Episode 187: Shark Tank to Ulta: How This Founder Scaled to $50M in Sales
In this episode of Small Business PR with Gloria Chou, we sit down with Yve-Car Momperousse, founder and CEO of Kreyol Essence, the Haitian beauty brand that went from a personal hair loss crisis to landing a deal on Shark Tank—and scaling to over $50 million in clean beauty product sales.
Now available at Sephora, Ulta, Whole Foods, Amazon, and more, Kreyol Essence is a case study in how BIPOC and women founders can build profitable, impact-driven brands—without a traditional roadmap.
Whether you're a product-based business owner, beauty entrepreneur, or mission-driven founder, this episode is packed with actionable takeaways on how to scale, pitch with confidence, and lead with purpose.
🎧 Listen to learn:
The real Shark Tank prep process (it took over a year!)
How to use community-led growth to scale your product sales
Why knowing your numbers is critical for BIPOC entrepreneurs
How to measure ROI through impact—not just revenue
Yve-Car’s approach to inclusive leadership and DEI
How grassroots PR and storytelling are the future of brand marketing
Tips for building a beauty brand that stays true to your roots
If you're looking to turn passion into profit, and preparation into national exposure, this is the episode for you.
📢 Resources for Small Product-Based Businesses:
👉 Download the Free Gift Guide PR Roadmap
Learn how to get featured in top product roundups and gift guides—even if you have zero media contacts.
www.gloriachoupr.com/giftguide
🎓 Watch the PR Secrets Masterclass (Free Training)
Discover the exact methods thousands of bootstrapped founders use to land media coverage and grow their brand visibility—without a PR agency.
www.gloriachoupr.com/masterclass
Resources Mentioned:
Join the PR Secrets Masterclass
Join the Small Biz PR Pros Facebook Group
DM the word “PITCH” to us on Instagram to get a pitching freebie https://www.instagram.com/gloriachoupr
Connect with Gloria Chou on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/gloriaychou
Join Gloria Chou's PR Community https://www.facebook.com/groups/428633254951941
Learn more about Ye-Car and Kreyol Essence:
Yve-Car Momperousse: @yvecar
Kreyol Essence:: @kreyolessence
Additional Resources:
Listen On Your Favorite Podcast Platform
Follow & Review on Apple Podcasts
Are you following my podcast? If you’re not, I want to encourage you to do that today so you don’t miss any future episodes!
I would also appreciate it if you would leave me a review! Reviews help me make sure I am providing the content that you need! Plus, you will be entered to WIN a 1:1 pitch writing session with me where I will help you find your press-worthy angle! Click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review”.
TRANsCRIPT
00:00:00 Gloria: What's up, small business heroes. Welcome back to Small Business PR where we make marketing and PR super accessible for the everyday small business underdog. I have been waiting to share this episode with y'all. You've probably heard of her brand if you've ever been into Sephora or Ulta. Yes, she's that big. The founder of Kreyol Essence is someone who not only do I personally know, but I had the honor of being community with. She's one of our members in our PR program. You've probably also seen her on Shark Tank.
00:00:26 Gloria: Today we're going to dive into all of the lessons that she has learned, whether in the ups and downs of entrepreneurship, founding a business on her own, and honestly with the economy and what's happening in society, how you can implement those lessons too. So welcome to the show, Yve-Car .
00:00:39 Yve-Car: Thank you, Gloria. I'm so happy to be here and honored to be here with you because you are a powerhouse. The way information comes out of your mind and brain in seconds, I've seen you at work, is impressive. So excited to be here and to tap even deeper into the community.
00:00:54 Gloria: It's really amazing because, you know, I usually think of my PR program for like, you know, like people starting out. But you are just a legend and OG. said that you've sold over $50 million in products. Can you just give us for people who just don't understand the scale of what you've achieved? Tell us a little bit like, when did you start? How long have you been in business for? And kind of just the snapshot of your company.
00:01:14 Yve-Car: So Kreyol Essence, make scalp care and skincare products with ingredients from Haiti. And we specialize in helping those who are looking to deal with their dry and damaged hair or looking to promote hair growth either because of health, because of aging or because of bad hairstyles that have hurt their hair and scalp. I started Kreyol Essence after having my own hair catastrophe and I was looking for a husband. This was the time where, especially Black women, if you did not straighten your hair, people didn't respect you and it was hard to get a man. So I did what I was told, if I want a husband, I straighten my hair. But what happened is my hair fell out.
00:01:54 Yve-Car: After it fell out. I cried, I asked my mom for a product that she used to use that helped it grow back where if you had any challenges, and she told me, mesquite. And that started the journey to find this product. I will skip forward to say that, you know, selling over $50 million worth of products, being in every major retailer you could think about, Ulta Beauty, Whole Foods, JCPenney, Urban Outfitters, working on special projects with everything from TJ Maxx, being a Sephora Accelerator.
00:02:22 Yve-Car: We've been featured in Forbes, the New York Times as one to watch, and several other beauty publications. We've had past presidents come visit our farm, Bill Clinton, Chelsea Clinton has come to visit. Being able to speak on stages, it's really, being on national TV, it's all been this amazing journey, but that did not come without lots of fight and grit and humility and community to get us through our humble beginnings working in our room to being in a 10,000 square foot warehouse and being in these major retailers.
