Radical Honesty as a Business Strategy
- 4 days ago
- 3 min read
By Erin Meck
The moment I quit my job to work full-time on my business and passion, I was terrified. I was walking away from a steady paycheck, health insurance, and a career path that made sense on paper. But my personal health journey had cracked something open in me.
A decade-long struggle with cystic acne and gut issues had led to me learning that the place I spent the most time, my home, was filled with everyday products quietly influencing my health. Not just skincare and makeup, but my furniture, cookware, cleaning products, even the air inside my house. My health wasn’t just about what I ate or how much I exercised. It was also about what I slept on, breathed in, and put on my skin everyday.
Cleaning up the toxic products in my environment eventually became the foundation for my business, Welpr. Welpr is a website that helps people quickly find safer, cleaner options for nearly everything they bring into their home. I knew firsthand how overwhelming it was to realize so many “normal” products might not be as safe as they seem, and I wanted one place that made it simple to choose better products without spending hundreds of hours researching. My husband and our good friend felt the same, so Welpr was born.
As we were getting Welpr off the ground, I made another decision that felt just as bold as quitting my job. I moved to Costa Rica. My husband and I wanted to prepare our bodies for having children, so we chose a place that felt healing and calm. Environments matter for health, so we traded office air and concrete for ocean, nature, and a slower pace of life.
Costa Rica delivered for our health, but Welpr was stagnant. It felt like we were shouting into the void. Traffic was tiny. No one was talking about us. I kept questioning my decision to walk away from a stable paycheck for a website that, as far as the world was concerned, barely existed.
Finally, something changed. I started to tell my story on TikTok. Not a polished, curated version. The real one. My cystic acne. My gut issues. The products that helped me heal. The messy in-between of trying to go non-toxic without doing it perfectly.
I was terrified to publish certain videos, but honesty is what resonated. People didn’t just want information; they wanted someone who was in it with them, who would say, “You don’t need a perfect non-toxic home to start. You just need one next step.”
Slowly, the comments started to change. Instead of “What is Welpr?” I saw, “I used your site to find a new mattress,” “Your toothpaste recommendations helped me finally switch,” and “Thank you for making this feel doable instead of scary.”
Now, tens of thousands of people use Welpr every month to find safer products for their homes. That number still blows my mind, not because of the traffic, but because I can picture the moments behind it: a mom swapping her baby’s lotion, someone ditching their toxic cookware, a family breathing a little easier.
And on a personal level, Costa Rica did exactly what I’d hoped, too. As I write this, I have a baby on the way. A little person I spent years preparing my body and environment for. The same choices that led me to quit my job, clean up my home, move countries, and start telling the unedited truth are the ones that built Welpr and ultimately made space for this new life.
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