know, an occasion, but I always take it off as soon as I get home because I don't, I don't like the feeling of. Especially after you wash your hands and stuff, there's like water still stuck under all the crevices of everything. Like u. I don't like thatm. but so sorry I'm this turned on into a whole jewelry tangent. Sorry. That just is kind of how things go. So then I learned about coating. I mentioned that there's plating. Plating is like rhodium plated, gold plated. Those are going to be the two common types of plating that you see. and then there's going to be coating two, two totally different things. Most coing will even go on top of plating. So at first I was, you know, kind of spitballing with chat gbt like, okay, but what if I did, you know, 316 stainless steel with rhodium plating to kind of get the color I want. And then it was like, no, you know, plating doesn't really seal in the nickel. Plus it also chips off over time. So if you've gotten any jewelry that has plating on it, you've probably noticed that it's either tarnished or just lost its luster even among amongst the time span of like a few months. And that's because it's plated. So especially if it's plated over sterling silver, the silver naturally tarnishes over time and the plating will naturally wear off over time, especially if it's a fairly thin plating. And most companies are going to do a fairly thin plating because the thinner the plating, the cheaper it is to produce. So, you know, you get where I'm going. So I was like, I don't want to even do the plating at all because then it's going to change over time and it will look not as nice over time. And I don't want that. I want the jewelry to look the same as it is when you purchased it even five years later. I don't want it to be like something that looks kind of shitty after like six months to a year because all the plating wore off. So I was like, okay, ditch that idea. I don't give a fuck about plating. We'll figure out something else. And then I Learned about coing. So you have E coing, which is ceramic coating. You have PVD coating, and then you have blue clad coing, which is like this new brand that popped up in Italy, and they do like this. It's like a special, proprietary technology that they came up with, which I think is super cool. I would totally love to use it, but guess what? It's super expensive. So I'm stuck with either E coding or PVD coing. E coing ceramic coating is okay, but it, it tends to chip. And I was like, girl, what's the point of a coat then? I don't want it to fucking chip. So then we're left with PVD coating, which seems to be, like, really good. It completely seals the product or it completely seals the jewelry piece and it doesn't chip. Like, it's very strong. So it basically creates like an indestructible coating over the piece of metal that is the jewelry. And I was like, oh my God, I've found my perfect triad. You know what I mean? So also you have to pick specific titanium grades, but there most jewelry is made with implant grade titanium, so it's not something you have to worry about as much as stainless steel, for example. So I will have titanium earrings, stainless steel for everything else, but everything I would like to be coded in PVD just for longevity's sake and also to just make it extra super hypoallergenic. Because if you have the PVD coing, the PVD coating is hypoallergenic. And even though titanium is hypoallergenic, I'm like, let's just really amp it up. And it's kind of like getting a wrap on your car. So, like, even if you just get a clear wrap on your car, it just kind of prevents the paint from any dings and scratches and, like, helps the lifespan of the paint of your car. So it's the same with the PBD coating. It just kind of gives like an extra, like, barrier to the jewelry so that it stays as it's supposed to for even longer, and the color stays the same and it's just overall better wo jewelry mastasterlass for you guys. That's what I've learned and that's what I will be going forward with. So titanium in the earring holes, sterling silver everywhere else. Because you can make. I want to be able to make it like cool jewelry. I don't want to be stuck with, like, just super boring jewelry. So I want to be able to create something really cool and fun. But that hinges on me being able to create 316 stainless steel with PVD coing. And that's been an interesting journey for me to find. So I've been on all sorts of websites trying to find the right manufacturers to work with. And originally I wanted it to be completely within Europe just to just not even deal because like EU regulations paying for customs on imports, like, like I just didn't even want it to be outside of Europe, similar to, to the swimsuit brand. But I quickly learned that pretty much all jewelry is made in China. So I was like, okay, cool, I'm fine with that. I wasnna try and do it in Europe. But unless you work with like a hometown jeweler that's willing to do all of your work, like I'm sure it's hypothetically possible, but just at scale, I think fine jewelry. Okay, I'll take it back. I think if you're doing fine jewelry where you're not having a ton of each piece because you want to keep the supply low