Welcome And Joanne’s Origin Story

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of Carry On Friends, the Caribbean American podcast. As always, I'm excited that you are here. And my guest for today is Joanne. Joanne, welcome to the podcast. So happy to have you. Welcome. How are you? I'm good. Thank you so much for having me. Awesome. So why don't you tell the community of friends a little bit about who you are, Caribbean country you represent, and let's talk a little bit about the work you do.

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Sure, sure. My name is Joanne Briere. I'm from the island of Haiti. I came here in junior high school when I was 12 to 13 years old. From there, my backgrounds, you know, I started in the hospitality industry. My dad was an artist in Haiti, a medal artist, you know, has every little girl. They always want to be part of their father, is connect to their father. So I was like, since my father traveled a lot, he's into art, tourism, what's the best industry that I should get into, which is like hospitality and tourism. So when I came here to the country, I went to Kingsborough and I take hospitality as to study as a degree. And then from there I started working in hotel, from Taj Hotel to a lot of boutique hotel in the city. And then just like everything else, you know, I started to see like a trend, you know, me working in the hotel. I'm like, oh my God, there's a huge trend of people coming in, asking people for space. I was always a connector by nature. I love to connect people with each other. I like to help. I like to find resources. I was always like that since I was young. And then, you know, for me seeing that trend for the last 10 years, and I was like, my God, there's a huge trend. What is the trend? The trend of people coming looking for space. That's not like those big bulky spaces that you have in a conference, those hotels rooms back in the days. It's just like they used to come and say, I just need a little section here, like the living room to meet and connect with my friend. So that's what we call the trend of the whole sharing economy that's happening, the whole share space, the whole community space of like what people known as WeWork. But you know, um, before we work, there had to be a lot of spaces that have been doing that. But we work really did the whole community model and having the beard, that whole culture. But I had seen that trend before the whole things happening with WeWork. I was pitching it to people. They was like, there is no way real estate people would cut down their spaces and sublist it for other members or for other small businesses. That's not possible. So fast forward, I live in Brooklyn. I live right there, what now's called PLG in Flatbush, 495 Flatbush Avenue. I live in Hawthorne, which is like three blocks from Brooklyn Common, if you know Brooklyn Common. So one day I was getting out of work and I was like, What is this sign? It's in Brooklyn Common, you know, and I was always looking for space to do. I used to do small business networking even twice a month. And then when I walked in here and I was like, oh my God, what is this space? At that time, Brooklyn Common just opened up and they only had like eight or ten offices. And then, you know, I went in and talked to the landlord. I was like, What is this space? Well, it's an office space. And I was like, Well, have you actually launched the launch event to let the community know about the space so people could know? Because the whole idea behind that it was two reasons. It was A, a lot of us that live and work in the community. We live in the community, we were the last one to know about this information and these resources. And by the time we found out about it, everything is full. We just like, I wish I knew. So that was the number one goal. And then the second goal is I didn't want to be in the city anymore. I hated to be in the city. We work in Times Square, it's very hectic. It was like, I wish I could work in Brooklyn. So that was my two reasons behind that. And that's pretty much like the whole thing. And then from there, I approached him. I said, listen, uh, let's do a community model. Let's do um, he said, John, I don't really know anything about this community model. I'm in real estate developer, I rent an office, and people pay me my money and that's it. I was like, but the future is changing, the future is community, and community for us, especially in a Caribbean community like Brooklyn Flat, which is a Caribbean-dominated community. And what is that for us? It's like working together, building together. We just kind of like, hey, if I want to buy a Jamaican patty, I don't know, I go to Golden Cross, or if I want to buy um certain kind of bread, I go to Allen Bakery. It's a Caribbean-dominant community. So for me, and I know I was the goal, is like making sure that our people and our culture survive in the new spaces and the real estate that are happening in Brooklyn. Fast forward, he said, Do you want to come and work for me? And that was the whole thing. And I was like, Oh my God, I don't know. But you know, that's how we started working together. I pitched an idea seven years later, um, two location, and we've been growing. I scaled the business. We have 300 plus members ranging from freelancer all the way to Unicorn in the space. It actually has been a blessing, very exciting to work with so many people in the community. So that's pretty much what I do. Community builder for small business operation for um real estate developer that want to do co-working. And um that would be my bad girl. I'm an entrepreneur, and it's just like I really love what I do, being involved, being connecting, and also offering space to the small business in the area.

