Serena Williams Made Me Tacos with Barbara Clarke Ruiz (S9, E1)

SUMMARY

This week, I'm speaking to Barbara Clark Ruiz, a multifaceted solopreneur known for her activewear designs and dog treat brand 'Lick You Silly.'

Barbara shares her journey from childhood in Portsmouth, Virginia, to designing for global brands like Ralph Lauren and Adidas, and collaborating with Venus Williams on her activewear brand Eleven by Venus.

During the pandemic, her dog treat business rose in rankings on the Amazon platform and this opened opportunities for growth and naturally, challenges that come with a sudden need to scale.

Emphasizing love and kindness, Barbara discusses her ventures in pitching reality shows, animated shorts, and working with Amazon's Accelerator for Black businesses.

Barbara works hard and plays hard. She also networks like a boss and takes care of her professional relationships. In our conversation, she also talks about personal experiences like meeting the Obamas, sharing a blanket with Star Wars creator, George Lucas in Oprah Winfrey's backyard and eating tacos with the Williams sisters.


TAKE AWAYS

-There are many pathways to a creative career
-Multiple streams of income are the way to go
-Easy does it - take your time and do what you love


LINKS AND MENTIONS

Barbara's Website - https://barbaraclarkeruiz.com
Barbara's LinkedIn Profile - https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbaraclarkeruiz/
Barbara's Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/barbaraclarkeruiz/
Lick You Silly - https://lickyousillypetproducts.com 
Pratt Institute - https://pratt.edu
Give Butter Fundraising - https://givebutter.com
Savannah College of Art and Design: https://www.scad.edu/

Transcript

Entrepreneurship Journey

Speaker 1 0:00

Hello and welcome to Shades and Layers. I'm your host, kunkunas Kosana Ritchie. My guest today is solopreneur and activewear designer Barbara Clark Ruiz. There are two parts to her career story fashion design and dog treats, and that's what we're talking about today. Let's start with the dog treats. In this space, barbara has a brand called Lick you Silly, with the cutest packaging you will ever see, as well as a diehard fan base. She will share the beginnings of the brand and how it gained traction on Amazon during the pandemic. On the fashion design side, barbara has her own design agency, bcsworldcom, and has just co -founded a new consultancy called Sports Culture Advisor. She has previously worked in France and Germany as an activewear designer for Adidas and later in the US with brands like Fila, new Balance, walmart, fubu and, more recently, kohl's. Her most notable achievement to date is a collaboration with tennis star Venus Williams on her sportswear brand, eleven. But hang on just a second. What does this have to do with Venus and sister Serena and tacos? Well, you'll have to hear the whole story. So here we go.

Speaker 2 1:10

Okay, so my name is Barbara Clark Ruiz. I am, by trade, an activewear design consultant, because I've been doing that for the last 20 years, but I think innately I've always been an entrepreneur. So I have a design studio called bcswirlcom and where I have worked with over 10 global brands doing design work. And I've also worked with a couple of clients doing sales, where I've closed a $40 million sale with Walmart. I've also closed a $3 million sale with Walmart. I've also closed a $3 million sale with Costco. I've also worked to revamp one of my clients' companies that was acquired and then I also helped. In addition to those other brands, I've also worked with Venus Williams to reboot her brand 11 by Venus.

Speaker 2 2:04

So it was funny because it was when I was working with Venus and I had this great idea to start a dog treat brand, because I had been frustrated with cooking for my dogs and they would get sick. So I used to have two Yorkies One was like three pounds, the other was like maybe seven and they were so small. So everything they ate it just made them sick. I just said to myself one day I want to start a dog treat brand. And so when I was working with her. I said to her hey, I'm thinking about starting a dog treat brand, and so she was like you should do it just to write.

Speaker 2 2:33

No, I said I'm thinking about starting a dog treat brand, and she said you should do it just to write yourself with smart people like me. That's what she does. And I said well, you can afford smart people like me, so I'm going to go to YouTube university because I can't afford smart people like me, and so I just really educated myself around the treat business. Didn't really know at the time. There wasn't a whole lot of minorities that were in the space, which I found to be really interesting in this multi-billion dollar business in the United.

