A New Way of Life Through Healing Your Gut with Lauren Mones

Welcome to True Grit and Grace, a podcast designed to empower you to claim your resilience and thrive through life's challenges. I am Amberly Lago, a mindset coach, fitness expert and bestselling author. Each week, I'll dive deep with the world's brightest thought leaders and elite performers to share tangible tools and practical advice to inspire you to keep your eyes on the prize and forge ahead. So get ready to conquer your fears, heal any trauma, lead with your heart, and elevate your life with grit and grace. Hey, and welcome back to the True Grit and Grace podcast. I'm so glad that you're here with us today. I have my friend Lauren Moniz with us. We were originally introduced by my other friend, John and Catherine Gordon. And they're like, you've got to meet her. You have to try her products. And I'm like, I don't know what, who. Then I was like, oh my gosh, I've totally seen her products at Erewhon, which is my favorite grocery store here in LA. She is the founder and the CEO CEO of Fermenting Fairy. They produce functional probiotic food and beverages that have the cleanest labels in the industry. We're going to talk about all kinds of stuff from pain, turning pain to purpose and transforming your health and really how to optimize your health, especially your gut health. And you might be asking, why gut health? And it's because it's been shown to have a major impact on our physical and mental health. And so Lauren's on a mission to help normalize the struggles people have with gut health and to guide them to optimal health with ease. So Lauren, welcome to the show. I'm so happy to see your face.

Thank you so much. It's such an honor to be here.

Oh my goodness. Well, we were going to try to meet in person and you were so kind and stopped by the house and, and brought me this amazing gift of, of your products that I love. And you know what? My daughter even loves them. And I think that kids are the true test to whether they think something tastes good or not.

Right.

But before we get into exactly what your products are, I want to talk about just how you got into learning about gut health. I think behind every successful story or business, there's some deep-driven passion or your why as to how you got into this. And I'm curious to know how you got into creating products that are so healthy and heal gut, your gut?

Well, I mean, I really didn't have a choice. Like, I was thrown into this path because I was really sick about 7 years ago. And like a lot of stories happen, it's from an illness or from some kind of traumatic event. And that was really how Fermenting Fairy started was from me being deathly ill. And I went from being, you know, one of these uber healthy people. People would look at me and outwardly I was like uber healthy of the 1%, racing triathlons. You know, I was training like, I don't know, 10 hours a day plus working a full-time job.

And— Are you serious?

Yeah. Yeah. I was waking up at 3 or 4 in the morning. I would go for a 40-mile bike ride on my own.

Oh my gosh.

I'd come home, eat breakfast very quickly, and then go off to work. I'd work an 8-hour job. Then I'd come home and either I would swim in the ocean a mile or I would swim in the pool or I would run or something. It was just, it was nonstop and I loved it. And I felt like unbreakable. And then I started getting sick, but I always like related it to, oh, I'm just training too hard. I need to rest more. Or maybe I need to change the food that I'm eating while I'm racing triathlons.

Mm-hmm.

And then I got sicker and sicker and sicker. And what was happening was I was having a lot of diarrhea. And I hope you're okay with talking about it.

No, I like that. And even when you had filled out the form to be on the show, you had said, not afraid to talk about poop. And I think that we need to be like, we got to get real here. We got to keep it real. And this show is all about keeping it real. And also, by the way, we really wanted to do this interview in person. And then you moved to Florida. I'm so happy. I might be your neighbor soon anyway. But yes, it is.

Join me.

It is totally fine to talk about that on this show because I like keeping it real. Because a lot of people, I think, either struggle with the opposite, which is constipation, and they don't go. I have a lot of clients that have told me that. Or it's the opposite, it's, you know, diarrhea. And so, yeah, you, you— that had to have been hard with trying to train and run And your stomach be upset like that.

Yes. Yeah, it was, it was so difficult, and I just kept pushing through it. But I would go see doctors and, and, and, you know, Western allopathic and homeopathic and naturopathic, and I would, you know, do it all. And, you know, the test— my blood work wasn't great, but it was because I was really like, like putting my body out there, you know, and stretching my edges. So little by little, I was going to the bathroom more and more. I was getting weaker and weaker. I was losing a lot of weight. And I would just walk up, like I— when I lived in California, I had 2 stairs going into my front door and I would walk up those 2 steps and my heart would be pounding. And I just knew that I was so sick. I had a lot of doctors recommend a colonoscopy, but to me that was really invasive. So I was scared. And up to that point, I had no surgeries. I had no medication. I really was like a healthy person. I was so sick that finally what was happening is I would leave my house and I wasn't even getting a signal anymore of having to go to the bathroom.

Oh God.

I would just go.

That's got to be scary. Holy cow.

