Essential Depot Annual Conference 2024 – Tampa FL on Oct 11 – 14, 2024 – Redefining Handcrafted Soaps and Cosmetics

Alfred Akolgo is the Manager of Essential Depot Warehouse in Africa. He is currently a PhD Candidate at the Department of Geography and Resource Development at the University of Ghana. He holds a Master of Philosophy Degree in Development Management and Bachelor of Arts Degree in Integrated Community Development at the University for Development Studies, Ghana. He is a Community Development Practitioner focusing on rural women’s sustainable livelihood empowerment in the area of Shea nuts/butter processing and production. He also trains women shea processors and producers in alternative income generating activities to provide extra income for the women to support their children and families.

Cody Coleman is a Florida native born in Avon Park who began his journey in the handcrafted soap industry in 2017 when he joined Essential Depot and subsequently became a proud member of the Greener Life Team. Having little knowledge in this line of work with no real understanding of the chemicals and natural products that are used in handcrafted soap making, he was given the opportunity to work part time in the development, beta testing, and packaging of the various kits and products available at EssentialDepot.com. Working closely with the Team of developers at Essential Depot, he gained knowledge of this complex industry on how to carefully craft many different products including handcrafted soap, lotion bars, bath bombs, and topical balm products. This training provided Cody with the opportunity and privilege to travel all over the eastern side of the U.S. attending conferences and trade shows in numerous different states and meeting many wonderful people.

YOUR Co-EmCee. Jose Cruz has been a part of the Essential Depot Team since 2020. Jose is an integral member of the Warehouse Production Team. His work in the warehouse involved: chemical storage, repacking receiving, distribution, repacking, shipping, customer service. This work has provided Jose with a well-rounded understanding of the importance of receiving, shipping, safe handling, packaging material, safety regulations, GMP, and transportation requirements. Jose became a member of Essential Depot’s trade shows and events team providing him with first-hand knowledge of the soaping industry and its community, and Jose looks forward to learning more at the Tampa Conference.

Edem Dotse is a pioneer of the digital freight forwarding space in Africa and a master in global logistics operations. Swiftly Global which he cofounded operates an online platform where businesses can book online to have their packages picked up, shipped and delivered worldwide. He is passionate about green shipping and Swiftly Global is a leading name when it comes to consolidated shipping in Africa. He has over 10 years of experience in import , export and freight forwarding having represented Swiftly on prominent platforms worldwide. Previously he had 5 years of experience in direct sales selling for brands such as Nestle, PZ Cussons., SC Johnson and more.

Gifty Serbeh-Dunn was born and grew up in the City of Wa in Northern Ghana in West Africa, the Shea Butter Capital of the World. She is now a leading expert in the world regarding Shea Butter: the production, the marketing, and the benefits. Shea Butter products possess amazing qualities for the skin and hair but can also provide the producing women with a fair price which supports them, and their families, their climb out of poverty.

In 1981 when Gifty moved to Canada she was amazed that North America was unaware of Shea Butter. Gifty’s knowledge of Shea Butter impassioned her with the need to share Shea Butter with Canada and the U.S.A. Gifty started experimenting in 1999 by adding essential oils and other natural materials marketing her products in little brown glass containers.

Travelling to Ghana in 2003 Gifty met the Tapko Widow’s Group, a group of widows from a northern Ghana village who had banded together to help each other better feed and educate their families. A main activity was gathering Shea Nuts and producing Shea Butter from those nuts. Marketing and a fair price were a serious issue for the women who did not have access to a bank account and connections with the world outside of the village was limited relying on men for that connection. Recognizing the quality Shea Butter produced and the righteous cause, Gifty purchased 1,000 pounds of Shea Butter on the spot and shipped it to Canada.

