Terpy Holistcs

In this interview, I speak with Lauren Boyd of Terpy Holistics, www.terpyholistics.com.  Lauren shares how she maneuvered around roadblocks at the beginning of her business.  She explained what terpenes are and how she uses them in her candles.  Lauren speaks about how her candles help with anxiety and depression in conjunction with MMJ.  Lauren talks about having a business plan in place either on paper or even stored in your memory banks for future use.  Lauren is assisted by her Fiancé Steve and her puppy Kilo!  Lauren says that she is like a mad scientist at her kitchen table going over formulas for her candles.  She spends many hours on her research and shares her knowledge with you in this interview.  Take a look at her website for more information about her fabulous candles and more information on terpenes at www.terpyholistics.com.

Transcript

Hi, I'm Debra LaMotta. And this is Women Entrepreneur's Spotlight. I believe that every woman entrepreneur has a story to tell. When we share our stories, we can help the next woman who is starting their own business, or even help someone who has been at it for a while. I hope that you can find your takeaway from these stories to help you in your journey of being a woman entrepreneur.

Hi, I'm Debra LaMotta and this is Women Entrepreneur's Spotlight. And today I have with me Lauren Boyd of Terpy Holistics company. And so I like to ask two questions of my guests. And the first one is if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be? Oh, that's a hard one.  I really like in the summer Camden, Maine.

And in the winter Mexico.  oh, wow.  I'm guessing you've been to both places. Yeah. Yeah. They're both very beautiful. Well, I like it because there's one in the cold country and one in the warm country.  yeah.  do you like one over the other? I like both of 'em pretty equally. They're different, different places and different people, different experiences.

Oh, wow. Very. I like it.  I say to each of my guests, that I like asking those questions because I find out different places to put on my bucket list to visit Camden, Maine, which has a lot of surprises. You just  walk down the street and don't realize, there's a canal it's  hidden., it's beautiful.
There are gardens going over the canal and lots of surprises. I know from speaking to other people, that Maine is just absolutely beautiful. I'm originally from Connecticut and I've never made it up that far. One of these days I will, of course now it's gonna be a long ride from Delaware.  oh yeah.
It's far it's a hike.  That it is. So what's the most important lesson you have learned to date running your company Terpy Holistics? Uh, the most important lesson I have learned is to not let others put me down and to pursue how I think my business should be run and not how others, should think my business should be run.

Yeah. And so how did you overcome that? It's difficult because with my brand, like you, you know, with the pot leaf, everyone always wants to tell me, oh, you need to change your branding. More people will buy your product If you didn't have a pot leaf on it. Like, well, that defeats the whole purpose of my brand.

EXactly. I'm not, changing my marketing and like stores that were okay with me originally having. And knowing what my brand was about later on decided that they didn't want that in their store. So it has been difficult. And I've stuck with my brand. I haven't rebranded it. I might change my logo eventually, but I'll leave the pot leaf in there.

yeah. Just gotta stick, with what I wanna do exactly. Right. And so it's true to you.  It's what you've wanted to create. Not per se for somebody else.  Yeah, this is what you wanted. This is your business. And pursuing that is, is what you need to do for yourself. I know during our initial conversation, you told me that you always wanted to start your own business.
So tell me about you and how Terpy Holistics got started. After that, you can tell everybody where to get in contact with you. About me. I grew up in Delaware County,  Pennsylvania, in Chester County, Pennsylvania, and just recently moved to Delaware and I'm established in the roots of my business here doing local vendor events when I'm not working like my day job or, running my candle business.

I spend time with my fiance.  We like gaming we enjoy nature.  Spend time with my little puppy Kilo long hair Chihuahua and our families. We enjoyed going on day trips. Like today, we're gonna long gardens my favorite place ever.  oh, and then yeah, I just enjoyed being outside, hiking, camping, and fishing. We'll do gardening. I have a huge garden.  Nice!