And I was 36. I was in my mid-30s. I was engaged, you know, so I had like a fairly new relationship with a man that I was about to marry. And so here I am having accidents, you know, I was pooping in my pants and it was happening often because I would go to work And, you know, I would either make it or not make it. I would have to carry around toilet paper and pants and underwear with me all the time.

Oh my God, did you think about wearing diapers? Because I'd be like, bring on the Depends.

I just— no, because I just— that was like a big denial thing for me.

Yeah.

So yeah, so anyway, I decided to get a colonoscopy because that was like the end of my rope, right? I needed a colonoscopy. So I got the colonoscopy, and it turns out that I was diagnosed with Crohn's disease.

With Crohn's?

Crohn's, yeah.

Oh wow.

Are you familiar?

Yeah, I have a friend that was just diagnosed with, with Crohn's.

Yeah, yeah.

So they put her on a lot of steroids, and now she's even on a type of Chemo. I don't know exactly what it is, but they're treating her with a chemo and her hair's falling out.

Oh, okay.

So it's pretty crazy.

Chemo for Crohn's?

Yeah.

Wow. Okay, that's intense.

I haven't heard of that yet.

Maybe that's a new kind of treatment.

Who knows? I don't know.

Yeah, so I was put on heavy steroids. Well, you know, and, and Just as I was coming out of the procedure, I was still like, I had heavy medication in me because I had never had. So I was like, I told the anesthesiologist, just put everything in me. I wanted to be out completely. So I was very groggy. And the doctor said, as I'm coming out of this, he said, you have Crohn's disease. I said, you know, I don't even know what that is. And he said, you need to get these 2 medications. And my fiancé at the time said, all right, we're going to do that. And we went home, started taking medication. And, you know, my follow-up visit with him, he said, um, eat anything you want. You need to gain weight. Like, that's the number one thing—

gain weight.

And you can eat anything you want. Eat the ice cream, eat the white bread, eat rice, you know, just gain the weight. Food has nothing to do with the activity of the disease.

That's crazy sounding to me. I mean, you are everything you eat, I feel like. I mean, food is medicine.

Yeah, and that sent up a red flag. I was like, okay, well, maybe I'll consider that, but I'm not so sure about that. And he also said that you have a lifelong disease and Crohn's is incurable. And that's what, you know, if you read anything about Crohn's and ulcerative colitis, um, it says it's incurable.

And I know for me to be— I was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome. And they're like, it's incurable. Go get back in your wheelchair. Like you will be permanently disabled. It's like being kicked in the gut.

Wow.

It's like, uh, what? And then I think there's that moment that I'm like, wait a minute. There's got— I know that can't be the rest of my life. I want more out of life. Did you feel like you had been kicked in the gut when they're like, this is incurable? And, you know, you've been, you know, doing triathlons, swimming in the ocean, running, biking, all this stuff. Now all of a sudden, you've got a disease. What were the thoughts that were going through your head? Oh yeah.

I mean, I just went into like a really deep, dark place. You know, almost like, how could this happen? You know, how could it happen to me? Like, I've tried really most of my life to be healthy, although I haven't, you know, I did struggle as I was growing up, and that has a lot to do with my story, but we can either touch on that if you want. But, um, You know, I definitely went into a dark place and my relationship, you know, started coming apart because I felt like I didn't have any ground to stand on anymore. I didn't even know who I was. Now I have a disease and now I have to be on 2 very, very intense medications, uh, not to mention incredibly expensive medications too that insurance doesn't cover. So it was all just like a big, you know, smack in, in the face and punch in the gut.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, so, um, I don't know, there was like a piece of me that was like, Okay, you know, I'm not so sure like how much I believe all of this, but, uh, but again, like, I took his, his advice or whatever he thought Crohn's was, and I said, all right, well, I'm just gonna have to deal with it then the best that I can. And ironically, I went down to Barnes Noble. There was an actual Barnes Noble in Santa Monica back then. Uh, now it's it's gone out of business for a long time. And I found this, um, this book about paleo diets.

Mm-hmm.

So I— and it was specifically for autoimmune diseases. So, and Crohn's is thought to be an autoimmune disease. Now I know it's not personally, um, but that's what, again, the medical literature says. So it— so I got a book for diets for autoimmune, and in it, it's like a 600-page book, and it has a little paragraph And that really stood out to me. Again, it's like, I didn't really choose this path. It's more divine, you know, because why in a 600-page book this little paragraph stands out to me? And it said fermented foods could be really helpful for autoimmune diseases. And so I was like, all right, well, I'll go try some sauerkraut. And I went to my local health food store, bought a jar of sauerkraut and took my first bite. And I felt like this surge of energy, like it was like a Kundalini awakening. I just felt all the cells and All the nerves in my body like tingle, you know, with sensation, and I had like a little bit of a hit of energy instead of feeling like death all the time. I just felt like alive for a minute, you know, and and it I was whoo! I was like, what's that? And I tried it again to see if it would happen, and it didn't happen. But then I was like, but the There's something about this. And the next couple of days I started adding like 1 or 2 tablespoons of sauerkraut to my meals and my stool was starting to form. Like I was going from like tons of watery diarrhea to starting to form stool and starting to go less and less. And then I knew I was onto something. So I started researching fermented foods and gut health and You know, what is Crohn's? Like, what really is Crohn's? Because if it's autoimmune, then why is my gut and my whole body reacting so well to fermented foods?

