The Blerd Spectrum
The Blerd Spectrum
2022 Melinated Solstice: Black Content Creators and Business Owners Part 1
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The seasons change but melanin always stays just as sweet as ever when the crew gathers some beautiful black content creators and business owners to unpack what it means to be at the center of Black creativity, production, and the elevation of black voices
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J COLE X KENDRICK LAMAR TYPE BEAT 2022 | "Sunrise"
Beat by: Urban Nerd Beats
Link: https://youtu.be/tlRYbNC2SLU
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Welcome back to the Blurred Spectrum Podcast, everyone. We are here this week to bring to you another installment of the melanated solstice where we bring to you the love, the sweetness, the ebony, the honey, the tea, the caramel, the all of the above. Why? Because we love you and we love our black businesses, we love our black creators, we love our black artists, we love black itself. Anyway, so this this today, this this particular day, we've been actually waiting for this for quite some time. Some of our panelists more than others. This is our black content creator day. Now, why is this important? Well, because a content creator can be anyone. Um, I've said it many times, uh, mockingly or jokingly or actually on during our podcast. You know, everything is content. Why? Because everything is content, and because everything is content, any single thing you can do, create, sell, or bring to the masses is going to be something that they're gonna want to see. So, why are we here today? To give you some of these amazing black content creators, give them the ability to showcase their shine, platform themselves, uh uh, bring to you their brands just in case you didn't see them. Why just to buy black? Why buy black business? Why black business? Because black business and black people, again, are amazing. So, first off, I have to introduce our panelists and then we'll go into our guest content creators for today. Starting with myself, this Suchino Shogun, your moderator for this amazing episode. Uh, next we have Ms. Skittles. What's good, everyone? And then, of course, we have Bruiser Brody and Dr. Quinzel. What's up? So, I'm gonna introduce our amazing guest for this particular episode. Uh, starting with our first, you can find him at Baldwin Voices. Uh Baldwin, introduce yourself.
SPEAKER_08Um, hi everyone. My name is Baldwin. Um, sorry, I'm used to saying I'm used to saying my full name. I'm Baldwin. I go by Baldwin's on all platforms. I am a content creator, writer, and voice actor.
SPEAKER_07Thank you, thank you, thank you. Uh, we also have Trill Noel of Harmony Perfumes.
SPEAKER_10Am I on? Thank you, thank you. Uh, so my name is Trill Noel, and I am a perfumer. Um, I started a black-owned business for niche and luxury perfumes. Uh, as you can see behind me, this is my lab. I make them from scratch. I make them by hand. A lot of chemistry, a lot of love, a lot of art, a lot of passion.
SPEAKER_07Let's make sure we introduce our third guest. Uh, that is Miss Renita from Believe It or Not.
SPEAKER_05Hello, my name is Renita. I'm the creator and owner of Believe It or Not LLC. That's not with K N O T.
SPEAKER_03Yes.
SPEAKER_05Um, I am basically I'm a seamstress, but I am a creative person, so my business is handmade. Um, I am online currently, do not have a brick and mortar, but everything is online, and I also travel around to uh comic cons and expos. So I am also a rug artist. Um, and then like if I see something and I feel like it's gonna, you know, make people happy and it's also gonna take care of them like health-wise, then I'll go ahead and work on it and make it. And what I mean by that is my business started focusing on bonnets. So as you see, I'm wearing a satin bonnet. Um, and then from there, I just went to different hair surseries that help to preserve our hair and our edges, um, our meaning as in the melanated community, because we are tend to not take care of our hair pretty well because our hair is a dryest type. So from there, I just went and you know, I just did what I love. I like creating and I also like anime. And I've incorporated anime, creativity, and also culture into my business.
SPEAKER_07Awesome. I you know what? I love so we should have just called this the Blurred Blur's content creators, because these people are amazing. Um, just the fact that they're in instituting such amazing topics into each of their pieces of products and merchandise and content. So uh we'll go into the individual interviews as we love to do, and then we'll circle back, of course, to our uh round robin style communication and conversation. So we'll start with Baldwin voices. So we've heard many things about you, sir. Uh hopefully all good, as some people may say. Uh so give us a little bit of spiel. You know, who is Baldwin? Uh, how did you get into voice acting, acting, and you know, just tell us kind of your 15-second elevator pitch, but like expound upon it a little bit. Add some fluff.
SPEAKER_08So basically my origin story. Yes, and in a condensed way. Um so how I started this was because I've always like when I was younger, I always had a I always watched cartoons like any kid, but it wasn't until like when I was like maybe nine or ten that like it dawned on me that like wait a second, these people get paid to voice in these cartoons. And I'm just like, could I be part of that? And the thing is, because especially growing up in that, like let's say like early 2010s and whatever, whatnot, there especially when it comes in in these um geek spaces, it at least during that time, growing up in a religious Caribbean community, not a lot of people share the same interests as me. Everyone was worrying about DeGrasse, I was worrying about Sonic the Hedgehog. That that's kind of that's kind of where everything was. That's the best way to describe it. Um, but and because like I didn't because I knew like, you know, the the black voice actors, like Phil Lamar, Kree Summer, Kevin Michael Richardson, Keith Nakin, all of those fantastic individuals. But like I thought, like, are there any other young black voice actors or people who want to aspire to that? And I just like until like a certain point in time, I thought, like, oh, I guess it's just me and the state of Maryland. But as um as time went on, and um, because the one like there are two things that helped me get well not helped me get into, but like solidified like the path. Um for example, the way that I speak now, I had speech therapy as a kid. Long story short, I was I was on a moon bounce, I accidentally got knee to my two front teeth. Um, and then like that made me had buck teeth for a while, and then from buck teeth I got braces, of course. And then after braces, I had a lisp. And then my parents were like, Yeah, um, because I was like, Mom, I sound like Daffy Duck. What can I do? Um, but and then so she was like, Okay, all right, bet, let's get to a speech therapist. And then, you know, after two years of speech therapy, because I ended like in when I got my graduated eighth grade, and then you know, puberty hit in, so it was just like uh that that was like kind of like the the spark. Like, I I'm eternally grateful to my speech therapist. I believe her name was Ms. Denise, because she low-key helped because one thing with voiceover, being articulate, pronouncing Asian is very much key. But, anyways, so going to high school, you know, of course, I was growing into myself. I was in choir, I was bass, saying bass, and very much um I had one experience, I believe my junior year, my vice principal asked me, Hey, um, can would you like to narrate for a cantata? Which is basically like you know, choir singing everything went up, but it will be bits of narration, you know, placed in between. And I was like, Oh, okay, sure. And when I got there to practice, like, because I'm just like, if I'm gonna be practiced, I'm doing this, I gotta hear practicing my voice. Um, and I was practicing, some like because a couple of the choir members came came in, and they were like, Was that you? I'm just like, yes, and then it was just like, Oh, I thought we got James Joe Jones, and I'm just like, and I'm just like, yo, I I'm honored, and that was my first paid gig, and I was shook when I got the paycheck because like I'm a high schooler, and just and it was like, okay, everyone, here's your checks. He's like, here's your check balls, and I'm like, check, and then yeah, so then bridging to college, I started doing small voiceover things because I know that like I wanted to be in voice acting, I want to do all these different things, so I need to start somewhere and not just you know twiddle my thumbs. Because I I I'm very much a firm believer of just like if you want to do something, do something to practice in order to get where you want to be, you know, at least you'll be able to show something. So I started doing like you know, small um comic dubs. I know I did a Batman one, I know that's still up. Um I did like a Dragon Ball Z thing, like matching mouth flaps is something else, and I have like the dub voice actress. I I listen, I salute you. Um so and then the editors and the writers and everything to make sure everything fits because it's crazy. Um so then from that, I had an internship where I you know did radio and everything and whatnot. I helped, I was a production intern, helped write, helped