Episode 162: An Accidental Journey Into Sustainable Entrepreneurship | Kelly Murphy | Founder of Refillery LA
Kelly Murphy never planned on becoming an entrepreneur, but a trip around the world changed everything. After seeing the impact of waste in some of the most beautiful places on Earth, she returned home determined to make it easier for people to live with less plastic. As the founder of Refillery LA, Kelly brings zero waste living to neighborhoods across Los Angeles with her mobile refill station for cleaning, personal care, and household products. She shares how the business began, why cutting plastic matters for both the planet and our health, and the small, practical steps that can make a big difference. This conversation is full of insight on sustainable entrepreneurship, climate action, and how each of us can create change right where we are.
“When you spend $1 for a bottle of soap, someone is getting lost in that transaction - a person, your health, or the planet. ”
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Founder of Refillery LA
Greta Thunberg PBS Documentary
Garbology: Our Dirty Love Affair with Trash
Zero Waste Home: The Ultimate Guide to Simplifying Your Life by Reducing Your Waste
A Plastic Ocean - Documentary
The Story of Plastic - Documentary
Overload, America’s Toxic Love Story - Documentary
Stinks - Documentary on Amazon Prime
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Follow along using the Transcript
00:00 The true cost of cheap products
01:00 Introducing Kelly Murphy and Refill LA
03:00 From corporate life to zero-waste entrepreneurship
05:00 First customers, early struggles, and community support
07:00 Why refilling isn’t mainstream yet
08:00 What you can actually refill at home
09:00 Misconceptions about going zero waste
10:00 Serving Los Angeles and opening a brick-and-mortar store
11:00 How COVID forced a business pivot
12:00 Personal zero-waste lifestyle changes
13:00 Educating the community through workshops
14:00 Plastic, oil, and the bigger picture
15:00 Beach cleanups and the reality of styrofoam
16:00 Microplastics and why we must “turn off the tap”
17:00 Local legislation and policy shifts on plastics
18:00 Incentives for businesses and consumers
19:00 Climate anxiety and how to manage it
21:00 Books and documentaries on zero waste and toxins
23:00 The hidden dangers of “fragrance” and chemicals
24:00 Women’s influence and unconditional support
26:00 What “powerful” and “lady” mean together
27:00 Why women lead change in homes and communities
29:00 Perseverance and the strength of being told “no”
30:00 The small but growing refill business community
31:00 Rethinking business: success without exploitation
32:00 Conserving resources and learning from the past
33:00 The average American’s daily trash footprint
34:00 Living with more intention and less distraction
35:00 Mindful meals and gratitude practices
36:00 The realities of entrepreneurship
37:00 COVID challenges and building resilience
38:00 Powerful Ladies Scale: today vs. average
39:00 Where to find and support Refill LA
40:00 Closing reflections and gratitude
And they're undercutting the price and who's getting, lost in that supply chain who's losing because when you pay, a dollar for a thing of dish soap, someone is losing. Whether that's, the labor or the planet someone is losing in that transaction.
That's Kelly Murphy and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Hey guys, I am Kara Duffy, a business coach and entrepreneur on a mission to help you live your most extraordinary life. By showing you anything is possible, people who have mastered freedom, ease, and success. People who are living their best and most ridiculous lives and who are changing the world are often people you've never heard of until now.
Here's the truth. Our current habits are destroying our planet and the environment. We need everyone to take whatever changes you can to live your best life with less footprint. Today's guest, Kelly Murphy, is an accidental entrepreneur, environmentalist, and founder of Fillery la. She's making it easier for you and I to make better choices with her.
Zero waste business that allows you to refill your own containers, the cleaning products, shampoos and more. And by making that choice, we get to cut plastic and trash out of your life. I hope you enjoy our conversation about how she started her business, why it matters, how you can take simple actions, be part of the change.
And why We really, truly need each one of us to raise our hands and take an action.
I am very excited to talk to you today. I love it when other podcast guests brag about and recommend other women who are in their same space and industry and kicking ass. And Mo recommended you. So yeah, just thank you for being here and I'm excited to talk to you today.
Thanks so much for having me.
I love Mo and I can't say enough good things about her either, so I feel like I'm in great company.
