From sobriety to skin care, business owner finds purpose after recovery
“I went from, you know, basically the gutter: homeless, jobless, unemployable; to where I am today, and I don’t ever want to lose the gratitude I have for that,” said Penny McElroy, the owner of Flying Pig Skin Care in Johnson City, Tennessee. After spending years of her life recovering from alcohol and drug addiction, and sh
aring her story as an addiction counselor, McElroy found a new calling making and selling natural skin care products. What started out as a weekend side-gig is now her full-time job after being laid off last May. McElroy sells all-natural salves, body butters, soaps, lotions and lip balms at the Johnson City Farmers Market and online. Her products, designed for people with allergies or sensitive skin, were inspired by her son who had severe eczema. After researching the harm of water and alcohol in over-the-counter skin products, she made her own salve, or ointment, with an anhydrous solution to treat sensitive skin. But it wasn’t until she’d settled into long-term recovery from addiction that she began to make and sell her products.
“I’m not bashful about my addiction because I believe that people who are in long-term recovery should share that it’s possible to get into long-term recovery,” McElroy said. “I used everything and anything I could to not feel how I was feeling; I tried everything to make it go away including alcohol.”
McElroy hit rock bottom in Florida in 2002. A strong addiction, an abusive relationship and the loss of custody of her kids triggered a suicide attempt that left McElroy in detox. After being discharged from the hospital, she attended an intensive out-patient program. Her therapist said if she did not try to change anything, the program would be a waste of time. That night, McElroy had a revelation before her 12-step meeting.
“I heard a lawnmower, and I smelled the grass, and I looked up and I saw the sky and I thought, ‘I’ve missed all of this,’” McElroy said. “I dropped to my knees in the parking lot and told God, ‘I don’t know what you’ll do with me, but I won’t use or drink anymore if you can just do this the way that you wanted to.’ And the immediate result of that prayer was that the desire to use left me.”
McElroy has been sober since April 17, 2002. She continued the 12-step program, volunteered at the hospital where she recovered and was eventually offered a job there.
“The hospital where I got clean and sober; the one that had locked me up in their psych-ward for detox, gave me the keys about a year and a half after I got clean, and hired me on the spot,” McElroy said. After earning her bachelor’s degree in addiction counseling from Alameda University in 2004, she worked as a drug addiction counselor and a marketer for addiction treatment. It was not until she moved to Johnson City to be a public relations officer for a treatment center that she started to make her skin care products public. McElroy made her salve again in 2012 and officially started her business in 2015. She studied, read books, took online courses to learn more about her craft and received an online certification in herbalism. Her products have natural, locally- sourced ingredients such as beeswax from local beekeepers, coconut oil, almond oil, olive oil and herbal oils. She hand-blends herbs grown on her sons’ farm in Hampton, Tennessee, into her products, and she individually scents each batch.
“I watched her go from making a couple of things here and there for a few people, to hammering out case after case after case of lotions and batch after batch soaps,” said McElroy’s roommate Amanda Renfrow. Renfrow, who met McElroy in recovery about 10 years ago, occasionally helps with the business. Renfrow admires McElroy’s relationships with her customers. She said McElroy strives to know each customer individually, and she caters to specific needs.
“I was there on Saturday and picked up some soap, and she said, ‘Well, I’m going to discontinue this, but if you still want it I’ll make it just for you,’” said Tammy Childress, a regular customer of McElroy’s. After trying Flying Pig Skin Care, Childress made her whole family switch to McElroy’s products. Both her son and daughter saw improvements in their skin conditions and sensitivities after switching.
“This business has helped her grow outside of what she’s always been in,” Renfrow said. “Like she’s always been a marketer. She’s always been in recovery. She’s always worked with recovering addicts.”
Renfrow said that McElroy is still helping people but in a different way. McElroy initially did not relate her past with addiction to her skin care work. Now, she sees a correlation between these parts of her life. She said her soap and lotion making is so much a part of her, like her recovery is so much a part of her, that it all affects everything she does.
“What I found is that when you’re in a helper mentality or have the ability to help people, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing,” McElroy said. “Because I find people to talk to about addiction, and I find people to talk to about faith; but when I get somebody who comes and says, ‘This is the only thing that works on my baby’s eczema. He doesn’t cry when I put it on,’ I feel like I’m actually doing some good for humanity, too.”
