Speaker 0:01

Welcome to The Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let your heart guide your business journey.

Tom Jackobs 0:36

Well, welcome to the Heart-Led Business Show. Today we're rolling out the red carpet for Joy Musacchio, the vibrant visionary behind Still Point aromatics, and the school at Still Point in the enchanting Sedona, Arizona area. So Joy is a master at intertwining ethical business with plant intelligence, teaching us to slow down and savor presence over performance. So get ready to explore her journey of heart-led entrepreneurship where integrity and sustainability bloom like wild flowers in a sunlit meadow. So let's dive in. Joy, welcome to the show.

Joy Musacchio 1:14

Oh, thank you so much, my honor. Thank you.

Defining Heart Led Business

Tom Jackobs 1:17

I'm, really excited to talk to you today, especially because, of the essential oils that you do, which are a lot different than what most people think on essential oils, especially when it's the big, multi-level marketing type of, oil companies out there. And I, I love what you're doing and I can't wait to share that with the rest of the audience here. But of course, the first thing that I always ask is, what's your definition of a heart-led business?

Joy Musacchio 1:45

Oh, let's see. That's a great question. So, okay, so I'm from Sedona and, well, originally New York, but I'm from Sedona now, so I won't get too woo-woo because I don't really, I believe in half woo. Woo-woo is not great, but okay. So for me, a heart-led business is, it's a, it's not just a business run with love, it's a business run from coherence. So to me, the heart isn't just an emotional place, and love isn't just being nice to people, it's integration. So, instinct, intellect, intuition, meet and agree at the center of it. And I think that a heart-led business is a business where decisions are made from alignment rather than fear and way rather than greed. So, pretty much it asks, is this integrity? Is this clean? Does this strengthen the field or does it distort it? And love for me in this context isn't soft, this intelligent, discerning, and also willing to say heart-led business understands that everything requires frequency, products, pricing, marketing, leadership, even how we pour, how we ship. So if we're careless, rushed. Trying to cut corners, which I never do or disconnected. The energy shows up, it really does. It shows up in the work, it shows up in the oils. So I think anybody that has a business, it's a, a stewardship and for me, the stewardship of plant intelligence, people's trust, my own nervous system, of the land growers, distillers, and the unseen. So it's not about being nice, it's about being congruent. And congruent creates safety. Safety creates healing. Healing creates empowerment.

Tom Jackobs 3:27

I love that. That is, that's one of the better, definitions that I've, that I've heard in over 140 episodes. It's just very, the, the alignment piece, the coherence, it totally makes sense. So thank you for sharing that.

Joy Musacchio 3:41

Thank You.

Tom Jackobs 3:44

That's great. So tell us about your journey, getting into the oil business.

Joy Musacchio 3:49

Okay. So that it's a good, twisty story. So back in the day, I taught school in New York. I taught fifth grade, and then I moved to Florida for, eight years. And then I ended up in Sedona. And so when I moved to Sedona, I started a massage business and I used essential oils in the massage business. And I had also spent eight years in a mystery school. I had the energetic stuff and the, all of that chakras, the aura, the this, the that, and the oils. And I was working with a local company and they for a couple years, and the integrity just didn't match. So I'd never planned to start an aromatics business. I mean, at all. I wanted to find some oils for my customers, my massage clients, and, so I started emailing distillers. And I did. So I emailed distillers in Nepal and in Australia, and I said, you know, can I, I'd like to buy a kilo, which is about a quart of essential oil. And they're like, oh, of course. And before you knew it, they, I had 168 kilos of all different essential oils from all over the world, in my house. And I said, oh. I said, I think I'm supposed to be doing something more than just buying them for my massage business. And that's really how Still Point was born. And so I think the business found me, but the really neat part about it is the Sublayer, and that is in 2009 when I started the business, the economy was collapsing, right? The banks were failing the. Chicken Little was saying the sky was falling and it was the least rational time to, to start a business. And, but it felt right to me. So I funded it by selling, the jewelry my mother had left me, when she passed away. And that is a next sub layer because, my mom had been pregnant nine times. I'm the 10th kid, and all the babies before me either miscarried or were born, lived one day and then passed away. So, selling her jewelry was, it was the last piece of her that I had. I talked to her and she did not talk back to me and I sold it and I started the business.

Service to Product Shift

Tom Jackobs 6:06

What an amazing story and journey. And I wanna dive into one, piece of that really stuck out to me. You know, going from a service business into a product business, that's a huge shift in terms of just complexity, in terms of the business style, you know, a product business is so much more complex, I believe than, you know, a service business. So how, how did that education happen? Like that's amazing that you were able to do that and are thriving with the, the product business now.

