The Evolution of Natural Hair Care and Entrepreneurship with Taryn Gill

It’s impossible not to be inspired by Taryn Gill, the go-getter behind the phenomenal haircare brand The Perfect Hair. Her insights and experiences are an education in and of themselves. From her journey in scaling her brand through strategic partnerships, to her lessons on the power of letting go for brand expansion, Taryn candidly shares how her entrepreneurial journey has evolved since our last sit-down two years ago. Her origins story goes beyond a product line, weaving an authentic connection between the brand and its consumers, a testament to her deep understanding of her audience and their needs.
 
 Taryn also offers her perspective on the role that technology and social platforms like TikTok influence the beauty industry. As we explore the evolving beauty landscape, we delve into the consumer's quest for liberation and the significance of a brand's approach to sustainability. Taryn's new brand, Curls in Bloom, is a fascinating player in this dynamic field. Our discussion about the hair conversations in South Africa and the US touches on the inclusive nature of the natural hair movement as it transcends genders, and regional boundaries.
 
 Taryn gives us insights on consumer behavior, the emergence of hair supplements, and the further blurring of lines between beauty and wellness. She also tells us about her return to the classroom and how this fuels her ambition and creativity, ultimately contributing to her vision of creating a holistic health brand.  

Beauty, wellness and self-love is that it’s all about. 

Don’t miss this awesome MasterClass + Sit-Down. 

LINKS AND MENTIONS 

GIBS Business School  

Cherie Blaire Road to Growth - https://cherieblairfoundation.org/what-we-do/programmes/road-to-growth/

Taryn Gill’s social handles: TikTok, Instagram and Facebook

The Perfect Hair

Curls In Bloom 

LOST IN TRANSLATION

You may have heard us talk about shopping at a garage, this simply means a gas station. 😁 South African English is a thing. We even have our own dictionary.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hello and welcome to Shades and Lears. I'm your host, Gudwana Skosanna-Rechi. This is a little bit of a different episode because it's a catch-up episode and the last time hair care entrepreneur Teran Gill was on the show she was contemplating a distribution deal for her brand, the Perfect Hair. And now, two years later, she catches us up on how that journey has evolved and what else she's done since making the deal and creating new product lines under the umbrella of Curves by Teran.

Speaker 1: 0:32

This episode can be considered a master class meets a sit-down. You will hear about how to use partnerships for scaling, growing while maintaining your brand identity, and the art of making choices. For example, should you stay small by design or aspire to be the next Fenty? The sit-down part of it includes exploring the evolution of the hair care movement in South Africa versus the conversation in the US market, the blurring of lines between beauty and wellness and the rise of supplements as part of one's self-care kit. Teran, as always, was gracious and generous with both her business story and personal healing journey, and this is what she told me the last time we spoke, you were in the middle of negotiating a distribution deal for the Perfect Hair, so let's start with that brand at the very beginning. What is the Perfect Hair and what do you do for your clients?

Speaker 2: 1:28

So the Perfect Hair was conceptualized when I realized, like most women, that I really wanted a bit more out of my day and my corporate role was quite consuming and tough mentally tough Also, like what you said earlier just watching us as a couple, my husband's career taking off, my career taking off and wondering who's going to run the house and the kids, and wanting something more with my kids. So I built the Perfect Hair on the knowledge I had acquired around the African female consumer and what were her trigger points, how she was engaging as a consumer, as a generation of women, what really were her push buttons? And launched a salon for a colleague in downtown Josie, learned a huge amount about US hair care trends and bought my first shipment of US products and when I realized how hot they were selling, based on so little marketing or information, I realized that hair care was way more, way more than a tub of hair care for self love. As a lecturer said to me, you're not selling hair care, you're selling self love. And I decided to build this product line.

Speaker 2: 2:55

And in building the product line, I realized again I was building much more than the product line. I was building a brand, a brand that consumers wanted to connect to, and almost instinctively. Back then, 10 years ago, what I knew about social media was so limited, but what I could see was the minute I started having conversations with women about what they wanted, what they needed texture, colorism, price, affordability, size, styling guides, you name it and I would say to the people following me on Facebook tell me what you want. And it just grew. Before I knew it. It was 15,000 women very eager to tell me what they wanted and I think as I built it over those first two years, earning absolute money, I realized that there was this very true connection that this consumer wanted with something that was more than a brand. So Perfect Hair evolved from a product range to a brand that was all about a creator connecting with her content and her shopper and her product. It was a relationship.

Speaker 2: 4:00

So we built it A co creation completely. I mean down to really asking groups of 20 shoppers at a time to review a shampoo, a conditioner, a styling treatment and give me physical feedback. So, as I always say to my shoppers, when I started they designed the range, not me.

