On this episode of The Brand Blueprint, Dana Ammons sits down with Michelle “Dr. Michelle” Cromwell, Ph.D., Founder of Soeur Du Sol™, a traditionally rooted functional beverage brand created for health, menopause wellbeing, midlife clarity, and women navigating powerful life transitions.

Dr. Michelle shares her journey from higher education executive and strategist to professional herbalist and founder. She opens up about her personal pivot, her time learning from traditional healers in Benin, the creation of Soeur Du Sol™, and why midlife should be associated with transition, wisdom, and joy — not “the end.”

In this conversation, we cover:

• Why Dr. Michelle says midlife is about “unadulterated joy”
• How Soeur Du Sol™ was born from ancestral wisdom, science, and lived experience
• The story behind products like Where Is My Mind and Unbreak My Heart
• How customer feedback helped reshape the brand’s hero product
• Why the brand is moving strategically into B2B, wellness, hospitality, and medical partnerships
• The importance of Local First AZ, Seed Spot, and founder accelerators
• What wellness founders need to get right early
• Why Soeur Du Sol™ is raising support to exhibit at 3 major beverage expos

Support Soeur Du Sol™:

Donate to the crowdfund: [insert crowdfund link]

Visit: www.soeurdusol.com

Timestamps

00:00 Welcome to The Brand Blueprint

00:50 Introducing Dr. Michelle Cromwell and Soeur Du Sol™

02:05 Rapid Fire begins

02:23 “Never coffee. Always tea.”

02:55 Dr. Michelle’s bitter tea ritual

03:37 3:30 AM mornings, yoga, tea, and sleep discipline

06:03 What midlife should mean: transition and unadulterated joy

07:35 The word to stop associating with menopause: “the end”

08:38 Teacher inspiration: Dr. Keisha Ewers and the wisdom stage

09:41 Describing Soeur Du Sol™ in three words: “Traditionally rooted magic”

10:29 Leadership lesson from higher education: strategy and the long game

12:00 What she had to unlearn as an academic founder

13:05 Founder life in one word: courage

14:04 The origin story: Reiki, healing arts, and higher education

15:06 What Reiki is and why hospitals use it

16:12 A turning-point conversation with Adriana Ayales

17:33 Leaving the VP role to become a professional herbalist

18:30 From consulting to Benin: connecting with traditional healers

20:05 Learning about herbs connected to menopause wellbeing

21:14 The “menopause bubble” and the message she could not ignore

22:02 Founding Soeur Du Sol™: sister of the soil

23:28 Seed Spot, market research, and the first product idea

24:10 Misdiagnosis, brain fog, and perimenopause

25:09 Where Is My Mind: functional beverage inspiration for mental clarity support

26:08 Why Soeur Du Sol™ is more than “just tea”

27:12 Two customer segments: the newly awakened and the sleeping genius

27:53 What 100 women said they needed most

28:44 Unbreak My Heart: TCM + West African herbal inspiration

29:20 Product validation through sip-and-see events

30:12 Why Unbreak My Heart became the new hero product

31:50 Building a real company: DTC, B2B, and partnerships

32:23 Why B2B is the next strategic move

33:00 Beverage expos: NOSH, BevNET, and hospitality opportunities

33:43 Tea options in hotels, spas, and premium spaces

35:21 Why traditional retail is not the primary strategy

36:02 The Tea Taxi concept for offices and meetings

37:47 Accelerator lessons: not all accelerators are equal

38:45 Local First AZ and scaling through food production support

39:16 Commercial kitchen, U of A testing, and shelf-life validation

40:20 Why wellness founders cannot cut corners

41:26 Founder advice: get in touch with your why

42:43 Advice for wellness founders: science and ancient wisdom

44:10 Where to connect with Dr. Michelle and Soeur Du Sol™

45:10 Advice for women considering a founder leap

46:07 Start small, find a trusted mentor, take baby steps

47:05 Closing reflections and where to watch/listen

This week’s Funding Friday is about fit, not volume.

In this episode, I break down three current opportunities and the kind of founder each one is actually built for:

NAACP x L’Oréal Inclusive Beauty Fund

A strong immediate-fit opportunity for beauty founders and operators, with applications open through April 23, 2026.

🔗 https://naacp.org/find-resources/grants/inclusive-beauty-fund-grant

Breva Thrive Grant

A current option for revenue-generating businesses with measurable community impact, with the Q2 cycle open through April 30, 2026.

🔗 https://www.breva.ai/thrive-grant

Famous Amos Ingredients for Success

A strong national opportunity for early-stage Black-owned businesses, open through June 1, 2026.

🔗 https://famousamosingredientsforsuccess.com/

This episode is also about the bigger founder lesson:

stop applying like every opportunity is interchangeable.

The stronger filter is:

category fit

founder fit

proof-of-business fit

use-of-funds fit

For help narrowing the right opportunities and building a stronger application narrative:

📩 dana@valugrowthpartners.com

🌐 www.thebrandblueprint.biz

A lot of founders think they understand profitability because they know their selling price and their product cost.But real-life margin pressure usually shows up in the places founders don’t fully account for:• shipping • returns • discounting • marketplace fees • customer acquisition • operational friction • manual founder labor In this episode of The Brand Blueprint, I break down why “paper margins” and real-life margins are often two very different things — and what founders should be pressure-testing before they scale.For strategy support:📩 dana@valuegrowthpartners.com🌐 www.thebrandblueprint.biz