Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 261. Kat Schneider, Founder of Ritual

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261. Kat Schneider, Founder of Ritual · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: Just because somebody says no, it actually means it hasn't
0:04
Speaker 1: been done before, and that's an incredible opportunity versus just
0:10
Speaker 1: a challenge.
0:25
Speaker 2: What's going on, everyone, Emily A body here. You are
0:28
Speaker 2: listening to episode two hundred and sixty one of Hurdle,
0:32
Speaker 2: a wellness focused podcast where connect with everyone from your
0:34
Speaker 2: favorite athletes to top experts and industry CEOs about their
0:38
Speaker 2: highest highs, toughest moments, and everything in between. We all
0:42
Speaker 2: go through hurdles in life, and my goal through these
0:45
Speaker 2: discussions is to empower you to better navigate yours and
0:48
Speaker 2: move with intention so that you can stride towards your
0:51
Speaker 2: own big potential and of course have some fun along
0:55
Speaker 2: the way. For today's episode two hundred and sixty one,
1:00
Speaker 2: I am chatting with Kat Schneider.
1:02
Speaker 3: She's the founder of Ritual.
1:04
Speaker 2: You likely know them for their multi vitamin, but as
1:08
Speaker 2: we talk about today, there is an extreme amount of
1:13
Speaker 2: options within their portfolio. As we also gm about today,
1:18
Speaker 2: this has been an interview that has been in the
1:20
Speaker 2: works since pre pandemic, so I'm so so thankful that
1:25
Speaker 2: Kat and I were finally able to find.
1:27
Speaker 3: The time to sit down together.
1:29
Speaker 2: In today's episode, Kat talks to me about the why
1:32
Speaker 2: why she decided to create this company after going through
1:37
Speaker 2: her own experience while pregnant hunting for supplements that she
1:42
Speaker 2: felt safe putting into her body. As a result of
1:46
Speaker 2: being dissatisfied with what was on the market, she made
1:50
Speaker 2: it her mission to create a safe portfolio of options,
1:55
Speaker 2: not just a prenatal which is what she was after,
1:58
Speaker 2: but also a multivitamin and then other options that individuals
2:02
Speaker 2: could feel good about putting into their bodies. Kat opens
2:07
Speaker 2: up about how she felt during this process. Like I mentioned,
2:11
Speaker 2: she was pregnant while starting this company, which came with
2:15
Speaker 2: its own set of challenges. Now she has three girls,
2:20
Speaker 2: which as an entrepreneur, not exactly the easiest thing to
2:26
Speaker 2: start a family at a company.
2:28
Speaker 3: At the same time.
2:29
Speaker 2: She talks about someone who gave her feedback on that
2:33
Speaker 2: decision and how that feedback felt. I really appreciate Kat
2:37
Speaker 2: for her openness and honesty during this episode. So many
2:41
Speaker 2: amazing takeaways and for someone who may be unsure about
2:45
Speaker 2: their personal routine when it comes to supplementation and vitamins,
2:50
Speaker 2: this episode has so much information on what we all
2:54
Speaker 2: should be looking for when it comes to a regular
2:57
Speaker 2: supplement routine.
2:58
Speaker 3: Now. As you know, I am an ag one girly.
3:03
Speaker 2: But Ritual wants to make sure that you have an
3:06
Speaker 2: opportunity to try the product. So if you're interested, they
3:10
Speaker 2: have a deal for you. Head on over to ritual
3:12
Speaker 2: dot com and use the code Hurdle at checkout to
3:16
Speaker 2: save thirty percent off today. Again, that is code hurdle
3:20
Speaker 2: at checkout at ritual dot com. Make sure you're following
3:24
Speaker 2: along with Hurdle over on social It's at Hurdle podcast.
3:27
Speaker 2: I myself am over at Emily a Body and I
3:31
Speaker 2: call this out all the time, but y'all.
3:34
Speaker 3: Subscribe to the weekly Hurdle newsletter.
3:36
Speaker 2: It is the same inspiration motivation stuff you love from
3:39
Speaker 2: the show, and it lands directly in your inbox every
3:43
Speaker 2: single Friday. The link to subscribe is in the show notes.
3:48
Speaker 3: You're welcome.
3:49
Speaker 2: Plus it's absolutely free. And with that, let's get to it.
3:54
Speaker 2: Let's get to hurdling.
4:05
Speaker 3: Today.
4:06
Speaker 2: I am sitting down with Cat Schneider. She is the
4:09
Speaker 2: founder of a ritual. How you doing today, Cat?
4:12
Speaker 1: I'm doing amazing. How are you?
4:14
Speaker 2: I'm so good. I'm so excited that we're finally doing this.
4:18
Speaker 2: I think literally we've been going back and forth about
4:21
Speaker 2: recording this episode since maybe twenty nineteen.
4:25
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I remember, I was a genius idea for
4:30
Speaker 1: a podcast, and I'm so excited to be on here.
4:34
Speaker 3: Well, I'm so happy that you're here.
4:36
Speaker 2: And wow, I mean I was just perusing Richul's website
4:39
Speaker 2: and I'm kind of having a moment because I remember,
4:42
Speaker 2: and I'm sure you reflect on this all the time
4:44
Speaker 2: when Ritual was just one multi vitamin and now you
4:48
Speaker 2: go on the site and there's a symbiotic, there's a
4:51
Speaker 2: multivitamin for eighteen plus, there's a multivitamin for fifty plus,
4:54
Speaker 2: there's a pre natal, there's a post natal, there's protein powder,
4:57
Speaker 2: there's Hiya Sarah.
4:58
Speaker 3: Like it keeps going. The line has expanded so much.
5:04
Speaker 1: Definitely, Yeah, I mean it was all intentional. We started
5:07
Speaker 1: with one multi vitamin, and we built this company online
5:11
Speaker 1: and wanted to earn the trust of the customer, and
5:15
Speaker 1: we did that through traceability, traceable sourcing, and science. And
5:18
Speaker 1: then you know, years later, we launched the prenatal and
5:21
Speaker 1: now we have one of the leading prenatal vitamins in
5:24
Speaker 1: the US. But I would say, even though it's expanded
5:27
Speaker 1: a lot, we've done it really slowly and methodically and
5:31
Speaker 1: with a lot of depth around the science and the sourcing.
5:35
Speaker 3: A lot of depth.
5:36
Speaker 2: So when you say slowly, give us some insight as
5:40
Speaker 2: to when you began.
5:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I began in twenty sixteen. I think you
5:45
Speaker 1: remember this was I was four months pregnant when I
5:48
Speaker 1: started the company and I couldn't find a prenatal vitamin
5:52
Speaker 1: that I trusted. The prenatals out there we ranged from
5:57
Speaker 1: artificial colorance to even lacking in key nutrients that women
6:01
Speaker 1: needed during pregnancy like Colin, and I knew that we
6:05
Speaker 1: deserved better. So I set out not just to reinvent
6:09
Speaker 1: the pre prenatle, that not just to set up to
6:12
Speaker 1: reinvent the prenatle, but set a totally new standard in
6:16
Speaker 1: the category. And that's exactly what we did. And as
6:19
Speaker 1: you said, we'd launched our multi vitamin for women eighteen
6:22
Speaker 1: plus as our first product and really a case study
6:26
Speaker 1: of how we're doing things differently. That product now has
6:29
Speaker 1: a peer reviewed and published human clinical study with a
6:32
Speaker 1: leading university. It also has USP verification, which is the
6:36
Speaker 1: ultimate certificate third party certification, which less than one percent
6:40
Speaker 1: of supplement companies have, and it also has a patent
6:44
Speaker 1: on the delivery technology. None of this is required by
6:48
Speaker 1: the industry, but it's part of the standard that we're
6:51
Speaker 1: setting with Ritual.
6:53
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's something that a lot of individuals don't
6:56
Speaker 2: know is that the FDA does not have the authority
6:59
Speaker 2: to prove dietary supplements for safety and effectiveness, which basically
7:04
Speaker 2: means that there is, unlike Ritual, a lot of products
7:08
Speaker 2: on the market that don't go through this type of
7:11
Speaker 2: scrutiny because unfortunately, the people that are putting them out
7:14
Speaker 2: they just don't care, which is frightening.
7:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that was basically the reason for starting a company.
