- 5 months ago
Ciara, a Grammy award-winning artist who has been captivating audiences for two decades, sits down with Forbes to discuss her new album, her journey to artistic independence, and her multifaceted entrepreneurial empire. With her eighth album, "CiCi," set to release on August 22nd, Ciara describes it as a return to her R&B roots and a "token of gratitude" to her fans. She reveals the powerful story of her journey to independence, in which a disappointing meeting with a major label CEO propelled her to take a risk and become her own boss. She famously won her masters back, proving the label wrong after her song "Level Up" became nearly three times platinum, a testament to her belief in herself.
Beyond her music, Ciara is also a co-owner and investor in several successful ventures. She discusses her skincare line, OAM, which stands for "On A Mission" and aims to make "clinical skincare simple for all," highlighting its unique focus on dermatologically based products for all skin types. Ciara also shares the serendipitous story of how she became a co-owner of Ten To One Rum, joining the brand after her first taste of their product. As a longtime rum lover, she invested her own money to support the mission of elevating Caribbean rum on a global stage, and today, she is a driving force behind the brand, which is now the "fastest growing and most awarded rum."
Ciara offers a glimpse into her "why not you" mentality, explaining how her entrepreneurial mind has influenced her creative life and her ambition to continue inspiring and impacting others.
0:00 Introduction
0:48 The New Album "CiCi": A Return to R&B Roots
4:35 The Power of Independence: Owning Her Masters
6:37 The "Level Up" Story & Founding Beauty Marks
10:36 Becoming a Rum Co-Owner: The 10 to 1 Story
13:10 Ciara's Vision & Impact for 10 to 1
16:09 The Importance of Ownership & The Business of Music
19:05 Creating OAM Skincare: A Personal Mission
23:47 How Entrepreneurship Feeds Creative Life
25:18 The "Why Not You" Mentality: Keys to Success
27:23 Ciara's Goals: Music, Skincare & Rum
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Beyond her music, Ciara is also a co-owner and investor in several successful ventures. She discusses her skincare line, OAM, which stands for "On A Mission" and aims to make "clinical skincare simple for all," highlighting its unique focus on dermatologically based products for all skin types. Ciara also shares the serendipitous story of how she became a co-owner of Ten To One Rum, joining the brand after her first taste of their product. As a longtime rum lover, she invested her own money to support the mission of elevating Caribbean rum on a global stage, and today, she is a driving force behind the brand, which is now the "fastest growing and most awarded rum."
Ciara offers a glimpse into her "why not you" mentality, explaining how her entrepreneurial mind has influenced her creative life and her ambition to continue inspiring and impacting others.
0:00 Introduction
0:48 The New Album "CiCi": A Return to R&B Roots
4:35 The Power of Independence: Owning Her Masters
6:37 The "Level Up" Story & Founding Beauty Marks
10:36 Becoming a Rum Co-Owner: The 10 to 1 Story
13:10 Ciara's Vision & Impact for 10 to 1
16:09 The Importance of Ownership & The Business of Music
19:05 Creating OAM Skincare: A Personal Mission
23:47 How Entrepreneurship Feeds Creative Life
25:18 The "Why Not You" Mentality: Keys to Success
27:23 Ciara's Goals: Music, Skincare & Rum
Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com
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More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurshi
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🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00hi everyone i'm maggie mcgrath editor of forbes women our next guest is a grammy award-winning
00:09artist who has been captivating audiences for two decades her new album comes out august 22nd
00:16and she has really defined what it means to be an artist in control she is also an entrepreneur
00:23with multiple ventures and we are going to get into all of that and more please welcome sierra
00:28thank you so much for being here thank you maggie thanks for having me it's our privilege and i'm
00:33so excited to talk about all that you have going on right now and just let's go kind of chronologically
00:39and start with the newest the album comes out august 22nd it's a return to your r&b roots what
00:47inspired you in making this album yeah so this album is it's um my eighth album and it's called
00:53cc that's my nickname my fans have called me cc over the years and i feel like it's a very personal
00:59connection when they do that um and it's also you know the nickname my fans also my family also gave
01:06me as a young girl coming up um but you know i think for me um you know in reference to the r&b root
01:12you know idea i think it really does go back to my relationship with my fans you know um since day one
01:19and you know how they met me you know i i always say my i kind of say my music is technically urban
01:25pop you know but um or r&b pop shall i say is you know songs i can play in from the suburbs of
01:31decatur georgia where i came from to the suburbs of london um and i feel so fortunate that i've been
01:36able to do that so i guess you can say i'm i'm essentially one just saying thank you to my fans for
01:42their amazing unwavering support um because you know running my own label is not the easiest journey
01:49you know it's not for the weak as they would say um but i i really really am sharing this project as
01:55a token of gratitude to them um and and that being said there's certain vibes that they've loved for me
