IAM2306 – CEO Helps Clients Heal their Skin with Natural Skincare Products

Title: Transcript - Wed, 27 Nov 2024 06:29:42 GMT

Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2024 06:29:42 GMT, Duration: [00:17:00.21]

[00:00:00.40] - Catrina Jackson

And she started using it. It healed her skin. Instead of just helping, it reversed the years of scarring. And then in addition to that, all of the surgeries that came after that, we were able to use it on her scars to help fade those scars as well.

[00:00:14.98] - Intro

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I Am CEO podcast.

[00:00:42.24] - Gresham Harkless

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I Am CEO podcast and I have an awesome guest on the show today. I have Katrina Jackson. Katrina, excited to have you on the show.

[00:00:50.52] - Catrina Jackson

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.

[00:00:53.25] - Gresham Harkless

Yes, I'm super excited as well too. And Katrina is doing so many awesome and phenomenal things. Before we jump into having that great conversation, I want to read a little bit more about her so you can hear about some of those awesome things. Katrina. Katrina is the CEO and founder of Purskin Repair, a black woman owned natural handcrafted skincare line. Her journey into skincare began in 2015 when she created a natural moisturizer for her daughter's eczema, which quickly grew into a thriving business recognized for its plant based, cruelty free products. Overcoming the challenges of motherhood, business ownership and personal growth. Katrina's story is one of resilience and transformation. She now mentors small black owned businesses, inspires others through her own experience of change and empowerment and Katrina Karina's passion about self, love, community and making a positive impact through both of her products and her mission. And I'm super excited to kind of dive a little bit in to her story. It's a really phenomenal story. I've been cheating and listening to a few of her other podcasts and it's really something powerful about her and even her daughter and just the impact that she has had on so many other businesses as well too. And one of the things that I saw that she was recognized and she had recognized recognition, recognition From Goldman Sachs 1 million black women in Business initiative, where she was a proud member of cohort number one. So Katrina, excited to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the IMCO community?

[00:02:16.71] - Catrina Jackson

I'm ready.

[00:02:17.74] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Let's do it then. So I know I've been teasing it. So what I wanted to do to kind of kick everything off is Hear a little bit more about your story, what I call your CEO story.

[00:02:25.81] - Catrina Jackson

Being a CEO was accidental, quite honestly. It was just trying to create something to help my daughter with her eczema. She has special needs, and she was getting ready to go into her first brain surgery, and I needed something to kind of keep my mind busy. At the time, I was working for a company based out of Utah, and I was working remotely, and that that job was really demanding, but I just needed complete my mind being completely on something. Right. Especially when you're talking about your child going into something as scary as brain surgery. And so I was like, one thing I can kind of help her out with is her skin, her eczema, making sure that she feels better in her skin. And so I started formulating and crafting and researching, and I came up with a body butter. The first one was a miss. She's very sassy. She's a sassy young lady. And so she was like, I'm not putting that on my skin. That stinks, and it smells like medicine. And I was like, okay, I'll go.

[00:03:19.30] - Gresham Harkless

Good feedback.

[00:03:20.00] - Catrina Jackson

I'll go back. Yes. I was like, okay, I'll go back and I'll figure something out. Which I did. And she started using it. It healed her skin. Instead of just helping, it reversed the years of scarring. And then in addition to that, all of the surgeries that came after that, we were able to use it on her scars to help fade those scars as well. When I created it, she was five, six years old. And so I had mommy marks, or stretch marks, as some would say, and it faded those as well. So once people started noticing those things, they started asking me what I was doing, and I let them know. I created this body butter for her, and I started selling privately, but it eventually turned into publicly when the business that I was working for folded, and I was kind of nudged and pushed into the direction to be my own CEO, and I've never looked back. There's nothing like working for yourself.

[00:04:14.21] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you so much in sharing your story and your journey, and obviously to hear your daughter's doing well with everything that she has gone through as well.

[00:04:24.18] - Catrina Jackson

Oh, yes. She's just my little walking testimony, I call her. So she's 15 now, and she's had 15 surgeries, and she's good. She's doing really, really well.

[00:04:34.31] - Gresham Harkless

Well, that's awesome to hear. And we always need those vocal. I'll call them vocal customers, especially in those early days. So it's great to hear that she Was that like, I'm not putting that on me because that doesn't smell like I wanted to. You can go back into the lab and figure out what is that kind of perfect recipe so that you can, you know, make the impact that you've been doing.

[00:04:54.17] - Catrina Jackson

Yes, yes. Very vocal. She's very, very, very vocal. And she has her hands in all the business. And so she has. We have jackets that we wear when it's cold in Texas, the very rare occasion that it's cold in Texas. And mine says CEO and hers says CEO and training because she is very much incorporated in this business and it wouldn't have even been a business without her.

