Latest / Beyond Fulfillment Podcast / The TikTok Papa's Playbook w/ Puneet Nanda: Ayurveda, Power Naps, & Building a Viral Wellness Empire

Transcript

The TikTok Papa's Playbook w/ Puneet Nanda: Ayurveda, Power Naps, & Building a Viral Wellness Empire · Beyond Fulfillment Podcast

• 0:04
  Because your body is like a temple.
• 0:07
  And if you are not going to take care of your body, who will?
• 0:11
  What if the products you've trusted your whole life were quietly working against you in a better way already existed?
• 0:19
  Today I sit down with Dr.
• 0:21
  Fresh Paneet Nanda, founder of Guru Nanda.
• 0:24
  The man behind one of TikTok Shop's fastest growing wellness brands.
• 0:29
  He went from battling serious lifestyle health issues to building a multi million dollar natural oral care empire.
• 0:37
  And he's here to share exactly how he did it.
• 0:40
  In this episode, you'll discover why big brand oral care products may be doing more harm than good.
• 0:46
  How Puneet used TikTok to reach millions and build authentic brand loyalty almost overnight.
• 0:53
  And the daily ayurvedic habits that keep him sharp, energized and ahead of the game.
• 0:59
  As an entrepreneur in his 60s.
• 1:02
  Whether you're building a brand, protecting your health or just hungry for what's possible, this conversation will change how you think about both wellness and business.
• 1:12
  As always, if you found value from this content, please like and subscribe.
• 1:18
  All right, Dr.
• 1:19
  Fresh, Puneet Nanda, welcome to Beyond Fulfillment.
• 1:24
  Thank you.
• 1:24
  Thank you for inviting me.
• 1:26
  Yes sir.
• 1:27
  Such an honor to have you.
• 1:28
  So I appreciate you coming on the show.
• 1:31
  So Dr.
• 1:32
  Fresh, all our listeners will know who you are.
• 1:35
  You've got a long history, very successful entrepreneur in the, in the toothpaste toothbrush space, originally in the oral care space.
• 1:44
  But more lately these last few years you've really reinvented yourself with a brand new business and you are absolutely on fire on TikTok Shop Shop.
• 1:56
  Basically the, the original number one seller and perennial top five product on TikTok with the Guru Nanda line.
• 2:06
  So that's where everyone knows you from present day.
• 2:09
  So let's just key on keying on that part of your journey.
• 2:13
  So when you started this new business, Guru Nanda, what what brought you to TikTok Shop?
• 2:20
  So I'll give you a quick backstory.
• 2:22
  I started doctor Fresh after coming from Russia.
• 2:27
  I'm born in India, went to Russia for studies, came to US because I did not want to pursue medicine in the us I decided to start a business because you otherwise would have to start from the beginning going
• 2:40
  to residency.
• 2:42
  And I wanted, when I started Dr.
• 2:45
  Fresh it was more about oral care because my family already was in oral care business.
• 2:52
  But then at one point I became quite a bit overweight, sick, eating fast food, drinking Cokes and after a little stint in the hospital, I said I'm going to fix myself.
• 3:07
  I sold the business, I Went for a year learning Ayurveda and learning yoga.
• 3:13
  And then when I came back I this started a yoga studio.
• 3:19
  But then soon I realized I get more Zen when I'm doing business.
• 3:24
  I'm an entrepreneur.
• 3:24
  I'm a two time entrepreneur at Ernst and Young.
• 3:29
  Entrepreneur of the year award winner.
• 3:31
  Only 23 of them in the world in last 48 years.
• 3:35
  So that said, when I started Guru Nanda, the reason I started it was because I saw a lot of the girls who were coming to yoga studios were buying very expensive oils from Duterra and young living at $50
• 3:51
  a bottle, which I believed that if I could get a high quality product similar to that, I could bridge the gap and get these young girls who are struggling but still wanted a high quality product at a very
• 4:05
  inexpensive price.
• 4:06
  So that's what I did and that's how Guru Nanda was born.
