The term “early adopter” gets thrown around quite a bit in regards to the nascent social media age of the early 2010s, but for Olivia Amitrano, it’s an appropriate moniker.
Amitrano started her Instagram account in 2012 at age 19, before the term “influencer” was a part of the everyday lexicon (and marketing budgets). Her focus was a blended approach to alternative medicine centered on realistic, accessible solutions for certain health conditions that she was enduring. She launched her online store in 2016.
“I had experienced so much relief from [ more ‘fringe’ solutions like] herbs, nutraceuticals (nutritional products that can also be used as medicine) and dietary changes that I felt that I shouldn’t be the only one privy to such knowledge,” she says.
Amitrano, now 30, grew the discoveries from her own health journey and some serious business savvy into Organic Olivia, which she founded as a blog in 2013 and became her full-time job in 2019 (she was also running a jewelry business up until 2019, which she then closed to focus on Organic Olivia). The company features a line of independently verified herbal remedies with a following of more than 550,000 between Instagram and TikTok. She’s, well, organically grown her reputation through building her business her own way. Amitrano, who also has a podcast, was also early to embrace affiliate marketing and the potential of the blogosphere on her way to running a business now worth more than US$13 million, according to Business Insider.
“I feel like I learned from a lot of the mistakes of the first influencers and always kept everything ‘in house’ instead of selling my face to brands early on,” she says.
Below, Amitrano shares some of her favorite things and places with Penta.
My role model in business is… I’m not sure that I ever had a singular role model, so this is a tough question for me. I’m someone who likes to go to a wide variety of trusted sources and mentors, explain to each of them the hurdle, or goal, I’m tackling in my business, receive just as wide a variety of opinions, and take a bit of what resonates from each to formulate my own answer.
There were individuals in my life who had far more business experience than I, and I leaned on them heavily for advice even though they didn’t quite understand the influencer or wellness space.
The business advice I use most often is… “Start before you’re ready.” You may never feel that your product/website/etc. is perfect for launch, and the truth is, it’s probably not. That’s why you get to continue to fine tune as your company and offerings grow.
I am most inspired by… People who use not only their gifts, but their hardships, to give back to the world.
The best book I’ve read this year is… The Courage to Be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga. This book is all about owning the narrative around the traumatic things that have happened to us, and consciously “making meaning” instead of letting [others] define or limit you. It’s the meaning that we give our experiences that truly matter. No one gets out of life unscathed, so the sooner you can accept that pain is a part of life and happens to everyone, the sooner you can change the meaning you give your pain instead of focusing on the fact that it happened. This book also teaches that “separation of tasks” is key to happy, healthy interpersonal relationships, especially our closest ones where “tasks” can get sticky and intertwined.
The best meal I’ve had this year is… I love Damian in downtown Los Angeles. Their ceviche is unbelievable, their roasted celery root with mole blanco is my favorite veggie dish of all time, and the hibiscus meringue for dessert with raspberry filling and vanilla bean chantilly cream is not to be missed.
The one thing I can’t live without in my home is… Incense. I love the palo santo and desert rose incense cones from Na Nin, and they’re always in my drawer. I light some before company comes over, after I clean my house, and whenever I need to reset and center. Smell is very important for me and helps to bring me back into my body when I’m feeling scattered and stressed; it can completely change the environment of your home as well as your mental state.
The most important part of “wellness” is… Free medicine. We often overcomplicate wellness, thinking we need every new superfood supplement or fancy gadget on the market. In reality, most of us need the simple, tiny, monotonous habits that don’t seem like they’re making a huge difference, but create the true foundation of our health. For some of us, this means optimizing our sleep—if you’re someone that’s waking up in the middle of the night or experiencing poor sleep quality, your hormones aren’t able to clear properly and there can be a whole host of downstream effects that we end up thinking we need to treat as a hormone imbalance, when in reality, it’s stemming from this one, very important, pillar of health. For others, this could be something as simple as blood sugar regulation.
When I’m looking for a bit of respite and relaxation, I turn to… Massage therapy. My mind tends to process emotions and stressful events quickly, and I verbally move through things with my therapist, but sometimes it takes my body a while to catch up and get the message. While many modalities have helped me with these trapped emotions (breathwork, even exercise), deep tissue massages help to get the pieces that linger on a deeper plane within tight muscles and fascia. I often have an emotional release and feel an instant lift in my mood directly after— and some of my best ideas are formed while I’m on the table.
The destination I love to travel to is… London. I studied abroad in London while I was in college and it was the first time I had ever been out of the country or on my own in the world. I feel as though I found a piece of myself there and it formed my sense of identity and independence. It’s been ten years and I still go back almost every year, often solo traveling to remember who I am and that I can stand on my own two feet.
A passion of mine few people know about is… Singing. As a child, I was classically trained in opera and studied voice for many years. I fell in love with Italian arias, my favorite being O Mio Babbino Caro by Giacomo Puccini. I used to have dreams of performing on Broadway, and while that wasn’t the path I took, singing is an important part of my story and allows my soul to express in ways that nothing else quite touches. I still take voice lessons on and off in my spare time, and sing those arias in the shower whenever I can.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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