 And so how did you come up with the idea for Terpy Holistics? I came up with this idea. I really wanted to get into the marijuana business, but unfortunately, the way the government runs things, you have to have a lot of capital. Right. To do that, and with the laws not being as friendly as the Western states are. I need to find my own niche to try to raise awareness and promote recreational use and medicinal. So that's how I created my brand. I really wanted to get into the industry and I kind of found my own niche.  nice. No, and that's how a lot of people end up getting and starting their own businesses.

So where can people find you and get in contact with you? Oh, they could find me in a lot of places. I am. at Spiritual Creations,  which is a little metaphysical store that is located in Clarksburg, Pennsylvania. It's a great store, with great people. They do classes, they do Reiki, yoga. They do crafty classes, witchy things. lots of fun. I am in,  Wonder Land Records in Newark. Oh, wow. That's been community stable for the counterculture scene for as long as I can remember. I believe they said 50 years. Wow. And then locally to the Middletown area, I'll be at the Delina farmer's market the first Saturday of every month. And then I have, I'm gonna be at the Middletown peach festival.

I'll be at the PA Fest in Cookstown and then I'm pretty regularly at the Hub farmer's market located at the Broken Spoke Winery in Earlville Maryland. I believe it at the right town.  So all over the place.  and so how about an email? Where can they reach out to you? My email is Terpyholistics@gmail.com. Facebook's Terpy Holistics. Instagram Terpy Holistics. And I just launched my website, Terpyholistics.com. Nice. I just saw it there looks great. Thank you. I have I've apparel on there and obviously my candles and wax melts. I saw I was looking at it this morning.  you have a great line, on your website.

You really do. Trying to expand it, trying to make a lifestyle brand, a sustainable product, try to find some hemp-based products to sell because hemp is very sustainable. Yes, absolutely. 
And so tell the listeners about what are terpenes and how someone can benefit from those and then with your candles.

Oh yeah. So terpenes, a lot of people don't know this they're most commonly associated with marijuana, but they're in pretty much every plant. The medicinal or therapeutic properties of pretty much any plant that you would consume per medicinal or therapeutic properties, for example, lavender, that scent, that calming, relaxing feeling you get when you have lavender,  that's from terpene, terpenes are pretty much in everything.

They use terpenes to flavor foods. They use them in fragrance oils and bath products. They've been around for thousands of years, specifically in ancient Chinese medicine, right. Where they extract the terpenes from the plants and use them for holistic medicines. So it's, I'm trying to educate people that terpenes aren't bad.

And along with CBD or THC, they pretty much create an entourage effect and help you with your medical needs with CBD or the THC as well. Right. And so how do you put your candles together with the essential oil? Is it an essential, is it an essential oil? Yep. Okay. I use chemical-free fragrances.  We're trying to get all chemical-free. I still have a couple of ones that were hard to find without the in them, but we're working on that. So I try to use as clean fragrance oils as I can. And then I mix the pure terpene isolate with the fragrance oil. And I don't know if you smell like a regular candle and smell mine. It's different. Cause the terpenes kind of enhance the regular candle fragrance, right. So together it really kind of omps it up a little bit.  right. And so I know in your bio and you, and on your website as I was going through it, and also you had shared some information with me. You, yourself have anxiety and depression.

Yeah. And so I know a lot of us, including myself and my son, we all have some anxiety, some depression, and I don't think anybody probably thought or thinks about a candle giving you some relief that calmness. Right. So, oh, definitely. But I like to have like a nice relaxing bath or a rough day at work or be stressed out or anxious.

Light some candles and put on some good Grateful Dead music.  There you go. And so you don't have to be, doing medical marijuana to enjoy these candles or the benefits, correct? Nope. They're for anyone really they just wanna relax and de-stress. And I like to say it's like elevated aroma therapy. RIght.

 I think so many of us need that after everything. You know, this past two years with COVID and I believe you started your business in 2021 during, towards the end of COVID. Yep. I was in between jobs. I always work from, I've been working from home since COVID started, but I was in between I was on a temporary assignment.

