68. Starting a Business Later in Life: Thyme Sullivan’s Reinvention at 48
Sometimes a layoff isn't the end of your story, but rather, the beginning of everything you were meant to create.
When Thyme Sullivan got laid off from Nestlé at 48 after 27 years climbing the corporate ladder, she faced a choice that would transform not just her life, but the lives of countless women. She had spent decades running wholesale grocery for the world's biggest food and beverage company, starting from driving a Frito-Lay truck straight out of college to reaching executive level. By every external measure, she was wildly successful… but she was also completely miserable.
In this conversation, Thyme shares the raw truth about leaving a high-paying executive role as the family breadwinner and building Unicorn: a company that's revolutionizing period products in public spaces. She reveals how losing the fear of failure and checking your ego at the door can lead to innovations that actually matter. Most importantly, she shows how redefining success on your own terms can lead to the kind of fulfillment that no corporate title ever could.
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What You’ll Learn from this Episode:
Why the universe pushing you off your perch might be the greatest thing that ever happens to you.
How to distinguish between grit and resilience.
The real reason venture capitalists weren't interested, and what changed when Thyme stopped trying to conform.
Why making mistakes and falling on your face is essential for innovation and real change.
The power of surrounding yourself with people who understand your mission.
Listen to the Full Episode:
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Thyme Sullivan: LinkedIn
Full Episode Transcript:
Hi, mom friends. Welcome back. Today I have an incredible guest whose story I know will resonate with so many of you in this community, especially anyone who has ever wondered if it's too late to reinvent your life. Today's guest, Thyme Sullivan, is living proof that sometimes the universe has bigger plans for us than we could ever imagine. At 48, Thyme was a successful executive at Nestle, having spent 27 years climbing the corporate ladder. She started driving a Frito-Lay truck right out of college to running wholesale grocery for the world's biggest food and beverage company. Okay? She was the breadwinner, had reached executive level and, by all external measures, was incredibly successful. But she was also miserable.
And when Nestle offered her a choice between relocating to Chicago or DC, she chose door number three, taking a severance package. What happened next is truly a masterclass in resilience, authenticity, and solving real problems that affect women every single day. She is the co-founder and co-CEO of a company called Unicorn. It is a company revolutionizing period products in public spaces. Unicorn creates dispensers that go directly inside bathroom stalls, right where you need them, when you need them, stocked with organic, high-quality period products.
So there's no more digging for quarters, no more hoping that the ancient machine actually works, and definitely no more settling for those terrible cardboard applicator tampons from the 1980s. Oh my goodness. Thank goodness Thyme and Unicorn exist. But Thyme's journey to get there was anything but smooth. And in this episode, you're going to hear about all the things, the summer of unlove when she met with 50 venture capitalists and didn't raise a single dollar, how crying over poke bowls at Wegmans became a turning point for her and her co-founder, and the day she decided to run a 10K race dressed as a tampon. And how that outrageous move changed absolutely everything about her company.
This conversation is packed with raw honesty about the financial realities of leaving a high-paying executive role and how sometimes the best business ideas come from the most obvious problems we've all just accepted as normal. All right, whether you are contemplating a major life change or if you're wondering if it's possible to build something meaningful later in life, Thyme's story will inspire you to think differently about risk, authenticity, and what it means to make an impact. Okay, so get comfortable and enjoy my conversation with Thyme Sullivan.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Jenna: Thyme, I'd love to start at the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey because so many moms I work with come to me before even having their business idea. And I love workshopping with them about the ideas, their strengths, all that good stuff. But there's a little bit of, I guess, hesitation or self-doubt because they might not have this perfectly formed idea. And they know they want to start a business, but without an idea, they feel like they have nowhere to start, or they don't know where to start. And your business is unique and objectively a great idea. And I'm sure anybody with a menstrual cycle will agree with that. How did you come up with this idea?
Thyme: Well, and I would tell you, I probably would have stayed in corporate America forever. I was 48 years old when I got laid off from Nestle, and it was absolutely devastating because in the, where I grew up, there was no such thing as an entrepreneur. And when people were laid off, it was an easy way to fire people. And I was doing a great job and had a great team and we had great results. But it's a different world and people do get laid off. And people ask, how you had the courage to do it. I didn't have courage. I got laid off. And the courage came at that kind of pivot point when you decide, okay, I was a breadwinner in the family, and there's a certain amount of ego attached to the certain level, executive level that I had worked my way up to. I mean, I had literally started driving a Frito-Lay truck out of college, and I was running wholesale grocery for the world's biggest food and beverage company at the end. I spent 27 years with Coke and Pepsi and Nestle, and it was an enormous part of my identity and who I was and what I did.
And what happened is they, there was a time before COVID when they would ask you to relocate and that's how you showed your loyalty to these companies. And I had kids who were in middle school at the time, and my husband loves his job. He still skips to work every day. That's a whole other story, but bless him for that. And I wasn't moving. I've lived in Massachusetts for so long. My co-founder called me a Masshole. I may be, I'm never leaving. It's amazing. And so they said, you can go to Chicago or you can go to DC. And I said, what's behind door number 3?
And they were absolutely shocked because I worked in a culture of, I was the only woman at my position and the guys would go home and tell their wives like, hey, honey, like, we're moving to DC next week. And they'd be like, sure. And they'd pack up that. And but it's different. It's different for women. Like I did not want to relocate, and I didn't think that that's how you show your loyalty to a company. And it would be totally different if it happened today. But I took a package and I sat with it. And I was actually mad in the beginning. And I also thought that the world's biggest food and beverage company couldn't make it without me, which is hilarious in hindsight because you had so much wrapped in what you did and how hard you worked and how much you sacrificed.
But taking a package and having some time to reflect, that's what it really happened because I immediately started interviewing, out of ego like, I'll get a bigger job and I'll make more money and, and, it was pretty specific and boring what I did. That could have been the path. But when I really sat with it, I had a mentor, an old boss, and he was like, look, you can go get that job and you will be great at it. And in two months you're going to be bored out of your mind and you're going to have that same, I was never really fulfilled. I was just kind of working for a living instead of for a paycheck instead of building a life. And I sat with it and I'd always been in consumer products and I think what I sat with was that everything in the supermarkets you could see the full ingredients on, so everything from ketchup to cat food. And I had a young daughter and period products had no ingredients listed on them. So it started as I just realized how ironic and ridiculous it was that there was no transparency in something so critically important.
And it was also a time when all these direct to consumer brands were out there. So the idea was never fully baked. I was like, you know what? I was like, the period products that are out there are garbage. There's no transparency of ingredients. Everybody seems to be crushing it at direct to consumer. They're raising millions of dollars. They don't even have to be profitable. This is amazing. I'll go do that. And it was very unbaked. But that was truly where the idea started that I think I could make a better product and I think I could do it D2C just like Dollar Shave Club and it will be amazing. And it wasn't. And it was nothing like that at all. It was completely the opposite.
