W/ SCARLETT OLSON

BIO 

Scarlett Olsen is the founder of SoCo Botanicals, a natural skincare company based in Austin, Texas. Her health journey began with a Hashimoto's diagnosis and was further exacerbated by chronic Lyme disease. Instead of letting these diagnoses run her life, she began a company to help support health through them.

“There's always this temptation, you know, for organic brands, you can still have an organic skincare line, certified organic, but you can slap a chemical on it for preservative and they still call it organic.” 

 

"I love working with people. Every single one of the people on our team are amazing. And when I feel like I'm making a difference in people lives, it makes me feel very, very grateful.'"

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Baldo 0:00
Alright guys, welcome to the How Do You Health? Podcast. It's Friday the 21st. Once again, we got 430 slot. And we have Scarlet Olson from SoCal Botanicals; she's the owner, we're going to be talking about all sorts of things with skincare. And I know that there's something to talk about as far as like black mold, and Lyme disease and autoimmune disorders, we're definitely gonna be talking about skincare. And of course, we got to nurse doza. And I'm TexMex Yogi. So let's go ahead and get the party started.

Jon Mendoza 0:30
So the path to help them wellness started, what a few years ago with you, and you found out a couple of health issues that you were dealing with that led to you understanding more about yourself, your health and how to, I guess take control of it, right. Yeah. So tell us what happened that made you like say, Oh my gosh, I gotta like change things for the better.

Scarlett Olson 0:52
Well, I was diagnosed with hashimotos when I was 27. And so I had to make some lifestyle changes and You know, started taking some supplements and diet and got kind of got a low carb diet going, kind of got on the keto diet. But in 2013, I got bit by tech and was diagnosed with Lyme. And actually I wasn't diagnosed right away. I just got really sick. And I thought that I had Lyme, but I tested negative for it twice. And then I was also living in a house with toxic mold. So I what I didn't know at the time is there's kind of a lime mold connection. And so if you have a if you have Lyme, you're going to be a lot more susceptible to developing like toxic mold sensitivity. Yeah, so yeah, so during that time, I, you know, quit everything that I was doing. I was singing in a band and I had been performing for years in Austin. At As a singer, and I had to just quit everything I was doing and focus on my health for a couple of years, and I was really, really sick. There was at least about six months of my life where I couldn't get out of bed. And there was about a whole year where I just did not know what was going on. I mean, I couldn't function. A friend of mine came and was like, just, you know, live in my spare bedroom. You know, I basically, you know, moved out of my house because I knew that my house was making me sick. And, and so stayed over there and I just went from doctor to doctor doctor. I had three doctors who basically fired me who they were like, We just can't help help you because they didn't. I was testing negative for everything like they were like your blood work is fine. But I had major joint pain have a lot of trouble walking trouble, the speech. trouble understanding anything just very much a lot of difficulty concentrating and, and, you know, as I came to found find out that the whole Lyme community is pretty frustrated about this because most of the time if you're diagnosed with Lyme or black mold, they want to put you on antidepressants, and they're like, you know, have you thought about seeing a counselor to talk about your feelings? And you know, and you're going, I'm, I'm definitely ill like, I'm so sick.

Baldo 3:30
You're like, I'm not. This is not my mind thinking that something's wrong with me.

Scarlett Olson 3:34
Yes, exactly. And so it can be super frustrating. And so I, I started, you know, buying supplements, you know, trying to self diagnose Google, and, you know, getting on to online forums to look at my symptoms, but I had tested negative for twice, twice for Lyme, and it was antibody test and so the antibody test, I guess it's like the regular blood test that they do. But the problem is that lime flies underneath the radar of your immune system, so you don't always create the antibody for it. And I remember during that time, I remember feeling like my immune system wasn't kicking in, where I would never get sick with colds like I was, even though I had had hashimotos and I had kind of had that, you know, I was managing it with, you know, medication and I was pretty healthy before I got hit by this tick. And,

and so

yeah, so I ended up finding out about the elixir. No. I genix there's a list that antigenics I took the genix test. And that was like two years later. It was it was Dr. Here on V caves, actually, that helped me. I think Pauline Martin, and, and so I finally got my diagnosis for that and then I went to an ear nose and throat doctor who did a swab of my sinuses, and it grew mold. And so I had my two diagnosis and I was so happy to at least have a real diagnosis because I had bartonella. And, and then orelia, which causes Lyme, and so far nellas like a co infection. So and then, and then I also had like the sinus problem with with mold. Yeah, so I was super sick. And it was just, you know, it was a, it was a real journey. But what once I had my diagnosis,

Baldo 5:39
I would so how long was this journey of like you trying to figure out what was going on?

Scarlett Olson 5:43
About two years? Wow, okay,

Baldo 5:45
that's, that's, that's a lot. That's a lot of time. Yeah. Right for doctors to just be dismissive about like, well, I don't know what's wrong.

