We recently connected with Ana Duque and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Ana thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

My love for nature came naturally to me. I’ve always been a nature lover, and this passion developed independently, without anyone in my life teaching me how to care for the environment. While working for a nonprofit in California, I became involved in social justice advocacy, which intensified my passion for addressing environmental injustices. I became aware of how consumerism harms our planet, and also is affecting people, especially those from marginalized communities. It became clear to me that my asthma and other health issues were directly linked to environmental racism.

This motivated me to change many of my habits, leading me to embrace a “Zero waste” lifestyle, which I later adapted to a “Low waste” lifestyle to allow for compassion in my mistakes. As I transitioned to this eco-friendly lifestyle, I began sharing my journey on Instagram, where I documented everything I was learning about sustainable living and the harmful effects of plastics, among other topics. But, being a RI native I noticed that most of my followers were from Rhode Island and lacked access to zero waste stores or the ability to refill their containers as I did in California.

With a newfound determination, I decided to move back to Rhode Island and take a chance on entrepreneurship, despite not having any prior experience or a particularly entrepreneurial spirit. I began organizing pop-up events around Providence, offering essential products like shampoo, hand soap, and laundry detergent for customers to refill their own containers. Though the pop-ups I discovered a strong interest in this eco-friendly solution, which many people had been seeking for a long time.

These pop-up events highlighted the pressing need for sustainable options, and I realized that refilling and reusing plastic bottles was a significant step towards finding innovative solutions to plastic pollution. Fast forward four years, and it remains the best option, as only 6% of the world’s plastic is recycled, and Rhode Island’s single-stream recycling often gets contaminated and turned away.
In 2020, during the pandemic, The Heal Room was born as a response to the changing circumstances. Unable to continue our pop-up events, we opened our store to provide our products to our customers directly. Three years later, we are proud to have diverted over 7,000 plastic bottles from landfills, oceans, and waterways. THR is also dedicated to offering accessible organic products to our community and the state of Rhode Island, ensuring that all our products contain healthy ingredients.

At The Heal Room, I’ve had the opportunity to combine my passion for education with providing solutions to my community. We conduct educational workshops on sustainable living, mindfulness, and intersectionality. As the owner of The Heal Room, I view my role as that of an educational resource. Furthermore, as a Latinx woman, I take pride in helping individuals and communities understand the intricate connection between environmental issues and social inequities.

Ana, 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?

The Heal Room was born out of a deep commitment to addressing environmental challenges and fostering a conscious lifestyle. Our store stands as the first and only zero-waste shop in the state of Rhode Island. We specialize in offering sustainable alternatives to cleaning and hygiene products, carrying a carefully curated selection of ethical, organic, low-waste, and locally crafted items. Our overarching aim is to empower consumers to make mindful choices about what they buy and who they support.

What sets The Heal Room apart is our unwavering dedication to creating a community that comprehends the intricate intersection of environmental and human rights issues. We firmly believe that nurturing both our planet and our collective well-being is vital for future generations. To achieve this, we actively engage with our community through various means, including events, educational forums, local vendor pop-ups, insightful blog posts, community cleanups, and spaces for cultivating hope.

Our brick-and-mortar store, located in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, serves as a physical and virtual haven for healing, both for individuals and the Earth. We specialize in offering bath, body, and cleaning products that are zero-waste, natural, and organic. Think about it this way, with our refill station you never have to throw away another plastic bottle again. You bring the same bottle over and over again to refill on all of your products. Furthermore, we proudly support local artisans and businesses whose products align with our mission of ethical and sustainable production.

But The Heal Room is not just about products; it’s also about fostering a conscious lifestyle. Within our welcoming space, we host a variety of workshops and healing events, including yoga, sound healings, reiki, meditations, and free educational sessions. We strive to make these offerings accessible through sliding-scale pricing, ensuring that holistic living is within reach for all.

To further our growth, we aim to create subscription-based programs, allowing for consistent sales that will enable us to expand our services and offerings, ultimately enhancing the sustainability movement in Rhode Island so keep a look out for that in 2024! We will deliver locally to Rhode Island.

The Heal Room is more than just a store; it’s a platform for healing, growth, and positive change. We invite you to be part of our journey, embrace conscious living, and join our vibrant community. Together, we can create a world where sustainability and holistic well-being are the norm, accessible to all.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Building a social media audience is a journey that demands authenticity and personal connection. From the beginning of my social media journey, I chose to use social media as a platform for sharing my own experiences and values. In my industry, where education is important, I embraced a “we’re in this together” approach, transparently acknowledging that I, like everyone else, am continuously learning. This authenticity resonated with my audience, especially those who shared similar values and journeys. To keep my audience engaged, I diversified my content, mixing personal stories with product photos, how-to videos, and content sharing. Authenticity remained at the core, showcasing both successes and challenges, which built trust—a vital foundation for a strong social media following. Consistency and regular audience engagement were key strategies, and understanding and targeting my specific audience’s interests and needs ensured that my content spoke directly to their concerns and aspirations. Building a social media audience is a gradual process, but by staying true to yourself and your brand, you can create a community that genuinely connects with your message and mission, ultimately forging meaningful relationships with your followers.

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

Right now, we’re facing a big change in our business. We have to change the way we do things in order to keep going. Even though we have some loyal customers, we’re dealing with strong competition from much bigger companies that make shopping super easy. During the pandemic, a lot of people wanted to help out local businesses like ours. We did really well, especially because people were working from home and had more time to come to our shop.

But now that things are getting back to normal after the pandemic, we’re starting to feel the effects of this competition. We’ve learned from this and decided to make some changes. We’re going to focus more on selling online and using a van to sell our products in different places that are convenient for our customers. We’re also going to offer a subscription service where we deliver sustainable products to people locally. This way, it’ll be easier for people to get the products they want.

This change is our way of not just surviving but doing well in a competitive world. We want to make sure our community can still get the sustainable products they like, in a way that’s easy for them, even as things change around us.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thehealroom.co
• Instagram: @thehealroom
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/thehealroom
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thehealroom
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/thehealroom