Hey va fam, Welcome to Brown Ambition. Happy Wednesday, Happy Lunar New Year. If you're celebrating, we're going red. Well, I mean I got the memo, but some other.
Round table is that isn't the Red family.
That's probably what like a dude thinks it's red. But I'm talking about like like Chinese red. That's not Chinese New Year red. No, it's not not at all, but it's fine enough. There's a huge like Chinatown and SF is like a big thing, right, Oh.
It's a huge yeah. Population. I don't have any specific plans, but I will always partake in, especially the food portion of the celebration.
Yeah, man, so souper dump. Yeah so wait you moved to SF so much has changed? Oh my god, I went with an afro today. What else have you missed in the past like two weeks. We call it the Brown table. Now, welcome to the Brown Table. Yes, so yes, officially going to like you know, let you know that and shout out to Mark from Better Wallet for giving me that name. I'm going to mention you every time so that you don't ask me for any kind of like royalty or benefit residual from that. Okay, but thank
you for the idea. You were right. What else did you miss? You on Nelly? Our girl is in Switzerland.
Yeah. I was like, where's Nellie when I got here.
She's a Rudelyn babe. She's doing something fancy.
Well that's right, because I saw a video and I was like, is this right now?
I was like where she was on the panel?
Yeah?
Yeah, but you know I was teasing. I'm like, look at that girl from the from Brooklyn almost said the Bronx from Brooklyn bk out there in Switzerland. So we wish her the best doing her big girl, big speaking thing. But yeah, so you had a big move.
Oh man, It's like one of those things where you you whatever, you move right, you know it's horrible, but then you just forget about it, and then the next time you move you're like, oh, yeah, this is horrible. That's what happened. Like, yes, yeah, you think about oh, it's gonna be so exciting a new place. You don't think about the fact that you're constantly boxing of stuff, lifting everything. It was it was a journey, But I've been here for a weekend.
I rid of so much stuff. You made a big deal, like, oh, a minimal snow blah blah blah. You could fit my things in a carry on suitcase.
That's the thing. I got rid of so much stuff. And then I'm like, I still got too much stuff. So it ended up being I have like one you can't see it's out a frame here of a giant suitcase that had all my clothes in it. So I was able to fit pretty much everything in that one big suitcase, and then everything else fit in the back of a round.
I have suitcases, multiple of clothing that no longer fits me, that that might fit me one day, you know that, I just like stack up in my crawl space. So I have to buy a new luggage when I'm like, oh damn, I'm using that big suitcase for Why.
Don't you just put it in a box? Why are you put it in a suitcases?
It just feels like vermin could get in there. You know I'm in I'm in the suburbs. Now, we might have little mice and stuff. I don't want them to like chew through a box. Get clothing.
Get those little bags. So the ones we you stuck the air out of the bag, it seals it up.
I don't have a vacuum does that does not compatible with the dice in the little dice and skinny back little.
Pump thing like a little bike pump thing you put on it sex all the air out come on. So I'm making excuses a.
Bike so I could use my bike pump.
To do it.
No, no, you can't. It's a special one. You can't just plug a bike pock doing it is gonna work.
Listen. I don't do any any like appliance or tool that has different components and nozzles. I just can't be bothered. I'm like, Oh, the wooden floor attachment is not on it. It's the carpet attachment. Well, I guess I'm not vacuumting the living room today. I'm just I'll wait until my husband feels like finding out finding the carpet attachment or whatever. What were we discussing?
You?
Okay, God moved up here about a week and a half ago. It's been great, but the move was still horrible.
So now you're starting your new I mean, you're not starting your new single life in the city because you went and got booed up, I.
Know, locked it down before I got here.
I just think that's great. It's almost like you manifested that relationship too, because you had planned to move and then you met me, right.
Yeah, exactly three mutual.
Friends, I mean, and how long has it been since you were last really? I know you've shared on the show candidly. I know that you're like your skin's crawling because you're like, oh, not personal.
Details, more personal.
But you were divorced, divorced by divorce, Okay, in Adele's voice, divorce it's fine, like most people will so anyway, but you came back. It's fine.
One of the things I told myself, right, because I was like, as I was getting back at there, because I didn't really want to at first. I was I was just working on myself, going to therapy, trying to figure out what am I doing.
Amen, as you should, right.
You don't want to bring all your problems into a new situation, so I'm trying to take my time. And I was like, Okay, I want to whoever I meet, I want to be friends with them first, because I want to make sure that we like each other, we get along. You don't when it's jumping something to something, Beau, you're attracted to somebody, right, Because there's a lot of attractive people.
I mean, you guys going to get along, you do if you're under thirty, which we're not. So yeah, you know for that different now, relationships so only have so much time to live.