7:20
Speaker 1: Although the FDA does regulate vitamins and supplements at Ritual,
7:24
Speaker 1: we believe that they should have even more oversight, and
7:28
Speaker 1: we even recently rolled out an advocacy roadmap that includes
7:32
Speaker 1: things like more health protective measures when it comes to
7:36
Speaker 1: heavy metals, the other plant based proteins are notoriously high
7:41
Speaker 1: and heavy metals, so you really don't know what you're getting,
7:44
Speaker 1: and we recently actually listed all of our heavy metal
7:47
Speaker 1: results for our plant based proteins. And then the second
7:51
Speaker 1: piece of advocacy that we're really lobbying for is around
7:55
Speaker 1: the term clinically studied to have more regulation over what
7:58
Speaker 1: that means. That term is loosely defined. A lot of
8:01
Speaker 1: companies are using that term, and you know, consumers have
8:05
Speaker 1: to be their own advocates when it comes to safety
8:07
Speaker 1: and efficacy. So when you see products that say clinically studied,
8:11
Speaker 1: it many times the products have ingredients that have been
8:15
Speaker 1: clinically studied, but not even at the right dosages or forms.
8:19
Speaker 1: And at Ritual, we have a commitment to have clinical
8:22
Speaker 1: studies on every single one of our products by twenty thirty,
8:25
Speaker 1: which again is not a requirement by the industry, but
8:28
Speaker 1: it's something that we think is necessary.
8:31
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's so impressive.
8:32
Speaker 2: I mean, even that note that a lot of plant
8:34
Speaker 2: based proteins have heavy metals, I'm sure that kind of
8:37
Speaker 2: raised our red flag for some of the people that
8:39
Speaker 2: are listening, not knowing why. And that's because in general,
8:43
Speaker 2: plants are especially prone to absorbing those heavy metals from
8:47
Speaker 2: the soil. So we're talking about anything from arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury,
8:53
Speaker 2: I mean, the list goes on.
8:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, and not to scare people, because everything, everything has
8:59
Speaker 1: heavy and I think sometimes I say, oh, you know
9:02
Speaker 1: your plant by startein has is high and heavy metals,
9:04
Speaker 1: and they're like, this has heavy metals, and I'm like, yeah, actually,
9:07
Speaker 1: even you know, even your water has heavy metals. And
9:09
Speaker 1: it's really just the amounts that matter. And we need
9:13
Speaker 1: the FDA to have even more oversight around setting those
9:17
Speaker 1: health protective measures so we know what the limits should
9:20
Speaker 1: be because obviously, you know, you consume all these things
9:23
Speaker 1: daily and those things kind of accumulate in your body.
9:27
Speaker 3: Over time over time.
9:29
Speaker 2: So it's interesting to hear you talk about how you
9:32
Speaker 2: were seeking something it wasn't around and you decided, Okay,
9:36
Speaker 2: I'm going to make it now. Clearly that is indicative
9:40
Speaker 2: that you are a forward thinker. You're the kind of
9:43
Speaker 2: person that is up for a challenge to say the least.
9:48
Speaker 3: Is this learned.
9:49
Speaker 2: Behavior or was this something that you were raised with
9:52
Speaker 2: from a young age.
9:55
Speaker 1: It's interesting I was head of doing this podcast is
9:58
Speaker 1: something I was reflecting on because I knew we were
10:00
Speaker 1: talking about the hurdle. And for me, I think I
10:04
Speaker 1: was always meant to be an entrepreneur, but in many
10:08
Speaker 1: ways I was holding myself back. And so I was
10:13
Speaker 1: an immigrant. My family we immigrated from Ukraine. We were
10:17
Speaker 1: refugees and grew up in a welfare hotel, and my
10:21
Speaker 1: dad became an entrepreneur. Eventually my mom ended up working
10:26
Speaker 1: on Wall Street. And I had been around this entrepreneurial
10:30
Speaker 1: hustle really my whole life, and then I ended up working.
10:35
Speaker 1: I ended up working with a lot of startups and
10:37
Speaker 1: running an investment fund here in LA and was partners
10:41
Speaker 1: with Troy Carter, who was Lady Gaga's manager at the time,
10:44
Speaker 1: and he'd invested in Uber, drop Box, Warby Parker, Spotify,
10:48
Speaker 1: And so not only was I around my dad, who
10:51
Speaker 1: was an incredible influence for me, but I'd also been
10:54
Speaker 1: around these incredible founders that had built some of the
10:58
Speaker 1: world's most inspiring brands. And then I met my husband,
11:02
Speaker 1: who was also an entrepreneur. So I'd always been around
11:05
Speaker 1: these really entrepreneurs and people that I admired, but I
11:08
Speaker 1: don't know, there was like voices in my head that said, yay,
11:11
Speaker 1: you know, you're not good enough or your idea is
11:13
Speaker 1: not good enough, or you need a co founder, or
11:16
Speaker 1: you need you know, you need, you need to learn more,
11:18
Speaker 1: you need to work in this industry, you need to
11:20
Speaker 1: get an MBA. You know, the list goes on and on,
11:23
Speaker 1: and I think there was just so much, so much
11:26
Speaker 1: of a kind of a lack of confidence. I think
11:28
Speaker 1: that I was good enough to do this, and yet
11:30
Speaker 1: I think I was in many ways groom to be
11:33
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur since I can remember.
11:36
Speaker 2: How did you silence that nagging voice that was saying
11:42
Speaker 2: you're not good enough to do this?
11:45
Speaker 1: So the silence actually happened when I was pregnant, And
11:49
Speaker 1: oddly enough, you know, I think there's little science to this,
11:53
Speaker 1: so my team would kill me because we're so focused
11:56
Speaker 1: on science at ritual. But in some ways I became
11:59
Speaker 1: a lot more creative when I had been pregnant. And
12:03
Speaker 1: part of the brain that was so my brain that
12:05
Speaker 1: was so analytical, you know, I studied applied math in college.
12:08
Speaker 1: I ended up in investment banking, worked with numbers. Part
12:12
Speaker 1: of that, that part of my brain that was so
12:15
Speaker 1: analytical kind of mildly shut down, and I became more creative.
12:21
Speaker 1: And I had this idea that I couldn't stop thinking
12:24
Speaker 1: about every night. You know, it kept me awake, and
12:27
Speaker 1: I knew that I wanted to create something better for
12:31
Speaker 1: not just myself, but for future generations. And it just
12:35
Speaker 1: it just was nagging me, and so it was a
12:38
Speaker 1: combination of the idea and what was happening to me
12:44
Speaker 1: I think biologically. And then, you know, I still had
12:48
Speaker 1: a little bit of a lack not a little bit,
12:49
Speaker 1: a lot, a lot of a lack of confidence, where like, well, well,
12:53
Speaker 1: am I the right person to start this company? You know,
12:55
Speaker 1: I know that people deserve to know what they're putting
12:58
Speaker 1: in their bodies and why. But in my you know,
13:02
Speaker 1: I'm not a scientist. I'm so nervous. You know, I've
13:06
Speaker 1: been on the other side of investing, but I had
13:09
Speaker 1: never raised money before. I didn't have an MBA. Am
13:13
Speaker 1: I the one to do this? And ultimately, you know,
13:16
Speaker 1: I think it was actually my husband, who had started
13:19
Speaker 1: so many businesses in his life, and he's like, you
13:22
Speaker 1: could do this. You don't need you don't need a
13:24
Speaker 1: co founder. You got it, Like everything you've been doing
13:26
Speaker 1: in your life has really added up to this moment,
13:30
Speaker 1: and just go for it. And which was really a
13:32
Speaker 1: risk for us because as a couple, we were, you know,
13:36
Speaker 1: about to have a child, we were both two entrepreneurs. Previously,
13:39
Speaker 1: I was more of the kind of steady breadwinner and
13:43
Speaker 1: he was the one taking the risk. And here we
13:45
Speaker 1: are about to you know, have a family, and we're
13:48
Speaker 1: both risking it all and yet you know, he kind
13:51
Speaker 1: of pushed me to do it, and I'm so grateful
13:54
Speaker 1: for that.
13:55
Speaker 3: Yeah. Wow, talk about a vote of confidence.
13:58
Speaker 2: It speaks to concept that sometimes all we need is
14:02
Speaker 2: one person to express their belief in us to help
14:05
Speaker 2: us get over our own gremlins. So when you decided, Okay,
14:11
Speaker 2: I'm going to be the person that goes for it,
14:14
Speaker 2: how did you even know where to begin?
14:17
Speaker 1: Kat, Yeah, that was It was tricky because I came
14:20
Speaker 1: from the tech world, and you know, if I were
14:22
Speaker 1: to look for a CTO or an engineering team or
14:25
Speaker 1: something like that, that would be second nature for me.
14:29
Speaker 1: But finding someone in the nutraceutical space, I never met anybody.
14:33
Speaker 1: I was like, wait, I don't know, I don't even
14:36
Speaker 1: know where to begin. And the you know, when I
14:40
Speaker 1: did start doing research, because I'm a very research oriented person,
14:45
Speaker 1: I realized that what was lacking in the industry with science.
14:48
Speaker 1: So the first thing for me was really talking to
14:51
Speaker 1: as many scientists in the space that I could find.
