796 Teju Owoye:

Wings of Inspired Business Podcast EP976—Host Melinda Wittstock Interviews Teju Owoye

Melinda Wittstock:

Coming up on Wings of Inspired Business:

Teju Owoye:

I think that it’s so important to connect people, for people to be in community, and to think of business as being a community versus, “Hey, what can I sell to people?” It’s, “How can I create?” “How can you be the conduit to self-actualization for your prospects?” Instead of like, “Okay, how do I get them to buy?” It’s, “How do I put them in a room with peers that will help them achieve their goals?” that will help them have rich conversations, that will help them pursue a mission or passion.

Melinda Wittstock:

I’ve been thinking lately, with all the debate about the impact of AI and our growing dependence on it, what does it mean to be truly human? What will AI never replicate? How can AI be used to free up time and space for us to truly embrace our unique and creative souls? And how can it spark the true community belonging we all crave? We get into some of that, and a lot more, today with Teju Owoye—multipreneur, branding maven, health and wellness expert. Teju is the force multiplier behind the clean beauty brand Clean Rebellion, growth marketing agency The Sulte Group, and also the wellness platform WellZest. She shares how AI is revolutionizing her businesses—and letting her focus on what matters most: community.

Melinda Wittstock:

Hi, I’m your host Melinda Wittstock and before we get going with this episode of Wings of Inspired Business, just a gentle reminder that in this ever-quickening timeline of instability and uncertainty to make sure you’re taking time for yourself, to find some inner peace. It’s hard if you’re an empathetic soul like me who cares about the welfare of others, wherever they may be in the world. Take a walk in the woods, a stroll at the beach, ground yourself in nature, uplifting music, and hobbies that bring you joy. Most importantly, don’t isolate yourself: Be in community and service to others, and remember all that you have for which to be grateful. Ok now to the show, and if you’re new here, this is the place where we share the inspiring entrepreneurial journeys, epiphanies, and practical advice from successful female founders … so you have everything you need at your fingertips to build the business and life of your dreams. I’m all about paying it forward as a five-time serial entrepreneur, so I started this podcast to catalyze an ecosystem where women entrepreneurs mentor, promote, buy from, and invest in each other. Because together we’re stronger, and we all soar higher when we fly together and lift as we climb. If you’ve been listening to any of the past 975 episodes, please help us get the word out about the show. Please subscribe so you never miss an episode. Tell your friends and colleagues, share the episode and leave a quick 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. We really appreciate it. Thank you! 

Melinda Wittstock:

Today we meet an unstoppable entrepreneur and growth marketing phenom who launched a clean beauty brand from her kitchen and built a game-changing wellness platform, all while running a Los Angeles marketing agency serving celebrities and SaaS tech companies alike. Teju Owoye shares how she’s built all her businesses, all infused with passion and purpose, to solve real problems for real people—and how she’s using cutting edge AI tools to free up time for authentic human connections.

Melinda Wittstock:

We go behind the scenes at her growth marketing agency, The Sulte Group, for key insights on how to automate your marketing funnels and why the handwritten note and community popup or event is likely the future of standout businesses. We also talk about how and why she built the beauty brand Clean Rebellion, voted the Best Multi-Use Body Wash by Byrdie two years in a row, and her latest wellness venture, WellZest, a platform that connects individuals to holistic health providers and wellness experiences worldwide.  Teju is also the author of The Audacity Journal, a guided workbook for ambitious women reclaiming purpose, confidence, and joy in their next chapter, and the host of the WellZest podcast. We also talk about the realities of entrepreneurship, the power of building resilient teams, and why blending technology with meaningful human experiences is the key to sustainable growth.

Melinda Wittstock:

Let’s put on our wings with the inspiring Teju Owoye.

[INTERVIEW]

Melinda Wittstock:

Teju, welcome to Wings.

Teju Owoye:

Thank you, Melinda. Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

Melinda Wittstock:

I think what you’re doing is nothing short of remarkable because are you a serial entrepreneur and a wellness innovator, but you’ve got a lot of things going on, right? We’re going to get to all of them, but the latest is Clean Rebellion. Now it’s a clean beauty brand. So, tell us about that because you’ve just recently launched that. 

Teju Owoye:

Yeah. I started Clean Rebellion from my kitchen. I was struggling with eczema and trying to use all of these different products for my skin, and they just were irritating my skin. So, I literally rolled up my sleeve, got a crock pot with organic olive oil and made my own soap. And, you know, gave it to a few friends, they loved it. And, you know, we’ve been so fortunate to continue to grow and expand the brand. We have launched on Amazon.

Teju Owoye:

We were sold at the Detox Market. We’re sold online and we’re working on launching and building new products. Really, the next evolution of the brand is to create products for the active woman, you know, so bath, body, skincare products, you know, for how women, you know, work out, you know, recovery products, so on and so forth. And it’s just been a joy to see the brand grow. I always say growing this brand has been my second MBA because D2C products and manufacturing, I mean, I’ve learned so much about manufacturing. I’m a marketer by trade originally and marketing and selling D2C products, the ad strategy, the customer retention strategy, all that is quite different and it’s been so fun to learn over the last few years.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. So many women create beauty and healthcare products generally based on some sort of challenge that they’ve had. I’ve seen this often, like a lot of our guests, you know, almost 1,000 interviews on this podcast now, right? Women entrepreneurs solve problems that they’ve experienced themselves and they see a market for. And then a lot of the dudes are like, wait, this isn’t a big market. But then it is, it’s a huge market, right?

