RAINA (Luxury Hats for Natural Hair) with Rachel Osborne (S8, E8)

It all started with a wish for a satin-lined beach hat. When Rachel Osborne could not find one on the market, she set about creating her own.  She spent 2023 researching and testing her concept for luxury satin lined, and adjustable hats that would offer "no-frizz" experience for curly and kinky hair. As a result, her brand RAINA was born.

The creation of RAINA is very much tied to Rachael's own natural hair journey, which  resonates with anyone who's ever felt the pressure to conform to so-called conventional beauty standards. It took a while for her to accept and celebrate her own natural curls. Creating this line of high-end hats is a testament to where she is on her natural hair journey: she now sees her curls as the embodiment of elegance and beauty. She also believes that it is time for curly hair to be included in the development of all luxury hair products.

As every entrepreneur will attest, the entrepreneurial career and lifestyle choice is an opportunity for personal growth, and for building deep community bonds. Rachael shares her own learning curves and mindset shifts that have made her successful so far. She also offers some advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.

LINKS AND MENTIONS 

• Jamie Kern Lima - Beauty entrepreneur and former founder of IT Cosmetics
• Psycho Cybernetics by Maxwell Multz 
• Purple Cow by Seth Godin 
• Naptural85 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hello and welcome to Shades and Layers. I'm your host, Kutwanos Kosanarichi, and today we are talking luxury hats for afros and curls. Rayna is a brand new hat company founded by Colorado-based entrepreneur Rachel Osborne. The former software engineer knew that she was onto something when she surveyed her community to find out what was missing by way of accessories for curls. Rachel launched her adjustable luxury hat range at the end of 2023 and has since collaborated with some notable brands in the hair care space. We get into all of that during our conversation, and she also talks about some of the surprises and affirmations she has received along her journey so far. She talks her entrepreneurship curriculum as well as her vision as a founder. Without further ado, here is Rachel Osborne.

Speaker 2: 0:56

I'm Rachel Osborne. I'm the founder of Reina, which is a satin-lined hat brand for women with curly and textured hair, and so my brand was inspired one by my own natural hair journey, and its mission behind it is to help other women of color love their hair and, you know, have with through a brand that really celebrates it and all of its beauty.

Speaker 1: 1:19

Yeah, great. And why didn't you create a hair product in the traditional sense? Great. And why didn't you?

Speaker 2: 1:26

create a hair product in the traditional sense and go for a hat? That's a great question. I guess it was a couple of different things that went into me deciding to create this brand. I'd actually had the idea for a satin lined hat a few years back, before I even started Reina. I think I was walking on the beach and I had I I love big beach hats and I usually have to pull my hair back in order to wear them because my hair's poofy and so I was just thinking like, oh, it'd be really great if someone made this like satin line so it didn't like snag my hair and I could wear my hair out yeah, yeah, yeah, and then, um kind of fast forward a few years.

Speaker 2: 2:01

I started to really appreciate the power of sharing my natural hair story and kind of the positive impact that that had on other people and realize that it's not.

Speaker 2: 2:10

This wasn't just something that I went through in terms of struggling to learn to appreciate and love my hair the way that it is. Um, it's something that many women work through and kind of through looking through that lens and also seeing how, you know, a lot of brands don't necessarily cater towards our hair or don't think of the needs of our hair in terms of, like, you know, there are a lot of hat brands out there, sure, but, um, you know, like, I never would have thought to wear a wool hat, for example, sure, yeah, yeah, that's like a nightmare.

Speaker 2: 2:42

Yes, exactly like yeah you understand, it's the frizz, the like dryness like it's so good all the moisture, just everything. I was like there's no way, um, and so I felt like none, no brands had really put our hair first really and.

Speaker 2: 2:57

I thought that could be by making a brand that puts our hair first. That's like almost a testament to how we should be looking at our hair like it's it's royal it's. It's something that a testament to how we should be looking at our hair Like it's it's Royal it's. It's something that deserves to be put first in the product space.

