84. From Selling Clothes in Strip Clubs to Target Shelves: Bella Rose’s Entrepreneurial Masterclass

What if every “no” you’ve ever heard was setting you up for your biggest win?

In this powerful episode, Bella Rose—founder & CEO of Bella Rose Passion—shares her raw 14-year entrepreneurial journey from selling clothes out of her car at strip clubs to landing retail partnerships with Target.
 But this isn’t just a business success story—it’s a masterclass in perseverance, faith, and turning personal tragedy into renewed purpose.

Subscribe & Catch us on video: https://youtube.com/@redefiningthefutureyou

We dive deep into:

• How a $300 influencer post generated $10K in sales
• The difference between having followers vs. real influence
• Pivoting through failure without formal business education
• Persistently pursuing retail deals despite constant rejection
• Balancing grief, self-care, and entrepreneurship after losing her mother
• Building a legacy brand with authenticity and heart

If you're an aspiring entrepreneur, a side hustler ready for your breakthrough, or someone navigating setbacks, this conversation will equip you with the mindset and strategies to keep building even when the odds feel stacked against you.

🎧 Subscribe for more unfiltered conversations with entrepreneurs, creatives, and leaders who are building meaningful success stories from the ground up.

#EntrepreneurJourney #WomenInBusiness #FaithAndEntrepreneurship #RetailPartnerships #AuthenticBusiness #BellaRosePassion #PerseveranceStory #InfluencerMarketingTips #BuildingALegacy #SmallBusinessSuccess

Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
Welcome to the Fit, Healthy and Happy Podcast hosted by Josh and Kyle from Colossus...

Listen on: Apple Podcasts   Spotify

Chapters

• 0:00 Finding Success Through Social Media
• 8:45 Opening a Boutique and Finding Her Path
• 16:30 Building a Brand and Discovering Influence
• 22:39 [Ad] Fit, Healthy & Happy Podcast
• 23:22 (Cont.) Building a Brand and Discovering Influence
• 26:35 The Journey to Getting into Target
• 36:22 Learning Business and Marketing Strategy
• 45:44 Navigating Grief and Creating New Purpose
• 54:42 Honoring Her Mother and Closing Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

And this one influencer, ari Fletcher. At the time she was pregnant with her son and she charged me like $300. And I think I probably was maybe one of the first social one, of the first e-commerce things that she did. And when she charged me the $300, I didn't know who she was my kids did and so I was like, okay, cool, you know we'll do that. And she put up that post and I had no idea the strength in following. I think we made about 10,000 that first week that she put up that post. I'm a really good salesperson but I did not know like the business side of it, because I was just happy I was selling things, didn't realize I wasn't making a return, I didn't realize I didn't have a community or have a core audience.

Speaker 3: 0:55

Welcome to it's the Human Experience Podcast Hosted by Hazel Brown, a health care leader, wife, mom and career coach. Hazel Brown, a healthcare leader, wife, mom and career coach. If you're big on authenticity, personal development, perseverance and transparency, you're in the right place. Get ready to be uplifted, inspired and empowered as you become fearless in pursuit of the life you desire and deserve. Go ahead and subscribe. You don't want to miss out on these transparent stories and discussions that reveal highs, lows, aha moments and nuggets that'll help you to grow and glow.

Speaker 2: 1:36

Hey, hey, hey. You are now tuned in to the it's the Human Experience podcast. I'm your host, hazel Brown. Today I have Bella Rose on the podcast. I'm your host, hazel Brown. Today I have Bella Rose on the podcast. We're going to dive into so many things as it relates to our growth journey betting on yourself, showing up as yourself, authentically, making sure that faith drives the journey, and all of the things to be able to be the person that you know that you're destined to be. Welcome to the podcast, bella.

Speaker 1: 2:02

Thank you so much for having me, hazel, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 2:05

Absolutely so. Tell the people who is Bella Rose.

Speaker 1: 2:08

Bella Rose is an entrepreneur, but my journey got started in 2011. So I will say that's a good question. Bella Rose is a student. I would say a student. I've been learning along this journey how to become an entrepreneur. I did not go to business school or didn't have any classes or courses, and I was able to create so much success just learning and learning along the way. I know a lot of times people say oh, you know, I'm self-made, but I wasn't able to get that status to be self-made because I had so much help and it wasn't like I went to, you know, grab help. Help was able to come to me because my husband was able to go to business school and he helped me learn business and that was the help that I needed. My children they work with my company. They help me as well, so we're a family business.

Speaker 2: 3:14

I love that you get in alignment and God sends the help that you need Absolutely, and no better help than people who you're doing life with.

Speaker 1: 3:23

Yes, and they are 100 percent so supportive. A lot of times people come in your life and, you know, get a part of your journey just so that they can grow ahead of you or try to learn something from you to. You know, take something from you, something from you. So you know, I'm really, really proud of the people I chose to have around me, which is my husband, my children, because they didn't want anything from me, they just wanted to see me grow and wanted to see me happy and wanted to see how far their business can go. And we all learn from each other.

Speaker 2: 3:58

Yeah, I love that. I love the intentionality that you speak about that in general, making sure that you're surrounding yourself that with people that really get you and really want the best for you. And it's important to make sure that you're mindful of that not only in like your relationships, like in your family, but even within your friendships and the associates in the communities that you build and create your life around. Yes, communities that you build and create your life around.

Speaker 1: 4:25

Yes, I wanted to. When I first started out, I just wanted to have a business. I was like I just want to open a business. We moved to Georgia in 2011, I think, or 2010, one of those and I came down here with intentions on finding a job. I definitely looked, so we're from New Jersey and I used to work for a company called New Jersey Mentor and they were very, very helpful, very supportive. They helped me find a job here with Georgia Mentor.

Speaker 2: 4:57

Got it.

