Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Johanne Marseille. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Johanne , thanks for joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I believe it takes hard work, consistency, and faith. It’s difficult to keep adapting to trends to build your brand and it’s definitely an extra job. But no matter what you have to keep pushing and believe in the dream.

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 Johanne, I’m Haitian-American, very passionate about helping others and I like to dream big. I got in the industry due to my very close friend who believed in me. She knew I cared about haircare and stated I should start making my own products. So the research began, I was a product junkie so I knew what type of products I liked and how I wanted my hair to feel and wanted to experiment with my family and friends before selling. I make shampoo and conditioner bars, leave-in conditioner, moisturizers, hair growth oil, and sealing oil. I love making products but I wanted to incorporate my art somehow so I started inserting my drawings next to the product, which gravitated people to check out the product and eventually I started to make keychains.

I love making my customers happy, so if they have dry hair, or their hair isn’t growing I share my knowledge with them and explain what product will help them out. I helped customers retain moisture, grow out their edges and bald spots, and I couldn’t believe how fast the word was spreading. As far as my keychains go, my best sellers would be the sorority keychains, it makes people, who are part of their proud organization, ecstatic to have a piece of original art they can rock on their keys, purse, or book bag.

I am proud of my growth. And that I didn’t give up even though there are times when I want to. I want people to know that owning a business is hard work. A lot of people do not really knows the money spent and trial and error that goes on behind the scenes. So when you see the prices on certain items don’t think it’s a scam but it’s literally a calculation of all the ingredients you see in the back of product, the label, and the container itself. I lost a lot of money before I even made a small profit, but it isn’t enough to discourage me. Like I said, I’m passionate about helping others.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

The most effective strategy for growing my clientele would be word of mouth. Social media is great but it’s not as easy to promote like a few years ago. The best way is personally handing out business cards, networking, and participating in Pop Up shops.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I actually do both, I have my own site and I sell on Etsy. I love selling on my site the pros would be I don’t to go through a third party who charges many different fees and I can edit my site however I want.

The pros about selling on Etsy is you reach way more people who uses the site to look for handcrafted items. I love the feeling of being a 5 star seller, which consists of shipping on time, communicating with customers quick, making a certain amount of sells, and having great reviews.
The cons about selling on Etsy is all the extra fees they charge such as transaction, shipping, and tax. So now I would have to raise costs on an item but still make it affordable for others.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dandylionsmane.miami
• Instagram: @dandylionsmane
• Facebook: Dandy Lion’s Mane
• Youtube: Dandy Lion’s Mane