Shea Radiance with Funlayo Alabi (S5, E1)

Our first guest of the season is Nigerian-born, UK-raised and USA-based entrepreneur, Funlayo Alabi. She is the CEO and Co-founder of Shea Radiance, a Vegan all-natural body and hair care brand. Her entrepreneurial journey so far, is a brilliant account of resilience, courage, paying attention to the details of your life and what I believe to be a demonstration of feminism in real life. 

 After many years of writing code for an insurance company, Funlayo had a moment of personal reckoning that pushed her into her entrepreneurial journey. It started out as trying to find a solution to a family’s dry skin challenge, it quickly transformed into a kitchen factory serving a local farmer’s market. Today, Shea Radiance is a recognizable brand that is available online and sits on some prestigious store shelves throughout the USA.  

 Funlayo says the company has social impact at its heart. They work directly with woman-owned cooperatives in West Africa. This ensures trade-driven economic access for these shea butter producer partners and secures the company’s supply chain. She also adds that they are committed to a global community and in this spirit of community, everything they do is rooted in creating a positive and enduring impact - for their customers, women suppliers, and our planet.

Transcript

S5E1: Shea Radiance with Funlayo Alabi

This transcript has been edited for clarity and meaning 

Kutloano Skosana: Hello and welcome to Shades and Layers. I'm your host, Kutloano Skosana Ricci, and we are on the fifth season of the podcast. In the season, we are focusing on social impact, and so you can expect all of our profile interviewees to be heading up, mission driven and women-centered businesses. Our first guest of the season is Nigerian born, UK raised, and USA based entrepreneur.

She is the CEO and co-founder of Shea Radiance, a vegan, all-natural body, and hair care brand. Her entrepreneurial journey so far is a brilliant account of resilience, courage, paying attention to the details of your life and what I believe to be a demonstration of feminism in real life. says the company has social impact at its heart.

They work directly with woman owned cooperatives in West Africa. This ensures trade driven economic access for these Shea butter producer partners and secures the company supply chain. Shealso adds that they are committed to a global community and in this spirit, everything they do is rooted in creating positive and enduring impact for their customers, women's suppliers, and our planet.

To find out how all of this connects, you'll have to stick around and hear it straight from Funlayo Alabi, let's start at the very beginning. What was the inspiration behind it? 

Funlayo Alabi: It was a couple of things to be quite honest, but I think that the opening really came as we were raising our young children, who struggled with eczema and while we were dealing with their own eczema, I have traditionally had very dry skin. And so does my husband. And we didn't realize it till later, that all the moisturizers that we were purchasing from Target and Walmart. I don't think Ulta was around then maybe, but even when we would go to the high end stores and buy creams and lotions, that [00:02:00] claim to be super moisturizing, drench your skin, it will quench the thirst of your skin. It'll have pictures of aloe vera and you know, open coconuts with milk pouring out and you know, we would buy these things, put it all over the kids and like in two hours, they would be dry and scratching again.

Kutloano Skosana: Mm-hmm. Yes.

Funlayo Alabi: And then even on my own skin, I was just always really dry that it wasn't enough to buy these things. I would have to add stuff to it, just to give it an oomph. And what I realized over time was. And I think people are more aware of it today, but back then I didn't necessarily have the language to describe what was going on…

Is that mass produced mainstream moisturizers do not work for black people who want their skin to glow. That's just my summary now. But back then nothing worked, and I started reading the ingredient list and realized that most creams, despite the claims of what was in the front [picture] contained mostly mineral oil.I wasn't even offended about the water because I know that when you create a lotion you have to use water. 

Kutloano Skosana: Yeah, yeah. 

Funlayo Alabi: But it was that, it was mineral oil and no real oils or butters. And rich butter is what most people need on their skin regardless of ethnicity, but more so when you're brown skinned. And so I asked my mother if she could bring maybe a pound or two of Shea butter on her visit to the States - cos she would come spend time with me, help me with the kids. And we used it religiously on the boys. I used it on myself, my husband used it on himself, and the transformation happened within a week. I'm not even talking about the best quality shea butter. She got it from the side of the street. It had bugs in it. You know, it's one of those things where you have to warm it first. I'm saying all that to say that it was just regular ragged shea butter.

Kutloano Skosana: Right.

