Let’s go back a few years to 2018, something wild happened.
Something that changed everything for me. A moment that led me on a path of building something big!
At the time, Pure Placid was still a small, scrappy dream.
I was selling at farmers markets.
I’d just opened my first store.
And I was content.
The business was making a few hundred thousand dollars a year, and I was proud of what I had built with my own two hands.
Then came the invitation:
Would I be willing to present my products to a visiting group from China?
Sure, I thought. Why not?
So I showed up with my candles and lotions, gave my little pitch, and smiled politely. I was expecting maybe they’d order a few dozen candles. That would’ve felt huge.
Instead, they loved it.
They invited me back to meet the people making the purchasing decisions.
I walked in with my display and saw a room full of well-dressed executives in Adirondack-themed attire. One particularly energetic man walked up, grabbed a bottle of my White Birch lotion, and started rubbing it all over his face and head.
I froze.
Wait—is that even supposed to go on your face? I thought.
He beamed. “I love your products. I love everything about this. We’re going to sell them in China.”
He praised the packaging, the ingredients, the message, the commitment to nature.
I left that meeting still thinking… Wow. Maybe they’ll order 100 candles.
Then I got a call from the woman who’d organized the event.
“Jack Ma loved meeting you,” she said.
I blinked.
“Wait… Jack Ma? As in… Alibaba Jack Ma?”
Yup. That was him. The lotion-on-the-face guy.
And they placed a $7 million order.
That moment right there was the spark.
It made me think, Maybe I’m meant to grow this thing big.
Maybe this isn’t just a passion project.
Maybe it’s something more.
So I went all in.
Cue me, standing in my little production space wondering how on Earth I was going to make that happen when I was still hand-pouring candles in my basement.
That moment swept me into the big business world before I even knew what was happening.
I pitched my business to a local investor group and—true to form—I had no idea what I was doing. I didn’t even have people on payroll. I was running a store the way I ran a farmers market booth: by instinct, not infrastructure.
But I learned.
One advisor from that angel group stepped up and really guided me. He helped me understand the business side. I didn’t end up accepting any offers from the angel investors—after some legal advice and reflection, it just didn’t feel aligned.
Friends and family stepped up, and we raised what we needed.
And from there, I ran.
For 10 years, I chased big business—and we did big things. I was always trying to grow for my investors, for my ego but it was never in my heart.
We bought a warehouse.
We scaled production.
We landed in Macy’s.
We had a booming wholesale program.
We were shipping across the country and beyond.
Pure Placid wasn’t just a handmade local business anymore.
It was a brand. A real one. And for a long time, I was proud of that.
But the truth is, it started pulling me away from why I started in the first place.
The deeper I got into the world of scaling, investors, margins, and growth targets, the more I lost touch with the part of me that just wanted to create. To connect. To help people find their calm. It was like Pure Placid was losing its identity.
And after all this wanting to grow it started to unravel, as I talk about in the previous posts.
But what I want you to know is this:
That Jack Ma moment was real. It lit the match that helped me build something incredible.
And I don’t regret it.
Because I wouldn’t be here—clear, grounded, and back in alignment—without the ride that got me here.
If you’re building something right now, just know this:
Success isn’t a straight line.
It’s a spiral.
Sometimes the dream expands. Sometimes it contracts.
Sometimes you grow big.
And sometimes you come back home.
And all of it counts.
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