Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club. Morning.
Everybody is dej Envy Jess Hilarious, Charlamagne, the gud We are the Breakfast Club. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, indeed have Miss Monique Rodriguez.
Welcome, Thank you. How are you feeling this.
Morning, I'm great. How are you doing well?
Doing well?
She's also got a new memoir out now, The Glory and Your Story, Activating a fearless faith to change your life, your.
Career in the world.
Yes, yes, now you turned a kitchen recipe into a multimillion dollar brand.
Yes.
What was the moment you realized you weren't just selling products, you were actually building a movement.
Well, you know, I went into this knowing that I was building a movement.
You know.
I created this brand out of necessity. You know, I felt that there was a lack of relatability in the
haircare space. There was a lack of great products, healthy products for women that look like me, and I wanted to fill this boy, but I always operated with a multimillion dollar mindset, operated with the mindset of like, I'm going to be on the shelf with these bigger brands one day eventually, and the day that we launched, which was May twenty third, our anniversary is actually next week, and we sought out of every oil that we had, and we had a small amount of inventory, about one
hundred bottles because I was a small business, didn't know that it was going to take off the way that it did. And the day that we launched, we sought out of every single product. And I knew at that moment, like I'm onto something because I knew that it was a need for it.
I loved the multimillion dollar mindset. Explain that to people for those who may not have one.
Yeah, you know, I think success is when I talk about like activating fearless faith to change your mind. Success is all about mindset. And you know, I grew up basically in the hood, right, you know. I didn't come from a lot, but I always dreamed big. And I would look at other successful people and say, oh, they're successful because they're lucky. And I knew that I had to change my mindset and shift thinking that no, they're not just lucky. They worked for it, right, you know.
They had to step out and be bold and go after their dreams and pursue their purpose. And I shifted my mindset from thinking that I didn't deserve success to thinking that I do deserve it. And I realized that once that started to shift my level of thinking and I operated from a level of abundance and not lack. More things flowed to me.
Now, in twenty fourteen, you were a registered nurse. Yes, So what made you say, you know what, this is not for me? And what put you to mind frame.
To actually create these products? Right?
Because people could say, you know, they could take a product and sell it, but you actually had to make it. You had to try it. I'm sure it didn't work right away the first time. I'm sure your daughter was sitting back then. I'm sure you burnt your hair a couple of times even trying it out.
I don't think I birthed it, but you know, she was a definitely a guinea pig.
So talk about that procedure and how that came about.
Yeah. So, actually, so I was a labor and delivery nurse and I was a nurse for eight and a half years. And I became a nurse because my mom encouraged me to be a nurse. She was very traditional, you know, go to school, go to college, do you need to do get a real job so you can survive. My mom was basically about survival. She had that mentality, which no fault because most of our parents' generation, they
came from that type of generation. And even though when I was younger, like I've always had this dream and passion to be in the beauty space, my mom would always tell me, like, it's cute, but you know, that's not a stable career. So I kind of like put my dreams to the wayside and pursue what my mom wanted me to do. So it was never something that I saw myself doing. So when I did graduate college and I started work in labor and delivery, I knew, I'm like, this is not a career path that I
want to do for the rest of my life. And unfortunately, after doing that for eight years, I was pregnant with my third child, my son, and unfortunately it was a high risk pregnancy, bless you, and he passed away from complications. And when you go through pain, it's something thank you, something that's so traumatic. It's catapulted me to live life on my own terms and not to live my life
on someone else's dream, which was my mom. Because you only get one shot at life, and my pregnancy was high risk also for my life, and I decided to pursue my dreams, do something that I love, something that was purposeful, something that I can wake up and feel like I have fulfillment and enjoy doing. And I went back to that love as a child being in the
beauty space, and I started creating. I'm a creative by nature, and I would just go in my kitchen and mix together like different ingredients and study and research like what ingredients work well on our hair? And I started posting it on social media and while people were following me and thinking like, well, what is this girl doing, Like she's posting all these recipes. It was really a creative outlet for me to express myself and to take my
mind off of grief, the greed and process. Yeah, and that's how Mayo became what it is.
Where did Mayo come from?
The name?
The name? Oh, so that's a great question. I love answering that question. It's actually a combination of my kids' names. So I have Mia, Gabrielle back there, Mackenzie Aril. My son's name was Milan. It's a combination of all their names and their middle names L. So they're my l's.
Yeah did they charge you?
They did, because I'm still paying for it today, Like they are always asking for something, right, but you know they get paid.
