The Trailblazers Experience Podcast

EP81 laurine Hanquez :Finding Balance: A Female Founder's Journey in Wellness

• Ntola • Season 5 • Episode 81

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Join us in EP81 of the Trailblazers Experience Podcast as we explore the concept of joyful health with Laurine Hanquez, co-founder of Bloma. Laurine shares her journey of creating a wellness brand that balances a vibrant social life with productivity, challenging the traditional wellness culture. Discover the importance of personalisation in wellness products and gain valuable insights from Laurine's trailblazer tips.


Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction 01:15 - The Concept of Joyful Health 05:30 - Starting Bloma: A Personal Journey 10:45 - Personalization in Wellness Products 15:20 - Balancing Social Life and Productivity 20:00 - Laurine's Trailblazer Tips 25:00 - Conclusion and Call to Action 



Key Takeaways:
Embracing joyful health in the wellness journey. The personal story behind Bloma's creation. The significance of personalisation in wellness. Laurine's advice for aspiring entrepreneurs.


 #WellnessRevolution #TrailblazersPodcast
Find Laurine:

Instagram @Wearebloma

Website : Wearebloma


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The Trailblazers Experience:

Welcome to another episode of the Trailblazers Experience podcast, the podcast where we have candid conversations with women sharing their career journeys. Today, I'm really excited to be joined by a founder redefining wellness in a different way co-founder of Bloma, and her name is Laurine Hanquez. Welcome to the podcast, Thank you.

Laurine Hanquez:

Thank you for having me. I'm very excited to have this conversation today.

The Trailblazers Experience:

And talk to me. How do I pronounce the brand, because we need everyone to know where they can find it. On Instagram, on the handles. How do you pronounce it? Bloma, Bloma, and what does it mean?

Laurine Hanquez:

It's actually so, my co-founder. She's from Denmark and it's a Nordic name for blooming Of course.

The Trailblazers Experience:

What a nice play on words. The internet and the website is telling me that the brand is a female-focused recovery supplement brand, helping women support their bodies after drinking, prioritizing hormonal balance, liver detox, food and energy. And an apologetic dose of joy. Talk me through the idea of starting a business. What's your background? Do you have a business background? Is this something that you've always wanted to do? How did all of this come about?

Laurine Hanquez:

Yeah, so I've always wanted to to start a business, and many ideas throughout the years, but I would say that the idea of for Bloma came from a very personal place and it made also a growing frustration, because I always care about my health and my body.

Laurine Hanquez:

Um, you know, I'm someone that's always gonna be reading the uh supplements label, test things out like just being curious in my wellness journey, but I thought it was, um, in the wellness culture, you're either that healthy girl who avoids everything or like, or you're the party girl right off the next day entirely, and there's never no in-between, and both versions didn't really feel like me. I do love a night out, I have to say, sometimes more than one a week, and you know I just felt like I need a product to help me have this very social, vibrant lifestyle, but still being able to be extremely productive the next day. I also have a job, so I work in sales, which is a very demanding job. I love to exercise and I don't want to compromise and choose between one and the other. So, yeah, so that's why I felt there is definitely a need in the in the market for products that's going to help me and a lot of other women to do both, so that's really where it all started.

The Trailblazers Experience:

It's interesting, isn't it? Most of the time, when you start a business, it comes from a problem that you're trying to solve for yourself, selfishly enough, and then you realize that so many others are having that struggle, and I think I've seen someone post on socials where they're saying well, it's either you take your product or that there's the long list of all the things that you need to do after a night out the detoxing, the, this, the that. It's actually much longer, when probably your product is probably the solution. I love the fact that it's full of color, full of fun, and you're still in motion. You're still juggling jobs and working on the brand. How, how is it going? So? How long has the brand been going for, and is it something where you think you're at that point where you could leave your day job, or is it still work in progress? Still that startup, you know?

Laurine Hanquez:

yeah so the idea came like that each moment really, uh was last summer, so well, not long, you know, so not too long ago. And then I mean, we live in an amazing world now where we have ChaiGPT, so ChaiGPT really did help to foster the process. But the reality is, between setting up everything, creating the formula, we'd only launched the product four months ago. So we're still very, very early in our journey and I would say, definitely not at this stage where I'm gonna, I'm gonna quit my job. I'm still not 100 sure I want to quit my job. I do love my, my nine to five. I love doing multiple things. It's really hard for me to focus on one thing, um, but hopefully, you know, in a couple of years, I would say potentially two to three years.

