Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff, in Business or in Love–This Founder’s Story is Proof that What’s Meant to be Will Always Find a Way
Because business is personal.
Donda Mullis knows a thing or two about putting your heart into your business. People say business isn’t personal, but she believes it absolutely is, as it is the connections and relationships that we have that makes it all happen. Love is not only the foundation of her company, but an agent for meaningful change, and an ongoing narrative of a shared passion with her partner in both business and life, Ronnie Shugar.
“We wanted to create an aspirational brand that made people feel better inside and out. And a brand with a heart that connected us with a cause which became the catalyst for our give back mission,” Mullis tells Create & Cultivate.
The result is one of today's fastest-growing natural lifestyle brands, Raw Sugar Living. Based in Florida , Raw Sugar Living is a brand on a mission to promote clean and healthy living through products that are good for the body and nourish the soul, while being accessible for all.
An early disruptor within the clean beauty and personal care category, Raw Sugar Living has been driving much-needed innovation in a new era of sustainability supported by a growing consumer awareness around buying choices and their impact on the environment. In fact, clean beauty is one of the fastest-growing areas of personal care and Raw Sugar Living remains at the forefront of the $22 billion industry. For more than seven years, the company mainstreams the highest-quality, hand-crafted soaps and personal care products that are made with plant-derived ingredients and cold pressed extracts (recognized by their signature 'Bamboo Tops & White Bottles' and 'Living Purely Unfiltered' tagline).
Mullis and Shugar first met many years back while working in the same retail field. While they had different focuses at the time, their diverse backgrounds––Shugar’s in manufacturing and logistics and Mullis’s in marketing, strategic partnerships and retail distribution––were a powerful synergy in the making. Their plan was always to do something bigger — together — that would inspire and connect their backgrounds with a meaningful cause. The two fell crazy in love, but eventually parted ways as young love often does.
Fast forward 20 years — the two reconnected by an act of destiny’s intervention. They renewed their love and their shared belief of wanting to inspire others to live from a place of self-love and wellness. For both of them, it was about sharing their passion for clean and healthy living while preserving a 60-year family history of making natural hand crafted natural soap and personal care products that are good for the body and that nourish the soul- and that people can feel good about using.
The latest addition to the Raw Sugar Living family meets the growing demand for planet-friendly, sustainable, and aluminum-free deodorant–one that ACTUALLY works. After all, one of the many lessons to take away from these founders’ story, is not to sweat the small stuff–in business or in love–because what is meant to be will always find its way.
Ahead, Mullis tells us more about the latest launch, and shares her advice for building a brand that is for the people, adopting a clean lifestyle and beauty regime, and utilizing entrepreneurship as an agent of change.
Our mission is to love from the inside out. We embrace individuality and create with authenticity.
– Donda Mullis, Co-Founder and CMO, Raw Sugar Living
What inspired you to start Raw Sugar Living?
What inspired us was the white space in the marketplace for natural/clean products that were simply affordable, thereby making clean healthy products more accessible to all. Because, as I always say, we all deserve to feel beautiful and love the skin we’re in. For me, it was to create a brand that was much more than products sitting on a retail shelf, but rather an aspirational brand that inspires people to live from a powerful place of self love, wellness, empowering others, and loving ourselves, flaws and all. And very importantly, creating real change in our community. In fact, every product is tagged with a ‘sugar note’, kind of like a love note with a positive message that reminds us to simply love ourselves.
Developing a brand that is for all people. We embrace individuality and create with authenticity. We’re all about clean living and living clean. All of our premium yet affordable formulas are made with integrity. We believe in giving back, lifting spirits, showering people with love, and of course smelling good at all times!
We are a brand that does good.
How has this belief helped to underpin your mission as a brand?
To date we have donated over 15 million bars of soap and personal essentials to people in need, and we’re just getting started.
Products that are made with plant-derived and clean ingredients should be accessible to everybody. We’re thrilled that we’ve been able to give access to clean healthy products to those in need.
What would you tell someone who’s new to adopting a clean lifestyle and beauty regime ––where should they start and what people should look out for when choosing a clean beauty or lifestyle product?
Advocacy, a brand you can trust, one that stands for good, makes clean ethical products, and simply makes you feel beautiful.
What are some common misconceptions of clean beauty?
That clean products are expensive – clean, healthy products don’t need to be expensive.
What are some of your favorite Raw Sugar Living products to integrate into your daily routine?
Personally, my top three products that we’ve created include our Body Washes, Sugar Scrubs, and sustainable Deodorants. They are crafted with functional ingredients without the bad stuff.
What do you love most about your job and why? Does the reality of your career match up to your expectations? Why or why not?
My work is my life and my passion. My vision was to create a brand that had meaning beyond the retail self, stood for good, continues to give back, and makes clean healthy living affordable to everyone–Raw Sugar Living has exceeded my expectations.
My greatest tool is the ability to understand our consumers. Raw sugar has become a brand that speaks to everyone. This is what we wanted and are excited to continue growing. I’ve seen hundreds of brands come and go, and although Raw Sugar Living was born only 7 short years ago, it has truly been a lifetime in the making.
