When I first started Glatta Papa, it was a simple business thesis for a self employment class two years prior. I didn’t really know what to think of it. True, I was a bit of a ‘mixologist hobbyist’, going into the kitchen and making body and hair experiments, but I never thought of making Glatta Papa a business, per say. Maybe I’m being a bit too blunt in saying that I didn’t think anyone would want to buy Glatta Papa at all because there are so many choices of grooming things on the internet. So many balms, butters, salves, creams and glosses on sites like etsy, amazon and shopify that my little corner didn’t seem to matter.

I remember during the final classes of my small business training, my teacher asked me a simple: ‘why’?

Why I buy your lip balm?

Why did you make this?

Why Glatta Papa?

Why should I care?

And I sat for a while, not able to distill a reasonable answer. I left class that day, went home and sat, thinking about that accursed: ‘why‘. Sadly, that sitting evolved to 2 years of not knowing who or what Glatta Papa was for. Even when I had a spotlight in Seattle Magazine, I didn’t really know who or what GP was for! Winging it was the name of the game at the time and I did it badly. What did I know about marketing, and packaging and invoicing and all those other things? What did I know about Glatta Papa?

Well, I knew it worked for me. I knew there were people out there who had sensitive skin and fragile hair like I did. Frustrated people who tried so much goop, even the all natural stuff, on their face only to break out the next day. My wonderful husband was a daily example of someone who had outrageously curly hair but didn’t want to invest the time to meticulously detangle and groom. He just wanted a hair solution that was easy to apply, comb through and get him out the door.

So I thought I had solutions and I hustled. I went from salon to salon, offering my herbal pomade to stylists who had curly clients that needed help managing their daily hair woes. I went to skin care boutiques offering my balms and lotion bars for clients who had sensitive skin and needed other solutions that didn’t involve mineral oil, water or alcohol.

Nearly everyone took one look at the bears on my label, withheld their laughter and asked me how could they sell anything with cartoon bears on it? No client would take cartoon bears seriously unless it was for their kids.

I gave up. I stopped going door to door. I stopped making massive amounts of GP goodies for purchase. I let them keep the samples and went back to corporate America.

Maybe they were right. Perhaps I was barking up the wrong tree, but I wasn’t getting rid of the bears! They may be too whimsical for the average adult, but they symbolized something deeper than just crazy bears wearing Viking hats. They were an homage to my husband: half Black, half Swedish, but 100% huggable, loveable man.

Papa Bear, as I call him, pulled me aside and encouraged me to give it another shot.

Then phone calls came. And people started to ask when I was making more. Then items sold out.

So here is Glatta Papa…again. I was told real businesses have a mission statement, right? Well, here goes nothing:

“Rub It On Yourself!”

Love,

JC

(Owner & Mixologist)