• 4:10
  But then I learned that this is an amazing business because essential oils are so powerful and people have been using flavors all the time.
• 4:21
  So in the morning when you wake up, you use a tube of toothpaste from any big company.
• 4:27
  And most big companies, I'm not going to name them name them, but most big companies put menthol or peppermint that is made by a factory in Dalian or in Germany.
• 4:40
  And these are made by petrochemicals and these are mint flavors.
• 4:46
  So early morning, your body according to Ayurveda is like a vacuum machine.
• 4:51
  And your mouth is very porous.
• 4:53
  It takes micro dosage of whatever you put in your mouth early morning, especially in a very high quantity.
• 5:03
  And when you use a toothpaste that has petrochemicals, that has chemicals like sodium saccharine instead of natural version of so called sweetness.
• 5:16
  And in case you're using sodium lauryl sulfate, which is a harsh detergent in your toothpaste, all these chemicals slowly get in your body in very micro dosages.
• 5:31
  And your liver sometimes can process it.
• 5:33
  Sometimes it's too much of overload.
• 5:35
  Especially because we've been trained by the TV ads.
• 5:39
  You know, you put a big blob of toothpaste on the toothbrush versus in reality you just need pea sized because if you put a big blob you're actually overdosing on fluoride and most toothpaste to prevent cavity.
• 5:55
  That's how FDA has been regulating.
• 5:57
  You need fluoride in it.
• 6:00
  And High quantity means five to six times of what is needed over 50,000 times in your lifetime.
• 6:08
  No wonder a lot of people, not just this toothpaste alone, but Shampoo, conditioner, other things.
• 6:18
  These things all catch on.
• 6:20
  And at 68 you get a diagnosis or call from a doctor and saying, hey, you got something really horrible and you're angry, you're upset.
• 6:29
  Why did this happen to me?
• 6:30
  It happened to you because you did not pay attention.
• 6:33
  And also the big companies did not take responsibility, ethical responsibility.
• 6:41
  And these products people have been using all their lives thinking these are from very well known companies of fifty hundred years would be fine, but they don't realize they are not fine in a lot of instances.
• 6:55
  And that is the reason this education was missing for the longest time.
• 7:00
  For example, when I was growing up, there was a mouthwash that said if it doesn't burn, it doesn't work.
• 7:05
  And people used to have a very high alcohol mouthwash in their mouth and feel the burn and feel very that no pain, no gain.
• 7:14
  Arnold Schwarzenegger era and that World War II guys who went through a lot of tough times, they all believed in like, okay, if there's no pain, no gain.
• 7:26
  And that mindset had set in.
• 7:29
  And that is not true because a lot of times these mouthwashes end up killing your entire microbiome.
• 7:39
  And when your entire microbiome is gone, that means you're cleaning up your mouth with 99.9% of the bacteria.
• 7:47
  And people don't realize 98% of them are good bacteria that are very important for you for digestion.
• 7:55
  Only 2% are the bad guys.
• 7:58
  So you're literally nuking your entire mouth early morning.
• 8:02
  Although there is a thing about alcohol, it basically it's in and out versus there are other chemicals like chlorhexidine, which will nuke it and will stick on your mucosa.
• 8:15
  So they'll keep nuking it for next 12 hours versus alcohol.
• 8:19
  At least it's in and out.
• 8:21
  You'll nuke your microbiome and then it will be okay within a next some hours or minutes.
• 8:30
  But the problem is once you're nuking, you're killing some of the varieties of these bacteria.
• 8:35
  And if you look at it, a lot of people are having high blood pressure.
• 8:40
  And one of the reasons that has already been studied in a Harvard study is that when you nuke your entire mouth with a very high percentage of alcohol mouthwash, you, you're literally killing everything.
• 8:55
  So those bacteria that help you with nitric oxide production, that keeps your blood pressure checked or in level also get killed because there's a pathway where when you eat nitrates like beetroot or spinach or leafy greens, those get
• 9:11
  converted to nitric oxide that keeps the vasodilation of your nerves, they keep them dilated so that your blood pressure keeps under check.
