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

Hi Joy, thanks for joining us today. Risk taking is something we’re really interested in and we’d love to hear the story of a risk you’ve taken.

I have never considered myself a risk taker, but when I look back on my life, my story is based on the two most significant risks I have ever taken.

2014 I enrolled in a Cold Process Soap-making class and fell in love. At that time, I had been employed by the City of San Diego for over 12 years. My retirement and future were set, or so I thought.

My job paid well and provided good benefits for me and my kids; however, after taking the soap-making class, I knew soap-making wouldn’t suffice as just a hobby. I loved the process and the soaps I made so much for my very sensitive skin, I wanted to share it with everyone. I didn’t leave my job, but I jumped both feet into starting my own business, and Sweet Surrender was born.

Working full time, raising my three boys, and taking online classes, you’d think my hands were full enough, but I had to add business ownership to my already full plate. Making soap was all I could think about. I began doing local craft fairs with little success; however, the few sales and reviews I received fueled my desire even more. I began looking for more shows to attend to share my soaps and couldn’t find much that accommodated my work schedule but I kept trying.

In 2016, a few of my close co-workers were in the planning stages of their upcoming retirement and shared with me their ideas for relocating. It became the primary topic of conversation most days, and soon I began looking at other opportunities for myself outside of San Diego, the only home I’ve ever known.

As I considered schools for my youngest son, I started seeing all the community events held year-round in the various cities I began researching. Not only did I find great schools for my son, I started seeing so many wonderful possibilities for my family and business. It wasn’t long before I too was bitten by the relocation bug.

Not thinking much of it, I began looking for jobs with the government agencies in the cities I was most interested in. I know it can take several months, even years, to get an interview with government municipalities so I thought, why not? It’s not like anyone will call me anytime soon. I couldn’t have been more wrong!

My resume and application for the first job I applied for were accepted within a week! After my name was placed on a hiring list, I was called and offered an interview two weeks later! I was scared, nervous, and so excited I didn’t know what to do.

I went from listening and talking to my friends about their plans for retirement to becoming the one who was relocating! I accepted the interview but didn’t get the job, but a fire was lit! I applied for two more positions, and in November, was offered a job with Clark County, in Nevada. I had no family, no friends in Nevada but something in my heart told me I had to go.

In January 2017, I resigned my from job of sixteen years with the City of San Diego, packed up two of my three children, took a leap of faith, and to Henderson, Nevada I went! I wish I could say, all worked out according to plan, but it didn’t.

I injured myself moving into my new home before I started work. In March, I was relieved of duty because the injuries sustained went too long without medical treatment and I couldn’t walk or put pressure on my knee. I was devastated as I’d never been fired before.

I panicked for a couple of days, but soon came to the realization, that I did in fact have money. I worked long enough to have my rent and expenses covered for a couple of months, and I had my retirement from the City of San Diego to fall back on. It was then I decided, to go wholeheartedly after my dreams and become self-employed and work my business full-time.

The journey has not been easy. I’ve hit many rough patches along the way, but I think of my options of still being in San Diego working for the city, and just dreaming of having more for myself and my family, the risks, the twists, and turns I took to get to this point have all be worthwhile.

I’m not yet where I want to be with my business, but I know I’ll get there and when I do, I know I won’t have any regrets.

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.

I have always struggled with sensitive skin. As a kid my skin would be so dry and ashy it was embarrassing, but it just became a part of my life.

As an adult, I struggled to keep my skin moisturized. I’d take a shower and slather on lotion and just five minutes later, my skin would be so dry as if I didn’t do anything. I’d put lotion on my hands and still, they were dry, itchy, and would have white ashy lines from my scratching all the time. It got to a point, where I would keep my hands in my pockets most of the time to hide them away from stares and unsolicited comments.

Before I began my soap-making classes in 2014, I received a chemical burn on my scalp from a perm left on too long. I have no idea why I never went to see a doctor or dermatologist. In my community, it was just one of those things that happened at the beauty shop if you scratched your scalp before getting your hair done, or if your stylist got busy with another client and left you waiting just a little too long.

My scalp and hair were in bad condition and I wanted to soothe the burn without irritating it with other chemicals, but I couldn’t find anything that helped. I tried an antibiotic cream Neosporin, but that only helped so much, and it was so thick, I didn’t want it building up in my hair so I kept looking.

