Potential to Powerhouse: Success Secrets for Women Entrepreneurs - 57 - Building More Inclusive Beauty Brands with Nyakio Grieco of Thirteen Lune and Relevant

57 - Building More Inclusive Beauty Brands with Nyakio Grieco of Thirteen Lune and Relevant

10/05/22 • 54 min

Potential to Powerhouse: Success Secrets for Women Entrepreneurs

Nyakio Grieco wants you to feel seen. The beauty entrepreneur began her journey organically — by learning about the power of natural ingredients visiting her grandmother, a coffee farmer, and her grandfather, a medicine man, in Africa. Ancestral wisdom and world travel led to the birth of Nyakio Beauty, Grieco’s first beauty brand, in 2002. Nyakio Beauty has been followed by Thirteen Lune, an inclusive retail platform for beauty brands and founders who, for far too long, have been neglected in terms of capital and retail partnerships; as well as Relevant: Your Skin Seen, a beauty brand developed in 2022 to serve all skin tones and types. Nyakio and Tracy came together for the latest episode of the Potential to Powerhouse Podcast for an enlightening conversation about embracing “bossiness” on our entrepreneurial paths, Identifying pivotal moments as the gift from the universe they are, and surrounding ourselves with people whose knowledge and skill sets complement our own. It’s a brilliant conversation with many key takeaways, so have your Notes app open.

Key Points

Tracy introduces Nyakio and references her as the hybrid between two mega-baller entrepreneurs [00:21]
Using your maiden name and hyphenating your last name as a female powerhouse. [02:04]
Nyakio tells the story of her family’s upbringing and what her experience was like being a first generation American with Kenyan descent. [04:41]
The first five to seven years of Nyakio’s career in LA. [09:50]
The two pivotal moments that changed the trajectory of Nyakio’s career as an entrepreneur. [13:15]
The launch of Nyakio’s first beauty product. [21:29]
The reality of trying to survive as a small brand running on little capital. [27:14]
After her product was featured on Oprah and Ellen, Nyakio learned some valuable lessons about growing a business. [30:25]
Nyakio launched a successful brand self titled Nyakio, which was affected by the global pandemic. [35:25]
Thirteen Lune - a new, progressive vision for beauty retail in JCPenney. [37:00]
People buy into people before they buy into the product. [41:31]
Building generational wealth. [42:00]
Smart Money vs. Dumb Money. [45:17]
Nyakio’s three “go to’s” for success. [49:07]
TRUST YOUR GUT. [51:10]

Links

Nyakio’s Instagram: @nyakio

Follow Thirteen Lune: @thirteenlune

Follow Relevant: @relevant.skin

https://linktr.ee/nyakio

Key Points

Tracy introduces Nyakio and references her as the hybrid between two mega-baller entrepreneurs [00:21]
Using your maiden name and hyphenating your last name as a female powerhouse. [02:04]
Nyakio tells the story of her family’s upbringing and what her experience was like being a first generation American with Kenyan descent. [04:41]
The first five to seven years of Nyakio’s career in LA. [09:50]
The two pivotal moments that changed the trajectory of Nyakio’s career as an entrepreneur. [13:15]
The launch of Nyakio’s first beauty product. [21:29]
The reality of trying to survive as a small brand running on little capital. [27:14]
After her product was featured on Oprah and Ellen, Nyakio learned some valuable lessons about growing a business. [30:25]
Nyakio launched a successful brand self titled Nyakio, which was affected by the global pandemic. [35:25]
Thirteen Lune - a new, progressive vision for beauty retail in JCPenney. [37:00]
People buy into people before they buy into the product. [41:31]
Building generational wealth. [42:00]
Smart Money vs. Dumb Money. [45:17]
Nyakio’s three “go to’s” for success. [49:07]
TRUST YOUR GUT. [51:10]

Links

Nyakio’s Instagram: @nyakio

Follow Thirteen Lune: @thirteenlune

Follow Relevant: @relevant.skin

https://linktr.ee/nyakio

Previous Episode

56 - Fearless Feedback - Why It Works with Leadership and Relationship Expert Joe Hirsch

Dr. Joe Hirsch is an expert at helping individuals, leaders, and organizations design and deliver feedback without fear. He is now a renowned TEDx and global keynote speaker, but just seven years ago, Joe was living a very different reality in which he did everything he could to avoid receiving any feedback from anyone. Joe and Tracy’s conversation centers on what happens when we infuse our conversations and relationships with courageousness and how giving fearless feedback can really transform our future for ourselves and others. Feedforward and mirror holding are two juicy terms that you are going to want to remember and implement in all of your relationships. You are going to be on the edge of your seat when you hear about Dr. Hirsch’s groundbreaking methods and how we can all become better leaders, partners, parents, and all around better people!