• 9:22
  So there's a 25 point difference on the top line that was noted in the study.
• 9:29
  And the study is publicly available on a mouthwash with high percentage of alcohol.
• 9:35
  Such things were approved by ada.
• 9:37
  Such things were unfortunately recommended by the dentist for the longest period of time.
• 9:43
  But since the new administration has come, there's a lot of changes happening.
• 9:47
  People are starting to realize you don't need colors in a mouthwash.
• 9:51
  They are only for show.
• 9:52
  They're only to show.
• 9:54
  The green means mint, mint doesn't have green color.
• 9:57
  In reality, they're only to show.
• 10:01
  Pink means bubble gum, bubblegum doesn't have.
• 10:06
  You actually are adding colors which you don't need and simultaneously you are adding flavors that are artificially manufactured with chemicals, with petrochemicals, with other chemicals.
• 10:18
  All these things are getting microdosed alongside of course a lot of preservatives because when you add a lot of these things, you have to add a lot of preservatives.
• 10:28
  Added preservatives means.
• 10:30
  Preservatives are important any which ways in a packaged product.
• 10:33
  But you have to add a lot more.
• 10:36
  The more complicated, chemically complicated the formulation is.
• 10:40
  So things.
• 10:43
  So, so at Guru Nanda you're going against kind of the mainstream big box oral care companies strategy where they're using the artificial colors, they're using all these additives that aren't good for you.
• 10:59
  You don't do any of that at Guru Nanda.
• 11:02
  Right.
• 11:02
  And you're more of like an ayurvedic based company, products company.
• 11:07
  And as you said, right, the new administration with the new, the new policies to us kind of endorsing what you've already been doing.
• 11:15
  So you've, you've leveraged social media and specifically TikTok incredibly well given, especially given your age.
• 11:24
  I mean you're, you're not a spring chicken.
• 11:26
  But yet, yet you've been able to connect with such a younger audience.
• 11:33
  I mean all my teenagers know, know they say you're interviewing Dr.
• 11:37
  Fresh.
• 11:38
  What like you know, so everyone, they all know who you are.
• 11:41
  So, so how have you been?
• 11:43
  Like I guess, why did you go to social media and start posting all this content?
• 11:49
  So unfortunately a lot of the product things that I just told you are still very unknown to the population in America, general population of America.
• 12:01
  And they do not understand, they don't read the ingredients, they are not that well versed with some of the negative Things that go in because in 1970s all the companies but the flavor companies got together and got a
• 12:18
  bill approved by probably having a lot of these senators get together and approve a bill where flavor could be a hit word that could have 3,000 plus chemicals hidden behind it.
• 12:34
  So in reality, each time when you read flavor word on any package, it could have up to 3,000 chemicals and several of them are on the carcinogenic list.
• 12:46
  But you never read them.
• 12:48
  Just because there was a bill that post passed in the 70s that kind of still protects that word flavor because somebody probably had some major donors or something going on.
• 13:00
  I'm not going to spill that tea, but you can look it up yourself.
• 13:04
  I don't want to get in trouble here.
• 13:06
  But all I can tell you is that somebody needs to educate the people.
• 13:11
  And when I went on TikTok, I saw that the audience was receptive.
• 13:16
  I didn't have the dollars to go on television and advertise my products.
• 13:21
  I started educating and very soon I saw that the young teens are very receptive.
• 13:29
  And all of a sudden I became the TikTok papa for most of the people.
• 13:35
  When I was sitting at a restaurant just last night and a bunchload of teenagers walked up to me, aren't you the TikTok papa?
• 13:45
  Can I have a picture with you?
• 13:48
  So this is very, very common.
• 13:52
  This TikTok has given me a lot of fame and the more viral the videos went, the more I got the dopamine to keep going.
• 14:05
  And it has actually made me feel young.
• 14:08
  I feel like a teenager, although I'm probably four times the age.
