How to build an impactful brand with Titi Bello, Founder of Ori Lifestyle

Edelman recently reported that ‘81% of consumers need to trust a brand to consider purchasing it’ so it is clear that brands which take time to build impact, education and purpose into their offering will also build trust with consumers and ultimately increase their sales. 

In this episode, I hear from Titi Bello, Founder of Ori Lifestyle, the luxury hair care brand now stocked in Selfridges and Harrods. Born out of Titi’s experiences with her own hair loss and seeing her daughter develop hair insecurities, Ori Lifestyle offers high-performance hair care products alongside coaching courses to improve customers’ confidence in their hair. 

Listen on to hear Titi’s advice on why building an educational and purpose-led brand is crucial for success. 

Titi’s advice:

• Find the product that meets the needs of a particular market
• A good product is not enough on its own; marketing and visibility are crucial
• To have the edge a product needs to look good as well as be effective
• If a product can be multipurpose, so much the better
• It may well be useful to educate and challenge your customers and be honest with them about results; this will build trust and loyalty and ensure repeat sales
• Take your community with you; use feedback.  Establish contact via blogs / whatsapp / email and always listen to them
• Your relationship with your customers will be your motivating factor and keep you going
• “Go in with your heart” - businesses that stand the test of time are not just in it for financial gain
• Aesthetics and branding are vital and must represent you and your values
• Don’t over analyse; just start!
• Know what you don’t know and find a partner with a different skill set to yours

FF&M enables you to own your own PR. Recorded, edited & published by Juliet Fallowfield, 2023 MD & Founder of PR & Communications consultancy for startups Fallow, Field & Mason.  Email us at hello@fallowfieldmason.com or DM us on instagram @fallowfieldmason. 

Let us know how your start up journey is going or if you have any questions you would like us to discuss in future episodes. 

FF&M recommends: 

• LastPass the password-keeping site that syncs between devices.
• Google Workspace is brilliant for small businesses
• Buzzsprout podcast 'how to' & hosting directory
• Canva has proved invaluable for creating all the social media assets and audio bites.

MUSIC CREDIT Funk Game Loop by Kevin MacLeod.  Link &  Licence

Transcript

full podcast edit

[00:00:00] Welcome to season 10 of How To Start Up, the podcast helping you start and scale your business with advice from entrepreneurs on what to do now, next, or never when scaling your company. This season, we're focusing on all things brand. So you'll hear from a series of amazing entrepreneurs on what they've learned in their own journeys.

[00:00:17] hosted by me, Juliet Fallowfield, founder of the B Corp certified PR and communications consultancy, Fallow, Field and Mason. Our mission is to enable you to earn your communications in-House with a long-term view.

[00:00:30] Edelman recently reported that 81 percent of consumers need to trust a brand to consider purchasing it. So it is clear that brands who take the time to build impact, education and purpose into their offering will also build trust with consumers and ultimately increase their sales. In this episode, I hear from Titi Bello, founder of Ori Lifestyle, the luxury haircare brand now stocked in Selfridges and Harrods.

[00:00:52] Born out of Titi's own experience with hair loss and seeing her daughter develop hair insecurities, Ori Lifestyle now offers high performance [00:01:00] hair care products alongside coaching courses to improve confidence in their customers hair. Listen on to hear Titi's advice on why building an educational and purpose led brand is crucial for success.

[00:01:12] Juliet Fallowfield: Well, before we get into the detail, because this season's all around branding, but before we get into that, I'd love it if you could just introduce a bit about yourself and a bit about the brand that you have started.

[00:01:20] Titi Bello: So my name is Titi, T I T I, Bello. Um, Um, I started the brand in 2019, but I started as a hair coach. So, I started helping women, mums, parents to care for their children's hair, Afro textured hair. Um, I suppose I came into it having two kids. suffered significant hair loss myself, um, and then turned my hair around and loads of people around me saw that I turned my hair around and then they started asking me for support and somehow I started offering services in hair coaching.

[00:01:57] Titi Bello: That's how the brand actually started and [00:02:00] then the products came afterwards.

[00:02:01] Juliet Fallowfield: Hair coaching. I never knew that could be a thing. 

[00:02:04] Titi Bello: A big thing, especially within this demography now. It's a big thing. And it's a big thing because I think there is now a recognition that many black women just didn't really learn to care for their hair in the ways that our counterparts did. So we culturally would put our hair in braids, we'll go to the salon, don't wash it, they'll put it in braids.

[00:02:28] Titi Bello: And then in our teenage years, when everybody else was learning how to style their hair, we were putting it in weaves and extensions. And so that culture of actually just caring for the natural hair because of the texture of hair, um, Hasn't always been in place, um, and I think a lot of people are recognizing that actually there's a gap in that skills and the knowledge, um, and so more and more people are now learning to care for their hair, which is a completely different journey to someone like you, for example, who would have [00:03:00] naturally just known how to even shampoo your hair and condition your hair and blow dried your hair.

