Apr 1, 2021
Dawn Fitch was living her best life as a graphic designer at Sony Music. But one day, as she walked down the street, she lost all feeling in her legs. Her body was sending her message, and while it took several years for her to be diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, she decided to look more closely at the products she used. Dissatisfied, she started making her own as a hobby, and the seeds of Pooka Pure and Simple were planted. And at the urging of friends, she took her products to a local festival and sold them all, and after that happened over and over, she decided to look turn her hobby into a business.
With nearly two decades as an entrepreneur, Dawn certainly has some valuable insights to impart. An important one is that entrepreneurs have to be willing to put their pride aside. If she hadn't decided to supplement her income with a job as a restaurant hostess, she would never have made the connection to open her first store. If she hadn't accepted an invitation to bring her products to a showcase at Sony, she would have never gotten her products in more than 60 Whole Foods.
Dawn also shares how the mailing list she began to cultivate at festivals is one of her best selling tools and how the Facebook Group she created, The Best Life Tribe, was the community that helped her pivot during the pandemic. She also shares how she came to have the best Christmas sales number in 2020 due to a grant from HSN/QVC, which allowed her to sell Pooka on the air.
Also, Dawn shares how she and her partner, LaShonda Tyree, have taught more than 1,000 Girl Scouts entrepreneurial skills in a program they created called Beauty That Cares. Learn all of this and more in this week's episode.