02:01over the years they've loved um i think a certain sound and a certain feeling and so i just wanted to
02:06make sure that i'm tapping into what that is and it does have a lot of bass in it um there's a lot
02:12warmth in the music and there's a lot of melody in the music and so um it's all that combined in
02:17this project and i'm so excited i feel like i'm giving birth to a baby with all the promo and just
02:23preparing for this project but i can't wait to finally share with the world i'm excited now i know
02:29you've said that you want to balance danceable tracks with really sincere and life-inspired lyrics
02:36yeah how do you strike that balance and also how do you if you're in the production process for a
02:42song and feel like it's going down the wrong path pull it back and get it back on track
02:46yeah i think you just go where the music takes you you know that's the beauty about music is that
02:50there's not like a specific formulation in reference to feelings like feelings are feelings or whether
02:55it's serious or light um you know you i think ultimately you just have to go where the music
03:00takes you and if something feels like it's off you just pivot and you change the melody you change
03:05the direction of the lyrics and that's what's so cool about music like i i have to say i feel like i have
03:09the best job in the world or you know one of um from my perspective because it's fun like music is
03:15fun um it can be a process some songs can take a month some songs can take a few days some songs can
03:20fake can take one hour um that's the beauty of music for me so um i just go where it takes me
03:27you go where it takes you what's something that's taking you one hour
03:30i would say let me see on this project sometimes when i'm doing like a revamp of something so um
03:39i kind of i'm waiting for this song to be finalized i swear um you know uh but there's there's okay
03:46there's a song i have called what's up i'll use that one because the one i'm talking about there's
03:51a feature getting on that song and i'm hoping that they make it by my deadline but um because i'm still
03:56closing it out but my song what's up featuring buster rhymes was literally probably one of the
04:02fastest song writing sessions i've had um it took us like an hour probably a little change maybe two
04:08hours max but that's an example of a song that's on this project because sometimes it's just fun and
04:12light you know i think sometimes those light moments are also like the most catchiest or the
04:18most catchy moments and um it's just fun again the music just like we were just one with the vibes in
04:24the studio i love when you reach flow as a creative and when there's just momentum it happens to me
04:31writing sometimes and it's the best feeling in the world yeah it's the best talking about other good
04:36feelings you are independent in creating this album how did that independence shape your artistic choices
04:43oh my gosh i mean being independent i feel so empowered you know i feel more empowered than ever
04:49um in this phase of my career um you know i think there's nothing better than having the
04:55creative freedom to do what you feel when you feel it um you know um there's something really cool
05:02about um it it takes me back to my old grinding days you know i said i'm grinding like it's the early
05:082000s you know when you're you know doing it independently because there is like this kind of
05:13grassroots somewhat you know um raw approach i think you have to the process whether it's how
05:20you connect with your fans like my relationship with my fans is very direct through my social channels
05:25um even when i see them out in the streets you know there's this thing that just feels a little
05:30different um than when i was doing it with the majors and and i'm i honestly can say you know well
05:37i'll never look back one being independent because i do love again my creative freedom i love
05:42also the the power of owning my masters you know i think that's really important once you understand
05:48the math of the business like you know you just want to do that as much as you can um but i'm also
05:53grateful for the journey that i had going through the major systems because they gave me wisdom for all
05:57that i'm doing now um but yeah releasing this doing this thing independently um you know it's
06:03definitely a grind um but it's so much fun and there's no better feeling than like my little
06:09intimate team that i've been fortunate to have and create um you know we it really feels like we're
06:16pumping together like the perspective of even that team that supports me on a daily basis within my small
06:22unit it just feels different you know than when you have when you're in the majors and so i like that
06:28personal touch i love that feeling why i do truly feel like everyone is like grinding it out with me
06:35um it's an amazing feeling i have about five follow-up questions from what you just said and i want to
06:40start with your masters and i know you've told this story before but i think there's such an important
06:45lesson in this in recognizing your own value when perhaps others do not so do you mind quickly
06:53reminding the forbes audience how you came to own your masters okay so let me try to do this in the shortest
06:58way possible um when i was two albums ago i had the opportunity um well i was in this kind of um
07:09transitional period because i was signed to a major label that kept going through all the different
07:14changes at the top the ceo one ceo in one ceo out one ceo signed me a new ceo came in
