The conversation gathered three prominent CEOs of consumer companies to discuss entry points and success stories around the multi-billion-dollar sector of product licensing, from t-shirts to party supplies.
Yelitsa Jean-Charles, Founder & CEO, Healthy Roots Dolls April Showers, CEO, Afro Unicorn DeeDee Wright-Ward, CEO, Purpose Holdings Moderator: Jabari Young, Senior Writer, Forbes and Editorial Lead, ForbesBLK
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Yelitsa Jean-Charles, Founder & CEO, Healthy Roots Dolls April Showers, CEO, Afro Unicorn DeeDee Wright-Ward, CEO, Purpose Holdings Moderator: Jabari Young, Senior Writer, Forbes and Editorial Lead, ForbesBLK
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00For our next conversation, please welcome back moderator Jabari Young,
00:05senior writer, Forbes, and editorial lead, Forbes BLK,
00:10and panelists Yalitza Jean Charles, founder and CEO, Healthy Roots Dolls,
00:16April Showers, CEO, Afro Unicorn, and Deedee Wright Ward,
00:21CEO, Purpose Holdings.
00:25That got you louder than that now.
00:26These are three CEOs here.
00:28Come on, show them some love.
00:33So far so good?
00:34Yes?
00:35Phenomenal, phenomenal.
00:37Well, listen, you know their names already.
00:40Have anybody ever seen The Toys That Made Us on Netflix?
00:44Raise your hand.
00:46Of course, April did.
00:47Phenomenal documentary, right?
00:48And a lot of you didn't raise your hand, so you definitely need to go watch it, right?
00:52I learned about that documentary watching this young lady right here in the pink in April Showers, right?
00:56Her licensing business, Afro Unicorn, I mean, the intellectual property around it, amazing.
01:01How many people in here have their own business, intellectual property,
01:04selling T-shirts or anything like that?
01:06Like, raise your hand.
01:07Phenomenal.
01:08So you guys should have your ears wide open for this particular conversation
01:11because the world of intellectual property, this is a $66 billion industry,
01:18according to Obvious World, and within that, right, $20.9 billion, right?
01:24That's all licensing money.
01:26And these three sisters up here, they're all collecting it right now, right?
01:29And I'm going to start by asking each one of you, and I'll start with April Showers.
01:33I'm going to do you first, April, right?
01:35When you think of licensing, right, what's the one word that comes to mind?
01:40Scalability.
01:41Scalability.
01:42Wow.
01:43Why scalability?
01:44It's the fastest way to grow your brand, to get into mass distribution.
01:49Mass distribution, okay.
01:50Deedee, when you think of licensing, what's the one word that comes to mind?
01:53Ownership.
01:54Ownership.
01:55Ownership.
01:56You know, lending to April's thought, ownership allows you to scale.
02:02I work with a lot of people.
02:04I have the largest black-owned toy company in the nation,
02:07internationally distributed, and thank you.
02:10One of the things that I'm able to do is, you know, I saw a lot of hands go up.
02:14For the people who own their licenses, today I can take your idea,
02:18turn it into a concept, turn it into a prototype,
02:21and get you into major retail, so ownership is everything.
02:23Yeah.
02:24Elisa?
02:25For me, it would have to be opportunity.
02:28When I created Healthy Roots Dolls, it was a very small idea,
02:31but looking at IP and how it can help me expand my brand
02:35and work with different manufacturing partners across categories,
02:39outside of just the dolls that I create,
02:41there's so much more that I can do
02:42and so much more impact I can have in children's lives.
02:45Yeah.
02:46April, I want to kick things off, really,
02:48and kind of dive into your business, Afro Unicorn, right?
02:51Such an amazing product.
02:52I mean, April saw a unicorn, right?
02:55When we think of unicorns, we think of the white horses and all that.
02:57She said, hey, why can't a black unicorn exist, right?
03:00And then went and did it, and she ran an outfit right now.
03:02You see it.
03:03Show it off.
03:04Go ahead.
03:05There you go.
03:06When you talk about your business, right,
03:07for those people who may not have heard of Afro Unicorn,
03:09how would you describe it?
03:10How would you explain it?
03:12Take people into the world of Afro Unicorn,
03:14because I want them to leave here and go find your product and buy it.