Scarlett Olson 5:53
Yeah, exactly. And

you know, I mean, it's not to say that I don't have any phase in western medicine because you know if you have an accident you need surgery I mean there's some amazing surgeons out there and you know have a lot of respect for doctors but in this case in this kind of rare you know disease kind of situation they were not able to help me until well until I found Pauline Martin functional medicine doctor and and then they kind of recommended a few different like homeopathy, homeopathy, they recommended seven different supplements but what ended up helping me the most so it's happy to have diagnosed from them. But what helps me the most was I went to Dr. Bandy and and he gave me some herbs and apparently, you know, he muscle test for you and he figures out well, one herb will kill the Lyme disease and the other one will break up the biofilm and he was like you're gonna feel worse. You're gonna feel better. And it's gonna take about three to four months before you even start seeing an improvement, you're gonna have to take these herbs every day for a year and a half. And sure enough, and that after a year and a half, it means exactly what he said would happen. My symptoms got worse for about four months. And then they started getting better. And then after a year and a half, I was totally free of Lyme symptoms, went back and retested with him muscle testing, and I've gone back many times since and he's like, you don't even need to be muscle tested anymore. So you're free of Lyme. And I feel like I am because I mean, I haven't had a blood test to confirm that I'm Lyme free, but I haven't had a symptom of Lyme in years. So um, but I do still have hashimotos so I still have to deal with that take medication, but But yeah, so that has been a really interesting journey. But during that time, you know, I had a big I've changed because I, you know, had been a musician I was, you know, very actively pursuing a music career. I was like, singing, you know, recording music and I was just 100% doing that every day and I had started the skincare line, actually, the year that I got sick the year I got bit by a tick, like, around the time when I had launched this skincare brand. And so, I had already kind of set up some things for the business. So I you know, it was a baby business at the time. But I, you know, during the time when I was recovering, I built my little business from my laptop at home. And, and so, and then during that time, I also found like, you know, this great formulator who does non toxic preservatives and so it's just been it's been really cool because I didn't you know, I art schools musician, I didn't think I would ever know anything about business. And it's been like, the coolest thing to learn. It's almost like the most creative thing I've ever done. It's been building this business. So it's been very, it's been very exciting. And last, you know, of course, being when you're chronically ill like that. And then you get well, you're like, Oh, my gosh, I've got a second lease on life. You know, you're so great. You're so thankful. For the for every day. What just changes changes your perspective?

Baldo 9:34
Yeah. And there's a couple things on all that from the sense that like, a lot of times we do, we run into people that are having an issue that they can't figure it out. And it's always like, from from your story, you can tell Look, it's a long process to because even after the two years before you even figured out what you needed to work on. It was still like another year and a half before like, okay, I feel like I'm good now. Yeah, right. So it's like it's still a long process, but it's still better. Then like having to live like that for the rest of your life, right so so there's one thing is like hey, it's never like an easy like, here's the here's the easy fix. It's never like that right? Because right? The good answers are never the easy ones. It's the ones that you have to really understand and put forth to but as far as like your business go like it so there wasn't really a tie in from like your Lyme disease into your into your skincare company. Or was that from maybe your hashimotos

Scarlett Olson 10:28
Smurfette Hashimoto. So I had, I had already started the skincare line, like I said, but but it just kind of affirmed how important it was to to be chemical free and you know, there's always this temptation, you know, for organic brands, you can still have an organic skincare line, you know, certified organic, but you can slap a chemical on it for preservative and they still got organic and so it was just a passion of mine just because no getting chemicals out of my life was such a big Part of my recovery and so it was extremely important to me to stay non toxic to never you know to never compromise on that you know on on any toxic chemicals in the skincare so we've kept it really pure you know like we have different preservative system so like we'll use like, type of kind of Colloidal Silver is not Colloidal Silver but it's a type of kind of silver preservative along with like a grapefruit seed extract along with the honeysuckle and so I've got this formulator who who does that and that's her specialty is doing non non toxic preservatives and so, you know, that is something that I'm really proud of with our business with our you know, with our products is that I can make that brand promise to our clients that you know, we're we're never gonna put something that's a questionable or if the ingredient you know in the products and so when you put those chemicals on your skin, your liver and your kid These have to process it and there's bio accumulation over time can accumulate in your fat cells. And so, you know, those long term, you know, we don't know all of the dangers of that because the FDA does approve of certain chemicals that don't kill you right now but it might kill you 30 years from now, you know, for cancer, you know? So these types of questionable ingredients, a lot of them you just don't know how much they're gonna affect you down the road so so we've not only kept our skincare brand really pure but super concentrated. So one of the things that we are our best selling product, the soco Symphony, anti aging elixir, it's, it's a face oil. Everything is all in one bottle and it's designed to replace your cream, CRM eye cream. So everything all in one layer. So it's very simple and easy to use, but it's super concentrated. One of the things that soco botanicals skincare represents is that if there's there's no layers, so a lot of skincare companies, you know, the gimmick in the market today that's very typical is that you put on your your spray toner and your serum and your vitamin C serum and your higher lactic acid serum and then you put all this stuff on your face. And you know, then you put your face oil, and let's see your night cream in your day cream, your eye cream on top of that. And every single one of those layers has a layer of preservatives. So not only are you putting fillers, they can clog your pores when you do this skincare layering routine, but you're also layering your skin with preservatives and so what loyle we, we don't have to put preservatives in the moisturizer. So that's our, you know, the one that you know stays on your skin all day long. And it has like the antioxidants and the vitamin E but oils are shelf stable, so you don't actually have to put any kind of preservatives so the preservative systems that I'm talking about that applies to our water based rinse off applications like the mask and the face wash and so you're not leaving that on your skin all day even though ours are non toxic, you know, it wouldn't hurt you. But but generally it's great that you know our moisturizer is everything you need in one bottle. And it has no preservatives, what you know whatsoever. That's awesome. Just the non Yeah, just like the vitamin E tocopherols. So, so that is, you know, our best selling product that's a soco Symphony and it's super concentrated. It's like an dark orange coil. Actually, there's not a dark orange but it looks on Orange in the bottle and then it comes out kind of a clear orange. And so but the reason why it's orange is because we don't dilute the important ingredients and so seabuckthorn oil rose hip oil coenzyme Q 10 it's super concentrated with those anti aging ingredients and so it is very effective because it absorbs so the oils absorb

