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Emma Sims, is the founder of Soulstar Sanctuary Reiki practice in Tunbridge Wells. Emma is also an energy healer, a crystal therapist and intuitive guide. Emma has developed and created her own range of products, handcrafted aromatherapy blends called ‘Mood Sprays’,  created to enhance and protect your energy and joins me today to share her product business journey.

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Emma Sims is an energy healer, a crystal therapist and intuitive guide who is the founder of the Soulstar Sanctuary Reiki practice in Tunbridge Wells.

Emma works with adults and children helping transform their lives through energy work. Emma  has a beautiful range of products called mood sprays that helped to enhance the healing and your moods. Emma also teaches Reiki and runs a variety of wellbeing workshops, weaving essential oils into all that she does.

So I really enjoyed the conversation with Emma, and we spoke about how she developed her products and the benefits of essential oils in general, something I knew very little about. A key theme that comes through from Emma’s story is how much she has just jumped right in and had a go, experimenting, testing and refining her product along the way. I found it really inspiring, and hope that you do too.

Listen in to hear Emma share:

  • An introduction to herself and her business (01:54)
  • The inspiration and story behind her products (03:00)
  • How she set about practically developing her product idea (06:16)
  • New products that she is developing (11:54)
  • Seeking feedback from others (15:41)
  • Her main customer base and marketing authentically (17:35)
  • Future ideas for her business (22:25)
  • The challenge of selling scented products online (31:06)
  • Her number one piece of advice for other product creators (39:23)

USEFUL RESOURCES:

Soulstar Sanctuary Website

Soulstar Sanctuary Etsy Shop

Soulstar Sanctuary Instagram

Soulstar Sanctuary Facebook

Podcast Episode: Wholesale for Small Business with Therese Ørtenblad

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Transcript
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Welcome to the, Bring Your Product Ideas To Life podcast, practical advice,

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and inspiration to help you create and sell your own physical products.

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Here's your host Vicki Weinberg.

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Hi today.

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I have a fantastic interview for you with Emma Sims, Emma is an energy healer, a

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crystal therapist and intuitive guide who, is the founder of the Soulstar Sanctuary

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Reiki practice in Tunbridge Wells

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Emma works with adults and children helping transform

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their lives through energy work.

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Emma has been running workshops and treatments in the corporate sector too.

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And has a beautiful range of products called mood sprays that helped to

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enhance the healing and your moods.

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Emma also teaches Reiki and runs a variety of wellbeing, workshops, weaving

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essential oils into all that she does.

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So I really, really enjoyed the conversation with Emma.

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Um, she spoke a lot about her products and the benefits of her products and about

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essential oils in general, a subject.

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I know very little about which I found absolutely fascinating.

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And a key theme that comes through from Emma's story really is how much

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she has experimented and tested and just being a person who just goes ahead

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and does things and then just sees how it works and if it does fantastic.

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Um, and if not, she just sort of continually tweaks as she goes.

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I personally found that really interesting, really inspiring, and I

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really really hope that you do too.

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Um, she's definitely an advocate of just jumping in and having a go.

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And, you know, I love that that really comes across in her

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story and I really enjoyed it.

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Um, it was like a really lovely conversation and I hope that you

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enjoy it and are as inspired as I was so withouth further ado.

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I would love to introduce you to Emma.

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So hi, Emma.

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Thank you so much for being here.

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Thank you for having me Vicki, great to be here

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No problem.

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So can we please start by giving introductions yourself, your business and

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the products and services that you offer, because I know that you do both commonly.

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Yes.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So, um, I'm an energy healer, a crystal therapist, and I'm also an intuitive guide

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and I have a sanctuary called the Soulstar Sanctuary here in Tunbridge Wells.

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So it's a practice what was a Reiki practice really for children and adults.

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So they come here and they have a beautiful treatment, whether

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they're suffering from anxiety or stress, or just really a need of

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having a sort of energetic recharge.

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Um, so yeah, it's just a beautiful space that I hold for people to

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come and enjoy that experience.

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And recently, well, probably a couple of years ago, that's when I started to

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actually, um, do my products as well, but just as an add on, really to the

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healing service that I was giving to people and it just seemed to really work.

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So I've kind of expanded from there.

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Oh, amazing.

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Thank you for that introduction.

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And I didn't realize how close you were to me.

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I might have to come and visit you at some point, Emma, cause you're so close.

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Um, I'd love to see, so let's talk a little bit about your products.

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Can you just tell us, um, what they are and sort of the inspiration

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and the story behind creating them?

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Yeah.

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So what I wanted to do is I've always sort of had this dream in my mind that I wanted

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to have my own brand, my own product, but I didn't quite know how that would ever

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come about, you know, you always have these ideas rolling around in your mind.

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Um, so when I started up my, my sanctuary and had people coming in,

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I used to use the essential oils as part of my healing treatments.

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And then I bought this like a protection spray.

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It wasn't, it smells amazing, but it just had like frankincense and rose oil.

