#51: Building a Black Beauty Collective with
Leslie Roberson

Karin Samelson: [0:58]

Welcome to the Umai Social Circle, where we talk consumer goods, tips to help business owners and marketers grow. We’re Karin and Allison, co-founders of Umai Marketing, and we’re being joined by Leslie Roberson, CEO and founder of the Black Beauty Collective, a beauty retailer that features exclusively Black-owned brands. Hi Leslie, how are you?

Leslie Roberson: [1:20]

Hi, thank you for having me today.

Karin Samelson: [1:22] 

Thanks so much for being here, Leslie. First, let’s get started. We want to hear about your background, how the idea of Black Beauty Collective came to you.

Leslie Roberson: [1:33]

Okay. Let’s see. So my background, let’s start there and then I’ll work my way into how this came to me. So I have been working under three verticals, probably like the last 15 years or so. And so I’ve been an entrepreneur. And so my most recent business was a linen rental company, a luxury linen rental company. And so I was fortunate enough to make a pretty decent splash in the Chicago market where I worked with a lot of amazing event designers. I was in a lot of the magazines. It was called the Velvet Collection. You can literally look it up and see my face all over the place. And it was really cool because I love textures, I love fabrics, I love all the things, and I was able to make great strides in a very short period of time.

And so the second vertical I’ve been under is I’ve been in talent acquisition. So that’s been my corporate career. And I specialize in diversifying teams. So it absolutely matters to me if there are no veterans on a team or if there are no women on a team or there’s no minorities on the team. All those things I look at when I’m building the profile of the candidates that we’re going to go after and helping identify opportunities for diverse candidates that they may not otherwise have access to. And I’m going into those untapped markets where that talent base lies. And the third vertical I’ve been working under is I have a modeling contract with an agency here in Chicago. I do catalog modeling. So your Sears and your Bonton and your Kohl’s and Myers and whomever has some version of catalog. I’ve probably done some work for them over the last 15 years or so.

And so those are the three spaces I’ve existed in. And so that’s where I come from. So when I had the linen rental company, I was feeling restless. Even though I was in it for a short period of time, I loved it, but I was feeling restless because I felt like I wasn’t making enough of an impact and I wasn’t fully using my skills and what I do well to serve others. Even though everybody loves a beautiful event, don’t get me wrong. But I thought that I could do more. And so I landed on a place where I was going to sell the company and I did. And I actually sold it to my very first customer that rented linen from me.

They rented hundreds of times from my company and when they called to place an order one day I go, “Oh, I’m going to be sunsetting the company. This is probably going to be the last order that I’ll take.” And they go, “Man, I wish we could buy it.” And literally it is history since, because they bought the company, they are living their best lives in the event design space. And so I decided because I was like, okay, I don’t have a side hustle anymore, because that’s how this entrepreneur spirit was utilized, as a side hustle next to my corporate career, I decided to just go out and see and I was just talking to people and one of my friends go, “You should open up a beauty supply store.” And I was like, “I would never open a beauty supply store,” because I had come from this luxury white glove linen space. This is high-end fabric so all of my customers are like… I did events for Jennifer Hudson and Magic and Cookie Johnson and Michael Jordan’s daughter.

I’m doing these large scale events because I’m working with these amazing designers who have this crazy client roster. And so I come from this white glove space, but traditionally in Black communities, a lot of the retailers are Asian owned and they’re like box stores. It’s like a very similar model in most of the cities you go into. It’s not just here in the United States, but it’s like globally. It’s a very specific model you could walk into. And for the most part it’s not like that high end and white glove experience. It’s a store, they offer product, very simplistic basic. It’s to the point, and I respect it a thousand percent because I get it. But I go, I would would not open up a beauty supply store. But what it did do is it got my wheels rolling and I decided to go into other beauty retailers in other communities like your Sephora and your Credo and your Blue Mercury and just ask questions.

And so that’s where my recruiting background came into play. I started asking lots of questions like, what is your brand ethos and what are your core values? And what do you guys do here? Outside of just offering product, what do you do as a brand? So that’s how I started traveling down this road. And I was in one particular store, and this is a thousand percent a true story. The manager, as I’m asking questions, she holds up this box and she goes, “All of the brands inside of this box are Black women owned.” And I was like, “Oh, that’s great. Are these founders in other places around the store?” She was like, “Nope, they’re all in this box.” And so as a Black woman, I remember thinking to myself, okay, so that’s interesting. And why are we only in this box? What is the story behind this?

