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Money Focused Podcast
Helping ordinary people, become extraordinary with MONEY! Each weekly episode is packed with actionable tips, expert insights, and real-world advice to help you grow financially and take control of your future. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to level up your wealth, you’ve found the perfect place. Get ready to transform your financial journey, one episode at a time!
Money Focused Podcast
EP 65 - Vending Success with Travel Size Hair Care
Ever wonder how someone can go from a corporate job to achieving vending success in the beauty industry? My guest Maxine Pittman, the founder of Tress Obsessed, is a perfect example. She switched from corporate life to starting a business with beauty vending machines aimed at helping travelers of color find hair care products designed with them in mind. Maxine talks about the challenges she faced, like finding the right machines and understanding her customers. She also shares how she handles time management, hires the right people, and uses visual tools to stay organized. Her story shows how tough it can be to scale a business, but with the right strategies, like pitching to big venues and focusing on quality, it's possible. Maxine’s journey from going viral to becoming a certified airport vendor in seven states is full of valuable lessons for anyone interested in entrepreneurship, especially in the vending machine world.
📺 You can watch this episode on Moses The Mentor's YouTube page and don't forget to subscribe: https://youtu.be/IWyUZyVZ9lo
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Welcome back to the Money Focus Podcast. I'm your host, Moses Dementor, and on this episode I'm thrilled to have Maxine Pittman with us. She's the founder of Tress Obsess. Now Maxine has revolutionized the beauty supply industry for women of color, offering trusted hair care brands in convenient travel sizes through an innovative vending machine model. So let's dive into her journey, as well as her insights. Let's go.
Speaker 2:So my name is Maxine Pittman. I am the owner of Tress Obsessed. We are a beauty. I would say we're a mix between beauty and vending machines and we offer travel size hair care convenience items, travel size skin care items focused on ethnic hair care and women of color, travelers of color in a vending machine concept, vending machine shopping experience. If we want to rewind and go back to where I originally started so I have two degrees in business and I originally started working in sales I realized that corporate America was not where I wanted to be for the rest of my life, which I'm sure a lot of your followers can probably empathize with.
Speaker 2:I have a mouth and I don't have the personality to stay compliant in corporate America, so I'm just going to say that and I'll leave it at that. And I realized like I want to build something for myself and I not only wanted to build something for myself, but I have a lot of Black-owned business owners. A lot of them are first-generation American citizens or first-generation college graduates or first-generation entrepreneurs. And luckily, and I'm so blessed, I do have entrepreneurs within Arms Reach that are related to me, that have always been mentoring me since I was little, and I've always been able to see the main difference between my parents, who are college grads and work in corporate America their whole life, versus people who are entrepreneurs, and I knew that I wanted to always be an entrepreneur that could make my own hours, could come and go as I please. I didn't want to ask another grown person for when I can take vacation. And for me, I've always, as you can see, I've always experimented with my makeup and my hair, and that's how I've been my whole life. When I wented with my makeup and my hair and that's how I've been my whole life. When I went viral with my business, people were like oh, do you do hair? No, I don't. Oh, do you do nails? No, I don't.
Speaker 2:Like I have a business degree and I have a love for beauty, and that's basically where this started and I always wanted to do vending machines, especially like when I was in college, but I didn't have. You know, when you're a broke college student, you don't have the money to really start a business like that. So I kind of left it on the back burner and then I realized during the pandemic, I wanted to. I'm always somebody that's like okay, what is something that I can offer that nobody else is offering and I wanted to do a. So I'm originally from Los Angeles. I wanted to do a 24-hour beauty supply. That was going to be the original idea. And then, all of a sudden, the pandemic hit and everything shut down and I was like, okay, like I have friends who own businesses and they're trying to like pay rent and pay mortgages and and pay, you know, on their, on their spaces, at their businesses, and I was like, okay, I can't do, I'm not going to be able to do this and run a business during a pandemic at the same time. So I decided I spoke with my mentor and I decided, you know what, I can still do this idea and still offer what I'm trying to offer, but I'm going to have to pivot and change how I'm going to offer this. And that's kind of when the vending machine came, like the vending machine idea came to fruition that was I always say in different YouTube videos and interviews like that was my aha moment, because I was like, okay, I can merge travel, which is something I love doing.