00:02:58 Gloria: Yeah, what I love about your story is that, I mean, I just have a soft spot for Haitians and Haitians are just amazing, amazing humans. But you entered this industry where honestly, 10 years ago at Sephora, I could imagine there was quite a few no's. I got a lot of no's. We don't want. Right. We don't want this. is a Black hair care company or this is not what I. So all of these things. And what I love about the arc of your story is that you've been able to break down so many barriers. And I really do connect with that because you may be walking to a lot of rooms where you're not still seen. Right. Whether it's... So tell us a little bit about what it what made you. Have you just always been a very gritty person? Like because you just had to really bust through so many places and just make a seat for yourself at the table. How can you inspire other people to do the same?
00:03:44 Yve-Car: Yeah. I think that one of the core benefits that I had is my culture. And I remember being asked to come speak at an event and I was told that all the attendees felt because they don't speak English well and because they're immigrants that they have a disadvantage. And I thought my culture, if you think I have an accent, my color, all those are my superpowers because I know what my community wants and you don't. I know how to connect with my community. And by the way, I also know how to connect with yours because I went to Cornell and my parents were big on reading, education, vocabulary, all that. So to be able to live in different worlds, I saw it as my superpower. And my mom always told me you're special. You are above par. And if anything, I always felt like she pushed me too much. I'm like, I just want to live.
00:04:43 Yve-Car: I don't think of myself in the way you do, but she had this vision of me, which in some ways I could go the route of she's so hard on me, perfection and all that. And there's something that can be said there. But it also meant when I walked into a room, I never felt like I was at a disadvantage. My thought process always was like, oh, you just don't know. So I'm going to show you. You're just not aware. And I think my culture and my upbringing certainly did that. I think also when I examined the history of being Haitian.
00:05:13 Yve-Car: You'll hear every Haitian talk about this, especially we are in May, which is amazing to be talking to you in May because it's Haitian Heritage Month. It's Haitian Flag Day on May 18th and we celebrate hard as a community all month long. And when you look at our history, Haiti was the first Black independent country that set the precedent for freedom. So before liberation happened in other parts of the world, it happened in Haiti first and it was like the chain reaction for others to fight for liberation. So as a culture, we're used to fighting, we're used to having to be scrappy so that we could be hurt.
00:05:50 Gloria: Yeah, that is like a full sentence right there. Liberation, there's something so sacred about liberation when it comes to people who have not, who have been living on the margins, right? Who are not the most resource. So I really love that you said liberation. There's so much depth there. So you've weathered economic downturns. Now we know there's tariffs. It's just a crazy time y'all. So let's get into the lessons.
00:06:15 Yve-Car: DEI issue.
00:06:17 Gloria: Yeah, to say the least. So how are you grappling with all of this? I think I just think it's incredible how you've poured back into your community. And you said something very, that touched my heart, which you said it's about getting back to the basics. So I don't want to tell everyone what we talked about, but let's just get into it. So where do you want to start? I know there are three things you wanted to share today.
00:06:40 Yve-Car: I would say the first thing as a founder and anyone in business, I know right now it's challenging because there are a lot of different things coming at us, right? The tariffs, which have an impact on our cost of goods. So what it costs to get packaging, what does it cost to get an ingredient? What does it cost to ship? All of these things are being impacted. And some of us were aware that it might hit us and some of us were not. We're also looking at larger macro impacts, right? DEI being pushed out, even if you think you're not part of a program that's related to DEI, but it's impacted from communities.
00:07:19 Yve-Car: We see Target right now is dealing a lot with what's happening with DEI because consumers are saying, hey, if I don't feel seen, I'm not coming to shop in your area. But that's also as a result of policies that said if you have a DEI program, that's considered racism. So again, a policy is now impacting what's happening and for new brands who are coming in based on DEI initiatives, that becomes a challenge. You also have the cost of, everyone loves to talk about the cost of eggs, and a lot of larger companies are laying people off. That's gonna impact consumers. So all of that brings stress and it brings about fear for the person who's not in business and also the person who is.
00:08:06 Yve-Car: So I think one of my learnings from 2020, which to me this feels like 2020 again, where everything feels so uncertain, where you don't know what's going to happen. But a year after 2020, that was our most profitable year. That was the year we did things that I don't know if we could do again now. It was just like, wow, we opened up the 10,000 foot warehouse coming out of the garage. We, you know, we're featured on Shark Tank, but also had to figure out how to ship products out while the world was shut down. You 've had to figure out how to get supplies, not just from one country, free. From Haiti, how to get our packaging from China, and how to get different ingredients.
00:08:51 Yve-Car: And again, ports weren't always working and people were getting sick, so they weren't coming into work that easily. So all of that meant that we had to have faith, and I know it's easy to start off with, you know, here are the five different things you should do. But everything starts with your mindset and your belief. And we have faith and I'm talking about me and my business partner, Stefan, that we were meant to do what we were doing and we were meant to have our impact on our community. Therefore, and then we had to go in with faith through the difficult times. I would say during that time, too, you have to get into community with other business folks and those who are on the same journey as you.
00:09:32 Yve-Car: If I just went to my best friend, that might have helped me feel better, but that wasn't going to help me figure out how to balance my P&L or how to come up with a unique way to bring in packaging, to get onto the shelves at Ulta when my plan A wasn't working. So I got very much into groups of CEOs, business owners of various levels because you could learn something everywhere. Right?
