May 13, 2025 • 27 mins
Welcome to the Beyond Fulfillment Podcast! In this episode, we dive deep with Charles Mayfield, entrepreneur, bestselling cookbook author, regenerative farmer, and founder of the innovative lard-based skincare brand, Farrow.
Packed with key entrepreneurial lessons, Charles shares how his journey from co-authoring Paleo Comfort Foods cookbooks led him to pioneer a sustainable skincare line rooted in regenerative farming. Discover the unique path of launching a product in a "saturated" skincare market, facing challenges with consumer perception, and why transparent, ethical sourcing is a game-changer for modern brands.
Timestamps:
Charles’ leap from culinary to skincare entrepreneurship (00:00:12)
Overcoming challenges of lard-based product marketing (00:02:56)
Consumer education & building authentic brand trust (00:09:15)
Entrepreneurial mindset shifts, scaling, and building a family business legacy (00:10:51, 00:13:45)
Transparent, ethical sourcing & connecting with customers (00:15:34, 00:19:32)
Business wisdom from farming and raising pigs (00:22:17)
Don’t miss actionable takeaways on branding, scaling, leveraging customer stories, and staying true to your values. If you found value in this episode, make sure to like, comment, and subscribe for more interviews with successful entrepreneurs and insights for growing your business!
Connect with Charles on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-mayfield-34a5972/
Learn more about Farrow: https://farrow.shop/
#Entrepreneurship #Skincare #RegenerativeAgriculture #Paleo #IndieBeauty #Transparency #SmallBusiness #BeyondFulfillment #RegenerativeBusiness #CleanBeauty #beautyindustry #skincareproducts
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Today we have a truly uniquestory to share as we sit down with
Charles Mayfield, theinnovative founder behind Farro,
a skincare brand unlike any other.
Charles Journey is a blend ofculinary passion, a deep respect
for regenerative farming, anda surprising hero ingredient, Lard.
(00:22):
Yes, you heard that right, Lard.
From best selling paleocookbooks to discovering the remarkable
healing properties of animalfat after a personal experience with
sunburn, Charles Path isanything but conventional.
He'll share the challenges ofintroducing a lard based product
into the beauty world, thepower of educating consumers, and
(00:44):
the surprising lessons he'slearned along the way, even from
pigs themselves.
Get ready to be inspired byCharles commitment to transparency,
ethical sourcing, and theprofound fulfillment that comes from
building a business rooted insustainability and family.
As always, if you found valuefrom this content, please like and
(01:05):
subscribe.
All right, Charles Mayfield,welcome to Beyond Fulfillment.
David's a pleasure to be here.
Great to, great to be choppingit up with you today.
Absolutely.
We appreciate you taking the time.
So let's get right into it.
Charles.
So how did the leap from theculinary world of paleo comfort food
(01:29):
lead you down the path ofcreating a skin care brand that's
rooted in regenerative farming?
God, it's a great question.
So.
Well, we still handcraft allof our products in the kitchen and
so, so it helps scratch theitch of, you know, I love working
(01:50):
with my hands, but really,Dave, the big thing.
So the, the impetus behind thecookbooks was, you know, my, my,
my ex wife and I ate this wayfor a number of months.
It changed our lives for thebetter, our health and all that.
And so it was like, man, we need.
And we were one of the fewpeople that sort of knew how to cook.
(02:12):
We both loved cooking.
And so the cookbooks were away for us to share what, what worked
for us.
And we'd seen work for manyothers from a culinary standpoint.
And you know, with, withregards to the skin care, I had this
sort of crazy moment.
I talk about it on the, on thewebsite, but I had this sunburn and
(02:36):
we use animal fat for our, forour skin care products.
We, we were talking before wehit record, we leave, we leave with
lard.
It's a pig fat.
Spoiler alert there.
But yeah, half desperation,half curiosity.
I tried this stuff on, youknow, arguably the most common acute
skin care condition in theworld, certainly in the summer months,
(02:57):
and it worked miraculously.
I mean, it just, you know,you're fair skinned enough, Dave,
you know, you get a badsunburn, it Stinks.
And then you peel.
And when I use this animal faton my skin and I never peel, that
was like a light bulb moment.
So, yeah, you know, tinkeredand tinkered around for a number
(03:18):
of months, played withrecipes, gave samples to, gosh, I
probably a thousand people.
And yeah, we sort of settledin on, on a formulation that seemed
to work really well and peopleliked and, and it worked for me.
And so if it worked for me, Iknow it can work for other people.
And that's really, that'sreally what, what drove us to launch
(03:39):
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So that was the impetus ofFaro and as you mentioned, right.
Kind of very different.
Right.
Radical idea.
So when you're promoting aproduct and manufacturing a product
that's, you know, lard basedskin care, like what, what type of
(04:25):
challenges does that present?
Oh, goodness.
Well, a number of challenges.
You know, the skin care is avery large industry.
Some, some call it highly saturated.
I, I think there are sectionsof it that are, but yeah, large.
Funny enough, there's a numberof animal fats.
(04:46):
Tallow is very hot right now.
Tallow's beef fat for your listeners.
Tallow is pretty hot right now.
And then you've got sort ofthe Maha movement over here.
That's rfk.
And a number of people aretouting tallow for cooking.
Returning, returning back to,to that.
But I would say the biggestchallenge we have is just culturally,
(05:08):
lard's been out of ourvernacular for a very long time,
even though it was, it was thestaple fat that we cooked with.
