876 Catherine Hunziker: Founder of WishGarden Herbs

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. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by LinkedIn Hiring Pro.

0:46Kara Goldin: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. 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.

1:38Kara Goldin: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. 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.

2:19Kara Goldin:Get started by posting your job for free at linkedin.com slash Kara Golden. Terms and conditions apply. This message is a paid partnership with AT &T Business. Hey everyone, Kara here. Let's get real about those early days of building a business. Not the highlight reel, the actual day-to-day, the friction, trying to manage everything across time zones, across teams, across locations, and realizing how much depends on staying connected. I remember those days at Hint, a retailer call, an order, a decision, all of it. And you realize quickly, connection isn't a nice to have. It's the lifeblood of your business.

3:03Kara Goldin:As a founder, you don't want to think about your connectivity. You just need it to work every time. That's why AT &T Business matters. AT &T Business is the reliable provider for small business owners. And when you have that kind of reliability behind you, you can focus on what actually moves your business forward. Powered by AT &T Business, built to work. Get AT &T Business at business.att.com. What if plants held more answers than most of us were taught to believe? Today, I'm joined by Katherine Hunziker, founder and chief formulator of an incredible, incredible brand and company, Wish Garden Herbs, America's number one selling liquid herbal formulas brand.

3:57Kara Goldin:Catherine is a pioneering herbalist, educator, entrepreneur, and longtime advocate for environmental and women's health. She has spent more than four decades helping make herbal medicine more accessible, understandable, and trusted by mainstream consumers. Wish Garden Herbs began in 1979 with a mission to empower people to take control of their health naturally. Today, the company is women-owned, family-run, B Corp certified, and known for fast-acting liquid herbal formulas made with USDA organic and ethically wild harvested herbs. No fillers, preservatives, or hidden extras in there. I cannot wait to get into it with Catherine about how she has built an incredible, incredible wellness brand long before wellness was as mainstream as it's become today.

5:01Kara Goldin:And she's turned activism into entrepreneurship. And more than anything, has so many people focused on why herbal medicine is having such a resurgence that it is. So, Catherine, welcome to The Kara Golden Show. So excited that you're here today. Thank you for having me very much. This episode of The Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Chime. I've always paid attention to where my money goes. And one thing I've never understood is paying unnecessary banking fees. It just doesn't make sense. Your bank should be making your financial life easier, not more expensive. That's one of the reasons I like what Chime is doing.

5:47Kara Goldin:They're rethinking the banking experience instead of relying on the old model of hidden fees and complicated reward programs. Chime offers the most rewarding fee-free banking with no overdraft fees, no monthly fees, and no minimum balance fees. What I really like is that you get 5 % cash back on your Chime card in a category of your choice, like gas or groceries, while building credit through regular everyday spending with no credit check. You can also grow your money faster with a savings rate that's nine times the national average. And if you're ever in a pinch, SpotMe lets you overdraft up to$200 fee-free.

6:31Kara Goldin:Join the millions who are already banking fee-free with America's number one choice for banking. Head to chime.com slash Kara Golden. That is chime.com slash Kara Golden. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes. Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services for MyPay and ChimeCard provided by Chime's bank partners. Optional products and services may have fees or charges. Stated annual percentage yield and cashback for Chime Prime only. No minimum balance required. Checking account ranking based on a J.D. Power survey published October 20, 2025. For more information on APY rates, MyPay, SpotMe, and Travel Perks, go to chime.com slash This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Upwork.

7:06Kara Goldin:One of the biggest growth hacks in business isn't working more hours. It's getting the right people involved at the right time. Sometimes all it takes is bringing in someone with a specialized skill set to help move a project across the finish line. That's where Upwork comes in. It makes it easy to find experienced freelancers across web development, marketing, design, business operations, data, and analytics, and so much more. So you can spend less time searching and more time building. Upwork is a one-stop platform where you can find, hire, and pay expert freelancers across web and software development, data and analytics, marketing, business operations, and more.

7:53Kara Goldin:It helps growing teams move faster by giving them access to specialized talent across more than 125 categories so you can get the help you need exactly when you need it without adding full-time overhead. You can browse profiles, review past work, and even get help scoping the role so you can hire with confidence and get started quickly. With Business Plus, you can access the top 1 % of talent on Upwork. And with AI-powered shortlisting, you'll get matched to the right freelancer in under six hours. No endless searching required. Upwork also takes the operational hassle off your plate by handling contracts and payments in one place, freeing you up to focus on running and growing your business.

