Pivot With Purpose Season 4 Episode 2 Full Transcript

[00:00:00] Jill: Pivot With Purpose, a podcast that highlights the unique sTorrees of professionals that pivoted their careers to align with their work lives and personal lives more purposefully and with more joy.

[00:00:23] Jill: Pivot what purpose is hosted by Meghan Houle, a globally accredited career and business coach and creator of the Meghan Hole Method. 

[00:00:32] Meghan: Welcome back to the Pivot with Purpose podcast. I'm your host, Meghan who, and in this episode we talk to Jill Munson and Gianna de la Torre. Founders of the beauty brand grounded in the connectivity of plants, stones, and the cosmos, Wildling.

[00:00:48] Meghan: Thank you for listening to Pivot With Purpose, with Host Meghan, who you can find out more information about each guest, including full transcripts at Pivot with purpose podcast.com. And if you'd like to share your own pivot with purpose, click on the subscribe button and add your story to the conversation finally.

[00:01:09] Meghan: Be sure to subscribe and share your comments wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Your support amplifies our voice. And now this week's episode,

[00:01:23] Meghan: Wildling exists to support skin longevity and overall wellbeing within beauty and wellness solutions grounded in the connective force of plants. And the cosmos sharing skincare, beauty tools and wellness rituals, accompanied by the expertise and guidance of an acupuncturist, an herbalist, and a holistic esthetician.

[00:01:44] Meghan: Jill is an innovative professional and studied herbalist with over 20 years of experience in new product development and strategic brand management and global marketing. Working with beauty companies ranging from medium sized to Fortune 500. Gianna has a rich background in curiosity about the human body and its resilience, which led her to a lifelong journey in acupuncture and intuitive healing method, spreading her healing knowledge to those who need it.

[00:02:14] Meghan: The Wildling product offerings are naturally effective formulas and tools to transform the skin, treat skin health, and unite physical and mental health so that you may live gracefully with ultimate skin longevity. Hi, Jill and Gianna, thank you so much for being on the Pivot With Purpose Podcast today. How are you guys doing?

[00:02:34] Gianna: We're doing 

[00:02:35] Jill: great. So good. Thank you for having us.

[00:02:38] Meghan: Of course. I know you both bring something very unique to the creation of Wildling with your various background. So as I was saying before, I wish you were in person as I think I could spend the entire day with you all. Give me all the rituals and health and wellness practices.

[00:02:52] Meghan: I'm really honored to have you on. And so lucky to have our listeners have a chance to hear about your sTorrees. And I have to say, I have tried almost all the products and I'm hooked. I think the facial cupping is my favorite as I coined myself a beauty junkie. So I know we'll get to all the products and offerings, but first I'm really excited to dive into your career pivots that brought you together to create Wildling.

[00:03:17] Meghan: So are you all both ready to dive in? You ready to get this party started? Yeah. 

[00:03:21] Gianna: We're so excited to be talking to you. 

[00:03:24] Meghan: Well, thank you again, and you know, as I spoke briefly about all your different backgrounds in the introduction, I would love to hear what both of your roles are right now before we jump into the pivots with Wildling and maybe how each of you support the business.

[00:03:39] Meghan: In your unique ways. So I would say maybe start with you, Jill, and then we can go to Gianna. Tell us what you're up to in the business right now, 

[00:03:46] Jill: we're still so much of a startup that we do so much. I wear many, many hats. All of us do. And my main role, my background is in beauty. I've worked in beauty for over 20 years and primarily product development.

[00:03:58] Jill: So I do all of our product development and to date, I've done all of our formulations as well. And then I help with a lot of the more business side of things like overseeing finance and operations and all of that. Very fun thing, stuff. and, and I try to support in like all the other areas too, like with wholesale and supporting marketing.

[00:04:19] Jill: Gianna does all our marketing, but I helped us try to support there too. It's just one of those things where we wear so many hats and it's just our baby Wildling is our baby, so we take care of it like a mother and do everyth. Needed for it to be happy and successful. Yeah. And we're so passionate about the brand and so really just putting our all into, making it beautiful and offerings that people can connect with and really bring value to their lives.

[00:04:43] Jill: Yeah. 

[00:04:44] Meghan: That's so cool. How about you Gianna? What are you up to in the business? 

[00:04:48] Gianna: Yes, Jill mentioned, I oversee our marketing and I run our social and we wear many different hats. So I also. Copywriting and a ton of the creative. I do photo shoots and a lot of our content creation, and I feel like there's just so much more.

[00:05:07] Gianna: The list is so long. Yeah. I run our emails and yeah, so it's really, I would say that I work a lot on like. Working on Wild Lang's voice and how we interact with the world. And I'm an acupuncturist by trade, so I'm always joking with my husband that I'm putting on all of these hats that are somewhat new to me in different ways.