Speaker 2: 3:08

And so I guess, between those two things, I was like this could would be a great way to kind of spread my message and empower others and then also, just you know, have product that's functional and practical, that people like too. And I felt like there was a gap in the market because I started seeing some brands that were creating satin line products, like you know, satin line beanies or sweatshirt, semester thing, yeah, more casual products, and I love that too, and I just I was thinking how, you know, it'd be cool if we had more options and things that were maybe a bit like higher fashion, or just like you know things you might wear out like higher fashion, or just like you know things you might wear out on a date or like you know, I mean you can wear on a date, but you know.

Speaker 1: 3:51

I get you, I get you, but you know, but also the emphasis on luxury. Can you talk about what makes it products here?

Speaker 2: 3:59

yeah. So actually that's a great um segue there, because because I saw so many more casual items casual and also unisex I felt like there weren't enough things that were kind of more like luxury feel, kind of showing that our hair can be luxury high-end too, and I just noticed that narrative in general right in our products and also, especially on social media, that, like you, our natural hair is fine most of the time, but then for like fancy events, it's like, oh, that's when you want to straighten it.

Speaker 1: 4:29

And.

Speaker 2: 4:30

I kind of wanted to break that narrative a little bit. And it's not that I'm, like you know, against straight hair extensions or anything, but it's just it's like where is it coming from? Like, are you wearing your hair a certain way because you just like how it looks and you're like you know you love the feel, that's great. Or is it because you want to hide something and or maybe you're? You don't feel like you're accepted with your hair the way it is. That's like the negative driver that I'm kind of more focused on changing, I guess.

Speaker 2: 4:56

And yeah, and so I felt like there, like I wanted to have something that celebrated all the different hairstyles that we wear in a more like higher end, formal, luxury field, and so all of my products, some of it or part of it, is just the quality of them. So, this is a person wool. There's no like plastic or anything in it, and it's slow fashion, right. So like a high quality wool hat should last anywhere from like five to 10 years.

Speaker 2: 5:26

So it's an investment Wonderful if you take care of it and, like you know, keep it clean and all that stuff do you only make wool hats or do you work with other materials?

Speaker 2: 5:34

I work with other materials too, so I have two wool hats. I have this one this is a fedora. I have a boater hat, which is it's like a beige color, and then I have a straw hat, and that's that was actually at first was going to be my only product, but I was like, let me try some other like wool hats too right yeah um, and so the straw hat.

Speaker 2: 5:53

it's wide brimmed, floppy, great for, like you know, sunny days or going out on the beach. Yeah, and that one I've like. I have seen some wool hats that have a satin lining but aren't like adjustable, and they're not quite the same as mine, but I've never seen a straw hat or anything like the one that I sell before. It's raffia straw, so it's natural fiber, and that one too will probably last anywhere from two to five years if you take good care of it. So, yeah, it's the quality, the longevity, it's an investment.

Speaker 1: 6:23

And there's a keyword word that you mentioned they're adjustable, huh yeah yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:29

So, because a lot of us change our hairstyles often, I was thinking like you know, if I, if I did want to straighten my hair for a day or something, you know, like the, it's not going to be as voluminous, right? And so what if the hat doesn't fit anymore, because now it's too big?

Speaker 2: 6:42

and so because of that I was thinking it would be cool to have something that could kind of allow the hat to adjust to our changing hairstyles and so many of us go from braids to, you know, silk press, to fro or whatever, and so the inside it has like a drawstring, so you can, you can adjust it down, and right now I just have one size for all of the hats, so one size fits most. And then if you have a small head or you change your hairstyle, you can change the fit, but yeah, thanks for bringing that up.

Speaker 1: 7:11

Yeah, so this brings me to manufacturing. But you've come on the market with something which is quite different and isn't out there at the moment. So how did you go about finding people to make this product?

Speaker 2: 7:26

Yeah, it was definitely tricky, especially as a small business. I'm bootstrapping everything, so that definitely had some limitations in terms of, you know, the order sizes I could make in the beginning, like I can't, I couldn't, just go and order for a thousand hats.

