[00:00:00] Olamide Olowe: Yeah, I think everyone wants to be a lifestyle brand now. And so it's starting to get like, played out to say you want to be one, but I think really what a lifestyle brand is, is it takes a holistic look at that customer's journey, not just only with your products, but with everything around that problem statement.

[00:00:15] Olamide Olowe: I think people is like a big part of how a business is successful. Super important that I like meet with every single person on my team once a month to do a check-in and not a check-in just about like work, but like, how are things outside of work potentially affecting your work?

[00:00:42] Jason Wong: Hello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the building blocks podcast. I'm here joined by Olamide who I actually ran into at a dinner a couple of months ago. And it was just. Do we do we know each

[00:00:56] Jason Wong: other?

[00:00:57] Olamide Olowe: It's kind of the masks. You can't tell who anyone is until they take the [00:01:00] mask off.

[00:01:00] Jason Wong: Yeah. Um, and it was just so fun to hang out for a dinner.

[00:01:04] Jason Wong: We were joined by a lot of founders and, um, and we weren't really sitting that close to each other. So there's a lot questions that we didn't, I couldn't ask you. So I'm really glad that I'm able to get you on the show. Um, so thank you for joining.

[00:01:17] Olamide Olowe: Of course. Thank you for having me. Anytime you call, I answer

[00:01:20] Olamide Olowe: you.

[00:01:20] Jason Wong: You actually do. Uh, whenever I text you, you're always responsive. I love that you paid that, but for those of you who don't know Olamide, she is a superstar. It's a long list. I made it super killer intro for you. She's a founder and CEO of Topicals, Forbes, 30 under 30 class of 2022. She's a UCLA track star. And on top of all this stuff that she's doing, she's the youngest black woman to ever raise over $2 million in funding. 2.6 million to be exact in August, 2020. And she is I think one of the most incredible humans I've gotten the chance to meet. So, Olamide, here you are. Thank you for joining the show. Really.

[00:01:59] Olamide Olowe: [00:02:00] You're so sweet.

[00:02:00] Olamide Olowe: That intro is like really, really sweet. Um, yeah, no, it's been a fun last couple of years. It's been really, really hard too, um, but super fun. Like I love doing challenging things and it seems like it works out when I do them.

[00:02:14] Jason Wong: It's, I mean, for beauty, the past couple of years, it was like a roller coaster, right.

[00:02:18] Jason Wong: Because once a pandemic hits, everyone was like, I don't want to wear lipsticks anymore. I don't want to wear foundations anymore. But then like you're seeing mascara sales and lashes sales go up because everyone's wearing a mask. Um, but then overall shopping, shopping went up because everyone's got stimulus checks, but then it went down when those checks don't come in anymore.

[00:02:37] Jason Wong: It's a roller coaster. It's hard. So, um, you know, it's. I dunno, it feels like we're always fighting for survival. Um, and this, um, but you know, let's, let's go back a couple years from now. You, you start, you started Topicals 2020 around there.

[00:02:54] Olamide Olowe: 2020 is when I started topicals, but the idea for the brand came [00:03:00] 2018.

[00:03:01] Olamide Olowe: So, um, I might actually rewind even further back.

[00:03:04] Jason Wong: That yeah, go for it.

[00:03:05] Olamide Olowe: I grew up with a ton of chronic skin conditions like boils, in grown hairs, acne, hyperpigmentation, things that people weren't talking about in the beauty world, you know, it was all about face masks and like moisturizers and things that smelled really good.

[00:03:19] Olamide Olowe: And I couldn't use any of those products cause my skin was super sensitive or was super inflammatory. And so, um, I grew up feeling like I was an other in the beauty industry. And so I vowed that I was going to become a dermatologist. I was going to like fix everyone's skin. I was going to help people.