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And, and the more that I started to research the oils, the more I started

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to realize that the amount of healing properties that they have in the actual

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oil, because, you know, we're all from the earth and we're combining the

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earth energy in the healing treatment, as well as the oils really started

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to accompany the healing and really, um, enhance the healing treatment.

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And then it was a few years ago.

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I had a really bad reaction to an organic shampoo that I used

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and it really burned my skin.

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So I couldn't use anything.

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So I was trying to search for sort of products that I could

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find that were totally organic and were really good on my skin.

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I could find anything because everything had all these add-ons.

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So I went to see this lady and she made up this spray for me,

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which literally had camomile oil in and sort of like a Witch Hazel.

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And it was that was alland sort of think it must've been like distilled

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water and I sprayed it on my skin and it immediately felt calm and

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it sparked the idea and I thought.

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Wow.

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I wonder if I could start making some sprays myself to

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put, to do different things.

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So for example, one of the blends that I have is energy shift.

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So if you use that in the morning, after a shower, the oils that I've

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used in it really do help lift your energy because they're all citrus.

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So they get into the brain, they get into yourselves and they really

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do help create that energy shift that we all need in the morning.

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And a lot of the, you know, a lot of the work that I do,

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I love positive affirmations.

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I love using quotes and I love reading things that just

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really make you feel good.

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So I thought maybe I could combine everything and put on the bottle, like a

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quote that really helps people have that positive mindset for the day as well.

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So say, for example, with the Breathe that I've got, um, it has a quote on it saying

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"as we walk imprint our gratitude and I love to the earth", so you know, when

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you, when you read that you immediately feel really good and then you spray it

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and it just helps bring the clarity so I have ones that are called intuitions.

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So that's really for tuning in and opening up your senses to become more intuitive.

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Um, one that's called Breathe that really helps with the clarity.

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So if you're feeling quite stressed in your work or you're feeling that sometimes

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you get that foggy headedness that we all can get during the day, the Breathe

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really takes it to the next level.

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It really does clear your mind.

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So that's when the thought came in that maybe I could do a different

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mood spray for each part of the day so that, you know, and it takes

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you right up to when you go to bed.

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So there's a Sleep mist as well.

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Oh, well, that's fascinating Emma, thank you for sharing how that all started.

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Um, well, I would love to know is practicallyhow did you actually

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develop this from an idea into sprays?

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It sounds like you did lots of research on different oils and different properties.

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How did you actually know how to create something that sounds very scientific?

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Yeah, so, um, I did lots of reading cause I'm not an aromatherapist, but

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I really, really researched them.

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Um, I saw the, um, you know, there was different spray

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bottles that you could get.

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So it was trial and error, to be honest, Vicky, I bought lots of different types of

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spray bottles and I tried them out because some of the pump heads weren't that good.

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Um, and then I tried the brown because obviously with the brown bottle, You

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have to be careful with the sunlight with oils because they can actually

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start breaking down if you leave the oil actually in, you know, in sunlight.

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So it was a lot of trial and error, a lot of experimentation, the labels

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were the hardest thing, you know, you'd think that was, should be easy.

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When I actually went out to lots of different companies and I created

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the design myself because I wanted to keep everything very low cost.

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So I went out to lots of different companies.

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I, I asked for samples of their labels and to start with, I was

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just printing my labels on to, you know, the standard address labels.

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Yes.

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And sticking those onto the bottles again, just to keep everything, you

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know, to a minimal cost and they worked.

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But then I didn't realize that actually, when you sprayed the oil, some of

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the oil residue would leak down and then it would bleed onto the actual

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address label and the ink would run.

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So there was things like that.

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You know, again, it's only through trial and error and understanding how the

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product works, experimenting with the bottles, experimenting with the labels.

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Um, so yeah, I printed a lot of it myself to begin with.

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And then I found this company it's actually Moo who I use, which I think

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their quality of printing is fabulous because they they do coat it slightly,

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but again, it's, you know, it's quite ethical how they print and their company

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I quite like their company values as well.

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Um, but the quality of the labels, like the colors are really good.

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And again, so I experimented with lots of different bottles and I found

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a company that use recycled glass because I wanted to try and bring

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that sort of eco sustainability into my company so that everything is of

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a good standard, but it's also yeah, it's also sustainable because what do

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you do once you've used that bottle?

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Where does it go?

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So the company that I use, they recycle the glass, you know, not just mine,

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but obviously everybody's, um, and then I buy those bottles from them.

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So yeah, I mean, a lot of it has been trial and error, to be honest with you.

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Thank you.

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I think trial and error is a good way of doing things because I think

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it can be really easy to think.

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We were talking a little bit before we started recording weren't we about how

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you can sort of think that everything has to be perfect and you have to

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have everything lined up, actually, unless you try, you really don't know.

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So I think that's a really good approach.

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And did you take a similar one with the actual form?

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It's formulation the right word I'm not really sure Emma

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formulation inside the bottles.

