Jhalesa Seymour | She Started With $67… Now Her Soap Company Makes $20 Million/Year

0:00Your business is doing over$20 million a year right now.

0:02Jhalesa Seymour: Yeah. Come on. You know, I'm so like weary and shy about stuff like that, but we're doing pretty well. And what's the most amount of money the business made in 30 minutes? A million. You did a million dollars in 30 minutes. Jhalesa Seymour built an eight-figure empire by owning one of the biggest soap companies in America. I just always had that dog in me. Like I always had it. Like I'm like, I'm going to do it. So I don't play. Like, yeah, I'm cute and all, but I don't play. Jhalesa, what do you think keeps people broke? That's a great question. And actually no one's ever asked for that. So looking at.

0:32Jhalesa Seymour: Wow. That's so good. You started this company with$67. I feel like this podcast has been a testament. Look, if I don't have a seat at the table, I'm going to build the damn table. Yes, I'm going to build the table. And I promise you, it doesn't even have to come with the legs. I don't build a leg. Find me a tree somewhere. I'm going to cut it down. Chop some wood. Okay, let me chop some wood. 31 years old today. If all four of us sitting here died tomorrow and you could leave one last message with the younger generation, what would that be?

1:03What's going on, everyone? Welcome back to the School of Hard Knocks podcast. I'm James. I'm here with Jack and Josh. We are out in Miami, Florida with an incredible entrepreneur, Jaleesa Seymour, who built an eight-figure empire by owning one of the biggest soap companies in America. You became wealthy selling soap. Is that correct?

1:20Jhalesa Seymour: Yes. The introduction itself was heavy. Thank you so much, James. I appreciate it. No, we appreciate you being here. You know, we all came in to make this happen and really inspire a lot of people. But what I think is fascinating, everybody sees Chapter 20. They see the multiple eight-figure business you've done today. Your business is doing over$20 million a year right now. Yeah. Come on. You know, I'm so like weary and shy about stuff like that, which I don't know where that mentality came from. But it's like, dang, I don't want to share it. But we're doing pretty well. And what's the most amount of money the business made in 30 minutes?

1:52Jhalesa Seymour: A million. You did a million dollars in 30 minutes. Yeah. That's fascinating. We're going to dive into it today. where I want to get started is again, everybody sees chapter 20. They see the multiple eight figure business you built. Now you started this company with$67. How in the world did you realize that you were going to build an empire selling soap online? Man, the demand grew greater than I could have ever imagined. So I started giving out soap samples to my friends and I gave them to my roommates. As you know, I started it in my college dorm. I was going to UCF. I was a senior in college and I gave it to them.

2:22Jhalesa Seymour: They were like, this is really good. Like I want you to sell this. So I started giving it out to my classmates and they were like, whatever you put in this soap, it's magical. And that was the thought for me. I was like, you know what? Maybe I should really make this a thing. Like the demand was there. Like girls wanted it. They needed it. They saw how it impacted their lives and it changed their confidence like drastically. So I was like, you know what? I should make this a business. And that idea itself was like, OK, you know what? If I can just distribute this, this will go. And as soon as I was able to sell it, it completely sold out every single time consistently.

2:56But what I think is fascinating is you took a personal need that you had, which is, you know, improving women's hygiene, right, that you dealt with and all of your other, you know, female friends were ultimately dealing with. But what was the incentive to go and create like you're an inventor in the sense, right? You invented this soap. How did you go about figuring out like what ingredients ultimately went into this to where you could sell this and help a lot of people, millions of people around the world?

3:17Jhalesa Seymour: That's a great question. Actually, no one's ever asked me that. So the ingredients I always look for was what did I want to heal? So I wanted to treat odor. I wanted to treat women who dealt with recurring BV, yeast infections, UTIs, like the things that we have to deal with that only our OBGYNs would know or your partner would know or you yourself would know. But it's not something that you wanted to speak about publicly because there's shame attached to it. There's shame attached to odor. There's shame attached to BV, you know, things like that. So as soon as I just was like, let me just be open about it.

3:46Jhalesa Seymour: Like, let me share it. It's no big deal. Like, this is natural. Women deal with it all the time. I knew like so many other women could benefit from it. That's why I was like, you know, let me share this gift. I didn't want to keep it to myself. But to be able to parlay this invention and turn it into an eight figure business, like where did the business acumen come from? Like were your parents entrepreneurial? Like who taught you the business side of things? No. So I didn't even come from entrepreneurship. My mom was a radiologist. My grandfather was a teacher. My grandmother was a librarian. I just always had that dog in me like I always had it like I'm like I'm gonna do it I've always worked my entire time through college I was like always a person like I don't want to be broke I want to be able to create a life for myself even though I was in college in high school I always had that mentality I just didn't know that I would be a multi-millionaire Like I always knew I wanted to be great and have success with that dollar amount It never hit my mind because it's something I had never seen before No one in my proximity had ever done it No one in my family my lineage has ever done anything like that So that idea was so far fetched.

