We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sanni B. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sanni below.

Sanni, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

It was a little bit of divine inspiration and a lot of bit of my Mama. Mama always treated me like the cutest thing in the world. She dressed me up in the cutest clothes and she always did my hair in the cutest styles. She always called me ‘Cutie Pie’ or ‘Chocolate Chip’ because I’d play in the sun so long that turn a shade darker from sun exposure.

Divine because when I sat and thought about what the name of my company was going to be, I knew I wanted it to imply that Women can ‘feel cute’ when they’re with us. I needed that same feeling Mama gave me when she would gas me up after making or buying me a cute dress. I want other Women to feel that ‘cute’ feeling and so that is how I came up with ‘Cutie’ part. The ‘Booty’ part came to me divinely. I know you don’t believe me. It’s ok. But the divine part is what’s got me this far. I did question it myself like ‘Really? Cutie Booty??? Aight. Let’s do it.” It just came to me and I didn’t argue with it. I didn’t argue with it. I used my experience in improv to say ‘Yes! And…” and so that is how I came up with the name of my company. A little bit of Mama, a little bit of God and a lotta bit of radical acceptance!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’ll explain my brand with a story. Once, my fiancé invited me to his good friend’s beauty shop before its grand opening. It was like a ‘soft-opening’ but for close friends and family. My fiancé and I had just left a concert, and thought it would be fun to do a ‘after party’ at his friends soon-to-open beauty supply. So we arrive and there’s about 6 or 7 other people already there and 3 of them are Women. My Fiance’s friend has a Wife. She’s the co-owner of the beauty supply. When she saw me she invited me to try one of her chairs that she would be using for one of her services. BABEEEEE! That was an experience! I’d honestly never felt a chair so comfortable! It massaged my Booty! Anyway, 2 other girls were fan-girling over these chairs when they saw me finally sitting in it. Clearly they’d already experienced this heavenly piece of machinery but came back over for more! So, we’re laughing, and jiggling, and just tickled pink about these chairs and one of the other Women who hadn’t really hung around us in the chairs came by and said: “I don’t see the big deal. Maybe it’s because my butt is big that the chair doesn’t impress me.” It got dead quiet. “I responded: “Well I’m sorry you’re missing out on this baby cause these chairs is doing the damn thing for me!” And the other Women all laughed and agreed with me. The Woman dry hating on my booty kinda just faded off and the other Women and me just giggled and drank cocktails til the end of the night. It was such a great example of what I am trying to do with Cutie Booty Media.

Cutie Booty Media was created to help Women ‘Feel Cute.’ I don’t have the solid data on this, but I’ve noticed that when Women take shots at other Women, it is rarely when they’re ‘feeling cute.’ With a Magazine, Classes, and a Boutique Cutie Booty Media not only encourages you to ‘Feel Cute,’ but we provide the tools to help Women accomplish that without the need to tear each other down or depend on outside sources.

The Mission from the company actually came to me when I was in Barber School. I remember leaving class thinking, ‘These people just want to feel and look good when they get out of my chair.’ Then it hit me. MOST WOMEN want EXACTLY that, except we want to feel like that every day! Most Women just want to have fun and look good and FEEL IT! It’s never been enough as a Woman to just ‘LOOK’ good, right? (Otherwise beautiful Women with insecurities wouldn’t exist). We have to FEEL it. And since Barbering is all about self-image the combination made sense.. Take the ‘feeling’ part and pair it with the ‘looking’ part and that concoction is what lead to the 2-word statement that would lay the foundation for our current mission: ‘Feel Cute.’

I am unsure if the Woman who wasn’t impressed with the chairs didn’t ‘feel cute’ in that moment. But what I DO KNOW is that confident Women do a lot of things, but feeling the need to compare herself (publicly, no less) to another Woman is rarely one of them.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My career in Radio and the creation of Cutie Booty Media are 2 excellent examples of resilience. First, it took me almost 12 years to score my gig at Carbon Sound, carbonsound.fm. That journey took an incredible amount of resiliency! Getting into Radio taught me that I was stubborn when it came to achieving my dreams! It also taught me that dreams take time and RESILIENCY to build!

I started in Radio when I won a scholarship from Brown College to attend The Broadcast Center in St. Louis, MO. I’d won the scholarship in 2009 and started the program back in 2010. By the end of that year, I returned to Minnesota to start my career. And this is when the story of ‘resiliency’ comes in.

Everybody in town told me, “No.” Literally every station told me no. Even for volunteering. It was like I had won that scholarship and the rest of the world was like ‘So?” I honestly thought God was playing a sick joke on me! It didn’t help that I was watching other people’s career’s excel. There’s this actress on a reality show about tattoos who applied to work at a station in Chicago and got the job with absolutely no experience. I was thoroughly upset! But not upset enough to quit! I kept volunteering and interning, and after 10 years, I finally got my first paying gig at a commercial station at MyTalk 107.1. A year later, The Current asked if I would work at their station and it’s been up ever since. Bottom line? Hang in there. Never take no for an answer.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn how to hide my true self and just be Sanni. That’s been a running theme in my life. It’s also largely what inspired the mission behind Cutie Booty Media.

Back in high school, I was invited to be a part of this student exchange program. I was the captain of the cheerleading squad, lead singer in the choir, and on the honor roll… but I still kept to myself and my small circle of friends. I wasn’t super outgoing but I wasn’t afraid to stand out, if that makes sense.

Anyway. When we arrived at the school, we walked to the lunchroom where we were introduced to the students so they could show us around and hang out with us for the morning. I remember having a ball! I was Me. No masks. Just Sanni. It was a vibe. You know the saying people don’t remember what you did but they’ll always remember how you made them feel? It was like that. I can’t remember exactly what happened, but I remember feeling alive and happy and joyful and cool.

Fast forward a couple of weeks. Now it’s time for the students we just visited to come to my school. I remember it felt like my friends were coming to school that day! In morning announcements, they told us that today was the day to pick your Prom King & Queen nominees. I wasn’t really paying too much attention to it because we had company over! I was enjoying my new friends, honestly. That’s how it felt at least. By mid-day, another student from my school informed me that I had been nominated for Prom Queen. By day’s end, someone told me a lot of the nominations came from the students in the exchange program.

I was 17 when I learned that being Me is where my magic exists. And I use that magic frequently. I used it to score my Radio scholarship. I used it to score 1st place in the nationwide search for Proctor & Gamble’s ‘My Black Is Beautiful’ Contest. I use it on stage when I perform or speak. I use it when I’m on the mic for my internet radio show. That ‘magic’ that I let out is a result of unlearning that I had to hide myself in order to be successful. That same magic inspired me to create a company that helps Women find that exact same magic within themselves.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cutiebootymedia.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cutiebootymedia/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CutieBootyMedia
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/CutieBootyMedia
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7L_auerMGG7FwjtdV5WldQ

Image Credits
I purchased these pics. These are all images from photoshoots that I purchased.