SPEAKER_00 5:07

Wow,

Seeing Coworking Demand Before WeWork

SPEAKER_00 5:08

Joanne, you said a lot there. No, don't be sorry. I think this is so cool. And I agree with you. I've been in co-working spaces way before WeWork was a thing. The offices were still kind of executive suite-like, but it was still a model that existed. Um, and WeWork just made it really popular. So you walked by, saw Brooklyn Commons, you approached the developer, and you've helped to scale Brooklyn Commons to where it is now, where it has a second location over in the Bushwick area. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:46

A flourished, thriving community. And of course, we have headaches just like everyone else. But, you know, we just came, you know, came out of the pandemic in January. And, you know, I didn't have any idea, Kamian, it was gonna be what was what what that whole co-working sharing space model would look like for me. It was just one mission. I was like, I'm just so tired of us being the last one to know about something, you know, because that's how you grow. You need to be in a space, you know, we all being as being isolating for a long time. We don't know where each other is, and then things are going up all the time. We don't have any contact, any resources from the neighborhood that we grew up to. I just I don't want to live where I live. I want to be in the neighborhood, I don't want to keep changing, I didn't want to move to the south. I didn't want to, I was like, you know what, this has to work. And that's I know from my heart and also from the culture that we're in, we're surviving that. That's something that we know from the start. If you go back further, further from Africa, everybody lives in the community model. You know, you have the chief there, that's how we people eat, we share shoes. Even the Caribbean, I think, Carrie. And don't you go sometimes to your neighbor, you have some sugar, you have something. It's part of the whole lifestyle.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

So it is. It truly is. I'm gonna ask you about your other project, but it's so interesting because I know nothing about it, which is part of the problem that you are talking about. There are things that exist in the community for from a co-working perspective. And um, it's helpful because when we collaborate with each other or we're in community with each other, even if we're not necessarily talking to other people, just being in the space, it's very helpful as humans for us to have that connection as we, you know, work. And in a post-pandemic world, it's it's it's a little different because people have their health concern rightfully so. So the reason why I wanted to have you on the show, yes, to talk about the work that you are doing with Brooklyn Commons, but you have another project. And you talked about Brooklyn Commons, but you didn't talk about this one.

Scaling Brooklyn Commons Through Community

SPEAKER_00 7:45

And this is the New York Beauty Suite.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

