From Sick to Thriving: How This Founder Healed Herself & Revolutionized Non-Toxic Cleaning Products - Allison Evans, Co-Founder of Branch Basics

This episode features Allison Evans, co-founder of Branch Basics, discussing her personal health journey and how it inspired the creation of a non-toxic cleaning product company.

1. Personal Health Transformations: Allison's switch to a toxin-free lifestyle drastically improved her health conditions, highlighting the impact of environmental factors on health.
2. Business Challenges: The journey of Branch Basics includes overcoming significant setbacks, including product recalls and business restructuring.
3. Entrepreneurial Spirit: Despite not seeing herself as an entrepreneur initially, Allison's personal passions drove her to business success.
4. Impact of Non-Toxic Living: The episode underscores the broader implications of non-toxic products on health and wellness.
5. Community and Support: Building a supportive community around a brand can significantly influence its resilience and success.

1: Introduction to Allison Evans and Branch Basics

Allison Evans discusses her background and the inception of Branch Basics, emphasizing the health benefits of non-toxic living. Allison Evans: "Starting a blog turned into creating a revolution in non-toxic living."

2: Overcoming Health Challenges

Allison recounts her personal health struggles with PCOS and chronic pain, and how a holistic, toxin-free approach helped her recover. Allison Evans: "I changed my lifestyle completely, which brought my health back and inspired me to help others."

3: The Growth and Challenges of Branch Basics

Allison details the operational challenges and learning experiences in scaling a non-toxic cleaning product company. Allison Evans: "We had to learn everything from scratch, from product formulation to customer education."

4: The Philosophy Behind Branch Basics

The discussion focuses on the core philosophy of Branch Basics, which emphasizes the removal of toxins from everyday environments. Allison Evans: "It's about more than just cleaning products; it's about fostering a healthier way of living."

1. Evaluate Your Home Environment: Look at the products you use daily and consider replacing them with non-toxic alternatives.
2. Educate Yourself About Toxins: Learn about common toxins in homes and their health impacts.
3. Start Small: Begin your transition to a toxin-free lifestyle with one product at a time.
4. Listen to Your Body: Pay attention to how changes in your environment affect your health.
5. Spread Awareness: Share your knowledge and experiences with others to promote healthier living.

Allison Evans is the co-founder of Branch Basics, a brand dedicated to revolutionizing clean living and fostering healthier homes.

Allison's journey began with personal health struggles - she was diagnosed with PCOS at a young age, didn’t get her period for years and was told she could never get pregnant naturally. After another health crisis in college, Allison was desperate to find relief and embraced a toxin-free lifestyle under her Aunt Marilee's guidance, centered on real food, safe products, and a toxin-free environment. The results were nothing short of miraculous— her symptoms completely disappeared, her period came back and she eventually welcomed three daughters into the world naturally. With her best friend Kelly by her side and her aunt, the three of them co-founded Branch Basics in 2012 with the mission to empower others to rid their homes of toxins and embrace a healthier way of life.

In this episode, Allison candidly shares how a few pivotal moments in her life and health journey were the catalyst for launching the business – and she never thought she would ever be an entrepreneur. Allison walks us through the early days of the business, how their first few ideas for non-toxic living didn’t work out, and how they ultimately decided to launch their all-purpose cleaner which eventually took off. She also shares the behind-the-scenes of the business, including how she managed business crises and the process of rebuilding Branch Basics from scratch. Allison reflects on this challenging time when they paused operations, pulled products from shelves, and laid off staff despite the company making millions in revenue. She also shares insights into managing customers, navigating relationships with formulators, balancing career and motherhood, and so much more.

People

• Allison Evans
• Kelly Love
• Merilee Nelson

Companies

• Branch Basics

Books

• None

Guest Name(s):

• None

Content Warnings:

• None

Yasmin Nori

Hey everyone, I'm Yasmin Nori and you're listening to the behind her Empire podcast. I'm on a mission to showcase successful, self made women who share honest stories and lessons of what it really takes to create the life you want and build your own empire. If you've been listening to the show, you know, just like you, I've been on my own personal journey to build my empire. I started my business BIA to help women tackle their period problems and hormonal imbalances using a natural whole food approach. If you're suffering from bad cramps, irregular periods, fatigue, bloating, stay tuned because a little bit later in the podcast, I'll share a bit more about my company via but for now, let's jump into today's episode.

I want to welcome this week's guest, Allison Evans to our show today. Alison is the co founder of Branch Basics, a brand dedicated to revolutionizing clean living and fostering healthier homes. Allison's journey began with her own personal health struggles. She was diagnosed with PCOS at a young age, didn't get her period for years, and was told she could never get pregnant naturally. After another health crisis in college, Allison was desperate to find relief and embraced a toxic free lifestyle under her aunt Merilees guidance, which was centered around real food, safe products and a toxic free environment.

The results were nothing short of miraculous. Her symptoms completely disappeared, her period came back and she eventually welcomed three daughters into the world. Naturally, with her best friend Kelly by her side and her aunt, three of them co founded Branch Basics in 2012 with the mission to empower others to rid their homes of toxins and embrace a healthier way of life. In this episode, Allison candidly shares how a few pivotal moments in her life and health journey were the catalyst for launching her business and she never thought in a million years she would ever be an entrepreneur. Allison walks us through the early days of the business, how the first few ideas for non toxic living didnt necessarily work out, and how they ultimately decided to launch their all purpose cleaner, which eventually took off.

She also shares the behind the scenes of the business, including how she managed multiple business crises and the process of rebuilding branch basics from scratch. Allison reflects on this specific, challenging time where they had to pause operation, pull the products from the shelves, and lay off all the staff, despite the company doing quite well and making millions in revenue. She also shares insights into managing customers, navigating relationships with formulators, balancing career and motherhood, and so much more. Welcome to the show Allison. Thank you so much.

Allison Evans

I'm so excited to be here. Yes, I know. We were just chatting about this one is a long time coming. I'm so glad the day is here because I have been just a big fan of how you guys have built the brand, and there's so many similarities between us in terms of, like, our passions and wellness and education. So this is a really fun one.

I probably spent so much time prepping because I just loved your guys's background and the way you've built the company. So I'm super pumped. I love that. We're gonna have to switch spots for the next one because I want to hear just everything about you and your background and story, because I do feel like there's a lot of similarities, Zachary. For sure.

