Latest / The Steve Harvey Morning Show / Building Your Brand: Skincare harnesses the power of Africa’s natural resources - R&R Skincare.

Transcript

Building Your Brand: Skincare harnesses the power of Africa’s natural resources - R&R Skincare. · The Steve Harvey Morning Show

0:05
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show.
0:06
Speaker 2: I am Rashan McDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
0:10
Speaker 2: where we encourage.
0:11
Speaker 1: People to stop reading other people's success stories and start
0:14
Speaker 1: planning their own.
0:16
Speaker 2: Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
0:19
Speaker 2: talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
0:22
Speaker 2: their companies, and speak with dog profits who are making.
0:25
Speaker 1: A difference in their local communities.
0:27
Speaker 2: Now, sit back and listen as we unlock the secrets
0:30
Speaker 2: to their success.
0:31
Speaker 1: On Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Hi, I am Rashon McDonald.
0:36
Speaker 2: I host this weekly Money Making Conversation Masterclass show. The
0:39
Speaker 2: interviews and information that this show provides are for everyone.
0:43
Speaker 2: It's time to stop reading other people's success stories and
0:46
Speaker 2: really start living your own. I'm here to help you
0:48
Speaker 2: reach your American dream. My guests founded R and R
0:51
Speaker 2: Skincare and Nigeria. It's a premier woman owned beauty brand
0:56
Speaker 2: dedicated to crafting high quality, cruelty free skincare products that
1:00
Speaker 2: harness the power of Africa's natural resources. Please welco me
1:05
Speaker 2: with the Money Making Conversations Master Class. Valerie O Bossi Hirish,
1:09
Speaker 2: thank you for me, Motherland, the Motherland. I will admit,
1:17
Speaker 2: you know, I made a visit to the Motherland, UH,
1:20
Speaker 2: to South Africa. Down there, Durban and Johannesburg and Steve
1:24
Speaker 2: Harvey and I we were broadcasting the morning show from
1:27
Speaker 2: that area, and I was and I'm gonna just tell
1:29
Speaker 2: you this, honestly, there were so many stereotypes that I
1:33
Speaker 2: have been introduced by being raised in America that I
1:38
Speaker 2: was worried about the technology being available to us to
1:42
Speaker 2: broadcast a morning show back to America. Does that annoy
1:48
Speaker 2: you that those type of stereotypes of inefficiencies, poor technology.
1:54
Speaker 2: 'le gonna use the word ignorance UH dominates the media
1:59
Speaker 2: precent of Africa.
2:01
Speaker 3: I think ignorance doesn't always have to be an insult.
2:05
Speaker 3: If you don't know, you just don't know better. Right,
2:08
Speaker 3: So until you experience or you research personally to find
2:12
Speaker 3: out more, how are you going to know. You've been
2:14
Speaker 3: fed stories right your whole life and being told what
2:17
Speaker 3: Africa is like. So it's intentional, so you don't go
2:22
Speaker 3: back there. But when you go, you have your own experience,
2:24
Speaker 3: you get to know the reality on ground. Yes, the
2:28
Speaker 3: continent is still developing, but we are warhead in so
2:32
Speaker 3: many different ways that people wouldn't even begin to understand.
2:35
Speaker 3: So until you get there and until you share your experience,
2:38
Speaker 3: how is anyone going to know? And thankfully we have
2:41
Speaker 3: the Internet and we have Instagram and stuff, so people
2:44
Speaker 3: it's a global village. Now everyone gets to see how
2:46
Speaker 3: people partied in Legos in December and Acra in January,
2:50
Speaker 3: and they get to know that there's more to life
2:53
Speaker 3: than just their immediate purview. And I think that I
2:56
Speaker 3: don't get annoyed. I think that it's for everybody to
2:59
Speaker 3: experience themselves. We all have our preconceptions. Until we break
3:03
Speaker 3: down those barriers, then how are we going to know.
3:06
Speaker 2: I'm gonna get a knowing because you know, so you
3:09
Speaker 2: because you know you, you sell them the product.
3:11
Speaker 1: Money may come this myself, I can get to know.
3:13
Speaker 1: I get mad because I was mad.
3:15
Speaker 2: Because I'm running around worried about and I landed. I
3:19
Speaker 2: was mad because I was like, wow, it was just
3:21
Speaker 2: like landing in Atlanta, Georgia, you know, and that really
3:25
Speaker 2: bothered me because it went.
3:27
Speaker 1: I went. You know what they.
3:28
Speaker 2: Promote safaris, They never come back and talk about there's
3:32
Speaker 2: always a war, conflicts that are promoted. You know, I
3:38
Speaker 2: grew up a cent a dollar, you could save a
3:41
Speaker 2: little kid who's.
3:42
Speaker 1: Starving in Africa.
3:43
Speaker 2: This is the stuff that I grew up on, you
3:44
Speaker 2: know what I'm saying, and and but no one's coming
3:47
Speaker 2: back to retell that story.
3:49
Speaker 1: And so I wanted to make sure, you know, the
3:52
Speaker 1: perceptions should be shut down.
3:54
Speaker 2: Like you said, there are social media out there, and
3:57
Speaker 2: you know, Africa is one of the biggest uh Hollywood
4:01
Speaker 2: type producing areas in the country.
