June 4, 2026
Building a Killer Brand: The Play Pits Story
Chantel Powell shares her inspiring journey from creating Play Pits deodorant for her son to building a nationally recognized brand. She discusses overcoming setbacks like warehouse fires, scaling in major retailers, and the importance of community and authenticity in business. Get yours today! https://playpits.com/
Key Topics: Creating Play Pits deodorant for her son Overcoming warehouse fire and setbacks Scaling in CVS, Target, and Amazon Building community and brand loyalty Balancing personal story with business growth
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00:00:03
Speaker 1: What's going on, Ladies and gentlemen, billy goats, cats, squirrels, cows, horses, whatever.
00:00:09
Speaker 2: You may be.
00:00:10
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of the perfect pair of podcasts, Rock Teas in the Building Solo Doling this week because my wife is under the weather little bit, so y'all pray for Crystal.
00:00:20
Speaker 2: You know she'll be back next week as we continue doing what we do.
00:00:24
Speaker 1: But this week, oh we get ready, man, we got we got a superstar sitting over here, over here, next to me.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: Over here.
00:00:31
Speaker 1: Man, I'm gonna do this right here. Okay, if I if I gave you your full introduction, that'll be the whole podcast. Like, that'd be the whole episode right there. So I'm gonna highlight some of the things of who you are so we can go ahead and get right into your story.
00:00:50
Speaker 2: Because your story is absolutely phenomenal.
00:00:54
Speaker 1: And if you guys have never heard of the person that I'm that's on the screen right now, you gonna know by the end of this episode.
00:01:01
Speaker 2: Shantail Power.
00:01:03
Speaker 1: She's a wife, she's a mom entrepreneur boldly disrupted the highly competitive hygiene industry with her creation. I ain't eve gonna tell you what that creation is yet, because y'all need to keep listening. She's a graduate of Clark Atlanta University HBC. You know, man, you began your career as a wardrobe buyer for TV and film at Tyler Perry Studios.
00:01:24
Speaker 2: But there's more. There's more. Twenty seventeen took you on a pivotal turn.
00:01:32
Speaker 1: You picked up your six year old son, Cameron from football practice.
00:01:35
Speaker 2: He got into your car smelling like a grown man. Come on, I can relate. I was that six year old kid once upon a time.
00:01:45
Speaker 1: Concerned about using an adult deorderant and added purse print, you decided to explore natural deorderance.
00:01:51
Speaker 2: You couldn't find nothing, So guess what she did, Ladies and gentlemen.
00:01:54
Speaker 1: Chantelle said, I'm gonna just create something like the dog gonna self And you did that. Hence play pitch deordering. Welcome to the podcast, Chantelle, How you doing? Hello?
00:02:05
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for that introduction.
00:02:07
Speaker 4: You know, it's so crazy when you're doing the work and you're in it, sometimes you forget all that you've done, and so like, whenever I hear an introduction, it's always like.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: Wow, who is that? She did all that?
00:02:19
Speaker 2: Listen?
00:02:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, So thank you. Thank you so much for that reminder.
00:02:23
Speaker 1: You are, we are welcome. If nobody's giving your flowers, You're finna get your flowers today because you are what we call an invisible giant. And although you've done some amazing things that we all gonna hear about on this on this episode, you're the only black woman with natural youth yodering.
00:02:40
Speaker 2: If that is that true or false?
00:02:44
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm nobody else has claimed the position, so.
00:02:48
Speaker 4: I'm I don't know any I don't know any of them, so I think I think it's me. And if if I am not the only one, I was definitely the first. So you know, I'm grateful that I've had the vision to do something that hasn't been done, and so part of the journey is creating a space in that space that's not created in the the obstacles that come with that.
00:03:16
Speaker 2: Come on, now, you just said the big, big word right there, obstacles.
00:03:19
Speaker 1: So you just celebrated being in over two thousand CBS stores. Congratulations, that's big time right there.
00:03:26
Speaker 2: You're going let me just correct you.
00:03:28
Speaker 4: We're gonna we're gonna claim two thousand eventually. Right now, we're in eleven hundred eleven.
00:03:34
Speaker 1: Come on now, yeah, no, let's go on the way to two thousand plus.
00:03:38
Speaker 3: Let's go on our way. We're on our way.
00:03:41
Speaker 1: But you you're going toe to toe with a lot of the multi billion dollar companies out there. Let's let's let's go back a little bit, because so many times people see the success of what they see on television, what they see on social media, hearing great stories like yours were talking about right now.
00:04:01
Speaker 2: But you had a few setbacks.
00:04:05
Speaker 1: Your warehouse caught on fire, burned everything up, You lost your mother and your grandmother within a short period of time. Back to back, Let's go back to those moments. What Let's start with the burning of the warehouse. What happened and why did you choose to continue and not quit.
00:04:32
Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell you why I chose not to quit, and then I'm gonna tell you what happened. I get a phone call at three am that my warehouse was on fire, and I mean I was like, I was not expecting a call at three am, as nobody would be right. And I remember the lady being on the call, super frantic. She was my neighbor, and she's like, chantell, this is you know your neighbor at the warehouse. The warehouse is on fire, and I was like, oh, okay. She said, I'm headed there now, but the alarm, my alarm notified me, so I'm calling you and she was my next door neighbor. And so as I get in the car, me and my husband were driving down the road, and it's quiet, it's like three point fifteen, three thirty in the morning, And in that moment, my body was like so steel, but internally I felt so rattled. I don't know if you've ever experienced that, like where you're still, but internally you just rattled. And literally a calm came past me and it said, this is just part of your story. And so once I got that confirmation, that's when I knew it wasn't the end of my.
00:05:57
Speaker 3: Story, and it was a part of the store.
00:06:00
Speaker 4: And however it played its way out, it was a part of the story. And so most of the stories I grew up on, you know, it's tragedy.
00:06:14
Speaker 3: My favorite Disney movie is The Lion King.
00:06:18
Speaker 4: It was tragic, Yeah, a kuna mataran, but he you know, Simba, Simba survived, and so that's why I kept going. But what happened was it was a fire my my neighbor had a iron welding company. She had propane, gasoline, oxygen, anything that was flammable, explodable, all the things. And so the warehouse went up and we had a firewall in between the warehouse and I mean me and her, my warehouse and her warehouse. It was a firewall, and the firewall gets breached. I pulled up the whole sky is lit up three o'clock in the morning. For by this time it's like three forty and I see the fire trucks. It's like four four to five fire trucks. And I find somebody and they say, is this are you, you know, the owner of this warehouse?
00:07:17
Speaker 3: And I was like, yep, my unit is right there.
00:07:20
Speaker 4: And he said, okay, well it's gonna be about come back like around one pm.
00:07:26
Speaker 3: We should be done by then. I said, damn, wow, yes, it's four o'clock in the morning.
00:07:32
Speaker 2: What's you mean, like what?
00:07:34
Speaker 4: And that's when he explained, he said, we keep having explosions and it seems like, you know, like all the challenges they had putting the fire out. And I said, okay. I went back at one they still wasn't done. And so then by like two. So when I get back, they say, I need, you know, like I need to speak to everybody. And so the fire chief is going by speaking to everybody, and they said, we need to talk to play Pits, and so I'm like, oh, here, So everybody is planning to get their stuff out the warehouse because the whole warehouse wasn't damaged. It was her unit, right that and when you looked at it, it was like it was her unit. So but when they came to me, they said, your firewall is compromised.
00:08:23
Speaker 3: You got damaged.
00:08:24
Speaker 4: You like you're the Basically I was the only other business that couldn't go in in addition to her, whereas everybody else on the ends they were able to get with They all the things we had already figured out a truck.
00:08:36
Speaker 3: I could see the inventory.
00:08:37
Speaker 4: I was like, okay, maybe I could get the inventory on this side of the warehouse. And the fire chief said, I'm so sorry, you can't get anything out your unit. And I begged them for a picture that a little sixteen year old girl painted for me and my printer, my label printer, and so I walked away with that, with those two things, and just devastation and so that was that's the part of the story.
00:09:05
Speaker 1: Okay, So at that moment, because we got that no excuses, get it done mindset, at that moment, did you have an ounce of saying, well, I tried, it's over.
00:09:15
Speaker 2: I guess I go try something else new. Not one moment. No, No, in that.
00:09:22
Speaker 4: Moment, I was in problem I'm always in problem solving mode, Like there's there's really ever a time where I'm presented a problem and I'm not trying to solve it.
00:09:37
Speaker 1: All right, San Telo, So let's let's let's let's jump back into when you came up with the play pits concept, when you your smelly little son jumped into the car after football practice.
00:09:49
Speaker 2: Take me through that moment, take me through that story.
00:09:52
Speaker 4: Oh well, yeah, that was That was July twenty seventeen. He was in a basketball camp in a football practice at the literally Long Days, and I picked him up and he got my car and closed that door, and I was like, wait a minute, wait I'm and so I think I even asked him, like you know, we talked or whatever, and I still was kind of like driving like like like is it me? And then I think at like once we got out the car or whatever.