So when that ended, I needed it. Something to something to do. And that occupied a lot of my time for a few months until I was able to find another job. And I pretty much just launched my business and my little tiny 800-square-foot apartment  I just made as many candles as I could. It wasn't many. So how do you balance that now doing, because you work full time and then you, do you have your candles and the other products that you have on your website?

So how do find or what do you do to balance all of that out? I try to pick two days a week to make candles and get all the events coming up. I have a lot I have to make, especially for Canna Fest cause of the turnaround the turnout for that's going to be. Um, huge. It's gonna be my biggest event and the Peach Festival.

When is, when are those two events you wanna tell them when those are? The Peach Festival, Middletown, Delaware, and then the PA Canna Fest at the Kutztown Farmer's Market that's in October. Okay. And from what I've heard from my friends that have gone to the April one for the 4/20 event, there were so many people you couldn't even walk.

Wow. So that's gonna pretty much be like the launch of my business to like the industry and to the public cannabis community. Wow. So I'm pretty excited. Got a lot of work ahead of me. My fiance's been great and helping me and making, making lots of products pretty much every week. So do you do stick to two days a week, or do you find now getting closer to an event you pick up? Try to find more time. Yeah. Yeah. I try to find more time. I, I, luckily I work later on in the day. So in the mornings when it's cool, especially now it's getting hot out. I, I like to make candles yeah. In the mornings. Absolutely. 

And I was looking at your website. I also noticed that you do Etsy. You have an Etsy shop.
So tell me about Etsy. And do you find it, do you like using Etsy? I particularly, it was a great platform at one time. Right. But I feel like it is getting phased out. They keep on upping their fees for like small businesses. They don't, they try to advertise like they promote you and, the algorithms will display your products. They don't. Yeah. I, I look at my like analytics. I get more views from my Instagram followers than I do from Etsy people. So I feel like Etsy really slowed down.  People would rather support me through my website or at local events or even local deliveries. I, I even did local deliveries for a while.

Wow. Being your own CEO and it's your own company. And sometimes you have to take that extra step to push your company forward also and giving that, you know, giving that little extra in customer service goes a long way, because people remember that. Yeah. I'm trying to phase the Etsy out, but I have customers that have found me exclusively on Etsy.

So it's like. Maybe I'll leave like one or two products out and it's like, Hey, here's be on my website for more product. Right, exactly. Yeah.  I don't use Etsy, but so does Etsy allow you to then downsize your product line, and yeah, how's their fee? They take like 5% and I believe they're taking, I think they said they were gonna raise it to 6% and then they take like a flat fee off of every purchase made.

So it just keeps on adding on, they just keep adding it. Yeah. And, and your website, you can, now you can have everybody go to your website and order right from there. So that just is an added benefit to you. So along with Etsy going to be phasing that out, you do have your website.

I know you're on Facebook, you're on Instagram. What other marketing platforms do you use? I use TikTok. I gotta get better at posting videos. The videos I have posted have been pretty like the real, the ones I really thought out have been really successful. Right. I, have the most followers on TikTok, surprisingly, I barely even post anything.

THat's funny with that. You just never know. My daughter's a talker and sometimes she'll, you know, she says she posts a TikTok, not thinking that it'll get any views and then. You know, the next thing is she knows it's blowing up, so you never know who's on that day. You never know what's gonna catch fire.

Yeah. You know, so I'm gonna start doing live events as well.  Live Q and A's, or where I go over  new products. Oh nice. Or things like that. Absolutely. 
What issues did you have to overcome in the beginning? I know you mentioned the pushback on those who didn't feel that your marijuana leaf should be.

You know, your product, and marijuana there are those that are definitely against marijuana Even medical marijuana. So what did you have to overcome? Other than those two? I had a, I had a lot to overcome. I, at the time, was in an abusive relationship. So that I had to overcome that.