Speaker 1: 4:59

It just was not for me. Yeah, it just was not for me. And you know how sometimes, when you do find a job, you just got to stick it out. I didn't have that. I don't have it in me to be a part of something that I'm not comfortable with. Instantly, when I feel uncomfortable, I do something about it, I say something about it. I have to get away from that situation. I don't care if I don't have any money saved, I'll make it work. And that's what I did when I left Georgia Mentor. I was there for like a month or two, maybe two months. I told my husband I want to open up a store, I want to open up a boutique. He told me I don't know nothing about business and he made me write out a business plan. And I'm glad he did that because it taught me that everything isn't free and things that are free we don't appreciate them. And any money that you know he was just going to give me, it was going to look like, oh, he's just giving me money.

Speaker 1: 5:57

But if I have to go and do my and this was years ago, before you know, like chat, gpt and I could Google how to do this and that and the other I really had to and I really had to work and, um, you know, I presented to him and of course he was going to give me the money anyway, but I'm glad he made me like work to see what it is, what it takes to start a business. So when I started the business, it was still like, okay, well, now what? I got all this product. I got all this stuff. What to do? So I opened up a woman's clothing boutique. When we opened up the woman's clothing boutique, I had it for maybe about two months or so.

Speaker 1: 6:38

No customers. Well, maybe like not an overflow of customers, I will say, but we had like a little bit of customers. We were next to a popular nail salon. Nobody would come inside of my store. I would put shoes outside. I would go into the nail salon and tell them like I'm right next door and you would think like we see us going by all the time and it's like, okay, come on in my boutique, I'm going to get my nails done, and you know. And so I didn't let that, you know, deter me like oh, nobody's supporting me, nobody.

Speaker 1: 7:13

I met one of the customers that came in. She was from Philly and she was telling me she had the same issue moved down here. You know, she was trying to do her thing as well and we got together, we packed up our car. One night we went out to the strip clubs and we were like we are going to sell this stuff, like by any means necessary. And we asked the house mom if we could, you know, sell our stuff to the girls. And we had to pay a fee and they bought us out, they bought our stuff. So we were like all right, this is what we're going to do.

Speaker 1: 7:48

And the more I kept going to the different clubs or different events, people asked do you have makeup? I wasn't like a girly girl, so I didn't. I never wore makeup. It always like broke me out. Only thing I was familiar with was Mac, and Mac was like, heavy in chemicals, so I couldn't do it.

Speaker 1: 8:09

So I did go online and research natural, non-chemical based cosmetics. And when I did that I found lip glosses and I was like, oh, I want to sell lip glosses. I can do lip glosses. Oh my gosh, I went and bought every single color like yellow, blue, white, I didn't know, you know, and it was a waste of money. But at that time I think I had purchased all that inventory in September and Halloween was coming up. I was able to sell a lot for, like the Halloween, the girls were doing the different looks for Halloween and everything. So I felt really heavy.

Speaker 1: 8:48

But then I had to learn, by, you know, doing research, I had to learn find what works for you so you can promote what you have. Don't look at the blues, the yellows, the greens and all that. Find what works for you. So the new colors, the new pinks, was good for our skin tone, you know. So, as much as I would wear like the new colors and the new pinks, and then I'll, you know, start dressing up and going to events. People would say what is that that you're wearing? And that's how I started promoting myself and that's how I started selling lipsticks and lip glosses, and that was in 2012.

Speaker 1: 9:25

So from there, I just I still I don't think I still learned business at that time. I still was trying to learn how to sell. I was, you know, just being a salesperson and I was a really good salesperson, a really good salesman, like I was in my boutique. I would take my shoes off and sell them to the girls if my size was the girl's size, like I don't got them on the shelf, but I got them on my feet. If you need eight, you can have them, put my slippers on and go home. So I'm a really good salesperson. But I did not know like the business side of it, because I was just happy I was selling things, didn't realize I wasn't making a return, I didn't realize I didn't have a community or have a core audience, I just was selling. So as I grew, I had to learn what that meant to have a core audience, to market yourself.

Speaker 1: 10:21

And at this time I think Instagram was like really new. So I still didn't know anything about marketing and I just started like posting everything on Instagram and the things I will post my day-to-day life on Instagram, getting followers, and people were like well, what does she do? Where is she going? What is going on? And that's how I pretty much introduced myself to wanting to learn a community, like get in a community. And Instagram helped me do that because it wasn't just people from back home, it was new people, new followers from here and there, and here and there People would follow on Instagram. And I instantly sent a message hey, girl, I got this new website and and I did, I learned how to do my own website before shopify became about um, we were on wix got it and when I did a wix website fairly new uh, I had gifted one of my products to Bambi from Love Hip Hop.

Speaker 1: 11:25

Okay, and at that time, right before Bambi posted my lip gloss, cynthia from Housewives had put up a post and gave my company a shout out and the sales were good. Bambi put up a post on like a slow day. I'm driving home and I get a notification from PayPal saying they're holding my money and I'm like what is going on?

Speaker 2: 11:49

Too much activity, yeah.

Speaker 1: 11:50

I didn't even know, like, what was going on, because I knew Bambi's makeup artist. I didn't know her personally, I just did business with Bambi's makeup artist and I would, you know, give her makeup all the time. And she was doing Monica, she was doing all the girls. So, you know, I just thought she could just pass them on. I didn't know the nature of uh, what do you influence her marketing? Right Cause at that time people didn't charge to post, got it? Um? So Bambi put up you know, it's a rainy, perfect day for me to wear my Bella Rose passion and when she posted it I didn't see it. I didn't know what was going on.

Speaker 1: 12:30

The sales went crazy. My PayPal got locked. No money was able to come out of my PayPal. My PayPal got locked. No money was able to come out of my PayPal. Wix didn't know how to handle the traffic, so when people were checking out, it was no shipping fees. I didn't know how to set that up and I would have to. We would like put the lip glosses in the packages and write with our hand to the customers on the shipping labels and take them to the post office at the time and it them to the post office at the time and it was a lot of orders at the time. So when she did that and you know, I had to pay for everything out of pocket because PayPal held the money.

