Success is more than skin deep

When Monica Simeon’s newborn son developed severe eczema and she couldn’t find commercial products to soothe his skin, she turned to what she’d learned from her grandmothers.

A member of the Spokane Tribe of Indians, Simeon remembered her grandmothers harvesting plants to make tea, ointments and creams when she was a child. She found some natural creams that helped her son, and the more she researched mixing essential oils and botanical products, the more she thought it might make a good business.

Her first thought was to ask her sister, Marina Turning Robe, to help. The pair is about as close as sisters can be. They talk every day. They live 10 minutes apart. And they get along so well that news of a fight they had was shocking enough to disrupt a family dinner.

“My sister is like my right side. Our children are like sisters and brothers,” Turning Robe said.

They started small, mixing five gallons of lotions and creams at home, bottling and labeling it with the help of their husbands and children. They called their initial line of body lotions Sun, Wind, Rain and Moon, and used essential oils intended to invigorate, refresh, energize and relax. The lotions are smooth and subtle, scented with tangerine, ylang ylang, lime and bergamot.

Drawing from their heritage and their relationship, they called the company Sister Sky.

They took their products on the road, attending trade shows and craft fairs and competing for attention with numerous other vendors. But after three years of minimal sales and no real footholds in the extremely competitive bath and body products industry, they decided to go home.

Going home didn’t mean giving up. It meant literally returning to their homes on the Spokane Indian Reservation and brainstorming ways they could marry their products to their upbringing. They decided to tap into the nationwide connections they have through their tribe.

The end result was a renewed focus that has their products gradually making inroads at Native American-owned resorts and hotels across the country. Their shampoos, conditioners and bath products now greet guests checking into rooms at the Little Creek Casino and Hotel in Shelton, Wash., a property of the Squaxin Island Tribe. And they just delivered their first products to the Coeur d’Alene Tribe’s hotel and casino in Worley, Idaho.

The products are also sold in retail shops at three other tribal resorts in Connecticut and New York. And they’re for sale in stores throughout the west, including the Gilded Lily on North Monroe in Spokane. They send out 12,000 products a month to just one of the resorts they supply.

Simeon and Turning Robe’s refocusing included the realization that dozens of tribes were building resorts across the country at the same time a grassroots “Buy Native” campaign was sweeping through Indian Country. Their strategy was to attend conferences and trade shows held monthly by organizations including the National Conference of American Indians and promote the products there.

Their first conference was in November 2003. Nine months later, they landed their first major account. That was compared with three years of minimal success under their prior strategy.

“We thought, ‘This is it!’” Simeon remembered. “Once you narrow your focus, it all becomes very clear, how you grow your business.”

In June, Sister Sky received a business excellence award from Leadership Spokane for achievement and leadership within the business community.

Also making a huge difference in their business has been their partnership with Lee Tate at Tate Technology on East Trent. Their product is produced and bottled at Tate’s business and they credit him with being their entrepreneurial mentor.

Despite that rewarding mutual relationship, their long-term goal is to one day manufacture their products on the Spokane Reservation, creating jobs for people in their tribe and a business that helps their economy flourish.

“It’s a concept of helping take care of who’s around you,” Turning Robe said. “Your tribe is your family.”

But for now, the sisters count 110 Native American resorts and hotels nationwide, and they’re only in a few of them, so they’ve got their work cut out for them.

“We’re not in all of those yet,” Simeon said.

“But we will be,” Turning Robe finished with a smile.