I got Entrepreneur of the Year Award for fit, and Dapper Dan presented my award. And he sent me this note in his speech, he said, You're Harriet Tubman. You're a fascist Martin Luther King, you're like all of these, like things that, in all honesty made me feel very uncomfortable while he was up there talking. But then he sent me flowers. And the flowers said the same thing. And I was like, that's a lot of pressure. Because it's easy or to pretend like we're less than who we know, God has really made us to be Oh, so much easier. And then when great things happen to us, we're just like, I can't believe this happened. When in truth, when you know that you've been made to be great, and that's your real truth. And you are ordain is not a cocky thing, or prideful thing. It's just, this is who I am. The truth is that I'm great. Not because anything that I've done myself, but because this is who God has made me to be. Welcome to since 3000. I'm Danielle Leslie, and we are here to dive into our past, present and future selves. And I have the perfect person here today for us to do that. One of my favorite people on the planet Brandis, Daniel, I'm so excited for you all to get to know her like I have gotten to know her. We do monthly dream sessions, where we talk about our future and what we're working on. But what you will know about brand as soon as she is the founder of Harlem fashion row, she's really created a new lane to put black designers on the map. She's been in rooms and done partnerships with some of the biggest household names including Nike, Janie and Jack Lebron James. She's been on the Drew Barrymore show. There are honestly too many names, y'all. She's been doing Harlem fashion row for 15 years. And today we're going to talk about the evolution of her her brand. What's next and I can't wait for you to be a part of the conversation. So Brandis thank you for being on. I'm so excited to bring you today's episode. But before we do, I need to make sure you've heard about member up. So community driven products are the future. But Facebook groups are a thing of the past. And after 10 plus years in the online education space, I've taken all my learnings and I've built this incredible platform member up. It's a customizable easy to use all in one platform where you can build a premium course community or membership site without the tech headache. Gone are the days of having to duct tape together, your content, your community, your payments, all on different platforms. I want you to do me a favor, do yourself a favor and head over right now to member up.com forward slash Danielle and you can get started for free today. I promise you I can't wait for you to see this platform. It's beautiful. Okay, the design is amazing. Your community is going to feel at home here and you are going to take pride in your online business. It is the place to start head over to member of.com Ford slash Danielle. Now let's get into the episode. They're in different industries or mentees. What do you think attracted them to you? I assumed you would say they're all in fashion. No, I just ask them I what I normally do is so so let me start here. Somebody did it for me. Who did it for you this woman Lavelle Alexa. So Lavelle Alexa would have these like salons at her home. She lived right on Fifth Avenue right by the Met. She had a beautiful apartment and she would invite women from these different industries to come to her home, like once a quarter. And then at those events, she would have someone there who would be speaking to us. And they wouldn't be like, you know, a huge politician or a classical pianist who's traveled the world or you know, it was like all these different and and so I said I want to do that. And so I just start identifying young women who I thought had lots of potential. No, where do you Where did you meet her? I met her through Loreen Arbus, Loreen ARBUS is her father or grandfather founded ABC. And so I met her at this gala, Gala. Gala. I was at a gala because someone wanted to hold like a fashion component to a gala and they reached out to me. And so I go to this gala. I meet Loreen Arbus, who actually need to reach out to her to say hello. Yes, but and then she says to me, you need to meet Lavelle, Alexa, go and these are all, you know, how old are established white women? Wow, how old are you at this time? At that time, I was probably 3334. Wow, they saw something in you. She's awesome. They knew where she's like you need to meet her. I've always had women like that in my life. Oh, you've attracted them you call them in? What do you think is it is about you that they're like, I want you to meet X, I want to keep you and my life and expand. I decided a while ago that I would just show up as myself. And I try to lead with kindness and everything I do. So I believe that those two things, and then people kind of see what I'm doing. And it's interesting to them. But I'm also very open, like, I'm so open to new relationships and new friendships. And I also think people can build that, you know what I mean? So, you know, I've had the Lavelle Alexa who say Brandis con and meet all these women and had me at her home. I've also had another woman, Laurie Feldman, who's also not my race, who says, Hey, Brenda's I've put together this, we've got this group of CMOS around the industry and from all these different, huge brands that we all know and love fortune 100. And she just invites me to one of their homes and and they get there and it's all about what do you need? Hey, we invited you here because we love what you're doing and want to know what you need, right. And so, you know, she's the one who suggested that I speak at the Forbes cmo summit, I got that because Laurie was like, rooting for me to get it and call the person at Forbes say she needs to speak at the CMO Summit. Wow, I got Forbes 30, under 30 through her. So I've had lots of just incredible, I call them my angels who have decided to pour into me in ways that are very unexpected. I love that what I think what I'm hearing from you. And also what I've seen is it's a combination of first you are doing your thing that you are in your lane, owning it, making it happen large enough for others to see. Then once you're in the space, you're invited to the space because they see you in motion, then when you're in this space are open. And I know that sometimes we can be in a space and feel like we don't belong in a space. And what that results in is maybe a wala insecurity, we want more than anything to feel a part of this person, their world for to be invited to things but then we end