🎂🧁🍩 Issa Podversary🍩🎉🎊

Heeey!

How’ve you been? It’s been exciting and busy times at the Shades and Layers Studios. First, June is the month of the podversary, so Happy Birthday Shades and Layers 🥳🥳🥳

It’s been a whirlwind and there have been many exciting milestones achieved along the way. The latest one being that we are just shy of eight thousand downloads. Whoop whoop!

Later on we can dive into how it all started and what else there is to celebrate from this journey.

Ok, time to get into the other business of this week’s edition. Here’s what’s coming up:

-Latest Episode - In keeping with our promise to feature more hair conversations, we talk about mastering your curls

-Throwback - Catching up with a previous guest

-Three Years of Shades and Layers

Before we get into it, let me remind you that sharing is caring and if this edition was shared with you, Join The Squad by doing de ting 👇🏾

LATEST EPISODE

This week on the podcast, we have the pleasure of speaking to Keziah Dhamma, the brains behind Swirly Curly Hair – a high-end natural hair care and educational company. This CEO Co-founder originally created the company as a hair accessories company that made snap-on hair ties (Snapees) for those with voluminous curly or kinky hair. Since then, it has evolved into a product company and education platform that assists individuals on their natural hair journey.

With over 10,000 members in its community, Swirly Curly Hair is continuing to expand and if all goes according to play, you may soon find them at your local beauty store shelves. In the meanwhile, they will teach you how creat a wash day that takes less than one hour. Say what?! 👇🏾 Keep reading

In our conversation, Keziah discusses the Swirly Curly Method for curl care, how she developed her Curl College (their education platform) curriculum, and how she successfully navigated the company's growth from stage to stage. Additionally, she shares her experience of living through Covid-19 while writing a book and balancing motherhood - raising three children who are close in age. Get ready to be inspired by Keziah’s amazing entrepreneurial journey!

THROWBACK AND CATCH UP

I’m thrilled to announce that I will be catching up with a previous guest on Shades and Layers. We will be in conversation on a topic that is dear to my heart, “Entrepreneurship as a pathway to Liberation”. Details to follow later in the newsletter.

If you haven’t heard the episode, please allow me to introduce you to Yema Ferreira: The Angolan-born Psychotherapist in Denmark Facilitating "Black Girl Magic"

From a young age, Yema knew she wanted to help people overcome their traumatic experiences. She studied psychology at Temple University and later pursued training in Existential Psychotherapy at the Psykoterapeutisk Institut in Denmark. She recently closed her practice in Copenhagen where she was working with both local and international clients so that she can pivot her practice/business and serve more people …something I will be discussing withe her during our catch up.

In this comprehensive interview on Shades and Layers, Yema shares her approach to working with women of African descent, how she helps them shift their perspectives, and the different tools she employs for self-healing. She also reveals her own methods for self-care and healing.

THREE YEARS OF SHADES AND LAYERS 🥳

First of all, let me send a shout out to Carriene Rendbo and Barbara Mensah for being brave enough to say yes to being interviewed on the yet-to-be-launched Shades and Layers podcast in April 2020. Yep, in the thick of it all when none of us knew that there was a solid two more years of chaos to get through.

Carriene is a trichologist (the first in Denmark) and founder of the I Love Natural Hair online hair supply store for Afros and other curly people in the Nordics. I used to get my supplies from her when I lived in Copenhagen. 🎊 Barbara is a beauty entrepreneur with a lash studio and a make-up business in Copenhagen. She also imports and sells Shea butter directly from her home country, Ghana, and that’s how she began her journey into the beauty industry. You can hear both women’s stories in the very first season on Episode 1 and Episode 3 .

At first I interviewed them together and the episode was going to be called “Black is Beautiful”. Due to bad sound and several technical glitches, I ended up interviewing them separately and then making two separate episodes. So, that was the first meaningful milestone of this journey.

The most important thing at this stage is how the conversations on the podcast have evolved to include Black women from many different industries, doing many amazing things. For example Season 3 shone a spotlight on Creative Entrepreneurs and Season 5 looked at the Purpose Driven entrepreneurs. 🤜🏿🤛🏿

The common thread throughout has been sustainability, something that is not necessarily top of mind when it comes to big brands in any industry, but particularly the Personal Care space. The giants are too invested in their current systems and entrenched business practices, so it’s difficult for them to change and some don’t even want to. So, it’s been interesting speaking to small business owners about how they interpret the meaning of being a sustainable company and what it means in their context, from supply chain management to circular production and fair labor practices to name a few.

The reason why Shades and Layers returns to the beauty industry, is because Black women entrepreneurs have found freedom and independence in this space. And while this might be the case, we have not even started to scratch the surface when we talk about opportunities, representation and access for entrepreneurs and customers alike. It’s a universally relevant conversation and we will always return to stories from this field, with the main focus on the small businesses and small batch producers.

Today there are nearly 70 episodes in the back catalog 🥂🎉🎊 and I am grateful to all the guests who have accepted my invitation to an interview and all the ones who pitched their stories. Shades and Layers is a storytelling platform for Black women in business. It is a safe space for sharing our stories with no filter and to inspire each other to rise even higher. It would be nothing without all the participation of all the guests and of course YOU the listeners.

There are so many moments to highlight throughout this journey and I’ll be sharing some pictures on social media next week. There is also so much more to come by way of guests and stories on the podcast. Future seasons are going to be fantastic and the interview recording calendar for the Northern Autumn is already filling up.

If there are any Black women entrepreneurs that you would like to hear from on this platform, hit reply and send your suggestion. I will definitely give you a shout out on a future episode for your suggestions.

Hip hip, hooray for Shades and Layers!!! 🎉🍩

WHAT ARE YOU UP TO?

So, what are you up to this weekend? What are you reading, what are you watching? Hit reply to answer OR just send me a DM on Instagram.

Coming up for me on Thursday 22 June is a conversation titled “Entrepreneurship as a path to Liberation” with Yema Ferreira. We will be going live on her Instagram page at 7:30pm CET/CAT (1:30pm EST/10:30am PST). Please do tune in.

This weekend I’ll be heading outside to check out Erykah Badu and Yasiin Bey in concert. 💃🏾💃🏾💃🏾

That’s it from me! Until next time, please do take good care!

Cheers,

Kutloano

(your host with the most)