Becoming a parent changes the dynamic for female entrepreneurs who thought of their business as their baby. Now, balancing a thriving business with family becomes like walking a tightrope while juggling – challenging to say the least. Add the noble pursuit of giving back to the mix, and you’ve got a recipe for overwhelm. For Laura Xiao, these seemingly conflicting demands are managed with grace. She proves that with the right strategies, integrating family, business, and philanthropy is not only possible but deeply rewarding. Ready to unravel the secret to her balancing act? Tune in.
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Show Notes | Transcript“I want my kids to be proud of me and to see the type of people we are, the way we treat others, the way we run our business and also the way we give back in our community.” – Laura Xiao
Laura Xiao, the founder and CEO of Henne Organics, joins us for an inspiring discussion about the thrills and challenges of starting a luxury skin care company, while balancing personal relationships when your business partner is also your life partner. Laura opens up about her experiences as a business owner and a new parent, the delicate act of juggling family life with professional ambitions, and how shared business ventures can harmonize work-life integration, particularly when children enter the picture. We also shine a light on the importance of community contribution, as Laura recounts her efforts to partner with local charities like First Fruit, illuminating the pervasive issue of human trafficking and the role each of us can play in supporting such causes.
In this episode, you’ll discover:
- How Laura’s leap of faith into the beauty industry led to the birth of a brand with soul and success.
- The complexities of advice in the beauty industry vs. trusting one’s intution
- The dance of partnership in both marriage and business, and how personal relationships can blossom in a professional setting.
- The joy and challenges of parenting while steering the entrepreneurial ship, and how we can be role models for our children.
- The profound impact of supporting local charities, like First Fruit, in their fight against human trafficking, and how we can all contribute to such critical causes.
- How Laura challenged her immigrant family’s expectations through entrepreneurship.
Resources:
Join the Soulful Women’s Network
Connect with Laura Xiao:
Website: HenneOrganics.com
Instagram: @henneorganics
Connect with Live Love Engage:
Send Gloria Grace a message
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LinkedIn: Gloria Grace Rand
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YouTube: Gloria Grace Rand
Related Live. Love. Engage. episodes you may enjoy:
Harmony at Home: Aimee Greczmiel’s Self-Care Tips for Busy Parents
Transform What You Love Into a Scalable Business with Nathalie Doremieux
How to Create a Soul-Aligned Luxury Brand with Elva Li
TRANSCRIPT
Gloria “Grace” Rand
Namaste. You know, growing a business is no easy task, so if you would like some advice from a successful entrepreneur, you are in the right place, because today we are going to be talking with Laura Xiao, who is the founder and CEO of Henne Organics, a luxury beauty brand that combines natural and highly effective lip and skincare formulas with exquisite Nordic design. But before I bring her in, I just want to welcome you to the podcast and, if this is your first time here, I am Gloria Grace. I support women business owners and strengthening their spiritual connections so you can create a life and business that’s both prosperous and deeply gratified. But I am really excited.
We were having a little chat before we got on the air here today, but I’m really excited to talk about Laura because I know she’s got a great story to tell about her unique entrepreneurial journey. I think everybody has their own unique journey, but there’s also some common threads in there that I think that we can learn from. So, without further ado, I’m going to bring her up right now. There she is and welcome Laura to Live love Engage.
Laura Xiao
Hi, thank you for having me. Happy Wednesday. I know we were joking before we went live that I don’t know what the date of the week is sometimes when I have been a toddler, but today I did know that it was Wednesday, absolutely.
Gloria “Grace” Rand
Yeah, I know you’re live on social media, but, of course, if you’re listening to this now on your favorite podcast platform, it’s probably Tuesday, because that’s when it goes out. See, you never know what date is. It’s all good. So I was mentioning that I always like to start our podcast with gambling a little bit into the background of our guests and finding out their journey. So I knew that you’ve got a good story to tell about. Oh, my goodness, my light just fell over. Well, I’m going to go ahead and let you share, and then I’ll do it while I’m on you. So, yeah, tell us a little bit about your story and how you got to become a founder of a skincare product.
