MISS SHANTEL JACKSON - Pickled Egg

is my last name. But ever since Outcasts came out with that song, I think I was like fourteen fifteen, and in school even the teachers were in on it, like it was roll called during like the announcements or um throughout the day, and when my name was called, everybody would go, I'm just like, it's just like a part of I don't know who I am. I don't know. It's always been hilarious to me, but I am Miss Jackson. So yeah, it's good. It's like kind of started you

with a brand before you. I think it did. I think it did. It was just I can't help that is my last name, but it just came with something and it just pivoted me into yes Jackson, Miss Jackson. Well, what do you have us eating, Miss Jackson. So I have some good old fashion I guess you would say some Country Bama pickled eggs. Um. And it's pretty much nothing but vinegar, some spices, some red die and some eggs. I've never ever seen this. So when you mentioned pickled eggs,

I didn't know if you had, like a sandwich bag. Well, I didn't know what. I didn't know what. She said, pickled eggs. I said what, Yeah, so it already comes like this. And when I was little, Um, we used to go to the corner store or the candy ladies house. Um, if we lived in apartments at the time and asked for a pickle egg and maybe at the time it was maybe twenty cents or a quarter. And where are you from Miami? Oh, you're from Miami, they were, they

were selling pickled eggs in Miami. Yeah, okay, So where do you get these out here? You can't get these out here. I ordered these online to be here. So you're a real pickled eggs man. I am. I can't even say the last time you ate this was you was broke. You just attached to the pickled eggs. I'm attached at the hip to the pickled eggs. Honestly, it would even get worse than this back home. But now I'm a vegetarian, so I'm still safe with the egg

the pickled eggs. Um. But I used to eat the hot sausage with the pork or the pickle pig feed like, yeah, it was bad. Yeah, okay, well let's try these. Can we try these? Are we clear before we? Uh? Yeah? Okay, good, Let's try some pickled eggs. Now, I've never had pickled eggs before. Guys, So if my face does all these like expressions, don't mind me because like an expression girl like I have a million wrinkles dedicated to me before I hit for it. I reco my face too much.

But let's try these, and thank you for sharing this. Like delicate? Was it? Like I said, this is like a Southern delicacy? Yeah? Right, it is. To see that's the word I was I was looking for because we couldn't even get these. She came with these. That's how you know what's real? She she had another dishes. She said, you know what, I haven't never seen this in California ever. And how often do you order these? Um? You know what? A lot of the time I always have to wait

till I go home to Miami to get them. So this past week I was there for my birthday and as soon as I touched down off the plane, UM, and I went to the gas station, they had pickled eggs. So I was I was getting pickledgg This is interesting. So the pickled eggs are red for all your listeners, It's like in this jar of juice. Um, So how do you get it out? You use a fork? We got a fork. So do you if you don't have pickled eggs? Do you just naturally like eggs or is

it just the whole flavor package? I do. I do naturally like eggs, but the pickled egg is just something just totally different. Or you can use your spoon. Oh yeah, that's probably smarter, um, but you can you smell it? Do you like vinegar? I mean, I don't know. I'm a Jew and a Jamaican. I think I like everything from I'm trying that. I think you might like this. Okay, So do I should I just try to break it? Or do I just bite it? How did you just pick it up and bite it? Here we go, don't

mind the faces. Everybody here like cheers cheers. Here we go. Oh it's hard. I thought it was gonna be soft. It's not that bad. I was expecting softness. It's hard. M hmm. I was gonna be soft from it from minting than this juice. And I cooked it. It cooks it like that. Well one day, boil them first, but then you know, still with a boiled eggs, still soft, but the juice gets it too. This I'm not gonna lie,

Miss Jackson. This is it. This is an acquired I mean, you had to have been broke to be eating knees. I'm sorry, I don't know. I'm gonna make our crew try it, because sometimes we have stuff on this show where I'm like, I'm gonna have to get any shout out to Jared. Jared, you ready to try this? No? Okay, m hm yeah, this is no fuiretae. I'm sorry. I give you kudos for this. Give me Ms Jackson, give me kudos for this because this is a once in a lifetime one and done for me. Yeah, you're from

I'm from New York. You're from New York. Oh yes, I don't even think it's h's not New York thing? You know? There for everybody like, you guys, gotta just try this one time. It's definitely like if you like vinegar, vinegar person, I love vinegar. Yeah, we just we just had a guest on that likes vinegar too, Like I put vinegar on everything. She would have loved this. You had heard could have had a vinegar vinegar fast. Yeah. So what was going on at the time when you

were eating pickled eggs. I'm gonna keepna I'm gonna eat the whole egg. By the way, you got it's still protein. Can never again. This is this is what and done. But what was going on when you were eating pickled egg yolks? Mean when I was younger? Um, I love to eat this just in general, but to continue to eat it, Um, it's a it's a taste for me. It's nostalgic for me. Um, it's what I grew up eating.

