The Marriage Ended - Their Business Didn't – Exclusive Interview With Susan Griffin-Black and Brad Black
Brainz Magazine Exclusive Interview
Susan Griffin-Black and Brad Black are the co-founders of EO Products and Everyone, two personal-care brands built around essential oils, thoughtful ingredients, and the belief that business can care for people as well as profit. What began in a garage with a stockpot of shower gel has grown into a values-led company with more than three decades of local manufacturing behind it.
Their story is also one of an enduring partnership. Although no longer married, Susan and Brad have continued to lead their business together with trust, mutual respect, and a shared commitment to their people, products, and community.
In this interview, Susan and Brad reflect on the unexpected moment that sparked EO, why independence has mattered to them, what accessibility really means in product design, and how personal growth has helped them build a company designed to last.
Susan Griffin-Black and Brad Black are the co-founders of EO Products and Everyone
Susan, your career began in fashion design before one experience in London changed your direction. Can you take us back to that moment?
I was at the end of my clothing career. After fifteen years, it was no longer as interesting to me. It felt endless: the way things had to be made, shipped, and presented, and the constant pressure for fashion to be fast, new, and furious.
I was ready for something else, even though I did not yet know what that would be. Then, in 1991, I found myself in Covent Garden in London and walked into an apothecary in Neal’s Yard. The room was golden, and it was the best smell I had ever experienced. It was a combination of essential oils, dried herbs, and flowers.
Upstairs, there was an aromatherapist, acupuncturist, and herbalist, and people could get their prescriptions filled in the little apothecary below. I picked up a bottle of lavender angustifolia from the south of France, inhaled it, and felt something immediately. It filled my heart.
I looked around and thought, “This is definitely what I want to do next.”
That moment led to a crash course in cosmetic chemistry, studying aromatherapy, and then moving quickly into creating a private-label collection for Bloomingdale’s holiday catalogue in 1995. From there, we found our place in the emerging natural-products marketplace, which has been a wonderful place to build a business with purpose and meaning.
Brad, what made you want to build that next chapter alongside Susan?
I was also in fashion, which is how Susan and I originally met. We started as really good friends, and Susan helped me with my clothing business. We had great conversations together, and we were both in a period of transition.
We were aligned at the core in how we wanted to engage in business. At the time, we did not call it being values-led. We were simply trying to be authentic about how we wanted to work and how we wanted to work together.
Susan: One of the key questions we asked each other was, “What would it take to create a business that we would want to work for?”
We had both worked in many different environments, from jobs we had as young people to college and post-college work. We kept coming back to the same questions: What makes a good company? What brings heart and meaning to work? How do work and family life fit together? What are the key ingredients?"
That was the beginning of the company as much as the products themselves.
You started in a garage with a stockpot of shower gel. What did you want people to feel when they first used your products?
Brad: Essential oils are the reason we called the company EO. EO stands for essential oils, and there is power and magic in that ingredient. From the beginning, we wanted to share that experience with people.
Susan: We did not come from a fragrance-and-flavour background, so there was no commercial comparison point for us. We simply thought, “This smells better than anything else.”
You can feel the difference between a natural scent and the barrage of synthetic fragrance that people often experience in a department store, candle shop, elevator, or car. We respond to scent in a heartbeat. It affects us as we inhale and exhale.
Essential oils are the real thing. They come from plants. They are vital, alive, and part of the natural world that we are part of too.
A fake flower can look very similar to a real one from across the room. But when you move closer, you know the difference. The real rose is alive. It has vitality and, hopefully, fragrance. That is how we think about essential oils. They offer a different kind of experience: one that can make you pause for a moment and feel something.
“Essential oils are the real thing. They are plants, they are vital, they are alive, and they are part of us.”
You were values-led long before terms such as conscious business and B Corp became part of mainstream business language. What did that look like in practice?
We did not begin with the intention of leading with what we now call values. We were just doing our best.
