Transforming Tragedy into Triumph: The Birth of Alitura Naturals

Here in beautiful Sedona, Arizona. I've been waiting for this moment for years. I'm here with Andy Nilo.

How's it going?

So good, so good. We're sitting here in the Alatora flagship location. A vortex in and of itself, I think, on the well Power podcast. And I get to sit down and talk to you about all things Alatura and Andy Nilo.

Yes. I'm so glad you're here, Kristen. It's been a beautiful journey getting to know you. When did we first meet?

It was a long time ago. I mean, not so long, but it was long enough. It was like in the inception years, I think, the early years when you were first coming to market. And the first time that we met was at the upgrade labs in Venice. Yeah, I think not Santa Monica. The upgrade labs down by the water. That was the first one open, right?

I think so, yes.

Not the one in the hotel.

Right.

Yeah, we met there. You came to give a presentation on a Friday night about your story, and I stayed after like a good student and asked you a lot of questions.

Appreciate.

Yeah, I was, like, so inspired. And we took some photo of somewhere. Oh, I should dig it up. I have. You were wearing, like, a light mint green shirt. I remember the photo distinctly. But you, like, came and showed up and shared your story, and I was just in a bit of. I was sort of taken aback by it because I felt like you looked so pulled together and you'd been through so much, you know, in the. In the onset of this. And we wouldn't be sitting in this space, though, I think, if that. If that whole tragic occurrence didn't happen in your life. Do you want to talk a little bit about that for people who don't know that. That part of your story?

Oh, you're right. That's interesting to look at it like that. That must have been about four or five years after the accident. Just crossing the street, March 20, 2011. Got hit by a westbound heading vehicle. Luckily lost consciousness, got hit in the eastbound lane and run over by another eastbound heading vehicle. A Land Rover and a Toyota Tundra hit me. And I got, you know, I was just in the middle of Melrose, got my clothes cut off me coming in and out of consciousness at that point and was just shuttled off to Cedars Sinai Hospital, where I woke up in an ICU bed with compound fracture in my jaw, seven broken ribs and a collapsed lung just unrecognizable on a morphine drip. I quickly found out the severity of what I just went through. It was intense, but, you know, I had so much love. It's interesting, my family all came down and we're, you know, my brothers, my sisters, mom and dad, like, were very rarely under the same roof, you know, because my sisters have their families for holidays and stuff like that. And it was interesting. We're all in my little living room, 660 square foot apartment in North Hollywood, California, and there was so much love. Like, I couldn't eat, obviously, my jaw was wired shut and I didn't have any teeth, and I was just drinking, I think, and sure, one of those little smoothies, but it was just a beautiful moment. There's so much love there. Once they left, though, I was a little lonely and I knew I had to, you know, get to work on, you know, repairing myself. I was extremely banged up. I, like I said, had my injuries, but also just coming, you know, out of something that was so, like that fight or flight. I was like. I had this giddy energy of going through something so traumatic, which is. I don't know what that is, but once that came down, I mean, my jaw was wired shut and I was banged up and definitely unrecognizable. But I was alive and I had that. I was so grateful to be alive. I had a newfound. But definitely, I mean, I had perspective before that accident, but I had a newfound deep appreciation for life after. After that.

Yeah. And then that transition from, like, the hospital to going home. Was there, like, pain meds and was it just. I mean, I can't. It must have been like life. You like, life as you knew it was over and changed for good because you were doing so much sport before then, if I remember correctly. And you were. I think you were like Runway modeling. You were doing all the things, right? And so all of a sudden, it's like, here's this man who's got a lot going on with his physical body. In life, right? You have, like, everything that you're out in the world doing and on the go, and then all of a sudden, it's all kind of taken away, which feels so. Yeah. So big.

And I was just gaining momentum in the industry, too. And I was working as a model and an actor, and that happened. I booked a job in June and made it an outside goal of mine not to tell my agent in San Francisco that I wasn't going to be able to work it. So I just kind of put together this plan while I was living in Los Angeles at the time, obviously, and I went around town to Dragon Herbs, met with Truth Calkins, Sage Dammers, Crosby Ware, George from Jing Herbs. Ja Wired shut. Just picking their brain, trying to figure out how to build my system back internally.

And how did you find these people, though? Were you just, like. I was googling and asking people questions or friends or.

Yeah, so I was. I started off at Air1.

Oh, yeah.

And back then, the tonic bar was, like, the thing. And so I would just kind of, you know, pick their brains and ask around describing my story. People were really influential and, like, you know, basically putting together this morning tonic that I did to reboot my system and rebuild and revitalize my blood from head to toe. But one person would give a suggestion. Oh, you got to go check out this dragon herbs. Oh, you got to check out George from Jing Herbs and Truth and Sage and Crosby, I believe, were working at the tonic bar at Air1 in Los Angeles at the time. And I would go. I mean, they were extremely helpful in putting together, basically, a superfood meal internally that I began to pick ap to use in the clay mask topically.

Yeah.

Yeah. So I was cleaning my system, you know, basically from.

Because you couldn't chew anything, right? No food.

No.

So just straws and liquids. That's it.