Speaker 2 3:02

States Right, where everyone has a pet more or less only like three percent of minorities are in the pet space, um, so I created my dog treat brand, and so what this all means? And then I just recently created sport culture advisor, which I have a business partner and we advise um mid to large tier companies as it pertains to design, sales and marketing. And so what this all means to me is I have been very lucky to wake up every day and be able to love the work that I do, excited to get up to figure out okay, so what's going to be my next. And so I've been really spoiled by that, because I know there's a lot of people who aren't as lucky and they have to get up every day and go into a job that they don't love to do.

Speaker 2 3:49

So I don't necessarily feel like my work defines me, but I feel like my work is so much innately a part of me that it's just all encompassing. And I think that when you love what you do and it doesn't feel like work, you just you do it effortlessly and because you're enjoying it. It doesn't matter if it's an eight hour shift or a 10 hour shift, you just love what you do. So I just feel like, unfortunately, I'm always doodling. My brain is always trying to figure out what my next move is going to be, and and so that's really great fun.

Speaker 1 4:26

Where do you get the drive? What motivates you?

Speaker 2 4:29

I think the drive comes from, I think, once you you work with companies and you know how commercially viable your talents can be in terms of making those companies money, because a company isn't going to hire you or continue to hire you if you're not making them any money. That's just the bottom line. So I know that the kind of money that I've made for these companies and even in sales, the type of money I've made for clients and sales and all that involves, and I think I'm just driven by wanting to create that for myself. Not that working for someone is something bad it isn't but I feel like if I can make millions of dollars for a company, why can't I make it for myself? And I feel like that's where my drive comes from Just constantly feeling like I want to create something amazing for myself and my family that can allow us to just thrive and live life on our own terms.

Speaker 1 5:30

Absolutely. So you started Lick you Silly, which is the pet treats, Dog treats, so the dog treat company Lick you Silly. You started it about four years ago and of course it was to solve a personal problem that you had. But how did you know and when did you know that you have a business? How?

Speaker 2 5:53

did.

Speaker 2 5:53

I know I'm very ignorantly, because I feel like, had I known that it was such a small percentage of minorities that were in this space, I don't know if I would have went into it.

Speaker 2 6:04

I don't know if I would have went into. I don't know if I would have done it. I think I would have been content with just continuing to cook for my dogs and let that be okay. But I also knew that I wanted to create a passive or semi-passive income stream for myself and I felt like being able to pivot from fashion, because fashion is so fickle it's unreliable it is so I felt I wanted to be able to pivot into something that I could either do semi-passively or perhaps pivot into it and be able to, by obtaining the right, adequate funding, be able to do that full time and just leave you know fashion behind me. But we haven't quite gotten there yet. So I'm actually doing a crowdfunding campaign right now on a platform called Give Butter and I'm raising capital because we are sold out of it on Amazon again and our biggest issue is really keeping our product in stock, because it's really good product.

Speaker 1 7:06

So cute that artwork.

Speaker 2 7:08

My daughter did the artwork because she's an illustrator. She studied in Hong Kong her first two years of college. She went to Savannah College of Art and Design and then I designed the packaging around it. Because I'm one of these people that goes into a liquor store and I buy a bottle of wine because it's got a pretty label. I don't really drink, so that's what I do. So I felt if I could design a really pretty packaging that would stand out on the shelf, that the product inside was really incredible product and that was really important to me.

Speaker 2 7:42

It took me a long time to find a supplier that would sell to me, because my volume isn't that big. I was really. I had to sign a lot of NDAs, but I did manage to find a company that would sell to me and it's just been this alone. It's just been such a. It's been such a fun ride. But no, I didn't know that I could turn this into a business, because when I started it my ranking on Amazon was about 170,000, which meant it was 170,000 other brands ahead of mine before a consumer would see it.

