Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to the money adjustment. I'm your host, Doctor Mark Kramer, DC. I am a chiropractor who loves investing and trading. Are you interested in what's moving markets and your money? Great. Me too. Let's get started.
Hello, everyone. Welcome to the money adjustment. Today I have a special guest with me. We met in, I would say, an unorthodox way, maybe not, maybe modern times. It's less unorthodox, but I think it's slightly unorthodox. It's a little outside of the realm of investing in trading. What I've realized is that I have a lot of entrepreneur friends and a lot of small business owner friends. So I'm trying to expand out from just investing in trading to business in general. My emphasis ultimately is going to be investing in trading, but that's not what today is about. Today is about my special guest. Her name is Tanya, and we met. Tanya, I'm going to just let you just jump in here.
[00:00:58] Speaker B: How do we meet threads? It was, it was a conversation where, it was in the beginning of threads where you still go really into everybody else's accounts and their comments to try and find people of like mindedness. Mark and I were in the same account starting to comment on each other's posts, and he made these sarcastic comments. I would, you know, catch the humor in it and I would respond back and he's like, okay, I think you get my humor, let's follow each other type of thing. It's just been so fascinating. And I, to this day, I'm so thrilled how you can meet on social media and create the connection and then have moments like these where you see people's dreams actually develop. You know, Mark, I mean, I've been hearing you say, oh, I've got stuff in the pipeline. And then later you start announcing, I want to start a podcast. And bit by bit, you're mentioning about stop trading. And you, you've also created those AI images of you behind a computer with stocks. So you were giving glimpse away, and here we are, and we're actually on it. So, yeah, that's a question.
[00:01:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I love that, too. And you said, like, what struck me is the manifestation of dreams. What's so interesting about this is we went especially with threads, and the thread is our threads is our thread in that it was a new platform, new social media platform.
And I'm going to get into why you got in it, because I thought it was cool, but it was an opportunity for me. It was an opportunity for a fresh start. It just felt like something new and just something unexplored. And there's just a room for, like, all right, let's, let's reinvent. Let's reinvent here, whatever that is. So you do a very cool thing in the morning. We both share. Oh, good morning post. But I think yours is outstanding. The images are so creative. But why don't you tell people how, what you told me the last time we talked in terms of how you had this idea?
[00:02:45] Speaker B: Well, you know, I have this thing. I'm definitely a morning person. I get out of bed almost like, hey, I'm awake, you know, with a lot of energy, then I just literally wanna encourage everybody. And if I could have a massive group text going to just post something to say, hey, have a think about this, or, you know, because there's so many people that either need encouragement or motivation or just something. Right. So I thought, well, the biggest group text idea I could have, even with strangers, would be on a platform such as social media. And because threads at the time was new, we could all shape it together. And I just thought, okay, this is what I'm going to do. So I did start posting good morning posts. So, hi, everybody. But I would say good morning and yeah, something motivating because I'm a qualified fashion designer and I've lived all my life in the whole fashion and style space. Editorial images for me was natural. So I just, I take an editorial image, I write something on it, I add my words in actual text version, and that's what I do. But I've experimented with other things as well, because for me, what it's really about is encouragement and community. So for me, I just, I don't just post and then I walk away. I stay on the platform so I can say hello to others in their platform and hopefully they can, it can lead to conversations and maybe can help somebody's life be a bit better. Yeah. So it's literally, what it's about is encouragement.
[00:04:11] Speaker A: I love that. I totally see that in what you're putting out there. And it's cool because you see how we reply to each other. You commented earlier where you said something about my sarcasm. I am. I almost in some ways, like, yeah, you don't have to. Yeah, we could get into that later. But, but what I was getting at is you see how people respond to other people. So not only are you watching the content that you're putting out, but you're, you're looking at how people are replying to other people. So you get to see, like, in my case, like, for me, it's fun. So I try to have a sense of humor about it. I'm very serious about personal development and personal growth and creativity. I just want, I'm very expansive in thinking, but I don't want to take myself too seriously. So that's where a lot of that just, like, I almost, I'm, like, poking fun at what I, what I love. I'm poking fun at people, but I'm poking fun at myself. But I do. I love it. So I hope people take it in that context and don't be like, oh, this guy's a total, you know, I.