Not finding anything, I took to researching on the internet for natural remedies. I didn’t want to use chemicals on a chemical burn so I started mixing up various oils and butter to create my own solution. I took a sample to my soap-making class to get tips on how to improve the texture and fine-tune my formulation and I noticed not only a difference in my scalp and hair, but my hands from applying it!

Finally! My hands were soft and not dry and ashy! I was totally overjoyed and knew I was on to something great! I tweaked my formula and my whipped body butter was born!

It’s such a wonderful, decadent, and emollient formula I had to share it with other women like me suffering from dry, itchy, sensitive skin. I no longer felt embarrassed about my hands or arms anymore and my confidence level was through the roof!

If my body butter made this much difference in my skin and my self-confidence, keeping it to myself was not an option. I want all women to feel confident and beautiful in their skin. No one deserves to be or feel ashamed of their bodies. No one should shy away from being touched because their skin is dry and rough.

All women and all bodies are beautiful and Sweet Surrender is a brand that helps women feel more beautiful and confident in themselves through daily self-care. It’s amazing the transformation a woman’s skin and her confidence undergoes when she begins using the right products.

Daily self-care doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. Just making a few small, yet powerful changes to your existing routine can be the difference between skin that’s rough, dry, and itchy, and skin that’s soft, smooth, and radiant.

I’m so happy to have been able to develop products that are the perfect combination of luxury and functionality so women can pamper themselves every day and get the soft, smooth, and radiant skin they deserve without having to disrupt their already busy schedules.

I’m truly honored women trust Sweet Surrender and our Spa-Quality Bath & Body Care to partner with them on their journey to beautiful, glowing, healthy skin.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

When I initially started Sweet Surrender in 2014, I was bootstrapping everything, and I still am. I don’t recall there being very many options I could afford so I designed my business cards and my website on VistaPrint. Most people laugh when I tell them that because most had no clue VistaPrint offered website hosting but they served their purpose and it got the job done.

I remained with VistaPrint for my website for several years before moving over to Etsy in 2017. I think Etsy was still relatively new which was a blessing and a curse. Because it was still relatively new, or at least new to me, I wasn’t as lost in a sea of soap and cosmetics makers. There was still a chance for good visibility; however, their SEO (search engine optimization) practices and algorithms were changing on a daily basis.

It was so hard to figure out what worked and what didn’t. Just about every week there seemed to be a blurb in their newsletter about best practices for your listing to get the most visibility. In addition to that, you had to pay for each listing in addition to your monthly hosting fees. I could have taken the cheap route and listed one soap and then shown a variation of other soaps as options, but that wasn’t what I really wanted to do. I wanted my site to feel like a little online boutique so I eventually began doing research and decided on Shopify.

I’m glad I made the switch to Shopify. It’s about as close to custom as you can get without having to pay for developers, designers, and everything else that goes with building your own website. The app store has so many apps to choose from to help with a myriad of solutions from SEO, to marketing, and everything in between, and as long as you don’t go crazy with the apps, the plan is very affordable.

I can list as many products and variants on my website as I like without having to pay per listing and there are built-in SEO features in every theme so, for me it was a no-brainer.

If I ever have to make a recommendation, I always recommend to do what’s best for you and your budget. Start where you are and work your way up. If that means starting with a few listings on Etsy until you get steady sales and can upgrade, go for it. If you can start with Shopify from the very start, great! Do what makes sense for you and your business.

We’d really appreciate if you could talk to us about how you figured out the manufacturing process.

As a matter of fact, yes, I do manufacture my own products. I started in 2014 with Cold Process Soap-making classes and I loved it so much that I then took classes on how to formulate bath bombs, scrubs, lotions, and liquid soaps.

I learned very quickly that there are lots of free and paid recipes on the internet, but not only are all of them not reliable or formulated properly, they are someone else’s creations.

Learning how to properly formulate has allowed me to be as creative and unique as I want to be. I may have the same type of products as another company, but I can guarantee it won’t be the same.

It’s like three chefs making the same recipe, the dish may be the same, but each will be unique and different in its own way. Knowing how to formulate and manufacture my own products is so much fun for me. I love taking several oils, butters, and mixing them with the other raw ingredients and making something truly unique that makes you feel and smell soft and beautiful.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sweet-surrender.biz
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/sweet_surrender_co
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/4sweetsurrender

Image Credits
Joy Edwards