In this last of four consecutive episodes about personal care products, Lygeia Ricciardi explains how home-based entrepreneurs can inspire friends and family to become their best advocates.

Lygeia Ricciardi and Tania Teschke (our guest from the last episode) have been friends for 20 years. In that time, they have lived close together at times as well as continents apart. Despite the miles, they have enjoyed keeping in touch about each other’s careers and life journeys. This has given Lygeia a bird’s eye view of Tania’s production of her first book a few years ago, The Bordeaux Kitchen as well as the creation of Tania’s new home-production business, Bordeaux Kitchen Essentials. Given the depth of this friendship, it is not surprising that Lygeia would try Tania’shomemade soaps, balms, and cremes. However, friendship alone cannot turn a person into a repeat customer and ardent fan. What more does it take?

In this interview, Lygeia explains why she is so excited about Tania’s new business. It is not only the high quality of the products themselves or the professional packaging. Just as important is that the products are rooted in Tania’s story, and Tania’s story is rooted in a life philosophy that resonates deeply: healthy living, natural ingredients, respect for the plants and animals that provide the ingredients, and yes, a bit of decadence and richness, too.

Lygeia’s view is that although home-based products may be somewhat more expensive and less accessible than factory-based products, they offer other benefits. And the better that we as home-based producers can communicate about those benefits to our first-wave customers, our friends and family, the stronger our product launches and long-term sales will be. Lygeia shares her thoughts for how home-based producers can do this while, at the same time, continuing to do everything else necessary to make our new businesses succeed.

You can find out more about Tania’s soap and balm business, among her many other interests, at https://bordeauxkitchen.com as well as purchase her products at her Etsy store, https://www.etsy.com/shop/BordeauxKitchen.

For more information about the movement behind the podcast, visit our Facebook Group, at https://www.facebook.com/groups/350301745982098; follow us on Instagram, https://www.instagram.com/cotcup/, and check out examples of our guests’ creations on Pinterest, https://www.pinterest.com/cotcup/boards/.