About Us
About Me: How DC Divine Concepts Began
My name is Jerald Ellis, Founder and CEO of DC Divine Concepts LLC. This company's story didn't begin in a boardroom, a laboratory, or a business school. It began with pain, prayer, purpose, and my own feet.
During the 1990s, I served ten years in prison. While incarcerated, my feet became extremely dry and cracked, especially around my heels and between my toes, and the burning and itching were often unbearable. I believed it came from years of walking on the prison shower floors.
After returning home, I tried different products, but nothing gave lasting relief, except raw, hard shea butter. I would pack it between my toes just to calm the burning. It was thick and difficult to work with, but it gave me the relief I needed.
Years later, after moving to Georgia, my life began to change. I had built a business that supported me financially for years, but I no longer felt connected to it. The income was there; the passion and purpose weren't.
One day, sitting at my kitchen table, I prayed and asked God to replace my income with something that would give me both.
About a week later, a close friend called about a business opportunity he thought I'd be interested in. I told him I was open to it, and we agreed to meet soon.
About a month after that call, I visited a new beauty supply store in my neighborhood, looking for the raw, hard shea butter I normally used on my feet. Instead, I noticed a sampler of whipped shea butter soufflé near the checkout counter.
I tried it and immediately loved the texture. I bought five 8-ounce containers and brought them home. My whole family loved it. I started applying it to my feet morning and night, and after about a week, I went for a pedicure.
The difference was unbelievable. The rough, damaged skin that had troubled me for years was gone, and it didn't come back. For the first time in a long time, I felt like I had my feet back.
About three months later, my family and I had gone through every container in the house. I went back to the beauty supply store for more, only to find it had closed. I didn't know the manufacturer's name, where the owners had gone, or where else to find the product, and I was genuinely upset.
About a week after that, my friend called again to follow up on the business opportunity he'd mentioned months earlier. I invited him over.
When I opened the door, he was standing there holding five 8-ounce containers of the exact same shea butter soufflé I'd been searching for.
"That's what I've been looking for!" I told him. I explained how the store had closed and how disappointed I'd been. He told me he knew the people behind it, and that they'd relocated to Ohio.
Then he said something that changed the direction of my life: "This is the business opportunity I wanted to share with you."
He was helping an African entrepreneur who was producing the shea butter soufflé out of a basement. Demand was growing, but they didn't have the capital to keep up. They needed someone willing to invest and help expand.
Nine months later, I finally spoke directly with Akbar, the owner of the company behind the soufflé. As we talked, something moved in me. I picked up a pen and a sheet of paper and wrote an agreement: DC Divine Concepts would partner with AB Fabulous to distribute and manufacture the product, splitting overhead costs equally. Akbar signed it.
For an investment of less than $10,000, I became a 50% owner.
After about 90 days of working together, we realized our visions and paths were different. Through honest communication and financial integrity, we mutually agreed to end the partnership.
That moment wasn't the end of my journey. It was the true beginning of DC Divine Concepts.
I moved forward on my own, taking with me what I'd learned, the personal transformation I'd experienced, and the conviction that this product could help other people feel comfortable and confident in their own skin.
DC Divine Concepts was born from a real problem that affected my life for years. It grew out of a prayer at my kitchen table and a series of events I could never have planned on my own.
Today, DC Divine Concepts is home to DC Shea Butter Soufflé, a whipped and creamy skin and hair moisturizer made for people seeking deep, lasting moisture and a better way to care for their skin.
Our mission is personal: we minister to the body's largest unprotected organ, the skin.
I know what it feels like to live with dry, cracked, burning, irritated skin, and I know the joy of finally finding something that makes a real difference. This company represents redemption, transformation, faith, perseverance, and purpose. It reminds me that our greatest pain can reveal our greatest assignment.
What started with my feet became a mission to help people everywhere feel better in their own skin.
That's how DC Divine Concepts began, and we're only getting started.
Jerald Ellis
Founder and CEO, DC Divine Concepts LLC
Home of the Whipped and Creamy DC Shea Butter Soufflé
We Minister to Skin.