Business is difficult. There is always struggle. But for us, it was not much harder to take a natural and organic path, or to think beyond profit. A values-led business is simply a more expansive way of defining success.
Today, people refer to the triple bottom line: people, profit, and planet. That was always something we felt could be integrated into the products we made and into how we ran the business.
The values side came naturally. It was about recognising that business can mean more than making money.
Susan, you have remained independently owned and have never taken venture capital or private equity. Why was protecting that independence so important?
We always wanted to maintain control because we knew we were pioneering something. We were manufacturing in Marin County, which is an expensive place to do business, but it was where we lived.
We built the company around a lifestyle as well as a business. We never wanted to miss a basketball game, a parent-teacher conference, or picking up our children. That was part of our values, and it helped us attract people who had shared values.
Financially, the question was always: Do we have enough working capital to do the next thing? Have we made enough profit? How do we balance that?
We chose not to grow too fast and not to give too much away while we were growing. Around 2008, we raised a little money from patient friends and angel investors, but we kept building carefully over time.
We have had many offers. At one point, we seriously considered selling because the industry was becoming more consolidated. At first, those conversations sounded appealing. There would be expertise, knowledge, and support in areas where we were less experienced. But after sitting with it, it never felt right.
Private equity can be a very extractive model, and we do not agree with that philosophy. We chose to put profits back into the business and build steadily. This is our thirty-first year. It is harder in some ways, but much easier in others.
EO is often described as “care of self,” while Everyone is “care of others.” How do those two ideas work together?
EO began with the individual experience of using a product. We heard from people that the products felt transformative, and we continued trying to create products that supported that personal experience.
Everyone has the same values behind it, but it is more focused on caring for others. EO is about taking care of yourself first, and Everyone expands that care outward.
It is like putting on your own mask first on an aeroplane before helping others. When you have taken care of yourself, you are better able to care for the people around you.
Everyone offers larger sizes and more value-led price points. We wanted to create products that could serve more people without compromising on care.
Susan, you have said that accessibility is a design decision rather than simply a discount. What does that mean?
Susan: It has been a lifelong journey, and it still is. The marketplace changes, but our product charter does not. We want products to evolve in ways that embrace health, safety, wellbeing, and beauty.
If there is a new essential oil, ingredient, or process that genuinely improves what we create, we are open to it. But we do not change things for the sake of trends.
The criteria for both brands are similar. The price points, essential oils, and active ingredients may vary, but the attitude, care, and intention remain the same.
Brad: A values-led company should consider the whole picture. Accessibility has always been important to us. A soap costing fifteen euros is simply not as accessible as one costing five.
We intentionally keep price points down, even when that means sacrificing some margin. We want to make high-quality products available to more people while still maintaining the ingredients and processes that matter to us.
“We are intentional about keeping our price points down to allow accessibility to more people.”
In an era when outsourcing is so common, why has local manufacturing remained so important to you?
Susan: Being makers became incredibly important to us. It reflects our combined skill set, our relationship, and what each of us has brought to the company.
When you make things yourself, you know every small element that goes into them. You can maintain consistency, standards, and evolution. A lot can get lost in translation when someone else is making your products.
We have also taught others how we make things, so it has become part of the culture and community of the company. Being a maker makes things real.
Brad: There is a difference between going to a restaurant and being invited into someone’s home for a meal made with fresh ingredients. Both experiences have value, but they are different.
For us, local manufacturing brings that same level of relationship and involvement. We have a relationship with every ingredient that goes into our products, and with suppliers we have worked with for many years.
We believe that connection creates a different experience for us, for the people who work with us, and ultimately for the people who use the products.
Susan: Our local community also played a huge role in helping us grow. In the early days, we used what we called guerrilla marketing. We would call local Whole Foods stores and ask whether they carried EO. When they said no, we created a campaign through our children’s school community and encouraged people to ask for us.
Eventually, we got into our local Whole Foods. We did well, then moved into a second store, and grew from there. Those relationships have lasted over time, and the support of the community has been extraordinary.