8:41Kara Goldin:And it's no surprise that thousands of growing companies already trust Upwork for everything from one-off projects to ongoing support. It's free to sign up and posting a job is easy. Visit Upwork.com right now and post your job for free. That is Upwork.com to connect with top talent ready to help your business grow. That's U-P-W-O-R-K.com. Upwork.com. Absolutely. So for listeners who may not be familiar with the brand Wish Garden Herbs yet, how do you describe the brand and what makes it unique? Ooh, what is unique about it is that we have stayed committed to our mission and our values. This is not, of course, we need to make money.

9:38You know, we all need to make a living. but this is all about reintroducing and helping people to experience and discover what whole herbs have to offer. I spent a lot of my career going around and do trainings for store staff and what have you and how do we talk about this in a way that's so I came up with this expression called paleo health or paleo medicine. Plant medicine for 99.9999 % of our time as all human beings on this planet, that was our primary medicine. And with one thing or another, which I won't dive into here, but herbs in the U.S. got kind of pushed out or disappeared for about 50 or 60 years in the early 1900s.

10:39And they have so much to offer. Let's bring them back. Let's bring them back. And that's a big piece of what we're doing. My job is to put them together in teams to work together what I call whole plant medicine. What is that plant? What is their constituent profile. What do they do? What are they like? I often use the word body-friendly as well because we came from the midwifery movement to begin with because midwives early on were also missing for 50, 60 years, and they were starting to come back along with natural foods, and midwives could not carry pharmaceuticals early on. And so Wish Garden actually started with herbs for the midwives so that they could have some things to take to work.

11:35And because of that, because that was a very delicate population, they had to be very body safe. But they also had to work, which is one of the things that we brought to the channel. A lot of people didn't know that herbs could be five minutes, full discomfort relief. And I could jump forward and like I would say, our kick-ass allergy with the lead herb, Yerba Santa, is now the number one best-selling allergy tincture formula. And I can talk about tinctures at some point here, why they're important. but it works as fast and effectively and it's very body safe, non-stimulating, non-sedative, all of those things.

12:26And it works right away and it helps people with their allergy discomforts.

12:31Kara Goldin:Today's episode of the Kara Golden Show is sponsored by Acorns. One of the biggest mindset shifts I've had around money is realizing you don't have to be an expert to start investing. Too often we convince ourselves we need to wait until the timing is perfect, but building good financial habits usually starts with taking one small step. What I've come to realize is that investing is not about being perfect. It's about getting started, staying consistent, and giving your money a chance to grow over time. That's one of the reasons Acorns stands out. Acorns is a financial wellness app that makes it easy to start investing and keep going.

13:14Kara Goldin:And one feature that really makes it feel tangible is the potential screen, which shows the power of compounding and what your money could do over time. It makes the whole process feel more real, more approachable, and a lot less overwhelming. For me, Acorns takes something that can feel overwhelming and makes it automatic and manageable. And that consistency is what really matters. Sign up now and Acorns will boost your new account with a$5 bonus investment. Join the over 14 million all-time customers who have already saved and invested over$27 billion with Acorns. Head to acorns.com slash cara or download the Acorns app to get started.

14:03Kara Goldin:Paid non-client endorsement compensation provides incentive to positively promote Acorns. Tier 2 compensation provided. Potential subject to various factors such as customers' accounts, age, and investment settings. Does not include Acorns fees. Results do not predict or represent the performance of any Acorns portfolio. Investment results will vary. Investing involves risk. Acorns Advisors LLC and SEC Registered Investment advisor. View important disclosures at acorns.com slash Kara. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Third Love. Want me to let you in on a little secret?

14:46Kara Goldin:If your bra is uncomfortable, the problem isn't you. It's the bra. I've been watching Third Love since they first launched. And what I've always appreciated is that they didn't just set out to make another bra, they set out to solve a real problem. They looked at something women had accepted for years and said, there has to be a better way. And they've stayed true to that mission ever since. And their fitting room quiz, it's so smart. It uses insights from millions of women to help take the guesswork out of finding your perfect size. Plus with 78 sizes from AA to H, including exclusive half cup sizes, they've made finding the right fit so much easier.

15:30Kara Goldin:Whether you're soaking up these last days of summer or juggling work, family, travel, and everything else, life throws your way, comfort matters. I know it does for me. When something fits the way it's supposed to, you stop thinking about it and that frees you up to focus on everything else that actually deserves your attention. Whether you've been wearing the same bra size forever or you're never quite sure you're wearing the right size. Give Third Love a try. I think you'll be really glad you did. Head to thirdlove.com and use code CARA15 for$15 off your first purchase. Again, that's thirdlove.com, code CARA15 for$15 off your first purchase.

16:14Kara Goldin:This episode of the Carol Golden Show is sponsored by Wayfair. One thing I've learned over the years is that creating a home you love doesn't have to happen all at once. Sometimes it's one great piece that changes everything. For me, it was a beautiful gray weathered wood bookcase from Wayfair for my home office. I still smile every time I walk into the room because I completely transformed the space and I still can't believe it was under, get ready for it,$300. What keeps me coming back to Wayfair is that they make it easy to find pieces that look great and are built to last. I also love shopping with Wayfair Verified.