[00:03:07] Titi Bello: You'd be surprised that during COVID, a lot of women came to, uh, procure coaching services because they just did not know how to wash their hair. And it sounds really simple,

[00:03:20] Juliet Fallowfield: heartbreaking.

[00:03:21] Titi Bello: but it, exactly. It's heartbreaking. Um, especially when you kind of just go, well, how did we get here? I understand how we got here.

[00:03:30] Titi Bello: But the reality now is things are changing. People want to learn. They want that skill. They want that knowledge. And that's the gap, um, that people like I started to fill.

[00:03:42] Juliet Fallowfield:  I've interviewed a lot of founders on this series about identifying a problem in their life and wanting to create a solution, but realizing there's lots of other people that need that solution too. But this episode was about creating a brand with impact and really making sure that.

[00:03:57] Juliet Fallowfield: There is a place for it and a need for [00:04:00] it to help people. And I've grown up in the cosmetic industry. I've had various jobs in various brands, but, um, there's a lot of foundations around how you look makes a massive difference to how you feel. And some people could say that's superficial, but it's not.

[00:04:16] Juliet Fallowfield: It's not, it's your armor. You get up in the morning and how you present yourself to the world. No one else could notice, but how you feel about yourself has a huge impact on your confidence in meetings or what you think you could achieve that day, and especially for women.

[00:04:33] Titi Bello: Absolutely. I, I love that you said that. It has an impact on how you feel in meetings because you cannot be confident. You cannot show up as your full self when you feel less than. And I think, I think that when we're talking about Afro textured hair, it's so important. Exactly what you said. I'm getting so animated because it really [00:05:00] is the crux of one of the things that I'm trying to do.

[00:05:03] Titi Bello: Getting black women more comfortable wearing their own hair transcends just beyond the way they look. It really does affect how they show up. It affects how confident they feel. It affects how at ease they are with themselves. And I didn't realize that. Until I had to go on the journey myself. So I've come from a background of wearing a lot of weaves, extensions, putting my hair in braids.

[00:05:34] Titi Bello: But at one point when I saw the damage, and the damage wasn't necessarily because of those styling practices, but the way in which I was using them. So doing them back to back, not really caring for my own hair. But when I saw the damage, I really decided to confront that damage and repair. But the process of repairing then meant that I had to abstain from those hair [00:06:00] stylings.

[00:06:00] Titi Bello: Which then meant that I had to confront my own aesthetics with my own hair and become confident in that. And that was a journey. So I didn't stop the weaves or the braids and the wigs and immediately felt confident because my hair was very damaged. So it naturally didn't look its best. But as I began to really take care of it and it began to thrive, It began to look better.

[00:06:27] Titi Bello: I began to feel better. Then I could wear it out. Then I could feel completely confident. So you're right. It is not a vanity. It's not a vanity point. It is so interlinked with how we show up, how confident we feel. Um, And beyond that, I suppose for us Black women as well, it's so important to our, any idea of beauty standards that we hold.

[00:06:53] Titi Bello: Um, you know, for many years, and some would argue even till now, the idea of the Afro [00:07:00] texture there in its natural state being seen as equally beautiful, equally luxurious, has not always been the case. Um, And now we're actually beginning to think, to say to ourselves, well, why not? That is the journey that I'm on.

[00:07:14] Titi Bello: That's the journey that I'm taking people on. It's not just about the brand. It's not just about selling products. It's about really loving our hair, really becoming comfortable in our own skin, and becoming comfortable in our own beauty.

[00:07:28] Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah. And saying it is as good as any other,, that strive for equality is horrifically awful. As we all know, with 2. 5 percent of VC funding goes to female founders, 0. 05 percent goes to black female founders. And everybody has proven that if women start businesses the same rate as men, the entire GDP of this country is going to be better off.

[00:07:51] Juliet Fallowfield: It's just such an obvious thing to encourage people to do, but on the battleground that you're at of trying to raise [00:08:00] up voices and empower people to get there, have you had many barriers to entry to starting your business and doing this work?

[00:08:09] Titi Bello: A lot of people will say barrier to entry in beauty is quite low. It is and it isn't. 

[00:08:14] Juliet Fallowfield: product is expensive to produce. I'm a service based business, so I opened a laptop and started and then tried to work it all out. But product involves cost of goods, materials, shipping. Yeah.

[00:08:26] Titi Bello: even if you have the funding and capital for all of that, marketing is crucially important. I think when I started a business, I was a little bit naïve. Of course, I have great products. You know, you put it out there and people would just buy. But that's just not the way the modern world works. works, right?

[00:08:44] Titi Bello: You need marketing, you need visibility. Um, those things make things difficult. And even exactly as you said, you know, producing goods, uh, is expensive. Coming up with formulas is expensive, finding people who want [00:09:00] to work with a small business on maybe a small, uh, uh, minimum quantity orders, that's difficult as well.

[00:09:07] Titi Bello: So it's not as easy, um, as many people say, but it's possible. It's possible because I've done it and I've done it without a lot of money to start off with.

