WhatWeCherish with Melaney Oldenhof (S8, E4)

Melaney Oldenhoff, Founder and Creative Director of WhatWeCherish, a curated market place for handmade accessories and home décor from the African continent.  Melaney shares how she pivoted from New York-based fashion stylist to joining the  vanguard of African design in Johannesburg. Her story is a testament to endurance and vision, championing artisans while navigating the intricacies of e-commerce and forging a new path for women-owned and black-owned brands. 

In our conversation, Melaney outlines her amazing journey from inspiration to launch and discusses the importance of knowing when to pivot. Melaney recently transitioned WhatWeCherish  from direct-to-customer to a business-to-business model, which has been instrumental in her mission to amplify the voices of African creators in the world's creative economy.  Melaney's journey is bigger than just selling products; it's a vision that centers new narratives about African creators and reinforcing Africa's leadership in sustainably designed products.

Melaney's journey will inspire you to be curious about what the rest of the African continent has to offer.

LINKS AND MENTIONS

WhatWeCherish is on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/whatwecherish/
Melaney will be happy to hear directly from you too - https://www.instagram.com/melaneyoldenhof/
Visit the company website and see the beautiful designs - https://whatwecherish.com/

Thebe Magugu - https://www.thebemagugu.com/

Rate and Review Shades and Layers on Apple Podcasts

Chapters

• 0:03 Curated African Luxury Marketplace
• 12:10 Transitioning to Business-to-Business Sales
• 17:05 Entrepreneurial Journey
• 25:49 Journey of Fashion Entrepreneurship

Transcript

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 0:03

Hello and welcome to Shades and Layers. I'm your host, Kutloano Skosana Ricci, and on this episode we are talking curated, sustainable African luxury. My guest is Melaney Oldenhoff, founder and creative director of what we Cherish, a curated marketplace for handcrafted design from the African continent. After a decade of working as a fashion stylist in New York City, Melaney is no stranger to being her own boss, except this time around. She is leveraging her work as an outside consultant and applying it, as she works directly with brands and presents them to the world. What we Cherish features brands that Melanie feels are never presented in the world's creative economy. They are well designed, women owned mostly black owned and sustainability focused brands from the African continent. In our conversation, Melaney outlines her amazing journey from inspiration to launch and discusses the importance of knowing when to pivot. Let's start at the very beginning of Melaney Oldenhoff's career.

Melaney Oldenhof: 1:11

I would like to go a little bit back in there. I mean, I spent the majority of my career as a fashion editor and wardrobe stylist, you know, being surrounded in the world of luxury and you know, even though this was very creative and I really really love all the experience that I did, I was for a decade in New York City. I was 10 years in New York and before that I was in Amsterdam. I studied in Amsterdam. I felt like something was lacking and for me, that really was like kind of the fast fashion sector that, in a way, was still kind of like incomplete for me personally and because I always worked as a consultant, I landed in 2019 literally in South Africa.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 1:54

Okay, oh, that's recent.

Melaney Oldenhof: 1:57

Yeah, that's not that long ago, I was pregnant, seven months pregnant. At that time I did most of my pregnancy in New York. My partner is from South Africa and I landed here and I saw like so much creativity and so much beautiful products and I was literally, like you know, fresh from New York. I didn't know much about Africa in general and I was like, okay, wow, like why are we not having any of these products overseas, because I'm sure that any of the people in my network will definitely love these products. So that's kind of like where I think it started brewing a little bit and I basically was looking also for kind of a new journey. I mean, I thought I said I've been a fashion editor and working in fashion basically my whole career and I was kind of had a little bit of the feeling of like, been there, done that, I want something new I want something different, and so I started the idea of building an e-commerce store and now selling these products overseas to Europe and to the UK.

Melaney Oldenhof: 2:59

So I started working and then COVID hit us very badly, you know, in 2020. So I had the time for like a very long maternity leave and also the time to start like writing on my business plan and my ideas that I had.

Melaney Oldenhof: 3:13

And that's kind of like the beginning of what we cherish, that I had this idea of like okay, I moved to the other side of the world. How can I stay also in contact, you know, with the US and with Europe, and I see all these beautiful products and I'm going to try this, you know. So it was coming from a very yeah. I mean, I don't know if it was naive.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 3:35

That's great. No, no, yeah, but you tell me, was it naive?