easy better than cream. So and I'll explain in a minute but but those ingredients since they're super concentrated, they soak into your skin and deliver those anti aging ingredients. You know they absorb better at a deeper level of your skin. So if you put a face cream on as your moisturizer, then usually that involves like sand thing gum and emulsifiers and these wax based ingredients and water based ingredients and then chemicals on top of that And so cream can actually clog your pores and and then it has chemicals and fillers in it. So with an oil based moisturizer, moisturizer, I'm a very big fan of using oils as your moisturizer. It actually doesn't leave your skin greasy, and it soaks into your skin and and then you get results much quicker. Yeah, so yeah, so that's kind of the thing that we that soak up Dr. Nichols represents is the oil based skincare, moisturizer, everything you need in one bottle.

Jon Mendoza 16:35
Yeah. Let me ask you this. I love I love all the detail to the ingredients like because I'm I am a believer that you have to know everything that you're putting in your body because it will affect you to some degree like your prime example of that with the lime for example. Can you explain? You're talking about the preservatives and the chemicals that are in there? I think you refer to him as endocrine disruptors. Can you can you elaborate a little bit more on that?

Scarlett Olson 17:01
Well, I would have to defer to the, our formulator on that question. So parabens can't are usually like estrogenic genic chemicals. And the endocrine disruptors, I believe, are they disrupt your endocrine system?

Jon Mendoza 17:21
So, yeah, like citizens, like it messes with your hormones. Right. So you're talking like estrogen for women and stuff like that, right? Yeah. So, so the way I understand it is preservatives like parabens, BPA. I don't know xantham gum or anything like right? What could possibly cause you to produce inflammatory hormones? Right?

Scarlett Olson 17:41
Yeah, yeah. So the hormones well, and like I said, I have to defer to our formulator on this question. So, but the, the, if you have an exposure to those kinds of hormones, it can actually cause the, like, cause cancer. can cause your

inflammatory response.

Jon Mendoza 18:05
Yeah, I think that's what it is. So. So this is probably what your formulator would probably be thinking. A women makes a different several different kinds of estrogens. The term xeno estrogens and Phyto estrogens I'm sure you're familiar with right. So anything that disrupts the endocrine system means that it produces an inflammatory hormone when it should be producing a normal non inflammatory hormone. So like pesticides, herbicides, chemical compounds can produce inflammatory estrogen because it mimics the idea that your body's trying to produce estrogen, right. So like, one thing that I think is an example of, of toxins would be like antiperspirant so like antiperspirant has like parabens and it has aluminum in it. It doesn't allow your toxins to release from your armpits and so those toxins along with whatever chemicals You put in your body stay within your system, and they go into like your lymph nodes. Right? So, like anything that you place on your skin gets absorbed. So, the preservatives, this is what's frustrating from like a nutritional standpoint. We have to tell everyone what's in all our products. Yeah. from your standpoint you choose to Yeah, you don't have to. Yeah, no,

Scarlett Olson 19:21
we do. Okay. Yeah, by FDA regulations, we have to add everything, you know, on the label.

Jon Mendoza 19:28
Okay. So, so when you put something on the label, like, not y'all but like, skincare company, you have to label you have to tell the ingredients, but no one really knows what some of those ingredients are. Right, like sodium, la blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right, right, right.

