We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marina Dell’Utri a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Marina , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your business and how did you resolve those issues?
I was 24 years old when I decided to open Mantra, the first raw and vegan restaurant & cold pressed juice production company in Milan, Italy. I was driven by passion, energy, excitement and dedication. I had 15 employees to manage. I wasn’t prepared to deal with each and everyone’s story, problems while at the same time focusing on the growth of the business. The HR was depleting me of energy and the business was depleting me of money.
I started the business to deliver healthy and delicious food to the community in Milan and ended up losing my own physical and mental health (due to too much work and too much stress). Once I realized what was happening, I had to take a decision: me or the business. I chose myself. I closed and sold the businesses right before the pandemic and freed myself. I started traveling again (arrived to Bali two weeks before the world shut down), fell in love with myself again, lost 30 extra kilos that I was carrying of stress, fell in love with my wife, Jess (who I met traveling) and regained my own self in all of its colors and sparkles!
This first entrepreneurial experience taught me the importance of balance in personal life and in work, to be selfish (if I am not doing well, my business can’t be doing well) and to accept “failure” as an accelerator in life as a master’s degree. I think of the money I have spent (investing it in these businesses) as the money paid towards a master’s degree in real business life.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Ten years later, I am now 34 years old, and I have graduated from another 5 year master’s degree in life. I gained the awareness of wanting to create businesses that are long lasting. Businesses that leave an impact on the world and that I want to exist first and foremost for myself, and for my family.
I want to keep my companies separated between lucrative (those that focus on profit) and donation based (those that focus on serving the community.)
My current for profit business is BEYOND SALT, a liquid sea salt company that extracts sea water directly from the Tyrrhenian Sea in Tuscany, Italy. It is pure sea water, micro-filtered from all impurities. Found today in the sea, are heavy metals and micro plastics. We filter those out and bottle the sea water which is placed on your dining table next to your favorite bottle of olive oil. Spray BEYOND SALT directly on your plate and enjoy the oceanic taste of salt! With 75% less sodium yet maintaining all the natural minerals, BEYOND SALT is unlike any other sea salt on the market. It is full of pure taste, pure health and pure joy!
BEYOND SALT is ideal for everyone especially for children, and also women who suffer from cellulite and water retention (like myself). It is exceptional for those suffering from diabetes, and for those who suffer from thyroid diseases or have high blood pressure.
Another for profit business is ATHENA OF BALI, our extended family business. Athena is the name if our daughter. The linen collection of Athena of Bali was born just before the birth of Athena to satisfy our need for lightweight towels. We used them on her newborn skin and they fit our need for fast drying towels that don’t become moldy or smelly while living in a humid place, like Bali. We use all natural fabrics and dyes. Each piece is handmade in Bali from our local extended “keluarga” (Indonesian for family).
Our signature towel is 80% cotton and 20% linen. It is so lightweight that I always carry one in my bag or underneath my scooter seat; for a spontaneous jump in the ocean or for covering the seat of the scooter on the way home from the beach (protecting Athena’s little bum; if you have been to Bali, you know what I mean!).
I also love to feel the fabric on my skin and wrap my hair in a turban after washing it and keeping it on, while I do things around the house. It is so lightweight that finally my neck doesn’t hurt. The exceptional linen cotton blend absorbs so much water that when I take it off, my hair is perfectly ready to go, no need to blow dry and it keeps a natural beach look. I hang it and within minutes it’s dry and it smells good! Thank Athena for these towels! p.s. I love to choose the color of my towel based on the mood of the day :)
My current donation based business is FREE THE BABY. The experience and knowledge gained throughout the past 4+ years of being a parent to Athena, our 3.4 year old daughter. Jess and I have dug deep into searching for alternative options to being a parent, as not to repeat patterns just because that is what we are used to and what society does. It began with questioning the most seemingly obvious behaviors and actions as a parent. For example, we asked ourselves, “Why do newborns have to wear diapers?” (this happened after we had already bought 2 boxes of diapers, preparing for birth). We raised Athena diaper-free (no diapers, no disposable diapers, no reusable diapers, no cloth diapers, simply NO DIAPERS). This choice led to questioning every other aspect of the child and the parenting style. Within months of raising Athena as a FREE BABY we noticed the benefits, our friends noticed the benefits, the whole community around us noticed the benefits and the unique awareness, self confidence and independence of the child. Our parenting style sparked many questions from our friends and people we would encounter in situations with Athena and other children. We have decided to bring our story and experience at service to any parent to be, current parent, grandparent, nanny, teacher etc. anyone curious to explore a distinctive and congenital way of being a parent. We continuously meet people that we have inspired in our journey, who often bring up moments of diaper free Athena together, and now they are implementing into their home with their baby.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
