Latest / Mama Making Podcast / Erica Bunton | The App Every Pregnant Woman Needs: Nutrition, Food Safety, and Making Healthy Eating Simple

Transcript

Erica Bunton | The App Every Pregnant Woman Needs: Nutrition, Food Safety, and Making Healthy Eating Simple · Mama Making Podcast

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: Hello and welcome to the Mama Making podcast, where we share stories of moms making impact in their own lives and in the world around them.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Jessica, and each week I sit down with women who are building businesses, leading communities, shaping culture, and redefining what success looks like inside of motherhood.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because motherhood does not have to stop your ambition.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_01: It can transform it.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: Now let's get into it.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_01: Hello everyone, and welcome to the Mama Making Podcast.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: I'm your host, Jessica.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: If you're new, welcome.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: If you're not new, then welcome back.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: Today I am thrilled to have Erica Bunton on the podcast.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: She is the co-founder of Good Roots, a pregnancy nutrition app designed to take the confusion out of food safety and nutrition for pregnant and post-partnant moms.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: With 12 years in healthcare across pharmaceutical and medical device spaces, Erica brings both professional expertise and deeply personal experience into her work.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: She birthed two children nationally, navigated a high-risk pregnancy that challenged her own health and nutrition and built good roots because she wished it existed when she needed it most.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, Erica.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for being here.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for having me.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited to talk all things about the app, but firstly, tell us more about you, who you are, where you're from, whatever you're comfortable sharing.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Sure, yeah.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: So originally I'm from Jacksonville, Florida.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um I grew up there, born and raised.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: I left there and went to college in Atlanta, Clark Atlanta University, left there and went to grad school in Ohio, Ohio University, and then I finally made my way to DC.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: And living in DC has just been amazing.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've been here for about 14 years.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now I can't believe I'm even saying that I've been here this long.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've been here and when I came here, I was working for international agencies, but I had a friend who was in sales, and you know, I was complaining about not making enough money in such an expensive city.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he suggested that I try my hand at pharmaceutical sales.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: So that was my foray into sales and medical device or pharmaceutical sales to be specific.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: And over the last uh 12 years, that is exactly what I've done.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: I've worked in pharmaceutical sales and then, of course, medical devices, just learning the ins and outs of hospital systems and private practices as well.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: I just came to love it.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: I love the hustle of it.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: I love, you know, talking to providers face to face, learning their, learning their issues and learning products that could be helpful to them.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's so awesome.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think people don't.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_01: I used to work in a really large health system and did project management, which is very different.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_01: But I think people don't realize how much you learn about the medical system and the hospital system, just physically being in there and and learning all about what people are doing, what they need, even if you're not a direct, like medical professional, there's so much to be learned.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I mean, you you just learn how many different positions actually exist in the hospital, how much red tape you have to get through to actually get things done.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: But when you get to meet, right, but when but when you get to meet the right people who actually cause some shots and you're able to move through a lot of the hierarchy.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: But uh working with hospital systems and purchasing teams, people who like purchase either physical products for the hospital, like everything from gloves to a syringe, um, you get to meet, you know, who's over those things.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, in private practices, you get to learn the ins and outs of how to run a small business.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: So that's also just as just as exciting.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_01: So tell me what was the transition from doing medical sales to now creating an app?
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: What was the in-between?
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: How did you get there?
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me everything.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, I think this was something that just kind of organically happened for me.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I've always been a person who have have I've I've had interest in other things like uh study journalism and uh communications when I was an undergrad.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so I've like made a film before.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: My both of my grandparents or sets of grandparents were into fashion.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: They were tailors and they re-upholstery furniture, make drapes and curtains.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, so so did my mom.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I've always had a hand in fashion.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_00: I had a clothing line at one time.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so I kind of always find my way using things that I love to do um and kind of make a side hustle out of it, right?
