As vegan and plant-based business owners and entrepreneurs, we're often adapting to a new reality. This new podcast series from Vegan Mainstream is an opportunity to help you when it's time to pivot. These interviews will come from inside and outside of our community, and I hope as your host Stephanie Red Cross West, I can inspire you and give you the tools that you need to move forward. And welcome to our next interview.
I'm excited about today because not only are we talking with Ebony, who is a serial entrepreneur, but we're going to dig into not only her background, but really all the work that she's doing as far as bringing new products to market. Hell, she's really kind of pivoting in the market. As many of you know, all of us are trying to find our footing, trying to find how and what we're doing things in this new day and age. And I'm really excited about talking about, you know, while she really sees things moving forward.
As someone who has multiple businesses in multiple industries, you know, sometimes things are a little bit different as you build your business, as you change your business, and as we talk about always in these sessions as we pivot. This is the first time I'm actually going to opportunity to talk with Ebony. So I hope you're ready because I'm going to be asking a ton of questions because we not only get a chance to get to know each other, and also talk about all the great work you're doing in the world. So Ebony, welcome today.
Thank you. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. So let's give everyone a little bit of grounding.
Everyone loves that we focus on the young entrepreneurs. So I'd love to just give our audience a little bit of background on how long we've been vegan and a little bit maybe about your journey. Oh, perfect. So I've been vegan for about three and a half years now.
For me, it started with me seeking clarity. I was in a really like kind of dark space, depression, anxiety. And I was just seeking clarity really sitting in with, and I ran across this YouTuber about a name of Ralph Smart, and he had a seven day vegan challenge. So me and my son, we decided to do a seven day vegan challenge, and within those seven days, not only did I gain more clarity and understanding and started reacting different to certain situations, but I saw a difference in my energy.
I saw a difference in my, the way I moved, the things that I were doing, the way I thought. I gained compassion. I just saw a lot of different things changing for the positive. So me and my son decided instead of making this a diet or just a challenge, let's make it a lifestyle.
And it was hard, it was difficult to transition, not to give up certain foods, but just not having that support. I was the only one in my circle of friends at the time and my family to take this journey. So it was very hard because I had them asking me questions that I still didn't know the answer to. So it was hard to continue to move forward and to continue to stick with my decision.
But in my journey, every time I came across a hurdle, I just made that solution and I decided to share the world. So that's how I began to create businesses around veganism because I had a problem and I solved it with the business to share the world. Nice. So let me just clarify.
So were you an entrepreneur before you were vegan or did you become an entrepreneur after we come vegan? I've always had an entrepreneur spirit that is my mother and my father. So that spirit has always lived in me. Nice.
Okay. So let's talk about these businesses. Let's give everyone at least the lay of the land. Let's talk about the things that you're working on and the different businesses that you have right now.
Okay. Perfect. So of course I launched a Charles vegan girls night out tour this spring. We did have to post on the tour due to the COVID-19 cases rising in Florida.
But I'm still so excited about it and can't wait to launch the new dates. I also have a cosmetic line, Charles Rose, which is a vegan cosmetic line. We promote health and happiness throughout cosmetics. Of course, our products are vegan and cruelty free.
And I'm also in the tech industry. I have a tech company called Healthy Dining. It's a mobile app that allows users to create a profile to search for vegan and vegetarian restaurants worldwide, as well as connect with other users on the app for dining and networking purposes. Perfect.
So it sounds like you have your hands full. I do. Thank you. Very, very important job.
So let's talk about night out. When you were doing girls night out walking through what the purpose of the events were, why, what inspired you? I know it's something that he's postponed because we're not really able to have events right now, but maybe everyone will be back around on the purpose of those so that we can all look forward to them. Fingers crossed in 2021.
Of course. So the purpose of the vegan girls night out tour was basically just to create an environment where like many people can come and fellowship, where people can come and learn about the vegan lifestyle, where local vegan friendly vendors can come and share what they have to offer to hopefully help make the transition to a vegan lifestyle much easier for those who are interested. During this time, a lot of people are stressed. You know, they have anxiety because we're stuck in the house.
So I figured a form of therapy for me. It has always been yoga and painting. So I wanted to offer those gifts that helped suit me and calm me to the community. So I decided I wanted to travel to city to city, to support the local businesses, as well as provide support and educate our people or making that transition to a healthier lifestyle.
Perfect. Now, have you decided if you're going to do any virtual options, or are you thinking this is going to be something that we're going to just postpone until we can all get together again? I'm definitely going to postpone. I like in person better face to face.
I want to feel everyone's energy. I want them to feel my energy. So I'm definitely postponing. We will hopefully be able to do our dates sooner than later.
And my fingers across hopefully, you know, all the cases where we'll come down. Hopefully we can find that things to put everyone at ease. So I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that we can launch this tour sooner than later. Perfect.
