In short
Monica Nassif, founder of Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day, discusses building a household-cleaning brand through authenticity, category disruption, and relentless execution; she also shares lessons from her book I Bottled My Mother, including her family’s influence and post-sale reinvention.
Guest background
Monica Nassif is the creator of Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day (named after her mother) and author of I Bottled My Mother. She previously worked in retail/corporate (Dayton Hudson/Target parent) and later stayed with an acquisition for two years. She also founded Caldria and later launched a loungewear line, Sophia Graydon.
Key claims
Brands are promises—everything must deliver (shelf presence, product performance, reorders, shipping). Emotional connection can’t be faked; authenticity drives consumer resonance. She “dominated” a single fragrance concept to disrupt a $30B cleaning market. Founders must know themselves and prepare for failure.
Notable examples
Target end-cap vision; Whole Foods Austin promo where the end cap appeared; investors laughing at packaging; requirement for brand-blocked shelf real estate; seasonal fragrances; Rose Tobacco (a Caldrea seasonal fragrance) bombing because it was “ahead of the consumer”; private label lessons from Williams-Sonoma and Hint; her daughter Cal’s chemo “battle” dressing story.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOIntroducing Monica Nassif
3:33 to 4:56
Kara introduces Monica Nassif and discusses her new book and the story behind Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day.
“Have you ever stopped to think about how some of the biggest breakthroughs come from the most overlooked categories?”
Launching Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day
20:21 to 21:38
Learn about the initial launch strategy of Mrs. Meyer's.
“Myers, did you start out with multiple SKUs?”
Moments of Validation as a Founder
24:50 to 28:00
Hear about Monica's pivotal moments as a founder of Mrs. Meyer's.
“And being a founder myself, you have these moments.”
A Mother's Strength: Preparing for Battle
28:00 to 29:10
Hear a touching story of how Monica's mother prepared her for challenges during her treatment.
“and she pulls out her holiday dress, her little white tights and her black Mary Janes.”
Selling a Business: Bittersweet Experience
29:10 to 30:25
Monica shares her emotional experience of selling her business and the challenges of transition.
“You just like, poof, you know, my brother said, Monica, you don't have the keys to the car anymore.”
Should You Start a Business?
30:25 to 31:30
Monica discusses the importance of self-awareness before starting a business venture.
“But when I went back inside, you know, when you're used to moving fast and you don't have a lot of checks and balances, I always thought the best gauge of your success or unsuccess is you can make the cash register ring.”
Building an Emotional Connection with Brands
31:30 to 33:45
Learn how authentic storytelling helps create emotional connections with consumers.
“I always say you're running a marathon, you know, and you've got to get prepared if you want to start your own business in terms of don't get so personally leveraged that you can't see your way out of it.”
The Importance of Brand Authenticity
33:45 to 35:11
Discover why authenticity is crucial for brands and how every detail matters.
“A brand is a promise and everything about it is a promise.”
Instinct vs. Data in Brand Building
35:11 to 36:57
Monica shares experiences illustrating the balance between intuition and data in business decisions.
“Myers, because instinct, I hear this constantly from founders that it doesn't always make sense, right?”
Lessons from Failed Products
36:57 to 38:15
Hear anecdotes about product failures and the importance of understanding consumer readiness.
“And data, let's be honest, at the time, we couldn't afford those studies.”
Show all 16 chapters
Navigating Private Label Opportunities
38:15 to 40:44
Monica discusses the pros and cons of pursuing private label opportunities for brands.
“And we created this seasonal spring fragrance.”
Measuring Success in Brand Growth
40:44 to 42:00
Learn about the metrics Monica used to measure her brand's success and growth in retail.
“We had a situation early on with Hint where, you know, we had created not just a product, but also an entire category of unsweetened flavored water.”
Measuring Brand Success: Lessons from Mrs. Meyer's
42:00 to 44:10
Learn how Monica Nassif measured success during the growth of Mrs. Meyer's.
“I know why we did it, but I think that you have to kind of put a timeline on it at some point.”
Monica's Transition: From Cleaning Products to Loungewear
44:10 to 46:10
Discover Monica's venture into loungewear after Mrs. Meyer's and the challenges faced.
“So everyone thinks like, oh, Monica has built this incredible company.”
Grit and Resilience in Entrepreneurship
46:10 to 46:48
Explore the importance of grit and resilience as highlighted in Monica's journey.
“It was that that was painful because it was gorgeous collection.”
