We recently connected with Kyleigh Rumpca and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kyleigh , thanks for joining us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

It may not be the craziest story but it was definitely one I’ve learned from and look back on and just laugh. It was when I was just beginning my business endeavors. I hadn’t even officially launched my business, wasn’t really on social media yet and just doing craft sales. It was when I experienced a total flop at a market event. It was the third or fourth market I’ve done and the first time doing it alone. I was about 17 years old. I loaded up the truck with my display, tent, soap, and other products. I was super excited. Even though it was a windy and wet summer day because it had been raining off and on the past few days that didn’t put a damper on things, yet.

I get to the event and it’s in a wide open field with little to no direction of where I am supposed to set up and the field is pretty muddy. Cars were getting stuck and mud flying everywhere. I asked another seller where we are supposed to set up. He tells me anywhere and that’s what it looked like. So finding what I thought was a decent spot in the field thinking that other vendors would come around me to fill in the gaps. So I set up as a mild breeze came over this field. As it gets closer for customers to start filtering in I sat 20 feet away from the closest vendor. With little traffic coming my way.
Debating on whether or not to move I decide to move closer. I start disassembling and moving my display across a wet field attempting to get closer. And this was no little display. I had at least 26 different products, plus stock of them, tables, and amongst other things. At this point I am hot and frustrated. And as I am taking bits at a time the wind picks up and my tent starts getting lifted off the ground as I am carrying a box of soap several feet away. I run over to the tent, secure the sand bag and go back to moving the rest. When I get done resetting up my whole display with all my product blows over. My soap gets beat up luckily nothing is severely damaged but then the tent starts blowing so I run back to the tent. At the time I did not have the nicest tent and in the wind those are a pain to take down. At this point I can just feel everyone staring. Thank God someone asked if I needed help. They help with my tent a bit where I could get it somewhat folded down. But me being frustrated, hot, sweaty and on the verge of crying I resisted and refused to ask for any more help. Deciding I’d go without the tent and reset up my display that blew over.

In doing so with the hot sun beating on me I managed to get a whopping two sales and then again the wind picked up so my stuff blew over and that was my final straw. Noticing it seemed to not be happening to any one else! I packed up and headed home feeling defeated, embarrassed and of course questioning my decisions.

Kyleigh , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am Kyleigh Rumpca. The owner of Cultivate Soap and Skincare where I formulate and craft herbal products using natural, certified organic, wild-crafted, and local ingredients packaged in low waste. Our mission is to create versatile, minimal and low toxic products for the whole family to enjoy that are safe for the environment.

The reason I started making soap and skincare was because I had extremely dry, chapped, and inflamed skin all year round that would keep me up at night, specifically my hands and for me was quite embarrassing as a kid. Also my mom had bad asthma. Many products contain fragrance even so called “natural” ones that would be irritating to her. These two problems started my journey of soap making around age 11 when I could not find a solution. I started creating and researching soap, skincare, and their ingredients with a passion for the art form that comes with formulating recipes and crafting a clean product.

When I made my first simple recipe it completely changed mine and my family’s skin. It cleaned better, smelled better, and most was a tool in the restoration of my dry irritated skin.

Now I have a product line of different soap, salves, body oil, cleansing oil, bath salt, lotion, and lip balm. I still continue to hand make all my products in small batches to ensure quality and authenticity.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

From the story I shared even though I was driving home it felt like a fail and a waste of time. I learned valuable lessons that built and illustrate my resilience in my business. One being, don’t be afraid to ask for help and be honest with yourself when you do even if it means you shed some tears. Two, don’t get upset over mistakes (like this one), acknowledge your feelings but don’t let them over take you because they do not define your identity. Third, cling to your why which is Jesus Christ and to give him the glory because He has provided me with the beautiful resources to craft products, people in my life, my skill set and everything I need. The least I can do is use what God has given me with a grateful heart.

Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.

Yes, I manufacture our products in our home. Sometimes my dad will volunteer to help make the soap because it’s something he enjoys haha! What used to be our wet bar in our basement has turned into Cultivate’s soap studio and the guest room has been a place for inventory and ready to ship products.

I started with research. I learned how to manufacture products through online courses and resources on GMP. Also invested in different necessary equipment to make soap and other skincare and to do it efficiently and effectively. To make soap and other products it takes a lot of equipment and space to store the equipment, product, raw materials, shipping and packaging material. Plus storing the raw materials properly to maintain quality. With all of that creating different operational systems to stay organized was key and is something that is always being refined.

Contact Info:

• Website: cultivatesoap.com
• Instagram: @cultivatesoap
• Facebook: @cultivatesoap