4:44Jhalesa Seymour: When I first started, I said, I give myself seven years to be a millionaire because the idea was so big to me. But I did it in a year. So that just showed me like this is something that was way beyond my way beyond what I thought I could do for myself. This was God all the way. Starting a business with just sixty seven dollars in college with like no entrepreneurial experience. At what point in the business's journey were you just kind of like, man, I really have something here. This isn't just like a college side hustle anymore. Like this isn't a real legit business and I'm going to take it to the moon.

5:14What was that moment like and what was kind of the company? What did it look like at that time?

5:19Jhalesa Seymour: It's so many moments and I'm going to share a few. This is kind of funny, but when I started selling on Facebook, people were fighting in the comments like, no, you better not take all the soap because I only could make small batches. And people were really arguing online. It was viral on Twitter. Like you guys are taking up all the soap. We can't ever have any for ourselves. I was like, y 'all, it's just soap. But it wasn't. So you guys were selling out? We were selling out within five minutes. And it would take me at least two weeks to make all of the soap. I was making it at my mom's house at that time.

5:48Jhalesa Seymour: I had moved from my college dorm to my mom's house. I needed more space. And my roommates were tired of me at that point. They were like, come on, y 'all. Like, you're destroying the kitchen. So I started at my mom's house. I was making soap. It would take me about two weeks to make it. I would heat seal every single bar. And I realized I was on to something where people were really fighting to purchase. purchase and they were getting upset about it. And I would look at the, because on Shopify, you can see the visitors. At one point there was 18 ,000 people on my website. 1201, I would launch at noon once a month.

6:18Jhalesa Seymour: By 1201, it was 18 ,000 people on my website. I was like, what? How long was this until you launched the business? This was about seven months in, maybe seven months in. Yeah. It was very quick. That's why I was like, oh, I'm onto something because it grew so fast and it was out of my control. The only thing I needed to do was hire people at that point. Yeah. And you have a very interesting philosophy on hiring people. What is that? Oh yeah. So I'm really big on hiring slow, but firing very fast. And you learn, because I had to learn the hard way with people. Sometimes you see the good in people, you see the potential in people and I'm no longer hiring for potential.

6:54Jhalesa Seymour: I'm hiring for what is your capacity? What can you do? What can you show me right now? And sometimes you can look at a person and see something that they don't see in themselves. Like for my assistant, she was my assistant now she's my chief of staff but I already saw she was a leader by nature she would take initiative she already knew how to think before I could think about something in those cases yes but when it comes to hiring I'm very very diligent and I'm very careful with who I bring on to my team I'm curious on that right is you're like hey I need to bring in people with expertise and I'm running this business out of my mom's house at this point at what point were you like okay I need to go talk to a manufacturer or someone that can actually bring this to the next level.

7:32Did you have like a mentor or someone that helped you kind of get to that next level?

7:35Jhalesa Seymour: I never had a mentor till this day, eight years in, I've never had a mentor. I've never had a coach. However, I've had, I have a wealthy group of friends. And when I say wealthy, it's not money. It's just, they have so much wisdom. And a lot of them have multi, multi-million dollar businesses, of course, but that came with me going to networking events and shaking hands and being open to maintaining new relationships because we're always taught like no new friends, not when you're growing a business like you have to be open to making new friends shaking hands with people that you typically wouldn't talk to so that's what really helped me but in terms of mentorship I had a family who believed in me so much they would always be like whatever you need I'm here so I didn't have the thought of like manufacturing and all that on a grand scale like of course I had help with manufacturing but that was all internal like that was all family you know but as I grew as the years grew on yes I was able to find that because I was so scared of my formula being released to the wrong person.

8:29Jhalesa Seymour: I wanted to keep it in my family. I'm like, I can only trust a few people with this formula. But as we grew, I can't bottleneck my business. So as soon as I realized I can only go as far as I let it, I said, you know what, let me relinquish control and let me just let this thing grow the way that God intended for it to be. And now I'm able to have a manufacturer and I'm able to have my own warehouse and my own team. We can ship in-house, we can make products in-house and everything's done here in Florida too. With this formula that you developed, I'm sure that as it really started to get traction and you had customers lining up, selling out your products, I'm sure you had people that tried to copy you as well.

9:03Jhalesa Seymour: Oh, man. And to this day, I mean, I've had brands literally copy every single thing verbatim. There's a brand who has my same Yoni gel with poppy seeds, like although I invented it, there's brands who literally will copy the entire thing, not even change the name or the ingredient deck or the description, even on the website. How does that make you feel? So at first I used to be really upset about it. But then as I've grown older and I understand my calling, I'm like, there will never be another Salt XO. There will never be another me. So you can do it and that's okay, but it will never be me.

