From Just Getting by to Peak Health Performance | Sara Estes

Whatever happens. So when you have a miscarriage, no one knew you were pregnant to begin with. And I proceeded to in the year of 2022, have three miscarriages back to back. If I keep going down this path, it's going to be IVF and there's a very small percentage chance it's going to work. No one was digging in to what was going on specifically in my situation. I had to become my own advocate. What I did was not an easy thing to do. So your hormones are crazy. Everything's going wild. It required so much vigilance about looking at every single was putting in my body. It was three months of this diet, cutting out the chemicals, all of that. And I got pregnant with Nova and had a perfectly healthy pregnancy. If I can provide hope to a woman who is in that mode where maybe you know, you are getting to the end of your rope. That's why I want to put my story out there is because I know that there is countless women who are in there and they just need one sign of hope that it is possible to overcome this whatever kind of health journey that is foreign.

Hey guys, welcome back to Build where we help you rise leading last. I'm super excited. Another great conversation for you guys today. This one is special because it's a longtime friend, an ally if you will. Sarah Estes, copytiger.com has been one of our core partners doing copywriting for us for a long time. Not only just us, we're talking people like Donald Miller and other eight figure brands. She's incredible. And what sets this episode so far apart to me is her heart to serve the person she used to be. She was going to go over into a deep dive of some special circumstances. She walked through that. Help her create a brand new system called Sara Nova which you're absolutely love. Especially if you're in the middle of making sure your health is optimized. Sarah Estes, what's going on?

Hi Steven. I'm so excited to be here.

I'm excited to have you. It's crazy, you know, it's. We've known each other it seems like forever, but I think this is the first in person it is that we've ever done, which is kind of crazy. I mean we've been working together probably three years maybe I think so. Maybe 4Y something like that. That's. Yeah. Well, I want to jump in. Right. There's a lot to talk about, a lot to discuss. You know, you've been incredibly successful, you and your organization for doing copywriting. You've helped some of the largest brands out there create content that converts and helps, you know, people kind of get to the solutions they're looking for. I want to maybe just ju in there just a little bit. What, why there? What started there? How'd you get involved in that? And then I want to jump into Saranova, if that's okay.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, my background is in journalism, so I was a writer for a very long time. And very quickly it became clear that I wasn't going to be able to make a great living, an impact in journalism because all of the newspapers and things were just struggling and shutting down. And so it just seemed like not the right path. I wanted to use my gift for writing, but it just took a minute to figure out, okay, where can I do that and actually be able to, you know, survive and thrive? So I was actually working in the legal world before I started my copywriting business. And once I started the copywriting business, it just kind of took off. That was my first endeavor into, like, real entrepreneurship and, you know, providing a service. And I had studied marketing and I had done a lot of, you know, marketing and writing in various capacity, but I decided to really kind of sink my heels into copywriting and I got into working with personal development brands. And I was so into the actual topic and the people that I was working with that I think just the synergy of what I was doing and my drive to promote them. Yeah, I really wanted to get so much of what they were doing out there. And so it became a very purpose driven thing for me to do. And I was fortunate enough to be able to be pretty picky with the clients that I worked with and just, you know, hey, if you inspire me, then yes. Want to, like, create a.

If not, I'm very busy. No, I'm just kidding. Yeah, right.

But it was nice to be able to, you know, promote those voices that I felt were saying something just so profound. And I feel like copywriting really is so powerful and if you get it right for people, if you get the message correct, it can really propel a brand forward. So it became a really driving force for me. I, you know, I was able to work with Donald Miller for a long time and learn even more about, like, story brand and messaging and the words. And so I just really, I love, love that realm and love the power that it has.

Yeah, no, I think it's amazing. In fact, I was, I think one of the things that's, you know, when, when you first told me about Sara Nova and this New line you're coming out with that was. It was like an easy no brainer. Yes. As. As you guys. As you probably know, we're pretty particular about who we put on the show. Not because we're not because of anything other than the fact that we. We have minimal time and want to give maximum effort to the audiences and do that. And you were like, hey, I'm doing this. I said, great. Want to come on the show?

I think it was literally that easy. And by the way, I think you need to people. Right. And we started making introductions and stuff like that. But one of the things that I think has always set you apart is, and I think this will go also play into Sara Nova as well, is you genuinely care. You generally like. I remember my, my very first call with you. We met with our little buddy Connor.

Yeah.

Yeah. Who's. Who's actually who was just here the last few days.

What's up, Connor?

Yeah.

He, you know, we met through him and an instant and instantaneously knew that we needed to work together.

Yeah.

And do that.

Absolutely.

And then as a result, I was like, not only doing a great job for us and stuff like that. I was like, hey, I need. You need to meet these other three or four other thought leaders that I think you kick butt for. And that definitely started that. But I think it goes back to starting with heart because you wouldn't take on even when we introduce you to new clients, even myself. Like, you had to do a formal intake process so you could understand them and what they were trying to accomplish and stuff like that. How does that, how did that shape the journey, your copywriting journey?

Yeah, I mean, for me, working with these, it's like I got so much information and so much education through the people that I was working with. So I started when I was copywriting for people like you, working with entrepreneurs and business leaders. And I was working with, you know, Donald Miller, Mary Morrissey, all these people who were talking about mindset and talking about, you know, how to build a business and really at the end, what you want your business to be and how you want to approach success and defining success for you. And it was like doing all of that copywriting and message honing taught me so much and also going through people's programs, you know, because as a copywriter, I would dig so deep into. Into what, whoever my client was, you know, whatever they were teaching. Yeah, I would go in so deep to make sure that I fully understood what they were putting out into the world. And I learned a lot I learned a lot about business and what a really successful career and life looks like, not just at work, but at home, too. And. And I started to. As a copywriter and marketer, I started to dream of what would my business look like, what would, you know, what do I want? There was. I could scale a copywriting agency, which I thought about for a minute. But very quickly, from learning from all the people that I was working with, I realized I want my own. I want to start a brand, start a business that I can really get behind that is very much aligned with something I've gone through or something I've experienced. And it's super personal that I can. You know, I can talk about essentially a hill I'll die on. You know, that's what I really wanted my business to be. So I have been thinking about that for about two years.

