The Unexpected Power of Growing Slowly

Welcome back to Tea Time with Erin, where we share honest conversations about entrepreneurship, money, mental health, and the stories that shape the way we build our businesses and lives.

In this episode, Erin sits down with Caroline Hogue, founder of Bygone Botanicals, for a conversation about entrepreneurship, motherhood, homeschooling, community, and building a business that aligns with your values.

Caroline shares her journey from launching a wellness-focused Instagram account to creating Bygone Botanicals, a botanical skincare company inspired by her love of plants, aromatherapy, and family traditions. Along the way, she opens up about moving her family across the country, rebuilding community, homeschooling four children, and growing a business in a season where family remains her highest priority.

Together, Erin and Caroline explore the realities of slow business growth, the pressure many entrepreneurs feel to scale quickly, the importance of asking for help, and what it looks like to build a business that supports your life instead of competing with it.

In This Episode, You'll Hear:

• How Caroline's move from Kansas City to Michigan impacted her family and business
• The story behind Bygone Botanicals and how the business evolved over time
• Why aromatherapy school helped shape her entrepreneurial journey
• How homeschooling and entrepreneurship coexist in her daily life
• The realities of building a business with limited time and resources
• Why slow growth can be a healthy and intentional business strategy
• The importance of community for women entrepreneurs and mothers
• How social media creates pressure to scale faster than you're ready for
• Why asking for help and outsourcing support isn't a failure
• How Caroline's mother influenced her entrepreneurial mindset
• The role family history and generational beliefs play in business ownership
• Practical advice for pricing handmade products and valuing your work

Key Takeaways

• Building a business slowly doesn't mean you're falling behind.
• Entrepreneurship doesn't have to come at the expense of your family.
• Community and support systems are essential for sustainable business growth.
• Childhood experiences and family influences often shape how we approach business and money.
• Asking for help allows you to focus on the things that matter most.
• Success looks different in every season of life.

Learn More About Caroline

Website: http://BygoneBotanicals.com

Instagram: @‌bygonebotanicals TikTok: @bygonebotanicals

Connect with Erin

Learn more about Erin’s work around money mindset, financial therapy, and building businesses that support your life.

• Book a free financial clarity call with Erin: https://calendar.app.google/bTLBrJFex9KHpFKz9
• Instagram: @‌erinthemoneytherapist

Erin’s Tea for This Episode

Erin is drinking Everyday Doze Mushroom Coffee https://www.everydaydose.com/ERINREECE

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New episodes of Tea Time with Erin drop every other Tuesday, where we share honest conversations about money, mental health, and entrepreneurship.

Grab your drink of choice, take a deep breath, and join us for the next Tea Time.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

You are joining me for a special series of Tea Time with Erin. Over the next several episodes, we're exploring something I get asked about more than anything else: the money beliefs we didn't choose, the ones that were passed down to us through our families, our upbringing, and generations of financial experiences we weren't even alive for. We're gonna trace the thread from Great Depression all the way to the entrepreneur sitting here listening right now. We're gonna talk about what our grandmothers were and weren't allowed to do with money, what our mothers absorbed from watching them, and what we picked up before we were old enough to clock it. This series is for the woman building something new who keeps bumping into old beliefs she can't quite explain. The one who undercharges and doesn't know why, the one who avoids her numbers and feels ashamed, the one who wonders why success still doesn't feel safe. You're not broken, you're carrying something. And this is where we start to look at what that is. So grab your teeth, settle in, and let's do this together.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Hello and welcome to Tea Time with Erin. Today I am joined by my sweet friend Caroline, who is gonna talk to us all about her life and her business. I cannot wait to ask her all the questions about all the things. If you don't follow her online, she is at Vygon Botanicals on Instagram, and she has the most fun content for skincare and kids and all the things. She's always sharing with us her Costco hauls, and I just love all of that. Her Sand's Club hauls. Now I guess you're you've moved from Costco to Sams. All right. Well, Caroline, thank you so much for joining me on the show. Would you please tell us who you are? Tell us about your business, anything you want us to know.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Yes. So yeah, I'm Caroline Hogue. I am married to my best friend Chase. We've got four awesome kids. They are two, five, almost eight, and ten. We homeschool, so we are together time is all the time. And I am very feel very blessed and fortunate to have always been a stay-at-home mom. From day one, it's been my full-time career is being home raising my kids. We are originally from the Kansas City area. We, for the most part, have always been there, but we recently, a year and a half ago, moved to West Michigan. So we're right on Lake Michigan, and so far we we really enjoy it. Um, my husband is a pastor full-time at our church, an associate pastor. And I about three years ago, I guess three and three and a half years ago, started my own company. It's a skincare brand called Bygone Botanicals, and I've been working and building that out of our home for yeah, a few years now. That's been a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_02 2:42

That is so fun. Now I'm trying to think Caroline and I actually have met in real life. We met when you did an intensive with Erica, I think, right? That's how we met. Yeah. And you came to me for tea, which is so funny that you're on the show today. I know. I know when we first met.

SPEAKER_00 3:00

It was my connection to you. I needed the tea. Yep. We needed the tea.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Before we go too much farther, let's talk about your okay, so you're married to your best friend. So fun. Tell us how many kids you have, and let's talk about your move because that's such a big deal that you sort of transplanted your life. So let's talk about the move and you know, what was it like carrying the family in the business through this move? That's question number one. And then how have you kind of settled into your new environment with the business and your family?

