Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi world! I’m Althea Branton and my pronouns are she/her. I am the Founder and Skincare Designer of Althea Branton (my name kind of sounds like a designer handbag, let’s be real). We’re launching a genderfluid skincare line for Black and Brown bodies in 2023.
Can you tell us an achievement that you’re very proud of?
I’m proud to say that all the funds I needed to launch this line, I raised them on my own.
Yes, yes, it sounds really individualistic. But given through in the last couple of years, I’m really really, genuinely grateful that I was able to gather the resources that I needed to bring this to life.
Can you speak to a piece of advice that you could offer others who would like to follow in your path?
Don’t let anyone tell you you can’t… or that you lack knowledge… or anything for that matter.
I’ve learned in this entrepreneurial journey that a lot of the support out there assumes a few things: it assumes you lack knowledge, and it assumes you lack resources, and let’s be real, it assumes that you just lack overall.
But the truth is, for most of us who choose this path – who choose to want to own and operate our own businesses, we come with an inherent set of skills that aren’t recognized.
For example, a newcomer has gone through the process of arriving in this country, including countless hours filling out forms and showing up to meetings and interviews, which is a huge thing.
Those skills can totally be transferred to running a business. But nobody recognizes that. It’s written off as “you don’t have Canadian experience” or “you don’t have the entrepreneurial mindset”; a lot of which is rooted in capitalism.
But the one thing that I would say is [this]: you have so much already to run a business. Don’t let anyone tell you that you don’t.
What’s kept you motivated and feeling inspired during the harder parts of entrepreneurship?
For me, it’s the people I’m serving. Because our skincare line has a very specific audience, a very targeted audience. I’m here for them.
I’m not here to make investors look good, or be a token example of anything. I’m here to serve my people. And that’s it.
Is that why you decided to pursue your business?
Yes. At the beginning of the pandemic, when everything was shut down – schools, stores, like everything was shut down. And this is when nobody really knew what COVID could do or how serious it was.
And I started to think, you know what? We’re literally staring death in the face every [single] day.
So if we’re going to stare death in the face every day, I want to know that what I’m doing with the rest of the time that I have left on this earth is something that I adore; is something that makes my heart sing; is something that resonates down to my soul’s toes.
Tell us more about your passion for your business.
I mean, skin care is my jam. I absolutely adore it. And I have always, always, ALWAYS had a thing for skin care.
I can remember buying a brand from Shoppers Drug Mart – it was called Rialto – and I absolutely adored the stuff. It smelled like a cucumber, sort of. I loved how it felt on my skin. I loved how it made me feel.
It was an experience. It was a moment where I could feel beautiful – just as I am. I could feel unstoppable, I could feel like I could do anything just by taking that time to take care of me.
With the products that I’m launching, a lot of that philosophy is behind it all. It’s more than just putting something on your skin to make it look pretty, or younger.
It’s pleasure. It’s joyous. And that, in itself, is a revolution.
It’s saying no to everything that tells you that you have to look a certain way or you have to be a certain way. You don’t have to be any way but the way that you want to be.
Is there a message you’d like to share with other women entrepreneurs?
I want to encourage women entrepreneurs to not fall into the trap of believing that they have to look and act and comport [themselves to] be like their male counterparts. You don’t have to. A lot of that world is really rooted in toxic masculinity, in patriarchy, capitalism, kyriarchy.
[We’re told] If your business doesn’t follow a specific pattern or path, then it’s not going to work. We have to create spaces for ourselves to think and imagine and create.And instead of “I need a 10 point business plan that’s going to give me 3% growth every quarter” (which is great, if that’s what you want to do) we need to create spaces where women can just be women.
Why did you sign up with the Canadian Women’s Chamber of Commerce?
I have been a member of other Chambers of Commerce. With other chambers, there was nothing that really spoke to me.
I found the Canadian Women’s Chamber of Commerce was really about advocacy for all women. Sometimes the business space can be monochromatic [or] it’s not the most inclusive space in the world. There’s certainly a lack of representation.
As a queer Black woman, I don’t necessarily fit into all-Black entrepreneurial spaces. But within the Women’s Chamber of Commerce, I felt seen. I felt heard. I felt like my contributions and my experiences actually mattered, and that somebody would represent my voice.
How can our listeners reach out to you, and what can they reach out to you about?
So I actually have two businesses, because I started a business to fund my business.
I raised my own money to fund my skincare line, because all the grants and whatever [else is] out there in the world totally didn’t work for me.
My skincare line is eponymous – Althea Branton. So you can go to altheabranton.com to sign up for the waiting list. The business that I started to fund this business is a creative consultancy called Transpose.
Tell me about Transpose!
Transpose is a creative consultancy. I do brand strategy and consulting for businesses owned by queer & trans people of the global majority and that serve people of the global majority. I do a lot of work in the underrepresented space.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length
Contact Althea at: www.altheabranton.com , https://instagram.com/althea.branton
Learn more about Transpose at www.transpose.today , https://instagram.com/transpose.today