Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez

Hey, it's Guy here, and before we start the show, I want to share something I heard recently from Steven Colbert. It's about learning from failure. He told me an incredible story from way back when he was doing improv in Chicago, and how he Broke on stage one night. which he initially thought was the worst thing ever, but it actually changed his life. In his approach to comedy.

Forever. To hear my conversation with Stephen Colbert and other incredible creative people, listen to my other podcast, The Great Creators. Just search for the Great Creators with Guy Raz, wherever you listen to podcasts. And now On to today's show. We didn't really have a good understanding of like how to run a business. So we were literally spending and not monitoring like what was going on. Out. Yeah.

We had to learn the hard way and it really humbled us. Top line was great. The company was growing like so on the outside looking in like you know it looked amazing. Yeah. But when you lift up the hood and you look underneath the hood Everything was jacked up.

Welcome to How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements. I'm Guy Raz, and on the show today. How Monique Rodriguez walked away from her nursing job to pursue her hair care hobby. built a multi-million dollar beauty brand

Less than a decade. Mail Organics is a hair and skincare brand. It started out like so many companies we profile. As a solution to a problem the founder had. Monique Rodriguez wanted healthier hair after years of chemical treatments.

And she wanted a product that was natural and organic, a product that would work on her textured hair. So after doing some research, she started to coat her hair in things like eggs and bananas and avocados. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it felt like she had a smoothie poured on her head. But eventually her experiments got more sophisticated. She'd use mint extracts and almond oils and other ingredients to see how it affected her hair. And of course, she would document it on her Instagram account. This was back in 2014. At the time, Monique had a few hundred followers.

But many of them had the same hair challenges, and they followed Monique's experiments closely. Now, before I continue, I should mention that. At the time. Monique was a nurse. As a kid, growing up near the south side of Chicago, most of the women she knew who had steady, good paying jobs Or nurses.

But Monique was dreaming of something different. And was always searching. She attended multi-level marketing courses. She tried selling Mary Kay and Avon Cosmetics. She sold jewelry online. None of it worked. But there was something about her home experiments with hair care products that just clicked with her small band of social media followers.

And they wanted to buy them. The options for women with textured hair, mainly women of colour, were limited, and Monique seemed to be onto something. Now I won't give away how it happened, you'll hear the story in a moment, but in less than 10 years, Monique Rodriguez and her husband Melvin would go on to build a huge brand that would eventually be acquired by Procter Gamble in 2023. The first black female founded beauty brand in PG's portfolio.

But before all of that. Monique, as I mentioned, grew up in Chicago and then later in a suburb called Riverdale. She first met her husband Melvin in middle school and they started dating Monique's senior year of high school. Monique's mom worked as a secretary in a hospital, and she remembers watching her mom work very hard and struggle. to make ends meet. But something Monique also remembers is how her mom wanted her to understand, even as a little kid, that she could aspire to do more. And have a better life.

So growing up, um, my mom was basically like a single mom trying to raise her kids. She uh it was me and my brother Uh my dad, he suffers from drug addiction, so you know He was present in the household, but not necessarily present. to where his kids needed him. Yeah. So I grew up seeing my mom pretty much struggle to take care of me and my brother. she worked at University of Chicago Hospital and because she worked in the hospital environment, she had a lot of nurse friends. So I remember being a little girl and she had one of the this nurse friend and

We went over her sister's house for like a barbecue or something. And it was just like this big home. I thought it was a mansion. You know, now that I look back, it wasn't. It was just a regular house. But it was bigger than our house. And, you know, she had a daughter and this her daughter had a pool, and her room was just So beautiful, like a princess room. And I remember at that moment telling myself, like, wow, when I grow up and I have kids, like I wanna live like this. Like I want my kids to live better than me and have something like this. And my mom, I don't even think she realizes this, but that instance planted a seed in me to start thinking differently and and wanting more for my life than what you know, I was given or how I was brought up. You know, I always like to say that

I didn't have to go to dare or, you know, learn about not doing drugs in school because I learned it in my own household. Like how it rips households apart, like how it affects your lifestyle, your body, your health. And I said, I'm gonna do something different and I'm gonna change My family's trajectory, even at a young age. Um

So yeah, that's how I grew up. My mom she just you know, work very hard to provide for us and I'm truly thankful. Okay. And I guess I'm not going to be able to do your interest in in beauty started

In your childhood too, like w w uh when you were a kid, tell me about that. Yeah, because I've always been like a girly girl. And my mom should laugh to this day like you're always in the mirror. You're always in the mirror doing your hair. Um I remember being obsessed with my grandmother, and my grandmother had long hair and she she used to use mane and tail shampoo. And that's how much I paid attention to it because I knew exactly what shampoo she used. For horses and humans. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And so I was always curious Because of my grandmother, because my grandmother was like you know, very fancy and you know, always kept her hair

nice and she always made sure she went outside and had a lipstick and and so like that was my passion. I I enjoy sitting down with my grandmother brushing her hair playing in her makeup so beauty was always something that just was very intriguing to me and I I also remember being young and like looking at women and And I would just look at a a lady and I would just rearrange her whole look and give her makeover in my mind. Uh well. Because I'm like oh if she had her hair like this, or if she put this makeup on, if she wore this, like she would look so cute. Like I I would just give people different looks, just using my imagination. So it was just always like my thing. Yeah. I guess growing up, I mean you mentioned your mom worked at the hospital and and your mom I guess encouraged you to to think about pursuing nursing as a profession because it is a great stable job.

Of course, it's a great job and it's recession proof. But yeah, so I think that parents also have a very unique way of manipulating their kids into getting their kids to do what they want. I think that my mom was like putting me in situations like Look, if you go to nursing school, this is what you'll have. Like look at all my nurse friends. Yeah. So, you know, I um I was a good kid. I thought that was my only route.

to be successful because, you know, I didn't grow up seeing women entrepreneurs, let alone like black women that were running and operating business. Like that was non existent when I was growing up. I saw women that struggled and took care of their families, and the black women that I did see that were successful were in entertainment. They were models and actresses. And so growing up You know, I thought that

I can be a model and I used to like drag my mom to take me to pageants and go to like different model calls to model for like hair companies. And my mom, she never said it, but it was like her action show like you're not gonna make it in this beauty space. And so my dreams of what I wanted to do of of being in the beauty industry, I just kinda like put my dreams to the wayside and do what my mom told me to do.

