In this episode of Listening with Leaders, host Doug Noll interviews Laura Champagne, owner of Natural Home Solutions, a New England mold‑remediation company that uses enzyme‑based, non‑chemical treatments. Laura shares her unconventional path from a biochemistry degree and family car‑dealership work to founding a mold‑remediation business three years ago. She explains how mold grows, the health risks of spores, and why common terms like “black mold” are scientifically inaccurate. The conversation covers practical remediation tactics—air testing with indoor/outdoor controls, humidity management, and addressing building‑specific challenges from historic homes to modern, airtight constructions. Laura emphasizes her customer‑first approach: personally handling every job, listening to diverse client needs, and building trust without a call‑center. She also reflects on how COVID‑19, military lawsuits, and real‑estate trends have heightened mold awareness. The interview closes with personal anecdotes about her athletic background, adaptive‑sports volunteering, and her role as a substitute teacher, illustrating the blend of scientific passion, entrepreneurial grit, and community service that drives her business.
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Welcome to Listening with Leaders. I'm Doug Noll, lawyer turned peacemaker. I teach executive leaders how to listen to emotions rather than words so that they can become the leaders everyone wants to follow. And I teach those same leaders how to be authentically present, available, and connected to their families despite being insanely busy. I have learned that we are 98% emotional and only 2% rational. Learning how to listen to emotions is, in my experience, the foundational skill of life. Stick around to the end of the show, and I'll reveal how you can be on our next guest in 15 to 20 minutes. So let's get started. Laura Champagne, welcome to Listening with Leaders. You are the owner of a company called Natural Home Solutions in New England. You help people deal with mold problems in their homes. Tell us a little bit about your backstory.
My backstory is I have always loved science and math, and I went to college for biochemistry. And when I graduated, I didn't know that's what I wanted to do. I went and worked for my family's car dealership, and I did wholesale car dealing. And then COVID hit, I came home to work with my family, and then I met up with Peter Salinger, the owner of X- for life sciences. So life science company, they make products that we use at Natural Home Solutions. So it's enzymes, not chemicals, and I feel very passionate about it because I love science. And I also, as a mom and somebody that likes science, I love that there's enzymes and there's something you can do every day.
So how long have you been in this business?
About 3 years.
3 years. And what did you do before that?
I was here. I did, I wore everything.
Is there a way you can get closer to your phone? Your audio is really weak.
Yes. I was in wholesale car dealership. So what's really interesting is when I deal with realtors and with house flippers, banks, I understand the struggles that they go through. Because my family, as I grew up in entrepreneurial family, and I traveled with my dad since I was 3 years old with cars. And when you're flipping a car, flipping a house, looking at different things, not every house is the same. Starter home is very different from a very large family. And the same thing applies for cars. Everybody's needs are different, and that's in the mold industry. I always had to talk to the customer, see how What is their use? Their state, you know, what are their intents? And I can gauge, even working with realtors, I can gauge what person's needs. I can do everything soup to nuts, or I can work with customers. They can do some stuff themselves to save money. And I love that I can help people. And so they are very different industries, but they're also similar.
So what is it that gets you up in the morning and gets you excited to go to work?
Actually, I honestly, like, in college I did— I was a TA, and I really like to help people. I love describing, I love teaching things. There's a lot of misconceptions about mold. There's always a hot button in real estate, and it's changed. It's lead paint, asbestos, the newest thing is mold. And a lot of people don't understand the way mold grows, and I like that I can Putting things into words people understand. People get scared about it or are nervous about their families. And I can actually, I can provide a cost-effective way for people to tell people and also explain, even if they don't use me, I can help them understand it. And that's really cool to me because I am, I'm, yeah.
So you take the fear away.