4:04
Speaker 1: In fact, on Netflix.
4:05
Speaker 2: You know, the the amount of content that's coming out
4:09
Speaker 2: of Africa is now on Netflix is amazing.
4:12
Speaker 1: And I think that also kills a lot of the.
4:14
Speaker 3: Stereoy absolutely in the music. Look at the music industry,
4:17
Speaker 3: you know, that's exactly the Nigerian and African music industry
4:21
Speaker 3: has really blown up. And so for me, even when
4:24
Speaker 3: I left the UK to move back to Africa, and
4:28
Speaker 3: my entry point was Nigeria, Lagos, Nigeria. My husband is
4:31
Speaker 3: Nigerian and I'm from Ghana, but we both grew up
4:34
Speaker 3: in the UK and I moved there to live with
4:36
Speaker 3: him after we got married. And for me, it was
4:39
Speaker 3: a perfect place to go from London to Legos because
4:41
Speaker 3: Legos is so dynamic and the music industry was really burgeoning.
4:46
Speaker 3: Then in two thousand and nine, the film industry was huge.
4:50
Speaker 2: Already absolutely, I think was about to do a big
4:53
Speaker 2: deal down there.
4:55
Speaker 3: Yeah, also in Ghana as well. Indurance he's been working
4:58
Speaker 3: in Ghana to do some so work there to ensure
5:01
Speaker 3: that production can take place and take place. Well. So
5:04
Speaker 3: there's so much going on in the fashion industry, absolutely
5:07
Speaker 3: is huge. I'm wearing a gunion and.
5:10
Speaker 2: The sports you know, y'all dominating m and a oh
5:13
Speaker 2: my god in sports.
5:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, y'all just a dominant force.
5:17
Speaker 3: So you know, there's so much going on, There's so
5:19
Speaker 3: many opportunities. So I like that the world has opened
5:23
Speaker 3: up to seeing what Africa has to offer and even
5:26
Speaker 3: me through beauty. People might think that beauty is shallow, right,
5:30
Speaker 3: but if we can show the richness of our raw
5:32
Speaker 3: materials and our ingredients through beauty and share that with
5:36
Speaker 3: the rest of the world, then people can understand that,
5:38
Speaker 3: you know, good stuff does come out of Africa because
5:40
Speaker 3: for so many years people have believed that only bad
5:43
Speaker 3: things come out.
5:44
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely, Now, nice transition using the word beauty.
5:48
Speaker 1: You know what I'm saying, are in our skincare?
5:51
Speaker 3: Yes?
5:52
Speaker 2: Why are you? Why are you producing that? Why are
5:55
Speaker 2: you the face of that brand?
5:58
Speaker 3: Because it's what came naturally to me, is what God
6:01
Speaker 3: had put on my heart, and he found a way
6:04
Speaker 3: for me to access the rest of the world through
6:07
Speaker 3: what I do. And my experience and background is in
6:09
Speaker 3: PR and communications. I had my own PR agency when
6:12
Speaker 3: I lived in London, I worked in the music industry,
6:14
Speaker 3: in fashion beauty. So landing in Lagos and just finding
6:18
Speaker 3: out the ground was so fresh to building brands. You
6:22
Speaker 3: know people definitely, that's big populations. Virginia has like over
6:27
Speaker 3: two hundred million people, Ghana over thirty million people, right,
6:30
Speaker 3: And we're so used to bringing in products from the
6:34
Speaker 3: rest of the world, so we know Europe and America
6:37
Speaker 3: to be the place where everything great is produced. But
6:39
Speaker 3: the reality is that, you know, the raw materials are
6:43
Speaker 3: coming from the continent and going over there to be produced.
6:45
Speaker 3: Whether that's leather, right, whether that's shade, butter, whatever it is. Yeah,
6:51
Speaker 3: it leaves the continent raw and then it's produced into
6:54
Speaker 3: finished products elsewhere. And chocolates, look at chocolate chocolates not
6:57
Speaker 3: from Switzerland, let me tell you, it is from Aricas
7:01
Speaker 3: and it's from Ghana. But the raw cacao or cocoa
7:04
Speaker 3: is leaving the continent and being value added elsewhere, and
7:08
Speaker 3: we believe that chocolate's from Belgium, you know. So I
7:11
Speaker 3: think that the time has come a new generation of
7:14
Speaker 3: people are going back home and creating finished products, brands,
7:19
Speaker 3: African owned brands coming out of the continent using materials.
7:24
Speaker 3: So thank you.
7:25
Speaker 2: That's important because so many because people don't know, we
7:28
Speaker 2: get we get confused about where the final destination of
7:31
Speaker 2: products are being distributed versus where it was sourced. And
7:35
Speaker 2: Africa has been the sourcing capital of the world for
7:39
Speaker 2: so many years. And the fact that you as an entrepreneur,
7:43
Speaker 2: let's put it right, You're an entrepreneur, a business owner
7:47
Speaker 2: made the conscious decision woman owned business owner. So do
7:50
Speaker 2: you right now to get your product is online?
7:53
Speaker 1: It's virtually on.
7:55
Speaker 3: Yeah.
7:55
Speaker 1: But you do have stores, we do. Where are they located?
