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The Founder of PRAI Beauty · Building the Best You

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's missing here.
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: And I decided to create a company that was, you know, for women, by women.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: It would be entry-level price point, it would be cruelty-free, it would be a results you know done beauty brand results in one week, clinically proven.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: And then I thought, what's the number one area that we all feel really kind of bad about?
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: It's our necks.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: To quote Nora Ephron and her book, I Feel Bad About my Neck.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: So true, you know.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: And necks age 20 times faster.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: And the more I kind of looked around at all the big beauty giants, nobody was focused on the neck.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the House of Germar podcast where wellness starts within.
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: The House of Germar is a lifestyle brand, empowering women to live all in through interior design and personal wellness.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: We are a destination for women ready to reimagine what is possible in their homes and lives and then create it.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: We are honored to have you join us on our mission to empower 1 million women to live all in.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I am your host, jean Collins, and I invite you to become inspired by this week's guest.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: Welcome to the House of Germar podcast where wellness starts within.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I'm your host, jean Collins, and this week's guest is Kathy Kongas.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: I am so excited to have her on the show.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Ironically, we live in the same town.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: Ironically, she used to work at Revlon and they were one of my clients back in my days in corporate America.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Even more importantly, I remember reading about Kathy, probably two years ago, in an article in our local magazine, bedford New Canyon Magazine, about the work that she does with her nonprofit foundation to help rescue animals, and that is just something that's so near and dear to my heart.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: So we are going to talk about beauty.
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk about her company, which is Pry Beauty, we're going to talk about her nonprofit foundation and I am just so honored and happy to have you on the show.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: So thank you.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Kathy for joining.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: Oh, Jean, thank you so much.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: It's so lovely to meet you, and I wished I'd met you before around town somehow.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: but it was all meant to be.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: It was meant to be, and I saw your products.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I will say when we talk about your products, I was in the New Canaan Pharmacy the other day and they had all your products on the wall.
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: I was like ah, I love it, I love it.
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: We wanted to show them somewhere.
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: you know, showcase them somewhere local as well as where else we do it, which is so great, and we're going to get into your products because I actually was sent this and anyway, we're going to get to your products.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: So your products, I think, are really great.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: I love to share my guest's story because so many people our career journeys are not linear.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: We don't go from A, b, c, d.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: That's not how this happens.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: And you have you know, you actually have a law degree, and I would love to talk about your career journey and how you got to where you are, being the founder of a beauty company.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: That is not.
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: That is not what everyone does.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: The beauty industry is tough folks.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: If you've never been in it or don't know anything about it, it is so difficult.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: So I would love to hear how you got there.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, you know, jean, you're so right.
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: By the way, the beauty business.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: I always remember the book Fire and Ice and think, whoa, how did we all survive?
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: But when you look back, I mean I had wanted to be a barrister.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: I lived in the UK, I'm from the UK, and I actually came across to the United States as an intern for Revlon.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: It was a six-month internship.
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: They had myself, a young woman from France, a young woman from Germany, and they wanted to kind of really saturate us into the beauty industry.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: So I came over thinking I'd be going back home in six months and this was just a fun adventure.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: And then they had us really work in product development.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: You know PR, stand behind the counter at Macy's selling the product, going on the road as an account executive.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: So we got to see every piece of the beauty industry and that's how I ended up here.
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: And then, interestingly, at the end of my six months it was a woman who was my boss.
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: Then that said, why don't you stay on?
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: And by then I'd said, ah, law, boring, I want to get into the sales and the marketing.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: And that's how it ended up.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: And there is a glam I will say, having specialized in beauty in my past life and there is a glam to working at a company like Revlon.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: There really is.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Their models are beautiful, there's a lot of glam going on there.
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: Their products are very cool, so that is definitely a draw.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: I can see why you chose that.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: How long were you there?
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I was actually at Revlon for 11 years.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: It's a long time.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: So, yeah, I left when I was director of sales and sales training, so I spent a lot of time there and then actually moved from there to Cartier Jewelers.
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: That's rather a very snazzy and I'll call it fun role.
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: I loved that job.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: I then got married and that job actually had me on the road 355 days a year.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: So when I got married I decided no, I've got to do something.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: That's just a little more.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: You know where I'm at home.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: Yes, yes, yeah, that's a lot.
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: So is that when you decided to start Pride Beauty?
