IAM1175- Naturalista Fills the Void of All-natural Pomade Products

Erma is a lifelong Brooklynite, nearly lifelong naturalist, and owner of The Pomade Shop. She created The Pomade Shop to help fill the void of all-natural pomade products. When she isn’t creating her healthy hair pomades, Erma writes about health and wellness.

• CEO Hack: Bublup- an all-in-one system
• CEO Nugget: Know how to motivate yourself, excavate yourself to find your greatness
• CEO Defined: Extention of faith, believing in yourself, and being courageous to show up yourself

Website: https://www.thepomadeshop.com/

LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/thepomadeshop

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Transcription

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00:00 – Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:31 – Erma Williams

I would say that I know how to motivate myself. And it's like what I like to call like inner mining, like just as like, you know, miners excavate for like all these natural resources and natural minerals.

00:58 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast And I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Irma Williams of the Pull Made Shop. Irma, it's great to have you on the show.

01:07 – Erma Williams

Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.

01:10 – Gresham Harkless

Definitely super excited to have you on as well. And before we jump into the interview, I want to read a little bit more about Irma so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Irma is a lifelong Brooklyn Knight, a nearly lifelong naturalist, and the owner of the pomade shop. She created the pomade shop to help fill the void of all-natural pomade products in which she isn't creating her healthy hair pomades. Irma writes about health and wellness. Irma, super excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:48 – Erma Williams

I'm ready. Awesome, well, let's do it then. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit. Here is a little bit more on how you got started, what I call your CEO story. Okay, well, I guess the pomade shop was partially born out of my own story. So like growing up, I've always had like thick hair, but it was always like, you know, it was like dry and it was like my hair was the point like growing up, it was like the kind that it broke goodie brushes, it was hard to be like maintain the moisture and all of that stuff.

So the one product that was always used for my hair was Pomade because it was that one product that softened my hair, sealed my hair, and styled my hair. And it was just like the all-in-one go-to. And it was like something like in a black community, a lot of people, they know about pomade, using it on their hair for those same purposes.

As I got older and got more into hair, I started going on the hairboards and I saw that people had the same affinity for pomade that I did, but what they didn't like was the mineral oil, the lanolin, the petroleum, all these unhealthy elements that they sit on the hair shaft but they don't penetrate the hair shaft and they can seal moisture in. But once you put them on the first time, moisture can't go back into your hair again. So they liked pomade, but they wanted a natural alternative. And I saw that nothing like that existed. So that's how the homemade shop was born.

03:06 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. I absolutely love, love, love that story because I think so many times we forget that, when we create something sometimes for ourselves, and as you said, sometimes the story of the business ends up becoming your story. And vice versa, they're so intertwined that we start to solve something that sometimes is in our lives. And we start to talk to people. We realize that they also are looking for something just like it.

So I love how you kind of did your market research for lack of a better term. And you came out with a phenomenal product that could help so many people. Yes. Awesome, awesome, awesome. So I know we touched on a little bit about what we can find and what you do to serve your clients with the pomade shop. Could you take us through a little bit more about that so we can learn a little bit more about what we can find on your site and everywhere?

03:47 – Erma Williams

Okay, so the pomade shop is comprised of growth pomades, moisturizing pomades, and then styling pomades. So the growth ones are the ones that I started with. We have the peppermint pomade, which was the very first one that I started out with. And my personal favorite, I don't know if you're supposed to have like a favorite for your product, but the peppermint is, it's mine. And it's like the best seller, but there's people say it helps with their, on their dry scalp, their, their itchy scalp. They, they use it on themselves. They use it on their, on their kids to style their hair, and peppermint is known to be better soothing.

The other bestsellers are Growth Fundamentals, Coffee Pomade, which is good for like dry hair, and if you also have hair that's prone to shedding, the coffee is good for that and it's also good for just if you want to add coffee to your hair regimen because in recent years it's been like this whole coffee craze. Going along with hair so it's good for that. And then the other one is the growth essentials rosemary pomade, which is good for people with thinning edges, dry scalps, and people who are just looking to decrease the brittleness of their hair. And then our moisturizing line, we have our Sarah moist conditioning pomade and a little moist conditioning pomade. Those names are partially derived from linoleic and linoleic acid, which is like another form of omega fatty acids that helps build our amino acid building blocks.

