And it just escalated from there with Darcy Geho

Welcome back to the third season of our podcast. Help- I started a business, now what? This week I am pleased to welcome Darcy Geho, a fellow Minnesotan. We had a fun conversation about the launch of her soap business. But first, we talk about our shared love of canning. This episode is the opposite of hustle culture- we talk about taking things one step a time and not getting overwhelmed.

Check out the show on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts or read the transcript below. We’ve even included timestamps in case you want to zero in on one part of the show.

00:02.23 Amber Christian

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Now What show. I'm your host, Amber Christian, editor of Handmade seller magazine. And today it is my absolute privilege to welcome Darcy to the show. So Darcy, can you please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more about your business?

00:19.10 Darcy Geho

Sure. Thanks, Amber. Thanks so much for having me on today. I'm the owner of Preserving My Sanity, which is a natural living lifestyle blog that a year ago I added a handcrafted goat milk soap shop to. So I make a variety of handcrafted goat milk soap and sell it in my shop.

00:43.96 Amber Christian

Okay, so preserving my sanity, which I think most of us feel like we're trying to do all the time, right? So tell us a little more about the origin of the original blog, Preserving My Sanity, that led to then later the creation of the the goat milk soap business.

01:00.88 Darcy Geho

Sure. So I actually started my blog in 2018. The name Preserving My Sanity is kind of a play on words because primarily what I blog about originally was food preservation. So I do, we, my husband and I grow a garden and do a lot of preserving of foods and he does a lot of hunting and fishing. So we do, you know, some preserving of meats. My blog started as a way to share some of those things with everyone. And that's also because I enjoy doing it and that's where the sanity part comes in. So that's what I've I've been doing since 2018 and then part of my theme with my blog has always been to learn by doing and learn new things and don't be don't be afraid to try it. You know, a lot of people are afraid to pressure can things because what if it explodes and you know, all of these spheres. And so I've always tried to kind of put that into my content that, you know, if you learn about it, follow the directions and pay attention, like you don't have to be scared of it. And so as part of that I'm also also always trying to learn new things. And one of the things I wanted to learn how to do was make soap. So it was probably about two years ago, I met a woman at a craft show who teaches soap making classes. And I was like, Well, there's my sign. I've been wanting to learn how to do this for a while. And I was scared of the lye. And I was scared of hurting myself and all of these things. And so I practiced what I preached and I signed up for her class. And sort of escalated from there. My original plan was to learn how to make unscented soap for myself to use. And I just really enjoyed it and eventually decided to open a shop.

02:50.61 Amber Christian

I think that could be a tagline for so many artisan businesses, it just escalated from there.

So often too when other people discover what we're doing, you know, do you find when we're doing the thing, you don't really recognize how special it is until outside people start to observe how special the thing is that you are doing? And I think that's been a big epiphany and And I also appreciate being able to talk to a fellow Minnesotan and a fellow canner because I'm a canning nerd.

03:26.18 Darcy Geho

ah awesome

03:26.27 Amber Christian

Part of my whole shtick too says like, oh, we could have our own podcast, The Canning Chronicles, but it could be all about that. But it it is, I didn't even realize with that one that I do, I do that one as a pop-up food business periodically.

And so not, not a regular business, but. I didn't realize how special it was until people would consume it, and I would see the look on their face when they ate it, and I was like, oh!

And so then you you start to to find that people recognize how special it was. How did that start for you with the goat milk soap? Because it started escalating from there, and I suspect people started catching wind of what you were up to and trying the product.

So talk a little bit more about that, because that was that journey from, hey, I'm making it for myself as this nice product, to now other people are starting to find out about it. So can you speak more to that?

04:17.77 Darcy Geho

Yeah, sure. So when i when I started learning how to make the soap, there was a monthly membership that was offered that had like a monthly project. And so I started making soap every month and pretty quickly realized that it was, you know, the shelf was building with all this soap. And I was like, okay, well, we only use a few bars of soap a month because goat's milk soap, when you cure it properly, you know, it it lasts a really long time, actually. One bar of soap can last you quite a while. And so yeah the the shelves were piling up a little bit of the soap that I had available. And I actually, it was right around Christmas time. And so I gave a bunch of soap away to, I also have a marketing business. So I gave a bunch of soap away to my marketing clients. And then I gave some to my family members and at that time, still, I didn't really have any plan on selling it. And it was a few months after that, where yeah after everyone had gotten their gifts and used them, people started messaging me and saying, hey, I really love that soap you gave me. How can I get more? Or are you are you going to sell that? Or what are your plans with the soap? You know, so that sort of started planting the seeds of, oh, yeah, I guess people I guess I could sell this. I guess people would buy this.

So, you know, it was really probably about um like a year after I started making it that I actually had all the pieces in place to start selling, but yeah that definitely wasn't the intention from the start.

05:51.50 Amber Christian

Yes. it It's so many artists and businesses that escalated from here and on they go and and continue to develop it into a business.

And so that's interesting that you gave it to people and they're like, Oh, cool. And then they try it and then like, but I want more. And, and that's such a nice way to start though, right? What a compliment to have people say, Hey, hey, hey, where can I buy this?