do the do the voiceovers, obviously, and whatever, whatnot. And then around my junior year of college, um, because like I posted like small videos and everything and whatnot here and there. And I was just, and then I did like a send me quotes and I say them in a deep voice thing, and on Instagram. I did Instagram and it performed very well. And like I on Twitter I posted like no things here and there. And um my friend, my friend Justice, shout out to you, Justice, he said to me, Baldwin, I think you should post that Instagram video on Twitter. I'm just like, ha ha, ah, you're funny. Because like my videos don't get attention like that, they really don't. And then he was like, I think you should they still post it, trust me. And I'm just I'm just like, I guess. And then like my roommate, like my friend Tim, because I told him, he was like, you know what? Yeah, listen, I I I agree with justice. I'm like, fine, okay, fine, I'll do it. I'm telling him he's gonna get like 20 retweets and and 30 likes. Exactly. And so so so so glad I didn't make a bail on that because I was wrong. I was viciously wrong, and uh I because I blew up, my iPad was freezing. I had an answer at a time, don't judge me. Um like my iPad was freezing, and then like I was just like, a lot of people are very much liking what I'm doing, and that was kind of like my start of like voiceover and you know content creation, because a lot of the videos I've done, in some way, shape, or form, I I received an opportunity from that. Like, even the from the um the sample I have now. Um, because a company uh called Arcade Cloud, they reached out to me through one of their um employees at the time and be like, hey, I saw your video, would you like to do a voiceover? I'm like, sure. You know, it kind of helped me build up more and more of my um my content catalog, so to say. Um and but like like but my one main thing when it comes to voice acting, uh especially for those like you know who are starting and whatever, whatnot, uh is just to be able to support. Because especially like for you know, for people like me that look like me, because like I didn't think I thought like, oh, I guess black people I had once had the thought that black people didn't do voice acting because I only saw like five, five of actors, same five, yeah. And and only it saw only that. Um, I can go into a whole thing with it, but I'm not going to. Um, but my but like through no the my built-up experiences just doing and like different things, especially different things, no matter how like at the time I thought how obscure it was, it low-key it built up. It built up into like you know what I am able to do now today, like and just be able to have for whatever voiceover I do that I that like at the end of the day, if I like it, that's what matters. Because like I know doing content creation, it's very easy to slip into oh, what do people like? What do people like? No, like I'm of course that it is significant, but it's not the end all because like even for like two videos I did this past week, because like I I found my niche, finding a niche is very important. I realize that now because I did like a cat video voiceover, whatever and whatnot. I do a duet. I because I thought that I was gonna um just have it be, oh yeah, I have my my voice and everything, don't show my face. But I'm like, no, show my face. I'm a handsome man. So I did that, and then like people like it helped me build, like, of course, a good follower base, but I'll also say community because there are people that always like you know interact and yeah, whatnot, and encourage me and water me. And I try to make sure that like whatever water I receive, that it just doesn't it's not whatever water I receive, it does become still water, so flowing in, giving to like you know, encouraging others and everything and whatnot. Because at the end of the day, there is an audience for anything, yeah, and everything that can be as much as polished as you want it to be, and can go as very, very obscure as you want it to be, depending on what you know, what you don't know. So, um yeah, that's that's kind of me.
SPEAKER_01I actually saw your cat video that you posted this week. Because like I was listening to your voice while this cat is like eyeballing this flame and I just died. Plus, we have a cat. I was like, Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_08I'm glad you enjoyed it, seriously.
SPEAKER_07So, you know, we have actually had a um a uh black voice actor, yes, black voice actor episode uh during the melanated solstice. Uh, I don't know if that was last week, the week before last. Um thank you. Thank you, Miss Skittles. Uh so yes, it was about two weeks ago, and it was, you know, very uh eye-opening, you know, kind of what you were saying about, you know, knowing how many black voice actors there are and you know, who's really the voice behind some of these characters. Because you know, for years and years and years, even the black characters were being voiced by white people. So it was, you know, interesting because uh we kind of went down the list of our favorite voice actors as well as the uh guests that were on. So, you know, the question is you know, what voice actors were the most influential to you? Because I know you mentioned like Chris Summers. That's that's that's Lord Jesus, Chris Summer. That's right. Everybody's um Phil Lamar, uh uh uh uh Kevin Richardson.
SPEAKER_08Yeah, Kevin Michael Richardson. Yes, he has such a gravito. And it's just like if I ever hear it anywhere, I'm like, I know, I know who it is. Yep. Um to answer the question, um, there were a couple, well, I mean, of course, Philomar, uh, and especially Kevin Michael Richardson, because I especially like trying to get like very much I'm trying to find the word to it. Get into my bass bag. That's the best way I can do it. Get into my bass bag, and like because those deeper that sounds. I'm like, I want to try that. I want to try something like that. Um, film uh Philomar, Kevin Michael Richardson. There was one actor because I'm more like I've always been aware. I mean, I've always watched his work, but I did reel and learn his name. I forgot his name. He voices blue and fosters home for imaginary friends. I I know I see his face. I can't, I can't get it.
SPEAKER_01If someone could do it, early blue or or now that's a good question.
SPEAKER_10Oh, the original blue, right? Yeah, original, original blue.
SPEAKER_08It's a it's a I I his name is was right there. But anyways, maybe someone could do a Google search, help me out. Anyways, um but like because he voiced blue, he and he voiced um Reaper from Overwatch. And yeah, the same voice actor for Blue is the same voice actor for for for Reaper and Overwatch. Yes, and I can't remember his name, but it's literally I see his face, and I'm just like, I I tweeted about you hella times. Why is the name not coming to me? Um but like I know it's it's crazy, and then he voices the old guy in um Kit Cosmic.
SPEAKER_04What?
SPEAKER_08Yes!
SPEAKER_04Okay, we're not about to go.
SPEAKER_08Yes, yes, Keith Ferguson! Oh my goodness. No, because like it was staring at me. I saw his face, and I'm like, all the characters like you know what we his name, and I'm just like, but it's not coming. Yes, yes, Keith Ferguson has such a dynamic range, and is just like that was the one that we call it.
SPEAKER_07Yeah, blue regard, Kazoo, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_08And I'm just like, and like if if memory serves did he do it? I no, that I think it was Fred Carr, because there was another character that he did that that kind of made me do a double take. Oh, but like if you look through his IMDB, it's stated, it's stellar, and I'm just like, you've been you've been low-key. You've been low-key. But um, yeah, like those um voice actors have very much been an inspiration to me, like to what I could try to do with my own voice and everything and whatnot. Um, let's see, another uh, and though this is not like he's not a black voice actor, but um Mark Hamill. Yes, Mark, listen, yeah, listen, bruh. Mark Hamill is my favorite joker.
SPEAKER_07Oh, 100%.
SPEAKER_08Favorite joker. Everybody like Joaquin Phoenix, cool. Uh uh Heath Ledger, rest in peace, cool. But like Mark Hamill's Joker just has a genesy quality, a certain aspect about him. Because it's like it's homicidal, low-key charismatic, yes, and funny as hell. Like I I I and it's just like because even because like um, oh, um well, I'll do the if we do promos and everything, I could plug it in later on. But like um, like I because I I try to make sure I like I mean I tried doing a voice similar to that, but um, anyways, but those voice actors were very much inspirations in me uh of my inspirations growing up and you know, trying to see what my voice can or can't do. And um, yeah, that's that's pretty much it.
SPEAKER_10Christopher Sabbath. You cannot you cannot have a voice actor conversation without Vegeta and Piccolo.
SPEAKER_08Don't forget All Might, don't forget All Might. You know, ah yes Listen, Chris's voice is like godly. Yes, it's and then like I love okay, low-key nerd out moment. I like his his Vegeta and and Z, and then his Vegeta and Kai, like it's just such a refine, it just has a reality of just like Yes. It's literally growth, it's like majority, and it's just like it has such a presence, and it's just like no, I love it.
SPEAKER_10I love it. Uh General Armstrong too. I believe so, yeah.
