Baddies with Business

Blend of Soul

• BaddieswithBusiness • Season 5 • Episode 85

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Learn more about the dynamic duo behind Blend of Soul.


Connect with Blend of Soul:


Episode Sponsor:
KEF & Co: http://www.kefandco.com/BWB

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Music By: Tukool Tiff

Connect with Baddies with Business:

Music By: TuKool Tiff


Be Bad. Be Bold. Be A Baddie!

Malliron:

Welcome to another episode of Baddies with business. Today we getting real juicy today so I have some incredible guests, the baddies behind blend of soul. So baddies tell the community a little bit more about you.

Margo:

My name is margo. I am a veteran of 10 years. Since then I have been cultivating and building the brand known as Blend of soul with my wonderful fiance Kiera Gardner.

Kiera:

Hi guys. I am Kiera Gardner. I am a registered nurse. I am the CEO of blend of soul and I enjoy just creating. Content and creating the joy that we have with our brand. And I hope that you guys learn a little bit more about us and have fun with us because we are whole class.

Malliron:

Let's get it let's get it it. Before we get to blend the soul, talk about how you're cultivating. I want to know about y'all. So like spill the tea. How did y'all meet?

Kiera:

So back in 2018, we started dating. We met online and we had similar interests, like you said, but the fun part was we literally have the exact same interests. Like I've never met anybody where we like exactly the same things. And so we started dating and then this past January, we got engaged. That was amazing because I think she was definitely, shocked, because I'm so busy, I'm always working. I'm always dealing with stuff with the business. I'm always like on the go. So I don't think she thought. I had the time, the effort, all of that to put into that engagement, but I was planning this stuff behind the scenes. My coworkers was in on it. They looking up stuff while we supposed to be working. I'm taking calls and meetings and arranging stuff. The beautiful part about our duo is, you know, we just like fit, like it's like a puzzle piece. We just balanced each other. Well, and I think that translates well in business for us because we know how to turn it on and off. And I think that's what makes our, like our love Supreme what it is. And I love every minute of it. I think it's fun.

Malliron:

Oh, yeah. So precious. Look, we were talking about y'all's personal story, but y'all have some business tips already. Balance this fit, also just having this space of there may be tension, but I'm still going to make sure that you were taken care of that I'm taken care of that we're taken care of.

Kiera:

That is really important. And I think especially as we, move into the, the lane of marriage, I think for me, I'm not intimidated by it. You may feel different, but like, I think for me, I'm not intimidated by going into marriage because we have such a strong foundation. And if you have a strong foundation, then all you're doing really is adding to that foundation, but you're also having to make sure. You're putting in the same effort that you put in to get that person. So for us, balance is key because you can't, as a, especially with us as a union that is we're business partners, as well as love partners. Like you can't, you have to turn it off. Like initially I think we figured out in the first year or so business that we were working way too much and not enough of us. And so this, this year, especially being engaged, if I started talking or I started going into, okay, we've got this. No more work. And it's so healthy for me and I'm glad that she implemented that because I'm a workaholic and I will work, work, work. And it's not that it's intentional. It's just, I just, I like what we do. So it's easy to do that. You have to spend time with yourself. And I think that her cutting it and saying, Nope, cut it. I think that's what works for us and it's been working well, so it's nice.

Margo:

So far so good.

Malliron:

And it's an example of, I feel like we always talk about work-life balance in a nine to five, like a traditional job, but we never talk about work life balance when it comes to being an entrepreneur and having a team. And so I think you all are a great example of. We have these moments where we talk about this and another time Margo's like, oh, we need to talk about that. So you might need in your duo, in your business partnership, you need a person that's gonna be like, ah aa and you need a person. That's going to be the dreamer and want to do those things. And you have to find that balance with work, but also that balance with your relationship as well. So thank y'all for just surfacing that.

Kiera:

I think you just have to continue to first of all, you have to just love what you're doing and remember that at the end of the day if something would have happened with our business, right, we always have each other. And so at the end of the day, we always say that if, if our business starts to go pour over into our relationship in a negative. We gotta do either do something different or something has to give, and it's not going to be our relationship. That's why we share so much of our personal life on social media in a good way, because we want people to see besides juicing, like we're real people, like we're black women, same-sex couple, like we're all these things. And, you know, we go through everyday struggles. We, have insecurities, things like that, right. As a woman. We're real people. And I think that's important that people get to see that there's authentic piece of our brand, yeah.