00:10:33
Speaker 3: I was like, let me smell you.
00:10:35
Speaker 4: And it was what I thought it was him, and I was mortified. I was like, oh, my baby, you know, like when kids like it's this joke in my home where like my baby, like, my kids will always be my babies, no matter how big they are, no matter how old they are.
00:10:52
Speaker 3: He was six, so technically he's not a baby, but he was still my baby.
00:10:56
Speaker 4: And so my baby smelled like a rang a tang like that was just offensive. He smelled like a locker room. He smelled like you know, it was just was that older. And the thing is everybody goes through it, and so yeah, that was that was my experience. And I was like, oh no, And so I went looking to see what was on the shelf, and I didn't see anything that like really spoke to him.
00:11:23
Speaker 3: It was adult products. It was natural deodorance, but they were crunchy.
00:11:28
Speaker 4: And like kind of boring, and I was like, yeah, no, I don't think he's gonna wear that.
00:11:33
Speaker 3: And I didn't see anything.
00:11:36
Speaker 4: So I went home and I made something because my grandmother used to have bacon soda under my arms and made it said hey, here's your here's your new deodorant, and you're gonna smell as amazing as this orange essential oil all day. You're gonna put it on at the top of the day. It was bacon soda, it was corn starch, and it was coconutible. And the last thing I added was a orange essentual old because I convinced him you could smell as good as a orange all day. And so he came home after his long day and it was probably around dinner time, and he's like, Mommy, so I told all the kids about the deodoran at camp, So you got to make it for everybody.
00:12:18
Speaker 2: Come on, come on, I wasted it was.
00:12:23
Speaker 3: It was hustle man.
00:12:24
Speaker 4: It was yeah, so look mommy, boom, I got a hustle for you. And I was like, no, at the time I was working, I was not in need of work. And he signed me up to make theodor and at all the kids at camp. So I told him no, and he looked at me and he was like, but mommy, you could make it for everybody, and it was like that was the moment, and it was everybody for me was kids who deserved to play unapologetically. Everybody for me was mothers who don't want to suffer with a kid, you know, in the back seat. And so that's how I created play Pits.
00:13:06
Speaker 2: So technically it's safe to say that he's the CEO.
00:13:09
Speaker 3: He's a CIO.
00:13:11
Speaker 4: Okay, that's Chief Inspiration Officer.
00:13:16
Speaker 3: And I tell them, you know.
00:13:19
Speaker 4: An idea is an idea, but you got to put the work behind the idea, right, And what this was was teaching all the kids. We have three kids, me and my husband, teaching all of them what hard work looks like. And so we've all they've all contributed. In the early days. They literally were my employees. Like I used to be, like, don't call child labor laws on me, because they were my youngest. He learned how to count counting Playpits.
00:13:48
Speaker 3: The odrant.
00:13:48
Speaker 4: Come on, he's now on an advanced math and he's a tag student, but Playpits taught him how to count because he would be in charge of putting all the containers on the table for me.
00:14:00
Speaker 3: To pour it.
00:14:01
Speaker 4: And so that's how he learned how to count to twenty two. And then we just continued after that. So you know, we all put in the work and I let them. I let them kind of retire once I was able to get real employees, and so you know, I always tell them, you know, they could take over the business one day if they want. But I feel like this may be my dream and they may have bigger dreams to do other things.
00:14:24
Speaker 2: I love it.
00:14:25
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the difference between a hustle and a real business. And sometimes a real business starts as a hustle. Is this kind of what play pits? Is that the story of play Pits? Well, this is the little like your son, Hey mom, let's go man, we can get this for the whole team. Everybody asked, whatever, this can be a little hustle we can do. Is that kind of how it started?
00:14:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was hustle.
00:14:49
Speaker 4: I mean it was hustle all the way to It was hustle for a long time because hustle was all I knew.
00:14:57
Speaker 3: I didn't really know how to be a seat, you know.
00:15:01
Speaker 4: I knew how to I knew how to make something out of nothing. I knew how to be creative. I knew how to communicate. I knew how to pitch, and even that I didn't know what I was doing in pitching. Was pitching just growing up being able to convince and persuade and and you know, tell somebody, let me tell you a story, or let me show you something.
00:15:26
Speaker 3: But yeah, I built this off of just the hustle I've.
00:15:29
Speaker 4: Learned over the years and through building this business, I've became a CEO because I've realized that hustle doesn't get you to the next level. Hustle doesn't make you a nationally distributed brand. You got to be a leader to do that. You have to be a CEO to you know, pull that off. And yes, yes, it's a mindset. And so you know, getting out of hustle going into a leadership CEO role has has been, you know, a personal exercise for me over the years.
00:16:05
Speaker 2: So let's stay there right real quick.
00:16:07
Speaker 1: You talked about being patient, You're talking about being good at pitching for the most part, and you talked about this wasn't like an overnight success. And to some people that knows this version of Chantel, it's man, she went from here and now look what she's doing. But everything in between, like the patient's part, like did you ever get to the point.
00:16:33
Speaker 2: Where the deodor end wasn't as good as you thought it was?
00:16:35
Speaker 1: Even though your son came home hype and motivated somewhere as you were starting to build this thing into a business. Did you ever get to a point where like, man, I don't know if this is gonna work.
00:16:46
Speaker 2: Like what happens if people tell me no?
00:16:50
Speaker 1: What happens if I'm pitching people about this idea and they just keep saying, Nah, it ain't gonna work, or now whatever.
00:16:56
Speaker 2: Do you have? You did any kind of self doubt ever set in.
00:17:02
Speaker 3: I never doubted the product.
00:17:04
Speaker 4: Actually, the more I the more I learned about the product, the more it was revealed to me that I made something truly special. So at every step of the way when I first created it, I took it to a lab to just make sure, like did I make it the older? You know, because I was making something in my kitchen, so I didn't really know technique, and I didn't really know chemistry at a very advanced cosmetic chemistry standpoint. So you know, in the beginning, I did the things that had to validate the product. And so every at every turn, the product feedback just was this was special, this was different, This was you know, this was the this was better than what we sell.
00:17:48
Speaker 3: This is amazing I've never.
00:17:50
Speaker 4: Had, you know, So I never doubted the product, but there has been times in the journey that I doubted my ability to shepherd this business. To win there it needs to be so that self doubt sometimes happens, for sure, but not the product.
00:18:06
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:18:07
Speaker 1: So you mentioned one thousand plus stores currently in CBS and growing.
00:18:14
Speaker 2: You mentioned you got a meeting with Target coming up.
00:18:20
Speaker 3: So we're in Target.
00:18:21
Speaker 4: So we've been in Target since actually six months before the fire. We launched in Target March twenty twenty two. Okay, So we launched Target in March twenty twenty two, and it was.
00:18:33
Speaker 3: An explosive launch.
00:18:35
Speaker 4: We I mean, the products sold out so fast to the point where they ordered what would they thought would last them around six to eight weeks, and it last them like three to four weeks.
00:18:45
Speaker 3: And the beginning of the Target business was like figuring it.
00:18:49
Speaker 4: Out, how do we keep up with this demand because the demand was so strong. So, yeah, so we're in targeting. We're in CBS still.
00:18:59
Speaker 1: Okay, So let's talk about that, because is your deal more of hey, Target, CVS, we want your product on our shelves, and they pay you wholesale and then they sell retail or do they just put the product on the shelves, and you're responsible for your own marketing to send people to the store to go buy. And what kind of do you mind sharing the type of deal you got, because this is very important when it comes to small businesses thinking about Okay, should I go to the big box stores or should I just keep it online and keep it Amazon and so on and so forth virtually whatever, So this is good information, So can you share that piece?
00:19:39
Speaker 2: What kind of deal do you have with CBS and Target?
00:19:42
Speaker 3: So I would say what you just describe.
00:19:44
Speaker 4: It's almost like a hybrid of what you just said in anybody that you know, the big brands the small brands. This is how when you're doing business at this scale, this is how you do it. So you're basically selling your product at a wholesale price and they're selling it for retail, so they're making my on it, and you're now focusing on valume like you the goal is, you know, instead of ten units, you want to be focusing on how do I move one thousand units? And then as far as the marketing, you are technically still required to market your product outside of that retailer. Inside the retailer too, but outside it is not the retailer's responsibility to fully market your product. Now you're on the shelf. Therefore, now you're hitting all this traffic that you may not necessarily get on your dot com right, So a do a playpits dot com customer. They can go, they can read, they can see the product, but they can't smell it, right, and they they have to pay for shipping on dot com unless you are, you know, buying a certain level of like you're buying forty dollars worth of product, right, then you can go and get free shipping. But to walk out of somewhere with one product free ship that you're gonna do that at retail. But it is my job to help push customers there and make sure that I have a good enough product that people want to come back and continue to purchase my product every time they go into that store.