14:55
Speaker 1: Anyone who was a PhD in nutritional science, anyone who'd
14:58
Speaker 1: been in the industry for decades, aids and the only
15:02
Speaker 1: way that I could do that was through LinkedIn. And
15:05
Speaker 1: so I went on LinkedIn and I messaged you know,
15:09
Speaker 1: hundreds of people and some of them responded to me.
15:14
Speaker 1: I even remember meeting, you know, this guy who was
15:17
Speaker 1: an SVP of innovation at one of the largest pharmaceutical companies,
15:21
Speaker 1: and he met me in a strip mall in New
15:24
Speaker 1: Jersey because that's where a lot of people in the
15:27
Speaker 1: industry are based. And he met with me for a
15:32
Speaker 1: coffee and he told me he broke down the industry
15:35
Speaker 1: for me. He introduced me to scientists. I reached out
15:38
Speaker 1: to scientists on LinkedIn and I met our founding scientists
15:42
Speaker 1: that way. I also realized that to hire some of
15:48
Speaker 1: the world's best scientists and to invest in clinical studies,
15:52
Speaker 1: which was not a requirement it's not a requirement in
15:55
Speaker 1: the category, and to double down on research and development,
15:59
Speaker 1: I actually need money. And so after meeting scientists, I
16:05
Speaker 1: started praising venture capital money. And that was both challenging
16:12
Speaker 1: and interesting at the same time, having been on the
16:14
Speaker 1: other side of the investing table. I was pregnant and
16:20
Speaker 1: I had, you know, I had a little bit of challenge,
16:23
Speaker 1: a little bit of a lot of challenges, and one
16:27
Speaker 1: experience was walking into a well known investor's office and saying, Hey,
16:32
Speaker 1: I'm going to change the supplement industry. Everyone deserves to
16:35
Speaker 1: know what they're putting in their bodies and why invest
16:38
Speaker 1: in me? And his answer was, you can either start
16:43
Speaker 1: a family or a company, but I don't believe that
16:47
Speaker 1: you can do both.
16:50
Speaker 3: And how did that make you feel?
16:53
Speaker 1: At first? I was incredibly furious, but I think it
16:58
Speaker 1: was probably the best catalysts that I had probably my
17:02
Speaker 1: whole career to prove somebody wrong and to do things differently.
17:10
Speaker 1: And now it's just become such a big part of
17:14
Speaker 1: my motivation for Ritual and doing what I'm doing is
17:18
Speaker 1: to show other women and people that they can have
17:24
Speaker 1: families and thrive and having a family and a career
17:29
Speaker 1: if that's what they choose, and you know, family and
17:32
Speaker 1: passion and following their passions, really doing both. It's really possible.
17:36
Speaker 1: It's challenging, but it's so exciting and it's so motivating,
17:40
Speaker 1: and you can do both. I've had three girls since
17:43
Speaker 1: starting Ritual. I think since I've known you, and the
17:48
Speaker 1: company is, you know, beyond what I thought it could
17:52
Speaker 1: possibly be, and we're really just getting started, and it's
17:56
Speaker 1: honestly like having the kids and running the company as
17:59
Speaker 1: a CEO is like the kids are recharging me every day.
18:03
Speaker 1: They're challenging obviously me as well, but it's the biggest
18:07
Speaker 1: recharge I have, and it's it. They've become the reason
18:11
Speaker 1: why I, you know, do what I do every single day.
18:15
Speaker 1: Just even seeing them and them understanding what I'm building
18:17
Speaker 1: is so motivating.
18:19
Speaker 2: So special, truly so special. And two things to click
18:23
Speaker 2: on here. One have you spoken to that man since
18:27
Speaker 2: you started your company?
18:30
Speaker 1: I have, but in not, you know, I kind of
18:33
Speaker 1: just didn't. I'm not the type of person to like
18:37
Speaker 1: bring something up again. I just kind of, you know,
18:41
Speaker 1: I've seen him out socially, and I think he knows,
18:44
Speaker 1: you know, he's he's definitely like impressed by the business.
18:48
Speaker 1: But I don't need his I don't need his approval
18:51
Speaker 1: or his you know, congratulations or anything like that. It
18:55
Speaker 1: doesn't it really doesn't matter to me. There's been so
18:58
Speaker 1: many other, so many other moments of kind of knows
19:05
Speaker 1: in starting this company and doing things differently in this
19:09
Speaker 1: industry that I would say that was like one of
19:12
Speaker 1: the many, one of the many now, but one of
19:15
Speaker 1: the most kind of impactful and also, you know, I
19:18
Speaker 1: think his comment also had an impact to how I
19:22
Speaker 1: think about leading the business, how I think about parental
19:25
Speaker 1: leave ritual in this country, and how to enable more
19:30
Speaker 1: people to do both because the system is not designed
19:35
Speaker 1: that way.
19:36
Speaker 3: And when you say leading the business in what way?
19:40
Speaker 1: In terms of taking care of the people that work
19:44
Speaker 1: for our company, we more recently became finalists in Fast
19:47
Speaker 1: Company's Most Innovative Workplace Awards, And I take that seriously
19:53
Speaker 1: because I think that how you treat your employees and
19:58
Speaker 1: how people feel working at your company impacts how the
20:02
Speaker 1: success one hundred percent. And I think for me having
20:06
Speaker 1: three girls while starting this business, and I wanted I
20:09
Speaker 1: wanted people working at Ritual to also feel like if
20:12
Speaker 1: they wanted to have families, they were supported here. And
20:15
Speaker 1: so we have five months of paid leave and then
20:18
Speaker 1: eight weeks of support when they return into the workplace
20:23
Speaker 1: as well, and we also have childcare stipends and just
20:27
Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of support when it comes
20:31
Speaker 1: to benefits as well. And that was important to me
20:33
Speaker 1: because I knew how challenging it was for myself having
20:38
Speaker 1: you know, multiple children and running this business, and I
20:40
Speaker 1: wanted to make sure that our employees didn't have to
20:44
Speaker 1: choose between those things as well.
20:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's really awesome to hear that you're really
20:49
Speaker 2: just standing behind what you're passionate about here. I also
20:53
Speaker 2: had a laugh because you said New Jersey basically the
20:56
Speaker 2: home of pharmaceuticals.
20:58
Speaker 3: Now, knowing that and going back to your.
21:01
Speaker 2: Story about you know, reaching out to as many people
21:04
Speaker 2: as possible and networking. For someone who may be listening
21:07
Speaker 2: to this and is trying to do their own networking,
21:10
Speaker 2: is trying to make their own connections, what advice do
21:13
Speaker 2: you have to offer them to kind of stay steadfast
21:17
Speaker 2: on the path in the same way that you did.
21:19
Speaker 1: My advice would be to not be afraid to cold
21:24
Speaker 1: outreach anybody on LinkedIn. I can't like, I can't say
21:30
Speaker 1: how incredible of a tool it's been for me in
21:33
Speaker 1: terms of going into a new industry. And I was
21:36
Speaker 1: just surprised by how many people return my messages. I
21:40
Speaker 1: think sometimes people are in the back of their heads
21:43
Speaker 1: they think, hey, if I'm going to reach out to
21:45
Speaker 1: this person, they're not going to write back. I was
21:46
Speaker 1: blown away by having like almost more people than I thought,
21:49
Speaker 1: and I'm like, oh geez, now I have to now
21:52
Speaker 1: I have to do take all these meetings because I
21:54
Speaker 1: thought no one was going to write back. I was
21:57
Speaker 1: blown away by how many people write back and then
21:59
Speaker 1: also not being not being deterred. If people don't write
22:03
Speaker 1: you back, just just write more people. There's so many
22:06
Speaker 1: people that are experts in different industries, and I think
22:10
Speaker 1: you learned, you know, before you actually start the company.
22:14
Speaker 1: It's so important to learn from people that that had
22:17
Speaker 1: been have been in the industries before. It's actually why
22:20
Speaker 1: I hired our first scientists, doctor Luke, who'd been in
22:23
Speaker 1: the industry for decades, and you know, my first question
22:27
Speaker 1: to him was where all the skeletons buried? You know where,
22:31
Speaker 1: what has what has the industry done wrong for all
22:34
Speaker 1: these decades. And the biggest issue that he talked about,
22:38
Speaker 1: which really changed how I thought about what ritual does,
22:41
Speaker 1: was he always wanted to use more premium ingredients, but
22:46
Speaker 1: they were so expensive. He wanted to use more bioavailable ingredients.
22:49
Speaker 1: He wanted to use you know, Omega three is from Micrology,
22:53
Speaker 1: D three from lichen K two, m K seven from Norway,
22:57
Speaker 1: this full light that came from Italy, and he'd always
23:01
Speaker 1: been turned down because these companies had been targeting a
23:05
Speaker 1: certain gross margin or they'd been targeting a certain price point,
23:08
Speaker 1: and they didn't want to use really expensive ingredients. But
23:12
Speaker 1: a lot of times those ingredients actually worked it better.