Melaney Oldenhof: 3:40

I mean I learned a lot. I mean I worked on the, always on the back end of, like creating imagery for e-commerce, but I've never worked. I was always a consultant, so I was always a third party, but I never worked inside the corporate Right that thing, knowing every single detail of, like different departments and what is needed. So I definitely have to say, like switching to entrepreneurship in the last two years I call it my personal MBA.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 4:06

I learned a lot Absolutely.

Melaney Oldenhof: 4:09

I mean, I'm not sure if, like you, know what is needed and probably like beginner's mistakes, but also the things that I just didn't have, the knowledge of right, and you just learn it.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 4:18

As you go along. Yes, yes, what were some of the mistakes that stood out for you?

Melaney Oldenhof: 4:23

Well, I feel like I'm still in the middle of it. I mean like, for instance I don't know if it really mistakes, but more like a learning journey where you know starting an e-commerce website I guess if it's just your own website, like something simple, it's quite easy. But being in South Africa, where you're dealing with like a lot of import taxes and high, high logistic costs If you want to ship things overseas, you know everything that comes with that import tax. And how do you implement these costs now into your product? Because your product is maybe, let's say, I don't know 20 US dollars and your shipping cost is 60 US dollars, just to give an example. Like nobody's going to buy your product, you know. So I needed a lot of time of actually becoming now a financial person, like diving into the numbers and speaking to people like how do you do this Pricing?

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 5:18

strategy yeah.

Melaney Oldenhof: 5:20

Yeah, pricing strategy. But also, like, how do I implement this into a e-commerce website that I've never. I didn't even know WordPress. I mean, I had to teach myself WordPress. I had to teach like everything from scratch. So what is SEO? What is technical SEO? What are all the things that come with e-commerce, digital marketing? So I learned a lot. I'm not saying I'm there yet, I'm still learning but for me, the journey was also part of what I'm really enjoying.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 5:50

Right, so you're still enjoying it.

Melaney Oldenhof: 5:52

But what is? I am, I am, but your question is like what is what we chair? So what we chair is basically started off as an e-commerce platform that was celebrating African contemporary design and arts and crafts in a more like luxurious way, bringing like a curated, contemporary luxury products to you or to the customer, with a sustainable angle in it of like supporting small businesses. Most of my friends are female owned, half of them are black female owned, so there's a lot of that involved in the whole package that I'm.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 6:33

Why was that important to you?

Melaney Oldenhof: 6:36

Why is it important to me? Well, I mean for me. I mean, even though I'm very light-skinned, like I'm coming from a mixed race family, so it's not just. It's not just. You know, I grew up in the Netherlands but I've experienced both sides, so I don't identify myself as only like as a white person, even though maybe, depending on where you are, Exactly it depends Exactly.

Melaney Oldenhof: 7:03

I know that's true, but for me I was always seen like I grew up in a very white environment where I was seen as exotic or as like different, because I had very curly hair and, like you know, bigger lips, but then I still have blue eyes, so it's like what's going on there. So I think that is definitely, if you go back to like the core, core, I think that's like part of it. I think also I grew up with a mother that was it's always been very involved in. You know, she worked in like a refugee center. She's like Hypno-terapist. So I come from quite an old hippie background. Right, right.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 7:40

I didn't want to use the word yes.

Melaney Oldenhof: 7:42

Yes, I didn't know the other way to describe it, but so I've always been very much in touch.

Melaney Oldenhof: 7:48

Like you know, my mother used to bring me to ashrams and, like you know, alternative unconventional yes yes, and like other cultures, and I think I always felt very, also attracted to that and I guess, coming to South Africa from the luxury industry in New York City in the US, I just saw that there's quite a lot of my experience that I can bring to the table here as well, right, that I can use in a positive way. And what I was mentioning before is like I definitely had that feeling of like. I don't know, it was almost a feeling of like. I'm not giving back it anyway, I just make people make look good and make them consume, but what can I do? That also fills me more as a person myself. So I'm not stepping out of the luxury industry. I'm not stepping out, you know, of the fashion and lifestyle, but I'm just doing more approach to it, yeah different approach of like conscious consumerism.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 8:44

Yeah, so yeah so I see that there are quite a few, not e-commerce only, but you know a lot of small brands like you have on your website. You know, with this approach of handmade, there's a whole movement of made in Africa. What do you think is happening there? What's this trajectory?

