Speaking Kindness into the World with Joshua Neumann

[00:00:02.450] - Candi Broeffle, Guest
Good morning. And welcome to Green Tea Conversations, a radio show that delves into the pages, the Natural Awakenings magazine to bring you the local experts who share progressive ideas and the latest information and insights needed so you can lead your best life. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle publisher, the Twin Cities edition of Natural Awakenings magazine. And today our guest is Joshua Neumann of Kind Lips, a company that is on a mission to remind us to speak, kindness us into the world. Welcome to the show, Josh.

 

Thank you for having me glad to be here.

 

May I call you Josh? Do you prefer Joshua?

 

Joshua, when I get into trouble?

 

Okay. We'll make sure that you don't have to do that today.

 

Perfect.

 

So you have a really interesting story about how you got your business started. And so I'm just curious what prompted you to start Kind Lips?

 

Yeah. I was in another career for ten years and had a really successful career and enjoyed it for eight and a half of those years. And in that last year and a half, I realized that I wasn't happy anymore. And it was unfortunate because I was at a point where I was making more money than I ever made and had more time. So from a worldly perspective, I thought, you know, this is this sucks that I need to do something else. But I was sitting in my couch for one night, and I was coming up with ideas, what can I do?

 

Because I've never had a nine to five job. So I knew I need to start another company. And I was literally sitting on my couch twirling my lip balm being like, what can I do? What do I enjoy? And I looked at my lip balm, and I was like, I love lip balm. I'm like, Well, that's weird. But I've never found a lip balm that I truly thought worked well. And that's kind of how the idea of starting a lip balm company came out because I never found a brand that I was loyal to.

 

I tried every lip balm I could ever find. And so that's how I decided to start a lip balm company.

 

And just so our readers and our listeners understand you were not in this type of business before.

 

No, I was in real estate real estate development.

 

And so here you are, just going to start creating a product that you like, but that you've never found one that you really were impressed with. So what was that process, like, as you started to kind of delve into the world of creating a Lip Balm?

Yeah, really. In that same evening, after I decided, like, I love lip balm can be the next, I was like, this can't be rocket science. I can figure this out. And I had, like, this ten-minute conversation with myself, and I was reading a lot about the power of our words at that point and how there's all these studies that this Doctor Moto of Japanese scientist, he's done this rice study, put these three jars of rice labels, one love, one hate, and one he doesn't label it all for 30 days in row.

He walks up to these jars and says, I love you. I hate you. When he walks up to the third one doesn't say anything. After 30 days was over. The one he said, I love you to the jar. Rice stayed really white. The one he said, I hate you too. The jar was like, dark. The rice turned like dark black. And the one he didn't say anything to was kind of Brown. So they repeated the study over and over again, and it always turned out that way.

 

So it was a physical representation of how important our words are. Then there's another really cool study that he did where they took water and they would pray over water or give compliments towards water and freeze it, and the molecule would look like a snow Flake. It was symmetrical and beautiful. Or they'd say negative things to water freeze, and it was very blobish and distorted. So at the same time, I thought about Lip Balm company. I was like, Well, if I'm going to do something, I can't compete with the larger brands, how can I do a niche product?

 

And I was going to call it Blessed Lips. And it was going to be like, prayed over and blessed, because after knowing about those studies, our bodies are 75% water. And if our words have that much of an effect on our bodies, like, I'll have the lip Balm, I prayed over, blessed and especially a kosher for Lip Balm was the idea. And my mom happened to give me a call soon after that, and I was all excited because I'm like, oh, I came up with this brilliant idea and we talked about some family stuff for 30 minutes.

 

At the end of the conversation, I'm like, oh, I came up with this idea because she knew I wasn't happy with work and she's like, oh, you'll be great at whatever you do, dinners on the table. I got to go. And I was kind of a little bit upset because I'm like, no, this is a great idea. Yeah, I had my ego here a little bit, and I the reason why I talk about my mom is because what about my night kind of let that idea rest.

