Create Your Own Empire (How-To Monday) - podcast episode cover

Create Your Own Empire (How-To Monday)

Oct 21, 202438 min
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Episode description

Hey BA fam! It’s time for another Holla Back Monday. This week, we’re featuring Brandice Daniel, CEO and Founder of Harlem's Fashion Row. Hear how she turned a love fashion into her own business empire.


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Transcript

Speaker 1

Hey, hey, hey, ba fam, It's time for another Holla Back Monday, and this week we're featuring my girl, my friend, my like bestie in business, Brandis Daniel. She's the CEO and founder of Harlem's Fashion role you've heard of it, So we're gonna talk about how Brandis turned her love of fashion into her own business literal empire. Okay, she just had her annual fashion show and you know who was there in Naomi Campbell and the Inner Wintour. She's

kind of a bigger deal. So if you want to figure out how to be a big deals well in business, give it a listen. Hey, hey, hey, we're back.

Speaker 2

We're black.

Speaker 1

Brown, We're extra brown today, ambition ambitionous, and.

Speaker 2

We are so brown. We are so black today.

Speaker 1

We blue black because we have somebody amazing in the stew today. But before we start, okay, Curls Pop and Mandy, did you like your hair?

Speaker 2

Uh?

Speaker 3

Huh no?

Speaker 4

But do you not see what I'm sending you? I sent you a picture, but I feel like I need to do the fixer upper for the BA fam. This is what it's gonna look like. I'm gonna look like I'm Miss Rachel's number. Two, because if you don't know miss Rachel, then just forget that joke ever happened. But I and our guest brain is you'll also see. I just made over my son's playroom. I made over my office.

I fired myself, is what it felt like. I was doing the way that I packed up my boxes and shoved them to the side of everything I had, like in my little space. And I just devoted this to my four year old for his birthday. And honestly, it's kind of my aesthetic. Like I was like, I'm gonna wear pink, so I kind of fit in with.

Speaker 1

The planets in the background. It is preschool teacher approved. It's so cute and colorful. And I saw how was navigating. Everything is child friendly, so well done.

Speaker 3

I was so excited.

Speaker 4

Yeah, and my wild and crazy idea now they go on my TrailO board. I don't have to do every single one that floats into my head. But this was the big one that I really wanted to achieve. It's done now and we can move on and let's see me.

Speaker 1

Well we have well we have she's a mom as well, hers as well as little as yours. But I have a guest in the stew Today. Her name is Brandis Daniel. She has over fifteen years of experience forging brand partnerships with Fortune five hundred companies. Well you might know brand as best as the founder of hf R Harlem Fashion Row. If you are a brown person who loves fashion and.

Speaker 2

You don't know brand is what I mean? Do you them under a rock?

Speaker 1

Is it a rock?

Speaker 2

So brandis is amazing?

Speaker 1

Then so there is like before Harlem Fashion Role and after Hallan Fashion Role when it comes to black designers getting their credit and having access and brandis started Hallan Fashion Row to showcase the fact that there are people who look like us that are amazing, exquisite talented designers that if only given a little spot like could shine as well. And so she made her business to do so. So she not only has this brand is also as a friend of mine.

Speaker 2

But now has it been brandis?

Speaker 3

Oh my goodness, girl, I don't know. Maybe, oh you know what I do know?

Speaker 5

Twenty eighteen Okay, we had our very first conversation that changed my life.

Speaker 1

So Brandon is also a friend of mine and one of our favorite things to do is to walk and talk about business and so like you know, because you know, I have people in my life that, like, you know, these are like friends that you know, we might talk about. You know, they call me to ask me about like you know, they have kids who are preschool age, you know, I have my sisters. And then I have friends who

are friends in general but also own businesses. So you have these really interesting conversations about what's working, what's not working. But what I love about my conversations with Brandis is then they're holistic conversations. So they're not just what's your return on investment? You know, it's if I do this project, will I have enough time for family and friends? You know, is the juice really worth the squeeze if I navigate in this way? How do I really want to show

up for the people that I work for? And so Brandis is amazing at them. So she's really good at business, but also really good at showcasing black and brown designers.

Speaker 2

And she is the CEO of two companies, right, So it's.

