655 – Smell like an Egyptian: Tom interviews Ashlee Dozier

Episode 655 – Ashlee Dozier
[00:00:08] Welcome to Screw the Commute. The entrepreneurial podcast dedicated to getting you out of the car and into the money, with your host, lifelong entrepreneur and multimillionaire, Tom Antion.

[00:00:24] Hey, everybody, is Tom here with episode 655 of Screw the Commute Podcast. I'm here with Ashlee Dozier and she's with Anuketluxury.com. And she came out. This is a really interesting episode in that her business came out of an abusive relationship and it turned into a journey that led into the business that she's in now. So we'd love to hear that story, although we're not happy that that happened to her. But we're making she's making something great out of it, which should be an inspiration to everybody listening. And also, she used to work for the CDC. He's probably happy to be out of that mess at this point. So. So we'll bring her on in a minute. Now, make sure you check out episode 654 that was called Auto Responders Revisited. One of my training, I don't know. We have a couple of hundred training episodes, not interviews. And that was episode based on episode 337. So you want to listen to episode 337 and the latest one is 654, all on auto responders and the power that they give you. While I'm talking to Ashlee here today, I've got over 500 sequences of auto responders taking care of 60,000 customers and, you know, hundreds of thousands of prospects and all that stuff. So very, very powerful. Anytime you want to get a back episode, check out screwthecommute.com, slash and then the episode number. That would be episode 654. All right. Make sure you pick up a copy of our automation book. I want you dealing with prospects and customers and developing products and services and, I don't know, hanging out in Egypt.

[00:02:11] We'll hear about that while we're at it rather than fighting with your computer. Just one of the tips in this book that I gave you, this isn't like a three page checklist. This is like a 60 page book of all the ways I automate myself so I can handle up to those 60,000 customers and hundreds of thousands of prospects without pulling my hair out. And we actually estimated one of the tips in the book, just one, has saved me 8 million keystrokes. We actually estimated it last year. It was about seven and a half million. That's about 8 million keystrokes. And it allows me to to help people lightning fast. And then that's the you're you're most likely to get the money if you get back faster people. So check it out. Grab your copy at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. And while you're at it, pick up a copy of our podcast app at screwthecommute.com/app. Put us on your cell phone and tablet. Take us with you on the road.

[00:03:10] Let's get to the main event. Ashlee Dozier is the owner and founder of anuket luxury apothecary. In 2016, after a decade long career in public health and also exiting that abusive relationship, she set out for some adventure. A backpacking trip around the world helped her discover a new passion for bringing exotic and luxurious goods to those looking for something as out of the box as she was. Ashlee, are you ready to screw? The commute?

[00:03:43] I'm here and ready to go.

[00:03:45] You're ready? No, you didn't say I'm here ready to screw, so that's good. I didn't catch you on that. So, Ashlee, I'm sorry to hear that you had to go through that abusive relationship to get what you're where you are now. But, you know, a lot of the things we go through make us what we are today, so. So it's quite inspiring that of what you've done. So. So take us back. I know you work some of the you know, we kind of throw up in our mouth when we say the dirty word job, you know, around here, because this is an entrepreneurial podcast. But take us back and see how you came up through the ranks. You were in skincare and health care and all that stuff. And then we'll see how you transitioned into this business.

[00:04:26] Yeah, absolutely. I Yep. I worked one of those jobs for a very long time. I worked mostly in the public sector, so I was a schoolteacher for a short period of time. I taught at a university and then I ran the Health Education Department at a major university out in Texas and really enjoyed working in public health. Ended up finally in Atlanta, working at the CDC, and, believe it or not, really enjoyed that, too.

[00:04:57] Well, don't you wish you were there? Now.

[00:05:01] I will say I have much love and respect for my former colleagues and still friends that are that are there because it has been a rough few years for them. But I am not sad to be gone from there and just out of Atlanta as well. And back in Florida, which is my home state where I was born and raised and glad to be back in.

[00:05:24] Yeah, it cracked me up. The the leader. I forget what her name is, Walensky. I think her name is now. And she she gets on national TV and says something and then everybody freaks out and they say, oh, no, she wasn't. She was just saying her personal opinion. And she's standing in front of the CDC sign.

[00:05:43] I know it's so hard because science changes constantly and.

[00:05:48] So do politics.

[00:05:50] Right, Exactly. Exactly. And so it's like there's just constant, you know, speaking about what's happening now and then having to apologize for that and update things and yeah, it's a mess, I'm telling you.

