Shea Yeleen Interview: Fair Trade Skin Care

In episode 102 of the Disruptors for GOOD podcast, we speak with Rahama Wright, Founder of Shea Yeleen, on using fair trade skin care to empower women in West Africa and the United States through the production, sale, and use of shea butter products.

Listen to more Causeartist podcasts here.

Rahama is creating living-wage jobs for women-owned shea butter cooperatives in Ghana. Having grown up personally aware of inequalities in the world, Rahama developed an interest in women’s economic empowerment.

Making up for her lack of business experience with pure passion and determination, she started Shea Yeleen, a social impact company focused on financial empowerment and ethical sourcing.

About Shea Yeleen

Shea Yeleen is redefining beauty through proving that nourishing our skin with the purest, most lush, quality ingredients is not mutually exclusive from empowering our sisters across the globe.

The company believes that the health of our bodies, our community, and our planet is interwoven. That beauty is re-imagining the way we do business in order to build a more equitable future for all.

The handcrafted products nourish more than just your skin— each purchase directly contributes to the financial empowerment of women in Ghana, which builds stronger communities. Currently, the business model is supporting the education of 268+ children.

The supply chain was consciously designed by Rahama, after serving in the Peace Corps in 2005. Reconnecting with her West African roots led her to build a social impact business that pays producers 5x the local minimum wage, and uplifts entire communities behind them.

The Yeleen Sourced proprietary process is what sets the brand apart – financial empowerment, community development, traditional processing methods, and an unwavering commitment to ethically sourced organic and natural ingredients.

Interview Transcript

00:10

Host: Usually how I like to start these conversations is really about an individual’s journey. Yours has been quite interesting, kind of traveled around the map a little bit of the world. So I kind of want to start a little bit maybe of why you decided to join the Peace Corps.

And I think then we can kind of go off on a bunch of different tangents. But let’s start there—why did you join the Peace Corps? And what were you doing for those couple of years while you were there?

00:35

Rahama Wright: Thank you, Grant. I’m really excited to have this conversation with you. So I grew up in upstate New York outside of Syracuse, where my dad’s family was from. My mom’s family was from West Africa, from Ghana. My parents met when my dad did the Peace Corps in the US, so I grew up in a very international family.

We traveled a lot, and I always knew that I would one day want to do the Peace Corps because I grew up in a Peace Corps household. I got the brochure in high school, and I was like, “Okay, after college, this is what I’m going to do.” And I followed through on that.

01:10

Host: When you were going, where were you stationed?

01:14

Rahama: After college, I was assigned to work at a community health center in Mali, a Francophone country in West Africa. My job was to support the community nurse in providing health services, mostly pre- and postnatal care to women.

They would come in for checkups for their infants, toddlers, or if someone in their household was ill. This was my first time living in a rural environment in Sub-Saharan Africa.

I had a connection through my mother but had never lived in a community with the challenges I studied in college. I majored in Political Science and International Affairs, focusing on global international development.

Seeing firsthand the issues with access to running water, electricity, and the challenges women faced changed my entire career trajectory.

02:24

Host: Seeing it day-to-day, being there for a couple of years, must have given you a deep understanding of the community’s needs.

02:33

Rahama: Yes, you’re right. Seeing it day-to-day and having personal relationships with the individuals, learning about their stories, and seeing the love they had for their families and communities was eye-opening. People worked incredibly hard but couldn’t achieve a standard of living that reflected that hard work.

I felt compelled to ask myself if there was a better way, whether through income-generating activities or accessing more resources. It was a curiosity, wanting to understand why things were the way they were and identifying potential community-driven solutions.

I started researching income-generating activities, spending time with women’s associations, and listening to their ideas.

04:18

Host: And that’s when you discovered Shea butter?

04:20

Rahama: Yes. This is the Shea seed. It grows on the fruit of the Shea tree, which grows exclusively in Sub-Saharan Africa, from East to West Africa. Women are the traditional harvesters and producers, collecting the raw material and extracting the oil from the seed.

04:42

Host: What do they use it for locally?

04:51

Rahama: Shea butter is used for everything. The fruit is edible, and the oil extracted from the seed is used primarily for cooking. It’s like how coconut oil is used in cooking. It’s also used for haircare, skincare, and even as a first application on a newborn baby after the first bath. It has anti-inflammatory properties and is used for everything from cooking to moisturizing and healing.

06:30

Host: How did you get started? Was the lightbulb moment realizing the disconnect between the poverty of the women producing Shea butter and its market value?