[00:05:27] Gianna: Like an acupuncturist, like jumbling through a beauty business, but that kind of foundation of healing and wellness is very grounding because that is what really truly motivates us, whether it's in our formula. , whether it's in our Gua sha, was one of my first passions. So I designed our first Gua sha stone. And so all of that is like, it is really motivating, as Jill said, it's our baby, and we care a lot about how we're taking care of our customers and our people, and like just the authentic voice that we put forward within what we bring to the table.

[00:06:02] Meghan: Right? And I mean social and marketing on top of having the business savvy and ops and whatnot too, as a startup, how you kind of really get out there and are you Janna, the one that, or Conley doing like the Gua sha tutorials like I do see you on instead? I follow and I'm like really trying to. Be better at using men daily, cuz I think the benefits are so amazing.

[00:06:23] Meghan: But is that your beautiful face? I see often I , I tune to a lot of the tutorials. 

[00:06:27] Gianna: Yeah. Few of us. So Britta is our third co-founder and she is the blonde. Yeah. And I am the brunette. Okay. So yeah, I have long brown hair and she has shorter blonde hair. And so those are, yeah, our co-founder videos, but then we also have a bunch of U gc so you will see me on there?

[00:06:44] Jill: Yeah. Yep. 

[00:06:46] Meghan: In the creative piece and really building and connecting with the community and trust and the show and tell each one of you seems to have very important roles, which collectively brings everything together. But I'm so curious about what Pivots brought you all together to create wild and bringing this product, offering to life.

[00:07:05] Meghan: So did you all know each other prior and maybe give us a little more insight into what your work life was before Wildling, whoever wants to kick off first. 

[00:07:15] Gianna: Yeah. I think our story is really a magical, one of the alchemy of the three of us coming together, really motivated by this desire to shift the beauty industry from this standard of injectable and this whole narrative of feeling less than and wanting to.

[00:07:37] Gianna: Put forward modalities that really work in a transformational way. And also offer this ability to empower anyone who is using our ritual and to connect them to practice that is empowering and effective. And so we met actually at a Gua sha sha workshop. Jill, coming from her incredible background in product development, which she'll talk about more in herbalism and myself coming from a back.

[00:08:04] Gianna: Of being a yogi and a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner, and Britta as a holistic esthetician. And so we had all of these points of experience in beauty and wellness, and we collectively have over 50 years of experience working in this space, coming together with this really unified desire and belief in the practice of Gua sha but also in these incredible formulations that we've created.

[00:08:33] Gianna: So I'll let Jill add on to that, but that's kind of how we united, we didn't really know each other as friends or anything before we came together with this really pointed intention that we all 

[00:08:43] Jill: believed in the cause. Yeah, it was a divine intervention. .

[00:08:47] Meghan: I love that. Those are some of the best connections, Jill.

[00:08:50] Meghan: Absolutely. Yeah. 

[00:08:52] Jill: I'm pretty sure the universe just kind of circled around us to make that happen. So that was really what it was.

[00:08:59] Meghan: So Jill, did you have to make a major pivot? Were you working with a big beauty brand? What brought you to the Gua sha event? 

[00:09:06] Jill: Yeah, yeah. No, it was actually, it was like a timing is everything kind of situation.

[00:09:11] Jill: Mm-hmm. , I was on my own. I had taken time off from working with companies. Mm-hmm. , cause I had had a baby and wanted to just kind of take some time. So it was like I was in between stuff and not really sure where I was gonna go next, but had enough time to have like a breather. The beauty world and it really experience, I got more into herbalism and studied herbalism while I was pregnant and had my baby, and started to get really into that.

[00:09:39] Jill: And then what was really awesome was being able to combine herbalism with my experience in beauty was something really. Um, really beautiful that I thought could be a really cool opportunity. And then I just, as it turned out and I went to this workshop, that is where we all met and that was just, I had that, that it was just the timing that was just really open at that point.

[00:10:00] Jill: Wow. Yeah. 

[00:10:01] Meghan: Did you all collectively, what was the pivot moment? Talk to me about the year. What conversations went into it? When did you guys know, okay, we're doing this? What was that like from first conversation to bringing everything together? What did that big pivot look like?

[00:10:13] Jill: Yeah. I think it was in 2016, so it was after I had my second baby.

[00:10:20] Jill: I just had my second baby and Britta was doing this workshop that I had heard about at Marcato Sorato, which was just this last weekend. It's like this festival in LA and so I thought it sounded really interesting and I went to it and when I saw the, the practice that she was so passionately educating on, I was having the experience that I had in beauty, I was like, hello, like bing binging.

