The Trailblazers Experience Podcast

EP63 Naseema Adam: Founder of Saaabuni Skincare - Transforming the Industry with Ayurveda & Entrepreneurial Resilience

• Ntola • Season 4 • Episode 63

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EP63 In this episode of the Trailblazers Experience Podcast, Naseema, Adam , founder of Saaabuni, Skincare shares her inspiring journey from a health and safety professional to an entrepreneur in the skincare industry. She discusses the challenges she faced as a female founder, the importance of Ayurvedic principles in her products, and her vision for creating a community around natural skincare. Naseema emphasizes the need for education in skincare, the significance of networking, and the joy of balancing personal and professional life. Her story is a testament to resilience, curiosity, and the pursuit of passion in business.

Listeners are invited to explore the dynamic balance between entrepreneurship and family life as Naseema candidly discusses the challenges of managing a bootstrap business. Her narrative is a testament to the power of community and collaboration, revealing how she has successfully integrated her family into the brand, turning challenges into opportunities for growth and connection.

Chapters
00:15 Intro
03:17 Inspiration Behind Saaabuni
09:03 Ayurvedic Principles in Skincare
13:04 Challenges of Running a Bootstrap Business
19:27 Values of Joyfulness, Vibrancy, and Eco-Friendliness
29:13 The Love for Product Development and Challenges
32:30 The Power of Networking and Women Supporting Women
40:21 Dividing Roles and Building a Strong Foundation
47:21 The Long-Term Vision for Saaabuni
51:07 Trailblazer Takeaways: Forge Ahead
53:09 Outro

Find Naseema Adam
Instagram ‪ @saaabuni
https://www.instagram.com/saaabuni/?__pwa=1
Website : https://saabuni.co.uk/
Linkedin   https://www.linkedin.com/in/naseema-adam-53b749134
Watch Youtube : https://youtu.be/eSxpGUlnNvE

Listen : to the audio version Apple Spotify .Amazon Music Google Podcasts
Watch and subscribe to my YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@Thetrailblazersexperience
Follow Instagram : https://www.instagram.com/thetrailblazersexperience/

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

Welcome to another episode of the Trailblazers Experience podcast, the podcast where we have candid conversations with women sharing their career journeys, and today is no exception. We have Naseema, founder of Saaabuni, innovative skincare brand, whose mission is to provide high quality all natural products inspired by the Ayurvedic principles. That was a tongue twister there. Welcome Naseema.

Naseema Adam:

Hi everyone, hi Ntola, how are you, how are you all? Welcome Naseema. Hi everyone Hi.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

Ntola Welcome Naseema. I don't know we need to start bigging up the guests really who come on here, because we were talking about this, isn't it just before we started about? The reason for the podcast is to give women a voice to talk about the great things they're doing. So what's front of mind for you when you think about your career journey and how this started, if you were to reflect on today?

Naseema Adam:

Oh gosh, my career journey. So I mean, without giving away my age, I started working very young and I grew up in the nineties it's sort of like coming out of school in the early noughties and everybody worked, everybody just worked, worked. You got a part-time job, you know. I worked in a fast food chain, then I went and carried on and then I got married, had children and it, and throughout, like my career, I've been very lucky in my career.

Naseema Adam:

I've also had a lot of setbacks in my career in that sense, you know, I'm a trained health and safety professional, qualified, you know, and I look at this sort of the things I've achieved.

Naseema Adam:

I went to university for a degree, as you do, because you don't grow up in the 90s in a household full of children and not come out with some sort of qualification.

Naseema Adam:

So I studied law and French made that extremely difficult for myself as well. But yeah, I think there's a lot of things that I look back on and I think you know what I've done this too. And then, very importantly, you know, sitting in the other room right now on the summer holidays, you know, there's my three children, my husband who's going to try and sneak a coffee in at one point, my husband who's going to try and sneak a coffee in at one point. So, yeah, there's been a lot of experiences that have led to me wanting to go it on my own. You know, do this whole leadership thing. See what I can build in by way of a business and a, you know, as a career woman, as a woman leader, um, you know, all of these setbacks and successes have sort of resulted in me wanting to go out and do Saboni, um, and I think, yeah, so.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

So talk to me about that. I mean, before we started you said that the business has been going for two years, but actually the R&D, research and development of the business started a few years back. So first of all, you know, giving you your flowers, that you've operated the business for two years. Most businesses fail, so you've come. You know giving you your flowers that you've operated a business for two years most businesses fail, so you've come off.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

you know, two years now going strong, but what led you to create this particular brand and focus on this particular industry?

Naseema Adam:

So, um, so, growing up in an Asian household, uh, you know, we always get told that, um, I don't. I think a lot of people get told this. It's our vanities. I've realized your skin is the mirror of what's going on inside, and that's sort of an Ayurvedic principle, and it's in a lot of principles where they tell you that what's going on inside will show up on your skin in some way.

Naseema Adam:

Now I was just coming out of, I was on my maternity leave. I'd been working full time. This was my third child. It was meant to be my swan song of a maternity, because nobody's having four, I'm not buying a bigger house. But I came back out of it and I was going to have this amazing pregnancy slash maternity leave and we, six months into that maternity leave, we hit COVID and suddenly I was and everybody has a story of covid, but mine was.

Naseema Adam:

My particular story was trying to help my husband work in a home office that he'd never experienced before he's very used to offices homeschooling two children who are also in that same office, because space and my daughter who was sitting with me at the same time, and the amalgamation of that and then conversations in trying to go back to work, want them wanting me full-time myself not wanting to go back full-time, resulted in huge amounts of stress coming out as pigmentation on my skin. Now, anybody who looks at my skin right now and I feel like I always do this and you can just about see it on the side of my face like it's. It's very blurred now and it might not have been that bad. I don't know it personally. Everybody says it wasn't that bad. Naseema.

