IAM1283 – CEO Blends the Multi-Race Culture through Apparels

Growing up in The Bronx, NYC, the middle of three first-generation kids, Brittany Pogue-Mohammed Acosta's mother (of Irish and Scandinavian descent) and her father (who immigrated from Trinidad), both extremely proud people, ensured they knew what their kids were mixed with and that they took equal pride in both sides. Now that Brittany and her husband Daniel (Puerto Rican and Black) have a daughter of their own, Brittany found herself constantly searching for products for her books, toys, and apparel that depicted a variety of skin tones, that spoke to a child who is racially diverse-but all that she found were hair care products.

So, she decided to create what she was looking for herself: a site that caters to biracial and multiracial individuals; a community where all mixed-race people can share experiences, ask questions, and just talk about the unique issues they face as racially diverse individuals. The goal at Mosaic the Label is to enable mixed-race individuals to show pride in their mix, to feel seen, to be heard, and understood. At Mosaic, they want you to know that it’s good to live in the in-between-you do not have to choose a side. After all, it’s the parts that make the whole.

• CEO Story: Started in May 2021 when her idea of why not have a website that has mixed products for boys and girls. And it went way deeper as a movement, especially for mixed-race people.
• Business Service: Collection of Shirts for adults and toddlers with a New York attitude. Then the hoodies and other smaller items.
• Secret Sauce: The ability to communicate the actual experience that she had and turn it into products that create a mutual connection with her clients.
• CEO Hack: Breaking down big projects into smaller tasks and getting them done.
• CEO Nugget: Giving yourself credit. Celebrate your wins. Live in the present and not just in the future.
• CEO Defined: Being able to drive your own bus and get to sit where you want without asking anybody. Having a vision and executing it the way you want it. You’re in control of your destination/journey where you’re going.

Website: mosaicthelabel.com

Instagram: mosaicthelabel

Check out one of our favorite CEO Hack’s Audible. Get your free audiobook and check out more of our favorite CEO Hacks HERE

Transcription

The full transcription is only available to CBNation Library Members. Sign up today!

Please Note: Our team is using the AI CEO Hacks: Exemplary AI and Otter.ai to support our podcast transcription. While we know it's improving there may be some inaccuracies, we are updating and improving them. Please contact us if you notice any issues, you can also test out Exemplary AI here.

00:19 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO podcast.

00:47 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today at Brittany Pogue-Mohammed Acosta of Mosaic the Label. Brittany, it's great to have you on the show.

00:57 – Brittany Pogue-Mohammed Acosta

Thanks so much for having me.

00:58 – Gresham Harkless

Yes. Super excited to have you on and hear about all the awesome things that you're doing. But before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Britney so you can hear about some of those awesome things. Growing up in the Bronx NYC, the middle of 3 first generation kids, Britney's mother was of Irish and Scandinavian descent and her father who emigrated from Trinidad were both extremely proud people and ensured they knew what their kids were mixed with and that they took equal pride in both sides.

Now that she and her husband,  Daniel Puerto Rican and Black, have a daughter of their own, Brittany found herself constantly searching for products for her books, toys, and apparel that depicted a variety of skin tones that spoke to a child who is racially diverse. But all that she found was haircare products. She decided she decided to create what she thought was she was looking for herself a site that caters to biracial and multiracial individuals, a community where all mixed-race people can share experiences, ask questions, and just talk about the unique issues that face, that they face as racially diverse individuals.

The goal at Mosaic, the label, is to enable mixed-race individuals to show pride in their mix, to feel seen, to be heard and understood. Mosaic, wants you to know that it's good to live in the in-between, do not have to choose a side. After all, it's the parts that truly make up the whole Brittany, truly appreciate everything you stand for and what you're doing. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

[restrict paid=”true”]

02:23 – Brittany Pogue-Mohammed Acosta

I am super excited.

