We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jodecci Munnings a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jodecci thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

My grandmother, the late Melrose Gaitor was a fashionista in her own right. She passed away in 2000, but in 2006 i found some of her items in a hall closet. one of which was a cobalt blue fur coat. I’d always sneak it into my room, put it on and walk around on my tippy-toes imitating the strut of high heels. i wanted to be a fashionista too. in 2014 when i was first approached by an investor for my business the original name i chose was “Melrose Closet”. i kept the business plan, however I never submitted the proposal. i knew that it was something that i wanted to do but i also knew the timing wasn’t right. In 2020, my vision expanded, and the business evolved from a closet to an entire house as there was now a collection of products and skills that i had learned over the years that i now wanted to incorporate. In High School our competitive teams were called ‘houses’ and were named after Bahamian flowers, Hibiscus, Yellow Elder and Poinciana. I was on the Hibiscus House team of course; a strong team with great representatives in speech, recreation and sports – yet somehow, we never came out on top. Melrose loved Hibiscus flowers; she had planted large ones right off the porch in the front yard that had grew to up to six feet. The name was perfect i thought…The perfect way to honour her for her inspiration and also pay homage to a team I was a part of that never truly got the recognition and awards it deserved.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Jodecci the name originated from an R&B group named “Jodeci’ that formed in 1988. my name naturally represents the combination of talents operating as one. As i got older i noticed that like my name, my personality and work ethic combined helped me to evolve into a person of many talents too. Explaining to others what i do can become a laundry list of things. by day I worked in Finance and Accounting, but I’m mostly known for what i do after the 9-5. It started with my makeup artistry in 2016. Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of doing both local and international clients, I think what sets me a part is my work with both domestic and international destination weddings. I’m proud of the fact that I’m not only known locally but am also highly recommended by even those that have not yet had the opportunity to work with me. I’m also a mom, a painter, a graphic designer, a perfumer, a cosmetologist, an esthetician, a motivational speaker, a craftsman, a writer, an event planner, a brand owner, content creator, hostess and so many other things.

Every part of what i do now is a part of my history. I try to always incorporate the experiences I’ve had and the people that inspire me into the brands I’m building, it’s what has always reminded me of why i do what i do. Every branch of my brand reaches a different client type, gender and marketing group. Always reaching, engaging and inspiring a new audience; it’s what makes me want to keep learning and get better; growing, expanding and introducing new things. For me, it’s not just about providing a products or service – my brand is my ministry.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

“The most challenging part of my entreprenurial journey was first finding the confidence. i believe that the first step to success is first believing that you will be successful, and the other steps are simply making the effort to take the next step regardless of the risks, rewards, disappointments or support in between. Growing up i was extremely shy and often teased for my untraditional features. i often times tried to hide them but for some reason they had always seemed to capture the attention of everyone I’d meet. Many people, especially children my age at the time, didn’t hesitate to point out my differences and for me that equated to “ugly. In high school my dad finally let me introduce a little makeup and brow grooming into routine. i know that many days when he opened my door and my face was smudged with violet eyeshadows and unblended foundation that he regretted that introduction wholeheartedly, but nonetheless he let me do me. By the time i left high school i was very much into cosmetology. Every time i left the house strangers what compliment different parts of my look, asked where i went to school for it and even ask what was my fee? My beauty routine was something that i did for me but in 2013 i started practicing on different friends and family. i took a chance on my first business “Makeup by Jodecci” and had my first clients and two wedding bookings in 2016.

it took a lot of resilience to find the confidence to put myself out there and believe enough in myself to now market myself as a model for beauty. My biggest struggle was honestly me! Despite the complements i received, i didn’t believe that anyone outside of the few people i knew would support me. “Who would support the girl often teased for her looks and trust her with their appearance?” it was a challenge to break out of my shell, before then, i had never truly been able to see my beauty. my insecurities even made it hard to take a compliment as i was always looking for the flaws and the things i had to improve. I had to overcome self-doubt and learn that having room for improvement isn’t a bad thing; that it leaves more room for growth and creativity.

When my cosmetology wings expanded, i feel like i gave the world a NEW reason to notice me. Suddenly they were looking beyond my differences and suddenly the girls i thought were already esthetically beautiful, were paying me to look like ME.” Today I am the confident, proud owner and solo artist at M.B.J Studios with two locations, i have done countless applications and service collaboration with other artist and launched my very own makeup product brand “Souvenir Cosmetics” in 2021.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

In 2014 i was approached by an investor who was interested in buying into my “Melrose Closet” dream, i wrote up a proposal and was excited because i didn’t have to go looking for it – the investor came to me! As elated as i was at the time i never submitted the proposal. Something didn’t feel right at the time, i knew i wanted a partner who would be mutually as invested into the business and not just interested in the potential of profiting financially. Two years earlier i had met Troy Knowles, we were both working as aviation agents at the time but on our lunchbreaks talk about current events and sometimes the lack luster of growth in our community. In those conversations, i learned that Troy was also an entrepreneur. Growing up, he was a popular disc jockey since about the age of 14 and had now owned an electronics storefront for over 15 years at the time that today it was still opened and operating successfully. He and i lost touch when our contracts ended, but reconnected when i ran into him registering for our local government elections in 2014- “this man was serious about trying to make change i our community. Thats admirable” i thought; and from that day we had never lost touch. He didn’t win the elections that year but committed himself to finding his own ways to support the people in his community.

In 2018 i thought i had finally found a business partner, when a close friend and fashionista had expressed interest in becoming a makeup artist too. ” This is perfect!” i thought. She was well known for her fashion sense; always altering outfits and getting many of them custom made for events. Having her become a makeup artist too would be the perfect collab of fashion and artistry to start our Melrose Closet team. “She’d be more hands-on and invested” i thought, but the collaboration never started, unfortunately.
 
Years later amidst a global pandemic in May of 2020 i was working on launching a seasonal promotion for Father’s Day as a tribute to the men in my community. I knew what i wanted to do but consulted Troy for the male perspective and by the time the conversation ended he was excited and asked to invest and collaborate with me. He even added his own specialty products to the mix. That initial collaboration was extremely successful and was the first of many other seasonal collaborations between Mr. Knowles and i. By the next year we were looking for storefront locations and using the profits from our seasonal promotions to fund the bigger goal of putting all of our different products and services under one roof. This collaboration and the expansion of services is what helped to expand the proposal of ” Melrose Closet” into ” Hibiscus House”.

“Next year, as we celebrate the 3rd year anniversary of Hibiscus House, we will also celebrate 12 years of friendship, 5 successful years of partnership and toast to the new entrepreneurial ideas to come!”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hibiscushouse.online/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hibiscus__house/
• Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/HibiscusHouseLLC/?_rdc=1&_rdr
• Other: https://www.hibiscushouse.online/gallery/