We are thrilled to announce that our very own founder, Lee-Ann Johnstone, has been honoured with the prestigious Performance Marketing Personality of the Year award by Haymarket Media Group’s Performance Marketing World. This accolade is a testament to her leadership, dedication, and contributions to the affiliate marketing industry.
A Well-Deserved Recognition
The Performance Marketing Personality of the Year award is one of the most recognised people’s awards in the performance marketing industry. Recognising individuals who have made significant impact through innovation, leadership, and excellence in affiliate marketing.
Lee-Ann has consistently demonstrated these qualities, driving Affiverse to new heights and setting benchmarks for the entire performance marketing community.
A Journey of Innovation and Leadership
Since founding Affiverse, Lee-Ann has been a trailblazer in the performance marketing space.
Her innovative strategies and forward-thinking approach have not only propelled Affiverse to the forefront of the industry as an award-winning agency, media and training business but on a personal level she has always invested her time to train and inspire countless affiliate marketing professionals, helping brands to rethink their affiliate marketing strategies through the popular Affiverse podcast and helping practitioners keep learning new skills on the job!
Impact on the Affiliate Industry
Under Lee-Ann’s leadership, Affiverse has achieved numerous milestones, building products and services that help brands and publishers do affiliate marketing better, including:
- Launching an award-winning Agency service delivered to clients across multiple industries, working with premier agency clients such as: Barner, PipeDrive, IPVanish (Ziff Davies Group), Criteo, Partners.io, StarSports and many other B2B, iGaming and E-Commerce brands.
- Launching the Affiliate Marketing Podcast now ranking in the top 0.5% of Podcasts in the world and has received more than 300,000 downloads.
- Creating the Affiliate Manager Performance Program that has helped more than 200 affiliate program managers in the industry level up their affiliate program account management skills and grow their affiliate programs via her AMPP (Affiliate Marketing Performance Program) which offers a 12-week virtual training program with monthly training sessions for practitioners in affiliate program management.
- Curated both virtual and in-person events designed to help brands AMPLIFY and ELEVATE their performance programs and grow their acquisition strategies.
Her contributions have not only elevated Affiverse as a business brand that publishers can trust for knowledge and insights – but these contributions have also had a positive impact on the broader performance marketing landscape.
A Message from Our Founder
Upon receiving the award, Lee-Ann shared her gratitude and vision for the industry’s future:
“I’m delighted to receive this wonderful nomination from Performance Marketing World and to be held up in such good company along with my fellow practitioners working in the performance marketing industry. I hope that Affiverse’s efforts are encouraging more talent into the industry so we can continue to grow it and that we can continue to help support and develop strategies that help affiliates and advertiser brands make the most out of one of the most innovative digital areas we are working in today!”
Looking Ahead
As we celebrate this incredible achievement, we are more motivated than ever to continue our mission of driving innovation and delivering exceptional results for our clients. We are confident that Affiverse will continue to lead the way in helping our community improve and develop new performance marketing strategies, setting high standards and achieving even greater sales success.
We hope to see lots of you in person at our London event, ELEVATE, this September. Full details here.
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Dr. Kathrin Hamm, founder and CEO of sleep-wellness company Bearaby, never wanted to be an entrepreneur. After graduating with her Ph.D. in economics, she started as an economist at the World Bank. Her work took her all over the world and provided invaluable insight into the small, medium and women-founded enterprises she tried to convince banks to lend to — but she “learned firsthand how hard it is, especially in developing countries, for women to get access to finance and start and grow their businesses.”
During her time in India and Bangladesh especially, Hamm faced long, “exhausting” travel days. She’d “never been a good sleeper,” waking easily even as a child, and she developed a chronic case of insomnia. It began “on a more moderate level,” with difficulty falling and staying asleep, before the periods of wakefulness became longer and longer, motivating her to look into different solutions.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Bearaby. Kathrin Hamm.
She started by investigating various mattress options, but when she dug deeper, she found an article discussing weighted blankets. The piece focused on helping children with sensory issues, Hamm recalls, but it also mentioned that evenly distributed weight on an adult body could support better sleep. Hamm was immediately intrigued — as a potential customer.
Related: The No-Excuse Approach to Sleep and Work Performance for Entrepreneurs
“Let me buy a product, sleep better and then move on with my career.”
