Meet Robin Dreisbach

 

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Robin Dreisbach a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Robin, 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?

My grandma, who raised me (with my dad), taught me so much about resilience, being a hard worker & to never give up! I started making body care with simple effective ingredients when my son was a newborn & had terrible painful eczema. His doctor’s only solution was steroid creams… So I started making my own skin care for our family.
I didn’t plan for it all to snowball into a full-on apothecary business…but it did!

I am a one-woman shop…doing it all myself & while that can be very exhausting… I feel so accomplished & proud of ho far I have come. I often think back to my grandma (who passed away a few years ago) & all that she taught me…not just by teaching, but by her actions. She was the hardest worker I ever knew! She would be in her huge garden past sunset most days in the summer, then she would come in & make dinner for the family. If she needed something, she would generally build/upcycle/create it herself! She was my rock (still is!)…

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I started this shop about 10 years ago when my son had really bad eczema & I needed natural, CLEAN skin care that would hydrate & heal…. but most products out there contained harmful (& mysterious) ingredients that I wasn’t comfortable putting on his skin. So, I started concocting recipes in my kitchen with the simplest (EFFECTIVE) ingredients, from nature. What started out as clean body care for my family, turned into a side-hustle on Etsy… turned into a full-on apothecary business that now has a website, a loyal customer base & over 1800 sales between Etsy, my website & local markets.
When I started out, I didn’t know much about creating a “brand”, or much else business-related…but with research & a lot of TRYING IT OUT, I have developed a cohesive (& calming) display for my local markets & website.
While I am mainly online (website), I have been vending at a lot more local markets (2-3 per month) & am really enjoying learning about all the ins & outs of local markets.
My big dream is to have some land with a big barn that I make all of my creations in… that can also be a general store. I would love to teach others as well.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

TENACITY is the first word that comes to mind! Where others may have given up…. finding all the challenges of running a small business incredible overwhelming, I could never. I don’t have it in me to give up… I feel I would just tweak things, find a different way, but I could never give up on this dream that I didn’t know was a dream.

I am very friendly & outgoing & I feel that plays a large part in what I am offering. I am enthusiastic about what I am offering, because I BELIEVE in the ingredients & love & intention that goes into each & every product.

I am always eager & wanting to LEARN more & I believe that is also important- understanding that there is ALWAYS more to learn & I am very open to learning all that I can to make myself & my business the best version possible!

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

Considering I do 90% of everything myself, I definitely feel overwhelmed.
I find it very important to balance out work & rest & nature plays a huge part in that! I try to hike once a week, even if it’s just at a local park or a neighborhood stroll. I find I am “in my head” a lot with ideas & strategies & goals….that I need to get outside to clear my mind & balance things out. I really enjoy camping & going on road trips with my family.
It’s important to schedule rest. It’s important to ask for help. It’s important to balance out work & play/rest because one can get burnt out so easily.
If I am prepping for a big market, for example, I will plan ahead to make sure I am not doing everything the night before in a frenzy.

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Robin Dreisbach

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