We always say we’re only as beautiful as we feel, and you can’t feel beautiful if you don’t feel clean.
Going after what you deserve in life takes confidence. Does confidence come naturally to you or did you have to learn it? What advice can you share for women on cultivating confidence and going after their dreams?
With pure grit, hard work and determination, we can become anything that we want. I’m the youngest of 5 girls with a strong southern mother who survived and thrived through constant tragedy and adversity. I became a human sponge for all of their mishaps and lessons. Love, positive thinking and reward for hard work was the core of our upbringing. I was brought up with retail in my blood beginning with my mother, and my biggest inspiration, who is a self taught, hard working and determined role model who carved out a new retail niche within a male-dominated industry and was way ahead of her time. Whether you think you can, or you cannot - you are right! Confidence is fearless repetition–and like most things in life, I believe it is learned.
It's these life experiences that helped create my vision for the company and the lesson learned–the brand pillars of raw sugar’s values.
You have to get through the ‘raw’ and difficult journey to get to the sweet ‘sugar’ destination–hence Raw Sugar Living
With success comes opportunity, but that also means you have your hands full. What keeps you inspired and motivated to keep going even on your most challenging days?
Our customers are our driving force. seeing how our products can inspire and make others happy is truly what keeps us going!
Also, being supported by an amazing internal team that champions our success is very important to our inspiration and motivation.
You are constantly innovating—What category of beauty would you love to see Raw Sugar Living disrupt next?
I’m really excited about our latest launch – a collection of planet-friendly and aluminum-free deodorants. Not only is the collection wrapped in 100% biodegradable and recyclable, plastic-free packaging, but it is made with naturally derived ingredients, clinically and allergy tested, cruelty-free and vegan.
Raw Sugar Deodorants are free of aluminum, baking soda, talc, parabens and propylene glycol. They are also infused with odor-fighting essential oils and feel-fresh fragrances. These formulas are designed to detox and balance the natural skin barrier while reducing body odor-causing bacterial growth, helping you live clean and move free.
Share your best advice, in two words or less.
“Kindly Relentless”
SHOP THE FOUNDER’S FAVORITES
RAW SUGAR LIVING
Green Tea + Cucumber + Aloe Vera Body Wash
$9.99
RAW SUGAR LIVING
Watermelon + Fresh Mint
Sugar Scrub
$15.39
RAW SUGAR LIVING
Vanilla Bean + Charcoal
Deodorant
$8.24
I Left a Steady Paycheck at Estée Lauder to Start My Own Clean Beauty Brand
From Estee Lauder to entrepreneur.
We know how daunting it can be to start a new business, especially if you’re disrupting an industry or creating an entirely new one. When there is no path to follow, the biggest question is, where do I start? There is so much to do but before you get ahead of yourself, let’s start at the beginning. To kickstart the process (and ease some of those first-time founder nerves) we’re asking successful entrepreneurs to share their story in our new series, From Scratch. But this isn’t your typical day in the life. We’re getting down to the nitty gritty from writing a business plan (or not) to sourcing manufacturers and how much they pay themselves, we’re not holding back. If you want to know how to start a business, you’ve come to the right place.
Saie founder, Laney Crowell founded her beauty brand after years in the beauty and wellness industry.
Photo: Courtesy of Saie Beauty
Everybody has a different definition of success. For Saie founder Laney Crowell, it’s not about reaching the top—she did that already and turned back around. No, for Crowell it’s about integrity and putting something out into the world that she believes in (and contributes to the betterment of others).
After realizing that her job at one of the biggest beauty companies in the world, Estee Lauder didn’t fulfill her, Crowell quit and embarked on a personal quest to figure out what was missing. It was during that time that she discovered the lack of clean beauty brands that positioned their ethics and quality with the same degree of emphasis as style—so she decided to fill the whitespace herself.
After finding support from her online blogging community, Crowell began building a beauty brand founded on the values of transparency. All of Saie’s products use ethically-sourced ingredients, are free from toxic chemicals, with packaging and branding that aligns with a luxury brand.
Ahead, Crowell with long-time friend and Saie’s Creative Director, Geri Hirsch give us a peek inside their world of clean beauty, the importance of having brainstorming sessions, creating a strong team, and playing off of your strengths.
We Relied On Our Gut Over a Business Plan
LANEY CROWELL: “I didn’t write a business plan per se. I worked really hard on my pitch deck (it took months) and then our CFO did projections and modeling.”
GERI: “I’ve always been the type of person who acts on their gut. In all of my businesses, that’s what is my guiding light. I did see Laney’s investor deck, but really what swayed me was that I’m very, very familiar with the clean beauty landscape and I knew there was an opportunity.”
Our Community Helped to Inform the Brand Name
LANEY: “The name Saie came about through the lengthy conversations I had with our branding agency in the really early days of building the brand. We kept going back to the first conversation I had with my community where they were saying what they wanted out of a clean beauty brand. We put the ie on Say to make it more feminine and french to represent the je ne saie quoi look. We wanted it to be unique and fun, and timeless, and when we created Saie we knew it was the one.”
