Introduction
In this insightful interview, we sit down with Chelsey Jean, the founder of a lymphatic health business, to uncover how she managed to scale a small business in ecommerce from a clinic-based service to a booming $100,000-a-month online brand. Her journey is a masterclass in pivoting, community building, and relentless execution, offering invaluable lessons for any entrepreneur looking to scale their own venture.
Founder Success Story QnA
Can you introduce yourself and tell me a little bit about your business?
Okay, so my name’s Chelsey. I am a naturopath, I’m a sports therapist. I’ve been working on women’s bodies since I was 19, so a little over 20 years ago. I discovered that the way people were doing lymphatic health was different to the results and the things that I was doing in my clinic, and then that business grew. I haven’t really worked for anybody else; I’ve only worked for myself since I was 19. I discovered a gap in the market, but I also needed to have some guts. I had some backing and people to say you can do this. I thought, okay, well I’m going to create my own sequence, and then I need my own range of products because at the end of the day, I want to reach a lot of people. I want to change lives and I want people to be able to do things at home and not just with me in clinic.
How did you come into the field of lymphatic health and what really inspired you to pursue a career in it?
My first business was a ladies figure toning salon. You would hop onto these machines and one would move your legs like this and the other one would jiggle under your bottom, and you would move your body in different ways. I incorporated that into my massage, so my massage is different. I do a lot of wiggling and jiggling the body. My clients were losing weight, their gut was getting so much better, they were getting so much happier, their emotions, their feelings—the results that I was getting in my clinic were so mind-blowing. I researched it and it came up, oh, I’m doing lymphatic health. But then if you look into the traditional lymphatic health, it is this really soft touch brush, and I’m like, geez, that’s not what I’m doing. It took some guts to go, you know what, my way works. I found that using the lymphatic system to detoxify, we have so much lymph in our body. It’s the septic system; it moves fat; it’s where our immune system lives, and it doesn’t have a pump.
You mentioned you had a clinic when you first opened up. Is that how you first had the interaction with women and started building that community?
Yeah, so I started with my clinic and then I expanded that into a full-blown day spa where I had 40 clients a day coming into the clinic. I had staff and we did beauty. I was the first person in Brisbane to put in a fishy shower where you have the jets of water. I had a day spa, and then from there I became a naturopath because I wanted to work on the inside as well as the outside. It’s just built. I’m seeing people now who were clients of mine 20, nearly 30 years ago coming and saying, oh Chelsey, remember we had those machines. It’s been a long time of building to get to where we are now.
Do you want to talk about your transition from having your clinic during the last year and how you got started in ecommerce?
Working in my clinic and then COVID hit, and it was okay, you can’t work on people’s bodies. I like touching people; I’m a therapist who will put my hand on you. For me to have to not touch was a massive thing. It’s like, okay, how am I going to do this? Because stopping or going into the poor me phase is not even an option to me. It’s like, okay, that’s a red light, how do we make it green? I saw Greta’s course come up, and I’m like, okay, I’m doing this, I’m buying this. I had my gloves, I started with my people in clinic, I had my little website but nothing to the scale of what it is now. Greta came with me into the bathtub. I did a lot of the steps; it was just a reinforcement of what I have done but really nitty-gritty and putting labels on things and putting the steps in that has helped a lot.
Talk me through the process of actually developing your products and how you found your manufacturer and started your first small ecommerce store.
My lymphatic cream I made because I’ve had my veins stripped out myself, so I’ve gone through the personal experience of that. I pretty much did it in a day. I sat down, I thought, you know what, if I could really—I think when you’re connected and when you have a passion for something, you can just download and you trust it. I wrote down the ingredients that I wanted, I sent it to my chemist, and then she said, yeah, I can make that work. It was that easy. I’m lucky that my family has their own business as well; they have horse products and marine products, so we already have a manufacturing setup. We started off ordering tiny little amounts of essential oils, like 250mls at a time. We now order 10 liters at a time. It’s my family, my son, myself, my mum, and my dad who are mixing and bottling everything.
Are you thinking your next step is to hire a dispatch team and someone to put in that TLC that you’ve given so many times before?
