Julie Clark: Founder of Province Apothecary

Kara Goldin 0:00
I am unwilling to give up that I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be I want to be, you just want to make sure you will get knocked down. But just make sure you don’t get knocked down knocked out. So your only choice should be go focus on what you can control control control. Hi, everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world’s greatest leaders. We’ll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can’t wait to get started. Let’s go. Let’s go. Hi, everyone. I’m Kara Goldin from the Kara Goldin show. And I am so so thrilled to have my next guest. Here we have the founder of province apothecary, I’m so so excited to have her here with us today. So it’s an incredible, incredible beauty brand. And we’re gonna get to hear the backstory, my favorite favorite thing that I get to do and Julie’s very, very brief story, she’ll get more into this. But after struggling with severe allergies, and eczema, she decided to take matters into her own hands. And I like to say I don’t know if this was actually true, but she was doing it all in her kitchen just like me the kitchen is the best place to mix it all up. And she began formulating her own natural organic skincare products. So province apothecary is one of Canada’s most well known clean beauty brands. And they all began when she was curious enough to solve her own struggles consistent thread amongst so many entrepreneurs are out there that have amazing, amazing products. So the company, even though they’re Canadian is selling everywhere, you can find it in the US where the majority of our podcast listeners are, I’m just really, really excited to hear a lot more about how the company is doing and how they’ve evolved and her hopes for clean beauty. And finally, if entrepreneurs can ever feel like they’ve actually made it, because this is a brand that is just absolutely on fire. I’m super excited to hear all of that and more from Julie. So welcome.

Julie Clark 2:16
Thanks so much for having me. Oh my gosh, thank you. Yeah, and I love love, love your podcast. So, so excited

Kara Goldin 2:23
to be here. Thank you really, really excited to have you. So let’s start at the beginning. So I’d love for you to share with our listeners who aren’t familiar with the company. What is province apothecary.

Julie Clark 2:36
So problems Bosquet. So we are an organic, clean beauty brands. So we really focus on skincare. And our hero product is really excema balm, you know, I’ve suffered, as you mentioned, suffered from eczema since birth. And that was my focus. So I was 28 at the time, and I was looking for natural products to heal my skin. I was on steroids internally externally. And I just couldn’t find anything. So the brand was really inspired by the gap in the market that I could see that there was really no natural product for Zima. And then in my kind of studies and learnings and develop the found my foundation to create our healing Zima balm, I became an esthetician holistic health practitioner. And I started offering facials out of my house and seeing customers. And that actually helped me develop the entire line. So it’s a spa line. So we have products that you could use in a facial, you know, I use them every day. So from cleansers, we have beauty tools. So yeah, it’s just a great line to make your skin feel beautiful and look healthy.

Kara Goldin 3:39
That’s amazing. So let’s back up. Obviously, it didn’t happen all overnight. What were you doing before founding the company, you had these struggles, you decided to go to esthetician school, what were you doing before that?

Julie Clark 3:52
So I studied costume and fashion design. So right after high school, moved to Montreal, went to fashion design and costume school and then worked in theater, worked on commercial commercials and film and television. So I really dove into costume and fashion styling. So I did that. And I was in New York doing that and you know, working with different stylists and photographers and I was so stressed out. As you know, so many of us are and my skin was so bad so that you know one day that’s where I really started to look for natural products because I just like making clothes and touching clothes and steaming clothes. I just was in so much pain. My hands had really, really bad Zima and I was like, this isn’t working anymore.

Kara Goldin 4:50
That’s so interesting. So how much do you think stress actually contributed to that?

Julie Clark 4:54
For me? So stress is my number one cause for eczema eczema You know, so many people have eczema and there’s different. You know, for me, it’s all about stress. So maintaining my stress levels really help reduce my eczema. But sleep diet can also play a part and just hereditary if you’re prone to it. So yeah, for me, it’s all all stressed. As I get more stressed, my skin gets drier and starts cracking.

Kara Goldin 5:22
What was the first thing that really helped you when you were starting to develop this line?

