Positively Impacting the World With a Brand Featuring Rebecca Hamilton, Badger

Transcript:

Intro 0:05 

Welcome to the Gooder Podcast where we talk with powerhouse women in CPG about their journeys to success. This episode is sponsored by Retail Voodoo, a brand development firm guiding mission-driven consumer brands to attract new and passionate consumer base, crush their categories through growth and innovation and magnify their social and environmental impact. If your brand is in need of brand positioning, package design or marketing activation, we are here to help. You can find more information at www.retail-voodoo.com.

Diana Fryc 0:43 

Hi, Diana Fryc here I’m the host of the Gooder Podcast where I get to talk with the powerhouse women in the food, beverage and wellness categories about their journeys to success and their insights on the industry. This episode is brought to you by Retail Voodoo. Retail Voodoo is a brand development firm. Our clients include Starbucks, Kind, Rei, PepsiCo, Derma E and other market leaders. We provide strategic brand and design services for leading brands in the food wellness and beverage categories. So if your goal is to increase market share, drive growth or disrupt the marketplace with new and innovative ideas, give us a call and let’s talk. My number or actually our URL, because over this enough times, you probably already know it, retail-voodoo.com or email me at info@retail-voodoo.com for more. Well, today, I have the distinct pleasure of bringing Miss Rebecca Hamilton to this podcast. Rebecca is a second-generation owner and Co-CEO at, do you go by WS Badger or just Badger now, I didn’t even ask you that. Okay, so, second-generation owner and Co-CEO at Badger, a natural and organic personal care manufacturer, known for its unique company philosophy, pioneering family-friendly benefits and B Corp community engagement. In addition to her role as Co-CEO, Rebecca leads marketing and sustainability initiatives. She’s an advocate for issues concerning the environment, ingredient transparency, and societal change. Rebecca has spoken at the White House, addressed the UN Convention on Biological Diversity in support of organic and regenerative agriculture, testified before Congress on behalf of safer cosmetics, and attended Senate and House briefings on Capitol Hill in support of family-friendly workplace practices and chemical reform. Very, very busy. Very busy human. Rebecca, welcome. Thank you for coming to the Gooder Podcast today.

Rebecca Hamilton 2:51 

Thank you. Thanks.

Diana Fryc 2:53 

Yeah. How are you? And where are you located today?

Rebecca Hamilton 2:57 

I’m located in Yellowstone, New Hampshire which is only of 817 people in the self-worth corner of New Hampshire and I’m in Badger headquarters buildings. My office.

Diana Fryc 3:09 

Yes. Okay. Well, before we started recording, I asked you a little bit about how Expo was for you in the team, this big return back. And it sounds to me like you had the same experiences a lot of us just kind of like, are kind of reconnecting and maybe rebalancing ourselves and acclimating back to trade show, was the show good for everybody? Did you get to see all the people that you wanted to see?

Rebecca Hamilton 3:40 

Yeah, I mean, it was wild to be back. It was really good to see everyone. People had good energy and excitement. And we had a lot of new things to show as a brand. And so being there was a really positive experience.

Diana Fryc 3:52 

Oh, good. Okay. Well, let’s talk about your brand. The first question I like to ask all brand owners, regardless of where they are in the organization is to tell us about the brand Badger and why it exists.

Rebecca Hamilton 4:08 

Well, we started our brand in 1995. My father at the time was a carpenter contractor, he built healthy non toxic houses for people who had allergies or sensitivities through the mid 80s, into the early 90s, but he was also a serial entrepreneur. So he had a business idea every day. And he was kind of a creative herbalist type as well. And one of the winters he had very cracked hands and regular waterbase lotions didn’t really work to heal the cracks in his hands. And so she was going to sleep with all the oil stocks and shopping bags wrapped over it and rubber bands. Pretty cool all night and my mother eventually kicked them out of bed and said you’ve got to do better than that. And so he created a simple bomb is actually the first product here with the idea that you’ve got badgers that dig the earth. And it’s for hard-working hands. And the vision wasn’t to create a product that would be a leader in the natural products industry or a mission-driven company or anything like that. It’s just create a simple product that works. And we evolve the business because our family cares about organic and sustainability and treating people well and having a positive impact in the world. And so badger ground about one product that was just a effective product that works designed for carpenters. And that’s what led us to the business today.