 

And the next morning, I wake up to a phone call at 06:00 a.m. On the nose and I look at my phone. It's my mom calling me, which is not normal for her to call me that early. So I assume that something bad had happened and I answer the phone. I'm like, Are you all right? And she's like, yeah, I've been up for 3 hours. I had the most vivid, crazy dream I've ever had in my entire life. I've been waiting to call you so then my next thought was, like, Great, I'm the one that's going to die, or I'm the one that's going to hurt because she has to call me.

 

I don't want to do it,

 

Right. Yeah. And she says, I had a dream when you have an older sister, she had a dream that me and my sister were young. And we got in this massive fight. And I said a bunch of mean things to her. And in the dream, my punishment was I had a right sentences. So she made me sit down in the dream and write, the law of Kindness is on my lips 50 times over and over. And she said that every time I wrote the word Kind and lips, they flew off the page and hit her in the face in the dream.

 

And she goes, I think if you're going to do a lip balm company, you're supposed to call it Kind Lips. And I got the chills. And I was like, You're right. That's so beautiful. And then I was like, I knew in that moment it's a reminder for people to speak Kind words every time they use it. And she's like, yeah, I think that's what it is. So that's how the name came up. And after I had that, I got off the phone with her. One online, bought the domain.

 

It just happened to be available. You know, when I looked up, other stuff that had to do with Kind after that kind of elbows, kind head, whatever. And it's all gone. And Kind Lips just happened to be there. So I thought, this is a sign it's meant to be. And then it was just a natural progression of, like, okay, now I have to figure out how to make lip balm. And so I started researching, like, how do you make lip balm? And then I started buying every lip balm I could find at Whole Foods and Target and Googling top ten lip balm list.

 

Wrote down all the ingredients on, like, a yellow note pad. And if it wasn't natural organic, those ingredients got crossed off, kept whittling the list down and really wanted to create. Then I started mixing together on my stove on Friday and Saturday nights, I would pour a glass of red wine and make sure I get that out of the way. And then I would start mixing the ingredients and just keep track trading a recipe. So I'd keep track of how much coconut oil, how much olive oil, how much shade butter was going in.

 

And depending on how it would turn out, I would just adjust it and just kept refining the formula.

 

So how many batches do you think you made before you came up with a formula that works?

 

You know, part of me wishes I could say it was like, 15 to 20, but it was seven.

 

Oh, wow.

 

Yeah. So it didn't take too many.

Yeah. You really had that done pretty easily. I'm sure all the research that you did going into it really helped out with that. You went from making it in your home on your own stove. And how long did you do that for?

 

Hmmm for about seven batches.

 

But I mean, did you start off making the product yourself that you were selling, or did you go directly into manufacturing?

Yeah. So I knew right away that this had a special calling on it. I felt like I had a special calling. So if I was going to do this, I wouldn't be able to support the volumes and actually turn into a real business. It wasn't something that I wanted to make on my stove, and I knew I could even get access to better-quality ingredients. Finding a manufacturer. After I had the formula, I started researching lip balm manufacturers, and I started flying around the country and touring these facilities and getting to meet the people that work at these facilities and trying to see who do I feel comfortable with? Who do I trust the most to make this product for the people that I wanted to go to?

 

And where is it made now?

 

Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

 

Oh, wow.

 

Yeah.

 

So right here in the US. And one of the things that you said earlier is that you started off kind of thinking that you would be able to bless each batch or pray over each batch. So tell us about that. Are you doing that with this?

Yes, I am. So I would like to get to a point where I can have somebody in Iowa all the time whenever it's made that can just be there to do that, because I do believe that that does. There is an impact on that. And there's so many studies that that I've seen that have an impact. You know, there's a physical representation of how important our words are. So I actually do have a I hire two people a week and they kind of like, bless the product.

 

And so, yeah, it's really fun to be able to do that. And, you know, some people kind of laugh at that. And some people are like, that's really cool. And at the end of the day, I don't know, I can't physically say that them doing that actually works. But in my heart, I feel like it does work. So I'm going to continue to do it.

 

Really sitting in intention for what that product will do for the person who's receiving it.

 

Yeah.