Yeah.

What does the immune system have to do with the gut? And all of that I didn't know. Now I know. And again, to tell your listeners, this was 7, about 7 years ago. So now we know the connection between immune system and gut. 7 years ago, it wasn't so popularized, you know?

Yeah. I think a lot. I don't know if it's I've been focusing on it more and it's kind of like when you're focused on something, you start to see it more or it's actually out there more. But there's a lot more information out there I feel like about gut health, especially since COVID Everybody's trying to do everything and anything they can to, you know, get their immunity strong as possible. But can you talk a little bit about gut health and leaky gut? Because I hear a lot of times people throw in this term leaky gut. And I interviewed a doctor on the show and she said all of us have leaky gut to some extent. And I'm like, wow, that's kind of crazy to think about. So do you— first of all, do you know a lot about leaky gut? And do fermented foods help with that?

Yes, absolutely. So usually the— so there's leaky gut and then what's behind leaky gut, like what causes leaky gut, right? So there's— everything has a cause and what's— so what's behind the leaky gut, what started it all is dysbiosis, which is an imbalance in healthy bacteria.

Mm-hmm.

Compared to unhealthy bacteria. So the probiotics and the pathogens is what I like to call them. I like to picture like a chessboard and you have the black and white, right? The checkers, you know, or yeah, you have the squares. Let's just say that. I'm not a chess pro, but—

Me either.

So let's just keep this image, you know, light so that the chessboard is the gut. That's like the flora of your gut. That's the environment of your gut. And then you have the—

Like the lining of your gut?

Yeah, and just the inside, right? The chessboard. And then you have the 2 sides, right? You have the 16 players and the 16 players. So a healthy gut would have the 16 players on the probiotic side, and then on the pathogenic side, you'd have like maybe 3 or 4 players. Right? So that's a healthy gut. Because you do want to have pathogens. Pathogens have a place in our gut. You know, we can't— it's all about diversity. So you don't want all like good guys. Like the bad guys will have a place and a role in your body too. When that ratio is flipped, so when you have the 16 players on the pathogenic side, And you have 2 or 3 players on the probiotic side, that's when you start to have problems. That's the ratio that—

And what causes that? Is it when we go on medications like antibiotics?

Absolutely, yeah.

Is it stress? What causes it?

It's all of it. There's so much to list, but it's antibiotics, it's PPIs, that's the acid reflux protein pump inhibitors. That will cause it. A lot of medication, antidepressants will cause that.

Really?

Anti-anxiety medication. I would say the majority of pharmaceuticals will cause a dysbiosis.

Wow.

Um, uh, environmental toxins, you know, all the, the chemicals in our food system, um, everything from stress Stress is a major one. Like with stress, like our gut is constantly going up and down. Our stress levels are going up and down, and most of us are living in a fight or flight state. You know, we're now especially now exactly.

I thought we were getting out of this and in California. Well, this this who knows? This will be a few months before this episode is released. But right now, you know, it's like kind of we were talking before we started recording. recording, it's kind of a stressful time again because nobody knows what to do here.

Hmm.

You know? And, you know, I went to the gym and no one was wearing a mask. I go to Starbucks, you have to like put your mask on before you go in. People are freaked out. You can feel the energy and the stress. And I do feel like stress affects your whole body. And I've been on a lot of medications. I mean, I've been put under anesthesia 34 times. And so I have, you know, looked into probiotics and, you know, I don't, I don't have any, you know, symptoms of Crohn's or anything like that. Or if we're getting real, I don't have symptoms of like the, the poop issues that were going on. But I've thought, oh my goodness, I've been on so many medications. At one point, I was on 11 different prescription medications.

Wow.

and been put under. So I've always thought about, you know, I want to make sure that I'm doing things to heal my gut. And I'm a bit confused. You know, you see, especially at Erewhon Market, I love that place, but it's like there are so many different things to take.

Yes.

And it gets overwhelming with what to take. And I remember when I had first researched kombucha and, oh, kombucha, it's so— or however you say it, it's so Good for you. And I drank one, not yours, another one. And immediately, I got a flare-up. Well, the reason being is because this particular one was full of sugar.