And so I started doing this research online, trying to find articles and reports and the demographics of the beauty industry. And I came across the report that McKinsey did several years ago, maybe about two years ago. They did a report on the state of the beauty industry and who were the founders. And they had Tracy Ellis Ross who owns Patterns. And all these different founders chime into the conversation and they ran numbers and stats. So of course at the time the industry was like a $60 billion industry and it’s growing rapidly. However, Black founders only represent about one and a half percent of the ownership in this beauty industry, even though Black consumers spend about 11% of that $60 billion. And so I remember thinking that, wow, it’s quite an opportunity here, but why is there such a discrepancy in ownership? And so in that article, that same article, they talked a bit about not only the discrepancies, but from a consumer’s perspective, we have to drive, I think it’s on average 13 additional minutes on average to gain access to CPG products that will suit our hair and skin.

And the likelihood is like three to one if someone will be there to answer baseline questions, to match your makeup color, to understand your hair texture, some very baseline things. But for me, because an in talent acquisition, my brain instantly, it doesn’t say, oh, it’s missed opportunity. My brain goes, oh, you’re hiring people who aren’t qualified to do the job because that’s how it resonates with me. Why not build a space that has more inclusivity and that is considering the different kinds of people that exist in the world? And so when I peeled the layers back a little bit more, I found that Black founders have received less than, I think it’s 1% of VC funding. And our access to capital looks vastly different than their counterparts. And so the reality is we’re creating amazing products, not just good products, but amazingly clean beauty products, great branding, great packaging, we have all the pieces, but we don’t have the capital the same way as our counterparts to scale our brands.

So that is the knowledge and the information that I’m working with. So I decided how can I help utilize the skills that I have that I’ve horned in on over the years from grad school and all my years in corporate because I’ve worked for the big boys, I’ve been with Arson Young and Wayfair and CNO Financial and most recently Meta. How do I use all the skills that I’ve obtained over this bit of time and to leverage that in this modeling thing, right? Because another piece, I got this face, how do I use these things to get these opportunities for all these other people? And so I created this collective and it is a thousand percent a collective model where entrepreneurs pay to be a member of the collective, but they get a 100% of their retail sales in return. And so I create this platform where they have access to retail space, which gives them access to a customer base.

They can come and engage with their customers, they can host unlimited activations at the store. We have a team of beauty advisors that are cosmetologists and estheticians and people from the industry that can answer baseline customer questions, help you match your makeup, help you understand different hair textures of what’ll work, what’ll be too much weight, cause you to be greasy, all these different things and variances that come with different kinds of hair patterns. And we have all these clean beauty brands. And so I created this retail store and it’s known as the Black Beauty Collective. So that’s how I got here.

Karin Samelson: [10:38]

Gosh. It’s such an incredible and empowering story. The second time we got to talk to you, you were in the airport, you’re on the way to an event. To me it was just like… It’s just really incredible really.

Leslie Roberson: [10:54]

That it was my entire first eight months of the business.

Karin Samelson: [10:59]

And so how long has the business been running and where is the retail location?

Leslie Roberson: [11:05]

So we launched April 2023, so it has not been a year yet. It will be a year April 8th this year. And the first location is located in Hyde Park, Chicago. Same area where the Obama Library is coming up, the University of Chicago is there. So it’s this amazing eclectic, diverse community of folks educationally and background wise. You get the legacy families, you get the traditional families, you get the university students. It’s all in the hodgepodge of a community. I think Hyde Park is on the top 10 best neighborhoods in the global list, which is interesting, a fun fact about Hyde Park. So we are over there amongst the best at the brightest.

Karin Samelson: [11:51]

Amazing. Do you have dreams of having retail locations in other cities too?

Leslie Roberson: [11:57] 

So yes, I do. And it’s not really a dream, it’s happening. So our second store launch will be in LA and the launch will be April 6th. I know, it’s so cool. It’s Playa Vista. So the area Playa Vista outside of LA. And the location is perfect, right? And so I don’t know if you know anything about Playa Vista, but it is like the tech area outside of LA. So you get this extremely diverse population of people there because Meta has an office and a couple other tech companies have offices. So you have all these people coming in from around the globe and local to the area and they’re there and it’s a beautiful area, tons of marketing support. And I am beyond excited about this and launching a second store. So yes, I have great ambitions to grow.