Speaker 2:You know, we've been seeing a huge jump in young black travelers. A lot of us have disposable income because a lot of us are not having kids the same way our parents were. So a lot of us have these tech jobs where we're making six figures. And I wanted to merge two things that I loved beauty and travel. And I was like you know what, when I'm traveling different places, if I go to a five-star hotel or if I'm at a one-star motel, I've always noticed like they don't have the hair care products, like the free little travel size toiletries that they offer in the hotel rooms. None of that stuff is for our skin and none of that stuff is for our hair, hair type. So I was like maybe that's something that I can offer in these vending machines and merge two industries and that's kind of. You know how it all came about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the best businesses are. You know, usually you know solving the problem. So I like how you were creative with that, because the 24-7 beauty supply store, that do sound great.
Speaker 1:If you tell me that now I'm like, okay, I'm leaning in, but with the pandemic and stores being closed, you were agile enough to know, like, okay, I can't let this dream fall by the wayside. I need to be creative and voila, you know, then the vending machines pretty much helped, you know, propel your business forward. So talk us through, like some of those challenges you had when you initially started, especially being that it was the pandemic.
Speaker 2:I'm going to have PTSD, like it's all a blur right now, but there were so many things like I feel like a business owner would only understand what I'm saying Like when you first started business and there's so many levels to everything that's going on and then you throw a pandemic in there too it's. It's a lot Like, first of all, when I first ordered my vending machines. Like my wholesale suppliers were like we don't know if we're going to get the parts for the machine and and when you and anybody who's in vending machines will tell you get make sure that you sign your contract for your venue first and then get the the. You know, sign the contract on the venue and then purchase the machine after. So I had already like I and I explained this cause I have an e-course and I have an ebook and I do some e-learning stuff as well for people who are trying to learn how to get into the vending machine industry and I explain all of this in my e-course and my e-learning options that in the beginning I had found a loophole on how to quickly get on, how to get a lot of different contracts at one time. So I got like six contracts within like six, four to six months. So I'm like, ok, I'm just going to hurry up, get all these vending machines. Boom, boom, boom. I learned a loophole as to how to get a lot of contracts with like big corporations.
Speaker 2:At one time, when I first started my business, I was running myself into the ground like, okay, I'm going to call all of these companies. And you have to remember too, I was also still in corporate America. So I was like, okay, on my lunch break I'm going to call these companies, I'll call 10 companies or five companies. And then when I get off work and then I realized, well, I can't do that when I get off work because it's 5 PM, everybody's already gone from the office. So I was like, the only time I can do this is on my lunch break. And I was like, dang, like I'm not going to be able to call these people and be pitching my vending machine to all these different businesses. So what I ended up doing was breaking down a model and actually having a formula for how I was going to reach out to different corporations and get several locations at once.
Speaker 2:So and I teach that, I teach it a little bit in my ebook and then I and I go into it in detail in my e-course but I had gotten like six contracts at one time within the first four to six months and then I realized I was like you know what? I need to scale this back, because what I wasn't realizing is I wasn't doing my due diligence with figuring out whether or not my demographic was in these locations, figuring out what types of products they like, what's popular for them. So I had to go back to the drawing board on that and then I started realizing like okay, in terms of just hiring people, that was a whole, nother thing. Like I've had to hire and fire people. Like anybody who runs a business will tell you and I learned this from a mentor and I know this sounds horrible, it's probably. I'm sure some of your followers are going to be like this sounds so mean, but they are. Like a lot of my mentors have told me higher, slow and fire fast. Like don't be quick to hire these people. And then, all of a sudden, it doesn't work out, when you could have been interviewing with somebody who was actually qualified, who actually wanted to do the job, who was reliable, who was competent, you know, who was trainable and coachable, et cetera. And then you know higher, slow and fire fast. Once you realize that it's not working out, let that person go. Let them go on about their life and you guys go your separate ways, because that's the quicker you let them go, the quicker you can find the right person for the role.