[00:10:45] Jill: This is amazing. This is super powerful. and I connected with Gianna and it was a small workshop in as well in the workshop. And then after just addressed Britta and was like, you know, this is such a powerful, amazing practice that you're teaching and that you work with in your, your holistic practice that it would be so fun to do like a little collab or something together.

[00:11:08] Jill: And I'm like, you should have your own. Because she was teaching the practice with other people's oils and tonics. Mm-hmm. and had like a Gua shas stone from Amazon. Like a basic, really basic, just like a stock stone. and I was like, and you should have a stone. I mean, I'm like a product developer . 

[00:11:27] Meghan: So you're, you should have minute, you're like custom, 

[00:11:29] Jill: custom stone.

[00:11:30] Jill: A stone should be like customly designed. Mm-hmm. to really maximize results, blah, blah, blah. She's like, wow, that sounds awesome, but I really don't know how to do that. Wow. And I was like, well, I do. And so that's kind of how it started. and then together we all kind of started to build out a bigger vision of a brand rather than a small little collab that was initially the seed.

[00:11:50] Meghan: That's awesome. So you kind of jumped right in. When did you feel like, or maybe was there like a memorable moment or the year, I know you said 2016, but. That really stands out for you both where you're like, okay, we're doing this. I'm making the career pivot. I'm stepping away from acupuncture and consulting.

[00:12:07] Meghan: Or maybe it's just like timing, but when did you all feel like maybe you were finally in alignment with your career and life goals?

[00:12:13] Gianna: It's a great question. I feel like for me, there's a moment that really stands out because. My daughter Rio, who just turned four and Wild Lang were like born to the market on almost the same day.

[00:12:27] Gianna: Yeah. Like strangely, it wasn't easy. I would not recommend it to anybody. Like the timing of it was not like, people are like, that's amazing. I'm like, it was awful. It was truly awful. But it was also incredible because it was this creation moment and I think we had to jump in in a more meaningful way before then.

[00:12:47] Gianna: But I think it's this moment where like I stepped into motherhood, I felt like in two different ways and that's in some ways the whole job in and of itself. Right. But that was an incredible pivot moment for me. And I also never really stepped away fully from acupuncture. I've had to really dial it back, but I do still, mm-hmm feel that like part of my efficacy and my work.

[00:13:14] Gianna: Connected to being able to have that one-on-one connection with my patients and with my purpose in that way. They're so tied together. Yeah. That one doesn't exist very effectively without the other, I'm constantly learning new things in the treatment room, and I know Britta could say the same, so that's something that that still is alive, although not in the same, not in the same way.

[00:13:38] Meghan: Love acupuncture so much. I remember getting. A few years back, almost like throwing out my back Gianna home on my couch, like barely being able to breathe or I pop something like doing a sit-up. Like those darn sit-ups, you know. And I was like texting my friend. She's like, you have to go see my acupuncturist.

[00:13:59] Meghan: And I get very woowoo in my house where my husband's finally on the woowoo train. Okay. But he is like, acupuncturist, what is that? Like a witch doctor? I'm like, oh my God. I'm like, no, we have doctors in our family. They're like acupuncturist. Amazing. You need to go And, and that acupuncturist on that day literally saved my life.

[00:14:17] Meghan: I don't even know what I had, would've done the whole weekend, not being able to walk or breathe. And you know, it's a series once you get in there and start to open up the channels. But I'll tell you almost immediately, my back was better. Putting yourself a moment to be quiet and without a phone for an hour.

[00:14:35] Meghan: I'll tell you, I look forward to my acupuncturist. I take my watch, everything comes off. It's like nobody can access. And we have to give our ourselves a little more time for us these days more than ever. I love that, and I think it's so cool that you're still able to do both, because I also talk a lot as I'm a full-time executive retail luxury recruiter and also a master career coach and work with small businesses.

[00:14:58] Meghan: We don't just have to be this or that. We can be this and that. And I think it's really important for anyone out there and no one listening. Like you don't have to fully give up a full-time job if you can balance things and passions and other businesses that just bring synergy, 

[00:15:13] Meghan: right? I 

[00:15:13] Jill: think that's the word.

[00:15:14] Jill: Yeah. 

[00:15:14] Gianna: Yeah. If it wasn't so connected, there's no way. But it's also this affirmation where it's like Wild lang is an extension of my passion. Of my purpose. Mm-hmm. and. My acupuncture practice is very much that as well. So it streamlines into one, even though sometimes it feels like a bit of a juggling act.

[00:15:36] Meghan: Yeah. Well, it seems like you're doing it very beautifully. And for you, Joe, what was the moment for you? Was there any kind of memorable. Moment or year or just timing for you that you're like, yep, we're doing this, and I feel in alignment finally. Are you balancing anything else further now as well? 