I’ll tell you why it matters if the collective grows into other markets. So a lot of small business entrepreneurs, when you don’t have a big budget to run multiple state marketing, what tends to happen is they become hyper-local in their market. I’m a small business, I’m in Kansas City, I go to all the popups, everybody knows my product. Maybe I have a Shea butter, I am the Shea butter lady in Kansas City. You go two cities over, no one has ever heard about this brand. And it is because they’re able to drive a local marketing presence because that’s where they are. So what I’m doing with these collectives, entrepreneurs become a member of the collective and now their brand is featured in a store. So customers can come and gain access, they can smell, they can utilize, which is really important for a lot of customers to be able to…

I’ll tell you something about Black consumers, one of the things that I noticed, we need to see the weight of stuff because depending on what it is and how heavy it is, it changes our curl pattern. It changes the way our hair responds. And same thing for our skin. There are certain products that’ll sit on your skin versus going in from a moisturization stance. I’ve literally seen my skin ashy and the product is sitting where it doesn’t seep into the skin. So we need to touch, feel, smell, all that jazz.

So I’m a small brand and I am in Kansas City, I joined the collective. I now have my brand, my products in store. I can now run targeted ads to get people to come into the store and try my products. I can now come in without having to pay a whole bunch of extra costs and I can set up shop in the store and meet customers. The beauty advisory team can now interact and engage with you. And so now you can become hyper-local in the second major metropolitan city, and then there’s a third and then there’s a fourth, and you get an opportunity to scale without breaking your marketing budget on running this huge multi-state campaign and also not having some starting point essentially is what it is that I’m building. So yes, the next store, LA coming up in April.

Alison Smith: [15:07]

Huge congrats. Absolutely killing it. And I’m just imagining you jet-setting across the country. You were just making these calls at the airport. So tell us more about how you recruit or find the brands that… And Leslie also has an online store as well. So if you’re not in LA or Chicago, you can also go to our website and see all these brands. But tell us more about who these people are, how you find them, all of that.

Leslie Roberson: [15:38]

That is my knack being a recruiter, I will find anybody. Early on when I first started, I actually ran ads that I was coming to different states and I physically flew to the state and I said, “Hey, I went to a peer space, I found space.” And I’m like, “I’m going to be at this address, bring your brand in, pitch a brand. If you want to be acquired of this store, you’re ready to scale into retail.” That is literally how I started this. And I think when I launched, I did a seven city tour, I think it was good seven cities that I went to. And then alongside with that, I was running virtual meetings, same thing, running tons of ads. People are coming into these virtual meetings like interest meetings and they would bring their products and they would showcase.

And then there’s an application process. So now everything is a bit more streamlined. I’d usually do virtual meetings. Sometimes I’ll fly to an area, especially if I have a partner in it and they can get all the people in the city to come together and there’s 15, 20 folks there, I’ll come into that and talk about it. So I think that’s when you guys caught me when I was going out to maybe Las Vegas or something. And so I’ll go, I’ll talk to groups of entrepreneurs. I attend events, I go to trade shows, pass out my business cards. If I see brands that I really like and I like what they’re pitching and how they’re talking about their brand, I’ll go and I’ll pitch to at trade shows. I do all sorts of stuff to find entrepreneurs.

But application process wise, so all brands are required to attend our informational section. And no matter how big my team is, I actually run those myself because it’s important for me that entrepreneurs see me as the thought leader behind this initiative and understand why and what they’re joining and what’s expected of them. This is not a passive place where you can drop your products off and see what happened. This is something I almost said that I’m not going to say. This is a very active place where you have to be intentional to drive your brand and we’re giving you a platform to do it. And so entrepreneurs have to attend our informational session. From there they’ll receive an email so they can look back at that slide deck just in case I move too quickly and they want to absorb the information a little bit better. There’s an application process where they have to complete this application. It includes all the nuts and bolts of your business, what your sales revenue were for the last three years, your headshot.

