We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Grace Locklear a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Grace, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
One very conscious deviation I make from industry standard is to make everything by hand, with great attention to detail per unit. For example, the ‘standard’ bar of soap you’ll find in the grocery store is fairly nondescript: usually one color, with no particular design except maybe a logo stamped on. My soaps, on the other hand, feature intricate designs with multiple colors, oftentimes texturing and garnishing each individual bar, and finally beveling each bar by hand for a refined look. This level of intricacy requires far more time and effort per individual bar than your average grocery store soap. Obviously, that’s a red flag to most manufacturers. In this era where mass production is king, why would you focus on a product that isn’t easily scalable? Paradoxically, this is what differentiates my product and why I’m able to succeed – in today’s world of mass production by default, people are increasingly drawn towards products that clearly took genuine attention to create. I know that handmaking each and every product I sell will prevent me from ever being able to sell in a big box store, but that isn’t my goal. I want to reach people who see the value in handmade products and are willing to pay the premium that comes along with it, and the only way to do that is by offering them thoughtfully handcrafted products.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
Before starting Golden Magnolia, I thought I wanted to open a bakery. My very first job was making custom cakes for weddings and events in my hometown, and I eventually planned to go to culinary school. After graduating college, I started working in restaurants and bakeries with the hope of saving enough money to pursue a culinary education. But like with so many others, the pandemic completely upended my plans. I lost both of my restaurant jobs on the same day, and I was suddenly unemployed with a lot of free time on my hands. I knew that there would never be a better time to start a business, so then it was just a question of what I felt like I could get off the ground. I’ve always enjoyed making things with my hands, and from a little research I found that many of the skills that were necessary in baking would be applicable in creating soap and body care products – not only precise recipe formulation, but artistry and attention to detail as well. I made my first batch of soap in April of 2020 (a goat milk and honey recipe) and from that simple seed my entire business has grown and branched out into a wonderful experiment in constantly reforming and improving my products. Now I handcraft not only soaps, but bath bombs, body butter, and wooden wick candles, all created with the goal of inviting people to consciously indulge and create time for themselves. I’ve always been driven by the idea that the artistry and intentionality present in my products can change an act as simple as washing your hands from a mindless chore to a beautiful, multisensory experience to be fully attended to and enjoyed. Between constantly being bombarded with marketing messages and social media, our daily lives are often filled with distractions that don’t allow us to slow down and experience any moment fully. I feel proud knowing that in some small way, my products are helping mitigate that overstimulation to provide small, but hardly inconsequential, moments of peace to my customers.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Perhaps the most difficult challenge I’ve faced yet is unlearning the mindset that working harder always means better results. It’s a difficult balancing act – as a one person handmade business, there are seemingly endless tasks to tend to: actual production, staying current on social media, inventory management, fulfilling orders, R&D for new products. And of course, these tasks do have to be taken care of, but burnout is always right around the corner when I convince myself that if I just do more, business will be better. At a certain point, the law of diminishing returns must come into play. When I’m trying to make too many things happen with the limited resources of my time and energy, eventually both the quality and quantity of my output stops. As a person who’s (perhaps compulsively) progress-oriented, it’s counterintuitive for me to accept that maybe resting or slowing the pace of progress will yield superior results, but I’m finding more and more that it’s true. The wheels of the business only keep turning and allowing upward progress when I take care of the most valuable resource my business has – me. I’m learning how to accept that sometimes I set my sights for what I can achieve within a given timeframe a little too high, but that realization doesn’t have to come with a sense of shame or failure. In fact, it’s a sign of maturity to stop and reevaluate how you stand in relation to your work as opposed to mindlessly chugging away at tasks because “it has to get done”. I find that when I can stop feeding into that compulsively productive mindset, it actually restores the ability for creative insight that not only allows me to feel joy in my work, but also makes my product unique and thus attractive to customers in a saturated market. So, “work smarter, not harder” shouldn’t be just a cliche for me and my fellow small business owners, it’s a lifeline that enables both you and your business to thrive.
What’s been the best source of new clients for you?
The majority of my customer base has come from my local farmer’s market. This has definitely been a surprise to me; when I started my business I assumed that ecommerce would be my main sales channel and I would maybe do a few local pop ups on the side to supplement. I failed to consider that I had no prior experience with advertising, social media management or SEO tactics, and without having the budget to outsource these tasks it was going to be a long uphill journey to get traction online. So, as we all have to do sometimes, I pivoted. Vending at pop ups and other temporary markets has been a game changer for my business. After less than a year of consistently attending my local farmer’s market (the sales from which represent over half of my total sales), I’ve gained brand recognition that has lead to wholesale relationships and plenty of repeat customers. While increased sales is obviously the most significant driving factor in attending the market, it’s also allowed me to be a part of a truly beautiful community that’s focused on genuinely uplifting and supporting others. It’s made networking not only bearable but enjoyable (and this is coming from an introvert who’s been uncomfortable with social interaction most of her life). Actually meeting and interacting with my customers and watching my business grow through pop ups has been one of the most rewarding elements of owning Golden Magnolia for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.goldenmagnoliabathandbody.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/golden.magnolia.bath.and.body/
Image Credits
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