Melissa Butler: Hello, I am Melissa Butler, the founder and CEO of The Lip Bar.
The Lip Bar is a vegan, cruelty free, and easy-to-use beauty company that focuses on
personalization for the everyday woman.
Morgan DeBaun: I'm Morgan DeBaun, CEO and founder of Blavity Inc.
We're a media company that focuses on content creation and platforms for black millennials.
Melissa Butler: Tell me what it was like in your early stages of entrepreneurship.
Like, how did you, how did you become who you are? Morgan DeBaun: I really loved this
idea of building products for people at scale.
It is an incredible opportunity for me and my friends to make something that is for us
and that leverages this moment in time and platforms and internet and technology to actually
build something at scale for black people in this country.
Melissa Butler: I feel like so many black entrepreneurs are starting in their homes
... in their kitchens.
Like I started The Lip Bar, literally making lipstick in my kitchen, the first three years
of the business.
Like I knew nothing about business, and every single product came from my bare hands, which
is really crazy now that I think about it.
Melissa Butler: I think that oftentimes as an entrepreneur, or as the CEO, you think
that you're supposed to have it all figured out because it's like, hey, I’m the boss.
And so when you realize that you don’t necessarily have all the means to get to the next level,
then you reach out for mentorship.
Then you go to Google and you’re like - how, how to make lipstick in kitchen or how to
find a mentor.Melissa Butler: We didn’t know anything about digital marketing, and
I didn’t have like a marketing professional on my team.
So oftentimes when you're starting and you're starting in a really scrappy way, it's on
you, and I think a lot of small business owners are thinking about it in that way.
We decided to go after Google search and paid ads across a variety of platforms, largely
because we took a class, like we actually took a class that was sponsored by Google
that allowed us to learn a little bit about paid ads.
Melissa Butler: And we tested a small ad budget of like a thousand dollars.
And we were able to like do a three times return on investment.
And so it was after we took that class, we actually had an intern running our performance
marketing.
So it wasn't something that we needed, you know, someone with years of experience.
I think today, you know, we, we think about it a little bit more intentionally, but starting
out, we just wanted to learn.
Um, and we understood that it wasn't as intimidating as we thought.
Morgan DeBaun: When you're focusing on building a business and, and serving an underserved
audience, what advice do you have for any small business owners that might be considering
also building a brand or a company that is focused on people of color or people who are
underserved by mainstream?
Melissa Butler: I think oftentimes when you are serving an underserved community, or if
you are an underserved founder or even an underfunded founder, you tend to think of
it as a disadvantage, but truly understand that it gives you opportunity...just different
opportunities than what's, what's available in mainstream.
And not only just the opportunity to serve your community in a more authentic way, because
that's always number one, but also an opportunity for you and your team to grow in a way that
other companies can't.
Morgan DeBaun: I think you gotta know your customer, you know, I think you have to really
have deep customer empathy, be able to describe them to a T and be very specific.
I think you have to have some sort of future strategy, because a lot of times you can’t
just be reactive to today, you have to be ahead of the game.
And knowing and learning about what is going to happen … it’s taking bets and taking
risks and being ahead of the curve, then when the curve catches up you’re already ready
to go.
Morgan DeBaun: And then last thing is to invest in a team.
People should wanna work at your company, work for you, work with you, not because of
the ego of being a part of a startup or small business, but because of the customer they’re
serving and the mission and the value.
So really being clear about your mission and values will be really important for cultivating
a strong working team.
Melissa Butler: You have to be very clear on where you want to go.
Make sure you're clear on your vision, make sure you're hiring the right people who can
allow you to achieve that vision.
And then finally make sure you have the marketing and, and the tools to market your, your vision
to get you to that final goal post.
Morgan DeBaun: This has been so fun, learning more about your marketing strategy, how you've
used Google search and other really cool tools to be able to inform your business.
Melissa Butler: I've had such a blast talking with you, learning from you.