I want to see your resume, I want to see everything about you and this business so I can really understand the depth. And then the third phase is they have to ship their products in for them to be reviewed, I need to make sure it contains all the components of being on the shelf, the shelf life, the ingredients. What does your branding look like when it’s packaged? Is it done in a concise and cohesive matter where it can sit on the shelf and customers can receive it without a whole lot of hoopla? And then I also have different folks on my team that try the products, that review the products. So you’re a cosmetologist, your estheticians, making sure that the products or they do whatever they say they’re going to do. Dermatologists, a bunch of folks that we pass products off to so that they can give us active feedback and looking at the ingredients.

The great part is a lot of these brands are organic brands, and so we’re not talking heavy chemicals like lye or anything like that in these products. Most of them are organic and most of them work with a manufacturer or chemist that have developed and curated these products. 

And so that is the final step actually, that is the last step that’s on the entrepreneur. From there, I invite entrepreneurs to have a meeting with me individually. And so you attend the actual informational, but now I want to talk to you individually because I really want to understand who you are as an entrepreneur, what transferable skills do you have? How you’re thinking about scaling your business? What’s your strategy? What are your goals? How does this fit into the goals? I really want to understand who the person is because I’m intentional about who I work with because I work hard, I work really hard and I don’t stop. And if I’m out here working hard and this authentically for the brands that are in the collective, I need to work with people that are working hard too.

And so that’s why I do that. So I meet with the entrepreneurs and then from there they receive a yes or no if they’re invited into the collective.

Alison Smith: [20:11]

I love that you specifically mentioned that if there is any note of this founder or brand that they’re not going to work hard, they’re not going to do their marketing, then it’s an immediate no. This category, this niche in CPG is not an easy place to play. It’s not a passive business, so to say. And we know that you work hard as well. And so the Black Beauty Collective is helping with marketing. It sounds like you’re also helping with their overall business strategy and plans and things like that as well. Is that right?

Leslie Roberson: [20:53]

You do. And what I’m finding is I’m becoming almost like a partner. I am rolling out a new product, I need a second thought. I am going into a pitch competition, I need help with that. And so, one of the things that I’ve implemented this quarter is I met with all the brands in the collective because I want to understand what are your goals? How does the Black Beauty Collective help you achieve those goals? Is it an introduction? Is it, you need to partner with or what is the strategy? Because what I’m noticing is a lot of founders, they’ll spend all of their time going after grants and then they’ll be disappointed if they don’t come here. That’s number one. And then they’ll spend all their time thinking about how to get into Target or into Sephora or Ulta or whatever the measure is.

But they’re not thinking about, I’m a very small brand and I have very small following, going into Target is going to require X. And so how do you begin to close that gap with driving, whether it’s wholesale opportunities, increasing your marketing budget or understanding what it takes to have a marketing budget, like all the pieces. And you guys know about that. And how when you’re talking to founders who get it but don’t get it. And so I become that person for a lot of the brands that are in the store and they’re like a thought partner. And so that’s what I spend a lot of time doing when it comes to meeting with and talking to the founders that are in the collective.

Karin Samelson: [22:27] 

When you think of the founders who are performing the best or their brands are selling well and doing well in the store, what would you say are some of the main attributes outside of hardworking that you see in all of them?

Leslie Roberson: [22:48]

So the brands that are always going to perform well, not always, but do a little bit better, they’re consistent. That’s one of the main things. You’re consistent with your marketing, you’re consistent with your social media posts, you’re consistent with your email marketing. You’re consistently engaging with your target audience. You’re visible, you’re making sure you get out and communicate and you’re not passively standing behind the scenes waiting for a miraculous miracle to occur. You’re literally actively doing it. So consistency is going to win at the end of the day. And whatever consistency look like, whatever you set in motion, it doesn’t mean that you’re posting on social media every single day. It means I post Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and I stick to that plan. That could be consistency. Or I send a newsletter out on the first of the month and I send my newsletter out on the first of the month. That’s what consistency looks like.

So the brands that I see that are hitting their target and their goals, that are doing well, they’re consistent. That doesn’t mean that every day is a, what’s the thing? If you do $75 in sales a day or $52 in sales a day, you can make a million dollars, whatever this thing is. It doesn’t mean that they’re always doing that. It just means that they’re constantly consistently engaging their audience. And the audience will remember. If you knew how many people that come into the store that go, “I saw X here online, I saw it three times and now I’m going to come buy it.” That’s the consistency. But if you only did it once, the customer may not remember consistently. So that’s the thing.