07:19and for artists when you're in that position sometimes it gets tricky because
07:24when you have a new voice or person coming in they're inheriting you they're inheriting what
07:31was left there from someone else's vision so you have to convince them to like what you're doing
07:36it's like convincing someone all over again you know on why they should roll with your project and
07:41why they should roll with your vision and so i was at that point and i remember having a meeting with
07:47the new ceo at that time and the whole idea was that i was going to take them my song level up i was
07:52going to take them the video i was going to talk about my vision for what i wanted to do and like
07:58how i saw the song and had the meeting i was excited um and in that meeting you know it actually was
08:06probably one of the most disappointing meetings i had in my career because i could tell that he wasn't
08:11so into the music you know or the project or the direction but it was also one of my greatest meetings
08:16because that propelled me to become independent because literally he did not see the vision of what
08:22level up was he was just kind of like you know yeah i think he kind of already made up his mind
08:27before i even walked in the room to be honest with you um and i remember going downstairs to the person
08:33that was my anr at that time um his name was monty olson i love him um i'm forever grateful for him
08:39because he also believed in me when i was like eight months pregnant to sign a deal with me he was one of
08:44the executives that were actually still at the company when the old ceo went out new one came in
08:49we just talked about like the power and i had already been dreaming of becoming independent
08:54we talked about it again in that moment like what it could look like if i was to take the risk
08:58and so literally you know all in one day one of the most disappointing moments and one of the best
09:05moments happened that was the day i decided i'm going to go independent because i knew the company
09:10didn't want to keep rolling with my project um so fast forward to i asked for my master's
09:15and they gave it back to me for free so let you know how much they didn't believe
09:19and now level up is almost three times platinum so almost three times platinum that is understanding
09:27the value that you bring to the table gotta believe was that the earliest seed then for
09:31beauty mark entertainment which you founded in 2019 that was my first song i released off my
09:36independent label or my label imprint beauty marks entertainment um and my whole idea behind
09:42beauty marks entertainment was that all the scars you get from the obstacles you face in life are
09:46your beauty marks so i had a song on the album called beauty marks album was called beauty marks it
09:50was just a very significant moment in my life and career and um i'll never look back what are the
09:57lessons that you've learned in building beauty marks that you would give to other artists who wish to
10:02follow in your footsteps i think the greatest thing is just simply believing in yourself you know if you
10:07don't believe no one will if you believe that's the moment opportunity begins for you
10:11so i would say believing in yourself is so important um you especially have to believe when
10:17when others don't um you know that's i think the time we have to really double down i'm also big on
10:22faith um you got to have faith through the journey um but yeah man know that you've got the stuff
10:28you've got it you know you just have to like put a game plan together you know and uh you know and
10:34go for it beauty marks entertainment is just one of your entrepreneurial investors you are also
10:42a co-owner of 10 to 1 rum what attracted you to this brand and this opportunity well it's so funny
10:49i've always been a rum lover so i was 21 years old i got the great chance to have my first drink that was
10:57when i had my first sip of anything um and i remember putting on this big old party tour i was
11:04trying to do it like at that time i remember them you know firstly things would be set with an english
11:09accent oftentimes when it was like this cool thing or whatever so like i was you know you would watch
11:15mtv cribs and they'd be like such and such has this lavish pad with over three lamborghanies and
11:21this lovely wicked pad is 36 000 square feet like everything was so so they were i remember that time
11:29you know paris hilton she had this crazy um party tour and they were like paris has this these parties
11:36one in miami one in london one here i'm like okay i'm gonna do my birthday party paris hilton style
11:43because you're turning 21 so it's a big moment right and i i had a promoter put together party
11:50run for me by time we got to the third party it was a wrap there was no more like party tour because
11:54the weather got funky and ironically it was in the caribbean um and so what i did get to do on my
12:01party run is i got to have my first drink and the first drink i had was rum but ever since i had my
12:06first um you know taste or my first drink um i had i loved rum and so it was kind of love at first
12:13cider rum at first sight for me um and so fast forward to during the thick of the pandemic
12:18i was breastfeeding my son when i had breastfed him 10 months long enough um and it was time to
12:25celebrate so i got to try 10 to 1 and i had it in a form of a mojito and um i had a mutual business
12:33partner named larry estrada who was also um good friends with mark farrell and working in his world or
12:40you know becoming a part of his world at 10 to 1 and so i i got to meet him um and after i had 10 to