Speaker 2: 7:41

I had to kind of start out with small orders, and I'm still doing that. And so one finding a supplier that would accommodate that, because a lot of them won't customize products if you're doing like under you know a certain quantity, like under a hundred or under 50 or what have you. And so that was the first obstacle, just finding someone who's willing to work with me, who could customize something with a small quantity. And then the other part of it was helping them and this was more on me just being able to articulate exactly what I needed. And so the supplier that I work with, it was kind of interesting because they they didn't understand at first why I needed a satin lining Cause. They were like, not really that's not common, like, are you sure you want?

Speaker 1: 8:25

that and I was like yes, not common. Are you sure you want that?

Speaker 2: 8:27

And I was like, yes, I know it's unusual, but yes, I want that. And then the whole thing with the sizing too, because I think the average woman's hat size is like a 57 and this is a 59. And then my other wool hat is also 59 and the straw hat is a 61, which is normally that would be, like you know really big.

Speaker 2: 8:45

But, it's like we have a lot of hair, we need a larger sizing, and so I had to kind of articulate that, and so a lot of it has been education like educating people through my brand, which is something that I wasn't expecting to do, but right, that's interesting, and do you find that there are quite a few?

Speaker 1: 9:10

I?

Speaker 2: 9:11

mean, did you have options in terms of those manufacturers? A small batch, so to speak, or you just had to zone in on this one. Yeah, right now I just have one manufacturer. They're only what I could find who would work with me at that quantity size. But I'm hoping in the future I can, as I scale up I'll have more options and you know can play with different manufacturers, great, great.

Speaker 1: 9:27

And in terms of materials, sourcing the materials, do you do that yourself or it's supplied by the factory?

Speaker 2: 9:35

No, it's supplied by the factory.

Speaker 2: 9:37

Yeah, one thing that I have been trying to work on, though, is I think you mentioned sustainability yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, and so when it comes to like packaging and shipping things out to my customers, that's one thing that I thought about really intentionally in the beginning was how can I make it so that this is, at the very least, all recyclable? And because, for example, a lot of boxes, if they have plastic tape, like that tape's not recyclable, you have to take that off before it can actually be recycled. And so, um, even though it was a harder option, I, you know, kind of went through, did the extra work to make sure all my packaging is recyclable, so I use paper tape which I don't know if you've ever used water activated paper tape.

Speaker 1: 10:18

It's a bit of a pain but it's appreciated when I see it on packaging because it doesn't put that extra burden on you as the customer right, which is what prevents us from being, you know, more conscious of how we consume things Exactly.

Speaker 2: 10:34

Yeah, yeah. So just thinking about that going forward right now my suppliers, when they send me inventory in bulk, it does have plastic in the packaging, and so that's something that I'm going to be working with them on moving forward is for like future orders, trying to see if they can omit the plastic or use like paper or something else for supporting it yeah, it's so hard to break these cycles, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 10:54

yeah, it is yeah, but we have to think about it because I know the fashion industry, I think, is one of the top yeah. I'm trying to be really conscious and intentional with my choices, yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:06

Yeah, and I like that. You are a slow fashion brand. You know you're not concentrating on volume, so do you sell any kind of bulk to anybody, or you know? Yeah, you work to order.

Speaker 2: 11:19

Not yet. Yeah, right now I just everything's through my website. I'm hoping that in the future, yeah, yeah, yeah, right now I just everything's through my website. Um, hoping that in the future, yeah, maybe I can wholesale to boutiques or that sort of thing. But right now it's just yeah, yeah, this is to consumer, which is kind of cool too, because then I feel like I get to build that connection with my customers more too, and I like the impact of that.

Speaker 1: 11:39

Yeah, I think luxury brands are lucky in that sense that you know your customers can tell you what works and what doesn't work, because they're so invested in the product. Right, it's a yeah, definitely.

Speaker 2: 11:49

I've already gotten some feedback. Some people have mentioned they'd love to see like a red fedora product development free.

Speaker 1: 12:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fantastic. This is shades and layers, and today we are speaking to rachel osborne, a founder of reina, a luxury adjustable hat brand that centers curly and kinky hair inspired by rachel's own natural hair journey. This entrepreneurial venture is also about making an impact on the lives of others. Up next, we get into where Rachel finds herself along this journey and where her brand fits into their natural hair care space. You mentioned that this was influenced by your hair journey. Can you tell me where you are in terms of your hair journey now?

