Meet Moni Gray | Proud Owner & Creator at Desert Dreaming OutPost

We had the good fortune of connecting with Moni Gray and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Moni, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
To be honest…there was really no thought process at all when I started my business. You see, this business grew from a conversation with my daughter when she was two. She was taking a bath and asked me to read the ingredients on her bubble bath, I struggled through the complex chemicals and just made a funny game out of how I was saying the words, that’s when she grabbed my face in her two little hands and said, “Muma! Why do you make all my foods and not my bubbles?!” Well when you’re call out like that by your two year old it really makes you think!! At this point in her life I had hand made all of her baby food and toddler food yet her bubble bath had all these chemicals that I didn’t even know what they were…so I started making her bubbles! From there things just grew. I started making more products as we came across things we wanted to make in a way we felt good about. My best friend’s son was diagnosed with chemical allergies and skin conditions we we started making a whole line that was safe for him. Friends started asking to buy products and eventually it led to me starting Desert Dreaming OutPost. It really has been a business fueled by and supported by friends, new and old. I wouldn’t be doing this today without their encouragement and cheering every step of the way.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
When I think about Desert Dreaming OutPost and what sets us apart I think of not just the ingredients for my products but also in the process of how I make them. There are so many tremendous makers out there who create beautiful products. It’s difficult to find your place and succeed in this market. I never will say that one product is better or worse than another, I simple encourage each and every person to read the labels, to research ingredients you aren’t familiar with and to then make the decision on the products that are right for YOU and YOUR FAMILY. As I said, this is a difficult market, while our business is still growing I do believe in each and every ingredient and product we make…here’s why.

I have spent over a decade perfecting my recipes to include every single ingredient that I want and leaving out everything I don’t. I spend countless hours researching each ingredient, how it’s made, what it contains and what benefits it adds to each product. Once I have done that it’s time to create! Each recipe is tested, retested and tweaked until it is just how I envisioned it to be when we made the decision to add that product to our offerings. It’s time intensive but there is no greater feeling than when I share a new product with my friends and customers that I truly believe in.

Not only am I proud of the products themselves but I am also beyond thrilled to share that Desert Dreaming OutPost is now certified as a Green Company, Sustainable Company and 100% Plant Based! While my daughter is the drive behind the products, my deep love for all things outdoors and a healthy, environmentally balanced lifestyle, fuels the company. It matters. WHAT we make matters. HOW we make it matters. It is an honor to be able to say that all of these products are made in a green and sustainable way.

My saying is…. Green. Sustainable. Plant Based. Because It Matters. And that’s truly what I live by.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Oh my gosh! If my best friend was able to visit for a week what would our itinerary be?! There is so much that is amazing and wonderful about this state!!

Must Visits: Of course the usual…Grand Canyon National Park, Horseshoe Bend, Tuzigot National Monument and Saguaro National Park. We’d have to also kayak and SUP down the Salt to see the horses, hike Spur Cross, Camelback and a few watering hole hikes (because I know she’s not visiting in the summer so we can hike LOL), and of course visit the square in Prescott, Downtown Tuscon and Old Town Scottsdale. And of course lots of time at our little spot in the world!

Must Do: Apple Annie’s in Willcox. The shops in Downtown Flagstaff. Old Town Prescott. Visit a few locations for the next phase of Desert Dreaming OutPost. Drive through the Painted Desert.

Must Eat: Jalapeno Bucks (in Mesa). Macky’s (in Payson). Our place because homemade meals are hard to beat!

It’s so difficult to narrow down just what we would do but guaranteed we would have a blast because we’re together and would never run out of things to do…because Arizona is AMAZING!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
While this business is 100% built upon the support, encouragement and love every single person in my life, there are three people that immediately come to mind when I think about who deserves recognition. I would not be here today doing what I love and truly believe in without these three people.

First person is of course my daughter. She is the reason. She is the reason for my life’s purpose, the reason I drive so hard to make a good life for her and the reason that Desert Dreaming OutPost exists today.

The second person is my single greatest champion and cheerleader. My best friend who was literally the first person to bug me until I agreed to sell my products, the person that has bought and supported my business for well over a decade and more than anything the person that puts their trust in my hands for the products for their child. That trust is something I will never take lightly or for granted. She is a bigger reason than she will ever know for Desert Dreaming OutPosts existence.

Finally, the third person would have to be my husband. He came into my life after I, by choice, had stayed single for almost ten years as I focused on raising my daughter and healing from an abusive marriage. When we were friends I remember a conversation when he asked what I was doing that weekend and when I told him making soap…he was definitely confused. I offered him a bar to try to which his response was something like, “I don’t use soap bars, only body wash works for my skin.” Fast forward through friendship, dating, travel, my cancer battle, loosing his mother to cancer, family, life and getting married to us now running this business. He is the reason I believed in myself enough to officially “open my doors” to become a full blown business, he is beside me each and every day after getting off of his full time job to help me create products and I also think probably the single largest consumer of all my products including the lotions, body oils (beard use for him) and yes…my soap bars.

Website: https://theazgirls.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/desertdreamingoutpost/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DesertDreamingOutPost

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUsoloaB_F4xJrBPkZtqs2A

Image Credits
Moni Gray ~ Desert Dreaming OutPost ~