Speaker 1

Harlem Fashion Row and then Icon three sixty, which is a five oh C three nonprofit organization. And so, but one of the things that Brandis is really good at outside from showcasing black and brown designers. So she has a new book that came out recently, Fashion in Color.

Speaker 2

If you are watching an IG.

Speaker 1

Which or to ig but on YouTube YouTube, you should like, look how beautiful this is?

Speaker 2

First of all, like this is stunning, not even just studying. This is the boss.

Speaker 3

You know.

Speaker 1

You know, a book is fancy when it comes to the box, right, this is one of the right. Look it comes out of a box. And then what I love about it is that inside the book she's got these amazing designers and she has them illustrated right beautifully, so and then you get to see their work, you know, inside the book, and it's like, right, I know, that's why I feel like I'm like, that's literally and this is volume one right, so it's a it's in alphabetical order.

Speaker 2

Brandess right, yes, uh huh ye. So look D for Dapper Dan.

Speaker 1

Right.

Speaker 2

If you don't know Dapper Dan, child, you're made from the East coast.

Speaker 1

Right, Dapper Dan is the one who used to take all the Gucci material and make all these things that were not you know, like he made he made Gucci fly. Okay, let's just say that she's amazing, right, But there's designers that you might not have ever heard of.

Speaker 3

It's like nicole designers. Yeah, I feel now, so you are. This is our collaboration that we just did with Abercrombie and Fitch.

Speaker 2

So brand is really low. So I'll give you some examples. When when Lebron James came out with sneakers for women, right, and he was like, I want a black woman designer. Who do you think?

Speaker 1

They reached out to brandis and so it was Kimberly who made the sneakers.

Speaker 2

Brandis who was that?

Speaker 5

It was Kimberly Golds and Feno Ale and Andre Duncan mm hmm.

Speaker 3

And so people out quickness.

Speaker 2

Sneakers sold down right.

Speaker 1

So when brands are like, hey, I want to do a thing, but I especially want to showcase black designers and brown designers, they come to She's the only game of town. They come to brandis, right, she'd be me here with Anna Wintour. My friend is fancy y'all. Like one time Tracy was like, isn't it crazy that brandis is like your friend.

Speaker 2

I'm like, I'm a big deal too. Don't blame me hiring your sister as.

Speaker 1

Honestly just has an amazing track record, and brandis is one of British and Mandy.

Speaker 2

You will really appreciate this. She is one of the best executors.

Speaker 1

That I have ever met, because Mandy is an amazing executor as well.

Speaker 4

Yeah, Manny, you'll be like Thrones execution, but.

Speaker 1

No, you be like Mandy Blue Green Dog. She's like got it, Like look what's behind her. She's like, Mandy is an executor. And so I'm not not so much, but so I love that I get to be bookend by two amazing executors. So I just want to welcome Brandon to the podcast and we're just so happy to have you here and Ana, So first.

Speaker 3

Of all, I'm just going to take you wherever I go.

Speaker 5

To My introductions was thank you so much, Tiffany. I feel like I'm in like the Brown Ambition living room right now.

Speaker 3

So thank you guys for welcoming me into your home.

Speaker 4

Oh we hope it's nice and cozy and you already feel like fam I can almost smell what your apartment or your your your home probably smells like right now.

Speaker 3

I know it's scented. I know it's something seasonal.

Speaker 4

I know you get the really luxury candles that you know that people are into. I just know it smells good there and yeah anyway, but she still yeah, okay, it's really topeak to you.

Speaker 3

I am. I am less familiar with Harlem Fashion Row. I want to know.

Speaker 4

I kind of want to start from the beginning of how did you how did you create Harlem Fashion Row, and then talk about what it actually is. I know it as Oh, if I want to find out you know about multicultural black designers, brown designers, I can find like your book for example. But the business of it, I'm fascinated by how that's been going.

Speaker 5

So you guys, you know what's funny, Mandy. When I first started at HFR, I had no idea. I was starting a business, no idea.

Speaker 3

So it was the idea was I want to do a fashion show in Harlem. That was it.

Speaker 5

So me and my friends were throwing events in Harlem. We were doing Harlem brunches. We used to host something called the Hotest Harlem House Party, and and so we were doing events and so I was like, you know what, I haven't seen a really dope fashion event in Harlem.

