Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Megan Eddings Full Interview

Transcript

Megan Eddings Full Interview · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to Money Making Conversations. I am your host, ra
0:03
Speaker 1: Sean McDonald. It is important to understand that everybody travels
0:06
Speaker 1: a different path to success. That is because your brand
0:09
Speaker 1: is different, the challenges you face in your life are different.
0:12
Speaker 1: So stop reading other people's success stories and start writing
0:15
Speaker 1: your own. My Money Making Conversation interviews will encourage you
0:18
Speaker 1: to leave with your gifts and never use age as
0:20
Speaker 1: an excuse when playing in your goals. My next guest
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Speaker 1: never thought she'd become an entrepreneur, but once she had
0:26
Speaker 1: an idea, she put together playing together and set a
0:29
Speaker 1: budget and went forward. She never she has never looked back.
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Speaker 1: My guests invented the Prima fabric, which is antibacterial sweat
0:37
Speaker 1: don't smell fabric. She launched a sale which I had
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Speaker 1: to be a part of. We're gonna talk about that
0:42
Speaker 1: in the middle of our interview. She likened to sell
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Speaker 1: lifestyle in August twenty and eighteen with men's and men
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Speaker 1: and women's shirts made out of this preparatory fabric. She
0:52
Speaker 1: always she basically, she always knew there wouldn't gonna be
0:55
Speaker 1: more applications for the fabric, but you always want to
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Speaker 1: launch with jewelry that original line. Day. You always want
0:59
Speaker 1: to put your world work into the idea. Make sure
1:01
Speaker 1: that don't just jump out there. I got a thousand ideas.
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Speaker 1: She focused on that one idea. And when you're the
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Speaker 1: pandemic hit man, old man, did she pivot? Her company
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Speaker 1: has sold with four hundred thousand facial mass during the pandemic.
1:14
Speaker 1: She's only show to talk about her making that right
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Speaker 1: business decision at the right time, doing the pandemic and
1:21
Speaker 1: before the pandemic, please work with the money making conversations.
1:24
Speaker 1: My different I call it different. I've been known this seen.
1:26
Speaker 1: I remember when I say I'm a one of those.
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Speaker 1: I remember when friends, Okay, please work on Megan Edding, Sean,
1:36
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you. We over you're smiling. You're right.
1:38
Speaker 1: I mean we are friends. And yeah, when I first
1:42
Speaker 1: officially met you for the first business competition I ever entered,
1:46
Speaker 1: and a friendship was born pretty much that day. Absolutely,
1:49
Speaker 1: and you want it, by the way, let's go. Let's
1:51
Speaker 1: go and add the other part of that. I believe
1:53
Speaker 1: they the winning first Pride was like what ten thousand
1:56
Speaker 1: dollars something like that. It was ten thousand dollars. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: we want Mayor Turner Housing do business competition here in Houston,
2:01
Speaker 1: and I want Houston's best new product and sans favorite
2:05
Speaker 1: and ten thousand dollars, which Lord knows I needed. Well,
2:08
Speaker 1: we all need money, and we all need money to
2:10
Speaker 1: start a business. And what when you wanted what was
2:13
Speaker 1: your first thought? Because you get in the competition, there's
2:15
Speaker 1: a while. I have a good idea. What was the
2:18
Speaker 1: whole process of preparing for that competition as we evolved
2:22
Speaker 1: to move involved into as you are now a multi
2:27
Speaker 1: tiered business. That is really uh. I guess one could
2:31
Speaker 1: say saw the facial mass market before a lot of
2:35
Speaker 1: people saw the facial mass market because it is a
2:37
Speaker 1: global industry now. But you stepped in with a private
2:40
Speaker 1: fabrige that that works now and also feel makes people
2:43
Speaker 1: feel safe now as well. But let's talk about it.
2:46
Speaker 1: In the beginning of twenty seventeen, you endered this contest
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Speaker 1: first five or ten thousand dollars. I was hosting it
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Speaker 1: Mayris Invester Turner was tired to had other people who
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Speaker 1: were success stories as judges on the panel talk about
2:58
Speaker 1: that whole experience. Yeah, it was wild. Well that's that
3:02
Speaker 1: new business competition in twenty seventeen. Um, I my fabric
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Speaker 1: wasn't even like I didn't even submit it to get
3:07
Speaker 1: patented yet. I was still in the design phase, like
3:10
Speaker 1: working on it for about a year. But I saw,
3:13
Speaker 1: you know, let's go into this competition, because not only
3:15
Speaker 1: is there a competition which I love to win, you
3:17
Speaker 1: actually learn a lot. I've never owned a business before,
3:19
Speaker 1: so you have to attend, you know, all these classes
3:22
Speaker 1: every two weeks um. You have to apply to get
3:24
Speaker 1: into the competition, and so the learning experience of just
3:27
Speaker 1: how to start your own company was amazing and just
3:30
Speaker 1: obviously the connections that I made. Uh, but it's interesting
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Speaker 1: that was the first one I ever entered. And the
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Speaker 1: word that I really started carrying around after that competition
3:41
Speaker 1: was confidence. Because all my close circle, my friends, my family,
3:45
Speaker 1: you know, people that I know have made great idea,
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Speaker 1: great idea, but this was the panel of people I
3:49
Speaker 1: didn't even know that shows me his first place for
3:51
Speaker 1: my products. So I thought, Okay, I'm onto something. And
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Speaker 1: that's when like I was really like confident after that,
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Speaker 1: just keep going for it. Well, you know the thing
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Speaker 1: about it this that I can remember, I was the judge.
