748 Cheree Ashley: Founder & CEO of Osier

0:00Kara Goldin:I am unwilling to give up, but I will start over from scratch as many times as it takes to get where I want to be. You just want to make sure you will get knocked down, but just make sure you don't get knocked out. So your only choice should be, go focus on what you can control. Hi everyone and welcome to the Kara Goldin show. Join me each week for inspiring conversations with some of the world's greatest leaders. We'll talk with founders, entrepreneurs, CEOs, and really some of the most interesting people of our time. Can't wait to get started. Let's go. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to The Cara Golden Show.

0:44Kara Goldin:I'm so excited to have my next guest. We are joined by Cherie Ashley, who is the founder and CEO of Ocear, which is a Korean formulated skincare brand rooted in balance, resilience, and new beginnings. And before launching OCEAR, Cherie spent over a decade creating recovery programs that helped thousands. Along the way, she noticed something often overlooked, the toll stress and addiction can take on someone's skin and sense of self. So that realization led her to launch her incredibly, fairly new company, Ossair, which is absolutely lovely and yummy in many ways. But the brand launched with two products, the Brighter Days Vitamin C Serum and the Recovery Ceramide Cream, which each focused on restoring and hydrating and protecting.

1:46Kara Goldin:So, so, so incredible. I love the philosophy behind it. And I'm excited to dive into Cherie's journey on how she has not only launched OSEAR, but also how she's building it. And so without further ado, welcome Cherie. Nice to meet you. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me today. It's a pleasure to meet you. And I'm excited to share my story and a little bit more about OSEAR for your listeners. And it's a pleasure. Super excited. So for someone hearing about it for the first time, what is Ossere and what makes it different from everything else on the market? Which is a great question because there's so many amazing products out there with amazing backstories and founder stories.

2:37And, you know, it's a pretty saturated market. So I definitely am entering a space that has a lot. You know, I'm not a chemist. I'm not a celebrity. I'm somebody who just has a pure passion for taking care of myself and what I put on my skin and my body coming from a space of recovery where, you know, I'm in recovery myself. So many years of not taking care of myself is really kind of what led me to this. And I feel like our story is different. That's what differentiates us is we are a skin care brand that is going to be giving back to people that are struggling with substance abuse and mental health.

3:23And I don't know of any other brands that do that. And I just feel like it's a bigger purpose. So it's amazing products with a mission to be able to enter a space that's going to help a lot of people.

3:36Kara Goldin:So you didn't have experience in actually launching a beauty brand. I would imagine you wore a few along the way and had really focused on this, especially as you were continuing to recover. But what was the moment when you said, I need to go and do this? Definitely. So I started my facilities when I was really young. I was only nicest way possible to say that I had to grow up really quickly. I'm working with a lot of doctors and therapists and other, you know, psychiatrists that own facilities. And so recovery is such a passion of mine and I love it. But I wasn't able to really share my journey of what I personally love.

4:29Skincare is everything to me, you know, working out. And those are things that were kind of on the back burner and not really brought to light because I was so focused in the addiction field. And it really was something like, you know, this is who I am. This is what I enjoy. And over the years of having my facilities, I saw I wasn't the only one. I saw how many of my clients came through the door with the same exact insecurities as I did when I walked through the door of treatment. And, you know, really what we put in our body plays a huge role in the effect on our skin. And from, you know, just puffiness, from excess alcohol and substances or picking or rosacea.

5:15And once you find recovery, the first thing you look at is yourself in the mirror and say like, oh my gosh, like I really need to make some changes here because you physically see what it's done to you and it ages you so quickly. And so I was seeing that with my clients and we would provide little travel size shampoo and conditioner soaps for those I had to urgently come into treatment. And we just kind of put our label on it, ordered them from Amazon, always had it set out. And that kind of is where the rabbit hole, you know, started of how cool would it be to kind of start something ourselves for our clients once they come in.

5:55And then I really started thinking, okay, what is it that I like? Where do I like to shop? How could I do this on a broader scale, not just for people in recovery, but I have a group of friends that are very busy stay-at-home moms, so something that is luxury but affordable. So I kind of took all those things into factor when creating Osserre. And, you know, first I wanted to come up with something that was meaningful to me. And Osserre stands for the willow tree. And willow tree means new beginnings. And so that's kind of where it started, picking the name, picking the style, the look of it. I wanted it to be able to be unisex.