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Those are good questions. So yeah, we're a family of six. We've got four kiddos, and yeah, we we homeschool, and that's something we've really always done. All of our kids, for the most part, have gone to preschool for a couple of years, and then we start them at home in kindergarten. And our oldest, I think he was starting kindergarten right when COVID was COVID kind of happened during his second year of preschool. And so it just was this natural transition. I was homeschooled for most of elementary school through middle school, and then went on to high school starting in ninth grade. I loved having that kind of hybrid experience. And I always thought I at least wanted to give it a try, homeschooling my kids. My husband and I, both of our backgrounds are in education. So my husband was in ministry full-time for about a decade, stepped away from that, and uh just needed to do something else for a while. And he was working in the climbing industry, rock climbing. So he worked at a rock climbing gym managing that in our hometown. And then when it was time to find a new job, we we found this gym that was opening up here in West Michigan. And that's what got us here. It was, as far as the business goes, I mean, I really underestimated what kind of a toll that would take. So my business, which I didn't even really describe much of what it is, uh, I mean bygone botanicals, it's my apothecary. It's my skin care, it's body care, it's aromatherapy. It really started as an aromatherapy shop and just kind of organically grew into this. We're now very skincare forward. Um, and it's just been fun for it to evolve. But there was such a in that growing involvement, there was such a gap when we moved because I had a lot of my, you know, customers and clientele with this baby infant business. They were people that I knew. It was people in my community that would, you know, come by my house and pick up my products. I I mean, I ship all over the country, but I mean, a lot of people were just right there in our hometown. And so I, I mean, I had to think through, I mean, not only moving like giant bottles of oil and like all these glass bottles, but I I mean, I had to try to sell off as much as I could and and then think through how to kind of take a sabbatical, really, which is what I did. I'm so glad I did it. Probably should have taken a longer break, but I think I just got antsy and I we moved here. We didn't know anybody. It was winter. We moved here in the winter, which if you know like West Michigan, our winters are long. So we got here in December and we had a full winter ahead of us. So we were just kind of somewhat cooped up. And I just got antsy and I wanted to start, but I'm one of those people that tends to like try to build the plane as I'm flying it. So I just I just jumped back in. And and yeah, I think it moving here had what's been really cool about the transition is that my business really transitioned. I think that time off it gave me time to sit with, okay, like who is this for? Like, what am I doing? Why am I doing it? You know, all those foundational questions, I it really caused me to go back to that. And that's why I wish I took a longer break because I think I I could have sat with it longer. Um but but the beauty of being such a small company and really such a you know, like a cottage brand, like where it's it's all still out of my home, is that my my customers as I evolve, it they just all come along with me. And that's real I think there's something really sweet about that. So yeah, it's a lot of hands-on growing and learning, just learning as we go.

SPEAKER_02 7:25

Yeah. Let's talk about the name because the name was not always bygone botanicals, right? Talk to me about the evolution of the name. And honestly, in that time of sabbatical, did the name start to organically emerge as a new name too? Like, did all that kind of happen at the same time, or was this name always kind of in the back of your mind as like, oh, I want the brand to take on this identity at some point?

SPEAKER_00 7:49

This all really started. I I joke that this product business started accidentally. I wasn't, and I mean, I it wasn't what I was setting out to do at first. So I started with an Instagram profile, and this is after I had our second kid, and I was I was home full-time, and I wanted to start sharing health and wellness content, especially like how to do health and wellness on a budget, because we were a one income ministry income family. And so so I started sharing and I literally my thought was I'm gonna see, I'm gonna try this on. I don't know if I want to really do this. So I made the profile, I snapped a selfie, and I just plucked a name out of my head and I called it Hey There Wellness. And but you know, Instagram, like they serve you up to all your friends and people you might know. And so people started following me. And instead of just ignoring them, which I could have done, uh, just so I could keep practicing, like talking to the camera, keeping it a private account. I just was like, Yeah, come on in. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know what this is. But I just started sharing content and it it grew very slowly. But all the while I had this, I've always been, I think I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit. I think I really get that from my mom. And I just knew like there's something I can do with this. And I want to run with this in some direction, but I'm figuring it out. And so in the midst of growing that account, I went to aromatherapy school. That's where I really I've always had a love for plants, botanicals, herbal medicine, natural remedies. And that's really what bygone botanicals grew out of. But in aromatherapy school, I really got to hone my skills, sit under such an incredible instructor, and really learn about all of these incredible plants. And not only that, but I really got my start in formulation. And so the account really turned into this aromatherapy kind of education space. But um, it was actually that weekend when I was in Knoxville at Ott doing the retreat. That's when Erica and I were really flushing out. Okay, I like I had these skincare products that I made for myself because I was having trouble with my postpartum skin, eczema, like facial eczema, just super dry skin. And financially, I was like, I know enough about plants. Like, I'm not gonna try a bunch of different products. I'm just gonna make it. I'm just gonna make something that works. And she was like, girl, you can sell this. And I don't know if I can. And she said, absolutely you can. And so we fleshed that out. And I came home with a plan to start selling my serum. And it's it's still our best seller today, our Radiance Oil Serum.

SPEAKER_02 10:29

And if you don't have Radiance Oil Serum, go right now. What is it? By Gartonicles.com, go right now and get some. It will change your skin's life. Go right now. Okay, moving on. We'll put a link in the show notes, but please try this serum. If you've tried all of the serums, you haven't tried this one, go get it right now.