So Brooke and Common, because Brooke and Common, of course, is my foundation. You know, I have the experience, I know what I'm doing. Seven years later, you know, the whole sharing model, commercial space, I have the experience, and pretty much like that's my background by then. So two years ago, space has been shutting down, recession, social injustice, real estate prices going up, and the whole industry, and you know, we had to shut down curfew. It was crazy, Carrie. And so my niece, who was actually in the hair industry, she's a stylist, she came to me. She was like, Oh my god, I'm so upset. All the resources and everything that people are talking about is about restaurant fine helping the whole food industry, but there's no one who's talking about like the beauty industry, you know. And she said, I'm really upset about it. And I was like, Well, I have a space here. It's kind of like we had about like maybe a 1200 square footage space left at Broken Common. You know, this is like a huge space. So I was like, Well, maybe uh I cannot put you in the area where all the spaces are because that's different services, you know, health and beauty is very different. And I said, What about like maybe we could take a space and then I'm willing to invest and just kind of like I'll build your salon here? Now, mind you, I didn't know that the landlord was gonna go back go with it. And, you know, I was like, I didn't know, I have no idea what I'm doing. I didn't know no idea about the beauty industry, the uh the wellness industry. It was just like how I look at it, I was like, okay, so it's the end of the world. If I have one impact that I wanted to do, you know, my niece came to me, and then, you know, she mentioned the whole industry is not being paying attention to. What if I wanna maybe I could create something, invest in something, and save whatever the amount of people that I could save? That was my whole life. I'm like, it's the end of the world anyway, because that was that time. Turfew, you cannot come out. No one has no idea what to do with the whole um COVID. No one knows how they're gonna return back to work, no one knows about the future. So I went to the Linda and I said, Listen, um, can I turn the space to a salon? He said, A salon? What the hell you know about a salon? I said, absolutely nothing. Of course, just to be honest and transparent, I have the credibility. I build this, and you know, but at the end of the business is business. So I just went up to him. I just take the space. I had like, I built like six suites, and then a month later, we had a whole wait list. I emailed a lot of my neighbor. I said, Listen, I'll just open this for my niece, and I have about like five suites left here. Do you guys, you know anybody that'll be interested? Carrying, not to kid you. Within like by the time I send the email, a rush, a beautician, nail tech, they'll say, Oh my god, I heard, you know, do you have space? And I'm like, where are you guys coming from? You know, I didn't know. I was like, they'll say, Joanne, do you know what's going on? One of my founding members, her name is Shinsini, and she came in, I first met her. She said, Joanne, do you know what are you doing? You know, do you know this industry is big? No one ever tap into it. There's so many of us when it comes to space, because the whole beauty industry, especially the aesthetician, is really kind of like an industry that's like owned by Russians. You know, when you go to your face, we all used to go to um Shipshead Bay. At least I could speak for myself. I didn't know there was like a lot of black people that build these services. We didn't see them. You know, aesthetician, you go to the Russian, massages, the Asian. So for me, I didn't know there was a lot of black people in that industry because I know they work there, but not them running and building it. So, and I was like, they was like, Yeah, you know, we're trying to go to a different space. People didn't want to give us, you know, the spaces because it's it's a pandemic. So no one went to invest and take a chance and give them a lease. And I was like, oh my God, really? I said, Well, this is the suite that I have. What do you guys think? And you know, she pretty much a lot of them pretty much came to me. It was like a wait list after a month later carry on. And then from there, I I extended to more spaces in the back at from a 1200 square footage. Now we're expending by nickname next month to another 20,000 square footage in Flatbush. We're gonna have a total of over 50 suites, and right now we're doing um, you know, a lot of outreach, and people are just reaching out to us. I'm opening the wait list, it just has been an amazing journey. We have a combination of nail, hair, massage, um, facial, tooth whitening, anything you could think about, hair, they're all here. And that's something I would say I stumble on.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Wow, let me tell you. I'm not surprised because as a people, black, wherever you are from the diaspora, we we see an opportunity. But in your case, you used your equity, your reputation that you've built over seven years of the work that you've been doing at Brooklyn Commons. You've been laying that foundation to take a chance on this, right? You know, the way how, you know, we say, you know, the way how God set up your niece came to you. Because if somebody else came to you, you probably wouldn't have seen it the same way, but it's because your niece and you're like, you know, I want to help my niece. And even the timing, someone said, Boys, COVID is bad timing, but you you were able to see something different in that. So tell me about the suites, describe them for me. Because I have no idea what it is, you know, what a suite is like. Help us visualize what that looks like.