Teju Owoye:

Right, right. Totally. Every business I’ve started, it’s honestly been because of a problem that I’ve had. Clean Rebellion with my eczema challenges. I do run an agency. That was my core. That’s been my core business over the last 12 years, The Sulte Group.

Teju Owoye:

We are a growth marketing agency. Right now, we’re really focused on direct-to-consumer health and wellness products, CPG products. It’s a passion of mine. I love health and wellness products that help people live healthier, have vitality. So, we really have been focused on helping those brands win, win the marketing game as I like to call it. And honestly, the evolution of Sulte Group, we started doing B2B SaaS marketing. The evolution has been of a problem of mine, like how do I market my own beauty brand? And I think that’s really important when you are thinking about building a business, when you have entrepreneurial aspirations, it is really important to talk to people, to think about the problems you have. It’s gonna sound so corny, but I keep a problem journal where I’m like, “Hey, this is bothering me,” or, “I wish this was better.” I always am taking notes on quote unquote problems, because I see those as opportunities.

Teju Owoye:

So, for example, at Sulte Group, a lot of the marketing that we’ve been doing for consumer health and wellness brands, CPG health and wellness brands, was because we were looking at how to grow Clean Rebellion, what actually works in terms of paid media. We ended up launching a product called Challenge Reach at Sulte Group directly because for Clean Rebellion, we were trying to figure out how do we get people to buy the soap and develop a habit around the soap, which is our hero product. And what we found is doing short challenges gamifying the product adoption. So fun challenges, use the soap for every day, take some photos, submit user-generated content to us, helps people adopt a habit around using the product. So yeah, in summary, all of the businesses that I’ve started have come out of, hey, I’m stuck here. Having that stuck moment is always a big aha for me because I’ve been able to shift my businesses, shift what I’m focusing on. To try to solve those stuck points, to try to solve those challenges. And it’s something I actually ask our customers all the time, you know, on the agency side, you know, on the beauty brand side.

Teju Owoye:

What are you struggling with is one of the questions I constantly am asking because out of that comes so much data and information.

Melinda Wittstock:

Hmm, 100%. It’s so interesting with all this background you have just in the marketing space. I want to ask you about Sulte because your clients have been B2B SaaS, but they’ve also been like Def Leppard.

Teju Owoye:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So fortunate to— oh my gosh, yes, yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

And so, let’s just get into the backstory a little bit to set the table for a lot of the newer stuff that you’re doing, because so much is changing. Yes, the marketing world with AI and now also GEO, or, you know, optimization for all these LLMs. And like, there’s so much going on. So, what are some of the things that you’re seeing? What are some of the big changes really in marketing, like, and especially just how that’s changed in terms of how you’re marketing your own wellness brands?

Teju Owoye:

Absolutely. I started Sulte Group, gosh, 12 years ago, you know, and started it— long story short, I’d started another business, was trying to start a shoppable travel magazine about 12 years ago. Didn’t know how to make this thing work, and luckily built a really great creative team. I literally went door to door pitching clients saying like, “Hey, we can build your website, we can do your marketing.” That’s how the agency started. We really started building websites, doing B2B SaaS marketing. I actually originally come from B2B SaaS, pre-me being an entrepreneur, so really know and understand that space. Very, very well. And as the agency evolved, and I think what’s really interesting, especially for anyone that’s listening that’s an agency owner, is that the pace of marketing, you know, just the exponential growth of marketing.

Teju Owoye:

So, you always have to be on top of new tools, tactics, technology. And, you know, what we found is we started doing, you know, websites and paid media and email marketing and those types of core traction channels. And especially over the last 2 years, what I’ve noticed shifting is with the proliferation of AI tools is that it no longer works to come in and say, hey, we’re going to just solve one part of your funnel. Now marketing agencies, marketing operators really need to be thinking about how do I put AI automation across the entire funnel? And I’ll give a very specific example. So, one of the things that we used to do early on in the agency, we would roll up our sleeves and build these robust nurture campaigns. We would then launch paid media campaigns to the same list. Now what we’re finding is we can automate all of that. So, we’re using tools like SendSpark, for example, to automate personalized videos to our prospect list.

Teju Owoye:

We’re using tools like Xpandi. We used to help our clients with doing LinkedIn campaigns and outreach. We use Xpandi to completely automate that. We use tools like SmartLead which we can use AI agents to completely handle outbound. So, tools like Lindy for cold calling. So, what I’ve found now is that, especially with changes that, number one, the tool stack has completely changed. Like it used to be, I would say like HubSpot, I’m gonna date myself, Marketo, those types of core infrastructure tools, Salesforce. Now you’re finding these lean, mean AI tools that can handle literally the work of a team.