SPEAKER_00 10:47

Oh, you're so sweet. Thank you. So yeah, I came home and so the name that I was thinking the skincare was really special. I wanted it to be unique. And so I sat down and thought of a bunch of different names, and I came up with bygone botanicals just for the skincare line. Over time, it just became confusing. I was Hey, there wellness, but Bygone Botanicals was the skincare, but I had other products that were around with therapy under my other name. So eventually I just decided we need to rebrand. It just all needs to be bygone. But bygone botanicals, the name, so bygone means from an old time of old, basically. And bygone botanicals, it's uh it's a botanical apothecary shop, and uh like every ingredient we use are these timeless ingredients that humans have entrusted themselves to for forever. Um, and they've they're proven over history and centuries and different people groups, these things like plant oils and extracts and hydrosols, clays, honey, aloe, beeswax, all of these things have always treated our skin and done what we've needed them to do. And they're they're beautiful and they're natural and they're healthy. We always want to keep the whole body health in mind as we bring ingredients on board. So the botanicals, it's it's mostly plant-based skincare. Beeswax is kind of our one thing. We could claim that we're vegan, except for the beeswax. But I love beeswax, so we keep it. So yeah, it's these old, timeless, proven, effective ingredients that have just been with us forever. And so that's what we build everything around in our in our line, and we'll continue to do that.

SPEAKER_02 12:28

Yeah, I love that. Now, you use all of these products on your kids, right? So you have palms and things like that that you can use on your skin, but they're also totally safe for your kids' skin too. Because even my daughter, who's 11, she uses the oil cleanser, she uses Etherum, she uses the spray. What is the spray? I don't know. We all use the product, but yeah, we love it. So you're using all of this on you and your and your kids, and it's all safe for everyone, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I think that really ties into the identity of the brand, right? So it's not just this thing you're doing as you're running business because you're also so deeply integrated in this business. So I'd love it if you could talk to us about I mean, a lot of the listeners of this show are doing the same thing that you and I are doing, right? We're building this brand around the cornerstones that are our lives, our children's lives, right? That we are working the margins. So talk to me about what an average Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, talk to me about what an average day looks like for you as you're working on building this brand around the lives of your children and what they're doing.

SPEAKER_00 13:38

Oh, absolutely. Yeah. It's tricky with each new baby. You're getting up in the night and getting up early can look different, and going to bed on time can look different. It just every baby's different. And I've always been the type to, I mean, we sleep train later on. I I breastfeed exclusively, so I'm up like, you know, however many times a night I need to be up. But and our last kiddo is actually, he was our most difficult sleeper and the most difficult to wean. But since that has come to pass, uh, I nowadays I'm getting up about 6:30 and I'm I really try to do those things that help set me up well for the day first. So I'm up, I'm reading, I'm in some scripture, I'm reading a little devotional, and I go on a mile walk. Um, I'm not sitting there reading for 30 minutes. I mean, it usually takes me about five or 10, but the point of the walk isn't to like power walk, it's to chew on whatever I just read and to pray and just to be, just to be outside and to be calm. And that does a wonderful thing for my nervous system that I really rely on to get me through the rest of the day that that week. So I call that my morning mile. And then if I have time, when I get back, I love to do like a 20-minute workout and really like get out some stress and shower. And then I'm like ready for my day. So our our kids, we they get up about 8:30. I think it was my husband's youth ministry career. Our kids went to bed late all the time. Uh my kids late and they sleep late. And they sleep. Yeah, that's just how our family runs. So they have to be up at 8:30. They're doing, we're doing breakfast. We have some morning chores, and then we usually have like a little, you know, 20-minute break just to everybody reset. And then we we get together and do school about 10 30. And our school block is like 1030 to like 1231 or so. Uh for homeschool, I mean we keep it pretty simple. I mean, I don't have middle schoolers yet. They're still all in elementary school. So we're doing math and language arts every day, and then we trade off history and science. We have a four-day school week, which is kind of baller. My husband doesn't work Fridays. Um Sunday's technically a workday, but he's also home most of the day. So we want to be off when he's off so we can all be together as a family. So we do homeschool Monday through Thursday. Uh, our two-year-old naps after lunch, and then that's when I get into what I call my power hour. I literally sat my other three down and I was like, let me tell you about power hour. This is what it is. This is when you play and you guys get along and you do your thing, and mom works, and I will be on my computer, and you will see me on my phone, and I will be like, whatever. But this is when I get to work and you guys are independent. We used to do quiet time. Once the third was born, quiet time just kind of went out the window because the third wanted to do it all what the older kids were doing. But this is it's kind of like an independent play, quiet time, go read, whatever. So that's when I'm getting the bulk of my work done, is in this hour and a half-ish four days a week. Tuesday nights, my husband actually still helps out at the rock climbing gym. So Tuesday night, kids go to bed, he's working. So I'm home. Tuesday night is another time block I have. And then usually like Saturday, that's kind of a declared work day at our house, not like like projects. We're working around the house and stuff. So I usually find another two-hour time block in there. Fridays are kind of our Sabbath as a family. Since my husband's off, we're just we're fully resting, we're doing what sounds nice. We go on a hike, whatever. And I try to take Sunday pretty light too. Sunday night, my husband and I have what we call our business meeting where we we sit down, we're like, this is the week. What do you have? What do I have? What's what are the goals? What's important to you? What matters to you? And how can we, you know, we sync up the Google Calendar? How do we so yeah, for anyone wondering, like, how do you homeschool and do this? It's I will also say it's making peace with the idea that my business is not going to grow. Like I'm not gonna scale anything really fast. And it takes a ton of discipline and intentionality. And I've had to learn the hard way and and the humbling way over the months and years that, you know, if I really want to grow this thing slowly but surely, I have to be disciplined and I have to be intentional. And I've always told, I've told my husband and I've promised to myself, you know, my family will always be first. My full-time career is I'm a mom. And so again, it's I have to really carve out those boundaries if I want to grow this thing.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

Yeah. So when you think about that, I want to touch on this because there definitely is this identity going around, right? There's this conversation amongst women who want to quote, have it all. And there's women online that look like they do have it all, right? They have a really growing, thriving business and they're spending all this time with their children. But obviously, as someone you and I both who have been in the steps, and not only us too, but like our community of women that we are with, we know this, right? You don't have this all of a sudden overnight is a thing that sustains everything, right? Financially. Right.

