the bossbabe podcast - 284. The Secret To Turning Rejection Into Success And Building A Business Fueled By Purpose with Lola Banjo

Episode Date: April 25, 2023

Businesses that are driven by purpose are so much more successful. Why? When you start a business, it takes grit and resilience and if you’re not driven by a purpose greater than money or fame, it��s easy to give up when someone says no. So, how do you find and pursue a business idea that fills you with purpose, even through the most humbling rejection? On this week’s episode, Danielle sits down with Lola Banjo, fashion entrepreneur and Salesforce Executive, to talk about what it’s like to be a humble underdog in a white/male dominated industry and how she turned countless rejections into opportunities for growth and success. Born in Brooklyn, NY to Nigerian parents, Lola Banjo enjoyed a global upbringing spending her developmental years in cities across the US, Nigeria and the UK, then returning to the US on her own at 14 to help support her family back in Nigeria. Today, she is a VP of Strategy at Salesforce, as well as the firm's Global President of BOLDforce - the company's 8,000 member global Black ERG. In 2019, Lola launched the multimillion dollar luxury travel and fashion accessories brand, Silver & Riley, as the Founder and Chief Designer. Built to last with versatility, functionality, timeless style and eye-catching designs, Silver & Riley bridges the gap between functional and stylish travel and fashion accessories that can be enjoyed by all. Highlights: How one moment inspired Lola to pivot from business consulting to fashion. Lola’s framework for figuring out which business ideas to pursue and which to leave behind. The one secret every aspiring entrepreneur should know about overcoming rejection. Links: Silver & Riley’s website: www.silverandriley.com Follow: bossbabe: @bossbabe.inc Danielle Canty: @daniellecanty Lola Banjo: @lolajbelle Silver & Riley: @silverandriley Mentioned in the episode: The Influencer Masterclass: Join bossbabe CEO, Natalie Ellis on a free, 90-minute training to gain full clarity on your personal brand, learn how to create easy, consistent content, build an audience of raving followers + generate revenue, without the stress. Control Body Odor ANYWHERE with @lumedeodorant and get $5 off off your Starter Pack (that’s over 40% off) with promo code BOSSBABE at lumedeodorant.com/bossbabe! #lumepod

A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going, and fighting on. She is on a mission to be her best self in all areas. It's just believing in yourself. Confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, the place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance and learning how to bounce it all. I'm Danielle Canty, your co-host for this week's episode and co-founder of Boss Babe. And today I'm interviewing Lola Banjo. Now Lola has an amazing handbag line called Silver and Riley's and she conceptualized

it after traveling to over 100 countries and experiencing firsthand how frustrating it was when travel bags don't do what you want them to do and so she decided to create a luxury luggage line now as you hear in most stories it's great to have an idea but the other side of it is implementing it and in this journey Lola is going to share how she dealt with the no's how she was determined to find the answers that she wanted and it wasn't just like oh no I'll try someone else she literally flew to another country to get the yeses that she wanted and knew she deserved. So if you listen to this podcast and you're in a point in your life where you're just like frustrated and you're feeling like you want to give up,

or maybe you're feeling like your business isn't moving fast enough, this is such a good one to listen to because it reinvigorates that determination. It's going to make you think outside the box of how you can get the yeses that you truly desire. So I hope you enjoy listening to it. And please don't forget to share with me at Danielle Canty, your favorite takeaways. Lola, welcome to the Boss Babe podcast. Thank you so much for having me, Danielle. I'm so excited to be here. I'm excited to have you here because your story is so interesting. When I was doing my research on you and learning about how you became an entrepreneur and your journey, I have so many questions and I feel like your story is so inspiring.

So I would love to, you know, before we hit record, we were just chatting that, you know, most people say, oh, my entrepreneurial journey started when I was like 24 when I noticed this problem. But my understanding is yours started much earlier than that. Much earlier than that. So first of all, I'm super excited to be here. You're doing amazing. I'm so proud of you.

Like, this is an honor to be here. So from one bus day to another. So you're absolutely right. My journey started very early and I was raised by parents are very entrepreneurial and also just instilled a lot of like, you know, principles of hard work and treating people well. I was born in Brooklyn. My parents are Nigerian. So I actually spent quite a bit of my developmental years in Nigeria from when I was like seven to when I was 14, I lived there. And it was during that time that I think a lot of who I am today was shaped.

And what I mean by that is I, being an American, American citizen, I never realized what the rest of the world was like until I actually lived in the rest of the world. And I experienced a dichotomy of the, you know, just unevenness of wealth distribution around the world. And what I mean by that is like, I got to experience and see around me abject poverty to the extent that it just boggled my mind, even as a child. And from a very young age, I would just ask questions. I used to drive my mom crazy because I would ask her questions about just inequality. And she used to always explain. And I'll be like, why do some people have to suffer? Why do some people have to go through certain things?