up creating the opposite result because we got the wallet for insecure. But for you, you're in this space, you're open to like this is who I am, as you say you lead with this purpose of I'm just I'm gonna be myself. And then the final thing I heard is you welcomed the invitation. When they invite you to speak at the summit. You don't say I don't? Well, you're like, Yes, I will. So I heard all three of those things. Which is inspiring for me to be honest, because like one point of reflection I had this year actually, I look back and I realized there were people who were vouching for me who were opening up opening me up to opportunities. And I was showing up low vibration. And I was actually blocking my blessings. Because I thought I didn't deserve it. And I didn't even realize it right? It took like a whole year I look back I was like, dang, you were out here and you had this. And then I thought about how sometimes we can say at a macro level that certain people in society aren't looking out for us aren't giving us opportunities. And I had to take personal ownership and say, Actually, there have been amazing men who have vouched for me and invited me. And I thought I wasn't worthy. And I said no, right? Who am I to say they're not looking out for me when I've actually said no, and my lower self, a subconscious, my sixth grade self, whatever version of me, came and drove the bus that day and said, We're not worthy. We're saying no. And I had to get real with myself about that and say you need to own up to that, because they were actually welcoming you and inviting you. So I love that you shared how you show up as yourself. You're like, this is me. I'm meeting you where I am, this is where I am. And then once you got the invitation, you're like, Let's go like, I will speak at the summit. Let's go see, I'm always it doesn't mean that I approached it without fear. Because I did and if I could be really honest, I didn't really feel like I belonged in that room. I kept questioning. I'm committed to saying yes. Oh, I'm not committed to feeling like I should have Say yes, you don't I mean, I'm committed. But I'm committed to saying yes, not that I should say, yes. Maybe I should. And maybe I shouldn't. I don't know. But I'm gonna go in the room. And I'm going to meet the people and I'm going to prepare for the opportunity. And I'm going to do it. Like no matter how afraid I am, and then we'll see what happens from there. What I'm hearing in that is the cliff jump. Yes. Which you have a course on this. I do. You when I look at what you've done, the brands you've worked with the people? Are you kidding me? We have a need help for this brag sheet. Oh, we have Nike, we have LeBron, we have American girl. I can't even name like I can you brag on yourself for a second. Jamie and Jack Janie and Jana Republic. We've also we also have a really exciting luxury shoe collaboration coming out in the fall. So yeah, it's been good. And not to mention all of the black designers you have put on and brought into the conversation into the room at the table with all these brands, all these people. So when I look at that I see a series of Cliff jumps. So it doesn't surprise me that that's what that's like your that's your like calling card. When you think back. I mean, what what is one Cliff jump that really like stands out to you. It might be a recent one. An early one. Yeah. What's the most recent Cliff jump? Oh, the most reason? Yes, yes. You would ask me? Well, yeah. We live in the future. We haven't even gotten to our little monthly session. But we meet up, I know, I talk, I'm gonna get to that. I think my most recent Cliff jump was deciding that I would raise capital for HFR. And that's something I have not said in public. So that is huge. That is huge. That's a cliff jump. There's a new arm that we're building that we're building out right now. And, you know, another cliff jump was deciding not to wait until we got capital, but to just go ahead and pay for it, which was a stretch for us. But I'm like, if you're not taking risks that you believe in, what are you doing? You know, like I, I cannot be in a place where I have regrets about what I didn't do. I just, I'm not interested in those regrets. And what I realized we kind of started this out talking about mentorship. And what I realized is that every kind of uncomfortable situation I put myself in, is going to end up being a lesson that I'm able to teach and walk someone else through. And so I have to do certain things where I feel compelled to do certain things, because I'm like, I don't know anybody who's done this before. So I have to do it so that I can kind of like create the trail for it. So I think there are I love, we can circle back on a few things. But one thing I want to highlight something that drew me to you, so you know how you're drawn to people, you see who you see something in them that is familiar to you, and something that you pride yourself on, embodying and I think with you, it is this interest in being the first I hear in that, you know, I'm excited to be the first to do this thing. So I can do it. I don't mind cliff jumping, like I don't mind being the first. And that way I can then create the blueprint go back until the others like Harriet Tubman, I'm gonna find the way I'll be the first I will overcome whatever obstacles because I believe that I can I believe I have the resilience. I have the mission to get to the destination. And then once I get there, I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna free the others. And I'm going to have the blueprint to share with them. And I know that that motivates me. And that's exciting to me. Like when people like why are you going into this new space? And I'm like, well, it's fun to be the first right is dope. And then once I figured out gonna be like, Hey, y'all here, here's here's what I learned. So again, the cameras I'm like, hello. And he's like, you're blurry in that camera. And I'm like, hello. You're far away in that caravan. I'm like, hello, this is my camera. But yes, I can go back. And that's what I'm hearing with you. Yeah. So tell me about this is this is a big deal. It isn't this shift from being bootstrapped. I resonate with this so much just because I'm, I'm curious if you have any of this as part of your story, but I know that for me, I come from first gen like I'm first generation so my my I'm from Panama data's from Jamaica, and we have a culture of doing yourself. Yep. You know, work hard, figure it out, do all the things. I wasn't raised with a comfort of delegating, asking for help, you know, leveraging