Julie Clark 5:28
So you know, I went out, I lived in New York. So I was like, the best stores are here. So I need to be able to find a product. So I went out to look for, like natural exams, I bought, about six of them, took them home, and I was shocked. Nothing really was working. Then I started looking into just other natural products. And the best product that works for me was natural deodorant. Oddly enough, so I started putting like a natural zinc based deodorant, I heard zinc was really good for the skin. I couldn’t find like a high concentration cream with zinc in it, but I could find natural deodorants with a lot of zinc in it. So that actually was the inspiration behind our Zima balm was a really strong like powerfully zinc based balm that was waterless so it was really that deodorant that changed my skin quickly. And then I, you know, started studying and with all the plant medicine knowledge that I had gathered, you know, combined all the ingredients together, but it was really that that zinc base deodorant that changed everything for me,

Kara Goldin 6:31
did anyone inspire you, like any company, maybe from afar, or any individuals really inspire you to feel like, gosh, I can go start a company? Yeah, so

Julie Clark 6:43
a funny story was me trying to make products myself, essentially. You know, I was in New York and went to the health we sort of bought all the things tried to make stuff for myself, and I was like, I can do this. I failed. I totally failed the first degree and I, our first product I made I use toasted sesame oil, instead of raw sesame oil gave out you know, 1020 lip balms to friends. They all gave them back to me and said it was disgusting. Hysterical. So, you know, I think I entered this with a lot of confidence that I could do this. And you know, I think it was just I was so used to making things I made clothes, I could, you know, I could really like costume background really allowed me to like, imagine something, make it and bring it to market, right. And so I think I had total confidence in myself that I could do this. But in reality, I had no knowledge.

Kara Goldin 7:39
So what did you do after that?

Julie Clark 7:42
So actually, it led me to find a school that made me realize I need a mentor, I need someone to teach me how to do this, like I cannot do this on my own. And then I found the perfect school in Toronto. And that’s I ended up moving to Toronto, and just jumping into school. So it was it was called the Institute of Aromatherapy. It was led by this British aroma therapist that that, you know, had really established herself. She worked with farms and made custom products or farms using their ingredients. She offered facials, so it was literally this amazing environment that I got to just get go into. So she was really my biggest kind of inspiration. Just seeing her do this. No. Well at school, the school went bankrupt about three months after I got there. Okay, what’s happening?

Kara Goldin 8:34
And we’re at what how long was the program? The program was about six months. We’re in the middle of it. Like you graduated.

Julie Clark 8:43
Yeah. And she just was like, not there. And it was really crazy. So but I was like, determined to finish it. I fell in love with with just, you know, making products, helping people with their skin giving facials. And I really just, you know, dug my heels in. I was like, I need to finish this program. I’ve paid for it. You need to see this through with me. She you know, so in the end, it all worked out. But it was a lot of you know, me holding her accountable and making it happen.

Kara Goldin 9:14
Wow. That’s That’s amazing. So you left the school then at that point. And then what was the first product that you actually developed? Beyond the I mean, doing the deodorant but but beyond the deodorant? Yeah,

Julie Clark 9:26
so the exhibit bomb that so the exam room was one of my first products that I just needed it so badly so well in school after finding that deodorant. You know, I had access to so many ingredients. So I actually just started blending that Zima balm so that was my first product, but it wasn’t certified by Health Canada or FDA that took another three years to happen. So that was kind of on the backburner where I wasn’t truly allowed to sell it. But I used it every day and then I developed the facial line because by, you know, in exchange, you know, after my teacher went bankrupt, she owed me a lot of money and in exchange for not paying me, she gave me all the patient supplies. So I went home with the massage bed a cart, like everything I needed to start my own spa.

Kara Goldin 10:16
Amazing. So it wasn’t it wasn’t everything happens for a reason, right? You? Yeah,

Julie Clark 10:23
it was crazy, honestly, looking back on it, and I still have a lot of the equipment to this day, you know, 12 years later.

Kara Goldin 10:30
That’s, that is just absolutely wild. So, so how did you come up with the name?