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So how did you know how to get those right?

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Cause I'm assuming that now a couple of years on, well,

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I know this is an assumption.

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Tell me if I'm wrong.

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You sort of have a set method or formula for how you, how

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did you get to that again?

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Was it trial and error?

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Yeah.

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It was really trying out different sense.

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So I'd really research, um, say like for the Sleep mist, cedarwood, I

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didn't realize was a natural sedative.

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So, but you have to be quite careful when you use that.

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You can't use too much, but I also wanted to make sure that I was putting a good

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amount of essential oils into the product because you know, some that you spray

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and you smell then it just evaporates and that the smell doesn't linger.

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So I wanted to be, be aware of that and keep that really in my mind that

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actually I wanted something that people could spray on themselves

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because you can spray it on your skin.

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Um, and that it will last and actually, you know, does the

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work, so yeah, I researched it.

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I researched it a lot.

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So those essential oils I had to, you know, do three drops or four drops of one.

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And again, it was, you know, just experimentation

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until I got the right scent.

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And I think it's just down to personal, personal tastes really

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that when you smell it, It's that moment of that's it, that's the one

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that really works that combination.

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So it's knowing that I've researched the oils that I want it to put in, making

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sure that when you smell them, that the blends work together, could you

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substitute one for the other, if that doesn't work, does it do the same thing?

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Because sometimes, you know, you'd read up on these oils and you'd go, oh yeah.

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Okay.

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That really works then for, you know, enhancing the intuition and the senses.

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But actually when you put them together, they don't.

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Always, you know, the combination doesn't smell that good.

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So, you know, it's kind of making sure that you add a little bit more of one and

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less of the other, and then you get that, that really perfect combination that just

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gives you that aha moment of like, that's it, that's the one that has to be it.

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So I've just launched, um, a new blend actually called Harmony and they're

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in my crystal roller balls, which I'm selling at the moment, but all the

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proceeds go to the NSPCC and that.

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Was just me opening up the bottles and just smelling what ones I felt would

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really give that sense of calm again, researching them, seeing which ones,

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um, do actually make you feel calm.

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And then I came up with a four that I puttogether and they just smells amazing.

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It smells so good.

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Okay.

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So is that a new product that you've just come out with recently?

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Yeah, I run it back in March, um, for mother's day.

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So they're just beautiful crystal rollerballs and the crystals

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enhance the healing properties of the actual essential oils as well.

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Um, and they sold out in March and I thought, do you know what, what I'm

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going to do it again, because it's a really lovely gift for Christmas.

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And then I was just looking, I love the NSPCC.

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I, I, you know, it's really close to my heart what they do and I thought, wow.

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I'm just going to sell them and the money that I make from them, I'm going

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to give to charity the NSPCC because you know, it's such a great charity

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and it's coming up to Christmas.

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They're beautiful that they're just little roller balls.

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They're just beautiful gifts that you can give to people or just

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put in a stocking if you want to.

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But it's just something that.

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You know that you can keep, and then if you send it back to me,

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you can have it refilled as well.

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Which I need to, I need to mention that because I haven't mentioned that or Etsy

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it's remembering everything, isn't it for?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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There is a lot.

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And, um, do you know when you showed me then?

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Because.

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Listen, obviously can't hear that.

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You've just showed me.

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I was actually realized I actually saw those on Instagram today.

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It's such a small world Emma.

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Somebody's not on your Instagram.

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Someone else was sharing them.

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And I did it.

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I did see them and think they look, they look interesting.

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So it's a pretty small world.

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And I think also the price point is really, really important because it's

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making sure that people can afford it.

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It's not the point where they kind of go.

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I think that's a little bit too much.

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So I've tried to, with my sprays, like I have the smaller ones that are like 60

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mil, for example, they're £10 a bottle, and then you have the slightly bigger,

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so that's like handbag size, you know, really easy to take on holiday with you.

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And then you've got the hundred mil that are bigger so that are £15.

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But again, it's.

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It's it's a good price, I think because it's, it's affordable for people.

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And then the rollerballs crystals, they're like £12.50.

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So, you know, when you think £10 it's only over just over

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£10 what can you get for that?

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You can't really, and that's a beautiful product to give to someone.

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So it's always trying to appeal to the whole market rather than, you know,

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single people out and people look at it and go well I can't afford that.

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Yeah, thank you.

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That I a really good point.

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And by the way, everything you've just shown me.

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I know it doesn't work as well on a podcast, but of course, if you're

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listening, we'll have links to Instagram and everywhere else and your

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website, people can go and have a look.

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So I know it doesn't work as well everything you've shown me looks gorgeous

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and I do have a few more questions.

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So I just noticed the little bottle you shaped me was like a lovely blue color.

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Is there a reason that it's is it well, first of all, is

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it Emma or is that my screen?

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Yeah, it's great.

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Is there a reason for the blue?

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I'm just being curious now, because you mentioned trying white

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clear bottles and brown bottles.