7:58
Speaker 3: We have three water owned stores, one in Legos that
8:02
Speaker 3: was the first door we ever opened in twenty thirteen,
8:04
Speaker 3: and then we are now headquartered in Acra, Ghana, which
8:08
Speaker 3: is where I'm from, and we have two stores there,
8:10
Speaker 3: so one in the center of town in Labori, which
8:13
Speaker 3: is a vibrant hub of hospitality, food, restaurants, clubs.
8:19
Speaker 1: You good storyteller, I'm like to gots.
8:25
Speaker 3: Been multiple times. And we also have a store at
8:30
Speaker 3: the airport, So in the departure lounge at Ghana's and
8:33
Speaker 3: Acara Airport, ca to Co International Airport. So as you're leaving,
8:37
Speaker 3: you pick up a piece of Ghana and come and
8:40
Speaker 3: share it with your friends. Your family will keep it
8:42
Speaker 3: for yourself.
8:43
Speaker 2: So what is the experience like going into you the
8:45
Speaker 2: first stores in twenty thirteen. Is there an experience? Do
8:48
Speaker 2: you do hair there?
8:49
Speaker 1: Or is just products being product based?
8:51
Speaker 3: We wanted to create an experience come in and buy
8:53
Speaker 3: products that are made here, you know, buy us for everybody,
8:57
Speaker 3: so you know, you just want to walk into a store.
8:59
Speaker 3: Because one of my frustrations when I moved back, I
9:01
Speaker 3: would go to the store, I find something I like
9:03
Speaker 3: today and I go back next week and it's gone right.
9:07
Speaker 3: You know, they're not manufacturing it here, so I'd have
9:10
Speaker 3: to be importing it, and so there's always gaps. There's
9:12
Speaker 3: always gaps. You can't always get what you need. So
9:14
Speaker 3: the purpose gradually grew so that at the end of
9:18
Speaker 3: the day, we get it today, when you come back
9:20
Speaker 3: next month, is still there because we're producing locally, We're
9:23
Speaker 3: sourcing locally, and you're always going to be able to
9:26
Speaker 3: find that product. So we wanted people to experience that
9:29
Speaker 3: brand feeling when you walk into our stores.
9:32
Speaker 2: Awesome, awesome, let's talk about the product now, you know
9:35
Speaker 2: we have it right here, or the logo or that
9:38
Speaker 2: look really resonates with me, you know, because it's it's
9:43
Speaker 2: a thought process. Talk about that whole design and then
9:47
Speaker 2: we're going to get into the product. And how was
9:49
Speaker 2: just you know, started the evolution of our at our skillcare.
9:53
Speaker 3: So the logo actually, I'm so glad you touched on that.
9:56
Speaker 3: This is a new logo, Okay, so when we start graduation,
9:59
Speaker 3: thank you. We have another logo and we recently rebranded
10:03
Speaker 3: just in June. So June twenty fourth, we relaunched Our
10:06
Speaker 3: in our we used to be called our Luxury okay,
10:09
Speaker 3: and we rebranded as Are in our Skincare. Not that
10:12
Speaker 3: we've dropped the luxury. The luxury is in the quality
10:14
Speaker 3: of what we do. But we found that the name
10:17
Speaker 3: used to alienate people. People think that the price point
10:19
Speaker 3: would be beyond what they could reach, but actually our
10:21
Speaker 3: products are so affordable. So we thought that luxury is
10:25
Speaker 3: something that you should feel won't say. So we dropped
10:29
Speaker 3: the luxury and we're now in our skincare. So we
10:32
Speaker 3: did have a logo similar to ours in a symbol,
10:36
Speaker 3: but our creative team decided to change the logo against
10:41
Speaker 3: my wishes at the time that when they came back
10:44
Speaker 3: with what they had, I absolutely.
10:45
Speaker 1: Love that beautiful.
10:46
Speaker 2: It's really is much and I'm glad you dropped luxury
10:49
Speaker 2: because when I hear R in our luxury, I think
10:51
Speaker 2: of I think.
10:52
Speaker 1: Of a resort, I think of a rob report, you know, luxury.
10:57
Speaker 2: I don't think of anything that's related to something that
11:00
Speaker 2: I would put on my face or take care of
11:02
Speaker 2: my body.
11:03
Speaker 1: Because of that, and so this is a very smart
11:05
Speaker 1: to me.
11:06
Speaker 2: I like to consider myself a branding and marketing expert.
11:10
Speaker 1: Home Run, thank you the logos.
11:11
Speaker 2: Home Run, you're telling them what you do skincare. People
11:14
Speaker 2: know exactly what they're getting where they walk in the
11:16
Speaker 2: store and they walk out and they share with other people.
11:19
Speaker 1: Excellent move. Now twenty ten, was this an idea or product?
11:26
Speaker 1: In twenty ten when it was founded.