Well, how did you go?
I feel like I'm skipping steps and I want everybody to go read the book The Glory in your story go from the kitchen to actually getting your products on the shelves.
What were the steps?
Like?
What did you do? Like?
Yeah, so you know, my way of going into retail was not a traditional way. I started in twenty fourteen. We entered into retail in twenty sixteen, which number one is very rare for a brand, a small black owned business to start and not have any type of momentum or leverage and to go into retail. So it was very risky and my goal was to go into retail year five. I wasn't even expecting to go into retail the year that we did, but we had built up so much momentum and we had built up this great
community and it got the attention of the retailers. So our first retail partner was Sally Beauty, and they heard about us on social media, and of course retailers they want to be a part of brands that can add value to them. So you can't just go into a retailer saying, oh, I want to put my products on your shelf and expecting them to do the marketing for you. You have to have something that you can bring value
or add to their shelf. And we were a brand that was a disruptive brand and it caught their attention and then they called us to have a meeting with them. And it was so divine because when we got the call to have a meeting with Sally's, their headquarters is in Denton, Texas, we were actually there in Dallas for my daughter's gymnastics competition, not there for any business media.
And I actually almost turned down a meeting because we were there with our kids and we're like, well, we don't have a babysitter to go into this corporate meeting. And they wanted us so bad. They were like, bring your kids to this meeting. So they were like five and nine at the time, and they did, and I told them, like, you guys better not say anything going there and sit with your hands folded, like don't move,
because this is a really big deal. And I went in there with no presentation, just talked about my love and passion for this space. And they tested us in ninety five stores and they said, we're going to test you out because you're a new brand, and we'll see how the brand goes. We launched in February and every store that we were selling in sewed out in less than two hours.
It was just because of social media.
It was just because of social media Instagram at that.
Wow.
Yeah, when you were in your early stages, that early grind, what was harder getting capital or getting people to believe a black woman could dominate the beauty space?
Yeah?
Actually both, you know, those were some of the challenges. I say this all this. My challenges were I'm a black woman and black women don't have access to capital. And we actually bootstrapped our company from twenty fourteen until twenty twenty, so we had no big name investors, you know, no one that was I didn't have a rich uncle, no one was handing us money. We built this from the ground up and we took everything that we made
and invested that back into the business. And when you are a small black owned brand, you know, we have to like earn our trust with the community, and you know, being someone that had no celebrity status, and you know, I was a a regular everyday person, a nurse working, so it was hard to convince people to believe that what I was putting out there was actually a real legit product that did well, you know on our hair.
But I just kept focus on the people that did support me, the people that wanted to know more, that wanted to be educated on their hair routine. And you know, it's it grows from there. Like your community and your your evangelists are the best marketing tool that you can use,
and that's how the company grew. Like we didn't have any money to invest in marketing, we really focused on like serving people and being purposeful in our mission and serving people were like great products, and I think that people also felt my passion and knew like, Okay, she's a nurse, Like she's not going to do anything to damage or to to harm us, and like we can see the results on her hair, so like we can trust.
But it took building a relationship. I think that when you are building a brand, it's all about you're in a relationship with your customers. You have to date them, you have to get to know them. You have to know their needs and understand who they are as you know the consumers that you're serving, and then you overserve right with your brand. And that's how Mayeo, you know, sowed and disrupted the industry.
And did you.
Why did you decide to sell it to PNG, you know, prop Down Gamble.
Yeah, that's a great quest us. So when we decided to sell, it was all about scale and global infrastructure. When you are growing a brand, in order to scale, it's all about access to capital and having the great infrastructure and people to help execute your vision. And so the thing is like we didn't need to sell. We wanted to sell because we wanted to invest in innovation. We wanted to have global reach, and we wanted to be able to create more accessibility for the consumers that
we serve. You know, when you look at the Texture Haircare aisle, it's a small space and our community, like we complain that we don't have access to great products. And my whole goal from the very beginning of building Mayo was to build a global empire. And I know that as founders, we did our best to take the brand as far as we could with our resources. And this is a normal trajectory of business. The goal of building a brand is to either IPO or eggs, and
I've accomplished that goal. And the great thing about it is I've been able to negotiate my contract to where I'm still on board, I'm still making the decisions, I'm still running the company, i still set the vision for it. So it's a very unique structure that you know, not everyone sees, and I know the community tends to be scared of brands that are acquired, but it's really a great win for us, especially as a black brand, a
black girl from the South Side of Chicago. Right to even have the opportunity to have a conversation a seat at the table with the conglomerate like a PNG is a huge win of it in itself, because we don't get opportunities like that often. We don't see it all the time, And you know, I wanted to show the possibilities of what's possible, like we can take the heat
us as founders. I can take the heat of breaking glass ceilings because I know that I'm also paving the way for my daughter's generation so she can build a brand and create something great and have a successful exit. Because we build thriving communities. When we build brands, scale them exit, we build generational wealth, not just for us, but for the community we serve.