12:47one i'm like this is special like it was very serendipitous like the timing of everything um and
12:54we ended up joining forces so i joined him as a co-founder i invested as well um just because one
13:00the product it always starts with product first the product was outstanding um and so um yeah we're
13:05now rolling we've been going and we're probably the fastest growing and most awarded rum fastest
13:11growing most awarded rum those are two good superlatives but what do you hope your involvement
13:16continues to do for this brand well i think it's important one i think passion is everything um you
13:23know i hope that people will go on the journey with us like our vision at 10 to 1 is get people to
13:27reimagine rum you know so normally you would see rum you know when people think of it it's in
13:33strawberry daiquiri and pina coladas it's in this traditional way and that's great you can do that
13:38but also we want people to elevate their vision when it comes to rum um and know that you can have
13:45fun like i had in the mojitos fire uh you know you can have what i call a rumarita if you like
13:51margaritas try our white rum it is like you'll never go back like it's so good um but there's so much
13:57fun and creativity that you can have with the rum and i hope to be able to share that great message of
14:02how beautiful rum is um and to share um the goodness of rum there's no additives in our rum
14:10as well which is great so you don't also have to see it in the super sugary way like we want people
14:15to you know kind of shift their perspective a little bit or evolve their perspective and so i
14:20hope that i can share my great story and experience with 10 to 1 inspire others to join us on the journey
14:25um you know and i i hope to just be able to keep sharing the great message of who we are because it
14:31really is special so you mentioned that you are an investor in 10 to 1 rum how does taking your own
14:39money affect the way you operate with the company it's not just slapping your face on a label it's
14:46literally investing your own funds into this company yeah well i mean that's significant right when
14:51you decide to take a sizable amount of funds out of your pocket and put it into something
14:56um you know it's kind of like putting your money where your mouth is mentality for me i really believe
15:02in 10 to 1 and um or believed in it from day one um and i do think there's something about you know
15:08as people say a little skin in the game you know i do i i maybe i can say if i don't want to say you
15:15know i feel more connected because sometimes there's opportunities where it's an equity play
15:19and you feel just as in you know uh well it's kind of the same thing but you feel connected to um you
15:26know what you're pushing and what you're reaching for but i do feel a deep connection to 10 to 1 um
15:34knowing that one i got to become a part of it in the early stages um but yeah i did you know i did go
15:40into my pocket and i think that's a strong uh a strong uh way of showing how i believe um and so
15:50yeah i do want to see my dollars flip okay i want to see them go up um so there's no doubt about the
15:58passion that i have every day um when i'm out here pushing and um you know just trying to do everything
16:05possible for 10 to 1 to continue to grow and become what we believe it can be
16:09there's equity plays but there's also ownership and it strikes me that across your businesses
16:14there's a real sense of ownership yes would you agree 100 percent um again i think ownership is
16:20everything if you think about the structure of an artist and how just starting with music right
16:26and i've always said music is the foundation but not the limitation but what i what you learn and
16:32what the wisdom of my experience over the years has given me is that it showed me the importance of
16:37that so give you an example when your baby coming up in this thing just as an artist alone in most cases
16:43you sign a traditional management contract right maybe this 20 okay that's the beginning okay
16:49you do that then okay you first of all you have your let me go backwards you have your deal
16:54your record label deal okay you're you get a small amount of royalties from what your performance is
17:01right and then you have to recoup to even get that rolling okay and that's a small it's sometimes not
17:07even like 25 of the pie it's like 13 of the pie then you get a manager that's like 20 again this is the
17:16baby stages okay then you hire an attorney you have a five percent bucket and then you have an accountant
17:24and you do that percent bucket and then you have uncle sam so just do the math of that right it goes
17:33away very quickly yeah so when you have and that's not including if you have agents like do you know
17:39what i mean so when you think about that math and you bust your butt like bust your butt like the
17:45sacrifice i think a lot of artists put into this like you just want to be able to you know look on you
17:52want to be able to reap the benefits of your labor so when you understand the power of ownership
17:58you know that's legacy that's also um you just have a better opportunity to um reap the benefits
18:07of your labor to you know simply put it so i i think that's important and i think it's like why do you put
18:13all this work in like you know i get to 21 years from my first since my first album it's like that's
18:18got to be the next phase right it's like you worked so hard you've been in the trenches you've grinded
18:23you've had successes you've also failed like all those moments to me prepare me for where i ultimately
18:29want to be like i've always jumped up being a billionaire so you asked me about a year from