Speaker 3

And that was where it started.

Speaker 5

And then as I started working on this idea, I started to think, like, Okay, this is something bigger.

Speaker 3

I don't know what it is.

Speaker 5

As a matter of fact, I still have my journal from the year I started, which was two thousand and seven. I got the original journal downstairs, and in that journal there were several times where I wrote, this is so much.

Speaker 3

Bigger than me. I don't know what this is. It's so much bigger than me.

Speaker 5

And the second year we did the fashion show, I started looking for black designers.

Speaker 3

I couldn't find them.

Speaker 5

Started going down department store websites, because of course.

Speaker 3

They would be in our favorite department stores, right wrong.

Speaker 5

Going down the list of designers and realized that less than one percent of the designers that were on these major department stores where.

Speaker 3

I shot my mom shop, my sister's shop were black designers.

Speaker 5

And then I went and I was like, okay, let me go do some research. The only place I knew to go was the USNS, And I was like, how much are we spending a year on apparel? Because maybe we're not spending what I think we are. In two thousand and seven, we were spending twenty two billion dollars a year.

Speaker 3

So I'm like, wait a minute.

Speaker 5

We're spending twenty two billion dollars a year as people of color. However, we represent less than one percent of the designers that are sold in major department stores. And you know, I feel like sometimes your passion is in that place where you're so irritated that you're.

Speaker 3

Just like, I gotta do This is just stupid. I'm trying to think of another word but the vision, but this is insane. What do you mean?

Speaker 5

We're less than one percent, but we're spending all this money. And for me that was really the catalyst too. I don't know what this is going to be, but I know I have to do something. I have to be a part of the solution. And that was really kind of the launch pad for Harlem's Fashion Row. I didn't realize it was going to be a business until years later when I had a coach who said, please don't start a nonprofit.

Speaker 3

We have enough non profits that are broke. We need more successful businesses.

Speaker 5

He said, once your business become successful, then you start a nonprofit.

Speaker 3

So that was really how the business was born. I love that piece of advice too.

Speaker 4

It almost feels like if a woman comes up with the idea, people's initial thought is it could be a nonprofit because it's huge yeah, it's usually something that is servicing or you know, it has that element of it's good for us, not just me, like you said, and people want to slap a nonprofit label on it and be like, okay, go beg for money now. Okay, So talk about how did you You didn't know it was a business. Clearly you had some coaching.

Speaker 3

We love that.

Speaker 4

So talk about that transition from idea to it's happening to okay, let's turn a profit.

Speaker 3

Yeah, it's my My road was longer than most.

Speaker 5

Mandy, I like don't even like to say this out loud, but I think it's really important that I'm honest. It took us, really, it took us until about year ten for me to actually realize. I was like, okay, this is a business and I have to like really treat it as such. We were having brand partnerships, but at the time, again, my mindset wasn't around profitability. My mindset was very much I just want to cover my cost

that was my goal. And I used to actually say that out loud, like I just want to cover my cost. If I cover my costs, I'm good, and don't ask me how I'm good. If I cover my costs because I didn't have.

Speaker 3

A yeah, what were you doing? Also, on top of it, George, I had a nine are right?

Speaker 5

I had a nine to five for the first five years, But after that I was really struggling, and me being in this mindset of I just want to cover my cost was really putting my family at risk, It was putting me at risk, It.

Speaker 3

Was causing tention in my marriage. It was just really, really tough.

Speaker 5

Twenty nineteen was a really hard year for us, and going into twenty twenty, I said to my assistant, we're to close a million dollars in business for twenty twenty. And the reason I said earlier that, like my talks with Tiffany really changed my mindset and changed my life, is because she made me start looking at millions as if they were thousands, and so I actually started to think, oh,

this is possible for me. And that year twenty twenty ended up being our best year because we went so hard with brand partnerships at the end of twenty nineteen.

Speaker 3

To set us up for twenty twenty, and thank.

Speaker 5

God we did, yeah, because who knew the pandemic was coming. But when the pandemic came, I was sitting with you know, we didn't make that goal. I think we got like to seven hundred and fifty thousand, but I didn't make a million. But I was sitting with seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars of contracts in my hand, which was a game changer for us.