Melaney Oldenhof: 9:04

Well, I think that the influence of African design, like internationally, has always been there. I think in the past designers borrowed or maybe stealing just how you call it from African cultural heritage, depending on how you look at it.

Melaney Oldenhof: 9:22

And I think now we are more at a point, I mean, if I read articles and if I see what's happening that African fashion or an Africa, you know, has gained more global recognition, I think, and the influence is more recognized and seen, I think, now worldwide in the fashion industry. You know where I think it was always there, where you know, like lots of designs would go to Africa, would go to Morocco, I mean, think even back at like, if they're Saint Laurent, he was super inspired by, you know, north Africa. It was one of the first designers to use black models on his runway, maybe he was even the first, if I'm correct. And the use of like bold colors and patterns and, yeah, all this reflection of like African landscape, I think. So you know, if you look at Ankara and Kente cloth, how it became like, so popular and yeah, I just think that it's more like globally recognized now.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 10:18

Yeah, it's kind of like a natural development of and just also, you know, acknowledging where things come from.

Melaney Oldenhof: 10:26

Yes, exactly, exactly that whole movement. What you're saying, even if you, you know, if you look now at, like, folk business, you see that there's much more attention of like writing articles about African designers and like, obviously, like with the table, my Google that won, like the LVMH price, and like, yeah, you see more and you see, just, you see it just more everywhere. What you're saying, like it's definitely more on the surface, which is, which is beautiful, because I think that recognition is so deserved. I feel like I'm still so new in a country I haven't even traveled Africa yet like I can't say like I'm a speaker for, like you know, Pan-African, but I do love, I do love artisanal work, I love craft, I love design and I just see a lot of it here.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 11:16

So I'm just working with what I which much.

Melaney Oldenhof: 11:20

I love yeah.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 11:25

Today's guest on Shades and Layers is Melaney Oldenhof, founder and creative director of WhatWe Cherish, a curated digital marketplace for sustainable African luxury. There is no doubt that there has been a proliferation of e-commerce platforms for African goods online, particularly handcrafted fashion and accessories, and in the next part of our conversation we discuss Melanie's take on the drivers behind this development. We also discuss how she recently transformed her business model and added more services for her clients, as well as why she considers what we cherish a collective. So the artisanal side of things. I see that a lot of African brands are focused on. I would say, then, maybe slow design, yes, and you know, of course, that brings with it its own challenges, because you can scale maybe as quickly, and then you have to charge a lot more for your goods, but then they end up getting consumed overseas instead of locally. I mean, how's that interplay working? Interplay working in terms of, maybe, the brands that are on your website as well.

Melaney Oldenhof: 12:35

So to give you a little bit of insight. So what I said, the original vision that I had, was like creating the e-commerce website and direct to consumer and then realizing also like how much money is needed in order to become high in the Google ranking and competing with all these big e-commerce websites. I realized when I was talking to the vendors and to the brands that there was actually just a lot of requests of like help needed for visibility overseas. So it didn't have to be specifically like an e-commerce brand, but an e-commerce website that could also be like help of like how do you photograph things for e-commerce purposes or for marketing purposes, right, pr, marketing, all the aspects that come with it. So I decided just at the end of last year, while I was looking at the website and everything, how things were going, that I decided to go more business to business Instead of like business to consumer, because with business to consumer, you also only sell like one item at a time. Now this item has to be made, this item has to be shipped and what you say, there's very high cost that comes with it.

Melaney Oldenhof: 13:53

So, again, part of the entrepreneurial journey of like feel an error, I guess, or not feel, but understanding better. Yeah, just trying things out what you can do. Yeah, trying things out. So I've decided to go more business to business because I work, because also I met more new people in the meantime and I'm really loving, like you know, the African contemporary design and like furniture and like what's happening out here is just amazing. So, yeah, so I'm working on that, like one of the brands from Ghana they I mean, I'm talking with them to becoming like a sales agency for them also. So just to push more volume to break and more to stores, for instance, instead of just the direct to consumer.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 14:36

Yes, oh, wow, ok, that's fantastic. So then that means you're getting into the whole sales space.