GERI: “Besides the sound of the word, what I liked about the name is how beautiful it looks written. It looks classic but elevated.”
“Starting a business is really intense—it can be a bit isolating—so find the people that matter to you and that you trust.”
We Went in With a Clear Vision to Understand Our Saie Woman
GERI: “Laney and I talked a lot about who the Saie woman is. Laney had some thoughts about it and could speak to the emotion, but didn’t have any of the visuals. So I spent weeks really focused on defining this woman. She’s strong, smart, creative, minimalist, on the go, thoughtful and mindful. I pulled tons of imagery to tell this story. Those initial boards I created are the same ones we go back to now when we’re producing photo and video shoots. It’s also really important to have a consistent team so you can have a clear vision. I worked on pulling together the dream team for our shoots, everyone from the photographer to the stylist to the hair and makeup.”
I Hired the Experts Right From the Start
LANEY: “The most immediate things I did with my lawyer. He helped me register for the company, incorporate, etc. It’s my least favorite part of building a company, but super important. I also worked with my accountant to open our business bank account and get all those ducks in a row. I used my accountant until we graduated to working with a bigger agency—QuickBooks is a must.”
“Our product developer Sarah already knew all of the labs that she wanted us to work with. That part was pretty seamless for us and we never could have done it without her! Because of her relationships, we’re able to work with labs that are usually reserved for the luxury giants.
“Our team now consists of myself and Geri, Sarah our head of product development, Tina our CFO, Hanna who is in charge of the supply chain, operations and sustainability, Cece who is our all hands on deck assistant coordinator, and many, many agencies.”
I Did the Research to Understand Our Market
GERI: “I’ve basically been conducting research about all things wellness for years now. From Leaftv’s content, the wellness boxes we created, my blog’s clean beauty content, all of the conversations I’ve been having with my followers over DM. I see it as a form of high-level consumer research you could never pay for.”
LANEY: “I think research is really important. I came to the table with a lot through my website because I get sent so, so many products. I knew the landscape. And honestly, the clean market while fragmented is pretty small. Also, it’s important to note that I come from big beauty and so does our product developer and CFO. So we have a lot of experience in the space!”
I Self-Funded Before Raising Money
LANEY: “I actually sold some stock that I had from Estée Lauder to start the company—it was $32,000. I used that money to start our branding which needed to be done before I could fundraise (it’s a tricky chicken and the egg situation). I then used that branding to create my investor deck and raise our seed round. We haven’t paid ourselves yet—soon hopefully!”
Photo: Courtesy of Saie Beauty
Fundraising Was My Biggest Learning Curve
LANEY: “Wow, where to begin. For me, it was probably fundraising. I had never done it before so I had to teach myself what all the terms meant, what the process was and I started from square one in terms of contacts. Fundraising is definitely not for the faint of heart.”
We Launched as DTC But Retail Was Always Part of the Strategy
LANEY: “We always knew that we would be primarily direct-to-consumer, so we didn’t have a lot of retail conversations. Goop was the first retailer we spoke with and they immediately said that they wanted to carry Saie. We are online and in all of their retail locations. That was a special moment when we got that call since they were really our first (and only) choice.”
GERI: “I’m lucky in that I have a handful of very successful friends (like Lauren Gores) who I was able to talk to about retail. One of my pieces of advice for new brands is to ask around, make calls, get references. You can learn a lot from other people’s experiences and usually, people are more than willing to share.”
“Just start! Getting going is the hardest part but if you never try, you’ll never know.”
Marketing Was the Biggest Part of Our Launch Strategy
LANEY: “My background is in marketing and content so I had a lot of thoughts on what I wanted our launch to look like. Since we’re primarily direct-to-consumer our marketing is a huge, if not the biggest, part of our strategy. Our PR agency is also amazing and did a great job of getting the initial press, which is really difficult for new brands.”
GERI: “I’ve been blogging and creating content since 2005—really that is marketing. It’s all about telling a story through visuals, which I have a lot of experience in. And on top of that, I know a lot of people in the industry so we were able to send it to hundreds of influential people to help create buzz.”
Starting a Business Is Intense So My Support Network Was Crucial
LANEY: “Find the people that matter to you and that you trust. Starting a business is really intense, and it can be a bit isolating. You don’t have time to update friends and family on things because they change and move so fast, but you still need the support. I have a core group on speed dial who knew the in’s and out’s as I was raising money, and going towards launch. Their support was critical.”
I Realized Early On That Comfort Equals Productivity
LANEY: “Get a comfortable place to work. It feels like an annoying thing to spend money on, but if you’re comfortable and have space you are so much more effective and productive.”
Don’t Hesitate, Just Start
GERI: “I’ve started a handful of business now and my advice is simple: start. Getting going is the hardest part but if you never try, you’ll never know.”
To discover more about this new clean beauty brand, visit saiehello.com.
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