00:21:14
Speaker 1: So what happens if you don't sell your product? Let's just say they kick you out. Okay, Now when they kick you out, do you have to buy your product back? Or they just say come get your product? Thinks it's been fun?
00:21:25
Speaker 3: You buy your product back?
00:21:26
Speaker 2: Ooh, that's good stuff.
00:21:28
Speaker 4: Tell you buy your product. But this is the thing you buy the product back at retail.
00:21:32
Speaker 2: Ooh yes, I'm glad.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: Okay, Now you're gonna help a lot of people decide on whether they want to go down the same road that you just went through.
00:21:40
Speaker 2: You know you, of course, you always bet on yourself.
00:21:43
Speaker 1: You don't never second guess yourself, Like, if this is the route you want to go, let's go.
00:21:47
Speaker 2: We figure it out once we get in there or whatever.
00:21:50
Speaker 1: But you sell it to them at whosletsale, they mark it up to sell it retail to make a profit. But if your product doesn't sell, they're gonna tell you come get your stuff. Oh, by the way, you got to buy it back from us at retail.
00:22:06
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah yeah, okay.
00:22:10
Speaker 1: So major corporate retail stores they're no longer taking a lot of risk on minority own black businesses. Uh, the DEI has left a lot of corporations. You're a black owned business, can you share your thoughts on that? Like, what would you what advice do you have these to to young small business black owned businesses that they may not be on your level yet, but they're on their way, you know, should they should they set goals to say, man, I would love to be in target, I would love to be in CBS. I would love to be in Walmart or just kind of keep keep the course of what they're doing.
00:22:51
Speaker 4: Did you notice when I when you first started down this road of this question, I had to take a deep breath, Like I had to just kind of to take a deep breath because this is a really.
00:23:05
Speaker 3: It's a really heavy.
00:23:08
Speaker 4: Conversation for me, right, because I'm a brand who was around before DI and all of that exploded. Right, So I launched in twenty eighteen. Twenty eighteen, people were intentional shopping, you know, certain stores and all that, but I wouldn't say it was really mainstream and super mindful. As things have transitioned, things have changed, right, And so I would say to anybody who's interested in selling a product in retail, like, definitely go for it. But you originally asked me a couple questions ago about like the self doubt. These are the moments in building the company where the self doubt comes because you see all the shifts. And then when you build a brand so personal, it feels personal. So the rejections feel personal. All the things just feel so personal, right, And so I would tell somebody like, if you have a brand and you want to sell at retail. Step one, build a community outside of that retailler right, build your customer base very strong, and win on your own channel. So set up your Shopify store market that grow organically, utilize social and really get to know your customer and build your community. And then I would say hit a certain threshold financially where you have the runway from a cash flow standpoint to function with your existing business.
00:24:54
Speaker 3: Where you get to the point where like money is not like you know a.
00:24:58
Speaker 4: Thing where it's like h always have money for inventory or money for So you want to get to a point where you build that d t C because you're going to have the best margins there. You're gonna make the I make the most money on a product on product that I send.
00:25:13
Speaker 3: I mean I.
00:25:14
Speaker 4: Sell on my DTA C that I do in retail. But that's because I'm not splitting it with anybody. But at the same time, it requires a lot of money to market that product to new customers because now you just a person on the internet, you know, so you gotta do things like go in person. You got to invest in in person events, grassroots stuff. And so I would say get to the point where you get your dta C to hit, I would definitely say over now, I would say over two point five to five million dollars. Your dta C needs to be in order for you to think about retail, because retail is really a risky game. It's a very risky game. It's a very expensive game. But I wouldn't never deter somebody that wants to be in retail to not go to retail. I mean you you're able to build and really have a national reach in an accelerated way. It but it's definitely risky. It's more risky than selling on your dot com.
00:26:14
Speaker 2: That's good stuff.
00:26:17
Speaker 1: Okay, Being black owned this this is a this is gonna be a tough one right here. But I gotta ask you because you when you have when you have people that have broken down the barriers and they look like us, you gotta you gotta pick their brain and you gotta you gotta get this information out there. So being a black owned business option one. I'm a black owned business. Power to the people black, black, Black. But then sometimes some people may think that you're putting yourself in a box. Right then, you got I'm a black owned business, but I'm not out front with the blackness.
00:26:54
Speaker 2: I just have a I have a great product that just happens to be owned by a black woman. Does that make sense?
00:27:01
Speaker 1: So my question is how do you feel about being a black owned business and leading with that so you can really hit your community, your culture and getting the support from your community and culture versus having this amazing product that just happens to be black owned.
00:27:24
Speaker 2: Everybody can have it.
00:27:26
Speaker 4: Your thoughts, Yeah, I think it depends on your product, and I think it depends on your audience and who your customer is. So when you first start a business, you should always know who is your avatar, if you will, like, who is the core customer of your product? And so for me, the core customer is a kid, and really the core purchaser is a parent, and if we get really specific, the core custom that's purchasing is the mom, right, And so depending on your business.
00:28:06
Speaker 3: For for where we.
00:28:08
Speaker 4: Are, I have a deodorant company that's for kids, that's made by a black woman, and that works for everybody. Right when I first started this business, I'll never forget and so in the beginning people supported me because it was I was like a unicorn in a.
00:28:30
Speaker 3: Space that we didn't play we didn't play really in.
00:28:34
Speaker 4: Deodorant like we were in hair care, we were in makeup, we were in you know, body but natural deodorant like it wasn't a lot of Now there's like farmers market circle, you know circuits and people who make deodorant that look like me, yes, but being able to take it to like a national level, it hasn't been a lot of women black women that look like me tackling the youth space and.
00:29:02
Speaker 3: All of that.
00:29:03
Speaker 4: Right, So, because my customer base really is kids, that's what you got to focus on. But in the beginning, people support you because you black owned, because you are black owned. So you're proud to be black owned. But you shouldn't limit yourself to just serving black customers. If you have a product that your intent is to service a certain demographic, so you can have bras for instance, if you have a brad company and your broad company is called you know Victoria's Secret, let's just use Victoria's Secret. Their focus is women, right, but in their marketing they have to focus on also showing the diversity of women, and so you don't have to you don't have to just stay in this category.
00:29:53
Speaker 3: If you have a product that services everybody.
00:29:56
Speaker 4: Now, I do feel like there are a lot of black own brands that focus on black people, and I love that for us.
00:30:05
Speaker 3: Like one of my favorite is Black Girl Sunscreen.
00:30:09
Speaker 4: It's a sunscreen, but her core purpose, and this is what I'm saying, when you first come up with your business, who are you servicing? Why are you doing it? What are you doing? Her whole purpose is to bring education to the melanated community, to let us know, we need sunscreen. Black cracks, if you you know, we don't crack as fast as white people.
00:30:32
Speaker 3: But we crack, but we need sunscreen.
00:30:35
Speaker 1: Right.
00:30:35
Speaker 4: So her brand is Black Girl Sunscreen, and that is an incredible brand.
00:30:41
Speaker 3: Right.
00:30:41
Speaker 4: So there are some products and some services where if that's your focus, that's where you should focus. That's the work you're doing. So do that work, but don't limit yourself and not include, you know, others in your businesses. Because Dove don't just say, you know, we only for these people. They got the black community by Choco, but all their marketing don't have white women or you.
00:31:10
Speaker 3: Know what I'm saying.
00:31:10
Speaker 4: So like these bigger companies, they market into everybody, and we sometimes get stuck marketing to just us. But that that sometimes holds us back. And I would say, you know that has been evolved over the years, like even with us in knowledge, like year one, I probably would have had a way different answer for you.
00:31:31
Speaker 3: But you're eight. That's the involved answer.
00:31:34
Speaker 4: You gotta you know who you focusing on and where's your focus and that's those are the people you you know you speak to and that's how you market your product. And you're always want to be black owned. Whenever I walk in the room, they know I'm a black girl. You know, you know, nobody, nobody is mistaken me for anything other than a black woman.
00:31:59
Speaker 3: And I wouldn't want to be anything other than a black woman.
00:32:01
Speaker 4: But that's the same everybody. Everybody got smelly kids.
00:32:06
Speaker 2: Now, come on, man, let me tell you something. But you just broke down.
00:32:09
Speaker 1: There's a there's a theory that I have in my no excuses, get it done mindset. That's also the name of my book. That's that's how I lived my life. That's my digital course. And I have a I have a target. Right matter of fact, as you were talking, I may I always I always use my target. When you're trying to find and identify who your target audience is. So if you look at the target, kid is the bullseye right the center of your target is your That's who your audience is. So kids, But then there's the rings around the target. There's the rings around the bullseye, and that's where the parent the let's get more specific, the moms. So you know when you're out there trying to find out who your avatar is, who your the Ricky Smiley Morning Show, like we who are we talking? Who are we when we're on the air, Like, who is our audience? It's a woman. It's a black woman. When we was on the hip hop station years ago, it was a twenty six year old black woman. Now that we're a little bit older, our demographic, we still got a little bit of a younger demographic, but our older demographic is now it's a thirty five to fifty.