Yeah. I was just making this smoothie. The first one I made. I remember I boiled down beets and then put the beets in the smoothie and then drank it through, and I actually threw that up through the wires. Can you imagine doing. Anyway, it was terrible. So I took. Took the beats out and made it, you know, without the beats. But, yeah, that was a bad move right there. My stomach couldn't handle that. But it was just a complete trial and error from that point on. As soon as I got home, on. All right, how. How can I recover? Quickest. Yeah, I got the wires out of my jaw the Thursday before the Saturday Runway job. Friday, I think I got my teeth cleaned and bonded in. And then Saturday, I flew up to San Jose for this Macy's Runway show. So it was like, an outside goal to get back into the business days. Y. Yeah, yeah. Just a little goal, and I did that. So it kind of, like, helped me. Helped me just get my momentum and, you know, knowing that I was getting back in the industry. But the thing that got me back was that clay mask and the power of the nutrition that I was taking and just the discipline going on my walks in the evening when the sun came down so the scarring wouldn't be baked in. And it just became an absolute obsession of mine to not only get back Physically, but. But to learn more about my system internally and my mind was right. I was just excited to be alive. I never. The clay mask was never, you know, alatur wasn't even a thought for like three years. But for, yeah, I would say two, two and a half years after that, I was going around town just kind of mixing up this clay mask that I was making that a friend of mine, Christine, I picked her up from the airport shortly after the accident, and she had seen me before. She did a legitimate double take and asked what I was doing. And I was like, kind of hiding this clay mask at the time. And she asked what was in it. She's like, I want to try it. Went over to her house, mixed up the mask for her and her friends. And that was the first kind of like, you know, just experiment to see what people thought if they, you know, felt the same. Because this was like my. I was kind of hiding it, you know. You know, being a guy in skincare, it's not like I was flaunting the fact that I was, you know, using this clay mask religiously to. To heal my skin and get back and, you know, get my vibrance back. But they loved it. They. It was one of those things where I was going around la, just in a backpack, bamboo bottle, apple cider vinegar and some essential oils and then mixing it up to. I would go to, you know, houses of people I didn't even know. And I just getting really wordy on the ingredients and really wordy on the explanation on the benefits of the product. But it was fun. It was invigor. And then I would go off to, like, my nighttime job or whatever, and all I would ask for is just a little picture and some feedback. And that actually helped me dial down my formula because I had, you know, way too much kelp powder at that time. So I actually cut that in half because it's a little earthy, as some may know. But if you add some essential oils, it helps with the aroma as well as some skin benefits and little aromatherapy aspect to it. But that was just my thing, you know, when you take time for yourself letting that clay mask dry, a lot of thoughts, you know, would go on. I would get work done. So it was a little self, you know, well, big self care for sure aspect for that.

That was sort of the. That was the thing that launched a LA tour, I think in your mind, right? Or just as the evolution of that was this whole entire beautiful line that's here behind us with so many things that I Even use myself today. But I remember you talking specifically about the mask and being really. Yeah, just like pleasantly surprised. Right. If you, what have you had been through, I think you showed photos even of yourself in the hospital. And then I was like, how did that recover his skin so well. And if that can do that for you, then yeah, yeah, the women of LA were like, had to be running towards, you know, the clay mask world. So that's great. So you've refined the formula over time with people's feedback. I never remember it being too earthy, but I think biohackers are just like, I don't know, it's some weird shit. I'll just put it on my face and like, it'll be amazing. So you refine the formula and I think you were doing a little bit of like we were doing some world travel, like traveling to some of the places as you started to just talk about the evolution of the brand, how this alator, this word came to be and yeah, this product line.

So I, it was just a hobby. I was, by that time I was back in the entertainment industry and starting to audition a little bit, getting some work which was so fulfilling and still doing that on the side, you know, I mean, I wanted to be an actor and in that industry, but. And I was still kind of just sharing that, going around town and then, and then posting pictures as my little thing. It was just this clay mask that really did help get me back to my feet and to a recognizable form. And, and I just, I loved it. I never had an intention to sell it, but a friend of mine on Facebook owned a med spa in San Diego and said, I want to try this mask. And so I drove down there a little nervous and did the same thing for her. Her name was Mary. And they took it on board as a, as a clay based mineral rich nutri, nutrient dense treatment. Like it didn't have a name, didn't have a company name or anything. And so that was a little victory in its own right. And at that time, I believe I was right. Around that time I troubleshooted Dave Asprey's email address on Bulletproof. At that time the contact form was like info at Bulletproof Exec. So I did like T dot Asprey Dave Asprey David. Every different combination copy paste in the same email with the same before and after pictures going, man, thank you so much for paying so much attention to detail in your ingredients because that's exactly what I did in my clay mask and what I think one of those Definitely went through, but I think it was to his EA and they brought me on board as an ambassador and like, thank you so much for supporting our products. So a couple months later, they reached out and said, we'd love to have you on bulletproof radio. You know, that was a pretty exciting and nerve wracking experience. The first 45 minutes, just talking about how I, you know, recovered with. Largely with his products because I'd never drank coffee before and just I was very appreciative of the motivation. I got out of bed drinking coffee and just getting, you know.

Were you using some of the supplement line or was the supplements not all out?

I don't think they were now. Right. Yeah, yeah, it was just back then it was chocolate powder, coffee, MCT oil.

Do you remember the glutathione? The glutathione was there. It tasted like oil. It tasted like an oil slick. It was like so glutathione. Ish.

Oh, yeah.

That I was like. I remember like pulling it out of the fridge at my house and being like, oh, here I go with my morning thing.

Yeah.

But it was like, it felt like badass and legit because it tasted so bad. Oh, yeah.

Oh, that was brutal. I remember that the big tinctures of the glutathione. Putting that under your tongue every morning was. Yeah, it was intense. But I mean, I just appreciated his sourcing in the methods that he went about that. And I thought, you know, that's what I was doing as well. But I didn't have a product.

I mean, you had a product, but it was like undercover.

Yeah. And so he asked what I did for my skin and I was like, oh, here we go. So luckily I started. I didn't freeze and just say I was using some clay mask. I mean, I went into big time detail on what I was using, why I was using it. He got such a response from that podcast. So did I. I think I gave out my email address to address at one point and it was beautiful. Like as soon as it aired, February 1, 2014, I mean, every time I refresh my Yahoo browser, it was a new set of emails with people from all around the world saying, you know, really sweet things.

Right, right.