You are. Let's jump in right away and tell everybody your name, where you are in the world, and what you're up to. My name is Kelly. I
am in Los Angeles, and I'm the founder of Refill la. We are a mobile refill station working to reduce single use plastic pollution by refilling all of your household and personal care items.
Now I am very happy that you exist and that you're doing that. Thank you. I'm obsessed with following, zero ways to counts on social media and watching all the documentaries and blogs. All the things I can consume about it. I have all of my refillable containers Wow. On my side with all the beverages you need to record in a podcast wine in one and coffee in the other.
Yes, exactly. How did you get started in this space and is this something that's always been a passion of yours?
I wouldn't say it's something that I was always passionate about or even aware of. I grew up and I guess I didn't realize it, but in an environmental like home where my parents were like really conscious about what we consumed and composting at home and low waste living, but it wasn't something I was cognizant of.
A few years ago, probably 2018, I had quit my corporate job. I was traveling with my partner at the time and we were just seeing all of this waste and some of the most beautiful and remote places in the world, and it was really jarring and really hit home that I was contributing to like the detriment of this natural beauty.
And when I returned from that trip, I like really took a hard look at what I was doing with my life and I wanted to reduce my personal impact. At that point, I was not sure what to do and I saw these zero waste refill type stores along my travels and I was like, oh, I'm just gonna do that. I'm just gonna go home and I'm gonna do that.
That's so easy. And when I got home, there was nothing like that and I was just waiting for one to pop up because I figured, oh, it's like everyone wants to do this obviously. Sure. Surely in Los Angeles there's gotta be one around the corner. It didn't happen. And my partner at the time was like why don't you just do it?
Why don't you just do it? Start your own. And I never wanted to be a business owner. I never thought about being an entrepreneur. I was so against it. And he really convinced me to take that leap. But almost doing it as. Like a controlled experiment. And that's how we started. And in a mobile fashion, because it's less risky, I'm a risk adverse person and I was really nervous about starting a business.
Like I said, I didn't really wanna the mobile business was born and from there it actually ended up being beneficial for us to be able to service more communities and to be in places where, there were no opportunities to refill or to buy zero weeks.
And you were literally driving to people's homes and still do Right.
To refill their containers. Yeah. How did you get your first customer and then how did you get your next 10?
That's so funny. I didn't know what to do, so I just took my van and I parked outside of the farmer's market, which like you're really not supposed to do, but I did it anyway and I just stood there and my whole goal on my first day was to have one sale.
And I think I got three sales of just people walking by and they're like, I don't even know what this is. I've no idea what you're doing, but like I support this like question mark. Like I'm not sure, but I think I support this. I'm like, yeah, great. So I need three sales my first day. And then I think my next Sunday out now one of my very good friends, she was riding by on her bike.
She's like a zero waste queen, and she literally came to a screeching halt in front of my van and she's what is this? And so she comes over, I start telling her about it and she's I am so happy you exist. Here's my phone number, like. Let's be friends. And now years later, we're really great friends, but she was so instrumental in like putting me in touch with other amazing zero waste people and corporations and businesses to help get me off the ground.
And I can't thank her enough, Tamar. Thank you. Another powerful lady out there. So it was really just a lot of showing up places and just explaining. I think the biggest hurdle for me was education because
This is such a new concept and people weren't sure what we were doing.
Yeah. And are you still feeling that you have to educate people before they can become a customer, or are more people showing up getting it?
I think
more people are showing up and getting it. I think over the past two years, like refilling in zero waste has become such a mainstream conversation that it's a lot less of a heavy lift on my end. As far as education goes, I still think there is. A big gap in who we're seeing as our customers. You have to really wanna make that commitment to go out of your way and refill.
It's, not just your everyday average person walking into the grocery store and be like, oh, I'm gonna make this decision instead. Today, it's still an extra step, which I would love to see. In the future of Zero Waste, you can just walk into your local big box grocery store and make that decision.
But unfortunately, we're not there yet.
Yeah, you can for seeds or nuts and a few other things, but not liquids. And even
that is still so limited to only certain grocery stores and certain areas. Yeah.
So when you show up at someone's house, what types of things can you refill for them?
We cover most of your bases.