 

And there's a lot of research behind that. Like you said, I'm sorry. I don't remember his name. The Japanese research Dr. Moto. Yes. And that is a very well-known study about how our words actually do impact are us. But it also impacts anything else around us. So the water, they've also done a ton of studies with plants on how it impacts, how you speak to your plans, how you speak to your gardens, how you care for them. It impacts how, how much they produce and how healthy they are.

 

Yeah.

 

And so you're doing that with your lip balm.

 

Doing that with the lip balm and working on doing that myself to myself and learning to love myself and give myself compliments and everything that I can. I've learned so much from it's funny because it is a lip balm company, but it's so much more than that because it's impacted my life in so many different ways, and hopefully other

 

And it's impacting people impacting other people's lives as well. Which we're going to talk about when we come back. But before we break, I'd like to know, where can people find Kind Lips lip balm.

 

On our website, Kindlips.com. There's a lot of local boutiques in Minneapolis St. Paul that carry Kind Lips Regions salons has Kind Lips and Lifetime Fitnesses.

 

Okay. And you can also find it if all of those you're not finding it, you can also get it on Amazon. Com.

 

Amazon has it as well.

 

Okay. Very good. So again, to purchase Kind Lips or to find out more, you can go to Kindlips.Com. When we come back, we're going to continue our conversation with Josh and find out how he is using Kind Lips to help spread kindness throughout the world. To read the online edition of Natural Awakenings magazine, visit NaturalTwincities.com. You can find a podcast of the show on AM950Radio.com, on Apple or Google podcasts. And anywhere you get your podcast, you're listening to Green Tea Conversations on AM950, the Progressive Voice of Minnesota. We will be right back.

 

Welcome back to Green Tea Conversations. Where we delve into the pages of Natural Awakenings magazine and talk to the professionals who share their expertise on natural health with you. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle. And today we're talking with Josh Neumann of Kind Lips, a company that is on a mission to remind us to speak kindness into the world. And it's located right here in Minneapolis. So just before the break, Josh, you were starting to tell us kind of about the history of how you got started in your business. And one of the things that was very important to you was how you were going to get back.

 

So tell us a little bit about Kind of the mission of Kind Lips and some of the the work that you're doing.

 

Yeah. So the giving back has been a big part of my life. Always when I was little, I have chores to do and I'd get a dollar a week for allowance, and we'd go to Church. And I had to give $0.10 to Church at times. Yeah. I always had a tie. And so I learned that at a young age and I hated giving that $0.10 and I didn't understand it. And there's a time in my life, College and early in my career where I didn't die and I kind of had a moment where I just came back into that.

 

And I was like, okay, this is something that I need to do. I need to give 10%.  And so in my real estate career, every time I got a check, it was right off the top right away to a charity or Church. And so it just became a habit. And I got to a point where I continue to be more and more prosperous. And I was like, Well, I should give more. And I could never get myself to consistently give more than 10%, even though in my mind, I knew it when I was going online to make that donation, I never did.

 

And so I'm like, okay, well, if I'm going to start this business, I want to do 20%. And if I don't figure out a way, if I don't do it right from the get go, I'll never get there. So that's how the 20% number came out is just to continue to challenge myself to be more giving. And with the intention of kind lips being a reminder to speak kind words every time you use it. I knew that the charity or the organizations that I wanted to associate with were anti-bullying organizations because bullying is such a keyword right now.

 

And it's just something that there's not and a lot of the organizations that are doing it are nonprofit organizations, and there's not enough funding for them. And so I wanted to I thought that was a perfect scenario where I could make a contribution to society in that area.

 

So before we start talking about some of those organizations, I have to say, as a business coach, it makes me almost kind of gasp to think about 20% of your profits going in, going in for charity, and it's very admirable and shows that it can be done. So Congratulations.

 

Thank you.

 

So let's talk about the organizations that you started with and kind of how that works.

 

Yeah. Trying to find when I knew the intention of who I wanted, the types of companies that wanted to contribute towards, it was really difficult to find anti-bullying organizations, and when I researched it, unfortunately, one of the top ones, if not, I think the largest in the country is Pacer, and they're based in Bloomington, Minnesota. So they do work all across the country. And I got to go there and two of their facility and get to know them and get to know their heart and just really just genuine people that truly want to make the world a better place.

