A self-care ritual grows into a mother-daughter candle and wellness business

In 2020, a couple of months before the COVID-19 pandemic, high school junior Kobi Gregory began raising money to attend an annual HBCU college tour. She wanted to earn funds without working in fast food or retail, so she turned her self-care ritual into a business.

Before quarantine began, Gregory was able to sell her homemade candles at a pop-up shop, where she received feedback from customers. Once quarantine halted daily life, and the college tour, the business continued to develop.

Gregory and her mother, Tasha Harris, founded Kobi Co. Harris had recently stepped away from a 28-year career in corporate banking and finance.

Now the candle and wellness brand, created by and for people who love self-care, Gregory said, has been operating for six years. The store opened in its cozy space in downtown Minneapolis three years ago.

Kobi Co. sells an array of soy candles, each coming with its own personalized playlist to set the tone, along with other self-care products.

Also offering hands-on experiences, Kobi Co. hosts and facilitates candle-making and sugar scrub-making classes in its intimate space and off-site. Individuals, groups, and parties have the opportunity to create their own products with step-by-step instructions. Candle-making classes provide a holistic time to relax, with people deciding their scents, decorating their candle, creating their own playlist for the candle, and also taking time for journaling and reflective, fun card games.

A portion of the business’ proceeds goes to a scholarship for BIPOC women seeking higher education and is donated to families impacted by police violence and gun violence.

Running the business has come with lots of learning for Gregory as she has grown from a high school student with an idea into a co-owner.

“There are so many facets to owning a business that kind of get into and learn something new everyday,” Gregory said. “We’re always learning, we’re always evolving. I feel like we were blessed from the start because my mom had so much business experience previously.”

Running a business together also meant learning how to balance their roles as both partners and family.

“In the beginning of things, we really tried to just be strictly business partners and try to separate ourselves from the mother-daughter relationship so we can get to the business,” Gregory said. “But I feel like our relationship and our business partnership has flown and it’s coming to harmony.”

The mother of the pair is fired at least once a month, Harris said jokingly, though it used to be more frequent.

At first Harris found herself taking the lead because of her work experience, but Gregory soon vocalized her passion for creativity and how she saw the business evolving.

“I had to really have faith in what she was doing and give her the opportunities to have her voice heard,” Harris said. “Man, she contributes so many amazing ideas and the way the business is set up and how it runs and how we present ourselves, she has so much input into it and all the great ideas that I have to really lean on her and respect where she’s coming from.”

Respecting each other’s strengths has gotten the duo to this point, Gregory said.

Harris agrees.

“Data and intuition work together,” she said. “I naturally lead because of my background in the operational and financial strategy for the business. Kobi, she’s the creative, she’s production, she’s storytelling and the best decisions that we’ve made usually happen when structure meets her good instinct.”

“I feel like we really proved to ourselves that we can do this,” Gregory said. “We’re a strong team, especially together.”

It has also been an amazing experience as Harris sees she can step back, she said.

“She can do it by herself. I don’t have to be in the store… So I can work from home and know that she’s holding the store down, and that’s a great feeling.”

Kobi Co. is open to the public Wednesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday starting at 2 p.m.

Learn more or book a candle- or sugar-scrub-making class at: https://www.lovekobico.com/.
Damenica Ellis welcomes reader responses at dellis@spokesman-recorder.com.