She tried hand cream at a red light and built an empire. Karen Minsky, President of Dionis Goat Milk Skincare, shares how she scaled a 40-year-old woman-founded brand from a tiny team to 150+ employees across nearly 6,000 retailers, including Ulta and Macy's, by refusing to take no for an answer.

In this episode, Karen reveals:

• The legendary origin story of how the founder walked into Cracker Barrel with a live goat to pitch soap
• Her "bull in a china shop" approach to retail distribution (including sneaking into corporate offices to find buyers)
• Why product truth beats beautiful packaging in the beauty industry
• The power of certainty: sending samples and knowing buyers will call back • How rejection became her favorite part of the job
• Scaling a business while raising three boys and staying true to the brand's mission

This is a masterclass in fearless selling, product confidence, and the unglamorous hustle behind the brands in your favorite stores. Perfect for entrepreneurs, beauty industry professionals, and anyone who needs permission to be "that person" who won't take no for an answer.

Subscribe for more stories of founders who built empires on conviction, not compromise.

Serena Reynolds: And Karen isn't just running this brand. She's the one who walked in for a job interview, tried the hand cream, and knew instantly she had to be part of it. She's a New York girl at heart, a mum's three boys, and someone who will absolutely not take no for an answer. She calls herself a bull in a China shop.

Sara Ferrer: She's also just launched her own podcast about women navigating motherhood and business, so she gets what we're all about.

Serena Reynolds: And I'm Serena and I help bold leaders become the go-to experts in this space.

Sara Ferrer: And I'm Sara, an email marketing pro here to convert clicks into cash.

Sara Ferrer: Together, Serena and I are two women in charge. Digging into the fearless, the flawed, and the oh. So fabulous journeys of female founders rewriting the rules.

Serena Reynolds: So let's dive in. Welcome to our show, Karen.

Karen Minsky : Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Sara Ferrer: We're excited to have you. We heard goat, we heard skincare, and we're like, yes, yes, yes.

Karen Minsky : What a great combination, right?

Sara Ferrer: Yeah, exactly. I want a goat.

Karen Minsky : Well, tidbit, you have to have two because they travel on packs. But yes, they're great pets

Serena Reynolds: and they, uh, play with dogs.

Karen Minsky : No, they really need each other. So I mean, my dog, my farm dog chases them, but they still like each other.

Serena Reynolds: So, Karen, this brand has one of the best origin stories I've ever heard. Do you wanna share that?

Karen Minsky : Absolutely. So our founder, Kate Crosby, was a goat herder in Virginia and she had plenty of milk, didn't know what to do with it, and decided that she wanted to just make some bar soap because why waste? She gave it to some friends and family, and they absolutely loved it, and they said, Hey, why don't you sell it locally?

Karen Minsky : She did. And of course that went really well. And Cracker Barrel opened near her. I think it was like when the chain first really kind of get it, you know, got hyped up here in the US and she took a goat in her truck and drove up to the store and said, Hey, I have some bar soap. Can I sell it in this store?

Karen Minsky : And asked to meet with the buyer. Of course, everybody came outside to greet her because she has a goat who says no to that. And, uh, yeah, the rest is history. And that's kind of like the foundation of, of honestly who we are and who we've been for so long. Can't take no for an answer.

Serena Reynolds: I mean, that, that's just a brand story all on its own there, you know, a woman determined to do something walking in and, and just owning it.

Karen Minsky : Absolutely. And honestly, personally for me, like when I hear the word no, I'm like, oh, you're just challenging me now. And I feel like we have to do that, right? We have to fight our way through. Absolutely. So Karen, how did you get involved with this? So I kind of was in between my career. Kind of took like a turn and the company I was working for was moving and I have a family and I did not wanna uproot my children at that time.

Karen Minsky : I can do this in my sleep. I did everything here, and I went in and I had a interview and at the end I was like, I don't know. I'm not sure, but they gave me some hand cream. And I was in my car driving and I got to a red light and I'm like, let me just try this on. I might as well I'm in the car and I put the hand cream on and I don't know, it just sparked something within me and I said, I need to be a part of this brand because it's like the best kept secret, but like, it shouldn't be a secret because it's so wonderful.

Karen Minsky : And uh, yeah, the rest is history.

Sara Ferrer: But that moment you just talked about, you put it on and went, oh, holy shit, this is kind of nice.

Karen Minsky : And it was a surprise, right? Because how many times have we put on hand cream lotion and we're like, yeah, it's great, whatever. And then we just kind of moved on with our lives. So I'm someone that always have been using creams and lotion, so it's not like I've never used it and it's my first experience.