Yeah. And so I went to nursing school and became a nurse at the age of twenty two. So let's talk about nursing. I mean, what was that life for you? You were I imagine a typical day was just

Ten, twelve hour day is just just day in, day out. It was not enjoyable, to say the least. I started in a labor and delivery because as a young twenty two year old nurse, I said I want to work with women because I can relate to women and I think I'll be a better nurse, uh working with People that look like me. So

What I enjoy the most about nursing was Serving and helping people. Yeah. Like getting to know families and you know, just meeting people like that's what I enjoyed. I enjoyed the thrill of

You know, when a patient comes in and we have to run into the or and we have to hurry up and start I Vs, like I enjoy like the adrenaline rush. of being a nurse and like saving lives, like I did enjoy that. But it was just like the day to day text scene.

Um because I work nights because I had my first daughter And You know, I didn't trust anyone to watch her, so my husband and I we would um rotate shifts and so I work the night shift. And it was

I still look back to this day and I'm like, I'm so thankful that I don't work nights. I appreciate and value my sleep so much because it was so taxing on my body. I remember days having to drive home. and having to pull over on the side of the road to go to sleep so I don't fall asleep on the expressway. Yeah. It just really got to me and I felt burnt out very fast after like one year of working as a nurse. W was it clear to you pretty early on This was not what you were gonna do with your life.

Yep, very clear. Um I remember like when I first started and I stepped on the floor of labor and delivery, I dealt with More senior nurses and senior personnel that worked in the hospital. that were not too friendly. They're not nice. They were mean, quite frankly, and You know, I would ask myself, why is everybody so mean? And it dawned on me very early, like They're mean because they don't like being here.

And I just told myself then I was like, this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. I have to find other things to make money so I can get out of this career. Like that was my mindset. Would you go home and you know, I mean come home and six in the morning or something and and Melvin was probably asleep, but when both of you were awake and talking, would you Sort of say what can I've got ideas, or things I wanna do. Would do you remember having those conversations with him?

So the funny thing is even before I became a nurse, I've always had this spirit of independence, autonomy, like I've always been a visionary, a dreamer. And before I even became a nurse Melvin and I, we had um You know, we got sucked up into the direct sales

The multi level marketing. Would you go to the the seminars and and and learn about them? Yes, yes. Like we I was probably like Nineteen or twenty. in nursing school. Yeah. And I remember the direct sales company that we were sucked into was called A C N It was like a

cable company. And so we would go to these seminars and I remember It was this husband and wife couple. And they painted this visual like all direct sale companies do. you're gonna be rich overnight and you're gonna live this amazing lavish lifestyle. Yeah. If you just sell all of whatever we were selling at the time. Yeah.

It was cable subscriptions. It was cable subscriptions, correct. And I remember we would host these like parties to get people to buy into these subscriptions. When I tell you no one bought into those subscriptions and we were like what? Is this like I did not sell any cable subscriptions, so and I did not become a millionaire overnight like they promised.

Um I know that you also Did like Mary Kay or Avon or So that certain time. When I tell you I did like so many direct sales because they will always sell me with the life that I want it. Yeah.

You know buying into This uh direct sales business and It was cheap. So I didn't have a lot of money. Melvin didn't have a lot of money. So Mary Kay was like a hundred dollars or two hundred dollars to join. And so that was my second

encounter with direct sales. So I would host like Mary Kay parties And I did that for a while and I just knew I was gonna get the pink Cadillac. I was going to be the the national sales director of my region. That was my goal. And I think at that time I was probably like twenty one. Yeah. Did that for a while and you know, that never Got off the ground. I did probably sell like a few more lipstick than cable subscriptions.

But it wasn't anything that could pay my bills. Wha what was what was Melvin doing, by the way? He was a he worked at UP S, so he started at UP S when he was sixteen. So he started as a Um, the guys that packed the boxes and put'em on the truck. I don't know what they're called. Uh he started there, but he before he came on to Maile, he

was a project engineer. So he went to school, became an engineer, and he just worked his way up. Wow. And so They're saying that U P S is like they bleed brown and when I tell you like that was his saying, like he bled brown because he really thought that He was gonna climb the corporate ladder and be like the VP of UPS one day.

That was his like goal to do. I'm curious about something, which is I've read you described yourself as Yeah.

Naturally you're not A salesperson, like you don't feel comfortable. Going up to people and selling things. But I and so what was that like doing Mary Kay or selling cable subscriptions like Did you have to like Break out of your shell and fear of

Doing that, how did you do it? Yeah, that's a great question because I'm not a talker. I'm an introverted person by nature, but I force myself to Come out of my shell.

In order to get a job done. And I do credit that to working as a nurse because I had to deal with So many different patients from all different walks of life. And I learned very early on how to develop like rapport with people and how to connect and engage with people.

Um and makes them feel very comfortable with me. And I took the same skill set of making people feel comfortable from nursing, and I applied that to business. So I Лерн гата пуш майсе to talk more and to be more interactive and engage with people. at a level where I'm uncomfortable, where it scares me. Um, and I know that if I'm scared, that I'm challenging myself.

And you can only grow from those type of challenges. Yeah. Those were not the only businesses you tried out. You tried a few more out, including at a certain point you thought maybe you would start your own nursing agency like home care agency. And y I think you even did the paperwork to start that business, but

That sort of didn't go anywhere. What tell me what happened? Yeah, so as I mentioned I got burnt out after a year of working as a nurse, so I stopped working at the hospital. And I decided to start working agency.

When you work agency, your pay is also more. So I'm like okay. This nursing agency, they're paying me this. And they have these contracts with this hospitals I wonder how much they're getting paid. They're getting paid, yeah. Yeah. And so that was my thinking and I'm like

I think I can do this. Let me start my own agency. Yeah. So I started Googling like, you know, what are the steps that I need to take to create a nursing agency. So I did the whole business plan myself. And then um I realized like How am I going to

Establish Contracts with the hospitals. That was the part I couldn't figure out. Yeah. And so I easily I quickly got discouraged. And I'm like, Okay, this is not for me. Like, who am I to think that I can like

start this company, like you don't know anything about business. Why don't you go back to like what you know and that's working as a nurse. Right. You know, I think it's just a fact of like You know, you can't be what you don't see. And I'll be honest with you, like I thought that Being a business person or business owner, entrepreneur, or whatever

Like I thought it was something for like white men. Yeah. Like I didn't even think that like Black women could even do this. So it was like the negative voices in my head were always telling me, like, this is not your lane, like what are you doing?