Diana Fryc 5:43 

Awesome. So awesome. We ourselves have worked with a number of multigenerational organizations. And I know that there is something special, that kind of thread that goes through the generations, whether it’s second generation, third, fourth, or fifth generation. Can you tell us a little bit now obviously, you’ve probably been involved with the brand in many ways since you were we, but what is it that keeps you when it has you staying there? What is it that you’re so passionate about that makes you feel like you want to keep doing and growing Badger instead of maybe trying your own set of entrepreneurial creations?

Rebecca Hamilton 6:25 

I do also have my own entrepreneurial creations as well. So coming back to Expo for a moment this year was my 24th Expo. Expo West. So I started going when I was 14. And I’ve gone almost every year since then. And I’ve worked in almost every department in my company starting out working in production, in shipping, customer service, sales and trade shows. And when I was a teenager, I worked there for summer jobs. But then I did outdoor education and worked on sailboats in the Caribbean and did a lot of traveling did not expect to come back and fail in business. But I found myself out at the University of Hawaii setting ethnobotany when I was in my mid 20s kind of vague vision of traveling around the world, maybe doing research, maybe teaching. And about halfway through that realize that my best career opportunity is actually working for a natural products company, with ingredient sourcing and product development and looking at traditional uses of plants, and how that can be put into products and used for healing purposes. And so at the time, our company was pretty small, but I saw the opportunity to use our company, our family company as a platform to create healing products and also for making a difference in the world. So, when when I was young, I thought in order to have an impact, whether it’s political or otherwise, I needed to go work for a nonprofit, or NGO or something that would be politically active. But what I quickly realized is that a business can be politically active, even if it’s nonpartisan, and people listen to businesses, for better or worse. So if you’re going to advocate for things that are not going to be in the best interest of the public, that’s one thing, and if you’re a business that is going to advocate for things on behalf of the public, that’s really important, and we need that balance because businesses enact change, whether you like it or not. And so right I kind of shifted what I was studying in college, and started focusing on business and social activism, and ended up kind of crafting my own degree around running product development and leading activism and my family’s company and then I came back to work here about 12 years ago.

Diana Fryc 9:05 

Oh my goodness. Wow. There’s so much in there. And of course, I mentioned in your bio that Badger is a B Corp. Our firm is a B Corp as well. And we do our own share of activism. This podcast is a form of it as well. But we always have been fans of business being a force for good because you’re right, businesses have such a sway because of the interactivity, especially on products like yours, where people are purchasing them and they’re using them over and over there. There’s a messaging platform in that packaging and that purchase every single time that you have a way of connecting with the consumer in a different way than a political like a pack could political, any kind of political or nonprofit can because they’re not in your closet every morning and they’re not on your toothbrush. You’re in your hair every morning. So I think that’s really, really fantastic. And in addition to that I went back to get my MBA, I’m in the middle of it and the college that I chose, or the university that I chose, builds environmental and social justice into the foundational elements of the MBA program. So as we’re doing all of our learnings in our forecast is everything is benchmarked against what is the net impact to the community and to cultures and that sort of thing. So I love that I feel almost like I’ve met a kindred spirit. But you’re a little bit ahead of me. In regards to your progress and impact. Maybe one day when I grow up, I can have a very similar impact as you. Maybe, can you tell us a little bit, I’ve interviewed a few other women that have grown up in their family business. Can you talk about maybe some of those early days, when you say you’ve done everything? And you said since you’ve been a teen? We’re talking everything from packing and cleaning and answering phones and everything in between?

Rebecca Hamilton 11:09 

Yeah. I mean, I even was the Badger cook for a summer?

Diana Fryc 11:17 

Oh, my gosh, how fun was that? Oh, or maybe not?

Rebecca Hamilton 11:21 

No, I felt that was one of that was one of my favorite jobs. You make people happy when you make food for them. So it’s like a positive, positive, positive place to be, and the value that it has on the community that you’re building and the company.