23:15
Speaker 1: In the body. For instance, a third of people have
23:18
Speaker 1: a genetic variation where they can't properly utilize full like acid,
23:22
Speaker 1: which is in most Boltsy vitamins, and so we instead
23:25
Speaker 1: opted for a methylated fulet from Italy that bypasses genetic
23:30
Speaker 1: variations and makes it easier to utilize full it. And
23:34
Speaker 1: I would have never done that had it not been
23:36
Speaker 1: for him. And we became obsessed with all of these
23:40
Speaker 1: suppliers from all over the world, and we started listing
23:44
Speaker 1: them on our site, so you can literally see where
23:46
Speaker 1: ingredients come from in the world and why they're there.
23:48
Speaker 1: But that would have never happened had I not met
23:52
Speaker 1: this scientist who was like, Hey, this is actually what's broken.
23:55
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, that's so interesting. And I think,
23:58
Speaker 1: you know, even if you have an idea and you're
24:00
Speaker 1: really passionate about something, I think that getting some history
24:04
Speaker 1: about the category or the industry is really important and
24:08
Speaker 1: can be a total game changer.
24:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, and to hear you talk about this, it makes
24:15
Speaker 2: me think that it's good that you came into this
24:20
Speaker 2: as quote unquote an outsider, right because doing that empowered
24:25
Speaker 2: you to ask questions from that outside point of view
24:30
Speaker 2: to get to a place where you're like, help me understand,
24:33
Speaker 2: and through that understanding, you were able to get this
24:38
Speaker 2: to a place where you really felt it needed to be.
24:43
Speaker 1: One hundred percent. I mean I remember the you know,
24:47
Speaker 1: the first couple months of starting the company, I literally
24:49
Speaker 1: went on like a road tour of different manufacturers in
24:54
Speaker 1: California that we're making not just the ingredients, but the encapsulation,
24:59
Speaker 1: the tablet, the soft gels, the capsules. And I was
25:03
Speaker 1: like wow, Like the more I learned, I was so
25:05
Speaker 1: disgusted by it all, and I felt like a little
25:10
Speaker 1: bit of an investigative journalist in a way. And you know,
25:14
Speaker 1: it's like there weren't that many options. It was you know,
25:17
Speaker 1: put your ingredients in a gelatin capsule where you don't
25:21
Speaker 1: know where the animals, how the animals were being treated
25:24
Speaker 1: before they were killed, or you know, it was like,
25:27
Speaker 1: well you can use if you want a vegetarian, we
25:29
Speaker 1: have Karra gain in that there was a study that
25:33
Speaker 1: that caused tumors and rodents on karragain in and I
25:36
Speaker 1: was like, well, I don't want that. And then the
25:38
Speaker 1: other option was was a fish gelatin. I was like, okay,
25:42
Speaker 1: well maybe maybe the consumers would be better around that,
25:45
Speaker 1: and then it was farmed to Lopia from Korea. You know.
25:48
Speaker 1: And it's the more, you know, I think the questions
25:51
Speaker 1: that I asked people probably never I know, they never
25:54
Speaker 1: really asked before because I'd have I'd be asking these
25:58
Speaker 1: manufacturers and be a room full of men and they'd
26:01
Speaker 1: have to go and ask somebody else. And it was
26:05
Speaker 1: just like this wild goose chase. And it's only become
26:09
Speaker 1: even more interesting as the company has gotten bigger, because
26:13
Speaker 1: we have all this documentation and requirements and processes for
26:19
Speaker 1: even getting an ingredient into our products, that you realize
26:23
Speaker 1: that a lot of a lot of companies don't don't
26:26
Speaker 1: have their ship in order.
26:29
Speaker 3: Yeah.
26:30
Speaker 2: Yeah, And so when you get into this R and
26:33
Speaker 2: D process, how long does it take you to land
26:38
Speaker 2: on your first original version of the product.
26:44
Speaker 1: In some cases it takes several years. For the Symbiotic Plus,
26:48
Speaker 1: which is our pre pro post biotic all in one
26:51
Speaker 1: single capsule, that product took several years. I think it
26:55
Speaker 1: was four years to make this product. And it wasn't
26:58
Speaker 1: even just about things ingredients, which you know, we use
27:01
Speaker 1: two of the world's best clinically study ingredients. It was
27:04
Speaker 1: about the but still alive at the expiration date. I
27:07
Speaker 1: think people don't even think about that. Or does the
27:10
Speaker 1: product get into the colon instead of the stomach or
27:13
Speaker 1: the small intestine because that's the ideal place for the
27:17
Speaker 1: probiotics to thrive. These are the kinds of questions that
27:21
Speaker 1: we ask ourselves. And why are you know why our
27:24
Speaker 1: products take longer to make? I would say than others.
27:27
Speaker 1: I wish we could have a lot more products because
27:29
Speaker 1: our customers trust us, but it just takes so long
27:33
Speaker 1: to go through the rigorous testing that we have and
27:36
Speaker 1: the quality standards, the stability, the and it's all. You know,
27:41
Speaker 1: we also run third party testing, which a whole whole
27:44
Speaker 1: other conversation. I like, I will never take anything that's
27:47
Speaker 1: not third party tested. You know, it's it's wild because
27:51
Speaker 1: it just took us so long to even get this
27:54
Speaker 1: product stable. Whereas you have probiotics, they're they're not in capsules,
27:59
Speaker 1: they're in other forms. And it says like CFUs at
28:03
Speaker 1: data manufacturing, which means that the probiotic count at the
28:08
Speaker 1: date it was made, and you have no idea if
28:12
Speaker 1: it's the same count at when you're actually taking the
28:17
Speaker 1: product or when it's expiring. And so subtle things like
28:20
Speaker 1: that make it even longer for us to make our
28:24
Speaker 1: products and to make sure they meet the standards that
28:27
Speaker 1: we need them to.
28:29
Speaker 3: All Right, two basic questions.
28:32
Speaker 2: I feel like i'm you when you're like asking people
28:35
Speaker 2: questions about why is it's so hard to find the
28:37
Speaker 2: right drugs? So I'm going to ask these questions on
28:39
Speaker 2: behalf of the listeners who I know might be wondering this,
28:41
Speaker 2: although they may seem basic. First and foremost, third party certification.
28:46
Speaker 2: What is it and why is it important?
28:48
Speaker 1: You know, third party certifications are important because you're saying, hey,
28:51
Speaker 1: don't just take our word for it. Here is a
28:53
Speaker 1: third party certifier that is actually in many times depends
28:58
Speaker 1: on what the certification is, but is actually testing your products.
29:02
Speaker 1: And it's different than third party testing. So third party
29:05
Speaker 1: testing as you use a third party lab. We use Eurofins,
29:08
Speaker 1: one of the best labs in the US, and they
29:11
Speaker 1: actually test our products so we know what's in there
29:15
Speaker 1: is actually in there and our customers can trust that
29:17
Speaker 1: versus us just using our manufacture. Our manufacture is the
29:21
Speaker 1: one that makes the product and then says, hey, you
29:23
Speaker 1: know what I made is right. You want a third
29:26
Speaker 1: party to test your products because they're independent. And then
29:30
Speaker 1: on the certification front, you know, we invest in certifications
29:35
Speaker 1: varies by product, like Project non Gmo Verified, so verifying
29:39
Speaker 1: that our ingredients and our product overall is our non GMO.
29:44
Speaker 1: We also on our multi vitamin invested in USP certification,
29:48
Speaker 1: which is kind of the ultimate certification to get in
29:51
Speaker 1: the category. I would definitely look out for that, and
29:54
Speaker 1: that means that they're actually testing our batches, certain batches
29:58
Speaker 1: and making sure that what's on the label is actually
30:04
Speaker 1: there and is verified. And I think that's really important
30:07
Speaker 1: because it's really hard to tell as a consumer if
30:11
Speaker 1: not only what you're getting is safe, but is it effective,
30:13
Speaker 1: Like is the dosage actually there? And that's you know,
30:20
Speaker 1: I can't believe that I didn't have to say that, but.
30:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, I know it's definitely true. So that's super helpful.
30:26
Speaker 2: And then the second thing, and I've talked about probiotics
30:29
Speaker 2: so many times on the show, but I feel like
30:31
Speaker 2: it's helpful to reiterate here that probiotics are basically they're
30:35
Speaker 2: made up of good bacteria that helps keep your body
30:38
Speaker 2: healthy and working well in Layman's terms. And so for
30:41
Speaker 2: the person who may not be integrating them into your diet,
30:45
Speaker 2: aside from the fact that they know that they quote
30:46
Speaker 2: unquote make your body help healthy and help it work well,
30:50
Speaker 2: what else should they know?
