We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ciara Herring. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ciara below.

Ciara, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

When I first started my business, it wasn’t really a business. It was me trying to find a way to holistically heal myself from a reproductive issue that I knew I had that no doctor could give me the answer to a little bit about my background. I have an undergrad and Biomedand Have a research associates degree and so I’ve always been in the science field was looking to become a neurological researcher upon completing my undergrad and starting to look at medical schools. I realize that I really didn’t want to be a part of the system that didn’t put preventative healthcare first , this idea took place because throughout school I was also suffering from a disease that no one could give me the name to. I started losing my hair. I was gaining weight as an athlete of two sports a starter on the basketball team, and a field shotput thrower who compete at nationals three years in a row , no one could tell me what was going on with my body, but I knew it was something so I tirelessly looked through reports of this and other women, especially other young black women and I started to find links to diabetes. I then came across something called PCOS or polycystic ovarian syndrome , because this could only be detected, and in an assured way through bloodwork, I knew I couldn’t diagnose myself, so I started logging my symptoms with made them worse what made them subside and by year to I knew, without a shadow of a doubt that I had PCOS over the next six years I will go to countless doctors and Specialist OB/GYN‘s begging them to test me for PCOS because I live such an active lifestyle and already had a decent diet it wasn’t showing in my bloodwork but I knew that I had PCOS one of the risky risky things and I stopped treating myself holistically to see what would happen. I gained 40 pounds started to see some facial hair rise suffered from hair to, and I also had a miscarriage , during that time I went to a specialist that I had previously spoken to and she confirmed what I knew all along that I was and definitely gonna face the struggle with PCOS that kind of story went backwards in reverse, but it let me know that preventative medicine, especially holistic, and herbal care truly works And I want other people to have that same luxury I did not go to medical school I pursued certificate and herbology I study and received a certificate for urban agriculture, and I spent the next 2 to 3 years with different tea combinations and helping anyone who felt helpless enough and desperate enough to trust a 23-year-old biology graduate to help them with their health Even though it took time I can say that I effectively helped one couple with which one partner had PCOS have a child naturally and conceived naturally at that moment, I knew it was time for me to share my idea with the world I started out by selling beauty care products in order to get awareness of my brand even in my beauty care products I always made my soap from scratch and infused with herbs During the pandemic, I was able to become a six figure business

Ciara, 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?

Name is Ciara Herring, and I am a biologist herbalist and urban agriculturalist. I’m from Cleveland Ohio, which is a food desert and sometimes feel like a forgotten place for diverse communities. I knew I wanted to be a doctor from a young age so I pursued research as well as biology and college. After falling in love with an immunology class. I knew that I wanted to learn more about how the ecosystem within produced results on the outside. I have a boutique that handcraft custom Herbal tees for supplemental medicinal and taste benefits For busy professionals to improve their overall hill without uprooting there compact what makes my brand different is the fact that everyone has their own herbal mixture based on their family history goals, allergies and make up. I am most proud of providing a form of preventative healthcare for those who often feel like their health and well-being is not in their hands. I love to get innovative and create signature innovations, such as my herbal Kool-Aid and ready-made juice elixirs

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

In 2022 my brand took a break to rebrand to increase Our ability to scale. this came with having to create a new website with a new domain and site. I had been working on this rebrand for six months tirelessly 48 hours my rebrand I found out that my website host and payment processing system had taken down my site and banned me because I was selling herbs, which is slang word, commonly used when describing marijuana. I feel devastated because this that my website domain would also take a while to transfer to a new place despite this interruption I went to market and excepting clients that could only pay invoices fast-forward to next week, and I will be dropping my site with the same domain with another parent site that supports my business

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I was very transparent about my journey as a business owners specifically on Twitter, and as a former researcher, I took all the data that I received from insights on my social media, and I started to craft experiments that I allow my audience to sit on and other small business owners to use at their own discretion as my methods improved, and my experiments prove time and time again, that social psychology and cell psychology aren’t dead. My audience grew and trusted me as a teacher and overall trustworthy person and this let me to my first six figure year.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @renewedapothecary
• Linkedin: @Ciara Herring

Image Credits
Shelly Gates