Speaker 1: 4:20

Yeah, wonderful, I mean, the natural hair movement is very much female dominated, I would say. But I see that you know you've got a few men and they're there sporting their beards, what's happening there. What is going on? There's a change right.

Speaker 2: 4:37

There's such a fundamental shift, and I don't think we speak about it often enough, but from what I can see, from what I can sense and tell, from just from how the lay of the land, so to speak, you've got this fundamental movement that started out, where people connected with this global voice that said you can love yourself just the way you are. And my perfect hair brand came about saying you're perfect, naturally, just the way you are, and your hair is beautiful the way it grows out of your scalp and you don't need to manipulate it to a magazine's definition of beauty to be perfect Right. And from there the movement just slowly progressed into a huge amount of freedom to be you. So now it's a lot less militant around. I have to be natural.

Speaker 2: 5:29

There's this fluidity around just enjoying the freedom to be the perfect you, the way you want to be. There's a huge amount of I'll put the wig on if I want to, so long as I know what to do with my natural hair to keep it healthy while I'm doing it, and I'll braid and I'll have fun and I'll do a blow wave and what the Americans call the silk press. It's a lot of liberation. Now that's really, and I think that's when the men and this huge amount of agenda-free very much agenda-free tone that the movement is taken on. This is it for everybody.

Speaker 1: 6:07

Right, right, and that is so true, you see. I mean there's a lot of products coming out and beard care and all of that. So it's nice that it's an inclusive movement. Also, I can't remember I was talking to someone and, oh, I was listening to something, and they were saying that, you know, the minute you include others, it kind of liberates everybody else, you know. So you find that people who are something was not initially intended for gives them permission to be themselves also, or to move in the spaces freely without, you know, checking themselves, etc.

Speaker 2: 6:43

And that's important. That's important, I mean, the perfect hair was always for all textures. And having that all-inclusive, non-binary, gender-free attitude to how we presented the brand to the people who were using the brand, I think it gave it an everyone stamp of approval.

Speaker 1: 7:04

And I think that's key.

Speaker 2: 7:06

That really, really is key. I mean, today we were looking at possibly, you know, what would a children's range look like? And we decided more on a sensitive range, realizing that that mum is going to buy her shampoo and use that same shampoo for the entire family Because we know perfectly, and you because we know.

Speaker 2: 7:28

I mean, whether it's my diffuser, my shampoo, my curling jellies, my son is in there, my daughter's in there friends come by of all shapes and sizes and orientations and it just becomes category list. You know there's fewer and fewer boundaries. So we were looking rather at sensitive ranges that are completely paraben-free and fragrance-free and really design sensitive skins, no matter who you are. I think that's way more where this modern consumer is Right.

Speaker 1: 8:01

Yeah, rather than you know a distinct category. It's like can I use it? Can I use it for my children? Can I use it? Can I lend it to my friend? And it's everyone. Yeah, what can I do with it? Right, right, so it sounds like the perfect hair has grown a lot, a lot, lot.

Speaker 2: 8:20

And part of it has to do with its accessibility.

Speaker 1: 8:24

You have a new distribution partner. Can you tell me how that has unfolded so far over the past two years since we last spoke?

Speaker 2: 8:32

It's been phenomenal to watch the explosion of the perfect hair and so comforting almost like tears of joy, comforting to understand that the difficult decisions I've made to release the brand kid have been the right decision to make.

Speaker 2: 8:49

I think all too often we want to hold on and when actually you should be letting go, and I think that's very prevalent for me in many spheres of my life. And perfect hair was one of the first brand well, my first brand kid that I had to let go. It was part of realizing that as an entrepreneur you simply can't do it all yourself. You can hire in resources, which is always advised in any entrepreneurship book or school, but quite frankly, going the journey alone gives you a bigger share of a very small pie because often to create the expansion plan you need in a retail environment like South Africa, you need partners. You need the well positioned partners who gear up and are able to plug your brand into a system greater than something that the average product owner can build. So when I plugged perfect hair into a local distribution partnership, I remained a stakeholder in the brand and, like I said, difficult decision to let go. But man, was that the right one?

Speaker 2: 9:56

The dearest business for one, which I think was crucial considering the fact that COVID hit three and a half months off, I put ink to paper and gave me many peaceful sleeps and easy nights, knowing that the expansion plan was in the hands of a massive house that was designed to grow products like this. And I wasn't carrying that burden, certainly not alone, right. So it was wonderful to see the brand getting plugged into an official supply chain designed by experts and run by experts. So to see it go from a rather micro brand on the landscape that kind of took what it had, and I was grateful and also fought quite a lot to hold the very essence of what the perfect hair was the voice, the authenticity, the personalization and to not lose that as we plugged into a much bigger beast so to speak.

