Mom's Magic Oil: The Bask & Lather Story with Shaina Rainford (S9, E8)

In 2020, then nurse practitioner, Shaina Rainford got seriously ill from COVID. She survived the illness, but lost all her hair and found nothing on store shelves that could help with her condition. Then, she remembered that her younger sister went through something similar – not COVID – five years prior, and their mother had made a concoction that helped little sister to grow her 4C Hair to waist length. Shaina tried the hair oil on her own hair, documented her journey on social media and Bask and Lather was born.

The story is about more than creating a hair care brand. It’s also the story of how one woman’s go-getter spirit moved her into the next level of her professional journey. It’s also a story about centering community and building a legacy. 

Here are some key discussions from my conversation with Shaina Rainford: 

• Bask and Lather launced in December 2020, and within three months, the company was generating the same amount as Shaina's annual nursing salary

• The business focuses on natural ingredients with no fragrances, using essential oils that each serve a purpose
 • Shaina maintains 100% ownership of her company with zero debt and manufactures millions of units annually
 • Her 17-year-old son now leads the marketing efforts, creating a true legacy family business
 • Baskin-Lather holds top-seller positions on TikTok Shop for multiple hair care categories
 • The brand maintains direct-to-consumer focus to control distribution and maintain healthy profit margins
 • Their community-centered approach prioritizes authentic engagement with customers both online and offline

Chapters

• 0:03 COVID Hair Loss Inspires Beauty Brand
• 5:25 From Nurse to Beauty Entrepreneur
• 8:57 Scaling to Six Figures Monthly
• 11:12 Manufacturing and Brand Identity
• 17:23 Building Legacy and Future Vision
• 24:33 Proudest Milestones and Inspirations

Transcript

Shaina Rainford: 0:03

I literally just survived COVID and was begging God to let me live, and now the least of my worries should be my hair right. But I was so distraught over it I said imagine how many people that look like me are suffering, you know, with hair loss every single day. And I said we really need to share these products with people. Prior to my hair shedding and breaking and falling out during COVID, my hair was relaxed and once that happened and I saw the power of the natural products and the ingredients and my hair restored, I said, oh, I'm never putting chemicals in my hair again.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 0:33

Hello and welcome to Shades and Layers. I'm your host, Kutloano Skosana Ricci. Today, my guest is New York-based beauty founder, Shaina Rainford. The story of Shaina's brand, basque and leather, centers family family, and she will tell us how she's built and shaped the brand. Since receiving the formula for their viral hair oil elixir from her mother, her teenage son is now preparing to continue the legacy. Bask and Lather is now a direct-to-consumer operation that moved from being a homemade hair oil to a customer favorite selling hundreds of thousands of units. Shaina's entrepreneurial journey started during COVID. The nurse practitioner got seriously ill and while she was recovering, her hair started to fall out. Her next step was to call her mom, and the rest is history. Shaina has since quit her job as a nurse practitioner and is working full-time at Baskin Lather, while also investing in real estate. So, without further ado, let's get into her story. Let's start with an introduction of yourself who you are, what you do, your company and greater

Shaina Rainford: 1:38

Awesome. Yes, my name is Shaina Rainford. I'm the founder and CEO of Bask and Lather I'm also a board certified nurse practitioner, which is what I did prior to founding the company, and our mission at Baskin-Lather is to help men, women and children all over the world grow and keep hair that they

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 1:54

And what brought you into this mission.

Shaina Rainford: 1:57

Yeah. So since I was a kid, I knew that I wanted to go into a career right, that would help people. So I remember reading Ben Carson's autobiography for kids and go to medical school. And then, when I was in high school, I actually had my son Jaden now almost 17. And then, you know, I weighed the pros and cons of medical school versus some other options and I decided to become a nurse practitioner. And while I was practicing as a nurse practitioner, covid happened. And during COVID I was moved from office-based practice to the hospital and I acquired COVID, became really, really, really sick, to the point that I ended up in the back of an ambulance on an arm and a leg, yep, and I was just praying to God to let me live to raise my children.

