Molly Ray Fragrance - Molly Ray

Molly Ray - Interview Transcript

Obviously, from a sales perspective, I had to shift my thinking to online to driving online sales, which is a work in progress. Definitely spending more time, looking at my website and thinking, is this intuitive is this make people interested in it. And so I've been putting some work into upgrading that. And I also partnered with a group called Big Table Seattle. And they are supporting the restaurant community in Seattle, who are a lot, you know mostly not working at all, and really helps provide relief and support during this time for that community. So partnered with Big Table Seattle, and 30% of my proceeds from now through the end of May, will support the work that they're doing in Seattle.

As I sort of, panicked as I was in terms of what's gonna happen to my business? How am I going to survive this? I also have the sense of, how can I help? How can I help everybody else? I'm certainly not the worst off, of a lot of people. So while I'm still trying to keep my business afloat and stay visible and relevant at the same time, how could I support the needed aspects of what's happening in our community? Supporting community and being social responsible has been part of my ethos since I started my business. So before COVID, I don't know if you're familiar with Mary's Place, it's a group, I think 17 or so women and family shelters in the Seattle area. And I read that one of the top requested items of the women and the shelter was perfume. And I kinda did a double take in that, really. And then I reached out to them to understand why and they said, "these women are just, "they're trying to get on their feet, "they're thinking about a job and shelter "and food and just basic survival. "And perfume is a luxury "and it's not something they can spend money on "or maybe wanna spend money on. "But it's also that sense of dignity "that smelling good provides "when you're in that space." So for every $50 spent one perfume, it's basically one perfume purchased, equals one donated, to Mary's Place.

Cause I, we only have one life to live. I'm not, I don't look at success as owning or having things. It's about, did I make a difference? Am I happy? Did I make other people happy? How did I, treat people? I think that can be a successful part of owning a business.

If you're gonna take the time when it's, you're going through tragedy and tough times and really dig deep and look within as a person, which I think a lot of us are doing right now. We're baking bread and we're calling people we haven't talked to in years. And just picking up things we never thought we do during normal Pre-COVID times. I think as a business it's kinda the same opportunity to say, "okay, well this is where I was before. "Now this happened and it's still happening "and we don't know where we're gonna land "and we don't know when." And so instead of just kind of sitting back and saying, "Oh, well, see what happens." I think it's an opportunity to reshape the direction of your business.