We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tanita Winchester a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Tanita , thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with us today. We’re excited to dive into your story and your work, but first let’s start with a broader topic that might be stopping many of our readers from pursuing their dreams – haters, nay-sayers, etc. How have you managed to persist despite haters and nay-sayers that inevitably follow folks who are doing something unique, special or off the beaten path?
It’s real simple: you just ignore them. Everybody is not going to like what you do and that’s perfectly fine. People are going to laugh, be judgemental, you know spread negativity. But you also are going to have people in your corner who really believe in your craft and your vision and for THAT, that is the key to being successful: Ignore the haters. So I just do what I destined to do and be. And that’s be great. Period 
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?
Welllllllll my name is Tanita but I go by Molly in these streets lol and I was born and raised in Reidsville, North Carolina. I have been in Charlotte, North Carolina for 14 years (I can say I’m somewhat of a native now being that I’ve been here for over a decade lol but no disrespect to the ones that are. It’s all love 
) I’m a 9-5 worker by day and then the Jackeé of All Trades after lol. I own a beauty brand called A’jah Lip Creme, which specializes in making all natural lip products, consisting of lipgloss and matte lipsticks for women who exude confidence, resilience, and style. We have also ventured into making body oils for Women and beard oils for Men as well. What’s so special about me having a beauty brand is that I get to be creative 
. I knew I would be doing something creative at a young age, as I used to cut up clothing for my dolls to wear and dye their hair sometimes. I was always doing something cool and productive with my time as a kid so that’s why I love love LOVE being able to be in my own world and make beauty products for women and girls like myself 
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
The most impactful qualities I would say was me not waiting for anyone to do it for me, I just went and did it. Whether it was researching or asking questions, I did it. Most people have the thought, but don’t act on it. Me? I’ma act on it or how they say now STAND ON BUSINESS and do it. Another quality would be just being consistent in my research. After work, I would do most of my research (can’t do nothing on company time 
) on my phone or on my iPad and write down plans, colors I wanted to add to the business, different companies if I wanted to do private label or just straight out make my own products. So being consistent was very big. The last quality would be just speaking life into myself. Telling myself I got this. Being positive. Even though in my journey to making lip products I would mess up, I wouldn’t stop. I would keep going until I perfected a product. To the people early in their journey, I would say like Nike, JUST DO IT! Don’t talk about it, write everything down, do your research and when you ready to pop out, pop out 
!
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
Right now I’m facing if I want to continue with A’jah Lip Creme. It’s become very trendy to me now where it’s like EVERYBODY WANTS TO HAVE A BEAUTY BRAND. I think it’s called Imposter Syndrome: where you feel like you not going to be successful enough or capable to be successful? Idk lol but it’s like everywhere I turn, it’s a beauty brand here and there. And I know people are going to use the analogy: look at the bread aisle. And I get that. And I know that I have to make people see why they should be interested in my brand over another’s. I do feel like everyone can win in this industry and I’m not taking anything from anybody. Buts it’s definitely challenging right now and I’m just frustrated that I ain’t sitting at my first million yet 😂. I recently took a step back due to this, only because I have been very unmotivated to do anything for personal reasons. And before I throw in the towel and just say fuck it to EVERYTHING I worked so hard on, I’d rather step back and come up with a better game plan to reintroduce A’jah Lip Creme back into the market.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ajahlipcreme.com
- Instagram: @ajahlipcreme
- Facebook: A’jah Lip Creme
Image Credits
Tanita Winchester
