We boycotting or nah?

Okay, 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. I got a brown table. Is that? Is it the red family?

That's probably what like a dude thinks it's red, but I'm talking about like, blah, blah. 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 in SF is like a big thing, right? Oh, it's huge. Yeah. It's a huge population.

I don't have any specific plans, but I will always partake in, especially the food portion of the celebration. Yeah, man. Dumplings. So good soup dumpling. Yeah. So wait, you moved to SF. So much has changed. Oh my God. Um, I went with an Afro today. Uh, what else have you missed in the past, like two weeks? Um, um, we called the brown table now. Welcome to the brown table. I love the name. 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 gonna mention you every time so that you don't ask me for any kind of royalty or benefit or residual from that, okay? But thank you for the idea you were right. What else did you miss? Yannelli, our girl is in Switzerland. Yeah, I was like, where's Yannelli when I got here? She's in Switzerland, babe. She's doing something fancy.

Well, that's right. I saw a video and I was like, is this right now? I was like, shoot, that's where she was on the panel. Yeah. But, you know, I was teasing. I'm like, look at that girl from Brooklyn. I 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 taking one of those things where 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 childbirth. Yes. Yeah. You think about, oh, it's going to be so exciting and new place. You don't think about the fact that you're constantly boxing up stuff, lifting heavy things. It was a, it was a journey. But I've been here for a week and a half. But you got rid of so much stuff. You made a big deal, but I'm a minimalist now. 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 of frame here. I have 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. I have suitcases, multiple of clothing that no longer fits me 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 my clothes. Whoa, who just put it in a box? Why you put it in a suitcase? It just feels like vermin could get in there. I'm in the suburbs, now we might have little mice and stuff. I don't want them to chew through a box. Do they eat clothing?

Get those little bags of the ones where you suck the air out of the bag and seals it up. I don't have a vacuum. Does that does not compatible with the Dyson? It's a little pump thing like a little bike pump thing you put on it sucks on the air out. Come on. So I'm making excuses. A bike. Oh, I use my bike pump to do it.

No, no, you can't. It's a special one. You can't just plug a bike into it. It's going to work. Listen, I don't do 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 vacuuming the living room today. I'm just all wait until my husband feels like finding the carpet attachment or whatever.

What were we discussing? Anyways, I 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 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. Through mutual friends. I mean, and how long has it been since your last, 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 divorce divorce by divorce. Okay. And 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? Cause I was like, as I was getting back out there, cause I didn't really want to at first. I was, I was just working on myself, going to therapy, trying to figure out what, what am I doing? Amen. As you should.

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, OK, 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 want to jump into something because you're attractive to somebody, right? Because there's a lot of attractor people. I mean, you guys are going to get along. Well, you do if you're under 30, which we're not. So yeah, you know, for that. We're different now. Relationships.

We only have so much time to live. You're a later data. We just dry all the way up. And I gotta say, you never know, right? You meet someone and you start dating and we're all putting our best foot forward, right? We're all being our best version of ourselves.

And so you always wait. I'm sure she's waiting for the shoot drop for me and I'm waiting for her. And I got to 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 really, really, really very 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 friends friends are they may not have a good pool of people but it wasn't like a setup

It wasn't those awkward like, okay, you gotta 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 let it happen?

No, you don't shout out to my friend, my friend Ning, got through her name out there. She was the one. I always wanted to be the friend who connected the two soulmates, you know what I mean? Like whoever, there was that friend who introduced Harry to Megan. And I'm just like, the way that my ego would just be fed for the rest of my life. She gave us Harry and Megan. So shout out to Ning.