Speaker 2 8:17

I was in conversations with Home Shopping Network and we were at the point where we were looking for showtimes, because they wanted me to create a tote bag, and the tote bag was going to come with two bags of dog treats, and so I did that. Oh, so I purchased like 3,000 pounds of dog treats because I'm like I just want to be ready, and the buyer got COVID right at the beginning and I'm like oof, that was before we really knew what was going on, and she had gotten COVID. I don't know what happened to her, but the person who came in after her was no longer really interested in dog treats. So I'm left with these 3000 pounds of dog treats and I was working for a company in the city. They had put me on furlough and I'm just freaking out in my head. Oh my God, what am I going to do? Life is just spinning on me.

Speaker 2 9:08

And so a lot of people ended up getting dogs, and so Amazon said they wanted to reserve their resources for essentials, and so they only allowed six categories of essentials to be shipped into their warehouse, and so dog treats and dog food was one of them. Now, I don't know, my brand must have just gotten the right algorithm, or what have you, I don't know, but all of a sudden we went from 170,000 in ranking to 15,000 in ranking in, literally the course of a few weeks. It was huge. It was a huge leap and just trying to keep up with the demand is such an incredible problem.

Speaker 2 9:51

It's a great problem to have, but it's a frustrating problem when you know that you've got a great product and I'm like I need investors. I need people who are just as passionate about dogs as I am, and we just put together our investor deck and now we're going to start shopping it around to angel investors. But we are desperately just looking for capital, because there's so much more, there's so many opportunities on the table for us, and so one of the big opportunities that I'm working on is a pitch for HGTV and it's a reality show, and I've been working on this pitch now for a few months. I've got a bunch of people that are working on it with me. I'm excited about that because I've already had two formal conversations with the producer that approached me. And then I want to do a series of animated shorts with my dog character, which I have. So I have a few of those up on my YouTube channel so people can check those out.

Speaker 2 10:51

But but yeah, I didn't know that it could be something viable until it started to be something viable. I think the thing about business is like when you start a business, you need to fail fast. So I don't know, like I was. Just I know how much people love their dogs. I had a lot of concern about the price of my dog treats. But it was selling and it still sells and people, people will come in and buy three, four or five bags of dog treats at $29.99. And I don't even think about it.

Speaker 1 11:23

Great, but what are your ambitions for for the brand? You want it to be an something for acquisition or you want it to be like a legacy brand Acquisition.

Speaker 2 11:34

Yeah, I want to build it. I want to build it the way I want to build it. I wanted to create a dog treat brand that was built on love and kindness and that was my whole thought process behind it when I had created it. And we have a little card that you randomly get in your dog treat bags and it's called lick silly with kindness, and so when you get one of these cards, it's got a little number on the back and you email us the number and then you have to do a random act of kindness and then put it on your social and tag us.

Speaker 1 12:04

Oh, that is so sweet.

Speaker 2 12:08

I want to create just a brand where it's just fun. During COVID we had a dance party with your dog and it was on Zoom. People came with their dog. We did it on Black Friday. The evening of Black Friday People came with their pajamas, with their dog's pajamas. We had a DJ, so we were like dancing and it was trivia. So I was asking for trivia questions and they won my dog treats. So that was a really fun event.

Speaker 2 12:37

I've also done an event called Puppy Pop Lictopia and that is I partnered with one of my retailers that's a puppy boutique and we went to the local boutique in my town and we invited people just to come and just love up on puppies, and I didn't really advertise it in a big way. And then the day of oh, let's just pass out some flyers because we just want to make sure people are going to come, we only had, I think about I don't know 10 or so puppies, so it couldn't be a lot of people, but when I started passing out the flyers, we had over a hundred people that showed up and it was so funny because then the little dogs were like falling asleep. It was just the craziest thing.

Speaker 1 13:16

So it's like and the dogs are like sleeping.

Speaker 2 13:20

It's so cute. So, yeah, I just love to do like really fun events and I just want to find the right partners that can allow me to continue to really get behind me and support them I mean I saw that you were part of the amazon accelerator for black businesses. Black business cohort.

