Monique Rodriguez
Appearances
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
I wish I would have done this. But I had to learn, like, I can't blame myself.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
But all I can do is be an advocate for, you know, more black and brown people to step up to go into the medical field so they can be a voice and an advocate and have the empathy and caring and compassion that our community needs. Right. Yes. Yes. Because even now, my dad, when he goes into the hospital, I have to always step in and advocate for him or ask questions.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So I grew up, she was like a seamstress. She would sew, you know, garments and she would pick it up, put it back down because, you know, she wasn't in an environment where she thought it was something that she can pursue. Right. So I would see her pick it up all the time and just, you know,
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And by the questions I ask, they're always like, are you a nurse? Or why does it matter? Do you not expect an educated Black person to ask these type of questions? So we have to be our own advocate. And so I hope that people gather that from reading my traumatic story of having my son.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And when I had my son and I had to go back into a career field, that number one, I didn't want to be in in the first place. And then number two, I was dealing with the loss of my son and having to now take care of patients. My head wasn't there. I can imagine. Like, no. I remember my boss pulling me in and she's like, you're not the same nurse that you were before.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And I'm like, well, you think like I just lost my son. I'm not going to be that person. No. So I had to go through this healing journey. And I and I knew that I did not want to go back into a field where I felt I was doing everything right. I knew everything that I should have known. And something still happened to me. I had I wanted to just cut ties with the medical round.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
People ask me all the time. Would you want to go back? Absolutely not.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Absolutely not.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Absolutely not. And, you know, but it paid its contribution to my journey and who I am today. But it's not who I am. And I just had to cut ties with it to avoid being depressed.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
stop and she always instilled in us like you have to be well-dressed you have to be well mannerable you have to be poised and well put together like don't walk outside looking crazy make sure your hair is combed don't have a bonnet on so she always like made sure that we were super well dressed and
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
I wouldn't push women to stay away from the health care system. I still think that it's needed. But I think that as women, we should just educate ourselves on speaking up, educating ourselves on basically what you just said, like having a black doctor Or if your doctor is not black, maybe a minority doctor.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
But having someone that is that hears your concerns, that listens to your concerns and does not just blow you off. If you have a doctor that comes in the room and they just want to like do a quick assessment, write you a quick prescription.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
I stay away from doctors as quick with the pen and write a prescription without trying to understand and walk through like the assessment skills that they teach you in school of what is wrong. And then once they identify what is wrong, what is causing that? Are there natural things that you can do to reverse whatever it is? Like, don't be so quick to just put me on medication.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So I just like a doctor to be very thorough and to listen to me as a patient. And I just encourage, you know, our community to just find those type of doctors, because at the end of the day, we still do need, you know, doctors. If you are a C-section candidate, you can't have a home birth. You need to go to the hospital.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So in some ways you can't avoid it, but just make sure you have the right team around you that listens to you. And if they're not listening to you, just make sure that you're advocating, you speak up for yourself.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So my Yale was the first thing outside of being a nurse. So once I left my nursing career and I started my Yale, but during my nursing career is when I did try to like branch off and start getting into like different business ventures, such as a multi-level marketing. So I did like Avon, Mary Kay.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
all of the direct sale business ventures that I tried to go off into because I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur. So I've always had that bug and that desire and it always pulls on you and keeps nagging until you fulfill that burning desire that you have. And I just felt that...
