Amanda Sebolai is the founder of the South African natural haircare brand, Dignify Afro Beauty and my guest in this episode of Shades and Layers.
Amanda's personal journey of embracing her natural hair led her to create a line of innovative haircare products that celebrate African beauty and self-love. Inspired by her daughters, Amanda's products are helping to transform hair care for African women in post-apartheid South Africa. Her story gives insight into how long it takes and exactly what it takes to build a brand step by step.
There is no entrepreneurial journey that is totally smooth and Amanda's is no different. In our conversation she highlights some of the bumps she hit while transitioning from homemade formulations to becoming a thriving business that seeks to own its entire value chain. She also credits customer engagement and feedback as the core of Dignify Afro Beauty's success. According to her, one of the most important pillars of her brand is being rooted in cultural identity and empowerment.
Amanda wants to build a legacy company and leave a meaningful imprint on the world. Find out how she plans to do it all.
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Hello and welcome to Shades and Layers. I'm your host, Guguanos Kosanarichi. My guest today is Johannesburg-based haircare entrepreneur Amanda Sibulai. Her brand, Dignify Afro Beauty, has been growing in leaps and bounds over the past five years and having an impact beyond providing products that go on your hair that go on your hair. Amanda tells us about her vision for this brand and how she thinks it can contribute to the growing self-love movement in post-apartheid South Africa. She shares her own hair journey, how she launched and grew out her product line, and the path to being available online and slowly expanding to local retailer stores. Our conversation is both instructive and informative and, as always, we keep things candid. So, without further ado, let's get into the story of Dignify Afro Beauty and its founder, Amanda Sibulai. Let's start with what it is that you do as a company, what you do in the company and what it means to you on a deeper level.
Speaker 2:Wow, dignify Afro Beauty has become literally my fourth child. I have three children and it is so dear to me. So what we do and you know, really, it's in the name, right we dignify African beauty.
Speaker 2:And I think for us for a very long time, have really never took a stand on defining our own beauty and not let the Western environment to define our beauty. We have definitely focused on the Afro beauty, which is really the natural hair piece which we completely believe is the essence of our identity. So, as Dignify Afro Beauty, we dignify natural hair beauty and we believe that that translates into overall self-love. What I do in the business I'm the founder of Dignify Afro Beauty I always say together with my two daughters, because everything we've done to start this off has been together with them and all the recipes we've tried have tried on my hair and on their hair. They've even inspired some of the products themselves. So, yeah, no, really, that's what I do and that's what Dignify Afro Beauty is about.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's talk about your products. So what do you offer out there for all these naturalistas?
Speaker 2:So we literally right now have about I'll call 10 products in the market and we offer this one product called a pre-wash. In America they call it a pre-poo, so we've called it a pre-wash and this is really amazing because it's got a garlic, it's got an onion that really helps with antifungal properties. It helps address the bacteria that causes dandruff and it's really awesome during, let's say, you've had braids for a very long time. You're undoing it. Right, put this on as you undo, it will completely detangle your hair. It will cleanse your hair, literally deal with that bacteria. By the time you wash your hair or go to a hair salon, your hair is completely moist, detangled and easy to look after. We also have a shampoo and we've got two types of shampoos. So we've got this shampoo but also a two-in-one shampoo and conditioner and this is really awesome for your wash day Also is great for let's. You have your long-term protective style. You can use this while you've got your braids on, when you've got your twists, when you've got your cornrows.
Speaker 1:So that's the combo, the washer conditioner, washer conditioner.
Speaker 2:So that's really awesome. And then we have two types of conditioners. So one is your normal hair conditioner that you would use as part of just your wash day. We also have a deep mask, which is really your hair treatment to keep your hair healthy. We also then have a live-in conditioner, so after you've washed and you've treated, it moisturizes our hair naturally, but also you can use it with wet hair or dry hair. It also revitalizes your curls, one of the biggest issues I think that we battled with when we thought about Dignify for Beauty was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was wondering about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, was really to moisturize our hair. We just found that whatever product we used, it was very difficult to keep your hair moisturized longer than the day you applied that product. And the inspiration of starting Dignify Afro Beauty started actually when I turned 40. And I decided to cut my hair short, and that was because my girls had actually grown up with their hair either relaxed or in braids and had never seen me in particular with short hair like yourself you know, um, and so I was like I need my girls to know that you look beautiful, irrespective of what type of hair you have.