Like you got the count, you're a later dater. You just dry all the way up, you know. Yeah, And I gotta say, you like, you never know, right you meet someone and you start dating, and you know, anyway, we're all putting our best foot forward, right, like we're all being our best version of ourselves, and so you always wait. I'm sure she's waiting for the shoot to
drop for me, and I'm waiting for her. And I gotta say, she's still been the same amazing person since when I met her, very even, very consistent personality and demeanor, and yeah, it's been it's been really good getting to know her more. And that's kind of like just like you know, getting through like the very early stages. And I will say being friends first definitely helped because you
can know the person a little bit. You already know the good and the bad of who the person is, and so it kind of helps as you transition to that relationship part. And I was very fortunate that I ended up meeting her through a friend, because I was like, that was what I was hoping for. But you know, you don't know, like you know who your friend's friends are. They may not have a good pool of people and they're bullet fed.
But it wasn't like a setup. It wasn't of those awkward like, Okay, you got to meet this girl that I feel like is less successful than what you've done, which is the organic like your I mean, did you tell your friends, hey, just in case you know anyone who's single, like make sure that they're invited, or did you just like let it happen.
No, you don't shout out to my friend. My friend Ning got throw her name out there. She was wanting.
To be the friend who like met who like connected the two soulmates, you know what I mean, Like, whoever there was that friend who introduced Harry to Meghan, And I'm just like the way that my ego would just be fed for the rest of my life, like she gave us Harry and Meghan. So shout out to Ning.
Ye do better next time, Maddie. You're you're way too slow.
I'm really bad at it. Ning.
She told me she met Bee just through a co working space, the same co working space I go to. And she was like, Oh, she's just a really cool person. I really I really like it like her. We're becoming friends, like great, and that was it. Then when I went to where I came back for like my second long trip up here, we went to the co working space and then B just happened. She literally just walked in. Ning wasn't even sitting next to me. I was just sitting in a chair and be sat across from me.
Didn't know who I was. I didn't know who she was, so we didn't like we weren't talking. And then Ning walks up. She's like, oh, hey, hey, B, this is Chris. Chris is B And I was like, oh, this is the person you've been talking about all this time. I had no idea, and so then yeah, we just kind of were just Ning was very respectful. That was the
one thing we both give her credit for. She was not like forcing us to be there, and then we think she deep down was like I think these two people were where they hit it off, but she never like forced us to go do something together and then like make us like sit by each other. Wasn't like always orchestrating things. But but it feels like a good investment at this point. I mean now, definitely a good investment. I'm paying I paid for the annually annually, so somewhere
around like I think one fifty ish a month. It's like, what's the equivalent price of.
Well, just be careful you don't end up on one of them websites. You know, there's like Facebook groups. Now. I was hanging out with my husband's coworkers and they're all like in their early twenties or mid twenties, and they said that there's a Facebook group where they it's and it's for every city, and girls get on there and share pictures of boys that they're about to go out with and basically ask the crowd, hey, any ride flags I should know about?
Oh that it's gonna be way worse and whatever. I know what you're about to say some webcam orsbody, it's terrible.
Oh no, but that's horrible. I'm like, And they were just talking about how yeah, I put a picture of this one guy, and then someone said that he had cheated on her, and I was like, well, never mind, onto the next and I was like, first of all, when is anyone, someone's gonna get sued if they haven't already been by these Yeah, because that's like you could really you know, you're you're just like tearing down someone's character and out of and people could be doing it for revenge.
You know, Like that's the thing, because I get it for a woman, right cause it's like, look, you got to be careful out there. You gotta make sure you're right. Yeah, person, So.
We do it anyway informally, but to have it like yes, I agree, but.
Right, but there's too much room for stuff for a jealous visual person to be like, oh no this, let me tell you all this fake, horrible stuff about this person. We mess up a potentially good relationship. So I'm like, I get it, but I'm like, oh, there's a lot of room for that to go real wrong.
Well, I'm just saying you might want to do a little quick glance at that that group for s f any of your awkward early dates.
Oh yeah, you know, I got no skeletons in my closet. I'm open bug though, I'm like, I'm not worried about anything out there.
Ooh famous last words. I will be saving this clip for when the next Chris Browning scandal occurs. You know, remember when he said, I never knew he was so normal. He was my friend for years. I never saw it coming.
Please put this out there. They'll put his energy out into the world.
Thank you, all right, ba Fan. Well, the biggest things in the news right now, other than like everything happening with lowered Voute Mowort, has just been like the economy, you know that we're so easy to screw with. I feel like, honestly, the stock market in America, like we're
so fickle just anything anything can happen. Like, you know, I feel like the now the founder of that company whoever founded a Deep Deep Seek in China, like they could just have a really bad cough or something, and then like the American markets would just be jacking the price up of all these tech companies to be like, oh well maybe they were like got an illness, so we need to like, you know, maybe these companies are going to be doing better now when that company obviously
goes under because the CEO is gonna die because he has tuberculosis or whatever it is. You know, like we're just so emotional. Homeboy, stock market. Homeboy is in his feelings he's a very emo and yeah, tech stocks were plummeting, and it's like Navidia, this company that makes the chips that these AI. Now I understand why Nividio is such a big deal.