Teju Owoye:

And you have to come in with that full scope strategy How do we automate outreach? How do we put everything on autopilot? And then what we’re finding really works is the personal touches. So surprisingly, I feel like we’re going back to the day of, hey, let’s have a lunch. Let’s invite our prospects out to lunch. Let’s do events. So having your marketing engine automated with AI as at a baseline, and then layering in these really curated meaningful events and experiences for your customers. I am really bullish this year on experiences. We’re launching across all of my companies cohorts of experiences where we have 15, 20 thought leaders in the space come together over breakfast or over a dinner, introducing them to each other, having them have meaningful conversations, and doing business that way. We’d rather be the facilitator of connection versus just trying to drive.

Teju Owoye:

Outbound and think that that’s going to help us build a business. It really doesn’t work anymore. So experiential. And then the other thing that we’re finding work are layering in direct mail, which I can’t believe I’m talking about direct mail in 2026. People have been saying direct mail is dead throughout my entire career. What we’re finding is handwritten notes, especially when they’re really meaningful. We’ll do lumpy mail campaigns. So, we’ll do direct mail where we include a card or a pin or an insert.

Teju Owoye:

It’s a little bit lumpy that piques people’s interest. So, you know, I think the name of the game is really putting that outbound infrastructure on autopilot with AI tools and then layering in those meaningful touches, experiences, events, uh, you know, direct mail, handwritten notes, swag. Like, those types of things are actually what’s moving the needle.

Melinda Wittstock:

I love that kind of experiential piece because, you know, if we just look at the whole social media universe, a lot of the things that are kind of gone wrong in our society, right?

Teju Owoye:

Right.

Melinda Wittstock:

We’re connected and divided and pushed into all kinds of propaganda rabbit holes on social media, but it also like is affecting people’s health.

Teju Owoye:

Yes.

Melinda Wittstock:

I just— that even, you know, mental health issues and whatnot, because we feel like our brain is tricked into feeling that we’re connected, but we’re not actually connected. And so, where everybody’s lonely, and craving this personal connection. So, a way to be able to use AI to actually free up time and space to do that, I think, is a really interesting way of looking at AI. 

Teju Owoye:

Yes. 

Melinda Wittstock: 

So, you’re not really replacing the human connection with AI. You’re just actually using AI to, it sounds like, create much more genuine connection and relationship, which is so much more sticky. Like, it’s—

Teju Owoye:

I agree.

Teju Owoye:

And the companies that we’ve worked with where we’ve gone in with this approach, at first their sales teams are a little bit nervous. They’re like, wait a second, does that mean I’m not going to have any work? And, you know, we’re like, no, it actually means that you get to spend time on the meaningful work. You get to spend time, you know, before sales teams were chasing lead lists and, you know, oh my goodness, I need to make, you know, my 50 outbound calls today, I need to do all of my emails, so on and so forth. That work now can be automated with AI, and they can spend time actually looking on LinkedIn to see what one of their high-intent prospects is doing and invite them off out to coffee or lunch, or they can spend time coordinating a meet and greet with some of their best clients. That to me is the work now. I think that teams that shift to that approach, not only do they close deals faster, but it’s a more enriching experience because you actually get to become a true partner to your prospects and clients versus, you know, hey, we just tactically sold someone through this nurture and drip campaign. Relationships are key, and I think that what you said is so key. People are lonelier than ever, and we’ve had this weird paradigm where we’ve almost separated work relationships from personal relationships.

Teju Owoye:

I feel like now they’re bleeding and blending even more than ever. Some of the vendors that we work with, like, they’ve become close friends of mine, you know, and part of that is because they so, you know, did their due diligence and invited me to events and experiences, and we’ve built a relationship over time. And now they’re the default go-to in my, you know, in my phone. I’m like, hey, if I have, you know, need someone that needs this, I’m gonna obviously refer them to XYZ person because they’ve done such a great job of being meaningful and, you know, inviting me to experiences. And we do the same thing. I think that it’s so important to connect people, for people to be in community, and to think of business as being a community versus, “Hey, what can I sell to people?” It’s, “How can I create?” I was saying this to another CEO. We were having a little bit of a mastermind chat yesterday. I was like, “How can you be the conduit to self-actualization for your prospects?” Instead of like, “Okay, how do I get them to buy?” It’s, “How do I put them in a room with peers that will help them achieve their goals?” that will help them have rich conversations, that will help them pursue a mission or passion.

Teju Owoye:

And it doesn’t have to be huge things. It can be groups of 10, 15, even groups of 5. I think that that is really where we’re going and where the focus needs to be.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. So, with clients, like you mentioned that there was a little bit of nervousness because there’s nervousness about AI. Yes, right.

Teju Owoye:

Yes, yes. Tons.

Melinda Wittstock:

No. You know, and like, oh my goodness, will an agent go rogue? Going to eat all the data of my company. Yeah, some very real things, right? But to not— to be ignoring it though is not the answer either. And so how are you on the, on the marketing agency side, how are you helping clients with that? Are they kind of cognizant that you’re using a lot of these tools? They feel comfortable with that? How are you navigating that?

