From small town girl to organic retail pioneer, with Renée Elliott, founder of Planet Organic, and co-founder of Beluga Bean

Renée Elliott had no real inkling of what her purpose was, until walking down the aisle of a health food store in Boston. Little did she know that this moment would ignite her dream, and lead to her opening the first organic supermarket in the UK in 1995 — Planet Organic. With no prior experience but a determination to build a business that would make a difference to people's lives, Renée learnt ‘on the job’ when she had an idea to bring organically grown food to the mainstream shopper. However, Renée’s world was turned upside down when her business partner tried to take ownership of the business in a period where Planet Organic was thriving. Renée opens up about this achingly stressful experience, how she battled through it, and how it has shaped the person she is today. Renée is a true trailblazer we can all learn from, with an inspirational mindset and shares with Holly the guiding principles she’s learnt on her journey so far. She’s an unapologetically emotional, female founder, continuing her mission to spread positivity and encourage people to live the healthiest, happiest life possible — as demonstrated through her second business, Beluga Bean. This conversation is a tonic for anyone that needs to hear why, “Everything will always be okay”. If you would like to work with Renée at Beluga Bean, you can email her at [email protected], and if enjoyed this episode, head on over to hear Holly’s talk with Greg Hoffman, Nike’s former CMO, which we think you’ll love too. Plus for more unfiltered insight, subscribe to Holly’s weekly newsletters on our website, where she shares small business inspiration of all kinds, exclusive nuggets of wisdom from her and her guests, plus offers, creative ideas and topical, 'ungoogleable' business advice.