Blending traditional methods of soapmaking with modern-day science

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[00:00] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's podcast.
[00:05] SPEAKER_00: Hello, I'm Mario Tonne Guzi with Edmonton's podcast brought to you by Canada's podcast
[00:11] SPEAKER_00: network.
[00:12] SPEAKER_00: Joining me today is Tanya Zurak, who is founder of Wild Prairie Soap Company.
[00:17] SPEAKER_00: Thanks for joining us today, Tanya.
[00:20] SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me.
[00:21] SPEAKER_00: Well, let's talk about the company.
[00:23] SPEAKER_00: Tell me first of all a little bit about what you guys do.
[00:27] SPEAKER_02: Sure.
[00:29] SPEAKER_02: So Wild Prairie is a manufacturer of high quality natural plant-based soap and body care products
[00:37] SPEAKER_02: that we manufacture all by hand in our factory here in Edmonton.
[00:42] SPEAKER_00: And when did you start?
[00:45] SPEAKER_02: Well, it's been a while.
[00:48] SPEAKER_02: I started the company by accident.
[00:51] SPEAKER_02: I was a teacher at the time and I was starting to have a family and my oldest daughter,
[00:59] SPEAKER_02: who was very young at the time, she had quite dry and sensitive skin.
[01:05] SPEAKER_02: So this was 25 years ago that I first sort of delved into this idea of natural soap.
[01:13] SPEAKER_02: So yeah, our company is about 23 years old now and going strong.
[01:18] SPEAKER_02: And it all came out of sort of a need for a solution for my child.
[01:23] SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, I know because some of my children are like that as well, is it partially because
[01:31] SPEAKER_00: of the climate here in the dry climate in Alberta that led to the dry skin for your daughter?
[01:37] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think definitely the dryness we experienced, especially during the winter, it definitely
[01:42] SPEAKER_02: exacerbates people who have skin issues like eczema or dermatitis.
[01:49] SPEAKER_02: But, you know, what I found out really early on and realized is that a lot of people are
[01:55] SPEAKER_02: dry simply because of the products they're using on their skin.
[01:58] SPEAKER_02: So if you're using anything that's detergent-based, which, you know, most commercially manufactured
[02:04] SPEAKER_02: body washes would be made with a detergent, what that does is it continually strips away the
[02:10] SPEAKER_02: natural oils that your skin is producing to keep it from not being dry.
[02:14] SPEAKER_02: So, you know, we cause a lot of our own problems and then our dryness in the winter just seems
[02:20] SPEAKER_02: to make that even worse.
[02:22] SPEAKER_00: Yeah. So what goes into these soaps?
[02:27] SPEAKER_02: So, again, they're all plant-based.
[02:29] SPEAKER_02: We use 50% olive oil to make them and our olive oils all imported from Spain or Italy, the
[02:36] SPEAKER_02: two largest producers. We use coconut oil and sustainable palm oil.
[02:44] SPEAKER_02: Palm oil gets a bad rap often, but our palm oil comes from certified producers.
[02:51] SPEAKER_02: So yeah, it's all plant-based.
[02:53] SPEAKER_02: It's called cold process soap making, which just means we don't add any heat when we're
[02:58] SPEAKER_02: making this soap.
[03:01] SPEAKER_02: And we use sodium hydroxide and when you combine those two, when you combine the fats and you
[03:05] SPEAKER_02: combine the sodium hydroxide, it creates what we call soap.
[03:09] SPEAKER_00: Okay. And where is this the soap's sole?
[03:14] SPEAKER_02: So, right from the beginning, when we first started selling it, we sell into retail.
[03:20] SPEAKER_02: So anything from gift and garden centers to boutiques, salons, spas, grocery, specialty grocery,
[03:31] SPEAKER_02: tourism, so all across Canada. And we also have a distributor that we signed with in 2019,
[03:37] SPEAKER_02: and we have distribution through Japan. And we just signed a newer agreement with a distributor
[03:45] SPEAKER_02: in Korea, and that is a brand new launch for us that's happened this spring. So.
[03:49] SPEAKER_00: Oh, cool.
[03:50] SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
[03:51] SPEAKER_00: Do you see growing in terms of the distribution of it?