Funlayo Alabi: And that thing worked better than any cream or lotion that I had purchased here. And basically we used it, we saw the difference in their skin, it soothed the eczema symptoms. And what we began to realize about this gift that God had given West Africa in particular, was that this Shea butter was filled with natural sterols, natural active ingredients that boost collagen, and soothe inflammation. And that the more you use it, the more resilient your skin, and the stronger the barrier of your skin gets, and we just fell in love with this ingredient. And that was the beginning of the inspiration. Now there were other things happening…

Kutloano Skosana: Yes. What were you doing at the time? You had full-time jobs, I'm assuming. 

Funlayo Alabi: I wrote code for an insurance company. I was going through a period of restlessness in my life. I was in my mid-forties then, and I think I was having a slight middle-aged crisis. 

Kutloano Skosana: Right. 

Funlayo Alabi:  I was paying attention to what was going on around me, and I would walk into places like The Body Shop, and I would be excited that finally someone was discovering, you know, a lot of Africa's natural resources, like the cocoa butter and shea butter and things from the rainforest and everything.

Kutloano Skosana: Yes, yes!

 Funlayo Alabi:  But, I was somewhat resentful about that too, because I was like, these are our stories to tell, you know, we have history, we just have a familiarity with these things that even though we grew up and didn't appreciate it, it's part of our.. our heritage. 

Kutloano Skosana: Yeah. You take it for granted, right? It's just there.

Funlayo Alabi: Yes. . It's just there. And as a matter of fact, you look down on it because you know, typically the packaging isn't great.Maybe they'll wrap it in a leaf or , wrap it in a newspaper or put it in, you know, some kind of old jar. That's how my grandmother used to keep it, and then she'd put some camphor in it to rub your chest. And I would go to all these places, I'm like, these are our stories. You know, I think it's great what they're doing, but these are our stories to tell.

So it was a convergence of a lot of things back then. Also, I went natural with my hair, you know? And so I was becoming more conscious and aware that not everything that was being sold to me, that was shiny and beautiful and well packaged, could deliver on what I needed for myself and my family. So that was kind of what was going on in my emotional and mental world, right? So when we started mixing these products and really uncovering the benefits - we were mixing in the kitchen. I told my husband: you know, other people have problems too. Why don't we go to the local farmer's market and see? Let's see what happens you know. So, we took a table and we signed up one summer to do a local farmer's market and I just really enjoyed telling people about shea butter. 

Kutloano Skosana: That's nice. Yeah. 

Funlayo Alabi: It was, yeah, it was a story was a diverse audience. And I just went in full Nigerian aunty mode, and I was rubbing it on their skin and, you know, some of the people who were not black and were not familiar with it, they were like, oh, this is, it's so greasy.And I'm like, that is what you need. You see all those African women with the growing skin? It's the butters . And so that was, that was the beginning of the dream.

Kutloano Skosana: Oh, lovely. And then how did the leap happen, fromcoding for an insurance company and deciding, okay, fine, I'm going full in, into this Shea Radiance. How does that transition happen?

Funlayo Alabi It, it happens because I was looking at what I was doing in terms of software development. Sitting in all these meetings looking at what was ahead. And I really looked at my life and I was like, there's nothing in the corporate world that I want to invest my time and energy into that I think will give me the outcome that I want. At the time I started making the transition, we had started having some success at the farmer's market. We had a following, some small stores were beginning to stock our products, right? And one of the stores was Whole Foods. And we were beginning to get some traction. And I worked in Washington, DC which technically is 45 minutes from my house -  because I live close to Baltimore – but on a weekday it could take me two hours. 

Kutloano Skosana: Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. 

Funlayo Alabi: It's one of those soul crushing commutes. . 

Kutloano Skosana: That's terrible. 

Funlayo Alabi: So, all these things were going on and you know, we were beginning to see some interest and success in the business, and my husband and I were beginning to travel because we needed more shea butter and we had two options: we could buy the refined shea butter, which the large corporations sell through New Jersey. That is what they were typically selling to large commercial cosmetic companies, right? Or we could try and find a reliable source of high quality unrefined shea butter. And the unrefined shea butter is the one that is produced at the village level, right?

The women can hand process it or they can even use machines to extract it, but it's not stripped. So you can still see a little bit of the color, and it has that nut scent because we knew right, that was the power.  So we had started traveling to different places in West Africa, including Nigeria, which is where I'm from.