“I came from a consumer lens,” Hamm says, “and knowing how hard it is for women to start a business, I [was] like, Yeah, I’m good here. I don’t want to start a business or even think about becoming an entrepreneur. Let me buy a product, sleep better and then move on with my career.”
However, the purchase process proved difficult. Unable to find options online, Hamm had to go to a pharmacy in Germany, where she’s from, to place an order. Six weeks later, a “big bean bag” arrived. It was orange and blue and “very noisy,” Hamm says. She was reluctant to even try it at first and wondered if she’d made a mistake.
“But then I put it on during the day on a weekend, and I just passed out after 10 minutes,” Hamm says. “And I woke up more than two hours later, [after] a solid nap, completely passed out, and I’m like, Wow, this is magic. This thing works for me.“
Related: Fighting Sleep Is a Losing Management Strategy. Let Your Employees Take Naps.
So Hamm kept using the blanket at night, but there was a problem: Because the blanket was filled with plastic beads to add weight, she often got too hot. The underlying functionality works; the weight on my body works, Hamm remembers thinking, but how it is made doesn’t work. After some research, Hamm discovered that the technology, which largely consisted of bead-filled chambers between layers of blanket, had been around for 30 years — “Nobody had innovated anything about this product.”
“Why can’t you just use strips of cotton?”
Hamm decided to experiment with alternative designs. She drew some inspiration from her time spent in India, “where there’s a culture of making rugs, knitting, crocheting,” but the ultimate breakthrough came from a conversation with her mom. Hamm had been considering changing the material or adding holes for airflow when her mom said, “Why can’t you just use strips of cotton?” They would create a thick yarn that could be knit together for natural airflow, eliminating the need for heavy artificial materials that shift around and reduce comfort. That idea led to the development of Bearaby’s first small blanket, made from a cut-up t-shirt.
Confident she was onto something, Hamm opted to take a year’s leave from her job to focus on the business. “I didn’t want to take too much of a risk, again, knowing that it can get really hard,” she admits. “[But] my boss was super supportive, and she said, ‘Look, if it doesn’t work out, we make a case study out of it.'”
Hamm withdrew $120,000 from her retirement fund and raised just over $250,000 from a crowdfunding campaign to fund the prototypes for the first batch of blankets. She also looked into patents, but they were expensive, so she did the drawing herself, then had a lawyer put together a provisional patent application, which entitles the filer to 18 months before they have to pay more money. That went through just a couple of days before launch in December 2018; the blanket sold out in two weeks and was the only product of its kind on the market for a couple of years, Hamm says.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Bearaby
Related: How to Take Advantage of the ‘First-to-File’ Patent System
Despite the early success, the more than 50 factories that Hamm approached weren’t inclined to take on the product. They’d never seen anything like it: It wasn’t apparel, and it wasn’t bedding. So, for that first year and a half, Hamm rented a small garage outfitted with knitting machines and knitters to churn out the first products. The strong sales helped the business continue to finance production, which was a good thing, too — because people still weren’t all that interested in investing in the first-of-its-kind product.
“In hindsight, we had to learn to be profitable.”
Hamm leaned into the “bootstrap” mentality, which was a blessing in disguise. “In hindsight, we had to learn to be profitable,” she explains, “to become in tune with our production processes and marketing processes, to be efficient, which sometimes you didn’t see at that time in the direct-to-consumer space. Everyone was like, ‘I raised that much money, and I’m putting that much million on a marketing spend.’ So we never had it, but now, in an environment where money is not flowing [as] freely, we never had that money in the first place, so we are feeling pretty good right now.”
Bearaby saw another major advantage in brand loyalty. Hamm notes that people seeking wellness and sleep tend to form an “emotional connection” with the blanket,” and that it’s easy to fall in love with a brand that helps you sleep better. Substantial interest also translated into an early retail presence. Just five months in, Bearaby was in West Elm, thanks to customers who walked in and wanted to try the blanket. That happened with Nordstrom, too.
Related: Customer Loyalty Is Your Holy Grail for Success. Here’s How to Cultivate It.
As Bearaby considered expansion, it centered on functional products that would uphold its commitment to quality and sustainability (the company is certified by third-party organizations, including The Global Organic Textile Standard, The Forest Stewardship Council and The Global Recycled Standard). Because anxiety so often goes hand in hand with insomnia, the company landed on its warmables line; boasting a weighted and heated neck wrap, bottle and lap pad, it “takes the nervous system to zero,” Hamm says.
