Duafe Designs - Ayodele Kinchen

#066 - Today our guest is Ayodele Kinchen, a gifted and self taught artist, designer, and visionary.  With a keen eye and talent for design, she finds joy creating wearable art that transforms the everyday woman into a Queen, and aims to design pieces that heal, encourage, honor, and beautify the mind, body, and spirit.

Her business started by making things for herself - handmade goods like jewelry, home decor, clothing, and handbags.  People started asking, “Hey, where'd you get that from?”  So she started making stuff for other people.  But, when she started making waist beads, her business exploded.

“I have been wearing them since I was a child.  I knew and understood the traditional practice of wearing them so I felt if I decided to actually make them for others, I can equip people with additional knowledge and context behind why they're worn.  So I felt really good about adding that to my collection of goods, however, once I added that as a collection of items that I would include under my business name, it took off like crazy. And it's basically, it took over my entire business making handbags and jewelry and everything else.”

We thought we were talking to an artist, but found out we were talking to a culture keeper, a change maker, a healer, and a counselor.  Ayodele’s customers love her, evident by the repeat bookings for private parties.  But, the best compliments have come from the women who told her she literally changed their lives, one actually calling her a healer.

Be sure to listen to the whole interview to hear how Ayodele bet on herself - leaving her full time 9 to 5 while pregnant with her 3rd child and never looking back.