[00:06:01] So you you hit there for a stint, then what?

[00:06:04] So after. Well, while I was working at the CDC. That's when, unfortunately, I was in that abusive relationship.

[00:06:12] Did you meet with the CDC?

[00:06:14] I did not. I've met him where any classy lady meets a future partner in a bar.

[00:06:20] Oh, of course.

[00:06:22] Right. And which should have been my first clue. Right. But no, he was very nice man to start. And I still say, you know, not a bad man, just a very bad partner. And so I was working at the CDC at the time. And when I lost my my job there because of budget cuts, because of those those ever changing politics, I kind of was fed up with the instability of working in the public sector because of that wasn't the first time I lost my job because of budget cuts or that where they did a like a freeze on freeze on on our our increase annual increases and things like that. And so I kind of realized that as much as I was always told that that was the quote unquote stable lifestyle was to have a job working for somebody else like that. I realized that working for myself may not be as quite as stable, but I have more control. And that's when I really decided that maybe I need to find ways to do this myself. And and I did. I started with a skincare company and I started with that X, I started a a medical and pharmaceutical sales company.

[00:07:42] All right. So stop right there for a second because we'd like to see the transition from the paycheck to the business. So did you save up money or did you just get fed up one day and walk out? How did you transition to that first business?

[00:07:58] So the first business actually a with a multilevel marketing company. And that was just right after I lost my job at the CDC, I happened to get a phone call from a friend that told me about it. And typically I would say that that was not my where I would have thought to go. I know that there's a lot of opinions there about multilevel marketing.

[00:08:20] Yeah, I don't have.

[00:08:21] Any good companies. I understand that. And but this particular company, the way that they were doing it, was different because it was more like a franchise. You did not have to purchase any product and try to sell it yourself. They basically dropship to the product for you, so you're more of an ambassador for the product. And because I kind of worked just through college and stuff and skin care and I'd always been a fan of the beauty industry, I thought, okay, this may be something for me to at least do until I figure out my next steps.

[00:08:53] But were you getting unemployment or something from getting canned from the CDC, or did you have.

[00:08:59] Any kind of money.

[00:09:00] Coming in?

[00:09:00] I had a severance. I did have a severance package for a short period of time. But then I decided that I would I would pull my bootstraps and start to make money for myself. And I did with that skincare company for a while. I was making good money and kind of I was just I was good at it because I was very honest with people. I'm not your.

[00:09:24] You have nice skin. Yeah. So I was going to be a poster poster girl for the product. Yeah.

[00:09:30] It's very true. I used I started using the product and my skin looked amazing. And I actually believed in the product because they came from dermatologists rather than your typical, just like business person that was trying to come up with a direct sales company just to have something to do and to make money. So so I did believe in the product and I enjoyed talking to people about it and I enjoyed, you know, for me it was more of I was selling a service of helping them with their skin versus just trying to sell them products. And so I was good at it and I enjoyed it. And because of that, we my, my ex was.

[00:10:06] I was he working and bringing in money too, so you could still eat and pay your bills during this period?

[00:10:12] Yes, but, but I was paying my own bills too. We were 5050 on everything. And so that's that's one thing that I I've always helped to pay my own way and Yeah. And so, yeah, I was still paying for my half of, of everything. And he was actually working in medical sales like pharmaceutical sales. I had gotten him into that industry through my own connections, got him a job, you know, a great job in that industry, and realized that what he was doing, we could actually do kind of on our own. And so we started our own sister companies that did exactly kind of what he was doing, but for somebody else. So I owned one of the companies. It was not something I was passionate about. We were selling pharmaceutical product. And I basically took over that because he had one very large account that he couldn't handle himself. And so that's what I'm good at, is coming in and setting up systems and talking to people and keeping those accounts, keeping those accounts going. Now, when.

[00:11:21] You say pharmaceutical products, are you talking about pills or or medical devices or what?

[00:11:27] We had a little bit of medical devices, but mostly we were doing the type of pharmaceuticals that are made specifically for a customer. So it's not like we were just selling pills that were pre made. We were selling things that were coming from pharmacies that like that were hormones or like vitamins and things like that that were injectables mostly that were specific for those those customers.

[00:11:57] Now, do you have to have any kind of special insurance for that? Because when people tell me they want to sell supplements and anything, it kind of makes me worried that anything that's ingestible could lead to some big lawsuits if something goes wrong and claims that they were hurt by it. So did you have to have any special insurance for that kind of business?