Speaker 2: 12:40

So I started when I was like little, like in middle school, because growing up, all the women in my family we straightened our hair or had relaxers.

Speaker 2: 12:49

I never had a relaxer, but I always straightened it because that was just kind of what we all knew in terms of how to take care of it, in terms of what we thought made it manageable was OK. We got to straighten it and that makes it look neat, and so a lot of it was like unlearning that YouTube was like a great resource, yeah, so unlearning well, unlearning that and learning how to actually take care of my hair, but then also learning how to accept it I think that was the hardest part for me was, you know, I definitely had a lot of like limiting beliefs and fears around how people would think of me if I wore my natural because that's just natural, because I guess culturally that's just not how I grew up, and so yeah, I'd say now I'm definitely a much more positive place in terms of the way I look at my hair and the way I care for it, and I've kind of gotten to a place where I'm like I love my hair and if someone else has a problem with it, that's on them.

Speaker 1: 13:47

Absolutely yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:50

But it's definitely. It's been a long journey to get to where I am now with that mindset.

Speaker 1: 13:55

Do you think it's influenced by the products that are available in the market now? Or you know, I know YouTube was quite instrumental, but you know you can watch all the YouTube that you want, but there are other layers to.

Speaker 2: 14:09

Absolutely. Yeah, I think it's multifaceted. It's the products that we see around us, it's like the advertisers, the marketing, everything in media and then also just our community, Because, like I mentioned, my family as a whole we didn't really know how to take care of our hair and I think not having those like in person role models who you know could show an example of someone wearing their hair natural, confidently, definitely made it harder, and so that's part of it. And then, like I said, media or even just like the advertisements we see for products, if those are kind of showing that in order to be a beautiful Black woman, you have to have straight hair. That's like, especially as a young girl, it's very impressionable.

Speaker 2: 14:50

Even if it's not overtly stated, those messages are absorbed and so if we're seeing that our whole life. It's like what is that? What is that saying about me if I don't wear my hair straight, right? So, yeah, I think that, um, it's definitely gotten better in terms of the products that we have now. Um, and I remember I don't know about you, but when I was younger, we just had like do rags or like scarves to sleep in. But now I have like all these different colored bonnets.

Speaker 1: 15:18

Oh, there's, everything.

Speaker 2: 15:19

Yeah, it's fun it is. It's fun Like for me. I feel like it tells me that my hair is thought of and it's appreciated more just in general, which I think is a really beautiful thing, but absolutely in general, which I think is a really beautiful thing, but absolutely I think the products, the range of products that we have available to us, how the advertising speaks to us, all of that plays a role for sure.

Speaker 1: 15:42

Where do you think Reina fits into the whole landscape of this natural hair journey?

Speaker 2: 15:46

Yeah, good question. I want to say I know about the name of my brand too, exactly, yeah, so, reina, if you know Spanish, it kind of sounds like the word queen in Spanish, right, and then also across a couple of different other languages, it means queen, and so there's a lot of symbolism in there, of course, of how, like, our hair is a crown and it should be thought of like that, and that's kind of the feel that I want to impart on everyone who comes into contact with my brand, and so the way that I see my brand is just it's another piece of the puzzle in terms of building up that positive representation of black hair and all the different hairstyles that we, that we wear. And so if you go on my site, like you'll, um, the three models I have, they have you know natural hair braids, one has straight extensions and that's like.

Speaker 2: 16:39

You know, as black women we wear all sorts of different hairstyles and they should all be separated, um and so kind of just adding that extra presentation so that you know, as we go through our day-to-day lives, we we kind of start to see more and more of this, and so that's kind of where to see more and more of this, and so that's kind of where I see our brand. Bidding is like it's a piece of the puzzle of the larger landscape.