And then also wondering where they could purchase this mask. And so, you know, immediately I was like, all right, I gotta find packaging. So I went to Whole Foods, got those little snaps containers that are normally meant for like olive oil, peanut butter, almond butter. And I was like, all right, Perfect50 brought him to the registers. Ah, sir, we. We don't sell those. I was like, you know, come on, man, please explain to him the story. And same manager every time. I. I probably did about five rounds of that. They came up with 15 cents for the jar, 15 for the lid. They came up with the price, which is really sweet, by the way.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

And by that time crunched hit, we. It was golden glow at first, but then I switched it up and it made it more, you know, symbolic to Alatura, which is Latin for feeding, nourishing, and your skin being your largest organ, you want to treat it like another mouth. I just felt that that was a perfect name for our company. So, yeah, just getting that dialed in the website, by that time, we didn't have a logo. But I quickly, you know, I hired a graphic designer. Two different graphic designers, a tattoo artist. I knew the name. I was like, I just want something, you know, Come on, give me something. They were giving me block letters. And so finally I took a Sharpie because I had a deadline to hit, obviously. Went to Kinko's stack of white papers and, you know, did my signature of Alatura and finally found one screenshot. It sent it off to my designer. They dialed it in, and that was my logo, but it was me signing off on everything that's in the product. I've been really interested in my signature since I was a little kid. So I love our logo now and.

But, yeah, like the A right there.

Exactly. But it was interesting, though. Like, that whole time when that aired, it was just electric. Like, I had so much adrenaline going and just so excited, I had to come up with a price. I didn't know my cost of goods at the time, right. And I was shipping out a pound of products. Now it's 7.1 ounces, you know, more than a half. Half of the product. And just shipping it. $35 free shipping sounded good. It just sounded good. But my cost was well over 1410. It was like close to $20 at the time. And then shipping to Sweden, you know, 23 bucks. So you're losing money. Fist pumping. Yeah.

But part of this, I wanted to say, like, take one pause to say, the part of this that's so cool is it's like trial by fire entrepreneurship, right? Like, I learned about cogs, cost of goods sold in the liquor industry and narrowing down margins and all of that, but you just. You don't know until you know. And then you're excited and you're passionate and you think, well, you know, this will be. This will be easy to make. Money off of. But then you realize there's, like, you have to, you know, pay Peter and Paul and on the shipping and everything along the way. Sometimes you don't have time to sit down for a couple years and put together, like, a massive, like, arc of a business plan because you had this fire under your booty. That was like, I was just on this podcast. Everybody wants this now. So that's, to me, just, like, I want to recognize and honor that. That. That's, like. It's a little bit of the. The, like, dress for the part you want. Right. You're, like, learning as you go. Building a ship as it's flying. I think they say that's exactly what it was.

That's exactly what it was. Dave was busy writing his book. We did another podcast after that on the release June 26, 2014, and that was just. Oh, man, I can't. That's a pretty surreal feeling to see the power of the bulletproof audience at that time.

Amazing. So did he had a bunch of people writing in as well? That was. He like. Did you go to him for any advice? I'm like, hey, what do I do now, dude?

Oh, you know. He had a very helpful assistant named Carissa Bodnar, who now is the founder of Thrive Cosmetics.

Nice.

Oh, she would be an amazing person to interview, by the way.

Okay, cool. She has powerful females.

Oh, she. Yeah. An absolute godsend. Well, I mean, she. Yeah, like, top five most influential women in the world, Marie Claire magazine. She is a special human being. Carissa Bodnar. Yeah. Thrive Cosmetics. Anyway, she would answer every phone call, help me dial in, help me find Revere Group, my label. So I didn't have to go to Kinko's anymore and actually had a professional label made. But she was. And Dave, obviously giving me an opportunity with his entrusting my product that much. But she was the one who really, really signed off on my product. She had a huge background with Clinique and formulating products and things, and she signing off on the clay mask. Carissa, thank you so much. Yeah, she's a absolute sweetheart.

So you got to packaging, and then you've got a clay mask, you've got it packaged, and you've got it out into the world. And then. And then. Is it. Is it, like, moving through the online world? Are you, like, still slinging out of a backpack or what's happening at that point?

So I was just pure adrenaline because I quit my job at that point. I booked the. It just happened this way, but I booked the Oakley Global, global campaign. So I had a little money that I was able to. Because the whole thing with nighttime jobs and acting like you, they're gold. It's just good to have that supplemental income. And I didn't know what was going to go on with that. The, you know, Alatura and the clay having one product. But I was just kind of following this outside energy in front of me. So I quit my, my, my bartending job and it was just all in. So on Alatura and I guess modeling, which I still continue to do because I didn't. I was just still trying to figure out how I was going to pay rent. But you know how this would work. I had no idea. Yeah, but you get a few orders in, then you start crunching the numbers. Like wait, I'm making the same amount that I was at the bar. Oh, this is great. And then the momentum takes off a little bit. But it was, it was huge with bulletproof and then building my own email list through mailchimp. I mean that was, it took months. I mean I didn't do my first marketing email until my birthday that year. And we launched June and we just did like a buy one get one free. I was like, oh wait. So I figured out our first marketing email and me and my buddy were in his house just going. It was amazing. You know, just doing your first quote unquote sale or marketing email and then you feel the explosion. Oh, you start building a list. Oh, you hit them with, you know, good informative content and then maybe give them good offers. I mean you learn the whole recipe through experience. I never wrote a business plan. I didn't really consult with too many people. I kept it very simple in the beginning.

Well, you're doing product at your home too, right?

Yeah, it was self fulfilling.

Yeah.

In my little laundry baskets. Would take them off to the, the post office. You know, handwriting to and from slips. Why didn't I just print them out? My mom had this beautiful idea. She gave them to me. Like then add my, you know. Andy Nyla 10541 Otsego North Hollywood 91602 like Add these pre address. So that was a time saver. Right. I didn't even think of signing up for stamps.com or shipping easy or any of these things. That would have just been boom. You know, you print out the label and put it on. I was handwriting, you know, adding these little notes. Thank you so much for trying. It was so much fun for me. But looking back, dude, come on. Like there could have been, I Mean, there are. And then I would wait in line. I mean, so sometimes there'd be 10, whereas if you print it out, you just drop it off. Just scanning like, you know. But every day I was so satisfied to like. Yeah, made it by 5:15. They closed at 5:30 with the exception of Sunday. And it was just, you know, you're in this moment, you're like, wow, I'm actually. It's just so invigorating. I cannot. I still have that, by the way, still check the order, still get the little notifications ten years later. Purely obsessed. We were talking about it earlier. It's like rarely do you get a chance to have something that you. You create and then sharing it with people that. That have that, you know, that has that ability to affect them emotionally with like what. How they feel about themselves.

