We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Wacera Kamawe. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Wacera below.
Wacera, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
My last name is Kamawe which directly translated in Swahili is Kastone meaning a “small stone”. As a young girl, as I was growing up in Kenya, kids in school would often call me Kastone to poke fun at me because they knew I hated it and I preferred to be called my actual name. Fast forward to a few years ago when I was brainstorming to come up with a business name, nothing seemed to fit until I decided to use Kastone. I didn’t want to use Wacera or Kamawe but I still wanted it to still somehow be connected and so it came to me and I decided to own the Kastone name and give it power. So now I gladly respond to the name.
Wacera, 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?
I was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya and I moved to the US right after graduating from High School to go to college. For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to help heal people or at least make them feel better. I initially set out to pursue Biology Pre-Medicine, however once I settled in school and started taking classes my major changed several times until I finally settled on a specialty field but still in the School of Health Professions and that was Respiratory Therapy. I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Respiratory Therapy and a minor in Polysomnography from the University of Alabama Birmingham. I worked for a year in the field in Alabama before I moved to Atlanta in search of better job opportunities and to be closer to my siblings. I got a job at a local Atlanta Hospital and I proceeded to work the same job in different capacities for 13 years.
From a very young age I had been introduced to natural and alternative forms of medicine and treatments by my grandparents and parents and the abundance of all kinds of plants and herbs (growing up on a farm) I had somewhat of a foundation of knowledge on natural herbal remedies and therapies. My parents would always opt for natural remedies for us before resulting to modern medicine whenever we needed it. From oils, raw butters, teas, tinctures and pretty much anything, we always had some homemade herbal remedy.
I suffer from lots of allergies as well as very dry skin and that given when I moved to America I couldn’t use most of the over the counter lotions and products because for one they hardly moisturized my skin and two in the event that they did, most times I was allergic to an ingredient or two in them and ended up paying dearly by reacting to them. So I started off by having to doctor different products I bought by adding pure oils and raw butters to them just so they could work for me to finally just settling on making my own natural oils and body butters. My skin seemed to love and recognize the ingredients I was using like raw shea butter and the likes and I realized I didn’t need to keep wasting money buying things my skin didn’t like.
While working at the hospital, I always kept my own stash of body butters because with the frequent hand washing and sanitizing with harsh products, my hands would be even dryer than usual. With time I had shared body butter with coworkers when they needed it and eventually I became known for sharing this product that worked. More and more people would ask to use some of my body butter because when they used it, their hands stayed moisturized and they managed to go several hand washes without having to reapply and with time their skin was less stripped by the soaps and sanitizers. I didn’t realize that I was setting myself up for a business by sharing so generously because with time people started asking to order the products I made. This included my coworkers, family and friends who were now hooked to the products I was making and sharing with them. I had no plans or desire to get into production as far as a business because this was really a necessity and a hobby for me and I never saw myself selling these products and so I laughed it off for as long as I could until I couldn’t ignore hearing the same thing everywhere I turned. I decided to make a batch of body butters to see how serious my “customers” were. I took the whole batch with me to work one day and as soon as I made it known that I had made some to sell, the entire batch sold out in an hour and some people were even upset that they had missed out. That is how it all started.
Eventually I realized that people really loved my products and they gave me feedback on how well they worked for them and even offered advise on where I could improve. I proceeded to formally set up my business and I decided to take it seriously because everyone now had converted to paying customers and the news about my products was quickly spreading around me and there was no turning back. I decided to get more intentional with it and work on perfecting my formulas to even later including more products in my line.
I officially launched my business a year before the pandemic and I proceeded to juggle the business and my job throughout the pandemic which was extremely tough. I was working full time on night shift and I had the additional stress of being in management during a pandemic (a Respiratory pandemic at that) while fully running my business on my own. Prior to all this I had been feeling really burnt out at my job already even before the pandemic but the pandemic brought everything to a culmination. I had been praying for direction because I knew something had to change but I was at the same time ignoring the doors that God was opening for me through my new venture. So after a few months of thinking and praying I finally bit the bullet and quit my job. Something was calling me to make a shift to full time entrepreneurship and I couldn’t ignore it any longer. I decided to channel all my energy and efforts into learning and growing my business and applying all my healthcare and herbal knowledge to expanding and growing Kastone Beauty and that’s how we got here today.
It was not until after I quit my job and started the journey of full time entrepreneurship that I realized that God was just redirecting me to continue this journey of healing people through formulating all natural, non toxic but effective skin and body products for people like me with skin concerns who appreciate herbal remedies and clean non toxic products. All my knowledge as a Respiratory Therapist for 14 years has equipped me with so much knowledge that helps me better solve issues that people have without doing more harm to them. I’m also grateful for my upbringing because growing up in Kenya on a farm taught me so much about relying on plants and herbs which has been a wonderful additional benefit whenever I research ingredients for new products. The last two years of my job especially working under extremely high stress in management taught me so much about handling business and dealing with all kinds of people in a professional capacity and essentially prepared me for the new stresses of being an entrepreneur.
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
My best source of customers so far has definitely been through customer referrals. Most times people find me they mention a friend or loved one that recommended my products to them. My second largest source of customers come from doing in person popup shops. My products require physical interaction and therefore I have better results when people can see and test my products before they purchase them. This lets them know things like what they smell like, the texture of the products and things like that and an added bonus is they also get an opportunity to ask more questions than they usually do online or via any correspondence. This also helps us form a human connection and we have slowly grown into a family through this interactions.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One area I have been challenged is in thinking everything will go as you plan. As a naturally structured person I like things to be well organized and for things to happen in some systematic order. However in business I have had to be very flexible to change. From simple things like disappointments from not receiving ingredients, tools or whatever you might order on time and having to seek alternatives or sometimes do without until a later date to much bigger disappointments. I am learning that it is more beneficial for me to prepare for all scenarios and not to get upset or overwhelmed when things happen differently. Everything happens at the right time and every failure is an opportunity to learn or simply to prepare better next time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/
kastonebeauty - Instagram: @kastonebeauty
- Facebook: @kastonebeauty
- Tiktok: @kastonebeauty
- Other: kastonebeauty.etsy.com
Image Credits
Tina Bridges and Everlyne Kabaya