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Hosted by Dreena Whitfield, How I Got Here dives into the stories behind today’s most inspiring entrepreneurs, creators, and leaders. Each conversation explores the moments that shaped them, the risks they took, the pivots they made, and the purpose that fuels their next chapter. It’s honest, insightful, and deeply human.
HIGH Chantel Powell Season Four Episode One
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Dreena: [00:00:00] Welcome to How I Got here with Drina Whitfield. Today, joining me is Chantel Powell, founder of Play Pits, the beloved natural kids deodorant brand. Born from a mother's real life struggle. We're gonna talk about her journey from styling wardrobes at Tyler Perry Studios to becoming a successful entrepreneur.
Chantel: Your no doesn't phase me because I was told no. Yes. So many times in the beginning, my kids was told, no, we will be at events. Literally not them. Not them shutting down the babies.
Dreena: I was gonna say, 'cause I know when products get into target, they give you big pos and you have to meet those numbers in advance.
Chantel: Everything that could go wrong, despite my planning went wrong and that was my light bulb moment and I was, I stayed up that night researching and really realizing that parents deserve to have kids that didn't get in the car, making them gag. So I went back home and I, I was like, you know what? I'm gonna be undeniable.
[00:01:00] You see what I'm doing and you can't deny me.
Dreena: Chantelle, thank you so much for joining me here today. We have been, I feel like we've known each other virtually. Yes. For five years. Maybe. A long time. Yeah, a long time. Yeah. Um, and this. Last year is when we really got to know each other. So I'm really excited to have you here today. Thank you. I love that you came on set talking about, you know, I used to work in production and I'm like, well, I, we are gonna talk about that.
Yes. So, um, everyone now may know you as the founder of Play Pits mm-hmm. But I want you to talk to me about your days at the Tyler Paris Studios.
Chantel: Yeah, so I went to Clark Atlanta University. Okay. Um, I, I'm a fashion merchandising major, and so I actually went to school to dress mannequins. I wanted to merchandise stores.
I would go with my mother and my grandmother to hex in DC and I was the only child, so I had nobody to play with while [00:02:00] they shopped. And so I would talk to the mannequins, and so every mannequin's name was. Ola and I would go and talk to Ola and compliment her outfits. So I would be like, Ooh, Ola, I love those shoes.
Ooh, that jacket with that look so good. Or I would see something be like, I would put this together instead of that. Right? And so when I went to college, I was like, I wanna dress. The, the mannequins. And so that was fashion merchandising. Fast forward, my professor introduced me to a supervisor at Tyler Perry Studios because she was like, I think you would be great at working in the studio setting.
And so went on an interview, fell in love with the work, and that is how my career started in film and tv.
Dreena: I love that. I, I do wanna ask, so why were the mannequins named Ola?
Chantel: I dunno, it just was, I mean, I don't know if it was from Good Times because her name was Phil. What was, what's her name? It's not Ola.
I haven't heard of her. It's Fell e either way. I, I just came up with Ola. I just was a Okay. And every mannequin's [00:03:00] name was full. Every name was, every mannequin was Ola.
Dreena: Okay. Okay. So while you were working at Tyler Perry Studios, did you ever envision becoming an entrepreneur?
Chantel: Uh, yeah. I think my, what I was focusing on is how to become a stylist where I was able to work for myself, uh, how I was able to support executives, celebrities with organizing their closets.
Um, and I actually did that shortly after I, when I had my son and I had to leave Atlanta. Uh. And I was in Maryland, DC and was like, what am I about to do here? And so I started dressing people. Uh, I had a client who was an entrepreneur and I would go and organize his closet and he would, I would get paid for that.
I would go purge people's closets. And so I did that for a while. So, I mean, I thought I was going to be doing that for, for a very long time. So what sparked the idea behind Play Pits? When that little boy got in my car, smell like a man,
Dreena: little boy. [00:04:00] I dunno who the little boy is, but they dunno who the little boy is.
That little boy is my son.
Chantel: My son got in my car, Cameron got in my car after football practice at six years old and smelled like a man. And I was sick, mortified. I was trapped in a car with a kid after practice gagging. For air. And so that's what sparked the, the creation of play pits. I didn't want an anti presant.
I didn't want the natural deodorants that were on the shelves because they were born. And so my grandmother used to pat baking soda under my arms when I was a little girl, and so I knew that. And then I also had a love for natural product. So if you see my hands, I have hand eczema so I can't even get my nails done when I'm having a flare up.
And so I learned very early in motherhood that I couldn't put anything on my sun that I couldn't touch. And I'm allergic to preservative. That's usually in personal care items. Oh, wow. And so that's how I knew the powers of natural ingredients. 'cause I would just make up concoctions in my kitchen. And so yeah, I got in the kitchen and whipped him up.
Something that he loved so much. He told me to give it to [00:05:00] everybody at the summer camp and I told him no.
Dreena: So he came home that day. Mm-hmm. From practice, you was like, you stak. Mm-hmm. And you went home and you was just like, let him, just him something made. Mm-hmm. And you had it ready for him The next day.
Chantel: I had him ready for him that night. I introduced it to him. I said, okay, Kim, at six fell dunk
Dreena: the baby.
Chantel: Yes, that baby was. Awful. I said, listen, you gonna wear this every day and you gonna smell like this orange because I ed it with the orange essential oil. So sunshine is inspired by Cameron. Um, and so I ed it with the orange essential oil, convincing him that he gonna smell as amazing as an orange all day, and he wore it and came home.
Super hyped. Like the hustle man was like, mommy, so boom. I told all the kids at camp about this deodorant. You gotta make it for everyone. And I was like, no. I was working as an executive assistant at the time at BET and I, my life was full. Yeah. And so I, I was like, I'm not making this deodorant for all the kids at camp.
