( ENSPIRE Business ) Brian and Norah Watkis Created Business NORYAN to Offer Unique Scents and Services
ENSPIRE Contributor: Cailin Tennis
This up-and-coming father-daughter-owned business is taking the fragrance industry to a new level. Aromas can be a powerful tool for uplifting moods, expressing oneself, or giving yourself a signature smell. Utilizing this vast capacity of fragrances, the entrepreneurial father-daughter duo of NORYAN, Brian and Norah Watkis, has developed several signature scents and programs. This makes them not just a family owned business, but a Black-owned one.
“Where there is scent… there are memories,” Brian and Norah Watkis like to say. Their passion for this mantra led to the creation of their fragrance company NORYAN. Each of their vegan, non-GMO, paraben-free, and phthalate-free is designed with this mantra in mind. Their desire to connect people through scent and their revolutionary approach to entrepreneurship are the exact traits that ENSPIRE loves to highlight because of their positive community contributions. It was exciting to discuss the company’s direction and intricacies with Brian, and get to know more about the brand.
When and why did you first create NORYAN?
We officially created Noryan in 2020. But I have been curating scents long before then since I was 11. When I had my daughter, who is also Noryan’s co-founder, I realized she shares my love for scents and fragrances. This was a huge inspiration for me because we started creating scents together and bonding over fragrances. I was also inspired by the prospect of leaving a legacy that can outlive me. This is why Norah is an active part of the business. While we bond over formulating amazing fragrances, I get to teach her about financial literacy, the value of hard work, and enhancing the quality of other people’s lives by meeting their needs. In our case, by providing scenting solutions.
What’s one distinct memory you have associated with a scent?
As a young 11-year-old boy, I would hang around perfume parlors, explore several scents and just soak it all in. I used to decipher each note and scent composition with my eyes closed. What always stood out to me is the feeling. These memories have never left me because I consider scent an important part of my formative years. Sometimes, when I’m creating and I close my eyes, it literally takes me back to many years ago, and I feel like a young boy again.
What are some goals you have for your company?
An important goal for me is longevity. Because of this, I am big on the quality of my fragrances and products. In fact, our tagline at Noryan is ‘where there is scent….there are memories.’ So, my goal is to live up to this. In the short and medium term, I work with my team and collaborate with other brands and deliver top-notch services. But because I believe that scent is a way of life, the long-term goal is to transform the way people interact with fragrances. That is why, besides scenting products, scent marketing is a major aspect of our service offering.
How does having this successful business affect your family life/relationship as a father/daughter duo?
I believe that the business enhances my relationship with my daughter. We get to bond over something we both enjoy doing and, as a co-founder of the business, she gets to learn about business and basic financial literacy.
How is your business promoting itself and other Black-owned businesses?
There aren’t many black-owned scenting and scent marketing businesses. So, when I get to directly interact with some clients, they are surprised that Noryan is black-owned. It makes me get the sense that I am not just representing myself and my family, but also my community.
It’s clear that this is a business founded on passion and history, which makes it all the more inspiring. Driven by the mood-boosting power of scent, NORYAN provides aromas for all areas of life, including home, car, and business. To continue following their journey, and explore their products you can visit their website.
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