The Trailblazers Experience:

If we can launch the other products we have in mind, we will be in a better place and we can fully focus on Bloob, together with your co-founder and you've launched it. So that already needs to be celebrated. That's already the first step, but in terms of BloomUp, so it challenges detox to restrict mindset with its concept of joyful health. How did you arrive at this philosophy and why do you think celebration and wellbeing has been treated as opposites for so long? Because a lot of the time it's all there's a negative connotation of going out in the evening. You know, because a lot of the time it's all there's a negative connotation of going out in the evening, but actually it's a positive thing. But no, you're drinking. There are other things in. How have you managed to get that juxtaposition to intertwine?

Laurine Hanquez:

Yeah, so that's what we call a joyful elf. And so, as you say, like the wellness industry is actually felt like guilty by the wellness industry most of the time. Like, if you don't do this 5 am routine, it's not even a 7 am routine, because, also with social media, it's really easy to compare yourself with other people it felt like I'm not doing things right, you know, I'm not taking care of my well-being and I felt guilty most of the time for not doing everything. So it's kind of the opposite of, when you think about it, this is the opposite of well-being and and wellness. Right, it's about you're supposed to do that, that to feel good after, you're supposed to have some routine to feel good about yourself, and so that's why, for us, I think it's about finding this balance where you can still have, still enjoy the, still enjoy the moment. You can still have fun.

Laurine Hanquez:

Going out with your friends is also really good for your mental health, right. So it's actually, uh, a ritual that you should, you, you should do, but like how to find the balance between taking care of your body and and and letting it go. Sometimes it's like going out and going into the wild and not being guilty. So that's what we call joyful health. It's all about finding the balance and it's all about, I think, changing the narrative. So that's what we want to do with our brand. The way we communicate is we really want to say, like it's okay if you want to have alcohol, it's okay if you want to drink, but it's also okay if the day after, you're actually, you know, taking care of your body and giving your body what it needs to recover from from the, from the alcohol you took the night before it's interesting because there's um research and studies are talking about that.

The Trailblazers Experience:

People are investing their time and experiences in day activities. So people do want to go out and still have a good time, and just in a different way. So having all those you know levers, drinks, et cetera that can support that I think is brilliant. Talk to me about yourself. You know you've worked across a dozen industries. I was having a look at your profile. What do you think your experience you know that you've had up to date in your life have been the things or the gifts that have allowed you then to become a founder yeah, so what we call a multi-potential it, if I can pronounce that properly multi-potential idea so, yeah, so it means I'm interested by so many different topic and I can.

Laurine Hanquez:

I have this chance where I can easily jump from one thing in another and I'm, you know, I might not be an expert in one topic, but I can be good at several topic. And I think that I've been perceived as an issue in the past, or even a failure, because there's a lot of things I'm going to start and not finish, and it's not because I don't like to finish it and it's just like I jump quickly into another topic very easily. So in a normal, I would say more classic career path, this is seen as yeah, you know what are you running from? You know it's not perceived very well, you know, especially when you have to talk to recruiters and you have to explain why you only stay, uh, in in the cinema industry for a year, why you then went into political science really hard to justify that.

Laurine Hanquez:

But what might might be perceived as a weakness in a more traditional um work environment, I think is a massive strength, uh, when it comes to being an entrepreneur, because it means like I, you know I have to have many acts of being a co when it comes to being an entrepreneur because it means, like I you know, I have to have many ads. Being a co-founder, I need to be able to do many different things, to learn quickly, and it definitely helped me to be more agile and to adapt quickly, even the way I'm used to communicate to different people from different backgrounds, from different industries, and I think this is a big strength in this new journey.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it? Because in the founder journey, you are having to, like you said, wear many hats and do different things with your co-founder. What do you think are your strengths within this business at the moment? So where do you shine?

Laurine Hanquez:

Yeah, and so we work really well together. I think like that's where I would see us being the most successful. It's always a bit tricky when you start a business with one of your best friends. I had a lot of other friends warning me that I could just ruin our friendship, so I was a bit scared of doing this, but in the end it works out really well. So what she does, I literally just can't do it or don't really want to do it, and vice versa. So I'm very much more in charge of product uh development. I love coming with the new product ideas and then handling the um research uh for that. But I'm also uh really focusing on networking and it sounds really so. That's that's my main focus of our year it true, isn't it?

The Trailblazers Experience:

Starting a business with a friend is how do you keep each other accountable? Because I'm sure there are lots of people listening who have their best friend or a really good friend where they're thinking, actually, from a personal perspective, we gel well, everything's great, we're really open and honest. And also from a professional perspective, these are the top skill sets. How did you, how do you navigate that? Have you both agreed what each of you are good at, or do you have, um, you know moments where you have to say, right, I'm going to be honest, and then we have to make a decision. How are you navigating that for our listeners?