Naseema Adam:

Um, in my head, growing up in a household where you, your skin, has to be perfection, you know it was very bad and ultimately, what it boiled down to was my internal atmosphere. It wasn't right. I was struggling. So I went to make things easier for myself. I mean, this pigmentation it wasn't just something that I looked at on the surface level. I also went on a full journey within myself that what is the reason? Why am I so stressed? You know I have this amazing family and you know we're all here, we're all present. Why is it that I am so? It's so, it's becoming so bad?

Naseema Adam:

And that journey led to me thinking to myself do you know what? And everybody would say to me certain things like oh, do you know what you need? You just need some turmeric on your face. Do you know what you need? You just need to grab some aloe vera and slap it on and it. And there came my curiosity, because I'd worked in health and safety and I'm that person where everybody's eyes roll and then the tumbleweed comes in when you try to get them to do something like I just need you to fill this risk assessment in, please, and everybody's like oh gosh, we don't want to be doing this, we want to be doing our normal day, and so that I'm that sort of person there I will always say that how much turmeric is the right amount of turmeric?

Naseema Adam:

Let's think about this for a second. You know, how much aloe vera do you need? How much aloe vera don't you need? Is any of it even going into your skin? What is absorption? So, um, in that research, in that long, lengthy research that I then went on, that journey that I went on, savoonie was born and it came from there. So I really enjoyed it in the sense that, yes, I started in 2010, 20 and now we're in 2024 and my business is in its second full year. I love that journey, I love the the whole like searching for these answers, because I'm a very curious individual. I love, like you know, like people sit and you know, scroll on TikTok or Facebook reels, which are loads of fun. I'll sit and be like what's the reason that this is happening to somebody's skin? You know, what is the difference between salicylic acid and turmeric, as an example? Why do people go for turmeric and not salicylic acid? Those are the questions that I will then start asking myself in my head and I'm like, right, I need to know the answer now, and then I'll go for the answer so that that journey start.

Naseema Adam:

And then one morning I woke up and said you know, I'm going to learn how to make salt. Never done it before, never really. I did realize afterwards when my mum told me that my mum's mum, my grandma on my mum's side, would actually make salt. It used to be a skill in back in the day. You know, these old ladies would make loads of salt made out of animal fat, because you would get the fats from your cooking and she would hand it out to the full village. That was what they would do as a, and she would just give it. And I've just got this soap here, go wash your foals with it. Um, I don't know how good it is, but here you go, um, and mum was like, can you believe it? Like it's worth having come full circle.

Naseema Adam:

And she's joined this journey in that way like she thinks it's amazing that I've done this like and I didn't even ask, I didn't know that about my grandma when I started this journey, but it just goes to show that these sort of like, this understanding that these things are good for you if you eat them. They're good for you. Therefore they're good on your skin. It goes to show that it's it comes from a very long like journey, or we can almost call them like old wives tales or something. And I'm sort of looking into the actual science behind it.

Naseema Adam:

That if you say this much turmeric, then why this much turmeric? And I want to be able to answer that question, because this is the amount of information that people want and it's the kind of questions that I get asked that, okay, you put this much turmeric in, or you put this much aloe vera and you put this much saffron in, why you know how's that going to be good for me? Why did you choose these ingredients? And again, I love those questions, I actually wait for them. It's when I, if I'm getting asked these questions I know that people are curious, you know to want to join the journey, to understand, like you know, where we're coming from and why we go out and do things in this way.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

So it's really rooted in heritage. I mean, I was reading the story of Saaabuni on the website and I love the fact that the foundation for it is A. The problem you were trying to solve is something wrong with your own skin and the curiousness around. Okay, if we're going to do this using natural ingredients and formulations and recipes, what is the right amount so that we get that balance? And starting to make soap has been something that's been in your tradition anyway. So bringing those things together is that the passion behind it? It's so interesting to hear speaking to a lot of women. When they start a business, usually they're trying to solve a problem for themselves and then realizing that there's a.

Naseema Adam:

There's a market for it as well yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and you know it's. It's not surprising because the skincare industry, like you know, four years ago, has somebody told me that you know, maybe just realize the industry that you're getting into, like you know, and you already, we already know, like every other day, even this morning, I was on Instagram just scrolling past and there's been, like it's either Blake Lively or somebody else that's come out with a hair care range just this morning, which social media will love to tell you it's a suggested ad as well. Um, so I'm like, oh yes, of course I want to know that I'm in a very, very in inundated industry. That's the dream. But I don't do it for doing something that's completely original. I didn't invent the concept of skincare. I certainly didn't invent the concept of natural skincare, because I wouldn't be here, we'd be 1,500, 1,000s of years ago when actually the sulping concept first came in in the asian or the arabian peninsulas. But like it is such an inundated industry, it is such an industry that we don't understand. I know I spent a lot of time reading that. I do spend a lot of time reading the back of shampoo bottles and body wash bottles, like we did when there was no social media in the bathroom, but I do, I enjoy doing, I now enjoy doing that, but we don't understand the words, we don't understand the botanical language that it's all written in. And there is a need to do that. There is a need to understand that if you know what your, what your is in the bottle, you will know that a lot of the time, you don't need that on your skin. And we wouldn't drink a bottle of shampoo, we wouldn't eat a plate of food that we don't recognize, yet for some reason we will throw that on our hair and absorb directly into our skin, which is the only way we use our skin organ. We absorb. We absorb directly whatever. We put our evil, though, in, and yet for some reason, we're just so happy to use it, like because tiktok said, or because social media said, because some, some influencer backed it up somewhere. I want to.