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Is there a reason you've landed on blue?

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I just really like the spark quality of blue and also blue when

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you look at blue, it actually.

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Immediately, like it's been scientifically proven that it immediately makes

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your mind feel calm so that blue glass bottle was something that I

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arrived at because for those reasons, um, and also because it works quite

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well with the colors in my labels, because I change the labels as well.

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So initially I had the brown bottles, um, and they had that print, which is

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kind of like the green and the white and the black, but because my logo

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was designed, um, as a beautiful rose.

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So I wanted to try and use the, you know, use the colors that

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really compliment each other.

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So I thought the blue would actually work better with the logos.

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As well, why I ended up with a blue bottle, but I do like the brown I'm

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keep, I keep going back to the brown.

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So that's something that, um, I think it needs a different label.

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Yeah, and out of interest Emma cause you've had so many evolutions of

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things and you were saying about, you know, the, the bottles and.

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Wherever you choose the blue or the brown, how much input or have your

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customers had any input to how things have changed and evolved over the years?

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Do you get much feedback from people on your products?

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Yeah, I do.

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I mean, when they come into the Sanctuary, that's what I

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really sell most of my products.

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When the, when they come in here, they have a treatment and throughout

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the treatment, I spray my products.

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So, you know, if I really feel we're doing a mental clearing exercise, for example,

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where I'm really clearing out the energy from the mind and everything I'll use

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the Breathe because it really brings it.

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And always after the treatment that people will say, wow, I love

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the smells that you're using.

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The different oils that you use throughout the treatment.

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And people have always, you know, they fed back and they've said that they

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really loved the quotes on the bottle.

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Because again, that just reinforces the positivity and it's a bit

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of something different now.

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Normally you have a bottle and you stand it on your shelf and you don't

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really take that much interest on the label or, you know, cause you

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just immediately think, oh, it's just going to give me the content.

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So people like that, but it's probably a good point actually, because I've never

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launched a product before or I've never actually sold products in that way.

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I I'm still really new to all of this, so it probably would be good actually

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to get a bit of customer feedback.

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Yeah, it probably would.

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I mean, I think the fact that people are sort of smelling them during

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their treatments and buying them.

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I mean, that's some feedback in itself because it shows that people do like

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the smell for some of those, especially now you have people, it sounds like

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they're buying them some people that are buying them fairly regularly.

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Definitely.

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When you're coming to make decisions about, um, uh, bottles, packaging, or

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anything, really, maybe new fragrances.

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I definitely think it could be worth asking some people who's asking some of

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your customers what their thoughtsare.

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Um, because I think from.

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what we've said at the moment and we can move on to this a little bit most of your

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sales, if I'm correct in understanding this do come from people who come into

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the sanctuary, is that, is that right?

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Yeah, that's right.

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Yeah.

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And word of mouth.

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So people would come through Instagram for example, and say,

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oh, I heard about your product.

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Um, so what I've done a lot of as well is I've actually sent my product to people.

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I guess you probably think of them like influencers, but they're not influencers.

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They're people whose work.

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I just love.

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And for example, there's a really amazing yoga teacher in London.

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And I really, I love what she does and I love, um, how she teaches.

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I, I really am interested in how her mind is and everything with that.

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And I just knew she'd love one of these products.

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So I just sent it to her as a gift during lockdown and said

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what you've been talking about.

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I really think that Protection would be a great energy spray for you to use.

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So, you know, so it's good because then we have their endorsement, you know,

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they'd post it on their Instagram page.

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So it all starts that ripple effect, which can actually sometimes be huge.

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Absolutely.

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I didn't know that you did thatand that's really interesting.

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And it sounds like you're doing it for lovely reasons as well.

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Cause it sounds like you're doing it to be kind and, and I think that's really nice.

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Um, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with doing it as a marketing

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strategy, by the way, nothing wrong with doing that at all.

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Um, but it's, you really liked the way you're doing it.

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Cause it just feels really authentic to you.

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Yeah.

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And I think that's the thing I think with any brand it well from, from,

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you know, when I see it, I think you have to be honest and you have to.

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Use an approach that sits right with yourself.

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So I think that is one of my, um, Sort of what you'd call it can't

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think of the word now, but you know, I am, I think myself is very kind.

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I love being kind and I love making people feel good about themselves.

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That is my sole belief that we can do so much to help ourselves.

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And why shouldn't we, you know, give that back to ourselves or, or give gifts to

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other people cause it's just, it's lovely.

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Isn't it.

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To just be able to give that to someone who's feeling a

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little bit low at that moment.

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Give them a little pick me up.

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Um, so yeah, I've been doing that quite a bit.

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I've just been sending like the 60 mil ones.

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I only recently launched.

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And that was because I thought actually people might be going a bit better

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with the £10 the value of it, um, and also the, you know, being able

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to just pop it into your bag and that again, I've sent out to a few people

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and they've loved it and they've spread it with their people as well.

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Hopefully it will come back.