4:01
Speaker 1: I was not judged. I was one of the hosts
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Speaker 1: and I got to see everybody's presentation, so I wasn't
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Speaker 1: surprised that you want because you were you were introducing
4:09
Speaker 1: the concept. Uh there was. I felt ahead of his time.
4:14
Speaker 1: Who doesn't who doesn't tweat and too go wow and
4:16
Speaker 1: lift up their arm and go that's pretty bad. I
4:19
Speaker 1: don't want anybody hugging me today. And and you were
4:22
Speaker 1: introducing the fabric that I felt people needed and people
4:26
Speaker 1: would wear. And so fast forward from seventeen then you
4:30
Speaker 1: launched Ineen. You actually launched your product and the name
4:34
Speaker 1: was a Selle. How did you come up with the
4:36
Speaker 1: name of sale? A C C E L A C
4:39
Speaker 1: C E L L right L A C C E
4:42
Speaker 1: L and then lifestyle and yeah it comes from So
4:45
Speaker 1: chemistry is my background. And my husband he's not like
4:48
Speaker 1: legally part of the business, but he's married, so we're married.
4:50
Speaker 1: Therefore kind of part. I'm carrying the cloth and come
4:55
Speaker 1: out in the video news. Yeah, that was, yeah exactly.
5:00
Speaker 1: Let's just say he's not on the LLC, but he's definitely,
5:02
Speaker 1: you know, part of the team. Um, but so he
5:05
Speaker 1: majored in physics, that's his background. Literally, were just sitting
5:07
Speaker 1: on the couch and I wanted to think of a
5:09
Speaker 1: word to name the company that definitely had like a
5:11
Speaker 1: science kind of science feel, because of course it is prepared,
5:15
Speaker 1: proprietary fabric, but I also wanted to be a word
5:18
Speaker 1: that was positive, like a positive, empowering, empowering feel as well.
5:22
Speaker 1: So we just and this didn't just happened to one night. Basically,
5:25
Speaker 1: you know, wrote out eighty words roughly and kind of
5:28
Speaker 1: went through them. And Excel was short for the word accelerates,
5:31
Speaker 1: So accelerate is obviously, like you know, kind of like
5:33
Speaker 1: a physics science word, and then um short to excel
5:37
Speaker 1: and just like accelerate your life, your health, your happiness,
5:40
Speaker 1: giving back, you know, all that positive stuff is what
5:43
Speaker 1: the word Excel represents. And it really because I remember
5:46
Speaker 1: that when it was launched. I remember I was part
5:48
Speaker 1: of your low brain trust. You had little quote ideas,
5:52
Speaker 1: what do you think about this? What about what do
5:54
Speaker 1: you think about this? And I throw back ideas, and
5:57
Speaker 1: you know, because that's what you have to do. You
5:59
Speaker 1: can't be the smartest person in the room, and and
6:02
Speaker 1: you have to have people who are not trying to
6:04
Speaker 1: invest that I try to. If I give you the idea,
6:07
Speaker 1: you're only five percent or you'll be a hundred dollars.
6:09
Speaker 1: You have to have people just believe in you so
6:11
Speaker 1: much they're willing to help you out. And that's or
6:14
Speaker 1: mentors that are professionals who understand the value of relationships
6:18
Speaker 1: and partnerships. That that's nothing has nothing to do with equity.
6:22
Speaker 1: It's about supporting someone. So you have a very strong
6:25
Speaker 1: support group. Tell us about it. I do. I I say, like,
6:29
Speaker 1: I've you know, excelled, been successful, and I worked my
6:32
Speaker 1: butt off, but I also know what my skill sets
6:35
Speaker 1: are and are not, and I am super blessed and
6:37
Speaker 1: we're suing. You're part of that circle. I mean, like
6:40
Speaker 1: the amount of people that I never knew before I
6:42
Speaker 1: started this entrepreneurial journey that have since come forward, you know,
6:45
Speaker 1: and that I just met on this journey that have
6:47
Speaker 1: given me advice and you know, their expertise, and you know,
6:51
Speaker 1: some of this kind of hard to hear, but that
6:53
Speaker 1: those people I want to listen to. UM, it's just
6:56
Speaker 1: been unbelievable. The relationships that I have formed, both on
6:59
Speaker 1: our friendship level and on a business level with just
7:02
Speaker 1: people with these awesome expertise is that I don't have,
7:05
Speaker 1: and they've just been willing to share and tell us
7:07
Speaker 1: about about your the padnit product that you brought to
7:11
Speaker 1: the just to the stage. I want to make sure
7:14
Speaker 1: before we get into the mass, let's talk about that
7:16
Speaker 1: product that you pad Yeah, actually point how I was
7:20
Speaker 1: going to lead into the mass. So basically, my husband
7:22
Speaker 1: and I we got married five years ago. He's into fitness.
7:25
Speaker 1: We've always been into fitness. I live in Houston. Everyone's
7:27
Speaker 1: sweating all the time, even in the dead of winter,
7:30
Speaker 1: as you know. And so we got married. I'm like, man,
7:33
Speaker 1: started doing his laundry. You know, not that I don't
7:35
Speaker 1: do all the quote unquote wifely duties, but I was
7:37
Speaker 1: doing his laundry. Mind you, he does, he does. He
7:40
Speaker 1: does his own now put that out there. But um,
7:42
Speaker 1: and I was like, man, I'm like, these workout closed
7:45
Speaker 1: still stink. And I have brothers back home in Rhode Islands.