Speaker 2: 10:57

And as a result I mean just to give you an idea one of the team members let me know that one and a half tons of one of our best selling products had just been made that week and I thought, wow, it took two years of plugging this product into a proper distribution chain for a manufacturing order monthly of more than one and a half tons of raw product. And I realized how long that would have taken me if I hadn't let go.

Speaker 2: 11:30

Yeah, just on your own. If I hadn't let go, if I had decided to do it on my own, the huge amount of debt I would have incurred, not to mention the running the risk of getting it wrong. Because I'm a media strategist, I'm well placed in marketing, I understand brands and consumers, but I am by no means a supply chain specialist or distribution manager, and nevermind trade relationships. Trade relationships are real. South African retailers run very specifically on those brand relationships and trade relationships that are developed over years, and having to put Perfect here into a platform like that just gave it access to so much more than I could have built For sure, and I think that was quite a remarkable kind of like lit the fire, so to speak. So what I had done from a brand perspective, it was just at the right age. It was just at the right time for it to go.

Speaker 1: 12:31

Sure, yeah, but it still seems like such a relatable, personable brand. How have you kept it so personal? Because it's easy to dilute it, right when it's on such a large scale.

Speaker 2: 12:44

And we made some fundamental changes. I mean, when I started, we were in glass, which a lot of distributors looked at me and said come on, lady, how's that going to get through the supply chain? Can you imagine the breakages that returns, the product specs and the requirements of the various distribution centers, of the various retailers? So we had to morph. We had to change pack design and how we positioned it on shelf. It had to put a school uniform on and go to school, right.

Speaker 1: 13:20

Right, I love that analogy.

Speaker 2: 13:22

Yes, but we had to realize that if it was to gain access to the markets it needed to gain access to there's no point in having a pretty kid If the pretty kid's staying at home. It needed to be on shelf and it needed to be in hundreds of stores in the right locations. And because access to markets everything, if you're not on that shelf, if you're not in front of the consumer or on that store, then you've designed something for you and your friends.

Speaker 1: 13:56

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:57

And that wasn't the purpose. So I think the partnership with the distribution team works in the sense that I kept the tone and the authenticity I contributed still and still do to formula design, pack design. I still run the marketing on the brands in terms of keeping the voice and the tone and the messaging where it needs to be, because some brands are content creator brand, some brands are built on the girl next door philosophy. I relate to you and therefore I trust what you do and with that grew organically with the perfect here. So I think all of us in the team understand that that is still a vital component that has to stay alive.

Speaker 1: 14:41

Right, right. So it's a partnership rather than an acquisition, basically.

Speaker 2: 14:47

Well, legally it will be an acquisition at the end of our trading term as our contract. But we'll see how that goes. I think in time, you know, the contract gives us enough leeway to kind of decide what future both of us see for the brands. So in a few years, when their trading term comes to expiration dates, it'll be interesting to see which way we go. And up until then I stay a stakeholder in the business. So for now we wait and see. But we have already.

Speaker 2: 15:20

Yeah, it's exciting because you know you don't know which way it's going to go. This is business at the end of the day. And it was a risk I took and I'm glad I did it. We have a good relationship with the team and it's nice to see that since the perfect year we've designed a new range together which is exclusively in Dischem and I called it calls in bloom. Yes, I was getting to that yeah. Yeah, I wanted this new brand kit to have its own identity.

Speaker 1: 15:49

So tell me about Curls and Bloom. You launched it last year, 2022.

Speaker 2: 15:54

Yeah, it had a soft launch early 2022 and then in September we formally launched it into about 120 Dischem stores exclusively.

Speaker 2: 16:05

It sits so comfortably in their greener aisle strategy where everything is organic and natural and it's built on floral waters and very raw, locally sourced products. It was a really interesting take and I positioned it away from the perfect year for the consumer that's already in Dischem and very conscious of product ingredients and sourcing and and brands that have that kind of green ID. Calls in Bloom was really built for that, but very much around understanding that it's a non-racial, non-binary, gender-free, no boundary type of consumer and they are very modern thinker and it's positioned as a passion purchase.

Speaker 2: 16:50

Yeah, because there's an impact element to it Very much so the floral waters are all sourced from farms in the Eastern Cape. The distribution partner even took on scholarship opportunities around the Calls in Bloom brand, where juniors who had been working on the brand then became employed in their company. And it just has those greener living credentials. So the Dischem aisles were the perfect home for it.

