Welcome Back. Here are the six quick questions. Question # two is what's been your favorite marketing moment so far? Okay so we did a one of the herbal rolling bars at um for our friends got summer magazine, they were doing one of their issue launch parties. And so we were popping up there and I got to roll some herbal barberry herbal spliff for lean away. And uh that was a badass. Like she she went even line which was so cool, I got a chat with her later. Um She's one of Valerie Nys like favorite celebrities um and it was just amazing. I was so star struck, but at the same time I was like so are you investing? And I mean I talk women on cannabis man, please contact me. Yeah you just have to put yourself out there. But it was just kind of one of those like pinch me moments like I couldn't believe that I just got to do that.

That is so cool. And I love goes um a such a cool magazine, we've had her on the show before to share her story. To love it. Yeah. Question # three is what's your go to business resource. If you have to kind of think about a book or a podcast or a newsletter, go to Business resource, google can google be my answer like um Good, everything is actually even most of our operations are helping suites. Um One form or another. Um I guess that's where we start. I do have to give a shout out, go to air table. Um It's a workflow project management. Um we are, we do everything in air table when it comes to all our content strategy and management systems are inventory tracking like everything. Air table has really become sort of centralized hub for us and it's just um they also have a lot of good resources and blog content and stuff out there for founders but like I said organization is it makes everything so much easier and makes everything so much smoother and so it has to be a lot more organized.

Love that I need to check out their table. I feel like I'm hearing about it all the time these days, but I don't actually use it. I need to check it out totally. Question number three is how do you win the day? What are your AM or PM rituals and habits that keep you feeling happy and successful and motivated. Um so I have been um meditating last morning um so pretty much a white guy and the first thing I do is put on a cozy sweatshirt and I open my window so I can get some fresh air And um I just put my calm app in and even if you don't pay for the com subscription, like you do the free version they do these times, there's no word times meditation that you can layer in different like nature sounds and things. So I do like birds in a babbling Brook, like you know kind of vent out. So I started today with 15 or 20 minute meditation. Um and then when I'm home I try to be home so I don't love to, you know, like pick up rework projects again when I get home or things like that.

Like I just usually will put my computer away and just kind of leave it away unless like I absolutely need to, I am, I love cooking, cooking is sort of my, I also, it's very zen to me. Like I could just grade garlic and chopped onions and grate ginger forever and just be completely happy and blissed out. So cooking is a really big part of my self care routine. I also think, you know, just feeding, like nourishing yourself is is an important piece of, of my sort of mental health and my balance. Um and then finally swimming has been a really important piece as well. I I typically go swimming usually I've been trying to go at least 2-3 times a week and I don't, somebody at the pool and asked me like, you know, in the yard I do and like how many laps I do and I don't count. And that is apparently very unusual for summers, but I just get in the pool and I just kind of go for it and it's like one of the few times unless I'm meditating that I, in my mind is just completely empty and I don't, I just am in that moment.

I'm thinking about my breath, I just hear the water and that's it. Yeah, I get into that meditative state. Yeah, Yeah. I mean hobbies for me has been a tricky one. I mean, my, my childhood really sort of framed this position or this thought in my mind that if I wasn't working, then I didn't have any value. And so I've always been like working, working, working, working since I was a kid. And it has taken me a long time to kind of recognize that that was sort of my, this identity that doesn't need to really exist and that I can actually, um, it was really, it was contributing a lot to burnout. And so being able to find ways of playing has been making me a better business operator. You know, I am a better version of myself because I am finding ways of taking care of myself.

Mm Yeah. Finding that joy and other activities not related to work. Yeah. Question # five is what's been your worst money mistake. And how much did it cost you? Um, you know, you know, I think vulnerability and honesty is the most important thing with other founders and this year we've been going through a fundraising round and we eventually had to just close that fundraising round without successfully, you know, getting the money that we were fundraising for. The biggest mistake that we've made there is by sort of really having a lot of conversations with people that were never going to invest and we were really um I was really, I would say you know chasing that carrot and I wasn't, I was ignoring a lot of the red flags along the way because I was, I had it so in the line that I, once the money is in and we'll be fine once the money is in, then it will be used and we can move on once the money is in will survive and what we had, you know, that that wasn't ever going to be the case for us here.