6:35I wanted it to be something that I could see on the shells of Nordstrom. And so that's kind of where it started is from very ground up, just kind of doodling on paper of what OCEAR can be. And that's kind of where it started.

6:49Kara Goldin:So how did you navigate product development and find the right partners in Korea? This is what it's based on. I mean, obviously, Korean beauty is super well known for quality. But how did you navigate that, especially from, you know, the West Coast, California? So ironically, it's such a small little town that I come from. And I had a friend that I went to school with and she started a women's brand, a feminine women's product. And so she had moved to Dubai and I kind of reached out to her and just said, hey, you know, I'm really considering starting my own brand. I don't really know where to start.

7:35I know that you were pretty successful with yours. Would you mind giving me some insight and kind of where to get started? And so she was so helpful in the beginning stages with everything for Ocereb, different manufacturers and testing different products and, you know, from boxes to registering your barcodes to just all the things. Initially, when I started, I'm like, OK, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to hit the ground running and I want to do everything by the book incorrectly. I don't want to cut corners if I'm going to put something out there, especially because I don't have like, you know, these amazing celebrities, they already have connections and they have, you know, it's a lot easier, I feel, and I could be wrong, but it seems to be easier for them to create a brand and it's just like, oh, boom, it's just out there in the market.

8:29So I knew I wasn't going to have that luxury. So if I'm going to create something, I need it to be amazing because I can't just show for it. I can't just show, you know, like a lipstick and the color. It's like you have to try it. So the best way that this is going to be successful is once people try it, they fall in love with it. Word of mouth. Now they tell a friend and now they reorder. So that's why I was really particular with which manufacturer I was going to use, lab and chemist and all of those things factoring in, as well as me having extremely sensitive skin. So, you know, Korean skincare, which is kind of why I leaned that route for the first two products, is it really favors too sensitive skin.

9:15Kara Goldin:So, so interesting. So let's talk about those two SKUs. So the Brighter Days Vitamin C Serum. So what makes this formula stand apart from others that are out there? Yes. So vitamin C, the standard vitamin C is pretty like dry and can be a little harsh on your skin. And usually it comes in 10%. So initially I was trying that and that's very harsh for my skin. So I kind of toned it down and wanted it to be able to favor to sensitive skin, but also be effective. So it's 3%. It also has squalene in it. So it's very hydrating as well. You honestly could use it as your moisturizer. I personally do in the morning.

9:59That's what I put underneath my makeup or if I'm just usually don't wear makeup in the day is just the vitamin C serum and sunscreen. So it just is very light and milky and very soft. So that's been the biggest feedback is, oh my goodness, this is so hydrating and so soft and it doesn't irritate.

10:21Kara Goldin:And so the and then the recovery ceramide cream, like what differentiates that product from others that are out there? There's a lot of amazing moisturizers. The ceramides and having that specific ingredient for me, when it was coming to, okay, what do we launch with? There's so many different amazing products. How do we pick just two? I really wanted to tie in two different skews that either if you're a beginner to skincare and you've never, you know, if you just wash your face with, right, your body wash in the shower and you just wanted to try something new or if you already have a skin routine and you wanted to incorporate to, which two products could be an easy go-to that you're going to see a difference.

11:10And so for the ceramide cream, it's extremely, extremely hydrating. It's very, very soft and it rebuilds up that natural barrier that we all have once you start getting into your late 20s, early 30s, you know, our skin and our barrier is not as strong. So I wanted something that was really going to lock in that hydration and moisture and other serums or other products that somebody's using and where people could actually wake up and say, oh my goodness, I feel a difference after even the first use. And then after seven days to a month, they're really seeing that difference of just soft, hydrated skin.

11:46Kara Goldin:so every uh entrepreneur that i've ever uh talked to every founder i should say really feels like being a founder and starting a company is so much harder than you ever thought and what would you say has been kind of the most difficult or surprising part of launching uh a here that, you know, just from, you know, just from whether it was actually getting the product created or launching or, I mean, what has been the most difficult? I feel like there's so many areas that have been really difficult to distinguish the hardest part. For me, it's also just going and just starting it because there's so much to learn along the way.

