Changing the way women approach and treat their health issues is at the heart of Love Wellness, the indie wellness company Joanne Hsieh joined in 2021 as President and Board Director. The move to indie life came after serving in several corporate roles, including Chief Operating Officer at Walker & Company Brands, and as SVP & General Manager, La Mer. Since joining Love Wellness, Joanne has helped lead the company through a period of significant growth and expansion, evolving from a range of vaginal and gut health products to an omni-channel, total body wellness solution, alongside founder and CEO, Lauren “Lo” Bosworth.  The two are changing the way women approach the health issues they face through education and clean formulas. Here, CEW Beauty News did a 5 minute interview with CEO Joanne Hsieh to learn more about what attracted her to Love Wellness, the brand’s growth journey, and more.

Beauty News: What attracted you to join a start-up from the corporate world?

Joanne Hsieh: When I discovered the brand, I was drawn to the white space that our founder, Lauren “Lo” Bosworth, identified and aimed to address. Her mission to change the way women embrace the issues they face through efficacious products and education inspired me then and continues to inspire me every day. Over the past year, we’ve taken a fresh approach to traditional wellness solutions through products made with clean ingredients and guidance from our advisory panel of doctors, food scientists, microbiologists, nutritionists, and holistic wellness practitioners. We’ve established Love Wellness as the leader in vaginal and gut health and beauty ingestibles with robust educational content, a loyal subscriber base, and strong brand presence online and at retailers across the country.

BN: What is Love Wellness’ point of difference?

JH: Love Wellness provides natural solutions for natural problems that all women face. Problems like yeast infections, bacterial vaginosis, constipation, bloating and thinning hair. These are often perceived as taboo topics but are the everyday realities for many women. Our brand campaigns “Don’t Just Deal” and “Let’s Talk Bodies” are centered around these consumer insights and designed to empower women and inspire conversations. Lo has been shaping this conversation since 2016, and today we are leaders in vaginal and gut health through an incredible lineup of supplements, multivitamins, and personal care products.

BN: What has been the brand’s growth journey to date?

JH: Lo Bosworth founded the brand in 2016 while on her own health journey. She suffered from extreme vitamin deficiencies and battled infections and anxiety. She discovered the personal care aisle lacked products that resonated with her from an ingredient and educational perspective. She created Love Wellness, and with the help of experts, developed natural solutions for natural problems.

Love Wellness started with a limited range of vaginal and gut health products sold only on our brand site. Today, we have a flourishing retail business and have broadened our assortment to address concerns throughout a woman’s body. Our direct-to-consumer business thrives with a loyal subscriber base. We entered the retail channel in 2019 at Ulta as their first wellness brand, and we continue to be a strategic partner as they expand in this area. Last year we launched at Target and earned distribution in multiple departments, establishing ourselves as innovators in women’s personal care. On Amazon, we have captured a different shopper through highly-converting education, thousands of five-star reviews, and loyalty via the Subscribe and Save program. We have a long-standing partnership with Revolve and most recently, we launched on Gopuff as a convenience play with Gen Z.

BN: What are the immediate and long-term opportunities?

JH: The most immediate opportunity is adding key talent to our organization. I love building teams and watching people flourish and grow. I’m so proud of what our small but mighty team has built so far. We are expanding our team thoughtfully in areas that allow us to address the growing market demand for products and brands like ours.

Another is continuing to push the envelope in how we educate consumers by inspiring them to take control of their self-care. We educate in a way that creates empowerment rather than intimidation or shame. We believe that we can help women embrace their wellness issues and find their “holy grail” product. Lo’s early insight, which is still our mission, is to change the way the world thinks about women’s health. We will continue to educate consumers on the importance of total body self-care and the pathway connections between the gut, vagina and brain in hopes that more women will feel comfortable talking about and addressing these very normal concerns.

We have always believed in a digital-first approach, but also recognize how critical it is to meet the consumer where she shops.  We will continue to nurture both our DTC and retail channels, ensuring that our communication is on-brand and consistent. In this way, we can bring the Love Wellness experience to new consumers and bring our existing consumers deeper into our brand.

BN: How are you marketing to consumers?

JH: We take an education-first approach to marketing that comes to life through our founder, our team of Wellness Advisors, and our customers—each with a personal and intimate connection to Love Wellness. Lo shares her own personal wellness journey, why she chose to develop each product, and why the brand matters to her. Our Wellness Advisors provide the science behind how our bodies work, how our products work, and how the ingredients work in a way that is both accessible and informative without feeling overwhelming.

BH: What’s your social media strategy?

JH: We have engaged communities on both Love Wellness’ and Lo Bosworth’s social channels, where we are seen as experts on women’s health and wellness. We’ve been successful on TikTok for discovery and brand awareness, while Instagram has been a primary avenue to educate our target audience on ingredients and product benefits. We’re focused on social media—the channel has replaced Google for Gen Z, who depend on social search to learn about a brand. We lean into putting our community’s voice first, with the right mix of founder-focused storytelling.

BN: Have you made executive changes at the brand?

JH: We recently hired Katrina Gentile in a newly created role of SVP, Sales and Operations, which is very exciting for us as we expand our retail footprint and increase our presence with our key partners. We have a small but mighty team and are actively recruiting talent across a few focus areas.