Well, I think that's interesting, because I think one of the things that you did for us, which is, again, this is. I think this is setting up beautifully, is you forced us to drive clarity. Like, I. I feel like a lot of. And this is good. This is not just for thought leaders and just the copywriting space, but a lot of business owners in general. Like, you're more. You're more than a copywriter. You always have been. I used to even tell you. I think. Tell you about other calls. You're. You're one hell of an entrepreneur. You really are, the way your mind works and how you see things. And one of the things you helped us do tremendously is you help us drive out true clarity. Which is interesting because, gosh, it was probably a month ago, maybe a month and a half ago. You were like, hey, I know you. I. I know we've been doing the copywriting thing for a while. This is awesome. I love you mean it. But I just want to let you guys know, I'm launching my own product. And, you know, I didn't. This is Before I could. I was able to take the time. I was like, oh, she's gonna. Okay, cool. It's gonna be a copywriting product or something like that.

Yeah.

And then it was like, no, it's a holistic approach to health. I'm like, wow. And it's an actual nutraceutical. Wow. Okay, what's it about? Who's it help? All this kind of stuff. And I just remember getting really excited. I got really excited for you. Right. So before we jump into Serenova and the nutraceutical and what. And the benefits it can help the audience with if they choose to get to know it better. I want to know the journey because obviously I was. I was around when you first got pregnant. We were still around when you had your baby, Nova. And you know, what I didn't know at the time was the journey. So I want to know as much as you're willing to share. About 60% of our audience is actually female.

Yeah. Wonderful.

Yeah. So I think it would be a huge, huge help to a lot of them.

Yeah, for sure. So my entry into the health and wellness space came through my fertility journey. So Serenova is not a fertility specific supplement. Right. So it's for women's health, but it's not fertility. But that was just. That's my access point. That's how I came into really understanding what my body was going through, how, you know, it was my health challenge, my big mountain to climb. So back in 2021, me and my husband decided to have a baby. I thought it was going to be very simple.

They even teach you how to school how to do it.

Not prepared for what my life was about to turn into. So, you know, we decided that we were like, great, let's go for it. And very quickly it became apparent that, like, this was going to be hard. Granted, I was like 35 at the time, so, you know, that's a later pregnancy in this realm. So I can. I kind of had a sense that it might be somewhat difficult, but I didn't understand what the journey was going to be like. So.

I was faced with an emergency gallbladder removal surgery. So I got into the hospital, had this. They were like, oh, we need to take your gallbladder right now. So I was having some pain in. In my stomach, so that they removed it immediately. I did not have any counsel about what may have caused that. It was just kind of like, okay, you're having this.

It seems like medical stuff in general just wants to treat the symptom.

Exactly. And you don't really get much information as to like, okay, what does that mean for my life now? I literally went in, they took my gallbladder out, they said, you're fine, you didn't need it anyway. Like, go on with your life.

Which kind of is weird to me because why would it be there if it's not needed at all?

Yeah.

So anyway.

And there, yeah, there are a lot of things like that where I think they try to simplify. Again, I'm not like anti medicine by any means. I'm not anti doctor or like Western. But I do think there are some Places where it fails us. And I think that needs to be called out a little bit. And for people to understand that and understand what their options actually are, like, that's kind of what I hope to accomplish with this brand. And being able to speak about it is just that we have options in front of us and to know that the only option isn't a very, like, harsh western medicine, surgery kind of approach, that there are other things that we can do as first line therapies as, like, you know, something to try before we go into something that's pretty extreme, like removing an organ. Like, yeah, that's. It changes your body in many, many, many ways. So that was kind of the beginning where I started to realize, oh, maybe my body is not functioning as well as I thought it was, because I grew up in kind of a society where it was like, are you skinny? Are you. Is your weight okay? Awesome. Your health is fine. And they're really. I didn't get an education on what's actually going on, like, deep inside, on a cellular. Cellular level, on an organ level, on a nutrient level, all that kind of. I did not. Yeah, sorry.

I was trying.

I did not know.

Anything about my body up until that point. I just wasn't taught. It was not taught to me. And, you know, I think a lot of people grow up in different environments where maybe they know a little more. I grew up in rural Tennessee.

I don't think people actually are taught much about their health in general. I don't remember. I mean, elementary school. I had access to all kinds of sugary foods and whatever in the.

Yes.

In the cafeteria and. And beyond. I mean, I don't. I don't.

It's.

It's. It's really good that the. It seems like the worldwide view of health is becoming, like, coming around. Right. So I'm a good. Good friend of and promoter of Gary Brecker and some of the work that he's doing. So I'm really excited about what you're doing because I had some gut. Gut health issues, specifically as a race, I think it's called. It's called methylation, I believe. And 12 supplement helped me tremendously.

Yeah, I know, right? Yes, exactly. And I've heard stories like that countless times. And, you know, my story is very similar to that.

But. Yeah. So.

At this point in my journey, I started to understand that maybe things were going a little bit awry. And so I decided to go and work with a fertility clinic. I chose, you know, the top fertility clinic in Nashville. I wanted the best of the best care.

Sure.