Speaker 3

And what what do you do with those contracts? Like what is it? What's the business arm of HFR.

Speaker 5

So the business arm of HFR, we really act as an agency almost like a bridge where we're can connecting designers of color with brands, and so we do that through events and that model is brands actually sponsor our event, So that's the revenue model for that. We do that through collaborations which I'm wearing the Nicole benefitl Abercrombie and Fitch. So if you go to Abercrombie and Fitch's website right now and type in Harlem's Fashion Row, you'll see the

products there. If you go to American Doll, I think American Girl, I think we're still in there and type in Harlem's.

Speaker 3

Fashion Row, you will see outfits there. So we I know, so do you guys?

Speaker 4

The reason that Target does those things now with designers that capsule collections.

Speaker 3

Is that what they're called, they do capsule collections. I don't know. I can't take that credit.

Speaker 5

Because they've been doing it for a long They've been doing it for a long long time.

Speaker 3

Wait before us.

Speaker 4

Okay, I thought that was like post twenty twenty, or maybe it just came to my attention after twenty twenty.

Speaker 3

But I think you started to seeing more black designers Mandy. Yeah, they've been doing it for a long time.

Speaker 2

But I think.

Speaker 1

No Isaac Jack was the first one. You remember because it was a big deal because he was this big time designer and people were like, why would you be in Target? Because I have still some of the dresses from that collection.

Speaker 4

Yeah, now I remember, yes, but they switched, Okay, that's right.

Speaker 3

Now, they got the having more black designers.

Speaker 5

It was Christopher John Rogers, than it was at Berdio Hudson, and then it was Pheno l So we do we do collaborations events, and then we do pipeline programs with HBCUs where we pair brands up with HBCU Fashion Department. So we've got six of those going right now with Tiffany and Cole Levi's Coach American Eagle saxophth Avenue just did one, and I feel like there's.

Speaker 4

We're basically the fashion industry's black friend, is what you're saying.

Speaker 2

Yes, I was just.

Speaker 4

Listening to Leslie's Leslie Jones's audiobook in the car had just started it, and the forewords by Chris Jones. Chris Jones, Chris Rock. Leslie Jones is from SNL. She's a huge comic and he was that for the comedy industry. He's like when people when Lord Michaels wanted to know who's black, female and funny, he texted me because of the backlash against SNL. So that's immediately what I thought of when just you were describing the mission and the work that

you're doing. It's so necessary. I don't mean to trivialize it at all because it's so crucial. But you found this great gap in the marketplace. Fashion industry literally needed a black friend and here you are.

Speaker 2

So is that how you got to the book?

Speaker 3

Like that? And I'm like, I don't want that, man, Is.

Speaker 2

That how you got to the book?

Speaker 3

Right? Like?

Speaker 2

How? What?

Speaker 5

So?

Speaker 2

You you know?

Speaker 1

So you are this connector right of the main fashion industry and in black brands, right so is that, Like, how did the book come about? Because that's something that seems totally different than what you were doing before.

Speaker 2

Yeah.

Speaker 5

So one of the things that I thought was really important is for us to preserve our history and fashion.

Speaker 3

I've always felt like, man, we need to tell our stories.

Speaker 5

We need to make sure that there is something that's left behind for like the next generation. So when I say, around year two of HFR was when I started really digging into Okay, not okay, this is an issue we're less than one percent.

Speaker 3

I'm like why, Like what happened?

Speaker 5

Like were there are no black designers in the seventies and the sixties and the fifties, Like what's going on? And I started buying all of these books, discovered this woman, Lauris Alexander Lane, who created the Black Fashion Museum and the Harlem Institute of Fashion. She wrote the only book that basically chronicles and provides information on black designers.

Speaker 3

That written in nineteen eighty two.

Speaker 5

There had not been a book written since then that specifically highlights black designers, not one. And I kept kind of waiting like, Oh, somebody's going to come out with that.

Speaker 3

Somebody's going to come something, you know, and it just never happened. And then I was somebody.

Speaker 5

And then the thing that really I think lit my fire was I walked into a bookstore over by my offices and I'm looking at this bookstore and I'm like so excited because I see this book called Fashion Legends.