SPEAKER_09He was General Armstrong, whenever he said this has been in my family for generations.
SPEAKER_08Wait, wait, wait. Hold on. There's another actor that I don't see enough hype over him, and it needs to be so. Patrick Seitz. Yes, Patrick Seitz. He voices Dio in the dub of in the English dub of Jojo's Bizarre Adventure, and he also voices Endeavour.
SPEAKER_01Like his D I have not watched, like, so when we watch JoJo's Bizarre Adventures, it was not so it's hard for me to go back to dub after that.
SPEAKER_08I get it. I get it for me. I watch because I can watch both because like of course, like for some like sub sub performance the the Japanese voice actors and everything and whatnot, stellar performances. I also try to make sure I listen to like dub to make sure that like you know who who's out here? Who's out here? What y'all do what y'all doing, you know? And like Patrick Sides was just because he oh he also voices Jiren in uh the English dub of Dragon Ball Super. And he just because I really love his deal, it's just me like wait, wait, wait.
SPEAKER_10You didn't notice the hat, man.
SPEAKER_08Wait, good read.
SPEAKER_03Hey yo!
SPEAKER_08Yo, bruh. So like like Patrick Sides, all like like because when I was in college and everything, that's when I got more exposed to his work. Patrick Sides, amazing voice actor. Because like it's yeah, just like when you listen to his voice, especially as Dio, it's just like so refined. I'm just like, ugh clean.
SPEAKER_10Clean cold, ice cold, and you know do you know who voices Steve in um American Dad? No, the I Steve. The guy sings in Steve's voice, and it is like absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_08I forget the name. I forget the name.
SPEAKER_01I'll say I would love to know because we were watching American Dad the other day, and like every time I hear Steve sing, it's just like oh my god.
SPEAKER_10It's straight up R like this this man is white, but he got black souls.
SPEAKER_07Straight up R and B. Before we go on our our our favorite hits tour of voice actors, we want we must get to the interviews of each and every one of our content creators. Uh so we'll circle back to you, Baldwin. Thank you very much. Uh, real quick, I'll give an introduction to uh Better Late Than Never, uh Mr. Uh Irvin Nerd. How are you doing this evening?
SPEAKER_00Look, I'm good. Y'all see I'm I'm in a sterile environment. I'm calling from my office. Uh I'm I'm I'm double booked, but that's on me. It's my fault. I'm just happy to be here. So I appreciate y'all inviting me back.
SPEAKER_07Thank you, thank you, thank you. Appreciate it. Uh so before we circle back into you, let's go ahead and give up the opportunity for Mr. Trill Noel of Harmony Perfumes. Uh go a little bit. You, I mean you was already about to give us the you know the one two punch, but go ahead and give us the um origin story, as uh Baldwin said earlier.
SPEAKER_10Alrighty, so you the origin of me. I went fire roll on Facebook doing Mongolian throat singing, which I can do by the way. Um, I'll give you guys a demonstration.
SPEAKER_09So I learned how to Mongolian throw sing when I found out that I was Native American.
SPEAKER_07Hold on one second, because Miss Kittles, he tried to he tried to just do it and then like walk away from it.
SPEAKER_11Wow, wow, we have a round of applause, like how dare you!
SPEAKER_10Thank you, thank you, think it was not easy to learn how to do that. Um and I can sing Mongolian music, I can speak Mongolian, uh Sembenu, Meninetic Triuknow. Uh be Khuchun, be uh Amerikun, uh uh Sonasakin Utah. So that was me saying, I'm American, my name's Trill. How are you doing? And um I went viral there. I had a video that blew up, and then I was actually click on the news in Mongolia. I was almost casted into the film Marco Polo or the film series Marco Polo.
SPEAKER_01I love that series. I was so heartbroken when it got canceled.
SPEAKER_10Yeah, Kaido. Uh I think uh I did a little bit of voice acting too, but I never went professional with it. Um you know, like sometimes it's just a little bit of doing the different accents while you do this, and like I used to talk to people from Mongolia like this, and they would think that I'm actually from Russia or Mongolia. It was quite crazy. Um, and so it's been a wild, interesting journey. My life really is Jojo's our adventure. Um, all these random occurrences that make no sense going on, and uh so I was viral there and I did that for quite some time. You can find footage of me throat singing and doing a lot to promote the culture. I had like 50,000 followers on Facebook, and then Facebook deleted my account, and I lost like 10 years of my life. Went through a stage of like depression, and then I finally went back to Facebook. They deleted my account nine times more after that. So I have stopped doing that altogether. Uh, I plan to reconnect with my Mongolian audience in the future, um, and obviously that's gonna involve something to do with this. I have a fragrance coming out named Genghis eventually, which is gonna be my homage to Mongolia because they embraced me as a black man. Like they literally would promote black guy singing Mongolian music. Oh my god, black guys are cool now. They were posting pictures of LeBron, they were posting pictures of Kobe, they put me in a picture with LeBron and Kobe. They was just like, there was a whole like black moment going on in Mongolia, and they were sending pictures of people wearing braids to me because I had cornrows at the time. They had people in Mongolia that started putting that hairstyle in their hair, and they would send me the photos. So, like, it was a revolution. Something happened with all that, and it just reminded me of the story of Yasuke, it's like, you know, this guy from a foreign land influences another land. Yasuke was from Africa, he influenced Japan. To this day, they believe that uh they even have sculptures and stuff of him in Japan. And um if you go to where they believe Yasuke is from in Mozambique, they actually work something that's like a kimono, which doesn't make sense unless there was a connection between the two. Of course. And uh that kind of happened with me in Mongolia, it really did, and I still have a whole lot of love in my heart for that. And then what came next was obviously, you know, the COVID age. There was a time period where I was actually uh catfishing picks of my feet to make money. I bought my first car doing this. Wait, what?
SPEAKER_11Okay, only fans with the feet. Yes, like we all haven't really thought about it.
SPEAKER_00Yes, fam. I ain't even mad at it. I ain't even mad at it.
SPEAKER_10I look, look, I got my girl to give me I got my girl to give me a pedicure. She threw some of her polish on. I took some some pics from some nice angles. You know how you know how crazy people get when you say size 15 foot with pink nail polish? Like, there's guys out there that they'll go crazy just to see those phrases to get it. How crazy would you want? I I bought I bought my first car with that, and then I saved up some more money. Um, eventually got us into a house and started my business, and then I abandoned all that and moved forward. Um, I was also cleaning apartments at the time. It was COVID. We had my little girl, my daughter, her name is Arbaricia. She was named after the Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights. And uh I just got into this phase where I was like, you know, I don't want you to work and when you grow up. Looking at her little cute face every day, I'm just like, I don't ever want to see you sweat. I don't ever want to see you work. We're gonna build generational wealth, we're gonna build this company from the ground up, and I'm gonna make it to where when you graduate college, you don't have to do any of the nonsense that I did. So help me if she has to make an OF someday. I would roll over in my grave.
SPEAKER_07Oh god.