7:48
Speaker 1: We all kind of know that smell like when the
7:50
Speaker 1: when that kind of musty, mildewy like bo smell that
7:53
Speaker 1: you just can't seem to wash out. And so I
7:55
Speaker 1: never thought I'd be an entrepreneur, but you know, chemistry
7:57
Speaker 1: is my background, and so I just kind of put
7:59
Speaker 1: my sign it's hat back on and started figuring out
8:02
Speaker 1: why you're clothes stink is, to make a long story short,
8:05
Speaker 1: your clothes stink because bacteria gets trapped in the fabric.
8:08
Speaker 1: So I was launching my company last year, basically I
8:12
Speaker 1: was like, all right, you sweat as much as you
8:13
Speaker 1: want and it won't smell and it's anti bacterial, and
8:17
Speaker 1: it's funny. No one and I tried in marketing, and
8:19
Speaker 1: I'm putting it out there. I'm like, you know, I'm
8:21
Speaker 1: just gonna focus on the you know, the sweat don't
8:23
Speaker 1: smell because the anti bacterial. I'm not doing a good job,
8:26
Speaker 1: you know, getting that out there on what that really means.
8:29
Speaker 1: It's actually disgusting that your clothes are holding onto bacteria,
8:32
Speaker 1: but no one really seems to care about that aspect
8:35
Speaker 1: until March. Much of he is the key for me
8:45
Speaker 1: and my relationship with Megan. I'm watching TV. I live
8:50
Speaker 1: in Houston. I tell people that a long time. I
8:51
Speaker 1: also live in Atlanta, and so I'm watching the local
8:54
Speaker 1: news and there is a commercial and I tell my
8:58
Speaker 1: I know her, I know her. That's that's Megan on
9:01
Speaker 1: my money main confessation And they're discussing how you was
9:07
Speaker 1: now suddenly going to manufacture or mask a need. And
9:12
Speaker 1: I believe I text you as a girl, you're owning
9:14
Speaker 1: something you're about to blow up. First of all, you
9:17
Speaker 1: were magnetic. You know, you're man, You're just amazing. During
9:21
Speaker 1: the interview, you you know, you know how to articulate
9:24
Speaker 1: in a very comfortable manner who you are and what
9:26
Speaker 1: you're trying to do. You have a high degree of sincerity.
9:30
Speaker 1: All those qualities make sense when you're trying to launch
9:33
Speaker 1: a new product, especially when people didn't really understand the
9:37
Speaker 1: need to wear a mask because White House was sending
9:39
Speaker 1: out mixed signals and Texas you know, you know, we're
9:42
Speaker 1: in the don't mess with Texas state where they can
9:44
Speaker 1: get mad if you're tell them what to do. And
9:46
Speaker 1: then so, but you said I'm gonna do this? What
9:50
Speaker 1: what what triggered you? What? What? What triggered you? And
9:53
Speaker 1: what triggered you to do it? Right? Because there was
9:54
Speaker 1: some other people who tried to do the mask thing.
9:57
Speaker 1: They ship stuff out there and then people already in
9:59
Speaker 1: fifteen mask and then the out they sold out. What
10:02
Speaker 1: made you make a full commitment to it? Let's talk.
10:06
Speaker 1: You know I'm gonna I wasn't a hundred cent. Sure
10:08
Speaker 1: it was gonna work, but it just it felt right.
10:10
Speaker 1: I prayed about it. I mean basically, March twentie was
10:13
Speaker 1: a Friday. I woke up just like any other day.
10:15
Speaker 1: I go to my couch, you know, working from home
10:16
Speaker 1: at the time, started working in my consultant in New Jersey.
10:19
Speaker 1: She's like, hey, Meg, Um, you know she's up in
10:22
Speaker 1: the Point, you know, Jersey in New York with her
10:24
Speaker 1: hard She's like, yeah, She's like Meg, She's like healthcare
10:27
Speaker 1: workers and her sisters a nurse, and she's like, healthcare
10:28
Speaker 1: workers are running out of face masks. What about turning
10:31
Speaker 1: your prema fabric into face masks? And immediately when she
10:35
Speaker 1: said I remember the feeling. Immediately when she said it,
10:38
Speaker 1: I'm like, holy you know what. You know, it was
10:41
Speaker 1: always important to me to have this fabric source that
10:43
Speaker 1: made here in the States. So I had a bunch
10:45
Speaker 1: of fabric here in Houston. I had a bunch of
10:47
Speaker 1: fabric out in my factory in l A. I knew
10:49
Speaker 1: nothing about a pattern for a face mask, but I figured, like, okay,
10:52
Speaker 1: we can figure it out. So I just kind of
10:54
Speaker 1: went balls to the wall because it felt right. And
10:57
Speaker 1: within twenty four hours, we had a prototype. I had
11:00
Speaker 1: twenty five local sewers lined up in Houston because I
11:03
Speaker 1: already had fabric here. Uh. And then Monday morning, like
11:06
Speaker 1: three days later, I went to all the hospitals in
11:08
Speaker 1: the Houston Medical Center and dropped off samples of our
11:12
Speaker 1: masks and then crick crickets. I'm telling you, crickets for
11:17
Speaker 1: like four days. Um, none of them. I thought the
11:19
Speaker 1: hospitals gonna be so excited, which they were excited, but
11:21
Speaker 1: no one was like placing an order. So I told
11:23
Speaker 1: all my local sewers and like, hey, don't start sewing
11:25
Speaker 1: anything yet, because as a business owner, the last thing
11:27
Speaker 1: you want to have is inventory. You know that there
11:30
Speaker 1: might have been a fluke about mass, and like, we're
11:31
Speaker 1: gonna sit on this fabric until somebody places a large order.