And he was like, but mom, you can make it for everybody. And that was my light bulb moment and I was, I [00:06:00] stayed up that night researching and really realizing that parents deserve to have kids. That didn't get in the car, making them gag. But also kids deserve to be able to play unapologetically without being self-conscious, without being teased.
And so, yeah, that's how it started because that is pretty, a pretty young
Dreena: age to start.
Chantel: Mm-hmm. You know, deodorant
Dreena: on
Chantel: your, your child. And it wasn't like a everyday thing that he needed it, but it's because. Football, but he was in a summer camp that was basketball. So he would get dropped off at like seven in the morning and then roll right into football and not Oh, he was funky.
Yeah, he was. I mean, it just a tough day. He's running around all day day. These kids, I mean, and now these kids, like, they're in so many sports and they're doing so much. Their days are so long and so, you know, for them to have something to keep them confident all day is like the why. Okay,
Dreena: so you were working as an executive assistant at BET.
Mm-hmm. Your son came home from camp and you started, you were like, you went in the kitchen at night, whipped him up, something to wear. Yeah, for the next day. And then he comes home and is [00:07:00] like, mom, you gotta make this for everybody. Yeah. What was the next step? So like you said, you were up all night researching.
Mm-hmm. But then what were you researching? Did you like put in, let me, let me come up with a name. Let me see about how I can do this in bulk. What was the process like? No. So
Chantel: the first thing was really understanding what was on the market. Mm.
Dreena: I wanted
Chantel: to know like, was it any kids deodorant, and if it was what, like what was their, like, what made them special?
And so what I learned in 28, well this was 2017, there were deodorants targeted to kids, but they were really adult brands that just threw the kids a bone. Right? Mm. And they just threw kids on it and was like, here you go, kids. Yeah. Go sit down somewhere. Right? And I was like, mm, this doesn't feel exciting.
This doesn't feel like something that he would wanna put on. And so when I, Ima, I'm a creative, right? So I can see things in my head, um, that I can create in life, but sometimes, sometimes I can't draw it. So I have to work with [00:08:00] people who can help me bring those things to life. And so what I saw was. What you see now in the play pit, something fun, something exciting, something that kids look forward to putting on every day because it smelled good and it also was like a different experience.
And so, um, yeah, that's, that was the first thing I looked to see what was on the market and how my product would solve the, the be the solution to the problem in a way that nobody was addressing it. Um, and then it went to, okay, so how will I create this product? Because I already knew the base. Mm. It was corn starch, it was app, it was, uh, bacon soda, and it was coconut oil and a orange essential oil.
But that was a very, um, it was a very like liquidy formula. So it literally, he had. Put it on with his finger. And I was like, okay, if I'm gonna do a deodorant, it needs to be convenient. It needs not to be messy. And so that was the creation. I just started testing and I ordered all this stuff from Amazon.
My husband was like, what are you doing? [00:09:00] And I just got in the kitchen and started making product and we give it to all my family and friends and tell them. Put this on and tell me how you smell at the end of the day. And they literally would call me like, girl, I was in the meeting at two o'clock and I smelled awful.
And I would be like, okay, well thank you for the feedback. And I would make another, that one didn't work. That didn't work. And so then I would make another formula and give it to 'em. Like, okay, so wear this one. They'd be like, girl, that one had me feeling real. You know? So I was, I was gonna ask, was it trial and error to get to the formulation that you're at now?
I don't even know what version. Formula be on because I wasn't that sophisticated. Right? It literally, I had this book that called, was called the Play Fits Bible, and I would write the formulas down and according to people's feedback, I would tweak the formula accordingly. And then once I got to the point that it was really, really like.
Majority of the people were like, it worked. I love it. Um, I went to a lab and I asked for them to kind of look at it. 'cause it was like, I was gonna ask, when did you bring in a chemist? So [00:10:00] before we released it to the public, I brought in a chemist. Right. Okay. Um, so once I was able to verify my ghetto chemist way, right.
I contacted a lab, found someone that focuses on natural products because I knew I didn't wanna use. Any synthetic, anything possibly toxic. Mm-hmm. Um, so I found to someone who specialized in natural products, and so I, you know, did the NDA thing asked? Well, I was so new to that, but see, that's what
Dreena: I was gonna ask.
How did you even know how to do all that? Because there's tons of people that wanna come up with products to fill the void around, like mm-hmm. Needs as it relates to personal care, and they don't know where to start. So for you to even say, I found a chemist, what did you put in to find a chemist? Like, what
Chantel: did you research?
So I feel like I have a doctorate in Google, right? So I'm like, I'm very resourceful. I went to Clark Atlanta. Our motto is, find a way to make one. Right. Okay, Clark. So there is nothing that, yeah, the internet does not have, and I just did. So much [00:11:00] research in those early days that I, I started making a list of different labs that I was finding right.
And honestly I would call them and have to kind of have this awkward conversation of, hi, I created this product in my kitchen. I'm trying, you know, like you're scratch and, and just kind of really learn from them and then them educate us. Like educate me on like, okay, well the process is da, da da. Yeah. So after talking to so many, it's like, okay, I got the process down, so you gonna ask me for this?
You, you know? And so that's how I learned, just kind of, yeah. Very scrappy. I'm scrappy girl. Love that.
Dreena: I love that. 'cause listen, I always say Google was my best friend when I started my company. Oh, love baby. I got a PhD. You ain't kidding. Tell me I'm a doctor. Doctor in Google. So how long, um, did it take for you to.
Before you a ultimately left your job at BET?
Chantel: I was actually laid off from my job at BET in 2019. So I launched play pits in my backyard at a Easter egg hunt in 2018. So it was in the, it was in the, uh, [00:12:00] packaging and everything. Mm-hmm. Like what it looked like today. I had the website, no, it doesn't look like what it looked like today.
So I did my own website. I sketched my logo at church and then I You sketch it because you say you're not a jar, I'm not. But that port, not the, the graphic designer had a time because I was like, listen, this what I wanted these box letters. I wanted something that was, you know, I seen it. Yeah. I wanted it to be colorful.
