 Welcome back to Why in the Morning. I write with a channel so you can find us across all our social media handles. At Michelle Ashera, you can find me across all my social in this section. We celebrate women. Remember it's WCW and in this particular segment we get into the strength of a woman. We look at a story that will inspire you and also make sure that you stick around and keep the conversation going on our social. So today I have with me Anna Njeroge. She is the founder and CEO of White Pera Beauty. Thank you very much Anna for creating time to be with us. Thank you Michelle for having me. You look splendid. You look beautiful. Thank you. And so do you. I love how confident you are in your bald hair. Let me tell you, most women, one of our worries is my hair. Yes, my hair. We have to have my hair but you look fabulous and beautiful when you're bald and I love it. Thank you very much. Anna, thank you for creating time to be with us and I'm looking forward to have this conversation and getting to know the whole story and journey of the White Pera Beauty. Thank you. All right, so starting us off, who is Anna Njeroge, tell us a little bit of your background. Where were you born and brought up and when you actually decided to get into business? So I was actually born in Nakuru, actually specifically Sola'i, not where the damn happened but in the general vicinity. So for 40 minutes outside of Nakuru Town, a place that feels like when you're there, it's Nakuru Town doesn't even feel like it's anywhere close. I'm a village girl and I own that proudly. Then went to school in Eldar Moravan, graduated high school and then went to the U.S. for college. So I graduated U.S., I did an accounting degree, a bachelor's, then did an MBA, went into corporate America, was there for 16 years and in 2014 I decided to come back home. Okay. I knew I wanted to go into business when I came home but I didn't know what yet and that's important. First it's good I think to go figure out a place, find a gap and then plug into the gap. So while I was here, I knew I wanted to start business, went into employment first. So I was a CFO of a local retail chain, was there for a year as I kind of was trying to figure out what to do. I had this business idea that was amazing that I was pursuing at the time. But the market wasn't ready for it. So and sometimes you have to realize the market might not be ready and park that idea and try something new. When I came back, I love being African. I love being a black woman, I'm proudly, proudly Kenyan and when I moved back I wanted to support local brands. But when I moved here with beauty, there was not a lot of options. And hey, I like nice things. I really do and I make no apologies for it. I like nice things, I know nice things and I don't compromise on quality. And the imported brands that are local are also really, really expensive and I know how much they cost. So I did what everybody does at the beginning. It was when I travel, I buy, when my friends are coming, I ask for stuff. We all do that. Yes. We all do it. And eventually I was like, why can't we start our own brands? Why can't we? And especially when it comes to skincare, a lot of our skin issues are actually not addressed because this melanin we have that is so beautiful also causes a whole lot of challenges in our skin and what we need that is not really catered to. And I'll give you one big example. How many times can you go by like a cream or a lotion that you just use by itself on your body and you feel your skin is hydrated, it's moisturized without having to add anything else to it? You know, you're not adding oil, you're not adding glycerin, we're not adding aromas. I didn't see that coming. I didn't see that coming. It's so rare because we have so many. People have different skin and people have actually living problem with their skin. Different skin, different things that actually their skin, if we have dry skin, we have oily skin and now the problem is I don't know what to use when it comes to my skin. I have to tell everything as the option that you have given me. So yeah, there is a problem. Yes, and a lot of it is because we have a different set of skin challenges. Like I'll tell you, you probably hear this a lot from a lot of black women. I have dry skin, I have dry skin, I have dry skin and I'm not even talking face, I'm talking body because that's where a lot of our challenges are. And I think we kind of set on this pursuit of the best facial skincare products and we forget that it's just here. This is a very, very, yes, is it important? Very. But the rest of it also needs care. Body care is also important. You don't want to have this amazing looking face but then your neck is a completely different story. And a lot of it is, you hear dry skin, dry skin, you probably hear this all the time. The funny thing is a lot of us actually don't have dry skin. We have dehydrated skin. Okay, we lose water very, very, very fast for some reason. So research has been done to show we lose water evaporation, which is called transdomo water loss. Through our skin, it evaporates very, very fast. But no one has actually ever done the research to find out why. Okay, before we go on that note, hold on there a little bit. So here you are from a corporate world, came back to Kenya. 