Karen Minsky : But the difference was really there for me, and I was just, I immediately fell in love and honestly, like it's in my soul. Like when people say to me, oh, you're talking about the brand, you know, like, it's part of you because it's like my other kid, you know, this is like my baby. I love it so much just because I think that it's so different and I'm so focused on really making a difference for people and like what they're putting on their skin.

Serena Reynolds: Do you know what I, took away from that?

Serena Reynolds: Was, was the fact that you, you went to a job interview and you were like, yeah, whatever. I'm, I'm good with this. And, you know, I really like that. There's something about that that's so empowering when you're in that, when you, when you feel that.

Karen Minsky : I know it just totally, I don't know, and it's never happened to me, right?

Karen Minsky : I've had like a really long career. It's not like I was a young kid out of school and this was my first job. I've had so many jobs and my career was going in so many different directions, and to be wowed at that point in my career was just something very special for me, and so I couldn't ignore it.

Serena Reynolds: So had you worked in skincare previously or,

Karen Minsky : no, I worked for a tabletop company and I was doing, dealing with like flatware and glassware and dinnerware and that was my passion in life at that point, or at least I thought.

Sara Ferrer: Well, like, so, so walk us through then. Okay. So you start working for them, right? You're like, Hey, this hand cream is great.

Karen Minsky : So I start working for them and I, the company's very small at that point, and you know, I am someone who observes first before I kind of come in and I was just looking around and I don't know, it was about a month in and I was like, what is happening here?

Karen Minsky : Like this is like. Not really, you know, the company was like, run, okay. But it was run, like, it was a really small company and there were some basic things that we could do that would really just change, you know, the, the dynamic of the brand and really the, the, the journey that we were on. And so I immediately implemented a few things just.

Karen Minsky : So I did that for about a month or two, and then when I made these changes. All of a sudden, like little things happened that, you know, that shifted. And then one day I had this bright idea that I wanted to go after, you know, different types of retailers and, and you know, I just was boldly doing that. So I either called or I, you know, and this is after like massive rejection.

Karen Minsky : This is not like an easy thing. I called people and they were like, no, we're not interested in you. You're too small. I'm like, really? Gimme a shot. Let me just try. No. And so it was rejection. Rejection. And I said, I'm not gonna go through anybody. I'm just doing this myself. I mean, literally at one of our, like, you know, one of the known retailers here, I went to their corporate offices and I like tried to sneak in to go find the buyer and I stood, but I think the guy was gonna throw me out of the building at one point because I was just standing there for so long.

Karen Minsky : And then, you know, I'll do everything I can to convince you. But I also did what happened to me, I just sent samples to people because the experience that I had. It wasn't like an inauthentic experience, so I knew that if I just got it in someone's hand, they would just understand.

Sara Ferrer: And what, what was the pitch like when, when you, like were in, in these offices sending samples, what made this brand different?

Sara Ferrer: What was kind of the elevator pitch that you told people and eventually, I mean, it's in 6,000 retailers, so something, something resonated.

Karen Minsky : So the first thing was I said, listen, the cream is a cream is a cream, but not a goat milk cream. And let me just explain that. When you're putting on your skin, you know why you wanna nourish your skin and the benefits of goat milk because there are ma, you know, major benefits and the vitamins and nutrients we share the same pH I can go on.

Karen Minsky : And then I would send them samples and say, I don't even need your answer right now. I'm gonna send you samples and I'm gonna send it enough for everybody in the office. This was before COVID when people actually worked in an office. Uh, I said, here, you know, here are all the, you know, the samples. Take them and use them.

Karen Minsky : I'll be in touch in the next couple of weeks. I'm not even worried about it 'cause I know you're gonna call me. And I think they like that confidence, right? Oh my God, this girl thinks that like, I'm gonna call her whatever. But I will say that it was about a 50 50 shot. Like sometimes they called me, sometimes I had to say, Hey, how's that sample working out?

Serena Reynolds: It,

Serena Reynolds: it takes a lot to take rejection,

Serena Reynolds: it takes a lot to be bullied and to, to step into that space and not be intimidated. And, um,

Karen Minsky : yeah, I think it's the passion, right? I think if you, if deep inside you believe in something, it's really hard for at least me, for someone to talk me out it, you know? And so just because I'm so passionate and I know, I know.

Karen Minsky : And then I also try to. You know, say, Hey, what did you know? Like for example, like what does this retailer need? How do I present the brand? That makes sense for them also, because you wanna make sure that, you know, everybody is being serviced the way they should be serviced and what, what they're serving their customer base.

