We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Fatou Haidara a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Fatou, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

I hate to sound cliche, but entrepreneurship was never something I saw myself actively pursuing. It literally fell into my lap. In January of 2020 I’d just moved back to Atlanta after uprooting my entire life and moving to Boston for a job that I hated. I promised myself that when I got back to Atlanta that I’d live my life intentionally and go after all of my dreams and ambitions no matter how difficult or unrealistic they may have seemed. But much like the rest of the world when the pandemic hit I realized that most of my plans would be put on pause. What I didn’t know though, was that my entire world was going to be flipped upside down.

During the pandemic I lost my best friend, my grandmother, and my relationship all within a year’s time. I had hit what felt like rock bottom. I was lost, confused, angry, out of touch with reality, and severely depressed. I isolated myself from everything and everyone that mattered to me, and spiraled into a place that I didn’t think I’d be able to get out of. I remember very vividly going to my bathroom after what felt like days of not leaving the bed. When I got to the bathroom, I looked into the mirror and did not recognize who I saw in my reflection – I immediately broke down. When I left the bathroom, at that very moment I decided that that was going to be my last day allowing my grief to overcome me. I also promised myself that I would never allow anyone connected to me or anyone that I knew to go through any tumultuous transitions like mine, alone. And out of that very season of my life Dope Affiliates was born, that promise that I made to myself began an entire movement of women propelling women forward through life’s transitions.

I knew that Dope Affiliates would be a worthwhile endeavor because it is an essential space. So much of our generation is clouded with a real lack of transparency and authenticity. So many women are constantly pouring into others with no source of replenishment. So many spaces are encouraging and pushing the agenda of wellness without the hard discussions surrounding what it actually means to be well. The problem that Dope Affiliates solves is the #1 problem that women encounter throughout their journey of womanhood, finding the right people to take the journey with.

Fatou, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Fatou Haidara and I am the Founder/CEO of Dope Affiliates, Transformation Coach, and wellness alchemist. I’d honestly say that I’ve been aligned to my industry from a very young age. From childhood I’ve always been driven to be of service to others and to make room for others shine their light. However, my passion for mental health and wellness developed in high school when I became privy to the mental health disorders that were prevalent in my own family. From that point on I made it my priority to educate myself and those around me on the mental health disparities of women of color, in addition to finding solutions to fill those gaps.

Moving into the present day – whether it be Dope Affiliates, my coaching business, or my budding wellness initiatives my primary mission is to ensure that women are truly well and that they have all of the appropriate resources to do so. Dope Affiliates provides a community for evolving women to thrive in and guarantees the elevated quality of life that we all are constantly seeking. This includes but is not limited to, a network of impactful women, workshops and master classes across all industries, mental health resources, our in-house clinical coordinator, events, activations, and so much more! My coaching business provides a more intimate approach to the transformation that Dope Affiliates guarantees. I aid women in the areas of confidence, personal development, navigating life transitions as well as ideation/business coaching. What sets me apart from others is my holistic approach to transformation. I believe that evolving isn’t limited to the area that you are seeking growth in; but rather all areas of your life working in conglomerate with one another to reach that “final destination”.

I am most proud of all of the women that I’ve had the privilege to impact while on my journey. June 27th marks my two-year entrepreneurial anniversary and I am still in awe of all of the women that have not only resonated with my personal mission but have contributed to continue to propel the mission forward. As a business owner I think everyone’s goal is to be able to ensure that you are consistently providing value to your target audience and I am pleased to know that I’ve been able to do that and then some. I’d like for anyone that comes across myself or my business to know that there is so much power in community, having the right people around you truly makes all the difference when it comes to being successful. With that being said, at my table you’ll always have a seat.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

At this point I’d like to say that pivot as my middle name. However, a key pivot in my business journey was very early on. Prior to the launch of Dope Affiliates I began a product based beauty business in memory of my best friend, as it was her dream to launch a lash business. It was extremely successful and received a lot of great feedback from its inception; however, I found it extremely difficult to market due to my lack of knowledge and passion surrounding the beauty industry. In order to further educate myself on how to best market my growing business I attended a marketing conference. While there I met a business coach who shared with me the most important thing I’ve heard on my journey thus far, she said the following “I can see you’re super dedicated to this business but all of the passion stems from wanting to continue your bestfriends legacy but you’ve not once mentioned what you are passionate about? What is your purpose? What are you going to do to continue your own legacy?”. The statement wasn’t to minimize what I’d done to honor my bestfriend but to shed light to the fact that in order to continue someone else’s legacy I had to first identify and create my own. My best friend lives through me in everything that I do, but I can best bring light to her legacy by pursuing my God-given purpose. Operating out of your purpose will allow you to impact, support, and aid more people than you’d ever imagine.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I believe that building an audience on social media is rooted in building trust and a true rapport with your followers. People don’t follow, promote, or buy-into people that they don’t trust. You build trust by sharing authentically with your audience and allowing them to get to know you. When my Grandmother was in hospice I decided to document her journey on social media selfishly because I wanted a chronological record of our time together. Throughout that time I was extremely vulnerable with my audience, I shared my experience and my grandmothers, as well as created a dialogue around the caregiver dynamic which to my surprise inspired other people to share their stories as well. This time although very vulnerable for me, allowed my audience to humanize me and get to know me as more than just a social profile and in return it boosted my following.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dopeaffiliates.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_toutou/, https://www.instagram.com/thedopeaffiliates/