Laurine Hanquez:

yeah, so from the start, we made a contract. That's, I mean, that's I think that's the first thing ever uh, we so? I live in london, she's based in barcelona, so we don't get the chance to see each other that often, so communication is really essential. But from the start we decided, okay, let's meet for two weeks, let's sit down and agree on whatever we could think about, because obviously we couldn't think about everything in the first few weeks and then we decided what do you think you will be the most successful? What do you think is going to be your strength? Really hard. We never did this before, obviously like thinking am I going to be good at managing our e-commerce? It's a lot of gambling to think, knowing yourself, and trying to think where you're gonna be the most um, useful. But yeah, so we did sit down and we did agree on the bank and we agreed on writing this down and signing the contract.

Laurine Hanquez:

And then it's a lot of adjustment and a lot of communication. Just for instance, like taking vacation right, you know, like who is taking a week off, like in july or in august. Like, if I do that, are you comfortable with me? Like, what do I need to do in the meantime, like you have to build me up to speed, like I need to be able to manage your path while you're away. So I think it's first and foremost for everyone out there doing your business whether it's a friend, family member or anyone just start with a contract and then keep communicating, even if sometimes it's very uncomfortable to have this kind of conversation with with one of your best friends. You know you don't really want to say to your employees when you're um, dissatisfied with whatever they've been doing, so imagine doing that with one of your best friends. It's's very uncomfortable. So, yeah, just try to push through and then I guess you just need time to adjust and to find the right way of communicating.

The Trailblazers Experience:

That's so laying the ground rules from the beginning. This is what we're going to do. This is so it's all written down. So at least even when you're having those moments of disagreements, or at least you've got something to come back to, whereas if nothing's written down, it's all assumptions, isn't it, when communication can fail and misunderstanding. So getting that all written down, that's a really good tip if we're sharing with our audience there. Really good and very mature as well.

Laurine Hanquez:

I mean to do that as well. I mean I just had a lot of example, I think, around you know, around the people I know where they lost their friendship or they start with these kind of stories and it just hurt breaking. Is this very sad?

The Trailblazers Experience:

I don't it's not worth it, isn't it yeah? Yeah, I love what we're building, but it would meant less if a business was successful, but not our friendship at the end of the journey talk to me about your core values, so it feels like there's a lot of core values and ethics that have probably been instilled within you through growing up. How do those shine through in everything that you're doing now on a on a personal and professional level, especially as a co-founder?

Laurine Hanquez:

yeah, and so maybe going back a bit about this idea of joyful, you know, I think they, I want to. I don't know if we can say to values, but having fun with what you're doing and just bringing good energy has to be really essential. I just don't want, I wouldn't see myself doing a business for the sake of doing a business and if I was not having fun in all the ways. This idea of joy is very deeply rooted in my day-to-day Joy and pleasure, for sure. And then just openness. I think me and my co-founder Trish, we are very, very open-minded. It's really important for us to connect to people and I think that's what we enjoy the most about our current uh day-to-day is how many people we've been meeting, whether it's through networking events, through, you know, our community that we're building uh and in our partner. We're just learning so much and and it just opened our vision of the world even wider. And I think, yeah, openness and joy is the core values in everything you want to do.

The Trailblazers Experience:

It's really good to hear that, because obviously you're saying that. You know, pluma isn't just about supplements, it's about celebrating women's lives. What conversations do you wish more wellness brands were having, especially with women in the thick of it?

Laurine Hanquez:

Yeah, so the other thing. So obviously, our first value is joyful health, but the second one is personalization at scale, and so it's really great to see more products being made for women right now in this industry. I think we are in a turning point. Even so, you know, we've still been shocked a few times because when you're researching manufacturing companies, you saw so many of these companies offering white label products, just putting a nice pink label, pink packaging and just calling it like a made-for-women product, which is not first of all generic but also can be very harmful for women's body. Taking that aside, we're still getting somewhere. We're still adding more and more product for women. However, we're still treating women as just one category.

Laurine Hanquez:

And just to take an example, just me I'm 31. I have fibroids, endometriosis, and I'm not on contraception. Fish. She's 25. She's extremely active, she's on the pills and she has no chronic condition. We are very two different women. However, the brands don't speak to us the same way, and what I need to take in terms of supplements and vitamins is going to be very different from what tricia needs to take, and I'm not even going into like what phases of my cycle I am, because I'd also need different product during my ovulation and during my literal phase, for instance. So all of this is we do need more personalization, but on the other hand, we need something very scalable, because right now what we do, we just go to a shop like wallen and barrett and we have to be our own doctor and pick products and I hope it's gonna work for us and I think you know we need to find, um again, a balance where we're gonna have products made for us, but in an easy way, so we know exactly what to take and when.

