It all started with a wish for a satin-lined beach hat. When Rachel Osborne could not find one on the market, she set about creating her own. She spent 2023 researching and testing her concept for luxury satin lined, and adjustable hats that would offer "no-frizz" experience for curly and kinky hair. As a result, her brand RAINA was born.
The creation of RAINA is very much tied to Rachael's own natural hair journey, which resonates with anyone who's ever felt the pressure to conform to so-called conventional beauty standards. It took a while for her to accept and celebrate her own natural curls. Creating this line of high-end hats is a testament to where she is on her natural hair journey: she now sees her curls as the embodiment of elegance and beauty. She also believes that it is time for curly hair to be included in the development of all luxury hair products.
As every entrepreneur will attest, the entrepreneurial career and lifestyle choice is an opportunity for personal growth, and for building deep community bonds. Rachael shares her own learning curves and mindset shifts that have made her successful so far. She also offers some advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.
LINKS AND MENTIONS
- Jamie Kern Lima - Beauty entrepreneur and former founder of IT Cosmetics
- Psycho Cybernetics by Maxwell Multz
- Purple Cow by Seth Godin
- Naptural85
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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to Shades and Layers.
00:00:05
I'm your host, Kutwanos Kosanarichi, and today we are
00:00:08
talking luxury hats for afros and curls.
00:00:11
Rayna is a brand new hat company founded by
00:00:15
Colorado-based entrepreneur Rachel Osborne.
00:00:18
The former software engineer knew that she was onto something
00:00:22
when she surveyed her community to find out what was missing by
00:00:26
way of accessories for curls.
00:00:28
Rachel launched her adjustable luxury hat range at the end of
00:00:33
2023 and has since collaborated with some notable brands in the
00:00:37
hair care space.
00:00:38
We get into all of that during our conversation, and she also
00:00:42
talks about some of the surprises and affirmations she
00:00:45
has received along her journey so far.
00:00:47
She talks her entrepreneurship curriculum as well as her vision
00:00:51
as a founder.
00:00:52
Without further ado, here is Rachel Osborne.
00:00:56
Speaker 2: I'm Rachel Osborne.
00:00:58
I'm the founder of Reina, which is a satin-lined hat brand for
00:01:03
women with curly and textured hair, and so my brand was
00:01:07
inspired one by my own natural hair journey, and its mission
00:01:10
behind it is to help other women of color love their hair and,
00:01:15
you know, have with through a brand that really celebrates it
00:01:18
and all of its beauty.
00:01:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, great.
00:01:20
And why didn't you create a hair product in the traditional
00:01:24
sense?
00:01:24
Great.
00:01:25
And why didn't you?
00:01:26
Speaker 2: create a hair product in the traditional sense and go
00:01:30
for a hat?
00:01:30
That's a great question.
00:01:33
I guess it was a couple of different things that went into
00:01:34
me deciding to create this brand .
00:01:35
I'd actually had the idea for a satin lined hat a few years
00:01:38
back, before I even started Reina.
00:01:41
I think I was walking on the beach and I had I I love big
00:01:45
beach hats and I usually have to pull my hair back in order to
00:01:48
wear them because my hair's poofy and so I was just thinking
00:01:51
like, oh, it'd be really great if someone made this like satin
00:01:53
line so it didn't like snag my hair and I could wear my hair
00:01:56
out yeah, yeah, yeah, and then, um kind of fast forward a few
00:02:01
years.
00:02:01
I started to really appreciate the power of sharing my natural
00:02:05
hair story and kind of the positive impact that that had on
00:02:07
other people and realize that it's not.
00:02:10
This wasn't just something that I went through in terms of
00:02:12
struggling to learn to appreciate and love my hair the
00:02:16
way that it is.
00:02:16
Um, it's something that many women work through and kind of
00:02:21
through looking through that lens and also seeing how, you
00:02:25
know, a lot of brands don't necessarily cater towards our
00:02:29
hair or don't think of the needs of our hair in terms of, like,
00:02:32
you know, there are a lot of hat brands out there, sure, but, um
00:02:35
, you know, like, I never would have thought to wear a wool hat,
00:02:38
for example, sure, yeah, yeah, that's like a nightmare.
00:02:42
Yes, exactly like yeah you understand, it's the frizz, the
00:02:47
like dryness like it's so good all the moisture, just
00:02:50
everything.
00:02:50
I was like there's no way, um, and so I felt like none, no
00:02:53
brands had really put our hair first really and.
00:02:57
I thought that could be by making a brand that puts our
00:02:59
hair first.
00:03:00
That's like almost a testament to how we should be looking at
00:03:02
our hair like it's it's royal it's.
00:03:03
It's something that a testament to how we should be looking at
00:03:04
our hair Like it's it's Royal it's.
00:03:05
It's something that deserves to be put first in the product
00:03:08
space.
00:03:08
And so I guess, between those two things, I was like this
00:03:12
could would be a great way to kind of spread my message and
00:03:15
empower others and then also, just you know, have product
00:03:18
that's functional and practical, that people like too.
00:03:21
And I felt like there was a gap in the market because I started
00:03:25
seeing some brands that were creating satin line products,
00:03:29
like you know, satin line beanies or sweatshirt, semester
00:03:32
thing, yeah, more casual products, and I love that too,
00:03:36
and I just I was thinking how, you know, it'd be cool if we had
00:03:40
more options and things that were maybe a bit like higher
00:03:42
fashion, or just like you know things you might wear out like
00:03:44
higher fashion, or just like you know things you might wear out
00:03:46
on a date or like you know, I mean you can wear on a date, but
00:03:49
you know.