[03:55] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, the export has really caused a great deal of growth for our company,
[04:00] SPEAKER_02: which is really fantastic. It's allowed us to sort of expand our knowledge and interest in
[04:09] SPEAKER_02: what other cultures and countries like to use on their skin, which of course, we're all human
[04:15] SPEAKER_02: beings. So our skin is all the same. So it translates really well to go into a new market. And
[04:25] SPEAKER_02: in Canada, we have just such a great oil-based customers that has really helped us build the
[04:33] SPEAKER_02: solid sort of usual regular part of our revenue and our company. So yeah, the last few years
[04:41] SPEAKER_02: have been a definite scale-up in production and sales.
[04:44] SPEAKER_00: So tell me just a little bit about the customers themselves. Have you been able to kind of
[04:53] SPEAKER_00: understand more who your customer is? Who your typical customer is?
[04:59] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I would say if I had to describe our typical customer, it is a woman.
[05:05] SPEAKER_02: You know, she definitely has an interest in choosing products that she feels she can trust.
[05:12] SPEAKER_02: She definitely wants to share those with her family, especially if she has children.
[05:19] SPEAKER_02: She usually would read a label, so as a much more in tune and much more educated about what
[05:26] SPEAKER_02: product ingredients that she allows herself to use or wants to use. And then we also have a great
[05:33] SPEAKER_02: supportive male fan base who, you know, it's really interesting. Men, we find men will be so
[05:42] SPEAKER_02: expressive about their love for our products. Like, they will be like, I could never go back to
[05:48] SPEAKER_02: anything else. So it is a mix, but definitely it's female driven.
[05:53] SPEAKER_00: Okay, super. And can you describe for me, I guess, how do these, I don't know, for lack of a better word,
[06:01] SPEAKER_00: the recipes come and come to play in the creation of the soaps and the different kinds of soaps?
[06:09] SPEAKER_02: Yeah, basically, the recipe, the sort of base recipe for most of our bars is the one that I created
[06:18] SPEAKER_02: and formulated, you know, back in 1999. But the way you alter each bar of soap is the different
[06:27] SPEAKER_02: additives. So the different essential oils you might use for different skin conditions.
[06:32] SPEAKER_02: If you wanted it to be exfoliating, you might add something like a clay or oatmeal. So you
[06:42] SPEAKER_02: basically have a base recipe. And then from there, you can add a lot of different ingredients
[06:47] SPEAKER_02: and formulate it to suit different needs and different skin types.
[06:51] SPEAKER_00: Okay, so I'm just curious on a yearly basis, how many soaps would you make roughly?
[06:58] SPEAKER_02: Uh, well, I think in 2021, we probably made 125,000 bars of soap as a guess.
[07:10] SPEAKER_02: And we expect with this new expansion into Korea to very likely double that in a very short time.
[07:17] SPEAKER_00: So, okay, can you can you describe a little bit for me the the manufacturing place where the stuff
[07:24] SPEAKER_02: is made? Sure. So our facility is 4,400s per feet. We have a dedicated soap making area where we have
[07:33] SPEAKER_02: it's basically a very large stainless steel that we melt our oils and put them in there, put these
[07:43] SPEAKER_02: sodium hydroxide solution in and it's mixed in that. And then we pour them into our mold system.
[07:49] SPEAKER_02: And one of the greatest things about our soap, one of the defining factors is we are, I think
[07:56] SPEAKER_02: I've only ever seen our soap be the shape, but an oval bar. And oval is a very ergonomic
[08:04] SPEAKER_02: shape for the hand. So it's very easy to wash with, it's very easy to use on your body, you're not
[08:09] SPEAKER_02: wearing off edges and corners. So it goes into our oval molds. And it goes in as a liquid.
[08:16] SPEAKER_02: At the point we call trace. So, traces when soap starts to the molecules of the sodium hydroxide
[08:23] SPEAKER_02: and the fat start to combine. And that chemical reaction once it starts, it we call that trace.
[08:32] SPEAKER_02: And at that point we pour it into our molds. And the chemical reaction continues. We we insulate the
[08:37] SPEAKER_02: molds. And the chemical reaction also creates heat. So when our soap is sitting in our molds and
[08:46] SPEAKER_02: it's insulated, you can just feel the heat that it's generating. But then as it cools it hardens.
