On the latest episode of Executive Exchange, Mielle CEO Monique Rodriguez sits down with host Ruth Umoh to discuss how her company started with the tragedy that sparked her entrepreneurial journey.
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00:00Monique Rodriguez, thank you so much for joining Fortune Executive Exchange.
00:03We're delighted to have you.
00:04You are the mastermind behind Mayel hair care products.
00:08Talk to us about your founding story.
00:10Walk us through that.
00:10What was the catalyst behind launching this line?
00:14Yeah, well, thank you.
00:15That's a huge compliment.
00:17So I started the brand in 2014, and I've always loved the hair care space.
00:22I've always been very passionate about the beauty industry.
00:25When I was younger, I would ask my mom to take me to different model calls so I can
00:29model for other hair care companies.
00:31But she quickly told me this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
00:35I went to all of these model calls.
00:36No one ever selected me to be on the face or the cover of any hair care brand.
00:41In hindsight, now I know why.
00:43So my mom, she encouraged me to go the nursing route.
00:46She always encouraged me to go to school.
00:49And I became a nurse at the young age of 22.
00:51I started as a labor and delivery nurse.
00:53But I quickly knew that this was not something that I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
00:58But I did it for eight and a half years.
01:00And unfortunately, it took for me to go through a very tragic loss with the loss of my son
01:06in 2013 when I was eight months pregnant.
01:08But I chose to channel that pain into purpose.
01:11And I looked at social media as a creative outlet for me to express myself and to go
01:17back to that thing that was always there, that passion that was always there.
01:20And that was hair care.
01:21So I started on Instagram posting tutorials and talking about different ways that I styled
01:26my hair.
01:27And what I saw was that there were so many women that were also suffering the same challenges.
01:32And so I saw a void in the industry of a lack of relatability.
01:36As a consumer myself, there were a slew of products on the shelf.
01:41But I felt that as a consumer, these brands were just talking at me and not having conversations
01:46to really understand my hair struggles.
01:48And so I said that with my science background, being a nurse, I was already educating women
01:53on their bodies and the health of their bodies.
01:55So I can take that same science and educational approach and help women and educate them on
02:00how to navigate their hair journey.
02:02And so a couple of months later, I went in the lab with a local chemist that I found
02:08online.
02:08And we started to create together what I was making at home, the concoctions.
02:13I wanted to actually bring it to fruition.
02:15And so I started with one product, which is our almond oil.
02:18We launched.
02:19And the rest is history.
02:20You took off from there.
02:21We'll soon delve into your entrepreneurial journey specifically.
02:24But you mentioned a personal strategy and a pain that you really managed to turn into
02:28purpose.
02:29Talk to us about that.
02:30Yeah.
02:30So of course, when you go through traumatic life experiences, it was very high risk for
02:36my life as well.
02:37And I realized that once I came out of that, number one, the only thing that got me through
02:43that was my faith in God.
02:45Because I couldn't turn to my family.
02:48I had two girls that I still had to be strong for.
02:51My husband couldn't get me through that.
02:53My mom couldn't get me through that.
02:54Nothing could get me through other than leaning on God and knowing that I went through this
03:00pain because there was something bigger and there was a bigger purpose.
03:04And I feel that I've always had the entrepreneurial bug, but I was too afraid to step out on faith
03:11to do that.
03:11And I realized that for all of these years that I was working as a nurse, I was living
03:16my mom's dream.
03:17I wasn't living for my dream.
03:19And I felt that God always had something in me because even when I worked as a nurse,
03:23my mom would tell me, find a good job because I would bounce all around from hospital to
03:28hospital because I was always looking for happiness.
03:31And she would tell me, you need to sit still because you're not going to have a pension.
03:35And I was like 20 something years old.
03:37I'm like, I'm not worried about a pension.
03:38I want to find somewhere that I'm happy.
03:40But it wasn't that I was looking for happiness.
03:43The happiness was not in my nursing career.
03:45The happiness was going to be fulfillment.
03:48And fulfillment comes from actually walking in your purpose.
03:52And I felt that, you know, working as a nurse, it wasn't something that was fulfilling for
03:56me.
03:57And when I went through the loss with my son, I realized that I had to live life that was
04:03meaningful and purposeful because you only get one shot at life.
04:06So you go through the unfortunate loss of your son.
04:09And then from there, I'm assuming you took a break from working as a registered nurse
04:13in RN.
04:13No, I had to go right back to work.
04:15You went right back to work.
04:17So you were doing that full time.
04:18And then Miel was the side hustle?
04:21Or how did you balance the two?
04:22Yeah, so Miel was actually like a side hustle or a side hobby because, yes, I went back
04:28to work shortly after I gave birth.
04:30And going back to work at a place where, you know, you're not really invested in.
04:35And, you know, postpartum depression is very real.
04:38And I had to deal with that and also going through a loss.
04:42So I was dealing with a lot of different emotions at that time.
04:45And I knew that as a nurse, you know, I'm dealing with patients.
04:49I'm dealing with life and death.
04:51And at that time, I was working as a home health nurse.
04:54So it was just me and the patient.
04:55And when you're working as a home health nurse, you have to be fully invested.
04:59You have to be fully coherent.
05:00You have to know exactly what you're doing.
05:02And I started to realize that my mind was not there as I would go into patient's home.
05:07You know, I was always a very friendly, bubbly nurse, you know, had great personality with
05:11my patients.
05:12And I have a great sense of self-awareness.
05:15And I realized that I was not giving them the best of me.
05:19And, you know, as I was taking my mind off of what I was going through with my son, I
05:24was at home, you know, using my ill.
05:27It wasn't my ill at that time, but using that as a creative outlet.
05:31But my mind, every time I would go to work, my mind was on that.
05:35And so I had to make the conscious choice to leave my nursing career, you know, six
05:40months after I started my ill, even though we wasn't making any money.
05:43It was a risk that I knew I had to take because I didn't want to risk anyone's life
05:48working as a nurse.