So we have, laundry detergent, dish soap, shampoo, conditioner, hand soap, body wash. We have a few things that are a little more out there like mouthwash tablets, tooth wash tab, or toothpaste, tablets. We have actual paste toothpaste, we have deodorant, cream. We try to get most of your everyday essentials.
And I think another part of that education is realizing you don't need. So many products, I think we're conditioned by marketing to think that we need a hundred different products in our home. You need something? Different for your bathroom countertop than your kitchen countertop and your tub and your toilet and your sink, and you really don't, even if you don't have the opportunity to refill, go get some baking soda and vinegar and it's been clean like 90% of your house,
yeah. I've been doing for a long time, I've been doing my own countertop sprays with vinegar essential oil water.
Yeah, I love to infuse vinegar with like orange peel or lemon or rosemary and just use that around the house. Takes the edge off of that. Strong vinegar smell.
Yeah, exactly. So what are the misconceptions you think people have about beans zero waste and about being able to be a refiller? I think the
biggest, scariest leap for most people gonna zero waste is. It has to be zero. And they see the things on the internet where people are saving their trash in a jar and it looks really daunting and it's overwhelming.
Like I don't put my trash in a jar. That's, it's too much. It's too far. And I think letting people know that you don't have to go all the way. Like you can take little steps and that is still gonna count. That's gonna make a difference. You're doing what you can do. Not everyone has. All the time and resources to make these changes.
But if you do have time and resources and you can make one change, great. That's more than most people are doing. So go ahead and do that, but you don't have to be everything. And as far as refilling goes, I think, most people are nervous because they're so committed to a certain brand. And I think that's another.
The service that, marketing and huge corporations have done to us is you need Tide, you have to have Pantene Pro B well, what's really in those products? And do we care about the brand name or do we really care about what we're putting on and in our bodies? Which is to me, far more important what chemicals are going near me.
So I think when people can get past that branding, you obsession that it's a little easier and just to think about being clean and healthy and natural for you and your family.
How far reaching is your business now?
We are still in West la Los Angeles is a really big area. And since we are mobile and I don't wanna drive all over creation we do pretty much stick to the west side of Los Angeles.
We are announcing that we're opening a pop-up brick and mortar store in March of 2022 in Culver City. So stay tuned. But we'll still of course have our mobile van as well. We do go as far as the east side. I know if you're not from Los Angeles, you're like, oh my gosh, what does this mean? If I have to cross the 4 0 5, it's crazy.
It's really crazy. So we do go to the Hollywood farmers' markets and a few other places out east, but we were mostly here on the west side.
Perfect. How did COVID and the pandemic impact your business?
Yeah, it was actually very impactful for us. We were doing a lot of our business at events and farmers markets and at other businesses pre COVID, and when all of that shut down.
We really had to pivot and move mostly to the house call model where we're doing deliveries. I've seen over the past six months or so, things are slowly starting to come back for events and farmer's markets. Like we just went back to the Hollywood farmer's market after two full years. Wow. Which was wild.
So it is great to start seeing people. In real life again and, at these events and going out and just super excited to, to get back to that. I love having that community around when we do events and do markets and it's just a lot more exciting than leaving your bottles and your stuff and I don't get to see you and interact with you and have that almost consultation about what you're getting, what you need, and how we can help you.
It changes everything in business, right? When you can talk to, and even just see your customer.
Yeah, that human contact is so important for us.
You mentioned a little bit your kind of zero waste journey and seeing the impact when you were traveling. How, besides starting this business against your will, how do you, how have you changed parts of your life personally and how do you keep exploring where there are other options to become more Zero waste.
I feel like I changed a lot of my life. I went, plant-based. I used to eat meat. I reduced, like my personal waste. I try to drive less, bike more. I like really keep, tabs on, what my footprint is oh, okay, I wanna go on this vacation, but I don't really feel like flying.
Maybe I can just do one big trip, like every couple years. And it's hard because you don't wanna give up. I your whole life and sacrifice everything. And that kind of goes back to what can you do and what is your impact and what changes can you make? It's definitely not easy.
I feel really fortunate that I have the time and resources to make a lot of these changes like. At home and making one big trip to the food store and, being able to take their own bags and not everyone has that time or has those resources available to them. So I feel really fortunate that I have that.