Serena Reynolds: So on our pre-call, you mentioned something that I really like the phrase of, and I think we should bring it into this.

Serena Reynolds: Um, your chemist, uh, uses a phrase. Let's talk about that.

Karen Minsky : So, one of my biggest, I guess I would say pet peeves, right? I go to the market, I go to any retailer, any store, and I pull out this beautiful packaging with this beautiful product that's claiming all of these amazing, you know, things that it's gonna do for my skin and like everyone else, you know, before I was knowledgeable enough.

Karen Minsky : And before I knew more than I do now, I literally would take these things home. I would spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on these things and nothing would really happen. Things that were promised didn't really happen, and so what I learned soon enough is that you really just have to put such a minuscule amount of an ingredient into.

Karen Minsky : And so we call it fufu. And one of our biggest rules are we don't put fufu dust in our product. So if it says it's gonna do something, it's doing it because we have enough of it in there that we know what, how much it needs to be in there in order for it to do it. And I just, I'm so like, honestly upset for, you know, people who don't know enough about it, you know, because you're spending all of this money and you're buying all of these things and, and it's just, it's just sad to me.

Karen Minsky : Right. It's sad.

Serena Reynolds: I mean, I mean I, I am probably one of the biggest I will.

Karen Minsky : Right. And that's not always the case. I mean, listen, ours, like I said, ours is approachable price points and, and I do that because I wanna make sure that it's attainable for everybody, but it doesn't really have to be super expensive.

Karen Minsky : It truly doesn't. It just has to be quality. And then once you kind of get to know your brands and you know, you do a little bit of research, I think you'll, you'll discover like who the real partners are.

Serena Reynolds: Yeah, I think most of us, we just blindly go in and buy these things and hope that it's going to make a difference.

Karen Minsky : I mean, listen, it looks pretty right This, it looks pretty on the shelf. It looks really premium. The packaging looks amazing. I have to say, there's a lot of talented people in the world, the way they design these things, and it's wonderful. And I. It's important for it to look, look the price. Yeah, exactly.

Serena Reynolds: And most of us dunno what it means.

Karen Minsky : Right, right, right. But we're spending money. Right. Trial and error on a regular basis.

Serena Reynolds: What is Retinol. What does that do for When do I use it? When shouldn't I use it? Should I put on more? Is it less? I have no idea. I know, I know. It's so hard. It really truly is hard, you know? So, I mean, coming from tableware, you've obviously had to learn this as.

Serena Reynolds: On the job, would you say?

Karen Minsky : Well, the skillset I had just because I had such a long career, it's just really learning the product and understanding beauty, and I'm someone that is very, I'm like a self learner. I do better if I am investigating on my own. I ask a ton of questions. I do my own research and I really try to.

Karen Minsky : Or, you know, I don't think this looks right. This is, you know, like, things were like purple and I'm like. Why is it purple if it's supposed to be goat milk? Like that doesn't make sense to me. Why are we adding color? Like, that's not good. So, you know, I like discontinued so many items. People were very upset with me and I was like, no, we need to get rid of stuff that doesn't make sense and that is not, you know, true to who we are.

Karen Minsky : And, and so a lot of it is just self-learning and self-discovery. But I'm like that in my life. You know, if I don't know something, I don't shy away from it. I really jump in and try it. My hardest to figure it out, and then I probably stumble. I make mistakes. It's not perfect. I don't wanna make you think that like, oh, Karen is just, you know, she's done it great for so long.

Karen Minsky : No, I've totally stumbled and crashed and burned, but I get up, I'm like, all right, I'm gonna try it again.

Karen Minsky : really, really love the company.

Sara Ferrer: Really love the company.

Sara Ferrer: And now it You own the company you

Karen Minsky : No, so no, I don't own the company.

Sara Ferrer: What's your role now?

Karen Minsky : Yes, so yeah, so I'm the president of the company. It is a family owned. The family is a wonderful family. I actually probably fell in love with them just because they are. You know, the DNA of the company and how they function as a family.

Karen Minsky : I really admire. And I, and I really love that. And it feels very natural for me. Like, it feels like a family that I wanna, you know, that I'm, I almost consider them like my family when I'm at work. It's not, you know, it's not foreign and, and, and so it's wonderful. And you know, they're very supportive. You know, they're not involved in the day-to-day business.

Karen Minsky : It has to stay we have to buy it. And so they bought it from her just to show again, just the passion that Dionis just brought from the very start to, you know, people that kind of were introduced to it.