30:52
Speaker 1: Yep. The field of microbiome research and probiotics, probiotics and
30:57
Speaker 1: post biotics is kind of relatively new, but it's so
31:00
Speaker 1: fascinating because there's different bugs that correspond to different benefits.
31:06
Speaker 1: And what they should know is that while there are
31:09
Speaker 1: so many, not that many of them have been well
31:12
Speaker 1: researched or studied. And that's why a virtual we use
31:17
Speaker 1: strains like LGG, which is the world's most clinically studied strain,
31:21
Speaker 1: because we don't want to experiment with what people are
31:24
Speaker 1: putting in their bodies and the science really matters to us.
31:28
Speaker 1: The thing that they should also know is probiotics and
31:31
Speaker 1: post biotics are also really beneficial for the gut. Probiotics
31:36
Speaker 1: are oftentimes the food for the probiotics, so the probiotics
31:40
Speaker 1: eat the food and the post biotics are the waste
31:43
Speaker 1: product between that and what they're saying now is that
31:48
Speaker 1: potentially the benefits, a lot of benefits can be found
31:52
Speaker 1: from the post biotics, which is the byproduct of the
31:55
Speaker 1: probiotics eating the prebiotics, and it helps fuel your gut bining,
32:00
Speaker 1: and so it's really important I think for most Americans
32:05
Speaker 1: to be consuming a probiotic, probatic and postbiotic. And you know,
32:11
Speaker 1: I think in other cultures we eat a lot of
32:12
Speaker 1: fermented food, but in the US, a lot of people
32:16
Speaker 1: are you know, have digestive issues, whether it's gas or
32:20
Speaker 1: bloating or others, and they can be really beneficial, which
32:25
Speaker 1: you know, for me has been a game changer because
32:27
Speaker 1: I think, you know, having digestive issues impacts how I
32:31
Speaker 1: how I feel throughout the day, and so taking a
32:34
Speaker 1: product like this has kind of helped me in more
32:36
Speaker 1: ways than one.
32:42
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34:18
Speaker 2: totally and I mean, there's so much research about how
34:22
Speaker 2: your gut health can impact everything in the body from
34:25
Speaker 2: not only how you feel mentally physically, but then also
34:28
Speaker 2: can play a role in either depression or illnesses like diabetes.
34:33
Speaker 2: So taking care of your gut super super important. Now,
34:37
Speaker 2: in twenty sixteen, after launching the product, when did you
34:41
Speaker 2: know get to a place that you were really, really
34:45
Speaker 2: firm on Okay, we truly have something here.
34:49
Speaker 3: It's catching on.
34:50
Speaker 1: That's a great question. I would say it happened pretty
34:54
Speaker 1: early for us, actually surprisingly, and I would say after
34:59
Speaker 1: the first couple months, maybe like five months in, it's
35:05
Speaker 1: kind of started to take off like hockey stick style,
35:09
Speaker 1: and people started asking us, you know, I decided to
35:13
Speaker 1: not launch the pre Needdle first because I wanted to
35:16
Speaker 1: build trust with our consumer online. Everyone thinks that's crazy,
35:20
Speaker 1: because you know, my initial problem that I was having
35:23
Speaker 1: was I couldn't find a pren addle that I trusted.
35:25
Speaker 1: And yet here I was, and I launched a multi
35:27
Speaker 1: vitamin from an eighteen plus instead of the Prenatle. But
35:31
Speaker 1: I was worried that an investor told me this too.
35:34
Speaker 1: They're like, you need to earn her trust, and so
35:37
Speaker 1: we launched this multi vitamin and we kind of quickly
35:40
Speaker 1: started earning her trust and she was like, we want
35:43
Speaker 1: I want a prenodle. I'm getting pregnant. I want a
35:46
Speaker 1: pre neal for me. When are you guys going to
35:47
Speaker 1: make a prenatal because they didn't see, you know, a
35:51
Speaker 1: one hundred percent traceable product out there. And so we
35:56
Speaker 1: soon after about two years in launched a prenial vite
36:00
Speaker 1: in and that was game changer for us because we
36:02
Speaker 1: now have one of the leading pre needle vitamins in
36:05
Speaker 1: the US, and so that was really interesting. And I
36:08
Speaker 1: think all of this happened because we built this traceable
36:12
Speaker 1: supply chain. We showed our ingredients suppliers on our site
36:16
Speaker 1: down to the to the name of the supplier and
36:19
Speaker 1: also the vital destination of manufacturing. Now our products are
36:24
Speaker 1: one hundred percent traceable, and I think that was a
36:28
Speaker 1: radical thing for people at the time. At the time,
36:32
Speaker 1: you know, people started questioning their food sources, where their
36:36
Speaker 1: kill was grown, or where the chickens were and who
36:40
Speaker 1: they played with. It was a funny Portland episode. I
36:43
Speaker 1: don't know if you saw it, but it was like
36:46
Speaker 1: it wasn't something people ever thought about with supplements, and
36:49
Speaker 1: it's still not something people you know, really think about
36:52
Speaker 1: with supplements. But I think everyone deserves to know if
36:54
Speaker 1: they're putting something in their bodies every single day, they
36:58
Speaker 1: deserve to know where those in great dents are coming
37:00
Speaker 1: from and why. And so I think for us, we
37:04
Speaker 1: kind of had really fast product market fit because we
37:09
Speaker 1: had done something so drastically different. I love the example
37:13
Speaker 1: of the Ford, the classic Ford quote. If I asked
37:17
Speaker 1: them what they want, they would want a faster horse
37:19
Speaker 1: versus a car. And I think in the when it
37:24
Speaker 1: comes to ritual I don't think people wanted a more expensive,
37:28
Speaker 1: more premium, traceable multi vitamin. But what they wanted was
37:32
Speaker 1: something that they could trust and something that they knew
37:37
Speaker 1: where the ingredients came from. And I think that that
37:40
Speaker 1: was you know, that took a lot of conviction versus
37:44
Speaker 1: just only listening to consumers needs.
37:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean again just kind of walking into such
37:51
Speaker 2: unchartered territory. So then as this kind of catches on fire,
37:57
Speaker 2: you said, like you had people reaching out look looking
38:00
Speaker 2: for other things, how were you able to discern what
38:03
Speaker 2: you wanted to work on?
38:05
Speaker 3: Kind of from a priority standpoint.
38:08
Speaker 1: That's probably the hardest thing as a CEO and founder
38:12
Speaker 1: is like figuring out what you're going to do next,
38:15
Speaker 1: because it could be so tempting to go into so
38:17
Speaker 1: many different directions. I get so excited about so many things,
38:21
Speaker 1: and I have so many personal needs. So we went
38:25
Speaker 1: into after multi vitamins. We did multi vitamins for the
38:29
Speaker 1: whole family, and our men's multi vitamins are just growing
38:33
Speaker 1: so fast right now, which is so exciting. We've also
38:35
Speaker 1: launched Kids and teens and women fifty plus. We launched
38:39
Speaker 1: the post needle next because we saw that it's interesting
38:44
Speaker 1: a lot of people were taking a pre needle when
38:47
Speaker 1: they're pregnant. I should actually be taking a pre nedle
38:50
Speaker 1: when they're trying to conceive that. It's a whole other thing.
38:52
Speaker 1: But what we saw was the there was a there
38:54
Speaker 1: were big nutrient gaps when it came to postpartum, and
38:57
Speaker 1: it's one of the most nutrient demanding stages of life,
39:00
Speaker 1: and yet this category was just totally underserved. You hear,
39:04
Speaker 1: you have this mom that's taking care of her new baby,
39:07
Speaker 1: but who's taking care of her? And so the pose
39:10
Speaker 1: needle was something that I felt personally really passionate about,
39:14
Speaker 1: and it kind of completed the line for our preodle
39:19
Speaker 1: and allowed the woman to transition, a person to transition
39:23
Speaker 1: from a pregnancy to postpartum. We then went into protein,
39:28
Speaker 1: and the reason is I hired a chief scientist, chief
39:32
Speaker 1: scientific officer ex faculty at Harvard PhD in physiology, and
39:36
Speaker 1: protein and muscle synthesis was his kind of life's work
39:41
Speaker 1: and mission, and so he came to me with this
39:45
Speaker 1: idea of, hey, you know, we can do with protein
39:48
Speaker 1: what we did with multi vitamins. This category is not traceable.
39:52
Speaker 1: People don't know where the protein is being sourced. Many
39:55
Speaker 1: times it's not even a you know, the powders are
39:57
Speaker 1: not complete amino acids, and that's a whole other thing
40:01
Speaker 1: because a lot of plant based proteins don't have complete
40:04
Speaker 1: amino acids, so you have to layer in different plant sources.