[00:12:15] We did to an extent, absolutely. I always say, you know, it's better to to see why in those situations, but because our products were coming from pharmacies, the pharmacies actually held the liability. So we weren't making the products. We were the the in between that we're helping the pharmacies sell their products to the end users.

[00:12:36] Yeah, I just wondered because, you know, sometimes people just sue everybody involved and everybody what happens? Yeah.

[00:12:42] Yeah, they certainly try. Yes. But we were lucky in that we were kind of the middleman. And so they were the ones responsible for the actual product.

[00:12:52] Got it. Okay, so then what?

[00:12:56] So I was not passionate about that business, although I was still good at it. It wasn't something that I loved to do, and that is around the time when I started to realize just how toxic my relationship had become.

[00:13:12] And this relationship was about ten years or so.

[00:13:15] We were together for six years total. At that point, we had been together for about five, and then around five and a half was when he proposed thinking. I was thinking that his proposal meant that he was ready to to shape up and start treating me properly. Six months after he proposed is when we broke up, because we realized very quickly that I did absolutely nothing to plan the wedding, which meant that I did not want to marry him. And it was a very mutual agreement that that was unhealthy. It was no longer working. I just at that point wanted out of there, wanted away from the situation. I handed him the business.

[00:14:02] Who got the dog.

[00:14:03] So I got the dog.

[00:14:06] As long as you got the dogs. None of nothing else matters.

[00:14:09] I agree that. Well, the dogs were mine going into it, so they were. There's no way they were. They were going anywhere else but with me. But yeah, So I got the dogs. He got the business and the house because I was very generous and I just wanted the way. And so I put everything I owned into a storage unit and I decided that that was going to be my time to go travel the world. I he actually bought me a backpack as a parting gift and my backpack.

[00:14:39] Hitchen Yes.

[00:14:40] That's right. I packed up that backpack and I set out on a solo backpacking trip.

[00:14:46] Wow. That takes guts.

[00:14:49] It did. And I look back now and I realize, Wow, I didn't think that hard about that. I just kind of went for it. And, you know, you don't realize looking back like how dangerous it sounds when I was traveling the world by myself as a young blond woman, going to some countries where that's quite rare now.

[00:15:07] Wasn't he? This was a mentally abusive relationship, not a physically.

[00:15:13] It was it was verbally abusive, mentally and emotionally abusive.

[00:15:20] You're no good. Nobody likes you. You're worthless piece of crap. That kind.

[00:15:23] Of stuff. That's it. That's it.

[00:15:25] Nobody likes.

[00:15:26] Me. That's you know, that was my biggest thing, I think when I went to travel that I was like, You know what? I'm going to make friends and damn it, people like me. And so I that was one of those things. One of the reasons I went to travel was because I needed to start to trust my own intuition again. I had completely lost that that ability to trust my own gut and I needed to gain that back. And I needed to feel like I could be confident enough to travel by myself, to be my own person, to meet new people. And so because of that, I also didn't plan an itinerary for my travels. I said, I'm just going to go where I feel like I need to go next. And this was.

[00:16:06] Before COVID, right?

[00:16:08] It was before COVID. It was back in 2016. So I was lucky enough. Yes. That I did not have to to deal with any of those types of restrictions.

[00:16:17] All right. So. Put COVID aside, would you? What tips would you have for someone else that's in an abusive relationship like this? I mean. Going to Egypt is kind of a big trip for somebody. Well, what would be what was your mindset at the time when you're trying to make that decision to get out of that house, get out of that relationship?

[00:16:43] Yeah, I would say one of the biggest things is start to figure out who around you you can trust. Because I thought I realized how quickly he was, how good of an actor he was.

[00:17:01] Mm hmm.

[00:17:02] Because the moment I left and was honest about the reason why I left, I got a lot of. Well, I lost a lot of friends. And so I.

[00:17:13] Realized this pseudo.