other people's money, et cetera, et cetera. So therefore I was I built this business myself with my own, I'm like, okay, the customers gonna pay us. So I know personally, how big of a transition this is to go from you've been running HFR for 15 years, and you've grown it. Multiple millions, the impact has been vast, I think you have redefined and created a larger stage than ever for black designers. Where it's not it's not a niche thing, or a special thing is like, of course we are we always have been, you just helped create a physical space in Harlem, and now virtual spaces everywhere. But I would say that, that you've done all that. Why now the transition to raising capital? Where did that come from? So here's was interesting. Last year, I took December off, oh, wait, it sounds like that's not typical for you know, now it's my it's gonna be my regular thing that I do every year. But I took December off, I was so burned out at the end of last year, when the Black Lives Matter movement or racial reckoning happen. Like everything ramped up for us, probably times barber for times tan. And so I was working non stop, you know, and so I needed to just take a break in December, right. But of course, my taking a break. I know you were still doing it. You called me on one of your day. You I remember you call me in the middle. You were like, I think it was like 11am. And I was like, oh my god Brenda was calling. And you comment, you're like, hey, so I'm over your whiteboarding. And I have a plan for the next 10 years. And this is this is what I was like, Oh, man. So I know by you taking December off, you plug it in, you know that? What's funny is that day, I was a double. That was the out of the Dumbo house at college and randomly, like, what are you doing? Can you just come meet me at Dumbo house? You're like, yeah, I was like, oh my god, that was a I was gonna fly to I had packed for right before I was like, just sell. I told my sister I was like Giselle, we're going to Art Basel. She was like, what I was like, Help me pack. I have a flight and three hours. I've met with you. And you inspired me to sit my ass down at home. You didn't mean to what you did, because I was so inspired by what you shared with me. And I said, it was a reminder that the authority is inside. I said, I have an inner authority and an inner knowing I already have things I want to achieve. Why am I going to Miami to Art Basel to this event. And there are times for that. But that just wasn't my time for that. That was my time to go inward. And you actually reminded me that day and I ended up canceling that flight. And I was like, Sorry, just so these these clothes we packed. They're not going nowhere, except for Becky and I felt bad because I was thinking I was like, like, I wanted to cancel. Do it all the time. But But what it was, it was good. That was it was needed. I came home I did a hookah session. I don't remember what I planned that day. But it was amazing. I plan something to make that day. So tell me what you were going through in December. So December, I had a friend Nicole who said to me you should do a drink session is a dream session. So I went to my office. My assistant it was just me there alone. And I turned on during session is basically getting to a place where you literally block out all distractions and just dream. So it's, you know, on a whiteboard just writing out what are all the things you want to do for for me, it was for my business, like what are all the things like what are all the dreams that I have for Harlem's fashion row. And so, you know, a lot of times we're living off of dreams from 10 years ago, right? Like, we don't often set aside time to dream in the moment or have current dreams or know what our future dreams are, right? Because we're still thinking about where we started and what our dreams were then. And so I had not taken a moment to just stop and dream and a long time. And I'm not talking about like an idea hits you and you write it down. This is like an intentional moment. And so I went to the office, I turned on Jim Rohn, who I love and turn my phone completely off. And it was just me and the whiteboard. And I wrote down all of these things that I wanted to have happen. And believe it or not, like after 15 minutes I was done writing and so I had to say bigger. Look at all of these dreams and Now go bigger. And so then I start writing out like, because we so often dream within the confines of what we believe is possible. And when you write down everything, every dream you have, and then you go, Wait a minute, let me now go bigger. And so what I had to do was say, let me dream as if I was Alicia Keys. Let me dream as if I was Beyonce, because those are two different types of dreams, right? Like, oh, it takes me out of my confines. And now it puts me into their resources. And they are connections. And so just put me in a different mind space. And that session was so powerful for me that I actually did a course on it that's free that I'm given to people. Because that moment for me, when I wrote out everything, I said, Oh, I need funding. Because I need to be able to do these dreams quickly. I don't, I don't want to I know what it's like to bootstrap, because that's what I've done for the last 15 years. And we've been successful at it. But like, imagine what I would do if I could hire whoever I want to imagine what could happen if I could actually build this with the proper, like, not only financial support, but strategic support behind me as well. And so I knew that I needed to be able to raise capital to do that. And I'm just gonna say this last thing about the dream session, what's crazy, is that I saw I took whatever was on the board, I organize it kind of like, okay, here is these things that I see for HFR. And Nicole also said to me, why don't you think about HFR in stages? What stages have you accomplished, and what stages are coming ahead? She's amazing. She actually the CEO of a marketing company called underdog. And so I build this out and I'm like, she's, this is our 10 year plan for HFR. This is the next 10 years for EGFR, like literally, and it came out of that dream session. And so I shared that with my team at the top of the year, because I think it's important that the team knows like, what my vision is where we're headed. And when I tell you almost half the things on that list, they are happening. Like there's a brand that I said I want to work with this brand is a space we've never been in before they email me Hey, Brandon, we were just thinking about Harlem's fashion broke. Like it is a mystery. We're