204: Iman McDonnaugh-Brown Blends Trinidadian Heritage and Family Values with Her Entrepreneurial Spirit

Jen Amos 0:00

All right everyone. Welcome back to another episode here at holding on the Fords. I am so excited to be introducing you all to Imani mcdata Brown, She is the CEO and co founder of we are wonderfully made eemaan Welcome to the show.

Unknown Speaker 0:14

Hi, thank you for having me.

Jen Amos 0:16

Yes, I'm so excited. I love our like 10 minute offline conversation before we officially started talking. And for those who were not so fortunate to eavesdrop in our conversation, and are learning about you for the first time, one of the questions I always love opening up with especially this season is just give us a quick snapshot of your life specifically what keeps you busy and or excited about life nowadays?

Speaker 1 0:39

I mean, off the bat, what keeps me busy is we are wonderfully

Jen Amos 0:44

There you go. Yeah,

Iman McDonnaugh-Brown 0:45

I mean, you know, we we live in Jersey, I live with my husband or two dogs, one tiny dog and one giant dog, we have a mini poodle and a Cane Corso. So they also keep us busy. And you know, running the business is full time now, you know, I used to have other jobs, but I've kind of scaled back on those and just spend all my time now on were wonderfully made. So it's, it's been a needed change, a busy change and a happy change. So that's

Jen Amos 1:14

wonderful. I mean, you went from acting to modeling to hot sauces. Is that correct? Yeah, yeah. Okay. So tell us a little bit about that transition. It just feels like a very like, what at transition? Yeah,

Speaker 1 1:28

so I went to college, I went to Penn State University, and I graduated a semester early, and going into fashion was kind of, I guess, you could say, I decided that that was something I wanted to do, like, middle of high school, but I wasn't, you know, sure how I was going to do it. And there's always so much like, you know, it's a scam. And that, you know, I'm like, so I'm like, if I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do this the smartest way possible. So it wasn't until I knew I was gonna graduate early. And right before that last semester, I found a photographer took some pictures, what was wrong, she met the photographer. And, you know, which is very cute little thing, and I put them online. And within a couple of weeks, a management company had reached out to me and I met with them down in Miami, we took some more pictures, and they set me up with meetings with some agencies in New York, and we decided on which one we wanted to do. And I signed the contract my last semester of college. And after I graduated, I went straight into the business. Wow, I'm from New York, I grew up on island. So I've just went back home and just started working. And it's been over a decade of doing that. And, you know, with being a military spouse, you know, we moved around a bit. And so I spent a lot of my career in New York, but we also spent about three years in California. And that was where I started doing some commercial acting in LA. And I had the time in my life. It was really fun. But you know, what kind of COVID and just the swing of life, things just started to kind of change. And I was like, I don't know if I kind of want to stick around as much. Or maybe I'll just do it a little bit. And so it kind of just got to a point of like petering out, and no, but before it did, was when I started wonderfully made, because I always wanted my own thing. And I think I always had that bone like from my father because my father is an entrepreneur's, I grew up with that kind of spirit. And in that drive, and it you know, I laugh because I still have the notebooks of like, just pages and pages of just trying to be like, Oh, what do I want to do? What do I really care enough about to all my extra time and all my income to it took a really long time to figure out what that was. And it wasn't until my grandmother was over a house in New York, and she was always around. I grew up with her. At some point, she moved out to the West Coast. So then, you know, we spent less time together. So this was one of her trips back and always cooked, always taught me how to cook. She grew up in Trinidad. And so she taught me all that sort of stuff. And I loved it. And this one particular day, she was like, I'm going to make pepper sauce. And I was like, why? Like, I was like, I don't like hot sauce. I was like, I've had the other kinds why firms put it on their pizza and it just burns. I don't get it. And she was like, she was like, be quiet. Just let me do it. I said, Yeah. She just wait. Yeah, exactly. Just make it. So she makes it and I was shocked. I was like, This actually tastes good. I was like, my mouth isn't burning to the point where I want to cry. I feel like my food actually tastes better. There's so much flavor, like what is this? And the nice thing about it too, was that it was completely natural, you know, just a mix of peppers and vegetables and vinegar. And that's it. So there's no funky additives and all that sort of stuff, which I knew would be great. Yeah, especially as somebody who cares about my own health. And so I got really excited about it. And I practice with my grandmother, we made it together. And then I made it on my own and then I started giving it out because I was like, I know I like this, but does anybody else get let's find out. So I was really excited to see that other people have the same reaction that I did. And so that was when I was like okay, Like, I have a real business idea here. And I think I'm going to take off with this. And my husband was deployed at the time. And I was, I was modeling out in LA. And I sent him an email while I'm he was on the ship. And I was like, Look, I think I finally figured out what I want to do. And would you like to help me? Because I want to do it? Yeah, he was like, Yeah, that sounds awesome. So he's been all ception. And yeah, so we, everything is homegrown. And I think for me, I realized that the long standing passion that I have for this is driven by family. For me, I've always been really close with my family, my family's always been my biggest support system in my life, and anything that I do, and this all being so closely tied to who we are and how I grew up, and being able to share that with other people and watch people be excited about that. Basically,

