We were lucky to catch up with Gigi Diggs recently and have shared our conversation below.

Gigi, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with 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.

Growing up in South Carolina with my Grandmother, I watched her self-care with cremes that seemingly helped nurture her already soft skin. Being as though my skin was the complete opposite, I always wanted to try to remedy my rough skin.

Never losing sight of what I wanted for my skin as a child, when Covid-19 hit and I was laid off, I had time to sit and think of what I actually wanted to do.

I was in therapy during Covid-19 and totally rekindled my passion for self-care. Realizing that I could actually combine the two passions I have, self-care and skincare, the match was lit!

Right away, I knew body butter was my calling! I researched and experimented almost a year before I got my formula the way I wanted. Now, we’re here!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My main goal starting out was and is to put myself out there and really advocate for self-care for everyone but especially within the Black community! My focus was to create something for her, him, and them! My products range from whipped body butters and beard care to room + linen sprays!

While creating my products I thought first about how small things, such as applying moisturizer and spraying your bed with linen + room spray, go a very long way when determining how you self-care. I want my customers to feel empowered by these seemingly small daily tasks but also take pride in doing these acts of self-care for themselves.

My customers have all different types of skin so I created products to cater to them all! Some whipped body butters are scented but for my customers with sensitive skin (or those who don’t want scented whipped body butter on their face) I created a special non-scented whipped body butter with 24K gold flakes which can be used for face and body! Literally, the whipped body butters are for everyone!

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

When starting out, specifically on Instagram, I always selected the “Black owned” option so people know that my business is proudly Black owned! I quickly learned that for some reason, my profile wouldn’t be seen by as many people due to that. It’s almost like I got a lot less traffic than before.

I had to make a decision and fast so I deselected the option to identify my page as Black owned and opted to just display it in my profile. It kinda hurt but I’m glad I still get to identify my business proudly and still reach who it needs to reach.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

I cannot stress this enough but word of mouth is sooo important and has been such a game changer for my business! I’ve gotten so many new customers just from my current customers sharing their experiences. It all really ties into great customer service honestly, and I definitely pride myself on that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shopbodybutterbaby.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shopbodybutterbaby
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/shopbodybutterbaby