Latest / Love Your Gut / Ep 68: From Chronic Bloating to Building a Successful Supplement Line with Bridgitte Mallinson of Gut Personal

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Ep 68: From Chronic Bloating to Building a Successful Supplement Line with Bridgitte Mallinson of Gut Personal · Love Your Gut

• 0:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the Love Your Gut Podcast.
• 0:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: Heather Finley, registered dietitian and gut health specialist.
• 0:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: I understand the frustration of dealing with GI issues because I've been there and I spent over two decades searching for answers for my own gut issues of constipation, bloating, and stomach pain.
• 0:21
  Dr. Heather Finley: I've dedicated my life to understanding and solving my own gut issues.
• 0:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: And now I'm here to guide you.
• 0:28
  Dr. Heather Finley: On this podcast, I'll help you identify the true root causes of your discomfort.
• 0:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you can finally ditch your symptoms for good.
• 0:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: My goal is to empower you with the knowledge and tools you need so that you can love your gut and it will love you right back.
• 0:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: So if you're ready to learn a lot, gain a deeper understanding of your gut and find lasting relief.
• 0:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: You are in the right place.
• 0:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the love your gut podcast.
• 0:55
  Welcome back to the next episode of the Love Your Gut podcast.
• 0:58
  I'm so glad to be here today with a fellow dietitian, Bridget, and she is a dietitian, a mom, and the founder of Gut Personal.
• 1:08
  So we're gonna talk all things today, motherhood, building businesses, supplements, and probably wherever the tangents take us.
• 1:17
  So I'm so excited for you to be here, Bridgette.
• 1:20
  Thank you so much.
• 1:21
  I'm so excited.
• 1:22
  Let's just get started.
• 1:23
  If people don't know you, you have a very interesting business.
• 1:27
  So you have a gut health coaching business, but you also have started gut personal, uh, probably what, like several years ago now?
• 1:35
  Three years ago.
• 1:37
  Three years ago.
• 1:37
  Okay.
• 1:38
  And it's been fun watching you grow the supplement side of your business and now you have the Gut Personal Wellness Club, which is really cool.
• 1:47
  So I would love to hear just kind of your passion for gut health and why you got into it.
• 1:54
  I know many of us get into it for our own reasons, so tell us your story.
• 1:58
  Yeah, so I was an undergrad to become a dietitian, and I was starting to have all these health issues.
• 2:05
  You know, I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism, I had adult onset A DHD.
• 2:10
  I was always constipated, you know, that was my story like growing up and I.
• 2:16
  Um, grew up on a lot of antibiotics as US nineties kids do.
• 2:20
  And um, yeah, I was in, I was in undergrad where like health started to deteriorate even though I was taking really good care of myself and eating well.
• 2:30
  And then when I went to grad school, things really shifted in a.
• 2:34
  Problematic way.
• 2:35
  I was bloated all the time.
• 2:37
  My food sensitivities kept increasing.
• 2:40
  You know, I felt like I just had to keep removing foods to feel good.
• 2:44
  And, um, it really felt like school was failing me because I was eating healthy and I was constipated, bloated, nauseous, like all of these terrible symptoms.
• 2:58
  And my schooling wasn't really helping.
• 3:00
  Doctors were failing me.
• 3:01
  You know, I was going to.
• 3:03
  The best of the best in Boston for not only like GI um, issues, but also for migraines.
• 3:11
  I was going to, you know, one of the best neurologists in the country and none of them were giving me the right answers.
• 3:19
  It was just always another medication.
• 3:21
  So it was when I was in the second year of, uh, my master's program that I started to hear about functional medicine, and I got an internship with Dr.
• 3:31
  Mark Hyman in his Ultra Wellness Center, which is out in Massachusetts.
• 3:36
  And.
• 3:37
  I was sitting there in this internship and was realizing people were coming from all over the world to see Dr.
• 3:45
  Hyman and to see his dietitians, and I had the same symptoms as them.
• 3:50
  I'm literally sitting across from this person who had just come from like Belgium and we had just had lunch, and my stomach hurt so bad.
• 4:00
  I was so bloated.
• 4:02
  Food was just sitting in my stomach.
• 4:05
  And it was this aha moment that even though I had started learning about functional medicine, that this was really an issue that like not only, you know, was my gut an issue, an issue, but all of these other things that I was being diagnosed with were probably related to it.
• 4:23
  So, you know, my.
• 4:25
  That was my aha moment.
• 4:26
  And then everything changed for me after I did a poop test and a SIBO test and figured out I had all the things and, um, really started my career in private practice.
• 4:37
  Um, and, and loved it.
• 4:40
  Loved like gut was always my focus.
• 4:42
  I loved helping women fix their gut because I knew it changed my life.
• 4:48
  Our stories are literally like copy paste.
• 4:51
  Which is, which is no wonder that we get along, but it's like, yeah.
• 4:55
  Same thing.
• 4:55
  I feel like I hit my lowest of low points in school and I'm like.
• 5:02
  What the heck am I doing?
• 5:03
  You know, I'm paying all this money to be here and I'm getting worse.
• 5:06
  Or just, yeah, it's crazy how, how life takes us.
• 5:11
  And you know how once you end up finding relief from your own symptoms, it gives you hope that maybe things can change for other people.