[00:15:52] Jill: I mean, for me it was, I think that I was already in the moment of wanting to do something, like I had taken time off.

[00:16:01] Jill: I was like, okay, I don't really wanna go back working for another brand. I wanna have something of my own. I don't know what that is and I just really opened myself up to receiving what that would be. Yeah. And that took time for that to occur. But you know, I think once I saw it, like in that moment when, in that workshop, it was so clear to me that that was the pa, now this is what I'm gonna be doing.

[00:16:26] Jill: So it was, for me, it was that moment in the workshop and I was like, okay, like this, we're gonna figure this. This is definitely gonna ha. And I know 100. , this is gonna be successful. It's something that people are going to receive and feel valued and have receive value from. It's just like that. I just had a really good feeling about it.

[00:16:46] Jill: So that was for me the moment. Yeah, and I feel like I'm juggling a thousand different responsibilities at once every single day. I mean, having two children, and my family. And then I'm full-time working on Wildling. Mm-hmm. and I do other side stuff like I still do study herbalism and do classes and stuff like that, but it's not like a full-time school or anything right now.

[00:17:09] Jill: Yeah. And so I do supplemental stuff like that, but it's primarily working full-time on Wildling and. Managing my home. So those are like the two things that are totally taking up my life. 

[00:17:20] Meghan: Keeping busy now for sure. Now very busy. Ugh. I just love your story of all coming together in an event. And for the things where I talk about often of like people getting out there and for us finally having events and being in person again, but.

[00:17:33] Meghan: For the days where I sit, I'm like, oh, I don't wanna go to that thing. Or I don't know, maybe I'm not feeling it to show up. And you just never know who you're going to meet. And like the meaning of all the minds in the background, that's like so beautiful. I, I love this story for all of you. So thank you for sharing that in our, in our first half.

[00:17:49] Meghan: And in the spirit of this podcast, I will tell you both. I always ask a yes or no question, so it's almost like a teaser. And I put you on the spot and then we go to a little quick break. So collectively, I'm gonna ask you yes or no, and let's see if the two of you, let's see how unanimous you are. So are you ready?

[00:18:08] Meghan: Ready? Um, okay, so yes or no, do you believe you need to be fully ready and have everything perfect before you bring a business to life? No. No. ? Yeah. Okay. I'm like, yes, no. Oh, I love it. So we're gonna go to a quick break and we will pick this up when we get back. 

[00:18:28] Jill: Awesome. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:18:45] Meghan: Okay, so unanimously and thank you. You both said no. So what did you need to have in place to get wild things started and why do you feel like things just don't have to be perfect? Cause I think that that's a misconception out there too, with a lot of entre. 

[00:18:58] Gianna: Yeah, I mean, yeah, I, sorry. I'll just say like in a very general way and then I'll hand it over to Jill, that you could wait like an entire lifetime to get things perfect.

[00:19:08] Gianna: And I think that perfectionism, mm-hmm. is something that holds us back ultimately from really jumping in. And sometimes it's messy and you kind of fumble and make mistakes, but that real time learning. Is the most valuable because there's so much on the line. 

[00:19:26] Jill: Yeah. I would say we had to do the groundwork initially.

[00:19:29] Jill: I mean, we, we were about a year of development at least. Mm-hmm. before we launched. Mm-hmm. , all the groundwork of building the business and the product and all of the design and all of the website and all of that. So it's a lot of work upfront, but we kind of were, we got to a point where we didn't feel like we.

[00:19:49] Jill: Ready? Mm-hmm. , like we didn't have all our ducks in a row, but we were pretty close. Yeah. But we got to where holiday was coming up and we're like, and also launching with our initial launch, being that it was a Gua sha collection, we felt like if we wanted to get in front of this trend that was about to hit, we had to launch it now and before holiday.

[00:20:10] Jill: And so we were at this point where it was like, okay, we just have to do it even though we don't feel like we're totally ready. Yeah. So we just did and it was completely bananas and nuts and we like, it was, we had a like a lot of success right out of the gate, but. . It was, it was cHouleenging to like do it all.

[00:20:29] Jill: But I think that that would be like advice that I would give to anyone that's starting a business is like mm-hmm. , definitely do it before you're ready. Cuz that's probably the best time. 

[00:20:37] Meghan: Right. Because you're never gonna be ready. And just like I talk about in in my recruitment, it's just like it's never gonna be a good time to leave a job.

[00:20:44] Meghan: It's never gonna be a good time. Exactly. You just have to start. So you do. 

[00:20:48] Jill: You have to start. It's great to hear. 