SPEAKER_10Um, you know, and it was just like I'm making sure that doesn't happen. So I ended up getting into perfumes, and um I decided to just take all of the things that helped me on along the way in my own life to become who I am today, to reach this level. We have like Wallace, William Wallace, Spartacus, Cleopatra. Um, these are people whose stories that I read that inspired me. Cleopatra was a woman that was in the court of men telling them what to do. Um, Qing Shi, the pirate empress queen of China, she had the largest crew in all of history. It was a woman that went from prostitution to piracy, and then she lived out the rest of her life in her own casino on her own estate because they couldn't beat her in the water, so they told her, hey, we'll grant you amnesty, just stop pirating, and we'll let you keep all your treasure and we'll give you land. That's how ridiculous she was with her 80,000 men of woman, and so it's like these stories were just so moving and inspirational to me that I hope someone who gets one of these fragrances from me can feel me translating that story, and they actually feel like that person did. Because what I do is I take things from the time period that they come from and I bond it together. Like Yasuke was from Africa and he went to Japan. So I took things that say Africa and I fuse them with Japanese elements. So you end up with something that's North Africa's kind of or Arabic now, or it was back then too. Yeah, um, so ood would be in there. You'd have like the ingredient, common Middle Eastern ingredient, and then you get to Japan, and there's also like the Mediterranean Sea. So there's Mediterranean fruits in Yaku. So it's tropical ood from Africa, and then you get to Japan and you have your cherry blossoms, your Japanese sea salt, your Japanese red cedar, the cypress, just different things that I would figure out came from Japan. Chang Shi also had like a gunpowder note, so it's meant to actually make you feel and perceive that person, their life, or what they would have smelled like. It's not just like, oh hey, this smells good. You know, like I don't do basic stuff like that. I consider that it's easy to just throw something together and make it smell good. I like to paint a picture, you know. I believe I have synesthesia, which is where you see colors. There's something called gustatory synesthesia, which is where you can regurgitate taste or remember smell and taste. And I use that when I'm making fragrances. So as I read something, it's painting that picture in my head. And then I go and I make a canvas in my mind and I recreate it using different ingredients. Um, I actually do like world-class perfumery. Like um, I'm not classically trained, I trained myself, but I use the same ingredients that somebody on the world scale that makes millions uses. Um, these are like aroma molecules, takes a lot of chemistry, takes a lot of understanding. But my favorite thing to work with is mint and metal. I have an obsession with working with mint because to me, as a person with ADHD who struggled all my life just like to fit in, to find my way, to feel calm, to feel at peace. I never had it until I smelled peppermint.
SPEAKER_07Yep.
SPEAKER_10Sitting around mint is the most relaxing thing that I've ever had in my life. I felt go ahead.
SPEAKER_07No, I said by far, 100%. I agree.
SPEAKER_10I felt at ease, I felt at peace, and I was like, I want to wear this all day. Where's a perfume that has it? And there were none. They don't have peppermint-based perfumes, they might have it as like a 0.5% background note. It's like, no, I want something mint forward, mint heavy. So then I made Odin sleep, my very first fragrance. Uh Odin has a son in my brand named Loki. Um, Loki has a little bit of Odin in his DNA because, like, father like son, but Loki goes in his own crazy chaotic direction because that's what Loki does. But they both have that mint opening and it's mint forward. And so, you know, there's a lot of people that were looking for something like this out there, and I didn't know this beforehand because it's it's it's like I wanted this on me throughout the day. You know, I have stressful life, stressful things that need to happen. I didn't want to just be like, you know, some statistic in the South. It's like I can I can be up there on a on a poster, I can rise up and be more than what society thinks I'm supposed to. There's nothing stopping me from doing that. You know, it's just a matter of introducing something into your environment that helps you evolve, a catalyst to push you forward. And so once I started making the fragrances, I finally jumped on Instagram and TikTok and started talking about my stuff. After spending a year on Reddit, which I recommend no one to ever do if you're in business, don't do not waste time on Reddit. Um, people are terrible, toxic on there. You're not gonna get any growth, you're not gonna get any encouragement. You will become toxic from being there. Yep. Um, whenever I left that behind, I went to Instagram. I was immediately well received by everyone there. Everyone was just like, oh my god, new fragrance brand. Let's check it out. Let's see what this guy has to offer. Hurricane Ida hits. I lose everything that I just bought. Now, mind you, how did I get that house? I told you earlier. How did I get the house? What did I have to do to get that house? Okay, I did all that, and then a tree falls on it, crushes my house, my new house, destroys everything in the house. The videos of it are on my my TikTok, my Instagram, and my YouTube. Um, we lost four bedrooms, uh, the living room, the kitchen was the only thing that was untouched, which everything in the kitchen came with the house. Um, so everything was gone. I lost like my perfume stuff, works of art, stuff from the past. My Mongolian things are all saved. I have them here in the closet, thank God. Um, they really mean a lot to me. I would have cried if that was gone, you know. Uh, but it it was a struggle. Like I lost all the new furniture I bought, and these were like some expensive, exquisite, like imported leathers and just different things that were gonna be used to promote my brand. Like I was gonna use this couch, it had the same matching a aesthetic as what's behind me. Lost everything. Uh it was like an $1,000 Italian leather bed, $5,000 black ice mattress, memory foam clouds that I was sleeping on gone. And the tree fell on our bed. So if we hadn't evacuated, we would have been crushed. So, long story short, even today, I'm still dealing with the insurance company. They haven't given me all of my money. This happened last year. Um 18, no, no, 20, it was August 29th. So this was about 20 days ago last year. Wow. And in that time frame between then and now, I've made the brand of Harmony rise up uh on multiple platforms. We're already over $20,000 made in my first year, which to me is an accomplishment, and I'm very happy about that. I feel very successful about my launch of this brand after what all took place, getting it off the ground. So that is where we are now with it. And um, as of last month, I had a release that actually sold out to the point that I had no bottles left. Uh her name was Athena. Um and I'm sure you guys have heard enough about Athena. And I I was shocked by this. I literally sold 22 bottles of it within five weeks, and I didn't have any any ingredients left to make more. So I actually had to put on my website that something was out of stock, and I was just like, This is a moment. I'm gonna have to celebrate this victory. Yeah. Now the last thing that I'll say um in my intro is the reason that I wanted to do this is because I don't see the black image when it comes to fragrances anywhere. We don't exist in the fragrance in the fragrant market. Um, they might use us as a model. Like I think they have a few where there's a maybe a model or on a commercial, yeah. But I haven't seen a black fragrance brand sitting on a top shelf getting the same recognition that things like Creed or Tom Ford will get. Um will I get to that? Who knows? Time will tell. Am I making a footprint that others can follow or that can be a part of? Yes. Definitely. You know, we don't have a luxury image. I want you to think about how much Michael Jordan's cologne is worth right now. Because he released one back in the 90s and everybody stood in line to get it. Yep. It's $20 right now, and people use it as a sneaker spray. Um, Rihanna's perfume that came out not too long ago was about $20. Beyonce just released one within the past few years, it was $20. Our image is being marketed at that at that level.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_10You know that now that can be good or bad. Maybe it's at that level, so more units of itself. But at the same time, is that what she's worth? Exactly.
SPEAKER_09Because if you have Rihanna, yeah.
SPEAKER_10No, that's what I'm saying. So, like, if if Kim Kardashian put her name on a perfume, how much would it sell for?
SPEAKER_07I mean, her sister has, and it sells for about what, $60?
SPEAKER_01I was about to say anywhere from $60 to $80.
SPEAKER_10That's that's four times, four times the price of what Beyonce was selling for. How is that possible? Her family name is not bigger than Beyonce. It is not. And it's something to do with the industry, it's something to do with marketing. Uh, there was actually a situation in my industry where someone had told a woman, oh no, we can't use you as an influencer. You're too black, you're too dark-skinned, it wouldn't, it wouldn't bring in uh sales. Do you know when I heard that I was shocked?
SPEAKER_11Why? Why?
SPEAKER_10Because the person said this to her, to her face. That's why I was shocked. I'm not shocked when it happened. It's the fact that she was at a party and this woman is drop dead gorgeous. Like, I mean, like, oh my god, I thought she was a celebrity. Um, this guy was talking to her, and he literally said after that, oh, you I I did I expect you to be loud and obnoxious. You're not like other black women.
SPEAKER_06Whoa.
SPEAKER_10And this was that like an upscale, like gala type of it, it it broke, it broke my heart. So I was like, you know. Oh no, this was some like some fancy white guy, you know.
SPEAKER_01Oh, I'm not shocked because they, you know, that privilege shows at any given moment.
SPEAKER_10Now the company released a statement and they said that they have let this employee go, but it's the fact that he had been working there for god knows how long.
SPEAKER_07And who knows when you've turned away.