And I just keep looking and reading and watching documentaries and learning from my friends about what's going on. Again, I feel so lucky to have people in my life like Mo and my friend Tamer that I met for the Zero waste community to keep me on track and to keep me up to date and what's going on in the community and how I can be a part of it and make a bigger impact.
We really try to educate the community through our business. So we are a business that. We love doing workshops when we can. We have one coming up Saturday where we talk about zero waste and how you can make, sustainable changes in your life that are like small things, just if you wanna get started.
And I think that's really what I was missing a lot during COVID was having, that piece of the business to me is the most fulfilling. And I think that's where I can make the biggest impact, other than refilling soap, is just being able to spread the word about, why this is important and how zero waste doesn't, just affect, the trash that you see on the ground.
But plastic is coming from oil, it's having an impact for the entire supply chain. The chemicals that are in these products that are impacting you and your health. And I think that's such a larger conversation that we miss when we're just talking about the Great Pacific garbage patch or like seeing trash on the ground.
And there's so many levels of politics once you start getting into things that are made from and with oil, which a whole other level that you know when you're buying dish soap in a plastic container. At Ralph's, you're not thinking about opec.
But how they lobbied, to have these oil rights, to make that plastic bottle to sell to you, and they're undercutting the price and who's getting, lost and that supply chain who's losing because when you pay, a dollar for a thing of dish soap, someone is losing, like whether that's, the labor or the planet someone is losing in that transaction. Yeah. And
there's, I did a beach cleanup in December in San Juan Capistrano.
And I was like, walking around, I'm like, oh, this beach is really clean. Maybe there's tons of volunteers. Maybe one, this won't take that long until we got into a patch of styrofoam and it was equivalent to picking up glitter with tweezers. Oh my gosh. It was so frustrating. I literally sat on the sand for hours in one place just picking styrofoam out of the sand and it didn't look like it was styrofoam if you just, were walking by quickly 'cause it looked like white rocks or stone. Then you got close, you realized it was all white and green styrofoam and it was so frustrating to clean it up because I am not patient. And this was like the most patient process and just knowing that we could never get every piece.
And ever since then, I'm so aware of when I'm getting food to go. I'm like, is it styrofoam? Because I do not wanna clean this off of a beach again. And I don't want anyone else to have to. And there's so many alternative choices. I would just love to make it a rule that you cannot use styrofoam at all.
Yeah. Styrofoam is not recyclable. It breaks up a million little pieces. And I know on the beach cleanups. I've done, I've seen the same thing, but microplastics and with plastic, we say it never breaks down. It only breaks up. And you look at the sand and it looks clean and pristine and you dig down and little specks of blue and green and red, and those are all microplastics.
And we can't just rely on beach cleanups to fix this problem. We're never gonna be able to clean up all the plastic that's out there. We have to turn off the tap. We have to stop using plastic. We have to start using reusables. And I think there's a lot of great. Legislation, especially in Southern California.
Which is one of the reasons I love living here, is I feel like they really are one of the areas that take things and put them out there, and then other cities can learn from it. And I know in the city of Santa Monica all take out containers have to be marine biodegradable, which is fantastic.
So they break down in, in the oceans if they end up there, unfortunately. I think there was a new legislation, you can check me on this but in Culver City that I think by 2023 or whatever year it is, that all restaurants have to provide reusables, if you're dining in. So you can't have a plastic or styrofoam plate, which I think is amazing.
Recently the cutout cutlery campaign where you're doing takeout, you have to ask for it. You can't just be provided for it. And all these little things don't seem like a lot that they add up and it provides a blueprint for other cities to hopefully move forward and make changes as well.
And so often, especially with how many restaurants we're so impacted by COVID and the pandemic.
I can understand when they're like, please don't make our costs go up. And it's yeah. So often these choices actually make you save money because Exactly. If you don't need to provide me cutlery or a bag, you don't need to buy it. Yeah, and
I think we need to think about how to also incentivize customers.
Like I love when I take my reusable coffee mug to a coffee place and I get a 50 discount. Yes, I just get a 50 discount and I'm doing something good for the environment. Like, how else can we incentivize consumers to like, wanna make the right decision instead of forcing them into decisions like the character, the stick, right?
Like we can we do that with businesses and with consumers and then incentivize them? To make the right choice.