00:33:18
Speaker 2: Four black woman.
00:33:20
Speaker 1: Now, men and males listen to our shows just as much as women do. But that's who we're talking to when we're on the air, We're talking to the black woman. And so, yeah, under when you understand that, thank you for breaking it down, because when you understand who you're talking to, who you're selling to, who your product is for and when you're so, when you're focused on your executing that piece, it makes everything else easier because now you know, Okay, this is who we're making our product for, this is who I'm talking to, this is I'm marketing to. And now you can give you can give Razor sharp with your focus.
00:33:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'll even say for us.
00:34:00
Speaker 4: You know, if you look at Playpiss over the years, I feel like there was a time where we in a little bit, like a little bit lost our way from what we were originally focused on. I started this originally for kids, right, but then the parents were buying it, using it and loving it so much. They like, I feel like they harassed me into making adult products because and honestly, I thought the adult market was served. It was all these adult natural deodorants on the shelves, so I didn't know. So once again, part of that validation of just realizing, oh, no, your product is different, it was when the parents were literally like, can you make adult products?
00:34:42
Speaker 3: Can you?
00:34:42
Speaker 4: And then I made it and then it sold out and it was a limited edition and the people kept asking me every day for a year, and I launched it. And then once we did that, we're now focusing on everybody because now I want to get rawtee.
00:34:56
Speaker 3: Now I want to get you know, the grandmother. I want to get everybody.
00:35:00
Speaker 4: And so now we're getting everybody, but are we really focusing on our core?
00:35:04
Speaker 3: So what I.
00:35:05
Speaker 4: Said was the evolution, right, And so part of my evolution was you know, I wasn't always hitting a target. I was sometimes on the outside, like focusing on the whole family. And it's like, girl, the whole family.
00:35:19
Speaker 2: You know, been there and done that. Guilty Yet I was.
00:35:24
Speaker 1: I'm the person you know what I used to be because I've gotten a lot better.
00:35:28
Speaker 2: Still still still always looking at to improve. But I'm the balloon guy. There's a red balloon, that's a yellow balloon. That's a great balloon. Look at the blue to get them all. Yeah.
00:35:37
Speaker 5: No, for me, it's like squirrels right that, yeah, chasing from chasing squirrels in the backyard, rabbits, balloons, everything, and so you know, the evolution is like now I have blinders on, and I would say, going back to the fire, that's what the fire did for me.
00:35:58
Speaker 4: When you think about you know how God uses pain and will purify and will create clearity in the midst of a storm for me. The fire put blinders on me and made me emotionally not even available to focus on those distractions because I was so focused on solving this problem.
00:36:19
Speaker 3: And I also.
00:36:20
Speaker 4: Surrendered in a way that it was like, God, I trust that everything I need is gonna come to me because I ain't controlling nothing. You're gonna have to do this because I don't know what I'm doing. That's what the fire did for me. And so talking about you know, building a business and growing and evolving and just being transparent, I wasn't getting it right all the time. Like this has been eight years of most of the time getting it wrong.
00:36:46
Speaker 3: Come on, yeah, most of the time getting wrong.
00:36:49
Speaker 2: And that's what people need to hear. Man.
00:36:51
Speaker 1: You know a lot of people on social media it's all about you know, flashing the money in the fancy cars, the big old houses. Nothing wrong with having those nice things, man, there's nothing wrong with having nice things. But you know, the truth is, tell me the cons tell me the problems that you went through, tell me the issues, the struggles.
00:37:10
Speaker 2: You know, that's that's the part of the story that we need to hear more because.
00:37:15
Speaker 1: You can relate more to everyone because now they can now you just you just lit a fire inside of a lot of people. What you just said, just lit a fire inside of a lot of people. That said, Man, that's what I'm going through right now.
00:37:26
Speaker 2: I'm going through a little bit of a struggle right now. And if Chantelle can do it, why not me. So let's let's get ready to wrap. Man, this is this is your opportunity to share.
00:37:38
Speaker 1: You know what, how many total products do you have right now under play Pits And what's the next phase.
00:37:45
Speaker 2: What's the next step for play Pits?
00:37:48
Speaker 4: Uh So, we have about seven So we have the deodor and we have sixty odoran since we have we just launched white. So we have a kid collection that is Sugar Happy and Sunshine, and then we have the adult collection that is Love, King and Queen. And then we have deodorizing whites. And the deodorizing whites are our newest product and people are in love with them because it's like a shower and the go come on. It's the perfect like product for your purse, your bag, your gym bag, the kids book bag, your car. Because you know, some days we just live in active lives. We're doing a whole lot as families and we don't always have time to freshen up. And so being a brand that's focused on hygiene and focus on you know, staying fresh and saving noses, we have products that.
00:38:38
Speaker 3: Do just that.
00:38:40
Speaker 1: Well, let me take the time and say thank you because Shantel Powell, ladies and gentlemen. You know, we just had our twentieth anniversary of stamp Wars and Stompboards is the big national youth step movement that's happening.
00:38:52
Speaker 2: We're impacting over a million kids.
00:38:54
Speaker 1: So we got like six hundred steppers that are part of the youth step teams that come to stalmp Wars every year to compete for the national Champion Step Championships. So I was talking to Chantelle and she's like, Yo, what can.
00:39:07
Speaker 2: Play Pits do. How can we be involved? And we're like, well, what you want to do? Man?
00:39:11
Speaker 1: We can give free deorderant and wipes away to the kids that are participating.
00:39:15
Speaker 2: We're like, yo, that'll be dope.
00:39:16
Speaker 1: So, man, within a week, boxes show up at stalmp Wars at the venue of play Pits and Chantal and her team sent six hundred deorderant bars, wipes and so so so every kid got a Deorderant stick and some wipes. Now, let me tell you how let me tell you how amazing this is. These kids got this right. And you would think, okay, these kids they.
00:39:48
Speaker 2: Want Jordan's, they want money, they want all this whatever.
00:39:51
Speaker 1: You know, when they got these Deorderant and the wipes, they were like yo, man, they immediately started putting it on. They took the wipes off, you know, especially the ladies, the girls, the young ladies.
00:40:02
Speaker 2: They was out there. They was, man, it was just amazing to see and amazing to watch.
00:40:07
Speaker 1: So I cut my camera on and I'm sitting in there watching all this.
00:40:10
Speaker 2: I'm like, yo, y'all hype over playpis what's going on? And they're like, man, playpiss man.
00:40:15
Speaker 1: And if y'all ain't see to go to stomp wards dot com, go to stomp Wars social media. And these kids was absolutely amazed at this. And then I told them, you know that a black woman owns this, and they were like for real?
00:40:27
Speaker 2: I said yes.
00:40:28
Speaker 1: Then we started getting emails from from moms and parents. You know, my kid brought home some diorder.
00:40:34
Speaker 2: How do we get that? How do we order that? Play pits?
00:40:37
Speaker 1: It's going like so, man, let me tell you something. You're making a huge impact. Chent tell congratulations, thank you for what you're doing. Whatever we can do to continue to help add value to what you're building. Don't hesitate to let us know we love you, we appreciate you. This is just the beginning. And man, the door's wide open. How can people follow you and get in contact with you? Website, social on that stuff.
00:41:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, so to follow me, my page is my socialist missus playpits across all platforms to follow playpits, we have our social playpits Kids, and if you have been around for a long time, you know we used to have playpits but I'm currently in a fight with Meta.
00:41:21
Speaker 3: I won't talk about.
00:41:22
Speaker 4: It, but playpits Kids across all platforms. And then if you want to connect with me on LinkedIn from a business standpoint, I'm Chantel Powell on LinkedIn.
00:41:33
Speaker 3: But yeah, and if you.
00:41:35
Speaker 4: Want to support and buy playpits, you can always shop at playpits dot com. We have subscription there so you're able to kind of leverage a discount and monthly occurrent orders. We're also sold at CBS Nationwide, Target, and Amazon. So go on our website and look up a store locator and you can put your zip code in and find the closest store near you.
00:41:57
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it, chantale. Man, let me tell you something.
00:42:00
Speaker 1: I can relate because somebody's sitting on our stump War's handle, like we're the only stump Wars trademarked everything. So but the Instagram at stump War's handle is just sitting out there, same thing, going back and forth with meta like, hey man, we've given you everything, all the documentation, this is us. Nobody's even using the handle, so I can relate to that. Man, Thank you so much, y'all. Go support play pits, get out there, get to the stores, get online.
00:42:30
Speaker 2: Man, thank you.
00:42:31
Speaker 1: Keep doing what you're doing and continue to follow, continue to listen, continue to download. We appreciate all the five star reviews. Perfect pair of podcasts. Crystal will be back next week. I know all the ladies are like, thank you.
00:42:43
Speaker 4: Forward and Chris, I gotta come back and meet her. I gotta just do an interview with her next time.
00:42:48
Speaker 2: Done, done and done.