Speaker 2:That was really it. It was not.
Speaker 2:I want to start a natural hair company, you know um and then I wore my hair naturally for, you know, two to three, four years. Then I decided, okay, I want to grow this hair. And as I journeyed to figure out how do you grow natural hair, I realized it was a very difficult journey At the time we didn't have any of these American products in South Africa literally had to define this out myself. I navigated the space. It was extremely painful, until I got to the point where I was like, okay, let me just start cooking some stuff in my house. And as I started really making your avocado oils, your carrot oil, I mean, I think my family was like there goes our grocery bill right, and then, you know, olive oil.
Speaker 1:You can imagine how expensive olive oil is.
Speaker 2:So we literally did. I mean it got to the point where my helper knew when she makes rice she has to put rice water on the side for me.
Speaker 1:I would find rice water in the kitchen.
Speaker 2:And I think the reason I decided to go that route was because I had tried whatever I could find in the market at the time and nothing was working. And if it was working, it was for a day, and then the next day it's a different scenario. And if it was working, it was for a day, and then the next day it's a different you know different scenario. I even had American friends at the time that I also engaged. I'm like guys, what are you using? They told me what products are we using? I shipped some of those products. They did not work, you know. And so I realized that there's something really different about our hair and all no one has actually thought about how to help our hair stay moisturized. And literally even today, when people find my products with all these American products in South Africa, they always say where have you been all my life?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's so cool, honestly, honestly, and yeah, and I mean one of our best products that we moisturize with is this shine lotion. It is such a very simple product that you put on your hair every day, every morning, your hair in the morning. It keeps your hair nice and shiny, but also moisturized.
Speaker 2:Works for boys works for girls, works for teens, works for men and women. The second thing we realized was to also stop breakage. Our hair breaks a lot, not only because it's prone to breaking, but also we don't know the hair care routine of how to gently look after our hair. So these products, they stop breakage and people are really blown away by that. But then we also teach how to then look after your hair. Fingers are your best comb and just how gentle one needs to be, Because I think we grew up thinking our hair is tough, I can handle anything.
Speaker 1:Actually our hair is the most brittle. Actually, let's get most brittle. Yeah, actually, let's get into that. Because I'm wondering about your hair journey. Right, you have this part which led to dignify Afro beauty. Yeah, but before that, right, you had this period where you are relaxing, braiding, and I remember that was a requirement in high school. But you know before that, growing up, before entering into these multiracial or majority white spaces, what was your experience with your own natural hair?
Speaker 2:True, actually, I remember being in, you know, growing up in lower primary. We had my cousin. She was the only one. She was older than me, was the only one who knew how to plait our hair, and so literally on Sundays, sundays she would be the one plaiting our hair, as natural as could be, and I just remember how tight she would make my plaits. I think she hated plaiting our hair. You know you wouldn't be able to smile for days. Yeah, you know. Number one. Number two I remember us using, you know, that iron comb that you put on the stove you know, to straighten our hair.
Speaker 1:Silk press.
Speaker 2:Yes, I remember that and I mean, you know that's what it was. It was Vaseline, it was glycerine that we used on our hair, and I never had to think about literally relaxing my hair. I think when I started relaxing my hair I was about 16, which was the time I was actually at the multiracial school, but most of the times and also braiding was not allowed while I was in junior school because it was a luxury.
Speaker 2:It was expensive to put hair pieces on your hair, but only when I was in high school those things started being introduced in my life.
Speaker 1:So there is a lost tradition there right.
Speaker 2:Because hair care is a community ritual and that's where we find ourselves in our own bathrooms trying to play, and you know formulators, etc I know one of the things I really want to do is to investigate those old ways of how we looked after hair, because one of the things you see now a lot of us as black women, especially in south africa, are battling with alopecia, are battling with thinning hair and it is sometimes related to how we've looked after hair, with the different hair pieces, different wigs, but I really want to know how they got their hair.