just a few just travel. It's crazy. Oh, my goodness. So. So yeah. So from that session, I was like, Okay, I gotta raise capital this year, we will raise capital this year. Oh, my gosh, do you have a lot of people where this version of you comes out? It's, it's out all the time. Okay. And sometimes, right. That's also kind of, I think, how I chose my tribe, because I got it. I think for some people there share this. And if it's intimidating, they don't come back then. got people on it. I'm not talking about business. I'm just talking about life expression, passion. This is just who I am mission. Absolutely. I used to damn that. Oh, Randy, I would say Brina stone. If you got an idea, keep it to yourself. Because I did that for a while. I will never do that again. And please don't. So what I loved about what you shared. So first of all, you did this dream session and you said you have like a free resource where people can do their own work. Can they find they can go to my website, Brandis daniel.com And is there okay? Because I want you all to get all of this. Okay? I mean, you're not gonna get everything that I get in person, we do our session, but you won't get you're gonna get you're gonna get a piece. Okay. I'm just kidding. But yeah, please. And then I loved how you mentioned. So you took this month off. And you first dreamt as Brandis. And then you asked yourself, what thinking bigger look like. And I remember in one of our sessions, I shared with you that a friend of mine had shared this concept of the bigger big and so it sounds like you went there. Yes. And so sometimes or we think about thinking big, but there's a bigger big and how you channel the bigger big was you're like, you know what, who is a person I can call on right now and embody and for you as Alicia Keys and Beyonce. What would their dreams look like? Absolutely. What I heard in that is you are tapping into the infinite possibilities. So when I think about like an Alicia Keys Beyonce, A J. Lo, any of these people because of their scale in my mind, the possibilities are infinite and endless. They will really only be bound by their imagination. For. So to me, that's infinity. Yes, it's infinite. So in other words, you asked yourself, what would I do if I had access to the infinite source, infinite possibilities, infinite potential. And you channeled the two people who said that to you, which I love. That is such a good exercise in a dream session, because I was stuck. To be honest with you. I was like, carrying all these dreams down and I'm out of time. You know, I know I finished before the time that I had a lot for this. And right, you're like this 20 minutes. You're like me, and I'm just linked up. All right. And it was like this range, right? So I was like, I limited myself and I knew it. And the reason Alicia Keys came up because her and Swiss bees were on the cover are architects. Yeah. And I was like, looking through that. And I was looking through their home. And I remember like, even Swizz Beatz was talking about that home that they bought, and how he saw that home years ago, but it wasn't on the market. But he put that as a screensaver on his phone, the home, which somebody else was living in, at the time. And I just, I just remember, and so so that's why like, she was the one who came in my mind, like, first her and because, you know, sometimes, okay, we need to take ourselves out of our own environments at times be. And I think when you and I met, I think I had said, you know, we should think about what is it going to take to build a $50 million business? And then what is it going to take to build a $500 million business? That's right. And not just not just answering the questions arbitrarily, but actually doing the math on it and saying, look like for my company make 50 million a year, what does it look like for you know, what I love, actually, about that question is what I would the way you communicated, it was actually different from what you're saying. Now, what I remember and what really resonated, which took it to another level was, if I were to raise $50 million, how would I spend $50 million? Because if you spend 50 million with a goal to make it 100 million 150, half a billion? What I remember us talking through, yo, like, how do you spend $50 million? Or take 20 million? Because I'm like, so I've thought about making it right? Like I've made over 20 million, like, cool, but it's a different equation of how do you if you are given this capital, and your goal is to make this a half a billion dollar company, and you're given $50 million to spend to make it valued at half a billion, how do you spend $50 million when you grew up in a household where your parents made $70,000 Max, now we have this possibility of being given inviting $50 million in funding to spend so we can build a company that's valued at half a billion. And you know, that that's commensurate with the value and intangible value that is giving to the community to the world, everything. So that is what caught my attention. And I remember you went into the specifics. You said, you said okay, Danielle, you got how many on your email list you got. Okay, you got you got 400,000 500,000 on your email list. And then you like, okay, so if I were to pay $2 a lead, because if I ran a campaign, I did a lead magnet, a giveaway, whatever it is, and I paid $2 a lead. And I wanted to build a list. That's a million dollars right there. $2, a lead for 500,000 leads a million dollars, a million people on my subscription list. That's still only 500,000 that I spent, I still got four and if it doesn't spin and I got a million people on my email, you know what I can do? What a million users a million people on my list, and we haven't even spent this much. So when you broke it down like that. I was like Brandis, come on. That's because I wasn't thinking that well. I mean, even now, like that's still a new way to be thinking Absolutely. If you are a creative entrepreneur, and your business is unique, why are you working with a generic accountant? 