Lorna Joyce has lived several lifetimes in one. She lost her father, her brother, and her mother before she was 18 — and found herself caretaking, surviving, and building from scratch while most people her age were still figuring out what they wanted to be. That foundation of loss, faith, and raw determination is what eventually gave birth to Binti Marvels, one of Kenya's most purpose-led femcare brands.

In this episode, Lorna takes us through all of it: the 100,000 pads she brought in with almost no capital and sold shop-to-shop from a van, the investor who pulled out and forced a full shutdown, the 30 employees she had to let go, and the therapy that finally helped her process decades of grief and control. She also shares why she came back — with Mrembo, Kenya's first locally manufactured pad designed explicitly for the African woman. If you've ever had to pause something you love and wondered whether to go back, this one is for you.

What happens when you come back home and the thing your daughter needs simply doesn't exist?

You build it.

Grace Muritu is the founder of Elite Gymnastics Academy in Nairobi. A former pediatric nurse who returned to Kenya after 12 years in the US and created a competitive gymnastics training facility from scratch. No blueprint. No investors. Just land she was willing to sell and a vision she couldn't let go of.

This week on So, How's Business?, the real story behind Elite Gymnastics. The build, the coaches, the children, and the Olympic dream she's quietly working towards.

So, How's Business? is a weekly podcast documenting African women entrepreneurs — the real experiences, hard lessons, and the stories behind the business. New episodes every Tuesday.

Dr. Faith Wambura Ngunjiri is a certified Impostor Syndrome Informed Coach, Emotional Intelligence Practitioner, and leadership scholar with a Doctorate in Leadership Studies. She spent over two decades as a tenured professor in the United States before burnout, racial bias, and a heart attack brought her home.

In Episode 21, Dr. Faith and Alma go deep on the real cost of imposter syndrome for African women, not just the emotional cost, but the financial one. The promotions we didn't go for. The tenders we didn't apply for. The businesses we kept small. The apartments we gave up without knowing it.

They cover the five types of imposter syndrome, why the distortion of competence is the most accurate definition, whether women really experience it more than men, and what the $42 billion financing gap for African women has to do with self-doubt. Dr. Faith also shares her own story- from the village in central Kenya to a university in Minnesota, through divorce, racism, burnout, and a heart attack- and what it finally took to come home and thrive.

This is one of the most honest conversations on the show yet.

Find Dr. Faith:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drfaithngunjiri/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/faithngunjiri/

Nominate a guest: https://shorturl.at/S0zue

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#SoHowsBusiness #ImposterSyndrome #AfricanWomenEntrepreneurs #WomenInBusiness

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Ritu Bahal built a 37-year career in corporate Kenya beforeleaving to solve a problem she'd lived for decades. Her company KPM Tech makes Trackright, a logistics platform that gives trucking businesses real-time visibility across every stage of a delivery. The pitch sounds simple. The problem is massive: 90% of African truckers are non-digitised, and logistics costs account for 40% of what goods cost on Kenyan shelves.

In this conversation, Ritu talks about rising from bookkeeper to CEO, getting fired while pregnant from her first job, an arranged marriage she negotiated on her own terms, and what it's really like walking into investor rooms as an experienced woman founder. Candid, sharp, and not pulling any punches.

Melanie Hapisu- Wambugu is the founder and CEO of Digipath Africa, a digital marketing agency based in Kenya. In five years she has built a client list that includes some of Kenya's largest corporations, trained hundreds of business owners and marketers, and figured out how to run a business from Muranga without losing a single client.

This episode covers a lot of ground. We talk about how she lands large corporate clients through cold outreach, her exact process, step by step. We talk about the year one client accounted for 60% of her revenue and what that anxiety taught her about building a sustainable business. We talk about the moment she stopped giving free advice and started charging for everything, including 15-minute consultations, and how she had that conversation with friends who expected it for free.

We also get into digital strategy for small businesses and founders, why posting every day is not the answer, what the algorithm is actually doing, when paid ads work and when they're burning money, and the biggest mistakes she sees founders make with their online presence.

And then there's the story about the time her name trended on X for something that had nothing to do with her. That one is worth listening to alone.

Melanie is sharp, generous, and genuinely funny. This is one is a favourite.

Hosted by Alma. New episodes every week.

Zanelle Wanja just wanted somewhere to go that didn't revolve around alcohol. What she built instead was one of Nairobi's most talked-about social movements.

Nani's Cafe Party started as a free pop-up. 150 unexpected guests showed up. Now it's 11 sold-out editions, major brand sponsors, and a community that keeps growing.

But behind the branding is a founder who hit rock bottom, lost herself, and had to start over. In this episode she gets honest about the kitchen floor moments, the napkin contract, and what it really takes to bet on yourself after you've already failed.

For the builders. The creatives. The ones going against the grain.

Bonni Mulinge was 6 years old when she decided she was going to fly. By 28 she was a commericial airline captain. By 37, a seizure with no known cause ended her career overnight. In this conversation, Bonnie talks about what it felt like to go from commanding a Boeing 777 to standing still and figuring out what comes next. She talks about the financial hit, the identity loss, the bender, the pivot, and how Jipe Apparel came out of a conversation over Jaba Juice with a friend.

This is a story about grief and reinvention. About a woman who flew theworld and came home to build something that is entirely hers.

So...how's business?

Akoth Aluoch is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya and the founder of Triple A Dispute Resolution (Triple ADR) and AkothAluoch Media. She left a stable law firm career to build a boutique ADR practice full-time and a media platform dedicated to humanising law.

In this conversation, she gets into what it really looks like to be in a building season, the businesses she ran on the side while employed, having her first child in third year of university, and why she walked away from a clear path to partnership to build something entirely her own.

We also unpack the world of Alternative Dispute Resolution: what it is, why there is real money in it, and why Akoth believes it is the smarter, faster future of conflict resolution in business.

Honest, grounded, and full of practical insight. This one is for anyone sitting with a big dream and a very present reality.

So... how's business?