9:38Jhalesa Seymour: It'll never be what I brought to the table. So authenticity always wins and you can't make a move until I do. So it's no worries for me. Guys, we're about to be right back to the episode. Before we do that, look, I want to talk about one specific company today that you could be using on a daily basis to save yourself time, money, people, and energy. And it's called High Level. For starters, it can send your prospective clients to a landing page. So that way, with all the traffic that you're getting, you can automatically create a landing page with High Level that it sends all that traffic to. Then once you get that traffic, High Level also has a calendar feature where you can automatically create a calendar where your prospective clients can come in and book calls to talk to your sales reps.

10:15And beyond that, the feature that I think is the most important is it will automatically follow up with all of these prospective clients and people coming in to learn more and potentially buy from your business. Yes, you can send emails, you can send text messages, you can send announcements directly to these people so that way you never lose a single dollar on a deal. And if you don't know what to say to these clients, right, like if you're kind of lost on how you should respond or get back to these people, they have a powerful AI tool that can create templates and give you the right messaging to respond back to these clients so that way you actually close the deal.

10:43So if you want to get access and start using HighLevel to change your business, the trajectory of your business, your life, and your family's life, go down right now, click the link in the description of this video and start using HighLevel today. And with that being said, let's get back to the episode. I want to talk real quick about the hiring aspect as well, right? There's that saying, and these guys preach about it all the time, that the same people that are going to get you to$100 ,000 a year are not going to get you to$1 million a year, let alone$10 million and$20 million and$8 figures a year.

11:08So who were some of the most important, the most critical hires that you made to the business, whether they were in charge of technology, whether they were in charge of finances? Who would you say the most important, maybe two or three people that you hired that helped you scale out to eight figures?

11:21Jhalesa Seymour: I would say my ads manager. He helped me scale because we were organic for years. And I introduced paid marketing and it helped us scale tremendously. My sister, who runs logistics at my warehouse, she handles the entire thing. She's only 24. She's a beast. You have to meet her. She's incredible. She manages over 30 employees. So she's she's incredible. And she's that is the only way I'm able to grow and maintain two to three day shipping because of her. And she created the entire like schedule within like OSHA and all those things. Like she she's a beast. She's incredible. Yeah. So those two people have been pivotal in my business for sure.

12:00You had mentioned something earlier that I want to touch on that, you know, didn't necessarily have a lot of mentors, but you got around a lot of wealthy friends. Yes. And so we always like to talk about like proximity is power. Yes. And so we always like to tell people like, hey, you need to get out of your hometown and go to where people are making things happen and getting around people in the right rooms. Like when did you kind of have that realization when it's just like, hey, like I need to be getting around other people who are making things happen?

12:27Jhalesa Seymour: So I think that comfort is, I don't know, it's kind of like smoke and mirrors. And I'm really big on being planted in the right soil. When you realize that you are not planted in the right soil Not only will you not bloom But everything else around you will start to look foreign It will start to be like, who are these people They don't belong here because you don't belong And you might feel ostracized, you might feel like an outlier But I just was in the wrong soil And I needed to branch out I needed to be around people that thought like me Who were even progressive thinkers Who thought of things that I typically wouldn't think about And that happened as I was going to networking events Meeting millionaires Before I was a millionaire, I was shaking hands with millionaires I didn't have any ego You can't have an ego, especially when you're building a business.

13:09Jhalesa Seymour: There's no, oh, I don't want to do this. I don't, I never, I was at entrepreneur networking events, eight months pregnant. And they were all concerned, like, are you about to have this baby? If I have the baby, as long as I'm learning while I'm doing it, let's deliver the baby. But I always had that zeal inside of me. I'm like, let's go. James brought up about copycats. Was there ever a point in time or any like big brands? Like you were obviously a disruptor in the industry. Was there ever any big brands or people that saw what you were doing in the space and tried to come after your product or anything like that?

13:38Jhalesa Seymour: Yeah, for sure. I literally would look on platforms now and see a replica. And even on TikTok now, there's so many variations of my product there. And it doesn't bother me. I just keep scrolling. People would send it to me. And when I was younger, because I started my business very young, naturally it would upset me. But now it's like water off my back. I'm not worried about it because I'm in my own lane. And I'm focused. And when you're focused, you don't care about the background noise. I don't care about the background noise right now. And you're the creator. They're not going to be able to innovate like you either.

