Meet Caitlin Williams
CEO of Wonderfully Made Organics
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Caitlin Grant is the CEO of an all organic hair and skin care company called Wonderfully Made Organics. Starting Wonderfully Made Organics was a huge passion of hers. Since the age of 14, she has been intrigued with ingredients inside of natural hair and skin products. A hobby of hers used to be to walk down the natural hair product aisle inside of Target and read the ingredient label of hair products, from there, her love for organic hair and skin products began.
After 8 years of continual product use, Grant still could not find any products that stood up to her standards. In her opinion, all the products she tried were mediocre and their formulation was “okay” but not exceptional and that was a problem for her. When she turned 21, she became tired of using products that barely worked, and so she thought to herself to start her own product line. During that time she started her research again. Grant read books with over 300 pages to make sure that she knew as much as she could to make the best products for people who were also tired of mediocre hair and skin products. During her research, she prayed to God and asked Him if starting her own product line was according to his will for her life. “As I waited for the Lord to speak, I stopped my research because I have always believed in putting my time into something that God wanted me to do." |
About a month or so goes by and she tells her mother that she stopped her research and was waiting on the Lord to give her confirmation to start her own company. Grant’s mother told her that the Lord showed her that she is to be making products and that her product line will do very well. As her mother gave her a kiss on the cheek she got into her car and she remembers feeling so humbled and overjoyed then started crying because God was giving her the opportunity to do something she’s always loved to do.
After getting her LLC for Wonderfully Made Organics at age 23, she announced that she started a business and why she started it on her social media account. She was so excited and had planned to launch her first product within a month, which was going to be a hair growth oil. After sharing that release to everyone, she soon realized that purchasing inventory, building a website and marketing takes a lot of time and effort to do. Because of her limited supply of time and resources, she was not able to launch when she planned to, which caused her to push back her product launch date.
Grant overcomes obstacles by trusting God's timing and understanding that building a successful business takes time. As time has progressed, she has been able to gain more resources for purchasing inventory and time to build her website.
What keeps her going is her desire to give God glory through her company and give people beautiful products that will help them with their needs. Grant believes in the power of healing and deliverance from prayer and her desire is to pray over all of her products, speaking life over them for people’s healing and deliverance. Being a Christian, she believes that life is so much more than what goes on in the natural eye of man. There is a spirit realm and in that realm, there is unseen spiritual warfare that goes on. During this warfare, Satan and his demons are after destroying our families, friends...everyone. We as children of God do not have to accept what the enemy, Satan, throws at us. Instead, we can combat that through waging warfare in prayer.
“God will use my gift for creating amazing products and my gift of deliverance to help protect and set people free. I love 1 Corinthians 10:31 because it says whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do , do it all for the glory of God. And that’s exactly what I will do.”
By having Wonderfully Made Organics, she hopes to bless people with well crafted products that truly satisfy them and their needs. Grant hopes that she will be an inspiration to both believers of God and non believers, and that God will get all of the glory.
@WonderfullyMade_Organics
After getting her LLC for Wonderfully Made Organics at age 23, she announced that she started a business and why she started it on her social media account. She was so excited and had planned to launch her first product within a month, which was going to be a hair growth oil. After sharing that release to everyone, she soon realized that purchasing inventory, building a website and marketing takes a lot of time and effort to do. Because of her limited supply of time and resources, she was not able to launch when she planned to, which caused her to push back her product launch date.
Grant overcomes obstacles by trusting God's timing and understanding that building a successful business takes time. As time has progressed, she has been able to gain more resources for purchasing inventory and time to build her website.
What keeps her going is her desire to give God glory through her company and give people beautiful products that will help them with their needs. Grant believes in the power of healing and deliverance from prayer and her desire is to pray over all of her products, speaking life over them for people’s healing and deliverance. Being a Christian, she believes that life is so much more than what goes on in the natural eye of man. There is a spirit realm and in that realm, there is unseen spiritual warfare that goes on. During this warfare, Satan and his demons are after destroying our families, friends...everyone. We as children of God do not have to accept what the enemy, Satan, throws at us. Instead, we can combat that through waging warfare in prayer.
“God will use my gift for creating amazing products and my gift of deliverance to help protect and set people free. I love 1 Corinthians 10:31 because it says whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do , do it all for the glory of God. And that’s exactly what I will do.”