00:10:01 Yve-Car: So I remember one founder I was speaking to and I was complaining about how hard it is and I just want to give up. And I mean, yes, it's hard. And he said to me, yeah, we just did 50 million. And what we did is we retooled all of our manufacturers and we went from making shampoos to hand sanitizers. And I was like, oh, okay. Thank you for that. Essentially, was like Yvecar, are you going to do this or not? Like no time for excuses. If you are in this, it's hard, but you can get through. So those type of conversations with other founders was important and also to be able to share challenges about what was happening in a way that others would not get it.
00:10:46 Yve-Car: So I think really getting into community during hard times is important. And other things when it relates to communities, how are you taking care of your group? During COVID, we did everything from host online dance classes to make sure people were moving and being healthy. And I was surprised that we would have hundreds of our customers on. We did everything from sound healing from a cultural perspective. We did everything with having classes on finances to, hey, we're going to do movie night. So really being part of a community was amazing.
00:11:26 Yve-Car: And when we saw that we had angry customers, let's say somebody didn't get a product. Let's say, you know, shipping was bananas. The first thing I told my customer service team is, hey, we're going to be very frank that we don't allow disrespect as a community. But sometimes we'll first say, are you okay? What is really happening here? And we're here for you. We're not going to leave you. You can't talk to us like that, but you know, we're here for you. And the outpour of people who would say, I'm so sorry, I'm taking out on you a challenge that I have. I have my kids here in the house. I don't know what to do with them. I feel like I don't have control of my life.
00:12:05 Yve-Car: This is the one thing I have control on, is my Haitian casserole and shampoo here. And we're like, we got you. We're going to get it there. And so we had therapists come on. We had coaches come on, because that's what it means to love your community. And I think that growth that we experience, that also means that our community loves us. And now we're doing the same type of thing. I think I was sharing that in Haiti, we're going through immense, immense political trouble. 85 % of the capital is overrun by gangs. And that means our community is in a lot of pain. We have people who have died, been kidnapped, been decapitated. It's really ugly right now.
00:12:46 Yve-Car: So things like sponsoring with a comedian success junior, a countrywide tour of joy to make sure that we're still laughing, to make sure that we can still process the challenges and not feel so weighed down with something that was important to us as a brand. Sponsoring things like a bridge so a few hundred kids can get to school in Cap-Haitian. Those were all activities that we said, hey, we can't solve the larger issue. We're gonna have to keep working with others for that. But what are small things that we can do to provide hope and a life? And I think anytime there's been trouble, throughout the 10 years in our business, from the beginning to now, the major mistake we could ever do is when we're not focused on our customer.
00:13:31 Yve-Car: And every time we are focused on our customer as a unit, we survive and thrive. And that's my number one lesson. Don't take your eye off the customer, even though there's 10,000 things happening to distract you.
00:13:43 Gloria: That's like input output, right? So like you doing the joy tour. It may end up in sales, it may not. But I think the essence of what you pour into your community just ultimately is just taking it from something that's very transactional and binary to like, I'm just going to pour into my people and there's not going to be a tangible outcome. I'm still going to do it. So what was your thinking about doing that?
00:14:03 Yve-Car: Can I say about one thing, Gloria? I think I am a numerical focused person. I and I think you just have to be creative in what are you measuring? Right. I'm not one of those founders. I want to do good. But I also understand that to do good, I need to even measure that. So one of the things when my team was like, well, how do we measure the ROI for this? How many impressions are we getting in terms of people we're connecting with? How many people are actually learning about the brand when Success Jr. stands up and he does a country-wide tour? When we add up all the people who hear about us through his emails and his views and all that, that's numerical.
00:14:44 Yve-Car: So I think often we just have to change or find creative ways to add metrics to the good that we're doing. Because that also matters. I think to do well, you have to be well. So I think there's some creative ways. And like you said, it may not go immediately into sales or ROI, but I am a strong believer, which in number two is in know your numbers. So even if you're saying I am doing this for the community, you should still have some numbers as to, well, how many people am I impacting? How many people's lives have changed? How many people who could say, hey, this is a challenge, I'm depressed, whatever is happening now, but as a result of going to this, as a result of hugging someone at the comedy show, I feel stronger, I feel like I can do things.
00:15:36 Yve-Car: So I think we just have to get creative with measuring, even if it's not the traditional KPIs or key performance indicators that we're taught to look at. We can create our own KPIs and that in and of itself is power.
00:15:49 Gloria: Yeah, I've, you know, talking about KPIs, I think Western society or this internalized capitalism has taught us that everything has to be, you know, hockey stick growth and it's just like top line revenue. But that just leads to burnout and it's just buying into this more is always better. But I love what you said is that there's so many contours, there's so many dimensions to what abundance and richness looks like. And you've definitely tapped into that. And I think there's so much beauty in that. So I really applaud you because that's also my own journey coming from burnout and being taught revenue, top line and being like, you know, I'm actually not going to focus on that this year. It's just, like you said, liberating.
00:16:24 Gloria: So let's talk about the numbers, right? Cause you know, a lot of times we know the numbers we should be measuring. We talked about numbers that we can measure. What is your greatest lesson that you've learned about metrics and know your numbers?