What are the costs of keeping manufacturing local, and why has it been worth it?
Brad: It is a harder path in today’s world because cheap and inexpensive products are major motivators for many people. But we are focused on the end product and on the decisions we make as people.
EO has a slightly higher price point, which means we can use more special and costly essential oils. Everyone is priced more aggressively, so we make different ingredient choices to keep the cost lower. But both are made with care and intention.
Life is time, and we have a choice about how we want to engage with that time. Business can become something separate: somewhere you go simply to make money. We have tried to hold it differently for ourselves and our team.
How can our business contribute to a life? How can it provide more than money? How can people work in a place that reflects the way they want to live?
Susan: Marin County is a very special place, with natural beauty and a creative spirit. The Bay Area has always been known for people embracing what is culturally emerging. It is a wonderful place to bring something new to market.
We have also been influenced by the businesses and people who came before us - companies that believed business could have social impact and still be commercially successful. We stand on the shoulders of those who helped create that culture.
You have continued running the business together as former partners. What has helped you lead with respect through so much change?
We have always deeply cared for and respected each other. There was always love, and there was no betrayal. That was important because it meant our trust was never broken in that way.
It made it easier to transform our relationship from partners into family. It has also been instructive for other people, especially our children. You can work things out. You can have differences and still deeply care about one another.
In a world where so many marriages end in divorce, and where that can create a great deal of trauma, this felt like the best path for us. It was difficult. It was absolutely a choice. But we have done a really good job.
Of course, we are human. There are still moments when we do not see eye to eye, not because our values are different, but because we have different ways of doing things. We work passionately through it and get to the other side.
At this point, we have a track record. I have confidence that we will find our way through.
Looking back over thirty-one years, what have you learned about building a company that lasts?
Brad: It has been a journey of passion: how I choose to engage, how I choose to make decisions, the people I work with, and the fruit of our labour.
If you want to understand how we make decisions, try one of our products. We are always trying to create something beautiful that people can appreciate and that feels transformative to them.
Personally, I have learned to see opportunity even when things are extremely difficult. There is always an opportunity to improve how I engage with a challenge. The passion to create something from an idea has remained central.
Susan: There is so much personal work and self-awareness required to be a lifelong learner. There is a consistency in thinking you know something, then moving to the other side and realising, “I do not know more than I know.” From there, the question becomes: What do I need to learn? What do I want to learn?
Self-awareness is important and underrated, a little like kindness. Our ability to see things clearly is always shaped by our past. Understanding how that has affected us creates more space, more openness, and more understanding.
It also helps in hiring the right people. You may not always get it right, but when values are clear and consistently lived, they help guide the company forward.
Finally, what mindset do you credit most for the success you have today?
Brad: If you have to climb up a hill, you do it to get the view. I believe there are opportunities, not just problems. The good stuff can be found in the problems and in how we work our way through them.
You may need nine noes before you get one yes. There are many important mindsets - passion, collaboration, forgiveness, and humility - but there is goodness even in some of the most difficult situations. There is always a lesson to learn and overcome.
Susan: I would say regarding people and relationships as number one. That includes having skillful conversations when things get tough, holding perspective, and choosing kindness regardless of the outcome.
It is about how we can be with one another, create with one another, and be together in the best way for the right amount of time.
I also believe change is life and life is change. Accepting, rather than resisting, the new reality is crucial. The more tightly you hold on, the more you suffer. Learning to welcome, loosen up, and meet what is actually happening has been incredibly important and instructive.
Susan Griffin-Black and Brad Black’s story is a reminder that lasting business is not built through growth alone. It is built through intention: the intention to make products with care, treat people with respect, choose independence when it matters, and continue learning through every stage of life. After more than three decades, EO Products and Everyone remain rooted in the same question that first brought them together: what would it take to build a company that people genuinely want to work for - and buy from?
To learn more about EO Products, visit their official website and follow their Instagram page. You can also follow Susan and Brad’s journey through their personal profiles.