 

So I knew right away that that is an organization that I want to be a part of and be able to support. And then another one that came to my attention because they were doing kindness retreats in the school system. It was Youth Frontiers. And so I got to meet with Youth frontiers who are their facility, go to a couple of the classrooms there the seminars that they're doing, where they spend six 7 hours in a school system with children teaching them how to be kind and really having a strong impact on these kids, where kids remember those those days where they get trained for the rest of their lives because they come back and they want to be a part of the organization and help out.

 

And after seeing that I was like, yes, these are the two that I'm going to start with. And they're both great.

 

So with Pacer, what are some of the, like, anti-bullying campaigns that they're doing because they work with a variety of populations?

Yeah. They work all over the country. Really. They put on seminars in their facility. They have a hotline that you can call if you're experiencing bullying. They work directly with schools, even in the movie industry, entertainment industry. They've got their hands in a lot of different avenues. Unfortunately, the more that I learn about bullying it is exists in every aspect of life. So the more the more areas that they can intrude into the better.

 

And so with Youth Frontiers, you said that they're doing retreats in schools, and then those students who are a part of it as they grow up, they come back.

 

Yeah. And actually become trainers and they help kids that are in the younger ages and they continue to be involved with the program. So it's really I think they're in over, like, 1300 schools across the country, and it's a really special company.

 

And so those were the two that you kind of started off with, and then this has morphed into even more.

 

Yeah. I've always kind of felt from the get go that this has something to do with, like, suicide as well. And I didn't understand that. And the more that I've been doing this, a lot of mental health stuff has come up, especially in the news lately and then also suicide. And from my hometown, there is an extraordinary number of suicides that had happened. And so I'm like, I started putting the puzzle pieces together that a lot of mental health issues contribute towards the idea of the thoughts of committing suicide.

 

And a lot of times those come from people that, you know, outside people having saying negative things towards people or even people looking at themselves and not saying kind things to themselves. And so we're starting to get more involved in suicide prevention organizations and also mental health organizations as well.

 

And there have been a lot of studies and a lot of just kind of self-reporting from people as well who have contemplated suicide. And then all it took was for one person to say something kind to them to actually help turn that around, to just decide today, I'm not going to do it.

 

Yeah. It's really sad that people can get to a point like that in their lives and that we, as a community don't set a standard of just being kind, that should be the standard of every day. If you see somebody that is doing something, well, give them a compliment if you see something I don't even know for myself before I started Kind Lips. And even still, to this day, I'm continuing to work on myself and grow. But I'll see somebody like, oh, I really like that dress, and I don't always say it because I don't for whatever reason, you know, I don't give them that compliment.

 

And somebody probably were that because they thought they looked good in it and it would be a compliment to give them. And it's genuine. And so I'm still even working on myself to try and learn how to give compliments and hopefully make somebody stay better.

 

Right. So getting away from our own fears of being rejected and just being able to say it to somebody just never know the impact that you have on them. And I'm sure as you've gotten older, too, you've had people come back and say to you, you know, things that you said that really weren't that big of a deal at the time that you thought but really had a huge impact on them. So I know people have come back to me in my adulthood and have said it meant so much to me when you did this. And sometimes I can't even remember what it was that I said or what the situation was. But we never know. We never know the impact that we can have.

 

Right?

 

So for people who want to learn more about Kind Lips and want to purchase, they can go to Kindlips.com. And it's also available in boutiques and hair salons across the Twin Cities as well as on Amazon.Com. You can find a podcast of this show on Am 950radio.Com on Apple or Google podcast or anywhere you get your podcast. You're listening to Green Tea Conversations on Am950, the Progressive Voice of Minnesota. We will be right back.

 

Welcome back to Green Tea Conversations. Where we delve into the pages of Natural Awakenings magazine and talk to the experts who share their expertise on natural health with you. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle. And today we're talking with Josh Neumann, the founder, and owner of Kind Lips, a company that is on a mission to remind us to speak kindness into the world. So just before the break, you were starting to tell us about a couple of the organizations that you work with, including Pacer, which is located in Bloomington, and Youth Frontiers. And then that has kind of morphed into working with other organizations that focus more on suicide and mental health issues. And I also understand that now you are really doing a lot of work within the school system. So tell us about that.