Scarlett Olson 19:46
Yeah. So we do we promise that everything is gonna be you know, paraben free and everything's gonna be non toxic. And so like any ingredient that that we that my formulator puts on the products like she knows that it cannot have any other So,

Jon Mendoza 20:00
yeah, so what's your thought on sunblock and sunscreen?

Scarlett Olson 20:04
Well, so the yeah so oxybenzone and the sunscreen chemicals are some of the most toxic chemicals and are known to cause cancer and birth defects. So we, I don't use sunscreen. Personally, we don't have sunscreen product. But our face oil actually does have red raspberry seed oil which is naturally high in SPF. And so ever since I mean I used to wear sunscreen every single day, every day like an SPF 10 shirt and we were taught that no women are taught you have to wear sunscreen every day. And so I started you know, using that and I developed sunspots and wrinkles, when I was like 25 years old, and but I was wearing sunscreen. Every day, and then when I switched to oils, I started using the red raspberry seed oil, my sunspots and my wrinkles. I mean I better skin at age 41 than I did when I was 25. And I think that had a lot to do with you know, getting the chemicals out of my you know, off of my skin and using the non toxic

skincare products so,

Jon Mendoza 21:24
yeah, yeah, I it goes down to the shampoo, the conditioner, the gel, the hairspray, women, obviously you have so much more you put on your face. Obviously guys, like you know, like I'm not putting lipstick on and you know, they care more Hey, good, but you still have to think like all those things. I know people say not test on animals, but I'm saying what do they test on humans? Like what is it the chemicals that are in there, right? And if I can't pronounce an ingredient, I don't I don't eat it. So what does it look like when it's like something I put on my scalp? Like if I don't know what it is, I don't want to put it like coal tar. So I have dandruff and I was using Neutrogena for a while. And then I started reading about coal tar because that's like the active ingredient helps. And I read how bad it was like as a carcinogenic. Yeah. So what you're basically telling me is there's chemicals out there that are known preservatives to be carcinogenic. Yeah. And you made something very clear. You said you won't know if it truly does cause it until like 2030 years come down the road. Yes,

Scarlett Olson 22:23
that's right. And what's really interesting is when you know I started the skincare brand, I started going to different manufacturers because you know, I really needed to find manufacturer for my brand. And I've heard so many different manufacturers, the big ones mostly in Dallas. That's where like the skincare manufacturing industry is, and

the people that run those places

Jon Mendoza 22:51
look like crap.

Scarlett Olson 22:53
And actually the place where I have everything manufactured now they're like an all-natural you know, non toxic professional manufacturer and they don't have bad skin. Yeah, but there were so many places where I went and, and tried to kind of talk them into doing natural manufacturing and, and they would kind of, you know what my ingredients and they would say, well we don't we don't even know what that ingredient is, you know, like seabuckthorn oil or something that's really common in the natural industry they they didn't know where to get it because they're just only using chemicals all the time. Yeah, to make skincare and I remember just seeing these people's faces and I was like, Hey, I'm like I could really help them. You know, because their skin is terrible yet they work in the skincare industry. It's really

Jon Mendoza 23:48
no, it's fine call about that's all about no call them if it's a doctor, if it's a doctor telling me about nutrition and they have a belly hanging over their their bow belt buckle. Yeah, I'm not listening to him about it. trician Yeah, same deal. It's like, why would you assume about skincare when they don't know how to take care of themselves? Yeah,

Scarlett Olson 24:04
yeah. So, but, but yeah, we've had, you know, a lot of people send, you know, love letters like that their skin is better than it was 20 years ago. And that's really what keeps me going. I'm just really grateful that our clients are so happy and getting the results that they want.

Jon Mendoza 24:26
Yeah, yeah. So you've been around seven years now? Yes, seven years. Okay. Let's focus on the business side of it. So you had no business background before this.

Scarlett Olson 24:35
I had no business background, I had no chemistry background. So I'm more of the creative side of things. But I learned everything about business in this process. You know, it was just pure determination. I was fortunate to know a lot of entrepreneurs know a lot of business people that would just mentor me and help me and answer you know, answered questions. And, and then one of my best friends is our CFO, and she's just worked for 30 years as a CFO, and she does CFO work for for a lot of different companies. But she's doing, say a CFO work for us, which is like, Great because, you know, it's hard to find somebody at her level to make sure that the business side is taken care of and everything done correctly. But yeah, just putting a team together and meeting the right people putting our team of formulators I have so I've got a professional formulator who does the non toxic preservatives, of course, and then I have an aromatherapist who does that part. I have different chemists that I have consulted with over the years here and there on different formulations. I've got an aesthetician who I consult with so you know and I'm very creatively involved. In the research side of the formulas So, so it's it, there are a lot of eyes that go into each and every one of these products. So we make sure that everybody, you know, fine tunes it. Yeah. Which is really cool.

Jon Mendoza 26:15
So, so how many people are on your staff?