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
You know, God was just redirecting me and rerouting me because I did not go the path of entrepreneurship because I didn't see it growing up. You can't be what you don't see.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So I didn't see black women that were like running and operating beauty businesses or any business for that matter. I saw women that were on magazine covers or on the relaxer kit.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So that was my aspiration. I thought that was the only route that I can take to be into this beauty world. Right. And so. I felt that God put this vision in me. He put this passion as purpose, but I kept running from it because of fear, because of doubt and not believing in myself and not thinking that I can achieve it because I don't have a business degree, didn't have any business experience.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So, you know, the enemy gets into your head and says like, oh, you can't do this. How dare you? You have the audacity to dream this and you have the audacity to think that you can do it. Well, I'm going to remind you that you can't do that. Because if you don't have the education or you don't have X, Y and Z, like that enemy can be like something strong.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Even though when I look back, I know she couldn't afford some of the clothes that she was buying us. She would put stuff on so we can have the best type of material and outfits when we would start school. So that was just impressionable to me at a young age. So becoming an adult, I've always loved to dress up. I love to dress up and I love to look nice. Thank you. And so do you. Thank you.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And I had to learn how to silence the noise, silence the distractions. And when you go through such a tragic loss like what I went through, for me, it was like, what what are what are my chances? Like at this point, I don't care what people think. I don't care, you know. about this career anymore. Like my mind frame was like, what's the worst that can happen?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Because the worst has already happened. So it just gave me another level of grit and tenacity that I didn't know that I had. And I decided to just follow God's calling and be obedient to what he had been calling me to do for years and decided to not feed into the fears, but to feed the faith and just to trust. And that's how my year was started.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Thank you. So I've always loved hair. And I've always been obsessed with making sure that my hair was always maintained and always presentable. Like I told you, I wanted to be the little girl on the Just For Me kick. That was my aspiration. I used to ask my mom to drive me to model calls. Every time they did a model call for a hair company, I'm like, I'm signing up. I want to be there.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And she would take me, and she got to the point, she's like, girl, they not picking you. And this is not something stable. This is cute, but I need to teach you how to find something stable. Because one day you're going to grow up. I'm not going to be paying for you for the rest of your life. You're going to have to find your own job. So she encouraged me to be a nurse. Right.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
She didn't nourish the the the passion that I had to, like, pursue beauty and no fault to her. But she didn't see it. You know, she came from a a environment. She was raised of survival. So she was taught to only survive. So when you are coming from a survival mentality, you're not encouraged to dream big. And so she instilled that in me. And so even though I had, I was always a dreamer, but
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
That's the thing. Like sometimes people around you that have good intentions and they mean well, but sometimes their advice and their wisdom, it's coming from a place of fear because they didn't see it for themselves. So why would they see it for you? Right. Right. So she didn't see that in my future. And, um, So I just put my dreams to the wayside of being in this space.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And once I went through the loss of my son, it just circled me back. And it was like a full circle moment. God was just redirecting me back to that childhood Monique. And I feel like Mayel has healed a lot of that childhood dream. that I had, you know, growing up. I mean, not healed, but fulfilled a lot of the childhood dream that I had growing up, right? It just made a full circle.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
360, like, God's like, I'm gonna run that back.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So you can know what's in front of your face.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yeah.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And I always say, too, what's another insult to God is that when you don't fulfill your dream, God has attached... so many people to your dream. And when you don't fulfill your dream, you're disappointing the people who he's assigned to your gift and your calling.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And you're not being obedient to him and you're insulting him because you're not being obedient to the gifts and the talents and the purpose that he has put you on this earth to accomplish. Yes.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yes. I think about like, we have over 300 employees. Mm-hmm. And some of the employees that we employ probably would have never been able to have the position that they had at Miel because of credentials. We always believe in giving people an opportunity, a chance. We put people in, sometimes we put people in positions that were probably too high for them.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So it's just an extension of just really who I am. So people may look at it as a personal brand, but it's really me. Like I am such a girly girl. Like you will probably always see me in like a skirt or a dress. I wore jeans one time and like people looked at me like I had three faces because they're like, I've never seen you with jeans on. But I'm just like a girly girl. So I love dressing up.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
But, you know, we wanted to provide opportunity. So we've been able to give opportunity to so many people and experience to so many people and exposure that they may not have had if I didn't follow my dream.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yes.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So when I was in high school, I always saw something in him. He had great qualities, great characteristics. And I saw myself having kids with him and having a life with him, even at a young age. I just didn't know how it would all come together. But he was just different from other guys in the neighborhood where we grew up. And I know that I was also different for him.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And so I always joke with him like, you got lucky because you got a rare one, okay? You don't find them, they don't make them like me anymore. But I was always confident in that. And I talk about this in the book, my mom instilled in me like, If a man wants you, he's gonna have to court you. You don't just give it away for free. What you have is precious.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Your soul, your energy, everything that you possess as a woman is precious and every man is not deserving of that. So you gotta make him work. And I did that and we had some rocky moments in the very beginning. All in all, like he knew that if he wanted to be with me, he was going to have to put in the work.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yeah, faith is holding on to things that we hope for that we can't see. And faith is everything. It's like our anchor. Faith is what keeps us grounded. Because when you enter into uncharted territory, it can be very intimidating.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