Shaina Rainford: 2:43

A few weeks later I started to lose my hair. The texture changed, it started to shed and break and nothing I tried was helping. I tried like protein mask and emergency treatments and salon things and nothing was helping. And then I remember I said, mom, you know the two oils that she was making for my sister. I said, can you make me some? And I started using it and my hair reverted back to normal almost instantly. So backtrack, about five years prior to that, my youngest sister. She lost all of her hair because she was misdiagnosed. She had flaking and crusting on her scalp and my mom took her to the primary care doctor and they said, oh, that's dandruff. And they treated her with dandruff shampoos Got worse and worse and worse and then her hair started to fall out in big. By the time she was properly diagnosed by a black female dermatologist with ringworm, her hair was almost completely gone. And when she was treated with the antifungals, her hair fell out completely.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 3:37

Oh my goodness, yeah, they're quite strong, yeah, yeah.

Shaina Rainford: 3:41

Yep, she was going to school with the cap and her hair was not growing back after it fell out and she was treated even after the infection cleared. So my mom took her to all types of specialists from New York to New Jersey to Pennsylvania and they did scalp analysis and all of these assessments and they said they didn't see any activity at the follicular level. So they weren't sure that her hair was ever going to grow back. And my mom was distraught, right. So she started doing research on natural and efficacious ingredients that promote hair growth. Right, because my sister was younger, it's not like you can go pick a hair growth treatment from the store, right, a lot of them contain chemicals and she whipped up Bacocon which is now our best-selling number one product and it worked.

Shaina Rainford: 4:22

Her hair started to grow back back, but when it was growing in, initially it was like a peach fuzz and it was fine like very thin. So my mom did some research about natural ingredients that helped to also add thickness and volume to hair, and that's when she learned about Jamaican black castor oil and she created a blend that doesn't have the harsh roasted castor bean smell it wasn't as thick.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 4:44

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Shaina Rainford: 4:46

And that's now our hair elixir. My sister's hair grew from bald to way down to her waist, and she has four.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 4:53

C hair. Wow, that's pretty amazing. So mom sounds like magic, yeah. So I mean, has she always been somebody who experiments with things in her kitchen? I mean, how you desperate, okay, yeah, you do find a solution when you're desperate, especially for your kids, right, yeah. But uh, before your hair fell out due to COVID, you know what were you doing with your hair, what? How were you styling it? How were you caring for it?

Shaina Rainford: 5:21

I would have some time. Well, this is before the silk press era, so I would have a lot of washing sets or I would have braids. Sometimes I would have sew-ins.

Shaina Rainford: 5:29

I always alternate between protective styles and wearing my hair out, just so that I'm not applying too much heat and damaging my hair. And also prior to my hair shedding and breaking and falling out during COVID, my hair was relaxed and once that happened and I saw the power of the natural products and the ingredients and my hair restored, I said, oh, I'm never putting chemicals in my hair again, so that was also when I when I was able to regrow my hair back.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 5:54

Okay, oh, that's lovely. So you start using your mom's formula and you see how it works. Well, how do you move from making it for yourself to taking it to the lab?

Shaina Rainford: 6:06

Yeah, so this was so. I had COVID the end of March, early April 2020. And I remember just feeling like so depressed and embarrassed and sad. And I remember saying to my mom, like you know, if I'm young and I'm experiencing this hair loss, and, mind you, I literally just survived COVID and was begging God to let me live, and now the least of my worries should be my hair right. But I was so distraught over it. I said imagine how many people that look like me are suffering, you know, with hair loss every single day. And I said we really need to share these products with people. So over the summer and early fall, I began to like share my before and after pictures and my sister's on my personal social media and people were like, oh, what did you use?

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 6:46

for that, what did?

Shaina Rainford: 6:46

you use for that, and they just started buying the oil from us. The products had no labels. People didn't even weren't even asking what's in it. They were just like I want it and people were cash apping me, drop offs. It was crazy and fast forward to like October, november. I was like, you know, we really need to make this a real, actual business and that's what we did. So we set up a website and designed labels and formed the LLC and got an EIN number and did all the things right and in December December 18th 2020, we officially launched Baskin-Lattice, basque and Latiko. And three months of launching so from December 2020 to March 2021, the business grew so quickly that in one month, it was replacing my annual salary as a nurse practitioner Wow.

Shaina Rainford: 7:35

Yep and just three months, so, from December to March.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 7:38

I mean, what do you accredit that to? Is it social media? What was going on?