Sara Ferrer: It is so rare, like to hear, so you're the president of the company. Like, but you speak, and this is the, the best compliment you can hear is when your passion, it's almost as if you, you, you founded it, you know, like you're so entwined with it and you, you speak from such a point of ownership of like, not like, like this is my, like this is who I am, this is what I believe in.

Sara Ferrer: I actually walk the walk and talk the talk.

Karen Minsky : Absolutely. And honestly, when I wake up in the morning, I'm not coming to work. It's, this is not my job, you know, I really, truly don't think of it that way. I use, listen, in my career, I've had jobs where I got up and I'm like, Ugh, gotta go back in today. I never have that day.

Karen Minsky : And if I have to, you know, come in and, I mean, listen, sometimes I have to come in and take care of the goats, you know, that happens if somebody calls out or whatever, you know, we have 18 goats on the farm, and so I will come in and take care of them. That happens. I don't mind doing that. They're my goats.

Karen Minsky : You know, I love them. I've named every one of them, so it's like they're my pets.

Sara Ferrer: So what, what does a day in the life look like for Karen? Because now, now you've opened the door. What does a day look? You wake up What? What's a typical day or typical week?

Karen Minsky : Yeah. So I wake up, I get myself together. I, you know, get my, my son who's my, my youngest is 12, so I still get him on the bus in the morning.

Karen Minsky : Sometimes in the morning I come in and I just play with them. They know who I am, you know, give them little treats. You know, and we play, but then I'm here. And honestly for me it's just like leading the team and really just continue to innovate and inspire and try to, you know, deal with issues and concerns that come up.

Karen Minsky : And, you know, our manufacturing facility where we make the product is a half hour away from the farm. We do it ourselves and. So that's also really fun, right? So if you wanna jump in and see, hey, how does that new fragrance working out? I can pop in and just look at the factory. Our distribution center operations team, they're all very close together.

Karen Minsky : I like to kind of pop in and see how everyone's doing. Check in. Yeah. And then talk to you guys on a Friday afternoon. On a Friday morning. It's great.

Karen Minsky : I'll say it's a lot of fun. They're very, very sweet.

Serena Reynolds: That's exactly where my thoughts went, right?

Serena Reynolds: Conceptive goats. How can I tie this in? I need some goats.

Karen Minsky : I mean, listen, they definitely make you happy. They're really smart animals. They are absolutely smart. They know their names. They can follow directions. They know exactly when it's time to go to their stall. They know exactly which one is which.

Karen Minsky : You don't even have to redirect them. You just open the door. They know exactly where to go. They're very, very smart. I You naughty though. I I've had goat. Whoa. No, they're like littles. I mean, if I, for, so one weekend, I'll tell you a quick story. One weekend I had to take care of the goats and by mistake one of the stalls, I didn't close the gate properly.

Karen Minsky : So I had, I mean, thankfully everything is locked so they couldn't like leave the barn, but I walked into a barn that was 18 goats running a muck. And it was just like, it was hysterical. It was dirty. 'cause they do, you know, they're not, they can't control their bowels and whatever, but not potty train. But they were, I was like, okay, I'll do better.

Karen Minsky : Thank you for teaching me that. This was not how you put a goat away at night. So it, I mean, there's some footage 'cause we have like ring cameras in there to like help us in case, you know, we need to like look in. Yeah, sometimes I look at the camera and I'm like, oh no, and I have to like rush back. So it's, it's fun.

Karen Minsky : It's fun. They're like,

Serena Reynolds: that's a really probably stupid question. Is it your goat milk that you put into your products?

Karen Minsky : So it used to be, but the brand is so big now that I literally would need to have like 150 goats, not 18 goats. So this is more now.

Serena Reynolds: Well, need anyone to look after them.

Karen Minsky : Um, you know, we are a cruelty-free brand and so we are very, very serious about where we get our goat milk. But yeah, we can't, I mean, literally I would need to quit my day job and go take care of goats full time in order for me to be able to do that. And so, yeah, that's what we're. Is great though.

Sara Ferrer: Wow. So wait, so tell me then, so, okay, goat milk key ingredient.

Sara Ferrer: You've scaled this. I wanna talk about the scaling part because like you are in a ton of stores, Macy's, Alta, like there are some big names out there, which makes sense why you need A-A-A-A-A hundred 50 goats, right. Um. How, from the business side, 'cause I'm, I bought into the product side, right? I'm like, I get it all natural.

Sara Ferrer: Because sometimes in retail, the new hot thing, you get a good, a good media clip, a good PR clip, or how did that happen?