 Then with my pot leaf, unfortunately, social media is very it's a gray area with social media,.Mainly, Instagram, and Facebook with Mark Zuckerberg.  Oh, right. So I'm constantly getting, especially on Facebook, more than Instagram, I'm constantly getting banned or muted for 60 days.

And when I started, you don't understand at the beginning of my business, all of my sales were from Facebook. That's how I was reaching out to my local community. Right. So when they shut that down for 30 or 60 days, it completely shut my business down. Sure, absolutely and they don't give you any leeway. No appeal, nothing. And I'm not doing anything illegal. Basically what they were saying was I was doing something illegal and I'm like, Nope. Nope.  So having overcome that, and working around it, luckily my Instagram's fine knock on wood, but it's mostly Facebook. So I've learned to kind of, not post as much.

Okay. On Facebook and kind of tailor my post to Facebook in a way, so they won't get flagged or reported. Exactly. And I like, I have several friends that have that try to run marijuana based businesses as well. And they've had the same pushback, things need to change. Yeah. Like we're not doing anything illegal.

Exactly. Exactly right. Yeah. It's  Facebook does make it hard even though it's, you know, it's the top, uh, social network to get a product that you're working on out there. If it has some type of backstory as you have with the marijuana. So, yeah, it's tough. And then I, also believe with Facebook that they just shut you down and you really don't communicate with anybody.
You get your email mm-hmm and.  on the suspension for 30 days and yeah, it's like fighting with a computer. You're not going get anywhere.

 Yeah. They don't give you many options to appeal it. They say that you can report it to the oversight board, which the oversight board consists of eight people. Right. And when you have multimillion users yeah,  right.

It's not, that they're only reviewing big cases, right? Like the ones that probably have a lot of publicity behind them. Exactly. So it's just for a small business. It's, it's detrimental. It really hurt me. Absolutely. I can't, I can't even imagine having to be shut down for 30, 60 days.
When that's what your, you know, your whole platform for marketing at one time. Mm-hmm, so that's tough. Yeah. And then on the other side, you have Instagram, like you said, you have no issues with them. At first, I did. Okay. Then I kinda, I was able to get a hold of someone at Instagram back before and now you can't get ahold of anyone.

So luckily I was able to slip that in there. And unfortunately with Instagram and Facebook, even though they're the same business, they don't like communicating with each other. Right. So I explained to Instagram, what my business was about and that it wasn't what they thought it was.  wasn't how to sell drugs. I wasn't, you know, Yeah. So. So luckily I've been okay on the Instagram side, hope fingers crossed, that nothing happens going forward, but some of my friends haven't been as lucky. So yeah, their Instagrams have been shut down and fully removed and they can't even recover them. Wow. 

Do you think with your product line where you're adding other, products, your t-shirts and what have you, do you think that'll kind of help it not be. Yes and no. If you took, if you took a look at my t-shirt, some of them could be a little controversial.  right.  but they're a, t-shirt kinda my whole, my whole concept of my business is to raise awareness. Yes. And promote the advocacy for, medical marijuana, and recreational, as well.

But other, issues that get, brought up in terms of marijuana or Hemp, even hemp is more sustainable. It can be used for pretty much anything. Paper fuel. Yeah. Building materials, clothes, everything, and it grows quicker. It's more sustainable. It doesn't mean as many resources to grow. So I'm big for advocating for that.

And also for letting patients grow up in Maine like I was, I was amazed. I was driving around and you just see pot plants on someone's porch, right? Yeah. And the states where it's legal. Absolutely. Yeah. No, absolutely. And I think with the hemp too, people don't realize, you know, the benefits and all the other items that come from one plant, you know, people just hear hemp or they hear THC or they just hear medical marijuana. And then a lot of people will just shut down. So. You, here and let our listeners know about it. That's definitely where people need to listen and read and do their homework. So thank you. Mm-hmm  

You're welcome.  and would you change anything in the beginning when you were doing, starting out with your business?