And I remember very distinctly one particular period that shaped my life. We used to walk about a kilometer to school every day and my mom would give us money for lunch and, you know, you know, just to go to school with. And I was about nine or so at the time. And along the route that I will walk, there were people that were begging for money. So panhandlers begging for money. And, you know, they didn't have anything to eat. They didn't have anything that they own at all. They literally lived on the street.

And every single day I would give them my money before I got to school. So I never had any lunch in school. But I always knew that when I got home, I was going to have food on the table. And, you know, so I was okay with that, you know, and my mom found that I was doing that. But it was so important to me to do that because I was just like, I have plenty, you know, even though we weren't wealthy per se, but we had food on the table. We had clothes on our back. We had a roof over our head. And from that very young age, I realized that you can be privileged in the same country. You can

have privilege based on where you were born and what circumstances, who you were born to and things like that. And it was from that age that I really just asked myself, I didn't know what it was back then, but what I've come to understand it is, is purpose. I used to ask myself, what is the value I want to add to this world? And what is my purpose in life? And how do I discover that purpose? How do I make sure I'm living in that purpose and helping others? Helping others was absolutely my purpose.

But I lived in a society where I knew that at the time, and maybe even now, the currency was, you know, the way to help people was to be successful. You can try to be altruistic and do a lot of, you know, non-governmental work and, you know, volunteer work and, you know, nonprofit work, but it didn't seem to move the needle in that society as much. And I said to myself, I'm going to be successful so I can make sure that I can help others as well. And so that's what began my journey. And it's important to include that when I talk about my entrepreneurial journey, because it wasn't just some idea, some random idea I gained when I was in my 20s or 30s, which it's fine if that's the case for anyone as well. But I had that sense of, I need to do something very early. But I spent my teenage,

my 20s, even some of my 30s exploring what that was, what that something was and trying to really hone in. So that's how my entrepreneur journey really started is that sense of like wanting to explore and find out what my purpose was in life. I think that businesses that are driven by purpose are so much more successful because when you start and found a business, it takes grit. It takes determination. Things don't go the way you expect all the time and if you are not driven by something bigger than yourself if you're not driven by your why it's so easy to give up so I think finding a business that fulfills that purpose is like one of the greatest gifts that you can have to get you through the hard times exactly so you in Brooklyn you're deciding like, okay, I want a business.

How did you land on Silver and Riley? Because to me, entering the fashion world is like intimidating. It's dominated by, you know, old fashion houses and a lot of money. So I'm like curious why you're like, oh, that's the business I'll start. I know, right? So I wasn't actually. So I must have written a hundred business plans. I went to business school at Emory University in Atlanta. And I was in that environment and surrounded by people that had so many great ideas. And I always knew that I was going to

start a business. I just didn't know when or how. And so I wasn't necessarily planning to when I was in business school. I was very focused on going into consulting and becoming a strategy consultant. And that's what I actually did post-business school. But when I was there, I got an internship between my first and second year of business school. And I was traveling weekly for work from New York to Minneapolis. And that's when I started to observe certain things. And on one very pivotal night, I was coming back home from Minneapolis to New York and it was freezing on that flight,

literally freezing. And I asked the flight attendant at the time, may I please have a blanket? And she said, no, it's only available for first-class passengers. And that triggered something in me. I mean, of course she was just doing her job. That was like, everyone should have conveniences to move around with. And it should not only be reserved for just a few that, you know, had the financial resources to sit in first class. And so I started exploring this idea of creating a travel company that made moving around products that make moving around simpler and easier. And that's where it started. It literally started from that flight. And I say that, I share that because like, sometimes people think, you know, to start a

business, you have to have this like plan and everything. Sometimes inspiration comes to you when you least expect it. So my inspiration came from that conversation with that flight attendant. And I was just, I just started writing things down and I came up with like different ideas, like blankets, rolling luggage and things like that. And I honed in on travel bags, right? And I was like, I love travel. I have been to 103 countries and I pray to be able to visit all of them in my lifetime. And so I was like, I want to do something around travel and I want to make traveling easier and sexier to move around. And as I traveled, you know, post-business school, when I experienced, you know, just people moving around in different geographies, whether,

you know, I was in Indonesia or I was in Europe or I was in, you know, the United States, everyone was carrying a bag, everyone. And I was like, this is the commonality that we all have. We have that, like literally everyone everywhere is carrying a bag. So then I was like, bags it is. Okay, let's do bags. So I started exploring and I got really, so I'm jumping around a little bit, but I was working as a strategy consultant and it was very involving. I was working like crazy hours, like literally a hundred hours a week. And so I put my load of business idea to the side for a little bit. And, but it kept on nagging at me, you know, when you have an idea and it just nags at you and like, you just feel like if I don't get this done, like I'm going to really regret it. So it was in 2018 when I just said,