12:40I'm still learning every single day. Every day, it's like, oh my goodness, I cannot believe, you know, we have two new products coming out. And it's like now seeing how long the first two, it's like, okay, start now because it could take up to a year. But I would say the biggest wow factor for me is how much you gift. Nobody prepared me at all for that. I think you assume and you are behind the scenes for a good two years before anybody even knows about it. You're not even talking about it to anybody other than your immediate friends and family. And so you see how much work goes behind the scenes and how much you invest your time, your money, you know, the nighttime calls in Korea and photo shoots happening in Dubai and all these things going that the excitement of launching like, okay, we're going to do this.

13:31And it's so beautiful. You fall in love with your brand that you created. And it goes live. And it's like two sales. And it's almost like, oh, my gosh, what? I thought we were almost going to sell out. Like it's made such an unrealistic expectation. But I think you just fall so in love with it that you assume everybody else is the second they see all this hard work into it. And that's not the reality. Also, just the investment of that first launch and how much you're gifting to different publicists and influencers and friends and salons and hotels and just trying to say like, hey, try this. Let me know what you think because if you love it, you want to share it.

14:18You want to put that on your shelves. You want to be part of this mission. But to do that, it consists of gifting. And so I feel like that's been the biggest just wow I didn't realize that nobody prepared me for that I don't know if nobody talks about it or if you know that's just I mean it definitely seems to be part of the process if you're doing all the steps the right way I mean I could probably just wait for local sales but it's I feel it's going to take a lot longer to get where we vision this and so this is just the route that I've taken to be able to spread the word a lot quicker.

14:57Kara Goldin:So there's different beauty brands who have launched with just one or two SKUs and kind of stuck with that. There's also other beauty brands that have launched with multiple SKUs. So you've launched with two SKUs. Do you think that was the right decision? Do you wish you had more SKUs? Like what would you tell somebody who might be going into launching their company today knowing what you know? I would say go into it with where you're comfortable. Let your company meet you where you're at. You don't want to get in over your head investment-wise because it's not cheap or easy to start a brand. And everybody's situation is different, whether they start with a partner or an investment firm or, you know, they're creating it out of their living room or their garage.

15:52I really feel everybody has to meet themselves and have that patience. From experience of being an entrepreneur and starting my company over 10 years ago, I didn't have startup funds. It was just me, myself, and I and my family. And so I lived at my facilities. I couldn't afford staff. And so slowly I built my company and I had one employee, which she's still with me today, you know, and then two employees. And now we've grown to multiple locations and 50 plus employees. And so luckily having that knowledge from experience and trial and error with my first company, I kind of went into it with ease of knowing, give yourself grace.

16:34It's just me, myself, and I, I don't have partners. Start with two, see how it goes. Get people to understand and trust you and your brand and the products. and when the time is right to launch more, they already know like, oh, well, the first two were amazing. I'm sure the next are going to be great as well and just kind of building that community.

16:54Kara Goldin:So your work in recovery has definitely shaped the way that you thought about when you were launching a SARE. And how has your go-to-market strategy been influenced? Are you looking at showing up in recovery centers, for example? Are you, when you think about sort of the experience that the consumers have, I think you're more than recovery. And recovery can mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. But how do you get that message out there and kind of, I guess, show what you value in this brand? being authentic to me has definitely just it hasn't failed me yet you know I I just I was entering a new space where I sat there and had that conversation with myself like how much do I say how much do I share do I really go in deep with my story do I talk about this being a recovery backed brand.

18:01And I said, no, that yes, I need to because that's authentic to me. And maybe not everybody will connect with that, but maybe a lot of people will connect with it. And so I've entered this space with that mentality. And when people ask, just like you asked, how did this get started? Where, how did you start O'Shea and why? Why the name? Why the colors? And just being authentic and what's true to me is that I'm in recovery and I have a passion for skincare and And this is a new venture and a passion project that I want to see go further and touch different people. And how many people have resonated with that and have connected with that and have said, oh my gosh, I lost my dad to alcoholism a few years ago, or I'm in recovery myself five years.