[00:09:17] Juliet Fallowfield:  you saw the need for the products  for your hair repair. At what point in your journey to your hair restoration, let's say, did you Did you realize, okay, there's a product here for the market that I need to get out to market?

[00:09:31] Juliet Fallowfield: Was it purely for your hair coaching, um, that you were developing formulas and you were playing around with stuff like, talk us through how you came to have Ori? Oh,

[00:09:39] Titi Bello: there was. Two things. Finding products that meet the needs of Afro textured hair. But not just meets the needs, but finding products that are also really elegant. Products that visually or artistically look good. [00:10:00] So, people say, you know, my market is saturated. It's true. There are loads of, uh, loads of brands on offer to consumers, but are they functioning?

[00:10:11] Titi Bello: really well. Do they look good? Do they smell good? Are they elegant? I find that we're getting there but we're not exactly there yet. So what I really wanted to do was develop products that were very effective but smelled good. and look good and didn't feel, leave the hair feeling heavy or way down.

[00:10:34] Juliet Fallowfield: so you all just tick all the boxes at once then? Yeah,

[00:10:38] Titi Bello: there aren't. I mean, traditionally you would have, you know, the products that will cater for us, but they are, in my opinion, a lot of them are heavy. They are oily. They're not as elegant as I thought our hair deserved. That's what we're doing now with Ori Lifestyle. We're making sure that the products are functional, But they [00:11:00] also tick all those boxes because I love skincare, for example, and in skincare, I have amazing, uh, uh, products on offer.

[00:11:08] Titi Bello: Um, not so much in my own demography of Afro textured hair, and I was really keen to do something different, but, you know, I also wanted to have things like products that you can use for your hair and your skin. So for example, we have a clay product. You can use it to clean your hair. It's a shampoo. So an alternative.

[00:11:27] Titi Bello: So people that don't want, uh, sulfates in their shampoo or any sorts of chemicals can use it to clean the air because it's got research backing as a cleanser, but you can also use it as a facial mask. Uh, I I really am leaning into that dual product that you can use for multi purpose products and especially in these times where people are thinking about cost and, I think it can be a really effective way to actually get into beauty and try new things if you know that you can use it for different things.

[00:11:58] Titi Bello: So that's one of the things that [00:12:00] we're trying to do with the brand as lo as well as the education piece which is really at the crux of what we do.

[00:12:06] Juliet Fallowfield: Given that there's the product, but then you need to know how to use it. Do the, for you, the two parts of that business go hand in hand, you can't have one without the other. And that educational piece, do you feel like it builds brand loyalty? from a business perspective, it's a no brainer because people come to you as a trusted authority on the subject and, Oh, you've got a product as well.

[00:12:26] Juliet Fallowfield: Of course, I'm going to buy that. But I know that you started this brand with a much more. Sort of heartfelt reason behind it. Are you really proud of what you've done?

[00:12:37] Titi Bello: I'm extremely proud and I'm extremely proud because we have really anchored that education piece at the heart of what we do. Now it's not easy, it's not easy.

[00:12:50] Juliet Fallowfield: Because 

[00:12:51] Juliet Fallowfield: Uh, 

[00:12:51] Juliet Fallowfield: You 

[00:12:51] Juliet Fallowfield: have 

[00:12:51] Juliet Fallowfield: the academy, don't you? It's where people can come and learn.

[00:12:54] Titi Bello: yes. So we have a hair course where people can come and learn and there's a bit on our [00:13:00] website which is just full of materials and information on hair care.

[00:13:04] Titi Bello:  It's It's not easy because we do unfortunately live in a world where people want quick fixes. They want to buy a hair oil that grows their hair. I get those emails all the time. Which of your oils will help me grow your hair? It

[00:13:20] Titi Bello: would be absolutely, 

[00:13:22] Juliet Fallowfield: take their hair back and they want to expedite it so it is in a good condition. Yeah.

[00:13:38] Titi Bello: Now they want to grow it back, but they think it's a product that's going to do it for them quickly. So you get emails, we get emails all the time. Which product can we buy to grow your hair? And it would be easy for us to say, oh just buy our oil or buy our leave in conditioner. But we have to say, Actually, no.

[00:13:55] Titi Bello: What have you been doing to your hair? You need to stop this. You need to do this. [00:14:00] And then use this. And both of them will help you. Um, so so it's not always the easiest to kind of focus on that education piece. But I also find that it's been very, very useful to build a community around education. People are now beginning to see or realize that.

[00:14:17] Titi Bello: As the place to come to for solid education on hair care, and they know that we are just not going to sell them a product that is professing to do really what it's not going to do in 

[00:14:29] Titi Bello: three months time. 

[00:14:30] Juliet Fallowfield: Well, that trust is then built and especially in beauty, it's important we're talking to Aaron Chatterley the other day about from, he founded Feel Unique and is now founding Indu for teens and he's like, anyone can sell a product once it's getting them to come back and buy it again and again and again and that loyalty, but for you, how important do you think community is in what you're doing?

[00:14:53] Titi Bello: Crucial. Um we are so focused on taking the community along and learning from the community and what they need.