Walking to the corner store. That was even a thing being young, walking to the corner store, or even before school started, we walked to the corner store, got um chips and hot sausage or pickled eggs. But you saw like candy now later chips, the little twinkies in the package. You said, oh, those eggs those eggs are calling my name. I need a pickle egg. I needed pockletic. Um. Yeah, I don't know. I think the whole world learned something.

I don't think. I think I think anyone would ever say, okay, miss Jackie, she's kicking back some eggs. Yeah I don't. Yeah, people will probably look at me and think, yeah, she's not eating that. No, when when I look at you, I'm like, Okay, she's fit. You know, you're physically beautiful, So okay, she's probably eating all these I have no idea, maybe sushi or something. Then you show but pickled eggs as like a favorite thing that you're ordering through the mail.

I'm like proud. It's like where I come from. It's like it's like part of when people look at me, they just pretty face and um, maybe nothing really behind it. But it is a lot more to that. Um, it's not just a pretty face. Um. But a lot of people don't know how I grew up either. I mean I had seven eight nine year old Um, I was getting in the house before my mom, making sure my siblings were um doing their homework or babe before she got home. Um, and she went she worked a job

and then she did uh night school as well. Was she a single parent? Um? Single parents? My father? Um, my father I think was in prison until I was about ten or eleven years old. Um, but yep, single parents getting home um late, having to cook for us sometimes. And then even with that, I felt bad that my mom had to come home and cook for us. So I started cooking at a young age, just simple things. Or I would see her making like simple meals like the beans and the rice, and um, all I can

make that. So trying to cook these certain things before she even got home, UM made me feel good that she didn't have to do this extra stuff because she's busting her ass all day and the night to provide a better life for us. Were you the oldest of your siblings? Um? Yeah, that we're living in the household. Wow. So um it was me, and then I had two younger sisters and then two cousins living living with us at the time. So wow, that's cool that you looked

out for your mom like that. Though. That's really cool. I feel like it. It made me. It helped shape me into who I am today, just with UM, loving my family, loving where I came from, UM, loving how she raised me or looking out for my siblings just how I had to or just wanted to because I didn't have to. Um, mind you. But it's like when you have family and you you love and you look at your family a certain way, like you want to look out for them. You want them to, UM be

good at the end of the day. Yeah, I understand it. So where did like entrepreneurship hit your Like when did it hit your radar? Um? You know what entrepreneurship it just it just came naturally. So when I was younger, just in general, UM, I love the glitz and the glam of um being an actress or Hollywood m movies, modeling so UM. I went to a television production UM high school. So I learned like a lot of the behind the scenes of filming or writing scripts and things

like that. UM. And I also like went to like a little modeling school when I was younger. UM. But along with those things, I was always obsessed with, UM clothes or high heels, your shoe collections. Crazy. That's It's like I call it a good bad habit if that if that makes sense. UM. So every since I can remember, I was wearing high heels or my mom would let me wear high heels. Since I was like fourteen fifteen,

I've been wearing high hills. Now, were you one of those girls that were like the only one in the school wearing heels or was everybody wearing heels in your school? She was in Miami, right, so yeah, but I think around my generation, they were still into those sneakers, Like I would wear the sneakers and stuff like that, but I was still like want to rock my little platforms and being a little different and stuff. But I've always been like that, which is shoes with my shoes. Like

trying to remember. So, were you doing like entrepreneurial type stuff in high school or yeah? So in high school, well, I started middle school, middle school, the high school, Um, I was selling UH chips and juice, honey buns candy. So I would go to school with a big bag um like a mini Duffel bag, and I would freeze the juices um at night before I went to school, take them out, and in the morning people begin their juices and their honey buns for me or throughout class.

And sometimes I would get in trouble because people be knocking on my door or like homeroom likes Jackson in here t sh would be like if you don't get out of here, um, but like coming to get chips or candy or juice. Uh So yeah, that was You just made me realize that that was like the start of my entrepreneurial and what we're using the money for, um for school stuff. Um My mom pretty much had to provide for me and my sisters, um my, my two cousins. And it was things that I wanted that

she really didn't have the money to get me. So if I wanted to go on the field trip or get extra things for school, I was making this money with selling this stuff in school to provide myself with what I wanted pretty much like even for prom or um high school events and stuff like that. The money didn't have to come out of her pockets. So and it felt it made me. It made me feel good that I was making my own money to buy the

