Spotlight On: Dija Ayodele
Welcome back to "Spotlight On," this month's series of blog posts where I highlight the stories of inspiring small businesses. In each instalment, I'll shine a light on the passion, perseverance, and innovation that drive these remarkable small businesses to flourish.
This week, I am chatting with Dija Ayodele, an award-winning aesthetician and author of the bestselling book "Black Skin - The Definitive Skincare Guide." She is also the founder of Black Skin Directory, an online skincare, beauty, and wellness resource for Black and multicultural communities. Dija is a mother of two, the wife of one, and can generally be found running around in circles trying to do a million things at once. “I’m literally just trying to get the best out of this one life on the spinning rock,” she explains. So without further ado, let’s dive headfirst into life with the gorgeous powerhouse that is Dija.
If your business were a book or movie, what would the title be?
"Dija, the girl who dared!"
Imagine you're having coffee with someone who dreams of starting their own small business. What three pieces of advice would you offer them, and why are they crucial?
Be super clear about who your audience is and stay close to them. This will help guide your mission, the work you do, and keep you on track. It’s impossible to stand for everyone, so know who and what you stand for.
Stay learning every day. Be open, be curious, ask questions because this is how you get better.
Be resourceful. My number one question is always ‘how can I do X with limited time, funds, capacity but still make it look and feel like I spent a billion dollars.’ If you’re able to think like this, you can overcome most business challenges.
In the early days of your business, what kept you motivated and inspired, even when faced with challenges?
I knew nothing like Black Skin Directory existed, and I knew that it was very much needed. I just needed to be brave enough to go against the grain and produce it. Remember this was before diversity, inclusion, and equity in the beauty industry were trendy! So I was prepared for it to be seen as controversial and for it to be misunderstood (which it was!). But the fact that black women are my and remain my North Star meant I was locked in and super focused.
I’m also just super fascinated by the creation of this media platform that you can search any type of skincare/beauty/hair/wellness query related to black skin, and information will come up at the touch of a button. It’s exciting to see what it will be in 10 years' time, so on my low days, I think of this exciting possibility, and it keeps me going.
Small business owners often wear many hats. How do you balance the roles of boss, marketer, strategist, and more?
The billion-dollar question, and to be honest, I’m always learning new techniques to have more balance. It’s a juggle for real. I live and die by Post-It notes and my tear sheet notepads. I keep one master calendar for work and family life, so that helps me stay organized. I love Siri, and I talk to her a lot, especially to drop things in my diary. I love using the voice-to-text feature on my phone. I’m sure I wrote 50% of my book "Black Skin" using it! Lol! I do a lot of walk-and-talk meetings, phone calls using hands-free in the car... I’m always thinking of how I can effectively use dead time. I also outsource some work and use freelancers where I can to relieve a little bit of the workload.
Can you describe a moment when you realized your business was truly making a positive impact on your community or industry?
I’m lucky that I get to see both the impact BSD has on its consumer audience and professional audience. For the former, when people DM me or email to say how helpful BSD has been to them, I always do an internal praise and worship. When people email us to ask us questions, it really makes me realise that people believe in us and see us as a credible source of information for their skincare needs. It’s truly an honour to have this front-row seat. From the professional side, seeing how the industry has embraced diversity, seeing more diversity of skin tones in aesthetic adverts for things like peels and fillers, seeing more articles - I know for sure that the steadfastness of BSD has had a role to play in that. Having professionals tell me how helpful it is to have BSD as a resource to refer their patients to is also really cool.
I’m lucky that every day, I get to see and hear how much BSD means to so many people. I do not take this for granted. I love that I am able to do work I absolutely love and witness the impact it has on my community. I will never not appreciate this fact.
If you had a crystal ball to predict the future, what advice do you think your future self would give to your current self about your business journey?
It’s okay to go at your own pace so you can focus on building strong foundations. I’m guilty of always thinking of the really big things that I want to do, but I’ve always got to remember that big dreams need strong foundations.
Also, don’t try to run before you can walk. It’s a cliche, but building strong legacy businesses takes a marathon mindset and can’t be done in a sprint.
Link to Dija’s book, Black Skin: The Definitive Skincare Guide
What an absolute star. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed our chat. If this lit a fire inside you, make sure you subscribe here so next week’s “Spotlight On” lands straight in your inbox. I’m not going to give too much away, but I will say the words, NAIL GENIUS! Don’t miss the next installment… you’ll kick yourself if you do.
Love,
Lisa xx