so that the demand is always high and each piece is like a unique piece of art and it's like very high end, then you could probably just work with a local jeweler. But if you want to scale and have like a fashion brand and be a bit like more broad, then you basically just need to find a manufacturer in China, which is fine. I'm actually'm, I'm like some of them have been so great and they're like so helpful already. And I'm like, oh my God, this is so exciting. So that is where I'm at. I created the brand pitch deck already. I already picked out all the supplies I need to package it myself. The thermal printer to print labels for shipping. And I already found all the like packaging products I would need and I'm just gonna order them from Alibaba. And you know what? From looking on Alibaba for biodegradable compostable packaging supplies. Hey guys, guess what? It's really fucking easy to make a fully compostableash biodegradable packaging setup. It's like extremely easy. I was like, part of what kind of grosses me out about making a brand is that the packaging is just so wasteful. It feels so disgusting of having like 10 components to get one item to a customer. It just feels so gross. And then as soon as you open it, you have like a half a trash bin full of shit that is mostly plastic. And I'm like, ew, I really don't want to do that. Like it Just feels really icky in my soul. So I was asking chatybt, like, what is the most efficient, like either eco friendly or like I just want mostly biodegradable because you're probably just gonna throw it in the trash, but then at least if it goes to the landfill, it'll eventually decompose rather than just like stay there in the earth for like 300 years. So I was like, okay, I just need things that are probably mostly based out of paper, recycled paper. And that's pretty, that's pretty. A fairly easy request. So yeah, pretty much I'll do cotton, like 100% cotton, little jewelry bags. And then you need little plastic bags, especially if you scale the brand to put the jewelry in. In little boxes like at either in your home or at the manufacturer at the 3PL provider so that they can pick the jewelry and complete the order for you. So you need to have like little skews on each little individual baggie for like a pair of earrings, a ring, a bracelet. And I was like, oh, that's a lot of plastic. And then it was like, oh yeah, you can just find biodegradable ones. There's a lot of natural materials that they've made like quote unquote plastic bags out of. So then I just will order some of those. They're not like super expensive. And then like, you know, like egg carton material. They just make little like egg carton boxes that you can use for your. Or no, I'll have the little non plastic bag that goes inside the cotton bag and then the cotton bag goes inside. It's kind of silly, but it just is the way that it works in the packaging. Then the jewelry, little cotton jewelry bag goes inside the egg carton box, and then the egg carton box sits in some crinkly paper in the shipping box. And then you. I want to put a thank you card obviously, but I don't want to have, a plasticky super inky thank you card. So then you just print with soybean ink on like recycled paper cards. And then you put that. And then you close the box and you get recycled paper boxes, cardboard boxes, and then you just use paper tape and there you go. It's a fully, basically a fully paper setup besides the little quote unquote plasticky bag and the cotton jewelry bag. Otherwise it's basically all paper. So I was like, all right, that wasn't that hard. Most brands just don't do that, I guess. I'm sure it does obviously cost a bit more, but Also, you can just bake that, cost into the price of the product. Hello. And the other thing I had to worry about was tariffs. Cause, well, now if I ship to the US there's like a crazy tariff on that, so I'm gonna have to figure that into shipping price. So it's been kind of fun though. It's like I've been playing like a little Monopoly game all week. It's been so fun. Okay, sorry. That was literally like a full podcast about myself and my brands. but I hope it was interesting if you listene to all of that. But if you decided to skip ahead, I totally get you because I think I just rambled about myself for an hour and that was kind of unplanned. But I've packed my brain with so much information this week that it kind of felt good to just dump it all out. So, but I've also been listening to a lot of podcasts while I've been researching about making a jewelry brand this week. And it really helped me feel very motivated. And so I just wanted to talk about that a little bit and give you guys some ideas to like, spark your mind of. Like, maybe you've had an idea like I have just sitting in the back of your head for a while and you might wa want to act on it soon. I don't know, maybe you wa wantna put a little plan in place. So I don't know. I love to learn. I love to solve problems, I love to research, and I love to find ways to make money. So that was kind of the reason why I started my apparel brand and my jewelry brand. And so, all I can suggest is just like, find what you're good at, provide value in some way