[00:14:59] Juliet Fallowfield: [00:15:00] Well, live feedback is no small 

[00:15:02] Titi Bello: absolutely, we have a product launch and at the end of the month, for example, I would never have thought that I would have developed anything like that, but for the feedback that we're getting from the community in how to help them care for their hair.

[00:15:15] Titi Bello: So that community piece is crucial. Um, I mean, sometimes they tell us things that we don't want to hear.

[00:15:22] Juliet Fallowfield: Mm hmm.

[00:15:23] Titi Bello: And, but we get so much from it, but you've got to invest a lot in it. I know people band around this word community, community, but we have to invest a lot in it. There are, I have a group of over 200 women on WhatsApp, just talking haircare.

[00:15:39] Titi Bello: We have emails focusing on hair education. We have a blog focused on just hair education. So. The selling of the product piece, of course it's a business, it needs to do well, that aspect of it, but we invest so much in the education and, you know, sometimes it's for the [00:16:00] long term, sometimes we're not going to get the results or we're not going to get some of that investment back immediately.

[00:16:09] Titi Bello: But over time, I'm convinced that that education piece, as long as we get it right, is going to be the thing that marks us apart from other brands.

[00:16:21] Juliet Fallowfield: I love that the long game for me is everything and in our day job where I'm not podcasting, we teach founders how to do their own PR with a long term view because same mentality if you externalize your PR to an agency and you finish with the agency after a year, those relationships go with the agency.

[00:16:38] Juliet Fallowfield: If you do it yourself, it might take a bit longer. But those relationships are with you for the life of your business. And it's a richer relationship. It means more. The trust is there. The journalist knows exactly who to come to for what and when, like, it's a no brainer for me. So I love that you said that.

[00:16:54] Titi Bello: So you can imagine with the hair course we take people on a journey for six months and some people [00:17:00] say why am I why am I coming to learn about hair for six months because it will take you that long you're learning a new skill. You're learning to deal with your hair that you've never dealt with but after that six months you will be so well equipped that you will not be seduced by to buy ridiculous products that are not going to deliver, you would understand what you need.

[00:17:23] Titi Bello: And when your hair changes, as it will do, whether it's age, whether it's through the seasons, you will know what it needs in that season. That is, you know, that's the beauty of education. That's the beauty of imparting knowledge onto people as opposed to, you know, and I'm, I love hairdressers, but as opposed to just, you know, delegating everything out to a hairdresser.

[00:17:49] Titi Bello: You can go to a salon and enjoy the services, but you also know how to care for your hair.

[00:17:55] Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah.

[00:17:56] Titi Bello: That's where the magic really starts to happen.

[00:17:58] Juliet Fallowfield: How important do you [00:18:00] think founding a brand that has a real impactful reason behind it is today?

[00:18:06] Titi Bello: Oh, I, you know, it's what drives founders on. Like, it's so motivational. There are times where I look at figures, or I look at what the numbers are saying, and truthfully, I can feel so dejected, but for the purpose. And then somebody sends me an email. Oh my God, look at my daughter's hair after three years.

[00:18:28] Titi Bello: I can't believe what you've done for me. 

[00:18:31] Titi Bello: Or female says, I did go to that dermatologist. Or I have had the hair transplant. It's going amazingly well. That's why we're here. That's what drives us forward. Or sometimes when I get those messages and they say, I wore my hair into the office for the first time.

[00:18:50]  

[00:18:50] Juliet Fallowfield: Wow. 

[00:18:51] Titi Bello: I mean. 

[00:18:53] Titi Bello: That's what I'm here for. That is everything. That's what I'm here for. Or I am [00:19:00] actually going to wear my hair on my wedding day. That, that, That is, you know, that is something that I wasn't able to do on my wedding day. One of the biggest hair regrets that I have till today. So when we help people to do that, that's the purpose.

[00:19:14] Titi Bello: That's what, that's what the business is about. Um, 

[00:19:18] Titi Bello: It all it all 

[00:19:18] Juliet Fallowfield: Worthwhile.

[00:19:19] Titi Bello: It makes it all worthwhile and it equips you to work through the difficult 

[00:19:24] Juliet Fallowfield: Yes.

[00:19:24] Titi Bello: bits and the challenges.

[00:19:26] Juliet Fallowfield: having, We've talked in our second, actually our first episode of this season on branding about vision, mission, and purpose and how, when I grew up in luxury brands, it was all vision and mission. And very recently purpose has become much more prominent and talked about. And I think it was Bain & Company's definition on their website.

[00:19:42] Juliet Fallowfield: I noticed in the last few years, it used to just be vision and mission. And now they've got the definition of purpose in there. The rise of B Corp, 1%. Vegan accredited, like there's a lot of accreditations you can go after to make you feel like you're doing the right thing. But I think when you put all of your blood, sweat and tears into a startup and a [00:20:00] new business and you've become self employed and you feel very vulnerable without that absolute belief in your purpose, it's more than money.