I let the kids pick the colors. So like, I love that the branding around Play pits really started as a. A project for my family, really for my kids to be able to see what's possible. Cameron had this idea, and it's great to have ideas, but I, I use play pits as a way to show him the power of hard work determination behind an idea.
Mm-hmm. And so when I started, I was doing tr. Like little pop-up shops. My, one of my closest friends had a salon, so I would go, she would have a Friday event at her salon where people would come. Mm-hmm. She would have food, music. I would go and sell deodorant in her salon. I would sell [00:13:00] deodorant out my trunk.
I would sell deodorant at a church event. Right. Yo, here hustle it. So it would like hustle, man. Right. But what it was was I was showing them what the hustle looks like legally. I grew up in southeast DC right? Legally. Legally, my boys and my daughter had to learn the legal hustle because I grew up in DC and Southeast and in the back of my grandmother's house, I would see the dope boys like literally pushing weight.
I would see the, their regular customers coming through. And so I, that was so ingrained in my makeup and who I was. But then you also saw the detriment of the community. You saw people. Die lose their lives because they really were entrepreneurs that just wanted to flip money. And so when I started this, it was like, I'm gonna show these kids like you can have a product.
So early on, like the joke was like I was pushing weight. Okay. Like we, we [00:14:00] pushing legal weight The first time a ton. I ordered a ton of baking soda. We pushing weight. Okay. And so that, that was my whole thing, like how to teach these kids legally. You can, you can have a good life. Sorry, weight, we pushing weight.
I mean, that's the, that's the behind the scenes portion, the intimate part that people really don't get to know and don't see, because that's really what it was. That was like the core of it for me. I, because of how I grew up and because. I, I now had these two young men that I want them to succeed in life.
I want them to be scrappy. I want them to be hustlers, but I want them to do it in a legal way, and I want them to do it in excellence. Hmm. So,
Dreena: I love that. Thank you. So you launched in your backyard at Easter Egg time. And you were selling deodorant, salons around the, out the trunk, everywhere you could, yeah.
When [00:15:00] was the moment where you stuck, you felt like, okay, we're getting a little bit of traction. People are actually into the product. I, I can see this is gonna be a, a long term think here.
Chantel: So I think the. The most memorable part. So we were selling on platforms like we buy black, they were posting us, we were getting sales.
Um, but the most memorable moment that I will never forget, me and my family took a seven day trip to Mexico and I was literally at the pool and my phone, Shopify. The Shopify thing just kept chaching. And I was like, Hmm. And I think I was like reading or tanning. I like, I literally love to sit in the sun.
Come on tanning. So I'm, I'm the girl who's just sitting, so am I here, like burning. So am I. Yeah. My husband's like, why? Right, right, right. Like I come back 50 shades sucking and I'm like, I love it. I live somewhere. I went somewhere. Um, but no, I was sitting there like sunbathing or doing whatever I was doing and I just heard chaching, chaching, [00:16:00] chaching.
Cha ching, cha ching, cha ching, cha ch. And I was like, what is happening? So I get up and I'm, I'm looking at my phone and I'm seeing the sales and I'm like, what is, like, so I'm talking to my husband and my kids, they like, what's happening? I'm like, I don't know. So I get online and I'm like, maybe something like somebody posted us well because of them we can by Unique Jones.
Oh, shout out to Unique. I love Unique. Um, she basically. Did a article about play pits. I love that. And that article caused this like complete. Pour of support. Mm-hmm. And I was on day two in Mexico on this seven day vacation. Chaching, chaching, chaching. And I came back to hundreds of orders. I was still making deodorant in the house.
No. Mm-hmm. Didn't have. [00:17:00] All the product there, but I'm scrappy and I'm resourceful, and I'm a hustler. So I was like, all right. We got back. It was like, kids, y'all have fun assembly wise. You ready? Let's go. And so we made those products, packed those products. Shipped those products, had my aunt, my fam, my grandmother, like literally the village helped.
I love that. To be able to fulfill those orders. And that was the moment that I was like, what I'm doing is important. What I'm doing was validated. Uh, and then the word of mouth. So before that even happened, we didn't have money for digital ads and meta and all that fancy stuff, like it was straight. Tell a friend to tell a friend to pull up to play piss.com, and so that was happening daily.
We were getting, I literally from that day we launched 2018. We've probably had, maybe I could probably count on 10 fingers how many [00:18:00] days we had $0 in sales. That's a blessing. It's a complete blessing. I don't take it for granted.
Dreena: Wow. You know why it, it's even more so like. Interesting to me is because it's so hard to sell black people specifically on natural deodorant.
Yeah. Because we just know our mainstays. Oh, that it too, we know Dove. What was the roll on one that used to like. Oh dang. I'm gonna remember it after this, but it was a roll on one. I know I used to use like speed stick or something. Yeah, something like that back in the day and degrees, teen spirit, somebody just took spirit.
Yes. And so going natural. Like girl, what? Lemme I
Chantel: told you I would do trade shows. Popups be at people's head salons telling them about natural deodorant. The black women used to look at me like, girl, that ain't gonna work. I wear a dove. I wear. Secret my mama's Mama's been with. Yeah. You know, and so it would literally, the rejection in those early days mm-hmm.
Made the person that I am today because literally your no doesn't phase me because I was told no. [00:19:00] Yes. So many times in the beginning my kids was told, no, we will be at events. Literally not them shutting down the babies. In the most heartless way. And I would be looking like it's making them stronger hustle.
Right? But they would be, so they would have the flyers. I would be in the booth talking to somebody. I would send them out with the flyers to talk to people, Hey, come look at our booth. 'cause once I get you in there, I'm gonna educate you. Right? And so I would watch people literally look at the flyer and be like, oh, natural deodorant.
