Kate & Bevan – A (well overdue!) Introduction to Us

So it’s been just over two years since we, Kate & Bevan became the owners of Oh Natural and a lot has happened in that time. We moved the business from Whangaparaoa where Jenna ran it to Wellington where we were living at the time. And just before NZ went into full lockdown last year, we moved our lives and Oh Natural to Christchurch. Then lockdown happened which was a crazy busy time for us juggling business, Bevan’s very busy day job and kids. We were able to continue operating Oh Natural because we sell essential products and we are able to run our business remotely with no contact (we checked with the COVID helpline because we were unsure!). But we were a lot busier than normal, which was a good thing but also quite stressful because we couldn’t employ anyone to help us out! What a year 2020 was! But I often reflect on how lucky we are to be living in NZ compared to so many other countries. We’ve been so lucky to have the freedom to travel in NZ, go to events and get out and about – all things I am super grateful for. #gratitude

Our reason for moving to Christchurch was to allow Bevan’s girls, Sophia and Evie, who were already living down here, to live with us and spend more time with them. Our first house was a temporary rental so we could get the lay of the land and figure out where we wanted to live long term. So after a year of living in Christchurch we moved again to where we are living now. You can find out more about our current living situation in this video I did from our stock room / home office!

We are so fortunate to have a lovely house with a large separate office space that we can work and run Oh Natural from. We’re a small family run business juggling business and family life so it was always top of our list to have a house that could accommodate this. It was hard to find but we are so grateful that we found it! #gratitude

We’ve also learnt a great deal in the 2 years we’ve owned Oh Natural. We’ve made efficiency gains, learnt a lot about skincare, waste and how to package products in a way that is sustainable but also so they don’t break! We’ve met some amazing people on our journey – it is afterall, the people who are the most important thing in this world. They are what makes the world a better place and they are who can change the world for the better. 

So a bit about myself and Bevan. I’m Kate (Bevin), one half of Oh Natural. I do most of the day to day running of the business including relationships with suppliers, marketing planning, staff management and research. I grew up in Napier and I’ve had a varied career – I tried studying at uni when I left school but it wasn’t for me at the time. So I started working in hospitality, mostly in hotel reception which taught me a lot about people and how to build relationships. I also did stints as a Ski Instructor (Canada), Children’s Camp Instructor (UK), English as a Second Language Teacher (Germany). I moved around a lot in my early 20’s learning about the world and myself. Later on in my 20’s I studied Tourism Management at Victoria University. Eventually I ended up working in Event Management in some amazing jobs including managing the transport for the bands at Homegrown, Logistics Management at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic & Paralympic Games, running events for the Rugby World Cup festival in Wellington and managing venue transport for the London 2012 Olympic & Paralympic Games. These were big years of growth for me, full of rollercoaster rides with so many amazing and equally hard times for so many reasons. I learnt more about myself during this time. I was in between jobs in Wellington and I was about to move to Australia in March 2013 (because I didn’t think there were any good jobs or men in Wellington!) when I met Bevan at a mutual friend’s wedding. I ended up getting a job in Wellington so I decided to stay there! It just goes to show you never know what’s around the corner in life. 

I ended up working in local government Public Transport and Sustainable Transport where I worked in behaviour change – trying to get more people using sustainable modes of transport. I managed behaviour change programmes to get more people cycling, including taking bus drivers for bike rides which got them excited about riding bikes again – I found this very rewarding! In March 2019 I saw an email come through from Jenna announcing the sale of Oh Natural. One thing led to another and we ended up buying it off her in May 2019. 

Another thing about me is I have endometriosis which is debilitating and causes havoc with my gut, mental (hormones) and physical (pain) health. I’ve been on a journey with this for quite a few years now. I come from a medical family so naturally I went down that path first and had surgery and saw medical specialists. Unfortunately none of that worked for me in the long term and I learnt that there was no cure for it. I started seeing naturopaths and this helped me to understand it a lot better and find some relief through diet changes, but I was still having major physical and mental health issues. It’s been quite the journey to figure out how to manage it! Last year a friend of mine told me about Lara Briden who is a naturopathic doctor specialising in women’s periods and hormones. She’s written two books, and I bought one of them and decided to continue my journey with her. It has taken quite a while but for the first time in ages, I’ve had some normal periods this year with no pain and no mental health issues. It’s only happened a few times so it’s still very much a work in progress, but I’m finally seeing a light at the end of the tunnel! For anyone else suffering from endometriosis, I’d highly recommend looking up Lara Briden, all her work is based on science and years of experience and she shares a lot of information for free on her website and through her newsletters. Endo also plays havoc with my skin but the products I’ve loved using to help my skin along the journey are Tahi’s Marino Oil, Loveskin’s Waiwai Serum and Loveskin’s Kakara Toning Rose Mist which are all great products for sensitive skin or skin that is prone to break outs. 

And an intro to Bevan (yes, same name, different spelling!). He’s the numbers guy! He’s excellent at crunching numbers so he does all that work for us. His day job is also about number crunching which is a valuable skill to have when you run a business! I value the insights he gives into the business from a numbers perspective, although it was not always the case because there were times when I didn’t want to believe what the numbers were saying! Bevan is originally from Christchurch and his parents live not far from us which is nice. He started his career as an Architectural Draughtsman and traveled overseas for quite a few years as well. He also went back to uni in his mid 20’s and studied economics at Canterbury University. From there he worked in economics and finance roles for the government. So as well as being a numbers guy, he’s also quite creative and has an eye for design which is also a great asset to have when you run a business! Bevan gets eczema so has to look after his skin, which I don’t think he is great at doing, but of course he won’t listen to me! His favourite products to use for this are Frankie Apothecary Kawakawa Balm and The Herb Farm Soothe and Heal Cream. And he’s finally, after years of me nagging him (!), made some changes to his diet to help with this as well.  

So there’s a bit of an introduction to who we are and what our journey has been so far. I’ll keep sharing more about us as we continue our journey and please do let us know if you have any questions or if there is something you’d like us to talk about! 

Thanks so much for reading my (slightly long!) introduction to us and we look forward to connecting with you more and more. 

Take good care and go well ox 

Kate & Bevan