Speaker 2:So it was me juggling a lot of different things. I hired on a director of operations. She worked for Sally Beauty Supply as a board member and she was a regional manager, so she knew a lot about different hair products. So she was a huge help and has been a key member on my team since basically the beginning. So just having her on my team and having us try to figure out how to navigate all these different spaces that we knew nothing about Like I didn't know anything about vending machines I had to learn. I took 11 months before I started my business to learn all of that.
Speaker 2:I didn't. The only thing that I really knew about hair care. Like I told you, I didn't do nails. I wasn't a hairstylist, I never owned a salon, so I had to learn about products that I had never used. And I also had to learn just how to be a leader and how to lead a team Like and I say I said this before like, yeah, I have a master's and a bachelor's in business, but they teach you just the operational day-to-day stuff. They don't teach you about when stuff goes wrong, when you run out of money, when your employee is acting crazy and threatening you, when your customers are acting crazy and threatening you. There's so many different factors that go into running a business and things that we ran into in the beginning. But I mean, I always think about the quote that says you know, the problems don't get easier, you just get better at it, and that's what ended up happening over time.
Speaker 1:That's a great quote and you know, being that it's so difficult, you know most people will give up. So if you get better, you know you're going to be a thousand times ahead of you know most people, you know. So the goal is to just really, you know, accept those bumps and bruises along the way, embrace the journey process, improve. That's what I really talk about a lot. I like to really, uh, I'm a visual person so I have boards everywhere. You know, anywhere it's a gap or anywhere there it could be an easier solution, I want to, you know, implement that to kind of make the whole process a whole lot more effective.
Speaker 1:But I did want to ask you a few things, just to make sure I'm following and also the audience. So you had noted that you like to get the contracts first, right, you had noted that you like to get the contracts first, right. So you know, once someone says you call my business and I have a you know a company, moses, a thrift store or whatever, right, you say, hey, I want to put a machine in your location, I take it that maybe you're just pitching like the concept, like you don't necessarily have to show them the machine or anything like that. Is it like a certain time frame that you have to say hey, within 90 days I can have it up and running Like how does that conversation?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and there's a whole yeah. And again, I mean, just like with anything in business, there's a whole process and different people will have like an onboarding process for new clients and new contracts that they get. Some venues do want to see, you know, a mock-up of what the machine looks like to make sure that it fits in the location. To make sure and when I say fits, I don't actually just mean physically, but make sure that it fits with what they're already offering their clients and what they're already doing. Like, for instance, you know we have a Atlanta location at the Underground and when we first got that location they wanted to make sure, like okay, does this fit what we're also offering with other food carts and you know other concepts of businesses that are in this venue. So you know it's a whole process.
Speaker 2:But yes, to answer your question, some businesses are like we want to see what it looks like. Some businesses don't care and they're like let's get to the money, like this is how much your rent is, this is how much you're going to pay with this, pay with that, and then you start negotiating with that. And it's not cookie cutter, I feel like With vending machines that offer like, sandwiches, snacks, you know, food. I feel like that industry has been around so long that there is a cookie cutter procedure. But with beauty, vending is there's not, like sometimes you're literally making stuff up on the fly to make sure that things you know look presentable, look professional, fit your brand, et cetera look professional, fit your brand, et cetera.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, and you know it's not like being that, since you're one of the you know people at the front of this, this wave, you can kind of help shape what what the standard is. So that's pretty cool. When it comes to the type, like the vending machines in itself, is there a certain type of vending machine that's suitable for this industry or you know, you mentioned sandwiches and you know other snacks or is it literally the same type of machine or is it something specific for your, for your brand?
Speaker 2:So I mean, I've seen a ton you know being in this. It's going to be. You know, next year I'll be coming up on four years that I've been doing this and I've seen a lot of my competitors have similar vending machines to me, meaning touchsc. Years that I've been doing this and I've seen a lot of my competitors have similar vending machines to me, meaning touchscreens. I've seen the types of vending machines where we're all used to seeing the vending machines with glass, where you can actually see the items inside and you can see it fall and drop and et cetera. But they have new, real high-tech machines and again, these machines are $18, are 18 to $25,000 machines, but the machines that have just a gigantic touchscreen and you can't see what's actually in the machine, you can just select what you want on touchscreen.
