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

Valentine , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

How did I come up with the idea? Well, that within itself is a little embarrassing, but not for the reason you might think, or maybe you might. I would say I was under a cloud of imposter syndrome, because realistically the idea had been right in front of me the whole time.

Previously I was employed at Ecomspaces in Atlanta , GA. I wouldn’t call this place a warehouse though, and this is me speaking in comparison to how the previous companies I came from functioned as a whole. It is a 3PL- third party logistics facility, and to me this presented an opportunity. Let me give you some context. Ecomspaces like the name suggest, is a space for E-commerce. So if you are thinking of starting a small e-com business or have a small e-com business, your potential to thrive will increase by becoming a member there. I say this because small businesses owners are my target audience and when they thrive it’s only better for me.

So enough context. The current members of Ecomspaces are majority small business owners, and a lot of them all have the same problem. Most of them didn’t start their business with the intent of worrying about so many different things outside of why they started to begin with. Example being a small business owner who loves making cups from scratch. They love it so much they make the cups all the time. Cups become a hit overnight now everyone wants to buy them. Boom, just like that they are a small business, but if your demand is high you need to now think about so many different things. Logistics, streamlining, inventory, things that will take the away the joy that they  once had of simply just making the cups.

I believe a big reason a lot of small businesses fail is because the owners lose that joy that made them want to start to begin with. The day to day is consistent and time consuming. So I created a process that allows freedom and reassurance. That is exactly the problem I solve. I allow small business owners to focus on their joy, by implement big company mentalities and practices into small businesses.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am Valentine Ebunilo, first generation Nigerian American. I was born in Nigeria moved to California when I was four, went to six different elementary schools , lived in three different states, so you can say adaptability is a strength of mine. I take that adaptability and apply it in logistics and warehousing. But let me not get ahead of myself.

Let me start from the beginning with my first ever warehouse job. It was with Lakeshore Learning Center in Carson, CA. This was a huge franchised distribution center for I believe daycare through elementary school, toys, supplies, furniture, you name it. Let me tell you the organization of that company was amazing, I learned a lot there. I started in the production department, pretty much responsible for keeping inventory levels where they should be. In this particular situation we were dealing with learning toys. So imagine this, six stations with about seven workers per station. Each station’s job is to individually package the toys, box the toys, then send the boxes down a conveyor belt. So six stations all working on different toys, which meant different boxes, all coming down to one spot to be palletized. For those that don’t know what palletizing is, it is the process of arranging boxes on a 48×40 pallet and ensuring that the boxes are stacked and flushed to the pallet. This makes them easier for transport. But back to the story, because guess who was responsible for palletizing the six station’s boxes? This guy. I learned how to be fast while maintaining efficiency there.

Second warehouse job was Abbott Label in Santa Fe Springs, CA. This was a smaller company compared to my previous, but that only difference was the increased workload, and man was there a workload. This company was a sheet label vendor company. They provided sheet labels to companies in the area as well as nationwide. They made the the labels in the warehouse from scratch. My job here was shipping, local order pick-ups, scheduling order pick-ups, inventory drop-off, as well as receiving, and putting away inventory being made in the warehouse, all simultaneously. Sounds like a lot but if you haven’t already noticed I like to be very active and make chaos as organized as possible. Because in logistics, you never get a break from the chaos. No chaos means your slow, and that is never good. I hadn’t learned to embrace chaos at this point while I was at this job. I was very young and native with the goal of trying to actually finish all the work presented to me. Sometimes I did, but the times I didn’t or should I say literally couldn’t, it stressed me. I didn’t learn how to control stress in logistics here, but I was exposed to trying to learn, and that was huge first step.

The third warehouse was Century Spring in Los Angeles CA. This company was spring supplier. Yes springs, so the next time you see a spring in a bed, garage door, or a small toy, it probably came from them. This company was similar to the previous company in regards inventory being made in the warehouse. This place though had maybe three times the staff so very light workload in comparison. I was responsible for custom bulk orders. Recieving the orders, preparing the orders, shipping the orders, but because I was so used to being on edge with timelines and workloads I had to put that drive into something else. With more spare time I started becoming obsessed with organizational efficiency. I had to make sure that if an order came in the supplies I needed were either in arms reach or steps away. I pretty much reorganized the whole station, but the crazy part is that I was a temp worker. Behavior like that from a temp is not common because in the companies mind, they are probably thinking ” why do you care?.” But in reality they actually said, “This works, I like it.”

I learned here that the process is the foundation for the way I wanted to do everything, because it helped me maintain the speed I naturally work in.

The fourth warehouse I worked in before I moved to Atlanta was American Woodmark. This was a kitchen furniture vendor, which meant big pieces of inventory. Let me tell you this place was the size of a small town. I was clocking in everyday at 5:30am, I absolutely loved the discipline and grind that was apart of this company, and I fully embraced it. I was a material handler, which meant that stations that were used to build kitchen cabinets and sinks had to be fully stocked and prepared with the correct inventory. Inventory was spread out in locations throughout the warehouse. Typical of warehouse layouts, but what made this place different was the height in which some inventory was stored. To be a material handler you had to be on a stand-up forklift all day. Looking back on it now the nerves of steel I had to have while working there was insane. Because remember when I said it was a small town? Well that meant people everywhere, other forklift drivers, as well. The forklift drivers even had designated lanes with stop signs and crosswalks. Safety was always the top priority, but you know me, being built for speed and all, I had to once again adapt, mix it all together while taking in all the factors to create what I would like to call precision.

All the situations and environments I’ve had to adapt to has brought me here to this place of creating systems and streamlining processes for small business owners.

My business brand is all about efficiency. Whether that be with speed or precision, progress and growth are the main goals.

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

I had to unlearn that something or anything you do in life does not have to be validated. For a long time while I was working in warehouses I always felt like it was something I am just doing temporarily. To me a warehouse job didn’t validate, and I wanted to feel like I was in some corporate world because I felt that was validating.

This comes from my culture and is why I am always harping on it. I was speaking earlier about how embarrassing it was to have a business right in front of me, but not dive into it because of the imposter in me telling me its not valid. But this is indeed a valid industry. This is the industry most people joined during the pandemic. It was essential, and now because of that there are businesses that need my service. Thats pretty valid.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think what helped me build my reputation is consistent work. Just that blind faith that I have shown and proven in regards to making sure the work is done. I believe if small business owners have that trust that their worries are now my worries. They don’t have to worry. Give anyone that level of comfort and soon they will fall asleep on that worry and focus on the joy.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: the_mindid

Image Credits
Darlene Desmangles