087 – Pampering with Purpose with Regina Disilvestro of RD Alchemy

You're listening to gift biz on rapt episode 87,

Then write it through.

You'll find a way if this is what you really want.

Hi, this is John Lee Dumas of entrepreneur on fire,

and you're listening to the gift of biz unwrap,

and now it's time to light it up.

Welcome to gift bears on wrapped your source for industry specific

insights and advice to develop and grow your business.

And now here's your host,

Sue Mona height.

Hi there.

It's Sue and welcome back to the gift biz unwrapped podcast,

whether you own a brick and mortar shop sell online or

are only getting started just now you'll discover new insight to

gain traction and to grow your business.

And today I have joining us Regina diesel Vesterbro of RD

Alchemy has been refreshing the world with a wide selection of

over 300 organic natural products,

consisting of skin care,

body care,

aroma therapy,

dietary supplements,

makeup, and more Regina products have been showcased at the golden

Globes and the Academy award shows and numerous local and national

magazines and on videos for how they also provide wholesale private

label and custom formulation of products.

And a portion of all profits goes towards research and development

of natural treatments for cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.

And that is all done in their very own research facility.

I am so excited to dive in and hear all about

the business.

Regina, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

We like to start out by getting to know people in

a little bit of a different way,

and that is by having you describe your motivational candle.

So if there was an ideal color of yours and quote

that you would put on a candle,

what would that be?

Sure. Sure.

So I was thinking over the weekend about it,

and I think the best color would be black because that

incorporates all the different colors of the spectrum.

And govies gives me an idea of the unlimited possibilities with

business. You know,

you can go on so many different directions and just have

the whole world opened up to you.

So I'd say the overall color would be black.

It just can encompass everything Wonderful.

And would there be a quote on that candle?

Yeah. So the quote would be keep on keeping on,

that's just something I've always said to myself,

day in and day out,

whenever you have a tired day or a tough day or

something that didn't go well,

or you screwed up for the 15th time,

you just pick yourself back up and just keep a hunky

bond. So I would say that would probably be the best

one for me.

I really liked both of the things you just talked about

here because unlimited possibilities,

that's kind of like when someone's starting out in their business,

I mean,

you can really dream and you can create anything in your

mind that want,

and then when you actually start in your business,

then reality sets in and there are things that you need

to overcome.

And so then you just keep on keeping on because you

have such a commitment to the dream that you started.

Right? Right.

I'd love for you now to share with our listeners,

how you started,

how you got going and have now built this huge business

of yours.

It's been going on about 14 years now.

And I started back when I was at ASU doing my

science degree back there.

I was working part time in the research labs there.

And then I stumbled across a herb store in the local

neighborhood that was teaching an herbalist certification course.

So I took the course,

really fell in love with it,

learned a lot about all herbal medicine,

wanted to incorporate that somehow in my life,

but I wasn't sure exactly which direction to bring that in.

Then after I took the class and got introduced to herbs,

I started working at the herbs store.

So that was kind of my awakening into herbal medicine overall.

And then while I was studying at the same time doing

the science degree,

I started learning more about the chemical properties of plants and

little did I know how much both are really interrelated or

will medicine with the more medicinal,

natural product chemistry side of plants.

But then I found out that they weren't connected and that

stirred my love of you more for herbal medicine.

After my bachelor's degree in science,

I went to U of a and studied natural product chemistry

with an emphasis in natural products and medicinal chemistry,

basically in pharmacology and toxicology to really emphasize the use of

medicinal plants for certain disease States to make medicines from cancer

to anti-inflammatory disorders,

all sorts of stuff.

And that just geared my whole pathway from there.

So during this time I was always making products for friends

and family members,

herbal products.

I was making extracts and tinctures and cult disses,

South stuff like that.

And it wasn't until a few years after school,

I was working for a pharmaceutical company,

a good friend of mine had a massage therapy business,

and she wanted me to make herbal extracts for her clients.

So her clients would come in,

they would have issues with sinuses or PMs or something along

those lines.

So I would make up an extract and then she would

give it to them.

And then eventually she wanted to have an entire line of

products. And so we were thinking that we would go ahead

and just make an entire line under her name and her

label. So that's eventually what we ended up doing.

And that's really kind of what spurred the whole business aspect

of herbal medicine from natural products into the career format.

Eventually she wanted products for her own use as well for

like oils and scrubs and masks to use in her services.