Scarlett Olson 26:18
So I've got one full time person besides me. And then about

six part time people

Jon Mendoza 26:31
all doing various different things, different things. So would How big is your role? Like, I know you're obviously the owner, but what other hats are you wearing?

Scarlett Olson 26:39
So I'm trying to be as much of a CEO as possible. Because I used to do everything but but now, every time I find myself doing a task that is not CEO work, I write a an SLP Yeah, standard operating Yeah, of course all together and say, Okay, I'm doing too much of this. So I'm gonna write an SLP and hand it to this person. So, in, you know, in the last couple of years, it's been just more and more of that delegating. I mean, I work full time. You know, every day, I work full time, I still work too much, but, but I'm able to kind of focus on some of the higher level stuff. But I do. I would say there is a role we have a graphic designer, but there is a role that I sometimes jump into and that's graphic design, because that's my background. So

Jon Mendoza 27:37
that makes sense. Yeah. That's really cool. So what what's the coolest thing you like about being the boss?

Scarlett Olson 27:45
About being the boss? Yeah. Oh, well, I love working with people. I love. You know, every single one of the people on our team are amazing. And when I feel like I'm making a difference in people lives. It's that's makes me feel very, very grateful.

Jon Mendoza 28:04
Yeah. Would you do it all over again?

Scarlett Olson 28:09
Oh, yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. And I actually, you know, people, you know, say, oh, would you do anything differently? Well, I'm glad that I started small and didn't didn't have any investor money. Yeah. So we had to figure it out. I figured it out, just growing really slowly. Market testing, I spent the most money in the beginning on r&d, you know, just making sure that our products were amazing. And so but, yeah, so that was, you know, for many years, just kind of breakeven and but at the same time, it's been really gratifying experience. Yeah, just Getting to do what I get to do every day.

Jon Mendoza 29:02
Has your mindset changed on how you view things in this world since you're now an owner of a successful business?

Scarlett Olson 29:09
Oh, definitely. I mean, it's, it's exciting. I didn't think that I could ever do this. Yeah. Why? I mean, you kind of, you can kind of get stuck in the mindset of, well, I can't do that, because I've never done it before. Yeah. And I actually took the landmark forum A while back. And in the landmark forum, they teach you that you can do things that you've never done before. And it's just mind blowing minute sounds really simple. But you create the possibility of doing something new and you create it every day. So every day you can create something new, whereas a lot of people will say, Well, I can't do that because I've never done it in the past. And so you know, getting past that self limiting belief. Definitely was something that I had to fight every single day. You know, you wake up and say, Okay, well, I've never done this before, but I'm gonna do it today. So,

Unknown Speaker 30:12
yeah, you have to tell yourself that there's no other choice, right? Like I have to do this. Yeah. Like, yeah. And so there's been plenty of things from a startup standpoint that can we can relate to as well and say, when those times when you could have taken this road where you took this one instead, hopefully you look back on it just very quickly and say, like, is this the right way to do it? Because if there's no template for it, you're making every decision on your own almost in the dark. You're good throwing darts in the dark back. I hope this is the route we're going almost like you're leading yourself in the dark. Yeah, I think it's smart to not take investor money. If you if you don't know what you have on your hands. Yeah. Right. Like, I'm sure you were presented with people were like all invested in you.

Scarlett Olson 30:55
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I had a lot of I had 10 investors lined up One time. And I wrote, I mean, I wrote several business plans. We were gonna do like, you know, $10,000 from 10 investors, we're gonna raise $200,000 like, kind of early on and, and I just thought, you know, I can do this without them, you know, and so I kept pushing it off, and I kept putting it off and

and then actually

recently you know, Tito beverage of course. I talked to him and and he was like, Whatever you do, don't get get investors. He said that when he was getting started, he tried to get investors to and nobody wanted to invest. But then when he got successful, everybody wanted to invest. So that was definitely a big piece of advice that he gave me. And then he also said, you know, delegate, learn to delegate. Yeah, that was he was like delegate and work with people that you really like. And just enjoy, enjoy what you do. And then when you go to work, it's fun because you're hanging out with all your friends.

Jon Mendoza 32:08
Yeah. So how are you managing people now? When you first started, how different is it?

Scarlett Olson 32:15
Um, well,

I think he's just kind of learn as you go.

I see, I see that my role is that I'm there to serve them. I am there to help them. And, you know, they have my cell phone number. I'm there for them whenever they need me. But I also want them to be empowered. So I spent, like happier of my life writing as op use for everything, screenshots, you know, presentations in Google Sheets and just making sure that everybody had step by step, what they needed for every single task and then just being available. For them, so if I'm not there for them, or if they're making mistakes, that's my fault. So I've kind of taken on that, that mindset because I want them to stay with me forever. Like, I want to make sure that they're happy. So if, you know if so when I see organizations where people are not happy people are quitting people are, you know, or the boss is, you know, firing someone because they don't think that the person's done their job. I mean, I'm a small company, you know, compared to some of the big organizations, but I'm like, man, if somebody is not doing their job the way you want it to be done, then maybe you should get it and help them. So that's kind of my mindset. And I it's been really cool because the people that I work with are my closest friends. And, and I, you know, I hoped that they would say that I'm doing a good job. Yeah.