Closing Thoughts and Final Reflections
46:48 to 47:40
Reflect on Monica's impact on the cleaning products category and her future endeavors.
“It's about having that grit and resilience and continually speaking about about why consumers should want this product, which is exactly what you did.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00I 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.
0:09Kara Goldin: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. This message is a paid partnership with Dell Technologies. Hey everyone, Kara here, and I've got something I've just got to share. Dell PCs with Intel inside are built for the moments that matter, for the moments you plan and the moments you don't, built for the busy days that turn into all-night study sessions, the moment you're working from a cafe and realize every outlet is taken, the times you're deep in your flow, and the absolute last thing you need is an auto-update throwing off your momentum.
1:16Kara Goldin:That's why Dell builds tech that adapts to the way you actually work. Built with long-lasting batteries so you're not scrambling for the closest outlet. And built-in intelligence that makes updates around your schedule. Not in the middle of it. They don't build tech for tech's sake. They build it for you. Find technology built for the way you work at dell.com slash dellpcs. Built for you.
1:47Kara Goldin:This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Hi, Kara here. For small businesses, every hire matters, but so does your time. I felt that pressure firsthand. You know, a bad hire isn't just frustrating, it's expensive in time, money, and team morale. And yet hiring the right person can feel like a full-time job on top of everything else you're already doing. Sifting through applications, trying to spot the real standouts, second-guessing decisions, it can get overwhelming fast. That's why having a way to save time without sacrificing quality isn't just nice to have, it's critical.
2:32Kara Goldin:Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full-time job. Posting a job isn't always the hard part. It's finding, connecting with, and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to shortlisting candidates and conducting AI-powered interviews for initial screenings. Their updated conversational interface lets you describe what you need in plain language, no recruiter jargon needed. Nearly 60 % of hires find a candidate to interview within a week.
3:14Kara Goldin:With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. Hi, everyone, and welcome back to The Kara Golden Show. Have you ever stopped to think about how some of the biggest breakthroughs come from the most overlooked categories? Not tech, not media, not AI. I'm talking about cleaning products. And because, let's be honest, nobody wakes up thinking this category needs to be reinvented. And yet sometimes that's exactly where the opportunities are hiding.
3:57Kara Goldin:So Monica Nassif took a category that is functional, forgettable, and frankly, not that exciting to many people and turned it into something people actually care about with design and emotion and identity and products that really, really work. And we're talking about Mrs. Meyer's clean day. So, so incredible to finally meet Monica. And she just actually today, while we're recording this, launched her brand new incredible book, I Bottled My Mother, which really pulls back the curtain on where the entire vision for the company came from. So I'm so excited to have her here today to talk all about not only her terrific book, which everyone must read, but also what it took to actually grow Mrs.
4:52Kara Goldin:Meyer's Clean Day into what it is today. So, Monica, welcome to the Kara Golden Show. So excited to have you here. I'm thrilled to be here, Kara. It's great. It's 2026. Banking shouldn't still feel complicated. That's what stands out to me about Chime. Chime is rethinking banking with a fee-free, more rewarding approach built for real life, not the outdated model of overdraft fees, monthly charges, and confusing fine print. It's designed to work for you, not the 1%. And what really makes it different is how much more you actually get. With direct deposit, you unlock features like access to up to$500 off your paycheck when you need it with MyPay, plus the potential to earn up to$1 ,150 in annual rewards.
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7:00Chime card on time payment history may have a positive impact on your credit score. Results may vary. See chime.com for details and applicable terms.
7:05Kara Goldin:This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Hi, Kara here. First of all, businesses, every hire matters, but so does your time. I felt that pressure firsthand. You know, a bad hire isn't just frustrating, it's expensive in time, money, and team morale. And yet hiring the right person can feel like a full-time job on top of everything else you're already doing. Sifting through applications, trying to spot the real standouts, second-guessing decisions, it can get overwhelming fast. That's why having a way to save time without sacrificing quality isn't just nice to have, it's critical.
7:49Kara Goldin:Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full-time job. Posting a job isn't always the hard part. It's finding, connecting with, and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to shortlisting candidates and conducting AI-powered interviews for initial screenings. Their updated conversational interface lets you describe what you need in plain language, no recruiter jargon needed. Nearly 60 % of hires find a candidate to interview within a week.