[00:20:49] Meghan: Yeah. So tell us a little, okay, so Wildling name, where did that come from? And tell us a little bit more about the rituals and brand offerings and what customers can expect using your products.

[00:20:59] Meghan: Because beyond the Gua sha as I was saying, the facial cupping, which I just love, there are so many other offerings now. So tell us about the name and then, you know, maybe give us like a little brand highlight details.

[00:21:10] Jill: Yeah, I'm happy to speak about the name and Gianna, you can go over the rituals. The name is Wildling is as def, it's a, you know, a word as by definition is a wild, a plant that grows in the wild.

[00:21:23] Jill: Essentially a plant that grows on its own in the wild without any sort of care or support by, by human. So in pulling that word for our name, we felt it was such a strong, powerful, and being my background with herbalism. Plants that grow wild are so much more potent in their nutrient density, in their ability to survive.

[00:21:49] Jill: And they grow in areas that suit them, that, that are, you know, advantageous for their survival. And so it just, it as a metaphor, it felt very powerful to, you know, have a name that was, we're working with wild plants. We work with wild plants in our products. We work with all natural, organically harvested.

[00:22:09] Jill: but it's also for people in their own right, in the way that they live, to live in this way. They're living in their best environment, an environment where they thrive. Mm-hmm. and supports them and that they can. , they're most potent and they're most vibrant in that space. And so that's really beyond just being a plant that grows in the wild.

[00:22:28] Jill: It's something so much more powerful. So that was kind of the idea.

[00:22:32] Meghan: I love that Wildling is my metaphor for my whole 2023. Like grow where you're planted, , yes, be the best version of you, no matter what your surroundings are.

[00:22:41] Gianna: I love it. That's so cool. 

[00:22:43] Meghan: Yeah. Ah. Oh my gosh. I love it. Okay, Ms. Gua sha queen Gianna, tell us about the rituals and then some of those like product and brand offering.

[00:22:51] Gianna: Yeah, so as Jill mentioned, we launched with our Facial Gua sha collection, the Empress Collection, and it's a three part system that's really designed to lift plump tone, sculpt, and brighten the. and we have our Empress Sweet Fern Hydro Soth face mask to prep the skin. It almost like preps the skin to absorb the oil and it also activates the lymphatic system.

[00:23:16] Gianna: And then we go in and apply our wild harvested wildcrafted empress balm of Gilead Berry repair oil. And then we have our patented Bien Stone Empress Stone. that is really created and tested for all of the two years that we were developing the brand to really be like the best possible tool to use on your face.

[00:23:44] Gianna: And so that was our flagship and continues to be our best seller. I think that our stone has gotten so much attention and people love it, and I think that our products have been in the shadow. We hope to be really bringing them out of that because they are equally incredible. Our empress balm of Gilead Berry repair oil, for example, is, you know, has many wild forged ingredients in it, and it's steeped and created for over two months with wild, whole fresh plants as opposed to extracts.

[00:24:17] Gianna: And then we also go that extra step to infuse it under the light of the full moon with sunstone to. Vibrational healing and positive mindset. So it's really high vibration skincare all the way through. And all of the products that Jill put together, you know, to support the, the stone rituals really, really are very intentional to, again, like support that act of lifting, plumping, toning the skin, right?

[00:24:45] Gianna: So that our second collection was for body. I, I come. A background in teaching yoga and obviously like being a body worker and being an acupuncturist and my first love of Gua sha was on the body. It's really good for overall he health and wellness and healing, but also has these benefits for beauty for the same reason of encouraging chi and blood flow and promoting overall health in the tissues.

[00:25:09] Gianna: So it's the Aura body collection combines dry brush. Um, a beautiful activator and a beautiful oil. And then our patented aura, body stone, all of which are great for really like, for cellulite, for smoothing, toning, sculpting, tightening the skin by promoting overall health and wellness, as well as lymphatic drainage.

[00:25:32] Gianna: So it's a really incredible collection that makes you feel like you've worked out. Even if you haven't, it really energizes the. And it also wakes you up. It's incredibly energizing and so it, yes, all of these rituals are very much feelgood rituals. So we kind of loop people in with like the beauty benefits that they stay around because they love the way that it makes them feel.

[00:25:54] Gianna: So we're really offering this opportunity for a timeout. So you mentioned our cupping collection. Our lumen cupping collection has been our third collection. All of our products are also sold individually, but kind of launched with collections up until. And our, our cupping collection is really targeted towards breakout prone skin, and cupping has many, many of the same benefits as facial Gua sha, but a different action.

[00:26:22] Gianna: The cupping, all of which are also very gentle on the face, I should say, is really good at promoting lymphatic drainage to deep puff and sculpt and actively plump the skin. And also because of that like suction, it really um, detoxes the skin. It's great for breakup prone skin. That collection also includes our lumen sea buck thorn brightening oil, which has tons of naturally occurring vitamin C, it's like an orange vitamin C drenched sea buckthorne oil.

