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My Start-Up Story: Karen Kearney on creating a business to navigate through life’s ebbs and flows
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By Sarah Finnan
23rd Jan 2025
23rd Jan 2025
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Born from her own wellness journey and her struggles as a full-time carer and single mum, IMAGE Business Club member Karen Kearney launched her business, Soak, to help others prioritise self-care.
Pushed to her limits during lockdown, Karen Kearney uprooted her life to the west of Ireland so her son could be closer to the sea. An undeniably healing presence for both of them, it’s the very thing that sparked the idea for her new business venture – calming bath salts made from 100% Atlantic sea salt. Completely vegan and made using herbs she’s grown in her own garden, Soak encompasses everything Karen is passionate about.
From escaping an abusive relationship to making it on her own and her vision for 2025, here she tells her Start-Up Story.
Lightbulb moment
It all came about very organically. I was working full-time as a single parent and as a carer to my son, Tristan, who has ADHD and additional needs. When Covid hit, I went down to working part-time to try to homeschool Tristan and just basically to try to survive. It was really, really difficult. During that time, I’d always drive Tristan west to go surfing. I found that being in the Atlantic Ocean really helped his ADHD. He just loved it so I literally packed up the car and moved west to get him close to the water. That’s where the idea for Soak started – I just wanted to bottle that goodness that I saw Tristan was benefiting from and offer that to people.
When I was researching salts, I tried loads of different options and geo salts from the Himalayas and the Dead Sea. There were these massive packages of salt landing in my home – products of Israel or from the other side of the world. That didn’t sit well with me. The lightbulb moment was asking myself, ‘Well, why don’t you use 100% Atlantic sea salt? Bring the Atlantic Ocean into people’s homes.’ I started making the bath soaks using Atlantic sea salt and herbs I grew in my own garden. I’ve really built the brand to help people with sleep, anxiety, mood and stress. I’ve struggled with my own mental health over the years, so I’m really passionate about supporting people – especially other women and other carers – in prioritising their own self-care. I go to counselling, I practice breathwork and I bring everything I’ve learned along my own wellness journey into the brand. It’s a way for me to give back to others.
Reinvesting in what matters
I would love an investor to be involved but at the moment I’m bootstrapping it. Everything I’ve earned, I’ve put back into the business. The beautiful packaging that you see, that’s literally down to people investing in me, people buying the bath soaks. Sales meant I was able to develop other products, develop the packaging, develop my website. It’s my gorgeous customers who have supported me along the way and have really helped me develop the brand. My background is in design, so I designed everything from the website to the packaging. Everything you see and touch as well as all the ingredients were either made or sourced by me. The skincare world is full of beautiful brands, so I’ve had to prove myself. I really looked at the ingredients I was using. I wanted my products to be 100% vegan, made from 100% Atlantic sea salt, organic herbs and the best oils.
One thing that I am really proud of is the training I provide to spa teams. It’s quite unique. We do breathwork and mindfulness and the team creates their own bath soaks so they get to touch and feel the herbs that I grow. We also do self-care reflections. We talk about different ways of self-care, about healthy boundaries about what makes us happy. I love that kind of interaction – some people might not know what you mean by a healthy boundary but knowing that I’ve gotten them to reflect on that is amazing. It might be exactly what they need to step away and start looking after themselves better.
You have to have a learning mindset. The quicker you fail, the quicker you learn.
Encouraging entrepreneurship
Last year, I applied for Enterprise Ireland’s New Frontiers programme and I’ve been doing that since September. They help you make connections, give you money towards your wages and offer lots of mentoring. I also have an office to go into now. There are about 10 of us in the group and it’s just been brilliant. I love working with people. One of the hardest things about being a solo entrepreneur is doing everything by yourself. I have my sisters on WhatsApp and they’re very supportive but growing a team is one thing I’m really excited about.
We did a little bit about entrepreneurship in college, and a little bit in secondary school but my biggest gripe with the Irish school system is that it’s made for the few, not the many. I’ve seen my son go through it and struggle all the way through. If you’re a creative person like me or if you have ADHD or you’re just not academic, school can be hard. Learning about numbers, learning about business, learning about sales – all of that has been trial and error. I won’t lie, there have been times when I’ve been like, ‘What the hell am I doing?’, but you just have to keep going. You have to have a learning mindset. The quicker you fail, the quicker you learn. If you’re turning up every day, people start to go, ‘Oh, she really does mean business.’ It’s taken me a few years to get where I am, but that’s just part of the journey.
