CYLS 166: Making History While Raising Over $1 Million Dollars in Funding with Amanda Johnson and KJ Miller

Episode Summary

Amanda and KJ eloquently and humorously walk listeners through their entrepreneurial journey to founding a very successful beauty brand for women of color. They talk about their vision, the importance of having a solid team working around them and a solid community supporting and challenging them.

 

Kevin Y. Brown

Kevin Y. Brown is a National Association of State Boards of Accountancy (NASBA) Center For Public Trust (CPT) “Being A Difference” award recipient, international speaker, entrepreneur, and author.  The former MTV Networks host and NYC fashion marketer has created an international following as a speaker on personal excellence, effective communication, and leadership. Kevin has been featured by Black Enterprise magazine as a “Modern Man of Distinction” and highlighted in various publications for his self-help speaking work and helping students graduate college debt-free.  Recognized for his commitment to empowering foster care youth and as a foster care system alumnus, he has also delivered the keynote address at the International Foster Care Organizations Conference in Sydney, Australia and Osaka, Japan.  Kevin is currently the creator/host of Sirius XM’s “Create Your Life” series, a fellow in the New York Chapter of the Startup Leadership Program, and an active member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. 

 

Amanda Johnson and KJ Miller

Amanda Johnson and KJ Miller are the founders of Mented, a cosmetics company dedicated to providing consistent, everyday beauty products for women of every shade. The two met at Harvard Business School but developed Mented later, while working corporate 9-5 jobs. Today, they are the 15th and 16th black women to have raised $1 million in venture capital.

 

Insights From the Episode

• How to make use of your network as a startup
• Strategies for locking down your first investors
• How to be proactive and mindful about building your team
• Secrets to continuing to innovate
• How to listen to constructive criticism and tune out the rest

 

Quotes From the Show

• “As cool of a strategy as it may seem to be able to say something is sold out, I’d much rather have the dollars in our bank account than the headline that we sold out.” - KJ Miller, Create Your Life Series, #166
• “We want women to always feel like they can come to us and get the product they want.” - Amanda Johnson, Create Your Life Series, #165
• “The jobs we had were the jobs we had to do, mented was the job we got to do.” - KJ Miller, Create Your Life Series, #165
• “At the base of it, there are really amazing women of color influencers out there talking about Mented, constantly introducing us to their audiences, reintroducing us if you will, and an enthusiastic community who wants to tell anybody and everybody they know.” - Amanda Johnson, Create Your Life Series, #165
• “It would be great if I had known when we started that yea there will be some really really heavy times and some tough times, but you know you’ll figure it out, you’ll work through it because that’s what you do and you build up almost like a muscle of working through really tough things and as that muscle gets stronger, you get better at it.” - KJ Miller, Create Your Life Series, #165
• “Goal setting methods: we pick a really big number, put it on the wall and we’re like that’s the number we’re going to hit next year.” - KJ Miller, Create Your Life Series, #165

 

Resources Mentioned

• Google drive

 

Favorite Book

• Amanda Johnson: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
• KJ Miller: Waiting to Exhale by Terry McMillan

 

Favorite Quote

• KJ Miller: “Well behaved women seldom make history.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
• Amanda Johnson: “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by and that has made all the difference.” - Robert Frost

 

Keys to Create Your Best Life

KJ Miller

• You are smarter and more capable than you’re probably giving yourself credit for
• There are going to be a lot of people along the way that will doubt you, but you’re the expert in you
• If it’s not fun, whatever the it is that you’re pursuing, you probably won’t be able to make it last

 

Amanda Johnson

• Get you a strong group of people around you
• Stay curious
• Take care of your emotional health

 

Stay Connected

Show Social Media

https://www.facebook.com/cylseries/

https://www.instagram.com/cylseries/

 

Kevin Y Brown

www.kevinybrown.com

www.instagram.com/kevinybrown

www.twitter.com/kevinybrown

www.facebook.com/kevbrown001

 

Amanda Johnson and KJ Miller

www.mentedcosmetics.com

hello@mentedcosmetics.com

www.instagram.com/iam_kj

www.instagram.com/mentedcosmetics

Subscribe to our podcast + download each episode on  iTunes, Google Podcast, Stitcher, and Spotify.

 

This episode was produced and managed by Podcast Laundry (www.podcastlaundry.com)