Kutloano Skosana: Mm-hmm.  Mm-hmm. 

Funlayo Alabi: I grew up in the city and so we traveled to the north where the trees grow and where the communities that harvest the nuts live and we got to spend time there. And as we spent time there, kind of observing the whole process, there was just a connection that I had with the women.

They leave their homes very early during the shea season to go gather the nuts. They bring them back to the community, they process the nuts, grind them down, and they extract the butter. It's a multi-step process. 

Kutloano Skosana: Sure. Yeah. 

Funlayo Alabi: And within these communities everyone knows that shea butter, the processing of nuts and butter is called women's bowl because all the labor and time that women use to process this, this plant-based oil…All the money she makes from it belongs to her. So they use it for what they feel they need in the family. And that could be educating a kid that could. buying a, a sewing machine.

Kutloano Skosana: Right.

Funlayo Alabi: Between other things that maybe she wouldn't be able to do if she was just living off the farming income she was making with her husband, and I immediately saw that connection between what I was purchasing and what was going into the woman's pocket. 

Kutloano Skosana: Mm-hmm. ,

Funlayo Alabi: and knowing that if I was that woman, I would want my labor to be valued.

Kutloano Skosana: Yes. Right? 

Funlayo Alabi:Yes. And I would want a stable partner that would always come back and buy more. And that is kind of when another shift happened. It was more than just solving the problem of my family's dry skin. It was like, you know, we could build a brand and a company that lifted all women took on a new meaning. So, all these poor African women – cos I hate that narrative. Yeah. I hate it. I hate it!

Kutloano Skosana: Yeah. It's terrible. As if no one has agency in this world. I mean, seriously.

 Funlayo Alabi: Exactly. Or they're like, oh yes buy my soap and we’ll give one soap back to a woman, or buy my shoe, will give one shoe back to some African person. I'm like, this way I'm not looking for soaps or shoes or, or you know, just pay me! So, we saw the value of, you know, that economic partnership because even as a woman entrepreneur here in the States, I need access to capital, right?

Just the same way they did. So, the parallels were not lost on me in terms of how I felt that the business relationship needed to work. As 2009 was wrapping up, we had just come back from, I think I had gone to Mali. I had visited a number of co-ops, and then I sat in a meeting where they were arguing about technical language for a document and how we were supposed to write the code. And I sat in these meetings of people arguing about hyphens and commerce and uppercase, and I was like, this is a waste of my life. I've just come back from where it was clear, where the little bit of business I did with that community and what I observed, I feel like I can add value by having a business.Why am I sitting? Listening to these people? 

Kutloano Skosana: Yeah. So you saw the visible impact of your activities as a business. That's fantastic. Yeah. So, is that why you call yourself a global social entrepreneur?

Funlayo Alabi: That's why I did. 

Kutloano Skosana: So, what does a global social entrepreneur do? How do you describe your work?

Funlayo Alabi: I describe my work as an enterprise that is really focused on uplifting everybody…that if I do well, you have to do well. 

Kutloano Skosana: Mm-hmm. It's not a zero-sum game. Mmmmh.

Funlayo Alabi: I don't wanna be an extractor of resources and labor. I want all women to win. If we are engaged in any kind of enterprise, I would walk away rather than be the winner who takes everything while you're struggling. That is not how I want to do business. So that, that is really my worldview. And even with my customers, I want them to feel good about the products they're buying. I'm very careful about how we make, and, you know, what we're putting in. Because I also know on the customer side, women are stressed, right?

Kutloano Skosana: Yes. 

Funlayo Alabi: We are multitasking. We're dealing with a lot, and so my intention even with the products is, you know, when you go into the shower, even if it's you're in there for three minutes, taking a bath with our body wash and then moisturizing with our whipped body butters, that you've had three minutes of a spa, right? So that when you emerge, your mind is clear and you can deal with all the other crazy stuff around you

Kutloano Skosana: Absolutely. Yeah.

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Kutloano Skosana: My guest today is Funlayo Alabi, CEO, and Co-Founder of Shea Radiance. Now, the beauty market has a lot of players of different sizes, and you must have a solid brand in order to stand out. In this next part of our conversation, Funlayo talks about building her brand. The road to success, of course, hasn't always been smooth, and she's very candid and open about some of the teachable moments. Along the way, we also discuss mindset, the importance of having a support structure and playing to your strengths.