[00:17:14] Right, Exactly. That's what I say. I realized very quickly which friends were standing behind me, which friends believed me. I think that was one of the biggest parts. So if you find yourself in that situation, you know, just know that there are people who will believe you and that those people are the ones that you turn to. And that that helped me significantly to to realize that I had a few friends that would just do anything for me and let me stay with them. When I when I first left the house and let me come stay with them while I was traveling. And so while, yes, it's hard to go on a four month trip around the world, you immediately after that. I was lucky that I had a little bit of money saved and that because of that, believe it or not, that multilevel marketing business, I was able to travel because I was able to work that business from anywhere, right? So I became a digital nomad and that's what I said, you know, screw the commute. And I just began traveling instead. So my commute became airplanes from one continent to the next for a while, while I roamed around the world, which I know is not everyone is not capable of doing that immediately after a relationship. So that's why I always tell people, Get away however you can. The healthiest thing to do is to take yourself out of the situation so find people you can trust, find people you can go stay with. You know, there's always somebody who's willing to help if you just look and and so start reaching out to people. Once you realize that it's it's you want to make a move.

[00:18:50] Yeah. So just try to avoid murder or hiring a hitman or something like that probably.

[00:18:55] I mean, there's a reason that that show snapped, you know, is on TV.

[00:19:00] You know, I saw I don't know if that was the name of the show, but there was a a show on years ago and it was about undercover policemen catching people, trying to hire hitmen for their wife or husband. And as you watch the show, you're thinking, oh, yeah, I really don't blame them. Jeez. Yeah.

[00:19:21] I joke all the time, but I'm like, you know, that show snapped. I mean, those women have a point sometimes.

[00:19:26] Exactly. All right. So. So what happened in Egypt that turned this whole deal around for you?

[00:19:33] Well, so I while I was traveling, I went my my whole trip was, like I said, four months and 12 countries. So Egypt was just one of the countries on my list that I knew I wanted to go to but didn't know what I wanted to do while I was there. I just knew I wanted to see all the cool stuff that everyone talks about. And so I got there. I went to Cairo and went and saw the largest pyramids, the Pyramids of Giza, and did all of that and went to the Egyptian Museum. And it was amazing. But people kept asking me if I was going to be going on a cruise down the Nile River. And I said, Well, since I don't have a set itinerary, I can definitely add that in there. And I immediately looked one up and caught a little flight to a small town where you can board the cruise ship and it's just a river cruise. It was, I think, five or six days and I hopped on a river cruise down the Nile River and. It was there that one of the ports my guide for the day on the way back from some beautiful temples and monuments and all these things that I got to visit and the Valley of the Kings, which is just incredible.

[00:20:50] He asked if I wanted to stop by a perfumery, and I was like, I mean, I guess so. You know, it's it's like it's where we do. We have all of our Egyptian perfumes because that's fragrance is a very big part of their culture. Everybody knows that Cleopatra used her rose oils and took rose oil baths, rose water baths and all of this. And so I was like, Yeah, I love that kind of stuff. Let's go check it out. And they brought out while I was there, they're bringing out all these beautiful oils like eucalyptus, vanilla, all these things that I'm like, These are beautiful. They really are. They're fantastic. But I can get these at home. Know, what are some things that are more Egyptian? What are things that are like, grown here that are very unique to this area? And they brought out papyrus oil. And Tom, when I tell you, one smell of that changed my life, I mean, I was in love with the scent immediately, not knowing that I had any future in this. But just a gut feeling of like, this is good. Like there's something about this that is just good.

[00:21:57] I sent a bunch of bottles of it back home, you know, for myself to use when along with my backpacking trip, I was gone another like two months. And then once I got home, I started wearing it everywhere and getting so many compliments. I had never in my life been complimented on a fragrance like that. Wow. And I people would ask me where it was from, what it was, and I finally said, Let me look it up and try and see where I can get more. Let me see if I can get more of it. Went online and realized it just wasn't readily available in the US. I mean, there just it just you couldn't just go online and buy it. And so I a light bulb kind of went off and I said, you know, I could my friends at least want some. What if I at least ordered some more and sold it to my friends? And so I started literally with one product. I got back in touch with that little perfumery in Egypt and started to set up the channels to get it sent to me. And my entire company was born because of this one SKU, like this one little product that just it went well and.

[00:23:09] We're busy now. Where are you technically an importer?

[00:23:14] So I do import. We still import the all of our fragrance oils from Egypt. They they still come from that same perfumery. So the fragrance oils themselves do come from there. Then we hand bottle everything here in Tampa Bay. So, yes, our fragrance oils come from there, but we handle them here in the state. Well, you were.

[00:23:34] Almost in in the bay the other day, weren't you, with that hurricane?