03:18So it's easy for me to explain Afro Unicorn.
03:20I say it's the modern-day Hello Kitty.
03:23So Afro Unicorn, being a licensed character brand,
03:26I am the first black woman to have a fully licensed character brand
03:29in major retail.
03:31Thank you.
03:34What that means is that my products sit on shelves
03:36directly next to Disney characters and Marvel characters
03:41and Nickelodeon characters.
03:44So that is what it is for me in Afro Unicorn.
03:50What did you say?
03:52As far as, you know, listen, in your business, too,
03:54it's not just that Afro Unicorn.
03:56You have party supplies.
03:57You have a dime.
03:58Right, right.
03:59So that's why I say it's the modern-day Hello Kitty,
04:00because I'm in so many different categories.
04:02So whatever you think of Hello Kitty on, that's basically Afro Unicorn.
04:06So I have cakes and fruit snacks and pool.
04:10Everybody, please go buy them pool supplies at Walmart.
04:12They're Walmart.
04:13Pool rings, pool rings, pool beach balls.
04:17We have apparel and bedding.
04:23We're in 25 different categories.
04:25We've put out at least 500 different SKUs.
04:28It's a lot of different products.
04:32It is a lifestyle brand.
04:34Yeah.
04:35Dee Dee, Purpose Holders, you made a great transition, right?
04:37And I want you to talk about your transition from music,
04:40because you were in the music world.
04:41Now, I found out about Dee Dee's product because I was in Walmart looking for Afro Unicorn, right?
04:47If you're looking for Afro Unicorn at Walmart, it's not in the toy section.
04:49It's in the party supply section, right?
04:52Well, it's in wherever you will find Disney characters.
04:56So I'm in 15 different categories at Walmart.
05:00Party, bakery, like it's all over the store.
05:04We have plush.
05:05So we are in toys, but we're in plush.
05:07Right.
05:08Well, I'm in the toy section.
05:09Yeah.
05:10And I'm like, all right, well, let's see if I find some more Black CEOs.
05:12And then I first, when I turn around, my daughter's with me because I'm trying to teach her about licensing, right?
05:17Afro got me, like, motivated.
05:19I'm trying to teach my daughter.
05:20And I see Dee Dee when I turn around, this action figure of a rapper, right?
05:25And that is you.
05:26Explain how you made that transition from music.
05:28And talk about your background, right, fast, and to Purpose Holders.
05:31Sure.
05:32So I was in the music industry for about 15 years prior to becoming a parent.
05:37Switched from the music industry to the fashion industry for about 10 years.
05:40I'm dating myself, and that's also fine.
05:42So I did 15 years in the music industry, 10 years in toys.
05:47And in 2019, I saw an opportunity, having used my celebrity network and, you know, previous experience in music to do a toy product with a very prominent female athlete.
06:01We'll leave it there because I'm under NDA.
06:03We were able to bring that toy to market.
06:05After we did a toy with that athlete, we went to the most prominent male athlete in the industry.
06:11And I'm still under NDA.
06:13And I saw a bigger opportunity within the toy business.
06:16The toy business, if you know anything about it, it's about 90 percentile white.
06:19So there's not a lot of people within the toy business that looks like us.
06:23However, they're producing all of our toys.
06:25And if you know anything about toys, toys are a form of media.
06:28As an African-American woman, my uncle couldn't be here today, but he's like a 50-year voting activist.
06:34You know, he's right here in Atlanta.
06:36But said all that to say, as an African-American woman, I've grown up with the understanding and the concept that to control your story, you have to control your media.
06:46So when we think about toys, who's controlling that story, that media, and who's responsible for putting certain objects, you know, that are reflective of our children in our children's hands?
06:56So said all that to say, I saw an opportunity to bring purpose to toys, pun intended.
07:02And that's exactly what I did.
07:04So currently we have about half a dozen brands at market.
07:07My first brand being Naturalistas, which is the world's first natural hair line of fashion dolls.
07:13When you think of fashion dolls, that category is Barbie.
07:16So we're giving Barbie hell right now, and it's so much fun.
07:19Thank you.
07:21Second brand we brought to market was, and I hope that some of you guys can relate to this, but it's called HBCU dolls.
07:28HBCU dolls are a doll line that were designed to honor the legacy of HBCUs, and it was our first licensing partner with a woman by the name of Brooke Hart-Jones, who, again, owns her trademark, owns her brand.