 

Yeah. So my background, I actually went to College to be a special education teacher, so my degrees in that and I got to have a fairly good understanding. My father is a teacher and got to get a good understanding of the school system and especially being in special education, how a lot of those students are treated by other students and society. And so I really grew a soft spot in my heart for the special education population. And I also have done a lot of behavior management, a lot of personal growth and development classes.

 

And so I learned that the formative years happen up until eight, nine years old in our brain. So if you're going to teach a kid another language, whatever, kids brains are just sponges at that point, that's when they're picking up everything that everybody around them is doing it, their brains are capable of learning everything. And after nine years old, your brain decreases a little bit ten years old, it just starts going down so you can't learn as much. And as I was thinking about this, well, I'll kind of backtrack a little bit.

 

When I first started the company, I had somebody come to our website and buy 35, 36 tubes and didn't think anything of it except for, like, oh, that's a great order. And about two months later, I get an email from this woman, and she's like, hey, I bought these tubes. Would you be open to having a conversation I just want to talk to you about? I'm like, hopefully, they didn't turn her lips green or anything like that. So we had a call, and she's like, I'm a teacher.

 

And I want to let you know, I bought these for my students, and I gave them to all my students. And she's like, It was really cool after, you know, we did the program that we did or the curriculum. She's, like, all the kids started reminding each other to put their kind lips on. So she's like, it turned into a thing in our classroom where if somebody wasn't being nice, but go put your kind lips on. And so all the kids began placing each other. And she was like, actually, the classroom wasn't one of my best classes I've ever had.

 

And she's like, the behavior kind of did 180 after we did the kind lips, and they would all teach each other to be kind and remind each other to be kind. And so I was like, wow, thank you so much for sharing that. And I was like, I love that idea. Why can't I bring this into the school system? And my first thought was high school. That's where you see a lot of the bullying happening middle school. That's because there's a social media and that sort of stuff.

 

And as I continue to think about it, go back to what I learned in my journey through special education and also just my own personal development is like, Well, if we can get this into school systems at an elementary age, then we can prevent those behaviors or teach positive behaviors ahead of time. So that when those kids are in middle school and high school, they won't even be a thought process that they even have.

 

And so you have a special program for schools and it's for any classroom in the school, not just for special.

 

Yeah.

 

Classrooms as well. Correct.

 

Correct.

 

And so you actually created a curriculum to go along with it.

 

Yeah. Through a different trial and error. And we're still learning and evolving it. But we have a program where you can go and buy and or depending on the school. We've donated it. We've donated over 300 tubes. So we want that where there's like a car where there's a kindness challenge that goes along with it along with the curriculum that hopefully gets kids in the habit of speaking kind words to other kids.

 

So do you have an example of a kindness challenge?

 

One of them would be so depends on the age group. So, like with high school, it was interesting. We started with one of the challenges we started was getting kids to go on social media and give another student a compliment because that way because there is so much bullying that happens on social media. We would get kids in the habit of speaking kind words about another kid and then also the other students that receive the kind words gets called out in front of their peers, and they actually they get the benefit of having that complement just blasted in front of everybody that they know.

 

So it's even more impactful when it's set in front of everybody else. And the interesting thing is we did that for a while and we weren't getting very much interaction. And we realized that social media, most people want to if they're going to post something, they want to post something about themselves. So we had to change that stuff a little bit. So we've gotten everywhere from people writing down compliments. They've had to write down three compliments that they want to give themselves things that they love about themselves.

 

I've had people get up in the classroom and they have to go give somebody that they haven't spoken to that day, a compliment. A lot of in the elementary schools, and the social media is at a thing. They write like, kind compliments on a little piece of paper, and they give them to somebody in their classroom.

 

And I understand, you just got some feedback from a teacher who is working the program in her school.