06:09.52 Darcy Geho

Mm hmm. How can I get some more of this?

06:16.01 Amber Christian

Uh, well, should I let you know what I'm doing? My next batch. I mean, yeah and and also you can only take so many showers. So, you know, as a human, you can only use so much soap yourself.

06:24.74 Darcy Geho

I know Right, right!

06:27.64 Amber Christian

Oh, so it feels like a great way to do it.

06:29.24 Darcy Geho

Well, then, oh, well, I was just going to say, yeah, and it supplies, you know, you have to buy all the supplies, too.

So at at a certain point, you're like, well, I love sharing this and I like giving it to people, but like it costs money to make it too and so at a certain point I guess it just sort of naturally makes sense to start selling it because you know otherwise you're just buying supplies and giving things away and that's not that sustainable so that's not sustainable at all actually so

06:53.17 Amber Christian

Right it can be fun for a little while, but definitely not sustainable. So when when you gave the gifts away, did you add scent to it or did you keep it as the original unscented product that you had started with?

07:07.93 Darcy Geho

So most of what I gave away was unscented because I had made quite a few unscented batches first. And um so that was mostly what I had when that that particular holiday season came up. ah But I had some, I think it was like a lemongrass essential oil soap that I had made and that some people got that as well. So it was a little bit of both, I guess.

07:31.69 Amber Christian

So now when that moment came and you said, OK, I think I'm going to actually try to monetize this and I'm going to start selling it. How did you go about the process when you first got started? How did you figure out, well, where am I going to sell? What am I going to do? ah Tell me a little more about how you thought about that.

07:51.65 Darcy Geho

Sure. I guess I was lucky in some ways because I already had my Preserving My Sanity website set up.

And I know how to build websites and I know how to do like all of the marketing pieces. So I had that advantage where I didn't have to go out and hire someone to help me, you know which can get expensive as a startup business.

So I was actually able to just add the online store to my existing website relatively quickly.

So I, I just started doing that. And then kind of along those same lines, I already had social media accounts for my blog. So I just started, I added the soap into it.

I already had an audience of people that had been following me for several years. Um, so you know, the soap was just kind of a new thing I had to share.

08:45.64 Amber Christian

Hmm. Yeah. What a nice way to start though too, right? Because, you know, whenever you're adding a new component to business, there's a certain amount of overwhelm. There's a lot of pieces you have to take care of, right? And building an audience on top of it.

08:57.67 Amber Christian

And so what was cool about what you did is already having so much of that there, you already had at least some built in audience, which is, it's really hard to go from, we talked about from zero to one, right?

I have to building that first audience, but if you can start at one, it's a lot easier. um to grow and and build that repeat business. And so all the years of writing Preserving My Sanity really helped because now you had this built-in audience that was would at least be curious enough to look at the product, if nothing else, not buy yet.

09:27.93 Darcy Geho

Yeah, or maybe sure share share a post with their friends, or you know if anything like that helps. So absolutely.

09:34.45 Amber Christian

Absolutely. so So you started out initially just selling through your existing audience, which is a great way to start. How else have you been starting to think about where you want to sell this and kind of where it's going to fit in your life? So walk me through what else you're thinking about as you're kind of thinking about growing this.

09:53.71 Darcy Geho

Sure. Well, about six months ago, I also added my products to Etsy. So I have an Etsy shop as well. Everything that's on my website is also there. So I've had some new customers coming in through that. I also am in a local, I have some of my products in a local consignment store that's about 30 miles away. So that been really fun to see you know their customers interested in my in my products.

I actually have my products in a store in Wyoming. A friend of mine owns a a gift shop in Wyoming, and so I have some soap out there in Lander. So the stores are kind of a fun a fun way to get the product out there. And I'm also um doing a few shows here and there. I'm not planning to do a lot of in-person vendor events, but like this year I did three shows. So I'm planning to do like maybe three to four or so shows a year.

10:59.29 Amber Christian

So you're you're doing a blended balance of I push what I have online, so a little bit of my own website in Etsy to give you that flexibility, and or if you ever decide you don't want the Etsy shop and you've already got the built-in website, and then a little bit of gift shop. It sounds like kind of strategically as it comes up as opposed to trying to really push it um through those channels.

So kind of a blended balance of of all of them. It sounds like it's kind of how you're approaching it to start, as opposed to saying all your eggs in one basket, you kind of have them in a few different places so far.

11:33.01 Darcy Geho

Exactly. Because I think it's just so unpredictable, you know, you could you could plan on selling, you know, $1,000 worth of products at a craft show. That's, ah you know, a really big craft show.

And, you know, you get there and it's not the right crowd or people for some reason aren't buying soap that day or, you know, whatever it might be like, yeah, you definitely don't want to have You don't want to be counting on just one avenue. So I am planning to reach out to some more stores in 2025. But so far, I guess said this year, I was just kind of figuring things out, I guess you'd say, and just kind of seeing seeing what happened. So yeah, trying a little bit of everything.

12:14.41 Amber Christian

Well, in establishing your baseline, the first year, and there's so many other things you're figuring out with the business.