00:03:51
Speaker 1: I get you, I get you, but you know, but also the
00:03:53
emphasis on luxury.
00:03:54
Can you talk about what makes it products here?
00:03:59
Speaker 2: yeah.
00:03:59
So actually that's a great um segue there, because because I
00:04:02
saw so many more casual items casual and also unisex I felt
00:04:06
like there weren't enough things that were kind of more like
00:04:09
luxury feel, kind of showing that our hair can be luxury
00:04:14
high-end too, and I just noticed that narrative in general right
00:04:17
in our products and also, especially on social media, that
00:04:21
, like you, our natural hair is fine most of the time, but then
00:04:25
for like fancy events, it's like , oh, that's when you want to
00:04:28
straighten it.
00:04:29
Speaker 1: And.
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Speaker 2: I kind of wanted to break that narrative a little
00:04:32
bit.
00:04:33
And it's not that I'm, like you know, against straight hair
00:04:36
extensions or anything, but it's just it's like where is it
00:04:38
coming from?
00:04:38
Like, are you wearing your hair a certain way because you just
00:04:40
like how it looks and you're like you know you love the feel,
00:04:43
that's great.
00:04:44
Or is it because you want to hide something and or maybe
00:04:48
you're?
00:04:48
You don't feel like you're accepted with your hair the way
00:04:51
it is.
00:04:51
That's like the negative driver that I'm kind of more focused
00:04:54
on changing, I guess.
00:04:56
And yeah, and so I felt like there, like I wanted to have
00:05:01
something that celebrated all the different hairstyles that we
00:05:04
wear in a more like higher end, formal, luxury field, and so
00:05:09
all of my products, some of it or part of it, is just the
00:05:11
quality of them.
00:05:12
So, this is a person wool.
00:05:14
There's no like plastic or anything in it, and it's slow
00:05:18
fashion, right.
00:05:19
So like a high quality wool hat should last anywhere from like
00:05:23
five to 10 years.
00:05:26
So it's an investment Wonderful if you take care of it and, like
00:05:29
you know, keep it clean and all that stuff do you only make
00:05:32
wool hats or do you work with other materials?
00:05:34
I work with other materials too, so I have two wool hats.
00:05:37
I have this one this is a fedora.
00:05:38
I have a boater hat, which is it's like a beige color, and
00:05:43
then I have a straw hat, and that's that was actually at
00:05:46
first was going to be my only product, but I was like, let me
00:05:49
try some other like wool hats too right yeah um, and so the
00:05:53
straw hat.
00:05:53
it's wide brimmed, floppy, great for, like you know, sunny days
00:05:57
or going out on the beach.
00:05:58
Yeah, and that one I've like.
00:06:00
I have seen some wool hats that have a satin lining but aren't
00:06:03
like adjustable, and they're not quite the same as mine, but
00:06:06
I've never seen a straw hat or anything like the one that I
00:06:08
sell before.
00:06:09
It's raffia straw, so it's natural fiber, and that one too
00:06:14
will probably last anywhere from two to five years if you take
00:06:17
good care of it.
00:06:18
So, yeah, it's the quality, the longevity, it's an investment.
00:06:23
Speaker 1: And there's a keyword word that you mentioned they're
00:06:25
adjustable, huh yeah yeah.
00:06:29
Speaker 2: So, because a lot of us change our hairstyles often,
00:06:31
I was thinking like you know, if I, if I did want to straighten
00:06:34
my hair for a day or something, you know, like the, it's not
00:06:37
going to be as voluminous, right ?
00:06:38
And so what if the hat doesn't fit anymore, because now it's
00:06:41
too big?
00:06:42
and so because of that I was thinking it would be cool to
00:06:44
have something that could kind of allow the hat to adjust to
00:06:47
our changing hairstyles and so many of us go from braids to,
00:06:50
you know, silk press, to fro or whatever, and so the inside it
00:06:55
has like a drawstring, so you can, you can adjust it down, and
00:06:59
right now I just have one size for all of the hats, so one size
00:07:05
fits most.
00:07:05
And then if you have a small head or you change your
00:07:07
hairstyle, you can change the fit, but yeah, thanks for
00:07:09
bringing that up.
00:07:11
Speaker 1: Yeah, so this brings me to manufacturing.
00:07:14
But you've come on the market with something which is quite
00:07:17
different and isn't out there at the moment.
00:07:21
So how did you go about finding people to make this product?
00:07:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was definitely tricky, especially as
00:07:28
a small business.
00:07:28
I'm bootstrapping everything, so that definitely had some
00:07:33
limitations in terms of, you know, the order sizes I could
00:07:37
make in the beginning, like I can't, I couldn't, just go and
00:07:40
order for a thousand hats.
00:07:41
I had to kind of start out with small orders, and I'm still
00:07:43
doing that.
00:07:44
And so one finding a supplier that would accommodate that,
00:07:47
because a lot of them won't customize products if you're
00:07:50
doing like under you know a certain quantity, like under a
00:07:55
hundred or under 50 or what have you.
00:07:57
And so that was the first obstacle, just finding someone
00:07:59
who's willing to work with me, who could customize something
00:08:03
with a small quantity.
00:08:05
And then the other part of it was helping them and this was
00:08:07
more on me just being able to articulate exactly what I needed
00:08:11
.