Jon Mendoza 33:57
Yeah, that's it, but it's tough though, right? Because you're messing with people's like, means of living, right? I've learned very early on, like, you mess with people's money, especially if they're working for you, like, you got to make sure you take care of him with the pay. Because that that loses a trust factor that you can't really get back that easily. Yeah, right. And people want to buy into what you're doing. I mean, what's the interview process? Like? Do you ask them questions about where do you stand on sustainability? And, you know, preservatives and all I mean, what do you ask them? You know,

Scarlett Olson 34:28
like the last girl that I hired, who is my right hand? I really she didn't really know everything about sustainability and but she was willing to learn and she's really excited about it now, but it's more of getting to know someone as a person. You know, how committed you know, is she to her job and learning and enjoying the process and as To someone who has a great attitude. Someone who's smart pick things picks things up quickly. So, but yeah, so I mean, I, I don't expect all of my clients to understand everything about skincare. I mean, I, I'm happy to teach them. I'm happy to show them why this way of doing skincare is better. So

Jon Mendoza 35:27
yeah, it's more about teachability. Right like you want I forgot who said it recently. It's like, I don't really care what their skill set is. Yeah. Because that doesn't mean anything like Yeah, great. You were able to figure out how to do this and get you to this point. But how are you thinking on the spot? How are you with creative, constructive criticism? How are you with the ability to face a challenge that you've maybe failed at two or three times? Yeah, like I want. I want a person who's faced adversity and overcome it. How do you react? Yeah, how do you respond?

Scarlett Olson 36:00
Yeah, Yeah absolutely. How many

Baldo 36:03
how many products to use.

Scarlett Olson 36:05
So we have three core products is the symphony anti aging elixir but we actually have a men's and a women's of that and then we have a facial scrub, which is also a mask and then we have a gel facewash that has hyaluronic acid and is like a hydrating and also has the fruit acids so it can double as like a mass that gives you a gentle peel and hydrates your skin at the same time. So all of our products are dual purpose. So fewer products, more concentration, more nutrition and each one of them and so those are three core products we also have amazing hand and body oil. That's like really good for chapped hands and winter. Smells amazing. And then we have a line of lip balms and and Then we have some past soaps, so simplified skincare line, but we are planning on going to haircare and supplements also.

Jon Mendoza 37:09
Yeah, nice, what supplements he thinking about

Scarlett Olson 37:13
doing? Well just some of the ones that I have that have really helped me so you know kind of going along with the simplified lifestyle and like for instance cookie 10 is an amazing one. But you know right now I take a whole bunch of different pills. So I take the minerals and I take the cookie 10 and the pq Q and I take up just mostly vitamin D using vitamin C. So I take a whole bunch so I I'm interested in doing like fewer supplements and one down the road kind of going along, along with our skincare brand and just offering you know, fewer pills, or fewer or maybe even a drink supplements haven't fully explored it but but giving someone you know offering a supplement that is everything you need in

Jon Mendoza 38:08
your capsules complements the skincare line. Yeah, right? Yes. Yeah. So it's maybe like a protocol like, because I mean, there might be stuck it's better to take as a pill than to put topically maybe, like for absorption. Does that does that make a difference? Would you say it would be better to absorb topically over like an oral?

Scarlett Olson 38:28
Yeah, well, so I think it's important to take both because like our our skin oil, that one has a very good dose of coenzyme Q 10, which is known to increase your collagen production. It's known to disperse melt it's been clinically proven to disperse melanin in the skin so so it can really help to reduce sunspots. So that is like a vitamin that absorbs right under the skin and works right at the skin level. But it's also amazing to take internally so you You know, it helps with your heart and it's an antioxidant. So you know I'm just a big fan of taking care of from from the inside out and in the outside in like human you have to just anything that is going to go on your skin is going into your body. So it's both ways.

Jon Mendoza 39:20
Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. So I mean you're essentially you're kind of almost look like your skincare product as a supplement. Anyway, right? I mean, it's just it's another form of it. Absolutely. Right.

Scarlett Olson 39:30
Yes. And we would kind of call it like a superfood for your skin. So yeah, yeah, it's not your typical skincare line with a bunch of, you know, layers with chemicals. So it's a superfood you know, supplement but it is. We did have it formulated to be the perfect level of oiliness versus a dry oil, which is a more absorbent oil. So it's very, it's a very good moisturizers so it's designed to be like the perfect moisturizer but being an oil it delivers those anti aging ingredients to the skin. So,

Jon Mendoza 40:08
those cool, Woodyard, we're looking at like stem cells.