For sure. We'll make that happen. Well, I actually, you know, what I love so much about you and, you know, your co founders, is you never really set out to start a business. You never looked at yourself as an entrepreneur. So I kind of want to go back to the very early days when you've had maybe your first health issue, because you've talked about that this business has kind of come out from your own personal struggles.

And I know you've had a few health issues, but let's talk about the first one that might have hit you early on. Yes, for sure. And it's true. I still. I mean this.

I'm not kidding when I say this. I still don't really view myself as an entrepreneur because that was never the intention. And so now that we're here, you know, I'll use the word and it's like, you know, but when people ask my advice, I'm like, gosh, do I even, like, do I even have advice? I mean, yes, I do, because of all the mistakes and the lessons that we've learned along the way. But when I say this was not how I saw my life going, this was not my intention.

I never meant to start a business. Like, we started a blog hoping that a few, like, sorority sisters would read it. I love it snowballed, and I'm so grateful for that. I'm not. I definitely do not mean for it to sound like it's been easy at all, but it was just not the original intent.

So, yeah, it really did all start from, really, the three founders, myself, my best friend Kelly and my aunt Marilyn, and all of our health journeys. And each of us have such completely different stories. We have a little bit of overlap, but removing toxins and replacing them with pure whole foods and products and really looking at everything that we put in, on and around our bodies is what got each of us to where we are now, overcoming tremendously difficult health issues all the way to little things like body odor and PM's, although sometimes that's not little for people. Dry skin, you know? So it started for me when I was in middle school.

I actually had my first period, and then it never came back. And then in high school, I grew up here in Houston, Texas, where I am living now with my three girls and a baby in my belly and my high school sweetheart. But I went to a fertility specialist here in Houston in high school, and I was actually told I had the worst case of polycystic ovarian syndrome he had ever seen. My sonogram revealed that my ovaries were completely covered with cysts. And I was told, in a very matter of fact, very loving, but just kind of.

It is how it is. You will not be able to conceive naturally. Thankfully, there are fertility treatments available for people in your situation. No need to worry. But here's birth control.

So I'm 17, and you need to be on birth control indefinitely. And I remember specifically asking, is there anything I could have done to prevent this or anything I can change? I was a very willing 17 year old. I mean, I wasn't typical. I was like, okay, you told me to do something, I'm gonna do it.

You know, and the nurse practitioner who I love and adore and I still keep in touch with, every now and then, she looked at me and said, there's just nothing you can do. This is just something that happens to women every now and then. Well, since she's completely changed her stance, and that's been an awesome journey and a whole different story. But I owned this. This was back in 2002, so a lot has changed.

We've learned a lot. But I took the birth control. I slapped on that label of, you know, can't conceive naturally, and really just didn't think much of it. I felt fine. You know, I didn't have the typical, like, fat, 40 female.

I mean, I obviously got the female part, but there was, like, facial hair fat, and four. There were four. Four f's, I remember. And I was like, okay, I'm one of them, so move on to college. I'm on my birth control.

I meet Kelly going to University of Texas at Austin, and I come down with pain that started as I'm kind of sore to, okay, I've never had back pain before to, this is excruciating. I can't sit through class I am seeing physical therapists, acupuncturists, rolfers, I mean, every healer you can imagine, from east to west. And by the end of my sophomore year, I am on twice daily hydrocodone, muscle relaxers, antidepressants, sleeping pills. I was a walking pharmacy. I looked great, and I was showing up at the fraternity parties, and I was putting a smile on my face.

But I was miserable. I was in so much pain. I was sleeping on ice packs to the point that I would wake up with blood on my sheets because the pain from the ice was better than the pain in my back. I don't know if anyone's experienced pain like that, but I know the people that have experienced it that may be listening. You can relate, because sometimes the antidote is, like.

Can be hard, but as long as you're not actually, the pain isn't coming from your own body. It's kind of a mental crazy thing, but it worked for me. So, ice got me through college and lots of drugs, but along this time, my aunt Merilee, who I was not very close with at the time due to just a distance between us, like, demographically, and also just health issues and situations in her life that just kept her from being super close with the family that I'll go into in just a minute. But basically, she comes into my life, and she starts asking me questions that nobody had asked me. So I had been to.

I mean, you name it, I had been to this specialist, right? And we have access to the best doctors here in Houston. And one of the last appointments I went to, the doctor said he thought that it was early stage, miss. So Marily's now asking me, what are you eating? Give me a three day diet diary.

Have you recently moved or remodeled? Of course. I'm living in, like, a brand new apartment dorm, like, cheaply built, ridden with formaldehyde, and windows that don't open, and fresh, highly toxic paint. You know, you name it. And I'm thinking, this is the craziest thing.

Like, I am. I've talked to the smartest people in the room, and, like, what? They've never asked me any of these things. Everyone else around me is doing this. No one else is experiencing any symptoms.

You know, all the typical, like, you know, devil's advocate questions. But at the same time, her questions really sparked this kind of new hope in me. Like, wait a minute. This is actually the first person that has asked me something that I can, like, control, that I can change, that I can do something about. And the way that she described it, it kind of just made sense.

Like, God has made our bodies. We have this innate ability to heal. And it's like, if you have a scab and you wake up every day and you pick at it, it's not going to heal. But if we get out of its way, if we stop feeding it, all the things that I thought were normal and fine and even healthy, like 100 calorie packs and snack wells and splenda, you know, Marilyn's explaining, this is not food. It's not.

Well, this is the only food I've ever eaten. No. So she. She just explained about basically how the body can heal, and it didn't. She was very respectfully disinterested in all of my labs and all of my symptoms and all of my drugs and all of my diagnoses and all of the things that people had said.

And she said, mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yes. Okay, so we're gonna now remove all the toxins. So I was limited in where I was living at the time, but I noticed just by removing the windex and the pesticides and the hair things I was using every single day, and like I said, like, the typical, you know, chemicals in my diet, I noticed a huge shift.

And so I ended up wanting to go live with her in the hill country. Kelly's my roommate at the time. Watching me go through all of this, watching all these other things fail, and then this. I'm finally able to start dropping doses of drugs. I'm a new person.