[08:52] SPEAKER_02: And so once it's hard, we extract each, they basically come out in logs. We extract each log
[08:58] SPEAKER_02: and then they're cut. The cutting leaves a bit of a rough edge. So we hand clean all of that
[09:05] SPEAKER_02: edging off. And then we rack them and we cure them for two weeks. And that just helps the
[09:10] SPEAKER_02: additional water to evaporate to make the bar harder, which in turn makes it last longer. So once
[09:16] SPEAKER_00: they've cured for two weeks, then we sell them. So I'm curious from start to finish, how long does
[09:21] SPEAKER_01: it take to make a bar or so? Start to finish is about two and a half hours. Yeah.
[09:30] SPEAKER_02: Oh, okay then. And some of that's just wait time with different, you know, you have to get your
[09:36] SPEAKER_02: temperatures exact. You have to match temperature to temperature. Yeah. So some of that's wait time,
[09:41] SPEAKER_02: but you know, with the extraction and the cutting, it's it's about two and a half hours. And we would
[09:46] SPEAKER_02: make a batch size of of about 600, well, it's a 600 pound bar, 600 bar batch. And then we make up to
[09:55] SPEAKER_02: four of those a day, so up to 2400 bars in a day. So when you started this years ago,
[10:02] SPEAKER_00: the your wildest dreams that you think you'd be where you are today? No, not at all. I mean, it's
[10:08] SPEAKER_02: I'm certainly grateful and happy that it turned out this way. I
[10:14] SPEAKER_02: I'd never expected to be an entrepreneur, even though I came from two entrepreneurs,
[10:17] SPEAKER_02: or self-employed people. But I love it. It was my passion from very early on, and I, you know,
[10:25] SPEAKER_02: not having gone to business school or having had, you know, that formal education. It's been
[10:31] SPEAKER_02: it's been really fulfilling to be able to learn and grow. And you know, I'm still learning and
[10:36] SPEAKER_02: growing. The export has certainly, you know, made me feel like a beginner again. You know, I feel
[10:41] SPEAKER_02: like I completely understand how to manufacture and promote and sell in Canada, but that export piece
[10:49] SPEAKER_02: was was a brand new learning curve, which is just awesome, you know, you always want to be learning
[10:54] SPEAKER_00: and growing and changing. So I'm assuming that your parents were both entrepreneurs, and what
[11:01] SPEAKER_02: what did they do? Oh my god. Well, my dad, my dad was a self-employed, um, uh, truck driver.
[11:10] SPEAKER_02: Uh, he worked in the oil and gas industry, and my mom was seriously, uh, just a serial entrepreneur.
[11:18] SPEAKER_02: She started, you know, on our farm. Um, she started an egg business, so um, chickens and eggs.
[11:25] SPEAKER_02: So as a kid, you know, I was out there cleaning pens, collecting eggs, doing chores, um,
[11:32] SPEAKER_02: you know, and it was in Alberta's, you know, pretty far north. So middle of the winter, if my,
[11:38] SPEAKER_02: if my dad wasn't home, my sister and I would have to go out, you know, at
[11:42] SPEAKER_02: 630 in the morning and do the chores, and it would be like pitch dark and minus 30 or 40, and
[11:48] SPEAKER_02: but, you know, my sister and I both laugh a lot about the resiliency and sort of the competency
[11:53] SPEAKER_02: it gave us as a young age. Um, but then she gave that up and moved into things like, um, she opened
[12:01] SPEAKER_02: a clothing store, she opened a travel agency, um, so yeah, she did a lot of things.
[12:09] SPEAKER_00: What do you think you learned, uh, by growing up in the farm that, that I guess, uh, has helped you
[12:16] SPEAKER_02: in your journey as a business person? Well, the first thing I would say is definitely a resiliency
[12:23] SPEAKER_02: because farm life is often, um, you know, has its ups and downs and you, you learn to provide for
[12:29] SPEAKER_02: yourself in many ways. Um, it gives you a connection to the earth that I think you don't necessarily
[12:35] SPEAKER_02: have if you grow up in an urban environment, you know, you, you see things being grown, you,
[12:40] SPEAKER_02: you know, you care for the animals, you see the process, you, yeah, you just really get connected,
[12:46] SPEAKER_02: I think, when you, when you grew up on a farm and, and have that kind of lifestyle.
