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We are back in New York City, and this time around I have invited two special guests, Coco and Breezy.
These young women are twins and eyewear designers, and their glasses have graced the faces of Beyonce, Rihanna, Lady Gaga, Nicki Minaj, Kelly Osbourne--hello, the list keeps going!
Their story is inspiring, it's the complete definition of shameless, fearless, and we're going to get into it...
after our O.O.T.D!
MAYA: Is this real?
COCO: No, it's faux leather! Vegan leather.
MAYA: Make sure you guys stay tuned to the very end because we're going to have an international giveaway.
For those of my viewers that don't know who you ladies are, explain. Explain yourself!
COCO: So I'm Coco.
BREEZY: And I'm Breezy, and we're Coco and Breezy. We're founders of Coco and Breezy Eyewear. We're originally from Minnesota, but we've been in New York since 2009.
And we're those girls that at 19 years old, we quit our jobs, sold our car and we moved to New York with the all-American dream
with like, no money, the idea of sunglasses and just like, faith and passion, and we've been having our business,
doing it full-time for four years now.
MAYA: I know the story behind your glasses and I think it's very shameless. Share that with the viewers.
COCO: It definitely is very shameless. Well, when we were younger, we grew up being bullied because we were always different.
But us being different, we didn't use that as a negativity. We turned us being different and being bullied into a positive.
And our positivity was sunglasses. That was our escape.
We would wear sunglasses to escape from people bullying us.
And so, before we actually start designing the sunglasses, we would always wear the sunglasses--and sunglasses gave us this level of confidence that we never had.
BREEZY: Like, we we felt like we were the queens of the world. But once we took our sunglasses off, it was a level of insecurity that we felt like,
torn apart from people making fun of us, from staring at us, for us being comfortable for being individuals.
And so when I had the idea--we were sitting on our mom's living room floor--I created the first pair of Coco and Breezy sunglasses.
And I told Coco, 'this could be a business.'
We actually went to New York for two weeks just to visit.
COCO: And we were like, 'our glasses are going to be a hit. We're going to move to New York,' you know?
Two weeks later, we're like, 'mom and dad, we have to move there. There's no way that our brand is going to grow here because all the resources are in New York.'
MAYA: What year was this?
COCO and BREEZY: 2009. We were 19 years old.
BREEZY: And so, we did it. We quit our jobs, we sold our car, we sold clothes at like, Buffalo Exchange, tried to get up all the money that we could.
We bought our plane tickets. Everyone thought we were crazy. And we WERE crazy!
COCO: We didn't feel like we were crazy, but you have to be crazy enough--
BREEZY: To think that you can change the world. And we were so crazy and we--just like, we're unstoppable. And we just went for it.
MAYA: And was that a process? How did you guys work towards, I guess, turning this into a business and just putting yourself out there--because you guys use MySpace!
COCO: Yeah, so what happened was we first started about, I would say when we were about 15 years old.
We were always into our own fashion style. We were like, okay, cool. We're going to post pictures of us with our cool outfits on, and we started building a following
on MySpace. We were like those girls that worked at the mall, we had a whole bunch of followers for no reason.
We can't have a huge following and not utilize them as customers.
So we were like, you know what, this is the right time. We have a following.
BREEZY: We created brand equity because all the people that have been following us since MySpace, they've seen our growth.
Because we've been real about our whole journey and they feel like they're part of the brand.
COCO: For us, with our social media, the reason why we have a following is because we're real with our story.
I think that social media sometimes people kind of... they fabricate--
MAYA: Like they only show like, one side.
COCO: And then they show one side, we show both sides.
BREEZY: We showed the struggle and we showed the accomplishments.
MAYA: What advice do you guys have for young women that are artists, that are entrepreneurs, that are afraid to put themselves out there.
BREEZY: Just do it. If you simply have an idea to do something that feels... not normal, I would say just go for it.
I think a lot of people... Like a lot of parents, family, friends that will support the art field. And so, if you don't have their support,
the number one thing is that you have your own support. You should be your number one fan.
COCO: And also too, you can't be afraid of a no. Not everything is going to work, but at least if you attempted, you made it 100%.