Teju Owoye:

Absolutely. So, we do this exercise called a pie exercise. We look at any type of experiment, any type of issue in a client’s funnel. We actually score them from a scale of 1 to 10, and that’s how we decide what to work on. What’s been happening now is the things that rise to the top, we’ll have a conversation with our clients and say, “Hey, we think—” where it’s applicable, there’s an AI tool that would actually completely solve this or would help to mitigate some of the issues that you’re having with XYZ. So, it could be outbound cold calling. It could be, you know, like for example, scaling customer service and we need to think about, you know, AI live chat done in a meaningful way. And I’m a huge believer of presenting things as pilots.

Teju Owoye:

So, I’ll say, hey, why don’t we do a small pilot on something? That way we can test it, we can do the pilot internally, we can do it with XYZ cohort. We’ve got tools where we can actually split test things so that not everyone is a part of the pilot. I find that the pilot approach helps to alleviate some of the anxiety. Hey, let’s do a no-risk, no-regrets pilot. If it doesn’t work, we can pull it. That gives the client an opportunity to test, to get a taste of things, to allow us to also fine-tune and tweak things as well as we move forward without feeling like, oh my goodness, we’re ripping up our entire operational infrastructure, or, oh no, our internal team is going to be upset because we just implemented this AI tool and they’re going to be worried for their jobs. We never want to put a company in that position. We always think about a bite-sized pilot where we can roll things out, we can test things.

Teju Owoye:

Sometimes it’s even as small as giving our key stakeholders the backend access of a tool that we’ve set up. And saying, hey, play around with this for a week. We’ll talk about it at our next meeting. And let us know what you think. That way, we’re not inundating people. Because it can be scary. And people really are worried about their jobs. And there are cases— I just saw today Jack Dorsey let go of, I think, 4,000 people at Block.

Teju Owoye:

And people are worried about AI continuing to take jobs and take over and whatnot. And I think that when we can roll it out in a pilot Assess the impact, assess the ability to integrate the tool into the company’s infrastructure and systems, things go a lot smoother. We’ve had times where we’ll pilot something and the client’s like, “You know what? This actually isn’t for us.” That’s fair. I think that instead of sweeping moves, we’ll do pilots based on where we need to focus, and then we’ll phase those in over time. Maybe we do one pilot every 6 months and that’s all that the company has appetite for. Maybe it’s a once-a-year thing. We say, “Hey, let’s try this one AI tool for your customer service and let’s work on optimizing that throughout the year.” I found that to be just a more sane approach versus trying to go full tilt, which gets people really, really nervous and really stressed out, to be honest. It’s a lot to digest at once.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, this is so important. So, tell me a little bit, you mentioned you rattled off a whole bunch of AI tools, and I think a lot of people are trying to learn this and there are so many new tools and new companies springing out of nowhere and it’s changing so fast. So You mentioned a bunch in your own workflows and whatnot. Tell me a little bit more about those. What should people be looking at? They’re looking at their marketing and what are the best ones?

Teju Owoye:

Absolutely. I’m a tools nerd. I love tools. My team is probably so sick of me being like, have you tried this? Or what about this? What about that? You know, right now there’s been so many that it’s honestly even hard for me to keep up. Um, so I’ll just list maybe the top few that I keep going back to and some of what our company’s infrastructure across all businesses are based on. Um, you know, so number one, absolutely loving, loving, loving SendSpark. So, we use SendSpark for automated videos. I actually used to do videos on Loom for high-intent prospects myself.

Teju Owoye:

Like I would record a video and send it out via LinkedIn or email the prospect. The video took me a ton of time. With SendSpark, I’m able to actually record one video. I can have my sales team record one video. We can customize that video and actually personalize it. Using the person’s name. So, you just record one video, you say, “Hey, Watermelon,” which sounds really weird, but it takes Watermelon as a cue to change out Watermelon into the person’s name. Is it perfect? Absolutely not, but it’s pretty good.

Teju Owoye:

It’s pretty close. So, we’ll use that now and send out one video. You know, we create one video and we send that out to our prospects, and it is a more personalized way to open a conversation. Loving SendSpark, loving Expandi. Again, a big part of our sales process was a lot of LinkedIn outreach. We use Expandi, I think it’s .io, to completely automate that. We’re not affiliates to any of these tools; we just use them because we like them. Expandi allows us to automate connecting with people, sending follow-up messages.

Teju Owoye:

It integrates with SendSpark so we can actually send videos. From SendSpark using Expandi as well. Just a huge time saver, love, love, love Expandi. We’re using SmartLead. I’ve used all of the kind of sales sequence tools probably out there from HubSpot sales sequences to Salesforce to Close.io to Instantly to, I mean, I’ve probably tested most of them. I keep coming back to SmartLead. What I really love about SmartLead is that it’s direct inbox, connection tool, like many of them are, but the UI makes it really easy for us to see what’s happening in the funnel. So, we can really understand who’s responded, who’s not interested, who we need to follow up with.

