Shades & Layers

Send us Fan Mail We are revisiting an episode published during Season 4., for two reasons: first it is relevant now because we are talking about mission driven entrepreneurship and second, the healthcare statistics concerning black women in general are alarming: from maternal mortality rates, to chronic disease diagnoses to lack of empathy from caregivers.  This episode deals with the fact that ev...

Send us Fan Mail My guest today is Brooke Daniels ( @thebrookedaniels ) who is the founder and CEO of Daniels and Co and a Go To Market Expert. Brooke has founded several companies herself and is passionate about helping other entrepreneurs to take their ideas and turn them into great businesses. She has designed a programme called Ready, Aim Launch, which is a system that is designed to help you...

Send us Fan Mail This week we’re talking about ageing gracefully with Carine Camara, solopreneur and founder of the lifestyle brand Carrinna . Carine believes society should do better in supporting women make a transition in to middle age and beyond. Her brand aims to fill this gap by portraying middle age as something to be celebrated and not fixed.   In her day-to-day Carine is a California-base...

Send us Fan Mail My guest today is Ifeoma Dike, Founder and Director at the UK-based art agency IDDUK. She founded Idioblast Dynamic Development with a mission to take art beyond galleries and museums and make it more accessible to everyone: artists, collectors and the public alike.   Before embarking on this road, Ifeoma was a psychologist who had a passion for art, hosting events, traveling the...

Send us Fan Mail  Casey Ariel Richardson is the founder of Blaze Group LLC, a digital platform that gives black women entrepreneurs access to capital, knowledge and mentorship. They are also the owners of the webby award-winning bi-annual Blaze Virtual Summit, which brings together thousands of businesswomen from across the world for five days of keynotes, workshops, education, sharing, music and...

Send us Fan Mail One of the most influential movements in the beauty industry is the natural hair care movement. However, living with curly hair is still a challenge across the spectrum. My guest today, Stephanie LaFlora , who is the co-founder of a digital marketplace for hair called Crownhunt , is determined to change that.   She came up with the idea of a Netflix for hair, as she calls it, afte...

Send us Fan Mail So, we know that most business ideas start out with a founder who is trying to solve a problem. For today’s founder, Gwendolyn Ntsiki Bereng, it all started when she took her child to a multiracial pre-school in South Africa.   In 2019 she left her corporate job to launch the Johannesburg-based pre-school, Appletree Montessori where she is the Directress and leader of this institu...

Send us Fan Mail Today we are talking small businesses and how their founders could benefit from coaching. Our guide is Master Your Mindset Coach, Ryane LeCesne who also considers herself a healer. Ryane came across the coaching profession while looking for her next career move and went on to launch Inspire Brand Consulting seven years ago. Since launching this work-from-anywhere business, she has...

Send us Fan Mail 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 rea...

Send us Fan Mail Hello and welcome to Shades and Layers. Can you believe we are in our 5th Season already?!! 😀 Welcoming all you newbies to the club too! 🎉🎉🎉 I’m your host Kutloano Skosana Ricci and every season we pick a topic and interview ten black women entrepreneurs from around the world to provide insights and inspiration. If you’re starting or growing your business or still side hustlin...

Send us Fan Mail  Imagine a space where you are free to be you, a space where there's no judgement and you have nothing to prove to anybody. South African yogis and spiritual seekers have found such a place at The Nest Space Yoga Studio and Wellness Center in Johannesburg. Started by Dr. Anesu Mbizvo in 2018, and later joined by business partner, Banesa Tseki , the small studio was aimed at b...

Send us Fan Mail If you've ever considered going plant-based/vegan/vegetarian, or even turning your foodie passion into a business, then this episode is for you. My guest today is Chef Mokgadi Itsweng, Creative Director and Head Chef at Lotsha Home Foods. Today she shares all the wisdom she's gathered throughout her 17-year journey in the food industry. And now that she's got many s...

Send us Fan Mail In this week’s episode, we talk to Zema Sokanyile, the founder of MieCup , a South African menstrual cup brand. I’m a huge fan of menstrual cups so when I found out that there is a South African brand founded by a black woman, I had to speak to her!  Zema is originally from the Eastern Cape province of South Africa and has found success in the Western Cape where she studied Engine...