14:09Jhalesa Seymour: Exactly. I'm an innovator. I mean, I think about it like our platform as well. Yeah. I mean, there's millions of people that are trying to do our format. 100%. But at the end of the day, like, I just have so many ideas on how we can just take it to the next level that, you know, you can copy the questions, the walk-ups, all you want. It's just, it's like, good luck. And you're him. Like, you are the standard. When people think about it, they always hear your voice and they always have to kind of match your cadence and match the way you walk and the way you deliver questions. You have to mirror the greats.

14:38Yeah, 100%.

14:39Jhalesa Seymour: And when you set the tone as a great, people are going to copy you. Jaleesa, we got to be honest. We still got to crush them, though. Oh, I'm crushing them. Oh, no, no, no. Listen, we're piling them now. Hold on now. This isn't like, hey, let's be. No, we're going hard. Like, I just was at InvestFest. I shut InvestFest completely down. We branded every single bathroom. We branded every single gala, VIP night. We were on the stage. I mean, it was a SaltX. I called it a SaltFest. And InvestFest has over 30 ,000 people there. And everywhere you turned, it was SaltXO. So I don't play. Like, yeah, I'm cute and all, but I don't play.

15:17But that in itself is such an organic marketing strategy right there. Yes. Could you tell us your philosophy on marketing and brand building? right because I know that we talked about it earlier today you realized that obviously it was extremely important to double down on organic marketing then when you put the paid outs on top of that it just added so much fuel to the fire what is your philosophy on marketing and taking that brand to the next level you have to dominate in marketing you can't you can't play nice there

15:43Jhalesa Seymour: is no hey um you know I just want to I just want to be passive there is no I'm not passive I'm so sorry like when you walk to the bathroom at the Georgia World Congress Center you couldn't help but see us outside of the bathroom. I had balloons and stickers all over the walls, the floor, the bathroom doors. Everywhere you turn, you're going to see Salt XO. I want Salt XO to be, I want people to be so overwhelmed with Salt XO. It's like, oh, dang, another Salt XO commercial? Yes. Dang, another Salt XO ad? Yes. I have people come up to me and they're like, I can't scroll on TikTok without seeing a Salt XO ad.

16:15Jhalesa Seymour: That's the point. I'm going to smother you in Salt XO until you make a decision to change your life. And when they do, they don't back away from it. We have a excellent retention rate. Our customers stay with us. Right. But I think this is a very important lesson for entrepreneurs here. At what point do you put paid ads on the organic marketing? Like how long were you doing organic, right? You launched, what, seven, eight years ago? Yeah. The business. You were doing organic for how many years up until you realized that, hey, if we put paid ads behind this, it's already converting organically.

16:42At what point do you think the business owner should put paid ads on top of the organic content?

16:46Jhalesa Seymour: Okay. So this sounds like an anomaly, but I did organic for about five years. and we've been in business for eight. So everything was organic for five years. And I think it's because that's all I knew. But when social media changed, you know, the landscape of social media changed, like everyone started doing ads and, you know, making content. I was like, okay, well, I need to put a little bit more push and drive into it. So as soon as I allowed myself to have influencers and UGC and ads and, you know, making like little TikToks and live videos, I saw my business skyrocket. And it didn't take long.

17:22Jhalesa Seymour: So I think it's a really good decision to put ads on as soon as you have the money to and you have the awareness of who your customer is. But I think you should start organic first because sometimes people just go straight to the money, straight to let me pay for it. No, build some trust first. Like, let people see, like, the process and who you are. And sometimes that might not be the story for every single brand owner. But I think that for Salt XO, it was important because we sell intimate wash. I want to be able to tell a very authentic story and then let you know let the trust build up from there but as soon as I realized that I was like yeah it's time to put some money behind this stuff yeah yeah something that I just keep thinking about is you were pregnant at a young age and most people like women will use that as an excuse as to hey I'm gonna go the safe route I can't do that but you did you did the opposite would you say having a child at a younger age gave you actually that fuel to push on and be like, look, it's not just for me.

18:16It's for us now.

18:17Jhalesa Seymour: Yeah. And that's a beautiful question because a lot of moms get discouraged when they have a child because they think that their life is over or they think that their life will slow down. My life actually catapulted when I had a child. Everything started to blossom for me. And I think, yes, you have that desire to, hey, I want to create this life for my children. But you have to want to do it for yourself first. because I think a lot of moms feel guilt and shame for wanting to do something for them. But I pride myself on, I'm going to do this for me. And they will, of course, benefit from the fruit of it, but it's for me.

18:49Jhalesa Seymour: And then they're going to see their mom work hard. And I'm going to pass down these traits of discipline and discernment and respect and kindness. They're going to watch me navigate the world. So that's what it is for, for me. It's not really about, hey, I want to pass this down to them, the business, but I want to pass down my characteristics, my traits, how I handle people so that they can build their own businesses because I don't plan on just giving them anything. I want them to be able to work for it because if they don't, they won't be able to sustain anything. It's overcoming the excuses.