Jen Amos 5:49

what I got from your story is that what you do with we're wonderfully made is really driven by your love for your family. And I know that there's a lot of inspiration and a lot of your family in some of your flavors, which I want to get into more of that later. But I want to talk a little bit about what it was like, what your experience is like pursuing your career, and then starting this business all while, you know, being a military spouse and your husband being deployed. Like in my mind, I think, Oh, these are the types of things like the types of industries where it feels like you have to be like stationary somewhere to pursue them. I could be wrong, obviously. But tell me about like, I guess how you and your husband were able to navigate the balance of you know, being together and pursuing your careers?

Speaker 1 6:35

Yeah, I think you have to know and respect who you're with. So my husband and I, when we met before we got married, we knew immediately that we were the type of people that people that wanted to grow together, we were both very like driven and what we wanted to do. So I think part of it has to do with the type of people that we are very goal oriented, very driven, we have a lot that we kind of want to accomplish. But I will say that doesn't mean it wasn't challenging. You know, when you love somebody, you want them to be close. So just like a spouse level, it was challenging, but I guess I can kind of go through this would be kind of fun going through like the locations and how we moved around together. So yeah, started dating when he was in sub school in Connecticut. So we were kind of and I was in New York. So we would take trips to see each other. And then we had to go through we were basically with each other from the beginning of both of our careers. And so then we had to go through the first set of orders, and where's it going to end up because I don't really have much say at that point. And it was Washington State and not Guam. So we were able to survive, but we were long distance, and I would fly out to see him. And when he could, he would come see me and we just loved each other. And we were like, we're just gonna do this because you're who I want to be with, but we were long distance. And you know, so he did what he had to do in Washington and I worked, how I worked, and I would, you know, travel for work. So I worked in New York, but then I signed with an agency in London. So then I went and spent like a month in London, and we were just on the phone with each other all the time. Then he tried to get some orders closer to me on the East Coast. He ended up in Virginia, short period of time in Virginia, and then he re stationed out to San Diego. And that was exciting for me because I was like now I can finally get into LA and so we always tried to compromise on where we live where we'd always get a house like hopefully equidistant to like where we work. So with being in San Diego, I worked in LA we lived in the middle in like Temecula area, which we it was great living there but the commute in that state and have like a nightmare. It would take me like three and a half hours to get home for work. It would take him like three hours to get home. So you know it has its challenges. But yeah, and then finally he retired and we decided to settle in the middle of both of our families his being in Philadelphia, Miami, New York and now we're in Jersey in a happy middle. Oh, yeah, there

