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

Lindsey, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today. Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

I got my first client through a friend of a friend. My best girl friend knew I was making bone broth for myself, and seeing very positive results internally and externally after just a couple months of adding it into my daily routine. She had a friend who was seeing a colon doctor who recommended he add bone broth into his diet. My friend connected us and he commissioned me to make my first batch of beef broth as I only had experimented with chicken up until that point.

Lindsey, 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?

OWL for me, wasn’t about starting a business. It was my path back to myself and my journey to choose feeling good over fitting in. Being well really requires shutting out the outside noise, and getting back in touch with that inner voice, or pun intended – your gut. I started making my own broth because I could not find any broths without garlic and onions – and I generally hated the taste. I created something that I wanted to sip on daily and it tastes much more like a tea than a traditional stock.

My background is in design, marketing and food service- so my seemingly extensive and random job history actually taught me a lot of the baseline skills required to create the product, design the packaging and website, manage the social media and customer service end of things- to name a few. For quite a while getting started I was working every department. Slowly, I found the right people to step in and help at different stages of the business. The team has evolved and transformed as the business has grown, and I have been so grateful that the perfect people and opportunities have appeared in perfect time.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

OWL was bootstrapped as can be. For the first few years I was a private celebrity chef, and that truly funded the growth of the brand. About three years in, I got a small loan from family to move into our kitchen, where we still currently produce all of our broth elixirs. Along the way, I have taken out personal loans to fund different points of growth, but we have been self-funded and profitable since day one. Definitely not the normal path for most CPG brands, and I’m not sure we would survive today if we tried it this way. Part of it is persistence and perseverance, and part of it’s luck (or karma) and being in the right place at the right time.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

In the beginning, I became friends with influencers and got product in their hands. I was fortunate to connect with some amazing women who I still have relationships with today, who really launched OWL in the online space. It was a different day and age for unpaid partnerships and influencers, and again, not sure I would have the same luck standing out if I went this route today. As the brand has evolved, we are not able to support this women in building their careers, and we get to mutually support each other as we grow! That feels very cool.

Contact Info:

• Website: owlvenice.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/owlvenice
• Facebook: Facebook.com/owlvenice
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/lindseyerinwilson
• Youtube: YouTube.com/owlvenice
• Yelp: yelp.to/EPBiJZAqQe

Image Credits
Talia Dinwiddie