00:16:35 Yve-Car: I would say that as a Black woman, I have a chip on my shoulders about numbers because I'm not expected to know. Normally when someone walks into a room, me and my business partner are there. Who do think they go to first to talk about the finances? My partner because he's male, right? I, you know, I love to be sexy. So I will have, you know, maybe a strapless dress on or the perception is she's the praise and feeds and you know. What could she possibly know about numbers? And if the team was like, well, you got to talk to Yve-Car , and then I start going into business meetings, there's this shock that yes, we can go through the entire P&L, we can go through the balance sheet, we can go through my margins, we could go through my COGS, we can go through all of these aspects.
00:17:26 Yve-Car: What's my CAC, what's my PPC, we can go through all that. And it's not expected of me, but I think that's also the reason why I work so hard at it. It's not because I naturally am good at numbers. I was not a finance major. I hate math to be frank. But what I do love is to have the power to steer my life and my business. And I cannot do that if I am relying on an accountant or someone else to look at my numbers. All right. So the biggest thing I had to learn over the years is I'm going to have to work two to three times harder on the numbers, but I should know it so that I can be the master of my destiny and so that could help have an impact on my community.
00:18:08 Yve-Car: Because if I'm not profitable, I cannot sponsor Joy with the comedian. If I am not profitable, I cannot sponsor that bridge for the kids or create work for farmers or women or here in Miami. So the number one thing I have to know after my community are my numbers, because that's where the power is. So I always say, if I were to go back, because I was a non-profit, it for a very long time, right? Because I want to help the world. And when I think about even my college days, what I would say to anyone is be part of every finance group. If there's a finance committee, join that. If it's the fundraising committee, join that. If it's the investor relations committee, join that.
00:18:47 Yve-Car: In any organization, that is the center of power. It's not the president. It's not the person who's doing the PR. That's just who's up front. Those powerful person is the person who controls the purse strings. So become the person who controls the purse strings and that is true power. And I think when I look through all the organizations I was a part of growing up, especially if we were of color, we were never in the finance committee. We were in the PR committee. We were in the social impact. We are in the, you know, programming committee. We're never in the finance piece. And that's okay that that's not what we've been taught.
00:19:27 Yve-Car: But now we know better. So I think that that's where we need to be. I think also as women, another thing I learned is I'm too conservative. The difference between me and the founder who did 50 million that year is the fact that he took more risk. And that's something I had to learn that A, find folks who understand the metrics for you. If this makes any sense to you, if you're in digital marketing, I had a $5 cash.
00:19:55 Yve-Car: That is considered crazy. That is considered the best of the best in the digital media world. I have no idea. I should have been investing all my money into digital marketing at that time. And, but I was scared and I was like, I didn't know. And the other thing that Numbers has taught me is if someone cannot answer, I would ask my digital specialist, Hey, what's the benchmark for this? we doing well? Are we not doing well? He could not answer me with a number. So therefore, and then I couldn't take the next strategic approach because I didn't even understand what I was doing. Right?
00:20:31 Yve-Car: So getting folks who are smarter, more seasoned, then you will be helpful when I look at those who have sold their businesses 10 times over, they had someone else advising them who had experience. I think it's great to be gritty and figure things out for yourself, but that's not. The end game is find people who are smarter than you to tell you, go left. I think you should go right. No, based on these numbers, you're killing it. Keep going. But understanding numbers, metrics and benchmarks allows you to take better and smarter steps. And you don't have to be the one who knows all of it, but be humble enough to find someone who does.
00:21:09 Gloria: So good. So good. Yeah. The numbers. mean, you my business coach always said we cannot grow. We can't track. So that's really good. And I love that you're also defying stereotypes because you're the one that knows everything, not your male partner. And so boom, you just busted another belief there. I love that. What's the third thing that you want to leave us with?
00:21:30 Yve-Car: I think the third thing that I wanted to say is important is around, we talk community, we talked about numbers. I think it's often if you ever listen to Guy Raz's, know, How I Built This. He asked every entrepreneur at the end, how much of this was luck and how much of this was you? And the answer I most resonate with, and I hear probably 90 % of entrepreneurs say, probably 95. They're like, luck is, this is luck. And what is luck? It's preparation meeting opportunity. You have to prepare. The luck is the opportunity comes and you're ready to scale it. You're ready to go for it. Right? Because many of us, opportunities come and we're not ready.
00:22:14 Yve-Car: The retailer called, you were not ready. You didn't know your numbers. You didn't know how much your product cost. You didn't know what you should sell it for. You didn't know who your customer was. The opportunity came. You got lucky, but you weren't ready. So one question I get a lot is, how did Kreyol Essence get on Shark Tank? And often the thought is, you must have blew up because of Shark Tank. And I often say, no, I blew up or the company blew up, myself and Stephane because we worked our behinds off before that for five years to prepare the company so that when the opportunity came, we could pour gasoline and just go.
00:22:55 Yve-Car: So, you know, after we were featured in Shark Tank in 2020, we had a lot of things in the fire. I was working with JCPenney, Ulta Beauty, Whole Foods, and probably six other retailers, but most people didn't know about it. I was still in the negotiation stage.
And it was really important to me before I got onto Shark Tank, even though for four years people were like, you guys should be on Shark Tank. I was like, I don't want to go in front of Kevin O'Leary and you know, all the other sharks and just say, hey, we're a great business. One thing I wanted to be sure of is that we had already hit a million dollars in sales. That was just the number I wanted. I wanted the million.