And the Sarah moist one is like, if you have like moderately dry hair, it helps to add moisture and it'll give you a light style like if you're looking for a wavy look, so you can use it as a styler as well. And the little moist is like for like the, the hair that I tend to have that's like chronically dry, the little moist is like is good for that. And then the last ones are the, the styling ones we have like the sweet simplicity hair styler and the sweet endogenous hair styling, and those are like really like butter based combined with some oils and those are used for like if you wanted to like smooth up your edges your braids your twists your on your locks if you like combing your hair for like a bun so you can use those after the moisturizing pomace to seal in moisture and style as well.

06:03 – Gresham Harkless

So that's what you want to say. Yeah, I appreciate you so much and breaking down each of the different telling your favorite as well too with the peppermint I don't want to I'm of course no expert or anything like that but when I guess might have you know dryer scalp, or be prone to that and a lot of times you use those products that have those chemicals in it, does that like to make it even worse? Could that like really,

06:25 – Erma Williams

I don't want to say damage is beyond repair, but I imagine that it makes it a lot worse to continue to kind of use products like that. Yeah, like if you have, like if you already have a dry scalp and you use those products with chemicals, it exacerbates the dryness. It does make a bad situation worse and you constantly find yourself fighting, struggling to why is my hair so dry or trying to get the moisture back into your hair, but not realizing that the reason the moisture is going from your hair is what you're using.

06:54 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And as I was reaching for that word exasperate yeah that's exactly what I was thinking is like you continue to think you're going to make the problem better, make the, the, the, your hair better at the end of the day, but you're using something that is making it a lot worse along the line. So you're just like, you're going deeper and deeper. It sounds like in a, in a, in a ditch, so to speak.

07:13 – Erma Williams

Yes, exactly.

07:15 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. So you might've already touched on this, but I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for yourself personally or the business or a combination of both, but what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

07:26 – Erma Williams

Like for the pom-like, it's like a whole bunch of like natural hair product lines, but like the pomade shop, like, you know, as the name suggests, it's like, you know, it's a line of pomades, like, you know, we only sell pomades, like, that's our primary focus. And it's good for like, the people who, who grew up with the, the pomades who, who like that, but they wanted a natural alternative.

So I say that that's our secret selling sauce, and as well as I would say good customer service, which is not that's supposed to be something that you do in business, but I would say that is well, like I know there's this online community, and they have a thread. It's called Customer Service Superstars, And we were mentioned there. So I would say those 2 things are our secret sauce.

08:11 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Yeah, I absolutely love that. You would think, you know, customer service should be something that every business has. But it is definitely not the case as we know from being business owners, but also on the other end being consumers as well, customer service seems to be like a lot of the rarity, unfortunately, but I just love that you've been able to kind of step into that.

I love that kind of understanding of the health aspect. I think so many times we forget about having healthy hair and being able to kind of take those steps and what that entails, I feel like it even overlaps into so many different aspects of your life. When you feel like, I feel like when I get a haircut, I feel like I have a better day and just things start to align. So I imagine that that helps out with that as well.

08:51 – Erma Williams

It really does. And yeah, like change it. And like it gives you a little boost, it uplifts you in some way.

08:57 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. So I love that you created something that allows people to continue to kind of build upon that and of course live that healthy lifestyle. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

09:15 – Erma Williams

I would say my hack is like, it's this app called Bubble Up, and Bubble up is like, it's kind of like a data sharing app, and it's an app that allows you to put your like video files your audio files your photos videos, all in one place. What I really love about BubbleUp is that if you use social media managers, they can access the files as well. And it's really like an all-in-one tool. So it's not like one place for your documents and then another place for your videos. It's like an all-in-one system that you can use. And I really love all-in-one things. So yeah. You said it's called bubble-up, right? Yes, like B-U-B-L-U-P. OK.

10:00 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. I appreciate that because I want to check that out as well to being able to kind of have everything in one place is absolutely huge. I think, you know, as you're juggling so many things and running a business, having, you know, the lack of organization can be another hindrance to you being successful. So to know that you have it in one spot. It definitely is a great hack.

10:19 – Erma Williams

Yeah, no, and it was also good for like web links because I know with me like it's like when I would see like you know an interesting site, I was always adding it to like my reading list and it just like you know, it just became like this whole long thing like my reading list got out of control. So when I saw a bubble up, I primarily got it for that reason because it was like it was a place where you can put all the web links and then I saw all these other features and it's like so this is great.

10:42 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I definitely have to check that out because yes, my reading list is pretty long as well too when you see something you're like okay I want to read it back later you have to make sure that you go back and do it which doesn't do as well.

