Karen recently received an email from a listener that posed an interesting question…”Should I keep my business doing what is already working or should I branch out and try something new?” Stepping into a new world can be daunting and can leave you second guessing if you’ve made the right choice, however, there is a way to do this and minimise your risk. This week, Karen is here to explain how you can expand your business into new and exciting avenues without losing what you have built and how you can grow your brand with confidence.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Before you start introducing new ways of working, or even new product lines, take a long hard look at what you’re already doing. As Karen explains, if it’s working, there’s a reason for that, so look at how you can leverage that to support other parts of the business.

• What are the best products to get started with when thinking about expansion? Karen details some of the easiest products to develop and gives you a warning about the ones to avoid.

• Karen breaks down the principle of the ‘soft launch’ and how it can help you to test new products without the excessive time and expense of a full launch.

• The fear of fear itself is often the very thing that holds us back from getting where we want to go. Karen discusses what that fear might actually be about and how to overcome it.

BEST MOMENTS

“There’s a lot of power in stability and it’s the smartest place to grow from.”

“Ultimately you want to gain the skills to design scents that truly represent your brand.”

“The biggest thing that can stop us getting where we want to go is fear.”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Getting Started Guide

Artisan Perfumery Mastermind

ABOUT THE HOST

Fragrance expert, author, teacher and speaker; Karen Gilbert runs courses in the UK and online which demystify the secretive world of perfumery in a fun and interactive way.

Karen has inspired thousands of students to explore their olfactory sense and create their own personalised fragrances.

With extensive product development experience in both the commercial perfumery and the organic skincare industry, Karen is able to offer a unique insight into creating natural and mixed media fragrances for fine fragrance, room scents and skincare/bodycare products using commercial perfumery techniques.

Karen is also a certified meditation teacher and has a passion for helping people to create daily rituals that integrate scent with other modalities to shift state and increase your sense of wellbeing.

CONTACT DETAILS

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Email

On this week's show Karen is joined by a leader in the tech world of fragrance, Camila Thomas. Founder of Air Parfum, a device that allows you to test multiple fragrance without sensory overwhelm, WikiParfum, a digital encyclopedia of fragrance, and ScentXP, a platform that bridges the gap behind online and in-store scent discovery. In this interview with Karen, Camila explains how technology and AI are revolutionising the consumer experience in the fragrance sector, why an open attitude to tech will benefit everybody and how sight is the new smell.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• When Camila, who had a background in the world of tech, entered the fragrance industry she identified a disconnect between the consumer and the product that she felt could be bridged with new technology. She explains to Karen how these initial discoveries started the journey that she is on today.

• Most companies that develop new technology in the fragrance industry limit its use to their own fragrances. Karen and Camila discuss the importance of opening up our tech to the whole sector.

• Wikiparfum, the digital encyclopedia that Camila developed, allows consumers to understand what fragrances will smell like without actually smelling them. Camila explains how the platform works.

• Airparfum is a device that allows people to test multiple scents without overwhelming their senses. Camila explains how it was developed, how it works and why it revolutionises fragrance testing.

BEST MOMENTS

“Fragrance is a category that many people in marketing love, but very few understand.”

“The only way to make the right recommendation of a fragrance is to make it for the individual, independently, regardless of who makes the fragrance.”

“The ability to visualize a scent suddenly makes it a universal language.”

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Getting Started Guide

Artisan Perfumery Mastermind

ABOUT THE HOST

Fragrance expert, author, teacher and speaker; Karen Gilbert runs courses in the UK and online which demystify the secretive world of perfumery in a fun and interactive way.

Karen has inspired thousands of students to explore their olfactory sense and create their own personalised fragrances.

With extensive product development experience in both the commercial perfumery and the organic skincare industry, Karen is able to offer a unique insight into creating natural and mixed media fragrances for fine fragrance, room scents and skincare/bodycare products using commercial perfumery techniques.

Karen is also a certified meditation teacher and has a passion for helping people to create daily rituals that integrate scent with other modalities to shift state and increase your sense of wellbeing.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Email

Happy New Year and welcome to the first episode of 2025. Before bursting into the new year with a host of new content, Karen is here to deliver an interactive episode that will allow you to look back and reflect on 2024. Whilst you may not think you achieved much last year, Karen is here to offer you some prompts and advice that might just make you think different. And, once you’ve completed your recap of 2024 Karen will walk you through how these observations can help make 2025 a year to remember.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Before Karen takes a look back at 2024 she shares some titbits of what listeners can look forward to on the show in 2025 and some information on her upcoming courses.
• Karen invites you to challenge yourself and write down the achievements you made during the last 12 months. Whilst they may appear to be small at first, writing them down may lead to a revelation.
• What are your values? A question that not many of us think about. Karen encourages you to make a list of your values, look back at how you might have compromised on them in the past and how that can help you to be more aligned with them in the future.
• Having looked back at last year, Karen sets you the task of taking what you have learned and setting your intentions for the next 12 months. Not sure what these can be? Don’t worry, Karen is on hand to offer some suggestions.

BEST MOMENTS

“The more you reflect, the more you will realise how far you have come.”

“We put so much pressure on ourselves with new year resolutions, why not try setting a new year's intention instead.”

“Sharing your goals makes them more real. Talk to your friends or your online community about the things you want to achieve.”

EPISODE LINKS

The Scent Shift

In Person Classes

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Getting Started Guide

Artisan Perfumery Mastermind

ABOUT THE HOST

Fragrance expert, author, teacher and speaker; Karen Gilbert runs courses in the UK and online which demystify the secretive world of perfumery in a fun and interactive way.

Karen has inspired thousands of students to explore their olfactory sense and create their own personalised fragrances.

With extensive product development experience in both the commercial perfumery and the organic skincare industry, Karen is able to offer a unique insight into creating natural and mixed media fragrances for fine fragrance, room scents and skincare/bodycare products using commercial perfumery techniques.

Karen is also a certified meditation teacher and has a passion for helping people to create daily rituals that integrate scent with other modalities to shift state and increase your sense of wellbeing.

CONTACT DETAILS

Website

Instagram

Facebook

YouTube

Email