Hey guys, if you haven't heard about anchor it's the easiest way to make a podcast. Let me explain it's free. There's creation tools that allow you to record and edit your podcast right from your phone or your computer. Anchor will distribute your podcast for you so that it can be heard on Spotify Apple podcast and many more you can make money from your podcast with no minimum listenership. It's everything you need to make a podcast in one place download the free anchor app or go to Anchor dot. F m-- to get started. I'm an anchor and I can't say enough about it. So get started down. Hi everyone. It's Rebecca. You're listening to superwomen today's guest is Trinity moves on Wofford the founder of gold this incredible line of amazing tonics tease and awesome facials that just make me feel like the pollution in New York does nothing we talked about how she started her company. She's really young which is really impressive to me. Always when you have someone who's so has it together because I certainly didn't and I hope you liked this episode. Take a listen. I'm with Trinity Mouzon Wofford the founder of gold. Hi guys. So what is gold? I mean I know what it is. But please please tell us yeah, so gold is a brooklyn-born health and beauty brand that's really centered in the power of Super Foods. So when I heard how you launch I'm still in awe of the fact, you're like, I'm gonna do this and then you did it and it's not like you came out and raised a ton of VC money. You can raise any money. I feel like your Is extraordinarily rare. So can you roll us back the yeah, I gave you the idea. What happened in your upbringing that made you potentially more comfortable with the subject matter or right? Yeah. So going way back. I was raised in Upstate New York by a single parent who is dealing with an autoimmune disease. So my mom has a condition called rheumatoid arthritis, which is essentially where your immune system is attacking your joints. And so all you know my early life. Life growing up. I had that experience of her just not really being able to lead a full life because of that and it wasn't actually until I was in high school that my mom switched over to seeing a more holistically minded physician and saw a massive Improvement in her symptoms. Basically, they were able to get her off of a lot of the really nasty steroid medications that have terrible side effects. And and for once in my life I saw her. You're able to you know, go for a walk around the block without pain and just be able to have fun. And and so that was an eye-opening experience for me to say the least. It ended up sort of pushing me in the direction of wanting to pursue a career in medicine myself. I wanted to practice holistic Wellness in medicine and really be able to help other people that way and so I went down to NYU for college. College and I was pre-med there and all was well, but as I was sort of wrapping up my college career, I heard from my mom that she had had to stop seeing that doctor because she couldn't afford it anymore. But unfortunately the way that the medical system is set up here these sort of holistic treatments aren't covered by insurance. I wonder why don't get me started. That's a whole other podcast. I know why I hate modern medicine, right? So You know, I was getting ready to graduate early 20s sort of having this moment of Reckoning of okay. I am I either going to practice holistic care for the people who can't afford it or am I going to try to fix the u.s. Medical insurance industry neither of which felt super appealing to me at the time so a graduated and ended up sort of falling into a marketing career. How do you fall in a marketing career? Well, Well, I had graduated with a psych degree that I didn't know what to do with and I had heard that startups were the cool place to go. So I ended up at a start-up in the city called castara. That was a marketing software company and I started as their lowest rung sales rep and hated it. I was terrible at it. I was not good at doing the cold calls and I think within a month or so my boss sort of pulled me aside and was What do you actually want to do here? That was nice of them? Yes. They it was a small team. I came on. I was probably I don't remember employee number 10 or 12 or something. And so they had they knew that I was smart and capable and passionate and they ended up by chance transitioning me on to the marketing team and I loved it. It was myself and my boss who was had come from Amazon and before that Harvard. Business school and it was this incredible opportunity for me at a very young age with very little experience to sort of get thrown into the startup world. And sort of wall. I had all of that going on. I still have this really strong interest in holistic health and wellness. And so I knew that I wanted to at some point bring that into my life, but I wasn't really sure how to make that happen. And so I think the the final missing piece there was actually my longtime boyfriend. Who is now also my business partner his parents actually have a family business where we're both from in the Hudson Valley. And so he sort of always served as that window into entrepreneurship for me and what that could look like and so we sort of came together to say okay. Hey, I think that we can build something really cool in the space and make it approachable and and affordable and easy for those who haven't seen your branding your packaging and you're in Instagram it is perfect and it hits the note of like you you want it like you want to consume even even before, you know does good things for you. And