Speaker 1 13:41

It's my second one. It's your second one? Do you build a network of investors within that ecosystem, or it's just a way to get a grant?

Speaker 2 13:51

Yeah, we got a grant but we also got a coach for like over a year. Ok, and then the coach will submit us for different things happening with Amazon, like I was submitted for Oprah's favorite things for the Christmas catalog that they submit you for different promotions favorite things for the Christmas catalog they submit you for different promotions. The cohort has been really instrumental in continuously pushing me out there in front of consumers in a really big way. So, yeah, it's been a wonderful asset to my business.

Speaker 1 14:21

Yeah, and how big is your team at Likuseli? Is it just you or it's me?

Speaker 2 14:28

It's me and it's my husband Bring them in, but basically it's just me just doing all the driving to the business. Before COVID we were the pet amenity for eight Kempton hotels, so that was a big undertaking. I had to send products to 50 hotels to just get the few that we got. And then I also we were both. We were voted best dog treat in Cosmo magazine, which is nice with our nutter doodles, so we've got like a few accolades. But yeah, it's, I'm a solopreneur just getting it all done, which is why I'd love to have adequate capital so that I can work with a company that could do more marketing for me.

Speaker 1 15:10

And you want to move in this direction, or you still want to carry on consulting for big brands in fashion.

Speaker 2 15:18

Well, that's just well the big brands. My design business is really what keeps the lights on. Yeah, so with my dog treat business I've been just pushed, funnily, all the money back into the dog treat brand, and that works well as long as I have a client. When I don't have a client, then I've got to pay myself a salary out of my dog treats, and so then it gets a little challenging. But I love design, and if there's a way that I can continue to do more of it and do this at the same time, I would love that that's great.

Speaker 1 15:50

That's quite a range, so to speak.

Speaker 2 15:57

I know there's no crossover, I get it. I get it.

Speaker 1 16:00

There's no crossover. Oh, I thought maybe there is. You found some kind of commonality.

Speaker 2 16:05

Maybe there could be like people like oh, barb, you should do like dog clothes and I'm like maybe at some point, but I just don't know.

Speaker 2 16:13

I don't know how I feel about dogs wearing clothes. I'm like I don't know if dogs should wear clothes. Yeah, but there's something cute. There's something really cute about it, because I did think about, like, how cute would it be to have a track suit, a jacket and a pant, and then your dog had a matching one. There's something that's really cute about that. I would do that. Or photos oh, you'd be surprised how people love, love, love to match their dog's outfits.

Speaker 1 16:38

Yeah, no, I've seen that. I've seen that it's just part of culture right now.

Speaker 1 16:43

That is correct. Hey, it's Shades and Layers, and my guest is activewear designer and design consultant, barbara Clark Ruiz. Let's now get into how Barbara became a successful activewear designer and the go-to person for brands looking for a refresher and others who want to reach new consumer groups or realize their ambitions as global brands. Reach new consumer groups or realize their ambitions as global brands. Let's talk about your design side of things and how you got into that in the first place. Were you a designer first, or you worked for a design company and then acquired the skills?

Speaker 2 17:18

Oh gosh, I got to go back a little ways to bring you forward.

Speaker 1 17:23

Oh good, I love this.

Speaker 2 17:26

Yeah, so I grew up in Ports of Virginia, which is a really small town in Portsmouth Actually, it's the same town that Missy Elliott came from and Pharrell Williams came from, virginia Beach. Oh my goodness, quite interesting people, and Wanda Sykes came from my hometown. What yes, my little towns.

Speaker 1 17:45

Anyway.