07:42Didn't have the network that I had in retail, and we were able to support Brooke and to bring her to market.
07:50So when you think about purpose toys, think of two things.
07:53One, half a dozen brands, more coming soon.
07:56Two, you know, we are a pipeline to major retail for toy entrepreneurs of color, and we're beginning to do this across industries.
08:04So purpose toys is the start.
08:06We're going into purpose media, purpose licensing, purpose music, the whole nine yards.
08:10But the point is, share your resources when you have them.
08:13Absolutely.
08:14Yeah.
08:15Now, this sister is a former under-30 alum, right?
08:19Give it up for that.
08:21She's on our list.
08:22And one of the questions that I wanted to know about your brand, Healthy Roots Dolls, how has that helped you, right?
08:28Because when we talk about sitting up here, and I know, April, you taught me how you have to do your own marketing when you're, you know, owning your business like this, right?
08:35But how has that helped you?
08:36How has that helped the brand?
08:37I know you're young and still growing.
08:39We're getting to that in a minute.
08:40But how has being an under-30 alum, has that helped your business at all?
08:43I'm here.
08:44That's true.
08:45So that's one of the things that have helped.
08:47Under-30 happened at a pivotal moment for my business.
08:50So we'd had this big viral moment where I shared myself and my doll.
08:54And a lot of people connected with that because, wow, I've never seen a doll that looked like me before, had hair like me, they could actually wash and style and have fun with.
09:02And so from there, we were able to get a Forbes feature, which then got the attention of retail buyers, which then got us on target shelves and over 1,600 targets.
09:11And I've been able to use the network that I've gotten from Forbes, connecting with other founders, much like you're connecting with people here, to share networks, share resources, share communities, share stories.
09:24And that's furthered my ability to grow my business.
09:27One of the things me and we were on our prep call, one of the things that struck about, you know, that was interesting to me is that when you guys are all headed out, you're networking, you're going into these licensing conferences and things of that nature, how open people are, right?
09:41You were telling me that, you know, when you go to these events, like you're thinking like, oh, my God, I'm the only black person here.
09:46What am I?
09:47But these people are very open.
09:49Share your experiences about and why it's important to go and show up to these expos.
09:53So I started my company, Healthy Roots Dolls, as a class project in my undergrad, where I just, like, designed this little doll.
10:00And a lot of classmates said, you should pursue this.
10:02There's an opportunity here because of the lack of representation in toys.
10:05And it wasn't until I started going to more events where I learned more about the toy industry, I went to Toy Fair.
10:10And I just went to my first licensing expo because April recommended I do it.
10:14I showed up.
10:15And I made so many great connections.
10:17And it's because of going to those events, coming to events like this, that I was able to meet people who introduced me to a manufacturing partner,
10:23helped me find designers that I could work with to take my illustrations and turn them into the 3D CADs,
10:28and then understand the ins and outs of how you build a product from the ground up.
10:32How do you market?
10:33Accelerator programs, scholarship opportunities, grants, all these things because I'm showing up in these rooms, telling stories,
10:39sometimes walking around with my doll, which I did at Essence Fest, which led to me winning the New Voices Fund Pitch Competition in 2018, I think.
10:47But showing up, talking to people, turn, talk to people, and being open to sharing your story, it can feel very scary.
10:56But you're not going to progress if you're not open and sharing what you're working on and asking for help.
11:01Yeah.
11:02April, you go to one in Vegas all the time.
11:03And you tell me, when I went out there, I was learning so much.
11:06What are some of the things that you can learn showing up at these expos?
11:09Because it is very important to show up, right?
11:11And when you go and you're in these places, what are you learning?
11:14What are you picking up?
11:15Possibility.
11:16Possibility.
11:17I'm a manifester.
11:18I'm a visionary.
11:19So I want to see how far I can take this.
11:23So there's no difference between me, Hello Kitty, Mickey Mouse.
11:28There's no difference.
11:29So if I see what they're doing, I now know what's possible and beyond for me.
11:34So I really go to these events to network, to find out who's who.
11:40I also go to make sure they don't forget me.
11:44Yeah.
11:45That's very, very important, that you have to show up in these places because you want to be top of mind.