Yeah.

It was full of sugar. And I can tell when I have sugar, it really reacts. My body really reacts to it. It's not— and I'm like, oh my gosh, why didn't I look at the label? just because it's from Erewhon and it says it's in the healthy section. And so when I tried your drink, I was like, oh my gosh, how is this only 15 calories? This tastes, it tastes clean.

Mm-hmm.

And y'all, I'm not, you know, she's not sponsoring this episode. This is not like some advertisement for her drinks. I'm being real. that I was very skeptical. I'm like, oh gosh, let me try this drink. Because the ones I'd had were sugary and they flared up. They gave me a CRPS flare-up. And I couldn't believe. And Jon Gordon had said, no, you've really got to just, the drinks have changed my life. You really got to try it. And I'm like, okay. Sometimes it takes a friend telling you, just try it. You're going to like it.

Yeah.

And I'm so glad I did. But my question for you is, so what is the difference between, you see these capsules that people can take versus a drink that, you know, that you can drink half of your drink a day or something like that? What's the difference in that?

Well, there's, okay. So there's a lot in that statement. Like You know, the probiotic bandwagon is so popular right now.

It is.

It's like an $80 billion industry in terms of the supplements. Is it really? Yeah, and then the fermented foods are right behind it, you know. I mean, the probiotic supplements are— a lot of them are backed by the pharmaceutical industry. I mean, that's how popular it is now because the The big pharma knows where the probiotic supplements are going, so they're backing them right now. So that's where you know they're not exactly the healthiest things to be taking. But first of all, I'll touch on how I guess my products differ from probiotic supplements and then maybe we can talk about my products versus other, like kombucha or something like that. But probiotic supplements, first of all, they don't offer a lot of diversity. To keep things really, really simple for you and your listeners—

Yeah. Please keep it simple for me.

Yeah, no, like the very foundation, like we were talking about leaky gut, what's behind leaky gut, and that's dysbiosis. Well, how do you heal dysbiosis? You have to really focus on getting as much diverse bacteria and other microorganisms into your gut. So you want diversity. So what that means is, um, you want to take in wild fermented foods, and I can touch on what that is in a second. You want to take in, you know, good, like good, healthy, high-quality organic plants, plant fiber, like vegetables and fruits, because all vegetables and fruits, when they're grown in a healthy soil, will have a lot of microorganisms on them that you want.

Mm-hmm.

And so that's a good way to really diversify your gut. Also getting a lot of sunshine, spending time in nature, because when you go to the ocean versus the forest versus the desert, you're getting, you're breathing in all different kinds of microbes. So getting out into as many environments in nature as possible, also putting your feet, your bare feet on the earth, that's— you're gonna— you're taking in the microorganisms through your feet. So that's all like— those are all ways to diversify your gut. So that's the way that you then balance your gut. Yeah.

I've never thought of that. And I think so many people have gotten out of touch or just out of practice of doing that, especially in the last year and a half. I know I've spent most of my time on my computer and Zoom, and I feel a difference. And so I'm like, I've got to get out in nature. I've got, you know. Right. Yeah. And we just went to the ocean yesterday. And so, wow, I never thought, I guess everything's connected, but I'd never thought of it in a way that that can actually help with your gut. And I think that's so important. Sunshine, get grounded, like stick your feet in the sand or in the—

yeah, bare feet, dirt, or— yeah. Especially if you're on the computer all the time, especially, you know, because we're, we're taking in that blue light, you know, that artificial blue light and a lot of EMFs. And so that'll throw our whole system off. And then, you know, most especially our gut, that's going to throw our gut off. So you're by doing like a lot of the computer blue light plus, you know, the EMFs, you're moving more into the dysbiosis area rather than the diversified area. So like what I recommend to people who are doing a lot of podcasts and Zoom calls and stuff like that is like after a few, maybe like an hour or 2 hours, go out in sunshine if you have it, but definitely put your feet on the earth. Whether it's soil, dirt, even concrete is better than wearing shoes, stones, river, ocean, sand, whatever's earth, right? So, you know, just get out there with your bare feet and that'll help balance your system and that has a direct effect on your gut. So these probiotic pills don't offer a lot of diversity for one because if you see, a lot of them just have one strain Hmm. Some of them have 3 or 4 strains. Some of them you might get 10, but the thing with that is you're taking the same pill over and over again every day. So that's not diversity. Even if it has 10 or 20 different strains, you're still taking the same stuff over and over, and that creates like a monoculture in your gut. So what happens when you plant the same plant over and over in your garden? eventually the soil is going to go bad, the plant's not going to live. You need to really diversify your garden, right? And that's the same thing with our gut. So that's one reason why probiotic pills, they either won't work for most people or they'll make you feel worse. You'll have cramps or bloating or something like that. Plus, they're made in a lab. A lot of the strains that the probiotic companies are using are GMO'd because they're Patented. They're made in a lab. They're also usually taken sometimes from cow intestines.