So my husband and I go and we start taking tests. They end up finding fibroid tumors on my uterus that I then had to go and have surgery, had those removed, and it kind of seemed to be one after the other. And so once I got the fibroid tumors removed, they were like, okay, you're cleared to have. You can start trying to have a child. And I proceeded to, in the year of 2022, have three miscarriages back to back.

I ain't nobody knew. I'm sorry.

Well, what's interesting.

I know. I know it's not something you don't share publicly, but.

No. And that's what's so difficult about. And that's why it's so important for me to share this story, was because it is so isolating. And as a. There's this very weird thing for pregnant women, is that you keep it a secret for your first trimester. That's kind of like the normal thing that most people do, because the reason why we do that is because there is such a high chance of miscarriage. I didn't know that when I first got pregnant, but that's why a lot of people just don't announce it. They don't make a big thing. So you're pregnant in silence for that first trimester and whatever happens. So when you have a miscarriage, no one knew you were pregnant to begin with. So if you experience a loss, you kind of deal with it on your own, because then you're announcing. If you go to tell someone, you're announcing the miscarriage and the. And it just. It's too much. And so what I found is that so many people just go through this silence. Yeah. It's just a quiet thing. And miscarriage is so one in four pregnancies into miscarriage. And I did not know that.

I had no idea it was that much.

Yeah, it's huge. And some people say it's one to three because. Or one in three because most people don't report it. You don't hear about a lot of them that happen. So the numbers may not even be accurate. But I learned so much going through that journey. And, you know, I was essentially pregnant and unpregnant. Pregnant and unpregnant for a year. So your hormones are crazy. Everything's going wild.

Not to mention you're still running a thriving company during that time, because we were. We were having meetings on a regular basis. Yeah.

Yeah. And that was the thing, actually. What's funny is that I quit my. So I was in the. I mentioned I was in the legal world. And the week that I kind of like, quit that job to go full time on my company was, like, in this. In this realm. But, yeah, it was very challenging to deal with all that. And I got very little support through the fertility clinic. It was one of those situations where I started to understand they have 15 minutes to get me in and out the door. And no one was digging in to what was going on. Specifically in my situation, I had to become my own advocate in that situation. I had to go in and ask for the test that I wanted. I had to start looking at what may or may not be the reason why I'm having these recurrent miscarriages.

And I had to learn to fight for myself and do my own research, because I went into this world with blind faith that every clinician and doctor that I was seeing was going back through my charts and really analyzing and triangulating and saying, like, you know, okay, what might be the issue here? That really wasn't the case. You know, it was more. And that's where I got frustrated with kind of the conventional Western medicine. And so I started digging. So my third. After the third one, that was when I started to get serious. Because after that third miscarriage, they didn't have any answers for me. They said, we don't know why this is happening.

So basically, all your other tests are coming back kind of normalized.

Normal. Yeah. And I had gone in and asked for all the tests. They just. They couldn't see anything. And. And they never gave me any kind of suggestion related to diet, lifestyle. They never said, how are your stress levels? You know, how is your work life? They. I was never presented with an option other than ivf. So the next course of action that was suggested.

Do you think that's intentional? Money, Chance.

I don't like to be. I try to be an optimist, and I do.

I'll say it. Maybe it may be intentional.

I do believe that everyone has the intention to be good. And I do believe that all doctors are trying to do the best with the tools that they have in the.

Short amount of time. Apparently, they can do it in a.

Short amount of time. The reality is, is that doctors, when they go to medical school, they get zero training on nutrition. That's not a part of their curriculum.

Which is wild to me, because new nutrition is what drives cellular behavior.

Yes, it is wild. And, you know, my mom worked in the gastroenterology department for 35 years at one of the top hospitals in Nashville, she doesn't know anything about nutrition. They did. That was not. If you had a question about your diet, and this is dealing with everything in the low intestine, the colon, all of that, they just referred you to a dietitian, but they couldn't give you any kind of counsel in terms of what you could potentially do with your diet, lifestyle, and all that to prevent some of these gut issues and things that are happening in your body. And so when I found out that. Which is crazy, that it took me 37 years to understand that a medical doctor is trained to treat you with medicine, pharmaceuticals, things like that. A nutritionist is trained to teach you how to heal with food. With food. Right. And I didn't realize that. So once that came to light, for me, that was a huge paradigm shift. I was like, oh, wait, I don't. You know, the. The doctors, if I keep. Keep going down this path, it's going to be IVF, which is $40,000 minimum.

After you've already spent all the other money.

Yeah. It's incredibly expensive, traumatic to the body, to your hormones, all of that. And there's a very small percentage chance it's going to work. I mean, I think the percentage was like, 9% for me. And so it was incredibly expensive, a very low chance of it working, but that was their next step. So I took a break from this, and, you know, me and my husband kind of.

It's funny, Kelly and I were talking to the earlier podcast today about stillness and importance of just sitting still for a few minutes. Yeah.

I was like, I need a break. I need to stop trying. Because you're. You have this forward momentum on something that you want to happen, and you're pushing.

Oh, you watch me try to force things in existence.

Yeah, you try and force, and at some point, you hit the wall where you're like, okay, I've got to have a completely different approach. Something has to be done. Completely different, and this has to be a total overhaul. And I think that was that.

That.

That third miscarriage again. It's kind of that moment. I call it like your Phoenix Rising, where, like, you.

And maybe, you know, I think it's a season in people's life. It can happen when you're younger, older, but it's that moment. And maybe it's grief, a health crisis, an addiction, but it's when, like life.

It typically comes out of crisis, for sure.

Yes. It's like life takes you down, and I think you can either.

Knock it back up and it breaks you, or I think you emerge on the other side of that, just stronger than ever. Total clarity. And you're just kind of unstoppable. You're like, I am gonna go do this thing.

