Y’all. I have a new job. I’m so excited to tell you about it, but before I give you the scoop, let me back up a bit.
I’ve been in advertising for my entire working life. I took time off to be with my kids when they were little, but even then I was acting in commercials. When my youngest was about to enter Kindergarten, I became a certified yoga teacher, and I loved it. However, right about the time I started teaching, I went back to work part-time, at, you guessed it, an ad agency. I was working at a place I still love and for people I will adore until the end of time. But before I even knew what was happening, I had stopped teaching yoga altogether and was back in advertising for reals.
Advertising as a way of life - on one side of the camera or the other. CREDITS: Client: CDW; Agency: Ogilvy Chicago; Creative Director: Chris Wall; Director: Joe Pytka. Yes, that Joe Pytka.
But here’s the thing. A lot had shifted in my life and in my awareness of the world around me. So, when I wasn’t working at my day job, I was writing my blog, THIS blog. What had started as a way to let folks know when I was teaching yoga had become a place where I could write about the things I was most passionate about: family and friends, food and travel, and health and wellness.
That avocado cacao smoothie life....
And if you follow this blog or my Instagram, you know that I am particularly devoted to sharing what I’m learning about living a healthier life - from hiking trails and vegan cleanses, to clean skincare and organic lip balm. I believe firmly that what we put ON our bodies is just as important as what we put IN our bodies. The skin is our largest digestive organ, and it will literally eat whatever we feed it. Over time, I’ve learned to feed my skin as well as I feed my body, because, in the end, it’s really the same thing.
In the three years I’ve been writing The Goodness, the hours researching and writing this blog have been pure joy. About a year ago, I started to wonder if there was a way to combine my 15+ years of advertising and marketing experience with my desire to spread the word on wellness and health. So, I started writing letters. Lots of letters. Some to total strangers in the clean beauty business, some to activists working to ban toxic chemicals from our food and personal care products, and some to friends of friends of friends who might know someone who knows someone who would meet me for coffee. This went on for months. Everyone I wrote to answered me: some were encouraging, others were decidedly not. But over the course of the last year, I had a lot of great meetings, and got to know some really incredible and helpful people. But even after all of that, I still had no idea how to make this career change happen.
Obsessive shopping? Or brilliant manifesting? You decide.
One letter I wrote, however, was different from the others. It was as much a fan letter as it was a request to meet for a cup of tea. That letter was to Hillary Peterson, the founder of True Botanicals. (I've written about her already here.) I’ve been using their skincare pretty much exclusively for four years. A check of my Instagram will definitely show my devotion to/obsession with what’s inside their beautiful amber bottles. And while I love how clean their products are and how gorgeous they feel on my skin, I’m a long-time customer because the products work. Plain and simple. My skin has never looked better. That’s saying a lot given that I just turned 47.
About a month ago, Hillary and I finally met in her office on a Saturday morning, and we had a great conversation - it went on for hours. After our chat, and after meeting with Hillary's incredible business partner and CEO, Christina Mace-Turner, True Botanicals offered me a job, and I jumped at the chance.
I’m only a few weeks in, but I am thrilled beyond belief. The people I work with are smart, talented, funny, kind, and work from a place of undeniable integrity. I feel good about what I do all day long. I’m so proud of our products, and even more proud of our mission to deliver effective, high quality products, completely free of toxins. The work we do protects the health of our customers and lifts up our network of organic, sustainable, and fair trade suppliers. And I am learning so much. Man, am I learning. Sometimes it feels like a fire hose of information has been hooked up to my brain, but in the best possible way. It’s hard work, but good, important work. And it’s fun. I get to talk about and write about skincare and wellness all day. How awesome is that?
The path here was long and winding, and for much of the time, I didn’t even know I was even on a path. But looking back, I can see how the choices I made (and some that were made for me) led me right here. Who knows what’s coming in the future, but right now, living in this moment is pretty darn sweet.
Last night, I looked back at all of those letters I wrote, and came across this sentence: “So much good can come from simply putting your dreams out there.” I believed that then, and I believe it even more today.
Dream on, beauties. Dream on.
XO
P