So we go and we live with Marylee in the hill country in 2008, and that is where I would say the company really started, because we were introduced to a home that was completely free of every pesticide, every synthetic fragrance, all the things that I just never even thought twice about. The dryer sheets, the candles. I mean, you name it. You know, all the shampoos that you get from hot, from hotels that just gather in the back of your drawers and you don't even smell it because you're just around it all the time. And then you walk into a home without it, and you're like, something is different.

And so over that eight week period that summer, we were drinking juice. This was before juice was cool. This was like, you know, the orange juice and grapefruit juice only days. And we were. Yeah, we were putting things through blenders I didn't even know could go in a blender or a juicer, I should say.

I didn't even know what that was. We're grounding barefoot. She would, you know, just download all this information about, you know, decreasing inflammation. As we're sitting, just staring at the ground without our shoes, I'm like, what? This doesn't.

I mean, how could it be this simple? You know, using the sauna, taking our phones on, putting our phones on airplane. Within eight weeks, I was off every single drug. I. We ate only whole, real foods for eight weeks, too.

I mean, I learned how to use a knife for the first time, to chop. I learned, honestly, it probably was the first day of my entire life, including the days I was on formula, you know, that I had ever eaten, like, an entire day of real food. And I did it for eight weeks straight, and my body just came alive. The pain went away, the inflammation decreased. I still wasn't having my period, but of course, merrily was like, get those synthetic hormones out of your body.

You cannot take birth control. So I just kind of went rogue, basically. I was like, fine. I'm just not going to go back to the doctors. I'm just going to eat real food and breathe clean air.

And I did that for about a year before going back to that original doctor in high school. The sister gone. He couldn't believe it. He runs into the room with my sonograms from, you know what, I guess it was about six years apart. And he's like, what did you do?

I've never seen anything like this. What are you taking? I'm like, well, it's kind of what I'm not taking, it's what I'm not doing. And it was. It was a really cool moment.

And since then, they've actually integrated an entire arm of their practice that goes toward polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, and all the lifestyle changes that can happen, that can positively affect those issues. And so all that to say, I kept living this lifestyle. Woke up one day, I had my period for the first time in my life since 6th grade on my own. And we've tried three times, and we've gotten pregnant four times. I'm currently pregnant, and this is a surprise.

So amazing. You know, it's just, for me, it's one of those things that, like, no one can take my story away from me, and people can say, oh, you can't heal from that, or that's not affected by that, or everyone else is doing that. I'm like, okay, but this is my story. And it's also the story of so many people that come to us and go through our program of removing toxins. And you know what I tell people?

I send out free product all the time. I send it to two people today. I met at a coffee shop, but the whole thing is like, listen, I don't need anything free in return. I don't need any shout outs on Instagram. I just want you to set this next to your Clorox and next to your toxic products and, you know, have the pesticide guy come and spray the perimeter of your house.

Like, the entire point is removal and allowing the body to breathe and to heal. And I want to just like, harp on this for just a second because this is really kind of the crux of our company. Merilee has two incredibly powerful stories, kind of these catastrophic events that allowed her to have the information that is essentially branch basics. Like her entire brain is what, why we started the company. We basically said after that summer, Kelly and I looked each other and we're like, we want to put Marilyn's brain on the Internet.

That was when people were blogging, barely, you know, but her first event was as a 20 year old. She was told that she needed a kidney transplant. She was pre med. She just had everything going for her, but had all these kind of health issues, fevers of unknown origin, constantly sick, told she could never get pregnant, horrible endometriosis. She was on Vicodin for cramps.

And she looked at the doctor who told her, after this exploratory surgery, several surgeons were in the room and she was, you know, kind of like post surgery, a little bit drugged up. She said it was actually the most clear minded I had ever been. I looked at the doctors and I, with all due respect, I said, absolutely not. I will not be having a kidney transplant. What if the medical community will, could figure something out in the time that I, you know, I would have been healed.

But we just don't know this information yet, and I'm not going to be subject to our limited knowledge for today. Years, you have a 20 year old who has no background in any medicine or even natural healing. And she just kind of had this, like, really strong intuition. So she put herself on an all diet, very healing, medicinal, and ten days later, her numbers were normal. And she is now 75.

She has never taken a prescription drug since that time. In her twenties. She has eaten real food since then. She has now, you know, run macrobiotic resorts in Jamaica using food as medicine. She's a specialist when it comes to medicinal diets, but then fast forward in her thirties.

She has a son who's my first cousin. At ten years old, he was exposed to chlordane, which is a banned pesticide, and it can just wreak havoc on the brain, on the gut. It's one of really, honestly, one of the worst. It was used in chemical warfare, and then they brought it back into homes, and now, since the eighties, has been banned. But all that to say he was exposed.

And he went from a brilliant, athletic, obedient ten year old to she picked him up from school the day he was exposed at school. And he was blue in the face, his tongue was blue, his lymph nodes were swollen like BB's. He couldn't spell a three letter word, walk a straight line. They went to these specialists and merrily was told that he needed 16 shots a day. Keep him in a comfortable room.

He will be a bubble child. He will never recover. There's nothing you can do. The same thing rose up at her and she looked at the doctors and said, that is not our story. He will heal.

I don't know what it's going to take, but he will completely heal. Thank you so much. So went home. This is before the Internet, before you know, any of that stuff. And she already knew about food as medicine, but she was finding that he would react every time he would go into the home.

And so she thought her home was so clean. But she starts getting rid of all the things that could be irritating him. And this was really the eye opening experience of kind of the second part of the journey, which was the environmental part. They lived in a tent outside. They slept outside, like under the stars because he couldn't go inside.

And one day she is laying outside, and she has this aha moment, like, okay, I have this box of stuff with my favorite perfumes and lotions and non toxic, quote unquote cleaning products. And I have it in a box, and it's in behind, you know, closet door. What if I just remove that box? Like, what if, you know. So she does, and the next day he comes inside.

He could usually only be inside for about ten minutes. And after about 15 minutes, he looks at her and he says, I'm not irritated. I can stay inside. She was like, amazing. So she never says anything to him.

And a few days later, she's at the grocery store, and she goes down the cleaning product aisle, and she has another aha moment, and she thinks, okay, I have a son who is a canary in the coal mine. He is so sensitive. He is like the most sensitized human, you know, you could. It's kind of like a baby or someone that's elderly or immunocompromised, you know, but he's reacting on a parts per million, billion, you know, even trillion level. And when she went down the aisle, the cleaning, you know, with the cleaning products, she could smell it.