8:31Kara Goldin:With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. Very, very excited. So, okay. So for listeners who maybe have heard about Mrs. Myers, do you typically go by Mrs. Myers, Mrs. Myers clean day? How is it referred to. Both. Both. Yeah. Okay. So I always call it Mrs. Myers, one of my favorite cleaning products. So what do you what do you think still is really the the core of what is the product?
9:20I think people just embrace the authenticity of the brand. You know, it was named after my mother. She raised nine children in 10 years. She was the child of the depression. She's still alive. She has a garden. She walks to church every day. She's hardworking, earnest. She reuses, repurposes, recycles everything. So when we were trying to create a brand to essentially cannibalize a higher-end brand that we first started with, we started listing all the attributes of our personal values. And then it was like, hey, wait a minute, this is my mom. Let's call my mom and see if she wants to be a brand.
9:56So I think it's the fact that it's authentic and it's based on a real person who's still alive and still going strong today.
10:03Kara Goldin:This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Hi, Kara here. For small businesses, every hire matters, but so does your time. I felt that pressure firsthand. You know, a bad hire isn't just frustrating, it's expensive in time, money, and team morale. And yet hiring the right person can feel like a full-time job on top of everything else you're already doing. Sifting through applications, trying to spot the real standouts, second-guessing decisions, it can get overwhelming fast. That's why having a way to save time without sacrificing quality isn't just nice to have, it's critical.
10:47Kara Goldin:Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full-time job. Posting a job isn't always the hard part. It's finding, connecting with, and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to shortlisting candidates and conducting AI-powered interviews for initial screenings. Their updated conversational interface lets you describe what you need in plain language, no recruiter jargon needed. Nearly 60 % of hires find a candidate to interview within a week.
11:29Kara Goldin:With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is sponsored by Cash App. Have you noticed how often Bitcoin comes up now? Not just in tech conversations, but in everyday life, business, even travel. For a long time, I think a lot of people assumed it was complicated or only for experts. But what's interesting is how much simpler it's become to actually understand and use.
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12:58Kara Goldin:Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Bitcoin services provided by Block, Inc. brand. For additional information, see the Bitcoin disclosures at cash.app slash legal slash podcast. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Physician's Choice. I used to think feeling bloated or just a little off was normal. You know, digestion not quite right, feeling heavier than you should. But what I've realized is when your gut health is off, you don't actually know how much better you could feel. Better health really does start in the gut. And that's why I want to tell you about Physician's Choice 60 Billion Probiotic.
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16:55Kara Goldin:Investment results will vary. Investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors, LLC, and SEC Registered Investment Advisor. View important disclosures at acorns.com slash cara. This episode is sponsored by Cash App. Have you noticed how often Bitcoin comes up now? Not just in tech conversations, but in everyday life, business, even travel. For a long time, I think a lot of people assumed it was complicated or only for experts. But what's interesting is how much simpler it's become to actually understand and use. If you've been curious about Bitcoin but haven't made the jump yet, Cash App makes it easy.
17:38Kara Goldin:You can set up automatic purchases with zero fees or buy larger amounts also with zero fees. Start small or go bigger. It's designed to be simple either way. What I like is that it doesn't feel intimidating. You can learn as you go and do it in a way that feels comfortable for you. For a limited time, new customers can get$10 added to their balance. Just use code CASHAPP10 when you sign up. And don't forget this part. Send at least$5 to a friend in the first two weeks. Terms apply. CASHAPP is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Bitcoin services provided by Block, Inc.
18:25Kara Goldin:brand. For additional information, see the Bitcoin disclosures at cash.app slash legal slash podcast. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Hi, Kara here. For small businesses, every hire matters, but so does your time. I felt that pressure firsthand. You know, a bad hire isn't just frustrating, it's expensive in time, money, and team morale. And yet hiring the right person can feel like a full-time job on top of everything else you're already doing. Sifting through applications, trying to spot the real standouts, second-guessing decisions, it can get overwhelming fast.
19:11Kara Goldin:That's why having a way to save time without sacrificing quality isn't just nice to have, it's critical. Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full-time job. Posting a job isn't always the hard part. It's finding, connecting with, and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to shortlisting candidates and conducting AI-powered interviews for initial screenings. Their updated conversational interface lets you describe what you need in plain language, no recruiter jargon needed.
19:57Kara Goldin:Nearly 60 % of hires find a candidate to interview within a week. With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. So when you first launched Mrs. Myers, did you start out with multiple SKUs? Was it one SKU? What was the focus? Sure. We had two fragrances, lavender and lemon verbena, and we had about five SKUs each. So we had hand soap, dish soap, window spray, countertop cleaner, all-purpose cleaner.
