Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Adora Winquist, founder of Adora Winquist LLC., located in Asheville, NC, USA.
What's your business, and who are your customers?
For over 24 years, I have built multiple businesses intertwining my two passions, essential oils, and vibrational healing. When I founded my previous company, Adoratherapy, I was selling energetically infused organic aromatherapy products to companies like Whole Foods Market. Back in 2009, when I began a business partnership with this and many other fine retailers, there were no other Chakra Balancing products or other formulas for personal growth on the shelves. Today, we can see similar products in even more mainstream retailers. The natural products and wellness sector is now poised to be over a 1 trillion market.
My new company Adora Winquist LLC continues to iterate and innovate in the field of aromatherapy and vibrational medicine. Coming back to my roots as a healer, alchemist, teacher, and writer, I have a high vibrational line of artisanal aromatherapy blends, a new book on healing trauma at the DNA level with another on the way, a flourishing private practice, and a life-changing retreat program offering in the US and abroad. We also offer to empower complimentary content, and I teach at least five gratis meditation groups monthly. I am incredibly blessed to have a brilliant team of like-minded souls and a robust internship program that mentored over 28 students last year across multiple sectors. Today my customers range from people in their mid-twenties who are seeking greater understanding and healing for themselves to those in their 70s searching for true fulfillment and answers to some of life’s questions that are still present for them.
My customers, clients, students, and readers are searching for solutions to their holistic wellbeing: greater emotional resilience, physical vibrancy, and a greater spiritual understanding of the adversities they have faced in their lives. At all age ranges, there is a common thread of desire to source greater fulfillment and harmonious wellbeing.
Tell us about yourself
I began my journey as a healer, essential oil formulator, and entrepreneur in the mid-1990s. I first started studying hands-on healing with Reiki. My first class was in New Hampshire, which is such a beautiful area. When I received my first attunement, I started to see colors around people, and I was shocked…I also thought, “I really want to experience more of this.” I started using Reiki on myself and then anyone in my circle who was open to it. I saw significant shifts from an emotional and mental perspective and, of course, from the perspective of our physiology, physical health, and wellbeing.
I then explored more forms of energy medicine or vibrational healing while I started to work with plant medicine. I have a bit of a funny story of when I was first living on Cape Cod and I was 19 years old. I didn’t have a lot of money, and I didn’t have health insurance. Every year I would get bronchitis about twice a year brought on by allergies. I was really quite sick, and because I couldn’t afford to go to the doctor and get medicine, I was really at a loss. Somewhere I heard something about herbs, and I went to a store on Cape Cod, near Chatham. I bought five different herbs—hyssop, thyme, eucalyptus, licorice root, and fresh ginger. I went home, and I made tea. I was amazed by how quickly I healed, and since then, many moons later, I still have not had bronchitis. In fact, I got so many queries for that formula that I included it in my book. It’s in the Heart Activate chapter of my new book Detox. Nourish. Activate Plant & Vibrational Medicine for Energy, Mood, and Love. Once I started working with herbs, I found essential oils, and the rest is history.
I am deeply committed to innovating in my field and last year launched the first nanoparticle essential oil formulas to the market. The Elixirs for Quantum Living “groundbreaking trinity” of alchemical solutions to connect to your center and find natural clarity and inner calm, bringing balance to three key aspects of existence: Mood, Energy, and Sleep. Nano-encapsulated CBD calms and soothes, creating an open pathway for proprietary formulations designed to elevate our ability to perceive and tap into the highest level of positive energy that always exists around us. The nano-emulsifying process also respectfully elevates the sacred nature of pure essential oils, preserving uplifting elements and full healing energy in their unadulterated form. The response to this collection has been phenomenal, and I am humbled to receive the beautiful messages of positive shifts and healing from my customers. This continues to motivate me daily and continue to persevere with my mission of healing, awakening, and elevating the consciousness of humanity.
What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
There are so many successes to celebrate; the small victories are just as important to celebrate as the big wins. I would say that my first book is a huge one. I had to move through a great deal of resistance to open and be vulnerable in sharing my life story. I knew it was an integral part of the book as a transformative guide to healing. Establishing connectivity, common ground paves the pathway for others to know they are not alone in their life struggles. If I found the way through, everyone has that potential too. I would also have to say building my last brand Adoratheray was a huge success on many levels from the customer and retailer response, including numerous awards and recognition. Then paving an exit strategy to sell my majority equity and start these new chapters of life and business today and tomorrow.
What's one of the hardest things that come with being a business owner?
Entrepreneurship is a spiritual journey. It is not a linear road to perfection. Like life, it is filled with peaks and valleys and will call you to explore, question, love, forgive and understand yourself in more ways than you can imagine right now. That is the beauty of the journey.
What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?
- Curate your environment to create the conditions for your optimal productivity, harmony, positive energy, and flow state-this creates a successful mindset.
- Create structure and discipline to allow your inner creative genius to execute in an organized manner. Even if you work from home, pay attention to your appearance and your workspace. Incorporate elements of the natural world to support your environment energetically. Clear clutter daily and start your day with intentional practice.
- Learn from every misstep. Bless them as a source of your greater education and evolution. Listen to those that embody mastery in your chosen field and apply the life lesson of discernment to sift through what is true for you and your business authentically. At the end of the day, the decisions and actions you make must come from your core.
Is there anything else you'd like to share?
More than anything, believe in yourself, trust your intuition and search for your true purpose and make that your business. The road is windy; there will be many more mountains to climb than you anticipate. Sometimes the oxygen gets thin near the top, but don’t give up; sometimes, our greatest successes are just around the corner. Breathe deeply and open yourself to the very best that life has to offer.
Where can people find you and your business?
Website: https://www.adorawinquist.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adorawinquistmodernalchemist
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adorawinquist/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AdoraWinquist
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adora-winquist/
If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solopreneur that you'd like to share, then email community@subkit.com; we'd love to feature your journey on these pages.
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