Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
A podcast about practices to promote healthy lives featuring experts, businesses, and clients: we gather to share our stories about success, failure, exploration, and so much more. Our subscription episodes feature some personal and vulnerable, real-life stories that are sensitive to some of the general public.
Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
From Backyard Herbs To A Holistic First Aid Revolution with Jodi Scott
What happens when a clean-living family realizes their first aid cabinet is the last place to live clean? We sit down with entrepreneur and health psychology expert Jodi Scott to explore how Green Goo grew from backyard herbs and screen doors to a plant-based first aid line trusted by families, hikers, and chronic skin sufferers. Jodi bridges psychoneuroimmunology with practical skincare, explaining how the mind, nervous system, and immune system all respond to what we put on our skin—and how the right botanicals can cool inflammation, reduce itch and pain, and even support better sleep.
The story doesn’t smooth over the rough parts. After scaling to 150,000 retail locations, the pandemic forced a whiplash pivot to e-commerce. A later financial partnership collapsed, triggering layoffs and a production halt that left loyal customers without the one product that worked for them. Jodi shares the emotional toll, the 18-month battle to buy the company back, and the surprising lever that kept her steady: a “mental fitness boot camp” of presence practices that turned resilience from raw grit into calm clarity. Her take on resilience is refreshingly useful—set alarms, breathe, feel your feet, return to center, then choose the next right move.
We also dig into Green Goo’s process—low-heat extraction that preserves herbal actives—and why topical care can create a positive feedback loop for pain and stress. You’ll hear the SHAMAN framework (Sleep, Hydration, Antioxidants, Mindfulness, Avoid what doesn’t serve, Nature) and a weekly “Sunday Sanctuary” ritual you can adopt today. If you’re curious about herbal first aid, mind-body science, practical mindfulness, and rebuilding after a setback, this conversation offers honest insights and actionable steps.
If this resonates, share it with someone who needs a steadier way forward, and subscribe for more real-world wellness stories and tools.
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Well, hello, and welcome back to the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grumbine, and today we've got a very special guest. Her name is Jodi Scott. And uh Jody is an amazing woman. She's uh an entrepreneur. She's got a great story about founding um a natural herbal company and sort of actually quite a quite quite a story. I'm looking forward to hearing some of it. So uh Jody's got a background in biology, health, psychology, psycho, psycho neuroimmunology. Wow, okay, that's a big old word. I I I I don't know how you fit into that one, but that's fantastic. Well, Jody, without getting too crazy into it, welcome to this to the show. I'm so glad to have you join us. I'm looking forward to hearing your story.
SPEAKER_00:Pleasure to be here with you. Thank you, Joe.
SPEAKER_01:Well, um, why don't you tell us a little bit about kind of your background? You started this Green Goo company um years ago, and um apparently you got family involved. Why don't you just jump back and uh tell us a little bit about how you came to this spot?
SPEAKER_00:Been all kinds of fun. I tell you what, quite the journey. So my mom, sister, and I started Green Goo almost uh geez, maybe 15 years ago when we first started. So to your point, I got my master's in health psychology, specialized in psychoneuroimmunology. You did it.
SPEAKER_01:I didn't even know that was a thing. I love it.
SPEAKER_00:You did great. And was training resident physicians on the biopsychosocial model. So, you know, in sum, my goal was to change the wellness journey. And so, for example, by uh working with physicians, it was to teach them rather than just prescribing, let's look at the patient as a whole so we can further their intervention or what have you, and lifestyle changes that may need to happen in order for them to have great results. And psychoneuroimmunology is very much this relationship of your mind and your body and how your nervous system, your immune system, and your mindset um and psychology all work together hand in hand in your wellness journey. And it's huge.
SPEAKER_01:I don't want to interrupt you, but what you just said is so impactful. Many many, many episodes of this show talk about just that, you know, the the holistic approach to the wellness journey. And, you know, I am in the final strokes of defeating cancer right now, and that was a whole, you know, year and a half major battle, including all those things you said and and the mindset and the you know, approaching it as a whole and all of these things. I think it's just so important for the listeners to realize that that's where we're coming from.
SPEAKER_00:And it's just a key. And when you know that you can turn that key and be a part of that to optimize so you can fully show up and and and enjoy life in a greater way, it's it's pretty great. So, and congratulations on on your journey in recovery.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, yeah, yeah. We're running getting close to the finish line here.
SPEAKER_00:Way to go. So, and then my sister's an herbalist and a midwife. And my mom is a self-taught computer programmer, website developer. We grew up in the military, so you got to have one techie in the bunch, right?