It hit her. And so that was almost kind of how he was reacting at a very, very sensitized level to that box. So since then, since that day, he was able to stay the night inside. And his recovery was like at warp speed. He fully recovered.

He was the first homeschool child to get into the US Naval Academy. He's in his mid forties. He has three kids. He's super strong. So that that experience is actually what we've based our entire message on, the concept of removal.

And then, of course, you need to replace your products with something. But that's really. It's really the story of hope and the story of how our bodies, no matter what we're exposed to, no matter what we've inherited, genetics loads the gun, but our environment pulls the trigger. And some of those are things we choose, and a lot of those things are things we don't choose, that we're inadvertently exposed to. And so, thankfully, we can control with knowledge the things that we bring inside of our home and put on our body and in our mouth.

And that will leave us with the strength to face the things that we can't control. Hey, everyone, it's Yasmin here in 2020, I was struggling with some debilitating health stuff. I just got off birth control, and suddenly I had acne, mood swings, breast tenderness, and really painful periods. I tried so many things, but the one thing that worked was something called seed cycling. I know you're probably thinking, seed cycling.

Yasmin Nori

What the heck is that? It's a natural way to support your hormones using four specific seeds throughout your cycle. The challenge is that seed cycling can be a little complicated to do and kind of time consuming. So I decided to make an organic seed cycling product that is so easy to use, we make it effortless for anyone to get started. Today, it's called bea, and it's a super easy way to add something powerful to your diet, to support your hormones, regulate your cycle, and bring back balance.

To learn more about Bea and join our community with thousands of incredible women all over the world, go to beawellness.com. And that's spelled Beeya wellness.com and check out the show notes for our promo code to get $10 off your first purchase. Thanks so much for listening. And now let's get back to today's episode. I love it.

Allison Evans

Preach. I mean, I could probably say, here listen to you story after story, because. I'm not giving you a second to talk. No, no, I love it. I said, I'm literally sitting there being.

Yes, yes. Because I believe in all of this. I have heard so many stories. I mean, I am living proof as one of them. I mean, not to the extent that you went with the back pain, but I had debilitating periods.

To your point, I thought it was normal. I was on birth control most of my life. I got off, and it was even worse. And then that's kind of when my world opened up of food is medicine. You know, I met with a functional medicine doctor, and, you know, we.

I started this protocol called seed cycling, and it changed my life. And that's what my company, that was our first product, was all around. How do we make this more accessible? Because I'm like, how? To your point, also, it's like, you learn something.

You're like, how do we not know this? Because these shifts is life changing. And I'm like, more women need to know. And even to your point, with toxins, my husband, he is very sensitive in a positive way, because sometimes I'd be like, oh, I don't even notice it, but he will be like, I have the worst headache. When you're blow drying your hair.

Did you put a new product? And I'm like, oh, my God. I thought it was clean, this leave in conditioner. And then I'll look into it and be like, he knew. So I am also now like, a big convert.

And these simple lifestyle changes can make a massive difference. And also similar to you. You know, I don't even sell my product. I'm like, let's just go back to the basics. How are you sleeping?

What toxins are, you know, similar cleaning supplies, personal care products. Like, what does that look like? Blood sugar, like, good meals a day. And, like, so much of this can change your life. So I just get so pumped about hearing your experience.

Your co founder, your aunt, her son. It's incredible. And I'm glad you're putting that message out there because there's still so much work to be done. But so you are convinced that, you know, there's something here. You can't unlearn this.

Once you kind of live in this life, you're like, more people need to be part of this mission. So you guys started out, like you said, doing a blog. So at what point were you like, oh, there's maybe a business here. Like, we could take it to the next level. What?

When did that kind of happen? The summer that we lived with Marilee in 2008, we basically cooked, we chopped, we cleaned, we grounded, we drank juice. You know, she introduced us to coffee enemas, maybe on week seven. That blew my mind. But the main thing we did during the day in between all of those things was listen to all of her consults with her clients, with permission.

But I mean, day, from literally like dawn to dusk, she would talk, and sometimes through the night would be talking to people who were living in cars, who would be calling on landlines like payphones because they were so sensitive to emfs. I mean, people that I didn't even know this existed in this world. And it really opened our eyes. People who have been chemically injured, professors who had been exposed to something out of school and their whole lives. I mean, their husband had left them and they were in bed, and they're miserable.

And she is literally saying the same thing to every single person. Okay, let's talk about your pesticides. Let's talk about the products you're using on your body. Let's talk about your diet diarrhea. It's the same questions.

Then we listen to her recommend the same products over and over and over. Austin Air purifier, Nilfisk, Hepa vacuum, and the same kind of dietary product. And then she would constantly recommend this one all purpose cleaning solution. You can use it on your body, you can use it in your home, you can, you know, shampoo. You can remove your eye makeup.

You use it on your dishes, your stains, your laundry, your dry. You were like, what is this? So we actually ended up deciding to make a blog based on Marilee's information and be kind of this, like, guess, like one stop shop for clean living. So we became basically retailers for these products. Merilee had had relationships and accounts with most of these companies for decades, you know, so it was really easy to kind of get in and do that.

But we found that people, like, we had this amazing website. I mean, Kelly and I are like 23, 24, and people were just. Were not open to this stuff yet. They weren't going to make these investments in an organic mattress or an infrared sauna. They weren't convinced.

And we joke that we spent all this money on SEO and a website, but, like, it's kind of like having this, like, beautiful party and catering and decorating your house. But then we forgot to send invitations out. Like no one was coming to our website. We're like, this is weird. My mom's reading it, like.

And so we found out that people were really just overwhelmed. They didn't know where to start. And the one thing that people were putting in their carts and asking about and using over and over, and we're seeing that, you know, repetitive purchase was this cleaning solution. So we actually ended up doing a private label. And that ended up.

That worked for a while. It really did. But then, around 2015, there was a proprietary blend. Even though we had third party testing and everything was wonderful, it was acting like the control. Merrily had been using this formula on her son, and with the most chemically sensitive people in the nation, with great success.

But there was a proprietary blend, and we did not feel comfortable telling people, do not use products that you don't have all the ingredients yet. That's what we were selling. And so we ended up shutting the company down, and we did a whole overhaul. We started from ground zero. We have no formulation background.