like you don't know what's going to happen you're walking into the unknown and you have to trust and have faith in god that if he gave me this vision that he's going to equip me with everything i need to be successful in my calling and it's not for me to figure out how all the pieces are going to come together just yet it's for me to take a little step watch God do his work, right?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Because that's how he works. Like you take that step, he'll open up some doors, he'll reveal to you his power. And then you're like, oh, okay, God, let me take another step, right? And then he'll open up some more doors, he'll reveal his power. And that is literally a faith walk.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Like you're just climbing some stairs and we don't climb stairs to go from the bottom of the staircase to the top of the staircase. They're just very small steps that we have to take to get to the ultimate top, right? Right. And that's how I look at my faith journey. And it's a lifelong journey, right? Because you will have moments that you will doubt yourself.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
It's just a part of who I am.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
You will have moments where you're like, you're questioning your faith. And that's normal. Like we're human. He blessed us with emotions for a reason, right? But when we do have moments of when we feel down and despair, like that's when we have to lean on him even more for his strength. Like he doesn't want us to run away from him.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And even if you have ran away from God, like he's still always right there waiting for us to just come back to him. Always. You have to trust that. And the only way that you can trust that and have a true relationship with God is by knowing his word. Right. If we want to have a relationship together as friends, we have to get to know each other. God is no different.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
God is saying, I want you to have a relationship with me. But in order for us to have this relationship, you have to know my word because my word speaks to my character and my promises. And once we know his character and his promises, we can stand on that. And his word does not lie. And I'm a living, willing testimony that what God says in his word will come to pass.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And we can hold God accountable to his word. And that has been what has manifested in my life.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Oh, absolutely not. No. Like, we bump heads. Yeah, and we bump heads quite a bit. But, you know, it's at the end of the day, like, we see the big picture. I think it's normal to have conflict.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And I teach my kids that. And sometimes we may bump heads in front of our kids because I want them to see the back and forth bickering. But I also want them to see how do you solve conflict? That's good. Because life is not the absence of conflict. It's how you respond to it. Yes.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And so that's what we focus on because we know that we're not gonna always agree and we know that conflict can be healthy and it's how you work through it. So because we are aligned with the big picture, we're aligned with our vision, our goals, we're aligned with our legacy that we want to leave for our family.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So what about you?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And we realize that no matter what we argue over or bicker about, it's not even important. When you look at the big picture, is it worth messing up what we've built, what we've created, the legacy that we're leaving. And nine times out of 10, it's really not. It's so minor. It's so minute.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And, um, but we do understand that we have to have our own individual lives outside of being a wife and a husband. And that's important for us. So like, you know, I am a mom, a CEO, a wife, but I have to have my girl, girlfriend time. You do that.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Because you need your girlfriends. You need your support group that you can share things that you can't necessarily share with your husband. My husband can't relate on female things. So you have to have the balance of your friends, your inner circle. And he has to have that for himself. He can go on golf trips. I can go on my girl trips because when we come back, you want to miss each other.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
I think that's important for you all to miss each other. Yes. And even when we worked in the warehouse in the office, his office, we intentionally made his office way on the opposite side of the warehouse and mine was over here. And that was because we work together, but I don't have to see you all day. Like I still want to miss you.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And sometimes we will be in the office and not see each other until we go home. And then we still talk about our day. Like, you know, we work in two separate entities, but we're actually together. So you have to give each other time to like have their space and miss each other. Because I think that's important because you are a person outside of, you know, who you are to your spouse.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yeah, it was a day that we launched. I realized that this is something special because when I did all of the other direct sale business, nothing ever took off. Like I couldn't sell something to save my life. And then when Mayel took off and then I had all these orders coming in, I was like, oh, this is different. You know, this is like...
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
This is like God ordained because I had no clue that it would sell the way that it sold. And I remember my husband jumping in on board because he has the logistical background operations. That's what he focuses on. And I'm the visionary, the creator. So I created this product. I created this brand.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And then once we started selling, I'm like, oh, now we got to ship it out to people like the customer. So I have no idea how that works logistically. So he jumped on board with his logistical engineering background and set up a whole process and system. So we were like very organized. We had a... a two-man shop in our basement at the time. And we were just shipping out orders. And we were a team.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
That's amazing. And yeah, we just came together. And I knew, like, this is something special. And if we put 1,000% into this, we can really make this thing big.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yeah, so we went from our basement to the garage. So we had a three-car garage.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yes, yes. So we had a time clock in the garage. We had a pumping system where my husband would like, he put this contraption together and we would pump out the Babassu deep conditioner and I would package it and label it. We had a whole operation. And... When we had the call to go into retail, it wasn't because we chose to go into retail. We were just focused on building and the company.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And we got the call from Sally Beauty. That was our first retail partner. And when we got the call, so Sally's headquarters is in Denton, Texas. And we happened to be there in Dallas for my daughter's gymnastic competition. And they called us like, hey, we want to meet with you guys. We're interested in bringing you into our stores.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
What are the odds that, number one, we're in Texas, and number two, like, I wasn't even thinking about retail. I had put Sally's on my vision board to go into retail year five. Because you know in textbook how they say, oh, once you hit five years, you have a viable business. So I was following what the book said. And that was my vision. So God said exceedingly abundantly. And when we got the call,