Okay. And then let's talk about the cosmetic line. You have mentioned that often you're creating your businesses either for a reason or purpose or, you know, because you're trying to solve something walk us through why a cosmetic line and why you are. Okay.
So I'm a really, really girly girl. So I love makeup. I love cosmetics. I love how it enhances your natural features.
I always have. So once I made the transition to live a vegan lifestyle, of course, I didn't know much. So I started doing research. The more research I did, I saw how some of the products that I was using had harmful chemicals in it and some of the ingredients were deprived from animals.
So it's literally touched my heart. I did a little research and there's a few vegan cosmetic lines out there, but not too many. So I decided to do research, brainstorm, and launch my own vegan cosmetics line. Perfect.
And if someone's thinking about or wants to kind of explore about a costume mix, give maybe, let's give them the web address at least first, and then give them a kind of a sense of where they should start or what items should they consider or where they should. I'm sorry. I did not hear a question. My phone went out.
I'm so sorry. Give people an idea of where they should start on your site. I think when people are thinking about choosing a new cosmetic or a new item, you know, the question is what should they start? What's maybe your specialty or maybe one of your best sellers?
Just so people know a little bit more about the products. Okay. Of course, I love all of my products. I'm in love with each and every one of them for different reasons.
I've been a lot of sellers so far, has been a 3D fiber mascara. I used to wear extension on my lashes and then I came with a problem with they were taking my lashes out. So I launched a 3D fiber mascara. So they're natural fibers that gives your lashes that full look without false lashes.
And without the price being so costly to keep up the maintenance of false lashes. So the 3D fiber mascara, you cannot go wrong with that. Also the clear lip gloss, you definitely can't go wrong with that. It's a little gloss that enhances your natural shine to your lips.
So it's great. It's a long last thing. It has vitamin E in it. So I mean, it's great for your lips, no new shrink.
So it's something you should definitely check out the clear lip gloss in a 3D fiber mascara. Perfect. All right. And then for this cosmetic line, walk me through maybe how were you impacted?
Did you find that you had to do any pivoting, changing? I know for a lot of people it was either difficult to get supplies. It was difficult because, you know, shipping things weren't moving before. So how did you pivot or how do you impact it by COVID and how did you kind of see your way through?
We weren't impacted as much. I'm grateful for that. Most of our products are resourced in the United States. So shipping really didn't affect us as much.
But we did decide to launch a e-give card. So it's kind of like a touchless way to give a gift to someone or save it for yourself or a later date. But I mean, at e-commerce business already, we really didn't have to pivot as much as our other businesses. Perfect.
And I think it's good to hear because I think everyone hears the story of the gloom and doom, like every business and we're losing all of our businesses. So it's exciting to hear that many of us who've gone into the online space like yourself have been able to sustain in this time. And it's really exciting because it means we're going to have all these great businesses once we get to the other side. I know there's some that are hurting and some that are struggling, but it's also exciting to hear about businesses that have been able to sustain themselves through some of these challenges.
Right. So let's talk a little bit about the app. Let's talk about that. Why the app?
Why launch it? What are you passionate about? And actually, we just had a comment from Reginald. He just said Bravo.
Wow. So I thought that was great. Thank you. Oh, the app.
Oh my God. The app. I just light up because the app is something that happened in the beginning of my vegan journey. Me and my son will be loved to travel and we found ourselves in the beginning of our journey.
So I've been eating a lot of fries from restaurants. And we're like, oh my God, it has to be more options out here or more restaurants that's 100% vegan or 100% vegetarian. It has to be. So when I did research, I found out that there were a lot of restaurants out here that are 100% vegan and 100% vegetarian.
Not the restaurant that has the options, but completely vegetarian and vegan restaurants. So I was like, oh, wow, we should have an app that can locate the restaurants worldwide as well as have a platform where people can communicate, provide support. As I mentioned earlier, when I first started this journey, I was the only person in my circle of friends and family to take their journey. So I had no one to kind of turn to for support of questions or recipes or what should I do?
It was a lot of research that I didn't mind doing. And I also believe that when people are making that transition, because of the lack of knowledge and the lack of support, they often touch my heart because that shouldn't be the reason why you stop transitioning to a better lifestyle because of lack of knowledge or support or resources. So I try my best to, you know, that was my problem. So instead of turning away, I brainstormed and I developed that.
Now, you mentioned your in-tech. So are you a programmer? Or did you just have you work with someone? Walk me through kind of your tech background and how that played a role in what you built?
So I'm not in computer programming, however I hired developers. And what we did is we sat down and we he walked me step by step on the process of what to do. So we were very hands-on and making the decisions of the layout and how the app flows and things like that. Oh, perfect.
