The reason I started NEOM. The moments that warm my heart.

Posted by Nicola Elliott, Jun 06, 2018

The reason I started NEOM. The moments that warm my heart.

We’ve had so many inspiring customer stories recently...how they have gotten over something and are on the road to recovery...We want to say THANK YOU to all of you for sharing.

NEOM started by accident really. I was working around the clock as a magazine editor, and was almost constantly on the brink of serious burnout. To try and get my health in order I decided to train in aromatherapy, and then I started tinkering with essential oils at home. I started by making little balms and tinctures for my own use – to help calm me before a big meeting or ease me into sleep after a week of long-haul flights – and soon, my friends and family were asking for my help too.

That’s when NEOM began – that exact moment when I realised that this little personal passion of mine was helping people feel better – and even though all the odds were stacked against me (I had no investment or team or even an official business plan), I knew it was what I had to do.

At so many points along this journey that’s taken me from my kitchen table, to NEOM as it is today, I have been pushed to my absolute limits. But every step along the way, I got to see just how and who I was helping – from the first handwritten notes we’d get back from our families and friends, to the emails and Instagram posts we now see (and we read every single one of them!) when someone floats out of one of our treatment rooms. Oh wow. The novelty never has, and never will, wear off. It is still, today, the very best bit of what I do, and every single one of the personal messages I receive leaves an unforgettable mark on me.

I may be having a real moment of self-doubt or feeling really panicked about a big decision, and then I’ll get an email that puts it all into perspective: “Last November I suffered a miscarriage and it hit me pretty hard. Your products have helped me rebuild my life.” There are no words, then, honestly. And it's after messages like this that it always hits me – we are in people’s lives in the way that I always hoped we’d be. Not as something pretty to look at or as something expensive to show off, but in a way that DOES something real, and that really makes a difference. That makes me so bloody proud.

When a woman writes in because she’s been so disappointed by all the gimmicks she’s spent her hard-earned cash on over the years, and can’t actually believe that she has found something that works: “I have a thyroid condition and I am constantly tired and lack energy. I purchased your bath drops for energy, and I've now used them four times and genuinely the morning after I truly feel energetic, it's amazing, I'm doing nothing differently, except using these drops at night! So, thank you, thank you for delivering what you promise.” Or the amazing mum who was told us that "the happiness spray REALLY helped me post-partum with my second baby. I was in a crappy place and I had happiness candles burning through the house and sprayed myself through the day. That was when I realised that aromatherapy isn't something that smells nice, it can actually change how you feel.”

It’s made me so proud that we were able to be there for those who need it in some way, because we all just needs a helping hand now and then. “As a working mum, and building a business, I appreciate what it takes to create a brand and a product, so for all the times you would have felt what every founder feels at the start, thank you for sticking with it, because without these products, I would have a much harder time to sleep, and calm down a little boy who really needs to feel calm in a new environment.”

We all have our own stories, our struggles, our joys and our triumphs; we’re all working hard, juggling so many different things, hoping for the best and trying to support our loved ones as best we can… and for all of us, a little thank you is enough to transform an entire day.

So, here is mine: THANK YOU – from the bottom of my heart!

Nicola x