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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