You have no experience, no knowledge in this, like I will let the thoughts of doubt and fear. be louder than like the faith and believing in myself. Um Were you it sounds like you were

still practicing as a nurse and trying out these different things that Yeah what I think what's so cool about what you were doing at the time, and maybe it was just I don't know a combination of perseverance or just energy or just

Dreaming, but you kept trying things. Yeah, still kept trying and then at even one point I said, Okay, well, if entrepreneurship is not something for me Let me go back to school. And Let me try to further my nursing career because

Then if I advance my degree in nursing, I can open up my own practice as a nurse practitioner. So In two thousand nine, I enrolled back into schools to advance and get a master's degree and become a nurse practitioner. And in two thousand nine, that's when I got pregnant with my second daughter. And I she ended up coming like two months early. So I don't know if you know this, but both of my daughters were born on my birthday.

Wow. Yeah, that's like our our fun fact. That's a one out of three hundred sixty five chance. Twice. Yeah, twice. Yes. Wow. And they were both early. So Mia, she was only a month early And then McKinsey, who's my youngest She was supposed to come in January and

And she was an emergency C sec shit. And she when she was born, she was a fighter. She's a tough one and she's still tough to this day. And but she stayed in the hospital for two months. in order for her to grow and just develop. She was she was little when she was born. She was a preemie. Yeah. She was two pounds, seven ounces. So she stayed in the NICU. So of course I'm in school and I'm like, okay.

I'm not gonna focus on school so I dropped out of the program. Yeah. And then Yeah, when she came home and she was a baby. I still wanted to watch her closely. So that's when I transitioned to being a home health nurse. Yeah. When she came home.

I I know that your Your next pregnancy. in twenty thirteen. Um Was

But but traumatic experience. It started out as a high risk uh pregnancy you were eventually rushed to the hospital, um and and I'm sure it's hard to talk about, but I know it Yeah.

was an important turning point in your life, can you Can you tell me what happened? Yeah, and you know, I don't mind talking about it because honestly, like when I talk about it, I feel that like I'm honoring my son and because you know he's the reason why Obviously got sent him.

to be my angel, but my L wouldn't exist if it wasn't f for what I went through. Yeah. And so In twenty thirteen Get pregnant. And we were not trying, so it was a a surprise. And I was already nervous

about the pregnancy because Uh how high rest McKinsey and I remember The doctor told me when she saved Mackenzie's life, she said, I cut your uterus and Up and down.

Um that's like for emergencies and Usually when you have a C section The cut on the uterus is like transverse, so it goes across horizontal, I guess. And so She told me, she said, because I cut you up and down

If you have a subsequent pregnancy, make sure you tell your doctor because you will be at risk. For a utero rupture. And so he was scheduled to come in September. And unfortunately um It happened, the uterine rupture happened on

August ninth. U in the middle of the night, my husband had to rush me, he had just came home. Thank God he had to rush me to the hospital. You know, I didn't live by any like high risk hospitals. And I think my doctor was at home.

And so it took him forever to get there to the hospital to do the emergency C section. So because it took him so long to get there. My son's heart rate continued to drop. And you know, he continued to lose oxygen to the brain, so when he was born, there was no brain activity. Um and You know

it was just it was just devastating. And he um You know, we didn't let go right away because We held on to our faith and we said, We're gonna continue to pray that God brings him through. But unfortunately we had to, um Deal with God's will? and my son, he stayed on life support for six months because that's how long we it took us to really come to terms with the fact that he was no longer with us.

And you know, it was just it was a terrible like moment because we will watch his we like he will grow. Like in the physical, like his body would just grow but you know, there was he was lifeless. Did you I mean

Here you are. Still a young mom with two girls. Still need you, you're their mom. Yeah. Yeah, they weren't

Probably your older daughter kind of knew was going on, but they still need mom. Yeah. How did you Just work through the the depression and you know that Yeah, that you

Experience. Yeah, and that's the thing, like that's looking at them because they were um three and seven. Yeah. I knew

They needed me to be their mom. Even though I was hurting, I was sad. Like I still had to show up. probably the hardest thing was like explaining to them Seeing their mom.

Leave them with a big belly. But then to come home with Nothing. When we've talked about you know, this baby and you're gonna be a big sister, like that was the hardest thing to like

Tell them. But Our faith was what we had to hang on to. We were not church goers before.

Uh but during the time that he was on life support, we were at church at the altar every Sunday And we began to be at peace with God's decision. And you know, even though we didn't understand it, we didn't understand why, but it wasn't for us to question and you know, that pain, that situation

ultimately led me to a higher purpose and I tell people this all the time, like Yes, I have a hair company. I sell shampoos, conditioners But Ultimately

I'm very vocal about how my vision of starting my air came from God. Um decided to put God first. is when I had the vision to just go on social media and just talk about hair. It was just me getting my mind off of like

you know, the loss of my son and finding a routine that like kept me busy. Like Doing things that I love is what kept me from being depressed. When we come back in just a moment, how Monique's beauty hobby wound up planting the seeds of what would become Own

New business. Stay with us, I'm Guy Raz, and you're listening. how I built this. One more thing before we get back to the show, please make sure to click the follow button on your podcast app so you never miss a new episode of the show. And it's totally free. Hey, welcome back to How I Built This. I'm Guy Roz. So it's 2014 and Monique is coping with the death of her son.

And she finds that it helps to stay busy, so she starts to get on social media and share hair care tips. And Monique says she wasn't really thinking about her beauty hobby as a potential business. At least at first. It was a way to just like creatively express myself. Yeah. And I was expressing myself with like, you know, hey, this is this hairstyle I I made today. Like I'm making this concoction. I'm I'm mixing together like some avocado, banana, some oils, and I'm gonna put this conditioner on my hair, like Let me know what you guys think. You would take like literally an avocado and bananas and mash them up. Oh of course.

And I would do a lot of researching because I had um heat damage here. Heat damage from straightening it. From straightening my hair. Yep. So from the age of like twelve until like my late twenties. My hair was always straight. Like I

didn't want to embrace my curls. And I would figure out and read online like okay what ingredients are great for like restoring the curl pattern or helping uh seal the hair cuticle or the structure and the strength of the hair. So I would just like literally sit on the computer and just order like different oils and like test it on myself. And I would just like post about it on social media. And I found so much joy in doing that because

women were like asking more questions because they were dealing with some of the same hair challenges and hair issues. Yeah. And so that's why I tell people like I wasn't planning on creating a product line because I would actually share like The different concoction recipes I would post it on social media to help other women. And when I see people are just like so happy and

they're amazed with their results, like that makes me happy. That gives me joy. At that time was Instagram could you put videos on Instagram or was it still just static? Yep. So you would have a picture Of you I'm assuming. Yep. And then maybe in the description you describe what you use and what and how you made it. Which is which really is the best of social media. Like I love that. Like I follow all these cooking people'cause I look at what they're cooking and then I want to make it.