19:16Somebody could be like, oh, I'm having a kid or I'm in college or I'm young and I don't have a lot of money. And they just look at what's everything wrong with the situation instead of just selling it first and figuring it out. Just go out there and capitalize on the opportunity.

19:31Jhalesa Seymour: Yeah, and that's how I felt. I'm like, I'm not going to wait for anybody to give me an opportunity. I'm going to take it. There was no one my age. And every time I say this, people are like, that's not true. Okay, I'm talking about on the scale I was doing it at that time in 2018. No one in college amongst my peers were talking about feminine hygiene because it was such a taboo. It was very uncomfortable to talk about odor and issues with intimacy. No one was talking about that because that's something that you wanted to keep to yourself. So I said, I will be the sacrificial lamb. And I will talk about it with no shame.

20:03Jhalesa Seymour: And it brought so many more women closer to my brand because they love the story. You know what I love about this is I feel like this podcast has been a testament. Look, if I don't have a seat at the table, I'm going to build the damn table. Yes, I'm going to build the table. And I promise you, I'm going to go get the materials to build it too. It doesn't even have to come with the legs. I'll build a leg. Find me a tree somewhere. I'm going to cut it down. Chop some wood. Okay, let me chop some wood. And I'm so serious about it. I am so resourceful. I built this brand by myself in a sense of I didn't have a background in entrepreneurship.

20:35Jhalesa Seymour: I didn't have a background in soap making. I had just the desire. I had a zeal for this. I wanted to do it because I understood how much it impacted my life and I wanted to share it with people. You know what I mean? Yeah. Jaleesa, what do you think keeps people broke in today's world? Looking at what other people are doing and thinking that, oh, well, they're doing it. I can't do it either. Girl if you don't get up And find I just I don't like the fact That a lot of people believe That these saturated markets exist It doesn't exist What you are going to do for you That's your own lane No one can do it like you No one The same way we're talking now We all have our own lives We all have our own perspectives We all have our own journeys That's the same way it is in business As long as you know How to handle business And how to handle people You can thrive But when it comes to Oh yeah well I'm just not going to do it Because someone else is doing it you will stay broke for a long time.

21:27So many people, they just, they pay attention to what other people are doing and set them up. There's a reason why, like.

21:32Jhalesa Seymour: That's when your plate gets cold. You're looking at somebody else's plate. Oh my God, their food is so good. By the time you eat your food, your food is cold. That's so good. You had a, you had a masterpiece in front of you. You didn't, you're not even looking at it. I was going to use the example. So funny enough, like we mentioned Neo, right? Like when we interviewed him, he talked about at the Kentucky Derby, like horses, they have the blinders on. So they can't see to the left or right of them, how the horse is doing. and they can only think about their lane in getting to the finish line. And so if so many more people just adopted that in entrepreneurship or just to be successful in life, they'd realize I'm on my own timeline.

22:03I'm competing against the person in the mirror at the end of the day.

22:05Jhalesa Seymour: And time is relative. I was speaking to my good friend about that. We talk about that all the time. Time is what you make it, honestly. You can start at 50, 60 and still thrive. You can start at 15 and still thrive. I wouldn't let age be a barrier to anything you're doing. Like you mentioned, I started in college. That's all I knew. I was going to start. I didn't care how old I was. I didn't think about that. I didn't think about, dang, I'm a senior in college. I'm broke, but I'm trying to start a business. I'm not considering that. I'm thinking about, I have an idea. Let's act on it before God give it to somebody else.

22:34Jhalesa Seymour: Because he will. He will. And some people think, oh, well, you know, well, what's for me is for me. Yeah, you know, it has already been written. But sometimes you can miss your blessing. Yeah. You became a millionaire at 25 years old. Is that correct? Yes. Were you the first millionaire in your family? Yes. You were. So what happens all the time we see is that people aren't used to having money, right? If they've never come from it. So they oftentimes squander it. When you first became a millionaire, were making a substantial amount of money from what you were ever used to or your family was used to for that matter.

23:08How did you spend money on your lifestyle? Did you learn a lesson there about like, did you waste money? Did you blow money at all? Or were you always good about putting it back in the business?

23:16Jhalesa Seymour: I think I've always been really good with money. When I first started, I bought my mom like a car about three years into my business. It wasn't too bad. Like I could do it. But I've never been a person to squander. I've not I haven't been frugal, but I have been very aware of what's going on with my finances because my grandma, she used to call me the family bank. She would give me five dollars and I would see how long I could make it last. Like I used to love saving and love like seeing how my money could stack up. And that's when I was a child. So I just carried that with me. That's why I was telling you.