Jen Amos 9:05

you go. It's like a good like you said good in between. Yeah, yeah. I really admire how very early on, you know, you're like you're my person you know, and we're just we're going to make it work and I think that the challenges are hard. I think they would be harder if there was like any insecurity in your relationship. So it sounds like you two were you know for better and for worse are pretty solid on that like you knew that you were going to be together and and everything so I think that's a that's amazing to hear the long list of places that you've lived in order to make it happen I think is is really incredible. I want to go ahead and transition now to be are wonderfully made. And you know I never really thought about this maybe because my husband is one who buy usually buys or seasoning and spices and stuff like that. But I do know that like when I go to a grocery store there's there's a whole aisle like dedicated to like oriental stuff or, you know, like ethnic, ethnic food. The aisle. Yeah, the ethnic aisle

Unknown Speaker: 10:02

and of everybody in that.

Jen Amos: 10:03

Yeah, it's very interesting. And then you have like a whole other section that's like, you know, just like American seasoning and all that stuff. And so for you, it's like going down that aisle, though, there's only so much you can represent in an ethnic aisle. So tell me about, like, you know, what you have noticed in the spice market, especially here in America, and, of course, your need to bring in your product. Well,

: 10:27

I think that's all part of the inception of what I wanted to create with this. And, you know, I grew up in New York, we're a whole mix of people. So you know, we have a better selection than most. And even still, there was not a single time that I went to the grocery store and went down the ethnic aisle and saw anything related to Trinidad and Tobago there in that aisle. Still, there's typically only Mexican, Jamaican, and Asian. And that's it. And it's still only specific spots of each area. You know what I mean? And so yeah, I think Americans tend to kind of generalize the Caribbean as like Bob Marley in Jamaica. And that's great. But there's so much to the Caribbean, there's so many flavors, there's so many places, there's so much beauty and flavor. And I was like, Okay, there's a huge hole here. This is a so we started the company while we were still stationed in California. And so we went straight into farmers markets in person markets, which is amazing, because it was a pivot that we did, because of COVID. It was something that I wanted us to do. And it ended up being great because you get face to face with your customer and who's interested in wants to buy. And what was so fascinating was to see that 90% of people were like, what's you say? What's Trinidad? What's I mean, people were like, what part of Mexico was that? And I was like, what, like, I remember calling my grandmother, and she was like, oh my god, she was like, she was one person thought that Trinidad was in Jamaica, and I'm like, this is part of what I'm talking about. So yeah, huge hole that I saw that we could fill and you know, as a kid, and even as an adult, just walking down there, you never see yourself fully, I think being able to put that out into the world is for me, it's super fulfilling. And it's been very exciting to see people try our sauces and have this kind of reaction, like, Oh, my God, this is so different. This is you know, and I, I always land on like, you know, it's, it's one thing for me to like what my grandmother did and be excited about it. But it's like a totally different feeling when you offer it to somebody else that you or is a stranger to you. And they have the same reaction and the same joy and that same kind of experience. And that's, that's been really, really cool.

Jen Amos: 12:42

Yeah, absolutely. You know, even in that, it's like funny, because I don't really go down that ethnic aisle, because even though I'm like, I probably would be grouped into the Asian aisle, it's like, well, Asia is a large country, you know, and there's so many different, you know, like, a, like, there's just so many different ethnicities within being Asian and, and so oftentimes, like, even for my family, we, you know, I'm American with Filipino descent, like, you know, we have to go to like actual, like Asian restaurants, you know, or not, Asian restaurants, Asian grocery stores, to even find a little bit of ourselves. But even then, it's, you know, it's a bit challenging. And so I just really love that you saw this as, like, an amazing opportunity to represent your culture to represent your family, you know, most of all, and, and I imagine that it wasn't an easy process. I mean, did you how did you even learn about how to get a product out there to begin with, like, in the grocery stores?

