Women In Wellness: Val Emanuel of Rif Care On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Balance is not realistic. I am either very good at getting my email to zero or at the beach with my daughter with zero technology and that’s ok, as long as it’s what makes you happy.
As a part of my series about women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Val Emanuel.
California native Val Emanuel is a model, entrepreneur, motivational speaker and founder of Rif Care, a newly launched BIPOC female-owned and operated period care brand of hemp fiber, all-natural, biodegradable menstrual care products. The fully biodegradable pads are the first of their kind in the U.S. market and are providing a safe alternative to personal care.
Emanuel began her career in 2017 by founding Role Models Management, an ethical talent agency and production agency with climate activist Anne Therese Gennari. Her mission was always about using her businesses and platform to bring awareness to environmental and social activism, so in 2019, she realized she wanted to start a consumer brand without creating more environmental harm. In 2021, Emanuel founded Rif Care, a first of its kind menstrual care brand made with hemp fiber and 100% plant-based materials making period products that are better for one’s body and the planet. She got the idea for making hemp products while living in Portugal and visiting fiber factories, realizing that bast fibers were some of the most underutilized textiles with far greater positive impact on the environment than cotton. Right after giving birth to her daughter, she began selling hemp oil at local farmer’s markets and quickly began selling out every week. Due to her product’s success and popularity, a few months later Emanuel expanded her brand by introducing hemp fiber menstrual pads.
Growing up, Emanuel was very conscious about waste due to being raised in a low-income household with a lack of resources. Rif Care was an opportunity for her to make a necessary product regenerative, not just sustainable with affordable price points. Using regenerative agriculture, Rif Care’s menstrual care and wellness products contain only plant-based ingredients, offering women the much-desired choice of safety and sustainability.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
I was born in Los Angeles California, first generation American with two immigrant parents. Hard work and making nothing was something that was always a reality in my family so I always felt the need to be an entrepreneur very early on in my life. I was the kid selling chips and candy out of my locker. My first business was at an influencer agency called Role Models, which is still open, but now booking through Natural Models agency.
My newest venture, Rif menstrual Care, came about because I’ve always been an environmentalist. I have always been close to the ocean and when I learned about plastic and how bad it was for the future of this planet I knew there had to be a way to fix it. Through reading ingredients, I realized that the products I was using and buying were slowly killing me. I switched out most of my toxic products and vowed to start my own brand on something that women bought a lot of and needed. I started learning about regenerative agriculture and plant-based alternatives a few years ago as it is something I am very passionate about and that was how Rif Care was born.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
Nothing is impossible to build. I thought that maxi pads out of hemp fiber would be impossible to create because 10 factories told me the processing technology wasn’t there. I then realized you could search websites in other languages and in other countries to find suppliers. I taught myself a bit of Mandarin and realized what I was looking for already existed in some form. Pretty much everything exists, even if it’s not exactly what you need. You can think and act 10 years ahead and start your project today as iIt’s out there.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
When I first started both of my businesses, I did not know how to be prepared financially. Our financial story is not perfect. We are fundraising right now, but there’s so many other solutions to getting capital than raising money from a VC or being born with money. Rolling capital, inventory-based financing and grants are great ways to get started.
I went to multiple female founder conventions for years and heard people talk about raising money in the Girlboss era and it seemed like it was the only way. Although it’s definitely going to be a part of our story, it’s just a very small part of the picture. There are ways you can start with what you have right now and you do not have to grow at the speed of light to build a successful brand.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
Reproductive health and nontoxic products are growing exponentially. With every new natural product company that launches, like my company Rif care, we are trying to invite consumers to divest from companies who are still making cheap synthetic products that are harmful to our environment and our bodies. Hopefully by more consumers investing in healthy products we can make them more accessible and affordable to everyone. Making things better for others is the goal.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
- Consider getting 10,000 steps a day. Your brain will start to rewire from being outside and getting out of your everyday work chair.
- Take a good look at everything in your pantry and if there’s any ingredient you don’t understand, look it up. You don’t have to throw anything away, but you will be empowered by learning what you did not know yesterday.
- Have a look through your beauty drawer and your personal care drawer. I’m talking lube, condoms, birth control, make up, period products! Look through it all and do the same thing you did with your pantry. You don’t have to change anything right away but start slowly and become more aware.
- Be intentional and rational with purchases rather than impulsive. Fad buys are bad for your wallet and the planet.
- Traveling is good for the soul.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
Mindfulness and meditation to children would be the movement I would start. I am on the board of a nonprofit called Worthy Beyond Purpose which brings mindfulness and meditation to children and the community of inner-city Los Angeles. Every single school should have a program like this to help children manage their anxiety and emotions at an early age.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
- Other people’s opinions of your project do not define your project.
- Balance is not realistic. I am either very good at getting my email to zero or at the beach with my daughter with zero technology and that’s ok, as long as it’s what makes you happy.
- Email etiquette saves lives.
- Some people you believe are your closest friend will sometimes not support your decisions and it will hurt.
- Hire entrepreneurial people at the beginning of your journey.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
I feel like environmental changes touch on all topics. Humans have systematically become extremely disconnected from nature so it’s difficult for us to eat right, take care of ourselves mentally and emotionally or even make purchasing decisions that are the best for ourselves and our planet. If we start to focus on making the world a cleaner and greener place, I believe the domino effect will occur and lead to mental, social and physical wellness.
Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.
Women In Wellness: Val Emanuel of Rif Care On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.