Julie Clark 10:37
So, so friends helped me so I, you know, I really saw, you know, not my strength, really, my weakness is branding and design and really, you know, figuring out a name for a brand, I could do the products. You know, I started with three product lines. And when we launched, I had to pare it down to one. So I have no problem kind of developing the the products, but I have a really hard time with the branding and the marketing. So friends came up with the name, it was based on the fact that prob like we sourced ingredients from every province, so they really love, you know, that was part of my mission when I started was where can we find local ingredients? So they really suggested province B in the name and then apothecary, you know, means old pharmacy and but looking back at most like don’t choose a name. That’s insane, like very difficult to say a tongue twister. A lot of people don’t know how to pronounce it. So it has not helped us that much.

Kara Goldin 11:38
No, I mean, people do their best. And as long as you have great products, it really doesn’t matter. I don’t think I mean, I think it’s a path of something right? For some people. So, so you developed the company over a decade ago, and obviously your entrepreneurial spirit, your unique journey to holistic healing and creating products and just presence in the clean beauty industry. It’s a big deal. I mean, you are, you’ve really done an incredible job. And it’s so inspiring. What do you wish, clean beauty? Like, I feel like you’ve really led this, this movement around making products cleaner, there are a number of companies that are out there that are now doing it. But you were early. And I mean, that what do you wish the consumer would really pay attention to or, or what clean beauty was doing, as an industry and focusing on a little bit more?

Julie Clark 12:39
Yeah, I think, you know, 10 years ago, it was just even explaining what an oil cleanser was, was a difficult chore, like people didn’t believe me that you could cleanse with oil. Now it’s popular, but I think we still kind of these clean plant based products still don’t have the belief that they’re effective. And, you know, 10 years later, so many brands exist, but I think consumers are still skeptical of how effective the natural ingredients are. So I think that’s just still something that, you know, that comes with education and, and trying the products and seeing the results. And that’s why we have a lot of beauty tools as well, because it’s like pairing them with the natural products. With the beauty tools like the facial cups or the Jade roller, like you can change your skin overnight with them. And the more you use them, you know, that’s where you’ll get the results. So I’m a firm believer in like, plant based ingredients are 100% effective. It’s about the right ones, obviously. But yeah, I think it’s just that there’s a lot of skepticism still 10 years later that you know, rose hip is beneficial to the skin.

Kara Goldin 13:50
Do you feel like you’ve had to sort of lead in the education of what a lot of these ingredients will do for skin? I mean, that’s Yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s, and that’s hard when you have to educate consumers about the benefits too.

Julie Clark 14:04
Yeah, it’s, you know, it’s something we didn’t totally expect, right as part of our marketing plan, but then we really leaned into it. And I think that’s where all of our rituals have come in. And I think seeing or, you know, we used to have a spa so a lot of our clients were coming in for facials trying the products and we were sending them home with homework. Because you know, the more you can do even if you massage your skin for 12 seconds, 30 seconds, it doesn’t have to be that long. But you can give your skin and your face a natural facelift like massage every night and you can actually see the difference. So I’m a firm believer in educating customers on like how to take care of their skin, simple things you can do to see benefit. And the more you do it, the more often you do it, the more you will notice a positive change.

Kara Goldin 14:52
How is your company changed since the beginning? So from the early days of you sitting in your kitchen Making mistakes along the way. I read that you were, you know, obviously mixing up ingredients and using a spatula to actually put it on the skin. I mean, just really, I’d love, love love the visual of that. So, how difficult was it to move your product to scale? How did you get your product into the first store?