Speaker 3

So I pull it off.

Speaker 5

The bookshelf and I'm so excited and I'm going through and it's a to z and there's one black designer in there, and I was just, I mean, y'all the way that we become so angry it Olivier the Olivier Resting, the creative director of Ballmain.

Speaker 3

Who wrote the foreword for this book and so incredible.

Speaker 5

I know, it's an amazing and so he the only one in the book, and.

Speaker 3

I was it made me so angry.

Speaker 5

I put it up at the top of my desk and I was like, I'm just going to keep this right here so that every morning I come in, I'm going to be angry enough to go I got to do something about this. And so that's really how the book came about. It's kind of like the next phase for us as media. So we just launched a fashion

and color show, a podcast, and a YouTube show. And now we've got the book, the Fashion and Color Book, and so really it's like, now how do we I've worked so closely with the industry and brands and designers. Now I'm like, I really want to meet the people now, like you want to actually go to the people. And so that's that's where we're at. Now, that's what the book is all about.

Speaker 1

Brands does what so many black and brown women do they drop that heat like like everybody's just be doing it.

Speaker 2

They don't. So one look at this book. I told you the book comes with its own case. It's amazing. And the fact is.

Speaker 1

That Branda doesn't have just some little pot cast her show, No go follow Brandes's.

Speaker 2

What's your ig?

Speaker 3

Brandon Daniel if you.

Speaker 2

If you see this quote unquote, it's just a little show. It ain't a little show.

Speaker 1

First of all, Brandon shows up wearing a black designer in every show. The set looks like, okay, Oprah, we see you now the eighties, Oprah. I'm talking about Oprah like last year, best set ever, Oprah. And then she's interviewing these amazing designers that you're like, how does she get isn't.

Speaker 2

That didn't he Yes, yes, and yes.

Speaker 1

So the fact that she's like, oh, something light, that's something light for brandess, So I have a non profit. Oh and then I introduced the world to black designers. Oh and just some Harlem flash were oh and no, this is what I mean that she is the master executor. Then you know there are some people and I tell this to you all the time, Mandy, Right then you know, once you decide you're going to do a thing, I

could lead because you're gonna get it done. That's that is just your personality that like, once you've decided on the thing, you're gonna get it done. Really, the struggle I find with both of you is you don't actually have to do all the things. You could leave something on your own.

Speaker 4

And I would add to that because I love criticizing myself, but we I'll speak for myself. Also, sometimes you're so busy doing the thing that you forget to zoom out and strategize a lot of ties or like what to create.

Speaker 3

And you know that's to congratulate.

Speaker 1

Yourself, like what you've done is amazing, like for real, like zoom out to be like, look what I did. This thing in my head I saw a book said hey, this doesn't look right. I you know, I realized that the last book was in the eighties, and now you've you didn't just like this is not some slap together. This book is literally brand is like every single picture is illustrated beautifully. So you know, and I remember you were like you were you delayed it coming now because you're.

Speaker 2

Like, that ain't right, Do it better? Make it better?

Speaker 1

Like so she's making it sound like, you know, like Instagram University. How they'd be like, you know, here it takes this dollar dollar and make it a million.

Speaker 2

Now.

Speaker 1

It was so much work and you can see the fruit of her labor in the work of how beautiful this book is, how intentional she is about including designers you know that maybe some that you know very well, some that you might have never heard about.

Speaker 2

She is keeping the history of this.

Speaker 1

Part of of of blackness. Like you know, when Brands you're no longer here. This will stand the test of time when people say, and who were the designers in this time? It's because of you that we're going to be able to say, Oh, not only do I get to read it in the book, I get to watch.

Speaker 2

It on the show.

Speaker 5

So first of all, Tiffany, all right, fine, I'm gonna stop.

Speaker 3

Be careful.

Speaker 5

I know, I'm like, you know, it's so it's so hard because you're just in it and you're doing it, and even listening to you, I like felt myself getting emotional just listening to you because.

Speaker 3

You're just I'm just doing the stuff that I feel like needs to be out in the world.

Speaker 5

And when I think about black designers, you know, we work with black and LATINX designers, but when I think about them, I feel like they should be framed a certain way.

Speaker 3

And so even you know, when we came up with the first book, which.