02:24 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, well, let's make it happen then. So I know I touched on it a little bit, but what I wanted to do is just kind of rewind the clock. Here is a little bit more on how you guys started which I like to call your CEO story.

02:33 – Brittany Pogue-Mohammed Acosta

Sure. So I actually started my company in May of 2021. So only a few months old. And it literally did start with me just looking at my computer and shopping around for items for my now four-year-old daughter. And, you know, cause they outgrow, they grow a lot, they grow all the time. So I have to constantly buy her new stuff. So I found myself just looking online and I found myself actually like trying and searching for specific products. And I would like to go and, you know, look through all the t-shirts and, you know, some of the t-shirts would depict little girls, but the little girls were either only one color or just two colors, one or one.

And I just literally, I remember thinking, what if there were a site that was specifically for mixed kids that had, you know, skin tones of all different, you know, shades of mostly brown, mostly tan. What if something like that could exist? I searched for it. There are some things out there, but not what I was looking for. So it didn't cross my mind till I did it myself until the idea didn't leave me. After a month and 2 notebooks full of ideas, I'm like, okay, I have to do this because if I would buy it and other people around me would buy it, others would buy it too. And it went way deeper than just a t-shirt or a hoodie. It is an actual movement.

It is, you know, there's a lot of feeling behind it. And mixed race people, tend to have the same experiences which is odd, but in very different ways. You know, A lot of mixed race people are born in an area where it's just one race predominantly. And so they're the odd ones out. And then you have people like me who are born into a melting pot of New York City. And yet you still feel like you're the odd person out because you don't fit in one of those groups. So it's been amazing. The best part of it has been the feedback from people, you know, especially kids who wear a t-shirt to school and, and they're actually able to kind of just live in who they are and what they are and not have to choose, you know, their parent side or their father's side or their mother's side.

They can just simply say, I'm mixed, I'm both, and I'm very proud to do so. I've never liked even thought like I'm my generation, you know, because my father was an immigrant, it's you find a job, you stick with that job, you work, work, work, work, like until you die. And so that was, that was what I was brought up with, you know, just get a job, go to school, get a job, and stay there literally until you die. Right. And if you make 6 figures, Oh my God, like that's the best thing ever. And my dad made 6 figures at 69 years old. And he was super, super proud, you know? So I did that same path and I made 6 figures at 21 years old, but I was, and I still currently work for a company and I, I do everything for that company.

And then as soon as I started my business, I'm like, it's a whole different feeling of you put the same level of effort and the same level of love, especially if you have a career that you love, but you're doing it for yourself and something that you built yourself. It's a whole different feeling. I could get obsessed with this very easily. Like I can see how people start to just multiple businesses because it just, never gets old. Having success that you've built for yourself and seeing it and being like, I did that. It's addictive.

05:44 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I know we touched on it a little bit. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more, so we could find out a little bit more about what's on the site, how you're making an impact, and how you're helping people to appreciate their complete list of who they are.

05:55 – Brittany Pogue-Mohammed Acosta

So I actually started out with different collections just for like my own mind, right? Okay, this is a collection, this is a collection. So we actually started with our first collection, which was for adults and toddlers, obviously because I have a toddler myself, so I wanted to make sure that she had something. And it was just very, our first collection, our introduction collection is very New York and it's very like attitude and it's in your face. So we have one shirt that is our bestseller, which I didn't expect it to be, to be honest with you, because it is so overt. And it's a T-shirt and his writing here. And it says, please tell me again how I don't look black, because I've heard this multiple times where they're like, oh, you're Trinidadian, you don't look black.

And I'm like, what do you say to that? And apparently, multiple people have the same thing. So I've been asked for an Asian, a Latinx like you name it, everybody. Like I said, you have the same experiences, just different. So we have that. We actually just launched our line of hoodies just a couple of weeks ago. So that's been exciting. And then, you know, we call ourselves the lifestyle brand because we do have other items like water bottles, tote bags, key chains, stickers, you know, smaller items where if you don't want to wear it on your body, you can still represent your pride, you know, in other ways.