SPEAKER_03 19:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 19:21

And and actually, there is a lot of sacrifice of your time if you're going to grow a business and be with your children, you are a finite resource as a mom and as a CEO of the business. So as you're thinking through that and kind of, you know, and you're on your morning mile, for instance, when you're kind of thinking through and chewing on what does this day look like, what does this season look like, what does growing this business look like and feel like to me? And like you said, just sitting comfortably or uncomfortably, sitting with the reality that in this moment in time, in this season of my life, this is what this looks like. How do you protect your heart and mind from the noise of grow at all costs, scale at all costs, grow the business, do more, make it bigger while also feeling compelled and pulled to be very present and home with your children? How do you sort of tune that out?

SPEAKER_00 20:14

It's challenging. Uh and it's so sometimes I think I can be like an optimist to a fault where I it just somewhere in my brain, I think there's always time for anything, or I can I can always do that. And it's been a long, slow-learning process of actually Caroline, you're very limited. You're capable, yes. You can create healthy boundaries, yes. You can time block the heck out of your calendar, absolutely. But at the end of the day, I'm a human that's needed by four other humans all day long. Um responsible for their. I've put myself, I've chosen, I could, I could offload their education totally. Um, but I've chosen my husband and I like we we want to do this in this season. This is what we're doing. And that has to come first. I don't wanna, I don't want to half-ass my kids' education, you know, for their their childhood experience being home with their mom. And so I think it's yeah, a lot of it is just I have to tell myself, I have to remind myself a lot that this season with these kiddos, it looks like this for a second. And that when I look back on my life, I don't think I'm gonna wish that I scaled faster or that I grew the business. You know, there's there's time for that later. Right now, what I keep telling my husband is like, this is it's a bottle of potential. Like my little bootstrapped business is it's not, you know, we're not seeing huge numbers, but I feel like these are the years where I'm putting in the reps. I'm making the little mistakes without like huge consequences because we're a little business. It's and it's just it's me and my husband. And thank goodness for my husband. He does like my numbers. And I love him. We love him for that. Love him so much for that and for so many other things. And yeah, he actually is a huge silent supporter. He's done logo work. He's done all these things. But this this season is like the working it out and the figuring it out season. And truly, I mean, as a one-income family, any little thing that I can contribute financially to my family from this business, uh, it means the world. If I can give my family a hundred bucks a month, like to help groceries, I'm like, I'm a happy girl. I really, and I my hope and my what I'm telling myself and promising myself is like, hey, just hang on to it. Just just nurture this little baby. And there will come a day where where she will walk and maybe run, you know. But there's time, there's time for that. I just want to be, I want to be good to my customers now. I want to give my customers the best ingredients, the best products, the most honest and real goodness in this AI age. Holy cow. Just the most honest and real thing that I can produce and just be happy, just be content in the joy of doing it and learning along the way.

SPEAKER_02 23:18

Everyone stay tuned because I'm working on an episode right now about hiring house managers and talking to moms who run businesses about why there is this real mental block to hiring a house manager. Why would you not have someone to help you with these things? And a lot of moms are dealing with this identity crisis of like, if I don't do all of this stuff, if I don't do the laundry, if I don't clean, if I don't organize their activity, all the things, they feel like somehow they're letting their children down or they're you know savoring. Yeah, right. They're not savoring that childhood like you're talking about. Yeah, I'm just here to debunk that. That's just garbage. Because your kids want you to look them in the eyeballs, right? So when you're hustling around all over the place trying to do all the things all the time, and you're doing all the stuff that's not looking at them in the eyeballs, that's not sitting down, reading with them, spending time with them, whatever, that's still a distraction from them, right? So it's just this constant iteration of how am I intentionally investing in my children, intentionally investing in my business at every stage that it's at. And I love the analogy that you gave, like this baby business, right? Our business is really just one of our children. And all of our children need different things at different stages. So it's like, you know, watching that business, stewarding it well through, let's just call it its preschool years, right? What it's doing at this stage, what it needs at this stage is very different than what it's going to need at other stages. But like you said, the consistency of just staying the course, not uh putting too much pressure on it to grow quickly, to what give to walk quickly, to run quickly, right? Just let it be, but also giving it that consistent care and effort is enough to carry it through. Like you said, let's just not quit, right? Even if it has to be or change or it looks different at this stage or that stage, like you said, if you take it sabbatical when you're moving, for instance, there's going to be opportunities for that business to adapt on its own, to grow on its own, to stay stagnant on its own for periods of time, right? And it's just our job to kind of steward that well. And like you said, holding on to the values of the business. This is so critical when I'm working with a business, or even in my own, when you look at your, you go back to your why statement or your core values. Like those are the kinds of things that are critical to when the business has to take vaccine at some point, or it has to look different than you expected. It has to operate differently than maybe you planned in your mind. You get to a point, a milestone, and you're like, oh, I wish I wish I was further along at this milestone than I am. But then you just look at the timeline and say, no, you know what, my core values are still intact. My wife statement is still my wife statement, and I am stewarding it at this pace, at this time, you know, for these reasons. I think that's really difficult because there is so much noise. Everyone's trying to sell you something to grow your business, to do the most, to do more, to have, quote, it all right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

Well, and I will be real, like I've I have definitely put unnecessary resources into just stuff like that, just trying to get further faster, you know, somebody with their with their course, somebody with their and you know, these funds that I've accumulated that have could have gone into the business and maybe other better ways. Like, yeah, it you just you fall prey to the to the hype and the shiny, like, oh yeah, maybe that. So it it takes a very sound mind. You just have to keep telling yourself, like, actually, no, I think we just need to keep doing this the way we've been doing this. It's yeah, we're gonna get there.