Naseema Adam:

For me, the dream is to wade through all of that rubbish. Like you know all of that. Like you know you need hyaluronic acid on your skin, or you need niacinamide or retinol, or nobody needs any of that. Like it's not, not everybody needs it. You need to know whether you need it, and I think, I think that's the biggest question.

Naseema Adam:

I'm trying to answer that what do you need and why do you think you need it? Do you recognize yourself enough or do you recognize? Do you recognize the bottles on your dressing table as much as you recognize the bottles in your pantry? And if you don't, there's a breakdown here and in our schools we don't. There's a breakdown here and in our schools we don't get that. You will learn, like you know, you need this many carbohydrates and this much fiber and this much protein because of your internal organs, but nobody tells you how to look after your biggest organ and the one that does it differently. You know, the one that absorbs rather than gets fed. So you know there that and I think there's there's definitely an education there and there's definitely a breakdown there where people need to recognize. I think we're getting there. I'm not saying like everybody is blind and still using these, these awful skincare bodies that are genuinely not that good, but that's the journey I want to take people on. I want them to join me, like you know.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

Come on, let's hope there's a lot about cutting through the noise, isn't it? Because I was reading the stats the national cosmetic industry is worth 13 billion. No wonder all these celebrities are jumping on the bandwagon. But it's about finding the right ingredients, the right products. When you describe that you're using the Ayurvedic principles into your skincare brand, I mean for the audience. What are those principles, what are the guiding principles?

Naseema Adam:

So the guiding principles of Ayurveda are very, very simply. Do you know what surprised me more than anything? Not many people have heard of Ayurveda. I grew up with it Like it was completely normal, like, and it's. In Ayurvedaveda, the general idea is to find balance and in the fast-paced world that we live in, it's, it's close to impossible. You're never going to be able to find 100. You're not. You're never going to get full, whole balance. Choose your balance. Which one, which one are you comfortable with? For me, yes, yes, it started with my skin, but very quickly I've realized it's not just my skin. I'm never going to be. You know, nobody's ever going to be 100% happy in everything, otherwise we'd be in heaven, but genuinely like. I mean, we do joke around, but let's try and find this balance in the right way. And the reason for me Ayurvedic principles work is because they've been going on for almost, you know, over 2,000 years. There's always an answer and you will find there's lots and lots of overlap. Ayurvedic principles overlap with Arabian principles, arabian principles overlap with some European principles. You know and all of them are saying the same thing that the answer is there. It depends on which route you decide to take.

Naseema Adam:

Saaabuni decided the Ayurvedic route because that is what I know, it's what I grew up with and it's what I can incorporate into skincare in a really good way, you know, in a way that makes sense to people and in a way that makes sense to me, more than anything.

Naseema Adam:

Like you know, this is my brand, they're my formulas and they're formulations that I work so extremely hard and so very long, and probably a bit too long, um, in, according to my business partner and my husband, who will always say that you don't need to take you know, you're so good at this, you don't need to take that long like you know, tweaking a product and I thought, yes, I do, because it's a responsibility to myself, I will use these products, they're mine. In my, in my bathroom, you will only find my own products. If it's not made, made by me, then I won't be using it. So it has to be good for me and I have high standards. So if I have high standards for myself, then I have high standards for my customers and anybody who believes in the journey of self-owning.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

Obviously you have Indian heritage and Ayurveda plays a very big role in that culture. You talked about balance and harmony in life. How has that helped you? Because I really want to encourage women to make sure they lean into those core principles that make them an ethics that make them who they are. What are those that are important to you, your core values and your ethics that feed into your business as well?

Naseema Adam:

so the source source of you mean, as well as speaking about balance and you know, I felt I feel like my 20s was spent gritting my teeth. You know like, yeah, I don't. I feel like. You know, I look at 20, I'm not very old, honestly. I feel I feel like I'm like I'm coming across as a 60 year old and my hair is hidden, so there's, but I'm not got many right, I'm not well anyway, and so, but you, you spend your 20s searching for yourself and you know, like I, a lot of that. I was very stressed. I was having, you know, I was having young children and you know, like, doing all of those things and finding that balance is precious, you know now that I hold on to it really, really tightly and I want everybody to experience that. You know, journey without the, without the you know this teeth gritting that I did, and because it's a shame, you lose a lot of time and it's precious time. We're in our prime, like you, you know our 20s and our 30s we try to. I want to look this good in my 60s, but I know it's not true. But so that sort of thing has fed into this this joyfulness, this, this, ultimately, that what I want is for people to feel that joy, and I think that's where the colorful luxury comes in. So you know, you've seen my brand, you've looked at the website, you've seen my social, you've looked at the website, you've seen my social media and I believe and that's another value that I really have tried to pull into and even the Indian, uh sort of like Indian-ness of it, the Indian aspect of it, the Indians in India, is such a colorful and vibrant culture. I want to bring that into my brand. I want people to realize that that is what we are, and we are unapologetically colorful.

Naseema Adam:

I don't have anything against the monochrome palette. I don't. I understand why it's there. I understand why it exists and sometimes it looks amazing, like when my graphic designer is trying to pull me out of the sky with my you know, with my color that I'm trying to throw out everything I get. Why he, why people do use the monochrome palette. It looks amazing, but it is not the vibrancy that I want in my brand. It's not the vibrancy I want for my customers. I want my customers to be that vibrant and that, you know, enigmatic and energetic. The Ayurvedic principles is about that balance as well, and then ultimately, we do try to be eco-friendly. We want it to be an eco-friendly brand as well.