• 14:13
  But I feel pretty good.
• 14:15
  I exercise every day, I eat right and I use good products either made by myself or companies that are doing good job.
• 14:25
  I read every ingredient list.
• 14:27
  If I don't understand something, I take a picture and put it to chatgpt or Claude and ask it is it something that is going to meet my health goals?
• 14:41
  Because I've already given it my health goals and I've saved it or not.
• 14:46
  And if it is not, rate me 1 to 10 and it does it in a minute.
• 14:52
  With all these new tools available, I think the young people would be doing it a lot more.
• 14:57
  But I do it religiously so I think life has become much easier with AI and I'm taking full advantage of it.
• 15:07
  And I think most people should, they should read every ingredient.
• 15:11
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• 15:16
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• 15:19
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• 15:53
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• 15:59
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• 16:04
  Love that?
• 16:05
  Love that.
• 16:05
  And I love to see too right.
• 16:07
  Given your, your age that you're, you're so up on AI.
• 16:11
  You use it like you know, you mentioned you're the tik tok papa.
• 16:14
  You've really used social media to connect with the younger audience.
• 16:17
  And I just want to key in on something you said too because you know, you mentioned your, your health routine.
• 16:23
  You're very vigilant about making sure you, you understand everything that goes in your body.
• 16:28
  Your body's a temple.
• 16:30
  Um, so our audience is all entrepreneurs who are very passionate about the businesses they're building and they work a lot.
• 16:36
  Right?
• 16:37
  And you clearly work a lot even at your, your, your age and, and your success throughout your career.
• 16:45
  How would you.
• 16:46
  Because again, right, you're based on you know, Ayurveda and this principles of longevity.
• 16:53
  What advice would you give to other entrepreneurs in terms of you know, balancing that, that kind of workaholic type of lifestyle with, with the health and the balance and all these other principles of Ayurveda.
• 17:08
  So this I learned it the hard way and I hope people listen to me and take my advice because back in the day, in Dr.
• 17:16
  Fresh days, I was working about the same time as much as I work now.
• 17:24
  Okay.
• 17:25
  But it is all about mindfulness.
• 17:28
  So I would start my day back in Dr.
• 17:31
  Fresh Days and I would work anywhere from 12 to 16 hour days.
• 17:38
  I would eat really bad.
• 17:42
  I would eat like burgers and drink colas, keep sitting after eating and then in the morning never really exercise to the point I should.
• 17:58
  I would walk a little bit, but that's pretty much it in the morning.
• 18:02
  And now what I do is a little different.
• 18:07
  So in the morning I wake up, I first of all I take a pinch of salt, keep it under my tongue, very small pinch so that I can reduce my so called stress signals that are coming because of
• 18:28
  increase in cortisol in the morning.
• 18:30
  And then later I take one spoon of apple cider Vinegar with a large glass of lukewarm water.
• 18:37
  Then I stretch myself, I walk, I see the daylight.
• 18:42
  I go in out for about five to 10 minutes.
• 18:46
  I blink my eyes, I stretch myself, come back.
• 18:49
  And then I do one hour of yoga each day for at least four days a week.
• 18:55
  And then three days I do light weights.
• 18:58
  So this is my routine in the morning.
• 19:00
  Then after that I take one egg, half an avocado and a cup of coffee with a couple of almonds and walnuts.
• 19:10
  So that's my morning routine.
• 19:13
  By the way, I forgot to tell you, I oil pull, I tongue scrape, I brush.
• 19:17
  And I mean all that and shower.
• 19:22
  That is of course added.
• 19:25
  And then so what I difference I do is I make it a routine.
• 19:32
  Seven to eight, I have to exercise, period, no questions asked.
• 19:37
  And now after each meal, I walk for five minutes, come what may, so that my insulin spike is blunted.
• 19:48
  Five to 10 minutes I have to walk.
• 19:50
  After lunch I walk 10 to 15 minutes.
• 19:53
  After dinner, I walk half hour.
• 19:55
  So that's what I do.