11:35
Speaker 1: And fast forward to like four am Thursday morning. No
11:39
Speaker 1: one has placed an order yet. I tell you, something
11:42
Speaker 1: woke me up in the middle of the night at
11:44
Speaker 1: four am. And I call it God. People call it
11:46
Speaker 1: whatever they want, and all it said is start making masks.
11:51
Speaker 1: And I woke up that morning leading over my husband said,
11:53
Speaker 1: I know we haven't gotten order yet, but I just
11:55
Speaker 1: heard from God to start making masks. So we're starting
11:57
Speaker 1: making mask today. He's like, you sure. I'm like one,
12:00
Speaker 1: I told my mom, I told my team, like Megan,
12:02
Speaker 1: you sure. It was just a big inventory investment, you
12:04
Speaker 1: know whatever. I'm like, now we're doing it. It was
12:06
Speaker 1: crystal clear. The next day we got an order for
12:10
Speaker 1: nine thousand mass from Houston Methodist and fourteen thousand mass
12:13
Speaker 1: from a local company. And after that it was just
12:18
Speaker 1: it was we just we just scaled quickly. And I
12:20
Speaker 1: think I think you reached out. I reached out to you,
12:22
Speaker 1: and then I dropped your mask, uh in my newsletter.
12:27
Speaker 1: Well you did. Yeah, I went out to ninety thousand
12:30
Speaker 1: of my fan club members and then you and you
12:33
Speaker 1: were so excited you put it into your LinkedIn feed.
12:37
Speaker 1: I did, I did? I yeah. I mean I love Rashaan.
12:40
Speaker 1: I love supporting you, says day one. And you support
12:42
Speaker 1: you know, we just support each other. I mean, you know,
12:44
Speaker 1: in our community, and we believe that, you know, everyone
12:47
Speaker 1: can be successful and you've got to like support them,
12:49
Speaker 1: and yeah, I just go for it. But yeah, and
12:52
Speaker 1: it's funny that picture that you posted. So of course
12:54
Speaker 1: it's happened so quickly, and everyone's quarantined So that picture
12:57
Speaker 1: was taken in my bedroom with my husband, did a
13:00
Speaker 1: selfie and then kind of like try to like make
13:02
Speaker 1: it fancy or whatever, but it's funny. I you just
13:04
Speaker 1: make it work absolutely, and that's what that's the nature
13:07
Speaker 1: of what being an entrepreneur. But the thing about it
13:10
Speaker 1: is that this is what I love about you in general.
13:12
Speaker 1: I just love your personality. Anytime I can just text
13:14
Speaker 1: you something like I said when I saw your TV,
13:17
Speaker 1: I went, girl, you're about to blow up. This is amazing.
13:20
Speaker 1: You're better get ready, I hope. So I said, no,
13:23
Speaker 1: don't worry about it, You're about the ride. I'm a promoter.
13:26
Speaker 1: I know when I see greatness. I know when I
13:28
Speaker 1: see something that feels good, it feels needy to sincerity
13:33
Speaker 1: and everything was just timing itself just right. But the
13:36
Speaker 1: key in this conversation was that Rashard I was based
13:39
Speaker 1: in Houston. The information I got to move forward came
13:43
Speaker 1: from another part of the country, in the New York,
13:46
Speaker 1: New Jersey area. If you was waiting to make a
13:49
Speaker 1: decision in New in Houston, that may have never happened,
13:52
Speaker 1: but you followed the information source and the information source said, hey,
13:57
Speaker 1: it might not be bad. As it is, well you
14:00
Speaker 1: think it is, but in New York we're on fire
14:03
Speaker 1: with COVID running out of everything, mass ventilators, everything. And
14:08
Speaker 1: then you had to follow up on your willingness to
14:11
Speaker 1: trust yourself. That's when you woke up and said, I
14:15
Speaker 1: feel the time is right. And then it was. It
14:19
Speaker 1: just took off when you when you use when you
14:20
Speaker 1: say the word took off one day. That's why when
14:22
Speaker 1: I sent there, when I when you sent me that order,
14:24
Speaker 1: I just told my staff, I said, make up some
14:26
Speaker 1: type of make up, some type of ad. Let's put
14:28
Speaker 1: it in the newsletter. Make it look good. And it
14:31
Speaker 1: was the most click It was at the bottom of
14:32
Speaker 1: the newsletter. It was and my newsletters alone, if anybody's
14:35
Speaker 1: registered for money making Conversation dot com, the fanclia, and
14:40
Speaker 1: and she was at the bottom, not because I wanted
14:43
Speaker 1: to put it at the bottom. She was the most
14:45
Speaker 1: clicked item in the newsletter, the most clicked item in
14:49
Speaker 1: the newsletter. And so that let me know right there,
14:52
Speaker 1: when she's on the something, she's at the bottom at
14:54
Speaker 1: the newsletter. And people are gonna way down there because
14:57
Speaker 1: of the good content. But when they get down there,
14:58
Speaker 1: they go why out click click, click, and then you
15:04
Speaker 1: start different packages and and I remember I said, you
15:06
Speaker 1: need to put some logos or something when we show.
15:09
Speaker 1: Let me try to. I gotta let me, let me
15:11
Speaker 1: work on this problem, let me get the mask. Well start,
15:16
Speaker 1: we just shut up, shut up. And then you came
15:19
Speaker 1: back with Shawn, I got the logo, I got the kids.
15:23
Speaker 1: We got the logo, We got the kids. The last Friday,
15:26
Speaker 1: one hundred thousand, literally fifty thousand, fifty thousand black labels
15:30
Speaker 1: showed up for us to go onto our masks. Wow.
