An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Take your time to choose your core team. Glow’s COO and I spent over 5 months getting to know each other before she joined the company. It was a deliberate process to understand if we were a good fit — not just from the experience / skill set perspective, but most importantly, from a values perspective.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Ana Gonzalez Herrera.
Ana is a global executive with 15+ years of experience leading and growing Personal Care, Beauty and Wellness corporations, SMBs and start-ups worldwide. She spent her career building & growing international brands. Ana suffered from stage IV Endometriosis for years, struggled with extreme PMS, went through five surgeries, infertility, and surgical menopause. She decided this obstacle in her life would fuel her mission to help others by increasing awareness and creating products for hormonal imbalances.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
I often say I am just starting to connect the dots of my professional life, applying everything I have learned over the course of 17 years in the personal care and beauty industry — although it’s a very different story when you have to build something from scratch! Through my personal experiences it became deeply evident to me that what we go through as women is burdensome, suffering in silence is far too common, while desperately lacking plant-based remedies. After dealing with the ramifications of Stage IV Endometriosis for years and going through extreme PMS, infertility, five surgeries, surgical menopause, and severe reactions from IUDs and HRT, I was driven to create natural solutions that support hormonal imbalances and symptoms, no matter the age or phase of life — and without the side effects of what the pharma industry currently offers.
Knowledge is the foundation of everything, so my first port of call was to create a free platform with clear and well-researched information to help us all understand the depths of hormonal health. Hormone University was launched during the Pandemic to provide supportive content to educate ourselves and ask the right questions when we go to the doctor. The next phase was about creating products that would target symptoms we experience due to hormonal imbalance at any stage of our lives. After two long years of research and very hard work, Glow Botanica was born!
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
At present, our choices as women are limited when it comes to relieving our symptoms — whether from PMS or menopause, and the pharma options (from painkillers to the Pill or hormonal treatments) can cause unwanted side effects.
After consulting with brilliant doctors, we created a line of topical products and other solutions based on Naturopathic principles. Every product we create targets symptoms in an effective and natural way. To really set ourselves apart in the market space, we conducted a study prior to launching our main product. I wanted to be able to tell our consumers we did our homework with integrity and were not just impulsively launching another product in the market. This meant further investment and delaying the launch for over four months, and it was well worth it.
The study involved two cohorts of women going through PMS and menopause. After two months of continuous use of our main product — Tummy butter — the results were outstanding. It demonstrated an average of 64% improvement in symptoms. I cried so much that day. It was one of the best, and most cathartic moments of creating Glow!
There is no brand with our value proposition and formulation approach out there. We are addressing 80% of the adult female population! No matter what goes on in the world, we go through hormonal imbalance in our reproductive and menopause phases.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
We made a lot of mistakes! During the first year we were relying on my savings and some family help, so we were in complete bootstrapping mode. We had to find a freelancer on a budget to create a temporary website for investors whilst we were creating the brand. We went through three different freelancers and the process took 3x longer than expected, so it became an “expensive” mistake due to the time it took. What we learned: It’s okay to invest a little more if it is going to save you weeks of frustration. Take the time to check for references and understand capabilities in depth before you engage them to do work for you!
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
I am thrilled to share this part of our journey. We have been immensely fortunate to have incredible, brilliant mentors. It was clear to me from the start I had to surround myself with the best advisors.
My mentors Jelena Zec and David Pascual taught me about capitalization tables, raising money, agreements, and negotiations — Jelena comes from Unilever Ventures and pioneered the women’s wellness space investment focus there. She has invested in numerous startups from the other side of the table and loves supporting founders. David is a successful former founder and investor himself. He has his own fund and is a former CFO. I had absolutely no idea about fundraising, creating an impactful deck, learning the investor’s language, or how to get the right introductions, and beyond that how to approach them. They have been great teachers and I have learned so much from them throughout this process.
MZ Goodman comes from digital growth at Glossier and Goop; she is not only a very smart advisor, but she is also a wonderful community builder who has provided me with introductions, interviewed key members of the team, and given us brilliant and honest feedback. Jose Maria Palencia is the former CEO of World Duty Free — say no more. I could go on and on!
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Disruption is positive when you are creating something new that the world truly needs. Solving a problem is one of the most rewarding experiences despite the hardships of creating something from the ground up. It’s hard to launch innovation because it requires a lot of energy and investment to educate the consumer. There will never be an individual successful enough to independently make the world a better place. I wish all entrepreneurs and opinion leaders would combine forces, and unify their agenda by putting egos aside and truly concentrating their efforts toward common goals that would benefit society as a whole.
Despite the fact almost every woman has hormonal issues — they still need to discover they have more options than what the market is currently offering — it is our job to let them know we are there.
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
“Be careful with the unreasonable.” A huge lesson about investors wanting to squeeze extra steps and not respecting the value of your business. Dragging you on, changing their mind. Run.
Be patient. Sometimes what may seem like the worst outcome can be your best one. I had one investor who offered 50% of the capital we needed right at the beginning of fundraising, but the terms were outrageous. I declined, and while insanely hard, it was the best thing I ever did.
Take your time to choose your core team. Glow’s COO and I spent over 5 months getting to know each other before she joined the company. It was a deliberate process to understand if we were a good fit — not just from the experience / skill set perspective, but most importantly, from a values perspective.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
It’s just the beginning for us. We want to partner with big corporations to raise awareness about the importance of women’s hormonal health. Employers should be aware of what women go through in order to create a safe place and offer the right wellness policies. We do not need to continue suffering in silence because of fear of judgment or job repercussions.
We are also looking to partner with brilliant retailers to create a hormonal wellness category with the goal of providing women with the best resources in addition to guidance and direction as they shop.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Funding. We still have a long way to go.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
It’s really hard to pick one. I take my growth and learnings from my dad, founders I admire, and several books that have shaped my thinking in different ways. I love Tony Robbins. I went to a three day seminar in London when I was 23 yrs old and he wasn’t as well-known in Europe. I remember the ticket was expensive, but the sales guy was relentless and I even convinced a colleague to come with me! I conquered one of my fears by walking on those burning coals! It was an incredible feeling and made me believe anything is possible. I am of the opinion that if you reframe your thinking, you can change your life, and it all starts with your own psychology and mindset. I watch attitude more than experience when we hire — experience can be taught, attitude and mindset cannot. Top books: Mindset by Carol Dweck, The Speed of Trust by Stephen Covey ,and The Obstacle is The Way by Ryan Holiday. For founders out there looking to raise for the first time: Fundraising by Ryan Breslow.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
Influence is, in my opinion, overrated. Individuals have access to information and have the tools to make themselves heard. I would simply encourage everyone to keep their critical sense alert, challenge the status quo, and never take anything for granted, even if it comes from people that they consider a “person of influence”. For us it’s all about supporting women with education and providing relief with products. 80% of the adult female population experience hormonal imbalance, — that’s 3.3 billion of us! We truly are just getting started.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
‘Where focus goes, energy flows’ — Tony Robbins. We can reframe any situation or circumstance by repositioning our thinking and focusing energy on what serves us.
How can our readers follow you online?
@hormoneuniversity and @getglowbotanica
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
Female Disruptors: Ana Gonzalez Herrera On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.