Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Melissa Ford. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Melissa, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
My goal is to provide the world with natural cruelty-free skin, body, and beard care for common mild to moderate skin and hair issues at affordable rates that work! Oh and they smell good too lol!
Melissa, 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 come from a natural remedies style family. You know the kind that leans toward more holistic forms of healing. Being someone who grew up and was taught early that there are herbs and oils can heal almost everything, that passion has grown with me through the years. When I became a mom both of my kids had eczema pretty badly but my oldest was by far worse. I tried every known product under the sun to try and help ease the itch and calm their flares. Nothing worked… and I do mean nothing. I spent so much money for nothing to work. Frustrated and fed up it hit me, I had been taught my whole life that herbs are the key! That day I decided to take to my roots and stick with my culture and started learning more in-depth about herbs, oils, and roots to find a way to cure my kids’ eczema! After schooling and trial and error I found the blend that completely cleared every bit of my kids’ eczema. From that day forward I told myself I wanted to help others heal their skin issues the natural way and without a hefty price tag! I now make products for a multitude of skin and beard issues and they are all powered by herbal infusions! I make sure to use all-natural and organic herbs, oils, and butters in all of my products. I have always had sensitive skin myself so scented lotions and creams always made me break out. I came up with and now have a hand made a line of butters and sugar scrubs (for men and women) that allow even people with the most sensitive skin to be able to enjoy scented products and not have to worry about breakouts while also knowing and being able to pronounce everything on the ingredient list! Along the way learning more about eczema and psoriasis skin concerns I realized that can also include the scalp and for men their beards. Doing my research I realized so many men suffer from shave bumps, ingrown hairs, dry brittle beards, and the ones that just don’t grow or connect. I hopped back into my schooling and came up with an amazing line of products that help men with these issues! I offer mildly scented beard oils and balms that are infused with herbs for assistance in growth, have anti-bacterial properties to combat beard acne, and add moisture and shine! Along with those I created an unscented beard wash to help combat product buildup and acne in and around the beard! With time I came to realize I could help people with more issues than I realized and I have been coming up with more natural products for daily use ever since! From eczema and psoriasis, dry skin, dark marks, hyperpigmentation, and old scars to common beard-related issues or even just wanting to smell good. I offer a growing selection of products for everyone at an affordable price because just because it works, doesn’t mean it should be unaffordable for some.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
One lesson I for sure had to unlearn through this journey has been that 6 figure first year push. I realized that a lot you see on the internet only shows you the end result which though inspiring can be very misleading. This can make people feel like if they don’t hit 6 figures by their first year of a business start they have failed. I myself had to realize that as the saying goes Rome wasn’t built in a day and everyone’s timeline for their idea of what a successful business is, is going to be different. Take your time and move at the pace that feels right to you and don’t look to someone else’s success to tell you that yours isn’t good enough. Over 20% of businesses don’t make it past the first year and by year 2 that number goes up. I had to look inside myself and realized this is my journey, my story and I was determined to make it through that first year. I was just mindful and realized as long as I didn’t lose money that my success didn’t dictate my being anywhere even close to 6 figures my first year! My passion is in what I do and I know my products are great! That coupled with persistence and never giving up will get me there one day! Even if I had to take a break and come back to it I just kept my head up and didn’t let that detour me from my goals. It took me 2 to 3 years to finally get everything in line to launch and I’m so glad I didn’t rush things!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Through this journey, there have truly been some bumps in the road. From a major injury and surgery to the great loss of a parent… it’s been more than I thought I could handle at some points. While I was in the startup process, I lost my father. That took a major piece of me. My dad was who started teaching me herbal and natural ways as a child. This made me want to just quit. I could just hear him saying “come on honey, you got this! Keep going!” So after some time I wiped my tears and used that to drive me! I got back to it because I knew he was so proud before he passed with what I was doing that I couldn’t just stop now I had to bring it to the light! Before this, I had gotten hurt pretty badly at my job. Between the pain physically and emotionally, I was just slowly giving up on launching my business. Then some months after my dad’s passing I ended up having surgery for my injury. With a new outlook, I used that time to study and stick to my classes to keep a positive mind and keep pushing while I was immobile. Through it all and the healing I was finally up and moving, and the final stages of launching began! Thinking back to all I was taught growing up and how I came to provide these products I realized something. I stuck to my roots, herbal knowledge, and my culture to make this all possible. That’s when it all came together and KULTURE was born!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.itskultureco.com
- Instagram: Itskultureco
- Facebook: Itskultureco