Teju Owoye:

It has an integrated call feature, so we can automatically cold call prospects as well. Loving, loving, loving that, and it’s been really helpful for our team. We’ve been testing Lindy for outbound and actually creating AI agents that can do cold calling, which has been really cool. We’re still working to refine that and using ElevenLabs as well for the voice part of it to create realistic voices. So that’s been really helpful. That’s part of our tool stack. We’ve been testing a stack of Branzi, which is a new tool, HeyGen, I think it’s pronounced Synesthesia. I always mess up the name of this company, so forgive me if I pronounce that wrong.

Teju Owoye:

I had an assistant creating AI avatars, and we would do outbound videos, pitch decks using those tools, which was really helpful and saved us a ton of time. I’m trying to think of what else. I mean, just so many. We use Replit a ton, Replit and those types of tools to spin up custom solutions and tools for our clients. That has been a game changer. I used to have to pay a really heavy dev team. Now I can bring in that team to do tweaks, which is just infinitely faster for us. We used to do a lot of engineering as marketing tool builds.

Teju Owoye:

So, we would build maturity models and calculators and quizzes and those types of tools as a part of the lead gen process. And now we can do those infinitely faster with like tools like Replit. Yeah.

Melinda Wittstock:

Wow, that’s comprehensive. So, like nobody listening to this podcast has any excuse, but just roll your sleeves up and start to tinker.

Teju Owoye:

Just tinker. I’m a big tinkerer. I’m like, you know, I love to just, someone will send me a tool, I’ll see it on LinkedIn, I’ll get retargeted. People are always texting me things. I’ll sign up for if they have a free trial or I’ll pay for it for a little bit, tinker around. And then if it’s a vibe, it’s a vibe. If it’s not, then I’m like, okay, cool, on to the next thing. I think that there’s a lot of fun in tinkering and discovering and knowing that you won’t get it perfect on the first time.

Teju Owoye:

Some tools, there’ll be a learning curve, but just figuring out what can optimize your work and make you— I always think about AI tools as the conduit for me to put out more creative output faster and focus on building what I want to build in the world versus you know, having a fear of them. It’s like, how can I use these as leverage to do more? Fantastic.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, like 100%. So, okay, so all of these tools are allowing you so much more time to— yes, I mean, I love the return of the handwritten note, but, but, but also just the human connection. We all crave that. Now, it’s an interesting time for that human connection because we’re living in this society that seems to be kind of unraveling. Like, it’s— I know, a little scary for business with all the authoritarian and like just the collapse of apparently of rule of law and just all that kind of instability. It’s— we really, if there was ever a time where we need to be more connected with each other, it’s now. So how are you finding that? Are you finding that people are really kind of eager, like they’re very thirsty to kind of connect meaningfully or how is that piece of it going for yourself and also for your clients? Absolutely.

Teju Owoye:

I find that companies that we’ve worked with, and even for ourselves, when we put together small groups, you know, hey, 5 people, we’re going to do a coffee or we’re going to do a roundtable or things like that, people are infinitely more excited. And actually, just the other day, I ended up going to 2 in-person— excuse me, 1 Zoom event and then 1 in-person an event. And just the feedback from the event were— it was incredible. So, one event someone had put on like kind of a Zoom conference, and I was a little bit apprehensive at first. I was like, oh no, another one of these Zoom things. But it was so well done. Shout out to my friend Michael Roderick. He does a great job of putting these gatherings together.

Teju Owoye:

And, you know, what I love that he does is that he’ll have the collective group and then have breakouts. Breakout of 5 people, then breakout of 3 people, then a breakout of 2 people where you get to meet one-on-one. And just the feedback, literally people were in the chat thanking, being so thankful, excited that they got to really authentically connect with someone. Went to another event later that night for a group called Our Third Place, gathering of women executives, entrepreneurs. Incredible, just being in real life and meeting other people. Every single person at the event was like, wow, I needed this. This is amazing. Not only was this a pattern interrupt from me just being behind my computer screen, but then to walk away with 3 or 4 solid contacts that I can do business with and maybe even become friends with is incredible.

[PROMO CREDIT]

Wings of Inspired Business is brought to you by the podcast, Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets where Steve Little – serial entrepreneur, investor and mergers & acquisitions maestro – shares the little-known 24 value drivers that spell the difference between a $5m business, and a $50mm even $500 mm business. It always pays to understand what’s driving the underlying enterprise value of your business. So, check out Zero Limits Business Growth Secrets at zerolimitsradio.com – that’s zerolimitsradio.com and available wherever you get your podcasts. More information about valuation growth at Zero Limits Ventures.com

Melinda Wittstock:

And we’re back with Teju Owoye, multipreneur, podcaster, author and founder of growth marketing agency, The Sulte Group, as well as beauty brand Clean Rebellion and WellZest, a platform that connects individuals to holistic health providers and wellness experiences worldwide. 