: 13:39

I'm pretty relentless with my researching on Google. But yeah, it was totally a process. I mean, I started with, like I said, my grandmother, and I was like, Alright, show me how to do this. Uh, you know, grandmothers, they don't measure a damn thing. So no, I had

Jen Amos: 13:54

everything. Yeah. Okay,

: 13:56

stop, okay. And I'm like, trying to take notes like, okay, she said, stop at this line on the blender. So there was that process. And then there's also the process that, you know, making sure everything is sound and done correctly, because this is food. And that was like a big thing for me in the beginning, where we were just getting ready to kind of what I said, go public, like, bring it to the public, bring it to the masses. And I was like, I put a stamp on it. And I was like, I refuse to do this. Until I know that everything is done until I can find a facility where everything is has the certificates, the licenses FDA regulated, everything is good and clean. And I don't have any choice about it until I figure that out. I'm not doing it. So that was a big process in the beginning. Trying to find that because I feel like so much of you know, people always say you don't know what you don't know. And when you're just an individual who wants to start something, you have no idea you know, I'm not a descendant of Tabasco or something I don't have insight or not. So it's on me to figure it out if I really want to do that. And so it was just a lot of like cold calling, and just Googling and trying to figure out what's this word? And how did they how does this company do this? And wow, tons and tons of Googling and tons of like, I mean, Ryan had a friend from from college that ended up going into the food industry in some capacity and was like, hey, these contacts might help. And they didn't. But I was on the phone every morning like, hey, yeah, you know, I think I even called the Clorox company and was like, Do you know who package was hot sauces in bulk? And, you know, but it's, it's part of the journey. It's fun to look back on. And I loved doing that sort of like, because arguably, that's some of the most exciting time as a business owner is like, digging through and being like, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna make this I'm gonna figure this out. Yeah. And you know, you end up phone call after phone call. No, no, no, no, no, until one person says, I think this person does that. Then you call that person. They're like, we don't do that anymore. We'll call this person then finally, you land on somebody, the one person who can help you. Yeah. It's exciting. It's all exciting. If you want to be an entrepreneur. That's exciting to me. That was fun.

Jen Amos: 16:02

Yeah. Sounds like it was a whole treasure hunt. Yes, exactly.

Unknown Speaker: 16:05

That's a fun way to look at it. Yeah, searching for

Jen Amos: 16:08

treasure. Like for you. That sounds exciting. I think for the average person wanting to pursue entrepreneurship, cold calling is the scariest thing you can do. So what was the attitude or the mindset you had? Whenever you would pick up the phone knowing that there's a high probability someone's going to say no, on the other end? Well, okay,

: 16:24

I think there's different forms of rejection. And I think, but this is also why it took me so long to figure out what I really cared about doing, because I have had jobs where I did not care. And when I do care about something, you will see it on my face. And everybody will know. And I will be out of there in a second. Because if I don't care, I'm not going to do it. Yeah. So knowing that about myself, I was like, I'm not going to start a damn business, that's going to require all my extra time, all my mental energy, all my savings and all that source, I'm not going to set myself up for that if I don't really care. And so that's why it's so important to really believe in what you have, what you're doing what you're trying to do, what what is the point of what, what message are you trying to send to people. And so that early on, it was super exciting, because I went from, you know, making a sauce with my grandmother in the kitchen to giving it out to people at work and having my dad give it out to his clients and handing it to literally anybody who would try it and constantly getting feedback of this is so wonderful. Where can I get more, I kept constantly getting positive feedback from strangers that were like, This is amazing. Where can I get more, and having that under my belt, that creates a sense of confidence, like you already loved what you were doing. But now you see that strangers love it too, then that's that, to me was fuel for like I'm headed in the right direction, this is going to be a good thing. And so having that confidence, and just that excitement of like, I totally believe in the product that I have, not just because I love it, and I believe in it, but I know that other people will too. And having confidence, really like I would wake up at seven o'clock in the morning and wait till it was like eight, nine o'clock for people to be open. And I would just call like, Hey, this is what I'm trying to do. You know, and also having that kind of like, at that point, you have nothing to lose. You know what I mean? You're just, you're just looking for anybody to point you in any sort of direction. You're like, for me, I was super excited. I had great feedback. I believed in what I was doing, and what I had what I was presenting to people and I had nothing to lose. It's like okay, they say No, all right, well, they don't know who I am. And you barely got off the ground yet. You know, it's not that. Yeah. If you look about it like that, it's not that scary, you know, so yeah,