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like see if I can make some money from it.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: But when I became pregnant, it was um this was a whole new world for me, you know.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm the youngest of four kids.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So my mom was what they would consider now a geriatric pregnancy, you know.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's what she experienced having me.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um and now technology and things have advanced so much.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I I I don't want to say she couldn't help me, but there are some things that were different in medical in the medical space that, you know, she hadn't seen in almost 30 years by the time I came around to having a kid.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I experienced that, you know, it was just my peers that I was able to talk to about what I was experiencing.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: And with my first pregnancy, I think it was as good as it could get to be the first one.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're just excited, you don't really know what to expect.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing that I experienced was we had gone on a trip.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was during my, I was during the first trimester.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I did know I was pregnant, but we had went on a trip to Denver.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if it was the elevation or whatever it was, but I ended up passing out.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: I passed, we were walking down the street and I got so lightheaded and I passed out.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: So of course that was a scary situation for me.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um drank water, ate some rice, just tried to bring myself back to life.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_00: As soon as I got back to DC, I went to the hospital um to visit my doctor, and that's when I found out I had severe anemia.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: So never knew that it was that bad to the point that it can make me pass out.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: But that coupled with the pregnancy really showed me that nutrition was something that was missing in my knowledge of how to take care of myself for my pregnancy.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: I thought, oh, I just have to eat, you know, some leafy greens.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: That's the one thing that you see or that you Google, right?
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_00: What should I eat?
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And then came the idea of like, how can I get around this?
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how can I make this something?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then I had my second daughter, and then I had a series of issues with her, like having to be induced.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: But from that point, I was definitely more um in tune with what I was eating.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: But then I come to find, you know, you're seeing all these, you're seeing all these headlines about women having complications from pregnancy experience and preclampsia and gestational diabetes.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: When you're in it, all you do is Google search, right?
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: And you you make yourself crazy by want to make sure, you know, you're not experiencing something that you shouldn't be experiencing.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then there are several cases during both of my pregnancies where black women were dying in the hospital or like soon after having birth.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a stat out there that says black women are three to four times more likely to die from childbirth uh complications that are preventable.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: So knowing that it's something that we could have done before, be it the patient or the provider of the hospital, it is not being done.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: That, you know, that really struck a chord with me.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that was how I really draw drew the conclusion of like, let's do something about it.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Where can I create something that can help more women that are pregnant?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing I knew is how to access doctors, right?
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: Using my experience with being in sales, I knew how to get in there and not be afraid to, you know, ask for time or set up a meeting.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, this is definitely a blessing for me, or like super lucky that my husband is an engineer.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: So he develops applications for a living.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we put our two big brains together to develop good roots.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's so incredible.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: I I love that you've been able to take your own personal experience and sales and in the healthcare fields, but only and couple it with your own personal experience to not only create an app that shares about nutrition, but like you're really fighting that statistic of black women in healthcare who don't get seen and heard in the way that they should.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: So tell me more about that and how it helped you create the ins and outs of this app and what the like main focuses were when you decided to start this app.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I think all women experience issues and complications when they're pregnant, you know, that doesn't really have a color.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of the issues that we hear about as far as um, you know, women dying, a lot of times it comes from improper care.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a whole other set of biases and conversation.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: But I think if if all of us, no matter who you are, can control what you eat, if if you can understand nutrition and how it affects your body, how important your blood type is to whatever you're eating, how important pregnancy is, things you should eat during pregnancy, I think we would just be healthier people to birth a child.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I think that's first and foremost.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't matter what you look like or who you are, nutrition is important.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um, but again, when it comes to a lot of those complications in the hospital system where women are dying, I think that extends beyond nutrition.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if one thing we can't control is that we're healthy when we go in to have a baby, we're less likely to experience a lot of those things.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: So, from that perspective is where I want to lead the conversation around good roots.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so when it comes to nutrition, you know, food is cultural, right?