Then Gifty launched her first commercial Shea Butter business in North America, SheaCare, introducing North America to quality Shea Butter. Working from her kitchen producing product, Gifty’s customers continuously informned her what Shea Butter had done. Amazing stories about soothing dry, cracked, and bleeding skin; saving savaged lips; and healing bedsores. Those stories became commonplace. Continuing to develop her business while proudly providing economic sustenance to the women of the Tapko Widow’s Group, Gifty’s businesses grew as did the economic sustenance to the women of the Tapko Widow’s Group. Gifty fervently believes that business can, and should, be a force for good. That doing business right means everyone (not just Gifty or her business) benefits: the women that produce, the natural environment (educating the women to protect the trees by allowing the trees to do their part: removing carbon dioxide from the air and helping in the battle against greenhouse gases and global warming), the people like you who use Shea Butter in the manufacture of your product, and your customers. Join Gifty in Tampa to learn more about her knowledge of Shea Butter and the Ghanaian women who produce Shea Butter. Come, ask questions.

Gifty co-founded Baraka Shea Butter (“Baraka”) in 2011 located on Vancouver Island in Canada. A 50% Owner of Baraka, Gifty separated from Baraka in July 2024 and subsequently joined Essential Depot as the Greener Life Ambassador for the African Continent. As an ambassador Gifty’s stewardship is to educate the world on Shea Butter and ship over 150,000 Greener Life Club (GLC) boxes of Ghanaian products over the next 2 years. Those GLC Boxes are already in Wa being filled with product.

Kevin Dunn is the Chair of the Chemistry Department at Hampden-Sydney College. His first book, Caveman Chemistry, brought him to the attention of handcrafted soapmakers. His second book, Scientific Soapmaking, explores the chemistry of soap at a deep, but accessible level. Professor Dunn’s ongoing research continues to uncover fascinating details of the behavior of fats, oils, soaps, scents, essential oils, and synthetic detergents.

Óli is a native of Iceland. Born and raised in Iceland, Óli continues to reside in Iceland and is married with 3 children. Óli received his Magister Juris Doctorate Degree in 2008 from the University of Iceland. For years Óli worked representing clients in the legal areas of finance, securities, and investments. This practice, as well as his now soap maker wife, introduced Óli to his current legal practice area involving compliance with the European cosmetic regulations.

Erla Gísladóttir founded URÐ in 2016. The brand name URÐ is an old Icelandic word meaning earth or soil. It symbolizes the pure ingredients they use in their products. Erla believes that the only thing your skin needs are purifying minerals and pure oils to nurture the skin. The URÐ mission is to provide creative and simple skincare products containing the best natural ingredients found in Icelandic nature.

Erla believes it is everyone’s duty to take good care of our environment and believes that the only things we really need can be found in nature. That´s way she loves Baroness’s Karen Blixen quote: “The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea.” 

URÐ is located in Reykjavik, Iceland, where they make soaps, bath bombs, skin care products and make experiments and testing for future Greener Life Products.

Marc Hight is the Thompson Professor of Philosophy and the Humanities at Hampden-Sydney College. He has spent much of his professional career educating young minds and doing research in fields like metaphysics and the philosophy of religion. He also specializes in the philosophy of political economy with an emphasis on behavioral economics and its implications for marketing. Currently he is a Research Scholar in the Center for the Study of Political Economy at Hampden-Sydney College. Hight has published two books (Idea and Ontology with Penn State University Press in 2007 and The Correspondence of George Berkeley with Cambridge University Press in 2013). His more recent work in political economy includes articles on nudge theory in the Cambridge Journal of Economics (May 2019) and forthcoming work on the history of political economy.

Derek graduated from the University of Salford in Manchester, England receiving a B.Sc. Degree in Electronic Computer Systems.

Derek worked for IBM for 13 years in the research and development labs in a software engineering and project management role; largely based in the USA interfacing with software publishers promoting IBM PC products under development. He tried, unsuccessfully, to get IBM to invest in Autodesk and in Mathematica when each company had less than 20 Employees. That unsuccessful attempt caused Derek to join Mathematica, Inc. as VP of Sales and Marketing in 1990. Subsequently becoming President and CEO, Derek learned valuable business and personal lessons as the company grew and tripled in workforce. In 1994, and 5 attorneys later, Derek decided to close the Company and then subsequently dated one of the attorneys his now wife Kimberlee.

From 1994 to 2009 Derek enabled thousands of companies, in Florida and throughout the world, to obtain free web pages on his “Fox Business Network” portal system. In 2009 Derek started Essential Depot. As the years passed, with the help of his wife Kimberlee, they have built a Company that has helped 100,000+ businesses (mainly women owned) make a rewarding living from handcrafted Greener Life Products (see GreenerLifeClub.com). Traveling the world, they bring customers the best Greener Life Ingredients.