Speaker 2:Beautiful, big afros, remember, and for me that's the health, that's the healthy hair no, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:you say you worked with your daughters on this, so tell me about how you eventually started actually selling to people, to the public.
Speaker 2:Yeah so. So I tried these on the stove products on my hair and for first year and I was like I was blown away. I was blown away by how my hair responded and how moisturized it felt and how it started growing. The second year I said to my girls girls, listen, can I please try these on you? Because I might be crazy, I might be thinking these things work but they actually don't work for other people. Can I try these on?
Speaker 1:you.
Speaker 2:And literally for that second year, there was, you know, willing, and we tried and we realized how different our three hair types were and how the different products worked. On this one I didn't work on that one, and my girls one of them is very much interested, you know she's she would make her own products herself, like, oh, don't worry, I don't need your, your pre-wash I've made my own, you know? Okay, yeah, I know Right, and um, and so all the mayonnaise and the eggs and everything, anyway, so, um. So then, after I realized it works on them as well, I thought to myself wait a minute, this needs to be professionalized, right. And so I looked for a manufacturer that was willing, or be willing, to take my recipes and manufacture these products for me.
Speaker 2:I found a manufacturer that was willing to literally take in some of my ingredients, even test them and create these amazing products. So this hair shine lotion was our first one and one of the things it has in here, which was my requirement. I said I need some amazing herb that you only get in India included, and I literally brought it to the manufacturer. They created this whole product for me. Even today, I'm always testing new products, but I start at home. I start at home, I test and I see, and then I'm able to send the recipes to them to say this is what I want in this product. I'll put it in so that's how it happened.
Speaker 2:And then we're able to sell, and this product was quite interesting because it was my first one. So the minute I started selling, I think where I realized there was value was when people wanted to buy it again, when I started having repeat purchases. This, of all of our products, this is the one that I think we, we, we replenish three to four times a year because it just goes, and we're very grateful for that and very grateful for our repeat clients that provide such great reviews on the use of our products. So we're very grateful for that?
Speaker 1:Hey, it's Shades and Layers. And my guest today is founder of the South African hair care brand Dignify Afro Beauty, amanda Sibulai. Up next, we get into the practicalities of how to run a hair care brand her company's milestones so far, as well as how she balances her full-time job with the demands of running a small business the demands of running a small business. Before we get into the sales side of things, let's start with the sourcing of your ingredients. How does that work for you? What are some of?
Speaker 2:the challenges that you come across or advantages being a small batch producer. Yeah, it is not easy, so the good thing is that when I'm at home I don't need, obviously, large amounts of testing the ingredients at first, so I use very small volumes in terms of those individual ingredients. We do have amazing companies here that sell natural either dried leaves or dried spices that I'm able to purchase from. One of the things futuristically that I've realized was that actually I would love to own the whole value chain and actually start planting my own ingredients.
Speaker 2:So things like your avocados, things like my herbs that I use, the spices that we use, I'd love to be able to have a farm, you know, so that I'm able to own that whole value chain. But for now, I source them, and there is one that I really can you can only find in India. One of the things that we've engaged with our agriculture department or minister is to say what are the processes of bringing some of these plants, that we can farm them in South Africa. So it's for sure those are some of the things I'd love to be able to do, but for now I source locally.
Speaker 1:Okay, that's great. How do you find these collaborators? Because it's quite a step from formulating in your kitchen to formalizing the whole thing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, it was really knocking on doors. Hey, you knock and you knock and you knock and you like, listen, I have this. And you know you can imagine, like female young, who are you? What are you looking for? We can't help you. You know you can imagine, like female, young, who are you? What are you looking for? We can't help you. You know, and that's what you receive A lot of just no's and no's and no's.
