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

Ebony, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Often the greatest growth and the biggest wins come right after a defeat. Other times the failure serves as a lesson that’s helpful later in your journey. We’d appreciate if you could open up about a time you’ve failed

I don’t really have a story of failure but, a big mistake I made when I started my business was not promoting effectively. We’re in a time where influencer marketing is at an all time high so even though I took advantage, I wasn’t intentional. I was just sending my products to anyone with a big following but I wasn’t seeing a return. The only way you’ll see a return is if the influencers you gift complement the brand you carry. So for example, since I sale cosmetics, I should only gift to influencers who are into beauty, who promote makeup and skincare. It’s so important to figure out who’s your ideal customer and market to that person consistently.

Ebony, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Ebony Rice and I’m the owner of a beauty brand, Winx Collection by E, which is a quality cosmetics brand made for every individual, at an affordable price point. I founded Winx in 2020, with a small collection of lashes. The brand has expanded so much since then, that now it’s an actual cosmetics brand. I really just grew up loving anything beauty related, that’s why its so easy to be my own muse. Like my brand embodies me, I’ve always been the kind of woman that stands out without doing to much. Winx is a balance of that!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn is that the number of Instagram followers doesn’t equal dollar signs. Its about engagement and being connected with your customers. It’s a bunch of businesses with a ton of followers but they can’t convert their followers into dollars, so I try to focus on connecting with my customers. Thats why it’s important to be a really genuinely be a good person because people will be naturally drawn to you because of your a pure soul. Also, another lesson I had to unlearn is that you can’t be emotionally immature when it comes to business. I’m so passionate about my baby (Winx) because it is completely mine, like nobody helped fund or put in the foundation work. It was really all me and I take a lot of pride in that. So when I would see someone copy an idea or do something similar, it would bother me. But now I don’t take it as personal, it just puts me in a more creative space to just come harder.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I feel like what built my reputation within my market is my character. The beauty industry is so saturated so the only thing that separates us is our quality of our products and who we are and what we stand for. I feel the success that my business has experienced has a lot to do with my spiritual foundation and the kind of person and integrity that I carry. At the end of the day it’s a bunch of brands with great quality but what makes mine stand out is me and how treat my customers, how serious I take my business and how I go above and beyond to make my customers feel appreciated.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.WinxCollectionbyE.com
• Instagram: Winxcollectionbye