Diana Fryc 11:38 

Absolutely, and feeding people is an act of love. Right? It is an act of love in and of itself. And there’s an exchange there when you make something for somebody. So I can absolutely see that, especially based off of your DNA. That’s so great. When you think back to your time, you had the pivotal moment while you were in school. Was there any time along your journey within the company earlier on, where you had an aha, that you knew this was the tool, this was the brand that you were going to use as a tool to create a change that you wanted to or in some way, shape or form that this was the place that you were going to be? Not simply because you got to make a great product, or have an impact, but it was just that was the beacon?

Rebecca Hamilton 12:29 

Well, I came back into the business with an intention to have it be a tool for advocacy. Healing products. So, I came in knowing that that was a possibility and trying to think about ways that I could support that in the company and using company as a platform to enact positive change. I don’t think that it was necessarily later on that there was aha, when I decided to come back to it, I recognize the value that a company brand that people recognize, have, and impacting social and environmental change, not just from the actions where we’ve often as a company wanting to lead by example, or just make choices as a company that we feel are good, and positive and then also being a voice for advocacy work that we feel are important or mission-aligned.

Diana Fryc 13:27 

Yeah, well, and there are a number, right, I spent some time investigating your website to everything from diversity, legislation, labor practices, product safety. I am particular in user B Corp status is absolutely in alignment with that. And I understand you were foundational in making that happen in your state. Was there an impact at school? Or was there something external that kind of helped all of this solidify? Was there a conversation that you had? Where did the fire come from that that you were going to come back in and use this tool? Or just has it been part of your family DNA, and it’s just natural and innate?

Rebecca Hamilton 14:10 

I think that I personally, I had a passion to be able to have an impact with whatever choices I’m making professionally. And when I was in college, when I shifted from studying ethnobotany, which is more of the medicinal but also the ecological impacts of how and so when I shifted my focus, the two things that I had that I took on additionally, besides business was I enrolled in a program that was called the Citizen Scholar Program. And each year we took on different coursework, which include things like organizing policy activism, and structurally how do you enact change? And then the second one was around supply chain advocacy and I’ve specifically worked on helping my town to become the fourth Fairtrade town in the country working with Fairtrade USA, looking at how we can support ethical supply chains and purchasing prices, both as an individual and also as a company. And so when I came back into Badger, I came back having just worked on Fairtrade, sourcing and policy around Fairtrade, and then also advocacy policy work, academic standpoint that I can bring.

Diana Fryc 15:35 

Yeah. Just the exposure. I mean, and what’s possible, it’s so interesting, where people get their inspiration from. I had just luck, luck, the luck of the gods is all call it in 1999, to work on a project with Jane Goodall. And she’s kind of what put the torch underneath me. But her torch was more like, I don’t need to change the world by doing 5 million things, I can just do one thing. And of course, you start with the one thing and then pretty soon you’re doing 5 million, because you can’t help yourself when you start going that direction. But that was my fire. So I love hearing that. That school, kind of brought everything that was already part of you together and just pointed you in a direction, gave you some more tools. Further of that now, I’m particularly interested in learning more about the National Women’s Business Council and the work that you’re doing there. And in particular, because this podcast is really elevating women, and maybe I had not heard of the National Women’s Business Council and its impact on women in business. So can you share a little bit more about that?

Rebecca Hamilton 16:54 

Yeah, so this is something I didn’t know about until I was invited to become a member. And this is a federal organization, it’s funded by taxpayer dollars. And it was created to support women across the country, in becoming entrepreneurs, successful entrepreneurs. So it, there’s a mandate, and that is that we have members that are bipartisan, so half that represent Republican half that represent democratic, and they’re either women who are business leaders, from each of the different states. And they look at having not every state, but they try and get representatives from across the country. And the members are nominated by their senators or representatives in their state, and then vetted after you go through a whole application process. And so each of the women, they’re either business leaders, or they represent a women’s business organization. We’re separated out into three subgroups that are working subgroups with staff support, Federal staff support. And so I’m on the Rural Business subcommittee. There’s also one on finance. And then there’s one on technology stem. And so on my committee, we look specifically at what issues impact women in rural areas and what are the roadblocks to women becoming successful entrepreneurs in rural areas. And we hold roundtables across the country, in rural areas, we gather insights from women all over the country. And then we also look at kind of what are the most pressing issues? And then we make recommendations either for current policy, or we create our own recommendations that aren’t part of current policy. Those recommendations officially go to Congress and to the President.

