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Find out more about Angele: Angele Sionna has been a professional journalist for over a decade. She enjoys writing about family activities, travel, food and, of course, anything to do with her two beautiful girls Ava and Ellerie. Email your ideas & questions to Angele at parentingexaminer@gmail.com. |
In today's Do It All Mamas (& Papas) feature (find out more about this series below)... Melissa Carey, the mom who started the body products company Carey & Co INGREDIENTS, and mom to 8 year old Sophie and 6 year old Millie.
Examiner: Tell me something unique/interesting about yourself.
Melissa: Aside from the most important fact that I turned out to be a happy and capable single mom (who knew?), I’ve been told my work history is quite unique and interesting. I’m now a true believer that “everything happens for a reason.”
In a nutshell: I started as a commercial make-up artist after graduating from college, which in turn was an unintentional stepping stone into cosmetic product advertising. Right from advertising, I was hired immediately over to the client side of the business to head marketing efforts for well-known, mass market brands and then ended back in advertising as a VP (liaison between clients and agency staff).
After quite the run-around in corporate America, I quit the rat race to enter a more creative venue and started my own line of color cosmetics. It was quite ironic to see how I could blend a hobby (mixing up and testing ingredients for myself in the kitchen), with the learning gleaned in corporate life to make and market a product to the entire Nation – while completely transforming my life.
Wheeewww! It’s been quite a ride (so far).
Examiner: What is your business all about?
Melissa: I owe the creation of M.B. Carey & Co. Ltd. to my own full-life transformation. I completely turned around my life after a multi-year, 100-pound weight loss effort. Despite healthy eating and regular exercise, I needed to eliminate the dead layers of creepy, dry skin while hydrating the newly revealed ones. I had done the research and there was no such product available for purchase in the marketplace. (Save INGREDIENTS Ultra-Moisturizing Scrub, the product that was born of that need, there still isn’t.) My line was then launched at the famed, Henri Bendel in NYC about a year later and is now available internationally.
Launching and running the business of INGREDIENTS Ultra-Moisturizing Scrub involves overseeing everything from mass production and distribution of the body scrub, to marketing and advertising all of the six products that it generated in a sea of over-promise and over-crowdedness. It’s now available internationally via prestige market retailers, homeopathic venues and via our website, www.careyingredients.com.
Examiner: What is your favorite product that you make or sell and why do you like or recommend it?
Melissa: My favorite product is the Lavender/Mint Ultra-Moisturizing variety of the INGREDIENTS line. It’s as highly exfoliating and moisturizing as the others but it reminds me of the day that I was just playing in the kitchen, being creative with no thoughts of selling whatsoever. I was crushing up fresh lavender and spearmint from my garden with an actual mortar and pestle and adding varying amounts of essential oils with nothing but efficacy and enthusiasm in mind. I love the scent, have very fond memories and of course very fine skin (if I do say so myself).
Examiner: Why did you start your business?
Melissa: After I used the scrub in the shower and was kind of blown away by its simplicity and yet utter, immediate effectiveness, I started making big batches and jarring it for friends, colleagues and as teacher gifts. The feedback was 100% positive with an insistence by all that I make it available for purchase. So, after much deliberation as to whether I had what it took to go the distance with an entry into the most crowded consumer product category in the world, I jumped in with two feet. Why? I didn’t want to look back at my life somewhere far down the road and say something like, “Gee. I wish I would have tried that.” Come huge success or not, I will never have that regret.
Examiner: What secret do you have to share with other parents about "having it all" with your family and business?
Melissa: Without having to think twice, the secret for me is to know the needs and demands of my family and allocating whatever time is necessary for them first. If you can run a business with whatever time is left, go for it. Regardless of what is going on in the business, my corporate hat comes off and Mommy hat goes on at 3:04PM when my girls get off the school bus.
Examiner: What is the number one piece of advice you have for other parents?
Melissa: Family first. Your happiness and their wellbeing is the reason you’re doing in the business in the first place. Whatever time is left can be allocated for everything else. While it might seem daunting, it is indeed possible to do it all in those remaining moments. It will take longer, but if you understand that going in, and you factor in a lot of patience and acceptance that most things will unfold well if you just put in the footwork to the best of your ability, it is very possible. It took a while to figure this out but I can now share it with certainty!
Examiner: What is your (and your kids) favorite family activity?
Melissa: It’s a three-way tie:
1. “Complete-it-all-in-one-sitting” arts and crafts at the kitchen table
2. Reading aloud to each other
3. Doing plays on the stage that doubles as our kitchen floor.
Examiner: Anything else you want to add?
Melissa: Our corporate philosophy is very important. As a consumer and in my former corporate life, I have been exposed to the outright lies and under-delivery of many products, so our corporate philosophy had to be: “genuine likability.” Not only must the customer be completely pleased with INGREDIENTS - coworkers, colleagues and everyone involved in our world must be contented, if not enthusiastic about what they’re doing. We have no resentments here. Concerns, including my own, get aired and addressed immediately. We treat each other with the respect and dignity that everyone deserves. We do not lie to or mislead each other. We all enjoy and benefit from the INGREDIENTS products. All of this gets passed along most naturally to the final consumer. I thoroughly believe in the trickle-down effect.
The premises is really quite simple and yet based on experience, unheard of. Negative attitudes don’t belong here because this is not a dress rehearsal. Someone who has integrity and kindness plus efficiency is NOT expendable.
Read all the other moms and dads stories and inspirtions that have been featured in this series HERE.
This is article is part of the series of stories called Do It All Mamas (& Papas).
The goal of this series of stories is to feature hard working parents who have started their own business or venture and are using their skills/knowledge to make other parents’ lives better.
The above a conversation is meant to inspire you and give every parent (no matter what your job or where you work) tips on how to successfully get the most out of your time.
Want to be featured in a Do-It-All Mamas (& Papas) story or do you know someone who should be?
The goal of this series is to feature hard working parents who have started their own business or venture and are using their skills/knowledge to make other parents’ lives better.
Does this describe you or someone you know or do business with? Then email me at parentingexaminer@gmail.com with a short one or two sentence description of your business and what makes it/you unique. Also provide a link to your website so I can see what you’re all about.
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