Malliron:

Wit a blend of soul. Now that we've had a chance to learn more about the two of you, can you talk about like, what was the catalyst for starting Blend of Soul as I drink my Oh Kale yes. Juice.

Kiera:

Yay.

Margo:

I'm gonna tell you I was overweight. I was big and I needed to get my life together while I was in the military. I had an injury and I couldn't work out like I used to for about, oh, it was about, it was probably about six months to a year or so. Right. So I go back to the doctor, you know, trying to get, trying to get seen and all that stuff. And I actually, I had a PT test coming up. That's what it was. And normally, so for all of my non military people, normally when a military person has a PT test coming up, if they haven't already started paying for it, I can only speak for the air force. And they haven't started preparing for it at least two to three weeks out. It's unhealthy, but they will, they will start themselves in order to make your weight and your take your time. You have to do what you have to do, because this is your way of living. This is the way you feed your family. And if you fail this, you could possibly be kicked out. You know what I'm saying? So that's how I initially started. And then from there my coworkers at the time in South Carolina, where I was stationed at, they were like, oh, What's this I'm going to need some juice that, you know, I created at home and it's just something that it's it actually, for me, it took a place to smoothies because I'm weird texture wise, as far as movies, if it gets like a little bit too warm or something, and I'm going to throw a whole thing out. So we started doing that and then I started sending it to the gym and people were like, yo, like I want some of this. And I started making them for the coworkers in my section. And then from there, I was like, I told Kiera, I was like I'm about to be doing this for free.

Kiera:

I'm the one that told her no. And she was like, she's, she will give give give.. And I was like, They need to be, I'm like, I need to be paying you. And she's like, yeah, they do. So I think I'm, I always see the business and everything, I think because like my parents have a cleaning service. They'd been cleaning for 20 years. So much like my mom, because my mom is like, my dad's like, oh, well, we'll give them this percentage. She'd be like give yes, but let's make sure that we're not giving too much of ourselves and that we're not pouring back into the greatness that we have. And I think that in that moment we were on the phone. And she was like, I think we had something here. And I'm like, yeah. For me, the catalyst was we went to a food hall in Raleigh. And we were eating them just like, they don't have any, like, is there not any like juice shops? Sometimes in the morning, I'll drink tea or, our Oh Kale Yes and I'll drink our stuff. And we don't have really any black owned juice shops that I knew of at the time. And so we were like riding down and she's looking at. Whatcha think, know you thinking about something. Let's create our own like juices. I think that'd be dope. And she looked at me like, now Lord, here go Kiera with your ideas. I'm always having ideas, but I have hard time executing. Like I can come up with the best idea, but it's getting it from the idea to the paper, to the right. And she's like the logistic she's like, now how are we going to do this? That was our catalyst is just, you know, wanting to be healthier. We all know the disparity in the black community. We just decided to kind of take control of that and change the narrative a little bit and provide content a product and a brand that encompasses health and well. Obviously, you know for us it was like, yeah. As black women it was super important because we wanted the black community to really see that. Yes, we can juice and yes, we can be in the know and doing these things and be educated at the same time. And it doesn't have to be nasty because we know we love some soul food. We love some salt. We love some, some goodness and that's great, but we have to find a balance with that. And I think that's what works and that's what it's been working.

Malliron:

Ooh, I love this story. And it all started with like this personal need around like I needed to do this. And so I started and then people wanted it and I feel like that's often where a lot of times we start businesses or we don't start businesses because like, oh, I just give it to them. I just give it to them. And so it's really good that y'all got to that point of like, You bought to get this Oh Kale yes.

Kiera:

I think that entrepreneurship is not for everybody. Some people feel like, okay, this is my hobby. So I have to make it a business. No, you, it can just be be a hobby that you enjoy that you might not even charge people because you love it. Or you're learning how to do it. Like, I don't feel like every hobby that people do has to turn into a business because people don't understand the ins and outs. And sometimes we still are still figuring it out. Do do it. If you have the financial capacity. But also realize that if you have a hobby, love it. Like that's okay. Like that's okay too. You could make you a cute Etsy page and boom, like that's just as good. Or you can just enjoy it and not making the business.

