EO Products: Susan Griffin-Black & Brad Black

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 15 July 2019

⏱️ 61 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the early 1990s, Susan Griffin-Black was working for Esprit in San Francisco. On a business trip to London, she walked into a Covent Garden apothecary shop, picked up a bottle of lavender oil and took a whiff. The aroma — "like being in a beautiful garden" — literally changed her life. That was the inspiration to develop her own line of essential oil products. For 15 years, she and her husband and co-founder Brad Black barely scraped by, but the business eventually thrived. And though their marriage ultimately ended, their partnership continues. PLUS for our postscript "How You Built That," Lia Heifetz of Barnacle Foods describes how she and her partners turned Alaskan bull kelp into pickles and salsa. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, Prime members, you can listen to how I built this early and ad-free on Amazon Music.
0:07.0	Download the app today.
0:09.0	New years is here, and with it brings the possibility of change.
0:13.0	As one behavioral scientist put it, first starts are really powerful.
0:17.0	So as you head into 2023, LifeKit is a great resource to help you plan your life and tackle changes, both big and small.
0:24.0	Listen to the LifeKit podcast from NPR.
0:27.0	So really quickly, before we start the show, we've got another live show coming to Washington, DC on September 12th at the Lincoln Theater.
0:34.0	I'll be talking with Tristan Walker, founder of Walker & Company Brands, which makes beauty products like Bevel and Form.
0:40.0	We're also going to be announcing two more live shows on the East Coast soon, and don't forget we still have a few tickets available for the How I Built This Summit in San Francisco in October.
0:50.0	The Summit is supported by American Express, and at the Summit, you'll be able to hear and probably even meet some of the world's greatest entrepreneurs, founders, behind companies like Instagram, Slack, JetBlue, Away, Jenny's Ice Cream, and many, many more.
1:05.0	The Summit is an incredible opportunity to connect with other builders and to hear from experts on how to grow and scale your business.
1:12.0	You can get tickets for both the DC Live Show and the Summit at nprpresents.org, and I hope to see you there.
1:24.0	So the meeting that we went to with the new buyer?
1:27.0	The first meeting.
1:29.0	Right, with the first meeting, I think I was nursing.
1:31.0	I remember being in that room having a baby and just presenting.
1:36.0	This woman was, I don't know, in her late 20s, and she was not responding to anything that we were saying in a positive manner.
1:46.0	So it was a hard meeting, and without them, we were sunk.
1:50.0	From NPR, it's how I built this, a show of innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements they built.
2:08.0	I'm Guy Ross, and on the show today, how a chance whiff of lavender inspired Susan Griffin Black to launch a line of essential oils, and then grow that idea into EO products.
2:19.0	One of the most successful, independently-owned natural body care companies.
2:28.0	So there's a word that gets thrown out a lot by venture capitalists and rich folks who invest in startups, and that word is scale.
	...

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