We made, you know, a lot ofdifferent skin care products with
various things up into theearly 20th century.
And so I would say thechallenge is sort of that unfamiliarity
(05:29):
and I'm hesitant to say disgust.
But you know, a lot of peopleassociate lard with, you know, and
it doesn't, it doesn't soundvery fancy.
You know, even tallow has thatsort of je ne sais quoi to it.
But yeah, so marketing's beena little bit of a challenge.
We haven't spent a lot of addollars yet.
We're sort of developing that.
(05:50):
But long form podcasting, inperson, conferences, face to face
where we can really sort ofwalk the customer to our product.
And sort of the whys haveproven to be very effective for us.
And you know, sort of theclickbait ad stuff is a little challenging
(06:12):
because if people scratch justa little bit, we lead with lard,
we lead with animal fat.
We're not trying to hideanything at all.
And so without being able tosort of walk the customer to that,
from an educational standpointto why our product might be just
what they're looking for,there's a lot of like pent up.
(06:36):
Oh, that, that sounds gross.
Or it's comedogenic.
You know, it's going to clogmy pores.
There's a lot ofmisinformation as well in the skincare
industry.
So fighting all that's been,been our biggest challenge in terms
of sort of what we're bumpingup against now is one of the reasons
I was excited to come on andtalk to you.
So we still handcraft everything.
(06:57):
You know, a good month for usis 2, 3, 400 units, you know, shipping
out the door.
And so we're sort of at thisnext tipping point of, you know,
do we try to find a co packer,do we, how do we scale?
And so, you know, co packers.
Our product is, our product isnot retail shelf friendly.
(07:20):
You know, it's, there's nochemicals or anything in it, so it's
temperature sensitive, lots ofvarious things.
And so, you know, warehousingit for Amazon or, you know, even,
even a brick and mortar store,it's not, not conducive to our product.
And so trying to figure outhow to make that, that next big leap
into not only like throughputproduction capacity, but also fulfillment
(07:44):
and, and time and, and, andbuilding the team, you know, to,
to, to accomplish that.
Okay, and so how did yourexperience in co authoring these
bestselling cookbooks, youknow, prepare you for the, the, the
task of product development inthe skincare industry?
(08:06):
Well, I don't know that itprepared me.
I mean, I love the kitchen andso, you know, you get plenty of reps
with all the equipment.
We right now manufacture allof our products with what I would
call basic kitchen equipment.
It's really just, it's likemake it a cake.
You know, you just get theingredients right and make it up.
We're still hand piping ourproducts into the jars that we, we
(08:30):
ship things in.
So that, that was part of it,the, the Paleo cookbooking also.
It was, it was Paleo thatbrought me to Regenerative farming.
We didn't really touch on thismuch earlier you brought it up, but
it, I spent about six, six anda half years intimately involved
(08:50):
in raising, nurturing, youknow, ultimately butchering and consuming
pigs.
And they're a remarkableanimal by, by every count, both agriculturally
and and ecologically.
And so, you know, that was,that was one of the things that really
(09:12):
motivated me to sort of launchthis company was I, okay, if you
raise a healthy, happy pig,okay, they taste great, they're unbelievable
for the land, but oh my gosh,here's this, here's this waste product,
so to speak, from, from theanimal consumption industry.
And look at, look at howunbelievable it is at skin care.
(09:34):
And so those, those threenodes really sort of ultimately undergird
Farrow as a, as a brand.
Yeah.
And I love your, your, yourslogan of the, the lard works in
mysterious ways.
Oh, thank you.
You know, when you break itall down like that and you see what
it can do for people and this,the, the success stories you've had
(09:57):
and like you said too, it'ssomething often overlooked and, you
know, you wouldn't think thatthere's something there, but then
lo and behold, you know thatthere's a big benefit to, to using
the lard.
So that, that's fantastic.
Could not agree more.
Yeah.
So, you know, you mentionedthe consumer education standpoint
(10:20):
as a, as a, you know, criticalcomponent of, of the marketing.
So, like, what, what type of strategies?
I mean, you mentioned thepodcast and just getting in front
of people, but growing a brandlike this.
Yeah, where you, you reallyhave to get out in front of the,
the marketing and, and reallygive more education.
Like, what other type ofstrategies do you have to, to educate
(10:44):
the consumer?
Yeah, well, we've got a CRM,so somebody buys something from us,
they're going to get, ofcourse they've already purchased.
Right.
But we're going to bring themalong on a journey, get them up to
speed.
Some people do respond to anInstagram ad.
(11:04):
Some people do certainly wordof mouth.
So we get quite a fewreferrals from very happy customers.
And so skincare is one of those.
Well, I think any industryreally, but certainly skincare is
one of those industries where,you know, if Susie tells Jenny, I've
been using this stuff and it'samazing, you can bet your bottom
dollar Jenny's going to buy it.
(11:25):
And so automating, you know,sort of a client funnel, an education
funnel for our, for our emailsubscribers has been very valuable.
We get fairly good response on that.
And that's, that's really beenthe extent of what we do to this
point.
We are jumping more intoaffiliate based marketing, so finding,
(11:48):
you know, influencers orpeople in the health and wellness
or even skin care space forthat matter.
