I Bottled My Mother: The Mrs. Meyer’s Story: Grit, Grime & Growing a Business'

Summary

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Bloomberg Businessweek — "I Bottled My Mother: The Mrs. Meyer’s Story: Grit, Grime & Growing a Business"

Hosts: Carol Massar & Tim Stenovec

Guest: Monica Nassif (Founder, Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day)

Air Date: April 7, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec interview Monica Nassif, founder of Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day and author of the new book, I Bottled My Mother: The Mrs. Meyer’s Story: Grit, Grime & Growing a Business. The conversation covers Monica’s journey building the iconic cleaning and home care brand, the influential role of her mother in shaping the company’s values, the challenges of scaling and selling a business, and her reflections on entrepreneurship past and present.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Bottling Her Mother's Values

• Monica describes the inspiration behind Mrs. Meyer's Clean Day as stemming directly from her mother, who embodied frugality, a love for gardening, and strong Midwestern work ethic.
• “We bottled all of her values. Frugality, she loves her garden. She raised nine kids in 10 years. And her parenting advice was, ‘I'm raising adults, not children.’” — Monica Nassif (03:13)
• Monica humorously recounts calling her mother to ask if they could name the brand after her, to which her mom responded, “What's a brand?” (03:33)

Disrupting the Cleaning Products Market

• Monica shifted the paradigm from single-purpose, chemically-scented cleaning products to a more holistic, lifestyle-focused approach, treating cleaning as “personal care for the home.”
• “I thought of the home as like, personal care for the home... what if you could clean everything in lavender or lemon, verbena or basil, your window spray, your dish soap, your hands, laundry, everything. And customers loved it.” — Monica Nassif (04:20)
• She combined the reliability of major brands with the safety of green products, wrapped in attractive packaging and personality.

The Decision to Sell & Brand Evolution

• Monica addresses why she sold to SC Johnson at 53, noting rapid growth and capital constraints: “We were also capital constrained, I'll be honest... all the organic brands were being acquired. And from day one, from our first trade show… we had private equity, VC and Essie Johnson in our trade show booth.” (06:29)
• She distinguishes SC Johnson from other suitors: “I asked every private equity, every VC... what can you do for us that we can't do for ourselves?... SC Johnson said, we can scale this.” (06:52)
• On seller’s remorse: “It's bittersweet. Yeah. There's definitely seller's remorse... but at the same time, you think, okay, what am I personally really good at as the founder?... you start to get worn out, too. I'm going to be honest. It's a hard life.” (07:51)

Brand Creation in Today's Market

• Monica is candid about the unique timing that contributed to Mrs. Meyer's success: “The timing was perfect. Yeah, it really was... we used to call them jewelry for the counter... No one was thinking like that.” (08:43)
• She doubts she could replicate the same brand today due to market changes: “Probably not.” (08:37)

Her Mother’s Ongoing Influence

• Monica’s mother, at 93, remains an active and inspirational figure: “She just went on a safari in Africa... walks to church every day... believes in fresh air, frugality, faith, family... She raised us to be confident individuals by kicking us out of the house early. Go get a job.” (09:27–09:55)
• Monica notes her mother prioritized work ethic over academic achievement: “She never once asked, ‘Hey, Monica, what are your grades?’ It's ‘Monica, do you have a job?’” (09:55)

Shifting Retail & Consumer Landscapes

• Monica recalls early days selling via Amazon: “When we started, Amazon was eight years old... we'd go into there... it was all tech guys... They weren't product geeks.” (13:01)
• She comments on adapting to where consumers now buy and discover products: “You have to depend on what's your target audience... and where do they go to consume media. And then you got to be there, like it or not.” (12:48)

Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

• The book was written “as a love letter to my mother, but really for the wannabes, the dreamers, the schemers, the wannabe entrepreneurs.” (14:51)
• On whether to pursue entrepreneurship: “Should you do it? You really should look in the mirror and ask yourself, do you have what it takes to pull this off? Because this is not easy.” (15:14)
• Notes the rise in the “founder” title, by LinkedIn data: “The word title founder has grown 69% on LinkedIn titles.” (15:51)

