We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Laurel Harrop a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Laurel, appreciate you joining us today. Parents can play a significant role in affecting how our lives and careers turn out – and so we think it’s important to look back and have conversations about what our parents did that affected us positive (or negatively) so that we can learn from the billions of experiences in each generation. What’s something you feel your parents did right that impacted you positively.

My parents were absolutely influential in my life and career. One of the most important things I took away from my upbringing was my parents work ethic. I watched as they ran their own trucking business and built a wonderful life for my sisters and I. The concept of entrepreneurship was steeped in me at an early age. I recall selling eggs from our chickens to friends and family, creating a small smoothie business, and later in high school a small fashion line since my interest at the time was sewing and fashion design. I was encouraged to pursue creative hobbies, work hard in school, travel, be responsible and have good manners–simple things really that now I look back on as a parent myself and truly understand the value in. They gave me a toolkit for life that set me on a path of success. They supported me just enough to fully respect what they worked to give me and understand what I needed to earn through my own hard work and determination, I credit them for everything and where I am today.

Laurel, 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?

Busty Lush is a line of non-alcoholic malt beverages that I was inspired to create while pregnant. My husband is a craft beer brewer and I have been surrounded by that industry here in San Diego for several years. I was more or less inspired to sample different non alcoholic beers while pregnant and felt like there was still room in the market for more variety and better quality. Don’t get me wrong, there are many great ones out there though! The second part of my business idea was that I had hoped that it really spoke to women. Craft beer and the branding always felt masculine to me, so I wanted my brand to be focused on women in a way that celebrated them unapologetically. I am a huge fan of an artist named Chambers Austelle from Charleston who creates the most amazing portraits of women. She has a remarkable style and it was everything I wanted for the face of the cans. Each style of NA beer will feature one of her beautiful portraits. The graphic design and hand lettering was done by my good friend Ashley Little of Little Print Design. Both of these ladies are incredibly talented. I launched the business in May of 2021. Today, there are three styles: She’s Golden Blonde ale, She’s Passionate, a tropical weisse, and She’s Divine Oatmeal Dark. I am very proud that in less than a year Busty Lush is on the shelves of Whole Foods, Total Wine, BevMo!, Sprouts and many amazing bottle shops around the country. I am so grateful of all the love and support shown to the brand and am very excited for what’s ahead!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I launched Busty Lush and as a new brand and when the first batch of She’s Golden came out I received an email back from a male distributor that I won’t probably ever forget. He said to me “We cannot support this branding”. I was so taken aback and just felt my face get warm and my stomach turn to a knot. It continued on over multiple emails. Thankful for a few good voices in my corner who told me to push on and past it, Busty Lush is where it is after only a few short months. I receive endless enthusiasm for the branding and packaging from all.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Instragram has been wonderful. I can’t say enough about the amazing people of the NA world. They are so supportive of brands and of one another. They want to share what they try and spread awareness about new brands and products. I would definitely give credit to social media for a huge part of the brand’s reputation.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bustylush.com
• Instagram: @bustylush

Image Credits
Lance Gerber