Why You Don’t Need A Fancy Resumé To Start Your Dream Business With Jess Toolson, Co-Founder & CEO Of Mixhers

Would I rather try and either try and fail or try and totally make it and have the experience and learn from it? Or would I rather live with regret forever knowing that I had an idea, I had a concept, I had an opportunity, but I didn't even have the courage to act on it?

Hey, everyone.

Welcome back to the show.

You are going to love today's episode. But before, before that, you guys know, if you've been listening to this, that I've been creating some fun stuff for you just for being a listener. And if you listen to the show, you also know that I'm really into healthy habits and wellness, and that is really the foundation of being able to fulfill your dreams. Like, if you are not taking care of yourself, there's no way that you are going to have the energy for your big dreams. So if you've ever wondered why all of these different people and celebrities drink lemon water, I've created a gift for you. I put together all of my favorite lemon water recipes that I really believe are an awesome, easy way to create a foundational habit every single day. And, you know, if you've read Atomic Habits, which is an amazing book, it's all about habit stacking. It's starting with something that really sticks that you do in the morning for yourself, and for from there, you build an incredible routine off of that. So all you have to do is DM me on Instagram the word lemon. No emojis, no exclamation points, no sentences around it. Just DM me the word lemon. And I'm going to send you all of my favorite lemon water recipes. They really go after just energy, bloating, lots of vitamin C in these recipes, and we know that that is how your body creates its own collagen. And so since I spent quite a few years in Arizona, now I was all about my skin. I really wanted to figure out how to stay hydrated and how my skin could stay glowing. And this is a lot of what I came up with. So you guys go DM me the word lemon. You're gonna love the 15 reasons why lemon water is freaking amazing for you, especially mixed with some of these other ingredients. So go check that out. All right. Today on the podcast, I have a woman named Jess Toolson, and she is the co founder and CEO of Mixers, which is a company created by Women for Women. Her personal journey of overcoming debilitating period symptoms led to the creation of Mixers and the development of Her Time, which is an innovative nutritional supplement that addresses the root cause of hormone imbalances she's dedicated to helping women take charge of their unique health journey and her vision and passion have positioned Mixers as a leader in the women's hormonal health. She has been a huge inspiration for me as I set out with my company. I really love how she just creates so much community amongst her, not only customers, but within her team. She's gotten on the phone with me specifically to really help guide me to creating something that feels really community driven within this new company as well. So I love this woman. She's incredible. And her story of how she really had no background at all in anything business when she got started just proves that anybody listening to this podcast can truly create anything that they want. So, you guys, let's get into the podcast.

Jess, I'm so excited to have you on the show. Thank you so much for coming on.

I could not be more excited. Laurie, thanks for having me.

Oh my gosh. We were just talking before this about so many things, but I'm really excited to chat with you just because, you know, you have been building this dream now for probably over four years. Even though you are celebrating the fourth birthday of your company. Mixers, what does that feel like?

Oh my gosh. Well, first of all, it feels like time flies on one hand and then you look at it another way and you're like, I feel like I've been doing this for 25 years and it's actually been the best adventure of my life. It's. I've learned so much. I feel so grateful for my business. I feel so grateful to be surrounded by an incredible team of 35 women. And that's a dream in and of itself. It's been a wild ride for four years.

Okay, we're going to dig into that. But first, before we get started, I just want everybody to know exactly what Mixers is like. What is it that you do? What is your company? Tell us everything.

Absolutely. So Mixers is a female specific supplement company. We focus entirely on hormone health and we only create hormone friendly products. Our flagship product is one that we call Her Time. It's specific for women with PMS symptoms and struggling with hormone imbalance. That product has changed tens of thousands of women's lives at this point. And I like to consider myself the OG Mixers Girl because this formula that is in Her Time is the product that finally helped me with my hormone imbalance. When I was postpartum with my three kids, I was struggling for years with PMS symptoms and my periods were a total nightmare. And my now Business partner Cody Sanders. I had a vulnerable conversation with her. We can talk all about that later. And like the power of women communicating with one another and supporting one another. But I was vulnerable with Cody and shared with her the frustrations I was having with my period each and every month. And Cody was the first person that let me know that my hormones were imbalanced, that I needed to work in sync with my body, and that I needed to try an alternative approach because I'd been changing birth controls and using painkillers and trying to spend time. So much money on topical treatments for my skin, and just I was so frustrated. So her time is the formula that she gave me, it was in gel capsules, and she was making them in her home, putting them in gel capsules, and putting them in Ziplocs and giving them to women one by one. Wow. Gel capsules changed my life. My cycles were completely changed in 90 days. And that is the product that we turned into our baby. It's our business. It's what we've built mixers off of. It helps women with. There's over 100PMS symptoms that women struggle with. And her time helps to regulate your hormone health. It's all natural. We're not adding hormones to your body. It's helping your body get to the root cause of what is imbalanced. And it provides the relief that so many women are searching for. Then, after her time, women began to trust us with their health. And there were requests for us to create additional products, which we were thrilled about. And we now have 13 different products, multiple flavors per product. Everything from a libido product, a pre and postnatal product, a hydration product, greens, sleep, energy, a nootropic. We try to provide every product a woman could need in her everyday life. And we. Our focus is to make our drinks because they are powders that you mix into water. And our focus is to make women enjoy their health journey by creating delicious and trustworthy products.