And essentially that's what you were doing. Yeah, I was offering up recipes to whoever whoever wanted those recipes. So it wasn't to the point where like I even had like a formula that you can actually

market and sale So for instance, I would make like Because I knew my hair needed protein. And so as I was researching, I'm like, Okay, egg has a lot of protein. And so I would make conditioners and I would mix

egg into that conditioner. You crack an egg into it. Yes, and then I would put it on my hair. Yeah. And so this is like trial and error. and women were actually making the exact recipes and trying it and experimenting on their hair as well. And I was like that showed me at that moment like Oh I have influence.

they're taking what I'm saying and they're they see value in it. And they're actually like recreating it so that was a light bulb moment for me to like So

Are you gonna take this influence and use it the right way? And grow and scale this, or are you going to just look at this as a hobby and Continue. Just having fun with it.

And you had but roughly how many followers at that time, like like five hundred. Five hundred Yeah. And but I mean, even with such a small following, I mean, that kind of positive feedback I guess helped you start to think about opening. You're on. business, a beauty business. And and I guess your initial idea was like a salon. maybe featuring your own hair care products?

Yes, right. I wanted to make my own products in this hair salon. And so I had like put together like a plan of creating a hair salon. And I remember telling my husband this and my husband will always encourage me to Because I would have those days where I would just sit and, you know, just probably stare at the wall and he's like, No, get up, like get out your plan. What are you gonna do next? Let's do something. So he would always push and encourage me too, because he saw that when I started focusing on stuff that had to do with hair, my face would light up or I would be happy or I'll be focused. Yeah. And so when I thought of the idea for the hair salon, he was just like, Okay, we're gonna do it. So I knew I'm very self aware. I understand my weaknesses. I understand the areas that I'm really good at, um, and the areas that I'm weak.

I go find help. And I knew that I did not have any knowledge of business. I knew that I did not have any knowledge of how to build a brand, how to market on social media. So I would go online and Listen to podcasts. And how I built this was one of the podcasts that I would binge listen to.

I will find uh workshops that were talking about branding and marketing. And so I went to one workshop And she was a famous Celebrity hairstylist who's from Chicago and she was doing a workshop on how to build your brand on social media.

And I presented my idea to her and I said, I'm really looking to like open up a hair salon and She's like, I think that what you're trying to do is really great, but You know, with you being a nurse and going into the salon space and having all of these cosmetologists work under you, it's really hard to get them to respect you because You don't come from their space.

And so When she gave me that advice, I didn't take it as like, Oh, she's hating on my I actually thought about it. It was like food for thought. And you know, I appreciated her advice because it was the way that she Delivered.

Her advice. I mean I wouldn't have started my own and blew up how I have if it wasn't for me talking to her because I clearly wanted to start a hair salon. A salon and she giving you this'cause you're right. I mean that can be really dispiriting. You know, you're thinking, well What are we gonna do now? But but really what it did was Instead of taking the left fork in the road, it forced you to take the right fork in the road. Right. Which was to make to just focus on the products. Yep. And the thought was, Well, if I can create products, I can just do that in my home. Just make it and sell it and it'll be a happy day and I don't have to deal with anybody.

And the name Mael. I think it's a it's like a combination of your daughter's names and their middle names. Yes. Right? Yep. Yep. So I have my first daughter is um Mia Gabriel. My second daughter is McKinsey Ario. So they both have L at the end of their middle names. And I like to say that they're mine. They're my L's, but in actuality, like it's really a combination of all my kids' names. Um my son's name was Milan. Milan. Yeah.

So you knew that you were gonna focus on products. But what was the first product you were gonna try to do? How did you start to think about what that could be? Yeah, so my first product was an oil. Because as black women we're always all in our scalp, and so

one of the oils that I started with really focus on scalp. And I knew that like The foundation of healthy hair is Having a healthy scalp.

So I decided to um one of the carrier oils was almond oil. When you say carrier oil, it means the oil that you you put extracts in it. The base, yeah. Got it, got it, yeah. So sometimes if you put essential oils directly on the scalp, it can burn and irritate the scalp. Yeah. So you kinda have to like dilute it with something. And almond oil has a lot of protein in it. And I decided to uh mix it with like peppermint oil because peppermint is an essential oil and I wanted to use the uh almond oil as a carrier oil. And so with my first product the almond oil, like I would show how my hair would be so shiny. Like I would show how I would use it in my hair regimen, how I would use it as like a hot oil treatment.

I would literally everything that I did on my hair using it, I would post Like everything. So you have this product, right? It's almond mint. oil and how are you going to then sell it? Were you gonna Make it yourself and put it in like little glass bottles with a tincture and

Kind of make a label for it or Or Was that how you were gonna start initially? Yeah, so at that point I knew that I needed to find a chemist. Because of course I have a science background. But I'm not a chemist.

So I knew that I needed to find a chemist that can help me actually to create formulas that work for the hair. And that's how I started. So I found um a local manufacturer To bottle it, package it, and I think I started with like silk print at the time because I think it was cheaper. Let me ask you about the economics of this, because you were obviously you were nurse and you had

a pretty good income and your husband was rising up the ranks at UP S, but still like There is an outlay you have to Put in the Probably a few maybe ten thousand, maybe more, twenty thousand dollars.

Yeah, and you know, and to get the business likes to launch the website. Up until that point I had spent about ten thousand dollars. And this is just saving money. From your job.

I like to say that it was like on Lilway. So I every time I got paid I would probably take the majority of my paycheck and pay for something. So if this week I needed to get my website done, okay, I would tell the web designer, Well I get paid on Friday If I owe my website designer five hundred I will budget for to pay him or her five hundred dollars.

And if I needed to like order some more like inventory or products that would probably cost me like another, like let's just say five hundred dollars. So I knew that by Friday when I got paid, I'm gonna be left with Whatever. And I'm gonna divvy that up on something else that I need and then pay my bills and take care of my kids. So that's kinda how like up until I was able to gather everything that I needed to have in order to launch um when I launched in May. May twenty third, twenty fourteen, your website goes live. You are still working as a nurse, which I think is

really smart usually you're not gonna make any money. Right away. Correct. Yep. So you would have people on Instagram, you would say, Go to the website to order Yep, go to the website. So I like built up so much anticipation and momentum that I was doing something. Yeah. And what I learned is to like really spark Curiosity in people.