Julie Clark 15:21
Yeah, so 2012 I was really just like scrappy did a lot of flea markets and farmer’s markets and just, you know, that type of environment, we were really lucky to be one of the first clean beauty brands to market at that time. And even you know, detox market saw us at a flea market and then gave us you know, the got the buyers card, I contacted them I biked to the store showed them the products, they took them on. Same with whole foods, I literally walked into Whole Foods, with some products asking if they were looking for products like this, and they were, you know, so you know, not not the same as 2022 How you get into stores. But so I think we were really, really lucky to get into some major retailers early on, like, even I went to a trade show my first trade show in New York, I think it might sound like me, it was maybe the now one, but we got into maidwell in that one. So that was before I even had labels, real labels. And that Pio allowed me to buy labels. So it was really I think we were just super lucky to be first to market with products that were well designed, effective, natural, and people were interested in the space. And yeah, it’s been, you know, a challenge I brought on a partner. So my friends, twin sister, Natalie, so she came on in 2015. And she had worked for L’Oreal. So she had so much sales and marketing and distribution. And just, you know, so much information on how to grow a company. So she was really the brains I’m, I credit her to our growth. Because it was if it was just me, it would still probably just be me in my house. Seeing clients, she really was able to help the brands scale and grow and had that sales knowledge and distributions knowledge. So she, she is still my partner today. And we work so well. So it’s you know, always about finding that complementary person to support the business,

Kara Goldin 17:26
I love that you’re talking about co founders, because that is, you know, something that people are always sort of challenged by right, they’ve got the idea for the brand. But I think it’s also where you start to see where your weaknesses are. Or maybe they’re not necessarily weaknesses, but they’re just stuff that you don’t really like doing. Right, that you that you find somebody who does love doing that, whether it’s the sales side of it, or the finance side of it, or whatever it is, I mean, we hear that consistently. And somebody who will actually challenge you to and take stuff on that, you know, you know, needs to be done. Can you share a little bit more about that? Like how it just really changed your life?

Julie Clark 18:08
Oh, yeah, like, so I had been running the business for three years before Natalie came on board. And, you know, it was going well, very disorganized. I’m not a business person I hadn’t, you know, didn’t have any of the systems in place, let’s say but had a handful of employees. And we’re all, you know, doing our best. But yeah, it was really incredible that she was able to come in and kind of see where what needed to happen and how you know what needed to change quickly. So she really like implemented inventory systems, implemented, mentored, like an operations team, and really just set the foundation for a company that could grow because she could see that there was a lot of potential in the products and even within our retail list, but you know, no one was paying, no one was paying attention to our receivables or we were all just swamped and just trying to, you know, keep up with the daily to dues but you know, I even remember, she came on board and one of our retailers owed us so much money, because we had never followed up with us on

Kara Goldin 19:15
getting yeah, getting pages

Julie Clark 19:17
like, these are basic things that we need to do to survive. Yeah, like, can you do that, please?

Kara Goldin 19:24
Yeah. And you do need that right, in order to make sure that you can actually stay in business. So I love that you had somebody who came in and, and helped you with that, because it really, it really does make a company. It’s the difference. I mean, I think it’s very rare that there’s one founder there’s, you know, typically co founders and most successful companies. So you might have somebody who’s really, you know, the front person and the face in addition to doing lots of other stuff, but I think that is is definitely the case ends Somebody who has different skill sets? Correct? Is that really what you felt? Very

Julie Clark 20:04
100%? Yeah, yeah. And just even, I really, I didn’t know how to scale a brand. And really, you know, I had a lot of fear about scaling and growing and even like moving to co packers, all of that, because I was, you know, I loved having control and having it very tangible. You know, I started by making the product. So giving, you know, getting someone else to make the products and really trust that CO Packer was super challenging for me. But it was great, because Natalie had that foresight that we needed to do that in order to grow.

Kara Goldin 20:39
So interesting. So you started province apothecary with a mission and a purpose? How do you think that’s changed? Or hasn’t it changed? I mean, it’s, I think, so often, we see brands, particularly brands that ended up taking investment, that seems to be a big conversation today around mission driven brands, that the mission ends up changing significantly when you bring in the wrong investors or bigger capital. And I think it’s something that, you know, sadly, a lot of beauty brands end up selling to larger companies, because that’s sort of the backstory that maybe a lot of people don’t hear so. But I’m so curious to hear what you think about that, like, has your mission and purpose changed? Or do you think it’s still about really helping people and changing health?

