You can do it. You can have it all. That’s the message successful entrepreneur Monique Rodriguez is delivering to aspiring and burgeoning entrepreneurs, as well as wives and mothers trying to make their passion profitable.
The Mielle Organics founder and CEO is releasing her first book, The Glory in Your Story: Activating a Fearless Faith to Change Your Life, Your Career, and the World, and at the time of our conversation, she couldn’t be more excited to get it out into the world.
“Hopefully, the story will inspire and do exactly what I intend for the book to do: Change minds and impact people’s thinking and mindset,” she says. The inspiration for the work comes from her own journey, of being that woman with a big idea, and big hopes, all while trying to balance the needs of her two daughters and husband (her business partner), and also, the grief of losing her son at six months old. She went through a lot, emotionally and financially, but her faith kept her. It paid off, of course, as Mielle ended up being acquired by Proctor & Gamble in 2023, with Rodriguez and her husband Melvin, remaining CEO and COO of the brand.
“We went through a lot of setbacks and mistakes and errors that could have been avoided. And I’m not saying that no one’s going to make mistakes. We all make mistakes, but a lot of the things that we did in the early on could have been avoided if we would’ve had some type of guidance or mentorship or just some examples to look from,” she says. “But there was no Black face or brown face that had the same story that I had for the success that I wanted to garner. So I want to be for others what I didn’t have.”
We spoke with Rodriguez about creating this work and inspiring others, balancing marriage and motherhood with big business, why this book isn’t for her critics, and the faith that’s taken her this far.
ESSENCE: What inspired you to want to tell your story in this way?
Monique Rodriguez: I want to be the person that I didn’t have when I started my company, if that makes sense. I want people to be able to read my story and look at me as a big sister, and we’re having a conversation in my living room about what it takes to be successful. How do you build a brand basically from scratch, all with the foundation of staying strong and rooted in your faith and being very vocal about it? So, I share my journey of going through the painful, tragic loss of my son in 2013 and being able to endure that pain, but ultimately finding purpose in that pain and finding glory in my story. And the ultimate glory is God’s glory. So I feel that my story is of great significance in how God brought me from a very dark place in my life, how I was able to overcome that, and how I really find and go after my true God-given purpose here on earth. And I want people to be able to find the same, find that glory within their own story, and to see themselves through a different lens of how they can transform their thinking and transform their life and not let their circumstances define and dictate their future.
As you worked on this and you went through your journals and everything, what was the biggest thing you learned from your journey?
Well, I was just having this conversation with my husband, and one of the biggest things that I took away when I went back through my journals was that we did a lot of work. We were out there grinding; we were in hustle mode. How were we able to do all of this and still maintain our family and our sanity? So it was a moment of reflection for me: Do you really realize how hard this was? And I have remained so grounded and humble and that is hard. So being able to still have this spirit of humility, this spirit of just being so grounded in who I am, is important because you can really lose yourself in this world. That was one of the moments I was going back, like, wow, anybody else could have broken down, but we remained steadfast, and I think that we see the results of that. So it was really just like, man, did I really just do all this?
Knowing the journey that you’ve had, when you are working with your partner and you guys are trying to build your business off the ground, and then you were also in the very beginning dealing with grief, how did you manage to maintain your connection and keep it as solid as possible? And to this day?
For us, it was our faith in God first and foremost and keeping God at the center. And then I really feel like we are a yin and yang. We were both grieving, but obviously he’s a man, so he had a different way of showing his emotion and he had a way of, I guess just making me feel safe, protected, reminding me it wasn’t my fault. Just being there for me and pushing me and making sure I didn’t break. And it’s like usually, when I’m weak, he’s there to be the strong one. And sometimes, when he’s weak, I’m probably the strong one. So that’s what I mean when I say we’re like each other’s yin and yang. And I think that’s important to just know your spouse, know your partner, and know how to be there for them in times where when they need you the most. And sometimes it’s not a matter of always talking and speaking; sometimes it’s just a matter of being in each other’s presence and not speaking and that you’re comforted just by the presence alone.
Communication is also key for us when we feel a certain way or when we feel offended by what the other has done. Not letting that fester, but being open and communicating about that and just being vulnerable and being able to express your feelings. Because I see that a lot of couples sometimes letting things linger on, and then one thing piles on top of the other, and then it’s just a pile up of things, and then you blow up. I feel like that’s not the proper or safest way to communicate with your spouse, especially your lifetime partner. If you want to have a sustainable relationship, there has to be open dialogue, open communication, and I think listening is also essential. So not only communicating, but are you listening to the needs of your partner? And then being friends, you have to be friends first and foremost, and you have to actually like this person. And I think that’s how we’ve been able to make it work with those key fundamentals have been things that we just have built our relationship and the foundation on.
And how do you also make it all work while balancing being a mother?
Definitely by having a great support system, and we run our household with three priorities: It’s God, family and then business. And when my girls were growing up in the business, I’ve always included them as much as I could. Obviously they have to go to school, so I really tried to include them and travel and take them with me on as much as I could to let them just experience and to see what mommy and daddy do so they can have an insight and a preview into our lives to know every time we leave, we’re not just leaving to go on vacation. No, we are leaving because we are building a legacy for you all.
