Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Anikó Zala. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Anikó , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?
I teach workshops and make lush body care products as a way to excite peoples’ curiosity about folk herbalism and other traditional ways of being in and approaching the world.
I came to herbalism in my early twenties. At the time I was living and working in New York City, so sick from the pace and stress of my everyday life that my digestive system stopped working. It was excruciating and after years of fruitlessly seeing specialists I found consistent and profound relief from a simple garden herb.
Stunned, I apprenticed myself to an herbalist to learn more. In the smallest ways, I began mimicking how our ancestors lived. I shifted the way I ate, the amount I worked, the pace at which I moved through the day, the amount of information I took in, the way I spent my free time. I spent a lot of time outside. I found balance and deep satisfaction as I shed some of the stress and trappings of modern life. I had to share it so I teach fun and interesting workshops and make effective herbal body care. They’re incredibly accessible entry points.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’m a teaching folk herbalist. Originally, I apprenticed with an herbalist for a couple years starting in 2015. I began teaching in person workshops after someone reached out to me on Instagram asking if I’d be interested in leading some classes in their shop. Up until that point I’d just been documenting my learning journey publicly. I knew that I’d want to teach herbalism eventually but thought I was some years away from being able to start my own business doing it. The original workshop sold out twice over and I quickly started teaching two or three times a month in different locations around town. I blended my passion for herbalism with my background as a teacher and was challenged from the start to offer enough workshops.
I started a Patreon in the first year of the pandemic when I wasn’t teaching workshops. It’s been an amazing process to regularly create videos, essays, and hands-on projects for my students. Every month, without fail, I teach something new. It could be a 4 part video series on making cheap and effective remedies from a grocery store haul, or an article on herbs for an overwhelmed nervous system, a kit for making an aphrodisiac, or instructions for growing medicinal mushrooms. The momentum of the Patreon led me to create a free learning portal called The Seed Bank. I’m also currently working on a curriculum for teaching clients one-on-one. I love teaching. It’s what I love most about my work through Wild Origins.
I also make high quality body care products that are carefully infused with herbs. I take great pains to thoughtfully formulate my face muds and body oils. While I particularly love teaching I find that I cast a wider net of interest with my products. Not everyone wants to learn about incorporating herbs to manage stress. But so many people love skincare. It gets them excited about herbs.
Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?
This last spring Wild Origins was hit unexpectedly with an enormous bill. My business is small enough that this bill could have been the end of it. For days I was uncertain how I’d stay afloat. It seemed impossible. I decided I’d share openly on social media about the bill and its potential implications and within 48 hours I made enough sales to cover my bill 4 times over. I received many messages from customers about how much my products or workshops impacted them over the years. It was incredible. I’d built Wild Origins into something that was valuable to so many that they rushed to prop it up when it needed some help.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I’ve found that teaching about herbalism through social media has brought me the greatest returns, by far. And I make it as simple as I can for myself because I have so many things to take care of as the only person running Wild Origins. Every month I’m already writing a blog post for my site and I’m creating videos or essays for my Patreon. I take those two or three pieces of longer form content and I break them down into 6-9 posts for Instagram– carousels, reels, stories. The more I teach freely on Instagram the more Patreon subscriptions I garner and the more product sales I make. And it’s far more enjoyable for me to teach than to constantly talk about my products.
Contact Info:
- Website: mywildorigins.com
- Instagram: @wildorigins
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mywildorigins
Image Credits
Meghan Leigh Barnard Rachel Puckett Angela Fortin Stef Streb