223: Miss Jessie’s Co-Founder and CEO Miko Branch on Building from Scratch, Making Rookie Mistakes and Learning to Heal

When she was younger, Miko Branch had a secret fantasy of opening a pink-decorated salon, although her parents had other career aspirations in mind for her. At age 25, Miko made that dream a reality, and ran her own salon out of the Brooklyn apartment she shared with her sister, Titi.  In 1997, with her sister's encouragement, Miko opened a storefront salon despite her own fears about expanding. Though some of those fears may have been realized when the sisters later lost their business due to what Miko calls some rookie business mistakes, a combination of their resilience, the influence of their strong-willed southern grandmother, Jessie Mae Branch, an aha moment while bathing her young son and a determination to create a hair care products that suited their textures and their lives would change the path of Miss Jessie's granddaughters forever.

Today, as Co-Founder and CEO of Miss Jessie’s -- one of the natural haircare industry's leading brands -- Miko Branch talks to Support is Sexy podcast about rookie mistakes, aha moments, the power of sharing secrets with your customers, the dangers of growing too quickly and her thoughts on the Shea Moisture marketing misstep. Plus, she opens up about losing her sister Titi in 2014 and how that experience has affected her commitment to her own mental wellness and to spreading that message of mental health awareness to others.

On this episode you'll learn:

How to recognize opportunities.Miko's advice for entrepreneurs creating their own beauty products.The advantage of BEING your customer.The power of sharing the how-to information for your products.The moment when you realize you're on to something.What it takes to to be prepared for distribution of your products.The pitfalls of growing too quickly.How "over-skuing" hurts your brand.How to avoid marketing missteps and how to address them when they happen.What Miko and Miss Jessie's are doing to support mental wellness and mental health awareness.The importance of giving ourselves permission to understand our feelings as women. And the sometimes lonely journey of entrepreneurship.  

WANT TO RECEIVE A FREE COPY OF MIKO'S BOOK AND A SAMPLE OF MISS JESSIE'S HAIR CARE PRODUCTS? BE AMONG THE FIRST FIVE LUCKY LISTENERS TO SIGN UP HERE FOR OUR GIVEAWAY!

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