Trinity Mouzon Wofford, Golde: Taking care of yourself – Well Made E143

There are a number of ways that the wellness industry can feel exclusionary. Sometimes, a product's information is overly complex and other times it's pitched as a total lifestyle overhaul. But sustainable growth is often slow and healthy changes are gradual.

In the three years since launching Golde, Trinity Mouzon Wofford is perfecting her knack for balance — between accessibility and quality, between scale and mission, and between business partner and life partner.

“When you set this tone of being a wellness person, you exclude almost everyone and you make people feel like taking care of themselves is not for them, which is so wrong.”

Show notes:

0:37 The wellness industry notoriously rebrands centuries old ingredients and resorts to fear based, now-or-never marketing. For Trinity, this is not only counterintuitive to what wellness should be about, but it builds a lot of walls around, wellness making it intimidating and inaccessible to most people.

6:51 Matcha was Golde's first big break. It was important to them that they're matcha be high quality with a flavor profile that complemented the creamy lattes that people were used to drinking in American cafes. She and her life/ business partner Issey Kobori rely on his family in Japan and his mother here in the US to stay true to the heritage and culture of the ceremonious tea.

10:52 In the midst of med school, Trinity and Issey decided to start Golde, and from the beginning, Issey’s background and family’s business — Kobo candles — was inspiration for how a family run business could scale and succeed.

13:14 When Trinity was just starting out, she read those glossy, front-page CEO interviews and she wasn't able to get the cold, hard entrepreneurial facts that she needed. That's why she started Office Hours as a place to share what she's learning and the frameworks she's created to guide brand decisions, big and small.

18:43 Golde has taken a few angel investments, but Trinity has turned down more investor interest than most. She's on a mission to make it more common to say "no" early on when it's clear that an investor is not the right fit. There's no perfect way to scale and scaling doesn't have to happen at the mercy of your mission.

30:32 Their team is building slowly, but it's one of Trinity's favorite parts of building the brand. She and Issey have realized that most of the qualities they look for in new hires are things that they learned themselves when they first started building the business. Two big ones: leave your ego at the door and see solutions over problems.

35:19 Trinity grew up in a "crunchy" family, but it when her mom experienced serious health improvements from a holistic doctor that Trinity was motivated to make the switch from pre-med to launching Golde. Growth has been steady, but significant. She encourages founders to prepare for perseverance and stamina. There's no short cut to scalable growth.

52:09 Sometimes the cliche advice is the best advice. Trinity's answer for how to get started with wellness is familiar because it's true — and it's not all about face masks and bubble baths.

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