Laura Xiao
Well, it’s definitely a little bit of an unconventional background story, I guess. I’d like to say I don’t originally come from the beauty industry actually far from it but it was kind of a combination, I always say a little bit of inspiration and desperation. So my husband, who is Swedish initially, I actually moved to Sweden to be with him after I finished college and I think just moving there initially, kind of the wheel started turning because at that time I had just recently become a lot more interested and I discovered a lot more about just ingredients, everything from the food that I was eating to the ingredients and the products I was using. So it was something that I would have already started becoming very passionate about. And then this is back in 2010. And when we moved to Sweden, I noticed even in Sweden at that time they just had more natural options than we did back in the States. And I was very young at the time, I was in my early 20s, and of course I started thinking, oh, wouldn’t it be great if I could launch my own products? And it was a great idea, but definitely seemed like a bit of a pipe dream at that time. I didn’t have the money, the credentials, the experience, whatever you want to call it didn’t have any of that, so kind of put on the back burner and I thought, maybe in a couple of decades, when I burned my stripes, when I saved up enough money, this is something I could do.
And then fast forward a handful of years later. We had been living in a few other places, a few other countries, kind of bounced around for a little bit, and then, when we moved back to the States, I actually developed pretty serious issues with my lips. My husband did as well. We were living in Nevada at the time, in Vegas, and that was when the desperation kind of came in and I thought, okay, I still don’t have the beauty experience, I don’t have the connections, but I have a little bit of money saved now, and I think this is something I’d really like to do, because I created a lip balm in our kitchen that worked really well for us and so already had the formula, and that’s kind of what really got things going. I guess having struggling with dry lips kind of gave me the kick in the buck. I needed to really give it a go. Yeah, so we launched Hena in 2015, initially just with the lip balm, and here we are today.
Gloria “Grace” Rand
Wow, that’s amazing. So it’s been a very short time for you to be doing that, but quite the journey to be able to get there as well. What was very particular challenges that you found in getting the business off the ground once you decided, okay, yes, I’m going to do this, we’re going to launch with this lip balm, but did you have any particular things that, looking back at, like I really wish we had a better way to be able to fix it or not? I don’t know.
Laura Xiao
I think one thing I would say is I think in the beginning, because I had so little experience, I was getting feedback from a wide range of people in my life, and so people from just there are some people in the tech space, because we were in that. I was working in that space prior to launching Henne and everybody was well-meaning and some of the feedback was actually really, really helpful. But I think almost getting too much was a little bit confusing at times for me because, for example, after a few months after we launched Henne, I managed to contact a few people in the industry and try to get feedback from them, and I think it didn’t take me in the wrong direction. But I think I tried to do things their way, a little bit more their way, because I thought that’s how the industry works and I kind of realized pretty quickly that there is truly no one-size-fits-all and I actually think being a little bit whether you want to call it naive or inexperienced was actually an advantage that I had and I kind of ended up going back to that instead of just trying to follow this very, very rigid path but to follow a path that someone else had taken.
I know it’s a little bit of a vague description, but I’ll use an example. I was going to ask you. That’s a very vague, very vague example. I said no connections but having my I guess my natural personality type of being very much of a go-getter, very type A and just yeah, I guess that personality type, I started contacting stores to see if they would be interested in bringing us in and I think the like I said whether you want to call it being naive kind of helped, because I contacted some stores that apparently are very exclusive and very difficult to get into and most brands wouldn’t dare try in the beginning. And I didn’t contact them in a presumptuous or rude way by any means. I was very friendly, very polite, but I was. I still dared to ask right, would you be interested, could I send you samples? And because of that we got into a few key stores very early on, I think within the first six months. That helped give us a little bit of brand exposure, I guess, even in one store, quite a bit of brand exposure. And I don’t think that would have happened had I followed some of the advice of a few people that I asked who, like I said, were well-meaning but they were simply telling me how it worked for them. Right and in their eyes, this is what you do. This is like a step by step process. You don’t contact these kinds of stores until you’ve reached this level of brand awareness, sales etc. And it’s not always the case. And if I had followed that, I think it would have hurt Henna quite a bit and definitely kept me from growing, I would say a decent amount, especially the first two years, because I almost exclusively did sales myself the first two years.
And another thing and I wouldn’t even call this a mistake because I’m glad I did it was I hired a sales rep very early on because I was told oh, you don’t need to do your sales yourself. Like no, no, no, you hire a sales rep, you’re not well versed in sales, you don’t have a sales background. True, I didn’t. I studied journalism, broadcast journalism, and so I tried that route and it did not work out because the sales rep I had hired wasn’t really putting in the hours and it just wasn’t prioritizing us in any way, and so, but it was kind of it was good to do it, because at the same time I was trying to do sales myself, I felt like, you know, there’s so few of us working on the brand, it’s just me, my husband helping out in the sales rep Like I’ve got to get, I’ve got to go do something as well. And I, after a couple of months, I had actually opened a lot more accounts than the sales rep had.