I had no idea.

Yeah, I know most people don't know that, but yes, it's true. Really, it's like, what's the point of taking them if they're made in a lab or if they're coming from an animal that we have such different organs from?

And before you go more, I want to make sure people know the importance of like gut health, what the symptoms are. I mean, it can be anything from as severe as causing Crohn's disease like you were diagnosed with years ago, or it can be depression, fatigue. It can lead to so many diseases that it— I mean, that it's— we really have to get a handle on this and start to really pay attention. and be in tune with our bodies. And so what are some of the other symptoms besides fatigue, getting sick, nauseated, uh, and depression? Because it does affect our mood. What are some other symptoms you've had some of your clients come to you with, with symptoms that are like, I think I have something, I need to heal my gut, this is what it is? What are some—

Well, I mean, we could— I mean, it's, it's Really, it's everything. I mean, we can look at Alzheimer's, dementia, autism, Parkinson's, all of the neurological disorders, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders. That's all stemming from the gut. And then you have mold toxicity. You have Candida, like yeast overgrowth, autoimmune.

That's what I hear of a lot is the yeast overgrowth.

Yeast overgrowth.

And people have that and they— I had a friend that had that and she She was like, looked like she was 5 months pregnant.

Yeah, yeah, and then you have autoimmune diseases, you have cancer, you have, I mean, really like thyroid issues, just the list goes on because everything stems there. Like everything starts in the gut, the energy that you have, the metabolism, blood sugar regulation, that's all stemming from the bacteria, the microorganisms in your gut. It's hard for people to really grasp that, but once you understand it, then healing becomes really easy. And I don't want to, you know, I don't want to say like everyone will have an easy time healing their bodies. That's not always true. But, you know, we get thrown so much information all the time, like take this supplement, take this medication, eat this food, you know, stick with this diet. And sometimes you just want to say enough is enough. I'm not gonna— I'm not gonna take anything except I'm just gonna focus on healing my gut and see what that does. Many times. I mean, I would say most times you'll start to see a big difference like right away.

I, I think so too. That's kind of what I did before when I was on— oh my gosh, Lauren, I was on 73 homeopathic pills and 11 different prescriptions.

Oh my God, 73 a day?

Because I was trying all these different treatments, all these spending thousands and thousands and thousands on medical procedures, some which were very invasive. And I went to this homeopathic doctor and he hooked me up to a machine and he had these little things on my temples and my wrist and my ankles. I mean, I was like desperate at this point. I was like, I don't care if this guy is doing voodoo or magic potions or whatever. I just want to be healed. And I was like jumping through hoops or doing anything anybody told me to try to get out of pain. And so he prescribed these different things. I went to the homeopathic place right there in Santa Monica, the little homeopathic drugstore.

Yeah.

Spent about $1,200 on all these pills, started taking them, and I was like, this is handfuls of pills every day. I didn't feel any different. And it was like, enough is enough. I've just got to heal my body to the best of my ability. And that's when I started really getting focused on my food and then really learning more about gut health and really, you know, wanting to talk to you more about gut health and learn your whole process for creating this product. For you to be in Erewhon, did you just die when they were like, yeah, we'll carry your products in Erewhon?

Yeah, I mean, that was the first store that I got into. Like when I first started my company, I was in a farmer's market, the Brentwood Farmer's Market.

Oh, really?

Yeah, and I knew nothing about owning a company. You know, I was always in healthcare as an occupational therapist. Before that, I was a yoga teacher. So I didn't have any business background. I didn't, literally, I didn't know what I was doing. I still don't, but no, I'm kidding. I have a little bit of knowledge now, but, So I was in the Brentwood Farmers Market for 4 months and I heard that Erewhon takes like a year to get into. So I thought, okay, let me just fill out their form. Let me start the process now. And that, I didn't even check my email after, 'cause I just thought, oh my God, this is gonna be like a really long year trying to get into them. I did, so I didn't check my email for days. And then I checked my email and she had emailed me that night saying, wow, your products look incredible.

Wow.

Send them to us at this address. And I said, well, I'm right there. I didn't realize that their corporate headquarters was in LA. So I met with the buyer and met with her. And ironically, she's not like really a fermented food person. So she gave it to the owner of Erewhon and within say 2 or 3 months, my product was on the shelf, which is—

That's unbelievable.

It's really unheard of. Like when it comes to Erewhon now even more because They're so well known.

Well, how long has your product been in Erewhon?

3 years, because I'm— so this September will mark 4 years of my company. So about 3, 3 and a half years. Yeah.

That's amazing.

