Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey in health and wellness but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Samantha Diamond, Co-Founder and CEO of The Bird & Be Co., located in Toronto, ON, Canada.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
Bird&Be is a consumer health company that optimizes fertility outcomes with at-home solutions. We educate our customers on their fertility health early, provide accessible screening tests that help them get answers sooner, and allow them to take action quickly with personalized supplements scientifically proven to impact outcomes. Our customer base consists of folks who are trying to conceive or are pregnant or postpartum - we support all folks on the path to and through parenthood.
Tell us about yourself
Before Bird&Be, I co-founded a PR and marketing agency in the CPG space. I was running my agency while going through infertility and pregnancy loss, and I saw a lot of opportunities to improve the customer experience. Early, proactive reproductive health screening was not discussed or encouraged, and the consumer products to support fertility were fragmented and inaccessible. Pregnancy was really only addressed with young people from a preventative standpoint, and the conversation was always centered around female reproductive health. There was radio silence on fertility until the process became a struggle, with little related to proactive screening and almost no discussion on a male factor (representative of 50% of infertility cases!). I knew there had to be a better way to get medically verified information into the hands of those on the path to parenthood and offer solutions to those trying at home (even before they set foot into a fertility clinic).
I'm reminded daily why we do what we do. Our customers validate our mission with their messages to us thanking them for our help getting them information early (that they wouldn't have had otherwise had they not been encouraged to test proactively) and supporting them with the preconception and prenatal supplements that either helped them to get pregnant at home, accompanied them through IVF and optimized their results, or supported them in a healthy pregnancy and through their postpartum (and sometimes lactation) journey.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
My team. I feel incredibly lucky that each member of our team has chosen to dedicate their time and passion to our company's mission. They show up every day with the drive to support our community (and each other) as we build and grow our business. I have the best team in the world; they make this ride a lot more fun too.
What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?
Ultimately it's the constant juggle between the business and my busy family life. I have three young children (I like to say that I moonlight as their Uber driver most days), and the mental load of motherhood mixed with the intricacies of running a business (especially a highly regulated one) aren't for the faint of heart. That being said - I've always maintained that if you want something done, give it to a busy mother to do.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Resilience and endurance. If we stop every time, someone says no or stall at every roadblock in our path; we'd never continue. Business and success is a marathon (so is a fertility journey!); preserve your energy and keep moving.
- Thick skin. Learning to take feedback is tough. It doesn't always feel great. We naturally resist comments and people that don't make us feel good. But there is so much power in feedback. If we can learn to strip away that feeling of being personally criticized and take the comments as an opportunity to learn, edit and improve, we end up better for it.
- Health. We require a healthy diet, good sleep, and daily exercise to function productively. It is an 'oxygen mask on yourself first' approach. We cannot be there to lead a company (and attend to all our other commitments) if we haven't taken care of our biological needs first. I am a proponent of carving out time every single day to move my body and ensure I'm eating well (and sleeping, as well as I can work with unpredictable kids!).
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://birdandbe.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BirdandBe
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/birdbeco/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/birdandbeco
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-diamond-1484a718/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
Turn your craft into recurring revenue with Subkit. Start your subscription offering in minutes and supercharge it with growth levers. Get early access here.