[00:03:34] Olamide Olowe: And then I got to college. And when I was balancing being a track star and being pre-med, I was like, yeah, I don't think I'm cut for this. But my friend that I met there, her dad owned a beauty company and he was like, she was, she told me she was like, we should try and build something. And like, that was my first taste of beauty outside of just like going to a dermatologist or shopping, you know, in the ointment aisle. And so that was like the [00:04:00] first kind of like inklings of like building a brand. Cause we had, we're building like a sister brand or sub-brand to this larger company. And then after graduation, I was like, I really enjoyed that.

[00:04:11] Olamide Olowe: Now, I wonder if I can kind of mix my personal experience with what I've learned at this company and start something. So Topicals was like birthed years and years and years ago, but it was like really ideated 2018 when I graduated from UCLA and then launched August of 2020.

[00:04:27] Jason Wong: I love that. I mean, the fact that you're solving a problem that's so personal, it just makes the story so much better.

[00:04:35] Jason Wong: You know, you worked at a previous big company, you jumped into becoming a founder. It's a whole different world. Uh, my girlfriend, she's a skincare scientist, and she makes products for, um, all these like major conglomerate beauty brands. And then now she's working for like a startup and people were like, why don't you start your own brand?

[00:04:55] Jason Wong: And, I was like, listen, it's, it's a different world. Like you're not just making it [00:05:00] more like you're gonna, you're gonna touch finance. You're gonna be in Excel. You're talking to suppliers. You're, you're talking to like a Facebook rep. Like there's so many things that you touch on being a founder that you just don't get exposure to, when you're just working for someone or making a product. Um, and I'm curious to hear, like, what was that shock for you? Like just jumping into it.

[00:05:21] Olamide Olowe: You know, honestly, finance is always the one where you're just like, balance sheets um, you know, your learning income, income statement, you're learning all these terms that honestly they should teach us when we're in high school, but they don't.

[00:05:33] Olamide Olowe: Um, but all these things and you're trying to understand, okay. Like I thought all of it was just numbers. Like how much do I make? How much does it cost to make it? What's my profit? But like really there's things like cashflow, right? Like I know you and I have texted you before about like, Hey cashflow, like, what are you doing?

[00:05:47] Olamide Olowe: What are you thinking? You've sent over recs to me. And like, that's a part of finance that people don't talk about. But how, where your money is at certain times is a really big, you might end the year $50 million in revenue, but [00:06:00] 8 months out of the year, you might have $5 in your bank account just because all the money is moving.

[00:06:06] Olamide Olowe: Those things were really big shock to me. And then the biggest one was logistics. Like the last two years would be the perfect time to learn about logistics. It's awful trying to figure out how early do we order this. Um, you know, how long does it take for something to come in? If something sells through really quickly, what kind of things do you have in place, whether that's pre-orders or gift cards to still keep your revenue coming in when you are literally out of stock? So those are the two big things I learned a ton about when I jumped into the world of entrepreneurship,

[00:06:35] Jason Wong: it's gotten so unpredictable. Previously, we had like a cycle of ordering where it's pretty predictable.

[00:06:42] Jason Wong: We can forecast, but the word forecast is like, we're just making assumptions now. These are. Um, because some months you'll do really, really bad. We have a lot of overstock and our cash like is just sitting in inventory and cashflow is one thing that I just wish more people would talk about because when you go [00:07:00] online, everyone's like here's a Facebook ads hack.

[00:07:02] Jason Wong: Here's how you make TikTok ads. But man, none of that matters if you don't have money.

[00:07:07] Olamide Olowe: Yes, we need cashflow hacks. And like for example, some of my friends, they raised money and they were like when you raised money, because we didn't need the money that we raised right. When we raised it. Right. We were really fortunate that it had taken me two years to raise the money, but I had bootstrapped and basically like built the company on like 600 K, which is a ton of money when you're really a bootstrap founder.

[00:07:28] Olamide Olowe: But like for us doing lab testing, all the different things we had to do that 600 was like, it felt like nothing. Right, right. It goes really quick. And so I was really glad that we were really frugal around how we built a business. So when we raised the additional $2 million in July of 2020, right before we launched, I just had the cash sitting in the account and things took off for us really quickly.