 So, what words would you use to describe the She Radiance brand?

Funlayo Alabi: A brand that seeks to influence the way women care for themselves so that they can care for others, so that they can have an impact on their community.Because I believe that when a woman feels good she can change the world. 

Kutloano Skosana: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In your opinion, what makes a good brand?  

Funlayo Alabi: What makes a good brand is first of all, to actively seek to deliver on your promise. Mm-hmm. , right? Whether that be good or bad. If my goal is to make all people miserable.You better be consistent that when they check your record, you consistently make people miserable. 

Kutloano Skosana: True. You're on brand . 

Funlayo Alabi: Yes. So, seek to fulfill the mission of your brand. Sometimes it's an ongoing process - cos sometimes we have aspirational goals that we are working towards. So, I would say, you know, a good brand is one that is working towards the aspiration and a good brand is one that has the benefit of a customer at its center because if you can make your customer happy, you are eventually gonna be successful one way or another. 

Kutloano Skosana: Right. If that's your goal, right? Customer success. That's what I wanted to speak to you about, because you also started out at farmer's markets and then you were in retail, and it's one of the toughest things, right? That proof of concept. So what did that look like for you?

Funlayo Alabi: Yeah, so what the farmer's market really did for us, it proved a hypothesis that I had and probably many other women, and I would say especially black women, had about the importance of things being natural and simple because the early adopters of products that are shea butter based are black women. And I always believe that a good product should have a, like global appeal. You should be able to attract diverse audience to something that is good. And so what the farmer's market did was it showed that there was a diversity of customers who were interested in clean natural products. It showed that the tide was turning in the culture where people were not just blindly buying greenwashed items from these stores, and they were asking questions. They were interrogating the ingredient panel. The other thing was that as a proof of concept, being in the farmer's market also gave me an idea of some of the barriers that some new customers were having when it came to dealing with just the raw she butter. And that led us to create other products that, you know, were entry level... products into the raw shea butter. So it was the, Farmer's Market that really gave us the opportunity to get feedback from the customer in terms of what they liked. 

Kutloano Skosana: Yeah. And moving into the retail space, how did that happen? Who did you have to speak to? Which doors did you have to push open for yourself? 

Funlayo Alabi: I think in the beginning you know, I always had my eye on Whole Foods -cos for me, Whole Foods was the gold standard of where a natural brand like ours could live. And so, I would go into the Whole Foods stores, I would go into the whole-body section, and I would talk to the buyers and I would have like samples in my purse.

Kutloano Skosana: Ah, guerilla marketing. 

Funlayo Alabi: Yes. And I would be like you should try this. And, you know, they'll try it and they're like, okay, you know, we have a program and the freedom to bring in local brands and just kind of put you here and see how you do. And I was like, sign me up.

Kutloano Skosana: Wow. Yeah. Yeah

Funlayo Alabi: So I would say like relationships and just kind of going there and also being able to show that there's a gap in the product offerings that they have….Being able to kind of differentiate your product. and showing them how, you know, you could attract more customers into the store to make them money. So, yeah. That was the case I, I had to make. Yeah. 

Kutloano Skosana: And I'm sure it hasn't been smooth sailing being a business owner. So do you have any scary moments that you would like to share?  

Funlayo Alabi: There are so many . 

Kutloano Skosana: Okay. Which one taught you the biggest lesson? Let's put it that way. 

Funlayo Alabi: So three years into building the Shea Radiance brand and, you know, having some success being in the retail environment, especially consumer goods, is very expensive. And we came into this industry. not having a lot of background, not really having access to the right kind of mentoring. And we certainly were not properly capitalized to take advantage of some of the opportunities that we qualified to be in. And so, I did a lot of trade shows. I did a lot of events, and in the course of doing these events, we were approached by a big bucks store that they liked what we were doing. We had just launched seven new hair care products for women with curly hair. And the big bucks store approached us. They felt that we would be a good fit.They, at this point, they were beginning to acknowledge that, you know, black women needed our own products. That we couldn't just be throwing Dove or Schwab in our hair and expecting good results that, you know, sure. We had particular needs. So, this store was really looking for brands to bring in and we just thought that, wow, you know, this is such a great opportunity.

My husband and I are like, yes, thank you Jesus. You know, we finally have a big buyer, you know, we'll get big purchase orders and we'll be able to really scale and grow our business. And so, you know, they put in the first purchase order and we're like, okay, this is great. You know, we worked months to fulfill the order.