No. I don't think I would've changed anything. No. Other than maybe posting on Facebook, how I was posting as I learned was a learning lesson of how to post on Facebook. I'm still learning. Absolutely. What the algorithm is. You really have to learn, like what certain words, flag stuff in the algorithm. Right?

Pictures, flag stuff in the algorithm. And then you get people. You'll get people reporting you still. So I've learned not to post on certain pages where people might see that and be like, Hey, I'm not cool with that.  right. Right. And, and you'll always get that too. But you, you know, you're not, you don't seem like the type of person who's going to just put it in your face and say, this is it.

You are, you wanna educate people. You want people to understand it. Um, yep. That's what this is all about. Absolutely. 

Did you have a business plan in the beginning? Did you use a business plan? Put one together? Yeah. Yeah, pretty much in my head.  yeah. I, I tried to write stuff out on paper. You see I've run, I've run businesses since I was 15 years old, I $10 million businesses, but like two or 300 employees I was directly responsible for. So I've known how to run a business pretty much my whole life. I was a girl scout for geez. Well, 13 years, so, oh wow. Girl scouts, teach you how to run businesses. Absolutely. So I knew what needed to be done. I knew I needed to research the market and right. Cost of things and do like product development. So, I had it all in my head.
yep. Some people will carry it around in their heads. I know others need to have everything written out and detailed. Do you think though, that having the business plan in your head or on paper is important to have in the beginning? It's definitely, it definitely is important.  Even though, though most of it's in my head, I have written now like steps and especially a list of things I need to do to make my business legitimate, in the eyes of the government.

Right. Yep. Just definitely. So yeah, it is very important because there are a lot of laws and regulations in regard to products. And a lot of people don't notice. They don't know I encourage anyone to go start their own business, but you gotta do research. You gotta know what you're putting out there.

You gotta know what the walls are. Um, I see a lot of people, especially since COVID is just whipping up body products and like cosmetics and stuff like that. And you don't realize people have food allergies. Some of these cosmetic products need to be properly cured and they need chemicals in them to prevent them from getting mold, right or even bacteria, which can seriously hurt people. And, but people don't realize this like they just make lip gloss and you don't, that lip gloss can kill someone.  right. Exactly. And again, you had mentioned, you know, during doing your research. You have to take the time mm-hmm yeah, absolutely. Do the research on whatever you do.

I did a lot of research I have, especially with fragrance oils, when you're, when you're burning things, it can create chemical reactions. So it's a lot of, a lot of people don't realize even my fiance like he took a look, I like to call it my grim memoir.  with all my recipes and stuff. It's a lot of chemistry.

I like to, I'm pretty much a chemist coming up with these formulas and, some chemicals make certain chemical reactions when they're mixed together. And I had to do a lot of research on that formulas. Pretty much. It's like all chemistry.  right. And I think a lot of people just kind of jump into a business without doing the research or like you said, finding out what different chemicals will create, which, reactions people having allergies left and right.

These days. Yeah. Um, yeah. And as a consumer, too, I think a lot of people don't even take the time for themselves to read the label. . Yeah. Yeah. I think we're, you know, sometimes we're pretty quick too, we like a product and that's all we give it and we give it a, a nod and, and we run with it. So because it's your company you're gonna be responsible for it in the end.
Absolutely. Exactly. Like initially I wanted to get into cosmetics. I still wanna get into cosmetics, but right now the cosmetic industry, they're not transparent with what's in their products. Yeah. And I'm like, I can't, I can't start a cosmetic line knowing what they put into these cosmetics and. They don't, there are not really many options for safe cosmetics right now.

Unfortunately, that costs a lot of money to get into. Cause you need pretty much a certified chemist to come up with these products for you. Yeah. Yeah. And that, and there goes your business plan. You gotta start there.  yeah.  absolutely, it all keeps going back, you know? Yeah. Yep. You all need to, I do research, gotta do your research, but that business plan together and you know, and starting up a business too.