Yeah, do better next time, Maddy. You're way too slow. I'm really bad at it. Terrible. She told me she met me 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 like her. I were becoming friends. I was like, great. That was it. Then when I went to, when I came back for 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 B sat across for 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 goes, oh, hey, hey, me, this is Chris, Chris is me. And I was like, oh, this is the person you've been talking about all this time. Had no idea. And so then yeah, we just kind of were just Ning was very respectful. That was the one thing we both gave 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. It 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 pay for the like annual annually. So somewhere around like I think like 150 a month is like was 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 were all like in their early twenties or mid twenties and they said that there's a Facebook group where they it's in its 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, I thought this was going to be way worse and whatever this is. I know what you're about to say. I was a web cam or something. That is 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, on to 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. I get it for a woman, right? Because like, you know, you got to be careful out there. You got to make sure you got a person person. So we do it anyway, informally, but to have it like, yes, I agree. But there's too much room for some for a jealous, vengeful person to be like, Oh, no, this, let me tell you all this fake horrible stuff about this person. I messed up a potentially good relationship. So I mean, 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 group for SF. Any of your awkward early dates. Oh, yeah. I got those skeletons in my closet. I'm a open bug, so 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. Remember when he said, I never knew he was so normal. He was my friend for years. I never saw it coming. Please don't put this out there. Don't put this energy out into the world.

Thank you. All right, be a fan. Well, the biggest things in the news right now, other than like everything happening with Lord Voldemort has just been like the economy. You know, 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.

I feel like now the founder of that company, whoever founded it, DeepSeek in China, they could just have a really bad cough or something. Then the American markets would just be jacking the price up of all these tech companies to be like, oh, well, maybe they've got an illness. Maybe these companies are going to be doing better now when that company obviously goes under because the CEO is going to die because he has tuberculosis or whatever it is. We're just done.

So emotional, homeboy, stockmaker, homeboy is in his feelings. He's a very emo. And yeah, tech stocks were plummeting. And it's like Nividia, this company that makes the chips that these AI now I understand why Nividia was such a big deal. It's Nividia. What do I call it? Nividia, which is a big for Dave. My brother's having another kid. I'm like, you could name your kid Nividia.

Well, listen, at least I didn't do the real Southern thing. And I was like, Nvidia's, Nvidia's, anyone been to him going down in videos, like Kroger's? Yeah, their stock has been going, boom, boom, boom, up, up, up, up, up. I know a mandy money maker had gotten a job there and her comp offer, I was like, this is a work of art. I got no notes 10 out of 10.

don't negotiate, just run. Run and say yes. Take it, which is very unusual for me to say don't negotiate, but I was like, girl, you got it. This is an amazing offer. Let's talk about something that really impacts American finances, which, where at least it feels like

I don't know if it was like, if this is too apt of a cliche to use, but it was a chicken or the egg. When the egg became the indicator, there's just research that came out showing that the price of a dozen eggs, and this is like the bare minimum eggs, like the, 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. How much of your budget is your eggs compared to things like

You're red to your mortgage or your car insurance, a car payback. These things that make up a much bigger chunk of your budget, that should be more of a concern, like we should be putting all this energy into like, why is the cost of living, increasing in such a crazy rate?

versus thinking that if egg prices went down, if eggs went down, if eggs went for $4 to 50 cents a carton, that's not going to change your life. But if you've 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 like eggs have gotten are going to get cheap problems. And just because we have a new president, because they have not. So it's, uh, 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 the cost of technology. If the Trump administration goes through with these tariffs that they're threatening to put on countries like Mexico and China, then 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 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 60% 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, where did this stand go?

video one.

Oh, and everything, I'll be. Oh, here we go. Yeah, so if they actually go through with a 60% tariff on China, a new report said that laptop and tablet prices might increase 45%. Video consoles by as much as 40%, smartphones by as much as 26%. So let's just take a smartphone, for example. I just bought my dad, well, with his credit card, I helped him order the new iPhone Pro Max or whatever. Because he doesn't think his phone is... You really made this out like you paid for it. No, absolutely not.

You'll hear later in the show about why I did not, not money, like that right now. But anyway, I, he can't, his phone was so bad that he couldn't even like 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 36 month payment plans. But anyway, if a tariff like this goes through, that could be a, that phone, the same phone I got him could cost $1,200. Because yeah, we're not making these products in America. So no.