00:42:50
Speaker 1: You're y'all gonna have fun together because she's a ball offier man, she's a bullifier. But appreciate you, man, God bless you. Thank you so much, and uh, let's rock and roll, let's go all right, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: What's going on, Ladies and gentlemen, billy goats, cats, squirrels, cows, horses, whatever.
00:00:09
Speaker 2: You may be.
00:00:10
Speaker 1: Welcome back to another episode of the perfect pair of podcasts, Rock Teas in the Building Solo Doling this week because my wife is under the weather little bit, so y'all pray for Crystal.
00:00:20
Speaker 2: You know she'll be back next week as we continue doing what we do.
00:00:24
Speaker 1: But this week, oh we get ready, man, we got we got a superstar sitting over here, over here, next to me.
00:00:30
Speaker 2: Over here.
00:00:31
Speaker 1: Man, I'm gonna do this right here. Okay, if I if I gave you your full introduction, that'll be the whole podcast. Like, that'd be the whole episode right there. So I'm gonna highlight some of the things of who you are so we can go ahead and get right into your story.
00:00:50
Speaker 2: Because your story is absolutely phenomenal.
00:00:54
Speaker 1: And if you guys have never heard of the person that I'm that's on the screen right now, you gonna know by the end of this episode.
00:01:01
Speaker 2: Shantail Power.
00:01:03
Speaker 1: She's a wife, she's a mom entrepreneur boldly disrupted the highly competitive hygiene industry with her creation. I ain't eve gonna tell you what that creation is yet, because y'all need to keep listening. She's a graduate of Clark Atlanta University HBC. You know, man, you began your career as a wardrobe buyer for TV and film at Tyler Perry Studios.
00:01:24
Speaker 2: But there's more. There's more. Twenty seventeen took you on a pivotal turn.
00:01:32
Speaker 1: You picked up your six year old son, Cameron from football practice.
00:01:35
Speaker 2: He got into your car smelling like a grown man. Come on, I can relate. I was that six year old kid once upon a time.
00:01:45
Speaker 1: Concerned about using an adult deorderant and added purse print, you decided to explore natural deorderance.
00:01:51
Speaker 2: You couldn't find nothing, So guess what she did, Ladies and gentlemen.
00:01:54
Speaker 1: Chantelle said, I'm gonna just create something like the dog gonna self And you did that. Hence play pitch deordering. Welcome to the podcast, Chantelle, How you doing? Hello?
00:02:05
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for that introduction.
00:02:07
Speaker 4: You know, it's so crazy when you're doing the work and you're in it, sometimes you forget all that you've done, and so like, whenever I hear an introduction, it's always like.
00:02:16
Speaker 3: Wow, who is that? She did all that?
00:02:19
Speaker 2: Listen?
00:02:20
Speaker 3: Yeah, So thank you. Thank you so much for that reminder.
00:02:23
Speaker 1: You are, we are welcome. If nobody's giving your flowers, You're finna get your flowers today because you are what we call an invisible giant. And although you've done some amazing things that we all gonna hear about on this on this episode, you're the only black woman with natural youth yodering.
00:02:40
Speaker 2: If that is that true or false?
00:02:44
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm nobody else has claimed the position, so.
00:02:48
Speaker 4: I'm I don't know any I don't know any of them, so I think I think it's me. And if if I am not the only one, I was definitely the first. So you know, I'm grateful that I've had the vision to do something that hasn't been done, and so part of the journey is creating a space in that space that's not created in the the obstacles that come with that.
00:03:16
Speaker 2: Come on, now, you just said the big, big word right there, obstacles.
00:03:19
Speaker 1: So you just celebrated being in over two thousand CBS stores. Congratulations, that's big time right there.
00:03:26
Speaker 2: You're going let me just correct you.
00:03:28
Speaker 4: We're gonna we're gonna claim two thousand eventually. Right now, we're in eleven hundred eleven.
00:03:34
Speaker 1: Come on now, yeah, no, let's go on the way to two thousand plus.
00:03:38
Speaker 3: Let's go on our way. We're on our way.
00:03:41
Speaker 1: But you you're going toe to toe with a lot of the multi billion dollar companies out there. Let's let's let's go back a little bit, because so many times people see the success of what they see on television, what they see on social media, hearing great stories like yours were talking about right now.
00:04:01
Speaker 2: But you had a few setbacks.
00:04:05
Speaker 1: Your warehouse caught on fire, burned everything up, You lost your mother and your grandmother within a short period of time. Back to back, Let's go back to those moments. What Let's start with the burning of the warehouse. What happened and why did you choose to continue and not quit.
00:04:32
Speaker 4: I'm gonna tell you why I chose not to quit, and then I'm gonna tell you what happened. I get a phone call at three am that my warehouse was on fire, and I mean I was like, I was not expecting a call at three am, as nobody would be right. And I remember the lady being on the call, super frantic. She was my neighbor, and she's like, chantell, this is you know your neighbor at the warehouse. The warehouse is on fire, and I was like, oh, okay. She said, I'm headed there now, but the alarm, my alarm notified me, so I'm calling you and she was my next door neighbor. And so as I get in the car, me and my husband were driving down the road, and it's quiet, it's like three point fifteen, three thirty in the morning, And in that moment, my body was like so steel, but internally I felt so rattled. I don't know if you've ever experienced that, like where you're still, but internally you just rattled. And literally a calm came past me and it said, this is just part of your story. And so once I got that confirmation, that's when I knew it wasn't the end of my.
00:05:57
Speaker 3: Story, and it was a part of the store.
00:06:00
Speaker 4: And however it played its way out, it was a part of the story. And so most of the stories I grew up on, you know, it's tragedy.
00:06:14
Speaker 3: My favorite Disney movie is The Lion King.
00:06:18
Speaker 4: It was tragic, Yeah, a kuna mataran, but he you know, Simba, Simba survived, and so that's why I kept going. But what happened was it was a fire my my neighbor had a iron welding company. She had propane, gasoline, oxygen, anything that was flammable, explodable, all the things. And so the warehouse went up and we had a firewall in between the warehouse and I mean me and her, my warehouse and her warehouse. It was a firewall, and the firewall gets breached. I pulled up the whole sky is lit up three o'clock in the morning. For by this time it's like three forty and I see the fire trucks. It's like four four to five fire trucks. And I find somebody and they say, is this are you, you know, the owner of this warehouse?
00:07:17
Speaker 3: And I was like, yep, my unit is right there.
00:07:20
Speaker 4: And he said, okay, well it's gonna be about come back like around one pm.
00:07:26
Speaker 3: We should be done by then. I said, damn, wow, yes, it's four o'clock in the morning.
00:07:32
Speaker 2: What's you mean, like what?
00:07:34
Speaker 4: And that's when he explained, he said, we keep having explosions and it seems like, you know, like all the challenges they had putting the fire out. And I said, okay. I went back at one they still wasn't done. And so then by like two. So when I get back, they say, I need, you know, like I need to speak to everybody. And so the fire chief is going by speaking to everybody, and they said, we need to talk to play Pits, and so I'm like, oh, here, So everybody is planning to get their stuff out the warehouse because the whole warehouse wasn't damaged. It was her unit, right that and when you looked at it, it was like it was her unit. So but when they came to me, they said, your firewall is compromised.
00:08:23
Speaker 3: You got damaged.
00:08:24
Speaker 4: You like you're the Basically I was the only other business that couldn't go in in addition to her, whereas everybody else on the ends they were able to get with They all the things we had already figured out a truck.
00:08:36
Speaker 3: I could see the inventory.
00:08:37
Speaker 4: I was like, okay, maybe I could get the inventory on this side of the warehouse. And the fire chief said, I'm so sorry, you can't get anything out your unit. And I begged them for a picture that a little sixteen year old girl painted for me and my printer, my label printer, and so I walked away with that, with those two things, and just devastation and so that was that's the part of the story.
00:09:05
Speaker 1: Okay, So at that moment, because we got that no excuses, get it done mindset, at that moment, did you have an ounce of saying, well, I tried, it's over.
00:09:15
Speaker 2: I guess I go try something else new. Not one moment. No, No, in that.
00:09:22
Speaker 4: Moment, I was in problem I'm always in problem solving mode, Like there's there's really ever a time where I'm presented a problem and I'm not trying to solve it.
00:09:37
Speaker 1: All right, San Telo, So let's let's let's let's jump back into when you came up with the play pits concept, when you your smelly little son jumped into the car after football practice.
00:09:49
Speaker 2: Take me through that moment, take me through that story.
00:09:52
Speaker 4: Oh well, yeah, that was That was July twenty seventeen. He was in a basketball camp in a football practice at the literally Long Days, and I picked him up and he got my car and closed that door, and I was like, wait a minute, wait I'm and so I think I even asked him, like you know, we talked or whatever, and I still was kind of like driving like like like is it me? And then I think at like once we got out the car or whatever.
00:10:33
Speaker 3: I was like, let me smell you.
00:10:35
Speaker 4: And it was what I thought it was him, and I was mortified. I was like, oh, my baby, you know, like when kids like it's this joke in my home where like my baby, like, my kids will always be my babies, no matter how big they are, no matter how old they are.