It's in video is a name. I call it Navidia, which is a beautiful day. My brother's having another kid. I like, you could name your kid Navidia.
Well listen, at least I didn't do the real Southern thing. And I was like, Navidia's call it in videos. Anyone been to m going down to in videos like crokers, Yo, their stock has been going boom boom, up up up up up. I know Amandy money Maker had gotten a job there and her comp offer. I was like, this is a work of art. I got no notes ten out of ten. Don't negotiate, just run run and say yes, hey, Jake it which is very unusual for me to say, don't negotiate. But I was like, girl, you got it,
Like this is an amazing offer. Let's talk about like something that really impacts American finances, which or at least it feels like. I don't know if it was like if this is too apt of a cliche to use, but as a chicken or the egg. When the egg
became the the indicator. There's just research came out showing that the price of a dozen eggs, and this is like the bare minimum eggs, like the squeaky styrofoam, the pink and blue containers that the bougie ones of us don't you know, don't get those have doubled in price from like two bucks to four dollars.
Since how much of your budget is your eggs compared to things like your rent or your mortgage, or your car insurance and car paper, like, there are things that make up a much bigger chunk of your budget that should be more more concerned, Like we should be putting all this energy into like why is the cost of living increasing so crazy and such a crazy rate, versus thinking that if egg prices went down, if eggs went down, if eggs went from four dollars to fifty cents a carton,
that's not going to danger your life. But if you have got way more affordable, that would make a big difference. But it becomes this thing, this talking point that they can just focus on, and it's not like eggs have gotten are going to get cheaproblem a sudden it's because we have a new president, because they have not. So it's it's one of those things that's like, it's not really where we should be putting our anger and energy into right now.
What I would rather focus on is like the cost
of technology. If the Trump administration and goes through with these tariffs that they're threatening to put on countries like Mexico and China, then like, I don't want us to lose sight of what could happen to that, because I feel like people who voted for Trump are like, yeah, he's going to be like tough on trade, but not understanding the crucial, crucial piece of information about a tariff is that it does increase the cost for them to ship their products to us in America, but they passed
that cost on to us. So there's one report that says if they go through with an up to sixty percent tariff on Chinese goods, that could lead to an insane increase in the cost of things like computers and smartphones. So one example is that wait, we're in this tago n VideA hold on everything all be oh, here we go. Yeah, So if they actually go through with a sixty percent
tariff on China. A new report said that laptop and tablet price might increase forty five percent, video consoles by as much as forty percent, smartphones by as much as twenty six percent. So let's just take it a smartphone for example, I just bought my dad, well with his credit card. I helped him order the new iPhone Promax or whatever, because.
He doesn't really like you.
I just know absolutely not. You'll hear later in the show about why I did not no money like that right now. But anyway, he can't. His phone is so bad that he couldn't even get online to purchase a new one. I did it for him, and it was a thousand bucks or whatever. Of course he got one
of those insane thirty six month payment plans. But anyway, if a tariff like this goes through, that could be a two that could that phone, the same phone I got him could cost twelve hundred dollars because yeah, we're not making these products in America, so tariffs mean more money from us. So I don't understand how that is part of like the make America affordable again. Well that's why we're here in ba FAM because we ain't going to be that dumb. Okay, well, what do you think
about all these d de I Rollback says. The big one that is like breaking the girl's hearts is Target? Oh Target, Why why a Tab at the Brown? Probably the biggest, I feel like the biggest black owned brand in Target. I can't think of a bigger one, can you? No?
I don't think so.
Yeah, So she has I mean she sells food there and cookwaar, and she had a clothing line and she's just a huge personal brand unto herself. We love Tab and so for Tab to be swept up in this and she did this. She put a video on social weear she's eating like the biggest crispis fowl of grapes. Like it was very asmr Like I've never heard a grape that crisp. Like where did she get this from?
And she's not even saying anything. She just don't want I was like, black girl, I'm not going to say anything, but I'm going to communicate with my m like do you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying. No word needed to add an important POV to this, which is I believe the actual founders of these black owned businesses like what is what does it mean to them if we boycott these retailers and get that perspective. I have a very special guest who's going to join
us now, and her name is Kim Lewis. She is the CEO of curl Mix, which is I know, Chris, your favorite natural curl haircare brand.
Right love? Which had more? I could use more of it?