Image Credit: Courtesy of Bearaby
Naturally, Bearaby’s products have become an integral part of Hamm’s own sleep routine, and as she’s gotten older, she’s realized even more just how much sleep she actually needs. “Now I sleep for a minimum of eight hours,” she says. “I’m training myself to get nine to 10 hours of sleep, obviously not every night, but definitely every weekend. Also, [it helps] whenever I get a chance to take a nap, like just a 20-minute nap to reset. [I make sure that I have] these conscious breaks, whether [it’s] napping or deep breathing because running a business is a marathon, and if we don’t take care of our bodies, we’re not able to do that over a very long time.”
“Just have tunnel vision for one year, and then reevaluate after those 365 days.”
Hamm’s five-year marathon with Bearaby has led to over $20 million in sales and more than 10 patents — but it all started with a single, somewhat reluctant leap of faith. And according to the founder, that’s exactly what it takes to be successful.
“Once you believe in a product, just take a chance and give yourself a year,” Hamm says. “It’s much more manageable if you [have] a considerable time frame where it’s like, Okay, in that year, I’m giving everything I have, 100%. Because sometimes we second guess ourselves. After [a few] months or six weeks, we don’t see the success, [and] we start doubting ourselves. You say [I have] one year, and I’m not asking if this is working. Just have tunnel vision for one year, and then reevaluate after those 365 days.”
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Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
“When you look at the statistics when it comes to Black women founders, yes, I am an anomaly,” says Denise Woodard, CEO and founder of Partake Foods. “If Marcy Venture Partners hadn’t invested in us, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”
Companies led by Black women typically receive less than 1% of all venture capital funding, according to Crunchbase. During the Diversity Tipping Point in May 2020, the period when corporate America acknowledged that Black Lives Matter, there was a significant investment in diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. It also correlated with an uptick in VC funding for Black-founded and led start-ups. Then the ensuing DEI backlash happened, so the investments didn’t last long. According to Crunchbase, financing for Black founders dropped 45% in 2022.
Since founding her business in 2016, Woodard has raised more than $25 million in capital. In the past two years, Partake Foods, a consumer products goods brand offering delicious and better-for-you snacks free of the top nine allergens, has achieved 69% revenue growth. The company has increased distribution from 6,000 doors to 14,000 doors. She has built an incredible business, receiving industry accolades, a loyal consumer following, high-profile partnerships and more investors knocking on her door. And yet, Woodard knows this isn’t the case for many Black women founders.
“It’s clear that in my ecosystem, there is a deprioritization of DEI efforts over the last year. So, yes, I’m a Black and Korean American woman who’s raised more than $25 million for my startup, but there is still underwhelming, limited access to capital for Black and brown people,” Woodard says. “Less than 1% of all VC funding went to Black and Latina women in 2022. We are consistently over-mentored and under-funded.”
As she continues to grow and scale her company, here’s the advice Woodard has to share with other Black women starting businesses.
1. If you can’t stop thinking about your business idea, it’s time to go all in
“If your business idea keeps you up at night and pushes you out of bed in the morning, it’s time to go all in,” Woodard says. “Building a business can be soul-crushingly hard. So you have to believe in your capabilities and have an unwavering commitment that this business is going to solve a need and make an impact.”
Image credit: Partake
Woodard went all-in when it came to Partake Foods: She maxed out her credit cards, emptied her 401k and even sold her engagement ring. Building this business was a dream she couldn’t let go of. She decided to devote all her time, energy and resources to making it a reality. She also said she never once thought of quitting. “I would quit if the business concept no longer made sense or something had drastically changed. And I wasn’t going to quit just because things got tough. I want my daughter to know that persistence and patience are key and are, quite frankly, underrated qualities that more leaders need to embrace.”
2. Stay focused — you can’t do everything well
During the pandemic, more and more consumers were baking at home. So Woodard and her team decided to launch a line of baking products. She said she and her team are now course-correcting to focus on packaged cookies and other pantry staples. She recognized that they could have spent more time talking to consumers and studying the total addressable market.
“It’s easy to get distracted by shiny objects,” Woodard says. “The reality is you can’t do everything well. I look at Chobani, which is a mission-driven company focused on its core product of yogurt. It’s a reminder to continue to build your core business while slowly testing and trying what else you may want to build.”
Partake Foods recently launched Classic Grahams, which Woodard says are resonating with consumers, who use them for snacking and as an ingredient. In my family, my sister-in-law uses the Classic Grahams to make crusts for her assortment of delicious pies.