Most Memorable Moment

• Monica’s visualization technique paid off: “One of my favorite moments… I had this image in my mind's eye of what this brand should be. An endcap in Target loaded with product... one day, I'm in Whole Foods... and there it was, this huge [display]. I literally almost brought me to my knees... The reality of it. That was a moment.” (13:36)

Personal Touches

• Her favorite Mrs. Meyer's fragrance is basil: “Oh, it is. That's like picking your favorite child. It's basil. I gotta admit it.” (16:07)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Brand Inspiration:
  “We bottled all of her values. Frugality... she raised nine kids in 10 years... I'm raising adults, not children.” — Monica Nassif (03:13)

• On Market Disruption:
  “I thought of the home as like, personal care for the home... customers loved it. I just kind of turned the market differently and thought about it more as a fashion and personal care business than a cleaning business.” — Monica Nassif (04:20)

• On Selling Her Business:
  “I asked every private equity, every VC... what can you do for us that we can't do for ourselves?... SC Johnson said, we can scale this.” — Monica Nassif (06:52) “It's bittersweet. Yeah... There's definitely seller's remorse... But at the same time, you think, okay, what am I personally really good at as the founder?” (07:51)

• On Entrepreneurship:
  “How do you do it? And you know what I say? Should you do it?... Do you have what it takes to pull this off? Because this is not easy.” — Monica Nassif (15:14) “The word title founder has grown 69% on LinkedIn titles.” (15:51)

• On Her Mother’s Influence:
  “She just went on a safari in Africa... She believes in fresh air, frugality, faith, family...” — Monica Nassif (09:27) “She never once asked... what are your grades? It's Monica, do you have a job?” (09:55)

• Visualization Becomes Reality:
  “I literally almost brought me to my knees. There was the image that I had in my mind’s eye from day one. The reality of it. Yeah, that was a moment.” — Monica Nassif (14:42)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:13 — Bottling her mother’s Midwestern values into the brand
• 04:20 — Reimagining the cleaning product market
• 06:29 — Why Monica sold to SC Johnson
• 07:51 — The bittersweet feeling of selling a brand
• 08:43 — Reflections on timing and whether Mrs. Meyer's could be built today
• 09:27 — Stories about Monica’s mother’s influence and work ethic
• 12:48 — Adapting brand strategy for modern retail/online sales
• 13:36 — Most memorable moment, seeing her vision realized at retail
• 14:51 — Purpose of Monica’s new book
• 15:14 — Monica’s advice: assessing yourself before becoming an entrepreneur
• 16:07 — Monica’s favorite product fragrance

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Conclusion

This episode offers an insightful, personal, and often humorous look at entrepreneurship through the lens of Monica Nassif’s journey with Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day. Monica’s reflections highlight the grit required for sustaining a business and provide practical wisdom for aspiring founders, all set against the unique influence of her mother’s life and values on the brand.

If you’re interested in building a brand, learning from a founder’s honest experiences, or understanding the roots of an everyday household name, Monica’s story is both instructive and inspiring.

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Transcript

[A]

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[A]

Bloomberg Audio Studios Podcasts Radio News this is Bloomberg businessweek with Carol Massar and Tim Stanvak on Bloomberg Radio.

[C]

Michele Bowman, Federal Reserve Governor, said ease capital requirements could encourage US Banks to expand loans for small businesses. Here's what she said. Quote Supporting credit for small businesses is critical to our economy. This was in prepared remarks for the Consumer Banks Bankers Association a little earlier this week. A regulatory framework must provide access to capital for these businesses to ensure our rules support the economy.

[D]

Makes sense to me, right? We talk about the importance of small business entrepreneurship, the backbone of the US Economy.

[C]

Monica Nassif knows about access to capital for small business. She is she before she was a big business, she was a small business. She's the founder of the household cleaning products company Mrs. Meyers Clean Day. It's sold to SC Johnson in 2008. She's also the author of the new book I love this title, I Bottled my mother the Mrs. Meyers story grit, grime, and growing a business. She joins us here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio. Welcome.

[E]

Thank you. Delighted to be here.

[C]

You have an amazing story, but it starts with your mom.

[E]

Starts with.

[C]

My mom is still alive. She's 93.