We are not chemists. This was totally an act of God, in my opinion. I look back and I'm just like, he must have wanted us to keep going, because our CEO and CFO currently actually came into our lives around that time. We were both pregnant with our firstborns, who are now seven. And we went through a year and a half of testing different formulas, over 100 iterations.

Every time we would say, no, this is our no list. We don't use sodium benzoate. We don't use potassium sorbet. We don't use methyl isothiolos. No.

Even in a small amount, we don't use it, because this, epigenetics tells us that even a small amount can turn on and off genetic expression. And when this is a product we're telling people to use every day, even on their skin and on their babies, we had this no never list. Now, honestly, you go down the cleaning product aisle at Whole Foods, and you're going to find that the products that aren't our. No, never are. One of them, at least, is in every single item in that store.

So relatively, yes, they are safe. But in terms of Merilee and all of her experiential data and basing just her experience with her clients, they were really, honestly, kind of like our test our guinea pigs. We would send out different things to her sensitive clients, and they were like, nope, nope, nope. So we finally came up with our current formula, and we relaunched in 2016 with little babies in tow. And we had no idea what the response was going to be, but people loved it.

And so since then, we have gone direct to consumer with just this, basically one product. We have. We added the oxygen boost. And we have a very limited select, you know, number of skus we just came out with. We have dryer sheets, but we just came out with dish tabs, which have been great, and a gel hand soap.

But even something as simple as a gel hand soap, you think, oh, that shouldn't take long. It's just a regular, like, sapodified oils are not adding any fragrance. I mean, it took us so long. If you really want something clean, like, to your point there, it's so easy to add certain ingredients that are quote unquote safe. But if you really genuinely want a clean product that it doesn't, it takes a lot of time and you get a lot of pushback.

So, yes, I totally understand that behind the scenes. But, Alison, I actually want to go back to when you guys had your private labeling in the beginning, right? You mentioned you had this product. You knew it worked. You're like, all right, let's create our own version.

Let's start there. You were doing quite well, I believe. Like, you guys were selling in the millions at that time. Is that correct? Like the v, one of the product.

Yeah. I'm definitely not the numbers person. No, no worries. You guys are doing well. Definitely over a million for sure.

Maybe around 4 million when the company went down. Yes. Let's talk about this a little bit, because you had, I believe, ten people working for you at the time. The company's growing. You are beginning to hear.

Maybe you can walk us through, like, what were those early signs at shoot? Something's going on. And kind of walk through the behind the scenes, because I've had my own fair share of not formula issues, but preorders and selling out. And I know what it looks like managing customers. And I know you guys were very hands on.

So walk us through kind of what was going on and, like, the crisis management behind the scenes before the new formula and everything got better. Oh, gosh. It was not fun at all because we were really in the dark. I mean, again, merrily, it was one of those things that, because she had been using this formula for so many years, and we had a contract with the woman who we had a wonderful relationship with, lived out in Florida, and we went to go see the facility and we flew her into Houston, and we had this wonderful relationship. And then it turns out that she just wasn't being 100% truthful about plant based ingredients.

We're like, well, what exactly is that? Well, she couldn't exactly tell us. And then we're like, well, can you tell us the family of plants and what else may be added to that. And so, thankfully, we could sleep at night because we had third party testing. And to this day, I honestly don't know how the product was so inert and wonderful and healing.

And if I'm being really honest, I have a wound on my leg and I still sometimes will break out the original formula because there's something about it that's just, like, really healing. And I can say that because I'm not selling it because we said that before it was illegal, but my mom is like, I only have two more bottles. The original formula, I still love it. I still use it when I really need to, but it. We just couldn't stand behind it.

We couldn't. I'm not going to say that to, you know, millions of customers. And we needed to be able to speak to every ingredient. And the. The truth of the matter is, we always wanted to have control from top to bottom of every single ingredient.

We never loved the idea of, of private labeling and doing this, you know, just relying on a third party lab to tell us something was safe. Like, we wanted to be able to tell you every single ingredient came from. But we just honestly were so focused on education and getting information out that the idea of product formulation never even entered our minds. For the first few years, we were like, okay, wow, it's selling. It's doing really well.

People love this stuff. Okay, have we worked on this blog? Or, what's the next content thing? Or, you know, what are we going to say on Facebook? This is really before Instagram.

So it came as a complete shock. There were actually a few bloggers that had reached out to us, and they were like, hey, there's murmurings about there being some ingredients that are not, you know, totally truthful in here. And we're thinking, I mean, literally, we are questioned. We're now immediately calling our formulator, like, oh, gosh, okay. We're having people ask us these questions.

We were so naive. We're like, can you give us the answer? And she's like, I actually can't. I'm not able. We're like, what do you mean?

What? Why can't you answer these questions? You know? So at that time, we were in, I mean, gosh, a handful of retailers, like, pretty small around the country. We were doing our own fulfillment.

We did have a, we did have a third party logistics in Fort Worth who I remember telling us, okay, you need to reach 10,000 a month minimum in sales. And Kelly and I were on speakerphone at my dad's office. We looked each other's, like, 2011. We looked at other. We're like, I don't think we can do that.

I don't know. I think they're too big for us, which I think I just still love that story so much because I'm not a numbers person, but I remember that number, so it was really scary. We shut everything down. We had no idea if we would ever come back. We had some people with some crazy accusations that we had these horrible intentions that we were just these, you know, Texas girls trying to get away with murder and telling people to use this product they don't even use, like, on their babies.

I mean, it's amazing, the rumor mill when it comes to, like, the blogging world and people and influencers, and we had a first row seat in that, and Kelly and Marilyn and I honestly was probably the hardest, I would say around ten weeks that I've ever been through, because we were refunding everybody. We had our college friends, we were paying, or they were just volunteering out of the goodness of their hearts to come over, and we would spend hours with laptops set up in the back of my duplex in Austin. And I'm. I think Kelly was pregnant. Didn't know it, and I was about to be pregnant, but we were just like, we weren't even eating, we weren't sleeping.

We were just refunding orders, answering emails, answering DM's. I mean, calling investors. All the investors are our friends and family. So I'm like, I remember with one investor call, specifically, I was telling him that basically the company was shutting down. We were so sorry, and I forget exactly what was invested, but I couldn't even breathe.

I was hyperventilating. And I went into it thinking, I'm just gonna be able to tell the story. And then I just lost it. And he was like. Ended up being a therapy session with one of my dad's friends.