Jen Amos: 18:42

I love that attitude. It's like, well, you know, I barely got started, I haven't really launched this yet. Also, these people don't know me. It's like, they just, they just met me, like two seconds ago. And they you know, because they picked up the phone. And once it's over, they probably have a million other calls or people to deal with anyway. So it's, I think it makes it that much easier to recognize that when someone tells you no, that's not the world telling you no, it's just that very moment that very second, someone's saying No, and it's just like, okay, you know, let's just go to the next person, let's just go to next person. And I like that you're very present, like with your approach where I think that you know, for other people, it's like the nose like weigh on you. You know, so I really I really liked your attitude on that.

: 19:22

Thank you. I mean, to be really honest, the nose weigh on you I think as time goes on, it gets harder because you know as you start to establish yourself and you still believe in what you're doing but then when you have like other businesses be like No, you know, you don't whether it's you don't make enough money or you haven't been in business long enough or you don't blah, blah, blah, that you know, that's hard. It's hard to deal with, but it always lands back for me on what am I doing? Why Why am I doing this? Because I love sharing my family's people. I love what I'm doing. I know that people love what we're doing when I see people come up to us somebody's like, Hey, I have celiacs where I have Hi, my husband has high blood pressure and your sauce is the only one that we can use in the house. It's such a good feeling. Yeah,

Jen Amos: 20:07

it's like you gotta hold you hold on to the good versus the nose. Really larger person. Yeah, I know that you are a graduate of the services SEO program with the Rosie network. So tell me what your experience was like going through that.

: 20:20

It was pretty great. I mean, I like to be totally transparent. And like, I think I think it might have been Ryan, my husband, who was like, oh, you should try this program. And he always does that. He's very good at like, networking. And I'm, like, I'm more like Hurmati and I am innately I'm quite shy. And so he's like, you know, you should try this program. I'm like, for what, like, I always hate doing them. Like, when I wasn't gonna do it, what am I gonna Yeah, or, you know, or I'll be like, no, like, I already know what what to do. Like, I've already done that. I don't need to do a class on this. But you know, and he's like, No, he's just go like, you know, you never know what you're gonna get out of it. You never know who you meet bla, bla bla. So I. Yeah, I'm like, maybe as a point, I should just start, like kind of stepping out there more in this way. And so I decided to sign up. And it went really well. And I surprisingly, got a lot out of it. Because we were working, the whole course was basically about how to build a pitch deck. And we're at such a point of growth in our business that it was like, this is perfect for us. Because this being able to take this seriously and learn how to actually do it in a way that is going to make sense to investors. And the like, it was perfect. And I loved it. And I felt like I had a complete pitch deck and profile at the end of it that I could, and still getting ready to present to investors. So it was wonderful. Oh, that's,

Jen Amos: 21:39

that's so great to hear. I feel like that's like the number one thing that I often hear with graduates is that pitch deck. And just like, if anything, even if you don't like seek out investors, it's like you were able to create a very concise, like message about what you do, who you help, you know, etc, etc. So I'm just glad to hear that that was a very positive experience for you. And yeah, I gotta thank the hubby for

Unknown Speaker: 22:03

me, we're gonna put myself yeah, yeah,

Jen Amos: 22:06

no, I think I think that's wonderful. And it's just a really great to hear. So I want to get into a new ingredient that you had recently added, or your third, the third flavor that you added in yours hot sauces, and that's pineapple. And there's something extra special about this flavor that is added on the label. So can you tell us about that?