I conceived the idea in 2010. And in 2018, I was like, you know what, Lola? It's now or never. If you don't do it now, when are you going to do it? So I said, okay, let's do it. And I'm like, okay, what am I doing? What exactly is it? So I started researching the market and then I got serious about it. I started writing out plans and then I started researching who can make the best travel bags. Right. And I put together, um, you know, I actually hired a consumer insights firm cause I was exploring different geographies, um, that can make my bag and different manufacturers. And so everything was pointing to Italy and I was like, well, I don't know where to start I literally started googling I found manufacturers and you know um I started like emailing them or calling them got zero responses

wow or rejection and also just wanted to double check so at this point you have never founded a company right and you've never founded a product-based company you've never dealt with manufacturers but you're like you know what I'm gonna'm going to figure this out. I'm going to do it. I'm going to figure it out. I mean, I had a little tutoring thing when I was young, but that doesn't count. Like, no, it was my first foray into like true entrepreneurship. Um, I, I, I, I'm fortunate to have enjoyed a great and still enjoy a great career in corporate America as a consultant. So I kind of just thought that was my path. Like, you know, I, like I said, I've written a hundred business plans, but I helped others write their business plans or,

you know, explore things that they just never took off. And, but this was the one that was just like, Lola, I think you have something here. Like you owe it to yourself to explore it. And I was just like, I'm going to explore it. Can you explain that feeling? Because I do, we have a lot of people listening who are inspired to start a business or they have a business at early stage. And I want to talk about what that feeling is sometimes because a lot of people will second guess themselves like I see when we're in the society or in influencer school people oh am

I on to the right thing is this a good idea or if it's not so I wonder what you were leveraging and using to reassure yourself in that so there's a couple of things right I think nowadays there's a couple of things, right? I think nowadays there's some things that are just trendy and look really good, right? And sometimes they're lucrative as well. And people are like, you know what? I want to do that. But you may not be passionate about it, right? And so I think a lot of times it's really exploring. You can write down a lot of business ideas and you may explore them for three months and then you just get bored of it. If you never get bored of it and you just keep on coming back to it, that's probably something that you're truly passionate about. That's probably your call in.

I actually have this framework that I love. I discovered that maybe like not discovered it, but I found out about it when I was like about maybe seven or eight years ago. And it's this Japanese principle called Ikigai. Oh yeah. I love it. I'm obsessed with it. It's such a great framework that I used to manage a lot of different things in my life right now. And, you know, it basically talks about your purpose is in the center of four quadrants. You know, what you're good at, what you enjoy doing, what the world needs and what you get paid for. And if you're able to find something at the intersection of those four things, you found purpose. Now you don't have to get all four things from one thing. You can find different aspects of, you know, each thing in your life

and make sure that you have, you're living a life of purpose. But that's one, one good framework that I always recommend using. There's tons of others out there, but at the end of the day, it's really what you feel is your true calling. Because if you're just doing it for money or you're doing it for notoriety, you're going to get bored of it. You're going to start hating it, actually. You're going to start to resent it. And it's not going to be something that you're going to do for very long. And, you know, maybe for some people it works. Like you have a lot of people that are serial entrepreneurs there, you know, and that's their formula and that's fine. You know, like, but if you really want to create something that has longevity and like is really true to yourself and, you know, you want to create for me, I always said, I want to create a family

legacy. I want to create generational wealth. I want to be, you know, as want to create, for me, I always said, I want to create a family legacy. I want to create generational wealth. I want to be, you know, as a black woman, I want to be able to create something that transcends myself and, you know, helps, you know, close the opportunity gap in my community. And I was like, that's something, can I just be something that's like, you know, I just make a quick buck and move on. It has to be a brand. It has to be a legacy, something I'm proud to pass on to my kids. And, you know, I hope they will be proud to pass on to their kids.

So I'm in this for a long run. So for everyone, I think it's just really sitting down and being really honest with yourself and asking yourself, what is that thing that I can do repeatedly? And even when it's hard, even when it kicks my butt, I don't want to quit. Because entrepreneurship, as you know, is really tough. And there are going to be times that challenge you, you know, and if you find that thing, that's your thing, no matter how you're challenged, you don't want to quit. I really appreciate that perspective too, around, you know, thinking in generations, and you're really you're really

thinking about building a legacy and I really don't hear many people talking about that and I think that the same perspective can be utilized when people are like oh my goodness I'm thinking about what I'm doing my year goals my two-year goals versus my decade goals like what are my 30s about what is the next decade of my 40s about like and I think quite often we have a tendency to think small and so I appreciate what you're saying where you're like no I'm in this for the long run like this is something that I want to pass down to future generations let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform Kajabi.