17:00Kara Goldin:It's their shortcut to quality with product specialists hand vetting pieces through a 10-point inspection that looks at everything from the quality of the materials to functionality, features, and even how long it takes to put together. It gives me a lot more confidence when I'm shopping online. And I appreciate that Wayfair has options that fit just about every style and budget. Whether you're making one small update or refreshing an entire room, you can create a home you love without overspending. Plus, with more than 20 million verified five-star reviews and real customer photos, you can see exactly what other shoppers think before you buy.

17:45Kara Goldin:One more thing that's new and worth checking out, Wayfair Rewards. Members get 5 % back every day, which makes updating your home an even better value. Join Wayfair Rewards today to get 5 % back on every purchase and start saving on your next home upgrade. Head to wayfair.com to shop all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com. Wayfair, every style, every home. Wayfair, every style, every home. This episode of the Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Grooms. Summer has a way of filling up fast. Between travel, longer days, and trying to fit everything in, I've learned that the wellness habits that actually stick for me are the ones that are simple.

18:36Kara Goldin:If something takes too much effort, it's usually the first thing to go. That's why I've been loving Grooms, pronounced Grooms. I take one pack every morning and honestly, it's made my routine so much easier. Instead of juggling a bunch of different supplement bottles, everything I want is in one convenient daily pack. The packets sit right in a glass jar in my kitchen, so they're always there, ready to grab. I love any system that makes life simpler and helps me stay consistent. And the best part, they actually taste great. Each packet gives you your greens, probiotics, prebiotics, vitamins, and minerals all together.

19:18Kara Goldin:It's a really comprehensive formula with over 20 vitamins and minerals, over 60 nutrient-dense whole food ingredients, and six grams of prebiotic fiber. That's about three times the fiber you'll find in many Leading Greens powders. They're vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, made without artificial colors or flavors and come in both low sugar and sugar-free options. It's one of those simple habits that make taking care of yourself feel easy. Get your Grooms now. Save up to 52 % off with code GOLDEN at Grooms.co. That's code golden at gruns.co. Take us back to 19, right before 1979, you were launching.

20:08Kara Goldin:But take us back to what was happening in your life when Wish Garden was just an idea. Well, actually, the story goes a little differently than that. I'm an old hippie. and an activist, you know, from the Vietnam War and also in terms of polluting and things like that. And as a hippie, so, you know, there was this whole kind of psychedelic side to hippies. I was on the other side of it, which was just about getting closer back to nature, closer to nature, moving away from chemical industrial lifestyles. And I went to the Ozarks during the Back to the Land movement. And this was actually in the early 80s.

20:58I didn't actually start Wish Garden in the 70s. That was a local midwife who was making some of these formulas because here in Colorado, the Front Range around Boulder was kind of a hotspot for a lot of things happening. One was the midwifery movement. Another was natural, which I can talk about that, and also herbalism. But I was in the Ozarks during the Back to the Land movement and was all kind of a naturalist, making my own bread. My kids were little. And one early morning, I went out into for a walk in nature. and there was this meadow and there were deer and wild turkeys grazing. It was like a painting.

21:51It was so beautiful. And I might mention it was in January, middle of the winter. Crazy. And I just stood there in awe until they started to drift away. And then I heard this funny sound, this like... and I was, so I followed my ear across the meadow over by the creek, and here was this bush in full bloom in the middle of winter with bees all over it, and I went, what the heck? The life force of that was, like, incredible. That's what turned everything for me, is that experience, plants and it turns out so when I then you know I was amazed and I went and found my field guide which I always have handy because I'm all about plants and looked it up and it turns out it's a bush or a plant called witch hazel which is one of the few that survived during when herbs were gone.

23:01It's in a kind of an oil thing that was on the shelf in pharmacies during that time. But that turned my attention from just plants in general to medicinal herbs. And I could go on about that, but there were people, there was a grower in the Ozarks who was growing medicinal herbs. And so I started studying and learning about medicinal herbs there. And then when I moved back to Boulder. I had also been trained as a midwife with the Emma Goldman Clinic, and I was sitting just right after college. But since I had little kids, I wasn't practicing, but I taught childbirth education. That's how I was involved with the midwifery group in Boulder.

23:47And that's how I got to know the gal that was making those formulas. And she was wanting to move out of the country with her partner. And so I took over on it. So interesting. And started it and it was in my kitchen and step by step and started doing, because that was kind of the beginning of the herbal movement, took a class. I just kind of jumped in with two feet. One thing led to another, did springtime in the desert field trips with Michael Moore, who is, he's gone now, unfortunately, but he was a pioneering herbalist, particularly focused on southwestern bioregional herbalism. And I learned a lot from him.