Speaker 2: 17:20

And it was nice to see it being positioned as a pleasure purchase because, while perfect, here was all about this movement, this collective voice, this owning yourself love, calls in Bloom came into the came into the curl equation at a stage when the consumer was now feeling that she didn't need to shout about the movement anymore, she didn't need to shout about self love anymore. She was really just enjoying the passion experience of buying something she really loved the fragrance, the feel, the green idea of the product. It was really about her passionately engaging with her. So it was nice to see Calls in Bloom plugging into the movement in its mindset now.

Speaker 1: 18:07

You're listening to Shades and Layers and if you're enjoying this episode, be sure to share it and also give us a five star rating and a good review on your favorite listening app, and thank you. Now back to the episode with my guest, Teran Gill, founder of Curls by Teran, which is the home of brands like the Perfect Hair and Curls in Bloom. Now the natural hair conversation is going to be with us for the foreseeable future, perhaps for as long as the world subscribes to Western standards of beauty. But nevertheless, there is a noticeable shift in tone and, to get further into this topic, I asked Teran to maybe discuss what her observations are and how she would compare South Africa's natural hair conversation with the one in the US. What would you say?

Speaker 1: 18:53

The movement is right now. I mean it's not as if the hair conversation has died down. Right, If anything, it's picking up speed. So there is that self love component which I think will be there for a long, long time. But there seems to be a shift happening in terms of what we are speaking about, what we're looking for in the ingredients, etc. Can you kind of expand on what you're seeing and what people are saying to you?

Speaker 2: 19:19

I think the shift comes in in that this consumer is so sussed, she's so exposed to social media, making her very aware of various trends, various styles, various mindsets that make the movement possible. So she's no longer just buying the product as a OK, I want to learn to do my natural hair because I'm brand new and nobody ever really taught me how. So I'm looking to plug into a product that gets me, that I trust and that's going to show me how to do this. If I take my wig off, I'm going to trust this product to walk this journey with me.

Speaker 2: 20:00

And Coles in Bloom kind of catches the audience a few years later where she's starting to explore different ranges. She's mixing and blending, like I say, she's trying different styles. She's feeling the freedom to move between braids, wigs, clip ins, natural hair, afro. She's feeling a more liberated sense around owning her beauty, owning her natural beauty, and that's great. And Coles in Bloom plugs into that liberation of the consumers mindset, which is wonderful in the sense that she's sussed now and she has so much information under her belt.

Speaker 2: 20:38

And Coles in Bloom has the green credential. I mean perfect hair always and all has always and always will be petroleum free, paraben free, sulfate free, silicon free, completely natural, so natural you could eat it. But Coles in Bloom took it a step up in terms of formula, design and, like I say, the social impact element and being able to source floral waters from farms in South Africa and use floral waters as a way to nurture your hair as well as give you that lift. I mean, when I was designing it, we were reading all about how European trends and American trends were looking at fragrance as a mood enhancer to relax, to heal, to elate the consumer.

Speaker 2: 21:28

And I looked at it and I thought if I'm seeing that and if I'm experiencing that in my own bathroom, then this consumer is doing it too. So Coles in Bloom was really about understanding that. The fragrance and the texture was all about that passion purchase. She wanted something that made her feel good.

Speaker 1: 21:46

I feel like there's still a difference between you know, in the conversation, the hair conversation between the US and South Africa, and it feels as though, yeah, I guess the approach is different. There's still a little bit of that. You know protest mentality over here and you know the inclusion discussion. Where is that? See the South African conversation being a little further along the road. Am I right to think so?

Speaker 2: 22:15

I think so I think so and sometimes I think maybe it's just because I've been involved in that conversation for so long and and really I'm in it every day I think that the conversation in our context has almost migrated to a rather, like I say, a mindset of liberation. It feels less militant to me now. It feels less of a fight and more about a, feels less of a struggle and more about, like I say, a passion. It's almost as if the movement is evolving into itself and going through an adolescence where it's not quite weapons down yet. I think we still fight the daily fight that exists in the boardroom and in the classroom and in very little structures. I think that that is still so real and so prevalent.

Speaker 2: 23:12

But in so many elements of how my consumers lives play out, there's just more of us and it's that unity and representation and showing up, whether it's an anchor on your news station, whether it's an actor sitting in an audition, and she sends me a picture of the girls auditioning for a role and she'll say, teran, five years ago it was just me and suddenly 18 of the 20 of us were sporting our airfros. You know, that kind of feedback just is the close my mind. But that's what's happening and that's the beauty of the movement is we are showing up. We have shown up and we're normalizing it. It's not something a lot of us don't really have to fight about it anymore. We were not feeling like we have to go into that boardroom with a weapon. There's enough of us at the table.

