 Welcome to Adventures in Small Business, a collaborative effort by the U.S. Small Business Administration, Hawaii District Office, the Hawaii Small Business Development Center, the Veterans Business Outreach Center of the Pacific, and the Pat C. T. Mink Center for Business and Leadership. I'm Teri Funakoshi, and today we have with us our special guest, Mellie Kalama-Kigma, and she is the owner of Mamalani. Hi, Mellie. Hi, Aloha. So thank you for joining us today, and you know what, why don't you just start telling us about your background? So I am a born and raised Kailua girl, on the north side of Oahu, and raised by my parents, my grandparents, also across the street from Kailua Beach. My grandpa was a fisherman. My grandma was a Hula teacher, and I spent a lot of time with them growing up. So I guess that's me. I love the ocean. I love surfing. I love working in the garden. I love just anything outside, and grew up, you know, going to come out of school, went to college in L.A., and then I had three kids, which got married, three kids. And then I became a mom, and that changes a lot of things. I know what you mean. I have three kids, too. But tell us about your background in school. I know you had some degrees. Yeah. So I went to college, and oh, these are my kids. Yeah. I have three, nine, seven, and two years old. And their names? Poema, Waimanu, and Grace, or Kauai Poleni, and they're the light of our lives, and the reason why we're so passionate about a healthy, sustainable Hawaii for the future. So. So cute. They're definitely the motivation and passion behind having a small business. Oh, great. So yeah, I went to school at Kamehameha. I went to college in L.A., and I got a degree in nutrition. And then I came back to UH, and I got certified in human nutrition and food science. And then I became a registered dietitian. After that, I worked a little bit, and then I decided to go back to school and get a master's in public health and indigenous Native Hawaiian health, public health. My passion has always been just a healthy lifestyle for both people and our land. And that was instilled in me by my kupuna, by my dad, who's also one of my employees. He works for dinner. No. I'm just kidding. There's my dad. He's like the best number one fan and employee support, why we're, you know, able to have my own businesses because my dad helps me, too. So he just taught me to, you know, treat each other with kindness and respect and humility. And he models that for me. So he's a huge driving force of Mamalani. Also like I said before, my grandmother, her nickname was Mamalani, or Kekaui-Lani-Korea-Kalama. But we really called her Mamalani. And that kind of translates to be, this is her on the screen, the mother who reveres heaven. She was just such a light in all of our lives and made a huge impact on me from a young age. So that's kind of why I started my business and why I named it after her is just through the legacy that she left us in our childhood. So it sounds like your family was really your motivation for this business. You went to school and then you graduated. Did you know that you wanted to be an entrepreneur and that you were going to have this business? I knew I was always creative and like from high schools making my own costumes and I think I have had three other businesses before this business. Oh, wow. I tried things. My parents always encouraged me to just kind of create. And my grandpa was like an inventor. So I just kind of grew up in this world of like anything's possible. You can kind of dream. So I didn't know I would find myself in this business, but I have always been passionate about healthy lifestyles. So I'm not totally surprised, but I am surprised that I got a degree in dietetics, nutrition, but I'm actually making body care. So it translates as well because your skin is your biggest organ. But no, I didn't really plan on being in like the beauty industry, but it's kind of fine. I like it. So how did you take that leap from being a dietitian to being an entrepreneur? Yeah. So I was working as a dietitian counseling patients on eating healthy and I just became a mom and it's kind of like a light bulb goes off when you become a mom and you're like we're eating good, but what are we putting on our skin? And at the same time, my aunties had gotten breast cancer. And there was an article that I read about aluminum and all these harmful ingredients in deodorant. And as a mom, you kind of start to smell like different. And being honest, so that started to happen with me and I was like, okay, I know plants, I know nutrition, I know how to make things to eat, but what about my skin? What about my body? So I started experimenting with local organic ingredients and making my own deodorant without all those harmful chemicals. And so I made my first batch and I asked my friends and family to try it. And I got a paddling team, my cousin's paddling team, she's like, oh my gosh, can I pick up like 15 more? And I was like, oh, wow, okay, maybe this could be a business. Hey, if paddlers can use that, right? Yeah, they're like, you know, they're wet and sweaty all the time. So yeah, so they started using our deodorant. This is our deodorant stick that we use local ingredients for local lemongrass, local beeswax, we get locally sourced cocoa butter. And we're also housed in biodegradable containers. So this is a fully compostable deodorant stick that you can throw in your garden. So yeah, just kind of how I said my values growing up, loving each other, loving the land, translates into our beauty product and the packaging that it's in. That's great. I know. I met you a while ago, and when we met, I told you that I used this. This is one of my favorites, you know, the body powder and the deodorant. And you know, I remember seeing this in Allure magazine, and I wanted to ask you, how did you get that feature? I really, I have no idea how this, there