Hello everyone!
After recently breaking my silence on instagram, I’ve received lots of questions about what Wyld is now, and if you can still buy our skincare products. Wanted to try and answer these questions and share a little about the vision taking shape.
Wyld closed shop exactly 2 years ago. I needed to let go of what it was becoming in order to understand what it could be. That course of action, which was actually a pause, felt more authentic than forcing myself through the motions of something I was no longer aligned with. It had nothing to do with Wyld itself! It had everything to do with the fact that I’d follow other people’s ideas about what Wyld should be and how it should function, and before I knew it, Wyld was quite far from what I intended and still envisioned.
Since Wyld is so irrevocably tied to who I am (it is me, I am wyld), it has lived on in its own ways, shapes, and forms. And it will continue that way, because I’m a Manifesting Generator who has learned to embrace all of the passions and pivots. It’s not how things are supposed to work in brand world, but hey, doing what I was told in order to be a successful brand didn’t work either. I’m curious to try a different approach, which I will talk more about below.
To answer your questions….
Can you still buy Wyld skincare products?
At the moment, no. We’re not set up for skincare production.
BUT… our hand & body soaps are the #1 most requested product, both from individuals and our beloved resellers. Personally, I have to keep them stocked in our home. I give them to friends who are down, friends who are up, friends I’ve lost, friends I’ve found. There is something about them that resonates in surprising ways, which is strange, because I mean, they’re just soaps. But who am I to argue with the mystery of why something works and continues to work?
So, I am planning to bring the soaps back! I might offer less variations, and I might infuse them with some wildcrafted elements from here on out. Because wild things = home.
Along with the hand & body soaps, I’d love to offer an accompanying hand & body lotion. Very similar to the one I’ve posted about before, yet infused with seasonally harvested wild elements (like wild flowers or leaves, roots or berries). Together the hand & body soap and lotion will make a lovely duo, I think!
Otherwise, I don’t foresee a ton of skincare outside of some limited edition items. Which is why I’ve put so many of the Wyld formulas here on the journal for those who love them and want to make their own.
What even is Wyld now?
I’m allowing myself to visualize the possibilities.
For sure I will continue to wildcraft and handcraft (here’s why), yet in more diverse ways and expressions. Working with my hands still gives me so much joy. I am planning to offer a hand & body duo (pumpable soap + pumpable lotion). Beyond that, I want to stay open to any sparks that come along. As I wrote in Another return, I just need more freedom, less confinement to labels.
I also want to gather with people more, to offer what I know and receive what I don’t. Whether that’s classes or workshops or plain ole sit-around-the-fireside chats, I’m not sure yet. I just know that this has been a huge missing piece.
I can see myself gathering grasses and roots again, weaving them into things. I’m so out of practice. My fingers used to ache from the work of weaving, and now they ache from the absence of it.
Lately I’ve been drawn toward wood – and creative expressions with wood. Which is a totally new material for me. I’ve been reading books and watching videos about carpentry techniques. Not sure where it will all go, but I am feeling really inspired at the moment. We are preparing to build a new studio this summer, so perhaps I will finally put some of my learning into practice, move some mental energy out into the material world.
I’ve thought about capturing this process on film. And also capturing the everyday moments of life. Personally, I find beauty everywhere. There’s an artistic element to everything I do. From mothering my three boys to baking bread. From getting dressed in the morning to lighting candles in the evening. It’s the everyday, very human experiences that capture me these days. A long-standing dream has been to buy a good camera and begin storytelling through film again. Some stories just require that, I think. It’s like they choose their medium.
“As always, the stories show us the way.”
Sharon Blackie
There will always be a storytelling element to everything I do. Even if I have a lot of interests and passions outside of writing, being a writer is something I’ll never be able to shake. It’s what unites it all. If nature is what brings me home in the world, then writing is what brings me home in myself. It’s so much more than what I actually produce. It’s the practice that allows me to process life and understand myself in relation the world. It’s being alive and attentive to the world as a writer must be. That’s the part of the work, and myself, I cherish most. Whatever output comes of it all, that’s almost secondary.
Beyond my own writings, I’ve been yearning to connect with more myth- and story-tellers who work in different formats. Hence why I started writing on substack, where an enormous community of writers and other artists already are.
So if I’m writing on substack, what’s the point of this site, the Wyld journal?