Nothing's not surprised you ended up on that side at all. Knowing you as long as I have.

Yeah, well, that's. And that's really the point that I got to. So I decided to actually hire a coach. I hired a nutrition coach.

She was.

Was incredible.

And we overhauled my life completely. I quit my job that was stressful at that time and went full into what I wanted to do for a.

Living, which you're amazing at.

Thank you. I cut out all like non talk or all toxic products from like my home, my beauty products, everything. I was basically just putting coconut oil going about my day. But.

Well, in Greece you have to. You just drink olive oil a shot. So.

Yeah. But the biggest change was my diet. I ate all organic food. I ate no processed food. I cut out literally.

How did you do that? Because that's something I'm committed to. But I can't like even finding basic vegetables that haven't been treated with pesticides and stuff like that.

It is so difficult.

Why is it more expensive to eat healthy than it is to eat? Is the crap. That's another.

Okay. And this is awesome. I do kind of get a little conspiracy theory theorists about this of like, you know, we don't have this concept of like, we don't have a healthcare system. We have a sick care system. And you know, everyone kind of profits in many ways for us being sick. But yeah, it is. It's very hard. And once you. I feel like once you see it, you can never unsee it. Once you start studying the nutrition labels of foods and you start looking at the ingredients and realizing how much stuff has chemicals and pesticides and it's just a very complicated system.

Well, I looked into keto for a while and actually did keto. Ironically, I didn't use keto to get super healthy and whatever that was helpful at the time. But one of the things I discovered when I was doing keto is it was really hard to find stuff with no sugar in it at all.

Yes.

No false sugars. No real sugars. No sugars. Right. And the other part was so many things have corn built into it right now. Granted, it was super successful for the Indians and all the good stuff, but it was. I want to say it was digestible until they. Until they surrounded with all the.

I forgot what they call it, but it's. It's a It's essentially a cellular enclosed pesticide. So now your body has. Can't even digest corn. Corn products.

Yeah.

But yet we have corn products and tortillas. We got corn and corn. We got, like, there's corn starch, there's corn this. And like, I think that's the. The trickiest part is I'm not even sure how you were able to find organic foods, because even when I went to some of the Whole Foods and I say Whole Foods as a brand, Whole Food places to buy whole foods, per se, I still found stuff in stuff.

Absolutely.

Like, how the heck did you find. When you changed your dietary stuff? How'd you. How'd you find the right stuff to eat?

I think you have to be so vigilant, and this is where it's exhausting. I mean, this is. What I did was not an easy thing to do, and it required so much vigilance about looking at every single thing I was putting in my body. And again, I'm lucky and very fortunate and privileged to live in Nashville, which is a bigger city. And I had access to. To little farms and places and, you know, small stores and health food spots where I could go find whole foods. I had to cook a lot. I had to, you know, the convenience of things in bags and, you know, boxes and all that wasn't there. So it took a lot of time. The time that I spent preparing my.

Meals and food, really, I'm writing down right now, no more doordash.

Yeah. Yeah. It was exponential. But the reality is most people live in food deserts where you can't access this stuff. You know, it's hard to even find. And I grew up in a place like this where it was hard to even find healthy vegetables and, you know, organic produce, organic meats, all that kind of stuff. Most people don't even have access and as.

And they don't know how to raise it on their own, so. And they don't know how to raise.

It on their own.

Right. That's almost like a lost art. So.

Right. But even, you know, even backing up before that, they don't even know that it's a problem.

Yeah.

You know, I think the. The education for that and like, God bless my mother, but she did not have an education about, like, food for us when we were growing up.

I don't think. I don't think any. Any mother, any mother or father would. No one really teaches you about food.

Yeah. I mean, and it was the 80s and 90s. It was the heyday of, like, ding dongs and Pringles and all of that, you know. So that's Twinkies.

I miss some Twinkies.

Yeah. You know, and sodas.

Somebody makes organic Twinkies, please.

The place.

Fruit can be used as sugar. Anyway. Sorry. Yeah.

And so that's what I grew up in. You know, I grew up in processed food heaven, you know, and nobody knew that that was wrong. And you know, the marketing on that. I think being in marketing is an eye opener. When you understand what people are allowed to say freely, I think you become much more skeptical of products in general.

Yeah.

You know, all of it.

Sure. So.

Yeah, so that was. It was three months. Three months of this. Just. I'm cutting everything out. I'm going all natural. I am there. A chemical is not going to be on my skin or in my body. Just gonna see what happens.

Yeah.

Again, very hard to do. Sounds easy. Sounds like. Oh, you just. No, it's absolutely in this.

I'm glad you brought up the. On your body piece because in New Zealand you have to wear sunscreen 247 because they don't have an ozone layer there.

Yeah.

And you get. You can literally get burned in four or five minutes if you're not wearing sunscreen. And somebody was on the trip because I went, I went with a group of people I'd never met before. So 13 strangers met. We should have filmed the whole thing. Yeah. It sounds like it's called Flash Flash Pack. It's actually really fun. But somebody in the group said, hey, I'm not. I can't put that on my skin. Like, well, why? They're like, well, because you're going to. You're going to absorb the toxins that are in the product. That's preventing the sun. But it's. It's preventing the sun. It puts in the thought it's preventing the sun from. From as far as like the, the UV rays. But it's causing all kinds of other issues.

Absolutely.

Like I have, like, it's caused me to look at stuff. I still need to do better.

Yeah.

But I'm curious kind of. I want to hear more. A little. Just any bit more about that as well.