Speaker 2:But because of, like, ai and technology and all of that, we're seeing a lot of different types of beauty vending machines. I mean because it is beauty and again, you have to know what your customers like, like I'm going to give you an example. I mean because it is beauty and again, you have to know what your customers like, like I'm going to give you an example. I know that there's a girl I don't remember her business name, but there was a girl a few years back during the pandemic who was offering like beauty convenience. When I say convenience items, I mean like Q-tips, like deodorant stuff, like that convenience items and she had her vending machine in a gas station.
Speaker 2:If you're in a gas station, then a lot of people are not gonna care what the vending machine looks like, like it can just be. You can just spend $1,000 on a used vending machine and just make sure that it takes cash and credit card and people won't care. But when you're in big venues, like luxury venues, like if you were in a big nice stadium or if you were in an airport these types of venues they care what the machine looks like, meaning it has to be top-notch, it has to work correctly, your marketing has to look good, everything has to be solid to AT. That was another big difference between the vending machines that people buy for you know, to do snacks and all that kind of stuff versus the vending machines that I have and some of my competitors have, because I feel like during the pandemic people got a lot of false information. People were like, oh, I can do beauty vending machines and just spend a thousand dollars or $500 on a used vending machine and just throw some hair prep.
Speaker 2:No, that's not how it works, Especially if you want your brand to be around in five or 10 years. If you don't care, then have at it. But if you actually care about your brand and what you're bringing to the table, it's something that's going to have your name and your face on it. You can't, you can't operate in that way. So you know, it all depends on your venue, it all depends on how you want to represent yourself and and also the amount of money that you have. So that's another thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I tell you, I mean you know, ladies, they they're going to spend some money on their, their beauty products. So why put something that looks like you know so cheap and then put, you know, try to put some high end products in there? It just doesn't match us. To match up the visual, the experience, and you know speaking of experience because you did note that you have a location in Atlanta, you have locations in areas that you don't currently live in, like how does that work? How do you manage, you know, your vending business from afar? Talk to us about that.
Speaker 2:That's so funny because I had this conversation I am like a text chat with, like other women and we all do vending machines and some of us do beauty, some of us do just regular snack vending machines, but we all do vending machines so we can talk to each other and vent and do all that kind of stuff. And we were just having this conversation because one of the women that I know, she's in Florida and she does snack vending machines and another girl I was speaking to, she's like how do you just have vending machines in a state that you don't live in? And I was like you just hire people. And I said it very easily just off because because I mean, I'm like it's just like, I'm like that's like talking to somebody like that started McDonald's and they live in Ohio but they have a McDonald's in Connecticut and they're like, well, how do you run your McDonald's? You hire people, like that's what you're doing business. You hire people. And they're like you trust these people. And I'm like, well, there are systems and operations. That's what an SOP is. It stands for systems, operation, procedures, where you, you know, you figure out, okay, this is, this is what I can trust this person with. And, and then sometimes you have to ease people into it. Sometimes you can't, like give people the keys to the cash box on day one. You got to see six months out if you can trust them on different things, like and that's with any type of hiring that you do for any business, like have there been issues that I've had where I've hired somebody and they don't turn out well and I got to fly out to the vending machine and fire them? Absolutely. It has happened. I don't like it, but that's what doing threshold is Like, and when I say threshold I'm talking about you have to figure.
Speaker 2:You have to know your location, like if it's a slower location and you can get away with. Not like I had a location that was so slow that I could get away with visiting that machine every two months or every more, once a month or every three months, and I didn't have to necessarily hire somebody and pay them every two weeks or pay them their monthly. You know salary and then you know I can just check the machine myself or I can have my fiance check it or you know whoever. So, and I've also had vending machines and like I got lucky when I had a vending machine in Los Angeles. You know, if I have a family member or something that lives close to that area, I can just leave a set of keys there and have them check it every week or every other week, and you know, and and so it just depends. It's. It's so many different things but, like you said, it's a new industry, so you're trying to figure out what works for your business.