Yeah, so the plan is we’ve just purchased a warehouse, so we will have a distribution center where all the products will be. The integration now of Shopify, the ShipStation to this is the part that I’m reaching out in the team and the Start and Scale team and asking questions. We did 46 runs of a thousand liters last year, and I’ve said to the family that has to be a month now because we have that level of sales. To be able to step out of seeing my one-on-one clients to now seeing a group, and then to put two managers and naturopaths into my clinic, and then now to have staff as the distribution staff, I have five online virtual assistants. I still want to be part of the manufacturing stage but just maybe as overseeing, not being the one who feels all the bottles.
Was the Start and Scale community the inspiration for building your own community groups on Facebook? Can you talk about your ‘Boob Camp’?
Boot Camp started because I got my gloves and I was so excited, and every day I’m showing people and doing demonstrations. Then three days in, runny nose, headaches, feeling lousy, sore throat—all of the detoxification feelings. I’m like, oh my god, I’m a naturopath, I’m quite healthy, and here I am having all of these detoxification effects. What happens to somebody who isn’t as healthy as me? They’re gonna feel like crap. So I need to have an area where we can all feel like crap together. That’s why I thought, well, let’s create this community of Boot Camp. We’ve got nearly 5,000 women in my Boot Camp group. It’s also a great funnel because everybody who talks about their wins and what they’re finding, other people support them. My community of Chelsey soldiers in that group, I don’t even have to answer a lot of the questions because they come out and answer them.
How has the process of signing up to Start and Scale significantly impacted your business?
I think just to give me the guts to go ahead. When I read a post in Start and Scale that a lady was spending a thousand dollars a day on Facebook ads, my mind was blown. Now I’m spending 500 a day on Facebook ads and ready to do it. The return of 6.73 is what I’m working on per dollar. Just the encouragement in that group and to see that there is actually a formal formula. When Greta talks through the steps, it’s like, you know what, this works, these are the steps that you need to do. There’s no real cutting corners. I love the terminology that she uses. It’s been a whole new dictionary of words that I’ve learned: Shopify, ClickFunnels, Zaps. The course is definitely working through the modules. If you ask a question in that group, you’re going to get such a broad range and such great support from the other entrepreneurs.
How is your business now? What’s your turnover like?
Last year during COVID, we hit around $880,000 for the year in sales, during a year where my clinic was closed for a lot of it. For me, a $20,000 month was just like amazing, and then it was 30, and then it was 40. Last month, our online sales hit just over $100,000 for online sales, and that doesn’t include the clinic. All together, I think last month our sales were $180,000. Because I manufacture my products myself, my profit is probably higher than a lot of people because I don’t outsource much at all. My parents have spent 15, 20 years with their businesses and have done it the other way. I’ve done mine for six months now and I’m doing the same sales.
What’s next for ecommerce for you?
We are setting up ManyChat so that that can be integrated with Shopify for people to be able to ask questions. I’m putting everything now through Shopify. All of my ClickFunnels and everything now have to go through there because of all the different payment gateways. It’s about streamlining so everything runs smoothly. We can still collect information, keep an eye on stock, and know stock numbers. I’ve got two new products that I’m up my sleeve that I want to bring out soon. The integration is the part I’m paying a company to hook up all the integrations from the sales to the accounting, printing out the labels, and so on. Simplifying the processes as much as we can with Shopify is the goal.
How is your life now compared to what it was before since growing your ecommerce store?
I think now that I really am solid. Before, I was like, oh, maybe what about this or what about that, and being flighty. Now, I read other people’s where their businesses have got to, and instead of being the person to go, oh my god, I’ll never get there, it’s like, I want to do that, that is awesome. My goal this year is to spend a thousand dollars a day on Facebook ads because I saw it in the group and that’s inspired me. Moving forward is just to keep on watching the people who are in front of me and to go, yeah, that is, and connect more with those people. I think what has changed is I found my tiara again. I get to be myself, my crazy creative self more. It’s given me the freedom to be an example of my values: freedom, authenticity, motivation, and transformation.
Is there any last words of advice or wisdom you want to share?