[00:07:49] Olamide Olowe: So we had to put that money to work, but I tell all my friends what I regret not having at the time, which again, chicken and egg problem is like a line of credit. Like I wish I would have taken that 2 million and be [00:08:00] like, been like, Hey bank or, Hey lender, we have this $2 million in the bank. Like, will you give us an additional 2 million or even a million on a line of credit?

[00:08:09] Olamide Olowe: Um, because it's just, it's super hard. Once the cash has gone and you've used it up to be like, Hey, give me a line of credit. Cause they're like there's nothing in your bank account.

[00:08:18] Jason Wong: They look at what you have. Like you, you need to put something on a table and leverage is the key to unlocking your business growth.

[00:08:25] Jason Wong: Um, if you just keep giving away your piece of the company, um, for some cash you ended up with almost nothing. And the banks today, you know, interest rates aren't that bad. Um, if you have the assets, leverage it, you know, you can get more money out of it.

[00:08:42] Olamide Olowe: Another thing someone told me it was one of the co-founders of Mad Happy

[00:08:45] Olamide Olowe: he was like, go back to your vendors and advocate for a partnership between them where you, you know, it's only 20% down or it's no money down and you pay when they shipped, you pay 20% what they ship. That has also saved us tremendously because inventory is [00:09:00] our largest, you know, cost function at the company.

[00:09:03] Olamide Olowe: And so we've been able to go back to our vendors and say, Hey, we're really growing really fast. We can't really hit all the goals we want to hit and bring you the business you want. If we're not able to like float this inventory for a little bit longer, right. Because waiting for something to ship on a ship for three months to get to you.

[00:09:19] Olamide Olowe: We've already invested that cash is like mail writing. And so that's really helped us as well.

[00:09:23] Jason Wong: Cash conversion cycle. It's a, it's another thing is for another podcast, we could go hours for it. But, uh, I read somewhere that Gymshark has like a negative a hundred, some days.

[00:09:33] Olamide Olowe: I read that too.

[00:09:34] Jason Wong: And it's crazy, but they can only do that because their volume makes sense for like a lot of small brands, you probably couldn't do that right now. Now you have the volume from Sephora and which I want to dive into, um, You know, you could always go back to negotiate with your suppliers and something that I talked to someone yesterday because I do consulting calls on the side and they're like, how do you, how do you work when you're, you're working with, uh, retailers and also doing DTC, like [00:10:00] how do you forecast inventory?

[00:10:01] Jason Wong: What I say, you can actually work with your suppliers and be like, Hey, I'm going to order this amount in the next few months. And, and if you want that business, let's, premake those items for me and put it on the side and then once we're ready to pay for it, we'll pay for it. And that way they know that they will get guaranteed business from you if you have a good track record. And other ways that you reduce the lead time from them. So 40 days is now like 20 days. There's a lot of things that you can do to negotiate beyond just a price point in terms the lead times and suppliers are humans too. I always tell them this. Like, even though they're not in your home countries, if you're manufacturing outside, they're real people.

[00:10:38] Jason Wong: Just talk to them. Like they're real people and build a relationship off of it. Everyone just looks at it as like another person to talk to you from China. I was like, no, they're actually really good people if you just be nice to them.

[00:10:51] Olamide Olowe: Yeah. Truly. Cause I mean, they're small businesses too, right? Like a lot of them are, they need that next customer.

[00:10:57] Olamide Olowe: And so they don't want to lose you. And so if you talk to them [00:11:00] about like, Hey, you know, I'll even pay an extra 2% on what we, you know, are going to set what we're buying from you, if you allow me to push this off where I only put, you know, 5% down or I put nothing down. I think that's the like, glory, like we were talking about with um, Gymshark is like nothing down. It's like, that's, we're getting there with some of our vendors and I'm so appreciative of them because to have those kinds of things, like those are super helpful in just helping that cash last longer.

[00:11:29] Jason Wong: Yeah. And, and think of this, like, think of it as like an investment.