[E]

She's 93. She's still alive, going strong, lives in her family home. She's still bossing me around. She's the one. She raised nine children.

[C]

How did you bottle your mother?

[E]

Well, we bottled all of her values. Frugality, she loves her garden. She raised nine kids in 10 years. And her parenting advice was, I'm raising adults, not children. And so she just had this Midwestern strong work ethic. So as we created this other brand to kind of knock off our first brand, Caldrea, we decided, what would that represent? How could we take out Caldrea? And we thought, oh, a brand with strong Midwestern values. So I called my mom and said, hey, mom, could we name you after a brand? And she goes, what's a brand? I said, well, just say yes. Cause we gotta get going. We got things to do.

[A]

Tell us, though, about.

[D]

Like, this marketplace, though, is crowded. It becomes increasingly crowded. And you guys went a different route. And I told you before we got started, my daughter, who is now 23 years old, when we had her nursery, we started using. Cause your product is right. I'm right.

[E]

Oh, yeah, for sure you're right.

[D]

I was like, doing the math if I'm wrong. But we were using your products because we were. We wanted no chemicals in her room, and we've been using it since. So tell us about how you approach the marketplace.

[E]

You know, I approached it really differently. You know, before we came on the scene, it was problem solution, dirty window, Windex dishes, Dawn. You know, kind of one trick, ponies very. I mean, great performance, great products, great brands. But I thought of the home as like, personal care for the home. Like, what if you could clean everything in lavender or lemon, verbena or basil, your window spray, your dish soap, your hands, laundry, everything. And customers loved it. So I just kind of turned the market differently and thought about it more as a fashion and personal care business than a cleaning business. And also thought, okay, what's great about the green brands? They're green. To your point earlier, they're safe. What is it about the big P and G brands? Performance price. Right. But I thought, what if you take both of those things and. And then add great packaging, a great personality, and bring it to the consumer? And she loved it. She really did.

[C]

You know, it's been almost 20 years, right. Since you sold this company.

[E]

Yeah.

[C]

And I'm wondering, as you see the company as part of SC Johnson, no longer, you know, under. Under your umbrella, has it changed?

[E]

I think it's changed a little bit. They've introduced a lot more fragrance.

[C]

Is that the biggest change in the last 20 years? I feel like the bottles are the exact same. They've been.

[E]

I think the bottles are the same. They've changed some tops and caps and some of the illustrations on the packaging, but for the most part, it's pretty much the same.

[C]

Do you think it still encompasses the values that you.

[E]

I think so, absolutely.

[C]

Building this yourself?

[E]

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that's. If you. If you build a brand. Right. You know, in terms of. We were dominant in our category. No one was offering this many products for cleaning the home in a singular fragrance. That still holds true. Yeah. I mean, they're doing that really quite well.

[C]

Well, S.D. johnson wasn't the first company that sort of came knocking. You had venture capitalists and private equity who were interested in the company. Why did you sell when you were only 53 years old? And the brand, I think, to a lot of people, was still relatively young.

[E]

Yeah, we grew so fast. We were also capital constrained, I'll be honest. And at the time, what was happening is all the organic brands were being acquired by strategic partners, by vc, by private equity. And from day one, from our first trade show at the Houseware show in Chicago, I'll never forget, we had private equity, VC and Essie Johnson in our trade show booth.

[F]

Wow.

[E]

Because it was such a different category and a different brand. And I asked every private equity, every VC person that walked in the booth, hey, what can you do for us that we can't do for ourselves? And, you know, there weren't a lot of interesting answers, but SC Johnson said, we can scale this. And, you know, when you put your heart and soul and your mother into something, you really want somebody. I thought it had global presence. I really did. I really did when I started.

[D]

Well, to Tim's point, though, I was gonna ask you without even thinking about, like, changes they've made, but, like, seller's remorse. And the reason I ask is I've talked to people whose names are on brands, well known brands that you would know and sold and the regrets they have. And they were just at a point too, where I think it became too big. It was all consuming of their life, and they're just like, I kind of

[A]

need to get out.

[D]

But then a few years later and realizing, especially when it was their name or their mom.

[E]

Oh, I know.

[D]

Like, it's not yours anymore.

