00:01All right, Essence Fest, listen, we still have some amazing founders that you should meet.
00:07Now, I know that many of y'all are comfortable, but guess what?
00:11I have some good news for all of you, okay, as you are moving and shaking.
00:15For these ladies over here, right over here, I'm talking to y'all, they on their phones.
00:18I'm talking to you right here.
00:20Listen, y'all ladies just got upgraded to the front row, so I want y'all to come on up
00:25here
00:25so we can make sure, come on up, we ain't gonna bite you, come on up.
00:30Okay, you can handle business right on up here.
00:32Come on up here so we can have a nice show for our founders, all right?
00:36I appreciate you.
00:37Thank you so much.
00:38Come on up, ladies.
00:41All right, so as they are making their way up, like I said, my name is Quinn Conyers,
00:45and we're gonna have a fabulous conversation, more importantly, a product demonstration
00:49with some amazing founders.
00:50Go ahead, sit right here, okay?
00:52So up first, we have the one and only Courtney Kelly of Courtney Kelly Books.
00:58Let's give Courtney a round of applause.
01:04Joining Courtney, we have Grace Yeboah of True Face by Grace.
01:09Come on, Grace.
01:11Wearing her products in true fashion.
01:14All right.
01:15Also, we have Miss Irene Biko of the Good Good Shea.
01:22Let's give it up for the pants as well.
01:23Give it up for the pants.
01:25All right.
01:26So I'm gonna ask you to go right over this way in the middle for me.
01:29Right?
01:30Right here.
01:30Yep.
01:31All right.
01:32So we're gonna start with you, Miss Courtney.
01:34Courtney, can you tell us a little bit about some of your books, and why are you in the
01:38business of authorship?
01:40Yeah.
01:40So the books kind of tell that story.
01:42This is my first book, Celeste Saves the City.
01:44Little Celeste was growing up right here in New Orleans, and Katrina hits.
01:48And that motivates her to become a civil engineer who saves the city from flooding.
01:52That's exactly what happened to me.
01:54I was 14 when Katrina hit, and my parents put me into STEM camps after.
01:58I later studied civil engineering and math at SMU, followed by civil engineering with
02:02a master's degree, and later an MBA.
02:04But I realized that a lot of kids didn't understand civil engineering or construction at a younger
02:08age.
02:09Hence why I wrote the books.
02:10The first one, Celeste Saves the City, Celeste Tunnels on the Ground, and my most recent release
02:15just this week, Celeste Paves the Way.
02:17Ooh, I love that.
02:19I love that.
02:20And thank you so much for sharing a little bit of the backstory as well.
02:23Because you didn't just write one, you wrote three.
02:25Is that correct?
02:26Probably more than that.
02:27Yes, that is correct.
02:28These are the three that are released right now.
02:30They've been sold in over 16 countries, over 7,000 copies.
02:34And I have books that are still in the works, and I hope to release those soon.
02:38All right.
02:39Thank you so much.
02:40Grace, I am coming to you because I see you have some fabulous items with my name on it,
02:45or your name on it, depending on who makes their way over to her booth.
02:48But can you give us a little bit of background story on True Face by Grace, and tell us about
02:53the products that you have in front of you?
02:56My name is Grace.
02:57I'm the founder of True Face by Grace.
02:59So True Face by Grace is an accessory and jewelry brand.
03:02We are based in the DMV, and we sell bold, Afrocentric statement pieces.
03:09Like this necklace here, they're all handmade.
03:12Come on.
03:13We need a model for Grace, because I want you to show how it is.
03:15Who wants to be a model for Grace?
03:17Can we have someone who is willing to come up on the stage?
03:20We got the lovely Cheniere Dion, who's going to come up all the way from Baltimore, Maryland
03:24to serve as a model.
03:27All right.
03:28So I want you to walk us through as we're putting this on her.
03:31Let me know when you're ready.
03:33So we're going to show you, I'll show you how you can wear this necklace.
03:38You'll put it over your pants.
03:42Good evening.
03:43Good evening.
03:45Essence flexible of culture 2026 for Christmas.
03:48So this is flexible.
03:49We hope you have a lot of fun and joyful day.
03:53We want to allow you to close up all your pictures.
03:56So they mold to fit your frame.
03:59After a while, they relax to fit your frame.
04:01So in order for you to secure it, you've got to put your arm through it.
04:05And putting your arm through it also changes the style.
04:10So you can put your arm through as many loops as you want, and it changes the style completely.
04:16But that keeps us secure from moving around.