15:33
Speaker 1: So now now this is such a journey. Now, one
15:35
Speaker 1: of the questions that how do you go from selling
15:37
Speaker 1: T shirts and tank tops to sell them over four
15:39
Speaker 1: hundred thousand face masks and being on contract with the Marines,
15:44
Speaker 1: US Navy and Navy seals. Tell us about that. You know,
15:48
Speaker 1: the protest was actually the exact same. So, because I'd
15:51
Speaker 1: already gone through the process from making a T shirt
15:53
Speaker 1: and the patterns and you know, sewing and understanding you
15:57
Speaker 1: know enough to be dangerous with all that, actually creating
16:00
Speaker 1: a mask wasn't that difficult? Um, the one word that
16:05
Speaker 1: I have and how does this happen? How does this happened?
16:07
Speaker 1: You know, is relationships, literally relationships like the new like
16:12
Speaker 1: over a hundred thousand of our mass have been already
16:14
Speaker 1: sold and shipped to the Marines, the Navy Seals in
16:17
Speaker 1: the Navy, and now we're actually working on custom clothing
16:20
Speaker 1: for the Navy Seals using my fabrics because of this.
16:23
Speaker 1: And the only way that happened is I'm on some
16:25
Speaker 1: business group here in Houston, and one of the ladies
16:28
Speaker 1: in the groups super nice. She volunteers her time and
16:32
Speaker 1: mentors people in the military, I mean, And so she
16:35
Speaker 1: hit me up, like, you know, weeks three of Corona,
16:37
Speaker 1: and she said, Hey, a buddy of mine and the
16:39
Speaker 1: Navy supply chain guy looking for face masks. They can't
16:42
Speaker 1: find any. Can you take care of them? And I'm like, well,
16:44
Speaker 1: you know, let me know. And at this point I
16:45
Speaker 1: don't I don't need shipped out like twenty masks. And
16:49
Speaker 1: he's like, yes, we need fifty thousand face masks in
16:51
Speaker 1: the next seven days. I'm like, okay, let me make
16:53
Speaker 1: some phone calls. So I had fifty thousand face masks
16:55
Speaker 1: shipped to him in the next six days. Um, And
16:58
Speaker 1: then that just spread like wild you know fire throughout
17:00
Speaker 1: the military. And that's how we got the other contracts. Um.
17:04
Speaker 1: But yeah, now we're talking about you know, isolation gowns, gloves,
17:07
Speaker 1: like all sorts of ppe that the military just can't
17:09
Speaker 1: seem to get. But because I was able to deliver
17:12
Speaker 1: and deliver early in quality products for the mass early on,
17:15
Speaker 1: now m I put from the door, it's been nuts.
17:19
Speaker 1: It's I'm even talking about I'm like, yeah, you know, okay,
17:25
Speaker 1: I'm amazed you're talking to me today during this interview.
17:28
Speaker 1: I know, I feel blessed that I'm actually allowed being
17:32
Speaker 1: allowed to hear your story. So it's always a pleasure
17:36
Speaker 1: talking to when you know, when you guys reached out
17:38
Speaker 1: and I'm like, heck, yeah, let's get it on the calendar. Yes, please,
17:41
Speaker 1: thank you. And so just so, now, what makes your
17:45
Speaker 1: mass work? We have a lot of competition out there.
17:48
Speaker 1: Where do you feel makes your mask work? And and
17:51
Speaker 1: why do you because you now you have for children,
17:54
Speaker 1: you have masks for children, So there's a difference between
17:57
Speaker 1: a mask for an adult and a mask for a child.
18:00
Speaker 1: So yeah, what what where do people come back to
18:03
Speaker 1: you to say about your mask? Breathable? It's funny. So
18:07
Speaker 1: antibacterials the reason people are really buying it just because
18:10
Speaker 1: it is a cleaner fabric. But then the feedback that
18:13
Speaker 1: I'm getting that compared to other masks, is breathable. A
18:17
Speaker 1: lot of masks out there today, especially in the summertime,
18:20
Speaker 1: or if you're a teachering it to wear a mask
18:21
Speaker 1: all day, or if you're at work, it's just not
18:24
Speaker 1: breathable and your face gets really hot and sways. So
18:27
Speaker 1: not only are anti bacterial, um even after you wash it,
18:30
Speaker 1: you know, it's reusable, even after you wash it a
18:33
Speaker 1: hundred times, it's still anti bacterial. No bacterial is going
18:37
Speaker 1: to get in that fabric, so it's clean, it protects
18:39
Speaker 1: you from corona as long as you're wearing the mask,
18:42
Speaker 1: and then breathable. Um. We started with adult mass, as
18:45
Speaker 1: you know, and then people kept reaching out for kids,
18:47
Speaker 1: and I just thought, oh, you know, if if there's
18:50
Speaker 1: a consumer there that the credit cards working, I'll create anything,
18:53
Speaker 1: and as long as it's more with my morals and ethics.
18:55
Speaker 1: So we then, you know, we then launched some kids
18:58
Speaker 1: mass and yeah, it's just a cleaner, safer option than
19:03
Speaker 1: a lot of masks that are out there today. You know,
19:05
Speaker 1: you know, because you know I always go to your
19:07
Speaker 1: probably a couple of times a month. I always go
19:09
Speaker 1: to your timeline just to see what good you're doing
19:12
Speaker 1: in the community, because that's what I really do love
19:15
Speaker 1: about you, Megan, is that you get back and you
19:18
Speaker 1: know your success is not something to translate into a
19:21
Speaker 1: selfish option of how much I can do for myself.
