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

Jason, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you’re open to it, can you talk to us about the best (or worst) investment you’ve made. What’s the backstory and the relevant context behind why you made the investment

The best investment that we made is professional packaging, once the time was right. All of our packaging was initially done in house and let’s just say was not made for the beatings retail shelves give them. This wasn’t even a blip on our radar, because honestly we didn’t wholesale very much in the beginning. We are still gearing this up. Packaging was always an issue after our first foray into wholesaling.

We put products on the shelves of a local, medium size retailer and things looked great. After just two weeks, while walking through that store, our products were a mess. Not only were they disorganized on the shelves, but the wrappers were torn and some were missing. Let’s just say our soaps were not looking there best at all. This was pretty horrifying to see a representation of our business as such.

We have now found sustainable packaging for retail that is durable and attractive. The cost is significantly more and worth every penny. We definitely got what we paid for. Before finding this packaging we had reservations about delving too far into wholesaling and retail shelves. Those feelings are now gone, and I wish we had moved forward with this earlier.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Greg and I got into the soap and beard oil business, first for ourselves. We wanted products that we knew would benefit our skin and also our peace of mind. When the first soaps were made, they were pretty good; however the creative wheels immediately started turning and improvements were made. As we gave products away for others to use, we immediately received positive feedback and requests for more. We already knew we had created a really top notch product, but having affirmation of this from others really let us know we were doing something right. With that, we spun one soap into many soaps and quickly moved into beard products as well. I focus on the soap line, while Greg is the creative mind behind the beard line.

In addition to providing soaps and beard oils, we have found a nice niche in creating bespoke soaps and oils for individuals and businesses. We will sit down and create something completely original for you, someone you love, or for your business. We have made soaps for coffee shops, breweries, boutiques, and even bars. We have truly been surprised how man people seek us out for these services.

One thing that keeps people coming back is our transparency. We aren’t trying to sell you something with hot air. Our products are what they are…. simple plant based soaps and beard oils using only natural ingredients. We will not sell you something with artificial fragrances or colors. That isn’t what we do. When you smell and see our products, you can tell it is the real deal. All of our fragrances are essential oils and our colors are clays, charcoal, and dried herbs or other vegetation. We give you original creations with in-house oil blends you will not find anywhere else.

There is a huge market out there of individuals that want soap and beard oils made with whole ingredients from the earth, and that is what we provide. Of course, this doesn’t matter to everyone, but those who do value a truly natural product also values our products. We are very proud of our identity of keeping it real, and we will stay this way.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

This is simple and can be described in three words… quality, originality and honesty. When we create a soap or a beard oil, we never lose our vision of making products that only contain ingredients that mother nature provided. When we say our products are natural and healthy, we mean it. We do not use synthetic colors or fragrances and it shows. There is a distinct difference in quality when you are using whole ingredients versus man made junk. A good comparison is food. Think about eating straight from a farmer’s market compared to a fast food drive-thru. It is pretty easy to figure out which you should be putting in your body.

Our customers are very educated and aware of the differences in our products compared to a lot of the box type soap chains and also other small soap and beard oil makers that use synthetic ingredients. They know that the word ‘natural’ can be used very loosely and that ‘natural’ does not always mean truly ‘natural’.

In our market, word of mouth has been our friend, and this would not have happened without holding ourselves to a higher quality, striving to be original, and being honest about what our products are.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

There is no better way for us to get new customers than to meet them in person. When customers discover our products at a market they sell themselves. Seeing the admiration from customers let’s us know we are doing something right. We also know this through our customer retention. So, what it comes down to is getting out there and hustling. We have to be present to get new customers, and then we can really count on those new ones to spread the word, find us at other markets or to purchase on our website.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ussoapandbody.com
• Instagram: @ussoapandbody
• Facebook: @ussoapandbody

Image Credits
Karrie Bickett, Muse Marketing