• 19:57
  But anytime I eat, I walk.
• 20:00
  Big difference.
• 20:01
  And if I don't have time, I walk and take a call.
• 20:05
  Let's say if I had a call, I'll say, hey, Liz, I'll call me while I'm walking and I put my earphones on and I'm actually working.
• 20:13
  And I'm working the same amount of time, but keep walking.
• 20:18
  If I have a one hour call, let's say with somebody, and if I don't have to be in the video, I rather go down walk and talk.
• 20:26
  That way I still get extra steps.
• 20:29
  So these little mindful things make a huge difference.
• 20:34
  Then apart from that, I used to eat those burgers and stuff.
• 20:37
  Instead of that, I watch what I eat.
• 20:40
  I'll eat a boiled egg, I'll eat half an avocado.
• 20:43
  I get the magnesium and the potassium from avocado.
• 20:46
  I get some proteins from the egg whites.
• 20:49
  That way I'm mindful of what I'm doing.
• 20:53
  I'm not eating less.
• 20:55
  I'm eating the same amount, but the right stuff.
• 20:59
  And I do not eat any burgers or carbs at all.
• 21:04
  So I literally, if I have to eat carbs, I'll eat brown long wild rice instead of white rice.
• 21:13
  If I have to eat anything, I'll eat with ragi instead of wheat.
• 21:21
  Like some wild grains instead of wheat that are gluten free.
• 21:29
  I follow these things and these little things that have made me feel a lot more healthier.
• 21:35
  I'm right weight, my muscular stature is better.
• 21:40
  I feel Better today than when I was half my age, I can tell you that.
• 21:46
  And I feel more energetic today than I ever felt.
• 21:50
  And that's been like this just because of little mindfulness techniques.
• 21:55
  I still work very hard and I work every single day.
• 21:59
  And I think everybody should work every single day taking like when I sold my first company, I could have retired.
• 22:07
  I did really well.
• 22:09
  If you retire, you're literally retiring from your life.
• 22:13
  Retirement is good for those people who are ready to go.
• 22:18
  That's what my belief is.
• 22:19
  If you are going to still be around and if you want to be around till the last day, healthy, you need to work out, you need to work and you need to not think about retiring.
• 22:32
  Retire the day God wants you to and you go that day.
• 22:36
  Don't retire before that.
• 22:39
  I love that.
• 22:39
  And that message certainly resonates with a lot of the entrepreneurs.
• 22:43
  And I've talked to other guests too, where they talk about this kind of stuff, social construct of retirement.
• 22:50
  And it's more often where people are in such a hurry to retire, it seems like they're not doing the right kind of work with work that brings them joy, work that's making a difference, work that energizes them where
• 23:01
  they can really put their heart in it and want to do it every day versus maybe something that they have to do.
• 23:07
  Would you agree with that?
• 23:08
  100%.
• 23:09
  So what I've done is as I've grown in these years, with all the experience, I let go of the work that I don't like and I give it allocated to people who would do it better than me.
• 23:25
  So that is what I've learned.
• 23:26
  I used to do everything myself back in the day, in Dr.
• 23:30
  Fish days.
• 23:31
  And now I just do what I love to do.
• 23:34
  I spend half my day creating new products, spending time with my chemists, spending time with my new product development team designers, and the rest half of the day I spend in the studio making TikToks.
• 23:50
  That's pretty much four days a week.
• 23:52
  And the fifth day I do all the accounting and the boring things that I really don't like to do, but I still have to do to keep in business.
• 24:02
  So basically, it's all about making choices as you go.
• 24:07
  And then as I have been graying, you can see I'm not trying to hide my age.
• 24:13
  I don't use any colors to hide myself.
• 24:16
  I don't use any Botox.
• 24:18
  Everything is real.
• 24:20
  All I do is I realize that I get a little tired in the afternoon, so I go in my car or have a Little couch.
• 24:28
  I'll sleep for five to ten minutes, just take a power nap.
• 24:32
  In the afternoon, after eating my lunch and walking a little bit, I'll take a 10 minute power nap.