Jenna: Yeah. Well, I'm sure if we interviewed Dollar Shave Club, they would also say it wasn't as easy and baked as it, as it sounds too. You said it was never fully baked. You also said this piece, I think so much of your story actually moms will see themselves in. I saw myself as you were saying it in just so many pieces of it. But one of the, the things that stuck out was that you were in this world, this corporate world, this moving up the ladder for so many years and just like weren't really feeling fulfilled. And so was that part of the reason, or was looking for fulfillment part of what encouraged you to take the leap into something that was new and away from what you were used to?
Thyme: Absolutely. I mean, I was truly miserable, but I was making a lot of money and there were a lot of perks and benefits to being at an executive level with a big company, and I never, ever would have left. But if you had met me, Jenna, at a party and asked me what I did for a living at that time, when I was managing over a billion dollars in revenue, I would have told you I sold Hot Pockets and changed the conversation. I mean, I was just completely, none of it inspired me. Like none of the products I was selling were products that I were passionate about. Like it was very much a job. And I would not have left, but the universe pushing me off my perch turned out to be the greatest thing that ever happened to me. And I think when I had time to reflect and think, and I spent a lot of time walking my dog and going to yoga and walking the beach and trying to figure when was I the happiest? Truly the happiest, like you don't have to be an entrepreneur to do something really purposeful and meaningful.
There were two jobs that I had in my career, one with Gatorade and one with Nest Quick, where I started a new division, and it was very entrepreneurial, and it was super creative. And people kind of let me run and do my thing, and it was the most fun I ever had. And I was thinking about the things that I enjoyed doing and thinking that, a product is a product. And I'd identified what I thought was a product need. And really, it was, well, I'll give it a year and see what happens because I always knew that those corporate type, consumer package good sales jobs, like, they're a dime a dozen. Like, and I know insult anybody who's doing it, like, I still would be there myself.
I knew that those jobs would always be there, but I didn't know what if. What if there was a way to start something different? And I truly didn't know at that time that it would have so much purpose and freedom and how you would redefine success because going from having a large team that does everything to being an entrepreneur and having a very small team and we do everything. It's a huge mental change, but it also has a certain amount of freedom and creativity and able to fuel your curiosity that was not happening. I very much stopped learning in my old role.
Jenna: Yeah. So what was the conversation like? Because you also mentioned that you were the breadwinner and one of the biggest, I would say, obstacles for my moms who are wanting to start a job is the financial piece. So how do you go from being the breadwinner to doing this thing that has so many unknowns, I'm sure? And what was that conversation like with your family, with your partner, with yourself, everyone involved?
Thyme: But that was a very difficult conversation. And I would tell you, my co-founder had the exact same conversation. So ironically, my co-founder is my cousin who I hadn't seen in 30 years. And if you believe in the universe aligning and all these serendipitous moments that after I had been laid off and started thinking about doing something new and starting to talk about it openly, she tracked me down on social media. We had lunch and she had walked out on a career of over 20 years as an executive in fashion. She had worked for Coach and Kate Spade and Ann Taylor, and she was the chief merchant at Talbots and walked out of her job and was going through it. And she was a breadwinner in her family. And it took this tremendous amount of courage. She actually walked out on her own and was like, I'm not sure what I'm going to do next. And so we both were the breadwinners in our family and had to have these tough conversations with our families because it changes your standard of living significantly.
Our standard of living still is much different than it would be had we stayed on those executive trails for the past seven years. But we wouldn't change it for a thing. I think that we all had to link arms and say that we were going to do this. And we were a little naive too. We also thought like, well, don't worry about it. We're going to go out and raise a few million dollars of venture capital and everything will be fine. We'll have like good salaries, everything will be great. We went out that first summer and we had stacked resumes and networks and, I mean, we were like very like with our pedigree, like this is going to be so easy. Like we can be operators. We probably met with 50 venture capitalists that first summer, and we still call it the summer of unlove. We didn't raise a dime. It was like the needle across the record. Like these investors didn't look like us. It was just a bunch of young guys right out of school who were like, period products, like we were old ladies selling tampons essentially and they were like, there's already period products. We don't need them. There's nothing different about you. Like, have a great day.
It was so humbling and horrendous the entire situation. And so we really had to decide, are we going to do this given that we know it's going to be a much different financial situation for kids who are an age when they want a lot of stuff. But I think if you ask both Danielle and I looking back, us being present while they were in high school, little kids and little kids have problems, big kids have bigger problems. Like us being present, I am not proud of it, but I am titanium for life with Marriott because there were so many consecutive years I spent more than 75 nights in a Marriott, which is sad and true.
And she was leaving her house at 5:30 in the morning, getting home at 8:30 at night. Like, we weren't going to doctor's appointments, baseball games, first day of school, last day of school, like none of it. And I think that that trade off of what we found is it's been worth it. It's been worth all of it. And I would still say that like my house needs to be painted, but I'd rather go on vacation. Like you just make decisions and that's fine. But I've been married, it'll be 25 years this year. And I said, listen, we've always found a way to figure it out and we always will. When we both started, we were both had zero money and we've always found a way and seven years later, we have still found a way to make it work just barely, but we have found a way to make it work. We wouldn't trade it for anything.
Jenna: Yeah, of course. And yeah, there's value outside of money to making your own choices, the freedom to decide what to do with your business, feeling fulfilled, also all the uncomfortable feelings that come with growing and learning more about yourself and the business, I'm sure over the years. What would you say to the woman who thinks it's too late to make a major change in her life, especially maybe the mom who isn't getting that gentle nudge from her employer but who wants to see what's possible in creating something of her own?
Thyme: I think, you know, there's a couple things. Most importantly, I was just asked this on a short talk about, it's called like the perfection trap is everybody waits for the idea to be fully baked or to have this truly revolutionary idea. Like when we started out, we were going to be just better period products on shelf because I had this retail background. And so we did get into thousands of retailers across the country and we were on paper and by all means extremely successful. We were in every retailer from Wegmans to HEB and Sprouts and Fresh Time and really carved out a niche in this natural and organic market. And we were doing incredibly well distribution wise, but we weren't making the impact that we set out. I mean, the reason we left these jobs is we wanted to advocate for women. So if you have this, you know, idea that you know what you want to do, advocating for women was it.
And we did have this several years in realization that we as a product on the shelf, we're not really making any change, even with all the donations that we made, nothing was really changing. And it wasn't until a lot of the nonprofits we were working with and selling bulk, they said, hey, do you have a better way to dispense period products? And so that's three years in, the light bulb went off and we were like, oh my goodness. We have a camera roll full of these beaten up metal machines that have been there since the 70s or 80s, and the same products have been in them, and they're coin operated or they're jammed. And you still are sitting in a stall and realize that you need something, you have to go out and hope that you can fight with the big machine and get a terrible subpar product. And that was the aha moment. It was three years into it. So we just started with what we thought was an idea, but because we've had control of the company, we didn't take on a bunch of venture. Again, not by our choice.