with, like, the knowledge that you've learned from. Whatever. You can have literally so many different life experiences and like, you've definitely learned something from each of those that makes you very good at a unique set of skills. And so you should really hone that because you've been given the opportunities to learn what you've learned and like, put it all together. What does that make sense to do? Like what? Maybe it aligns better to one niche or one industry based off of your experience, and then just be passionate, about solving a problem and it can come together, like, kind of easily if you have the right, you know, interests in place. So obviously, like me, you could start an E commerce brand. So you could start just like an online store selling physical products, so like a shopify store, and you could set up fashion Beauty, home goods, random niche items and start a Shopify store which I recommend. Or you could do like fulfilled by Amazon or you could do Etsy. I would recommend Shopify service based businesses. So you could do like consulting, social media management, photography, design, coaching, tutoring. And these are nice because it often doesn't require much upfront investment and you can just get started doing it like in your free time on the weekends and start teaching yourself stuff and start reaching out to people to offer like one on one sessions. You could do a tech startup, so you could like build a software or build an app or just build some sort of platform that solves a problem. So like a productivity app. And now there's AI platforms like this platform that I'm going to start working with called Alton, like a L, T A N Alton A I. So now if you're not getting with the AI, you should. If you're not learning about AI, you're already behind. But there's AI solutions that help you make apps. So you could use AI to be like the coder and like the backbone of helping you create an app with virtually no upfront cost. And then you just worry about like the marketing and the branding of it. Hello, there's a business idea right there. So you can have an AI platform make an app for you and then you just do the rest. Genius. Obviously you could do like content creation through YouTube, Tik Tok, podcasting, blogging, newsletters and you could try to get sponsors, do courses, sell merchandise. You could work in hospitality and food. So you could like open a cafe, open a restaurant, a food truck catering service. You could also create a specialty food brand so like a snack, a sauce, a beverage, sell wholesale or direct to consumer. You could do health and wellness so like start a business and fitness, nutrition, skincare supplements, mental health and you could be a coach. Or you could just like launch a wellness product line or you could launch wellness services. You could do education and online courses. So if you have like education in a specific spec specific niche and you feel like you're really good at reteaching it to people, you could just start doing that by doing digital courses, workshops, memberships, online school, mentorship or yeah, mentorships as well. Real estate and property management. So you could like invest into properties to rent, flip, manage for others. You could also start an Airbnb management company. You could do like a green slash sustainable business. So build a company focused on eco friendly products or services. So like recycled or upcycled fashion. I know a lot of like if you look into any of the brands at Copenhagen Fashion Week. A lot of them focus on upcycled fashion. So you could completely start a brand just with upcycled fashion. Zero waste goods. Renewable energy consulting. A lot of you can do, take consulting and do that in a million directions and just pitch yourself and be a consultant with the knowledge that you already have. I think you could take that in a lot of directions. That could be really cool franchising. So you could buy into an established franchise like a fast food restaurant, gyms, cleaning services, retail. And then at least you have like a proven business model and you don't have to do that much work, but you do have to have like an insane amount of cash upront. So I wouldn't really necessarily recommend that, but it is an option. but yeah, I just wanted to, to talk about this because I'm really passionate about especially women taking their success into their own hands. of course there's nothing wrong with pursuing a traditional career path, but I don't see a reason why you can't do both or why you can't use your traditional career path and the experience you learn there to fuel your entrepreneurial ventures. Because for example, like I have so much knowledge I've learned over my twenties in corporate America that I can easily use to fuel my future and my future ventures. You know what I mean? And I'm also doing it as at the same time as I have a 9 to 5 because you still need stable income. So I don't see why you can't do both. Obviously it takes a lot of dedication and sacrifice. But I do think it s just like the best freedom in life is buying yourself opportunities. And'm I'm saying buying in the sense that you're not literally buying opportunities, but you're, you're creating