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like we all want to eat certain things, but all those things may not be healthy for us at a given time.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So incomes, good roots.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: Initially, the the application was called maternal health AI.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I was really trying to take information from wearables like your Apple Watch or your Fitbit, maybe your Our Ring, and dump it all into an app so you can see how you're trending based on your gestational state.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: But what I found, and you know, after sharing it with providers, what I found is that it just made people nervous, like, oh my God, my blood pressure went spike today, or this happened today.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I realized I needed to make a pivot to make something that was just more was more equipped to give you resources and give you information to help you throughout your day.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so I felt like nutrition would be a better way to take the conversation versus all these alerts that we're already getting bombarded with in the first place.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: So we transitioned out of just using wearables to doing the application for nutrition.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: What helps is that you can use this app in any grocery store, you know, you could use it in any store, any packaged good, anything that you could possibly eat, you can scan an item and it'll give you a nutritional breakdown of the ingredients and where it stands on the scale of it being good for you to eat based on like 30%, 40%, like 60%.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: And it's it's based on safety and it's based on where you are in your gestational state where you are planning, currently pregnant or postpartum.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and so using that information can kind of help guide women into making, or even men, because I I have a lot of men that have downloaded the app to help their wives, right?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we're already, or their partners, we're already making a lot of decisions in a day, so they can be the ones that scan items in the store.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: But we're already bombarded with a lot of information.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: We're Googling all day.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Why not use an application that can help you push through that information?
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_00: You could even create a grocery list from it.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: So say you're at a friend's house and you scan something that she has, you're like, you know what, I like this.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Let me add this to my grocery list for the next time I'm in the store.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you can pull from that, um, especially if it's something that's healthy for you.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: But I think one thing I want to point out is that, you know, a lot of us live in a lot of people live in under-resourced areas or they live in places that are maybe far away from a store, right?
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe you live on a farm.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, your closest grocery store is an hour into town, you know, you may not get a chance to go back and forth to the store that often, but maybe you but maybe you do Uber Eats or you have uh groceries delivered to you.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: If you've already scanned this item before, you can add it to your grocery list.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just a way to get people to understand that there's a resource out there to help them scan items and know what the best, uh, the best possible option is.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: And when it comes to under-resourced area, I found in a lot of urban, a lot of urban places, the best place or the closest place to a person's home is a family dollar, right?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: A family dollar or a dollar tree to get some food, to get something that's packaged.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: You can scan, let's say you have five different options of cookies or four different options of chips.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: You can scan them all, and the one that has the highest score will be obviously be a little bit better for you.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: So it kind of helps you make a more informed decision on something that you could potentially be eating.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's that's the gist of the application when it comes to the scanning.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then I mentioned before that food is cultural.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me your favorite, your your favorite type of dish to eat, Jessica.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: We just had pulled pork and ribs this weekend.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: My favorite food is pulled pork.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't sit right with me ever, but I will always do like a pulled pork sandwich, is my go-to.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's your go-to.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I like pulled pork too.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: I actually prefer ribs, but I will eat a pulled pork sandwich as well.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: So one thing that you could do in the application is generate a recipe to make pulled pork.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: You can pull in, you can put in there exactly, you know, I want to I want barbecue recipes, I want a pulled pork recipe, and it'll lay out, you know, a safe and good way, what ingredients to cook to cook your pulp pork with.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: So not only does it make it new, nutritious, that's obviously like a very high protein item to eat, but it'll tell you how to season it, the best way to make it based on your gestational state.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe even what type of bread you should use based on your gestational state.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it highlights uh items that could be that that could be an allergen for you, no matter the dish.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: So if you like Thai food or, you know, Indian food, it'll highlight like, hey, this chicken tea masala usually has these items in it, and this could be your allergen based on what you've put into your profile.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: So it really does a whole breakdown of in the store and then cooking at home as well.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's so amazing.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: I love the um like efficiency and productivity of the app.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: Us as moms, like we're busy.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_01: If you're if you're not a mom yet, like you're still a woman, you're still busy, you're still a lot going on.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: And if we can make things just simply easier and like all in one place, I feel like that solves a huge barrier to begin with.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: I know that like just scanning something, being able to add it to my list is it sounds so small, but it's so huge in the grand scheme of things.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_01: It makes it so much easier to make that healthy choice or to go into where wherever your food is available and whatever it looks like and start to learn that process of like, okay, here are the ingredients in these two products, and this is what's telling me is healthier for me.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: You start to, it's like reverse osmosis.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: You start to figure out what things are a healthier choice for you given your circumstances.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: One of the things that I love is the education piece of it.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: We're in a world today where there's so much information out there, almost to a detriment that like we don't even know how to navigate how much information is out there.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: And then, like you said, as women who are pregnant, you're getting so much more information and you don't really know which information to trust.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: How do you start to navigate what information is important for women to know?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: How do you source the material of the education piece of your app?