But people that understand ourproduct, appreciate it, and then
we can align with them and,and you know, cut them in on the
deal, put a, put a discountcode together with them, you know,
track the metrics on aquarterly basis to see how everyone's
performing.
And so that's, that's our nextsort of avenue to, to grow business,
(12:11):
grow our, our customers.
Okay, and how is yourdefinition of entrepreneurial success
evolved, you know, from thecookbook days to, to what you're
currently doing with Faro.
Evolved?
Well, the cook, we ended upwriting three cookbooks and so we,
(12:34):
we stopped at some point.
But you know, that, thatalways, that always felt like a one
and done.
Even on the second and the third.
I funny enough like the, thefirst cookbook was the most fun because
you're just new and, andevery, everything's awesome.
And then you know, it sort ofbecame a grind at some point.
You know, with, with Pharaoh.
(12:56):
It's a couple of pieces to it.
One is it is manufacturing,it's, it's creating a, a real product.
One equals one equals one.
You know, you send off a bookto the publisher and they can run
you off a whole bunch ofstuff, whole bunch, whole bunch of
(13:17):
copies.
You know, you just got to payfor them.
So I've really enjoyed thisventure to the degree that I just
feel like every aspect of thebusiness I, I'm touching and obviously
you've got to, we've got tofind a path out of that.
There's only one of me and,and we've got a team helping out
behind the scenes.
(13:37):
But you know, when you starttalking about scaling and you know,
ultimately giving more peoplean opportunity to try these products,
they have helped a tremendousnumber of people.
And so you objectively, youwant to, you want to facilitate the
spread of your product andhopefully the relief or success with
(14:02):
more consumers that we've seen.
And so I really like the ideaof building a family business.
I've got two young kids,they've somewhat been featured here
and there on the website.
10 and 12 years old.
And I grew up in a familybusiness when I was a young kid.
That family business did sellwhen I was in high school.
(14:26):
And so you know, just sort ofcreating, try to create that legacy
with, with my kids and thatopportunity with my kids is, is one
of my big motivators, for sure.
Okay.
And so you mentioned the,like, the fulfillment it brings you
to be able to really touchevery aspect of the business and
(14:48):
learn it all and be involvedin it all.
But like you said, that's notreally sustainable when you, when
you're thinking about scalingfor the long term.
So what.
How do you know when it's theright time to kind of step away from
some of these aspects whereyou're, you know, you're involved
in every, every aspect and,you know, how do you, how do you
know when it's time to kind ofgive some of those up and start looking
(15:12):
to, you know, outsource andbegin to scale?
Well, some of those things,you know, immediately I mentioned
I do have a team sort ofbehind the, behind the curtain.
So most anythingtechnologically related, I'm already
outsourcing to some degreewhen it comes to the manufacturing
side of the house.
(15:34):
I do like mentoring.
And so I've got a couplepeople coming on board and we're
dripping them into learningsort of our systems.
You know, I would say keepkeeping a really good eye on your
metrics and, you know, what'sworking, what's not.
Our trend line's been, youknow, pretty steady in terms of growth.
(15:54):
And so when we see it, when wesee a blip, for better or for worse,
that's always a moment of, tosort of step back and analyze, okay,
what just happened, why did ithappen, and how do we either do that
again or avoid that in the future?
And so, so there's a, there'sa piece of that that's analytically
(16:20):
driven.
You know, candidly, my kids, Imentioned 10 and 12, so they're starting
to get a little bit moreactive with baseball and softball.
And, you know, it's theclassic sort of teeter totter of,
you know, focus on thebusiness, focus on the, on the cherished
children time, you know, asmuch as.
As much as you can.
And so I would say in the last12 months, I've started intentionally
(16:46):
finding ways to bring otherpeople on board or be more efficient
with whatever it takes to getthe creams out the door.
And so those are the two bigthings that drive me, are the data
and the dad time, personally.
Okay.
(17:06):
All right.
And so, you know, todaythere's a much bigger focus on, you
know, transparency and ethicalsourcing, particularly in the beauty
and the skin care market.
So how, how do you think thathelps you when you're, when you're
growing a business like Faro?
Yeah, well, you can Piggybackon a, on an ethos that's already
(17:30):
back out in the market.
Um, I, I won't, I won't name names.
There's a, there's a verysuccessful skincare brand that, gosh,
I want to say that had about a$450,000 capitalization and you know,
four or five years later soldfor, oh gosh, I think seven or $800
million.
You know, a really, really,really big, big move there.
(17:54):
They, they rose to prominenceby taking out six ingredients in
skincare.
Okay.
And for your listeners thatdon't know, there's, there's thousands
of arguably non effective or,or ineffective or toxic ingredients
in skin care certainly here inthe US and so there's already a consumer
(18:16):
mindset around cleanliness,around, around ecologically friendly,
around.
You know, the skin careindustry is fairly dominated by,
by the vegan ethos, you know,plant based vegan e.
I don't subscribe to that personally.
So there's sort of a nichethere for us in terms of we think
(18:40):
our products are more highly effective.
We're back to transparency.
Like I'm perfectly happyhaving a conversation with you or
with a consumer or you know,on a stage addressing sort of the,
the sacred cows behind some ofthese marketing campaigns that I
(19:01):
think are not necessarily very truthful.
And so being hypertransparent, back to the leading
with lard, like our logo is apig for crying out loud.
So we're not really trying tohide anything.
And having said all that,we're also willing to have all those
discussions around, know whatis in skincare, why is it there?