[00:23:38] Well, I have to say, I was very lucky that I had already had a trip planned with my all the ladies in my life, my sister and mom, and soon to be mother in law. We went out to Napa. We had we already had a trip planned. And so we were out in Napa while the men were all back home, holding down the fort, quite literally as Hurricane Ian came through.

[00:24:03] Wow. Yeah. You dodged the bullet there for sure.

[00:24:06] We really did. And our area did, too. And but I have to say, you know, that means that a different area did get hit harder. And the Fort Myers, Sarasota, Naples area right now is really, really struggling. And my company will be part of just this weekend, a fundraiser for hurricane relief efforts, because we in Florida, you know, we we support each other during these storms because we've all been there before.

[00:24:35] Well, that goes along with the fact that you are the gift of the Nile, right? That's true. That's why our.

[00:24:43] City is called Anika.

[00:24:44] Yeah. It's the goddess of the Nile, right?

[00:24:47] That's right. So Chanukah is the goddess, the Egyptian goddess of the Nile River. And when I was trying to come up with a name for my company, I wanted to make sure that I gave that nod back to the Egyptian culture. And because the papyrus has grown along the Nile River for thousands of years, I figured that was the best way to kind of say thank you to the Egyptian culture for providing, you know, these beautiful scents. I mean, they're the ones who basically invented fragrance and started using it before anybody else. And so it's just a really cool tradition to be able to help carry on this.

[00:25:23] And guys can wear this, too, right?

[00:25:25] Absolutely. So all of my fragrances are considered unisex. The our number one, the papyrus is definitely a unisex scent can be worn by anybody. It's very universally appealing. And I always give the cautionary tale of beware. It is an aphrodisiac. And so. So wear at your own risk.

[00:25:50] Now, you know something else about the Nile River that's really unique.

[00:25:57] The way that it flows.

[00:25:58] That's right. It's one of the few rivers in the world that flows south to north.

[00:26:02] That is true. That's why when I went on my cruise and I say I went down the Nile River.

[00:26:07] But I kept hearing you say that you were going up.

[00:26:10] Going down the river means that you're heading north. But they still call it down the river because that's the way the river is flowing.

[00:26:16] That's right. That's right. I think the Monongahela is another one in in Pennsylvania, but.

[00:26:21] Okay.

[00:26:22] But I knew about the Nile. So what's the future of this company? Now you have more than just sense, though. Now, I thought I saw some necklaces. Do you dip them in the center? What? What are they? Some special kind of necklace? What is that?

[00:26:34] Yeah. So we've expanded to some self care products during COVID. Of course, we came out with our own version of the of hand sanitizer that's infused with the papyrus oil. So if you have to stay clean and sanitize, at least you can still smell good doing it. And then that made us realize that people continue to ask us for other ways to use these these products, you know, these fragrances in other ways to wear them. And I came up with this idea of fragrance diffusing jewelry that goes beyond your typical kind of aromatherapy jewelry that you see out there that tends to be a little quote unquote, granola. And I don't mean that in a bad way at all, but I wanted to just kind of elevate that look with demi fine gold jewelry with higher end products. And so we do have necklaces and earrings and bracelets that have porous stones on them. So you can put a couple drops of your fragrance oil actually on the jewelry. And it lasts even longer than it does on the skin. So you can wear that fragrance kind of in a new, fun way while wearing beautiful pieces of jewelry, too, because that was also a big part of Egyptian culture, whether they're jewels and everything. And so I wanted to continue to to kind of expand the way that people can enjoy our fragrances.

[00:27:56] Now, when you say fragrances, plural, yeah, is there variations of the basic papyrus scent?

[00:28:06] So we actually now carry six fragrances. Only one of them is that papyrus. That's still considered our signature scent. It is our number one seller. But I did start pulling in a few other scents as well. So the papyrus is our top seller, but we also have Blue Lotus, we have traditional Egyptian musk, which people love Egyptian musk, and it is getting harder and harder for people to find. So I started importing that as well. We have Egyptian rose, which rose oil. You're familiar with it at all. You know just how expensive it can be. And the Egyptian rose, they're able to grow it for a lower cost. So I'm able to offer rose oil at a slightly lower cost than you typically find. And then I have a couple of other unique ones like Momo's and Saqqara, which are a little bit more floral. But again, like this, Akar is still one of my favorites by men from men because it just still has that very unisex kind of luxe kind of feel to it. So. So yeah, I decided that while I love the papyrus and it's certainly still our top seller that I wanted to offer other options as well for people who wanted wanted a little bit of something different.