I was like, this is so embarrassing. So it was really a tough time. And that's the time that we met Tim and Greg, our current CEO and CFO, through a friend of a friend. They were up in Minneapolis, and they flew down. Greg had just sold a company that he had been one of the very first hires, a kind of a family company called Boom Chicka Pop popcorn.

And so he flew down and. And I remember the five of us had lunch, and Tim and Greg were absolutely just in love with our story and our passion, and they could tell just our hearts and our intentions, and they could also tell that we really didn't know what we were doing in terms of business. So they were like, I think we could make a really good pair. So we kind of courted each other for a little bit, and then once we made the decision to partner, it was like the rest was history. We got to formulating, they put infused a little bit of money back in the company, and we launched.

Yeah, in 2016. And again, we were holding our breath, like, are people. Do people hate us? Are they even going to trust us again? God is so good.

And we were able to do really well in a pretty short amount of time. That's incredible. And looking kind of back at that time, you know, when you're in that crisis management mode, the magnitude of how big yours was is like another level, but there's always hiccups that will come up. Any learnings that you have from that experience, if there is a crisis, because you guys are so focused on customer experience, which I love. Any tips on how you manage that for anyone who's going through some business issue?

Yeah, I mean, I have a couple. I would say one. And this may be something that if someone's listening and they already have the idea and they've started, they're kind of like, well, maybe too late for this one, but for those, maybe on the earlier side of an idea or I've just started the company. Had this not been a true passion of ours, I honestly do not believe there's any way that we could have gotten through and come back from this if we had just been out to make money. That can be such a driver, but it can only take you so far.

But because we. Our lives had been personally changed by the information that we were trying to share, which we use our product as a vehicle for that information, we were able to keep going because we knew that there was so much power and so much truth and so much potential in our information, and so. But we also knew that we needed to make money to be a business. So we were like, we were determined to have a product that could basically go along with our information. So if you have something in mind, if you're a listener and you're passionate about something and you feel something so deeply and you've experienced it yourself, nobody and no thing can ever take that away from you.

Like, there's just nothing. And I think that leads me to the next thing, which is we value the way people think about us so much. And to a fault, I would say, during this time, I can speak for myself, but I think Marilyn Kelly could say the same thing. Like I said, no eating, no sleeping, depressed, anxious panic attacks, all the things. And I look back and I'm thinking, like, I didn't have to get so wrapped up into what people thought and what people were saying.

Because when you know your own truth and you can stand by that, even if it doesn't sound good, even if you can't even spin it well, even if everyone else is speaking against it, like, the amount of energy that can be sucked by getting wrapped up and trying to prove yourself could actually be freed up to get back up and wipe off your knees and keep going. And I only wish that I had had me telling myself that, you know, eight years ago because we were so debilitatingly affected by what people thought about us. And since then, we absolutely have had. I mean, we had an issue a couple years ago where we were trying to be canceled by an influencer. And it was tough.

Like, I will say it was really hard, but had we not gone through that experience before, it would have stung a lot more. And I still to this day, I had a friend a few days ago say, oh, my gosh, someone just told me that y'all are donating money to XYZ organization that we absolutely do not stand behind. It's like the opposite of what I believe in. And I was like, oh, really? People are still talking about that?

That sucks. I found myself, like, I just didn't care. I thought, I cannot control this one dm that came from a friend, but I mean, that would have taken me down, like a decade ago. That's so powerful. And what I've noticed, you know, through friends and chatting with more women like you on this podcast, like, the bigger you get, it's inevitable that someone's going to cancel you for whatever reason.

Or you get, like, an angry DM or an angry customer because it's just a volume game at that point. And who knows what that person is dealing with in their own life that they put it on the business or who knows? So the fact that you've kind of built that resilience is really powerful. And just going back to, like, that influencer, you know, canceling you guys, for one, for whatever reason that was, did you respond in any sense? Or were you just like, you know what?

That's what she's saying, and we're just going to continue doing our thing and just stand ground with, like, what we're passionate about? No, that's a great question. And we did respond, and I would still say I needed to have this advice two years ago, too, because even though it didn't hurt me as much, like, I think we still got too wrapped up in it. But the thing that makes it more complicated is that Kelly merrily and I have really become the faces of the company. And so it feels very personal.

Whereas, like, our business partners, Tim and Greg, they're like, gosh, we, like, this sucks, but, like, we don't really care. We've kind of moved on, you know? I'm like, well, nobody knows y'all are behind this. Our names are on the bottles, you know? And it was a very.

It was something that was actually, like, questioning, like, who we are, like, in our faith, which is, like, a big thing for us. Like, we're all really strong christians, and we were just like, what? So it felt very. It was like a personal attack. But again, I wish that I had just been able to say, listen, like, I'm so sorry you believe that that's actually not true, and then not try to just prove myself over and over and over, because, again, like, people are going to bite.

And what you said is so true, the bigger you get, there are a lot of keyboard heroes out there. And it was interesting because once you get on the phone with some people, and we did, we probably. I mean, we probably talked to a couple hundred people. We had to kind of pick and choose, and I didn't stress about it, even though it took us a few months to kind of get. Get back to people and have phone calls.

But I'd say 99% of the phone calls we had, it felt so good, and they understood we were coming from. And even if they decided to not support us or to stick with the person that tried to cancel us, I was like, at least our piece has been said, and that's who we are. And, like, there are a lot of other people who are really being helped by our information and our products. And I think that you can't have the success, success that we've had. And, listen, we're small potatoes compared to so many other companies, but you just can't have that without having attacks.

There's just no way. Yeah, there's always, like, some issue that will happen. Like, it could be an influencer, it could be a manufacturing problem. It could be, you know, who knows? And what's so interesting?

And I'm curious to get your thoughts about this. Like, I feel like, I mean, I'm only three years into my journey. You have a lot more experience than me, but I'm sure health is a big part of it, at least in my life to, like, sustain my mental health. But how do you kind of manage these storms? Because it's inevitable, I think.

I forgot who I interviewed, but we were talking about how when you have a growing business that equals problems, there's always stuff that's going to come up. It's just part of it. And I tell myself that, like, I'm like, I will hear myself sometimes thinking, damn, like another issue. And I'm like, no, Yasmin, this is part of a growing business and you get to do this. So how do you kind of manage the highs and lows of, you know, whatever happens behind the scenes in your.