Speaker 1: 24:09

Right, right, exactly, it's a numbers game. Yeah, it's a numbers game, so what? I've also noticed, is tech playing a big role in, you know, hair care, skincare, you know basically the beauty movement. What are you seeing and how are you incorporating those elements for your brands?

Speaker 2: 24:29

You know, one, one thing we had to realize in the last, I'd say, 18 months to two years was that TikTok was inevitably a Bible for so many of our consumers. I mean, I just love TikTok's adverts on let us show you how to survive low cheating here's how you see lighting solutions in your home, you know. Or let us tell you what's going on in the news. So I was fascinated at how my consumers were kind of starting to lean to TikTok, whereas in the beginning my consumers were a Facebook family and then we migrated into a highly visual highly when I say visual, I mean movement and video and real and very relatable content, beautiful, visually directed content on Instagram, and now starting to incorporate the very necessary, super fast, super humorous, super real.

Speaker 2: 25:30

Yeah, we let's not mess around and just get very real. This is how I wake up in the morning, this is what I look like and this is how I go to work when I'm natural, and it ain't easy and sometimes it is pretty Right and that's what we love and that's where the that's where TikTok kind of came in in the sense that we had. We got very real with our customers and that was beautiful but also Perfect. Tears journey made me realize that, while a lot of online shoppers can drive brand building for you, it still remains a in South Africa, at least a 5% of your overall annual turnover.

Speaker 1: 26:14

Okay, that's interesting.

Speaker 2: 26:16

Yeah, so.

Speaker 2: 26:17

So I wouldn't say that that online shopping is going to save us. No, I think the very real experience in it for me as a brand builder in this audience is understanding that this consumer is still shopping in store farmer retail, food retail. I was very interested last year in designing Sashay Kier for Township retail because that in itself is a beast and those numbers are awesome, absolutely mind-blowingly phenomenal, whereas online shopping really, if you want to look at it from a from a turnover perspective, yes, it's a vital part of your sales mix, but it's by no means your driver or your or your or your leader in terms of delivering, delivering your profitability. It's essential. It has to be there and fantastic solution to driving brand awareness of your product. Online reviews being positioned on various online trading platforms gives you incredible amounts of exposure and and and just access to new eyes and new audiences, and more and more people are way more open, especially the younger audiences, to shopping online. But, like I say, it would need to build over the years to come close to what retail can do.

Speaker 1: 27:37

Yeah, yeah, speaking of conversations moving further along, there is now this movement of hair supplements. So nutrition meets beauty. It's a brand new field, it seems, or rather it's. It's growing in size, so you are also looking to play in that space. Can you tell me a little bit about what you're doing in that space?

Speaker 2: 28:03

So for now it's conceptual, it's something that I haven't taken to market yet, but what I am doing is starting to understand where nutrition blurs the line with beauty, and understanding that global trends are beauty from within as well as topical is really where consumers are going. Because I kind of feel I am now where I was 10 years ago when I started. The perfect year Right Was looking at gaps in the market and what was this global movement saying to me? So I started the process of holistic healing and hydro therapy last year and learning from that, what holistic healing really meant was mind, body and spirit. And when you look at body, you know, while topical solutions are definitely many people's first point of call, it's what you do from a nutrition perspective to boost that health that really matters. Right and globally.

Speaker 2: 29:05

The ability to ingest as well as apply topically is something that so many categories have had to understand. I mean, look at this, look at the skinification of hair care. Suddenly, things like hyaluronic acid and bitumen seed that would normally live on our skins is now living in our hair products and, very similarly, skin product lines have started creating ingestibles that boost skin health from the inside. And when you look at hair care. It's only inevitable that that, that products that are in the know and can anticipate trends will go that route. So for me, ingestibles are something I'm incredibly keen to explore and I started studying health coaching just to learn coaching technique.

Speaker 2: 29:52

I always call it healthy ish. Coaching, I know, means the epitome of health, but healthy ish is a good enough place for me to start and understanding coaching techniques. It teaches you holistic health and holistic therapy and why body health and beauty health are so intertwined. And of course, in this market, let's be honest. In any Euro monitor report for the last three years, we'll tell you a South African retail environment is highly impacted by price and promotion, those two Ps. Those two Ps can make or break you. The three for two concept is something that I don't think South African consumers could ever come back from, for sure.

Speaker 2: 30:40

We understand three for two yeah but how do you ever go back to life before three for two we? And how would that be possible? So I say, somebody click Netflix away come on. Some things can't be undone. That's very very true.

Speaker 1: 30:59

So when you look at, price and promotion.