How many ball jokes will she do in an episode? At least two? So she's gonna come on and she's going to weigh in because curl Mix has been around four I feel like, I don't know a decade now, and she has built of like an e commerce heavy business, but has recently been in the past year selling her products at Alta Alta Beauty. So Kim's going to join the show, and I think y'all really love what she has to say. So I wanted to have a friend
of the show. Kim Lewis the CEO and founder of curl Mix, one of your one of the best brands for curly hair, and naturally, I'm wearing my curly hair today. One of the best friends out there is like, Kim, You've been in business for quite some time now, in the past year, your products have been put on shelves at ALTA. So yeah, I wanted to get your perspective on all of this, Like is it fair for us
to say boycott these retailers? Is that the best thing we can do to show that we do care how they invest in our communities?
You know, I saw the founder of Buy from a black woman and talk about how it's like if you look at the Montgomery book bus boycott, and if there was a group of black people were like, you know what, we can still ride bus.
Fourteen and seventy eight. We just want to do the other buses, it wouldn't have been effective.
It was all around canceling of a retailer that really got changed, and that really made because people people only respond to their pocketbooks, right, They're not going to respond to like goodwill and incentive and kumbaya. They're like, oh, I'm not making it so much money, let me change my policy. So boycott of Target could turn into, Hey, we're going to double.
Down on the DEI we were doing before and do even more.
We might even have a black section, you know what I'm saying, Like you might get that from the boycott now. I also understand my friends who have inventory in those places and they're like him, I need this hundred KPO to come through this month, otherwise I'm going to be bankrupt.
Like I don't have investors, I don't have any the financial backing.
Like my small business, I won't have the money to pay for my family to eat if you guys don't go in and shop the stores and target.
Now what I would also, what I would say.
I have learned is that in the past couple of years since funding his dried up and bankruptcies are an all time high, is that it has been It is my lesson's armstong to learn not to have all my eggs in one basket or one channel when it comes to growing my business or sub staving my business, Like I'm an e commerce business, and when my business was only focused on ECMM and nothing else, no Amazon, no retail, nothing, when the Facebook algorithm change in twenty twenty two, I
was screwed. Like my business suffers so much that one month I went from like you know, maybe breaking even to our profits are like losing one hundred thousand dollars, you know, saying.
Why does Facebook impact that so much? As it ads.
Yeah, so like they if they have an algorithm update, it changes who sees your ads, if it's the ideal customer for somebody else, it changed the efficacy of them. Like so you I realized, Oh, that's a fickle place for me to be where everything is relying on this one channel.
And this is not to say like oh like sour Graves or oh like this is your lesson learned. It's not. That's not what I'm saying. I am supportive of targeted buying.
Targeted buying meaning you go into Target and you only buy the black owned brands. I get that, and especially I'm getting that from a self as perspective, as a founder who could have their products in retail and I would want that support. But I also get from a larger perspective of like, no, we all have to be unified.
So because Target's not going to make a change unless we are unified, and then selfish to them like well you can shock up almost Ulsa is actually doubling down to and I like, they gave us a lot of money.
They paid us in advance.
Okay, when we launched an Alta, OURPO was like several hundred thousands with and instead of paying us at ninety sixty net thirty, they give us Nest fifteen terms and they paid us in advance for their first order.
Wait a minute, that fifteen is like especially for like a product like that. I mean, that is a game changer, and that ninety is a killer.
And they would probably say, well, you were on shark tank. You have two.
Hundred thousand customers already online that she has the information for, and you also post on social regularly, and basically they would say like, okay.
We'll keep you know, we and I gave them exclusivity.
I'm also not in any other retailers, so they can't afford to back me that way because I'm not telling people to go to Target. And also in CBS and Walkreens and Walmart. If I had been all these other places, there's no.
Way they would have doubled down that way, you know what I mean, gotcha. So it's besides that coin.
But I'm grateful to them because they could also be rolling out with the retailers or retailers to stand together and say, hey, we're just all not gonna do this, so what you got to stop somewhere, you know. And so but I'm grateful for them for standing on that, and I was just so like, and they gave us section to like new and emerging brands, which is honestly a lot of the DEI brands, you know, women owned, women of color, Black owned, and I was like, oh, this is nice, like y'all are.
And then you have a cowork off of us where.
They bring those women on brands, women of color brands together and then they helped us you into the store. And I'm not the only one of that they've paid in advance for order before you know what I'm saying, like, I'm not the only one.
And so I think the heartburn with Target is that we felt like.
They were like the sister girl, the homie, the untee, the boyfriend, whoever, was like really putting black people up front because they have us in the images and we go in their stores. They have a section that they like black beauty, it feels like with the hair section and the makeup section, and.
You know, a lot of people were getting a lot of play.
But I think Target has their darlings and then everybody else is like kind of there, you know, And I think now we're feeling, you know, the roll back and it's like, you know what, maybe we overinvested. It's okay, like we all want to do this anymore. And I think that is where it's like, oh, you tricked us, you know what I mean, Like you got us in and now you're now that you're if it's only been abandoned almost and like the worst time in the Trump administration that we've been there, you.