We've had the ability to pivot. We've got a small team and we were all able to get together and be like, you know what? The real problem isn't that we need more organic products on a shelf. The real problem is that when you're a woman in a bathroom stall, you need period products that you want to use where you need them. And that's where the idea of Unicorn came. And, so I would tell you that it was a complete evolution. Get started because it will come to you and it doesn't come to you like a lightning bolt, it comes to you in like the people say, hey, it's just listening. It's in - I think Oprah talked about it. It's in the whispers. It's in like people are like, what about this? What about? And it's like we really listened and that was the real problem. I mean, nobody's ever put period products in a bathroom stall. And, we sell to a lot of companies, but it really is super meaningful like locally.
My daughter works at Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, Mass, which is a pretty famous place, and they had a bridal party that came in and the bride got her period and there was nothing in the entire place. This is a super like people pay a lot of money, they come from all over to go there. And they were like, you know what? We're going to put them in every stall. And not only like did the customers, but all the girls that work there are like, I'm running around crazy. Like, this has really saved me. That's how you know that it's making real change. And this is, it's just been an evolution. And it's going to continue to evolve.
I think get started on something. All we started on was that we wanted to make things better for this next generation of women and our daughters. And then we started with a product, and then we started direct to consumer, and then we started on Amazon, and then we put it in stores, and then we took it out of stores, and then we, you just continue to follow the path. People are like, oh, you're so lucky, you have this idea. I'm like, this idea took years to figure out like, this is not an overnight success by any means, but it was just getting started and knowing so what if you make a mistake? We've made a ton of them. And so what if it doesn't work out? Like go to like I think then I shall pause, but I shall tell you that losing the fear of failure and checking that ego because I used to worry so much about all my peers when we left, there was a handful of us that left Nestle.
And if I got another job, I would lose my severance. And I was like, well, I'm going to take the severance and I'm going to find my purpose. But my ego was so hurt because I was like, oh, she can't find a job. And I could have found a job, but it was just really hard to take that time and it's really hard to make a lot of mistakes as an entrepreneur and not care what other people think because you have to make mistakes to make innovation and to make change. And you have to fall on your face and you have to do things that are really uncomfortable. But who cares? All people are going to see is where you end up. And I regret that all the years in corporate trained me to never want to make a mistake or take risk. It was really hard to untrain that muscle.
Jenna: Oh my gosh. Again, so many bits and pieces in there that I feel like could be their own entire episode. One of the things though that I do want to call out because I've talked about it at length on this podcast and I did a whole episode on it, episode 15, about why moms make great entrepreneurs. It's not just for like all the skills that we gain and and even the skills in corporate that transfer over, but just our ability to see a gap out in society, a gap in the world and to be courageous enough or let's say like fed up enough to do something about it, right? Like I see that so often in the businesses that women create.
It's like they are trying to make the world a better place. And I just love it and I feel like encouraging women to start businesses and to get out there and, you know, see how it evolves is so inspiring for me just because I know there are so many like little things and big things out in the world and in life that there's solutions for them, right? And I really do think that moms, the way we think and the way we experience the world allows us to do something about it, to feel really motivated to do that. And I feel that way about your business and and what you've created.
The other thing you said early on, especially about when you went out to fundraise and the year of unlove, how do you stay motivated or how did you stay motivated without results? Because I imagine, you said you got laid off at 48. And it actually took like three years for what the business is now to really show itself and evolve into that. And I imagine so many times along the way, it would have been easy to say, ugh, this isn't working. So, especially after that first summer of going out there, being so excited and thinking that you had what it takes and you'll just make this pitch and people will give you money, and nobody gave you any money. How did you keep going?
Thyme: That's a really great question. And I think if I write a book someday, I really want to distinguish the difference between grit and resilience because I think we were all sold a big bag of grit growing up that we weren't going to quit no matter what. We met with way too many venture capitalists. Much before that, we should have realized that it wasn't working and stopped trying to open a door that wasn't meant to open. And I think that's why both Danielle and I stayed in our toxic environment jobs too long because we weren't going to quit no matter what. We were taught to be fighters and to fight through and to like, whatever it takes and nobody's going to like make us quit. And it's silly because at some point, it's not quitting if you're, again, trying to open a door that's not supposed to open. You've got to be resilient and get back up and open a new door and find a new path.
And that was a hard learned lesson because we were so ingrained with this grit gene that was really detrimental to our mental health and to, who we were before we became entrepreneurs and even as we were starting as entrepreneurs, we were trying too hard to push in a direction that wasn't meant for us. And so we had a moment, after that summer, we were out of money, we were out of runway, our husbands and families were running out of patience with us. We weren't making the progress they revenue to anything that we needed to continue. And so we used to meet, so Danielle is in Providence and I'm in Massachusetts.
And so we would meet halfway at a Wegmans and sit in their food court because we had no money for work space. We used to call it free work. And so we were like crying over our poke balls at Wegmans and like, what are we going to do? And it really dawned on us that we kept trying to conform to be what the venture capitalists want us to be. With every pitch, we would go home and be like, okay, this is what they wanted. Like, this is what we have to say, this is what we have to do. And we just lost our authenticity.
And that was part of it. And then because we were crying in our poke balls, I was like, oh, and this isn't fun. This sucks. I'm like, if we wanted to be crying at work, we could go back to our old jobs, right? Like, so I'm like, this is like, none of this is working. And we made a commitment with each other that we were going to be ourselves. We were going to surround ourselves with people that understood us and our mission, and that we were going to have fun. And so it was at that moment, and this was back, I mean, we obviously we couldn't afford PR, we couldn't get noticed, we couldn't anything.
I had always been a runner, and so I was like, all right, I was like, I had heard that Sara Blakely's one of our hero founders. Her husband when he started Zico Water, Jesse Itzler, had run the New York Marathon dressed as a Zico Tetra bottle, and he got all this PR. I was like, well, I'm going to get a tampon suit and I'm going to run the Reebok 10K for women. And so I bought like the worst boiled wool tampon suit and had it embroidered down the street and started training around town, which my children were not happy about. Not to run in the school, but I'm like, that's, oh yeah, my friends would run with me. It was actually really hilarious. There's, oh, look me, if you like Google me, you will find it.