00:08:11
And so the supplier that I work with, it was kind of
00:08:14
interesting because they they didn't understand at first why I
00:08:19
needed a satin lining Cause.
00:08:23
They were like, not really that's not common, like, are you
00:08:25
sure you want?
00:08:25
Speaker 1: that and I was like yes, not common.
00:08:26
Are you sure you want that?
00:08:27
Speaker 2: And I was like, yes, I know it's unusual, but yes, I
00:08:32
want that.
00:08:32
And then the whole thing with the sizing too, because I think
00:08:33
the average woman's hat size is like a 57 and this is a 59.
00:08:36
And then my other wool hat is also 59 and the straw hat is a
00:08:41
61, which is normally that would be, like you know really big.
00:08:45
But, it's like we have a lot of hair, we need a larger sizing,
00:08:48
and so I had to kind of articulate that, and so a lot of
00:08:51
it has been education like educating people through my
00:08:54
brand, which is something that I wasn't expecting to do, but
00:08:57
right, that's interesting, and do you find that there are quite
00:09:01
a few?
00:09:10
Speaker 1: I?
00:09:11
Speaker 2: mean, did you have options in terms of those
00:09:13
manufacturers?
00:09:14
A small batch, so to speak, or you just had to zone in on this
00:09:16
one.
00:09:16
Yeah, right now I just have one manufacturer.
00:09:17
They're only what I could find who would work with me at that
00:09:19
quantity size.
00:09:20
But I'm hoping in the future I can, as I scale up I'll have
00:09:22
more options and you know can play with different
00:09:25
manufacturers, great, great.
00:09:27
Speaker 1: And in terms of materials, sourcing the
00:09:30
materials, do you do that yourself or it's supplied by the
00:09:33
factory?
00:09:35
Speaker 2: No, it's supplied by the factory.
00:09:37
Yeah, one thing that I have been trying to work on, though, is I
00:09:42
think you mentioned sustainability yeah, yeah, yeah
00:09:45
yeah, and so when it comes to like packaging and shipping
00:09:48
things out to my customers, that's one thing that I thought
00:09:52
about really intentionally in the beginning was how can I make
00:09:54
it so that this is, at the very least, all recyclable?
00:09:57
And because, for example, a lot of boxes, if they have plastic
00:10:00
tape, like that tape's not recyclable, you have to take
00:10:02
that off before it can actually be recycled.
00:10:04
And so, um, even though it was a harder option, I, you know,
00:10:09
kind of went through, did the extra work to make sure all my
00:10:12
packaging is recyclable, so I use paper tape which I don't
00:10:15
know if you've ever used water activated paper tape.
00:10:18
Speaker 1: It's a bit of a pain but it's appreciated when I see
00:10:23
it on packaging because it doesn't put that extra burden on
00:10:26
you as the customer right, which is what prevents us from
00:10:29
being, you know, more conscious of how we consume things Exactly
00:10:34
.
00:10:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah.
00:10:35
So just thinking about that going forward right now my
00:10:37
suppliers, when they send me inventory in bulk, it does have
00:10:40
plastic in the packaging, and so that's something that I'm going
00:10:42
to be working with them on moving forward is for like
00:10:45
future orders, trying to see if they can omit the plastic or use
00:10:49
like paper or something else for supporting it yeah, it's so
00:10:52
hard to break these cycles, isn't it?
00:10:54
yeah, it is yeah, but we have to think about it because I know
00:10:58
the fashion industry, I think, is one of the top yeah.
00:11:02
I'm trying to be really conscious and intentional with
00:11:05
my choices, yeah.
00:11:06
Speaker 1: Yeah, and I like that .
00:11:07
You are a slow fashion brand.
00:11:09
You know you're not concentrating on volume, so do
00:11:13
you sell any kind of bulk to anybody, or you know?
00:11:17
Yeah, you work to order.
00:11:19
Speaker 2: Not yet.
00:11:20
Yeah, right now I just everything's through my website.
00:11:22
I'm hoping that in the future, yeah, yeah, yeah, right now I
00:11:25
just everything's through my website.
00:11:26
Um, hoping that in the future, yeah, maybe I can wholesale to
00:11:27
boutiques or that sort of thing.
00:11:28
But right now it's just yeah, yeah, this is to consumer, which
00:11:30
is kind of cool too, because then I feel like I get to build
00:11:33
that connection with my customers more too, and I like
00:11:37
the impact of that.
00:11:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think luxury brands are lucky in that sense
00:11:42
that you know your customers can tell you what works and what
00:11:44
doesn't work, because they're so invested in the product.
00:11:47
Right, it's a yeah, definitely.
00:11:49
Speaker 2: I've already gotten some feedback.
00:11:51
Some people have mentioned they'd love to see like a red
00:11:53
fedora product development free.
00:12:01
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's fantastic.
00:12:03
This is shades and layers, and today we are speaking to rachel
00:12:08
osborne, a founder of reina, a luxury adjustable hat brand that
00:12:13
centers curly and kinky hair inspired by rachel's own natural
00:12:18
hair journey.
00:12:19
This entrepreneurial venture is also about making an impact on
00:12:24
the lives of others.
00:12:24
Up next, we get into where Rachel finds herself along this
00:12:28
journey and where her brand fits into their natural hair care
00:12:31
space.
00:12:32
You mentioned that this was influenced by your hair journey.