Related: Here’s the Biggest Way You Can Show Up for the Black Community Beyond Black History Month
3. Know your numbers inside and out
“Unfortunately, I still see investors who rely heavily on pattern matching when meeting founders. Investors may use experiences or patterns from their past to make decisions about future investments,” Woodard says. “While they may think this helps them make better decisions, there’s a risk they increase bias in the process. If they have never seen someone who looks like me, who is solving a problem they have never faced or heard of before, they may discount me and pass up an incredible investment opportunity.”
Woodard encourages founders she mentors to know their numbers inside and out. She acknowledges that many founders wear multiple hats like she has and will have a strong understanding of what’s working and what’s not. She had to learn it all: basic accounting, the return on investment in marketing and the details of what was happening with different customers. And yet, she knows the bar is different for Black women founders when it comes to raising capital, growing and scaling their businesses.
“My biggest piece of advice: Use your difference as your biggest source of advantage. Find the investors, customers and individuals who are aligned with your vision and mission and believe in your capabilities as a founder. Surround yourself with a community who will help you unlock the potential of your business.”
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SANTA ANA, CA / ACCESSWIRE / May 2, 2023 / The lives of consumers is intertwined with at least one of the many social media channels. This means that brands must be more noticeable on these platforms especially when creating new ads. The founder of Go Ads, Nicholas Kohlschreiber, recognized the requirement years ago when he founded the innovative media agency which continues to develop and implement effective social media strategies that generate significant leads and conversions for brands in various industries. By consistently monitoring current trends and embracing innovative marketing techniques, the California-based firm has established itself as the leader in the field achieving sustainable results for its clients.
The modern social media landscape offers unprecedented engagement with consumers. “Companies can not only easily communicate any message they desire to their target audiences, but they can also interact with individual customers from around the world in real time,” writes Forbes contributor Dennis Kirwan. “If done correctly, companies can shape the way in which the public perceives their brand, while at the same time facilitating discussions that can establish or solidify their brand’s authority online.” The data support these sentiments: according to Statista, 97% of companies worldwide now employ social media in their marketing efforts, highlighting the need for ongoing flexibility and innovation as regards access and engagement for brands in every industry.
The most effective marketing campaigns on any platform involve an acute awareness of specific customer preferences and habits. By focusing on methods that best fit a brand, Go Ads offers clients precise and direct access to a targeted consumer base, providing direct engagement in a non-intrusive way. The firm’s team of experts also advise companies on strategy reevaluation when new entities emerge that could offer higher degrees of strategic brand marketing. Founder Nicholas Kohlschreiber applies the collective experience and knowledge of GoAds to development: one of the company’s creations is an online monetization platform that allows businesses to take full advantage of their social media presence. By utilizing advanced technologies, this model capitalizes on the exponential growth of networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to build an engaging brand reputation that converts leads in a rapid and cost-effective manner.
About Go Ads:
California-based, Go Ads is an internet marketing company specializing in the organic proliferation of new businesses through creative marketing solutions. The company was founded by Nicholas Kohlschreiber, an enthusiast for originality and innovation, who began his career driving traffic for mom and pop shops for their local SEO while leaving school on a soccer scholarship. Kohlschreiber has grown his firm to oversee 800 employees in three different countries and tens of thousands of clients, while seeking to strengthen the connections to the modern communication platforms, including online, multimedia-driven business development.
goads – Sales Leads & Internet Marketing Experts: https://goads.com
Founder of Go Ads, Nicholas Kohlschreiber, Examines the Relationship Between Marketing and Tech: https://www.yahoo.com/now/founder-ads-nicholas-kohlschreiber-examines-203000849.html
Go Ads Founder, Nicholas Kohlschreiber, on Helping Businesses Optimize Social Media Footprint: https://www.yahoo.com/now/ads-founder-nicholas-kohlschreiber-helping-144000239.html
Contact Information
Go Ads
Nicholas Kohlschreiber
Nick@goads.com
949-880-0000
www.goads.com
SOURCE: GoAds.com
View source version on accesswire.com:
https://www.accesswire.com/752477/GoAdscom-and-Founder-Nicholas-Kohlschreiber-Explain-How-Social-Media-Can-Positively-Help-With-Optimizing-Brand-Marketing-Strategies
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Starting a business is a challenging journey, especially when you don’t have access to many … [+]
Starting a business is a challenging journey, especially when you don’t have access to many resources. However, many successful entrepreneurs have shown that with the right mindset and approach, it’s possible to achieve success even with limited resources. In this article, we’ll explore 10 popular strategies that can help you do that:
1. Build A Strong Network
Networking is one of the most effective ways to gain access to resources you might not have otherwise. Attend events and conferences related to your industry, join online communities, and reach out to potential mentors and advisors. By building a strong network, you can tap into a wealth of knowledge and connections that can help you grow your business.