Speaker 2 17:47

I have always, when I was growing up and playing with my friends, we always had our own shop, our own little boutique, our little. This is make-believe. We always had our own little shop and boutique. So I think I was always driven to be an entrepreneur. And then I fell in love with sewing. So my mom got me a sewing machine that sewed with glue. So I was making my Barbie doll clothes. And then eventually I got a machine that was sewed with stitches and I said, all right, if I can make Barbie's clothes, I can make clothes for me too. So then I started. I got like a really simple pattern, like a simplicity pattern. My mom sent me to the girls club to teach me like how I could learn how to sew properly. I went to the girls club and really that's the part that really changed my life. I started to sew everything. I got a job at a fabric store so now I have more access to fabrics.

Speaker 2 18:38

And then when I became a senior, I ended up going to a high school in which I had to pick a major. So I selected fashion design and then my teacher became my mentor and so my teachers always say, oh, I wanted to go to Pratt. I wanted to go to Pratt and so I'm like I'm going to go to Pratt. So I applied to get in Pratt my first year and I didn't get in and I was like devastated because I believed in myself so much that there was no way that I wasn't not going to get in Pratt. That was just going to happen to me. And when I didn't get in I was devastated and I said, all right, barb, just keep moving forward, forward motion. That's all you can do. So I decided to go to a community college.

Speaker 2 19:23

I went to Tidewater Community College and I took a lot of liberal arts classes. So I applied to Pratt the following year and they took all of my liberal arts classes, which was great because the school was really expensive. My mom was a single parent, so I ended up not having classes on Friday. So where, whereas all of the students in my class, like you have to, you've got to take like your art history classes there's so many classes that you have I think I took like art history, but there's some other classes that you were required to take that wasn't a creative class.

Speaker 2 19:57

So by the time I got to my junior, my senior year, I only had fashion classes. So when you're in fashion school there is a senior show that takes place and that is your showcase for your talent and a lot of people our school would invite, like a lot of the industry professionals and people use it as a way to get their first job. And I figured I'm not moving back home to Virginia, like that was my main focus. I can't go back home. I've been in New York. I love it here. At this point, this point, like I was, I got engaged to my now husband and I just said I just I got to figure out how to stay here so I ended up. The requirement for your senior show was three garments and I did 12, so I got.

Speaker 2 20:46

I got from that I got a couple of awards. I also got a job offer for Ralph Lauren and from Adidas. So I didn't want to work for Ralph Lauren because he wasn't offering me any money and I was just tired of being a poor student. So I said I had no real interest in working for Adidas. But I said I'm going to go and work for them. So I went to work for the company and fell utterly in love with activewear and I wasn't going to be an assistant, I had my own category.

Speaker 2 21:17

I loved it and I just never wanted to leave. I used to do all-nighters at my office because I just I put on music. It was so much fun for me, I loved it, and so I ended up designing a lot of product that was doing a lot of volume for the company. And then one day my boss came to me and he said yeah, we're closing this office and we're opening up an international design office in France and we have one design position and it's yours if you want it.

Speaker 1 21:44

And I was like oh, my God, I felt French with a 69. Like how did?

Speaker 2 21:48

we get here and I went home and I told my husband they're offering me this amazing package. They're like tripling my salary, there's all these perks that go along with being an expat. It was amazing and they were going to get my husband his working papers and he was a civil engineer, so he was like let's go, so we went.

Speaker 2 22:06

So we moved to Europe. We moved to Fontainebleau, france. Our office there was amazing. It was the horse stable of a chateau in which they filmed movies. So it was beautiful and we had a private chef. We had a swimming pool, we had a tennis court and oftentimes during lunch we would take blankets out on the lawn and watch them film movies while we ate lunch. That the chef prepared for us Such a hard life.

Speaker 1 22:31

Gosh, I'm so sorry such a hard life.

Speaker 2 22:36

And then I'm so sorry, and it was only like 40 people in the office, but it was just. It was such a fun, just a fun office to be in. And then about probably about 18 months I guess a year or two years into that, um, they closed the office and they moved us back to Herzegovina, Germany, which that was really a hard one to make but nonetheless. So my boss said Barb, you can come back to Germany for three months and finish your collection, and then you can decide what you want to do. And, by the way, what is it that you're going to do? And I said I'm just going to go home and find another job. So he said why don't you stay as a consultant? And I said what do they do? And he says your same job, except you just come to Germany once a month. And I'm like, really, Everything's the same. Yeah, everything's the same, Just come once a month.