Scarlett Olson 40:14
So I actually did look into that a while back not for not for our brand, but for our spa, which is closed right now because of COVID. But we have a store and Spa in South Congress. And office St. Elmo road. Yeah, so Mm hmm. And so we actually thought about, there was an aesthetician who was going to work there who worked with stem cells. And so I looked into it, and it really, like, it really scared me. So after just kind of doing a little bit of research, I mean, I know that they can be amazing. I just thought I don't want to get into that.

Jon Mendoza 40:56
So to me, too many what ifs and question marks and But what could happen?

Scarlett Olson 41:01
Yeah, yeah, I mean, well, I mean, for instance, like, there have been people who got injections of stem cells and to their, their face and, you know, grew bones in their eyeball, you know, things like that, like literally had to have surgery to remove bones growing out of their eyeball. So, I mean, you know, stem cells can, you know, they can kind of have a mind of their own, from what I understand. I mean, I'm not an expert on that, but I just read enough concerning articles that, that I didn't want to get into it.

Jon Mendoza 41:35
No, be conservative, right. But

Scarlett Olson 41:37
I'm also I mean, I'm not an expert on that. I mean, people who know what they're doing, they can they can get into that.

Jon Mendoza 41:45
Well, it's also like, we've had this discussion all the time, too. It's like we there's so many things you could do. Yeah. So you stay in your own lane and just own up to like, the things you know, you're good at. Yes, exactly. Yeah. I mean, that's me. You said you have three main products. Like that's simple right? This One company supplement company said, we have 80 products. Yeah. And we have right now I think what 12 and we're about to, we're about to get like three more. Yeah. So to me, I'm like, I'd rather do a slow growth rather than do like 2030 things all at once, because there's also an educational piece to each one of those. Why do I take this one? over this one? Yeah. All right. So what? So you have I know you said earlier before you like on Amazon, yeah. Your storefront? What's been like your, your best reach? Like what do you suggest to people like when if they're trying to design their own company, like what route should they go as far as marketing?

Scarlett Olson 42:37
Well, I mean, I started off with Shopify as a website. And there and then just, you know, marketing with, you know, Facebook advertising, Google, Pinterest, Instagram, and then I got on Amazon and spent four years Studying Amazon and learned everything. I mean, I actually did have a marketing well and you asked me like what are some of the things that you end up doing? marketing is one of the things I end up doing well actually advertising so like PPC bids management I end up you know, like tinkering with that I have someone who does it but I kind of feel like I'm doing it better.

But but then so got an Amazon and just studied that for years and learned everything that I could learn about Amazon PPC, and and just ran my own campaigns for a while worked with few agencies ended up not working with them, you know, kind of brought it back internally to do it. And Amazon is a beast, Amazon can pull the rug out from an Any anytime they want. I've had my product products delisted multiple times on Amazon. One was my facewash, my organic facewash. Just I woke up one day and my listing was down. And you don't ever want that to happen because then you lose momentum. And it takes a lot of advertising dollars to get on page one. And then if you're not on page one for a couple of days, then it'll take you months to recover. So momentum and like is very important on Amazon that you never ever want to run out of stock. It's kind of, you know, set. The number one rule on Amazon is don't ever run out of stock or you lose that front page status. And so, but I woke up one day and it was gone. And I was like, Where's my listing? And I called Amazon and, and they said, well, it's been taken down because you didn't include batteries. What? Yes, exactly. So I was like, What do you mean batteries? And they said, Oh, well, you know, your product is a set of speakers requiring batteries and you didn't include batteries. So we had to take your product down. And I was like, this, this is doesn't make any sense. I mean, my product has been on there for over a year. And so it turned out that somebody in Amazon China had put up a set of speakers and use the same skew. And the, you know, basically the wires crossed and they took down my listing and it took me several days to get it back. So every amazon seller has the story like that, like what happened and so you don't you don't want to put all your eggs in the Amazon basket. But Amazon has been really good for growth. We've reached people that we never would have reached if we hadn't been on Amazon, and you know, it's a great platform to be on. I you know, I think but It can take many years to kind of get some real momentum going and stay on front page and get your Amazon subscribers. I definitely would recommend it for you guys. To to try it out just call me when you're not Yeah.

Jon Mendoza 46:18
Well, you're gonna have to like write a book on how to like sell on Amazon because we've heard the same thing we've said, I think it's like 100 count or something to start off, like you said, You can't go below that, because that's the case. It's almost like trying to demo in Whole Foods. If you screw up one time, they'll never invite you back again. Yeah, and so we're just very cautious on that idea. Because if you get get we were having problems with the inventory chain, like, I think maybe a year and a half ago, right? I would say Yeah. And so people always should be on Amazon like, I don't know, man. Like, if we can't get our inventory, right. Like I I don't want that to like lose momentum for us. Yeah. And then we didn't do it the right way. But, but nowadays, when people start In businesses you said you started everything from like a phone a laptop. I mean, that's essentially what you can do now it's it's almost like it's easier now than ever. Yeah, to start an online business. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So is this going to lead to something bigger a bigger company more products other companies like what what do you see this turning into?