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Let's all overcome procrastination together. Now let's get back to the episode. What that takes me to is what I've recently come to terms with is this identity of being like a CEO, Chief Executive Officer. Now for the longest time, I tried to, like fit into this container that was CEO that I thought right that I was fed, which is if we talk about masculine energy, feminine energy, it's the masculine energy is more structured, it's predictable. It's if you do this, then this step one, step two, step three, to get to step six. And what I realized is I was feeling a lot of resistance. And so I redefined my role into CIO, CIO, Chief inspiration Officer, Chief Investment Officer and Chief Innovation Officer. And when you were speaking, I was hearing all of those things. In December, you created this dream session, you took that role of chief investment. I mean, I'm sorry, Chief inspiration Officer First, you're like, How can I keep myself inspired. And then in January, you reported back to the team, you're like, I visited the future I've seen we bout to create, and you came back to the present to tell the team when we bout to create chief inspiration, then it was Chief Investment Officer, we were like, in order to do all these things. Uh, we go raise these funds, because we have things to create. And we don't, we're not gonna do this over the next 100 years. We're gonna do it over the next two years. And this is how much we need to do it. Right. That's investment and then talking about, okay, to get a million on our email list, we need 500,000. Like, you're thinking about how can we maximize the investment? It's not a Oh, am I worth there's no feelings involved. It's math. Do this to get that. And that's only a minuscule compared to 50 million or whatever. Right? And then the last piece is Chief Innovation Officer. So I'm curious, when you did your dream session, are there any innovations one thing I love about you is how you borrow from different industries, you borrow from different times, you really encapsulate, like the sense 3000 mission, which is in binding your past, present and future self. Now it makes me feel great. Like, because I think that sometimes we can especially now, and I've done this to where we can, I think value the future more when the past has just as measured in size and less if not more, like they're all like, and then the present, like the portal to the present. Like I remember, one morning I woke up and I had a visible visualization. And it was like a crevice. And light was coming in. And I had the words Wrinkle in Time come into my mind. And the only interaction with Wrinkle in Time was maybe in like sixth grade or whatever it was where that book was assigned to me, which I probably only read like five pages. I don't remember the movie I hadn't watched yet. And I was like, why is A Wrinkle in Time coming in my mind if I don't even know what that means. And then I looked it up and I was like, Oh my goodness. It is essentially taking another dimension and meeting it with this dimension over here it is collapsing time or wrinkle and time is when you can skip through different dimensions. And then I watched the film to further understand and what I realized is what I'm doing is spending a lot of time in the future and missing the portal to the present. And that morning I literally looked outside and remembered one day you wished for this on me you know what I asked you upstairs your day we were upstairs and my bedroom slash office and brightness over here. I was like, because you're loving for this because sometimes And we can overlook, literally the blessing we pray for for years. And for you, I'm looking outside your window outside her window there is like the Hudson River. Not only is there the Hudson River, there's like trees and all this beautiful greenery. And then just beyond the trees, and the water is the skyline of New York City. Like there is the Freedom Tower that she can look at from her vet. By the way, we had an event at the top of Freedom Tower in 29. But like, you know, so I'm a bridge. So she's got the Brooklyn Bridge, she's got this beautiful view. And, you know, she's just got me a room casually we're looking at in her closet. And she's just like, moving on. And I'm like, looking at her window. And I'm like, putting now do you stop to just appreciate this moment? And she she said, Look, I say good night to New York every night. But like, you can't This is a view that is so rare. In New York, there are maybe if there's 1000 people in this city with millions in it that have this view, which I doubt if there's 1000, but there might be 1000 people in the entire New York City, where I think it's 12 million people that has this view, and you have it. I just want to kiss you right now. I'm telling you, it's. So that's the moment right? That, so thank you. It's wild, because I have spent most of my life, waiting the future, the amount that you just waited the present. And I've learned that there's just as much value in the present and in the past. And one thing I love about you is, to me, the way you occur to me is you place just as much value on past, present and future, which is absolutely what I aspire to embody. So when I think about innovation, it's interesting, because innovation is a word that we often associate with the future. But even as we're talking, you're helping show me that innovation is just a much just as much about the future as it is the present really like steeping in what's right in front of you. What's having an impact now, what's resonating now, as it was with the past? What's in my DNA? What did they dream of? That we did not have yet? Or what did they create, that we have forgotten about? That I can now bring to this world? So when you think of innovation yourself as a chief innovation officer in that dream session, I'm curious, what surprised you about an idea you had that maybe you borrowed from a random as industry, or random film, if we have time, I'm gonna tell you how King Richard inspired me and I got a new take away from it. But so in that December session, what surprised you everything I wrote down? The crazy thing is that I thought I knew the dreams I had for myself. I thought I knew that dreams I had for HFR It wasn't until I had this designated moment to dream. Not like dreams are coming to me while I'm doing a million other things. But like this designated moment to dream that I was like, I don't even know that was me. I didn't even know I had these ideas. I didn't know I wanted to do a global dinner series. I didn't know. You know, where am I gonna be invited to which Corporation? Let me tell you how to come to Asia. Which one? Okay, we were in Hong Kong. It's one of my favorite cities in Hong Kong is one of my favorite cities. I've only been to Thailand and Asia. Hong Kong is so dope. So like, I didn't know I had these aspirations. And so I think what came out of that was a fresh, this sounds crazy, a fresh batch of dreams, right? Because I've added these failed dreams over here and had not taken the time to see what was in me now because who I am