YouSaid · the spoken record

Monique Rodriguez

lines on the record: 87
first: 2023-05-15
most recent: 2023-05-15
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And so when she gave me that advice, I didn't take it as, oh, she's hating on my vision. I actually thought about it. It was like food for thought And I appreciated her advice because it was the way that she delivered her advice. I mean, I wouldn't have started Mayell and blew up how I have if it wasn't for me talking to her because I clearly wanted to start a hair salon.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so I went to one workshop, and she was a famous celebrity hairstylist who's from Chicago. And she was doing a workshop on how to build your brand on social media. And I presented my idea to her and I said, I'm really looking to like open up a hair salon. And she's like, I think that what you're trying to do is really great, but with you being a nurse and going into the salon space and having all of these cosmetologists work under you, it's really hard to get them to respect you. Because you don't come from their space”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I knew, I'm very self aware, I understand my weaknesses. I understand the areas that I'm really good at and the areas that I'm weak, I go find help. And I knew that I did not have any knowledge of business. I knew that I did not have any knowledge of how to build a brand, how to market on social media. So I would go online and listen to podcasts and how I built this was one of the podcasts that I would binge listen to. I would find workshops that were talking about branding and marketing.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I had like put together a plan of creating a hair salon. And I remember telling my husband this, and my husband would always encourage me too, because I would have those days where I would just sit and, you know, just probably stare at the wall. And he's like, no, get up. Like, get out your plan. What are you going to do next? Let's do something. So he would always push and encourage me too because he saw that when I started focusing on stuff that had to do with hair, my face would light up or I would be happier or I would be focused. And so, when I thought of the idea for the hair salon, he was just like, okay, we're going to do it.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yes, and then I would put it on my hair. And so this is like trial and error. And women were actually making the exact recipes and trying it and experimenting on their hair as well. And I was like, that showed me at that moment like, oh, I have influence. They're taking what I'm saying and they're they see value in it and they're actually like recreating it. So that was a light bulb moment for me to like show are you going to take this influence and use it the right way and grow and scale this or are you going to Continue just having fun with it.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I was offering up recipes to whoever wanted those recipes. So it wasn't to the point where I even had a formula that you can actually market and sell. So for instance, I would make like, because I knew my hair needed protein. And so as I was researching, I'm like, okay, egg has a lot of protein. And so I would make. Conditioners, and I would mix egg into that conditioner.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“From straightening my hair. Yep. So from the age of like 12 until like my late 20s. My hair was always straight. Like I didn't want to embrace my curls. And I would figure out and read online like, okay, what ingredients are great for restoring the curl pattern or helping seal the hair cuticle or the structure and the strength of the hair. So I would just like literally sit on the computer and just order like different oils and like test it on myself and I would just like post about it on social media. And I found so much joy in doing that because women were like asking more questions because they were dealing with some of the same hair challenges and hair issues. And so that's why I tell people like I wasn't planning on creating a product line because I would actually share like the different concoction recipes I would post it on social media to help other women.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Was a way to just like creatively express myself. And I was expressing myself with, you know, hey, this is this hairstyle I made today. Like I'm making this concoction. I'm mixing together like some avocado, banana, some oils, and I'm going to put this conditioner on my hair. Like, let me know what you guys think.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But during the time that he was on life support, we were at church at the altar every Sunday, and we began to be at peace with God's decision. And even though we didn't understand it, we didn't understand why, but it wasn't for us to question. And, you know, that pain, that situation, ultimately led me to a higher purpose. And I tell people this all the time. Yes, I have a hair company. I sell shampoos, conditioners, but ultimately I'm very vocal about how my vision of starting May L came from God, deciding to put God first is when I had the vision to just go on social media and just talk about hair. It was just me getting my mind off of like, you know, the loss of my son and finding a routine that kept me busy. Like doing things that I loved is what kept me from. And”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and that's the thing that's looking at them because they were three and seven. I knew they needed me to be their mom. Even though I was hurting, I was sad, like I still had to show up probably the hardest thing was explaining to them, seeing their mom leave them with a big belly, but then to come home with nothing when we've talked about this baby and you're going to be a big sister. Like that was the hardest thing to like tell them, but our faith was what we had to hang on to we were not churchgoers before.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think my doctor was at home. And so it took him forever to get there to the hospital to do the emergency C section. So because it took him so long to get there, my son's heart rate continued to drop. And, you know, he continued to lose oxygen to the brain. So when he was born, there was no brain activity. It was just devastating. And we didn't let go right away because we held on to our faith and we said we're going to continue to pray that God brings him through. But unfortunately, we had to deal with God's will. And my son, he stayed on life support for six months because that's how long it took us to really come to terms with the fact that he was no longer with us. And it was just a terrible moment because we would watch his, like he would grow in the physical, like his body would just grow. But, you know, there was, he was lifeless.