Yeah.

You know, what they see in the mirror. You know, I know what it. How big of an impact it had on me, like just from just transforming in back to where I was and it was, you know, to have other people out there that, you know, obviously don't have the unsightly, but maybe something that they don't like and being able to mitigate that for them, I mean, and have them feel better about what they see in the mirror. Fortunately, I mean, we sometimes daily get that. Those type of testimonials and that type of feedback and that just leaves me levitating, man. And I mean that's why 100% why I do this. And I just. Yeah, we're going to stay the course on that. But it's a very impactful industry that I'm finding out because number one, you can separate yourself. You have that control as formulators and business owners in your formulas, you know, you can. I can control what I put in my product. So knowing I had that say, I have that say in every single ingredient that goes into it. It's. Luckily it's easy. It's fun for me because it's. The number one component of Alitura is what separates us is the ingredients and the love that goes into it, period.

Yeah, you always show up with pure energy. So I can. I'm not surprised at the. Every single one of the products and the excitement of as it the line has been growing. Seeing it the meteorite scrub, seeing the pieces, you know, pieces of the puzzle all come together. That some things you concepted years and years before and are just coming to fruition now. And so that's really a beautiful. And just for people who are like listening to this and. Or seeing you and haven't tried anything from Alatora.

This.

I've been using the brand for so long. I started with like just the water and the clay mask and then I went to the apple cider vinegar and then the, the roller and use the derma roller and then like introduce it to my sister, then my mom. Like over time it served me well. It served like family and friends well. I was on a trip in Greece one time. I had just gotten a new bottle of gold serum. It wasn't even deplasticed yet. And a woman in the trip to Greece had some real crazy skin reaction break out something from I don't know if it was the toiletries at the hotel or something at the beach, sunblock, something. And she was like, oh my gosh, we're on this trip together. It's like 15 women. And she, you know, you want to just like look pulled together and fabulous and everyone's taking photos and she was trying all the things for a day or so and I just went over to her room and gave her the bottle of the gold serum and was like don't just like water and then this and like just see what happens. And you know what, it cleared it up wild. So amazing. That gold serum is like that's the secret. That's the secret sauce right there. It really is wild.

Yeah. And I find out more and more, you know of about, you know, stories like because it's meant to specifically target as a concentrated moisturizer from an anti aging aspect, you know, over time to heal and hydrate the skin. But I mean as far as the the bee product components in that formula and how healing they are finding out. So scientists are finding out more and more about how like molecularly complex bee products are.

And by B products you mean hive products like B E Bs just so people know it's not B vitamins but it's B E E B.

Yes. Beeswax propolis, royal jelly pollen, honey. Obviously. It's just.

Did you ever think you'd know so much about all of these, these molecular components, ingredients, like all of this? Like.

No.

So fascinating.

No, but I mean I'm a stat rat that so like I'm at like meaning like statistics. If I'm fascinated about something, I'll go into the weeds, you know what I mean? So like with the ingredients and obviously in formulating. Yeah luckily it's translated into something worthwhile rather than you know, baseball stats or stuff. But like just the memorization, you know, you know, having that numerology or just like being specific with numbers and detail oriented. Just that that obsessive mind really does help me out with formulation, ingredients, memory sourcing, finding alternatives to the commonly used ingredients and just seeking knowledge all encompassing.

I want to go back to something you said earlier about, oh, when I was taking my clay mask around, I was like, oh man, in skincare, don't want to be exactly that guy. And now cutting to you doing like clay mask and derma rolling and all the things all over Instagram. And really, I think I want to say a man in this industry empowering other males. I mean, people of all kinds, of course, but maybe people that were a bit more shy about like going and using their partner's cream or lotion or whatever. Like really empowering like a slew of men who might not have done that otherwise. Like just how, how did that feel from a transition when you're just like, all right, I'm just going to go public. I'm coming out of the closet with my clay mask.

Yeah. Oh, it was interesting. That's okay. I mean, I really am fearless in that standpoint as far as like, you know, worried about what people think of me. I just know this thing works and how much love and just, yeah, it's been beautiful. I'm so glad I didn't hide it, you know, I mean, outside of finding my purpose, I also get to unleash my creativity and also stand for something and ingredient integrity that I really believe in and able to take action and daily and just show people gently a different option. I mean, when you're rubbing government recognized carcinogens into your largest organ daily, which a lot of people are, when you explain it to them like that, you see a lot of eyebrows raised and just informing them lightly over time, you know, that can accelerate the aging process, disrupt your endocrine system, hormonal issues as well. It's. And I firmly believe it can be solved with just sourcing ingredients. Is close to nature, untouched by man. You know, obviously filtering out and ultra ventilating things such as clay, which is essentially earth. And I think there's a big, energetic, energetic component to that that. I mean, I'm finding out so much more retroactively too about my personal why and what I've following that heartbeat. I mean, I used my first clay mask when I was 20, 21. I've been obsessed with Egyptian, you know, culture since I was a little kid. I mean, these things now it's a part of some of my products and a big part of my personal, personal why and led to a lot of personal transformation being Egypt. But, like, it's interesting to look back. I don't know if you do it, but just to see where these little signs that point to where you are currently, if you have any of those. Because I'm getting those left and right now. And it's really cool just to go, oh, thank you. Okay.