20:41And the big idea was, and this is where we really disrupted the marketplace, was that you could clean your entire home in one fragrance. You know, that was done in personal care forever. And I'm from Minneapolis and Minneapolis is home to Aveda. I knew a lot about that company. And when I had this Eureka moment to reinvent this category, all I kept thinking was, why can't this be like Aveda? You know, they have this incredible rosemary mint fragrance. And I thought, you should be able to clean your whole home in one fragrance if you want to. So that was the big idea behind it. So we launched with two fragrances.
21:13And now, oh my gosh, there's so many fragrances. And the other thing we did that really also changed the industry was we created seasonal fragrances. So for Christmas, There was Iowa Pine for spring. There were floral scents. And our consumers loved it. And they would actually stock up if they liked a certain, you know, jasmine for spring or another fragrance. So that was another big idea that we launched with as well.
21:38Kara Goldin:This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Hi, Kara here. For small businesses, every hire matters. But so does your time. I felt that pressure firsthand. You know, a bad hire isn't just frustrating, it's expensive in time, money, and team morale. And yet hiring the right person can feel like a full-time job on top of everything else you're already doing. Sifting through applications, trying to spot the real standouts, second-guessing decisions, it can get overwhelming fast. That's why having a way to save time without sacrificing quality isn't just nice to have, it's critical.
22:22Kara Goldin:Luckily, LinkedIn Hiring Pro is built for that reality. It's your hiring partner designed to help you hire with confidence by surfacing only the right candidates without turning hiring into another full-time job. Posting a job isn't always the hard part. It's finding, connecting with, and screening the right candidates. Hiring Pro streamlines the entire process from drafting your job to shortlisting candidates and conducting AI-powered interviews for initial screenings. Their updated conversational interface lets you describe what you need in plain language, no recruiter jargon needed. Nearly 60 % of hires find a candidate to interview within a week.
23:04Kara Goldin:With Hiring Pro, you spend less time searching and more time connecting with the right talent. Join the 2.7 million small businesses using LinkedIn to hire. Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is sponsored by Cash App. Have you noticed how often Bitcoin comes up now? Not just in tech conversations, but in everyday life, business, even travel. For a long time, I think a lot of people assumed it was complicated or only for experts. But what's interesting is how much simpler it's become to actually understand and use.
23:47Kara Goldin:If you've been curious about Bitcoin but haven't made the jump yet, Cash App makes it easy. You can set up automatic purchases with zero fees or buy larger amounts also with zero fees. Start small or go bigger. It's designed to be simple either way. What I like is that it doesn't feel intimidating. You can learn as you go and do it in a way that feels comfortable for you. For a limited time, new customers can get$10 added to their balance. Just use code CASHAPP10 when you sign up. And don't forget this part. Send at least$5 to a friend in the first two weeks. Terms apply. CASHAPP is a financial services platform, not a bank.
24:33Kara Goldin:Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Bitcoin services provided by Block, Inc. brand. For additional information, see the Bitcoin disclosures at cash.app slash legal slash podcast. So when did you know that Mrs. Myers was going to make it? I hear this from founders all the time. And being a founder myself, you have these moments. And you don't necessarily share them with everyone, right? But you're like, I don't know. I'm not sure. You know, maybe you're headed to Expo West and, you know, you're setting up and, you know, there's going to be a lot of people there. And all of a sudden, maybe you see competition or maybe you just had a major customer that just told you that your product wasn't for them or whatever it is.
25:29Yeah. You know, I had this vision in my mind's eye when I had this idea of an end cap at Target, completely loaded with product. And whenever I got down in the dumps or lost my way, I always said that vision was kind of like my night goggles. You know, that vision I had in my mind of what this could become. And about five years after we started, we signed up to do this big promo with Whole Foods in Austin, Texas. And at the time, you couldn't call on Whole Foods corporate. You had to go sell in through all the individual stores, six different divisions. It was a very different sales process back then.
26:06So I walk into the store. I'm doing sales calls with my sales manager. And I run back to the cleaning aisle. And there's no promo. I'm like, what's going on? And I turn to my sales manager and said, where's the product? And she goes, Monica, you ran right by it. So there I run to the front of the store. And there's that end cap that I had in my mind's eye when I started. this whole like special in-cap of laundry products of Mrs. Myers. And that's when, you know, it kind of brought me to my knees. I'm going to be honest. You know, I kind of went, this is going to work. Yeah, this is working. Yeah, it was a big moment for me.