A practicing attorney since 1989, mainly in the areas of Criminal and Family law. After representing Derek in divorce proceedings from his 2nd wife in 1994 and subsequently marrying him in 2002, Derek began multiple ventures, one was Essential Depot in 2009. As Essential Depot grew, Kim’s assistance was needed. In approximately 2012 the legal areas of practice changed to meet the demands of Essential Depot (running the warehouses which included travel to source/verify product), Kim had to cease representing clients in trials and hearings due to her inability to regularly attend court hearings and trials. Being fired many times by Derek and Kim having quit Essential Depot just as many times (understood by those who know us); Derek finally determined he had no choice but to rehire Kim to run operations (or be subject to the daily bombardment of shopping deliveries). Those responsibilities cascaded Kim into an entirely new area of legal knowledge for Essential Depot and it’s industry which she willingly shares with customers.

YOUR Co-EmCee. BethLinn has been the director of sales for Essential Depot since 2016. A native of Philadelphia, BethLinn, a life long horse lover, worked her way through school as an apprentice jockey. BethLinn then became a bartender and excelled in the field quickly being promoted to manager of a large night club. She decided to switch professions to become a hair stylist and again advanced to owning and operating 2 hair salons of her own. BethLinn then entered the Real Estate profession. Because of her love of socializing and dedication to her clients she has received many accolades over her 25+ years, and still does.

BethLinn relocated to Florida in 2016 where a chance meeting with Kim Hodges while each were walking their dogs led to an offer from Derek Hodges to become the Director of Sales for Essential Depot.

An avid supporter of our veterans, Bethlinn has been an active member of the American Legion Ladies Auxiliary for over 30 years performing constant volunteer work for The Legion.

Her experience in sales as well as health and beauty products helped to continue the great success of the WineSoapBar and increase memberships to the Greener Life Club.

As the “Queen of Hot-Process Soap Making”, Kimberly has over 83,000 subscribers and 987 videos on her YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@EssentialSoap. Kimberly is also the owner of both The Cornerstone Market, a storefront and cosmetic kitchen, founded in 2013, and Essential-Soap. Kimberly sells, both online and in her storefront, a large line of hot process soaps in many categories as well as other skin care products, scents, etc. To keep up with demand, Kimberly and her staff can be found making soap over 15 crock pots cooking simultaneously. Each crock-pot produces 22 bars.

While Kimberly is versed with cold-process, her love is for hot-process with her signature recipe receiving multiple accolades and available to you, FREE. Hot-process acquiesces to Kimberly’s creativity while permitting control to superfat soap accommodating skin sensitivities.

Formerly a pioneer but now a leader in the field of integrative medicine, Dr. Mueller obtained his M.D. in 1989 from the Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, followed by completion of an Internship in internal Medicine at ORMC (now ORHS) in Orlando, FL. He is a regular attendee at conferences sponsored by both A4M (The American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine) and ACAM, The American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM), two of the most highly respected, integrative educational institutions in the United States. He has received special training and certification through ACAM for the administration of Chelation Therapy, and was one of the sub-investigators who participated in the landmark study on chelation and heart disease known as the TACT trial, a 1700 patient study which showcased and finally proved to the world scientific community chelation’s dramatic ability to reduce the risk of heart disease, heart attack, and the need for more dangerous interventional procedures such as bypass surgery, stents, and angioplasty.

As the Director of the Cancer Support Program and IV Services at Whole Family Healthcare. It was in 1998 that Dr. Mueller was introduced to what was then referred to as complimentary and alternative medicine (now known as integrative medicine). The emphasis on nutrition, diet, lifestyle, as well as safer, natural therapies was perfectly aligned with his rapidly evolving philosophy of treating the true underlying hormonal, nutritional, and metabolic causes of illness. Quickly developing a passion for this holistic approach to healing the mind, the body, and the spirit, over the next 20 years Dr. Mueller focused on advancing this very exciting, emerging health care called integrative medicine. That focus included participating in a number of research trials, some of which Dr. Mueller both designed and conducted at his own practice. With a creative and curious intellect, Dr. Mueller has since pushed the boundaries in many areas in the integrative medicine field.

