Sitting Down with Christina Rice: The Passion and Purpose Behind OMNoire

[TRANSCRIPT]

:: 00:30

0:01:01 - (Dreena Whitfield): When I started my company, and I was like, she's somebody that I need to kind of follow and see how she's doing things because I started my company, like, not knowing anything about pr or even running a business. And so I just want to tell you, you were someone that I definitely aspired to when I started my company. And so just to see transition from PR into now omnuire, I was just very excited to talk to you.

:: 01:27

0:01:47 - (Christina Rice): Thank you. Just heard and felt I'm always surprised. Like I said, as somebody who has spent most of my career behind the scenes and kind of just do the work that I'm called to do and step away from that world. Like, whenever someone says, I admire you or I aspire to be you, I'm like, what? I was just doing the work. You know what I mean? But I'm grateful and humbled for that. Thank you. Of course. So I'm going to take it all.

:: 02:20

0:02:38 - (Christina Rice): Well, I think at the time, at graduation, I wanted to be an attorney. And then I got to college, and that completely shifted where it was like, I don't even know what I want to do. But I decided to study business information systems, which is, I'm agent myself, but it's technology today. So it was like building, say, a reservation system for a hotel, right? So it was coding. Right. And then my minor was computer science, and I was never like a techie person, so I have no idea where that came from. I think once I got into the business information systems and it was like, okay, I need more education on coding. And again, computer science. So that was it. And then graduation from college, and I was on the dean's list.

:: 03:38

0:04:10 - (Christina Rice): My grandparents, they were into real estate, so they had multiple properties. So I just came from a family of entrepreneurs and I think that was just like, in my bloodline.

:: 04:21

0:04:26 - (Christina Rice): Well, we had to go back because after graduation, I was like, I have no idea what I want to do. I know I don't want to work for someone. It was probably about six months after graduation. I had a little bit of money, you know what I mean? Like savings. So I wasn't like, I have to get a job right now. And I woke up one day and I said, I'm going to open up a clothing store. And I had no idea where to start, what to do.

:: 04:53

0:05:27 - (Christina Rice): My inventory, all that stuff. And I did it, I think probably about eight months after that decision, I was like, I'm ready. And I found a space. I opened up probably like three months later, and it was a small store. I mean, it might have been maybe like these two rooms combined behind us. And after a year, I moved to like a 5000 square foot store. What?

:: 05:50

0:05:52 - (Christina Rice): And I was the only black woman that owned a store in Nashville at the time.

:: 05:56

0:05:59 - (Christina Rice): May have been the first. I was right across from vanderbilt, which is a know trust fund baby school. And I was in the heart of Nashville, like, in one of their more expensive, you know, natalie Cole used to come in there and shop. Like, rest in peace.

:: 06:18

0:06:20 - (Christina Rice): A lot of the titans wives would come in and shop. And so going back to that, like, four and a half years in, I was like, I'm done. I'm a very definitive person. So once I make a decision, that's it. And I was burnt out. Now I'm, like, 25 and maybe going into 26, and I was just like, I don't want to spend my life in Nashville, and I don't know what's next, but I was just ready to go. And so I actually sold everything in my store, like the furniture, the racks, to a titan's wife.

:: 07:01

0:07:02 - (Christina Rice): And she wanted to open up a boutique, so I was like, take it all. And I packed up, and I moved to New Jersey, and that's when I started my pr career. And this was, like, 26.

:: 07:17

0:07:28 - (Christina Rice): I had nothing lined up. I have friends who were in the music business, and they had a recording artist. She was actually a black country artist, young. She was probably 19 or 20 at the time, and they were like, just come help us again. I had savings from the store, from selling inventory, and just over the years, and so I wasn't in a rush to get a job. Job. And it was just, like, one day just working with them, I think she had a show, and I was helping with some marketing strategy and stuff like that, which I didn't even know what that was at the time.