And then from there it's just grown and grown and grown

and grown into many more products.

We now cater to not only massage therapists,

but institutions,

of course,

general consumers,

all sorts of stuff.

And so was it initially products for more health than herbal?

And you know,

as you're talking to it,

it sounds like your initial real love was,

you know,

the more medicinal,

you know,

or caring for your skin and all of that.

And now you're into makeup lines and everything else.

Exactly. Yeah.

A lot of it was and still is very health directed.

We expanded the lines based on the need for better healthier

products. So a lot of the products initially that I was

making had a real therapeutic target and still do,

but for makeup,

there's a lot of stuff and make it,

that's not good for the body.

That's not good for the skin.

And yet we use it daily,

you know,

deodorants the same thing,

makeup, body care products,

basic hygienic products that you wouldn't think would be harmful,

but in a lot of ways they can be.

So what we were doing is expanding the lines to create

more daily use products as well,

or even cosmetic products that you wouldn't think would be helpful

or therapeutic,

but now they are because they don't have as much of

the toxic ingredients,

but then also have a lot of the herbal medicine or

peptides or vitamins that will actually benefit the body as well

as the skin.

So it's kind of a dual aspect as well.

Got it.

So now with your products,

your, you were talking about the fact that you do wholesale

and private label,

and I'm imagining that we might have some listeners who are

thinking along similar lines,

maybe they already have a salon,

or they're thinking about this type of thing.

How does one go about starting to create their own product?

How, how does that work or how did you do it

way back when There's product development,

you have to kind of think of a couple of different

aspects to the product itself.

A, you know,

of course,

what do you want in it?

Do you want it to be as natural as possible?

That's in a,

not only just natural,

but as effective and safe as possible.

Non-toxic B what is the overall goal and results of the

product? You know,

what do you want it to do?

And then see,

how do you want it to be delivered?

Or how do you want it to be marketed?

Because that can also play a role in how it's going

to be formulated.

So when we think about products and we develop because we

develop of course for our own brand,

but we develop products for other companies as well.

And that's really what we first do is we sit down

and talk with the client,

the customer,

you know,

what is it that you want to try to achieve with

this product?

Do you want it to have a purely marketing standpoint?

So cause some companies that don't really care too much about

the ingredients or are you trying to achieve something that's going

to be effective therapeutic non-toxic.

And yet also,

you know,

of course have good marketing stance.

So we encompass that and then we put together what will

work cause there's a lot of different ingredients that will work

with one another and not.

So you have to then at that point,

take it a step further and figure out,

well, what we hope to achieve,

gonna work well together.

And then after that,

there's a lot of experimentation.

We do a lot of trial and error still and see

what works,

what doesn't work.

And sometimes you have to take stuff out that you want

to have in there for a therapeutic reason.

We have to take it out because it has too strong

of a scent and you can't overcome the scent or if

it has too much of a texture issue or whatnot.

So sometimes you have tweak it.

And what I call like dumb it down a little bit

because it just won't be marketable at that point.

And if no,

one's gonna use it,

you know,

then, then of course they're not going to benefit from it.

So that's kind of just the overall,

you know,

idea. You really want to get an idea of what are

your goals to market it,

to and who you're going to market it to.

And I always tell my clients to think ahead,

as far as your product line,

you know,

this is one product,

but do you plan on doing other products in the future?

And if so,

what do you think those are going to be?

Do you think they're going to be something that might compete

with your first product or something that's going to do really

well because it's just going to follow off the sales from

the first product and so forth and so on and grow

from there.

Yeah. Yeah.

I mean,

it's a really good point that you're talking about,

you know,

first, even just with that initial product,

what is the goal?

What is the purpose that you're going through,

all of this research and all the different generations of the

product in the first place,

you know,

to get it to the end result.

But I really also like where does that product fit in

with the whole vision?

You know,

because you certainly don't want product that sends a totally different

message than another product,

you know,

so really good point.

So, you know,

as you're thinking,

anybody who's listening is thinking of developing along these lines,

you need to think out a little bit,

a few years or your full product line,

or really where you're trying to go.

So everything is synergistic with each other.

The message is similar,

going out to the market.

Exactly. The thing that I really,

really like about your story is the fact that there's the

whole backup of the research.