Melaney Oldenhof: 14:43

Basically, yes yes, yeah, which is a whole new. It's a new, a new part of the business plan. Like that wasn't I mean I had I had in my mind when I started the e-commerce site. I remember I had a talk with one of the vendors that does furniture and I was like it would be nice to have like kind of an agency aspect of what we cherish as well, so that it's really like a platform and not just a shop, you know, and really being able to like tell the stories of these brands and like why it's so beautiful. And yeah, I think what I was talking with her. I already had a conversation, but now it's coming more actively on my path.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 15:22

So I'm taking that.

Melaney Oldenhof: 15:23

That's exciting.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 15:24

Really, really exciting.

Melaney Oldenhof: 15:26

Yeah, yeah.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 15:28

You called yourself a collective. Can you tell me what that means in real life?

Melaney Oldenhof: 15:35

Well, well, I see I see a collective also as like collaboration, right, and I feel like it's not, like it's me, and then I am selling these brands. So it's about me, I feel like it's about us and I think that's the the collective part of like how I experience it, like, I really think that like also changing the perception of, like African goods, that one, one brand is not going to be enough to showcase or push or show what is out there. So I think as, yeah, so I think as a collective or as like a group, you can show much, showcase much better all the beautiful products that are being made here and that people don't know about yet, yeah, so what's their?

Melaney Oldenhof: 16:19

reception and also in the working, yeah, and also in the like working together with people, right, I mean, it's what I said. It's not like a one man show where it's like I'm telling you what to do with this, what we're going to do, it's a collective, it's like I'm working with you, you. I also see I don't say vendors, normally as a partners, because I feel like we do it all together to to work on this, you know, to work on this showcasing all these beautiful goods from from Africa.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 16:46

So how did you land your first client?

Melaney Oldenhof: 16:48

Oh, Well, how did I land them?

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 16:51

Yeah, Like did you decide? Okay, these are the companies that need to be showcased. I'm going to approach them, or yeah.

Melaney Oldenhof: 17:01

It's actually kind of a cute story if I have the time. So when I met my partner in 2018, I was still living in New York City I was visiting South Africa because I was here for a job I was working at the time at the OTR2 tour for Beyonce and Jaycee and I came to South Africa basically just for that. So we met and, okay, we started spending time together and then he came to New York City because he was working for Afropunk at the time and he came to New York City because the Brooklyn Afropunk was coming up and he brought me a little wooden top with shea butter from Ghana and I was like.

Melaney Oldenhof: 17:46

and I was like, oh, this is so beautiful. And he's like, yeah, a friend of mine gave it to me, Maria McClory, of course. How did I know? So he brought it and I was obsessed with the look of that. I was obsessed with the look of the product. It was like a bamboo top and it was all in gray.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 18:04

Yeah, I've seen it, it was so pretty, yeah.

Melaney Oldenhof: 18:07

And at the time I thought by myself and this was before I even knew that I was going to move to South Africa I was like, oh, maybe I should start an Amazon shop, because we don't sell this here. This would do so well. So already these thoughts were there.

Melaney Oldenhof: 18:22

And then when I started doing research way further I fast forward in the story when I was in South Africa, I started doing research and I went back to that brand as well to look at them and I wrote them. I created a presentation of how I wanted the website to look like and what my vision and my mission was for my e-commerce platform. And they said yes, and so they were actually the first also to sign on with me and yeah, so the response was positive. But then the real work started. What I said I basically started reaching out with a concept to defenders and they said yes, and they loved the presentation and everything. And then it was like okay.

Melaney Oldenhof: 19:08

Then I thought, oh, maybe I need like eight months to put this together, and that became closer to two years to get it all sorted. But we're up and running now. The website is online, it's there and I think it's something that people can order. But what I said like the focus from my entrepreneurial journey is going more towards business to business, which means that I am basically switching over more to like a wholesale agency and also reaching out to like interior designers and architects to showcase the products that are here and they are often longer they are longer, and it's just a fact.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 19:57

It's just infrastructure also yeah.