Julie Clark 21:33
I would say the mission hasn’t changed. Even last week, I was at the detox market, doing a master class and teaching people how to use our facial cups. And you know, at the end of the day, it was such an inspiring class. And I just, I was like, this is, this is what I love doing. Because just helping people like, everyone, we all suffer, I feel like with our skin, it’s so we have such a complicated relationship, because especially for me with Zima, like, I still have it, it comes and goes, and I have the products that really heal it. So I think the purpose of the company is so you know, ingrained in who I am. And I wake up every morning, and I’m like, do I have Exuma today? Or do I not like it’s still 10 years later, it’s still part of my life. Right? So, you know, and I and I use the products constantly. So I think our mission, at least. Yeah, for me, and I know Natalie is really about helping people have healthy skin and beautiful skin and helping them with their, their skin care problems. And I think, yeah, it’s just now I’m all about how do I empower you to take care of your skin? And, you know, how do we like, what can I help you do to make you love your skin and reduce those fine lines? And, you know, do whatever it is that you want to do? Because it’s possible, you can do it, I want to encourage everyone just to really take care of their skin. Yeah,

Kara Goldin 22:59
no, I love that. And I think that really speaks to having there’s always a difference between founder led brands and having the voice behind it and the purpose and mission and and anyway, you definitely see that within your company, for sure. So we’ve had a number of people on the show who have shared challenges along the way, you shared a couple in there, like the sesame seed oil. We won’t count that because you weren’t actually like it wasn’t game time yet. That was just the the pre party. But has there been any big challenges to date that you think, you know, you didn’t know you were going to run into those challenges. And maybe it wasn’t as bad as you thought I’m going to shut the company down, but it was definitely stressful.

Julie Clark 23:48
Yeah. So to pop up to mind, and I’ll maybe start with the first one that happened early early on. And it’s it’s like, you know, so much drama and I am not if you know me, you know, I do not like drama. But so my best friend was our designer for the brand. And she helps, you know, design, the logo, the boxes, the look of all the products and we you know, did it over a week together. And I bartered when I started the company, I bartered a lot so for with our graphic designer with our web developer, like literally anything I could barter and trade I would for services and product. And you know, the company was picking up we were getting into all these retailers, things are going really well. And she came back and sued me and copyrighted all of our logos or our brand name, and she really wanted half of the company so she wanted a large portion of company and felt that you know, she deserved it. And thankfully, you know, I had great advisors, even you know, one of them was her cousin, so it was like very good Crazy and dramatic and horrible. And you know, we no longer have a friendship after all that, but it really taught me early on, you know, this is like, within the first two years of the company to have contracts. And even if you’re trading or bartering or paying someone, like there needs to be proper documentation, you need to, it really just kind of showed me the ugly side of business immediately. When when this all happened, and in the end, we came to agreements, and we own you know, everything now, but that was really, I think, the biggest challenge and challenging situation I’ve had ever had in my life up to that point. And I think it really grounded me in like, Okay, thanks and go sour, quickly, especially in business. And, you know, you hear so many stories like this, I feel like, but until it really happens to you, I didn’t believe it. And I didn’t think it would happen with you know, my best friend and my designer. So it really just changed the course of the business. And it really helped me become a better business owner and person and, you know, made sure I had all those, those the paperwork and the paper trail, you know, going on?

Kara Goldin 26:14
Well, I think what you shared is once you have, you know, a challenging experience, or, you know, that wasn’t a failure, but it was hard, right? It was it was something that was really hard. But what did you learn from that? Like, what lessons did you learn, you learn to have contracts in place, like you, you know, it was painful on on many fronts, but you got better from it. And I think like, that’s the key thing that if you can go through a challenge, you can have a failure, all of these things, it’s the going back and looking at what can I actually learn from those things is that is the key piece of this that I think is so many great entrepreneurs do and I think that that’s, that’s definitely something where, you know, it will just make you a better business person in the future. And to be a little paranoid isn’t such a bad thing, either, right? I think always think yeah, what’s the worst that can happen? Sometimes the worst never hits, but sometimes it does. And you have to really, you know, look, have somebody, you know, hopefully an attorney watching your back saying, like, Okay, if this really had South what could happen, you know, at so many points along the way, because it’s high stakes. And, you know, you might not have a huge company today, but next year, you might it might be growing in and that’s your, you know, bank account, right, it’s your love, right, and it could all go away if you don’t do the right things for sure. So I have to ask, because you mentioned it okay. Cream versus oil, it’s the it’s the you know, question of the hour for for the beauty industry. So what’s your thoughts on that?