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: I did.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: You know I had been looking at what kind of as you know, like what goes on in the beauty industry At that time, jean, it was mostly, I would say, all male management, you know, an all male board, so very few women in kind of those you know, higher roles.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: And I decided, you know what I think women know better what women want than perhaps just leaning on the men think they know what we want.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: So I did decide, you know what's missing here, and I decided to create a company that was, you know, for women, by women.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: It would be entry-level price point, it would be cruelty-free, it would give results.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: You know, be a results, you know done.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: Beauty brand results in one week, clinically proven.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: And then I thought, what's the number one area that we all feel really kind of bad about?
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: It's our necks.
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: To quote Nora Ephron and her book, I Feel Bad About my Neck.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: So true.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: You know, and ne's age 20 times faster.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: And the more I kind of looked around at all the big beauty giants, nobody was focused on the neck.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: It was all face eye this.
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Then you would find a neck cream at the end of the aisle, you know, covered in dust, and nobody really thought about it.
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: So we've now become known globally as the neck authority or the next birds.
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: Which is so true.
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: I cannot tell you all how many times I stand here in front of having to look at myself all the time and I'm like, is the microphone covering my neck?
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: Because I feel like everything that and I am very into face and, you know, eating healthy and all of that and I feel like, okay, like all of this, you know, doesn't show that I'm 54 years old, I'm like, but my neck kind of does.
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: No, your neck looks good.
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: Well, I've been using your product Great.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Jean, there you go, you're on your bubble.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: I've been using your product for three weeks and I'm going to go to the store in Acadia and buy a different version of it, like your original one, because I was like, oh, I think I might even like that one better.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: So that was really exciting.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Becoming an entrepreneur is a big jump from the safety and security of corporate America.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: It is.
• 7:37
  Speaker 2: What made you decide I see a niche, I see a need and I'm going to take this risk to become my own boss.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: How did you do?
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: that.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: Well, you know it's interesting.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: I had done some consulting for a woman who was based in LA.
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: She had a business that was selling skincare and I honestly never heard of it until then.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: She was selling skincare and fragrance on television on QVC, and I did think at the time I want to do my own brand.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: But how am I going to afford?
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: You know how do you compete with the Revlon's and the Lauder's and the L'Oreal's and you know you're just a one-man show.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: So I actually started kind of, you know, literally with flip charts and markers writing up what I thought the brand should look like.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I hired a neighbor who happened to be the ex-head of product development for Estee Lauder, so that was perfect.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: At the time I remember I hired one other woman and we were kind of just a team of three.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: She was helping with all the admin and putting things together.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: We really started kind of designing a line.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I remember you know thinking the only way I'm going to be able to do this I can't afford to go into brick and mortar because you know those budgets in there, the marketing spend et cetera, it's massive.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: And I thought, well, I'll take it to TV where I can tell the story of my brand and why I started it.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: So that's what I did and it was a great way actually to kind of, you know, bootstrap your way up without having to have a massive investment.
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: And that's how I did it.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: And I have to say then I really felt, after starting Pry Beauty, I thought that's it.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: I don't think I could ever now go back into the corporate world and have a home.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: Of course not.
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: No, of course not.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: So when you started, a lot of times they say you know coaching, books et cetera say jump in before you're ready, get out there, put your product, your service, your brand, like step out.
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: Don't just say, oh, but I don't have my perfect website designed or I don't have all of this, I don't have my team, I don't have all of these things.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Did you have to do a little bit of that?
• 9:55
  Speaker 2: Or did you feel ready when you went to QVC?
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: You're like I got it, I'm ready.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Actually, jean, that's so funny.
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: I definitely am a person who feels just jump in and get it done, don't fiddle around, don't wait till this person and that person signs off, don't wait till all your ducks are in a row, because I feel like, kind of, you pop it out there, you see what happens, you see the reaction and you course correct when you have to.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: And that is how we went from being, you know, honestly, the tiniest little brand with.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm going to say gosh, in our first year I think it was like $20,000 in sales, but we stuck to it.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: You know, we fell down, we failed, we dusted ourselves off and got back up and tried something differently.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: We did take it onto TV and from there we went on to seven different shopping channels around the world.
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: So it really did bloom over time and it was like stepping stones.
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: And I have to say I think if you're going to be an entrepreneur, there is no safety net.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: You are going to fall down.