00:10:52
Speaker 3: He was six, so technically he's not a baby, but he was still my baby.
00:10:56
Speaker 4: And so my baby smelled like a rang a tang like that was just offensive. He smelled like a locker room. He smelled like you know, it was just was that older. And the thing is everybody goes through it, and so yeah, that was that was my experience. And I was like, oh no, And so I went looking to see what was on the shelf, and I didn't see anything that like really spoke to him.
00:11:23
Speaker 3: It was adult products. It was natural deodorance, but they were crunchy.
00:11:28
Speaker 4: And like kind of boring, and I was like, yeah, no, I don't think he's gonna wear that.
00:11:33
Speaker 3: And I didn't see anything.
00:11:36
Speaker 4: So I went home and I made something because my grandmother used to have bacon soda under my arms and made it said hey, here's your here's your new deodorant, and you're gonna smell as amazing as this orange essential oil all day. You're gonna put it on at the top of the day. It was bacon soda, it was corn starch, and it was coconutible. And the last thing I added was a orange essentual old because I convinced him you could smell as good as a orange all day. And so he came home after his long day and it was probably around dinner time, and he's like, Mommy, so I told all the kids about the deodoran at camp, So you got to make it for everybody.
00:12:18
Speaker 2: Come on, come on, I wasted it was.
00:12:23
Speaker 3: It was hustle man.
00:12:24
Speaker 4: It was yeah, so look mommy, boom, I got a hustle for you. And I was like, no, at the time I was working, I was not in need of work. And he signed me up to make theodor and at all the kids at camp. So I told him no, and he looked at me and he was like, but mommy, you could make it for everybody, and it was like that was the moment, and it was everybody for me was kids who deserved to play unapologetically. Everybody for me was mothers who don't want to suffer with a kid, you know, in the back seat. And so that's how I created play Pits.
00:13:06
Speaker 2: So technically it's safe to say that he's the CEO.
00:13:09
Speaker 3: He's a CIO.
00:13:11
Speaker 4: Okay, that's Chief Inspiration Officer.
00:13:16
Speaker 3: And I tell them, you know.
00:13:19
Speaker 4: An idea is an idea, but you got to put the work behind the idea, right, And what this was was teaching all the kids. We have three kids, me and my husband, teaching all of them what hard work looks like. And so we've all they've all contributed. In the early days. They literally were my employees. Like I used to be, like, don't call child labor laws on me, because they were my youngest. He learned how to count counting Playpits.
00:13:48
Speaker 3: The odrant.
00:13:48
Speaker 4: Come on, he's now on an advanced math and he's a tag student, but Playpits taught him how to count because he would be in charge of putting all the containers on the table for me.
00:14:00
Speaker 3: To pour it.
00:14:01
Speaker 4: And so that's how he learned how to count to twenty two. And then we just continued after that. So you know, we all put in the work and I let them. I let them kind of retire once I was able to get real employees, and so you know, I always tell them, you know, they could take over the business one day if they want. But I feel like this may be my dream and they may have bigger dreams to do other things.
00:14:24
Speaker 2: I love it.
00:14:25
Speaker 1: So let's talk about the difference between a hustle and a real business. And sometimes a real business starts as a hustle. Is this kind of what play pits? Is that the story of play Pits? Well, this is the little like your son, Hey mom, let's go man, we can get this for the whole team. Everybody asked, whatever, this can be a little hustle we can do. Is that kind of how it started?
00:14:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was hustle.
00:14:49
Speaker 4: I mean it was hustle all the way to It was hustle for a long time because hustle was all I knew.
00:14:57
Speaker 3: I didn't really know how to be a seat, you know.
00:15:01
Speaker 4: I knew how to I knew how to make something out of nothing. I knew how to be creative. I knew how to communicate. I knew how to pitch, and even that I didn't know what I was doing in pitching. Was pitching just growing up being able to convince and persuade and and you know, tell somebody, let me tell you a story, or let me show you something.
00:15:26
Speaker 3: But yeah, I built this off of just the hustle I've.
00:15:29
Speaker 4: Learned over the years and through building this business, I've became a CEO because I've realized that hustle doesn't get you to the next level. Hustle doesn't make you a nationally distributed brand. You got to be a leader to do that. You have to be a CEO to you know, pull that off. And yes, yes, it's a mindset. And so you know, getting out of hustle going into a leadership CEO role has has been, you know, a personal exercise for me over the years.
00:16:05
Speaker 2: So let's stay there right real quick.
00:16:07
Speaker 1: You talked about being patient, You're talking about being good at pitching for the most part, and you talked about this wasn't like an overnight success. And to some people that knows this version of Chantel, it's man, she went from here and now look what she's doing. But everything in between, like the patient's part, like did you ever get to the point.
00:16:33
Speaker 2: Where the deodor end wasn't as good as you thought it was?
00:16:35
Speaker 1: Even though your son came home hype and motivated somewhere as you were starting to build this thing into a business. Did you ever get to a point where like, man, I don't know if this is gonna work.
00:16:46
Speaker 2: Like what happens if people tell me no?
00:16:50
Speaker 1: What happens if I'm pitching people about this idea and they just keep saying, Nah, it ain't gonna work, or now whatever.
00:16:56
Speaker 2: Do you have? You did any kind of self doubt ever set in.
00:17:02
Speaker 3: I never doubted the product.
00:17:04
Speaker 4: Actually, the more I the more I learned about the product, the more it was revealed to me that I made something truly special. So at every step of the way when I first created it, I took it to a lab to just make sure, like did I make it the older? You know, because I was making something in my kitchen, so I didn't really know technique, and I didn't really know chemistry at a very advanced cosmetic chemistry standpoint. So you know, in the beginning, I did the things that had to validate the product. And so every at every turn, the product feedback just was this was special, this was different, This was you know, this was the this was better than what we sell.
00:17:48
Speaker 3: This is amazing I've never.
00:17:50
Speaker 4: Had, you know, So I never doubted the product, but there has been times in the journey that I doubted my ability to shepherd this business. To win there it needs to be so that self doubt sometimes happens, for sure, but not the product.
00:18:06
Speaker 2: Okay.
00:18:07
Speaker 1: So you mentioned one thousand plus stores currently in CBS and growing.
00:18:14
Speaker 2: You mentioned you got a meeting with Target coming up.
00:18:20
Speaker 3: So we're in Target.
00:18:21
Speaker 4: So we've been in Target since actually six months before the fire. We launched in Target March twenty twenty two. Okay, So we launched Target in March twenty twenty two, and it was.
00:18:33
Speaker 3: An explosive launch.
00:18:35
Speaker 4: We I mean, the products sold out so fast to the point where they ordered what would they thought would last them around six to eight weeks, and it last them like three to four weeks.
00:18:45
Speaker 3: And the beginning of the Target business was like figuring it.
00:18:49
Speaker 4: Out, how do we keep up with this demand because the demand was so strong. So, yeah, so we're in targeting. We're in CBS still.
00:18:59
Speaker 1: Okay, So let's talk about that, because is your deal more of hey, Target, CVS, we want your product on our shelves, and they pay you wholesale and then they sell retail or do they just put the product on the shelves, and you're responsible for your own marketing to send people to the store to go buy. And what kind of do you mind sharing the type of deal you got, because this is very important when it comes to small businesses thinking about Okay, should I go to the big box stores or should I just keep it online and keep it Amazon and so on and so forth virtually whatever, So this is good information, So can you share that piece?
00:19:39
Speaker 2: What kind of deal do you have with CBS and Target?
00:19:42
Speaker 3: So I would say what you just describe.
00:19:44
Speaker 4: It's almost like a hybrid of what you just said in anybody that you know, the big brands the small brands. This is how when you're doing business at this scale, this is how you do it. So you're basically selling your product at a wholesale price and they're selling it for retail, so they're making my on it, and you're now focusing on valume like you the goal is, you know, instead of ten units, you want to be focusing on how do I move one thousand units? And then as far as the marketing, you are technically still required to market your product outside of that retailer. Inside the retailer too, but outside it is not the retailer's responsibility to fully market your product. Now you're on the shelf. Therefore, now you're hitting all this traffic that you may not necessarily get on your dot com right, So a do a playpits dot com customer. They can go, they can read, they can see the product, but they can't smell it, right, and they they have to pay for shipping on dot com unless you are, you know, buying a certain level of like you're buying forty dollars worth of product, right, then you can go and get free shipping. But to walk out of somewhere with one product free ship that you're gonna do that at retail. But it is my job to help push customers there and make sure that I have a good enough product that people want to come back and continue to purchase my product every time they go into that store.
00:21:14
Speaker 1: So what happens if you don't sell your product? Let's just say they kick you out. Okay, Now when they kick you out, do you have to buy your product back? Or they just say come get your product? Thinks it's been fun?
00:21:25
Speaker 3: You buy your product back?
00:21:26
Speaker 2: Ooh, that's good stuff.