11:29
Speaker 3: It was in need. Okay talk to me about telling
11:32
Speaker 3: I just give them birth, becoming a mother for the
11:34
Speaker 3: first time. I have three kids now three daughters. Actually
11:41
Speaker 3: they did have them quite kind of quick. There'll be
11:43
Speaker 3: girls now they're fourteen, twelve, and ten. But when I
11:47
Speaker 3: had my first baby, I just needed something natural to
11:50
Speaker 3: use on her skin. I didn't want to use the
11:53
Speaker 3: products that everybody used for babies for years, because I
11:56
Speaker 3: mean the important right, because we know that it's not
11:58
Speaker 3: necessarily the best thing. So being in Nigeria, I wanted
12:01
Speaker 3: to use something local and regional, you know, and indigenous
12:05
Speaker 3: to the soil. And Shaye precedes everything that I've done.
12:10
Speaker 3: It's been around for centuries, right, and we know the
12:13
Speaker 3: goodness of shake because.
12:14
Speaker 1: Everybody uses it absolutely.
12:15
Speaker 3: The proof in concept is there all the big brands
12:18
Speaker 3: you shake in their formulations. But we weren't turning it
12:22
Speaker 3: into an enjoyable product. It was just the raw shape
12:25
Speaker 3: butter and you'd have to put it in the microwave
12:28
Speaker 3: on the stove whip it up. Yeah, and people were
12:32
Speaker 3: willing to do that, but I wasn't one of those people.
12:34
Speaker 3: You know, when you have a crying baby, you don't
12:37
Speaker 3: have time to now put things on the stove and
12:39
Speaker 3: start whipping up your formulations. There are people that are
12:42
Speaker 3: very good at that. That's not me. So I was
12:44
Speaker 3: thinking about the fact that I would love to create
12:46
Speaker 3: a product that makes using these raw materials from the
12:49
Speaker 3: continent enjoyable and suitable for a baby, but suitable for
12:54
Speaker 3: the rest of the family too. So when we discovered
12:56
Speaker 3: Shay in a liquid form, which is our shape oil,
12:59
Speaker 3: that was a game changer for me. That was our
13:02
Speaker 3: first product. That was our first product.
13:04
Speaker 1: And will you say shade are how is it used?
13:07
Speaker 3: It's used directly on your skin, So shade same way
13:10
Speaker 3: you do shave butter right, okay, pure she rubbing it
13:13
Speaker 3: onto your skin to moisturize and looking moisture. Okay, this
13:16
Speaker 3: is the oil version. So sha is made up of
13:18
Speaker 3: two parts. Get two technical solid and liquid. When you
13:22
Speaker 3: separate the liquid from the solid parts, so you have
13:24
Speaker 3: steering and oilink. So the olin is the oil and
13:27
Speaker 3: that's what we are giving you. So it still has
13:29
Speaker 3: all the amazing properties moisturizing, healing, all of those good things,
13:35
Speaker 3: all of the good stuff. And we've bottled it and
13:37
Speaker 3: we learned how to blend essential oil.
13:40
Speaker 2: So lem it to lower you down, Valerie, Okay, now
13:43
Speaker 2: this is your first product, you Shay first product.
13:46
Speaker 1: Okay, are you selling it?
13:48
Speaker 3: Okay, not yet?
13:49
Speaker 1: Okay, cool, continue with your story point.
13:51
Speaker 3: So I was sharing with my husband actually that oh,
13:54
Speaker 3: I've come across Shaye in an oil and this is
13:58
Speaker 3: what we're going to use for the baby. And he
13:59
Speaker 3: was like, you know what, I've never seen that before
14:02
Speaker 3: and I don't think it's widely available in legos or
14:05
Speaker 3: in Nigeria. Yeah, bulbs, you're talking.
14:09
Speaker 1: Yeah, money maker, money maker exactly.
14:12
Speaker 3: As a branding person, I've thought that, you know, this
14:14
Speaker 3: is there's definitely an opportunity here. So before we go
14:18
Speaker 3: spending too much money, let's get like samples and stuff
14:21
Speaker 3: from the suppliers, bottle it, share it with our friends
14:25
Speaker 3: and family, use it first, then share it with our
14:28
Speaker 3: friends and family. And what we did. I even had
14:30
Speaker 3: someone mock up a logo for me. I ordered like
14:32
Speaker 3: a box of plastic bottles online and I just shared
14:36
Speaker 3: it with the people close to me and I just said,
14:37
Speaker 3: if you like it, come back and buy it. And
14:40
Speaker 3: that's how it started.
14:41
Speaker 1: Okay. So and they we talked about R and R means.
14:45
Speaker 3: Work, so ur and is my daughter's initials name is Rebecca.
14:50
Speaker 3: Was my first daughter and she's named after my mother
14:53
Speaker 3: and my husband's mother. So my mom is Rebecca and
14:56
Speaker 3: my mother in law is Rose.
14:58
Speaker 1: That's beautiful.
14:58
Speaker 3: So we named it after the two of them. And
15:01
Speaker 3: she's got Rebecca Roh's And when you have a child,
15:03
Speaker 3: you always sends a name of your business. It's such
15:06
Speaker 3: a woman thing to do. But yeah, so we decided
15:09
Speaker 3: Arena would be the name of the company. And it
15:10
Speaker 3: also stands for rest and recuperation or rest and relaxation,
15:14
Speaker 3: so you have like a double meaning there, and I
15:17
Speaker 3: just felt that it was exactly and so Arena means
15:23
Speaker 3: a lot to me because it not only represents my daughter,
15:25
Speaker 3: also represents my mother, my mother in law, so generational heritage,
15:30
Speaker 3: you know, it speaks to the legacy aspects of the brand.