Naseema Adam:

We are as plastic-free as we possibly can be and in the skincare industry, I think anybody you know listening yourself it is so, so difficult. I can't believe that is something that is very, very personal to me. I hate the amount of plastic I have in my house even today, even though I have gone on a massive overhaul. I know that in some aspects you can't get rid of it. There will always be like you know this cannot exist unless it's plastic, which is fine, and that's the sort of the journey that I've taken my own brand on. I know that you know like you will have bottles and you will have like tinctures and elixirs and things like that, but all of them can exist with a minimal amount of plastic, because we only have that one world and it sounds so cliche, but we do only have that one world and we want to try and stretch out for as long as we possibly can and we want to leave a good one for our children and our children's children.

Naseema Adam:

I feel like I'm quoting a song there, but it is true. I feel like that community is, is strong, it's growing. I want everybody to and I want to join that community as a Saboni journey. Like you know, I want that whole thing. I want it to bring us all together rather than, yeah, I'm doing it this way, but I don't want you to do it this way. You know, I don't want that sort of like. I don't like being at loggerheads. I'm more of a let's give information so that you can start the journey stronger and, if you go further, happy days. That's where we're gonna go.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

I mean it's. It's such a great thing to have a not only a strong ethos about why skin with natural ingredients is you talked about skin being the most important organ and it absorbs but the passion behind. What are the foundations, what's the mission, what's the vision of the brand is so important. So let's talk about the business of Saaabuni and you as a founder first of all, female founder. We love that. What are some of the challenges that you faced? Are you bootstrapped? Is it something you funded yourself or have you received investment? What are some of the challenges that you faced in these two years?

Naseema Adam:

So I feel I count myself quite lucky. First of all, it's a bootstrap business, very much so. We started our financial year strong budget, like I say, because it wasn't something that I actually thought about doing as a brand. It started for me. So, you know, when I'm a very, very frugal person like to my own detriment, I'm a very frugal person my husband, like he's bowled over. When I buy a pair of shoes, I think I'm every like that is everybody's dream, but it's his nightmare and he's like you're never gonna buy them. I know you're not gonna buy them, I'll challenge you so but so we are a bootstrap business in that sense. Um, because because of that reason, some of the challenges I have faced is I want to be. I know this journey can be huge. This, this movement, is massive and, yeah, somebody might must be doing it with more budget.

Naseema Adam:

Absolutely, the reason I caught myself lucky is being able to do this. You know like my husband has worked. You know he, he is the breadwinner in the house because this is a small business and it and it and it continues to be in in its second year because we are only in our second year. I don't see that, as I don't see us being here this time next year and certainly not the year after. But he works hard and he is the breadwinner and we have been able to fund it. Some of the challenges we have faced, one of the biggest challenges I have faced is he got made redundant this time last year in fact, no, it was March last year. I remember it like he came home he bought me a burger because he knew I'd feel better if, if he broke the message, broke the news over a burger. So and he said I'm very, you know, I've been made redundant and I was like my goodness, we've not planned this one in. And he was like I'm really, it's just, it just is what it is. It took, it's taken him. He did get another, we did get another temporary role and we, you know, but it has been, it has been a massive challenge. It really has that one was. That wasn't what that one was a biggie, you know, because I do want this to grow and you know Saaabuni is so good in that sense, like I talk about it like as my, my fourth child. It kind of is a little bit, but it's been very good because it's funded itself and that, that in itself. I'm very proud of everything that it makes. It goes back in. I've never had to say to my husband that you know, we need to put some money into it or et cetera. We have a very good group of customers and returning customers as well. But, like I say, when you join the journey, I found that they've stayed on the journey and I think I guess that's what I've been very lucky with.

Naseema Adam:

Yes, I would love to understand the concept of funding and I know there is money there to help and you know we can tap into it. It's just a matter of time of when. And I'm not one of those, and I like to have said a number of times, even today, that I'm a very curious individual. I'm not one to step back. I'll just be like do you know what? To step back? I'll just be like do you know what? Let's just carry on, you know, keep going and let's find a way. I'm such a curious person I will find a way. I know I will.

Naseema Adam:

You know um, writing, for you know funding and investment and etc. I used to be a writer of previous year. Help, nobody. Nobody goes into health and say right, you're going to be made to write. So I've written a lot so and I think, and I think I can, I can crack that and I'm going that's one of the things we're currently working on where I'm trying to crack that concept. And then, other than that, challenges I wouldn't say they're challenges, they are a gift. But, you know, finding time for my family, my children, that in itself you know I talk about balance that in itself is something that I've really really tried hard to do. Would you believe I started my business thinking I'm going to find balance for my children?

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

it's the naivety, it's actually working more when you're running your own business, isn't it?

Naseema Adam:

yeah, you can't clock off it's so funny, like it becomes. The good thing about it is it's become part of them, like they see themselves as employees of um, my brand and you know my business. They say, mom, you know, when I'm 18, I'm like, yes, darling, you're nice, but yeah, you know, when I'm 18, I'm gonna join you, I'm gonna be the social media guy. And I'm like, okay, they're. So they make me laugh, like we, we do enjoy ourselves, like we do have a bit of a laugh. And they'll actually ask me like, mom, how's your day been, how's how's Saaabuni been? Like what did you achieve today? And I'm like, what did you achieve today? And like, and you know, so we do have that. And so, like I say, it's not a challenge, but it's just something that we really have found our um. I really love how it, how it goes. You know, like, how we are able to really join in with they are really able to. It's become this whole thing where we're all just together and this community just gets bigger and bigger. Because, you know, my friends are like part of the journey. They all use my products and they all talk about it, and I hear them talking about it and some of the best things.