In the post you were saying I'm working on a product like you told people months in advance. Yep. And I would take everyone, whoever was following me, I would take them on the journey of me creating this product. Yeah. So I made people feel like they were a part. And people tell me to this day, like I remember When you were testing samples in the lab. because they felt like they were a part of it. So I mean I would even ask like What color do you prefer or like which um

product looks the most enticing to you, like I would ask questions and that's how I became curious to know like, you know, what does my audience want? Like what are they looking for? Like what are some of the problems and the issues that they're facing because if I can understand their problems, then I know that when I launch a product the product is going to be a solution to their problem. And you didn't have thousands of followers. You had hundreds of follow you wasn't like you were Kylie Jenner and not to pick on her, but she had, you know, millions of followers when she started a brand. So you had like a few hundred followers. Yeah, not a lot at all. And I just You know, I didn't let that discourage me because I felt that like if I could just grow and sell a great product. the best way of marketing is word of mouth. If they like the product, they're gonna come back and buy more and they're gonna tell their friends about it. So I really focus on like the benefits.

of the product and show the results. So the day that we launch even though I started with one product which was an oil It sold out. How many bottles did you sell? Um, I think I have like a hundred. Wow. And and I have to assume it was you and and Melvin Like in your house, like packaging them up and like

Putting the labels on them and sending them off. He he had said in the car'cause we are we were driving home as the orders were coming in, and he's like, What is in this oil? Like What did you do? I was like, I don't know, but we're on to something. So let's go home and pack these orders. And so that was the first day that we launched. And I was not expecting orders to come the second day because I'm like okay Maybe all the people that

that supported and bought for me, they're probably all my followers. and they don't need to buy any more oil. So now we gotta like wait till they come back to be repeat customers. The next day. More oil sold. The next day more oil sold, and I will tell you from the day that we launched.

May twenty third, twenty fourteen, we have not gone a day without having sales on our website. Wow. One of the things that is a challenge when you're when you start out, right? And especially when You're successful is that

People think that success instantly equals to having lots of money, but actually it can be a big challenge because You don't have enough money to scale. you know, especially if you're spending everything that's coming in to make more product and just from a like a business perspective. I mean, on the one hand it was exciting, people were ordering things, but I imagine that

Making a profit was challenging initially, especially'cause your ingredients were expensive. Oh yeah. Our ingredients and our packaging was like very expensive. But we were able to do okay Because there was no middleman. So we were able to generate a decent amount of profit in the beginning, but you know, everything that we generated w you know, we bootstrapped our company for so long. Until we got into retail. But as long as we were like

online selling direct to consumer, we were doing okay, but we just invested it right back into more product and marketing. Tell me about how you I mean, you and Melvin are You're not celebrities, you were you had no connections. Yeah. you're entering a space that's dominated by three, four companies, right? And so you're up against There's a lot that's working against you.

So how did you get into that world? How did you find people to work with and to help you kind of get to the next step and to expand. Did you did you would you go to like trade shows or would you Yeah, tell me what you did.

We did a lot of trade shows in the beginning. So As I mentioned, like I would go online and find like different workshops that I could attend. I would also, you know, uh join these like natural hair communities and all of these natural hair sites. And so I was able to meet and connect with a lot of great people. Just by going to trade shows like one of the the manufacturers that I work with today I met someone that introduced me to them at a trade show.

Mm. some of our marketing uh that we did early on was a connection made at a trade show. So, you know, it's just getting out there and networking and, you know, just showing up Every show that we did, you know, even though we didn't have a lot of money, you can tell that we put a lot of love and effort into like our displays and how everything looked. People would just come over and talk to us and want to learn more and figure out how they can help us scale. And they also found out like that we were actually real cool people and very humble people that

you know, they wanted to work with and so a lot of the connections came from uh consumer trade shows and also B2B tray shows. Yeah. And was it just you and Melvin for the first Year or so. Uh, for the first year it was

Yeah, it was me and Melvin and then we had brought on we started working with like an outside contractor, uh that was like doing marketing for us. Because All of the marketing that was like Me just doing it just Instagram. Yeah, off of Instagram and I found her at about six months And I knew that like influencers was a huge part of my strategy of like bringing on people and, you know, finding like brand ambassadors and micro influencers that we can work with. And she helped me secure like one of the big influencers that I had worked with at that time. Tell me about

The the capital outlay. Like I mean today to get influencers it's a I mean, obviously it's a big business and it costs money, but in twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen Did you have to spend a lot of money to get influencers to work with you? I mean, you know, at that time it was a lot of money to me

When I look back, I'm like no, that wasn't a lot of money. Um, but I would say I probably I think I think my first influencer was like three thousand dollars. Her post. Yeah. That's yeah, I mean then that's that's a a lot for a small business.'Cause you would probably still

Well under a million dollars in sales. Imagine. Yeah. Um Did you um I mean one of the things that that being at a trade show also is

you've got to talk about your product and you've got to kinda be out there Yeah. And so How did you do that? How did you like people you want to approach and maybe work with. How did you get through your introversion to do that.

So honestly, I um I had to learn how to get out of my own way. That's number one. So I'll just use this as an example. So the first influenc that we worked with was uh I guess she was a celebrity influencer at the time, and I saw that she was gonna be at this beauty event. And it was in Detroit, you know, I'm in Chicago.

So I call my friends and I'm like, uh, we're gonna drive to Detroit. I wanna go to this event because I wanna talk to this influencer and I wanna just Just give her my products and just see if she likes it. And was she a beauty influencer or a hair influencer in particular? She was neither. She was just uh she was on a reality show and she just had really beautiful hair. I knew that like I'm like she has beautiful hair. She starts talking about like what she's doing with her hair and she starts talking about it with my product People are gonna buy my product because of her. And so my friends, they were game. They were like, Okay, we'll drive to Detroit with you. And so I had set up a table, it was a booth display.

And she was speaking and then they opened it up for like questions in the audience. Yeah. And I said, Okay, Monique, here's your chance. Don't blow it. Just say it. And so I raise my hand when I tell you like I was probably sweating under my arms. Uh I was so nervous.

But I forgot what I s or what question I asked. But I the last thing I said to her was And I just started a product line. It's called My El Organics and it's for natural hair. And I see that you have natural hair. And she was like, Yes, I have natural hair, just meet me on the side and let me try your product. So then I followed up a week later and, you know, we ended up doing a contract together and so she became the first influencer. Wow. But it happened because of like me getting out of my way and not being afraid to like, you know, say something.