00:23:33 Yve-Car: Second, I wanted to have at least three retailers lined up. So I already had Ulta lined up as, and they're the largest beauty retailer in the world. Now, side note, they hadn't signed the contract yet, but that doesn't matter, right? I get on there. I'm talking about the fact that this is a deal that's happening. I'm still negotiating. I have the contract in front of me. They need to finish signing it. But that's not a detail I needed to tell. JCPenney was already on board. They had their products. But what happened is after being on Shark Tank, if they were hesitating, they signed those contracts real quick. They were like, oh, for all of them when we told them that we were going to be on Shark Tank and they didn't believe us, or I would have, there was a PR person I hired because I called other entrepreneurs who are on and I said, what are the three things we need to do? Right?
00:24:23 Yve-Car: I didn't just let it happen. I called anyone I knew who had been on Shark Tank and I'm like, what was your experience? What do I need to do? Our first customer service call center was because an entrepreneur said, ma'am, you and your staff, your three people cannot pick up these phone calls that you're going to get. Oh, you need a PR person to you know, deal with any inbound request. Oh, who's shipping your products? So I learned from that. We had certain retailers that we told, please stock up on our products and they didn't listen. And we were sold out everywhere for a year on Amazon and Ulta and Whole Foods. So when we would go in the store to do checks, they'd be like, oh, you guys are the ones on Shark Tank. You're the Haitian company, the hair care brand. And that's what they would remember is that we're sold out because no one listened.
00:25:06 Yve-Car: But to me, that is about having faith in yourself, being prepared. Our dot com was prepared because I had my homework of what we were going to need in terms of stock. And Stephanee and I worked 24 hours during that time. So we talk about preparation again. We had to, when our 3PL and the 3PL is usually who a brand goes to to ship their products, they shut down and they couldn't manage shipping products up during, you know, the pandemic.
00:25:36 Yve-Car: That's when we rented a warehouse, this 10,000 square foot warehouse that we're in, Stephanee set it up and we partnered with Uber to make sure that drivers here in Miami, since there was no one to drive, that they could have another form of work. So they were the ones we worked with to package and ship out orders. So that's all preparation. That's all making sure that when the opportunity comes that we were ready to execute. And even from, I remember, we got onto Shark Tank and the episode aired, we worked on how do we take bits and pieces of the episode and turn it into digital ads? How do we turn it into talking points?
00:26:20 Yve-Car: How do we analyze the fact that the, the, one of the major talking points was I was the one that negotiated the deal and it wasn't Stephanee. And what does that mean? That's a talking point. That became something that I went on speaking tours about when people said, you know, Stephanee, showed emotion, but that emotion is the thing that probably bought in 50 % of sales. But the discussion also was, what does it mean if a man cries? Does that show weakness? You know, who are we as a society to do that? And the conversation about, do you know what it is to be an immigrant, to be a business owner, to start something, to want to live for your community?
00:26:57 Yve-Car: And the big headlines were, I'm not supposed to be here, but I'm here. But that's something he was saying out of emotion. So, but that meant that we have to be ready to talk about it. We had to be ready to look at these different angles of this one thing that we did to keep the conversation going. Just like we're doing now. What are we talking about now? Our episode on tracting and how, how that helped to fuel people learning about a company from the small island that not a lot of people know, but that has the richest ingredients that has the most potent ingredients that has like we are our Haitian black cast oil is clinically tested.
00:27:31 Yve-Car: A lot of our products are clinically tested and proven. So beyond even just the emotion, the story, and what we've done, we got numbers to back up. You you got your bald spot, if your hair is dry, if you're dealing with eczema, psoriasis, which are skin challenges that are not just superfluous. These are things that really impact people from a health perspective and emotionally that you have a product that you know does good for you, but also does good for the world. But all that's a preparation as well, so that when a spotlight is provided to us, when you kindly ask, you know, hey, can you be on the podcast? We've got to show up and be correct. So I say, stay ready so you don't have to give up.
00:28:17 Gloria: So good. you you said something that really was like shocking to me. You said that the whole end to end process for Shark Tank was over a year. That is, wow. A year and a half or something, right? Can you tell me a little bit about that? Give us a little sneak peek because I think, you know, people listening, probably have not been on Shark Tank. So what was that experience like?
00:28:36 Yve-Car: Yeah, it was the best experience, but the longest experience. I'm probably happy no one told me it was going to take a year and a half because I probably wouldn't have done it. And, you know, from going to the casting call and just posting about it and seeing how excited our community was, that was the validation that, keep going through the process because I didn't expect just me and a little Shark Tank sign at the audition would go viral. To then twice being asked to submit videos and after submitting the videos being told that, hey, you're going to meet with producers for a year. during that year, not only are you still trying to run the day to day of your business, you still have a life, you're still trying to do all that.
00:29:19 Yve-Car: I remember, you know, I was telling you I was at a trade show. The most important trade show in the business is life. When I talk about the fact that we have these retailers that we confirm, that's what I was doing at the retail trade show and having to stop in between because a producer wants to talk about being on TV, it almost felt like, do want? I'm busy. I'm like, needing, I have 15 minutes to sell a retailer on why we need to be there, why Haiti should be on the shelf, why textured hair should be on the shelf, why we have 50 % of our customers who are white and 50 % of blacks. And just cause you see me, doesn't mean I belong in this show. This is what I saw. I have 15 minutes to get through all of this and a producer's calling.