40:08
Speaker 1: And so we did that and we created a protein
40:12
Speaker 1: with regeneravely farmed peas grown here in the US instead
40:16
Speaker 1: of overseas. We added methionine to complete the amino acid
40:20
Speaker 1: and it's just amazing product because, as I mentioned earlier,
40:24
Speaker 1: this category is notoriously high in heavy metals, and people
40:28
Speaker 1: don't know what they're getting and so we list our
40:29
Speaker 1: protein we list our heavy metal results over protein online
40:33
Speaker 1: on our Certificate of Traceability tool. And then I would
40:36
Speaker 1: say the next product came from just deeply listening to
40:40
Speaker 1: our customers. We actually call them healthy skeptics, and we
40:44
Speaker 1: have hundreds of thousands of subscribers to our products, and
40:47
Speaker 1: we asked them, hey, like, what do you want to
40:48
Speaker 1: see next from us? In over ninety percent of our
40:52
Speaker 1: healthy skeptics that we serveed, so they wanted something in
40:55
Speaker 1: the gut health space, and I think we over we
41:00
Speaker 1: delivered there for sure with this Symbiotic Plus, which has
41:03
Speaker 1: been our fastest growing SKEW to date with tens of
41:07
Speaker 1: thousands of subscribers tens of millions of dollars in revenue
41:11
Speaker 1: within the first year, and it's really exciting to see
41:15
Speaker 1: how it's changing people's lives. But I think what's more
41:18
Speaker 1: exciting is that we actually surveyed our customers about a
41:23
Speaker 1: month after launch, and we served hundreds of people, and
41:27
Speaker 1: we created a ninety seven page report of like what
41:29
Speaker 1: we could do better, how do we evolve the product
41:31
Speaker 1: experience and the packaging, And it was just, you know,
41:36
Speaker 1: it's a good example of how much we invest in
41:38
Speaker 1: things like consumer insights and listening to our customers like
41:42
Speaker 1: deeply even after we launched products.
41:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, so I want to go back to Kat the
41:49
Speaker 2: person and not Kat the founder. So you mentioned being
41:53
Speaker 2: pregnant when starting this company. How do you take care
41:59
Speaker 2: of you? Because along this journey you said, now mother
42:03
Speaker 2: of three, a lot's been going on.
42:07
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, that's that's hard. I mean it's hard.
42:09
Speaker 1: I think in the beginning I was not taking care
42:11
Speaker 1: of myself well, which is so funny because I'm like
42:14
Speaker 1: running a health company trying to take care of you know,
42:18
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousand, a million plus customers today, and it's
42:24
Speaker 1: like the one person I wasn't really taking care of
42:26
Speaker 1: was myself. And I think that's easy to it's kind
42:29
Speaker 1: of easy to get into that place when you're running
42:34
Speaker 1: a million miles you know, a minute, but it's actually
42:38
Speaker 1: it was actually I think I had a tipping point
42:42
Speaker 1: where I was just kind of burnt out and like
42:44
Speaker 1: dealing with some mental health issues and you know, not
42:48
Speaker 1: taking care of myself but like giving everyone else by all.
42:52
Speaker 1: And I think it's an interesting thing that people don't
42:55
Speaker 1: talk about often. It's just like people that are running
42:58
Speaker 1: health businesses that you know, how interesting it is that
43:03
Speaker 1: they're taking care of so many people's health where there's
43:05
Speaker 1: doctors or healthcare professionals or people running health related startups,
43:10
Speaker 1: and then are they actually taking care of themselves? It's
43:12
Speaker 1: funny you'll see that most people are probably not. But
43:16
Speaker 1: it was, you know, wellness and health and alless has
43:18
Speaker 1: always been a big passion of mine and I and
43:21
Speaker 1: I found it again, and especially kind of after having kids.
43:26
Speaker 1: I became ruthless about protecting my time and space for
43:32
Speaker 1: working out. I have been a plant based eater and
43:36
Speaker 1: vegan for you know, ten fifteen years, not fifteen years now,
43:40
Speaker 1: and really started eating in a more even more healthy
43:45
Speaker 1: way than before. And I kind of actually got back
43:48
Speaker 1: to the basics. Like I had been so passionate about
43:52
Speaker 1: wellness my whole life and a little too much, like
43:56
Speaker 1: I used to experiment on myself with lots of different
43:59
Speaker 1: herbs and you know, different diets and different like I
44:04
Speaker 1: did a blood type diet when I was younger, kind
44:07
Speaker 1: of into wellness before it was a thing. And as
44:10
Speaker 1: I got older, I started really thinking about this idea,
44:14
Speaker 1: how do you do the basics just exceptionally well, and
44:20
Speaker 1: how do I like perfect the basics, and that's something
44:23
Speaker 1: that I'm still working on.
44:25
Speaker 2: I love the word I got really ruthless in protecting
44:29
Speaker 2: my time for myself. When you say basics, what falls
44:33
Speaker 2: into the basics.
44:37
Speaker 1: It's so interesting to be in the space. People are
44:40
Speaker 1: always looking for quick fixes when it comes to benefits
44:44
Speaker 1: or health ailments, and after doing this for so many years,
44:49
Speaker 1: there's no quick fix. And part of it is really
44:53
Speaker 1: doing the basics exceptionally well. And I would say the
44:57
Speaker 1: basics for me are sleeping well, Like how do you
45:01
Speaker 1: set up a situation where your sleep hygiene is exceptional?
45:06
Speaker 1: How do you eat really well for your body and
45:11
Speaker 1: for who you are? How do you kind of fuel
45:14
Speaker 1: yourself every day in the best possible way. How do
45:17
Speaker 1: you drink enough water? A lot of us are dehydrated,
45:20
Speaker 1: and yet we're always seeking alternative solutions for that. But
45:25
Speaker 1: how much water are you drinking? Is it getting in?
45:28
Speaker 1: And are you working out and moving your body? And
45:31
Speaker 1: those I would say are like the four things that
45:34
Speaker 1: are really important to me, And how do you move
45:39
Speaker 1: on to other things until you have that foundation down,
45:43
Speaker 1: you know, and so setting up you know, making sure
45:47
Speaker 1: that you know even though I have three kids, it's
45:49
Speaker 1: sometimes impossible to get sleep. But what can I do
45:52
Speaker 1: to protect the sleep that I'm getting? How do I
45:55
Speaker 1: go to bed earlier? How do I set up a
45:57
Speaker 1: sleep environment that works for me really well? How do
46:00
Speaker 1: I make sure I'm drinking enough water and hydrating properly.
46:03
Speaker 1: What are the tools that I have there On the
46:05
Speaker 1: nutrition side, obviously we have a multi vitamin that fills
46:08
Speaker 1: the gaps in your diet. That's really important, But how
46:11
Speaker 1: do I also make sure that the food that I'm
46:14
Speaker 1: eating throughout the day is really nutritious. I also end
46:18
Speaker 1: up buying all of our you know, really privileged. I
46:20
Speaker 1: get to buy all of our groceries at the farmer's
46:23
Speaker 1: market in La year round, which is insane, and I
46:26
Speaker 1: support local farmers. But I know that even just given
46:30
Speaker 1: how the soil has changed over the last few decades, like,
46:33
Speaker 1: that's just so important. And yeah, those are some of
46:38
Speaker 1: the things that I'm really focused on. And I would
46:40
Speaker 1: say when I was growing up, we had a Norman
46:42
Speaker 1: Walker juicer, I did a blood type diet. There were
46:46
Speaker 1: so many experimental things that I was doing. I was,
46:50
Speaker 1: you know, and I moved to La fifteen years ago.
46:52
Speaker 1: I was getting a Green Goddess ice cream from air
46:55
Speaker 1: one that cost twenty something dollars and then I figured
46:59
Speaker 1: out how to recreate it at my own house. But
47:01
Speaker 1: I was like, you know what, I don't really need that.
47:03
Speaker 1: I don't need that that, that's not something I need
47:05
Speaker 1: every day. And I think the best things around kind
47:10
Speaker 1: of wellness are actually the things that don't cost that much.
47:14
Speaker 1: My mom is a macrobiotic chef, and like literally the
47:18
Speaker 1: foundation of macrobiotics is like beans and rice and you
47:23
Speaker 1: look at at you know, the blue zones and the
47:26
Speaker 1: work that Dan has done there and the people that
47:28
Speaker 1: are living over one hundred years of age centurions and
47:33
Speaker 1: they're they're really consuming mostly plant based diets there. They're
47:37
Speaker 1: not going to the gym, they're actually like walking around
47:42
Speaker 1: and they're they're moving their bodies as part of their days,
47:45
Speaker 1: and they have really strong relationships and communities and so
47:49
Speaker 1: those things are really I think key, and I just
47:52
Speaker 1: for me, it's like, I know, you know, I'm supposed
47:54
Speaker 1: to be selling our vitamins, which I love doing because
47:56
Speaker 1: I think they they help people a lot, But I'm like,
47:59
Speaker 1: if I meet people, I love helping them think through
48:04
Speaker 1: those foundational things first Yeah.