Speaker 1:It's a mindset. You know, and I asked you that question partly for the audience because I told you before we jumped on. You know I have rental properties and 800 miles away before we jumped on, you know I have rental properties and 800 miles away, like you mentioned, it's systems, it's hiring people. You know, like you noted earlier, you know hire slow fire, fast. And you know, because you don't let your geographic, you know, a location prevents you from exploring the national possibilities, the national market, even in a national market.
Speaker 1:I'm not doing anything international currently but don't be in a box when it comes to your money. If there's a better opportunity that's in another state, then figure out how to make it happen. You know, I'm yeah, I'm sure you crunch your numbers and you said, hey, you know, for me to pay this location, for me to supply the machine the right way, to buy the machine the right way and also have X number of employees, I would need to. You know, charge this much, make this much, do this much, and that's what having a business is. You know it's not just where we hand it to you. You got to, you got to do the work.
Speaker 2:You got to do, you got to get in the mud and that's I mean. Essentially that's what I was doing with the business. Like I had friends that were like I would never expand my business to a different state. I like to be close to my friends and family. I was like you're going to miss out on a lot of money like that. You're going to leave a lot of money on the table. I mean, if somebody called me tomorrow and was like hey, we want to put your vending machine in London airport or in Africa or in somewhere in Europe or wherever, I'm not going to pass up that opportunity and I'll have to bump my head and learn those lessons as I go with running an international location too. But I'm not going to pass that up just because I'm scared to expand outside of the city that I live in.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that message. I hope that message comes across loud and clear for people, because I hear that a lot. I hear that a lot and it's really one of those things that will keep you in a mindset you got to get out of that. The best way to look at it, too and I'll jump into something else is if someone invests in Apple, are you worried about what Tim Cook is doing, or do you just simply? You know it's like, if you won't, if you won't worry about what Tim Cook is doing, why? Why won't you do it for yourself? You know what I'm saying. Like your money. You invest in these companies, they putting it to work, doing what they need to do, implementing their systems. Why don't you put your own money to work, implement your systems and you actually get a greater return? Right, I'm just saying Right.
Speaker 2:Right Absolutely and be strategic. I mean, you know, like I said, there's a strategy to everything and there's an easier way to everything too. I mean, you know, if I could take what I have now and go back to day one, oh my gosh, I would have so much time saved, so much money, so much stress and headaches and gray hair saved. But you know, that's what the journey is. You're learning as you're going.
Speaker 1:When you actually, you know contact us, you know a potential client, what are, like, the top objections that you might get? Just curious.
Speaker 2:I haven't pitched in a while because the venues I'm pitching now are way bigger than the venues I used to pitch Like. I'll give you an example. So when we first started out we were doing military bases, shopping malls. Now we're like doing we're pitching to hotels, stadiums, airports that are having hundreds of thousands of people versus, you know, a thousand people or a few hundred people walking past our vending machines every day. So the pitch and you also have to understand the process is totally different. When you're getting into these larger venues you are going up against other big corporations. So it's not really you're not pitching the same way Like, you're not getting on the phone and pitching the same way as you would with these smaller venues. So I haven't pitched in a while. I still practice my pitches just because I like to stay on top of things and sharp with pitching.
Speaker 2:But the conversations and the objections back then were more so like oh well, we only you know we already have that type of concept in our mall because as the pandemic was picking up, other women and men were trying to get into beauty vending machines that were also pitching their machines. So it was a lot of people starting to pitch the beauty vending concept to these different venues and some of them were a bit overwhelmed with the big wave at that time. So most of the objections were well, why would we need that for our clients? Or you know, we already have something like that in our venue. We don't need something else for, like, if a venue already has clients, a hair salon or a barbershop.
Speaker 2:You have to understand, because the beauty vending concept like the beauty vending machines is still new. Sometimes when you're pitching, they don't even understand what you're talking about. Like some of these venues will think that you're talking about a beauty salon or like a beauty supply store or a barbershop and they'd be like oh well, we already have a barbershop and I'm like no, no, no, no, no, that's not the same thing and you have to honestly break it down and make sure that the receiving and the people on the receiving end understand what exactly, what type of concept you're talking about and how it can benefit their venue and how they can bring something fresh and new to their pay, their shopping patrons, versus what they already have.
