Business Advice: Damon explains why the beauty-supply industry needs Black ownership.

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1:02But don't wait! These special savings won't last. We make it easy. Toyota, let's go places. Welcome to my show. I'm Richa McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass. When we encourage people to stop reading other people's success stories and start planning your own. Now, you don't want to miss an episode, so please take a moment right now to follow or subscribe to Money Making Conversations Masterclass. It's free. You can follow me on iHeartRadio app, Spotify, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to your podcast. New Money Making Conversations Masterclass episodes drop daily. I want to keep you on alert, because my guests provide tips on how you can uplift your community, improve your financial planning, motivation, or advice on how to be a successful entrepreneur. Now, let's get this podcast started. My guest is an entrepreneur that leverages ingenuity, passion, and inclusion in his business venture. Damon is delve into the beauty industry by acquiring existing beauty businesses and transforming them. His beauty brand,

2:02Glow and Flow Beauty, is reimagined in a shopping experience for black and brown communities. Please welcome the Money Making Conversations Masterclass, Damon Haley. Big day! Hey, hey, hey, hey, my God. Richa, hey, man, thanks for having me, man. Appreciate you all, Blake. Let's give everybody a little backstory here, one of the incredible live activation producers. In Hollywood history, now you're in the beauty business. Your customer service was always fantastic in the live activation space. I'm talking about he did events for me at the Playboy Mansion. He did events for me in downtown Hollywood. We talk about multi-level events, thousands of people are attended, but what always stood out to me, Damon, was your detail. What always stood out to me was your customer service. Talk about why you transitioning to the beauty business. Well, one, it's a huge opportunity for us as African-Americans Blacks. It's a huge space and it's recession proof and it's not going away.

3:06Right. And as a guy who's grew up in a family with a mother, sister, wife, daughter, it really, really means a lot to our community. When we look good, we feel good. When we feel good, we be good, we do good. All of that, all of that type of stuff. And so when my wife wanted to launch more of a retail scenario, that's when I really start looking at the industry and saying, we've had the short end of the stick. Right. Only from recycling our Black dollars, but also the concept of service. I grew up in a black community like most of us did. You and I, Rasham, when we were coming up and a lot of folks, we just haven't, we weren't served by the people who own businesses. Be it a corner liquor store or where we get our fish, our chicken, our takeout. And so we thought it was one of good business model, two, one, that it was time for us to seize.

4:07And three, we can restore some of the pride and some of the feeling good about shopping in your own community. Let's talk about that. The industry, the beauty industry. Like you say, there's an industry that is very dominated by African Americans from a sales standpoint, from a beauty, from an activation, you know, but from a product distribution standpoint, that's where we lack. Explain that, that I want to say the word of lack of participation. Yeah, we're buyers. I mean, we're consumers. And you know the stats, if we were a nation, we would be the eighth or ninth largest nation on the planet. We just don't own. And so I think that once again, in our own communities, we didn't set up shop. You know, became our time, you know, after I think the 70s, we didn't set up shop. And then obviously we had that crack academic and all that kind of stuff. We weren't able to build businesses. This is just one of the businesses that we support daily.

5:09If you think about hair care, skin care, nail care, that's 24, seven, that's 365. But I will say over the last couple of years, you may have heard of Shea Moisture selling to you and the lever. My L, shelling, selling to Proctor and Gamble. Another one was honey pot. I can't remember who they sold to, but we're now solving our own problems, developing our own product. Right. Which is really important. Now, when I'm talking to Damon Haley, glow and flow beauty. He says, as he says, going to the days of poor service, fractured relationship, and harmful products. Damon's goal is to create a healthy environment for women, men, girls, and boys to shop, learn and grow as their needs change. He's also launching multiple product lines and is franchising the business model. That's right. He's the money main conversation master class, Damon. I'm franchising the business model. What is that business model? Well, what we've done is we've created the playbook.

6:11We've created the recipe on how to do this business from a retail perspective. And there's a lot of legalities that you have to do. And we've gone through all of that process. And we're going to say, hey, if you're interested in investing in yourself, investing in your family, investing in your community and this industry, here's a way to do it. And we'll help you do it. Now, you know, I've read many articles that say one of the great ways to get into entrepreneurship is through franchising. Can you explain to me why it is so advantageous to pursue a franchise opportunity versus a startup? Just going in and starting up your own beauty store, starting up your own supply center that's really related. Talk to us. Yeah, you don't start from zero with a franchise. You have a company of corporation behind you and you have this playbook, this how to. And if you just follow those instructions in the supply chain and those materials, you should be able to win because it's a proven model versus just going from scratch.