I mean, some people have to be looking for a small loan. Not everybody has saved money and does not necessarily have to do so, but with that business plan, if you're going to go for a small business loan, you need the business plan. They're gonna look for that. Yep, definitely. And there are a lot of resources locally that can help you with those things.

I know Pennsylvania. I grew up in Pennsylvania, so Pennsylvania has a great program.  It's called Score. They help small business owners. They even set you up with a mentor. Yeah. They and they're pretty well known like in the area. I was really surprised. Um, yeah. I know Delaware has their thing too.

Yeah. But it's, I'm not as familiar with Delaware since I am fairly new to Delaware.  you and me both.   I'm I just moved down here in November, so yes. And you definitely have to check local and state,  licensing and every other form that you have to fill out for them, liability too, like insurance.

That's a big thing now.  Yes, it is. A lot of events require you to have personal liability insurance for your business. People don't realize you're liable for things. If something happens oh, absolutely. And I, and I think more and more events, like you said, are asking the, for the certificate of liability.

I know for me being a wedding officiant, at one time I was never asked for the liability insurance, but now, at the bigger, venues I have to carry it. So yeah, you definitely have to. Yeah, it's crazy. It is crazy. Right. Who would, who, who would've thought? 

So what advice would you give to another woman entrepreneur just starting their own business? Don't give up. Don't let people try to tell you that you can't do it. Because you can, you just gotta have the right mindset and that you have to have a growth mindset and you gotta set your mind to it. Create a good plan both in your head and on paper and just, just do.
As Nike likes to say, just do it.  just do it. Absolutely. 

Did you have a mentor in the beginning? Did you have somebody that you could call and say, I've come across this problem? I've come. I have this issue. Yes and no. I had Score, which helped with, like the formation, those kinds of things. Local business owners, especially Barbie at spiritual creation.

She's helped me with, some advice working through some issues.  My fiance, he's been probably my biggest supporter throughout my whole business. Nice. He wasn't there at the beginning of it, but now he's here and he really helps me out a lot. You can see him, he's always at the events with me and nice helping me pack up and carry everything.

And, that's great. Because I think we all need somebody, especially in the beginning and then over the course of our business career to have that one person. Or several people to be able to call or, you know, shoot a text message off to them. Because that's my mission. One of the missions that I want to do with this Woman Entrepreneur Spotlight interviewing is to build a network for other women somebody starting out, somebody who perhaps is right in the middle of it. And who's been on this journey for a long time. So if I start up a network would you be interested in being part of it to help somebody else in this wonderful work? Of course,  I love networking. I love helping others. That's why I do the job. I do my day job. That's why I do my business. My whole business is about helping people. I love giving advice or helping. I have a lot of knowledge myself from my experience in the past, around the businesses I've run and the industries I've been in. I've learned a lot. I've seen a lot, I've dealt with hundreds of people and hundreds of personalities and had a lot of serious things happen, that I've had to find solutions for, so I'm always here. If I don't know the answer, I can usually direct someone in the right direct area where to find that answer at. Thank you. And I, and I think we all need somebody to be able to reach out to during our, the course of our business and what we do.

So I wanna thank you for being a part of this interview today on Women Entrepreneurs Spotlight. Why don't you tell everybody one more time where they can get in contact with.   The easiest way to get it in contact with me personally is to my Instagram Terpy Holistics or my email Terpyholistics@gmail.com.

That's the easiest, the easiest two. I'm always checking my Instagram. That's probably the better of the two. Well, again, I wanna thank you. Thank you for taking the time. And I look forward to watching your business grow. I, you know, will stay in contact and have a great afternoon. You as well. Thank you, Debra.

You are welcome. Thank you for listening to Women Entrepreneurs Spotlight. I hope you've enjoyed this episode. For updates on my next interview follow me on Facebook at Women Entrepreneurs Spotlight. Until then keep being awesome.