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

Hi Catherine , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

The business idea and planning for Beyond Words Co. came well before our name. In fact, deciding on the name was one of my biggest challenges as the founder. I went through endless brainstorming sessions and persistent check-ins with friends and family for a name that felt fitting. Nothing was right, and it was beginning be both stressful and a hurdle to actually launching my business. I finally gave up the brainstorming at coffee shops and turned to my own personal collection of greeting card messages that had been written to me when I was going through my own grief journey. Seeking inspiration, I poured over the words of comfort and encouragement. There, inside one of the greeting cards was a phrase that just struck me as perfection for what we were setting out to do. The credit of naming my business goes to a dear friend who wrote those exact healing words in a card when I needed them most. She was referring to the grief I was going through and stated, “…the process is, well, sometimes beyond words…”. The message was written to me in a time I needed it most, although she didn’t know that then. Showing others empathy and kindness through hard times—particularly if you have understanding and compassion because you, too, might have once been in similar shoes, is the most powerful thing we can do. While it took time and patience, Beyond Words Co. is indeed the most beautiful and fitting name for what we do.

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.

Beyond Words Co. was born out of my own grief journey. I was a brand new mom, and my world turned upside-down after an abrupt discovery that my husband was leading a second life. The nature of my circumstances was personal and difficult to talk about, particularly in the midst of embarking on the journey of motherhood. I experienced, understood, and felt the necessity of social, emotional, and physical support through grief. I also witnessed the difficulty of others’ not knowing what to say, or how to help. There was a need to more easily open the door to conversations and support through grief and loss of all kinds. Grief can be isolating and lonely, and I contemplated a better way to help others beyond the traditional greeting cards and flower bouquets.

Born was the idea of care packages that would immediately signal support and thoughtfulness for someone going through a difficult time. Our care packages are first designed with practicality in mind and attention to small details. We include items that help support basic needs of nourishment and rest. We include items of comfort for mind, body, and spirit. This product selection is important to address needs that often fall to the wayside during times of grief and loss.

In addition to practicality of support through grief, our care packages serve to open a door of conversation to check in on others during hard times. When our care package arrives, the recipient immediately knows someone cares for them. An alternative to the often-obligatory floral arrangement, our care packages are a meaningful and a longer-lasting alternative that uniquely demonstrate empathy and thoughtfulness.

From the very beginning, the mission of Beyond Words Co. is to ensure that no one feels alone through life’s hardest times.

I am most proud of the incredible trust and report we have with our customers and recipients to be alongside them during extremely emotional and high-stress times in their lives. We believe this to be one of the most special parts of Beyond Words Co. as we continue to more intentionally build-out our heartfelt processes for customer touch-points and interactions.

Have you ever had to pivot?

From the time I was fifteen years old, I wanted a career in healthcare administration. My first job was at the front desk of a hospital and I loved helping people navigate their healthcare services journey. I quickly moved to the emergency department as I liked the action-packed nature of that department. My undergrad and graduate career was focused on becoming a healthcare leader, and I quickly found a passion working in the field of patient safety and medical error prevention. There was an unbelievable irony that people seeking healthcare services would actually end up harmed by the system of care; I wanted to lead change to decrease that possibility.

For over 10 years, I led teams to learn from circumstances where care didn’t go to plan, or mistakes were made in the course of care delivery, sometimes having fatal consequences for patients. It was hard work for many reasons, but I truly found fulfillment in being part of positive change to make care safer.

In hindsight, that work not only prepared me in many ways when my personal life took an unexpected turn, but it also prepared me well for the nature of my business and the journey of entrepreneurship. There are constant ups, downs, and curveballs for which pivoting isn’t only important, it’s necessary. Additionally, sometimes we do not have control over the circumstances, but we do have control in our response and our mindset. Those lessons were evergreen in my healthcare career as they are in my entrepreneurial journey.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

We have a custom design process that literally puts our hearts in the hands of our customers (well, in their phones in their hands). For our custom designs, customers select a price point and share a bit about the recipient and/or the circumstances for which the care package gift is being sent.

We use that information to design an incredibly personalized care package; it’s an empathetic process to put ourselves as close to the situation as possible to create a gift that is a healing as possible. It’s our highest-touch service for which we can incorporate known favorite colors, scents, flavors or items. We then text a photo of the personalized design (usually within 24 hours) to the customer. As soon as they approve, the care package is packed and shipped.

It’s a high-touch and I’d say “high-care” way that we connect with our ordering customers. These touchpoints create a relationship of trust and loyalty that is incredible important to us. It fills our cup to know that we can play a meaningful role in doing something so caring and personal between the customer and their recipient.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.beyondwordsco.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyondwordsco
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/beyondwordsco/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/64561914

Image Credits
Box photos: Meghan Doll Photography