I know you told me the story when we were talking because we met over ink magazine, but you know, you said that you guys designed the logo and happy shoots everything and a lot of people if you go on Instagram, like a lot of people shoot stuff and a lot of people design stuff and it's awful. So I want to like distill down how Did you know how to do what you did and yeah, and if you didn't how did you get so good at it? Because it looks amazing. Looks like you know, you hired the best great, you know designing for a New York City and they gave you a great brand right? I think that a healthy dose of naivety was really what was allowed us to sort of push forward when we were first thinking about building this brand we were I don't know 22 23 years old and if I had known how Challenging all of it was going to be I don't know if I would have leptin so so in such a Carefree way, but with the branding side of it, it was really about looking at my own experiences as a consumer in the wellness space and feeling a bit like things were either on one end of the spectrum or the other as far as products went. They were either that sort of crunchy granola stuff that we all know and love or it was this sort of ultra-luxe offering that was coming. Out as of late that felt really inaccessible to me. And so we really just wanted to take this category of superfood wellness and make it a little bit more fun. And so to us that mint color and it meant having a little bit of a different perspective from what was already out there. So we really did just have fun with it and if we didn't take it too seriously, and I think that that was sort of the the magic tell me the roles and Differences between my partner and and what you do? Yeah. So you say my partner he has title is formally I guess our creative director. So he does do all of our design and all of our photo shoots. So all that lovely fun stuff, but he also handles a lot of the more operational stuff as well. He has that background from growing up in a family business. So when we're trying to figure out what boxes we should be shipping in to optimize for rates and things Like that. He's the one that jumps in there and on my end, I would say that you know, I'm serving as the face of the brand but I'm also leading up all the the sales and marketing initiatives and really thinking about long-term strategy for the company and you come up with all the formulations together. Yeah. What was your first product? Yes. Our first product was our original turmeric blend. So it's a powder blend that you can add to smoothies water coffee and it's got of course turmeric but also a bunch of other really Really amazing natural spices like cinnamon. It's also got coconut. And essentially it's a great sort of daily super food supplement for inflammation. So whether that's your skin or your gut it's definitely my morning go to I first learned about turmeric when my mom would like pour it all over anything. She was grilling because she's like it it's it's anti-cancerous. Yeah. Well, it's cancer isn't so I believe but the taste of this tumeric on all of our meat is Aang but I love it tumeric latte now. Yeah, there you go. You managed to grow really quick. Yeah. What do you think is the secret behind that aside from? I don't know it just being so beautiful and catchy they want you want to own it. Yeah. I mean, I think this might sound a little bit cliche but authenticity everything that we do comes from us. Like you said Rebecca. We haven't hired out special design teams to do our branding we do the photography. I write the Instagram captions and I think that the customer can tell and that is what really shines through whether it's on social media or in our packaging when someone's picking it up off of a shelf and I think that's really been something that has been able to serve as a strength for us as we've started to grow. So what has been the hardest part so far or name a few hard part. Yeah. I feel like I can't choose just one. But I mean the first thing that comes to mind for sure is Figuring out how to bootstrap a company that is growing and I think there is inherently a sense of urgency around taking every opportunity to grow that we possibly can because if we don't someone else will take it and and you know absorb our market share and so I've had to really teach myself again and again and again this lesson of growing sustainably and understanding that because we haven't taken Venture money. Money to date we can't expect to have those sort of growth plans. So I think it's also while being excited about growth and encouraging it having an honest dialogue with my partner about what we can actually sustain. Yep, but I also think in America, I don't know outside of America, but there's this idea of like if you if you start a business you have to go from zero to a hundred. Yes in three years or else you're not a success and that's been a trend maybe the last 15-20 years, but prior to that people. Just had their businesses and they grew and they had them right and they kept growing and I'm like where did this weird mentality enter our lives? Like I was just telling you a friend of mine had a business for three years and sold it for a gajillion dollars and I've been doing this for 15 and I'm like, what the hell? Yeah. So do you envision eventually needing to take in money or wanting to take that in and grow really big or are you on the track of like slow and steady wins the race right now? I'm Definitely the latter I think that I had to be really honest with myself when I was first making this decision of okay, am