16 years living in the US, came back looking for something. You found a gap whereby there's no products by Kenyans and there you are. So did you do your research? Well, take me through that space you were into considering the transition, right? How did you get into now this space of beauty? So, like I said, it came from that frustration. We decided we can create our own. And I'm also very, very passionate about local manufacturing. We really need to manufacture local things if we are going to grow. We need to just stop trading. We need to create industry because it's a bigger ripple. That's how you create wealth. So I was very, very passionate about that because we have a small factory in Kikuyu. I have a few employees and a lot of them coming in were not in employment. And what happens when people have money? They spend it. And that's where the bigger ripple comes in. You have a job, which means you go support other people. You educate other people. Now you have money to go to the butchery and even buy more meat. And the more that happens, now the butcher can actually open another butchery. The Mambooga can expand his business. It's a bigger ripple. And I wanted to focus on ingredients. I have had, it's basically creating products I always wish I had. It's focus on skin care, focus on ingredients that are good and work for us. So first it was kind of go do research. What's there, what's not there. And creating something. And talk to a lot of women. I'll actually talk to a lot of women in different age groups. You know, my cousins, my friends, what are your challenges? Because this is the same clientele that you're going to meet on the market. Exactly. And I loved having those conversations because I also had to realize I've been away for so long. I first need to understand what a Kenyan woman actually wants. Oh yes. What a young woman wants. Yes. What does she want? What does she need? What is important to her? What drives her? Because I could have all these ideas in my head. But you know, that's not really what she wants. So I did a lot of that. And my network came through for me. I remember a friend of mine who introduced me to her. I had known him for 10 years. Like I met him in 2005 in Las Vegas. We both lived there. And when I told him what I was going to do, he introduced me to his brother. And his brother had been in the personal care beauty industry for a very, very long time. And he literally guided me kind of through the steps. Yes, you have to do your research. You have to understand your customer. Because you can't... You have to understand your market. And you can't make products for everyone. They say actually if you try to make products for everyone, you make products for no one. Wow. Because really you have to address a niche. You have to address a need of this woman and who she is. So for me that was important. And for me it was about pursuing this limitless woman. The brand is actually inspired by the power of the African woman. And it's about embracing the potential of a woman's life in all its beautiful complexities. Love, love. You're powerful. You're feminine. You're unique. You're authentic. Own it. So I wanted to create products for that woman. Whoever you are, be. Whatever your pursuit of excellence is, you go pursue that. Don't worry about everything happening around you. But also know we also live in a society. There's culture, there's tradition. I don't mean go disrespect culture, go disrespect tradition. But I mean weave that into who you are than trying to conform into something you're not. Just so to please everybody else. And that's the part about being limitless. Okay. And talking into being bold and beautiful. So what is, we've talked about the niche. So what is your niche in the market and how do you get your ingredients? So we work with the best of ingredients. That's the one thing we don't compromise in. I don't cut corners. It's probably one of the most difficult ones, but trusted ingredients. Like for our fragrances, we actually import our base, fragrance base from France. So we have, and I don't deal, we don't deal with distributors. We actually go directly to the manufacturer. One of the ones we use is actually one of the biggest fragrance manufacturers in the world. And that's so we don't compromise the quality because that is very, very, very important to us. Because if you're going to create a product and we tell you, we have something good for you that is local. You don't need to buy imported. Then I need to match that quality of what the best imported is. I can't compromise and then tell you, here I have something for you, you know, buy local. So local has to meet those standards. And those are some of the most difficult things. One of the things you find in this market is you find an ingredient. And you never know this until you go into manufacturing. So you create a formulation. So we formulate everything we do, including our skincare. So a formulation is where you come together, you craft, put together ingredients. I call it nature and science coming together to give it your best. But then a couple, maybe you formulate once you go to production. A year later, the ingredient has disappeared from the market or it's been, you know, changed. So I actually try to work also with global ingredient manufacturers and we work with some of the biggest. And I, as a small business, I am amazed at actually how they support me. So the one thing I would say, tell anyone, ask, you know, doesn't matter how big they are, doesn't matter if they've been in business since 1700, ask. The worst anyone can say is no. Looking back, approximately, we had almost four years when you're starting out. For the purpose of a young person is watching this conversation and they want to get into business. Looking back, what a couple of mistakes that you did. And now you're saying that a wish I knew, I wouldn't have done ABCDND. You, actually, mistakes are unavoidable. I usually say, and mistakes vary from industry to industry. And I say no matter