[00:20:07] Juliet Fallowfield: It's more than what success is like. Whoever can say, I find it really funny. Everyone says, Oh, it looks like it's going really well. You're killing it. I'm like, you've not seen my PNL. 

[00:20:17] Titi Bello: Exactly. 

[00:20:18] Juliet Fallowfield: No, no one has. And apart from my coach. And I was like, hang on, what does well mean? What does success mean? And it's like, you look, you seem so happy.

[00:20:27] Juliet Fallowfield: And I was like, so my match is success. I really actually want to write them down. In my old job, when I was going off to promotion promotion and trying to gun for a bigger salary and a bonus, that was a success. It's like, Oh, I'm the youngest person around this boardroom table, or I'm the first female at this senior level of the management team in this brand or whatever they were.

[00:20:48] Juliet Fallowfield: Now it's, My team are happy. I'm learning from my team. My team had me in fits of giggles the other day, which you cannot put a price on, but then getting client testimonials, it's the same thing. Your work has [00:21:00] helped somebody else that is worth more than any bonus or any promotion or anything else. You need the money there to exist. 

[00:21:07] Titi Bello: Of course..

[00:21:07] Juliet Fallowfield: And that's where B Corp is very clever. It's like, you need to be profitable to then help people and plan it. 

[00:21:12] Titi Bello: Absolutely.. 

[00:21:13] Juliet Fallowfield: But it's a means to an end. And it's not everything. So for you, what would you advise a new founder who's thinking about starting a business that wants to do something with real impact? Like is there research they should do or what would be your tips and tricks for them to just take that leap?

[00:21:32] Titi Bello: I think going with your heart, and I know a lot of people, you know, the figures, the data, that, but going with your heart. Um, when I wanted to start this business, it was all about what people will benefit from this. I thought that people just weren't caring for their hair because they didn't know how to, and it's true.

[00:21:54] Titi Bello: They just didn't know how to. Going with your heart, even if everything is not [00:22:00] making sense in terms of. The data, the figures, the numbers, but there has to be that heart piece and I know for some people it sounds really soft, but I really strongly believe that there has to be, and the businesses that will stand the test of time, and the businesses that stand out, I do believe they have a heart there's a purpose behind it.

[00:22:23] Titi Bello: There's, you know, there's something beyond money that's driving it. You know, there's even a flare of flamboyance. You know, when I started the brand, I made this mistake of wanting to make it visually look like, you know, the big brands are very clean. And within a year, I looked at it and it didn't speak to me.

[00:22:43] Titi Bello: You know, the aesthetics of it. So we changed our branding immediately. Everyone told me at the time that it was ridiculous to change branding within a year. It would confuse people,

[00:22:54] Titi Bello: But 

[00:22:54] Juliet Fallowfield: your heart was telling

[00:22:55] Titi Bello: but my heart was telling me it's just does not really represent you. [00:23:00] And really it's not giving you any joy every time you look at your packaging.

[00:23:03] Titi Bello: So we changed it, we changed it and we changed it to really what I like.

[00:23:09] Juliet Fallowfield: well, and it's so joyful. I encourage anyone to look at your website because the packaging alone is a keepsake. You could cut it out and make it into a beautiful gift card.

[00:23:17] Titi Bello: Absolutely. 

[00:23:18] Juliet Fallowfield: It's so gorgeous.

[00:23:19] Titi Bello: Absolutely. And I was like, Titi, you love colors, you love design, you love fashion, bring it all in. We did. And within a year, Selfridges picked it up, Harrods picked it up. Nobody can convince me that that branding wasn't a part of it, but that's because I went with what my heart wanted as well.

[00:23:41] Titi Bello: And then of course it made business sense, 

[00:23:44] Titi Bello: go with your heart, put your heart into it.

[00:23:47] Juliet Fallowfield: Well, and that passion as well. Someone, when I started, they said, by the way, you're never going to not think about your business now. You're going to like in a shower, be worrying about a client when you go on a run. And it's so true, but that's why you have to bloody love it. [00:24:00] It has to 

[00:24:00] Juliet Fallowfield: be everything that you're so proud about.

[00:24:03] Titi Bello: Yes.

[00:24:04] Juliet Fallowfield: Given packaging can be such a barrier to entry and you rebranded. So obviously you invested in one design and then went to another. How did you tackle that visual identity part?

[00:24:15] Titi Bello: I, we started with, what do we want it to say? And you picked up on, it's joyful. That, that is it. You know, it, you, I want you to look at the branding and feel and understand the joy and the love. And the joy and the love is not for the design. It's for Afro textured hair. That is, and that's what I meant in the beginning when I said, aesthetically, sometimes, I look at other brands in this category and I'm like, what are you doing?

[00:24:41] Titi Bello: You know. Why does it need to be, I'm sorry, but why does it need to be ugly? Why does it need to be

[00:24:48] Juliet Fallowfield: anything but absolutely fabulous. 

[00:24:50] Titi Bello: Absolutely.

[00:24:50] Titi Bello: Absolutely! So, I think the, the thing is, The fact that our branding is fabulous is because I believe Afro textured hair is fabulous. [00:25:00] And I really wanted to position it as that because of the struggles that I know some people have with actually, well, thinking that Afro textured hair is beautiful.

