(So) How's Business?

Lorna Joyce has lived several lifetimes in one. She lost her father, her brother, and her mother before she was 18 — and found herself caretaking, surviving, and building from scratch while most people her age were still figuring out what they wanted to be. That foundation of loss, faith, and raw determination is what eventually gave birth to Binti Marvels, one of Kenya's most purpose-led femc...

What happens when you come back home and the thing your daughter needs simply doesn't exist? You build it. Grace Muritu is the founder of Elite Gymnastics Academy in Nairobi. A former pediatric nurse who returned to Kenya after 12 years in the US and created a competitive gymnastics training facility from scratch. No blueprint. No investors. Just land she was willing to sell and a vision she c...

Dr. Faith Wambura Ngunjiri is a certified Impostor Syndrome Informed Coach, Emotional Intelligence Practitioner, and leadership scholar with a Doctorate in Leadership Studies. She spent over two decades as a tenured professor in the United States before burnout, racial bias, and a heart attack brought her home. In Episode 21, Dr. Faith and Alma go deep on the real cost of imposter syndrome for Afr...

Ritu Bahal built a 37-year career in corporate Kenya beforeleaving to solve a problem she'd lived for decades. Her company KPM Tech makes Trackright, a logistics platform that gives trucking businesses real-time visibility across every stage of a delivery. The pitch sounds simple. The problem is massive: 90% of African truckers are non-digitised, and logistics costs account for 40% of what goo...

Melanie Hapisu- Wambugu is the founder and CEO of Digipath Africa, a digital marketing agency based in Kenya. In five years she has built a client list that includes some of Kenya's largest corporations, trained hundreds of business owners and marketers, and figured out how to run a business from Muranga without losing a single client. This episode covers a lot of ground. We talk about how she...

Zanelle Wanja just wanted somewhere to go that didn't revolve around alcohol. What she built instead was one of Nairobi's most talked-about social movements. Nani's Cafe Party started as a free pop-up. 150 unexpected guests showed up. Now it's 11 sold-out editions, major brand sponsors, and a community that keeps growing. But behind the branding is a founder who hit rock bottom, lo...

Bonni Mulinge was 6 years old when she decided she was going to fly. By 28 she was a commericial airline captain. By 37, a seizure with no known cause ended her career overnight.  In this conversation, Bonnie talks about what it felt like to go from commanding a Boeing 777 to standing still and figuring out what comes next. She talks about the financial hit, the identity loss, the bender, the pivo...

Akoth Aluoch is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and the founder of Triple A Dispute Resolution (Triple ADR) and AkothAluoch Media. She left a stable law firm career to build a boutique ADR practice full-time and a media platform dedicated to humanising law. In this conversation, she gets into what it really looks like to be in a building season, the businesses she ran on the side while empl...

Dija White is a multidisciplinary creative director and founder of The Block Studio, a brand design, strategy and experiential design company dedicated to spotlighting African talent. She is also part of the team running Village Creative, one of Nairobi's most interesting creative ecosystems. This conversation goes deep. We talk about what it actually costs to build a creative business, from t...

Yasmin started selling cupcakes at 50 bob each from her mother's kitchen at 25, with no formal training, no business plan, and no nozzle. Today, she runs Cake Hearts, one of Kenya's only internationally accredited culinary and hospitality schools, in partnership with BHMS Switzerland. In this episode, she opens up about building from scratch, navigating a market that doesn't take young...

Dr. Becky Omodho shares the unfiltered journey of building joojoostores.com , a Pan-African e-commerce platform connecting African artisans to the world. From getting conned twice to taking six years to break even, Becky opens up about resilience, systems thinking, privilege, male bias, and motherhood. This episode challenges the idea of “small business” and explores what it really takes to build...

In this episode of So, How’s Business? , Alma Mabachi speaks with certified master coach Wangoy Mongai about why procrastination, self-sabotage, and playing small are often trauma responses, not character flaws. They explore how fear of being seen, identity shifts, and survival mode shape our behaviour, especially for women in business navigating confidence, visibility, and growth. This conversati...