Preach Monique. But let me tell you something.
One of the hardest things to do in life is to explain business to people who ain't up.
Who don't understand business. That's the hardest thing. Wow, and I don't understand.
How did that affect your business?
Right?
Because people see it differently. Where did you lose a lot of people or people hating on it? Did it mess business up?
How did that affect y'all?
No, when we soda didn't mess business up. And that's the thing. Like when we made the announcement, you know, I really took the time to try to educate the community on the why, like why businesses scale up, Why you know we become acquired, and it's to create generational wealth and so we can have more access to help our community. So I put this whole message out to explain.
And while we did have a huge amount of support from the community, I mean, you know, like the bigger you are, the more eyeballs are you, You're also going to have people that don't like it, that don't understand it. And I feel that if you know, there's so much access to information out here, right, so if you really want to know how business works, you can research it right and you can take the time to listen when someone's trying to educate you. And I say this all
the time, ignorance is a choice. Sure, you can choose to be ignorant when you have information in front of you, and if you just choose to not pay attention to it, then that is your choice and you have a right to your choice. But I'm going to choose to focus and educate those that want to be educated, that want to understand the why, and also those that want to start a business have an idea and what is the trajectory of that. I want to show that by example
because it's not normal in our community. We have to normalize this because when I did my deal, it was, oh, you're a unicorn. Yeah that's almost great, but it's not great because we don't want to be unicorns. We want this to be a normal conversation for us. And so it didn't hurt the brand. But you know, I think it also comes with the territory. And I say this
all the time. Two things if you don't want to be copied, if you don't want to be great, I mean, if you don't want to be copied or criticized, then don't be great. Sure it was.
Did you say?
I'm sure you saw the TikTok trends of people saying that they lost their hair after you did sell to PNG. Silently, you know, did they have something to do with the formula? They said, this is not the same male, this is not the same formula. And people, you know, it was a lot of people saying that they had lost their hair behind And what would you say to that?
Yeah? And you know, hair loss is you know, traumatic in it of itself, and I can empathize with anyone that has suffered with hair loss. I myself has suffered with postpartum shedding hair loss right, And I think I want people to realize, like, this is the reason why I created the brand, Right. I created this brand to serve women with healthier products for their hair. When I made the decision to partner with PNG, it was very intentional. A lot of thought went into the decision making process.
This was not a fly by night decision, you know, it was a lot of due diligence done on both ends, my end and their ends. And we have to realize, like when you think of PNG, a lot of the products that are in our household are by PNG. They are a brand that's been around for hundreds of years that creates longevity, sustainability across generations with their brands. So I would never sell to a company that I knew that I thought would harm my creation. Like Mayel is
my baby. Mayel was birth out of heartbreak, Like this is something that's near and dear to my heart. I would never sell to a company that I thought was going to ruin you know, my brand. So, and the thing is, like people have to realize that I'm also a nurse, right Like I lead with empathy, I lead with compassion, I lead with caring about the community that I serve. We would never put anything in our products that are going to damage or disrupt any woman's hair.
And the people that are saying the formulas change, the formulas have not changed. You know, if people would actually take the time to see our products that were in twenty twenty twenty twenty, right, and you look at now since after the partnership, the formulats are still the same. So the thing is like misinformation is spreads like wildfire, and people don't take the time to like do their homework and do their own due diligence before coming to
their own assumptions. But I can confidently say that our products do not cause people's hair to fall out.
And also people just be hating.
You mean to tell me that after you get acquired by product in gam before undisclosing mound, they know you got that cake all of a sudden. It's just all of these TikTok videos online people saying, yeah, the product make my hair fall out all of a sudden.
Yeah, it came out of nowhere. Come on, man, and it's the same product.
Yeah, come on.