:: 08:05

0:08:32 - (Christina Rice): And so I ended up having to do, like, an internship with Frankie B. Do you remember Frankie B. Jeans? Okay. They were huge back then. But at the time, again, when my friend was, yes, thank God. When she was like, you will be a great publicist. I just was like, let me research what that is. And I googled it, and I was like, I think I can do this. And so I started putting up my resume to just different brands.

:: 09:00

0:09:36 - (Christina Rice): Wow.

:: 09:38

0:09:42 - (Christina Rice): Like, seven months or eight months there. But then I got hired at five W. Okay. And that's when I started working with celebrity clients like Nick Cannon and Snoop and Ice Cube and Nas Khalise. And then we also produced, like, big events, Anheuser Busch, also album release parties and stuff like that.

:: 10:06

0:10:12 - (Christina Rice): So after five w, I went in house to academics, and that was, like, 2008. And so I was there for two years, and then I was planning this big event at magic, and I had probably, like, a $200,000 budget, and it was going to be grand. At the time, we were more focused on independent artists. So think of a kid Cuddy. There was, like, ry Rye. There was a couple of other. They were, like, these up and coming independent artists. And so I'm booking artists. Like, I have this master plan, and probably about two months before the event, I got laid off.

:: 10:59

0:11:39 - (Dreena Whitfield): All during this time, though, were you dreaming up dwar?

:: 11:44

0:11:51 - (Dreena Whitfield): You were killing it.

:: 11:52

0:12:36 - (Christina Rice): And she was like, I just fell in love with it. And I started going, and I fell in love with the two. And this was, like, spring of 2015. By the summer, the studio announced they were hosting a yoga teacher training. And I had no desire to teach, but I wanted to just get deeper in my practice. And I love the discipline of having to show up and do the work and be intentional about my healing, about my wellness, and about getting deeper in my practice. And so I signed up, and I started.

:: 13:14

0:13:32 - (Dreena Whitfield): But you were still operating and moving everything along with luxe life media.

:: 13:37

0:13:41 - (Dreena Whitfield): Scaling back on clients?

:: 13:42

0:14:45 - (Christina Rice): And so it was just like this light bulb moment. Like, black women need a space, a healing space for us, or rather, that they are led through their wellness journey by a woman that looks like them, right? And we speak a certain language when we are in rooms, and it's only us. And a lot of times after classes, black women would come up to me like, thank you for seeing me. Thank you for creating the safe space for me. I had no idea what I was doing, but I felt comfortable in your class. And so that was a light bulb moment for me. And then I was like, well, let me just start an Instagram page that's about black women and wellness.

:: 15:26

0:15:53 - (Dreena Whitfield): So what was the moment where you were like, I need to jump into this full time and really put all of my energy into building this out. Okay.

:: 16:03

0:16:37 - (Christina Rice): Then I had to do a self check. Like, girl, you produce events for 3000 people. You know what I mean? You can produce a wellness retreat. And so she was like, well, I will help you, and let's partner and do it. And so March of 2017, we announced the retreat, and 53 black women signed up for that retreat. Still to this day, I'd be like, was that a fluke? That was, like, massive for a first retreat. And it was so incredible.

:: 17:13

0:17:54 - (Christina Rice): And she was like, I like it. So then that Forbes article was coming out, and I was like, well, I gotta do something. I'm telling you. When she told me to date, the article was coming out. I was up probably, like two days building a website, building my own website, just in time for that article. To hit anticipated, I probably put, like, save and publish about 2 hours before that. Oh, my God. And that was like December 2017. And then I was like, okay, well, I got to figure this thing out, right?

:: 18:29

0:19:00 - (Christina Rice): So I'm at lunch with this whole presentation. She was like, girl, put that to the side. She was like, I got 25,000 for you. Come on. I was like, what? I'm thinking maybe they'll give me like 5000 because we had probably like 1500 followers on Instagram. We were still a new company. And that's at the stage at that point. Yeah, that's at the stage at that moment for me to start transitioning out of PR because I was like, I need to focus on omnuar full time. I have something here and I'm going to lean into it all the way.