7:18I mean, I came up with glow and flow. The glow is for the skin, the flow is for the hair. And you know, I have a history of being a marketer. Everybody is in a marketer. You talked about details and how we used to do activation for, you know, for me, for Nike Pepsi, Coke, all of these entities. If you don't have that kind of experience, you can't start from zero. Stay with us. More money making conversation, masterclass. I'm up next. Welcome back to money making conversation, masterclass with me, Rishan make up. I was able to look at the finances of beauty and say, hey, this can work. I was able to look at someone else's business model and say, I can double it. I can two times it or I can increase it by 66 or 2 thirds percent and stuff like that. If you don't have all of those skills or don't have a team, franchising is not a bad scenario because you start with support.

8:22Now, here's some four pointers that you talked about that you do intelligently and externally at glow and flow beauty. By cost effective and high demand products, what did when you say they, what do you mean? Well, you know, I've always prided myself and, you know, I'm, I've got degrees and all that kind of stuff and the corporate stuff in the sweets is one place. But I'm always with the consumer. I'm always figuring out like you, Rishan, what do the people want? So you, with that, you know, high demand. You know, you know, what they are demanding, what that 20 year old, 30 year old, 40 year old, teenage consumer wants. So you always have to have that. And then you have to be cost affecting a buying a buying. I buy from different sources throughout the country and negotiate shipping so it gets to my locations. So you have to have that kind of sensibility because I will say if there are some barriers, the barriers are cost, you know, that inventory.

9:26You want to make sure that you're buying products competitively versus, versus, you know, target who can, can out, out price you or out, they can create a lower price because they're getting it at a lower price. So you have to search and do that. So those are two things you have to know. You got to know what the consumers want because it's ever changing. You got to make sure you're getting it at a competitive price. Right. That competitive price is the key because you don't want to move in. And then people because people want to think about black people, especially when it comes to beauty, they're going to want to evaluate their dollar spend. And then all of a sudden the reputation can get out that, you know, this location is a lot harder than this location. It might not be fair because that's not how you do business. But you've done business over the years. As I've seen it, you're in the beauty industry, explain exactly the location that you have your two locations in Los Angeles correctly. Explain those locations to us before I start asking some additional questions. Okay. So we have a location in Inglewood, California.

10:30For those of you who might not know LA, that's where SoFi Stadium is. And it's, it's great in terms of black and brown support. So that's one thing. Even though you hear a lot of stuff going on in the wood. So it has always had a lot of black and brown professional women. And so that tends to really work well. And that has its product mix. And then the other location is in Hawthorne. That could be considered, considered maybe South Bay or South of LA just slightly South of Inglewood and South of the SoFi. It's a different community. It's a little more laid back. It's not as accessible. Like, like you would say you're in LA per se. But it has a different, different audience. It is still working class. A lot of brown women, a lot of Latinas. And then we're not too far from the beach communities either. So that brings about a different product offering. It brings out about a different level of offering that we can give to that consumer.

11:33Now, Damon Hayley, Glow is low beauty. You come from a sports background. Now you're in a beauty field. A lot of people are afraid to make transitions. A lot of people are afraid that because people tell you you go out there, maybe mentors or people you don't know or people. You know, people, you know, people always willing to give their opinions. When you've made this decision of this conscious, this thought process of saying, you know, I see an opportunity to hear. I'm going in. What were the naysayers? And how did you or did you worry about the naysayers when you felt that glow and flow beauty was going to be an option of growth for you. Create legacy for you and your family. Yeah, there were some naysayers. There's still a few out there. But they say it's still like that now. Damon, a jealous. They jealous. Yeah, yeah, I would say, you know, there's jealous envy and naysayers, right? The jealous that the haters, but there's some that marvel at my ability to just shift pivots, you know, swear whatever they're calling it these days.

