This episode of the Perception Podcast will focus on small business and major business corporations.

In addition to sharing insights on how New Mexico residents view small business and major business corporations, we are going to hear from Chrystal Trykoski of Enchanting Soap Collections.  This is a small business that providing a path forward for women in a very unique way.

Learn more about Enchanting Soap Collections by visiting: https://enchantingsoapcollections.com

Full Transcript

Tom Garrity, The Garrity Group Welcome to the Perception Podcast presented by The Garrity Group Public Relations. I’m your host, Tom Garrity. Today’s episode focuses on one of the most consistent storylines in the 2025 Garrity Perception Survey: New Mexico’s Unwavering Support for Small Business. Every year since 2011, The Garrity Group has partnered with Research and Pulling Inc. To understand who New Mexico residents trust. In February of this year, a statistically valid sample of 415 New Mexico residents shared their thoughts, giving us a 95% level of confidence in the results. And once again, small business rises to the top. Let’s start with the numbers. Consistent with past surveys, four out of five New Mexico residents, 79%, hold a favorable opinion of small business. Only 5% hold an unfavorable view, and 16% are neutral or unsure. Compare that with the perception of major business corporations, which has a 30% favorability of New Mexico residents. That means major corporations have the lowest favorability. Among all 17 of the measured industries and institutions that were in the 2025 study. To put it into perspective, corporate favorability has dropped sharply over time, from 50% in 2020 down to 42% in 2023, and now just sitting at 30% favorability. Geographically, support for small business is especially strong in North Central, Eastern, and Central New Mexico. Meanwhile, the areas where major corporations perform best, relatively speaking, are North Central and Northwest New Mexico. At The Garrity Group, we often say that we help small businesses to be heard and large organizations to be understood. Much of our early work involved partnering with organizations that help entrepreneurial communities thrive, including one of our first clients known as Accion. Now it’s known as DreamSpring, and they are a community development financial institution that’s committed to supporting entrepreneurs through resources, mentorship, and microloans. One of my favorite memories from that time involves a simple bar of soap, Dream Spring, often highlighted products created by entrepreneurs they serve. And at this particular event that I was at about a year and a half ago, at our table sat a bar of soap with packaging. About a story that has stayed with me since that time. Fast forward about 18 months, I’m walking through the New Mexico Artisan Market at Hotel Albuquerque when I spot a booth. Beautiful soaps, handcrafted and familiar. I pick one up and immediately read the packaging. And I know that I’ve seen this before. That’s when I had the honor of meeting the owner Chrystal Trykowski of Enchanting Soap Collections, a New Mexico small business rooted in purpose, sustainability, and a remarkable entrepreneurial story. I’m delighted to have her on the podcast today. Welcome to the Perception Podcast, Chrystal. Thank you so much, Tom. When I came up and we talked at the New Mexico Artisans Market, you shared a story and it was it was powerful. Share with our listeners your story. 

Chystal Trykoski, Enchanting Soal Collections [00:03:47] My mother and I, Roberta, we founded this company in 2006. In 2009 I exited this business for about 12 years. And then I got sober in 2019 for the last time. And in 2022, I rejoined Roberta on this journey, on this mission to empower women, and here we are today doing, doing just that. 

Tom Garrity [00:04:17] That’s fantastic. And so Enchanting Soap Collection. It’s a mother daughter in bed endeavor. What has the collaboration meant for both you and your family as well as for your business? 

Chystal Trykoski [00:04:32] For our family. I’ve struggled with addiction since the age of twelve. And in two thousand eight, my mom had a vision that she would hire individuals like myself who have struggled with addiction, mental illness, things like that. Just to bring hope, just to give them a second chance, just to show them that they’re not alone. And that’s what it means for our family. We’re doing this together through my story and my journey and her vision, we’re bringing it together. And then for our business, I had a gentleman by the name of Ken Jackson ask me, I think two weeks ago, what is your Disneyland look like? And I said, for me, it’s not a Disneyland, it’s a Disney world. And in this world, I one day, we one day will have a transitional living house. We will have behavioral health therapists on staff for those hard days for those women who are working for us. Let’s back let’s backtrack real fast. 

Tom Garrity [00:05:55] Yeah, please. 

Chystal Trykoski [00:05:57] I forgot to tell you our whole mission. So the mission for our business is to hire women like myself, but also we hire women who are transitioning out of incarceration back into the community. And so for for those days that these women are struggling, we all have hard days. If they could take 15 minutes, go upstairs, talk to a therapist, let it all out, cry, do whatever they need to do, and then come back to work and be able to focus again. We’re we’re creating we’re we’re just getting rid of an extra barrier. Also, we would like to become a nonprofit. We want to have free daycare for the women who work for us. Again, getting rid of another barrier. So that’s what it means for us, our future in our business. 

Tom Garrity [00:06:49] What a powerful story. How how has it been received as you go out and you know to different shows and as people get become more familiar with your product? 

Chystal Trykoski [00:07:00] It’s very well received. People tell us thank you all the time. I feel like I’m just living life. I don’t know that I need to be thanked necessarily, but I receive it. And I know Roberta feels the same way. It’s just rewarding to know that if I can do it, I get to help somebody else do it. They’re not alone.