Something about allowing that energy in. I had a remembrance recently. You know, I do all this biohacking and then, and I get to hang out with fabulous people like you. And also, I put a ton of people through breathwork and cold protocols, so ice baths and frozen lake ice hole cutting and stuff. And I had this really distinct memory I've talked about a couple times now. When I was, like, 11, I was at this birthday party. And this. It was Rebecca Basio's birthday party. It's so funny, right, how you remember these names from people. Yeah, Rebecca Basio. Shout out wherever you are. Probably Long Island, I guess. I went to her birthday party, and I was like, kind of night owley. Like, my dad was always a night owl. So I felt like. I think that there's, like, I mirrored that a bit. And I hated getting up for school in the morning. I mean, kids usually hate getting up for school. But I was, like, complaining to her, just saying, hey, I really hate I have to get up in the morning so early for school. I wish it was later, or whatever I was saying. And she said, you know what I've been doing? I got up and I get up in the morning, I run the faucet, really cold water. And then I like, splash my face or stick my face in the sink full of cold water. And then I'm like, just up. It's like, changes the whole day. Like, I just go to school, and I'm like, I don't even think about being tired. And I thought, all right, well, I'm gonna start doing that. And I started doing that. And I did that for, like, the better part of that whole school year and really noticed that as. But it was just, like, the tool to get to school, right? And so it never. I never questioned, like, well, why is that happening right now? I know, but, like, that, to me, is such a really interesting, like, a piece of the story of my story that I'm like, I never have talked about that in the cold exposure world, you know, Like, I talk about going to the Russian Turkish bath house or whatever, but going to that birthday party, doing that and then doing that for that whole school year and being like, oh, this is an amazing thing. But then never talking about it or questioning it. Right. Because they're 11, so you're like, I don't know. It's just cold water. Yeah. So that. I understand what you mean by that in some way, you know, or, like, how that can happen. It's like you. You can see the. The through line. And I'm sure some people would say, well, it's. It's your retrospective perspective. So of course you find. You know, your brain finds a thing. But, like, I think it can run a little deeper than that. I think that, you know, Energetics and Frequency and sitting here in the vortex of Sedona, I think it's okay to say that, you know, the crystal energy brought me here or something. But we have these. These past. Yeah. Like, signs and symbols, I think, that show up for us. So that's so cool.

Love that you were 11. I mean, I look back at moments in my. Yeah, I was 11, too. Just when I found out certain things about me that are still true. But, yeah, 11 was a big one for me.

Yeah. So now we have this big product extension. Almost 10 years. Is it? Almost 10 years?

Yes.

Yeah. So 10 years. And then we were standing in the other room. You were showing me, and because the space here, this flagship store, which, if you're in Sedona, you've got to come here, number one, for the Energetics of Andy and his team. But number two, because the product is a tough. Just such a beautiful display, and you can experience and try everything. We were just talking in the other room, and you said, you know, it feels like you're one of Alatora for me right now. And I want to talk a little bit about why that is, and I want to talk a little bit about, you know, after you got through this monumental life transforming. You know, I hate to. I don't even. I never even like to call it a car accident, because I feel like it's. It was way more scary than that to me. Like, just so glad that you're here with us now. And it just feels like, what a wild tragedy. Or. Or, you know, talk about fearlessness to be able to break through to the other side of that. But so you. You went through that, you transformed, you met all these great people. You shifted from industry into this business where you're doing, you know, skin care for people and making people feel incredible about themselves as they age. And then over the last few years, some things have been going on in your life that really continued to transform and change you again. And I want to. As someone who is, like, texting you and bearing witness to that, and I mean this with so much love, I want you to talk about this a bit, because we're all on a journey and shit shows up, and sometimes it's showing up for our greater good. And I want to. I want to. I want to hear the.

Yeah.

The things that have been happening to you over the last few years.

I went through a period from 13 to 18 years old of complete sobriety. And then at 18, a few things happened, and I started. I got back into drinking alcohol again. And then for 23 years, it was managing and getting out of, you know, just a pretty intense. I mean, I would work very hard as an athlete in anything that I do. But also, there's a celebration component to, you know, I had a lot of exciting things that I was knocking down, a lot of things that I was accomplishing, and a part of that was celebrating, you know, And I. I did have discipline, extreme discipline in that, but I kind of. I knew, especially when I was starting Alatura, that it just kind of started to eat away at me a little bit, having our slogan being radiate health. And I was still working. I mean, I was in the best shape of my life, but still, I knew that I was, you know, overdoing it with substance, being alcohol and just kind of putting it away. But the thing that bugged me the most, it was just like not being congruent with my messaging to others, even though it was kind of like my private life and, yeah, I'm allowed to.

Go out and everybody has a drink, whatever. Yeah.

Yeah. But last year I went to Egypt and I just was. There were some personal things going on with, like, different betrayals, and temptation was coming into play even more than it ever had been before with. I was living in Las Vegas at the time, didn't know too many people. So after, you know, stressful weeks or whatever, I would start drinking and then go out to the Strip. And that, you know, led to a lot of bad decisions and went to Egypt to try to find some clarity. I was in London speaking at the Health Optimization Summit, and I was only five hours away from. From Egypt, and something was, like, pulling me to Egypt. Like, it was in my. It was interesting just, like, deep, deep inside, like, pulling me to Egypt, literally, physically, I mean, because I had to get back to work, but.

So you didn't plan to go to Egypt when you were in London? You were just there and you were like, I feel like I need to go. Yeah, Pilgrimage.

Yeah. And so that was a very, very intense trip to Egypt, which I'll write about one day, but just pretty dangerous and I was putting myself in pretty dicey situations and.