Shaina Rainford: 7:42

Yeah, Absolutely Social media and also, you know, it wasn't just that, we were just. It wasn't like I was going to say, oh, I'm going to make money looking for a side hustle Right. It was a experience that was near and dear to my heart and my family, and really sharing that story and that testimony with people online, you know it created an affinity for the brand to people right.

Shaina Rainford: 8:04

We weren't just making things to sell it, we were. You know, it was really a solution that was created out of desperation. People were really drawn in by the story and our following grew significantly.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 8:14

It just worked. Yeah, Were you sad to leave nursing or this was yeah. No because I still get to help people right, so that's why I mentioned that.

Shaina Rainford: 8:23

You know, since I was a kid, no, because I still get to help people, right, so that's why I mentioned that. You know, since I was a kid, right, I always wanted, it was always my desire and passion, to be in a career field where I got to help people. And you know, still to this day, right, I'm getting, I'm able to help people literally all over the world that I'll never see. Every single minute or day, they're sending us amazing testimonies about how much our products have changed their lives.

Shaina Rainford: 8:49

So we were doing about six figures a month. So it was March 2021, where it was the first month that the actual our Shopify revenue was more than my year's salary as a nurse practitioner. And I remember saying to myself you know, I should see if, at work, I could go part time, because it was difficult. We were making where I was working all day making products, restocking the website, selling out so quickly. It was tough. And I remember saying, oh, I should see if I go part-time. And then I remember hearing a little voice in the back of my head saying no, you should quit. And I'm like, no, I can't do that. I have a mortgage, I have a family, I have student loans. And right after that so this is March I went on my birthday vacation that year and the day I came back from vacation to my job that I had already been at for about three years prior to this, I remember my new it was a new supervisor that took over and she was also a nurse practitioner.

Shaina Rainford: 9:41

She came and wrote me up, came to my office and wrote me up for being late on a while. Right, contact with patients. You have to get this annual testing to make sure you weren't exposed to tuberculosis. My old supervisor, who was amazing, would always remind us send us an email, make sure you go to employee health. This one, nope. I came back from vacation, she wrote me up oh wow, charming, she did that. Then again, a few weeks later, a patient came about 45 minutes late for their 30 minute appointment slot and I said I can't see them. You know, I have to get from Westchester down to the Bronx to pick my daughter up from daycare really late. Now it's almost like six o'clock. And a few days after that she wrote me up again for refusing to see a patient. And after that second write-up I said you know what this is.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 10:23

God telling me to move.

Shaina Rainford: 10:25

And yep, and I said third term is what you're going to terminate me and the same job that I'm trying to hold on to I won't have. You know, I won't have anyway. It's already impeding my business's growth because I'm dedicating all this time here. And so what I did was I was getting ready to close on an investment property at the end of May. I used nine days of vacation, went on vacation while I had my closing scheduled, and the last day of my vacation I scheduled, sent an email to administration and said I'm resigning, effective immediately. All of my items are already in my office and I will not be returning. And once I did that, my business tripled in revenue. The following month I left June the first Monday of June 2021. And that month, in June, we hit 300K a month in revenue.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 11:08

Well, congratulations. That's amazing. That is great, great, great. It's Shades and Layers, and my guest today is beauty founder Shaina Rainford, sharing the story of her brand, baskin-lobos. Let's find out how she moved from formulating in her kitchen to full scale operation and also being in total control of her supply chain. I'm quite sure that now you have a manufacturing partner. So how did you find this partner and how was the process of scaling up?

Shaina Rainford: 11:37

So while we were scaling, it really became essential to be able to manufacture right, because customers were becoming frustrated that now they love these products so much and then they have to fight online to get them when they restock on Fridays. So I began looking for manufacturers and I came across a black owned manufacturer that had lower MOQs right, because at that time we were doing well but not enough right to compete for line space at the big manufacturers right with other brands, and they took us on and we actually became their biggest client and now we're using sometimes more than one manufacturer to keep up with the volume as we're scaling Wonderful Black owned manufacturing.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 12:15

I'm curious, are there quite a few in the New York area, not that I'm aware of, right, okay, so what are your hero ingredients and what's the sourcing process like for you?

Shaina Rainford: 12:27

So our hero ingredients are typically just natural oils, things that can be found naturally in the earth, that promote good results. So one thing we try to steer clear of is using fragrances. So even for a natural aroma, we use essential oils. Right?

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 12:41

But those essential oils that all have a purpose.