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: So the one thing about it is that most women are going to rely on their provider.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to rely on their doctor or whoever they see, midwife, uh nurse practitioner, whoever they see, to give them the information that they need for their pregnancy.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: And those people who work in hospital systems, they pull their information from either the ACOG, the FDA, the CDC.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_00: They pull it from standard, clinically backed insights.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so that's exactly where we pull our information from as well.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: So every ingredient that's listed has already been inspected and provided with insights from the FDA.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so our information comes from there.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: So we we are not a clinical-based application, but we're just letting you know we pull our information from the FDA, the CDC, as well as the ACOG.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of times you can Google something and what will come up is somebody's Instagram page, like, or a random person who may not be official in any manner, but they're telling you something that their grandmother told them to do, you know, and it may not work for you for a myriad of reasons, but you know, we want to make sure we're given information that is not only true, but is based in fact, right?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's based in fact because it has been proven.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that's where we pull our information from.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's awesome.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's um finding a resource that you can trust is great.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Like we don't have the time to sit and look through ACOG recommendations.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes our don't have the time to sit and share with us exactly the the resources and like why you should trust this information.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I love that you guys are kind of already doing the vetting and just have it there for the user to review.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that is 100% true.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's that's one thing that providers love about the application because they don't have time this to shift through the things that patients are bringing them.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's so it's so encouraging and it is so great that we're that we're being trusted by actual OBGYNs and medical practices.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: They see us as a almost like a middleman.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like your patient comes in, you tell, you know, they they tell you where you are in your pregnancy, they give you a packet or they send you some documents to follow.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: But we are the application that people use in between their appointments with their provider, right?
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: We are the application that providers say, hey, you should download this and use this when, you know, you can't get to me or see me.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_00: And when you come back to your appointment, let's look through things that you've scanned.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Let's let's look through some recipes that you've generated.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: And not only is it helpful to the provider as having an application that is giving accurate information for their patients, but it's good for the patients too, because now they don't have to feel so stressed about I Googled something and this came up, whereas they could just scan the item and know exactly what it means.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think it also like inadvertently builds a little bit more trust in yourself.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think for me as a pregnant mom, I was second guessing everything, especially when it came to nutrition.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: So I think um not only like being able to look at the exact products and see what's better for me than the other, but being able to start to learn what's best and then be like, no, I got I know what the the good changes are, or I have a resource I can refer back to if I'm I'm questioning myself or questioning whether I'm making the right choice or not.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that is another like added benefit of the app.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely, definitely.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think trusting yourself in pregnancy is so tough, right?
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you have so much information coming at you.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: You have so many um family members' opinions, you got mother-in-law's opinions, you have your mom's opinion, you have your aunt, and you just want to make the best decision for yourself when it comes to everything from what you're putting in your bag, you know, when you go give birth, uh, to what items you put on your registry.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I think this is just one less headache you have to think about.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, let me just scan it to see if this is safe.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I need something to cook.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: Let me just use this to generate a quick recipe.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then be just be on your way and have a healthy pregnancy.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's so amazing.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think one of the things that we're lacking in the the app world today is practical, useful information.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: So I love that you're really able to like create generate a recipe.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_01: It makes it so um like practical and real world.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're it's not from this like high-level AI tech.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a real world way to integrate an app into your everyday life.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and you know what?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I I had someone tell me, I think it was like an investor.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: They were like, you know, why should we invest in this app?