You know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place so it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening

and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash Boss Babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash Boss Babe. And you also said something about brand and building a brand is very different from building

a business. And when you can combine the two, you get an immense amount of power. Absolutely. And so just the way that your business, I'm actually curious now, did you learn that from business school or do you think this is just like listening to your heart and being like, no, I want to have more meaning out of my business? No, it was really listening to my heart. And I love the way you phrased that as well.

I learned a lot of things from business school and I'll forever be grateful for that experience, you know, and I think it made me more grounded and made me realize my position in the business world and the opportunities. And, you know, I went to school that a school that was all about principled leadership, so I instilled a lot of those values or reinstilled a lot of those values. But a lot of these things as entrepreneurs is not learned from any book or watching something. It can inspire you for sure. It can help you unlock that, but it has to be something from within and you have to be able to listen to that voice, you know, and be true to yourself. You know, sometimes you may

find yourself like exploring an idea that is not sexy or, you know, other people don't necessarily feel, you know, is aligned with you. But if it's something that you're like, you know what, this is me, you can really rock at it. You can really do so much at it. Like you have to listen to yourself. And you posted something the other day that really like inspired me as well. Like you can't live somebody else's life. You know, you have to live your own life because at the end of the day, when you're however many years old, you're going to be the one that's just looking back. You're the one that has the memory of your existence. You're the only one that has the recollection of every single thing, every single decision.

And you're going to live with that, right? And you should be able to be like, you know what? I lived a good life and I followed my heart. I followed my dreams and I wasn't scared of failure. And I want to talk about failure as well. I know I'm pivoting, but, you know, I think the point you made is really important because sometimes entrepreneurs think that things have to be perfect, right? It has to be perfect. We have to have a plan.

We have to have this and so on and so forth, you so forth before we start. And that is like the first mistake. Nothing is going to be perfect. You can have the most amazing business plan. Things are still going to go wrong. So you have to be willing to take a risk and you're never going to be fully ready. You're never going to be fully, you know, excellent at everything. You're going to learn as you go. But you have to start. You have to get in the game to actually play. You know, so don't think like, oh, things have to actually, you know, be fully polished, fully baked.

Now, I'm not saying just go in there and wing it. You still have to do your homework and do your research. But there's going to be things that you learn along the way. Danielle, I've learned so much in this journey. Oh my gosh, I've had so many failures, but they're not failures when you're learning from it. They're actually a part of my success story, but I've had manufacturing headache and drama. I've lost a lot of money, like six figures. I have made mistakes and that's why I'm succeeding so I'm really I'm really glad that you shared that it's funny because my boyfriend and I were talking the other day about what happens when people are they hide their struggles and I think it becomes a really toxic

environment for like people to follow like on social media or to not have these. And that's why I'm so passionate about the podcast, like having these behind the scenes conversations, because you're right as entrepreneurs, you're going to make mistakes because as an entrepreneur, the goal, you have to move fast. You have to move quickly. You have to pivot. You have to change things and you're creating, you're carving out a route. You're carving out a path.

And if you are an entrepreneur listening to this and you're like, oh, I messed up. I did this wrong. And then you spend time beating yourself up. That's where you're going to fail. It's if you can, I'm going to say fail in quotation marks because it's really not failing if you're actually move on from it.

You're just learning. And I think every single one of us, every single entrepreneur I speak to, no matter what level they're at, they've all made gross, huge mistakes, lost money or, you know, had a situation that was really challenging or a way that on hindsight they would have handled differently. And I think it's that, oh, that's okay, is what's really really important and you know the fact that a lot of people as they hold themselves back because of this perfectionism like oh I'm I can't do it unless it's 100 perfect I can't do this until I'm perfect I can't do x y and z until name the example of why they can't do it but really entrepreneurship is about I think you nailed it there like finding

purpose first of all and then taking action imperfect action on that and just learning from the stumbling blocks that you come across and so I want to just pivot back to a part of your story I think I kind of cut us off slightly because you were sharing that you had no experience and you were calling manufacturers in Italy and no one was answering now that's a great example of like okay that didn't work and you could have given up, but what did you do instead? And how did that then change the trajectory of the business? Yeah. I love that. Um, you know, I laugh about it now, but it was literally nine months of like some of the toughest times in my life. I actually deactivated all my social media during that time because I was like, I need to be 100% focused and just go and add this. So I started calling manufacturers