Just know they're right now setting up for Black History Month, you know, putting that little end cap on first, what do you call it? When you first walk in and it's like, here's all the cute Black History Month stuff.
Mm hmm.
But how do you have a Black History Month like promo and like in cap and like display and then you just denounced a roll back your DNA program.
That just feels so disingenuous, doesn't it.
I'm more interested to see what Black History Month next year looks like because I feel like, aren't they constantly kind of working in advance? And I mean, you know, from the retailer perspective, how far in advance do they purchased the products that are on shelves? So like when will we actually see if they're divesting from these brands? Like when will the shelves start looking slimmer.
And divesting really could just mean we're not adding new ones, you know that, we're just kind of like helping people who are here, which is just hardening for people who are starting. You know, this is like this is honestly is not it's time to start a brand. And the people who are surviving, I'm the ones who were here before twenty twenty.
If you didn't have.
A customer base of four twenty twenty betweeny one, it's really hard to start now. And I'm just saying that from a funding perspective, you know what I mean, Like there's no more c funding for product based businesses, Like the amount of funding has literally dropped like ninety nine percent, and the only people are getting funded from mine now is now that are CpG companies. Are people who are doing ten million. They're profitable and like they're getting some
kind of check. But if they're new, if you need money to start your business, like, don't start it. That's kind of the conversation in the VC the investment world.
That's like for product based you said CP, you're using CpG, so consumer products and goods.
Yeah, consumer package goods.
Yeah. So if you got stuff, consumer package goods okay and fool.
So it is even worse right now, you know what I mean. And I imagine it was bad before, but now that there's like this whole ice thing where they're going to be shipping everybody back to wherever they're from, which is fed up in so many ways. Who's who is plucking your strawberries, who is getting your grapes, who is providing the food that's in the restaurants, and so it's it is a what's all says?
To burn the boat's kind of year where you gotta you burn.
The boat with Basically, if the armies they would land in a new land, they would burn the boats and say, hey, you have no option but to win, otherwise you die.
You know that's the kind of year we're looking at.
Wow, that's really uplifting. I don't know if you know. This is called brown ambition. We don't have guests come on and like kill our kill the ambition of everyone listening.
I'm sorry, I know.
You're keeping it real. I mean, you're in it. You know what the steaks are.
The only reason I'm still here is because I had philanthropic dollars. Somebody who was very wealthy who's seen me working at this for the last five to seven years, wrote me a check.
But if they did not private investor.
Yeah I have an investor or, an angel investor.
But if they had not, Oh my god, like I wouldn't be here talking to you.
May you know, that's incredible. Yeah, and thanks for that transparency too, because I mean it's I feel like, I mean, do you feel like in your community are people and I mean by your community, I mean other people who are selling those CpG products, Like, are they being honest and upfront about what's really the struggle behind the scenes.
Behind the scenes, they tell me the truth. But here's the thing. Getting on social is already hard, right, like showing up with your face, your voice, and your opinions because most people are afraid to share their opinions publicly.
It's already hard.
It's even harder to do when you're struggling. And yeah, no founder is going to get out of here and tell you that they are bankrupt or they're out of money or they had to do like.
No, they're just not going to do that, you know, And yeah, they're just not going to do that.
And so I hear a lot of the background conversation and the founders I know who' hit a million dollar marks are either going bankrupt that are either don't have much money.
And so what I like.
To recommend to people is like, now's the time we're living your relationships. Now's the time to ask a rich friend. You know, they may say no, but you need you need to ask, and you got to open up your mouth and ask. Now is the time to be honest about the situation, To tell your investors, tell your friends, to your family the money that you don't have, because you need some help, Like, we can't save ourselves in this.
We need some help.
We need Mortgaging your house, huh, don't be taking a second mortgage on the house.
Maybe not a.
Second, but maybe it's time to sell your house. Maybe it's time to downsize. Maybe it's time to liquidate some of those assets. A lot of my friends are liquating their assets and they're figuring out what's really important to them. And I'm saying there because a lot of us have money. Money in twenty twenty two, you know, I twenty twenty three, we had some like residuals. So twenty four they were all broke and they were like, okay, girl, what are
we eating for dinner? Okay, this is my budget? You know, Like I know that people were doing credit card Russian roulette. They throw all their credit cards in the in the table for dinner and then whoever's card was pooled, just who dinner was on.
We not doing that no more. Okay, now it's a fifty.
Dollars budget for what I'm eating at dinner. I might get a drink, I might not. I'man a free game before I get here. And I think it's just the kind of like the times that we're in a lot of the uncertainty. But I don't want to discourage people, right, I want people to hear the real thing from somebody who's in it and has seen seeing what everybody else is saying, but not necessarily projecting online. But while you're in that, it doesn't mean you can't keep building, but
you may have to adjust your expectations. Right, so you may not get to that ten million ar mark in the five year plan that you wanted, you know what I'm saying, Like you might be it might take.