26:46Kara Goldin:I love that story. So you wrote an incredible book called I Bottled My Mother. Have it right here, got an advanced copy. Love, love, loved it. It's a fast read, but I guess being a founder, I loved hearing about all the nuts and bolts of it, but I always tell people that you don't have to be a founder to appreciate all of the things, the thinking behind this. I mean, it was just, it was incredible. So there's a moment in your story where you talk about your daughter and And your mother said something very, very important. Can you share that story? Sure. So we're talking about my young daughter.
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27:30She was six months old. She had cancer. And this was when people say, oh, how did you decide to be an entrepreneur? Well, the first time I was an entrepreneur, I was essentially pushed off the cliff because I had a six-month-old with cancer. She couldn't be in daycare, neither could my older daughter. So my husband came home and surprised me and said, I quit. you can make more money. I'll be a stay-at-home dad. So Cal is getting ready to go to her chemo session, which was every Thursday. And my mom came up that week and she's fishing around her closet and she pulls out her holiday dress, her little white tights and her black Mary Janes.
28:07And I can hear her talking to Cal. She's only six months old. And she goes, now, when we go into battle, we dress, we pull out our finery. We don't, you know, and I want you to scream like hell when they put that IV in your head. You hear me? Scream like hell. We're not taking this line down. And I just never forgot it. You know, here's this little six-month-old all in a holiday dress. You know, it's probably, I don't know, October. And that's how my mom prepped her for that chemo that
28:35Kara Goldin:day. Wow, that's incredible. So, and you've had many, many moments along the way. First of all, you sold the business. What did that feel like when you sold the business? It's hard. It's, it's, you know, it's very bittersweet. You know, it's like selling your child. Only this was, I was selling my mother. You know, you grow something, you know, this from nothing, you know, absolutely nothing like a big idea and you take it to market, you see it flourish and you, you gotta let it go. You just like, poof, you know, my brother said, Monica, you don't have the keys to the car anymore. Stop trying to drive it.
29:18You know, it's difficult.
29:22Kara Goldin:Yeah, it's really, really, it's really. Now, did you stay on with the acquisition company? I did, two years. Yeah. Interesting. I had a contract and yeah, it was death by PowerPoint. Yeah, it's so interesting. I mean, I think so many entrepreneurs, not all entrepreneurs, but come from maybe at some point in their life, they've worked in a larger company. And then when you're actually getting a lot done and starting your own company and growing the company as you did, then to have to go back into a large company, it's not for most people, right? No, yeah, it wasn't for me at all. No, I used to work for a big company.
30:08I used to work for Dayton Hudson, which was a parent company at Target. So I was inside a big corporate behemoth. And that wasn't for me either. But gosh, I learned a lot. You know, I was very young in my career. I was in my late 20s. I learned a ton. And so I felt really blessed for that. But when I went back inside, you know, when you're used to moving fast and you don't have a lot of checks and balances, I always thought the best gauge of your success or unsuccess is you can make the cash register ring. You know, you know this, how much you're shipping, how much you're collecting, all that.
30:41That was, to me, was our constant barometer. So then to have all these other sort of measurements, I think, wait, we're just wasting time, folks. We got stuff to do. So, no, I wasn't cut out for that.
30:53Kara Goldin:I love the quotes that you have, why you believe that people should ask, should I start a business versus how do I start one? Can you unpack that? Sure. I have a lot of entrepreneurs who come to see me and I'm sure you do too. They're like, hey, I got this great idea. What do you think? And I listen to them and I really go, well, should you start it? I mean, do you really know yourself? Can you operate in the dark? Can you make decisions without a lot of information? Can you go broke and pick yourself up? Are you ready? I always say you're running a marathon, you know, and you've got to get prepared if you want to start your own business in terms of don't get so personally leveraged that you can't see your way out of it.
31:38I mean, we had second mortgages, credit cards to the max. And if you can't prepare for, let's say this thing goes belly up, my backup plan was I was going to work for UPS. That was kind of things. I thought I can work at night at UPS, no problem. You got to get prepared for that. It's like running a marathon. You're not going to go out and run a marathon because after mile one, you're going to fall down. So I think you have to be really honest with yourself, what your strengths and weaknesses are, what your connections are. You know, I started Caldria and Mrs. Myers when I was 43. So I was much older.