And then to app on iTunes and Android or how can people access the apps? You can access the app on both iTunes, well, not iTunes, but your Apple Store and your Google Play Store. So you'll just go in your app stores and you will type in the search healthy, dining, and it will be the first application that pops up. Perfect, perfect.
And what are some of the, you mentioned the idea that people can interact, that people can communicate. What else, I mean, what people do what's that process like? What should they expect? Because I know a lot of us are, you know, hungry for more that first of all, so I'm just curious how they're going to use the app to not just find places but also be able to connect.
You know, becoming a vegan, you know, starting this journey, I knew nothing about it. And it was scary, but I trust the process. And we as a people have to learn how to trust the process, just trust the process and go for it. Absolutely.
And then that thing, another point is I think how important it is for us to have so many different businesses with different people at the helm, different entrepreneurs driving this, you know, having African-Americans, you know, having women. I think a lot of times, you know, people forget how important it is that you have that representation and we have that diversity. And also we bring so much to the table. We bring it into perspective, a different flavor, a different, you know what I mean, just approach and just level compassion and just all of these things that I think is important that, you know, businesses are being started by just so many different people and so many different, but so many different backgrounds.
So it's really exciting to kind of hear about your story as well. And I don't know if you want to touch on any of that as well because not only do I think it's so important in this day and age as we're looking at, you know, how communities are really kind of pushing back against the status quo as many of us are rethinking the way we communicate, the terms that we use, and then also as we're supporting a lot of the social injustice that's happening in our world. I think it's so important that we not only encourage more people to be entrepreneurs, encourage more diverse voices out there. And I also think it's important that us as business owners, we speak out and let people know about what we're doing and what's going on, as well as in the people community.
I'm always big about, you know, there's a lot of black folks in the speaking community. We got ready to go. We're here. You know, we're impactful and we're amazing and all that good stuff.
So I think it's really fun when we get a chance. But anyway, let me stop there. I'm getting more excited. No, I agree.
I agree. I definitely agree. I feel that, you know, as a black woman in the tech industry, there's not so many people that look like me. As a black woman who didn't go into debt to mantra businesses, who didn't have to give up our core values, who didn't have to sacrifice to our body.
I feel that I am an example of why Black Lives Matter. Me being a mother of a black son who's 11 in the president of a tech company who, I mean, is passionate sports, of course, but going to the inability to be his only choice for financial freedom. He too is an example of why Black Lives Matter. Black Lives do matter.
I do agree. And every day I try to be an example of why Black Lives Matter. I try to teach my son and install in him principles and core values so we can continue to be the example of why Black Lives Matter. I feel that our community, we need to be more allowed about why Black Lives Matter because Black Lives do matter.
Absolutely, absolutely. And we need to say it as much as possible so that everyone's hearing it and starting to understand it, even on a subconscious level. That's why we see people acting out inappropriately because they're really not connecting with it and understanding it. So I'm really happy to hear you say it.
I'm so happy to hear you talk about it. I'm talking about why it's so important to you. And I'm also just glad we get a chance to chat about these things because I think in the past there hasn't been as many of us who are having the channel or the opportunity to do it. And I'm just glad we can get a chance to do that.
So I'm really, really excited. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to share this, but I really feel it's important for folks to not act out. Just be that example. Show why Black Lives Matter.
It does, but show why. Be allowed about showing why. Yeah, because the action really makes a difference. The action is what people can see.
People can emulate and really want to get into that action and become a habit. And now we can start to really form a new way that we approach each other, a new way that we interact with each other. We can get rid of some of those stereotypes. We can get rid of some of those things that maybe we grew up with, maybe they were implanted from an experiment.
We can start to shed that and start to really treat each other the way we should be treating each other and truly we should be treating the Black community. So I just think that's so important. We actually had a question jump in while we were chit-chatting and getting into our current conversation. We're still in the last minute of your business.
And I don't know if you want to take a few minutes before we wrap up. You just talk about how you figured out what specific audience would like to target with your business. What would you say kind of inspired you to notice? Honestly, my thesis is I started to everyone.
So it wasn't one target but one focus. Every wildlife who wants to make that transition like your lifestyle, I was focused on making that transition easier for everyone. So making that transition easier for everyone. Sorry, I didn't convert that.
So I thought it was going to provide products and services that make that transition easier. Now, do you do anything specific to make sure creators do different group of individuals? I think we might get a little extra feedback all of a sudden. No, we're doing okay.
But we're doing okay. Oh no. So we're going to have a little technical problem. Alright, so what we'll have to do.
Definitely. We'll put your answers in the comments because it looks like we're having a little bit of a mic technical issue. But what we'll do is we'll be wrap up our interview here and then we can always jump into the comments and respond. Does that look like we have me?
If you can still hear me? It looks like I still can. I'm going to give it all. Let's do this.