As a parent, I had to unlearn that a baby crying needs to be stopped or distracted. I had to unlearn the term “Poor baby” and the fact that they should not cry. The standard routine is to rock the baby, sing to the baby, hop on one leg holding the baby, give the breast to the baby, give the pacifier to the baby, distract the baby with hundreds of toys (one after the other, until you find the one that makes the baby stop crying), play peek a boo with the baby, entertain the baby, orchestrate a full show to the baby, in all senses, do anything possible as long as you make the baby stop crying. Then, a parent or a caregiver can feel like a good, proud person. “Nobody wants to have a moment of uncomfortability”, as Oprah says (I hope to be chatting with Oprah about this one day). This routine never felt good to me. When my daughter was 3 weeks old, she would cry desperately. All her needs were met: she wasn’t hungry, she wasn’t sick, she wasn’t sleepy, she just needed to cry. For the first week, I was the mother from the routine; trying everything I could to make her stop crying. She refused the pacifier and everything else I tried. The only thing that was working was me holding her and hopping on my tippy toes around the house for 40-50mins. My calves were burning. I was exhausted and told myself, there must be another way! Jess and I were already using the diaper free method with Athena, and I remembered reading a paragraph in one of our favorite books, Diaper Free by Ingrid Bauer, about the importance of crying, citing another book by Aletha Solter (our fearless leader and coach). Crying, while being held and with absolutely no distractions, was our ticket to peace. By focusing on connecting with the baby while she cried, sharing love and presence with the baby, while she cried. We knew this was our path, and we opened ourselves up to Aware Parenting and a diaper-less lifestyle.
My life has changed since then. I don’t have to do anything, nothing is wrong, a crying baby (if all her needs are met) is simply processing all changes and emotions that she has experienced since birth. Birth itself, even the smoothest birth, is still traumatic to a baby, it is an astronomical change. I am forever grateful for any lesson I can unlearn in life. As a tip I give to myself, like a baby, keep moving and flowing, be the opposite of stuck in your routine.
Can you talk to us about your experience with selling businesses?
October 28th 2019, Milan Italy. 29 years old. I wake up in my apartment, where I was living by myself. I do my morning routine of meditation and offerings (hand squeezed almond milk with saffron and rose petals) to Lakshmi (goddess of wealth) and Vishnu (her husband). I dress up wearing all black (Hekate), pink lingerie (Aphrodite) and wide gold cuff bracelet (Lakshmi). I was feeling like a warrior. I bike to my lawyer’s office and while we are waiting for the other party to arrive to sign the agreement, I tell him I want to change the offer. I agree to sell my production line of cold pressed juices for the agreed price, but I don’t agree to sign for an in person consulting job in Switzerland lasting 3 years. My priority was to gain my freedom back and to concentrate my energies on myself, not on the success of this new person’s business. For this company since the beginning of the negotiation there was a “conditio sine qua non”. I decided, however, last minute to scratch that out. My lawyer was furious. He thought they wouldn’t sign the deal under the new conditions. Being a family lawyer, he was even worried about my mother’s reaction to him, if that was going to happen. I felt under a lot of pressure, however, my intuition was strong and I had no doubts this is what I wanted and wouldn’t bend over for anyone or anything. It was me and 6 stereotypical business men and lawyers sitting at a big table. My heart was trembling. They signed, didn’t fringe. Actually agreed that it was a better idea to keep the two contracts separated: one for the sale of the production line and eventually in the future one for my consultation. Two days later I was on a plane, feeling so grateful to have taken my final decision based on my intuition and what I really wanted over everyone else’s advice and ideas. I had the strength and power to do so, as I had just secretly (I told everyone I was on a silent retreat in Switzerland meditating) when actually I flew to Bali for 10 days in the middle of the fiery negotiation attending a Money Goddess retreat with Morgana Rae, which had totally transformed me and allowed me to listen to my needs and wishes. I am forever grateful to Morgana and myself for stepping out of the comfort zone and searching for another approach to selling my business in the Goddess way!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://beyondsalt.it/ https://www.athenaofbali.com/ https://www.freethebaby.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/marinamartamaria https://www.instagram.com/beyondsaltitaly https://www.instagram.com/athenaofbali https://www.instagram.com/free.thebaby