Melaney Oldenhof: 20:00

Yeah, it's just infrastructure and like I can't. You know, I know a lot of people are working on this to make changes, but like I can't change this overnight, so you also have to roll with what you have, and I think architects and interior designers that there's a lot of them that don't know how many amazing stuff there is here and by reaching out to them, I started working from this year on like a big digital lookbook that I will start like sending out so that if people have projects that they work on with lead time, we can actually produce these products and it's still slow fashion then in a way, exactly, yeah, oh that's really really great.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 20:42

Yeah, and you know how have you been received in Europe and the UK, your target market.

Melaney Oldenhof: 20:48

Well, it's funny, I got to. I think the US is, I think Europe is quite open to it, but I also do everything by myself with a couple of people, but not like you know, it's not. I'm still in the startup phase, that's not. Let's just be real right. So I mean, wwd wrote a little mentioning article and there was another website from yeah, they wrote a little article when I launched which I was like oh my gosh. And then I'm like this is real now.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 21:19

Right yeah, the fashion Bible has written about working cherished.

Melaney Oldenhof: 21:26

And then there was a website in LA that also gave me some attention, and now you so you know, I mean, I think I also, yes, but I also really believe in like organic growth. I don't think there is such a thing as like overnight success.

Melaney Oldenhof: 21:43

I mean unless maybe I don't know, some big investor is now like, okay, let's invest in this, then you maybe see some suddenly like a big visibility. But I really believe in like organic growth and I still myself have to get to know a lot of vendors, reaching out to a lot of vendors. You know portfolio growth. There's so much to do and what is interesting is like that I thought originally that I would only go to the US and Europe and then I also partnered up with a brand from Mozambique that does amazing like social, responsible work and also asked me, like Mel, like you know, you're so good in talking to people and like can you not just like sell me in South Africa? And I did a pop-up shop just to try it out and it sold actually quite well and I was like, oh wow, there is also maybe a market here as well, Like why am I only looking at the other side?

Melaney Oldenhof: 22:38

You know, the grass is always greener at the neighbors right, so I was like wait, wait, there is also possibility here. So again, this all happened kind of last year, because I was only online for like a year. This all happened last year. So this is a switch happening where, like now, I also start talking to people here, to start creating things for here as well, which is very, very nice.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 23:08

That things go like that. I would think it's probably better than international shipping, because it's so hard to you know all the brands.

Melaney Oldenhof: 23:15

I speak to it's man, you know. Right, but I still believe that. I really believe that if it's the right person listening, I really believe that there is, you know, a growing popularity in. You know there's a growing popularity in African arts and aesthetics. There's a growing popularity in sustainability. After COVID, there's a rise in what you say in consumer demand for, like artisanal and handmade goods. I really believe there's an under curated market. You know, if you look at marketplaces that that are the leading ones, like Etsy and Amazon, they're not curated.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 23:55

You know it's all like, if you, I remember yeah, everybody and anybody.

Melaney Oldenhof: 23:59

So that was also my thing, I think. Coming more from like a fashion background, I was like I see so many beautiful things like why are they not curated in the same space? You know, why are they like kind of getting lost, maybe on an Etsy because they don't know where else to to showcase their products?

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 24:18

so yeah, yeah, so what are your ambitions for this platform?

Melaney Oldenhof: 24:25

Oh, they're big Good let's hear it. I mean, I will be honest with you, I really would love to to become like the best you know sustainable platform in the B2B for African contemporary luxury products. So that is in, that is, in relationship to. That can be furniture and home, like lifestyle, but also for clean, beauty and accessories. I stepped out of fashion, I leave that to other people. But yeah, within the, within the home and lifestyle group, there's a lot there.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 25:04

That's amazing. I'm so excited for you.

Melaney Oldenhof: 25:08

Yeah, I have big, big, big plans, but you know, I know it will take time. It's nice, but it's nice to have dreams. You know, without dreams who's gonna?

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 25:18

oh, gonna make them right. It's not worthwhile. Yeah, absolutely. This is Shades and Lears, and it's now time to get into Melanie Oldenhoff's personal story and we will expand on how her experiences as a young woman growing up in the Netherlands have shaped her entrepreneurial journey. We will get into the Shades and Lears rapid fire and finally discuss Melanie's big dreams for what we cherish. You mentioned that you had quite an unconventional upbringing. Is there anything else from way back then that you can remember that pointed to how you know, like your career choice and how you ended up where you are today?