Speaker 2: 31:01

In our market context, where so many fundamentals are applying pressure at once to the South African consumer whether it's load shedding, inflation, a weakening rent, housing, petrol there are so many pressure points on this consumer all at one time that you have to understand price and promotion is the game. And to be able to do that, hair care design has understood that over the years that price and promotion matters and I think what I would like to build going forward as a healthy solution to ingestibles that boost your hair health also boost your gut health, your immunity, assist your cognitive function. So your multi-benefit of your supplement is going to be your price and promo. So not only will it have the benefit of being plugged into a retail environment where price and promo will apply to the product, but it's a multi-benefit product. So rather than being a brain booster, it's gonna be a brain booster that also has the ingredients for skin glow and hair health.

Speaker 2: 32:08

I mean, if you look at the two target audiences that I specifically would wanna talk to is the young consumer that's quite urban, fast moving, she's highly aware of TikTok and social media trends. She's not afraid to make a green shake and take it with her to the gym in the morning versus the more mature consumer. She's slightly older but her needs are different. She's needing to learn about vitality and maturity and anti-aging products that can help her bloom at her age. What she's facing, her body changes. Whatever she's facing in her journey might be different to the 22-year-old.

Speaker 1: 32:48

Yeah, the second adolescence, exactly.

Speaker 2: 32:52

But the thought process stays the same. I want vitality and I'm very open to a pineapple college and a check that's going to give me all the fiber my gut needs and the boost for my hair and skin health in one go. So that's kind of where I'm thinking.

Speaker 1: 33:08

So the bloodlines are coming in very handy for innovation, in other words.

Speaker 2: 33:13

I certainly hope so. Ha ha, ha, ha, ha Great great, but you also you're already coaching right At the moment. No, I'm still in training. I'm training. Yeah, I'm just starting to.

Speaker 1: 33:27

Yeah, so you're back at school.

Speaker 2: 33:29

Ha ha, ha ha At the tender age of 47.

Speaker 1: 33:33

Yes we love it. Ha, ha, ha ha. It's inspiring Part of the evolution.

Speaker 2: 33:40

God, yeah, it's been a hell of a year to take on two programs at once, but they're very different. But one is teaching and understanding of holistic health and how to coach in a space of holistic health and general life. I think coaching technique can apply to so many fears, which is the reason why there's an explosion of coaches globally.

Speaker 1: 34:06

Yes, this is Shazen Leias, and my guest today is Taryn Gill, founder of Curls by Taryn, the home of the Perfect Hair and Curls in Bloom. Let's now get deeper into Taryn's return to school. We'll hear about the advantages of going back to school, collaborative learning and also she does a comparison between the accelerator and her experience on Shark Tank South Africa. We also discussed the supplements market, her coaching journey and her vision for the future. Now we do not go into the shades and layers rapid fire. You can hear more about that in a previous episode which is linked in the show notes. For now we're going back to school. What are the advantages of going back to school? You know one thing.

Speaker 2: 34:52

That kind of kick starts the cognitive process of the brain.

Speaker 2: 34:55

I think when you've been in business for so long and you've been a mother and a partner and a taxi driver and a gardener and you're building brands and a chef and you're building brands and it's the analytical thought process that comes with studying and trying to figure out how the learnings can be applied in a very real live business. It's exciting and it lights a certain cognitive fire. It's also challenging because it's pulling on technique that you maybe haven't had to use in a long time. It's kind of dusting off all of those cobwebs, but there I think it's all kind of part of what I call redesigning the rebel in me. Awesome, awesome. It provides a level of discipline and structure to what I'm doing which is so, so needed and something, entrepreneurs, when we're deep into our journey, we forget.

Speaker 1: 35:55

Absolutely, yeah, and there are new ways of doing things also right as you go along, there's new processes, new tech, new ways of working that are maybe more relevant than what you were doing before Absolutely. When was the last time you were in school?

Speaker 2: 36:13

You know I'm very lucky to be part of the Gibbs alumni, so every couple of years, I'm invited to join programs.

Speaker 2: 36:20

So I'm really blessed in that regard as every two or three years I jump into a program with them and it kind of keeps the spark alive. It's an amazing network. You meet so many amazing entrepreneurs and it's the connection and you feed off each other's ideas and just the thought process of that kind of collaborative learning. It's so, so, like I say, it kind of likes the cognitive fire and it gives you the stamina to keep going. Because I think as entrepreneurs especially post COVID it's almost this bubble you constantly have to force yourself out of.

Speaker 2: 37:03

Whether it's the category bubble that you're in, where you're not understanding the dynamics of other categories, or maybe you're just not exposed to big teams of people the way you were in corporate, so it's the physical bubble versus the category bubble or just simply not pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, where you settle into a comfort zone where you've been doing it like this for five years. So you keep doing it like that for five years and learning and collaborative learning with other entrepreneurs really pushes you out of that thing. And the whole concept of pivot People use this word pivot all the time. You know pivot this and pivot that. Quite frankly, you got to change it up.

