We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sister Ro a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sister, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

Originally, our company name was Be Loved Handcrafted. When it came time to secure a website domain, we couldn’t use Be Loved because it was already taken . We also discovered that Be Loved was a very common name that is being used worldwide. So we decided that we had to come up with a different name. Being that I am the product formulator, I took on the assignment of coming up with a new name. I had to go into deep thought and reflection taking a thorough look into just what it is I do, the mission and what makes our business unique.

I create herbal infused skin and hair products that are a refreshing, healthy alternative to your everyday body care essentials. The 2 most important points that makes our products unique and effective is 1, the infusion of healing herbs, and 2, the lather. Lather means luscious, bubbling soaps AND the experience and feel of the products upon your skin and hair. These two points became the inspiration behind the new name our business; Herbs ‘N Lather Handcrafted.

Sister, 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 am Sister Ro, a mother, wife, herbalist, natural product formulator and owner at Herbs ‘N Lather Handcrafted alongside my loving husband and children. We’ve been in business now almost 9 years.

Our business was born out of our desire to live a healthier lifestyle. We began eating more whole foods, fresh fruits, vegetables and drinking clean water. We also became more conscious of what we put on our skin and in our hair. We understood that not only do we eat with our mouths, our skin absorbs approximately 90% of what we put on it. It became our mission to find cleaner alternatives for our body care then ultimately to make them ourselves.

I went into intense study of plant oils, raw ingredients and herbs. Soon after I started the journey of product formulation. 1 by 1 I began replacing our commercial body care essentials with my handcrafted creations. They worked so good us, we knew we couldn’t keep what we made to ourselves. We knew they were countless others who could absolutely benefit from what we were making. We began to share them with our family and friends. Over the years our business has gradually grown. Today our products our being shipped out worldwide. Locally, some of our products are being sold at The Kujichagulia Producer’s Cooperative inside of the Sherman Phoenix. And I’m pleased to announce that our Tea Thyme Hair Care line is now being sold at The Outpost Natural Food Store at the East Capitol and Bayview locations.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I built my humble audience on social media by posting consistently, and posting about my products mostly product education.

What I have learned about building an audience on social media is to start by building a community, setting an atmosphere of culture with your brand, making others feel as if they belong and that what you are building is for THEM. No one is interested in you and your brand if you and your brand are not for the people first and foremost.

Always educate, give something that your community can take with them to use that will empower them and inspire them.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

The funding of our business has always been grassroots. Thus far we have funded, or better yet, our customers, their consistent, continual patronage is what has funded our business. Its been a slow hard, road. However, our consistent effort, and not giving up is finally starting to pay off in a bigger way.

Contact Info:

• Website: herbsnlather.com herbsnlathe.etsy.com