18:49The amount of people that have been able to share that with me at different events and PR events. And it has been emotional because they would not walk into those rooms and talk about their recovery. If anything, they're in a room where they don't want to talk about it because they don't want to be judged. And instantly when they come to Osser's booth and they meet me, and I'm instantly honest about that, it opens another level of comfort for people to say like, oh my gosh, me too. And it also inspires people that may be struggling or have loved ones that are struggling to say like, oh my gosh, look what she has created from her journey of addiction to recovery.

19:30And here she is now. Like, I hope that it can inspire other people that they can create it too. They can also create something they're passionate about. If you're not a chemist or you're not an expert, you can still partner with the right people to have your vision come to life. And there's no shame around. There shouldn't be any shame around that. You should be able to, if you're passionate about something, it's going to be successful. Those are the companies and the brands that succeed the most, in my opinion, that really, you know, the founders, they have a vision and what that story is, and they do the work to get it where it needs to be.

20:10Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. If you could go back and give yourself one truth about starting your company to your younger self? Not that you started that long ago, but what would it be? What would you tell yourself? I always think about those times when you just start thinking, gosh, this is so hard. How am I going to figure it out? And then you do. And when you look back on those times, you were able to push through. But if you could go back and give yourself one truth when you were starting this brand, knowing what you know today, what would it be? Don't doubt yourself. Just stay in it and be patient. And it's not going to happen overnight.

21:01I constantly have to give myself that reminder almost daily. Sometimes I'm like, you know, it's so easy to go on social media and see these other brands that you are so inspired by and seeing them in all these different events and CMA awards and they're, you know, in Ulta and Sephora and everywhere that you vision your brand and you're not there yet, you're not even close. You wouldn't even know how to enter those rooms. It's so easy to see all of that and yes, be inspired, but also be discouraged. And so having to remind yourself that you are, they started somewhere. If you talk with them, they're going to have the struggles.

21:42They're going to have, you know, I wasn't able to do this or that, you know, and it may be different than yours. Their struggles may be different than your struggles. And just really staying patient. And that's still my reminder till this day. But yeah, it's definitely not easy. So don't get discouraged. Stay positive and keep your journey going.

22:06Kara Goldin:So when you think about success for OSEAR, this is last question, and you had to, you know, really measure it. However, like, what is success for OSEAR? Like, what do you hope that you're able to, like, what kind of impact can you have? My goal for OSEAR is to be so largely spread that that percent of proceeds is truly able to help hundreds and thousands of individuals across the country get the help that they need who do not have the resources. Treatment is not cheap. Not everybody has insurance. Not everybody has the opportunity. I've spent many years walking the streets of brokenness, and I want to be able to utilize Ossair in something that I'm so passionate about and see it on the shelves of Sephora and Ulta and Nordstrom and know that when it's there, there's also people getting better.

23:23Like that is my dream and goal for Oseer one day.

23:28Kara Goldin:Well, I know you're going to achieve that. So Cherie, thank you so much. Cherie Ashley, founder and CEO of Oseer, incredible, incredible skincare brand. Good luck with everything. Everyone needs to go to the Ocera website. Definitely purchase the products. Give Ocera a try. They have, as Cherie mentioned, they have two SKUs. So, so good. Very hydrating and so lovely. I love it. I'm surprised that this is your first brand that you've launched because you've done such a nice job. So thank you for creating this and with such a great mission behind it. and very authentic, helping lots of people. And for everyone listening, thanks for listening.

24:18Kara Goldin:Definitely share this episode and give a review and all of that. And thanks again for listening today. So Sherry, thank you so much for joining. Thanks again for listening to The Kara Golden Show. If you would, please give us a review and feel free to share this podcast with others who would benefit. And of course, feel free to subscribe so you don't miss a single episode of our podcast. Just a reminder that I can be found on all platforms at Kara Golden. I would love to hear from you too. So feel free to DM me. And if you want to hear more about my journey, I hope you will have a listen or pick up a copy of my Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Undaunted, where I share more about my journey, including founding and building Hint.

25:10Kara Goldin:We are here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thanks for listening, and goodbye for now.