04:18So let's have her model it right here.
04:20Okay.
04:21Yeah, we're going to have Grace.
04:22You see her walking that runway?
04:24She look good with that one, don't she?
04:25She look good.
04:26Absolutely.
04:27Okay.
04:28Walking statement piece.
04:29That's it.
04:29That's all you need.
04:30This is what we call a conversation starter.
04:33All right.
04:33All right.
04:34Well, she's going to go ahead and give her the bag while she's at it.
04:36Go ahead.
04:36Talk us a little bit about this bag.
04:38So this bag is a new design of mine.
04:40Well, it's not new.
04:41We launched it last year at Essence, and it did very well.
04:45We sold out for a while.
04:46They take a long time to make.
04:48So we have different colors right now, and this is one of the new colors.
04:52So it's all handmade from thread, and it's just gorgeous.
04:57So she's going to model that as well.
04:58Okay, model.
05:00All right.
05:00She's a natural.
05:02Now make sure you come back, model.
05:04Don't keep walking now.
05:07All right.
05:07Thank you, Shanere, for showcasing.
05:09Stay right here because you only got a couple more minutes.
05:11You can come right on up here and serve as Grace's model.
05:14We appreciate you.
05:15So I'm also modeling all I'm wearing as well.
05:19So all these are also available in my booth.
05:21Okay.
05:22Really quickly, tell us, where is your booth, Grace?
05:25It's just behind this construction right here, 5007.
05:30Just behind right there.
05:325007.
05:33Thank you so much.
05:34All right.
05:34I'm going to come to Miss Irene from that Good Good Shea.
05:37Now, you know it got to be good if she said it twice, right?
05:39So talk to us a little bit about that Good Good Shea and showcase your product for us.
05:44Sure.
05:45So that Good Good Shea, we sell all shea butter-based products, all natural, all vegan.
05:50And rooted in Ghanaian beauty traditions, we source our shea butter from Ghana.
05:54So you know that it's going to give you that moisture and that glow that you need.
05:58We actually have our refreshing citrus body wash here that is made with cucumber, lemon,
06:05grapefruit extract, and, of course, shea butter.
06:07So it's gentle and non-stripping.
06:10The body wash pairs very nicely with our exfoliating net sponges.
06:14So they're really long.
06:15They can stretch, give you a nice wash on your back and a gentle exfoliation,
06:20removing all that dry skin and making sure that you're ready for the glow and the moisture
06:24to come on after.
06:26I love it.
06:27Now, Irene, if people want some of that Good Good Shea, tell us really quickly,
06:30where can they find you, where can they purchase, where can they support?
06:33So you can find that Good Good Shea on our website, also on Nordstrom.com, on Amazon,
06:39and, of course, here today in BeautyCon.
06:42The team is there.
06:43You can find all of our products there, a large selection, and exclusive deals
06:48just because we're at Essence Fest this weekend.
06:51I heard exclusive deals.
06:52That means sign us up.
06:53I love it.
06:54Thank you so much for sharing your business with us.
06:56Ms. Courtney, I'm going to come to you really quickly.
06:58If people want to know more about your books and more about the stories that are in your books,
07:03where can they find you right here at Essence Fest 2026?
07:06Well, you can go right over there.
07:08My face is on a wall with a QR code underneath.
07:10But if you want to explore more of the collection,
07:12we have a booth right across from the Coca-Cola stage within the We Love Us marketplace.
07:17All right, all right.
07:18Now, Grace, take us home one more time for the people who might have forgotten.
07:21Where can they purchase your lovely pieces?
07:23So you can purchase these pieces from our website, www.truefacebygrace.com.
07:28That's for all social media as well.
07:30We are also at the We Love Us shop, so you can get pieces from there.
07:34And we are right around the corner there if you want to come and get some lovely statement pieces.
07:39All right.
07:39Well, I want to thank everyone for hanging around.
07:41I know it's been a long day, but can we give our fabulous founders one more round of applause?
07:46All right, everyone.
07:48Well, thank you so much for sticking around.
07:49Again, my name is Quinn Conyers.
07:51Don't forget, if you're going to be coming back here tomorrow, join us right here at the We Love Us
07:55stage.
07:55You're going to be an amazing other founders.
07:57And if you haven't already done so, if you're thinking about starting a business,
08:01you want to expand a business, and you want some support,
08:03please check out New Voices Foundation.
08:05They also have an activation right over here.
08:08One more time for our fabulous founders.
08:12All right.
08:13All right.
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