When she was younger, Miko Branch had a secret fantasy of opening a pink-decorated salon, although her parents had other career aspirations in mind for her. At age 25, Miko made that dream a reality, and ran her own salon out of the Brooklyn apartment she shared with her sister, Titi.  In 1997, with her sister’s encouragement, Miko opened a storefront salon despite her own fears about expanding. Though some of those fears may have been realized when the sisters later lost their first salon business due to what Miko calls some rookie business mistakes, a combination of their resilience, the influence of their strong-willed southern grandmother, Jessie Mae Branch, an aha moment while bathing her young son and a determination to create a hair care products that suited their textures and their lives would change the path of Miss Jessie’s granddaughters forever.

Today, as Co-Founder and CEO of Miss Jessie’s — one of the natural haircare industry’s leading brands — Miko Branch talks to Support is Sexy podcast about rookie mistakes, aha moments, the power of sharing secrets with your customers, the dangers of growing too quickly and how to recover from marketing missteps. Plus, she opens up about losing her sister, Titi, in 2014 and how that experience has affected her commitment to her own mental wellness and to spreading that message of mental health awareness to others. 

On this episode you’ll learn:

• • How to recognize opportunities.

• • Miko’s advice for entrepreneurs creating their own beauty products.

• • The advantage of BEING your customer.

• • The power of sharing the how-to information for your products.

• • The moment when you realize you’re on to something.

• • What it takes to to be prepared for distribution of your products.

• • The pitfalls of growing too quickly.

• • How” over-skuing” hurts your brand.

• • How to avoid marketing missteps and how to address them when they happen.

• • What Miko and Miss Jessie’s are doing to support mental wellness and mental health awareness.

• • The importance of giving ourselves permission to understand our feelings as women. 

• And the sometimes lonely journey of entrepreneurship. 

VISIT MISS JESSIE’S AT missjessies.com 

FOLLOW MISS JESSIE’S AT…

Instagram: @miss_jessies

Facebook: @missjessiesfans
Twitter: @miss_jessies

FOLLOW MIKO BRANCH AT…

Instagram: @mikobranch

Twitter: @mikobranch

RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Fashion Institute of Technology

Target

Sodafine

Ricky’s

Shea Moisture advertisement backlash

Miss Jessie’s: Creating a Successful Business from Scratch — Naturally by Miko Branch with Titi Branch (Amistad, 2015)

Mental Health Awareness Month

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[Music: “Easy” by SPCZ]

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