Speaker 1: 13:06

I had to learn how to. I didn't even have a business bank account or anything, none of that. This is all so fresh. So, moving forward, I had to learn how to do all of that. You know, and with my husband going to business school, he went to school to be an accountant and a business manager. With him going to school, he taught me like, oh, you should do this, you should have that. Like I didn't even know what an EIN was, he set up everything for me. So when he would do things, I'm like, oh, okay, and just leave it, and I would just do the you know major side. Like, ok, well, let me see if I can do this, let me see if I can do that, let me see if I do that, not knowing that this structure is not going to work if this part isn't correct. Yeah, so good thing, you know he put all of those things in place for me to keep moving, yeah, and just keep going, and just keep going.

Speaker 2: 13:54

Yeah, I love it so much of your journey. When I think about the starting of your conversation around, this is like same you, same skills, but wrong season, wrong environment is what I took from that. Like to have that experience working in New Jersey and coming here and feeling like you're out of alignment, but trusting that. This is how I feel. It's not that I don't want to do this. It's something that I can't actually move forward with because it doesn't feel right in my spirit. And then kudos to your husband, like okay, I trust that whatever she's going to be able to do, she's going to be able to do it, but she has to put something in it. So I know what we're getting ourselves into.

Speaker 2: 14:35

We just can't go out here blindly. And then him being able to put that support in and say, ok, I'm going to get the knowledge that we need to back you. And then I think, kind of going into your point, like I don't know what I'm doing, but I trust my spirit that I'm moving in the right direction. And I'm here in this physical location. The money is not money. The customers are not doing it like right location it was seen because I'm next to a nail shop but the wrong avatar and people because they don't pay attention to anything else other than what they're going there for.

Speaker 2: 15:09

And then out of that saying, okay, but I know I got this download, I know I'm supposed to be doing what I'm supposed to do, so I'm going to go to where the people are that wants this stuff, because I'm not giving up. And then going to that and being obedient, hearing feedback for what people need and creating what people need, yeah, and your obedience, god's like floodgates. And then you're like, oh, oh, ok, let's put some more process in place because God is not playing about us.

Speaker 1: 15:36

Oh yeah, oh yeah. It was definitely like, okay, now it's time to run, yeah, but I closed the store. We had a store open for a little bit and I think I had maybe eight months or so, even the landlord. The landlord was like, oh, I'll give you more time. I was like, no, we had Georgia Power at home, georgia Power, the shop, you know Georgia Power. Don't care that you didn't make no sales.

Speaker 2: 15:58

Yeah, they don't. They don't. The bills are still billing.

Speaker 1: 16:01

Yes, it's no, okay, we'll give you a discount percentages. No, it's nothing like that, and I don't know if people are familiar with commercial properties, but with commercial properties, your Georgia Power is probably like double. You got air running all day, you got lights running all day. You got lights on all day, you got security systems. It's so much um. So we decided to close the shop, and it was. It was no hard feelings, you know, it wasn't bittersweet or anything. It's like okay, shut that down, let's keep it moving, because e-commerce was becoming so big, social media was becoming so big, so we didn't really need a physical location.

Speaker 2: 16:35

Yeah, you don't want that overhead.

Speaker 1: 16:36

Yeah, and it was like, okay, I have to learn what e-commerce is. Mind you, I have no business sense. At the time, learning e-commerce was fun for me. It was very interesting. It kept me up all night. I went on to so many platforms to see how I can learn how to do this, how I can put this back in behind this. What programming do I need for this feed? It was just so fun for me.

Speaker 1: 17:03

And when I learned how to do e-commerce, I was like, okay, let me play around with my website. And I think maybe 2014 or 2015, and I think maybe 2014 or 2015, somewhere around there I saw Shopify and Shopify was still really new. It was still, you know, really they were trying to figure stuff out. So I created a basic Shopify website. When I created the basic Shopify website, I think I had maybe 10 or 15 products or so, not too many, uh. But when I created the Shopify website, it was still, you know, low traffic. I didn't know how to get traffic to the website. So that's where social media came into. But at the time, social media didn't have, you know, you can add the link to your pages and things like that yet. So it was like go to my website and you still had to type things in. So I started, you know, still playing with social media, learning the algorithm, learning how to get things in.

Speaker 1: 18:12

We did another influencer promo. I did OK, so influencers started to charge. Another influencer promo Okay, so influencers started to charge. And this one influencer, ari Fletcher at the time she was pregnant with her son and she charged me like $300. And I think I probably was maybe one of the first social one, of the first e-commerce things that she did. And when she charged me the $300, I didn't know who she was. My kids did, and so I was like, okay, cool, you know, we'll do that. And, oh man, she put up that post and I had no idea the strength in following. I think we made about ten thousand that first week that she put up that post and it was just like simple, her rubbing the butter on her hands. It wasn't no big promo, no big, it wasn't nothing crazy. But the sales just kept going and going and going. I had to put the product out of stock. It was so many orders. And that's when I learned about the you know power of influence. And when we learned about that you know power of influence.

Speaker 1: 19:21

and when we learned about that I was like, okay, we got to get more influencers, yeah and um. That's when we started the influencer marketing and we started with um. We started with Ari. We did another post with Ari and I think we did. We did another influencer and she charged a lot more because she had a really big following. I can't remember how many followers she had, but she charged a lot more. I was talking about a couple thousand more and I only got like two sales. I said, okay, now we got to figure this out.

Speaker 2: 19:51

I love that we're getting into this, because that was going to be one of the questions that I asked you as I hear you, because there are people that have a following but don't have no influence that's the thing, that's what I had to figure, that's what I had to learn and learning community and learning, you know, about the power of influence versus the power of paying attention to what you see.