 

Yeah. So I have a teacher that literally text me an hour ago, and we had done this program, and she's doing her master's thesis on bullying. And she said after they implemented the program in the school, which, I mean, it even blows my mind that it's this effective. But after they implemented the program in the school, they had a 49% decrease and bullying in their school or reported bullying.

 

So the reports of bullying went down 49%

 

Yeah. I can't fathom that. And one of the cool things is I think the only thing I can come back to is the intention of the product. I think the prayer and all that sort of stuff really adds up because there's been so many stories of of radical change that to the normal person, it wouldn't make sense of like, Well, how can lip balm people go back to how can lip balm actually have that kind of impact on something? And the answer is, I don't know. I don't think lip balm actually can have that impact.

 

But when there is an intention and a message and a mission behind it and the heart is in the right place, it truly can have an impact and change change a life.

 

And it's also building the awareness. I mean, just becoming more aware of how often how often we're not saying something kind. So when you start to do it, it helps you to continue to remember to do it. And it also, I think builds awareness of when you hear something that isn't kind, it really makes you pay that much more attention to it, like, there's more of a sting to it. And so I can see how it could be, how it could quickly make a change. And that's exciting to think about.

 

It is. And all I can do is I could tell some stories of some things that have happened. But even in my own life, to go back to now is never an unkind person. But this is challenge me to just continue to be Kinder to myself, Kinder to people around, Kinder to the environment. Where if I walk anywhere, every morning, I walk to get a coffee, and I cannot walk by a piece of garbage without stopping and picking it up. If there's something on the sidewalk or the Street, I have to stop and pick it up.

 

And there's been times where I haven't wanted to and I'll walk by it. It'll be three or four steps and I have to turn around and go get it. But it's just continuing to be more kind to everything. And as I'm around, the product is I'm doing this like I know that I have to be. I have to live out the intention of the product. And it kind of forces me to do that. And there's a really cool story that I haven't shared a lot. There is a woman who had reached out and she wanted to have a conversation.

 

And honestly, I was leaving for vacation. I've taken my family on a vacation. We haven't been on a vacation ever. My mom's first time to fly in 35 years and got them all tickets to go to Mexico. And so we're down to Mexico, and this lady had reached out and wanted to have a conversation. I was like, sure. So I'm sitting on the beach being like, I don't want to talk about this now. I just want to be where I'm at with my family. And it took the call.

 

And she's like, Well, I found your product from a friend or on Facebook, and I bought it. And I really like lip balm. So she's like, I love the product. It's the best lip balm I've ever used. And I was like, Well, thank you. It's always fun to hear that. And she said that the real reason I'm calling is I've been married for 32 years. She's like, honestly, my marriage has been horrible for the last 27 years, and she starts to tier up. And so of course, I'm starting to really be like, oh, man, what am I getting into here? I've got an umbrella, drinks sitting next to me in the ocean.

 

 Like quit to take this call.

 

Yeah, right. And she's like, I bought your lip balm. And my husband's a truck driver. He been a truck driver since I've known him. And the reason I tell you that is because he's kind of like a gruff, grumpy guy. And she said, honestly, he's very verbally abusive, mentally abusive. And I'm so sorry. And she's like, no, she's like, but he's always keeps lip balm in his truck. And so she put a to kind lips in his semi, and she told him what the message was. And she she said that for the next two weeks, he continued to send her mean text messages.

 

And if they talk, I was just demeanor. And she said, the third week, he didn't send you any text messages at all. And the fourth week he sent our compliment. And this I have been like, three months. And she's, like, the reason I wanted to call you, like, our marriage hasn't been better in the last 27 years. And it is now. And she's like, I honestly believe it's because of the kind lips, and it's just sit in his truck. And I was like, thank you so much.

We kind of talked about it for a while and shared some tears and got off the phone. And I was so touched by that. And I was like, processing. I'm like, how can a Tube in a lip balm have that effect? What I kind of came up with is that tube. It's there. And it doesn't judge the guy that's driving the truck. It's just in there. And it's just hopefully a good lip balm for him. And he can use it if his lips are dry or whatever. But then he knows it.