Speaker 2 23:19

I was like, oh my God, that is amazing. I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop. It never did. For five years, it never dropped. And so that was my commute. And then, after I got pregnant and I just like, I'm tired of the commute, I can't do this anymore. And I think I was almost ready to give birth and then one of my old colleagues called me from Fila. He said I'm headed up, peril, here at Fila and I want you to come and work with me. And I said, okay, but I'm not moving. He said you don't have to just come once a month. So I did that.

Speaker 2 23:49

And then it was from there that all these other brands you know my relationships with people in France just parlayed into me having the opportunity to work with these other brands.

Speaker 1 24:00

Yeah, I think that's amazing. You know, a lot of women of color tend to drop out of corporate America because they can't build the political, no social capital or all these relationships. It's very hard to advance without those connections. I could not. I know you found yourself in the right place at the right time, but it's also got to do with how you manage your relationships right.

Speaker 2 24:25

Very much so.

Speaker 1 24:26

What would you advise somebody who's looking to advance really in that environment? Yeah, what would you advise them to do in order to thrive in that environment?

Building Social Capital and Networking Strategies

Speaker 2 24:35

I feel like, honestly, so much of that when I look back. For me it was so divine, it was the perfect storm. Everyone in my office it was 40 of us and let's just say we were all under the age of 35. We're all around the same age. It was like our design team, I think, was eight people. Everyone else was like product development. There was five Americans that went there and I think that the thing that I realized is that your social currency is really important. Like you have to stay in contact with people. I'm one of these people that I might have like close to 6,000 followers on LinkedIn, but I will also randomly reach out to someone and say, hey, would you like to have a 15 minute virtual coffee? Because we're connected on LinkedIn, but I literally don't know you and I have been. I've been doing a lot of that because, that's, we don't network the way we used to network.

Speaker 2 25:37

Yeah, we don't network in person, so being able to jump on a call with someone that I'm connected to, that I think we might be able to add value to one another, has been a really powerful tool, like I've been really able to meet some incredible people. Yeah, that's already in my network. So many people swear by LinkedIn.

Speaker 1 25:52

Yeah, that's some incredible people. Yeah, that's already in my network. So many people swear by LinkedIn. Yeah, that's great yeah.

Speaker 2 25:57

It's tough because there's so many people and there's so many things that are a little aggravating about LinkedIn for me and I feel like when people are in a really great position they've got job security and things like that they're not necessarily on LinkedIn in the same manner. Things like that they're not necessarily on LinkedIn in the same manner. And I hate it when people will connect with you but as soon as you circle back and you want to have a conversation or you want to have a virtual chat, or you have something that you want to share or there's something that you're looking for, and then people don't reply, it's frustrating.

Speaker 1 26:30

Yeah, that is frustrating, okay. So build those relationships, maintain those relationships.

Speaker 2 26:36

Great, I think you just got to call and check on people. It takes time, it just it takes a lot of time. But yeah, you just you have to.

Speaker 1 26:46

Yeah, absolutely yeah, and you worked with Venus Williams, and then recently you had a private collection with Kohl's and once again your social capital came in handy.

Speaker 2 26:59

Yeah, and LinkedIn came in handy because the gentleman who hired me at Walmart is the same gentleman that hired me some 10 years later at Kohl's. And I just happened to be on LinkedIn and I'm like, hey, I think it was like a work anniversary or birthday, whatever, and I wished him well. And then he said, hey, what are you up to? And I started chatting with him and he said, hey, do you want to work for Kohl's? Yeah, okay, great, talking about. And then that is how the opportunity just came to the table, just like that.

Speaker 1 27:35

That's fantastic, and it was active wear, of course. Is this going to be an ongoing collaboration or is it just a once off?