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I think it will.

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Cause it sounds like it's all coming from a good place and

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does seem really authentic.

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Cause obviously your products are all about helping people to feel better.

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Your products, your treatments, everything you do is kind of geared towards that.

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Isn't it?

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It's all about people's wellbeing.

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So yeah, it seems completely authentic.

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Yeah.

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I do think, I do think it will come back Emma.

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I think it's lovely that you take the time to do that.

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Yeah.

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I mean, even if it doesn't at least I think to myself, well, at least that

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person's got something from it, you know, and then maybe who they've shared

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it with again has got something from it because with the oil um, and this is

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something that I didn't realize the effect that it actually has on your brain and

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the effect that it has on yourselves.

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So it takes about 20 seconds to get into your brain, the actual, the scent of the

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oils and the scent of the oils, carry, you know, like almost like a tiny fluid.

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So when you absorb that into your senses, it's taken into your brain

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and your receptors around each cell.

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So once it's absorbed by those receptors around the cell, it

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shifts a bit of the energy, which actually makes you feel safe.

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For example, if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed, the geranium

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oil, if you inhaled, that would immediately make you feel really calm.

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So, you know, it really does work.

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It's, it's amazing.

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That's really interesting because I'll be honest.

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I don't know much about scent and those of the impacts on your brain

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it sounds really fascinating.

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Something I might want to read on a little bit because it, yeah, I do find

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it genuinely fascinating, but just inhaling something can change your brain.

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I just think that yeah.

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That's amazing, isn't it?

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Yeah, it really is.

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And like when they had the plague, I used to carry these little, almost sorts of

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like bags of scent and they used to wave them around because they, they thought

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that all that actually did work as well as that the scent would kind of keep the

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bacteria down and that's what it does.

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It's again, it can do that.

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So there really, once you start really looking into it, they're so effective.

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Yeah, I think that's amazing.

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So it's just getting out there ready and telling, telling more people.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Well, as I said, we will link everything to everywhere.

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People can find you in the notes for this.

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And, um, you mentioned your, your crystalroller is a fairly new.

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Um, are there, is there anything else you have in the pipeline out

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just out of interest, you don't need to tell me what you don't say.

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Um, so what I really want to do in the New Year is I want to take this to another

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level and try and say what I've done as well as I've actually sold to so I've

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sold wholesale to other companies as well.

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So there's a really lovely lady who runs this sort of eco able online eco shop.

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And she does, um, markets as well.

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So she's taken a lot of my products, so that's great.

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Um, and again, that's just, you know, getting the brand

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out there a little bit more.

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And also, you know, there's another lady who runs that does

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these beautiful self care kits.

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Um, and she's put the organic bottles as well.

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The mood sprays into her self care kits and she's marketed those.

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So I kind of want to do more of that cause I love collaborating with people.

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So I think collaborations are a really good way for, to get your product

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more known, um, and also to just collaborate with like-minded people.

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I think it's, you know, it's a great thing to do.

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So I really want to invest probably a bit more money in the branding and really look

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at not just the bottle, but the labels I still have in my mind because I designed

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it all myself and get it printed myself.

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Could we do something different there?

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Could we yeah, maybe just change it up a bit.

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And also with the brown bottles, um, I'd really like to do something maybe for

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men because, you know, they can be used by men it's not just a female product.

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So, you know, could it be something that the brown bottles are more masculine

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so we could do something more arty.

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Also, I had another idea where I use a different artist to come up with a label.

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So each label.

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Say, for example, the Breathe is created by someone, the Energy Shiftmight be with

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someone, someone else, um, or could we maybe do some boxes with the products in

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so that they're more personalized as well?

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So it's more like a gift box.

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I don't know.

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There's loads of different ideas Vicki that I, but I'm having.

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So it's just, I have to, when it, when I get to that point intuitively where I go.

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That's what I want to do.

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That's that's what I'm going to be.

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I think, in the New Year with it.

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So investing a bit more time and energy into really getting it out there.

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Yeah, that's all sounds really positive and exciting.

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And I think, um, I think you're right to think about the, you know, visually

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the branding and how the products look.

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Cause I I'm, I'm not going to profess to be a wholesale expert.

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I've got a whole podcast episode on wholesale for anyone who wants to learn

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more um, we had a fantastic guest.

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I'm not the expert, but one thing I do know is if you're going to have

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a product that's going to be on the shelves or in a store, it needs to

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obviously look visually appealing.

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And I'm not saying your products, don't now it's whoever that's not totally not

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what I'm saying, but I think if that's what you're looking to do, whether you're

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looking to get them on the shelves or collaborating with other creators and

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getting them in, in their gift boxes or subscription boxes or whatever,

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I think having them looking at their very, very best does yeah, definitely

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sound like something to focus on.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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So, and I think as well, you know, like when I first started, some of the type

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was too small, so you couldn't read all the ingredients, you know, that's really

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key so that people know that they're a hundred percent organic, you know, right

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down to the coconut oil that they're blended with, with a distilled water,

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it's organic, the Witch Hazel's organic so everything about it is organic.

