We were lucky to catch up with MARIKA Conway recently and have shared our conversation below.

MARIKA, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

It was a perfect storm. An end of one chapter, uncertainty of what to do next, coming out of a pandemic, and…. seeing my mom in the mirror.

My physical therapy & holistic wellness business was closing, and I needed a plan B. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go back to working for someone else. I needed to find a way to combine my background in sports medicine, nutrition, fitness, holistic wellness and perhaps my love if cooking and mixology to create my next chapter.
These outlets of the science and art within me just had to lead me somewhere! I’m in my late 40s, there was no time to be someone else!
This all happened to coincide with seeing my mother looking back at me in the mirror and realizing that the stuff I was using on my legs was no longer doing it for my face.
All as we were coming out of a global pandemic. Imagine? I guess it was good time for a hard reset.
I looked into natural skincare to, you know, fit in with my ethos. I was horrified. So many brands just use the words “natural,” “clean,” and “organic” for the label appeal, throw an ingredient in there that matches the claim, and call it a day. Ingredients lists were full of potential toxins and if ingredients were even in order, showed me that many were not in proper potencies to be effective at all!
I thought, “No way. I can do this myself!” Well…turns out it’s not that simple! So I enrolled in Formula Botanica’s Diploma in Organic Skincare Formulation, made a bunch of really cool products, and after 54 tries, came up with my perfect face cream.
Then my friends wanted to try it. Then my family. Then all their friends and family. I assembled a group of women in my demographic and had them test several products for 3-4 months and give feedback. This went amazingly well, and I decided I had better start selling – the universe was telling me exactly how chapter 2 would start!
I was now a formulator and a CEO. THIS was going to be the way that I not only make a living, but create REAL impact in an industry that sorely needs advocacy and consumer education.
While the natural route is the one I chose, getting the toxins OUT of our personal care products and making them safe to wash down our drains is becoming more of a priority, with the biggest growth in the beauty industry happening in the natural skincare sector – particularly the Indie beauty space.
It’s actually a really exciting moment to be here!
Growing my business means being the change we need to see in the beauty industry.

MARIKA, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

For me, it was a perfect storm. An end of one chapter, uncertainty of what was next, coming out of a pandemic, and…seeing my mom in the mirror.

My physical therapy and holistic wellness business was closing and I need a plan B. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go back to working for someone else. I needed to find a way to combine my background in sports medicine, nutrition, fitness, holistic wellness and perhaps incorporate my love of cooking and mixology?? These background in science and art within me just had to lead me somewhere! I’m in my late 40s. There was no time to be someone else!

This all happened to coincide with seeing my mother looking back at me in he mirror and realizing that the stuff I was using on my les was no longer doing it for my face. I looked for really great skincare with natural ingredients and I just couldn’t find it! I was mostly horrified and at times disappointed with the labels, ingredients and promises made by big brands and smaller brands alike, but really had no knowledge of the indie skincare movement.

I set out to make my own face cream. Something perfect for me and the changes I was seeing in my skin. I wanted it to be completely naturally derived. Well…it wasn’t that easy. I decided to enroll in the Diploma in Organic Skincare Formulation at Formula Botanica, and that’s when things got real!

All as we were coming our of global pandemic. Imagine? I guess it was a good time for a hard reset.

Other than training/knowledge, what do you think is most helpful for succeeding in your field?

What I have is a strong science background, a very good knowledge of nutrition and physiology, plenty of self-taught skills in the holistic wellness field, excellent culinary skills and I’m very good with people. I’ve been in service industries my whole life. I’m OK at selling. I like to think I’m proficient in uncommon sense. My people skill make it easy to network, but I never did that in active practice before.

You’ll notice none of that is business. or marketing. or finance.

2024 was a year of learning skills I never ventured into before. I followed and took every free course I could find with dozens of marketing gurus. I got third in EForAll’s Pitch Contest and was accepted into and completed their business accelerator. I learned about cultivating mindset. The most important thing that had to tie all those skills together was the brand – me – being authentically me. I found this to come naturally, but people kept commenting on how “naturally” I spoke, how I came across authentically. It won me the EForAll prizes. It got me in doors. It expanded my network. It has made people WANT to help me in this journey.

It never occurred to me to be someone else.

So my answer to this question is to maintain authenticity. You will expand your network effortlessly if you show up and if you act and converse naturally and with interest. Great hiring means choosing those who fill in for your weaknesses and complement your vision, but they must understand your voice and style. When you create a brand, be true to your personal ethos and brand goals. Authenticity goes a long way in a time of uncertainty and even if it’s not your ideal customer, it resonates with everyone.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I’ll use my story of most recently where I pivoted…somewhat.

To be clear, I am dead set in what I am doing, why it’s needed and where it needs to go, but HOW I get there…that has changed a little.

I was so sure I needed to go big and do it quickly. But apparently that isn’t necessarily completely up to me. I am completely bootstrapping this venture so I am super happy that I took fast, imperfect action. I also stepped back to build the business from the ground up with all the learning I did. While I was trying to lead this whole journey, sometimes the universe has a different idea. My big e-comm push wasn’t taking hold. I was losing money on running ads and driving funnels, and it just wasn’t working. One Wednesday In February, I decided that I would try to get a more local following. I’d try to get into some shops, hotels, spas and salons. I would focus hard on local networking and meet business owners in my own community, mostly women. I would take advantage of the fact that I’m pretty good in person, I make friends easily and I have a pretty large network of friends and all sorts of acquaintances already.

Within 24 hours, four women approached me about either carrying my products or helping to further my business via intros to potential key contacts. That path just seemed to keep lighting up for me, so I’ve decided to walk it. It just seems to be that when I make the right moves, people keep falling in this path with me to tell me I’m doing it right. It has continued to happen since that moment. So while growth is painfully slow (I’m not known for my patience), it feels right and I really sense thing shifting.

My pivot was to switch from an e-comm brand push to focusing on becoming “local famous” first – and I think I’m on something!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.HighTeaSkincare.com
• Instagram: @HighTeaSkincare / https://www.instagram.com/highteaskincare/
• Facebook: High Tea Skincare / https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61554562291327
• Linkedin: Marika Conway / https://www.linkedin.com/in/marika-conway-a5ba5318a/
• Youtube: @HighTeaSkincare / https://www.youtube.com/@HighTeaSkincare
• Other: Pinterest: HighTeaSkincare / https://www.pinterest.com/HighTeaGreenTea/

Image Credits

My pro photo was from my friend Jay Milo of Capture Culture! He’s amazing. I own all images and am authorized to use them as I’d like. The market table image was from a photographer at that market. Don’t know the name but images were gifted to all us vendors.