Companiesandme

At eight, I had a neighborhood lemon stand to make money for Beatles tickets. I liked the idea of having my own money to do what I want. That venture was followed by babysitting, car washes and day camps during school vacations so I could buy coveted items that my parents deemed extravagant. By the time I was 21, I co-owned 2 clothing stores in State College, Pennsylvania. I was motivated by creating beauty, working creatively and collaborating with a like minded team of people who shared the same core values. I was newly interested in Zen Buddhism and wondered how spiritual practice tied into business. I believed in kindness, respect, honesty and working together to make our stores a place where customers felt valued and appreciated. Of course, profitability was the outcome but not at all costs – people came first – even if it meant not being profitable. 

I spent more than 15 years in the clothing business in New York and San Francisco as a buyer and designer and had the privilege of traveling the world. While on the home stretch of my career as a clothing retailer, I read Growing a Business and was inspired about the idea that business can actually make a positive impact. My last job was working at Esprit in 1990 for a year. During that year, we had people like David Brower, Dave Foreman, Anita Roddick, Sally Fox, Ben Cohen come in and do brown bag lunches. These were people who were actively working to make the world a better place. 

I was always interested in alternative healing, health and wellness and lived the counter-culture lifestyle. While in England in 1991, I wondered into a natural apothecary that sold herbal and homeopathic remedies, aromatherapeutic products, and books. It was a vibrant little store that was focused on empowering people to be involved in their health and well being. They also sold a beautiful collection of bath and body care products that we eventually licensed and brought to upper end stores in the USA. 

We parted ways with that company and launched EO at the end of 1995. I wanted to be on the forefront of making beautiful essential oil based, natural and organic bath and body care products for ourselves, our family and our friends. We went to each Whole Foods, co-ops and small natural foods stores and sold the product in one store at a time. It’s been an incredible learning process in every way. I think that being a Zen student has defined “how we do, what we do.”  We sincerely intend to create a business that embodies right livelihood for ourselves, our customers, our vendors and each other. It also helps us to stand firm and do the hard stuff in order to sustain the business. We’ve always believed that it is our work to create a company that embraces the greater good and we get to actually practice with that philosophy and see how it unfolds on a daily basis. It’s simple but it is not easy. It requires creativity, flexibility, discipline, a keen sense of humor and a lot of love.