now, there's different from who I was five years ago, yesterday or right. Yes, exactly. But you talk about the past. And I love that because when I started HFR I used to walk down the street in Harlem. And so I used to walk down the street and walk down the street and saw these plaques that were on these brownstones once a black fashion museum, the other said Harlem Institute of fashion, and I kept going what are these plaques? What what is this? And I think I was like one year into HFR as I'm like seeing these plaques so I go Oh and I do this research find out that this woman Lewis Alexander lane, was doing something that was like Harlem's fashion row in the 70s. No way it written a book called blacks in the history of fashion. What about every book that exist? It don't exist. Don't even go look for it. I bought all the books. And then I start like researching her and realize that she actually passed the year I started HFR started HFR 2007. She passed in 2007. Do you think that's a coincidence? Absolutely. That was not a coincidence. So I realized, Oh, her book that she had a daughter, because she thinks she may have dedicated something to her daughter. And I literally found her daughter in DC. I had to go through all these names because she has kind of a common name. And I found her and I sent her a letter. And we I went down to DC years ago, and met with her in the Smithsonian in front of this beautiful dress that Elizabeth Keckley had designed Elizabeth Keckley was the designer a black woman who bought her freedom from slavery for her and her son through design she designed for Abraham Lincoln's wife. So we're sitting there at this museum in front of this Elizabeth Keckley dress, talking about her mom and what I wanted to accomplish. And what she said was Brandis, my children think I'm crazy to be meeting you. Because I didn't I'd only been doing HFR for like three years, there was no big articles about HFR and Brandis, Daniel, it was like she if she dug for something, maybe she could find something, but it wasn't easily accessible. And we didn't have a reputation. So she did this literally based off of what I put in the letter, and hurt. She said, My children think I'm crazy for meeting you. But I had to meet you. Because there was something in that letter. I knew this was sincere. And when we met, she said, You remind me of my mom. Now I know why I had to meet you. And so so often, we think that we're doing this new thing, when what we're doing is basically the continuation of someone who came before us. Oh my gosh. So you can't really innovate unless you look at the past. Oh. Cuz I literally not until this conversation, I never thought of innovation, as looking at all three states past, present and future until this conversation, you have to, because reading her work, I realized she's been dealing with this since the 70s. What I'm dealing with right now, right? And the crazy thing is this woman was so honest, in this book, she talked about who supported her and who didn't. And I have to tell you, those are the same people who supported me and who didn't. In Bastion. Yeah. And so I was like, no people, no, yes. She didn't do it. She did it in a way that felt the average person may not have gotten it, got it, you know, like, but she put their names in there. And when she extra support, this is what they provide it, right? And so even that, I was like, oh, okay, so it's not just me, this is just who these people are. Also, I love this, she left a record, she left a record. And what it has me think, too, is creating hymnals songs that a certain group understands they, when they hear it, they can hear the words that are adding up to a message into a direction. Whereas anyone else doesn't hear it. They just hear a regular song. And it's like she put the hymnal in the book. So if you're in the position to benefit from it to grow from it, she left the markers she left the hints. She's like, huh, yeah. Wow, that's so the document, the importance of documentation, documenting your journey. It is so important, because it also makes what I'm doing feel so much bigger. Because the foundation of what we're doing isn't based on the 15 years, we've been doing it right, it goes back decades. So I'm literally building on decades of work that have already been done. And so you look at it differently when you know that you know, some people want to be like, Oh, most time if you think you're the first you're not the first Oh, but But you you know, but you have to take the time to go back and say well, who? Oh, who whose foundation am I building on? Right? Because we stand on the shoulders of giants? Absolutely. You know, even in our families, I had to, I thought all the entrepreneurs in my family were men. And my grandmother, I think the last couple times I was this was telling me about this on who had like these three businesses that I'd never heard of before. And I was like, Oh, this is just in me. So you know, even that, right, it makes you feel different when you know, oh, this is what I came from. It's not like I just woke up like this. No. Yeah, absolutely. This is like, so awesome. Do you remember when I told you that I was thinking of starting my podcast or two, and you told me it was gonna be the best thing for me ever? Because you did great girlfriends. And you're like, I opened up so much more than I thought. And like, that's what this experience has been for me. Yeah. I like yesterday, though. We through the script out the window. We were like, there's no How do you do XYZ blueprint? It was just like, where are we at x? Where we at? Where are we gone? Where are we been? So it's it's everything you said? It's everything you said? And you're also naturally interested in people. You know, and so it turns into not this like, q&a interview, you know, but it's more like, now let's get to the deep stuff. Yeah. So it's been great. It's been everything you said. It's, you can love Yeah, it's the best. Yeah, it really is. Yeah. Because you're just getting to hear about people's stories. And I don't care who you are, you have an amazing story. It doesn't matter who you are, you have an amazing story. What I want to ask you is what is one truth that you may not have shared with anyone yet that has become apparent to you, that you might even be afraid to share? Or maybe you're overly excited to share, but something you haven't shared yet, you know, for so long? Because I grew up the way that I did. It was, you know, be humble. Don't put yourself out there too much. You know, and a lot of times, what that does is it makes you want to hold