SPEAKER_02 26:58

Yes. And I think too, in addition to having that sound, disciplined mind, which is a requirement, I think, you know, it's the people around you to your community. So you mentioned your husband, obviously, your partner in life and business, but let's talk about your other community, especially because you have moved and been transplanted. So, have you been able to build community around yourself, both as a mom and as an entrepreneur? Because I know for me personally, sometimes I struggle in certain environments where I feel like, oh, I'm in a group of moms who are full-time moms, or I'm in a group of entrepreneurs who are full-time entrepreneurs, like trying to find my place of and who my people are that are, you know, that we can talk to. So we I know we personally have kind of curated um a community for ourselves online with Erica, right? But, you know, how have you cultivated community around yourself that supports you at this stage, not your customers, but your real life environment?

SPEAKER_00 27:53

Yeah, I'm the I mean the Eeve community has been huge. I've been so fortunate to be with that group from the beginning of all of this. And so yeah, I always have Erica's voice in my head of like, does this align? Does this align? Is it supporting your life? Is it supporting and that's been so huge? And just to be able to connect with all of those women and through all we're all having ups and downs all the time, you know, the highs, the lows, the in-between. So we're talking about that every month. And um it's all so real and it makes it helps you feel so seen. Like, okay, I'm not the only one that felt like I had a crappy month, but but they help you also see like what are the what were the small victories or uh or what have you. And so so that that's been huge, just to know here's a group of people that gets it and they're doing a similar thing. Here in Michigan, I mean, we've our our church has been a huge source of community. And certainly my husband going coming on staff at our church um over the past like six months. I mean, he's it's just helped us all really to integrate. And so finding, yeah, just finding those people that you can just share life with and that you can be real with. That point where it gets beyond like the small talk, getting to know you and you can really just kind of you can unload on each other. You can just yeah, you know, share the real stuff. I mean, that it's it's so important. So we've I really do feel like after the move, it took us a full year to really, we were still having conversations after year of like who are our people, who are you know, but um the past six months or so, I feel like we're we're really understanding who that group of people is. And it's it's a great feeling, but it does take time and it it comes with patience.

SPEAKER_02 29:44

Yeah, it does. Yeah, and I think it's one of those things, especially like you said, in the world of AI, I'm sort of watching in real time people be a lot more intentional and purposeful about their human interactions. Where am I connecting with my people? How am I doing life with people? Me personally, I have a real allergy to like small talk. I just don't I just hate it because I just can't I just don't have the capacity for like having this conversation that doesn't have any depth to it. I just get because you know you have to like get through it to get to their good stuff. Like, can we just right? Like it's just it almost it's like I like I actually don't have time to have this conversation with you unless we're gonna produce something from it. Like if we're having to have a productive conversation where where we can like establish connection with one another, like I actually can't do it. But that sort of purposeful connection and building the village is so unbelievably critical to stewarding all of the stuff. It's not just waiting for your kids and your family, which is so important, but having that community around you as an entrepreneur, as a business owner, because all of it requires a lot of structure, even though you know it always feels like a one-man show. It is a lot of just built environment around that thing, around you, the individual, that helps you do all of the things that you're doing.

SPEAKER_03 31:04

It gives you the support that you need to keep going.

SPEAKER_00 31:07

Yeah. And when you mentioned getting help with the home or I mean getting getting a babysitter, yeah. Uh I had a regular babysitter come for like, you know, six hours once a week all throughout this past school year. And it was the biggest gift to myself. I I really I realized I have never really done this for myself. And even when I was trying to grow bygone in like the very beginning, I would I would maybe have some help here or there. But yeah, I mean, I mean, she she has become like part of our our family, like part of our community. It's been huge.

SPEAKER_02 31:43

Yeah. And I certainly we cannot discount any of that. I think again, it's just one of those things where the support that you need as a mom, as a CEO, as a human being, like it just cannot be understated. And the truth is, like, you're even even if your husband is the very best in the whole world, he can't necessarily carry it all either. Not only because he doesn't always understand it the same way that we do, we're not the same, right? But sometimes it's just you both need the support and you both need the break, and you both need kind of just that reprieve of wow, this is kind of a lot. And I think it's important that we continue to say, hey, this is kind of a lot. I think it's I notice there's a lot of guilt or shame that comes up when we have those kinds of conversations. Moms don't want to admit that they're having a hard time, that this is a lot for them, that it feels really difficult because they feel very adamant that they should be able to carry it all with no complaints, that they should be able to manage it all because that's what their mom did or that's what their grandmother did. And I just am constantly trying to remind women that I talk to you, like this is not the world that they grew up in. Like the world that we live in is not the same. And the fact that you need call it six hours of child care help a week is not a character flaw. Like that's just a whole need that you have. And it's not fair to yourself to, like you said, it's not fair to yourself to not see it as, oh, that was such a gift to myself. Like that was such a that helps me do the some of the functional things like scheduling appointments, scheduling a doctor's like stuff that you need to do when you don't have constant interruption, right? Yes. Yeah, that's just a conversation I'm gonna keep having because it's not only coming up organically in a lot of my talks and things, but it's just I'm noticing a lot of hesitation to say that out loud. Part of running a business means I have child care health. Part of running a business means I have health at home. Part of running a business means I have this XYZ paid part like paid parts of my village that support me, support my business in this way. Um, and those are just really critical parts of the story. And like we're not making it without those things. Um, I outsource all of our laundry. Someone comes to my house, picks up our laundry, takes it, washes it, dries it, folds it, and brings it back to me, you know. And I'm not of course I need to do laundry at home, I will, but like I'm not sorry that that's the case. You know, I think that that's just an area of support where getting that time back does give me more opportunity to look eye to eye with my kids. I'm not in the laundry, I'm sitting with them talking to that, you know, that kind of thing. So it's capacity.