Scarlett Olson 47:21
Yeah, so definitely I mean, I want to get I want to do a, an all in one haircare line, just one shampoo, conditioner, and then when leave in application that's non toxic and along with our brand promises, and then like I said, the supplements and, but I am I'm not wanting to expand just for the sake of expansion. Like we have brand loyalty because people know that we're not gonna sell them a bunch of stuff that they don't need. We're putting more hype quality ingredients and fewer products. So that really does bring a type of brand loyalty. So if I go and say, Okay, well we're gonna give you these, you know, 20 other products that you don't need, then that kind of would kill our brand. So we have to be really careful with brand expansion. So anything that we develop is going to be very carefully curated just like all of our current products.

And,

and then makeup. That's another thing that I'd like to do is a makeup like a nutritional makeup line. Where the there's nutritional oils and vitamins in the makeup. That's cool.

Jon Mendoza 48:41
Yeah. So you really environment company. That's really what you are. It's starting to sound like it.

Unknown Speaker 48:48
That's cool, though.

Scarlett Olson 48:49
Yeah. Well, definitely. I mean, you know, it comes from my experience in needing to take care of my health.

Jon Mendoza 48:58
Yeah. So you're trying to Other people do.

Baldo 49:02
That's cool. That's cool. I like it. We can we can co brand a product, we can work on one together.

Jon Mendoza 49:06
I would. I would love that. I think that's cool.

Baldo 49:08
Yeah, hormone balancing cream or something.

Jon Mendoza 49:11
I just I think I think it's so great what you're doing because we have a lot of friends and like CPG. And they did that because there was a problem they saw. And they said I couldn't find the answer. So I had to create one. Yes. Right. That's that's your story is that even though you didn't directly do it, because of the issues you were dealing with? You said, I don't want someone else to go through these same problems. Yeah. You know, like, I want to give them an option to where they can educate themselves and say, hey, there's something out there that could help you. And if not, maybe more, add more benefit to your health. You know, I mean, everyone wants anti aging. But imagine if you're saying, Well, what if it's internally to out? Like, what if we take care of stuff inside and it rises to the surface to where you basically build beauty from the inside out?

Scarlett Olson 49:56
Yes, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And Do I mean back when I was 27 I told you I was kind of getting started on switching from cream to using oils. I actually was searching for the perfect face oil and I didn't find it on the market. And all the base oils were kind of watered down and kind of a clear color because you know, there was no concentrated nutrition in it. And and so I I started mixing stuff in my kitchen, like just for myself. That's actually kind of how I got started. That's cool. But before I ever put anything on the market, I hired professionals that formulators but I'm very like I said from the very beginning, I've been a very big creative part of the formulation process, which is really exciting. I really enjoy formulating.

Jon Mendoza 50:47
That's cool. I like that part too. I like that part too. Well. Well cool. So for the Austin people who are here in town where do they find you?

Scarlett Olson 50:56
soco botanicals, calm, okay.

Jon Mendoza 50:59
storefronts done open right now

Scarlett Olson 51:01
so it's open by appointment only right now so yeah, we're, we did unfortunately had had to close we were offering massages and facials and that is on hold for the moment

Jon Mendoza 51:14
because it's considered non essential right now right which is kind of ridiculous.

Scarlett Olson 51:17
Well, we were allowed to open in July and but our main massage therapist, he ended up you know, just making a decision for him and his family not to do massage therapy anymore So, so we have another massage therapist is going to start in September, which I'm really excited about so that you can actually book online for her and then facials we haven't gotten facials going yet so but but yeah, kind of like reopening is gonna be kind of a slow process so everything's by appointment only but but yeah, for our skincare products go to soak botanicals calm and if you sign up on our, our page there then you can get your 50% off coupon.

Baldo 52:07
Sweet. Cool. Awesome. Well thank you guys so much. This is the how to help

"It was extremely important to me to stay non toxic, to never compromise on any toxic chemicals in your skincare."

You can follow Scarlett at @socobotanicals on Instagram and check out their website here: www.socobotanicals.com  

Find us & shop liver detox drinks at www.mswnutrition.com/collections/all-products 

Follow the podcast on Twitter @HDYHPodcast and use #HDYHPod for questions/comments/cat videos.

CREDITS:
Hosts - Baldo Garza, Jonathan Mendoza
Guest - Scarlett Olson
Podcast production - Allison Wojtowecz (Flabs to Fitness, Inc. - www.flabstofitness.com)
Guest coordinator - Baldo Garza
Intro/Outro song - Benjamin Banger