In the connected world of business, the reality is that the people you have access to are likely the most powerful resource at your disposal.
2. Embrace Partnerships
Another way to gain access to resources that can benefit your new business is to look for complementary organizations that could draw value from your project and reach out to them. Of course, this would be much easier to do if you have a good network and authoritative people behind you – hence, the value of networking for founders.
3. Leverage Social Media
Social media platforms offer a cost-effective way to reach potential customers and build brand awareness. Identify the platforms where your target audience spends time, create engaging content, and engage with your target customers or other potential stakeholders in your business.
Consider that the digital environment plays a critical role in almost all marketing strategies for startups that don’t require a big resource investment.
4. Offer A Freemium Model
If your product or service lends itself to a freemium model, offering a limited version for free can be a great way to attract customers without a big marketing budget. This approach allows potential customers to try your product before committing to a purchase and can help you build a loyal user base over time.
5. Focus On Customer Retention
Acquiring new customers is always important, but retaining existing ones can be even more valuable in the long run. Focus on delivering a great customer experience, and consider offering loyalty rewards or other incentives to keep customers coming back.
In addition, research on customer loyalty indicates that returning customers tend to spend 33% more than the ones who are new to the business. Furthermore, boosting customer retention by as little as 5% can result in a profit increase ranging from 25% to 95%.
6. Build A Referral Program
Word-of-mouth marketing is how your business can grow without a marketing budget. A referral program can help you capitalize on it. Encourage your existing customers to refer their friends and family to your business, and offer incentives for successful referrals. This is one of the main strategies Dropbox used to grow to a Unicorn without excessive marketing spending.
7. Use Automation Tools
Automation tools can help you streamline your operations and save time and resources. Look for tools that can help you automate repetitive tasks, such as social media posting or email marketing, or that can help you manage your workflow more efficiently.
8. Focus On A Niche Market
While it might be tempting to try to appeal to a broad audience, focusing on a specific niche market can help you stand out and build a loyal following. Identify a specific customer persona or segment that your product or service is uniquely suited to, and tailor your marketing efforts accordingly.
9. Be Scrappy
Finally, the most important strategy for succeeding with limited resources is to be scrappy. Look for creative solutions to problems, and don’t be afraid to try new things. Remember that most successful businesses started small, and with hard work and determination, you can achieve your goals too.
“Having the money to buy something, or pay someone, often robs us of an opportunity to be creative.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
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On April 4, Cash App founder and tech investor Bob Lee was killed near Rincon Hill and the Bay Bridge in San Francisco. On Thursday, police announced there has been an arrest, Mission Local first reported.
The suspect, Nima Momeni, allegedly works in the tech industry and knew Lee, according to reports. Before the stabbing, Lee and Momeni were reportedly driving through downtown San Francisco together in a car registered to Momeni, police told Mission Local.
Related: Cash App Founder Bob Lee Remembered as ‘Brilliant Investor’ and ‘Best Java Programmer in the World’
San Francisco police have not released any further information regarding the arrest but told the outlet they believe a confrontation occurred while in the vehicle, which could have led to the act of violence.
According to his LinkedIn page, Momeni owns an information technology consulting company called, Expand IT.
Screenshot of Nima Momeni’s LinkedIn page on April 13, 2023.
Lee’s death ignited grief and mourning among those who knew him and sparked outrage from some tech executives and Bay Area locals on social media. Venture capitalist Matt Ocko called San Francisco “lawless” and Elon Musk tweeted that violent crime in the city is “horrific.”
However, according to police data, violent crime in San Francisco is fairly low (only 56 incidents of homicide in both 2022 and 2021).
Related: San Francisco Whole Foods Closes To ‘Ensure Safety’ of Employees
“Nothing can undo this senseless crime, and we reiterate our condolences to Mr. Lee’s family members, friends and colleagues,” a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, Matt Dorsey, tweeted following news of the arrest. “But I hope today’s arrest can begin a process of healing and closure for all those touched by this tragedy.”