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And so she told me, she said, because I cut you up and down, if you have a subsequent pregnancy, make sure you tell your doctor because you will be at risk for uterine rupture. And so he was scheduled to come in September. And unfortunately, it happened. The uterine rupture happened on August 9th in the middle of the night. My husband had to rush me. He had just came home. Thank God he had to rush me to the hospital. You know, I didn't live by any high-risk hospitals.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, and you know, I don't mind talking about it because honestly, like when I talk about it, I feel that I'm honoring my son because, you know, he's the reason why obviously God sent him to be my angel, but Mael wouldn't exist if it wasn't for what I went through And so in 2013, got pregnant and we were not trying, so it was a surprise. And I was already nervous about the pregnancy because of how high risk McKenzie was. And I remember the doctor told me when she saved McKenzie's life, she said, I cut your uterus up and down. That's like for emergencies. Usually when you have a C-section, the cut on the uterus is like transverse. So it goes across horizontal, I guess.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And then, you know, when she came home and she was a baby, I still wanted to watch her closely. So that's when I transitioned to being a home health nurse. When she came home”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“She was a premium. Yeah, she was two pounds, seven ounces. So she stayed in the NICU. So, of course, I'm in school and I'm like, okay, I'm not going to focus on school. So I dropped out of the program.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They were both early, so Mia, she was only a month early, and then Mackenzie, who's my youngest, she was supposed to come in January, and she was an emergency C-section, and she, when she was born, she was a fighter. She's a tough one, and she's still tough to this day. But she stayed in the hospital for two months in order for her to grow and just develop.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, still kept trying. And then at even one point, I said, okay, well, if entrepreneurship is not something for me, let me go back to school and let me try to further my nursing career because then if I advance my degree in nursing, I can open up my own practice as a nurse practitioner. In 2009, I enrolled back into schools to advance and get a master's degree and become a nurse practitioner. And in 2009, that's when I got pregnant with my second daughter and she ended up coming like two months early. So I don't know if you know this, but both of my daughters were born on my birthday. Yeah, that's like our fun fact.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like, I didn't even think that black women could even do this. So it was like the negative voices in my head were always telling me, this is not your lane. Like, what are you doing? You have no experience, no knowledge in this. I will let the thoughts of doubt and fear be louder than like the faith and believing in myself.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I started Googling what are the steps that I need to take to create a nursing agency? So I did the whole business plan myself. And then I realized how am I going to establish contracts with the hospitals? That was the part I couldn't figure out. So I easily quickly got discouraged, and I'm like, okay, this is not for me. Like, who am I to think that I can start this company? Like, you don't know anything about business. Why don't you go back to like what you know and that's working as a nurse You know, I think it's just a fact of, you know, you can't be what you don't see. And I'll be honest with you. Like, I thought that being a business person or business owner entrepreneur or whatever, like I thought it was something for like white men”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, so as I mentioned, I got burnt out after a year of working as a nurse. So I stopped working at the hospital and I decided to start working agency. When you work agency, your pay is also more. So I'm like, okay, this nursing agency, they're paying me this, and they have these contracts with this hospital. I wonder how much they're getting paid.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, that's a great question because I'm not a talker. I'm an introverted person by nature, but I force myself to Come out of my shell in order to get a job done. And I do credit that to working as a nurse because I had to deal with so many different patients from all different walks of life. And I learned very early on how to develop like rapport with people and how to connect and engage with people and make them feel very comfortable with me. And I took the same skill set of making people feel comfortable from nursing, and I applied that to business. So I learned how to push myself to talk more and to be more interactive and engage with people at a level where I'm uncomfortable where it scares me. And I know that if I'm scared that I'm challenging myself and you can only grow from those type of challenges.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“He worked at UPS, so he started at UPS when he was 16. So he started as the guys that packed the boxes and put them on the truck. I don't know what they're called. He started there, but he before he came on to Mael, he was a project engineer. So he went to school, became an engineer, and he just worked his way up. And so they're saying that UPS is like they bleed brown. And when I tell you, like, that was his saying, like, he bled brown because he really thought that he was going to climb the corporate ladder and be like the VP of UPS one day. That was his goal to do.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“When I tell you, I did like so many direct sales because they will always sell me the life that I wanted. And I thought I would get it by buying into this direct sales business. And it was cheap. So I didn't have a lot of money. Melvin didn't have a lot of money. So Mary K was like $100 or $200 to join. And so that was my second. Encounter with direct sales. So I would host like. And I did that for a while, and I just knew I was going to get the pink Cadillac. I was going to be the national sales director of my region. That was my goal. And I think at that time, I was probably like 21. Did that for a while, and that never got off the ground. I did probably sell like a few more lipsticks and cable subscriptions. But it wasn't anything that could pay my bills.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was cable subscriptions, correct And I remember we would host these parties To get people to buy into these subscriptions. When I tell you no one bought into those subscriptions and we were like, what is this? Like, I did not sell any cable subscriptions. So, and I did not become a millionaire overnight like they promised.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“learn about them yes like we i was probably like 19 or 20 in nursing school yeah And I remember the direct sales company that we were sucked into was called ACN. It was like a cable company. And so we would go to these seminars, and I remember it was this husband and wife couple, and they painted this visual, like all direct sale companies do. You're going to be rich overnight and you're going to live this amazing, lavish lifestyle. If you just sell all of whatever we were selling at the time.