12:42But that's my nature, you know, my background is really in finance. I know you a math guy, right? Yeah, I know that's why I love you. That's why we connect. So always tell people, if you're not good at math and numbers, when you put a dollar sign in front of it, you're not going to be good at either. So, so I was a finance dude. Then I switched to marketing. I launched the marketing office for Nike because somebody saw that I had the ability to do it to take a big undertaking. And so I did that. And then of course, I launched in my entrepreneurial pursuits with agency. So I've never been fearful of change. So I think that when I talk to people about it like that, they kind of understand to say, okay, because even when I was in sports, I still work with the Michael Jordan's the LeBron's the Cobies, but we still need to deal with footlocker, which is a house of brands. Right. Nike House of hoops is a house of of a basketball product. So in working on that retail scenario, I knew this was no different. This is a house of brands. So I have to take a house of brands and make it make sense.

13:52Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more money making conversations. Masterclass. Not need for you to do me a favor. Right now, follow or subscribe to money making conversation. It's free. You can find it on the I heart radio app, Spotify, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do me that favor. Follow or subscribe money making conversations. Chad GPT can do more than answer questions. It can help you get real work done. Chad GPT work is built for bigger projects with multiple steps. You bring the goal along with the information it needs, like notes, files, customer feedback, calendars, project plans or data. Then Chad GPT can help turn that into a useful work. A marketing grief, a sales tracker and investment update, a deck outline and analysis, even a workflow your team can use. It can also work with approved apps and connected tools to help move the project forward. And you stay in control the whole time. You give directions, review the work, approve any access and decide what the final result should be.

14:59So instead of spending all your time figuring out where to start, you can start making progress. Put Chad GPT to work on your most ambitious ideas and projects. Get started at Chad GPT dot com by selecting work mode available on plus and pro plans. Welcome back to money making conversation masterclass hosted by me, Rishan McDonald. Money making conversation masterclass continues online at money making conversations dot com. And follow money making conversation masterclass on Facebook, X and Instagram. Let me ask you this about breaking into a new game. There are always things that you plan and then there are things you go, I didn't see that coming. The access to information because I don't have a mentor. I can mentor others, but I myself didn't didn't have a mentor per se because it's just not a lot of us that are doing it. So those are the big hurdles, which means you have to go and search even more for the information. You have to research, read, et cetera, to get it.

16:07So that became a big, you know, when you talk about trend and when you talk about, you know, staying on top of things and you don't have anyone to source, that's a huge, huge hurdle. In addition to capital, I must say that when you are in this space, you know, I'm in one, I'm in my Hawthorne location, but it's inventory. It's money sitting on the shelves. It's money hanging on the wall. So you got to make sure that you have enough to fund the venture. And I would say that we stay, we tend to stay stock with inventory because I don't want anybody to think that I can't solve their problem when they come through the door. Others have that luxury to go shopping every Monday after the weekend or shop on Thursday. Now when somebody comes in, like you say, that reputation on pricing, you know, well, since it's not a lot of us in there, I can't do group economics to get a lower rate.

17:08So my price might be a little bit more, but I try to give you other stuff. Right. You know, I try to give you a smile. You come in and you call, and I'm going to give you some water. Right. You know, we have pretty bad service. That's you. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and I must admit, you know, you know, my wife, the great and the fabulous Diane Valentine, she is going to make me super service these women because that's what her life. And, and, and destiny's about and that's her, the young, you know, I do my thing, but she does her. So we try to create certain fabulousness around and inexperience too. So, like I said, we, we, we, we're in breast cancer mom. So we celebrate that because we know we, we know our sisters, mom's grandma are afflicted by that. So we do that. And others won't. Right. Because it doesn't mean as much. Absolutely. We celebrate black history month. We celebrate black business mom. We celebrate, you know, Hispanic heritage mom. Yes, sir.

18:14We celebrate all of that kind of stuff. And once again, we create community where you want to come because you come in for what you're coming for, but you always going to get something extra. So those hurdles. I tend to circumvent with service detail, caring, love and consideration, which I appreciate. Now, it's too far ahead of me in here by talking about hair, right hair. But that is such a dominant part of your industry. Talk to us about how that is. How we're rolling plays into your business model. And what do you get your hair? Hair is the cornerstone of our beauty industry, to be honest. I mean, that's where it starts. I mean, it starts. We have our own synthetic hairline called slay. That's slay with three wise. That's your own. That's glow and flow beauties line.

