All enterprises begin with an idea, and ideas occur to people sometimes in the most subtle of moments. Take, for example, the girl who came to Alaska to work in non-profit environmental activism activities and found herself on the banks of the Copper River, her bare feet sinking into the most delightful and buttery mud she’d ever experienced. She’d had a dream of someday becoming an entrepreneur—and, as fate would have it that day, she was up to her ankles in the element that would make her dream a reality.
“I had been invited on a rafting trip of the Copper River,” Lauren Padawer, founder of Alaska Glacial Mud Company, told Organic Connections. “The banks of the river are glacial mud, and we stopped to have lunch at one spot where the river necks up quite a bit. There were bear tracks everywhere, huge beautiful sandstone boulders, and eagles flying overhead. Besides the tracks, we were able to watch bears feeding on salmon on the other side of the river.
“After lunch, we decided to go for a dip in one of the many pools that were all around this section of the river. As soon as I put my foot into the pool it just sank into this buttery mud, and the water clouded up and it was divine. I was thinking that this had to be the most wild spa in the world. At the time, down in the lower 48, the spa industry was growing like crazy and there was also a trend toward natural and organic products. But down there I had never heard of glacial mud.”
Lauren noticed other interesting properties of the mud. When applied to the skin, it would dry and crack without being too drying to the skin. Then, after it was washed off, the difference before and after in terms of the glowing life of the skin was very noticeable.
When they left the scenic spot, her guide on the trip began joking about the benefits of the “glacial facial” that could be had out there—guides and natives of the area seemed to know all about it. For Lauren, the concept stuck, and all her life’s ambitions suddenly came together in her mind. “The idea of bringing a product to market that was in the name of the Copper River, which could also potentially benefit organizations that were doing work in the watershed, was really appealing to me. Combine that with my long-term desire to be an entrepreneur and absolutely loving the lifestyle here in Cordova, and I just wanted to make an investment that would root me even deeper in this community, give me a challenge personally, and also fill a niche in the marketplace.”
Thus was eventually born Alaska Glacial Mud Company, purveyors of the Glacial Facial Masque and the Glacial Exfoliating Mineral Soap Bar—both made from the incredible mud first discovered by Lauren.
Getting to Market
But it didn’t happen overnight. After she decided to go into business, Lauren pooled together her own savings plus any money she could obtain from friends and family. As one might expect, it wasn’t enough. But one Sunday she came across an issue of the Anchorage Daily News that had an article on an event called the Rural Business Competition, funded by the Alaskan Federation of Natives and some of the larger corporations doing business in Alaska.
Lauren submitted a concept paper to the competition and was then invited to submit a proposal, which she did. That led to a showcase in Anchorage, where each candidate had a booth from which they would explain what they were doing. She came in second to last in the competition—but that netted her $16,000. She also won the People’s Choice Award at the event.
This competition garnered her some fantastic—and unexpected—publicity. “Before I found out that I’d actually won anything, I woke up one morning at the house of the friend I was staying with in Anchorage. Everyone had already gone for the day and I sat down at the table to have breakfast; on it was a copy of the Anchorage Daily News. Right there, covering more than the top half of the front page, was a picture of me giving someone a glacial facial! You can’t buy advertising like that.”
Following the Anchorage Daily News coverage and being awarded her prize money, Lauren received a call from an Associated Press reporter who had been at the show, asking to do a story on her. The resulting feature went over the AP wire and got picked up by some 100 publications.
Even though she didn’t have a product out, she had fortunately put up a website, which, following the AP story, garnered a high amount of traffic. Many of the site’s visitors signed up to be alerted when the products became available.
Click on any image above to see a larger version.
Revealing Research
Prior to putting glacial mud products on the market, Lauren knew she’d have to analyze the mud to ensure there were no heavy metals or anything else hazardous contained in it. Not only did she discover nothing hazardous, the analysis and market research also revealed that she had happened upon a mud that was more mineralogically diverse than any other on the market.
The reason for this diversity is the unique location of the sediment in the Copper River Delta, where it is harvested. The Copper River drains from four different mountain ranges that came into existence at different points in geological time. Two of them are the result of volcanic eruptions, and the other two resulted from earthquakes and tectonic uplift activity. The combined minerals from all of these locations are ground by glaciers into fine dust before finding their way to the banks of the river.
Final Push and Running the Business
Lauren still didn’t have all the capital she needed to launch. A few months after her first winning and publicity, however, opportunity knocked once more: the Alaskan Federation of Natives again sponsored the Rural Business Competition. She didn’t want to seem greedy, but she had come in second to last in the first competition, so she decided to enter this one as well.
That time, she won close to $50,000, which gave her the money to launch. And in 2007 she did!
Lauren decided to grow her company organically, keeping it small and personal. Today, she does most of the mud harvesting herself—being very particular about the mud she’s seeking—along with some friends and family that come along to help.
Once harvested, the mud is dried naturally and then bagged and sent to a contracted factory where, under strict proprietary instructions from Lauren, it is made into Alaska Glacial Mud products and packaged. Another company has been contracted for order fulfillment.
The products have had enthusiastic responses from customers, who report that they make skin fresh, radiant and healthy.
Lauren has also stuck to the decision to use her company to help support the environment and native projects near her. Ten percent of Alaska Glacial Mud Company profits are donated to the Cascadia Wildlands Project, the Copper River Watershed Project, the Eyak Preservation Council, and the Prince William Sound Science Center education programs.
The New Industrial Revolution
The growth of the Internet has made it possible for companies such as Alaska Glacial Mud Company, founded by one person with a great idea, to reach out to the world and compete alongside giant corporations. It’s what has been nicknamed “the new Industrial Revolution,” and it’s an empowering beacon of hope that sustainable companies like Lauren’s—which not only give us the best that Earth has to offer but give back to the planet as well—are now thriving.
Alaska Glacial Mud Products are available from the company’s website at www.alaskaglacialmud.com, from Beauty Habit (http://www.beautyhabit.com/alaska_glacial.html), and from many other outlets throughout the US.
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