stuff that I wanted at the end of the day. Yeah, Now, when I was growing up at school, we were we were definitely poor. We didn't ask our parents for anything. But if you were poor in my school, you got made fun up. They was like scrub especially with TLC dropped the most scrubs you have made for the bed if we didn't have like the cool kicks and all that stuff. So did you have to experience that or did you did? Are you making enough money to like be like, here's my one pair of good shoes to

ride you know what? UM? I didn't really experience that. And I feel like in a sense like kids maybe picked on kids that they knew that they could pick on because I didn't have the best of things. UM, But I didn't have the worst of things either. UM. I still had like my little things here and there, my my father, UM, when he did get out of prison, UM was able to, you know, help out some and

stuff like that. So I had a pair of Nikes or um, some Pumas or some I think when I was younger, some uh Sconi's if I'm not mistaken, but that still UM, I still UM, I didn't have everything I wanted. Like kids was walking, kids were rocking on peppal or Fu Boo or Sean John, um, things like that, and I definitely couldn't afford that. So I mean off label clothes, no label clothes. UM. When I got to high school, I did wear uniforms so so that that did make it easier because you have a uniform and

which is wore your your playing pants or something like that. Yeah, so I watched your social media. I'm a fan of yours and we have some mutual friends, so we get to cross over a little bit. Um, but I'm a fan of yours. You know, you're definitely we've already touched on you know, you're externally beautiful, You're hilarious online. You definitely you definitely have your I feel like your your

funny side is definitely showcased on your social media. But when I see you know what called my attention was you have the shoegummies And I know that process was this process wasn't your typical like when you see um, you know celebrities, they'll do like endorsement deals or or you know, like they and I'm not negating anybody's work or anything, but it's more of a sign on. But in your case, you invented something to help aide your shoe I'm your shoe collection. I yeah, pretty much my

shoe collection. What was the process like to like, were you finding a did you find a problem and then realized there was no solution? And then you went to invention mode. Yeah, pretty much. So honestly, just with having my own obsession with high hills, wearing them day in and day out, I was already on the search for finding something that would help them be more comfortable and everything.

At the time, I think maybe there were some foot creams um which absolutely don't do anything, or inserts shoe the shoe inserts for the ball of the foot, and those It absolutely nothing to me. Uh So I just particularly had my Aha moment one day and just thought, well, if things go in the shoe and they don't do anything, or if they do go in the shoe, they can make the shoe tighter or slip around. Yeah, I was like, well, what stops me from maybe putting something on the outside bottom?

I mean, I have more room here and um, this can to me do more good than something going inside. So at the time I took one pair of shoe to my shoe, a pair of guy at the time, and I asked him how much rubber or material can I put on the bottom of the shoe so I can um still walk in it, and um it's uh, it's still wearable. He put um like a quarter of an inch thick of rubber on the bottom of the shoe.

I picked up like a week later. Um, I wore it that night, and I kid you not, I was amazed at how this little piece of rubber that he put under the shoe really changed the dynamic of the depths that I was taken in the shoe from when they didn't have the product on there and I was taking my shoes twenty and thirty pair to him. Um after that, so he can put extra rober at the bottom because it didn't make that money. So you realize you can't put something in the shoe, But what made

you think? I just can't imagine how you thought that far? So like literally think and it's genius because if you think about it, like what is it? You're offsetting the balance back onto the heel of the shoes that so what happens is it um it can tilt your foot and the shoe back slightly and it'll take a lot of that pressure off the balls of the feet and even in some instances it redistributes some of that pressure more evenly across the foot on putting um um more

pressure on the heel as well. UM. Normally, when we wear high heels, it's over our body weight on the balls of our feet. So that's like one of the bigger issues. So now you have all this weight on the balls of your feet, which are going to make your your toes um hurt faster, the balls of your feet, um and all of that. So that's where I come into play with shoegumm me and it does take the

pressure off. Um. I feel like it makes me walk more confidently because when I wear heels, UM, the best way that I can describe it is like a forward feeling. And it's like when you put your heels on and you're shifted this way. So with my product, now your weight is shifted back into a more comfortable stance. That makes sense, Yeah, instead of that forward feeling. And I feel like, um, a lot of women wear heels and they're constantly it's on like a tilt forward and um

that's it's it's uncomfortable. Yeah, I UM. I'm starting to get a small shoe collection, you know, I do one shoe at a time. I'll splurge you like once every couple of months. By the way, we have to there was a shoe cam. You need a shoe camp because her shoes are so fired today. Um, you definitely have to start get a shoe cam for sure. Yeah, yeah, your shoes are these are beautiful red boots. But I so I went into the store the other day. I

think I had seen like St. Laurent or something. It was cute, these cute little shoes with a little s and on the phone, and I tried those things on it and things hurt so bad, and I was like, yeah, there's a fly. But man, like if I go because I'm doing this some festival in New York, and so I was like, oh, I'll just wear this on during the festival, like I would literally have to have them