In your business? I love that question. And my default is to not manage that well because I am just. I'm emotionally involved in my company. It's my first baby.

We have obviously, like, a lot invested in it. I mean, of course, financially, but just, I mean, like I said, emotionally, my. So much of my life is in this. Our CEO, Tim, is. Has actually been an incredible example of this, but he just does not let things get to him.

And it has been so refreshing to work alongside someone. And I hope that whoever's listening, either that's you or that's your business partner. But really be so picky if you have a choice at this point about who you partner with, because if you're kind of the balloon in the wind, like, you need someone tethering you on the ground. And so Tim can sometimes even tether. And I'll call him and he's like, Alison, it's fine.

It's no big deal. He always says, that's just a learning. That's just a learning. I learned. These are our learnings.

Isn't that great that we get to learn from this? And I'm thinking, I just spent way too much money on this event. It was a total flop. I did. And I'm feeling so guilty.

And he's like, cool learning. So what's up? What's next? Okay. And even manufacturing issues and supply shortages.

A lot of times they don't share all the details with Kelly and Marilyn. That's good. Our partners called because there's just no point in getting us wrapped up in that for years. That was us doing it at a much, much smaller scale. And Greg is another, again, my business partner, CFO and C, I would say more oo.

But he's like, there's always issues with operations. Like, you're always going to project off at some point. And that is a really, really hard mistake. Right when you, like, over order or you under order. You're just beating yourself up and you kind of just have to, like, look at these things as, like, oh, okay.

So this is just another day in a business. Like, I think we just have to really adjust our expectations of what it's like to run a company at any level. Yeah, I love that. And that's why I'm so passionate about this podcast. Exactly.

For what you said, like, we need to manage our expectations of, like, what goes into a business because it's so true. And this is kind of like my own therapy as I deal with all the supply chain, there's always some operational stuff, and, you know, that's my role in the company. And I will hold it back from my co founder, of course, when, like, shit really hits the fan, I'm like, hey, just FYI, like, this is happening because I don't want to feel like, you know, we all have our lanes and there's no point to get her involved unless it's, like, very crisis esque. But there's always something, and, you know, it's tough, but, like, you will build that resilience as you kind of move through it. But yes, one day, I can't wait have, like, ahead of supply chain or operations to, like, manage it because it's just my nervous system sometimes gets.

Yasmin. I cannot imagine, honestly, there are roles in my company. Like, we were. We had our team call this morning, and customer service was sharing what happens when we deal with really difficult customers. And there's like, a three point thing, and there's, like, they said it's like a.

What did they say? Something like a compliment or a positive sandwich where you sandwich the positive between. Anyway, all these. And they're talking about the rate of, you know, positives and, like. And then the people that we do lose.

And I'm listening to some of these stories and I'm like, I couldn't have your job. I'm getting anxious. Oh, my gosh. I didn't know we had people that hated us this much. This is so horrible.

You know what I'm thinking? This is why I do my role, and this is. But sometimes you're on the stage where, like, you don't have a choice. And for years, that was Kelly and that was me. And I was chasing the shipping guy out.

I was making mistakes. Gosh, Kelly and I ran a special one time, and it went viral and some coupon.com website, and we ended up having to ship out, like, thousands of sample things. And I lived out in the country at the time and I had to find this kinko's like an hour away. I remember the receipt at the Kinko's. I was there for over 4 hours to actually fulfill what we said we were going to do because we were like, okay, well, these people bought it and they happened to find the coupon.

The receipt was. Went all the way out of the FedEx like onto the sidewalk and I know keeping it so that I could one day be like, this is how the dumb mistakes we've made. Do you still have it? I still have it. Oh, my God, I love it.

I feel like I want to have a book or something that's like, you can't make this up. Like, there's so many crazy stories that I would love to just put in. A book and people chapter from different companies with a founder contributing. I think that would be an incredible seller. Something there.

Oh, my God, I love it. But yeah, I mean, I love the customer service point. I think as an owner you take things very, like, emotionally and personally. And as the business was growing, I was like, I mean, with the team and help, like all hands on deck for help. Scout and my husband looked at me one day and was like, you really need help.

Like, this can't be all on you because you just take it way more emotionally, you know, than someone else who might be like one degree away because you kind of know what's happening in all aspects of the business and it's. Yeah, so the emotional weight there, I. Can imagine it's good and bad, right? I mean, it's bad in terms of our nervous system when we get overly involved, but it's that kind of passion which is what actually creates successful companies. Like, you have to be so all in, you know?

So it's like, where can, where is that balance of, like, I'm not going to care that much, but I'm going to care a whole lot. Totally. Well, it's interesting because I don't have any kids yet. I know you have three, which is so incredible, and four on the way. Like, I guess I'm curious, and I'm going off a tangent right now because, like, bea is my child.

Like, I don't have a kid, but I genuinely feel like I birthed it. That has organs. If something happens, it impacts me. Like, I don't have a kid yet, but when you have a child and this human you give birth to, like, how do you even give yourself the grace if they're going through anything? Because I can only imagine you just wanting to always, like, be there and help, and, you know, it's your child.

So who knew that you had, like, a parenting podcast? This is great. No, but I would honestly say that branch basics really prepared me for motherhood, because I hadn't experienced kind of the big girl pants part of the world until I started this company and until these responsibilities were only on my shoulders and I couldn't run to mommy and daddy, even though I tried. There was only so much they could do. I remember, like, my mom was, like, depressed when our company went down, and I thought, oh, okay, well, there goes that support.

She's like, yeah, I know. I'm like, I can't share that with my mom. Never mind. Take that back. Nowhere to run.

And so I've definitely dealt with some things with my kids. I mean, I had a. I had. We had an eczema issue, actually, with my firstborn that was so bad. It sounds like, oh, it's just an eczema issue.

But, I mean, this is a child who comes from me and who I do all the things, and she has never had refined sugar at this point. I mean, there's no bad old. I'm like, if I could have created this perfect health child, you know, I feel like I had. And yet she had such bad eczema. She could hardly go to school.

She was miserable. She wasn't sleeping there. She was scarring, she was crying. It was horrible. And I just remember thinking, this is completely out of my control.