So I found that just having them be very inclusive in the business as the business was growing, it worked in our favor because I never wanted them to resent us for just leaving and not really having an understanding. When they started to be included and they would go to the cash register, ring people up on the cash register, they were not only just learning fundamental customer service, people skills, social skills, but they were learning like, oh wow, this is something that mommy and daddy are working so hard for us that we don’t have to work as hard.
I remember even when they were younger, checking in, “Do you guys feel like I’m gone too much? How are things? Am I being a good mom?” I would really ask my kids, am I being a good mom? Because I feel that your kids, they’ll be honest with you. And I’ve always wanted to communicate openly with them. “If you feel like something is missing or if you feel like I’m not doing something, tell me about that, and we could try to work to solve it versus you going to therapy 20 years later saying, ‘My mom didn’t do X, Y, and Z.’” So just having that communication with them upfront has helped us just have an open dialogue and have helped them understand the purpose and why, because kids want to know why. And even though building a company, being a mom, it can be a lot, I also wanted to show my daughters that you can be a mom, you can be a wife, and you can be successful and have your own. Nothing wrong with women who stay at home, but I wanted my kids to look at me and think, Wow, my mom did this. My mom is super successful. Yeah, my mom and dad built it together, but my mom didn’t have to rely or depend on anyone else. She’s this great independent woman. And I just want to show them that it’s great being independent, but still being a submissive wife, you can be the same. And I think that’s what our culture confuses, like, oh, you have to be one or the other. No, you can do it all.
Yeah, because a lot of people feel like you can’t.
I think I’m a living testament that you can.
In sharing your journey, do you care if it clarifies anything for critics and people who have things to say about the selling or the acquisition with Proctor & Gamble, the products, and anything like that? Because I feel like you have definitely used opportunities to speak out and set the record straight about different things during times of controversy. So I wanted to ask you, if you don’t mind, if you care whether or not this book provides anything for those people?
Yeah, no, that’s a great question. I really like to focus this book on the ones who choose to be educated on the sale, who choose to be educated on the fundamentals of a business and why businesses decide to scale. I’m not necessarily looking to address so-called critics because I feel that ignorance is a choice, and you have all of this access to information. We live in an age of information overload, and when information is provided to you and you still choose to be ignorant when things like this happen, then that’s your choice. And I’m not going to worry and focus on those people because sometimes people who criticize you already have it made up in their mind that they’re choosing to criticize you and they’re choosing not to like you for whatever reason.
No matter what you do or say, you’re never going to convince them otherwise because most of the time when people criticize you, it’s really just projecting. So they’re projecting their own fears, their own securities, their own doubts that they have within themselves onto you. Even before I did my acquisition, there were people that had gone before me who did acquisitions and explained why things like this happen, but people still choose to criticize the next brand that does it. So I’m not focused on them, I’m focused on who will this help and the people that really want to understand the why. And I think that’s where we have to land because they’re going to always be critics, but the critics can’t define you, and I don’t do things for the critics. I do things for the people that support.
And what advice do you have for those who are looking for a winning idea?
My advice would be to try all the ideas that’s in your head, because one of those ideas will stick and do not get discouraged when the ideas don’t work. Don’t get discouraged when people are looking at you like, oh, you’re doing this again. “You just did this last week, but now you’re doing this. Sit down somewhere.” Don’t let that discourage you. Just keep trying because something will stick. And I can say that from my own experience that I was one of those that people were probably like, oh, now she’s selling this again, and eventually something worked and something clicked. So don’t be afraid to try a lot of different things because you also have to discover and figure out what’s your passion.
Lastly, if you could go back to the early days and the creation of your brand, what would you tell yourself as you navigated those ups and downs that can often really just kill people’s aspiration and their drive?
I would go back and tell myself that going through what I went through and the challenges that I faced were normal, and that it would be okay. Just keep focused on serving. Keep focused on your purpose and the things that come with serving and being purposeful. The things will flow from there. And I say that because I remember when I did eventually get a mentor, and we sat down with them when we were having all of our financial problems and problems with the manufacturer, that’s exactly what they said to me: “This is normal. We went through this, but you will come out of this.” And the weight that was lifted off of me during that time. Because when you are an entrepreneur and you’re going through it in the middle of it, you feel like you are the only one who has ever gone through that. You feel like you’re the only one that’s broke. You’re the only one that’s not meeting payroll or scratching to meet payroll, not paying yourself so your employees can get paid so they don’t quit on you so you can keep driving the vision forward. You’re not the only one that’s on the rim of bankruptcy. You’re not the only one that the bank is knocking at your door. Every successful person that has built a company has gone through some type of trial and tribulation and they had to overcome it to be successful. This too shall pass.
The Glory in Your Story: Activating a Fearless Faith to Change Your Life, Your Career, and the World, is set to release on April 15, wherever books are sold.