• 24:38
  That makes me so much ready for the rest of the evening.
• 24:42
  So these little mindful things are very important for entrepreneurs to learn early in life.
• 24:49
  Love that, Love that.
• 24:50
  Okay, and last question here.
• 24:52
  Dr.
• 24:52
  Fresh.
• 24:53
  Looking at your whole journey here and how far you've come and all the innovative things you do and then especially what you're doing now with Guru Nanda and the TikTok fame.
• 25:02
  Looking back at everything, what's been the best part of this journey for you?
• 25:07
  TikTok.
• 25:07
  Without a doubt, the TikTok has made it very interesting for me.
• 25:15
  I realized all of a sudden that the amount of dopamine you receive when a video goes viral, it's unbelievable.
• 25:23
  If somebody doesn't know it, they need to do it and then they'll realize.
• 25:27
  And secondly, it also gives you a mic to tell the audience what you really believe in.
• 25:36
  It also gives you a chance to speak out the things that you've Learned over last 30, 40 years of doing business.
• 25:48
  And it's also a good way to give back to the younger audience who are striving to do business or who are ready to live life.
• 25:59
  It's a great way to give back because in Indian mythology, in Ayurveda, they say up to 25, learn from 25 to 50, earn from 20, 50 to 75 give back.
• 26:17
  And 75 to 100 pray means that's kind of what they used to say.
• 26:23
  I believe that 50 to 100 should be just give back.
• 26:28
  And that is exactly what we're doing with Guru Nanda.
• 26:31
  We have a motto of bridging the gap.
• 26:34
  Bridge the gap is what I go by.
• 26:37
  And we're trying to create products that are very high quality at very affordable prices so that we can provide it to the audience that doesn't have the means, number one.
• 26:50
  Number two, we are bridging the gap between the east and the west by bringing in Ayurveda, ancient medicine that has been around for thousands of years that works really well but has not actually been utilized in this new
• 27:06
  world.
• 27:07
  But then we fortify it by putting clinical science behind it and actually getting clinicals done at UCLA or University of Texas so that it can actually be verified in the modern world today using the modern techniques.
• 27:22
  So we provide products of ancient wisdom with modern clinical bent at a price that nobody can compete.
• 27:31
  So that's the problem.
• 27:33
  I'm here to solve.
• 27:34
  And that's what my motto and goal is today.
• 27:37
  Love that.
• 27:38
  Okay, and if people want to learn more about Guru Nanda and all this amazing work that you're doing, what's the best way people can find out about that online?
• 27:47
  So online gurunanda.com is our company website, but I have my personal TikTok page ampuneetnanda, and my podcast manager can send you the details.
• 28:02
  And I have the same Instagram ampuneetnanda and same YouTube ampuneeeetnanda.
• 28:09
  And I personally, I'm talking to the audience directly.
• 28:15
  We do have Guru Nanda pages as well, but that's more handled by the other people.
• 28:21
  But I handle my own.
• 28:23
  And I have a very strong LinkedIn account at.
• 28:27
  I am sorry, Puneet Nanda.
• 28:29
  And I'm extremely active on all four areas, not just one.
• 28:36
  So I spend a lot of time on all four, including LinkedIn.
• 28:39
  Since your audiences, entrepreneurs, they'll find it really interesting following me on LinkedIn.
• 28:46
  Okay.
• 28:46
  And we will link all that in the show Notes for everyone.
• 28:49
  All right, well, Puneet, thank you so much for taking the time to be here and sharing all this valuable wisdom from your journey with our listeners.
• 28:55
  We greatly appreciate it.
• 28:57
  Thank you.
• 28:58
  And Dave, one last word.
• 28:59
  I would want to tell all the entrepreneurs that follow you get on TikTok, because it's a gold rush.
• 29:06
  And secondly, how to be successful on TikTok is be authentic and post every day and again, get on TikTok.
• 29:16
  All right, thank you so much, Puneet.
• 29:18
  Thank you.