And so then I had to learn how to run in the suit because I didn't know. And like, trust me, there were so many bad things about it. Like it was hot, the spring was whacking the leg, like everything was bad. So the day comes and it's a super hot day and I was like, this is either going to be a wild success or a big like implosion. And what was interesting is it was super fun. It was super funny. And we got picked up by Boston magazine, BZ News, Kiss 108, like all the local media picked us up. And most importantly, the next day we got a call from the buyer at Wegmans and she's like, I saw what you did and that takes an awful lot of courage. Would you like to bring your products into our stores?
And it just, it actually changed everything. I mean, fast forward during COVID, we got interviewed by Time magazine because there was a big tampon shortage. And I think I was the only one that responded to this woman on LinkedIn. And when she asked for a photo, I was like, oh, here's my headshot. She was like, oh no, no, no, no. She's like, I want the picture of you running the race. So that ended up in Time magazine and it just, a lot of women around town, like, I live in like a town where, you know, it's a seaside community and not a lot of women would dress as a tampon and run around town and make videos.
And I was like, it's okay to just be yourself and put yourself out there. And everyone's like, you can't dress up as a tampon, you're the CEO, co-CEO. I was like, that's exactly why I can. And I think it was just no longer, we had nothing else left in us. Like, we've got to do something outrageous and hilarious and it worked. But I would tell you that it was overcoming that fear, it was overcoming that ego, it was really. And not only did we get into Wegmans, but then we found investors, a lot of female angel investors who opened up their networks to us, and we have a very strict rule now, like no assholes on the cap table. And we only have people invest in our company that align with us and our mission and our purpose, and it has changed everything. They've turned into friends and advisors, and we have this incredible community around us. And none of that would have happened had things worked out and had we not realized that us keep trying to do the same thing over and over again then it wasn't working and making us happy wasn't sanity.
Jenna: Yeah. It's so inspiring. I actually got teary-eyed when you were, when you were talking about that because the answer to the question of what would make this fun or what would make this, you know, meaningful or fulfilling is also the answer to what makes a business successful for you. So I talk to my people a lot about like, not everyone is your person, right? It's so easy for us to listen to all the nos that we are getting and all the naysayers. And they just are not our people. You know, even if we said only 1% of the world are our people, it's still enough people to really make a change and an impact and to run a successful business. But it's so hard not to focus on those 99% of people who are are not our people. So I love that.
We're getting at time here. I do want to ask one more question, though, and this kind of seems like out of left field, but I had a client come to me and say, you need to interview some older women on the podcast because they had questions about running a business later in life. And I'm curious if at all and how the role of menopause or how menopause has played a role, if any, in you as a business owner, you as a woman who is facing all these challenges and doing all these things for the first time, like, how do you handle this phase of life and menopause specifically?
Thyme: Yeah, menopause has made it ironic that we are running a period product company. And it certainly does change things, but I think it's also opened up a lot more conversations. So selling period products, period products is a very taboo topic. Menopause used to be a very taboo topic. Well, now, because I'm around a lot of women that are finding their next chapter. I'm part of like the women's presence organization. So these are not just entrepreneurs, they're executives in companies, so it's intrapreneurs, it's entrepreneurs, it's whatever. And we're all like around the same age. And what's interesting is now we're sharing information about different ways that we're dealing with this time in our life and different resources available. And it's shining a light on the lack of training that a lot of doctors get in their education about menopause, how little it's been studied and how little testing that there's been done.
And I think that if anything, it's giving us, you know, women weren't sitting around talking about it. Now women are sitting around talking about it. Women are advocating more for it. And I really think it's very similar to how we're advocating for, what used to be people just talking about period poverty and you've got to donate, donate, donate. And no, you don't. You just need to put them wherever there's toilet paper. It's like really simple. And, with menopause, we're all struggling, struggling, struggling. Well, we just need to be educated about it and advocate for testing and treatments and talk to each other about it and not make it a taboo topic. And, if anything, it's great. It gives us a lot of excuses to be crazy. Look, I'm menopausal. I cannot help what I just said. It's perfectly understandable. It's very free.
But I will tell you that, Danielle and I have found ourselves in rooms and that we in the past thought like, what are like, how are we meeting all these incredible people? There's this wave of women that are redefining success and redefining what climbing the ladder really looked like or really got them. And there's so many women doing this next chapter and really trying to find their purpose and their legacy. And it doesn't have to be so deep and so profound. It can just be like, I don't want to do this anymore. And I'm going to go do something different.
And even if you don't know what that is, start doing something and it will lead to something because every time we go somewhere and we meet somewhere, we're at a lot of like author events, we're a lot of like women events, and we're also at a lot of events where allies are invited, where men are part of the conversation. And that's an important part of change too. I would just say that if people come out of this podcast with anything, I would tell you that not only did Danielle and I take out the leap, but our team is a small and mighty team and our team members, those women took a leap too and believed in something bigger and better and different and we are, building the plane as we're going, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.
And the people that we meet every day, like inspire us to keep going and it could end up looking entirely different than this and that's okay. And I promise you we're going to make more mistakes and that's okay too. We're very open about that, but we've also made a tremendous amount of progress. I know we're making a difference. I know that this next generation won't remember going to a bathroom without period products and we are the people who did it. Everybody, not us, just the founders, but this whole community around us and people like you, Jenna, that give us the opportunity to tell a story and if we can make that change happen in society and also inspire some other women to just start doing something, you can always go back to whatever it was. Or, I mean, there's always, you always have choices and the greatest gift that we have gotten from all this is freedom.
Jenna: Yeah, yeah, I love that. The freedom to choose, the freedom to decide to do something different, and then just taking action sometimes without or often times without having any idea what's going to happen next, but just allowing it to happen. So yeah, I love, I love your story. Of course, that's why I wanted you on the podcast. We will definitely put links to learn more about you and the company and to, you know, advocate for your products in stalls if anybody has locations or buildings that that they're just itching to get those products in. Is there anything else you would like to share or how people can get in touch with you, anything that's top of mind?
Thyme: Yeah, so our website is EveryStall.com because period product should be in every stall. We're very active on LinkedIn. I have a college-aged daughter, so we're about to start on TikTok, which is very exciting. It's amazing. And I would tell you the biggest thing is we just need people to know that there's a difference.
So often, we go and we work with a lot of big Fortune 500 companies. We work with everybody from J. P. Morgan Chase to Amex and Blackstone and everything in between, Pepsi, Toyota, all these great companies that are offering this as a benefit, but it can go anywhere, anywhere where there's those bad period products, just ask. And quite often, guys are our biggest allies. They'll be like, oh, I just never thought about it. Like, of course. And it's just swapping. Nobody wants the big pad on the box and the Tampax and the cardboard tube. And ours are more sustainable and women owned and it's just a really, really easy swap.