(19:26):
Is it really helping you?
One of the day, one of theeducation pieces that I enjoy frankly
the most is talking to peopleabout, forget our products for a
second.
Talking about like thefoundational things you can and should
be doing to give your skinpermission to look its best.
(19:48):
And you know, none of thoseinvolve buying my products.
It's just making little tweaksin your everyday life.
And so, you know, you know,again, for me that, that sings of
transparency.
You know, the, the skincareindustry is, is going to tell you
how to fix the problem withtheir product.
I'm trying to tell you how toaddress your problems, you know,
from the inside out with foodand sleep and all these other lifestyle
(20:12):
things that are, that franklyare directly tied to optimal skin.
And so I think that's a reallynice silver bullet to have in your
gun, is just being willing totalk outside of your brand, outside
of your products, to the, youknow, the very basic foundational
things that people, you know,consumers should be focused on.
(20:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
And you know, as you said,that can get that, that message can
get lost in, in a sea ofmarketing with, you know, particularly
in a, in an industry likeskincare, for sure.
Okay.
And Charles, what's been themost rewarding aspect of building
a business that's so deeplyconnected to the land and sustainable
(20:58):
practices?
It's the stories we get fromour customers.
I've got early in thebusiness, probably six months into
the business, I got a callfrom a guy whose daughter, she's
(21:19):
about my daughter's age.
So this is a couple years ago,maybe 7, 8, 9 years old, 6, 7, 8.
And she has eczema, you know,and you know, it's on her hands,
it's on her face, you know,very, very common, you know, sort
of autoimmune skin care condition.
And I had, he's a buddy ofmine and so he, I had, I had sent
him some product, just heyman, try, try this on your daughter.
(21:43):
And again, I not trying to sayour product, you know, there's, there's
words you can't use, you know,heels or whatever, but you know,
to get a call from him, youknow, maybe a week or two later saying,
hey man, you know, thisstuff's gone away.
The girls at school havestopped teasing my daughter, she
feels better like.
(22:03):
And so it's stories like that,you know, I've got pre cancerous
sores.
I had a 75 year old guy out ofI think Wisconsin and you know, bought
the product, tried it, youknow, went into his dermatologist
and like, oh, you're all thesepre cancerous sores on your head
are gone.
Of course he just sends methis email and pictures and so that's,
(22:26):
that's, I would say that's themost rewarding part so far.
I would couple that with.
I, I have brought my kidsalong on this journey to whatever
degree I can since the beginning.
You know, it was born out of farming.
They were helping me on thefarming front, you know, early on.
And yeah, I'm sitting in ourfulfillment center here at the house
(22:49):
and if the kids are here, youknow, my, my 12 year old son, he'll
come in here and he'll, he'llhave you know, 10 or 15 orders like
batched out, pulled, ready to,ready to ship out.
You know, they're just,they're just into it and I don't
overexpose them.
You know, I give them just enough.
You know, kids got to be, needto go be kids.
But they really do enjoy, youknow, keeping their hands in the
(23:12):
business and talking about itand all the fun.
I got them business cards, soit would be hard to actually.
Testimonials and resultsaside, it's probably hard to put
that below anything else justbecause I really enjoyed having them
along with me.
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay.
(23:32):
All right.
And so you mentioned yourjourney with farming and how that's
where all started.
And of course, like youmentioned earlier, your logo is a
pig.
So what can you learn aboutbusiness from a pig?
Well, couple things.
Pigs like company.
They're very gregarious animals.
(23:54):
So if you're thinking aboutstarting a business, what do they
say?
You can go faster alone, butfurther together.
And so I would say that's the.
The quickest and earliestlesson I got, not only from the pigs,
but just starting this business.
And, and, you know, in today'sworld, I.
I've mentioned I have a team.
(24:14):
None of them live within 20,50, 100 miles of me.
I've got a virtual CFO and avirtual this.
And so that would be one bigthing is pig.
Pigs definitely like to have company.
They, they go further togetherthan they do apart.
(24:35):
They don't let anything go to waste.
And so I think in terms of theearly business, I didn't let any
downfall, any mistake, anyvictory good or bad news.
I think it's really importantto pull a lesson out of everything,
especially early on.
Obviously, we're stilllearning every single day in terms
(24:56):
of, you know, how to make thisbusiness better, but don't.
Don't let anything go to wasteand don't be scared to get really
dirty.
Pigs.
Pigs actually thrive on.
On, you know, getting in the mud.
And, you know, people thinkit's, It's.
It's a problem.
It's actually the pig doingwhat the pig loves to do.
And so I think embracing.
(25:17):
What do they say, like,embrace the suck.
You know, any business isgoing to have low points.
And so learning how tomentally just face those and understand,
it's.
It's going to be great.
It's.
It's not going to suck.
It's going to.
It's.
This is the lesson, and I'mgoing to.
I'm going to come out of thisstronger, I think is a.
(25:38):
Is another great pig lesson.
So those.
Those are three good ones.
Okay.
Love that.
All right.
And Charles, if people want toreach out to you, learn more about
your product, how it couldpotentially help them with their
skin or, or anything elsewith, with your.
Your current business, what'sthe best way that people can reach
(25:58):
out to you.
Yeah, our website is Farrow,Farrow Life.
And you can, you can do thecontact us form there.
Our.
It's.
It's a.