SPEAKER_00 34:23

We can only we can only carry so much well. That's right. That's right. And I think to be the things that fall off, you know.

SPEAKER_02 34:30

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, laundry is one of those things that you can't just let it fall off. You could not do it, okay? Right. So yeah, I think that's all just I think we just need to continue to encourage each other in that way. It obviously, like point of one of the reasons this show exists is for that very vulnerable space to say, this is what I need, this is what I'm going through, this is how I've experienced it, and this is all still normal and okay. And I'm not the only one who feels that way, right? So let's shift a little bit and talk about obviously let's talk about the what my heart is all about, right? So the the finances of doing business, how that carries you through, what what that looks like. Obviously, we talked some about this stage of the business is not in a hyper-growth state, right? But we're in a maintenance state and you are stewarding this stage of the business very well. But I would love to talk about your ability to start a business. You had mentioned earlier that um your entrepreneurial spirit came from your mom. So I'd love for you to talk more about that experience growing up and what incurred like what got you to the point where you were like, yeah, I I could start a business. You know, like what gave you that that sort of foundation and wherewithal to say this is something I can do.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

Sure. So my mom, I think she uh started homeschooling us when I was in first grade. And I had an older sister and I had younger siblings too. And all through that time, I mean, first of all, we we loved homeschooling because we just got to be together and we got so much more playtime. But I always saw her doing some kind of side hustle and not just, you know, some kind of like pre-packaged business in a box, but she was scrappy and she created her own business. So homeschooling was pretty, it was still kind of new. It was not in vogue. We were, you know. Um but there was this niche and this need for homeschool families. The internet was new, like eBay was new. And my mom saw an opportunity to get books, like homeschool books, into people's hands. And she created her own side hustle, thrifting and finding like a garage sales, uh, homeschool like books from reading lists and textbooks, things like this. And she would sell them on eBay. And um, and it was great. And I I loved get like she would let me sometimes like pull an order, like, oh, I need like these books, and I would find them on the book. Loved it. Like, and I mean, when I was when I was a kid, I wanted to be a grocery store clerk. And I don't know what that has to do with like entrepreneurship. I think I just liked the exchange. I don't know. I was always making up games where I was selling things, I where I had a business. It was just always in me. And I think a lot of that was from from watching her create opportunities. And I mean, there was definitely a lot of narrative in our home growing up. I mean, we were so, so frugal as a family. And I think we inherited a lot of that frugality. But I mean, that we were a family of seven. I'm one of five siblings, so there were a lot of mouths to feed. My dad worked and my mom stayed home and did her side hustle. So, you know, we didn't, we didn't really vacation, we didn't really eat out, we were just really, really frugal. And the narrative was that we there's not a lot of money. Like money is really tight. And so there was definitely some scarcity mindset there, but but at the same time, watching my mom like find ways to to make ends meet, like fill the gap. Um that's where a lot of that comes from for me. And and I and I do see it sprinkled throughout my family too. All my siblings and I, in some way, shape, or form, have kind of created our own jobs. Yeah, I think it's just kind of innate in us.

SPEAKER_02 38:21

Yeah. I think that's really beautiful because, you know, in talking about your mom and her having a side hustle, she saw the need for these other homeschool families to have books and she facilitated that with the resources available to her. Like you said, eBay at that time was really new. So it wasn't like everyone was pushing that down her throat, right? It wasn't like everyone's trying to sell her, oh, go sell us or stuff on eBay, right? So she just saw the need and filled it. And I think what, you know, the sort of unspoken part of that is that you guys got to experience her doing these side households, but not as a means of do this or else, right? Not as a means of I have to do this for my family, or I have to do this for us to make ends meet. And even though that might have been the case, it still sounds like, at least from your perspective, where you've got to pull orders and things like that, there was sort of this joy around it of like, this is something fun. Entrepreneurship is fun, it's not this thing that has to be done at all costs. And I find I want to really carefully tread that line of like, am I because sometimes the business will grow to a point where it is the primary source of income for the family, right? And so you have to be careful about not making it the end all be all. And like, I can't stand how we do it because I have to run the business, you know, that kind of thing we're doing. Um so I it sounds like that really came very organically and beautifully through your kind of through your family line, right? Of like, this is something we can do, not only like that brings us joy. And in your case, where you have a product that's so deeply integrated into things that you're passionate about as a person and what you want to bring into the world, it has this again almost fun quality to it. This makes me feel joyful when I do it, and it gives me opportunity, and it gives us extra, like you said, $100 a month to do this thing or that thing. Or I think there's a a really beautiful balance between like we have X, Y, Z side hustles, and also we love doing them. Not because we have to do it, and not because everything is tight or frugal, but because we we love it and we want to do it. And I think that's that's just such a beautiful example for our kids. And it sounds like, you know, that was a really wonderful example that was set for you that you get to kind of carry on and push forward.

SPEAKER_00 40:35

Yeah. So much of the the passion that I have for what I create really, I mean, comes from my grandparents. I spent a lot of time at their farm growing up, and they were really into like homesteading and living off the land. And so I got to work alongside my grandma in her garden. She grew all these flowers and and I, yeah, I got to plant out things with them, and we and they had lots of acreage, and so we would walk around and my grandpa would stop us on a walk and say, like, oh, this plant here, people used to use it for this. And so my my interest in like herbal remedies and kind of folk medicine and all of that really started, really came from them. So I love the just that it's been such a trickle down for my family, you know, entrepreneurial spirit for my mom. Like, you know, like of course I can do this, like, and this is fun and I can create this opportunity. But then just the rich history of and how they've been used for centuries, like coming from my grandparents and just getting so much joy from being in that environment with them, the flowers and the botanicals. I just wanted to know more and more. And so all of that, I just see how all of that led so organically to, you know, me just getting stacks of books at the library so I can learn more about this, to actually enrolling myself in aromatherapy school, you know, learning the formulation. And yeah, just how it's all come to this point.