Alison Smith: [24:29]

I love that you said that because that’s something that we tell our community all the time as well, because it’s so easy to get overwhelmed as a solopreneur, a founder, et cetera, et cetera. It’s easy to get overwhelmed in general. But you just have these ideas and you want this fast growth, so does everyone. But just being very honest with yourself, especially when you’re at the beginning stages of your brand on what you can actually get done in a day because it’s so multifaceted. There’s not going to be a ton of room all the time for actually marketing the brand because you’re dealing with everything else. So just being honest with what you can do and that is good enough until you can get extra support. And it’s slow and steady, I guess I could say

Leslie Roberson: [25:24]

The gift and the curse of being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs dream lofty. They dream real big and they dream of an immediate success story because when you look out on social media, everybody feels like an immediate success story. It happened just like that. You only really feel the overnight sensation, the one opportunity that you went viral or the one thing that shifted everything. But a lot of times the story that’s untold is the marathon that the person has been on, and knowing that it’s a marathon and not a sprint. And if you can be consistent long enough, it will happen. Literally, it will happen if you keep at it and you set the plan, this is the plan, and just roll with it. Be agile along the way, but staying consistent and true to the cause, it’ll happen.

Alison Smith: [26:09]

It will absolutely. It might not happen when exactly you wanted it to, but if you stick with it for sure. And we actually love seeing, it’s become a movement. I think it started happening over COVID when everyone was stuck at home and not really having glamorous lives anymore, where founders specifically just started getting a lot more real on things that they’d post. So don’t be afraid if you are a founder, a solopreneur, listening to this, to actually just share the struggle as well, and not just the wins, because that is super relatable to people. And people do really like that kind of thing.

Leslie Roberson: [26:53]

A thousand percent. And the gift and the curse of being a founder is you can have wins and losses all in the same day. You like, yes. Oh no, all in the same breath. And the beautiful part is that it’s absolutely okay and it’s true to the path. And so people see me and they’re like, “Oh my God, Leslie.” I’m like, “If you guys knew how I don’t sleep, and literally ever, you would be amazed.” They’re like, “Well, how do you wake up looking like this?” It’s the lipstick. It’s not because I’m refreshed.

Karin Samelson: [27:28]

Are you selling that lipstick in the store?

Leslie Roberson: [27:31]

Of course we are.

Karin Samelson: [27:32]

Nice. It’s gorgeous.

Leslie Roberson: [27:35]

This is Bixa Beauty. Le me see. I think it’s called Mary Jane. So Bixa is a plant over in Ghana, and it was previously used by natives and they would color their lips with it. It literally leaves a red stain. And the founder of Bixa Beauty is Deida Massey. She actually is a MUA. She grabs some of the plants. She was just on vacation. She grabbed some of the plants, brought it back to the States, worked with a chemist in color theory, and they were able to create her line Bixa Beauty. And she has a collection of lip whips, all vegan. I know, Bixa, B-I-X-A. So that is one of the amazing brands of the collective.

Karin Samelson: [28:18]

Awesome. Let’s give some other brands a little bit of a shout-out. Could you name a couple more that maybe you have your eye on? You don’t have to say they’re your favorites, but ones that are doing really great work.

Leslie Roberson: [28:31]

There will never be a time where I talk about any brand and I won’t say, “Hey, this is my favorite,” whatever. Because literally they’re my favorite all for different reasons. It’s like kids, you love them all, but they’re your favorite for different reasons. So my favorite honey and turmeric cleanser is created and curated by Marla Renee. And when I tell you guys that this product is amazing, it is probably our number one seller in terms of cleansers in the store. So turmeric is great, and people don’t think honey and turmeric as a cleanser is a thing. It is absolutely a jam because it’s great for discoloration. So like me, I break out during my cycle time, I always get the blemish or whatever it is, and it always leaves a mark on my face or whatever the case is when it goes away, I use the honey turmeric because it rebalances your skin. It’ll help that blemish go ahead and go away. So within weeks I’ll see it’ll start to fade. Especially with melanated skin when you blemish, sometimes it’s harsh and it’ll just stay there forever. But this turmeric and honey actually helps the process move along a little faster. So that’s my favorite honey and turmeric cleanser. I’m actually using that now. 

