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

Hi Michole, thanks for joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I came up with an idea to start a hat brand because I love wearing hats and my head is too big for many hats on the market. I was tired of being disappointed every time I tried on a stylish hat, so Lidstick Diaries was created out of my own needs.

I first had the desire to create something for myself, then I had to come up with a name for this venture. I woke up one day and God told me to call it “Lidstick Diaries”, so I did. I then asked my ex-boyfriend to be my partner and even though he did not like the name, he agreed. He tried to convince me to change the name, however, I could not be swayed on changing the name. We moved forward as Lidstick Diaries.

The next step was to source the blanks, the embroiderer and designer. I reached out to my friends in the fashion industry and was instantly connected to the people and vendors we needed. The only thing left was the designer and while we were waiting for the ONE, my partner, Ishaan Bahri, jumped to the task of designing our first release.

We started with “Women Empowerment” hats but quickly realized that men wear hats more than women. My partner then got the itch to make hats he liked to wear, and the shift was made to city hats. We started with Los Angeles with rave reviews. We finally got the response we were looking for and Ishaan went on to design three more bangers that are still in our line-up today. We actually stopped looking for a designer because we have one in-house. Ishaan creates a new design about every 60 days.

Once we found our niche with city hats are online sales increased tremendously until it stopped. The algorithm
changed, Instagram was not pushing our content, etc. There were many possibilities of why our online sales slowed down but we decided to focus on other avenues of selling.

My friend introduced us to POP UPs and we did our first one in March of 2022. It was an amazing day of meeting beautiful people, had great conversations and made a whopping $1,200. We were hooked and spent 2022 doing POP UPs 3 to 4 weekends a month. The outdoor markets created a cult-following for us. People would watch our social media and see where we were going next. We found out that our products are appreciated by all people which is the best feeling in the world and our revenue increased to an avg of $2,500 per day up to $6,000 per day. That is when we realized the power of communication, networking, real conversations and creating a community. Social media is great but in-person interactions will always be better.

Once the momentum started with our sales, Ishaan began doing his own market survey at each POP Up about the name. It was confusing for many men who kept calling us “Lipstick Diaries”. He finally came up with “Good Quality Human” and I said yes!!! Absolutely!!! It was meant to be because the domain name was available and Instagram handle which are the two biggest marketing streams for us. We are now officially, Lidstick Diaries dba Good Quality Human. I get to keep our GOD given name for the company but lead with a positive message for the business name. Winning!!!

As of 2023, we are continuing with the biggest markets such as Unique, Renegade, West Coast Craft, Black Market Flea, etc but we have added consignment ventures with stores in Los Angeles, Venice and Malibu. The consignment opportunities allow us to reach more people without being in front of them. We only seek out stores that align with our brand and the store owners are doing a great job at curating the items in their stores. We make a point to build relationships with every business owner so we can lift each other up on this journey.

Our first year in business our sales were about $60k, second year was $150k and 2023 we are projected to double last year by adding more consignment stores and getting a couple of collabs under our belt. Each year we learn more, do more and expect more. Our goal this year is to also give ourselves a set salary. Most of the money we have made has been put back into the business to produce more product and opportunities. We were quick to learn that sales do not mean profit.

We are excited to explore the opportunities that are coming in due to the name change and the new city designs. Business is continually evolving and anyone who is willing to go with the flow and is open to new ideas, wins.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a women of color and my partner is an immigrant from India. We both have very different backgrounds. I am a gym owner, and he is a film maker. We brought our different talents to create a product that we both like to wear daily. Hats complete an outfit, make a crazy hair day magical and can relay a message you have bought into. Our hats start conversation which allow people to connect and give opportunities to receive lots of compliments. We are so proud that all people enjoy are message and products we have produced. We make hats for everyone to have a little swag.

Have you ever had to pivot?

We started with the name Lidstick Diaries but learned in the first year that the name would not take us to where we wanted to go. Our vision for our brand is to become a well-known lifestyle brand for men and women. It needed to be a name that people would feel proud to wear on their chest.

It took us a full year and half to take the leap of faith and change our name to Good Quality Human. We had gotten up to 7k followers on Instagram but that did not detour us from starting a new Instagram page. Good Quality Human was the fresh start we needed to incorporate all the things we had learned.

This decision has changed our business for the better.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

We were fortunate to have success online early at the start of our brand. This turned out to be short lived and we had to find other avenues to reaching our customers. We started doing POP Ups and this allowed us to meet our customers and tell them what we were about. Fortunately, we are likeable people and with organic conversations and sharing, our brand grew.

When one door shuts, then you have to be prepared to find another.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.goodqualityhuman.com
• Instagram: @goodqualityhuman
• Facebook: Good Quality Human
• Twitter: @GoodQualityHum