VO: Purpose Haze, A new series featuring Scott Goodson, founder of StrawberryFrog, together with New York Festivals. It will defog purpose through in-depth interviews with those at the forefront of purpose driven companies. Watch what happens when the smoke clears.

Scott: Hey everybody. Welcome to a new episode of Purpose Haze. We have a pretty damn awesome show today. We have a guest all the way from Sweden. Actually, not from Sweden. She's from Sweden, but she's from Nolita, just on the other side of Houston. I'm in the Empire State Building here with Signe Ögren Kull. Welcome to the show.

Signe: Thank you. Thank you.

Scott: And Signe is the CEO of Maria Nila, which is one of the fastest growing hair care brands here in the United States, and I think all over the world, and which has an investment from the LVMH group. It's growing. You've been instrumental in the growth here. How many years have you been leading the organization?

Signe: It’s gonna be three years in the summer. Yeah.

Scott: And so my understanding is that you love when people have preconceptions about you.

Signe: I mean…

Scott: What does it motivate you to do? Is that the thing that gets you going?

Signe: Yeah, it's something with the fact that I can prove them… that I can prove something within myself or… I hate it and I love it equally as much. I would say it gets me going. It's a drive, but it's also frustrating, of course. So, I'd like to change that.

Scott: But it's a great motivator.

Signe: Mm-hmm.

Scott: Love and hate is a constant struggle in our lives, isn't it?

Signe: Yeah.

Scott: The thing that tends to be the antidote of that is the purpose. So if you have a purpose, it helps you always go back to that rudder, you know, if you're a sailboat, that rudder that helps you navigate the storms of volatility, whatever. In your business, maybe you could talk a little bit about the purpose that Maria Nila has, and how you use it to grow your business, engage your employees and your consumers.

Signe: Overall, we've always had a big focus on being better and doing better for wildlife, nature, humanity, and animals. So I think that is something that really aligns with myself. I always wanna be better. I'm not looking for perfection, but I'm just… I have this passion to always develop myself and, you know, the way I live my life or the way I do business. And that is something that is very aligned with Maria Nila's purpose as well. Together with the fact that we wanna be… we wanna innovate beauty to support animals and communities towards a friendlier world.

Scott: Are other brands and products not doing that?

Signe: I mean, I'm always inspired looking at other brands and CEOs, or business leaders or companies. I think sometimes you could be too obsessed with the idea of growth or the bottom line, and not looking at what you can actually improve when it comes to your business processes, or your manufacturing processes, or the product itself. And asking yourself like, what is the customer asking for, and not launching new products just because you can.

Scott: Do you think that your background in Sweden, and the Swedish disposition, let's say, has guided you, your own personal view of the world? Like you said that Maria Nila talks to you as a human being. That connection is because you grew up in a country that, I guess, appreciates nature and natural environment. Was that part of your upbringing? Did you live in the center of a city or did you live more close to nature when you were young?

Signe: Yeah, definitely close to nature. I grew up on a small island in the archipelago. And, you know, my family and I were always on a boat, and spent the majority… I have a close relationship to, I guess, the water and the cliffs. So that definitely helped. But I also think Sweden as a country, we're such a… we're a small country, but still bringing some of the top companies into the world, you know, when it comes to tech or furnitures or whatever it might be. And I think maybe it's the underdog vibe that I'm really… that also gets me going, and it's the passion of, again, proving that you can do something that maybe the rest of the world didn't think you could do. So it's like conquering because we're small, or not today, but we were once a very small business. And today we're competing towards the biggest beauty companies in the world. And it's just very fulfilling to know that, and I see my team, and we do it all the time. Every day I do something I've never done before. But it's… you do it once and then it's not that hard anymore.

Scott: Another virtue of being Swedish is Swedes tend to be a little modest. So I'm actually glad that you're actually confident enough to say that you're doing well, 'cause I know you're doing very well, and the company is doing very well.

Signe: Thank you.