in my bag and just wear them while sitting. And then I was like, I'm not spending you know, I think, oh even yeah, I thought yeah, but I was I'm not dropping that much for her shoes that I can't even wear for like three seconds. And I've done that before where I've dropped that much and they collect dust in my closet because I'm like, I can't ever wear

it again. And so that particular shoe that you're talking about, a lot of ladies come to me complaining about that shoe in particular, and I literally just did a post about it. Um. I saw the comments on it too. They were going in and nothing you can do to fix that shoe, Like so many people complain about that shoe and then like some people are like, well why do you even pay that much? And you know that

she was uncomfortable. And I think with heels just in general, like the pain that we get from wearing the heels is the price of this beauty. But with my product, I I helped with that pretty much. Um, someone else just did a post with that wire sell shoe. Her shoe literally had dust in the shoe. You can see the dust in the video on the shoe and she put the gummies on the bottom, and um, she did like a whole bunch of crazy stuff in the video, like um doing the Megan nostalgia needs or can I

swallow Mende now? Like it was a really good video, but um, that shoot in particularly it is definitely, um a killer. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. I think I want to start leaning towards like Fendi or something because Benny has some comfortable shoe. I think every brand can

have some comfortable shoes. Is just like those certain ones are just really uncomfortable, and a lot of women don't factor certain things also with heels that they just think going out the gate, I'm aware of five in chill and I'm aware this all night and is this and no, it's a lot of factors when it comes to high heels. That you have flat feet, um, even the length of your legs is well, like do you normally walking hills? Um? Have you ever walked into five in shield? Four? And

sheeld three and schill? Um. It's just a lot of factors when it comes out. I would not even think about those questions. I just go and I'm like today, i wanna look sexy from my husband, So I'm gona. I'm gonna look cool and figure out how to walk in them later. Yeah, the the endstep, the height of the hill. I can go on and on about a pair of shoes and what can be more comfortable and what to stay away from, like do you um uh like a pointed shoe? Though, so Kates, you know what

those are? The Christian Lubertan's Oh yeah, you mean the ones that come to a point. Yeah. Yeah, I don't have a bother. I don't even bother. Yeah. Some people buy um, some ladies buy my product and they think that shoegummies helped with the point of the shoe, and I'm like, no, baby, no, Like I'm just trying to help with the pressure on the ball at your feet. But if you want to cram your feet in this point,

you gotta do with that all on your own. So yeah, Now in those cases, are they supposed to buy the shoes bigger so it doesn't go to the point. I mean, you have to really know what size to buy that shoe in, because one, you don't want it flapping off everybody too big, But then you don't want it too tight because your feet already crammed in that pointed style. Now do you see shoe gummies as the beginning of other because there's so many pressure points, Like when I

wear heels. I don't wear a lot of heels anymore, but when I wear heels, like there's you know, the side the what is that the corns I don't know if I'm using the right terms, but ends or whatever, I don't know, Okay, you know, like this side right here? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, so that's why that can be the bunny in. Yeah, So like, are you going to start doing because the gummies are like, I feel like the gummies are just the beginning. Especially when you talk

you're like a shoe. Yeah, like you're like, I'm all about my foothealth. Honestly, when when my feet are good and I'm out and about, um, I'm mixing and mingland. I don't want to worry about my feet. I feel like if if, if my feet hurt, and I think a lot of people who wear heels can contest for this. You're just not in the mood to do anything. You

don't want to talk. I'm gonna just sit down over here till it's time to go, and um, that's not what I want to deal with when I'm and I'm out and I'm wearing my heels like, I want to wear them. I want to show them, I want to walk around. So yeah, so kind of stepping back a little bit. Um, so you take your twenty thirty pairs of shoes and you start adding this rubber layer. This is the the pre gummy, the pre gummy. At what point do you say, Okay, I want to invest more time,

energy and money into actually making this brand. Yeah, so I came up with shoegum me or the first idea of it in twenty oh nine. See, that was a long time ago, so I didn't think to make it a consumer product until about um, I would say maybe six seven years ago now. Um. But having that moment or those thoughts, I just thought to myself, well, I know what the product does, and I wear it. And probably at the time I had a few friends maybe going to get the rubber put on the bottom of

their shoes, so they knew how it worked. So after knowing you, they got it. Yeah. So then then this isn't like you're selling it. They were just like, oh, what are you doing the last thirty hours? And you were like shoe gummy. You were like this place. They would complain about their shoes and I would just sell them, well, send the shoe over here and they'll do this too it.