00:12:35
Can you tell me where you are in terms of your hair journey
00:12:38
now?
00:12:40
Speaker 2: So I started when I was like little, like in middle
00:12:43
school, because growing up, all the women in my family we
00:12:47
straightened our hair or had relaxers.
00:12:49
I never had a relaxer, but I always straightened it because
00:12:52
that was just kind of what we all knew in terms of how to take
00:12:55
care of it, in terms of what we thought made it manageable was
00:12:58
OK.
00:12:58
We got to straighten it and that makes it look neat, and so
00:13:01
a lot of it was like unlearning that YouTube was like a great
00:13:05
resource, yeah, so unlearning well, unlearning that and
00:13:10
learning how to actually take care of my hair, but then also
00:13:13
learning how to accept it I think that was the hardest part
00:13:17
for me was, you know, I definitely had a lot of like
00:13:20
limiting beliefs and fears around how people would think of
00:13:23
me if I wore my natural because that's just natural, because I
00:13:26
guess culturally that's just not how I grew up, and so yeah, I'd
00:13:31
say now I'm definitely a much more positive place in terms of
00:13:36
the way I look at my hair and the way I care for it, and I've
00:13:41
kind of gotten to a place where I'm like I love my hair and if
00:13:44
someone else has a problem with it, that's on them.
00:13:47
Speaker 1: Absolutely yeah, yeah .
00:13:50
Speaker 2: But it's definitely.
00:13:50
It's been a long journey to get to where I am now with that
00:13:54
mindset.
00:13:55
Speaker 1: Do you think it's influenced by the products that
00:13:57
are available in the market now?
00:13:59
Or you know, I know YouTube was quite instrumental, but you
00:14:03
know you can watch all the YouTube that you want, but there
00:14:07
are other layers to.
00:14:09
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
00:14:10
Yeah, I think it's multifaceted .
00:14:12
It's the products that we see around us, it's like the
00:14:15
advertisers, the marketing, everything in media and then
00:14:17
also just our community, Because , like I mentioned, my family as
00:14:21
a whole we didn't really know how to take care of our hair and
00:14:24
I think not having those like in person role models who you
00:14:29
know could show an example of someone wearing their hair
00:14:31
natural, confidently, definitely made it harder, and so that's
00:14:35
part of it.
00:14:35
And then, like I said, media or even just like the
00:14:39
advertisements we see for products, if those are kind of
00:14:42
showing that in order to be a beautiful Black woman, you have
00:14:45
to have straight hair.
00:14:45
That's like, especially as a young girl, it's very
00:14:49
impressionable.
00:14:50
Even if it's not overtly stated, those messages are absorbed and
00:14:56
so if we're seeing that our whole life.
00:14:58
It's like what is that?
00:14:59
What is that saying about me if I don't wear my hair straight,
00:15:02
right?
00:15:03
So, yeah, I think that, um, it's definitely gotten better in
00:15:06
terms of the products that we have now.
00:15:08
Um, and I remember I don't know about you, but when I was
00:15:11
younger, we just had like do rags or like scarves to sleep in
00:15:15
.
00:15:15
But now I have like all these different colored bonnets.
00:15:18
Speaker 1: Oh, there's, everything.
00:15:19
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's fun it is.
00:15:22
It's fun Like for me.
00:15:25
I feel like it tells me that my hair is thought of and it's
00:15:27
appreciated more just in general , which I think is a really
00:15:31
beautiful thing, but absolutely in general, which I think is a
00:15:34
really beautiful thing, but absolutely I think the products,
00:15:37
the range of products that we have available to us, how the
00:15:38
advertising speaks to us, all of that plays a role for sure.
00:15:42
Speaker 1: Where do you think Reina fits into the whole
00:15:43
landscape of this natural hair journey?
00:15:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, good question.
00:15:47
I want to say I know about the name of my brand too, exactly,
00:15:51
yeah, so, reina, if you know Spanish, it kind of sounds like
00:15:57
the word queen in Spanish, right , and then also across a couple
00:16:00
of different other languages, it means queen, and so there's a
00:16:03
lot of symbolism in there, of course, of how, like, our hair
00:16:06
is a crown and it should be thought of like that, and that's
00:16:09
kind of the feel that I want to impart on everyone who comes
00:16:13
into contact with my brand, and so the way that I see my brand
00:16:18
is just it's another piece of the puzzle in terms of building
00:16:22
up that positive representation of black hair and all the
00:16:26
different hairstyles that we, that we wear.
00:16:28
And so if you go on my site, like you'll, um, the three
00:16:31
models I have, they have you know natural hair braids, one
00:16:37
has straight extensions and that's like.
00:16:39
You know, as black women we wear all sorts of different
00:16:41
hairstyles and they should all be separated, um and so kind of
00:16:45
just adding that extra presentation so that you know,
00:16:50
as we go through our day-to-day lives, we we kind of start to
00:16:52
see more and more of this, and so that's kind of where to see
00:16:53
more and more of this, and so that's kind of where I see our
00:16:56
brand.
00:16:56
Bidding is like it's a piece of the puzzle of the larger
00:16:59
landscape.
00:17:00
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, it normalizes in a sense.
00:17:02
Yeah yeah, that's great.
00:17:05
So you started the brand because you wanted to solve a
00:17:09
problem for yourself, like most entrepreneurs.
00:17:12
Problem for yourself, like most entrepreneurs.