32:11You know, I wasn't a 25-year-old entrepreneur. I had a lot of experience. I had an agency that built brands. I knew how to build a brand. So that was easy. So we did that rather quickly. I had a lot of connections in the advertising field in Minneapolis. So I could move really fast, if you will. So yeah, know yourself.
32:32Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. You built a brand that people feel emotionally connected to. So how do you, what advice would you give to people when they're thinking about beyond should they actually go into build a business? But what advice would you give to people who are starting a company? It's expensive, no matter what category you're in, to build a brand. And if your goal is really to build a brand, I always tell people that, you know, you've really got to figure out a lot of aspects of it. But the emotional connection that you built with Mrs. Meyers, and this is really even before TikTok and social and where you could really measure a lot of the engagement outside of your velocity numbers or whatever.
33:22Kara Goldin:So how would you unpack that? you know how we did that is again it was based on a real person so we used to bring my mom to media events in new york and gosh i tried to train her you know okay mom three key messages for this new collection well that was a failure so just i just kind of let her rip i just let her be herself you know and she talked about raising a big family how she loves her garden how she pays attention to nature how she steals garden plots from other people and you know people really resonated with that because she was real she didn't she didn't fake it so i think as you look forward and you're building a brand you have to ask yourself how can this really connect emotionally with the consumer and i had built a lot of brands and i had seen the ones that had really connected with people and then those that hadn't you just can't fake it and the other thing that i tell people is everything matters in a brand it's a promise right?
34:18You know this from building Hint. A brand is a promise and everything about it is a promise. How it shows up on shelf. Does it shipped on time? Does the product leak? Does the product work? Can you get a reorder? Every detail matters. And the minute you start, you know, shorting on something over here, it shorts over here and the consumer knows it. She's super smart. So you have to be authentic. You have to dominate your category. That's the other way you build a brand. I really believe that we dominated this singular fragrance, disrupting the entire$30 billion household cleaning market was something that hadn't been done before.
34:55And then the third, you just have to execute day in, day out. You know, you're never done. You are never done.
35:03Kara Goldin:Everything's important. I totally agree. And you cannot allow even one of those aspects to drop. So instinct play versus data as you're building Mrs. Myers, because instinct, I hear this constantly from founders that it doesn't always make sense, right? But you have to go back to that instinct. So can you share an example of that in particular? Well, sure. So our packaging was radically different, you know, when we showed up with Mrs. Myers. and I showed it to a group of investors, mostly young, guns, male. And they just like looked at the package and laughed and they said, this will never work.
35:47And the minute they said that, I knew it would work because let's be real, they weren't my target customer at the time. And you're not, and the only thing we had, we didn't have dollars to do advertisements. We had to have shelf presence. And that's the other thing we worked really hard to do was to make sure all of our products were brand blocked in the cleaning aisle. because prior to Mrs. Meyers showing up, it was dish soap with dish, window with window, all purpose with all purpose. And we said no because our packaging was so compelling and so disruptive. We wanted two four-foot shelves and we often walked away from a sale if we couldn't get brand blocked.
36:26And I'll tell you why, because I knew it wouldn't sell. You know, we were higher, you know, here's Dawn at 299, we're at 499. So we had to make sure we protected our visual our real estate, if you will, and sort of our pricing strategy and communicate that, hey, we got everything for you in lavender or lemon verbena. So yeah, we had a lot of naysayers. But in terms of being intuitive, I've always been a very intuitive person. I listen to my gut all the time. I mean, I've been wrong. Don't get me wrong. But usually it's right. And data, let's be honest, at the time, we couldn't afford those studies.
37:03Yeah. You know, we'd get the retailer's information, but I couldn't go out and buy industry data. I couldn't afford it. Yeah. No, absolutely.
37:11Kara Goldin:So we didn't proceed with that. Was there ever a point where you were so sure that you were going to be successful with either a scent or maybe a certain line of products? I always use this example, poor Bolin Branch, but I, Bolin Branch, the sheet company, I had the founder on and asked him this question. and he said, he said bed skirts. And I was like, wait, bed skirts? And he said, I thought everyone needs a bed skirt. Every bed needs a bed skirt. But the problem with that one is that people don't buy multiple bed skirts because they don't change their bed skirt very often. And so he said, I had bed skirts.
