Ask a group of little kids what they want to be when they grow up, and you’ll get a mix of eyerolls (that’s a given), astronauts, YouTube influencers, and gamers.
But if you asked Annabel Mendez from The One Percent back when she was 7, she’d tell you: Inventor. She wanted to create products to help people (so pure!).
That dream became her North Star and she followed it unwaveringly. When she noticed problems, her brain automatically set about finding solutions. This… is her zone of genius.
Annabel got a mechanical engineering degree and took product design and innovation courses. As if that weren’t taxing enough, she also got a degree in psychology so she’d understand how people would use her products.
Then she went to work for Procter & Gamble for 12 years. There, she got to see first-hand what goes into making consumer products - primarily by working for the Pampers brand. Annabel loved knowing what she did every day was helping moms and babies.
But all along, she still felt that entrepreneurial itch… and in her first forays into this world, she sold products. Lots of products. The money was nice, but she soon realized she wanted more - more meaning, specifically.
Enter, Annabel’s mom. After a long career as a hairstylist, she’d developed a lot of pain in her elbow. She tried pills, potions, lotions, and creams but nothing worked. It still ached, and it was impacting her mobility. Also, have you SMELLED THOSE PRODUCTS? Blech.
Annabel wanted to help.
So, she did.
She created Aromalief, a vegan-friendly, truly lovely smelling pain relief product line.
Catch that? Pain relief. As in, you gotta have FDA approval to say a thing like that. Getting FDA approval requires jumping more hoops than a Cirque du Soleil performer on a Thursday night. But Annabel did it. It wasn’t cheap.
Neither are her products. That’s because they actually work. Formulated by a female chemist to be tough on pain but gentle on the body, Annabel’s products feature a combination of high-quality active ingredients, botanicals, and essential oils. Her ingredients are costly. But when you’re dealing with chronic pain and you find something that works… you buy it again and again. Bonus points for not walking around smelling like menthol.
No surprise, but Aromalief is on pace for a $600K year.
Here’s something cool… Lots of entrepreneurs in our community build brands for avatars that are them. There are definite advantages to doing it that way. When you are your person, you have first-hand knowledge of the journey you’re on, the feelings you feel, and the problems you want solved.
But building a brand for someone you love? Well, that’s got other advantages entirely. Like, your “why” now becomes something deeply meaningful - even more than creating enough wealth to be able to buy your own island off the coast of Scotland. That’s what Annabel has discovered.
The mental game of entrepreneurship
“When you’re in business, you have your ups and downs. You always think about what’s going to keep you going,” she says. In the past, she had other businesses that gave her fun money (even a lot of it). But having the stronger why this time drives her - she thinks of her mom and of all her customers, and how they’d suffer without Aromalief. Hearing their stories and reading their notes of appreciation keeps her going. For example, there’s the lady who hadn’t been able to sleep for five years because of her chronic pain. Now she gets the zzzz’s.
In talking with her customers, Annabel came up with another product to add to the brand. It’s a patent-pending applicator that helps apply her roll-on pain reliever. She learned that for customers who live alone and have mobility issues, it can be hard for them to reach spots where they’d use her product. Not anymore! This inventor solved that problem.
Aromalief is also into giving back. They donate proceeds and products to various cancer relief organizations serving people going through chemotherapy.
Long-term, Annabel would love to see Aromalief grow to serve a global audience. Of course, each country has its own regulations (even thinking about that gives me agita), so that could take some doing. But Annabel’s very smart. She realizes that phase may be best left to a pharmaceutical company that acquires Aromalief. People around the world are already begging to be able to buy her products. An acquisition would be a win for everyone.
Annabel’s 42 years-old now. She’s got a full life - kids, a former career that was satisfying, and now this business. But she feels a little like a five-year-old now, that same kind of joy she had as a kid - full of imagination, creativity, heart, and passion.
She says, “I think most people know deep in their heart what they want to do. Fear sometimes prevents you from doing it. I’ve been blessed with my mom - she’s a go-getter, going after her dreams and tackling challenges. That’s what taught me that it doesn’t matter how scary something looks - you hold your breath and you jump.”
Your Turn?
We're rooting hard for Annabel. She's the perfect example of the kind of high-integrity, service-minded entrepreneur we love to coach. She's building a brand that makes life a whole lot better for her customers. It's this kind of brand that has the potential to create generational wealth.
Here at Capitalism.com, we're on a mission to make one million new millionaires by 2028. We'd love YOU to be one of them.
So, if Annabel inspires you to go make something great, we can help. We created this FREE course just for you. It'll help you start building a million dollar brand in about a year. Get the course right here.