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So that's on there.

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And also the directions of use, you know, It's small print, but it's making sure

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that everything's seen and everything's on there that you want it to be.

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So, and I just think as well, there's, you know, these products, they smell amazing.

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I'm not just saying that, but they, they really do smell really

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punchy and they really, um, they really hold their own energy.

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So I think if the label was really impactful as well, people know.

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Just, yeah, just sort of more when they look at it, I just want them to

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be able to interact with it as well.

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So that, that's what they do with the quote.

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They read that quote and again, it, it shifts something in them, you know?

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Wow.

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That's really, that's a really good quote that makes me feel really good, you know?

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Yeah, and I really also just, I wanted, I do want to touch on this.

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I really also liked your idea about having maybe different artists,

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design labels or boxes or something.

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I think that's a really fun idea as well, because again, it's like

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this whole spirit of collaboration, which I know you're really big

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on from what we've spoken about.

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Um, but also I think it's probably another way to get in front of a

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different audience because presumably an artist who designed a label for you

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would talk about that and share that.

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And so I think there's, yeah, there's loads of benefits from doing that.

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I think that's a really, really nice fun idea.

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Yeah.

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I saw clocks recently, Clark shoes.

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They had done a box where you color it in yourself and I

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thought that's quite a good idea.

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It's just black and white.

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So low cost because black and white printing.

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No, color brilliant.

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That's really minimal cost.

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Um, And I thought that's quite good because my daughters made these

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children's roller balls, which she doesn't really want to promote that much.

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But, um, again, they, you know, they get sold if they're, if people

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come into the sanctuary because the children really love them.

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But for children, you know, they're really funky little labels.

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They're all really creative and bright colors.

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So maybe something to push more for children as well, because as we evolve

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into this world of working with our energy, looking at ourselves more.

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If we can educate our children, that's as well, where I think this will

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really expand that children can walk along with an energy roll, just put

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it onto their wrists, this rubbing the essential oils, breathe it in

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and they immediately feel calmer.

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'cause my daughter uses them.

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She takes them into school and she uses a mix.

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She feels a little bit anxious or, you know, she's not

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feeling that great that day.

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She'll just put it on to her wrist.

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I think it's wonderful that she's done, that they can easily show you

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that the influence we have on children without even sort of realizing it or

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pushing it, that they, they, yeah.

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She's genuinely interested in what you do and they see in the

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benefits and that's wonderful.

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Yeah, they just, and they love, they love, you know, getting all

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the oils out and experimenting.

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And so it's good.

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Yeah.

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It's good at a young age, if we can get them doing it

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yeah, absolutely.

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That reminds me of being young and having like a perfume making kit, which

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is not, you know, when you could, and it was always ended up smelling awful,

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but it's a similar thing, isn't it?

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The, or getting the rose petals, you know, and like making up your potion in the

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garden with putting all different bits.

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Yeah, it's good fun to experiment.

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And as you say, it's also good for children to realize that it's okay

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to need a bit of a what I say, help, I mean that in a maybe, yeah.

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I don't know if that's the right term, but for children

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to know that actually is okay.

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It's that needs a bit of a boost or they need something to calm you down and yeah.

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to use to use something, because you know, sometimes we have to teach

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our children strategies don't we to maybe calm down or moderate their

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energy or whatever it might be.

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So I think it's good to children to know that actually it's perfectly acceptable

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to have like a little aids for that.

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Yeah, absolutely.

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And I think as well, it's something that almost feels like perfume, you know?

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So they just rolling it onto their skin and breathing it in and it's

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yeah, just like the novelty idea of it.

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Children are naturally curious aren't they?

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So they love, if anything that they can pick up and smell and you know

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Yearh, but I do think it really is good.

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I think it is good to model.

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Um, I'm keeping an eye on the time, Emma, because I know that, you know, you've got

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appointments and clients to see today.

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So let's talk a little bit about how your products and services work together.

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Cause I know you mentioned that a lot of your sales currently, they come from

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people who come into the sanctuary.

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So would you say that's the biggest way that you're selling

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your products at the moment

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Yeah at the moment.

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Because, you know, I haven't really, I mean, Etsy is a minefield,

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anything that's technical for me, I always have that massive block.

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Um, so I did actually appoint someone to do like a banner for me and get

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the Etsy page up and running so that I could actually sell them online.

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And that's great.

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You know, we've had a couple of people buy them from abroad,

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which is becoming a problem.

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I need to look into that further because there's custom tax now because where

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I've gone in, we've gone into Brexit.

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Haven't we.

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Well, that's thrown up so many complications.

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Um, so the majority of my sales, are definitely through my sanctuary and

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also, you know, I saw, um, a gentleman the other week who you can't sleep, you

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know, he's having real problems sleeping.

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So the Sleep Mist great for helping you to sleep.

