We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brandy Searcy. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brandy below.
Brandy, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made?
As a solopreneur, it’s really hard to figure out all the things. I’m a scientist, so while I’ve got the formulation and manufacturing on lock, sales, marketing, and SEO (search engine optimization) are Greek to me.
SEO felt like the hardest one of these to tackle on my own because to be honest, I had no clue where to begin (and finding a legit starter’s course in SEO felt impossible at the time… this was back before the brand launched, and I was hoping to get a head start on building interest in the brand). So, I outsourced SEO to a management company complete with a 6 month contract.
Not only was it expensive, the SEO firm had no clue what my true goal was with the brand, so even though they were optimizing to a list of keywords I provided, it wasn’t really value added and the text they wrote just didn’t sound like the brand even when it increased site traffic.
During the middle of that contract, it dawned on me that I needed to take one big step backwards and figure out how to properly brand Rain Organica and that decision led to one of the best investments so far… investing in a branding course.
That course opened my eyes to the realization that systems are needed for everything in business beyond just product manufacture and inventory management. Rain Organica also needed brand documents so that anyone stepping into a role, whether as a contractor or hopefully one day as an employee, is able to reference those documents and align with the brand’s tone and ambiance.
Brandy, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
When we’re talking skincare, why is it that a single leave-on product isn’t able to meet all of your skin’s needs? And, what are your skin’s needs anyways?
In case you’ve ever found shopping for skincare a baffling ordeal, meet Rain Organica.
Founded by a pharmaceutical formulations development scientist who decided there was a gentler way to care for her skin rather than treat it as a canvas to wage war on, Rain Organica offers products intentionally developed to nourish, protect, & soothe your skin… in other words, to treat your skin as loved.
Brandy realized that your skin is an organ to be loved rather than a canvas to wage war on during her early 20s when she resorted to a course of Accutane after exhausting Western medicine’s arsenal for treating acne. The side effects of that course (mild as they might have been when we’re talking Accutane), made her stop her treatment mid-course and turn an about face, doing a complete 180 on how she treated her skin and finally recognizing it as a part of her body, worthy of being loved, nourished, and cared for.
Deciding to draw a line in the sand and stop putting things into and on her body that were detrimental to her skin’s (and her body’s) health, she recognized there’s still a lack of safe, effective, all-in-one products available that also don’t cause breakouts.
Moreover, she was distressed and overwhelmed at the need for a 7 (or more typically, 12) step skincare regimen to provide her skin with all the ingredients it needed for optimal health and nourishment.
So, she started making her own skincare in 2008. In 2020, recognizing that the market still failed to provide a comprehensive and simple skincare routine, she launched Rain Organica, which offers holistic skincare in just 3 steps.
The real beauty of Rain Organica is that you don’t have to decide whether the brand classifies your skin as oily, sensitive, dry, combo, or whatever else. Rain Organica has taken the guesswork out of skincare through deliberate and intentional product development.
The brand offers 3 products (regardless of your skin type) to meet all 6 of your skin’s needs. When your skin requests more, you’re able to choose add-ons (custom mix-in products) that provide you the power to fully customize your routine… in just 3 steps.
Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?
Rain Organica manufactures all products in house. As a pharmaceutical formulations development scientist who’s developed formulas across a range of dosage forms (topical, long lasting injectables, and proteins), I picked up many of the universal concepts of making creams and lotions from my day job, and then played creative scientist at night to get those principles to work for the skincare products I wanted to build.
Even after developing the formula, there’s a lot of work required to take skincare from development batch to manufacture. Many people aren’t aware that the skincare industry is regulated by the FDA, and there are manufacturing guidelines, labeling requirements, and testing standards that must be met in order to sell skincare products.
Because of my experience in pharmaceuticals, I had a leg up in understanding the manufacturing guidelines, and this helped tremendously with drafting batch records and maintaining logs plus all the other requirements of producing product per Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).
One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned along the way regards scaling the manufacturing batch size. In the early days of Rain Organica, I accepted a really large order for the business (still the largest single order to date).
I knew I’d need to scale dramatically when I accepted it, and because of my pharma experience, I built time into the order timeline to perform a couple of development batches at scale… still, actually running those batches and seeing how differently the product behaved (how much longer it took for the product to cool down after emulsifying, how much longer it needed to mix to ensure proper emulsification, and just how many bottles one batch made) was eye opening, and it also led to a few changes in routine manufacture, which has dramatically improved efficiency (something really welcome in a company of one).
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
At its core, Rain Organica offers simplicity in a 3-step skincare routine. So, it seemed like a really great idea to market the brand to people who enjoy hiking and backpacking. That demographic would appreciate an easy skincare routine that travels with them anywhere, right?
The problem is… while I enjoy hiking, I’m not the kind of girl who geeks out over backpacking gear, and my personality isn’t super crunchy granola girl style. Within a few short months of launch, it became painfully apparent that I wasn’t speaking the language of the backpacking crowd (sales were lackluster and it felt like I wasn’t being heard on social media… this was a huge confidence blow!).
So, just a few months after launch, I decided to rebrand. And, the idea on how to refocus attention towards a different audience emerged when I decided to launch a podcast. While brainstorming topics for the podcast, the conversation I should be having became apparent.
My native language is health and wellness. As someone who’s struggled to obtain that elusive goal of “health” for 20+ years, I realized just how much knowledge I had to offer in that space, specifically regarding autoimmunity and holistic health & wellness.
While my formal background is in Western medicine, I’ve learned so much more about my own health through alternative healing modalities including Ayurveda, acupuncture, and myofascial release massage, and the unique ability to integrate the Western perspective with these alternative modalities is really where I’m able to share my own expertise and experience, helping guide others on their own health journey.
With that realization, it was easy to shift the brand conversation to speak to those who are like me and find themselves navigating the sometimes narrow and windy path of health.
The real testament to this rebrand is how well received that shift has been. Yes, the brand lost some followers on IG and has made up for that by connecting with people who’ve found value both in the podcast and also in the products offered by Rain Organica.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rainorganica.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/rainorganica
- Facebook: facebook.com/rainorganica
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVxvFrat5RyBURybZ7JMh5g
- Other: Holistic Wellness podcast: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ClA7VjfcWh2y1GrdT2GJF?si=245da8f8162a4781 iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/holistic-wellness-exploring-the-science-metaphysics/id1566184612 pinterest.com/rainorganica
Image Credits
Krista Mason Photography
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