Speaker 1: 20:15

yeah, you know you can see people with 10 million followers, but then you look at their activity and it's like two comments, 50 likes, or you know they're not engaging with their followers and things like that. So when we were trying to find influencers, we had to filter out okay, this person doesn't do engagement, this person is not really doing numbers, this person. And then I learned it's a tool on social media. No, it's not on social media. I think it's like a website where you can put in the influencers information and see how much engagement they do and how much they're able to grow.

Speaker 2: 20:51

Right.

Speaker 1: 20:51

And that's how we found, you know, the influencers we used Cuban link 50 cents ex-girlfriend website went crazy. I think we used her maybe three times because the sales were so, so good. And then she's a Jersey girl, so and it was really, really, really good. Her promo was great and that grew my community because it was the jersey and it was something that was genuine.

Speaker 1: 21:23

Yeah, and because it's the, it wasn't like, oh, I'm just getting paid to post this. She genuinely liked the product, Like her sister contacted me. Like you know, we love your product, you know, and you love to get responses that way. At that time. Then I realized I had to figure something out because I want to grow.

Speaker 2: 21:42

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 21:43

I want to grow and I know it's more for this business. So we filtered out let's sell this, let's not sell this. I think I had maybe 40 products at the time. It just kept growing and growing and I took the lip glosses off the website because I wasn't feeling that in my passion anymore. The name speaks for itself. I'm Bella Rose, but I sell my passion, bella Rose Passion, and I'm sorry, I don't even think I said that I'm the CEO and founder of Bella Rose Passion.

Speaker 2: 22:13

Let's go back.

Speaker 1: 22:21

Bella Rose passion. And when I, when I don't have the passion for something, I don't keep it on just because it makes money or because you know, like money is not the driving for this, my passion is. And I took the lip glosses off. Like I said, I have no passion for it and even though they were selling really good, people still today ask me are you going to bring the lip glosses back?

Speaker 2: 22:39

I'm like no. I just I don't feel it Like Bath and Body Works. They want you to bring it back. Yeah, bring it back. No.

Speaker 1: 23:14

I just don't feel it. And they were really good. As I said, I found non-chemical vegan products and they were really helpful for our lips. They plumped our lips, they sooth for our lips, they plumped our lips, they soothed our lips. These lip glosses were oh my God I want to say they went on like butter Very top tier, very top tier, and I actually, you know, was able to do events with Macy's with the lip glosses. We did a lot of events with the lip glosses, but I just wanted another phase.

Speaker 1: 23:50

So when I started with the influencer marketing, I just had body butters and I wanted to focus because I needed to see how's my audience going to grow. So with the body butters, I said let's see if I can get it into retail. And I tried to get it onto Amazon, which, as we can see, amazon sells everything, everything, everything. But Amazon denied me about 15, eight times. So I was like why can't my product sell on Amazon? What is going on?

Speaker 1: 24:22

What I had to learn by doing research when you say that you're selling an organic product versus a natural product, it's two different things. Organic, you have to be USDA approved and have that organic certification, and until I had that certificate. I couldn't get my products on Amazon, so I had to apply for the certificate, send the products out to get tested to make sure you know there's no synthetics or anything in a product. And while I was waiting on that, I applied for Walmart and got approved right away and I said, ok, good, but I'm not going to put everything onto Walmart, because I have a specific product that I believe is very high end and I don't want it to be rollback prices and et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 1: 25:13

I love my Walmart community and this is, you know, I'm going to get into how I learned what community is for what. I wanted my specific body butter to go into, like Sephora or something, which is what I put on my vision board. I had a vision board, I mean in 2015,. I wanted to meet Oprah, I wanted to be on Forbes and I wanted my products to go into retail stores. I put Sephora in. I can't remember the other store I put on there, but that was my vision in 2015. And I forgot about the vision board. I actually folded it up and put it in the garage.

Speaker 1: 25:50

So as I'm doing all these things, I completely forgot that I did this vision board and I just continue and continue. So I did apply for Sephora. I don't know if I did it correctly at the time and I didn't get any answers. So I signed up with this agent. And when I signed up with the agent, he was like oh, we have an event coming up and I want you to meet some people. And when I, you know, I was like okay, well, you know, you can put me on the list to meet with the and I think she was the creator and owner of the event and the event is called ubiquitous. It's called the ubiquitous. Her name is Jermaine, she's awesome.

Speaker 1: 26:36

And uh, jermaine called me like a day or two before I was supposed to go to the event. It was in DC and she said is this Bella? I said yes, who am I speaking with? She was like this is Jermaine. I'm the creator of Ubiquitous. I'm so excited you're coming. I have people that want to meet you and want to see your products, and this is another thing I want to get into. After I tell this story, you never know who's watching you. And so when she said that, she said there's so many people interested in your product. One of many people interested in your product? Um, one of the people that wants to meet with you.

Speaker 1: 27:09

She wants to have a sit down interview with you and I'm thinking it's something like this yeah interview and she said yeah because she wants to put your products in target. I said what, what, huh?

Speaker 2: 27:18

she wanted to what.

Speaker 1: 27:20

I couldn't believe. I sat on the floor in front of my window Cause I used to work for um. I used to work for it was eBay. Yeah, I used to work for eBay, um, work from home, and I was my. My desk was corner by my window.

Speaker 1: 27:37

Before I will go to work, I will go in my closet. Before my closet was done the way it is, it was a bench in my closet and I would sit on my bench and pray every morning and I learned how to be specific in prayer and I will always pray God, please, let my products get my, please, let my unicorn products get into retail, please. And I would be very specific. And when she said that I wasn't, I was like, oh my gosh, what do you mean? Because I don't know how to do a proposal, I don't know how to do a presentation, I don't know how to get into retail, I don't know how to do anything that she's asking me to do. So when she told me, I was like OK, and she was like I hope you're ready. It's going to be amazing. She was hyping it up. It was great, I get there and it's everything she said.