15:34
Speaker 4: Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
15:37
Speaker 4: money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
15:47
Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashan MacDonald. Money Making Conversations Masterclass
15:53
Speaker 4: continues online at Moneymakingconversations dot com and follow money Making
15:58
Speaker 4: Conversations Masterclass Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
16:03
Speaker 2: This that first time I've said down with an individual
16:04
Speaker 2: who's developed an idea. The whole idea is I have
16:11
Speaker 2: a dream, That's what it really is. Yeah, Now when
16:13
Speaker 2: you start sharing that dream with people, what were they
16:17
Speaker 2: saying to you, Valerie about I think I can put
16:21
Speaker 2: this on the shares. I think people would buy this
16:23
Speaker 2: from What were they telling you? Were they motivating you
16:26
Speaker 2: or they're looking at you like really?
16:28
Speaker 3: Yeah? Well you definitely have some of the people that
16:30
Speaker 3: were like hmm, okay, let's see where this goes. But
16:34
Speaker 3: I think the majority of people were very very passionate
16:39
Speaker 3: about the idea. They were They've got behind us pretty quickly,
16:45
Speaker 3: and they saw they saw the potential for the business,
16:48
Speaker 3: and they were very supportive. So from my mother to
16:51
Speaker 3: my mother in law, we turned my mother in law's
16:53
Speaker 3: garage and sw a manufactory. After my husband kicked me
16:56
Speaker 3: out of the house, I mean kick me out of
16:58
Speaker 3: his kitchen, not actually out of his house, but kick
17:00
Speaker 3: me out of his kitchen because I'd taken over the
17:02
Speaker 3: dining room, everything that were boxes everywhere. So we converted
17:06
Speaker 3: his mom's space, her garage into our factory compliant, fully
17:12
Speaker 3: compliant factory so that we could start producing on a
17:14
Speaker 3: slightly larger scale. Because the interest did start to flow
17:17
Speaker 3: in and definitely I think support more than you know.
17:22
Speaker 3: Negativity has surrounded this brand for day one.
17:25
Speaker 2: This is the part when I started asking the entrepreneur question, Okay,
17:29
Speaker 2: what did your business plan look like?
17:31
Speaker 3: I didn't have one.
17:32
Speaker 1: Okay, so you started a business without a business plan?
17:35
Speaker 1: Was that smart?
17:36
Speaker 3: Yep? Listen. I didn't go to business school. I come
17:40
Speaker 3: from the school of hard knocks in right and experience. Okay.
17:44
Speaker 3: I went to university. I studied branding, communications, culture and media.
17:48
Speaker 3: I went to work in the PR world, initially music,
17:50
Speaker 3: then consumer pr. I've worked with brands. I understand what
17:54
Speaker 3: people like, what people don't like. And I'm African. I
17:58
Speaker 3: lived in the diaspora for my childhood and early adulthood.
18:02
Speaker 3: I left England at twenty nine moved back to the continent. Well,
18:06
Speaker 3: I say moved back. I never actually lived on the continent.
18:08
Speaker 3: I was back and forth all the time. But I
18:10
Speaker 3: did my entire schooling up until the age, up until
18:12
Speaker 3: university in the UK, and moved to Africa in twenty nine.
18:16
Speaker 3: And I realized that Africa was having your renaissance in
18:21
Speaker 3: the creative space, especially, and we were starting to take
18:25
Speaker 3: ownership of what was ours and I had to be
18:27
Speaker 3: part of that, and I had a responsibility as well,
18:30
Speaker 3: like God put this responsibility on me to empower our economy,
18:35
Speaker 3: not just human beings, but the economy in general. Because
18:39
Speaker 3: you know that if you bring in more than you
18:40
Speaker 3: put out, you're always going to be a poor nation
18:43
Speaker 3: or poor continent. So we have a responsibility to put
18:46
Speaker 3: out more than we bring in. And so creating a
18:49
Speaker 3: brand was one a gap a need, but also I
18:54
Speaker 3: saw in need. But I also over time realized that
18:57
Speaker 3: there was a responsibility on my shoulders.
19:00
Speaker 1: Is cruel cruelty free?
19:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you do the tested on your or your product, we.
19:05
Speaker 3: Test on humans, not animals. And because there's yeah, they
19:10
Speaker 3: can say out. And also because there's no need. You know,
19:13
Speaker 3: the ingredients we use are historically, you know backed my
19:19
Speaker 3: great grandmother and her probably ancestors as well, use these
19:23
Speaker 3: raw materials to cook, to eat with, to do several
19:27
Speaker 3: things with my phone. No, I'm good, Yeah, to do
19:31
Speaker 3: all of these things. So Shae has been around for centuries.
19:35
Speaker 3: It's okay, I didn't invent shape.
19:37
Speaker 2: Well, let's talk about this because of the fact that
19:39
Speaker 2: it's not so much you're inventing it, but you're bringing
19:42
Speaker 2: a brand to America and exposing it to a miracle
19:46
Speaker 2: a polish brand. Yes, but you want to maintain that
19:50
Speaker 2: the African slaver to.
19:52
Speaker 1: Why is that important?