00:17:19
But was this, uh, you know, a stumble upon to go the
00:17:20
entrepreneurial path, or have you always wanted to own your
00:17:22
own business?
00:17:24
Speaker 2: I think I've always wanted, I've always been an
00:17:26
entrepreneur at heart.
00:17:27
Um, yeah, I think it's just in my, my character, it's just part
00:17:32
of my personality.
00:17:34
I used to have like a nine to five, and now I do Reina, and
00:17:42
then also I'm a realtor, which is kind of like having another
00:17:45
business.
00:17:46
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
00:17:46
Speaker 2: It's great.
00:17:47
But yeah, to answer your question, I think I've always
00:17:50
been an entrepreneur at heart.
00:17:51
I just didn't really realize it until the past few years.
00:17:54
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
00:17:55
And what's been the most surprising thing about running a
00:18:00
slow fashion brand?
00:18:06
Speaker 2: Hmm, well, I kind of say this before, and it's not
00:18:15
specifically related to the fact that it's a fashion brand, but
00:18:17
more so just the amount of education or opportunities for
00:18:18
educating, like people who like non-black people about our hair.
00:18:20
And I think that's been a really cool thing to do, because some
00:18:24
people just don't know and they're like, oh, like, what is,
00:18:26
what's the importance of the satin lining?
00:18:28
And so I get to use that as an opportunity to explain why it's
00:18:32
significant and kind of what hair means to us in our culture,
00:18:35
and so that that was something I was not expecting, but I think
00:18:38
I'm really grateful for that yeah, do you know Stephanie
00:18:42
Laflora?
00:18:42
Speaker 1: because that brings her to mind.
00:18:44
I do, yeah, okay, yeah, I've interviewed her before, so I was
00:18:49
like okay, an education part to it yeah yeah, I know her, she's
00:18:54
in Colorado.
00:18:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, okay.
00:18:56
Speaker 1: All right, cool, and you know this education part.
00:19:00
I know it's a cultural thing, but you know how do some of the
00:19:05
you know?
00:19:06
Are there any similarities between being a realtor and
00:19:09
being a fashion brand owner?
00:19:12
Speaker 2: Hmm, that's a hard question.
00:19:15
I'm actually.
00:19:16
I'm a newer realtor so I'm still kind of filling out the
00:19:20
waters in this market, but nothing that really comes to
00:19:23
mind immediately.
00:19:24
I mean, just as a business owner for sure, all the like
00:19:29
marketing that is the same, like it's the same sort of thing in
00:19:32
terms of email marketing and getting your name out there.
00:19:34
So that has transferred over very well.
00:19:37
But in terms of like a deeper level, I don't know.
00:19:40
I'll have to think about that one Speaking of a deeper level.
00:19:45
Speaker 1: I mean, apart from you know personally, I would say
00:19:50
, what's the deeper meaning do you attach to your day-to-day
00:19:53
activities?
00:19:57
Speaker 2: I guess it's hoping that my brand will help someone
00:20:03
or another woman in their hair journey, make it easier for them
00:20:07
and so they don't have to go through the same struggles and
00:20:10
pains that I did.
00:20:12
Speaker 1: Because I mean.
00:20:13
Speaker 2: I still have bad hair days or like days when I look
00:20:15
at my hair and I'm like you know I have maybe a negative thought
00:20:17
about it, but it's definitely way fewer and far between than
00:20:21
maybe a few years ago.
00:20:22
But, some of those moments of, you know, frustration were
00:20:25
really, really hard, and so I guess my goal is that I can at
00:20:30
least like touch one person's life and help them not have
00:20:32
those same negative feelings, or at least make it easier so they
00:20:36
don't have to.
00:20:36
You know, kind of struggle as much yeah, yeah, yeah, great.
00:20:42
Speaker 1: So what is?
00:20:42
Um, oh, sorry, lost my train of thought.
00:20:46
I'm sorry.
00:20:46
There are so many things I want to ask you.
00:20:50
That's why, okay, so we uh, yeah, so the entrepreneurial
00:20:56
journey, okay.
00:20:57
So what are some of the challenges that you've come
00:21:01
across?
00:21:01
I mean, first, it was the manufacturing small batch, but
00:21:04
you know, in terms of the operational stuff that you do
00:21:07
yourself, are there any things that you had to overcome that,
00:21:12
yeah, that you can think of and share for an aspiring
00:21:15
entrepreneur?
00:21:17
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean the beginning.
00:21:19
So I just launched in November so still relatively newer brand.
00:21:22
The beginning was definitely a challenge working with the
00:21:27
suppliers, even because for me, as a smaller brand and also
00:21:34
ordering in smaller quantities, it's a lot higher stakes if I
00:21:37
lose inventory or something.
00:21:39
And actually there was a whole thing in the beginning where
00:21:42
FedEx delivered a large batch of my inventory to the wrong house
00:21:46
and I was freaking out.
00:21:47
Speaker 1: It was very stressful , but I found it.
00:21:51
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was okay, little things like that.
00:21:55
Um again, because I'm a smaller brand, I um so my packaging
00:22:01
it's like you have the box and then the hat is kind of cradled.
00:22:05
There's like a, a cardboard support to make sure that
00:22:08
doesn't get crushed.
00:22:08
Um and so I like cut that out myself and that's.
00:22:13
That's definitely definitely a bit time consuming and because
00:22:17
right now I don't do like custom orders of packaging.