So we have like a, for some reason, I didn't realize how many products I had until I counted them. So we have 43 products at the moment. So last year was a year. And this year, instead of trying to get as many products out as possible, I think I'm gonna switch and focus on people finding out who we are. Cause that's our biggest problem. And I feel like that's a lot of small business problems, especially one that doesn't start with a platform.

You know, I know a lot of social media people who have hundreds of thousands of followers, and then they create a business. That's a hundred thousand people that know about it. I have 0, I've never been on social media. So it's really about finding, you know, people who are like-minded people who want my products. That's what I'm going to be focusing on this year. And that's where like time, effort, energy, money, all that.

07:56 – Gresham Harkless

So do you feel like that is what I like to call your secret sauce? And this could be for yourself individually, the brand, the business, a combination of both, but do you feel like it's that ability to kind of, I guess, symbolize and articulate that, but at the same time, create the products and services that represent those conversations that probably need to be had? Do you think that sets you apart, Machinique?

08:16 – Brittany Pogue-Mohammed Acosta

I think so, to be honest with you, I really do. Because there are other businesses out there that are similar, but they're run by a parent of a mixed-race kid or something like that. I'm probably one of the first in my generation to be mixed-race, to be married to another mixed-race person, and to have a mixed-race child. The experience of being mixed-race is quite different from being of a single race. You know what I mean? Like I have lived it, I'm still living it to this day.

And so I'm raising my child too, especially in the New York environment, right? Where we have an added layer of police, right? Like just police in and of itself, you know? So I really do think that that is because I'm not selling a product. I have an experience. And, you know, when I speak to someone who's interested in what we do or what we sell, it's an immediate connection, immediate. And it's not like a salesperson or consumer connection. It is like an actual connection. And I feel like that is like the secret thing that I have that nobody else has, you know?

09:20 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. 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?

09:32 – Brittany Pogue-Mohammed Acosta

I am probably like most CEOs and most entrepreneurs and then the opposite as well. I still work my 9 to 5. I've had a career in publishing for many years now actually in college, so maybe like around 20. So I have a 9 to 5, which is very rigorous. I have a child, I have a house, a husband, 2 dogs, one of which was disabled. So I have a pretty full life. So but I'm also running a business. And one of the smallest things that I've done since starting this business is I never say this is too big a project. I always take that project and I have to break it down.

So I'm a big planner. So if I have some that's due in 4 weeks, I have to do at least one task every day because I only have like 2 hours a day to work on my business, I got to get that done. So I literally will take it down, write every single thing I need to do for that launch or drop or whatever, and I break it down and I do 2 tasks a day. So I know a lot of people deal, especially when you're an entrepreneur, you deal with, you know, overwhelm and just too much to do. I find that for me one of the simplest things that I could do is just break everything down and just do one task, 2 tasks a day. And then before you know it, you're done. You know what I mean?

And because all these things in business is they're very complicated, you know, people are like, Oh, 0, what do you do sell t-shirts? You have no idea what it takes to sell one t-shirt. You have no idea the time, the money, the energy, the effort, it's just like all the moving parts. So I find that is very, very helpful for me because I can't dedicate 8 hours, 9 hours a day to my business. I can dedicate one, maybe 2, if I'm lucky, at the end of the night, after everything is done. But if I know in my head, that I just have to do these 2 tasks, I can get it done, right?

So I do that a lot. That is just something that I've been doing and it's been helping. And I feel like no matter what your workload that day, if you feel like, oh my gosh, this is too much, if you just simply like take a step back, break it down and do literally one step at a time. You can get it done faster, and more effectively. And you'd be surprised how, how better your work is when you do it that way, as opposed to being like, okay, I just, it's, let me just do everything at the same time all at once.