You ten for that.
And are you do you really love what you're doing that much to do it ten more years to stick around.
I do. And that was some soul searching.
I had to realize, Okay, Kim, if it takes you another ten years to get to a hundred million, like would you?
Would you do it? Because I thought we'd be able to get there in a lesson.
Five and and if it took you fifteen, would you do it?
And I was just like I would, I definitely would.
I love what I serve and what who I do it for, and like, I like my job and it's hard, but I like the person is making me into.
But if you don't like it and it's hard, yeah, then this is this is the time to look at it and be like, Okay, is this the thing? You know?
I mean, Brown Ambition, fam y'all know that I have been a little transparent about how broke broke broke I was in twenty twenty four. I really feel like you're speaking to me, Kim. And there was those times in twenty twenty four where I was like, should I be on LinkedIn? This is not this is crazy, Like I'm
literally making no money. I'm putting all this money into Brown Ambition, this new chapter, and like what I envisioned it to be and it's partly your fault, Kim, because I went to Afrotech and that's the last time I saw you hanging out with my girl Morgan and Blavity, and like Afrotech, you just can't leave there and think small. And that really gave me the final push I needed to be like, yes, you're suffering, and yes, like things
are very tight right now, but I'm not failing. This is what it is, you know, Like, this is what it is. You have to slow down and to invest and put your own money up and be willing to do that if, like you said, if the goal is something that you are truly passionate and I know that that word gets thrown around, but like really committed to And it shifted my mindset. It has the past few months to the space of like, no, I'm not struggling, I'm building and like this is we need more stories
of this part. Yeah, and that's why I've been so transparent with ba Fan. My little brother was like, yeah, it's probably been hard for you to do that because like, aren't you supposed to be a personal finance expert And.
Being the financial expert doesn't mean you have perfection, do you.
Know what I mean, Like all of those grand cardoons and all of those like really famous rich wife folks.
They had a moment where they were bankrupt. Like Trump has file bakrupcy five or six times. Come on, yeah, come on, like we are badging debt.
They don't even use cash to just debt all day exactly can afford Texas? We get those boid taxes.
I mean, we get to be broke.
We get to be broke or cash for once in a while. This doesn't mean this forever, but you know, it's a moment.
I think this.
The version of me that wants to run a public company one day has to go through a phase where I have to focus on profit, and I have to focus on servicing my dat and I have to focus on being crazy efficient on my capital in a way that I've never had to experience it before, so that when I am managing one hundred million dollar budget, a billion dollar budget, you know what I mean, I really know how far a dollar constructs, and I know when
someone's playing me, you know what I'm saying. But imagine the Kim that gots to burn her way at ten million dollars gets to one hundred million dollars and it's burning fifty, you know what I'm saying, Like versus the Kim that gets one hundred million dollars and it's profiting fifty. Very different story, very different business, very different founder. And so I'm looking at this as like a blessing in disguise, you know, a blessing in disguise.
You can't be.
The version of your stuff that you're envisioning without going through the rough patches.
You know.
Yeah, it's hard to remind yourself that when you're in the rough patch.
What are you made of? Show me what you're made of.
You know, yeah, girl, grit, resilience and like you service, Like I know who I'm doing this for. It's for ba fam, you know, it's at the end of the day. And you do you what do you call us your customers, CURL mixers.
Crol mixers, Yes, my Crol mixers.
I love it.
Like it's not just me and my ego. It's like it's it's bigger than that.
So one of the things I'm a little with right now, right, I had to like scale that one of my ads at some point, and so I was like, Dave, I cut off my ass.
I want making money. And I was like, well, no, Kim, you have a mailing.
List and there are thousands people in your mailing list, and so if you can't get those people to purchase them, Like, why do you mane to buy more emails?
What do you need more money to get more ads to buy more emails?
You should figure out how to get the one hundreds of thousand people on your list to buy. You only need four thousand, and you have over four hundred thousand on your list, Like what does it take? And I was like, Oh, this is old school customer service. This
is me getting very targeted with my email segments. Talking to people in New York about things that they care about in New York, talking to people in Atlanta about the snow in Atlanta, talking to people like you know the customer, where they are and what they're thinking about.
It's not about spray and preying. I any money to put into ads, And that's when I was like, oh and I had like with the ads off, I had like a ten thousand dollar day with no ads on from email marketing and SMS market and I was like, Wow, this is really showing me what's possible without having any money and I think we have to think like that. If you're starting now, you have to think about starting with nothing. Think about, okay, I can't get money from
somebody else to start. If I have my product in hand, then you should be posted on social. If you don't have your product in hand, you can start to go fund me and still post on social and let everybody know that you're raising for this product that you're building and tell them why you need and why.