[00:26:54] Gianna: That's very incredible. In addition to our lumen white jade lumen mushroom, which is cools the skin. Actively pulls toxicity out of the skin. So again, this one is like a slightly different action to our facial Gua sha collection. It feels so good. All of them feel so good. There's definitely something for everyone.

[00:27:15] Gianna: And our oils are also like not to be missed. They're so delicious. And we also recently just launched our new scalp stone as kind of an extension of the Empress collection in order to like promote healthy hair. And also lift the skin of the face. It has all of these lifting benefits, all of these acupuncture points and meridians on the scalp that we felt like were being neglected just by virtue of the fact that it's more cHouleenging to Gua sha over hair.

[00:27:42] Gianna: We also love to use the empress palm of Gilead berry repair oil on the scalp itself. Obviously, like this is an extension of the skin of your face, so that's like, yeah, yeah. No, it's, yeah, that's our like collections in a nutshell.

[00:27:56] Meghan: I mean, I'm trying not to go on the internet right now and buy the rest of the things that I don't have.

[00:28:01] Meghan: What a beautiful, luxurious explanation. Thank you for going through all of that, and the efficacy of these products are incredible. I'm grateful for the ability to go do facials and wanna to have something effective and accessible to do at home and not have to go out to the spa and have something a little more natural.

[00:28:20] Meghan: I used to do a lot of HydraFacials and those things are fine, but to pull and tug and whatnot. I actually had a massive jaw surgery a few years ago as well where I wish I had the washe stone to help release like tension. And I learned a little bit about the lymphotic drainage through some of the hydro things that I was doing, but.

[00:28:38] Meghan: I love the, the cupping and everything and combination. It really does change your skin over time. Like anything with a ritual, and I know you guys have some really fun things you do on the website of like 21 days of Gua shas, of just starting the habit and then keeping up with it. I think the results are pretty incredible.

[00:28:53] Meghan: So you're doing a lot of things right. I love it. Thank you for going through all of that.

[00:28:59] Gianna: We're so honored that you love the products and that you have found them effective. We too are just always like blown away. People's shares and obviously we believe in them so wholeheartedly. So thank you for that.

[00:29:11] Gianna: Of course. 

[00:29:12] Meghan: So how is Wildling different than what you thought it would be starting out, and is there anything you all wish that you did differently? 

[00:29:20] Gianna: Oh my gosh, interesting question. So many things. I mean, so many things. I think that there's so much wisdom that happened. As you go through the process of making mistakes, and also I'm grateful for every mistake that we've made.

[00:29:32] Gianna: It's one thing that I think comes up right away is just like we were very easily talking about the magic of our stones, and I think sometimes our oils were like standing in the shadow, so figuring out more exciting ways too. Talk about them and really give them the spotlight is one thing that I think about often because of how much love and care and wisdom has gone into them and are tonics as well.

[00:29:59] Gianna: But that's one thing that comes up top of mind, and for the people who really use them, the feedback that I get is such a good reflection that. It's something that we should be talking about a lot more. 

[00:30:11] Meghan: Yeah, and I think it's really helpful putting things out in tutorials and of course we'll have all the links in the podcast episode button. You or others do it or other humans clients. I'm not sure how you curate who you bring on, but it's nice to see other people using them and the ease of using it. Cause I think that it's so easily where people sway or like that's too hard. Or , I was like brushing your teeth. Everyone just make it a part of your daily hygiene virtual in general, and you can fit it in.

[00:30:37] Meghan: You make it really easy too. Lots more to do it sea. But is there anything else that stands out for you, Joel? Do you feel like the business is where you thought it would be kicking off? Or has anything surprised you or wish you'd done differently?

[00:30:50] Jill: I mean, I think I just, I didn't have like a clear. I feel like it's just kind of one of those, it's almost like raising a child.

[00:30:58] Jill: Like you know that you're gonna like, you want this and you love it and you're passionate, but you don't totally know . Like you just don't totally know how it's gonna evolve. Yeah, completely. And so I think that that's kind of how it's been for me with Wildling is having a pretty clear idea, but I never was completely like, this is where it's gonna be at this point, and this is where it's gonna be at that point.

[00:31:19] Jill: So I don't feel like it's totally off base from what I ever envisioned. At all. I just think it's like one of those evolving things. Mm-hmm. where you kind of just like shift where you feel like we need to shift or continue where we need to continue. And that's kind of what I think we've been really good at doing.