48:07
Speaker 2: I mean, there's definitely so much that we can do
48:10
Speaker 2: by just taking a closer look at the things that
48:13
Speaker 2: we may be or not be doing already. And I
48:17
Speaker 2: really appreciate you in your explanation of the basics kind
48:21
Speaker 2: of stressing the importance of also meeting yourself with where
48:24
Speaker 2: you're at, considering the fact that, again you are a
48:27
Speaker 2: mother of three. You mentioned that you try to do
48:31
Speaker 2: what you can to sleep better. Aside from getting to
48:35
Speaker 2: bed earlier when possible, what other variables are you controlling
48:38
Speaker 2: so that you're getting better shut eye?
48:42
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's a good question. So the first thing, I've
48:44
Speaker 1: realized that alcohol really impacts my sleep, So I actually
48:48
Speaker 1: stop drinking six plus months ago and that's had a
48:52
Speaker 1: really great impact. I've read somewhere that I don't know
48:56
Speaker 1: how much science is in this, but actually not consuming
48:58
Speaker 1: alcohol three or four hours before bed as well is helpful.
49:02
Speaker 1: The other thing is I put my phone in airplane mode.
49:06
Speaker 1: I don't look at it an hour before I go
49:08
Speaker 1: to bed. There's something I knows, there's a little research there,
49:12
Speaker 1: but it's more mental for me to to not be
49:17
Speaker 1: you know, not get that work email and not get
49:19
Speaker 1: that text from a family member as you're trying to
49:23
Speaker 1: fall asleep that you literally can't stop thinking about. In fact,
49:26
Speaker 1: I broke my own rule yesterday and then all my
49:29
Speaker 1: dreams were around that particular situation. I was like, Wow,
49:33
Speaker 1: this is so wild. How what you're you know, what
49:36
Speaker 1: you're consuming before you fall asleep has an impact on
49:39
Speaker 1: what you're thinking throughout the night. So that's really important.
49:43
Speaker 1: I would say the consistency of the same time going
49:47
Speaker 1: to bed is really important. And obviously, as somebody who
49:52
Speaker 1: is into supplements in different things, I am experimenting with
49:55
Speaker 1: certain products that help me fall asleep. More to come
50:00
Speaker 1: on that, but that those are the things where my
50:04
Speaker 1: basics I think. Also just I'm really into obviously rituals,
50:08
Speaker 1: like ritual is the foundation of the company, but it's
50:12
Speaker 1: it's around how do you turn a routine into a
50:16
Speaker 1: habit into a ritual And so with all these things
50:19
Speaker 1: like how do you actually like, really deeply enjoy the
50:25
Speaker 1: thing that you do every single day around these you know,
50:28
Speaker 1: basic elements of wellness and so how do you set
50:31
Speaker 1: up your bed in a way we really investing in
50:34
Speaker 1: that space, like you like your sheets, you like your pillow,
50:38
Speaker 1: you know, and really creating a really incredible environment. A
50:42
Speaker 1: temperature also plays a role in that, so people sleep
50:46
Speaker 1: better when the temperature is lower, and there's certain temperatures
50:49
Speaker 1: that correspond to better sleep. Light plays a big role,
50:53
Speaker 1: so making sure there's absolutely no light in your room
50:57
Speaker 1: is really critical, and I think just like really looking
51:02
Speaker 1: forward to those moments really matters a lot. I mean,
51:06
Speaker 1: it's actually I think working out is another area that
51:09
Speaker 1: I love talking about because I went from somebody who
51:12
Speaker 1: wasn't working out at all, basically maybe doing yoga sometimes,
51:16
Speaker 1: to somebody who works out every single day, can't live
51:19
Speaker 1: without it, and it's becomes such a ritual for me,
51:22
Speaker 1: like I deeply look forward to it. So that's it's
51:27
Speaker 1: become a huge part of my life.
51:29
Speaker 2: Well you know that the listeners hearing that want to
51:32
Speaker 2: know what changed and how you stick with it.
51:34
Speaker 1: I used to think that working out was for my
51:37
Speaker 1: physical health. Like I would, you know, go to a
51:41
Speaker 1: yoga class or plates and I'd be looking at my
51:43
Speaker 1: like abs in the mirror the whole time, and you know,
51:48
Speaker 1: like I wouldn't think about anything else, like oh did
51:50
Speaker 1: that you know, did it change? Did it did it
51:53
Speaker 1: get tighter? And that was like definitely not sustainable. I
51:58
Speaker 1: did it sometimes, but I think what you see is
52:00
Speaker 1: like you work out and you don't see a difference
52:02
Speaker 1: right away. It takes it takes years, And so there
52:05
Speaker 1: was no there's no when you think about forming a habit,
52:08
Speaker 1: there's no reward, and you need that reward to actually
52:11
Speaker 1: form a habit, if anyone's read The Power of Habit,
52:14
Speaker 1: great book. And so the reward for me became mental,
52:19
Speaker 1: like I've dealt with major anxiety, I think my whole
52:22
Speaker 1: life more recently running a business and having three kids.
52:26
Speaker 1: And for me, the reward was feeling less anxious for
52:31
Speaker 1: me personally, you know, I can't claim that for anybody else.
52:34
Speaker 1: And I would work out and I feel better, and
52:39
Speaker 1: I was like, wow, I crave that. I crave that
52:41
Speaker 1: every single day and it helps me be a better mom,
52:44
Speaker 1: it helps me be a better CEO. And when I
52:46
Speaker 1: stopped looking at the physical elements at all, because you
52:49
Speaker 1: know you're not going to get those right away anyway,
52:51
Speaker 1: and it was more meditative, I like, can't I literally
52:55
Speaker 1: can't live without it. As you know, I'm on a
52:57
Speaker 1: vacation here in Mexico and I already have it. In
53:00
Speaker 1: the middle of the jungle and already found a trainer here.
53:03
Speaker 1: My kids just diod yoga under a pull out. But
53:06
Speaker 1: together the three of them, it's and I think it's
53:09
Speaker 1: what's really interesting when you have kids is they like
53:11
Speaker 1: see that and they become that as well, and they're
53:13
Speaker 1: inspired by that, and it's just such a healthy part
53:17
Speaker 1: of your life that I wish I had earlier. You know.
53:21
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, that's so special that that model behavior. And also,
53:26
Speaker 2: I mean on that concept of habits, it's so interesting
53:29
Speaker 2: right because of that feedbook feedback loop. So often the
53:33
Speaker 2: habits that are bad for us quote unquote, let's talk
53:36
Speaker 2: about like I don't know, smoking or drinking for instance.
53:38
Speaker 2: To access in that moment, it feels very enjoyable and rewarding.
53:43
Speaker 2: But the aftermath of that is what is the thing
53:48
Speaker 2: that we aren't thinking about when we're partaking in that activity.
53:52
Speaker 2: So good on you for being able to distinguish what
53:57
Speaker 2: worked for you and know that it didn't happen overnight.
54:00
Speaker 2: And I think that is a huge, huge takeaway in
54:03
Speaker 2: this instance, specifically, it's that you had to learn what
54:07
Speaker 2: worked for you and your body, and then throughout that
54:10
Speaker 2: process you were able to come to enjoy it.
54:13
Speaker 3: Even more definitely.
54:14
Speaker 1: And I think the type of workout matters too, because
54:17
Speaker 1: not everyone's going to enjoy the same type of workout,
54:20
Speaker 1: and so you could try to go in the gym
54:21
Speaker 1: and you hate it and then you're over it. You're
54:24
Speaker 1: never going to work out again. But like, it took
54:25
Speaker 1: me a while in so many different classes to like
54:28
Speaker 1: find the workouts and the people that lead those workouts
54:32
Speaker 1: that make it more meditative for me. In one of
54:36
Speaker 1: my yoga teachers was like, hey, I know why you
54:38
Speaker 1: like coming here, and it's like I love coming here,
54:40
Speaker 1: and he's like, it's because you're leading people all day.
54:43
Speaker 1: You're leading people all day, and this is the one
54:45
Speaker 1: time someone is leading you. And I think that's so interesting.
54:49
Speaker 1: And sometimes we don't have time to go to the gym,
54:52
Speaker 1: and I think what's amazing recently and now is like
54:54
Speaker 1: ten minute videos. You know is doing a bunch of
54:56
Speaker 1: them after giving birth in the middle of COVID, and
54:59
Speaker 1: it's like, I didn't even have to go to a space,
55:00
Speaker 1: you know, I love going to a space, and it's
55:03
Speaker 1: just a lot more accessible.