Okay. I love hearing these stories because I find the people whose companies are the most successful are typically the ones who created out of a need for themselves because they're so passionate about it. And you've walked in the shoes of the woman who needs it. You fully understand what that looks like, what that feels like. You're able to, like, embody that voice and talk to the past version of you. So it sounds like the vision that you had that mixers started as is somewhat similar to what it is now. Sometimes we hear, like, these massive pivots, but when you first were taking these gel caps, and you were like, okay, this product needs to get out. What were some of the things that, as you went along on that journey and started to say, okay, what would this look like for this to come out? What had to change and why? Like, how did that start to change for you from, like, initial idea to where it is now?

For sure. I think something for me was, I'll be honest, and I say this with Cody all the time. I did not believe that there was any chance that these ingredients. Because they're Chinese herbs.

Yeah.

And I thought, there's no chance that this is actually going to be what provides a solution for me. But Cody was the one that was like, commit to consistency, please. If you are this desperate and in this much pain, you're going to want to try to use this product consistently. And why not? What do you have to lose? Which is why I went all in on every day. But what I recognize, Lori, is how many women were struggling with the same issues that I was. And all of us were out in the world trying to find these solutions, trying to have conversations with women, trying to find, what are you using? How have you, like, what birth control are you on or what prescriptions have you been on? Like, everything at which there's a time and place for those things as well. But none of us had this result. We all felt lost. We all felt frustrated with our. Frustrated with our hormone health. And so once I had felt that these ingredients were, in fact, changing my life, I knew that there was the need for us to have this be a product that was, in fact, accessible for all women, because millions and millions and millions of women are so frustrated with our hormone health. And so what has been so fun is when Cody and I first started, we had conversations that were like, oh, my gosh, what if we could go from Cody helping 25 women at a time, because she was just helping clients out of her home. She's a holistic health practitioner and just working from her home. And so our thought was, what if we could go from helping 25 women to a couple hundred women? And now it's such a dream come true, and it's such larger than we ever could have imagined. And now we have, like, the full vision of what mixers is capable of and also the need for this product, her 10 specifically. But, Laurie, it's been absolutely incredible to be able to experience this product going from 25 women to now, hundreds of thousands of women that are trying our products and are needing this relief as well. So I Do feel like I have to say it is so challenging to start a business and to have that perseverance. And it's hard. And I'm learning every single day still, even though we're four days or four years in mixers is my first job, I didn't have any clue about manufacturing or packaging or a website or a social media presence for a brand. I had no previous experience whatsoever. But I knew we had a problem that we were solving for and that was what kept me so passionate. So like you said, it's often founders that have stemmed from having a problem. They've found a solution. And that is what my passion comes from me knowing how awful I was feeling for two weeks of every single month as a mom of three. I was having mom guilt around my period being like, here comes my period. Now my kids are going to suffer for two weeks because I'm in pain and I have heavy bleeding and I'm moody and my cramps are painful and all that. And so for me, the passion for mixers comes from me knowing that women want and need to be thriving. We have so many people and kids and coworkers and friends and family depending on us every single day. And the passion for me comes from knowing that women need to feel supported in their health. They need to be able to show up feeling their best. They can't have a week or two weeks of every month that something else is ruling their life. And so I'm incredibly fulfilled with mixers knowing that we're buying back women's health, buying back their energy, they're feeling relief from pain. And so yeah, there's just challenges that you overcome as a business owner or things that you have to learn on the spot and you have to choose persistence and resilience and being the hungriest person to learn. But it's worth it when you're full of passion and purpose. For sure.