SPEAKER_10And so it just it just it just opened the door for me to understand like our people actually spend the most money on fragrance. Like T.I. said this himself, you know, black people have trillions of dollars of spending power. Yeah, and he had this idea of this blackout thing, and it's like I looked at what we spend on fragrances, we are the actual leading audience in the fragrance market. 100%. Uh, we spend majority of their money comes from us, and so it's like a lot of people don't realize where they're spending that money, they don't realize that the person that they're giving it to might be against their best interests.
SPEAKER_07Completely.
SPEAKER_10Um, and it's like, so we need something that actually is in our best interest, you know. Like, I I plan to funnel wealth that I gain into the community, not just my family. And to make jobs for people to work at my company that come from lesser backgrounds, you know, people that have had to struggle or they're still struggling to get somewhere in society. Those companies may not be doing that. And people buying stuff from like those big name brands, and it's like they're gonna use that to release another $3,000 jacket, and they'll pay some designer a million dollars to make it, and they made that million off of you. You'll never see that jacket. And so it's like I I have that as my mission now to make a way for us to be perceived as luxury, for us to be perceived as um worth something more than what people like to perceive us as. Because there's people that have come to me talking about my prices are absurd and they're insane. Like $200 for a bottle of 100 ml that's gonna last 16 hours on your skin. That's not absurd to me. It lasts the whole day. It's not a three-hour-long fragrance that you paid $100 for. But some people are telling me that that's absurd. And I'm like, why is that absurd to you? Why aren't you saying that to your white friend? Why aren't you saying that to this white brand? What are you saying it to me? You don't, you don't, you don't feel bad talking to me like this either. You feel the idea that you come in my inbox and tell me about my business. I want to see you go and do that to Chanel, Savage, Dior, Tom Ford. Sorry, not Savage, I meant to say Dior. But I want to see them go do that to one of those brands. They won't. They will not because they know that person's not gonna even respond to them, or it's not even gonna matter. But they actually have contacted me directly. And it's like I I see the levels of respect that you are showing me right now. So that has been my mission. It is the model of harmony to teach people to evolve and to make a way for everyone in the world to be accepted at whatever level they want to perceive themselves at. So that's my mission.
SPEAKER_07He he you've made it so I cannot ask you any questions. Every time I had a question, he literally gave us the answer before I could give it to him. Um I apologize. That's the best way to do things because I was like, uh, nope, nope, can't say that. He already answered it. Um no, but definitely um I completely agree. Uh, that's one of the things that we've talked about on this podcast before, uh, which is, you know, the not only the buying power of the black community, but just the inability for the black community to understand just how sought after yet ignored that they are at the same time. Like they don't give you the opportunity to speak, but they won't turn away your dollars at the same time. And it's like then when it's time for you to support your black brethren, brothers, sisters, aunties, uncles, cousins, you either turn up your nose at their product, you you know, shout at the top of your voices, why is it so expensive?
SPEAKER_01You, you know, ask for a discount every single time.
SPEAKER_07Uh you go to their establishment and you like you go to their establishment, you leave bad reviews, and I'm like, I I recall one time I went, I was at a establishment and a black establishment, and somebody was pretty much what you were saying, they were complaining about the what they felt like the worth of the product was, and saying that the the the worth of whatever they were buying was then equivalent with what they were asking. And I said, Well, I'm not really sure what you mean because if you go to any other upscale restaurant, the food that you're asking for, this is actually at a discount that you're you know complaining about, but it's you know, they're just asking more for. And honestly, what they're giving you is twice as much that's on the other person's plate. So why exactly is there an issue? And you see they're making it hand fresh in front of you. That person's stuff is frozen. What exactly is your issue today? Are you just here to complain? Are you trying to be like not a Karen but a Khadija? Like you explain to me what exactly is the issue because it doesn't make much sense to me. Um, I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_10I just I just had to No, I I completely understand and agree with you fully. Uh, the message that I would want to relay, you can make sure to put this in your video, is that. As black people in America, we have to understand that no one else is going to give us self-worth. We have to give us our own self-worth. And there's something to be said about that. You know, it took me, this is the first watch that I bought myself that was like over $500. I didn't do that until this year, and I'm 31. It took me 31 years to get to a point where I wanted to say, I'm worth a watch that cost more than $500. It took me that long to say that. White people are saying that at like 12 or like 8 or like birth.
SPEAKER_07Two.
SPEAKER_10Birth. Birth. Birth.
SPEAKER_07Birth.
SPEAKER_10My child is worth it. Like literally, the moment that they're they're mom and dad are in the bed, they're saying it then. Yep. In the sack, you know, like and we're saying it at adulthood. Before that, I was just like, I didn't have an idea of my actual worth. I knew I'd be great someday, but it was like, why am I not great now? Why am I not letting myself be great now? Why don't I just save up uh uh money every month and then buy me this one item in a year and reject all the other ones? Because I'm worth that item. You know, but instead, mom, dad, because of the generation before us, what they had to go through, yeah, they taught us buy the cheap thing.
SPEAKER_07Yep.
SPEAKER_10Uh yes live within your means.
SPEAKER_07Within your means.
SPEAKER_10Steve Harvey said this the best. He said, next time you go to Book of Flight, it's gonna be a little extra, you might have to make a sacrifice, but get yourself to sit in first class. Pay just once to do it. You will understand from that moment that your mind will begin to manifest the things that you have started to surround yourself with, the things that you saw in there. Because you won't want to go back to first class. Next time you go to the economy, you're gonna miss what you what you had in first class, and you'll make the moves to make that your normal. Your normal. And it's like the same thing goes whenever you look back in time. Our people were not allowed in all of these fancy buildings or these upscale things, so we didn't attract the things that would put us there. So it's like if you want to change your position, if you're sitting down right now, like I don't know, eating pizza and playing video games all day, and you're 27 or 30, and you're just like, you know, I I wish I was this guy, I wish I had this money, I wish I was whatever. Start attracting it. Yep, start doing something that makes it happen. You know, instead of buying a DLC every month or a new skin every month, you take that money and you invest it in yourself, your own network.
SPEAKER_11They ain't ready for it.
SPEAKER_07They ain't ready for that. I know. I you can still be able to do it. I know it's something I'm getting church right now.
SPEAKER_11Yeah, well, hold on now.
SPEAKER_10Amen. Hallelujah. Uh no, like you can still be your same game-loving, anime-loving self, but you can also increase your net worth while doing it. Exactly. So that would be my my uh my my takeaway from me. That's what I that's what I put in every bottle from my brand. When you get something from me, it actually comes with the richness and luxury of what I have spoken in this conversation. That's how much depth I put into making each fragrance. It's literally meant to help you perceive yourself as more every single time.
SPEAKER_01So that's harmony in the podcast, dropping uh knowledge tidbits.
SPEAKER_07I'm telling you, like I wasn't prepared. Uh so we're definitely bringing uh uh uh Sir Trill uh back for uh one of our future sermons. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, I hope you are prepared. Uh our Wednesday night prayer group will come forth, uh, Harmony uh perfumes will uh be uh giving forth a uh sermon to uh change your life for the better. Uh no, but thank you, uh Trill Noel. Uh we'll give you an opportunity to you know circle back and you know give out your you know social media and how you can be reached. Must go on to, man, that was amazing. Uh must go on to our next content. Well, before I do that, we have a couple more faces that have jumped on since we have begun. Uh we of course have uh one of our phenomenal panelists, uh Miss uh Lady Giovanni. How are you doing today?
SPEAKER_01Um uh I'm uh last night was still have my makeup on.
SPEAKER_11Okay, it was a good night. It was a good night, it was a good night. She here, y'all. She's here y'all.
SPEAKER_07She's here, she's awake. That's what's that's what's important. See you.
SPEAKER_01Y'all, I'm I'm alive and I'm well.
SPEAKER_07And of course, we have a uh another content creator uh by the name of Alex Hampton. How are you doing this fine day, sir?