Shaina Rainford: 12:43

So rosemary, peppermint and other oils like castor oil, uh, grapeseed oil, uh, everything has a benefit, right down to the molecular level. Um, so we do a lot of research and I am the main person who's formulating moving forward and have significantly expanded the product line.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 13:00

And do you still consider yourself a small batch or you're way beyond that now?

Shaina Rainford: 13:06

No, we're producing millions and millions of units across our SKUs a year.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 13:10

That is so amazing. And what has been the advantage of staying an online direct-to-customer company?

Shaina Rainford: 13:19

So we're in control of our distribution, 100% right. So when companies, distributors or individuals wholesale accounts now come to us and they want to purchase from us, we don't allow them to sell online. Because we put so much into our organic efforts, why would I let you sell my products online? And then people are Googling Baskin-Ladin because they saw our Instagram post, but you're getting the sale. So we do have a few hundred storefronts that sell our products and we have some distributors there, but we're in control of our supply chain and we have that in our agreements. Also, profitability we have very good, very healthy profit margins online, which allows us to remain 100%. I have 100% ownership, we don't need investors, we have significant cash flow and we have zero debt Amazing.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 14:02

Oh my goodness, your story is just incredible. And how big is your team now? How are they distributed around the city of New York?

Shaina Rainford: 14:11

So we're all office-based. We have our headquarters, which is in Yonkers, so we have a team of 14, which includes marketing, social media, administration, logistics, business support and my son, jaden actually, who's about to be 17, is really leading our marketing efforts and really helping us to scale on the paid side. So he works very closely with my team and our agency. Very, very smart Right.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 14:36

That's great. I'm glad it's staying in the family, which brings me to this whole thing of building a legacy business. So you have your son on board as part of the team. You know what other business practices or activities would you say they are aimed at legacy building?

Shaina Rainford: 14:51

I'm very careful with spending, and that way we can maintain 100% ownership and scale and have cash flow. I think those are the most important things, because when you kind of get ahead of yourself, you end up you know a lot of businesses. Sometimes they have to go in the negative to grow and what happens is you lose bits and pieces of that ownership. And now it's not you making the decisions right. You have to now consult with this person and that person that also has an interest in your business to be able to move things forward, right, and how do you describe your brand identity?

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 15:21

What is it? How do you speak about it? We're bold.

Shaina Rainford: 15:24

We're the homegirl, the sister. We engage with our community in a way that is it's real, it's raw. So you know, a lot of times we're laughing right Like. If you go to our social, you'll see things that are just hilarious and people are having a good time and laughing. Other times we're, you know, just really being vulnerable with customers. They're sharing their hair journeys and their vulnerabilities. We're sharing ours. It's just a fun place. We really, from the beginning, have been all about community.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 15:50

Right, and what community activities, like what kind of activations, do people expect from you?

Shaina Rainford: 15:56

So this year, one thing that we lack in the past few years is really being on the ground with customers and whenever we are right, one or two times a year, we would go to like events and we would have these long lines of people backed up and I'm like, oh, people know us offline, wow. And everyone's like, oh my God, baskin-lather. And it's just so crazy to me, right, because we're in the digital space and we never really get to see our customers one-on-one. So when we do do random events here and there and we see all these people just so excited to see us, it's just, you know, it's always mind blowing.

Shaina Rainford: 16:25

But this year, one of our big things that we're everywhere. So we're doing all the events this year. You will see Baskin-Lather everywhere. We will be on the ground having fun, doing activations, just having a lot of fun. Even every year, we have an annual anniversary party in December and typically what we do is invite customers who live within the tri-state area and we'll have brunch, we'll have panels, we'll dance, have dinner. So, again, lots of things that are all about community.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 16:54

And this December makes our five-year anniversary, so we'll be planning something really special, okay great, and do you intend to remain an online brand or do you have ambitions of having a Sprigton Motor store?

Shaina Rainford: 17:06

We definitely will go into retail. Big retailers have reached out to distributors that sell to the stores like, oh, do you carry Baskin-Lobb there? And I actually had a black distributor who's down in I think it was in Charlotte, had me fly down there just to tell me if you're profitable online, do not go into stores. And this was two years ago now and eventually that will be the goal, I would definitely say in about two years. But I truly felt that for right now we still have more space to scale and grow online Right, and when you do go into retail, you want the ball to kind of be in your court and it's never really in your court in retail Right Cause you lose a lot of control.

