We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marissa Reyes Durán a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Marissa, thanks for joining us today. Almost every entrepreneur we know has considered donating a portion of their sales to an organization or cause – how did you make the decision of whether to donate? We’d love to hear the backstory if you’re open to sharing the details.

I established my magazine as a means to connect with charitable organizations and serve the community. When I launched the magazine in 2020, I had high hopes that many individuals would be willing to assist me in raising funds for the selected charities, but unfortunately, that was not the case. To enhance the donation collection, I devised a strategy by creating Bead It Out, a subsidiary of MHP Lounge. Through this company, I would procure materials and craft beaded jewelry. 60% of the proceeds from these accessories would be allocated to charities, while the remaining 40% would be reinvested to acquire additional supplies for continuous jewelry production. Furthermore, I decided to expand my offerings by introducing iWatch-compatible bands and sunglasses to cater to a wider customer base.

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?

I entered the magazine industry on a whim. One day, while sitting in my office on the 32nd floor of a building in downtown Dallas, Texas, I had a realization. I have always had a desire to give back to charities, but I wanted to do it on a larger scale. As I was flipping through a magazine, an idea struck me. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if when we opened a magazine, we were familiar with the people featured inside? With determination in my heart, I decided to start my magazine. My goal was to showcase local individuals and identify any special needs they may have so that I could extend a helping hand.

That was going to take a lot more than just me wanting to do that, I needed to think of a plan and execute it so that the magazine could also make money to survive and keep growing. I thought about the models in the magazine and about who else I would feature, I thought about all the art accessible in the magazine I was holding and I got it, I would feature artists, small business owners, and models. This would take 6 years, I was mixed with emotions about putting out the story I was going to start with, in April 2020, right in the middle of the national shutdown, MHP Lounge went live.

That same night I started scouting new talent, small business owners, and models and started creating volume 2. I didn’t wait to see the outcome of volume 1, I was too nervous but much to my surprise I got 809 subscribers. I stayed focused and before I knew it, the Magazine had grown to 13,079 subscribers by volume 10, and 13,428 by volume 12.

We provide a platform that allows business owners, artists, and models to showcase their talents and products. Not only do we offer cost-effective accessories, but we also allocate a portion of the sales towards quarterly charities that we feature. Every quarter, we select a specific charity and actively raise funds to support their cause. In addition to this, our magazine includes a financial education section. We have already covered topics such as banking 101 and saving, and we are currently working on providing investment education as well. Through our platform, we aim to support talented individuals and businesses while making a positive impact on society by contributing to various charitable causes.

We’d love to hear your thoughts about selling platforms like Amazon/Etsy vs selling on your own site.

We only sell our products on our site directly to our clients the best part is that a percentage of the sales go towards the charities that we feature quarterly. The pro is that we have a special relationship with our clients, the con is that at times we are too busy to get orders out quickly.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Time when I got divorced, I had a lot of insecurities about a lot of moments in my life, I was close to quitting the magazine and closing it all down, I am thankful to have had a friend on my side who assured me everything was going to be ok and to take a break first before trying to quit, then revisit the option later.

Contact Info:

• Website: mhplounge.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/MHPLounge/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHPLOUNGE/
• Other: LinkTree https://linktr.ee/1MHP

Image Credits
photos are all mine, they are 2 self-portraits, one is the MHP Lounge logo, Bead it Out Logo, and Slex our skin care company, and the first cover of the magazine.