No, I don't wear that. And my son's who word. Seven and maybe 4K my youngest, he'd be like, mommy. They said, no, they don't. They wear dumb. And I'd be like, baby, it's okay. It is just a no. Go get a yes. I know that's right. And that's what I taught them. Go get those yeses because no is inevitable. Mm-hmm. But yes is when you can make movement and have traction.
So that's what I focused on.
Dreena: After you cut back from Mexico. [00:20:00] You get, you fulfill this or mm-hmm. These orders. Mm-hmm. What did that feeling even
Chantel: feel like? It felt very overwhelming. Okay. It felt very overwhelming because, but this is what you wanted? It is what I wanted. But I wasn't prepared. You wasn't prepared for this level of exposure.
Right. Um, and that taught me a lot. Like, you gotta stay ready, so now you, you not ordering inventory for what the orders are coming in. You gotta order a little bit more so you can prepare, be prepared for what's to come. Yeah. Right. And so that's when I started to level up with my procurement and make sure that my inventory, like I was now, I'm no longer ordering from Amazon.
I literally started play pits, ordering the ingredients off Amazon. Mm. Now I'm going to distributors, and now I'm going to companies that I can buy bulk and I can get better price points. And so at that point it's like, okay, now I gotta level up. Who? I had no clue that was called scaling. Mm. But that's what it was.
I was scaling, so now I had to buy. Bulk [00:21:00] containers. Now I had to buy more items and now I can, I can negotiate because now it's like, okay, I bought 500 last month, but now I need 15. How much you going? You know? So I then learned the power of negotiation and the power of the economy of scale, because the more I buy, I can get it for cheaper.
Mm-hmm. When I buy more. So e every step of the way taught me another, another part of the. You know. I love that. Thank you.
Dreena: Because it's all like, it's been a journey. I know it has. I know it has. And I think that's like what makes it so special is because it's like you're, you're. You're breaking into like a market where it's, nobody look like me though.
Nobody that looks like you. You really like schooling black. The black community on natural deodorant and having them fall in love with it. Mm-hmm. And then like you just figuring out how to scale this business and I'm showing this product business, that's really hard 'cause you have to buy all of the individual ingredients.
You have to package, you have to, you have to have all [00:22:00] this back and stuff. Mm-hmm. All independently. Yeah. So when would the delight bulb go off and you're like, okay, maybe we need to figure out how we can get some outside resources, funding, um, like beyond our immediate circle and beyond our own personal savings.
Chantel: Well, we are still, I know no investors bootstrap, right? But grants to this day, still to this day, we out here. Sh thugging. It bootstrapped. I mean, I will almost say like now is when I realize like, oh girl, you might should go. Some people go and be like, can I have a million? Um, but no, like it was it, I back reference to like, we pushing weight.
I flipped money. So in the beginning and like even up until, I mean 20 20, 20 21, I didn't really need nobody money. Come on. 'cause we were making money. And so [00:23:00] I'm a very, I grew up with not a lot, so I, I know how to make a dollar stretch, right? Mm-hmm. And so it was my mar margin, so I didn't even know how to do that part just yet.
Yeah. But I knew that, okay, if I made. A thousand dollars and I put that thousand dollars back into the business and I go negotiate, and I can yield more product out of that, and then I can make more units and then I can go take that thousand and make three thou. You know what I'm saying? So I did that for so long.
Um, but then when, uh. There were opportunities to win grants. We took advantage of those. We applied to those. We got no for those too, right? Like yeah. People didn't understand the business, so we got a lot of nos. And it wasn't until, um, I think like the pandemic where we able to get some, when everybody
Dreena: started caring about black businesses.
Yeah. Yes. Yeah.
Chantel: Right. Is
Dreena: that when you got into retail?
Chantel: [00:24:00] So 2021, uh, a buyer reached out to me, so. The end of the pan. Let me, I guess like the middle. Mm-hmm. I don't know The ending of the pandemic. During the pandemic. Yeah. During the pandemic, um, is when we were already on Amazon. Mm-hmm. So we were on Amazon in 2019, so before the pandemic.
Um, but then 2020 things really grew. Uh, and what happened was. 2019, I actually was already going to target, so this was before the pandemic. I went to a event, a black history event in February, 2020. So the pandemic hit in March, right?
Dreena: Mm-hmm.
Chantel: And the, the Christmas before that, I met a guy who was a part of this supply diversity team, and he was like, oh, I wanna give you this information.
We stayed in touch. He invited me to this black history event. Super excited. Had to pay to get myself out there and take some samples. We made the samples, really? They were like, you're gonna meet your buyer. We are gonna [00:25:00] have some workshops. And I was like, okay, great. Like this is my shot. Get out there. I don't meet the buyer.
Why? The buyer don't come. The buyer don't show. I, I don't know where the buyer was at, but she ain't get the memo. So I meet all types of other buyers. I meet the buyer of condoms, I meet the hair buyer. I meet, I meet all the buyers except for deodorant, right? And so I left there internally frustrated. Yeah.
Um, because one small business, you
Dreena: had to pay your,
Chantel: to get out there, I had to pay to get out there, I had to pay to get a Airbnb, I had to pay to be away from the, you know, like being away from a business while you're still small is very expensive. Mm-hmm. Because now this a day of no production, two days, basically two days of no production.
So I was frustrated. So I went back home and I, I was like, you know what, I'm gonna be undeniable. I'm gonna focus on being undeniable. Mm-hmm. To the point [00:26:00] where you see what I'm doing and you can't deny me. And so that's what I focused on. Then the pandemic hit. Mm-hmm. And in the midst of me, in this undeniable stage, people were bringing so many people exposing us to new people.
And so now we're continuing to be able to put out excellent product. Continuing to have amazing reviews, build the company, scale the company, and 2020, the end of 2020 is when I moved into my warehouse, and so not until 2021, once we were, we were doing a million on our site. Already on your site alone?
