We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Makeba Lloyd a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Makeba, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
Wow, great question! My resilience is built into my DNA, passed down from my ancestors, particularly my great grandparents, My great grandfather and his 9 children worked their farm for years. My grandmother used to talk about how grueling it was. But, it was rare for a black family to have a farm during the early 1900’s so they were proud, as well as exhausted. So, it’s almost impossible for me to throw my hands up when there is a purpose driven project that I am working on. There are days when I feel like I should just put it all aside and start something new but then I look back at how far I’ve come and I remember my grandmother’s stories about life back on the farm.
I’m also a strong believer in applying self-care as a secret ingredient to resilience. I know that word has been used quite a bit but it is necessary on so many levels of human existence. Knowing thyself is the first step to caring for self. And so, as I continue my unique journey I learn more about who I am and what fuels me. And so, I am able to add new ingredients to my self-care routine to maintain my resilience.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am the founder and CEO of By Keba, a personal care and wellness company housing five plant-based and powered brands – Butter By Keba, Scentonomy, Unity Code, My Palm Spa and The Chakra Collection. We design and formulate aromatic infused products and services that highlight the beauty and benefits of olfactory stimulation as part of your daily self-care routine.
We do this by offering multiple mediums for delivering quality fragrance as well as therapeutic grade aromatics to our customer’s experience.
Our hero brand, Butter By Keba is known for body butters that are infused with a hybrid of aromatherapy and perfumery formulation. On our Butter By Keba digital platforms, which are being revamped to become BlendsByKeba.com, we offer yoga style perfume oils with our Chakra Collection. These are designed to highlight essential oil blends and resins that are said to support specific Chakra bio-energy fields. While these formulations have yet to be scientifically proven we have received wonderful testimonials from our customers.
We have our My Palm Spa Hand Care essentials collection which is an aromatic infused manicure on the go., perfect for travel and regular nail maintenance.
Our Unity Code Collection is an Eau de Parfum formulated with organic cane alcohol and accords that were co-created by our Instagram community.
And finally, our most recent release, our Scentonomy Digital Aromatherapy platform and Holistic Wellness Concierge..
Scentonomy is built on an algorithm of essential oil blends that we formulated based on research, trial and review from our aromatherapy team.
The platform allows users to take a simple quiz to align with organic therapeutic grade essential oil blends based on their concerns and scent preference.
We offer skin-safe and kid-safe formulations such as our inhalation & aroma roll-ons; as well as home diffusing formulations along with a selection of nano atomizing pure essential oil diffusers for personal, residential and commercial use.
Additionally, the platform houses a community of certified and licensed wellness professionals that offer innovative and effective wellness modalities; from digital aromatherapy and sound therapy to neuro linguistic coaching and bioenergy wellness.
There were so many life events that brought me to creating Scentonomy.
The most pivotal and challenging time of my life was when I became a full-time live-in caregiver to my Mom, who became terminally ill. I learned so much about both of us during that time. After she transitioned. I began reflecting upon what my purpose was in this life. I realized that so much of who she was and what she taught me was truly who I was and felt most aligned with. I think for a lot of young adults in this modern era, we program ourselves to find our own path. A lot of times it is away from the path our parents, unlike back in the day when the son would take after the father. While many young adults today may still follow in the footsteps of their parents it is not as prevalent as when my mother and grandmother were growing up.
After my Mom transitioned, I retired from my 20 year real estate career and focused on redeveloping myself and my business. While grieving her loss and managing life through a global pandemic, it was made clear where my energy was needed and that is to create, promote and foster therapeutic experiences.
Through this mission I am excited about the journey we are on. My focus is to curate experiences that enhance connection. Our team members are all talented and passionate wellness practitioners who bring so much value to the platform. What is great about our work is that we delve into it with open hearts, minds and aligned spirits. We love collaborating with like-minded teams and organizations who are in alignment with the mission.
Our most recent projects have been curated specifically for corporate workplace environments, residential buildings and community engagement. One of our practitioners holds weekly sound therapy sessions for a portfolio of residential buildings in the city, a brilliant offering for property managers seeking to promote tenant wellbeing and promote unique building amenities to new potential residents. A recent article published by Well & Good discusses the growing demand for wellness experiences within the real estate sales industry. According to their research the real estate wellness industry is valued at nearly $400 Billion (Global Wellness Institute), which defines wellness real estate as “homes that are proactively designed and built to support the holistic health of its residents. This is a huge step forward for the real estate industry if there is a commitment to implementation by property owners and managers.
We offer classes and workshops such as chair yoga, Tai self-massage, auricular self-massage, sound therapy and working with flower essences in addition to our signature aromatherapy blending bars which we book often. They are a great way for participants to stimulate their creativity while making their own self-care products. Sessions can be 1-4 hours for small or large groups.
Our goal when providing these services is to teach wellness techniques and practices that can be applied beyond the workshop but most of all to connect with people in a meaningful and impactful way. This is the part of our work we love the most.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
The three skills and pieces of knowledge I have found to be most impactful while on this journey are the ability to recognize and act on intuition, the ability to creatively work with the resources that I possess and the ability to identify the best qualities in people.
I believe no matter how far an entrepreneur moves the needle, we always feel as if we’re just starting. I think this is because of the creative nature of the entrepreneurial spirit. The wheels are always turning.
Stillness is our biggest asset to improve on the skills I have mentioned.
Meditation is an evolving practice that opens so many mental, emotional and spiritual doors. While I am the first to admit that sometimes I still experience what Buddhist teachings call “monkey brain” I eventually reign in my breath work when necessary. Getting still allows our hearts and minds to open a bit more each day.
Who is your ideal client or what sort of characteristics would make someone an ideal client for you?
Our ideal clients are forward thinking and progressive companies, organizations and institutions who understand the value of integrating well being into their culture for the long term.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.scentonomy.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/scentonomy?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/makeba-guilan-lloyd/
Image Credits
Scentonomy products- Taylor Basemore Headshot- Amazon Black Business Accelerator