So not only do you have these great products that can

help customers either through another business in the case of wholesale

or directly,

if they're purchasing from you online or in your shop,

but then also this underlying trend of helping cancer and other

diseases on the other side,

how did that integrate in?

So that's more of my overall background because after school I

went and was doing more of the medicinal chemistry for anti-cancer

compounds and did that in academia,

but then also in the pharmaceutical companies and it was all

research and development.

So that's really my true main love.

And then when I worked for six years,

when I first started the business,

I had my main job and then this business nights and

weekends for the first six years of it.

When was that?

2009. And so I've been doing this full-time since then.

And it wasn't until a few years ago,

you know,

I was really missing the research and I really missed doing

the whole investigation for natural products into medicinal compounds for either

some sort of medicine,

whether it's holistic medicine or pharmaceutical medicine,

either way.

So I wanted to incorporate that ability back into the business.

And we were in a position where we were able to

do that.

And so we just,

we made it a subsidiary of RD.

Alchemy got in some extra equipment,

started investigating,

got a board of directors in an advisory board.

We have a great advisory board member.

Who's a neurosurgeon.

We just were able to build this team.

And now what's really fun and great is anything that's fought

through RD alchemy,

whether it's the products or when we have classes,

any bit of income that comes in a good portion of

that goes back into our research.

So we're able to find either a,

some sort of treatment or cure some sort,

something for a lot of neurodegenerative diseases we're working with.

Alzheimer's also at multiple sclerosis,

all sorts of different neurodegenerative,

but then also cancer research,

so forth and so on.

So we're able to even have a stronger ability to help

the community.

And I get to do my love of research and development

for medicines and go beyond just making the cosmetics,

making something,

you know,

that's going to help with wrinkles or acne or something along

those lines.

You're really giving back and able to make lives better just

by purchasing something that's even less toxic and safe and more

result oriented of a product overall for your everyday use.

Right? So good for a consumer themselves.

And also they're giving back at the same time.

Exactly, exactly.

How do you as the owner split your time because they're

two different,

totally different things.

You know,

you've got retail and you've got all of these products that

you're selling,

and then you also have the research end,

you know,

how do you manage all that?

It is tough and we definitely have an ebb and flow.

You know,

there's, there's a seasonality to the regular product businesses in itself.

So we have some slow times and some busier times right

now, the holidays,

of course it's busier.

So the research gets pared down a little bit.

We do still do it,

but it's not as aggressive.

And then when we have our slower times,

we do more aggressive actions towards it.

We also outsource with other companies so that we'll start up

the research,

but then they can go ahead and do some of the

actual investigation if we need help on that end,

if we don't have enough for the either equipment or enough

of the personnel,

that we can go ahead and do that.

And then it is,

it's just a matter of balancing.

One example is we have a currently a retail shop in

a little great neighborhood here in San Diego.

And we just moved the manufacturing portion because that used to

all be in the one shop area.

We moved the manufacturing and the research and the offices to

a larger space.

And now at the end of this year,

we're actually going to be closing up the retail brick and

mortar. So we're going to move all retail sales online and

then still do the wholesale private label,

custom formulation.

But then more importantly,

the research and the reason is,

is it's really going to open up more funds and more

time that I won't have to worry about managing the storefront,

managing this and paying to have the storefront because the overhead

of course is so expensive.

And a lot of that funds then can go back into

even more research than what we were doing.

So because with the increase of rents and we have an

increase in minimum wage here in San Diego,

all that draws from our funds,

from research,

you know,

unfortunately, so ideas like that,

transitions like that,

where we can go ahead and we're going to close on

the shop,

which is going to free up a lot of time,

but also free up a lot of funds that we can

put them towards product development and also more research,

so forth and so on.

Right? That's an excellent example of how a business can switch

and change as needs change.

And, you know,

as you're saying,

you know,

the focus now on research,

still keeping all the products and have the availability,

but you know,

you're right.

Retail costs a lot of money that does.

So this is all sounding great and everything is working and

clearly you're growing and changing.

And all of that.

Has there been one big challenge that comes to mind for

you? That was a real struggle as you were building all

of this up?

Yeah. A lot of it is.

It's a lot of stress.

I mean,

anybody who knows and starts a business,

it definitely is a stressful aspect to any entrepreneur.

It's one of the most difficult things to do because you

have so many different things that you're learning.

So many different things that you're doing.

You know,

when you're starting up,

you don't usually have most entrepreneurs,

don't have a large amount of money when they're starting up.