Turning Spare Space Into NY Beauty Suite

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Okay, so right now in the industry, so that was another thing. So the name of the company is called NY Beauty Suite. You know, hiring is like a creative stuff. I'm gonna name it. So when I was doing research, there is other people that I found out. It's like, you know, they being in the industry, they call it Salon Suite. And I was like, Well, I'm not a salon. And that's not because for me, when I think I think of the future, I'm like, I don't want it to be a salon suite because for me, the future looked different, right? Because you're thinking about post-pandemic, what that looked like. So it's a suite. I call it my um beauty suite because the beauty could be anything. A beauty could be like the nails, the girls could be like when you say salon, a lot of people think a lot of stylists or in there, a lot of people that do hair. So I differentiated with the name. I was like, beauty suites. It could be a nail tech girl there, it could be somebody that does tooth-whiting suites or ranging between 90, between 120 square footage all the way to 500 square footage. In the suite, you have your outlet and you have your lights, and then some of them have um sink, you know, water sink for those I need a stylist. And then you have the same amenities. You have 24-hour access, private space to meet with your client one in one, because post-pandemic now, everybody likes that personal experience. And then they want flexibility. What does flexibility look like? Well, Karen, maybe if I'm a stylist, I cannot meet you at six o'clock. I want to meet you before I get to work. If you're in a salon or you're in different places, these places are not open that have that 24-hour flexibility. You have access 24-hour, you have it's pretty much turnkey. You have Wi-Fi's already set up, cleaning to common area, utilities included, and your sinks included. You don't have to pay for water, you don't have to pay to clean up in front of your space. Everything is included. So, suites, um, once you inside your suite, you could decorate it to your liking. You have access, you have an option to decorate it. And then, you know, to meet with client. The beautiful thing about the way our business model setup is very collaborative. So, therefore, what does that mean? If I do hair, I have my next door neighbor who do nails. So sometimes what the girls do, they do like a spa day. So it could be like they promote it together where that day you do your nails, your hair, and your facial. You know, so they could, you know, because that's all about community. So you could know they could refer each other client. They say, oh my God, I'm not available. You could go to Joanne, you could go to Carrie here. It has been amazing because they understand the vision and then they understand moreover that we've got to stick together in order for us to make it. So that whole new industry, that community that I'm building in, they understand it. And I also think they understand it because they're coming from an era of post-pandemic, being rejected, being um, you know, a lot of them being stereotyping. When people think of beauty industry, oh my god, you just do nails, oh my god, you do your hairstylist, you black, you do it. That's what you're going to. But again, these girls are business women, they're artists. You know, for you to have a space around like the youngest one that I have here is 19. At 19 years old, to have to invest in the space, making money, to understand business, money, and and um legacy is very rewarding to see because that's what I think. My generation and other um generations before me, we miss that in the Caribbean community. What I mean by that, my sister came in here, my mom came in here, we worked so hard, we don't know what's going on in the, you know, in the community. We just want to work with work thinking we're gonna go back home. Everybody say, oh, one day I'm gonna go back home, I'm gonna build a house. It never really happened. So, therefore, that mindset, we kind of miss it in order for us to leave something for the next generation, we gotta build something, whether it's a business, something now we could pass it on. We don't have nothing to pass. So these girls understand. That's why I'm so proud of them.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Joanne, I mean, this sounds really amazing. And even the idea of collaborating, it's like a, like you said, the sharing economy. You know, if you're all in a space and your neighbor has a service, it's like, let's just let me just go this one place and get multiple services done. So a lot of times with co-working space, one of the draws is that they have programmings, you know, to bring each individual together.

Inside The Beauty Suite Model

SPEAKER_00 16:53

So, what programming do you have for the business women that are part of New York Beauty Suites?

SPEAKER_01 17:00

So, for me right now, it's all about changing the mindset, right? So, if you already know something, we've been doing it for years, that's what we know. So, what does that look like? What does that look like before they even come in here and say, listen, it's a community space. What does that look like? There's we do a lot of business programming where we do lunch and learn, where we invite outside community members, pretty much a restaurant owner, would come and then they'll bring we order the food as a way to support the outside community. And also they come and share their story, their journey with us while we're eating and sharing business tips and resources that they may not know about. And also as a way, it's kind of also to connect the internal and external community together. And we do um office hours twice a month with different experts where we'll bring them on, they cover all the essential yes, because a lot of the beauty industry, they know they are, but the paperwork has to be correct. What is that? You know, making sure your LLC is correct, making sure that um, you know, so you could be covered for future grants and future loans. Because when you think about building a legacy and having sustainability, all these things play into work. Um, we do a lot of networking events. We have um, we're gonna start next month, an incubator for the next generation that wanna be in the beauty industry. You could go to a four to six week incubator program, partnering with another organization, and they'll get paid. So that will serve also as a pipeline because I want them to come with a different mindset in the space. It's not because, oh my God, you know, Jennifer have a suite. I'm really good at doing nails, I could do better nails. It's all about creating a mindset for us to win and for us to be in the business as long as we can't, so we could leave that legacy for the next generation. So I'm really focusing on the mindset and also focusing on resources that nobody would not have. Resources would be like from having different organizations, you know, talk to them about grants that's available for them, talk about like different kinds of um opportunity that they won't take about, like, hey, you know, just because you're here doing hair, do you know that you could do a contract for the city where you could do hair for all the army people, you could do hair for all the police departments? So there's just like expanding the man beyond from what they know.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

I think that is so amazing. I'm so excited for you. I mean, just listening to you talking, I'm excited to hear. So, what else do you have going on, Joanne? Because I'm talking to you and I feel like you have a couple pots on a on a stove.