00:22:22
And so that's like another, I guess not exactly challenge, but
00:22:25
just something that kind of I had to account for that I wasn't
00:22:28
expecting.
00:22:29
I'm like, okay, how do I factor that into my schedule, with, you
00:22:32
know, cutting out all these inserts?
00:22:35
And then I think my ability to pivot in terms of product
00:22:42
development has been something that I'm kind of still kind of
00:22:45
figuring out.
00:22:45
Like I mentioned, I've had some people say like, oh, I'd love
00:22:49
to see this color or I'd love to see like this style, and.
00:22:52
And so I'm like, okay, like when can I kind of fit that in?
00:22:56
How does that fall into my whole product line and
00:23:00
development?
00:23:00
And so it's been a whole learning process for me.
00:23:02
So every step of the way has been there's been something.
00:23:05
But, yeah, I'm still still learning.
00:23:08
And at this point I'm pivoting a little bit and trying to
00:23:13
collaborate with other black owned brands and build like kind
00:23:16
of grow in community together, and so that's something that I'm
00:23:19
playing with right now is trying to do like giveaways or
00:23:22
just other things with brands, content sharing and that sort of
00:23:26
thing.
00:23:26
Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:23:26
Yeah, I saw that you had a live with uh Avocurl.
00:23:30
Yeah, so it's, it's mostly hair products, yeah.
00:23:38
Speaker 2: Hair products.
00:23:38
Um, I have evo curl, yeah, so it's, it's mostly hair products.
00:23:39
Yeah, hair products, um, I have I'm talking to a brand that is,
00:23:41
um, they're like natural hair extensions, so I said it's also
00:23:42
a hair product.
00:23:42
And then another brand I'm talking to she does, um, like
00:23:47
luxury handbags and sunglasses, yeah, yeah accessories.
00:23:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's nice you can touch all these different
00:23:53
adjacent products and industries Exactly.
00:23:57
Yeah, fantastic, that's great.
00:24:00
Rachel Osborne is the guest today on Shades and Layers.
00:24:06
Her luxury hat brand, reina, was created to give options to
00:24:10
the curly and kinky head when it came to accessorizing.
00:24:14
To give options to the curly and kinky head when it came to
00:24:18
accessorizing.
00:24:18
Up next, we get into all the things and the people that have
00:24:20
inspired her throughout her life , as well as what she has in
00:24:22
store for the future.
00:24:23
So who are some of the entrepreneurs you look to for
00:24:26
inspiration at the moment or that you've looked to as you
00:24:29
were trying to put this brand together?
00:24:32
Speaker 2: That's a great question.
00:24:33
Probably one of my favorite entrepreneurs is Jamie Kern Lima
00:24:36
, who I don't know if you've she's the founder of it
00:24:39
Cosmetics.
00:24:40
Oh yeah, okay yeah.
00:24:42
And one thing that I think is really interesting too about her
00:24:45
story.
00:24:45
So she, her brand, got bought by L'Oreal and that made her the
00:24:51
first.
00:24:51
She was the CEO of the brand, I guess, within L'Oreal.
00:24:58
Speaker 1: And so she was the first female CEO of a.
00:24:59
Speaker 2: L'Oreal company, which I think is wild Because,
00:25:00
like you know, L'Oreal, for most of its history, has been
00:25:02
something that's marketed makeup to women, and I think that
00:25:07
parallels really well to a lot of these black hair care brands.
00:25:10
A lot of them are not necessarily run by black people.
00:25:14
Speaker 1: Sure.
00:25:14
Speaker 2: Which I think is interesting.
00:25:15
But yeah, I just I love Jamie Kern Lima's story.
00:25:18
It's really inspiring to me.
00:25:20
She's, I mean, as with most successful entrepreneurs, she's
00:25:23
jumped over a lot of hurdles.
00:25:25
She's had so many challenges in her path.
00:25:27
So I guess whenever I hit something that is challenging,
00:25:31
like when my inventory was delivered to the wrong place, I
00:25:33
kind of think of her and her story and I'm like if she can do
00:25:36
it.
00:25:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah Great.
00:25:40
Speaking of stories, are there any business books that you can
00:25:43
think of that you would recommend to anybody who wants
00:25:46
to start a new brand?
00:25:48
Speaker 2: I actually I read a lot of self-development books,
00:25:50
so not business per se, but I think a lot of building a
00:25:53
business is working on yourself because especially you learn a
00:25:58
lot about, especially in the beginning if you're the only
00:26:00
person, you're the most important part of your business,
00:26:02
so you gotta work on yourself so um, yeah, my favorite book is
00:26:06
probably psycho cybernetics by dr maxwell malts.
00:26:09
it's about self-image and it's really interesting and
00:26:12
definitely kind of changed the way that I look at things a
00:26:14
little bit and then in terms of like practical or not practical,
00:26:18
but you know more like logical or strategies that sort of thing
00:26:21
.
00:26:21
I like Blue Ocean Sales and Marketing.
00:26:24
It's a good one, oh yeah.
00:26:26
Speaker 1: There's a lot of good ones.
00:26:27
Yeah, it's a classic, oh, and.
00:26:31
Speaker 2: Purple Cow by Seth Godin.
00:26:32
That's a short one, oh yeah, purple Cow by Seth Godin, that's
00:26:33
a short one.
00:26:34
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's cool, that's a good one.
00:26:35
Yeah, yeah, getting into your personal story, are there any
00:26:39
events or people that you would credit with contributing to how
00:26:43
you carry yourself in the world today?
