It’s Jo here, and this story starts way back in 2013 with a free little WordPress blog, an idea and the craving for community.

I started a Facebook page (called Thermolicious Food) which grew to over 1,000 people within a few weeks. You were loving the recipes I was sharing and I LOVED every single second of creating them.  I had a newborn baby, a three-year-old and no clue what the heck I was doing, but I did it anyway.

Fast forward a few months and little Jacob was about to turn one and I had to go back to work.  I said to Tracey “I’m loving this blogging stuff but I don’t think I’ll have time when I go back to work, what should I do?”

Her reply… “I’ll help out” and that, my friends, is how Sistermixin’ was created!

It didn’t take long before you all started asking questions about the products we used, so we decided to open up a store.  We put in $200 each and sourced one single product – the 140ml sized Sinchies food pouch.

The shop was run out of my (Jo’s) spare bedroom. I’d work all day, then come home and pack orders.  Jacob was just a baby, Eva was four and life was busy, but we knew we were making a difference and we were addicted.  We couldn’t stop, even when we tried.  Tracey created a lot of the blogs and I focused on the store, we both created recipes.

Every single dollar we made, we’d put back into our store.  We did this for over two years, all while working in our ‘day’ jobs.  We hired Kaytee to help pack orders when things got too busy for us to handle (and she is still a vital part of our business, we love her to bits).

It wasn’t long before our stock started to spread out around my house – the spare room was chock full, the lounge had boxes in the corner and there were even products stored in the master bedroom. Yep, it was a little bit of chaos, lol!

So we decided to take a leap of faith and lease our very own warehouse.  I was so overwhelmed with pride that I cried all day.  This was huge! I just wish Tracey was there, but she was stuck down in Tassie.

Our shop has always been a family affair, with everyone pitching in when needed – for example, remember that time we sourced vanilla beans and our website blew up because you all wanted a packet.  We sold over 1,000 packs of beans in just minutes!

Every sticker (back and front) was hand stuck, buy us! And we shipped them out from our family to yours, with love, passion and hard work.

Tracey, Craig, Shane and all the kids sticking on labels ? (I was taking the photo, but trust me, I stuck hundreds of labels that night).

However, the decision has come (deep breaths) for us to close down our store. It is not an easy decision to make, but there are many factors that are out of our control and we have to do what is right by our families, both mentally and financially.

Yes, we know this is a shock, but please don’t think this has been an easy decision.  It hasn’t!

WHY???

Reason One

Well, as I said, there are a few reasons, with our number one being that the store pulls us away from our core mission, from what we are passionate about, and that is EDUCATION.

We want to provide more education, in schools, tuckshops, everyday families and within the broader community, both nationally, and then globally.  We see a future with more online courses, more webinars, more training – just more education.

Our heart lies in education, not selling products and having to meet budgets.

Our heart explodes with every single round of Additive Free Made Easy because lives change.  This is where we NEED to be, where we WANT to be. We love creating content and sharing it with you all!

Running a store, selling over 400 products, it pulls us away from that.  We’re so busy promoting our shop products we just don’t have the time for creation.

Reason Two

The second reason is we know it’s overwhelming and confusing.  One minute we’re promoting a mascara, the next is Additive Free Made Easy, then it’s our meal planning program (Meals Made Easy), and then it’s back to a shop product or a recipe (if you’re lucky). It is kinda like the weather in Hobart – a million changes in one day and totally confusing! We just don’t have the brain space for all of that.

Reason Three

The third reason is the financial overheads.  We just can’t compete with the big guns, we can’t offer the same discounts or sales, nor can we offer the same amount of stock. Then there are the crazy costs of postage where we literally lose thousands of dollars per month. It is impossible for us to offer free postage on every order as we simply make zero profit, we can’t pay wages or rent with zero profit, it is just not viable. The pressure of having to meet budgets does not bring us any joy at all and we need to move forward from this.

#dontstresssit though as we have a plan

Don’t freak out guys, we can not wait to continue to recommend what we use, where to get it from etc.  Once everything is sold off our website, we’ll have special links with all the products we use.  OMG, we can’t wait to stop ‘selling’ and just promote things organically.

But in saying that, we will still be ‘selling’ our course, but that’s freaking unbelievably amazing so we’ll continue to shout that one from the rooftops with pride and excitement!

What now?

Well, apart from our online programs being Additive Free Made Easy and Meals Made Easy, we have a massive COOKBOOK coming out!  Yes, a BOOK full of your favourite recipes!!!

We will be doing a national tour in 2020, so stay tuned for more on this as we don’t have any details just yet!

And, you can expect more content. We’ve been saying for about five years that we want to create an Additive-Free Body Care e-course and something around Gut Health.  We want to create some really amazing, user-friendly essential oil programs and, well, the sky is the limit!

I can’t tell you when, but one day, expect a documentary on Netflix.  That’s our big crazy dream.

Thank you

OMG, thank you.  Thank you for your support.  Thank you for all you give us.  Thank you for the cheer squad.  Thank you for being open to change and thank you for being you.  We get out of bed every day because of you, and we’re excited for this next chapter of Additive-Free Lifestyle.

We look forward to being a part of something beyond what we ever thought was possible.  Hang On Tight because we are about to unleash our power like never before!

Jo & Tracey x