Melaney Oldenhof: 26:04

Well, when I was young, young, I want to become a doctor, a surgeon, and which is funny, I remember as a child I was even watching you know like operations and stuff, but I didn't make it to what do you?

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 26:22

mean you were watching operations and stuff.

Melaney Oldenhof: 26:24

Like when I was younger, I liked all those kind of things, like things that were related to like doctor and and surgeons, and my mother my mother told me that, yeah, I wasn't, but now I'm even afraid of getting a needle in my. So I don't think I would have been the best doctor, but I think I was always very individual, quite, I guess I mean collected. I remember when I was around 14 that I was in a quite preppy school, but then I would wear Dr Martens with with with flowers and rip port pens and and a leather, vintage salmon color coat, like like this crazy outfit. So I think I always had like this sense of yeah, how do you say aesthetics, or like being attractive to aesthetics and to, you know, to beautiful things yeah to the beautiful things that I found beautiful right of course, at the time.

Melaney Oldenhof: 27:22

Yeah, and very independent. I mean I was a very independent child and you know I biked to school and I don't know it's hard.

Melaney Oldenhof: 27:33

I almost have to ask my friend. It's hard to tell about myself, but I definitely. It's funny what I just did. Last year I did an entrepreneurship course here in South Africa and one of the the one of the things that they made you do was you had to do a couple of personality tests to see what kind of entrepreneur you are, and so what came out of there is that I'm more like a hard-minded entrepreneur, so which, if I look at that, it's funny, because it came out of the personality test that it just basically fits with what I'm actually doing right now. Right, like, like collaboration. I like to collaborate with people. I don't like to work alone. I'm empathetic, yeah, like all these like elements that that comes to like more hard-minded or hard driven personality.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 28:25

So I think I'm in the right space yeah, yeah, yeah yeah yeah, yeah, the reason I ask is because of my next question, and it's to do with if you had to write a memoir right, you mentioned that your mixed race. You were something of an exotic kid when you were growing up, but you know, if you had to summarize your life and give it a title, what would you call it and why?

Melaney Oldenhof: 28:51

ooh, I didn't look at it from a childhood point of view.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 28:55

Oh, you can look at it from career, leisure career.

Melaney Oldenhof: 28:57

Yes, yeah, yeah like maybe from from from from career, I would say like something like fashion with purpose, a journey from Amsterdam to Africa, oh nice, um, because you know it started there. I mean, I studied fashion, uh, management and technology, um, so that's where I have a bachelor degree in and then I obviously moved to New York and from New York to Africa, so I can call it fashion with a purpose, like it's a journey, right, a journey of, of learning everything and yeah, yeah, fun.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 29:32

That's what I, what would come to mind, yeah and if you had to turn the book into a film, who would you pick to be the lead actress in?

Melaney Oldenhof: 29:40

that. Um well, I really love Tracy Ellis Ross. Um, I think she's very charismatic, she's confident, she's funny. She seems also like kind of an intuitive person similar spirit to yours, yeah yeah, and I mean this is just.

Melaney Oldenhof: 29:57

This is not talking for myself, but I think she's a beautiful woman, so I would be very honored if she would come to me and then maybe if it was my younger me when I was younger, maybe we'll be then Beesendaya or something. It's fashionable, funny, a little bit quirky. So yeah, but that's a question also, you started saying I love that.

Melaney Oldenhof: 30:24

You are a local A local now, yes, Five years, so it goes fast. I mean I'm already half of the time. I was a decade in New York and I'm half a decade here. So it's crazy how the time flies. Yeah, but people will say that when they get older.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 30:42

Yeah, of course I mean, and then once kids arrive, that's it, it's over, like your sense of time is just it's gone, yeah, yeah. Great. Is there anything that you would like to mention about what we cherish that you think maybe we didn't touch on?

Melaney Oldenhof: 30:59

I mean, I definitely think for people that listen to a podcast about entrepreneurship that it's nice to hear that it's not always roses and roses and lavender. Yeah yeah, I feel like often on the podcast and especially, as I can say, like often, the American ones. It's very much about what is it? The school of greatness?