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 be a fan because we ain't going to be that dumb. Okay. Well, what do you think about all these DEI rollbacks is the big one that is like breaking the girl's hearts is target. Oh, target. Why? Why? Um, 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 cookware 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 where she's eating like the biggest Christmas bowl of grapes. Like I've, 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 didn't want to, I was like, black girl, I'm not going to say anything, but I'm going to communicate with my

Mm.

Like, do you know what I'm saying? You know what I'm saying. No words 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 hair care brand, right?

Love it. I wish I had more hairs where I could use more of it. How many ball jokes will she do in an episode at least two? So she's going to come on and she's going to weigh in because Curl Mix has been around for, 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 Ulta, Ulta Beauty. So Kim's going to join the show. And I think y'all really love what she has to say.

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So I wanted to have a friend of the show, Kim Lewis, the CEO and founder of CurlMix, one of the best brands for curly hair natural. I'm wearing my curly hair today. One of the best brands 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 Ulta. So yeah, I wanted to get your perspective on all of this. 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 buy from a black woman and talk about how It's like if you look at the Montgomery bus boycott and if there was a group of people were like, you know what? We can still ride bus 14 and 78 We just wanted 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

They're not going to respond to goodwill and incentive and kumbaya. They're like, oh, I'm not making as much money. Let me change my policy. So Boycott and 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, Kim, I need this 100K PO to come through this month. Otherwise, I'm going to be bankrupt. I don't have investors. I don't have any substantial backing. 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 was, I have learned is that in the past couple of years since funding has dried up and bankruptcies are an all-time high, is that it has been, it is my lessons on which I learned not to have all my eggs in one basket or one channel when it comes to growing my business or sustaining my business. I'm an e-commerce business and when my business was only focused on e-comm and nothing else, you know, Amazon or retail, nothing, when the Facebook algorithm changed in 2022, I was screwed.

Like, my business suffers so much that one month I went from like, you know, maybe breaking even our profits are like losing $100,000. You know what I'm saying? Why does Facebook impact that so much? Is 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 changes the efficacy of them. Like, so, and 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 grapes or oh, like, um,

This is your lesson to learn. 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-respective 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. And that's we are unified. And it's also similar. Well, you can shop it also. It's actually doubling down on DE&I. Like, they gave us a lot of money. They paid us in advance.

When we launched in Ulta, RPO was like several hundred thousands of dollars and instead of paying us a net 19, 16 at 30, they gave us net 15 terms and they paid us in advance for that first order. Wait a minute, net 15 is like, especially for like a product like that. I mean, that is a game changer. That net 90 is a killer.

And they would probably say, well, you were on Shark Tank. You have 200,000 customers already online that you had the information for. And you also post on social regularly. And basically, they would say, OK, well, Kim, 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 Ulta and CVS and Wal-Mart. If I had been in 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. The retailers would stand together and say, hey, we're just all not going to do this. So what? You got to stop somewhere. And so I'm grateful for them for standing on that. And they gave a special section to new and emerging brands, which is honestly a lot of the DEI brands, women owned, women of color, black owned.

And I was like, oh, this is nice. Like, y'all are, they didn't have a cohort cost of muse where they bring those women owned brands, women of color brands together. And then they help us view to the store. And I'm not the only one 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, this is the girl, the homie, the auntie, the boyfriend, whoever was like really black people up front because they have us in the images and we go in their stores. They have a section that is like black beauty it feels like with the hair section and 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 rollback and it's like, ah, you know what, maybe we overinvest it. It's okay. Like, we don't want to do this anymore. And I think that is where I say, oh, you tricked us. You know what I mean? Like, you got us in and now you're.