Scott: Do you feel that part of that success is because you have become a little bit like a poster child to this new generation of consumers? The younger consumers, like, I think about my own kids that are 20-something and they're very… they're big fans of Maria Nila. Can you talk a little about your consumer? Maybe why they connect so much to a brand that, you know, takes a stand for nature, or takes a stand to protect animals?

Signe: Yeah. So the new consumer, the new generation, especially looking at Gen Z a lot, it's, you know, a good product is definitely not enough. They're buying into a feeling, they're buying into a purpose. There's a lot of good products out there, especially within the beauty industry. That has really bloomed in the last couple of years.

Scott: Yeah.

Signe: So they're looking at the brand, they're looking at the ingredients, they're looking at the people, they're reading, you know, the advertisements, and they're questioning everything. So we get a lot of emails all the time about ingredients, or standpoints, or it could be anything. They're really engaged. And with that being said, I think that's a good thing, 'cause you know, you have to be careful with what you claim on your products. But also when it comes to choosing ingredients, or where do you manufacture? So, we have our own production facility in Sweden. So, we produce everything there, which also gives us the power of, you know, controlling the ingredients, but also the products or the production itself. So, I think the new generation is definitely very mindful, and it's gonna be harder for new brands to grow out there.

Scott: I'd love to talk for a second about how you use creativity to express your purpose, and how you engage your consumers. Are you doing any promotions coming up?

Signe: Yeah, so one of our biggest purposes is of course innovation. And we focus on that part from, you know, the ingredients, but also all the way towards the marketing campaigns. And I have this amazing design team back in Stockholm where we have our headquarters and also our marketing team. And they're, you know, bringing on the most amazing campaigns every year. We just launched a beauty bag, which is a kit, earlier this month, and we did a big tennis campaign, 'cause tennis is definitely something…

Scott: I used to work with Björn Borg. I know the tennis history, yeah.

Signe: Unfortunately we didn't have him on the campaign, but we had two other tennis rock stars from Sweden. They're professional players. And yeah, we always try to be innovative. Like, we like to not look at just what the industry is doing, but also what other industries are doing, and different collaborations, or, you know, if there's a way to merge two products. I find the unexpected collaborations really inspiring. So that is also where we're going, in towards innovation.

Scott: And can you talk a little bit about the tennis promotion you're doing?

Signe: So we are partnering up now. So, we have a tennis theme with that specific product, and partnered up with two tennis players. And now we're also launching, or sending, a lot of people to the French Open, and I think we're gonna do it with the US Open as well.

Scott: Oh, Cool. Can we take a look at that?

Scott: That's a really interesting way of engaging your consumers. Do you feel that you've done everything you need to do for the brand, or do you think you have a lot more to come?

Signe: Oh, no, definitely a lot more to come, I would say. I think this company… It's very hard to get bored because I feel like it's a new company every six months.

Scott: Oh, that's cool.

Signe: It's a family owned business. It was founded in 1999. It's been a family owned business since then, but last year we took on investors. We have a pretty aggressive growth plan coming, so looking back six months, it was a different company. And then looking, you know, in the future, it's just gonna evolve. So, no, no, no, no. Time is flying, and yeah, I'm excited to see what's to come.

Scott: Well, we are really happy to have you here today, Signe. Although here in the US they call you Sign-e right?

Signe: Sign-e.

Scott: Are you happy with that? You don't like that.

Signe: Sign-e? No.

Scott: No. I like Signe, so I’ll stick with Signe. Thank you so much for coming today.

Signe: Thank you for having me.

Scott: We love to hear about what you're doing, and maybe you can come back in the future and tell us…

Signe: Of course.

Scott: This company, how it's evolved, I'm sure it'll continue to evolve under your guidance and leadership. And thank you for joining us again. And if you have any questions for Signe, or about Maria Nila, let us know, or you can obviously look it up online and find them on social media and all the other good places.

Signe: Yep.

Scott: Thank you so much.

Signe: Thank you.

Scott: Awesome. Boom.