We recently connected with Amber Folasade Ogunsola and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Amber Folasade, thanks for joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

My business Meshed Earth first started off in the direction of a DIY wellness brand. We initially sold products such as shea butter, castor oil, rose water, cocoa butter, aloe vera, charcoal powder, etc with the intention to teach people how to create daily household products from all-natural ingredients. Our products were 100% raw and natural. So with this direction we wanted our customers to be able to custom-craft bodycare, skincare and personal care products that were made with them in mind and their specifically tailored wellness needs. We wanted to be like a black-owned Public Goods or Brandless, because we loved the idea of turning the focus away from the cliche name brands and putting the focus back on quality product development for the consumer. However, after about a year of this concept, things changed mentally for me. My mother was diagnosed with kidney failure and this traumatic life event gave me the bright idea to switch the focus to internal wellness – such as vitamins, herbs and supplements. With my mom now on dialysis, I couldn’t help but think that if she ate healthier foods and used certain herbs and supplements there could have been a possibility of her not living with this life-altering health condition. And not just her but also so many others in the black community who are diagnosed yearly with diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, liver and kidney failure, etc. I decided to turn my brand Meshed Earth into a movement to help save lives by helping to save the people in our communities! To educate them and provide quality wellness products to improve their overall lifestyle.

Amber Folasade, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I work as a business development manager, strategist and I am also a founder. My brands are Meshed Earth, a health & wellness company and remnant144, a marketing and finance agency that provides resources to business owners and creatives. I love building impactful brands from the ground up that serve the people! I use my unique skills as a visionary, a writer and a leader to educate aspiring entrepreneurs and leaders. I teach them to be their true selves and how to use their individual story to reach their audience and customers. I believe that there are no two people on this earth who are exactly alike. Everybody is special in their own right. Therefore, it’s this trait that makes people be able to stand out from the crowd in their industries and fields. I launched my first business in 2015 and since then my love of people and business has fueled me and kept me going. I struggled for years to land jobs in corporate America, so I always took that as a sign from The Most High that I am supposed to be working for myself. I’ve always been super creative, so developing and branding businesses is truly an outlet for me. Some small business owners and startup founders don’t always realize how crucial branding is, whether it’s for their personal brands or business brands. From choosing the right brand logo, typography and colors all the way to the tone in which you speak and how you dress yourself matters to the public and your customers/clients! It’s the deciding factor if they should buy into you and your brand. As an aspiring entrepreneur or leader we should often ask ourselves, “What can I provide and offer this world that no one has seen or done yet?” Questions like this motivate us to be what no one else can be: us!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In 2022 I was laid off from my full-time recruiting job at Amazon that was being used to fund my businesses and also my personal lifestyle. And then from there because I was out of work for months I fell into debt and I was then evicted from my apartment. I was living in Houston, TX at the time with no local family, so I was literally all on my own. I had just moved there the year before so I wasn’t even living there long before this disaster hit. Upon my eviction I relocated to Los Angeles, CA for some months to stay in an Airbnb and also with a close friend from college. These next few months were very rough for me. Having to sell all of my belongings in Houston, move out my apartment, travel half-way across the country to live with someone else all while being unemployed and in graduate school pursuing a masters degree. This time period was very devastating to deal with, but my faith in The Most High kept me focused and strong! Fast forward to today as of November 2023, I have since relocated to my hometown of Baltimore, MD and am now much happier, working on my brands full-time. This shift has taught me a lot about myself and showed me how resilient I am because throughout it all I never gave up. At a time where I felt displaced and alone, I was actually surrounded by The Father and His angels who so graciously protected and guided me to get to the space where I am today.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

As a small business owner and an entrepreneur, I had to unlearn to not feel unqualified because of my lack of experience in corporate America. I have had a couple of great job experiences here and there in the marketing, communications and startup fields, however, the bulk of my work load has come from me managing my own business and professional projects. From hosting career fairs in my local community, to running an e-commerce custom jewelry brand, all the way till now, starting a health and wellness brand that focuses on vitamins and supplements, my greatest work has come from the blood, sweat and tears of my own hands. I now consider this as a badge of honor! Sometimes as startup founders & entrepreneurs, you want to also work for the top fortune 500 companies or even other thriving startups to get experience, make connections and mentors and also to have a huge name under your belt. But take it from my own personal experience – there is nothing like rolling up your sleeves and running your own company! The thrill and gratitude you feel from being able to pay your rent through your own means or even being able to hire your own employees or interns, a job cannot give you that grand satisfaction!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.meshedearth.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meshedearth
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meshedearth
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/sadeogunsola
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/meshedearth
• Other: My personal Instagram is: @folasaderoyal