And so you're doing multiple different tasks and to really manage

stress and how to overcome,

you know,

work-life balance.

That's always been an ongoing constant challenge,

and I have changed all the business to accommodate that,

but it's helped too,

when there's been a number of things over the years that

have been challenging.

One in particular,

we did a group on a few years ago,

are familiar with Groupon.

Have you heard of it?

Yes. Yeah.

And it was,

it was a real great time,

but a difficult time.

I wasn't really aware what group I was until a customer

had told me about it.

And then I investigated it and checked it out.

We ended up doing one and Groupon had mentioned,

well, you should sell probably about six to 800 of the

coupons, and that will be good for over six months.

Could you handle that?

And we have made the coupon for both products and at

the time services,

we were doing massages and facials and stuff in our little

facility. And we ended up selling 2,500

in like over yeah.

Over two days.

So we ended up increasing our business basically like literally a

hundred times all overnight and what we were doing normally,

you know,

just totally increased.

And so it was a really crazy stressful time.

And we ended up having to change some of the policies

where we extended out the group on it past six months,

just so we can accommodate people.

And it was a real,

real, stressful time as well for the staff.

A lot of the staff members were upset when people would

call because they couldn't get in,

they couldn't get in for like two or three months for

the massages or facial services or so,

so we were had to tell him,

you know,

I'm so sorry,

we're booked out until two months from now or something like

that. Or you can get a refund if you like.

So one of the things I was just telling the staff

is like,

just expect,

it's going to be difficult.

Expect in the next few months it's going to,

you're going to have a few angry or upset clients,

you know,

they're wanting to get in,

they can't get in,

just expect it and then deal with them as politely and

as calmly as possible because this is what is going to

happen. So I think setting them up for that expectation,

calmed them down and it helped me out as well.

Cause it was like,

all right,

let's just ride this out and see what we can do

as best as possible with not minimizing quality or anything along

those lines.

Right. And it worked out overall.

It was a definitely a challenging time,

but it worked.

Yeah. And you know,

I mean,

some people,

well, you can never have too much business,

but here's a perfect example of when you can.

I mean,

if you're not prepared for it and not ready for it,

and I've heard this before with Groupon and you know,

you are offering discounts and all of that.

So you're not even just selling more,

you're getting less margin for what you're selling.

So if you get bombarded then either with having to produce

so much product or in this case product and services,

it can be a huge challenge.

So as you're growing your business,

I mean,

they told you what to expect.

And you know,

at that point probably Groupon was pretty new.

So how were you to know exactly too bad for you,

your product demand?

Yeah. And that's,

that's the funny thing is that,

you know,

we didn't know at the time to cap it because that

wasn't an issue at the time.

Now they allow people to cap it and they encourage you

so that you don't have this issue.

And that was the funny thing too,

is it really opened my eyes.

It was like,

wow, we really could be doing this much business,

you know,

and fast forward to now we are doing that much business,

if not more.

So it was a good eye-opening lesson.

And it made me realize that,

wow, we really could pull it off.

We could increase business with the current staff we have.

And a lot of people that go well,

you make a lot of money off those coupons,

to be honest,

most companies don't,

they actually pay out of pocket because you share half the

profits with Groupon,

if not more,

and what you pay,

you know,

up to your staff and for the products to be made

is a lot less margins like you had mentioned.

So it's definitely something I don't,

I wouldn't do it for services ever again.

I have done it for products and products,

work out finances services that are tough because of the timeframe

and everything.

It's good for visibility for your company too.

I mean,

it also depends on the stage that you're at with your

business, right.

Because you can get a lot of eyes on your business

if you haven't had it before,

but it's not a regular promotion and revenue generator,

that's for sure.

It's a marketing tool.

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Yeah. The other thing that I really like about your story

is that originally when all of this happened,

of course,

now you're going to have to figure out,

you know,

how do we handle these customers?

How do we make it a good experience?

How do we deal with the fact that they can't get

in for awhile?

But you also were very sensitive to your people,

you know,

in group together and said,

okay, this is going to be tough.

Let's do this as a team so that they I'm sure

they were even more dedicated because they saw that you saw

that it was going to be a tough thing to get

through. Absolutely well,

on the other end.

So this was kind of a challenge that ended up working

out in the end,

which is wonderful.

What other types of things are you doing that you see

make a difference in terms of bringing in?