Julie Clark 28:01
Cream versus oil I’m a I’m a purist. I love plant oils. So you know the difference between an Oil serum and eye cream is a cream is diluted with it could be diluted with you know, beautiful things like rosewater lavender, water, aloe, and there’s no emulsifier there has to be a preservative and a cream, though natural, amazing. I just always you know, if I’m going to go for a product, I’ll go for an oil based product. And then you just apply it to damp skin. So you’re actually making your own rock cream as you’re applying the product. You get to the side, you know how much oil how little oil how much water. So I personally prefer the pure oils if I’m going to choose but we have a cream I love creams. I feel like creams are a great starter product for you know, getting into a clean beauty brand because they’re, you know, they’re easy to use and understand and but yeah, I’m all for oil, I love oil.

Kara Goldin 28:58
But you know, I can both actually I love both of them. But I agree with you, I think it’s like especially if you’re going for you know if your skin is super dry, you know going for I feel like the oils, it really kind of kicks it into gear pretty fast. My skin tends to get really dry during the winter. In particular. So and then also if I’ve had sun on my face like I feel like just to heal it from you know, sun that I was not supposed to get on my face. So that’s what I feel like and just

Julie Clark 29:31
adding a few drops of oil into your moisturizer is a great way just to get that extra boost of hydration.

Kara Goldin 29:38
Absolutely. So for many businesses, the pandemic and many categories, the pandemic was really really rough. I read an interview that you had done where you guys kind of change courses a little bit you were going to open a studio and like just share a little bit more about that if you would kind of how you decided to you know kind of change

Julie Clark 30:00
Yeah. So that was the second thing I was going to mention for kind of challenges and failures was, we actually closed our spa because of COVID. So personal care, I know I’m in Canada, we were locked down, at least in Ontario for so long. So personal care. So that is like facials, all estheticians weren’t allowed to work for almost the majority of the pandemic. And we, you know, had expanded our spa, October 2019, you know, pandemic hit March 2020. So we, you know, we had a huge waitlist for our spa in 2019. And we doubled in size, and we were so excited, and it was going really well. You know, we had people knocking on our door to work for us. And so many people wanted facials. So, you know, it made sense at the time to, you know, expand our spa. And then now looking back, I’m like, what did we do? Because that was the end, you know, that essentially was the demise of the spa, because it was too big for us. And throughout the pandemic, we tried to keep it open as a store and pivot. But you know, we lost our entire team, they all moved away, or moved into different areas of businesses, because there just wasn’t any work. And then, you know, I couldn’t even hire people when we could reopen, because no one wanted to be in the industry. Once we did have staff and we were booking the cancellations were just, you know, out of control, because everyone was, you know, trying to keep everyone safe and healthy. So it all made sense, right. But it just didn’t work for us. So that was really like, part of, you know, broke my heart, because that’s just our facials and working with customers on a daily basis and helping them with their skin. In that spa environment was just, you know, a dream come true. But, you know, yeah, we had to close, we closed in May of 2022. And, yeah, now we pivoted to do pop ups, and now we’re doing different things. It’s like the day we closed, you know, the next day I started working on how do we do facial pop up? So you know, and never stopped? So you’re doing

Kara Goldin 32:12
that now in some in some areas? And you like, do you imagine doing that in the US? I mean, in the US, at least what I found is that there were there were definitely I live in the Bay Area and San just outside of San Francisco. And it was extremely strict, and for estheticians how much they could do. And for a very long time. But you know, other states, Texas and Florida were like, this is open, you know, and so a lot of people were moving there, so that they could I’m just so curious if you thought about trying to find a city that, you know, is more likely to stay open. Should we, you know, hit that again?