I mean, the last thing I'll tell you is the Whole Foods near my house, if you go, the store is absolutely gorgeous. They have the highest standards for everything. You go in the bathroom, you need 4 quarters to get 2 cardboard applicator tampons. Like it's so dumb. It's just so dumb. And I think it's one of those things where the reason why everyone's like, this is such a good idea. I'm like, I know, right? Because you're like, duh, I don't have 4 quarters. I don't need 2. I hate cardboard applicator tampons. And by the way, why isn't it where in the stall where I need it? So just speak up, ladies. And we're happy, reach out. If you have a company or a bathroom, you just want to change the products out and, yeah, it's so, so easy. Check us out. Check us out. It's so fun. It's so fun. Join our movement.
Jenna: I love it. Thank you so much, Thyme. I'm sure we will be in touch. And thank you for sharing everything about your story. And I hope moms feel inspired.
Thyme: Thank you, Jenna.
Jenna: Yay.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
And when Nestle offered her a choice between relocating to Chicago or DC, she chose door number three, taking a severance package. What happened next is truly a masterclass in resilience, authenticity, and solving real problems that affect women every single day. She is the co-founder and co-CEO of a company called Unicorn. It is a company revolutionizing period products in public spaces. Unicorn creates dispensers that go directly inside bathroom stalls, right where you need them, when you need them, stocked with organic, high-quality period products.
So there's no more digging for quarters, no more hoping that the ancient machine actually works, and definitely no more settling for those terrible cardboard applicator tampons from the 1980s. Oh my goodness. Thank goodness Thyme and Unicorn exist. But Thyme's journey to get there was anything but smooth. And in this episode, you're going to hear about all the things, the summer of unlove when she met with 50 venture capitalists and didn't raise a single dollar, how crying over poke bowls at Wegmans became a turning point for her and her co-founder, and the day she decided to run a 10K race dressed as a tampon. And how that outrageous move changed absolutely everything about her company.
This conversation is packed with raw honesty about the financial realities of leaving a high-paying executive role and how sometimes the best business ideas come from the most obvious problems we've all just accepted as normal. All right, whether you are contemplating a major life change or if you're wondering if it's possible to build something meaningful later in life, Thyme's story will inspire you to think differently about risk, authenticity, and what it means to make an impact. Okay, so get comfortable and enjoy my conversation with Thyme Sullivan.
Welcome to How to Quit Your Job, the podcast for moms ready to ditch the nine-to-five and build a life and business they love. I’m your host, Jenna Rykiel. Let’s go.
Jenna: Thyme, I'd love to start at the beginning of your entrepreneurial journey because so many moms I work with come to me before even having their business idea. And I love workshopping with them about the ideas, their strengths, all that good stuff. But there's a little bit of, I guess, hesitation or self-doubt because they might not have this perfectly formed idea. And they know they want to start a business, but without an idea, they feel like they have nowhere to start, or they don't know where to start. And your business is unique and objectively a great idea. And I'm sure anybody with a menstrual cycle will agree with that. How did you come up with this idea?
Thyme: Well, and I would tell you, I probably would have stayed in corporate America forever. I was 48 years old when I got laid off from Nestle, and it was absolutely devastating because in the, where I grew up, there was no such thing as an entrepreneur. And when people were laid off, it was an easy way to fire people. And I was doing a great job and had a great team and we had great results. But it's a different world and people do get laid off. And people ask, how you had the courage to do it. I didn't have courage. I got laid off. And the courage came at that kind of pivot point when you decide, okay, I was a breadwinner in the family, and there's a certain amount of ego attached to the certain level, executive level that I had worked my way up to. I mean, I had literally started driving a Frito-Lay truck out of college, and I was running wholesale grocery for the world's biggest food and beverage company at the end. I spent 27 years with Coke and Pepsi and Nestle, and it was an enormous part of my identity and who I was and what I did.
And what happened is they, there was a time before COVID when they would ask you to relocate and that's how you showed your loyalty to these companies. And I had kids who were in middle school at the time, and my husband loves his job. He still skips to work every day. That's a whole other story, but bless him for that. And I wasn't moving. I've lived in Massachusetts for so long. My co-founder called me a Masshole. I may be, I'm never leaving. It's amazing. And so they said, you can go to Chicago or you can go to DC. And I said, what's behind door number 3?
And they were absolutely shocked because I worked in a culture of, I was the only woman at my position and the guys would go home and tell their wives like, hey, honey, like, we're moving to DC next week. And they'd be like, sure. And they'd pack up that. And but it's different. It's different for women. Like I did not want to relocate, and I didn't think that that's how you show your loyalty to a company. And it would be totally different if it happened today. But I took a package and I sat with it. And I was actually mad in the beginning. And I also thought that the world's biggest food and beverage company couldn't make it without me, which is hilarious in hindsight because you had so much wrapped in what you did and how hard you worked and how much you sacrificed.
But taking a package and having some time to reflect, that's what it really happened because I immediately started interviewing, out of ego like, I'll get a bigger job and I'll make more money and, and, it was pretty specific and boring what I did. That could have been the path. But when I really sat with it, I had a mentor, an old boss, and he was like, look, you can go get that job and you will be great at it. And in two months you're going to be bored out of your mind and you're going to have that same, I was never really fulfilled. I was just kind of working for a living instead of for a paycheck instead of building a life. And I sat with it and I'd always been in consumer products and I think what I sat with was that everything in the supermarkets you could see the full ingredients on, so everything from ketchup to cat food. And I had a young daughter and period products had no ingredients listed on them. So it started as I just realized how ironic and ridiculous it was that there was no transparency in something so critically important.
And it was also a time when all these direct to consumer brands were out there. So the idea was never fully baked. I was like, you know what? I was like, the period products that are out there are garbage. There's no transparency of ingredients. Everybody seems to be crushing it at direct to consumer. They're raising millions of dollars. They don't even have to be profitable. This is amazing. I'll go do that. And it was very unbaked. But that was truly where the idea started that I think I could make a better product and I think I could do it D2C just like Dollar Shave Club and it will be amazing. And it wasn't. And it was nothing like that at all. It was completely the opposite.
Jenna: Yeah. Well, I'm sure if we interviewed Dollar Shave Club, they would also say it wasn't as easy and baked as it, as it sounds too. You said it was never fully baked. You also said this piece, I think so much of your story actually moms will see themselves in. I saw myself as you were saying it in just so many pieces of it. But one of the, the things that stuck out was that you were in this world, this corporate world, this moving up the ladder for so many years and just like weren't really feeling fulfilled. And so was that part of the reason, or was looking for fulfillment part of what encouraged you to take the leap into something that was new and away from what you were used to?
