Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Hello, my growing and powerful tribe. My name is Michelle Person and welcome to Rewo Rewriting our Kids' education podcast. We are rethinking, reexamining and reeducating ourselves and our children. Now you guys know that on this show we explore all facets of education, those inside the classroom and those out as we are now in our fourth season. One of my favorite topics to cover on this journey has been kid entrepreneurship. Rarely are we encouraged as kids to be our own bosses and start our own businesses, even though we know that small businesses are the lifeblood of the US economy. I've mentioned this before, but it bears repeating. Small businesses generate 44% of the US economic activity and they create two thirds of our job force. It is one of the most effective ways to build wealth, and we need to be more vocal about encouraging our children to pursue it. My guest today are Brenda Bruce Sams and her daughter Bella. Bella decided at four years old she didn't like the nail polish that her mom bought her and wanted to create her own. And just like that, beautiful Bliss Creations was born. One of my favorite entrepreneurship quotes comes from British author Simon Sek. Dream big, start small, but most of all, start, Bella started when she was four. When will you start? And, oh yeah. Are you,
Speaker 0 00:01:48 So how does a preschooler build a nail polished empire? Well, Bella and her mom are here to tell us about their journey and hopefully it will inspire you to start yours. Hi guys. Thank you so much for coming to talk to us today.
Speaker 2 00:02:03 Hi. Hi, <laugh>.
Speaker 0 00:02:06 Awesome. So before we get into like all of the nitty gritty about what it's like to have, um, a baby who was an entrepreneur and and how you cultivated that and what parents should know, I guess the very first thing I, I guess the parents probably wanna know is, had you ever prior to Bella coming to you and saying she wanted to do this, had you or your husband ever talked to her about entrepreneurship, you know, and, and told her like that this is something she should aspire to? Like how did, how did this happen?
Speaker 2 00:02:34 No, the, we've never talked about entrepreneurship. However, um, I have my own tutoring business. Um, my husband, he is a coach and he's also, um, a facilitator. He, uh, speaks to a lot of presentations. Um, so she's seen that and we run a lot of tracks. She's seen that there's a lot of entrepreneurship going on and she know that she's going to my office, which is mine for my tutoring business. So the, therefore, that's a little guidance for her. But we have never said, oh, okay, this is what you wanna do. And then she, lot of other people too, like, so she interested.
Speaker 0 00:03:18 So it's like the, you, the, you didn't per se have a conversation, but it's the environment that you cultivated. Like she just kinda art imitates life. And she's like, I see mommy doing this. I see daddy doing this. The people that I, I watch on YouTube and things like that, I see them doing this and so she's like, I can do it too. Right. So, so Bella, now that you're doing it, what, what have you learned? Like what, what do you, what do you, what do you know now about running your own business that you didn't know before?
Speaker 2 00:03:43 What do I have you do when we're, when the nail polish come in, how do you do the nail polish nail? Yeah. She, she makes all the package orders and we take them and we ship 'em out.
Speaker 0 00:04:05 So, Bella, I have two questions for you. I got two. My first question is, why did you wanna do this? Why did you, why, how did you, why did you wanna go to your parents and say, I wanna start my own business? Why did you do that?
Speaker 3 00:04:17 Because that, when I was little, I always used to paint my nails, but when I went to the bath, it always chips
Speaker 2 00:04:25 Off
Speaker 0 00:04:26 <laugh>. Oh, ok. So you didn't like that. So how did, so, so you're, so her, so if I'm hearing her correctly, mom, is that basically she saw a problem and she, um, she saw a problem and she wanted to come up with her own solution. Okay. So how did you, how you were what, four when you started this, how old are you now? Six. So two years ago when you were four years old, you said, I have a problem. I like to wear a nail polish, but I don't like when it chips off. How did you, so does your nail polish chip, how did you make sure that your nail polish doesn't chip?
Speaker 2 00:05:02 Well, it does because we have oil in our nails. However, it doesn't off like soon as she get in the bathtub.
Speaker 0 00:05:10 Oh, ok.
Speaker 2 00:05:11 The pigs polish, you know, the little kids polish actually peel when you water when you, it feels right. So, um, going into, uh, some research mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Speaker 0 00:05:32 So, okay, so you guys did some research. You guys came up with not yet, but with a better formula for kids that would last longer than the, the, the nail polished than she that she was used to. So Bella, what, so all this work you just got finished talking about, you said you have to pack the orders, you have to put all this stuff together, you had to do research. Did you know that this was gonna be so much work? Yeah. You did. Who told you that?