Diana Fryc 18:47 

And is there an initiative, you’ll have to remind me because I didn’t read your full bio, and you are involved in so many different activities right now, in this regard? Is this also with the initiatives around family? Or is that a different organization that you’re working with on the kind of thing? Is it family rights? Working moms something along that line?

Rebecca Hamilton 19:12 

It’s a real organization. So I work with the American Sustainable Business Council. And we’ve specifically been working on paid family medical leave. I’ve worked with business for a fair minimum wage, and we work on raising the minimum wage. Sure, is a 725 state in the sense that we have fallen federal regulations on what the minimum wages only stay in New England that hasn’t raised our own state minimum wage. And so I’ve specifically been advocating for raising the federal minimum wage, which I see. I’m sure, I see. And then I work with the campaign for safe cosmetics and the Breast Cancer Prevention Fund on legislation connected to safer cosmetics. We started updated cosmetic regulations since the 1930s. All the things that have changed since the 1930s. And the fact that we don’t have updated regulations, it’s a little bit disconcerting. And being a member of the cosmetic industry, we take a lot of care in the products that we create, and having really high bar standards. But we don’t feel like that’s what’s being done across the industry. And that we need regulations to kind of catch on times.

Diana Fryc 20:35 

Yeah, and there are some initiatives, or organizations that are really working with smaller brands, I mean, much smaller than yours in a lot of startup brands that are working on both efficacy and safety of their products. But the influence needs to be higher up in into the mass. And I know that you’re in the middle probably trying to influence up I’m guessing, as best you can. I’m curious, when I’m thinking of all these, all of this work that you’re doing, and I know that you have a Co-CEO. So that must be the reason why there are two of you based off of how much you have on your plates. Can you share a little bit about how, like there are a lot of people out there men and women who want to be participating at some level, maybe not as much as you but feel like they’re getting pulled? Do you have any advice to those people that are wanting to move forward on how they can be an advocate and still be a good business owner and brand steward and leader within their organization.

Rebecca Hamilton 21:46 

I think becoming a member of an organization that is on the ground floor and trying to support mission-aligned activities is a really great way to start. So I mentioned the American Sustainable Business Council, they regularly bring us opportunities where they think our voice can help in pushing legislation forward. And so they’ll set up lobby days, they’ll set up meetings at the White House, they’ll put my name forward for congressional hearings. And so there’s certainly work that has to be done. Like if my name is put forward for a congressional hearing, I have to prepare a statement and prepare to be cross-examined by congressmen and women. So I have to put that work in but it’s not as much work as if I went to DC by myself and try to figure out how piece of legislation require a lot more work upfront. Whereas with the organizations that I partner with, they’re in DC and vetting every bit of legislation that’s going through Congress and through the Senate, and they can help vet things and let us know what we can help with science. We let them know that we’re interested, but they let us know where we can fit in and be part of that political activism.

Diana Fryc 23:06 

Got you. Okay, great. And then I want to kind of flip it around. Now we’ve been talking a little about your personal and specific impact on the greater when we talk about leading an organization, I’ll be honest with you, as I was doing my research yesterday, I was really pleasantly surprised, but still surprised, nonetheless, at the level of advocacy that you have, I mean, along the lines of Patagonia, in my estimation, and so great.

Rebecca Hamilton 23:39 

Right there. They’ve got more resources on that. I aspire to be like Patagonia, for sure.

Diana Fryc 23:47 

I think all of us do. But I think when you look in the journey, and then when you look at the number of businesses that are out there that are doing this level of advocacy work, you’re definitely closer to the up there than the most of us. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I think oftentimes we get overwhelmed as business owners on how to do it well, because of course, you have to have a profitable business. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter what your advocacy work is at the end of the day, if they don’t line up and they don’t work together. And so as part of that, when you are guiding a company along and I’m assuming that there’s a lot of enrollment with your team, maybe I’m making a bad assumption, but how do you enroll the rest of your company in efforts that you’re doing? Do you have committees? Do people come forward? Maybe talk a little bit about that culture, and how it kind of turns into something bigger than just selling a product?