Karen Minsky : Um, I would say that probably it took about. Maybe two years after I've joined the company to really, I mean we saw like little bumps and then two years later we kind of started, you know, seeing like bigger traction.

Karen Minsky : So of course we did make soap, so we were able to stay open, which was wonderful, and then we make it ourselves. So then we started making sanitizers. But I feel very like personally responsible for every single person that works for me. And so. I had a, a really a responsibility. How do I keep these people working?

Karen Minsky : Because I wanna make sure that everyone keeps their job, they keep getting their paychecks, but like, I need to make sure that we are moving forward. And we really focused our brand on the online business and our direct to consumer website is just like it blew up. Everybody like found us because you were forced to do personal self-care at home.

Karen Minsky : You couldn't go out to a spa. You really couldn't go out and get a facial if you wanted to, you know, if you needed something like in your, your bathtime routine or your skincare routine, you had to figure it out on your own. And we used that opportunity to really educate and people found this online and we just kind of exploded from there.

Sara Ferrer: That makes sense. I mean, I think sometimes, you know, people forget for certain businesses, right? Um. COVID, you, you made soap, right?

Sara Ferrer: Like self-care. I remember those. Self-care at home nights with, I buy the little booties, the little, you know, disposable little gloves. The, you take some cucumbers over your eyes. I mean, it was a real thing more so than probably before because there was so much anxiety and angst and terror going on. So I hear what you're saying.

Sara Ferrer: For you, you kind of took this period that would've otherwise Yeah. A very negative, horrible period. And you said, okay, how do we keep people working? How do we keep our products front and center? And so you found that traffic to the website increased, and then from there you kind of leveraged that to get into more retailers after like, Hey, we have X.

Sara Ferrer: Okay. Makes sense.

Karen Minsky : So we were at Ulta Beauty at that time, and Ulta Beauty closed all their stores. They couldn't be open, they weren't an essential business, but their online business was still fine. But they had sent their, you know, their brands and a letter that basically said because of what's going on. We're not gonna guarantee that we're gonna be able to order anymore because they didn't know right.

Karen Minsky : What were people really gonna buy and, and so we will let you know if we, you know, if we end up buying from you again. We ended up being like one of the handful of brands that were actually sold out on ulta.com and we ended up increasing our business so much during COVID with them because people just loved our brand.

Karen Minsky : And then they realized, wait, this brand is actually really good. We love the product. And so, you know, we had major success at Ulta. You know, right after that, when the doors opened, they put us in all stores. So that's kind of was like our first big, you know, exciting venture. Being in all Ulta beauty doors was a huge.

Karen Minsky : Huge celebration for the brand and then it kind of just all domino effect from there.

Serena Reynolds: But realistically, that could have gone the other way. Totally, totally. And I think that as business owners, that's something that we need to be aware of that when we rely on, on one particular dis distributor to, or client as, as like our primary business funnel, then.

Serena Reynolds: Then this, that could have been like a huge issue for you could

Karen Minsky : And I got really, really scared because this is my company and these are my people that work for me, and I hired them in good faith. I'm responsible for them and their families. It's not just me, right? I mean, yes, I have me and my family, and I've obviously, I care about that, but what am I gonna do with all these people?

Karen Minsky : And so I literally, like, that's when I learned what a panic attack was. And so when things started going, you know, in a better direction, I was like, okay, I'm able to like breathe a little bit. Um, because I do feel very, very, like, you know, personally responsible for every single person.

Serena Reynolds: Uh, I mean, absolutely as business owner, I, I am.

Serena Reynolds: Guilty of putting guilty, not guilty. I dunno how you wanna put it, of putting them first.

Karen Minsky : Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's a lot of responsibility, right? A lot of these people, you know, that come work for you in good faith, you know, they are. They have long ways and they have things that they need to do. Everybody has their own story, right?

Sara Ferrer: How many people are we talking? Karen, when you say people, are we talking, uh, we had mentioned before 150 in the intro, but is it still one 50? Has it grown? Is it less?

Karen Minsky : No, I mean, so it's 150, but like across like the manufacturing as well as, but like in our like everyday work, we're like 22 people, so between the distribution center and the office people, it's like 22 people total. And I know it doesn't feel like a lot. But it's every person as a person, right? And then the factory workers, thank God we were able to keep them going because we had the hand soap, we had the sanitizer.

Karen Minsky : And so that was easy. But like, what do you do with everybody else? And so, you know, and at that time we didn't even know how to work from home. I mean, a lot of companies didn't, so there was a lot of learning. But, you know, thankfully, you know, things worked out. Again, I, I, I hate to say by luck because I did like, you know, lose sleep thinking about these things.