Speaker 1: 37:49

You really do, yeah, so can you draw any parallels between your accelerator and your experience at Shark?

Speaker 2: 37:56

Tank. Shark Tank was probably one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Reality TV looks like fun on the outside but inside it's not grueling. I mean, I was soaked in sweat by the time we were done, but Shark Tank was a beautiful PR experience. It was a wonderful way to show a huge audience. What I wanted to do but what you get from acceleration programs, like what I've plugged into with Gibbs, is it's an immersion into a learning tank rather than a Shark Tank where you pitch against each other and it's a fight to win. The immersion in the thinking tank is invaluable and I'm very grateful that I've always gone in on a scholarship basis, so you're very aware that this is a gift. That is learning the gift, yeah, and it's a beautiful gift. So for me it's the thinking. It takes the time out of a very at some, what can be a mundane day of task completion and accounting and admin and general maintenance of what you've created or what you're trying to create.

Speaker 2: 39:10

It takes you out of that mundane and into a place of quiet thinking, and that's great.

Speaker 1: 39:15

So what would you say? Your vision is going forward, given all these things that are on the table and the possibilities in the next few years.

Speaker 2: 39:23

You know, 2023 was my great year of change. That was morphing and redesigning the rebel and looking at how do I push past the fear and do something I innately believe is possible for me in my life, for me in my business, for me in the brands that I can build, and pushing past the fear and having a certain amount of courage to try something new. And I innately I have the feeling that I had when I started the perfect year, that, that inkling, that gut feeling.

Speaker 2: 39:59

That said, I think I'm onto something and that's kind of the sensation, the butterfly that I have now, it's just with a lot more experience and tears and blood and sweat under my belt.

Speaker 1: 40:12

They count for something.

Speaker 2: 40:13

Yes, Kind of that beaten warrior.

Speaker 2: 40:19

Still with that inkling in my gut going, I think I'm onto something and I know I can do this and I think, going forward, it's the lesson of pushing through the fear that gives you the stamina you need to plant the seed and know that, that something will grow, that the tree will grow.

Speaker 2: 40:38

So that's kind of where I'm at now, in this late stage of 2023, where I'm starting to plant the seed for not just a new product line, but a new purpose and a new passion in my business, where I can create something, whether it's a product, whether it's an experience for my customer. I would like to see new product lines that are designed, go to market. I would like to see them become brand experiences. My belief in hydrotherapy is very much influencing how I'd like to take the brand experience as a destination brand, so you don't just get to buy the product, but you get to immerse yourself in the experience of what the brand can promise you. So that holistic health space is somewhere I really want to play in. I don't know if you've seen the massive trend for burnout retreats globally.

Speaker 1: 41:31

Oh yeah, absolutely. There are all the rage over here. I mean everybody's launching a retreat and it's just take your time, take time out, and it's all too much. And you know, I think she's planted a really great seed. I can't remember her name and that's terrible, but rest is resistance. So you see a lot of these retreats and don't work till you burn out holistic hustling, all of that and absolutely People have had it. Man, I love that.

Speaker 2: 42:05

I went to hydrotherapy treatments last year trying to detox, trying to heal, trying to find some kind of rest for my mind and my body, and was fascinated at how hydrotherapy and this rest culture was so prevalent, because no matter where I went, no matter what time of the year, they were full, they were fully booked With a wide array of patients who'd come from all around the continent, sometimes traveled from Europe, to come and rest, to come and heal. And I'm fascinated at how holistic hustle and holistic beauty and natural choices for your body and your lifestyle are becoming less of a treat and more of an accepted norm Because it's a necessity. So I think building a product line in that space is just the tip of the iceberg. I think you want to enable your customer to also experience where your brand is at, because so many customers will relate to the brand on how it's positioned. What's it saying to you in your mind and your heart? What's that brand really saying?

Speaker 2: 43:13

And I think that's somewhere I'd love to go it's actual destinations and retreats and holistic healing centers. Right, because we've got a network of colleagues and friends here where we share numbers of. I found this great naturopath on the Westrand. Or hey, there's this amazing healing coach based in Durban and she does online sessions, and there's a herbalist here and there's an online product there that is blending mushrooms that have been made just right so that you can pop it in your coffee in the morning, and we are trading secrets and I think holistic health centers eventually will be on your doorstep but you don't need to trade a secret anymore, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 43:55

I think that's exactly the way that it's going. I'll be interviewing a woman who's based here in Seattle, in Washington state, and she does holistic healing basically. So she works with other people to kind of like refer you for certain ailments or certain treatments that maybe she cannot treat Exactly.