Speaker 5

I have with me I'm showing when we did the first book, you know, it was nice and I was like, this is okay, but it just I was like, this isn't it. I can't put this out in the world because every time we put something out in the world that frames designers of color is not about HFR right, it's so the frame has to be right. And so in this new one, you know, we actually found an artist. She used to volunteer with HFR back in the day.

Her name is Ashley Buttercup and she actually these are actually the original paintings that were scanned into the book. So we have an original painting for every last one of these. Like I'd say to people all the time, like get the book, get to cut out the pictures and frame them like it's.

Speaker 2

It's a prince.

Speaker 3

Beautiful artwork.

Speaker 4

It's beautiful art and additional product you can add to the website wherever these are sold. Just want the Prince here you go. Also an incredible contract for Ashley. Also, what a delicious name, Like I just want to save that for when I write a novel.

Speaker 3

She just like, I don't know, but she is actually.

Speaker 4

To get her that opportunity as well. It is just so in line with the work that you're doing. That's amazing.

Speaker 3

It was. It was dope.

Speaker 5

So since she did this book, she's actually been commissioned by the Renaissance Hotel in Harlem to do paintings for them because they saw the book at the fashion show.

Speaker 2

Look at that.

Speaker 3

So you know, I love.

Speaker 5

It when just like you know, loves women make everything bad, just say that Black women make everything. Let me tell you, you know, like we had seasoning and so like Troy from Earnier Lizer always says saw sold separately, Yeah, we you know, we bring that sauce and so like the fact that you have pictures commissioned like that is another level of excellence.

Speaker 1

You know, people don't go that extra mile, but it's that's why you're here. For some of you might be listening and saying, why hasn't something X y Z happened for me? Sometimes it's not just the work, it's the extra mile, like for bretdis to have picked I mean, there are all of these paintings in here. You could have easily been like, we're not doing all that. That's

too much work to have someone paint each designer. And I know because you told me that you would not put the painting in the book unless the designer said I like it.

Speaker 3

No, they all had to sign off.

Speaker 5

I have a signature for every designer had to sign off, including Olivier from Paumain had to say this is approved.

Speaker 1

So imagine all the creatives and how long that must have taken. That extra mile is why you where you are where you are, and that's why this book is so beautiful. Literally, it's on my coffee table. I had to run before. I had to run down and come back up because I keep it on my coffee table, because it's really of this book that I want.

Speaker 2

When people come in, they're like, oh, what's this.

Speaker 1

I'm like, it's my friend, I love it.

Speaker 4

Are you going to be in that fancy store in flat Iron? Do you know what I'm talking in the Flat Iron district?

Speaker 5

I know exactly what story you're talking about.

Speaker 4

I mean, yeah, yes, I just googled it. But I'm not going to pretend like I knew it before I googled it. Yeah, I'm like, you always.

Speaker 5

Got well actually produced the book, and since we produced this one ourselves, well we'll see.

Speaker 3

I want to hear about about She.

Speaker 1

Was in the front of Macy's Okay, the flagship store in New York. I don't know if it was it was a week that it came out, right, brand is right, and we all came by and she was like, let's walk around the corner to the flagship Macy's Blackship meaning like.

Speaker 3

The first the like the most thanks Giving parade.

Speaker 2

I mean it was not.

Speaker 1

Only the book, it was they had these huge screens of the inside of the book. I mean, how are you in front of Macy's. Like that's what I'm just saying, But.

Speaker 2

It's all here like just something like, you know, just nothing. It's nothing over here.

Speaker 3

You know what's crazy about that?

Speaker 5

So once I said we weren't going to do the first book, Macy's kept reaching out to us to tell us that they really wanted to feature HFR and their windows for Black History Month. I kept telling my team, we don't have anything, like tell Macy's we have nothing, right, which is crazy, but I'm like, if I'm gonna be in the windows of Macy's, it needs to be significant.

I'm not just gonna put anything in there. And then my team kept meeting with Macy's and I kept saying, why what are you guys talking about when you meet, because we don't have anything.

Speaker 3

And finally, you know, somebody from my team was like, what about the book.

Speaker 5

I was like, there was no way that book is going to be ready in time for Black Issue Month. A week go by and everything on my spirit is like, Branda's do it.