Speaker 1:I was like you know, hey, before you say no, let me make sure you have an understanding of what's actually going on. So that's yeah, that's key. How do you maintain the quality and also the innovation of your services as you scale? That's pretty difficult at times, but how are you doing?
Speaker 2:Yes, so I try my best to stay on top of trends, like I have Google alerts that go off on my phone on my laptop constantly. I'm constantly reading through articles online to see like, who are my newest competitors? What are they doing? I'm watching people on social media seeing what worked for them, what didn't work for them, that didn't work for them and what a lot of people and I hope they're hearing me when I say this if you're somebody that wants to get into beauty vending, it's going to be similar to snack vending.
Speaker 2:I'm going to give you guys an example. So if you're, let's say that you have a hotel that you have a snack vending machine in, and then you have a car wash that you have a snack vending machine in and Twinkies do really really well at your snack vending machine in the hotel but not at the car wash. So you're not going to keep putting them in that machine at the hotel. You're going to take them out and figure out another product. So how do you do that? You get feedback from your customers. You also will watch your competitors. You also will see, okay, what new hair care brands are coming out with new products that are in travel sizes that people like.
Speaker 2:So I do all of the above, and I have the people on my team do all of the above, and then also the different people that maintain my vending machines.
Speaker 2:I'll ask them like hey, you know, when you see customers at the vending machines, talk to them, see what kind of products they want to see from us, see what they're interested in, see what they like, see what they don't like, get feedback from them. So I do all of the above. I'm getting ready to do another product launch at the end of not September, but the end of October, going into holiday season, because there's a bunch of new products I want to take off of and we've gotten a lot of feedback from that, which I love. So there's a lot of products we're going to be not a lot, but there's a few products that aren't working well that we're going to take off the website and then new products we're going to be bringing in that people are telling us that they want to see and they're going to be. We're going to make sure that we have them available on our website site as well as in our vending machine location.
Speaker 1:So what would you say? Is you know is? You gave us a lot of sneak peeks of things that you're doing. It sounds like you're working with larger clients. Sounds like you have an e-course. What are you expecting to do with your business moving forward? What are some of your big plans that you want to tell the audience about so we can support you ultimately?
Speaker 2:Yes, Thank you. Yeah, so we have two different types of clients. So first, I'm going to talk to the clients who are only interested in travel size hair care. When we launched back in May March of 2021, we went viral. We went, you know, and everybody who has followed us for a while they know that. We were featured on BuzzFeed and we were featured on the Shade Roman and different podcasts, just like yours, and different YouTube channels, and you know everyone was saying when are you going to be in airports? When are you going to be in airports? So we are now certified to be an airport vendor in seven states.
Speaker 2:Right now I'm not going to say what states those are because obviously we don't know when we will be getting a contract. It takes a long time to get an airport contract, sometimes two, three years so I don't want to make any promises on that, but we are working very diligently to start getting airport locations. Obviously, we want to be in states where our customers are the East Coast, the New Yorks and the New Jerseys. We want to be down in the South. We want to be in Miami. We want to be down in Florida. We want to be in Atlanta, Georgia. We want to be in some of the southern states, like Texas, like Mississippi, Alabama, and then we also want to be up top. You know Chicago, Indiana, some of those types of places, Memphis, Tennessee as well. So there's a ton of different things that we're working on right now. So, for the travel size hair care stuff, if you are not in Atlanta because that's where our main vending machine is right now if you're in Atlanta, you can find us at the Underground. That's where our vending machine location is. If you're not in Atlanta, you can always purchase with us on our website. We offer over 60 different products from over 30 different brands that are all travel size, ethnic hair care products and convenience items. Everything is four ounces or less, so it's easy for you to travel with it, throw it in your purse, your suitcase, your luggage, carry on, et cetera, and your duffel bag. And that's exactly what we created it for for the traveler of color.
Speaker 2:And then, on the e-learning side, if you are someone who is looking to get into beauty vending machines or just vending machines in general, if you don't know where to start, we sell templates. Our templates are like 40 bucks each. I believe we get a lot of people who have already started their vending machine companies but they just need some guidance. That's what the templates are for. They're easy, 40 bucks each, and we I think we offer like 10 different templates, checklists, guides, things like that.
