Monica Nassif, founder of Mrs. Meyer's cleaning products, on "bottling her mother"

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Why can't your cleaning products themselves be an attractive part of your home? Well, that was a simple but pivotal question that led to the creation of the multi-million dollar brand Mrs. Meyers Cleaning Day. You know it, you love it, you smell it every day.

[00:00:13]And Mrs. Meyer was actually is actually a real person. There is a new book called I Bottled My Mother, the Mrs. Meyers story. Grit, Grime, and Growing a Business. You can buy it right now by scanning the QR code on your screen. And joining us to talk about it is author and award-winning founder of Mrs. Meyers, Monica Nassiff. Welcome, Monica.

[00:00:33]>> Thank you. Delighted to be here. So, we love Mrs. Myers in my house. And it's the way that I can tell if my four-year-old has washed her hands after using that story.

[00:00:41]>> I get I'm like, "Come close to me." And I'm like, "Go back to the bathroom.

[00:00:44][laughter] >> I don't smell the lavender."

[00:00:47]>> But you had this aha moment in the '9s.

[00:00:50]What was this Eureka moment that launched this business? I was in a huge big uh big box home store in Atlanta and I saw all these cleaning products on an old wooden pallet. They were tipped over. The liquids were garish. The handles look like guns. And I thought, what if it was amazing? What if you could have cleaning products as amazing as your beauty products and the food that you love? So, that was kind of the Eureka moment years ago in Atlanta.

[00:01:16]>> And of course, Mrs. Myers is a very important lady, you know. Tell us about her, what she means to you.

[00:01:22]>> Sure. I named it after my mom. She was a real inspiration. Mother of nine kids in 10 years at age 31. Can you imagine?

[00:01:30]>> I actually cannot imagine.

[00:01:31]>> In 10 years blown away.

[00:01:34]>> Yeah. [laughter] >> Right. And she was a big gardener, great cook, super frugal. She was a child of the depression. So we took all of her values and put it into a brand.

[00:01:44]>> And she kept a clean house. How did you How did your mother do that with with nine kids?

[00:01:49]>> She said clean but not perfect. Okay. So every Saturday morning she would write on the back of an envelope, you know, never knew new new uh paper.

[00:01:56]>> Why would we waste paper?

[00:01:57]>> Why would we waste paper? And you would have all your chores there and you couldn't go out to play until your chores were done. So we were her worker bees.

[00:02:04]>> And that's the way to do it. I mean, we reported to her.

[00:02:06]>> I love your Midwestern values. You grew up in Iowa. Was this part of the culture of your mother in the Midwest to, you know, or I guess how does your brand reflect that culture?

[00:02:15]>> Well, she's earnest, hardworking, frugal, respect mother nature. So, those were always what we wanted to capture in the Mrs. Myers brand.

[00:02:24]>> I know. I love that. Speaking of, you know, she kept you guys in line. There's a line in the book um that she was your first and best boss.

[00:02:30]>> Oh, without question.

[00:02:31]>> It's it's so true, right? You know, you think about your parents like that's that's the one at the top of the food chain there. Um this book right here, it is part memoir. It is part branding manual. I think there's a lot of folks right now that sort of look at what you've done and say, "Wow, you know, I'd love to do that." What what's the first thing that you do if you've got an idea but you need to really think about building a brand?

[00:02:54]>> I think the first thing you should do is ask yourself, are you an entrepreneur?

[00:02:58]You know, I have a lot of people ask me, "How should I do it?" And I thought, "Well, should you do it? Do you have the perseverance, the commitment? Can you take on risk financially and emotionally?" And then if you want to build a brand, are you differentiated in the marketplace? You know, go to your Target or Walmart or or Amazon and say, "How can I compete right >> and be really different? Otherwise, it's going to be really difficult to break through, especially in a big commodity market like cleaning.

[00:03:22]>> Mrs. Myers products like what really stands out is is the design and the fragrance and you know that that's clean. But but you also had a design firm. You were once a nurse. Uh you worked in department stores. You kind of used all little bits of your background.

[00:03:37]But what is it about the design part that that people often get wrong?

[00:03:41]>> Well, I think it has to be really different at Shelf. You know, I didn't want to look like all the other cleaning products. I wanted to look we call the jewelry for the counter. You know, here you have all these beautiful things in your kitchen. Why can't your cleaning products be just as gorgeous sitting by your sink? So, that's how I thought about the consumer. She has these beautiful things. Why can't cleaning be in step with that with her favorite food packaging or her beauty packaging?

[00:04:05]>> And were you part of that that discussion, you know, like the actual initial design like I want these colors, I want these concepts, I want these >> No, actually I have a great design firm in Minneapolis that I work with. They designed the book as well as the products. And when I met with them, they said, "Oh my gosh, this is my mother, too."

[00:04:22]>> So, they took kind of this Midwestern wholesome approach to the packaging as well.

[00:04:28]>> And I think that's also a testament that you can't do everything on your own when you're starting a business. Find people that have really good skills that can bring your vision to life. Monica, thank you so much for joining us. Such a great book. Really good to have you here. And you can buy I bottled my mother, [laughter] the title, the Mrs. My story right now. Just scan the QR code on your screen.

[00:04:47]>> We've been giggling at the title all morning. [laughter] It's so good.

[00:04:49]>> And there I mean because it's distinctive, right? This is all part of the whole design and communications thing. I love