How a Hobby Turned into a Business Worth Hundreds of Millions with Jaime Schmidt, Founder of Schmidt’s Naturals

Jaime Schmidt is an entrepreneur and the founder of Schmidt’s
Naturals, a brand of natural personal care products that she
started in her kitchen. 


Feeling unfulfilled in her career and seeking purpose for most of
her life, Jaime was exploring different hobbies with the hopes
that she would find her passion. In 2010, Jaime was pregnant with
her son and was experimenting with making her own natural,
non-toxic products that would be safe for her to use. After
exploring different recipes, she soon created a natural deodorant
that “actually worked” and that’s when Schmidt’s Naturals was
born. 


Jaime grew the company from farmers' market tables to a household
name that lined the shelves of CVS, Target, Costco, Whole Foods
and Walmart. Under Jaime’s leadership, the company was in over
14,000 stores in 30 countries, with year over year growth at
300%. After seven years of running her company, Jaime sold
Schmidt’s Naturals to Unilever for a reported nine-figures.


Jaime is dedicated to building better businesses and recently
launched two new ventures: Supermaker, a media platform that
celebrates emerging entrepreneurs, and Color, an inclusive
investment fund that supports diverse and underrepresented
founders. 


In this episode, we’ll talk to Jaime about: 


* Jaime shares her early entrepreneurial path as a child &
family values around money and savings [2:38]


* Why she decided to leave her corporate job and take time off to
soul search & find her new career path [5:15]


* Jaime walks through different hobbies she was pursuing to help
find her passion & why becoming pregnant was her biggest
motivator [7:50]


* Jaime shares her business journey in selling natural deodorants
at Farmers Markets and when she realized she had a big business
opportunity in front of her [10:33] 


* Jaime shares how she garnered a support system which helped her
build a business in an industry she had no experience in [14:08]


* How Jaime grew the business without raising any money [15:30]


* Jaime’s discusses how persistence and relentlessness was part
of her successful retail strategy [17:56] 


* Key tips in dealing with competitors in your industry [20:15]


* Jaime talks about her acquisition story and how she felt when
she sold her business for nine-figures [22:16]


* Jaime talks about how she is supporting and investing in the
next generation of entrepreneurs [25:52]  


* Why getting pregnant and officially launching her business was
the best decision she ever made [28:06]


* Key business advice she shares with new entrepreneurs
[33:10] 


Follow Jaime:


* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaimeschmidt/


* Website: https://jaimeschmidt.info/


References: 


* Schmidt's Naturals: https://schmidts.com/


* Color: https://color.capital/


* Supermarker: https://supermaker.com/


* Jaime’s latest book: https://supermaker.com/book


Follow Yasmin:


* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/


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