SPEAKER_01 19:19

So the whole space is built, the New York Beauty Suite is built on um now and

Mindset, Programming, And New Amenities

SPEAKER_01 19:25

the future. What does that look like? Yes, right now, if you go in your suite, we also have amazing amenities that are differentiated from other businesses. We have a podcast studio, and then we have a photography space. Uh, what is that? A lot of the girls that's in the beauty suite, pictures are taking all the time with their client, photo shoot, product photography, and then in order for you to expand, you know, content is everything. Whether they want to do audio to interview their client, they have all the options in one spot. So we want to make sure all the current amenities are current to what their needs are. Content, um, visual. And then it's just like a lot of partnerships are coming in the pipeline. Now we have people who are emailing us. A lot of companies and organizations they want us to do when um wellness Wednesday. For example, we have a partnership with the Gentleman Factory, where every Wednesday our team go upstairs and give all the members massages, massages, yoga, and it's all paid for by the gentleman factory. So, company right now understands how wellness plays a part in our productivity and our mental health. And then the girls have like we have two amazing Ashley and Carrie Ann, um, who's a massage therapist at the space. They're amazing. So for me, it's kind of like exposing to different opportunities that they would not know before. And I'm super excited and grateful for that. For all the people that have been reaching out, and thank you so much, Carrie.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

And we because we met during the during the we met, we met first at Ingrid's grand opening. Ingrid small. Oh yes, yes, yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

I forgot about that. I forgot, you know, I forgot about that.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Yes, and then we we connected again at momentum. So yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, we did, yes. Again, you see the you see the growth. Ingreas to be a member here, you outgrow the space, you open your own space. It's so much opportunity and resources in a share space. You know, the opportunity is just like it's endless. It's endless.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

And I mean, I'm just really excited to be in community with you and just, you know, however we could collaborate. You know, a good chunk of my audience is in New York. And even for those who are not in New York, you know, when you come to New York, you know, Brooklyn Commons or New York Beauty Suites is a place that you could probably come and, you know, work for a little bit if part of your trip is about work or whatever. So, I mean, I think that's the important thing about co working spaces, right? You don't have to be, you know, married to an office space. It is, I'm gonna be traveling for a little bit. I want a space that I could work while I'm traveling and I can get those opportunities. So it, even though you're in Brooklyn, the opportunity for people. From out of New York, out of Brooklyn, out of the state, wherever it can still come and experience, you know, just yeah, and then you could look at it, they could look at it in twofold: office space, rental, and also service provider.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Because when you're in a space, let's just say you have some of your clients, maybe they want to do, they want to meet a realtor, they want to have um a travel agent, any type of service and accounting. So when you think of a co-working space with 300 members, these are all the service that they do as a business. So anything you could think of, having your um your paper, maybe they could be here for a few. Hey, I need a notary. We have client, you have a member that does that. Hey, I need somebody to review this contract for me. There's a lawyer here. Hey, I have it from immigration lawyer to real estate lawyer to anything you could think of. Um, to have a finance. Yeah, I'm opening this new business. I don't know what the number looks like. You have somebody that does finance that could look at the number. You have an accountant, anything you could think of. So they may not need the space, but they mean a service provider, somebody that they could be trusted, that's part of a community, they could also find it here.

SPEAKER_00 23:04

Awesome.

One Advice: Follow The Fire

SPEAKER_00 23:05

So before we wrap up, I want to ask you a question and I'll give you a few seconds to think about it. What is that one key piece of advice you would give to someone who's either an entrepreneur, thinking about entrepreneurship, or maybe they're thinking of doing something on the side because they're working full-time and they were thinking of doing something on the side, and they are second-guessing whether this idea that they have is something that they should pursue. What advice would you give to them?