Speaker 2 27:43

It was supposed to be a one off, but the collection did so well. They were really trying to cater to minorities and they only had 2% of minorities shopping there in the States, and so I increased that to 22% in about six weeks, and so we did two more collections afterwards, yeah, and then it just they did a mad exodus of a lot of people. They let go a lot of people and, of course, consultants go with that.

Speaker 1 28:14

Yeah, too bad. Yeah, it's shades and layers. Let's now hear about Barbara's new ventures and get into the rapid fire, where you'll find out what inspired the title of this episode. You also mentioned that you partnered up with someone for a new venture. What is that venture called, and what do you do?

Speaker 2 28:36

Yeah, so the venture is called Sport Culture Advisors and I partner with a former colleague by the name of Brian Mangione, and Brian has just as much sales experience as I do in design. So we thought, coupling together, we would be able to provide like a one-stop shop to companies that wanted to get into the retail space. So we offer design, marketing and sales and sales and we have been recently talking to manufacturers that have always been a manufacturer. They don't know how to create brands. They've never necessarily sold directly to a retailer, so we're helping manufacturers to build scale brands, create brands, to build scale brands, create brands and be able to help them to drive sales in that way.

Speaker 1 29:30

Okay, there's a lot of potential for such a business.

Building Confidence for Success

Speaker 2 29:35

I think there is a lot of potential. I think it is just a matter of us really pushing it out there, like we're still working on our website. He and I started this just on a whim. We worked together at Adidas and Fila and then Venus, and we would talk to different companies and a company would approach me and then I would bring him in to talk about the sales component, and then the company would approach him for sales and he'd bring me in for design and we're like why don't we just create a company and be able to do this for real? So yeah, so that's what we did, okay, great.

Speaker 1 30:09

There's a lot of talk about bringing manufacturing back to the US.

Speaker 2 30:16

I don't know because it's so expensive. It's so funny because people we shop, we love a bargain, but we don't understand what goes into getting that bargain and it's not here in the US, like the factories that I'm talking to. They have offices here but their main offices are in Asia and Turkey and Bangladesh and it's hard to do manufacturing here because the labor is so expensive.

Speaker 1 30:47

And materials for that matter, Absolutely.

Speaker 2 30:51

Got it.

Speaker 1 30:52

Okay, that brings me to the rapid fire. Oh yay, I like rapid fires, great. If you had to write a memoir today summarizing your life beautifully, what would you call it, and why?

Speaker 2 31:07

Oh, I would call it serena williams made me tacos, and she really did make me tacos.

Speaker 1 31:15

I love that yeah, why would you call it that?

Speaker 2 31:21

one, because I think it's a title that people would remember right that's the marketing part of me. But yeah, I was actually coming in town and Venus assistant called me. She's like yeah, can you stop off at the Publix because Serena's making tacos. I was like, wait what she needs what? Oh my God, this is amazing. So, yeah, we sat around a big old table and I ate tacos with Serena and Venus and a few other people. It was just like an out-of-body experience, but very familiar.

Speaker 2 31:47

I'm quite sure, but yeah, it's funny, I've had a conversation with a few ghost writers that would, because I'm not a writer, I'm a creative person. So I need someone to help me to write this book and I really want to focus it around confidence, because I think that, as a woman of color, people come to me. They ask me all the time how did you get to work with all those companies? And I said a lot of it was divine, a lot of it had to do with relationships, but I think a lot of it just was the audacity that I had to think that I could work for a company of that size. And I asked and I pitched, and so I just want to write a book. That's really about confidence, because I feel like oftentimes what's on the other side of fear is a success that we want. So if we could just get out of our own heads just for a moment to get comfortable with being uncomfortable, to get us to where we want to be, I think that could be something really valuable to someone.

Speaker 1 32:53

And who would you pick to play the lead character in the movie version?

Speaker 2 32:59

Oh my gosh, I hadn't thought about that. I don't know. I don't know who I would pick. I feel like she's got to be someone that is fun, a little bit goofy. Yeah, I have a really nice sense of humor because oftentimes I laugh at myself. You laugh and you cry. I don't have I don't quite have an answer for that one okay, that's also fine.