Malliron:

Look at y'all dropping out of these gyms and we're just getting kicked off. So I know that we have been throwing out names of your juices. And so I know people probably like, what is y'all talking about? So can you share more about your juices, your wellness shots? And then also I'm gonna let y'all know which ones are my favorites.

Margo:

Okay. So we have six 16 ounce flavors and then we have five, two and a half pounds wellness the shot. So six, 16 ounce flavors are Mango me crazy. we have a oh Kale yes a Kiwi. Do you love me? We have a lemon crush, lemonade RIP Prince. And then what is our last one? Soul Beets new baby.

Kiera:

And for our wellness shots, we have rim shot. We have orange moon. We have the healer we have green in plenty, and then we have hot girl. And those are like, I dunno that those are like our babies because you know, we love, love, love, love, love some Erykah Badu. We love Alex Isley. We love some Meg thee Stallion. So we just wanted people to, you know, really, really, really like see our black culture just embedded in our brand. And I feel like that's what sets us apart allows us to be our most light truest form. And our most authentic is tapping into and celebrating our black culture in every piece of our brand. I think that's, what's really fun because every time we're creating,

Margo:

even the bad ideas, you can still get a great idea. And I keep telling her that and she's like, oh, it doesn't sound good. I said, I don't care. Just say, just tell me.

Kiera:

How we deal with, and we, we thought it was cute to kind of give you guys on social media. Like a a chance to help us name it. And so we literally kind of took pieces from different people in our mind and was like, okay, no, because somebody else already has that. I try to keep our content as original as possible. Just so that we can still continue to set ourselves apart, you know, and not in a bad way, just in a, in a great way, in a collaborative way, because. We love to celebrate other black juice brands. Because when we go out to different cities, I'm always like, Ooh, let's go through this duke bar and we'll go and support and show love. Like we don't, you know, you don't see it as a competition. We see it as a collab, there's a table set for everybody. And I think that that's just our mindset. And that our brands, our website is www.blendofsoul.com.

Malliron:

So y'all know all the juices. If you need to pause the episode, go get your juice and then come back. That's totally fine. While we're talking about the juices, I want to do favorites.

Kiera:

Yay.

Malliron:

What are your favorites? I'll kick it off. So it used to be Oh Kale Yes yes, that was my favorite. Then, so beets just stole the side. It was like, I came back. Okay. I'm in the spotlight. So that is not my favorite. And also that healer shot.

Kiera:

I'm glad you love that. I love that one too. That's one of my favorites. Now, as far as our wellness shots, orange moon takes the cake for me. I think because it's the tumeric. It really, really hydrates me. I feel like it gets me up. As my favorite 16 ounce juice that we have, Oh Kale Yes is always going to be my top dog.

Margo:

I am a celery fanatic. I will say she loves celery. And if I could make this celery taste stronger and everybody who it, everybody gets, Ooh, it's just like it. Same with really good. It's really good.

Kiera:

Even with our favorites, like, it's interesting when we're vending and where it markets, the different people that come and their favorites. So they'll be like, oh, I love the mango. And see, I love the mango me crazy in the summer. Like, but it's the sweeter one. Right? So like people, people gravitate towards that. So I think that it's super important to have your favorites, but also try different times. It's like, you know, we're creatures of habit. So we gear towards the same things, but like, you know, be willing to step outside of your box, which you did with so beets and you love bees.

Malliron:

So I stepped out and speaking of boxes, they have subscriptions. Hello. Can you tell us about the subscription? Y'all see, how I be plugging

Kiera:

oh my gosh. So I'm super excited to talk about our subscriptions. That was a big thing I had been working on for a while forever. This is a project for me because finding with Shopify, Shopify is super dope, by the way, if you're trying to have a website and you're trying to launch because they have so many great tips, they send you articles and they have a blog. And so it's talking about different people that are successful and have Shopify websites and what they do to retain customers, things like that. And I think that's really, really important. So anyways, as I was looking at that, I was like, we needed our friends over at Royal cheesecake, by the way back, the best cheesecake in the land. Okay. Royal cheesecake our friends over there, Ken and Tamra, they were like, y'all need a subscription. I was like, that would be really dope. And so I literally, for months and months and months, I've been trying to figure out how to incorporate that. And so we now have soul scriptions pretty much all you have to do. All juices are eligible for a subscription. When you go on the website, you'll see two options now instead of just add to cart you'll see subscribe and save, and that is a subscription option. So if you see subscribe and save that you it's eligible. So for example you want, you don't want this old pack, right? You want all five, you just want five kales delivered every week that you can do that. You can select subscribe and say, put the amount and then that's it, right? If you check out like normal and based off of how often you want you just to let, how often. A weekly bi weekly and monthly. So we offered that and it's a 10% off discount when you subscribe. We thought that it would be fair to just make them all have a discount so that you don't have to stress and figure out which one works for you. You can just click which one you. And pretty much you dictate it. You can cancel it at any time. It's not a contract base. Some places make you like, do like a minimum of three months. You got to agree to three months. I don't want people to feel obligated to that because I want you to be moved by the, you know, just by your, the love that you have for us. And you can cancel at any time, but we know that you won't because of how did the juices are. So once we got you, we kind of got you, you know, but in a great way. And I think that like I said, the dope piece of it is you cancel it anytime you control it. We want to make sure that you get it and want to make sure that it's on time. So it's very fun. It's really easy. It's so easy to do.

Malliron:

I'm glad you just explained it because I didn't know that I could get. A whole box of soul beets or oh kale yes I thought that I had to get the pack. And do subscription that way. So, yeah. Cause I like, I like branching out, but like it's a game changer, a guy,

Kiera:

and that's why we added that and see what I think we're going to do on our website. It's at a whole page about our subscriptions because we have information about it in our frequently asked questions. So if any, any of you, anybody has any questions about anything that we offer as a local delivery? Subscription service, it's all in our frequently asked questions and it's very thorough. So read through those those questions because they are there and they are very, very helpful. I think we may just create like a whole page for people, but yes ma'am you definitely can. It's any juice. It doesn't have to be any combination. But also just know that it's so convenient. You can just get it delivered to you. There's no questions asked that's it. And if you have any questions for us, you can always reach out. We are always available,

Malliron:

always cause I be sliding up in their DMs, be like, Hey duh. Also for my folks who are listening that are outside of like the triangle area, the juice will make it there. So I'm going to St. Louis and it comes with a little ice pack and the juice is still cold.

Margo:

I always wonder how like how they are received on the other day. Cause sometimes, you know, everybody's not as careful with our stuff. We would like them to be so a couple of times in the past, and we've been dealing with shipping companies, we haven't had the best, you know, in game, but I'm glad to know now that yours are arriving there.

Kiera:

And so we like customers as sending us pictures, but oh my God. Don't it you know, just send this a picture. We got, we got two, we got y'all. But like you said, right, we got y'all, don't worry about that. Like, I don't people freak out and they'd be like, oh my God, my, and I'm like, don't, don't freak out. Like just send us a picture, like show us, you know, show us the receipts. And then we got to seven. Yes.

Malliron:

Send a picture. Don't cut up on the internet. You send them a picture. Y'all y'all literally, I talked to them if not every week, every other week. And it might be every day. Cause I'm like, Hey y'all I got this out there. Oh, Hey, can I do this thing? So don't, don't fret reach out to them, but don't cut up on the internet cause yeah, yeah. Like just reach out. And I think that you know, even for just other black owned businesses, I think that.

Kiera:

Is customer service. I am so big on that. And the only reason I say that, and I always talk about, I always talk to Margo about Chick-Filet like Chick-Filet has their drive-through and their customer service on lock. Like you know, I will send it right out to you, you know, don't stress. And from that point forward, she was like, oh my God, I love y'all like, I'm going to keep buying because it's all about, it's not just about the sale. It's for me, it's about the, it's the entire experience from beginning to end. There are some things that we need to work on with our website or with something that you noticed as a customer. Please tell us, like, we love, we love, love, love feedback, please let us know because we're all we're for. Y'all love that stuff. So don't fray. If you ever get any juices and it's like leaking at all, or if you get it and it's not cold, this disclaimer, if you get your juices. Okay. And it is not cold. And I don't mean. Frozen. I mean, cold, especially in the summer months, do not drink you toss it and let us know. Okay. Because we do not, we, I am very, very beating. So it's a Margo, we're very big on food say, and you, and we do not want you to get sick, so please do not. Okay. Like if you get it and it's warm or it's not, or it's not cold do not drink. Okay.