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's just another barcode scanning app.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: There are other apps out there.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, you're right.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: There are other apps out there that you can scan the barcode and get information from, but none of them are tailored to pregnant women.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: None of them are tailored specific to what we need.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: So there are a bunch of apps out there, especially when it comes to skincare and the food, but none of them are tailored to what exactly what we need at this given moment in our lives.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: And you're, you're, you're, and you already know this, Jessica.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_00: You're in for a ride when you become a mom.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's like the moment you get pregnant until the kid is like eight, I would say, because then they can do a whole lot more by themselves, but you're constantly feeding them.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you have to nourish them.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: And what better way to have help than with the application that's, like you said, very simple and easy to.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: Use from packaged goods to cook food that you actually cook.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I think you're hitting an exact point that I was just about to to talk about.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: That I think while this app is specific to women in pregnancy and postpartum, the stuff that you're learning and information you're getting, you can continue to use this app through through your lifespan, I imagine.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I have so many people who are like, well, I'm not pregnant and I don't plan on it.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm done with pregnancy, but can I still use this?
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: I really would like to use this, especially for healthy eating.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_00: So we have an option.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: We've now added an option on the app where it just says, like, just uh just watching the things that I eat or something like that.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, like when you download the app and you make your profile, you can say, like, just healthy eating.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't have to be specific to either planning pregnant or postpartum.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because, like you said, the information is good, the recipes are amazing.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been so fun to see people outside of either planning, pregnant, or postpartum download and use the app as well.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's like you're either in the in a woman's lifespan, there's so much happening with your hormones and they're so up and down.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: And I think nutrition can help you through that.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I love that you have that option.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: That's really great.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I I would love to get into like the kind of business entrepreneur side of it.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of a nerd for learning how people navigated getting started.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so what did it look like when you came to having this idea to fruition?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: What did that all look like?
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: What were the hard parts?
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: What were the wins?
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I guess the I guess the in in in the beginning, the hard part was building the app.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: I think, you know, I'm very lucky in that um my biggest advantage is my co-founder.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_00: My my my co-founder is a CTO.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's a he's a tech guy.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so he builds apps already for a living.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it only took us about four months to build this application.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the power, yeah, that is the power of AI, really.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many platforms that speed up the process of you doing something that you're already good at, right?
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: So using different platforms kind of helps him generate exactly how it would look.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then he went to work from there because that's something that he does in his um and his for his career.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: He was already an app builder.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think one of the main parts is making sure you're building something that not only makes sense, but that you like and you love, and that really makes a difference.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think we could spit out 20 apps, you know, over the next couple of years, but which one is gonna stick, which one actually makes sense, and which one is gonna help people?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm an idea factory.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: So is he.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: But I knew right away once we, you know, had some time to think through things that we wanted to build, we knew that this would not only be helpful, but a good resource, but you know, it's something that we can build and help people right away.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: After building the application, the hardest part honestly is distribution.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's getting it in it, getting it in the hands of people who can use it, can test it, can try it.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_00: And after building it, we were able to send it to company, like testing companies.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: They would test the technology to make sure it was fast, to make sure it was it was accurate, to make sure we didn't have any bugs in it.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: You know how you use an app, and then you're like, wait a minute, I didn't mean to click that or something went wrong.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure everything like looked right and felt right.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: And after that, then it's distribution, getting it into the hands of actual users.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: So planning those meetings, you know, planning those meetings with providers, getting them to try the app themselves to learn and love it and trust it before they tell their patients to do it.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Going to yoga studios where pregnant women are, passing out flyers, going to spas where women get massages.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I was just like hitting the ground running, trying to figure out who needs this flyer, who can download it, who can try it.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I did a couple of mommy markets.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, just really pushing it out.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: Everything you could think of is just like, okay, how can I get people to see the app and use it?
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because, like you mentioned, there's so many apps out there.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_00: So did distribution is still the biggest thing.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, you spend, you can spend thousands of dollars on ad money on running ads to get people to see it.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, ads, ads work, right?
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like ads will get people to see it, but I feel like the most organic way is to hear it from a from a provider.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I've been I've been really talking to providers mostly going to conferences and really putting myself in a position for them to try it first because if they see it and they love it and they try it, they're like, okay, this is great.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: So right now we have three pilot programs, one with a dual organization, one with the hospital, and one with the private practice, a a huge private practice in the in the DMV.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, they're piling it out, they're trying it on patients, and we're getting the feedback that we need to make it bigger, better, and stronger for more women out there.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was my next question.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: What are you guys learning from and taking away from the that testing feedbacks stage that are helping you improve things?
