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

Deanna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today 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.

As the daughter of a nurse, I went into the medical professional in the 90s after receiving a degree in Psychology from Barry University. I earned my LPN certification and worked as a hospital floor nurse, a wound-care nurse and in-home healthcare for 15 years.

Following the recession of 2007-08, I was looking to make a career change. A friend stopped by my home and hit me with an idea that would soon change my life. After a visit to my bathroom this friend came out and said “why do you have so many creams and lotions?” I took a moment to explain that I had been trying different products in search of relief for my psoriasis and eczema. I explained that I was getting rid of products with chemical names I couldn’t pronounce, and had found relief with products containing simple ingredients I knew. It was after this conversation, that I decided to go into the skin care business.

In 2009, I opened Naples Soap Company. I worked with different manufacturers to produce products that omitted what I called “Badditives.” It was a list of chemical ingredients that I never wanted to include in my formulas. I started with soaps, body butters, sea salt scrubs, bath bombs and shampoo bars. Today my product line-up contains over 600 skus, and I’ve stayed true to avoiding those bad ingredients. I consider myself to be a pioneer in the natural skin care space before it was the trend.

Deanna, 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 always like to say, “when I see a problem, I want to solve that problem.” So, in my case, I had a serious problem with my skin. I suffered from psoriasis and eczema for most of my life. When my daughter was born, she also was also afflicted with the painful itch of eczema. We tried everything in search of relief. Prescription medications, over-the-counter creams, old wives’ tale treatments – you name it. I was a formally trained nurse, and I am a self-proclaimed research rat. I knew there had to be a better way to find relief for both of us.

I started researching the chemical names that I was reading on the labels of my shampoo, soaps and make-up. I was shocked by the chemicals that were in use in virtually all of the products found in my bathroom. I decided to “detox” what I was using on my skin, so I turned to products made with natural ingredients like olive oil, coconut oil, shea butter, sea salt and more. Soon after, I started to see real results in my skin and my daughter’s skin. I knew I was on to something.

In 2009, I decided to open a small 300 square foot retail store in Naples, Florida in a tourist mall. I sold soaps made with olive oil, body butters made with cocoa and shea butters, and bath bombs made with real Epsom salt. I put out a sign out front that read “Eczema Relief Is Here.” To my surprise, customers would come in and tell me about their own personal skin experiences or share stories of family members who were suffering. I quickly developed a loyal following of customers – some with eczema and others that just wanted a better skin care alternative. I like to say, we were selling natural and organic skin care long before it was the trend. Within six months, I opened my second store in Punta Gorda and from there, we just continued to grow.

Today, we are publicly traded (OTCQB: NASO), operate 13 retail stores around Florida, sell our products direct-to-consumers through our website (naplessoap.com) and Amazon.com, and we sell wholesale our products to spas and retailers across the United States.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

With 13 stores across the state of Florida, most of which are on the coast, we have had many opportunities to showcase our resiliency. We have been hit by more hurricanes than I care to count. Over the years, we have had a few stores completely decimated, such as our Sanibel, Fort Myers and Naples stores by hurricanes. We’ve had our warehouse roof cave in (also during a hurricane). We’ve been through store closures associated during COVID lockdowns. We’ve tried to build out new locations only to run into construction, labor and supply issues. And, we’ve even had a pool leak that was located above one of our store locations. We have been dealt our fair share of difficulties, but I prefer to think of the positive. We have a super solid business continuity plan and multiple sales channels to make-up for the unexpected.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

We are blessed to have a very loyal client base. One of our most important strategies with customer retention and growth is our actual products. We provide a consistent product that our customers will fall in love with and want to buy again and again. In turn, these same customers share our products with their friends and family.
Another thing we do well is to stay in touch with our clients. We have a robust email collection program, and we use it often to notify customers about new product releases and special promotions. We actively collect product reviews, and we share these through a variety of platforms including traditional media (such as print, TV and radio) and we’ve embraced social media as a way to stay in touch with our customers through Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Linkedin, YouTube and TikTok.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.naplessoap.com
• Instagram: naplessoap
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/naplessoap
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/2794703
• Twitter: https://x.com/naplessoap
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@naplessoapcompany
• Other: TikTok – www.tiktok.com/@naplessoap
  Pinterest – www.pinterest.com/naplessoap/