We recently connected with Dr. Elena Brei and have shared our conversation below.
Dr. Elena, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?
Success for me is ultimately an inner and personal perspective. Some are successful if their business allows them to pay their bills, send their kids to a good school while for others it’s a billion dollar business or nothing. For myself at NuVsio and Dr. Brei Laboratories success is defined as helping others attain true health and happiness. We hear so often how inner health and a healthy complexion is critical to our self esteem, but its much more than that. A healthy body and a healthy complexion drives our will to live, our will to get out and experience the world, and our will to connect with each other. I made my discoveries in the technology of healthier bodies and skin during my Ph.D. research at the University of Toronto. If you were to ask me then “what do you think it takes to be successful?”, as a Doctor of Biology and Chemical Engineering I would have most likely stated “a technological breakthrough”, but that was a decade ago. Today I would tell you the following.
The cost of entry into any industry is an insight of some form. The best insight being a true technological breakthrough and in this area we at NuVsio are blessed. However, that’s just the price of admission. To bring that insight or technology forward you have to have three key pillars. Those pillars are 1. a deep understanding of the value to bring, 2. a deep understanding of the risks associated with your industry, and 3. a clear roadmap of your expected business journey. These three pillars must be set up and constantly re-defined as you progress, or the bumps in the road will eventually topple your entire business infrastructure. So lets examine these in more detail.
First, you have to know what value to bring to the table. Best example of that is to visualize why someone would purchase from you if another company had the exact same product. What would drive someone to choose you over the competition? And this does not mean every person, just a key demographic you wish to pursue because you feel you bring key and unique value.
Second, the risks should be clear and you need to be brutally honest with yourself. If you’re selling ice cream then inventory is your biggest risk for should it melt you’re in trouble. If you’re selling nail polish then the number of SKUs and constantly changing color pallets may be your biggest risk, both from the inventory as well as sourcing of raw materials side. Be honest and realistic in your risk assessment and trust that your cognitive subconscious will eventually work out these risks over time. The power of the mind is such that it will find solutions to problems that we ruminate on long enough.
Lastly, you should map out your business journey, picture how your product or service will flow from your organization to your distributors to the end consumer. How does the value you offer change or become hidden or perhaps is misunderstood in this road map? How do some of the risks surface and where and why?
If you can hold these 3 key aspects in your mind at all times, I really don’t see how anyone cannot find success. Juggling these 3 aspects will force you to seek advice, to connect with other business professionals and to most importantly know when to say no versus yes to any new opportunity or customer.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
As a Ukrainian child immigrant moving to North America was a big paradigm shift for me. Since I didn’t yet grasp the language and couldn’t relate to a lot of content on TV I dove into books. Perhaps as a protective mechanism I doubled down on my studies, stuck my nose in science books and many years later received my Ph.D. Doctorate at the prestigious University of Toronto’s Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry department that encompassed both water and microbiome research. During my early University days I struggled a lot with acne which made my introverted personality even more introverted. Then a friend taught me to use makeup to cover my acne and after many snake oil products I found a dermatologist who put me on very strong antibiotics and topical medications that controlled my acne but caused other negative side effects that persisted for years and gave rise to my then dermatitis. During my University days I barely managed to get my acne under control when another friend talked me into some modelling gigs. This was a part-time hobby that eventually landed me a representation with the Elite modelling agency. Well modelling and runways did not help my acne, as the heavy makeup caused my skin to erupt. All of this drama was occurring as I was digging deeper into my scientific research topics and eventually I hit the Eureka moment and created NuVsio cosmetics, a holistic skincare company that helps heal and correct deep and persistent skin care issues. A huge amount of research and insight went into creating NuVsio skincare and Dr. Brei Laboratories Inc. But thanks to my journey I also gained the persistence to always offer cutting edge products that work, with no compromises. I won’t push a product unless it works, and I won’t modify a product if that modification detracts from it’s efficacy even if it gives us higher profits or other benefits. I won’t compromise because everything I do still has that little insecure girl inside of me telling me that my products will be used by men and women who have struggled just like I did, and I owe it to them to put the best possible products on the market. We have spent countless hours at NuVsio ensuring our raw material sourcing, our production our quality control and our technology are the best in the business and I intend to continue to do so for as long as I run the business.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Resilience and NuVsio are to me virtually the same word. A year after starting my company I welcomed my baby daughter. Imagine staring a company, selecting and designing the production equipment ( we produce everything ourselves), running production, and having time at night to advertise your products all while you’re breastfeeding and juggling diapers. Two years later my son was born, and the business was only growing. My husband and family helped, my mom babysat when she could and my husband was a blessing and a wonderful business mentor, especially when obstacles and rejections would get me down. At times it can feel like you’re drowning, you’re walking down a path few travel and even fewer can help you or advise, but somehow I took every day one day at a time and here we are today, a successful and thriving business. The journey continues.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
When we first started well over a decade ago, we struggled to explain what our skincare product did and how it worked. We used words like purity or detoxification, but the true mechanism was at that time too complex to put into words. A few years into my entrepreneurial adventure I decided to exhibit at a cosmetics trade show in New York city, and I still recall a Spa Manager walking to our booth and asking us what we do. She wanted an elevator pitch and I failed to give her a 30 second pitch. After all, how do you describe a revolutionary skincare line with well over 50 benefits in a few words? I can still see her eyes rolling up in her head as she walked away dissapointed. Too impatient to hear my story. I realized that I may be good at technology but I’m horrible at marketing. So, I decided to take a break and walk the show, and as I walked I stopped by many of the booths and asked them about their products to see how they pitched their respective companies. To my amazement as I spoke with these professionals I discovered that they did understand terminology such as the microbiome. I hurried back to my booth where my business partner was and in a very excited tone I told him that we can rebrand. After that day we changed all of our packaging, our website, almost everything and to this day we are proud to describe our products properly, all thanks to keeping our eyes and ears open and realizing that eventually the industry’s vernacular can and often does change to your benefit, even if you are ahead of the curve.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.nuvsio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr_brei_nuvsio
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/startpure
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nuvsio/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/nuvsio
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/NuVsio_StartPure
Image Credits
Photographers: Megha Ray of Thunderbolt Photos, Max Safaryan of PixlArte Studio, Joanna Wnukowska of Storm Studios. Creative directors: Dev Chakravorty and Jake Jevric