Meet Jackie Thomas

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jackie Thomas. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jackie below.

Hi Jackie, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

Growing up on a small family farm gave me the work ethic I have today. Working alongside my parents and older sister and seeing their drive was a blessing, although I didn’t always see it that way when I was younger. As a kid, I started with things like feeding calves and helping clean the barn, then moved on to feeding, milking cows and helping with field work. Getting the barn clean, hay baled or cows milked was normal for us, and didn’t seem like something you needed work ethic to do. It’s just what you did. It wasn’t until I was in college and working elsewhere that I realized how my family had made working until the job is done seem normal. Not everyone had that drive and I realized then that the work ethic my family gave me was pretty amazing.

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?

My journey in soap making started with 3 goats in 2018- Tom, Dick & Harry. We bought them solely to have less grass to cut in our yard. But, goats are like potato chips, you can’t have just one (or three)! We bought more later that year, We had our first babies in April of 2019 and we continued to buy more goats too. My husband is a dairy farmer and I grew up on a dairy farm, so getting a few dairy goats seemed like a good next step. My husband suggest that I try making soap with the extra milk. My day job is as a food scientist working in product development so creating & testing recipes is something I really love to do. My first batch of soap was mostly successful and I had a hard time waiting 6 weeks for it to cure. After using that first bar of homemade soap, I realized that I loved using the soap even more than making it. Handmade soap is so different than commercial soap, but I never knew it until then.

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?

My background in food science and recipe testing was immensely helpful. Soap making is like baking- it’s mostly science with some art sprinkled in. Someone who was new at soap would gain so much by taking the time to learn the science behind it. As with any new venture, it’s important to understand the “how”.

Being willing to step out of my comfort zone was also something that helped me get my business to the point it is today. There were so many things I never would have thought of doing before starting a business, but had to do them if I wanted to move forward. I’ve become a website developer, package designer, accountant, salesperson, etc. and some point since starting my business.

By far, the quality that has helped me the most is work ethic. A lot of long hours and weekends logged will pay off later.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

My biggest challenge right now is focusing on and improving my current products. I love to be creative and make all the new things, but realize I need to reign in that impulse and be more methodical when putting new products or scents out. Also, I’ve found out through doing in-person vendor events that my 30+ scents of soap are overwhelming to some people. My approach to new products is much more involved and takes much longer than it used to, but it has greatly improved the success of new products.

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Image Credits

Rosalie Egge

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