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: My husband kept teasing me, saying you know what, if it were me, I don't think I could have risen like that bird out of the ashes.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: I think I would have gone, I've surrendered, but no, I think if you keep going and then when you get to the big wins, it's that much more exciting.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 11:25
  Speaker 2: Now, pry Beauty.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: How did you come up with that name?
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: What does that mean?
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: So the Pry name is actually named after a word.
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: It's from Thailand and it's really in Thai Ply and it's a rhythm of the ginger family.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: It was for over a thousand years held for the royal household of Thailand.
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: If you weren't part of the royals you couldn't use that ingredient.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: It's grown in Thailand, so we sustain a small village there.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: We take this beautiful it's like a lovely amber colored oil.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: It was then used and it's famous for you.
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: Take the raw oil.
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: If you rub it on stretch marks, you'll never have a stretch mark.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: That's what it's known for.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: We didn't just use it for that, because we said if it can give this kind of liability and elasticity to skin that's been either stretched or wrinkled or dry or leathery, let's pop it.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: And it had such a great story on television because people loved seeing the local you know the women in Thailand that we were helping by buying this ingredient.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: But then we bought that oil.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Of course we manufacture in the United States in a top lab using top ingredients, top technology, scientific, advanced things, you know.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: So it's kind of like was our little historical story.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Ooh, that's so interesting.
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I like that.
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: Who knew?
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: And that makes sense because you talk about stretch marks your neck is just like wrinkly.
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: It's exactly the same thing.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: Yes, it is.
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: So let's talk about manufacturing, because one of the things that really made me say yes to your product and so everyone understands her PR firm actually reached out to me on Instagram to see if I wanted to try a new product and I'm happy to try products, but I won't recommend something that I wouldn't use.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: And so, before I even said yes, I went and, of course, went to your website and looked it up use.
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: And so, before I even said yes, I went and you know, of course, went to your website and looked it up and I was so impressed at the bottom of the homepage where you talk about cruelty-free, paraben-free, women-run business made in the United States, all of these things that I felt like, oh, a product by women for women, what you do with your nonprofit to help animals, and I was like, wow, I'm thinking to myself that is a that's a high bar this day and age, where manufacturing a product is very expensive and so many people I don't want to say want to take a shortcut, but yes let's be honest.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Take a shortcut and ship it off, because then your profit margin could go up.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: If you're trying to stay at a certain price point to be affordable for a larger population, how hard has it been for you to stick to those core values in a marketplace, especially after COVID, where manufacturing in this country is expensive?
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: It just is.
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: So how have you dealt with that?
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think when you really have something where you say, look, these are my three values and I can't live without them.
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: So we're going to have to cut somewhere else to make sure we keep those three that really matter to us and matter to everyone on the team.
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: So I think we've been lucky.
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: We have a great partner in our manufacturing lab, which is in New Jersey.
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: The cruelty-free part to me was kind of like if it isn't cruelty free, I'm not even making the brand.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, because there's too many brands out there that love to claim cruelty free but they're still using animal tested ingredients.
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: For us during COVID, I have to say we struggled because you know you've got the tower, you know you've got manufacturing went through the roof, transport went through the roof, everything went through the roof.
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: So we took a hit.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: But we stuck to our guns and we were actually lucky because TV shopping actually took a real lift during COVID.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: So where everybody before had been saying oh, tv shopping's kind of you know, it's kind of a dying horse, it took a real uplift.
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: So we were lucky with that.
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: So I think you know you kind of take the good with the bad and you plow forward.
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: Right and you stick to your values.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: You don't bend, they're non-negotiables.
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: You don't bend, they're non-negotiable.
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, which is so important.
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: So how are you selling products?
• 16:36
  Speaker 2: So you sell products on your website, yes, and you sell product locally in my town, but that's just in my little microcosm of the universe here.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: So you sell products on your website, which gives you a very international appeal.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: You sell products through TV.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Yes, what's the split of that?
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: What role does TV really play in growing a brand like yours?
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: So right now in the United States TV is probably 60%, our website is 40.
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: But we do have a limited range in JCPenney.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: We are in talks with Target and others to go in their stores.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: But in the UK we did like a test, because the UK obviously is geographically smaller, a little easier to do a test market.
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: We launched in there.