And they were rave about it because they wouldn't be able to um where maybe it was a shoe that they had war for an hour, couldn't wear it pass an hour. It was just insane crazy. Put the um the gummy at the time what it was on the bottom and they were able to wear the shoe the whole night. So it really made that much of a difference and UM up until six seven years ago, I started to think, well, maybe I need to hone in on this, like to make it a consumer product, Like

how do I do that? Because at the time the shower pair guy had to do it for me. So now I just started. I had to start thinking, all right, what do I have to do to make this a product that people can put on at home? So what was that next step? Like, well, first, before all of that, I found me a patent lawyer. Okay, okay, okay, yeah, all right, So I found a patent lawyer and UM pretty much started the paperwork with him, UM with following

my patent application. UM. And what we had to do first was, UM, I think, look into the US database, the patent database, and do UM uh to look if anything on the market was like this. And I was already telling him absolutely not because I would be using it. So before that, yeah, so before UM before still before then, he was just like, we have to do it anyways. Then moving forward from that, we started my UM my

patent application and UM. While that was getting done, UM, I found a cat designer and UM a cat designer is someone who can UM digitally digitally make UM the product in the computer, and um, from there, um we came up with like the first with the first gummy looked like it looked like honestly, not with this is today. It looked like a little tadpole, like I had a

little a tail coming up the shoe. And then like as I started to do more research and develop the product, um detail went away and then like the product got bigger and what it is now. So so for everyone time frame wise, you're so you start in two thousand and nine, you don't start actually making it into the

brand until like six seven years ago. So we could see like this is a long journey now where you like but I say, like losing a risky amount of money trying to invest in this thing, or where you like, like was it uncomfortable getting into the space? Was there a part of you that was like risk scared or risk confidence? Like where was it that the honestly, the the I did put a great deal of money into post launch, but that wasn't a scary part. The scary part was just being a new product. And um, I

knew how it worked and what it did. My friends knew or some of them knew how it worked, and what it did. But was the the world going to respond to my product the way that I knew it? How can I say it? Were they going to respond to it the way that I I think they should, if that makes sense? And then you were also, I'm sure like trying to figure out how do you market it? No? Yeah, so then that was the thing also, um, like what do I do or what do I say? Or how

how do I market it? But I think just as time went on, it just became easier because it just became easy. Um, because it's part of my lifestyle. High heels is what I know. High heels is what I do. I like what people say, I eat sleep ship, whatever I eat sleep ship, high heels I could tell because you're like, you have to know how long the leg is? And so I'm curious. I have flat feet, Not that the whole world needs to know this, but what am I allowed to wear heels? So you, of course you're

allowed to wear heels. My sister, one of my sisters, she has flat feet, and um, she would wear high heels, wouldn't. She would always complain about um they heard or they already started hurting out an hour or so, But um, she was one of the first people to test the actual consumer made products UM, and she raves about them. And with having flat feet, what happens is, Um, since you have less of an arch in your foot, the foot puts even more pressure on the balls of your feet.

Oh snap. So yeah, So with my product and its alleviating some of that pressure, it does help you wear your high hills longer because it's taking some of that pressure off. Yeah. Now with flat feet, does that cause your ankle to roll more? Is that? Does that? What would that make that more difficult? Um? No, I wouldn't say we'll make it roll more. UM. With HIO is just in general, Um, we're putting more pressure on our knees, our ankles, and the bottom and the bottoms of our feet.

So so it sounds like for all y'all flat footers, you'll need this really bad. Yeah. I do get a lot of customers who who have flat feet omni acts, will it help and stuff like that. So where do people buy the actual product? Like if I want to go and buy and now, and do we have to buy one per pairchue or so it is, um, one per pair of shoe. They aren't transferable or reusable and

that's for safety reasons. I mean, like we have a certain adhesive to stick to the bottom of the shoe, and if it's yield up or that seal is broken, then you can't really reuse it and put it on another shoe. So it is one pair per shoe, okay, And then what is the price point of these UM? So for one pair is thirty five dollars, for two pair UM like a bulk UM is sixty five and then for like a three a three pack or three

pair is ninety dollars UM. And we also this is black and we have tan, and then we also just launched red for those ladies who have UM. Now where do where do people buy them? Online? Online? So I have my own online e commerce and that's the only place where they can be purchased as of right now. So are you looking to get distribution in retail? UM? I feel like once I get more UM notoriety, more notoriety, more awareness of the brand, than I do want to

branch off and get into stores. Because if someone's buying a shoe that day, then it's even more of a thing to go into the store or that same store and be able to buy a pair of gummies too, where or put on that shoe that night. I would think because it's it's it's a nominal investment. So like if you go into the store, you're buying a thousand dollar pair of shoes, it makes sense to just But in the case of I guess for right now, I'm just gonna go online and just stock up. You know,

I'm gonna have to stock up. You Um, what an amazing journey that is. Now do you want to just permanently stay in the shoe game? You thought about designing shoes? You know what? Before this was even a thought, Like I always thought, like, you know, I want to be an actress, I want to be a model. Um, I love shoes. I want to be a shoe designer. So, UM, being a shoe designer has always been in the back

of my mind. But with having my product, it's, um, it's something that's a reoccurring thought, if if that makes sense, because I deal with this every day. I damn never wear it every day. Um, but you know, just in general foot health. UM, adding on to the shoe gummy brand is something that I want to do as well. But I definitely want to get into designing shoes high heels.