Speaker 3

It's going to be crazy, just do it.

Speaker 5

And so we did it and it was crazy, and I worked over all the holidays.

Speaker 3

We had a conference call on Christmas Eve.

Speaker 5

It was bananas and nuts and Ashley had to paint her little heart out.

Speaker 3

But one time. What was the timeline?

Speaker 5

It was it was like six weeks for us to get basically all of this.

Speaker 3

For us to redo this book.

Speaker 5

And do the new one, Ashley had to crank out like one or two paintings a day, which she said she's never done in her life.

Speaker 3

She was like, I was like, how did you do this? And she said, Branda's I don't know. Something came over me.

Speaker 5

And the funny thing is, as our team was working on it, like I cannot explain it, it was like we were in this army marching towards the same goal. There was no bickering, no hostility. It was I don't know, it was just something bigger than us. And sometimes you know that happens when you're working on something that's bigger than you.

Speaker 3

I don't know.

Speaker 5

I feel like you start to get like this drive and there are gonna be moments where you're like, oh my gosh, should I be doing this? This is I don't even know if we can find a printer to print the book. But I just feel like, you know, I feel like that's how HFR started.

Speaker 3

I didn't know what I was doing. That was how Brand Partnership started.

Speaker 5

I didn't know how to do brand partnerships, and our first partner was Target, you know, and so it's.

Speaker 3

Like sometimes you just have to I say, Cliff jumps.

Speaker 5

Sometimes you just have to go and you really have to have faith that if I.

Speaker 3

Put forth the work on my end, that is all going to work out.

Speaker 4

So you produced it yourself. So first you created this book. How much did you sink into that book? And then say, okay, we're gon, we're gonna keep working on this. And then when you got the Macy's deal, like you were you literally were printing your own book book like getting doing all the work of a publisher, all the work of a publisher.

Speaker 3

Well this isn't like publishing on Amazon. This is like, well you're creating a bit book. Yeah.

Speaker 5

We had to call one hundred printers in order to find one that could print because the top of it is metallic. It was a certain quality that we wanted. So there's like a finish.

Speaker 3

On here that feels almost sattin.

Speaker 5

There are so many different things that we wanted that it was hard to find. People will go, we can do it, but we can't do the metallic. We can do this, but we can't do that. And so yeah, we have to find all the things and we work with mind Matters, which is a small black owned publishing company too.

Speaker 2

Yeah, you know we lifting.

Speaker 1

I just love that and like you know, your your determination to lift.

Speaker 2

As you climb, you know, like because it could be.

Speaker 1

Easy to be like, well we'll just do this, It's like no, O, where we can find There has to be someone of color that can do this thing. Like you know, I can't say this is the mission and then abandoned the mission. You know that's huge, Like, look what you've done for you know, for Ashley as a result, you know, this exposure.

Speaker 2

And so I just love that.

Speaker 1

So what so where I know you and I always talking about, like you know, the direction of like where you want to go into and so where do you see? So you know you have Harlem Fashion role, you have your nonprofit. You know you I know for a fact that you've been teaching people how to get their own sponsorships.

You've taught a class to my you know, my company brands came in and solved it a lot about how to like about because we want to do more, you know, we want to align ourselves with the brands that we like even more and so like, what's next? So you have this book that people can purchase like where, and I also know that you have it's an HFR dot co where if you're looking for a black designer.

Speaker 3

Yeah, we have HFR and co.

Speaker 5

And then I just released this book to help people who want to do brand partnerships.

Speaker 3

So it's small business, big partnerships. And where I.

Speaker 5

See myself personally going is doing more coaching, doing more teaching people. The number one question I get is how do you get big brands.

Speaker 3

To partner with you?

Speaker 5

Like, hands down, no matter what I'm doing, people want to know what does that look like and how does that work? And so that is really what I'm diving into personally. HFR is going into the media space. So we talked about the show, but I want.

Speaker 3

To teach more. I have not really leaned into.

Speaker 5

I'm very inspirational on Instagram, so you follow me, there's like, you know, tons of inspiration, but I really want to lean into the teacher in me. I want to lean into the person who can really help people, you know, work through some of these ideas that they have and how do they bring them to light and then how do they work with really large brands to help them basically amplify their ideas, because there is nothing like partnering.