Malliron:

It may seem like a no brainer, but can y'all explain, why you don't drink it if it's not cold.

Margo:

Yeah. Because like, all things carry bacteria. Especially fresh. Fresh produce. You got your meats and things of that nature. So when you heat your meats up the bacteria, yeah. You still have bacteria, it grows at least set a level that when you heat it up, it's going to kill whatever whatever's there. And then with the fruits and the vegetables and stuff, yes, you still have your bacteria, but once it gets to a certain high or low is going to, once again, it's going to grow and it's going to multiply, and then you're going to get very, very sick. If you drink those warm, those warm or semi lukewarm juices. And they're supposed to be cold because they are not pasteurized. Right.

Kiera:

You'll see on the front of all of our juices, it'll say refrigerated, perishable. So, you want to make sure that when, when you get your. juices, when they're delivered to you put them directly in the refrigerator or you put them directly in the back in the freezer. So the cool part about our packages that you get is we give you a fun juice care card. It doesn't matter if you order every week. It doesn't matter what every day you're going to get one, because that is super informative. It tells you about our juices. Have you put our juices in the freezer and can last up to six months if you break the seal 48 to 72 hours, you need to be drinking, okay. And you stay in the refrigerator, don't leave it out. Oh God, don't leave it out. And especially if it's longer than four hours, you need to just throw it away. Because that at that level is when the bacteria grows dramatically. Especially during the warmer months. And especially even if your house is cold and you all, I gotta keep my household 60 degrees, do not leave it out and do don't, you know do not leave it out. Always put it in a refrigerator. So just remember that. And just like I said, my mom was like, that is the best thing y'all came up with this juice care card, because it really helps me understand what I need to do. Always ask I'm all for receipts. Send me a picture and be like, Hey, blend sold. Like I got this, but it's not cold. What should I do? I'm going to tell you immediately throwing away and I will rescind you a new one. Okay. Because I'd rather you guys enjoy it.

Malliron:

Thank you for sharing that because I wanted people to understand if it's been chilling on the counter, like I had a juice that was chilling. I was like, Ooh, I can't wait to go back to that. But now I'm like, I can't go back to that. I did, I did go back to it, but I know next time not to go back to.

Kiera:

Just remember like four hours. So that's just the safety piece, you know, that's really important, but we just like to share that. So any questions always reach out to

Malliron:

Okay. That's that's really good to know. Okay. You all have shared so many gems this episode. And so now it's time for us to think about you all. Think about where you all were Blend of soul now, and where you hope to be in two to three years. And how can the community support you in getting to that place?

Margo:

So two to three years from now, I can see us with a. With the space, not so much a brick and mortar, not maybe not individually, you know what I'm saying? Like by ourselves, but maybe a space inside a space wherever it may be in the local RDU area a good space and, you know, we, we have our own vibe. We kind of, you know, decorate it and make it our own. We have our books, we have our black culture. Like we just have everything in there. I see us also expanding our like our apparel line. Adding whatever else from pens to what you got totes to sweatshirts to even socks. I don't know. It doesn't matter because I see it expanding.

Kiera:

But I definitely see us in our own lease space. I would love, to be with other businesses. We reached out to box yard in the RTP area. They're full right now, but it's, but they knew about our business and that really was. I was like, oh my gosh, because of, you know, a conversation we had with some friends that we, that are amazing. Her name is Jackie is WonderPuff. Girl, best cotton candy ever, ever, so following her Wonderpuff. It just makes us happy because like we started this and no one had any idea what, like, and shout out to the black farmer's market, because that's where we got out, got start. Like they allowed us to do the whole team. They found the black farmer's market and they allowed us we're new. We were new, you know, business owners. We were like, oh my God, we've never done this before. I hope they accept this. And they did. And we've been with them for like two years now. So it's trade union. But the big thing is, is that, you know, I think for, for me, how you guys can support it, just continue to like do stuff free, like follow us, leave a review. But I think for me, it's how you guys can support is follow us on Instagram. And that is at Blend of soul, and but yeah, support us in any way possible, like, you know, sharing, liking even if you haven't been to her thing, if you have a mentor to drop some knowledge yeah. Networking events, we love that stuff. We're going to get out more with that with COVID. We couldn't really do it, but we want to like travel to different places. If you would love our juices at an event that you have, or in a store or cafe or wherever, please reach out to us because we do have wholesale contracts. We offer and we would love to collab and meet with you. So those are days you can do besides the money. You know what I mean? Like sharing and social media is extremely, extremely key nowadays. So I think that will really, really, really be helpful. Just show love, like comment, share.