And there's, is being zero waste has so many impacts, as you mentioned, right? There's cost, there's environmental, there's oil, there's the ocean, there's it just keeps going on.
I was watching a documentary on PBS about Greta Thunberg and. Just the level of deforestation in the Amazon that's happening right now for growing soy to feed animals in factory farms. And you're like, why? Why are we doing this? We're just doubling down and making things worse. And there's moments when I feel like I wanna scream and be like, like what is going on?
Like how are people not seeing how, is no one having a meltdown? I feel like I'm having a personal one and no one else is. Do you feel that way yourself? Like how do you manage that? There's so much emotion behind being environmentally conscious and zero waste. Like how do you manage that and maintain hope?
Climate and
anxiety is real. I think it's real for kind of everyone who has seen the unseen. Like when you look behind the curtain, you just have this moment of terror and panic, and then it's like a snowball effect. You like see one thing and it starts rolling and more and more, and then you just explode.
And I do get into those black holes where I'm like, there's no hope. I should just give up now. Like we're all doomed. And then I'm like, okay we can do this. Get yourself together, Kelly. But I think it's just thinking about what am I doing? I can only do so much myself and I can only control myself and my actions and whatever I can do in my life to make a difference, I'm gonna do that because I can't control you.
I can't control me. And an individual level. I'm gonna do everything that I possibly can and be able to sleep at night because I've made that decision. And I know that we need much bigger actions than individual actions to really make a difference. But. I also need to be able to sleep tonight, get up in the morning and be a functional member of society.
And I'm still gonna go and I'm gonna go to all of the climate action meetings and I'm gonna protest. I'm gonna write my legislators and their right brands, and then take all those steps and hopefully when all of our collective voices come together, we'll be able to make larger action.
For people who want to dive more into this topic, what are books or documentaries or even Instagram accounts that you recommend people check out and read and follow?
Yeah, for zero waste specifically. The first book that I read, like when I got back from that trip and seeing all the trash was Barb, our Dirty Love Affair with trash. And that was really eyeopening. It's a little depressing. I think most of these will be just you're gonna be a little depressing.
If you want to take, learn how to take more steps to be a zero waste home by Bea Johnson is a great, resource to see all the different ways that you can live zero waste. Documentaries. I love a plastic ocean. The story of plastic and one that isn't exactly zero waste related but related to the chemicals that come from a lot of the products that we use in our life is overload.
America's toxic love story. And that was really impactful for me to see how many toxic chemicals we're exposed to in our daily lives.
It's crazy. Yeah. There's also one I believe it's called like stinks. Which is on Amazon Prime and it's this a documentary following on a dad who their his wife died of cancer.
He was left wi widowed with two daughters. Oh. They got a pair of pajamas for Christmas that just had a crazy smell to them. And knowing how his wife went on a chemical free kinda lifestyle because of her cancer before she passed, he kept trying to figure out what chemicals were in his daughter's clothes.
And no one would tell 'em. Yeah. And so it's this whole thing of what especially women are exposed to and how it impacts our endocrine system and Right. All sorts of other things. It's it's frustrating I think today that there are so many political, social, environmental things that we all have to be our own advocates for.
And I really wanna come back to their being. Experts, even if it's someone like yourself that I can call and be like, Kelly, please tell me the truth. Because I think there's just we can't be an expert in everything ourselves, right? We have to have trusted resources, and right now it feels like all the trusted resources are like, I don't know.
I don't know if they're real or not anymore. No, I,
I totally understand and overload. That story is a very similar story to that. This woman's on a journey to find out like what's in her system. She's having trouble getting pregnant, and she goes to such great lengths to find out, and it should not be that difficult.
But to that end, with the products that we use, they don't always have to disclose, like is in it. Like you can just write fragrance on a bottle. X number of chem. Like you don't know what that is. And I think that is so terrifying.
And fragrance in particular is protected because of patents.
The per perfume industry that they didn't wanna share what their blends were. But I think it's gone way beyond protecting a, perfu perfumery recipe because now everyone's using it to say oh, it's fragrance. I'm gonna say it's fragrance.
Yeah. Whatever. It's
fragrance. Yeah.
Check and not sure I want that on me or in me, our skin is our biggest organ. Whatever we're putting on our bodies is getting absorbed. I don't want that in my body. I should have a choice.