[INTERVIEW CONTINUES]

Teju Owoye:

Um, so, you know, I’m just finding that in a lot of our most successful clients, they’ve done roundtables, they’ve taken clients to sporting events and games, and that’s actually how they’re closing business. I’ve always found that over a certain ticket value, like, you know, over like a $10,000 deal, you pretty much do need to shake hands. Like, sometimes you can close it without that, but I found that like when, you know, someone— humans, we’re, you know, we’re animals and we need to be able to trust the person that we’re doing business with. And I’ve found that that becomes infinitely easier when you actually meet the person in person. You know, you get to really understand their energy, you get to understand, you know, conversation about their family sometimes, their life, and it just creates a bond that’s a lot different than trying to do things virtually or trying to close deals just with cold calling or aggressive outbound. I feel like that can get you to the table and get you the conversation, but oftentimes nothing can replace that in-person effect. And I saw it during LA Tech Week, being at LA Tech Week, going to the events, the amount of amazing contacts that I still have connected with today. In fact, I think that’s how we met, you know.

Teju Owoye:

Yeah, exactly.

Melinda Wittstock:

I instantly found myself talking to you. Yes, exactly. That was, I mean, fantastic. And also, the quality of conversation very quickly as well. It wasn’t just light, like, you know, sometimes networking events where you kind of go and it’s just sort of banal, like—

Teju Owoye:

Yes, agree, agree.

Melinda Wittstock:

Like, you and I just started talking, like, yes, it’s like we’ve known each other for a long time. I love that, you know, and, uh, more, more of, of that. So, when you’re bringing people together that have so much in common and people are just, you know, uh, able to be their authentic selves from the, from the get-go, you know. Agree, agree.

Teju Owoye:

And I, I think that that’s so important. It’s like, how do we in business drop the pretense, come as humans, you know? We all are trying to build stuff, have challenges, whatever it may be. I feel like when the space, and what I loved about the event that we were at, it created a space for authentic conversation. It wasn’t one of these, “Okay, pass your business card around.” I feel like people are so sick of that. No one wants to do that. You can just do that online. Helping people rally around a common goal as the thesis of your event, I think the facilitators coming authentically and speaking authentically as well, just creates this environment where people are like, “Hey, our conversation, like, hey, let’s really chat, let’s really chat about the things, about like work, what we’re worried about, the things we’re seeing, you know, so on and so forth. I feel like that is just so, so powerful, and, you know, it’s more— is needed more than ever these days.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, 100%. My goodness. So, Teju, how did you get going? What was it that made you an entrepreneur? You’re a multipreneur.

Teju Owoye:

Yeah, I know.

Melinda Wittstock:

Like, how did you know you entrepreneur? What was your first thing that you did?

Teju Owoye:

Let’s go way back. I think that I always struggled to fit into traditional structures. This unlock only came in the last year. I was looking back on my life and career and even in college it was like, okay, pick a major. And I was like, well, I actually don’t want to just pick one major. I would rather do something that’s a hybrid of economics and political science and in language and whatnot, I always had struggled figuring out one thing. And then when I got to corporate America, I always found myself trying to start stuff within the corporate environment. So, one of my first jobs, I worked at an insurance company.

Teju Owoye:

I was like, “Hey, we need a wellness program. We need to start a walk. We need to—” I was always that person with the “we need to” mindset, much to the annoyance of, I’m sure, my bosses and my colleagues. They were like, “This chick, she’s so annoying. She’s always like—” Why don’t we do this? Why don’t we do that? I was always a person asking questions. The companies I worked for got progressively smaller early in my career. I started a big, big corporation, then went midsize, then went to a startup where I was employee number 13. I was grateful for that experience.

Teju Owoye:

It was incredibly challenging working for that startup, but grateful for that experience because I got to really see founders building. Real time. And what happened was I actually went to Founder Institute, which is an incubator program. I was living in San Diego, and that completely opened up my eyes to the world of entrepreneurship in a different way. My mom is an entrepreneur. She had started multiple businesses, some successfully, some not. So, I’d always been, I think, honestly, a bit afraid of entrepreneurship because I’d seen the good, the bad, and the very, very ugly. But then going to Founder Institute created this community for me where I was like, “Great, I’m seeing other people build successful businesses.

Teju Owoye:

I’m seeing different ways to do it.” And I think that it helped inspire me to start my first thing. So, my first business was a shoppable travel magazine and travel product line called Tesotto. It completely failed. I went broke, had to move home, which was so embarrassing, but c’est la vie. I think a lot of entrepreneurs have the same story. But what I realized is I just didn’t know how to run a business at all. I had no clue how to make money. I was always used to the paycheck every 2 weeks.

Teju Owoye:

And I always tell this story, like the first day I’d quit my job at the startup to start this business, and I was living with a roommate in San Diego at the time, and she leaves to go to work at like 7:30 in the morning, and I’m sitting there on our couch looking at— she’s like, “Hey, what are you doing? Are you okay? Aren’t you so excited for your new job?” your newfound freedom. And I was like; I actually don’t know what to do today. I realized that I just had no clue how to operate a business or what to do at all. And you know, Tesotto, that was the company that led me to build a creative magazine, you know, great creative team. They had photographers and editors and whatnot. And someone reached out to me and they’re like, hey, I love what you’ve done with the magazine. We’re trying to do marketing. “Can you help us?” And I was like, “Wait, I’ll pay you.” I’m like, “Wait, you’ll pay me for this? What?” And that’s how Sulte Group started.