SPEAKER_02 41:55

Yeah, that's so cool. And I talked to my guests about this on the show. I always want to know kind of what those through lines look like from the generational, you know, who came before you. Right now I'm in, I'm just wrapping up a series on generational financial beliefs, generational financial trauma, and about sometimes we do have this tendency to only see, which this is normal human, right? Sometimes we have a tendency to only see that. So I love it when we can observe these family lines and see, like just like we said before, the world we live in is not the world I live in. But here's where those true lines are really coming through and showing up in this beautiful, deep-rooted kind of way, right? Again, in the world of AI, we're looking for deep roots and connection, whether that be from our family, whether that be in our communities, we're looking for that human depth of relationship, depth of like feeling. Because we can't get that from a robot, right? So I think that when we see it come through in a business and how that business is being stewarded out in the world, it just feels so good. It feels good to shop with businesses that have purpose that are fulfilling what their dreams and their goals to support their families or whatever it may be. Like that just is so it feels so good, but it's also so healthy, right? That's so holistic in how we um let things flow through our community. We purchase from small businesses, we we work with small businesses, we want to continue to do that. We want to buy small batch skincare, because I mean skincare especially, right? Trillion trillion dollar industry, right? Like it's just and it and it's not all great, right? Like it's not all good for your skin at all. Uh, but it's out there for sure. So getting the opportunity to kind of share that and have these very deep roots of it tracing back to your grandparents and even their parents and grandparents, even if you didn't know them, getting to see that kind of flow through to what your business is today is such a that gives you so much fuel to keep moving forward with it, right? And to keep going with it and to hold on to it, that stewarding it through everything. Every season and just holding on to it is so much easier when we know how deep those roots are and what we're doing it for and what that purpose looks like in that why statement. So, okay, let's talk about as we see it here today and the seasons that Bygon has been through. What is one thing that you're just so proud of in the business and in the brand that you are, you know, you are really looking forward to taking into the next season?

SPEAKER_00 44:28

Hmm. I mean, the first the first thing that popped into my mind when you said that. So I have I have a product that I, it was probably my third product that before I even rebranded to Bygon Botanicals, that I feel like it's it's so much the essence of the business. It's called my flower child balm. So this flower child balm, it's actually transformed into a facial balm that is launching this week.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

So guys, you know how I love a good exclusive. We just saw it one. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited.

SPEAKER_00 44:58

So yeah, I created this balm from I I grow calendula and chamomile, German chamomile. These are incredible herbs and medicinal flowers. They do wonderful things for your skin. They're anti-inflammatory, they're wound healing, um, they help with cell turnover, they're they're beautiful, and I just I love them. And they're just so happy. They just they fill me with so much joy just to look at them. I love them so much. So I grow these from seed, I pick them, I dry them, I infuse them into oil. And this oil becomes the foundation of this balm. Now, when I launched this product originally, it was this little stick and it was this kind of herbal salve. Like it's an all-purpose, it kind of does all the things. But people would ask me all the time, well, can I put it on my face? Can I use this on my face every day? And because of the formula, it's it was pretty high in beeswax, higher in plant butters, like richer ingredients. It wasn't really designed for the face. It was designed to be like put it on your infants' like chapped cheeks or use it on rough patches of skin, like put on your lips, but like not a daily facial product. But I also had this dream of creating this like concentrated, like botanically dense, yummy facial balm. And like really recently, like this spring, I was trying to figure out like I love this flower child balm and I want people to have it because it's so special to me and it is it's such a wonderful product, but it's hard to market because it does everything, but doesn't one thing like super, it's not known for like one thing, it's known for doing like everything. And sometimes that makes things harder to market. You wouldn't think so, but it is. And I had the idea of like, okay, instead of trying to come up with a new facial balm, like, why don't I just take this product that is so near and dear to me and just transform it into a facial balm? And so that's what I've done. And I really feel, ooh, I might cry. I really feel like I honor my grandparents with this product. I just feel like so. My my grandpa passed away when I was in college really suddenly in like a an accident. He was cutting down a tree. Okay. And we lost him really suddenly. And we always, but we say that I think that's the way he would have wanted to go because he loves, he loves nature. He loves God's green earth and he just honored it so well and stewarded it so well. And he is like my idol. I look up to him so much and and my grandma. And so as I grow these flowers and I pick them, I dry them and I turn it into this like beautiful product, I just feel like so close to him and and I just feel like it, it honors like who he was. And it's just like it's like a little piece of him that's really within me. And so, so I'm so proud that I've taken this product that's like I love so much, and I've been able to turn it into something that I think people will really latch on to, and I think people will discover it because it's it's gonna be part of like our core skincare line now. And so it's gonna be like out in front. And and I think people are gonna fall in love with it. It's it's such a beautifully concentrated product that I mean, you wake up, you put it on your skin at night, and you just wake up and your skin feels baby soft, and you just edit all these beautiful medicinal flowers. It's so, so good. So I'm really excited to get it out there this week. It launches this Thursday, it'll be live on the website. And I'm it just feels kind of like this full circle thing where I was trying to, it feels like it finally became what I wanted it to be. It just took like a couple of years to get there. Yeah. That's how it goes sometimes. And so I'm really thrilled with the results. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 48:37