Yeah. We were doing six figure months. That's crazy. on.com. I was good. I ain't need nobody money. I was like, girl, look that, yeah. You know, it was, that's crazy. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, now that I, when I look back, I'm like, wow, that was, that was an incredible time, but I didn't, I was so in it, [00:27:00] yeah. That I couldn't, you know, focus on it.
I had. I had no moments to scale back and really bird's eye view, look down and see what we were creating and what we were able to accomplish because I was just moving.
Dreena: And I think that happens a lot with entrepreneurs that are scaling. Mm-hmm. Without external resources like you are like, I just gotta get to the next thing.
I just gotta focus on this text thing on my list, or this next project or this next whatever, that you have to sit, you
Chantel: have
Dreena: to pause and relish and pause. You know, I'm just learning, right? I mean, I'm talking to myself too. So like we, we talk to each other. Um, so you get into your warehouse, uh, and then you get into Target.
Chantel: Yeah. 2021. My assistant at the time came in and was like, I was making products, so now I'm okay. So I'm not in a house no more, but now I'm in a warehouse and I'm still only making the product. You, me, me, me. Okay. Making the product every day. Every day making product. We bought this equipment. [00:28:00] Um, I mean this is like $15,000 worth of, but how
Dreena: did you even know what equipment to go buy research?
Google Girl. I know what I'm just saying. Like this is just amazing. Yeah,
Chantel: Google. So I did research, come to find out, um, the equipment that I bought wasn't, I mean there, deodorant is a very difficult thing to, to, so when I got to this scale. I almost looked back and was like, outta all the things you could have made, Chantelle, you chose deodorant.
Like this is complicated because deodorant is a hot pour. So when you pour it and it cools, it gets hard. Well, when that happens, it makes it really difficult when you have a warehouse and you got equipment and you got this because as soon as it cool, now it's hard. So cleaning it is harder. Getting it off of the floor is hard.
I mean, every, the process is now harder, right, because it gets hard. So I did a lot of research to find something that would be able to hold the batch size that I [00:29:00] needed, which was like a 50 gallon, um, tank. And then I had a big immersion blender. So like, think of like the blender you would use in the kitchen.
Yeah. But very big. Um, and I would just make the product and then I found, so we were hand pouring everything at first. Hand poured. So if you
Dreena: had an order for 2000,
Chantel: so in the beginning of play pits up until 2020, maybe not even all, so maybe even the beginning of 2021, we was still hand pouring everything and then we got the equipment and the equipment went out on us.
Then we still was hand poured. Play pits is still hand poor right now. Wow. Yeah. Hand poured in our packaging. We, like, I I purposely talk about the secret ingredient at play. Pit is love. Mm-hmm. And the fact that we like, are so intentional and like really it's, it's not like a machine. Yeah. Like we're we, um, we've stayed true to that.
Dreena: So you get into Target, [00:30:00] was that a moment where you were able to like, pause? I was, and like be extremely excited. Was And how did Cam feel?
Chantel: Cam was super proud. All the kids was proud. Cam was proud. Kayden, Kiana, I was more proud to see their pride. Mm. See my mother, see my dad. That's what Target did that for me.
Dreena: Mm-hmm.
Chantel: Um, it was very stressful.
Dreena: I was gonna say, 'cause I know when products get into target, they give you big pos and you have to meet those numbers in advance.
Chantel: Everything that could go wrong despite my planning. Went wrong. We, we just had issue after issue. So yes, you get this PO and it's like, okay, bet.
So I need to have, yeah, X amount of products ship on X amount of days. Well, little things, the little detailed things that, because you don't know, you don't know. Mm-hmm. Right. So down to the pallets getting labeled. It needed a special [00:31:00] label,
Dreena: and nobody's telling you this, and
Chantel: nobody told me, nobody knew.
Nobody saw that. I guess in the email, I don't know. But all I know is that that became an issue because we were ready to go. Product was made and it's like, let's ship it out, and then it's like, uh, uh. You don't have this special label and the label has to be printed on special paper, a special color. And so now you need your label maker to make these labels for all these boxes.
And so it was like those small operational details mm-hmm. That, um, kind of took away from the joy. Yeah. 'cause now it's stress. Now it's like fear. Because are you going to fumble this bag?
Dreena: Mm mm
Chantel: Because of what you don't know. And so 2022 was a very stressful year in moments where everybody around me were like so hype and so excited.
It was almost like I had to look at their excitement. And it is been a [00:32:00] lot of moments like this around this journey that I've had to see other people's excitement for the moment, for you to get and take that in for me to at least be like, okay, I guess I'm, I guess I'm doing it right. Okay. I guess, I guess this is exciting, like yes, it's stressful.
Yes. I'm, I'm not sleeping. That's real. I really, I
Dreena: feel you on that. 'cause I feel like I kind of. Do the same. Mm-hmm.
Chantel: It took my kids to be like, mommy. Oh my God. Yeah. I told my friends that play puss in tar. You know what I'm saying? It took those like prideful moments. It took my mother going to the store with a mask on during the pandemic.
When she, in the beginning of the pandemic, she, she was so freaked out for the germs that she wasn't going anywhere. But for her to go into the store and take a picture with my product, it took my father telling all of his coworkers and him to this day being my top customer. My dad has, we ran a report just to see like our top customers in the, the top customers in the company since we started 2018 [00:33:00] from a revenue standpoint.
My father is the, I call him, I said, daddy, you really be out here buying Play pits full price from.com. Like, and he go to Target. Aw. He said, I'm going everywhere. And I'm like, so it takes that right for me to be like, okay. Hmm. Because sometimes the stress of it all, the fear of it all the The worry of it.
The worry of it all. Yeah. And the making sure all the boxes checked and all the details and the I's dotted and the t's crossed. It's hard. That is hard. That is very hard. How do you take
Dreena: care of yourself though?
Chantel: I'm just getting better at that. Okay. I went a long time neglecting myself from a standpoint of, um, 2020.