Speaker 1: 17:00

Yeah yeah, it normalizes in a sense. Yeah yeah, that's great. So you started the brand because you wanted to solve a problem for yourself, like most entrepreneurs. Problem for yourself, like most entrepreneurs. But was this, uh, you know, a stumble upon to go the entrepreneurial path, or have you always wanted to own your own business?

Speaker 2: 17:24

I think I've always wanted, I've always been an entrepreneur at heart. Um, yeah, I think it's just in my, my character, it's just part of my personality. I used to have like a nine to five, and now I do Reina, and then also I'm a realtor, which is kind of like having another business.

Speaker 1: 17:46

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2: 17:46

It's great. But yeah, to answer your question, I think I've always been an entrepreneur at heart. I just didn't really realize it until the past few years.

Speaker 1: 17:54

Yeah, yeah. And what's been the most surprising thing about running a slow fashion brand?

Speaker 2: 18:06

Hmm, well, I kind of say this before, and it's not specifically related to the fact that it's a fashion brand, but more so just the amount of education or opportunities for educating, like people who like non-black people about our hair.

Speaker 2: 18:20

And I think that's been a really cool thing to do, because some people just don't know and they're like, oh, like, what is, what's the importance of the satin lining? And so I get to use that as an opportunity to explain why it's significant and kind of what hair means to us in our culture, and so that that was something I was not expecting, but I think I'm really grateful for that yeah, do you know Stephanie Laflora?

Speaker 1: 18:42

because that brings her to mind. I do, yeah, okay, yeah, I've interviewed her before, so I was like okay, an education part to it yeah yeah, I know her, she's in Colorado.

Speaker 2: 18:55

Yeah, yeah, okay.

Speaker 1: 18:56

All right, cool, and you know this education part. I know it's a cultural thing, but you know how do some of the you know? Are there any similarities between being a realtor and being a fashion brand owner?

Speaker 2: 19:12

Hmm, that's a hard question. I'm actually. I'm a newer realtor so I'm still kind of filling out the waters in this market, but nothing that really comes to mind immediately. I mean, just as a business owner for sure, all the like marketing that is the same, like it's the same sort of thing in terms of email marketing and getting your name out there. So that has transferred over very well. But in terms of like a deeper level, I don't know. I'll have to think about that one Speaking of a deeper level.

Speaker 1: 19:45

I mean, apart from you know personally, I would say, what's the deeper meaning do you attach to your day-to-day activities?

Speaker 2: 19:57

I guess it's hoping that my brand will help someone or another woman in their hair journey, make it easier for them and so they don't have to go through the same struggles and pains that I did.

Speaker 1: 20:12

Because I mean.

Speaker 2: 20:13

I still have bad hair days or like days when I look at my hair and I'm like you know I have maybe a negative thought about it, but it's definitely way fewer and far between than maybe a few years ago.

Speaker 2: 20:22

But, some of those moments of, you know, frustration were really, really hard, and so I guess my goal is that I can at least like touch one person's life and help them not have those same negative feelings, or at least make it easier so they don't have to. You know, kind of struggle as much yeah, yeah, yeah, great.

Speaker 1: 20:42

So what is? Um, oh, sorry, lost my train of thought. I'm sorry. There are so many things I want to ask you. That's why, okay, so we uh, yeah, so the entrepreneurial journey, okay. So what are some of the challenges that you've come across? I mean, first, it was the manufacturing small batch, but you know, in terms of the operational stuff that you do yourself, are there any things that you had to overcome that, yeah, that you can think of and share for an aspiring entrepreneur?

Speaker 2: 21:17

Yeah, I mean the beginning. So I just launched in November so still relatively newer brand. The beginning was definitely a challenge working with the suppliers, even because for me, as a smaller brand and also ordering in smaller quantities, it's a lot higher stakes if I lose inventory or something. And actually there was a whole thing in the beginning where FedEx delivered a large batch of my inventory to the wrong house and I was freaking out.

Speaker 1: 21:47

It was very stressful, but I found it.

Speaker 2: 21:51

Yeah, it was okay, little things like that. Um again, because I'm a smaller brand, I um so my packaging it's like you have the box and then the hat is kind of cradled. There's like a, a cardboard support to make sure that doesn't get crushed. Um and so I like cut that out myself and that's. That's definitely definitely a bit time consuming and because right now I don't do like custom orders of packaging.