If you’re thinking of starting your own business, my advice would be to just go for it. Reach out to your local enterprise office, ask for support and be open to learning. If you try something and it doesn’t work, just be ready to pivot.
Quieting self-doubt
I have a very clear purpose but I definitely struggle with self-doubt. A few years ago, you would have had to scrape my self-confidence off the floor – it’s been a massive learning curve, and that’s one reason why I love my business. It’s really helped me grow my confidence and believe in something. I’m so thankful to my business for helping me gain that confidence. I have to step out of my comfort zone. I have to pick up the phone and cold call people. I have to talk in front of groups of people. If you told me 10 years ago that I would be doing things like that, I wouldn’t have believed you. So in that respect, it’s been great. I can see myself growing with the business.
Being able to make a change in somebody else’s life is something about my business that’s personally important to me. It actually makes me emotional just thinking about it. Getting messages from customers or spa managers about the impact my product has had on them or their clients means so much to me. That’s what drives me, to help others.
Having a business is all about risk. You have to try things and if it doesn’t work, you have to bounce back. If there’s a wall in front of you, you have to figure out what to do next.
Risk, resilience and little rituals
Having a business is all about risk. You have to try things and if it doesn’t work, you have to bounce back. If there’s a wall in front of you, you have to figure out what to do next – do you dig under it? Do you build a ladder to go over it? Do you go around it? If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work… but what if it does work? You can look at something as really scary or you can look at it as a great learning opportunity. Our Atlantic sea sprays were a risk. They were a new product that might not have worked but they’re unique to us and we had to take that chance. Ambition to me, is about taking one step after another. I always reflect back on past experiences. When I was 24, I was pregnant, homeless, in an abusive relationship. I was in a really bad place. I had no one to support me, nowhere to go, I didn’t know who to call. I was really young. But I survived that. I was able to buy my own house with no handouts from my parents. If I can do that, I can pretty much do anything.
I’m still in the early startup stage, so you really are working six days a week. I try to give myself Sundays off but then that usually consists of catching up on everything I didn’t do during the week. I’m so passionate about what I do but you have to work really, really hard. I have put boundaries and a self-care routine in place though. Generally, at lunchtime, I’ll go out for a walk without my phone. I journal in the morning. If I’m having a hard day, I always turn to a bath. It’s the one place where you can just get in and everybody leaves you alone. There’s no phone, you can just soak. That’s one of my mental health go-tos. Those nuggets of self-care are just for me and mean that I get to step away from work for a little bit. I have nieces and nephews that I’d love to spend a little more time with. You do have to sacrifice your time, especially at the startup stage. That’s probably the hardest thing, missing loved ones and having to be focused on the bigger picture. The critic in me says, ‘Oh, you need to work more’, but you just have to notice that thought, acknowledge it and then tell yourself that you’re doing the best you can. Just keep moving forward, that’s all you can do.
2024 highlights
Getting into some of the top hotel resorts in the country including Cashel Palace, Finn Lough, Kilronan Castle and Samsu was a 2024 highlight. I also launched my Soak Body Rituals and Soak Bathing Rituals. They’re a 90-minute treatment focused on your whole body that incorporates Ayurvedic practices and massage techniques using our body scrubs and oils. They’re absolutely gorgeous. I’m proud that I’ve been able to keep my 100% natural ethos while creating award-winning products – Soak won three Global Green Beauty Awards as well as Hi Style Awards last year. Besides that, supporting Liquid Therapy, a children’s charity that aligns with Soak’s values, is something I’m really proud of. They’re based in Donegal and help children and teenagers who are struggling with any kind of additional needs or mental health by encouraging them to get into the Atlantic Ocean and enjoy surf or sea therapy. My son used them and they really helped so donating to them means a lot. Finally, offering complimentary yoga flows created by my friend Dr Jen McKee from West Coast Wellness. They’re available on the Soak website for everybody to enjoy. It’s all about supporting people’s wellness needs at home.
Looking ahead to 2025, my vision is to continue bringing the luxury of Atlantic Sea wellness into more hotel spas – particularly those that have mental health at the forefront of their guest experience. I want to deliver more talks and foster more discussion around mental well-being and self-care in the retail space. I want to support more people with sleep, mood and stress. I’d love to plant more organic herbs and continue growing a wild garden that works with nature. I’m really hoping to grow my team too and support local employment in rural Ireland. Most importantly, I want Soak to encourage carers to rest, and to bring the experience of the sea into people’s lives, to help them navigate through the ebbs and flows of life’s challenges. That’s my passion.
You can find out more about Soak at here.