Oh, I'm so excited. I can't wait for that. Now, by the time your episode comes out, that product will already be launched. But we will put a link in the show notes for you guys if you want to try that product. I personally cannot wait to try it. Okay, so we did not talk a lot about pricing here today, but this question I want to ask is about pricing. And I do recall, I remember you asking our group, you know, you had told us what the line was gonna cost. And I remember you feeling you were like, you guys, is this so expensive? Is anyone gonna buy this? And also, I think every single one of us is like, uh, this is cheaper than what we pay for at the store, right? Like we were just like, this is you know, we I think we all encouraged you to reconsider what are you pricing this at? And just how value that it is. So if you were sitting with another maker right now and they were feeling a lot of anxiety about how to price their products, how to sell their products, what would you want to say to them? What would you want someone to know? Someone who could be listening and wants to make and tell a product that they feel passionately about, would you say to them? And how would you encourage them?

SPEAKER_00 49:41

Yes. I would tell them number one, and this is this is practical and value-based, you have to think about your time when you're pricing a product. It's not just, I mean, when I started out, I I knew so little about that aspect of business and you know how to price for wholesale and all of these things and pricing for profit. And I didn't consider that like, okay, if this grows, I'm gonna be paying, I might be paying people someday to make these products instead of just me using my time. And you have to work that into your cost. And if you are, you know, and if you're a really small business and you're doing things differently, you're not shipping things out to like a manufacturer or having them make all the things for you. You have to consider what would you pay yourself? What would you pay an employee and work that into your price? Um, and then another thing is just that everybody values something, everybody has these things that they value above other things. Like we all have the things that we are willing to spend more money on because we value. Perfect example is like clothing. You value your clothes being ethically made. You don't care, like it makes sense to you that a shirt would be like $70 instead of 10 because you know, you it's important to you. You know, like who made that and that they were paid well and they were cared for, and that that family is gonna thrive. You know, all these things. There's so many implications, right? And you have to there, there are people that feel the same way about their skincare or whatever product you're selling. They want to know it matters to them that it was made with intention, that the sourcing was done right, and that it's not some like cheap afterthought product. This is somebody's passion, this is somebody's thing. And and that matters. And the things people value, they will they will spend more. And honestly, I think what I've learned is lowballing yourself. I mean, it devalues your product. I mean, it's that psychologically, it speaks to us when something is more expensive. We're like, well, it must be really good, you know? Yeah. Finding that that sweet spot where you feel like you aren't going outside of your ethics, you know, you're not overpricing something astronomically, but you are but you are truly charging what it's worth for you to make it and all of those things. It's really important. And it's yeah, it's a hard one to learn.

SPEAKER_02 52:07

It is a hard one to learn. And I think, you know, I hear that often, especially when a business is smaller. I will see a founder underpriced for a long time, not only because they don't necessarily know better, but also because they didn't consider their time or they're not considering you know what it is that they're bringing uh and how valuable that is, not only to the person buying it, but to their community, to their family, all you know, all the things. So I love that bit of encouragement and I hope that that is uh really helpful for someone. So, all right. I have loved this conversation as I do also fun. I I was telling before we started recording, I was telling Caroline that I love having a podcast because I love to talk, but I really love it when I get to sit down and talk with someone and hear their story. So thank you so much for so vulnerably sharing all about your business and your family and and how you're how you're navigating it all. I can't wait to have you back on, you know, in in a set time, a year or two years, let's see where things are at, right? Let's re-it it, visit, let's see what we've learned, how far we've come. All right. So, one question that I love to ask all of my guests is if you could describe your relationship with money as a dream, what would that drink be?

SPEAKER_00 53:16

Yes, this question. I I know this is a question you ask people, and I thought about it and I could not, I couldn't hack it. I was like, what in the world? I I finally landed on is I think it would be a smoothie. Oh, because I just think I just look back on my growing up really frugal and getting, you know, mixed money messages about like, oh, like money is bad or money is evil or like whatever. And then, but now I think about well, I now I think money is a tool. I think money is a tool that can be used to do a lot of good. And it's money is very neutral. And um, so I you know, just chuck all those things in a blender and yeah, end it up, and that's that's my money smoothie.

SPEAKER_02 53:58

That's I love that. I love that. A money smoothie. I love it so much. Uh, that's my favorite answer so far. I love that. Oh, I think that's so accurate. All of the in a lot of my work, I talk about all the voices, all the things that, you know, things that we take on about money from a very, very early age, how that carries us into adulthood, how we, you know, how it shows up in our real life. And it's um, I absolutely love that analogy in this movie. Like it all it literally, whether you want it to or not, it's all just thrown in there. So love, you gotta be your best, right? And change the ingredients where you need to, right? But it absolutely is literally all thrown in. So I love that. Um, okay, Caroline. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you for being here with us. I have to. This was so fun. I'm so glad you came. All right. Well, if people want to find more about you, where can they go to find you online?

SPEAKER_00 54:49

Yeah, so bygonebotanicals.com is our website, and we I'm really active on Instagram as well at at BygoneBotanicals. So that's funny. And I'm we're on, I'm on, I'm sorry, I'm trying TikTok, you know. Oh, sure. TikTok is like the Wild West. I can't, I can hardly figure it out. But we're on there too at Bygone Botanicals.

SPEAKER_02 55:10

So okay, all of her and all the play. Find her on TikTok, find her on Instagram, find her on the internet. Definitely try her products, all of them, every single product I've ever had of yours, I absolutely love. Well, Caroline, thank you so much. Thank you for being here, and thank you for sharing.

SPEAKER_00 55:24

Oh, well, thanks so much for having me.