Speaker 2: 22:22

And so that's like another, I guess not exactly challenge, but just something that kind of I had to account for that I wasn't expecting.

Speaker 2: 22:29

I'm like, okay, how do I factor that into my schedule, with, you know, cutting out all these inserts? And then I think my ability to pivot in terms of product development has been something that I'm kind of still kind of figuring out. Like I mentioned, I've had some people say like, oh, I'd love to see this color or I'd love to see like this style, and. And so I'm like, okay, like when can I kind of fit that in? How does that fall into my whole product line and development? And so it's been a whole learning process for me. So every step of the way has been there's been something. But, yeah, I'm still still learning. And at this point I'm pivoting a little bit and trying to collaborate with other black owned brands and build like kind of grow in community together, and so that's something that I'm playing with right now is trying to do like giveaways or just other things with brands, content sharing and that sort of thing.

Speaker 1: 23:26

Yeah. Yeah, I saw that you had a live with uh Avocurl. Yeah, so it's, it's mostly hair products, yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:38

Hair products. Um, I have evo curl, yeah, so it's, it's mostly hair products. Yeah, hair products, um, I have I'm talking to a brand that is, um, they're like natural hair extensions, so I said it's also a hair product. And then another brand I'm talking to she does, um, like luxury handbags and sunglasses, yeah, yeah accessories.

Speaker 1: 23:50

Yeah, it's nice you can touch all these different adjacent products and industries Exactly. Yeah, fantastic, that's great. Rachel Osborne is the guest today on Shades and Layers. Her luxury hat brand, reina, was created to give options to the curly and kinky head when it came to accessorizing. To give options to the curly and kinky head when it came to accessorizing. Up next, we get into all the things and the people that have inspired her throughout her life, as well as what she has in store for the future. So who are some of the entrepreneurs you look to for inspiration at the moment or that you've looked to as you were trying to put this brand together?

Speaker 2: 24:32

That's a great question. Probably one of my favorite entrepreneurs is Jamie Kern Lima, who I don't know if you've she's the founder of it Cosmetics. Oh yeah, okay yeah. And one thing that I think is really interesting too about her story. So she, her brand, got bought by L'Oreal and that made her the first. She was the CEO of the brand, I guess, within L'Oreal.

Speaker 1: 24:58

And so she was the first female CEO of a.

Speaker 2: 24:59

L'Oreal company, which I think is wild Because, like you know, L'Oreal, for most of its history, has been something that's marketed makeup to women, and I think that parallels really well to a lot of these black hair care brands. A lot of them are not necessarily run by black people.

Speaker 1: 25:14

Sure.

Speaker 2: 25:14

Which I think is interesting. But yeah, I just I love Jamie Kern Lima's story. It's really inspiring to me. She's, I mean, as with most successful entrepreneurs, she's jumped over a lot of hurdles. She's had so many challenges in her path. So I guess whenever I hit something that is challenging, like when my inventory was delivered to the wrong place, I kind of think of her and her story and I'm like if she can do it.

Speaker 1: 25:39

Yeah, yeah Great. Speaking of stories, are there any business books that you can think of that you would recommend to anybody who wants to start a new brand?

Speaker 2: 25:48

I actually I read a lot of self-development books, so not business per se, but I think a lot of building a business is working on yourself because especially you learn a lot about, especially in the beginning if you're the only person, you're the most important part of your business, so you gotta work on yourself so um, yeah, my favorite book is probably psycho cybernetics by dr maxwell malts.

Speaker 2: 26:09

it's about self-image and it's really interesting and definitely kind of changed the way that I look at things a little bit and then in terms of like practical or not practical, but you know more like logical or strategies that sort of thing. I like Blue Ocean Sales and Marketing. It's a good one, oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 26:26

There's a lot of good ones. Yeah, it's a classic, oh, and.

Speaker 2: 26:31

Purple Cow by Seth Godin. That's a short one, oh yeah, purple Cow by Seth Godin, that's a short one.