Yeah, take the fear away. Yeah. If you think about mold, we all hear about it, right? In Connecticut, we had a scare at a bunch of schools, and COVID actually played a big part in this. And I'll get to that. But the way mold works is everybody understands plants. You take a seed, you plant it. Everybody knows that it needs soil, water, sunlight. We all learn that at a very young age. Mold actually is the opposite, but it works very similar. So it actually starts We still have to feed it and water it. I don't know if you're out of California, but I know here we've had— I'm in New England. You think of cold, right? And like around Christmas time, winter, we've had 70-degree days. Nobody turns their air conditioning on. You get that rising humidity, and we all see our grass, right? It goes— our grass comes back every year. And all of a sudden it goes, oh, I know what to do. So mold, the part that aggravates people's systems, which causes tons of health issues, is the spores. The spores are literally like the dandelions. I don't know if you guys have dandelions out there. We all picked up things that kids love blowing them, and their parents are crazy. You're gonna ruin the lawn. But that's their microscopic little heat. So when they land and then you introduce these crazy humidity or water comes in from anywhere, water is an intrusive force and it can literally wreak havoc. So when you introduce the water source, a food source is actually anything for it. So your drywall, wood, fabric, plaster, all those things are a food source. Or the mold, and then you add water and they like dark spaces. Now it starts to grow. We've also had a trend in commercial things where we want to revitalize the different areas where there's plants and things that have moved out of the country. And now these places are big, all these factories, and now they turn them into condos and real estate and everything. But they weren't shut down properly. You have water intrusion, everything, and they're all full of wood. And even if you put new things in there, the mold is living within those sources and they will come back out. Maybe not right away, but you don't wanna start off a multimillion dollar project with a source of problem because everybody is Unfortunately, and you don't want to all of a sudden have a problem. And now what really started this whole discussion about mold is from the military. We've all— I'm sure I know out here we've had advertisements about Camp Lejeune and other military bases, and that's really what started it. They started winning lawsuits and now people are very sensitive to it, but nobody really knew where came from. Everything is an inflammatory response. So that's really where all this started from. But some people don't even understand where— why they are concerned about mold. They know that they should be concerned, but they don't really understand where it originated from. And then with our colleges, we all thought it was gonna be 2 weeks with COVID 2 years. Nobody really shut things down properly. And there's fluctuating humidity. So that's okay.
What is, what is, what is it that's unique about you, Laura, that you bring to the business that kind of makes you successful and sets you apart from everybody else?
Around here, every— you call me, I mean, people call me from everywhere. I, I'm passionate about what I do, my knowledge is— but around here, instead of getting a call center We export life sciences, hires, licensees. I'm one of those people. So I run my own business and I always tell customers like, when are you available? I make sure I can get my kids off the bus. And that's what I love about my own business. But you don't get a call center. I go to every single job. I know them. So everything comes with a guarantee. I personally, which is you're not going to get bounced around. And it transfers from a seller to a buyer. Or I support property management, I support all sorts of businesses as well. And you're not getting, oh, let me, somebody that doesn't know what, what was done. I speak to everybody personally. And so you get me as a service. I do have a couple of people that work with me, but I go everywhere myself.
So do you have, yeah, how many crews do you operate?
Right now.
Just you?
Yeah, it is me. Yes, I am the one that, that crawls around. I have a biochemistry degree from community college that I never thought I'd be crawling around at it. But one of the great things is, as an entrepreneur, you have to be respectful of everybody. Down the road, everybody, you know, I was, I did it all myself. My dad always taught me My dad always said, you can't ask anybody else to do anything you wouldn't be willing to do yourself.
Absolutely.
There's no way you can ask an employee, you can't tell an employee they didn't do a good enough job if you can't do a better job. I can't do it myself forever, but you also have to recognize that and learn that way and grow a business from the bottom up. You have to literally do it.
So how important is listening in your business?
Is what?
Listening.
Listening. Oh, very important. Because like I said, every customer has different needs. So we have to communicate together.
Where did you learn how to listen?
My parents and from business. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It— my, my, my customers that I've dealt with for— it was wholesale, so I dealt with a lot of people, same customers on a weekly basis. They helped me start my business. They're not car dealers. They're not in the mold business, but they wouldn't have stood by me if I didn't have that sort of respect.
And so how do you, when I'm sure that not every job is a perfect job, what do you do with the jobs that go a little bit sideways and people get a little upset?
Sorry about that. Listen.
And what do you, and what are you looking for?