Speaker 2: 28:34

Beautiful.

Speaker 1: 28:35

She had my booth directly at the door. So as soon as you come in the hall, my booth was like right there. And one thing I learned because I used to do events with Brown and Brothers years and years and years upon, like getting to this point. I would do events every year for Barnum Brothers and we would do the VIP suite. When we would do the VIP suite, sometimes people just come up to your booth and say oh nice, and walk away. So I had to learn how to pivot that. Like let me see how I can get people to you know, come to this booth yeah.

Speaker 1: 29:08

I put the lights, the cameras and the step and repeat the red carpet. It was like an event and it was the experience Got it. And next thing, you know, I had a line all the way down the hallway Because everybody wanted the Belarus Passion experience. Right, we had. But I went into my meeting, like I said, I was completely unprepared Emotionally, business-wise. I, just into my meeting, like I said, I was completely unprepared emotionally, business wise, I just was not prepared. I couldn't even open a laptop. I didn't even know the password to the laptop. It was terrible, the presentation was terrible. But she said I love your product, the packaging just isn't ready. I was like OK, packaging just isn't ready.

Speaker 2: 29:51

I was like okay.

Speaker 1: 29:52

And I'm doing all this out of pocket, all of our own money, no loans, no, you know, we I didn't know how to do any of the how, you know, go into the bank and get business credit or business loans or anything.

Speaker 1: 30:09

We're all still figuring this out at this time. Um, when she said that, it kind of crushed me because I had about 5,000 labels at home and I was like, okay, I'm going to fix these labels. So I went back to the table. She brought her team to the table. When she brought her team to the table, I still did not know this was the target team. They were like, oh, this is nice, this is really good. And so they wanted to get like a little package and everything. And I gave them the package and I continued to stay in contact with her like she was my blood sister, every probably.

Speaker 1: 30:44

First it was like every two months, then it was like every month. I would send her an email. Hey, I, I just wanted to update you. This is what I'm working on, this is you know how it's going. And she always responded. She was very polite. She couldn't say much. Obviously, you know like she didn't want to make it seem like she was helping me, but she will let me know. Thumbs up, thumbs down, type of thing changed the labels four times. One time she responded back they look nice, do they have any? You know what she said do they have any thing that supports it. When she what she meant by that with this, you know she couldn't say so much. Do you have a collection?

Speaker 2: 31:24

got it no, this is oh my god like why didn't you say that up front?

Speaker 1: 31:30

yeah like this is all. I only got this body butter and it's only a four ounce body butter. So the thing was for the four ounce body butter is sold for $19.99. We go into maybe a beauty supply store or something and see a shea butter selling for five dollars or something. You know, we buy regular shea butter and it's cheap, you know. And so she wanted me to do a presentation that shows what's the difference between your body butter and the regular body butter. Why am I going to pay $20 for this four ounce when I can get a tub of body butter for $5?

Speaker 1: 32:05

or less, so I had to you know.

Speaker 2: 32:09

Make it clear.

Speaker 1: 32:10

Oh, boy, and I also created a collection. So that was the birth of the unicorn collection. And the unicorn collection consists of a four ounce body butter, eight ounce body butter, unicorn lotion and also a unicorn sugar scrub. Put that all together. We packaged it really pretty. The labels were nice.

Speaker 1: 32:31

We put it into Macy's um at Lenox mall and we got into Macy's at Lenox mall we. That was our first trial retail run. With our first trial retail run we wanted to see how it can do. Ooh, that Macy's rep gave me. She loved the product. She gave me the end cap.

Speaker 1: 32:51

This is what I learned about retail. So when you get um prime real estate, which is soon as you walk into the store, you see your product directly right there. My product was right next to the Chanel counter and as soon as you walked into the beauty I had a kiosk that was right there and the products look so beautiful. Oh, they look so beautiful sitting there. So it was a. I don't know what type of event Macy's had or something or whether the mall had an event, but the ladies was all over the beauty section. Me and my daughter and I did a launch for my birthday and this was the same time as the event, the ladies was lined up again at the kiosk. I loved it. I was so excited that I didn't pay attention to. All right, let me see how I can get repeat customers. Let me see how I can get people to do advertisements. Let me see how I can get drops. Let me see how I can do this, how I can do advertisements. Let me see how I can get drops.

Speaker 1: 33:54

Let me see how I can do this. I can do that.

Speaker 2: 33:57

I just was selling, yeah, just selling. I feel like I want to stop there, because I feel like you talk so much at the beginning about when you described who you were, that you're a student, yeah, and I think it speaks so much to your journey in terms of where you are now, because in being a student, as you're getting redirection, you're able to understand that the only goal here is to make sure that one I get it right and I remember that I'm working in my purpose and he's sending the people that are going to support you and so you have what you need, and so, for a regular person, they would look at this, thinking about the time span that things take and where you want to get to in your journey but not recognizing the blessings that's happening in your journey.

Speaker 2: 34:38

And the reason I like to point that out is because I think so many times we focus on the lessons instead of the blessings, not recognizing that, through the lessons of that person saying hey, it should look this way, and having to go back and this not happening the way you want it, you're also being blessed because you have someone that is able to one, believe in you, to let you know this is going to work, yeah, as long as you don't give up. And then, two, this is what you need to do to make it work. And then, clearly, your grit, your perseverance and, I'm sure, the support of the people around you like's keep going, let's make it happen. And I think all those things are so important in your journey that I can't help but to bring up, because you only see the end, but the realizing that all of this middle has taken place it was a journey.

