Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kelly Kussman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Kelly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Cayla Gray is a clean fragrance company that was founded in 2020. We are one of the few fragrance companies that discloses all of the ingredients in the word “fragrance” in all of our products. Our founder (Kelly Kussman) has over 20+ years of experience in corporate retail in leadership positions for large retailers. Guided by the interconnection of nostalgia and scent, Cayla Gray is a reminder of the slow intentional journey of a self care ritual. The journey to deeper self discovery started through our Founder, Kelly Kussman after she suffered from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, almost losing her life as well as her first baby. It started her on a journey of self discovery that led to the creation of Cayla Gray, a fragrance company. Cayla Gray was going to be the name of her first baby. The brand connected her deep love for the nostalgia of scent but also honored the heartbreak she experienced through the pregnancy losses.

At Cayla Gray, we believe using fragrance is a deeply personal ritual that is a celebration of oneself, a gift to the psyche and an investment in wellness. Our collection of transparent ingredient, luxury fragrance products allow you to go a level deeper on your self-care rituals. Guided by the interconnection of nostalgia and scent, Cayla Gray is a reminder of the connection to memories past, present and creation of future ones. Come experience next level fragrance with Cayla Gray.

The journey to deeper self-discovery began with our founder, Kelly Kussman. Following a traumatic ectopic pregnancy that nearly claimed her life alongside that of her unborn child, she embarked upon a transformative path to healing herself: body, mind and soul. She channeled her experience into wellness rituals that would become the foundation for her brand, Cayla Gray.

A message from Kelly:
“Before my pregnancies, I found myself moving through my days without actually being present. I was always focused on the next goal in front of me, not recognizing that the present moment was just as beautiful. When I lost my babies, I also lost part of my carefully constructed identity.
After months of feeling numb to life around me, I yearned to reconnect with the outside world. I started journaling, taking long slow baths to slow my brain, walking under the sky above, and taking trips alone out to beautiful nature retreats. Slowly, without any agenda, I began to come back to myself; a new version of myself. And it shook me in the best possible way.
Instead of focusing on the next goal or accomplishment, I began to live more fully in the present. I rediscovered myself in the smell of the morning before the sun rises, the crackling of a log in the fire, the rain falling on newly planted flowers. In-between those quiet moments of gratitude, I found a renewed purpose. I found Cayla Gray.
Because through it all, it was fragrance that united me with those deeply personal experiences. It reminded me of the promises that I journaled to myself. Lighting the same candle transported me to the bath I took that allowed me to truly slow down and see what I had been missing.
Ultimately, Cayla Gray is not only a reflection of my experience but also my deep passion for the connecting power of scent and personal wellness rituals. Every product is meant to help women create their own sacred spaces. To evolve, to grow and to find comfort during life transitions that allow all of us to come home to ourselves.”

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.

Cayla Gray is a clean fragrance company that was founded in 2020. We are one of the few fragrance companies that discloses all of the ingredients in the word “fragrance” in all of our products. Our founder (Kelly Kussman) has over 20+ years of experience in corporate retail in leadership positions for large retailers. After experiencing some heartbreak (more below), Kelly realized life was short and she needed to start going after her dreams. One of those dreams was to use her 20+ years of building other peoples brands, to start building her own. She wanted to honor the heartbreak by putting safer, beautiful scents into the world that she simply could not find when she was pregnant.

Cayla Gray is on a mission to bring luxurious self care collections to those looking to go deeper on their beauty routines. This multi–faceted approach recognizes that self-care is not a vapid activity but a deep, personal ritual by diving deeper into oneself and indulges the senses. Guided by the interconnection of nostalgia and scent, Cayla Gray exists to remind women of the slow intentional journey of a self care ritual. The journey to deeper self discovery started through our Founder, Kelly Kussman after she suffered from a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, almost losing her life as well as her first baby. It started her on a journey of self discovery that led to the creation of Cayla Gray, a fragrance company. Cayla Gray was going to be the name of her first baby. The brand connected her deep love for the nostalgia of scent but also honored the heartbreak she experienced through the pregnancy losses.

Kelly loves to give back to her community and other small business owners. She created a mentorship program to help small business owners get their operations ready for their product based businesses to be able to scale. Kelly wants to continue to scale her business which will both help more women get access to safer fragrance products as well as help build her mentorship program.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Launching a business during the pandemic of 2020 was not an easy feat. We were literally getting notifications each week on packaging or vessel delays. The plan was to launch in January of 2021 due to my packaging being delayed several months. But I got a call the first week of November telling me that somehow the packaging will arrive way EARLY!!! I was beyond excited and literally spent nights and weekends hustling to get us to be able to launch an entire 6 weeks early on Black Friday. It was incredibly exciting to see it all get pulled together.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

It was not an easy decision to leave a corporate job I had worked so hard at for 20 years. I was leading large teams in a corporate retail environment, managing billions of dollars of business. I loved my job, I loved the people that I worked with and for and I was grateful for all of the opportunities that it provided me. But I knew that my heart was calling me to do something different. So I started to dream about what life would look like if I started my own company. My dad was an entrepreneur so I could always envision what that would look like. I knew that with my type A personality, I needed some sort of safety net before I made the leap so we started to save money so that we would have a cushion for me to dive in without a ton of financial worry. So in April of 2021, I put my resignation into my full time job and made the leap 2 months later! Nights, early mornings and weekends! I would wake up around 5am to get the day started. Pick and pack orders before 7am, work a full day at my corporate job, see my husband for an hour for dinner and then get back to Cayla Gray. I would to pop ups on the weekends and instead of taking actual vacation time, I would travel for comp shopping, vetting my vendors and do new product development. They were long days but I really loved it. I think when you go through something like almost losing your life, you look at things a little different. I “get” to do these things versus I “have” to do them. Now don’t get me wrong, there were days I had meltdowns or just broke down and cried out of sheer exhaustion but at the end of the day, I was building something really special

Contact Info:

• Website: https://caylagray.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/caylagrayco/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-ward-kussman-91a5a195