: 22:26

Yes, I did want to circle back to the pitch deck for a minute. But yeah, just because the pitch deck is one of those things that I mentioned before, where it feels like there are certain kind of like, secret things that you don't know what you don't know. And nobody is going to tell a fresh business owner, hey, here's how you build a pitch deck, you're gonna dig and dig and dig and try to piece it together and hope that it looks good. And you don't look like a moron when you want to present it to somebody. So being able to have a course where you get that and you learn exactly how to do it. It's great is definitely opening one of those, like business doors that is not typically available. Yeah,

Jen Amos: 23:07

you know, I'll say that, you know, my husband, I we've been working together for like eight years now. But he's been in the industry longer than I have. And I feel like even to this day, we're still like refining our message. And not that we're looking for investors or anything, but I feel like it's like, it's always like a constant journey of like improving messaging or trying to figure out who our target audience is. But what I really like about what I hear about like putting together this pitch deck, it's like it really gets you to be hyper focused with what you want to accomplish at the at the stage of your business. And so it's great to hear that like even with all your Google searching, you know, this was really what you needed to be able to come up with that concise message for investors.

: 23:46

Yeah, for sure. But yeah, into your next question, our pineapple sauce. So in March of last year, I gave birth to our first son Andreas, and he was born on the seventh and he died on the reasons why we're kind of non existent. I had a perfectly healthy, easy pregnancy. And all of a sudden, his heart rate started to drop during delivery, and we had an emergency C section and he just did not survive. They diagnosed him with something called neonatal encephalopathy, which is actually something that is increasing in number is one in three every 1000 live births. The number is now up to nine. And we were with the best NICU doctors in the state and they very plainly told us, this is something that happens but the problem is we don't know why it happens.

Jen Amos: 24:38

Oh my goodness.

: 24:40

And so that was kind of a huge shift mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually. Losing a child changes your entire outlook on life. It changes your marriage. It changes how you speak to people, how you relate to people and what you really care about. What really matters in life will reveal itself rather quickly. And so we still had the business to run. And we were trying to figure out how we could incorporate our son going forward, I think, well, I know, unfortunately, a lot of people, when a baby dies, when somebody loses a pregnancy or their child dies at birth, or after birth, there's always this kind of stigma and reaction of don't talk about it. And I will say, as a lost mother, that that is one of the worst responses that people have. Because every loss parent, if you're a part of the Lost Ark, community has a harrowing fear that their child will be forgotten. Yeah, all we really want is to talk about our children. And we love being asked about our son, we want our son in any of our children to be included in life and all of its events the same way you would if you were able to see them. This is, and so we wanted to incorporate him. And really, the business was always founded on family, right. And there was always that transparency. And that was always at the root of why we are wonderfully made, was what it was and mattered the way that it did. And so now we have our son, and things look different than we thought they would. But we still wanted him to be a part of what we were doing. And we needed people to know that this is now a part of who we are, there's no removing it from who we are, it doesn't matter if we're talking personal or business, this is who we are. And you're you're gonna get it you're whether you want to hear about him or not, is like how are we going to incorporate him and so little by little things started to come into place, just with our ideas and what we were figuring out to do. And, you know, at first I was like, Well, we had plans to release the pineapple flavor, why don't we you know, put his name on it or, you know, call it his or something. And Ryan, my husband wanted to start a foundation that who knew find answers to research to fund figuring out what is causing neonatal encephalopathy. And one of the biggest things that my husband and I felt was, once you end up in this community, you realize how common it is. And I think what is just now being talked about is how common miscarriages and it is. But unfortunately, what's also not being talked about is that losing a child full term is just as common, and you don't hear these things until it happens to you. And then all of a sudden, people come out of the woodworks and for us, we just were like, Why didn't anybody tell us that this was a possibility? Because you can inform someone, there's so much less of the reaction that happens, which is shock and horror. And why did this happen to us? What did we do wrong? What did we miss what's wrong with me this this severely isolating loneliness that happens in loss. And so we wished that we had just known that full term loss was always a possibility. And so wanted to raise awareness. Because we feel like if we can just inform people that it exists, we are hopefully saving somebody the same amount of loneliness that we felt. And we're also raising awareness, we're also bringing to light our son, we are acknowledging other people's children that may not get spoken about as often as they should. And so we decided, once we found the the ribbon for pregnancy and infant loss awareness, the pink and blue ribbon, we were like, Okay, we're gonna start putting that on the back of our bottles as raising awareness. And then also with our foundation, we would like to let everybody know that a portion of all sales that were wonderfully made get will also go to fund that research and provide resources to families as well.