[00:25:11] Titi Bello: I wanted to use our packaging to say, no, actually this hair type is beautiful. This hair type is worthy. Actually, this hair type deserves to be on the sexiest shelves. Of any retailer

[00:25:26] Juliet Fallowfield: and celebrate it.

[00:25:27] Titi Bello: and celebrate it. That's, and that's what drove the design.

[00:25:31] Juliet Fallowfield: And it, I mean, you can see it through and through. It's absolutely stunning. With impact, and I know having gone through, I went through B Corp last year and it was a lot of work, but they try and measure impact and they will say they can never really 100 percent know. For you, are you keeping an eye on feedbacks, are you looking at your return on impact as it were?

[00:25:52] Titi Bello: Absolutely. Absolutely. So we've, you know, I will, I'll be honest before it's, it was more of a feeling. Now we're [00:26:00] wanting to actually, you know, have some bit of data behind it. How many people are opening our emails? You know, if it's delivering what they want, if we are giving them the content that they want, more will be opening, right?

[00:26:13] Titi Bello: So we're tracking what people are saying, we're tracking feedback from people. Um, you know, we're still so small as a community that sometimes it's just messages. Messages flood in through WhatsApp, messages come in through our Instagram pages. It's pictures, it's testimonials. Um,

[00:26:32] Juliet Fallowfield: It's incredibly smart because they become your biggest brand advocates and they will be doing your PR for you because they're 

[00:26:40] Juliet Fallowfield: big fans. 

[00:26:41] Titi Bello: You are absolutely correct. We have at least five people. Whatever we share, they reshare. It doesn't matter what it is. They just automatically, I've never come across anything like, whatever we share, they reshare. That makes me feel, that in fact, I was, um, two days ago, I was getting a bit nervous about the new product launch, and I am quite a [00:27:00] transparent person, and I said it on my Instagram.

[00:27:03] Titi Bello: handle, not the brand page, but the other page. And I said it on my Instagram and I got so many messages and somebody said, whatever you launch, we will buy. If I don't like, I won't buy again, but I'm buying it anyway. The first day you launch, you know, that is one of the ways in which you measure impact 

[00:27:20] Juliet Fallowfield: I mean, any business to have that loyalty there is huge. Started in 2019. It's a new brand to have that brand loyalty is insanely amazing.

[00:27:29] Titi Bello: It's new, but it's, it's come with a lot of work. So it's come with a lot of invested my own energy time into just talking to people and not trying to sell them things, but, having difficult conversations, you know, sometimes brands shy away from having difficult conversations with consumers, but sometimes I will have difficult conversations online.. Do you want great hair in 10 years time? Or do you want to be in a position where you are suffering [00:28:00] hair loss?

[00:28:00] Titi Bello: And sometimes these messages are difficult. I mean, they're hard.

[00:28:05] Juliet Fallowfield: And given it's such a personal topic as well, I mean, it's making my day job seem a lot easier because my calling the elephant out in the room is, Oh yeah, no, everybody hates PR and this is why. And I was like, what? And it's like, no, people hate PR. And it's like, but you do PR and it's like, yes, but, and just seeing those scales come off their eyes of like, you're, you're admitting.

[00:28:25] Juliet Fallowfield: The actual fact of the matter, it builds a much quicker, more rewarding conversation because you said what the pain point is for everybody. And for you, you've gone through it yourself. You are your biggest ambassador and proof point as to why it works. But that trust element, any beauty brand would kill to have that loyalty that you've built so quickly.

[00:28:48] Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah.

[00:28:49] Titi Bello: Yeah, and you know, sometimes beauty brands also maybe shy away from challenging their audience. I don't, you know, I, don't shy away from challenging. [00:29:00] Um, uh, you know, they challenge me. I challenge them. You know, I, we, we just did a, a, a, a, a little campaign in Ghana about conditioning, you know, 

[00:29:07] Titi Bello: we're talking about beauty standards, but we all have a role to play in beauty standards. So we should all challenge our own beauty standards and the way that we've been conditioned to believe that certain aesthetics are better than others. I think that if you put in the work, your clients, consumers, your audience are prepared to be challenged.

[00:29:29] Titi Bello: They will challenge you and that builds trusT 

[00:29:32] Juliet Fallowfield: it's come to me in the most exasperating moments where I'm feeling a bit crestfallen and heartbroken that a client may not have listened, or I haven't landed my point and they're being quite bullish about something. And I was like, look, come on, if you don't pitch, it's not going to happen.

[00:29:46] Juliet Fallowfield: If you don't go to the gym, you're not going to get fitter. If you don't save money, you're not going to get a savings account in the future. Like it's not rocket science and they've, I've been taken aback, but they're like, yeah, actually fair. I know I haven't 

[00:29:56] Juliet Fallowfield: pitched. 

[00:29:56] Titi Bello: Absolutely. 

[00:29:57] Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah. 