09:21

Rahama: The driver was helping these women take advantage of a market that existed. People were selling Shea butter and making money. The question was how to get these women access to some of that value. Initially, I never planned to start a beauty business. I had no business background in product development, marketing, or branding.

When I moved back to the US in 2005, I started a 501(c)(3) nonprofit focusing on capacity building and training for the women. I thought the problem was that they didn’t have the infrastructure to create high-quality products.

For over seven years, I focused on the supply side, helping them create a pure, high-quality product. But then I realized the real challenge was finding buyers and connecting these women to the market.

12:07

Host: Was that the hard part?

12:14

Rahama: Yes, it was a huge challenge. I went to a conference in New York, thinking I would find buyers for the cooperatives. But I discovered that the industry had quality issues and didn’t source directly from women in Africa. They sourced from suppliers in Asia and Europe.

I realized that what had been marketed as Shea butter was not the same product that these women were making. The industry had created a supply chain that excluded these women.

They were stuck in an informal market, selling raw material without adding value or accessing higher pricing. Their labor was not being compensated fairly.

14:09

Host: So what did you do next?

16:01

Rahama: I realized I needed to pivot and develop body care products. We needed to create a product that could connect directly to consumers and communicate the difference in quality and impact.

I came up with the tagline “Transform Your Skin, Transform a Community” and started figuring out packaging, shipping, and formulation. It took about two to three years to figure it out. We created a product that was competitive and communicated our differentiation and community impact.

17:50

Host: How many women are involved now, and where are they located?

17:59

Rahama: We work with 14 different communities in Northern Ghana, involving approximately 800 women organized into a cooperative. We have Shea Yeleen Ghana, a separate entity from our US operations, managed by local leadership. We handle everything from seed to shelf, including harvesting, processing, packaging, and shipping.

18:55

Host: It’s interesting that your nonprofit was like an accelerator into business. It’s a unique route.

19:39

Rahama: Yes, it created the foundation of our business model, centering women from the beginning. It was about building an ecosystem and infrastructure around women. Every day, I remind myself why I’m doing this business, especially during challenging times.

Our business model increases women’s income by five times the country’s minimum wage, providing financial independence, access to health services, education for their children, and other income-generating activities. That’s what drives me.

23:16

Host: Can you replicate bringing women to the US every year or so to see the impact of their work?

24:14

Rahama: Yes, it creates a transformative experience for them and our customers. It shows the connection between what happens in their community and the global market. We’ve done trips where people have traveled with me to visit the cooperatives.

It’s about widening everyone’s perspective and showing that we all have the ability and responsibility to make choices that help others. It changes the aid mentality that hasn’t helped Sub-Saharan Africa.

26:44

Host: What other products have you introduced after soap, and how did you decide on them?

27:21

Rahama: We started with soap and balms because they’re fairly easy to make. Consumers started asking for lighter creams, so we developed those based on feedback.

In 2017, we landed a deal with MGM Resorts to create spa products, including sugar scrubs and products for manicures, pedicures, and massages. Working with industry professionals helped us refine our products.

30:00

Host: What was it like getting into Whole Foods and MGM? Was it a stressful process?

30:29

Rahama: It was challenging. Whole Foods rejected us several times initially because our packaging was awful. I packaged the first bars of soap with construction paper and scotch tape.

I learned that packaging and branding are crucial. We eventually got into Whole Foods through a program supporting social entrepreneurs. Now, we’re in about 120 locations across the Northeast.

35:07

Host: What was it like to get that call from MGM?

37:23

Rahama: It was incredible. We created MGM-branded products for their spas. COVID-19 impacted that business, but we’re pivoting to build out a digital e-commerce strategy.

We launched with Macy’s online in February and will be rolling out in stores. We’re focusing on digital to protect against future disruptions.

40:09

Host: What are your goals for the next three to five years?

40:12

Rahama: On the supply side, we want to expand to other countries and ingredients, like Moringa, Baobab, and Neem. We’re exploring partnerships in South Sudan, Uganda, Cameroon, and Senegal.

On the market side, we’re doubling down on digital and online strategies. We’re part of the NASDAQ Milestone Makers Program and working with JP Morgan Chase to build a financial model for our digital strategy.

We want to communicate our product value and social impact to the right customers. My goal is to get anyone with skin to use our products and think about how it impacts women in Africa.

40:49

Host: Amazing story. Thank you so much for taking the time to talk. I love the journey from Peace Corps to nonprofit to building a company and brand. It’s a sustainable approach that creates long-lasting change in communities. Best of luck for the rest of this year and the next decade.

Rahama: Thank you so much. This was an amazing conversation. I really appreciate it.