was an editor that was visiting Hawaii from New York, and she just came across it at Whole Foods, picked it up and tried it. And she said it changed, it was a natural deodorant that changed her life. So yeah, she thought she was allergic to all these ingredients and deodorant, but she found that it was actually her allergic to her own sweat, and that the powder countered the sweat, and she could use the powder as her own deodorant. So I don't really know, like somehow she got it, but I got to send it to New York. And that was like the first time I was like, well, I'm sending this to a penthouse in New York, to Allure, like, that's really exciting. And it was just a blessing that, yeah, she found that it really worked for her, so. Yeah, this is amazing, this is, I'm truly, this is my favorite, thank you for this. And so you said you got in Whole Foods too, and you want to share like, how did you go from, I know you did it for your friends, your family, you know, you did some trade shows, and then how did you get into the markets? Yeah, so when I, like I said, the 15 paddling team that picked up my products, I went on to talk to my husband and say, hey, like, I think we could start, I could start a business. And at that time, my son, who was born and he was eight months old, and I was really just looking for an opportunity to have more time with him and maybe just be around more. So I asked my husband, I pleaded him to him, can we try this as a business? So we invested a little bit, and I got to purchase packaging and look for really good labeling and learn Photoshop, like all that stuff that you have to do as a business, start a website, and then I have a good friend that let me share a booth with her at the Meira Hawaii Festival. So at the Meira Hawaii Festival is when I officially just tried it as a business, because of the festival, kudos to the festival, we got about six to ten new accounts, store accounts, including down to earth and a few boutiques on the outer islands. And so having some of that already happening for us, I went into Whole Foods and just kind of introduced my product at that time. But I guess there were a lot of new, of my customers going into Whole Foods and asking, hey, this is it down to earth, how come you don't carry it? And that was like, oh, good idea. So I think I sent some friends and cousins in there. I got a lot of family. That's important. So they went in there and they said, hey, how come you don't carry these at Whole Foods? So that's kind of how we got into that store. And then the rest was just word of mouth and doing a lot of craft fairs. I think I was doing a craft fair, a farmer's market, like once a month, for the first two years. Yeah. So yeah, so one of the products that we have is kind of new. It's a facial powder that we feature in local Hawaiian sandalwood. It really helps with absorbing any excess sweat or moisture on the face. And it also helps with some anti-aging benefits because of the sandalwood. Yeah. Wow. And I caught my interest in anti-aging. Yeah. Yeah, it's really nice in Hawaii. We have a very humid climate. So you use that after you put your makeup on or just as an everyday before you go out in the hot sun. That's great. I mean, I know you use local products. And I was looking at this. So this is the sandalwood, right? Yeah, that's our Iliahi or Hawaiian sandalwood that we use in our products. Local farms is kind of what we really love to support. So we work with a few small farms, the Iliahi from a farm on the Big Island, as well as the vetiver that you see right here, the vetiver root here. We use their essential oil from the vetiver farms on the Big Island, as well as Hawaiian lemongrass essential oil. And then Olena powder, we get that from another local vendor from the Big Island. Oh, that's great. So you've actually had to establish working relationships with the farms. Yeah, yeah. We're trying to build our local relationships, as well. So if you know anyone that grows anything, we like to work with farms to maybe make a limited product or a special batch. But every product that we have has at least one locally farmed ingredient. That's great. I know for your business, you've also used local resources to help you. On the business side, I know you recently graduated from Manaup, and then you're working with the Mint Center. So again, I know that they're trying to also help source local products. Do you want to say anything about your experience on that side of the business? Yeah. So prior to doing Manaup, I was mostly just the mom running a small business, kind of like when I could. And then when I started the Manaup accelerator program, it really just kind of catapulted us into looking at the business as an actual, OK, you have a real business. Like you have to focus on it. So all the resources that came through the Manaup accelerator program was Patsy Mink Center, the SBA, getting mentorship through them, and Spire and other accounting mentorships. So there's a lot of mentorship that have come even just from meeting business owners, fellow business owners. I got to, we get to share a lot of kind of tidbits and save on your shipping or different things that come out of just having a good network. So we've built a big network of community businesses that help the process. That's great. Yeah, and another thing on collaboration I want to mention, I love your subscription box. Can you tell us about that? Yeah, so our subscription box came from just me doing all these craffers every month. I met a lot of talented other makers. And the subscription thing was kind of taking off about a year ago or two years ago. And I was like, you know what? I think I want to do a subscription box that will highlight a lot of these talented makers that I've gotten to meet throughout the years. So the subscription box includes three to five natural, organic health, beauty, and culture, we'll save