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Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh
Bringing together local businesses and neighbors of Pittsburgh. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Leila Carter helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Is your business serving the residents of Pittsburgh? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpPittsburgh.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Pittsburgh
E31: Building Community Through Female Entrepreneurship: The Ujamaa Collective Story
What makes Tia Baker with Ujamaa Collective a good neighbor?
Ever wondered what happens when entrepreneurial women come together with purpose? The latest episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast pulls back the curtain on a remarkable organization fostering sisterhood among business-minded women.
Tia Baker introduces us to the Ujamaa Collective, a 15-year-old organization composed of Africana women entrepreneurs who are building their businesses together through intentional relationships and trust. At the core of their work is the Ujamaa Collective Boutique, showcasing an impressive array of member-created products from body care to home goods, poetry to visual art. Through this shared space, members live out their core values of creativity, wellness, fair trade, community, and meaningful work.
Baker's personal journey with the collective began during a challenging period in her life when she attended an event at her mother's invitation. "When I walked into the space, it totally uplifted me," she shares, explaining how the warm, welcoming atmosphere provided exactly what her spirit needed. This chance encounter led to her becoming the boutique manager, deepening her connection to this nurturing community.
What sets Ujamaa apart is their innovative approach to business growth. While targeting Africana women primarily, their customer base spans genders and countries worldwide. They've pioneered "cooperative marketing" where members simultaneously promote on social media during meetings, amplifying their collective reach with cohesive messaging.
The collective is entering an exciting transition with a soft opening at their new location (2512 Wiley Avenue) on August 2nd. They're also conducting a capital campaign to secure a permanent home. Visit ujamaa-collective.org to learn how you can support these entrepreneurial women as they continue building community through business.
To learn more about Ujamaa Collective go to:
Ujamaa Collective
(412) 853 7217
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Lila Carter.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you looking for an organization establishing sisterhood with like-minded entrepreneurial women looking to build community? One might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, tia Baker, with Ujamaa Collective. Tia, how's it going? I'm doing well. How are you? Very well. Thanks so much. We're excited to learn all about you and your organization, so please tell us more.
Speaker 3:Well, thank you first of all, for inviting me and having me on. I really appreciate that Ujamaa Collective is made up of Africana women who are artists, artisans, business owners, service providers, and we are collectively building our businesses together. We're building relationships, intentional relationships, right Building, trust and actually building and working on our businesses together. One of the major ways that we do that, and what we're most known for, is our collective boutique. It is the Ujamaa Collective Boutique which houses our wares. Many of the members as I said, everyone is an entrepreneur, so there are many things that our members make, anywhere from body care products to home care products. We have poets and artists and you know, it's made up of many, many women, and we get to practice our core values in that space, which are creativity, wellness, fair trade, community and meaningful work.
Speaker 2:What a special purpose you have in the community Tia. How did you get into this business?
Speaker 3:Well, let's see. So Ujamaa is about 15 or 16 years old. I came around about 15 years ago when Ujamaa was just starting, and it was kind of I want to say, it was kind of accidentally, on purpose, because I was introduced to Ujamaa by my mother, who is a founding member, but it was just to come. It was like the opening. So come and, you know, enjoy the music and all of that I did. And also at that time in my life I just was at a low period. You know, I had some things going on and when I walked into the space it totally uplifted me, my spirit was uplifted. You know, the people were just so warm and welcoming and it's what I needed at the moment, it's what my spirit needed at the moment, and that's what I found there. And so, of course, I just so happened that they were looking for a boutique manager at that time and God saw fit that I had given that I was given that position and that's how I was introduced.
Speaker 2:So, whenever you're looking at who you want to uplift and finding your target customers, who are these people that are building up the heart of your business and how do you attract them to the company?
Speaker 3:So you know our target market. We like to say that it is, you know, the black woman, the Africana woman, but it actually that is who we target. However, we have many, many customers. We have male customers. We have customers from actually all over the world.
Speaker 3:Some of the ways that we market to our customers are traditional ways. We have a website, social media, those type things but we also market in non-traditional ways and it is in the spirit of cooperative being cooperative, we do something called cooperative marketing with our members, and so in we may have a membership meeting and it's a working meeting where we actually all of the members on the call at that very moment do a live marketing right On our social media platform, so that it's going out to everybody at the same time from all of our members, right? So that's one way that we do it. There's many, many ways, and then other members they do it on their own. We have a schedule that we can send out, with a script if need be, right, depending on what it is that we are marketing, so that you know everybody is on the same page and it's a cohesive message.
Speaker 2:Very good. So outside of work, Tia, what lights you up? What do you do for fun? Oh my goodness, what do?
Speaker 3:I do. Well, I like to read. That's one of the things that I love to do. I love comedy shows and music, love hearing live music. Those things light me up.
Speaker 2:Very good. And how can our listeners learn more about Ujamaa Collective?
Speaker 3:C-O-L-L-E-C-T-I-V-Eorg. We actually have just moved. We have a grant, we have a soft opening rather happening August 2nd in our new location, which is 2512 Wiley Avenue and it is on the first floor. So please come out August 2nd and support our soft opening. We are also in the middle of a capital campaign because this is a temporary location, so we are looking for our permanent home and the capital campaign will support us in doing that, and that information is also on our website. So please, please, please, assist us in finding a new home.
Speaker 2:Very good. Well, Tia, I really appreciate your time today and having you as a guest on our show. We wish you and the collective the best moving forward.
Speaker 1:Thank you, I really appreciate you businesses to be featured on the show go to GNPPittsburghcom. That's GNPPittsburghcom, or call 412-561-9956.