October 21, 2021
Now, if you’re someone who is trying to live a cleaner, more natural lifestyle, but you get EASILY overwhelmed with where to even start, then today’s podcast show is for you. We’re chatting with the co-founder and chief brand officer of Hilma, Lily Galef.
Lily built her career as a creative brand marketer and strategist managing content and partnerships at Vogue, Vox, and Refinery29 before starting her company Hilma, a natural remedy and supplement company. At Hilma, she leads all brand, community, and content strategy initiatives.
And today we sat down and chatted with her about all things clean living and how she started Hilma. She tells the story of how she and her friends noticed a gap in the market of the supplement wellness industry. They noticed how every time they had a headache or went to take cold medicine, it was always filled with sugary unnatural ingredients that weren’t the best for you, and so they decided to do something about it. Her story is SO inspiring for any entrepreneur wanting to create something they see that isn’t being done in a specific market.
Or if you’re just someone wanting to learn more about clean living and where to even get started with natural remedies and supplements to your everyday products you’re ingesting and putting in and on your body, you HAVE to hear what Lily has to say. She gives practical steps on where to even start if you’re wanting to dive into trying more clean products, she lists a BUNCH of ingredients and chemicals to beware of, and lists places she recommends shopping as well as specific brands she recommends trying out.
This episode is so great for any entrepreneur who wants to be encouraged and inspired to tackle a problem in the marketplace OR any guy or gal wanting to move away from toxic products and into natural, clean living.
Hilma makes natural remedies that actually work. Natural alternatives of anything you might find in the over-the-counter aisle. From headaches to immune support to gas and bloating with indigestion to allergies. Lily and her co-founders and all knew each other as friends before starting the business. Nina who is Hillary’s co-CEO is Lily’s oldest friend as they met in 2nd grade, but never really thought about starting a business together. Hillary is one of Nina’s friends from business school who Lily had met through Nina and had connected with.
One day they were hanging out and Lily wasn’t feeling well and asked if anyone had anything she could take. Nina pulled a cold medicine bottle out of her purse that was orange, sugary and they all had this moment of why are we using this when we buy organic produce, shopping at Whole Foods, using Mrs. Meyers products. Had pretty much transitioned to clean enough products in all areas of their life, why is this the product that they are reaching for and in their bag? They then became obsessed with that white space and looked across the whole aisle at the pharmacy and noticed many of the brands were the same as when we were taking them as a kid.
They decided it was time for the OTC aisle and medicine cabinet to have an evolution.
With all having different skill sets: Nina and Hillary both went to Harvard business school and have previously worked with start-ups, both were confident in the nuts and bolts of how to start a business. Lily with her background in creating a brand that would truly resonate with their audience and create a content strategy that would be effective and meaningful, they were excited to start this.
The one area they didn’t have any expertise in was the medical and scientific space. That was the first thing they did in that first year. Look up every doctor and thought leader in the health space and put together a phenomenal board of doctors to help them formulate the products.
Their biggest question was do natural remedies actually work? They knew it would work, but they knew that would be the first question asked and needed to have a strong scientific foundation. The next biggest value for them was that all their ingredients would have a wealth of clinical research behind them. That means that the ingredient has been tested in a clinical setting and only the application that they are using it for. Focused on tried and true ingredients. Their third value was that they would try every product and be their clinical studies.
Hilma is meant to be used for in-the-moment relief, instead of using a product you might find in the OTC aisle. The biggest difference is Hilma products help in the moments but also help build and strengthen your system over time as well.
If you’re a person who gets indigestion every night after dinner, if you take Hilma’s Upset Stomach product it will help relieve those symptoms at the moment but it will also help strengthen your digestive track over time and help reduce the frequency of the issue itself. You don’t have to take it every day preventively, it is in the moment relief but as an added benefit each of Hilma’s products will help reduce the issues over time.
Digestive: Focuses on indigestion, gas, and bloating (both are capsules), and then they have a product called stomach reset that helps rehydrate and balance your stomach after you’ve had some sort of issue. It’s a packet that you pour into water that you can take every day for seven days to reset your gut.
Immunity: Hilma has an immune support packet that you pour into water, that also comes in a gummy form that has elderberry in it. Then they have indoor-outdoor support which is allergies.
Tension Relief: This is for headaches or tension relief. You’ve been staring at a screen all day or maybe you’re drinking last night and need some relief.
It depends on the category, but the first thing is don’t be fooled by packaging. The word natural is not regulated, anyone can say that anything is natural and put leaves on the front of packaging and that doesn’t mean anything. Look at the label and look for ingredients that you know and understand. Google things, the impulse is if you haven’t heard of it, it’s toxic but that is not necessarily true. Citric acid is something you would be wary of but it’s just the compound found in citrus. So it’s a natural ingredient but sounds scary.
These are four categories that Hilma tries to avoid and are helpful for anyone.
Things like glycol, sucralose, erythritol, and corn syrup, and high fructose corn syrup. Each of those can have different negative effects, but the number one is affecting digestion. A lot of artificial sweeteners can make you bloated and are included in many digestive products, which is very counterintuitive.
Benzol acid, sulfites, BHA, and BHT. These inhibit your body’s ability to absorb nutrients. This looks like any synthetic color, they serve no function in the product other than making it look a certain way. Anything that is an F, C, or D number colored pigment is a color that doesn’t need to be in a product. And often they contain aluminum.
A mineral that frequently contains asbestos, a cancer-causing toxin. That’s been found in lots of consumer products and many OTC products. It’s also found in a lot of personal care and makeup products.
That’s more of a packaging thing but still something to be looking for.
This might be overwhelming, but baby steps are key. It’s easy to get overwhelmed in this space and if you don’t have the cleanest product that’s okay. It’s not the end of the world, have a foundational understanding of what you should be avoiding and why.
If you are looking for a resource on Hilma’s website they have a no list that has every single ingredient they don’t include in their products and why.
The most important category to focus on is things you are putting into your body, so food and ingestible. Starting there is the best place to start if you are someone looking for an entry point.
For other categories, whenever you run out of a product instead of buying the same detergent you always buy, try the natural option. What’s so amazing is about the time we are living in is there are affordable natural options for everything. If you are shopping at Target instead of buying the standard conventional laundry detergent you can grab the Seventh Generation one. The same applies to skincare and beauty products.
You don’t have to throw everything out and start fresh one day. You have your products, you paid for them so use them, but when you run out try to replenish with something clean. Eventually, you’ll have a clean cabinet.
Clean Target Brands:
Talk to people who disagree with you, because it will make your business stronger. You’ll understand what the questions are that a customer might have and you’ll be able to answer them. You’ll also learn where your weak spots are which is incredibly empowering to strengthen your business.
Do your research. Research is very important to Lily and at Hilma but it applies to any business or concept. If you know your space and who your competitors are it only strengthens you on how to articulate what you are doing. Research from a competitive perspective but also know everything about your business.
You can always do more than you think you can.
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WASSUP FRIENDS. We’re Evie + Lindsey, co-founders of this wild partayyy called The Heart University. Our goal is to empower entrepreneurs to kick freaking BUTT in their businesses, dive down into the heart of their why and how, and serve you with all possible tools you’ll need to up-level your business game and CRUSH those goals of yours.
Whether you’re coming to an in-person workshop, joining our online course, or soaking up all the strategies via this blog or our podcast, we’re STOKED you’re here + can’t wait to see you out there kicking butt.
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