The Trailblazers Experience:

So I think this concept of personalization let's tell is really what we need to hear more in the in the wellness industry at the minute I think, especially with now more studies being carried out on women, you'll be able to see, like all these conditions that you've mentioned that you know yourself and other women's are battling through, that will also help, hopefully, with um the development of products. And so interesting, isn't it, that this just white label. They're slapping a pink logo on and thinking that's going to be it in terms of the market, that they're hitting Crazy.

Laurine Hanquez:

It's just. It is sad. You would think in any industry people have the customer at heart, but it's not the case and we've been saddened to see that obviously selling products is the first goal rather than the well-being of individuals. And the more I'm working on this industry, the more I'm learning about products. I'm learning about products. Some of them are really dangerous for women. No one talks about it. For example, we keep talking about ashwagandha or electrolytes. That's great, but it's very harmful if you take it every day as a woman. No one talks about it because obviously they want you to use it every day so they can sell more products, and you would think that should be more controlled by the government. So that's also something that I think the more we're going to have studies, uh on how this product impact for women, more uh legislation. Hopefully we will get um and then we will be in a safer, safer consumer, consumer place you mentioned that you're building the community.

The Trailblazers Experience:

You're running events. What has been the most challenging thing? Obviously, you launched your brand last year, but what's been challenging in terms of building the community events and what's been the most rewarding part of that?

Laurine Hanquez:

so one of the good thing is I do live in london and you have a lot of community. I don't know if you're familiar with uh, with the app click, but it's like really easy to just, yes, go there and and find community that match, uh, what you're looking for out there. So, in a way, there is a lot of community and it's it's it's it's kind of easy to reach out to them and try to do call, uh, call, call, to call us events, but it's also, I think, really hard. Nowadays. There are so many options as well, there are so many communities out there and I think people are overwhelmed by all the options that have, in big cities especially, and by all these events now that are being organized by brands or by community. And just me, when I go on my Instagram, I think I get an app for a new community, even at least three, four times a day.

Laurine Hanquez:

So I think the main challenge is how to stand out or to be different, because you have so many people, consumers already have so many options and you really need to stand out and you really need to offer something a bit different. We're still very early on. I think. We still want to build our community. We still want to grow in that space, want to do more community events. We just hosted our first community event two weeks ago, so that was the first one. We did a run to grade in a coffee place and it was. It was really nice and I hope we have a chance to do more. I think it's just very challenging now to be one among many or every brand wanted to do that yeah, you want to stand out, but you don't want to be just amongst one amongst many, isn't it?

The Trailblazers Experience:

and especially with the brand, with your ethos and all about joy and experiences. It's picking the right partners, the right events. That does really play into it as you build the brand.

Laurine Hanquez:

Yeah, at the start we were just so we, we, we, we are involved in a lot of even more, like I said, um, goodie bags, you know, like we give our products a goodie bag. At the start we were saying yes to everything. All the events, all the people were reaching out like yeah, yeah, yeah, fair, fair. And then we realized this is not the kind of brand we really want to be as a city with. I don't think. I think it's like going to hurt our image more than anything. So now we're disconstructed a bit and just taking more time to pick the right, the right partnership there.

The Trailblazers Experience:

And are you working on NPDs, so new product development and things like that? What's in the pipeline, what's ahead?

Laurine Hanquez:

Yeah so I'm very excited about our next product, and so we're just about to start to raise some money for launching the production, but the formula is already ready. So another thing that we do differently is we want to shift the industry from symptom-based to moment-based wellness. So instead of you know like, okay, hangover, obviously you would have seven pills that you need to take One for the liver, one for the hydration, one for your hormones, etc. We want to have a more holistic approach and we want to have one product that can answer everything. But also, instead of being based on symptoms, we want this to be based on the moment, and another moment where women are struggling is when we are traveling. We have more digestive and bloating issues, which makes total sense. Our body is under the stress of travel, we are less hydrating, which is causing more water retention as well, and it's really disrupting our hormones. So all that makes our body digesting more slowly and we are more bloated. So, yeah, so we just developed a formula to help women while traveling, to have no digestive issues.