Malliron:

Awesome. And I'm gonna put your social media handle and also your website in the description as episodes. So y'all, there's no excuse to still go click it, share it with a friend and go from there.

Kiera:

Yeah. Show love. Like we love where you guys post our juices and say how much you love them and like videos. If that's another thing, if you get your juice package and you love it, send us videos. We would love to post it on our feed make them into a reel of all the people that yeah. Like some videos, like, you know, are you drinking it or whatever. And we, what we'd like to do is save. And throughout the summer, we like to kind of drop, drop, drop, different things. Especially if we have something coming up, let people know, people love them and they're trying them and it just makes us happy because we see them. So, yeah. Yes.

Malliron:

I love that. Ooh. I hope y'all get all your juices, get all your juices and also less support them. So they're thinking about these things in two to three years, you were thinking about subscription and two to three years and it happened. Let's support them and help them on everything they're thinking about. One more thing, I know you all have been dropping some names of some baddies that you all support, are there other baddies that you want to thank that have been on the ride with you all throughout this journey?

Kiera:

Well, you know what? They may not have been on the ride, but I think when we met Tabitha brown, Really set the tone. Oh my gosh.

Margo:

still to this day, it's still be like, okay. It's even though it happened in like, what November, anytime I think about it and I just want to quit. Anytime I think about that, I just get, like, I be like, all right, let's get it..

Kiera:

Meeting her, was just profound. She's already a beautiful beam to me. On social media, but meeting her in person and just like her in choice, his choice was there too. Both of them when Choyce is super funny, she's like merely a clown like us. You know, we literally that day, this is a disclaimer. And I'm gonna just tell you this piece, because it's so important to yes. Be transparent, to speak things into existence. Right. So a couple of weeks back or a month so bad, we had received an invite from Radio One wanting to be a part of their women's conference. Right. And so we literally were like, oh, well, who's gonna speak. And we're like, figuring, trying to look. And I was like, oh, Tabitha brown. An disclaimer, the vending fee was$500. Okay. We literally went into overdraft to get to this event. Okay. So just to be honest, this is just to share, let people know, how dedicated we were. We dressed to the nines. Like hair was done, everything, because you don't know, you just do not know who's going to show up or who's going to be there. And we knew, okay. I told her, I said, I'm not leaving here until I meet Tab.. It's not just, I mean, I don't, I don't know what y'all want me to do. And listening to her, like just there, mind you, you know, there were some factors that kind of were a little difficult and hard throughout the event. We were one of the only food and juice vendors. So we're like, it was packed. Like, when I tell you we didn't sit down for like three hours, we didn't sit down for three hours. We brought hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of juices. People were like lined up all the way down to the end. Oh, my gosh. Like, and our photographer, we had you know, she's like what in the world? So have we met so many people from that day that had, we've done events for. We were there. And the crazy thing was moral of the story. We were listening to her and she was talking about the importance of making your vision plain.. And she was talking about, being God's vessel, right. And all these, all these gyms. And, you know, at the end, she walked around to everybody's booth. We were kind of towards the end. We were pouring to her, our passion and she could hear it like, and she just gave us such encouragement. When I was talking to her I still remember her telling me, people didn't believe what I was talking about. People didn't see it, like my own family. You know, they didn't see it, but I did. And that's, what's important. And she was like, don't forget about you. Don't forget about your dreams. Like that is going to happen. I was just like, oh my God. And she took a picture with us, had our lemon crush lemonade, told us how dope our juices were. And it was super inspiring. I think that for me still holds like value because that was the moment for me. And then to know, like, and this is the big piece to end. That story is we came in. Going into overdraft and we left out making triple what we would have made on a regular day. All you had to do was dream. Just letting y'all know, don't count yourself out. You know, people aren't gonna understand what you're talking about. They're not understanding it, but if you're passionate about it and you push for it, there's no limit.

Malliron:

I love that story. And shout out to tab.