Let’s see what else is in there. Oh my God, look, I looked up here and I have three candles sitting on this shelf, and one of them is burning. Let’s see, Postmodernform. Her candles are amazing. It’s like the blend, like a nice, not too hot, not too cool a day and the breeze is just right. That is how her candle line is. It’s like super airy, feels good when you walk into the space. Anybody who comes in, they’re like, “Oh, it smells good in here. What is that?” It was her candle burning yesterday, literally is the vibe of this candle. And all of her candles come with these affirmations. The one that’s burning now is called Living in the Moment. And so I’m here for all of that, especially as an entrepreneur I need some of that in my life because I am always… In August, we’re going to be living my life in the future. And so living in a moment is a jam. 

Let’s see, what else is my favorite in the store? Natural Radiant Life, especially for the girlies who are 35 plus-ish, that are moving into the more fine mature years. It’s called Natural Radiant Life. They have a skincare collection that is for the anti-aging skin. Well, not really anti-aging. We can age, we just want to age gracefully and beautifully. And so their entire collection, they have the AM moisturizer, PM moisturizer, the cleansers, the exfoliant. They actually put their exfoliant into a bar, which I loved because when you’re scooping a lot of times, especially in the shower, you’re like, it’s running everywhere. Versus a bar, which is a little bit more controllable, which is awesome. Everyone who buys this bar, it comes back from more and they’re like, “Oh my God, I use it on my elbows, my knees, whatever.” Great bar. So Natural Radiant Life is absolutely a jam. 

Who else? There’s people all in this store. I can do this all day. Oh my God. Shamika Brunette is a great one. She makes products with sea moss. So she’s from the Caribbeans and her son had severe eczema all of his childhood, and she was taking him to the doctor, and they were putting him on a steroids to try to get rid of it because it was impacting his ability to go to school. It was so bad. And she decided because she was Caribbean and her mom and her grandmother made their own shea butters and their own soaps and all these things. She tapped into, asked her parents like, what was the recipe? And she literally began creating it, and she was able to help her son and all these other moms. She joined all these other groups and was hearing the same issue with all these parents. “My kid has this eczema, I don’t know how to get rid of it. Hydrocortisone isn’t working.” All the things. And so she began selling it. That’s how she jumped her business off. And I love all of it because those that love her product, especially with the sea moss and the turmeric and the oatmeals and all that jazz, they’re a fan.

Alison Smith: [32:43]

I love that last one because hopping into mama Facebook grooves is key. That’s so smart. So you talked earlier about some of the biggest challenges that you’re seeing, the brands that work with you and you work with them and how you’re specifically addressing them. What would be your biggest piece of advice for these small brands?

Leslie Roberson: [33:12]

What I always say, so there’s nothing wrong… It comes back to setting the goals for your business and how you’re setting goals. So number one, always set goals. If you don’t have something you’re targeting, you’re just shooting at the dark to see what happens. Be intentional about setting your goals, make them realistic, make them smart goals. Make sure you have a specified amount of time that you want to accomplish it, what the actions that you’re going to take, how you’re going to measure it, give yourself an appropriate timeline or make them smart goals. But when you’re thinking about higher scaling, scaling your business, a lot of entrepreneurs, especially in this particular category, they’re targeting your targets, your Walmarts, and it’s an active goal. My goal is to get into Target. So what’s the game plan to get there?

I oftentimes talk to entrepreneurs about starting smaller, especially when you don’t have a huge budget because if you’re fortunate enough to go into a target and they put you in, I’ll be modest, 50 stores and they’re in two states, that means you’re going to have to have a marketing campaign to run advertisement in two states so that people know to go into Target to buy your product. So as opposed to necessarily going that route right away, think about the smaller mom and pop stores. Maybe there’s another founder out there that owns 10 boutiques in three states or two states or in one state that you can have access to the owner of the business. You can pitch them on wholesaling your product. You can negotiate marketing into that contract by saying, “Hey, I’ll give you X number of dollars off your first order if you include me in your marketing.” So their social media page, their newsletter, negotiate your way into these smaller opportunities.