We do,

you know,

as far as like marketing overall,

is that communicating?

Yeah. Anything that helps attract new customers or new sales,

We need to do more honestly,

but we do a lot of social media and newsletters.

I think he,

newsletters is one of the best forms to communicate with your

customer and get information out there.

So we mainly focus on that.

And then in the past,

we've also done expos trade shows here and there,

different festivals and fair boosts,

so forth and so on that helps to gain exposure and

give people an idea of what you're doing.

And then with the store over the years,

you know,

the store had really helped cause we were able to communicate

with the customers and connect with them.

One-on-one. So now that we're looking at transitioning out of the

brick and mortar,

we're going to be experiencing more and more of a need

to do more expos.

And it's funny because as I've been mentioning to the customers

that, Hey,

we're going to be closing down.

Their main concern is,

Oh, well,

how do I contact you?

If I have a question about the products,

you know,

who do I communicate with?

So bringing that information to them is going to be something

where we have to work on more.

So we're planning at the new location where we just had

the manufacturing end to do like a quarterly open house of

some sorts.

So we can bring out the new products,

bring out some products that would be different for the seasons

Connect again,

with the customers,

answer the questions and do this on a face-to-face basis more

regularly instead of just having,

you know,

email or phone calls or whatnot.

So that would be something we're going to incorporate more and

then really just communicating with them through classes as well.

We do a lot of classes and I think that's a

great way to bring people who are interested in herbal medicine

in general or natural products or product making in general,

they can come in and be introduced to your facility and

what you do,

or you can go out and do guest speaking appearances.

I think that's a great way as well.

And we do a lot of that.

And so are the classes so that they can make their

own products or Yeah,

so we have a great meetup group and it's all at

San Diego,

alternative health and herbal medicine.

And it's got so many different,

great classes from lotion,

making aroma therapy,

making we've done herbal certification courses,

even stuff like Reiki,

crystal healing had guest speakers.

And we had one recently on CBD oils and what those

are all about.

We also do other classes on product development and how to

bring up your own products.

What to think about when starting your own business like that,

the steps to take.

So it's really expanded over the years on that.

And then most of the classes I teach,

but we do have some guest speakers as well.

Now you also have a number of YouTube videos.

Yeah. So we have a number of those and that's something

as well.

I'd like to increase more because the video rage is,

you know,

even more popular now,

nowadays everybody's just,

well, let's look it up on YouTube or let's do this.

Let's do that.

We had done a few on E how those worked out

really well.

So we posted those on YouTube and then we're hopefully going

to add more over the next few years as well.

And I encourage listeners if any of this is of interest

to you definitely go over and we're going to talk about

this a little later too,

but I just want to interject it in now to the

website because you're going to see,

I think right from the website,

you can go over to some of the YouTube You can.

Yeah. We have all the videos there and they're all connected.

Regina. I want to spin over now into our reflection section.

This is another look at you and how you're working as

a successful business.

So if you think of something,

that's just kind of innately you,

your love for science,

which to me is a little bit scary because that's not

where I'm at,

but you know,

you've been able to gravitate that natural interest already into what

you're doing every single day of your life,

which is so fabulous.

What are the types of things that are natural,

a natural trait to you?

Do you call upon a,

you use in your business life?

Good question.

I guess a lot of it would be stamina.

I'm definitely one where,

you know,

if you fail,

get back up on that horse,

try try again.

I'm not a big quitter.

Usually it takes a couple of beatings before I quit.

So, and I see a lot of the customers that I've

worked with.

It's interesting because we work with a lot of small companies

too, and they'll start up and they have that passion that

drive, and then they get knocked down and then they get

out of the game and it's like,

well, what are you doing?

Oh, well it's too much.

Or it's too hard.

I didn't know.

It'd be this much.

Or this event.

It's like,

no, you can't,

you know,

you're gonna,

you're gonna have that.

You know,

this is part of it.

This is part of the game.

So get back on there and write it through.

You'll find a way if this is what you really want

with me day to day,

you just,

you just gotta keep on keeping on because there's always a

million fires to put out.

There's always something that's going wrong.

Isn't that the truth?

Oh, there's always something.

It does drain you.

You know,

that's one of the most difficult things for me is you

get in,

you have this laundry list of stuff that you plan on

doing for the day.

And then it just gets bombarded with something that,

you know,

goes wrong.