[00:05:12] Speaker B: Won'T say it, but I must tell you from the beginning, I just want to say what stood out to you for me is that you've got an incredible mind. I've seen you comment on people's posts, and you can zone in from this angle or this. You can be funny, you can be serious, but you have a way of thinking that is, like, that's an interesting angle. I haven't thought about that before, and that's always stood out to me. So, yeah, I really appreciate that.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: Thank you. I hope so, too. It's funny, I was getting my hair cut, and the person who was cutting my hair was talking about, oh, I need to post more. I need to start doing more social media. Then I said, oh, yeah, I'm starting to do that more myself. And she's like, oh, where are you? And I was like, oh, here I am on Instagram. She, like, pulled up my Instagram account. She's like, I have a lot more followers than you. And I was like, yeah, I'm sure that you do. I don't have very, very many followers in regards to the replying would say the same about you. I've always, always thought of you and the way you engage with people. As a community builder, I see how you try to bring people in, and you're always very positive, but not pollyannish or, like, just positive thinking. Positive thinking, but kind of, like, reflective and introspective. And, like, think about these things as you're going about your day. A quick shout out to you is, if you're not following Tanya, you want to give them your handle at Jamel Fran. And how do you. How do you spell it?
[00:06:38] Speaker B: So g e l l e b r I n d. I love it.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: I will. I'm not sure where this is eventually going to get posted, but wherever it gets posted, I'm going to try to add the link. That's the part I'm still working on is the editing process with all of these. But I wanted. But since we were talking about it, I figured, yeah, if you're not checking out Tanya's good morning post, they're. They're worth it. I look at them, I read them, and then when I read them, I do think about what you're saying. Like you said, said about me, I feel the same about you, that you have a great take and a reflective perspective on things. When I think about it, I was like, oh, yeah, I like that. So, yeah, I don't think we've talked to any real business yet at all. It's just been threads, and creativity is our history, so that kind of makes sense, interestingly enough, and maybe a transition into the business side of things through threads. You eventually developed a relationship with my wife, Malia. I know you and Malia have gone back and forth. One day I noticed, like, there's these Jamel products in our house now. I was like, oh, that's awesome. Malia is very particular, so if she bought something from you, I know she really values what it is that she got because she's very particular about all of those kind of things. Do you want to tell us a little bit about your products?
[00:07:54] Speaker B: Yeah. On Instagram and in life, I have three outlets under the brand. The bigger brand, Jamel. So Jamel Brand is the one we met on threads. But then we have Jamel Beauty, and I'll tell more about that. And then I have Jamel art, because I'm also an. An artist. Jamel Beauty. I'm a co founder with Jeff, my life and business partner. We founded that two years ago while we were vacationing in South Africa. I was originally born there, but I haven't lived there for many, many years. So it was a re exploration. We spent a few months in the country, and we met with this formulator that has been working with scientific methods on beautiful body and face oils for, like, 15 years. His knowledge of the botanicals and the beautiful floral kingdom that is very unique to South Africa have led him to create products that's beyond anything else. So we discovered some of his products and said to him, look, we would love to start a company that is focused on holistic wellbeing, but that also incorporates a power of touch. Because between the two of us, Jeff and I, we are all about. Sorry, my.
We are all about the oxytocin that gets released when you. Even if it's just your own forearm that you touch, but when you touch your partner's hand or when you rub someone's shoulder, the power of that. And then on the beauty side, how beautiful these oils and their ancient recipes and these incredible botanicals are for your and your muscles and your well being at the same time. But then also deeper than that, how they heal on the cellular level. So we have created, co created with our formulator, very unique recipes all from scratch, these oils that heal the body on the cellular level and works for the lymphatic system because our lymphatic system is all about gathering toxins and is the way that we can detox our body. But we've got to move our lymph because it doesn't move itself. So there is a power of touch. And our oils work on the different parts of the body. We have something for face, we have body sculpting, we have muscle relief, we have a lymphatic drainage, you know, a couple of those products. And in the meantime we have won some awards because the professional community is really, you know, the over the moon buy it because we import them from South Africa. So they're very unique. Such as they contain ingredients such as rubles and well harvested helichrysum and honey bush baobab, things that are very, very unique to just over there. And so when these, the professionals use it, they start realizing what it does for their clients and how it actually, actually heal people. Yeah. So that's. I hope that answers the question.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: No, I love it. Yeah, that's great. What was the award? What were the, what was the award?
