Advice Line with Susan Griffin-Black of EO Products

Intro

Susan Griffin-Black returns to the Advice Line to help three founders tackle distribution, scaling, and international expansion. She draws on three decades of growing EO Products from a garage experiment into a national personal care brand to give practical, relationship-driven advice.

Caller 1: Ruchi Gupta & Yobi

Dr. Ruchi Gupta, a pediatrician and professor at Northwestern, founded Yobi after her daughter was born with severe eczema. She developed a probiotic-based skincare line and now sells five products through her website and Amazon, with about 40 percent repeat purchase rate and $330,000 in sales last year. She asks whether she should double down on DTC or push harder into spas, doctors offices, and medispas. Griffin-Black advises keeping DTC as the foundation while pursuing professional channels, because those recommendations build trust. She also suggests turning Yobi's educational blog into a monthly newsletter to deepen customer loyalty without asking for anything in return.

Caller 2: Peter Andrews & Culture Wine Company

Peter Andrews spent his career in food and beverage before launching Culture Wine Company in 2023 to import and distribute small-batch South African wines. His business is growing fast - up 60 percent last year and over 150 percent year to date - but he wrestles with how to split his time between wholesale partnerships and DTC while also building demand for South African wine as a category. Griffin-Black recommends narrowing wholesale to a handful of cities where he can train distributors and sommeliers in person, rather than spreading too thin across too many states. She also urges him to lean into regenerative farming stories on his labels, since that messaging exceeds the standard of organic and resonates with modern wine buyers.

Caller 3: Dominic Wyndham-Giddens & Wyndham's Beijing Coffee Roasters

Dominic Wyndham-Giddens has built Wyndham's Beijing Coffee Roasters and its Cane Dog sub-brand over 25 years in Barbados, with roughly $2 million in annual sales and 25 UK taste awards. He wants to expand internationally but faces high logistics costs and limited access to neighboring Caribbean islands. Griffin-Black tells him to saturate the Caribbean tourism market first with stickers, merch, and point-of-sale presence so the brand feels established before chasing larger markets. She also recommends focusing on one or two U.S. regional grocery chains rather than trying to launch nationwide immediately, because a concentrated pitch lets him build authentic relationships with buyers.

Final Thought

Across all three calls, Griffin-Black returns to the same principle: relationships and local depth beat broad, scattered expansion. Whether it is dermatologist offices in Chicago or regional grocers in Texas, the founders who win are the ones who show up in person, listen to the people closest to the customer, and let that feedback shape where they go next.