Speaker 1: 35:25

It was a journey and even, even you know, at the Macy launch it still wasn't ready for Target. Yeah, and you know, and I share this story so much when I do these interviews because it is so still today, so many entrepreneurs that want to get into retail, and I do mentor programs to let people know the ins and outs of what I had to go through. I didn't have a mentor, you know, but I had to learn, go into these retail stores that you're, you know, destined to be in. You know, I'm not going to say trying, destined, you are going to do it. And when you go into these retail stores, one thing that me and my daughter we did, we went into Target at that time. We went into Target because we were in Macy's selling. But we went to Target store with the product, asked the Target employee, hey, do you know about this product? She was like I don't think we sell that. I said, well, you should. And I did a video.

Speaker 1: 36:20

I learned my audience by starting to pay attention to what the customers thought about the product, to the repeat customers, the people who want to have this on their nightstand, on their bathroom sink or in their beauty room on a consistent basis, picking up the product, asking customers whether it was inside a Macy's or whether it was a random store. I would ask them, hey, where could you see yourself having this product in your house? Where could you see this product in your home? Some people was like, oh, I would get it for my daughter, oh, my daughter would love that, et cetera, et cetera. But then most people once they tried it, they were like, oh my gosh, it's so soft, oh my gosh, it smells so good. And the reviews that they were given. I said, well, do you mind going to my social media and writing down this review In my social media and writing down as a review and my presentation? I needed to have, I think, at least over a hundred or maybe I think she said I think over a hundred reviews solely based off why they will purchase that product. Other reviews was based on you know how the product is. But when you go into a retail store, they want to know. You know, cause they're taking a gamble on you. If they give you a certain amount of money and they put in your product into the store, they got to know it's going to sell, right, you know. So I had to have over 100 reviews based off why a person would purchase that product.

Speaker 1: 37:44

And that was really hard. It's not as easy as you think. Walking up to somebody and saying, would you purchase this product and can you tell me why? No, and you're like, okay, keep it moving. And then the customers that were buying on the website, it was great.

Speaker 1: 38:00

But then the pandemic came. Woo, we had to get the products out of Macy's. All the stores closed and once we got the products out of Macy's, it was like, okay, what do we do now? You know, do we sit at home like everybody else and figure it out? What do we do? We hired a marketing team.

Speaker 1: 38:20

And when we hired the marketing team, they were very expensive. I said, okay, how do we know that? You know you guys are going to give us, you know us, double than what I'm paying. Oh, we can guarantee that this is going to da-da-da-da-da. And they did. They delivered within like a week. Oh man, I think I made over double than what I paid. It was amazing. The social media reviews was coming in, everything was going, just going, and that is what I needed to push the product into Target. And once we did the presentation. I had to hire a team that knew how to make a PowerPoint presentation for Target to look at each specific product I had. Even though it was a collection, I had to give a different presentation on each different SKU and they loved the presentation. I was very happy and we got approved to go into inside of Target stores in 2021. And once I was able to get the contract, I had to have emergency surgery on my spine.

Speaker 2: 39:33

You're like what, like how. Like make it make sense.

Speaker 1: 39:40

Yeah, it was scary. It was really scary. Thinking about it now, it was during COVID. It was like I'm scared, I might not wake up, you know. And the surgery was successful. It was a lot, but the surgery was successful. And the next day that I went home and I had on my neck brace and I had my meds all pumped in me. I did my Zoom and they were like oh my God, bella, do you need us to reschedule?

Speaker 2: 40:14

No, we got to keep going.

Speaker 1: 40:16

I've been working on this for too long. Just send me the thing I signed. But I had to do it on Zoom so they could physically see me sign it. So they were just like cracking up and I signed the contract and I signed the contract and once I signed the contract for the products to get inside Target it was actually a nondisclosure that I had to sign, where I could not tell anyone that the products was going into Target because things happen.

Speaker 1: 40:42

It might not go in on that date or it might not be able to be released or anything can happen For sure. So you know, I had to wait and I figured it out. I was like okay, so what do I do? How do I get the customers to go to target instead of going on my website? Cause they were selling really good?

Speaker 1: 41:01

Because of the marketing team on my website, products started selling like crazy. I mean, we couldn't keep inventory in, like it was just a lot of sales, inventory in like it was just a lot of sales. And, um, I took the products off my website. It was a gamble, but we sent out an email. I took the products off the website the month I knew that they would be launching inside of target, sent out an email to the customers. Unfortunately, we will no longer be selling the unicorn products on the website. We are sorry. We didn't let them know. We're going to retail. So it's kind of like a marketing strategy. And they were like oh my, I was getting messages, they were contacting me on Facebook. What's going on? Is this a scam? And I was like no, it's real. But I couldn't say anything.

Speaker 1: 41:45

And launch day happened. We sent out an email, probably about 4 am I think we had a schedule 4 or 5 am and by the time I woke up and the products was, I went to. I can't remember what was the first thing I did, but I know I got an email that the products was on Target website and but it said out of stock. They were sold out and it was a blessing. Our customers was happy. They was excited. I posted it on social media I thought I found that out and they were like oh my gosh, I'm so proud of you. So it was.

Speaker 1: 42:22

You know all of that work. It was a lot Like I used to go into when we first got the approval at Walmart. I used to. I learned how to airdrop and I used to airdrop customers the products while they were in Walmart and tell them if you go to my website or go to walmartcom to purchase the products, you'll get a discount or you'll be able to get, you know, a gift card. I would just do anything as far as marketing to get customers to come to the website. I needed that traffic. So when you apply for a retailer like Target, they want to see your traffic, they want to see your numbers, they want to see it's worth it. And if the you know, if it don't make sense and it's just like, oh well, we can wait. You know, I had to boost them numbers. I had to do it by any means necessary. By any means necessary, I was like I'm going to get into Target once. I met with that buyer that one time and she was like we like it, it's just not ready.

Speaker 2: 43:20

Yeah, that was motivation, that was like okay, there's just opportunity there, you like it?

Speaker 1: 43:26

okay, you about to love this. You like yeah, to say love yeah, and I, you know it was motivation. I'm one of those people. I'm a Leo, me too.

Speaker 2: 43:36

What kind of Leo?