products from Hawaii. So they're either made in Hawaii, designed in Hawaii, very Hawaii-centric. And we like to ship it out every month. It's $37 plus shipping. And you usually save. I mean, every month, you'll save some money on buying these products by themselves. And it's really a way to promote other local makers that are doing great things. Well, that's awesome. There's so many exciting products out there. And for you to work with the other vendors and collaborate and play together, that's really great. So we're going to have to take a short break right now. But when we come back, I'm excited to ask you if there's any new products. And what's your vision for success? So stay tuned. We'll be right back in one minute. I'm Jay Fidel, ThinkTech. ThinkTech loves energy. I'm the host of Mina, Marco, and Me, which is Mina Morita, former chair of the PUC, former legislator, and Energy Dynamics, a consulting organization in energy. Marco Mangostorf is the CEO of ProVision Solar in Hilo. Every two weeks, we talk about energy, everything about energy. Come around and watch us. We're on at noon on Mondays every two weeks on ThinkTech. Aloha. Hello, and welcome to Out of the Comfort Zone. I am your villainous host, RB Kelly. Today, we are playing two truths and a lie. And I will tell you two truths, and you will tell me which one is the lie. Truth number one, this is a real mustache. Truth number two, I want you to watch my show on Tuesdays at 1 PM. So tune in and let me know which is the truth and which is the lie. I'm RB Kelly with Out of the Comfort Zone and show up next Tuesday to see my mustache live. I'm here with Mele from Mama Lani and we've been testing her samples. Mele, this smells really good. Tell us about this one. Yeah, this is our semi, it's kind of like a limited batch thing that we do. We infuse frankincense and mirror resin and we add in Hawaiian sandalwood with local kukui nut oil. So we infuse it over six weeks and this is meant to really bring grounding if someone is experiencing stress or anxiety, restlessness, this is what you would want to rub on your feet, your chest, your back, your neck, also on the temples, wrist and smell. You can use it as a perfume too. Okay, well I need more than this then, I need to put it all over. Douse it in on yourself. This is great, so is there any new products? Are you wanna tell us about some of the other products? Yeah, sure, I'll tell you about our deodorant stick. Like I was saying, this is a fully biodegradable, compostable deodorant stick. We use local lemongrass essential oil and it's a push-up tube, makes it very convenient and it smells like the forest and lemons and lemongrass. That's good. So this is the most popular product. This one and the body powder is our best sellers and most of our customer base is local. So yeah, I've got a lot of locals on the, you can use this one in the daytime or in the nighttime and then this one when you're more active in the day. So it's kinda like a combo. You can do a combo or use one. I like to use powder, this is more convenient, it's not as powder everywhere. So this is something also an option. And so the powder is also very versatile. You can use it as an underarm deodorant. You can also put it in your shoes. You can use it in any area you have moisture or sweat, even in your hair as a dry shampoo. Oh wow. Yeah, so you sprinkle some on your hand, put it a little bit on your roots and brush it out. So did you tell us what's in the powder? Yeah, so we use the best source of baking soda. So there's a lot of different baking sodas out there and we don't manufacture baking soda in Hawaii, but we did find a maker in Oregon who has the best baking soda in the US. So we get our baking soda from them. We also use organic arrowroot. We use clay and we also use organic hollow powder from Voyaging Foods on the North Shore. We use lavender, clary sage, and grapefruit essential oils and they're organic. So this has no talc, like how previous body powder, baby powder, deodorants. There's no talc. There's no GMO. There's no aluminum. There's no paraben. So it's all like, you can actually eat it, but you don't really want it. Your body can't, you know? So yeah, it's really, really popular. And yeah, like I said, this is the product that was on Allure, so yeah. Oh, that's my favorite, but I'm gonna try that stick too now. Yeah, you can. Yeah. And we have different scents. So this is our, the scent that we just, I was just holding was our more of a feminine scent. Then we have more of a masculine scent if any guys wanted to try our deodorant. This is more musky. It features clary sage, patchouli in line, which is, yeah, just more masculine, but I use it, so. And then we have this product, Olu Olu. This is more minty fresh. So, you know, if you have like a teen or someone a little younger that doesn't really, not into like floral, this is a mint smell. So that's kinda nice. And then our last scent is lemongrass and tea tree oil. This works really well. It's a foot powder too, but I have a lot of, yeah, teens or men that use this one as well. Oh, it's great. When the kids are first getting into their body powder and deodorant, this is something good, natural to use, right? Yeah, yeah. So if you can trust and the whole family can try it, you can buy one and everyone can try it, see what they like. This is great. So I wanna ask you, what do you think, what does success look like for you? Oh, success. I think there's many factors for success for me. One would be a happy family, my family. I have work-life balance making, having a business. Then having a healthy Hawaii is another success. Having people using natural products that they can trust and knowing that those products are sustainable, they're supporting local farmers. So maybe having more people using our products would be another success. But we are very blessed right now. We have a good online business happening. And