Today I sat down with the founder of Elemental Wellness Shop, a handcrafted wellness brand built on skincare, herbal remedies, aromatherapy, teas and tinctures.
Rebecca Paisley, the founder of Elemental Wellness Shop, holds a Bachelor’s in Alternative Medicine and a Master’s in Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine. She built the company after getting sober and rebuilding a relationship with the body through food, herbs and holistic health.
What started as a single bar of soap has grown into a full catalog sold on the brand’s own site, through Walmart and Amazon, and across a network of independent wellness retailers.
A Business Born From Recovery
Tauras: Was Elemental Wellness Shop a personal project, a product idea, or a bigger mission from the start?
Rebecca Paisley (the Founder of Elemental Wellness Shop): It started as I began aligning my own life with nature’s rhythms and found a big gap in the products available. After years of neglecting my body and being trapped in active addiction, when I got sober I began growing my own food and being very conscious of what I was putting in and on my body. I quickly found not all products are created equally. I wanted to share how nature can heal the body, and provide others with products that truly use nature the way it was intended.
The product range began as a simple bar of soap. From there it expanded into personal hygiene and herbal remedies, eventually evolving into full wellness programs.
Letting Customers Decide What Gets Made Next
Tauras: How do you decide what product launches next?
Rebecca Paisley: Oftentimes we poll our current customer base and social media following to decide what’s next on the list. If I find myself making the same custom blend for private coaching clients over and over, I eventually turn it into a product for everyone to have access to.
Trust Built on Reviews and Credentials, Not Claims
Tauras: Wellness ecommerce is full of big claims. How do you build trust without overpromising?
Rebecca Paisley: We rely heavily on our customers’ reviews and feedback, as well as my educational background, a Bachelor’s in Alternative Medicine and a Master’s in Ayurveda and Integrative Medicine. So many buyers no longer trust what a company puts out as proof of concept. They rely on other customers’ feedback to decide if a product is right for them.
Customers usually come to us already looking for cleaner options that actually work. Most have already tried other brands that didn’t live up to the hype.
Marketplaces as a Discovery Engine
Tauras: Your products are on Walmart.com as well as your own site. How did marketplace distribution become part of the strategy?
Rebecca Paisley: We offer our products on Walmart, Amazon and through our own website. Marketplace distribution became part of the strategy early on, since both Walmart and Amazon act as a great discovery tool, putting our products in front of thousands more people each month. Our biggest growth channels currently are organic search and wholesale accounts.
A Flagship Product Does the Heavy Lifting
Tauras: Which products bring in first-time customers, and which bring them back?
Rebecca Paisley: Our probiotic soaps are our flagship product, so these tend to be what bring first-time customers in, along with our probiotic deodorant. More than half of our business is repeat customers coming back to repurchase these two products.
Staying Small-Batch on Purpose
Tauras: How do you decide whether a product stays small-batch or becomes a bigger part of the catalog?
Rebecca Paisley: Every product in the entire catalog is small-batch, and I intend to keep it that way for the foreseeable future. Some products continue to grow, so larger batches are made, but it’s still done entirely by hand every step of the way.
Becoming Everything, Then Learning to Delegate
Tauras: What has been harder than expected about running a wellness ecommerce brand?
Rebecca Paisley: The hardest part has been the start-up of everything. You quickly realize you become the product manufacturer, marketer, customer service rep, and everything else in between. As the company grows, deciding what to delegate to other employees and contractors becomes a challenge.
The Mistake of Hiring Before the Foundation Was Set
Tauras: What’s one mistake other founders could learn from?
Rebecca Paisley: Hiring a marketing agency before the foundations were set was probably the biggest mistake. They don’t know your brand or its values as well as you do, and if you haven’t nailed down your brand guidelines, messaging and audience, they tend to do a less than stellar job helping you grow.
What’s Next for Elemental Wellness Shop
Tauras: What’s next?
Rebecca Paisley: We intend to keep growing, expanding our wholesale accounts, and making an impact in our local community with hands-on herbal workshops. Only God knows what the future holds, but we have faith that more people will keep turning to natural remedies and toxin-free options to find true balance in their body and mind.
The biggest lesson from this whole journey has been to enjoy the ride. Don’t ever forget your why for starting the business, because it will carry you through even the toughest days.
Conclusion
What stands out from talking to the founder of Elemental Wellness Shop is how directly the product line traces back to a personal recovery. A brand that still makes everything small-batch, by hand, even as it grows into Walmart and Amazon.
Elemental Wellness Shop sells soap, tinctures and teas, but the deeper product is a formula for coming back to balance, one the founder had to find first.
You can find out more about Elemental Wellness Shop at elementalwellnessshop.com or at:
https://www.tiktok.com/@elementalwellnessshop
https://www.instagram.com/elementalwellnessshop
https://www.facebook.com/elementalwellnessshop
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