Speaker 1 33:24

How do you define success?

Speaker 2 33:26

by having the financial means to do what I want to do, when I want to do it, with the people I want to do it with.

Speaker 1 33:34

Nice, and I throw out the word sustainability at you. What comes to mind?

Speaker 2 33:39

first, sustainability. What comes to mind is the preservation of the planet that we live on. That comes to mind first, and doing things that can preserve, more so than what we've done, like in the past, to to preserve our planet, whether that means recycling or that means creating a sustainable apparel. If that means I know there's like a big trend right now with people buying secondhand clothes like it's just, it's so fashionable now, whereas 20 years ago it was like you buy secondhand clothing that meant you were poor, you couldn't afford, but but yeah, that's really what sustainability means to me.

Speaker 1 34:23

So if people want to work with you, just get in touch and, you know, get some wisdom from you. Where can they find?

Speaker 2 34:31

you. I think the best place to find me would be on LinkedIn. I know Barbara Clark Ruiz on my LinkedIn. That would be the best place. I also have my social media. I'm on Instagram. I'm'm on facebook. Instagram is probably better. I think I probably spend a little bit more time on instagram and that's barbara clark ruiz. That's my insta and I'm also on tiktok. I can send you like all of my links and things, so you can share them yeah, yeah, I think I had.

Speaker 1 35:03

Oh, I had one more question who do you admire the most and why?

Speaker 2 35:07

Who do I admire the most? Gosh, I think it's just so many people that I admire. I'd like to. I think the person that first comes to mind for me would probably be like Oprah. I know right now she's like not a favorite of a lot of people, but I've always admired whatever what she's been able to build and sustain and and she's she's she's always been an inspiration to me what I did okay, great great.

Speaker 2 35:45

And Michelle Obama. Let me see Michelle Obama. Yeah, I love Michelle. Yeah, I met her one time. She and Barack met them both. I met them both at Oprah's house, as a matter of fact.

Speaker 1 35:55

Oh, wow, yeah, oh, so you know, oprah personally.

Speaker 2 35:58

I went to her house. It was for a fundraiser for Barack Obama and we were in her backyard. We weren't in her house, but it was full of celebrities and I shared a blanket with George Lucas. That was really funny, and I can't remember if Melanie Hobson was there, but I remember George Lucas and it was a few other people, it was just so many. Like any celebrity you can name was probably there and yeah, it was a big fundraiser for Barack Obama and Montecito, where her home was.

Speaker 2 36:31

And so I actually met President Obama right before. He wasn't president at that point, but when he was walking into we had gotten there a little early. So when he was like walking into like her backyard, so to speak, it was like it wasn't anybody else around. So I'm like, let me go talk to him. So I went to talk to him and he shook my hand and I'm like this man has definitely got something special, like he was truly ordained to be president, like it was just like and it wasn't like he was talking to me and then looking around, like he was talking to me and and he was just, he was, was really kind. And then later I had the opportunity to talk to him and Michelle and she was lovely. She's like a person, did you feel like you've just known her forever and ever? Yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 37:18

That was really wonderful solid people yeah nice, so I think that's it for me. Is there anything else that you want to mention that maybe we didn't touch on?

Speaker 2 37:28

No, I can't think of anything other than I'm doing this crowdfunding campaign and I'd love for people to give, but it's a platform called Give Butter, which I think is hilarious. That's great, great name. But yeah, I'd love for people to make a donation. I also offer people, depending upon where they are, because our product is only sold in the United States. Because it is a unique product, I can't ship outside the US, but people get to try the product and they make a little bit of a donation to our cause, nice.

Speaker 1 38:00

And that is all from me this time around. Thank you for listening. Please go to the show notes for all links and mentions in this episode and, while you are there, please like and rate this podcast so that others can find it. Five stars would be amazing. Thank you, I'm Kutluana Skosana Ritchie, and until next time, please do take good care.