Thyme: Absolutely. I mean, I was truly miserable, but I was making a lot of money and there were a lot of perks and benefits to being at an executive level with a big company, and I never, ever would have left. But if you had met me, Jenna, at a party and asked me what I did for a living at that time, when I was managing over a billion dollars in revenue, I would have told you I sold Hot Pockets and changed the conversation. I mean, I was just completely, none of it inspired me. Like none of the products I was selling were products that I were passionate about. Like it was very much a job. And I would not have left, but the universe pushing me off my perch turned out to be the greatest thing that ever happened to me. And I think when I had time to reflect and think, and I spent a lot of time walking my dog and going to yoga and walking the beach and trying to figure when was I the happiest? Truly the happiest, like you don't have to be an entrepreneur to do something really purposeful and meaningful.
There were two jobs that I had in my career, one with Gatorade and one with Nest Quick, where I started a new division, and it was very entrepreneurial, and it was super creative. And people kind of let me run and do my thing, and it was the most fun I ever had. And I was thinking about the things that I enjoyed doing and thinking that, a product is a product. And I'd identified what I thought was a product need. And really, it was, well, I'll give it a year and see what happens because I always knew that those corporate type, consumer package good sales jobs, like, they're a dime a dozen. Like, and I know insult anybody who's doing it, like, I still would be there myself.
I knew that those jobs would always be there, but I didn't know what if. What if there was a way to start something different? And I truly didn't know at that time that it would have so much purpose and freedom and how you would redefine success because going from having a large team that does everything to being an entrepreneur and having a very small team and we do everything. It's a huge mental change, but it also has a certain amount of freedom and creativity and able to fuel your curiosity that was not happening. I very much stopped learning in my old role.
Jenna: Yeah. So what was the conversation like? Because you also mentioned that you were the breadwinner and one of the biggest, I would say, obstacles for my moms who are wanting to start a job is the financial piece. So how do you go from being the breadwinner to doing this thing that has so many unknowns, I'm sure? And what was that conversation like with your family, with your partner, with yourself, everyone involved?
Thyme: But that was a very difficult conversation. And I would tell you, my co-founder had the exact same conversation. So ironically, my co-founder is my cousin who I hadn't seen in 30 years. And if you believe in the universe aligning and all these serendipitous moments that after I had been laid off and started thinking about doing something new and starting to talk about it openly, she tracked me down on social media. We had lunch and she had walked out on a career of over 20 years as an executive in fashion. She had worked for Coach and Kate Spade and Ann Taylor, and she was the chief merchant at Talbots and walked out of her job and was going through it. And she was a breadwinner in her family. And it took this tremendous amount of courage. She actually walked out on her own and was like, I'm not sure what I'm going to do next. And so we both were the breadwinners in our family and had to have these tough conversations with our families because it changes your standard of living significantly.
Our standard of living still is much different than it would be had we stayed on those executive trails for the past seven years. But we wouldn't change it for a thing. I think that we all had to link arms and say that we were going to do this. And we were a little naive too. We also thought like, well, don't worry about it. We're going to go out and raise a few million dollars of venture capital and everything will be fine. We'll have like good salaries, everything will be great. We went out that first summer and we had stacked resumes and networks and, I mean, we were like very like with our pedigree, like this is going to be so easy. Like we can be operators. We probably met with 50 venture capitalists that first summer, and we still call it the summer of unlove. We didn't raise a dime. It was like the needle across the record. Like these investors didn't look like us. It was just a bunch of young guys right out of school who were like, period products, like we were old ladies selling tampons essentially and they were like, there's already period products. We don't need them. There's nothing different about you. Like, have a great day.
It was so humbling and horrendous the entire situation. And so we really had to decide, are we going to do this given that we know it's going to be a much different financial situation for kids who are an age when they want a lot of stuff. But I think if you ask both Danielle and I looking back, us being present while they were in high school, little kids and little kids have problems, big kids have bigger problems. Like us being present, I am not proud of it, but I am titanium for life with Marriott because there were so many consecutive years I spent more than 75 nights in a Marriott, which is sad and true.
And she was leaving her house at 5:30 in the morning, getting home at 8:30 at night. Like, we weren't going to doctor's appointments, baseball games, first day of school, last day of school, like none of it. And I think that that trade off of what we found is it's been worth it. It's been worth all of it. And I would still say that like my house needs to be painted, but I'd rather go on vacation. Like you just make decisions and that's fine. But I've been married, it'll be 25 years this year. And I said, listen, we've always found a way to figure it out and we always will. When we both started, we were both had zero money and we've always found a way and seven years later, we have still found a way to make it work just barely, but we have found a way to make it work. We wouldn't trade it for anything.
Jenna: Yeah, of course. And yeah, there's value outside of money to making your own choices, the freedom to decide what to do with your business, feeling fulfilled, also all the uncomfortable feelings that come with growing and learning more about yourself and the business, I'm sure over the years. What would you say to the woman who thinks it's too late to make a major change in her life, especially maybe the mom who isn't getting that gentle nudge from her employer but who wants to see what's possible in creating something of her own?
Thyme: I think, you know, there's a couple things. Most importantly, I was just asked this on a short talk about, it's called like the perfection trap is everybody waits for the idea to be fully baked or to have this truly revolutionary idea. Like when we started out, we were going to be just better period products on shelf because I had this retail background. And so we did get into thousands of retailers across the country and we were on paper and by all means extremely successful. We were in every retailer from Wegmans to HEB and Sprouts and Fresh Time and really carved out a niche in this natural and organic market. And we were doing incredibly well distribution wise, but we weren't making the impact that we set out. I mean, the reason we left these jobs is we wanted to advocate for women. So if you have this, you know, idea that you know what you want to do, advocating for women was it.
And we did have this several years in realization that we as a product on the shelf, we're not really making any change, even with all the donations that we made, nothing was really changing. And it wasn't until a lot of the nonprofits we were working with and selling bulk, they said, hey, do you have a better way to dispense period products? And so that's three years in, the light bulb went off and we were like, oh my goodness. We have a camera roll full of these beaten up metal machines that have been there since the 70s or 80s, and the same products have been in them, and they're coin operated or they're jammed. And you still are sitting in a stall and realize that you need something, you have to go out and hope that you can fight with the big machine and get a terrible subpar product. And that was the aha moment. It was three years into it. So we just started with what we thought was an idea, but because we've had control of the company, we didn't take on a bunch of venture. Again, not by our choice.
We've had the ability to pivot. We've got a small team and we were all able to get together and be like, you know what? The real problem isn't that we need more organic products on a shelf. The real problem is that when you're a woman in a bathroom stall, you need period products that you want to use where you need them. And that's where the idea of Unicorn came. And, so I would tell you that it was a complete evolution. Get started because it will come to you and it doesn't come to you like a lightning bolt, it comes to you in like the people say, hey, it's just listening. It's in - I think Oprah talked about it. It's in the whispers. It's in like people are like, what about this? What about? And it's like we really listened and that was the real problem. I mean, nobody's ever put period products in a bathroom stall. And, we sell to a lot of companies, but it really is super meaningful like locally.