Joy Musacchio 6:38

You're right. I mean it is.'cause you know, when you teach school, you get your 30 kids every year and the 60 parents that come with them, and they're your people for the year, you know, and so it's a close system. Sometimes it's a great year, sometimes not so much, but yeah.

Tom Jackobs 6:54

Yeah.

Joy Musacchio 6:55

But you're working one-on-one with people, so it's contained. And I don't think I was prepared for the internet product thing, you know, because it, it took a while before I realized that well, not everybody thinks the way I think, and not everybody treats people, the way that we treat people. And I think it was after a year in, I said, oh, I said, this is like, I have a storefront on every single corner that I sell to. You know, so if it's New York and New Yorkers, I'm great with,'cause I'm a New Yorker, you know? But different parts of the country is very different. It was a learning curve. It was you're right.

Tom Jackobs 7:32

Was it like trial by fire or did you get some help, to kinda navigate the business landscape?

Joy Musacchio 7:38

Trial by fire. Yep. Just kept plugging along. Do you know that? The thing is that it's, my business is, I call it a, it reminds me of Sedona.'cause Sedona is a small town, but big city in a lot of ways with the restaurants and the art and stuff. And my business is small business, but people looking on the website think it's huge business, you know? People will call and they'll say, I don't know when my stuff is shipping from your warehouse. Like, I don't have a warehouse. We do everything. It's old mom and pop, you know, so it, it usually I'm standing on a part of the floor that's squeaking in my shop and I'm looking around and I'm saying warehouse. So, yeah.

Hand Poured With Intention

Tom Jackobs 8:20

Yes. Warehouse. Did you mean garage. That's awesome. So what do you believe makes your business heart-led?

Joy Musacchio 8:31

Oh, good question. So I believe that, it's the way that I feel about the oils, the way that I feel about people and the way I feel about humanity. And sometimes humanity I'm not so crazy about, but I love humanity. I love them anyway, you know? I wanna make money. I mean, we need money to live. You know, I tell people if I win lotto. Oils will be free to everybody I like and I'm gonna double the price. And I'm joking. I love people, you know, and, and it's the real deal like that. So, there's nothing fake. I don't feel that the oils are products. I feel that they're living, living beings. Not that they talk to me, but they're, they're the lifeblood of the plant, their medicine. And nothing's pre-poured. Nothing is pre-poured. Everything is done in the moment with intention and a bit of ceremony.

Tom Jackobs 9:19

Okay, so when, when you get an order, you're preparing everything specifically for that order.

Joy Musacchio 9:25

Yes. Yeah. So we get an order, we print it out, we read it and, write a note. So it would be like, you know, dear Tom, thank you so much for your order. I really hope that you enjoy the lavender. Much love, Joy. And then we pour it, hand pour it, and then we hand label it. And, then I'm usually the one that's packing, and so then we pack, pack and ship.

Tom Jackobs 9:47

Wow. Awesome. That's a labor of love, right? Because I'm sure there's machines out there that can do some of that for you. Why, why the choice, the intentional choice of doing it this way?

Energetics And Finger Root

Joy Musacchio 10:00

Because a lot of the times when, you could see the list of oils, someone orders, you kind of could tell what they're ordering for. You know, if it's a cold, a flu, or this or that. That's one thing. The other thing is, is that I'm a big believer in, intention, like, like I could make a dish of pasta and so could my friend, and if they're an asshole and being in that mood, and I'm not, the mine is going to come out. It's going, there's gonna be a subs, an underneath substance to it, you know, I know this sounds so hokey, but truly, you know, so I, so this is a quick story. So when we get the oils, I get the oils in and we, I detox them energetically, so to speak, which might be a little out there for some people, but then I play music for them and then we decant, we do a ceremony. We thank the oil and light a candle, put on some music, and then I decant into amber bottles that we, that we pour from. And so anyway, a friend of mine who had another company, in another state, I was ordering from Thailand. And so I called her up and I said, do you need anything from Thailand? She said, yes, I need finger root. And I said, okay. So I was ordering finger root too. And for those of your people, well, nobody knows what finger root is. It smells the way it sounds, right? It smells like, finger root, it's not bad, but you wouldn't say like, hit me with another shot of finger root for, for a perfume, right? So anyway, I got five kilos, and I divided it up. I poured two and a half and I sent my friend the other, and then I met her at a conference about a year later. And she came over and she smelled the finger root. And she said, this finger root, you got new finger root. This is lovely. And I said, this is the same finger root that I gave you. I said, this is not a big seller, you know? And she said, but your smells softer. There's a different quality to it. And I said, okay. I guess I proved the invisible to myself with the love and the attitude towards something.'cause my friend is wonderful, but she looks at the oils, their, their products, and she's a supplier. And I'm not, I'm a treshold.