And, you know, they really like— they really made my company what it is because so many people found me through Erewhon. And I have so much like allegiance and gratitude for them. They're really like a family to me. So I love— Oh, that's amazing.

Yeah. That is amazing.

It's a great story.

Well, um, tell me a little bit about your, your product. And we talked about the difference between taking, you know, a, a pill versus your product, which is so delicious. I'm out of them, by the way, right now. I need to go to the market. So that's on my list. That's— I was supposed to go yesterday and I'd have—

I'll send you some.

Oh no, girl, you already gave me so many. It was so good to see you and give you a hug, I am gonna go buy it. I buy them all the time because that's my favorite place to shop. Tell us about your product, your drinks. I love your sauerkraut.

Thank you. Yeah, we do a wild fermentation, which is the most important way to ferment a food because If you— I'll just explain it as simple as I can. If you take a head of cabbage, right, cabbage becomes sauerkraut. If you take a head of cabbage, on the surface of that cabbage and in the cell walls of that cabbage is bacteria if it's been organically grown. There's a lot of microorganisms, but let's say that there's like— I'm just throwing out a number, but 200 microorganisms on that raw cabbage. When you ferment it, it'll become 2 billion.

Wow.

So that's what the fermentation process does. It takes the already present microorganisms and it just makes them flourish into the trillions, the billions and the trillions. But that's what wild fermentation is, is we take raw head of cabbage, we submerge it, we create a healthy environment for the microorganisms to thrive, and then they do their thing. And then before you know it, we have sauerkraut that when we consume, We're consuming a healthy, diverse, robust food that has a ton of really good probiotics and healthy microorganisms, as opposed to, let's say, like pickles made with vinegar. That's not a wild fermentation. Another company that might take a head of cabbage, put it in some kind of vessel, and then add freeze-dried bacteria to it. Oh, wow.

Oh, really?

And then call it a sauerkraut. Yeah, I mean, it will ferment, but you have this external freeze-dried, they're dead until they hit the environment, lab-made, that kind of thing. I find it not as healing. I find it not true fermentation. In order to go back to our roots, which is where the healing happens, You must go back to what our ancestors were doing, and that is they were doing wild fermentation. They didn't have this cool, like, lab-made, like, freeze-dried bacteria. They didn't have any of that. They just took nature and fermented that.

Yeah. Well, you know, I've always— this might sound kind of weird, but I've always tried to picture how you make your stuff, like where it's made because I listened to your episode with John Gordon and how you, you know, you do things naturally, you take things wild. Do you, how do you make it? Did you start in your kitchen making these things?

I did. Yeah. I started in my kitchen. I, you know, I had cabbage all over. I remember like my dining room floor was covered in cabbage. I was making pickles back then, like garlic pepper pickles, and my neighbors from like a mile away would come over and say like, is somebody dead in here? Like, it was just like smelling like a dead body, you know? They would check on me. Is everything okay? I started in my home and then I, you know, moved into a commercial kitchen, and now we— now in Florida we have our own, our own kitchen. So we're really—

That's awesome. So now do you do a farmer's market? At all? Do you still do a farmer's market or are you only in markets now?

We're only in markets and we mostly do online orders actually, but probably in St. Pete we'll do some farmer's markets. Really, our goal is to get it to as many people as possible. And so we focus on online from our website, fermentingfairy.com.

Okay. Do you, do you have like a subscription type box where it's just every month you get—

Yeah, sure.

Okay. I just wondered about that. And gosh, building a business from the ground up. I mean, look, I used to be a fitness instructor full-time. I did that for many, many years.

Oh, wow.

And I knew the business of doing that with clients. But when you get to a product, that's a whole other ballgame. I mean everything that goes along with that. And I actually had a company that was a supplement company that reached out to me and wanted to make some products with me.

Yeah.

But it was like protein powders and collagen and all that kind of stuff. And when I got the details of it all, it was so overwhelming. And I'm like, this would take like all of my time to really do this the right way. What has been one of the biggest challenges for you you know, starting your business and seeing it, you know, just keep soaring up and growing and growing, what has been one of the biggest challenges and how have you overcome that and what have you learned from it?

I would say the biggest challenge for me has been trusting people who are not worthy of being trusted.

Yeah. I think when you have a business, And you want to scale, that when I'm growing my team, the first thing I always say to them is the most important thing is trust.

Yeah.

And if you don't know how to do something, that's okay. Just tell me. We'll work it out. But don't tell me you know how to do it and then it just doesn't get done.

You know what I mean? So yeah, it is.

When you're scaling a company or growing a business, it's like Trust is a really big deal.

Yeah, trust is a big deal.

It's everything.

And for some reason, what I found, especially being a woman business owner in the food industry, because the food industry is 95% men, I find that—

Is it really?