how much you plan, something will go wrong. It's just, it's a definite. No matter, things will go wrong that you actually never thought will ever go wrong. One of the biggest ones I can say is like we just rebranded our body creams. And we went to marketers. I wasn't, yes, I knew the formulation was good, but I wasn't completely 100% happy with the packaging. But we went to market anyway. So that we've actually had to rebrand. I have labels still sitting in my factory that I'll have to throw away. And sometimes I get it because, yes, was I happy? I wasn't really completely happy with the packaging, but it's because there was nothing else that was good locally. That's also another challenge in manufacturing. But I didn't think, I didn't want to first go import and bring in 10,000 jars without having proven the concept. So what I usually say is if you're not, if you don't think you're there and happy as the founder with what you're putting out yet, actually wait, it is okay to just kind of hold off a little bit. And mistakes will happen. You can't avoid them. I can tell you like some of them I had never even thought about. You know, I tell this story when we first went to market with the body mess. That was in July. In June, we have everything. So we have production. It is done. We have bottles. It's done. We have labels. Everything is done. But we can't put that label on the bottle. So we have a clear label. You said you've seen our products. Yes. We have a clear label. When you try to do a clear label on a clear bottle, it has these bubbles that just come out. Like literally you have huge bubbles and it took a while for us to actually find a solution. And if you had asked me if we would be there where everything is ready, but we still can't go to market because we can't put the label on a bottle, that caught me out of that field. I could never have planned for that. But these are also things that you learn as you go along. As you go along. Yes. And when you ask questions, especially by the experts, because I remember wanting to go and finally I found a machine where they could, a company that could do it on a machine to put the label on so that bubbles don't happen. But then it couldn't because the labels were wound the wrong way and the machine needs. And I remember them asking me this question at the printer. How are you putting on your labels? And I'm like, oh, we're going to do it by hand. And they asked that question multiple times, but I didn't know why they were asking. The reason they were asking is so they know if they wind it, if they go direction they need to wind it in. If it's by hand, it doesn't matter because, and those are the things when the expert starts asking you certain questions, find out why. The why. Find out why they're asking that question because there's actually a reason behind it which you yourself don't know yet, especially if you're just going into something new. So ask questions. Ask as many questions as you can. Just ask. And you have to learn along the way a couple of other things. No, there's a lot of things you learn. It's four years in and I was actually telling a friend of mine yesterday who also owns another beauty business. Every morning I wake up and I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. Yes, it's a learning process. Okay, so your name is Anandjiroke. Yes. So why did you go with why they're asking? So I told you about this woman I wanted to create this brand for because she means everything. She's my mother. She's my grandmother. As I look around these women, the mothers of my friends, I think this woman needs to be celebrated, this African woman. She's so strong. She's so feminine. She's so beautiful. But it's like no one sees it. So I wanted to celebrate her and I wanted to name this brand after a woman that keep me honest. So even when I'm thinking about business is hard, like, hey, this is what we were going to do. This is what. So as I was looking around, there's this woman, my grandmother, actually, and her name was Wethera. I never got to meet her. She passed away a month before I was born. But everything I've heard about her, even though she had no education, she was this woman. Like, she was amazing. She was great. And, you know, my grandfather, my dad's side had five wives and even the children from all those other wives talk about how amazing she was. And how impactful, I guess. Yes, and how impactful she was because they still talk about her to this day. So that's how I named the brand after her. All right. One thing that I love about your brand is the fact that you guys work with young people, young influencers, and that's how I got to meet your brand through influencers on social media. What is your marketing strategies and why do you feel so much involved with networking with young people? Because it's this woman who you are aspiring to be and especially young women because, and growing up in the African society and the African culture, we all know this. I feel like we have to do this either or. And we have to explain ourselves a lot. It's taken like you either have to be strong or feminine. Oh, yes. Right? But I am both. They're both me. Why do I need to fit in this box that look when it was being created, I was not around. Can I just go be me? And that's why I want to encourage young women. It is okay to be you. And like I said earlier, I'm not saying disrespect tradition or disrespect culture, but you can weave that. And embrace you. And just embrace you. So whoever for you, what that is, go be. And I think sometimes we get so caught up. Like I need to do this. I am this. And I learned over time. I've never been a conformist. I look back and actually look back. I got in trouble a lot coming up, even in school. I never thought about it about getting in trouble. It was just who I am. And part of it is because I have never really been a conformist and it has never bothered me. I have never had this need to fit in. And has it worked for you? Yes. And I thought it actually funny enough. I kind of was going back to look at the root of it and where it began. I am 46. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. Hold up. How old are you again? I am 46. You look amazing. Thank you. If 46 looks like that, we need secrets. We need secrets. We need the tips. I remembered once. I went back. It was actually last year during COVID. I happened to be stuck in the US during when Kenya locked down and I, you know, I didn't make it in that last flight out. So I happened to be stuck and I had a lot of time, I guess, to just think and look back. It was actually something very interesting. My parents never told me I couldn't. I can't is not a word I was ever told. So for me, that word doesn't exist in my vocabulary. So when someone even tells me I can't, I'm like, why not? Even though I got in trouble and they were both teachers, I got in trouble a lot, even with them, because I am, first of all, I am a normal girl and I am a tomboy and my mom is a girly girl. And yes, you can imagine what that was like. I talk back. I'm curious. To this day, I think people will ask, even my team will tell you one of my biggest questions is why. I have to know why I'm doing something. It has to make sense to me. So growing up in the Kenya A44 education system and being that mouthy and asking why, you can imagine that didn't, didn't, you know, bought too well. But my parents never tried to beat that out of me. They never beat that curiosity out of me. They actually encouraged it. They were disciplinarians. Like I said, they were both teachers. And I don't even know, like one of these days I need to ask my mother, was it intentional? Did you know that this is where it was heading? And I want other young women to know you can be you. Actually, the best person you can be is you. There's power and greatness in your uniqueness. When you try to conform to be like everyone else, you've literally just shut out the thing that is amazing about you. The greatness that is within you and you've just kind of covered that out. And how were you able to just, you know, balance society expectations of you, especially during your younger age? Because as a young woman, you're told like, you're coming to, you're coming to, you're too bold, you know, turn it down. If it's a space where you're supposed to be, you know, outspoken, there's still pressure of also other young people and what they're doing also, especially to social media. So how do you balance the aspect of you being you in a society that actually expects, you know, a couple of expectations of theirs? Yes. And it's not this question is, it's never a question I asked when I was younger. And I think the part of my question is, and this has come as a moulder and kind of working through myself and getting to know who you are. And I think being comfortable in your own skin, being comfortable with you is very, very important because when you're okay with you and that comes from the people around you as you're growing up and I want to be that influence for young women, the people around you, your aunties, your, the people closest to you, which is usually at the beginning is family, being okay with you. And I bring, I say moms, but I also bring in dads, very, very important because my dad is probably one of the most amazing and most supportive men. And in building a strong woman, the man also needs to be part of it. So I say it's strong women and the women that support and the men that are there to encourage them. And I always had that. So within me, I have this feeling I'm good. You know, I'm okay. I'm okay with being me. I'm not saying I am perfect. I am striving to be, but I'm not seeking to be anything that I am not. I am seeking to improve the me that I am. And that was around me. My mom's older sister, Auntie Grace, she was also very, very good with that. And for me, that's what I'm trying to do. Go be, yes. First of all, get to know who you are. One of the biggest questions I've started to and I encourage young people, I wish I actually knew about this earlier, is stop asking who. We ask who am I a lot? Ask who what? Because you know what's wrong with who? Who already comes with other people's expectation? I am a wife, right? Society already expects you to be. So within that definition, you're already limited because there's already these expectations that have been set. Yes, I am a doctor. I am a mother. I am a mother. Think about it. There's already limits. With it, there's already expectations that come that you're supposed to be there. So just by you defining yourself by that means you're already limited, right? But if you ask yourself what, it's about you. So what am I? I am a woman that loves... I'm a tomboy, by the way, I'm a tomboy. Don't let the heels for you and all this. I am a tomboy. I like to climb things. I own that, but I also love six inch heels and I love makeup and I love beauty and I like my skin to look good. That's how you find your true self by asking what? Why? What am I? Because who? You've already limited yourself. The titles already come with these boxes and expectations. A lot of them that are not your own, but even you in your mind you say this is the expectation that I'm supposed to be this. So you're confining yourself. So who am I? I'm a village girl. Right. I don't think I'm true. Actually no