Learning Pricing And Operations

Tom Jackobs 12:07

Nice. I love that story. That, yeah, that, would prove it to me that, you know, the, the care and handling and the extra that you do with it just preserves the, the fragrance probably a lot better. So let's shift gears just a little bit and talk about the business side. You know, going from being a teacher and then being a massage therapist and then going into, this business, it sounds like you had to be a self learner in terms of everything that takes to be a business owner and to have a product-based business. So what was that journey like for you in terms of getting that education or figuring it out on your own and, and then balancing that business, which is always so dry, right? It's not, people don't think that the business side has a lot of love to it. I think it does. But how do you balance that with the more, energetic and, and the love and care that, that you do for the other part of the business.

Joy Musacchio 13:06

Yeah, that was, that was a bit of a learning curve, you know. Well from sourcing the, not sourcing the oils, but the bottles and the caps and the labels, and then the insurance and shipping. And it was, and realizing that, there's a lot more that goes into pricing something than just what you pay for it, you know? And, and it was, curve. I underpriced for a long, long time. I think for many reasons. I didn't have experience, but I also wanted the oils to reach people that they needed to reach, you know, and it took a year or two and stuff before I realized, okay, this is a business. I mean, this is also a business not just this passion. And, so I read a couple of books like the Blue Ocean Strategy, you know, it's a couple of business books and I kind of dialed myself in. I don't know if I answered your question.

Tom Jackobs 13:59

What did that feel like going like. Having to learn the business side for being, kinda in the softer fields if, if I could say it that way. You know, business, you know, black and white numbers, you know, zeros and ones. So what was that like for you to make that transition and realize, I have to know this business if I wanna serve more people?

Joy Musacchio 14:22

Oh, that was a hard truth. You're right. The softer side for sure. And also, I mean, I'm Italian and I was a teacher and I was like the only kid. So there's the and, and I'm a Libra and all of that stuff. I'm, I'm a nice person. I'm real generous. I'll give you the shirt off of my back. So to actually say, no, no, this is a business and actually I not deserve, it's the wrong word, but, it actually, there, there's an exchange happening here, a fair exchange, you know, for,

Tom Jackobs 14:51

Yeah.

Joy Musacchio 14:51

Product and that took a while. And, and finally I think I came to the point that if I didn't value, and this is gonna sound so like hokey, but if I didn't value what I was selling, if I didn't value what I was offering, then nobody else would too. That was a switch. And I always ask myself a question before I put a new class up or a new product up or anything. I ask myself, would I buy this? And if the answer is no. Then I think I price it differently.

Tom Jackobs 15:17

Oh, interesting.

Joy Musacchio 15:18

I hate being ripped off. And I, and I refuse to rip anybody off. But then sometimes when you have that fear or bias, you go way the other way. You know that you're like, oh, I'll pay you to take my stuff. Like, well, I'm not gonna make any money.

Tom Jackobs 15:33

Yeah. Well, I'm, I'm sure there were points in, in the business where at that point where you had to make a decision of, do I raise the rates? Do I do something different? Because, you know, money's going out faster than it's coming in and you know when, when you come down to those, those issues, it's hard to kind of keep that heart-led piece into it, but I know a lot of people still keep that heart-led and, and balance it. How about for you? Was, was there a balancing act when times got tough and how did you approach that?

Tariffs And Tough Choices

Joy Musacchio 16:09

So that would be kind of like right now because with, with the change of administration and so forth and so on, now we have these tariffs and essential oils. Were never tariffed. So, I had to order, I, I ordered these oils, white, ginger, lily, and, I order carrot seed, white ginger lily, Spikenard and vetiver from India. And I worked with this one distiller. And the oils are exquisite and white ginger lily is a pricey one. So where you could buy, let's say lemon, you pay a hundred dollars for a quart or so, white ginger lily is 3,200 bucks for a quart. So it's,

Tom Jackobs 16:47

Oh my gosh.

Joy Musacchio 16:48

It's an expensive, it's like an expensive oil and it's beautiful. So I put off as long as I could, ordering from the guy, and then I ordered from him and I did this consciously. And everyone was saying, look, somewhere else, because the tax from for India was 52%. So my order was a$5,700 order of oils, and then I got tariff 3,100 bucks.

Tom Jackobs 17:15

Wow.