SPEAKER_01:Wow. So we have quite a talented family here.
SPEAKER_00:It was quite quite the trifecta. And so what we found like really interesting is that we were living this clean life, right? We were eating organic foods, healthy choices, uh, we were picking the natural shampoo out. But when you opened up our first aid cabinet, it was all the exceptions, one-time use chemical laden products. And we asked ourselves, why? Why are we doing this? And what we found really interesting is we weren't alone. The natural consumer was willing to abandon their natural ethos because they were told, just like we believe as well, that these one-time chemical use products were the only products that could get the job done. And then even more so, the conventional consumers like, I don't care what the ingredients are, I just want something that works better because I find it really inconvenient that I can only use this thing for seven to 10 days. Symptoms persist, go see your physician. And chronic skin conditions are at an all-time high. And so we're consuming these things in a very large volume. And so we thought, well, what if we can make a brand that is superior in efficacy and also, by the way, plant-based and sustainable? So Green Goo was born.
SPEAKER_01:Nice, nice. Well, tell me about Green Goo.
SPEAKER_00:So Green Goo, we started in the first aid space and we very specifically looked at consumer behavior and said, okay, what is it that the customer is looking for? So we saw they were looking for, you know, something for cuts and scrapes, topical antiseptic. They're looking for anti-inflammatory, anti-itch, uh, especially specifically for eczema, uh, analgesics, you know, for chronic pain. So we really focused on sort of those first and foremost. And so our green goo first aid was originally designed first to be just a topical antiseptic, but again, looking at all of the symptom relief that people are wanting and going, okay, let's stick to our mantra. We want you to declutter your first aid cabinet. What if we can make a portable first aid kit in one little tin? So our first aid is for cuts and scrapes, butt bug bites, beastings, poison ivy, cold sores, abrasions, blisters, uh, you know, sunburn lip balm. It is your first aid on the go. And it's one of those things that like you didn't even know you needed it until you have it. And then you have it with you everywhere you go. Kids love it because it takes the sting and the itch out, and it's packed with herbs.
SPEAKER_01:Nice.
SPEAKER_00:And something which is really fun about this that I think is important to note when we first started doing this, we were growing the herbs in our backyard. We had our bees. So we were, you know, pulling the bees backs from our bees and uh drying the herbs on old screen doors. So you'd see you'd walk by our house and you'd see all these screen doors with like all these plants drying on them. And then we turned our kitchen into, you know, our production facility and we were infusing and so forth. And it got so nuts that you we had to take our camping equipment and build an outdoor kitchen for our personal cooking because our kitchen took over. And why these why green goo works is because of not only the herbs and plants that we're choosing and the plant-based oils that work with our skin, but because of the process, we're protecting the integrity of the plant and we're not exposing it to high heat or denaturing it with various chemicals or reducing its efficacy. And so today, even to this day, we still bring the plant to our manufacturing facility where we take it through this unique extraction process, yield high amounts of the medicinal properties from the plants, and then these custom oils go into the green goo formula. So you can't get this blend anywhere else. And that rich oil, that botanical oil is why it works so well.
SPEAKER_01:Nice, nice. So your your company started taking off, and um it sounds like um you went into sort of this uh I don't know, based on what I was looking at, you went through a typical growth, kind of like Bert Speed's, where you got you got big and then you kind of you got an offer and you you you went and sold off.