Speaker 3 00:05:58 No one just thought about
Speaker 0 00:05:59 It. You thought about it and you were like, yeah, I'm, I'm gonna do this. It's probably gonna be a little bit of work. You were okay with that. Do you, don't you miss all the free time that you would normally have? Like, don't you miss like, going outside or playing? Like, does, does, does running your business take away from your fun time?
Speaker 3 00:06:15 But I
Speaker 2 00:06:16 Still wanna
Speaker 0 00:06:16 Do it. You still wanna do it? Why? Why do you like it so much? Well, first of all, for those listening, um, on the, on the, um, on the, on the podcast you can't see, but I'm doing this, we're recording this on Zoom, so I can actually see Bella's nails. And if you watch this interview on our YouTube channel, you can also see her nails. Man. They are flawless. They are flawless. Is that as, what color is that? Bella
Speaker 3 00:06:39 Yellow.
Speaker 0 00:06:40 Yellow
Speaker 3 00:06:43 Sunflower. Yes.
Speaker 0 00:06:44 Sunflower. Gotcha. Gotcha. How many, how many types of nail polish do you have? How many colors?
Speaker 3 00:06:50 12.
Speaker 0 00:06:51 12 colors. I'm not gonna make you name them cuz you know, that's, that's a lot of colors, but that's awesome. Do you have anything else in your nail other than nail polish or you just focusing on nail polish? Right now
Speaker 2 00:07:00 We're trying to come out with something else. <laugh>. Ok.
Speaker 0 00:07:04 Ok. Well, we'll, we'll just have to wait and see what this something else is. Cause it sounds like it's still in production. Yeah. Um, so mom, what did you have to do to make sure Bella was supported on this journey? I mean, obviously when she came to you and said, I wanna make nail polish, she's four. Um, so, you know, what do you, what, what did you have to do? What did your family have to do to make sure that she felt supported on this journey?
Speaker 2 00:07:25 Um, be open-minded, um, and be open-minded. And then we had to do a lot of research. Um, it took me like two years, all this covid. Wow. We did research. Um, we tested polishes. Um, we learned how, um, I, I learned how to do a website <laugh>. Um, I learned how to do a website. We had so much free time that instead of actually paying someone to do it, I said I would figure it out, try to figure it out myself, a website. Um, I learned how to put a store online. Um, there's a lot of things it took to support Bella, but research is one of them. Cause since she had the problem with the nail polish peeling off, we know that we have all in our nails and eventually if you don't have like gel or acrylic that it's gonna come off or we didn't want it to come off as soon. Ok. Picked a vegan friendly nail polish. And, um, there were several companies, but we did pick a nice company and we went with them and, um, we had to test of see color. Were like, they had to go back and forth. We had to spend a lot of money
Speaker 0 00:08:44 <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:08:45 So, um, it, it went a lot and went into supporting her. But when she said, well I want my own polish, so I was like, wow. Ok,
Speaker 0 00:08:56 Okay, why not? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:08:58 Yeah. Let's see if we can do that. So,
Speaker 0 00:09:00 Ok. That is awesome. I love that. That we, so I'm assuming it became like a family, a family endeavor. You weren't the only one. Researching and testing pods and talking to people. Mom, like it was a family endeavor.
Speaker 2 00:09:11 Me and, um, my husband and then she has two older sisters who helped us, uh, figure out which, uh, collaborations of Polish colors. Gotcha. Should they be warm? Should it be bright? Because it's not only just for children. Like I use it too. Okay. It's a vegan friendly polish. Um, so several people have, uh, several adults have used the Polish as well.
Speaker 0 00:09:44 Awesome. Awesome. Do you have mom, any suggestions to parents who wanna support their kids? That their kids come to them and say, I wanna try this? Um, what, what do you say to those parents?
Speaker 2 00:09:54 Uh, be open-minded. Um, allow them to explore, um, and try different things so that they'll know. They'll have a variety of things to choose from and variety of experiences and their passion and try support them. Know where it lead to. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:10:16 Very true. Very true. Do you have any resources you can recommend for kids or parents who are interested in, in starting their own business? Like what have you learned or picked up along the way?
Speaker 2 00:10:26 Um, patience. <laugh>. Patience. Patience is virtue. Um, I've learned that some turnaround times that that great when you first start off, um, this nail polished cosmetic thing is a little slow. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But after you, you get outta it what you put into it.
Speaker 0 00:10:47 Ok.