Or just, yeah, just know just transparency, right? Like transparency alone would be a huge great step.
I'm
on
board.
In this, in your journey, you've mentioned so many women who have been influential in your business and how you've repositioned your life for zero waste.
How have women throughout your whole life guided you on your past, supported you? How have they been influential to you? I think really
the unconditional like love and support, no matter what I'm doing has just been amazing, especially from some of my long-term friends who are like. Okay, you're gonna do this crazy thing now.
You're gonna quit your corporate job, you're gonna be a Pilates instructor, you're gonna start this van. Like whatever. I got you. I'm gonna be your body for your Pilates training. I dunno what you're doing to me. I'm gonna come buy soap from this weird van. I dunno what you're doing, but I got you.
I'm there. I'm gonna post on social media, tell all my friends, and it's just it feels so loving just to have these people around me. My friends and I don't think I could do it without them because I call them all the time when I'm having a breakdown and they deal with me telling them all about, don't use that bottle, don't use that product.
And and they get so excited when they're like, I thought about you at the store and I took my own produce bag and I just felt so good and that makes me so happy just to know that they're there for me no matter what crazy thing I'm proposing.
Thank you guys. It matters so much, right?
Because you mentioned, being an entrepreneur, just that if just starting a business is its own crazy lonely rollercoaster, let alone transforming your life and trying to transform the lifestyles of other people
that whole other life. To every girlfriend who like sat and had a vegan meal with me, even though they me, like I love.
Exactly. When you hear the words powerful and ladies separately, what do they mean? And does the definition for you change when they're put together?
When I hear the word powerful, I think of nature, like a powerful force of nature, like water or the ocean or. Moving words like things that are like powerful emotionally.
When I think of lady, I think of someone who's like proper and, very put together. And when I put them together. I don't have to be proper.
I think when you put them together, you're, you find a force of nature. I think a powerful lady is a force of nature.
How much do you believe that it's going to take women to change these big topics that we have to tackle in our modern society?
I think if we want something done right, we're gonna have to do it ourselves. And I think that's where we have to take the res. And I think it's so inspiring to see so many women out there taking control and really leading this movement of zero waste and environmentalism. And I'm so empowered by all of their stories and I goes,
There's that. So many. Women are the change makers in their house, right? And in their families. And it so amazes me that so often a woman's perspective or opinion is still minimized by corporations and by politicians. When anyone who says, like the way the house goes, it's the way of the mother.
She's, and it's the one making the purchasing decisions. Yeah. Purchasing decisions, laying down the laws. Teaching the next generations, and this is not to discredit at all the impact that men make in families. It's just based on how things have been. And, if women are the center of the home and it.
Whether it is, organizing for domestic workers or the farm workers and. So often it has been other women who have been like, okay, we're gonna strap the kid on the back. We're gonna do this fill the wagon. We're gonna do it all. Yep. We do it all. Yeah. So it's inspiring to me to see that, underneath it all, whether we saw it or not publicly, women have always been the ones being the change agents.
How things really got made. And what I think is really interesting about that, when we look at what's been happening in Afghanistan recently and seeing how quickly the military crumbled in Afghanistan. But yet so many of the, schools for girls are still opening and still functioning.
And it's what? So all the girls are gonna keep going to school. But the, but they didn't wanna keep fighting. And I keep thinking about that, like what is that difference in determination or grit that was missing?
And one of my friends said something to me the other day and they were like, women.
We are always the ones to keep going and to keep trying and to keep persevering because we're always told no. Yeah. And men aren't told no. And so when they hear that, they're like oh, like what? What do I do now? But we're always told no, we're always told we can't do it, and it just makes us wanna do it even more.
And so I love that about women. Like we're so strong, such a force of nature, so powerful, so willing to persevere. And I think all those years and decades and centuries of being told no, or were less, or we don't have a place at the table has made us wanna fight even more. Even if it's underground, even if we don't get the credit for it, it doesn't matter.
We're still gonna be the change makers.
And speaking of that, and that, that community, are you connected to other refilling organizations and businesses in the us? It's a pretty small community.
So I know the owners of the local refill store here in Southern California which is nice.
And I actually get a lot of requests from other people around the country looking to start their own mobile refill business because it is such. A lower risk investment to do something mobile. And I, find that so inspiring and most of the people that reach out are women, which I love.