Me, with no experience, none of the credentials, and I realized, okay, maybe I don’t need to follow this route. I, you know, I’m not saying sales rep, more reps can’t be amazing. But I just realized, like you know, I could actually do more of this. I’m not saying I have to do everything on my own, but I’m not just helpless on the sidelines needing to rely on all these people right from the start.
And that also made it easier for Henne to start actually moving forward. And because you know, if you’re starting off a company, you know you don’t have a lot of savings and I still didn’t have a lot of savings at that time and I didn’t look seek investors in the beginning. There’s not that much money to be to, you know, to spend right. And if you start trying to hire people that you can’t afford from the start, it really could push you back, sometimes even years, from being able to make it a business that you can actually live off of. So so yeah, that’s my long, I guess, example of how sometimes a little bit of naivete can actually work in your favor. Yeah.
Gloria “Grace” Rand
Yeah, absolutely, and it makes sense, I think, especially at the beginning, for you to be more successful at getting the sales than the salesperson, because you’re the one who created the product. You’ve got your. This is your baby, you know, and I know you have another baby now too. I’d have to talk about how that fits in here too as well, but that you know. It makes sense that you’re going to be able to really communicate that a little bit better as well. As you know, salespeople are great, as you say, but there’s a time and a place for them, and I think you’re right that maybe it was a little bit too early for you, but there does come a time where you do have to start delegating that, because you can’t start managing everything.
Now a couple of things I wanted to touch on. One of the fact is you mentioned that you’re working with your husband, and I know that that can be, that can be good and there can be some challenges that go on with that. So, because you know you’re, if you’re living with someone 24 seven and then you’re going to be working with someone 24 seven, that, how do you, how have you found that? It did it happen sort of organically Pardon the pun, or you know, or did he you know? Did you? Yeah, I guess I guess what? What is his role in the company and how did you decide that you two really wanted to be able to do this together?
Laura Xiao
Yeah, we had a little bit of practice before Henne. So, prior to Henne, my husband and I also ran a business with one other person, and I think that was a great practice, because, first off, you kind of suss out the little kinks with everything, because, even though my husband and I we have very different personality types and it’s actually works in our favor because we have very different skill sets, very different personality types but when we delegate tasks like what, what am I good at, what are you good at? And you know vice versa it’s easier for us not to step on each other’s toes. With that being said, though, that initial, those initial lines of working together, it is very difficult because this is a person you’re in a romantic relationship with and now, all of a sudden, you have to treat each other in a different way and you have to give each other constructive criticism. And I’m not going to sugarcoat it and say it’s easy, it’s feelings, get her, and it can be tough, you know you, arguments happen. But I think our experience working together with our prior business helped a lot, because, once Hena came around, we kind of had already both had a good idea of what areas that we should focus on. And then, of course, anything that’s important we always discuss together and we make those decisions together. But we don’t have to, you know, we don’t have to micromanage each other and we should, we shouldn’t.
But I also would like to mention it’s it really depends on your significant other. You can have a wonderful relationship, a wonderful marriage, and not be great business partners, not be a great fit. So it’s, you know, it really isn’t one size fits all when it comes to that. I know some couples who are amazing together, but you know, sometimes they are professional skills that are too similar, so them partnering together, they actually are missing chunks of skills or you know health that they need, and so of course, they can still work if they hire someone else or bring someone else on board. But sometimes they realize, okay, you know what, maybe we’re not a great fit for this business venture, or it doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with our relationship. So I do want to mention that. You know it’s, every couple is different.