And then as it goes from there, then you start to see, okay, well, am I able to, let's say, develop repeat business that moves from the craft fair to online? Or how am I, you know, there's a lot of things you're still figuring out in that first year.

And so you can't really go gangbusters on any one channel while you're doing the sampling. And then with the economy, the way it has been this year too, a lot of what I've been hearing from people is that craft fairs attendance is about the same, but spending has been down this year.

And that's just with the broader economy that that we've been facing here.

And so it's having a balanced strategy has been necessary for for a lot of businesses because you don't quite know which channel, so to speak, for selling is going to perform um at at any time.

So how do you think about your process of developing products. So here you're you're in or even that first year. How did you guess what sense to start with and like how did you start figuring these first little pieces out.

13:24.62 Darcy Geho

Yeah, you know, it's really it's a that's a fun question because it's really very but overwhelming to decide, especially what sense of soap to make because there are several really good supply companies that you can buy them from and they all have, you know, dozens and hundreds of choices. You know, one thing I've learned is that something that sounds amazing to me that I really like, but might not actually be what sells the best. So it's, it's been sort of trial and error, I guess, just kind of figuring out what sells really well. I have made a lot of different scents in the past year, which you know going forward, I'll probably start pairing that down a little bit. Once I figure out what everybody really likes and, and things, you know, there won't always be 60 kinds in my shop. But, you know, people do like the choices too. So, syeah, I mean, I would say it's just kind of been trial and error really to sort of find my own, my own bestsellers.

And I think it's really different for different parts of the country and different makers and different, you know, like what's my bestseller isn't somebody else's bestseller.

So it's just been kind of a learning process. A really nice-smelling learning process.

14:41.90 Amber Christian

Yeah, that's the good part. At least it smells nice in your process. But you're right, in different parts of the country, different times of year, different scents will sell. And so you really took that first year to kind of figure my processes out, start to trial it, develop a few different places to sell it. And now this year, it sounds like it's a little bit more of OK, well, I'm not going to have 60 scents of soap.

I've done a lot of experimenting this year. is All right, let's see what's actually selling the best.

And especially now, did you add a lot of those scents recently or have you had a lot of sense since the very beginning?

15:22.07 Darcy Geho

Kind of as time goes on, I've added some. I didn't start out with a lot when I opened my shop. I maybe had 15 kinds or something when I launched my store.

I've done seasonal launches so last fall, you know, there was a fall collection and a holiday collection and then I did this year I did spring summer, and I just recently launched fall again.

So you know, some of the things, it it is nice to see like what I've learned, because like for my fall collection, there were a couple things I made last year that didn't sell as well.

So I just didn't make those again. And the ones that sold really well last year, I was like, okay, well, I need to make, you know, this many of this kind, because they sold out in the first two weeks last year or whatever. So it is nice to have that, I guess, experience under my belt.

You know, it is a little experience under my belt, but it also is different. You know, I'm also noticing like what people loved last year maybe he isn't selling this year or vice versa. So you never know.

16:30.94 Amber Christian

Yeah, well, you may have to retire certain scents and then bring them back, you know, in so many years.

16:35.34 Darcy Geho

It's like a special edition or something. Yeah.

16:37.98 Amber Christian

Right. Yeah. And all of these businesses is about what you can sell at different times and that people are interested in and tastes change.

And just there's, there's so many factors to it. And the the nice part is with some of those first 15, as you start to build a little bit more data now, especially with this, the same sense that you had early on to see, okay, are those same sense still selling?

Is it changing? you know, the the longer you go, the more you can actually start to compare sales data, right? And start to say, okay, what does it, what is the audience gravitating toward?

And, and so you learn a lot just in that, in that whole process, and then you can kind of refine it and go from there.

17:23.65 Darcy Geho

Absolutely.

17:24.24 Amber Christian

And you're kind of you're slimmed down set, because it's a lot of inventory to carry out much of the other stuff.

17:27.98 Darcy Geho

Yeah.

17:31.46 Amber Christian

It's always fascinating hearing from people in those early years, like, I have to figure in this stuff out. Because for every little business, it's different. and It's like a combination combination of their local market, where they're at, the the broader economic trends, but their their audiences, what they're making, what they're learning, and so much to the these little things called businesses.

17:57.64 Darcy Geho

For sure.

17:58.72 Amber Christian

All right, so now tell me, where can the audience find you? If they'd like to follow you on socials, learn a little bit more about preserving my sanity, how do they find you on social media?

18:07.51 Darcy Geho

Sure. I'm primarily on Facebook and Instagram um at preserving my sanity. So it's the same on both platforms. I'm also on Pinterest, if anybody's over there. But yes, I'm at preserving my sanity um everywhere, actually.

18:26.60 Amber Christian

So you heard it here. Now you can go look for preserving my sanity, which will just be fun to even just to type in. ah Well, thank you so much for joining us today, Darcy.

It's an absolute pleasure getting being able to talk with you today and and nerd out a little bit more with fellow Minnesotan. Thank you so much for being with us today. And thank you everyone for joining us and we will see you next time.