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so what I've learned the most is that everybody, everybody will have an idea of what they think the app needs to be better.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I think you can't ever, and this goes for you, this goes for any business owner, you can't forget the star, right?
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like the purpose of why you built something, the purpose of why you did it, what what small things um really make up the bigger picture?
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because a lot of people tell us about features that they would like to see.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll give you an example.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Some people have type 2 diabetes.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, if you've had type 2 diabetes, you become pregnant, you're more likely to have gestational diabetes.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: So people who are not pregnant, people who are not planning to be pregnant, say stuff like, you should make this for people with type 2 diabetes.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Like, just change it because, you know, I think pregnant women have enough already.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, no, like I built the app for pregnant women, you know, so we get a lot of that.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: We get a lot of that.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, like, what about for the immunocompromised?
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, that's important, right?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we add a feature into where you can put in what other health issues you may be having, right?
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: So now you can click off, I have anemia, I have this, I have that, I have, I'm I'm immunocompromised.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can put more in there because all that does relate to your nutrition.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: So some things we listen to, some things we have to just, you know, we write it on a list and come back to it.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think the biggest one that I want to do that, you know, somebody brought to my attention, she wasn't a person who was planning or pregnant, and she didn't even doesn't even have children, but she suggested that we make it something that people can put on their baby registry.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, you know what?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's a solid idea.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: So figuring out how to put it on babies list or how to put it on target.com or put it somewhere where you can buy it, you could buy the buy a subscription for a friend, right?
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: So sometimes we get amazing ideas and sometimes we get stuff that's that that will kind of throw you off of what the purpose of for for the app.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm honestly we have a a growing uh Google, like a list on our Google Drive of like ideas that people send us and we just keep them.
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then of course, when you download the application, you can send feedback.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we see the feedback that people suggest, like, or they show us the mistakes that were made, like maybe a button didn't work one day.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're actively able to go back and fix those things in real time.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's amazing.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm I'm always interested in the feedback phase of people's like product growth simply because everyone has an opinion.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: But like you said, sometimes there's ones that you're like, oh, I didn't even think of that.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: That would be perfect.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: Or it's like, no, that's not the purpose, and reminds you like this is what we're working towards.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like it can be beneficial either way, no matter the feedback.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it is.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we've we've had some great things, I think.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Putting it on a registry, I'm I still I'm not I'm not uh I'm I haven't figured it out completely, but I've been reaching out to folks just to see, like, hey, is this something that you know your your store would be interested in or your organization would be interested in?
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: I even had someone suggest building out a community on the app.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_00: So you're in you could be in community with whoever is in their second trimester.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you're kind of like not alone when you're going through these things or when you're testing out foods.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a that's definitely a excuse me, that's definitely a long, a long game thing because community is important.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like I know I have, and I know I can, I I'm probably a hundred percent sure that you have too.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: You have mom friends, right?
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_00: When you became pregnant, you met other women who were on this journey with you, and you probably see them very often because you're on this journey together.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I think community, I think community is key.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I think mom friends are like, no matter if you have a supportive spouse or supportive family, like mom friends are really the only ones that are like, yeah, I'm in it.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: I got, I got you.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: I know exactly where you're at.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I do, I would love to see that become a a community, especially around nutrition.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't realize until I was a little bit more focused in on nutrition, more recently, actually, how much behavior and like emotions and psychology have to do with like food and eating.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like you said, it's a comfort.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: It's um makes you remember home or feel connected to your culture.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I think when we start to focus in on, okay, I need to eat healthy, to a lot of times it's like, well, I have to cut out all of my favorite things.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: And maybe it's not that.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's doing it in moderation or like your app does swapping those things.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes like getting on a chat with some women that are in the same space as you, being like, I had to cut out ice cream, this sucks.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like that can be life-changing.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: It really is.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you know, I'm I have always been a kid that ate my vegetables, but I was very picky about which ones.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think it was during my pregnancy I had a verse, like I just could not eat mushrooms anymore.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I just, and I have not been able to eat them since.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like I loved mushrooms before, but for some reason it made me want to throw up when I was pregnant.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I stopped eating mushrooms and I pretty much don't eat them anymore.