Yeah. Well. And what you just said about you want to do better, you're learning. I think that's why there's a. There's a movement out there. It's called low tox living low tox lifestyle. You'll hear people talk about it. And I love this approach because it's basically saying, like, we can't have a no tox life, so we can't cut out all toxins. It's just not possible. I mean, the reality of the world that we live in, there are just toxins that we are exposed to.

But she. Reducing toxins has to help.

Exactly. Reduce where you can, what you can control. If you can reduce that, you can just greatly improve your health on so many levels. But to your point, what you're putting on your skin is huge. So I mentioned that I had those fibroid tumors. Well, those fibroid tumors, a lot of that for many women. And you know, everyone's body is different and many women have these for various different reasons. But a lot of mine was coming from fragranced products. So as women we have, you know, the synthetic fragrances are in every. Everything we use. It's, you know, lotions, hair stuff, perfume, everything has this like synthetic fragrance. And now the research is coming out that shows that this is very dangerous for our hormonal health. Our, you know, it's an endocrine disruptor. It affects our reproductive system, all of this stuff. And even to cut out synthetic fragrances from your products is very difficult, very hard. So, yeah, everything we put on our body, our skin is our largest organ. And so it's, it is going to absorb whatever goes on it to some degree. There are some nuances there, but yeah. Yeah. And so to evaluate all of your products and say, like, would I eat this even? You know, it's like, if it could, I, would I be willing to like, eat it? I think is a good litmus test of whether or not you want to put it on your skin. Because there really are in, you know, even some of the natural clean beauty products, you can still see some ingredients that aren't great.

Yeah.

So I think it really, it really does require a lot of education and research and time to look into this stuff.

Yeah. Well, after that three months stint, I mean, it's safe to say you found some pretty important things.

Yes.

That is that sent you on a journey to fix a problem that you didn't know existed, but now you know it existed. Now you know it has to be fixed.

Yeah.

Like so. Which I totally get. Right. That's why I do what I do as well. So. Yeah. So tell me what you found and, and kind of what was. What was hiding because obviously we know Nova was born.

Yes.

Beautiful and healthy and the whole good thing. So like walk us down that journey.

So what I want to highlight, and again, my story is mine. Everyone will have their own journey. And I'm not saying that everyone would if, if you repeated what I did, that you would have the exact same outcome. But what shocked me was that it was three months of this. Three months of this diet, cutting out the chemicals, all of that. And I got pregnant with Nova and had a perfectly healthy pregnancy. I felt great. I was like. I had so much energy. I had so much vitality. I was like. Even my mood, because that year before was very dark. Oh, I'm sure it was extremely hard. There was a lot of trauma in my mood was not great. So being able to see how much I changed from the inside out just in three months, but my body was able to accomplish so much when I just removed that toxic load that it was holding and dealing with. A lot of this had to do with also lifestyle stuff. So, you know, I was out with my bare feet on the grass.

You know, I do it every morning unless it's too cold.

Yeah, Stuff like that. Doing castor oil packs and a lot of meditation. And I was really understanding that you can't have a super high stress life and expect your body to function correctly.

Right.

So you have to come down, you have to find ways to regulate and modulate your emotions and all of that. And when you start doing that, your body kind of follows. It's like, okay, so in.

Once it knows it's safe.

Yeah, Right. It's like safety. And I think it took me getting to that place of pure safety in my body where finally, when I did conceive, it was like, this is a good place. All right, we approve. You know, like, this works for us. So. Yeah. After just three months of that, I had a perfectly healthy pregnancy, had a perfectly healthy baby, and that was never presented to me as an option.

Yeah.

In the medical realm.

Yeah.

Never once.

Yeah. Well, it's. It's. It's disappointing to know that.

It wasn't. However, it's also encouraging to know that there seems to be a bit of a movement now whether it's the work that you're doing. Gary Brucka. There's a lot of folks who are bringing awareness to. I think Gary says, use what God put in you, not what man makes for you. Right.

Yeah.

Use the healthiness of the foods.

And.

And he brought in just because most people don't know this, but.

I'm gonna be very loose when I say this. I'm gonna use a product name that's not exclusive to the product. Right. But essentially.

When Teflon was created, Okay, I want to say 90 plus percent of the population worldwide has Teflon in their bloodstream. Today.

Yes.

Right, absolutely. Which means there's already a toxin inside the, the bloodstream already that has not been fully released. Don't even know if it can be fully released. But that started the, the ability for cells to take on things it's not supposed to take on to. So then your body goes into fight mode. Your immune system is trying to fight everything. So basically your body is fighting itself, not not knowing that there's simple ways to do it. So, you know, the, this is why I like the nutraceutical thing so much, is because nutraceuticals have a tendency again, to do what pharmaceuticals can't do, which is regulate how the body is supposed to actually function. Yes, right. Whereas historically, from what I've seen outside, again, I'm not a professional doctor or whatever, and I love the doctors in the world. I've had a lot of good ones. But now my, my rule is I'm going to try it holistically first.

Yes, yes.

And if I can, if it. And so far I have yet to have to step into pharmaceuticals. And if that doesn't work, then, you know, outside of I, low testosterone I had to work on, I'm 50 years old, this coming couple months. So. But outside of those two things, or outside of that one thing, everything else is holistic. And my rule is, is holistic first, pharmaceuticals only as a last resort. And I did that because I've realized that I can actually nutrify any area in my body that's deficient. And historically it just takes a simple blood test, whatever really, for where you're deficient at. And then once you add the nutrients, the body's like, oh, thanks, cool, we're back to premium operation now.

Yes, you know, and that's simple. And that again, it's not free because you need to pay for whatever you're consuming. But it's.

I know, but it's negligible in the grand, in the grand scheme of things, paying a ten thousand dollar hospital bill for an organ removal.

A thousand percent.