In the meantime, because we're still rather small. All our other business, we just kind of put it on hold and I'm like, y'all wait. You know this, this is really important. Oh, and we fulfill the first purchase order shipped out and waited. And, you know when we launched into the store, we spent a lot of money doing campaigns promoting. But there was a lot of things we didn't know about how expensive it is to launch in a major retail store. We had no clue. And so, within the first couple of months, I would go out to the stores. Our products were not properly stocked, and then in another six months we were required to do promotions.

And when you do promotions you know, every time you get like $2 off a product or 25% off, guess where that money is coming from? It's not the store, it's the manufacturer. So these among other things created a domino effect in our business that resulted us with us failing woefully in that retail channel.

Having to move product out. So if your product doesn't do well, you also have to buy it back. 

Kutloano Skosana: No! That's terrible! 

Funlayo Alabi: Yes. So needless to say, those were very dark days. Literally, we were on the verge of bankruptcy because this opportunity that looked so amazing was not the right opportunity for us at that time.

. And if anyone had told me, , this is not the right op opportunity for you right now, I wouldn't have believed them because my thinking was very linear and I didn't realize that there was so much more. We had to learn that most people launching into retailers like this usually come with investors or...

Kutloano Skosana: oh, you are still self-funded, right.

Funlayo Alabi: Yes … or deep pockets to kind of, where the first 18 to 24 months, because that's typically how long it'll take for your marketing, your promotion strategies to start working and kind of create, you know, the lift that you need. So we didn't know that and literally it broke us. Mm. And you know, by the end of 2014, we had to restart our business over again because we decided that we were not gonna quit or shut the business down. We felt that, you know, we still had a core group of customers who loved what we were doing. And then we had gone and promised all these women that, don't worry, we'll be buying your shea butter.Trust us. You know, we're not like all those people who came to you and said they would buy. So I, had those women's voices in my head, like mm-hmm., look at them. They've gone back to America. They've forgotten us. So, we have to make this thing work. 

Kutloano Skosana: Yeah. It's a good thing. You had that obligation. Because it's easy to give up when something goes wrong in, in mm-hmm. such a, in such a big way, 

Funlayo Alabi: In such a huge way. Yeah. I mean, look, I can tell you stories of what our lives were like after that and. . I know that everybody lives for the glamor and beauty of Instagram and Facebook and everything, but I think as entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs of color undercapitalized businesses, there's not much glamor there.

Kutloano Skosana: . I'm quite sure it's a lot of work.  

Funlayo Alabi: Yeah. It's a lot of work. Yeah. Yeah. 

Kutloano Skosana: So how do you recover from such a place? 

Funlayo Alabi:  Well, first of all, we decided that we were not gonna quit. So I think once you decide, you kind of shut the back door. Yep. And it becomes a question of how are we going to recover and how are we going to make this work?

Kutloano Skosana: Mm-hmm  

Funlayo Alabi: And are we willing to do the hard work of building again organically? And that's what we did. We had to be comfortable with the fact that everybody knew we launched into this big store and we had this huge party and we did this. And everybody was like, how great for them and how wonderful they must be and everything.And be able to just say, okay honey, I'm gonna pack samples in the back of this ugly looking Buick and I'm gonna start going from store to store to store to try and recover some of the accounts that we lost. And I had to be kind of okay with that. And yeah, that was the decision.

And so just commit, basically. Basically commit and humble yourself and learn what you need to know, know that for a lot of us that become entrepreneurs, we, I, okay. Me personally didn't necessarily come from an entrepreneurial family. Most of my, my father was an accountant.

Funlayo Alabi: My mom is secretary. Mm-hmm. government workers in Nigeria. And so there's a lot that I don't know about doing business right in America, about accessing what I need. And even there's some cultural things about even asking for help that were very hard for me. Right? And so when you decide that you are going to do something, then you start figuring out ways to get the help you need.

Kutloano Skosana: Mm-hmm. Right. Yeah. 

Funlayo Alabi: And learning. how to ask for help and being okay messing up because you know that this is the way that you are going to unlock generational wealth for your family. And be an example to other people who need to bring their businesses out from the dark and thrive. So, so that, that's really been my, my entrepreneurial mantra.