Joy Musacchio 17:15

And I absorbed it though. I absorbed that, this time. And I will as long as I can. I'm hoping that things will roll. I'm hoping roll back a little.'cause it's not sustainable and it isn't fair, you know? So with that, I try and, I'll never cut corners. Like I won't carry the oil. I won't carry the oil if I can't get the one I want instead of getting some crap, you know?

Tom Jackobs 17:39

Yeah. Yeah.

Joy Musacchio 17:40

And, and luckily I was able

Tom Jackobs 17:41

to

Joy Musacchio 17:42

absorb it.

Quality Standards And Customers

Tom Jackobs 17:43

Yeah, yeah, for sure. Then that, that brings up another good question, when those things happen where you are looking for a oil, but it's just not available. You could go somewhere else and get it, but you know, the quality is not that great at the other place. Like how do you kinda, what's, what's your kind of mindset or your, your flow, your decision making process to say, no, I'm going to stick with what I believe is right and I'm just, I'm gonna go without because there's no other good option.

Joy Musacchio 18:17

Yeah. And, so, and you know, the, the good thing about, well the lucky thing about oils is, or at least my business, I have like 400 essential oils, right? So there, there's, it's a, it's a big library of oils and hydrosols. I just can't justify selling something that like, if you want it for a candle, you know, or make cleaning products, go, go, go buy, go, go, go. There's so many places. But if you want oils to use medicinally or to do deep inner work, you know, to, and I think. I honestly think everyone should be doing deep inner work now because it's such an interesting time to be on the planet. I can't justify going against not what I want, but what's right, you know? Right, right for me, and so, and oftentimes if I can't find an oil, or a hydrosol, then I'll distill it myself. I'll get the plant material and I'll distill it and not, not the essential oil, but the hydrosol, which is the water part of the oil.

Tom Jackobs 19:16

Okay. Getting some kisses there from your dog. That's awesome. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Those gotta be really tough decisions to make sometimes, especially if you have customers that are wanting a certain oil and you're just like, sorry, like, I can't find something good enough for you. How do customers typically respond?

Joy Musacchio 19:36

Oh, that's different ways. Some, some are, rude. Not rude, but some are like, well, I don't understand that. You know, that kind of thing. You know, you always had it. You don't have it now. And then if I explain, I, I know that, but, but my distiller, da, da da, da, da. Many will say, is there a, is there, can you, can you give me a replacement, a suggestion that I could use instead of, and, and, and then we'll go around that way. Yeah. It's,

Tom Jackobs 20:03

Oh, that's good.

Joy Musacchio 20:04

it, it's an interesting though, when you, the people get, and I get it. I mean, I'm Sicilian for God's sake. I get being like mad and, you know, and so, but, but what can I do? You know, we can't get the oil.

Tom Jackobs 20:16

Yeah, but it's nice that you give them alternatives because of your, your knowledge of the oils and what they can do for people. You can say, well, that would be good, but we have something else that will be just as good.

Joy Musacchio 20:28

Yeah. Yes.

Where To Find Joy

Tom Jackobs 20:29

Very cool. Well, Joy why don't you tell our listeners a little bit more about how they can find you online and potentially order some of your, your wonderful oils.

Joy Musacchio 20:42

Oh, okay, so, well, you could find me at www.stillpointaromatics.com and I'm on social media too, but the website is better and I made a code, if you use a code heart-led, you'll get 15% off, sitewide. So you could give us a try and take a class, ask any, and, and, and we're, we answer the phone. So if you call, you'll get a person and we will answer you and we'll answer your email too. So, yeah.

Tom Jackobs 21:16

That's great. And thank you so much for giving that code to the audience. That's, above and beyond what I, what I was expecting.

Joy Musacchio 21:22

My pleasure.

Tom Jackobs 21:22

Thank you for that.

Joy Musacchio 21:23

In my honor, really to be with you. Yeah.

Tom Jackobs 21:26

Yeah. Well, thank you for being here and sharing your wisdom and your journey, which is just fascinating. I find your journey very fascinating. So, congrats on your success with the oil business and I wish you all the success in the future as well.

Joy Musacchio 21:39

Oh, thank you. I'm right back at you. Yes.

Closing Thanks, and Review

Tom Jackobs 21:43

Thanks. And thank you listeners for tuning into today's show. Make sure you're checking out everything that Joy has to offer, especially that discount code that's located down in the show notes. So go check that out. Go to her website and order those wonderful oils that I know you guys all love to use. while you're down there, maybe you can see a review button. If you could give the show a rating and review, I'd really appreciate that. It just helps spread the word about the Heart-Led Business Show and helps more people that want to have a heart-led business. Feel comfortable that it's possible to make money and still be heart-led. So until next time, lead with your heart.

Speaker 2 22:23

You've been listening to The Heart-Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.