Naseema Adam:

I think, a complete stranger. A couple of days ago and we were just introducing ourselves and there I was like, oh, I make my own skincare, it's called Saaabuni. And she's like, oh my god, that's on my bucket list of things to buy. Like I've actually put it in my basket and I was like, do you know what? Just message me what you want. And it just it was in a, I think it was in Birmingham, and I was like, oh my goodness, like you know, and she's like somebody who was telling me who was, you know, and we, we connected the dots as you do, like you know, how. Do you know where have you heard from me about us? And? And it turned out she was like a friend of a friend and and she was, she put it into her basket so many times and and she now wants to buy and has done so. Yeah, so you know, those sorts of things, those wins, really make some of these challenges that we faced, um, a lot more manageable and adjustable. Yeah, there's so many things that we struggled with our trademark.

Naseema Adam:

Um, we said we struggled with formulation, like when I first started formulating and trying to get into that, the compliance side of things. Like I taught compliance sun up to sun down. I will put skincare formulation. I can't the the the amount of um hoops you have to jump through because, again, like I mean you, we know the importance of it. I said it right at the beginning we are absorbing directly onto our skin.

Naseema Adam:

I would it would be remiss of me and very, very irresponsible of me if I didn't put it through. Like all of those, you know steps and balances that you have to put it through and, worryingly, there are brands on the. There are brands that I've seen where I'm like this is wrong. Like you know, I feel like, and the the vocal side of me wants to message them and be like do you want some help with your compliance? I'll do it because I want to be able to.

Naseema Adam:

Again, it comes right down to the customer, that person that's going to be using it and not knowing what they're using, because this person hasn't put their legwork into it. You know, two years for me was might have been a long time. Somebody else might look at me like it's five minute job. For me it's not even a thing, but I wanted to understand it to that in-depth level, like what is it that's needed? Why is it? Why is it needed? And again, that comes down to my health and safety background. I can't. I say this to other people, so I have to follow in the footsteps, no matter how much, whether it hurts me. In fact, I love it, I absolutely love it.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

I mean, you've talked about it. A lot of it is about that due diligence. So, honestly, the fact that you've landed your trademark, you've landed the compliance, the due diligence, the formulations that is the most important work before you even start selling, whether it's on Instagram or TikTok or your shop, shopify, et cetera. It really is the foundation of that, because, if you get the basics right, those are the questions people will be asking. Tell us about your sustainability efforts, efforts. Where are these products sourced? What will happen to my skin?

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

So you've actually it's. It's something to be proud of, it's a challenge, but I think it's also a milestone for you that you are very invested in making sure that you have a good product in the market that actually meets all the the checklists of what good natural skincare should be, and then everything else will follow in terms of the growth. And the reality is, you still have a family. Your husband still has to work. You're not giving up your day job until you actually know that this is where it needs to be. These are the stories, the realities that people need to hear as well. Yeah, absolutely.

Naseema Adam:

I mean the foundations. The foundations are strong. I'm building and I've always said that we build up that way. We don't. You know we're not going to do that.

Naseema Adam:

You know, like I'm not, I don't believe in like sitting on a pin, on a pinhead, you know, and, and I love that, um, it's good. I mean, it's like I say it isn't. I've seen it all as like a gift, because I do. People, anybody I speak to, they're like really, really, and I'm like, yeah, I actually love it, like I love that. You know, like the win and the.

Naseema Adam:

You know, you send something off and it comes back and it's like, yes, it's past this and it's past this and this is fine, and you know the bacteria level is fine and all of that. And you send it off with like oh, is it gonna happen? And it does and I'm like, oh, my god, and I'm and I'm getting better at it, I can do it. I can do all these new formulations as well as doing my business as well, as you know. So I do it all like and, uh, it just works together. There's so many lines and it's like almost like a. You know, like when you look at a sheet of music and you get like the top level and the middle level and you get all of this and it just all works together.

Naseema Adam:

I'm auto-tuning like crazy, but it's, it's, it's. So I do really really like love that challenge like no, it's almost like the challenge acceptors. Can I do this? You know, like we started off with soap, we moved on to moisturizer. Again it was a case of what is the best, much what. What do people look for in moisturizers and why? That is always the question that has that. What do I look for in a moisturizer and why and I'm my own biggest critic. Um, and that's why it goes back to me, my husband saying, seriously, you need to stop like I've got everything running, you just need to like give me something to sell now and you know like we have.

Naseema Adam:

He has to be so careful how he says these things though, because he loves it. We do yin and yang each other, like you I will be like like my most recent one has been um, wanting to make a body wash. Body washes are, you know, and I don't think many people know is they live at 90 up to 95 percent water, and If you turn your body wash around and it says aqua, it's majority water. Because, again, concentration levels go from top to bottom and there's no point you get water in your tap. You can't just buy a soap and use that water. But I do want to find a way to reduce that kumquat down as much as possible and, and you know what? I think I'm almost there. I'm so, so excited about this one because it's going to bring all the salt naces over to to this body wash concept. But then again, it has to be good, and I've been doing this for so long. Like I think my husband will be standing out there going she's it's still going to be at least another three months when she's going to say that she's got a product that she can put onto the market. It's any.

Naseema Adam:

I am not saying I am my own worst enemy, but because it's not true. I don't believe that, you know, I believe, like I'm going to do it, I blow it the hard way. Where I did pull our product out, we pulled it back very, very quickly. That again we're going back to a challenge where I did pull it back very, very quickly because it wasn't right. You know, and I I'm I'm very lucky in that sense where I can do that and I can say well, it's not ready, pull it back, let's stop, let's hold it back, let's not even send these back or refund the customers that we have had and let's go back to fixing what, what isn't right, because it doesn't mean I'm very right. Of course I'm not very right. Nobody is ever going to get it right 100% of the time.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

It's having the ability to pivot really quickly, isn't it? Fail fast and make mistakes and then keep it moving? Tell me, Naseema. So women networking is really important and we were obviously introduced by, by women built, which is networking itself. How has that played a role for you as a founder to now reach out to other networks, other women, other women entrepreneurs, to sort of expand your horizon of what this business that you have built could be?