Now, with a well-recognized reputation and expertise in nutritionally-based, technologically advanced cancer diagnostic and support therapies; Dr. Mueller (over a short span of time) led the field in intravenous therapies covering a wide range of medical conditions, with a special emphasis on heart disease as well as advancing and improving support plus quality of life in all patients with cancer. This focus led Dr. Mueller to become an official cannabis-certified physician in the state of Florida in late 2017, with a recognized expertise in the use of medical marijuana and CBD.Dr. Mueller and Whole Family Healthcare also lead the field in access to labs featuring the most advanced, early cancer detection technology in the field of molecular genomics. The technology, now available today, is changing treatment paradigms for patients diagnosed with cancer, Lyme Disease, and with the potential for long term suppression of chronic viruses such as Epstein Barr, Herpes, and many others.

Dr. Mueller’s other integrative medicine programs focus on impacting many other critical problems faced by most patients with cancer, problems such as: reversing weight loss or cancer cachexia, relieving cancer-related pain, reversing malnutrition, improving sleep, boosting the immune system, improving energy, the best quality of life with a strong emphasis on collaboration with the patient’s oncology team.

Charles Owens has been a part of the Essential Depot Team since 2013 and subsequently became a proud member of the Greener Life Team. Starting in the warehouse, his work as a packer and shipper provided Charles the opportunity to learn about proper packaging material, safe handling practices, and the shipping regulations of the various product types in the soap making industry. He worked close with the Development Team, becoming knowledgeable of the different types of personal care products, ranging from melt and pour soaps to lotions and bath bombs. His more recent work with the Media Team has allowed Charles to use his acquired skills in photo shooting and editing to bring an edge to the digital content of Essential Depot and to maintain the quality standards of the product labels. As a “jack of all trades” at Essential Depot, Charles is active in the Shipping, Drop Testing, Order Processing, Order Fulfillment, Development, and Media Teams.

Dave Purdue is a trademark attorney in Toledo, Ohio. His father, John, founded Purdue Law Offices in 1984, and they practiced together until 2009. Dave is a registered patent attorney, like his father, and Dave represents and counsels clients in connection with their patent, copyright and trademark portfolios. Clients include individuals and companies in the United States as well as clients in Australia, Germany, and Russia. These clients are involved in many different industries including food, adult beverages, personal care products, aerospace, film, investment, and cosmetics.

Dave earned a degree in Engineering from the University of Michigan and graduated from the University of Toledo College of Law in 1983. He was admitted to the Ohio Bar in 1983 and became a registered patent attorney in 1984. He provides pro bono services to entrepreneurs through Assets Toledo, Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, and the Ask a Patent, Copyright and Trademark Attorney program at the Toledo Lucas County Public Library.

Ellen opened Beagle Ridge in 2001 and has been specializing in Lavender for over 20 years. 

She is a recognized speaker at lavender and herb events up and down the East Coast, and is a Charter member of the USLGA serving on several committees over the years.

Beagle Ridge is a thriving environmental educational center, as well as an agritourism destination in Wytheville VA.  Her passion for teaching other growers has created a thriving workshop series known as Lavender Academy.  The academy teaches novice and expert growers how to grow Lavender and grow their lavender business.  Since beginning the Lavender Academy in 2019, students from 32 states have come to take these weekend long workshops. Ellen said, “when we began, we never imagined this.”  Ellen and Gregg encourage new growers to start small and to know what you like and want to do, before you get in over your head.

Zakia Ringgold, a seasoned entrepreneur and digital marketing maven, brings over two decades of expertise in Instructional Design to revolutionize small business owners’ digital presence. Launching her entrepreneurial journey with Natural Soap By Zakia, she not only crafted handmade soap but also mastered the intricacies of live streaming and online marketing, setting the stage for her subsequent ventures.

Seamlessly transitioning, she founded the Virtual Experience Design Agency, strategically intertwining live streaming and digital marketing to create compelling online brand experiences for libraries, universities and non-profit organizations.

Now, with Business Tech Lab, she offers tailored training and solutions to make digital marketing simple and effective for small business owners.