[00:10:48] Speaker B: So we have won for six of our products, we've won product of the year at the massage championships and then we have also won Fatty company of the year award. So it's actually amazing awards because six for the products and one for the company. Yeah.
[00:11:04] Speaker A: Fantastic. I love that. So, because I haven't gotten into numbers with you and I'm not going to get into numbers with you, even when we talk about it would be like percentages, but I'm not worried about that. It's kind of like my investing brain going, but had you run a business before? Yeah. Had you run a business? I might. We'll see how it goes. Have you run a business before? You have, yes.
[00:11:23] Speaker B: Because I've never been in a corporate space. I've always worked for myself because I have a creative background, design, photography, art. So I've always had it under my name and I've done work for clients. I've lived and worked in five different countries, so that was also the best way to do it. And setting things up remotely, but it was always service based. This is our first business where it's product based. And that has yielded a wonderful new learning curve, brought about its own creative challenges, which we overcome on a daily basis. So Jeff and I work together from home, but also whenever we travel, work goes with us. So it's been this whole thing of, okay, so how, how do we have these beautiful products made and packaged in South Africa, but shipped to the US? So we sell exclusively to the us market at this stage. And, you know, where's our logistics and where's it being shipped from? And so we've worked it out. It's all shipped to our warehouse in Texas from where you can send out. So we sell through our website, but we also now sell on Amazon, and that was its own learning curve. And then we are starting to get into retail space. We're selling wholesale through to the professionals themselves, which in their treatments as well as resell it to their clients. So each one and each aspect has had its own journey because it's from the design to the set up to the logistics to, you know, admin.
[00:12:50] Speaker A: It's a lot, but it's like a lot. Yeah, it sounds like a lot. And I'm thinking to myself, because how long have you, how long has Jamel existed? How old is this business?
[00:13:01] Speaker B: We launched it officially a year ago, but we founded the company two years ago. Two years ago was the whole establish the relationship with our formulator and working on the recipes. Because here's, for example, one thing I think that's important for me. So face and body oils, for me, it's important that it is highly absorbent. You see, I don't like an oily feel and I like the skin to still have a skin texture afterwards. So our formulator came up with the most beautiful recipes, but in my mind, that was to health store type products, right? And too oily. And I said to him, look, my background in fashion, and I've lived in Europe for a long time, I would like something to represent, something that you could buy at a parisian perfumery. So in other words, I wanted to smell beautiful, although natural. And I also wanted to be highly absorbent, that it feels delicate. So we've worked and worked and worked in finesse, and that's why we're so proud of our products, because like Jeff always says, it has to pass the iPhone test. In other words, after you've put it on your skin and you touch your iPhone, that it's not an oily iPhone, right? And so all of those little things were part of figuring it out. But anyway, so to answer your questions, two years ago we started with all of that and it was the design of the packaging, exactly what information has to be on there in terms of design, but also what is legally required, how big should a barcode be? And, you know, all those kind of things. And then starting to build a website. We first did it on WordPress just to realize, oh, goodness, WordPress is great if you want a blog, and it's great if you want any other things, but WordPress is not great if you want to sell e commerce products. So we had to transition the whole few months of work over to shopify because shopify integrates with, you know, many of your social platforms and so many other apps that are very, very well set up for an ecommerce business. So, yeah, we're basically now in e commerce for the most part. It's a lot of fun. I love, love, love.
The biggest thing I love is that the testimonies and the stories from clients where they come and they say, oh, this is life changing, or, I cannot believe what he's doing to my skin. I think there's no greater reward than, wow, this is actually the way we hoped it would be.