Maybe each store is, maybe they’re ordering a hundred units each store, there’s 10 stores, that’s a thousand units. It feels like you can achieve that versus going a order for 10,000, which if you don’t have the pieces in place to fulfill that order, it’ll actually work against your business. And so starting smaller and smarter and having multiple versions of those. You get a couple founders, three stores here, five stores here, 10 stores here, a bunch of different places across the United States where you’re negotiating and marketing where it is beneficial to that founder where you’re offering them a discount on a wholesale order. And it’s beneficial to you because you’re getting in front of all these other customers starting smaller because now you’re getting consistent orders coming in that you don’t necessarily have to work as hard for. So by the time you get to your Target, your Sephora, you can afford to be there.

And so I talk to founders often about thinking about where their product should show up. Is it a spa? Is it a place that sells wholesale products to other business owners? Is it fair? Where is your space? Is it the gym? Is it the spa inside the gym? Is it yoga studio? Think outside of the box on who could house your products, where it would make sense in terms of offerings where customers would buy it. Because the same customer that if you reach out to a customer that you find on TikTok is also the same person that might go do Pilates tomorrow. So what are other avenues that don’t always look and feel like Sephora or a TikTok shop? What are other verticals you can tap into that feel a little bit more non-traditional? And thinking about even if it’s a vertical life, say if you’re going after spas.

You go, okay, I’m going to go after spas. That’s my goal this year is to identify five spas that I can get contracts with. Is there a spa convention that you can set up a booth at? Maybe there’s not a lot of views that play in that space versus going into a space where there’s nothing but haircare and beauty care products. Maybe go into a hotel convention that you can set up shop at and reach a different audience than what you would in another space. So I always push the entrepreneurs to think outside of the box, don’t think the traditional way because there are brands out there that only service hotels. There are brands out there that only service spas. It’s all B2B. Think about it that way because that could be an opportunity for your brand.

Alison Smith: [37:40]

A 100%. And actually one of our first clients that we worked with, Karin found them. Was it Pilates, Karin, or it was a bar studio? Yeah. And they were in the bathroom I think there, and we just fell in love with it and reached out. But as consumers, we fell in love with it. And really with that model that you’re speaking about, these people are likely not getting hit up as much as a buyer. Let’s be honest, they are not getting hit up as much as a buyer at Ulta, Sephora. So this is likely a good way to practice your negotiation as well. And it’s probably a higher probability of getting into.

Leslie Roberson: [38:32]

That’s right. And the other element is when you get to a Sephora level where you’re in front of the buyer, all of these things that are “smaller wins” will come into play because they will ask you about where else have your products been and what kind of orders are you getting? And they’ll ask you questions about your KPIs and these other spaces. So these are all the things that you do, the small wins incrementally. And I call it building out your business resume. That’s how I look at it, because I’m a recruiter, that’s what I do. Everything you do from point A to point B is about building out your resume so that by the time you get in front of your dream client or your dream buyer, you can say, these are all the things I’ve done. I have proof of concept, I have a customer base. I got all the pieces I need to be successful here.

So that is how you’re thinking about it. And so most entrepreneurs had some career prior to becoming an entrepreneur or did something. When you start a company, you don’t just walk in as the CMO at a company, you start off as the intern, or you start off as the entry level. You graduate into these different levels of your career, and all the experience that you rack up beforehand are the things that make you the best candidate for the job. Think about your business the same way starting incrementally and growing incrementally, so then you could begin to building the team that you need to be successful. I actually met an entrepreneur that was still a solopreneur, and she was already in Walmart, 236 Walmarts, and she was still by herself. Can you imagine the work that they would require an entrepreneur to be able to keep up with that kind of volume as an individual? It was insane.

And I’m going, how are you managing? And then I found out later that she was struggling in that space because it was almost overwhelming. She got an opportunity, some program Walmart was running to get more diverse brands into their store, which was great in theory, but there was a huge gap. She didn’t have the followers. It was just so many things. And so for me when I talked to founders, is build out your business resume, build out your experience, gradually scale your team. Don’t try to rip the bandaid off and go too big too fast because it can work against you and what you’re attempting to build. So gradually scale, and the way you do that is going by after smaller retail outlets initially, and then gradually increasing size.

So maybe your first win is like a person with one store. Maybe the second win is a person with three stores and then 10, and then continue on and get a bunch of those. And then you can fulfill these different orders and it’ll give you the consistent revenue to run more marketing for your B2C customers. And so it’ll all work in unison once you start putting the eggs in place. That’s my favorite advice to give.