[00:29:23] All right, so now in 600 and what is this, 55 episodes, you are the first person ever to use the term luxe. Yes. So that's special. Now, I have another niche market for you.

[00:29:40] Okay.

[00:29:41] All right. So. I'd rescue a lot of dogs, and one of them was a little blind dog that had been kicked around her whole life. And. And so. Now, I don't know if, like, essential oils is like the cross the tracks low life compared to what you do. But anyway, they have different scents, so we would put a different scent on the baseboards in different rooms so the dog would know where it is. Yeah. So you.

[00:30:09] Got a whole.

[00:30:09] You got a whole dog blind dog niche there.

[00:30:13] There we go. And are you telling me that because, you know, I used to work with rescue dogs, too. Did you know that?

[00:30:19] I did not know that.

[00:30:19] No, I. I did. I used to help transport rescue animals, so I used to drive dogs that were being pulled from different areas by a rescue.

[00:30:30] So that wouldn't work for me because I don't all of them.

[00:30:34] Trust me, because I already had my too. That made it easier for me to not get more because my to that was just that that trust me, I tried to keep a lot of them, but the transporting was I can't foster now, if I Foster, they'll just I'll just give them out. But transporting was brilliant because I would pick them up in one location and I would drive them. They might stay with me overnight for just like one night, but otherwise I was just driving them from one location to another. So yeah, that was my way of of helping to save those little babies, but without adopting every single one of them that ended up at my house because, man, I wouldn't.

[00:31:08] Have, that's for sure. Now, there's a rescue husky in about about 30 feet from me right now.

[00:31:14] Oh, I love it. My I now have a a boxer who's usually here at my office with me. She went home early today, but. But, yeah, I'm the same way. My pups are always around me.

[00:31:24] Well, the two German shepherds are over here. We have a protection dog company on the side. But I never had a husky before. I mean, I knew of huskies, but I never was around one. And she looks at me and I look at her, and she's. She's partially blind, too. That's another another thing. But then she goes, Oh, oh, it just cracked up because I'm used to the her the German shepherds. And she's, she looks at you and she talks to you. Oh, all the time. So we got to take a responsive break. When we come back, we'll ask Ashlee what's a typical day look like for her if she's still traveling and she still have the backpack that she originally originally went with. So, folks, oh, about 25 years or so ago, I kind of turned the Internet marketing guru world on its head. And the people at my level were charging 50 or 100 grand up front to teach you how to do this stuff. And I knew a lot of these people, they're rip offs. They'd be hiding out in Egypt or wherever they can because they wouldn't do the work. So I said, That's too risky for small businesses. So I charged an entry fee that was like ten times lower. And then I tied my success to your success. So for me to get my 50 grand, you had to net 200 grand. Well, people really love this. And 1700 plus students later, it's still going strong. It's the longest running, most successful, most unique mentor on digital and Internet marketing program ever.

[00:32:55] And I always triple dog dare people to put a program up against mine because I'm a crazy fanatic. Actually threw a class on Thanksgiving one time because I didn't realize it was. Thanks. It's really pitiful. I get it. But people it's good to have a fanatic on your side when they're helping you make money. So you get an immersion weekend at the retreat center here in Virginia Beach. We have our own TV studio here. We shoot marketing videos for you. You're never lumped in with people like we don't do group training when it's remote because we don't want to lump you in with somebody more advanced or less advanced. We hone in on your exact deals and we move you along as fast as you can go. So it's very unique and it's a long one, the longest running ever. So check it out at greatInternetmarketingtraining.com. And when you visit the retreat center, you better not be allergic to dog hair because we got dog hair all over the place. So you'll get I think that's the next thing. Ashlee, you'll come up with some anti allergy thing that smells like Egypt. I don't know. So Ashlee, what's, what's a typical day look like for you? Do you get up early? Do you have a morning routine? Do you meditate? Do you what do you eat? What's what's it like for your type of entrepreneur?

[00:34:17] Oh man, I would love to say that I have a typical day, but I just don't. My days are crazy. I we have so I'm engaged now and my fiance has an amazing daughter from a previous marriage. And so I'm super lucky that I'm about to be officially a step mom, but I'm already kind of in that role. And so there's a lot of mornings that start with me taking her to school.

[00:34:45] How old is she?