[00:15:08] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh, that's amazing. I don't work with products. Trading and investing is my big move forward. I'm a technical analysis trader versus actually reading the business reporting. But I have a curiosity and I'm learning from all my business friends in terms of kind of what matters in the business. So the big number for a trader is you're looking at your p and L. That's where you see the performance. That's how your performance is measured. What I realize with businesses is revenue becomes the big, that's the number. Anytime I am engaged in the business community, they're like, what's your revenue? What's your revenue? What's your revenue? So how do you adapt? Cause, like, the, the creative, artistic side is one side of the brain, and then you have this other side of the brain. And I think even with the packaging and the learning curve that you were on, was your formulator knowledgeable? Like, was there somebody or your, or Jeff, in terms of somebody that was able to kind of give you that, that little bit of a handhold that I think we all need in the beginning?
[00:16:10] Speaker B: Yeah, well, so Jeff and I, we are very, our taste is very similar and very complementary. So we, we think alike, but we come from completely different backgrounds because he had a full on career in, on Wall street. So he comes from this whole economic, financial background, and I come from the complete creative and fashion background. So for me, it's super easy to just figure out how to build a website, how to design packaging. I have experience in all of that, how to create the photography for it, even if I have to use AI, which we starting to incorporate now. But all of that, that's very easy for me, as well as just understanding the ingredients and just on the beauty aspect, I've been involved in that all of my life. As South Africans, we grew up with beauty, but also with creating a lot of things from scratch. So we are very good with our hands and we value craftsmanship. So many people call it haute couture in Europe, but for us, as South Africans, that was just a way of life. And people often call us as we are people from the earth, because, you know, we didn't have all this air conditioning in our homes. And so you feel the cold or you feel the heat, and you're surrounded by the most beautiful landscapes, and you are in touch with a first world mix, with a third world world. And I think that beauty we're trying to bring from South Africa and show it to the rest of the world, and people feel that. I think you always feel the essence of where somebody's coming from or the essence behind why product was created. So you can't. You can almost not help yourself now in terms of helping hands. So Jeff and I made a decision from the beginning. We don't want to take investment. We want to bootstrap that. But we also know that almost any business can or can become profitable if they can survive long enough. Because you've got to show up again and again and again and again and again, because you don't know when your breakthrough happens. So we've made decisions to be very frugal in terms of our spending, so we can not deplete our cash and then invest into it ourselves, but strategically, so we can build it maybe slower, as an investor would have done. But, you know, something that I figured out along the way is that investment is not necessarily your answer, especially in the beginning. You know, the whole thing around a baby, if you just put the baby out of the pram and immediately can walk, that their hips, when they are mature, are just not as strong. The baby needs to leopard crawl and then crawl and then half stand and fall because they develop the muscles. And somebody said, very importantly, it's in your, in your own favor if you don't get investment from the beginning, because you have to go through the process of developing this business according to the steps it requires so you can mature with it. Even if it's a business you've done for the or your umpiest business, it's still new. It's still a new clientele. It's still a new angle you're coming from. It's, it's new again. Even if we do a second beauty business, it will be new. And so we're trying to hold on to full ownership for as long as we can. That's where we are.
[00:19:08] Speaker A: I love, I love that my, my head goes to one of the people that I've interviewed, one of my friends. He is an entrepreneur and he started a company called Ybar. Part of what he does, too, is he, he coaches alongside other entrepreneurs and his experience from the corporate world. He brought up to me that a lot of his friends from the corporate world go out to start their own businesses, but they're so used to the capital from the corporate world that they do not realize when you're doing a small business that you have to do what you're talking about. They go in too aggressively, too fast. And when you do too aggressive too fast, that's where problems start to arise. So when you're talking about the bootstrapping and early on and all of that makes a lot of sense to me and I relate because of my friend. It reminded me of that story, and this is an example of that.
This worked out pretty well and I think we're going to have some good reels and content from the podcast itself. Like I was telling you. And I'm going to kind of address the audience now. This is a work in progress for me and I'm so grateful that Tanya came on board to be one of my early guests early on and discuss her business. And what she's doing is she's doing amazing things with a Jamel I know through Malia loves your products, so you definitely have a customer here. And Malia is a healthcare provider, so who knows how that relationship will evolve over time. And I want you to stay on because I will do like a little debriefing with you after this is over for everybody else. Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the money Adjustment. We will see you very soon on the next one. Thank you for watching this episode of the money adjustment. If you want more like comment and subscribe, you can follow me on X at Mark Kramer until the next episode, stay healthy and wealthy.