Margo:

So I have a fridge shout out to my friend, Jasmine Houston, my my old vet.. She is friends with the lady that created the village market ATL. She met Tabitha brown. and Jasmine sent me the picture and I was like, wow, that's so crazy, man. One day, one day, it's going to happen one day. And then Jasmine was like, Hey, don't worry. SIS is going to happen. We're going to meet her one day. But what Jasmine didn't know was that a couple of weeks later we had got that phone call from radio one. And so then when I found out, I found out about the event and then found out that Tabitha brown was going to be there a whole baby. This is it.

Kiera:

Because when I tell you, like, y'all just see us, like, y'all see us. And I think that's just, that's how we felt about tab. Like she solid it's like country. I'm from Greenville, North Carolina, a small town Grimes, the North Carolina. So she's from Eden. So like super small towns. The fact that she saw life just was like, you know what, I see what you're doing. Like, I respect what you're doing. This is dope. Like I love what y'all are doing. Y'all sold out wow. I was telling Margo she was working, one of the ladies from her team there walked by I guess, and was like, oh, they pop me. That just was like super humbling and important. So we wanted to share that because. You know, in business things get difficult and they get hard, but then they're just so rewarding. We built it and we went, came from nothing and like, we're still working our way.

Malliron:

I'm proud of y'all too. There was manifestation that happened. I always say like faith without works is dead. Y'all like, we gone do this and we don't know what's gonna happen on the end, but we know it's going to be something great. And that happened.

Kiera:

At the end of the day, you'll be surprised, who will find you.? You just don't know who's watching you and watching your brand. We do this because we love it. And I told Margo, the money will come later when you love what you're doing, that's all you need. That's all you need when you start not liking what you're doing is when you need to change something.

Malliron:

Thank you all so much. I feel like we could talk all day and I have enjoyed this conversation. In closing, I do something called a baddie benediction. So what is the blend of soul baddie benediction that you want to leave us with?

Kiera:

The baddie benediction, first of all, thank you so much for having us. I think that it's super important to just to just share your passions and with like-minded individuals. But the biggest thing is don't give up on yourself and invest in yourself. Everybody not gonna understand what, what you're talking about. They're not gonna get your vision. They're not gonna understand your lane, what you're trying to do, but if you got it, you get it. If you understand it, if it's clear to you, then that's all that matters. Because there have been many, a times where people did not understand the vision that I have for our business. Like I am beyond thankful that people have seen what we have done and for our community and just being a vessel for our community and not only a vessel for the community, but God. Like that for me is profound. And if God could see my vision, if God could see my vision, then none of this or nobody else's you know, uncertainty matters to me because as long as that vision and as long as that, that motive, that passion stays true and stays to the center. Then for me, that's all that I need. The second that God stops believing in my vision is what I need to look at something else. But, but right now, right now, he's, it's too, it's too profound right now. And y'all might not see it right now, but I see it. And that's all that matters to me.

Margo:

I'm going to say, and this is a, this is something that I think I was 11th or 12th grade and I was in advanced government, Mr. West shoutout to Mr. West a middle age, white Mormon guy. He said this statement and it stuck with me all these years. He said, make sure you step outside of your comfort zone, whatever you doing, like always step outside of your comfort zone. I was like, well, why would I do anything that's uncomfortable? And he always said, stepping outside of your comfort zone, most of the times. Great. greatness lies on the side, on the other side of uncomfortable. It does you would be surprised because when I was, when I was getting out of the military, I didn't think I was going to be a business owner. Right. I mean, I always had like this thing, I've always had this passion to be my own boss and do my own thing. I've always had this thing, but I didn't know. What it was going to be. Right. And I met somebody along the way that had some, they had a similar mindset, they had the same vision. She just didn't know how to tap into it. And then when we got together, we tapped into it and it has been super uncomfortable. I'm not going to lie. It's been super uncomfortable. And the crazy thing about it is I like doing interviews and I like doing all this stuff, but I still get nervous. Once I stepped outside and I just keep doing it and keep doing it it becomes comfortable. And guess what happens? Those new opportunities start opening up that door. Those windows start opening up those new opportunities. You start networking, you start meeting these different people because look, we met Mal, we met Dominique. Dominique brought us the Mal, Mals bringing us to all these thousands of people. Listen to this podcast. Here we are. Each time I get scared, I get nervous I think about what he said and what he taught me. And I just step out there and I just fly boy.