This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Welcome to Cytusle School. Welcome to this week's Throwback Thursday segment. My name is Chris Guillebeau, your host. So glad you're tuning in today. In this segment, we're going to take a look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them. Now two weeks ago, we
heard from the owner of a California meal prep company. His business continues to put food on the table. And one week ago was our very special 2000th episode, episode 2000. That was awesome. But as you can hear, we are still moving forward. This is of course, episode 2007. And in this
latest feature, we're going to hear from Michelle Kador. Michelle is now the owner of two businesses, Yes, I am clothing and Despot NYC. Despot like da spot. It is a fashion boutique featuring BIPOC designers and brands. And as Michelle will explain, she's now full time in these endeavors.
But naturally, she started both of them while working another job and not being satisfied with the advancement opportunities she received. Have you ever been in a situation like that? Or maybe you're in a situation like that right now, where you feel stuck, you feel like you can't actually get ahead. In that situation, you often have to think differently and take action for yourself. So I'm so glad Michelle did that. It's turned out very well. Let's hear more about it
from her and I'll come back at the end with a quick wrap up. Hi, my name is Michelle Kador. I am from Brooklyn, New York. I am the owner of Yes, I am clothing and Despot NYC. And I was featured in episode side hustle school 1056. I started it
while I was working full time and I hit a glass ceiling in my career. And one year later, I was fortunate enough to basically stumble across a for rent sign where my then mentor turned business partner and I started Despot NYC, D A S P L T NYC, which is a unique fashion boutique featuring 25 plus independent BIPOC owned brands. And in the last five years, we've housed over 75 brands, created a market called the black creatives and culture marketing art show. And we also house an art gallery called canvas, creating a new view around society. I was seeking a promotion in my in my in my past career. And I was pretty much told, we'll see who else is interested and
feeling defeated. I decided, you know what, I'm not going to let anyone tell me what my future will look like. I am who I say I am. And so I started Yes, I am clothing literally that night, I said, I'm going to start a clothing brand to inspire and empower other people as I'm wiping away my tears in the rain after getting splashed by a car from head to toe with my mouth open and everything. But I took it as a sign from the universe, like girl, you've done amazing things before, you're going to do amazing things after. And that was pretty much me manifesting my future
and changing the trajectory of my life. And so I told a friend, and she connected me with another person that she knew who was a fashion designer named face front face clothing. And he kicked me out of the, you know, nest, I told him he'll be my mentor. He kicked me out of the nest in 2016. And I started Yes, I am clothing. And then two months later, we started dreaming about opening
up our own shop. And again, we started speaking things into existence, even down to the location. So we were like, you know, we'll open up a store in downtown Brooklyn, Flatbush bedside, and he says Dumbo. And I'm like Dumbo, nobody goes to Dumbo. And lo and behold, not only did I get out of that job that I was working in, not only did I transition from that, I negotiated a higher position for a 20k more in salary. And I like maybe three months after starting that new job in January, because in
2016, I kept saying by the end of the year, I'm going to be a full time entrepreneur, or working somewhere else making more money. And sure enough, January 2017, I was working somewhere else making 20k more. And three months later, face was doing a photo shoot in Dumbo. And he's looking for scissors and he stumbles across a for rent sign. And he calls me and tells me I think I found our shop.
And within one month, we opened the doors after putting down like $1,500. And that was the beginning of a beautiful story. Now, we've now been a platform to about, like I said, probably 85 brands right now. And not only that, because of the pandemic, we've been able to also create the Black Creators and Culture Market and Art Show, where for every Juneteenth now and for Black History Month in partnership with CityPoint and MasterCard, we have this marketplace for vendors, local vendors to be able to showcase their brands to the community and really celebrate the creative culture and you know, by pop culture. So since I've last been featured on this show, I've become a full time entrepreneur. I'm running the spot NYC with my partners and still growing Yes, I am clothing.
Yes, I am clothing has developed an amazing partnership with MasterCard, who has had me on their her ideas of priceless campaign and several other campaigns, including a commercial with Jennifer Hudson, that's been streaming during the Grammys, the Oscars, every award show the Super Bowl, and is currently streaming right now supporting black business women, owners, the biggest challenge that we're currently facing, I would say is, I wouldn't say it's growth per se, but more so being ready to expand our goal is to, well, for me, it's balancing the two. That's for sure. I'm learning that I have to, you know, you can't grow without having people. So we actually hired our first employee after five years, we hired our first employee like last year, because we had no choice. We were doing that market for 10 days and also planning a huge Juneteenth event. And so
we needed more people on deck. And I think for me, it's really being able to let go and let other people take charge and trust that they're going to be able to do it, which I'm more, I'm more comfortable with doing. It's not like a control issue, but it's just like you're so used to doing everything. And what I've learned from the Goldman Sachs program is a lot of people work in their business, but they don't work on their business. So I am more now taking the lead of working from home and working on the business, helping us to get further along.
Hey, thanks so much to Michelle. Really appreciate her sharing those updates with us. Listeners, check out her websites. Websites is in two of them. She's running two different businesses. Fortunately, they're somewhat connected. Yes, I am clothing.com or Despot NYC.com.
Despot like DA Despot NYC.com. Oh, also you can shop online or visit their store in Brooklyn, if you happen to be there or if you happen to be visiting at some point. Anyway, let me know what you think and who you'd like to see featured from our archives of more than a thousand stories, as mentioned more than 2000 episodes so far. And if you've got a question or an update for us about your hustle, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Thank you for tuning in today. Take care of yourself out
there. New episode coming up tomorrow. My name is Chris Guillebeau. You're listening to Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.