[00:29:57]  

[00:29:57] Juliet Fallowfield: Ut it's, it I'm like, look, just send the email to the [00:30:00] editor.

[00:30:00] Juliet Fallowfield: As also small business owners, you can have it, we're in the same boat, you know, we know the trials and tribulations, it's not. Preaching to the unconverted, I suppose, um, so yeah, that helps. Is there anything, what's your golden piece of advice for a person who's on the fence about starting their own business?

[00:30:16] Juliet Fallowfield: What would you say to them in terms of do or don't?

[00:30:19] Titi Bello: No, I just start, you know, just start. I think sometimes a lot of people overanalyze things, they're fearful about starting, just start. You will figure it out as you go along,  and you don't need a whole hip of money to start. 

[00:30:35] Titi Bello: We probably start at, well, no, probably I, I started this business with less than £5000. It's possible.

[00:30:41] Juliet Fallowfield: And now you're in Harrods and Selfridges.

[00:30:43] Titi Bello: Yes and, and, and, and I'm not a millionaire yet. 

[00:30:46] Titi Bello: And 

[00:30:46] Juliet Fallowfield: I 

[00:30:46] Juliet Fallowfield: love it, yet.

[00:30:48] Titi Bello: yeah, but I started,

[00:30:50] Juliet Fallowfield:  You're on the way, 

[00:30:52] Titi Bello: but you cannot be on the way until you started, so just start, I just think that a lot of people stall, [00:31:00] they come up with excuses, they have all these vision boards, you know, that they're visioning, they've been visioning, they're on this visioning force forever.

[00:31:08] Titi Bello: Just start and figure it out as you go along.

[00:31:11] Juliet Fallowfield: So what we have, um, is a question from our previous guest for you. And I would love to ask you a question for our next guest too. And their question for you is when you're starting a business, say today in 2024, how would you advise that founder to learn how to sell? Because a lot of people have said no matter what you do, service, product, in a hut, in a garden, in a massive office, 80 percent of your job as a founder is sales.

[00:31:37] Juliet Fallowfield: And it's something that I got to grips with really quickly and quite enjoy, but lots of people hate it. Would you have any advice on that?

[00:31:45] Titi Bello: I really hate 

[00:31:45] Titi Bello: it. 

[00:31:46] Juliet Fallowfield: Do you?

[00:31:46] Titi Bello: I 

[00:31:47] Titi Bello: do. 

[00:31:47] Juliet Fallowfield: Why? 

[00:31:47] Titi Bello: I am not, I'm not a natural sales person. Um, 

[00:31:52] Juliet Fallowfield: That surprises me, because you speak so confidently.

[00:31:54] Titi Bello: I know, but sales is not my thing, but I have recognized it as a [00:32:00] weakness and I have been working really hard. So I will 100 percent actually. I agree and lean into the reasoning behind that question. I think we need to have a healthy attitude around sales, because sales is actually helping somebody.

[00:32:19] Titi Bello: If your product is good and you feel that it's needed, then you've got to be good at sales because you're actually doing the people who buy it a favour in the end, if it's a great product. If I was to do it all over again, to be honest with you, if I was to do this business all over again. I would have a partner.

[00:32:39] Titi Bello: I would, I would go for, yeah, I would go for a founder partner that has a completely different skill set to what I have, one of which would be sales. Sales, PR, marketing, I underestimated and I wished, that's one thing I wished I'd done differently in the beginning.

[00:32:57] Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah. It's, it's so interesting. A lot of people, [00:33:00] I work in a co working office, Soho Works in White City, and I've got this gorgeous community around me of other business owners, all in very different sectors, different skill sets. It's incredible, the variety. And, a few of them said, 'oh no, if I could do it again, I wouldn't have a partner'.

[00:33:13] Juliet Fallowfield: But I wonder if it's the grass is always greener. Because I quite like the fact that I'm autonomous and I don't have to run anything past anyone, bar the team, obviously, but they will potentially leave the business at some point and go on something else. This is my daily living, breathing, life, . Um, I can make quick decisions 

[00:33:29] Juliet Fallowfield: and there's other people like, no, I definitely couldn't have done it without my partner, but I think it's probably finding the right partner. 

[00:33:34] Titi Bello: Yes 

[00:33:34] Juliet Fallowfield: who, you can rely on and doesn't let you down because there's so many horror stories I've heard that I haven't put in the podcast of people being like, 'oh no, it didn't work because of X, Y, and Z'.

[00:33:43] Juliet Fallowfield: It's like, Oh God. Um, 

[00:33:45] Titi Bello: No, I would, I would, I would go for a partner, but I would go for one that

[00:33:49] Juliet Fallowfield: is in sales 

[00:33:50] Titi Bello: would, that, that, that is in sales. Um. I also enjoy working with people. I

[00:33:56] Titi Bello: prefer, I like being a part of a team and I [00:34:00] find being a founder very lonely 

[00:34:02] Juliet Fallowfield: sometimes

[00:34:03] Juliet Fallowfield: Yes, totally. Well, and then layer in a podcast for me, which is a one way conversation when you put it out there and you don't get, you get feedback occasionally, but it's like, Hello, anyone listening?