Jen Amos: 29:02

Wow, I am admittingly I will one I'm very impressed with how you're just able to talk through that so eloquently, but I was getting choked up just listening to you in MMA. Just so you know. Like, I was like, wow, like, you know, I

: 29:18

think you're like legit the first person that's like making me tear up in this season. Hopefully, like if you're good laugh,

Unknown Speaker: 29:26

I can just about anything. So yeah.

Jen Amos: 29:31

I am so taken. I mean, I think what I'm most inspired by is like your value, like how you value like family. You know, it's like this we are wonderfully made is more than just a hot sauce. Right? It's a representation of your family, your culture and your son. And it inspires me because I just think about you know, I think even about my own family and how you know, initially like I didn't really, I came from like a family of farmers. You know, I'm from the Philippines, and they my dad joined the military because for economic opportunities, and you know, I wouldn't have the life I have today hadn't been for, you know, his sacrifices. But along, you know, along the way, there was a lot of like trauma that our family experienced. And I struggle with, like, what family means to me, like, even till till this day, like it's something I still navigate. And so so I'm just so inspired to hear. Like, just that solid foundation. I mean, as solid I get family has drama, I know that there's no family, that's perfect. But just that solid foundation of like family first, you know, and how you incorporate it in what you do. And, and how you honor your son today is like, it just really, it really moves me. And I just love that, you know, like how your business really is, it's just a really good display of, I guess how how proud you are, you know, again, of where you came from, and where you're at now and where you're headed. So I don't know if I'm talking in circles, but I just want to say I'm very moved by what you're sharing. And it's just meaningful. To me. It's like it just humanizes your business. I feel like sometimes it's easy to like, for me, it's like I always have this aspiration to actually separate family from business, like personal life and professional life. I like to keep I try to I can't keep them separate, because I work with my husband. But you know, I always have that aspirational goal. And in a way, I mean, maybe it's just a dream. Like it's probably just like a fantasy whenever I'm, you know, fed up with my husband, but like, but I just I'm just saying that, like, you inspire me to look at like and go how you incorporate family into business, and like a whole different way. So hopefully I articulated that. Well.

Unknown Speaker: 31:42

You do? Thank you. Okay, yeah, me.

Jen Amos: 31:45

I love it. Like your gag dog through this. This is meaningful stuff, you know? And yeah, I'm curious if you had anything to say after because I gotta collect myself?

: 31:57

No, I just, you know, like you said, Every family is different. But I think there's a certain, you know, it depends. Every family is different. But you know, watching my parents work as hard as they did. And knowing that my, you know, the two of them, both my mom and my dad, it's something that I started to understand the older I got, but just how much they sacrifice so that they could give my brother and I everything that they never had, you know, you it instills this kind of like one you have a closeness with your your parents, right, I would hope and then it also instills this kind of motivating drive in you as well. Because for me, like, I want to be able to give back to my parents, and I want to honor them. And I want them to know like how much I love us. And I'm so proud of us and where we come from and you know, what they've done and what they've instilled in me the confidence that they've given me in myself and in what makes me different, and that's all tied into how I came up with the name. And then you know, having my son it really just compounded that family is number one, what I care about, and you know, when he was born, my parents were right there with us. We all help them in the NICU, you know, so it's always a family connection. We're always you know, together, they're always right there, the ups and the downs. And that's, that's what matters in life. If you know, you can form that or have that with your family that's at the root of you know, what we're doing. Yeah,

Jen Amos: 33:21

preach. I'm so inspired. I really am so much more Mike. Okay. Okay, Jen, we got to figure out how to steer this. Are you driving this thing? Keep your hands on the wheel. Jen. We're almost there. We're almost at the edge of this interview.