24:38Feather Jones was a teacher that I studied with. And kind of long story short, I just have a thing for plants and it turns out I had a real talent for formulation, which is where this all came from because people started asking me to formulate. Oh, would you do this for my husband? Some things came from my own kids. There's stories about that. Women that had used some of that because, okay, midwifery, there were still granny midwives in Appalachia and the African-American diaspora in the South, and folk herbalism was still in use, which is kind of where those came from. And then being able to provide those to women in their childbearing thing, they would experience that and like, oh, that was really helpful.

25:28And then, you know, what should we call this? Experiential, gosh, I don't want to use the word marketing, but experiential experientialness then led to people asking me to formulate for natural paths here locally, the Waldorf school, people calling me from Minnesota, from New York City, you know, and just one thing led to another. It was all kind of step by step. My original motivation was not, oh, I'm going to start a business and make, be a rich person. No. So my intention was to do as much as I can to contribute to a healthy, well-sustainable future. And then a few years into it, I'm going, ooh, I've got to pay attention to the money side.

26:26Kara Goldin:This episode of The Kara Golden Show is brought to you by Grooms. Summer has a way of filling up fast. Between travel, longer days, and trying to fit everything in, I've learned that the wellness habits that actually stick for me are the ones that are simple. If something takes too much effort, it's usually the first thing to go. That's why I've been loving Grooms, pronounced Grooms. I take one pack every morning, and honestly, it's made my routine so much easier. Instead of juggling a bunch of different supplement bottles, everything I want is in one convenient daily pack. The packets sit right in a glass jar in my kitchen, so they're always there, ready to grab.

27:10Kara Goldin:I love any system that makes life simpler and helps me stay consistent. And the best part? They actually taste great. Each packet gives you your greens, probiotics, prebiotics, vitamins, and minerals all together. It's a really comprehensive formula with over 20 vitamins and minerals, over 60 nutrient-dense whole food ingredients, and 6 grams of prebiotic fiber. That's about three times the fiber you'll find in many Leading Greens powders. They're vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, made without artificial colors or flavors, and come in both low-sugar and sugar-free options. It's one of those simple habits that make taking care of yourself feel easy.

27:54Kara Goldin:Get your Grooms now. Save up to 52 % off with code GOLDEN at Grooms.co. That's code GOLDEN at G-R-U-N-S dot C-O. If you think about long-term investing, where does Bitcoin fit? A lot of investors are rethinking what diversification looks like today. More people are treating Bitcoin less like a trade and more like a recurring savings habit. And if you're building that kind of long-term exposure, the platform you use really matters. If Bitcoin is part of your long-term strategy, consistency matters. Cash App lets you set up automatic Bitcoin purchases with auto-invest so you can build exposure over time instead of trying to time every move.

28:42Kara Goldin:You can also use roundups or paid-in Bitcoin to make Bitcoin part of your normal money flow. Automatic Bitcoin purchases on Cash App have zero fees and zero spread, which matters if you're buying regularly. For a limited time, new customers can get$10 added to their balance. Just use code BITCOIN10 when you sign up. And don't forget this part. Send at least$5 to a friend in the first two weeks. Terms apply. Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. 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.

29:30Kara Goldin:So in those early days, how many skews, how many different formulations did you actually have? Well, I would say we probably started with about 12 that had to do that were specific for childbearing, what the midwives could take to birth, what the women needed right before and their various discomforts and even things for the baby right after, just a handful of them. But then people started, I would say we have three life cycles. The first one was, say practitioners and mail order. And it was going out to people within the childbearing world. But when the women experienced them, then they would start asking, oh, could you do this or you could do that?

30:22And so the mail order thing started expanding. And then I started going to the Boulder County farmer's market, which was just being established around that as the whole thing was moving forward. And because a lot of people like to come to Colorado on vacations during the summer, that also got us an even wider following, I guess you would say, you know, where people were mail order. And the Amish people, they were midwives in Appalachia that really liked what we were doing and found the formulas not only for childbearing, but for, I mean, we basically started, I would say, wellness, mood, stress, sleep, children, for sure, you know, women's formulas beyond childbearing, very hormonally based, and also men, hormone balancing, so to speak.

31:20We cover a whole wide range of functionality for people's lives. And we've even brought forward some ones where you don't have to have a problem. They just are fun and make you feel better. Like my liquid bliss. You know, la la. I love it. And I can go on and on about that. But that was our first sort of life cycle, was mail order, practitioners, word of mouth, farmer's market, this and that. And I can hold off on this, but I would say the next step is we were kind of late to the shelves in retail. Even though we were one of the original herbal renaissance companies, we were relatively late to the shelves.