23:48Jhalesa Seymour: I want them to follow the fruit of how I am and how I manage money because I think that would save them more than, yeah, my mom took me out of town and we balled out. No, I want you to have long lasting impacts of what I did for them as a child and how they see me maneuver in life. But you also, like we were talking about this earlier, that you need to know the difference between a business bank account and a lifestyle. Like the business bank account is not the lifestyle account. So that's a thing that I find to be like a challenge with a lot of new entrepreneurs. So let's just say you make a million dollars, right?

24:19Jhalesa Seymour: You think, oh, wow, I made a million dollars. No, that is for your business. You have to pay payroll, taxes. That's why the IRS comes for people because you're not paying your taxes. You're not paying your sales tax. You're spending the money that your business is making and you're spending it on yourself. You're using your business finances and paying off your personal credit card bills with your business. So when things like that happened and you get audited you're like dang what's happening and then you wonder why your business your finances are being strained because you don't know how to manage you don't know how to differentiate what I'm supposed to use for myself and my business now me I I don't know what it is and I don't have a finance background but I just have this feeling you know how you can have a gut feeling like how to move correctly with with money I just I don't know I just have it like I just I don't I've never been person to just be careless with money you know it's what I I think it is also is like when you don't come from a lot of money.

25:13Yes. It's like, look, I got to make with what I have and go a long way. Yes. Make a stretch. Exactly. It's like, look, I got to get real creative on how I'm going to turn this$2 into$10. Right. And so one of the things that I find also like so interesting about your story is you had explosive growth.

25:28Jhalesa Seymour: Yeah. And there's a lot of blessings in there, but there's also a lot of challenges. Was there ever a moment during that growth? You're like, look, if I don't figure this out, like I might lose the company. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I believe it was 2020. We were shipping out orders out of my garage at my house. I rented a house and we were making soap out of the garage and my family had came up because we had about 20 ,000 orders to ship out. And that was a lot. I mean, I'm making this stuff in my house, y 'all, like 20 ,000 orders. It was insane. So I had my family fly up. I mean, I drive up from Miami to Orlando because we didn't have, I didn't have, I didn't have many employees.

26:05Jhalesa Seymour: You know, I was hiring people from Facebook market and, hey, anybody want to come and work for me for$10 an hour? They're like, yeah, you know, two or three people will come. I'll get college students most times. But the challenge in that was it was during a hurricane season. We had shipped out everything. I mean, it was incredible, immaculate. Everything was done perfectly. And as soon as the pickup came for the orders, no one received their order. We dropped off every single package. I made every single soap. I mean, we worked tirelessly to get this stuff done. and to get it done in a timely manner because at that time, Salt XO was known for our long shipping times because I was making everything one by one.

26:43Jhalesa Seymour: And I felt so glorious. I felt so victorious having those orders done and completed for not a single package to reach a customer. And that nearly broke my business because I realized not only you can't rely on carriers, especially when you don't have insurance on the products, you know, things like that. But I realized if I didn't have a reserve and I wasn't really careful with the way I managed my business and my finances Salt-N-C-Sol wouldn't exist today if that was the case because that took a major hit financially I had to remake every single product I had to reship every single product and I never communicated with my customers and told them what happened I just redid it all like I let them know.

27:23Jhalesa Seymour: Hey, there was a slight delay But I wasn't going to issue a refund because I was building a brand. I wanted to make a lasting impact Like, I want people to trust me. So I just took from the reserves I had the last of it and remade everything. And God brought it back to me tenfold. I promise you. Like, it was such a hard time. Like, I thought I was going to lose it all. And I just, I gained it right back, like, very, very fast. So I was really, that moment for me, it taught me so much about managing my money properly, making sure that I don't use the business funds for my own lifestyle, and making sure that I have a team in place that will work hard, tirelessly for me, and not give me any excuses.

27:59Jhalesa Seymour: because we were all in it to win it. Yeah. Jaleesa, what is the, in regards to entrepreneurship and business in general, what is your most controversial opinion?

28:13Jhalesa Seymour: Controversial opinion. See, I don't know. I think because I'm so, what's the word for it? Like, I don't know if you guys think about signs. Are y 'all, do y 'all like into that? Not into it, into it, but you're familiar with how a person can be. Familiar with it. Yeah, yeah. Because I'm God's child first. Thank you. All right. but um so i'm like very what's the word for it i'm like very stick to the rules kind of person like i like to stick to the rules and stick to how things should be um so when i when it comes to controversy i would say like your friends will define you define you but i don't think it's controversial i think that your friends defining you is just like just truth like when you're when you're around people that are sucking the life out of you it will reflect on how you live your life, how you navigate rooms.