19:24
Speaker 1: But I've seen you donate mask and I don't want
19:26
Speaker 1: to give what your story tell us something good that
19:29
Speaker 1: being successful, being able to pivot in the pandemic and
19:32
Speaker 1: sale masks. You've not forgotten about helping other people. Tell
19:36
Speaker 1: us about that side of you. Yeah, thank you. I
19:38
Speaker 1: mean it's and that's the thing, like you know, to
19:40
Speaker 1: grow us a business and then it's successful, I mean
19:43
Speaker 1: whatever someone deemed that successful and then be able to
19:45
Speaker 1: get back on a greater scale. That's the stuff that
19:48
Speaker 1: gets me going. Um, I love it. So I let's
19:51
Speaker 1: say we've donated thousands of masks to homeless shelters, to hospitals,
19:56
Speaker 1: um to police. Basically what I did is, at the time,
19:58
Speaker 1: I had eight people. I've more now, but there were
20:00
Speaker 1: eight people working for me full time, and so I
20:02
Speaker 1: gave them all like a whole week. I had them
20:05
Speaker 1: individually patched pack every single mask, and then they were
20:09
Speaker 1: tasked over the next few days to choose any nonprofit
20:12
Speaker 1: they wanted to give those masks too. I said, but
20:14
Speaker 1: the key is it has to be someone that could
20:17
Speaker 1: really use it. I mean like this could be like
20:19
Speaker 1: life changing for their industry, for their health, et cetera.
20:23
Speaker 1: So to see people, you know, and I empowered them
20:25
Speaker 1: my team to go out. I didn't just tell them like, yo,
20:27
Speaker 1: here's a nonprofit I want to donate to. I did
20:29
Speaker 1: my own, but it was wonderful to see the team
20:31
Speaker 1: build it, like like empowered them to go out and
20:33
Speaker 1: give back. Um. I started a scholarship on born and raised.
20:37
Speaker 1: As you know Rhode Island, it's very small town. And
20:40
Speaker 1: I remember when I was in high school, I got
20:42
Speaker 1: a like a CVS scholarship for five hundred bucks, and
20:46
Speaker 1: I'll never forget it. It was like it was like
20:48
Speaker 1: I want a million dollars, like five hundred bucks on
20:50
Speaker 1: like holy smokes. And so I formed to Excel Lifestyle
20:54
Speaker 1: Scholarships that I'll do every year. Um God willing forred
20:58
Speaker 1: Bucks for a young female to Bucks for young male.
21:02
Speaker 1: And the two stipulations are they have to be going
21:04
Speaker 1: to school for something in the science, maths, technology, or engineering,
21:08
Speaker 1: and they have to have a passion for giving back.
21:11
Speaker 1: So it was really cool that, uh, you know, this
21:13
Speaker 1: is the first year able to give a scholarship to
21:16
Speaker 1: to you know, deserving you know, young adults, and you know,
21:19
Speaker 1: just to see how that made them, you know feel
21:21
Speaker 1: and hopefully lessen their stress level as they go into college. Well,
21:24
Speaker 1: we know, I have an endowment at the University of Houston,
21:27
Speaker 1: and I know that eight hundred dollars. It's cool, but
21:32
Speaker 1: it really doesn't do anything for you. You know, when
21:35
Speaker 1: you start getting into that number that you're trying to do.
21:37
Speaker 1: It makes a difference for a student enough. And I'm
21:40
Speaker 1: not slamming anybody. I'm just saying that every little bit helps.
21:43
Speaker 1: Let's let's put it down with and uh and for
21:46
Speaker 1: you to take your time and remember and uh coming
21:49
Speaker 1: from that big old state of Ryalan, Yeah, it's right.
21:52
Speaker 1: You know when when you think about it, you know
21:55
Speaker 1: because uh, the University of Virginia that's when you went
21:58
Speaker 1: to college there, right, that is in chemistry was your
22:02
Speaker 1: degree plant And so you go to Houston and you're
22:06
Speaker 1: living down there, you just every day nine to five
22:09
Speaker 1: person never even thought about being an entrepreneur, and now
22:12
Speaker 1: you are a not on an entrepreneur, but you are
22:15
Speaker 1: an empowered female entrepreneur. Your leader responsibility comes with that. Megan, two,
22:24
Speaker 1: that's a good question. What responsibility. So there's a responsibility
22:28
Speaker 1: I put on myself, and then there's probably the perceived
22:31
Speaker 1: responsibility that I am expecting from the culture and community
22:35
Speaker 1: or whatever. So I would say the biggest responsibility that
22:39
Speaker 1: I've ever been asked that question before. Good question, Rashan,
22:43
Speaker 1: And I gotta make sure that what I gotta make
22:45
Speaker 1: sure the biggest responsible is probably you know, besides business,
22:48
Speaker 1: you know, make sure the cash flows their inventory dot
22:50
Speaker 1: dot dot on a Gooble perspective, the biggest responsibility I
22:54
Speaker 1: have is that what I'm out there saying I'm trying
22:56
Speaker 1: to do with my company to empower, to motivate, to
22:59
Speaker 1: encourag rerigon no matter what the product is I'm selling,
23:02
Speaker 1: is that everyone on my team feels that, and that
23:04
Speaker 1: my that the customers and the community of my company
23:07
Speaker 1: feel that as well. So people can say things all
23:10
Speaker 1: day long like I have a company that's you know,
23:13
Speaker 1: doing good to the community and positive and uplifting, But
23:15
Speaker 1: I don't live that life on a daily basis. And
23:19
Speaker 1: that's the way my team and I project our mission
23:22
Speaker 1: of our company. That that I'm not doing my job.