I going to fundraise and become huge or am I going to try to go more the sustainable route? I had to be honest with myself about the fact that I was very young and I didn't feel quite ready to take on the responsibilities of other people's money. It has felt like such a special blessing to be able to learn on the job with my own. Us and to be able to scale it to profitability and I feel that if I had taken money at a very early time in the business. I would have missed out on that learning opportunity. Now as we scale and start to look further, especially into the mass Market things might change we might need that funding but I want to make sure that if and when we do take that on it's because we really need it and we know how we're going to use it and we know how we're going to deliver value to. To our Capital Partners totally and one thing I know we keep saying I know we talked about this. We had a long conversation everyone before this because we did a really fun interview with ink magazine you wanted to make it affordable, which I feel like a lot of Wellness companies were jaded in New York, and we're used to paying $20 for a latte or whatever but like most of the country can't afford that so talk to me about why you wanted to make it affordable and what that means for your consumer. Yeah. I mean on a personal side It was really just about wanting to make products that I wanted to see in the market. I couldn't afford to buy 75 plus dollar powder. So it didn't really make any sense for me to be producing them. I think that one of the reasons why gold has been a success thus far in spite of Fairly limited resources on our end is because we are building products that we want to see in the market. We're thinking about our community and our consumers and ourselves all really as as one. Big group of friends and I think that when you're trying to sell to a community that you are not really a part of that's when suddenly you need to spend millions of dollars on market research and instead of just sort of doing what comes naturally and then I think also on the other side just from a pragmatic, you know business side of things. I saw a hole in the market. I saw that everyone was going after this luxury consumer and that luxury It was sort of already inundated with offerings from dozens of Brands and I realized that there was this consumer this Mass consumer, you know, also me who really didn't see a brand that was speaking to them in a meaningful way. So it also was just common sense to me. So when I had to figure things out when we first launched, it was a different day and age of having to figure things out and the resources available to find things easily. You didn't really you couldn't you could barely search on Google. Oh my God. I ordered all my Hardware from like a physical catalog. Right? Like I couldn't go online and like order my hardware for my factory and wow City. So knowing that you guys, you know Doom almost everything yourself. What is the journey been like in terms of now you can ask for anything and like how have you known what to do with which supply chain to go down or which website took it like there's so many options now that is Almost like overwhelming. Yeah the answer is it often? We don't know what to do and we just go with our guts and learn quickly if we made a mistake. I think that I've had to understand the reality that in entrepreneurship you're going to fail over and over and over again and you just have to be okay with that. You have to know that you're going to make the wrong higher or go and partner with the wrong manufacturing person and you'll just have to correct from there. And so I think that the past, you know, almost three years now of building this brand has been many many learning experiences. However, I will say that I seriously don't know how I could have done it without the internet. Google is definitely my best friend on this journey. It does make it a lot easier. You can play that one question. I wanted to ask you is you went from launching direct to Consumer and then what happened, you know. And for retailers, yeah the happen. Yeah, so I think that we had a slightly different approach for a lot of new brands that are popping up today in that. We always knew that wholesale was going to be a part of our strategy. So when we launched online, we already were working on getting into a few retailers. And so our very first one was the elk Cafe in the West Village and then shortly following that was chill house and the lower He sighed and so I think from there we were able to get this incredible visibility from our brand we were stocked at chill house from their opening and they were getting flooded with press and influencers. And so even from that very early moment. We started having people say, oh my gosh. I feel like I've seen your product before which was crazy. And so then from there a lot of the big guys like the you know, the Sephora's and the Urban Outfitter started coming in to us, and I don't don't say that as is to say that it was easy and simple but I think that we came out at the right time with the right message and all of these retailers were super excited about wellness and and knew that they wanted to jump in but I think that they were also feeling the same way that I had felt which was all we've got is this like Birkenstock kind of stuff and then this like stuff that's way too pricey that our customers is not going to care about and so I think we were one of the first ones on The scene to say hey, we've got super foods and they're easy and they're tasty and they're natural