:: 19:40

0:19:53 - (Christina Rice): Well, at the time, I already slowly, I wasn't renewing contracts, so I was already down to probably like three or four clients. They were all tech clients. And it just started, like, it was starting to just phase out. And I think they kind of knew, right? Especially, like, my favorite client, Angela Benton. She was like the one, she's huge name in tech, and she was the one that referred me to all these different tech founders.

:: 20:26

0:21:14 - (Dreena Whitfield): What's the meaning behind the name?

:: 21:17

0:21:26 - (Dreena Whitfield): I love it, though.

:: 21:27

0:22:05 - (Dreena Whitfield): So you moved down to Atlanta. You have the three retreats. Like, you're planning the three retreats.

:: 22:10

0:22:17 - (Dreena Whitfield): October, and then you moved down. So once you execute those three, are you already in planning mode for the next year, or were you like, I'm going to take a little break.

:: 22:30

0:23:14 - (Christina Rice): And so we were in talks from September to December, but by December and how much it cost me to move, and I'm not bringing in a pr clients. And I'm like, I need to put some retreats out for 2019. And then PepsiCo, it was probably like December 10. They were like, we want to partner with you on Tropicana and Quaker oats. And that deal was like 150. What? So you talk about hard, like, there was no hard decision, leaving my former career behind.

:: 24:02

0:24:32 - (Dreena Whitfield): That's insane. But you know what? It speaks to the fact that you are and were filling a void for a specific demographic of women that needed to feel safe going into spaces like yoga, because typically that's not where we feel comfortable or whatever. And so that just speaks to that, but also the fact of the content you were producing, the experiences you were providing women, and you've done this.

:: 25:03

0:25:33 - (Dreena Whitfield): So omnoire has grown like crazy since 2016. What would you say has contributed to that growth?

:: 25:40

0:26:30 - (Christina Rice): And especially black women are not monolithic and understanding that white women might be, but we're not. Right. And it was helping our community figure out what wellness meant for them by introducing them to just different healing modalities at any given time. And I'm always a guinea pig. I could be doing Yoni Steeman, Yoni egg. I could be trying all Reiki, and even on my personal page, I would just talk about all these different modalities that I was experimenting with, because, again, this was personal for me. So what speaks wellness to me may not speak to you, and that's okay.

:: 27:14

0:27:46 - (Dreena Whitfield): How do you create that personal touch, though? Like, you have a community of over, like, 70,000, right? Yes, but there's still this aspect of personal touch with each member feels seen. Right. How have you been able to create that?

:: 28:02

0:28:45 - (Christina Rice): And so all the women on my team are very personable. And so we have like our community manager who probably most of our community might know more about than me, you know what I mean? Because she's there day to day and I pop in as I can. But I think it's just showing my humanness, right? Showing my vulnerability and my wins as much as my losses as much as my wins. And just again, being kind of like this open door. And at any given time you may email our info, email and I'm responding to it, or sometimes the phone rings and I'm answering. So I think people love that, right? And I have a really good memory.

:: 29:36

0:30:09 - (Dreena Whitfield): Regardless, the fact that you even went back and was like, don't worry, I got you. I'm sure that touched her as well.

:: 30:15

0:30:16 - (Dreena Whitfield): How big is your team?

:: 30:18

0:30:33 - (Dreena Whitfield): Wow.

:: 30:34

0:31:30 - (Dreena Whitfield): And how far out do you plan out your retreats? And what does that consist of? Especially if you're going into a new country or. I'm sure there's a lot of logistical planning that has to go into that.

