Digi-Zine
Wellness: {Re}building Remotely
Reward Yourself With Better Feels
The founders of Before Noon, Danielle Lumetta, Natasha Wong Davis and Ann Tham, are women who found connection and comfort through vulnerably sharing their life stories around transition, career change and heartbreak with one another. Through this connection, they recognized that they weren’t alone and made it their responsibility to share how they were navigating their emotions and thoughts during their transitions. After a year and a half of ideating, planning, and creating – Before Noon was born. They created this brand and community to share the tools and benefits of alternative healing so that you can “Reward Yourself” with better feels.
Can you tell us more about your business and what it stands for?
Natasha: Before Noon is a wellness brand that connects you to the tools and healers that inspire you to invest in the most important person: yourself. Right now our offering consists of beautiful, trusted self-care tools such as journals, incense, and crystals to help make discovery easy. We’ve also recently launched a monthly event called #betterfeels hour that introduces our growing community to alternative healers and practitioners such as ayurvedic practitioners, breathwork coaches and reiki therapists to demystify alternative healing. These are one hour events that are centered around our three pillars of wellbeing: Mind, Body and Spirit.
Zine: How did you conceive of the concept and what was the driving force that brought all of you together to realize this shared vision?
Ann: It really started around how the three of us found connection with each other. We met in San Francisco in the midst of various life journeys. Tasha was working through heartbreak, new love, and being a new business owner – she owned a boutique store in SF at the time, called Seldom Seen. I was working through internal discontent despite outward appearances of “having it all” while living in NYC, and had just moved back to SF to figure out next steps in my life. Danielle was struggling to find her “why”; she had recently taken a sabbatical from Retail Consulting at Accenture to backpack through Southeast Asia and was just returning to SF.
Crossing Paths
We crossed paths at Seldom Seen where we found ourselves vulnerably sharing the powerful experiences that we were individually having with alternative healing tools. We were seeking out energy healers and practices like journaling and meditation. It led us to wonder if these tools were being used by our larger community and if not, ‘How can we inspire others to get curious about them?’ From there, Before Noon was born.
Connecting the Dots
Zine: Your online store has been open for some time now. How did Before Noon identify its customer base?
Danielle: I’m a former management consultant and led us through exercises that helped us get very specific around who our audience was. We identified four consumer segments: Newbies, Dabblers, Intellectuals and Experts, then really homed in on what we thought each segment represented. From there, it became obvious to us that we could most authentically serve the Newbie and Dabbler segments – hence the process by which we came to identify our customers. At the end of the day, we also see ourselves as the customer base, and we use that to help guide marketing, product and community events that we pull together.
The Right Timing
Zine: Has your target demographic changed in this new retail environment/economic climate, and how have customers responded to your brand in the face of quarantine? Have you made assortment changes to cater to new needs?
Ann: We launched about 6 months prior to the pandemic so it’s tough to say that the demographic has changed. What quarantine has helped facilitate is that all discovery has now migrated online and that the interest and demand for wellness tools has grown. We’ve received tremendous response and interest including the continued growth in sales, visitors to our website and followers on social media.
As far as assortment changes, we haven’t made any changes and continue to ask our community how we can support them in their healing journey. We also continue to expand our line with new and unique items that tell the story of our brand message.
Dreams of Expansion
Zine: Would you consider a brick and mortar store in the future or do you have plans underway for one?
Danielle: We would certainly consider one in the future, but the opportunity has to make sense both from a community, brand and financial perspective. The reality is that retail is so incredibly challenged right now and even more so under the constraints of COVID. What could make sense once we are past COVID is a seasonal pop-up to showcase our brand experience and, if we’re really dreaming, perhaps a small flagship store with another brand partner that would complement our assortment and message.
Zine: What can we expect next from Before Noon?
Natasha: We have new products and partnerships underway, which we are really excited about. We will definitely be offering more healing events as we approach the holidays, which includes a continuation of our #betterfeels hour. We also have a few new and exciting ideas up our sleeves about how we can make alternative healing even more prevalent and available to all those seeking to live the life they deserve.
Workshops and the zine are organized by Slow + Sustain through the volunteer efforts of our contributors. Funding comes from both the contributors and the public.
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