SPEAKER_00:So we grew to 150,000 points of distribution in less than five years. It was nuts. Fight or flight all the way. Um, then the pandemic happened and we were like 98% retail, you know, something like that. And and now no one's going into the stores. And so we had to pivot really, really fast and create an online business, which we didn't originally because if you had poison ivy, you went to your local pharmacy and that's how you solve the problem, right? Well, now, you know, thankfully our team is just so amazing and so agile. We were able to build this online business. We're shipping boxes till four or five in the morning. We have 20 shipping locations because the whole world's trying to ship at one time. Wow. Everyone wants packaging, and um, and we weather it, we get through it, and we didn't have to terminate a single employee. When we got on the other side of that, we we knew that we had exposure. We are competing against the biggest companies in the world and a family business Green GU cannot compete with that, nor can we weather something really difficult like that again. And so we started looking for financial partners. And, you know, we authentically chose this group because they were passionate about plant-based medicine and taking it global. And, you know, I think authentically the the relationship was was good in terms of what we could do and expand. But unfortunately, one of the founders uh faced major legal and financial issues after we started this relationship with them. And so we didn't own it anymore. We put it into their portfolio. And we were there working with them, though, to expand. And so, in less than 24 hours, we had to terminate our entire team. My mom, my sister, my husband, my brother-in-law, employee number one, everyone gone. After we had worked so hard to keep everyone, you know, after the pan or during the pandemic. And so that was a pretty tough time. Not only did we lose our team, we lost our company, we lost our sense of purpose. And we have customers emailing us like, when are we going to be back in stock? Because we've stopped production. You know, my son is a paraplegic, this is the only thing that works. My mom is a diabetic, this is the only thing that works. I mean, the emails are just coming in. And at one point I was telling someone, I like pulled out my lip balm and I was with my mom and sister, and you know, we're having our tearful moment, and all of a sudden I was like, Oh my gosh, I don't know how much more lip balm I have. Oh do I have enough face wash and like my skin repair is like my anti-aging go-to. I'm like, I can't live without this stuff. And so we start checking each other's inventory, and then that's when we realize, you know, we have to buy this company back.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:So we spent 18 months buying back this company, which was really tough because you've spent the first part of the business go, go, go, and you can't go, go, go. And from an entrepreneurial standpoint and from a wellness standpoint, this was really a big shift in terms of how to stay mentally fit and physically well during an incredibly challenging time. And, you know, it was really fortunate that I had had this coach that I had just recently hired right before the layoffs. And I'd only, you know, been with him for a few months. And I let him know, I said, hey, you know, Monday, five o'clock, I'm not going to be there. I can't pay you. And he was like, You show up, Jody, five o'clock on Monday. I will be there every Monday to help you. And I mean, that was sweet, but when you were feeling that overwhelming sense of like the world is crashing on you, even that didn't feel like I could show up. You know, you're just like, you can't even move. You're so overwhelmed.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And I I showed up on Monday because I thought he was a really nice guy and I didn't want to let him down. But it was very difficult for me to show up that day. And man, he he put me, he's like, All right, you just started boot camp. I'm like, what? And he's like, Yep, mental fitness boot camp. He's like, You're gonna set your alarm every three hours and we're gonna do presence exercises. I'm like, what is that?
SPEAKER_01:Wow.
SPEAKER_00:And he's like, I'm gonna get you mentally fit and you're gonna keep working on being physically fit, and we're gonna get you through this so that you have clarity and you have the creativity that you're going to need and the confidence to go in and have these meetings and find a way to get this thing done.
SPEAKER_01:And so what a blessing that you found this guy because that is such a, you know, as an entrepreneur myself, you know, we find ourselves just going incessantly. Like there's like we can do it, you know. We always just dig a little deeper and find another way, and you just keep going. And the the wisdom of taking a moment and and getting mindful and and and being present and going, okay, what am I doing right now? Because we'll lose hours and hours being in a frenzy of something, and then you look back, you're like, Oh, shoot, I shouldn't have done that. I needed to do this other thing. But that five minutes of being mindful might have kept you from you know wasting all that extra time and energy.
SPEAKER_00:You nailed it. And I always thought resilience was like grit and showing up and pushing harder. Keep on coming, yeah. Yeah. And then all of a sudden I'm like, oh my gosh, resilience is actually pausing and getting present. And resilience is when you feel yourself in that overdrive moment, having the ability to get back centered. And he was spot on in terms of this mental fitness because you know, I remember being the first time, okay.
SPEAKER_01:I was like, I'm gonna listen to the birds, really, you know, and I don't have time for the birds, I'll do that when I'm dead.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And then so you're working really hard, and then all of a sudden, like you're doing it for 30 seconds, and then you're doing it for two minutes, and then you're feeling your feet, you're taking some deep breaths, you're feeling your movement, and you do that every three hours consistently enough, you start to crave it and you start to want to do it longer. And then when you're in a tough situation, you like all of a sudden know how to do that. And when you feel yourself getting off center for too long, you know exactly like, okay, it's time to bring it back. And it's just a whole new way of living and doing entrepreneurial efforts and even parenting, like my daughter, the halo effect that happens when you introduce this into your world.
SPEAKER_01:I love it.
SPEAKER_00:It was so cool. My daughter was saying, Mom, I know.
SPEAKER_01:How old is your daughter?
SPEAKER_00:14.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And she's like, I had the weirdest conversation with my teacher today. I'm like, What's that? She was like, he pulled me aside and said, I need to talk to you about how you took your test. And she's like, Oh my gosh, what did I do? And he's like, It was so incredible to see how present and focused you were. You rubbed your fingertips together, you took a couple deep breaths, and you were so locked in. And you went and you answered the questions you knew very carefully, and then you came back to the ones you didn't know and worked through it. And he was like, You were so present. And Kira was like, It was so weird. I was like, that's awesome. I wish I knew how to do that. Right.
