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

Alright, Liz thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

In 2017, I felt a deep sense of urgency to combat climate change. My eyes were opened to the catastrophic impacts of plastic waste – I watched the videos of the plastic islands in Bali, the ocean shores around the globe so polluted in waste that you could no longer see the waves. I looked at my own shelves – specifically those of my bathroom – from shampoo to body wash to skincare, all of it was encased in plastic.

As a teacher, I spent years teaching about zero waste / plastic free living within my community. However, in 2019, I decided it was time to create a business that made plastic free living possible. Not only did the products themselves need to be free of plastic packaging, but the ingredients had to be ecofriendly, ethical, and nontoxic.

At that time, I was newly a single mother. Major shifts were happening in my life as I left behind a lifetime of trauma. My spirit had been broken by the experiences of my life, but as a young mother, I dreamed for a better life for myself and my daughter. I felt this newfound fire within myself to fight for the life I always dreamed of. There’s a moment in a woman’s life – especially one, like me, who was raised from birth in a conservative religious cult – where you have to face the patriarchy and the story it has tried to write for you. There was a moment for me when I realized I could have FULL agency within my own life. In my experience with a super religious past, there’s also a deconstruction of extreme doctrine that is massively hard to unwire from within your brain. Ultimately, it was an incredibly challenging time for me, and this business gave me an outlet to heal. When you create – whether its physical products like mine, music, dance, etc, there’s a rewiring of your brain. Creative energy brings deep healing.

With both of those experiences in my life, I named my business “Flourish Botanicals” to invoke the flourishing I was trying to manifest in my own life and the flourishing I desired for our own planet. I began the process of handmaking high quality vegan products from ethically sourced ingredients, hoping that I could bring moments of peace within the lives of every person who used them, showing that beauty and sustainability are the perfect combination.

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

My name is Liz Merriam. I am many things, but to name a few that are sacred to me, I’m a dancer, a queer woman, an ESL teacher, and a mother to two incredible baby girls. My intention with my business is to help others experience deep healing, wholeness, and presence in their lives – it’s all about flourishing people and a thriving planet.

I taught myself traditional methods of handmaking skincare and haircare products from scratch. My products are all vegan and include artisan shampoo bars, shampoo and conditioner bars, dish soap blocks, whipped body polishes, herbal facial bars, and more. Within this industry, I make products that are palm oil free and infuse natural herbs and clays so they are entirely beneficial for the skin and hair. There are no synthetics or fragrance oils, only pure ingredients from nature.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I speak about owning a business, I always say that small businesses are personal. We always see this in the small business world, whether it’s solo-owned like my business, family-owned, or owned by a team of friends with dreams together of stability and world-changing ideas.

As the sole owner of my company, I want to share more about how it’s brought healing into my life and developed more resilience within me. As I mentioned before, I started this literally the same time I became a single mother. Shortly thereafter, I found out I was expecting another baby, and one month after that we all went into Covid-19 lockdown. Let’s just say, shit got real. There was so much uncertainty in every part of my life that year and so much physical struggle to grow another human. What did I do? I focused in on growing my business. My life is uncertain, but look at this – I mixed, poured, hand stamped a new product that is truly beautiful. I feel terrified about what the future holds for me and my daughters – look, I’ve designed this incredible website and continue to make sales and hear positive feedback from customers.

I don’t mean to trivialize or ignore the struggle of life whatsoever. However, there is something about creating with your hands, designing with your mind, and seeing it come to fruition within your life that is a tangible, chemical, mind-body-soul connection. As a trauma-survivor, I experience dissociation. However, I love the experiences that fully immerse me into the present moment and making products is one of them. At 38 weeks pregnant, I was handmaking hundreds of beautiful herbal soaps to provide for me during my postpartum. When my daughter was born a week later, I had shelves of products that I wrapped and shipped out, giving me a mental break from my solo parent life with a newborn.

Every small business is a real person’s livelihood and vision.

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

This is an excellent question for the industry I’m in. My desire is for a more diverse and equitable world where we hear individual voices and give opportunity to all. Our dollar is our vote, and we can fuel our money towards the business society and economy we want to see. My encouragement is for business owners is to stand out from the crowd and try to take as much ownership as possible.

In my opinion, Amazon completely swallows all suppliers’ stories and visions, and the money is fueling a billionaire. Etsy is much better at supporting this improved opportunity, but it has a reputation in my circles as being a “hobby business” platform. For some reason, many people view an Etsy shop as “not a real business.” These limiting views are unfortunate because I see the vision that Etsy has for small businesses and artisans like myself. Etsy gives women around the globe opportunity and agency that no other platform has done.

Personally, I used WIX as my website design platform and completely customized the website myself. These types of website builders are empowering for small businesses to have full agency on design, product addition/adjustments, commerce, taxes, etc. Even if design isn’t your forte, you can receive professional help from the customer support team or hiring outside designers. In the end, however, you still have the entire system at your fingertips ready to change and update and improve whenever you wish. WIX is amazing because they automate all the ecommerce details, from the cart to email updates at each stage of shipping to email campaigns. It saves me an incredible amount of time while giving me limitless freedom to design everything the way I envision. With that official dot com website, there’s an stamp of official quality that helps new and small businesses gain traction.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.flourishbotanicals.com
• Instagram: @flourish.botanicals
• Facebook: @flourishbotanical
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/lizmerriam
• Youtube: Tiktok @flourishbotanicals

Image Credits
Frame of Mind Media