37:55Kara Goldin:He was like, I still have bed skirts in the warehouse. I got so many bad skirts. Anyway, I thought it was so funny. But is there any like that? Oh, yeah. So for Caldrea, that was always our premium brand. That's what we started with. And we had that brand in about three to four thousand specialty stores. And we created this seasonal spring fragrance. We thought we were so smart, called Rose Tobacco. And it was the underlying fragrance of tobacco with floral on top. And it was very exotic. And we thought, oh my gosh, the customer's ready for this. It's kind of out there. Well, she did. No, the answer is no.
38:38And a specialty store in Minneapolis that knows us quite well said, Monica, you got ahead of the consumer. So interesting. So interesting. That was a bomb. That fragrance was a bomb.
38:49Kara Goldin:What are your thoughts on private label for brands that are out there because there's always these opportunities where many of the grocery buyers will come to you and especially in the early days when you're trying to get your margins better and if you get more volume then you know. So what are your thoughts on that for any brand builders out there? Yeah my thoughts are choose wisely. For example we did all the private label for Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel and Harvey Nichols out of London and at the time the web wasn't that prevalent if you will Amazon was only eight years old Williams-Sonoma was kind of landlocked to 250 stores and the other reason I was super interested in working with Williams-Sonoma was we didn't have the marketing heft or the dollars to really communicate this new category but Williams-Sonoma did right I mean if Williams-Sonoma says you can charge$7.99 for dish soap and it's going to be grapefruit or Meyer lemon, then the consumer got behind it.
39:53And so they had a very similar program to Calderia, was that you can care for your entire home in one fragrance. And the other advantage of doing that private label program was, okay, so it's landlocked to 250 stores. I'm not competing with it anywhere, but their stores was cashflow. You know, that was a very significant program for us. So that really funded the rocket launch, if you will, for Mrs. Myers. So I'd probably choose if a grocery chain, I probably wouldn't have done it back then. Because you're right, then you're competing with another chain at a really low price and usually not a very good margin.
40:32So I probably wouldn't do that. But it's tempting. I just had another brand approach me and ask me about this whole thing. And I went, be careful.
40:43Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. We had a situation early on with Hint where, you know, we had created not just a product, but also an entire category of unsweetened flavored water. So no one was doing that. There were carbonated versions, but not still unsweetened flavored water. So for a major retailer who is up in your neck of the woods, we created a private label to really create the category. And the buyer actually decided the last minute that they wanted to launch their private label before putting our brand in, which was only supposed to be for a few months. And that lasted actually way too long while they grew the category.
41:35Kara Goldin:And so we finally pulled the plug on it. And then luckily there was a buyer change and a whole strategy change along the way. So we eventually went back into that retailer. But it was, you know, it was really, we had to kind of look back on what do we want to be? I mean, do we want to be a brand or do we want to actually create private label products for different companies. So I think it's a hard question. I know why we did it, but I think that you have to kind of put a timeline on it at some point. Otherwise, it's distracting. Oh, yeah, it's seductive. It's just, yeah, it's seductive and distracting.
42:21And the whole time you're building that brand, you're not building your brand. And that you're so desperate for cashflow. These are hard decisions.
42:30Kara Goldin:Yeah, definitely. How did you measure success along the way as you were growing the brand? I mean, was there one metric that you said, as long as we're this, or are there different metrics as well? Yeah. You know, I think for us it was sales and are we in the right retailers? You know, having grown up in retail, I knew you can't defy gravity. You know, you can't start in Walmart and then go to Neiman Marcus. so I was really keen on making sure the evolution of the brand for Mrs. Myers. We started out in all the high-end grocery stores and all the major markets, all the Whole Foods. We got into Target.
43:11We didn't go into Target right away. We did go into Target prematurely and I shouldn't have. They put us in a test for 250 stores. They were scattered all over the country. I couldn't control our destiny. And I kicked ourselves out because I could see the sales results. You know, so many units moving per week, we weren't doing it. And I went to my buyer and I said, hey, we're not ready for you. You know, let us get our major markets filled out. And then if we do our job right, I'd love it if you wouldn't invite us back. I'd rather kick myself out than have somebody kick me out. So that's what we did with Target.
43:44And again, people thought I was crazy, but I thought it showed the buyer that I saw the numbers, they saw the numbers, right? I can't make that up. So that's how I measured where we were and at what volume and at what units per week we're selling off the shelf. That was really what I looked at.