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Okay so this is so interesting to me because you did not set out going I'm gonna be a founder of this company. I'm gonna run this company, and this is what it's gonna look like. You were like, here's the problem. Here's what I want to do, and we're gonna do it. What did that look like? So if somebody's listening right now who's like, doesn't have a social media presence, maybe is working in corporate or not working, and they have all of these reasons why they feel like they can't do it. They have all of these different excuses or actual real reasons of why they feel maybe they couldn't do it because they don't know about it. Tell me about what that path looked like when you're like, here's the problem. Here's what I think the solution could be. What was the leaping point? Like, what were the things that made you leap into it and get started and, like, stay committed to it?

Oh, I love this question. Because it's actually like, women, when they come to me and are like, I really have this idea. I think it's really small. I'm not sure I should take a chance on it, or, like, I've started, but I'm not seeing a lot of traction, and I'm wondering if. If I should be embarrassed and stop. I have been there. I have been that. That woman that's like, is this not worth it? Is this a concept that people think. Because I'm talking. I'm making people asking people to talk about their periods on social media. I'm asking women to share symptoms and very, like, it's a taboo topic. And that is what our business.

Like, I'm a heavy bleeder.

I mean, now it's normalizing, which is fantastic, but, like, that's a new thing for women to be more open about their hormones.

Totally. Like, when you were starting.

Yeah, like, even totally change. And so for me, when I have women that come to me with either things that are in, like, they're. They're in the conceptual phase, or women that have, in fact started, but it's, like, very new, and they're feeling, like, vulnerable or embarrassed about performance of their business. Something that I still come back to and still tell myself, would I rather try and either try and fail or try and totally make it and have the experience and learn from it? Or would I rather live with regret forever knowing that I had an idea, I had a concept, I had an opportunity, but I didn't even have the courage to act on it? I know for myself, and I'm 35 years old. I know that when I'm 65 years old, I'm going to be so much more grateful. Even if mixers hadn't succeeded how it is or hadn't gotten to the point that it is now, and I still have a lot left to accomplish, I'm not fully satisfied with mixers as it is, but I know that at the age of 65, even if I had started mixers and a year into it, it had failed and I felt that I had turned over every stone to give it my all. I know that there would be life lessons, skills, learnings that I would be so grateful that I had learned and pushed through and persevered through rather than being 65 and thinking, oh my gosh, I had this concept for this business and I was too embarrassed to try or I was too. I just felt like everyone would think it was so dumb or something. I just feel like my commitment to myself is when I'm looking back at my, you know, when I'm in the future and looking back, what do I want to feel proud of for myself? I want to be able to look back and know I gave it my all and I don't want to live with regrets.

Oh, I love that. I literally, I feel like you were speaking my exact thought process of all of it is, you know, for anybody listening who is thinking of doing something, I always think sometimes there's some of us who are better at projecting into the future, like you said. I think that's something that I'm really good at too, is going, when I'm 65, how am I going to feel? And actually being able to viscerally feel it. But for anybody who maybe that doesn't come natural, I feel like that is something you can learn to do and sit every day and try to fast forward and go, in five years, how am I going to feel? In three years, how am I going to feel? And I just always think that the person, you know, at the end of our life, you have this vision in your head of this person that you could have become. And I think it's all like the things that you just said, like the really hard things that are going to help us introduce us to that woman. So for you, I want to know who was Jess before you started this, like when you had the idea and who have you had to become? What would you say are maybe the top three traits that you have developed along the way? That you're like, every business person needs these three traits and you will develop them along the way.

Okay, So I feel that certain qualities and characteristics that I have in myself as A woman, even from before mixers. And even when I can say to you, like, I don't have previous job experience, I haven't started a business previous to mixers, I haven't held a corporate job, I've never managed a team. I can look back at my previous self and know that I really nurtured and grew some characteristics and things within myself that are absolutely helpful to me in mixers today. One of them being resilience and perseverance. Because not everything. My whole life has gone my way. I've had to overcome challenges. I've had to choose what kind of day I'm going to have, what kind of year I'm going to have. I had to choose. Things aren't going my way. How am I going to keep showing up?

Sometimes we have these specific moments when we're like, oh, this was the first time that I really had to build resilience. Do you have anything that comes to mind?

I think something that comes to mind is more of like these experiences where I've grown stronger. So, like, for 11 years, I lived in Europe and I would live in Europe for 10 months and I would come home from two for two months. Wow. Move every, almost every year, change cities, change country, move my kids and really restart and rebuild every year. Wow. That's something that I'm saying I learned through that, that is helping me with mixers, is that I had to choose every time I would move and reset in a new place. I am going to choose to have this be a positive experience. How am I going to choose to set myself up for success? How am I going to take what is challenging about this city or this country or whatever and learn from it? And how am I going to step away from this experience and know that I gave it my all? Those are things that I was choosing and the approach I had to those experiences of moving that much that are helping me now with mixers and I didn't know mixers was going to be a thing. It's choosing your mindset. I know, I know. I could have chosen to be planted in Istanbul, Turkey, where there's traffic all day long. Traffic. There's honking all day long.

