Female Disruptors: Stephanie Elias & Hannah Hutton of Personal Fav On The Three Things You Need To Shake Up Your Industry
Hannah: ‘No.’ is a full sentence. Understand the difference between nice and kind, especially as a female founder.
Stephanie: Humility is priceless. One of my mentors, Lavinia Errico, relayed that staying humble, knowing where you came from, and embodying humility are crucial to being successful.
As a part of our series about women who are shaking things up in their industry, I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephanie Elias and Hannah Hutton.
Stephanie Elias is the co-founder of non-toxic, plant-powered sexual wellness brand Personal Fav. Prior to founding Personal Fav in 2020 with lifelong friend and business partner Hannah Hutton, Stephanie acquired years of experience in the Consumer Product Goods and Startup worlds, having worked in their infancy stages on such cult-followed brands as Le Labo, Dirty Lemon, and Matchabar (now known as Hustle) and spent several years in the entertainment industry, specifically Artist Management and Relations at Forward Motion Artists, Three Six Zero and more. She hopes to awaken sexual confidence in others through Personal Fav, and that the pleasure-driven sexual wellness line enables people to discover their unique expression of pleasure and desire.
Hannah Hutton is the co-founder of Personal Fav — a sexual wellness brand that delivers clean, plant-powered, innovative products. Prior to founding Personal Fav in 2020 with lifelong friend and business partner Stephanie Elias, Hannah was one of the first employees at The Honest Company. Her novel digital marketing tactics, savvy crisis management, and ability to scale a business from startup to a globally recognized one made her instrumental in the company’s wildly successful launch and accelerated growth.
Hannah aims to awaken sexual confidence in others and diffuse the stigma around the space.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory”? What led you to this particular career path?
It is such an honor to be included- thank YOU!
Hannah: In 2012, I joined The Honest Company and experienced firsthand, a true start up that grew overnight and the obstacles and rewards that came with it. I grew tremendously during my six years with the brand and felt like I was essentially getting paid to go to business school. In classic start-up fashion, everyone wore a dozen hats- did not matter your title, one hour of the day you were building your own desk and the next you were testing how much liquid the diapers could hold. I am so grateful for that experience and loved watching how the products impacted new parents and their babies. I knew whatever came next for me, it had to be with clean products that start a conversation and make a difference.
Stephanie: Working in the music and entertainment industry for nearly a decade, and consulting for events, projects, and brands thereafter I realized the need for real change in the sexual wellness industry.
Can you tell our readers what it is about the work you’re doing that’s disruptive?
Hannah: We are taking on an industry that is primarily male dominated, made with dangerous ingredients, lacking regulation, education & support and flipping it on its head.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Hannah: Mistakes happen every single day. Our glass bottles are made in Italy. Italy was hit so hard early on by the pandemic and then many businesses “shut down” in the month of August. We obviously could not prevent the pandemic but we could’ve done our due diligence on having a proper back up plan. At first this put us in such a stressful bind but once we took a step back we saw things from a different lens and learned how to shift priorities and still be productive during trying times. We are firm believers in making excellent mistakes and have grown so much from each and every one.
Stephanie: Working and launching a product in sexual wellness has proven to be challenging for us in regard to running advertisements on Facebook, Instagram, and Google. We are learning to iterate and market through different channels to negate the conservative content guidelines that try to ban this conversation from even happening. It is outrageous.
We all need a little help along the journey. Who have been some of your mentors? Can you share a story about how they made an impact?
Hannah: I feel so fortunate to be surrounded by powerful women in the ecomm world. Friends and previous colleagues have been beyond supportive. Imposter syndrome, especially in a ‘taboo’ product space, is really real and the professional women in my life have tremendously helped diffuse the false narratives we create in our heads. One of my best friends was the first employee at Prima and I have been so inspired by watching her kick ass in the CBD space. I actually used to be her boss at The Honest Company and now I am the one learning from her on a daily basis. The great thing about women in business from my experience, is that we are constantly cheering each other on and celebrating every win no matter how big or small.
