“We’re trying to make sure we do the best that we can at this time,” said Senior Brand Manager Resa B. Luster who’s a third generation leader in the family business.

It was Resa who saw the writing on the wall with coronavirus and told her father and uncle, the company’s CEO and Vice President, respectively, that they needed to pivot and begin producing essential items like hand sanitizer –not just for frontline workers, but for their own employees and their families.

In continuing our series on Black women and how they are leading their companies and looking out for consumers during coronavirus, Resa talked to us about the unique challenges of operating a family business during this time and why her advice to business owners is “Keep your faith, look for opportunities, keep you passion, keep your hustle, and don’t let anyone stop you, even this pandemic.”

We produce all of our own goods so we were able to provide our coworkers with hand sanitizer to take home for their families and for their personal use as well.

I went to my uncle, who’s our vice president, and my dad’s our CEO and said we have to make hand sanitizer, we have to make some powerful cleaning goods, there’s gong to be a huge demand for it and they were kind of like, “OK, Resa ,what are you talking about?