Like when I feel. things are going south. I'm failing. I'm like, okay, , you can't quit. So you need help ? How are you going to find this help? Go look for it. And ultimately, that help helps me get to the next level. 

Kutloano Skosana: What does your support structure look like? 

Funlayo Alabi: Right now, my support structure looks like I have advisors. I don't have an advisory board, but I have people that I can talk to. My support structure also means that I show up at different group events in my industry and listen and if the opportunity is there for me and in the process I find support from within. I'm giving and then I find support that people there, some people there who are 10 steps ahead of me, who see themselves in me, and they're not necessarily people of color. You know, they could be white men or Asian women who look and see and, and remember what it's like to be in my position and they come and advise and open doors.

And I'm also in a position where there are people who are maybe two steps behind where I also get an opportunity to be that person for someone else. 

 Kutloano Skosana: Mm-hmm. , you know, this brings me to the whole idea of mindset, because to do business, you've got to have the right mindset. How do you work with productivity et c.

Funlayo Alabi: Oh gosh. Yeah. You know, it's a good question and, um, yeah, you are right. It it, it really is a mindset thing. And you know, I've already shared one of the things is that, you know, I have decided that this enterprise that we're building is going to create generational wealth. Mm-hmm. for our family, for our employees, and our stakeholders.

Funlayo Alabi: And so having made that decision, I am committed to growing and changing to be that leader that can make that happen. That's my mindset. And then when I think about my mission, my mission is, is a noble and worthy mission. And so even when I talk to people or when I'm trying to bring people to be part of our team.

I lead with that mission about the impact we wanna have in the world and that they get to be a part of doing that. And then and I know that's, you know, sometimes, people are like, you know, if, you know there's a time where you have to kind of assess your losses and, you know, that it's time to quit.

Kutloano Skosana: Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Funlayo Alabi: And you know, I mean, there's always that, but I'm really a firm believer… There's some people who have become multi-millionaires selling pet rocks. People have become billionaires selling the dumbest crap you can ever imagine. . 

Kutloano Skosana: Yeah, there's a lot of rubbish out there. Yep! 

Funlayo Alabi: Yes. So you know, you can shut this one and start another, and I think that is great if you have the luxury to do that, or you can figure out what the levers are that lead to success regardless of what you're selling. And so in terms of my mindset, that's why I'm really committed to what I'm doing right now. I also know that five years from now, I want to be more vested in mentoring and investing in women. And so, everything I'm doing right now is really to put me in a position to transition from being a CEO and engaged in operations to really be able to serve as, a mentor. 

Kutloano Skosana: Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. and an advisor to, to other businesses. Yep. Speaking of your role in the company, what are your strengths as a leader?

Funlayo Alabi: I'm a visionary. Mm-hmm. , I am creative. . When I get a chance to be out in the market or in the stores or doing an event, I get a lot of really great ideas of how I can create new products that women will love.

Funlayo Alabi: Now, it's not always a good thing because after you create, you know, you have to sell them. Yes, you know? No. But yeah, so I, I think those are my strong suite as a leader, and I am, I'm also naturally have a lot of empathy, which is good and is also bad. I tend to feel people's pain.

I want to create solutions so that, to alleviate the pain, but it's not always the best thing. But that's typically how I'm wired. Mm-hmm.  

Kutloano Skosana: Yeah and which parts of the job do you like the least? What would you rather not do?

Funlayo Alabi: I hate repetitive tasks. I need to have people around me to help me after I've done the big thing, the big launch, bring in the big accounts, launch, you know, create the big product.I need people around me who can say, Let's create processes, procedures to make sure it can be sustained. 

Kutloano Skosana: Right, right. No, I see, I see.

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Kutloano Skosana: This is Shade and Layers. And my guest Funlayo Alabi from Shea Radiance calls herself a global social entrepreneur. Now what does that mean and what does a person of this title do. Find out up next. And also get to know the moments that have shaped Funlayo into the leader she is or is becoming, and also what are her dreams for the future?

Kutloano Skosana: I mean, I admire that you are on a mission. I really, really like that about your brand. And I know you've got some social projects going with your suppliers. So what, what's your latest one and yeah, what does it entail? 

Funlayo Alabi: So, our latest one, which should be kicking off really soon is, is still related to the Clean Stove Project that we kicked off about three or four years ago.