I lost my cousin who was like my brother. Hmm. And that sent me, looking back, I'm like, girl, you was just out here being reckless with how you cared for you, because I just worked. So when I was making that product, that was my [00:34:00] therapy. Mm-hmm. When people asked me what do I enjoy the most, I enjoyed developing and making products.
Mm. It's like my, it's like my art. So when that hole came in my heart, because I lost him, I worked. Because now I could make this deodorant and I ain't gotta talk to nobody. I could make this deodorant and, and say, okay, I got that done today. But I wasn't drinking, I wasn't eating. I wasn't like, I literally just gained a good little 10 pounds and I'm looking at myself like, Ooh girl, you getting thick.
But I lost so much weight because of neglect of myself. Mm-hmm. So when people would say, oh my God, you look so good, you snatch girl. I would just kind of look at them with like. This isn't healthy. Like get outta my face. Get outta my face. This is grief. This is neglect. This is, this is sadness. Yeah, this is depression.
This is, this isn't snatch. This is girl. Eat a sandwich. It's lunch. Why you to the, literally, my team be like, y'all know Chantelle ain't gonna [00:35:00] think about lunch. You know she ain't going to eat.
Dreena: Yeah. Y'all
Chantel: wanna schedule a lunch in between the meeting because she's not going to, I be, I be working, I zone in and I just work.
And so I'm like that to this day.
Dreena: So I can imagine the stress of getting into a retailer like Target. Mm-hmm. Meeting the demands and all the obstacles that come with that is its own sort of, um, stressor. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But then your warehouse catches fire. It is the ghetto. How do
Chantel: the ghetto,
Dreena: the, how do you even stop it ghetto, because this is a serious talking about the ghetto.
I'm sorry, I was, let be serious. This's real. Like how do you even build back from that? Like how did it catch fire? Like what happened?
Chantel: Uh, so I'm gonna tell the whole story. It's 3:00 AM September 13th. I get a phone call. And this frantic lady. Hello? [00:36:00] And I'm like, hello, Chantel. This is your neighbor at the Warehouse.
The warehouse is on fire.
Dreena: So all the product that you have for.com, Amazon, target, everything's in there except
Chantel: for Target. Except for Target. Okay. I just got a delivery of over 7,000 units of deodorant. I was already, so this was September. First year ever. I was already ready for Black Friday. I had body products, I had scrubs.
I had I, I had a ton of bacon, soda, goodness,
Dreena: bacon, soda,
Chantel: coconut. I mean, I had everything to pallets and pallets of inventory in this warehouse, and this lady frantically the warehouse on fire. I didn't even. I couldn't even say nothing. I hang up the phone, I say, okay, hang up the phone. She was [00:37:00] so loud and frantic that my husband just heard her.
We didn't say anything, and we just get up and we just put our clothes on and we head to the warehouse. We get to the exit and we see the smoke and I take a deep breath, and as we're on the road, my body was still like I am right now. But my heart was,
and something said this just part of your story.
And I said, okay. Mm. And we went into that and I knew I heard that. So there's videos and there's all the things that I captured that day. And when I look at it, I see a level of peace. And calmness in me while, while some people would be, yeah, frantically crying, but I'm just observing and I'm taking [00:38:00] it all in that I'm witnessing everything that I worked for and the, the warehouse was so much more than just a building.
Remember this was for my kids, right? So they had basketball courts in the warehouse. They, they were educated in the warehouse 'cause of that ghetto pandemic. Right. So we had, you know, school in the warehouse. Yeah. They had their own space in the warehouse. They were proud of the warehouse. My dad, my mom, my grandmother, my family at home, my friends, everybody was so proud of this, this place in this space that we created.
Stood outside and watched it burn. Oh God, I watched it burn, but I knew that it was just part of my story and in that moment I had no clue what to do. Mm, no clue. Um, and that night, so we go to the warehouse, the, it is three, four fire trucks. The [00:39:00] water's coming in and I'm looking on the other side at this gas station.
I'm like, bruh. You think, you think we gonna be able to get in there and get anything? And my husband's like, I don't know, maybe we had a firewall. Mm-hmm. So I was like, okay. So we um, go to the firetruck and they're like, leave us alone. This fire is gonna be going on until at least 1:00 PM Mind you, it's 4:00 AM in the morning, 1:00 PM.
And I'm like, what do you mean? And they said. It's an explosive fire. So the, the woman next to me was an iron welder. She had propane, oxygen, gasoline, anything flammable, explosive was in this joint.
Dreena: That lady started the fire. I don't know what happened. I'm whispering.
Chantel: Don't cut that out. That lady started
Dreena: that fire, but
Chantel: I don't know.
Right. Um, so we come back at one and now I'm like, okay, now I get to [00:40:00] see. So. Can we get in there and get anything? At one, at 1:00 PM They still putting out the fire
Dreena: at
Chantel: one, at 1:00 PM the fire chief comes and he walks up the street and he says, I'm looking for play kids products. 'cause our doors, our, all our names are outside the door.
And so then they had, so, so the now the other tenants are there and they're telling them like, you can probably go in in a couple of hours, da da, get some stuff. So I hear that and I'm like, oh bet. Let's get on the phone. Let's get a truck. Let's try to get what we could get the fire chief come. He's like, I'm looking for Play Kiss products.
So I come over and I'm like, Hey, I'm play KISS products. And he says, um, you won't be able to go in your unit. You won't be able to recover anything. Your front office is completely destroyed and the ceiling and the firewall is compromised. And so we can't risk you going in there to get anything out. Wow.
So I'm like, wait, so everybody else gets to go in? [00:41:00] And he's like, yes, but you know, unfortunately it's not worth your life. And when he looked at literally. I don't know what that man saw. Later on he found me and he was like, I had to help you. Like I, I had to make sure that you had whatever information you needed to get out of this situation because you were so, like, you were the one person that I felt so much sorrow for.