and I was not getting any responses. And November 2018, I took two weeks of work and I said, you know what? If they're not going to come to me, I'm going to go to them and I'm going to go find them. And so I literally booked a flight to Italy to me, I'm going to go to them and I'm going to go find them. And so I literally booked a flight to Italy because I knew I wanted to work with Italians. This is amazing. Yeah. I booked a flight to Italy. Didn't know anyone. I just had my contact list and addresses and it was a nightmare. I literally went from door to door to factories and I was just like, I'm trying to create this thing. They were like, you have an appointment? I was like, well, I emailed and called,

nobody responded. They were like, what are you trying to do? You have how much money? No, no, no, no, no, no. The second week. So first of all, in the first week, I don't speak Italian. I was like trying to use Google Translate. It was not working out. Second week, I hired an interpreter and a translator rather, interpreter as well. And I travel with them. And, you know, I was able to get a couple of appointments, but the common theme that I was getting was just like, know our MOQs, which is our minimum order quantity for,

if you're in the product business, you know that term. So they usually have a minimum order quantity per SKU. So you want to do one SKU. So this is a SKU, for instance, you have to order a thousand of it and that's their minimum order quantity. And these bags are very expensive to produce. So remember I started with travel bags, which are bigger, they have more leather. And so they were quite expensive. So I had set aside, initially it was like $50,000. And I was like, yeah, that's going to be enough for me to be able to start something. And did that come through like savings from your previous job? I was like, okay, yeah, that's going to be enough. That was not even enough to cover one skew

because all the people I was talking to, they were like, well, we require a thousand. So if it costs 300, $350 to make one bag and they want a thousand, that's like $300,000. And I had $50,000. I was like, okay. So it was like one door slammed in my face after the other. It was, I mean, not literally doors being slammed, but it was like, it's like, no, this is not going to work. We only work with big companies. We only work with companies that have backers or venture funded and so on and so forth. And it was just rejection after rejection. I will never forget this for as long as I live, I had 136 rejections. So between the phone calls I made, between the people I went to go see, the emails, the people I talked to, 136 no's.

But to your point, I think at that point, I was just like, nah, like somebody's gotta say yes. Like eventually I'm gonna get to a yes. But it was so discouraging. But I was like, that purpose, that voice just kept on nagging at me. And it just kept on telling me to keep going. And eventually I'm going to have a door open. And my mom is my biggest inspiration in life. And she passed away when I was a teenager. And she used to always say,

no condition is permanent. That was something that she always told us in any context, right? So it was like, you know, if you were going through hardship, it's not permanent. And her voice was just in the back of my head, like, keep going. This condition of rejection is not permanent. Eventually you get that, you know, somebody that opened up the door, but something very important happened during that time. And I think attitude is everything as well, because through the rejections, you know, the initial one stung. It was just like, why? Like, oh my gosh, like work with me, you know, make a hundred of this bag. Why do you need to make a thousand? Like just make a hundred, you know, or take a chance with this, you know,

this brand new brand that it's a risk for them. But what happened during that time was I started to really ask myself, what is this rejection telling me? What does this moment teaching me? They're not rejecting me because they don't like my hair or they don't like the way I look. It was none of that. They were trying to hedge their risk or prevent themselves from risk. So I had to ask myself, how can I be less risky?

How can I be a better business partner? Great question. Yeah. I was like, what is this teaching me? So instead of like, oh, woe is me. I'm being rejected. It was like, well, how can I make this more appealing to them? Attractive for them.

Where's the win-win? Exactly. Where's the win-win? Because at the end of the day, it's business. Everybody wants to make money, right? And so I started turning those rejections. So I started basically saying, OK, well, these no's are not necessarily full stop. It was like, not yet.

And it was like, go do this first and come back. Some of it was financial, but some of it, they also wanted me to hone my business plan a little bit further. They wanted to understand my supply chain, my entire logistics it, they also wanted me to hone my business plan a little bit further. They wanted to understand like my supply chain, my entire like logistics plan, and also like how to part. Like, so they wanted me to basically have a better plan and approach. And I started learning a lot through those no's than I would have ever learned if I didn't have the right attitude of just like, just flipping that around and saying like, what are these things teaching me? And ironically, two of the manufacturers that had said no during that time, I actually ended

up working with them because I was able to go back and like, you know, fine tune what they asked for and come back to them later. So, you know, the point you made earlier is so important because, you know, you have to have that sense of like, you know, no is not a full stop. It's not a, you know, no, like it's always a no and, and, you know, okay, what next? You have to be able to have that kind of, you know, attitude where it's like, no matter what goes wrong and no matter what pivots you have to take, you know, you have to know that, hey, as long as I'm learning something from it and I have the right attitude towards it, it's actually going to turn into something positive. Because, I mean, why wouldn't it? There's so many people that have started businesses.

