Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Shanna Bradford LME, MA, CR. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Shanna thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?
My parents were old souls always very supportive of anything that I wanted to do in my career and business journey. My father always would say to me. You can do or have anything that you want in life just don’t listen to other people’s negative thoughts on your dreams. He would say some people’s brains are the size of a peaut shell, to get a good laugh out of me. The most memoriable story was my first car. Which was given to me by a family member and wasn’t in the best running condition but I was grateful to have my first set of wheels. One of the things that the car was missing was AC and in South Florida you need AC in the car like ice in water! So for about two weeks I would drive to my job and people would ask me if it was raining outside and I would say no. Why? Well, your hair is wet and your clothing is wet like you got caught in the rain. This went on for about a month and I was tried of complaining about the AC. Both of my parents decided take the car to a body shop to get the AC fixed but it didn’t work. One day my mother asked me what are you going to do about the car? I told her speak with dad to see what he think about the sitution with the car. As always my father was very smart and always had the perfect answers to any questions. He told me to pray about it and then make a decision and go for it! The lesson was thinking and then deciding on what you want to see happen next. In the end I sold my use car and purchased a newer car with AC and nothing wrong with it. I have always been a fearless and very driven to achieve my personal and career goals. This is one of the things that my parents did right and it has allowed me to be successful in life and with my company.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
After college I was working with Embassy School of English in accounts payable and it was one of the most boring positions known to man. You are literally sitting looking at documents and matching up numbers all day until 5pm. One day I was talking with my sister who worked as a Medical Biller and she decided that she was going to go to school to learn how to perform nail extensions, manicures and pedicure. She was so excited and I was thinking to myself “Hell No”. That is not something that I want to do play with people’s fingers and toes. My sister was very creative and good at designing nail art on her clients fingernails and she was enjoying what she was doing. However, I still told myself it wasn’t something that I wanted to do. One day after work, I went to the nail salon to where my sister worked and she was listening to me complain about unhappy work was for me. She asked me if I ever thought about going back to school for beauty. I said you mean to do fingernails? She said well yes! I said no. Fast forward, I enrolled into nail school and never looked back, each year I was taking different classes and enrolling into programs surrounding the beauty industry. 20 Plus years later. I am the CEO/FOUNDER of Grow Out Oils the #1 Clinical Aromatherapy Company in South Florida. Grow Out Oils provides alternative products for physicians, holistic practioner, highend salons, resort and spa’s, that have clients and customers looking for 100% all natural products, aromatherapy blends and hydrosol sprays. We formulate health and wellness products that work at the celluar level for advanced dermal absorption of active and natural ingredients. What I am most proud of is having the opportunity to work directly with High Profile Professional Boxers like James “Lights Out” Toney American former professional boxer who held multiple world championships in three weight classes. Professional Boxers and Trainers are consistantly dealing with injuries, sore muscles and recovery during and after training camp. Currently, we are in clinical studies of a new CBD line of product that will launch in the next few months. Cannabidiol (CBD) oil is a product that’s derived from cannabis. It’s a type f cannabinoid, which are the chemicals naturally found in marijuana plants. Even though it comes from marijuana plants, CBD doesn’t create a “high” effect or any form of intoxication-that’s caused by another cannabinoid known as THC. The line of CBD products that we are formuating for our client will be a Dead Sea Salt Blend and a Muscle Recovery Oil Complex and Air Purifying Candle. It’s always exciting when you have celebrity high profile clients that want to work with you and call on you for your extensive knowledge in ingredients, dermal absorption and advanced product formulations. The process of working with a new client formulating the end results for the function of the product, then decide what ingredients will delivery those results for a perfectly finished formulation that surpass the clients expectations. We provides step by step details that allow the client to be involved in the process of creating a retail ready product from start to finish. Our aromatherapy blends, specialty oils, hydrosol sprays, bath salts and candles are all used with high quality ingredients sources directly from the farms and GC-MS testing which stands for Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry known as the ‘gold standard’ in the chemical analysis identifies the various constituents in an essential oil and lists how much of each constituent is present as a percentage. Grow Out Oils products are all 100% pure and free from preservatives, alcohol and emulsifiers, no animal ingredients or animal by-products, use no animal ingredients or by products in the manufacturing process. We offer several options for clients to take their brand to the next level. Wholesale, Priviate Label and New Product Formulation. Let Grow Out Oils Rock Your Retail!
How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?
My corporate america job paid me a very good salary that allowed me to save money and use it as working capital to fund my business. The hardest thing is walking away from guranteed money each week and make your own revenue each week, month and quarter to meet your sale goals. If you are still working your 9-5 just make sure that you are making time to save money from your weekly or monthly paycheck to put back into your business. I would even recommend opening up a business account with your bank or local credit union that way you are keeping the funds seperate from your job direct deposit. Best Advise.
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
Our best source of new clients before Covid was physicians, dermatologist, resort and spas and high end hair salons. After Covid, we decided to allow the public to purchase products directly from our website and realize that several people also had businesses that were online and they were looking to scale up by offering other products that would align with creating a safety bubble for Covid-19. Very Quickly we were receiving online request for Wholesale products and Priviate Label. Today we have a new connection working directly with Famour Professional Boxer that not only support our vision of health and wellness but also understand how important and helpful holistic products can be for mental health and muscle recovery pre/post training before, during and after extensive training camp.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.growoutoils.com
- Instagram: @growoutoils
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Health-Beauty/Grow-Out-Oils-109092977552427/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/grow-out-oils-898523155
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVdBvqbZv0lN2pFk_9zNLHw
- Other: You can also find us on CLUBHOUSE (GROW OUT OILS)
Image Credits
U&I Entertainment Group