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Oh, wow, you were two hours from Memphis?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
We told them no because we had our kids with us. And we're like, well, we don't have a babysitter. We're not from Texas. They're like, bring your kids to the meeting. And that was another, like, God moment where I'm like, oh, yeah, this is serious.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And we launched into retail. We had the meeting with them. We launched a following, Planet Graham Reset, which was amazing. February of 2016. And then when we launched, we sold out in every store that we launched in. Come on. So it was like the retail came after us.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Because you started as a stylist.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And once that retailer had the success that they garnered, other retailers started knocking because they're like, oh, well, we want to have a piece of that pie too. So it wasn't that we were searching for retailers. The retailers came to us. Which is a blessing.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
We barely had to pitch. Like it was so effortlessly like us going, we didn't even have a formal presentation when we met with Sally's. It was like, Hey, this is the brand. Our kids were sitting at the round table and it was so informal, but that's how bad they wanted us into their stores.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yeah, that's amazing. Isn't that crazy? Yeah.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Oh yeah, it gets more challenging the bigger you are. You know, they always say more money, more problems, right? And that has some truth to it because there are more eyeballs on you. The more challenges are going to come, the more roadblocks. And we experienced a lot of different roadblocks and obstacles. And I talk about a lot of our challenges in the book. At one point, we were not profitable.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
It's who you are, too.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And at one point, I did not know if Mayel would make it, right? We were on the brinks of like,
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
you know the bank's gonna come after us if we don't pay them their money back so it was a very challenging time that people on the outside didn't know because the brand was doing extremely well like the sales were through the roof so on the outside people are like oh this brand is amazing but on the underneath when you look at our financials it was horrible Wow
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And we went through this process of having to turn our business around and we needed funding, right? Because at that point we had overspent, which is a common mistake a lot of entrepreneurs make, but we, felt that we had such great conviction that what we were building was still so great that we still had to show up with a smile on our face. We still had to serve our community.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
We still had to serve our employees. At one point, we were not paying ourselves so people can come to work and still do the job. They don't hear that, right? We were not making any money.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
We had to sacrifice a lot to maintain face because we didn't want our employees to know what was going on because would they have the same level of enthusiasm to show up and work if they knew that the company was suffering on the back end? So those are the moments people don't see. And then once we were able to garner funding, we got a lot of no's.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And I talk about one big no that stuck out to me as a part of this journey, the investors wanted 40% of our company. And it was a bad deal. And we had to walk away from that knowing that even though they were giving us the money that we needed, we were not willing to sacrifice and give that much of our company away because we knew how valuable our company was as we were building.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And I think that's a huge key component for entrepreneurs is that we can't be so quick to take our money from investors because that is a whole another animal. It is a relationship. It is a marriage with whoever you're partnering with. And you want to make the right choice. And I tell people like, Don't dilute your shares early on because what you're building can be so valuable.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So you can have the largest exit ever for a black female or male entrepreneur. The reason why we had the largest exit was because I didn't dilute my shares early on. We sacrificed a lot to not take on that money that they wanted 40 percent.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Right. So we had to just be patient and wait it out until we met the right investors that were willing to invest in us. And patience is the key, right?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Because that patience is pruning you, is building character, is building resilience, is building like that tenacious spirit that we need as entrepreneurs, is building a whole, a new level of wisdom and knowledge that you need to carry on into your next venture or project. Right. And so, um,
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Those are some lessons that I wanted to share because it's so easy for someone to say, hey, we're going to give you $2 million for what comes with that $2 million.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And what we'll be left with after.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Exactly. So I just also caution people to be very careful with picking investors, being students of life and always learning and asking questions.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
you know i was very big on raising my hand and finding the people that had the successful exits how can i learn from you yes yeah that was key right because in order to be a champion tomorrow you have to be teachable today and i have always been very teachable and coachable and that was one of the reasons why berkshire which was our private equity partner who was a great partner by the way that's why they invested in us because they said you and melvin are very coachable
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So that's a good question because you really don't know. You don't know when it's the right time.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Exactly. You really have to have faith because we did question like, is it time? Is it not time? And I will tell you, looking back in hindsight, I am so glad we did it when we did it. Oh, good.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
right and it's there's no right way to time it and we were having this conversations with our investor berkshire and we recently just had dinner with them um a few weeks ago and we were talking about the same thing like we couldn't have timed it perfectly but there's no way to predict how to time it so our motto was slow and steady wins the race but strike while the iron is hot
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
You know, we had taken the company to new heights. We had taken it to a new level of profitability. And when we looked at our financials, we looked at where we were as a company. We looked at, you know, our distribution, our customer base. It was like all the stars were aligning. Right. And the interest. We had so many inbound interest from strategic companies.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And the thing is, like, you don't know. if they're going to be interested in you tomorrow.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Because they may have something else that comes in hot and they may go to the next one and then you've missed your opportunity or you've missed your value, right? Yes. So because we were getting so many inbound interests and the stars were aligning, we said as a team, we're going to just test the market. We're going to see what it comes back at. We're going to just see what we're valued at. And