19:14It's a separate company, legally, it's separate, but it's us. We distribute slay hair. So we have our product in our own stores. And so we felt that that's the market that grew the most. If you look at a bunch of women in all the braids and the ponytails and the long hair, that's a huge market. So number one seller. So I was able to read the data of my first glowing flow and say, wow, we sell a lot of this hair. We need to sell our own. So we, and then that's when Diane said, hey, we got to make it better. We got to make it the best. So hair is the cornerstone. So that's synthetic. And so when you see a lot of ladies with the braids, that's synthetic. Some of this crochet where you, it's all the style is already there. And then you crochet it among your braids, all of that. That's huge because it's low cost. You know, it's low cost. Now when you scale a little bit and you talk about human hair, that is a little bit more because the process on human hair.

20:23It's human at that one it lasts forever. And to get it over from Asia and Africa and Southeast Asian, all of that, it takes a lot to get it on the shelves. But hair is the cornerstone. We get our, we, we, we get our, the formula for our hair started here, started out of the mind of Diane Valentine and a bunch of black women to really figure out what the additive to the fiber is, but it gets manufactured overseas. And then the human hair, most of the human hair that we find here in the United States is all from, from, from Asia, certain parts of Africa and Southeast Asia. And, you know, the process is just real. So, young ladies go and they, they cut their hair and then it's processed and put on a weft most of the time. Right. And then it's used, but that's, that's huge. That's the cornerstone. That's the cornerstone. Yeah. And then I would even say when you talk about wet products or the chemicals to, to properly treat the hair. Right.

21:30If we have, if you and I have better products growing up, we might still have ours. No process. Come on now, because we don't have no hair. Damon and I, we are shining. We are telling us a viola sign. We talked about franchisees. We talked about overcoming hurdles. You know, you have a strong marketing background. You understand about customer service and activations. And I always say when you walk to a door every day, someone walks in there, that's an activation. How they're treated, how they walk out the reputation you build in the community city. Why can they buy, can they buy your products online, Damon? Oh, yeah. Yeah. We're at a glow and flow beauty.com. We're e-commerce platforms so they can go and buy the products. As well as our hair, slay hair, slay with three wise hair.com. So yeah, we, we are constantly evolving e-commerce because that's just where the world is going to. And if people really want to support a black on businesses, that's the easiest place to do it is online. Sometimes, you know, that shipping is an issue or the cost or whatever.

22:36But, um, yeah, we offer that. And we offer, also offer pickup. So if you put the order in and then you want to pick it up, we offer that too. Now, strategies, you know, for winning and gaining, we talked about gaining trust in the community. We talked about consistent. We talked about customer service. We talked about competitive pricing. Okay. But what is the overall winning plan for you guys? I know you want to franchise. How can one contact you about franchising? Hello at glow and flow beauty.com. Hello at glow and flow beauty.com. Put franchise in the, in the subject line. And then that'll come directly to me. And I usually call people. I don't do it. I might send an email, but I always call people interested because I'm learning what are some of the hurdles that other people have when they make the call or do the outreach. So that's an easy one. I think for us, it is, it is being able to see glow and flow in every metropolitan area that services black and brown women because it's more than just products.

23:47It really creates a community. It creates a belonging. It creates a space. Once again, that you can come and get great information. Happy, happy vibes. And also, we do, like even now, we have what I call back stuff or so. I think someone has an initiative or fundraiser. I'm like, yeah, I'll put it in everybody's back. Right. So, so it'll get to maybe 5,000 people a month, you know, on a good month. We get that. And then we help promote. So once again, we know when we all win, when one of us win, we all win. So I always look for young people. I always look for our mature customers to say, hey, what's your big win? And let's help you get there. And I think once again, that's the word of mouth where people will only want to really come for us. So I would say someone asked my exit strategy. I would love to have maybe 40 glow and flows nationwide. Love our hair and other products in those stores. And I could just consult and help like you doing, Roshan helping more people capture their dreams, live their dreams and and and feel better families.

24:59Thank you. Thank you, Damon for coming on Monday, making conversation, master class. The beauty of this is that you are who you are brother. You're have not changed, you know, detail. I always love that about you. So you getting in business, if you're interested in franchising with a person who he walks the talk, he's consistent and he will not ask you for your money, because he's going to treat your money like it's his money. And that's what you building with glow and flow beauty. And he's building legacy. Like you said, he just wants 40 stores, but 100 would really make him smile. That would, that would, that would. I thank you, Damon, coming on Monday, making conversation, master class. I appreciate brother. I really, really appreciate you. Thank you for listening to this episode. Now I need for you to do me a favor. Right now, you'll follow or subscribe to money making conversation. It's free. And you can find it on the I heart radio app, Spotify, Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Please do me that favor. Follow or subscribe money making conversations.

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