Speaker 2: 44:15

It will be a network of healers. It will be a network and a community of healers that we will lean on to to kind of find the solution to the problem, rather than permanently have to treat the symptom.

Speaker 1: 44:31

Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2: 44:33

And it's integrative medicine at its finest, taking it to the next step, and I think that is a phenomenal movement that's coming and, like Perfect Air, I want to be at the front of that work.

Speaker 1: 44:46

You want to be there.

Speaker 2: 44:47

I want to be there, yeah yeah, that's fantastic.

Speaker 1: 44:53

I think there's something there for sure, yeah.

Speaker 2: 44:55

Yeah, Well, I mean the beauty of how coaching plays a role in that is so, so prevalent, in how, for example, there is a group of us moms who who suddenly are looking at coaches for ourselves and our children rather than the traditional clinical psychologist or psychiatrist.

Speaker 1: 45:18

Yeah, because sometimes you need an intervention, right? You don't Exactly yeah.

Speaker 2: 45:22

Exactly. Sometimes the coaching technique is the intervention and the mentor and the guide that in communities of previous generations your mentor and your guide would be living with you. Exactly.

Speaker 2: 45:34

They might be living next door to you. Communities were open and we ran our families and our lives in a very open network of voices where things were shared ancestrally. And suddenly we live in boxes where so much of that intergenerational, intercommunity conversation and aid and guidance doesn't happen. And coaches play that role. Coaches don't tell you what to do, they're not prescriptive, they guide you. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a very, it's an inspiring voice, it's a beacon and they help you to get to your goals, not by pointing out what the goal is. They help you to understand what the goal is and give you the inspiration to get there.

Speaker 1: 46:18

For the beauty of Without problematizing your situation, because sometimes you know nobody wants to struggle. Right, it's almost like you know. Let me get a diagnosis and you know it's okay to struggle but somebody can help you to get to the right, to move in the right direction.

Speaker 2: 46:37

Yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2: 46:38

I found beautiful coaches last year when I was wondering, through this hydrotherapy treatment, who were incredible in simply voicing and guiding and playing a beautiful mentor role, whether it was in my business or in my personal life.

Speaker 2: 46:55

And I think the the holistic health space in in a in the South African context needs to plug in a coaching voice. Whether you're providing a product to a consumer or you're providing a destination and a healing experience, that coaching voice is going to connect the dots. Because there's so many products that suddenly flood the market, does the consumer know what to do, why to do it, how to trust it, how to apply it to her specific healing journey? So for me, the coaching voice is going to be something that will be quite pivotal to to how this product gets taken to market. In the first place, it's got to have a voice that you can trust that's going to say for you, for your journey this is kind of where we think you should be going, or or. If that's your journey, if that's your choice, if that's your goal, then this is how this can help you to get there. It's a guide.

Speaker 1: 47:50

Yeah, I actually wanted to ask you about your take on the idea that you know the market is saturated.

Speaker 2: 47:57

Is it really? I think we're just seeing a lot more of it than we used to. So, for example, I pulled into it's called Pantry. It's a. It's a retail outlet that lives in what used to be a garage, and at the retail outlet is a bakery, an artisanal butcher, a green, a fresh produced market, a wine store you name it.

Speaker 2: 48:22

And it's fancy and easy. All at once I stopped for pineapples, apples, I think, a pizza, and ended up with bone broth, collagen powder and some and some relaxing gummies, because suddenly they were in this retail space attached to a petrol station.

Speaker 2: 48:44

So what you're seeing is a proliferation of new brand, authentic brands, organic products, products that have come from market to table, supplements that are engineered for very specific health reasons, in every store, on almost every shelf. So there is a proliferation. I wouldn't say an over saturation yet. No, but there is still a huge amount of voice that needs to come with that product, that needs to help people to understand why that gut needs healing and how that can improve your overall vitality. So I think the voice that comes with coaching will be essential to products I take into that space. I think right now a voice is going to be so much needed.

Speaker 1: 49:29

The trustworthy voice Great. So where can people find you if they want to work with you?

Speaker 2: 49:36

So app calls by Terran is my signature brand. I live in Instagram, Facebook and TikTok and I'm so open to doing synergies with people in the holistic healing space that that's kind of my aim for the next chapter.

Speaker 1: 49:53

And that is all from me this time around. Thank you for listening and please do share this episode if you liked it or you think it will resonate with someone else. Thanks to Terran for telling her story and for any lost in translation terminology, links and mentions in this episode. Please have a look at the show notes. Thanks again for listening. I'm Ganesh Kasanna Ritchie and until next time. Please do take good care.