[E]

No. It's bittersweet. Yeah. Yeah. There's definitely seller's remorse involved. No question. You know, but at the same time, you think, okay, what am I personally really good at as the founder? I can build a brand. I can sell, I can hustle. But, you know, that starts to start to get worn out, too. I'm going to be honest. You know, it's a hard. It's a hard life.

[C]

Do you think you could build the brand today? It's such a different space, and I think there's so much more consumer awareness about this stuff. You were to it.

[E]

We were very early.

[C]

It feels like it's table stakes now to make sure a product that you put on your hands or use to clean your home or you have in your home like you were doing with your daughter more than 20 years ago. Yeah, it seems like table stakes to make sure it doesn't have any harmful chemicals.

[E]

No, I think you're absolutely right. Could I build a brand again?

[C]

Not a brand. This one.

[E]

Oh, I don't know. Probably not.

[C]

I bet you could build a brand again. But I'm wondering about the timing of this one.

[E]

No, the timing.

[C]

Was it lightning in a bottle?

[E]

The timing was perfect. Yeah, it really was. We were kind of pre. You know, because here are the changes in the consumer's home. She started making changes to her diet, organic food. She started making changes to personal care. She started buying all these upscale culinary items. Nespress KitchenAid mixers. And I thought, why are cleaning products so behind? We used to call them jewelry for the counter. You know, she wants to leave that hand soap and dish soap by the sink right next to her gorgeous KitchenAid mixer. No one was thinking like that. You know, I grew up in retail. I used to work for Target. So I kind of understood how that upscale consumer thought about her home. And I thought, gosh, she's got to keep step with what's happening in the world.

[A]

What do we need to know about your mom?

[E]

She's 93. She's going strong. She just went on a safari in Africa with my brother Tim. You know, she walks to church every day. She believes in fresh air, frugality, faith, family. She has a great sense of humor, and she raised us to be confident individuals, you know, by kicking us out of the house early. I'm going to be honest. Go get a job. She never once asked, hey, Monica, what are your grades? It's Monica, do you have a job?

[D]

Really?

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

She was all about working because you

[D]

think about generational, and I always think about this. Grew up a mom who was. She was born in 29. She's not with us anymore. But, you know, growing up, and I'm one of seven kids, and even though we're all kind of close in terms of the duration of when she had kids, I mean, she was a homemaker first and eventually went back to work. But it's just interesting to even, you know, women and their role in society and how it's changed. And I'm just curious. Your mom is of that era where women were homemakers, Right.

[E]

She was a homemaker. She was also a nurse.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

And she went back to work as soon as she was able. And I think she just said there was too much to do with nine. I mean, she had nine of us. How it was in our household. Yeah. And I was the oldest girl.

[D]

Yeah.

[E]

So I had early responsibility for when she left. I had all the kids in tow.

[D]

You know, if you were starting a company today, like we were talking about it, is there something. When you look at the marketplace, is there something that you find interesting that you think needs to be tackled?

[E]

You know, I think the whole thing of social media and consumer products is super fascinating, and I kind of just wonder when that's in a good way or a bad way. Well, I don't know. I think it's going to flame out. I think, you know, there's all these shiny objects, and I think the brands who build for the long haul, you know, in good times and in bad, especially like, let's say a skincare line or a body care.

[D]

Right.

[E]

They're gonna survive in any types of media, that's my opinion. So I think those brands that do that really well will survive.

[C]

What are the brands that you look out at today and you think they've done a really good job?

[E]

You know what? I look at a lot of the fashion brands and a lot of the personal care brands, and I always did throughout my entire career.

[C]

It hasn't changed.

[E]

It hasn't changed. And maybe because that's where I lock my eyes on women' Wear Daily and beauty and, you know, that's where I spent my eyes and ears, looking for trends.

[C]

Well, at the same time, retail has changed so much since you sold in 2008. If we think about the places where we used to go bricks and mortar to actually buy your product, I would imagine a lot of it is now purchased online. I know that. When the. Did you. When did you have the peppermint seasonal, or was that something that happened?