28:57Jhalesa Seymour: But if you are around people that are edifying you in any capacity, that's what you need, especially when you're growing a business, a family, being in a relationship. You need people around you, like we talked about, your circle, like making sure that your proximity to people is a healthy one. And I love the people that I'm around because they constantly lift me up. They're constantly pouring into me and giving me ideas to be better. And there's no competition. If you look at your circle and you don't get inspired, you're not in a circle, you're in a cage. Yeah, yeah. Literally, you're in a cage.

29:23Jhalesa Seymour: So I like to be inspired. I like to be around people that are doing better than me because I'm like, it's possible. If it's in arm's reach, it gives me the encouragement to know like, hey, this is so possible. I want to be around, like you say, billionaires. You interview billionaires. It's like that exists. Like I'm trying to reach that point one day. Yeah. So Lisa, I want to ask you, are you familiar with Joshua Crisp? No, I'm not. Joshua Crisp. Okay. He's like friends with like Neo DeViso. He's an incredible internet marketer. And he actually preaches that one of the most important aspects of scaling any business's offers, like coming up with great offers.

29:56And in particular, I think that he says the most important thing that people want when you're creating an offer isn't necessarily that quantity, but it's actually the variety of different products that they have to choose from. So when you had those million dollar launches where you did a million dollars in 30 minutes and even seven to eight months in, you had 18 ,000 visitors on your Shopify store at one time, what is your secret to creating an irresistible offer for the customer when they're shopping Sodexo?

30:19Jhalesa Seymour: That's a good one. So I talk to their pain points So I'll say Hey, have you experienced odor lately? And it might be kind of like tongue-in-cheek a little bit like, excuse me? But my community, they love it They love when I talk to them very direct And when I'm talking to them like that and I'm calling out an issue I'm calling out a concern that they might have I don't know what it is, but it makes them feel so comfortable and at ease when I call it out It's kind of like when you face someone and the only person that you're comfortable with is the one that's brutally honest with you. That's how I am.

30:54Jhalesa Seymour: I'm brutally honest with my team, with my customers, but I'm also very nurturing and comforting at the same time. So they know that it's not something to put them down, but it's like, let's call it out and let's find something to give you a solution for it. But you don't play the middle line. You're bold, which is important in marketing. Yeah, I'm very bold. I'm very bold. I say what it is. I'm like, we call ourselves the Clean Coochie Club. People will be like, what? Yes, girl. And own it. And be proud to be clean and want to take care of yourself. And clean isn't all about like topically, but it's just like taking care of yourself.

31:25Jhalesa Seymour: The way you position yourself in the world, being a woman, being feminine. I love it. I don't mind saying the things that people are afraid to say. And I think that's what has separated me because I've always been a person that will be bold in how I speak and be bold in the way I represent my brand. You're also incredibly bold in your faith as well. Yes, very true. Your dad was a pastor. Yes. Can you explain how important your relationship with God has been for you and ultimately like just the need for that to be successful in business? Oh, man. Okay. So growing up in church, sometimes you're just used to it, right?

31:57Jhalesa Seymour: And you don't really build that relationship. I've seen that so many times with preacher kids and they grow up and they just go haywire, right? But the thing with me, I developed a relationship with God in college, like a personal relationship. And I realized I didn't want to do anything without God involved in it. Even if he had to sit me down, even if he had to chastise me, I've always been grateful for him, the chastisement. And when God has God ever sat y 'all down before and like made you guys realize, hey, I need to get my life together. Yeah, I've had those moments. And I think when God does it and it's not like something that someone does in the physical realm, I'm like, all right, God, thank you so much.

32:34Jhalesa Seymour: Because I have been able to do what I've done at this scale because God has given me so much grace, so merciful. My team always says God is so good with us because there's so many things I didn't know that God protected me and shielded me from, whether it was people, whether it was sharks coming into my business, wanting to take over, wanting to implement things that didn't resonate with my morals. And I've always been a person to pray about it first and then move. I don't do anything unless I go to him. Yeah, that is my compass. I love that. Jaleesa, we like to end these podcasts off with two questions for our guests.

33:07I'll start and Jack will end it. But Jaleesa, 31 years old today, if all four of us sitting here died tomorrow and you could leave one last message with the younger generation, what would that be?

33:20Jhalesa Seymour: Learn the hard lessons fast and don't have to don't have don't don't relearn the same lesson twice. I actually had to relearn a very hard lesson. And that's why I'm able to talk about it so confidently now, because there will never be a time where I will learn a hard lesson twice, because I think you can get the wisdom like God will keep teaching you. If you don't learn, he'll keep popping you on your hand. All right, cool, cool. And I've realized the moment I decided to learn and not go back to the same ways and the same practices, my grace has been abundant. But you had one year in particular where you were dealing with postpartum.