[12:52] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what's been, um, as an entrepreneur, what has been the, uh, thing that you like the most
[12:58] SPEAKER_01: about being an entrepreneur? Oh, there's quite a few, but I would say the,
[13:05] SPEAKER_02: probably the biggest thing I like about it is making, making my own decisions and having that
[13:14] SPEAKER_02: freedom to, I mean, guided freedom. It's not like you're just free to do anything you want. You
[13:20] SPEAKER_02: know, it has to make sense and it has to, you know, be as smart of a decision as you can make, but,
[13:25] SPEAKER_02: you know, you have that ability to, to change when you want to change, to create, when you want to
[13:33] SPEAKER_02: create, to step back, when you want to step back. Um, yeah, it's, I would say the freedom and the,
[13:40] SPEAKER_02: the creativity that you can, you can bring to your work. For sure.
[13:45] SPEAKER_00: Well, on the flip side, what, what don't you like about being an entrepreneur?
[13:49] SPEAKER_02: Uh, wow, you know, um, I don't like, I don't like a lot of the sort of admin work that,
[14:00] SPEAKER_02: you know, still some of it a lot, a lot of it still falls to me. So I'm not a huge fan of that kind of thing.
[14:10] SPEAKER_02: Sometimes the pressure of, um, having a team and a staff and, and managing people all the time
[14:17] SPEAKER_02: can be, you know, an added stress that isn't always easy. I mean, we have a wonderful team right
[14:22] SPEAKER_02: now. We probably have the best team we've ever had. In fact, we definitely have the best team we've
[14:26] SPEAKER_02: ever had. But certainly over the last 20 some years, you know, there's been times when, you know,
[14:32] SPEAKER_02: there's, there's issues you have to deal with with people that you just don't want to, but you have to,
[14:38] SPEAKER_02: um, so that, that's, that can be hard. You know, and then the, the instability sometimes
[14:46] SPEAKER_02: of being an entrepreneur can be, can be tough, you know, other people get a regular paycheck,
[14:51] SPEAKER_02: it's guaranteed unless, unless they get laid off or fired, but as an entrepreneur, you know,
[14:55] SPEAKER_02: everybody's sort of depending on your guidance, your direction. And I love that. But the, the,
[15:00] SPEAKER_02: the pressure from that can sometimes be something you have to learn to manage and, and deal with in a
[15:06] SPEAKER_00: smart way. What, what advice would you give people if they came to you asking for advice about
[15:13] SPEAKER_02: becoming an entrepreneur? I think it has to really be something you're passionate about. It's not
[15:22] SPEAKER_02: even that like, like I am very passionate about soap. Nobody loves soap more than I do. So that
[15:28] SPEAKER_02: doesn't hurt. And I think you can be a serial entrepreneur and not love necessarily the product.
[15:35] SPEAKER_02: It's self, but the process you have to love that. You have to love either the, the creativity of it
[15:41] SPEAKER_02: or the sales of it. You probably should also love the product. For sure, I think you can't sell
[15:47] SPEAKER_02: things well unless you, unless you love them. And I think early on, it's important to get the kind
[15:56] SPEAKER_02: of guidance and mentorship that, that you might need. You know, I feel like there are mistakes I
[16:01] SPEAKER_02: made early on that had I found the right people to help me. I wouldn't have made those mistakes.
[16:06] SPEAKER_02: Yeah. So yeah, mentorship is definitely something that's very important and, and expertise.
[16:13] SPEAKER_02: Those two really, really critical things, I think, if you're, if you're going to start, start out and do
[16:19] SPEAKER_00: something. So on your entrepreneurial journey, I just curious, were there any, I don't know,
[16:25] SPEAKER_00: examples of other businesses that you looked at for guidance or any books that were helpful along the
[16:33] SPEAKER_02: way? Yeah. Oh, I read a really great book. I'm going to totally forget the name of it right now.
[16:43] SPEAKER_02: I read it at a really critical point where I was, I was really a really small company. And I knew
[16:50] SPEAKER_02: I didn't want to be the maker of my product forever. You know, that's not really a sustainable
[16:54] SPEAKER_02: growth model. So I read this book and it was about that, you know, being the maker or being
[17:04] SPEAKER_02: the entrepreneur and you often start as the maker of the, of the widget. But to grow your business,
[17:11] SPEAKER_02: you have to become the true entrepreneur and that becoming the true entrepreneur is going to get
[17:17] SPEAKER_02: you the things that you're probably looking for in your life as an entrepreneur, which is the ability
[17:21] SPEAKER_02: to make the decisions and the ability to have some freedom. And you know, you can still maintain
[17:26] SPEAKER_02: that creativity, but yet grow your business and not be the maker. Yeah, it's interesting. You say
[17:34] SPEAKER_00: that because I do recall a conversation I had years ago with a friend of mine who's an artist.