18:33now like i'll give it a couple of years right but anything is possible okay and cc's head i believe
18:38a lot of things are possible i'm going to always dream that way but i can't get there by a traditional
18:43way you just can't so like ownership to me is really important and it's kind of become the
18:49standard you know so and i like it you like it and maybe someday cc will be on the forbes billionaires
18:55list maybe one day why not why not save this interview okay now let's shift gears to another
19:03one of your businesses oam skincare what was the light bulb moment for this clinically driven
19:09skincare company so oem stands for on a mission i say i'm a woman of ambition on a mission
19:14and in this case in the clinical skincare simple for all um and when you look at the landscape of
19:20skincare there's a lot of us as in celebrities in the space but when you start talking about
19:26dermatologically based brands that list gets really small and then you talk about woman of color gets
19:31even smaller um so you know it was kind of all these great things lining up with my vision
19:37on skincare itself i was the girl that used body wash and body lotion on my face i was never you
19:44know i wasn't putting in the best effort and my dear friend and makeup artist of 20 plus years i will
19:50not say the amount because then i start to really date myself um yolanda i call her my skincare guru
19:56she used to always say wear your eye cream did you use your eye cream like but then i'm like you look
20:03at her she's like a box of wisdom but she looks nothing like her age she's 61 and i love celebrating
20:09that because it's such an inspiration but she would you know tell me these things and i finally decided
20:15to listen to her like she's on to something here and so oem was also birth i gave birth to a baby i gave
20:21birth to 10 to 1 i also gave birth to oem um or i joined 10 to 1 but i also gave birth to oem in the pandemic
20:27so um my hands were full but it was so much fun playing with the formulations really understanding
20:34how products work for your skin and how when you do put that effort into how you love on your skin
20:39it does make a difference and so i wanted to make oem for girls like me and so i also have a numbering
20:45system on the back so you know the steps to follow which is very straightforward and luckily i've learned
20:52that there's so many people that were like me using regular body wash body lotion on their skin
20:57um you know and in total truthfulness too with oem it's funny because we're in this transition point
21:03where um kind of sharing this for the first time i've been working on some really new amazing
21:08formulations um we've sold out of a few skews a few times and we're also a small company so
21:14entrepreneurs business people we know what that means so there's a couple there's some growing pains
21:19that we you know have been going through but in a beautiful way in reference to how you have to keep
21:24up pace with how you're selling out with inventory but i do have two skews left i have my serum serum
21:30and our brightening pads that are outstanding because we had more of that coming back in so the
21:34fans are like what's happening what's going on um there's some exciting things happening with oem and
21:39i'm just i'm very pumped to um keep taking the oem community on the mission with me how are you
21:45responding to that consumer demand are you hiring a chief chemist to mix more formulations or are you the
21:53one doing all of the testing well i do the testing i also have my team do it with me and then we also
21:59use the fitzpatrick scale which is really important you know it's the metric system and skincare world
22:03that for me it's one of the golden standards that you want to use where it's a true skincare measuring
22:10system that does the whole process on all skin types because when i say it's for all skin types i want
22:16to back that up so we do that and there's a whole process they go through for like six to eight weeks
22:21long and then you get the clear results you get to get have all the facts like i want to walk the talk
22:27um so it's a combination of that me doing it our team doing it um yes um i've had a great experience
22:34of bringing with chemists as well to understand where stuff even comes from and that's really
22:38fascinating um you know our current line you know one fun fact that i that i could share that i was so
22:44proud of is that the water is so pure that you can perform surgery with it when you're in the lab
22:50and you see these little like um those trays or you see how the bacteria looks when it's right and
22:56when it's wrong it's really fascinating so there's been a great learning experience for me even on the
23:02process um but it does make a difference when you put effort into your skin like i can tell you guys
23:08firsthand like try it because you really i'm the one that it takes me some convincing with some
23:13things i'm like does that really work and you're like okay actually it does work when you start to
23:18do it so we have the level on our skin at the highest level and we also shouldn't break the
23:23bank to do it either you know i was also a vaseline intensive care just all over the body it took into
23:29my 30s until i got actual face cream and actual eye cream so it does take makes a difference it does
23:35i hate to admit it but it does make a difference your eyes light up when you talk about oam and really
23:41all your business ventures do you see the entrepreneurial side feeding your artistic
23:45creativity and your musical creativity yeah i think they both go hand in hand you know because