And, I mean, honestly, this is kind of where my faith comes in. I'm like, I have a higher power. Like, I am not. Like, I have to just trust and submit and just believe that there is a bigger plan here and that I am going through it. But, like, there's going to be a sun at the end of this because it can feel so overwhelming.

Like, you're just in the storm and you just cannot see out of it. But then you have those good days and you look back and you're like, the reason this is so good is because that was so bad, you know? And so you just have to cling to all the positives. I mean, journaling and doing breathing exercises. Like, for me, prayer.

Like, if I felt like I was the biggest thing in my world and that it was all about me, I mean, I would crumble. I love that. And I love how you were saying, like, there's certain things that are just out of your control. And business taught you that. Motherhood teaches you that.

I mean, that's life, right? There's always going to be something that comes up and really can't control everything in your life. And you need to have some kind of higher power, whether it's a religion or something, right. That you or a mission or whatever that is for you in your life to know that there's something bigger than you. And so much of that for me is also like the mission of my company and what I'm so passionate about, getting more women healthy and business.

And, you know, I try to remind myself about that bigger why, which is, which is really helpful. But no, this was so great. And one last thing I want to touch on because I thought it was such an interesting part of your story, I'm kind of reversing back a little bit. But when you guys were working on this, like v two, trying to restart the business with this new product, and I believe you and your, the two business partners you guys brought in, you just all self funded it at that time, right? Did you guys all put in money then?

Yeah, I mean, we put in like, gosh, thousand dollars in the very beginning each. I love that. I love that you, you start small, but, and I know that when you were working on that second product, you were working with formulators, but they didn't charge you, I believe, until you started manufacturing, if I got that correctly. Can you talk a little bit more about that? Because I think that's very unique because I'm sure that would take a lot of cash upfront to work with the formulators.

So how did you convince them to kind of wait until you guys had that final formula and produce the product? No, that's a really good question. And to be honest, like, I wasn't even that involved in those conversations. And this is, again, why it is so important to know your strengths and know your weaknesses. Because having Tim and Greg come in and being able to negotiate and Greg had been working with formulators through Boom Chicka pop, and Tim had just sold his vegetarian frozen burger company.

And I mean, I remember Kelly and I were thinking, oh, my gosh, I wouldn't have even known to ask these questions. I, you know, so they were the ones really dealing with the manufacturers and, you know, making these kind of agreements. And then by the time we honestly, I will add though, having those relationships and having those conversations and flying out to Denver and meeting the manufacturers and sharing our passion, sharing our story, it does make it so much easier to negotiate with people when they really see your heart and your intention and the passion. And they know that no matter what, like these people, like, they may not really know what they're doing right here, but, like, they're gonna figure it out, and they're being honest. And so that that can go a really, really long way, even in a very professional setting that you feel, like is very strict.

Making the time to take the plane ride and take the time. I remember I was nursing, and I had to take, like, a really early morning flight and then be home by the time my baby went to bed because she wasn't taking a bottle, and she was, like, maybe four or five months old. But we went to Denver that day and met everybody, and that I think that really just, like, created the rapport on which, like, the foundation on which to build, like, agreements that are, you know, maybe atypical. So I. Yeah, that would be my advice there.

I love it. I mean, and like you said, sometimes you don't know what you don't know. And whether it's like having a partner who can, like, negotiate these things or listening to podcasts and seeing how people structure stuff or asking friends who might have their own businesses. I love that because sometimes you're like, oh, I didn't even know that was possible. At least I always say that all the time, so I love it.

And how do you guys kind of. I know you mentioned a little bit about the roles of your business partners, but I love that you said, you know, we all have our strengths and weaknesses, and clearly, when you guys started your business, you were doing everything right. There was no big team. You wore all hats. So now, in the position you are in today, what would you say would be your strengths that you're really doubling down on and weaknesses that you're like, you know what?

I'm good. I don't need to touch that. That's not where the business can get the most value from me, because I think about that for myself all the time. Yeah, no, I love that. I mean, I would say my strength is doing what I'm doing now and sharing my story, because to me, it's, like, not even work.

It's just like, I get to meet you, and I get to have these fun conversations, and, you know, even Kelly and I, who I would say are the main faces of the company, and we are 100%, maybe 99% in control of our Instagram. Like, that's really where our passion is, because that's what we feel like is representation of us and our beliefs and why, I should say merrily, too, we're just the main ones on it. And so we've tried to kind of relinquish Instagram and that didn't work. We're too picky. We're like, give it back to us.

We don't really have time for this, but we want all the control back. So we have Tim and Greg, and they're looking at us like, guys, y'all better prove your numbers, because you've just basically fired everybody. No, but we just. We have a hard time letting go control of that. But I would say that and just the kind of the marketing pr side, sharing the story, sharing the passion, like I said, doing what I'm doing right now, then when it comes to our suppliers and our inventory shortage and trigger sprayers that are broken or a mold that's not coming in from China, like, that is not my strength.

I mean, even customer service, like, I will say I would be good at it because I could put on a face. I would be a wreck, though, inside, you know? And so I would say that's one of those things that it could be, like, a camouflage as a strength that I could be really good with something like that, but it's actually a lie, and my nervous system would be a wreck. And it's not actually a strength of mine when you have to pretend. So I would say, know your strengths, but not meaning.

Meaning not just what you're good at, like, what you're actually gifted at. I love that. And I think so much of probably where you've really honored that is just, like, going through the motions, doing the business, doing so many different positions, you know, that you realize, okay, I could do this really well, but it's not what lights me up. So I love that, and I think I need to hear it because there's so many things that I do that I can do really well, but, like, is this really what lights me up and helps me move forward? Because I'm always thinking about team, and, you know, sometimes you forget everything you do.

You're like, oh, I don't need help. But you're like, oh, I actually could get someone to support me. You don't. You forget because you're so ingrained. So I love that, and it's just a good reminder.

But, Allison, this was so much. It's such an honor. I could talk to you, have you join us. I could listen to you for hours. Thank you for joining us today.

No, I could listen to you. It's like, I want you to take this stage now. No, you're amazing. So inspired by everything you guys have built and love your brand. So thank you for joining us today.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate it, Yasmin, and thanks for allowing me to talk to your people. I'm sure they're amazing.

Yasmin Nori

Thank you so much for listening to. This episode of behind her empire. If you enjoyed this conversation, it would. Mean the world to me. If you would consider leaving a review.

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