And do it, girl.
I'll have to connect you to a friend of mine who has a zero waste store in Vancouver Vancouver Island. Yeah, it's two women own the company. Been, what's the name of the store? Let's give it a shout out. It's the Den eu. I love that. Yeah. And they have all sorts of, local, locally made and created things there too.
But it's, it is, again, it's women who are owning these to make an impact. And I just finished the book. If you haven't read it, it's so good. Good Morning. Beautiful Business by Judy Wicks. She was the founder of the White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia, and she's one of the founding people in the US for the local and sustainable economy movement.
One of the first people to get like fair trade coffee beans coming in and. One of the first restaurants in the world to offer in the US to offer vegan and vegetarian options and switch to ethically raised everything. So just really inspiring to see how you can bring taking care of people and community and keep layering on more things that matter to you.
And you can still run a successful business. Yeah. You don't have to exploit any part of the chain to run a successful business.
No. In fact, she probably, made more money through her businesses because of it. Yeah. I think there's such a misconception that doing the right thing is going to cost us something.
Time, resources, money, and. So often it's not. And I also think that there's so many people who are art, who it used to be the American way to be to conserve our resources. A friend of mine tells a story when he was working in a lumber yard. The owner would bring his lunch every day in a paper bag after he was done.
He would fold the paper bag up and put it back in his pocket and he'd use that bag until it disintegrated. I love that. Could he have used a reusable forever bag? Sure. But he kept using it 'cause it wasn't so much that he was an eco warrior, but he's no, I, why would I waste the bag? I bought it.
Why would I waste it? And I think it'd be a really interesting experiment to. Even, I'm sure someone's doing this as like an art example or just to, to show, but I'd love to see like a family of four not be able to throw anything away. For even a year. If you buy it, it has to stay in your house.
I'll let you take complex stuff. Oh man. But if everything else had to stay. It, I think people need to see the impact to that level to really understand how much stuff right there is.
I think I have a statistic here that the average person generates over four pounds of trash every day, four pounds.
And I know that's hard to visualize, but, get out your scale and put something on it until it weighs four pounds and that's every day. Times 365 days. Yeah.
And most trash is really light, right? So to get a trash bag to weigh four pounds, like how much do you have to put in it? You just don't think about, I
mean, I think we probably think about it more, but I think the average person just doesn't even consider all the things they throw in away in a day.
So you wake up. You use a cotton ball or a Q-tip or dental floss. And then you have a coffee mug and then you have your takeout containers from lunch and it just all starts to add up and you don't, by the end of the day, you can't even consider how much you thrown away. Yeah.
There's a post that I have on my desk and I rotate them, but right now it says, li live your Life undistracted.
And I think so much of the waste conversation is just that we're so distracted by whatever we've decided will let consume us in the moment. And often it's things that we don't care about at all. Where we don't see. How we're spending our money or our time and what these daily habits are and how they're creating a life that becomes ours.
And we don't, not enough people, I think stop and pause and be like, hold on, why do I live here? Why am I doing this? Why is this my routine? Like we just make so many choices on autopilot. Which is great 'cause it allows us to use our brain space for something else, but we have to have that check-in ability to be like, hold on.
I think I've over automated
how my life is being
lived
to have a little more intention. And I think a lot of the things that we're freeing up our brain space for is like what? Watching TikTok videos like, is that what we really need that time and space and energy for. That's one thing that I loved about growing up in my home was every day we sat at the dinner table and had dinner together.
And of course that was pre phones, so it's easy. But that's one thing, like I carried over to my life now is every meal I eat undistracted without any phone or tv, especially when I'm with friends and family. And just to have that time, that hour where I can think about where my food came from and, intentionally enjoying it and, being thankful for the farmers and whoever brought this to my plate. And even just taking an hour, 30 minutes a day to just sit and think without distraction and just be present, I think is so powerful.
It changes everything. Yeah. It's, the meditation doesn't have to be just sitting on a mat.
I do that too, which is great. But,
so that end, yes. Also a great idea. Coming back to your business, how is the business doing? What surprised you about it? And now that you are an entrepreneur, how do you see the world differently? And then before you were an entrepr.
Gosh, I have so much more respect for people who start their own businesses.
