Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to April Robbins. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

April, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

We want people to be able to enjoy the outdoors bug free and without having to resort to the use of chemicals in order to do it. So many people choose to stay indoors all year round because they do not want to mess with all of the bugs and that is sad, and they are missing out on a lot of fun and fresh air. We personally love the outdoors and have been able to be outside at our house without any bugs for several years now. It took a while for us to realize it is because of all of the herbs that are planted. We then did a lot of research to see what we could do so that everyone else could do the same. We started off with candles and then added the sprays after we had them scientifically tested. The sprays are scientifically proven to be 100% repellent even at 2 hours. The sprays are also soft and easy on the skin and have an easy-going pleasant scent. We love to hear people tell us that they are now able to get back outside and enjoy it again.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have been gardening since I was a little kid, having been taught by my grandmother who was well known for her gardening skills. I have continued to garden and several years ago decided to grow herbs along with everything else. The more herbs that were planted the less there were of nasty bugs. We have been able to enjoy being outside at our house without getting eaten alive. Once we realized these herbs were doing this, we wanted to figure out a way so that everyone else could do the same without having to resort to the use of chemicals. What is unique about all of our products is that the herbs we grow, and harvest are in each and every one. Our candles are unique because they can be used both indoors and outdoors. Indoors the herbs provide a calm, soothing, relaxing atmosphere. Outdoors the candles keep the entire sitting area bug free. Our sprays have been scientifically tested and are proven to be 100% repellent even at 2 hours. The sprays are soft and easy on the skin and have an easy pleasant to them as well. The sprays not only repel mosquitoes but also gnats, buffalo gnats, no-seeums, biting flies, deer flies, horse flies, chiggers, ticks, and more.

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

In 1998 I started a bookkeeping and tax business. I was doing that full time when we decided to start this company in 2019. We didn’t actually have everything finalized and ready in 2019 but we knew we wanted to move forward with this. It was not until the middle of 2020 when Covid was in full swing that we actually made our first sale and got into a store. In 2021 we were able to get into more stores and even a chain store at the end of the summer. That is when I realized I was not going to be able to do both businesses and need to choose one. I chose this company and after nearly 25 years of bookkeeping and taxes, I retired out of it to focus solely on this. It was a complete 180 degree change. It is scary having to go back and start over and from scratch again, but I have learned you have to stay focused and take one day at a time.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

We make all of our products ourselves. It all starts with growing and harvesting the herbs. Once the herbs are cut, they have to dry. Once they are completely dried, then they are crunched up and then ground up in a grinder. We had never made candles or sprays before, so we had a lot to learn and did a lot of research. It took us several attempts and tries for each one. We originally only did one wick in each candle but soon learned that the entire candle would not burn evenly so we then switched to two wicks for each candle. The sprays we had to follow EPA guidelines and we had to find the right base that was good and easy on the skin. We have since been able to get better machinery so that we are able to produce more products in a shorter time span saving us quite a bit of time so we can focus on other things.     

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