Social media is such astruggle for me on Twitter or X.
Now we are at Pharaoh Skin, soyou can DM me there.
(26:21):
I.
I answer all the.
The DMS on X and then we're Instagram.
It's Pharaoh Dot.
Skincare is our IG handle.
But the website's the bestplace to, you know.
Again, if you send a contactus form, I'll.
I'll get it.
We haven't.
Haven't delegated that outjust quite yet, but yeah, that's
where folks can find us.
(26:41):
Okay, excellent.
We'll link all that in theshow notes for everyone.
All right.
Well, Charles, thank you somuch for taking the time to be here
today and sharing all thisvaluable wisdom from your journey
with our listeners.
We greatly appreciate it.
Thanks, Dave.
It's good to be here.
All right, and that's all thetime we have for now.
We will see you next time.
Today we have a truly uniquestory to share as we sit down with
Charles Mayfield, theinnovative founder behind Farro,
a skincare brand unlike any other.
Charles Journey is a blend ofculinary passion, a deep respect
for regenerative farming, anda surprising hero ingredient, Lard.
(00:22):
Yes, you heard that right, Lard.
From best selling paleocookbooks to discovering the remarkable
healing properties of animalfat after a personal experience with
sunburn, Charles Path isanything but conventional.
He'll share the challenges ofintroducing a lard based product
into the beauty world, thepower of educating consumers, and
(00:44):
the surprising lessons he'slearned along the way, even from
pigs themselves.
Get ready to be inspired byCharles commitment to transparency,
ethical sourcing, and theprofound fulfillment that comes from
building a business rooted insustainability and family.
As always, if you found valuefrom this content, please like and
(01:05):
subscribe.
All right, Charles Mayfield,welcome to Beyond Fulfillment.
David's a pleasure to be here.
Great to, great to be choppingit up with you today.
Absolutely.
We appreciate you taking the time.
So let's get right into it.
Charles.
So how did the leap from theculinary world of paleo comfort food
(01:29):
lead you down the path ofcreating a skin care brand that's
rooted in regenerative farming?
God, it's a great question.
So.
Well, we still handcraft allof our products in the kitchen and
so, so it helps scratch theitch of, you know, I love working
(01:50):
with my hands, but really,Dave, the big thing.
So the, the impetus behind thecookbooks was, you know, my, my,
my ex wife and I ate this wayfor a number of months.
It changed our lives for thebetter, our health and all that.
And so it was like, man, we need.
And we were one of the fewpeople that sort of knew how to cook.
(02:12):
We both loved cooking.
And so the cookbooks were away for us to share what, what worked
for us.
And we'd seen work for manyothers from a culinary standpoint.
And you know, with, withregards to the skin care, I had this
sort of crazy moment.
I talk about it on the, on thewebsite, but I had this sunburn and
(02:36):
we use animal fat for our, forour skin care products.
We, we were talking before wehit record, we leave, we leave with
lard.
It's a pig fat.
Spoiler alert there.
But yeah, half desperation,half curiosity.
I tried this stuff on, youknow, arguably the most common acute
skin care condition in theworld, certainly in the summer months,
(02:57):
and it worked miraculously.
I mean, it just, you know,you're fair skinned enough, Dave,
you know, you get a badsunburn, it Stinks.
And then you peel.
And when I use this animal faton my skin and I never peel, that
was like a light bulb moment.
So, yeah, you know, tinkeredand tinkered around for a number
(03:18):
of months, played withrecipes, gave samples to, gosh, I
probably a thousand people.
And yeah, we sort of settledin on, on a formulation that seemed
to work really well and peopleliked and, and it worked for me.
And so if it worked for me, Iknow it can work for other people.
And that's really, that'sreally what, what drove us to launch
(03:39):
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So that was the impetus ofFaro and as you mentioned, right.
Kind of very different.
Right.
Radical idea.
So when you're promoting aproduct and manufacturing a product
that's, you know, lard basedskin care, like what, what type of
(04:25):
challenges does that present?
Oh, goodness.
Well, a number of challenges.
You know, the skin care is avery large industry.
Some, some call it highly saturated.
I, I think there are sectionsof it that are, but yeah, large.
Funny enough, there's a numberof animal fats.
(04:46):
Tallow is very hot right now.
Tallow's beef fat for your listeners.
Tallow is pretty hot right now.
And then you've got sort ofthe Maha movement over here.
That's rfk.
And a number of people aretouting tallow for cooking.
Returning, returning back to,to that.
But I would say the biggestchallenge we have is just culturally,
(05:08):
lard's been out of ourvernacular for a very long time,
even though it was, it was thestaple fat that we cooked with.
We made, you know, a lot ofdifferent skin care products with
various things up into theearly 20th century.
And so I would say thechallenge is sort of that unfamiliarity
(05:29):
and I'm hesitant to say disgust.
But you know, a lot of peopleassociate lard with, you know, and
it doesn't, it doesn't soundvery fancy.
You know, even tallow has thatsort of je ne sais quoi to it.
But yeah, so marketing's beena little bit of a challenge.
We haven't spent a lot of addollars yet.
We're sort of developing that.
(05:50):
But long form podcasting, inperson, conferences, face to face
where we can really sort ofwalk the customer to our product.
And sort of the whys haveproven to be very effective for us.
And you know, sort of theclickbait ad stuff is a little challenging
(06:12):
because if people scratch justa little bit, we lead with lard,
we lead with animal fat.