00:26:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I have probably a long list.
00:26:48
Honestly, I'm sure, yes.
00:26:54
I mean I guess this is a little cliche but like both my parents,
00:26:57
they, I mean, I think in terms of the hair journey, they kind
00:27:01
of like I mentioned my mom, she did the best she could in terms
00:27:03
of what she knew how to do and taking care of her hair.
00:27:06
So a little bit different perspective, but just in terms
00:27:08
of her, her own journey and her career and everything I feel
00:27:11
like I've learned from both of them to that's okay to go
00:27:14
against the status quo a little bit and challenge ideas,
00:27:20
especially if you don't think that they're correct, and that's
00:27:22
something that's been, I think, really instrumental on just my
00:27:26
growth as a person and even like my career trajectory, of kind
00:27:30
of breaking out of my previous career, which you, you know,
00:27:34
some would say is like very, it was a very safe career and
00:27:37
trying, you know, all these crazy things like starting my
00:27:39
brand and starting what were you doing?
00:27:42
I was a software engineer, okay , yeah.
00:27:46
So yeah, I'd say definitely my parents, parents, my family, for
00:27:51
sure.
00:27:52
In terms of my hair journey, specifically natural 85, I don't
00:27:57
know I I've been watching her.
00:28:00
I don't watch her stuff as much anymore, but like in the early
00:28:03
2000s, um, yeah, sure, yeah, she was definitely.
00:28:06
She has uh been the guru for many many black women around the
00:28:12
world yeah, but I mean like, especially as a young girl and
00:28:17
then into a young woman, like having that example of someone
00:28:21
who appreciates and loves and has beautiful hair was so
00:28:25
instrumental for me and so and also I learned a lot from her.
00:28:28
So I've never met her before but I will shout her out because
00:28:31
she's definitely been a big.
00:28:34
Speaker 1: Soon enough.
00:28:35
Yeah, if you had to summarize your life in a book, what would
00:28:41
you call the memoir, and why?
00:28:44
Speaker 2: So I don't think this is a word, but something to the
00:28:47
tune of like de-perfectionism or perfectionized.
00:28:53
I've definitely I've always been a perfectionist and in some
00:28:56
ways it has served me well, but I've realized, especially over
00:28:59
the past few years, that I've kind of had to unravel that a
00:29:03
bit to become who I am now, and I think that, um, trying to do
00:29:08
everything perfectly the first time usually just ends up in
00:29:11
spending a lot of time not wasting time but not doing
00:29:14
things as not achieving as quickly as maybe you could.
00:29:17
And so right now I'm trying to move myself more towards just
00:29:21
taking messy action and getting that feedback and learning from
00:29:24
it and being okay with making mistakes and falling down.
00:29:26
And that's something that I, for me, was hard to learn,
00:29:30
because just for a long time I was like afraid of failing, you
00:29:33
know, afraid of messing up that sort of thing, and so that's
00:29:36
been kind of like something that's woven through my whole
00:29:39
life, of just trying to unlearn that and learn that it's okay to
00:29:44
fail and you actually can't even succeed without failing
00:29:47
first.
00:29:48
Speaker 1: So yeah, fail fast.
00:29:50
Yeah, failing first.
00:29:58
So, yeah, yeah, fail fast.
00:29:59
Yeah, and um deep perfectionism .
00:30:01
Who would you?
00:30:02
Speaker 2: choose to be the lead actress in the film version of
00:30:04
the book.
00:30:05
So I I love holly bailey, like I think she's amazing, um, and I
00:30:08
love that as her role in the Little Mermaid.
00:30:10
She, for our younger generation , is now like that role model of
00:30:15
a Disney princess.
00:30:16
I think that's so awesome and, yeah, I just would be cool yeah,
00:30:21
she's the whole vibe man yeah, she's cool very, very cool.
00:30:27
Speaker 1: Um, who would you invite?
00:30:28
Which famous black woman would you invite to dinner, and why?
00:30:31
Oh, definitely Michelle Obama.
00:30:34
Speaker 2: Good, good, good.
00:30:35
Yeah, I mean she's just like.
00:30:37
She's inspiring to me in terms of everything that she did as
00:30:40
the first lady and then even after she's you know, after
00:30:44
President.
00:30:44
Obama left office like she's just done so much and yeah, so I
00:30:48
would love to have a conversation with her and just
00:30:50
be in her aura.
00:30:52
Just breathing the same air.
00:31:01
Speaker 1: And what's the best advice you've ever received and
00:31:04
still live by today?
00:31:07
Speaker 2: That's a good one.
00:31:07
Let me think about that for a second.
00:31:09
Sure, sure, yeah.
00:31:12
I mean talking about like failure and everything there was
00:31:18
.
00:31:18
I don't remember who said it, but there's a quote that's like
00:31:20
you know, the best way to succeed faster is to double your
00:31:23
rate of failure.
00:31:24
And so I think about that a lot now of just like, how can I
00:31:29
kind of like or you can replace that word with rejection to a
00:31:32
lot of people, like failure of rejection are kind of similar
00:31:35
sort of things.
00:31:36
And so now, um, when I think of like my achieving a goal or
00:31:41
something, I'm like, how do I like go for no's, like the more
00:31:44
no's I get, the closer I get to a yes, or like you know times I
00:31:48
fall down, the more, the faster I'll learn and get to like the
00:31:51
thing that I'm really going for.