[00:05:17.13] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah. So I wanted to drill down a little bit more, hear a little bit more on like one of the, some of the products and service that you're providing for your clients. Could you take us through a little bit more like what we can find and how we can find it as well?

[00:05:27.99] - Catrina Jackson

Oh, absolutely. So other than just the body butters, which is your daily moisturizer, all of my products are for any, anyone who's looking for toxic free skin and hair care. So it does, you don't have to have psoriasis, eczema or anything like that, even though these products help with those things. So anyone who's looking for handcrafted soaps, they want to make sure that the chemicals that they're putting on their body aren't toxic, they're from nature. Then I have that for them. Natural soaps, candles, hair growth smoothies, which is a hair growth serum, a facial serum, some of everything to just cover, cover the whole spectrum of what might be needed. And that actually came across with customers coming to me and being like, hey, I have this issue or hey, I want this result. Is there something you can do? And absolutely. I'm a, I'm a problem solver. And so I dove right into that. And so I Now have over 55 or so products, including a subscription box that comes every month so that you can take care of yourself and you have effortless self care. And you can find that@pureskinrepair.com that's my website and if you want to check me out On Socials, it's PureSkinRepair1 on both Facebook and Instagram.

[00:06:45.23] - Gresham Harkless

Awesome, awesome, awesome. I almost wonder, is that part of what I would like to call your secret sauce? It could be for yourself, the business, or a combination of both. But is it that I would say that, you know, I always say it's great to know what someone does, but it's even important to know why they do it. And you seem very locked in on that human part of understanding that this is about confidence. This is about being able to take care of your love bugs. Do you feel like that human part is really what sets you apart and makes you unique?

[00:07:09.93] - Catrina Jackson

I do. I think about my love bugs all the time. I'm working all the time. I just want to make things easier for them. So I grew up in El Paso and I was one of the only black girls in El Paso, you know, in my classes and things like that. And so there was some. You start to look at yourself a little differently there, right? Because you're different and there's. You don't see many people around that look like you. You don't really get to relate. And there was a lot of self confidence issues that I had growing up. And I don't feel that anybody should go through self confidence issues. We do. But you should recognize them and then just move past it. Because God made you the way you are. So I just want to be a part of nurturing everybody and letting them know that you are perfect the way you are. You embrace your flaws. You love your flaws. You keep going because you're here for a reason.

[00:08:00.18] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. Love that. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or even a habit that you have. What's something you lean on that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:08:12.18] - Catrina Jackson

I'm a huge believer in like continuously educating yourself, whether that be YouTube, university, attending webinars, attending, you know, conferences. I'm huge with that. I'm always in a webinar, a conference, trying to learn something new. And you should always try to connect with people and get different perspectives. Right. Even if it's not someone in your field of work, what they say can be applied to your field as well. So I'm good for going to real estate conferences. I have nothing to do with real estate. But it's the same concept of understanding your customer and knowing what it is that they want and then presenting it to them in an easy way. So constant education is a great one for me. And then just spending time with yourself, whether it be 5, 10 minutes in the morning of just sitting in thinking, okay, what is it that I need to do today? What would I like to accomplish? What's mandatory to accomplish, but not putting too much on yourself, which is something I'm still working on. I do put a lot on myself. But it's a. It's a constant cycle of just working on it, looking at it, tweaking it, and then continuing.

[00:09:18.89] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, that ends up being such a huge thing. I love both of those hacks. And so what would you consider to be a little bit more of a CEO nugget? So this could be like a word of wisdom or piece of advice. I like to say it might be something you would tell your younger business self if you were to hop into a time machine.

[00:09:32.22] - Catrina Jackson

I would tell my younger self it's not going to be perfect, but you're not going to get it to where you want it to be until you start. So if you stop trying to plan it out, which I'm an overthinker, so I'm always sitting down with pen and paper. Old school, right? Pen and paper. And like writing it out and trying to figure it out and break the code. You can't break the code until you actually get into the thing. So get into the thing. Start so that you can help somebody. Whatever you have and whatever thought process you have or invention that you have, it's going to help someone in your prolonging their getting that need. Right. So just get started, tweak it as you go. Always reflect and then continue to grow and move forward.

[00:10:15.41] - Gresham Harkless

That's huge because I think, again, getting back to that core of what we're doing is so that we can help people. And if we have these products and services, these ideas, whatever it might be that are going to help serve people on a better level, the more time we prolong getting that out, that we delay that we say that, oh, it's not quite right. It's not the perfect time. The less we're able to serve, the less we're able to serve in the way that we can only ultimately serve. And I think that ends up being such a huge thing when we understand that and starts to take that action, you know, towards that.

[00:10:46.04] - Catrina Jackson

Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. It's not going to be perfect at the jump, but it won't get to where you want it to be if you don't start it. Absolutely, Craig.