We're not trying to hideanything at all.
And so without being able tosort of walk the customer to that,
from an educational standpointto why our product might be just
what they're looking for,there's a lot of like pent up.
(06:36):
Oh, that, that sounds gross.
Or it's comedogenic.
You know, it's going to clogmy pores.
There's a lot ofmisinformation as well in the skincare
industry.
So fighting all that's been,been our biggest challenge in terms
of sort of what we're bumpingup against now is one of the reasons
I was excited to come on andtalk to you.
So we still handcraft everything.
(06:57):
You know, a good month for usis 2, 3, 400 units, you know, shipping
out the door.
And so we're sort of at thisnext tipping point of, you know,
do we try to find a co packer,do we, how do we scale?
And so, you know, co packers.
Our product is, our product isnot retail shelf friendly.
(07:20):
You know, it's, there's nochemicals or anything in it, so it's
temperature sensitive, lots ofvarious things.
And so, you know, warehousingit for Amazon or, you know, even,
even a brick and mortar store,it's not, not conducive to our product.
And so trying to figure outhow to make that, that next big leap
into not only like throughputproduction capacity, but also fulfillment
(07:44):
and, and time and, and, andbuilding the team, you know, to,
to, to accomplish that.
Okay, and so how did yourexperience in co authoring these
bestselling cookbooks, youknow, prepare you for the, the, the
task of product development inthe skincare industry?
(08:06):
Well, I don't know that itprepared me.
I mean, I love the kitchen andso, you know, you get plenty of reps
with all the equipment.
We right now manufacture allof our products with what I would
call basic kitchen equipment.
It's really just, it's likemake it a cake.
You know, you just get theingredients right and make it up.
We're still hand piping ourproducts into the jars that we, we
(08:30):
ship things in.
So that, that was part of it,the, the Paleo cookbooking also.
It was, it was Paleo thatbrought me to Regenerative farming.
We didn't really touch on thismuch earlier you brought it up, but
it, I spent about six, six anda half years intimately involved
(08:50):
in raising, nurturing, youknow, ultimately butchering and consuming
pigs.
And they're a remarkableanimal by, by every count, both agriculturally
and and ecologically.
And so, you know, that was,that was one of the things that really
(09:12):
motivated me to sort of launchthis company was I, okay, if you
raise a healthy, happy pig,okay, they taste great, they're unbelievable
for the land, but oh my gosh,here's this, here's this waste product,
so to speak, from, from theanimal consumption industry.
And look at, look at howunbelievable it is at skin care.
(09:34):
And so those, those threenodes really sort of ultimately undergird
Farrow as a, as a brand.
Yeah.
And I love your, your, yourslogan of the, the lard works in
mysterious ways.
Oh, thank you.
You know, when you break itall down like that and you see what
it can do for people and this,the, the success stories you've had
(09:57):
and like you said too, it'ssomething often overlooked and, you
know, you wouldn't think thatthere's something there, but then
lo and behold, you know thatthere's a big benefit to, to using
the lard.
So that, that's fantastic.
Could not agree more.
Yeah.
So, you know, you mentionedthe consumer education standpoint
(10:20):
as a, as a, you know, criticalcomponent of, of the marketing.
So, like, what, what type of strategies?
I mean, you mentioned thepodcast and just getting in front
of people, but growing a brandlike this.
Yeah, where you, you reallyhave to get out in front of the,
the marketing and, and reallygive more education.
Like, what other type ofstrategies do you have to, to educate
(10:44):
the consumer?
Yeah, well, we've got a CRM,so somebody buys something from us,
they're going to get, ofcourse they've already purchased.
Right.
But we're going to bring themalong on a journey, get them up to
speed.
Some people do respond to anInstagram ad.
(11:04):
Some people do certainly wordof mouth.
So we get quite a fewreferrals from very happy customers.
And so skincare is one of those.
Well, I think any industryreally, but certainly skincare is
one of those industries where,you know, if Susie tells Jenny, I've
been using this stuff and it'samazing, you can bet your bottom
dollar Jenny's going to buy it.
(11:25):
And so automating, you know,sort of a client funnel, an education
funnel for our, for our emailsubscribers has been very valuable.
We get fairly good response on that.
And that's, that's really beenthe extent of what we do to this
point.
We are jumping more intoaffiliate based marketing, so finding,
(11:48):
you know, influencers orpeople in the health and wellness
or even skin care space forthat matter.
But people that understand ourproduct, appreciate it, and then
we can align with them and,and you know, cut them in on the
deal, put a, put a discountcode together with them, you know,
track the metrics on aquarterly basis to see how everyone's
performing.
And so that's, that's our nextsort of avenue to, to grow business,
(12:11):
grow our, our customers.
Okay, and how is yourdefinition of entrepreneurial success
evolved, you know, from thecookbook days to, to what you're
currently doing with Faro.
Evolved?
Well, the cook, we ended upwriting three cookbooks and so we,
(12:34):
we stopped at some point.
But you know, that, thatalways, that always felt like a one
and done.
Even on the second and the third.
I funny enough like the, thefirst cookbook was the most fun because
you're just new and, andevery, everything's awesome.
And then you know, it sort ofbecame a grind at some point.
You know, with, with Pharaoh.
(12:56):
It's a couple of pieces to it.
One is it is manufacturing,it's, it's creating a, a real product.