23:24
Speaker 1: I say, that's the biggest responsibility that I put on
23:26
Speaker 1: myself period. And the reason I say that because the
23:31
Speaker 1: reason I say that because you know, as as a
23:34
Speaker 1: we live in the era of disbelief. No, that's not true.
23:37
Speaker 1: She can do that. You know, attractive person, You're small,
23:40
Speaker 1: and some people tend to want to believe. You know,
23:42
Speaker 1: so people who look a certain way can accomplish certain things.
23:46
Speaker 1: And you're doing it. You're doing it. You're the own way.
23:49
Speaker 1: You still putting family first, you deal putting God first.
23:52
Speaker 1: You still have a clear understandable community. Be responsible to
23:55
Speaker 1: the community is important you. I'm speaking to Megan eating.
23:59
Speaker 1: She has an increase dible fabric sweat, don't smell fabric.
24:02
Speaker 1: That is uh. I'd like to say, turn the face
24:05
Speaker 1: facial mass business upside down because you're one of the
24:07
Speaker 1: first independent. Like I said, the big corporations are in
24:10
Speaker 1: it now. Okay, Nike, anybody who's they're all out there.
24:14
Speaker 1: You see you see commercials on TV. You go your
24:17
Speaker 1: ads in the TV. But I call you an independent.
24:20
Speaker 1: You wanted the people or a local independent who's competing
24:24
Speaker 1: with these big boys who have commercials of programmatic social
24:28
Speaker 1: media ads, ads on TV, print ads, so you expect
24:32
Speaker 1: them to win with that, you know. And it's really
24:35
Speaker 1: funny because you came in the athletic field. What you
24:39
Speaker 1: already knew that that lifestyle where it was going to
24:42
Speaker 1: be competitive, and you came in basically behind because they
24:46
Speaker 1: all got the shells field. They already out in the
24:48
Speaker 1: front of the woldline you're trying to tell everybody, So
24:51
Speaker 1: you were, uh, the pandemic allowed you to pivot into
24:54
Speaker 1: an industry where your tenacity, your hard work, your innovative
24:59
Speaker 1: thought pro us kind of started at the same time.
25:02
Speaker 1: So it really gave you a feeling that you can compete,
25:05
Speaker 1: not saying you weren't competing when you was out there
25:07
Speaker 1: with the lifestyle, but being able to start out at
25:10
Speaker 1: the gate and everybody said go at the same time,
25:12
Speaker 1: it really gave you an opportunity, opportunity to really show
25:16
Speaker 1: your skiffs, your the God gave you correct you are
25:19
Speaker 1: exactly right, And so I always like, Mega, how did
25:21
Speaker 1: you get some stuff with the mask? You know, because
25:23
Speaker 1: you know the bunch of things timing because and I
25:26
Speaker 1: remember saying, like the first month of the pandemic, Okay,
25:30
Speaker 1: if I can already be on the contract with military
25:32
Speaker 1: and you know how like Houston Methods now purchased forty
25:35
Speaker 1: four thousand, If I can do this, why are the
25:38
Speaker 1: other companies doing this that have the supply chain? Like,
25:40
Speaker 1: why aren't they doing it? And then I kind of
25:42
Speaker 1: stopped asking myself that question and said, well, they're not
25:45
Speaker 1: doing it. That's all that matters. And so because I
25:47
Speaker 1: came out of the gate first, and you know, media,
25:50
Speaker 1: t V, etcetera. Picks that story up. That's why we
25:53
Speaker 1: just came out first and kind of step the groundwork.
25:55
Speaker 1: And then we started to see other companies trickling in, etcetera, etcetera.
25:59
Speaker 1: And you know, now every one was making a faith mask. Um.
26:02
Speaker 1: But one of the benefits, and I tell everybody this
26:04
Speaker 1: is that you know, we had an idea and we
26:07
Speaker 1: just took a risk. You know, I didn't make a
26:08
Speaker 1: hundred thousand faith mask hoping for a buyer. I mean,
26:12
Speaker 1: for the most part, I I had buyers way before
26:14
Speaker 1: I even I could fulfill the orders. I just I
26:18
Speaker 1: took the risk. I took the risk and put myself
26:20
Speaker 1: out there. And and that's why I tell everyone to
26:22
Speaker 1: do I don't wait around for someone else to do it,
26:24
Speaker 1: because that's gonna be too late. Like, just put it
26:26
Speaker 1: out there. You don't have to put it out there
26:27
Speaker 1: in a huge fashion, but just put something out there,
26:31
Speaker 1: um and then just go for it because a huge
26:33
Speaker 1: benefit is because we came out of the gate first.
26:35
Speaker 1: And that's really important that you were courageous enough. And
26:39
Speaker 1: you know, I always tell people being an entrepreneur and
26:42
Speaker 1: being you can't be afraid of making a mistake. You
26:44
Speaker 1: can't be afraid of waking up. Sometimes a lot of
26:47
Speaker 1: people fear, fear failure. And this is one of those
26:50
Speaker 1: really unique moments where you know, the perfect storm where
26:54
Speaker 1: you want to know something. I'm gonna go for it
26:55
Speaker 1: because I write instinct makes sense, and especially with your
26:59
Speaker 1: man ask because it's important because now used to see
27:03
Speaker 1: people you know, they mask, they take the mask of,
27:05
Speaker 1: especially on news now to keep the mask on. So
27:07
Speaker 1: it's important where I've learned how to be able to
27:10
Speaker 1: talk with a mask on, because that's the lifestyle that
27:14
Speaker 1: we are going to live in. Because Dr Anthony Faucci
27:17
Speaker 1: stated COVID nineteen is not going anywhere. If you expect
27:21
Speaker 1: to be hugging people you don't know, high five and
27:23
Speaker 1: people you don't know, dapping people you don't know in
27:27
Speaker 1: one or two, that's not gonna happen. The way we
27:30
Speaker 1: have lived, our lives will never be the same. So
27:33
Speaker 1: you are at the at the at the stage of
27:36
Speaker 1: an industry. I feel it's not going anywhere. It's just
27:39
Speaker 1: how long. How do you build it? And how do
27:40
Speaker 1: you hold on to it? How do you hold on
27:42
Speaker 1: to it and maintain and sustain growth in this and this?