But you went solo, you went on your own? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I always travel alone and then. But I went to Saqqara Pyramid and basically just got on my knees and prayed for balance from substance and to rid my life of deceptive people, manipulative people, and, you know, just not my kind. And that soul, man, that led to like, just like an intentional gauntlet last year, I feel like, and just putting me through an absolute crisis where luckily I was able to come out of December 25, 2022 is when I made a decision to get sober from alcohol. But I came to Sedona here, where we are, just to kind of clear my head. After treatment, I went to treatment up in Colorado for substance abuse. And after that I came here because I didn't want to go back to Vegas. I just planned on coming to sedona for a 3 day trip. Had heard a lot about Bell Rock and being a very transformative, powerful place on this planet. And I climbed Bell Rock without the trail, just kind of free. Climbed it up, started to drizzle at the top. It was frightening making it on my way down, actually, but that was really intense. Seriously, I didn't plan on climbing that. I mean, people get helicoptered off that and fortunately it's. It's pretty dangerous climb. But making it up there was exhilarating. Can't really describe it. When I went to my hotel room that night, I just started looking on Zillow and I. I didn't plan on buying a home. I was just messing around on Zillow to see if I could find like affordable places to maybe live. Found this one place where I'm currently living, but they to. To like visit. It wasn't available for rent, but I was like, all right, I got to see this house and schedule an appointment for the next day. Within seconds, I knew I had to have that home and put an offer literally the next day accepted Tuesday. And just like that, moving to Sedona. And so I feel like I'm. Well, I know I'm right where I'm supposed to be. It's just so different from any other place that I've ever been to in the best way. Just like, I mean, for those, you know, for the first few months, it excited physical dependency there towards the end, which is really, for someone with discipline and mental strength, that, that was difficult to go through very difficult. But, you know, you power through that. You get back in the gym, find things like AA has helped out a little bit. But mostly, I swear it's been the mountains and some type of spiritual energy outside of me, which is what that tribute to my higher power refers to. I mean, I've become extremely close spiritually with Thunder Mountain specifically, which is. Hopefully you can come by my house and see, but it's just my. These are my friends, the mountains. You know, those rocks speak to me. And I went back to Egypt this year and Petra and Peru, Machu Picchu, just to give. Give thanks for. For being where I am now spiritually and just. Oh, man. I mean. Yeah, because I just passed 10 months sobriety from alcohol and it's not even an option. I'm just so grateful that it's like something is switched in my inside of me.

Yeah.

And my.

In Chicago for a little while.

Yeah, I was in Chicago.

Yeah.

Yeah. Chicago, Louisiana for 16 years. Vegas, San Francisco, Bay Area, you know, bigger cities. And now I'm, you know, two hours away from the closest airport. And I. I just, you know, I'm going to bed at 9, 9:30, getting up super early, watching the sun come over those mountains. So there's nothing else that I'd rather be doing.

Yeah.

Seeing my hummingbirds and like. And I'm not missing days. That's the biggest thing.

Yeah. That's what you said in the room is like, I'm not missing days in a way that I was like missing days before. And you could feel into it. And I just. It was, you know, for me, what was interesting. I was worried about you. I was like, you know, I was like, this man's such a love. And like, I know all of the vibrancy you bring to everything you do in life. And I was worried about you because there was some. A few weeks there that was like relatively public stuff going on, navigating social and I think people reaching out to you and I don't know the whole part of the journey, but do you feel like support network showed up and people were like, hey, Andy, like, we're throwing you a lifeline. Come and talk to us about what's going on. Or did. Were you kind of resistant to that and needed to. You wanted to unwind it yourself from the axle on your own.

It was a lot of that.

Yeah.

But I was. I was listening to people all around the world reaching out to me. That was. That really helped because I was just listening to music, drinking, walking around, getting into some really you know, dicey situation, some interesting things.

The thing that's really, you know, this is just, you know, this is not an expose on this per se, but I hope that you're comfortable to talk about it. The thing that's interesting for me is I feel like there was a bit of this, like, two camps philosophy, because people who had known you and loved you and correct me if this shows up wrong, but just from what I witnessed, it's like, people, lots of friends, and surely we all have some kind of enemies in the world or whatever, but just I saw two camps of the people who, like, love Andy and love this product and had been around you and sort of like a little bit of the camp of, like, yeah, yeah, Andy's awesome, but, like, I don't know what that is, so I'm not gonna. I'm gonna kind of just turn away from that because, I don't know, it's. It's. It's. It's different and it's not okay to address. And then I saw people, which I would like to believe. I tried to be one of those people, to be like, hey, I'm not gonna, like, turn a blind eye to this. I'm gonna, like, call it out to be like, what can I do? Or, how can. How can I be more connected with you? Or is there something you need? And it's not to say one's better than the other, because some people get uncomfortable, right? They have childhood wounds and they have shit going on. But did you feel like there was a divide like that in some ways where you were, like, lost some people from your life that you were like, hey, how. How come I'm losing this person from my life right now?

Exactly what. How I felt. And I'm not saying this is right or wrong, but I just. Yeah, it was. I needed somebody to listen to me because what I went through in Egypt and what I was going through right there with the different betrayals professionally, they were real.

Yeah.

And it was intense. A lot of people would have lost it. A lot of people would have. Yeah. I mean, I was. And I just need someone to talk to.

Yeah.

And I couldn't get that from. Yeah, no, seriously. I'm not trying to say, but it was interesting. I did a lot of writing because I was drinking a lot. You know what I mean? So I guess I quote, unquote, understand why people wouldn't want to be there and hear that. But, yeah, nobody came out. I think my dad came out in November, but it was just me navigating which is what I prefer. But, you know, I do have some feelings about different treatment facilities, and I think that's a whole nother discussion that could lead some. Some people down a bad hole if they're not. If they're in a financial rut or whatever, which. A lot of these treatment facilities had unclear accounting, but that's another subject. But either way, I put myself in that.

Yeah.

And luckily, with my faith, you know, I was able to get out and definitely stronger now because of that. But I'm pretty proud of just how I navigated that, because I know what I went through.

Yeah. Yeah.

And it's. It.

And also, I think it's like, a testament to some of the treatment facilities when you can get some space and take a break. And then also, like, to this place that you are right now, which feels like. And I don't just mean you as a human being, but I mean, in Sedona and a place that feels like nature can hold space for you and that I found that, you know, I'm doing this, like, I'm 45, 42 days into Van life for the plan is a year. We'll see. We'll see. I may just, like, shack up in Sedona, but I'm like. I'm a different person when I'm getting out into nature for hours and hours every day. And it's not every day in the van, because there's plenty of nights I'm sleeping in, like, a Planet Fitness parking lot. So it's not. It's not all glamour, but the times, especially when I did the whole Pacific Northwest, and I could, like, literally be the van down by the river and wake up in the morning and swim in the river and. And with, like, initial constructs, like, I thought, I'm gonna go swim in that river. Is this allowed? Like, what. Like, it's not a park, or it's just, you know, it's like a beautiful river. Of course it's allowed. But there was, like, I had some moments that I was, like, having a sensibility of a little fear or, like, oh, there's a fisherman down there, in case the current carries me away. Or there's just, like. We get so turned off. I mean, just switched off from being in big, constructed cities. And then, like, even when I went to Austin, I thought, I'll hike more. And you go on a hike once a week. It's not really. It's not more. Right. You're still in a house. You're still in a little bit of a concrete jungle. So how are you finding that? Like, it sounds like you're really connected here to nature. And are you finding that this. This outdoor time is shifting you in the way that it seems? It shifts me, yeah.