My daughter works at Island Creek Oysters in Duxbury, Mass, which is a pretty famous place, and they had a bridal party that came in and the bride got her period and there was nothing in the entire place. This is a super like people pay a lot of money, they come from all over to go there. And they were like, you know what? We're going to put them in every stall. And not only like did the customers, but all the girls that work there are like, I'm running around crazy. Like, this has really saved me. That's how you know that it's making real change. And this is, it's just been an evolution. And it's going to continue to evolve.
I think get started on something. All we started on was that we wanted to make things better for this next generation of women and our daughters. And then we started with a product, and then we started direct to consumer, and then we started on Amazon, and then we put it in stores, and then we took it out of stores, and then we, you just continue to follow the path. People are like, oh, you're so lucky, you have this idea. I'm like, this idea took years to figure out like, this is not an overnight success by any means, but it was just getting started and knowing so what if you make a mistake? We've made a ton of them. And so what if it doesn't work out? Like go to like I think then I shall pause, but I shall tell you that losing the fear of failure and checking that ego because I used to worry so much about all my peers when we left, there was a handful of us that left Nestle.
And if I got another job, I would lose my severance. And I was like, well, I'm going to take the severance and I'm going to find my purpose. But my ego was so hurt because I was like, oh, she can't find a job. And I could have found a job, but it was just really hard to take that time and it's really hard to make a lot of mistakes as an entrepreneur and not care what other people think because you have to make mistakes to make innovation and to make change. And you have to fall on your face and you have to do things that are really uncomfortable. But who cares? All people are going to see is where you end up. And I regret that all the years in corporate trained me to never want to make a mistake or take risk. It was really hard to untrain that muscle.
Jenna: Oh my gosh. Again, so many bits and pieces in there that I feel like could be their own entire episode. One of the things though that I do want to call out because I've talked about it at length on this podcast and I did a whole episode on it, episode 15, about why moms make great entrepreneurs. It's not just for like all the skills that we gain and and even the skills in corporate that transfer over, but just our ability to see a gap out in society, a gap in the world and to be courageous enough or let's say like fed up enough to do something about it, right? Like I see that so often in the businesses that women create.
It's like they are trying to make the world a better place. And I just love it and I feel like encouraging women to start businesses and to get out there and, you know, see how it evolves is so inspiring for me just because I know there are so many like little things and big things out in the world and in life that there's solutions for them, right? And I really do think that moms, the way we think and the way we experience the world allows us to do something about it, to feel really motivated to do that. And I feel that way about your business and and what you've created.
The other thing you said early on, especially about when you went out to fundraise and the year of unlove, how do you stay motivated or how did you stay motivated without results? Because I imagine, you said you got laid off at 48. And it actually took like three years for what the business is now to really show itself and evolve into that. And I imagine so many times along the way, it would have been easy to say, ugh, this isn't working. So, especially after that first summer of going out there, being so excited and thinking that you had what it takes and you'll just make this pitch and people will give you money, and nobody gave you any money. How did you keep going?
Thyme: That's a really great question. And I think if I write a book someday, I really want to distinguish the difference between grit and resilience because I think we were all sold a big bag of grit growing up that we weren't going to quit no matter what. We met with way too many venture capitalists. Much before that, we should have realized that it wasn't working and stopped trying to open a door that wasn't meant to open. And I think that's why both Danielle and I stayed in our toxic environment jobs too long because we weren't going to quit no matter what. We were taught to be fighters and to fight through and to like, whatever it takes and nobody's going to like make us quit. And it's silly because at some point, it's not quitting if you're, again, trying to open a door that's not supposed to open. You've got to be resilient and get back up and open a new door and find a new path.
And that was a hard learned lesson because we were so ingrained with this grit gene that was really detrimental to our mental health and to, who we were before we became entrepreneurs and even as we were starting as entrepreneurs, we were trying too hard to push in a direction that wasn't meant for us. And so we had a moment, after that summer, we were out of money, we were out of runway, our husbands and families were running out of patience with us. We weren't making the progress they revenue to anything that we needed to continue. And so we used to meet, so Danielle is in Providence and I'm in Massachusetts.
And so we would meet halfway at a Wegmans and sit in their food court because we had no money for work space. We used to call it free work. And so we were like crying over our poke balls at Wegmans and like, what are we going to do? And it really dawned on us that we kept trying to conform to be what the venture capitalists want us to be. With every pitch, we would go home and be like, okay, this is what they wanted. Like, this is what we have to say, this is what we have to do. And we just lost our authenticity.
And that was part of it. And then because we were crying in our poke balls, I was like, oh, and this isn't fun. This sucks. I'm like, if we wanted to be crying at work, we could go back to our old jobs, right? Like, so I'm like, this is like, none of this is working. And we made a commitment with each other that we were going to be ourselves. We were going to surround ourselves with people that understood us and our mission, and that we were going to have fun. And so it was at that moment, and this was back, I mean, we obviously we couldn't afford PR, we couldn't get noticed, we couldn't anything.
I had always been a runner, and so I was like, all right, I was like, I had heard that Sara Blakely's one of our hero founders. Her husband when he started Zico Water, Jesse Itzler, had run the New York Marathon dressed as a Zico Tetra bottle, and he got all this PR. I was like, well, I'm going to get a tampon suit and I'm going to run the Reebok 10K for women. And so I bought like the worst boiled wool tampon suit and had it embroidered down the street and started training around town, which my children were not happy about. Not to run in the school, but I'm like, that's, oh yeah, my friends would run with me. It was actually really hilarious. There's, oh, look me, if you like Google me, you will find it.
And so then I had to learn how to run in the suit because I didn't know. And like, trust me, there were so many bad things about it. Like it was hot, the spring was whacking the leg, like everything was bad. So the day comes and it's a super hot day and I was like, this is either going to be a wild success or a big like implosion. And what was interesting is it was super fun. It was super funny. And we got picked up by Boston magazine, BZ News, Kiss 108, like all the local media picked us up. And most importantly, the next day we got a call from the buyer at Wegmans and she's like, I saw what you did and that takes an awful lot of courage. Would you like to bring your products into our stores?
And it just, it actually changed everything. I mean, fast forward during COVID, we got interviewed by Time magazine because there was a big tampon shortage. And I think I was the only one that responded to this woman on LinkedIn. And when she asked for a photo, I was like, oh, here's my headshot. She was like, oh no, no, no, no. She's like, I want the picture of you running the race. So that ended up in Time magazine and it just, a lot of women around town, like, I live in like a town where, you know, it's a seaside community and not a lot of women would dress as a tampon and run around town and make videos.