Teju Owoye:

We got that one client and then from there, because I had worked in tech, I learned how to build websites. Much to my surprise, I was never the person that was like, “Oh, I’m gonna learn how to code or whatever.” I had learned enough HTML and CSS to be dangerous, to be able to take and build a WordPress website from scratch or build like a custom website. And I literally knocked on door— on doors while I was living with my parents because my company failed and I went broke. And I would go to restaurants and be like, hey, I love your food. Can I build you a website? And that’s how the agency started 12 years ago. Wow.

Melinda Wittstock:

I mean, that’s what you’ve got to do is put yourself out there. And I think a lot of people fail at that first hurdle of just being willing to have someone say no. Yes, right. And that doesn’t mean anything about you, you know. But I mean, this is, this is the kind of thing that I’m encouraging my, my son who has this really great startup. He’s only 19, right? Great startup. And he’s all up in the product and, you know, coding and like vibe coding and just all this kind of stuff. But his thing is only going to work ultimately if he, as a CEO, can go around to all these different vendors and places and because it’s potential— get sponsors and advertisers and such on this hyper-local— by the way, it’s an app that connects people via their dogs.

Teju Owoye:

I love— oh my gosh, I love dogs so much. Sign me up for that.

Melinda Wittstock:

It creates all these easy— like an interactive map where you can see where your dog’s friends are on the map and like you can connect with them and like do real life events and things that are imminently sponsorable. But like, he is going to have to be able to go, you know, to the local groomer and say, hey, you know, we can send foot traffic to you because the app’s gamified. Are you in? We promote the app, you know, and just— and like if someone says no, it’s just no big deal. But like, I’m going to use an old-fashioned word here, that kind of gumption that you had yourself out there, is that learned or is that just innate? Can that be taught?

Teju Owoye:

Great question. You know, I would say hybrid. My mom and both my parents, which I’m so grateful for, they’re just what incredible parents I’ve been gifted with. Like, you know, they’ve been always encouraging and they both have that. My mom was an entrepreneur, she started a publishing company, and I saw her at vendor fairs, I saw her pitching people. So, I think that there was a part of that that was a part of our family ecosystem from an early age. I do feel like it can be learned and emulated when you’re in those rooms, you’re in those experiences. I do though see people for which it is innate, and I would say that I have a little bit of that as well.

Teju Owoye:

Even from a young age, I was the gal that was making those braided bracelets, those thread bracelets with beads and trying to sell them or create a brand around them and talk to people about what I was creating. So, I’d always had this— I was the person that was always organizing plays or asking to do a lemonade stand. I was babysitting from really, really, really young. I’d always had that, like, okay, how do I go out there and get money and get— because I wanted to be able to buy my own things. And I feel like one of the things I really credit my parents for— I grew up in Connecticut in an area where a lot of kids didn’t have jobs or summer jobs or anything like that. And my parents always made sure that we knew how to earn our money. It’s like, great, you’re going to work, you’re going to do this, you’re going to go out there and make stuff and make stuff happen for yourself. And I’m just infinitely grateful for that because it taught me from a very early age to not be afraid to ask.

Teju Owoye:

Every summer my sister and I would go around to our local mall and go from store to store and ask for job applications or ask for a job. And I got really comfortable hearing ‘no’ very early because of that.

Melinda Wittstock:

Yeah, amazing. So, what is in the future for you? Because you have— okay, so you’ve got WellZest, you’ve got Clean Rebellion, you’ve got your marketing agency, so many things going on. Like, first of all, like, how do you sleep? How do you manage? How do you juggle all of these things? Like, I know AI is helping you out. Yes, a ton. You haven’t cloned yourself as far as I know. So, like, for anyone intimidated just listening to this, I mean, you’re proof that it’s possible. But what makes it possible? To do all these things?

Teju Owoye:

Great friends, family, great partner, great team. I mean, honestly, I would not be where I am without my team and having people that I can delegate stuff to. There’s just absolutely no way, like, you know, to be able to run, run, you know, 3 things, um, you know. And I, and I’ll be very candid with your audience, like, I’ve sometimes struggled with it, or I’m like, wow, I’ve got all these ideas. There’s, you know, part of my desire, um, to even run 3 businesses is just The joy I have in creating a world that is healthier and well-being is a part of the ecosystem of our world. Each business kind of feeds into each other. Sulte Group didn’t start that way, but it’s evolved to be a support system, a support infrastructure for the other things that I’m building. That’s the only way I’ve been able to do it.

Teju Owoye:

Sulte Group, we’ve really pivoted to focus on consumer health brands, D2C. D2C health and wellness brands because I own a D2C health and wellness brand, Clean Rebellion. A lot of the marketing strength, the team that I have behind Sulte Group, we really have honed in and developed an engine. Clean Rebellion is a client of the Sulte Group. That’s really the way that the infrastructure works, and we’ll continue growing in that space, growing in that vertical. As well. And then I did— I started a media company that we’re working on building called WellZest. So, we have the WellZest podcast where I have audacious, bold, and sometimes very, very hilarious conversations about health and wellness.