[E]

So we created all the private label for Williams Sonoma, Crate and Barrel, and Harvey Nichols out of London, and Peppermint Williams Sonoma did that. And then it became. Then it came to Mrs. Meyers and that consumers love that brand.

[C]

The reason I ask is because when that was released a few years ago, it was seasonal. And I was like, I actually have to stock up on this, because if

[D]

it's gonna go away, it's gonna go away. That's gonna go when you like something.

[C]

But I did it on Amazon, which is, you know, not the typical way that I think people were buying your product in the. In the early years. What is the right way to position, to meet buyers where they are today versus when you were building this brand?

[E]

I think you have to depend on what's your target audience, first of all, and where do they go to consume media. And then you got to be there, like it or not. You got to figure out, you know, all the intricacies of how they work. You know, when we started, Amazon was eight years old.

[D]

I was curious about.

[E]

Yeah. Oh, and when we used to call on them, we'd go into there. I'll never forget this.

[C]

Is Jeff here?

[E]

Oh, wait. It was all tech guys. And they go, how should we package this? And I said, what do you mean, how should we package it? How many bottles in a box? And, you know, they were tech geeks. They weren't product geeks. You know, now that's changed completely. So we had to educate a lot of the early online players. You know, how a consumer product should be positioned, you know, for shipping to a consumer.

[D]

Do you have a favorite moment in, like, this whole process?

[E]

You know, there is a favorite moment selling now, looking back, not looking back. Yeah, well, building the brand I love. I used to have a marketing agency, so we did that a lot for other clients. So I just love that entire process. But one of my favorite moments is so when I started the company, I had this image in my mind's eye of what this brand should be. And I imagined an incap in Target loaded with product. And so I always said when I got lost, meaning at the end of an aisle. Like, at the end of an aisle. Yep, like in a Target or a Walmart. And I had this image in my mind, and whenever I got discouraged or lost, I would reboot that image. So one day, I'm in the whole food store in Austin, Texas, where they're based, and we're supposed to do this big laundry promotion, and I Run back to the cleaning aisle. And I'm like, where's the la? I said to my salesperson, where's the laundry? She goes, you ran right by it. You didn't even see it. I didn't even see it. And there it was, this huge. I literally almost brought me to my knees. There was the image that I had in my mind's eye from day one. The reality of it. Yeah, that was a moment.

[D]

You have this book. It's really beautiful. It's kind of just. I like it. It looks like the product. How do you hope people approach it? Use it? Think about it.

[E]

You know what? I wrote this book. Well, first as a love letter to my mother, but really for the wannabes, the dreame, the schemers, the wannabe entrepreneurs, the people who call me, send me an email. How should I do this? Have you thought about this? Would you meet me for coffee? I've also done a lot of speaking to entrepreneur groups, and I answer a lot of the questions that I get asked all the time.

[D]

What's the number one question you get asked?

[E]

How do you do it? And you know what I say? Should you do it? Yeah. You know, you really should look in the mirror and ask yourself, do you have what it takes to pull this off? Because this is not easy.

[D]

Well, it's interesting because we had the head of the MBA school. Who am I thinking?

[C]

Oh, the Berkeley dean of Berkeley yesterday.

[D]

He's my mind, he's my brain. Dean Chapman, but just talked about the importance. Now they're on the west coast, they're in Berkeley. And we found this with Stanford when we've talked to the team there, that it's entrepreneurship that so many people are involved in it. But you think about the importance of it.

[A]

It's not easy, right?

[D]

But it's. You find a lot of, like, MBA candidates.

[E]

Oh, yeah, they want to do it. They really want to do it. I mean, I think I read a study that the word title founder has grown 69% on LinkedIn titles.

[D]

That's interesting.

[E]

So that's pretty fascinating, right?

[D]

We saw it off of COVID What's your favorite fragrance?

[E]

Basil. Oh, it is. That's like picking your favorite child. It's basil. I gotta admit it, we had to go there.

[D]

Thank you so much.

[E]

Good luck.

[D]

Congratulations.

[E]

Thank you very much.

[D]

Really appreciate it.

[C]

Monica Nassif is the founder of Mrs. Meyers, and she's the author of the new book I bottled my the Mrs. Meyers story. Grit, Grind and Growing a Business.

[A]

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