:: 31:46

0:32:18 - (Christina Rice): And then we partner with you on your first retreat, and you become a part of, like, the Om noir marketplace. And so when you go on our calendar, you see all these retreats. These are all women who have gone through my academy who I personally coach, who I still coach. Like, I coach them from the moment they sign up for the academy until they leave their first retreat. And then we decide, okay, does this work?

:: 32:41

0:33:26 - (Christina Rice): It could take a couple of months. So those kind of vary, but we typically try from the time we announce it to the actual retreat dates. It used to be like, in 2022, it was like six months. But because the shift in the economy and inflation, now we're at like 910, twelve, sometimes 13 and 14 months to give people longer payment plans, all that stuff. Yeah. And manage life, right?

:: 33:55

0:33:56 - (Christina Rice): When we released our first series of retreats in 2022, before that, I was the only one hosting the retreats. And so in 2022, I think we had like twelve retreats. People were just, like, booking them like hotcakes. They had been in the house for two years. They've been saving money.

:: 34:14

0:34:15 - (Christina Rice): Yes, I'm sorry. That was 2022. So then this year, I noticed a shift and the applications were slowing down. People weren't booking as fast and so I was like, we need to make adjustments. So I'm like, as an entrepreneur, my philosophy is find a solution before you get to the problem. Right. So I'm always like, when I start to see something that's not how it should be, I'm like, okay, what are all the solutions?

:: 34:47

0:35:04 - (Dreena Whitfield): Have more time.

:: 35:05

0:35:08 - (Dreena Whitfield): So you've taken a break from planning your own, like, you leading the retreats. What does your day to day look like now?

:: 35:16

0:35:49 - (Christina Rice): Right. And so a lot of it too is also quality control. Sometimes weird stuff happens on the website. It's like, what happened to this link? Why is this not working? What happened here? And so a lot of it also is troubleshooting. Right now we're about to launch our home collection. So I'm in a thick of the process. So I'm in a thick of package design and ordering for holiday and I'm a little behind.

:: 36:20

0:36:53 - (Dreena Whitfield): Oh, wow.

:: 36:54

0:36:59 - (Dreena Whitfield): I know you talked a little bit about the Omniwar Retreats academy, but what.

:: 37:03

0:37:06 - (Dreena Whitfield): Your interest in even launching that?

:: 37:10

0:37:42 - (Christina Rice): A retreat for those dealing with grief. And I was like, I'm only one person. I can only host a certain amount of retreats a year, and my max is three. And not even, as the years have gone on, has been like two and then one. Right. And so then it was like, well, how am I going to offer a variety of retreats that have different themes? Yeah. And also I know that I host very specific style retreats. My retreats are going to be more adventurous.

:: 38:18

0:38:53 - (Christina Rice): Some people want like a spa, luxurious, relaxing retreat. I need somebody that can lead those type of retreats. Other people need really deep trauma healing. I'm not certified in that. I need someone that can lead those type of retreats. And so that's where it started to take shape. And that was like, probably, I want to say, like early 2020. And then like a month or so later, I was like, okay, I'm going to bring on retreat facilitators.

:: 39:30

0:40:05 - (Christina Rice): And again, where do I start? I was having a meeting. My team was a little bigger at the time. It was like more of like five of us. And I was like, I'm going to launch this academy. I still haven't figured out how, what, but I'm going to do it. And then one of the young ladies on my team, she was a former teacher. Two weeks later, she sent me an email. She was like, here's your syllabus. Here's your course.

:: 40:30

0:40:32 - (Christina Rice): And going back, let your helpers find you. You have to speak it out loud. You have to. Right? And that's where I was like, okay, well, I have to do it. She just gave me the blueprint, and so I started moving things around and figuring out what are the modules, how we're going to do this. And then I started bringing in more helpers, my spiritual advisor, my copywriter, my mentor, and as a team, it was five of us at the time.

:: 41:06

0:41:28 - (Dreena Whitfield): So that's amazing.

:: 41:30

0:41:54 - (Dreena Whitfield): That's amazing. Yeah, that's amazing.