 

He's supposed to give a compliment. And that tube just sits there doesn't judge him. And every time that he says something mean, it's still there. It's waiting for him. It's just waiting for him to be good. And finally, it kind of broke him down. I think looking at that tube all the time to the point wherein such a good way, we're broke him down and gave him the opportunity to give his wife a compliment, something that she deserved for the last 27 years. And it's just so much fun to know that like that had a role in changing someone's marriage.

 

And it's probably after 27 years. It's probably kind of scary to put yourself out and say something kind. And so I love how you said it's there, and it's not judging them. It's just there as a gentle reminder because I do think we get into a pattern of the way that we are, and it's scary to get out of that pattern, even if it's a better pattern.

 

Yeah.

 

How do we make that change? I love that. Right on the tube. You have a hashtag, say something Kind. And I'm sure that's a hashtag that you use throughout all your social media.

 

We try to yeah.

 

So once again to learn more about Kind Lips lip balm or to purchase a product, you can go to KindLips.Com. When we come back, we're going to continue our conversation with Josh and find out about some of the other projects that he's working on and discover a little bit more about his business.

 

So to read the online edition of Natural Awakenings Magazine, visit NaturalTwincities.com. You can find a podcast of this show on AM950Radio.Com or on Apple and Google podcasts. You are listening to Green Tea Conversations on AM950, The Progressive Voice of Minnesota. And we are talking with Josh Neumann of Kind Lips. And again, Josh, just remind our listeners they can find Kind Lips at your website and also

 

The local boutiques in Minneapolis and quite a few across the country. Amazon.

 

Okay. So several different places. So when we come back, we'll continue our conversation.

 

Welcome back to Green Tea Conversations. Where we delve into the pages of Natural Awakenings magazine and talk to the professionals who share their expertise on natural health with you. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle. And today we're talking with Josh Neumann of Kind Lips, a company that is on a mission to remind us to speak kindness into the world. So, Josh, just before the break, you were sharing with us some of the examples of how your curriculum and how the lip balm is used, used in schools, and also give us a great example of how it's used with adults.

 

Now, there are other things that you are doing with Kind Lips. I think that there's, like a myriad of opportunities here that people could look at Kind Lips with. One of the things that I did want to talk to you about is to bring it into the school. How much would it cost in order to bring it into a classroom? So if I wanted to donate to my local school and bring it into, say, three classrooms that had 35 or 40 students, what would the cost of it be?

 

Yes, we we try and keep it on a per-student basis so we can get very customized with it at this point. We want to keep it at $252 and $0.50 a student. And that includes the Kindest challenge. And that includes all the curriculum that goes to the teaching. And then it might be a detraction. But sometimes I've actually come in and spoken to school. So depending on if they want that or not, I'm free. So yeah, we really want it to be because our heart as a company is to see it get in the hands and get of the students, get on the lips and just be that reminder be that behavior modification tool.

 

And so I want to make it as accessible as I can to any and all schools. And even if there's a school that doesn't have much of a budget, we're open to working with that as well.

 

That is incredible. No, your per cost for retail is $5, correct. So that's like a huge discount. You're selling it at wholesale prices to bring it into school. For a classroom of 30 students, you're talking $75. Each of the students get their own tube of kind lips as well as the curriculum that the teacher can use. Like you said, you'd come in and help them to kind of launch the program yourself.

 

Yeah,

 

That's very generous of you. So you've also been using this, and I look at it and think, boy, there's so many things you could do with this. You could use this with camps with kids, you could use this with Church groups, and you could also use it in businesses. So have you ever brought it into a business with adults?

 

Yeah. We actually had a similar story that happened is the one I told about the teacher. We had a business that had a woman had bought 30 or 29 tubes. And she said that she worked in an office in downtown Minneapolis and on her floor, they had 29 people there, and they're all in cubes. And she said it felt like high school people would pick on each other. People weren't nice. And she had bought these tubes and put them on everybody's desk. And they all got a little card that said what the intention of the product is and kind of the message in the mission.