We, first of all did a pilot in, in Nigeria in West Africa. Well, I, I would say probably all over. , not just Africa, but where you, where you're in agricultural communities, in, you know, the developing world. Women use a lot of fuel to cook. And even in the production of Shea, there's a lot of fuel that is used to boil the nuts and to do some of the extraction.

There's a lot of heat that goes into it when it's done the traditional way. And when it's done the traditional way, there's a lot of smoke that comes out of the whole process. That is bad for the environment, but more of, more concern to me. It's not that I'm not concerned about the environment, I'm even doubly concerned about the women.

The smoke inhalation, not just to themselves, but potentially to the babies tied on their backs. And so we did the Clean Stove project. Research alternatives to the wood burning stoves that they were using. Trying to find alternatives that maybe use less fuel, produce less smoke, was more efficient in cooking so that the women can do more with less, save time and save money. And so we did about 50 stoves and those stoves were assembled by a contractor that did environmentally fit stoves and, you know, was fine. But over the years, the women have not been able to maintain those stoves.

They need to get someone to fix it when it's not being used. If you can't maintain it becomes rubbery. Goats and chickens will end up sitting inside those stoves. Exactly. . So, so we're working with a co-op in the Republic of Benin, which is right next to Nigeria and we are going to be working with a thousand women, supporting a new Clean Stove initiative. And these stoves are locally made clay stoves, so they have the ability to retain heat, they use less fuel and then the women will also be able to earn carbon credits.in about five years for these stoves. So, we are still working out more of the details, but this project is bringing us closer to what feels like a good fit… in terms of us having an impact on women's health, their finances, and ultimately the environment. I know I talk about the environment.

Funlayo Alabi: Like I said, I do care about the environment, but as an African woman people are number one for sure. The rest if we don't take the rest for us. Yes. Yeah. If you can take care of people, if people are not healthy, if they're not fed, they're gonna cut down trees, burn them, and do what they need to do to survive.

Kutloano Skosana: Mm-hmm. . Exactly.

Funlayo Alabi: So, my priority is always people. Everyone else can go do whatever they need to do to curb carbon emissions, but , yeah. 

Kutloano Skosana: I agree. Yeah. Mm-hmm. , if you don't put, if you don't treat people right, they do not have the incentive to do the right thing. And that's exactly just a bottom line.

Kutloano Skosana: Yeah. And speaking of which, I mean, this is one thing that I really, really am passionate about. You know, finding that balance between whatever is considered sustainable, whatever is considered fair trade, you know? So for a brand like yours, how do you find that balance between, you know, doing the right thing, going to the source, being fair, paying, fair wages, still paying for the costs of manufacturing and getting your product out there to a developed economy client base. 

Funlayo Alabi: Yeah. It can be tricky, and what I've found over the years was that, is that there are African entrepreneurs, women, who have developed great supply chains where they are doing a lot of the right things that can be validated in a way that makes sense. And so what am I saying is that I don't always jump on the Western bandwagon of certifications. Yep. , organic, this fair, certified this and that because when we started doing the direct source and working with communities in, in Northern Nigeria and we found out what the cost of getting organic certification was and the fact that we would be responsible for flying, certifiers in from France or Europe or something, and then they would come and you go through all these processes and I.

Funlayo Alabi: First of all, I don't have investors to pay to cover the cost of all these things, so already that is a barrier for me to do my business, and I'm like, I'm an African woman relating to other African women. Why do I have to deal with another? It felt like an artificial barrier to me that the only people who would have access would be people who had money.

Funlayo Alabi: And so at the end of the day, I know that if you negotiate with women, if you have people on the ground who can do the intelligence to know what the fair market price is, and if you can price higher, even if it's 5 cents higher or 10 cents higher.

Funlayo Alabi: And if you can be a consistent buyer that makes more sense, you can make that a win-win. Sometimes people who have different fair trade models, they make the commodity so expensive, right? And they buy very little. So maybe a ton of Shea Butter should be a thousand dollars and it's not. and they're like, we are going to stop buying a ton of shea butter for $10,000 and they only buy one and that's the only one they buy. That's it, you know? So, you know, as people who had the privilege of growing up in other parts of the world and knowing what the most important thing is when you are on the ground, I always feel like we need to make our own way.

