Anne Marie Faiola | Founder and CEO of Bramble Berry

She Leads Me

Anne-Marie Faiola is the founder and CEO of Bramble Berry Handcraft Provisions (www.brambleberry.com), a company that sells soapmaking and DIY supplies. From founding the business in her kitchen with funding on a credit card to employing over 100 people in Whatcom County, she’s an in-the-trenches entrepreneur with many lessons learned along the way.

Anne-Marie is the author of Live Your Best Day Ever: Thirty-Five Strategies for Daily Success, where she shows that habit-based living is the key to hitting your goals, and three soapmaking books Pure Soapmaking, Soap Crafting, and Milk Soaps. She also stars in the popular YouTube channel SoapQueen.TV with over 32 million views and over 100 DIY videos.

Anne-Marie was named one of the top 50 entrepreneurs in America by President Obama’s Small Business Administration, won Businesswoman of the Year (Washington State) from the Women’s Business Owners of Washington, was honored as the Best Businessperson in Whatcom County and Best Small Business for Whatcom County. Forbes Small Businesses and Winning Workplaces named Anne-Marie one of the Best Bosses in America. She has her Masters Degree in Business Administration from the Heriot-Watt Business School, her Entrepreneurial Masters from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Nutritional Therapy Degree from South Puget Sound College (Nutritional Therapy Association) and recently attended Chicago Booth School of Business for post-MBA work in finance, mergers & acquisition.

She currently serves on the Whatcom Community College Foundation board, serves as the Learning Chair for the Professional Investor Network (part of the Young President’s Organization) and is on the steering committee for the Chicago Booth School of Executive Education program for YPO. This mother of two active kids loves to talk business, non-traditional investments, time management, creativity, and fitness. In her spare time, she loves to read, run, collect wine, hike, scuba dive, ski, make cheese, brew kombucha, bake bread, cook and raise odd animals like prehistoric horseshoe crabs.