Gloria “Grace” Rand
Yeah, that makes sense, because you really do have to kind of take a look at, as you say, look at where your strengths and your weaknesses are, and then have the courage to say, okay, you know what, I love you and perhaps we shouldn’t be working together. We can, you know, let’s just keep it this way. Or or maybe, hey, this is great. Isn’t it wonderful that we can do that? Now, we kind of mentioned a little bit earlier, though you’ve got, you’ve got a third person in this business who’s not actually working at it yet, but maybe one day she will. So, as a mom, now, how are you managing that new dynamic and being able to run a business, be a husband, be a husband, be a wife, you know, be a spouse, and then you know working with your, your husband, but then also being in love and managing all of that now,
Laura Xiao
It really is. I have a 14-month old daughter and you know, of course, my priorities have changed. I would be lying if I said they hadn’t. She is not. She is my first priority. She’s also my husband’s first priority and I for us. That’s how we want it to be and how we think that’s how it should be, and so I have worked a little bit less the past year, a little bit over a year, because of that, although I think in the future things are going to start transitioning a little bit. But overall, I think it’s brought such a Deeper purpose, I think, to my everyday life.
Because you know, before my daughter was born, when, before I was pregnant, we we started talking about you, would have discussions about our future. You know we talked about okay, we want to give back. You know we want to make sure we do good with our business, not just the way we run our business, the way we treat our team, the products that we do, and, you know, helping customers solve issues like dry lips, but we also want to do good. You know everything from giving back. But when we talked about other goals, you know it’s. It’s just different, because now a lot of our Goal setting is more about our family goals, you know, and of course that includes our business. But now it’s really like, okay, we are extra grateful because this business helps us being. We know we’re able to take care of our family because of Henne, and also, you know, what can our business bring that can enrich our family life, and of course that is making sure that our daughter has a secure future and our future children. But it also means running our business maybe a little bit differently.
We think about certain things differently than before she was born and I think it makes us even more eager to make sure that our business is Running away, that that she’ll be proud of, you know, when she gets a little bit older. And we joke that she’s the, she’s the little big boss because she’s in her, you know, she’s in her full-fledged toddler era and so she is the by far the bossiest person out of anyone in our family right now. But yeah, little big boss is the one that we really think about the most when it comes to, I would say, Any remotely major decision we make when it comes to our business or, you know, our personal life. But and I wouldn’t want any other way it’s. It’s really wonderful. It’s chaotic at times, of course. Any parent understands that, but all you need is just one smile or one hug and it just Makes everything worthwhile.
Gloria “Grace” Rand
Absolutely, and I do think one of the main advantages of being a business owner Is that you do have that a little bit more flexibility than if you were working a nine-to-five job Somewhere else, so that if emergencies come up and and this is the the great thing as well is that I Think I think another advantage of you working with your husband is that you Both agree or you can both kind of see what needs to be done in the business and so if you need to take some time you know, maybe you had to take your daughter to the doctor or something you know you can you can work around that and and still both be able to get things done in your business. I would think, have you found that? That it makes it a little bit easier that way?
Laura Xiao
Yeah, it’s. It’s much easier to be on the same page because we’re working. You know, even though we have different tasks at our business, we are working on essentially the same. You know, we’re working at the same company, that’s our business, and I’m also very, very grateful that I’ve been able to have such a flexible schedule and it’s something that I’ve, you know, I’ve worked to get to, I guess I would say.
You know, I’m 35, I’m turning 36 this summer and I did make a conscious decision to have child, have children, a little bit later, because our business was my, I guess, baby prior to my actual baby. And you know, because of that, they were years where have hardly had any free time. I mean, there were several years where our friends didn’t really see as much, they would kind of joke about it and then, you know, they just, but they also understood and Our, you know my schedule was not that flexible. Of course people say that when you’re an entrepreneur, you have a very flexible schedule, but when you’re an on a new entrepreneur and your bootstrapping and you’re working seven days a week, it’s not really flexible because you’re just working around the clock, whereas now we’ve reached a stage where we can delegate.
We have employees, we have, you know, more people we can hire to get to take more tasks my plate off, my husband’s plate and then, because of that, I have been able to work a little bit less and I am, like I said, I’m really grateful for that because I I would I think I would have a lot of regrets if I worked the same schedule as I did Before I gave birth there and I know everyone is different. It’s just it’s kind of a decision that we made together and it’s what I was leaning toward. I remember when I was pregnant we sat down and we had talks about it and, yeah, and because of that I have spent a lot more time with her the past 14 months and I’m definitely not gonna regret that. I’ll say that right now.
