Community Highlights: Meet Chelsie and Marlon Goins of Junk Jrawer

Today we’d like to introduce you to Chelsie and Marlon Goins.

Hi Chelsie and Marlon, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Our names are Chelsie and Marlon and we are the creators of Junk Jrawer. We are cousins who grew up right next door to each other in Mid-City Los Angeles. Throughout childhood, we would start small business ventures like gardening or babysitting as a duo with family and family friends, which was the origin of our entrepreneurial spirit. However, as we got older we focused more of our time on school. Seeing the array of cultural, financial, and other socio-political backgrounds gave us the empathetic and compassionate outlooks that pushed us toward art and education. Our passions were inspired by the diversity we were surrounded by in Los Angeles and a desire to see positive change in our community. For most of our lives, art and our academic lives/ professional trajectories were separate endeavors. Art was an outlet and a meaningful occasional hobby that helped us recenter enough to get back to our other responsibilities. Art forms such as photography, drawing, painting, and writing were sacred pastimes that were disconnected from the careers we were interested in having. We received degrees in politics and psychology in 2019 and 2020, briefly receiving dream jobs after graduating. While we appreciated our experiences, we learned that the careers we wanted to help change the world should not be separate from our artistic pursuits. That is why we started Junk Jrawer.

While we love learning and business, making Junk Jrawer a great opportunity to strengthen ourselves as entrepreneurs, we also see our business as a platform for sharing beautiful creations with others. We are a two-person team right now and manage all aspects of the company. Aside from viewing business as art, we especially see the customer-facing aspects of our brand as art. We create original media and copy for Junk Jrawer in addition to the products we make. We put great thought and care into everything we produce. And because care about our community’s health, we diligently work to create products healthy for us and our environment. Additionally, we are always looking to promote and work with other small businesses and entrepreneurs in Los Angeles to be of assistance in any way we can, as we’re passionate about seeing others thrive! Our long-term goal is to empower other businesses, entrepreneurs, and individuals with opportunities and outlets. As we grow, we will continue to use our resources to uplift others.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We bootstrapped the company, meaning we started only using the capital we had. Being debt-free as a company has allowed us to grow at a pace we feel is most conducive to us building a lasting and impactful brand, but that comes with sacrifices. For example, we are limited in our budget for marketing and supplies limiting the number of customers we are able to reach with our content immediately and the quantity of inventory we can buy at once to get wholesale pricing. We have has to take a more scaled approach. We also learned that the two of us can’t do EVERYTHING. We recommend getting a tax professional early on.

Other than that, there are good and bad days in entrepreneurship. Sometimes it feels like the best choice in the world and other days it is hard to find motivation. However, having a business partner helps magnificently in keeping our dream alive. While we have tasks we each generally handle, we are always ready to step in and assist the other at any time.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We have recently pivoted our company’s intentions and brand presence in order to stay in alignment with our initial vision of maintaining veracity. We hand-make and sell all-natural fragrance products that we hope bring a smile to our customers’ faces. From the beginning, we have viewed ourselves as more than a candle company. We wanted to create functional art. We asked ourselves what we could do differently without products that offered a twist to what was already commercially available. Our idea was to make 3D, interactive candles and wax melts that could bring part of the candle-making experience to customers’ homes. Our 100% soy wax products are formulated and designed to look beautiful, smell amazing, and encourage creative relaxation. Our products come in signature scents we have developed to create a unique and dynamic fragrance experience. From layered candles that change scent and shape as you burn them to wax melt sets with a wide range of scented wax toppings that allow customers to customize their fragrance experience, we are constantly testing and developing ideas we hope can inspire. We recently introduced room sprays that are all-natural and contain minimal ingredients.

A large part of our brand presence also includes being a source of trustworthy information. We create guides for our products and relevant safety information for clients in addition to creating resources for other entrepreneurs. The pages on our website that aren’t product pages serve as a platform for knowledge and awareness. Whether we are publishing articles based on our experiences in business with the hope of helping others or writing an article that sheds light on the projects and platforms other entrepreneurs would like to promote. As we continue to grow, we hope to use our reach and resources to be a support system for others around Los Angeles. Our goal of empowering others with the work we do has led to our shift to include more outreach in our branding. We do not want Junk Jrawer to be a candle company, rather we want it to be a place where people can find what others have to share. We hope Junk Jrawer can be an outlet and connection source for thinkers, businesses, and entrepreneurs like us. Our fragrance products, while central to our brand, are a part of our contribution to the space we are creating; they are the first piece of functional art available.

What makes you happy?
Following our passions and discovering a path for the future brings us joy. Although entrepreneurship is not an easy road, we make sure we never lose the authenticity and reasoning for starting Junk Jrawer. Whenever we hit a roadblock, we see it as an opportunity to challenge ourselves to problem-solve. We are confident that we will be successful, but we see success in business as a symptom of living a happy and fulfilled life. Regardless of what lies ahead for Junk Jrawer, we know these experiences better us, so confidently and veraciously facing the challenges we have makes us happy. Because the lessons we learn in any part of life can teach a lot about other parts of our life, we see everything we encounter as a chance to learn to be better as individuals, family, and members of our community and world. Knowing our daily work is building towards something greater that we can share with others truly heightens that experience of joy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://junkjrawer.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/junkjrawer/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JunkJrawerCandles
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/junk-jrawer/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JunkJrawer

Image Credits
Marlon Goins Photography