Let's wrap up today's interview because I think we dug into a lot of different topics. I think we had an opportunity to not only talk about the businesses, the work you're doing and so forth. And I just want to take a minute to thank you. It looks like I'm going to be a little bit frozen on the screen.
But what we'll do is we'll wrap up today. If anyone is still watching us live, you can always post your question in the comments. And what I'll do is myself and Ebony will jump in there and we'll add some comments. We'll add some flavor.
We'll respond to it. We'll give a little bit of our perspective and we'll handle it that way. So thank you so much everyone who is watching us live. Thank you Ebony if you can still hear me.
And what we'll do. Actually it looks like we might have Ebony back. I'm so excited. I'm so excited.
Oh, so glad I got your back. Daddy, I couldn't hear. Yeah, I don't know what happened there. We just had crazy technical things.
But you are back. I'm so excited. Alright. Jasmine said that she was able to hear it before it went out.
So thank you so much Jasmine. I don't know if you want to add anything else about how you target. If there is any way you do segmentation, do you do anything where you do certain either promotions or product lines or anything like that that does cater to target markets? Honestly, I target everyone who is interested in making that transition.
I get a lot of emails and with people wanting to know where do I start. And thanks to PETA. I do have going big and guys that I send out for free for those who just requested by simply emailing me. So my target is to help individuals who aren't interested in making that transition.
But don't know where to start and don't know how to. My focus is to help them take that leap and start their journey and kind of help them and guide them through that journey if they need help. So just to be with that support system that I didn't have. Perfect.
And what about for me? Do you do any segmentation there or do any different things for different types of individuals or different types of interests? So I do listen to my customer feedback. Feedback is very important with my cosmetic line.
That's one of another reason why I launched the tour was to travel. So you just need to meet different people from different backgrounds to see how they react and get their feedback on the cosmetic line. So that's another thing that this tour was kind of geared around. I love that idea of like, you know, yes, COVID, you know, intervened.
But I think it's such an important way to build a business is by going out on tour, by meeting with people, talking to people, even having them potentially. I don't know if you had this in the works but trying the product. Having some of that kind of emotion. I think a lot of times when we build our businesses, we build them in a back end.
We build what we think or what we want or what we've used. And that's a great starting point because you have to start somewhere. But being able to build a process where you can gather feedback or you can hear what people are thinking and wanting. And then I love the idea of doing the tour because it gives you different perspectives and different cities that I think it's a great way to build any business.
But specifically when you're doing things like physical products like cosmetics because we all have a different look, a different flair, a different style. We like things a little bit different. So it's nice to be able to gather that feedback. So I really hope you're able to get those tours going again.
But I really like how you're building your business and I like how you're building a business around the things, like you said, that you're passionate about the things that you, you know, personally, the challenges of going vegan and having your app be a solution for that. And then the idea of your passion around makeup and really building products to support that. And I'm really glad we had a chance to chat and get the initial conversation going. Hopefully it's not our last one.
I would love to keep up with you and also love to keep our audience up to date on how your businesses are growing, how your expanding, what else you're doing. And also bravo to you for not only building these businesses but building something that can create jobs. I think a lot of times people forget about how important it is to build a business because not only does it help us spread vegan word, it really helps people get exposure to products and offerings and solutions. But it also creates career paths for individuals and it creates it in a compassionate place.
And I'm not going to speak a little bit about that as well as we wrap up. But I just really am excited that you're doing that and you have that in mind as you're building your business. Yes. That's something that really touched my heart and like really gets me all bubbly inside because it's one thing that we chose to do this year.
And it just aligned with everything, you know, despite what was going on. You have the unemployment rate going up. You have people who are not getting the disbursements from unemployment on time. So it's just a way to give back and to help out, you know, those who are in need right now.
You have a way to give them another avenue to create generational web link in those possibilities working. So I'm excited about that. I'm really, really excited to give, you know, others a chance to start a career with us. And, you know, you have endless possibilities.
So there's no, you know, no outlet. You know, you can go anywhere with us. We're really focused on helping others start and burden their passions as well. So that's another thing that the company offered that I'm so excited for.
I'm so excited for the executives that we have so far. They have amazing ideas. So they not only add to healthy dining, but we're able to help them. You know, develop their passions.
I love birthing things. I love birthing ideas and starting projects. So we'll be being able to partner with my executives to birth their ideas and your passions. It's just, it's amazing.
It's a great thing. That is wonderful to hear. Well, thank you again for taking the time. And let me steal some time out of your day today.
And thank you everyone who's watched us live, everyone who's been commenting. It's wonderful to make these interactive. It's wonderful to be able to answer your questions. And I guess we will talk to everyone next time.
Ebony, I'm hoping we'll be talking again really soon. And once again, thank you for joining us today. Thank you for having me. Thank you for having me.