No, it definitely does. I have my routine where I go over to this little spot, jump in the creek in the morning, do my little. Sometimes I'll do my pipa sagrada, which is a little Peruvian tobacco, in the morning in my. Just meditations. And then I'll go to the gym, hit the sauna, coffee, and then put. I mean, that's just part of my morning routine that just gets me going. And then being obviously outside in the nature, having the sun rise, getting that good early morning sunlight, and then just the mountains just being around. The energy really is thick. I live in the heart of, like, they have the chakras of Sedona. So I'm. My house is literally in the heart chakra of Sedona. And I have like. Yes, yes, and Exactly. I love that word. And it's also a name of a woman out here. Ah, shoot. I forget her last name. I need to meet her. But she runs like shine. Sedona, I think. Anahata.

Cool.

Am I right? But, yeah, I think that's her. Heard a lot about her. Hope to meet you one day. But yeah. And then I have all these twisted junipers around my home. Twisted junipers. That is supposed to signify vortex energy, and they're all around in a perfect triangle on my property. It's really powerful, what they. I mean, there's a big, you know, you know, a big idea of Sedona having such powerful vortex energy. I mean, I. But when I'm home, like, it's just. It's thick. I do some. So it was a little eerie at first, you know?

Yeah.

And then just becoming friends with it and then just seeing the magic that happens around you all day while being in that home. Yeah, it's. Yeah, I'm right where I'm supposed to be. So.

Yeah. That's awesome.

I'm grateful. Yes.

What's to come next? You talked a bit about. You briefly said to me right before we put. Made the mics hot. You said. I feel like I'm like. Because you had posted something about how you were like a bit of a lone wolf and I'm always like, you are a bit. And also there's more to you than just that. And so you said to me, maybe there's things. Things that are starting to change in. In. In who I am and transformation. That's Happening now. So you want to talk about, like, you're feeling like more. You want to be more connected, extroverted, getting out into the. Into the groundswell of. Of people again and conferences and all that?

Oh, yeah, no, I love conferences and I'm looking forward to meeting more people out here. But I mean, I'm definitely growing into, like a new version of myself that, that I'm liking and is. I know, has no. Doesn't have the holes that come with substance abuse. Unpredictability. I get it. I just don't, you know, I don't have that to worry about anymore. So I'm like, exploring the possibility, you know, settling down. Who knows? I mean, I have, you know, you know, I like the way life is going right now and having some personal momentum and continuing to build on that, but man. Yeah, just everything that's going on with the company and expansion and potentially doing something next door as a wellness center. There's so much to do. I'm just. It's good, though. I don't. Like I said, I don't miss those days. I wake up with very similar energy and ways to, you know, mechanisms to control that as far as from a chemical, you know, internal serotonin, dopamine standpoint, which is good, you know, I don't have those other things to worry about. So I'm pretty consistent.

Yeah. Even and productive. It seems like with everything that's around me. This team and this space is so incredible. What are the biggest two sellers, like the top tier sellers?

Gold Serum doubles everything. It would be Gold Serum, Night cream, meteorite, scrub, Pearl cleanser, moisture. I mean, all of our products. The top three, I would say Gold Serum, Night cream, Pearl cleanser, moisturizer, meteorites grow.

Yeah, they all.

Yeah. Sell pretty equally right after the Gold Serum. But the Gold Serum is. Yeah, that's a very good product.

Yeah, it is awesome. It is awesome. Tell me. I always like to close the podcast out and ask a couple questions about. You talked a little bit about your morning routine. Is there anything else that you're doing that seems really ritualistic or biohacker ish. That you're like, oh, here's my favorite biohack.

Excuse me.

Yeah.

Just. I mean, what I do with my products, but I'm not trying to. I mean, I just. It's a big part of just my cleansing and the shave, you know, that personal care, prepping in the morning, knowing you're good when you leave the house. I'm big on that. But let's see. I mean, things that make you feel good talking to people that you love? I talk to my mom every morning or. And my dad.

I just got to meet them over the phone. A bit of video call, check in.

From mom and dad.

They're like, you're getting on a podcast. Yes. Let's cheer you on.

Yeah.

That's so sweet.

I look at things. Yeah. I mean, just the things that I could control in the morning. Got a nice. You know, because I usually wake up when it's dark here. So I'll get the juve red light going and then. Yeah, a little. Well, I'm doing cacao now instead of coffee.

Cool.

Raw cacao. Boiling that down and then making like a bulletproof cacao out of that was still with mct grass butter. And then it's like, some. Some good. I'll do some breath work in the morning.

I know I caught a little video I'm going to share of you doing some of the rest. Yeah, it's great.

Yeah, dude. It makes a huge impact, as you know.

It does. Yeah.

Cold showers, all of that. So, like, it's just, you know, you stay consistent with that. It's extremely transforming in the morning. And.

And that's such a key. Right. That consistency piece. I notice this in the van because it's like I have a tabletop red light panel. That's all I can fit in there. And it's like, like, okay, get the panel out. Do the breath. Like you just. You have. It's. There's. It's just like not an option to not do it.

Yeah.

There's like, there is one day a week usually that I like, miss it. Miss one component of it, but it's just getting the consistency, I think is.

Yeah.

Radical change comes from consistent behavior.

Exactly.

