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

Alright, Christine thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about one of the craziest things you’ve experienced in your journey so far.

One night I got a call from the CEO of ClickSpray, a cannabis oral spray I worked on in 2020. Justin Bieber had reportedly just left a dispensary in Hollywood with over $1000 worth of goodies, including 2 Clicks. It was exciting to know that LA celebrities were trying my clients’ flavors and formulations and enjoying them! I’ve also had the pleasure of working with clients such as actress Ashley Greene Khoury (Twilight) on her Hummingway PMS patches and the Mike Tyson team for the Tyson 2.0 x ClickSpray collaboration with Orange Punch flavor. My dream is to work with Snoop Dogg on a cannabis brand someday.

Christine, 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?

I fell in love with chemistry at the age of 7 when I got my first Barbie ShrinkyDinks. Coming from a science and math family, it made sense to major in Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M and later, get a Master’s at the University of Rochester. I went on to work for several Fortune 500 companies early in my career such as Bayer AG, ARCO Chemical, Eastman Kodak, and Invitrogen (now ThermoFisher Scientific) I learned about research and development, scale-up, manufacturing, and compliance in these large companies, and later took that knowledge to smaller start=up companies, which were fast-paced and could pivot quickly to customers’ needs.

Six years ago, I moved to San Diego and started a small formulation company with partners. Over time, our visions changed and I went on to start ChemE Queen Bee in 2019 so that I could focus on high-quality, all-natural product formulations for beauty and wellness, sports and nutrition, and CBD, cannabis, and soon, mushrooms. I love that I help other small businesses and start-ups launch their own line of products. For spas and gyms that suffered through the pandemic, having a second income stream of products helps diversify their income. I’m also proud that I’ve stuck to my vision, keeping the formulations clean and the company small so that I can create great relationships with my clients. What sets me apart is making sure my clients own their recipes and try prototypes BEFORE dropping thousands with a large manufacturer. I also share my amazing network with my clients including packaging experts and vendors, natural manufacturers of all kinds, and organic/vegan/Kosher/Halal ingredient suppliers, so they feel supported through their product launch process.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I come from a big family of science and math nerds who love logic and steady paychecks and are not big risk-takers. So I had to force myself to overcome that side of me in order to take the risk of starting my own business. Finding a group of women entrepreneurs like Hera Hub, has helped give me confidence and feel the support we all need when we jump career paths into entrepreneurship. But I also make a point to regularly take risks that make me slightly uncomfortable, like speaking at the ACS National Conference in 2022, or reaching out to my favorite celebrities to launch their brands. The biggest risk I’ve ever taken was the scariest by far, skydiving with my son for his 18th birthday. I did it for three reasons: I wanted to reach terminal velocity, I wanted to do something that scared me to the core, and I wanted to keep a promise I had made to my son 5 years ago. We took the last flight up before sunset over Oceanside, and I was fine until that door opened and people started flying out! Like a scared cat, I clung to the door before we fell backward into the 13,000 feet below. The view of the sun dipping into the Pacific Ocean was spectacular, and we glided back to the ground just in time to see my son land after us. High on adrenaline, we laughed all the way back to the car, and he was already asking when we could go again. Skydiving showed me how important it is to have people in your life who will push you to take calculated risks so that you live a life of no regrets.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

If small business owners learned anything from a global pandemic, it’s that they have to pivot quickly to meet the needs of the marketplace and survive. I launched ChemE Queen Bee in October of 2019, five months before the pandemic. was in full swing. I also launched my own line of CBD beauty products that quarter, but quickly found that I didn’t have the marketing to support my own brand. I was enjoying formulating unique products for my clients, so I pivoted to the formulation side of my company and began creating private label products to help small businesses launch on a small budget. In the meantime, as the company grew, I leased a lab and manufacturing space and tried to grow the production side of the company. But soon keeping up with the compliance for several industries and employee regulations was becoming too much. So I pivoted again earlier this year after a chat with a mentor who has 35 years in the cosmetics industry as the owner of a cGMP manufacturing facility. She told me that my gift is using the latest research to create unique formulations, and I have two degrees and plenty of experience to back it up. Why not make life simpler by partnering with manufacturers and going back to focusing solely on my core business? What I love most is creating a recipe and prototypes for clients who get to hold their ideas in their hands. I’ve created products that help people, from shampoo for regrowing hair (Tresses Organics) to Vitamin C immunity elixirs (Righteous Nutrition), and even custom blends for family going through cancer treatment. Streamlining the business allows me time to nurture long-term relationships with my clients, keep less overhead, and really push the science and engineering side of formulations. I’m back to focusing on what I love and why I got into this business in the first place.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chemequeenbee.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chemequeenbee
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chemequeenbee
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/christineklahn
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/XirQgOj_wJw
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/episode/691D0PNu22egmHLotZFr42

Image Credits
Corrine Ishio and Josh Walsh took event and product photos in the lab. The Tyson photo was provided by my client, ClickSpray, and I have an email with permission to use it. Jump Oceanside took the skydiving photos as part of a package we paid for.