27:46
Speaker 1: I guess we'll just say this growing facial mass industry. Sure,
27:52
Speaker 1: I mean you you gotta always keep it fresh. I said,
27:54
Speaker 1: I have a creative session with my team tomorrow. So
27:57
Speaker 1: right now, as far as adult mask, you've only been
27:59
Speaker 1: doing black and light. So we're, you know, coming into
28:01
Speaker 1: the holidays, Halloween, We're gonna start offering some graphics on
28:04
Speaker 1: the adults. Um yeah, and we gotta always stay fresh.
28:08
Speaker 1: So I'm I'm branching even outside of face masks, getting
28:12
Speaker 1: into isolation gowns and other you know, hot needed ppe items.
28:17
Speaker 1: So the way to like stay the way to stay
28:20
Speaker 1: relevant is just always have and you know this from
28:22
Speaker 1: your background. Is just have material that people want to
28:25
Speaker 1: see and products that people want to buy. So masks
28:28
Speaker 1: are one thing, and that's definitely getting more of a
28:31
Speaker 1: crowded space, you know, full disclosure, Like now everyone's selling
28:33
Speaker 1: a mask. So because my foot is already in the
28:36
Speaker 1: door with some universities, the military hospitals, I'm now creating
28:40
Speaker 1: other products UM that I know they needed want and
28:43
Speaker 1: uh so we're started. I started another company UM called
28:46
Speaker 1: excel Protects where we're getting a purchase order this week
28:50
Speaker 1: for thirty tho isolation gowns from a huge hospital system
28:53
Speaker 1: up in the Dallas area. And I just filed for
28:56
Speaker 1: that design patent last Friday, So it's now patent pending
28:59
Speaker 1: for my new isolation gown design until we're getting into
29:02
Speaker 1: gowns as well. Always do not be afraid to pivot,
29:06
Speaker 1: not be afraid to sail, um if it feels right,
29:08
Speaker 1: to keep doing it. My dear, she's my friend May
29:11
Speaker 1: in seventeen. I always I would like to say she's
29:14
Speaker 1: my first you know you are started money making conversations
29:17
Speaker 1: in May of twenty seventeen. She was one of my
29:20
Speaker 1: first guests on my show in the fall of that year,
29:23
Speaker 1: and I just love the growth of my show at
29:25
Speaker 1: my Brain and watching the growth of her brand and
29:27
Speaker 1: watching the pivot, and uh, you know, I have to
29:30
Speaker 1: say this honest. I love you to death, Megan It,
29:32
Speaker 1: and I appreciate you, and I will support you and
29:37
Speaker 1: always send me links. I will support you on my
29:39
Speaker 1: social media. I will support you on my podcast and
29:42
Speaker 1: my syndicated radio show in my newsletter. I believe in
29:46
Speaker 1: you and don't change and keep winning it because you're very,
29:49
Speaker 1: very very special and your testament to hard work and
29:53
Speaker 1: also trust in your natural interstinct because that's how you win.
29:56
Speaker 1: You have to one day wake up and go it's
29:58
Speaker 1: on me. I believe in me, let's move forward. That's right.
30:03
Speaker 1: And if you don't, if you don't believe in yourself
30:04
Speaker 1: a hundred percent, like just chance, I don't know. I
30:06
Speaker 1: say to myself confidence, confidence, confidence, I actually say that
30:09
Speaker 1: out loud. I mean, no one is a hundred percent confident.
30:11
Speaker 1: We all have times where we're like, you know, feeling
30:14
Speaker 1: a little insecure for whatever. But you've got to coach
30:16
Speaker 1: yourself just pushed through it. And Rashwan, I love you too.
30:20
Speaker 1: I mean you're one of my biggest supporters. I'm one
30:22
Speaker 1: of your biggest supporters. You've clearly blown up. I mean
30:27
Speaker 1: you're like all over the world. I heart radio, like
30:30
Speaker 1: you're everywhere. So whatever I can do is continue supporting you.
30:33
Speaker 1: You know, I'll do well. We know when those October
30:35
Speaker 1: masks come out. Let Roshan know, so I can put
30:38
Speaker 1: it on on social media and we can keep winning
30:40
Speaker 1: together as friends. All right, keep winning? Thank you? All right?
30:43
Speaker 1: Tell your husband h and tell the family hat down
30:45
Speaker 1: there now, Tell them I've support you and believing everything
30:48
Speaker 1: you guys are doing that and keep giving good service
30:50
Speaker 1: to the community. Okay, Megan, thank you, Rashan. Okay, I
30:54
Speaker 1: appreciate you. By If you want to hear money more
30:57
Speaker 1: money Making Conversations interviews, please go to Money Making Conversation
30:59
Speaker 1: dot H. I'm Wishey McDonald. I'll be your host.