I've been there.

High rise buildings. It's very third world. It's a fantastic country. Like, I know I could have moved to Istanbul, Turkey and been like, this is so overwhelming. I hate the smell of the city. There's traffic all day long. What on earth am I going to do with my kids all day? I don't speak any Turkish. I could have chosen to look at these difficulties and be like, well, let's see how miserable I can be for the next 10 months. Or living in Russia, I could have been like, this is absolutely freezing. My kids are going to be miserable for 10 months because we can't really go outside because it's ice all day, every day. There's. It's dark. A whole season. It's. You get one hour of sunlight.

Oh, my God.

I just feel like mindset is everything. It's everything. I have to say, Lori, I know that you relate to this. It's not because mindset and choosing to be positive and choosing to be optimistic is always easy. Yeah. I feel like sometimes people think, well, you're just born with optimism, or you're just born with being more positive. It's exercise. It is choosing your perspective on a situation. It's choosing to be the person that you might be in the mood to have a really bad outlook. And you're choosing to shift your mindset and exercise your resilience and be more positive. I don't think people are just born with optimism. I think it's exercise.

The resilience and the perseverance.

Yeah.

Do you have two other qualities that you think for a business person also things that you have really kind of not created, but become.

Yeah.

Throughout this business.

Yeah. So something that I can truly say is unique to mixers is how much of a nurturing business culture we have.

And I've observed that from you, which is awesome, and I can't wait to hear about it. Okay.

Nurturing and like I said, think and. Sorry. I keep hitting on. I don't know why, but I keep hitting on the fact that I don't have previous work experience, but I love, love, love to bring up the. I have life experience that has benefited mixers. So something that I have loved to make sure it's a priority within my business is that we provide safety and warmth to our team. We have 35 women that dedicate so much of their time, their talents, their energy to building a brand that we have massive goals for. Most of our day is spent at the workplace, and I want to show up to my workplace and be met with love and be met with relationships that are meaningful. I want to feel like I can show up on my best days and my hardest days and be met with a soft spot to land. And so that is a top priority for me within mixers. And I realize how much of that, as you talk about before mixers and now I realize how much of that is actually from my experience with being a stay at home mom for 11 years before mixers.

Yeah.

And so how many incredible qualities are built within women when you're in the mother role and giving so much of your energy to care for these children and to like dedicate your time and your efforts to helping them. And I feel like I'm so grateful for that experience of being a stay at home mom and seeing the benefits of love and like the just like acceptance for children and knowing that actually even as adult women, we need those same, same exact feelings provided for us as adults. Love, acceptance, security, safety, validation and yeah, so before mixers, now I feel like I didn't realize how. What's changed is I didn't realize how much of my experience as a mom was going to actually benefit my business that is becoming more of a corporate size. We're getting larger as a team. We're having to implement more just teams and how we operate. And it's becoming more of like a business. And I'm still making sure that those qualities that I've learned and developed through being a mom are implemented within my business. And it trickles down. It trickles down. It really does.

What does that look like? So when you say, you know, if somebody's thinking right now, which I love, that you're talking about how your previous experience of not actually having work, prior work experience, because I think it eliminates a lot of excuses and it also makes us realize how valuable we are just from our life experiences, which is huge because so many people like to lean on, oh, I haven't done this or I haven't done that or I don't know, you've put it all together in what you're doing right now and just kind of learned as you go, which I think is so powerful. But you know, when you're talking about nurturing, if someone's like, oh, I would love to be able to create that culture within my company. Even if you just have one employee right now, what are some tangible things that you could offer someone? Maybe it's just one thing that has really made an impact or three things that have made the biggest impact in your company to make people feel nurtured and, you know, that warm presence.