SPEAKER_01:You know, it's interesting. Um entrepreneurs or people that are, you know, doers, I guess I should say, uh, we generally find ourselves just doing, and then when a challenge comes, like we shift into some kind of a I don't know, subconscious mode almost, like you don't even know what you're doing. Next thing you know, you're to the other side of it. But when you can have this tool at your fingertips, instead of just doing whatever it is you do, you have a tool that says, okay, let's let's bring it back, let's look at this for a second. And instead of it being a you know, potentially catastrophic event, it's just another little obstacle. And you look at it, you assess it, you go, okay, what's the worst could happen here? Okay, well, we're not gonna die, we're not gonna lose our home, we're not gonna, ah, we can solve this. And that sort of brings things into perspective, and then you start looking, well, what are my options? And next thing you know, you choose one and you're moving forward instead of you know, oh no, what are we gonna do? And all the chaos that ensues.
SPEAKER_00:It's so interesting. Like the best way for me to describe, and I'm still working through the ontology of like what to call this, right? Right, but like presence feels so much like it feels expansive. So, like when you're in fight or flight, it's like you like you just said, you just like time traveled through the chaos, and it was just like, ah, but like when you're present, it's expansive, and then all of a sudden, like creativity comes in and curiosity. And you know, I remember this individual, uh, he wrote a book in Rick Rubin, and he, you know, he's he's in the music industry, and he had this beautiful quote that landed well with me, and I'm gonna butcher it, but you'll get the context, which is it isn't about being creative, it's about being in the state so that creativity happens. And that's like his magic. And at first, I didn't understand that statement until I started going through this experience myself and was like, oh, that's it. Because then all of a sudden there's just movement. And what I love about this full circle with green goo is that you know, your skin is not just your largest organ, it is rich in neurotransmitters, it is very connected to your nervous system, your immune system, your mindset. Yeah, and when you have inflammation, you feel yuck, you know, if you're stressed, you got your cortisol, you know, going up, your immune system, you know, is getting challenged. And so, like all the things that you can do that are that are rituals. And so, yes, we disrupted first aid and and brought plant-based alternatives, but now looking at the skin differently, and it's a nutritive resource. And the more you nourish it, the more it serves you in a holistic way. And so, my new mantra is I take the green goo and I'll have like Sunday Sanctuary, I call it. Nice. I'll I'll butter up, you know, shoulders down, whether it's like my pain relief or you know, head to toe, um, whether it's the pain relief because I want the analgesic anti-inflammatory component, or if it's just my repair that's just like really hydrating, and I put it on head to toe and I put my bathrobe on and I enjoy 30 minutes. I, you know, read or have tea or sit on the porch or sit and visit with my daughter, just let it soak in. And then maybe it's the end of the day and I go to bed, maybe it's the start of the day, and I keep going, you know, and you you sleep better, you feel different. And it's like you're feeding your body all of this like nutrients and flavonoids and antioxidants and hydration that it craves, right? And it's helping keep that balance. And so it's really been fun to see how that full circle has very much mirrored sort of my entrepreneurial and personal journey.
SPEAKER_01:I love it. Well, it sounds like what you're describing is like the opposite of you know, the negative cascade that happens with a pain cycle. You know, you injure yourself and then you you have uh spasms, which causes inflammation, which causes more pain, which causes more spasms, and you end up with this or a migraine cycle, all the different, you know, pain cycles that one thing causes another, causes another, just keeps getting worse and worse. Sounds like you found the uh the antidote for that. You've got a a positive cycle.
SPEAKER_00:I've really enjoyed, and it's you know, interesting you should say that because a handful of years ago we had a customer reach out to us who was Jane Doe number one. Pulled from the World Trade Center. And she sustained horrible injuries and eventually became dependent on opioids. And she reached out because our green goo pain relief was the only solution that would help her as she was tapering down from the opioid withdrawal because she would have these massive seizures and pain. I mean, the pain associated with it. And she was like, this is the thing that's tapering me down. And of course, at the time, I'm thinking, okay, it's an it's an anti or an analgesic. That's great. But now, fast forward to how I understand the skin differently. You know, it was it was also cultivating her in a way to help her with the mindset and the determination and that like pain loop that you're referencing in a positive feedback loop.
