In Conversation with Harper Wilde
This interview was originally published through Harper Wilde’s newsletter and selected quotes were shared via Instagram.
Lola Adewuya is a Houston native, ardent nap enthusiast, and founder of The Brand Doula, a creative agency building beautiful brand experiences and bridging disparities in the design world and entrepreneur space. We’re honored to have had a conversation with her about how The Brand Doula began, where it’s going, and how we can collectively uplift the largest growing group of entrepreneurs — Black women.
What does Black History Month mean to you?
At my college, we actually called it “Black Legacy Month” instead of Black History Month, and I continue to carry this with me even after graduating. I think the word “legacy” takes into account not just what has happened in the past but also how that history continues to shape our present and will shape the future. Our stories are connected across time and space. So to me, Black Legacy Month means honoring those who came before us, pouring into those of us who exist today, and investing in creating better Black futures.
Tell us about The Brand Doula! When and why did you start it? How is it going? What’s next?
The Brand Doula is a creative agency that designs immersive brand experiences for forward-thinking businesses. I always laugh when people ask me when I started The Brand Doula because when I created it I didn’t have the sense to actually document the exact day I considered the business to have “begun.” I usually go with January of 2018, which is when I took on my first client as a freelance designer in my sophomore year of college. About a year later, I transitioned from a self-titled business to The Brand Doula because I had started to envision it as a studio with a team and didn’t want the brand to revolve around me.
Why did I start The Brand Doula? In the poignant words of the late André Leon Talley, “The famine of beauty, honey!” Nothing makes me itch like a janky website experience or a glitter logo! In all seriousness, I don’t think the “why” behind The Brand Doula actually emerged for some time. What came first was the fun. I found out that there are people whose entire jobs are to design the look and feel of companies and I realized that was what I wanted to do. Even though I didn’t yet have the words to describe it, I knew how important experience design was becoming for businesses. A compelling brand experience is often the difference between a company that grows a cult following and one that fades into the crowd.
When I started freelancing and immersing myself in the world of business and entrepreneurship, the disparities in resources and knowledge for women of color who wanted to pursue business ownership versus our white counterparts were so apparent. For example, Black women are the largest growing group of entrepreneurs, but are the least likely to be funded by investors by a long shot. We are under-resourced in so many ways and excluded from a lot of communities in the startup space where knowledge, resources, and support are shared to help founders succeed. When you don’t have that built-in network to guide you, it’s easy to miss things that are integral to your business’s success — like proper branding and marketing.
Attempting to use my skills to fill these gaps has become a driving force for The Brand Doula. I think The Brand Doula is seen as a trusted resource for women of color, and for Black women especially. We’re one of the few sources of support that is truly in their corner and operates with their experiences and goals in mind.
Things are going really well and keeping me busy. I have so many ideas and such a clear vision for where I want things to go. I won’t say much about what exactly is coming because I made a promise to myself to stop pre-announcing things before I actually do the work, lol! The most challenging part right now is prioritizing and staying focused.
Do you have a mentor that’s impacted your life or career?
I’ve found mentors and guides in so many things and people in my life — oftentimes from people I’ve never even met. I think there are lessons to be learned everywhere if you go looking for them, and it doesn’t always have to look like a formal mentor relationship.
That being said, I see so much of myself and who I am becoming in my mom. I grew up in an environment where nights and weekends were spent creating and making art. For as long as I can remember, my mom was always doing something creative outside of work. In fact, she had some pretty distinct eras. She was a pastel artist, then a book binder, then a fiber artist, and now she’s exploring her passion for fashion design. And each of these were pursued with such an intensity that you’d think they were her actual full time job! There was no such thing as half-assing it. If she was going to do something, she would have to buy stacks of books on the topic, take hours of classes, and get the highest quality equipment to see it through.
Without ever saying it explicitly, she taught me that creativity and art is something worth investing in.
This has no doubt influenced where I am today. I pursue my own flavors of creativity with the same fervor that my mom does, and right now it’s manifesting in the development of an entire business. I think the only difference is that my mom likes to work with her hands, and I much prefer creating digitally :)
There’s so much more I could say — like the fact that she also ran her own business for over a decade and raised two children from that income. And although she probably wouldn’t call herself an entrepreneur, I know that my entrepreneurial spirit comes from her as well. I’m extremely grateful to have had a bit of an eccentric upbringing that allowed me to flourish in so many ways!
How do you center Black joy in your everyday life?
I feel like I take a very Aquarius-esque approach to this. Centering Black joy in the everyday often means exercising my independent thinking and agency whenever possible to do things that make me feel good. This seems small, but I religiously take naps. Like, everyday in the middle of the day. At times, it feels like an act of resistance. It’s my way of saying “all of these to-do’s and should-do’s will not rule how I choose to spend my time on this earth.” This is especially important to me as I balance a full-time job and my own business. Between the two, there are a lot of things to get done in a day and it's easy to be consumed by that reality.
I think rest is often made optional for Black women, like it’s something that has to be earned, and only if you physically or mentally cannot keep on going. Witnessing any form of ease or leisure in Black women’s lives still offends so many people to this day. I am very inspired by this generation of Black women who are so fiercely rejecting these ideas. I aim to remind myself everyday that rest and pleasure don’t have to be hard-fought — they’re a human right.