Oh yeah. I mean, everyone, everyone behind almost all food companies, the distributors, the health food stores, Everything, the suppliers, they're all men who own these companies, which is fine. But I feel like there's— and I don't even feel like it, I know it. I mean, there's been a lot of sexism towards me as being a woman, especially in the beginning when I didn't know that much and it was obvious I didn't know that much. I feel like I definitely was taken advantage of quite a bit. And also like the way that we do business here in America, I don't know if it's worldwide, but in America it's like, People kind of shit on each other, you know? And it's just like, it's just business. Like, people would tell me all the time when I got screwed, well, it's business. And I was like, you know, why does it have to be business? Like, why can't we treat people how we treat people in our personal life as we do in business? It just doesn't make sense to me why there's such a dichotomy. So that's been very difficult. When I interact with somebody who I'm about to go into business Like, I, I've— I, I feel into all the red flags if there are any, and if there are, then I usually go the other direction because, um, I was overriding that feeling in the beginning when I was such a novice.

Uh-huh.

Uh, now I don't override that at all. Actually, I did just recently, about 6 months ago, because I was kind of desperate in a situation, and I overrode that red flag and Got screwed in a very, very big way. But again, it's, it's not, it's not always the other person. I had a play in that. I had a role in that, and I take responsibility. But why? Like, why do we have to do that to each other just because it's business in America?

Man, I tell you, uh, talking about gut health, but your gut never lies.

Yeah.

I mean, I feel like we, we know right away and those red flags come up and it's like, why do we ignore them? And it's just listening. So it sounds like you have really grown in every way just doing this business from shipping it out to getting it in more stores to learning to trust your gut more and trust yourself.

Mm-hmm.

And I'm sure that has built a lot of confidence.

Oh yeah, tremendous. Yeah, I mean, I, I can finally like be really embodied in who I am now, and, uh, it's been the best thing that's ever happened to me. And, and I can trace it back to being sick, you know, that even being sick, like before I even started my company, that really was such gold right there because I grew so much in being sick and having to release any kind of responsibility that I had placed on my family. Like, because I'm so sick, my family has to take care of me. That's always what I felt for most of my life. Well, I released that because guess what? They didn't show up and I had to take care of myself. And that was a good thing. You know, that was actually a really good thing for me because I cut the cord. I cut the umbilical cord that I had still attached to my parents, that they owe me something just because they're my parents. They don't, and I am now an adult, and I can take care of myself. You know, and there's a lot of beauty to that, and that has translated into my company, and and that has translated in into even how you know with this whole COVID thing, like using my voice and and not being afraid of what other people think of me, and not being afraid of do do I need my family's okay? You know, do I need my family's support with how I'm dealing with the COVID situation? You know, that kind of thing. So yeah. It's liberating.

It is liberating to just really stand in your truth and cut the umbilical cord and really feel empowered. And I think that you show people that you can step out of the victim mentality and you can be the victor of your life. I think a lot of us is— I mean, I felt that way when I was diagnosed with CRPS, I'm like, how can— why me? Like, I've been so healthy. This can't be. I was in denial. And instead, I'm like, okay, what's next? What can I do?

Yeah.

And so you are showing people that they can be in the driver's seat of their life and take charge. And there are ways to heal your gut and to feel better, not just physically but Mentally, emotionally, spiritually, in every way. I think it's all connected. When you start to feel better physically and you start to feel better, you know, emotionally, it affects everything. And so you're such a beautiful example of how the power of healing. And I know that you also help other people who just want to learn more about healing and just their mind-body spirit in every way. So how can people reach out to you if, first of all, if they want to connect with you and ask you questions or hire you to coach them in that way to get healthier? How can they reach out to you?

Sure. Yeah. Anyone can email me. I do all my social media. I answer all my own emails. So I don't, I like the connection with people. So I don't have like an assistant yet. I mean, but I like that. I prefer being the person I do too.

That's why sometimes it takes me like 5 days to get back to a DM. And I'm like, I gotcha. I'll see it. It just takes me a while.

It's more meaningful. Yeah, it's more meaningful, I think. So you can email me at— the best one is lauren@fermentingfairy.com. My website is fermentingfairy.com. And Instagram, you can send me a DM. Fermenting.fairy on Instagram. And like you said, I do offer consultations one-on-one. It's distance unless you're in Florida, you can come to me. But yeah, and you and I talked about this before we were on the show that I like to really get into the mental and emotional part of healing.

Mm-hmm.

Because I find that that was a huge piece, missing link for me that no one helped me with. I had to figure it out on my own. And I like to help people with that aspect of healing.