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
we had to know that once we put our stuff out there in the market for a potential sale it's harder to put yourself out and then take it back so we had to have faith that we were going to get the value or close to the value that we were hoping for and have faith that it was just going to come back once we put our our bid out to the market yeah and it came back and i remember our investor told us she said
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And we're going to have to just roll with it.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
You can, it's just not a good look. Oh. It's just not a good look because the time and effort to prepare, to package the brand, to put it out in the market for strategics or investors to bid on it. That's a lot of like heavy lifting. It's a lot of work. And so you're working with investor investment bankers. You're working with our investing team.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So all the time and energy that people are going to put in. Yeah. Like if you put it out there and say, oh, no, it's not time yet. It's just not like it just doesn't look good.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And then to my point earlier, if you go back out there later, you may not get the same type of value because they may say, well, you came out here before. Are you going to pull it back? Are you not going to be serious with yourself? Right. So it's like it's literally a faith walk. You really just have to have faith. It's scary. Yeah.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
I mean, that's me too, but I say I just clean up well.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Because we knew that we were just going to put ourselves out there. So. Thankfully, once we did put ourselves out there, we had some really great valuations. And we said, we're just going to go for it. Because we don't know what the outlook of the world and the economy looks like in the future. And we see what's going on now. That's why I said it couldn't have been better timing.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Um, we just said that we were going to stick with what the values came back with and we were just going to enter into the process and, and, and start dating strategic partners and find who was the right partner for my L. And then you ended up with, there's a Procter and Gamble, which is a very world renowned company, um, in the beauty space.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
It was really fun. Yeah, and I was hoping that you was coming to Paris, but I know you're such a busy lady. I know. Because I was like, I was planning, I was like, we're going to have so much fun.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Well, number one, it was the business decision that God put in me. Because what people don't know is the prayers and the journaling that me and God sat down and had this conversation, right? So before I sold to P&G, before we entered into the process, we entered into the process of August of 22. I journaled, had a conversation with God, and I kid you not, I have the journaling to prove it.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
In May, I wrote down, Maya will be acquired by P&G. Had no idea that PNG would enter into the process. Didn't know that we were even going to have a conversation with them. But that was a vision that came from God. And I wrote it down. He says, write the vision and make it plain. And so when we entered into process, PNG ended up becoming one of the ones that was in the running.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And when we were in the thick of negotiations, we went to church. We called our pastor. It was like 10 o'clock at night. And we said, we need prayer because we were in negotiations on Zoom late at night. And we asked him, can we have a breather? Can we take a break? We went to our church, had our pastor pray. And our pastor said, it's something about PNG that's jumping out in my spirit.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
You're not coming? You're like, no.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So this was confirmation from my pastor. Mind you, I forgot that I wrote that down. Oh, okay. That's crazy. So I forgot I wrote it down. Confirmation from my pastor. We come back, get back on a Zoom. We made the decision. We're going to go with P&G, right? We do all the documents. We close. I go back into my closet because that's why I journal.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And I'm flicking through my journal pages because I'm getting ready to write down this process of what happened, right? I'm flicking through my journal pages and my thumb lands on the journal entry that I made in May saying that Maya will be acquired by P&G. When I tell you the chills that I received because I'm like, God has confirmed his word. I am going in the right direction.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
He is ordering my steps. I get chills talking about this. I had to run and find Melvin. I don't know where he was. I was like, Melvin, look at what I wrote down. And mind you, this wasn't the first time that I wrote something down that... I prayed over and God answered my prayer. And I pointed, I said, look what I wrote down. And he was just like, wow. Wow. He's like, wow. Yeah. Right.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So when you talk about the critics, I'm saying all that to say is when people criticize me for the decisions that I'm making, it's really not my decisions. These are decisions that I prayed over that God has revealed to me. Yeah. So when you are criticizing me, you are ultimately criticizing the one who put me on this earth to accomplish the purpose and calling that he has placed on my life.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And no one knows the conversations that me and him have. And that's why you can't share your dreams and your visions with everyone else because it's not for everyone else to know what you and God talked about. So I can sleep well at night, right? Because I know that I operate with integrity. I know I operate with the utmost respect and confidence and servantry for my community and my people.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And I know that
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
i've done what i'm supposed to do right so the criticism does not bother me i've been through worse yeah and i pray for them because i know that it's internal projection of their own insecurities and their lack of courage to walk in my shoes and to do what i'm doing yeah or they don't have the courage or belief system to even think that they can accomplish what i have accomplished and they can if they take the same energy from criticizing people and turn them on to something positive
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Right? That's really what it is because I've never went on someone's social media to criticize them. I may have thought it, right? I think we all think something, right? But I'm not going to actually verbalize it and say it because I don't have the time or energy and I don't want to block my blessing by doing that. So I just, you know, I take it with a grain of salt.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
I embrace it because they push me to go harder and to keep showing up. And I feel that, you know, it's also a testament that You know, God is reminding everyone that sees anyone that's facing adversity to stay steadfast in the moment of adversity. Because the grace and the poise that you carry and possess while you're facing adversity is inspiring someone else that's watching you. Yes.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Parents will always be there.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So I focus on the people that support me, not the ones that don't.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yes.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Well, those conversations with God was I know that you're you're not going to let one what you have built. No man can take that down. Right. So I got that truth. Yeah, because this is just one person, one troll that decided to be negative. And she can't stop the favor of God.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Right. She can't stop what God has blessed and ordained. No man can take that away. And the sad thing about it is that. Truth, it conflicts with lies to the point where lies can be perceived as truth. And I feel that because Mayel is such a great brand and when people can't find anything negative about the brand or about myself, they make things up. And I know that it comes with the territory.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