Speaker 2:You know, to the point, when I found this particular individual and remember at the time, you don't even have high amounts of capital to really invest in this whole thing I can't buy a whole ton of a product, you know and I needed a manufacturer that will understand my financial standing and that I'm really looking to grow slowly and but surely. And it was very difficult, I'm not going to lie, and I feel it was very challenging for any black females, I suppose, or SMMEs and entrepreneurs, to just enter this market and be able to find people that will believe in your dream and be able to support you in implementing your dream to the next level. But, to be honest, I did pray a lot, I did fast, a lot for this business and I still do. I meditate a lot because I need some guidance, I need direction and throughout all the stages of the business, I feel like I've been quite I don't know if I want to call it lucky, but I really appreciate the responses and the answers that God has given me through this journey.
Speaker 1:Luck plays a role, but how did you raise the capital?
Speaker 2:Honestly from my pockets right. Um, honestly from my pockets, right, it was really because you know it was. It's not a business that you just jump out of your corporate job and be like this is what I'm going to do full time, when you've got a bond to pay and children to take to private school. You know so your costs are here, your revenues.
Speaker 2:There is no way, you know. So continued work full time from a corporate perspective and then whatever additional extra income I could, I invested in my business and I continue to do that. Now the business is starting to literally almost sustain itself. It's not there yet, but it's really awesome. Looked for funding here and there and quite a lot of the funding for SMMEs. I find you see a lot of companies willing and able, but when you think about it it's an interest.
Speaker 1:I'm like look, I'm not ready to get into debt to run a business.
Speaker 2:So we're at the point now where we're just like listen, we're going to run it as fast as our income allows us, but we are not going to break the bank, nor are we going to get ourselves into debt.
Speaker 1:Okay, so slow productivity is the philosophy. So what are the big milestones for you so far?
Speaker 2:Wow, so big milestones for us. Definitely the product range, because after we had the first product out we realized that we couldn't really launch big without having a whole range. I only sold to people that I knew at the time, but being able to have the whole range of looking after your hair has been really amazing.
Speaker 2:So the fact that you could literally it will before you wash, while you wash, treat your hair and then on-go daily hair care. So that was a great milestone for us. The second milestone has definitely been being able to get your basics in place right. Your website, with e-commerce enabled you know getting sales on the website, you know credit card payments that was really a huge milestone for us is enabled you know, getting sales on the website, you know credit card payments that was really a huge milestone for us. And then, thirdly, being able to just get onto social media and understand how social media works is something that we're still learning, but the fact that we're on social media and people know us, people are like, oh, I think I've seen you, I think I've seen you know, so that's really exciting. And then, fourthly, just being on take a lot.
Speaker 2:It was a okay, so you're distributing that nice I am distributing through take a lot and just the process of getting on to take a lot was you. It was overwhelming. You know the technical skills that are required to just enable your product through that platform and being able to create operational processes to make sure you meet their deadline. Because the minute you get the order you have to make sure you meet their deadline. Because the minute you get the order you have to make sure it arrives at take a lot within a certain time and if you miss that SLA you get kicked out. So being able to create those processes in the background has been really amazing.
Speaker 2:So those are great milestones for us. What we're looking forward to is definitely being on the retail space. Okay, okay, so that's where you're going.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:We've looked at everything and knocked on quite a few of these doors, your clicks, your discounts, and what we've realized, and with the support and the advice of one of the big banks in South Africa, IDC, a big funder- was look I think, rather than going straight into retail right now, rather slow down, rather focus on just growing your market as best as you can, as the minute you get into retail then you've got other targets to achieve.
Speaker 2:You must make sure that your product gets sold. If it doesn't get sold, you must buy it back from the retailer. So where we are now is just we actually are okay not being on the retail. You know we are doing smaller retailers, so we are in smaller retailers. We've got two hair salons that use our products. We've got one small pharmacy not far from where we stay. We literally got an email a week ago from a retailer that's looking that actually said hey, people are coming to our retailer asking for your products. Can you come?
Speaker 1:Oh, that's interesting, that's great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's really encouraging. No, I mean, we think that the right time will come for us to be able to pivot To do it countrywide?
Speaker 1:Yeah, but you know you say we. Is it still your daughters or do you have other members of the team?
Speaker 2:For me, it's still my daughters, you know, still my daughters.