SPEAKER_01 23:38

You know, the way I look at it, all of us can have something that in our heart that we always want to do. Whether we ignore it, whether it's like, you know, I'll do it later, or this is not gonna work. But every time the same idea, the same thought, and then to be honest with you, the same thought followed for years. It's like, oh, I always wanted to be an artist. Okay, but you know, I have to survive, let me go work in finance. Oh my god, I always wanted to. And even in finance, you're still going to see art. That's you. We all have that energy or that little fire inside of us that I think we're all born with. And, you know, based on life situations, places, and things that's happening, we forgot it, we ignore it, we ignore it. So I would say for all the entrepreneurs that's out there that have that fire that you were born with, that idea that you always wanted to pursue, that's the gift that we came here with. You know, that's that's that's the gift. But for some reason, life we kind of ignore it because of different situations. So that gift, my advice would be to pursue it. And I know it comes without a fear. I don't have the finance, but I know it's gonna sound very taboo to say this. But once you start following that dream, the universe and a lot of things are gonna open up to you because that's the gift that God gave you. And you gotta trust that. That's the gift, that's your gift that God gives you. Once you trust that, everything's gonna open up to you. For me, I I didn't know I don't have a rich mom and dad. I didn't know the real estate developer, I didn't know anything. You know, I didn't have it was like I always want to connect for each other. I always been doing that. So therefore, I would say follow that fires inside your heart. And if you have the opportunity to follow it while you're having a side hustle, follow, follow that. Because that dream, that once it died, then that's when I see a lot of people become unhappy, and then their dream die with them. So if you could do the final advice, if you could do um follow that fire and really kind of like pursue it, I would just go for it. All of us, I feel like every time I interview the entrepreneurs, I'm talking to them, just like I always want to do that, but my mom didn't want me to do it, my dad didn't want me to do it, I always want to do it, and then at the end, they end up in a later time, they end up following it because it's like, you know what? I always want to do that. They don't care about the whole lifestyle because that's what makes them happy. So if you have something that if you would that would make you happy, even if you do it for free, which is part of that little that fire that you have in, go for it. And you know, I know it's on top of guys, but things will open up.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

Thank you for that. I mean, Joanne, I just love your energy. Your energy is bouncing. Like I Karen, is that you is this something you want to do?

SPEAKER_01 26:20

You gotta tell you that what am I gonna do? And you know, that fear. What is it? What is it that you always wanted to do? Is it you always want to be in like an interview or podcast radio?

SPEAKER_00 26:29

I you know what, Joanne? This is why I love this interview with you because I always say, you can ask me that question, but you are doing it. I am doing what I've been always doing ever since. And I'll tell you, so I grew up with my grandmother and I went to church with her all the time. Everything that was happening at church, I was there. I've taught every Sunday school class that I've ever been in. I was always a teacher's assistant and every performance at church. I don't think I could sing, but I got stuck in the choir. If we were doing a poetry recital, if any kind of skits, any kind of thing performance-based, I was doing it. In school, I did all of that. And I never I'm not saying that I'm an actress or anything, but it's it's something about having conversations, entertaining people. Ah, so that's your fire. Like I love doing it. And so even in this conversation, I mean, the podcast is a way for me not to teach the audience, but to facilitate conversations where they're learning and I'm learning. And I love that. I said I was a Sunday school teacher before I even know what that was. And that's always been something that I truly enjoy. I'm a lifelong learner. And I mean, it carries with me everywhere. Every employer would say to me, Carrie Ann, you're like a sponge. I soak up everything because I want to know, because I never know if this information is going to help somebody else. And so Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01 28:04

That's true.

SPEAKER_00 28:05

I love having these conversations because I love helping the audience, but I also love learning because I'm just talking to you and I'm like, wow, I didn't know this. I know somebody who this might be interesting for. So that's what I love. I love being a resource and I love, you know, helping other people too. So those are all the things that I enjoy. And, you know, you asking me that is just like, hey, nobody never really asks about a question.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

But no, because you know, it's kind of like a continuation of your question. It's like, what is that burning fire? And I think a lot of us to live situation and different things, we ignore that fire. And that's why a lot of people looking at it's like, well, why this person have this? Some people just okay, whatever different situation, but some people just follow that fire forever. You know, it might take longer than others, but that fire, it does two things. It makes you extremely happy, and then you're in the space that you are here to do, you know. So it's something that I would advise people to do. So for you, always want to be like a resource for your community, was in the choir, was in the church. It's amazing. That means you want to connect, you want to, hey, you know where to get this, you know where to get that. So congratulations on following. Thank you. And look at that. So podcasts is big. So, and then when people talk about the voice for the Caribbean, they talk about your podcast. So, congratulations, that's a big accomplishment.