By having Wonderfully Made Organics, she hopes to bless people with well crafted products that truly satisfy them and their needs. Grant hopes that she will be an inspiration to both believers of God and non believers, and that God will get all of the glory.
@WonderfullyMade_Organics
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Meet Zhanyia McCullough
CEO of Islande' Beauty
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Zhanyia McCullough is the CEO and Beauty Formulator of Islande’ Beauty. As a beauty formulator, her job is to decide, research, formulate, and test each product for the brand. Being that she is only fourteen, she does work with a cosmetic chemist to make sure that the formulas are stable and efficient prior to bringing them to the market. As a CEO, her main focus is that the vision and mission of the business are moving forward and being carried out.
McCullough is very passionate about creating something to support not only her own hair growth problems but also to support other girls who may be suffering from the same situation or something similar regarding their hair. She also wants to educate girls on how to take care of their hair and get them on track to a healthy hair journey. Like many teenage girls, her appearance is very important to her, and she always wants to show up and be confident in her skin. She had the idea of creating hair growth oil since she was 12. She started researching different oils on the market that she wanted to use. McCullough also had to dig a little deeper to find oils that are uncommon yet effective. Once she was able to narrow down the oils she wanted to use, she met with a cosmetic chemist to blend the oils and make sure the formula was safe and efficient. While dealing with personal hair growth problems and creating the business, she realized how important it is to have a hair care regimen and be aware of what is put in and on one’s hair. She understood that it’s much bigger than just herself. This gives her a way to help support and educate other girls and women on their healthy hair journey and to be confident within themselves during it. |
McCullough’s biggest obstacle to overcome was managing her time. Teenagers like to hang out with friends, go to football games, go shopping, and go to parties. As an entrepreneur, she had to miss out on a lot of these things because she had to make products, sell them at events, and attend conferences. Prioritizing her time and deciding what was truly important to her was difficult, but she continued to make the proper decisions that would keep her on the path of her purpose for her company. McCullough was able to overcome this obstacle by creating a schedule where she had her social time, business time, and personal time. It allowed her to learn how to balance her time so she did not overwork herself in one area and miss out in others. Once she started to make money, time management became a little easier too.
What inspires McCullough to keep going is the potential of Islande’ Beauty becoming a household name. Islande’ Beauty’s vision is to empower girls to feel confident in their abilities to take care of their hair, and to be leaders in their own communities. It's all about finding your inner beauty, building confidence, and creating healthy self-esteem.
McCullough’s plan is to have a complete hair care line with shampoo, conditioner, deep conditioner, styling gel, leave-in conditioner, and other products -- as well as to get these products into major retail. In addition, she plans to co-create a STEM-based curriculum to teach girls that STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects can be fun when it is connected to something they are already interested in, such as beauty.
To Zhanyia McCullough, Valiance means having the courage to do something uncommon and unpopular, having the endurance to see your visions through, even when obstacles come your way, and having the boldness to enter a saturated industry and disrupt the way people see beauty.
@islandebeauty
What inspires McCullough to keep going is the potential of Islande’ Beauty becoming a household name. Islande’ Beauty’s vision is to empower girls to feel confident in their abilities to take care of their hair, and to be leaders in their own communities. It's all about finding your inner beauty, building confidence, and creating healthy self-esteem.
McCullough’s plan is to have a complete hair care line with shampoo, conditioner, deep conditioner, styling gel, leave-in conditioner, and other products -- as well as to get these products into major retail. In addition, she plans to co-create a STEM-based curriculum to teach girls that STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects can be fun when it is connected to something they are already interested in, such as beauty.
To Zhanyia McCullough, Valiance means having the courage to do something uncommon and unpopular, having the endurance to see your visions through, even when obstacles come your way, and having the boldness to enter a saturated industry and disrupt the way people see beauty.
@islandebeauty
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MEET Cher
Senior Curl Director, Curl Specialist
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Cheraka Smith-Cooley, also known as Cher, is a professional natural curly hair stylist. She has been doing hair for about 10 years now, helping all the naturals that sit in her chair embrace their natural beauty and curls. She does everything from curly cuts, color, treatments, curly styles and more. Cher is very passionate about what she does as a hairstylist. She knew this was her passion from the moment she walked into cosmetology school and looked at the color bar.