Speaker 1:Not good for them. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no.
Speaker 2:So they guide me, they help me. And then I've got an administrator, a client service administrator, that works to help with basic things like making sure we've got the containers, making sure we've got orders we do a lot of markets as well Make sure we prepare for the markets and just basic administration type of work.
Speaker 1:So I've got someone that I hire that does that tell me about the hiring process, because your first hire is super important.
Speaker 2:I'm on my third oh my goodness, I can't. I can't, guys, you know so. I mean you can imagine that I work full time. You know so I need, when I say I want to hire them, I say you're here to run my business full-time and run it like it's your business and sometimes you get good ones, sometimes you get really bad ones with such bad attitudes, you know.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I think it's a very sad situation that we're in. Honestly, I think that basic work ethic it's not about the complex job, it's just very sad situation that we're in. Honestly, I think that basic work ethic it's not about the complex job, it's just a basic work ethic.
Speaker 2:Your work starts at eight, arrive at eight your boss told you to do x, do x, don't do x minus one, like I don't understand that and it's basic basic tasks, so I am I am losing my mind's very sad, honestly, because where do these youngsters, where are they going to get hired?
Speaker 1:Oh, young people, I'm sorry. I mean, I was once a young person running a business, so I'm just like I'm very wary of criticizing, but everybody complains about the same thing.
Speaker 2:What are we going to do? And these are our children, Like in fairness, these are our children and I'm just thinking to myself what can we do?
Speaker 1:This is Shades and Layers, and we're coming up to the final part of our conversation with Amanda Sibulai. Let's now talk big picture and get into the Shades and Layers rapid fire.
Speaker 2:So what role do you think Dignify Afro Beauty plays in the South African beauty landscape? I really think I think we play bigger than the beauty landscape, right and for us, we believe that our whole vision and mission is to make sure that people start loving themselves. And if you think about hair and the history of South Africa, our hair was used against us.
Speaker 2:There was a time during the apartheid regime. At the time they used a pencil test on our hair to determine if you were black and if that pencil didn't fall off your hair, you were black. Determine if you're black and if that pencil don't fall off your hair, you are black. You know, and being black was, you can imagine, deemed to be a very negative identity and our goal is to eradicate that trauma that was placed upon us. And we believe that by just letting people teach and let them love their hair the way it is translates in them loving themselves and who they are and how beautiful they are and how black and beautiful they are. So for us, it's not just, it's not really about beauty. It's more than just really being able to drive that self-love back into our society and just let people know you are beautiful the way you are and no one should define that for you.
Speaker 1:I mean, it sounds like you're running a busy operation. How do you keep that center and focus when the busyness of running a business takes over?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know one of the things I and a lot of people ask me that because I do quite a lot within this 24 hours that we have in a day but one thing that I've learned is to compartmentalize my time. So I know, between this time and this time, I'm doing my corporate job. Between this time and this time, I do my business, and my Saturdays, my weekends, are my weekends for me to do things like my business, and that's why I hire someone during the week that they manage the customer service piece. I've got a contractor that looks after the development of the website and then also, you know, with all these AI tools as well as the automation of social media, it makes it a lot easier because then I can dedicate a weekend to literally think about the social media strategy and design the content, and then it gets posted automatically on the system on the days that I want it to be posted.
Speaker 1:So there's also the regulatory side of things. You have to make sure your products are safe. You have to get them tested. What are some of the adjustments you've had to make or any challenges that have come your way in that process?
Speaker 2:We've actually been quite privileged to be part of the Consumer Goods Council, and within the Consumer Goods Council they have Entrepreneur Supplier Development Arm, and so we've been part of that and they've really been amazing at educating and teaching us around product development and management and making sure that we are compliant.