Serena Reynolds: Let's touch a little bit for, for us, people that aren't in the skincare industry, let's talk about goat milk.

Serena Reynolds: What is it about goat milk that makes it so good in skincare?

Karen Minsky : So the number one benefit of goat milk, and I don't know if you know this, but we share the same pH as goats. So what that means is as humans, when we put on a lotion, if you've ever put it on and it's like greasy, or you're like, I need to wipe this off, it's making marks on my computer, my phone, whatever, that is not a compatible lotion with your skin.

Karen Minsky : And so goat milk is not like that because we share the same pH. You'll never have the greasy residue. You'll never feel like you have something foreign on your skin, on your hands, and it's also loaded with vitamins and nutrients. And so you're nourishing your skin in addition to adding moisture and hydration.

Sara Ferrer: I love that, Karen.

Sara Ferrer: Like I said, as a, as a lover of skincare, there's something so beautiful when like, the ingredient is, it's so simple in nature, right? I mean, you walk into an alta, you walk into a Sephora. I don't know about you ladies, but any love I have of skincare, which I do, it quickly fades away once I enter into a store and there's a million options and there's 50 employees, and everyone's like, you want, it's, it's like.

Sara Ferrer: You know, the new mushroom from Asia is the hottest ingredient and the peptide that can do X, Y, and Z. How do you keep goat milk cool and relevant.

Karen Minsky : You know, goat milk, just, it was, it's literally rooted in nature. It's not something that I'm adding, it's not like a formula that was made in the lab that I'm creating.

Karen Minsky : And so I think if you just keep reminding, because fads and trends, they keep going and they keep changing, right? Today, everybody's into X. Tomorrow they're gonna be into Y, but goat milk is sustainable. That won't change. And now I think a lot of people also what, you know, a lot of the, you know, the articles and things that I'm reading, which is.

Karen Minsky : This is actually something that's founded. I can research that's reputable, that I can actually say, you know what, there's goat milk in here. I know what goat milk does. To your point, how much retinol do they put in? How much, whatever the fufu dust was. But in this case, goat milk is, goat milk can't change that, right?

Karen Minsky : The benefit is there. And so, and it doesn't matter if it's a drop or if it's a gallon, you know, you are getting the benefit of the goat milk. And so I think that is really also important to remember that, you know, it's a naturally derived ingredient.

Sara Ferrer: Totally agree. Totally, totally agree. And I again love that there's a conviction in like, I ask that question.

Sara Ferrer: Stick with what works new. Sometimes can, can just denote flashy packaging. So with that thoughts. I wanna, you seem like a lady who, through your journey, you're always, you're always ready for a, for a challenge. Okay? You don't, you don't take no for an answer. You pivoted during COVID, Karen, you're gonna knock this out of the park.

Sara Ferrer: We, we ask every single podcast, we ask a previous guest to ask our.

Sara Ferrer: No, no.

Serena Reynolds: And, and for a change, I've actually prepared this and I actually know where it's, as opposed to me going, oh God, I can't believe Sara's asked me. I'm gonna go and find it.

Sara Ferrer: I know you have it in front of you. I don't have it in front of me, but I'm like, let me pass the ball to Serena.

Serena Reynolds: Okay Karen, so our last guest ask.

Serena Reynolds: What music do you listen to when you are going through it with your business as like, you know, when you're struggling with your business, what music kind of peps you up? Um, what band, what genre and what, what are listening to?

Karen Minsky : That's when I think about all of my crazy ideas for the day. That's when I, you know, when I'm always like coming up with my hair brainin ideas and so yeah, that's the. Oh, I like that question.

Serena Reynolds: I think we need some artist names here.

Serena Reynolds: Yeah,

Sara Ferrer: I'm thinking

Sara Ferrer: Madonna,

Sara Ferrer: Prince.

Karen Minsky : You're really challenging me, like Brian Adams.

Sara Ferrer: Oh, snap it out for Brian.

Sara Ferrer: are you, are you, I think I think of Madonna.

Karen Minsky : Madonna is great. Yeah.

Sara Ferrer: Is it like Madonna Prince? Is it like Elton, Joel?

Karen Minsky : I love, you know Billy, right? Billy Joel. I love Billy Joel.

Sara Ferrer: What about Wake me up before you go. Go Donna. Hang in there. What was that? What was that singer's name again?

Serena Reynolds: Wham

Karen Minsky : . Yeah.

Sara Ferrer: Who? Who's the lead singer or the Michael? No,

Sara Ferrer: George.

Sara Ferrer: Michael.