Naseema Adam:

so, um, you know, like with networking, like I said, this is me, that is me in my happy place. I love networking, I love talking, I love talking. I feel like it's quite, like it's quite vain to say I love talking about myself, my business, you know, my children, you know people have to stop me, like okay, and then I actively have to be like okay, let this person talk like I can hear like the in the back of my head. That's what I'm doing. Like you know, people have to stop me, like okay, and then I actively have to be like okay, let this person talk like I can hear like the in the back of my head. That's what I'm doing. Like you know, I'm thinking to myself like is, am I? Like, am I talking too much? But once I get animated and once I start, like you know, once I, once I start, it's difficult to stop me. So this is why, when I say networking is something that is like second nature to me, like I blame my mom to a certain degree, she would take me into these massive households and massive weddings and just sit me down and be like I'm gonna talk to all my friends and my mom is just as, just exactly the same. So she'll talk to all her friends and she'd just leave me to play or to get used to, and I didn't. I eventually I understood like how you, you know, you know how you manage a conversation, maintain a conversation, you know like, talk about interesting things, etc. Etc. And now I actually do have something interesting to talk about, so so we're all great. So, um, with regards to how I do that in um, in in with with networking, about Saaabuni, I have no shame in just bringing up the conversation, because why, why would there be anything where you tell me about you and I'll tell you about me, and and we might actually grow this in a in a really good way, like some of the best networking stories that I mean a really good one that comes to mind is a, a brand that I have made um products for. Uh, they are, um, they're a different kind of brand, more like a fragrancing company, like a home fragrancing company, and they wanted to venture out into making their own skincare. And I was like, yeah, absolutely, why not? You know, fantastic.

Naseema Adam:

And that conversation literally started off with her saying telling me, asking me, um, again, another female founder done really, really well for herself and she just asked me okay, so tell me a little bit about Savony. And that is genuinely how that conversation and and from there she was like, do you know what I really really have always thought about? Like, you know, my home fragrancing could become a cream. So we did a cream together. We did, I made it all compliant for her. In fact, I still make it for her whenever she, whenever she orders it.

Naseema Adam:

So, and that is the beauty of you know, women supporting women and businesses supporting businesses. You know, like, let's not forget, like you know, there's not just women, businesses out there, but you know, like, businesses supporting businesses, you can do it, you can grow together, you can take this journey together because of me, possibly because of me just wanting to put myself out there and talk about it. And you know, even having conversations like you know having we're having today, it just opens doors or it helps people grow, because I am one of those people that don't really it doesn't really bother me. Um, I'll just, I'll just have that conversation, that's just all. There's so many like I, I'm interesting and I used to be so much more interesting and talk about other things. Now I finally talk about saboni, but, um, it's, it has been such a good journey in the sense that other people have so many other things to add.

Naseema Adam:

And then and I love it, when people like the body wash idea came from again another one of my customers and said look, let's just try it it's about a year ago um, I said, just try it. What? What's gonna happen if you don't? I was like I don't know nothing and then I just tried it and we're going there to a product. So there's so many wins there. Like networking is so, so important. Um, just because even like talking about the challenges, like you know, like one of my closest friends is a business owner where we just sit there and we're like what is this day, how's your day been? I don't even. So we'll just catch up, like on a daily or maybe every other day, and we'll just all talk about how challenging this day has been or how not to have won, or et cetera. So I think it's very it's something that everybody should do or tries to do anyway.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

And especially if you're trying to grow your business, you have to be the storyteller talking about it. And I loved what you said about how you had a conversation with another business owner and then you were able to use your skillset to white label a product for her. I mean, that's another side hustle in itself, but that's you know, if all else fails, you can make products and formulations for for other people and charge for it as well. So that's that's really good insights. What does saboni mean?

Naseema Adam:

do you know, saboni comes from the word sabon and sabon, savon, soap. You know, all comes from that same word, which is soap, and saboni literally translates in Hindi. In Urdu as well, it translates to being soapy, so, and weirdly, it is something that came up in my shower as well, like I was salting myself and I was like, what kind of sabonis are we? But the word itself comes from the three letters S-A-P, which is a sap, and the sap number is what? Every single salt, so every single salt. This is so interesting, by the way. Every single salt has a sap number, which is a saponification number, and each of each salt has its characteristics, whereas how hard it is, how much larvae you're gonna get, you know. So it has like five or six different characteristics of a soap and that has a number, and that ultimate number becomes the sack number and it all comes from the chemical reaction, saponification, which is what happens money makes.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

I love that. I mean Naseema getting all geeky about soap. Who knew?

Naseema Adam:

When I read I like it. Yes, do you know how? You asked me what does Saaabuni mean? I'm a linguist because obviously I studied French in the university and then I was German and Urdu at home, gujarati at home, arabic a little bit. So I love looking at the history of words.

Naseema Adam:

So, again, something else that I like, I found like I like to, it's this curiosity. It's gonna be the death of me, it's gonna be like actually get me somewhere, but I, and so I asked I was like, where does this word come from? What does salt mean? What is? Why do people? Why are the words so similar? Why are everybody using like similar words here? And then I looked into the history of these words and I realized I was like, oh my god, and it was like, it's like almost like a mic drop moment. It's just, sadly, it just takes too long from getting somebody from salt to some funification. I need to like reduce that amount of time and then stand up on a stage and do it and then that one line and then I'll drop my mic and I'll walk off.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

Exactly, but no, there is always a story in the brand name, isn't it? That's like the most important part, and sometimes the one that takes the most time, because you come up with the name and then you realize, oh, we can't register it because somebody else has it then, and then you have to start again, go back to the drawing board, but then you find a name and then it makes sense and it resonates and it connects the dots for the storytelling which is important for your business as you grow it. I think that's great to see. You talked about working with your husband. So you're a founder and you work with your partner. How are you able to divide and conquer? Because I feel like I can now hear what your specialties are in one part of the business, but how are you able to divide and conquer and share the roles to make sure that you are making the best of you as the female founder but also honing into his skills as well in the business?