SPEAKER_01:So interesting. Absolutely. I love it. I love it. You found the anti, the antidote for all of that. That's that's fantastic. Well, it based on what I'm looking at, you you have your company back, and now you're focusing on a little bit different. You're not just out there selling these products, you're you you developed a a system, you've developed some tools. What it and and it looks like you're you're focusing on a community that seems like it's being pretty impressive based on what I'm looking at. Tell me about your community.
SPEAKER_00:I just feel a deeper sense of purpose with what we've been through and also wanting to share that in a way that it can empower another entrepreneur, another parent, another partner, someone dealing with trauma, terminal illness, and these different resources that we can develop within ourselves and complement our wellness journey. I want to provide natural solutions to help people show up in the most authentic, joyful way that they can live. And Green Goo is part of that, and part of that is sharing our entrepreneurial story so that they can bring that wisdom into their day-to-day. And um, you know, it it just gives me a again that deeper sense of purpose of what we've what we've journeyed and you know where we're going. And um just super grateful.
SPEAKER_01:So tell me how I is this just an organic community that people are just reaching out to you, you're reaching back, or have you created a a group or a site or or holding workshops or how how's it all working?
SPEAKER_00:Still very early, but my daughter's helping me with an app right now. My daughter. I love it, and and finding ways that we can bring people closer together. Um, you know, our our mission is spread goodness, our vision is bringing forward time-honored traditions. It's not just the product and the process, but it's us here storytelling and starting that. And, you know, perhaps there'll be a Sunday sanctuary where uh we're we're meeting and workshopping even more together.
SPEAKER_01:I love it. I love it. Well, it's it's it's amazing when um a good idea turns into a good set of tools, products, information, whatever, and then organically turns into a community. That's just a beautiful progression of something that uh is worthy. So I'm I'm really uh impressed with what I've heard. Um, you know, our listeners come from all walks of life, all ages, all uh educational brackets. We have everything from you know rocket scientists and doctors to people just suffering from you know ailments and looking to get some some answers. Um would you have a thought that you'd like to leave them with?
SPEAKER_00:Well, don't don't wait to start bringing in cleaner ingredients in your life. And we have a we have an acronym that we use at home, and I'll make it super quick. It's called shaman.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And S is for sleep, add to the sleep bank. H is for hydration, not just water that you drink, but the food that you eat rich in hydration, the products you put on your body. We are water. So bringing that beautiful hydration in. A is antioxidants. So you're just thinking about does this have antioxidants or does it not? And it's a simple that made it simple for my daughter from a nutrition standpoint. You know, is it gonna serve me and give me that or not? And including even the things you put on your body. Sure. M is mindfulness and just giving yourself those moments to be mindful. Put the set that alarm every three hours. I challenge you, and feel and A is avoid, avoid the things that don't serve you. And that made it really easy for my daughter as well, because sometimes you can't, she's like, you can't do everything right, but sometimes you can just avoid a handful of things that do that.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely, absolutely, and it could be people and situations, it doesn't even have to just be people food, it could be uh a situation, it could be a type of person, it could be just anything. And that's a beautiful, I like that one maybe as much as everything else. I think that's a really powerful tool.
SPEAKER_00:And the last one is nature, and for nature, get out in nature, especially when you're hijacked. Sometimes, like you're like, ah, you know what, just get out in nature. And and what I love is equitable, like all of those things are equitable, and you it doesn't cost a bunch of money to be able to just have a little shaman in your life, right?
SPEAKER_01:I think that's a fantastic approach. Um, I like what you're doing, I like how you're doing it, and um obviously we're gonna have people go, Well, I need to get a hold of this lady. How do I get a hold of her?
SPEAKER_00:Go to greengoo.com, you'll find me. Matter of fact, I when we do our email, like we'll call it retention marketing when we follow up with you after you order, it literally comes from my email address. So people will respond and be like, You just answered. That's so strange. You bet I did. And I just so appreciate spending time with our customers.
SPEAKER_01:So I love it. Well, Jody, this has been an uh insightful and enjoyable conversation. And as you're progressing along, building this community, I'd certainly like to stay in touch. So feel free to pop back by when there's something that you want to share in addition to all this. I have a lot of guests that, you know, every year or two they pop in and give us an update on what's going on. And it's I I think, you know, it's part of part of the whole community idea. I love the idea of community. So just want to thank you for being here and invite you to come on back.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. Beautiful. I would love that. Appreciate you.
SPEAKER_01:Beautiful. Well, this has been another episode of the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grumbine. I want to thank all of our listeners that make the show possible, and we will see you next time.