one present. I do some mentorship in my village where I grew up and the first time I went there and I told the kids from there they looked at me like, Are you sure? Yeah, because they don't look like that. But see, that war limits me then and it already tells me in my mind maybe I can't do this, maybe I can't get here. But I am an amazing woman who happens to come from the village but that doesn't mean it's a limit. It's what I am. Doesn't mean I can't go pursue all these things. I am a woman so I'm supposed to have, you know, who am I? I'm a woman. I'm supposed to have hair. You know, off, girl. So it's all fast for me. You get into what you love and actually doing that is what you love. The watch is you. The who already comes with expectations and boxes that you already limited. You can go beyond that. No. This is what a wife needs to be. This is what a daughter should be. But even in all those boxes and I think that's where we get conflicted. In all those boxes, there are already things that don't quite add up, right? So how do you go from this one box to this box because you're all those things. You get tired. You get tired. You get conflicted. And I think a lot of us at some point we just kind of... So mental issues, mental health issues come in, depression, anxiety and all that. And society doesn't help because we also sit there and judge a lot. One of the lessons, and I say it's a lesson because it's a continuous lesson, is being a limitless woman also means not judging. And that's the hardest one because human beings we judge. It's the first thing we do. What do you do when we judge? It's human nature. When somebody is doing something you don't agree with or you don't like or don't understand, we judge. So not judging is actually hard because I have to talk myself back and like Anna, it is not about you. This person, whether you understand it or not, you can respect it because even I, the things that I do, some of them and some of the things are priorities. I'm sure some people are like... And I'm so sure some people actually don't agree with your products or they actually critique or even send in negative comments. And that's actually okay. A friend of mine called me the other day very upset. She happened to be at lunch with friends of hers who are actually laughing about the name, the brand being named Whythera. And how do you deal with that? It doesn't bother me because guess what? Whythera is about an African woman being proud of who she is, loving herself, loving everything that is you. And if you think that's not okay and you have an issue with that and you prefer named, you know, because I was very clear. I wanted that name to be it is African. I didn't want it to be mistaken. It is a place of pride. So if somebody has an issue with that, that's not my problem. It is not. If they're not proud of with about who they are, then hey, look. It's okay. All of it is okay. Yes, because it talks about if you're critiquing it because you think it's not it's shady or it's not cool enough, then that's fine. Because then what you're telling me, you as an African woman, you don't think you're cool enough. You're not proud of who you are. You're not proud of you. You're not proud of who you are. And I have so much pride. I have so much love for me and this, you know, and being this woman. So for me, it's like, that's okay. It's completely fine. Okay. Yeah. As we wind up, Anna, tell us a couple of challenges that you have gone through as a woman in business. I'd say actually as a woman. I think we need to stop we need to remove that. There are challenges in business. Okay. The one thing. There are challenges in business. I take it back. And the reason I say as a woman, because I can't actually say the challenges I've gone through are because I'm a woman. I think they're because. But it's a girl sailing. But I'm also very bold and I tell people I have no shame. There is no door I won't go through and ask a question. And this is what it has all taught me. When you actually approach people and ask and ask for help and ask questions, people help you. One of the biggest challenges in business in Kenya, I actually funny enough think it's actually regulation. And I think that's where a lot of the challenges are. It's very difficult to just navigate. As you're starting business, you end up spending a lot of time in different government agencies, various who, you know, who regulates what. Some of them you don't know about until literally in trouble. So that is one. And usually I say, inform yourself as much as you can. The other one is, and especially I can speak clearly about manufacturing. Let that be our last one. About manufacturing is, you know, some of them is packaging. It is hard. But one of the biggest ones that the advice I would give you is do not be afraid. Yes, it will be hard. But do your research. Don't just go into it without knowing what your research is so important. Okay. Thank you very much, Anna, for creating time to be with us. On our strength of a woman, we have learnt a couple of so many things. We have so much inspired me being one of them. So probably give us a social media handles and tell us where we can recharge to you if you want to keep this conversation going. So my personal social media on Instagram is Anna underscore that's Instagram. And my Facebook is and all the others for the business is beauty. As simple as that. Thank you very much, Anna, for creating time. Thank you. Make sure you keep the conversation going at Y244 channel so you can find us across all our social media handles at is where you can find me across all my social. We'll be right back with Girl's Talk with Kaisu.