: 33:35

Oh, I'm very impressed with myself for talking about that. I mean, if I can be honest with you, this is the first time I'm doing sort of like a public talking about my son. And what happened. This is you are the first you are the exclusive.

Jen Amos: 33:48

Well, this is why I'm tearing up because it's so good. Yeah,

: 33:52

gosh, it's still it's still in therapy. You know, it's still a gorgeous journey. But yeah, that's the truth. And yeah, like what did I recently I read that the most powerful thing that someone can hear that someone can say to them when they are in crisis, like that is me too. And that was all I wanted to hear. When it happened to me. I was like, I need help. I need other parents, I need to know that other mothers and other fathers have survived this. I need, I need to hear that. And so when you get to the other side, when you get to a place where you can talk about it, and you can acknowledge what happened for me, that's what I want to be able to do and put that message out. Is it happened to me too. Yeah. You're not as alone as he think. Yeah,

Jen Amos: 34:40

absolutely. And I think that is that's part of the healing journey, right is like knowing that you're not alone in this and so and of course you have your family to lean again. So it just it sounds like you are taking all the right healthy outlets to grieve. And I think that I just think it's so meaningful and I appreciate that. So you You know, so while we're on this topic, I figured I would ask you how you chose your son's name. I'm sure there's a there was a meaning behind that since Oh, you haven't really talked about him? Yeah. isn't

: 35:11

solely my father's name is Andre, then my husband was really close with his brother Darius. So we were trying to figure out how we wanted to do that. My husband was like, it's gonna be pretty awkward during the holidays, when there's two entrees in the room. And we're calling for Andre, we don't know who we're talking to. Yeah, yeah. So we found a nice spin on Andre, we chose Andreas and for me, I always wanted a name that had nice meaning behind it, too. And Andreas is has some nice meaning behind it, you know, Stripe and that sort of stuff. And Andre, is that great and all that. So it was it was something that that kind of wrapped up what we wanted to do. So his name is Andreas Darius Brown.

Jen Amos: 35:50

Wow. That's beautiful. I'm glad I asked. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker: 35:53

thank you. I love Yeah. Well, I

Jen Amos: 35:55

just feel I feel like people don't just, you know, like Google a name. Yeah. Like, there has to be like, a lot of meaning. And I know this one is extra special, you know, so yeah. So thank you for sharing that. Well, man, I feel like I've asked everything that I wanted to ask you, but I just want to be thorough here and ask you. Is there any other questions? I should have asked you that I haven't asked you yet?

: 36:16

I don't think so. I mean, I personally, I can say thank you for asking me about my son. I always Yeah, you know, those things are super important. You know, like I said, we'd love to talk about him and how gigantic and heavy he was, he was almost 11 pounds. So so that it was very nice to get to talk about him. I thank you for that. Oh, and worse, thank you for you know, hearing our story and sharing a bit about what we're doing. We are wonderfully made, and I appreciate it. It's been lovely.

Jen Amos: 36:49

Oh, it's no it's It's my pleasure. I you know, this is why I don't like to give like set questions before any conversation because it would rob us of you know, me tearing up without realize, you know, without expect, you know, just blindsided me there. Thanks. Which is my I don't mind crying publicly. I don't have an issue with that. I'm just saying like, wow, like, it just so moving again. Like, I think the the key word here that I got from your conversation is just family, just family, you know, and you're a great example of that. And, you know, just my love thoughts and prayers, you know, to you and your family and to Ryan and to Andreas and and I would just want to wish you continued success with we are wonderfully made.

Unknown Speaker: 37:27

Thank you so much.

Jen Amos: 37:29

Yeah. All right. Well, you man, thank you. Thanks for being on the show today.

: 37:33

I have a few I had a lovely time. Wonderful.