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Manifest Your Business: Meet Lee of Melanin Musing
Thank you, Lee, for agreeing to this blog interview. Not only are you our first feature of 2023, but my first interview since my seven-month mental break. Therefore, I am super excited to dive in and talk about how you manifested your business, Melanin Musing.
You are the founder of Melanin Musing, a black-owned women’s journals and stationery company; at what period in your life did you manifest this company?
I’ve been a stationery and planner lover since high school. I decided to create something in the stationery space after two failed attempts at entrepreneurship in other industries. Buying planners, journals and similar products on a consistent basis helped me learn a lot as a consumer. In 2020, I started working on Melanin Musing with the goal of creating a black-owned stationery company that was representative of women of color. However, I am starting to pivot and embrace the idea of Melanin Musing evolving into a wellness brand.
Journals will be a core product, but I am thinking of ways to incorporate women’s wellness into products that may not be your typical stationery item. Being a wellness brand gives Melanin Musing more flexibility, creativity and longevity.
I recently purchased the Self-discovery Journal for my BFF who is on her own journey to starting a podcast. I love it! She loves it! It’s beautifully designed and well written to help anyone push forward on their dreams. What inspired you to create a self-care journal of this caliber?
Yayyy, I am thankful you loved it. When I was creating the self-discovery journal I was in the process of rediscovering and redefining myself after exiting a very toxic relationship.
Writing down my emotions, fears and aspirations really did help me heal from a lot of past trauma. With that framework in mind, I really wanted to make this journal a useful tool for self-care and self-discovery for women. I purchased other guided journals to study what was out there. I noticed a lot of guided journals whose target audience are black women had very basic questions or had a lot of repetitive pages. My goal was to make a wellness journal that was of great quality, beautifully designed and featured deep and meaningful written activities. From the cover art to the writing prompts, I put a lot of effort into creating a unique experience for women no matter if they are new to journaling or have been doing it for years.
How has the entrepreneurial journey been for you with Melanin Musing? What is one thing you wish you knew back then that you know now about being a CEO?
I really have been enjoying this entrepreneurial journey for the simple fact that it’s been a journey. I haven’t gone viral or garnered massive attention from major media publications just yet. However, this has given me the opportunity to revamp our branding, learn from mistakes and make improvements. As a black-owned brand, I am very passionate about creating great wellness products but also providing a great customer experience. I think that’s one thing I wish I knew before being a Founder/ CEO before I started. How important it is to give people a great customer experience.
That’s a big part of my focus now for Melanin Musing is providing a great experience for customers.
What is the biggest challenge you are faced with for Melanin Musing?
The biggest challenge has been juggling my full-time job and Melanin Musing. Although we all have the same amount of hours in the day as Beyoncé we don’t have the same amount of help. I am really embracing “progress over perfection” while growing my business. I’m also realizing that although I can’t afford to hire employees just yet- I do need to outsource certain things to freelancers because I can’t do it all.
What systems/programs do you use to help with time management and organization to better your business success?
Writing things down in my planner has helped me with time management and staying organized for sure. When I write things down in my planner it’s going to get done.
What inspired you to create a wellness brand for women of color and how has it been working with black women? We all know the misconceptions lol.
Self-care is such an important part of our lives but sometimes it can be an afterthought and not a priority. I wanted to create a wellness brand to help women of color make their safe-care a priority. When it comes to working with black women, I think in general black consumers get a bad reputation for being difficult. Oftentimes it’s more so black women wanting to feel valued as a customer and not taken for granted.
I want Melanin Musing to have a reputation of taking good care of its customers. Therefore, as a wellness brand at our core we go out of our way to treat our customers really well. Pun intended.
What celebrity would you love to present your self-discovery journal too?
I would love to give my journal to Issa Rae. I remember watching her early on in her career when she created her YouTube series Awkward Black Girl. Over the years, Issa Rae has remained relatable and an inspiration to black women. That’s what I want Melanin Musing to be- a relatable wellness brand that’s all about discovering more about yourself and aspirations and then taking the steps to make those things a reality.
What books would you recommend for entrepreneurs to read? Any books that inspire you?
Actually, I would recommend entrepreneurs listen to podcasts because it’s easier to multitask while listening to a podcast. In 2018, when I was considering giving entrepreneurship another shot it was a coworker who put me on to the Side Hustle Pro podcast. That podcast is created and hosted by Nicaila Matthews Okome and features black women entrepreneurs who managed to scale their side hustle to a profitable business. Listening to Side Hustle Pro, allowed me to hear from female entrepreneurs who had businesses in many different industries. Those episodes have given me a lot of business advice and insight and definitely motivated me to pursue entrepreneurship.
How did you grow your customer base and following? How do you balance social media marketing and the day-to-day administrative tasks of running a business?
To be honest, I haven’t been the best at posting consistently on social media. That’s something I am working on as a business owner- building my online following on various platforms. I’m realizing this is probably one of my weak spots and I really need to dedicate more time for content creation, scheduling and planning outposts in advance. I am taking baby steps by recently hiring help and getting into the habit of posting consistently.
How do you protect your peace with clients (business relationships); what boundaries do you set?
I honestly try not to argue or go back-and-forth with people- especially customers. A lot of times, clients just want to be treated fairly- even when their demands seem a bit unreasonable. When an issue arises, I try to be cool, calm and hear them out but also clearly communicate our store policies. Even though it’s written in fine print, being flexible has helped protect my peace and maintain positive business relationships.
What advice would you give women that are struggling to become the best version of themselves?
I really believe becoming the best version of yourself is a journey not a destination. I included written activities on being a work in progress in my self-discovery journal “To Get Lost Is To Learn The Way.” My advice is to remember there will be highs, there will be lows in becoming. Some days there will be progress and some days there will be procrastination.
Within your personal journey, there will be periods of clarity and sometimes there might be periods of confusion- that’s okay. It’s about truly going through the necessary process to better understand yourself and then using that knowledge to create a lifestyle that is best suited for you.
I was seriously planning to release digital journals instead of producing another physical journal because of high production costs. However, after seeing all the positive reviews on Etsy and the feedback from black women on how much they loved “To Get Lost is to Learn the Way”- I had to concede that “if it ain’t broke don’t, fix it.” Listening to my customers helped me realize that my target audience loved the quality of our physical journal so I need to give them more of that.
“The Best Is Yet To Come” will be a journal that motivates women to pursue their dreams. It will also be a guided journal but have a different theme, activities and writing prompts.
5 Spotlight Questions!
What is your daily self-care routine?
Long hot showers.
Best advice you received:
“You have to pray to catch the bus, then run as fast as you can. If you don’t get the bus, that was not your bus… another one is coming”
Favorite thing to do when you have alone time…
Watch motivational videos on YouTube
What would you tell your eighteen-year-old self?
Learn to truly love yourself before trying to fall in love with someone else.
What would be your natural talent if you weren’t doing this?
I love creating things in general so definitely something in creative arts.
Receive 15% off using promo code acurvymom until March 31st, 2023.
Happy Shopping!
Thank you so much again for agreeing to interview with us.
To connect with Melanin Musing:
Instagram: @melaninmusing