A couple weeks ago one of our OE guides told me that she had spoken with a customer who had received a few boxes. This woman said that OE challenged the way she saw her space and encouraged her to grow and create and live in the space everyday. She went on to talk about how the introduction of incense and incense burner has become a welcomed daily ritual that has her feel better energy in her day. When I heard this, I exhaled. This is my “why” for building this company.
Fast forward four days, I was on a weekly zoom with our business advisors and one of them said “Is OE a retail concept”. I paused for a moment. By all surface level measures, we are. We sell products. We box them up and ship them to people all over the country. We have a website that shows some (not all) of our products. Something in me furled as I sat there in the silence scanning “retail concept” and OE in the same sentence.
My response was, no. Organic Erotic is not a retail concept. It is a felt sense concept. A company with the aim of delivering a felt sense experience. I want people to feel something when they interact with OE. From the guided experience, to receiving a box of specifically curated items, to what the items feel like day after day in your home. What matters is how it feels.
Many years ago, before my first venture, my desire was to revolutionize retail. It never made sense to me. Mind you, after many years of learning the interior of myself and life, I’m not sure I like the idea of a revolution either. I like the slow, steady churn of feeling more. Bit by bit.
As this zoom ended, I thought of the conversations I have been having with people who are interested in investing in Organic Erotic. Like a weighted blanket set upon my lap, I felt the importance of them understanding this isn’t typical retail. How do we sell products and create a different space, a different felt sense reality? What if there is no single way to define it, like a woman, it is about the felt sense, the unspoken.
I am grateful for these questions people pose. They give me pause and in the unsteady silence, I find myself living into the answer.