When Josh Purcell and Dr. Brent Ridge first launched Beekman 1802, the award-winning skincare and beauty brand, they had a simple mission statement: Be kind. It sounds like something a lot of founders, CEOs, and marketing VPs pretend to care about. Plenty of organizations have devoted millions of dollars to marketing campaigns, social media hashtags, and charity efforts to make it seem like that is their big mission, top priority, and most important value. But when you dig just under the surface, you find practices that suggest something entirely other than kindness.

But what happens if you make kindness not just an organizational “side dish” but the “main course”? What if you truly commit to kindness? You weigh every decision, every interaction with a customer, every sale, every product launch, and every long-term campaign according to how kind it is?

Turns out, you create the perfect conditions for meteoric business success.

I was lucky enough to sit down with Ridge and Purcell to discuss Beekman 1802, their commitment to kindness, and how their experiences turning a small business into an award-winning powerhouse can help any mission-driven organization find the same level of success.

Q: It’s clear to anyone who hears your story that kindness is absolutely central to how Beekman 1802 operates. What lessons do you think are out there for other businesses, even those not related to Health and Wellness?

Purcell: Our main goal is to get the world to understand that kindness is a winning strategy. It isn’t just a soft, nice thing that you may post on Instagram. Our focus has been to prove that kindness is competitive in a business sense, and it is competitive in relationships. It is a measurable, scientific concept that represents a huge advantage. Our story, and the lesson we take from it, is to invest in kindness as an actual profitable business strategy, not just a single HR moment or a nice platitude.

Q: What sort of tangible outcomes have you seen incorporating kindness into the DNA of Beekman 1802?

Ridge: If you look at a company our size, and the number of partnerships we can do you’ll see that we are punching above our weight class. Big brands like Nestle, Tollhouse, or Schitt's Creek normally wouldn't work with a company our size, but they see our focus on kindness and our commitment to having a positive impact and they’re inspired. It's a message that resonates with everyone. In turn, those partnerships and those opportunities add not only to our revenue but also our brand exposure. We can cross categories and retail tiers that we otherwise might be locked out of. It ultimately becomes a self-fulfilling loop that attracts more opportunities.

Q: What about internal effects? Has there been significant development there?

Purcell: Absolutely! Our main recruitment success is kindness. People come to us from large corporations specifically for that reason. These are people who are really skilled in what they do and who are tired of working at places that are unkind or hyper-negatively competitive. They want to work for us because they know we're a kind workplace that values them. So we get these incredibly skilled people that we would never be able to afford or attract for any other reason than kindness.

Q: How are you able to balance acting kindly while also running a competitive business?

Ridge: No matter what opportunity is presented to us, we're always thinking, okay, how can this not only help us but how can we be kind in helping the other person? It's always 50-50 for us. Anytime that we're becoming more successful and spreading kindness, someone that we're working with is also becoming more successful as a partner.

When we partnered with Ulta as an exclusive, our goal was to not only be an amazing exclusive brand and focus only on ourselves but to show kindness in the relationship by making those investors the most money that we can. We're always thinking, if we're choosing partners, how are we going to maximize kindness and make those partners have outrageous success? That boosts our mindset when they reach that success.

Q: As Beekman 1802 has grown, your roles have shifted. How have you managed to delegate and let go of certain responsibilities while ensuring the same organizational commitment to kindness?

Purcell: If you are a founder, obviously you're very protective of the company. For us, we've found solace in the fact that we have invested so heavily in our mission and trained everybody with an actual “Kindness Curriculum,” whether they are hired for temp work in the shop or they're an executive. So we know that everybody has this baseline understanding of what the company is about.

That has made it easier for us as we are starting the transition phase of the company and we're stepping more into an inspirational role. It has allowed us to not feel like we have to micromanage. Our ego is ultimately fed if it's a great organization and people are successful. It doesn't matter what we do in it because we know that we are in some sense a part of that. If you look to everybody to compliment you and to praise you, that is self-defeating.

Q: Outside of a purely economic lens, have you two noticed any other benefits to incorporating kindness?

Purcell: Kindness is wellness. If you look at what's happening in our physical communities, our online communities, and the effect on mental health, it is clear that we're in an epidemic of loneliness. We are passionate about using kindness as the antidote to that.

Ridge: As a physician, I was always trying to counsel people to make better, more conscientious decisions about their diet and exercise. Ultimately, we found that kindness is just as powerful a physiological modification as either of those. Acts of kindness, whether you give them or receive them, reduce your cortisol levels, increase the amount of dopamine, and increase the amount of serotonin released in your body. These are actual physical benefits that come from acts of kindness. All of those things, dopamine, and serotonin, all impact your mental health, so we feel that kindness doesn’t only hold business benefits, but it can have a hugely positive impact on your personal well-being.

Q: Are there any new projects or updates that people should keep an eye out for?

Ridge: We are actually in the process of writing a business book in collaboration with Harvard Business Review called G.O.A.T. Wisdom, which is really about the basic fundamentals of life. It’s based on the idea that there are proverbs you've heard your whole life that are really the basis of good business, like “Love Thy Neighbor” for example. You might not be able to go to business school or have a ton of connections, but if you focus on these basic golden rules for life, you can be successful.

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The story of Beekman 1802 underscores a powerful lesson: kindness is a lot more than just a feel-good sentiment. Purcell and Ridges’s commitment and dedication to their mission has led to revenue growth and brand exposure as well as built an enviable employee culture. If you or your team want to learn more about how to incorporate kindness into your own mission, contact Executive Speakers Bureau to book Beekman 1802 and unlock the effects of kindness today.