Gloria “Grace” Rand
Yeah, absolutely you. You will definitely not regret that, speaking as a mom of 30-somethings now just about well, one is and one is on his way there. It’s hard to believe the time goes by so fast. So it’s it’s. It is truly a blessing to be able to enjoy this time that you have now. There was one thing you mentioned and I’m gonna. I’m trying to decide if I want to go there. Yeah, you know what? Let’s go there first. So you you were talking about wanting to do good in your business, and I know that you have your company has partnered with a local charity called First fruit Ministries. So can you tell us a little bit about why you decided to partner with the charity and what what this organization is all about, why you’re so passionate about it?
Laura Xiao
Yeah, First Fruit is a charity that I actually discovered through my husband a couple of years ago, and I think everything just happens for a reason because, I will be completely honest, when we first launched Henne in 2015, of course we wanted to be able to give back to our business, but at that time we were literally not making any money and not only could we not pay ourselves, but I mean, every penny that was, you know, that we made was definitely going back to our business. Plus, we were taking money from our our side jobs that we were doing to put back into our business. But we always needed something we wanted to do. But fast forward a few years after that, when we were back previously in Vegas, we actually tried to partner with a non-profit. That was a pretty big one and they do great work, but I think us being a little bit maybe on the smaller side, they weren’t that interested in partnering with us. I think maybe they thought they the money wasn’t enough. I don’t know, and I remember being a little bit disappointed with that, because maybe it’s naivete, I don’t know, but I just thought that it would be easier to partner with a certain, you know, a non-profit or charities, and the thing is it isn’t difficult, and I learned that through first fruit, when you find the right charity to partner with, it isn’t a difficult thing. It’s actually a beautiful partnership because they are, you know so, first fruit. They are doing fantastic work in our community, and so they do everything from helping to helping feed the community, helping people who are homeless, to get them off the streets, and then one area that they specialize in, which I’m probably the most passionate about, is not just helping victims of human trafficking but actually helping rescue them.
So they are actually a part of that process and you know, it’s every city, most towns, it’s kind of this dark underbelly and it’s a, it’s kind of the elephant in the room where people don’t want to talk about it, but it exists in almost every community and, unfortunately, most of the time it involves primarily women and children, and that’s a sad fact and I think you know, not just being a woman myself, but being a mother, it really hits close to home because just through them I’ve learned so much of, for example. There’s just I mean, I could go on about this forever, so I’ll try to keep it a little bit shorter, but people oftentimes think that it doesn’t affect you, like, oh, I live in the suburbs or I live in my. You know, I live in a safe area, this is not going to affect my family, this is not going to affect my children. I feel sorry for the families it does affect, but first, that is actually not true. I’ve learned through them that a lot of these children especially who become victims of human trafficking, they’re not just simply runaways who come from you know a tougher background. Some of them come from you know more comfortable, I guess, means, and they get targeted through social media. There’s other ways that you know these traffickers can get to your children or get to your family members. It’s not always children, sometimes it’s, you know, women and, of course, sometimes it’s men as well, but primarily women and children, and so it’s just a you know they’re doing phenomenal work and they are really a charity that walks the walk.
You know there’s a lot of different charities out there and some of them are fantastic and some of them you don’t really know where the money’s going, and First Fruit is so transparent. They can show you exactly where everything is going. I don’t know the exact percentage, but if it’s like 95% or it’s 90 something, percent, it’s a very, very high percentage of what they receive goes directly toward all of these initiatives. They have very little overhead costs and if you want to talk about scrappy, they are scrappy. Any penny that they can save, that they can do it themselves they do. And so, yeah, I’m really, I’m proud and grateful to have found a partner where we can give back. And, yes, they’re a local, you know local charity, but I’m, you know, we hope that by bringing awareness not just to this topic but a person about who we give back to, you know, we’re hoping that that can also inspire people in their own local communities, because even if you cannot donate money, you can also you know you could donate time.
All these types of charities, they have so many different ways you can help out. Well, at First Fruit, for example, you can actually become trained and you can also become they kind of describe almost like a best friend, but it’s someone who gets trained to be able to become friends with victims of trafficking and really help guide them, because a lot of them they don’t have anyone out there Right. So after they’re rescued, it’s a very dark and very lonely time and these people are trained when it comes to how to speak with them, how to, you know, really make them feel safe, and so that’s just one out of many examples of how all of us, if it’s something that you’re passionate about, how you can help out and really make a difference. So, yeah, it’s definitely given a deeper purpose to what we do, because now it’s not just yeah, there’s so many layers. Now it’s not just about being good to our team, creating great products that we’re proud of, like I said, that we know are good for our community and our customers, but it’s like okay, hennis supports our team, it supports, you know, my family and also you know it supports first fruit, and so there’s just a lot of I think.
