Jodi Scott of Green Goo: Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry
Beauty is truly subjective. We have been trying to quantify and qualify beauty for years, cheers to the person or company who nails it for all. But what I can offer is 1) Drink water. I know, old school, but true. Hydration is key. 2) Select products that preserve your hydration. That is ultimately why our Repair formula works so well. It helps the cells maintain hydration, which preserves the integrity of the cell and then gives our skin an overall radiant appearance. 3) The power is you. Yes, things like sleep and a good diet are going to help, but that only helps the power of you. When you take care of yourself, you can then demonstrate that beauty. So be kind to yourself. You know what you need to do, make yourself a priority….and drink more water!
As a part of our series about “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jodi Scott.
Jodi has an MS in Health Psychology and worked in private practice helping the chronically ill. At the same time, she started and operated several small businesses that she called “hobbies gone wild.” These experiences, exploring entrepreneurship, therapeutic alternatives, and the mind/body connection, combined with her sister’s study of plants, herbal remedies, and time-honored traditional medicine, led to the founding of Green Goo, an all-natural beauty, skin, and body care company.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
My sister, mom and I have always been passionate about natural beauty care. We grew up in the military, so we moved every 9 months to 3 years, and every time we moved, the back of our car was packed with my mom’s house plants and boxes of beauty care. You say beauty care? The plants are obvious, the professional movers would not take the fresh planted pots, but why would they not take beauty care? We asked our mom the same question as children….and she said, “The movers can’t take my product because it’s flammable” Flammable?! My sister and I look at each other, and we were like, what?!@ That’s all it took for us to begin the quest of natural, plant-based beauty care.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
That’s tough, too many interesting moments when you work with family and literally in the early days it was just family…..my brother in law shipping boxes, my other brother in law running the warehouse, my sister making product, my dad and father in law labeling, my mom building the website, my husband building the logistics, my mother in law doing the accounting; or you are a woman traveling alone and you get stranded at airports (yes, because it happened way more than once) due to bad weather with no hotels available and it’s negative 80 degrees in Chicago and 2 AM, or you are a mom with a baby and I had to travel and be away from her for days at a time when she was still nursing and finding places to pump and dump (which means lugging around a breast pump to all corners of the country) including airport bathrooms, corporate headquarters bathrooms before buyer meetings, and airplane bathrooms; or when my daughter was older (like 5 years old older 😊) and I took her with me on business trips since I was going to be gone for a month so running from buyer meetings to children’s museums and then off to the next location 10 flights, over 150 meetings, museums, adventure parks, sea world, city tours all in 30 days around the US, we went from Michigan to Maine, Boston and all the way down the east coast to Florida and back thru Arkansas and then home (with many more summer trips like this over the last 5 years); but then COVID happened and I am not sure how to capture that! Our family had to go back to our roots. My dad and father in law went back to labeling, and we are all packing boxes at the original warehouse where it all started. My now 8-year-old has also been helping to pack boxes this summer so we can help our official warehouse social distance and still manage growth so the warehouse can feel safe. This is an adventure and nothing less.
Are you able to identify a “tipping point” in your career when you started to see success? Did you start doing anything different? Are there takeaways or lessons that others can learn from that?
I don’t think so. For me, truly, the tipping point is daily. I know every entrepreneur likes to imagine these pendulum swings, and then all of a sudden, the sky opens up, and everything is easy while everything you ever hoped and worked for came true. NOT. I mean parts of that, yes. There will be challenges overcome, like the retailer you have been pinging for years finally says yes, or your numbers increase on your social platform exponentially due to a post from a celebrity, or you close an investor and finally have cash to throw at that incredible marketing strategy you have dreamed up over the years…..BUT you have to keep fighting for that tipping point to stay in your direction because, in a matter of minutes, it can just as easily swing the other direction. Yes, you will have moments, and we should always remember when we got that first purchase order for $500 we thought was so great, and now you are negotiating purchase orders for $500,000. Awesome. The battle as an entrepreneur is tackling those daily hurdles that come with new challenges, and the fight continues.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person to whom you are grateful who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
I truly believe the old saying: you are who your friends are. I feel fortunate that I have met many people along the way who were willing to take precious time out of their schedules to lend a hand or make an introduction or explain something like a forecasting tool. It’s easy to get into the flight or fight situation of the everyday world of growing a business, and you want to isolate yourself from what appears to be distractions…. except there are lifeboats all around should you choose to use them. I have been amazed by the kind human beings along the way, willing to take a moment to teach me, but you have to be willing to let them in. In sum, surround yourself around good people who will show you the way and good things will happen. And to that note, avoid the ones who will drag you down and not be a positive influence in your life and your business.