That's like. I continue to learn that over and over again, even with all the other things flying around, you know, in life and in business and keeping us so busy and with all your work, it's good to know that you have those mainstays. And then my final question is if you could speak to somebody who. I feel like there's a component of today's conversation that's like, speak to somebody who's showing up and listening, and maybe they're starting a business or maybe they're just going through a really big transformative thing where it's like Phoenix rising from the ashes in their life and they're feeling like, how can I do this thing that it seems like a mountain to climb?

Yeah.

Just like, what. What would be your advice, you know? Sometimes I frame it in the way of if you could speak to your 14 year old self. And when I asked Dave Asprey on the podcast, he's like, your prefrontal cortex isn't even finished being developed then. So I wouldn't talk to my 14 year old self because I wouldn't remember. And I was like, okay, you get the point.

Let's just.

So sometimes it's like younger self, but really, I feel like there's such sweet advice I imagine you have for people who are going through these big transitions, transformations, challenges, to be able to get to the other side. And I don't know if you would say you're at the other side that you just said, I'm like, it's like year one at Alatora, because I have a fresh mind and a different. A different perspective again. And that's so beautiful. But what would you share with people that would help them, like, step into their willpower, Step into that, you know, put the fear aside and lean into their biggest. Their biggest dreams?

That's a great question. And when you're facing, like such an uphill battle of consequences, pain, addressing and confronting your issues internally, as I did, I mean, this uphill battle that I was facing was really agonizing. Magazine I couldn't sleep. You know, I didn't sleep like the last month and a half, two months of 2022, just tossing and turning, that was intense. I remember getting back to actually sleeping, and that was such a reward anyway, but just overcoming that, that, yeah, that mountain just. I had a good friend of mine, Martin Morse, told me, he's like, man, just an inch. An inch every day. And I looked at that, I was like, dude, it's so small. I have so much to do. I have so much to confront. But every day he would check in on me and just, how's it going, man? Just an inch, bro. And like, in that first. In those first couple weeks and few weeks that I needed that, it was extremely helpful because it made sense to me, even the littlest, whether, I mean, one day that feels like nothing, two days of sobriety, three days, it's like, dude, I got so much. You know, you're going to AA with people with 31 years and, you know, but like, just staying consistent with that and looking at things, like trying to get a glimpse of the, you know, visualize a glimpse of the big picture down the road once you're over that hump is huge. It's, you know, and then the biggest thing is this was 100% for me, even last year, when I was going through that, I did have angels and some serious beautiful energy around me. That's a whole different story. Even when I was going through that and kind of in it, just, I was protected and being guided along the way, I think that was. I know it was for me, just going through all of that. And so the people out there just feel the feeling like that they're facing such a huge challenge. Try to figure out what it's for. It's for something for you, for the greater good of yourself in the universe, I believe. And just trying to identify that and realizing that it's a little comforting. Obviously, if you're going through it, it's not. It feels. You know, you may feel helpless at that point, but I promise you it is. You know, it's for you. And just navigating the whys behind that, realizing it is for you. Coming up, you know, coming at peace with yourself and your spirituality, however, whatever that may be, and then just taking it day by day in that inch, whatever it is, making an inch. Maybe you know, putting effort towards a dream or a company or any type of goal or anything that you want to achieve, but just do it, you know, stay moving, keep moving forward, because this thing is for you. You know, if you act, it all acts for you. If you take those steps. I believe so.

Amazing. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I just want to. I'm so glad that we got a chance to sit down together. I'm like a fanatic, a super fanatic of all of your products and the care and the love that goes into it, and the more I've got, little by little, we get to know each other at conferences, you know, all the way up to until today. And it just like. I just. It's commendable. The work that you are doing here and also the work that you're doing on yourself radiates from you. It really does. And it's so nice to just be able to see this evolution and good happening to good people. And I'm just. You've been through some. Some. Some ups and downs, my friend. But I am so glad that you are here doing this work because you're making so many people shine. So keep doing that. Keep sharing that message about. Everything you just said is so. That's powerful, the happening for you message. You know, it's like speaking to the brokenhearted and speaking to the people who have. We all have. That comes up. And so that's like.

That's a big no, thank you. That's A big part of, like, what I want to get involved in possibly simultaneously with Alator, is helping with that. You know, people are in a ruth. I really deeply have some strong empathy towards anybody. I just notice that about myself. So that could be potentially a next career. I love helping people feel better about themselves and talking them through certain situations. But the main thing and also I want to say is congratulations to you, Kristen, in your climb. I remember you just being passionate about this industry. Now you're building something and look at us. We're having a podcast on your podcast, you know, it's great. Congratulations.

Yeah.

It's not easy. And you're helping a lot of people yourself. I'm one of them.

Thank you.

Your support over the years has been really just true and it's consistent and it means a lot to business owner like business owners like myself to have that. You're always just so happy and positive and encouraging. Seriously, we need that. So thank you. Appreciate it. Chris.

Yeah, I love. I love our love fest. Cool. I'm here with Andy Nilo. You tell everyone where they can find you and Alatura if they want to get a hold of you.

Sure. Well, I'm on Instagram at Andy Nilo at Alatura Naturals and we would love to give your following 20% discount off that.

So good. Now's the time, ladies and gentlemen.

We'll just call it well Power.

Yeah.

Yeah, we'll call it well power. 20 off the entire store@alatura.com that's a L I T U R A dot com. And if you have any questions, by all means, reach out to me. It's myself and my social media team responding to messages. But we love what we do and have, you know, are here if you have any questions on the products, formulations or just want to chat. Skincare recovery.

Amazing.

Anything.

I love that.

No, I'm very, very grateful to be where I am and in this headspace. And we want to stay the course here in Sedona. We're right in the heart of such a. I don't know. It's what led us here. We're supposed to be here right down the street from Bell Rock. When you sit down on that, the steps right outside, like just above your head is the top of the peak where I climbed. Like, it's just very interesting how these things opened up and are like we're just growing into something through a path that was laid out for us. It's really interesting how that works.

Yeah. Meant to be.

Yeah.

Cool.

Clearly.

All right, well, more to come from Alatora and Andy. And thank you so much again.

Oh, thank you.