:: 41:57

0:42:36 - (Christina Rice): And so it's a lot different now.

:: 42:38

0:42:43 - (Christina Rice): Okay, so at our highest level, like the course level where you're in the marketplace, you are an om noir retreat leader, but they still are independent. I encourage them. Build your wellness business. If you were coached, you help them with that too. To some degree. I think it's more organic where because I have one on one calls with them and I give them ideas. And of course, when they signed up, I'm like, get your llc.

:: 43:19

0:44:01 - (Christina Rice): Retreats should just be one part of it. Now you could write an ebook about, I don't know, how to transform your life or whatever. You could have products, you could have your coaching business. There's different legs that you can branch out. So you have to think about that right now. Don't be like glow up retreats. If you know that you want to do products, you want to do free guides or paid guides, right? Or you want to write a journal or whatever the case may be. You got to think about what the longevity of this business can be and how many revenue streams that you have. I mean, we have multiple now, you know what I mean? And we're still going to add more.

:: 44:49

0:44:52 - (Christina Rice): Yes.

:: 44:54

0:44:56 - (Christina Rice): So our tagline, and this will give you everything you need. You don't have to go away to get away. You can instead create a retreat within yourself and in your own beautiful spaces. So it is bringing our retreats to their homes and what like that feeling of community and sisterhood and healing and wellness and zen. Because it's Zen at home by Om noir candles well, we started with candles, so I first launched in 2021. And again, people just buy a few candles. I probably had like 140 candles in my inventory. And it was at my house because I have a room that is dedicated to workout and products.

:: 45:59

0:46:23 - (Dreena Whitfield): But you should have known that with the community that you've been able to build, though.

:: 46:26

0:47:07 - (Christina Rice): I will say, though, when I first launched, I was really proud because our candle maker was a black woman, and she created all of our scents, and she was pouring those in her kitchen. So our little kind of our dust cover for our candles, it said, like, hand poured by a black woman. And I love that because it was all black owned. Right. Black owned and produced. And because now of the volume, we had to start going overseas.

:: 47:42

0:48:16 - (Christina Rice): So there's, like, a big picture there. And I think this is also another lane that we can own just because we can tie them back to our retreats. And some of our candles are named after our retreats.

:: 48:33

0:48:39 - (Christina Rice): I think so. I don't know if I would do a hard push for it for a long time. It would almost have to be like somebody would come to us and say, hey, it's. Have you thought about maybe they were gifted a candle or something like that? I'm sure. I don't know. Nicole probably talked about e commerce, and I don't know if she did in her interview with you, but going into retail is a whole different animal.

:: 49:12

0:49:12 - (Christina Rice): And it requires a lot more investment up front. Right. Because if you're going into a target and it's like, they need 30,000 units, they need 50,000 units, the brand has to pay for that up front, and then you're paid in increments. Right. Then also, well, target is not selling $55 candles. Right. It would almost have to be, like, a special line for target, you know what I mean? Or we would have to go into a higher end retailer. Higher end retailer. Yeah. So that's, like, long term. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.

:: 49:51

0:49:54 - (Christina Rice): My ultimate goal is for us to be a one stop wellness shop. Right. And so that is our retreats. That is our home collection. That is, do you want to venture into entrepreneurship and now you want to host your retreats? We have some other things that I want to talk about yet, but that we're starting to roll out. But it's like. It's the feeling of it takes a village, and when you come into om noir, that feels like the village.

:: 50:25

0:50:49 - (Dreena Whitfield): One thing about your journey that I love is that, you know, when something no longer serves you and you're ready to go on to, you are being pulled in another direction. Right. So what is some advice you would give another entrepreneur who may be in a similar situation? They've built a successful business, or they may have even been in the C suite and have built a successful career, but they feel like it no longer serves them and they are being pulled into another direction.