Stephanie: I am beyond grateful to have my mom, Roberta Sydney, as a mentor — she is the epitome of a business woman powerhouse. She has been our cheerleader since day one of this project, and provides us with amazing business advice and honest insight as we continue to grow and scale. Another mentor of mine, Lavinia Errico, started Equinox with her brothers, and has some of the most amazing anecdotes from their early days. Since Lavinia is so well-versed in the wellness sphere, I feel very fortunate to have been able to tap into her at different times throughout this journey. She has been a well of knowledge and support, and has been like a second mom to me on the west coast. I feel so blessed to have these two women in my life, alongside my co-founder Hannah, who continues to push me and is the catalyst for much of my growth over the years.
In today’s parlance, being disruptive is usually a positive adjective. But is disrupting always good? When do we say the converse, that a system or structure has ‘withstood the test of time’? Can you articulate to our readers when disrupting an industry is positive, and when disrupting an industry is ‘not so positive’? Can you share some examples of what you mean?
Hannah: Disrupting the Sexual Wellness industry is super positive. Sex products and the market are so antiquated. The industry is predominantly made up by men who are creating products without a woman’s health or pleasure in mind. It is long overdue to shake this up- let’s do it!
Can you share 3 of the best words of advice you’ve gotten along your journey? Please give a story or example for each.
Hannah: ‘No.’ is a full sentence. Understand the difference between nice and kind, especially as a female founder.
Stephanie:
1. Humility is priceless. One of my mentors, Lavinia Errico, relayed that staying humble, knowing where you came from, and embodying humility are crucial to being successful.
2. Self care is the most important thing you can do for yourself. Dan Loeb said that taking care of your health is tantamount to major business decisions and told me to read “The End of Illness” by Dr. David Agus. That book was beyond impactful on my journey — I think that is some of the best advice anyone has ever given me.
3. Only irrelevant people don’t have any haters. My friends Tommy Diacono and Angel Soto make me feel better on a weekly basis (thanks y’all!!), and let me know that this is the truth. I try to keep my blockers on, and stay focused on moving forward.
We are sure you aren’t done. How are you going to shake things up next?
Hannah: We want to continue to make clean and fun products that liberate people sexually. Even more importantly, we need the conversation around sex to shift entirely. We want to prioritize pleasure & make consent sexy.
In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges faced by ‘women disruptors’ that aren’t typically faced by their male counterparts?
Hannah: We are learning that the list is long. Most interesting thus far is how we come across in our pitches to investors- we are often too nice and conservative in our asks because I think on a deep-rooted level, that is how we were taught to be and we are trying to deprogram that rapidly.
Stephanie: The glass ceiling is still in place when it comes to women compared to men in the business world — it is very apparent. I feel we are combating being overtly shamed, man-splained to, or sexualized on a regular basis. Changing the conversation around sexual wellness is pivotal in breaking through to the other side by highlighting issues that so many women and trans people face, due to the inefficiencies and lack of information available about conventional sex products.
Do you have a book/podcast/talk that’s had a deep impact on your thinking? Can you share a story with us?
Hannah: The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz has been my north star both professionally and personally, I find myself constantly going back to it. Be Impeccable With Your Word. Don’t Take Anything Personally. Don’t Make Assumptions. Always Do Your Best. These pillars help keep me accountable and have made me such a better communicator in all aspects of life.
Stephanie: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho taught me that the journey is just as important as the destination. Beyond embracing the journey, manifestation underscores the entire novel, and I truly believe “when you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.” Manifestation combined with putting in the work to achieve what you seek is deeply ingrained as part of my process.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
It is so important to us to shed the shame and stigma around pleasure and sex. We are taught at a very young age that sex is bad. Why can’t we educate on both safety and pleasure so it doesn’t have to be something we hide? If we prioritize pleasure, we think we would have a lot less stressed and more happy humans- how awesome does that sound?
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“With putting other people first, you’ve taught them and given them permission to put you second” I have been such a people pleaser in my life to the point where I have been detrimental to my own success and happiness. My friend Haley shared this quote with me a while back and it resonated deeply. Prioritizing myself is not selfish, it is powerful.
How can our readers follow you online?
Personal Fav Co: Personalfav.co @personalfavco
HH: @hhutton
SE: @eliasfolife
Female Disruptors: Stephanie Elias & Hannah Hutton of Personal Fav On The Three Things You Need To… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.