back on who you really are. Right. And since I was a little girl, I remember the chance I would say with friends during a cheerleading session or whatever. I always do that I would be someone great and would achieve someone great, see cheap things that were really great. And but I would feel like it was more my responsibility to kind of play smaller. And over the last two weeks, there have been three weeks or two things that have happened to let me know that. No, this is who you are. And one of those things was I got entrepreneur, entrepreneur of the year award for fit, and Dapper Dan presented my award. Now only getting it from fit but Dapper Dan presenting your award after Dan presented the award. And he sent me this note in his speech, he said, you know your Harriet Tubman, which is when you said that earlier, I was like, I'm not gonna say anything. Right? And he was he was like, you know, you're a fascist Martin Luther King, you're like, all of these things that, in all honesty made me feel very uncomfortable while he was up there talking. But then he sent me flowers. And the flowers said the same thing. The note on the flowers, and I was like, that's a lot of pressure. Right? Because it's easy are to pretend like we're less than who we know, God has really made us to be all way so much easier. And then we go and then when great things happen to us. We're just like, I can't believe this happened. When in truth, when you know that you've been made to be great. And that's your real truth. Or ordain. It's not a cocky thing or a prideful thing. It's just, this is who I am. And the truth is that I'm great. And not, not because of anything that I've done myself, but because this is who God has made me to be I'm feeling the same things. Yeah. Come on brand is. Come on. You know what's interesting. I know that it's also because I don't hold it to myself, Danielle, like, I want others to be great. You know what I'm like that is literally like it is. There's no mint tea or intern who's ever worked for me that won't tell you I won't share anything I know, I will share it with them. I as to be a vessel. That's what it's for. And you as vessel lends to the fact that what you just said I was already thinking about, which is my desire is for everyone in every room to know that what you're saying is the same for them to it's the same for every class. To that belief. Yes, that's all it is. Yeah. Why don't why don't we believe that? Why is it easier for us to believe that we're less and I think it's because then we can have low aspirations and low expectations and be okay with it. Right. But when you know that you were made to be great as every human who was born in this world, then now you're uncomfortable? Because Dang, I'm doing this, but I'm great. So why am I doing this? Right? Because think about the times when you knew there was something before you built a multimillion dollar business. You knew you were great. But you've probably had a moment where you were doing something that you knew you knew this is not where I belong. I mean yesterday. Just mentally, this is not where I belong. Why am I Oh, are you guys feeling anxious, Ray that and like, right? And then you're like, This is uncomfortable, because this is not where I'm supposed to be? I know better. Right? I remember I was in Memphis, working in the mall, part time at Brooks Brothers. I was working filing papers for attempt company. And literally, I was so depressed every day, I was coming home crying, walking through the Walmart, telling my friend, I deserve more than this. I am more than this. And it was literally the most uncomfortable space of my life, because I knew what was in me. But what I was doing at the time was so I'm aligned with who I was. And that was and so when you were feeling all of these things, a lot of times it's because you're supposed to be doing something great. And you're frustrated, because you know you're supposed to be doing something great. And what do you have to do to get yourself comfortable with the idea of being where you are now? This is so good. I thought about to bring it back to the construct. And this was the truth session. Oh, I'm like, way off. Because what's coming up is I wanted to ask you a question, but I'm just gonna answer it myself. And because what I love about what you've done, if you think about the name, Harlem fashion row. Now 15 years in all the brands, you've worked with the household names, you've worked with the stages you've been on the shows you like the daytime shows that millions of households tune into every day that you've been on. Now, Harlem fashion row makes sense. What occurred to me is for the person watching, listening, and they are creating or pivoting, picking something new renaming. What's coming up for me over and over is, Brandis chose the name Harlem fashion row. Today, it sounds legendary, because it has the receipts. Day one, I'm like the audacity it took for you. You're not a New York native. You are from Harlem, the audacity it took for you to say, I am calling this Harlem fashion row. I'm not I haven't been in the fashion industry for decades and decades and decades. I don't have all these fashion right? I'm not a designer. I don't have a lot. I'm calling this Harlem fashion row. That's it. And then you built the receipts after that. The legendary everything the acclaim the partnerships, you created that so you really spoke it into existence. So like, that's what's coming up for me is you're like, that hole like because I'm asking them like shit. How do you lean into the bigness of you? That's where the cliff jump comes in, guys. You forgive me, sorry, but you freaking Cliff jaw. And then you will de la vie. You're in the air. I think. I was like, let's break down a cliff chop. Can we break it down? What is the cliff job? We on a cliff? We know when in order to Cliff jump, a few things need to happen. Number one, the main thing belief, yes, you need to believe when you jump off this cliff, there will be a safe landing. Yes. And also, you jump with the awareness that there may be a landing that is different than what you expect. You don't know what to expect, actually. But it's a belief that regardless of what happens, you're going to be good. Yes. And it's going to be guess what, if you're jumping from a summit, there's levels to a summit. cliff jumping is like this. So guess what? If you jump off the DiRocco, okay, we didn't make it all. Okay. Let's just jump again. That's That's what I'm saying. With Harlem fashion and row, you're like, I'm gonna name it Harlem fashion row. I don't necessarily