Send us Fan Mail DON'T GET IT TWISTED, YOU DON'T LOOK LIKE HIM ...⁠ ⁠ So, we recently ran a survey to ask what other content you’d like to hear and some of you requested corporate success as a topic…  So, if you want to lead the team that launches the next Fenty or eventually start your own global beauty brand or fashion line, then stick around. ⁠ ⁠ My guest today, Kimberly Lee Minor , ...

Send us Fan Mail Dr. Sharleen St. Surin-Lord is a Washington DC-based dermatologist and she joins me in this episode to add to our ongoing conversation on hair care for black women. There is no shortage of product choices available for black women’s hair care out there. It is in fact overwhelming to know what would be good or not good for you especially in the world of influencers.  In this episod...

Send us Fan Mail IT'S A FAMILY AFFAIR Terran Lewis is one half of the founding team at the soap making and skincare brand from Atlanta, Herb ‘N Eden . Terran and her husband Quinton Lewis founded their brand about 7 years ago with the aim of building a household name and leaving a legacy for generations to come.  When it all started, Terran was studying agriculture and doing her internship at...

Send us Fan Mail This week, my guest is Amber Anderson, who is the co-founder of Tote and Pears , a women-plus insights and brand studio. What that means is that they use data to help clients in designing brands, content and campaigns that center women.     Tote and Pears helps clients in three core areas: Diversity in the Workplace within the Tech  industry, Healthcare as well as Education.   Amb...

Send us Fan Mail IYA - Non-performative Yoga Hello and welcome to Shades and Layers. I’m Kutloano Skosana Ricci, your host, and this is episode 3 of Season 4.  Today my guest is Abiola Akanni, a yoga educator who has successfully cultivated inclusive wellness spaces that encourage other’ed communities to develop their personal yoga practice.  The Nigerian-American yoga instructor and entrepreneur...

Send us Fan Mail EVE MILAN NY Today’s guest on Shades and Layers is Eden Gilliam, founder of the award-winning luxury skincare brand, Eve Milan New York .  Eden is an esthetician and went all the way to London to study skin nutrition during the past decade or so of her practice as a skincare professional.  There are two factors that contributed to the start of Eve Milan New York. First came the ne...

Send us Fan Mail For the first episode of this season we have partnered with  Melanin and Medicine , who are doing important work helping Black, LatinX, and Indigenous women in the medical field build, fund, and grow their own businesses. Our guest is CEO and founder, Dr. Omolara Thomas Uwemedimo. In our conversation she discusses how a health crisis forced her to take a pause and reflect on her 1...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s episode takes us to Atlanta Georgia, where we meet Stacie A Sanders Martin, the founder and designer at the bridal and formal wear fashion house, Sparkle and Sass .  When Stacie was pushed into entrepreneurship five years ago, she took all her experience of participating in beauty pageants, styling friends and family for ten years, as well as her dream of owning her own re...

Send us Fan Mail Today’s guest is South African visionary creative, founder and uber curator of experiences, Nandi Dlepu aka, Mamakashaka .   She’s a self-confessed romantic and I hope you will be inspired by her approach to life.   After graduating from film school, she worked for many years in television and advertising, establishing herself as a top tier creative. And in 2017, seeing new opport...

Send us Fan Mail This week, Shades and Layers is proud to present the story of Digital Collage Artist, Puleng Mongale . Puleng grew up in the cultural melting pot of Soweto township. Her young years there are filled with joy, but they have also been a source of pain and a feeling of displacement. While Soweto is a cultural melting pot, it is also a place where South Africa's cultural and lang...

Send us Fan Mail Shades and Layers returns for the New Year and wishes you all the good things you desire in 2022. This is episode 7 of Season 3 of Shades and Layers: On Creative Entrepreneurship… Today my guest is Candice Lawrence, Founder and Design Maker at the Cape Town-based furniture and interiors company, Modern Gesture .  So, the picture of successful entrepreneurship that we are often sol...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Episode 6 of Season 3 So, you’ve read and heard a lot about the change in the future of work and of course, all the excitement centers the so-called "Great Resignation". Many professionals and business owners have either pivoted or left their jobs to pursue something new.   That is the case with my guest today, Melodee Ndigaye, a Danish creative professional w...