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 31:21

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Overnight success yeah, yeah, yeah.

Melaney Oldenhof: 31:25

Like what's fair, what you see a lot or what you hear a lot, but it's not. And I'm like in the middle of the journey, you know, to make things happen. And as far as I enjoy the journey, I'm also very blessed and grateful that I have a partner that completely supports me, because, thankfully, he has a nine to five job, because I don't you know. And so, yeah, I think there's a lot of things that come with it.

Melaney Oldenhof: 31:54

That is really not that easy and, for instance, what I said, like when I launched the e-commerce shop, like in my head I was like, ah, I'm going to buy a BMW next week, you know. But like you know, for instance, you just think you launched it, you're like, oh enthusiastic. You think like, and now it's going to happen, and then it's just quiet, right, yeah. And now, like, how do you deal with the fact that things are not exactly as they are going by your plan? And I think, with my personality and the luck I guess that I have, that I've always been a freelancer is that I know how to hustle. Yeah, I hustle like no one else.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 32:36

Well, new York will do too right.

Melaney Oldenhof: 32:37

Yeah, new York will do too. So, no for sure. And especially as a freelancer, if you don't have like a full time job, you know, like you know getting clients continuing, continuing those relationships, like all of that, it's like it's so important. So so, yeah, I want to say like it's not always everything is not always how it looks like on Instagram, for sure, but I definitely, really, really still believe in what I'm doing Otherwise I wouldn't do it. I really believe that there is a lot of growth possible and, yeah, I have big visions. I have big still big dreams of where it can go, like you know someone, someone like Amira Rasu, who's doing the folklore.

Melaney Oldenhof: 33:18

Connect, yeah, amira, if you hear this, answer my LinkedIn emails, please. But you know, like someone like her, she's like a real example for me of like you know how to bring product overseas, how to bring it to the US, and but also, you know, when I look at those stories, it's like she also got like 1.7 million US dollar in like pre seeding funds. Right, I don't have that, I have been doing it all from scratch. So it's like it's those things also make a big difference. So I think, with with, we say, we say in Dutch like we roll with with what we got right, we wrote about what we got. So I think, as where I'm at now, I still feel very confident that there's definitely a lot of possibilities.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 34:06

Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's lots of possibilities. That's why I wanted to speak to you. It's very exciting. I mean, it's always these things that you're looking for but can never find, and yeah, well, I hope, I really, really, really hope that someone listening will approach you with big funds, you know finances.

Melaney Oldenhof: 34:28

I mean, is that a desire?

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 34:29

Yes, or you're just fine going organically.

Melaney Oldenhof: 34:32

I'm fine going organically. I mean, if I also, when I said listen to podcasts, I sometimes hear like stay away from the big money because it's not all like bring, bring always.

Melaney Oldenhof: 34:41

Yeah, they want shares and they want all these things from you as well. So can you still do your creative vision or your sustainable vision, what you envisioned originally? Can you hold on to that when you get, like, the big money? So I am actually happy to to start small and and start building and building a trusting place, and I really believe in like the right people come on your path when it's the right time. Absolutely, and yeah, that's that's my belief and I'm working with with that and all the all the vendors and businesses and the partners that I'm working with and they really believe in it too, and so I think that's what you need as a collective is that you have the same belief that what you're doing is the right thing.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 35:26

Great yeah.

Melaney Oldenhof: 35:28

Wonderful. I love that. Thank you, and where can people find you? Well, they can go to what we cherish dot com. They can go to the Instagram, which is at what we cherish. They can probably find me, melanie Oldenhoff, if they want to DM me directly.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 35:44

Why? That's it from me. Thank you so much for your time. I'm glad we could get this together, given the current challenges.

Melaney Oldenhof: 35:54

It is actually right now, no load shedding. Your morning, my early afternoon, so it's perfect.

Kutloano Skosana Ricci: 36:02

Yeah, yeah, thank you so much, yeah, and that is all from me this time around. All socials and other links are included in the show notes. Thank you for listening and for your ongoing support. If you found value in this episode, please share it with a friend. Thank you and until next time. Please do take good care.