00:31:52
So so I think, of that quote a lot in general when I'm going
00:31:56
through my day.
00:31:57
Speaker 1: And what's contributed to this mindset
00:31:59
shift.
00:32:00
Speaker 2: Well, I think a couple of things.
00:32:01
One, my mental health.
00:32:03
I think that I realized my perfectionism wasn't like
00:32:07
supportive of that as much.
00:32:08
I kind of noticed various different things come from me
00:32:11
being a perfectionist that I wanted to change just so that I
00:32:14
could be mentally healthier.
00:32:15
I think there's that Back in 2020, that's kind of where my
00:32:20
entrepreneurial journey started of.
00:32:21
Like, I started reading more books just about mindset and
00:32:25
about business and all these things and how you can really
00:32:30
change your whole perspective on life by just shifting your
00:32:32
mindset, and so that's kind of.
00:32:33
I think I've kind of I've used a lot of books as mentors almost
00:32:38
, and through a lot of those it's a recurring theme of you
00:32:43
know, you have to take that messy action, and so I just kind
00:32:46
of tried to embody that more.
00:32:49
Speaker 1: Um, just as more yeah and um.
00:32:52
If someone wanted to start a career like yours, where would
00:32:58
you tell them to start?
00:33:00
Speaker 2: definitely would tell them to like start with market
00:33:02
research.
00:33:02
I mean, that's I don't know if that's too obvious of an answer,
00:33:05
but I found that to be really helpful for me, like I in the
00:33:09
beginning, to develop the products I did and just styles.
00:33:12
I had like a little survey I typed up and I sent out to a
00:33:15
bunch of people who, like all the people I knew who I thought
00:33:18
might be in my target audience, and then I asked friends and
00:33:22
family to send it out and like seeing if you can get feedback
00:33:25
from real people.
00:33:26
I think, yes, definitely was very helpful for me, and then
00:33:31
also for me to see what's already out there and what
00:33:34
hasn't been done, cause you know , at first I just had the idea
00:33:37
in my head but I was like I don't know if this has already
00:33:39
been done, like there are other things that are similar, I'm not
00:33:43
sure.
00:33:43
And so how kind of validating that idea really thoroughly
00:33:47
before really going into it, I think was good, especially since
00:33:50
I again I'm bootstrapping everything.
00:33:52
So it's like I wanted to be really confident in my idea
00:33:55
before putting in that initial investment.
00:33:57
Speaker 1: And when did you realize you have a business?
00:34:00
Speaker 2: Like last March, I guess a year ago or so Cause
00:34:04
that's when I was doing that research and I was trying to
00:34:07
find products that were like similar to what was in my head
00:34:09
and I was like there isn't really anything here, and so
00:34:16
that's what I was like.
00:34:16
Speaker 1: Okay, I think I think I should just try it out.
00:34:17
So what is your vision for Rayna in the future?
00:34:21
Speaker 2: yeah.
00:34:22
So I, like I've mentioned, I would love to be able to bring
00:34:24
in a few more styles, um, and just, I have like some ideas in
00:34:28
mind already of okay things I want to try and bring in.
00:34:30
Maybe this winter We'll see.
00:34:31
Um, I would like to get into wholesaling in the future, like
00:34:35
not this year, but once I've grown a bit more um, and then
00:34:39
just, yeah, see where, where it takes me.
00:34:41
Um, I like the collaborations I've been doing.
00:34:45
I feel like that kind of gives me the opportunity to tell my
00:34:47
story to more people and at the end of the day, it's the impact
00:34:50
that I want.
00:34:51
I mean, like you know, selling products is cool too, but I want
00:34:54
to have a positive impact on people.
00:35:01
And so.
00:35:01
I think I want to keep doing those brand collaborations and
00:35:05
like the lives and those sorts of things to like just kind of
00:35:09
show other women who are maybe in the middle of their journey.
00:35:12
To like just kind of show other women who are maybe in the
00:35:14
middle of their journey, starting out at the end, that
00:35:15
they are not alone and you know other people are going through
00:35:17
this too.
00:35:17
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah.
00:35:19
Would you ever consider going for a round of funding?
00:35:22
Speaker 2: uh, possibly.
00:35:22
Yeah, I kind of.
00:35:23
I kind of want to grow it a little bit bigger on my own
00:35:25
first, before I consider doing that.
00:35:28
Speaker 1: But it's something I have thought about yeah yeah,
00:35:30
yeah.
00:35:31
Where can people find you if they want to buy a hat or just
00:35:35
you know?
00:35:35
Speaker 2: get in touch and hear your story yeah, um, so my
00:35:39
website is shop reenacom um, it's shop, and then r-a-i-n-a
00:35:45
and I also I'm on instagram at shop, underscore reena, and so
00:35:51
either one would be good.
00:35:52
And also, like I, I respond to all my messages so you can email
00:35:55
me or like dm me through instagram, like I love chatting
00:35:58
with my customers and just people.
00:36:01
Speaker 1: So yeah oh perfect, and that is all for me this time
00:36:05
around.
00:36:06
Links to rachel's work and other resources she mentioned in
00:36:09
this episode are included in the show notes.
00:36:12
If you found this episode inspirational or useful in some
00:36:17
way, please be sure to spread the love and share it with a
00:36:20
friend.
00:36:20
Thank you for listening.
00:36:22
I'm Kutwanos, kosana Ritchie, and until next time, please do
00:36:26
take good care.