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

Rhyan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. One of the toughest things about entrepreneurship is that there is almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

I’d say the most unexpected problem I have faced in my business would be the unmeasurable work it takes to be the Owner/CEO, creative director, accountant, designer, manufacturer, marketing coordinator, and any other title required to hold this company together. I knew it’d be a tough job to hold all the titles and perform them well, but it still was a shock once I started. Especially once I started my graduate program, it became more difficult to balance wearing all the hats of my business. I love having complete control over the direction Scents of Serotonin takes. Knowing that I conceptualized and created everything myself is what makes it super rewarding.

Rhyan, 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?

I like to refer to myself as a creative visionary. The concept of a creative visionary means that I have the ability to plan the future with imagination and wisdom. Professionally, I am a graduate student at Widener University, studying to be a Clinical Therapist that specializes in expressive arts and sex therapy. My goal is to utilize all types of therapy to give people the tools to make informed decisions about their own lives. Scents of Serotonin at its core is a luxury aromatherapy business. Using the olfactory journey to influence a particular mood in a customer is a way to provide the therapy service without them being a clinical patient of my own. What makes Scents of Serotonin different from popular brands that claim aromatherapy is that our motif is backed by science and are in the process of being backed by a licensed therapist. We also mainly use organic, environmentally friendly, non-toxic, paraben, and phtalate-free ingredients and shipping materials. We want a guilt-free, luxurious, energy-changing experience for our customers. With our products, we provide that experience. That is what I am most proud of when it comes to this journey.

Okay – so how did you figure out the manufacturing part? Did you have prior experience?

At Scents of Serotonin, we manufacture all the contents of our products in-house. Every compilation of scents is thoroughly tested by myself to make sure that all of the different notes are working harmoniously together in the way that I intended. I create every design, name, and label for each scent that gets put out for customer purchase. Learning how to make the products we sell took up the bulk of the time when curating the company before the official launch. I came to find out that there are such specific parameters for the creation of each product to have a strong scent and work as intended. There was a lot of trial and error and it became discouraging at times. But, I made sure that I focused on my goals and what I wanted to attain for the final products. After a year of planning and running tests, Scents of Serotonin was launched in January 2022.

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

You can purchase Scents of Serotonin products on our site at scentsofserotonin.com! We have a custom, easy-to-navigate website that is curated for efficient customer use. When deciding to be strictly e-commerce and formulate the site, I did it all from the perspective of the customer. As a consumer, I hated trying to navigate a website that was not customer friendly. I needed a site that was simple to navigate and that provided all of the components I desired. On the business side of things, having shipping included in the host site parameters was very important. I didn’t want to need another avenue for my shipping logistics. This minor detail I made a priority has saved a lot of headaches for the company, as a whole. My recommendation would be to write down all of the things that are important to you for the website, then use process of elimination to decide on a host site.

Contact Info:

• Website: ScentsofSerotonin.com
• Instagram: @ScentsofSerotonin
• Other: Tiktok: scentsofserotonin_

Image Credits
Image of the Owner by Ethan Benavidez (@ethanbenavidez)