44:01Kara Goldin:What a great lesson. I mean, that's for painful, but an excellent lesson for sure. So what would you say today if, well, actually, let me go back. So everyone thinks like, oh, Monica has built this incredible company. She's just got the Midas touch. She can just go and create. But you talk about a story in your book, what happened after Mrs. Myers. And so can you share a little bit about that? Sure. I started, I should have just taken a rest, but I didn't. My mother has a great line. She said, to us, rest is a sort of punishment. Think of that. So I had this crazy idea after my friend called me.
44:51She said, hey, what are you doing in your retirement? I said, oh, I'm not really retired. She goes, oh, I thought you'd be sitting around in a gorgeous kimono reading smutty novels. They're like, no, I'm actually sitting in my smelly workout clothes in front of my laptop. And then I started to think, where are the gorgeous lounge wears for older women? And there weren't any. And I thought, oh, another idea. So I did research. I thought I didn't do enough. And I thought, oh, you know, I grew up in a family of seamstresses, you know, so we knew how to make clothes. I've always loved beautiful clothes.
45:22And I thought, oh, I should start this loungewear line, Sophia Graydon. So I decided, you know, out of that bucket of money that I got from SCJ, I'm going to put some money toward that project. And if I didn't reach a certain revenue goal or my expenses exceeded a certain number, I was going to just shut it down. The day I hit those numbers, I was going to shut it down. So I grew that for a couple of years and it went nowhere fast. And, you know, I had a lot of people that said, Monica, you were just like a year away from Instagram. You know, you're just like ahead of yourself just a little bit.
45:56And, but you know what else I learned? I didn't know enough about the category. You know, I really didn't. Manufacturing your own clothing, sourcing fabrics from Europe. I just got way over my skis. And so when I hit that day, I just shut it down. It was that that was painful because it was gorgeous collection. You can probably still see some photos online, but it was beautiful. So that was hard.
46:19Kara Goldin:I did look at some of the photos and it was beautiful. So but I think you're right. Like either, you know, the question is, were you too early? Did you not know enough about the category? who knows, but all of the above. But I think what I loved about your book is it really does show the grit and resilience that you have that I think you need to have to be an entrepreneur. It's not just about an idea. It's about having that grit and resilience and continually speaking about about why consumers should want this product, which is exactly what you did. So, so, so incredible. Everyone needs to grab a copy of I Bottled My Mother.
47:07Kara Goldin:So, so good. Monica, thank you so much and good luck with everything. It's such an honor to meet you. You have not only created, I feel like created that the category around cleaning products that really kind of cemented what it's going to take for so many others to come after you. So thank you for for doing that. And for everyone listening, definitely check out I Bottled My Mother and of course, Mrs. Meyers Cleaning Products. And we'll see you next time on the Kara Golden Show. Thank you so much, Monica. Thank you, Kara. I was delighted. I'm delighted to be here. Super excited. Thank you. Thanks again for listening to The Kara Golden Show.
47:53Kara Goldin: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. We are here every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Thanks for listening and goodbye for now.
From the publisher
On today’s episode, we welcome Monica Nassif, Founder of Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day and author of I Bottled My Mother — a brand that proves even the most overlooked categories can be completely reimagined if you’re willing to challenge what everyone else accepts as “good enough.”
What started as a simple idea—to make cleaning products that actually smelled good, felt good, and worked—turned into a category-defining brand that disrupted a $30 billion industry. Not bad for something most people never thought twice about.
In this episode, Monica breaks down what it really takes to see opportunity where others don’t—and have the conviction to act on it. We get into building emotional connection in unlikely places, why failure is often the real teacher, and how instinct—not just data—can shape breakthrough brands. She also shares the deeply personal story behind her new book, I Bottled My Mother, and how family, resilience, and perspective shaped not just her life—but her leadership.
If you care about building something meaningful, navigating both success and failure, or learning how to think differently about opportunity—this one’s worth your time.
Are you interested in sponsoring and advertising on The Kara Goldin Show, which is now in the Top 1% of Entrepreneur podcasts in the world? Let me know by contacting me at karagoldin@gmail.com. You can also find me @KaraGoldin on all networks.
To learn more about Monica Nassif, Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day and I Bottled My Mother:
https://www.monicanassif.com
https://www.instagram.com/themonicanassif/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/monica-nassif-686876335/
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Check out our website to view this episode’s show notes: https://karagoldin.com/podcast/837