It doesn't even have to be just high heels. So for people that will look and obviously not hearing this interview, because after hearing this interview, it doesn't sound like this journey was easy. Um. What is a day in the life of you as an entrepreneur? Now that you've invented the product, you know what, it has been easier now, I would say so up until like a few months ago, UM, I was processing orders. So at the top of the year, I was wanting to have more UM give give UM.

At the top of the year, I wanted to have like UM the brand UM be pushed with a lot of social media presence, with brand awareness, UM pushing that out so people know what the product is, how it works, and all that other stuff, and UM with being more vocal on TikTok. TikTok just took it and like spun it around and I was getting orders like left and right. TikTok is like a whole another ball game. UM. So at one point I was processing over three thousand orders

just with this company at home by myself. Wow. So you were definitely working like a long like ten hour days. I would assumeer. Yeah, UM, Like I would have moments where I'm processing, it's coming to the end, and then maybe I get a little break and then I come back it's like a few hundred more orders to like get, you know, rolling and all that other stuff. It definitely

it was a blessing. It is a blessing for sure. UM. So that was my day with like processing orders, UM, emails, UM, dealing with UM people's customer service, UM, even social media at a certain point, and then I brought in UM the girl who works for me now, which she has been like a blessing because she picks up all my slack with UM. I can't do it all. So if you want to get to a certain point when you

have a business, you can't do it all. And building and having the right team around you is definitely needed because I feel like, UM, if it wasn't for her coming UM and stepping in place for me, I wouldn't be where I am right now because I can't. I couldn't process orders and being social beyond social media and run the page how it is and do look at emails and my own personal So and then did you have to learn e commerce to in addition, like mean, when I say e commerce, did you have to learn

like the digital platform or the tech platform. Um, so you were like learning working yep and scaling which is extremely tough, and in doing the marketing. Yeah. At the time, um, I was getting quotes from like a lot of people to like build me a website and do all this other stuff logo, and I just thought, you know what, maybe let me just take a week and let me just see how I can do it in my own. So I just sat back there, um through the website platform that I'm using, and I pretty much built my

own website. You wow, look at you. So I'm not even gonna lie I would be afraid. But lately I've been curious, Like sometimes they even on dealing with the podcast, I'll say, I'm curious what st Jared does or what Katie does. This is my crew. Shoutouts to my crew, But I'm always curious, like what they're they're like, I guess their perspective and what their work is like, or what they see and what they come across. Um. It can be very tedious. I mean before even shoegum me, um,

I was building my brand fancy Goods. I felt like this company was was too stagnant at the time, and I just needed something like popping off doing something, and I like started a lash brand fancy goods. Um. So I started with my web designing with that. So then when it finally came for me to launch Shogun, me already knew like the ins and out of how to work all that back there with designing the website, I just knew, Okay, what type of pictures do I need?

What's the verbage? And um, what needs to be said to the customer and all this other type of stuff. So so I I think I have like one last question. So when you're building these brands, how are you getting the money to pay for the brands? Are you raising capital? Are you getting business loans? Like how do you or do you like save money? And then like kind of like I'm trying to figure out, like how do you how does it like how do you go from like

eating pickled eggs to like two brands? So, um, I would say either money that was saved, money I was making at the time, UM, money that I was making from another business as well, Like you probably rolled the money from the last brand into the gummy. I would

assume right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah, so this isn't your first rodeo at like e commerce, No, no, no, um, it's just at as I built each brand, I knew what to do also on what not to do in in each stage because with starting with certain things, I messed up with a lot um uh, messed up a lot of money. Um I knew that. Damn I didn't even have to do that then, and now I'm spending money on that and now it has to come here.

So with each company, I knew or started to know, Okay, we're gonna wait to do that, or we're gonna do this first, or this and and that. So it's it is a learning experience just with having a company, just just in general, and you know what to do and what not to do and yeah, yeah it's funny. I have a love hate relationship with entrepreneurship because when you learn,

it's like you take it on the check. Like I saw this clip like Lauren London had to like you get chin checked in life, were on a brand, Like there's nothing that chin checks you more than losing a fat check on a mistake that you're like, damn, I should have read did that but I promise you ain't gonna make that mistake twice. Um. I was literally just talking to a friend of mine about like a lot of mistakes that I made with developing shogummy at first.