19:53
Speaker 3: Because we have to maintain the authenticity and the integrity
19:58
Speaker 3: of who we are. I think it's important people to
20:00
Speaker 3: know where we've come from. We don't intend to hide
20:02
Speaker 3: that in any way. We just wanted to make our
20:05
Speaker 3: raw materials sexy. If I can say that, you know,
20:09
Speaker 3: let's bring it back. We have to make it appealing
20:15
Speaker 3: and elegant and classy. But you know, in terms of
20:18
Speaker 3: what's in the bottle, that all comes from other nature.
20:22
Speaker 2: Okay, cool, Let's start talking about some of the stuff
20:24
Speaker 2: that the infamous black soap. I've seen it in the
20:30
Speaker 2: square and so why are you or why should I be.
20:34
Speaker 1: Encouraged to use this liquid.
20:36
Speaker 3: Black soap again, it's like the modernization of historical context.
20:42
Speaker 3: Chay and sorry. Black soap is a traditional cleansing method
20:48
Speaker 3: has been used also for decades, and how do we
20:51
Speaker 3: make that more appealing and more accessible to people? Not
20:55
Speaker 3: everybody wants to use a soap bar, although nowadays, with
20:58
Speaker 3: the circular economy people wanting to have less waste, people
21:01
Speaker 3: are more happy to use soap bars again. But if
21:04
Speaker 3: you're a shower gel person, right.
21:06
Speaker 1: That's what I'm saying. That's why immediately gravitated it.
21:09
Speaker 2: I am not a barshaal question I have so this
21:13
Speaker 2: is something I will be buying because I enjoy I
21:16
Speaker 2: just enjoy that aspect of it versus a soap that
21:19
Speaker 2: it eventually looks ugly.
21:21
Speaker 3: Exactly. I'm exactly the same. I'm a liquid soap person.
21:24
Speaker 3: I love a shower gel. So a lot of the
21:27
Speaker 3: need is created from my own personal needs and creating
21:31
Speaker 3: something that is easy to use. You don't want to
21:34
Speaker 3: make using these things difficult, otherwise people will use it
21:37
Speaker 3: once twice and they'll be like, let me go back
21:39
Speaker 3: to what I'm familiar with. So I want to make
21:41
Speaker 3: it so that it can sit on the shelf next
21:44
Speaker 3: to all of those brands that you've used your whole
21:46
Speaker 3: life and be happy to switch it out.
21:49
Speaker 2: Because now what is the difference, Because I want to
21:51
Speaker 2: I think you have right here, you have the body all, yes,
21:55
Speaker 2: this what's your first product.
21:56
Speaker 3: Exactly, and then you have right.
21:58
Speaker 2: Here you have the the body butter.
22:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, why do you need both?
22:06
Speaker 3: Because everyone's preferences are different. Some people like more of
22:10
Speaker 3: a thicker application.
22:11
Speaker 1: That's what the butter.
22:12
Speaker 3: That's what you're gonna get with the butter. So it's
22:14
Speaker 3: a with butter, so it's still very light compared to
22:17
Speaker 3: how rawschit butter is. We whip it, we add our
22:21
Speaker 3: essential oils or you know, little proprietary bits and pieces
22:24
Speaker 3: which are all one hundred percent natural oil sourced locally,
22:28
Speaker 3: and some people just prefer butter. Some people want an
22:30
Speaker 3: oil something that's a bit lighter and easier and quicker
22:34
Speaker 3: to apply. So it just all depends comes down to.
22:36
Speaker 1: Preference, right, because then you have the hand cream.
22:38
Speaker 2: Yes, now I'm just asking, okay, because I have the oil,
22:43
Speaker 2: I have the butter, and then I have the hand cream.
22:49
Speaker 2: I'm assuming the hand cream is strictly for the hand,
22:51
Speaker 2: but they don't. You got these dry knuckles. Yeah, means so,
22:59
Speaker 2: so I used it.
23:00
Speaker 3: You can put that in your car, in your little
23:03
Speaker 3: man pers if you have one, and or your briefcase,
23:09
Speaker 3: and then the ladies put it in their handbag, so
23:11
Speaker 3: you just carry around with you when you need a
23:13
Speaker 3: little moisture top up because you know the weather can
23:16
Speaker 3: be dry. Even in West Africa, we have a season
23:19
Speaker 3: called Hammertan, which is very very very dry, so your
23:23
Speaker 3: lips get dry, your skin gets very dry, so it's
23:26
Speaker 3: good to have that on your all times. Just top up.
23:28
Speaker 2: Your product is named after your first daughter?
23:31
Speaker 1: Yes, now, but your mother of three entrepreneur? How do
23:36
Speaker 1: you balance that?
23:38
Speaker 3: I love that question, and I'll tell you why because
23:41
Speaker 3: I like to say that no one asks the men
23:43
Speaker 3: these questions. They always ask the women, how do you balance?
23:46
Speaker 3: Because our load is heavy? But kids until then?
23:56
Speaker 1: But then I gotta go back to the source.
23:58
Speaker 3: Yes, and I think that it's difficult at times. You
24:02
Speaker 3: can't give everything one hundred percent all the time, so
24:04
Speaker 3: there's seasons. So right now I'm away from my kids.