And I was like, it's okay to just be yourself and put yourself out there. And everyone's like, you can't dress up as a tampon, you're the CEO, co-CEO. I was like, that's exactly why I can. And I think it was just no longer, we had nothing else left in us. Like, we've got to do something outrageous and hilarious and it worked. But I would tell you that it was overcoming that fear, it was overcoming that ego, it was really. And not only did we get into Wegmans, but then we found investors, a lot of female angel investors who opened up their networks to us, and we have a very strict rule now, like no assholes on the cap table. And we only have people invest in our company that align with us and our mission and our purpose, and it has changed everything. They've turned into friends and advisors, and we have this incredible community around us. And none of that would have happened had things worked out and had we not realized that us keep trying to do the same thing over and over again then it wasn't working and making us happy wasn't sanity.
Jenna: Yeah. It's so inspiring. I actually got teary-eyed when you were, when you were talking about that because the answer to the question of what would make this fun or what would make this, you know, meaningful or fulfilling is also the answer to what makes a business successful for you. So I talk to my people a lot about like, not everyone is your person, right? It's so easy for us to listen to all the nos that we are getting and all the naysayers. And they just are not our people. You know, even if we said only 1% of the world are our people, it's still enough people to really make a change and an impact and to run a successful business. But it's so hard not to focus on those 99% of people who are are not our people. So I love that.
We're getting at time here. I do want to ask one more question, though, and this kind of seems like out of left field, but I had a client come to me and say, you need to interview some older women on the podcast because they had questions about running a business later in life. And I'm curious if at all and how the role of menopause or how menopause has played a role, if any, in you as a business owner, you as a woman who is facing all these challenges and doing all these things for the first time, like, how do you handle this phase of life and menopause specifically?
Thyme: Yeah, menopause has made it ironic that we are running a period product company. And it certainly does change things, but I think it's also opened up a lot more conversations. So selling period products, period products is a very taboo topic. Menopause used to be a very taboo topic. Well, now, because I'm around a lot of women that are finding their next chapter. I'm part of like the women's presence organization. So these are not just entrepreneurs, they're executives in companies, so it's intrapreneurs, it's entrepreneurs, it's whatever. And we're all like around the same age. And what's interesting is now we're sharing information about different ways that we're dealing with this time in our life and different resources available. And it's shining a light on the lack of training that a lot of doctors get in their education about menopause, how little it's been studied and how little testing that there's been done.
And I think that if anything, it's giving us, you know, women weren't sitting around talking about it. Now women are sitting around talking about it. Women are advocating more for it. And I really think it's very similar to how we're advocating for, what used to be people just talking about period poverty and you've got to donate, donate, donate. And no, you don't. You just need to put them wherever there's toilet paper. It's like really simple. And, with menopause, we're all struggling, struggling, struggling. Well, we just need to be educated about it and advocate for testing and treatments and talk to each other about it and not make it a taboo topic. And, if anything, it's great. It gives us a lot of excuses to be crazy. Look, I'm menopausal. I cannot help what I just said. It's perfectly understandable. It's very free.
But I will tell you that, Danielle and I have found ourselves in rooms and that we in the past thought like, what are like, how are we meeting all these incredible people? There's this wave of women that are redefining success and redefining what climbing the ladder really looked like or really got them. And there's so many women doing this next chapter and really trying to find their purpose and their legacy. And it doesn't have to be so deep and so profound. It can just be like, I don't want to do this anymore. And I'm going to go do something different.
And even if you don't know what that is, start doing something and it will lead to something because every time we go somewhere and we meet somewhere, we're at a lot of like author events, we're a lot of like women events, and we're also at a lot of events where allies are invited, where men are part of the conversation. And that's an important part of change too. I would just say that if people come out of this podcast with anything, I would tell you that not only did Danielle and I take out the leap, but our team is a small and mighty team and our team members, those women took a leap too and believed in something bigger and better and different and we are, building the plane as we're going, but I wouldn't trade it for anything.
And the people that we meet every day, like inspire us to keep going and it could end up looking entirely different than this and that's okay. And I promise you we're going to make more mistakes and that's okay too. We're very open about that, but we've also made a tremendous amount of progress. I know we're making a difference. I know that this next generation won't remember going to a bathroom without period products and we are the people who did it. Everybody, not us, just the founders, but this whole community around us and people like you, Jenna, that give us the opportunity to tell a story and if we can make that change happen in society and also inspire some other women to just start doing something, you can always go back to whatever it was. Or, I mean, there's always, you always have choices and the greatest gift that we have gotten from all this is freedom.
Jenna: Yeah, yeah, I love that. The freedom to choose, the freedom to decide to do something different, and then just taking action sometimes without or often times without having any idea what's going to happen next, but just allowing it to happen. So yeah, I love, I love your story. Of course, that's why I wanted you on the podcast. We will definitely put links to learn more about you and the company and to, you know, advocate for your products in stalls if anybody has locations or buildings that that they're just itching to get those products in. Is there anything else you would like to share or how people can get in touch with you, anything that's top of mind?
Thyme: Yeah, so our website is EveryStall.com because period product should be in every stall. We're very active on LinkedIn. I have a college-aged daughter, so we're about to start on TikTok, which is very exciting. It's amazing. And I would tell you the biggest thing is we just need people to know that there's a difference.
So often, we go and we work with a lot of big Fortune 500 companies. We work with everybody from J. P. Morgan Chase to Amex and Blackstone and everything in between, Pepsi, Toyota, all these great companies that are offering this as a benefit, but it can go anywhere, anywhere where there's those bad period products, just ask. And quite often, guys are our biggest allies. They'll be like, oh, I just never thought about it. Like, of course. And it's just swapping. Nobody wants the big pad on the box and the Tampax and the cardboard tube. And ours are more sustainable and women owned and it's just a really, really easy swap.
I mean, the last thing I'll tell you is the Whole Foods near my house, if you go, the store is absolutely gorgeous. They have the highest standards for everything. You go in the bathroom, you need 4 quarters to get 2 cardboard applicator tampons. Like it's so dumb. It's just so dumb. And I think it's one of those things where the reason why everyone's like, this is such a good idea. I'm like, I know, right? Because you're like, duh, I don't have 4 quarters. I don't need 2. I hate cardboard applicator tampons. And by the way, why isn't it where in the stall where I need it? So just speak up, ladies. And we're happy, reach out. If you have a company or a bathroom, you just want to change the products out and, yeah, it's so, so easy. Check us out. Check us out. It's so fun. It's so fun. Join our movement.
Jenna: I love it. Thank you so much, Thyme. I'm sure we will be in touch. And thank you for sharing everything about your story. And I hope moms feel inspired.
Thyme: Thank you, Jenna.
Jenna: Yay.
Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of How to Quit Your Job: A Mom’s Guide to Creating a Life and Business You Love. If you want to learn more about how I can help you stop making excuses and start making moves, head on over to www.jenna.coach. I’ll see you next week.
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