and I think that just resonated and a really powerful way. So what's been some of the hardest lessons you've learned. Yeah, I think running a business with my life partner is a very interesting challenge. Let's go there. Yeah. I mean, you know for the most part it's fantastic. There was never really a doubt in either of our minds that we were I need to partner together. And so we often get that question of how do you do that? And I respond that you know, if you can't Envision yourself working with your significant other you probably shouldn't but that being said they're still is this really interesting challenge of living with someone working together from home in your apartment and still being each other's best friend and romantic partner. I was going to ask about the romance part like whatever that moment where you're like stressed out about where your liking your I don't know you're having sex and you're like, oh honey. What about that shipment? You know what? I mean? Like, how do you separate that in mind? That's a great question. I mean, I think that it can be challenging but at the same time I think that in daily life, there isn't as much separation as I think you feel like there needs to be at times. I think when you have a day job there's this sense of Really wanting to separate your personal and your professional life because that job is just what you show up to to pay your rent and go be able to actually live your life. But when you're building a brand with someone that you love, you know, we'll go on our walks over the weekend and be super excited to trade notes on product development and then talk about something completely unrelated, right? So I think it's sort of allowing it to seep into your personal life a bit and and feeling That's okay. I find that refreshing because I feel like a lot of Partners whether their brother-sister like mine or husband-wife like they feel like they have to sometimes be like, all right, we're not going to talk about work. We're home. Now, it's dinner time. It's unrealistic. I think it's totally unrealistic. Right? My husband wants to start a company with me. We don't know what that is. Hmm, it might start with the kids book, but I was like could I do this? I don't know but you give me inspiration. I think so what's on the horizon for the company? Yeah, so there's some really exciting stuff happening. On the product side were working on a new superfood skincare launch and then also a really exciting ingestible product. That's going to be a really great Beauty ingestible. That's totally plant-based. Awesome. Yeah, and one thing I like to ask all my guess is something we'd be surprised to know about you can be personal professional odd quirky. Yeah. The first thing that comes to mind is that I have seen fan of the the Opera on Broadway 10 times. Whoa, that is intense. Yeah, that's a lot. Right? Why you like that? Yeah, you know, it's actually a cute story now that I think about it my dad first, you know, my dad was a big fan of it for some reason or other and got me into it when I was a little kid and so we used to listen to the soundtrack and the car and everything way before I'd ever even gone to see the show and so then we finally went to go see it. And I loved it and I just became I think it was around sort of like those teenage years when you just become obsessed with stuff and so from I think probably age like 11 through 16. I was seriously into that show. Wow, do you still love it? Like when you listen to it or you're like, I'm a little multi-layered. I mean, I haven't listened to it in a while, but I have really been meaning to like get back and see it again. I think it's just one of those. Things that is like lodged in me. Nostalgic Lee I have that with Ani DiFranco and Tori Amos and I tried to go back there and I was like, no it needs to stay that time period that it was angsty teenage younger. Yeah, and then the other question I like to ask everybody is if they have a piece of advice either that they have learned themselves to pass on or someone gave them some really just that those nuggets. Yeah the best piece of advice that I have received the Far was actually not advice, but it was feedback on on myself. And this person said, you know Trinity is great because she knows when she's lucky and I thought about that and I've been thinking about that recently even and it feels like sort of the key to success. However, you want to Define it. I think we all have these challenges of how am I going to start a business? I don't have the right resources or you know, I don't have all these connections, but what is most important I think Think when you're on this journey is seeing those little opportunities that you have that other people don't for example when we had launched gold and we were ready to quit our full-time jobs, but absolutely could not afford to my mom who was you know, still Upstate she was getting ready to sell her house that she had already moved out of because she had moved into my grandmother's house to take care of her. And so I called her up and said hey Mom don't sell your house yet the I think I need to move in for a while and we moved Upstate and she was willing to do that because Mom's are incredible. I was so scared to move home in that moment and I was ashamed and embarrassed which is so silly looking back on it. But I think that my strength was in knowing that that was an opportunity hmm knowing when there's an opportunity and then striking is so important because there's been so many moments on my journey where I'm like, oh opportunity like I feel like