24:07
Speaker 3: Right right, they're facetiming me and they're like, oh, Mommy
24:10
Speaker 3: this or Mummy that their dad is there, but they're
24:12
Speaker 3: calling me, who is one thousand miles away, to ask
24:14
Speaker 3: me the most inane question. So I think that it's
24:20
Speaker 3: just you. You can't always balance everything, but you know,
24:23
Speaker 3: sometimes you just pick up the heaviest balls and focus
24:26
Speaker 3: on those at that specific time. There Sometimes when the
24:28
Speaker 3: girls are good, they don't really need me. They've got
24:30
Speaker 3: everything working in their favor and there they're good to go.
24:35
Speaker 3: But there's other times where I need to put on
24:37
Speaker 3: my mom hat and put everything aside. But I'm very,
24:40
Speaker 3: very fortunate to have a lot of good support. My
24:42
Speaker 3: husband is an amazing support. He's actually you know, one
24:45
Speaker 3: of the partners. He like I said, to help me
24:47
Speaker 3: conceptualize his business, and I couldn't have done it without him.
24:52
Speaker 3: I have an amazing team in Ghana, in Nigeria and
24:55
Speaker 3: now in the US.
24:57
Speaker 1: So there's going to be real that that just away
24:59
Speaker 1: for vacation. You know, money made conversations. I see expansion
25:05
Speaker 1: in my vision visionary.
25:11
Speaker 2: Talk about your expansion ideas because you have three stores
25:14
Speaker 2: back home, which is fantastic because finally you're keeping You're
25:18
Speaker 2: not our source, you're not sourcing out your product, making
25:21
Speaker 2: the product their employing people. Yes, revenue is staying in
25:24
Speaker 2: the community, which I admire. So that's been the main
25:28
Speaker 2: issue with Africa in general. But you're over here, come
25:32
Speaker 2: on now, talk to me now.
25:33
Speaker 3: Because you know, I think that we've also found our
25:36
Speaker 3: tribe over here, and I've been here several times. I
25:40
Speaker 3: did like essence first in twenty nineteen, so pre COVID,
25:43
Speaker 3: there's pre covid and then post covid and pre COVID
25:46
Speaker 3: we did some activations here and we realized that as
25:49
Speaker 3: we spoke to people, people experienced our products, the feedback
25:53
Speaker 3: was just unbelievable. And we really truly felt that we
25:56
Speaker 3: found our people outside of the continent. And I knew
26:01
Speaker 3: eventually we had to come back. So with the rebrand
26:04
Speaker 3: and these new opportunities, and I just thought that this
26:08
Speaker 3: was the right time to come back to America and
26:11
Speaker 3: meet our people again. So I'm here right now because
26:15
Speaker 3: we've got some activations, having some conversations. Right we did
26:18
Speaker 3: something in Miami just yesterday, and the land in Atlanta
26:21
Speaker 3: today and straight into your studios. So and thank you
26:25
Speaker 3: for having me.
26:26
Speaker 2: And well, you know, first of all, I don't we're
26:28
Speaker 2: not rapping this interview up because that sounds like you're
26:30
Speaker 2: about to go there, you know, because I really want
26:33
Speaker 2: people to slow down and understand that the product is
26:36
Speaker 2: available down the online it is okay, and you don't
26:40
Speaker 2: have to.
26:40
Speaker 1: Wait to the product to get to that.
26:42
Speaker 2: So this this interview is by breaking down misconception.
26:47
Speaker 1: You know, oh it's in Africa, when I'm gonna get
26:50
Speaker 1: it next year, you know what I'm saying.
26:51
Speaker 2: So let's talk about the whole process that the art
26:55
Speaker 2: of being placed how has handled in Africa, so we
26:58
Speaker 2: can develop that trust with an audience over here.
27:01
Speaker 1: There has a lot of misconceptions.
27:03
Speaker 2: Nurse, I'm sure's the one person gonna go shut what
27:05
Speaker 2: you're talking about?
27:06
Speaker 3: I trust them?
27:07
Speaker 1: Well, that's you.
27:08
Speaker 2: But we're trying to sell to everybody. We want everybody
27:11
Speaker 2: to have the same trust that they have walking in
27:13
Speaker 2: their local drugs. Yeah, those products have been tested. They
27:17
Speaker 2: feel that it's on that.
27:18
Speaker 3: Shelf, they can buy it absolutely.
27:20
Speaker 2: Now you're here with a product that I want to buy,
27:24
Speaker 2: but it's sitting in a manufacturing location and a store
27:27
Speaker 2: in Africa.
27:28
Speaker 1: Talk about that process.
27:29
Speaker 3: So we take quality control very seriously and compliance so
27:34
Speaker 3: no one needs to worry about testing or quality because
27:37
Speaker 3: we have Food and Drugs Authority for Ghana testing, we
27:42
Speaker 3: have Ghana Standards Authority. We have all of the compliance
27:45
Speaker 3: sides ticked and we're entering the US. Everything goes through
27:48
Speaker 3: FDA checks before it's released. And yes, we manufacture everything
27:52
Speaker 3: on the continent, but we bring it to you here fresh.
27:55
Speaker 3: It's toward in our warehouse partners or our logistics partners,
27:58
Speaker 3: and then it shipped out to you this country. So
28:01
Speaker 3: you don't have to wait a million years, even if
28:03
Speaker 3: we're shipping it, even if we were shipping it from
28:06
Speaker 3: the million years, you know.