Naseema Adam:

so my husband is a buyer by trade? Um, yeah, so he, he was ahead of buying when he got, when he took rid of, when he he was made redundant and the way it works and he's going to actually be like this is 100% what happened. I do all of the stuff that I enjoy doing, right, you?

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

saw as a founder.

Naseema Adam:

And then he picks up everything else. I just drop, like the other day, day we're having a supplier week. This week, every single supplier, bar none, has we've had issues with and I don't know what's going on. I think they've all banded together and decided to give us loads of free um. And he came in and he said he wrote my story. That was this we've ordered 250 bottles and 90 of them were smashed.

Naseema Adam:

Um, he came in, um and he came upstairs where I work and here where I was working, and he goes nanta bottles out of 250. I was smashed and that's just one part of the order he goes. I'm not even telling you what the rest of it. I just looked at him, dead pan in the face, and I said sort it out. And he just, I know, and that was it. He was like and he goes yeah, yeah, I'm sorting it, don't worry.

Naseema Adam:

I just thought I'd tell you I'm like, and today is not the day, naeem, like not the day. Do not do this to me today but genuinely, if I can say, this is why we yin and yang of each other, because if I can honestly say that man has picked off everything that I do not enjoy, he doesn't enjoy it either. He will be the first person to say he looks after my social media Like he. The page you see is made by him and he absolutely he does not enjoy that at all. But he knows for a fact it's probably the health that I'm married to him. But he knows for a fact that I am not going to pick this up Like it just won't happen, so he'll just he happen, so he'll just he'll just do it. He's really good like that, like you know, like he will just like pick it up and he'll be like right, okay, and he does it well. You know, like he, he's taken what's in my brain, this, like you know, tornado of ideas that are in my brain, and he has really done it really well onto our social media, our website.

Naseema Adam:

I know he's used the Shopify platform, but he does that too. He does that back end of it. You know, production wise, that's all me and I love production because I've been in production lines a lot. I've risk assessed hundreds of production lines, so I will do, like, all the inventory side of things. So we have a whole lot of ground when it comes to the manufacturing and the production and the formulating and all of that side of it that we do cover a lot of ground. That's not to say we wouldn't happily give, like, give this over. You know, when the business grows like I think the first thing that's gonna go is social media, like, yeah, take it, but like it's like, but it's not that we don't.

Naseema Adam:

We have this vision and because we have been on the back end of it looking at how other businesses have done it and we've been quite lucky like that, like I say, like we are in and around businesses, many, many small businesses. Like you know, I see how other people do and do it well. So, and he he himself as well. He's again growing up in the 90s, working in the noughties and having this long career as a buyer and then a head of trade and looking at, you know, for big companies as well, like you know, microsoft, and that is like he's like oh yeah, I spoke to this person today, um, but yeah, so he, we see how other people have done it and we, as a small business, we have big dreams like that.

Naseema Adam:

Like you know, we have like high standards together. So he has high standards for our social media and I have high standards for our products and you know so. It all fits into each space, like into this big jigsaw that is like a Saaabuni jigsaw. Like you know, ultimately they will sell Saaabuni and it just gets bigger and bigger. There's a nice visualization there, nesima, but anyway yes so, yeah, so it really does.

Naseema Adam:

Like I can honestly say, without him, genuinely, like without me ranting at him sun up to, sun down, this business would cease to exist. Um, you know, like genuinely and I can't say that, I'm not just saying it because he's probably going to listen to this but I, I genuinely believe that, like we call it, yeah, it's finding that balance and really, Naseema, it's about enjoying that journey, isn't it?

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

right now, you are a startup business. You are growing, so you're having to do everything. You're having to divide and conquer. You know you're having to focus on what your strengths are and his strengths are. So it's also important to tell that story, because I'm so tired of the narrative on social media of people not telling the real stories of how they're growing their business, what actually happens behind the lines, the fact that you actually have to do everything in the business and wear many hats, and it's good to give that realistic vision and and view as well it's so true.

Naseema Adam:

It really frustrates me when these glossy looking businesses like and do you know what? Like? It's sad, though, isn't it?

Naseema Adam:

the algorithm is like that if it doesn't yeah so it needs to, and you understand why these businesses do that and then pummel this money into it. And, yes, you know social media and you know the way, but you know the, the closest ambassadors and the closest people like that have joined this journey to to me, and there's, you know, we're a growing community, like there's always people that I love this and this is why I do these things, like I talk to people like yourselves and I, because it's so necessary and it's so the amount of engagement I got on those broken bottles, on my, my social media that day. And you know, like, because it's honest and it's true, I'm not singing as, like I'm not talking as a story and I don't do that. I'm not that person. In fact, like I say, like I try to keep, like I try to enjoy every aspect of it Because, at the end of the day, we're here and we're able to.

Naseema Adam:

You know, there are many, many people in the world out there, you know, with, with the way these things are now, where they can't do that, they can't that, they can't sit in, you know, in the living room having these conversations.