Shaina Rainford: 17:44

But we want to go with a super strong presence Right. We want people to go to the stores and sell out the products and show the power of the brand Right and what we can bring to the stores. And we just still have space to grow online.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 17:55

Yeah, great, and do you have any reflections on current rollback on all these DEI policies, because there are a lot of Black-owned beauty that went into retail and were promoted. What has been your reflection on what is happening to, not competitors but people who are adjacent on what is happening?

Shaina Rainford: 18:14

to not competitors, but people who are adjacent. Yeah, I think it's really, really unfortunate because the black dollar is very, very powerful. So I think it's an unfortunate situation. But, you know, each week we're seeing huge, huge retailers that were the go-to losing billions of dollars, and I think that the outcome of that situation is even proving more how valuable we are Right. So, like John 317 of the Bible says, you may not understand now what I'm doing, but later you, you know, you'll understand.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 18:40

And I think that's kind of one of those situations where now we're showing retailers we have the power you don't, and you know I've heard some of the beauty founders criticizing black consumers that they don't spend money on black owned products. But I mean clearly you have a different experience oh, no, yeah, my.

Shaina Rainford: 18:58

I have customers who will ask is this black owned, before I buy? They want to spend their money on black owned products?

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 19:06

Yeah, that's great, and you source your products. I'm not sure, but do you source in the US or do you import? Are the current tariffs going to affect you in any way, and how are you gearing up for that?

Shaina Rainford: 19:19

So all of our products, we own the formulations and they're manufactured here in the US. However, there are certain oils especially, that you have to import from overseas. I'm not a worrier like worry is actually a sin so we'll deal with it when the time comes. But it's going to affect everyone, no matter. It's going to affect the people who are manufacturing overseas first because they're going to have the direct impacts. For us, it's going to be that the prices of our packaging and bottles are going to go up and eventually it will, you know, affect us, but it's not something that quite in a frenzy for right now and we have very healthy profit margins, so we can not really be too affected or have to worry so much about passing additional costs over to the customer.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 19:59

Yeah, and I mentioned this because your main thing is, you know affordability and accessibility. So what is affordable? How do you define that and how do you know when you're staying within that affordable range?

Shaina Rainford: 20:14

So whenever we're pricing something, right, I'm always looking at what would I pay for this and what is the value proposition of this product. So, for example, our scalp stimulator oil, which is a two ounce bottle that lasts for a month, but it looks small, right? So people may say, oh, this is $20, but it's a very powerful formula. It's twenty dollars and you're hungry again in three hours, right? So I always put the think of myself as a consumer and I also think of the value proposition of the product and, you know, just making sure there's a healthy profit margin so that way we can continue to grow and scale.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 20:59

Hey, it's shades and layers, Layers and up. Next, Shaina Rainford tells us about her three proudest moments as a beauty brand founder and reflects on DEI rollbacks at big retail, as well as her plans for the future of Basque and leather. What are your ambitions? You know your dreams, both as an organizational leader and for the product range that you're offering right now leader and for the product range that you're offering right now.

Shaina Rainford: 21:33

So I would say my ultimate goal is to continue to grow and scale my team. I have a team of amazing people who are also very passionate about the brand and contributing to its growth. Our goal is definitely to continue to really just scale globally and put our footprint everywhere and just be a household name. When people think of either you know I'm suffering with hair loss or I want to grow my hair further, I want them to think Baskin-Ladder.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 21:51

Who have been some of your mentors in this industry or just in general.

Shaina Rainford: 21:56

So typically I'll look at just Black leaders in general of other beauty brands, or really any brands, and I'll watch their interviews or listen to their podcasts and see what their journey is like. Right? Another reason I decided not to jump into retail is seeing some other direct competitors and indirect competitors who will just straight up tell you it was. They either did it at the wrong time or they did too much retail all at once and it really had a negative effect on their business. Right, one of the, a big black owned brand you know, did mass retail with some of their products and it had a very negative effect. Luckily they were able to rebuild.