Key Points:

Growth hurts and it is hard. [03:24]
Feedback starts before you even open your mouth. [06:58]
“Feedforward” is a new way of thinking that was first introduced by Marshall Goldsmith, and Joe Hirsch uses the science and strategy to turn people into problem solvers.
Joe Hirsch has used his practices of giving feedback with many major companies and corporations. [09:16]
Just five to seven years ago, Joe was not someone who practiced what he is now preaching. [11:46]
A very basic human truth we should all acknowledge to fix the future for ourselves and others
Mirror holding is the essential act of “feedforward” and can open up new perspectives one may not have had access to before. [17:37]
The goal of mirror holding is not to force change, but to provoke an insight. [23:09]
How leaders can use mirror holding as an act of empowerment
How the “forgetting curve” impacts our approach to giving feedback [28:37]
Feedback Wrap: A four-part plan to beautifully wrap up these conversations, to change the dynamics from fear to joy, from power to partnership, and ultimately, from accountability to agency [33:44]
Feedback is about relationships. [47:24]

Memorable Quotes:

“Growth hurts, growth is challenging, growth is painful. And growth pushes us past our boundaries.”

“It’s no longer about power, it’s about partnership. It’s no longer about ratings only. It’s about relationships. And it’s about activating people’s deepest desires for agency and for affirmation, and not pinning them to a past that they can’t change or control.”

“You can’t go back and change the past. But you can start right where you are and fix the future.”

Links:

Website: www.joehirsch.me

TEDx: https://www.ted.com/talks/joe_hirsch_the_joy_of_getting_feedback

Book: https://www.amazon.com/Feedback-Fix-Embrace-Future-Change/dp/1475826591

Podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0Hk8FyFkgiGrlocemkBLCd?si=7f3be9c5c618425f

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joemhirsch/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/joemhirsch

Next Episode

58 - The Ambition Paradox: How to Find Fulfillment at the Top with Transformational Architect Tracy Yates

Tracy Yates is a Transformational Architect and founder of Mindway, her mentorship practice for guiding changemakers, legendary leaders, and visionaries to boundary-less potential. Tracy shares with us her pathway to finding more purpose — no matter what stage of our career we’re at. She teaches us how to soar beyond limitations to achieve personal evolution and business expansion in this soul-stirring conversation. This episode is for you if you have reached what you consider to be “the top” — the pinnacle of your professional and personal goals that you’ve been striving for your entire life and you still find yourself thinking “Now what?!”. Tracy calls this the Ambition Paradox — that lost feeling many of us have when we’ve achieved all of the goals we’ve set out for ourselves but are still searching for true fulfillment. The answer lies in tapping into a higher frequency of success that’s found within ourselves.

Key Points

Introduction to the Ambition Paradox [1:00]
The epidemic of exhausted leaders [04:44]
How Tracy Yates got to where she is today and how she started out with bringing her solo marketing agency to a multimillion dollar company [06:51]
Tracy Yates experienced what she calls an “illumination” that set her on a path that transformed her life. [13:25]
Ambitious, successful people want freedom. [16:23]
Recalibrating your identity [18:43]
The six phases of the Ambition Paradox [20:20]
How to be balanced and not white-knuckle through life [22:35]
Tracy Yates’ unorthodox approach to healing [27:46]
How Tracy Yates defines success in her life perspective [41:06]
Choose to move to a higher frequency of life and you will see you will be taking huge leaps forward. [43:06]

Guest Links

Website: wearemindway.com

Social Media: LinkedIn | Instagram

Guest Bio

Tracy Yates is a sought-after Transformational Architect, Alchemist, and Mentor to thought leaders and changemakers who go beyond the bounds of limitations in business, in life, and within themselves. Tracy built an 8-figure business from the ground up marketing for the world's biggest brands like Google, Hulu, Disney, and Amazon, she’s a serial entrepreneur spanning two decades, an award-winning strategist, and a catalyst for boundary-less potential. She is a secret weapon to iconic leaders who create extraordinary lives, revolutionary and prosperous businesses with aliveness and fulfillment within their being. Tracy is known for her lightning-speed transformations that unleash even the highest achievers' dormant potency, brilliance, and potential that catapults remarkable expansion in their lives, income, and leadership.