Teju Owoye:

I, you know, invite the best, the brightest, some of the coolest people in the industry to come on, and we like play games and do fun things and talk about all those crazy health and Well-being questions that you’re too afraid to ask. And I’ve got a great team behind the podcast, you know, from, you know, people who help to book the episodes to editing the episodes. You know, I wouldn’t be able to do it without them. And, you know, with Well+Us, we launched our first series on YouTube called In the Name of Beauty. I had some time from 2021 to about like 2023-24 to take off and travel. I was wrestling with this question of through my own health struggles, what does well-being actually mean? What is and what makes a life of, and I’m air quoting, well-being? You hear wellness and well-being thrown around all the time, but what does that mean in different cultures and societies? So, I got out my iPhone for the first 8 episodes and just went around everywhere from Japan to Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Kenya, Uganda, and just filmed different health and wellness traditions and practices, which was just one of the— honestly, I have to say, it’s like, has been one of the most enriching experiences of my life. I learned so much on those travels and adventures, and we turned that into a series. The first few episodes are out.

Teju Owoye:

You know, they’re a little bit— they’re a little messy, I’ll say. And I really encourage people, like, if you have an idea, just do it even if it looks a little bootleg. Like In the Name of Beauty Season 1 looks a little bootleg because I was just on my phone. But for Season 2, which we’re about to launch here at the end of March, I actually was able to contract with local production teams in Dublin where we filmed, in New York. So, the production value got way better, which we’re excited to release those episodes, which just has been infinitely fun. I’ve learned so much about wellbeing, you know, Going to Kyoto, for example, and trying a hanoki bath and learning about how the Japanese think about health and well-being, being in rural villages in Kenya and learning about how, you know, what products that women use and how they think about health and well-being has really inspired Well Zest’s philosophy. So, you know, that’s a long way of saying that, you know, my north star is continuing to build in the health and the well-being space, continuing to give other creators of ways in that space. You know, we want to build more shows.

Teju Owoye:

I’m working on a book behind the scenes about health and wellness and my travels, and we’ll just continue launching products on Clean Rebellion, marketing them with the Soul Group, and, you know, launching more content for WellZest.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. Oh my God, so I could talk to you for hours more. You probably have to come back on this. I would love that.

Teju Owoye:

Love it.

Melinda Wittstock:

So, like they need a marketing agency. I mean, there’s so many things we haven’t even talked about your work with like, you know, Ice Cube and such. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Teju Owoye:

We’ve— yes, we still do. So, for the Sulte Group, even though we’ve got this vertical that we’ve built out that’s very health and wellness focused, you know, we’ve been so fortunate to work with celebrity clients like Cube and Snoop. And, you know, we were the team behind launching Def Leppard’s app Let’s Rocket. So, a lot of fun, so many fun things, and I always feel so grateful for these opportunities. A lot of them have happened just through connections and happenstance, and I just have such gratitude for that.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing. Okay. So, what’s the best way for people to find you and work with you? Not only that, but get some Clean Rebellion for themselves? 

Teju Owoye:

So, you can head to cleanrebellion.com for our beauty brand, wells.com for our media company, Sulte.io. Sulte is spelled S-U-L-T-E.io for our agency. And I’m working on my own personal site. It will be my first name, Tejuovea.com.

Teju Owoye:

Should be coming soon, a few weeks. But you know, if you— the Sulte Group site really has been my hub over the last 12 years. So, if you just reach out there, it’ll get to me and I’ll respond. And then also on LinkedIn. I’m on all social media platforms. Platforms at my full name, and all of my companies are on social media as well. So, you can message us on any of those, and one of our team members or myself directly, because I still check those things, will get back to you.

Melinda Wittstock:

Amazing, Teju. Thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us today. 

Teju Owoye:

Thank you for having me, Melinda. What a treat.

[INTERVIEW ENDS]

Melinda Wittstock:

Teju Owoye is the founder of growth marketing agency, The Sulte Group, as well as beauty brand Clean Rebellion and WellZest, a platform that connects individuals to holistic health providers and wellness experiences worldwide. She’s also the author of The Audacity Journal, a guided workbook for ambitious women reclaiming purpose, confidence, and joy in their next chapter, and host of the WellZest podcast.

Melinda Wittstock:

Please take a moment to give us a five-star rating and review the podcast on Apple and Spotify—it helps more entrepreneurs like you find the secret sauce to support and grow their businesses.

Melinda Wittstock:

That’s it for today’s episode. Head on over to WingsPodcast.com – and subscribe to the show. When you subscribe, you’ll instantly get my special gift, the WINGS Success Formula. Women … Innovating … Networking … Growing …Scaling … IS the WINGS of Inspired Business Formula …for daily success in your business and life. Miss a Wings episode? We’ve got hundreds in the vault, all with actionable advice and epiphanies. Check them out at MelindaWittstock.com or wingspodcast.com. You can also catch me on LinkedIn or Instagram @MelindaAnneWittstock. We also love it when you share your feedback with a 5-star rating and review on Apple, Spotify or wherever else you listen, including Podopolo where you can interact with me and share your favorite clips.