00:30:02 Yve-Car: But when they told us, yes, you're on, and my partner were like, yay. And then we were like, Clint, gotta go. Gotta finish this. We met with producers every week and they would just keep asking us a ton of questions about the business and also about... So they'd be like, well, how long have you been married? And who does what in the business? And I think if you watch the episode, season 11, episode 11, you start to see why they were asking us all these questions, because they definitely use that information to kind of get at us emotionally on the episode.
00:30:38 Yve-Car: And the only thing producers work with you on is the first 60 seconds where you say, hey, sharks, my name is blah, blah, blah, blah. Everything else, you get no questions. You get no heads up, nothing. You build your own set, you pay for your own set. Flying in, you fly in. Your makeup, you even do. Everything is on you as a brand. And I was completely shocked by that. Lots of paperwork, extensive paperwork for anyone who's going to be on there, any image that you show, all that. So that's what a lot of the year was.
00:31:11 Yve-Car: And then you get on the set, but also to prepare, talk about preparation, I watched probably 500 episodes of Shark Tank, I'm already a Shark Tank lover, but I'm like, what is gonna happen? No one's telling me the questions. So I love when people say, you look so natural up there. Did you know what you were going to answer? Well, yes, in the sense of I practiced, I watched, I studied who the judges are, but no, from the perspective of no one told us what it was going to be like, or no one could say, here's the top 40 questions you should answer.
00:31:46 Yve-Car: So I think we have to continuously call and connect with others who have experience, but also do our own humor. But Shark Tank was amazing. up, another thing people don't know about Shark Tank is, you know how when you walk down that aisle and you hear the music, dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun, that music's not playing when you walk in real life. So, Stephanee and I are walking down this long, quiet way.
00:32:16 Yve-Car: And I'm like, this is nerve-racking. So we started humming it on our own. So you gotta find ways to cut yourself up. And we just did that and then we get in, the door opens, poof, and it's like, holy crap, it's real. There's a camera, there's Mark Cuban, and everyone there in their stone face. And when you go in, there are markers about where you're supposed to stand. But you see, the beauty of it is after you do the whole, hi Sharks, I'm such and such, blah, blah, blah. And then they start talking to you. For me, I forgot there were cameras. So my business partner, Stephanee, kept pulling me back because he's like, he follows rules. I often don't. I'm like, why do I have to stand here? I need to talk to them. They need to see me and feel me.
00:33:06 Yve-Car: But it was funny because afterwards, it's a conversation that's lasting for two and a half hours. You see 12 minutes, but that's a two and a half hour conversation on our feet. There's no books. There's no, let me check my phone. There's nothing. This, the answers need to be in your head and you need to know your business and you need to be able to be calm even in the heated moments because there were heated moments for us all. So never anything like it. I like to say I've done pitch competitions. I've done talking about the business for quite some time, for five years prior to getting onto Shark Tank.
00:33:44 Yve-Car: But all those little things, applying for free grants, applying to pitch competitions, whether it's three people or 100, that prepares you for a larger stage like Shark Tank to be on TV to speak to millions. Because again, this wasn't the first time I practiced it. Whether it's three people or five people, I've been practicing talking about myself, my business, and anything else. So by the time we got to Shark Tank, these were just another three people to me that I needed to talk to. that was our Shark Tank. A snippet of behind the--
00:34:15 Gloria: Two hours in heels? I can't even walk two steps in heels. Incredible. You're a jumper.
00:34:23 Yve-Car: Oh, I appreciate that. I didn't think so though. I was just like, no. My cousin, I brought my own makeup artist who's my cousin because I did not want, not everybody has the gift of putting makeup on brown skin. So she was there. And I remember being so critical, but I loved it. And I'm also very thankful for how the Shark Tank community, like when I read the comments, how gracious people were, because you know, people could be evil. Just die. So that was very, very touching as well. How folks corralled around us.
00:35:00 Gloria: That's amazing. I mean, you're just like the living example of building a life in business that really stemmed from our values. And you can see in everything that you do, from building the bridges and bringing joy. And I'm just so grateful that we connected because I do believe that your vibe attracts your tribe. That's very much how I am doing things too. Let's talk, I think a good way to end this is you talked about getting back to the basics. I told you about how I think we're just in a phase where like all the marketing templates of 2020, 2022, it doesn't work anymore. And there's just so much market saturation. our audience, they want to hear from us.
00:35:36 Gloria: They want to hear us talk about maybe polarizing things. You know, like for example, I talk about race all the time in my emails. I grew up with a Black family who took me into high school. So I want to talk about what it means for you as a CEO of this big company selling hair products. But how are you getting back to the basics? How are you unapologetically showing up and talking about maybe things that aren't related to hair and scalp, but you're doing it anyway?
00:35:56 Yve-Car: Yeah, that's a really good question. Sometimes I wonder if we do it too much. But we have a even a section on our on our Instagram. And every Friday we have what's called Talk Back Friday. And we post things that we think are relevant to our community. So it could be about, hey, there's this new stat. There's all these studies that show that when women use braiding hair, they are 80 percent more likely to have cancer or to be exposed to, you know, these specific toxins in using this braiding hair. Right.