[00:10:54.03] - Gresham Harkless

So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And our goal is to have different, quote, unquote, CEOs on this show. So, Katrina, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:11:04.02] - Catrina Jackson

CEO means everything to me. I get to help people on a personal level. I don't have to ask a higher up and I don't have to go with whatever the Masses think. Right. Sometimes in corporate America, it's very strict and tight, and you can't lend a helping hand without getting something in return. Those things. So being a CEO means that I get to have those personal connections, I get to make those personal recommendations. I get to be there in a world where we're not very connected like we used to be. I get to make connections with people and we create friendships. And not just a business relationship. It's a friendship, it's a trust that I can give them what they need and they can, you know, ask me anything that they need, and I'm making sure that they're feeling better about themselves. So being a CEO to me is ultimately creating more relationships and helping uplift others.

[00:12:00.41] - Gresham Harkless

I love that. And especially because I, you know, when I introduce you, just reading about how you're really passionate about, you know, entrepreneurship and business for black and brown people and being able to kind of do that is such a huge and foundational thing. But that relationship piece kind of brings everything home because I think so many times we. We miss that part. We miss the human part. We miss why we're doing the things that we're doing and how it can not only inspire people, it can help people, it can do all those things, but it's only if you take that action for that to kind of come to fruition.

[00:12:28.46] - Catrina Jackson

Yes. And being an entrepreneur can be very alienating. Right. Because you're doing all the things and it's hard to work friendships in. And your friends kind of sometimes don't understand that. You don't have a nine to five. You have a 24, seven. Family can. Family can miss that mark too. And so it really is. It's just about connection, just being able to have that time to connect like this. Yeah, I have to do this right now. But, you know, making those connections.

[00:13:01.01] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And Trina, truly appreciate that definition. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best people can get a hold of. You find about all the awesome things you are working on.

[00:13:16.91] - Catrina Jackson

Yes, absolutely. Well, if anyone has any questions, please, by all means, Message info@pureskinrepair.com and those. That's my email address and it'll get right to me if you have questions about what I do. If you have questions about entrepreneurial ship and something of that nature. Special needs. I kind of have a vast special needs Entrepreneurial natural skin care. If you have something that you feel that you want, a product that you would like and you don't see it on my website, you want something custom made, let me know that as well. But above that and above everything is just enjoy yourself, look inside yourself, love yourself, and know that you're here for a reason. There's no mistakes and you're beautiful as you are. So just start taking note of the things that are, that are great about yourself and what you provide to others because it can get kind of daunting sometimes. But you're definitely here for a reason. And you're a blessing.

[00:14:18.97] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And I love that you lean so much into that. And I think again, you know, remembering that human part ends up being such a huge thing. I have one more quick question for you and I'm gonna kick myself if I don't ask you this, like, especially like going through the process, being a mother, being a special needs mother, how has that helped? How has that affected you when you were kind of running your business? And what advice can you give for people that might be going through those things? Because I think so many times we see business in a silo. I do my business here, I do my mom here or my dad here. We don't see how those things can affect one another. But what advice might you give? Or what has your experience been related to that?

[00:14:52.84] - Catrina Jackson

It's been difficult, right? It's not as easy as having a two parent household or a nine to five where your income is steady coming in. But what it does give you is the flexibility. So I've had the flexibility all of my daughter's life to work within her needs. And that's been a blessing in and of itself. And so now she goes to regular. You know, they said she would never go to regular school, she never walk and talk and she does all of those things. And I think it's just staying prayed up, staying dedicated, staying strong. And yeah, you're gonna have your weekdays, but have that, that weak moment and you know, allow yourself to feel that, but then acknowledge that you're great and that you can do so much more. And so it hasn't been easy, but life isn't. Nothing that's, that's worth it is easy. And when you kind of go through that turmoil, it's really all just lessons for you to help other people.

[00:15:48.79] - Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. I appreciate you so much in drilling down and explaining that. And I think again, we forget about that human part so much. But it's so important to realize that sometimes the challenges and things that we go through that might be difficult actually arm us with more resilience and more ability to be able to be creative and look at things outside of the box. But frankly too, when we see people that are able to succeed just as you are, we're able to say, hey, this is possible no matter what situation I might be in. So I appreciate you so much and sharing that, appreciate you even more in doing that and remind us of how important that is and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:21.77] - Catrina Jackson

Thank you so much for having me. I'm very grateful and all the blessings to you.

[00:16:26.16] - Intro

Thank you for listening to The I Am CEO podcast, powered by CB Nation and Blu16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at Imceo. Co. I am CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Want to level up your business even more? Read blogs, listen to podcast and watch videos at CBNationCo. Also check out our I Am CEO Facebook group. This has been the I Am CEO podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.