Yeah.

And that's, that's, that's what I want to help people understand. And again, I think it's our birthright to understand what nutrition helps us. And you know, I don't think you need a doctor to tell you this stuff, like to understand that, oh, hey, you can heal by treating your nutrient deficiencies if you can understand what those are, that you can really help your body improve in so many different areas. Again, as you said, as the first line of defense against something that might be coming, you know, if that doesn't work, then sure, move on.

Well, it was interesting because people in the holistic, well I call it holistic health.

Yep, right, yeah.

People in the holistic health world, whether it's.

Gosh, escape me right now, but it's the type of doctor that only operates from a holistic approach, gets shunned.

Functional medicine.

Functional medicine, yeah, yeah. So they get historically get shunned by traditional medicine and. But yet I've had a lot more success with functional based medicine just based on doing comprehensive blood tests, figuring out what my cellular, cellular pathway is, what things are really good for me. I have, it's funny, I have one allergy and it's called ragweed, which North Carolina has plenty of. Yeah, right. That's it. Right. However.

The, there's a nutraceutical that I take. It's called 5mt Timmy, a 5mthf. Gary Breaker calls it the MFR gene.

Yeah, right.

So I have the MF or gene because it makes me an MFer, I guess. I don't know. But, but I started taking that and it changed how I digest food entirely. I can actually digest. I found out my body wasn't digesting food properly, it was taking just itty bit, which means my body would get some nutrients but not a lot of nutrients. I would end up gaining weight and some other things because it couldn't digest, we just eliminated.

Right. And that's the concept of bioavailability, which is a word that we use a lot and it sounds like a big sciency word, but it's very simple and it's really just exactly what you said of like your body's ability to actually use the nutrients that you're giving it. So if you give it a synthetic form of a vitamin, let's say like vitamin E. Right. So there's research that shows that if you get vitamin E through like avocado or something that you eat, your body uses, it's able to actually use that nutrient more efficiently and better than if you take a synthetic lab made version of the vitamin. So it looks the same on paper.

First you have to digest the capsule, right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

What's the capsule made out of, I wonder?

Yeah, sorry. And so it looks the same on paper. So you're like vitamin E, vitamin E. But the bioavailability of where it's coming from is very different. And your body, it's like a fake $10 bill and a real ten dollar bill. You know, if I give it to you, they look the same. Cool, great. But if you go try and spend it. One's gonna work, one's not gonna work.

Yeah.

And so I think understanding where our nutrients are coming from is very important. And when you get those nutrients from who.

Then your body recognizes them. It says, we know how to use this. We know what to do with this. This is in our realm. And so when you are getting your nutrients from whole food sources, mostly your body uses it better. But if you're just taking a multivitamin that's all synthetic vitamins, you're just peeing most of that out. You know, I mean, the reality is really yellow.

Yeah.

You're not using a lot of those synthetic vitamins. And that, to me, is part of the education gap. That. Because when I first started taking, like, prenatal vitamins and all that stuff, I was going for just all synthetic versions of the vitamins and things like folic acid. A lot of women can't process. Folic acid is a synthetic.

Folic acid is 100 synthetic.

Yeah.

You cannot find it in nature anywhere.

Right. But that is recommended for women who are getting pregnant and who are pregnant is like.

So this is really. I'm gonna go down a conspiracy rabbit hole. I'm curious to know when folic acid was. Folic acid was introduced and when spikes in autism began to happen or birth challenges or.

Under any baby that ended up in an eq. I'm very. I would be very interested to someone who's smarter than me.

Yes.

To go run that math.

I mean. Yeah. The thing is, is that we don't. There's so much that we don't know. But what we do know is there's a. A lot of women who do not process. They have a particular gene mutation where they cannot process folic acid. Because you need other processing. Right. You need other stuff to do that.

So a former partner of mine had a. Had her middle son, was diagnosed with Crohn's, and they prescribed him folic acid like it was going out of style. I noticed that it seemed like when he was taking folic acid, he actually got sicker.

Yeah.

I mean, I spent several nights with him in the hospital, you know, treating Crohn's, and then I bump into Gary, and Gary starts talking about different things. He's like, actually, I'm working with people now that their Crohn's systems are gone.

Yeah. And because it's probably. They're taking, like, methylfolate.

Yeah. They're going. They're doing what they're supposed to be doing.

Yeah.

From a neutral. From A nutrients, perspective.

And that's the thing is like. So, yeah, it's like for. And this is huge for women who, again, it's for any health journey, but when you're trying to create a whole nother human, your body needs. Yeah. It's like your body really needs. So that's why I keep coming back to, like, pregnancy. Even though not all of us are going to have a baby or want to do that, but it's. It's still like a way that your body needs to be functioning, functioning optimally to produce. So, yeah, it's like, you know, they recommend. And so many doctors offices recommend folic acid. But then if you switch to methylfolate, which is a more bioavailable, more the active form, your body can suddenly digest that and you can use it and you can, you know, and it's like, to me, the fact that we don't know any of this stuff is shocking.

Yeah.

And it's very dangerous.

Yeah.

And, you know, my hope is that we can get this education out to people so they can understand a little more about how their body is actually using the nutrients that they're putting in.

Yeah. No, I think I've been. I'm with you. That's. Historically, I was like, let's do the show. Let's go. Right. Because I'm with you. I mean, I'm. I'm 50. I'm. I'll be 50 years old in January.

I. I feel the best I've ever felt and I'm absolutely in the best shape I've ever been in. Like, I don't remember having the quote. I don't mean this is a brag thing. This is just like. This is me just, like, being aware. My physique I didn't have when I was 20.

Yeah.