So when I first had my first um my first prototype, I thought that was the end all, be all, This is it, this is what we're going to market with. And with that prototype, I did um lab testing. So I got to um uh lab tested product and what that consists of. They had a few ladies who wore um the same type of hell with the gummy um put on the bottom, and when they did the testing, the lab results showed exactly what I knew the product did with taking a lot of the pressure off the

balls of the feet. But on the other back end, I failed the stability part of that lab testing, and I couldn't go to market with the product. But did you already like pressed up a bunch of it or thousands of all? So I was like, that's in all be all. I did maybe like five thousand pairs of these little gummies, just thinking this is it, this is why I'm going with It was the wrong type of material, because that material didn't stick with any type of adhesive I was trying to play with or get to work

at the time. Um, the product was faulty. It was too small, the shape was off, and all this other type of stuff. So I had to go back to the drawing board and fix what was wrong with the product. And luckily the guy who owned a lab testing facility, he gave me some pointers on what to do to make the product better because what it was doing was it was rolling the ankle. So with how the product was and the women in the videos walking, you can see them walking and their ankles going out like that.

So I couldn't go to market with a faulty product and possibly get a lawsuit or something. So I'm so that has been like kind of shattering for you. Yeah, because I was thinking, oh, yeah, I'm doing this lab testing and it's gonna be good and in a few months I'm gonna be on the shelves or I'm gonna be selling online. And it was just more of a slap in the face. And it was hard because I was like, yo, I know what this does. Why is it so hard to get this out? Because that wasn't

the first hurdle. It was before that. It was my patent um. With getting my patent, it was two years before we even got seen by a patent examiner. And when the patent examiner looked at my product, um, they gave us obvious miss rejections. And what that's what those are, um, they're based off of things that already that are already in the database that do something with the bottom of the shoe. But it's not really like your product. So we had to go back and forth with her for

like six months. And that's and you're paying, they're paying out, but you're fighting and you're not even quitting because most people probably would have been like, oh, I forget it. Yeah, and this I think maybe that was even almost four years into even starting just everything just in general, and at a certain point when you're in so far with that, forget the money and certain things. It's just like my time and I know what this what? I know what my product does, I know how it works? Why is

it this hard? I just didn't understand. And I would have like moments while I would just break down and sunk up my whole week honestly just thinking like I don't understand. Why is it's not gonna work? Um? Why can't patent just go through. I'm failing this over here, Like is it ever going to happen? Like I just felt I stopped so much in my life at the time, and I was like, this is gonna be my a game. This is what I'm going with and it was just not working out, and I just thought, what am I

going to do if this doesn't go? Wow? And that's a long journey, because we're in two thousand twenty two, two thousand nine, and two thousand nine. Was was that the first date that check you put it on the bottom of the shoe? Yeah? Yeah. So for everybody that's listening, if you think about this, that's over ten years of back and forth like basically climbing up the mountain taking like ten steps forward and then like falling a couple of feet and then you gotta keep your gas burning

the entire time. That's yeah, that's nuts. And then again goes back to like what a lot of people say, it's just not overnight over and it's like I would watch I would watch Shark Tank a lot, and you watch that stuff, and like some people are like, damn, they just hit it off overnight. Overnight success. Um didn't really have to put anything into it. They started six months ago, they had their first prototype and prototype and did this and internet, and I was like, how is

it so simple for them? Like why does this have to be so hard? And then somebody at the time was just telling me sometimes great things take time, and I'm just like, yeah, I get that, but I wanted down like what about now, Like I don't want the time for that? But it honestly has. It has made me who I am today because from those times where I just thought I'm getting all this bad news, my whole week is messed up. I don't want to hear it. I have taken those moments and groomed myself into Okay,

if I have a problem, how do I fix it? What? Instead of blowing up being braddy about it? Okay, what's the steps to fix it? It can't be fixed, how do we go around it? All right? Pushing to the side, What what do we do about it? Um? And if I was the same person that I was back then, like having fits and headaches and um, like crying a lot, like just boo hoo, Like I just I wouldn't have the company that I have right now being that person.

So my companies have grow me into a better woman, a better entrepreneur, two actually run the business how it should be. Yeah, I mean, I have so much appreciation for you and I say it all the time, and it's it's so easy to fall in love with people like on this show because it's just like hearing that journey is like it's crazy that that's a crazy journey.

