Najifa Choudhury wants to close the gap between holistic healing and health care by providing options that can assist people with calming healing and results.
Choudhury, 29, of Detroit, is a pharmacist and a huge advocate for traditional medicine, but she also believes that people should give holistic options a try.
In the process of trying to find relief from her own stress and anxiety, she discovered CBD oil, and she felt that others could benefit from its use, too.
So Choudhury launched Dr. Peace Lily in 2019, a line of oral and topical CBD products available to buy online at DrPeaceLily.com that includes bath bombs, gummies, serums, capsules and tinctures, along with some vegan options and products for pets.
She took to social media to share her story about leaving her pharmacist position to fully immerse herself in her business.
“On my personal page, I share a lot about being a business owner, how I deal with my own stress or anxiety,” Choudhury said in an interview with the Free Press. “People love the fact that I’m really transparent, and I share a lot of the ups and the downs. And then my business page is less about my personal life and more about the business.”
Her journey led her to making difficult decisions, which sometimes upset those close to her. Choudhury and her family moved to the U.S. from Bangladesh when she was 7 years old and settled in Detroit. As an immigrant, she struggled to learn English for three years, which made things difficult for her in school.
“As a kid, for a brief while, I had dreams of becoming a pilot and I wanted to travel the world, but my parents said, ‘No, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. I think you should pick something in the science field,’ ” Choudhury said.
“There’s a large Bengali population in Detroit and in Hamtramck,” said Choudhury. “A lot of these parents sacrifice everything to come to America. Some of them had a college education back home, but their degree didn’t transfer here. So when they come here, they end up doing entry level jobs, or working hard labor just to make ends meet.”
Her father, who was disabled after experiencing polio as a child, drove a taxi in the city, and her mother didn’t work because her highest level of education in Bangladesh was second grade. Choudhury said that her parents wanted more for their children, so they pushed her to go into the field of science.
Choudhury found herself in a battle between pressure and passion.
She attended Wayne State University from 2011 to 2019, where she earned her bachelor’s degree then doctorate from the pharmacy school. In her last year of school, she noticed that the pharmacy industry had an overflow of students who were in the market to get jobs.
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“In my last year of pharmacy school, I’d been hearing from a lot of my colleagues how the work-life satisfaction in the pharmacy world right now isn’t the best,” Choudhury said. “I started hearing about people graduating and not finding a job. All of that made me just start looking outside of my bubble.”
At the same time she was second-guessing her career choice, a Farm Bill passed (in 2018) that made CBD legal in the country. The U.S. market, which in 2022 is expected to see revenues reaching $1.8 billion, according to market and consumer data tracking website Statista, was flooded with unregulated retail items that consumers could use in topical and oral ways.
Choudhury said while some products claimed to not have THC in them — THC is an ingredient found in marijuana and so not legal to sell — there was certainly THC present in some of the unregulated products. Because of this, she worried that the people who were trying to seek holistic options were not getting a healthy replacement.
“Nowadays, more and more people don’t just want to rely on prescription medication, they want holistic healing for themselves,” Choudhury said. “They want to do prescription medication along with plant-based medicine — just a very cool combination — to do what’s best for them and to really heal from within.”
She was getting ready to graduate, and with the state of the job market in the back of her mind, she felt it was time to foster her new passion — becoming a business owner.
She was offered a full-time position at a geriatric clinic in Dearborn, where she would assist underprivileged seniors as a pharmacist.
“It was really fulfilling,” Choudhury said. “I was able to help out so many seniors that were vulnerable that came from underserved (populations), and so they needed the help the most. I loved my job, but the whole time that I was working there, my love for CBD and business just kept growing and growing and growing.”
Seeing a gap in knowledge about CBD oil and its regulation, Choudhury saw the perfect opportunity as a pharmacist to enter the industry.
She took advantage of programs for entrepreneurs, such as some that TechTown Detroit has to offer, and by 2021, she saw her business grow by 500%, which Choudhury said was due to her abilities to connect with her customers through social media and her background that certifies her to focus in health care.
She was then able to quit her six-figure job last year and pursue Dr. Peace Lily full time.
Choosing passion
Choudhury wishes that her passions had been fostered at an early age. She knew that her parents just wanted the best for their daughter.
“When I launched (Dr. Peace Lily), it was a struggle because — being a minority, not really having family members that were entrepreneurs or successful business women or men. I didn’t have any guidance, I didn’t have any resources,” Choudhury said. “My parents didn’t have a bunch of friends that were also successful to help me network. So I had to really figure it out on my own.”
When Choudhury left her job at the Dearborn clinic, her family was shocked. But her husband was supportive because he saw that she was enjoying her business and making an impact, she said.
Starting a business can be difficult for some Asian and Asian American young women whose parents often steer them toward STEM-related careers.
Munni Rahman, of Warren, is a Macomb County organizer at Rising Voice, which is a statewide nonprofit that focuses on empowering Asian American women and youth through civic engagement, leadership development and other opportunities. Among the cities with which the nonprofit works are Detroit and Hamtramck. The organization often works with Asian American women who are business owners.
Rahman said that businesses are often male dominated, so when women try to start a business, there is sometimes a barrier of trust issues.
“I think with traditional careers, those are more stable, and oftentimes women are the ones that are starting families,” said Rahman, who is a Bangladeshi Muslim woman. “With entrepreneurship, there’s risk involved: It may succeed, it may not. So, you really have to be grounded and passionate about what you’re doing. And it’s important that you do get the support from everybody. But pursuing your passion is really important.”
Rahman sees a lot of Bangladeshi women running a lot of service and product businesses. As for Banglatown, which is the neighborhood located at the Detroit and Hamtramck border, Rahman said she wants “to see more businesses, more shops and stores that are woman-led.”
As for Choudhury’s future, she is hoping to raise capital for her business and possibly find some investors. She also has plans to move to California to ensure that she can network with investors and surround herself with other entrepreneurs.
Contact staff writer Chanel Stitt on Twitter: @ByChanelStitt. Become a subscriber or gift a subscription.