Ok super. Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion. The global beauty industry today has grown to more than a half a trillion dollar business. Can you tell us about the innovations that you are bringing to the industry? How do you think that will help people?
I am a data junky. In a short period of time, with the right snapshot of information, you can learn a wealth of information. There are so many of those tools within your reach. Study it, and it will guide you. It’s all great to have an idea, but with a little research, you can learn a lot to help shape your decisions and strategy. Maybe it is a saturated market for the new product you are considering, and the cost to gain market share would require exorbitant costs, but with one little tweak, you have some serious market share potential with little competition with unique product positioning. Product development is a passion for my sister and myself, but the bigger challenge is, does it have legs to gain distribution, earn market share, and become profitable? Maybe? Not all good ideas are successful business concepts, while others are validated by the analytics to run with it. Side note, some ideas need to be revisited. Timing does matter. So maybe today it’s not the right product development project, but tomorrow in light of current events, it is. EG Hand Sanitizer, Hand Goo, and Free to Breathe: All 3 products that had little to no momentum pre-COVID and are now top sellers! We had discontinued our foaming hand soaps pre-COVID and brought them back, and now we can’t keep up with the production.
Can you share 3 things that most excite you about the modern beauty industry?
Captivated Audience
Appreciation for Innovation
Commitment to more Sustainable and Clean products
Can you share 3 things that most concern you about the industry? If you had the ability to implement 3 ways to improve the industry, what would you suggest?
1) Misleading ingredients. Misinformation to the consumer as it relates to ingredients. We have come a long way implementing more industry standards for clean products, but I would like to see this continue.
2) Green Washing. Need more Sustainability and innovation in package offerings to reduce our footprint.
3) Philanthropy. I would love to see more social enterprise. Find more ways to help our neighbors with product distribution.
You are an expert about beauty. Can you share a few ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”?
Beauty is truly subjective. We have been trying to quantify and qualify beauty for years, cheers to the person or company who nails it for all. But what I can offer is 1) Drink water. I know, old school, but true. Hydration is key. 2) Select products that preserve your hydration. That is ultimately why our Repair formula works so well. It helps the cells maintain hydration, which preserves the integrity of the cell and then gives our skin an overall radiant appearance. 3) The power is you. Yes, things like sleep and a good diet are going to help, but that only helps the power of you. When you take care of yourself, you can then demonstrate that beauty. So be kind to yourself. You know what you need to do, make yourself a priority….and drink more water!
Here is the main question for our discussion. Based on your experience and success, Can you please share “Five Things You Need To Know To Succeed In The Modern Beauty Industry”. Please share a story or an example, for each.
- Know your customer- you can market all day long, but the cost will go up exponentially if you are targeting the wrong customer
- Know your price point- this sort of applies to the above statement. At market analysis in price means you know your customer, and you are offering them something that will compel them to purchase with the least amount of resistance and bring an offering into their world that matters
- Know your competitors- you can learn a lot from your competitors..what not to do and what to do more of. This will shed light on your superpower.
- Know your market share potential- this is key for growth; this data shows your potential and can offer so much insight even with bringing innovation and unique products to market.
- Don’t fail your customer- customer experience and being there for your customer is so important. We don’t want just a product; we want to know who we spend our hard-working dollars on is in with us.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)
I love everything about this question, thank you. I encourage every person reading this to answer this question and pass it along telephone style. We have the power to change the world so easily and be a positive influence. Like you said, you never know what your idea can trigger. We are more connected than ever, and so often, we see negative uses of this power. We have this one life as we know it, so not only live your best life but also help others do the same. The power is within arm’s reach, and truly, the only hurdle is ourselves.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Life is a gift. Every day you have a choice.
How can our readers follow you online?
https://www.instagram.com/greengoohelps/
https://www.facebook.com/GreenGooHelps/
https://twitter.com/greengoohelps
Thank you so much for joining us. This was very inspirational.
About the Interviewer: Jilea Hemmings is a staunch believer in the power of entrepreneurship. A successful career revamping Fortune 500 companies was not enough for her entrepreneurial spirit, so Jilea began focusing her passion in startups. She has successfully built 6 startups to date. Her passion for entrepreneurship continues to flourish with the development of Stretchy Hair Care, focusing on relieving the pain associated with detangling and styling natural black hair. For far too long, people with tender heads have suffered in pain. Until now.