And so we wasted a lot of times um chasing that carrot and you know, it impacted the health of our business, it impacted my mental health and what we learned is that we never got the carrot and we're fucking fine was not true and I think I really needed to come to terms with this, that it, it actually wasn't ever about that. And yeah, I think pacing that money, I was ignoring all the lessons that I had always taught myself and I just was ignoring a lot of the warning signs. What were the warning signs or what were those red flags To add another question into my six quick questions. Yeah, yeah. Race and gender or um really tokenized and you know, I think as a black woman and um sometimes you know, I get sometimes I just like it's just that white man being that white man, you know, I kind of just like I can kind of characterize it and say like this is just, and I wasn't really listening to my own intuition when I was hearing those things, you know, I was like that kind of, they have all of these other chinese good deeds that they're doing, um, you know, they just uninformed and they're doing their best, but you know, we're saying some things that just felt really token izing.

Um, that was one, I think they were very unorganized and um, you know, there were some comments that were made, um, that really, you could tell that they really thought of their own themselves as certain kinds of like saviors and um, I think when you're going into a partnership, you're not looking for that, you want it to be a true partnership. And ultimately those deals didn't get push through because we started to really push back in terms of some of our own due diligence that we needed. We wanted to, um, you know, we were bringing them on as equity founders and so on as equity partners and so we wanted to, you know, really go through a good due diligence process to make sure that they were good for us and um, ultimately they weren't and it didn't work out. And I think at the end of the day though, what it showed us, the people that had rallied around us after that fall out, um, have more than that specific partnership could have yielded and sort of separated, um, you know, separated the cream for us and we were able to really, um kind of kind of lean into our community and they were really there for us.

Um, and our allies were there for us when we really felt the blowback of the deal falling through. Mm, Yeah, you're true supporters and your true true fans, I guess you could say, gosh, thanks for sharing. It's important to talk about this kind of stuff totally. I mean, it was a tough time for sure. I mean, I think for me personally, like I said so much of my identity over the last four years I've been building, I had a plan in my mind and this is how the plan was going to go and it was going to plan for four years. And um when it didn't go to plan like that, you know, we, it sort of was like, oh, what it it was my, you know, I took it very personally like and I think it took me about two kind of realized that it wasn't me and that it actually, this was how this was always how it was supposed to go. Mhm Yeah, absolutely question number six, last question, what is just a crazy story, good or bad that you can share from your journey in building barbary crazy story.

Gosh, I don't know, I mean, I think, you know, I think it's not so much a crazy story, but it is something that feels really good, but I found um so my co founder recently see back her birthday is in the next, her first birthday next week and um so it has just been, I think one of our biggest joys kind of bringing in the baby into a lot, you know, she's in a lot of our meetings every day, I get to see her little face and all of our zoom hangouts and stuff and it's just been fun, you know, I guess that I love Valerie and I have such a long friendship going back and you know, being able to see Valerie grow from college, Valerie's two young professional Valerie to co founder entrepreneur Valerie to mother Valerie and sort of now being able to have this baby in the mix and and sort of push back on that narrative of like, you can't have it all is refreshing, it feels like, you know, with the right support system, you know, it might not be fully one thing, um but being able to kind of fill your cup with a lot of different ways and being able to kind of watch her grow in that way has been just a joy for me as a friend and as a partner to her um and I myself, I I grew up in a small business, my mom owned a day spa.

So you know, I grew up going to my mom's work every day and sort of seeing that experience and it's fun to kind of watch that cycle repeats itself again, you know, to have a baby, is going to be able to be a part of that baby is sort of the beginning like a or whatever that might be. Um It's just been surprising and and and I've kind of been able to be very happy observer of it all. That is amazing. Love that, Love that for you. Love that for Valerie Merrill. Thank you so much for taking the time to come on the show today and share your journey in building Barberie. I'm so excited to watch this next stage for you guys and I'm cheering for you in october when you launch the new product. Thank you. Thank you so much. Hey, it's dune here. Thanks for listening to this amazing episode of the female startup club podcast. If you're a fan of the show and want even more of the good stuff, I'd recommend checking out female startup club dot com where you can subscribe to our free newsletter.

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