Speaker 3

Like when we partner with Nike and Lebron James.

Speaker 5

That skyrocketed our business, our reputation, our visibility.

Speaker 3

That sneaker.

Speaker 5

God, I believe it was seven billion press impressions, So that means I mean Nike had really not seen those numbers.

Speaker 3

They were just like, this is insane. Wow.

Speaker 5

And so when you get those kind of numbers, you get those by working with or by collaboration and partnerships. And people think that it's harder than what it is, but it really is, you know, having the right deck, understanding your why, being able to communicate your why, understanding what value you can bring to the company, and communicating that well, and it opens so many doors.

Speaker 3

How long are we allowed to have this episode go on?

Speaker 2

Well, don't forget Mandy.

Speaker 1

We are gonna have Brandy is actually gonna stay for our Friday episode VIAQA. So even as we wrap, like know that she's going to stay on and answer some business questions.

Speaker 3

About for questions because I hate our question.

Speaker 4

Sorry, I have been mentally cataloging seventeen thousand questions to ask you. I haven't asked the simplest one yet. What were you doing before Harlem Fashion Bro? What's your background in in terms of the skills you were bringing to HFR.

Speaker 5

So, I was working in apparel production, so everything that it takes. If you look at the back your back label and you see like it's made in somewhere, you know, I was the one who was handling that production at the factory for a company that worked with Victoria's Secret.

Speaker 3

So I worked on I didn't work for Victoria's Secret.

Speaker 5

I worked for the vendor that Victoria's Secret bought from, and I handle all our peril production out of Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

Speaker 4

Okay, So you were in like the you were in the bones of the fashion industry, like this is how the sausage is made sort of on that side, okay, very glamorous part man. Yeah, I just picture like the factories with the bedazzled push up bras, just like you know, and.

Speaker 3

I love that.

Speaker 2

At all.

Speaker 3

And I'm from Memphis, right, yep, I'm from Memphis.

Speaker 5

And so before that, I was working as a I was an associate buyer for Catherines.

Speaker 1

Okay, well, brand as you are an inspiration not just to me and Mandy, but to so many people who are going to listen and think like wow, like you know, we are capable of more.

Speaker 2

Than sometimes we give ourselves credit for.

Speaker 1

My final question is like for those people who are struggling with execution, because to me, that's the that's the thing that I'm always most impressed about when it comes to you, is that you know, you don't just have an idea. A lot of people are ideas people, but you know how to see something through all the way through the execution. And so like, what are some things

that folks who are struggling with execution? What are some ways to start to build that muscle, you know, if they want to start to execute better.

Speaker 5

So I would I would announce like we're having an event this date, and then I would have to then figure out how to do that. But I would basically set a deadline, make the deadline public, and bring in some accountability if you do that, quite frankly, like you will.

Speaker 2

Execute, Okay, set a deadline.

Speaker 3

Okay, set a deadline, make it public, make your dead aunt it, announce it.

Speaker 2

I'm literally taking notes.

Speaker 1

I'm like make because when I say people, I mean me.

Speaker 2

I'm not the worst executor, but I could be better.

Speaker 3

If you're amazing executor.

Speaker 1

No, I'm just good at like and you know, like get my team together to be like. So this is look we going to do as a you part of it, that's part of it.

Speaker 2

Okay, settle deadline, make it public, but said make it public.

Speaker 1

Yeah, And if the people want to follow you, they want to get your books, where can they do that?

Speaker 5

Yeah, if you want to follow me, you can go to at Branded Daniel. You can go to Brandisdaniel dot com. That's where you can get my book Small Business, Big Partnerships if you're interested in building partnerships with brands.

Speaker 3

And then if you.

Speaker 5

Want the Fashion and Color book, you can go to Harlem's Fashion Road dot com and you can get the book from there.

Speaker 2

Thank you so much. Branded all right bye.

Speaker 1

Oh my gosh, guys, wasn't that just so awesome? Wasn't brand It's just amazing? What a fun trip down memory lane? Okay, so make sure that you never missed any of our trips. Right, every Monday, every Wednesday, and every Friday, we are here be a fam in the stew for you

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