Then you know, move on to the next.
BREEZY: There's a certain mindset you have to have. You have to have the midset and the strength to sacrifice.
Because when we first moved to New York, we lived in a small box. The size of--
COCO: A small boxed room, our room was so small!
BREEZY: It was like the size of an air matress.
COCO: And the crazy part about it is we had a king-sized--it was like queen-sized air matress. Our room was that size.
BREEZY: And we had to like, schooch against the wall--
COCO: And we made our Nicki Minaj glasses on that air mattress and our air matress popped.
One thing that I always say is that--something else that's important is save your money and put it back into your business.
And one thing that I always tell people as well is that, you have a full-time job and you want to start your own thing, save!
Save that--we put some--put half can go towards your new goal that you have and use the rest on your regular finances.
I think that's like, very important, too.
BREEZY: But just remember, you have to start from the bottom.
COCO: Every successful person has started from the bottom.
MAYA: This is true.
BREEZY: And I think a lot of people get embarrassed of their struggle, when really that's part of the story.
COCO: That's something you should flaunt--
MAYA: I always say--I'm like, that's part of the memoirs.
Like, when I first moved there was nothing glamorous about the roaches.
There's nothing like--now it's kind of funny when I look back at it, but at the time I'm like... 'this is awful.'
MAYA: But you do what you got to do to get where you need to go. COCO: But you want to be in New York, so...
BREEZY: You're going to have your high periods. Once you get to your low periods, don't freak out, don't get depressed.
COCO: That's when you take time out to figure out how can you get over that hump. And figure out what can you do next to improve what didn't work last time.
BREEZY: And so you like, go back to the drawing board.
MAYA: So you guys have a very interesting and unique look.
How do you guys deal with ignorant comments, ignorant people?
BREEZY: We get it as a positive. And as hurtful as it can be, a lot of people... when they hate on you it's because they're intimidated.
And they just don't understand you and they dont care to even take the time to understand you.
MAYA: I just feel bad for them, because it's like, you could be so productive if you just focus all that energy that you're using on me, on yourself?
COCO and BREEZY: Exactly.
COCO: When we were younger we actually used to get very offended, we used to get very sad, very defensive.
Now it's like, you know what, we're confident with who we are, and if someone wants to have their own opinion, that's their opinion.
You can't let someone else's opinion affect you because you know it's not a fact.
BREEZY: And also too, if you're a visionary, you have to know that people aren't going to agree with what you do or how you look.
And so there are going to be people that aren't on a mind level as you, they're not going to understand you.
And I could say that in the beginning of our career we used to cry whenever people made fun of us--that's what social media is--
like it's hurtful to see the mean comments. But we learned to either just ignore them, or just to use it as motivation.
Sometimes people would hate on you, but really they love you and they're just trying to get your attention.
And so it's like--
MAYA: They're obsessed. They're still watching.
BREEZY: You have to just love yourself.
MAYA: These lovelies are going to do a giveaway!
COCO: So it's our Coco and Breezy art collection, it's another side of our Coco and Breezy brand.
And it's all of our art work--on our t-shirts and we have tote bags.
MAYA: And what do you have to do to enter?
BREEZY: Take a picture of what your art is. Pretty much anything that makes you happy.
Post the picture on instagram and make sure you hashtag, #eyeamshamelessart.
MAYA: And I also want to do a giveaway here on YouTube.
All you've got to do is comment below with the hashtag #eyeamshameless art, and tell me how you guys stay creative.
MAYA: And then for more information, read the description box. And you have to make sure you're following us.
So, they're @cocoandbreezy. @mayasworld. International!
And we'll hold it for like a week?
COCO and BREEZY: Yeah.
MAYA: Okay. So you've got one week to get your free goodies.
Oh, and did you guys want to do like a promo code?
COCO and BREEZY: Yeah!
COCO: Especially for Maya's favorite people watching! We're going to give you guys 15% off of our website, and the promo code will be Shameless.
So use that if you want to cop these fierce glasses. Designer.
Okay, that's it guys! Remember to...
BREEZY: Do you!
COCO: Be you!
MAYA: And stay true.
Be shameless!