One equals one equals one.
You know, you send off a bookto the publisher and they can run
you off a whole bunch ofstuff, whole bunch, whole bunch of
(13:17):
copies.
You know, you just got to payfor them.
So I've really enjoyed thisventure to the degree that I just
feel like every aspect of thebusiness I, I'm touching and obviously
you've got to, we've got tofind a path out of that.
There's only one of me and,and we've got a team helping out
behind the scenes.
(13:37):
But you know, when you starttalking about scaling and you know,
ultimately giving more peoplean opportunity to try these products,
they have helped a tremendousnumber of people.
And so you objectively, youwant to, you want to facilitate the
spread of your product andhopefully the relief or success with
(14:02):
more consumers that we've seen.
And so I really like the ideaof building a family business.
I've got two young kids,they've somewhat been featured here
and there on the website.
10 and 12 years old.
And I grew up in a familybusiness when I was a young kid.
That family business did sellwhen I was in high school.
(14:26):
And so you know, just sort ofcreating, try to create that legacy
with, with my kids and thatopportunity with my kids is, is one
of my big motivators, for sure.
Okay.
And so you mentioned the,like, the fulfillment it brings you
to be able to really touchevery aspect of the business and
(14:48):
learn it all and be involvedin it all.
But like you said, that's notreally sustainable when you, when
you're thinking about scalingfor the long term.
So what.
How do you know when it's theright time to kind of step away from
some of these aspects whereyou're, you know, you're involved
in every, every aspect and,you know, how do you, how do you
know when it's time to kind ofgive some of those up and start looking
(15:12):
to, you know, outsource andbegin to scale?
Well, some of those things,you know, immediately I mentioned
I do have a team sort ofbehind the, behind the curtain.
So most anythingtechnologically related, I'm already
outsourcing to some degreewhen it comes to the manufacturing
side of the house.
(15:34):
I do like mentoring.
And so I've got a couplepeople coming on board and we're
dripping them into learningsort of our systems.
You know, I would say keepkeeping a really good eye on your
metrics and, you know, what'sworking, what's not.
Our trend line's been, youknow, pretty steady in terms of growth.
(15:54):
And so when we see it, when wesee a blip, for better or for worse,
that's always a moment of, tosort of step back and analyze, okay,
what just happened, why did ithappen, and how do we either do that
again or avoid that in the future?
And so, so there's a, there'sa piece of that that's analytically
(16:20):
driven.
You know, candidly, my kids, Imentioned 10 and 12, so they're starting
to get a little bit moreactive with baseball and softball.
And, you know, it's theclassic sort of teeter totter of,
you know, focus on thebusiness, focus on the, on the cherished
children time, you know, asmuch as.
As much as you can.
And so I would say in the last12 months, I've started intentionally
(16:46):
finding ways to bring otherpeople on board or be more efficient
with whatever it takes to getthe creams out the door.
And so those are the two bigthings that drive me, are the data
and the dad time, personally.
Okay.
(17:06):
All right.
And so, you know, todaythere's a much bigger focus on, you
know, transparency and ethicalsourcing, particularly in the beauty
and the skin care market.
So how, how do you think thathelps you when you're, when you're
growing a business like Faro?
Yeah, well, you can Piggybackon a, on an ethos that's already
(17:30):
back out in the market.
Um, I, I won't, I won't name names.
There's a, there's a verysuccessful skincare brand that, gosh,
I want to say that had about a$450,000 capitalization and you know,
four or five years later soldfor, oh gosh, I think seven or $800
million.
You know, a really, really,really big, big move there.
(17:54):
They, they rose to prominenceby taking out six ingredients in
skincare.
Okay.
And for your listeners thatdon't know, there's, there's thousands
of arguably non effective or,or ineffective or toxic ingredients
in skin care certainly here inthe US and so there's already a consumer
(18:16):
mindset around cleanliness,around, around ecologically friendly,
around.
You know, the skin careindustry is fairly dominated by,
by the vegan ethos, you know,plant based vegan e.
I don't subscribe to that personally.
So there's sort of a nichethere for us in terms of we think
(18:40):
our products are more highly effective.
We're back to transparency.
Like I'm perfectly happyhaving a conversation with you or
with a consumer or you know,on a stage addressing sort of the,
the sacred cows behind some ofthese marketing campaigns that I
(19:01):
think are not necessarily very truthful.
And so being hypertransparent, back to the leading
with lard, like our logo is apig for crying out loud.
So we're not really trying tohide anything.
And having said all that,we're also willing to have all those
discussions around, know whatis in skincare, why is it there?
(19:26):
Is it really helping you?
One of the day, one of theeducation pieces that I enjoy frankly
the most is talking to peopleabout, forget our products for a
second.
Talking about like thefoundational things you can and should
be doing to give your skinpermission to look its best.
(19:48):
And you know, none of thoseinvolve buying my products.
It's just making little tweaksin your everyday life.
And so, you know, you know,again, for me that, that sings of
transparency.
You know, the, the skincareindustry is, is going to tell you
how to fix the problem withtheir product.
I'm trying to tell you how toaddress your problems, you know,
from the inside out with foodand sleep and all these other lifestyle
(20:12):
things that are, that franklyare directly tied to optimal skin.
And so I think that's a reallynice silver bullet to have in your
gun, is just being willing totalk outside of your brand, outside
of your products, to the, youknow, the very basic foundational
things that people, you know,consumers should be focused on.