I think a lot of things are just aligned right now with how I want to see the business run and when it comes to the direction my husband and I would like to see our business go. And once again, it is different once you have kids. I know my daughter’s only 14 months old, but you know we’re hoping to have more kids in the future and I want my kids to be proud of me and I don’t want them to be proud like, oh, mommy has like a fancy luxury beauty brand yes, great and everything. But I want proud to see the type of people we are, the way we, the way we treat others, the way we run our business and also the way we give back in our community, so they can learn as early as possible like, oh, this is, you know, we want them to think about oh, who is a good person, mommy and daddy? Like that’s, that’s what we want, you know.
I want, I want my kids to be proud of me in that way, you know, and I also want them to. I also want them to see into the future. I want them to see and to remember that I put them first, so it’s. They can also say yes, mommy and daddy run a business. You know, mommy’s an entrepreneur. I’m pretty sure that’s a word they’re not going to learn for right. You know a very long time. Right now, my daughter’s like Mama, but I just want them to see that you know, despite any type of business busyness, they are still first, or she’s still first right now, but in the future you know, hopefully multiples, and that they come first and I. That, to me, is very very important?
Gloria “Grace” Rand
Oh, absolutely, and she is getting that message for sure. I mean because they’re little sponges and they take it all in. And I like to think that one of the reasons my daughter is an entrepreneur today is because she saw me, you know, starting the business and and she also learned the things that mom didn’t do well, and she has done them better. So I was, I was a teacher of that respect. She’s she’s, she’s learned and it’s done very well in her business. So I was great, I’m glad for that. So I know your daughter, whatever she decides to do, she’s getting the good lessons right now, and I’m sure you’re such a proud mama because when you have kids, everything about that makes you proud.
Laura Xiao
My daughter started walking backwards two days ago. I wrote that down. I have a mile Sloan’s list and it’s yeah. Yesterday was that she wrote on my husband’s shoulders for the first time. A couple of days ago was that she walked backwards. I was so proud, I literally wrote that down. Well, my mother’s her mom is accomplished are a lot more impressive on paper than my 14 month old at the moment. But I just met more that you know. You just get so proud of them, right? I mean, the existing is the pride.
Gloria “Grace” Rand
I will tell you, though you may not be quite as diligent once the second child comes around, though, because my daughter’s book is a lot fuller than my son’s one, because you have two children.
Laura Xiao
So I’m really, I’m really, yeah, I’ve already. Yeah, my, since she’s our first born, yeah, she’s got the albums, she’s got the baby. And I told my husband I was like, do we even need to buy a baby journal for the second one? Like, do you bring a? Do it.
Gloria “Grace” Rand
Yeah, exactly yeah, give it a try, give it a try, I want it. We’re getting close to the end here, but I did want to touch on something because I did promote it when we were talking about this today and I think it will be interesting. I think a little bit is you can just kind of touch on this and a little bit about, maybe, how it has also informed, how you are as a person and as a business owner that understand that you’re a first generation immigrant. So what has that meant for you? And being able to be you know, to be an entrepreneur.
Laura Xiao
It means. It means a ton to me. You know, with my parents, my parents came to the States, I guess. Well, they came one at a time. First my dad came. My mom came about a year later because my dad had to save up to get a plane ticket for her. And then I came here when I was about two and a half and so, because of my parents background, they immigrated here from China and they were very poor when they were growing up, especially my dad.
When I say poor, I mean think about it being a privilege to eat meat or eat eggs on, and that was usually special occasions, sometimes it was only during birthdays. So, you know, grew up very impoverished and because of that background I’m not, you know, I am not surprised, but they were not super supportive of me being an entrepreneur in the beginning. When I told them because, coming from that type of scarcity, they of course hoped that their daughter would pick something safer you know, state stability, safety and I fully understand that. And because of the environment that I was raised in and because I did not have to suffer to remark remotely the same extent that they did, it afforded me the opportunities to think about even potentially wanting to take those type of quote unquote risks and fast forward.