55:05
Speaker 3: Yeah.
55:06
Speaker 2: Now, I'm curious, when was the last time you had
55:10
Speaker 2: a pinch me moment?
55:11
Speaker 3: Building your business.
55:13
Speaker 1: I think my pinch me moment became when I found
55:16
Speaker 1: out we were number one in one of the channels.
55:19
Speaker 1: I can't say one. That was so exciting to me
55:21
Speaker 1: because here I was, you know, four months pregnant starting
55:24
Speaker 1: this business. People told me I couldn't earn the trust
55:27
Speaker 1: of the consumer online with what people are putting in
55:30
Speaker 1: their bodies, and here we were a number one in
55:33
Speaker 1: a certain channel, and I was like, Wow, this is
55:35
Speaker 1: so crazy that in such a short amount of time
55:40
Speaker 1: this is happening. Because it also means that people actually
55:45
Speaker 1: care like people. It's not just a niche thing that
55:49
Speaker 1: people care about, you know, the ingredients that go into
55:52
Speaker 1: their premiums. Like it's becoming a mass thing. And that's
55:55
Speaker 1: really exciting that in you know, mainstream America, people are
56:00
Speaker 1: prioritizing the ingredients that they're putting in their bodies, and
56:03
Speaker 1: they're prioritizing their health.
56:05
Speaker 2: Definitely, I love to hear that, and truly it's something
56:09
Speaker 2: that is commendable that you persevered in so many instances
56:14
Speaker 2: where you had those nos and you had those doubts
56:17
Speaker 2: of others coming in and to see what you've built
56:20
Speaker 2: despite that is really really rad. Now someone goes to
56:25
Speaker 2: let's say your social media page, and they see this
56:29
Speaker 2: woman that I love. How you introduce yourself, it's you're
56:33
Speaker 2: the mother of three girls and ritual. Now when you
56:36
Speaker 2: look in the mirror, what is it that you see
56:39
Speaker 2: looking back at you.
56:41
Speaker 1: It's hard because I feel like I still have those
56:44
Speaker 1: fears and doubts in some ways that I had, you know,
56:48
Speaker 1: when I was starting the company. I don't think anybody's perfect.
56:51
Speaker 1: I'm far from perfect and I and I would say
56:54
Speaker 1: that that's something I'm working on, and like I could
56:57
Speaker 1: be a little bit more confident when I look in
56:59
Speaker 1: the mirror, but I always figure out. I think it's
57:01
Speaker 1: what drives me too, is like I'm the type of
57:04
Speaker 1: person that's like, oh, this is wrong with this, or
57:06
Speaker 1: this is wrong with that. I have to change it.
57:08
Speaker 1: And so I think in some ways I look at myself,
57:12
Speaker 1: I feel more proud and confident than I've ever felt before,
57:16
Speaker 1: but I would say that I'm still super insecure. If
57:19
Speaker 1: that makes sense.
57:21
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it can be both.
57:22
Speaker 2: Right, you can be both proud of yourself for how
57:25
Speaker 2: far you've come and still look in the mirror and
57:29
Speaker 2: have sporadic thoughts. Right, but ultimately it comes down to,
57:34
Speaker 2: for the most part, how you talk about yourself or
57:37
Speaker 2: talk to yourself when you're by yourself and continually working
57:41
Speaker 2: on that inner dialogue, so it can be coming from
57:43
Speaker 2: more of a place of grace and positivity than you know,
57:47
Speaker 2: the other way around.
57:48
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I would say that I feel so lucky. I
57:57
Speaker 1: think that's something I've been feeling a lot. I don't
57:59
Speaker 1: know if lucky the right word. I feel really grateful
58:02
Speaker 1: and I'm just I think it's a combination of like
58:06
Speaker 1: pinch me and when I you know, the last even
58:09
Speaker 1: last couple of mornings where I'm like, Wow, I'm so
58:12
Speaker 1: grateful that I get to live this life. I'm so
58:14
Speaker 1: grateful that I have beautiful kids, and I'm so grateful
58:18
Speaker 1: that I have a business that's impacting the lives of
58:22
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of people and we've had over a
58:25
Speaker 1: million customers, and in such a positive way, like how
58:28
Speaker 1: did I how do I? How did I get here?
58:32
Speaker 1: And how do I get to the next place? Like
58:34
Speaker 1: what's next? And I think that's something that I'm thinking
58:38
Speaker 1: about a lot recently.
58:40
Speaker 3: So what's next?
58:41
Speaker 4: Kat Well, I think the advocacy stuff is I think
58:48
Speaker 4: the advocacy work is what's next for ritual and also
58:52
Speaker 4: a focus on sustainability having three kids and.
58:57
Speaker 1: Thinking about the world that they live in. You know,
59:00
Speaker 1: as a supplement industry, as a health industry, we've been
59:03
Speaker 1: kind of asleep at the wheel at one of the
59:05
Speaker 1: biggest health threats of our time, which is climate change.
59:10
Speaker 1: And I feel more than ever responsible for making a change,
59:16
Speaker 1: which with how we lead our business and what we do,
59:20
Speaker 1: and more recently we became a b CORP certified company.
59:25
Speaker 1: We set really science based climate targets. So we set
59:30
Speaker 1: a goal of having one hundred percent traceable products and ingredients,
59:34
Speaker 1: which we met, to one hundred percent sustainable packaging, which
59:38
Speaker 1: we're seventy plus percent of the way there. Ninety two
59:42
Speaker 1: percent of our packaging is made from recycled materials, and
59:44
Speaker 1: we also set a goal of net zero by twenty thirty.
59:48
Speaker 1: We actually ran life cycle assessments on every single one
59:51
Speaker 1: of our products, so we can see our carbon impact
59:55
Speaker 1: and what we do to move forward from here. It's
59:59
Speaker 1: interesting because this category is, you know, hopefully focused on
1:00:03
Speaker 1: science at times. For us, we're always focused on science,
1:00:06
Speaker 1: but we don't really think about science based climate goals.
1:00:09
Speaker 1: It's kind of arbitrary, and I think there's what's next
1:00:12
Speaker 1: for me is like actually educating the consumer and what
1:00:15
Speaker 1: that means and how we set this new standard not
1:00:19
Speaker 1: just for ourselves but for the category when it comes
1:00:21
Speaker 1: to climate change, because I want my kids to live
1:00:26
Speaker 1: in a better world, do you know?
1:00:27
Speaker 3: Yeah?
1:00:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so clear that you're so passionate about this,
1:00:31
Speaker 2: and it's so awesome to hear about how you want
1:00:36
Speaker 2: to move forward and make the world a better place,
1:00:39
Speaker 2: not just clearly for your family, but also for all
1:00:43
Speaker 2: of the ritual customers and the people that have come
1:00:45
Speaker 2: into your ecosystem. Now, Kat, you have an opportunity to
1:00:50
Speaker 2: offer yourself a piece of advice looking back on the
1:00:54
Speaker 2: hurdle moment that is starting your business. It's being in
1:00:58
Speaker 2: that room and being told that you can't you both.
1:01:00
Speaker 2: It's being at the beginning, not exactly knowing where to
1:01:06
Speaker 2: pivot to next.
1:01:08
Speaker 3: Knowing what you know. Now, what do you tell yourself?
1:01:13
Speaker 1: I would tell myself to embrace the nos and just
1:01:17
Speaker 1: because somebody says no, it actually means it hasn't been
1:01:22
Speaker 1: done before. And that's an incredible opportunity versus just a challenge.
1:01:29
Speaker 2: An incredible opportunity versus just a challenge. Cat Schneider so
1:01:33
Speaker 2: happy that we were able to make this happen. For
1:01:36
Speaker 2: those that don't follow you just yet, how do they
1:01:38
Speaker 2: follow along with you?
1:01:39
Speaker 3: How do they keep up with ritual? Give us the details.
1:01:43
Speaker 1: We are at richual on Instagram and now threads, as
1:01:49
Speaker 1: well as TikTok and I'm just Kat and Kal on Instagram.
1:01:54
Speaker 1: Although I'm pretty you know, family, I don't know if
1:01:56
Speaker 1: everyone wants.
1:01:57
Speaker 3: To follow me.
1:01:59
Speaker 1: I'm just like me and my three kids and my
1:02:01
Speaker 1: husband like biking around everywhere, so I don't know if
1:02:04
Speaker 1: that's that interesting.
1:02:05
Speaker 2: Well, I'm over at Emily a Body and at Hurdle
1:02:07
Speaker 2: Podcast another Hurdle Conquered.
1:02:10
Speaker 3: Catch you guys next time