Rebecca Hamilton 24:48 

Well, I think there’s that’s twofold. So I think we everything from when we hire a new person to our community. When we talk about our mission-based activities, what’s important to us how we run our In business, we look for people who are inspired to work for a business that has a purpose to have a positive impact in the world. And so already, when people enter into our community, they’re somewhat on board for that type of company. And then we do have committees, we have diversity, equity and inclusion committee. We’ve had a different times, Green Team, environmental committee. We’ve had people who have come up and made recommendations and things that we can do as a company that we’ve been able to enact either in ways that we treat our employees through kind of unique benefit programs, or through ways that we’re engaging the community, we offer paid volunteer time to each of our employees. So there are a number of ways that we support our employees in being activists on their own, or through engaging them around mission-based work that we do as a company.

Diana Fryc 26:01 

That’s awesome. And when you think back, this might be, everybody has a hard time with this, I’m going to suspect this will be even harder for you. But when is there any like one or two moments that you can look back on and go, I am most proud that this happened within our organization, because it allowed whatever to happen. Do you have any of those that you’d like to kind of elevate right now?

Rebecca Hamilton 26:30 

Well, I’d say from a external policy work, I was most proud to pass benefit Corp legislation.

Diana Fryc 26:36 

Yes, congrats on that.

Rebecca Hamilton 26:38 

You reincorporate our business and put our mission and principles into our articles of incorporation. And really, you know, be able to say that our purpose for being in business, it’s not to maximize profits and return earnings to shareholders, but our purpose has an environmental and social component to it. And so that I think just felt good from a core level, and to be able to share that with our employees that we have that different purpose that we don’t take profits out of the business. And we invest it back in business, when we do profit-sharing, do profit-sharing equally amongst all of our employees, the owners, which would just treat ourselves as employees in that case. So that I think was really impactful. And in terms of one thing that we do, and this isn’t a time point, but just something that we have here that I think is really impactful is I mentioned the free organic lunch every day. And I think that’s one of the things that really sets us apart. And also over the years has been a huge community driver. And it’s been really hard during the pandemic. lunches feel separate and go in shifts and be distanced from people. But even so that core central place that we have every day where people from different departments can connect, I think is one of the most important things we can do internally for our company culture and for people to develop a sense of community.

Diana Fryc 28:06 

Well, we’ve talked a lot about your advocacy work and your culture, I want to talk a little bit about product before we start to wrap up. You guys have been busy. And I wonder if there’s anything in particular that you were most excited to share when you were at EXPO or if there’s something coming up that you want people to keep their eyes peeled for?

Rebecca Hamilton 28:34 

Well, what I was most excited about expos that we’re launching, rebrand. And so as a legacy 25-year-old company, we’ve developed products over the years and each one we I mean, as a family member, I love every product. I love the way they look currently. And I also recognize that we have an evolution to go through. And that as a company that makes incredible products. There’s kind of a shifting perception on how people look at products and how the quality of the product and part of that is in the product packaging. And so starting with our sunscreens, which is our number one category of products. And we’ll be rebranding each of them to different degrees. So Okay, notice our sunscreens don’t have the Badger on them. They’re a little bit different. They have different ecological scenes, we work with an environmental illustrator, and created different scenes that connected with the product. Coral Reef art and baby sea turtle, baby sunscreen. And so each of the arts are really just really beautiful and connected the product and we simplify the packaging, tried to really highlight the things that were most important. And so some of the products will still have the Badges on it and some of them will have even, the same art. But Bill wrote the next two years, we’re gonna be going through each product line touching each of them making sure that they really feel cohesive and represent the product inside.

Diana Fryc 30:14 

Yeah. Well personally as a longtime purchaser of the Badger brands, sunscreen and lip balm, and we have a couple of other things, I want to say the original product too, is in the house somewhere floating around. I’ll miss the kind of iconic badge. But I mean, that’s me personally. But then also, as a brand marketer, I also know that the audience is changing. And sometimes you have to modernize. And it is a tricky balance, to make sure you keep the heritage, but still be able to talk to a new audience. I appreciate that challenge. Wow. Well, Rebecca, I’m enjoying our conversation. Our time is almost up. And I like to ask three questions of every guest. So I usually customize the first set of questions. And these last three, everybody gets the same. So the first one is what is one fact about your product brand or industry that you would like everybody to remember from this time?