I've Opportunity tentacles all day and then I strike and then you have to be willing to like sometimes doesn't happen. But oftentimes it does. Yeah. So the other question I want to ask you how have you managed to come up with your formulas? Like I know some companies tout that they have a clinical degree in Ray, whatever nutria science or whatever and here you are developing these things. How do you know how do you know what you're putting together is correct? Yeah. Yeah. So with our very first product The the tumeric Blends we really approached it from the perspective of let's Source the highest quality Botanicals that we absolutely can that we know are proven to have incredible health benefits turmeric as we talked about is super anti-inflammatory, but there's also the incredible healthy fats that come from coconut and the benefits of cinnamon and ginger on the gut. So we really focused on that and then from there on the development side. It was really about How can we create the tastiest product possible without adding anything artificial or anything with sugar? So that was our our sort of thought process they're going forward now as we get into skincare and more complex ingestible, 's we are always sort of on the front lines of the development. I'm endlessly reading books and Googling about what herbs and you know, what different superfoods are. Just for your skin or your gut but then from there were always working with a trained formulator to really help us make sure that we're making something that is not only aligned with the gold values, but it's going to be effective and safe make sense. And one thing I want to say about everything you do because I'm a big vitamin in gesture. You might not feel good right away, but you just going to be healthier in the long term like it's not like this instant hit but like you just know that it's like like you exercise every day. Yeah your hearts going to be Ethier like a lot of the stuff is just time, right? Yeah, and we wanted to to think about that and think about how we could make that experience pleasurable as opposed to feeling like punishment. I think that's the problem is often were, you know, we're swallowing these pills and we're drinking these like disgusting powders, right? And really is it working. Is it working instead of just enjoying it? Yeah, and I think just as you mentioned it's kind of like exercise or anything. Else it's not necessarily just about getting to that result which will come it's about building great healthy habits that make you feel like your best self from beginning to end totally. Awesome. Thank you. Thank you Rebecca. So excited to have been able to try with you today. Yeah, it's great. That was Trinity to find out more about what she's doing. You can follow her at Gold gol de so just want to share a couple of new reviews. This one is Is from a range in style her subject is called Help. She's 40. She's petite. She probably looks amazingly young and everyone thinks she's new but she should not be called sweetie. So she's asking what to do or say so as anyone who is lustfully going after beautiful skin. I would be like, I know I look young but and then don't be afraid to correct people. I think so many people go. Oh, well the CEO said it we can like you can send an email you can. They could I talk to you like it really makes me feel bad when you call me sweetie, and that's not you know, that's not how I want to be treated. I think we just have to start talking back. We have to share our opinions if something is going wrong. We have to stand up for ourselves because no one else will sometimes they will but most of the time they won't so I would say let those jealous ladies tell you how young you look and then show your strength by speaking up for what you believe in. Thank you guys as always for listening. Thank you as always for writing in sometimes. I'm not the quickest it getting back to you, but I promise you I'm reading your reviews. I'm reading your comments and I appreciate them so much. Keep listening keep downloading keep sharing and thanks for making this a joy to bring to you.
We’ve all been there. In search of the perfect product that is holistic, natural, and good for us, only to be torn between brands that seem to veer to the very luxe or the "crunchy granola." Not that there’s anything wrong with either end, but it’s clear that the market has been missing a happy medium! Enter Golde, the delicious and nutritious superfood-based supplement and beauty brand that'll wow you with its accessible price point and colorful packaging. The brainchild of Trinity Mouzon Wofford and life/business partner, Issey Kobori, Golde was borne of Trinity’s desire to create products that make taking care of oneself a pleasurable experience. Originally planning a career in medicine, Trinity switched gears as it became all too clear that offering a holistic practice would only be available to the very wealthy. While the method of delivery may have changed, the goal is still the same: making wellness accessible and enjoyable all at the very same time. Thanks for listening! We love our listeners! Follow Superwomen on Instagram. Big Ideas   Authenticity as the primary ingredient that draws people in. [09:21]  Accessibility – making products that you want to see in the market that you can also afford. [13:05]   Coming to terms with the fact that starting in entrepreneurship means there will be missteps along the way, and that it will be a great learning experience. [15:11]   ---   This episode is sponsored by  · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. 