the space and the opportunities for yourself by teaching yourself. I mean we re. We're at the point in time where we like you couldn't have a more fruitful time to start, a business on your own. We have AI, we have YouTube, we have Tik Tok. We have like so much information at our fingertips that you don't need to go to any formal school or anything to learn anything. You don't even have to read a book. You can just ask chatybt like I did this week, like tell me what I need to know. And I just like sped run the entire creation of a company in like 40 hours that might have even 10 years ago might have taken six months. I sped run creating an entire business and cramming knowledge into my brain through all these resources online in like, yeah, like 40 hours. And it probably would have taken months if I didn't have all those resources. So it's just like, I don't know, like, it can be overwhelming because we have so much at our fingertips, but I just feel like it's just a wasted opportunity if you don't like really try and learn something new and like apply yourself to something in your. Well, nobody really has free time, so you kind of have to choose. Like, okay. For me, for example, I don't really get to have like super fun and relaxing evenings because my 8pm to 12am m pretty much every day of the week is social media creation, learning, like filming, editing, posting. It's just cramming as much as I can into like

8:00pm to 12: 1:01:16

1. And yeah, so I don't get to like have silly fun, goofy like relaxing evenings. But that's my choice. I can, I can always relax if I want. But don't. I don't want to relax. I like learning this stuff. It's super fun to me. So, yeah, to just get yourself motivated. I wanted to share some women that I follow and listen to on social media. And I highly suggest listening to at least one of these women per week for an hour instead of scrolling on Tick tock. I could take that advice, but I've already listened to probably, yeah, probably like a good 10 to 15 hours of like motivational podcasts this week. Like I said, I have the too much gene. Like once I want to learn something, I'm like, let's go for it. And so if anything, I could probably scale back on the motivational podcasts, but I really wanted to share some girlies so that you can go follow fellow women founders and entrepreneurs. And I just, it's again, like when you feel seen in something that's been proven, you're like, wow, okay, if they did it, then I can do it. And they, these women, usually they either have their own podcast or they've gone on other podcasts and they share so much about their own journey that it just is like anything that they say, you can just soak up the knowledge. Like just soak up every word they say because they did it. Like they did it. They weren't necessarily any women who had like a huge step up or like huge investors. Like most of these women were just doing it off the work that they've built for years and the knowledge that they acquired for years of work to then, you know, start A business from that knowledge. So Emma Gred. I've been watching a lot of Emma this week. I love her. So she's the founding partner of skims, co founder and CEO of Good American, and she also has her own podcast called Aspire with Emma Gred. I freaking love her podcast. I just watched the episode with Mark Cuban. He is genuinely so fun to listen to. And, like, I really love listening to him as well. So that podcast episode was really good. But she grew up in East London. Now she's a mom of four, and now she actually lives in la and I watch her podcast. Yeah, I really recommend her podcast. I soak up so much knowledge from her, Even the podcasts that she's a guest on. Like, I recommend watching hers and then also just searching, like, Emma, Gred podcast episode and watching ones that she's been a guest on because she just shares, like, so much good information. The next woman I would like to recommend is Grace Beverly. She's a British entrepreneur, influencer, and podcaster. And you probably have seen her face somewhere on social media because she went viral for a planner. And she's also the founder of Tala. We Are Tala. I'm obsessed with We Are Tala. And I actually found Grace through We Are Tala. And I. And then I was like, oh, she's the girl who talked about that planner. Oh, okay. Okay. So I've been following her for probably three and a half. No. Yeah. Three and a half years now. Because I think I found her in, like, 2022, and that's when I first made my order or made my first order of We Are Tala. And I have. I mean, I've probably made, like, three or four orders from We Are Tala over the last couple years, and I'm always extremely impressed with every piece I get. And she's also the founder of Shreddy and the Productivity Method. And she founded Tala and Shreddy while she was studying at St. Peter's College in Oxford. And her YouTube channel is extremely helpful and motivating, like, I love. She also technically has a podcast called, like, Working Hard, I think. But her YouTube channel, she has way more than just her podcast. Like, she shares so many good tips and, like, motivational content and talking about how she started her brand