And it's like I use the products. My daughter she used, Look at her hair, HER's beautiful. Like we my family uses the products Like this is I don't take this lightly. And this partnership has always been led with honesty and transparency, and I'm gonna be honest with you guys. What people also don't realize is that when you are a smaller brand, a lot of the things that you do can go under the radar because you don't have a lot of
eyeballs on you. I've seen brands that are smaller that have products out and they don't even have the ingredients listed on their products. Right when you are a bigger brand, you can't do that. So the level of compliance and processes and the level of strictness that we had to be in compliant with to even talk to p ANDNG.
The safety regulations were like through the roof. So people have to understand, like this is a large company, they operate with the highest level of safetiness, right and they've even helped us operate even more safer so people can trust like these products are good to use. Nothing has changed. We operate with the same level of integrity. Everything's the same, other than we just have access to more and see all.
The brands that Procting and Gamble has just just my stuff makes your hair fall out.
Allegedly the black women own products making it. The Gamble been around for years.
I would also also say that every hair products not for everybody. Like what you use in your hair that might work for you or your daughter might not work for me or my daughter. You know that doesn't mean that it's it's it's all in people's hairs are different, Yeah, and yours, like there's nothing that to work for you.
All proct and Gamble have been around forever and nobody's made those complaints, but now all of a sudden, come on, man, of course, do you think the black community puts too much pressure on black owned businesses to be perfect and they'll give grace to like other billion dollar brands that don't ever even.
Show up for us?
Oh? Absolutely, Like I mean we can see it all the time, Like we see millionaires, billionaires that build companies exit all the time, and we celebrate it.
That's the point of business.
Like, that's the point of business. But when a black person does it, like we tear them down. And the thing is like, we gotta choose our heart, we gotta pick our battles. We complain as a community that we have a access lack of access to capital, mentorship, expertise, But then when we're trying to create these avenues of creating wealth so we can create access to capital, expertise and mentorship, there has to be more of us to
do it. Then we tear it down. So either you don't want the access or then when we do get the access, you can't tear us down. Forgetting that access. And that's why I said, we gotta choose our heart as a community, because we can't have it both ways, because what happens is we stifle our community when we tear black brands down for doing what other cultures do
all the time. We stifle us because now it causes fear in investors, It causes strategics to say, oh, now you're more risky, so now I'm going to de value you. So me, if I was a different culture, my value could have been more if that risk wasn't there. So all we're doing is we're setting ourselves back because the next mony Grodriguez that comes forward that tries to do this, they're going to ask the question like because they asked me,
how is your community gonna feel about this? Right? And now we have to come up with a whole strategic plan on how to relay this message in an educational way. When I ask them back, do you have to do this with any other cultures? Their response was no, right, sow dis.
You expound on that one, because I think what you're speaking to is whenever it's something like this happens, right, like you know, you do get acquired by p ANDNG. The backlash from social media can be so bad that it makes these companies be like, whoa should we have done that situation?
And they'll think about doing that, you know, to the next person.
Right, And that's why it's important that when black brands scale and are exited, we have to show up even more as a community to support those brands because now they're looking at these brands as a case study. They're looking at my L now as a case study of like what happens when you're acquired and does the community still ride for you? Do? Does the community still support you? And again, if we don't support and they start to see sales drop off, then it stifles opportunity for a
next entrepreneur that wants to scale. And that's the part we have to realize. And again to your point, we can't expect people that you know, don't understands, not in business, to understand business. But again, like we're creating platforms like this to help spread the word and to educate, right, We're taking the time to educate you. So you should say in your mind, I'm gonna support this black founded brand.
Like let's not just say we support black owned let's also support black founded brands right, because we're all a community. We're all in this together. In order for us to create these thriving communities, we got to support us right. Things that are made by us, created by us, not just owned by us. Because you should have the freedom and the opportunity to do whatever it is that you want to do with your brand. If you want to stay small and local you have a purpose to serve,
you should be able to do that. If you want to stay online and serve just online consumers, you should be able to do that. If you want to scale and exit and be acquired or IPO, you should have the freedom and flexibility to do whatever it is that you want to do with your brand without being criticized.
I was going to ask, you know, besides Procter and Gamble, what are other companies trying to acquire you?
And why did you choose Procter and Gamble.