have the receipts to say that I deserve or buh buh bah. I'm the name of that anyway, because I'm jumping off the cliff. But guess what, there's power in a name. I believe even individually, right? My mom named me Danielle, who was named after Danielle Steel, which is hilarious. But you know, she's like a claim novelist, writer and I'm a writer storyteller. I believe in the power of story. That is across all of my work. That makes so much sense. Just sell my sister named after a ballet. My sister is a dancer that is her form of expression. Like there's a power in names and I think we don't realize not only as individuals is there a power in names, but also in our companies or businesses. So when you're when you named a Harlem fashion row, you already you already you were birthing a child and you're like, I'm giving it your name and I'm gonna build you up to embody that name. Wow. That's what you've done. Wow. Wow. That's incredible. Nothing great happens without a cliff job. And I was going to say your talked about your expectations knowing that you may not the land the way you expect it to land. But no one goes on a cliff and jump without anyone standing on the cliff making sure they're good. Right. And so I would even add to that, make sure you got great people around you. Like you don't just go I would never go to Jamaica jump off a cliff and I'm the only one on the during Cliff Cafe Have you done that? Isn't 75 foot cliff jump? jumped out of a plane. Oh, that was nice. Oh, wow. For my 35th birthday. My husband is crazy. I was like, I'm gonna jump out of a plane. He's like, okay, next day, he had everything booked. I love that everything booked and then had the dad for what you write and then have four crazy friends who were going with us. Yeah, but But no, you know, it's think about it. Like nobody does anything great. If you listen to how I built this or masters of Skid like, it doesn't happen without an a cliff jump isn't a one time event. It is a consistent way to live. It's a way of living. Sure. Yes. Okay. We're gonna cheers. Cheers. Cheers our future Yes. What's one word that embodies your future? Bright? Oh, I'm gonna say I wanted to say sprite because it rhymed with bright butts. We'll go it's bright, not the brand, but the adjective. Okay, the adjective. Alright, cool. So I want you to transport me to the future. And I want you to talk about brand is in the third person. What is brand is being doing having what's happening. Brandis is on a yacht in Asia, with her high school daughter who is homeschooling from the yacht in Asia and her husband. I have at that point. I'm not like the CEO of a company but I'm writing I'm a full time writer, full time speaker multiple residences. So at that point, maybe I'm planning a trip out of space. Because at that point, it's become a normal thing. And we can go and do like an orbit around Earth, which I would love to do. Oh, I got a short cut. It's my gray hair. And is this super cute short cut, not not very dissimilar to what it was shorter. It's a pixie. And I have a building at fit. The brand is Daniel building, oh. And maybe a school in Memphis, but I'm living I'm literally living the life that I dreamt for myself. And it is, you know, my dream is for my daughter who spent her high school years like, basically traveling with me, all over the world, and doing homeschooling because she's super smart. So she can figure that out. But yeah, that's where I see myself. I don't know if I went far enough in the future. But that's beautiful. Vizio in your homes? Yeah. And you know, meet up with you. We should actually do the space travel together, you will be so much fun. You will be so much to orbit the Earth will be so much. No one has ever told me that. But I really think in another decade is going to be like a fee. Like people are going now. Right? So it's like a vacation. Yeah. So let's plan this. Brand is Daniel bored to spaceship and we orbit the Earth together? I love it. And we do a dream session when we do it. Because worth of time and Dementia is a joke. Yeah, yeah. Did you ever think you would be insane? Like when you were a little kid? I know that that would be a possibility. No, I did not. But it's a possibility. And I have to say this is why documentation is so important. Because when I watched that documentary, that's when that dream. Yeah, I was like, Oh, I can do this. I would love to do this. Oh, my gosh. Thank you for that vision. Yes. We're going to speak we're going to space. Wow. Oh my gosh, this was so how was this? How was it difficult? I didn't really have any expectations. I have few people in my life who can call me for anything and say Hey, can you come do this? And I'm gonna say yes. And I'm gonna ask any questions, and you are one of them. So I am so thankful. I have to lay here. Oh, my God, you're like, the top top. Are you kidding me? Wow. Thank you. So I know that after listening to everything you've shared people gonna be like, Where can I find everything she mentioned and keep up with what she's doing. You move at the speed of light. So where can people find you? If they go to my Instagram at Brandis, Daniel, they can also if you want to get the dream session the course for free. Or the cliff jump course as well. You can go to Brandis. daniel.com. Amazing. Thank you. You are so welcome. This was so much fun. So incredible. I cannot wait to see what the future holds for both of us. I know it was great. Awesome. It's right. Listen, sometimes life be life in and we do not know what's coming down that road next. Well, that's what happened to me in 2016 when I was unexpectedly laid off from my job. And I was six figures in student loan debt, I had no savings. And I didn't know what was going to happen next. Now luckily, I had this little voice inside of me at that time that I couldn't ignore. And it was telling me to take the leap. It was saying use this as your opportunity to build your business. Use this as your opportunity to create your dream life. And so I believe that life happens for us, not to us. And that nudge in my spirit, I should listen to it. Luckily, I did fast forward to today I have a business that's made over $20 million. And I've helped over 10,000 people create their online businesses and their dream lives. So do you want to learn how to turn your story into an online product and launch in 30 days, head on over to course from scratch.com forward slash since 3000. I want you to join us on this journey so you can listen to that little voice inside of you too. So go now Do yourself a favor course from scratch.com Forward slash since 3000