Tala, and, like, basically just her entire journey. She also shares, like, how to make a business pitch deck. Like, I made my pitch deck off of the pitch deck she made for Tala. And it's extremely helpful because you might be like, what's a pitch deck. Why do I need a pitch deck? And she literally explains all of that. Like how she pitched to investors for rounds of funding for Tala. So she explains all of that and yeah, I just feel like she has so much helpful information and it's like a wealth of knowledge for free on her YouTube channel. So yeah, if you just want like a real life example of starting a business from scratch, I feel like Grace does it so well. And then I wanted to mention Patricia Bright. I've been following Patricia probably for close to 10 years now. She's a British beauty, fashion and lifestyle creator. She I think I remember when I first followed her like I really liked her content because it wasn't only like beauty content, she also was very business focused. So she studied accounting and finance at university and I feel like that's very evident through her content. Like she's talking business and fashion but she's ah all also talking about like how to build a business and like be a businesswoman. So yeah, she's just like a very positive role model. I just love watching her, her family'so cute. I feel like she's just very like a good role model for just being like a very kind, positive, educated woman in business and but she's also very funny, she's very beautiful, she has very good fashion. she also launched her platform called the Break to represent the gap between what you see to see as a quote unquote good lifestyle and how you plan to actually get there which is very gooduse like sometimes it's hard to envision the steps to get from your current reality to like your dream life. So she has a nine week course named the Break which over ten modules, they provide practical steps on building a social media or online product based business. And then recently like just in the past week I came across Afnan Khalifa. Afnan was born in Canada but she grew up in Saudi Arabia and at 18 she went to Canada for university and quickly learned about the financial markets. And she is a personal brand and wealth creation expert. She has a speaking and mentorship platform where she helps people achieve their full potential in personal development, leadership and online income. And she also has a YouTube channel which is how I found her. U it came across my YouTube recommended but she posts a lot of motivational entrepreneurial content and I really like it. Like she just shared a video about how she blew up from like 150k to 800k on Instagram in the last like 6 or 8 months or something. And honestly, every tip she gave, I was like, hey, this is actually really good. And if it, it's like, oh, I feel like I'm like I'm struggling to grow on Instagram, but if I actually followed every single one of her tips and actually did it daily, I think it would help me grow. So I'm likekay girl, maybe I need to actually write down some notes and do it, she said. But I really like her content and I have to mention Desi Perkinsids. I love Desi. If you've been on Beauty Guru YouTube at all during the 2010s up until now, then like you obviously know who Desi Perkins is. She has not only built an insane following from her beauty content on YouTube and Instagram, but she's a mom of two now and she has founded her eyewear company called Desi and her skincare brand called Desi Skin. First of all, her eyewear brand is sick. I need a pair of her sunglasses. Like I'm always eyeing them. So she also just released a style really recently that I'm like, oh my God, I literally need that pair. I haven't tried Desi Skin yet, but I would also love to try that. And then again on The Beauty Guru YouTube side of things, Jackie Aina. I love following Jackie. She's one of the OG YouTube beauty gurus and she's still so fun to follow on social media. She got her start at Mac Cosmetics, she became a full time makeup artist and then she started her YouTube channel and she teaches, inspires and gives confidence to women of color. And more recently she launched her fragrance line called Forever Mood which I would also love to try. And I honestly love following Jackie on TikTok. Like every time one of her TikToks pops up on my for you page, like I always stop to watch it, which I can't say for most creators, but whatever she has to say, I'm like, I'I'm sat. I'm listening and I'm sad. Then I wanted to shout out Jen Atkin because I also really love listening to her content or just whenever she posts, I usually stop and and I listen. Like I said, I can't say that for everyone, but I like hearing what Jen Atin has to say. So she's a hairstylist, entrepreneur, author and she's the founder of the hair care brand Way, which I'm sure many of you have seen. It's spelled O U A I. She was a longtime hairstylist for the Kardashians, but has been focused on Wei. I think it launched in 2016, which I keep thinking like, oh Wa is a new brand. But this is why like time is warped or perception of time is warped. For it's been almost 10 years of way and I still think of Way as a new brand. So it takes time to build