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, the funny thing is, even before I became a nurse, I've always had this spirit of independence, autonomy, like I've always been a visionary, a dreamer. And before I even became a nurse, Melbourne and I, we had, you know, we got sucked up into the direct sales. The multilateral.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yep, very clear. I remember when I first started and I stepped on the floor of labor and delivery, I dealt with more senior nurses and senior personnel that worked in the hospital that were not too friendly. They're not nice. They were mean, quite frankly. And, you know, I would ask myself, why is everybody so mean? And it dawned on me very early, like they're mean because they don't like being here. And I just told myself then, I was like, this is not what I want to do for the rest of my life. I have to find other things to make money so I can get out of this career. Like that was my mindset.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Like, get into no families and, you know, just meeting people. That's what I enjoyed. I enjoyed the thrill of, you know, when a patient comes in and we have to run into the OR and we have to hurry up and start IVs. Like I enjoy the adrenaline rush of being a nurse and like saving lives. I did enjoy that. But it was just like the day-to-day taxing the hours because I work nights because I had my first daughter and I didn't trust anyone to watch her. So my husband and I, we would rotate shifts. And so I worked the night shift. And it was, I still look back to this day and I'm like, I'm so thankful that I don't work nights. I appreciate and value my sleep so much. Because it was so taxing on my body, I remember days having to drive home and having to pull over on the side of the road to go to sleep so I don't fall asleep on the expressway.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was not enjoyable, to say the least. I started in a labor and delivery because as a young twenty two year old nurse, I said, I want to work with women because I can relate to women and I think I'll be a better nurse working with people that look like me. What I enjoyed the most about nursing was serving and helping people.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I can be a model, and I used to drag my mom to take me to pageants and go to different model calls to model for hair companies. And my mom, she never said it, but it was like her action show, like, you're not going to make it in this beauty space. And so my dreams of what I wanted to do, of being in the beauty industry, I just kind of like My dreams to the wayside and deal what my mom told me to do. So I went to nursing school and became a nurse at the age of 22.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of course, it's a great job, and it's recession proof. But yeah, so I think that parents also have a very unique way of manipulating their kids into getting their kids to do what they want. I think that my mom was like putting me in situations like, look, if you go to nursing school, this is what you'll have. Like, look at all my nurse friends. So, you know, I was a good kid. I thought that was my only route to be successful because, you know, I didn't grow up seeing women entrepreneurs, let alone like black women that were running and operating business. Like that was non-existent when I was growing up. I saw women that struggled and took care of their families. And the black women that I did see that were successful were in entertainment. They were models and actresses. And so growing up, you know, I thought that.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Because of my grandmother, because my grandmother was like very fancy and always kept her hair nice and she always made sure she went outside and had a lipstick and so like that was my passion. I enjoyed sitting down with my grandmother brushing her hair, playing in her makeup. So beauty was always something that just was very intriguing to me. And I also remember being young and like looking at women. And I would just look at a lady and I would just rearrange her whole look and give her makeover in my mind because I'm like, oh, if she had her hair like this or if she put this makeup on, if she wore this, like she would look so cute.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, because I've always been like a girlie girl, and my mom should laugh to this day. And like, you're always in the mirror. You're always in the mirror doing your hair. I remember being obsessed with my grandmother. My grandmother had long hair and she used to use mane and tail shampoo. And that's how much I paid attention to it because I knew exactly what shampoo she used.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, I was given or how I was brought up. You know, I always like to say that I didn't have to go to dare or, you know, learn about not doing drugs in school because I learned it in my own household. How it rips households apart, like how it affects your lifestyle, Work very hard to provide for us, and I'm truly thankful”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I grew up seeing my mom pretty much struggle to take care of me and my brother. She worked at University of Chicago Hospital. And because she worked in the hospital environment, she had a lot of nurse friends. So I remember being a little girl and she had one of this nurse friend. We went over her sister's house for like a barbecue or something. And it was just like this big home. I thought it was a mansion, you know, now that I look back, it wasn't. It was just a regular house. But it was bigger than our house. And, you know, she had a daughter and her daughter had a pool and then her room was just so beautiful like a princess room. And I remember at that moment telling myself like, wow, when I grow up and I have kids, like, I want to live like this. Like, I want my kids to live better than me and have something like this. And my mom, I don't even think she realizes this, but that instance planted a seed in me to start thinking differently and wanting more for my life than what.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, growing up, my mom was basically like a single mom trying to raise her kid. It was me and my brother. My dad, he suffers from drug addiction. So, you know, he was present in the household, but not necessarily present to where his kids needed him.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“We didn't really have a good understanding of how to run a business. So we were literally spending and not monitoring what was going out. We had to learn the hard way, and it really humbled us. Top line was great. The company was growing, like so on the outside looking in, like, you know, it looked amazing.”
2023-05-15 · How I Built This with Guy Raz · Mielle Organics: Monique Rodriguez · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT