We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katherine Estrada. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katherine below.
Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Katherine with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?
My dad for sure! He was a small business owner, and he was very successful! But, what made him a success was putting the business first. He loved his family, he ended up having 18 children, and so he threw himself into his work so that he could provide for his family.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My desire to create organic natural products started when I was in high school, and I knew that I wanted to change my lifestyle, but didn’t know where to start. Luckily, I had my granny, who basically raised me to show me ingredients that I could use from the kitchen in order to keep my skin from breaking out and avoiding dry spots during the winter time, because growing up, I had eczema. Since nothing was working on my skin from the doctor, or a prescription, I decided to use what I had around me, and I’ve been doing that for years! I incorporate these natural methods with my family, with my children, especially, and now I have an online shop where I can offer these products to others! My goal is to bring affordable luxury to those who think natural and organic skin care is unattainable without a triple digit price tag. Every Sunday I offer new products at 5 PM central time! Because I want to make my products attainable to everyone, for the first hour of my shop opening, everything is 20% off. I think that’s really important because even though we want to take care of ourselves and we don’t have the means to do it, it doesn’t mean that it Hass to break the bank, so I think it’s important for companies to offer certain specials. Which is some thing that I do quite often! I have a rewards program as well, there’s tons of ways to earn discounts and freebies, and with every package I always put in a sample of an extra little goodie. My goal is to make sure that when you open my package, you know that you’re getting something very special! Since I’ve been making natural products for over 20 years, these Formulations have been tried and tested! The quality of the product that I put out, is superior! I mainly make body butters, shampoo, bars, handcrafted, soaps, soy and beeswax, candles, and I’m planning to expand to other items this year! I’ve doubled in bath bombs, I would like to do shower steamers, I just trying to bring a luxurious touch to the busy person who Can only afford a small amount of time to themselves. Whether you have dry skin issues, sensitive skin, acne, prone skin, I promise you there is something in my shop that is for you!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think the biggest lessons that I’ve learned in this business is through my mistakes. And I have made so many! Whether that be to a shipping issue, a Packaging dilemma, my labels at one point were coming off of the bottles, those are points in my business, where I learned the most! I also used to make things in really big batches, I definitely don’t do that anymore! The last thing I would say, that was the most impactful of my journey, was the drive. I do not have the privilege of failure, so I need to make sure that I’m paying attention and meticulous to everyone of my formulations. I also because I want to be so meticulous, make sure that people around me that have different skin issues are testing my products so I can get their feedback as well.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I would love to collaborate with others! I have a lot of friends on social media, but everyone is so busy in their lives, so it’s hard to pinpoint a time that we can all do something together, but it’s definitely something that I would love to do in the future! My friend Vanesa Amaro on Tiktok (Queen of Clean) is always giving me shout outs, and she has been such a blessing to my business!
Contact Info:
- Website: Theinvokewebsite.com
- Instagram: @invokesoapsandcandlesllc
- Facebook: @invokesoapsandcandlesllc
- Other: @invokesoapsandcandlesllc Is also my handle on Tiktok
Image Credits
All me