11:46 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So would you consider that to be what I like to call the CEO nugget, which is a little bit more of that word of wisdom or piece of advice? I often say it might be something if you were to jump into a time machine, you would tell your younger business self, do you think it's creating that processes and those processes, would that be your nugget?

12:00 – Brittany Pogue-Mohammed Acosta

I think so, Yeah. Is it, is it just to do it right from the beginning? Like even, you know, it takes a little bit more time, but even just to write down, because there've been multiple times I'm like, how did I do this again? Who did I start with? How much was the price? How do I calculate this again? And now that I, you know, you know, like a few months after that, with like the first launch and the second launch. And I'm like, oh, I'm going to have to keep doing this over and over. It's going to be repetitive. It's the same thing over and over again. Then I decided to kind of do that, you know, kind of later, you know, a few months later, a few months down the road.

So I would definitely say that. But the other thing that I struggle with and I'm determined not to struggle with in 22 is giving myself credit. I feel like a lot of CEOs, entrepreneurs, and small business owners, it's like something they've worked so hard on something, that something good happens, but they work in the future. So they're already onto the next thing. So when that good thing happens, when they get, you know, some sort of, I don't know, hit on social media or hit, you know, publicity or somebody, whatever that goal is that you achieve, I feel like I'm like, great, anyway. And then I just keep going.

I never sit, even when I was in sales and I got a big bonus, I was never the one to buy anything fancy. The money would just sit in my account and I would never be like, good job, Brittany, you did a good job. Go out and treat, I never did that. And I feel like it can wear you down because you don't celebrate yourself. Good job, Brittany. Even just telling myself that because no one else will tell you it because you're a CEO of one, me. I'm gonna get better at that. And I think a lot of times people will shut their businesses down because they feel like it's not working because they're not getting what they want.

But you also have to see, look what you did. Look what you built. Just looking back and seeing instead of always looking forward. I live my life a month ahead, 2 months ahead, as all CEOs do, because you're planning for the next thing, but also split yourself in half and live in the now. Even this is a huge thing. And after this, I'm going to be like, you just did that. You just did an interview, which is nuts. And so I'm going to literally take 10 seconds, like, good job, good for you. Because I feel like I never do that. And if you don't do it, who else would do it for you?

14:10 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So Brittany, what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:20 – Brittany Pogue-Mohammed Acosta

Being a CEO means that I get to drive my own bus for myself. I can sit here and do what I want with my business, however I want. If I want to switch it, if I want to do it, I don't have to ask anybody. And I feel like a lot of people get into entrepreneurship and be like, I just want to be my own boss and do whatever I want. To me, that's not why I did it.

To me, it's that I have a vision and I want to execute that vision in the way in which I want to do it without anyone else telling me, here's what you need to do, here's how you need to do it in this timeframe, in this budget, blah, blah, blah. Like I don't necessarily like the freedom of it. I like how there are no restraints to it. And I can take it as far as I want, as slow as I want, as fast as I want, as small as I want. But I'm really in control of that, of my journey, of my destination, where I'm going and how I can pivot, you know?

15:10 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. Well, I appreciate your time even more. What I want to do now is 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 people can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

15:23 – Brittany Pogue-Mohammed Acosta

Awesome, thank you. So we are a website, and I'm an e-commerce-based business. So our website is mosaicthelabel.com. So you'll find all of our products on there and all of our social media handles follow the same thing. So mosaic, a label on Instagram and Facebook and TikTok and all the things. All the things.

Customers are like me. They're in the 30s range. They remember Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, and something. So we wanted to do something for those people where it's nostalgia. I love them. I wear them all the time. But I'm also a geek. So, apparently, there are other geeks out there like me. So it's been going really well. So if you guys want to check us out there, We would love to see you.

16:01 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. I'm a self-proclaimed professor geek as well too. So we'll definitely see you on the website. We'll have the links and information that shown us as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:13 – Brittany Pogue-Mohammed Acosta

Thank you too.

16:14 – 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.

[/restrict]