I’m grateful to @SFPD‘s Homicide Detail and all the officers from @SFPDSouthern and elsewhere for their tireless work to bring Bob Lee’s killer to justice and for their arrest of a suspect this morning. (1/2) https://t.co/YXyH92Low9
— Matt Dorsey (@mattdorsey) April 13, 2023
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Cash App founder Bob Lee, 43, died on Tuesday after an early morning fatal stabbing in San Francisco’s Rincon Hill neighborhood. Lee had previously relocated to Miami and was in San Francisco for a visit.
Lee was born in Missouri and worked as an engineer before moving to San Francisco in 2004 to work for Google. After five years at the tech behemoth, where he worked on the Android core library, Lee was hired by Square to develop its app. He later became the company’s first chief technology officer, a position he held until his departure in 2014.
In 2013, Lee developed the now widely used payment service, Cash App.
Lee’s interests also transcended beyond business. In the wake of Covid-19, he helped the World Health Organization develop its app amid the global pandemic.
In November 2021, he joined MobileCoin, a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency platform, as the chief product officer.
Lee was affectionately known by many as “Crazy Bob” — a nickname he earned from his water polo days — because of his ambition and energy.
Friends, family, and tech contemporaries have been remembering their friend and colleague online.
“He was made for the world that is being born right now,” MobileCoin CEO Josh Goldbard wrote on the company’s website. “Bob was a child of dreams, and whatever he imagined, no matter how crazy, he made real. Bob was made for the new world.”
Block Inc. co-founder Jim McKelvey told Bloomberg that he recruited Lee to work at Square.
“Jack [Dorsey], who is not prone to hyperbole, said Bob Lee was the best Java programmer in the world,” McKelvey told the outlet.
Venture capitalist Wesley Chan extended his condolences in a LinkedIn post remembering Lee as a good friend, talented engineer, and “brilliant investor.”
“Bob’s energy was electric – his nickname was Crazy Bob (in a very good way) and every time he’d visit me when we were in SF together…I’d leave feeling energized and inspired,” he wrote. “Bob, you’ll be missed by so many. I learned a lot from you, and I’m not sure what to say other than what happened is just so crazy, in a terrible and tragic way.”
Figma CEO Dylan Field remembered meeting Lee when he was a teen and “geeked out about programming.”
So sad to hear of @crazybob‘s untimely passing. I first met him in summer 2006 — he didn’t care that I was only 14 and we talked tech / geeked out about programming. We remained connected over the years and he was an early supporter of Figma. It’s so hard to believe he is gone.
— Dylan Field (@zoink) April 5, 2023
Elon Musk Tweeted that he was “very sorry” to hear of Lee’s passing.
On Facebook, Lee’s father, Rick, wrote: “Bob would give you the shirt off his back.” He noted that he moved with Lee to Mill Valley, California in 2019 and then to Miami in 2022.
“I’m so happy that we were able to become so close these last years,” he wrote. Lee’s brother, Tim, also shared his grief, writing on Facebook that Lee was “the best of us” and that he feels as though he’s lost “part of [himself].”
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It was 2012, and Beatrice Dixon was running out of patience. She’d been dealing with chronic bacterial vaginosis that returned almost monthly, and doctors continued to prescribe medication that was more of a quick fix than a long-term solution.
Dixon felt she wasn’t being heard, so she began to do some research on her own — which was overwhelming in its own right.
“I was in this perpetual state of taking medicine, going back to the doctor and getting another prescription,” Dixon says, “which then led to the doctor’s office of Google. Which is not the one that you want to be in. You don’t want to be on Google trying to figure out what’s going on with you.”
Dixon began alternating between medication and holistic remedies she researched online, but she saw no significant results. Then, her grandmother spoke to her in a dream.
She describes how her grandmother (whom she never got to meet) was sitting across from her at a round table. The room was all white, with just the two of them at the center.
“I remember her telling me, ‘I’m not here for us to have a conversation. I’m not going to be here long,'” Dixon recalls. “‘You need to memorize what’s on this paper, because this is going to solve your problem.'”
Dixon woke up with a kind of urgency she’d never experienced and began immediately jotting down the ingredients that came to her in her sleep. Dixon began collecting the aforementioned ingredients at Whole Foods, where she worked at the time, and after a few days, she created her own formula.
After the fifth day of using the formula, Dixon was entirely cured of her BV.