SPEAKER_06I'm actually I'm sorry, I'm doing good. I'm just waking up myself. I just left Wokanda, so I'm kind of tired.
SPEAKER_07Uh 48-hour parties is no joke.
SPEAKER_06Yeah, yeah. Sherry was cutting up last night. But yeah, I'm doing good. I can't complain.
SPEAKER_07Awesome, awesome. Uh so of course, currently we're just we're still going through uh these uh backstories, these origin stories of our uh content creators. Uh, we now have to, of course, go to Miss Renita of Believe It or Not, and that's not with a KN O T. Uh, you gave us a little little little sizzle, little sprinkle at the beginning there. Go ahead and give us your origin story. Uh, I believe you said that you are a seamstress, uh, you uh create rugs, uh bonnets. Honestly, I don't know what you don't make, so we're just gonna go ahead and allow you to lay it all out there.
SPEAKER_05Um, okay, cool. My name is Renita. Um, all right, let's start with the backstory. So I have been knitting probably since I was four years old. Knitting and crocheting. I used to watch my grandmother and my grandmother used to sew and everything else like that. I've just been creative since then. Um, creative as in like anything creative as far as singing, dance, you know, making stuff, crafts, I was in it. So as time progressed on, then I went to college from college, then I was still doing like my bracelets, everything else of that, just doing like little things and making. And then of course I was singing while I was in college. Um, so then I left college and I'm just like, it's time for me to leave. You know, I really never stayed with my parents, but I kind of moved out when I was 17 years old, took care of everything on my own. So I've pretty much been an independent person and a busybody. And I was always about, okay, let me do stuff that's gonna make me happy and stuff. So, anyways, I got to a time in my life um where it was time for me. I just needed to move. So I joined the military. Um, so I got a chance to join the military, took on different jobs, took on jobs as a linguist, took on jobs, like audience jobs and everything, and finally found something that I like with the military, and I stuck it out. And I am still current military. I will be retiring in two years, so I am ready.
SPEAKER_07Thank you for your service.
SPEAKER_05Thank you. I am ready. So, um, with that being said, I've gotten a little bit savvy. I've always been one since I joined the military to go out, go different, travel different countries. And I wasn't big on like, let me go out drinking and partying. Yeah, it was fun, but I was looking at something more to invest in my future. And I was looking at something like, okay, I think that would look beautiful in my house as a centerpiece to be able to talk to people about. Didn't have a house, but I'm like, hey, let me go ahead and buy this now for it to happen. And then I started learning different like trades, learning different cultures and everything. And I just became fascinated with culture. Um, I started my business in 2018 because I was back and forth going on deployments. I became very stressed out. Um, not gonna go into the weeds of it, but you know, you know, a lot of stuff happened with military women being black in the military and stuff like that. Um, particularly 2018 was a harsh year. Not 2018, 2016 was. So I was going on deployment every year. Um, and it was about time for me to move. And when it was about time for me to move to my next place, then I started knitting. And I was knitting hats like crazy. So then I started thinking like, these hats are good for the climate that I'm in, but what about hats for me, for somebody like me? Like my edges, my hair, being able to take care of it. So I started knitting hats um that, and I started putting satin lining in the inside of it because I did my research about satin. And a lot of people's like, okay, yeah, satin, you know, it's just a thing. Satin is actually really good for the hair. Um, satin and silk. Um, silk, satin is just more like has silk fibers, but it's more man-made. And so I just started doing more with that one to be able to take care of hair edges because at one point I did start to lose my hair um because of the stress. So, as my stress reliever, I was making these beanies and I would send them out to people. So I sent them out to a brother of mine. Um, he was actually uh in college and he was part of a fraternity. And when I sent it out to him in 2000, it was September 2018, I sent it out to him. He's like, oh man, these are great. Send some for the rest of my line brothers.
SPEAKER_03Oh wow.
SPEAKER_05So I did a whole bunch of it for my line brothers, and then next thing you know, my business took off. So I became established, um, believe it or not, LLC in 2018, December 2018. Um December 2018, I moved to back to Japan. Wow. And I moved to Okinawa. And so when I moved to Okinawa, it's tropical.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_05So nobody can, it's no yarn or nothing like that. So I'm bringing over like pounds of yarn because one is island and it's hard to get stuff. I'm bringing over pounds of yarn, and I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna just carry on my business and do online. It was too hot for that. So I started thinking, like, how can I do this to make it grow? And so on the island, there is not a lot of resources as far as hair and black females and everything. So I know one lady, she's like, well, the lady I was gonna have to make my bonnet, you know, she left and she's not making bonnets for another three months until she returns back from vacation. And it's gonna take too long for Amazon to send over a bonnet. And I said, you know what? I can make a satin bonnet, it's not that hard. So I made my first satin bonnet, and I made that in the end of 2019, and from there I perfected it. So instead of just making a normal satin bonnet with like, you know, elastic and stuff on it, I started thinking like, I'm tired of waking up in the morning and my bonnet is cooking my breakfast.
SPEAKER_07Come on. Let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_05I decided to make a satin bonnet and I went on the search. One, I use high grade Japanese satin, which um I still have connects over there. It's very soft. Two, I decided to use a webbed elastic inside of my bonnet versus the little skinny, thin elastics that we here in the States choose. And then three, I decided to add a touch to it and put a drawstring in there. So when I put a drawstring in it, then it took off. Like I have parents come and say, My kids, you know, their bonnets stay on all night. All you gotta do is tug and go. And then I added a little stopper onto it to where you can move like you have on your hoodie. Good to go. You don't have to worry about anything. Girl, don't be out here telling them all your secrets.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_05I mean, there's some more into there. I didn't put more, I didn't put everything out there, but it's some more into it. Okay, okay, okay, okay. Yeah, listen. I listen, I learned my lesson a long time ago. So when I started doing that, then the competition started happening on Island. Of course, on Island, people can buy, you know, there was a lot of hating and stuff like that, and people can buy um wholesale from these China companies and they'll bring it over. So I'm posting on groups in Okinawa and like, hey, yeah, I got my bonnets and stuff like that. And then, of course, here come the complaints. Why are your bonnets so high? I'm like, why is satin so high?
SPEAKER_02And then exactly.
SPEAKER_05I'm like, they're like, well, it's a bit too expensive. I said, okay, because at the time I was charging um for satin and satin because the yard, I was charging $38 for an extra large bun, satin bun. And they were pretty big. And they're like, well, that's just too expensive for my taste. And I had to tell one lady, well, I'm sitting, I'm like, okay, boo-boo, I'm sorry, it's not for you.
SPEAKER_07It's not your taste. I think it's your taste.
SPEAKER_05I just I had to learn when I was in the military, I learned how to basically like not sugarcoat anything and just keep it real, you know. So I still kept that good customer service. I went ahead and went on about my way. But then another young lady started broadcasting the bonnets, which are the China made bonnets, and then they were just like, oh, these are messed up and everything else like that. So I ended up making it that soon enough. I got that customer because I'm just like, oh, you'll be back. I'm not worried about it. So when a customer comes back, I like to explain to customers that I prefer quality over quantity. Amen. I can sew, I sew all my satin bonnets, and I don't outsource. I rather make sure that it's good grade and that it's gonna last for years. And I'd rather have you send customers to me or you come back and get another bonnet because you can't just stay off of one bonnet. You gotta rotate them things out. So I'd rather for you to come back to me and get another bonnet instead of just getting something that is like horrible of quality, and you go put it in the wash and it tears up. So that's when I started saying, okay, bonnets. So I did bonnets and I did handbags, and then I start doing pop-up shops and everything over in Okinawa. Um, I moved back here to the States. When I got back here to the States, it is right towards, well, the pandemic's still going on, but it was towards the beginning of 2021.
SPEAKER_03Okay.