Speaker 2:And then, if you're somebody who's just starting out and you actually need, you know, a little bit more attention. You're somebody who wants to learn the whole industry, we do offer an e-course. It's called the beauty vending business Academy. It's eight different modules with 43 different lessons. We walk you through all different things. I give you a template that you where you can actually use our investor deck and our business pitch deck template as well, and you get all of our vendor lists. It comes with a ton of stuff, but it gives you all the tools that you need to get started. That is $12.99 right now and we do do payment plans on that. If you're somebody that's looking to do that and get into the industry, start making some money doing. You you know beauty vending machines and getting into this industry. So that's what we're offering right now.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, you broke it down on how we can support you. I'm very much interested in my guests and their business. So you know I might be a little nosy, but just thinking about it, I looked at your website. I love the vending business. Have you ever thought about or maybe it's in the works, maybe you tried or whatever but have you ever thought about potentially making your own products, or you know?
Speaker 2:white people yeah, white labeling no, just because I people have asked me that before. It doesn't come up a lot. But no, I haven't. That's not really of interest for me and I don't know why.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you know, my business brain just kind of walks through. It's like, hey, you know, maybe the margins, well, it probably would be a whole lot better. You have such a beautiful website logo and everything, great name. So you know they throw that out there, you know, even if it's something you, one of your products that you service, and it's like, hey, this is my version, or whatever.
Speaker 2:You know, yeah, well, and I feel like, because you know, being in the beauty industry now with these vending machines, I have a lot of friends who have, you know, small business friends who have their white label brands, and I see everything they're going through and I'm like you're a man so you might not recognize this, but when you go, in I have a beard.
Speaker 1:When you have a beard, care stuff, that really is finding the right one. It's very much diva like, divo, divo-like, let me say.
Speaker 2:Divo. I love that. Yeah, I mean so. You probably know, like when you go into the Targets and the CBSs and the Walgreens of the world, we're fighting, you know, as small business, black-owned business owners. We're fighting for shelf space, we're fighting to be seen.
Speaker 2:And then if you add in, like celebrities who are starting all their own hair care brands, you know the Tracy Ellis Rosses and the Taraji P Henson's and the Beyonce's you know of the world, it's very, very hard and I feel like it's hard enough to be a business owner For me. I'm all about like I feel like millennials have a very hard time staying focused with like one thing that they want to do, and me I was like you know what? We don't draw this back, I'm going to. I need to be laser focused on what I'm going to do and I want to take my business a million dollar mark before I even start bringing in, because if you bring in white labels, you got to bring in distribution and warehouses and all these other things. And I feel like for me, I just want to focus on making sure that Tress Obsessed is a whole you know a household name before I start dabbling my hand in other things.
Speaker 1:That's perfectly fair and we all become, you know, a victim of our creativity at times. You know so sound like, you know, you, your. Your measure of success right now is being, you know, world renowned as a beauty vending business. And then, you know, as you get to that next tier, if you want to add some white label, have at it, you know you can do it. Cool, all right, perfect, perfect. So I know you mentioned and I appreciate it too very transparent about the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, but I wanted to ask you so far, like, what's been the most rewarding aspect of being an entrepreneur?
Speaker 2:Oh, my God, you're going to make me cry. There's a lot of things I mean, if I look back at this, like I know that the person that I am now is completely different than who I was three years ago. And I feel like when you work in corporate America so long, you have such a consumer tunnel vision and then when you become a business owner, you look at business completely different. When I buy an iPhone, I look at it completely different. When I go to shop for a t-shirt or I order something online, I look at the process completely different than the way that I used to as a consumer and as somebody in corporate America. And there's so many things that you learn, not about just business, but things that you learn about yourself in the process. So I think that is a part of it. Like I have something I always tell my dad like if I die today, I can always be like okay, if you go online and you type in my name, people know who I am, they know who my brand is, and it may not be a lot of people, it might be 10,000 or 30,000 people, but people know who I am and they know that I was.