Speaker 1: 43:37

I'm an August.

Speaker 2: 43:38

Leo, I'm an August, leo, okay girl. So yeah you feel me. I hate to say it, but there's a difference.

Speaker 1: 43:42

It's a big difference between August and July, leo 17.

Speaker 2: 43:47

Yes, yours is Obama's birthday it is yes, yes it is.

Speaker 1: 43:53

And so you know, leos, we determined you can't tell me no, yeah, it's not going to work out good for you. If you tell me no, it's going to happen. I'm telling you it's nothing that I feel like I cannot do Right, and especially when you feel it in your spirit.

Speaker 1: 44:11

Are you familiar with? Um, mary, mary is the God in me. What you don't know is when you shut all this down and I go behind and I get on my knees and I pray, and I'm praying specifically. That's what I'm listen. I'm specifically saying I want to do this. I'm gonna do it because I know he listening like I know I know it's gonna work out as my husband. Like you don't put nothing into.

Speaker 2: 44:37

Like you don't put a plan for nothing, you just want to jump up and go straight down, yeah, like okay, like you know, I mean, I just gotta know it's real, it's in my spirit, I'm supposed to do it and we run. Just got to know it's real, it's in my spirit, I'm supposed to do it and we run into play. Let me tell you something.

Speaker 1: 44:52

I know it's not my time to leave this earth, so if I can make it happen while I'm here, I'm going to do it.

Speaker 2: 44:58

Yeah, absolutely. I love that so much. And it's funny that you bring Mary Mary into the picture Because, like one of my songs that I used going through the journey is, I can't give up. Now, that is my song and so the fact that you mentioned it is like, oh, I'm like I love me some Mary Mary. Yes, we are getting close to time so I do want to make sure that we touch on, like your grief journey, so we'll go into that a little bit. Like, how has your grief journey been as it relates to going after your goals and still balancing the calling over your life, so that's like the next chapter.

Speaker 1: 45:32

To be honest, um, having having to lose a mom is like the worst thing you know.

Speaker 2: 45:51

You can't put it to work.

Speaker 1: 45:53

I'm an only child and she a lot to miss. She is a lot to miss when I was doing the process of getting the products into retail. It was a big deal, like I called my mom for everything. Oh, I'm going to the grocery store, I'm about to get this car, everything. I decided to no longer have my products with Target. You know, after all the stuff that was going on, but I didn't have a passion for it. I honestly felt like I didn't have a passion for my business anymore. It just felt like you know, she was really I don't know. It felt like you're trying to prove something when you call your mom and tell her something Make her proud.

Speaker 1: 46:40

Yeah, and I don't know, it's just, it feels like it just wasn't worth it anymore. So I decided to remove my products from Target last month because all last year I just was checked out. My mom passed away January 2024 and I completely checked out Like I don't I don't even recall myself doing business at all. I didn't feel anything removing my products from Target. I didn't feel anything removing my products from Target Nothing. I wanted to start a new journey, and this journey is to honor her, and honoring my mom is something I want to continue to do, because I know she's here yeah, you know, in a spiritual sense and watching me. So I created a carpet freshener while she was still here it was around the holidays Put it on the carpet because you know, when your mom comes visit you, your house has to smell good. I don't care what you do, make sure it smell like either food or some sort of something. And I had the carpet freshener down the whole time. She was like and I had the carpet freshener down the whole time, she was like what is that? It smells so good? And I told her what it was and she was like man, it smells good. She loved it. She went home and she lived in New Jersey.

Speaker 1: 48:01

After we left the hospital, after she passed away, we went to her house. We were, you know, cleaning the house and my aunt had saw the stuff on my mom's counter for her to try to make the carpet freshener I was making and I was like she was trying to do it herself and I was like you know what I'm gonna keep it going for her because I was in no way trying to sell cleaning products or you home goods or anything, and that motivated me to start selling home good essentials and her favorite store is Walmart. So I wanted to oh my gosh, I wanted to put some products in Walmart so I could just have her name with Walmart and I wish I could have done it, you know, while she was here so she could have saw it. But I know that she sees the journey. I know she is sees the journey. I know she is watching over everything. So we now have different scents of carpet fresheners. We now have coconut, soy wax candles, scented candles and room sprays, and all in honor of my mom. I love that.

Speaker 2: 49:05

I love that so much. I hate that. We have that in common my everything, and I think the reason why I wanted to point that out is because when you have someone, that means that much to you, because there's different levels of love.

Speaker 1: 49:17

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 49:17

And so you lose people and you're like, oh, I'm so sorry to see them go. They meant this in my life, but when you lose your mom, when you lose your person, it's a completely different thing. So you go through stages of grief and then you have to figure out how to come out of it, to still stand up, and I know for me, my awareness was recognizing that she lived her life. Am I going to choose?

Speaker 2: 49:39

to live mine, yeah, and I think for you, knowing that all this time you're seeing the greatness in terms of what God is putting you, the wisdom and your calling over your life, and recognizing that there has to be more, and being able to tap into what does more look like for me, to keep me fulfilled, to be able to make that impact, make her proud, but then still show my children that I'm able to stand up when things get hard.

Speaker 2: 50:05

That was the part that I had to recognize, like when my mom lost her mom, she still got up, so I had to use that to pull myself up. Like you don't get to just sit down and cry rivers for weeks. You can do it for a day, maybe a couple of days if you need to, but what are you teaching your kids in terms of standing back up? Because it's not just through grief, it's through life, and clearly you had that resilience to be able to do it in life, but then you had to build your own muscle in that instance to be able to do it when the person that you love so much is not here.