00:36:31 Yve-Car: It's not necessarily about me selling the product, but we're talking about our community that we know uses extensions, what that does to them from a health perspective. But we might also talk about should a man pay for the first date or not? And what does that mean for us as women? What is our value set, culture, what have you? So we run the gamut on Talk Back Fridays as to what we're talking about with our community. I think one topic and some core views that we often opine on publicly is that, you know, there's definitely flack in our tribe sometimes when we feature a lot of our white or not Haitian or non-Black customer base.
00:37:12 Yve-Car: And that in terms of talking about race, I talk about what diversity means to me. Diversity to me is not Black. That's everybody. That's most other people's definition. To me, I grew up as a Haitian person where I could have a cousin that looks like you. I could have someone else with blonde hair. Even Stephanee grew up in Boston and we often joke that he grew up in like with the United Colors of Benetton. Like there's just everyone everywhere. I'm from Brooklyn. Go to your left, go to your right, go to Williamsburg, go to Flatbush. You are so surrounded by so many cultures and people and that's what makes New York so vibrant and gritty and amazing, right?
00:37:54 Yve-Car: I can eat, you know, Korean barbecue, I love bulgogi, but I also want fritay, which is bun and fries, and I also want escargot. Why can't I be all these things with all these people? I think for me and Stephanee, that's something that's true to us. We think our customers should be diverse. And we think when it comes to diversity, I think it is a privilege for us to let non-people of color or non-Haitians in, but I do want them in, right? Because we need allies in movements. A lot of movements don't happen with just one particular community.
00:38:27 Yve-Car: If we go back, we look at MLK, we look at our history, there were other communities aligning with us to push our agenda forward. So from a community perspective, from an organizing perspective, from a power perspective that we want back, to me that means aligning with people who appreciate and respect our culture. But we don't want to do to others what the oppressors have done to us. And that's essentially what tends to happen.
00:38:53 Yve-Car: So I'm a big proponent of that. And that's not a popular theory, I don't think. Most people might be like, no, we don't want to feature these white folks. They never let us have hair products. Now we've got hair products. Why do we have to share it? That's a sentiment in our community. And we talk about it. And I think now when we're looking at DEI initiatives being thwarted and going away, the fact that institutions who provide financing not just for people of color, but also for women, are getting sued. That tells you this fight is larger.
00:39:27 Yve-Car: We all have to get together to really normalize inclusion versus diversity. So am I upset that some of the DEI programs are going away? No. I think what we need to focus on is how do we make more inclusive programs? And how do we make sure that when we invite communities to the table, we are actually setting them up for success? Bringing me into Target shelves because I'm Black won't help me scale to multi-million dollars. But if you realize that from an economic perspective that my community has power and you understand what my community wants, and then you give me the proper support, not just the shelf space, but how do I look at a retailer P&L?
00:40:10 Yve-Car: How do I make sure products move? How do I negotiate the contract? What are my payment terms? Is it 30 days, 60 days, or 90 days? Because that's going to impact how I'm able to fuel the business and if I can take a salary or not and live. Like if we can get more into like inclusion and then really scaling BIPOC brands for success and talk about the fundamental things that it requires for all brands to succeed, I think that is powerful. So that's the way I look at it.
00:40:38 Yve-Car: Lastly, I'll say I used to be the director of diversity at Cornell. And one of the things that I had to do because I am really passionate about diversity, even though I take a different view and spin on it, is that I had to work, I worked in the alumni affairs division, which is the business division of the university. Talk about again, another, another career path that I had no idea existed. What the heck is alumni affairs? No one talks to you about alumni affairs in Brooklyn. I didn't know that. And to learn that, oh, especially for these institutions who run the world, right? I've used run the world. They have these structures that allow for generational wealth. So when you look at a institution's endowment, they're not thinking about even the next five years. They're thinking about what does this mean? What's the compound interest in the nations that are going to be there 50, 60, 70 years from now for a legacy. So learning that, that's how I think about it for my community. What are we creating that's here 50, 60, 70 years that has compound interest or compound impact or whatever, it's not sexy at first, but it's these little things that grow.
00:41:45 Yve-Car: But when I wanted to make sure that the Asian community, the LGBT community, the Latino community, the Black community, the women's organization, when I had to work with what they call affinity groups, I was like, we're not part of the conversations. We're looked at as the ones who need versus the one who do and give and set things. So one of the presentations that I developed for the trustees, that my VP had to, he had to have my back on and we worked on it was called the business case for diversity.
00:42:17 Yve-Car: So I've always thought about what's the business case for doing good. So I pulled out stats around what the students of tomorrow will look like. So I was there probably in 2012. So I was talking to them. What is the demographic of the student body in 2015? It is not all white and blonde. No. So when you look at the different students, who's going to connect with them? Who's the alumni that they're look towards? These people right here that you may be ignoring. I'm making the business case as to why we're important. I don't even care at first if this is a social or personal belief. Business case, you need to do it. We came up with other different ways to show how diverse communities add so much, not just economically, but from a social perspective, because at Cornell, we had, especially with our Asian students, they were committing suicide at a rate that was higher than any of the group.