[00:34:46] She's 12 years old. She'll be 13 soon. So we're going have a teenager on our hands. But that's actually one of my favorite. I love working with like preteens and teenagers and college students. I love those those ages as they kind of really become their own people. And so that's a lot a lot of mornings that's me getting her to school and then heading to my office and my fiance and I actually share a office warehouse space. So we have.

[00:35:17] Text each other like I had this assistant and her husband, they had a home office and they sat with back to back to each other. But they they would text each other instead of talk.

[00:35:28] We absolutely text each other, but it's because we're on opposite ends of the warehouse. So he's he's back in the warehouse and I'm up front in the office.

[00:35:37] And so does it smell like papyrus all the time?

[00:35:41] Everyone says, Yep, you walk in my office and it smells like it. So yeah, absolutely. And our house does too, you know, because I always have it all over the place. So yeah. So I then maybe three or four days a week, I'm working directly out of our, our office and I do a little bit of everything. I have a team of marketing interns who are absolutely fantastic and I couldn't do what I do without them. So a lot of meetings with them and I have them kind of keeping us moving in terms of all of our marketing efforts while I run the business behind the scenes.

[00:36:19] Yeah, but you skipped over the part about do you get up early? Do you what do you eat? You work out? I mean, what's, what's your life like?

[00:36:27] Yeah. So I used to be a night owl big time.

[00:36:31] And you're a health educator, too.

[00:36:32] Come on. I know, I know. And so I used to be a major night owl, but since moving in with my fiance and our daughter, I have become a morning person. So I do wake up pretty early now, probably not as early as other people think. But for me, you know, 7:00 AM is an early wake up and, you know, and not that I used to sleep in late would be like more like 830 or nine, but I do get up and get moving now in the morning, get a few things done around the house. I always like to it's hard for me to leave the house a mess, so I always do a little bit of like cleanup every morning. It's just kind of my way of getting my body moving and everything.

[00:37:12] That's that's a that's overkill for me. No, that's going too far. Yeah.

[00:37:18] I mean, I, I love to work out. I haven't been able to recently because of health issues, so it's been harder to do that. But I'm getting back on track with with that now, especially with a wedding coming up in six months. You know, that's when you really wake up and say, Oh, I've got to get back in shape. And so so there's a little bit of physical activity going on there. But I'm a healthy eater. Everybody I get teased constantly for being. I don't eat a lot of meat. I'm I'm considered semi vegetarian. I'm a Florida girl. So seafood is my my go to. But I'm a pretty healthy eater, though. I have a bad sweet tooth. So there's always like a few of my draw at my desk right now. There's always some gummy bears or dark.

[00:38:07] Chocolate coming.

[00:38:08] In my desk.

[00:38:11] Maybe you could come up with some kind of Egyptian gummy bears or gummy camels or something that I love.

[00:38:20] So they have hibiscus is one of their big kind of flavors there. They drink hibiscus juice and it's delicious and it's not super sweet, but I think that's why it's so good. So yeah, maybe I need to come up with something a little bit better.

[00:38:32] I saw a promo picture of you on a camel somewhere, and I have one also from Morocco, where I have my laptop and cell phone. I'm working from camel to a camel. Yeah, I love it. Yeah. Tell them the website again. What do they see when they go to your website?

[00:38:51] So our website is AnuketLuxury.com, just like all of our social media is at Anuket Luxury.

[00:39:07] That's it. And all of it. Like I said, all of our social media is Aniket luxury as well. And so you can definitely find us anywhere just looking, searching for Aniket luxury or even just searching for papyrus oil. If you look up papyrus oil, you're going to find Aniket real quick because we're still one of the only sources of pure papyrus oil in the US.

[00:39:30] And so there's fragrances there. There's some special kind of jewelry there. Anything else?

[00:39:36] Yep. Yep. So, yeah, if you if you kind of look around on the website, you'll learn about my story, you'll learn about all the products on there. We try to do a lot of product education so you can really dive a little bit deeper into where my products are from and how they work and everything. And we do have a blog that we love. You know, putting together our blog posts because we talk about little everyday luxuries, because we believe that everyone should have them in their lives. And that's what our products try to help achieve. But we talk about some travel and self care, you know, sustainability and things like that on our blog, too. So our blog we always are are diving into new interesting topics there.

[00:40:17] And you're certifying that this stuff comes from Egypt, right? Not a couple of guys in New Jersey just filling them up in buckets 100%.