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Have been able to pick up on is like when I have visited other businesses. There's other brands with fantastic company culture as well, but I think something that can enter a workspace or A business is that somehow you're more relevant if you're more intimidating. So if you are more cold, more firm, more putting on this face of like total confidence or being more standoff, it's like, it makes you more relevant in a workplace and you must be the smartest in the room. To me, I feel like at mixers, it's more about flipping that on its head and having people enter our space and we greet with a hug. We have. We're energized and excited to meet people. We celebrate people in all their different work experience or where they come from and their story. And I think for me, a couple things is that I know how much it means to our team members when they feel safe to express their ideas and their creativity and that all of them feel that their ideas. We take turns in implementing different team members ideas and strategies and really recognizing like, we have so many intelligent women and every one of their ideas is awesome and giving them each different opportunities to be the team member that is like, showcased or their idea is the idea that the whole company takes and runs with. And I think that creates comfort and like, confidence within a workspace is knowing that their ideas are heard, knowing that they. They feel that their voice is one that is paid attention to in the workplace. I always love, like, when we're doing a brainstorming session, I always try to say, like, no dumb ideas. No dumb ideas. And that's not like something new to me. I know that that is something commonly used like, but really having that be the feeling saying no dumb ideas. But then if someone throws out a random idea, don't being like, like really being like, that's awesome. Not okay, wait, that was a dumb idea. Just kidding. You know, So I think it's hearing ideas helping women understand that you care for their input, care about their feedback, care for their specialties or their individual skills to be highlighted. I think that creates a confidence and acceptance in a workplace. And we really like to make sure we're celebrating one another's celebrating or supporting. We do not want to be the company that's like, everyone has to show up and put on your best face and let's pretend that all of our lives are perfect. Leave your personal life. Anything hard stays at the door. I don't agree with that. We really try to provide a company culture that actually recognizes we're all women that are dedicated to mixers and we're all women that also have personal lives. We're all experiencing something different on any given day, any given moment. It's been so interesting. We have even in this month, weddings, babies being born, grandpa's dying, dads dying, divorces like dream vacations being taken. So when you look at our company right now, we have every emotion you could imagine.

Yeah.

Happening with every different individual. And so we really focus on being the place where when something is a win mixers and our team is the first place that you want to come and celebrate it when you lose your dad unexpectedly. And that is not something that you know how to face on your own. Mixers is also the place that you want to come to first to be supported by your team members. And that is a huge focus of the team is celebrate and support one another.

Are those like core values that you speak out? Do you put them on a wall? Okay, so it's core values that are talked about. What about before, like team meeting? Are there different things that you do to like constantly keep this in the conversation of how you expect people to show up?

This is so funny. You said it's because I, I sent a message just in our team, our company wide slack channel last week. Just, I feel like I really do like take on the feelings of a mother, even for the team. Yeah. And so I sent this message just really expressing my gratitude for the team and letting them know, like I witnessed them writing one another random cards and I witnessed them giving hugs. I witnessed them crying together, I witnessed them laughing together. And I was expressing through this message like just what an amazing experience I have witnessing them care for one another and highlighting like the great team qualities I'm seeing. And so to answer your question, I do try to make sure I'm paying attention to the women that are also like really a massive part of this creation of our culture which is all 35 women. And we talk about it weekly in our team huddle. We always do a team highlight. Women highlight other individuals on the team across the company. It's not someone on their team. It can be, but like I feel like women have positive experiences sitting on their lunch hour and having an hour long conversation with someone that they don't work with every day. And we're able to do these team highlights every week where I ask individuals to highlight anyone within the company. And I think it's so great for women to feel highlighted. I think it's so special for people to feel that they're getting a spotlight. So yes, I very, very regularly like sending messages to the team where I'm like, here's a thought from Jess and it's not a business message. It's not. It's not about growth. It's not about a project. It's not about a goal that we hit. It's all about culture and relationships and feelings and the nurturing side of our business.

I love that. Okay, so I can see your passion. I can feel your passion. It excites me. I love that you've created a place where people are able to get recognized. Number one. I think it's just beautiful, a beautiful human experience, but also that really motivates people to want to stay there and to grow and to get on board with the vision. So how have you managed to balance this beautiful feeling of warmth and this incredible culture and nurturing, but also grow, also scale, because those can sometimes feel like two opposing things. And I know that as a founder and the person who owns the business, it's very important and vital to grow. Otherwise you won't even be able to have that culture. So how do you personally manage the pressure of growth while trying to sustain this beautiful company?

You're right. There are high moments of stress and like a Black Friday or a New Year's or a birthday month where a lot the goals for our business are high and it's a lot to accomplish. However, I have been able to see the difference in times that we're going about growth with the feeling of pressures on cutthroat. Like more of the like fear driven leadership.

Yes, totally.