00:21:28
Speaker 4: Tell you buy your product. But this is the thing you buy the product back at retail.
00:21:32
Speaker 2: Ooh yes, I'm glad.
00:21:35
Speaker 1: Okay, Now you're gonna help a lot of people decide on whether they want to go down the same road that you just went through.
00:21:40
Speaker 2: You know you, of course, you always bet on yourself.
00:21:43
Speaker 1: You don't never second guess yourself, Like, if this is the route you want to go, let's go.
00:21:47
Speaker 2: We figure it out once we get in there or whatever.
00:21:50
Speaker 1: But you sell it to them at whosletsale, they mark it up to sell it retail to make a profit. But if your product doesn't sell, they're gonna tell you come get your stuff. Oh, by the way, you got to buy it back from us at retail.
00:22:06
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah yeah, okay.
00:22:10
Speaker 1: So major corporate retail stores they're no longer taking a lot of risk on minority own black businesses. Uh, the DEI has left a lot of corporations. You're a black owned business, can you share your thoughts on that? Like, what would you what advice do you have these to to young small business black owned businesses that they may not be on your level yet, but they're on their way, you know, should they should they set goals to say, man, I would love to be in target, I would love to be in CBS. I would love to be in Walmart or just kind of keep keep the course of what they're doing.
00:22:51
Speaker 4: Did you notice when I when you first started down this road of this question, I had to take a deep breath, Like I had to just kind of to take a deep breath because this is a really.
00:23:05
Speaker 3: It's a really heavy.
00:23:08
Speaker 4: Conversation for me, right, because I'm a brand who was around before DI and all of that exploded. Right, So I launched in twenty eighteen. Twenty eighteen, people were intentional shopping, you know, certain stores and all that, but I wouldn't say it was really mainstream and super mindful. As things have transitioned, things have changed, right, And so I would say to anybody who's interested in selling a product in retail, like, definitely go for it. But you originally asked me a couple questions ago about like the self doubt. These are the moments in building the company where the self doubt comes because you see all the shifts. And then when you build a brand so personal, it feels personal. So the rejections feel personal. All the things just feel so personal, right, And so I would tell somebody like, if you have a brand and you want to sell at retail. Step one, build a community outside of that retailler right, build your customer base very strong, and win on your own channel. So set up your Shopify store market that grow organically, utilize social and really get to know your customer and build your community. And then I would say hit a certain threshold financially where you have the runway from a cash flow standpoint to function with your existing business.
00:24:54
Speaker 3: Where you get to the point where like money is not like you know a.
00:24:58
Speaker 4: Thing where it's like h always have money for inventory or money for So you want to get to a point where you build that d t C because you're going to have the best margins there. You're gonna make the I make the most money on a product on product that I send.
00:25:13
Speaker 3: I mean I.
00:25:14
Speaker 4: Sell on my DTA C that I do in retail. But that's because I'm not splitting it with anybody. But at the same time, it requires a lot of money to market that product to new customers because now you just a person on the internet, you know, so you gotta do things like go in person. You got to invest in in person events, grassroots stuff. And so I would say get to the point where you get your dta C to hit, I would definitely say over now, I would say over two point five to five million dollars. Your dta C needs to be in order for you to think about retail, because retail is really a risky game. It's a very risky game. It's a very expensive game. But I wouldn't never deter somebody that wants to be in retail to not go to retail. I mean you you're able to build and really have a national reach in an accelerated way. It but it's definitely risky. It's more risky than selling on your dot com.
00:26:14
Speaker 2: That's good stuff.
00:26:17
Speaker 1: Okay, Being black owned this this is a this is gonna be a tough one right here. But I gotta ask you because you when you have when you have people that have broken down the barriers and they look like us, you gotta you gotta pick their brain and you gotta you gotta get this information out there. So being a black owned business option one. I'm a black owned business. Power to the people black, black, Black. But then sometimes some people may think that you're putting yourself in a box. Right then, you got I'm a black owned business, but I'm not out front with the blackness.
00:26:54
Speaker 2: I just have a I have a great product that just happens to be owned by a black woman. Does that make sense?
00:27:01
Speaker 1: So my question is how do you feel about being a black owned business and leading with that so you can really hit your community, your culture and getting the support from your community and culture versus having this amazing product that just happens to be black owned.
00:27:24
Speaker 2: Everybody can have it.
00:27:26
Speaker 4: Your thoughts, Yeah, I think it depends on your product, and I think it depends on your audience and who your customer is. So when you first start a business, you should always know who is your avatar, if you will, like, who is the core customer of your product? And so for me, the core customer is a kid, and really the core purchaser is a parent, and if we get really specific, the core custom that's purchasing is the mom, right, And so depending on your business.
00:28:06
Speaker 3: For for where we.
00:28:08
Speaker 4: Are, I have a deodorant company that's for kids, that's made by a black woman, and that works for everybody. Right when I first started this business, I'll never forget and so in the beginning people supported me because it was I was like a unicorn in a.
00:28:30
Speaker 3: Space that we didn't play we didn't play really in.
00:28:34
Speaker 4: Deodorant like we were in hair care, we were in makeup, we were in you know, body but natural deodorant like it wasn't a lot of Now there's like farmers market circle, you know circuits and people who make deodorant that look like me, yes, but being able to take it to like a national level, it hasn't been a lot of women black women that look like me tackling the youth space and.
00:29:02
Speaker 3: All of that.
00:29:03
Speaker 4: Right, So, because my customer base really is kids, that's what you got to focus on. But in the beginning, people support you because you black owned, because you are black owned. So you're proud to be black owned. But you shouldn't limit yourself to just serving black customers. If you have a product that your intent is to service a certain demographic, so you can have bras for instance, if you have a brad company and your broad company is called you know Victoria's Secret, let's just use Victoria's Secret. Their focus is women, right, but in their marketing they have to focus on also showing the diversity of women, and so you don't have to you don't have to just stay in this category.
00:29:53
Speaker 3: If you have a product that services everybody.
00:29:56
Speaker 4: Now, I do feel like there are a lot of black own brands that focus on black people, and I love that for us.
00:30:05
Speaker 3: Like one of my favorite is Black Girl Sunscreen.
00:30:09
Speaker 4: It's a sunscreen, but her core purpose, and this is what I'm saying, when you first come up with your business, who are you servicing? Why are you doing it? What are you doing? Her whole purpose is to bring education to the melanated community, to let us know, we need sunscreen. Black cracks, if you you know, we don't crack as fast as white people.
00:30:32
Speaker 3: But we crack, but we need sunscreen.
00:30:35
Speaker 1: Right.
00:30:35
Speaker 4: So her brand is Black Girl Sunscreen, and that is an incredible brand.
00:30:41
Speaker 3: Right.
00:30:41
Speaker 4: So there are some products and some services where if that's your focus, that's where you should focus. That's the work you're doing. So do that work, but don't limit yourself and not include, you know, others in your businesses. Because Dove don't just say, you know, we only for these people. They got the black community by Choco, but all their marketing don't have white women or you.
00:31:10
Speaker 3: Know what I'm saying.
00:31:10
Speaker 4: So like these bigger companies, they market into everybody, and we sometimes get stuck marketing to just us. But that that sometimes holds us back. And I would say, you know that has been evolved over the years, like even with us in knowledge, like year one, I probably would have had a way different answer for you.
00:31:31
Speaker 3: But you're eight. That's the involved answer.
00:31:34
Speaker 4: You gotta you know who you focusing on and where's your focus and that's those are the people you you know you speak to and that's how you market your product. And you're always want to be black owned. Whenever I walk in the room, they know I'm a black girl. You know, you know, nobody, nobody is mistaken me for anything other than a black woman.
00:31:59
Speaker 3: And I wouldn't want to be anything other than a black woman.
00:32:01
Speaker 4: But that's the same everybody. Everybody got smelly kids.
00:32:06
Speaker 2: Now, come on, man, let me tell you something. But you just broke down.
00:32:09
Speaker 1: There's a there's a theory that I have in my no excuses, get it done mindset. That's also the name of my book. That's that's how I lived my life. That's my digital course. And I have a I have a target. Right matter of fact, as you were talking, I may I always I always use my target. When you're trying to find and identify who your target audience is. So if you look at the target, kid is the bullseye right the center of your target is your That's who your audience is. So kids, But then there's the rings around the target. There's the rings around the bullseye, and that's where the parent the let's get more specific, the moms. So you know when you're out there trying to find out who your avatar is, who your the Ricky Smiley Morning Show, like we who are we talking? Who are we when we're on the air, Like, who is our audience? It's a woman. It's a black woman. When we was on the hip hop station years ago, it was a twenty six year old black woman. Now that we're a little bit older, our demographic, we still got a little bit of a younger demographic, but our older demographic is now it's a thirty five to fifty.
00:33:18
Speaker 2: Four black woman.