10:52 – Erma Williams

All the lists when you want to look fine for something specific it was like where is it?

10:56 – Gresham Harkless

I know I saved it but I can't remember where so I definitely have been there So I have to check that out. And so I want to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something if you were to hop into a time machine, you would tell your younger business self.

11:12 – Erma Williams

I would say that, I would say know how to motivate yourself because I know like nowadays we, we have like, you know, like different groups in different communities and I feel like, you know, just being online and having social media presence has added to that and I feel that that's very important and that should never go away. But my nugget would be knowing how to motivate yourself And it's like what I like to call inner mining, like just as like, you know, miners excavate for like all these natural resources and natural minerals.

Sometimes we have to go and excavate and mine within ourselves to find our greatness, our ah-ha factor, our light. So as much as you have your group or your tribe that you hone inspiration from, you have to know how to do that for yourself because there will be certain times in business being an entrepreneur, it's going to take your strength to get you out.

12:06 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, I love that. I love that excavating metaphor as well too, because I think it makes so much sense. I've always, and I think this might be a quote where people have said that the greatest knowledge is knowledge of self and to be able to kind of understand yourself, understand what, you know, how you're wired and how to kind of, you know, provide motivation for those wires.

Like when you're maybe not having a great day or a great week or a great month, like how do you trigger, how do you get yourself back to where you need to be because you know that it's a marathon and you need to kind of continue to kind of show up every day. Absolutely. Awesome. Well, now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Irma, what does being a CEO mean to you?

12:48 – Erma Williams

Well, for me, being a CEO is an extension of faith an extension of believing in yourself, like, knowing what, your purpose is. Or if you may be in a place where you're confused about it, like, you know, figuring out what it is. And once you figure out what it is, just be courageous to show up for yourself.

13:10 – Gresham Harkless

Yes, I love that definition. And I think especially that part that you mentioned about showing up for yourself because I think when you have that faith and you start to understand that, it's kind of taking those steps and understanding that not all the steps are gonna be aware to you. Like when you take that first step and part of that is, the faith and being able to kind of continue on and on and on, like we mentioned amongst the less than ideal days that might come across to continue to kind of take those steps in faith so that you can get to where you want to be and not let yourself down and doing that.

13:38 – Erma Williams

And yeah, just being open because like, if you're not sure like what your path is, like just being open because I feel like a lot of times like people have this ideal in their head like, you know, I want it to be this and I want it to be that but as they're actually going along the steps they're seeing that what is is not what they had planned in their mind and that can be scary for them. So I just say that as you go along the path, be open to what's actually revealed to you, and don't like to be angry about it.

14:09 – Gresham Harkless

That's so powerful. And I say so often that we often can get attached to the how instead of the why. If we understand the why, why we're doing it, our passion, our gifts, as you said so well, and have that faith towards that, we understand how we're going to do it sometimes will evolve and change and to be open to that if we're still in alignment with our mission and how we're going to solve it because it might come in a different packaging, but it doesn't mean you're not making the same impact.

14:34 – Erma Williams

Exactly. Exactly.

14:36 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Well, Irma, truly appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time as well. What I wanted to do was just pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best they can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

14:51 – Erma Williams

Well, I would just say like, I would just like to just reiterate one more time, like, you know, what we're going through, like, you know, just showing up for yourself, believing in yourself. Don't be afraid to take the first step to start. And if it's like, you know, if it seems overwhelming to you, because a lot of times that's what we do, we like we play things out in our head instead of acting it out. But once we take that first step, we see it's not as overwhelming as we thought it would be.

And for that stuff, I like the, like in psychology, they call it like the chunking method when you break it into like smaller pieces and like, you know, you do that and you yield more results that way. So I would always like to reiterate that because so much of it really is like a cathartic mental process. As for how people could find me, I'm the poem made shop on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, the poem made shop underscore on TikTok, and my website is the poem made shop.com.

15:47 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Well, I truly appreciate that. We will definitely have the links and information in the show notes. I love and appreciate you talking about, you know, I mentioned the health and wellness piece, that wellness piece of running a business of life, in general, is something we sometimes kind of, you know, jump over and understand that sometimes when you have very ambitious goals, the best way to do it, the best way to be an elephant is one bite at a time.

So how can we chunk that? How can we get that to where we are now and understand that there are ebbs and flows in life as there are in business and not beat ourselves up about that? So I love that you mentioned that. I love that you, you know, you appreciate that as well. And of course, you know, I appreciate your time today and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:24 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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