[00:11:33] Jason Wong: Like when you talk to these vendors and you've been working with them for over a year, you have high volume already. They will look at you as like, okay, they've been doing really good. Would I invest in this company? Would I write a check to them and then they start thinking back. Okay. Instead of writing like a hundred thousand dollar check for them, let me just front inventory for them.

[00:11:49] Jason Wong: Give them some more room to grow. If they grow in this timeframe by not having that cash down, because they use that 20- 30% deposit into growth, they will actually order more from us. Like you need to start thinking like [00:12:00] that. Right. And, and once you understand that, oh man, it just unlocks more. Um, I, I want to talk a little bit about Sephora. It's a huge feat that you're able to get in Sephora in a space that is traditionally not showcasing stuff like yours, you know, um, there's this standard of beauty that's always been upheld for the past, however long, and you just came in and you're like, we are different. We're we're bringing this product and we're, we're serving people who are typically overlooked.

[00:12:28] Jason Wong: And I loved that. Walk me through how you got into Sephora and, and what was the learning that you got from, you know, from DDC immediately to a mass retailer.

[00:12:38] Olamide Olowe: Yeah. I think the big thing that we had to get Sephora to understand is that one in four people has a chronic skin condition. So this isn't like an anomaly or like a niche, small community that has these things.

[00:12:49] Olamide Olowe: And this customer typically has at minimum two skin conditions. So if I'm Sephora, I want a customer like this. There are a ton of people who have it, and they usually have multiple skin conditions, [00:13:00] which means there'll be the retention will be really good. Um, and if it's similar, if it's kind of almost like prescriptive in a way, like a prescription is where, you know, you find something that works, keep on it. As a, as a customer of Sephora.. I'm sorry. As Sephora's a business, you know, that's what you want. You want customers that are going to be loyal because like we talked about with mascara with other different things they're more of wants not needs. And so like, if you can bring in a new customer base that has a want where it's like they have to buy this, and it's only available with you at Sephora or with the brand's DTC site, that sounds in my opinion, like a home run business.

[00:13:35] Olamide Olowe: And I think that's what Sephora has partnered with us on is this ability to take a customer who maybe it was buying her haircare at Sephora. She was buying her lipstick and her makeup. But then when it came to her skincare, she had to leave the store and go to the ointment aisle in a grocery store or in a mass like pharmacy chain, you know, why not just bring that customer into Sephora have them round out their trip.

[00:13:59] Olamide Olowe: And that was like [00:14:00] my pitch to Sephora and they got it right away and said, we agree. Um, and I think the second thing with Sephora why we chose them as a retailer. They're really great at storytelling. You know, the feeling you get when you walk into a Sephora, it's super Brit, uh, brightly lit. You know, it there's, there's so much fun things in there.

[00:14:15] Olamide Olowe: The marketing in there, it looks like superb versus, you know, someone like myself that shopped at the ointment aisle, I'm buying like my creams for my like boils and a foot fungus cream and it makes you feel like an other, and there's nothing wrong with having foot fungus and all these different things, but it's just like the way it's merchandised and marketed to you feels very different.

[00:14:35] Olamide Olowe: Yeah. So those are the two big keys around Sephora. Why we, why they said yes and why we knew we wanted to be in that place?

[00:14:41] Jason Wong: No,

[00:14:42] Jason Wong: that makes perfect sense. You went to them and be like, Hey, a lot of people actually need this stuff. And a lot of people are, they're going to CVS. They're going to these big pharmacies.

[00:14:51] Jason Wong: Um, and, and they're buying things that they really need, which means that they'll come back and return. And Sephora wants that. Any retailer wants that because [00:15:00] the more often someone comes back and walk back into those doors, the more often they're gonna buy other stuff along the way. Right. Whereas when you sell something that's a little more one timey where like they don't, they probably won't buy another one of them, but it looks really good on a one time.

[00:15:14] Jason Wong: The chance of them coming back is a lot less, which means less money overall. Like that pitch was great. Um, and the fact that you're able to sell something that is traditionally overlooked and they're, they're not considered sexy. Like these are things that people aren't like. I, I want to look cute in it. And you made it look cute.