Speaker 2:So through that process, we've been able to get our products officially tested, get a testing results and test certificates so that's really been amazing and also being able to get barcodes, which is really critical and important labeling of your products. You can't get into retail without a barcode. So, and even within the barcode space, there's elements of compliance that you need to adhere to. So we've been really exposed to the whole value chain as well as the compliance requirements of each of these products. There's the next level in terms of all of that process is understanding the compliance of shipping internationally, and that's what we're starting to figure out. We've had literally clients asking us please, can I have your product? And the minute we have to ship, obviously there's a whole other requirement that we need to adhere to, so that's something that we're working on now, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't even ask friends anymore, it's just like, okay, it's way too expensive.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's great to have Amazon here, so we're excited about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so okay, has that helped in any way?
Speaker 2:Well, that's my project for December.
Speaker 1:You're going to be busy, then I'm looking forward to unpack that. Okay, that's great. I look forward to seeing your products on this side. That'll's great.
Speaker 2:I look forward to seeing your product on this side. That'll be great, yay, so what do you think has been the most fulfilling part of your entrepreneurial journey so far? Wow, I think it till today. The most fulfilling for me are comments and pictures I get from our clients. I just want to cry when a client you know so, one of the clients that I have.
Speaker 2:I worked with her at the current job and she's like Amanda. I heard that you've got natural hair products my child's hair. I'm about to relax it. I don't know what to do with it. I said to her wait, just try these products. So I gave her literally, I think, a shine lotion and, most probably, oil. She tried these products within a week. She's like Amanda what is this? I mean, she's been using it, I think, now for six months and this week still she sends me a picture.
Speaker 2:Amanda, look at your daughter's hair, look at my, you know, and the child loves her afro. The child loves her hair. For me, that's the most fulfilling when these young children love their hair the way it is. I have a little salon chair that every so often I get a chance to play around with these young children's hair and we speak. We speak about how beautiful their hair is and how it shrinks and why shrinkage is so important and how they can do anything with it's the only type of hair that can transform and look like any other type of hair right, so you can take it from a kink to a curly to a straight. The other hair type can never be a kink. They can never revert to our state, yet we can revert to all the other states. How beautiful is is that it's gorgeous, it's gorgeous. And having those conversations for me has been the most fulfilling, fulfilling experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, no, that's great, that's really really great. So you basically want to create a legacy company, or would you be interested if L'Oreal came to you and offered you a buyout?
Speaker 2:You know we've had this discussion with my husband a lot. You know he's like no, I mean, consider it, consider it. You know, I think for me I'll be very conflicted. I'm not going to lie. I'll be absolutely conflicted because I think for me I don't know if you can translate my passion and the vision of this business to someone else, unless, of course, they're willing to buy. But I can still run the brand and continue driving what it stands for. So not L'Oreal, but I find these company aggregators yeah, sure.
Speaker 1:So do you get any kind of support from other women who are working with brands in this space? What's your mentorship and education looking like in here?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is not easy because obviously you can imagine that we are competing against each other, so there's no one who's going to be sitting around and guiding and you know, and advising you. So I found great mentorship in um, the consumer goods council. I'm on audio books quite a lot because you know time to sit and read is actually very limited.
Speaker 2:When I'm in my car, when I'm, you know, doing my my morning meditation, I have opportunities to listen to audio, so I'm going through that, learning how to do that. My husband is an entrepreneur and he's been running his business for 24 years, so he's um provides me quite good, good guidance in terms of, um, what to do and what not to do. Um, yeah, so if there's any other ideas that you have there of who could mentor me, I would be open to it.
Speaker 1:So now we've come to the part where we get to know you a little bit more, and it's the shades and layers rapid fire. So first question is what would you call your memoir and why um?
Speaker 2:I would call it. She came and left with impact okay, and why is that? I think for me, um, you know, when I turned 40, I looked at my life, I looked back and I thought, yo, I spent the first 40 years all about me, me, me, me, me, and which was right, right, because then I had to focus on my education, my job, my, you know exactly yeah, and I thought you're doing yeah exactly, you know.
Speaker 2:But I look back and I thought, no, the next 40 years, how could I spend just all being about me, me, me. What am I giving back? What am I giving back to the world? And I feel like you know, I really want to do that. I want to be able to provide an impact. I want to change someone's life, even if it's just a little bit of it or a little aspect. So, for me, I want to make an impact and I would call it that Okay, because the impact I made for me was not only in the hair business. I also started a nonprofit after I turned 40, and that focuses on just being able to give back, you know, to my hometown, soweto.