So Special posted a career reboot challenge and it was such a great and I was really tracking the data. I like woke up from a funk and I'm like, I'm really getting into my digital marketing bag. I am going to you know, really heavily promote this this challenge. I want to make like ten thousand dollars or whatever my goal was. And it was astounding to me how
much more effective the email marketing was. And I was like spending a lot of money on social, not spending money, sorry, spending time, you know, creating social posts, but just simply asking my current audience who has already like invested in
me and signed up for my list, to like. The conversion rates were just so much higher over email and yes, there was some conversion from social, and I mean social is really important for like getting that cold audience and warming them up and like interact, maybe they'll be customers in six more months, but like without that many chat feature where people can comment a word and then they'll get a lead gen like get a lead magnet, like a freebie or whatever, so I can get their email.
Like that to me is the like how those two go hand in hand because I got to get that email. I have to have it. I'm trying to get that four hundred thousand lists like like you did. I don't know how you did that, but I raise money, okay, fair enough money?
Yes, yes, yes, that is where all of my money is in my assets now.
So I have to figure out how to squeeze the orange to get some orange juice, you know.
Yeah. Well, I just appreciate you coming on BA and just you know, taking time out of your busy, busy schedule for the Pa family. Oh it's we'd love to have you on the show. Thank you.
Kim.
So people can find you at curl mix dot com. Yeah, you can buy her products at curl mix dot com or at your local Altahaty store. Yes, see anything else you want to say to BA fam.
If they don't carry it in your ulta, just tell the store manager so they can all be like, oh they we need curl mixing me curl Mix.
That's wondering you do this amazing brand called curl Mix. Thank you, Kim, thanks for joining BA Okay v a fan, We're back. It's time for one of my favorite parts of the show, which is Brown Boost or Brown Break. Mister Chris Browning, I just clicked for me that your last name has brown in it, and it's just all so serendipitous.
Full circle. That's the only reason.
Sinding at the brown table with the Brown.
Break on brown ambition.
I'm kind of ambition, all right. What you're gonna do? You're gonna boost a break? Oh?
You know what. I'm going back and forth on this, but i'msa say I'm gonna stay on the positive side. I'm gonna do a brown boost, okay, And you know, I think I'm gonna go with I told you about this. With the move and everything like that and trying to figure out how to get the steff done. I tried out of service because moving can be expensive, right, and I've been on those people. It was like, I'm just gonna move myself. You know, I can lift. I can lift some boxes of furniture. I got a brother, my
dad will come out there. I got friends. Oh yeah, but my dad's old. He's he's he's seventy one. Now I think I've used up all my friend requests for moving. I've done.
I've had my four or five not in our thirties. But we're not doing it for a free slice of pizza.
Nope, right, because I'm definitely wasn't paying my friends. They weren't getting any money for me. Yeah, yeah, a glass of water and a handshake. But now I was like, you know what I need to pay someone? So actually B was the one who told me about a move, about an app that exists. It's called Lug. It's a lug with two g's at the end, and then you do on demand moving services. And I was like, Okay, I'm interested to see how this works. And so I gave them a shot, and I'm gonna say it still
was expensive. I was hoping I didn't. You know, you never know how much it's going to cost a move for you less. Oh yeah. My quote was like, wo'll be about four hundred dollars. I was like, that is amazing to move my.
You know, from LA to SF.
Oh no, this was just to move my stuff from my place to what I had left was to my parents. So they got like some of my furniture because I'm like the hub for my brother to pick it up, and then for a couple of friends to grab some things from them, and then then my parents want to keep some of it. So it was like like that type of thing. So it wasn't too maybe like eighteen miles. I don't even know if it was that far away. It was like more of I got like a twenty
thirty minute drive, so I was like, this is reasonable. Well, when they get there to move stuff, it ended up taking way longer. And then I expect that I should have known because I had like a giant refrigerator, had to get out of it, had to take the door off the hinges of the apartment to get the refrigerator out.
Always got to be a door, got to be unhinged every time.
I had to like go get an extra U haul truck to help out because when I got was too small. All these things, but at the end of the day, I get the bill and it was like about eight hundred dollars was a total cost. Yeah, and it was
a lot. It was more than I thought, but I guess in the grand scheme of things, eight hundred dollars to not have to lift all that stuff myself and moving back and forth and unpacking and reback all this stuff I got say, it was a lot, but my body is thaking me for not doing that because that would take me a lot longer.
And papers. If you got it, you know, then that's great, But damn, eight hundred dollars and it wasn't even that far.
You sure it's a booster, you know, now I'm thinking about maybe it's a break. It's a boost and a break at the same time. It's a boost to my body, a break to my bank account.
But you got to like, yeah, but eight hundred dollars, you're right for your like your physical health and the health of your relationships, because your friends would really resent you for asking them to move to help you move. Yeah, no, but that's just it's one of those expenses you really don't want. You don't think about it until you absolutely come down to the last minute and you're like, damn, it.