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: We are in Boots, which is the number one beauty retailer in the UK, I know.
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: We are in Marks and Spencers.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: We are their number one beauty brand.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Wow, congratulations.
• 17:37
  Speaker 1: We have beaten the likes of Clinique in there.
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: Wow, so we've done our test there.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: The split would be a third TV, a third brick and mortar and a third direct-to-consumer website.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: So there it's like a three.
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: You know a three piece pizza over here.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: That's what we're also aiming to do.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 18:03
  Speaker 2: You talk on your website.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: I am your target demographic.
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: I am 54 years old, so I am your target demographic.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: You do a really beautiful job on your website about talking about how you make product for older women without calling us old.
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: How do you do that?
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: Well, you know it's so funny, jean, when you've worked at, say, beauty brands.
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: They're so, I think, too focused on just the younger woman and actually older women.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: I mean we're living longer, woman and actually older women.
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: I mean we're living longer.
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: And now you know people who are in their forties, fifties, sixties, seventies and up.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: We're all staring down at cell phones like this scrunched up every day.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: So we're aging our neck 20 times faster than our faces, faster than our mothers and our grandmothers did.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: And I also felt like the beauty industry had left women who were over 40, kind of left them behind, like no.
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: And it annoyed me when I would see a wrinkle cream in an ad and I still see them and then it would be next to a 16 year old model.
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: And I felt like it was kind of insulting to all of us who do have the money to spend on beauty.
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: And you know we're not dead yet.
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: We need to be acknowledged as we're alive and well and you know we're important.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: Yes, and we're working longer.
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: So we're still working.
• 19:25
  Speaker 2: We're still out in the public eye.
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: We're still working.
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: Well, and the other interesting thing is I have noticed this since getting closer to 50 and now over 50.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: Life in that stage for women is different.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: The things I eat now are different.
• 19:42
  Speaker 2: The things I put on my body for skincare are different.
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: How I sleep is different.
• 19:47
  Speaker 2: I spent years working in corporate America and if I got five hours of sleep that was a lot and I still I function like a powerhouse.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: Now, if I get five hours of sleep, I feel like I've been run over by a train.
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: So I think, having a brand that specializes in a certain demographic, our skin is different and does need a different type of product.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: I cannot use all the same things my daughter at 18 uses on her skin.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's so key.
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I think they tend to talk about it more in the UK than we do in the US.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: But even like menopause, we don't realize.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: But once our skin goes through that, it's not like it goes into menopause and then climbs back out.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: It goes through that change and then it is forever changed.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: So we actually do have a range in the UK Menoglow that is just for menopause symptoms of when women have dry skin, thinner skin, more wrinkled skin.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: So that's interesting, you know, and I do feel that as we get older, we need to be addressing different things than, say, an 18-year-old does.
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: We've got to be using higher-powered peptides and technologies that are addressing lines, wrinkles, loss of firmness.
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: At Pry we don't add collagen to our creams, so we actually use ingredients that trigger our own collagen to replenish itself.
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: The reason is that most collagens come from cows and pigs, so we don't use animal derived ingredients.
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: So that's important to us too.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: So neck is clearly your specialty.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Of multiple products on your website about neck, but you have other products as well.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: We do.
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: How do you decide what you're going to launch?
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: And talk about some of those other products too.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: So we have our whole neck range, which is, I think, 11 products.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: Now we also have a gold range using 24 karat gold, you know, a moisturizer for day and night, serums, eye creams, a body cream, a gold oil, which is one of my favorites, and that's all for lines, wrinkles and giving back luminosity, radiance and cushion.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Then we have another line that's for white women, 40 up.
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: Our line for platinum is definitely 55 and older.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: It uses actual colloidal platinum.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: It's for firming, lifting, tightening and actually putting a little bit of the cushion or the mattress back in a flattened skin, which is what we see as we perhaps tip over 55 and older.
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: I'm like right on the cusp.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: So there's no harm in embracing that and embracing your products.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: For that, yes.
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: How long has your company been in business?
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: 20 years, oh my goodness, that is so impressive Wow.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Thank you, would you ever have imagined when you started?
• 22:48
  Speaker 2: Would you ever have imagined that you would have built this incredible beauty brand that?
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: you would have built this incredible beauty brand.