I have some customers that have, that have been told to have, uh, unrelieved depression. When I try to communicate with them, I listen to them and we come to something at some sort of agreement. And for example, I have one addict that we were doing that the, so people could, you heard of black mold?
Oh yeah. Black mold.
Mm-hmm. You know, it doesn't exist. There are no scientific definition of black mold.
I'm sure, I'm sure there are thousands of different kinds of molds.
Yeah, there's still one that grows, and then in different times of year, which is important, that which is the best way. And what type, if there's mold present, you can have— sometimes actually you see it. Yeah, but if you really need to know, you have to do an air test. And there are— you always have to do a control outside because whatever is going on outside, you want it to be less in. So we have no control of the outside. So there's one house I went into the attic, they were— this family was very concerned and we brought it down by 96% in the attic, which is extremely— that's well within any sort of That's a very good margin, and, and the enzymes still stay behind. They keep working beyond that. Also, from there, when we first did the initial test, it was during more of the colder months. Outside wasn't doing much. When we did the post-test was during the bloom, and compared to outside, both the types of a fourth of the climate side. They were over 80— one was 82% and one was 86% less netback. How does it get stabilized, right? The air is traveling through the— and it was still down. And unfortunately, they were not thrilled because they wanted zero. And I was like, you have open ends on your roof. Everybody gets— homes have to breathe. And that's a double-edged sword. Because we want our homes to breathe. But also the newer homes, at least I know in the states that around me, they have all these energy efficiency things and you're actually closing. So it's one of those things where you solve one problem, you create another. And just very, it's very interesting to watch the patterns. I've gone houses that are from 1700s. I've done houses that every single decade or like typical. If you follow the building trends, each one has its own unique set of issues.
I don't know which one's better than another, but it's always a different challenge, and that's what keeps you interested in the work.
It's cool, and I'm learning everything, and I love that. Like, I was always like, hey, I'm kind of— I love learning and a lot of different challenges. And in the case of the house, like, '50s, they thought that the vent from the bathroom into the attic, that would take care of itself. And you see a whole host of issues. It doesn't go anywhere. You can literally see the mold right above the bathroom. But the older homes than that actually breathe better. It's crazy. Like I said, you solve one problem, you create You never know what we don't know what we're all just trying our best.
This has been, this is really interesting. I'm curious. One more question for you. What's one thing about yourself, Laura, that we would never know about unless you revealed it to us?
I've also, one of my other things, um, I, a, uh, so my freshman water skier, uh, when I graduated from college here, I graduated college in 3 years instead of 4, uh, because I, I'm that like focused. And I actually worked at the water park down in Florida. And so my son is 9 years old. He does water park jumping. And I've been on the water park since I was 10. I ran that. And so I— my most rewarding thing I do right now is I work with adaptive, so disabled people. And I help them. And it's the most rewarding thing. But being focused on me, it's really cool to give back. Maximum Solutions supports that as well. And it's something that's come to me and I can help give back to.
Good for you. This has been a really great conversation. Thank you so much for taking your time out today and rushing for your job to be able to do this. I appreciate it.
Nope. No problem. No problem. Thank you so much. I love to educate people. I also, I, there is a lack of substitutes and teachers. And so I also, because my business, people need me on nights and weekends. So when I am available. I also substitute my kids' school, and when there's nothing else to talk about, I'm like, you want to hear something else? And I teach them about mold.
There you go.
There we go.
Good for you. Thank you so much.
No problem. Thank you so much. Thank you for taking the time.
Bye. Doug Noll here. Thank you so much for listening to Listening with Leaders. If you are a successful executive leader who would like to be on this program, please visit podcast.dougnull.com/podcast. If you got something out of this interview, would you please share this episode on social media? Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend or post it on the socials. If you know someone that would be a great guest, tag them on the socials. Social media to let them know about the show and include the hashtag #ListeningWithLeaders. I love seeing your posts and guest suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content. To make sure you don't miss any episodes, go ahead and subscribe. Your thumbs up, ratings, and reviews go a long way to help promote the show and mean a lot to me and my team. Want to know more? Go to my website, DougNoll.com, or follow me on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram. That's @DouglasEnoll. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you on the next show.