Tom Garrity [00:07:31] Share with our listeners a little bit about your products, what makes them unique, and what can customers anticipate from your collection of products? 

Chystal Trykoski [00:07:41] Well, first our soap. Our f our soap is very decorative. It’s made with organic ingredients. We claim 90% organic, and people often ask why 90%? Well, lye makes up a percentage of our recipe, but also shea butter. Shea butter is very, very expensive to find organically. So those two ingredients make up that extra ten percent. Also, we wild harvest plant matter. You’ll find that in our our pear cactus fruit soap. It the seeds from the prickly pear cactus fruit that Roberto wild harvests, it will exfoliate your skin. She also puts it in her lip scrub. We wild harvest planthago from our property up north. Planthago is actually plantane, it’s not the banana plantain, but it’s the weed. So she wild harvests the plantago, she’ll infuse it in sunflower oil with white willow bark, which is the original aspirin, so it aids in pain, stinging nettle, and lavender for eight to ten weeks. And that’s why we call it a plant-powered product. No chemicals. We also have our casitas. Our casita was founded. By a nostalgic memory of my mom. She grew up in a little casita similar to our bar of soap. We have balloon landscape soaps, creams that are formulated for the New Mexico weather. But we also use sustainable packaging and local ingredients. As much local ingredients as possible. And we also like to work with other makers. Our shaving soap kit is made from a local potter. Her name is Sandra, and also a local wood turner by the name of Courtney Gale. So we that’s that’s us in a nutshell. 

Tom Garrity [00:10:03] What a great nutshell. I mean and I I had never heard of Plantago until this conversation today. There’s so much I don’t know about the whole about soap creams, about scrubs, and this is just like a PhD class. So I really like that. So every small business faces challenges. What have been the biggest challenges for enchanting soap collections and how did you overcome them? 

Chystal Trykoski [00:10:32] One of the biggest challenges for us has been for eighteen years we manufactured out of Roberta’s house. We took up three rooms in her house. And finally, in January of this year, 2025, we made the choice to find a manufacturing space. But we were tripping over ourselves, tripping over soap molds. That was a huge challenge. Another challenge has been shipping and rising costs. Shipping for oils and ingredients can sometimes be up to 50% of what the product costs. So just sourcing reliable suppliers with without ha paying huge shipping costs. 

Tom Garrity [00:11:27] What are all the different products that are made here at West? 

Chystal Trykoski [00:11:31] Yeah, so we lease a light manufacturing bay here inside the West Enterprise Center l off of Lomus and Broadway. And we create all of our products here. We lease a it’s roughly nine hundred and fifty square foot. And so for moving out of Roberta’s house into this manufacturing space has been a blessing. 

Tom Garrity [00:11:52] What’s the best business advice or life guidance that you’ve received that you’d like to pass on to our listeners? 

Chystal Trykoski [00:11:59] Raise capital when you don’t need it. That has been a huge learning lesson for me. And also don’t compete with your fellow competitor. I feel like we should all be collaborating. We are a community, we should rise together. I often say there’s thousands of stars in the sky and they all shine differently, as the same with us. There’s tons of soap makers, they all shine differently, and that’s what I would say to our community. 

Tom Garrity [00:12:41] Your packaging features a powerful phrase, lathered in purpose, rooted in hope. How does that message shape the future vision of enchanting soap collections? 

Chystal Trykoski [00:12:52] I want the community to know that we make soap with a purpose. And we are rooted in hope through that purpose. And what that means is our mission in a nutshell, we employ those women transitioning from incarceration back into the community. Also women who have struggled with mental illness, drug addiction, things of that sort are or just been marginalized by life in general. We just want to bring hope to our the women in our community and and rise together. I believe that if we if if we rise, we all rise. And if one falls, we all fall. Nobody should be left behind because of their past. They shouldn’t be marginalized because of their past. Their past doesn’t make up who they are today. It’s just what they’ve learned from that past, and then they move forward. 

Tom Garrity [00:13:55] How can people learn more about your company? 

Chystal Trykoski [00:13:57] They could visit our website at enchanting soapcollections.com. They could come on down to our warehouse. If they were to ask the front desk to see Enchanting Soap Collections, we would give them a little mini tour. They could also purchase products here while they’re at the manufacturing space. If you contact us through our websites, you can schedule field trips. The kids come and get a tour of our manufacturing space. Roberta handcrafts a batch of soap in front of the children. They learn the science and education behind crafting soap, and then they leave with a jar of soap dough. And for those of you who don’t know what soap dough is, if you’ve ever played with Play-Doh, this is a cleaner version. The kids sculpt it, then they set it out to dry, and then they can bathe with it. This inspires creativity, patience, and good bathing habits.

Tom Garrity [00:15:06] Thank you, Chrystal Trykowski with Enchanting Soap Collections for joining us on the Perception Podcast today. Her story, her insights, and passion are something that makes New Mexico entrepreneurs really thrive and shine. And to our listeners, thank you for joining us on this episode of the Perception Podcast. The 2025 Garrity Perception Survey once again confirms what many of us already know. New Mexico believes in its small businesses, their purpose, and the people behind them. To explore more findings from this year’s survey, or to learn more about our work at The Garrity Group, visit us online at GarrityPR.com. Until next time, I’m Tom Garrity. Thanks for listening.