(20:35):
Yeah, absolutely.
And you know, as you said,that can get that, that message can
get lost in, in a sea ofmarketing with, you know, particularly
in a, in an industry likeskincare, for sure.
Okay.
And Charles, what's been themost rewarding aspect of building
a business that's so deeplyconnected to the land and sustainable
(20:58):
practices?
It's the stories we get fromour customers.
I've got early in thebusiness, probably six months into
the business, I got a callfrom a guy whose daughter, she's
(21:19):
about my daughter's age.
So this is a couple years ago,maybe 7, 8, 9 years old, 6, 7, 8.
And she has eczema, you know,and you know, it's on her hands,
it's on her face, you know,very, very common, you know, sort
of autoimmune skin care condition.
And I had, he's a buddy ofmine and so he, I had, I had sent
him some product, just heyman, try, try this on your daughter.
(21:43):
And again, I not trying to sayour product, you know, there's, there's
words you can't use, you know,heels or whatever, but you know,
to get a call from him, youknow, maybe a week or two later saying,
hey man, you know, thisstuff's gone away.
The girls at school havestopped teasing my daughter, she
feels better like.
(22:03):
And so it's stories like that,you know, I've got pre cancerous
sores.
I had a 75 year old guy out ofI think Wisconsin and you know, bought
the product, tried it, youknow, went into his dermatologist
and like, oh, you're all thesepre cancerous sores on your head
are gone.
Of course he just sends methis email and pictures and so that's,
(22:26):
that's, I would say that's themost rewarding part so far.
I would couple that with.
I, I have brought my kidsalong on this journey to whatever
degree I can since the beginning.
You know, it was born out of farming.
They were helping me on thefarming front, you know, early on.
And yeah, I'm sitting in ourfulfillment center here at the house
(22:49):
and if the kids are here, youknow, my, my 12 year old son, he'll
come in here and he'll, he'llhave you know, 10 or 15 orders like
batched out, pulled, ready to,ready to ship out.
You know, they're just,they're just into it and I don't
overexpose them.
You know, I give them just enough.
You know, kids got to be, needto go be kids.
But they really do enjoy, youknow, keeping their hands in the
(23:12):
business and talking about itand all the fun.
I got them business cards, soit would be hard to actually.
Testimonials and resultsaside, it's probably hard to put
that below anything else justbecause I really enjoyed having them
along with me.
Yeah, absolutely.
Okay.
(23:32):
All right.
And so you mentioned yourjourney with farming and how that's
where all started.
And of course, like youmentioned earlier, your logo is a
pig.
So what can you learn aboutbusiness from a pig?
Well, couple things.
Pigs like company.
They're very gregarious animals.
(23:54):
So if you're thinking aboutstarting a business, what do they
say?
You can go faster alone, butfurther together.
And so I would say that's the.
The quickest and earliestlesson I got, not only from the pigs,
but just starting this business.
And, and, you know, in today'sworld, I.
I've mentioned I have a team.
(24:14):
None of them live within 20,50, 100 miles of me.
I've got a virtual CFO and avirtual this.
And so that would be one bigthing is pig.
Pigs definitely like to have company.
They, they go further togetherthan they do apart.
(24:35):
They don't let anything go to waste.
And so I think in terms of theearly business, I didn't let any
downfall, any mistake, anyvictory good or bad news.
I think it's really importantto pull a lesson out of everything,
especially early on.
Obviously, we're stilllearning every single day in terms
(24:56):
of, you know, how to make thisbusiness better, but don't.
Don't let anything go to wasteand don't be scared to get really
dirty.
Pigs.
Pigs actually thrive on.
On, you know, getting in the mud.
And, you know, people thinkit's, It's.
It's a problem.
It's actually the pig doingwhat the pig loves to do.
And so I think embracing.
(25:17):
What do they say, like,embrace the suck.
You know, any business isgoing to have low points.
And so learning how tomentally just face those and understand,
it's.
It's going to be great.
It's.
It's not going to suck.
It's going to.
It's.
This is the lesson, and I'mgoing to.
I'm going to come out of thisstronger, I think is a.
(25:38):
Is another great pig lesson.
So those.
Those are three good ones.
Okay.
Love that.
All right.
And Charles, if people want toreach out to you, learn more about
your product, how it couldpotentially help them with their
skin or, or anything elsewith, with your.
Your current business, what'sthe best way that people can reach
(25:58):
out to you.
Yeah, our website is Farrow,Farrow Life.
And you can, you can do thecontact us form there.
Our.
It's.
It's a.
Social media is such astruggle for me on Twitter or X.
Now we are at Pharaoh Skin, soyou can DM me there.
(26:21):
I.
I answer all the.
The DMS on X and then we're Instagram.
It's Pharaoh Dot.
Skincare is our IG handle.
But the website's the bestplace to, you know.
Again, if you send a contactus form, I'll.
I'll get it.
We haven't.
Haven't delegated that outjust quite yet, but yeah, that's
where folks can find us.
(26:41):
Okay, excellent.
We'll link all that in theshow notes for everyone.
All right.
Well, Charles, thank you somuch for taking the time to be here
today and sharing all thisvaluable wisdom from your journey
with our listeners.
We greatly appreciate it.
Thanks, Dave.
It's good to be here.
All right, and that's all thetime we have for now.
We will see you next time.
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