It goes wrong and goes wrong.

So you have to kind of duck and roll at the

same time too.

I almost envisioned like a boxer or someone driving a stick

shift. You know,

you're constantly throwing it to a different gear,

ducking, a ruling,

just kind of,

okay, where are we going for the day and make it

out alive.

So, And get comfortable with the fact that that is the

life of an entrepreneur.

It's exactly wrong.

That's the way it is.

Well, you have to accept it.

And that's what a lot of people don't realize too,

is, you know,

people, when they hear entrepreneur,

they think working for themselves is so glamorous.

So wonderful.

You're going to be a millionaire and some cases you are,

but it usually doesn't happen overnight.

You don't normally not work,

you know,

more than 14 hour days,

six days a week.

And most days,

you know,

and sometimes every day and a lot of people don't get

to that real easy street until many,

many years,

if they do at all.

And so it's that big fallacy of,

Oh, if I work for myself,

I'm going to have everything so easy.

And it is nice in a lot of ways,

but it's very challenging in many others.

Absolutely. And I really like that you referenced the fact that

there is a decision point when people are doing,

creating a product or whatever it is,

where the challenge comes up.

And so many people fall off at that point,

they know they decide no,

either they feel they've done it wrong or it's too much,

or any of that.

That is the place to keep going because so many people

do fall off.

And then when you are able to overcome whatever that obstacle

is, there are less people at that level.

And then they're going to hit another obstacle.

More people will fall off and you just keep jumping over

those hurdles,

right. That's how you become successful.

You don't give up Exactly.

You might have to change your game.

You might have to go on a totally different direction perhaps

or whatever,

but that doesn't mean that you have to become completely out

of it either and take yourself out of the market.

Exactly. And expect that there will be those points.

And when you get to the,

okay, recognize that that's it.

And so make your changes and continue going forward.

Exactly. All right.

So you going forward and there's all these things that you're

having to take care of.

Is there some trick that you have either a tool that

you use or some ability to maintain balance in your life?

Yeah. So for me,

I'm a big list-maker,

that's my thing.

I'm constantly making lists and I think that's helped tremendously over

the years in my business.

And the lists that I'll make are daily,

weekly, monthly,

longterm, short term,

high priority,

low priority.

And it really helps me to visualize a lot of times

it's step-by-step lists and it's,

I put them in priority then.

And it makes me have like a roadmap for the day

because there's so many things that's,

what's overwhelming to a lot of entrepreneurs.

I mean,

you're dealing with marketing,

the website,

the product development,

the clientele,

you're invoicing,

you're doing accounting.

You know,

when you're starting off,

you're doing so many different things.

And then as the years progressed,

you might delegate those duties to other people,

but you're then still managing those people.

And you're still the one that they're going to go to

when they have a question.

And you know,

so there's always things,

million things going through your mind.

So for me,

I make a ton of lists.

I have my roadmap and even throughout the day,

I'll rewrite my roadmap and put in my priority.

And if I can get done at least half of what's

on my list throughout the day,

I know that I've done pretty well in.

And for the most part that it does allow me to

get the majority of what I can get done with more

ease too.

Cause then I'm planning it out and saying,

okay, I can't do this on Tuesday because it won't be

in until Wednesday.

So I'll do that on Thursday,

you know?

So then you have more of a plan and then you

have more of a goal and then you can achieve those

goals a lot easier as well.

So are you a pen and paper girl?

Both very much a pen and paper,

but lately I've been using the notepad feature on my phone

and that's helped a lot.

The only problem with that is it's bad in the middle

of the night because it makes it a lot easier to

wake up at 3:00 AM and do the Pat on the

phone instead of getting something out and turning on a light,

disturbing someone that helps out a lot with me.

And that's one of my biggest tools.

I tell people,

everyone's like,

Oh my gosh,

should I be doing this?

Should I be doing that?

Should I be switching this?

And they get so flustered because there's so many things.

And if they just laid it out and said,

look, tackle this and really divide up that goal into doable

steps. And then it makes it easier.

And you feel like you've accomplished something which normally do,

and then you move on.

Right? And then it just seems like a plan too,

because the overall objective might seem overwhelming.

But if you do break it out into those steps and

then you can start ticking off those steps,

it's so helpful.

Exactly. Do you dedicate a certain part of your time to

creating the list or is it just integrated in throughout the

day as you go?