:: 51:22

0:51:37 - (Christina Rice): Well, I think because you've done that a few times, I've done a lot of work to let things go with ease and to listen to my body and listen to my gut instinct. And so I've had three businesses, and none of them tie into each other. And it was not like I'm going to run through businesses at once. I'm going to keep one and launch two others. It was that art of moving on. And I like to say I don't have founder add, I'm founder fluid.

:: 52:15

0:52:52 - (Christina Rice): And so I just kind of learned to listen to my body and ask myself, is this a full body? Hell, yes. Or a full body? Hell, no. And I know what that feels like, because the yes feels like freedom. Right? It feels like release. It feels like openness. It feels like receiving. And that no feels very constrictive and limiting. And so I listen to what that feels like. I'm ready to start a new business. Does it feel like a full body? Yes.

:: 53:29

0:53:38 - (Dreena Whitfield): I love that.

:: 53:39

0:54:14 - (Christina Rice): Here's another four days of 24 hours of running after clients or managing their needs. I didn't feel like that. I wanted a life that felt easier. Right. And just felt like alignment with the work I was doing internally. And pr just wasn't in alignment at that time.

:: 54:37

0:54:38 - (Christina Rice): Oh, yeah. And if there comes a time where it's like, I'm ready to move on from Om noir, like there's something else calling me, I can say, I did my part, I planted a seed, and maybe somebody else will carry that baton. I can pass it, they can carry it on, but I will feel a sense of completion when it's time for me to say goodbye to it.

:: 55:07

0:55:09 - (Christina Rice): Okay?

:: 55:10

0:55:13 - (Christina Rice): Okay.

:: 55:14

0:55:16 - (Christina Rice): Oh, my God. My go to wellness app. Chopra app. That's my go to one.

:: 55:25

0:55:29 - (Christina Rice): It might be, but I'm just thinking.

:: 55:31

0:55:33 - (Christina Rice): It might be coming.

:: 55:34

0:55:38 - (Christina Rice): Can it be a quote?

:: 55:39

0:55:40 - (Christina Rice): If someone presents you with an amazing opportunity, say yes and then learn how to do it. That's my entrepreneur like philosophy. Yes.

:: 55:52

0:55:52 - (Christina Rice): So that's very much jumping out the window and building the parachute on the way down. So that is my mantra for success, for entrepreneurs. Okay.

:: 56:00

0:56:08 - (Christina Rice): That one's a hard one because so many are my favorite. Probably pigeon hip openers.

:: 56:13

0:56:24 - (Christina Rice): And sun salutations.

:: 56:26

0:56:27 - (Christina Rice): It's a fluid movement. So it's pretty much your back. Yes. It's a fluid movement.

:: 56:37

0:56:40 - (Christina Rice): Thank you.

:: 56:40

0:56:48 - (Christina Rice): Yes. Okay, so my personal page is Christina M. Rice on Instagram. That's where I am mostly. I mean, I have all the other platforms, but, baby, if they give us one more, I literally have to write it in my to do list and be like, social media. Okay. Twitter, like, well, we'll do Twitter. Anymore threads. LinkedIn. I can't do spill. It's too busy. It doesn't have. Hopefully they'll modify their ux, but I can't do spills. But I'm mainly on IG. Christina M. Rice.

:: 57:25

0:57:31 - (Dreena Whitfield): Perfect.

:: 57:32

0:57:35 - (Dreena Whitfield): You get all the info.

:: 57:36

0:57:44 - (Dreena Whitfield): Everything you need to know.

:: 57:45

0:57:46 - (Dreena Whitfield): Out of all the places like you've traveled on your wellness journey, what's been the most transformative for you?

:: 57:52

0:58:21 - (Dreena Whitfield): For me, it's on my bucket list.

:: 58:23

0:58:26 - (Dreena Whitfield): Don't invite a payment plan.

:: 58:29

0:58:34 - (Dreena Whitfield): Thank you so much for joining me.

:: 58:35