28:08
Speaker 2: But but you know what people for distance absolutely, you know,
28:11
Speaker 2: like I said, you know Chicago, I know that's that,
28:13
Speaker 2: you know, Mexico, Canada, Africa and so. And we're trying
28:18
Speaker 2: to encourage people to go online to be able to
28:22
Speaker 2: try the product because the product can't get shifted to
28:24
Speaker 2: you in a very time to matter and if you
28:26
Speaker 2: like it, you order it again. And so with that
28:30
Speaker 2: being said, how do you market your brain?
28:32
Speaker 1: You over here?
28:33
Speaker 2: You know you over but you're over there? How are
28:35
Speaker 2: you marketing your brain? You know you already told.
28:37
Speaker 1: Me for sean. You know, before I started this, I
28:40
Speaker 1: had a PR.
28:41
Speaker 2: Yes, so you are much aware about marketing. Tell us
28:45
Speaker 2: about this and.
28:46
Speaker 3: Art and for me, PR is what I do. It
28:50
Speaker 3: comes naturally. But we have a marketing team, both local
28:53
Speaker 3: and global marketing team that are helping us get the
28:55
Speaker 3: word out there.
28:56
Speaker 1: You just say all local and global global.
29:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, shout out to my global team. They are doing
29:03
Speaker 3: a great job. The tribes, they are doing a great job.
29:09
Speaker 3: But again, it takes time, it takes experience. And one
29:11
Speaker 3: of the great things that people can access is social media.
29:14
Speaker 3: Social media is free and we've been building our audience
29:17
Speaker 3: for over a decade now, and say Instagram for example,
29:21
Speaker 3: So you can go on there, you can feel, you
29:23
Speaker 3: can touch, you can read our story, you can watch
29:26
Speaker 3: our story. We've done so many documentaries in house about
29:30
Speaker 3: our story and about our production facility. So we produce
29:33
Speaker 3: our own raw materials. You can see the women that
29:36
Speaker 3: are part of that. You can understand where it comes from.
29:39
Speaker 3: We have quality and processes. We meet all of the
29:42
Speaker 3: standards good manufacturing practice. If you're into manufacturing, you know
29:46
Speaker 3: about that. We're clean where that is concerned. And to
29:51
Speaker 3: see the women at the end of the value chain
29:53
Speaker 3: who pick the nuts, produce into butter, make the soaps.
29:57
Speaker 3: They're all part of this story. So every single product
29:59
Speaker 3: you you know, it does eventually go back to them.
30:03
Speaker 3: It feeds back into that and the supply chain. Yeah,
30:07
Speaker 3: pride and also our hope and our goal is to
30:12
Speaker 3: change their lives in terms of their economic prospects.
30:18
Speaker 2: Right, well, I'm gonna just tell you I'm impressed by
30:20
Speaker 2: the process. First of all, you know you are standing communicator, but.
30:25
Speaker 1: You because let's be just a story.
30:28
Speaker 2: We're trying to tell you know, the logo are in
30:30
Speaker 2: our skincare very impressive.
30:32
Speaker 1: I love it was just kind of like a brown
30:34
Speaker 1: and green.
30:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, very neutral and earthy, very.
30:37
Speaker 2: Neutral, but it also feels like it is Africa in
30:40
Speaker 2: a sense, you know, feel like earth tones strong earth
30:43
Speaker 2: tones here. And the fact that you're giving us the
30:46
Speaker 2: hand cream, You're giving us the which I love, you know,
30:50
Speaker 2: the lotion body for bath, and then you have the
30:53
Speaker 2: body body off, which was the first, and then you
30:55
Speaker 2: have the cream of all. What is the big picture
31:00
Speaker 2: we talked about it earlier as we close. What is
31:02
Speaker 2: the big picture for our and our skincare?
31:06
Speaker 3: I think just growing an African brand and taking it
31:10
Speaker 3: to the rest of the world and sharing the beauty
31:13
Speaker 3: of Africa through our formulations, through what we do, and
31:16
Speaker 3: letting people know that this is just a small representative
31:19
Speaker 3: of the entire continent and what is capable of.
31:23
Speaker 2: Well, my friend, thank you for coming on Money Making
31:25
Speaker 2: Conversation having really I appreciate it. I appreciate you taking
31:29
Speaker 2: the time to come in here and share your story
31:31
Speaker 2: but also share an international perspective on success.
31:35
Speaker 3: Thank you. The pleasure is all mine. Thank you so
31:38
Speaker 3: much for having me.
31:39
Speaker 1: Which are so thank you.
31:41
Speaker 2: This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
31:44
Speaker 2: posted by me Rashaun McDonald. Thank you to our guests
31:48
Speaker 2: on the show today and thank you our listening to
31:50
Speaker 2: audience now. If you want to listen to any episode
31:53
Speaker 2: I want to be a guest on the show, visit
31:55
Speaker 2: Moneymakingconversations dot com. Our social media handle is money Making Conversation.
32:00
Speaker 2: Join us next week and remember to always leave with
32:03
Speaker 2: your gifts. Keep winning mm hmmm.