Why wouldn't yours be successful? couple of things in this story that I just want to point out because I think the fact that you you really had a plan a and you were so dedicated to your plan a of starting this business that you literally flew to Italy yes and you're like okay if they're not going to answer the phone then I'm going to go there if they're not going to speak to me in English then I'm going go there if they're not gonna speak to me in English then I'm gonna hire a translator if the first 10 doors not gonna open I'm gonna knock on 10 times more and get to 136 right and then the additional lesson of being like okay why are they saying no and I I really believe this is something that if people are listening really sit on this like if you're hearing rejection you're hearing no's ask yourself why don't take it personally no one has a personal thing against you it's the 136 people are not

going to have the same person exactly so like yeah what why are they saying no is it because of the business idea is it because of the terms is it because of the volume depending on whatever business you're in I think you actually asking yourself that was the difference between you sitting here now and you not sitting here and most people give up on that no they see all I know must mean I don't have a good idea and I should quit versus oh I just need to find the win-win with the partner and that's what business is all about it's always whether you're selling to a consumer is your product right for the consumer they're saying yes to it is it the right price okay cool it is they're going to buy it no they might go to somewhere else and that's where you have to pivot your strategy so there's a lot of good lessons in

there i appreciate you i appreciate you sharing that perspective it's important to be humble in business right um that humility would take you very far. Now, sometimes the no may mean like, no, there's no product market fit and you have to listen to that. But I think majority of the time is just you being humble enough to say, like, what am I learning from this? Like, if you have a product that you're putting out and no one's buying it, you know, you have to be able to listen to your consumers as well, your potential consumers and say, what do I need to improve? What do I need to tweak to make it more appealing?

In business, it's not about you and your feeling. You may design this thing that's just like, oh my gosh, this is my thing and somebody's going to love it. Maybe you find like one, two, three, four people that's going to love it. Maybe you find like one, two, three, four people that's going to love it. If you're trying to find people to love it in mass, like you have to be able to listen to what the market is telling you and solve a problem for people as well. So just like you're trying to find a partner, you're trying to create this business opportunity for them as well, because, you know, they're in business not to do you a favor they're in business to be successful and make money so you know make sure that you're solving a problem for others

whether it's your your business partners or your consumers or you know just people in general like you're you're solving something business is about solving the problem exactly and the bigger the problem you solve the more money you get paid exactly So I think if you digest it down to that, and then you can tie in that purpose element with it, it's super helpful. So you talk about being humble, but I also noticed that a lot of women that I have in our community, I had this conversation with my mastermind students the other day. I'm like, hey, I want you to tell me amazing things

that you've had going on since we last spoke. And they're always like, oh, I don't wanna like, toot my own horn, like I don't wanna, I'm like, no, brag to me, tell me about all the things you've accomplished. And so I wanna ask you, like, let's not be humble for a second. What have been the biggest achievements

that you're so grateful for that you probably didn't even anticipate, well, maybe you did, but have been like, wow, I'm so proud of what I've accomplished and these some of the things I've accomplished since I've had the brand yeah I love the fact that you called out that difference between that kind of humility and also like women like you said like we don't naturally yeah like to toot their own toot our own horn but we have to because we are out here busting our butt and doing the homework and, you know, getting the results. And, you know, sometimes you have to be able to talk about yourself to get people to listen. And, you know, I think growing up in my professional career, I was always like, well, I don't want to be the one that's like, and I was fortunate.

I had people that were kind of like, you know, will champion me and talk about me. But I think it's super important to be able to talk about yourself as well, not in a braggadocious way, but to be able to give yourself credit and also acknowledge, you know, the journey ahead as well. Like you've checked the boxes on these things and it's really hard being an entrepreneur and accomplishing what you've accomplished, you know, and what I'm accomplishing. It's really hard. This journey has been a lot of sacrifice, a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of pain sometimes, but also a lot of joy and a lot of triumph. So I'll talk about some of that. So I feel absolutely amazing. First of all, when I think my biggest joy is the feedback I get from our customers who I call family. And, you know, people expect that I would say, oh, it's when this celebrity or that person

talked about, no, it's actually my, the family that I'm building, the loyal family, you know, that I'm building with Sylvan Riley, when they enjoy our products, when they talk about the connection they have with the brand and the bags. And it still makes me emotional when I get that feedback. And people that don't know me, that don't know anything about me, they like 10 bags and I'm like oh my gosh this is amazing how many bags have you sold now oh wow it's a lot um you know I should have this number it's a lot I think it's just I think the reason I asked was just like that story at the beginning like oh I had to buy a thousand yeah and now like well I found I found the

