When she was younger, Miko Branch had a secret fantasy of opening a pink-decorated salon, although her parents had other career aspirations in mind for her. At age 25, Miko made that dream a reality, and ran her own salon out of the Brooklyn apartment she shared with her sister, Titi. In 1997, with her sister’s encouragement, Miko opened a storefront salon despite her own fears about expanding. Though some of those fears may have been realized when the sisters later lost their first salon business due to what Miko calls some rookie business mistakes, a combination of their resilience, the influence of their strong-willed southern grandmother, Jessie Mae Branch, an aha moment while bathing her young son and a determination to create a hair care products that suited their textures and their lives would change the path of Miss Jessie’s granddaughters forever.

On this Throwback Thursday episode of the Support is Sexy podcast, Miko, who Co-Founder and CEO of Miss Jessie’s — one of the natural haircare industry’s leading brands — talks to about rookie mistakes, aha moments, the power of sharing secrets with your customers, the dangers of growing too quickly and how to recover from marketing missteps. Plus, she opens up about losing her sister, Titi, in 2014 and how that experience has affected her commitment to her own mental wellness and to spreading that message of mental health awareness to others. 

For resources mentioned in this episode, or to hear interviews with more than 400 women entrepreneurs around the world, go to supportissexy.com.

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