Rebecca Hamilton 31:18 

Product, brand or industry?

Diana Fryc 31:20 

Yeah, it’s pretty big. I call it a cocktail. Oh, now I forgot it’s escaped my brain, like something that you share with your friends. So, for example, one of my first guests told me that the percentage of lipstick sales, percentage of lipstick sales, shortly after COVID happened went up something like 200% or something like that, because it was an easy fix. And women were looking at themselves in zoom all day long. And so the sales just went up. So I would say it could be something like that, or could be an ingredient-focused or something like that.

Rebecca Hamilton 31:59 

Well, I’d say just about our products, something that I’m most proud of is how simple they are. Our sunscreen is three core ingredients with, enjoy or extract in making them different, and we make them you know, which is actually incredibly rare when it’s green. Nobody in their right mind makes sunscreen.

Diana Fryc 32:22 

Yeah, it’s mostly command, isn’t it? Yeah. Okay. And so let’s talk about any other women leaders or rising stars in our industry that you would like to elevate for the work that they’re doing right now?

Rebecca Hamilton 32:37 

Well, I don’t know if you’ve seen at the trade show the green scarf girls. Walk around the trade show with wearing all black with green scarves. No, my advisor from college. Cynthia Barstow is a marketing professional there, teaches marketing the natural products industry, she started an organization called Protect Our breasts. And she has chapters in colleges all over the country, but she has a group of students that she’ll bring, these are the best and the best to bring to the trade show every year. And these students learn the ins and outs of our industry. And they think about things from how do you protect women from getting breast cancer through the choices they make when they’re college-age, or during age by the products they’re choosing that don’t have carcinogenic or endocrine disruptors in them. And so these women are just brilliant and really well trained. And after they graduate, they go into our industry more often than not, and so I see these as potential rising stars because they come in at kind of that young age, even though they’re not part of a family brand and learn the industry from the safety perspective. And they bring a really high degree of ethic and an understanding. That’s not usual for people just starting out in our industry.

Diana Fryc 34:02 

Interesting. I love that. So this is your college professor from Is this the one from Hawaii,

Rebecca Hamilton 34:09 

from UMass Amherst. Isenberg School of Management.

Diana Fryc 34:12 

Okay, and what’s her name again?

Rebecca Hamilton 34:14 

Cynthia Barstow.

Diana Fryc 34:15 

All right, we’re going to give her little loves.

Rebecca Hamilton 34:17 

Protect Our Breasts.

Diana Fryc 34:19 

Okay, thank you for that.

Rebecca Hamilton 34:21 

Great woman to feature on this as well just In our industry.

Diana Fryc 34:27 

Yes. Maybe you can make that introduction for me. That would be wonderful. Thank you. Okay. And my last question is What brand or trends do you have your eye on right now on why?

Rebecca Hamilton 34:40 

Well, being mostly a sunscreen company. I have my eye on the mineral sunscreen trend, which is just blowing up we’ve had in the last few years, when badger started making mineral sunscreen back in 2005. There were maybe two other mineral brands on the market. Many of us now every major company from banana to Neutrogena has a mineral sunscreen. And, and that whole side of sunscreen is just completely evolving and changing and growing. And so it’s a interesting and exciting trend to watch and there’s different regulatory changes from coral reef legislation making different decisions. So it’s definitely a hot spot to follow.

Diana Fryc 35:27 

Okay, thank you for that. Okay. Well, we’ve been talking with Rebecca Hamilton, Co-CEO at Badger company. Rebecca, where can people learn more about you and Badger?

Rebecca Hamilton 35:40 

You can go to our website, which is badgerbalm.com. probably our best place to start.

Diana Fryc 35:47 

Yes, and if you guys go there, please make sure like, yes, go see the products but go take a look at the impact Badger is having right now in our industry and then in our environment in just culturally in general, you probably you will just be thrilled and happy. So make sure you check that part out. Well, I’m going to thank you so much for your time today and happy to have met you and spent time with you. I’ll be curious to watch what comes next. And I also want to thank all of you listeners for your time today. If you liked this episode, please make sure to share it with a friend. Otherwise, have a great day everybody and we’ll catch you next time on the Gooder Podcast.

Outro 36:37 

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