[00:31:37] Jill: And like Gianna has mentioned, like making the mistakes is part of. The learning that like really helps you become more wise in what you're doing. So I'm proud of us. We've bootstrapped the business today and it's like cHouleenging but it's also like makes you run a business that's really productive and everything that you do.

[00:31:55] Jill: So that's been been part of the strategy. And it also is harder to go huge right out of the gate cuz you just don't have all the funds to do that. So, yeah. So it's. It's kind of just been . Yeah, I would say that. And then, yeah. You know, I would say like it's a totally, yeah, it's just a totally different thing.

[00:32:14] Jill: Like if you were to raise money initially and launch a business versus the way we did it, I feel like the expectations would be totally different. So yeah, feeling more like it's just totally ours and we're primarily D to C at this point, that we just really own it so. 

[00:32:29] Meghan: I love that. And also too, given you both have various other life commitments, kids, hobbies, et cetera, in a world of go, go, go.

[00:32:37] Meghan: I always love to ask this question. How do you find balance and joy and release the feeling of having to be on 24 7 as business owners? 

[00:32:46] Jill: I mean, for me it's really, I continue with my own personal self care. Mm-hmm. and I run outside and hike and do yoga. And spend time with my kids and you know, I don't have any help with my kids.

[00:33:00] Jill: I'm there for them and that's important for me. And so, you know, I do all of that as well. And that's fulfilling to me separately. And then Wildling is I'm like I've mentioned several times, so passionate about that. It doesn't really feel. like work to me. It's just like something that I really care deeply about.

[00:33:17] Jill: So it's, it's fun and enjoyable as well, even though it can be a lot and stressful at times, but so is life, right? Yeah. So yeah, so that's for me, I try to keep balanced with self-care and that sort of thing, and time with family. 

[00:33:30] Meghan: Yeah. How about you, Jill? How do you balance and find joy? 

[00:33:34] Gianna: You know, I think that that's something that I'm very much struggling with every day is how to find the balance and I.

[00:33:41] Gianna: Some days I feel like I really nail it. And I think the biggest thing that it comes back to is practicing. I have like a huge background in yoga and meditation and I can't say that I'm like great at doing those things every day, but I'm, I'm constantly striving to do my best and because I have been in places where I've been really bounced in my life, like before kids and before Wildling, before all of those.

[00:34:08] Gianna: Just try to really notice when I'm going out of balance and come back to the things that, that really work, which is like, you know, as basic as drinking water and eating healthy food and trying to do those simple thing moment to moment that really help ground me over the course of the day. And it's just cumulatively helped, but I can't say I have it all figured out.

[00:34:30] Gianna: I don't know if, if any of us ever Yeah. Reached that. Just noticing more acutely when I'm off. 

[00:34:37] Meghan: Yep. Well, at the end of the day, it's about taking care of ourselves, getting outside, knowing work is always gonna be there. But I think bottom line too, when you're doing something you really love, as you said, Jill doesn't necessarily feel like work.

[00:34:50] Meghan: And I think that's kind of that pivotal moment. And kind of leads into my next question and then we'll wrap things up here. For a lot of listeners sitting in, you know, having the Sunday scary or you know, like dreading the weeks ahead and trying to take care of themselves. But you know, there's still a lot of like stress and anxiety maybe when you're working in a job or something that's not really serving you.

[00:35:13] Meghan: Any words of advice for someone out there looking to career pivot or wanting to build their own business, especially someone in a job right now that's no longer serving them. 

[00:35:22] Jill: I mean, I think it is so hard. It's so hard. I worked for, like I said, I worked for companies for like 20 years and obviously added so much value to me as a professional.

[00:35:36] Jill: But there was a point where I was like, I don't wanna work for, it doesn't matter who I'm working for, I just don't wanna work for anybody anymore. So there was always the job shifts. That for me, came relatively easily. Yeah, just like interviewing with another company, I was usually able to get another position if I desired, but when it came to switching from working for a company versus working for myself, that was like a really big shift financially.

[00:35:59] Jill: So for me it was really just like kind of like manifesting and knowing that that was something that I wanted throughout my path in my career. I was always trying to do little, small, you know, independent type business stuff that I could do that wasn't competing with my current job. And so just getting my hands in, in like having my own thing and like I continued to do that.

[00:36:23] Jill: Which I think was really helpful. And even if it was just small and totally like nothing crazy, but it was just getting the experience of like getting out there and putting myself out there. And so I think that was really helpful. And then just manifesting and like waiting for that moment where we explained earlier and our time together today was just like that moment where it was like, okay, like this is it.

[00:36:42] Jill: And for me it was like I was, I had kids and it was like this transitional time for me anyhow, that it worked out. So I think it's a combination for me of things of like just. . You know, if you're at a job and you're not stoked on continuing to be there, and you feel like, for me, I felt like it was like I need to totally shift my path in life.