Speaker 2 00:10:47 Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I think that, um, I would recommend the parents just to, you know, be patient openminded, try to allow them to explore, um, help them out, look at different ways. Teach them to research, teach them to, to do things that is along the path of them gaining more confidence mm-hmm. <affirmative> and provide them motivation. So just so that they can be, uh, aware and also integrity because you know, it's a lot of people out here just doing a lot of things and they're not trustworthy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and doing things the right way. So you provide all these core values that you do in your along the way, guiding them through this experience. Then even if it's not a very good one, they'll still feel great. Right. At least excited and we had an experience and you know, from there.
Speaker 0 00:11:49 Any resources that you found helpful as you began the journey? I'm assuming when you started you had no idea, you know, what it meant to start your own business and, and create a website or like any resources that you can, like websites, books you read, uh, gurus you found online, anything like that that's been helpful to you?
Speaker 2 00:12:07 Um, just, uh, research with all the different, uh, cosmetic companies. Um, I had several people from different cosmetic companies reach out to me and when they didn't have what I needed, they just show, pointed me in the right direction. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I didn't read any, um, books. I just did a lot of Google.
Speaker 0 00:12:29 Okay. So Google is your best friend.
Speaker 2 00:12:32 Google Anding.
Speaker 0 00:12:34 Google Anding. Yeah. That which
Speaker 2 00:12:36 Helped us out a great deal. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, try to get as much knowledge in the area, whichever area that child chooses to. I mean, it's gaming, it's clothing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we were there at one point, but I did a lot of research on the clothing and that is a lot. <laugh>,
Speaker 0 00:12:59 <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:13:00 Never know what little bitty pins and buttons can do. Right.
Speaker 0 00:13:04 <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:13:05 That was a lot. So we kinda waited on that area, but, um, no, it's just, uh, Google. Google in take time. Time. That is the other thing that I wanna, parents that you need to take. Um, make sure you set time aside. This thing here. Um, I have a regular job, so therefore that there are times where you gonna be tired. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but then you think of the light at the end of the tunnel and you wanna keep going and you think of the kid and what they wanna do. And that is your motivation.
Speaker 0 00:13:44 Fella. Is there anything you wanna say to any, any kid out there who's like six, seven or eight years old and they're listening and they wanna start their own business, what would you say to them? Do you think they should do it? Yeah. How come? Why should they do it?
Speaker 2 00:13:56 <laugh>. Does it make you happy? Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:13:58 Makes you happy? Okay. Bella says you should do it because it's kind of cool and it makes you happy. That sounds good. Well, you part well, you guys have to tell us where we can buy the, where we can buy the polish. Where can people find the polish and how can we get some And what are all the like, tell us what to do, what to do. How do we do it?
Speaker 2 00:14:15 Where you find your Polish, beautiful Bliss
Speaker 0 00:14:18 Creations. Oh, beautiful Bliss. So just spell it out. Beautiful Bliss Creations. Beautiful
Speaker 2 00:14:23 Bliss Creations. It has an s on creations. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> com. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:14:28 Okay. Well everybody, uh, you know, if you need some new nail polish in your life, some vegan friendly offer, uh, some options that won't chip as fast as regular pep pig polish. Cause that's our competition. We're gonna smash out Pep Pig. Check out. You gonna check out, uh, beautiful Bliss Creations and you're gonna get yourself some new Polish. They have 12 shades. I'm sure you'll find something that, um, that, that you like. And there's new stuff coming, so make sure you bookmark their, uh, their website. You can see when the new stuff comes. Guys, I wanna thank you so much for being here to entrepreneurship and how you started.
Speaker 3 00:15:08 You do and Instagram.
Speaker 0 00:15:10 Oh, you've got, ok. What's the Instagram and the YouTube?
Speaker 3 00:15:13 The same thing. The same thing. No moments. <laugh> Moments with Bella Bliss.
Speaker 0 00:15:18 Moments with Bella Bliss. Ok. So on YouTube and Instagram moments, I'm gonna go follow right now Moments with Bella Blis and then the, the webpage is beautiful. Bliss creations.com, right? Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you guys so much for being with us.
Speaker 3 00:15:34 You're welcome.
Speaker 0 00:15:35 That's,
Speaker 3 00:15:36 Thank you for having us. Thank you for having us
Speaker 0 00:15:40 <laugh>. No problem. Google and YouTube totally free resources that anyone can access. See, creating your own empire might not be as complicated as you thought. I wanna thank my guests, Brenda and Bella for taking the time to speak with us today. Show notes, resources, and link to the things we've mentioned are all available on our website at www, just like me presents.com. Make sure you hit subscribe and share this podcast with other educators and parents in your circle. And if you wouldn't mind, leave us a review. Reviews will help people find us and help them begin their woke journey. Thanks for listening. And remember, if our children can see it, they can achieve it.
