Summary: <br> <br> <a href="http://offthegridbiz.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Ida-Sam-2018.jpg"></a>Sam & Ida Friedman - Chagrin Valley Soap & Salve<br> <br> It all started with a school teacher wanting to help educate students and show people online how to have healthier beauty and wellness options.<br> <br> Join us as Sam Friedman takes you on a fun journey from his mother Ida's beginning, to his involvement soon after, all the way up to today as a thriving ecommerce based, natural and organic body care products company.<br> <br> Be sure to checkout Chagrin Valley Soap & Salve's quality organic products today - <a href="https://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/">https://www.chagrinvalleysoapandsalve.com/</a><br> <br> <br> Transcription<br> Brian: Sam Friedman has taken a long and interesting journey on his road to operating an organic bath and body care company. His first passion being music and theater, Sam co-founded and was artistic director of the actual reality Theater Company in Columbus and Cleveland from 1997 to 2001.<br> <br> From 2001 to 2004, he took the position of technology director at the Agnon School in Beachwood, Ohio, where he taught second to eighth grade technology and media and was also the family retreat director from 2002 to 2004.<br> <br> In 2004, Sam then moved to Madrid, Spain, where he worked with the Spanish government as an English language specialist to diplomatic liaisons.<br> <br> In 2007, at the request of his mother, Sam moved back to the US to try and help turn the hobby and small local market business she had started into something bigger.<br> <br> Today, Sam is the managing and brand director of Chagrin Valley Soap & Salve. A USDA organic brand that hand-makes over 350 bath skin and hair care products. And he helps lead the natural body care industry as educator spokesman and brand ambassador for one of the globe's finest brands of natural personal care.<br> <br> Sam Friedman, welcome to The Off The Grid Biz Podcast.<br> <br> Sam: Thank you. Thank you for having me Brian.<br> <br> Brian: Yeah, so that's a nice recap of your life up until this point, why don't you let us know a little bit about what you do right now.<br> <br> Sam: So right now Chagrin Valley Soap & Salve is a company that makes about 350 organic certified products. We currently have a staff of 19 individuals. We're selling our products through our own website, ecommerce, and in some stores, both small mom and pops and a few larger shops in all 50 states in the US and over 120 some countries across the globe.<br> <br> Mostly all small parcels, small packages, mostly direct to people's homes. Of course A few business clients that buy and resell themselves. We make every type of product under the gamut that you could imagine having to do with body care, skin care, taking sort of care of the outside of the body.<br> <br> And, you know, at this point, just looking at where we've come from where we've been, it's been a really great journey from the kitchen to a really robust business.<br> <br> Brian: What led your mother to go into this business?<br> <br> Sam: Well, my mother's background is in science and human biology, because her first job she was a nurse, so she actually went to nursing school for several years and got medical training and then spent a decade working in local hospitals.<br> <br> Then after leaving the hospitals, a lot of the reason that happened was because of her not agreeing with some of the standard pharmaceutical care that's out there and the things that are being provided for people as far as the diagnosis and the remedy for what your issue might be.<br> <br> That really started spinning in her head because of my stepfather's eczema.<br> <br> Eczema is a pretty annoying condition that a lot of folks have, especially here in the US.