I didn't think about how I'm getting this great apartment, but it's going to cost so much just to get there, and it's almost important to like budget for that, you.
Know, really should and I don't think I did a great job of like pre planning the expenses for this. I think in total, between the moving costs, I gave them a tip. I rented a car to move some of my things up there to San Francisco. I lded my boxes and tape. I probably spent somewhere around fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars in that ballpark for everything. And that's just I didn't really, in my mind expect
that cost. I should have. I should have known better, but I didn't for it, so it ended up coming out of my savings. So now that it's turning more into a break because I'm like, huh, I should have planned better. I should have been a little more on it and ready for those expresses instead of just being like it'll be all right.
Well, I'm happy that we've given you some space to really think about your choices and like do the right thing.
It's like when your therapist just let you talk and then you eventually like, oh, Okay, I see it's the worse.
I'm like, I'm paying all this money just to listen to myself and you're just gonna be like all right. I had a boost and then I forgot. I got to think about it, and what did I tell you it was going to be earlier?
I think with the boots because you were so excited that I was here again, even the way you insult me.
Oh no, absolutely, not that. Absolutely you know why you think it.
I also have to say, you know, I did get a message. The ba fam has been amazing, so welcoming. I got so many like great messages and comments from people. But I did get some comments and feedback when people were like, Maddie is treating you so bad?
Oh?
What asked up to you? I can't believe that she talks to you that way.
Chris h I'll tell bad right, amm poor little baby. He'll be fine. He's a man, he can take it. Take it. Y'all better leave me alone by leaving him alone. Okay, Oh, I know what I wanted to do. So do you know the rugby player, the famous one Ilona?
I think Mayer somebody, yes, the best person on social media during the Olympics. Yes, I know exactly who that is.
Yes, yes, yes, yes. So she came out to be this huge star after the Olympics and then she was on Dancing with the Stars, which I like watched a little bit of and she did really well. And anyway, she was doing an interview because she's back to playing rugby, and I think the interviewer was like, have you ever had imposter syndrome throughout your career? And Ilona just kind of goes like, oh no, I don't have that. I don't have imposter syndrome. I think I deserve everything I've got.
I think I've earned it. I think I've worked really hard and it all makes sense to me. Yeah, so next question. And this clip has gone megaviral and it's pissed some people off because it really makes people uncomfortable to hear a woman be like not apologize for being successful or not appear humble about being successful. And I just I'm really I'm boosting it because I think it was a message that I am always open to hearing
and being reminded of. And I love seeing women like power for women just stand on business and be like, no, I don't I don't actually have to qualify this or make you feel more comfortable about it in any way, I'm going to acknowledge that, yeah, I did the damn thing and that I've earned you know what I've gotten, and I just I just loved it.
Oh, I mean because it's nice to see, right, because they I think people want to force, especially women, to be humble, right, and you're like, well, there's not it's not a lack of humility to say I work hard and my heart were paid off. So yeah, I don't feel like I shouldn't be accomplishing what I accomplished. I think. I think especially that's like a very compared to the way we see some people who come up as very
like what are you talking about? Like it's an off putting form of like bragging, where this was just more like you respect it. It's like, yeah, we all respect this hard work, and you should be able to claim it that way without being ashamed of it.
Yeah. Absolutely, I mean as a dude, I don't think that. I mean, you tell me, but I feel like early on you start hearing as a woman, like so much about imposter syndrome and how we should expect it and how to overcome it, and like, there's plenty of thought
pieces on is imposter syndrome even real? But it's so part of the culture now, even as we are starting to dismantle it, it's so a part of the culture that it just like, let's remind ourselves that, like, we don't have to choose to buy into that whole idea that what we're feeling when we walk into rooms that were not built for us is like an imposter syndrome. We have to overcome it, like it's not our fault, it's not our doing that these like rooms were not
built with us in mind. So of course we're gonna feel a little out of place, but it doesn't take away from the fact that we are qualified and we are capable of doing the work that we want to do. So shout out to Alona, and shout out to every other badass woman. I feel like Serena Williams walked so that Ilonas of the world could crawl. Wait, I feel like I I'm so tired. Flip that and reverse it. Put the thing out, flip it and reverse it anyway.
And yeah, So shout out to Eilona, Shout out to all the ones before who have said something similar, and I hope that y'all we all get to a place where we can just stand on business and stand on our heart earned success and everything that we got we did it by working hard. So that's where we're going to leave you guys, BA Fam, Thank you so much for tuning in to the Brown Ambition Podcast this week.
Don't forget to share this episode with the friend. Post it on social media tag us so we can share and amplify the show and leave us a review while you're at it. What else can I ask you to do? Subscribe on YouTube the YouTube girlies Chris are fun like y'all be in those comments on YouTube and I actually go and read all the comments. And if you want to see the show we are on YouTube. You can find us at Brown Ambition Podcast there and until next time, BA Fam. Bye,