And I'm looking at him like, wow. Because you have no idea what you just told me, right? And so I went home that day and I sat in my island. And I was like, I surrender God. You got it. Mm. Because I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how to get out of this. Um,
Dreena: oh God. Can I need tissue? Tissue? Oh,
okay. Let's get to back to talking about pushing weight.
Chantel: Yeah. [00:42:00] Let's talk about pushing weight. But um. No, it was, it was one of those moments that you really said, God, I know you gotta have me because I can't. Thank you. Um. I know you have me because I can't, I don't know what I'm doing. Like I already didn't know what I was doing.
Yeah. And now you, I already, girl, I, I done wing this whole thing right. This whole time. I already didn't know what I was doing, but now I fire. Yeah. I don't know what I'm about to do, and so I literally was like, okay, God, you got it. I surrender. I ain't in, I'm not in control. And I actually, I'm not even gonna act like I'm in control.
So when people are asking me what do I need and what do you, I don't know,
Dreena: but you know what, and I'm, I'm only saying this 'cause I was just listening to a book the other day, Dr. Ki, who we both know mm-hmm. Her book Self Made and there's a moment where she hit a roadblock around like getting [00:43:00] funding mm-hmm.
For Village Market. All the nos not as devastating as what you were going through. Mm-hmm. But she literally sat down and said, I surrender. Yeah. Surrender. So you just saying that I surrender. I feel like when you just sit down and you're going through a moment and you just say, I give it to you guy.
Mm-hmm. Like I, it's beyond me. Yeah. That's when the breakthrough happens.
Chantel: Yeah.
Dreena: So you're at home. You're not, you're like, I don't know what's happening. I don't know how I'm gonna get through this. How do you get through it? Like, how do you like, that's a real, that's a real moment to like sit down and pull your big girl panties up and be like, let's figure this out.
Yeah.
Chantel: Order my steps. Order my steps, is what I focus on. Okay, God, you got it. But order my steps. But the next day. Was when I had confirmation that he got me. So this is now 2022. Mm-hmm. In August. So remember the fire happened [00:44:00] September, so this was right before my birthday. 'cause I went to Houston right after this event.
But I go to the Fearless Fund Summit at the gathering spot there. Alicia, from Range Beauty. Mm. Introduced me to a woman that has a fulfillment center, e-Comm spaces here in Atlanta, Mary Ray. We put on a schedule to have a meeting. When I wake up the next day, what's on my schedule? September 14th, 9:00 AM Mm.
A meeting at e-comm spaces. So I go put my clothes on, take my little bag, my little puffy eyes and get cute, do my hair, and I go. And so we stand there, we do the, um. We do the tour, we talk. And so at the end of the, at the end of the, um, the tour, she said, so where, where's your warehouse again? And I said, well, it was on Fulton Industrial, but it burnt down [00:45:00] yesterday.
And she was like, what? And, uh, she was like, how are you standing in front of me? Right? What do you mean? So she is like, like, almost like, girl, let me, are you a psychopath? Like, how are you here? That's what I was saying. You just got up all normal. Let me, let me get my stuff. Let me make, let me get you. I just went, I just got up 'cause it was on my schedule.
Mm. And so I looked at her and I said, my business has no home. I'm homeless. Where else was I gonna go? Hmm. I ain't got no office girl. What, what else? I'm where I'm gonna be, I mean, I gotta meet where I'm supposed to be, exactly where I'm supposed to be. When I left that meeting and seeing her once again, seeing her reaction to me, 'cause to me this is normal.
Mm-hmm. To me, I'm just, I'm waking up. It's another day I'm doing what I gotta do. But to her, she's like, you're like, what? And I got in that car and I said, okay God, I'm gonna let you keep doing this. And he's done that since the [00:46:00] fire.
Dreena: Wow girl. Chantel, I love you. One
Chantel: day I'm gonna have a book. You wanna get that book?
Dreena: So now that, that was another big roadblock, right? So now we're in this current moment. Mm-hmm. Where you have a new administration, there's all these DEI, rollbacks with retailers. Target being one of them. Yeah. How are you navigating this new space?
Chantel: Trina, I'm a phoenix. Out the fire. Yo, I can't say
no, you just cut. I'm a phoenix. I literally came out the fire and I survived. These things don't scare me anymore. A okay. They don't. I see it in front of me. Yeah. You know, like my perspective is so different and that's one of the things I [00:47:00] walked away from everything I've been through and every time that pain hasn't done anything but produced a level of like strength.
Mm-hmm. And fearlessness. That almost is scary because like I don't get scared of moments like this for real now God just showed me, he done brought me from a fire. And we still the largest black owned deodorant company in the country. Say what? We still the largest, we still in target. We still pushing weight every day.
I'm not, it's just You're not, we can't say that this is, this is Kim brand can. Yes. We are still legally showing kids how to legally sell a product Yeah. And make a profit. Right. Legally. Every day still after a fire.
Dreena: Mm-hmm. So to get into another moment like this, where it's like, here, here's another [00:48:00] thing, here's
Chantel: another thing.
The pandemic happened too before the fire. Right? Right. We done been through thing after thing, after thing. Then after the fire, a year later, I lose my mother. Hmm. Then seven months after that, I lose my grandmother.
Dreena: Oh my
Chantel: God. And I'm still here. So every ti, every time I take it to the chin, but I come back and I come out and I'm like, okay, God, you just made me stronger and I just gotta keep, go get going to get it every day.
Dreena: See, everybody don't have that. Everybody don't have that. Like get up, like you get knocked down, you get up, you get knocked down. You get up
Chantel: because what else am I do? Give up.
Dreena: People do do it. Because it's hard, and it's even harder in an industry like this where you're the only black owned brand in, in your category.
If you're non celebrity and you have these larger historical brands mm-hmm. That I'm sure like seeing you coming in and crouching on their space. Oh, they see me and they're like, yeah, we need to [00:49:00] figure out a way to knock that brand out.