Now that you're, it was like we've been abandoned almost in like the worst time in the Trump administration that like we've been. And you just know they're right now setting up for Black History Month, you know, putting that little end cap on. When you first walk in and it's like, here's all the cute Black History Month stuff. Mm-hmm. But how do you all have a Black History Month leg promo and like end cap and like display? And then you just denounced a roll back your D&I 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 purchase 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

It's just hardening for people who are starting. Honestly, it's not just having to start a brand. And the people who are surviving are the ones who were here before 2020. If you didn't have a customer base of forward 2020 to 2021, it's really hard to start now.

And I'm just saying that from a funding perspective, there's no more seed funding for product-based businesses. The amount of funding has literally dropped 99%. And the only people who are getting funded from my knowledge now that are CPG companies are people who are doing 10 million, they're profitable, and they're getting some kind of check. But if you need money to start your business, don't start it. That's the conversation in the VC investment world.

That's like for product base. You said CPU using CPG. So consumer products and goods. Yes, consumer package goods. Yeah. So if you got stuff, consumer package goods. Okay. 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 icing where they're going to be shipping everybody back to wherever they're from, which is after up in so many ways. Cool.

Who is plucking your strawberries? Who is getting your grapes? Who is providing the food that is in the restaurants? And so it is a, what's on say, so burn the boats kind of year where you got to, you burn the boat, basically if the army, they would land in a new land, they would burn the boat since they had, you have no option but to win. Otherwise you die. You know, that's the kind of year we're looking at in 2025.

Wow, that's really uplifting. I don't know if you know, this is called Brown Ambition. I'm so sorry. We don't have guests come on and like kill or kill the ambition of everyone listening. I'm so sorry. No, you're keeping it real. I mean, you're in it. You know what the stakes are. The only reason I'm still here is because I had philanthropic dollars, somebody who was very wealthy, who was working at this for the last five or seven years, wrote me a check.

But if they did not private investor yeah private investor or angel investor, but if they had not oh my god Like I wouldn't be here talking to you Mandy, you know

That's incredible. Thanks for that transparency too. Do you feel like in your community or people, and by your community, other people who are selling those CPG products, 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, unless you're afraid to share their opinions publicly, it's already hard. It's even harder to do when you're struggling. And no founder's gonna get on here and tell you that they are bankrupt or they're out of money or they had to do it. Like no, they're just not gonna do that, you know? And

Yeah, they're just not going to do that. And so I hear a lot of the background conversation, it sounds like I know who hit the million dollar mark, they're either going bankrupt, they're either, they'll have much money. And so what I like to recommend to people is like, now's the time of living our relationships.

Now's the time to ask the rich friend, you know, they may say no, but you need, you need to ask. You got to open up your mouth and ask. Now's the time to be honest about a situation to tell your investors, tell your friends, tell your family the money that you don't have. Um, because you need some help. Like we can't save ourselves on this. We need some help when you're in the orgaging 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 liquidate new assets.

And they're figuring out what's really important to them. And I'm saying that because a lot of us have money money in 2022. You know, in 2023, we had some like residuals. 2024, 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 threw all the credit cards in the table for dinner. And then whoever's card was pulled, just who didn't want someone.

We're not doing that no more. OK, now is a $50 budget for what I'm eating at dinner. I might get a drink. I might not. I'm going to pregame before I get here. And I think it's just the kind of like the times that we're eating a lot of the uncertainty. But I don't want to just stir as 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 and I get to that 10 million R mark in the five year plan that you wanted. You know what I'm saying? Like you might be, it might take you 10 for that. And are you, do you really love what you're doing that much to do it 10 more years, to stick around? I do. And that was some soul search. And I had to realize, okay, Kim, if it takes you another 10, 10 years to get to 100 million, like, would you, would you do it?

because I thought we'd be able to get there in less than five. And if it took you 15, would you do it? And I was just like, I would. I definitely would. I love what I serve and who I do it for. And I like my job. And it's hard. I like the person is making me into. But if you don't like it and it's hard, then this is the time to look at it and be like, OK, is this the thing?