33:54You had the loss of a close family member. And I believe there were some other things that may have been going on, but yet you still came out on top, right? And that was a very low point. I want to talk directly to somebody that's at rock bottom. They may feel like, you know, this is it for me. Like, I don't really have much left in me. If you were talking to, Jaleesa at that point in time right now, similar to you're having a conversation with that person, what would you tell that person?

34:15Jhalesa Seymour: Well, I would tell myself, I remember me being in my closet, just crying and not having, not seeing a way out of it. I would be like, get up, sis. Like, you got it. It doesn't look like it now. It may look very foggy, like you can't see anything, but I promise you, you're going to come out. You're going to be glorious. You're going to be victorious. Like you have abundance written all over your name. You have so much looking forward to embracing you and loving on you very, very soon. And I think sometimes when we don't realize that there's so much to look forward to and you're just looking at the present, it can limit your view, of course.

34:47Jhalesa Seymour: It's like looking at a lens that can only see from here to the camera. I wanna be able to see far out. And as soon as I was able to see that what was in front of me was not all that there was for me, my life changed. But I'm sure you also realized that if you didn't do it for yourself, no one else was coming to do it for you. Yeah, and I had to pull myself out of that dark place. I had to. And yes, I had a beautiful family around me, but I don't believe that anyone can pull you out of depression and sadness. You have to do it. You have to have that wherewithal, that passion, that determination.

35:20Jhalesa Seymour: I'm not going to let this take over my body, my mind. I'm going to fight through. It's just like with people who have cancer. You can die sooner based on your mentality, based on the way you think. But the moment you start believing I will survive this. I will champion this. I will defeat cancer. Cancer does not define me. You can see the changes in someone's body and the way that they feel, the way they walk, you know, and you can see the healing progressing. So I'm really big on, I speak life into myself. I pour into myself and I try to do that for every person that encounters me who might be having a hard time.

35:51Jhalesa Seymour: Definitely. And Jaleesa, when it's all said and done, how do you want to be remembered? I want to be remembered as having the most incredible feminine hygiene brand ever to exist in the world because I thought that I was just making soap. Silly me. It was so much bigger than soap. I have transformed the lives of women in terms of their confidence, the way that they feel about intimacy, their relationship to intimate language. And I feel that I have made a huge impact in the way that women feel like they want to carry themselves, especially in rooms now talking about feminine hygiene so openly.

36:26Jhalesa Seymour: And I want people to remember that I did it first in a sense of I was able to put my business on the front street so that we can all talk about it openly. And I think that is a wonderful, wonderful gift that God gave me. But I really do think that we can unpack one more extremely powerful lesson right here, which is like you said, you thought you were just selling soap. Yeah, I thought I was. But it's a necessity. Yes. Everybody's going to continue to buy it. Yeah. They don't have to go out there and build the next big tech. You don't. You don't have to get rich selling courses like you can actually get You can actually, and you can sell a tangible product and it can be something that might be boring.

37:00Jhalesa Seymour: Soap is considered boring. Like, oh, you're about to make soap? But I loved it. I love what it did for women. I love what it did for me. I love how it changed my life and how it changed the way that my mother and my grandmother, we all use it. So it doesn't matter. If it's boring, go for it. Boring stuff makes the most money. Where's Jalisa Seymour in the next five to ten years? Oh, we're global. I am global. You're going to be seeing me everywhere. Egypt, Dubai, Ghana. I mean, everywhere. I mean, China. I mean, we're going to be everywhere. So that is my goal, to build a strong foundation, a strong brand that the way that you would think about feminine hygiene, your first thought will always be Salt XO.

37:37Love that. Well, this was an incredible conversation. We appreciate you flying in, being here with us in Miami today. My pleasure. My pleasure. For everybody that's tuning in right now, be sure to like and subscribe for amazing content coming every week to the Hard Knocks podcast. We're bringing 8, 9, 10, 11-figure entrepreneurs to this podcast every single week. We're going to put the links down in the description for you guys to get access, to get yourself some solid XO, to follow along with Jalisa and her journey as she continues to build this into a billion-dollar company. It's going to be a billion-dollar company one day.

38:03Absolutely. We're claiming it right now.

38:05Jhalesa Seymour: Come on. Let's go. It's on the way. It's on the way. It's coming. A hundred percent. We're going to put the links down in the description for you guys to get access, to check out solid XO, follow along with her. And we're also going to put a link down in the description to join the number one entrepreneur community in the entire world, the School of Mentors, where every single week we host live calls with 8, 9, 10, and 11-figure entrepreneurs where you can join and ask your specific questions directly to them every single week and get the blueprints on how to build million-dollar and billion-dollar companies in today's world.

38:31So we can't wait to see you on the inside of the School of Mentors. The link's down in the description. With that being said, we'll see you in the next episode.