“It had literally gone away,” she says. “It was crazy. That was the moment when I realized that this is what I was going to be doing for the foreseeable future.”
Related: This Black Founder Stayed True to His Triple ‘Win’ Strategy to Build a $1 Billion Business
“It got to the point where people were saying, ‘Look, I can’t take this for free anymore.'”
After Dixon perfected her formula, she knew she had to share her discovery. Because Dixon had only raised financing from family and friends and had created the product in her own kitchen, she couldn’t afford a clinical trial — so she ran her own.
Dixon didn’t ask for money in exchange for her homemade product, which ultimately became The Honey Pot’s bestselling The Honey Pot Co’s Normal Wash. Instead, she asked that people review the formula and give her feedback on how well it worked or didn’t.
Her friends and family were hooked.
“It got to the point where people were saying, ‘Look, I can’t take this for free anymore, take some money,'” Dixon says.
That’s when Dixon knew she was onto something, so when news hit that the Bronner Brothers Beauty Show was coming to Atlanta, she took it as her chance to expand her reach.
“It felt like the best place for us to launch because there was nothing but humans with vaginas walking around,” Dixon laughs. “So we went to the hair show. We made 600 bottles. We sold 600 bottles. It was insane.”
Image Credit: Courtesy of The Honey Pot
“There was no plan B either, so this s**t had to work.”
This was in early 2014, only about a year and a half after Dixon made her first Honey Pot product. The business began to grow, and despite increasing demand, The Honey Pot company continued to operate out of Dixon’s kitchen for another two years while Dixon kept her full-time job at Whole Foods to make ends meet.
Through 80-hour weeks and tireless work, Dixon never wavered from her mission, certain that women needed her product in their lives. “It was really hard,” she recalls, “but I always knew that no matter what, we were going to be okay. There was no plan B either, so this s**t kind of had to work.
In the early days of Honey Pot, the team traveled to trade expos and natural hair shows where they’d give out products to people who were interested in their plant-derived approach to feminine care. One of those early recipients was a hairdresser, who was so impressed with the product that she told her client about it. That client was a buyer from Target — the rest is history.
Related: How the Founders of LOLA Learned to Talk up the Feminine Hygiene Market
The retail giant got wind of the company by 2016 and presented Dixon and her small team with a proposition to sell their products in their stores. It was the expansion Dixon had always dreamed of — literally. By the time Target decided to sell the products in stores nationwide, the company had produced around 24,000 bottles and made nearly $250,000.
From there, The Honey Pot continued to grow not just as a business, but as a platform to empower other women of color to “reclaim their wellness.”
Dixon and The Honey Pot launched its Reclaiming Wellness campaign in 2020, wherein the company — in partnership with Target — travels to historically Black universities and hosts seminars and talks on wellness and encourages women to “reclaim” their power when it comes to their bodies.
Image Credit: Courtesy of The Honey Pot
“As you grow as a business, it’s important for you to understand where you are, but also understand where you want to go when you have more resources.”
One of Dixon’s main initiatives is to address societal stereotypes when it comes to being a woman of color in the U.S. — particularly, she says, fighting against the problematic belief that “Black women are stronger.”
“That’s the mantra that creates an environment for Black women to be dying [during] childbirth more than anybody else,” she says. “We’re helping women understand that [they] don’t have to continue to die.”
Although the Reclaiming Wellness campaign is only in its third year, the initiative has been Dixon’s goal since starting the brand in 2014. Before 2020, Dixon didn’t have the capital to launch Reclaiming Wellness, so as the company grew, she jumped at the opportunity to finally carry out what her overarching mission was from the start.
“As you grow as a business, it’s important for you to understand where you are, but also understand where you want to go when you have more resources,” she says.
Now, in its third annual campaign, The Honey Pot is partnering with Target and traveling to Clark Atlanta, Howard, Prairie View A&M and North Carolina A&T to host panel discussions with specialists in both medicine and education to help women gain ownership of their well-being.
Dixon hopes that The Honey Pot will continue to not only serve as a resource for women to understand their bodies and find the treatment they need but also become a vehicle to pass information down to future generations.
“It is a very tribal thing, to be able to pass information down, and that is literally built into the fabric of Honey Pot — us being able to educate and empower women on what they need,” Dixon says. “From the beginning, we were focused on it being a generational thing. But what that’s grown into now is that it needs to be a generational thing as it relates to education, to self-love, to self-respect.”
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