Sara Ferrer: George Michaels. I'm thinking boy. George. Michael.

Karen Minsky : Michael Serena. You can be on a trivia game.

Sara Ferrer: She's good. She's good. I love that though, Karen. That is like, first of all, when you said, when you said, this is gonna age me, I'm gonna be very honest, I was like, oh, maybe she listens to like something from the early 19 hundreds.

Karen Minsky : know.

Karen Minsky : I mean, I'll tell you my boys, like I have 2 21 year olds. And they're like, what are you listening to? And I'm like, oh my God. I officially became old where I my, you know, I used to ask my parents, what are you listening to? And now I'm that person. But I love it. It just gives me peace. And I don't know, it's just like this comfort thing.

Karen Minsky : That stays with me, so I love it.

Serena Reynolds: Can I just do a little name drop here? My daughter has done quite both my children like, like did a lot of stage work when they were younger, and um, my daughter has actually performed for Elton John. She hasn't seen Elton John perform, but Elton John has seen her perform.

Serena Reynolds: That's so cool,

Sara Ferrer: sir. Elton John.

Serena Reynolds: Sir. Elton John. Elton John. And it, it's literally every time she's, you've seen me perform, you know, he's such the big performer.

Sara Ferrer: And he's retired, right? Because he, he did like his final.

Sara Ferrer: Final.

Karen Minsky : Final. He did a final tour final. That's the one that I was on. But I feel like he's constantly coming up with these remixes now, which is genius on his part. But

Sara Ferrer: it's, it, listen, life is expensive. Whenever someone goes into retirement and then three years later they're like, I have to pay the bills.

Sara Ferrer: I'm back out. I'm back. I'm like, I get it. I get it,

Karen Minsky : I get it, I get it, I get it.

Sara Ferrer: But at the same time, you told us it was the end. Um, so, so for, for our next guest, Karen, you have no idea who they're, what they work in, what their story is. What would you like to ask? That lovely future. Fabulous woman.

Karen Minsky : Okay, so I'm gonna ask, if you were gifted a goat, what would you name your goat?

Sara Ferrer: That's a Serena. What would you name your goat?

Serena Reynolds: Well, you see, I had, I had a few good names earlier and now they've all gone,

Serena Reynolds: Well, okay, I see. I love, I love ridiculous names for pets. I really do. I really do my, my latest kitten is called, hang on. What's my latest kitten called? Lucy-Fur.

Serena Reynolds: Yeah, Lucifer when she's naughty. Otherwise, it's just Lucy when she's good.

Sara Ferrer: I love that. That is a great question though. I think that that will show if someone's playful, if someone's like a little bit more serious. Yeah, for sure. I

Serena Reynolds: love that for sure. Every time I take a pet to the get. That's an unusual name.

Serena Reynolds: Where did that come from?

Serena Reynolds: Talking about Pi Pigeon,

Sara Ferrer: we're talking about the pet pigeons. We about the pet. The story pigeon.

Karen Minsky : How do you rescue a pigeon? I must ask that.

Serena Reynolds: Well, was a tiny little baby.

Serena Reynolds: It had no mommy, so it needed to be looked after, fed and kept warm. So did

Karen Minsky : I don't even know. I don't understand.

Sara Ferrer: You're exactly where you need to be. Karen. None of us understood. None of us.

Karen Minsky : It's so, it's so lovely. What, who rescue goats. I appreciate that you rescue

Serena Reynolds: people. I, I'll personally rescue anything if it's got more than, well, two legs under eight, under six, under six.

Serena Reynolds: Preferably two,

Karen Minsky : I'll call you if my, if my barn gets over,

Karen Minsky : Yeah. You guys are in trouble.

Serena Reynolds: So yeah, we've, we've, we've rescued pigeons and I, we've literally been on podcasts and I've had a pigeon, um, we haven't seen her for a very long time.

Serena Reynolds: I'm very sad about this. She stopped coming back, but we released her and she used to just,

Karen Minsky : she to come back.

Serena Reynolds: Oh yeah. All the time. She flew in the camera. One time she just flew in behind. I go, oh my God, Serena, no. Is everything okay? She's fine. She just saw my hair. I have a fake background and you just saw my hair flick because she didn't, she didn't activate the background and it, it was, yeah, it was my pet.

Serena Reynolds: It was my. Amazing.

Karen Minsky : Oh my gosh.

Serena Reynolds: She would look at you and, yeah.

Sara Ferrer: Karen, you thought you were coming on to talk about Goat Skincare now you find yourself? Uh uh, yeah. Right, because I'm, I'm reading your facial, I'm reading your facial expressions, which were the same exact expressions the first time I found out about the pet, and I was like, I'm intrigued, but I got questions.

