|
|
 |
 |
“How to live? That is the essential
question for us.” -- Herbert Spencer.
Kelly
also spent time in the Far East during the late
1980s. Her late husband, an eye surgeon, served
in the US military in Okinawa, Japan. Dealing with
the culture shock, not knowing the language, and
then teaching English there, Kelly also ventured
out to explore Hong Kong, and Singapore - sometimes
dragging small children along the way - but all
the time learning about a completely different world
than she grew up in. The experience opened her eyes
to a much bigger and diverse world. Starting a new
business or buying a huge house felt much less scary
than some of what she’d been through in her
past.
With
her shea butter products though, she did not start
out to create a new business. But when friends and
family took notice of how great she looked, needless
to say, they wanted in on it. She began with basic
packages and some literature, but it was a bit too
homemade in spite of the quality of the contents.
It just wasn’t professional enough. She reconnected
with an old friend, who is a professional graphic
designer in Atlanta, GA. Together they located new
ways to elegantly package the products in recycleable
containers and created a fabulous new look for lables
and promotions. All along the way, everyone that got
involved, from photographers and writers to the designer
himself, and their families and friends became big
fans of the products as they learned about them and
tested them out. The second level of marketing would
be easy. Once somebody had gotten a hold of Kelly’s
wonderful creams, soaps, balms and bath salts, they
sold themselves.
|
|
Essentially
For You
founder
After years of experimentation
to find skin care products and soaps that didn’t
irritate her or affect her allergies, Kelly finally
gave up on looking and took it upon herself to make
her own version of “the good stuff” with
a quality she knew first hand and without all the chemicals
and additives so many commercial brands contained. With
her background in medicine and science, it shouldn’t
be that hard - should it? With a lot of reading, research
and experimentation, she decided upon a key element
used throughout the world in top skin care and cosmetic
products: shea butter
- a natural oil derived from the nut of the African
Karite tree and one of the most enriching and moisturizing
substances on the planet. And so began the launch of
the Essentially For You line of products.
Kelly
Crego Lee received her associate RN degree in nursing
by the time she was only 19. Her last 2 years of high
school - in the small Mid-West Ohio town of Urbana,
were split between a minimum of classes and a trek to
nursing school in Dayton, OH. Since then, she’s
added an Associate in Business and Management, a BS
in Business a finally a PhD in Healthcare Administration.
She is one of the top administrative people at Dayton’s
top trauma hospital. The mother of two boys, she found
herself widowed much too young in 2001. With the desire
to carry on and find new goals and live new dreams,
Kelly basically decided that whatever she took on, failure
was just not an option.
|
|
|
|
|
|