If you can just really ask your why. Why am I doing this? What do I want to be? What happens if I don’t do it? You have to live with you. You get one life, and are you going to be happy if you don’t take the plunge? You’ve got to live with that. So yeah, ask what your why is, get some guts, and just really go for it.
Chelsey Jean Business Stats
Chelsey Jean’s business, Lymphatics and Naturopathy, experienced phenomenal growth by pivoting from a clinic-based model to a scalable e-commerce powerhouse. Her ability to manufacture in-house and build a powerful community led to impressive financial results, demonstrating how to scale a small business in ecommerce effectively.
- Peak Online Sales: $100,000+ per month
- Total Monthly Revenue (Clinic + Online): $180,000
- Annual Revenue During COVID (First Year of E-commerce): $880,000
- Team Size: 9-10 people
- Community Size: Nearly 5,000 in the ‘Boob Camp’ Facebook group.
- Facebook Ad Spend: $500/day with a 6.73x return on investment.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Peak Monthly Online Revenue | $100,000+ |
| Annual Revenue (Year 1) | $880,000 |
| Team Members | 10 |
| Community Members | 5,000 |
| Daily Ad Spend | $500 |
Chelsey Jean Method
Chelsey’s success wasn’t accidental; it was the result of a clear, community-focused strategy. She identified a unique need, built a loyal following before pushing major sales, and then scaled her operations to meet the demand she created.
- Identified a gap in the market for effective lymphatic health techniques.
- Pivoted from a closed clinic to an online e-commerce model during COVID.
- Built a highly engaged Facebook community (‘Boob Camp’) to foster trust and gather feedback.
- Developed a product line with unique selling points, like probiotic-infused face cream.
- Leveraged family manufacturing to maintain quality control and high-profit margins.
- Invested in education and systems (like Start and Scale) to formalize growth.
Chelsey Jean Tools
To manage her rapidly growing business, Chelsey implemented a suite of powerful tools to handle everything from sales and marketing to shipping and customer communication. These tools were crucial in her journey to scale a small business in ecommerce.
- Shopify: The central platform for her e-commerce store, allowing her to handle sales and inventory.
- Active Campaign: Used for email marketing to her list of over 5,000 subscribers, driving significant sales.
- ShipStation: Integrates with Shopify to streamline the shipping and label-printing process for her warehouse.
- Facebook Ads: The primary paid marketing channel used to acquire new customers at a strong ROI.
- ManyChat: A chatbot tool being integrated to improve customer service and engagement on her site.
- ClickFunnels: Previously used for sales funnels, now being consolidated into Shopify for simplicity.
Key Notes
Chelsey’s journey offers several powerful takeaways for any entrepreneur. Her story emphasizes that passion, combined with smart strategy and a willingness to go all-in, are key ingredients for success.
- The power of building a community first; her ‘Boob Camp’ group acts as a massive support and sales funnel.
- Knowing your ‘why’ is critical for pushing through fear and challenges, like the COVID shutdown.
- Don’t be afraid to go ‘all in’ when you see an opportunity, like ordering 50,000 bottles at once.
- Build a team to fill your gaps; you can’t be the expert in everything.
- Invest in courses and education to learn formal systems and avoid guessing your way through growth.
Get Started in Just 5 Steps
Inspired by Chelsey’s story? Here’s how you can start your own journey to scale a small business in ecommerce, following her proven path.
- Find your unique solution or method that solves a real problem for a specific audience.
- Create a free community (like a Facebook group) to provide value and build trust before selling.
- Develop your initial product, starting with small batches to test the market.
- Invest in a structured e-commerce course to learn the fundamentals of ads, funnels, and operations.
- Systematize and scale your operations, from manufacturing to fulfillment, as sales grow.
Conclusion
Chelsey Jean’s transformation from a hands-on therapist to a $100k-a-month e-commerce founder is a powerful testament to what’s possible when you combine passion with a smart, scalable strategy. Her focus on community, willingness to pivot, and courage to go all in provide a clear roadmap for anyone looking to scale a small business in ecommerce. Her story proves that with the right mindset and tools, you can turn a challenge into a massive opportunity.