Naseema Adam:

So I am very lucky, I am very blessed. I have got, like you know a thriving household and, uh, where I'm doing, where I'm wondering what we're going to have for lunch, like because it's now half 12, you know, yeah, because they're all sitting there and they're all going to be wondering when's mom coming in and cooking, and you know, and that's um, and that's one bit, that he won't pick up, I know, because he doesn't know how to do these things as well as I do, but, and it's great, it just all falls apart in the parcel and I've loved every part of it. Like you know the way we run things by each other, like ships in the night, where we just go past each other and he'll shout something and I'll shout something, and it'll just be an update on the business, and then we'll go back into our own little corners love it.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

So what is your looking ahead? What is your long-term vision for the brand and what's next, if you're looking the next three years?

Naseema Adam:

okay, so next three years? Um, I want to. I want to build some retail partnerships. Like I say, we've we've worked hard, we've built a strong partner foundation. I want to build some retail partnerships. Like I say, we've worked hard, we've built a strong foundation. I want to build a lot of retail partnerships.

Naseema Adam:

I don't see my brand being just an e-commerce business. I want it to be more accessible than that and I like that concept where people are able to pick up the bottle. I'm one of those people where again, put it back down to age I want to be able to pick up the bottle and feel it and smell it and like we're experiential buyers. I feel I want people to be able to have that experience when they are buying, not just when they're opening the box. So I guess that's where I see, by way of, you know, growing the brand I want to be able to maintain, get some wholesale relationships.

Naseema Adam:

I do like formulating for the business news. I won't lie, I don't think, um, I don't think I've ended that there and I will. I will try that. You know, like I said this first, the few that I've done I've done about four or five, and it just came through this sort of networking. I think somebody or somebody else I did it for we did um a giveaway together and then she asked me like you know she'll, will you be able to do? Do you think you'll be able to do this? I was like yes, and then I took that on. So you know, I don't think I've fully put that to bed.

Naseema Adam:

And then what I want, the dream not in the next three years, but then the long term dream for Savoni is to create this movement where there is joy and balance. You know that that is what, ultimately, that is what I've learned in all the years that I've done this business, in all the time before and where I was finding myself in my teens and my 20s and having children at the same time. I have no idea how I did, but you know, like you're wet, in that there is a joy in enjoying the moment, like enjoy that time, enjoy even the at the end of the day, go to sleep, wake up and drop it. But if you can, if that's possible, I've always said to my husband that I'll either it'll either be fixed with a burger or it'll be fixed with a good, nice rest. That's it. That's what I found.

Naseema Adam:

I found that about man, I'm so easy going like that, like I'll just be, like I just need to sleep on it. Once I've slept on it, I'm gonna wake up with a plan, and it's not like it's completely fixed, it's just I'm gonna wake up with right, we're gonna wake up with a good step forward. You know, a glass of water, a cup of coffee. We're done and we're gonna carry on and we're gonna forge ahead. I think, um, that's that's, and ultimately, and that's why it boils down to, isn't it? It's forging ahead.

Naseema Adam:

Uh, that's the dream for Sabune. We're gonna carry on because it's not like we've not had our challenges. We said more certainly have, but throughout it all, we've come out stronger. Um, and and I think that's what people sometimes forget that you're gonna come out stronger. You know you're gonna see yourself in the next couple of years and you're gonna to think like, oh my god, I survived this too. Um, your play is your play. It's always gonna have issues on it, because otherwise we wouldn't be in life. Um, and we all have that journey like it. Like I said before, that covid journey that we all went through. We all went through that journey.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

See it that way you're always going to be on the other end, isn't it?

Naseema Adam:

we are going to come out of you and you're going to be at the other end, isn't it? We are going to come out of the. You're going to come out the other end, because it's not the end and it never will be. You're going and, and, and there is that. Therein lies the joy. You're going to have to find that, that. That beauty in that chaos. That sounds like a trip in my brain. Beauty in the chaos I love that that's well.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

Yeah, exactly the taglines I mean you've got. You need to start writing these down, isn't it? Because they're going to be a very important part. Last but not least, so we end the podcast where we ask our guests to share three trailblazer takeaway tips to share with the audience in terms of things that you've learned. Your words of wisdom, nesima. What would they be forge?

Naseema Adam:

ahead. That that would be. If it's a tip, then then that's a sentence just keep going and even if it is going towards the end of your journey, even if Saburi ends I don't know where this is going to go in the next, you know, I know where I want it to go but even if Sab somebody ends, but even then, enjoy that more. Enjoy that time, because otherwise you're going to go, you're going to be living in that fear that it might end. So many times this last year, during my husband's redundancy, I thought about it in my head we're a bootstrap business and then and therein lies it, therein it lies that Enjoy, try and enjoy it, no matter how stressful it is, try and enjoy it. Forge ahead. And there is beauty in balance. There really is that the internally, externally, on your skin, on your hair, you know, whatever it is, the beauty is in the Naseema, thank you so much for your time.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

You are an entrepreneur, a wife, a mother of amazing children. You are doing the research and development formulations for your own brand and you're clearly enjoying the journey, which is brilliant, and it's great to have you share your story and hopefully it's inspired someone. So, thank you so much. I will link in the show notes of where to find your product the Instagram tags and everything so that they can follow you as well. But, yeah, thank you so much, thank you.

Naseema Adam:

Thank you for having me. Thank you, say it again sorry, I think we broke off there a little bit, but thank you so much for having me, like I say you, giving me such a good morning, like end to the morning, because this is me in my happy place talking to people and yeah, you know what like say hello. If you find Savoni on the Instagram to say hello to me, it will be me saying hello because I just this is how much I love networking- love it.

The Trailblazers Experience Podcast :

So for the audience. This has been the Trailblazers Experience podcast. You know where to find us. Do me a favor, tell a little woman about the podcast and remember to follow, like, subscribe and share. On that note, thank you.