Julie Clark 32:53
Yeah. Oh, my gosh, I’m like, hit that again. I I know, like, I know, it’s so you know, and that’s why everyone moved away, right? Because it was like out of Toronto, you could work so yeah, we like we’re totally open like we partner with detox market. And they’re doing a promise apothecary facial we’ve, you know, partnered with another store in Toronto called Hell tide, and they’re offering our facials and we’re going in and actually offering them so we’re totally open to it. I love the idea of popups. I think that’s like, manageable for us right now. And, you know, I have a whole training program for esthetician. So I think it’s a pro, it’s an area that we’d love to continue to grow. But just right now, it doesn’t make sense to put a lot of energy into it if it comes naturally. Great.

Kara Goldin 33:42
Yeah, no, I think that’s that is really, really smart. So what are you most excited about? Coming up into? Gosh, I can’t even believe it’s September right now of you know, 2020 What are you most excited about for next year?

Julie Clark 33:58
Oh, man, I’m excited. So I got this fun job of making all the new products. I’m really excited about some new products that are coming to market that we’ve been working I’ve been working on for a long time. So you know, natural vitamin C. And just other fun things that, you know, I’ve been using, and I just think we could all use. So new products. And then yeah, I feel like I’m excited to get back into a place where we can do mini facials and events and you know, like, literally last week was the first time I did events with customers. So it just still feels like work to toe coming out of, you know, a difficult time. So I think it’s just, you know, the greener grass the the new energy for retail and just the new energy coming into small businesses. So yeah, I think just the a positive outlook.

Kara Goldin 34:55
No, I agree. And I think so much of it. Like, even though, the business starts to increase, I feel like you’re, it’s like you’re, you’re coming off of this hangover, right of this, you know, very, very challenging time, right? And where you’re changing your plans and closing down this idea of, like, all of those things. So you’re almost like in recovery mode, right where you’re okay. All right, I guess we’re good. But there’s still this trauma that exists. I think, you know, for so many people that I’m excited for 2023 to see so many more people just saying, okay, like, that was the end of 2022. Everything is good. Like, let’s continue moving forward. And just chalk it up to we all experienced it. And it was yucky. Some had yucky or experiences than others. But definitely excited to move forward. And obviously, I think health, including skin is something that people are really paying attention to today. And and beauty has been something that people have paid attention to for a while. But I think the idea of having great skin is top of mind for so many people today. And it really shows how healthy they really are just by their skin. So anyway, it was such a pleasure to talk to you, Julie. And thank you so much for all of your lessons and great insights. And obviously, just for the conversation and sharing your incredible story behind the brand. All info for you and your company will be in the show notes on the podcast as well. So thank you so much and have a great rest of the week.

Julie Clark 36:36
Thank you so much for having me.

Kara Goldin 36:38
Thanks all for listening to this episode. We hope you enjoyed it. And I want to thank all of our guests and our sponsors. And finally our listeners keep the great comments coming in. And one final plug if you have not read or listened to my book undaunted, please do so you will hear all about my journey, including founding, scaling and building the company that I founded. Hint we are here every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Thanks everyone for listening and goodbye for now. Before we sign off, I want to talk to you about fear. People like to talk about fearless leaders. But achieving big goals isn’t about fearlessness. Successful leaders recognize their fears and decide to deal with them head on in order to move forward. This is where my new book undaunted comes in. This book is designed for anyone who wants to succeed in the face of fear, overcome doubts and live a little undaunted. Order your copy today at undaunted, the book.com and learn how to look your doubts and doubters in the eye and achieve your dreams. For a limited time. You’ll also receive a free case of hint water. Do you have a question for me or want to nominate an innovator to spotlight send me a tweet at Kara Goldin and let me know. And if you liked what you heard, please leave me a review on Apple podcasts. You can also follow along with me on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn at Kara Goldin. Thanks for listening