 

And she said at first some people kind of made fun of it and gave her a hard time. And then what happened is everyone started reminding each other to put their kind lips on. And it'd be kind of kind of came a thing in the office where if somebody was gossiping or somebody wasn't being nice, you better go put your kind lips on. And it was a way to kind of put people in check without actually being bossy. You just reminded them to put their lip online and in the business.

 

And that kind of triggered another thing the same way the school thing triggered after that teacher spoke up about that, I thought, well, this would be a really fun thing to do. For other companies and get because adults, let's be honest or usually as bad, if not worse. Then, you know, kids are

 

It starts early, But it stays for a long time.

 

Well, unfortunately, is a lot of kids see their parents bullying, you know, other people and or their parents are bullying the kids, and they don't really realize that how they're treating them is actually a form of bullying. So it's a learned behavior. And so if you haven't been aware of it and you're 40 years, 50 years old, there's still time to change.

 

Yes. In coaching, we always say the first step to making a change is to become aware, and then you have the awareness. And then you have the ability to make conscious choice. And so that's what I love about kindness is it helps you to build that awareness. It helps as a gentle reminder. It's not judgmental and the ability to be able to make those changes in an easier way. Taking it into a business. I mean, that sounds like a really inexpensive and great opportunity for any business out there to be able to bring that in as part of their employee development program and just employee satisfaction to increase the employee satisfaction.

 

Yeah. I know a lot of businesses are doing, like, mousepads, or they're doing other corporate gifting ideas where they get them pens. And it's like, well if they're going to do something like that, let's do something that has an intention behind it because nobody cares if they get another mouse pad or a notepad or whatever. Like, let's do something that can actually make a difference. And we've customized the product to be to what the business is. And, yeah, it's been fun to see it makes somewhat of an impact.

 

And then even with camps, we've done a couple of camps, and that's been really fun. And there isn't. There isn't anywhere that I found that doesn't need a reminder to be kind. And to my detriment is I'm still trying to learn how to keep Blinders on, because there's so many areas that I could go into. And when I talk to people, they're like, oh, you should do this or another person like, oh, you should do that. And I'm always like, they're all great ideas. I want to do them all.

 

But if I don't keep my Blinders on and keep moving forward, then all my energy is going to go spread out in 360 degrees, and none of it will be intentional.

 

Which, by the way, is kind of a problem with all entrepreneurs, right?

 

Yeah.

 

The bright shiny objects that we all see so good for you for keeping on those Blinders. In a past life, I worked for a College, and I can see using this in a College setting. And I also did a lot of conference planning, and I'm just sitting here thinking, wow, this would be an awesome opportunity to include in conferences that you have to put in that conference bag with a little card as a reminder for the next three days or a week that you're here. Let's speak kindness into the world.

Yeah, he had to pile onto that with youth frontiers is they do the Kindness challenge or kindness retreat for six, 7 hours a day. And so at the end of the day, if a student can get a Tube of Kind Lips, it is like a reminder for them. It anchors that six, seven-hour training to lip balm and speaking kind words. So whether they leave there and a week later, they got that lip balm, they remember where they got that lip balm from, and it also brings them back to what they learned that day.

 

So for conferences, that sort of deal is a great anchor.

 

So, Josh, what do you see five years from today? Where do you want to see Kind Lips?

 

I want to see it. I wouldn't have said this six months ago, and maybe it's because I didn't have enough confidence or didn't believe in myself enough. But I really believe that it has every reason to be the largest lip balm company in the world. So I want to see it everywhere. I want to see people giving each other compliments. One of my ultimate goal is to be walking down a street in New York and have somebody kind of from a distance and pull out a tube lip balm. Put it on and then give me a compliment and have no idea who I am.

 

Wouldn't that be cool? Let's put that intention out into the world. So, Josh, thanks so much for being with us today and for sharing with us your mission of Kind Lips and the wonderful product that you've created. And for people who would like to learn more about Kind Lips, you may go to KindLips.Com. We are also going to have a feature in the July issue of Natural Awakenings on Kind Lips. So be sure to pick up your issue at your local tour. 

Thank you for joining us. Our conversation today as we awaken to natural help. You've been listening to Green Tea Conversations on AM950 the Progressive Voice of Minnesota. And I'm wishing for you a lovely day!