And I've had a couple leadership turnovers because of people that drive that way. And it does not resonate well with me. I know that for myself, when I am seen and positively encouraged and pressure is there, doesn't mean that we're just always like, no matter what. Even if we're so below a goal and we don't accomplish anything, no matter what, we're all okay. It's like I am more driven and more dedicated to a project and a goal. When I feel supported, celebrated, the team feeling, the team dedication is stronger. Like there's less finger pointing. I feel like there's more of the feeling of like we rise together, we fall together when it's more of a positive environment. And so for me, like our bit, my business has continued to grow with the focus on more of a emphasis on positivity. Positive reinforcement. Yeah, positive reinforcement. I love that. You're right. That's exactly what it is, our business. I haven't had to steer away from that. And that's always been my focus. I've had a couple leaders where there was more of a fear based leadership and I could See the team start to crumble. I would have to remove them. And immediately I'd see the team members rise again.

I wonder if that's more female focused.

100%.

When my husband came home and we started working together, he had managed almost all men, like 99% men, and it was thousands of men. He was a district manager for like the finance world for quite a few years. And so when he came home to work with me, all of our goals, like, it felt very fear based. It was very pressure driven. And the second that he would start talking that way, I would literally be paralyzed. I would like, feel like I couldn't do anything. I felt small because I was like, oh my God, I'm not. So we had to have this whole conversation because I was so obsessed with my husband. And then he came home and I was like, did I marry the wrong person? That's literally how I was feeling because we were now in business together. And so I'm hearing you talk, thinking, I am. So when the chips are down for me, I need to get like amped up, re inspired, re motivated into creativity mode. And when I get in fear, that all disappears. So for you guys as a company, let's just say you have months where the sales are really low and you're like having an oh, shit moment. You're like, oh my God, this is not good. Like, you have your moment. I'm sure it's not that you're. You're free of feeling that moment of.

Like, oh my gosh. Yeah.

What do you do personally to first go and take care of yourself as the leader? And then how are you going to relay this to the team? Like, what? Have some things that you have done. Go take care of yourself. What does that look like? And then what does it look like when you go to the team? Like, here's where we need to be.

Lori, I love that you're asking this too, because I do want to be clear. Like, I feel like they're like even have a close culture of positivity. It's not because you don't talk about what's not going well.

Okay.

Right.

That's awesome.

Because that's, it's like to stay in the positive mindset and to be really encouraging. I think being in that is that we can also talk about where we're underperforming and that we can tackle it and we can dissect it and really, like have hard conversations about maybe where the team isn't performing well together, they're not being collaborative enough or Someone did fall short on a project, but it doesn't mean that it's a cutthroat feeling. It's re evaluating, it's being transparent. It's like talking about improvement. So when we are having a hard time, something I love to do is like make pros and cons list or like strengths and weaknesses. And I love to like say we have a month. I love to look at the month and be like, what went well this month? Where did we perform? Even if it's not something like cells, even if it's like our content looked so beautiful or like our engagement. Actually on this post that didn't create a lot of cells, but this post about happiness, the engagement was really high or another positive is like the team was able to enjoy this together or I went to this networking event which created this new relationship. I write a list of like strengths or positives or wins. Then I write a list of things that didn't go well. Whether it is sales or a campaign that didn't perform or let's say it is that social media engagement is down. And I love to look at the list and then emphasize to the team, regardless of performance, these things are going well. We continue to do these things. Let's dissect these things. Where can we each improve as individuals? And then I love to go around and I love to ask the team, like, what is each of your individual inputs now going to be in this weakness? How are we going to move this from a weakness to a strength? And I love to hear how collectively the team is all willing to change that weakness to a strength together.

Oh, I love that. It feels much less just like maybe pointing a finger at an individual as well, which sometimes obviously that has to happen, but in a, in a loving way. But at the same time it's like you keep reinforcing with everything you say, like team, team, team. Which is why you guys are doing amazing and why I look to you guys for just different culture. Because I think that you have really created that team feeling. You know, I know the first time that we connected, I had been following you guys for a while. You as a company and then you as a person and you're so collaborative. You are someone who recognizes women. You are someone who props women up. You have an amazing ambassador program. I feel like you're always just collaborating with other women and you were so welcoming even when I got to meet you to connect and offer your help and do all of those things. Where do you think that you got that number one? Where do you think that you got that. Were you ever in fear over, like, collaborating with other women? And do you attribute a lot of your growth and success to that? And why?