I mean, Brown Ambition fam, y'all know that I had been a little transparent about how broke broke broke I was in 2024. I really feel like you're speaking to me, Kim. And there was those times in 2024 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 in this new chapter and like what I envision it to be. And it's partly your fault, Kim, because I went to Afro Tech. And that's the last time I saw you hanging out with my girl Morgan and Blavity and like Afro Tech, 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 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. 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. Cause like, aren't you supposed to be a personal finance expert?

And being a financial expert doesn't mean you're a perfection. Do you know what I mean? Like all of those grandcard domes and all of those like really famous, rich white folks, they had a moment where they were bankrupt. Like Trump has filed bankruptcy five or six times. Come on. Yeah. Come on. Like we are bridging debt. They don't even use cash to just debt all day. Exactly. In the court taxes. We can avoid taxes, I mean. We get to be broke.

We could be broke or cash poor once in a while. This doesn't mean this forever, but it's a moment. I think 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 debt and I have to focus on being crazy efficient on my capital in a way that I've never had to experience before.

So that when I am managing a hundred million dollar budget, a billion dollar budget, you know what I mean? I really know how far a dollar constricts and I know when someone's playing me, you know what I'm saying? But imagine the Kim that got to burn her way to $10 million gets to $100 million and is burning 50.

You know what I'm saying? Like, versus the kid that gets $100 million and is profiting 50. 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 yourself 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 fan, you know, it's at the end of the day. And you do, what do you call us, your customers, curl mixers? Curl mixers, yes, my curl mixers.

I love it. It's not just on me and my ego. It's like it's bigger than that. So one of the things I'm dealing with right now, right? I had to like scale that through one of my ads at some point. And so I was like, Dave, I cut off my ads. I will make you money. I was like, well, no, Kim, you have a mailing list. And there are thousands of people in your mailing list. And so

If you can't get those people to purchase, then why do you need money to buy more emails? Why do you need more money to get more ads to buy more emails? You used to figure out how to get the hundreds of thousands of people on your list to buy you only need 4,000 and you have over 400,000 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 spraying, praying any money to put into ads. And that's not like, oh, and I had like, with the ads off, I had like a 10,000 dollar day.

with no ads on it. From email marketing and SMS marketing, 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 posting on social. If you don't have your product in hand, you could start to go with funny and still post on social.

And let everyone know that you're raising for this product that you're building and tell them why you need it and why so special. Hosted 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 as challenge. I want to make.

like $10,000 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 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 there'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 400,000 lists like like you did. I don't know how you did that. But

I raise money. Okay, fair enough. 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. Thank you.

Oh, it's, we'd love to have you on the show. Thank you, Kim. So people can find you at curlemix.com. Yes. You can buy her products at curlemix.com or at your local Ulta Beauty Store. Yes, you can. Anything else you want to say to be a fan? If they don't carry it in your Ulta, just tell a store manager so they can all be like, oh, then we need curlemix, we need curlemix. That's wondering. You know, it's amazing brand called curlemix. Thank you, Kim. Thanks for joining BA.

Okay, VA fam, we're back. It's time for one of my favorite parts of the show, which is Brown Boost or Brown Break. Mr. Chris Browning. I just clicked for me that your last name has Brown in it. And it's just all so serendipitous. Full circle. Chris Browning at the Brown people with a Brown break. Brown ambition. I'm from ambition. All right. What are you going to do? You're going to boost or break?

Oh, you know what? I'm going back and forth on this, but I'm gonna 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 this stuff done. I tried out a service because moving can be expensive, right? And I've been one of those people who was like, I'm just gonna move myself. You know, I can lift, I can lift some boxes in front of you. I got a brother. My dad will come out there. I got friends. Oh yeah. But my dad's old. He's 71 now.

I think I've used up all my friend requests for moving. I've done, I've had my four or five weeks. Not in our thirties, buddy. We're not doing it for a free slice of pizza. Nope. Right. I've definitely wasn't paying my friends. They weren't getting any money for me. Absolutely not. 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 Gs at the end.