Cher originally started working with curly hair when she started at her very first hair salon in Indiana. It was back when the salon used to have hair companies come in and teach them about their products. A particularly well known hair company at the time came to the hair salon she was working at and did a demo on a model with curly hair. Cher was instantly mesmerized. Afterwards she really wanted to try it on her hair. At that time she was transitioning from her relaxed hair to her natural curly hair and all of her stylist friends encouraged her to embrace her curls and try it out. She was super nervous and was skeptical to do it, but she gave it a try. At first she did not like it or even love it, but she kept trying and eventually she fell in love with her curls. Wearing her hair out helped her embrace a different kind of bravery, of which her clients saw and wanted to have that same feeling. Cher expresses that of course some are more nervous at first which is understandable but after consulting them, they usually let their hair down. After years of working in salons, Cher finally transitioned into her own salon suite and company, “Cher Behind The Chair.” She started to get more and more curly haired clients and eventually only serviced Curly clients. Fast forward to now, she stays consistently booked out at least 3 to 4 months in advance and has a waiting list. Clients come from different states and cities to learn how to properly take care of their wavy, curly, super curly and kinky hair. The reason Cher does what she does now is because she loves helping people. There was a time when she did not know what to do with her hair. “Growing up we did not learn about our curls and how to manage them and how to maintain them and how to make them look amazing. We didn’t really have a lot of options besides what society told us. After realizing and embracing the amazing curly coils that cut coral out of my head, I realized that there may be other women and individuals that feel the same way I felt.” In that moment she was determined to be that person that helps people figure out their curl journey; to help them figure out how to be comfortable with their hair. No one with curly hair should ever feel like they can’t go to a salon and request a service and get what they asked for. Not only does Cher provide a safe space for people to come and express how they feel, she also provides knowledge and support for all of her clients. |
Cher dealt with obstacles trying to pursue her passion in these 10 years of growth. Setbacks that you don’t understand until you get through them.
“Sometimes you can’t explain why this happens, just know everything happens for a reason.”
She overcomes these obstacles with the help and support of her friends and family. Guidance from people who have been in the places that she has been, and advice from those who knew how to help. She now knows not to be afraid of failures but to embrace them and take them in as lessons. She overcomes these obstacles by getting back up and trying again, by doing the very thing that she was so afraid of, and by never giving up. She shares that having faith that your plan is working is the key.
Her family, friends and her amazing clients keep her going. Their endless encouragement and support throughout every chapter in her life is what has been keeping her afloat. Cher expresses that she would’ve never made it this far if it wasn’t for them continuously pushing her, wiping her tears away, showing her love, helping her at every event, and putting in long hours with her. Her gratitude for them is more than what she can put into words. Cher hopes to one day share so much knowledge and love with the curly community/world that it spreads so far that you can only see it from the sky. She definitely has some big plans in the works, but she would rather show you than tell you.
To Cher, Valiance means never stopping, going after what you want, what you deserve, having the willpower and the strength to do so even if you think you don’t have the courage to ask those around you to help pull you back up. To her valiance means being SO BOLD that people stop and stare.
@cherbehindthechair
“Sometimes you can’t explain why this happens, just know everything happens for a reason.”
She overcomes these obstacles with the help and support of her friends and family. Guidance from people who have been in the places that she has been, and advice from those who knew how to help. She now knows not to be afraid of failures but to embrace them and take them in as lessons. She overcomes these obstacles by getting back up and trying again, by doing the very thing that she was so afraid of, and by never giving up. She shares that having faith that your plan is working is the key.
Her family, friends and her amazing clients keep her going. Their endless encouragement and support throughout every chapter in her life is what has been keeping her afloat. Cher expresses that she would’ve never made it this far if it wasn’t for them continuously pushing her, wiping her tears away, showing her love, helping her at every event, and putting in long hours with her. Her gratitude for them is more than what she can put into words. Cher hopes to one day share so much knowledge and love with the curly community/world that it spreads so far that you can only see it from the sky. She definitely has some big plans in the works, but she would rather show you than tell you.
To Cher, Valiance means never stopping, going after what you want, what you deserve, having the willpower and the strength to do so even if you think you don’t have the courage to ask those around you to help pull you back up. To her valiance means being SO BOLD that people stop and stare.
@cherbehindthechair
