Ajayi Azubuike Reflection

Challenge & Selection

I am the cofounder and CEO of a new social entrepreneurship called USCG hair care and  extensions. USCG is a hair company that not only sells hair extensions, but also uses products as  a platform to promote breast health awareness to the population of African American women. After  finding out that African American woman face a 40% higher mortality rate due to breast cancer than any  other racial or ethnic group, even though they are not the highest diagnosed group, my cofounder and I  wanted to do something to help lower the rate. We learned that factors like late detection, improper  follow up care, and general access to health resources were a few reasons for the high mortality rate.  We decided to create USCG and use it to spread breast health information to other black  women. This is how USCG was born, we use hair products to serve as an unconventional  avenue of exposure to inform women about breast cancer and breast health information. For every  order that is purchased from USCG, a portion of the proceeds goes to creating better access to  breast health services for African American women. As a new startup, our challenge is spreading the  importance of our message and the value of our mission not only to our consumers, but also to  investors. The hair extension industry is a billion-dollar industry, but it is also a saturated industry with  many hair extension companies already in existence. Our challenge is communicating to investors that  our product is profitable and that our unique business concept will make USCG stand out from  our competitors.

The tool we employed to help us with this challenge was storytelling. Storytelling is a great tool that  allows a business to convey a message by allowing your audience to emotionally connect to your topic.  When presenting statistics, especially health statistics, it is easy for people to just see a number, rather  than what the number really represents and how many people are impacted. Our business is founded  on the statistic that African American women have a 40% higher mortality rate from breast cancer than  any other racial or ethnic group. We chose storytelling because we knew that with our audience of  mostly male investors who may not identify with the racial and ethnic group we were targeting,  storytelling would be the best way to humanize this statistic and cause our audience to feel deeper  empathy for the issue we were presenting.

Application

When pitching our business concept to investors we were often hounded with medical questions about  breast cancer, the connection of hair and breast cancer, or about the hair industry in general, rather  than questions about our main goal of decreasing the mortality rate for African American women  through awareness. We realized we were not connecting our audience to our main point and how our  product could solve it.

We went on the search for a story that would engage our audience of investors and paint our company  to be a cause that they should invest in. While executing pop up shops for our company at several  historically black colleges, we asked our customers for stories about how breast cancer has impacted  their families that we could share. We spoke to a girl, who I will refer to as Michelle for the purposes of

this assignment. Michelle is a biracial, mixed with black and white, 20 something year old in college.  Michelle knew that breast health was so important since breast cancer is a disease that has plagued her  family. Michelle’s white grandmother on one side of her family and African American grandmother on  the other side of her family were both diagnosed with breast cancer when she was a little girl.  Unfortunately, only one of her grandmothers who was diagnosed survived, and that was her white  grandmother. Her African American grandmother lost her battle with breast cancer because of late  detection.

After hearing this story and getting permission form Michelle to share it, whenever we had the  opportunity to present our business concept we lead with this story instead of statistics. When  audiences heard about how Michelle, one woman with family members from two different races was so  greatly affected by the disparity in breast cancer mortality rates, audiences immediately payed attention  and were able to connect with the issue much quicker than when we lead conversations with statistics.  Follow up questions from our audience were geared more towards what could be done to fix this issue  so that less African American women would die from breast cancer, which set us up to continue pitching  our product that creates breast cancer awareness.

Insight & Approach

We realized that story telling was the best way to get our audience to pay attention to the most  important aspect of our business concept. We saw that story telling can be so powerful in connecting  audiences to the larger purpose. This was a grounding reminder to us about the core of our company’s  mission.  It also showed us it is important to really consider design tools in all aspects of our company  even when it comes to how to pitch it to investors.

Although the storytelling tool was a very successful tool for the challenge we faced, another tool that we  could utilize in conjunction with story telling is visualization. This tool could further enhance our story by  making our it even more tangible for audiences to understand. We could use pictures of Michelle’s  grandmothers to show our audience when telling the story. Another mode of visualization we could use  would be video, utilizing Michelle’s voice to tell her own families story. Visualization is a wonderful way  to make our story more concrete for our audience and create a lasting visual impression on them.