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And, you know, and I also sold him one of the Breathe as

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well, because he was feeling so stressed and overwhelmed at work.

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So the two, you know, you can work together.

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You can use the Breathe in the morning and Sleep Mist at night.

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So I'd say that yeah, the majority of the sales are through my sanctuary cause

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you can see them and you can smell them.

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So I think that's the hardest thing that I've come across

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with selling these products.

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Not being able to sell them and smell them.

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Sorry, not sell them, smell them when you're online, you can't smell it can you,

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but you can obviously talk about the oils.

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So I think it's thinking around ways that you can evoke the sense of smell.

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You know, by saying about the citrus tones and you know, the deep

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musky sense of the frankincense.

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Maybe be a bit more creative with my writing, but, um, yeah, I mean, I think

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going back to your question, it is definitely through my sanctuary that

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I sell most of them and I have my Etsy page, but I've sold a few on there,

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but not, you know, not a huge amount.

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I think you're right.

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That it is hard to sell any scented products online.

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Um, I think it's a much easier sale if you're somewhere where people

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can actually pick them up and smell the bottles and that kind of thing.

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I guess something you could possibly do.

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I don't know if this is possible Emma some sort of test smell testers

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or something, you can pop in the post, but again, that's another.

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thing to do.

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So I'm not trying to add to your to do list.

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I think that's a great idea I was talking to someone about that the

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other day, actually, and I wouldn't know where to start, but yeah, I can

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definitely explore that because it would be an, and I think it's a nice

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idea to actually to send to clients.

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If you've got a new blend, that's come out and you want people to try,

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um, you know, so you can actually send that to a client and say I've

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got this new, what do you think?

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And, you know, get their feedback as well.

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Or if there's something that actually existing clients need, you know, if

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that's help with, um, you know, whatever it might be in their day, that they're

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feeling that they can't move through that.

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Is there another blend that they could make it have created?

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Cause they're all hand blended.

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So, you know, if anybody listening to this has got any ideas, it's great

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to always know what people need.

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Yeah, I guess it's also would be a nice way of getting feedback as well.

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If you have something you were looking to fill it, how you sort of

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create testers Emma I don't know, but I do have faith that you will,

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you would be able to figure it out.

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You will be able to figure it out.

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That's definitely something I'm getting from you is that, you know,

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you're someone who's going to go in and try things and experiment.

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Yeah, I think it's two feet in there,

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but I think that's, that's really good.

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And as I said, I think it's great.

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It can be really easy to hold yourself back.

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Um, unwittingly by sort of wanting to get everything right.

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But like you say, sort of experience is the best teacher, isn't it?

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Yeah.

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And I think if your product's good at the end of the day, I think

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if that smell wasn't that great.

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If it was a bit weak, a bit wishy-washy then I don't think people would buy it.

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But I think because it is, is so different and it's, and it really does smell.

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I'm not just saying that, but it's really, a lot of them

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really do just smell amazing.

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They really are.

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They do what they say on the label.

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You know, they really do create that sense of clarity for the Breathe or the

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Energy Shift and the Sleep Mist, you know?

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Definitely helps you sleep that natural sedative is right.

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That the Cedar wood amazing.

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But again, it's that balance of the scent.

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So it's just not too overpowering when you go to sleep.

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And as you were talking Emma something else I think could really help.

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If you don't mind me suggesting this is having, having reviews from your customers

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that say, yes, I use this and it helps me sleep, or yes, I use this and it helps

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me calm down because I think that's the other thing when you can't physically

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smell or try a product, if you can see the X amount of other people have tried

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it and it works, you feel a bit, I think it kind of encourages you to take that.

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I don't wanna say gamble, but it is a bit of a gamble buying

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stuff online, especially if you know you're not familiarwith the

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products or the, or the seller.

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I think if you can see a review for sort of all these other people that

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it's worked for, you're much more likely to think, well, I'll try that

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because if it's worked for them, chances are, it will work for me.

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And I think it then removes some of that sort of fear about, you know, is

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this right for me, which I think we all have when we're shopping online.

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And particularly if we're buying something that we're not as familiar with.

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Yes.

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Definitely.

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Cause I think people know, you know, the brands like Neon which to be honest

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with you, I've never heard of when I launched these events sounds awful.

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I think I was aware of them a few years ago, but it sort of went out of my mind.

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And then obviously when I'd done these, I was like, oh, is that

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a bit too close to what they do?

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But I think what makes them different is, you know, they've got the lovely

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quotes on the bottles and then there are, but you know, they're big brands

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like the Neal's yard, they're big brands.

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So I think it's always nice.

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Isn't it to support a smaller business.

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I think so too.

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And I think the fact that you are more accessible than a bigger business,

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because as you said, if someone is listening and they think, oh, I wonder if

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this is for me or I've got this problem.

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They can contact you.

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They know your name's Emma.

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They know what you look like.

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They know how to contact you.

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Whereas with Neon, if you wanted.

