We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Toni and Patt. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Toni and Patt below.

Toni and Patt, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you’re open to it, can you talk to us about the best (or worst) investment you’ve made. What’s the backstory and the relevant context behind why you made the investment

The best investment we have made has been within ourselves. It sounds cheesy, but as we grow our business we have found out that investing in certain knowledge, skills, and gaining understanding pays off in the long run. When we first started our business we hired out for multiple skills that ultimately led us to take a loss financially. Since then we have taken the time to learn marketing, platforms, website building, email marketing, social media as well as good old networking. It takes time, energy, and a lot of frustration, but at the end of the day understanding that no one will care about your business as much as you do is priceless.

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?

We are Toni and Patt, owners of MAKAI. We enjoy dancing to the beat of our own drum while inspiring people to do the same. We got into the Beauty Industry (Sunless Tanning) because Toni’s mom had skin cancer when Toni was young. This led to us not only wanting to protect Toni’s skin, but help others protect theirs. One of our sayings is making moms feel like milfs. We understand that not only does self tanner help with the potentially damaging effects of too much sun, but also not everyone has time to lay out for hours. Life is busy and moms work hard so we strive to give them back a little bit of time while also supplying that fresh from vacation glow. What sets us apart is not only our tanner, but our beliefs in community, skin education, skin health, and all around being your best self. One of the things we are most proud of is our products now being available in med spas and soon to be other businesses. Another thing we are proud of is the expression of creativity our MAKAI allows us to show. The majority of imagery and video you see is taking by Patt’s camera, while the individuals you see are friends we consider family!

We also launched our own Loungewear/Clothing Brand in November of 2022! MAKAI now has loungewear sets for both male and female. We’re so excited to continue building our brand and launching new comfy/casual clothes for people to enjoy wearing and feel good in!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Patt here:

I come from the corporate world, where every email is dull, boring and lacks personality in my opinion. Unfortunately I brought this corporate bro mentality into MAKAI when we first began. Using our voice as a company took a little bit of time to find as behind the scenes I didn’t understand how to just be human in communication. Thankfully Toni was steadfast in her belief to talk to our customers like they are our friends. Now we are able to build new relationships both online and off by being ourselves, something I fully attribute to Toni.

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

Toni here:

I’m lucky enough to have my cofounder and business partner as my fiance! We have figured out the way we work best together by designating certain roles and responsibilities. Patt does all the photography/videography/website building and a lot of the back end work, while I handle social media, influencer marketing, fulfilling orders, email marketing. We are both creative in our own way and have been able to work great together with the same vision in mind. I just have to remind him that sometimes I want to talk about things other than the business haha. We have been able to navigate life and business well together and I’m so thankful I get to work with my best friend.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bymakai.com
• Instagram: @makaisunless (Sunless Tanning) & @bymakai (Clothing Brand)
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bymakai/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuwG36a3MyfLbyOolSvtOWQ
• Other: Tiktok: @bymakai

Image Credits
All photos are by Patt, @mrpatt on instagram. His media brand – WHEREYEAM and @whereyeam on instagram