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So for me, I feel like I got that collaborative power and unity we can rise together feeling through having some intention, incredibly positive friendships. In my life. I've had friends that I've been friends with for over 25 years at this point that some have had careers, some have had no careers, some have become marathon runners, some have become moms of six children. And I've had this friend group who, no matter what each of us are going through individually, we are 100% in on encouraging and dedicating, like, our support to these individual friends. And our lives look very different. I'm the one that four years ago started a business before any of them had a business. And they rallied behind mixers and, like, were the first to give me flavor or testimonials and things like that. But I think it comes from me feeling so uplifted by my friend group and knowing I want more women to feel this, like, the power of this friendship, it needs to multiply. And I have always had the feeling and the knowledge that there is enough success for all. There really is. I do not do well in circles of women that become critical of other women. I do not enjoy being in circles of women that become jealous of other women. And I don't like when I'm in circles of women that are, did you see so and so do this? I think that, like, that was the dumbest idea or something. Like, I just. It is so off putting to me, and it breaks my heart because I don't think there's any possibility for that. To create more success for yourself by putting other women down.

Oh, my God.

I have found that by being collaborative, by being willing to connect, by supporting other, other supplement businesses, by encouraging other women with supplement businesses within my same exact industry, I still feel that there is a way for us to collaborate and both succeed. And I have found that the more collaborative I am, the more collaborative my business is, the more growth we have.

I totally agree, a million percent. And it's been one of the biggest reasons I feel like I've been successful in anything is same exact thing. I'll have a friend with an event a month after mine. We're saying the same thing. It's the same type of event. And I'm like, go. Because I think, number one, we're all consumers. We're gonna continue to consume. I think that people who buy One thing also can simultaneously buy another thing. And it goes back and forth. I know for me, even, like, I'll have a favorite product if you stop using that product. I'd rather have used my friend's product and then just go back and forth because I'd still be in the forefront of your mind because she's probably sharing my stuff too. So I just feel like there's. Having a mindset of abundance, I think just makes you a magnet for people wanting to help you. I think it just keeps you in such a. Yeah. Such an abundant place for your business and. And there's more than enough to go around. I love that. I love that about you. I love that about all of the women that I look up to because I see nothing but good go to them. And just one other thing I want to share. Just about when people, you know, I remember even coming from a place when I was younger, just starting out, like, being jealous or even critical of somebody in my brain. It's like when we do that in our heads, even it is saying, like, if you're judging people, it's not safe for you to be you because other people are judging people. It's like the second that you stop doing that, it's almost like you almost feel like it turns off from the world and that people aren't doing it to you because you're not doing it now outside of your universe. So you probably don't even feel that from other women because you are not doing it.

That is so true. And how freeing is it to just focus on being in an abundance mindset, an encouraging mindset, a rise together mindset? I'm like, it is so much more liberating, freeing. You can be more creative. I think something that I want to talk about too is like, when you have a business or even in life, we can. This is just like a metaphor. But like, if you have a business, I think that the obvious thing is that you have to be aware of competitors, right? Like, you have to be aware of what the market is doing. You have to be aware of, like, are people saying that these other products taste way better? Are they saying that their packaging is much more like, user friendly? Like, there's a way to be aware of competitors and learn and be utilizing information to benefit your business. And also there's a way to look at brands much larger than you and have aspirations and be so motivated by other success. We have brands that we aspire to become in the supplement space. And I aspire to become a nationwide brand. And so of course I'm looking at their brands and feeling like so motivated to come and be a competitor. Right? But it's because of a motivation and a positive space of if they can do it, I can too. Let's get in the space together. I think that something that can be so energy sucking is when people are growing a brand focused on only copying and trying to sink claws in and take, take down another brand when it's, I'm going to grow based off of trying to compete from a place of jealousy or from a place of like where anyway I, there's just a difference. And so I always try to lead my team with let's look at the brands that we aspire to become. Let's not look at the brand, the brands that are kind of being mean to us or trying to pick us apart or other teams that are trying to leave mean comments on social media, whatever it is, Lori, and like this is just not how we become the nationwide brand at all. I want to focus on creativity only going up, lifting those that want to go up too. And I know 100% that when I stay in my lane and I stay creative and driven on my goal, I don't even like, it's like I have blinders on. I don't even like see what others are trying to come at us with. I'm like, I'm just focused and driven and led with creativity while others I think lose momentum trying to copy and dig and pick apart other brands. And I think it's just such a low energy place to live. I don't, I don't understand that approach.

It will drain you. You only have so much energy throughout the day and that needs to be focused on growing. Like that needs to be focused on where you want to go, not on anything that's taking away from it. Because I can literally feel that sometimes. I've had different interviews with people where I can feel they're in a place, just a bad place where maybe their sales were down or that's what it can. I feel like, you know, even in the different, different companies I've run, it's tempting, right, to go look at what's working for them and oh, why are they doing this? Or comparing yourself or whatever that is instead of just looking straight ahead at where you want to go. I think all of that other energy of getting caught up in the comments or what people are saying is such a low vibe place, it will rob you of your creativity, it will rob you of your 100%, it will rob you of Leadership.

