Holly Brooke and Joely Walker didn’t think about they’d give up their director stage careers in magnificence to self-fund a digestive well being dietary supplements start-up, however they’re happy that they adopted their ardour after a profitable first month of gross sales.
The previous business director for Pores and skin Rocks and wonder director at Grazia journal launched We Are Common 4 weeks in the past with the intention to ship an all-in-one answer for constipation.
The concept was borne of a private battle with persistent constipation, resulting in a reliance on 30 every day drugs to maintain signs below management.
“I’ve suffered with constipation my entire life,” Brooke advised NutraIngredients. “I went to the physician after I was 17 and advised him I used to be solely going round as soon as per week, and he merely mentioned I had IBS and I ought to have extra fiber and water.”
That was the start of a 15-year battle for solutions and options to a ‘debilitating’ difficulty.
“I didn’t notice on the time, however now I can see what number of completely different features of well being it impacted,” Brooke mentioned. “For starters, having toxins sat in your intestine has a big impact in your psychological state, so I consistently had mind fog.
“It additionally had a big impact on my hormones. I had them examined and found my estrogen was actually excessive as a result of it wasn’t excreting within the ordinary approach, so was recycling spherical my system, which was once more massively impacting my psychological well being.
“My cortisol stage was additionally scarily excessive which meant I used to be at all times in battle or flight mode. I’d leap off the bed within the morning on excessive alert, however I’d crash at lunchtime.”
After paying for consultations with a variety of well being consultants and naturopaths, Brooke concocted her personal answer which amounted to 30 every day dietary supplements, costing as much as £400 each month.
This instantly signalled an innovation alternative for Walker.
“We went out to lunch sooner or later, and she or he began popping all these drugs,” Walker advised NI. “I mentioned that’s not okay to want to take all these simply to operate. It made sense to me that we should be capable to mix the elements she had discovered so useful into one every day answer.”
They developed a powder complement to be added to water to create a greens drink containing the ten key elements that Brooke had discovered relieving: L-Glutamine, gluten-free barley grass powder, magnesium citrate, calcium ascorbate, amla fruit extract, acerola, ginger, peppermint, grapeseed and rosehip.
The product is bought in stick packs to permit for handy use when out and about.
Significance of ‘poo friends’
They determined to direct their packaging and advertising and marketing in the direction of females, partly as a result of this viewers is extra prone to endure from constipation than males and partly as a result of there’s a larger ‘poo taboo’ on this market, which the businesswomen had been eager to dispel.
“We all know via talking to plenty of folks on the road as a part of our social media campaigns that a great deal of ladies really feel disgrace round this matter,” Walker mentioned.
“They’re extra prone to maintain it in at work, whereas males usually tend to say ‘why wouldn’t I select to be paid to take a seat on the bathroom’. We needed to construct an empowering group for folks and a extremely secure house for girls to really feel no disgrace.”
Brooke added: “I do know if you happen to discover others who are suffering constipation—your poo friends—you do speak about it rather a lot with them as a result of it’s a reduction to search out somebody who has skilled it, and it’s a reduction to not really feel the disgrace.”
Their social media campaigns have been massively profitable due to the founders’ personable strategy to the subject, in addition to the broader pattern, with the hashtag #pooptok trending on TikTok.
Successful common clients
To make sure they launched with a bang final month, Walker used her editorial contacts to coordinate options throughout nationwide newspapers resulting in 1000’s of product orders inside their first few weeks.
“We’ve had so many repeat purchases already, and we are able to already really feel the tempo at which the model is rising which could be very thrilling,” Walker mentioned.
Seeking to the long run, the keen entrepreneurs wish to prolong their product portfolio to help key audiences who can not use the flagship product.
“We get so many dad and mom asking if their kids can take the product,” Brooke mentioned. “We’re sorry that they will’t as a result of doses, so we’d like to create a product kids can take.
“And pregnant ladies so typically endure constipation, however they will’t take it, then there are folks on GLP-1s and different medicines, folks post-surgery or C-section. There are such a lot of people who find themselves calling out for a product like this, so we are going to intention to assist as many individuals as we are able to.”