[00:40:27] Yeah, that's right. And I even have taken pictures for people of the boxes when it comes because the return address still says remote location, Egypt, because it's truly just out in the middle of nowhere in Egypt.

[00:40:39] Wow. G Well, how do you work the fine financial stuff? I mean, you have to paint advance. How do you make sure that they send the stuff?

[00:40:47] Yeah, it's not easy because they don't have the same kind of financial system as we do. And so I can't pay via credit card. It's not like I can just go online and order more of this. I have relationships set up with this perfumery in order to to get their products shipped to me. And so we it's it's all done through like wire transfers.

[00:41:09] How long does it take to get an order?

[00:41:12] It actually once the order is finally set, it's actually pretty quick. We use DHL for shipping and DHL has it here within a week. And so the shipping isn't as bad because they are the perfumery is kind enough to take it to the nearest DHL to ship it out. So once I place an order, they actually drive to the nearest city to be able to to drop it off for for shipment. But it does take some time for the money to get to them. Their banks are not open as often as ours, that kind of thing. So it does take some planning for sure.

[00:41:44] This is Christmas big for you.

[00:41:47] Yeah, our holidays are always crazy.

[00:41:50] You have to plan for that.

[00:41:52] So we're already planning? Yeah, for sure. We we're already starting to order all of our all of our goods and everything for the holidays. People really like our products, because when you're trying to shop for that person that has everything, I promise you, they don't have papyrus oil. So it's like one of those things you can and it's so universally appealing that everybody truly everybody loves it. And so it's one of those things that, like people love to get products that they can use up versus something that's going to sit around and take up space around their house or so it's one of those like perfect gifts. You know.

[00:42:28] It's possible to even scale this because of the, you know, the very unique nature and the one supplier. I mean, so how big can this get?

[00:42:37] Yeah, so it is I've talked to them. They have been in business for a long time in Egypt and they supply a lot of their products in other places around Egypt. But it's just that specifically the papyrus oil and one or two of our others, like our Saqqara Oil and that are just incredibly rare for the US. So we have a I have a lot of people who have found me online because they visited that region and found papyrus oil and fell in love with it. But then they get back home and they can't find it anywhere. So I have let them know that I'm continuing to grow as a company and I will continue to need more and more of it. And they are scaling their production to to match my needs. And so they're able to, because they've been in business for so long and they do a lot of business with a lot of their other oils. But that's because I've specifically focused on the oils that are the most rare. I've given the opportunity for people to try oils that you can't otherwise get.

[00:43:38] Now, anybody trying to knock you off.

[00:43:41] Oh, I'm sure they're out there. And I've seen a little bit. But like I said, we we quickly became kind of the authority in Papyrus oil in the US. And so I'm sure that there are some others out there that are trying to make the same thing.

[00:43:57] Or can they make fake papyrus oil?

[00:44:01] I'm sure they could attempt to copy the scent, but I will tell you, I've had fragrance companies that create lab created fragrance oils, attempt to copy the scent and have no one has yet been successful. So good. Yeah. So it's it's such a rare, complex scent that it's it's a lot harder to copy than you think an essential oil would be.

[00:44:24] See, I'm afraid to get it, though, because, you know. You know, I'm a I'm also a self defense expert and I don't want to use it on all these women that come out, you know? You know, I just asking for it. Basically. It's like a short skirt or something for me or something.

[00:44:41] I hear you because I work with a lot of golfers, because we do a lot of charities and we've worked with at charity, like golf fundraisers and things. And I tell all the golf the golfers that the beautiful bonus side effect of papyrus oil is that mosquitoes hate it. And we live in Florida where, man, they're everywhere. And so to be able to ward off the mosquitoes but attract the ladies, I mean, you know, my athletes that are out spend a lot of time outside, you know, aren't real mad at that.

[00:45:11] It's hard to be a guy. It really is. So, Ashlee, thanks so much for coming on. Very interesting story and inspirational because what you've been through and what you made out of it now, do you still have that backpack?

[00:45:25] I don't have the backpack. I sold the backpack. I kept a lot of the things that I purchased along the way with the trip, but the backpack was from him. I needed to keep things that I bought for myself.

[00:45:38] Beautiful. Beautiful. Well, thanks so much. So, everybody check that. Check out anuketluxury.com. And you'll see all the great stuff that Ashlee's been doing. So thanks so much for coming on.

[00:45:55] Thanks so much, Tom.

[00:45:57] Okey doke. Folks, we will catch you on the next episode. See you later.