23:50one obviously i run my label um so you know there's that same mentality from an entrepreneurial
23:56standpoint um and and i think what's happened with me having beauty marks entertainment my label
24:02having my skincare line oem and having things like 10 to 1 rum and other things that i'm involved in
24:08is that the budget life is real you know as an artist you put budget life second as an entrepreneur
24:15you put budget life kind of simultaneously at the same time it's it's like first if that makes any
24:21sense um and thought i may have a creative thought but right away my business mind kicks in goes okay
24:26what's this going to cost before i wouldn't i would think that way but i would lean more creative
24:31when i was like signed to a label and i feel like that's the same mentality like you're thinking
24:36what's my pnl sheets look like like these things i would never talk about and i i have to do that
24:42across the board especially when you're small business like an oam you know like for like oam for me
24:47those those details are like crucial right um so i think it's kind of like cross pollination
24:56my my my entrepreneurial mind or thoughts and flow across the board that's interesting do you think it
25:04was there all along because i've heard you talk about being 18 years old and having a vision for
25:09your songs and knowing exactly what you wanted in that music and that to me speaks to a clarity of
25:14direction that is also required in entrepreneurship yeah i've i've always been very very um very very
25:22vocal very um i've always dreamed big i've always been that girl you know for some reason i just had
25:29me that i was going to like live life a certain way and you know do the things that i dreamt of
25:34doing like i've always had what we call in our house a why not you mentality yeah so we have our
25:41why not you foundation both russell and i and the why not you mentality is a real thing i've always
25:46been that girl like why not me you know why not you yeah is that what has driven your success over
25:53two decades because two decades in the music industry is no small feat yeah what do you think is the key
25:59to that yeah i think um there's a saying when you do what you love you never work a day in your life
26:03i'm doing what i love doing um i've also realized that i love this thing called music that will never
26:08love me back how i love it so the moment i stop having that feeling is when i'll stop but i think
26:13that um you know one of the keys to success is doing what you love um you know i'm trying to really
26:20work on quality versus quantity um but it's fun when i get on the stage and rock for my fans and dance
26:27like the reaction and love that they give me is so motivating it's so powerful like it's the best
26:34feeling or one of the best feelings in the world to have that love so um i think that's a big part of
26:41my drive you know it is my fans it is my love for the art like it is my passion you know i love making
26:48music it feeds my soul it's very therapeutic um that feeling of going in the studio and making a song
26:54is like the best feeling in the world too um you know and i think ultimately to impact like i love
27:01i don't i feel like it's like why did god give me the billions of girls in the world this opportunity
27:07like i don't take it for granted and i think that there's so much opportunity to inspire and um you
27:15know impact so many on my journey um and so that's also a big part of my why and um why i love doing what
27:22i do it's so clear that you love doing what you do i know you have a lot going on right now and for
27:28the next several months but if we were to speak one year from now what would you hope to report to
27:32forbes that you have accomplished in that year that's a great question i would like to because
27:38i let me tell you i'm really big you know when you go on record and you speak and you say things
27:43you speak life into what the possibilities are okay so we've talked about my music we've talked about
27:5010 to 1 we've talked about oem i do believe of course level up will be for sure three times
27:55platinum maybe i'm getting closer to four um i would like to believe that 10 to 1 has reached a
28:03new height um you know we're in this exciting point um where we're starting to really expand
28:08um our partnerships our corporate partnerships which i'm which i'm super pumped about um you know i feel
28:15like bit by bit more people are coming into the community of 10 to 1 and joining us and having a
28:20great curiosity about rum so i'd like to believe that 10 to 1 would have leveled up another notch
28:26next year um and with oem you know to be honest i i really i mentioned to you
28:32that i'm kind of experimenting with some stuff so i'd like to say that oem will have a retail partner
28:39okay we're gonna speak life into that and also the world of oem as it relates to skincare and beauty
28:45would have evolved for me too because i i don't think i'm just limited to skincare when it comes
28:51to the world of beauty so i'm on a mission you know to do all those things and to grow um and again
28:57another level up for oem as well so that's what i was saying my music of course tour i want to go on
29:04tour um you know i'm actually we're already talking about what tour could look like for next year
29:09so the hopes is that that will be activated as well well you will have to come back and tell
29:16us all about it but in the meantime sarah thank you so much for sitting down with forbes we so appreciate
29:20it thank you so good
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