Karin Samelson: [41:37]

It’s such a good… It’s so smart. I love how your corporate recruiting experience is. So in line with this, start small. You’ll get to where, you’ll get to the job, you’ll get to the retail, you’ll get to everything you want to get to as long as you start small. And I also love the message that we’ve shared before where it’s just like, it’s okay to say no, too. It’s like Walmart wants you to go into 400 stores. That sounds awesome, but should you? So great, great, great piece of advice here.

Leslie Roberson: [42:11]

Here’s the reality, and the one thing I’ve learned, the longer you can hold off saying no, the better position you’ll be in when you say yes. Because along the way, you’ll get better, your processes will improve, your SOPs will be there, the underbelly of your business will be supported. So when you take on that opportunity, you actually get to call more of the shots. And just like my recruiting analogy, if you wait until you have all the experiences, you can go in and you can negotiate your salary, you can negotiate your bonuses, you can negotiate all the pieces. If you’re going to have an assistant, what your title is, the leverage, because you built up a book of business and a background to support. “Hey, I can do this.”

So it’s the same thing in this space. The longer you say no, until your brand is ready for the big box stores, the better position you’ll be in terms of the number of stores, what kind of marketing support you’ll get, because they’ll be in a position where they want you, so they will be throwing all the stops out to get you in versus you having to make a lot of adjustments to get in.

And so I say, say no as long as you can and build as many… Your customer base, your annual revenue, all the pieces, keep building and then say yes when your brand is a thousand percent ready.

Karin Samelson: [43:35]

I love it. Such a good piece of advice. Thank you so much, Leslie. Well, what’s coming up for the Black Beauty Collective outside of that LA Store launch?

Leslie Roberson: [43:45]

Oh my gosh. Okay. So we are doing the things. Actually, so we’re going to be launching, I said it earlier, April 6th for the LA store. I believe the store opens at 11:00 AM. So we’ll be open for public that day. On April 8th, we’re going to be launching Amazon store too, which is interesting in itself. Amazon is like, “Look, we think what you’re doing is amazing. We think you can have a great platform here on Amazon. We don’t have any stores like this that are business owners with this objective featuring these brands.” And so I’m like, “Why not? Let’s try it and see how it goes.” It’ll be like, “Oh, you missed our grand opening. Get us on Amazon.”

That’s literally what the messaging is going to be. Catch us on Amazon. So that’s probably the next thing that’s happening. And then the rest of the year, I am all over the place doing a lot of awesome things. Awesome things I can’t talk about just yet, but I’m just doing some awesome things.

Karin Samelson: [44:50]

We don’t doubt that. That’s awesome. 

Alison Smith: [44:53]

Yeah. Well, Leslie, we enjoyed this so much and so much valuable advice. You shared so many good nuggets. Absolutely love it. I have so many notes as well, and I can’t wait to check out all the brands that you mentioned. If anyone listening is in LA April 6th, right?

Leslie Roberson: [45:12]

April 6th.

Alison Smith: [45:13]

And it’s Hallow Vista, right?

Leslie Roberson: [45:15]

Oh my God. It’s Playa Vista. It’s the Runway Shopping Center is in that plaza. It is adorable. You hear me? And it is going to be an amazing experience for all of our shoppers that come in that day. And so just come check us out. If you guys are in an area swing by, I’ll be there. Come meet me, of course. And just tell me you saw me here or heard me here. And we will chop it up all about this right here.

Alison Smith: [45:43]

Love it. Well, thank you, Leslie. Is there anything else you want to leave our audience with, how they can reach you, find you, anything like that?

Leslie Roberson: [45:51]

Absolutely. You guys can check me out on Instagram, Facebook, all socials @blkbeautycollective. And you can follow me on my personal page @theLeslieRoberson. All right. Thanks you guys. I appreciate your time today.

Karin Samelson: [45:06]

Thanks for listening to the UMAI Social Circle y’all. We’re here to support you in your CPG journey, so be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any new podcast episodes. And while you’re at it, please leave us a review on your listening platform of choice. Shoot us a DM @umaimarketing on Instagram if you have any topics you want us to cover on new podcast episodes.

Alison Smith: [46:23]

And don’t forget to access our free masterclass where we’re showing you how to create a solid marketing strategy. You can access that at Umaimarketing.com/masterclass, and we’ll meet you back here for the next episode.