We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michelle & Darren Gutwein. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michelle & Darren below.
Michelle & Darren, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
While most guess the play on words is a reference to “us” as makers, it actually goes a bit deeper than that.
Begonia is to honor our Mom/Mother-in-Law who sparked at a young age, the joy of creating by hand and the love for nature’s beauty. Her favorite flower was the Begonia and you could always find her caring for and feeding her bountiful begonia plants.
Bench honors our love for the outdoors and is a nod to both of our family’s craftsman roots. We also hope we can inspire others to experience the outdoors, explore our communities and enjoy our beautiful National Forests. Maybe you’ll even sit on a “bench” and soak in the scenery that surrounds you!
Michelle & Darren, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We are Michelle & Darren, a husband and wife team behind Begonia & Bench. While we are just a small studio in the Minnesota St. Croix River Valley, we strive to make a big difference!
When we thought about offering our handcrafted items for sale, we knew that we could end up selling just one more single-use item like any other candle.
And that if we were going to be making and selling anything, we didn’t want it to just be another thing that inevitably just ends up in the trash after it’s used once.
In what we do and how we act, we are trying to be an example of what is possible even from our cottage candle studio. Here are some fun facts about us!
– A tree is planted for every candle we make in a U.S. National Forest through our small business partnership with the National Forest Foundation (nationalforests.org)
– In addition to planting a tree for every candle we make, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of each Begonia & Bench candle is provided as a donation to one of several non-profit organizations that have a connection to each candle
– We generate very little waste in our renewable-powered studio and we source reusable, recyclable, and sustainable materials for our candles from reliable, ecologically conscious suppliers
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
We launched Begonia & Bench in 2018 and just as we were gaining brand momentum the pandemic hit a big pause button on our small candle business in 2020.
From the loss of in-person events to the rising cost of soy wax and supplies, we kept focused on building our online presence and providing a meaningful and high-quality candle-burning experience for our customers.
Looking back to when we launched in 2018, we hoped to someday have 200 trees planted in a US National Forest and it’s really humbling to know that our small “10×10 pop-up booth” has now made the National Forests Annual Report. Since 2018, we’ve had over 8,790 trees planted to help fight climate change, conserve wildlife habitats, and ensure healthy watersheds within our U.S. National Forests. We’re so excited to see what the future holds in 2023!
Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?
One of the ways we keep in touch with our clients is through our newsletter. We send out a monthly newsletter that includes useful topics like new products and candle tips, upcoming events, and special discounts. This helps to keep our customers informed about what we are up to in the candle studio and also strengthens the relationship by giving them exclusive access to new releases or special events.
We think it’s so important to stay connected and share important updates about our give-back mission with our supportive newsletter and social media communities. We also like to participate in local art festivals and special market events to create local brand awareness and for the opportunity to experience our candle fragrances in person as well as the chance to meet us!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.begoniaandbench.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/begoniaandbench/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/begoniaandbench/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/begoniaandbench
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/begoniaandbench
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj7CUuatpItv9AOov_PFGYQ
Image Credits
Begonia & Bench