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: No, I, you know, when I started it I was full of excitement and you know, like passion for it and zest, and you know like, ooh, let me try this.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: But I would never have thought, you know, like this year, as an example, our you know, our sales will hit 15 million.
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: So while we're still not part of the big boys, we're you know we're doing good.
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: Can we time out?
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: That is amazing in the beauty business.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: Congratulations.
• 23:22
  Speaker 2: That is a massive number.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: A massive number.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: And your products are not $150 each either to get there, because you make your products priced so that people can afford them.
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: Congratulations, that is amazing.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: All right, let's talk about animals.
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: I was hoping I was going to get to see some of your fur babies, but none of them are in the background.
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: I put Foxy in the kitchen, because otherwise you're right.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: Every time someone comes down the drive you'll hear the.
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: So I thought, oh dear, I better not interrupt.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: But yes, so I've had a passion for animals from being a young kid, I can relate.
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: So when did you start your nonprofit?
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: Talk to everybody about your nonprofit.
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: I started that, I'd say it was four or five years ago.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: I am on the board of the Humane Society of the United States, which is the biggest animal protection group in the world, and so on that level, you see what I call big scale cruelty.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: You see factory farming, you see trophy hunting for, you know, lions and elephants, but also trying to shut down puppy mills.
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: You know where, right now, I think in the United States alone which is pretty sad we're euthanizing around 3 million healthy dogs a year.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: It's heartbreaking, so it is heartbreaking.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: It is deplorable and it's, in my view, unacceptable that we in America still can't get past this and somehow can't come together to stop this horrific killing of what we all view as man's best friend and so many of us love our pets.
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: I think it's 87% of all Americans have a cat or a dog in their household and yet it's still amazing to me that people don't know this kind of big-scale euthanasia is still having to take place because of overbreeding, because of puppy mills, and so healthy and it used to be, I'd say, you know, more years ago maybe older dogs.
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: We're still seeing a lot of dumping of senior dogs in shelters, so now we're seeing you know puppies by the litter load going into shelters.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: So it's a pretty bad predicament, I think, for dogs and cats right now.
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh, it makes me cry every time I see something on social media about it.
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: I just think it's so tragic.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: What made you decide?
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: I mean being on the board of such a large organization.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: That is a huge commitment to the cause by itself, because that's a lot of time, so thank you for that.
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: But what made you decide you wanted to do even more and start your own foundation?
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: So we were seeing a lot of you know, as we all do, jean, you know, you see it on Facebook, you see it on Instagram every day and we would see like, oh, you know, stanford animal control is full.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Bridgeport, animal control is full, paws in Norwalk I'm just pulling like some local names.
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: But we also, you know, andy, in my office and myself, we're seeing postings all over the country.
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: And you know, this poor dog was dropped off, could be a perfectly gorgeous Labrador, you know, with no issues, and yet they're going to euthanize three hours later.
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: So we decided what if we started a foundation and we help the local small shelters, we help the local small rescue groups?
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: So right now we go to all the municipal shelters, like Bridgeport or like Stanford, and we say, right, you're full, you've got 50 dogs.
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: The little rescue groups that are all around our area if they want to go and pull a dog to help find a foster and save its life, they then have to pay that adoption fee.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, that's crazy, could be 50 bucks, but in some cases it can be 200.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: So for a little rescue group, that's a lot of money, yes, so now we started funding that if they will go to the big municipal shelters where dogs are at risk hourly of being euthanized.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: You know they can take them in, so they pull them into their rescue group and they have a lovely chain of fosters and helpers and we've now saved hundreds of dogs.
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: We also have a program that we love doing.
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: If we see a big shelter somewhere that's really in dire straits, we have a thing called Free the Shelters.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: We go in, we pay all the adoption fees for a month and actually that gets their shelter emptied.
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: Oh, that like makes my heart so happy.
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: It's amazing.
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: The barriers to getting animals to the right homes so often is a cost perspective for the organizations, these smaller nonprofits and I've rescued many dogs in my lifetime and the smaller rescue organizations.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: They just don't have money and I don't think people realize that.
• 28:34
  Speaker 2: And my last rescue was brought up from North Carolina and my daughter saw him on Pet Finder and he was in my house 36 hours later and they were like, oh no, he's coming up and he's six months old and he's a puppy and we have nowhere to put him.