It's usually a definitely something they'll do in the mornings when

I have my coffee and everything,

and I'm figuring out what exactly I need to do.

A lot of times I'll set basic stuff for the next

week and then I'll take that and then split it apart

and really then plan it out.

It really is something I do on a daily basis.

And then even for the weekends now I'm finding myself,

okay, this is what I want to accomplish for the weekends.

And it's simple stuff from like laundry,

clean the house,

go to the grocery store and I'm planning it all out.

And then I put it in priority of,

you know,

steps I want to take.

And it sounds almost OCD,

but it really does help you.

Cause you know,

as, as our lives get busier to our personal lives,

have a lot of stuff going on and we want to

accomplish those.

So it's become a real part of my day.

That makes a big difference.

Sounds like a stress reliever too,

because you are able to,

even though it takes some time to do it,

you're able to put it on paper.

You're not forgetting things because you can note it when it

comes up.

All of that.

So yeah.

Something to try out if you are not already a list-maker

for sure.

Absolutely. Have you read a book lately that you think our

listeners would find value in?

Oh sure.

The latest one,

I was reading a little bit here and that's an older

one it's called,

I think it's called closing the sale by Zig Ziglar.

You ever heard of it?

It's a really interesting book cause I've never been a big

sales person per se.

I've never been one where I wanted to.

I don't,

I don't like to like push sales on anyone or anything

like that.

I want to introduce you to my product and tell you

how it can benefit you and then leave it at that.

But I've never been one at like really closing it.

So it's helped because it took that whole scary feeling of

bad out of salient.

You know,

some people think,

Oh, I don't want to be sold to,

you know,

I don't want to salesman,

you know,

to, to tell me this.

And that was what I was always kind of worried about.

I didn't want to come off like a sales person either.

And so this book was cool.

Cause it,

it made me realize,

look, you know,

you have some great stuff that you can showcase to other

people that they can benefit from.

So there's a way to do it.

That's genuine.

That's nice.

And then there is a way to then technically close the

sale, you know,

help them make the decision whether or not they want to

have it or not.

There's been a lot of real neat little tidbits of information

from the book.

I haven't read it all yet.

I'm only about halfway through,

but so far I've quite enjoyed.

I've been in sales now for call it 30 years.

Like even in my corporate life,

before I went off on my own and it used to

be back in the day that sales was so pushy and

so forceful.

And now we're fortunate because I have the same feeling that

you do.

You know,

if you have a quality product,

people are naturally going to be interested,

but they still have to be told about it.

And then kind of,

you know,

well here's,

if you're interested,

here's how,

you know,

here are the next steps you would take to be able

to have it,

you know,

whatever. So it's a much more comfortable environment.

Now. We're all lucky for that.

That's for sure,

exactly. And give those listeners,

if this sounds interesting to you and you like consuming information

on audio,

just like you're listening to the podcast today,

you can listen to audio books with ease and I've teamed

up with audible.

If you haven't already,

you could get,

I'm pretty sure closing the sale is probably on audio book.

You can,

yeah, you can get one for free on me.

All you need to do is go to gift biz,

book.com and make a selection.

And this is a perfect example of the way you can

help people get information in hopefully not too salesy away.

Right, Right,

right. And you know,

it's funny you say that because I recently just downloaded audible

and I'm starting to listen to more books on.

And when I'm cleaning the house while I'm riding my bike

into work,

instead of doing just music,

it's great.

Cause now I'm like,

wow, I can get a book in while I'm doing my

regular chores.

So that's really cool.

You mentioned that I'm going to check that out.

Yeah. And it's,

it's really nice to be able to double up on things,

you know,

with, if you're exercising,

like you said,

or some people even with podcasts,

they may be driving to work or they may be straightening

up the shop.

Cause no,

there's no one in there and they can listen,

you know,

all different ways.

So we're fortunate to have it available for us at this

point. All right,

Regina, I now would like to have you dare to dream.

I'd like to present you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable

Heights that you would wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What is inside your box?

Wow, that's a great question.

I think a lot of it is I want the business

of course,

to keep growing in the way it is.

It's going,

it's going really,

really well.

And I'd like to see it get much bigger so that

it can get in the hands of many more people who

can benefit from it.

Really though.