Speaker 2:You know I come in the rooms to shake things up and also, at the end of the day, if I'm looking at generations that are coming after me, you know the Gen Z and Gen Alpha, you know the younger kids, you know I have and there's always a picture that I remember in my head. I remember there was a black mother that tweet I don't know if she tweeted or she tagged us in a photo and she had, like her six-year-old daughter that saw, if you see my vending machines, you'll see like pictures of me and women that look like me on my vending machines. And her daughter was in shock, like, wow, like this is the owner of this brand and she had her daughter take a photo next to it and it's like that representation. You know her daughter might've been like oh okay, I want to be a teacher or I want to be a fireman or you know, whatever the case may be. And now she's like I can be a business owner too and I feel like we need to make sure that on top of you know, we talk all about financial literacy and generational wealth, but you know, owning a business, owning your own business, I feel like, as black people, we need to make sure that we aren't just consumers.
Speaker 2:You know, and not everybody wants to be a business owner, and that's fine too, but making sure that those options are available to you and that you can actually visualize those for yourself. So I think that's the most rewarding is just seeing younger women and even women my age will come up to me and be like you, inspire me. You know, you put the fire under my butt to start my own business. When I saw you on this platform, I saw you doing this interview and I'm like y'all make me cry. I'm like trying to hold back my tears. So I think that's the most rewarding part of it.
Speaker 1:Those are great reasons to keep doing what you're doing.
Speaker 1:I agree that not everyone wants to be an entrepreneur, but I also think not everybody should be an entrepreneur too because, there's nothing wrong with a job for, for a job for people that need to be in that lane, and I help people with that aspect too. You know if you're a corporate person that you can thrive there. You know I can help you with interviews, I can help you with. You know your leadership presence. But if you truly have that entrepreneurial grit and you have the right mindset, then you're doing yourself a disservice to just be in the corporate work you really are.
Speaker 2:I'm so glad that you said that, cause that's I'm a little. I need to work on my patience as a business owner because I, you know, and I and I think I went over this already Like I do have my e-learning and my coaching, where I have my e-course and I always tell my mentees, like I'm not the person that you want to mentor you, I promise, like people are like you need to mentor me, please mentor me.
Speaker 2:And I'm like no, no, no, no, no. Like, take my e-course, it will tell you everything that you need to know. I'm not like. That's probably why I don't have children, because I'm not somebody who is patient enough to be like I'm going to walk you through all of this Like. I'm, more so, the person that's like hey, you need to come with this business mindset and be ready to hop in and I'll give you all the tools that you need and show you the exact formula that I use to do it, so that you can start making money too. But I'm not that person that's going to be like let me massage you. You can do this. That's not the game over here.
Speaker 1:That's cool. So you know great advice. Before we close out, shout out your how we can reach you one more time. So the best way to reach you on social media, how can we tap into your course? So the floor is yours. I just want you to let us know.
Speaker 2:Yes. So if you're looking to purchase Trouble Size care and we will be having, I think we're launching like 10 different product lines coming for the holiday season in October, so look out for that. Our website is www. Tressobsessed. Tress is like your hair, so it's T-R-E-S-S and obsessed, so TressObsessedcom.
Speaker 2:If you want to shop with us or if you have a trip coming up and you're looking for travel size hair care products for your hair type, that is where you can find us. If you are looking for the e-course, e-learning, our business academy information that's on our website as well. You can just go under e-learning and you can actually. If you're somebody who's like you know what I'm broke, I just want to see you know what she has to offer. We do offer a free masterclass too, so you can start with that first and then, if you want to, you know, do any of our templates or our e-course. We have payment plans for all of that and you can see that on our website under the e-learning tab. And then, if you want to find us on social media, we are Tress Obsessed LA on Instagram, tress Obsessed LA on Twitter. We are Tress Obsessed on TikTok and then Tress Obsessed Beauty on Facebook.
Speaker 1:And I'll make sure to include all your contact information in the show notes, so no worries. So anybody who's watching or listening just check the notes or the episode description. So thank you so much for joining the show. Great conversation and we're out.
Speaker 2:Yes, thank you, moses Bye.