Now, of course, I mean, of course they were supportive overall. I mean, maybe they were just more concerned in the beginning, but these days my parents are, you know, they’re so happy for me and proud, of course, and they think it’s amazing that the the risks that they took and the hardships that they went through really paid off. You know, and I don’t think me, even if I did not become an entrepreneur, I don’t think that they would feel like it didn’t pay off for them, but I just think that I think I guess this has taken me further career-wise than they had expected, of course in a positive way.
Gloria “Grace” Rand
Oh, very cool, let’s it’s. It’s nice to hear and I I know that you know, let as you know now, for being a parent, that your parents are going to be proud of you no matter what, but, but I can also see, growing up the way they did, that they would be, you know, concerned for you. That, yeah, I’m wanting you to do something that is more Traditional, or to being, you know, something that would have a Instead source of income.
Laura Xiao
Was actually what they were kind of hoping for initially. You know, just something, something, yeah, something more that they were that, something that would be more easy to digest. For that, because I do not come from a family of Entrepreneurs, you know, I mean, it’s hard to be an entrepreneur when you’re really just thinking about being able to get enough food Next meal, you know, I mean. But we tell. That being said, I will say that now I do think what makes them the most proud is my 14 month old. They’re actually moving here. We’re based in Wilmington, north Carolina. My parents are actually moving here.
In a month they bought a house. So, and I will tell you, it is not me being an entrepreneur that gave them the push to buy that house. It is she, 14, that Runs around the house, walking backwards and then shaking her finger, saying no, no, sometimes she doesn’t Eat eggs or you know anything that mommy or daddy cooks at the moment. But that is. That’s their pride and joy, of course, yes, and also she’s only one so far. So it’s like, yeah, it’s just like, oh, now she’s got two houses. I’m like, okay, let’s not get her, be a little bit grounded. It’s your house that she’s gonna visit. She doesn’t own two houses. You know, she’s already a little boss, so what’s uh?
Gloria “Grace” Rand
yeah.
Laura Xiao
hey’re very proud and we’re so, so excited that they’re gonna be here and about a month like just, we don’t have any family here, because my husband is Swedish and his family lives in Sweden and Most of my family is back in China. So it’s nice that my parents are Moving down from Kansas City very soon and we’ll actually have family. Just you know, a short drive away, it’s gonna be amazing.
Gloria “Grace” Rand
Oh, I’m sure you’re gonna enjoy that, and it’d be great for you and your husband too, because now you can. We used to call it going out on a Hot date, you know, date night when when grandparents could babysit. So because that is so important that you do need to have time for yourselves.
Laura Xiao
Right now, our date night is grabbing a coffee from 9 30 am To 10 30 am. Once yeah, usually not once a week Is something comes up? Yeah, so my parents are very encouraging that, like, once we get here, you know you guys can go out to dinner and you know all those things. So we are I’m not gonna lie, we are looking forward to a bit more you know of those things, but really, yeah, we’re very good.
Gloria “Grace” Rand
Well, we could be talking for hours and hours, I think, and there’s so much more, and maybe we’ll have to have you back on the show at some point, possibly because there’s so much I want to Delve into with you. But I so appreciate your time and being here with us today. I really appreciate it. And if someone listening wants to know more about your products and wants to learn more about it, how can people find out about you? Where? Where can they do that?
Laura Xiao
The easiest way would be our website and I’ll spell it out for you, because I know our brand name is a little bit hard to understand, so it’s H E N N E O R G A N I C S, so henne organics dot com. And you can also find us on social media. We’re probably the most active on Instagram, so Instagram dot com slash henne organics and, yeah, those are the two main places and I’d love for people to take a peek and discover us. And we’ve got also, by the way, very cute little video on our about page that we recently launched. That features my daughter, a-k-a, I call her squishy because she’s still got all little rolls, but she does make a little cameo in there. If people are curious what you know what I’m talking about, but you know those are the best places to find us and thank you so much for having me on today. It’s been, it’s been a really fun chat.
Gloria “Grace” Rand
Well, I’m glad that you were here and I will have all of that information in the show notes for folks. So again, yeah, thank you so much and look forward to seeing Seeing your company grow and seeing your daughter grow, and, yeah, we’ll continue success for you. Thank you so much, and I do want to also thank all of you for watching and for listening, and I encourage you to Make sure that you are subscribed on your favorite podcast platform or on YouTube at Gloria Grace Rand. And Until next time, I Want you all encourage you to do is to go out and live fully, love deeply and engage authentically.
Transcribed by https://podium.page