Speaker 1: 50:36

It's a learning lesson, because my mom had a brain aneurysm 12 years ago and she survived. When I tell you it was like a walking miracle. Like girl she driving, taking vacations, all of that at the brink aneurysm, and it was like you're so strong, you know, you look at your mom like she's the strongest person in the world, cause she's not going to tell you, oh, I'm in pain, oh I'm hurting, oh I can't remember, or you know, whatever you know things she was going through. I had no idea. I remember one time my husband and I was in the car and I asked my mom for her doctor's information so I can call them. She was like OK, and hung up on me like she didn't want me to know. You know how serious any condition was. She didn't want me to worry. She never wanted me to worry. It's so funny. You know how you have these jobs of doing so many different things, but being a mom is one of the jobs that you just take pride in. Yeah, my mom was one of those people like she oh, that's my daughter, that's my daughter, that's my daughter. She was one of those people that just took pride in being a mom. So I love that. But you know, like I said, it's a learning lesson her having a brain aneurysm. I took it very serious. Um, high blood pressure is very scary things that we don't pay attention to, and I tried to get her on a healthy route. But I mean, listen, once people are stuck in their ways, they stuck in their ways. So she continued to do whatever she wanted to do and I love that for her.

Speaker 1: 51:59

But me, personally, I want to do things differently. So I created some vitamins apple cider vinegar it has sea moss, you know the daily healthy herbs and I, you know, talk to my kids all the time and they tell me I think apple cider vinegar is the cure for everything. But I do. But I want the daily healthy herbs to go into my body every day. I want to walk every day. I want to be physically, you know, healthy because I did have a injury, a severe injury, and I now have nerve damage and it does hurt a lot.

Speaker 1: 52:31

And I'm completely opposite from my mom. I tell my kids I'm in pain, I'm hurting, because I am not superwoman, I'm not going to get up and cook a full course meal and I'm physically in pain and also, you know, mentally grieving my daughter. Oh boy, she's 26 and she's very helpful. She's like mom. I know you're hurting because of Nana. If you're not okay, you don't have to tell me you are and I'm like okay, thank you for that, because you know people ask you how you're doing and you're like I'm fine. And it's hard to lie but you don't want people to feel bad for you.

Speaker 1: 53:18

But, yeah, no, my family give me as much as grace as possible. Like my husband, he allows me to live the most comfortable life possible. I don't have to get up and you know, be that wife that has breakfast on a table and dinner done and all that. I live a very comfortable life and I love that because it's not putting me into a stressful situation and I don't have to worry about that, even though I go to the doctor. So much I don't have to worry about. Oh, I'm just too stressed out. Oh, I'm wore out.

Speaker 2: 53:46

Yeah, no, hearing your story as we start to wrap up is that what you do is you look at what's needed as well as what you enjoy. And then you talked a lot about that research. We're going to make sure we understand how to actually stand this up correctly. And you are a student and putting in the work that you need to put in to make it happen.

Speaker 2: 54:05

And when we think about like you, starting and saying that like Georgia mentor is not what you want to do, but there's something in you that needs to be birthed to where you're in the stores doing the things, like that journey it sounds like at least about 11 years or so.

Speaker 2: 54:20

Oh, it was 14, 14 years right and everyone's looking from going to the moment they decide that they want to do it to year 14, literally the same day, oh yeah. And you have to have the grit, you have to have the muscle, because what you build along the journey is just so much more valuable to where you can take that instance of a lip gloss and turn it into a butter, and turn it into now, a carpet cleaner and turn it into additional products and anything else God gives you in the future, because you've built the muscle you've put in the work.

Speaker 2: 54:55

And that same strategy applies to anything and everything. And the problem is people don't want to learn the strategy. They don't want to learn what works for them. They want to. They don't want to want to learn what their actual strengths are. Have to always be a student? Yeah, absolutely, where can the listeners find you?

Speaker 1: 55:12

Oh well, everything is Bella Rose Passion. All social media platforms is Bella Rose Passion for the products. For me, everything is Bella Rose underscore CEO on all platforms.

Speaker 2: 55:23

Awesome. Yes, it was such a good conversation. I'm glad we were able to jump into all the things. Like you definitely want to follow Bella Rose because more is coming you can tell that it's spirit led and it's coming from an authentic place, so know that you're just seeing the start of the journey.

Speaker 1: 55:40

Oh yeah, definitely a new chapter, new start of a new chapter.

Speaker 2: 55:44

I love that you show the awareness of it's okay to pivot. Oh yeah, anytime you feel like it is not in alignment to who you're supposed to be. And also within that pivot. We're going to grow, we're going to elevate and you're okay with starting over, but knowing where you're going.

Speaker 1: 56:00

Oh yeah, don't, just don't give up.

Speaker 2: 56:02

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 56:02

That's all. Just don't give up. Do whatever you have to do, just don't give up.

Speaker 2: 56:06

Absolutely Well. It's a pleasure having you on the podcast.

Speaker 1: 56:08

Thank you, hazel, I appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 56:11

Guys, if you're tuning in, make sure that you're following the podcast. You're sharing the episodes with your besties, all those go-getters. They really want to be able to maximize their growth, live in alignment and live a life that feels calm, feels like you're doing what God puts you here to do. Keep growing and keep going and just know that we're here and we're rooting for you Real recognize real.

Speaker 2: 56:33

I've had to learn not to be the strong one. It's okay, and you realize that when you're gone, what are they going to say? Oh, we missed her. But someone told me, a therapist, that, just like ants, when the leader comes out of the play, they flop back together and keep it moving. Yes, they do. So, we got to learn to prioritize ourselves.

Speaker 1: 56:49

And not only that, when you are the person that is there for everybody, picking up when people fall, and you know you're doing everything who doing what for you? And then you weak. I mean, I used to run a makeup company with the makeup artists and I remember I had to run a makeup company with the makeup artists and I remember I had to go to the hospital one time my blood pressure was so high and they calling me well, you need to get here. Because of that, I had them set up at a hotel. They were doing makeup for the Jackson 5. And it just was. It was bad, because who care about you?

Speaker 2: 57:27

Yeah, you got to care about you.