• 33:37
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing that I did pick up was cauliflower, like fried cauliflower.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: They're like, you can make cauliflower wings, right?
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_00: Almost like a chicken.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, these are delicious.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, and that was something that I found in community.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was a Facebook group where I saw somebody mention that.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, this is great.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'll try it.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I love it.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: So you are so right about that.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Just being able to share, share insights and share information is definitely key.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, is there anything else about the app or the work that you're doing that you would like to share with everybody?
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I mean, I'm just so excited for more women to download the app and please always, always give feedback.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I am, we are actively working on this and changing it in real time to make it the best thing for women out there.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_00: I think one thing you touched on was hormones and nutrition.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: And because our bodies are changing so much, there will be a shift in what you eat.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I want us to be okay with that, right?
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want us to be okay with our bodies changing as we age.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I used to be very apprehensive about saying my age when I got over 30 and over 35.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, oh, you know, people don't need to know my age.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_00: But honestly, like as a woman, it is such a big thing to continue to live because if you're not aging, you're dying.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: And the one thing that keeps us alive is being healthy.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: And we have to just remember, we have to empower ourselves to eat nutritious and take care of our bodies so we can enjoy our children, right?
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: They're running around, they're having fun, they're going to be going on trips, they're going to be going on field trips and doing things.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: We need to be there.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: And if we don't take care of our health, then it'll just be so much harder to enjoy life as you age.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so I want us to take, I want women to really take a hold of their lives from a nutritional standpoint.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: And diets and fad are fine, right?
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: If it's something you want to try, go ahead.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: But you have to get down to the nitty-gritty of like nutrition is a lifestyle.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's not just a fad diet from here and there.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I think with an application like this, you get in a habit, you start to learn the things that work for you, that work for your body.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: And you can just make more informed decisions.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just excited for people to download it, to try it.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited for doctors to have something that's a useful tool for their patients.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just excited to continue working on the app.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: Well, tell people where they can download the app and where they can find you website, social media, all the stuff.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: So on TikTok as well as Instagram, we are Use Good Roots.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: So U-S-E-G-O-O-D-R-O-O-T S.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then our website is just usegoodroots.com.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_00: And that's our social, that's our website.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if you want to talk to me directly, I'm just Erica E-R-I-C-A at maternalhealth.ai.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that's just M-A-T-R-N-A-L-H-E-A, H E A L T H dot A I.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you have more to come under the maternal health umbrella.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, first we started out as something that was going to connect wearables.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: We now we're starting with nutrition.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and we're going to build out other companies under the maternal health umbrella because this is what I'm meant to do.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we're meant to do.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: We're meant to help women during this um extremely important and beautiful time of life.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: So uh that's those are our platforms.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, like those are the places that you can find us.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm so excited to see what you guys do next.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm really glad you were able to come on and share about everything you're doing.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: And what we have coming up next um for your listeners who are in the DMV, we have um Pamper Mommy at Lucky Girl Nail Spa in Potomac, Maryland.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know if you have any Potomac listeners out there, but uh the ladies out there, we we do have a nail spa event for pregnant women happening at the Lucky Girl Nail Spa in Potomac, Maryland.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: That is coming at the end of July.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: We also have a pregnancy yoga session at Thrive Studio in DC that's coming up at the end of July as well.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll update these things on our Instagram page.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll share those when Yeah.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you you could share those.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, we'll just be collaborating with more brands and more companies across the DMV area.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: And if it's something that you want us to include for any of your listeners who may have business, please just reach out to us as well.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: Awesome.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: Well, thank you so much, Erica.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: I've loved chatting with you.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Same here, Jess Code.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_01: If this conversation resonated with you, I'd love for you to follow the podcast wherever you listen and share it with another mom building something meaningful.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: If you want deeper behind the scenes reflections that I don't share anywhere else, join my email list at the Mama Making Podcast.com.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for being here, and I'll see you next time.