[17:40] SPEAKER_00: And he told me basically that, you know, he had two jobs, right? And the first job was
[17:46] SPEAKER_00: being an artist and doing that, that, that craft. But then the second job was the business side of
[17:52] SPEAKER_00: things, right? And I think a lot of people don't understand that and just kind of reminded me
[17:57] SPEAKER_00: when you said, you know, the people making the widgets, there's really two aspects of being an
[18:04] SPEAKER_02: entrepreneur, right? For sure. Yeah. And it's whether you're going to focus on working in the business
[18:09] SPEAKER_02: or working on the business. So when I made that switch to working on the business, I think,
[18:15] SPEAKER_00: you know, a lot changed for me a lot. So something just popped in my head here. So you only make bars
[18:21] SPEAKER_02: soap, you don't make liquid? We do actually make a liquid hand and body wash. And we do it
[18:29] SPEAKER_02: right again, right from scratch. And it's, it's, it's naturally based. So there's no detergents and
[18:34] SPEAKER_00: no drawing elements to it. So yeah, we do. Yeah. Okay, super. So, you know, obviously being an
[18:42] SPEAKER_00: entrepreneur, I think the common thread throughout entrepreneurship is that it's 24, 7 job in
[18:49] SPEAKER_00: many ways. Do you feel that you have some work life balance in your life?
[18:58] SPEAKER_02: I try to. I mean, there's certain times of the year where that's a little bit easier. You know,
[19:03] SPEAKER_02: certainly fall and winter leading up to the holidays is not the time where you're going to have,
[19:11] SPEAKER_02: you know, definitely never going to Mexico in November. So, um, but yeah, I try to scratch out times
[19:19] SPEAKER_02: when, you know, I'll see it a window where I can take some time off or if I'm feeling really burnt
[19:26] SPEAKER_02: out because I think it's not your premiere. It's really easy to work 24, 7. Yeah. You know,
[19:33] SPEAKER_02: I often will do some work at night. And I, I rarely have ever felt resentful about that because
[19:39] SPEAKER_02: it's something I want to do. But you can get into a cycle where you're doing that a bit too much.
[19:44] SPEAKER_02: And so it is, it is pretty important to, to take that time and, and it helps when you have a team
[19:50] SPEAKER_02: you can trust and depend on to support you in that and, um, and also recognizing that in your team,
[19:57] SPEAKER_02: you know, you know, you need to take some time off, I think, because you've been, you know,
[20:02] SPEAKER_02: working so hard for us. And so I kind of encourage that both with my team and I try to do that with
[20:08] SPEAKER_00: myself as well. Okay. Super. So what do you, uh, what would you say, some of your interests or
[20:14] SPEAKER_02: passions are beyond the work and the business? I love plants and gardening. So I get very excited
[20:24] SPEAKER_02: when spring comes, um, because I can get out in my yard and, and dig in the dirt and plant my flowers
[20:30] SPEAKER_02: and, and some vegetables. Um, so yeah, big interest there. I love to travel and, you know, that's
[20:36] SPEAKER_02: worked really well in terms of a, you know, goes hand in hand a bit with our export work. I've,
[20:42] SPEAKER_02: I've added some travel to, um, Asia in order to meet distributors and go to the locations where
[20:49] SPEAKER_02: our products are sold. So, but other than that, I like to travel just for pleasure as well. So I,
[20:54] SPEAKER_02: I love a good beach. Um, I love great architecture. I love, you know, seeing old things, old cities,
[21:01] SPEAKER_02: Europe is amazing. So yeah, I love travel. I love to spend time with my kids, um, to
[21:07] SPEAKER_02: grow up now, but, you know, they're, they're always hanging around. Um, yeah. So I would say those
[21:14] SPEAKER_00: are probably my, my top interests. All right. Super. Well, thanks very much, uh, Tanya for joining us
[21:20] SPEAKER_01: today. Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure. All right. Super. That was Tanya
[21:26] SPEAKER_00: Zurak, who is founder of Wild Prairie Soap Company in Edmonton. I'm Mario Tonoguzi with Edmonton's
[21:32] SPEAKER_00: podcast on Canada's podcast network. Thanks for joining us today.