[00:37:00] Jill: Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. like this is no longer my trajectory. So for me it was like a major, major shift. Like it felt like kind of gnarly . Like I went from like working for companies to like, Having a baby, getting married, like starting my own. I mean, it was like a total change of life. But I think in general, it's just like if you wanna shift jobs, like it's just about getting yourself back opened up to it.

[00:37:22] Jill: Like open yourself up to the idea, like open, start telling people about it, start talking about it, put it out there. Just put it out there and let yourself be open. And then if stuff starts to come in, you know, raise it up to your consciousness. Be positive about it. If it's finding just another job from where you are now, you know, obviously you have to go out and seek, you know, working with somebody else.

[00:37:43] Jill: But that definitely can come to you. And like you had said as well, like show up at events, like you never know you're gonna meet like, and that kind of stuff and people can help you along your journey for sure. So, yeah. 

[00:37:53] Meghan: Oh, such great advice. And I always say, no one's gonna know what you are looking to do unless you tell them.

[00:37:58] Meghan: You got weirded out there, 

[00:37:59] Jill: start raising your voice and it's almost, yeah, it's almost like just saying it out loud. Yes. Even if no one's around it like makes it more real. Like, okay, this is gonna happen for me. You know? So it's really, and then starting to tell people about it and like I said, just getting myself out there in whatever shape that looked like, but just trying to like push my way in that direction.

[00:38:20] Meghan: Thank you for that. Yeah. Well, and as we wrap up, what are you both most excited for looking into the future of Wildling and what's the best way our listeners, like, how can we find you?

[00:38:31] Jill: Well, I'm super excited about our 2023. We have such an amazing, exciting lineup of stuff coming out and some big changes and shifts that wild.

[00:38:44] Jill: Growing into its toddler years, and we're just super excited about next year. And then I would say as far to find us, you can find us at Wildling, w i l d, wild l i n g Wildling.com. , and that's our website and you can find us on social at Wildling underscore beauty for Instagram and TikTok and YouTube.

[00:39:06] Jill: We're all over all the social channels. 

[00:39:08] Meghan: Gianna, how about you? Are you excited to continue on in the creative side, in developing platforms and marketing? Anything else you're looking forward to? 

[00:39:16] Gianna: Yeah, I think, as Jill said, we've, we've put so much energy this year into 2023. It's been like a real coming of age for us.

[00:39:26] Gianna: Really like looking into how the brand is growing and like who we're becoming, and it truly feels like the teenage years all over again. Really like coming into who we are, and so I'm really excited to see how that's received because we've been in a think tank with it and then putting it out to our customers and our community.

[00:39:48] Gianna: Feels like this, like big unveiling. I feel like we've been living in 2023 for some time now. Yeah. As far as like where we've been visioning for Wildling. So I'm just so excited to see it come to life. 

[00:39:59] Meghan: Yeah. And I think in this day and age too, this beauty space is like this fast moving rocket ship and we all.

[00:40:07] Meghan: Just individuals always wanna look good and feel good , and I don't know, for me it's the vanity. I'm like, heck yeah, I'm keeping up this look even at my age, . So I'm gonna have products and accessible products and products that are cleaned and come from plants and cosmos and stones. It's, I can't wait to see what the future holds.

[00:40:24] Meghan: So Jill and Gianna, thank you so much for being on the podcast. I am literally ready to sign off and go and do all my rituals. the top whole state tune there. And you know, I'm just so impressed with your personal career sTorrees. The pivots and the meetings and the passions that you've had for all that you're doing, and for those listening in, please go and check out Wild Links products and maybe change up your own beauty rituals.

[00:40:46] Meghan: And I'm really looking forward to see. all there is to come for you and Wildling and I don't know, I feel like I need to just get out to LA and I feel like a beauty wellness event collab is in our future. Okay. Deal . Absolutely. We would love that. Business. Beauty. Oh my gosh. Okay, so more on that but, and I'll just come and hang out with you or in general if you guys will allow it.

[00:41:08] Meghan: So if you need a product tester, gimme a call. But . Well thank you so much again for sharing your advice and wisdom. And we can't wait to see all the success there to come. 

[00:41:18] Gianna: Thank you for having us. 

[00:41:19] Jill: Aw, thank you so much. Thank you. Yeah, thanks for having us. Really, really. Pivot with Purpose with Host Meghan Houle is a Fashion Consort production, and part of the FC Podcast network.

[00:41:33] Jill: It is produced and directed by Phil aka a Corin, and a special thank you to Spencer Powell for our theme music. Learn more at pivot with purpose podcast com and be sure to follow us on Instagram PivotwithPurpose_podcast.