I think there is a clear division already. The Wyld journal is more focused on wildcrafting and handcrafting. It’s more about the materials and materialized offerings – and the stories that go along with this work. For the most part, it stays within the Wyld brand guidelines. Whereas the substack writings are dedicated to my personal writing practice and to a wilder process of imagination. It’s ‘wyld’ in its own way. I don’t worry about brand guidelines on substack. I allow myself to go beyond the edges. And I allow myself to be more vulnerable, intimate. So far I see how the two can coexist harmoniously. Perhaps I’ll sit down and create some sort of visual graph to show where they meet and how they diverge.
What kind of company will Wyld be?
To understand its future, we have to look at its past.
When I started Wyld back in 2017, it was more of a concept than a company. It was a way of responding to and co-creating with life and others. There were different product lines. There was a long list of potential collaborations. There were workshops and gatherings. My vision for Wyld was dynamic, flowing, spiraling, and flexible. But when I pitched my vision to others (business professionals, boards, banks, tax authorities, etc.) I was told over and over and over and over again to find a focus. Find my niche. Choose one product and stick with it. Choose one track and stick to it. It was very frustrating, yet I thought there was something wrong with me. My entire life, I’ve struggled to find that ONE thing I want to do forever. I’ve always had many passions! I can master things quickly and integrate new skills and visions into it. From the outside it might look chaotic, unorganized, perhaps overly ambitious. For me, it makes perfect sense. I understand how one thing informs another. And I feel MORE energized while working on many different things simultaneously. Whenever I force myself to stick to one thing, one path, I become depressed. It’s as if that thing, whatever it is, is draining my life force. When I finally let it go and allow myself to try something different, it’s like being reborn. (But also, death and rebirth is a natural part of the cycle we undergo constantly!) My energy and curiosity rev back up. My drive to create comes roaring back and usually leads me along many diverse tracks. Which eventually leads to more pivots. This way of being is NOT acceptable in our linear society. It looks really bad on CVs. It look like a problem to HR. It looks like failure in every possible way. Especially as a woman! In fact, a business mentor told me, “It’s very difficult for a women to be taken seriously if she’s doing more than one thing.” Even my parents would tell their friends I was “still trying to figure it out.” Even after so many university degrees, so many good jobs. My parents have worked at the same company for 40 years. I could never be loyal to any one company, or even one career path, without being totally disloyal to myself.
This “personality flaw,” as I saw it, is what led me to business advisories back in 2017. They confirmed my flawed way of thinking and drew up a formula for Wyld’s success in the world. Success that hinged on my ability to do a, b and c for many years to come. Then eventually doing x, y and z. There it was, all laid out in front of me. And it bored me to tears. Sure it all made sense in my head, but in my heart it felt cold and calculated. My life force was already waning, but I plodded on. Wyld was launched in 2018. I diverged from those business strategies a few times, especially when I did a total re-brand in 2020. That ended up being a very good decision, both for me and for the brand. And it helped me trust my own intuition a bit more. But still, there was a lot of self-doubt I hadn’t overcome. I was starting to talk about my experience, and I started this Wyld journal to capture more of the diverse interests and passions I wanted to express through Wyld, but I was also still trying to keep Wyld on the straight and narrow. Was it working? It’s hard to say. On paper everything looked okay. Despite any success Wyld was having, I was frustrated. The frustration was heavy and exasperating, and everywhere I turned, it hung over me like a low ceiling, and every time I moved, it knocked me in the head.
Then I found human design. And I learned that I’m a Manifesting Generator. Oh my, what a revelation. A life-changing revelation! And I do not use the word life-changing often at all. For me, it’s one of those things marking a clear before and after.
As I read about Manifesting Generators, it was like reading my own memoir without having ever told anyone my story. But in this version of my memoir, there was no self-doubt or confusion. There was only affirmation and power! For the first time in my life, I was open to the idea that I’m not inherently flawed. I was open to the possibility that I would never fit into old models and ways of being, and in fact, that by pushing myself to fit those expectations, I would be frustrated, drained, and out of alignment. I was open to the possibility that I – and all Manifesting Generators – are here to show new ways of doing things. Forge new paths. To flow in and out of many passions. To respond to life with deeply intuitive yes’s and no’s that are trustworthy even if they don’t always make sense at the moment. I was open to the possibility that being a multi-hyphenate is not a bad thing, and in fact, is right for me.
