InnerOrigin is an online shopping platform where you can be confident all products meet strict criteria such as cruelty free, no petroleum, no added hormones or antibiotics. For customer confidence source of supply must also be declared, it’s all about transparency. There are almost 2000 products (and growing) and cover categories such as skincare, groceries, personal care, education, make up and cleaning products. We spoke to Founding Advocate Kelly George to find out more about how she got started with InnerOrigin.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
As I became older and had a family I started to become more and more aware of what I was putting in. on and around the bodies of myself and my family and our home. I would spend precious time trying to research products, their ingredients and the health claims and sometimes finding myself up against a wall of convoluted standards and labels designed to sell, not inform. When a friend introduced me to InnerOrigin which had an independent Product Advisory Board to curate products, with an emphasis on truth and transparency I knew I had struck gold. I also loved the fact that many of the smaller product suppliers, with boutique products were being supported and having their fantastic products shown to a completely warm and engaged market of customers.
The Launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
Sharing and sharing some more. I knew if I cared about quality products that were good for me, if I wanted small businesses to be supported and wanted a sustainable marketplace to be supported than many others would too. I also became my own best customer and became a ‘product of the products’. When we launched we had less than 50 products on the platform but now we have almost 2000. Every single day I’m using multiple products I’ve purchased from my own shop. I get paid to live, how cool is that?
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
My biggest personal breakthrough came when I qualified to join the leadership group calls. Knowing I had reached a level of success that came with a special kind of acknowledgement was a breakthrough in a couple of ways. Firstly I had an injection of self-belief in that even though I had never done anything like this before I was capable of doing well. This led to me realizing that if I can do it I can help others to do it too, because I’m no more special than anybody else.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
To be honest sometimes I don’t! Many of us working parents I feel put too much pressure on ourselves to be all things for all people. I like the term work/life ‘blend’ rather than balance. Sometimes my business gets 100% of me, at my ‘day job’ I give 100%, moments my family gets 100% but there are many many times they blend together. My kids may come to business events or markets with me, I may miss a school event because I have a business event, my kids sometimes help me with social media videos. I’m also a big believer in looking after self so you are able to look after others, sometimes that means locking the bathroom door and drinking a glass of wine in the dark sitting in a bubble bath so I can come out the door and face the MUUUMMMMMMM with a smile on my face!