[00:15:32] Jason Wong: Like the packaging is just amazing. I love that. And I actually got an email from you the other day about a new product launch called a high roller. Yeah. I show my girlfriend cause she knows she's in this space and she was like, she got it right. Like the ingredients are like, great. And you're like, yeah, like that's actually a very popular ingredient um, that's up and coming. Um, I'm surprised that like she was able to get it so quickly. Um, and I'm like, yeah, she's, she's great at that shit. [00:16:00] Um, but high roller, tell me about high roller. Why, why? And you know, was it like a saturated market or was it like, you felt like people just didn't really pay attention to ingrown hair?

[00:16:11] Olamide Olowe: So when we think about any products that we build, like our product philosophy is all about targeted solutions or targeted products, right? Like I think I love the 10 step routine, but sometimes I'm super lazy or as someone with a chronic skin condition, I already have really expensive prescription ointments or other things.

[00:16:29] Olamide Olowe: And so if I want to buy something, I want it to cut down as many steps in my routine as possible. And so when we think about how we're building our products, we always want to hit you with the ingredients that target each pathway as to why something happens. So for example, one of our other best-selling products is Faded and, um, you know, dark spots, hyper-pigmentation, those types of conditions have multiple pathways that cause them to happen.

[00:16:56] Olamide Olowe: And most products on the market only target one of those pathways. And so I remember [00:17:00] I was pre-med at UCLA so like I'm such a science nerd as well, but I, I studied that and I was like, why is everyone just targeting one when you can target all of them? And maybe the other people was like to make the product cheaper, you could like, you know, just put one ingredient, but we take all of the, like, let's say five core ingredients you need for this skin condition. And we just throw it in a, in a bottle at the most optimal concentration. So you don't, we try not to, um, you know, give people irritation given there is a lot of actives.

[00:17:28] Olamide Olowe: So we add a lot of moisturizers, soothers, but then we also have those actives that really target whatever it is that you are, you know, whatever skin condition or skin um, I would say like skin thing that you're dealing with. And so our products are not OTC, so they're not treating anything. They are just, you know, fading the look of the, of this discoloration or helping to sooth, um, any bumps.

[00:17:51] Olamide Olowe: And so, uh, for High Roller particularly, um, Zinc PCA is something that people typically think about for acne. And [00:18:00] so I was really excited when we discovered the ingredient and, um, my VP of product was like, you know, people think of this as just acne, but it's really any kind of bump where there's something in the follicle.

[00:18:10] Olamide Olowe: And that for us is like how we do all of our product development. That like scientific connection where, Hey, this ingredient is maybe really popular or isn't as popular, but it's not been used in a particular case. I don't think there are any products really on the market that have Zinc PCA in them for ingrowns. And so that's our, our product philosophy and, and I always tell people that we're the most tagged ointment brand on the internet because before us not a lot of people want it to tag, you know, they're like ointments and creams.

[00:18:36] Jason Wong: Their labels from like the pharmacy. No.

[00:18:39] Olamide Olowe: Yeah, like why would you want to do that? And so I'm so excited that we've built this behavior where instead of something feeling shameful, it feels more fun. And it's more like community oriented.

[00:18:50] Jason Wong: I love that. I really love that. And speaking about the brand, I know you guys are positioning yourself as a lifestyle brand and this is also something that we're trying to do. Right. And there's [00:19:00] a good argument for why.

[00:19:01] Jason Wong: And I do wanna understand like your approach to like, what, what defines a lifestyle brand for you and how is topicals going to achieve that.

[00:19:08] Olamide Olowe: Yeah. I think everyone wants to be a lifestyle brand now. And so it's starting to get like, played out to say you want to be one, but I think really what a lifestyle brand is, is it takes a holistic look at that customer's journey, not just only with your products, but with everything around that problem statement.