00:43:12 Yve-Car: So what are we going to do to provide support networks for them? Some students are going to need folks who look like them, who speak their language, who understand their culture, and who can coach them. Like there were all these things, but it boiled down to one of the reasons why we were able to get certain financing, funding, and support is because we made the business case for diversity before we made the emotional case for diversity. And I think that that's something that we're gonna need to do throughout all industries, right? It's been big in the hair care industry.
00:43:44 Yve-Car: We're amazing that we have buyouts like Mielle and Shea Moisture. These companies gross to over a hundred million and the buyout numbers are in the B, billions. Billions, not millions, billions, but because the business case for diversity is there. And there are many different actors and players and people who are proving that. And I think we're seeing that with Target now as they're like, holy crap, the business case of diversity was just made when people did not shop and you could see stocks pricing going down. When you involve dollars and money with things, in addition to the emotional and moral things that are needed, I think we can have a major impact. So that's one thing we talk about here related to race and something where I a bit of a different view as a founder, but that both myself and my co-founder believe that inclusion is important.
00:44:39 Gloria: Yeah. And also just getting proximate to different cultures, right? Because we know that if we just keep talking to people who look like us, we're also part of the problem because we want to be able to not perpetuate the status quo. So how do we get further from that? So that's one of the quotes I love from Brian Stevenson, founder of Equal Justice Initiative. I saw him give a speech at the NYU Law commencement and that just really resonated with me. He's like the cure for racism, the cure for all of this is just to get proximate to different cultures. And it's hard, especially with the way that American life is built and the way that the real estate policy has been. do kind of stay in our clusters, but that's absolutely the reason why I'm still in Brooklyn. And I just kind--
00:45:21 Yve-Car: I love that. It reminded me of something though. It's one of the things we're trying to do more now at Kreyol Essence and talk about getting back to basics is storytelling. Because that's something we've done so much in the early days of the company and get marked down into day to day staff employees. The things that you need to do as you grow. that's as much. But I noticed when we had to say, why is it that a customer might be upset or feel somewhat triggered? Right. Because it's a trigger if you see a non-Haitian person using the product.
00:45:57 Yve-Car: And then I said that's still a story about someone who has cancer. Someone who has cancer, a white woman, you know, hear, you watch her story. You watch her lose her hair. You watch her become thin and a bit frail. You watch her go through chemo. You watch her come out of it. You watch her need something that is natural because obviously her body has needs to reject lots of toxins and she needs to be healthy. And she picks up Haitian castor oil. She starts using it. She's loving it. She's learning about Haitian culture.
00:46:27 Yve-Car: Can you be upset at that person once you know their story? No, because you can relate if you've had someone who's sick. You can relate if you hear her say a word in kreyol and you love that she's trying. So I think more storytelling will also bring us together along with that proximity that you're talking about. Because I think that's the gift that Stephanee and I have always had. It's been hard. It doesn't mean that we didn't feel what it is to be the only person in the room or for us to look at different ways. But because we've been forced as we're trying to uplift our community and also trying to grow personally, that means we had to be in different rooms.
00:47:05 Yve-Car: It's now become very normal for us. We don't even bat an eye to us. We belong there. It's like, don't you know we belong there? And that helps too. think the storytelling and going back to that is something that we as a brand are trying to go to and just simplify things in this very company.
00:47:22 Gloria: Yeah, yes, for sure. Yeah, that's, you know, it's so funny because everything you're saying, even though you know, have a different business, you have a product I don't, is exactly the season that I'm in as well, is getting back into the business. How can we just put more love in business, you know, so that how can we bring the humanist back? You know, I think we were all told like, you gotta, you know, you gotta hide the secret sauce and make people pay for it. But what I've learned is that the more help you give people for free, the more value you create for free, people will want to work with you. So that's what I was doing.
00:47:51 Yve-Car: You do that a lot. And you said, you know, usually those who stick to the PR program are just those who are new in business. It's actually one of the reasons why I stick to being part of your program is I see how many nuggets you provide folks that others would say, no, you've got to sign up for my course first and then I'll give it to you. Or this is an upsell. You are so supportive of the community. You are sending tips.
00:48:18 Yve-Car: You are bringing and exposing us all to different professionals. You know what's happening within your community, but I really have seen how much value you provide to your community and you are not stuck on, you must pay for every single thing. The caliber of people that you bring to speak. I mean, I can't even keep up with all the amazing things that you provide. Right? So I think you are doing an outstanding job and you are a good example, an amazing example of what happens when not only do you provide quality, you know yourself.
00:48:59 Yve-Car: Like I respect what you know. I've seen you in the podcast. I've seen you when I don't even understand how you answer questions so quickly. It's insane. But the way you do that, that's a gift and you really want to see others succeed. So thank you for that.
00:49:15 Gloria: Oh, thank you so much. Is there anything? How can people find you? said, what's your Instagram handle so people can find you?
00:49:21 Yve-Car: I know, exactly. Yeah. At Y-V-E-C-A-R @Yvecar on Instagram and at Kreyol Essence, K-R-E-Y-O-L-E-S-S-E-N-C-E at Kreyol Essence, both on Instagram.
00:49:36 Gloria: Thank you for being here. This was amazing. We're glad to have you back. It's one of my bucket list items. I really want to see you in person. I want to have a dance party with you. I know you love house music and electronic music. My husband is a DJ, so I'm waiting for you to dance with us. That's like one of my top bucket list items. So hopefully we can make that happen.