Community Highlights: Meet Kyle Stimpson of Steep Into It

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kyle Stimpson.

Hi Kyle, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Over the past ten years, I’ve really taken a deep dive into the health and wellness space while trying to learn more about how to improve my own health. I struggled with weight gain, poor sleep, and anxiety among other common nagging issues, and I really was just looking for ways to naturally improve my own health and well-being.

I started getting into adaptogens and functional herbs while trying to improve my energy, relieve stress and get better sleep. I tried many different brands of functional mushroom powders to add to my coffee and various wellness teas, but I started to quickly realized that while a lot of brands have great branding and promises on their packaging, the ingredients inside weren’t living up to the hype. Most brands have fancy, premium-looking packaging, but inside they just use cheap ingredients.

So I started Steep Into It for myself. I sourced the highest-quality ingredients and created a brand around enhancing everyday rituals, such as morning coffee and afternoon/evening tea, to bring our customers more energy, restful sleep and better health.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It has absolutely not been smooth, but the learning process has been profound. When I started, I knew a lot about how to source great ingredients and make a high-quality product, but I knew nothing about branding, marketing or e-commerce. My product was great from the start, but it took me a long time to learn how to market and sell it.

A few examples of struggles I’ve had and mistakes I’ve made:

– Having to create new packaging that was more eye-catching and wholesale-eligible and then having to repackage most of our inventory
– Launching social media ads without having a well-designed website
– Paying for expensive social media influencer posts without first testing our product and message to a large enough audience (you need to test your product on a very large number of people at first to figure out which type of audience and messaging works best. This will help you narrow down your targeting once your ready to scale)

I took a lot of advice from people who had success with their e-commerce businesses years before me, and what I quickly learned was what worked for some people five years ago might not work for your new brand now. Marketing practices quickly change for social media and e-commerce so you need to adapt quickly.

These were all incredible learning experiences though, and they have made me much more knowledgeable about e-commerce marketing and social media.

We’ve been impressed with Steep Into It, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Steep Into It is a premium brand of functional mushroom extracts and wellness teas that help our customers enhance their everyday rituals with only the highest-quality ingredients. Our products are meant to give are customers more energy, restful sleep and better health by living up to the promises we make by providing an ultra-premium product.

There are a lot of major brands of functional mushrooms, herbs and teas out there that make promises about the benefits of their products, however, they’re just using cheap ingredients that might not be able to provide any benefit. It’s the different between buying an organic apple from your local farmer’s market or apple juice from the grocery store. They both might be apples, but the health benefits are not nearly the same.

It goes with anything that you consume or put on your body. You need to read your labels and understand where your consumer goods come from and how they’re made. Marketing practices can be highly deceptive to make you think you’re getting a great product, so make sure you educate yourself!

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
– Start small. Don’t try to build a billion-dollar empire overnight. Take baby steps to avoid making big mistakes and wasting money – Be patient. Without access to large amounts of capital or a large, targeted audience, building a brand is going to take a long time. Understand that it’s probably going to be a 3-5 year process.

– Take advice from people who have had success but be skeptical. Definitely try to learn as much as you can from people who have had success in your similar pursuit. However, everyone’s path is different and times change. Only you can ultimately know what’s best for your business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://steepintoit.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/steep.into.it/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steepintoit
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@steepintoit

Image Credits
Dalton Misner Amanda Arnold