Ajayi Azubuike Reflection Challenge & Selection I am the cofounder and CEO of a new social entrepreneurship called USCG hair care and extensions . USCG is a hair company that not only sells hair extensions , but also uses products as a platform to promote breast health awareness to the population of African American women . After finding out that African American woman face a 40 % higher mortality rate due to breast cancer than any other racial or ethnic group , even though they are not the highest diagnosed group , my cofounder and I wanted to do something to help lower the rate . We learned that factors like late detection , improper follow up care , and general access to health resources were a few reasons for the high mortality rate . We decided to create USCG and use it to spread breast health information to other black women . This is how USCG was born , we use hair products to serve as an unconventional avenue of exposure to inform women about breast cancer and breast health information . For every order that is purchased from USCG , a portion of the proceeds goes to creating better access to breast health services for African American women . As a new startup , our challenge is spreading the importance of our message and the value of our mission not only to our consumers , but also to investors . The hair extension industry is a billion - dollar industry , but it is also a saturated industry with many hair extension companies already in existence . Our challenge is communicating to investors that our product is profitable and that our unique business concept will make USCG stand out from our competitors . The tool we employed to help us with this challenge was storytelling . Storytelling is a great tool that allows a business to convey a message by allowing your audience to emotionally connect to your topic . When presenting statistics , especially health statistics , it is easy for people to just see a number , rather than what the number really represents and how many people are impacted . Our business is founded on the statistic that African American women have a 40 % higher mortality rate from breast cancer than any other racial or ethnic group . We chose storytelling because we knew that with our audience of mostly male investors who may not identify with the racial and ethnic group we were targeting , storytelling would be the best way to humanize this statistic and cause our audience to feel deeper empathy for the issue we were presenting . Application When pitching our business concept to investors we were often hounded with medical questions about breast cancer , the connection of hair and breast cancer , or about the hair industry in general , rather than questions about our main goal of decreasing the mortality rate for African American women through awareness . We realized we were not connecting our audience to our main point and how our product could solve it . We went on the search for a story that would engage our audience of investors and paint our company to be a cause that they should invest in . While executing pop up shops for our company at several historically black colleges , we asked our customers for stories about how breast cancer has impacted their families that we could share . We spoke to a girl , who I will refer to as Michelle for the purposes of this assignment . Michelle is a biracial , mixed with black and white , 20 something year old in college . Michelle knew that breast health was so important since breast cancer is a disease that has plagued her family . Michelle ’s white grandmother on one side of her family and African American grandmother on the other side of her family were both diagnosed with breast cancer when she was a little girl . Unfortunately , only one of her grandmothers who was diagnosed survived , and that was her white grandmother . Her African American grandmother lost her battle with breast cancer because of late detection . After hearing this story and getting permission form Michelle to share it , whenever we had the opportunity to present our business concept we lead with this story instead of statistics . When audiences heard about how Michelle , one woman with family members from two different races was so greatly affected by the disparity in breast cancer mortality rates , audiences immediately payed attention and were able to connect with the issue much quicker than when we lead conversations with statistics . Follow up questions from our audience were geared more towards what could be done to fix this issue so that less African American women would die from breast cancer , which set us up to continue pitching our product that creates breast cancer awareness . Insight & Approach We realized that story telling was the best way to get our audience to pay attention to the most important aspect of our business concept . We saw that story telling can be so powerful in connecting audiences to the larger purpose . This was a grounding reminder to us about the core of our company ’s mission . It also showed us it is important to really consider design tools in all aspects of our company even when it comes to how to pitch it to investors . Although the storytelling tool was a very successful tool for the challenge we faced , another tool that we could utilize in conjunction with story telling is visualization . This tool could further enhance our story by making our it even more tangible for audiences to understand . We could use pictures of Michelle ’s grandmothers to show our audience when telling the story . Another mode of visualization we could use would be video , utilizing Michelle ’s voice to tell her own families story . Visualization is a wonderful way to make our story more concrete for our audience and create a lasting visual impression on them .