57 - Building More Inclusive Beauty Brands with Nyakio Grieco of Thirteen Lune and Relevant

Potential to Powerhouse: Success Secrets for Women Entrepreneurs

Nyakio Grieco wants you to feel seen. The beauty entrepreneur began her journey organically — by learning about the power of natural ingredients visiting her grandmother, a coffee farmer, and her grandfather, a medicine man, in Africa. Ancestral wisdom and world travel led to the birth of Nyakio Beauty, Grieco’s first beauty brand, in 2002. Nyakio Beauty has been followed by Thirteen Lune, an inclusive retail platform for beauty brands and founders who, for far too long, have been neglected in terms of capital and retail partnerships; as well as Relevant: Your Skin Seen, a beauty brand developed in 2022 to serve all skin tones and types. Nyakio and Tracy came together for the latest episode of the Potential to Powerhouse Podcast for an enlightening conversation about embracing “bossiness” on our entrepreneurial paths, Identifying pivotal moments as the gift from the universe they are, and surrounding ourselves with people whose knowledge and skill sets complement our own. It’s a brilliant conversation with many key takeaways, so have your Notes app open.

Key Points

• Tracy introduces Nyakio and references her as the hybrid between two mega-baller entrepreneurs [00:21]
• Using your maiden name and hyphenating your last name as a female powerhouse. [02:04]
• Nyakio tells the story of her family’s upbringing and what her experience was like being a first generation American with Kenyan descent. [04:41]
• The first five to seven years of Nyakio’s career in LA. [09:50]
• The two pivotal moments that changed the trajectory of Nyakio’s career as an entrepreneur. [13:15]
• The launch of Nyakio’s first beauty product. [21:29]
• The reality of trying to survive as a small brand running on little capital. [27:14]
• After her product was featured on Oprah and Ellen, Nyakio learned some valuable lessons about growing a business. [30:25]
• Nyakio launched a successful brand self titled Nyakio, which was affected by the global pandemic. [35:25]
• Thirteen Lune - a new, progressive vision for beauty retail in JCPenney. [37:00]
• People buy into people before they buy into the product. [41:31]
• Building generational wealth. [42:00]
• Smart Money vs. Dumb Money. [45:17]
• Nyakio’s three “go to’s” for success. [49:07]
• TRUST YOUR GUT. [51:10]

Links

Nyakio’s Instagram: @nyakio

Follow Thirteen Lune: @thirteenlune

Follow Relevant: @relevant.skin

https://linktr.ee/nyakio