And then you go on demand moving services. And I was like, OK, I'm interested to see how this works. And so I gave them a shot. And I want to say, it still was expensive. I was hope you never know how much it's going to cost a movie. It was quote e less. Oh, yeah, what was like? I mean, about $400. I was like, that is amazing.

to move my to move 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 my parents were to keep some of it. So it was like, like that type of thing. So it wasn't okay, maybe like.

18 miles. I don't even know if it was that far away. It was like, it was more of like a 20, 30 minute drive. So this is reasonable. Well, when they get there to move stuff, it ended up taking way longer than I expected. I should have known because I had like a giant refrigerator. I had to get out of there to take the door off the hinges of the apartment to get the refrigerator out. It's 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 the one I got was too small. All these things. But at the end of the day, I get the bill and it was like about $800 with a total cost. And it was a lot. It was more than I thought. But I guess in the grand scheme of things, $800 to not have to lift all that stuff myself.

and moving back and forth and unpacking and repacking all this stuff. I gotta say, it was a lot, but my body is thanking me for not doing that because that was taking me a lot longer and having a lot of favors. If you got it, you know, then that's great. But damn, $800 and it wasn't even that far. Are you sure what's a boost? You know, now I'm saying it about maybe it's a break. It's a boost in a break at the same time. It's a boost to my body. A break to my bank account.

But yeah, but $800 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. Oh, I lighted my boxes and tape I probably spent somewhere around

$1,500 to $2,000 in that ballpark for everything. And I didn't really, in my mind, expect that cost. I should have. I should have known better if I didn't plan 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 expenses 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. Do you know?

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. Oh, it's the worst. I'm like, I'm paying all this money just to listen to myself and you're just gonna be like, mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Oh, okay. All right, I had a boost and then I forgot. I gotta think about it. What did I tell you it was gonna be earlier? I think it was a boost 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 are you thinking? 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 with people were like, maybe you're treating you so bad. Oh, whatever. I can't believe she talks to you that way. And I was like, thank you so much. Mm. Feel so bad for you. Mm. Poor little baby. It'll be fine. He's a man. You can take it.

Gotta 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? Something Meyer?

Yeah, she's the best person on social media during the Olympics. Yes, I know exactly what 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 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 mega viral 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. And anyway, 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, that's nice to see, right? Cause they, I think people want a force, especially women to be humble, right? And you're like, well, it's not, it's not a lack of humility to say I worked hard and my heart won't pay it off. So yeah, I don't feel like I shouldn't be accomplishing what I accomplished. I think, I think especially like, that's like a very competitive way. We see some people who come off as very like, what are you talking about? Like it's, it's a, it's a off putting form of like bragging.

Or this was just more like, you respected. It's like, yeah, we all respect this hard work and you should be able to claim it that way without being like 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 part of the culture that it just like, let's just remind it, 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 going to feel a little out of place, but it doesn't take away from the fact that we are qualified and we are, you know, capable of doing the work that we want to do. So shout out to Ilona and shout out to every other bad ass woman. I feel like Serena Williams walked so that Ilona's of the world could crawl. Wait.

I feel like 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 Ilona, 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 hard earned success and everything that we got. We did it by working hard. So that's where we're going to leave you guys be a fam. Thank you so much for tuning in to the Brown Ambition Podcast this week.

Don't forget to share this episode with a 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, be a fam. Bye.

Hi, I'm Joe Salcy. Hi, host of the Stacking Benjamin's Podcast. Every week, we talk to experts about saving, investing, personal finance trends. Oh, crypto. Can't do it. You could have done all that research, all the breadcrumbs, and thought this company's never going bankrupt. Foiled again. You never knew personal finance could be this fun. Throw in doubt that got one. I'm bringing it today. I'm only going to be off by six figures. Perfect. And seven. Every boy has a dream, Doc. Every boy has a dream. Sure. Stacking Benjamin's. Follow and listen on your favorite platform.

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