From Drunken Regrets To Mindful Sips: Meet The Black Female Founders Behind Sensori [Exclusive]

There’s so much beauty in the power of sisterhood, especially those relationships that have seen you at your best and worst.

No stranger to a good turn-up session and the horrible hangovers that often follow the overindulgence of alcohol, a group of Texas girlfriends have since graduated to a place where health is the main priority, including what they allow into their bodies.

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On a shared mission to change the drinking game, three besties, Ashlyn Knox, Darean Rhodes, and Shanna Watkins, created Sensori, an alcohol alternative made “for the feel-good seekers.”

“I’ve always been the friend that, when I get drunk, I get like blackout, and I have so many horror stories of of just being blackout, both of these two can attest, like so many horror stories, so as I started to get older, and passionate just about wellness, which I should say, took off, like many people in 2020, and that was something that us three all bonded around, our love for pivoting towards just better, mindful choices,” Watkins recalled to Madamenoire.

In 2020, Watkins noticed that her drinking increased a bit, especially with the weight of a global pandemic on her shoulders and the boredom of being cooped up at home.

When she became the public relations manager for a brand called MUD\WTR, an adaptogen-based coffee alternative, her curiosity was piqued, and she began learning about the benefits of ingredients like lion’s mane, reishi, kanna, and other adaptogen plants and mushrooms that are said to help alleviate stress in the body. It wasn’t long before a dry January 2023 led to her testing those components above, ultimately leading to the product they built through Sensori.

For Knox, the sentiment was similar. Always immersed in the fitness space, she credits her work as a personal trainer, especially during the pandemic when the trio would get online to workout, read books, and even attending church via Zoom, to how she was more than on board with her girlfriends to create a product that caters to others looking to make the same sort of lifestyle change.

“Kind of like Shanna said, I had already started dabbling in herbs, because once I graduated college, I got my ADHD diagnosis, and I wasn’t super in love with the medication that I was prescribed,” said Knox. “So, I was just starting to do a lot of research on different herbs that I feel could substitute, and Lion’s Mane was a big one. I started learning about ashwagandha and reishi, and all these other mushrooms as well.”

Similarly, Rhodes was experienced bad bouts of anxiety and depression in 2019 and 2020, and wanted to figure out what her alternatives to antidepressants and anxiety medicine were. She also stumbled upon those adaptogens and figured out what worked for her. 

“I hate to say that 2020, it was such a pivotal time, but for me, it was a pivotal time, and me focusing on my mental health, which in return meant me doing physical activities and taking adaptogens and things of that sort, because I just didn’t want to go the route the therapists were offering,” Rhodes reflected.

“Fast-forward, and Shanna called me two years ago and was like ‘I want a product.’ And I said, ‘Okay, well, let me know when you have the product.’ A year later, she called me and said, ‘Okay, I know what the product is,’ and it was Sensori. I think it’s funny that you both have done Dry January, because I’ve never done Dry January. I feel like this year, I just have not been leaning to drink, and I’ve realized that might be truly what always caused me so much anxiety, because I was drinking so intensely, and when it stopped, like, we’ve been drinking since 14,” Rhodes continued. “I’ve been having anxiety since 14, and I would say, the other day, I was having a great time with my girlfriends, went to bed, woke up with the worst crippling anxiety.”