Yeah. You through all of this networking work you did, um you Land. Your first retail shop.

which is Sally Beauty, which is a massive chain of stores. Um and I think you got into like ninety or ninety five stores initially. Tell me how how that happened. How did you get in I mean, I have to assume it's hard to get into one of these stores. It's extremely hard to get into retail, like And the funny thing is I didn't even realize how hard it was because it kinda like

So We had uh built up so much great momentum. We were selling product like hot cakes. And you know, we had a lot of social media buzz and this was only year one.

And we were also selling in like, you know, your mom and pop. Beauty supply stores. And so it was a black owned beauty supply store. that had caught me. And she was like, You know, your products are just selling

crazy in this store. I need to introduce you to um this lady and she has like all the retail connections and she can help get you into like the major stores. And so I kinda just like blew her off and I was like oh okay, yeah, just give me her number and I took her number, never called the lady. Mm. So the beauty supply owner calls me again, she's like

Did you call her? Like I told her that sh she was expecting your call. And you know I probably got distracted, busy. I still didn't call the lady. So the the third time she gets on a call with my husband and I, like we happen to be on a call together. So she puts me on blast. In front of my husband, she was like, Yeah, I've been telling Monique to call this lady. You know, she has great connections with retailers and the way your products are moving in my store, like you guys should really just entertain her and and give her a call. And so my husband's like, Oh

Well give me your number, I'll call her. Because again Like my fear was like the fear of rejection. Like I didn't know what to say to her. So I kinda just let like my own fear and like doubt keep me from calling her or keep you know, I was procrastinating. But my husband, like, he is extroverted and he's very persistent so he's

I'm gonna call this lady, I'm gonna see what she's talking about. He calls her, she flies out to Chicago, and she comes to see like um We put together like this little mini presentation. And it was really just like our analytics of like how we were selling online. And the chart that we showed her, like literally blew her mind. And she was like, This this is just unbelievable. Wait, you guys started in You started this year?

Yeah, we're like, Yeah, we started in May and she was like No. I've never seen this before. When we come back in just a moment, how that conversation changed the trajectory of Unique home grown business.

Stay with us. I'm Guy Raz, and you're listening to how I built this. Hey, welcome back to how I built this. So it's the summer of 2015, and Monique and Melvin happen to be at a gymnastics tournament with their girls in Dallas, in the headquarters of that all-important national chain, Sally's Beauty? is just forty-five minutes away, which turns out to be really serendipitous. So we get a call from a this broker and she goes, Hey

Sally's they're very interested. They heard about what you guys are doing on social media. They are very excited about this brand. They want to meet you guys. And you know, we were like, Oh, okay, well we're already in Dallas, but you know, we're here with our kids and you know, we don't have a babysitter. And we don't have anything to wear. And she was like They're like bring your kids to this meeting. They really want to meet with you guys.

And I'm like, how do we go to this corporate meeting and we're bringing our kids? They're like, you know, five and nine. I'm like, they're not gonna sit still. And so we're like, hey, we're just gonna make it happen. And so we ended up bringing our kids to this meeting and we sat in Sally's corporate boardroom and I remember telling my kids, I'm like, This is a very important meeting. Just sit in the corner, keep your hands crossed, don't say a word. Hope you had a lot of crayons. Yes. Um, so what's so special about like that moment is Because like now they're teenagers And they were a part of like the beginning.

to see their mom following their dreams. Yeah. But you know, Sally's were like You know, we're gonna test you guys in in about ninety five stores because you guys are new. And I'm like, hey, I'm just happy to be in ninety five stores. W how did you 'Cause one of the challenges you've gotta scale up, right? You've gotta you need the cash to

provide them with all of the product they need for for the stores and you guys were still bootstrap it was y you and Melvin was your company. How did you All of a sudden go from making a few hundred items a week too. Thousands.

Yeah, and I knew that was the next question. Because when we knew that we were going into Sally's, so that was in the summer of twenty fifteen. Remember the tray show that I I mentioned that I was at That I met Someone that connected me to the manufacturer that we currently work with today.

Yeah. So It was like timing is everything. Because the previous manufacturer that we were working with in Chicago that was very small

They cannot keep up with our supply and demand. just with our online orders. And then Connecting us with a manufacturer that's allowed us payment terms. We started off with like thirty day terms. And so that allowed us more flexibility with like You know, our money.

But then we knew that like we needed to support the retail show because it's very expensive to go on retail. You have to like you know, pay them for like there's a percentage of like um their marketing and what they're gonna do to support your brand. So you're paying for that. Um, so there are like a lot of different factors and numbers that were coming off top. And looking at our numbers and our balance sheet, we're like, Okay, w we're not gonna be able to afford all of this. Now we need a loan. And how much money did you need?

So we um I don't know if we actually knew how much we needed. Uh I think that uh we just knew we needed a lot of money. Uh so my husband, when he worked at UPS He built a relationship with one of the contractors that provided services for UPS. And they became friends. And this was like, you know, well off guy. And so when we needed the money, my husband's like, I know the perfect person to call. And so he called his friend and basically like showed him the same type of analytics, our website, and his friend was also blown away. He was like, Wow, you guys are growing like this and you just started. And we were like, Yeah, but here's the dilemma.

We're about to go into retail. We have this offer on the table. We're launching in the 95 stores, but we need the money to support it. And so um His friend gave us a loan for two hundred and fifty grand. And that two hundred and fifty was like the push that we needed to like You know, launch into Sally's.

And by the way, when you're in ninety five stores,'cause a lot of people think, okay, that's it, you've made it, but you're one of like ten thousand products in that store. It's still really, really hard. This is why you see people like doing samples at the grocery store, because it doesn't necessarily guarantee anything. Absolutely, it does not. People think it's nice and pretty to say I'm on a shelf, but listen, you are a s small fish in a big pond. Yeah and you're competing against people that have way larger budgets. that can pay to be on those shows. And can kick you off of those shows if they want to. Um

So we launched in 95 stores and we listed every store on our website. We communicated that on social media. And I remember we were preparing to go to a trade show's February nineteenth. twenty sixteen. The reason why that date never leaves my head because that was a day that like It was like crazy in the stores.