My overall goal is to increase the research and development of

natural products for medicinal aspects,

you know,

from whether it be a,

I don't want to necessarily say I want to make pharmaceutical

medicines, but I want a pharmaceutical grade type of medicine without

the side effects,

without the hoopla and from natural products from holistic standpoint,

something that it can get into the hands of many,

many people and make their lives better.

And so my overall long-term goal would be to increase the

research and development Institute that we have and create more of

a foundation for wellness,

expand the whole idea of natural product chemistry for medicinal aspects,

expand the knowledge to individuals as well.

You know,

why having a product that they use daily,

like a daily moisturizer cosmetic,

it's important for them to have good quality products and how

it, it changes their life in a lot of ways.

So increasing that and creating more of an overall foundation,

a bigger research Institute,

something where we can really do 50 more times,

what we're doing nowadays,

you know,

are a hundred times more.

And then another thing that's really interesting me on the end

is all the new inventions that are going crazy.

Like you see them all over the internet on you see

them on Facebook and stuff.

These really awesome inventions that are simple.

They use a lot of simple technology,

simple aspects,

a lot of biological exchanges as well,

that can increase lives for all sorts of people,

whether they're little bit poor communities or they just don't have

the money for certain types of devices,

so forth.

And so on,

like one example is these play pumps that they're putting in,

in areas where there's not a lot of water.

So instead of them having to go down,

maybe two miles a day to go collect water,

they're putting in this really simple,

it's a,

merry-go-round basically where the kids can play on it and then

it pumps the water up.

So it sounds funny because it's not quite what I'm doing

nowadays, but I'd love to see already alchemy be able to

help increase that whole aspect to where we can create not

only natural products and medicines,

but natural devices,

something with something with biomimicry that can,

that can really just make the lives of people overall better.

And it's simple.

It's not going to cost a lot.

It's not going to be,

you know,

we don't have to worry about patents a lot or anything

like that.

We're just making the world a better place,

you know,

with simple things that we have available to us.

Yeah. So you already are looking into the future with that.

I mean,

clearly the research,

you know,

that's what you're doing by closing your shop,

right? So you have more funds available for your research.

So you're already working on that and this new idea in

terms of the inventions.

I see that common in your future there.

Okay. Thanks.

Yeah. That'd be great.

Based on what you guys you're talking about,

that's going to be out there for you.

I think it would be fun.

Yeah. There's a lot of new,

new ability out there.

And that's the thing too with medicine,

you know,

a lot of us are so used to,

you know,

popping something,

taking a pill and even in holistic medicine,

if you think about it,

a lot of it is we'll take the Serb or take

a tea or something.

And granted,

yes, I feel that those are way better than a lot

of the pharmaceutical medicines on the market,

but there's a lot of lifestyle changes people can incorporate and

then those devices so forth and so on can also incorporate

it even further.

And we can go ahead and do that as well.

So give biz listeners,

you know,

there's going to be a show notes page connected up with

the podcast.

So if you want to see different social media sites,

YouTube channels,

et cetera,

all of that will be on the show notes page Regina,

if there was one place that you would direct people to,

if they're only listening and they're not going to be getting

to a computer and they want to see more,

where would that one place be Go to our website?

It's R D alchemy.com.

And that has a lot of the other connections to other

social medias,

our classes.

And then also our videos,

blog information,

of course,

all the product information.

If they're interested in private label wholesale or custom formulation,

there's also information there.

Perfect. And it sounds like if anyone's right in the San

Diego area,

they better jump right in right away because pretty soon the

opportunity will be gone.

Exactly. Yeah.

Regina, thank you so much.

I appreciate you being here today,

taking some time with us.

I love the concern and the foresight you have with the

people you work with in terms of the customers and your

employees, and then also your vision of how to make the

world a better place.

You know,

just having better products for us and having solutions to some

of these problems that are so challenging,

the diseases and you know,

the other things you're talking about with helping people get fresh

water or whatever that might be.

I think there's a lot for us to be watching in

your future.

If you ask me and it's exciting,

that's for sure.

And my hope is that you continue moving forward and I

am quite sure that's going to happen.

And I wish you continued success.

May your candle always,

Frank, thank you so much.

Where are you in your business building journey,

whether you're just starting out or already running a business and

you want to know your setup for success.

Find out by taking the gift biz quiz,

access the quiz from your computer at bit dot L Y

slash gift biz quiz or from your phone by texting gift

biz quiz to four four two,

two, two.

Thanks for listening and be sure to join us for the

next episode.

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