And then why not Wyld too? Can a brand have an energy type? Why not? Everything has energy. Everything is energy. Maybe Wyld doesn’t have to follow some list of “best practices” for brands. Maybe Wyld can be more dynamic and multi-faceted. I was open to this possibility. At the same time, I was open to the possibility that brands actually need firm principles and boundaries, some level of order and rigidity, in order to survive. And in that case, was I still the right leader?
I decided to close shop in 2022. I needed some time to reflect on what Wyld had become and could be. And on whether or not I was still its rightful owner.
A lot of offers came my way after this decision. Many people wanted to buy Wyld. I told them I wasn’t ready to make that decision just yet. There was something in me that just couldn’t sell it off like that. Honestly, there was no price I could put on Wyld. It was so intertwined with who I am. And like me, it was still in process.
I also got a job offer and made a huge career pivot. After 12 years of freelancing, I joined a creative team full-time and became an employee of a large institution. This in and of itself was a massive experiment. It challenged me in many ways and also taught me things about myself and business that I’m very thankful for. At the same time, it helped me understand why 9-5 jobs in corporate environments do not work for me. A lot to say here, but this is getting long. To sum it up: I became pregnant with my third child and stayed at the job until I went on maternity leave. By the time I went on leave, I was not in good place. I was terribly overworked yet also bored to death. I spent the weeks up to Rio’s birth on the sofa binge-watching TV shows, which is NOT like me, and yes, I know I was heavily pregnant, but it’s still enormously out of character. I had nothing to give, no will to create, no urge to even eat. I’m sure it was partly due to hormones and the enormous toll pregnancy takes on the body, but I know myself well, and I know that 9-5 corporate job had drained me dry. It had confined me in so many ways, and halted the way I naturally flow through life.
From the beginning of my third trimester, I kept getting the idea that this baby was going to save me. Those words came like a audio message from beyond, and I couldn’t shake it. Some days it was a whisper, and other days it was loud. Yet I also struggled to believe it. I told only a handful of people. At this point, I didn’t know he was Rio. I didn’t even know he was a boy. I simply thought it was foolish to believe that a baby could save me. And what was he saving me from? I came up with some ideas back then, but it turns out that those ideas were all too small.
When our third little boy arrived, we named him Rio, our little river baby. Not only did I fall so deeply in love, I also fell so naturally into his rhythm. I did not listen to anyone else’s opinions on how to mother him or what he should be doing. I did not into busy-ness or scheduling or even punctuality. We have simply flowed so peacefully and intuitively through our days. This past year has been a process of self retrieval. Like remember who I was before I was told I was unacceptable. Learning to flow iwth life again has not changed just one area of my life. It has changed everything. I accepted Rio so completely, and in doing so, accepted myself. And that has saved me.
There is so much possibility I’m open to again.
When it comes to Wyld, it is me, I am Wyld. It still calls out to me. And I still answer. There is still so much possibility. I’m curious to see what might happen by leading Wyld from a more aligned state.
So I am returning to the vision I once had for Wyld as a way of responding to and co-creating with life and others. I don’t know exactly how it all looks yet. Things are moving slowly on the surface, but quickly underneath. Clarity is arriving, bit by bit, like the new buds and leaves, flowers and creatures I meet outside these days. Like the babies that slowly develop in our bodies. And when they come, it’s like they’ve always been here, they already belong.
This post has become quite long-winded. If you’re still reading, thank you! I’m delighted you’re here and my desire is that you, too, can sense all of the possibility in your own life, in your own perfectly designed self.
Hope this at least answers your questions. Let me know if you have any others!
xx
Beth
All images are from Rebecca Reeve’s photo series, Marjory’s World
Related reads
Wyld Was Never Supposed To Be A Skincare Company was my first attempt, some years ago, to speak up about the direction Wyld was headed in.
On closing the Wyld shop published exactly 2 years ago today.
Why We Wildcraft And Handcraft still rings so true.
Another return touches on the way I naturally flow, and why it’s so important.
Spiraling – Through time, seasons, a life is a reminder that we’re in constant, intertwining cycles of birth, death, and rebirth.
Blood and money – Let it flow is about why women often feel at odds with ‘business as usual.’
If you don’t already know your human design, I started here by finding my chart. Then started reading and listening to podcasts to understand what it all meant.