SPEAKER_05And when I came back to the States, mind you, the whole time I was in Okinawa, because I didn't knit, I got some jobs in for blankets and stuff, but because I didn't knit and because of the humidity, mold happens. So I had to constantly keep a dehumidifier in my room, keep the room shut off, constantly check the yarn. And when I mean got yarn, I got a whole room of yarn. So it would take me days to go through that to make sure I was checking. So I shifted back here to the states, which made my load a lot heavier.
SPEAKER_03Yep.
SPEAKER_05Um, so when I got here to the states, I said, okay, I got a whole two rooms full of yarn and fabric. What am I gonna do? Because I am tired of spending my money on yarn and fabric, even though I have a business and I am not making anything from it. I'm just spinning, spinning, spinning. So I started thinking about it, I said, okay. And so I took up and started looking into ways I can use my yarn. And when I figured that out, I hey, I can make rugs. So with rugs, I started doing, I'm like, I can draw, I can make rugs, so it's a whole process. Let me tell you, if you're gonna get into rugs, I encourage people to get into it, but it's an expensive habit. It's an expensive business and an expensive hobby, and this is what it goes into. You were talking about people not wanting to pay for stuff, all right. Let's talk about this. I went to my first black market business, whatever, you know, conference or whatever where I was a vendor. And when I went there, I went to North Carolina. I drove down to North Carolina, went there, and I said, okay, and I have all my rugs, beautiful, beautiful, and everything else like that. I had this woman come up in my booth, and you know, everybody liked to come and look and stuff and everything, which I'm good, you know. That that's that's a lead. Anyone who comes in your booth and you talk to them, give them your business card, talk to them, let them see yourself. They might not buy today, but they eventually gonna buy. They're gonna keep you in mind. So I had this woman walk up just negative. Our own people, always so negative.
SPEAKER_07Yes, they are.
SPEAKER_05I'm just like, I don't believe this. I'm just sitting here, and this woman says, Who's gonna pay that much money for a bath rug? I was just like, honey.
SPEAKER_07You'd be surprised, right? Exactly.
SPEAKER_01So somebody with money.
SPEAKER_05I fell and I said, I will not do another expo, another conference or whatever in um Virginia, and not Virginia, but inside of North Carolina.
SPEAKER_07North Carolina, yeah.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, because I'm finding down south they don't want to spend money. They do not they know what at north, people know what they want.
SPEAKER_07They will pull it out of their pockets and they will give it to you.
SPEAKER_05So then I did the Black Business Expo up in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Okay, and when I did that, I was so blown away. I had already made $500 within 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_02Right.
SPEAKER_05And that was off of bonnets. And then people started coming in and they're like, we love the quality of your bonnets. Then they said, Oh, snap, it's rugs. So then they're looking at rugs, and I have a lot of Afrocentric rugs. Um, so I started people looking at the rugs and everything, and you know, people were just buying rugs and walking off. Good, good to go. My name was out there, and everything else they got. And so that comes to show you like that day. I think that's the most I had ever grossed, and I learned a valuable lesson. That day, I've probably grossed like 9k. Just from like not that day, but for that weekend. For that weekend, and so I'm just like, okay, I'm gonna take this as a lesson learned, and I've always been good at target audience. So my target audience, my my audience, I like to reach out to. One, let's go back to the anime and the blurred side. So um, I grew up in a very strict Christian home. Hey, Pokemon, Pokemon was at the devil.
SPEAKER_06Yes, it was.
SPEAKER_05Sailor Moon was of the devil.
SPEAKER_06Yes, she was. Anything you ain't never lied when you said that. Yu-Gi-Oh! Summoning the Satan. Yeah.
SPEAKER_10I was like, Piccolo's the only black one.
SPEAKER_06I know, right?
SPEAKER_05So I remember my brother and I when I used to go to high school. We used to wake up and just, you know, wake up early in the morning, you know, sneak in and watch a little bit of Sailor Moon or something like that, or Pokemon, and then we run off the school. So as I got older, like I said, I joined the military. I wasn't actually open big into anime until I was actually stationed in Japan the first time.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_05And that was in 2006. And I got a taste of anime, and I loved it. And I got a taste of like Asian and Japanese culture, and I got the mixture of the black and African, all the cultures mixed in and stuff, but I loved it. So I took that with me, and I just like okay, I didn't do nothing with it at the time. That was in 2006. 2014, I jumped back heavy into anime, and I was here in the States. Now, like I said, 2018, I moved to Japan. In 2018, when I moved to Japan, then all the animes, everybody's like, I want this, this, this, and this. That's why I'm like, hmm. Not only do I have good fabrics that are Afrocentric and good satin fabrics that are Afrocentric and clutches, but I can also do, I'm right here in Japan. I can get anime fabrics.
SPEAKER_07Yep, easy.
SPEAKER_05So I did a lot of linking while I was there. I have actually artists that are in Japan, and anything I want, they I tell them a gist of it, they make it for me, and I put it on fabric.
SPEAKER_02Really?
SPEAKER_05So that is my outlet there, and I just start building and growing and networking. I am still in a business and it works. I am still learning because I am one person and I'm still learning, and it is hard. And I still hold down a full-time job in the military and going back to school. So it's just like I gotta learn this route. I make mistakes, but at the end of the day, I do stuff that makes me happy. Um, at the end of the day, I do stuff that makes our customers happy, and I do it better to better our health. By me doing rugs, sewing, knitting, that is my stress reliever. Because like I said, this military life, not for everybody. The only reason I'm in here is because I'm trying to stick it out for the rest of two years. I don't get the time and shit. But let me tell you, like, it's a great stress reliever, but I noticed a lot of our women, and not just our women, a lot of our men were having issues like alopecia or just like losing their hair and stuff like that. And reason being is the stress and also the materials that we're putting in our head. Because think about our hats that we put on our head. Yes, that stuff is tearing out, ripping out our edges.
SPEAKER_07I found it.
SPEAKER_05But we're quick to go, we're quick to go throw some braids in our heads. And these braids have been tearing out the edges all the time. So we gotta think about what we can do. So that's why I started saying, okay, not only am I gonna go with bonnets, I'm gonna go with satin line headbands. So I did a lot of headbands, I did a lot of beanies once I got back to the States, and I did a lot of bonnets. And so that is where my bread and butter was at was bonnets, beanies, and you know, headbands. The rugs just eventually started coming, especially going to this Comic Con. Plus, I'm trying to get my inventory down from this yarn because I still got too much yarn. So, but it's the crazy thing is somebody might ask for something. Like, let's use this one for an example. There are six different colors of pink just within here alone.
SPEAKER_07Six?
SPEAKER_05Yes.
SPEAKER_00Six?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, because you gotta do shit.
SPEAKER_00I was trying to see if they were skin. I'll keep that.
SPEAKER_05So when you go and do the yarn, thinker, okay, now I gotta go to the store and buy some more yarn.
SPEAKER_08Uh I see that the outline of the wow. That's wow.
SPEAKER_05So last week, uh, I'll show you this one.
SPEAKER_01This one, this is heading rocker. I love that. I'm about to say Tiffany, just to put in a plug for her. Hamdencon is October 15th. Tickets are like $20.
SPEAKER_05So this one is a lot of blending. So we're talking about a lot of stuff that has to do with blending, because you start off with one color and you go through blending. So everything. So it takes time. So I'm going through this to take you this. I'll think about my prices as time goes on. Cause I said I'm learning, right? And you know, and this is just me, my background where I'm learning. Because I'm a I'm a big thinker. If we're paying as women, if we're paying, because somebody I want to get my hair twisted the other day, and somebody said they're gonna charge me $395.
SPEAKER_04What I say the same thing. I say the same thing, you know. I said, was that was that which hair Alicia Keys?
SPEAKER_07I said, um Are they buying the hair or are you buying the hair? Like, are they adding hair in? Like stitching?
