Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Christie Duffy. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Christie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I grew up on an island in Lake Erie, called Put-in-Bay and am a fifth generation Island Girl. My great-grandmother, whom I’m named after, also lived on the island and raised her 12 children there. She made a medicinal salve, that we simply referred to as “Gramma’s Salve.” We didn’t have fancy Neosporin for cuts and scrapes, but instead, we had the salve. It was gooey and had such a distinct medicinal scent and anytime I scraped my knee or wrecked on my bike, this bottle of salve would come out of the medicine cabinet. It always made me feel better and healed all our family’s ailments.
Much later in my life, I was teaching elementary school and raising my two daughters on the island, and my oldest, Anna became very ill. Many doctor appointments – including several to the big city of Cleveland – we discovered she had a peptic ulcer and many food allergies During this healing journey, I also realized I had high levels of mercury in my body, most likely due to the fact that I grew up in Lake Erie, that at one time, was heavily polluted. Something had to change.
During this healing journey, I started bringing myself to the TRUTH of what is in our food, food, cleaning products and finally, body and skin care. The journey toward better health began. Any mom would do the same! I also became more away of environmental pollutants, like our island well water that we’d all been drinking. Water filtration became important. I remember getting rid of our processed food, changed the way I cleaned (vinegar became my best friend!) and, decided to buy different bath and body stuff, instead of the usual products purchased at the big stores.
However, even the “natural” stuff wasn’t so natural after all. I had to really read and educate myself. And, because my family and I used bath and body products EACH AND EVERY SINGLE DAY, these chemicals were being absorbed into not only my body, but my young daughters, too.
I recalled my great-grandma and how they must’ve all lived on the island all those years without the products we’d all been using. So, I called my mom, who called her sister, (both still lived on the island) and I got the secret family recipe for my Gramma’s healing Salve. I thought this would be a better product to use, versus other store bought “healing” ointments. After gathering the ingredients, I made it and that familiar healing scent came back to me, giving me confidence.
I could make stuff myself and control the ingredients, too. I made my now best -selling product, Lavender Balm the next night. As a teacher, I was always washing my hands and I needed something that worked and wasn’t “bad” for us all.
I became so curious and began playing in my kitchen almost every night after school. These concoctions were then brought into school with me to give away to teachers, the school secretary, Randi, even the principal! I then started giving out my balms and salves to my students when they had boo-boos. They all loved it. My students encouraged me to sell my stuff. So, I did.
Christie, 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?
I love it when my skin care products help someone. For instance, a former sixth grade student of mine, now in college, uses Lavender Balm for her eczema and no longer has to purchase expensive steroid cream. Another long-term customer tells me how her face is no longer breaking out and having itchy reactions because she’s using my Lavender Skin Care. I believe it’s because I use real plants that help us heal naturally and other organic ingredients. I’m very proud of the fact that my products don’t contain harmful chemicals, parabens or synthetic fragrances. I believe these ingredients can be harmful and cause many to have negative reactions.
I am also very proud of the fact that my containers aren’t adding unnecessary plastic waste to our oceans and landfills.
“When we know better, we must do better,” said the great poet Maya Angelou. My company is doing this.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Much of what I do in my business is supported by the work of Louise Hay, for it was her who helped me believe in myself. Her work talks about the “talk in your head” that we all do on a regular basis. If the talk is negative, for instance, “You can’t start a business without the proper degree or money,” then, you won’t make it. I had to learn by way of daily affirmations and positive self-talk, that indeed, I could do it.
After ten years of business ownership and now a recent rebranding and redirecting of my business, I still use positive affirmations and have sticky-notes to myself all over my desk and surrounding walls. Words such as, “Be Curious” “Beauty” She believed she could, so she did,” are all around.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Business, like life, has lots of ups and downs and resilience is built along the way. My business journey began a long time before I even opened up shop.
While in college, I became pregnant with my oldest daughter, Anna. She is now 28 years old! During that time, I didn’t know how I was going to continue to support myself, pay my tuition or feed my child. So, I got resourceful and learned about public assistance. I received help in the way of living in a low-income housing development, using food stamps to buy my groceries, and getting free milk and juice from a program called WIC. I did this for about a year so I could graduate college.
This time of my life was humbling. My social worker would scroll through my checkbook and ask where and how I spent every cent. I had nothing to hide from her, but still, it was humiliating.
Ever since this time, I made a vow to myself to never be that broke again and to give back. It’s one of my goals to have enough money to donate and give to charities in BIG ways. I believe my business will grow beyond everyone’s imagination and I will be able to give back.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Kelli Krassow and Sara Sekula/Sarahsomewhere