Shaina Rainford: 22:31

You know, I love seeing them win. Right, you know they're doing a great job, but with a different beauty product. So you know, those people just being vulnerable and really sharing their stories is kind of what makes me I thought there's no perfect time for anything. I always just kind of listen to the. You know, when God's speaking to me, he tells me to move on, when he tells me to slow down, I slow down. And when the time is right, right, we'll choose the first the right retail partner for us, and you know those types of things. But I think that has been one very useful thing. I've gotten indirect guidance from from some other beauty brand owners.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 23:02

Right and any books that you'd like to mention that have been influential in your life, any business books.

Shaina Rainford: 23:09

I've been reading are A Random Walk Down Wall Street by Burton Macchio. The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz. Tax-free Wealth by Tom Wheelwright. And Does this Make my Assets Look Fat?

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 23:35

That's wonderful. That's great. So, speaking of books, if you had to write your own memoir, what would you call it and why?

Shaina Rainford: 23:45

What would I call it?

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 23:46

That's a good question. I don a good question.

Shaina Rainford: 23:47

I don't know.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 23:50

I don't know, have you read any memos that you've enjoyed? That you think oh yeah. I'd like to tell my story like that.

Shaina Rainford: 23:59

I feel like rich dad poor dad is kind of a memoir, as he's really reflecting from childhood through life and how all of the different events and, you know, things he was exposed to and taught really shaped him. I would say that's one of the most inspirational memoirs, if you want to call it that, that I've read yeah, yeah.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 24:15

If you had to invite a famous black woman to dinner, living or dead, who would it be?

Shaina Rainford: 24:20

Famous black woman. That's a good question. I'm trying to think who would I invite? Oh, you know who. I have to find her. Sorry, there's this other lady. I remember seeing this years ago and remember again. I was a teen mom, so this really resonated with me. She was on a TV show talking about how she didn't even have money to buy pampers for her son and she had to wrap him in plastic. What is her name? And I actually came across her on tiktok recently. I have to find her now um just very inspirational.

Shaina Rainford: 24:54

She's a speaker cool.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 24:57

So could you mention three milestones that you are proudest of so far at Baskin-Luther?

Shaina Rainford: 25:03

definitely um. So one of our biggest milestones is and which we've still withheld since 2023, we've held two top now three, but two top sellers in their category on the entire TikTok shop. So we were early adapters of TikTok shop and we really dominated. So we have the number one best-selling edge control and we have the number one most sold hair growth oil on the platform and now we also have the number one sold hair grease slash balm, which is a stimulating scalp and hair balm.

Shaina Rainford: 25:29

Secondly, I would say we just won a DTC growth award at our fulfillment center. So they have millions of square feet of fulfillment centers and we were their number one based on growth. We have 691% growth based on the number from 2023 to 2024. Amazing, and a third one. A third one is oh, we've just recently reached almost 600,000 orders on Shopify.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 25:52

Wow, man, that's. That's really incredible. How would you advise an aspiring beauty founder to go about getting started?

Shaina Rainford: 26:02

Just, you just start. I feel that anything that you have to think too much about like recently I was listening to something may have been like an Instagram reel and the person was saying, oh, you need to have a business plan and do this and do that. You don't. I think when you're in alignment with what it is that you're supposed to be doing, you figure it out along the way. The resources will be provided to you and you just do it and you go with the flow and you learn as you go any influential people in your life that you would credit with your spirit, your go-getter spirit.

Shaina Rainford: 26:28

My mother my mother is, you know, was a very well is a very, very hardworking person. She had me. She was a single mom, she worked two jobs while she was getting her master's degree and she just is the same go-getter, hardworking. You know, like I remember when I was younger we would drive around nice communities with big houses right and just go to open houses and you know, then she got her nice big, beautiful house well before even Basconada was started and now I have my nice big, beautiful house right. Sometimes seeing is believing.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 27:02

Yeah, very true, and is there anything else that you would like to touch on that maybe we didn't speak about?

Shaina Rainford: 27:08

I think we covered everything.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 27:10

Yeah, I think so, and that is all from me this time around. By the way, the famous black woman that Shaina would invite to dinner tonight is motivational speaker Lisa Nichols. Thank you for your inspirational story, shaina, and for sharing your go-getter spirit with us. If you'd like to learn more about Baskin-Ladder, I've also linked their website and socials in the show notes. While you're there, please hit share and send it to a friend. As always, I thank you for being part of this Shades and Layers journey. I'm Gudwanus Kwasana Ritchie, and until next time, please do take good care.