So we were a hot commodity, so we had lots of strategic companies that were like chomping at the bits trying to acquire us. What made us choose Procter and Gamble was because, you know, one of the biggest thing was that there were people that looked like us that were in high C suite level executive positions and decision makers, so people that had an input or say and what we were valued at had an input to say, like, yes,
this brand should be acquired. Were people that look like us, and we also need those type of advocates on the other side of the table that can stand up for us and say, yes, this is a great investment. That was one thing. And then their mission of being focused on good and their employees. The longevity of the people that has been in that company for many years right also shows that you know, this is a company that
has great value and they respected us as founders. They did not want to take away from the DNA of the brand, They didn't want to disrupt the authenticity, and they even put in our contract we want to keep the Mayel magic. You guys are going to stay on bord. You guys are going to see this vision through because
we didn't have to stay on board. That's another thing, like I want people to understand, like we could have sold the brand and left, but because we are passionate about what we do, we wanted to continue on our legacy in this vision and they allowed us to do so, so they did not you know, say that we that you guys have to sacrifice who you are in order to growth. Growth does not mean you have to lose
your authenticity. And that's what stood out, you know, with them, amongst the many others you know, that we had talked to.
You know, Yeah, you know, I think there's a lot of people feel like, well, a lot of founders get pushed out when the big money shows up, so they just want to make sure that y'all still calling, you know, the shots, and it's not just a black face on like a white white boardroom.
Yeah no, Like I'm on zoom calls pretty much every day, still talking about my l and product innovation and development and marketing and different events and activations and how we can show up for the community. So you know, I mean, of course, I am the face of the brand. I created the brand, but I'm more than just a face. I'm also the strategic vision behind it as well too, so I have I make the final decisions on everything that touches the consumers, and I do it because I
made it that way. So we put like those safeguards in place to protect our brand, to protect our legacy.
And you do through with your husband, yeah, I was saying, And it frees up a lot more of your time, so you can do things like write your book and then I'm sure delve into other business endeavors and things like that. Because with PNG also, it's like like good partners for you, Like they take on the bulk of the factory. You had to do all of this by yourself. Yeah at one point, you know, I'm sure you had a team, but that's the part that they take on
as well. Like they make it I don't want to say easier, but a little bit more easier to run the whole shit.
Yeah, Like they free up a lot of my mental capacity, so I can have the mental capacity to make the hard decisions, the decisions that matter. And you mentioned something about manufacturing, like we still manufacture our own products, So manufacturing was not even P and G doesn't manufacture our products, That's what I'm saying, Like everything is still the same, Like we still manufacture in Chicago, right where I'm from.
So yeah, and you built it with your hugband, right.
Yes, So my husband we've been together since I was sixteen, on each other since we were twelve and thirteen, and so we've literally like grown up together and when I had this dream, he supported it from the very beginning.
Like he operates from a very logistical finance operations mind said, and I'm the visionary, the creator, and like when you just merge those two different sides of the brain, you know, skill sets, like we've been able to build this, you know, amazing company and be this dynamic duo because you know, we both add different value to the company and different skill sets.
A lot of don't mix business in marriage.
You say that, I say the wedding rings says it all that crazy.
Crazy yours is too, thank you said about mixing.
Business business with marriage. What do you think I mean?
I don't. I think you have to know, like what works for you and your marriage. Like I've met some married couples that are like, well, we can't work together and they're happier not doing so, And that's totally fine. I don't think there's no wrong or right answer. For us. It works well for us because you know, the things that he does for the company, I honestly don't even
want to do. And of course he knew nothing about hair care and products, so he couldn't really operate in my space, and I think if you want to make it work, you have to like take your egos out of it. You know, you can't be in competition with your spouse. And my husband, he was always big on like pushing me to the forefront. He's like, listen, this
is your time to shine. Women. You guys have been held back for so long, Like I'm okay with putting you out there and letting you be at the forefront and now just helping support you on the back end. And I just think that it takes a real man to say, you know what, I'm okay with being behind the scenes and you being out there and I'm gonna just support your vision and him not feeling like, well, I'm the man, I'm the protector, like you can't be
out there. Like he was very comfortable saying I'm just gonna support you, and he's done just that. And you know, my mentor told me, she's like, there will be no may l if it wasn't for you, Melvin and you or you you like you guys had to build this together and you know it's I think it works for us. And you just have to know like what works for you and have respect for each other, respect each other's roles and lanes and and you know, just be aligned with your vision.
Melviourne. He's also a black man too.
He's also a black man. Yesdriguez come from so his mom is Puerto Rican. Oh yeah, you're black.
He's black.
But all right, yeah, that's a great question.
Pick up the book right now.
The glory in your story.
Man.
You are an inspiration, Monique, you and your husband Melvin.
I really respect what it is that y'all are doing and have done, and I wish and pray for.
Much more successful.
I appreciate that. Thank you so much.
Rodriguez. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, Wake that ass up in the morning. The Breakfast Club.