And yeah, it's funny because you look at a product like shoot coming, it's just like this product that like literally saves you know, saves and comforts you and helps you so much, and it's it's you have to think so far out of the box to get to it, but then to think of the journey of it. It definitely has been a journey is still as a journey. But even if I was on the outside looking and you would look at this like that's nothing to make what did you possibly need to do that or this

or whatever? And it just it it took a lot of research, development time, tears fallouts on the ground, Like but I had to ask though, like do you remember to two memories? I would like to just know like what was going on, Like was like when you got your patent approved and officially past lab testing, and then your first sale, like your first sale of somebody you did not know, Like it was like, oh so when my patent got approved, it was like a weight lifted

off my shoulder. I felt like, Okay, this that's not it, but it's going in the right direction. Like I feel like that that push, that's something that more that I felt like I needed to give me like some reassurance that this is gonna work. Um. And then that first sale, I um, honestly, when I pushed that button to open sales, UM, I had my phone on and UM, I was recording myself and I kid you not. As like sales started to come in and come As sales started to come in,

I was freaking out. I was bawling crying. I'm just like, oh my gosh, Like what am I gonna do? Like what am I selling? Like? Are they gonna like it? Like? What is what is going to happen? Like are they going to know what to do? Are they going to put it on correctly? Like what are they going to

say about it? I'm like literally freaking out because it's not like a lip loss like loke csses is done like a thousand and a thousand million times somebody buys a lift class they either like the color they put it on, you know, but this is something that it hasn't been done. It's the first of its kind, and I just I couldn't just I was I don't know,

I was speaking out. It's crazy that you thought, after you did all these years of research and everything, that you still had that little bit of like possible self doubt, Like is it you know, we talked about it before, like imposter syndrome with like um the Ceover Vault. He had mentioned that He's like, there's this thing called imposter syndrome because I'm like, yo, sometimes I can make it to the top and then I feel like, damn uh, are they going to realize who I really am? Something?

You like, am I good enough to be here? Or you know. I definitely had my instances where I feel that way because just in general, my my product is still newer on the market, so I am scaling pretty fast. But it's also like that that voice in the back of my head like are we really gonna do this? Like is this really like how we're gonna go? Like is it really gonna work? Is it gonna be like a big booming sales is gonna dwindle down? Is it going to be a fad for something? Um? But um.

One thing that always reassures me is the reviews that I get from like a lot of my customers, and the thank yous that I get from them. Or how this one lady in particular, UM, it always sticks out in my mind. She had foot or ankle surgery or something and she had to get pins in her ankle and she was not able to wear high heels. Um after doing that, and she purchased the product and she was able to wear high he was again with wearing

my product on the bottom of hers shoes. Wow, that's amazing. Well, I know for a fact, I'm getting it. I'm I'm getting me some piers because I have a nice layer of dust on it. Nice there. And it's always expensive shoes. It's never like my cheap shoes. It's like, that's the thing. It's so sad. A lot of ladies hit me with that, and I'm like, we we buy these shoes, whether they're cheap or expensive or whatever, and we want to wear them.

We want to look good in them. So if my product is giving you an extra hour like, girl, put them shoes on. Hell yeah, like even it's only worth the investment. Um always so Asia. Um. Like when we're going out of something and she's like, um, well should I bring this or should I wear that? I'm like, are you better wear that stuff? It's just in the closet. Put that stuff on? Yeah, I mean you buy it to wear it. You want to look good, That's true.

I want those people. I'll buy a product and first of all, it will be in my house like less than ten minutes. I'll be like, let's change it to that, you know, and then I like destroy it, you know, because I'll rock it so it looks like dead. And then I'm like, that's the new stuff coming. I don't know if i'll wear at all. Well, thank you so much for coming and teaching me a dish that I'll promise you. I assure you, Miss Jackson, You're not gonna I will never ever. You won't even see me nibble

on that thing. And I'm gonna make everybody in the squad try this. You gotta try one, because I'm meant even know him before I leave. This thing is absolutely like I'm just saying, you have to have a quiet taste um and you you know what, you have great taste clearly just just in the food area. You know I've got great tastes and food I don't know, man, I mean, I hope to never ever be so down and out or just even in a vicinity where called eggs is like my only option because it's just I

think everything else is great. Just just one and done. I'll show you you will never even finished that one. I can't. It's I just want to describe for all your listeners. It's like a hard egg. It tastes vinegree which the taste I can get past. It's the texture and just I'm just not rocking it like I'm good, but I'm gonna rock some shoegummies. Thank you so much

for your time. Shout out to our listeners. Definitely check out where can we check you out, follow up with you, and keep up with you so you can check me out. On Instagram is um Miss Jackson as m I S. S. Jackson, and my bio is pretty much all my companies tag Shoe Gummy, Fancy Good, Cheek Beauty UM and website as well on TikTok Miss Jackson Double O seven. So catch me there as well, and yeah, all right, piece out y'all.

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