How do you build a scalable, African-born brand in the middle of a pandemic? In this episode of "So How’s Business," we sit down with Nanzia, the founder of Roro's, Nairobi’s go-to fast-casual healthy food brand. Nanzia gets incredibly real about her journey, from launching her first salad shop in Dar es Salaam to securing prime real estate in Nairobi’s top malls. This isn't just...

What really causes businesses to fail , lack of funding, or poor systems? In this episode of So, How’s Business? , Lucy, founder of a Kenyan manufacturing brand built around purple tea, shares an unfiltered look at the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. We talk about scaling too fast, cash flow traps in retail, the realities of manufacturing in Kenya, and why fundraising can actually make problem...

How Self-Awareness and EQ Change Everything for Business Leaders with Vicki Karuga Emotional intelligence isn’t a soft skill, it’s a leadership advantage. In this episode of (So) How’s Business? , host Alma Mabachi speaks with Vicky Karuga , psychometric specialist and EI master trainer, about why self-awareness is the foundation of effective leadership and how low emotional intelligence quietly c...

What happens when you try to build a business in a system that doesn’t always make the rules clear? In this episode of So, How’s Business? , Alma sits down with Eunice Migwi , founder of Her Legacy , for a candid conversation about tax compliance, entrepreneurship, and what it really takes to build a sustainable business in Kenya and similar emerging markets. Eunice shares how she turned her exper...

In this grounding and deeply honest conversation, Alma sits down with Debra Ouma-Weya , women’s leadership champion and founder of Positive Circles , a women-centred community built to support growth, connection, and self-advocacy across different seasons of life. The conversation opens with an important discussion on menopause and perimenopause, why these transitions are often misunderstood, how...

In this grounding and deeply honest conversation, Alma sits down with AnnRita Njiru-Mugo, business strategist, ecosystem builder, and soon-to-be certified coach, whose career has spanned academia, entrepreneurship, climate impact, and supporting African women founders. From lecturing at Strathmore University at just 22, to co-founding an EdTech startup during COVID, to coaching and mentoring found...

At just 26, Grace Kimaru swapped her gumboots for grit and walked straight into a male-dominated hardware industry in Dandora, Nairobi — with no experience, no blueprint, and a whole lot of audacity. In this episode of (So) How’s Business? , we unpack the real story behind the viral video where Grace celebrates her first-ever sale , and why that tiny moment meant everything after days of zero cust...

Linda Muriuki, financial literacy educator and founder of Finance4Families, breaks down the real building blocks of generational wealth: money habits at home, family business systems, intentional conversations, and financial protection planning. No theory, just lived experience, cultural honesty, and practical strategy Kenyan families actually need.

In this deeply moving episode, Priscilla opens up about her journey through years of loss, grief, and rediscovering self-worth. After losing a baby and experiencing multiple miscarriages, she found herself questioning everything, her body, her faith, and her place in the world. But through that pain came purpose. While training to become a mindset coach, pregnant with her son after seven years of...

In this deeply inspiring episode, Mercy Achieng shares how her early life in Kibera shaped her purpose and fuelled her mission to create lasting impact. From watching her parents rise from poverty through grit and grace, she learned the true meaning of resilience. Today, she’s channeling that lesson into building a business that serves those who need it most. Her story is a reminder that perspecti...

What does it really take to build a proudly Kenyan brand in an industry dominated by foreign ownership? In this episode of (So) How’s Business?, host Alma Mabachi sits down with Jennifer Odera, founder of T&Co, a premium tea brand on a mission to bring Kenyan tea ownership back home. Jennifer opens up about her journey from idea to execution—how she started T&Co, the hurdles she’s faces ra...

No one prepares you for how personal building a business can get. The highs, the heartbreaks, and the moments you wonder if it’s all worth it. For African women, it runs even deeper. We’re building dreams while raising families, managing expectations, and learning to thrive in the mess Hosted by Alma Mabachi , So, How’s Business? is a raw, unfiltered podcast spotlighting the untold stories of Afri...