Yeah, it all goes hand in hand for sure. And I, I feel like I— you and I are a lot alike in a lot of ways. When you were telling me about how you did 40-mile bikes and stuff like that, I'm like, oh my gosh, I was doing a lot of that. I didn't realize it at the time, but I was running away from a lot of the trauma instead of feeling the feelings. I was just kind of running and over exercising and stuff. And so I'm grateful for the CRPS has taught me that I had to, I had to go through all those feelings and heal a lot of trauma. So I'm so happy to hear that you're offering that. And yeah, tell people—

Your story is amazing, Amberly, by the way. I just want to flip this around for a second.

Like, thank you.

Yeah, it's, you know, every time I hear like a little piece of your story, I'm just like Oh my God, the things that you have been through are tremendous, and thank you. You have such a beautiful spirit. So this, the just the name of your podcast is so it's so perfect and so fitting.

Oh, I think it's so fitting for all that you have been through. I really do love your your products. I was so bummed, so I had half the applesauce eaten, and I opened the refrigerator and. fell out and busted.

And I was like, oh no, applesauce.

Oh no.

Yeah, yeah.

Because it's that good, y'all. It's like gold. It's so, you know, when you find something that's so good, you're like, oh, it's like my treat. And so if, if you go to the market, I get your stuff at Erewhon, but I know people can order it directly from you. And so if you're listening to this in the car, And, or you're on a run or wherever you are, all the links will be in the show notes. But I, I mentioned this because it is important to heal our guts to live our best lives possible. So what's the best way they could, you know, try out your products, whether they want to start ordering it or shopping, or where, where's the best place to get it?

Well, because we've just moved to Florida, we're not quite sure how we're going to supply stores yet. So Right now, if you were to go to Erewhon, they're pretty much empty on the shelves because—

Oh no, they are?

Yeah, yeah, because we're so backed up with online customers. Like, we're just trying to catch up with that.

Oh, okay.

Yeah, because we keep selling out, which is a really great thing, but—

It's a good problem to have.

It's a good problem, yeah. But so we're keeping our online— our stores Like we're holding them off for a little bit until we get caught up. So by the time this airs, shows, I don't know, you know, what the situation—

Maybe you'll be caught up by then. But yeah, I would think, did COVID really boost your business?

For sure. Yeah, COVID, you know, when we actually like really survived COVID in a good way because it did boost— I mean, it's, it all stems in the gut, right? You want to fight a virus and you use your You take care of your gut. And when January of 2021 hit, we just went through the roof and we're still catching up, literally still catching up from January.

That's a good problem to have though. That's incredible.

Yeah. So online is probably going to be the best way to reach us.

Okay. At fermentingfairy.com.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Okay.

Great. And yeah, It's a good, it's a good problem to have, being sold out constantly. That's awesome. You know what? When you have a product that's good and it's quality and they— people know it works. Like, I know John has it, his fridge stocked.

Yeah, he does.

Yeah. Because it really helped him. Yeah.

You know, the— it's, it's all, you know, we don't have to do like a ton of marketing. Because a lot of it's just a lot of word of mouth, which I'm grateful for. And we have such unique products like a fermented applesauce. No one, no one's doing that. A fermented lemonade, no one's doing that the way that we do it. And a coconut milk kefir, we were the first ones to do it, at least in the US. I'm not sure about worldwide, but I have people ordering it from Germany, Japan, all over the world. So I'm assuming there's not many companies doing a coconut milk kefir.

Yeah.

And we do a lot of unique things, you know?

Well, I love how you'll be out traveling or something. You're like, hmm, I just made a new dressing. This is what, you know? And you share, you're like experimenting with different things to make. And so yeah, yeah. I love watching your stories. I love that you're not afraid to speak what is on your mind and what your opinion is about what's going on, about everything from health to Everything, mask to everything. I really like that about you, admire that about you. So thank you so much for being on the show. I'll be in Florida in a couple of weeks, and I checked and I'm about 4 hours away, so I don't know if I'll make it up to see you. But I Googled it right away when you told me. I'm like, okay, how far am I going to be from Lauren? Let me see if I can go see her. We'll definitely see each other in the future again, I know. And y'all check her out on Instagram @fermenting.fairy.

Thank you.

our website fermentingfairy.com. And if there's a part of the episode that really stood out to you, please take a screenshot and post it on your story. Let us know that you heard it, or, uh, and tag us so we can see it and maybe share it in our story, or just say thank you. And anyway, thank you so much for being here, everybody. Thank you for tuning in.

Thank you, Amberly. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Thanks so much for joining us this week on True Grit and Grace Podcast. If you like it, please rate it or share it with your friends. That would help too. If you're not yet on the newsletter list, come over to amberlylago.com and jump on it. While you're there, you can grab a free downloadable gratitude journal, and you might just Want to check out my book or even check out my monthly motivational membership. Thanks again for tuning in, and we'll see you next week.