like a cult following. But yeah, so I love following Jen. I also wanted to shout out Peyton Sarn. So she's a content creator, the host of the podcast called Note to Self. She talks about dating style, fashion, makeup, just like a lot of topics. and she brings on a lot of really interesting guests as well. And she also has released a clothing line and just gives like ultimate cool girl energy. She's calm and confident and just gives the best tips for every area of life. So I love following her and like every podcast again, I'm like just sitting there soaking up every word she says. I'm obsessed. Then I recently discovered Maeve riley through my TikTok for you page because one of her podcast clips popped up and I wanted to hear more. So Maeve is a celebrity stylist and she has built a reputation in the fashion industry. After growing up in New York, Maeve graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology and later moved to LA where her styling career kicked off. Now she has a podcast called the Inside Edit and it spills all the tea about being a stylist in the fashion industry. So I was like, oh my God, that's right up my alley. Like, tell me everything, I need to know everything. And last creator I want to give a shout out to. However I know I'm not remembering everyone I want to give a shout out to. So there's probably literally dozens more. I just. This was a quick like summary of the people who have been at least at the forefront of my mind in the past like week as I've been starting my brand. so yeah, the last, last creator founder I want to give a shout out to is Amy Smly. So Amy is the founder and creative director of Odd muse. She launched Od Mus at age 22 in 2020 from her bedroom, growing it into a multim million dollar company with a pre order model and a strong social media presence. Before starting Odd Muse, she worked as a buyer for asos. Now she has a podcast called POD Muse where she talks about fashion and business. So literally follow these ladies please and you will not regret it. Like they have so much good information for you to soak up and it's all free. I just can't keep, like emphasizing enough. Like, we have so much information at our fingertips that you should just go soak it up, like get a little motivated. Just don't doubt yourself. Like, also Grace, I just listened to one of her videos today where she was like, what I wish I knew before starting a company. And like, like one of the biggest tips she gives in multiple videos, but especially in this video I saw today was like, just start with a minimal viable product. Minimal, minimum viable product. Yeah, but it's an mvp. So basically just start with like the minimum that you need to get your brand started and let the market decide what you do from there. And I think that's very relevant for me right now because, like, I already have a whole jewelry line in my head that I want and I already have like, like a whole deck of jewelry with like photos and everything of the jewelry that I want and the designs that I want. But her. Ah. And Emma agreed. Also said this as well on a different podcast, but they both said, like, you just have to launch, do it with like one or two signature products or do it with a small mini lineup of products. Whatever you need to do to just do the bare minimum upfront investment to even test if the market is interested in it. Because you might think it's like a slam dunk, but honestly, you're always shocked by the metrics in real life and what like, one product that you think is going to be your best seller might be one of your worst sellers. And it's just that you don't know until you actually put it out there and test it out and see how people react. And if you waste a bunch of money upfront doing what you think will work best or like investing into products that you think will sell, they might not actually sell. And then you've kind of just like effed it up. So you might as well start with like the minimum viable products to get out the door, basically, and then let the. Let the market or let your audience kind of dictate where you go next so that you know you're actually following the interest rather than like what you think will do best. Because maybe it's. Maybe you're getting too much of your own personal interest mixed up in what is actually the market's interest. So yeah, just so much good information that I've soaked up from these women this week and I love following them on social media and I just find them all very inspiring. So shout out to these ladies. I really love following them. And if you have any other like, female founders that you listen to or that any other podcasts that you find really interesting, please let me know. Send me a DM or leave them in the comments here on YouTube because I'm always looking for more like fun, inspiring female founder podcasts. So yeah, like I said, I have the too much gene. Even though I already listened to a lot of them. I want more. So that's it today. I know this was a longer one, but I hope you enjoyed. I hope you found it interesting and learned something, or at least found a little dose of motivation. And yeah, I will talk to you guys in the next episode. Thanks for listening. Bye.