Speaker 1: 26:34

Oh yeah, that's cool, that's a good one. Yeah, yeah, getting into your personal story, are there any events or people that you would credit with contributing to how you carry yourself in the world today?

Speaker 2: 26:46

Yeah, I mean I have probably a long list. Honestly, I'm sure, yes.

Speaker 2: 26:54

I mean I guess this is a little cliche but like both my parents, they, I mean, I think in terms of the hair journey, they kind of like I mentioned my mom, she did the best she could in terms of what she knew how to do and taking care of her hair.

Speaker 2: 27:06

So a little bit different perspective, but just in terms of her, her own journey and her career and everything I feel like I've learned from both of them to that's okay to go against the status quo a little bit and challenge ideas, especially if you don't think that they're correct, and that's something that's been, I think, really instrumental on just my growth as a person and even like my career trajectory, of kind of breaking out of my previous career, which you, you know, some would say is like very, it was a very safe career and trying, you know, all these crazy things like starting my brand and starting what were you doing? I was a software engineer, okay, yeah. So yeah, I'd say definitely my parents, parents, my family, for sure. In terms of my hair journey, specifically natural 85, I don't know I I've been watching her. I don't watch her stuff as much anymore, but like in the early 2000s, um, yeah, sure, yeah, she was definitely.

Speaker 2: 28:06

She has uh been the guru for many many black women around the world yeah, but I mean like, especially as a young girl and then into a young woman, like having that example of someone who appreciates and loves and has beautiful hair was so instrumental for me and so and also I learned a lot from her. So I've never met her before but I will shout her out because she's definitely been a big.

Speaker 1: 28:34

Soon enough. Yeah, if you had to summarize your life in a book, what would you call the memoir, and why?

Speaker 2: 28:44

So I don't think this is a word, but something to the tune of like de-perfectionism or perfectionized. I've definitely I've always been a perfectionist and in some ways it has served me well, but I've realized, especially over the past few years, that I've kind of had to unravel that a bit to become who I am now, and I think that, um, trying to do everything perfectly the first time usually just ends up in spending a lot of time not wasting time but not doing things as not achieving as quickly as maybe you could. And so right now I'm trying to move myself more towards just taking messy action and getting that feedback and learning from it and being okay with making mistakes and falling down. And that's something that I, for me, was hard to learn, because just for a long time I was like afraid of failing, you know, afraid of messing up that sort of thing, and so that's been kind of like something that's woven through my whole life, of just trying to unlearn that and learn that it's okay to fail and you actually can't even succeed without failing first.

Speaker 1: 29:48

So yeah, fail fast. Yeah, failing first. So, yeah, yeah, fail fast. Yeah, and um deep perfectionism. Who would you?

Speaker 2: 30:02

choose to be the lead actress in the film version of the book. So I I love holly bailey, like I think she's amazing, um, and I love that as her role in the Little Mermaid. She, for our younger generation, is now like that role model of a Disney princess. I think that's so awesome and, yeah, I just would be cool yeah, she's the whole vibe man yeah, she's cool very, very cool.

Speaker 1: 30:27

Um, who would you invite? Which famous black woman would you invite to dinner, and why? Oh, definitely Michelle Obama.

Speaker 2: 30:34

Good, good, good. Yeah, I mean she's just like. She's inspiring to me in terms of everything that she did as the first lady and then even after she's you know, after President. Obama left office like she's just done so much and yeah, so I would love to have a conversation with her and just be in her aura. Just breathing the same air.

Speaker 1: 31:01

And what's the best advice you've ever received and still live by today?

Speaker 2: 31:07

That's a good one. Let me think about that for a second. Sure, sure, yeah. I mean talking about like failure and everything there was. I don't remember who said it, but there's a quote that's like you know, the best way to succeed faster is to double your rate of failure. And so I think about that a lot now of just like, how can I kind of like or you can replace that word with rejection to a lot of people, like failure of rejection are kind of similar sort of things. And so now, um, when I think of like my achieving a goal or something, I'm like, how do I like go for no's, like the more no's I get, the closer I get to a yes, or like you know times I fall down, the more, the faster I'll learn and get to like the thing that I'm really going for.