manufacturer that was willing to work with just a and now like well I found I found the manufacturer that was willing to work with just a hundred to start so I was able to start with a collection but yeah it was like it felt like so mountainous and now it's like I have thousands like it's just it's crazy like and like even even then like on an average day I'm just. Like, even though I'm like doing marketing and all this stuff and I know how, you know, been the back end, I was working. I'm like, these people want to buy from my brand. This is so cool. Like, I'm still like very nerdy and appreciate, I'm appreciative of every single moment. And I would never stop being grateful. Like I, I mean, I want to cry right now, like, because the journey has just been, it's been

a lot. And just to know the reception and the support that I've gotten from, again, people that don't know me, but they just really find themselves like aligning with the brand, the purpose, the story, the journey, you know, what we represent, what we're trying to do, what I'm trying to create, what I'm creating, what I have created, you know, it's just so humbling and so amazing. So that is my pride and joy. And of course, you know, we've been featured in publications and I've had, you know, notable figures, celebrities also support.

Name drop, tell us, tell us the magazine because it's inspiring. Yes, absolutely. Okay. I have been in Forbes. I have been in Forbes. I have been in Fast Company, Essence. I've been Oprah Daily. I mean, just all over the place. Elle Magazine, Esquire.

I need food to eat. I don't want to leave any behind. So many, so many. These are publications that I grew up reading and just being so like, I used to like look googly eyed, like, oh my gosh, that person is so awesome. And I'm like, I'm the one in that. I'm the awesome person now. Like that is crazy. That still blows my mind. Um, essence recently, uh, shout out to essence magazine. And Kimberly just recently wrote a feature on me

about how i have become the the new fashion it girl and i created this it brand i was just like she's talking about me that is so crazy and i'm just so appreciative and grateful like you know because i have taken the stairs i have like done the work like i am like climbing like step by step and you deserve the mic to share this because I know and I think like hearing your story and that's why I'm like really drawing you in to share these points because there's when we see other women whose stories we relate to achieving the things that we want to achieve it means that oh we could be able to do this too if they can do it I can do it too absolutely and you know for me that's also what Boss Babe is

about is being able to have women from all different backgrounds diverse women in different industries sharing their story of how they got there because there's other women listening to this being like oh I don't know if I can do it and then when they see someone else like oh that's why I also also share my blunders too because I don't want anyone to think that anyone else is perfect better smart or everything I really believe everyone has their own talents and no one is perfect and so like if anyone can do it you can do it you just have to actually just take the action you just have to fly to Italy and get a translator. I'm going to go for that because there's people, there's been people that have succeeded at their plan A. So why not me? Like, just like you said, like I'm, I'm no more special and nobody else is more special than I am. Like I, I believe in manifestation. I believe in speaking to things into existence. And, you know, I feel like there's, there's literally nothing that's out of

our reach. If we believe it enough, like If you believe it enough, it can happen. As long as you have the physical capabilities. But even then, if you believe it enough, it can happen. There's nothing that's out of your reach. Whether it's something you want to success in business or in your career, in love and family, nothing is out of reach because there's people that have those things. If you're looking at a woman or any other, any person, and you're like, oh, this person is so lucky because they have a successful business. They have a husband that loves them. They have kids, they have this. Oh, that person is so,

why do you think that cannot be you? That can absolutely be you, right? So that's absolutely when anyone is looking at my story. And I think it's so important to share that it's not been perfect. Like you said, I don't sugarcoat that. I don't, you know, things have not been handed to me, but I've been able to navigate that. I had humble beginnings and, you know and I had to learn a lot of tough lessons growing up, but I'm here and I'm better for it. And I'm growing every single day from it. And I'm just learning and I'm building something that I'm super proud of. That could be anyone

from any corner of the world. Now, some people start off with more advantages. Yes, for sure. And I have to acknowledge that. Even I, I talked about my years growing up in Nigeria and asking myself, my advantage was having parents, two-parent household that was able to instill certain values in me and also being born in America. I know that's crazy, but just the place that I was born and that had nothing to do with me. I had no part in that like story. That was an advantage because I knew I was going to be able to come back here. You know, when I was living in Nigeria, I was going to come back to America and I was going to be able to get an education and I was going to be able to pursue certain opportunities, you know, and it was, I know that for some people it's it's a lot more challenging right but we all have the ability to do certain things and if we have our mind to it and we believe it radically enough it can absolutely happen so yeah I love that it's so so true with I am just curious though some of the celebrities that have been featured with your bags, is there anyone in particular who you've been like, that was a pivotal moment for me?

Yeah. So do you know Kandi Burris from The Real Housewives of Atlanta? I've not seen that one, but I know The Real Housewives. So she recently featured or she recently showed or featured the bag in her holiday roundup. And it was just like amazing because, you know, the Real Housewives is one of my guilty pleasures. It was just like great. Ari Lennox, she actually purchased the bag herself and she posted about it. That was great.

