Meet Annie Davis

We were lucky to catch up with Annie Davis recently and have shared our conversation below.

Annie, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?

A single mother raised me, I am quite willful by nature, and I have a daughter who is watching and needs me. I grew up with a lot of self-esteem struggles, but when I found out I was going to have my daughter, everything shifted. It was no longer about whether or not I deserved success, but about how long I could withstand the pressure and challenges to get it so that she could have a rich life with as many strong examples to follow as I could provide.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

I want to provide households like mine with simple, effective, safe, beautiful products that genuinely help them and their loved ones. I focus on minimizing ingredients, maximizing benefits, and giving my customers something they can truly enjoy. The world (and too often life) can be noisy, demanding, exhausting, and confusing. If I can provide someone with a sliver of peace during their 3-minute shower because they have an overflowing plate, that’s who I cater to. I want to give a moment to someone who feels like they have none. If they feel the world on their shoulders but can have a moment of simple enjoyment when they use their favorite pretty soap without having to throw anything away when they’re done, that’s who I cater to. One less task for them, regardless of how small. Those little things matter. The parent trying their best to provide safe, natural, and effective skincare for their kids, but the info is overwhelming, that’s who I cater to. For people with sensitive skin who are limited to the most minimal ingredients, I want them to have what’s best for them, and I want them to get to enjoy every aspect of it. Customers can refill their glass jars, plant their labels, and toss their sponges in the compost; they can have less trash, clutter, and noise to deal with. I want to help people get the quality care they deserve in every aspect I can pull off.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I enjoy working with my hands and have always been equally drawn to both science and art. I enjoy learning, in general. I actually fell in love with soap making because when I started, I’d made a Melt and Pour and wasn’t satisfied enough. I wanted to make what I’d just melted. I like learning how things work and why they work that way. And I always like to make things look pretty. As simple as that is, pretty things don’t have to mean lower quality. Pretty things are my way of celebrating the highest quality. I also grew up with horrible acne. I remember a goat milk soap being helpful but not readily available. My face went through a lot of mistreatment when I was using anything and everything to take care of it. Because of my experiences with product and skin behavior, I am always the guinea pig for our products. Once it meets my standards, we expand to more skin types.

Don’t be afraid to mess up, and get comfortable with messing up a lot. I still struggle with this “false failure”, but honestly, it’s the biggest and best way to learn. When you mess up a product, you don’t lose or waste ingredients or time. You just experienced an unintentional experiment, and you better take all the notes about it that you can. You have permission to learn, so let yourself LEARN.

If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?

Slow season. It is real and rough. It is difficult to grow a business, difficult to grow your first one, and difficult to do it on your own. When it’s your business’s busy season, those difficulties are but a distant thought. You’re trying to keep up and busy in the best way. When it’s the slow season, you work on recipes, marketing, and money-saving, and you pray you can make it to the busy season again. I do, anyway. I still make in faith, but there are more days than I care to admit that I am nervous about my ability to survive. However, because this business is so small and this is my first slow season as my business is my sole income, I work and pray with all my might that this will be the hardest one and that the future will continue to thrive to the point of stability and expansion.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.anniebeasoapery.com
• Instagram: @anniebeasoapery
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anniebeasoapery

Image Credits

Annie Davis