And I'm doing that through as much cleaning as I can. Supplementation with things that help methyl folates, methyl folks I always get to see. I'm not even a doctor. I'm just saying what I'm doing. Right. Yeah. What I want to do now is we. I think we've identified the problem really, really well. And your specific journey and how it led you to a solution. I think what I'd like to know is, I'd like to know how Serenova itself.

Is helping people in different walks of life get the nutraceuticals they need in order to have optimized health, maybe identify who it's specifically for. Maybe some of the challenges are actually walking through and just kind of understand, kind of what the, what the historic benefit has been?

Yeah, definitely. So our first product is a nutraceutical for steadier energy and a healthier gut. This is something that so many people are having trouble with in this day and age. I do. The formulations are built for women. They're a little gentler, they're a little smaller. What I have found is, is that a lot of supplements are built for the male body and kind of marketed to women as an afterthought in a lot of ways. So what I really wanted to do was create a brand specifically formulated for women at the doses that we need and that we use best. So that's part of, that's part of what we're trying to do in this line of supplements. And so this, our first one, which is formula number six. So this is going to include beef organs. And if we look at the data, if we look at our whole food sources, beef liver is incredible. It has, it's one of the most nutrient dense whole foods that you can possibly eat. And I'm not gonna eat beef liver.

So I, there's a taste associated with beef liver.

Yeah, I'm very weird about weird meats. So. But I understand, but I understand how nutrient dense beef liver and beef organs are.

Yeah.

And so when, so I started taking beef organ supplements during my journey and absolutely loved it. They gave me so much energy. I just, I, in terms of what, what they do for me and what they can do for the body. Excellent. And so that's why I wanted to include them. And when you freeze dry as opposed to cook, so the way that you encapsulate beef organ supplements is you freeze dry them and it preserves a lot of the nutrients, the enzymes, the co factors, all of that, that, so that what you're taking has, it's literally like a nutrient powerhouse that's just a whole food. And so we're mixing that with really incredible herbs that are, you know, scientifically backed, research backed, like yarrow, slippery elm, black pepper for absorption. All of these things are going to enhance your ability to actually absorb the nutrients and the things that you're putting into your body. And that, that's the goal, right, is to create the most nutrient dense version of vitamins that we can. So essentially, beef liver is a multivitamin. It's like nature's multivitamin. And we used to get it in our diet all the time, right. Like you know, back in the 50s or make liver and onions and that kind of stuff. And it's just phased out of popularity but for centuries we have eaten organ meats and beef liver. And now in the modern.

Well, if you make me. But the texture kind of gets.

That's why. And, and I think a lot of women can.

A lot of women are not put in a supplement. I'm better.

Yes, exactly. It's just kind of a little easier to stomach intake, which is why I think it's a great, it's a great solution. So.

Yeah, well, I mean I love the solution piece like. So what are some of the maybe two or three top. What are probably two or three problems like a external surface level, whether it be energy or whatever. I don't know. Obviously you mentioned energy already but that the person who this product's best served is experiencing. And then I, I would assume that if they're having those problems and they're using a product, they're going to have these solutions. What are like maybe three or four of the highlights?

Yeah. So if you're a woman and you know, I speak a lot to women who are in their 30s and 40s, we've got a lot of people who are going through perimenopause and you know, going into menopause. If you're having fatigue, you know, a lot of that could be B12 issues. And you know, you can take again as we talked about, you can take a lot of synthetic, you know, B12 and B vitamins, but when they're not present with all of the other cofactors that you can find in natural foods, your body doesn't absorb it. So B12 can be huge for women who are feeling fatigue. You're lethargic, you're having some brain fog, that kind of stuff. If you can intake better, more bioavailable versions of your B vitamins, that's excellent if you are having gut issues. So maybe you're having an upset stomach and all of that. Yarrow and slippery elm are two herbs that combine. So Yarrow is historically an anti inflammatory. Very good for your gut, very dangerous. Yes.

For longevity in general.

Absolutely. And you know, you can sit there and pop ibuprofen or whatever for like inflammation. But there are natural things that are anti inflammatory out in the wild, you know. And so I think when we start to incorporate more natural versions of these like drugs and again this is not a drug or pharmaceutical, but there are things that have a very natural anti inflammatory effect. So Yarrow is going to reduce that inflammation all over. Right. It's going to help support you having more of a anti inflammatory response. So that's why that's included. And then slippery elm is a wonderful, like gut soother. So it creates kind of a little like lining in your gut. So if you're having a lot of issues digesting things, all of that, slippery elm is wonderful for that. Again, this is something that has been used for eons in, you know, Native American tribes and things like that. And then black pepper. So again, if you're having trouble absorbing things, there's a lot of research that shows that the bioactive compounds in black pepper help.

You see, it's funny, it's not gonna. Now I'm more committed to putting black pepper on stuff. And now because I'm like, I'm a man, I don't need to put salt on pepper or anything.

There's actually, there's, there's an agenda that you can have when you're putting black pepper on things. It's really great. And you know, it's usually combined with like turmeric to help with absorption. But, but it does, it actually like helps improve the bioavailability of certain nutrients. So that's, you know, that's why we put it in there. So I think, you know, if, yeah, if you're experiencing any kind of that, like fatigue and energy levels, I think once you start actually giving your body full spectrum of nutrients.

Yeah.

Then I think you start to see those effects. And again, it is not like it's not a shot of caffeine that's going to get you. It's like over time, when you see you start giving your body what it needs, you start to see those effects.

Yeah.

And that's, that's the main goal here.