Carrie Hilson. I mean, there's been a lot of celebrities. Obviously, I love working with Vanessa Simmons. So she is, if you know, Run DMC and Reverend Run's daughter. And I actually watch her and her sister and I used to just admire them. And she's the sweetest person. She's so supportive. I did a her and her sister and I used to just admire them. And she's the sweetest person. She's so supportive. I did a campaign with her late last year and she's an ambassador for the brand. And she loves the brand and she's been super supportive. And just, you know, just to think about like somebody I used to watch on TV and admire and now like we're cool.

Like it's just it's amazing's amazing you know just to see the support I've been able to receive so if you were to you know go back to when you first started the brand and there's women listening to this who are probably at those first stages like hey you know metaphorically speaking they're ringing Italy and no one's answering right they're kind of like what do I do do I give up do I not give up like what is the next step to me what piece of advice would you give to to them slash you at the beginning like if if it was something like I wish someone had said this to me what would it be um it sounds super cliche but if you have it in your heart and you believe it, don't take

no for an answer. Don't give up. You owe it to yourself not to give up. And one thing that helped me as well is I used to be obsessed with reading success stories, but the ones that were like true, like, I guess, rags to riches stories. And I used to read these stories of entrepreneurs that made it and struggled. And what I realized is most people that are successful or anything have gone through real hardship in that journey. And when they're willing to share it, you're like,

oh my gosh, you know what? It didn't just happen overnight. I love Sarah Blakely of Spanx. So she talks about how she started and you know, how she was going door to door to manufacturers. And she'd been one of my sheroes in the business world for a long time. And I was like, what will Sarah Blakely do? Will she give up? Like, and she never gave up. And now she's a billionaire and she just, she's not just about her being a billionaire, but she's just a really bad, badass woman. She has. You can say badass.

Okay, badass woman. You can slap on here. I love her. Like, she is doing her thing. And, you know, she never gave up. And she talks about that story of how she was just like, she had this radical idea. And she just kept on going. And I believe her story was about Nordstrom as well that took the first chance on her.

And ironically, my very first retail partner is Nordstrom. So I used to always say, what would Sarah Blakely do? Or what would Thomas Edison do? Or what would Larry Ellison do? What would Oprah do? And so it's very humbling to read the stories, the journeys of most people that we know today and know that a lot of them did not have easy journeys.

Even the ones that we think, oh, they were born into wealth and it must be easy for them. Everyone has a story if you're willing to actually sit down and listen and understand it and research and not just take things at surface level and face value. Because I always like to go deeper and understand the individual, understand what's moved that person. What are the challenges that they've experienced? What are the mistakes that they've made along the way? And that's what I'm hoping that people will be able to get out of my story as well. You know, I'm still far from where I want to be and, you know, and, but I'm very, very grateful for the journey I've built so far. And, you know, but as you look at my journey and my story, you know, five years from now,

10 years from now, I want somebody to be like, you know what? She never gave up. And she's Sarah Blakely or Lola Banjo today, you know, because she never gave up, you know, through all the hardship, all the rejections, all the money I lost, all the pain, all the nights of like staying up crying and wondering if I'm crazy and like you know just putting off like canceling plans with friends and you know it gets really hard it gets really hard but I never gave up and um I hope somebody learned something from that and never gives up I love that that's beautiful I would

love for you to share where people can follow you more purchase your gorgeous bags um we'll put the handles in the description as well yes so you can purchase our gorgeous bags from-E-Y.com. And the handle on Instagram is silver and Riley as well. Even though I spell it with an A-N-D, it's actually an ampersand when you actually talk about the brand, you have to spell it out because you can't put an ampersand in like your Instagram or handle or your website. But it drives me crazy when people like put A and D and like, when they type it, it's just a personal. I love that. You're so on it. That's cause you're into the branding. Yeah. It's like silver and Riley. Okay. Get it right. You know, just wait, but yeah. So find us there. Uh, Instagram on the website, we just launched a beautiful new collection as well.

Um, and oh, to the, the city that, you know, I was born in and the city that I love, New York. So the bag is called the New Yorker bag. And yeah, you can check it out. It's over in Raleigh. And you can find me personally on my personal Instagram, which is Lola J. Bell. And Bell with a B-E-L-L-E. I love that. Thank you for sharing because i think there's gonna be

lots of people that have related the struggles in your journey so thank you for being vulnerable in that and i know that you've inspired someone to keep going who might have been close to giving up before listening to this podcast so um really really appreciative of you for sharing the story of being tenacious and determined in pursuit of your purpose. Absolutely. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you so much for listening. And if you enjoyed this episode on the Boss Babe podcast, then I'd absolutely love it if you leave us a review.

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