Speaker 2: 31:52

So so I think, of that quote a lot in general when I'm going through my day.

Speaker 1: 31:57

And what's contributed to this mindset shift.

Speaker 2: 32:00

Well, I think a couple of things. One, my mental health. I think that I realized my perfectionism wasn't like supportive of that as much. I kind of noticed various different things come from me being a perfectionist that I wanted to change just so that I could be mentally healthier. I think there's that Back in 2020, that's kind of where my entrepreneurial journey started of. Like, I started reading more books just about mindset and about business and all these things and how you can really change your whole perspective on life by just shifting your mindset, and so that's kind of. I think I've kind of I've used a lot of books as mentors almost, and through a lot of those it's a recurring theme of you know, you have to take that messy action, and so I just kind of tried to embody that more.

Speaker 1: 32:49

Um, just as more yeah and um. If someone wanted to start a career like yours, where would you tell them to start?

Speaker 2: 33:00

definitely would tell them to like start with market research. I mean, that's I don't know if that's too obvious of an answer, but I found that to be really helpful for me, like I in the beginning, to develop the products I did and just styles. I had like a little survey I typed up and I sent out to a bunch of people who, like all the people I knew who I thought might be in my target audience, and then I asked friends and family to send it out and like seeing if you can get feedback from real people.

Speaker 2: 33:26

I think, yes, definitely was very helpful for me, and then also for me to see what's already out there and what hasn't been done, cause you know, at first I just had the idea in my head but I was like I don't know if this has already been done, like there are other things that are similar, I'm not sure. And so how kind of validating that idea really thoroughly before really going into it, I think was good, especially since I again I'm bootstrapping everything. So it's like I wanted to be really confident in my idea before putting in that initial investment.

Speaker 1: 33:57

And when did you realize you have a business?

Speaker 2: 34:00

Like last March, I guess a year ago or so Cause that's when I was doing that research and I was trying to find products that were like similar to what was in my head and I was like there isn't really anything here, and so that's what I was like.

Speaker 1: 34:16

Okay, I think I think I should just try it out. So what is your vision for Rayna in the future?

Speaker 2: 34:21

yeah. So I, like I've mentioned, I would love to be able to bring in a few more styles, um, and just, I have like some ideas in mind already of okay things I want to try and bring in. Maybe this winter We'll see. Um, I would like to get into wholesaling in the future, like not this year, but once I've grown a bit more um, and then just, yeah, see where, where it takes me. Um, I like the collaborations I've been doing. I feel like that kind of gives me the opportunity to tell my story to more people and at the end of the day, it's the impact that I want. I mean, like you know, selling products is cool too, but I want to have a positive impact on people.

Speaker 2: 35:01

And so. I think I want to keep doing those brand collaborations and like the lives and those sorts of things to like just kind of show other women who are maybe in the middle of their journey. To like just kind of show other women who are maybe in the middle of their journey, starting out at the end, that they are not alone and you know other people are going through this too.

Speaker 1: 35:17

So yeah, yeah. Would you ever consider going for a round of funding?

Speaker 2: 35:22

uh, possibly. Yeah, I kind of. I kind of want to grow it a little bit bigger on my own first, before I consider doing that.

Speaker 1: 35:28

But it's something I have thought about yeah yeah, yeah. Where can people find you if they want to buy a hat or just you know?

Speaker 2: 35:35

get in touch and hear your story yeah, um, so my website is shop reenacom um, it's shop, and then r-a-i-n-a and I also I'm on instagram at shop, underscore reena, and so either one would be good. And also, like I, I respond to all my messages so you can email me or like dm me through instagram, like I love chatting with my customers and just people.

Speaker 1: 36:01

So yeah oh perfect, and that is all for me this time around. Links to rachel's work and other resources she mentioned in this episode are included in the show notes. If you found this episode inspirational or useful in some way, please be sure to spread the love and share it with a friend. Thank you for listening. I'm Kutwanos, kosana Ritchie, and until next time, please do take good care.