Funlayo Alabi: That sometimes, you know, the standards and the certification boards and all the processes that they put you through. I always think like, is this necessary? I'll even give you an example. Even applying for minority certification. Do I not look like a minority? But the whole certification is so bothersome that you are wondering like, why do I have to go through all of that when I'm obviously a minority. And so, so I try to kind of apply, you know, a little bit of my common sense. I'm like, okay 10 years ago, people were asking for, you know, we need to know if it's fair trade and everything. I'm like, this is not certified fair trade, but this is how I do business.

Funlayo Alabi: And this is the impact we can.... And the fact is that when I go back to buy more, it's an exciting event. Because one is coming into the community and if that story is not enough to jazz you up and you still need that logo, then you know, keep it moving. You know, you're not my customer.

Kutloano Skosana: So before we wrap things up, I have to ask you a few personal questions, , the first one being do you have any childhood memories, two or three, that you'd like to share.

Funlayo Alabi: Childhood memories with my grandmother. My grandmother was an educator. She was the headmistress of a girl's school in Lagos. A very disciplined woman. , you know the Queen of England passed away recently. Mm-hmm. . And when I look at the way the queen would hold her handbag and her hat. That was kind of like my grandmother,you know, she had that same vibe.

Funlayo Alabi: Yes. With her handbag and her hat going to church. And she was the one who actually would chase me down with. homemade shea butter with camphor and rub it on my chest, when I would have a cold. That's one of my memories of her. Yeah. Mm-hmm. . 

Kutloano Skosana: And who do you admire the most in the world right now?

Funlayo Alabi: Gosh, everyone is so flawed right now.

Kutloano Skosana: That's fair.

Funlayo Alabi: Yes , you know, but I, I will say that I'm still an admirer. of the Obamas. And Michelle Obama in particular.. I had the opportunity right before the pandemic to see her at one of Oprah's events in New York. And I went to see it, not because I thought she would tell me anything I didn't know, but I just wanted to see how she moved in the world.

And how she interacted with people. And I observed. I found her to be a kind and humble woman and highly intelligent. You know, so sometimes I like to be around people like that just to see how they are, you know? Yeah, yeah. How they treat people and how they, the, the vibe they exude and yeah. I, I really admire her.

Funlayo Alabi: I'm sure she's not perfect, but... I mean, no one is, yeah. , you know, . But, but there's just something about her that I admire. I do look up to her. 

Kutloano Skosana: And what are your dreams for Shea Radiance in the future? 

Funlayo Alabi: You know  I would love to get Shea Radiance to a place where potential collaboration, a good well-fitting acquisition.I don't exactly know what that would look like. I'm not looking to…I want a situation where I can transition into the next phase of my life, which I said will focus more on mentorship and investments in women run enterprises. And I would like Shea Radiance to be in good hands when I make that transition, but I'm not exactly sure what that looks like. So talk to me in five years, or maybe in two, maybe next year I'll have a better idea of what it is where I'm going. But I, I know that I don't want to devalue the brand. I don't wanna be in a situation where people feel like, oh, you know, the product changed or it's no longer for us.Or there's something about it that has been compromised because she's no longer. there So, you know, we'll see what that looks like. Yeah. 

Kutloano Skosana: Okay. So I want to send you customers. I also think that my listeners would have a lot to learn from your story. Where can they find you and where can they reach out to you?

Funlayo Alabi: Thank you for asking that question. You can find our website. It's shea radiance.com, we're on Instagram and our handle is also Shea Radiance and Facebook at Shea Radiance. And on our website we have a retail locations page. We are in all the Whole Food stores throughout the United States.

Funlayo Alabi: If you go to your local Whole Food stores and you can't find a product, Make a scene, , talk to the manager. . Shea Radiance is supposed to be here. I was told they're supposed to be on the shelf and they're not on the shelf. I wanna talk to the manager.

Funlayo Alabi: Yes. And we're also on Amazon Prime. Yeah. 

Kutloano Skosana: Brilliant. Thank you so much for this interview. It has been an absolute pleasure. Thank you. And I wish you a great weekend. Well deserved rest. Thank . 

Funlayo Alabi: Yes. Thank you for doing and I wish you the same too. Thank you. This was so much fun. great. 

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Kutloano Skosana: And that is all from me today. Thank you for your support. As always, if you liked this conversation, please share it with others. Remember that we are a weekly show now, so be sure to subscribe on your favorite platform so that you are the first in line to hear the new episodes. I'm Ricci, and until next time, please do take good care.