SPEAKER_00 29:26

Thank you, thank you. I mean, it started because I wanted to help, I wanted to help my community. I was looking for something, and I was like, well, if I'm looking for this, how many other people are looking for this? And I started it not knowing it would have ended up almost, you know, maybe eight, nine years later. But it's like what you said, I had to move blindly. And yes, there were moments I was like, I need an example. And my friend, I and this is where good friends come in. Michaela was like, There is no example, you are the example, do it, you know, just keep doing it, right? And it's hard, you know. A lot of people feel like, oh, being the first is like, I'm the first who died. Being the first is scary because there is no example to follow. You are moving blindly. And so, yeah, you know, when you're moving.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

So you you was pretty much ahead of the trend because podcasts blown up less than five less than eight years. So eight years, and I'm sure you had a lot of people that's doubting you. What is that? Online, people want to listen to people, they're gonna go to the radio. You had all of these things, and then they don't know who else is doing it. So that was a lot of backlashes for you.

SPEAKER_00 30:39

I'm assuming there was a lot of doubt, a lot exactly. It wasn't as popular when I started. It was figuring it out. I don't know if I'm doing this right, and you know, very glad to have people to say, you know what, do it. I see when you do it, you know, you this energy. I love talking to you, and they're like, do it, even though it's scary when you don't have any idea what you're doing. But adding to what you're saying, surround yourself with the right people to give you that encouragement and like sound advice, like sound counsel, not hyping you up, but like just giving you that sound counsel as you move through the uncertainty and figure out, you know, what's the next thing. And you know, it's not gonna be right all the time, right? But you know, it's like in fact, for the first year or two years, it's not gonna be right.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

It's not if you guys came to the suite, you're gonna see the pilot. When I build the suite, they didn't have, you know, the roof all the way up because I'm learning, but now I know it's not gonna be it's okay, but you learn that's part of the learning thing, and that's why all these information, you know, to be honest, later on you package it because that's your experience, that's your the your investment. You could say somebody, hey, this is not how you do this, this, this, and that, because you already went through it, and that's how it works most of the time.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

Yeah, you take the risk, you take the risk, but also that mistake. Every mistake is information that you learn so you don't do it again, right? Every action, every experience is information to help you make better decisions going forward, and that's how I have to kind of look at it. It's a data gathering experience. That's what I call it. So, yeah, everyone.

Invitation, Name Drop, And Contact Info

SPEAKER_00 32:27

I mean, this was such an exciting conversation with you, Joanne. I really, really am excited. And you know what? I have not been to the Flatbush Brooklyn Commons, I've been to the Bushwick one.

SPEAKER_01 32:37

You guys should see my face. I was, you know, you guys shouldn't see my face. So we should do a whole series and then do it at Brooking Common. Why don't you do a whole series at Brooking Common? You get to see the, you know, interview some of the Caribbean businesses here so if you get an idea of what I'm really talking about. I would love for you um to come in. We'll schedule a time to come in. I will give you a private tour to see the whole building, to see who's here, to talk to this, you know, so you could see what that's all the stuff that I'm putting in visual. Be like, that's so sweet. I would love to invite you. And then please, if you ever wanted to do something with your um audience or um listener, if anyone is listening to Karen um podcast, you guys, you know, mention her name. Let me know. I want to know who they are. I want to know who you guys are. I want to know how we could continue to support each other in every way that we we can. So I would love for you to come. So let's schedule something for you guys. Absolutely. We're going to do that.

SPEAKER_00 33:32

Thank you. This is this is what I love. I'm so excited. This is really what I love. I'm very excited about that. Um, and yeah, we should talk about setting up something. This is community. This this is what happens when we're in community. And if you are listening to this and you wanna check out Brooklyn Commons, you want a co-working space, like she said, name drop Carrie Ann and carry all friends and see what you can get. All right. So, Joanne, tell everyone where they can find you on the internet, how they could get in contact with Brooklyn Commons, New York Beauty Suites. Give me beauty suites.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

Yes, yes, yes, yes. Well, thank you guys. Now you guys could also find me in Carrie and on Friends Podcast. Um, but we have um, you guys could find me online. You guys, um, NYBeauty suite at high at nybeauty suite.com, ww.nybutsuit.com. Brooklyn Common is spelled B K-L-Y-N-C-O-M-M-O-N-S, uh, 495 Flatbush Avenue, seven Marquis Garvey. And then the other location for New York Beauty Suite is at um 81 Willoughby in downtown Brooklyn. So if you guys are looking for event space, workspace, meeting room space, an amazing community that you guys want to thrive, amazing community that's really care about each other and kind of like collaborative. So check us out.

SPEAKER_00 34:52

Thank you so much for that. And as I love to say at the end of every episode, walk good.