The bigger you are and... The crazy thing is, mostly all the big brands have been attacked in that same way. So I really knew that my time was coming.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Seriously. And it's sad, but it happens with every big brand. So it was... confirmation that why I actually have done something really great. Yes. That people want to take the time out of their day to try to tear me down and nitpick about every single thing.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And the people that already have it made up in their mind that they want to misunderstand you, there's nothing you can do or say to try to prove them wrong. So I'm the type of person I am not afraid. I will address it head on, but I'm only going to do it one time.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And I'm going to address it because of the people that do support, that do use the product, just to reassure them that the formulas haven't changed. The products are still the same. You can still use the products. They're safe and effective to use. They're still the same product that we had before the acquisition. Nothing has changed. Look at the labels.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And that's what was so baffling about us because people, if you actually read the labels, you will see that the formula is still the same. in 2020 versus today. So it's the fact that people didn't even take the time to educate themselves. They just want to run with the false narrative because it's like, I knew it couldn't be that good. It's too good to be true.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So let me try to create this false narrative because this is just too good. And if you just take the time to like educate yourself and I try to educate the community and I feel that the people that want to be educated.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Because ignorance is a choice. We live in an era of so much access to information. And if you choose to still be ignorant when you have the information being presented in front of you. Yeah. then you're choosing to be ignorant. And that is quite all right. You can stay right where you're at. But me over here, I'm going to keep moving. I'm going to keep elevating.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So you just got to do what you can, but focus on what's important and not the naysayers.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
I mean, I'm not going to lie and say that it's hurt because it's something I built. Right. That's exactly. But it's like at the end of the day, my confidence is in God. So I have to stand on his word. I have to lean on my faith. Again, that's where my faith comes in. He keeps me grounded. And I do know that this social media world, people will find a topic.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
They'll jump on it, be real loud about it. And then they'll move on to something else.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yeah. So I would say authenticity is key. Like no one can beat you at being you. And I think that you do a really great job of just being yourself. And I do know that's why what you're doing, your brand, when you do eventually start something, whatever brand you want to venture off into, it's going to go well because people are attracted to your authenticity. Thank you.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And people don't want to do business with who they feel is fake or is a facade or a perception. They really want to connect with you as a person, right? They want to do business with who they feel like they know, who they like, and who they trust. It is a relationship. It's not a transaction.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Even though we look at it as a sale is a product is purchased, a sale comes in, we get money in exchange for that. That's the transaction. But I really focus on like, how do I build relationships with my customers? How do I date my customers? Because I want my customers to feel connected and engaged because especially in the beauty space with hair care, it's such an emotional connection.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So Chicago gets a bad rap.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And what we put on our hair, I feel like it's absorbing our spirit and our energy. And I always want to
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
put out good vibes and good energy as I'm building and and meeting people from all across the country to let them know like you can trust me with the products that are being produced with your hair you can trust that if something is wrong that I'm gonna be an advocate to try to fix it and make it better to perform because I'm using the products who my kids are using the products
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
it's really a beautiful city, right?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
gonna put anything out there that is not healthy or that's causing issues you know I'm gonna do my due diligence and do all the proper testing to make sure that it is a great product before I put my name on it right and so you you have to like be able to build that trust with people but the only way you can do that is by being your authentic self and dating and building relationships with your clients
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
It's where I'm from, it's where I grew up. I feel it's what built the character and the grit inside of me, right? Yeah. I feel that the best entrepreneurs also come from Chicago because Chicago is a different breed. If you can weather the below, Zero temperatures.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
What I want to leave, well, first of all, I feel like your legacy is something that you can build while you're still living, breathing on this earth, because it's about impact. And I want to impact others by way of helping them be inspired, building their faith, teaching them a spirit of resilience. I want my kids to look at me and say, wow, like my mom, she built this successful company. Yeah.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
You know, not only did she build, but she gave back to the community that served her, the community that purchased products. She always made sure that she gave back to the people that supported her. And I also want people to just be encouraged to continue dreaming big because it's never too late. Your dreams don't have an expiration date.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
you're there's no limits that you can put on god so i want people to just increase their faith in god bring them closer to god because i think that's why we're all here on earth to to be vessels to bring people to his kingdom and to know that we serve a limitless god he does not put any limits on us right and when you operate from that position of abundance and not lack you can accomplish anything in this world that you want to accomplish and that's the legacy that i want to leave behind i want to create
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