[00:19:24] Olamide Olowe: So for us, that's skin conditions. And so I know growing up, I was really embarrassed or nervous or had a lot of anxiety around my skin conditions. And when we started to really go deep into, you know, what this company should be, how do we speak to our customer and our community? We found that people with chronic skin conditions are two to six times more likely to experience depression and anxiety.

[00:19:46] Olamide Olowe: Because a lot of people, you know, there's a lot of misinformation around having a skin condition. Are you unhygienic? Do you not shower? Is it contagious? You know, we wanted to dispel those myths. And so we knew that mental health was going to be a big part [00:20:00] of our brand. And so when you kind of separate yourself from just being a product brand, I think people start to see you as, um, something they want around them more than just in the bathroom.

[00:20:12] Olamide Olowe: And I think that's what for me is a lifestyle brand. The core function of your product can customers think about you as a brand outside of the core function, um, and still really resonate with the brand and be excited to be a part of the community?

[00:20:25] Jason Wong: I mean, that's probably the best argument for why you should be in a lifestyle brand.

[00:20:28] Jason Wong: Is that like all the things you've mentioned is the fact that skin condition leads to, um, depression and feeling just embarrassed. And the fact that your product helps them through that entire journey, it's, it's incredible. And you're right. Like the word lifestyle brand got played out so much by everyone.

[00:20:47] Olamide Olowe: Yeah, it was like, well, if you made a merch item, now you're a lifestyle brand, which is like not accurate at all.

[00:20:51] Jason Wong: No. Um, not at all, not at all. And you know, it's, it's easy to just say you're a lifestyle brand because it's, well, there's no clear definition, but I [00:21:00] think you make such a strong argument for it.

[00:21:02] Jason Wong: And, um, I do want to like leave on my last question is that I like to talk about mistakes. Um, because I think we learned the most from our mistakes and hopefully from other people's mistakes as well. What is something that you see people make a lot of - what was a mistake that you see people make a lot in

[00:21:18] Jason Wong: your field.

[00:21:19] Olamide Olowe: Yeah, I think in my field, but in general, I think people is like a big part of how a business is successful. And I think for a lot of entrepreneurs when you're dealing with like the stress of running the business and trying to like, keep your employees happy. I think a lot of people, like there tends to be like issues, you know, tension in that area.

[00:21:38] Olamide Olowe: And so for me, I've made it super important that I like meet with every single person on my team once a month to do a check-in and not a check-in just about like work, but like, how are things outside of work potentially affecting your work? You know, what are things that are you're really excited about?

[00:21:53] Olamide Olowe: I think that, um, the fact that we only talk about work at work feels to me, I don't know, it feels boring. Right. [00:22:00] I love to laugh. I love to cry. I was talking to my friends my friends. I was talking to my coworkers earlier today in a meeting during our brand meeting. And we, in that meeting, everyone always brings something that they saw on the internet

[00:22:10] Olamide Olowe: that was really fascinating and interesting. And so I've gotten to learn more about them because of that and something I was telling them, is like, I'm been watching I'm so into ethnic culture, right. I'm Nigerian and I love movies and shows that, talk about that. I rewatched Crazy Rich Asians for like the fifth time yesterday.

[00:22:27] Olamide Olowe: And was like laughing and crying and I just, I love like culture and I love family. And I think that, like, I don't think businesses are a family. Like that's not the right dynamic because you have to, you have to live with your family and you can leave the job at any time. So it's not a family. I like to say it's more like a sports team because everyone has a role to play.

[00:22:46] Olamide Olowe: And like, if you don't do your job or your role, then you like let someone else on the team down. And that's more of the way I like to think about it, but I talk to them about like, things that I'm interested in that are not Topicals right? Like I'm really into reading. I really [00:23:00] like, you know, cooking. Just different things like that, you bring that to the table also. And I think it helps people to let their guard down. And I also think when people can bring their full selves to work or can like talk about other things they're passionate about, that passion tends to shine through in the work that they do. And then you get, you know, people who do better work.

[00:23:17] Jason Wong: Yeah. I, I love that you answered this on a question of mistakes because we hear so much about people working in beauty, burning out. The team that they're in is just not fulfilling the work that they do just doesn't feel rewarding. The managers that they have doesn't care about them. And it just seems like endless work.