The Trailblazers Experience:

So really, a supplement that's designed for women's needs, just across different moments in their lives. That's a good way of looking at it, isn't it? Because then you're not just limited to yes, this is about hangover prevention. You're thinking about the different moments throughout the day, or traveling, et cetera, that are building in our lives as well. I never thought of it that way. That's actually a very good way of looking at it and think about what are the different areas, what are the different moments? It's traveling. I mean dry skin dehydration. That's another thing that happens when you're traveling, especially air travel.

Laurine Hanquez:

So to think about that is is is really cool yeah, it's very like this approach between, like holistic health and just more continental approach of of health. Again, it's all tied up with the way the industry is working. They want us to take the same supplements every day, but we really don't need the same supplement every day. So if we shift from moment-based, then the chances are you're going to take only what your body needs at this time and you won't overtake too many supplements, which can be definitely negative for your health.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Actually, If you could envision a different kind of wellness movement. So if we say, fast forward five years, where do you see the brand? Where do you see the wellness movement? What does it look like and what role is Bluma playing in shaping it?

Laurine Hanquez:

Yeah. So again, with this idea of personalized wellness at scale, I think that's the future, but I'm really thinking it's going to also that technology is going to have a role to play in that. So I would say, in five years, I see supplements becoming much more connected to real-time data, so I think about smartwatch, or even like the Our or cycle tracker. I think all of this is going to give us data to help offer, um, a personalized at scale solution for for women. That's really where we want to be. Uh, hopefully in five years, but yeah, that's, um, I think, a more intelligent way to to consume our supplements.

The Trailblazers Experience:

So, hearing your story and you know all the things that you're doing, being a multi-potentialite, building a business, you know wearing many hats. If you think back to you growing up, you know going full circle. Are there things now that spring to mind from your upbringing, from your parents, from your heritage, that you think are actually, you know, have been the driving force for leading you to this moment? Is there anything that sticks out?

Laurine Hanquez:

I grew up in a very modest family, in a farm in the middle of France, living in London doing a business in wellness. Just you know, it was not part of the plan or like the traditional journey I think my parents had in mind, but maybe just me wanting more always and just wanted to get out of this, of this of this life and just um. I think I was more influenced by books and movies and I think I've just been a dreamer from a very early age. I think that adds a big impact on the person I wanted to become, rather than my upbringing, I would say.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I mean, look, you're an advocate and trailblazing for women because you're advocating for women in wellness moments and just you know all the things that I think are very positive and very commendable. So something good has come out of being a dreamer and watching and observing people when you're growing up. So I think, something to pat yourself on the back for, because not very many people most times when people start a business, I want a clothing brand, I want this, but you're thinking of other people as well in this movement in terms of making their lives and moments better, so I love that we're coming full circle. So, to the end of the podcast, where I always ask our guests to leave three trailblazer tips, you know something powerful, honest, encouraging for the audience. So if you were to tell your younger self three things, what would they be?

Laurine Hanquez:

I don't know if it would be. Oh gosh, three things. I only thought that one.

The Trailblazers Experience:

If it's come on, go for it. I mean, one is enough, isn't it? It's a piece of advice.

Laurine Hanquez:

Actually this tattoo. It's a bit of my mantra, but I have this sentence. It's from a book. I don't even remember the book, but I do remember this sentence and I live by it all the time. It's if you're scared of a wolf, you will never step into the forest and pick strawberries. So I think being scared is okay. Fear is part of the process, but I feel like don't let it stop you from going after what you want, because I think that the thing that you're scared of is half as dangerous as the life you miss by not trying. So that's the thing I always remember it's okay to be scared, but if you really want the strawberries, if you really want to be where you want to be, just push her and the reward is definitely worth it.

The Trailblazers Experience:

I mean that's more than enough. That's brilliant and great to hear. Lorraine, thank you so much for showing up, Not as the finished story. A lot of the time, it's good to hear a founder who's in motion, who's taken the plunge, who's actually now in that phase, and I will definitely be following your journey to see where this all goes. Can you tell the audience where they can find you on the socials?

Laurine Hanquez:

where they can buy the product. Yeah for sure. So on social, it's at Bloma. And same for our website, it's Bloma. Right now we are selling only on our website, but hopefully very soon in some stores.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Brilliant, and on the Instagram they can also find out when the next events and how to join the community.

Laurine Hanquez:

It's all on there, yeah it's all in there, awesome.

The Trailblazers Experience:

Thank you so much. Well, for the audience, this has been the Trailblazers Experience podcast. You know where to find us Follow, like, share, subscribe. Also follow my guests and try the products. And yeah, until next time. Thank you very much.