Chantel: Yeah. But I, I think for me, why I keep going? Because I know this is a God thing.
Mm. I got paid to dress people for a living. Now I make deodorant. Like if that ain't the craziest, like that's like, like girl, like girl, what? What you do? To the point where when I first started as my family and friends, they used to be like, what are you, what are you about to do? So I say that to give perspective, to like the fact that I've went from this
Dreena: to this
Chantel: all the way to this.
This isn't really a me thing. This isn't really a Chantel's vision for her life. Her, her, I'm literally just living in God's dream for me, and I'm just being obedient to his assignment. This is not my, this is the vision that he gave me, and it's my job to see it through, but this is beyond my wildest dreams.[00:50:00]
This was kind of like a little lemonade stand for my kids for real. Right? Like, let me show y'all what hard, you know, take some lemons, make like we didn't turn lemons into lemonade, then turn it into a lemonade on empire. We didn't, we we making different flavors and at this point we're doing so much. But this wasn't, I just thought we was doing the lemonade stand, but God said no bigger.
Mm. And so with bigger has required. A lot of suffering that has made me stronger. But it has also showed my children, my dad would say this all the time growing up, tough times is going to come, but they not gonna last, but tough people do. And so I'm, I'm tough and so that's like literally why I wake up every day and keep doing it.
Dreena: I love that. So what's next for play
Chantel: Pits?
Dreena: We
Chantel: trying to take over the bathrooms at the [00:51:00] all the kids. Okay. We, we, we, nah, come on you guys, you catering to the parents too and Yes, we are. We are, but what we really, our, our kids are at the core, our goal. So like I said, when I researched the competitors, they were adult brands that just slap kids on it and threw the kids a bone.
Right? We have adult products, but it's almost like I did the reverse. Mm-hmm. I have a kid. Yeah. Focused brand. And I gave the parents a product because the parents loved it so much for themselves. Mm-hmm. And their kids that I said, okay, parents. I got y'all too. But originally that was a limited edition.
Offered that I, back in 2018 when I started making adult products, that was like, all right, adults, leave me alone. Merry Christmas. Here's a, a limited batch. It's not for you. Yeah. And it sold out. And then literally every day, from the moment that that product sold [00:52:00] out, probably like 30 days after, once people were out of it.
45 days. Yeah. I got a dm, a email, a text message or something of when is the adult product coming back? And I was like, it's not. Mm. This is for kids. Like I just Merry Christmas. And they were like, no, no, no, no. So then that was like, okay, maybe I should offer an adult product. And so now we've become a family brand, a kid focused family brand.
Yes, we have deodorant for everyone. It's your one stop shop for the entire family. But it started and the core is focusing on kids.
Dreena: I mean, we use it at our house. I have a queen. My husband has King. Gabe has all the scents for his favorite Sunshine.
Chantel: Sunshine. That's my favorite. Mm-hmm. Sunshine is orange and pepper.
That's the, each scent is inspired by one of my three kids. Did you know that? No. Each scent so happy is my daughter Kiana. Because she, she chill and calm. Like, ha, like lavender. Um, sugar is Caden because he got a sweet tooth like me, and he loves [00:53:00] some sugar and sunshine is orange and peppermint. And the idea behind sunshine is it's energetic.
It's, it, it like literally gives you a first because of that peppermint. And I joke with Cameron and tell him if I could bottle up his energy aw, I would be a, like a, a, a millionaire. And that boy, like that's what sunshine is. Aw.
Dreena: So thinking ahead, what can we expect from play pits?
Chantel: We have some new product coming out.
Okay. Super excited about that. We're coming out with some wipes, some deodorizing wipe. Wipe it down. Yeah. You know, wipe get you, get, you, get you right to refresh those kids. Refresh your yourself after a long day. You know, we, we have very long days now, like as, as humans, we, we get up the hustle is like. As a parent, you get up, you put that kid on the bus, you work out, you, you take a shower, you start your day, but then you clock outta your work and now you going to go be an Uber [00:54:00] driver.
And while you a Uber driver, you either working out again or you on a call. Mm-hmm. Or you, so you are having long days and throughout that day you may need to freshen up. And so we about to have you for that. I like that. Um, yeah. Okay. So then additional body product, um, we're working on. So I'm really excited to continue that.
Span this brand because I mean, traditionally we've been a deodorant company. Mm-hmm. And so to be able to develop so another solution for problems that I'm experiencing as a mom, other people have expressed they're experiencing and give them something great and not something toxic, not something where I'm just throwing something together.
I create with so much intention.
Dreena: Yeah. That
Chantel: I'm excited for people to continue to experience what I, I create.
Dreena: Oh, I'm looking forward to it. I can't wait to see. Yeah. I'm
Chantel: excited.
Dreena: So now I'm gonna ask you some quick fire questions. Okay. I want you to just tell me the first thing that comes to mind. Favorite show or film you worked on at Tyler [00:55:00] Perry Studios.
Chantel: Um, this is quickfire. I know, but it was a family that praised. Okay. And that was my first, the, it's my favorite because that was my first movie that I worked on. Ooh.
Dreena: Okay. The last book you read and would recommend,
Chantel: uh, buy Back Your Time by Dave Martel. Okay. Um, and I would recommend it because it kind of talks to you about how to build out your team and how to like literally buy back your time so you're only focusing on things that you're great at.
Dreena: Love that a quote or mantra you carry with you. Nothing is impossible
Chantel: with God.
Dreena: Hmm. Yes. So lastly, I want to say congratulations to you. You were just recognized as a in female founder for 2025. Thank you. One of the top 500 women in business and so I'm so excited for you. Thank you. Thank you. [00:56:00] In this next chapter in gear and, um, just thank you so much for joining me today.
Thank you and congrats to you. We ain't gotta do that. We ain't
Chantel: gonna do that. No, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. I really do.