11:50So I'm always in the places to be top of mind.
11:53But then I also want to see, okay, if they're doing that, I can do it too.
11:57Yeah.
11:58What's the path to getting to big box stores?
11:59For people in the crowd that have their own business, they want to get into Walmart.
12:02They want to get into a Target.
12:03How do you get there for Deedee and April?
12:05Because I know you guys are deep into that lane.
12:08Well, for me, it's all about building the relationships and building the brand behind it.
12:13I'm a lifestyle brand.
12:14I say you cannot have a lifestyle brand without a movement behind it.
12:18So I created Raving Fans Behind Afro Unicorn, which actually got the likes of Walmart, Target, City Trends,
12:30CVS to reach out to us because we created this movement on social that they saw.
12:36Oh, wow, this is something that people want and that people need.
12:40But I'm sure they can speak to different programs that both Target and Walmart actually have.
12:45I'm very unique, hence the unicorn, in the way that we got into retail.
12:50Yeah.
12:51Deedee, what was your path?
12:52Well, my path was different because I'd been in business for so long.
12:56I knew a lot of people in C-suite positions.
12:58I was able to call a guy, loosely quoting Kendrick Lamar, but I was able to call a guy who called a guy who was the head of the sixth-largest toy company in the world and get my deals done.
13:10So my pathway isn't necessarily accessible to a lot of people, which is why I say it is so important to share your resources.
13:22Building a multi-million-dollar business for myself is kind of the easy part.
13:27Positioning myself as a sort of aggregator for other entrepreneurs and prospective licensors to build.
13:35I'm not the brightest, I'm not the tallest, I'm not the smartest.
13:38God knows I'm an introvert, right?
13:40There are people in this audience right now that will have the potential of putting my business to shame.
13:46It is a goal for me at this point in my life, you know, as I reach sort of like the sunset of my life, to make sure that I empower the next generation of entrepreneurs, of licensors to get out there.
13:59Thank you for that.
14:00But to also not have – we don't all have to start dropshipping from our living room.
14:05There's enough of us in business and in important positions, more importantly in greenlighting positions, where we can lend a hand and help a friend within the community.
14:14So that's my goal.
14:15Got it.
14:17Yeah, chime in.
14:20So I also come from a path that's a bit more non-traditional in the sense with April, building a brand organically that caught the attention of retailers.
14:29But there are accessible ways and tangible ways for you to get their attention.
14:33Because that wasn't the first time Target saw me.
14:35It was probably the sixth time Target had seen or heard from me.
14:38They have accelerator programs for different types of products.
14:42So they have a retail accelerator that you can apply to that takes you through the process of how to get ready for retail, helping you with your manufacturing process, you know, your go-to-market strategy, all those things.
14:52And they also have supplier diversity programs that you can find contacts for to learn more about and how you can get into that pipeline.
14:58And then there are tons of grants and opportunities.
15:00Look at the New Voices Foundation.
15:02They are constantly doing pitch competitions and connecting people with retailers because they want to see more black-owned businesses on shelves.
15:07So those are three points that you can reach to get in touch with retailers.
15:10Absolutely.
15:11And you followed up with Target, right?
15:12Yes.
15:13There you go.
15:14There you go.
15:15What are some of the challenges right now?
15:16We've got about five minutes left.
15:17But, you know, small businesses, right?
15:19Listen, interest rates are high.
15:21You know, people are running out of money, right?
15:24And the job market is a little bit, you know, unstable when it comes to certain sectors.
15:28But when it comes to small business, which is the foundation of this country, right, on Main Street, what are some of the challenges that you sisters are still seeing that you, you know, still kind of overcoming?
15:39With my company, Healthy Roots Dolls, I was one of the first 100 black women to raise a million dollars.
15:45But that's the problem.
15:46It shouldn't be only 100 black women that have raised a million dollars in venture capital.
15:51And the problem to me is that we're overtaught.
15:54There's always a program for a five-week session, a boot camp.
15:59But nobody's writing checks.
16:01Who's just writing checks?
16:03Because I wasn't able to start my company until my college gave me a $4,000 check, which is not a lot of money.
16:09But that's something that people can work with.
16:11And so that's what I think the challenge is now is people need to start cashing checks.
16:15April, what do you see?
16:20The lack of support.