Like in the Sally stores. Because the day that we launched it. People went crazy. Because you you announce it on your social channels. Just on Instagram. And people went to those stores to find the products. They didn't go to those stores. They went to every Sally store. And there are like three thousand of them. Yes, there are three thousand stores. So they went to every store

And it got to the point where like our customers were harassing the store managers. They were calling corporate. They were angry because they were saying that she announced that she was gonna be in Sally's on social media and we can't find our products. Yeah. And so It got all the way up to like Sally's corporate office where they call the same broker that initiated all of this and they asked her, they said, Can you please call the Myel team? Please tell them to stop their effort on social media because it is really causing chaos in our stores and we can't keep up. Wow. So long story short

We went from ninety five to three thousand chain wide in less than six months and that has never happened to a new brand. So you start this brand in May of twenty fourteen, you're in Sally's by the end of twenty fifteen, I think. Yeah. Clearly there was a demand for this. There was like a deep Desire and demand for what you were making.

Thousands and hundreds of eventually millions of felt like there wasn't a product out there for them. Yeah. Do you remember like the first year you guys hit a million dollars and Sales?

Yeah. So The first year we did about like three hundred and it I think it was three hundred and sixty or seventy thousand. That was the first year. Year two, we did two point seven million. Wow.

Yeah. That is Crazy. I mean just think about that for a second. You were posting on Instagram in early two thousand fourteen.

Yeah, and it's like when I even say it and look back, it's like Wow. I hope Melvin quit his job at that point. Um, at that point, so he quit his job in like twenty sixteen because I quit six months after starting. Yeah. And he quit like a year later. So he really tried to hold on because he he just knew that he was gonna keep his corporate job and and help build his brand. And it was to the point where the brand

told him like no, you're not gonna have time to do this. You're gonna focus on this brand and leave that job. So I mean it seems like once you were in all those sally's I know Target started caring. Myel in twenty sixteen, did they come to you? Was it w d did it get to the point where The big retailers started to come to you. Oh yeah. So

Honestly, all the retailers that were in, like we never approached Them they all came to seek after us. So once like Target got whim of what was going on in Sally's, we get the call from Target, like, hey, we wanna meet with you all. Yeah. Um, we got the call from Walmart and funny story, like the call that we got from Walmart, we've turned them down the first year. We didn't go into Walmart until like the second time that they reached out to us. Why? You didn't feel We were not ready. We were not ready. Like you know, it's'cause their demands are pretty intense. Exactly. Like Walmart is the biggest retailer in the world And if you mess up, you don't get a second chance.

That's why I say being self aware is is so important and being aware of like where you are in your business and we knew at that moment We were not able to afford to like Keep up with their demands. Іно, а тела'ей то сайно.

Yeah. It's about timing and sometimes it's not the right time for you to say yes. to what may look enticing, but it may very well not be what you need at that moment. And if we are the brand that we say we are and we know that we're gonna grow how we say we're gonna grow, then Walmart will come back the next year and they came back the next year. Tell me as you were growing, right? I mean it started out with you and Melvin and then you started with some contractors. How did you find people, how'd you source people? In part because you're not that far. You're about an hour away from Chicago. Yeah. Mm-hmm. You know, an hour out in Indiana. Was it hard to find

people to I mean, how did you find people to come and work with you? Yeah, it's hard to find people now honestly. Uh Yeah, so I think that like the challenge in the very beginning was like not knowing What to hire I mean we kinda just start it with like where we knew that we were drowning.

Customer service is like one of the first positions that we hired for because I was doing customer service in addition to marketing and and then once we started to grow and get bigger, again, it's like, you know, meeting people, going to like events, finding people on social media. Um, and then, you know, I started growing more. I started meeting like mentors, uh So like Richie Lou Dennis is like one of my mentors. Founder of the Shea Moisture. Yep. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then of course one of my mentors is my sales broker. Like we still have a relationship to this day. So, you know, recommendations from people that have been in this beauty space, I would make a lot of connections there as well.

You mentioned Rich Dennis, who obviously hugely successful in in the beauty space and now owns Essence magazine and and is a m major investor. He made a significant investment. in your company, I think in in twenty twenty, um Yeah.

Already by that point, I mean you were already in a hundred thousand stores. You had thirty products. obviously he's a huge player in the industry and hugely influential, but I I'm curious, did you need the funding at that point? I mean you were already Well on your way to You know. Being a big brand.

Yeah, we were well on our way, but we were also well on our way of Clothing our business. Why? We were not profitable. So, like, you know, now the story comes back full circle. So as I mentioned We were doing well D to C with our profit margins.

because it was a healthy enough profit margin where like we were able to like Yeah. Once we got into retail, our profit margins were like s slash in half because remember we went into retail with the still the high cost of goods. So and all of the other fees that are attached with like retail. We ended up spending a lot in marketing and retail. And this is where like, you know, understanding like your

balance sheet, profit and loss statements like Even though my husband, like, he's over finance now, but when we first started, like, we didn't really have a good understanding of like how to run a business. So We were literally spending and not monitoring like what was going on. out and making sure that we were profitable. So top line was great. The company was growing. Like you said, we were in a hundred thousand stores. So on the outside looking in growing a hundred and sixty, two hundred percent a year. Yep.

on the outside looking in like you know it looked amazing. Yeah. But when you lift up the hood and you looked underneath the hood, everything was jacked up. Yeah. We had to learn the hard way and it really humbled us. And so we appreciate and understand. Importance of having a good CFO, a good accountant, because it makes a world of a difference. Yeah. So when we got to the point of having new voices invest in us. That's how horrible. I really appreciate you telling the story because

You know, you here you are four or five years in. Just really successful, right? And as you say on the outside. That's the impression and it was. It is. It was super successful. But You can still drive a business into the ground.

If you don't manage it well. Yeah, it was it was a huge lesson, but a very valuable lesson. Um so yeah. When you I think got that Investment from Rich Dennis. It was either before right around

the time of the pandemic. Yes. It was right before So pandemic happens and You know, I've had this conversation versions of it with A lot of To see in retailers who are all freaking out, they're all panicking, you know, like what's gonna happen. But in fact, in your space and beauty,

It was the opposite. It actually had a huge impact because people were at home Watch you know, videos seeing it in in Instagram influencers and People actually start spending money on

Care, self care. Did wha what happened? to the business. That yeah. We experience like four X growth. Um during the pandemic.

So when I tell you we close with Richelieu. with new voices End of February. Um, the pandemic happened like a couple of weeks later. And I was scared. I'm like, okay.