[00:34:13] Titi Bello: Exactly, exactly. So I find it lonely and you know, I am sure many founders will say that at some point they have been, their mental health has been tested and I'm one of them, um, and I think that having a partner, just having someone to shoulder the burden with can be super helpful.

[00:34:32] Titi Bello: And then if you find somebody that also your skill sets are very complementary, um, but different, then I think you can drive the business forward much quicker. Because when I think about it, what am I trying to achieve? I want more, more black women to enjoy their own hair, be confident in their own skin and in their own hair.

[00:34:56] Titi Bello: So what does it matter if I'm doing it by myself or if I'm [00:35:00] doing it with somebody else? And if I can do it with somebody else and

[00:35:03] Juliet Fallowfield: Do more., 

[00:35:04] 

[00:35:04] Titi Bello: Do more, 

[00:35:05] Titi Bello: uh, quicker, then that's what, that's, because that's the goal, the bigger goal is beyond me. That's what I'll go for. Um, 

[00:35:11] Juliet Fallowfield: given that you haven't currently got a business partner, how do you overcome your fear of sales?

[00:35:16] Juliet Fallowfield: What do you do to kind of get yourself out there?

[00:35:20]  

[00:35:20] Titi Bello: Social media has been kind to us, being in Harrods and Selfridges has helped, definitely has helped. Um,

[00:35:27] Titi Bello: I think one of the things that has really dawned on me is understanding very clearly now that this is a different skill set. And so at one, some point we have to buy that skill set in. I don't know what I don't know. Um, and I don't have skills across every

[00:35:47] Titi Bello: area 

[00:35:48] Juliet Fallowfield: would say, you know what you don't know. So when I started, I didn't know what I didn't know, and now I know what I don't know and I know what I need to externalize. And I think you are in the same boat of like, I recognize this. I don't want to do this. I want to pay someone else to do it [00:36:00] better than

[00:36:00] Juliet Fallowfield: me.

[00:36:01] Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah. 

[00:36:01] Titi Bello: Exactly. Um, that's where I am at the moment. Of course, with a small business, you have the handicap of the funding, can you afford it? As soon as we can afford certain things, that's where the money is going. Sales, marketing, PR, um, and of course trying to get into more distribution channels.

[00:36:21] Juliet Fallowfield: Thank you so much. Oh, and what would your question be for our next guest? It could be anything about starting a business.

[00:36:28] Titi Bello: I would ask what one thing has helped to move their business along? 

[00:36:35] Juliet Fallowfield: A key thing that's 

[00:36:36] Juliet Fallowfield: really 

[00:36:37] Titi Bello: thing, 

[00:36:38] Juliet Fallowfield: it. 

[00:36:38] Titi Bello: yeah.

[00:36:40] Juliet Fallowfield: Amazing.

[00:36:40] Titi Bello: And I ask because for me, I think it is the visual, the aesthetics of our brand,

[00:36:47] Juliet Fallowfield: Mm.

[00:36:47] Titi Bello: which is, Which I have been actually quite shocked about, but it is that thing. And then they try the products and they love the product,

[00:36:56] Juliet Fallowfield: For the leading the horse to water, that visual 

[00:36:58] Titi Bello: that visual [00:37:00] identity. I don't think we can underestimate.

[00:37:02] Juliet Fallowfield: Yeah.

[00:37:03] Titi Bello: I knew it was important, but I didn't realize how important it is.

[00:37:09] Titi Bello: Um,

[00:37:09] Juliet Fallowfield: Fantastic. Thank you so much Titi, it's

[00:37:12] Juliet Fallowfield: fantastic to chat to you. ,

[00:37:13] Juliet Fallowfield: like, Massive congratulations on what you've achieved in such a short time,

[00:37:17] Titi Bello: Thank you so much. 

[00:37:18] Juliet Fallowfield: and I'm delighted that you're going from strength to strength.

[00:37:21] Titi Bello: Thank you. And I have listened to a lot of your podcasts now since then. I love them. I absolutely love them.

[00:37:29] Titi Bello: Thank you. 

[00:37:29] Juliet Fallowfield: means the world.

[00:37:31] Titi Bello: I really love them. Really love them.

[00:37:33] Juliet Fallowfield: I bless you for saying that I'm going to quickly click stop to upload. Um, 

[00:37:33] Titi Bello: Really love them. 

[00:37:33] Juliet Fallowfield: I bless you for saying that I'm going to I really hope you've enjoyed this conversation, you can find a recap of all the advice so kindly shared by guests in the show notes, along with our contact details.

[00:37:45] Juliet Fallowfield: We'd love it if you could rate and review or share this podcast because it really does help other people discover it. To incentivise this a little, I would very happily offer you one of [00:38:00] our PR guides on how to share editorial coverage legally, just DM us or send us an email. Hello at fallowfieldmason. 

[00:38:08] Juliet Fallowfield: com with review in the title and we'll share it on. 

[00:38:12] ​