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Give feedback for sample, presumably you'd go through.

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I don't know, but I'm assuming you go through some sort of customer support

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center and the person you speak to won't be the personinvolved in the

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formulation or they, they may, you know what they know about the product they

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may have they may know a lot about.

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They also may not.

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Um, whereas I think, yeah, what you're offering is really nice because it's

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so personalized because you know, the products and you're, you're accessible

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when you happy to talk about it.

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And I think that's what people, why people would choose to buy from a small business.

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So yeah, I, I think.

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Whatever we do.

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We're always going to have competition, but I, and I do genuinely genuinely

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believe there are lots of advantages to being a small business because

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you can be so much more flexible and adaptable than someone like Neon.

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Who's producing probably hundreds of thousands.

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I don't even know but a lot of products..

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Yeah, I think you lose control don't you as well, when you get so big,

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you know, this is why it's quite nice to have something that's quite small

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and you can actually, um, provide people with that personal service.

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But also the products, you know, is, is your highest standard.

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You know, you'd really love to put that onto your skin as well.

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But I think going back to the reviews, I think they are really

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important for any business aren't they to get to get that feedback.

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I think people who've left reviews on my Etsy page, but yeah, probably need

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to be more, more bold and say, please, could you let me know what you thought

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the sent and if you've used it and it works because that's what you want, isn't

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it really, to know it's been effective.

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And I do think you have to ask as well, because I think reviews are

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notoriously hard to get and while they are a small number of people who will

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believe every reviewevery time they buy something, there is also a lot

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of people who don't and won't, and it's not, you know, just for lack of

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time or just not even considering it.

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But I think if you ask you really improve your chances of someone actually doing

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it because you've asked personally, um, I think it, you know, I think that they are

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much more likely to, in that situation.

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, that's true.

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I'll do that.

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Good.

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Good.

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I think you've got your products.

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Fantastic.

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And clearly, you know, you've got a lot of faith in your products, so I

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think you've got absolutely nothing to lose by asking other people, what they

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think and to share what they think.

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Yeah.

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I think as a, well, there was, there seemed to be this gap in the market where,

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you know, you didn't have a product that was kind to your skin that literally

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was stripped back and had nothing in it.

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You know, even the organic products there's alcoholif you read the, you know,

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the small print there's, there's alcohol.

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Well, that's, you know, some people just cannot have that on their skin, especially

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if you've got eczema or a skin condition that is incredibly, um, sore and open,

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you know, you go and put something like that on now, just immediately flare it up.

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So that's why as well, I wanted to really be very stripped back and very pure.

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Yeah.

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I mean, I've definitely experienced that in the last few years with handgels.

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I can't use the ones about alcohol because once you know, you're using

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them a lot and your hands start cracking or that it's incredibly painful.

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So yeah, you definitely need to talk about all of this Emma because yeah.

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There's a lot of care going into your products.

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So I'm being really mindful of time.

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Cause I know you have clients to see.

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I've got one more question.

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I promise.

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I promise this is the last one.

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So what would your number one piece of advice, be for Emma

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for other product creators,

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Jump in and do it.

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If you feel that you've got that intuitive, good idea.

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And you know, You know, that product is needed.

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I think that's, that's the key element is working out, whether it's

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something that you personally like, and also that is needed by people.

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So this was, you know, a lovely add on to my sanctuary.

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So I finished treatment with a client and I'd spray the lovely protection

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spray, you know, so, and I I'm just by people's reactions, I knew.

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Intuitively, this is definitely the right thing start doing, but I think

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we can always put those doubts in.

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Then you just have to go for it.

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You just have to be bold and start testing it and testing it with

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friends, testing it with family, you know, just, just getting out there.

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Yeah.

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Yeah, I think that's great advice.

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And especially if you start small, as you did in your story, Emma,

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you know, you don't need to invest.

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You've proven that you don't need to invest a load of money in the beginning.

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You can just, you know, create a few of something and see how it goes.

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But yeah, there's no, there's nothing like experiments is there

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as we've come back to a few times to find out if something works.

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Yeah, exactly.

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And do you know if it doesn't adapt it, try again, there'll be

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a reason why it's not working.

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So your passion and the power of belief behind it will make

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that product sell as well.

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Um, I firmly believe in that.

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Oh, thank you so much, Emma.

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And that's such a nice positive note to end on as well.

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Well, thanks Vicky.

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Thanks for inviting me today.

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It's been really lovely talking to you.

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Yeah, you too.

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Thank you so much.

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Thank you so much for listening all the way to the end of this episode.

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If you've enjoyed it, please do leave me a review that really helps

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other people to find this podcast.

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Make sure you subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes.

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Tell your friends about it too.

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If you think that they also might enjoy it, can find me@vickyweinberg.com.

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There you'll find link to all of my social channels.

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You'll find lots of more information all of the past podcast, episodes

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and lots of free resources too.

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So again, that's Vicki weinberg.com.

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Take care, have a good week and see you next time.