We just took all this money. Now we can't like what do we do? We had this like two hundred and something page marketing plan. We can't do any of the things that we said we were gonna do on this marketing plan, like How are we going to Continue to sell product. The stores are closed. And I remember reaching out to Rich and I said

What do you recommend? And he was like Keep your foot on the gas pedal. Huh. And when he told me that I was like okay, it's go time. So I kept my foot on the gas pedal and I

Understood that I needed to pivot. And so I said, Okay, what are people doing? They're gonna be at home, they're gonna be on their phones. watching T V, but mostly they're gonna be on their phones. So I told my team, I said, We need to be the brand that shows up.

Every time they're on their phones. So we increased our content. And let's focus on You still need to be beautiful. Just because you're at home doesn't mean that you don't take a shower and you don't comb your hair. You still get up. You still beautify yourself because you still wanna feel good and confident, even when you're at home, because that's gonna make you feel better.

Um You Um Obviously there there was a lot of interest from venture capital firms and private equity firms and all kinds of people probably knocking on your door.

invest because they could see where this was going and you guys would eventually raise a series A. Mm-hmm. Reportedly. Uh over a hundred million dollars in financing I think Berkshire

was the lead there. Yep. Tell me about that process. I mean, usually when we talk to founders, it's like oh and then I went to like this firm and then this V C office and they were just really mean and they were asking all these horrible questions and then they rejected me. Like I think for you guys it was the opposite. It was like they were all desperately at begging you

to invest. Yeah, we were there because we waited. Um and we were there because we also went through the rejection and not having money and and you know, looking for people to invest in us. Um, what I did I fail to mention is that in twenty eighteen, before we received the investment from Richie Lou. When we were upside down, we were in talks with an investment group.

For almost about a year. And this investment group, like they were going to invest in us and waited until like The last hour to pull out. And not invest. And I remember

Previous CFO. when we were going through our challenges in twenty eighteen, I remember like a word And he said, You know, the best time to raise money, you know, is when you don't need it. And so that always stuck with me. Exactly determined the terms. Exactly. And so that always stuck with me. So when we started seeing all of this this growth in twenty twenty, I told my husband, I think we should raise

Another round. And so once the firms found out that we were looking to go out and raise, like they were chomping at the bits to like get to us. I mean we spoke to over like 60 different private equity firm that were all interested in like speaking with us And when I tell you like I was so exhausted, I was so drained.

'Cause I'm like I have to tell the story again and I was so nervous. Yeah. Because you know, I I also I suffer from like imposter syndrome. Like Do I deserve to sit here? Like am I saying the right things? And you know, but again, it was a challenge. I pushed myself and The other reason why we talked to all of these firms was because it was so exciting to these firms to see um a black owned company that was very profitable that had such growth and they had never seen it before. And that's like the sad part about it. Yeah. And we wanted to like help shift mindsets and change that narrative. So even if they didn't invest in us. when they sit down with the next, you know, Monique and Melvin Rodriguez, it's not a shock factor. It's more normalized and they'll believe in that company that much more because of like

what Monique and Melvin have done with Myelle. So all in all we narrowed it down after speaking to all of those people um to um partner with Berkshire because they were the firm that you know was really aligned with our vision. They had an amazing track record they really helped us scale and grow and get to like, you know, our ultimate dream. And that was to partner with a conglomerate like PG. In twenty twenty three, early in twenty twenty three was announced that P and G Profter and Gamble would acquire

Mile. So I I mean I have to assume the the talks were going on for quite a while and you probably had to stay really quiet. Um they acquired Mile for undisclosed amount, but Presumably was a lot. And first of all I completely understand why you would want to work. with P and G it's a one of the biggest companies in the world.

their ability, their just their research department they're marketing, so it makes a lot of sense. But You know, with the investment from Berkshire Presumably you could have You would have continued to grow and expand and and

Was there a in your view like A path where you could have become a massive independent company without joining P and G or Unilever or or a company like that. Yeah, and I think, you know, the path is still to become a massive independent company because

You know, with our partnership with P and G we are operating as an independent subsidiary under P and G so we are operating as a standalone. So the company's still in Indiana. P and G has not came in and and hired a new CEO like It seems like nothing has changed. Now we just have Аксес то мор

you know, with the advanced technology, the access to the unlimited resources, like you said, the marketing, the media Um, the innovation, that's something that We wanted to unlock. you know, the whole goal is to create legacy. And I felt that partnering with PG, the name Myel, the brand

The heart and soul of the brand, the legacy will continue on for generations after generation. So my great grandkids will go in the store and they will still see my yellow there because of the unlock of resources and access that we now have with working with a major global company like P and G. I mean It's an incredible achievement, right? For f given that you started this thing on Instagram in twenty fourteen. In twenty twenty three, it's acquired by the one of the biggest companies in the world. You're I think If not the first one of the first

female black founders to have a company acquired by P and G When you think about your story. I mean, twenty fourteen you were A nurse. I mean you were You had a you know, good life and your husband was was well on his way to

a corporate job at UPS, but You were always looking for something else, something to kinda satisfy this creativity that you had and this drive. And How much of of where you are now do you think has to do with how hard you worked, and how much do you think has to do with fate and luck and just

Serendipity. You know, honestly I think it's it's fifty percent faith and fifty percent hard work. Yeah. Um I don't think you can have one without the other. Like You have to be able to step out and believe in yourself believe in God and and know that

You know if God gave me this vision I can believe that he's gonna give me all the necessary tools, the resources, the people, the access. It's not for me to know how all of this is gonna work. But it's for me to just trust the process and allow him to guide me along the way. And then I know that I can't just expect for things to just fall on my lap. You have to go out here and you have to work for it. So a combination of me going out there and

you know, going to these network events, meeting people, challenging myself, stepping out of my comfort zone, like I feel that God sees that. And he sees me putting the effort forth and he's gonna match the effort. You are creating your life. You are co-creators with God. And if he sees you putting one foot

in front he's gonna help you put the other foot in front of the other. And that's how I like to live. That's Monique Rodriguez, founder and CEO of Myel Organics. My L products are now sold in over a hundred thousand retail outlets in the US. and in over 80 countries around the world.

Hey, thanks so much for listening to the show this week. Please make sure to click the follow button on your podcast app so you never miss a new episode of the show and it's totally free. This episode was produced by Casey Herman with music composed by Ramteen Arablui. It was edited by Andrea Bruce with research help from Alex Chung. Our production staff also includes Neva Grant, JC Howard, Liz Metzger, Elaine Coates, John Isabella, Chris Massini, Carla Estevez, and Sam Paulson. I'm Guy Raz, and you've been listening. how I built this.

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