• 28:50
  Speaker 2: And I'm like we went from my daughter and I looking at this being like, oh, maybe that's an interesting idea to oh, my goodness, 36 hours later this puppy is in my home because they don't have the resources to house and keep these dogs that they are, especially the ones they're bringing up from down south.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: They don't have the capacity, they don't have the money, they don't have the resources They'll.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: They have to pay for all the vetting for these dogs to get them healthy before they can even bring them here.
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: And I think a lot of people don't understand a lot about that process and how that works and it's hard to.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: You know, if someone donates $25 to an animal charity, that's great.
• 29:27
  Speaker 2: But it takes a lot of $25 to cover the medical costs of some of what these dogs need.
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: Exactly, exactly, exactly, yeah, so we would like.
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: My dream is I'd love to have a shelter, a sanctuary, somewhere close.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: You know, I feel like even in New Canaan we don't even have like a proper dog shelter, that if people's pets get lost, where do they put them?
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: They end up boarding them with vets because we don't have a dog shelter here, right.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: Oh, it breaks my heart every time.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: We have a very active Facebook moms group here in the town that Kathy and I live in, and it breaks my heart every time someone posts that their dog is missing, and we're fortunate that the moms are so involved.
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: There are 3,500 moms on that group right now and the moms and neighbors are so involved in trying to help locate these dogs, which is we're fortunate for that.
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: I don't think it's like that for all of the towns around us.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: It's not necessarily like that.
• 30:23
  Speaker 2: So when someone buys your product, does that help your nonprofit?
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: Yes, so every time we sell a product, there's our hero cream for the neck, but anything from Pry.
• 30:35
  Speaker 1: Yes, we take those funds and give to the foundation to be able to fund or free the shelters, and also then all these rescue groups pulling from the kill shelters.
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, do you find there are peak times of year when there are more dogs in the shelters or more need for your assistance?
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Definitely, jean Gosh.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: It was like an avalanche, a tsunami of it after COVID.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: During COVID, everybody thought how fun to get a furry friend and somebody to you know hang out at home with, and then, after COVID, everybody dumped them, oh so sad I mean millions got just dumped.
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: So and definitely you know we really plead with people.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: You know, don't go and buy puppies for Christmas, don't buy puppies for the holidays.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: We know what happens they end up back in these shelters.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: You know, second, third week in January is typically when all our shelters get overrun with people just not wanting that unwanted holiday gift.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Oh that's terrible.
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: And it can be such a great gift Like taking a dog out of a shelter for the holidays can be such a great gift that can give back to you so much if you are in the position to understand what you're taking on and to do it, because I would say, I have always been a huge proponent.
• 32:01
  Speaker 2: I've worked for animal rescue groups and I have a soft spot for chocolate labs and have rescued quite a few of them, and I have a very hard time passing up on them when they come by my way, and I will say there is nothing more fulfilling than rescuing an animal, and the love that they give back to you is like no other truly.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: Like no other, like no other, like no other.
• 32:25
  Speaker 2: It is an unconditional love and a joy and a happiness, and to take animals that have been abused and nurture them and get them comfortable and give them a life that they could have never had is so fulfilling and rewarding.
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: To me, that is, you know, by far more important than anything that we sell.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, I so agree, I so agree, Jane.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah Well, if you decide you want to open a sanctuary in Connecticut, you just let me know or around.
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: Oh, my dream is.
• 32:56
  Speaker 2: My dream is to someday, you know, be able to have a huge, huge farm and just be able to take in as many dogs as come across my way and be able to provide a home for them, especially the older dogs.
• 33:11
  Speaker 2: I've rescued an older dog, only had him for a year and a half before he passed away and it was the most amazing dog and the most incredible experience to have rescued an older dog and it was great.
• 33:14
  Speaker 2: He came already trained and he was sweet and he was lovable and I mean he was just a huge teddy bear, he was so fabulous and he only lasted a year and a half, but it was such an incredible, impactful year and a half for both myself and my daughter.
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: And I think a lot of the senior dogs get left behind because they're older.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: I know they're the best, the best.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: They're the best they are.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: I've taken in older dogs and I'm just proud that you know, even if it gave them a year or two, good the best, Right the best.
• 33:47
  Speaker 2: Their very best life was in a great home finally, is a good one.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: How many dogs do you have right now?
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I only have one.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: I lost one a month ago, my beagle Benny um, who had come out of Stanford animal control.