so we're just looking forward to what comes, but we're not in any rush to take over the world or anything, but more just to get into more local homes and having more families using good products. I know we were both in a class the other day and you mentioned culture is so important for your life, for your family, for your business. And I was really impressed with your aloha spirit, the values that you shared with us. Can you tell us about that? Yeah, sure. So my grandmother, Mama Lani, she was really good friends and family to Antipila Hippaki who's a native Hawaiian, well-known, well-respected native Hawaiian cultural practitioner. And it's a funny story. Actually, my grandma had 11 kids, so my dad's one of 11. So, and they lived in a one bedroom. Wow. Yeah. And so my grandma, you know, times were tough. She had to sell her big hula drum to the pawn shop to be able to feed the family. And Antipila Hippaki actually walked by the pawn shop and saw it in the window and was like, oh my gosh, that's Lani's pahu, I'm gonna buy it. So she bought it for my grandma and went to my grandma's house and said, I wrote this song about aloha. I need you to put it to a voice because I know what I want to say through it, but I need you to put the music or the chant to it. And so that's how my grandma became a part of this aloha chant. So there was a time that they really believed that we're gonna have to understand what aloha really means. And it's a five letter word, A-L-O-H-A, with deeper meaning. So the first A, akahai, which is named after our problem, to be kind and to be expressed with feelings of tenderness. The L in aloha is lokahi, to live in unity and harmony. The O is olu olu, to have compassion, to be agreeable. And the H is ha, ha, ha, to live humbly and kind of just know that we don't always have the answers and someone else might have a better one. And then the last A is ahonui, which you have to wait for it, because it means patience. That makes sense. That hasn't come yet, but that means patience and perseverance. And so this meaning of aloha has been kind of our family legacy. My dad still goes around and shares this meaning, because I think it's a time right now in this world that we need to share aloha and really just have that as our founding value. And so that's exactly what Mamalani is about, hoping that people that buy our products and experience our brand are really feeling that aloha spirit. Yeah. I totally agree. And I know in our class, you actually did the chance, but not enough, you would actually share it with us. Okay. Okay, maybe I will. Okay. You good? Sure. Okay, awesome. Long version or short version? Oh, too. All right. That's the long version. I get chicken skin. Yeah, you can find that. That is totally free and available. That should be shared wherever you go. Just kindness for all of Hawaii and expressing our aloha spirit through values that ground. I'm a totally believer of anti-Palai Pakian. I know she said that aloha is going to bring us world peace. Thank you for sharing that. I know it's hard, right? Yes, I know. I have to get used to putting it out there now. But you said sharing aloha and that's beautiful. Your chant is so beautiful. Thank you for sharing it. Thank you. Oh, you're so nice. So with that, I wanted to ask you, and I asked you about what success looks like and you shared that with us, but where do you see your business really going in five years, 10 years, and sharing the aloha, sharing your products? Yeah, I see. So recently, my family has obtained a farm. We bought an eight acre macadamia nut farm on the Big Island with the intention of growing our own ingredients. And so we're in the process of manufacturing our own raw ingredients. So we're going to try to use macadamia nut oil and then if we can start using more native plants and growing more native plants, like the Pia, the Hawaiian Aero root plant, which is kind of in all of my products, that's a plant that I really want to start farming. So we have the land now and the future would include processing raw ingredient and possibly having a tour on our farm on the Big Island. Yeah, that's in the prayer, that's in the works. That's my brother and his three kids in Ahua Law on Big Island. Husking actually have to pick the macadamia nuts and then you have to run it through a husker and that's what they're doing right there. It's pretty loud, but they love it and they love picking the macadamia nuts. So it's really fun to be a part of that too. That's awesome. Yeah. And you know, I think that's the ahanui, the patient's perseverance to getting this farm going, you know, introducing more local agriculture. Yeah. So hats off to you, that's really a long-term goal. That is, yeah. And persevering the challenges of being an entrepreneur, a mom. Exactly, yeah. Yes, I hear you. I know, yeah. Some days it's like, wow, I don't know if I can do all this well, you know, but it's funny, you know, it's a whole ailona, we call it like a sign. So every time, two times I've really sat and like said, I don't wanna do this anymore. And someone orders on my website named Grace and I'm like, okay, I have Grace today, I'll keep going. There you go, that's the sign. So with that, you know, I know you told me that you have a special promotion for us today, so thank you. So do you wanna share what that is? Yeah, sure. So after viewing today, if you feel like you wanna try one of our products, feel free to use the code SHAREALOHA for 15% off our website. And your website address is? Is mamalani.com. Awesome. Yeah. Thank you so much, Melanie for sharing your wonderful assortment here today and you know, I beg you guys, try her product, it's so good. I'm gonna pick up more. You can open this, maybe I can have this one. You can have it all. You can see, there's Aloha. So again, thank you for joining us. This is Adventures in Small Business. I'm Terri Funakoshi, I'll see you next week.