[00:23:36] Jason Wong: And it is something that I had to learn the hard way is that you're right. People that say that oh, we're like a family here. Oh my God. They're about to overwork you. And the team sport makes sense because everyone does have a role. Everyone has - it's a collaborative environment. Family. It's like, you, you hate each other, but you still help each other.

[00:23:58] Jason Wong: Um, so I loved [00:24:00] that, that perspective. I also love that you know, building a culture and building team is truly what makes a company successful. It's not the best facebook ads, not the best creative. It's not this and that, it's the people who are doing it. And if you're not taking care of your own people they're not going to be performing at their highest productivity level.

[00:24:18] Jason Wong: It's not the performance report. It's not the, you know, the productivity hacks that makes them do better. It's them becoming more of themselves, letting them be themselves. And sharing what they like outside of work. And I love the one-on-ones that you give your team where you just didn't talk about work or you don't talk entirely about work.

[00:24:35] Jason Wong: It's so important. And it is, I'm going to take that from a lot, um, consulting for a lot teams, just, I can feel it and like the energy of a team who, who gets really well taken care of by their founders and their leaders versus the team who just gets overworked nine to five and clock out. And they're, they're going out to drink.

[00:24:53] Jason Wong: They're like, I, I know I'll figure it out tomorrow. But the people that you care for, um, that you take really good [00:25:00] care of. They, they care about the brand actually like it's like it was their own and that will shine through in their performance. So that's like, um, how I like to, um, do my company too. So I appreciate that you also see the same way. Olamide, thank you so, so much for, um, for coming on. It's just, it's been incredible watching your journey because you know, this space is so small. You know, it feels like we all know each other. So seeing my friends win, it's always the most heartwarming thing. Walking into the store and seeing my friend's brand and be like, I know her.

[00:25:33] Jason Wong: I love that. So keep crushing it. Thank you so much. And then, um, where can we find you? Like where's the best place to find you?

[00:25:41] Olamide Olowe: So, first

[00:25:41] Olamide Olowe: of all, thank you so much. I think it really takes a village there. So many founders that I have like sidebars with where I'm like, I'm freaking out, like, you know, how do we get our cash conversion to be X, Y, and Z?

[00:25:52] Olamide Olowe: Or like, who should I talk to for this? And you've always literally picked up the phone or texted me right away, anytime you find out about something new, you're always texting [00:26:00] me and saying, Hey, can I make an intro for you? So I really appreciate that because it really does take a village. Um, you can find me on all social networks at @OlamideOlowe

[00:26:07] Olamide Olowe: um, and then you can find topicals @topicals on all social networks um, yeah, we're just, we're just out here having fun and like not taking life too seriously at this point, because whenever things get really stressful, I always just say, like, I sell cream on the internet. I sell lotions like it's not,

[00:26:24] Jason Wong: I don't think it too seriously.

[00:26:26] Jason Wong: I just sell hair.

[00:26:28] Olamide Olowe: Yeah. It's more than that. Cause obviously it's, people's livelihoods and stuff that, you know, you feel really responsible for, but when things get really tense cause they do for us sometimes, and we're the only ones who have to carry the burden, I just tell myself, like, you know, it's

[00:26:43] Olamide Olowe: it's going to be all right. Like. It's not, it's not that big of a deal.

[00:26:46] Jason Wong: I love that. Thank you Olamide.

[00:26:48] Olamide Olowe: Of course.

[00:26:49] Olamide Olowe: Of course. Thank you for having me.

[00:26:51] Jason Wong: You just heard an episode of the building blocks podcast. If you like what you heard subscribe below to keep hearing conversations that I have with brilliant marketers, founders, and innovators [00:27:00] on how they built their best ideas.

[00:27:01] Jason Wong: Now, if you want to learn how you can turn your best ideas and build something massive out of it. Visit my website bbclass.co or follow my Twitter @eggroli.

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