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: Actually I'd had him for eight years and then it's a little picture him over there.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: So.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: And then I have Hannah, who's in my locket right now.
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: I lost her two months ago, oh, I'm sorry.
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: And so I've got one, foxy, who was actually rescued from the streets of Alabama.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: So he's keeping me on my toes and I'm just about to to the fear of my husband who's going.
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: You know, I've just said I'm going to start taking some more in, and we actually just rescued four dogs coming up that were a really bad abuse and starvation case, with another local woman, tony Palladino, who does rescue Yep, I know Tony.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: And we're bringing up four from Texas at the end of this week.
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: Oh good.
• 34:42
  Speaker 2: Do you ever foster?
• 34:44
  Speaker 2: Do you ever foster them?
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: I don't, because the minute they walk in and I see their face, it's like why would I bother?
• 34:51
  Speaker 1: I'm taking them in forever.
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: I say the same thing.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: I've never been able to do it.
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: I did it once and I'm like, and he never left, he was here for eight years.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: It just doesn't work.
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: Once you're in, you're in, you're part of the back.
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: You're there.
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: They're part of the family.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so what's on your bucket list for the future?
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: What's on the bucket list for Pry Beauty?
• 35:14
  Speaker 2: What would you love to accomplish that you haven't already done?
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: I think really now to have a huge presence in US retail At some point.
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: I feel I would love to, you know, one day be a brand that sells to one of the big giants and let them take it up to that next level again and start my animal sanctuary and I've got a couple of other brands up my sleeve that I'd actually love to launch.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: Ooh, you're not.
• 35:43
  Speaker 2: You're a busy lady, Like many entrepreneurs.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: There's a lot going on in the brain and the stewing and the thinking and the creating, so that is fantastic.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: So is there anything that my audience needs to know about your brand?
• 35:56
  Speaker 2: How to find you?
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: Anything that you didn't mention, that I didn't get to ask you?
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: I don't think so, jean, I mean definitely, you know they can go to the website, they can learn more.
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: They can, if they're local, go to the pharmacy.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: But listen, we you know just being such a pleasure and how funny that we're both in the same town.
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: It's been such a pleasure to meet you this way.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: It has.
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: It's been so great and we have similar backgrounds.
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: But now I know where to find you for the rescue stuff you do you definitely do.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: I have such a weakness.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: We have three dogs right now, so at least I can say I'm at maximum capacity with three, but one of them is 11.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: And I know myself.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: You know we never drop below two, that's for sure, and three I usually have six.
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: That's a lot.
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I usually have six.
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: That's my normal number.
• 36:41
  Speaker 2: That's crazy.
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: That's crazy.
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I usually have six, that's my normal number.
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: That's crazy.
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: That's crazy yeah.
• 36:45
  Speaker 2: And I have a decent-sized house and a decent-sized yard, and three is a lot, because my big guy is big.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Some of mine.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: I tend to like the big ones.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Well, I hope to meet your dog soon, jean, absolutely, kathy.
• 36:57
  Speaker 2: It was such a pleasure having you on the show.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: I will link everything in the show notes for everybody.
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: I will link your Instagram, so people can follow you.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: I will link your website, so people can go find you and buy product from you.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: I will also link everything about your nonprofit, because that is really special, so thank you.
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: You're an amazing woman doing great things, so thank you for inspiring us.
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: No, I'm really honored and thrilled to be part.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Jean.
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: It was a real pleasure to meet you.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 37:20
  Speaker 2: Thank you, it was wonderful to meet you too.
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: Have a great day.
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: We'll talk soon, you too.
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 37:25
  Speaker 2: Bye.
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining us for another episode of the House of Jermar podcast, where wellness starts within.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: We appreciate you being a part of our community and hope you felt inspired and motivated by our guest.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: If you enjoyed this episode, please write us a review and share it with friends.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: Building our reach on YouTube and Apple Podcasts will help us get closer to our mission to empower 1 million women to live all in.
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: You can also follow us on Instagram at House of Jermar and sign up to be a part of our monthly inspiration newsletter through our website HouseofJermarcom letter through our website houseofgermarcom.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: If you or someone you know would be a good guest on the show, please reach out to us at podcast at houseofgermarcom.
• 38:12
  Speaker 2: This has been a House of Germar production with your host, jean Collins.
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: Thank you for joining our house.