Speaker 1:Right right.
Speaker 2:What nonprofit it's called, first Things First and we provide extra lessons and tutoring and Saturday schools to a township school or high school and remedial English lessons.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we've been running it now since 2016.
Speaker 2:And it's been also quite fulfilling.
Speaker 1:Oh, amanda, you're so inspiring. This is so great, thank you.
Speaker 2:Thank you and you're so inspiring.
Speaker 1:This is so great, thank you. Thank you, and you look so happy I am, you know. I'm so grateful. That is so great it's lovely. I love it. I love it, thanks. So if you had to turn your life story into a movie, who would play the lead actress? If you had to turn your life story into a movie, who would play the lead actress, interestingly, I think.
Speaker 2:You know, I think I couldn't think of anyone else but my two daughters. To be honest, oh good, are they your mini-me twins? But no, the thing is, they know me, but they know different sides of me. You, the one will act they're firm. You know strict, um, you know, because she's actually like that. And then the other one would act the soft. Uh, you know giving to everyone, never getting anything back. You know, miserable and sad and cries all the time for little things. You know, and I can see myself in both of them. It's so interesting how they, each one of them, have taken different aspects of my, of me. I think they would really act me the best way, but you'd have to use both of them because okay, great, that's nice.
Speaker 1:And then, finally, which famous black woman or dead would you invite to dinner, and why?
Speaker 2:This is going to sound very different and I can't say famous, but the one black woman I'd love to invite for dinner, dead or alive, would be my mother's mom. Okay, life would be my mother's mom. Okay, I had never met her and, um, and she left my mom or died when my mom was 12, and the things that she taught my mom in that those first 12 years have had a multi-generational impact, you know, and and I don't know, you know because I've personally benefited from her I would love to meet her. I'd love to have her for dinner, right, I'd love to understand. How did she know what she's known?
Speaker 2:And one of the biggest lessons that have helped us as a family on the back of this black woman that I've never met has been just having a positive mindset and being able to be a visionary and my mom has been able to be that and that's how she's lived her life but also to be able to know what she liked and what she didn't like Because of her mom. I'll give you one example Her mom stayed in her marriage that was abusive because of her children, but through that process, my mom learned that if she ever found herself in that situation, she would leave the marriage for the sake of her children. So that was one aspect. The second aspect was really around being clear around what you want. My mom, when the schools in 1986 fell apart in the townships In her mind, I don't remember that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was crazy In her mind and it didn't work to take me to the rural areas. It didn't work, couldn't fetch the water from the river, I'm sorry, anyway. So she literally said to herself I want the best. That's all she said to herself. I want the best school for my kids. Yeah, and she was a nurse, didn't earn much and single mom of two children, and she ended up at the school that I was at, you know, and of all the schools you know that she took me. I had to write these entry exams and apparently I didn't do well in any of them except for the one that I went to, which was the most expensive of all of them.
Speaker 1:It was just like ah, she worked, that lady Exactly.
Speaker 2:So I mean, I just think that you know she taught us such amazing lessons around being firm, around mindset, around fighting for what is right. For instance, my mom chose education above marriage at that age because those were her choices. She was like no, I want to study, I want to finish my metric and you can imagine where our lives would be I don't know if it would be born, but anyway, but where our lives would be had she made different decisions. So I'd love to just spend some time with her and understand who she was and thank her for the multi-generational impact that she's had in our lives.
Speaker 1:That's great. So if people want to work with you, invest in your business, buy some products. Where can they find you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know we are on at Dignify Afro beauty on our social media so they can dm, they can phone, they can email amanda. Dignify afro beauty does here today. We are completely open, open doors and willing to work with anyone who can transform not only our business but the the vision that we have for our country and our women and men.
Speaker 1:And that is all from me today. Thank you, Amanda, for sharing your story and, of course, I appreciate that you've listened to this episode. If you like it, please share with a friend or someone who would find it useful and inspirational. I'm Kutlonos Kosanarichi and until next time, please do take good care.