more Monique Rodriguez's. I want to normalize this conversation. So we're not sitting down and saying, so why did your community criticize you for being a choir? No, this will be a normal conversation. Like girl, girl, I just did an acquisition. Kudos to you. Like tell us how much it was and let's get the tea. And how do we create more people to do this and celebrate this as a community?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Because we celebrate it when Kim Kardashian does it. Come on. But when somebody that looks like us does it, it's not normal. It's a sellout. It's a sellout. But it's normal for somebody that looks like them. We got to stop thinking like that.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Oh, so what is next? I'm always like, I have like a million ideas and my brain is racing. It goes from one idea to the next idea. But I really want to focus on like, you know, building up the next generation because they are our future. So my daughter, she's getting into content creation. I want to help build her career, her platform and help her be an influencer to the kingdom as well.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And just help my kids really pursue and nourish their gifts and their dreams because they're becoming young ladies and adults. And they, I did what I did so they can have the freedom and flexibility to pursue whatever dreams and passions they want to do. And continuing to impact my community with things like, you know, this book, this is my gift to my community.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And, you know, I have some other key initiatives that I'm doing with Myel that, you know, is coming down the pipeline. But yeah, just continuing to be great and live with intention and positivity. Keep it positive, sweetie.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And still come out on top, you know, and wait for the summer and spring time to come. You're going to be all right in life.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So, and you know, I talk about this in the book of not having yes people around. One of my mentors would tell me, she would always say, yes, people will get you killed. So you don't want to have doormats that you can just walk all over and they're just saying yes to everything that you're presenting to them. You want to have people around you that are loving, supportive, but hold you accountable.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Right. And the way that you differentiate is when you have someone that's holding you accountable, they're doing it from a place of love. If it's coming from a place of ill motives or hate, it's probably not a positive accountability partner. It's probably someone that's envious of you, your life. So I always look at it as like, how are they giving me this information? Yes.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Is it coming from a place of love? Is it God aligned? Is it God ordained? And if you're unsure, also go to mentors that I feel are spiritual mentors. I have a lot of spiritual mentors in my life. I have a lot of believers in my life that will give me sound advice from a biblical perspective.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
But outside of, you know, the weather, it's a beautiful city, right? The skyline, I feel like we have the most beautiful skyline in the entire country. But, you know, there are some rough parts. I think with any city, any major city you go to, like there is going to be some rough parts. And, you know, I was...
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And I'll tell one of my closest friends, I tell her all the time, like, tell me if I'm wrong and tell me from a biblical perspective. Don't even tell me from your own wisdom. Yeah.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
pray we're gonna pray first i want you to get a download from god and i want you to give me advice from that yeah so you have to be real with yourself too and ask how you're asking for advice from the people that are around you and if you're asking in the way where where they become a doormat and they're just telling you what you want to hear versus what you really need to hear and that's the truth i love that the truth will set you free and you will be much more um
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
You would just garner much more wisdom and you'll be on a better trajectory if people sit you down and tell you the truth with love.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So was she saying that she was a doormat or she's having people that are doormats around her?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Oh, okay.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And so are you. I tell you this all the time. It's nothing new.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
I don't know if I was fortunate and I can say fortunate, but I was able to see both sides of Chicago. You know, I talk about this a lot in my book, how I grew up and, you know, what I've experienced with my dad. And that was the rough side of Chicago where, you know, I was around
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
drug addicts and prostitutes and at that time back in the day it used to be called the low-end and that's where like the projects were yeah, and I was able to see Different people from different walks of life like I didn't grow up in the projects But I was around the projects and down there because that's where my dad, you know would purchase his drugs So I feel like it just it has taught me to be a well-rounded individual.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yeah And to learn how to manage and be in all different rooms and settings and work with all different walks of life. Because, you know, that's how I grew up. I know how to be with the best of them and I know how to be with the lowest of them.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
It's resilience.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yeah, like, I know how to pull out Southside Monique. I try to keep her back there.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Oh, in my professional life?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
You know, it can... It tries, you know, when I face criticism or when I have trolls on social media that feel like they are entitled to say certain things. Or, you know, people that may also try me, like... in the public or during an interview. And I feel that, you know, I can politically correct, check someone, but still remain poised and peaceful about it. And so I feel that like,
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
In business, being a professional, you have to be able to not go there or not pull out the south side, Monique. She has to stay back there because I'm also a representative of God's kingdom. I'm a representative for my kids, and I have to lead by example. But it's tempting, and I think we're all tempted to pull that person out.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
But it comes with self-discipline, self-awareness, to be like, you know what? I'm going to just pray for you. And do we fall short?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Like, I'm sure you have had instances where you may want to just jump out on somebody on social media. And I have like commented back on certain things and I'll go back and I'm convicted and I'll delete it. But, you know, that I feel like that's the growth in me.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
give your energy to things like that. And that's how I also maintain professional mode. I have to choose what I give my energy and what I give peace away to. My peace is not worth the negativity and the trolls.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yeah, I feel that. So I've built this company over the past 10 years. It'll be 11 years in May. And I feel that the success that I have garnered, you know, people tell me all the time, oh, you're a unicorn. It's so rare to see a black woman have such a successful exit in this space. And I want to normalize that. I don't want to have the conversation or the narrative of like creating more unicorns.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
I want this to be normal in our community. And I wanted to share the roadmap of what it took to build a successful company, what it took to scale to the level that, you know, the public sees today and the trials and the tribulations that, you know, came with building this company because I feel that entrepreneurs need to hear this story, right? Anyone needs to hear this story because...