Yes. And it's not from a place of passion. It's not purpose driven, it's not passion driven. It's not going to be fulfilling. So that to me is like just. And that also, that takes effort to like you. When you have a bad day or something mean comes through, there's a natural response to having it hurt. But I think it's like getting yourself realigned quickly and getting to the point where it doesn't even rattle you is like, it's such a freeing space to get to.

So real quick on that. Like, if you do get caught up or anybody has anything that right now they're feeling like they can't shake it or get it out of their head. A comment, something someone said, something someone's saying about their products, someone's maybe trying to like quote unquote, take them down or whatever that looks like. How do you like, get out of that space?

For me, I know that it's harder for me to come out of when I'm not feeling connected with my personal purpose. I feel like when I'm quickly rattled by a mean comment or someone not liking a flavor. So then they're saying mixers is the worst or something like that. Yeah, I realize like, if this is hurting me, this, this much, I must not personally be in like alignment with myself. I must be a little bit like out of my own understanding of self. And there's information to take, like even from people's testimony or from a comment, if there's a bad flavor or something, if it's happening enough, you better pay attention to it. You have a problem within your business. But if it's a one off and it's someone that is railing on something, I also can look at it and be like, this person must be having a really awful day. A really awful day. So to answer your question, I love to kind of tune out the noise with exercise. I don't abuse exercise from like a physique space. Like I, I have to exercise. Or like, it's more like I use exercise as my ability to kind of process maybe some hard feelings. Take it out because you have to process it. Don't step it down, process it. And then I think through exercise, it's so fun to show yourself that you can overcome challenge because you're doing it physically, you're exerting your own energy and you're showing yourself. I just accomplished something so hard and I overcame that. And that's like something I love to, to do with some of the like, negativity. That can come through is just kind of make sure I'm always realigning with myself, realigning with my purpose. I also know that if competitors are mean or something like we've said that it's like not that big of a deal. But I do know for myself not one person, not one person is going to build a business or a brand exactly like I will do it right. I do not have a competitor. That is Jess versus Jess. You don't have a competitor. That is Lori compared to Lori. No one will do it the same as you will. Even if it's the same formulas, the same colors, the same whatever. No one will have the same exact passion and purpose as you do. And so like focusing on my unique, like my uniqueness. It's every, every individual is unique and there's power in knowing that no one can copy you as an individual.

Oh, so good. I so relate to the exercise thing too. Like I always picture it like it's just for me I those, the comments, the whatever the stressful day, I'm like, this is just stuck energy. When, when energy comes at you that you don't like, it just kind of like feels like it's trapped and like it's an angry troll. You just need to like I just think of it as stuck energy. And if I go and move, you do eventually process it through. So walking for me has been such a saving grace. I could never run any of these companies if I did not. Like I just need to go move, be in the outdoors, like go processes through my body, maybe have a conversation with someone and then typically I'll be done with it after that. But I love that no one will build it like you. Isn't that the truth? Because pretty much everything in the world has been done and you just have to remember it can be done your way. And the people who relate to you are going to be so they're going to resonate so much with your product versus someone else's. And that's great, that's amazing. We're so lucky to be able to do that. And I have loved this whole conversation. I could talk to you for this could be a five part series, maybe a ten part series, I don't know. But. So any last words that you're just feeling that you want to leave people with?

Yeah, I just, just want anyone listening to know that you are capable of doing incredible things. You can choose your mindset and choose your approach to each and every day. You can choose to have your very own personal story that looks different than anyone else's. Believe in yourself. Build confidence, exercise, optimism, and a positive mindset. Also, if you have an idea, something that's brewing, maybe for a business, or if you're wanting to challenge yourself to run a marathon or do something that's totally outside of your comfort zone, remember that instead of choosing no because it's too scary, think about yourself in the future, looking back, and how proud of yourself you'll be if you try.

Thank you so much for coming on the show. I'm so grateful for you and you guys. One of the biggest gifts that we can give to our guests, of course, go buy her product, but also let her know what your biggest takeaway was. I think it's so much fun when the guests come on and they pour their hearts out. She just gave us an hour of her time. She's super busy. You guys go give her a tag. Tag mixers. Let her know what your biggest takeaway was. It's always so nice to hear who's listening. And until next time, everyone, thank you.

So much for tuning in.

Earn your happy.

Bye. Bye, Sa.