16:22Lack of support.
16:23The lack of support.
16:27And it's lack of support amongst who?
16:29Amongst us.
16:30Okay.
16:31So understanding that we are, I think, 13% of the population.
16:35Yes, 14.
16:3614?
16:37Okay.
16:38Oh, okay.
16:39Okay.
16:40We're 14% of the population.
16:41Because before, I would lead with saying I always use Walmart because they're the largest retailer and one of my biggest partners.
16:47But the African-American shopper is only 12%.
16:52And when I say that, people are like, oh, they're only 12%?
16:54Yeah, it's only 14% of us in the U.S.
16:57So it matters.
16:58So not only do I have to have all 12% support Afro Unicorn, I also have to get the other as well.
17:05But I need the 12%.
17:07Yes.
17:08So I need you to tell somebody, know somebody, know somebody, tell somebody, know somebody about Afro Unicorn.
17:12That is the challenge.
17:13Yeah.
17:14DeeDee, what do you see?
17:15Oh, gosh.
17:16Well, you know, as we are only 14% of the population, we have a spending potential of $1.6 billion.
17:25It is beyond my goal for us as a community to begin to control that 1.6, to begin to recirculate it within the community.
17:331.7.
17:34What's that?
17:351.7 billion.
17:36Okay, gotcha.
17:37All right.
17:38I want y'all to get the numbers right.
17:39I stand corrected.
17:40I stand corrected.
17:41But, you know, for us to control that.
17:42So I think in terms of challenges for me, you know, as an introvert entrepreneur, and we exist, it's getting the word out.
17:50You know, it's the marketing.
17:51We're restructuring our marketing team now.
17:53We have this big push in 25.
17:55You'll see me a little more, still wearing black, still quiet.
17:58But, you know, I think the challenges for my company is never money.
18:02Again, if you know people, you can get things done.
18:06But, you know, my goal is not only for myself.
18:09My goal is for us.
18:10I have a lot.
18:11I've done a lot.
18:12I've been so blessed for so long.
18:15It's time to share.
18:16So I want to see you guys up here next year.
18:19I want to be in that audience supporting you, you know.
18:22Yeah, I just, we want to get in the position, you know.
18:25We want to focus on our ownership.
18:26We want to focus on the recirculation of the black dollar in the community.
18:30And we want to focus on, you know, becoming a fully realized, self-sufficient community, controlling as many verticals as we can.
18:37Yeah.
18:38As we wrap this panel, about a minute left, a question for all three of you.
18:41What's the best advice you received about running a business, April?
18:45Kobe Bryant, show up every day.
18:47Show up every night.
18:49Deedee.
18:50Oh, gosh.
18:51My grandmother.
18:52Have a plan, but in the process of pursuing a plan, plan on deviating from it the more you learn on the journey.
19:00So, you know, as you pursue things, you learn things.
19:03Don't be afraid to take what you've learned and just alter your path a little bit.
19:08That might, you know, sort of invite you to a pathway that gets you to your promised land.
19:13Yalitza.
19:14Don't say no before you can say yes.
19:18Say that again.
19:19That was powerful.
19:20Don't say no before you can say yes.
19:22Essentially, do not say that you can't do something before you've even tried to do it.
19:27And that was something that was said to me by one of my senior friends in college before I started working on Healthy Rootstalls.
19:32It was very easy to be like, oh, I don't know anything about the toy industry.
19:35I'm not even going to look into it.
19:36It's like, okay, go find a professor that's worked at Hasbro and talk to them and see who they have in their network.
19:42And do you know someone who knows anything about producing products and has gotten something on retail shelves?
19:46It's your job to figure out how to get something done, not to say that it can't be done.
19:50Absolutely.
19:51April, I want to definitely please give a round of applause for that.
19:55Just to touch on the support, April supported me.
20:02She sent me a package of Afro Unicorn products and for my daughter, obviously.
20:08So I give it to my daughter.
20:09My daughter is very, very, like, picky with toys.
20:12And once she left for school one morning, I go in her room and on the top of her pillow, there's a big, giant, black Afro Unicorn.
20:19I definitely sent it to April.
20:20That's to let you know that these kids also want these products.
20:24So definitely support.
20:25April, Elisa, Didi, thank you so much.
20:26Thank you.
20:27Thank you.