00:33:20
Speaker 1: Now, men and males listen to our shows just as much as women do. But that's who we're talking to when we're on the air, We're talking to the black woman. And so, yeah, under when you understand that, thank you for breaking it down, because when you understand who you're talking to, who you're selling to, who your product is for and when you're so, when you're focused on your executing that piece, it makes everything else easier because now you know, Okay, this is who we're making our product for, this is who I'm talking to, this is I'm marketing to. And now you can give you can give Razor sharp with your focus.
00:33:57
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I'll even say for us.
00:34:00
Speaker 4: You know, if you look at Playpiss over the years, I feel like there was a time where we in a little bit, like a little bit lost our way from what we were originally focused on. I started this originally for kids, right, but then the parents were buying it, using it and loving it so much. They like, I feel like they harassed me into making adult products because and honestly, I thought the adult market was served. It was all these adult natural deodorants on the shelves, so I didn't know. So once again, part of that validation of just realizing, oh, no, your product is different, it was when the parents were literally like, can you make adult products?
00:34:42
Speaker 3: Can you?
00:34:42
Speaker 4: And then I made it and then it sold out and it was a limited edition and the people kept asking me every day for a year, and I launched it. And then once we did that, we're now focusing on everybody because now I want to get rawtee.
00:34:56
Speaker 3: Now I want to get you know, the grandmother. I want to get everybody.
00:35:00
Speaker 4: And so now we're getting everybody, but are we really focusing on our core?
00:35:04
Speaker 3: So what I.
00:35:05
Speaker 4: Said was the evolution, right, And so part of my evolution was you know, I wasn't always hitting a target. I was sometimes on the outside, like focusing on the whole family. And it's like, girl, the whole family.
00:35:19
Speaker 2: You know, been there and done that. Guilty Yet I was.
00:35:24
Speaker 1: I'm the person you know what I used to be because I've gotten a lot better.
00:35:28
Speaker 2: Still still still always looking at to improve. But I'm the balloon guy. There's a red balloon, that's a yellow balloon. That's a great balloon. Look at the blue to get them all. Yeah.
00:35:37
Speaker 5: No, for me, it's like squirrels right that, yeah, chasing from chasing squirrels in the backyard, rabbits, balloons, everything, and so you know, the evolution is like now I have blinders on, and I would say, going back to the fire, that's what the fire did for me.
00:35:58
Speaker 4: When you think about you know how God uses pain and will purify and will create clearity in the midst of a storm for me. The fire put blinders on me and made me emotionally not even available to focus on those distractions because I was so focused on solving this problem.
00:36:19
Speaker 3: And I also.
00:36:20
Speaker 4: Surrendered in a way that it was like, God, I trust that everything I need is gonna come to me because I ain't controlling nothing. You're gonna have to do this because I don't know what I'm doing. That's what the fire did for me. And so talking about you know, building a business and growing and evolving and just being transparent, I wasn't getting it right all the time. Like this has been eight years of most of the time getting it wrong.
00:36:46
Speaker 3: Come on, yeah, most of the time getting wrong.
00:36:49
Speaker 2: And that's what people need to hear. Man.
00:36:51
Speaker 1: You know a lot of people on social media it's all about you know, flashing the money in the fancy cars, the big old houses. Nothing wrong with having those nice things, man, there's nothing wrong with having nice things. But you know, the truth is, tell me the cons tell me the problems that you went through, tell me the issues, the struggles.
00:37:10
Speaker 2: You know, that's that's the part of the story that we need to hear more because.
00:37:15
Speaker 1: You can relate more to everyone because now they can now you just you just lit a fire inside of a lot of people. What you just said, just lit a fire inside of a lot of people. That said, Man, that's what I'm going through right now.
00:37:26
Speaker 2: I'm going through a little bit of a struggle right now. And if Chantelle can do it, why not me. So let's let's get ready to wrap. Man, this is this is your opportunity to share.
00:37:38
Speaker 1: You know what, how many total products do you have right now under play Pits And what's the next phase.
00:37:45
Speaker 2: What's the next step for play Pits?
00:37:48
Speaker 4: Uh So, we have about seven So we have the deodor and we have sixty odoran since we have we just launched white. So we have a kid collection that is Sugar Happy and Sunshine, and then we have the adult collection that is Love, King and Queen. And then we have deodorizing whites. And the deodorizing whites are our newest product and people are in love with them because it's like a shower and the go come on. It's the perfect like product for your purse, your bag, your gym bag, the kids book bag, your car. Because you know, some days we just live in active lives. We're doing a whole lot as families and we don't always have time to freshen up. And so being a brand that's focused on hygiene and focus on you know, staying fresh and saving noses, we have products that.
00:38:38
Speaker 3: Do just that.
00:38:40
Speaker 1: Well, let me take the time and say thank you because Shantel Powell, ladies and gentlemen. You know, we just had our twentieth anniversary of stamp Wars and Stompboards is the big national youth step movement that's happening.
00:38:52
Speaker 2: We're impacting over a million kids.
00:38:54
Speaker 1: So we got like six hundred steppers that are part of the youth step teams that come to stalmp Wars every year to compete for the national Champion Step Championships. So I was talking to Chantelle and she's like, Yo, what can.
00:39:07
Speaker 2: Play Pits do. How can we be involved? And we're like, well, what you want to do? Man?
00:39:11
Speaker 1: We can give free deorderant and wipes away to the kids that are participating.
00:39:15
Speaker 2: We're like, yo, that'll be dope.
00:39:16
Speaker 1: So, man, within a week, boxes show up at stalmp Wars at the venue of play Pits and Chantal and her team sent six hundred deorderant bars, wipes and so so so every kid got a Deorderant stick and some wipes. Now, let me tell you how let me tell you how amazing this is. These kids got this right. And you would think, okay, these kids they.
00:39:48
Speaker 2: Want Jordan's, they want money, they want all this whatever.
00:39:51
Speaker 1: You know, when they got these Deorderant and the wipes, they were like yo, man, they immediately started putting it on. They took the wipes off, you know, especially the ladies, the girls, the young ladies.
00:40:02
Speaker 2: They was out there. They was, man, it was just amazing to see and amazing to watch.
00:40:07
Speaker 1: So I cut my camera on and I'm sitting in there watching all this.
00:40:10
Speaker 2: I'm like, yo, y'all hype over playpis what's going on? And they're like, man, playpiss man.
00:40:15
Speaker 1: And if y'all ain't see to go to stomp wards dot com, go to stomp Wars social media. And these kids was absolutely amazed at this. And then I told them, you know that a black woman owns this, and they were like for real?
00:40:27
Speaker 2: I said yes.
00:40:28
Speaker 1: Then we started getting emails from from moms and parents. You know, my kid brought home some diorder.
00:40:34
Speaker 2: How do we get that? How do we order that? Play pits?
00:40:37
Speaker 1: It's going like so, man, let me tell you something. You're making a huge impact. Chent tell congratulations, thank you for what you're doing. Whatever we can do to continue to help add value to what you're building. Don't hesitate to let us know we love you, we appreciate you. This is just the beginning. And man, the door's wide open. How can people follow you and get in contact with you? Website, social on that stuff.
00:41:01
Speaker 4: Yeah, so to follow me, my page is my socialist missus playpits across all platforms to follow playpits, we have our social playpits Kids, and if you have been around for a long time, you know we used to have playpits but I'm currently in a fight with Meta.
00:41:21
Speaker 3: I won't talk about.
00:41:22
Speaker 4: It, but playpits Kids across all platforms. And then if you want to connect with me on LinkedIn from a business standpoint, I'm Chantel Powell on LinkedIn.
00:41:33
Speaker 3: But yeah, and if you.
00:41:35
Speaker 4: Want to support and buy playpits, you can always shop at playpits dot com. We have subscription there so you're able to kind of leverage a discount and monthly occurrent orders. We're also sold at CBS Nationwide, Target, and Amazon. So go on our website and look up a store locator and you can put your zip code in and find the closest store near you.
00:41:57
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it, chantale. Man, let me tell you something.
00:42:00
Speaker 1: I can relate because somebody's sitting on our stump War's handle, like we're the only stump Wars trademarked everything. So but the Instagram at stump War's handle is just sitting out there, same thing, going back and forth with meta like, hey man, we've given you everything, all the documentation, this is us. Nobody's even using the handle, so I can relate to that. Man, Thank you so much, y'all. Go support play pits, get out there, get to the stores, get online.
00:42:30
Speaker 2: Man, thank you.
00:42:31
Speaker 1: Keep doing what you're doing and continue to follow, continue to listen, continue to download. We appreciate all the five star reviews. Perfect pair of podcasts. Crystal will be back next week. I know all the ladies are like, thank you.
00:42:43
Speaker 4: Forward and Chris, I gotta come back and meet her. I gotta just do an interview with her next time.
00:42:48
Speaker 2: Done, done and done.
00:42:50
Speaker 1: You're y'all gonna have fun together because she's a ball offier man, she's a bullifier. But appreciate you, man, God bless you. Thank you so much, and uh, let's rock and roll, let's go all right, thank you so much.