Sara Ferrer: But I'm, I'm

Karen Minsky : totally intriguing.

Sara Ferrer: Yes,

Karen Minsky : probably to do a whole podcast episode about this

Sara Ferrer: Hundred percent.

Serena Reynolds: Honestly, we have rescued and looked after so many animals here.

Karen Minsky : That's wonderful though.

Serena Reynolds: It it's actually my, my, one of my favorite things.

Sara Ferrer: Aw, I love that. That's really wonderful. I love that.

Karen Minsky : And , well, if you're ever

Karen Minsky : in the area, you can come

Karen Minsky : and see our sanctuary

Serena Reynolds: and our Oh, gosh, yes.

Serena Reynolds: Goats.

Sara Ferrer: I wanted to ask you, Karen, do you guys do with the goats? I know this was very popular years ago because I, I attended a class that was featuring this goat yoga.

Karen Minsky : The goats really don't like jump on you like they do, but like, you have to entice them with like snacks and so forth. They're not really in like, they're not really gonna just jump on you if you're like on a downward facing dog position. That's not happening. But, but no, goats are just interested in food.

Karen Minsky : They're grazers so they will just, you know, we did it out on the grass. They're great for your, you know, your yard. They like to eat wheat, stuff like that. But yeah, but we did it a few times and then sometimes we've had like really big goats just to kind of like walk around and it's just funny. They'll just walk and they'll just knock you out and you're, they're 120 pounds and they're like, oh, sorry, I'm trying to get to the suite over here and you're in my way.

Karen Minsky : So they just push you.

Sara Ferrer: Oh my God. Well, I, I love the idea that, you know, besides the skincare whole line, you have this sanctuary and the sanctuary is located where?

Karen Minsky : In Bucks County, Pennsylvania. It's right outside of Philadelphia.

Sara Ferrer: I love the, the origin story, how it's been built, how Karen is telling us about goat milk. I want pH, I feel like a chemist now that I understand this. How can people. Find you? Is it, do you prefer they go to the retailers? Can they shop online? If so, what's the website? Drop the dates?

Karen Minsky : Yeah, I mean all of the above.

Karen Minsky : So I would definitely say the best starting point is our website. It's Dionisgmskincare.com, and then we have a store locator on there. So if you are interested in finding a store near you, that's the best way to do it from there. We're also on Amazon, and so depending on what your preference is for shopping, we offer both and yeah, and also at a retailer, you know, hopefully near you.

Karen Minsky : But yeah, it's definitely accessible and I'm excited for everyone to try it. I think you're, you'll definitely feel the difference.

Serena Reynolds: I was. I mean, obviously our listeners are very loyal to us, but every other week, so.

Serena Reynolds: Well, what's your podcast? Let, let's call.

Karen Minsky : It's called From the Goat Up and it's about, you know, being a woman in business because, you know, we carry so much guilt as mothers. You know, I dedicated a lot of my time to my job and to my every day and to my goats, and so, and I still have a family and three boys, and I think as, as women, we carry a lot of guilt because we try to do everything and do it well.

Karen Minsky : You know, anybody can do it. And then once they're greatly successful, then they can come on your podcast.

Serena Reynolds: I I'll we'll have them at any stage. I mean honestly.

Sara Ferrer: Right. Any, any, or come as you are

Karen Minsky : Us too. Yeah, us too. But yeah, it's just a place to talk. Right. It's just, I just love, I think women, we need to band together.

Karen Minsky : Right. And I've so enjoyed talking to you guys. You guys have been amazing. Thank you so much for today.

Sara Ferrer: Yes. This has been great. Thank you for sharing your story. We are totally, I know. I am like, yes, goat milk is the answer. 'cause you already know I'm gonna do my little research. Like what? What's the research saying?

Sara Ferrer: This is good, but this is very exciting. I think it's always nice to see females and business, but females in successful businesses, even better. I'm, I'm actually right now

Serena Reynolds: looking at amazon.co uk being in London and hoping that you, you, you sell on the UK Amazon site.

Sara Ferrer: Wonderful. Karen, we will certainly be in touch. We wanna know updates, we wanna hear about the new cool things and creams and potions and lotions that will be dropping. But until then, thank you for sharing your story and this has been awesome. You found it, Serena, you got it.

Karen Minsky : Found it.

Sara Ferrer: Found it wonderful.

Karen Minsky : Thank you so much.

Sara Ferrer: Thank you, Karen. We will be in touch. Thank you all.