If my first conversation with Jodi Scott-Lyons was about how she built her company, this one is about what happens when the foundation cracks beneath a founder’s feet. It is the continuation of a story that began with passion and purpose, and moves into the part of being a founder and CEO that most people never talk about. The unraveling. The reckoning. And ultimately, the rebuilding.
This episode is about losing what you built and finding a deeper version of yourself in the process.
In Part 1, Jodi talked about creating brands that met women at every stage of their lives. What she shares here is about her own stages of becoming. There is a moment in this conversation when she admits that she spent ten years building her company in a constant state of fight or flight. Ten years of hustling. Ten years of pushing. Ten years of powering through, often at the cost of her own peace.
And then everything shifted.
Not because she failed.
Not because the business made a wrong move.
But because of a crisis she did not cause and could not control.
When the company she sold became entangled in a legal and financial mess, the life she built began to unravel. Her brand. Her team. Her stability. Her identity as a leader. All suddenly at risk.
If Part 1 was the rise, this is the reckoning.
There are leadership challenges, and then there are the moments that change you forever. Jodi had to lay off her entire team within twenty-four hours. Her mother. Her sister. Her husband. Her closest friends. The people who believed in her when the brand was just herbs drying on a screen door.
She told me she cried. She regrouped. She cried again. And she still tried to take care of everyone else even as she was struggling to stand herself.
The part that struck me the most was what happened the next day. Many of them showed up anyway and asked what she needed.
That is culture.
Not the words on a wall.
The people who stay when the structure falls.
After the layoffs came the reality no founder wants to face.
Savings depleted.
Retirement depleted.
Every backup plan suddenly gone.
This part of the story is not glamorous. It is not motivational. It is not the part LinkedIn celebrates. But it is the truth behind what many leaders experience when everything collapses at once.
What moved me most was not the pain, but the clarity that emerged from it. Jodi began practicing presence out of necessity, not luxury. Thirty second grounding exercises. Simple breaths. Walking outside. Watching the sunrise and sunset. Cold plunging in a river because it was free and forced her into her body. Calling in a coach who stayed with her even when she could no longer pay him. Seeing the way her daughter mirrored her presence when she studied.
This is the real reinvention.
Not the branding.
Not the pivot.
The nervous system reset.
The coming home to yourself.
It took eighteen months to negotiate the buyback.
Eighteen months of uncertainty, exhaustion, fear, strategy, and grit.
Eighteen months of becoming a different kind of leader.
And when she finally reclaimed her company, she did it as a different woman. One who was more grounded, more honest, more aligned, and more present than she had ever been.
She told me that she is happier today than she has ever been.
And I believe her.
If Part 1 reminded us that passion can create something extraordinary, Part 2 reminds us that loss can shape us into something even stronger.
If you are navigating a transition or a reinvention, let Jodi’s story be the reminder you might need today.
You can lose the structure and still find yourself.
You can lose the company and still reclaim your power.
You can lose the plan and still build a life that is deeper, steadier, and more aligned than the one you had before.
This is what real reinvention looks like.
If you have been following along, you know I do not recommend anything I do not personally love. And after sitting with Jodi, hearing her story, and using her products daily, here are my personal must haves from Green Goo:
• Skin Repair Salve, the one that healed my smashed finger in a week
• First Aid Salve, the plant based alternative to Vaseline or Neosporin
• Southern Butter Intimate Body Butter, I will leave you with one word: wow
• Plant-Based Face Wash and Triple Rose Vitamin C Serum, glow-boosting and Zoom approved
• Dry Skin Salve, my non negotiable on my Peru hiking trip
And because she is as generous as she is resilient, she has extended a discount to my readers.
Use code MONIQUE16 for 16% off your purchase at GreenGoo.com.
You are welcome 😉
To see how this story began, read my first post about Jodi here. → https://www.moniquedemaio.com/blog/when-passion-becomes-a-product-line/