Yogini LLC
As a teen in the late 1970’s living on the North Shore of Chicago – my days were a lot of “fun” — much to the consternation of my parents, especially my mother. She was “hands off” when it came to my academic performance, but when it came to matters involving character, she had a firm grasp of the wheel. I remember feeling especially frustrated with her one night and asked, “Why can’t you just agree with me and be my friend!?.”
Her response, “Because Margaret, I’m not your friend. I’m your mother.”
At the time, I was exhausted by her determination to keep me “in check.” Looking back, I feel grateful. She was absolutely right. I didn’t need more friends, but I did need a mother. I’m also grateful that as I matured, our relationship evolved into a beautiful and loving friendship.
I believe, I’m not alone in saying that many of us want our mothers to be our “best friends.” We want them to share our secrets, agree with our choices and make allowances for our bad behavior. But for those of us who have chosen to be mothers, we know that being a parent is far too complex to step back and look the other way.
We carefully, lovingly, and often unwittingly pack our children’s bags with everything we can think of to keep them safe. Many of us put in items that we wish were given to us by our mothers. Or we add in layers, that might have been useful for us, but are simply unnecessary for our own children’s journey.
It’s in that spirit that I wanted to share the announcement and arrival of the “mother” behind Zen of Slow Cooking – Yogini LLC.
Yogini is the name of a female yogi embodying motherly traits of trust, reliability and grounded-ness.
In February 2012, a few months before I met Jane and a few months shy of my 50th birthday, I registered Yogini LLC in the State of Illinois. I wasn’t entirely sure exactly how Yogini LLC would fit with Zen of Slow Cooking, but loved the meaning behind the word. Where Zen of Slow Cooking – is your beloved best friend in the kitchen and the one who shares your secrets – Yogini is the mother that keeps you grounded, makes sure you are well fed and works to keep you safe.
In May last year, the time had come for Yogini LLC to officially take her place in the business as we expanded our vision to gather more people around the table. We were approached by Walmart.
The Walmart opportunity came out of the blue and we didn’t take it lightly. We had to make sure we were fully prepared to take this giant next step. It encouraged us to expedite our new-look packaging to be unveiled in July (sneak peek below.)
Over the past few years, Jane and I have relied on our “inner Yogini” to carefully pack, unpack and repack Zen of Slow Cooking. To help us redesign the look ZOSC we asked our new brand partners, Todd Brandes and Cindy Bruckner of Retrorocket LLC. With decades of design work for large corporations, we have been truly grateful for their dedication to bringing our vision to life.
Our beloved photographer, Kerri Sherman crafted our new Multi-Cooker ground spice blends and Jane’s dear friend and famed London photographer, Charlotte Bland created the look for our whole spice infusions..
We also reached out to Raj Kapur from and-Marketing to pull together his amazing team to fully realize our 2019 mantra of having people searching for ZOSC rather than stumbling upon us. And finally, we are grateful to our new distributor Jacob Shayota at Express Trading, who wouldn’t let us give up on our dream.
We’re excited to share this part of our evolution with all of you and look forward to sharing more details of our journey over the coming year.
In closing, as we approach Mother’s Day, we are encouraging all of you (and we’re saying it with love) to take a look at the bags you have lovingly packed for your children. As they celebrate you – the person who brought them into the world we invite you to take a moment, reflect and look inside their bags to determine if it’s time to help them lighten their load.
Happy Mother’s Day!
Zen Events
We are participating in 2 wonderful events this week! If you are in Chicago on Friday, May 3rd, please stop by and visit us at Chicago’s International World Fair Trade Day. And on Sunday, May 5th, we are excited to partner with Founder of Forever Om Yoga, Cilla Stoll, on the Mindful Parent. I’ll be doing an Instant Pot demo, passing out blends and sampling some food. Cilla will be taking everyone through a guided meditation. Together, we’ll be sharing our stories of how we slowed down to create a little more Zen in our home. A percentage of all proceeds will benefit Erika’s Lighthouse. If you have some free time this Sunday, please join us!
Zen Moment
“Sooner or later we all quote our mothers.”
Bern Williams