SPEAKER_05Get this, they're adding hair. Okay, but I told them I'm gonna bring my own hair because being overseas, I have tubs of hair. They said, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. 309. And I said, and it's shoulder length. So you might have to end up cutting it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 395. They say, Well, still right now. Then I said, Okay, I said, let me finish doing some more shopping around. I'll get back with these. She said, Oh, yeah, I noticed you do rugs. I said, Oh yeah, yeah. And she's like, Well, what if I want to get my logo and my business on a rug and stuff like that? I said, I can do it. I've done it before. And I said, but I tell you, and I said, um, but I'm gonna have to ask for like the cost of materials up front since it's commissioned. Oh, okay, okay, okay. But how much are you gonna be actually charging? I'm like, I can't tell you until you tell me the size of the rug, how many colors I'm using, until you send me the graphic. So learning this business, it's a lot that goes into it because you gotta like get down to the specifics, not specifics, specifics.
SPEAKER_03There it is.
SPEAKER_05So I'm just like, all right. And I said, you know what? I said, I literally just did a rug, same size that you're looking for, you know, has all the stuff in there and a few colors that you say your logo is. And I said, roughly let's look at like 350. You gonna charge me 350? Okay, hear me out, girl. If you're gonna charge $395 for me to provide my own hair and me to sit in your chair for five hours, it takes me eight to 13 hours to do this, bruh. What are you providing?
SPEAKER_07And I said 350 with the materials, nah, bruh.
SPEAKER_01And you're not bringing me any materials, nor are you gonna sit in a chair and wait for me to finish.
SPEAKER_05Exactly. Exactly. So I had to sit up here and do a lot of thinking, and I got discouraged. And I'm like, I'm not gonna get discouraged. I mean, a lot of people tell me, hey, Renita, you got a lot of talent. You do a lot of stuff, and it's is the crazy thing, my talent, my stuff is built off of stress. I stress so much, that's why I knit and I sew. So I know I emphasize on my rugs. Um, and I'm not babbling, I'm just telling you some of the stuff I do. I do more anime stuff, especially during the conventions. That's why I met you all when I went to the convention this fashion. Um, but I do socks. I started incorporating socks.
SPEAKER_07Socks. Wow.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so I do. So looking here, Succi. Renina, he's gonna be hitting you up for these socks. Yeah, he's about to get me too.
SPEAKER_07Yes, I am.
SPEAKER_04What you want, what you want, what you want? Oh no, she didn't. There you go, Succi. She got all your socks. All right, so we're gonna have a call first before having cars start.
SPEAKER_05I went to Todd Water Comic Con. That's where I met you guys, and that was my first real Comic Con that I went to. And it was interesting.
SPEAKER_01It was awesome, too.
SPEAKER_05I was sitting next to the folks next to me. Um, and you could tell the Asian couple, they you could tell they bring all their stuff over from China and everything. So if you have that one, my thing is I like to make my shop like presentation, but I'm also smart. I don't want nobody coming stealing my stuff.
SPEAKER_06Exactly.
SPEAKER_05This guy walked from their booth, which they had all their stuff outside on a cage, went from their booth, snatched stuff, came into my booth, taught me. Well, you know, this thing, he came in and then he took off with a do-rag.
SPEAKER_01He snatched a do-rag. I was just like, Mr. Sticky Fingers didn't make it over to our booth because they're like three people. What are you doing?
SPEAKER_05All right, and the sad thing is I told the people they're like, Well, it's if we're not held liable and everything. We looked at a camera. How the heck did you look at a camera? And what are you talking about? I take this personal because I handmake all this stuff, yeah. So we let you know when y'all do the Comic Con, just be careful. Yeah, I kind of bring my stuff into people, but this year I'll be a bit more where my stuff is all the way back and it's an underlock and key. Ain't nobody get my stuff.
SPEAKER_09Excellent, excellent, excellent.
SPEAKER_05But I enjoy what I do at the end of the day. I love like customers, I love the networking. Um, like I said, this is something that I do plan on doing full time along with my massage therapy when I get out um the military. So I enjoy it.
SPEAKER_07You just happen to do massages as well.
SPEAKER_04No, no, not even I will be a trial patient.
SPEAKER_07I love these content creators today, like these three so far, and all of their exploits.
SPEAKER_05I'm letting you know right now, I am very shy. I hate being in front of the camera. Like, if you notice I'm kind of rambling on, I hate being in front of the camera. But the biggest thing is that I learned you just gotta do it, you gotta get out there. I started out like, for instance, I set my camera up when I'm making rugs, and then I just go through and clip and stuff like that. As far as me get in front of this camera talking, it's hard for me to do that.
SPEAKER_07Oh wow. Well, I mean, you first off, you're doing phenomenal. Like you're you're able to convey what has happened, how it happens. I like you sold me on several things already. I definitely need to see those headbands because like the one thing I've noticed is like the head, like, and my mother taught me, you know, explained it to me, because you know, I I just recently got hair. Like, this is all pandemic hair, so thank you. Um, but my mom was like, you know, don't wear headbands because headbands like mess up your entire like front lines. Like, what are you talking about? She's like, just trust me, it messes up all of this. So having a satin headband, I'm all for it. You let me know where the dotted line is. Where to put my card in.
SPEAKER_05The good thing is that these the headbands are satin.
SPEAKER_07Oh my god.
SPEAKER_05If you can see them, some people they just do cotton, but no, I make sure it's satin so it can protect your edges.
SPEAKER_07Nope.
SPEAKER_01Have you thought about making right? Satin line hoodies, right?
SPEAKER_05So I was thinking about that. I actually went to the I did scrub caps, I've done the lock cap. I have a lot of lock caps um that I've done, but the hoodies, I've thought about it, and I haven't like just the hoodie itself. I was thinking about getting an insert, like the dude and put snaps or something onto it where you can just insert it in any of your hoodies. And then as soon as I thought about it, then Facebook be listening to you. They put some kind of broadcast or something up where somebody already came out.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, company called Apparel I N, um, she's actually an African-born uh woman who went on Shark Tank and she makes satin line hoodies like and satin line beanies and satin line headbands and satin line pillowcases and satin line head covers for your car seat. So it's just like when it comes down to you having an idea, I think I've never heard of somebody copying the satin line in and out. So even though it's already a market, nobody's doing that specifically. So you can work creations and be your first uh I don't know.
SPEAKER_07Go ahead, take your time. Sales partnership, I'm all for it.
SPEAKER_01Or like what you have currently on your head right now, you can offer that as like a pop-in, pop out for your hoodies, like anything related because even though she does satin line hoodies, she's not doing anime, she's not touching that market. That's true.
SPEAKER_04I mean, the anime market is huge, like that's like the best kept secret.
SPEAKER_01But I think if you took the designs and they were satin, like to pop in whatever anime you feel in that day, like if you just watch JJK and you're like, you know, I'm feeling gojo today. Pop pop. And like that your inside like got gojo in it. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_07Like we have to cut this part out of the episode. Do we want to not give these secrets away? I think we should probably cut the edit this part out.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, then take it.
SPEAKER_07We'll edit this part out. We'll we'll talk about it more afterwards. Um, but yeah, no, absolutely thank you, Renita. Um, I like we'll we'll talk to you more because we're definitely all about to order something uh before the day is out.
SPEAKER_10Uh yeah, I had wanted to ask her if she also thought about doing do-rags.
SPEAKER_05Oh, yeah, I have do-rags.
SPEAKER_10Thank you.
SPEAKER_05I have a lot of do-rags.
SPEAKER_09We're gonna have the link up. Yeah, yeah, I told you. You got sales, yeah?
SPEAKER_05I'm doing I'm actually doing my inventory for October 15th right now. So I got like all my do-rags are already done right now.
SPEAKER_07Awesome sauce. So I'm I'm getting some do-rags too. So do-rags, headbands. What else am I getting? Um bonnets. Bonnets, yes, yes, all of these socks! Socks. Thank you. I remember the socks. Awesome sauce. We're not done just yet. We all had so much more to say and share that we decided to make this into a two parter. Look forward to our next episode where we conclude our talk about this topic.