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
There's so many different, you know, facets that can relate to people, right? If you are a career person, this book is definitely for you. If you are someone that's trying to increase your faith walk with God, like this book is for you. If you are going through a loss of a career, a loss of a loved one, a loss of anything that you may be grieving, like this book is for you.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So it's many different relatable chapters. I feel relates to anyone. But I wanted this book to be like, I'm your big sister and we're having a conversation and I'm giving you all the wisdom, the knowledge that I've learned over the past 10 years because the knowledge is not for me to just keep to myself, it's for me to share it. And people ask me all the time, can you be my mentor?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
So this is my gift to my community of like all those people that ask for mentorship, like I'm literally
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
pouring my heart and soul into this book being very vulnerable and transparent over not just the instagram real highlights yeah but like the tough moments when i didn't even think maya was going to make it like right people don't see that on instagram and i wanted to share because you may feel that you're the only one
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
I didn't allow you. You just showed up and showed out. Your presence was, it was definitely needed to be there.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
going through what you're going through in this moment and i want to give hope to that person that's reading like you're not in this alone i went through it and if i can overcome that you can too so my husband would always say from the very beginning the story must be told we have it painted in our office space yeah and he was manifesting that and the story has to be told because it's not my story it's god's story and that's why the glory goes to him absolutely i love that and thank you for being obedient and giving us this because i know i get asked all the time as well like
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yeah, that's true. So I actually started as a labor and delivery nurse. So I worked in the field. So I understood everything about labor and delivery that you can possibly know. And so when I was in the hospital room, And I went through, you know, being rushed to the hospital, being on the hospital bed, and them having to, like, rip my clothes off, put my baby on the monitor.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And when his heartbeat was down, like, I knew if you all don't act quick, like, it's not going to be a good outcome.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And I remember I kept asking, like, where's the doctor? Where's the doctor? And the doctor was at home. And that wasn't a hospital that was equipped to have like an on-call doctor that was 24 hours. And so them having to call the doctor to rush to the hospital to deliver my baby by the time he got there, his heart rate was like, Like, it was so low. It was probably no saving at that point.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And so when he did the C-section, you know, and my son came out, he was lifeless. So he didn't get there in time to, you know, cut him out quick enough. And so it was just devastating. And then... I remember like waking up and I asked my mom and my family, I'm like, is he pink? Because I was incoherent. Like I was drugged up, but I knew to ask like, what's he pink?
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And then I saw the look on my mom's face and I knew at that point that, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't right. So it was a very, like even talking about it, just,
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
even though it's healing, it's therapeutic, it's still so hurtful because when you think about the health disparities in the medical system for Black women, like, I tried to be my own advocate because I knew I was highly educated in the field, and my level of education couldn't save my son. Wow.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
And so I think about the women or the Black people, the Black community in general that go to the hospital and don't have any knowledge of their care or being an advocate for themselves, like how doctors and nurses dismiss their symptoms, dismiss their care for whatever reason because of the disparities.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
something has to give something has to stop and i also wanted to be an advocate for that and bring awareness to you know our health system right and to hopefully educate more black and brown young adults to go into the medical field and be our advocates because my doctor at the time was white he did not look like me yep and You know, it's always would have, should have, could have.
Keep it Positive, Sweetie
Fearless Faith: A Candid Conversation w/ Mielle Organics Founder Monique Rodriguez
Yeah, so you know what's funny? So my mom, her passion is fashion.