I was like joking with my friend the other day. I'll start your own business. They say, it'll be great. You'll love it. Be your boss. It's the American dream. I'm like, whose dream? This is crazy. Whoever's an entrepreneur is a little bit crazy and it's so much work. It consumes your whole life. Obviously I've been doing it for three years, so I like it, or I'm crazy, one or the other.
But I have found it so fulfilling. I think I mentioned I used to work a corporate job and I would come home like a drone, and I like did not care about what I did. I didn't feel fulfilled. I just was like on autopilot. I was like, this is what I'm supposed to do. I'm supposed to go to this place, sit at a desk, type on this computer.
I hate my life and get up and do it the next day.
And I love like diversity of my day. Every day is different. I'm always meeting new people, all new opportunities to grow and learn and inspire and be inspired. And it's just so fulfilling. I'm just, although I really don't undo it and it's so much hard work and it consumes my whole life I'm so happy I'm here and that, I have this opportunity.
It's been tough with COVID. Definitely took a toll on me personally, physically, emotionally, and on the business. But now that we're slowly, hopefully, knock on wood, coming outta it and things are opening back up again I can already see things starting to pick back up and starting to have more opportunities.
Community and looking forward to opening our first brick and mortar here next month. Which is why I have bags under my eyes right now because I'm so tired. Really, I'm doing it for y'all.
We ask everybody on the podcast where they put themselves in the powerful 80 scale. If zero is everyday human and 10 is most powerful, 80 you can imagine, where would you put yourself on that scale today and on average?
Today I feel like negative. Is that an option? It's, yes. It's, there's no
rules with these answers, so I just feel this couple weeks has been really tough. It's been a lot opening your own mobile refill business is one thing, and then running that business while opening a store, that's another thing.
And I feel pretty defeated at the moment. But I'd say on average, I. Like a four or five. I don't feel like I'm, any greater or better or more powerful than anyone else. I'm out there, I'm working hard. I'm doing the best that I can. And I think that's what we can say about most women.
And I think that's another trait of being a woman is, you're humble. Humble. You know you are doing your best, but you don't have to go out there and say, you number one.
For everybody who wants to follow you, support you, become a client a customer of yours, where can they find you, follow you, and how can they support you?
Our website is refill, our Instagram handles refill. You can find us outside of the Marvista Farmers Market the first three Sundays of the month.
There's a big schedule on our website, so go ahead and head their refill la com and look for our opening March, 2022 in Culver City.
And you're doing a workshop this Saturday. I'll put, if you wanna share anything, I'd love to share it with on our Instagram sooner, 'cause this podcast will come out later.
But how often do you do workshops and are those also on your website? Workshops will be on our
website. They're kinda sporadic. We usually partner with local organizations to do those. But if you would like to have us at your organization or your business, feel free to reach out at hello at refiller la com.
Perfect. I am so thankful that you are out there doing this and offering this to, west la. I'm excited that you were brave enough to start this business and that you are making an impact. Are you counting how many pieces of plastic you're keeping from people's homes? I started to, when I started this business
and I lost track.
It was just too overwhelming. So I dunno a lot and hopefully hoping for more every day. That's all I can say.
Perfect. It has been such a pleasure to meet you and talk to you today. I can't wait to see what you're up to next and to collaborate on, some guest speaking opportunities, a workshop with powerful ladies, but just really thank you for being a yes and for what you're doing in the world.
Thank you so much for having me, and thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to tell my story to all the other powerful ladies out there.
All the links to connect with Kelly and Fillery LA are in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. Please subscribe and rate and review this podcast wherever you're listening. That matters so much to us to get your feedback and it also helps us to attract more listeners like you. Come join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and if you're looking to connect directly with me, visit kara duffy.com or Kara Duffy on Instagram.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode and a phenomenal guest. Until then, I hope we're taking on being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
Related Episodes
Episode 149: Turning Food Waste into Community Power | Monique Figueiredo | Founder of Compostable LA
Episode 165: Building Businesses That Put the Planet First | Kelly Murphy, Jillian Clark & Annie Rouse | Conscious Entrepreneurs
Episode 164: Proof That One Person Can Change the World | Lauren Ferree Bash | Sustainability Creator & Storyteller
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Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
