Nancy Bogart is a Woman Who Means Business

Nancy Bogart’s wellness empire all started with a lotion bar. Bogart began making solid bars of lotion and selling them at craft fairs on the weekends 24 years ago. After making $7,000 from her product in just three Saturdays, she knew she had something special. “My husband said, ‘We have something here, we should do something,’” she says. Her husband, Ron, proposed creating the business under a direct sales model—and that’s what they did. At the time, Bogart’s business was called Country Bunny Bath and Body. They were seeing immense success in the Midwest but were ready and excited to expand. In 2007, Bogart changed the name to Jordan Essentials—an ode to the Jordan River.

One of Bogart’s biggest successes as a businesswoman, she says, is that all four of her children work for her. Jordan Essentials also hires individuals with disabilities, Bogart’s daughter, Annya, being one of them. “The fact that we have an adaptive workplace is a huge success for me,” she says.

Bogart calls leadership in an adaptive workplace a privilege, emphasizing the importance of patience and partnership. “I really feel like we are the winners as employers,” she says. “I literally think this joy and happy culture shows up in every bottle.” Bogart discovered first-hand how hard it is for people with disabilities to get job offers. In her experience, hiring people with diverse skill sets has brought longevity, positive energy and hard workers. “I think if we can make our world more adaptive, then we can find some great strengths in everybody,” she says.

Through the ebbs and flows, Jordan Essentials has broken through barriers and used every challenge to its advantage. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Jordan Essentials had an increase in sales because of its soaps, cleaning products and hand sanitizer. “Our company has exploded in the last three years, just gone well past my wildest dreams,” Bogart says. “And we helped people when they couldn’t go to work. They could still sell our products.” Jordan Essentials increased sales by 23%. Bogart says for a company that is more than 20 years old, “It’s an amazing thing!”

When it comes to Jordan Essentials’ products, Bogart is most proud of her magnesium products, especially since the surging popularity of magnesium on social media. “It’s a beneficial mineral,” she says. “We’ve had it for 14 years, and then all of a sudden it got picked up on TikTok and it’s everywhere.”

The hashtag #magnesium has been viewed over 1.5 billion times on TikTok alone. Jordan Essentials offers a range of magnesium-infused products, including sprays, lotion, oils, makeup and more, and they manufacture almost all their products in southwest Missouri.