I dig it. That's awesome. Yeah. Well, if I'm not mistaken, now that you guys are about to officially launch. Launch. Which I'm excited about, excited for you. I'm not. I'm, I'm going to go ahead and claim it's going to be very successful and help a lot of people because I know the heart that created it. I also know more about the struggle that created it, which I'm, as your friend and ally in this business world. I'm excited about what is probably the first step because I know that you, you created a couple entry points to get so people can kind of get them, get more understanding about what it is that you're actively doing. Clearly, I know you said, I know you're, you're not a doctor and all the things, but doggone if you don't talk like one. So. Which means that just tells me you studied the mess out of this for yourself. And obviously.

You know, I don't know, it's a beautiful mission. So I'm curious, what, what, what, what do you, what do you think the suggested first step for somebody to learn more about this is? Sure.

Yeah. So we are right now building a wait list. So if you go to saranova.com we have our waitlist that you can get on. And so we're going to be doing like early, early access perks and, and discounts and all that. And that's where we, you know, we have a email list that we are sending, you know, kind of updates as we go along and that's very exciting. So if nothing else, sign up for the wait list. We'll let you know when we're launching officially and you'll get some discounts. And then we're also, at this point I mentioned, like, I want to build a team of people around me and around this brand that really understand holistic nutrition and can help.

Yeah.

Build this and provide that, that education. And so I'm also putting together some brand ambassadors and affiliates and things like that. And, and that's really important to me. I really want to make sure that there's a circle that's advising this brand and what we do in the future products that we put out.

Yeah.

So I'm also doing that and you can go to saranova.com collective and we have, you know, if you're interested in, in helping spread this mission and getting more involved. Yeah, I'm looking to partner with people and bring people on board and I've.

Already tried to introduce you some incredible people already. You're going to meet Lorraine Michaels today. You've already met Kelly Chase.

Yep.

We've introduced you to Coach Dart. We're going to keep it going. There's a lot of, it's funny, there's a lot of highly successful females that are excellent humans who are all into bio optimization and.

I think many of them would see the benefits there, especially if this is a resource. Some of these things are things that you use along your own journey as it related to getting pregnant and all the other things associated with it. So because I think many of them still have aspirations of having their own, their own child at some point in time. And I don't know, it's an honor. I'm a dude, so I'm probably not the ideal avatar, but I am your friend and ally. So if I can help you be successful in any way, shape or form, I want to do that again because I know you're not pushing a product you're selling. You're actually, you're selling a solution from a place of the solution costs money to make.

Yeah.

And you would like to be. I'm full time with it. So you can really make the impact that I think God is trying to get you to make. I'm not surprised that he used the darkest days of your journey to turn it to the greatest light for other people. That's been my experience so far. And everybody that's been on the show essentially has gone through a similar process to get them to where they are today. So, yeah, I'm down for it. So everybody, saranova.com for sure if you're interested in being a brand ambassador and checking that out. Sarah, saranova.com collective or slash collective, because I'm sure it's order back or whatever. Anyway, forward. Yeah.

I don't know.

But if there's one, one more thought that's on your heart, your mind that you have yet to share today as we close out the show, what would that be?

Oh, great question.

You know, I think that.

One of the things that I wanted more than anything when I was going through my journey, I just wanted real women who had gone through what I had gone through to tell me how they did it. I didn't want any more advice from people who had not been there, who had not gone through what I had gone through. And granted, there were a lot of women who had had one miscarriage and were trying and had had. I wanted to. It was very rare to find stories that reflected what I was going through, which was like multiple miscarriages, a huge health journey, and to provide hope, if I can provide hope to a woman who is in that mode where maybe you are getting to the end of your rope. That's why I want to put my story out there, is because I know that there are countless women who are in there and they just need one sign of hope that it is possible to overcome this and whether whatever kind of health journey that is.

But you may just be one move, one, you know, three months from getting that outcome that you want. If you can make decisions and choices and have your agency and actually take control of what you can control. And yeah, it's just really important for me to get that message out there to people who need to hear it right now. So it's, I think my message is if you're, if you're going through something hard out there right now, like it means your blessing is on its way.

I love that giving voice to the voices. I love it. I'm gonna go ahead and give you a new URL. It doesn't exist yet. Just putting that out there. But I think you should have saranova.com tell your story. Yeah.

Oh, that's beautiful.

Yeah. I think that that would be a beautiful way to connect with people because again, you're not a company that's trying to, to sell a product.

Yeah.

You were legitimately trying to serve people. Absolutely. And.

I'm praying that in the next, from now until the next 50 years that more and more entrepreneurs step into the gap. As you've stepped into the gap in this particular case, to give voice to the voiceless, to give hope to those that need it and also help them actually get the solutions to ultimately get the outcomes that they want. I think that there's a, there's been a, a long standing marketing machine that's all about how do we sell it to them.

Yeah.

Right. The message that I want to see entrepreneurs step into the gap for now is how do we serve them? Yeah.

A thousand percent.

Right. I have no, I personally don't have any problem with any business entrepreneur, venture making money as long as they don't have. As long as it has meaning. Right. And it's real and it's true. And I'm praying that the show does that time and time again. So, Sarah, thanks for coming on.

Thank you. Thank you so much. It's been wonderful.

Hey guys, that's going to this episode of Build. Thank you so much as always. Please, like share, subscribe all the things. Because as bad as I hate to admit it, it actually really does help. I know. So, you know, share it clips, all the things. Appreciate you. See you in the next build. Take care. God bless. Peace. Hey guys, I hope you enjoyed that amazing conversation and if you want more just like that to help you level up your life and your business, you're not going to miss this next one. Check it out.

Reality TV is very toxic. I don't.

Reality.

Yeah, reality parts of it, yes. But there is definitely a narrative that production creates and can spin things and it's just not real and it's very toxic. I was never, I mean, I've maybe watched a couple seasons or a couple episodes.