• 5:19
  So you're a dietitian.
• 5:21
  You have now.
• 5:22
  Started this business.
• 5:23
  You're seeing people in private practice and you're probably starting to recommend various supplements and products, and this is probably several years prior to starting the supplement line, but tell me about the journey there, because I find that really interesting.
• 5:43
  You probably started the supplement line for a very distinct reason.
• 5:48
  So tell us about that and why.
• 5:51
  You did what you did and why you have the products that you have and all of those things.
• 5:55
  Yeah, so in the early days of my career, this is probably 12, 10, 12 years ago, I loved, you know, doing poop testing on all of my clients and then, you know, recommending those personalized supplements.
• 6:08
  Well, that was in private practice, but then I move my practice actually into a holistic pharmacy.
• 6:14
  And that was a couple years later.
• 6:16
  And so in this holistic pharmacy, I had my one-on-one clients, you know, where I had food test results, um, for them.
• 6:24
  And I could create that custom plan, but it was also a retail space for supplements.
• 6:29
  So I, you know, changed my practice to just being one-on-one to also being the supplement buyer.
• 6:36
  Um, for a retail space.
• 6:38
  So, you know, it was pretty cool because I was, I, I knew this custom supplement, supplement, um, recommendation space, but then it was like, oh, I'm, I'm kind of buying for the masses more so.
• 6:53
  Um, so I got really educated on high quality supplements, what they were doing.
• 6:59
  Um, you know, got the behind the scenes of all the big brands.
• 7:03
  And while I was there it was really great because people could walk into the pharmacy and if I didn't have a client, they could tell me, Hey, I'm constipated, I'm bloated all the time and I can't sleep.
• 7:14
  And I'd say, okay, like, let's try these two things.
• 7:18
  Go try them, come back, like, let me know how it goes.
• 7:22
  And um, it was wonderful because people got really good results with like one or two or maybe even three supplements, um, without, you know, doing gut testing with them.
• 7:33
  And it was this aha moment with supplements that.
• 7:38
  Wow, the, like big supplement companies are doing such a great job formulating, but what they're not doing a great job was building community and integrating practitioners in a really.
• 7:53
  Great way.
• 7:53
  And, you know, health coaches and, and people who, um, you know, wanna say, Hey, take a magnesium for sleep, you know, and pooping.
• 8:02
  Um, I just felt like the big supplement companies weren't building community, but then you had these influencer supplement brands that were really great at that, but their supplements were crap.
• 8:12
  Yeah.
• 8:13
  I wanted to bring'em together.
• 8:14
  I wanted to have really super high quality supplements that worked that you could help personalize.
• 8:20
  And we have an online quiz, um, from all this education that I took for, you know, a decade of looking at poop tests and figuring out what the root cause was for people.
• 8:30
  I.
• 8:30
  I love that I didn't know the part about the pharmacy.
• 8:34
  What an interesting pivot for you that then launched this whole other sector of your business.
• 8:41
  So what was the first product that you formulated or that maybe you came out with a couple at a time, but what were the first products that you had?
• 8:50
  Yeah, we launched with a couple products, but what I always knew was that magnesium would be our star product.
• 8:55
  And it is, yeah.
• 8:56
  Um, and all of our products you'll find have really funky names.
• 9:01
  Um, and I've come up with all of the names.
• 9:03
  I always called Magnesium the miracle worker to my clients.
• 9:08
  And so when I launched my own supplement company, I was like, wow, I can call it the Miracle Worker.
• 9:13
  Um, so that's what our magnesium's called and um, it really is our star product.
• 9:18
  Well, for a good reason, right?
• 9:20
  So many people need magnesium for so many reasons.
• 9:24
  Tell us why you chose the type of magnesium that you have in your product and why it works so well for people.
• 9:31
  Yeah, so we chose a bis glycinate form.
• 9:33
  So for a long time in practice I was using citrate for constipation and glycinate kind of for everything else.
• 9:41
  And what I noticed is that, um.
• 9:44
  If I had clients on just glycinate, they would get better results with a higher dose.
• 9:50
  Um, so when I kind of changed that in practice and, and moved to just a bis glycinate form, um, I.
• 9:59
  And I, I just, I just felt like it was absorbing better and it was kind of helping people with more than the things and kind of trying to just streamline people's supplement protocols and saying, okay, you need this magnesium for this and this magnesium for this.
• 10:12
  I kind of found it was working for all the things.
• 10:15
  Yeah.
• 10:16
  So you have the magnesium.
• 10:18
  Yeah.
• 10:18
  What are your other products that are really, really popular and why do you think they're so popular?
• 10:25
  Yes.
• 10:26
  Okay, so we have this product, I named it the Healer.
• 10:29
  It is deeply healing to your immune system.
• 10:31
  I know you love it.
• 10:32
  Um, it's our immunoglobulins, which I like to say is basically a dairy-free colostrum alternative.
• 10:40
  Um, colostrum is getting a ton of press right now for good reason.
• 10:43
  I mean, I think there's.
• 10:44
  So many healing properties we use.
• 10:47
  Um, basically, uh, immunoglobulins come from the serum of a cow, so basically the blood and they don't have the dairy, um, properties, you know, that are typical colostrum would, which is great for people with gut issues.
• 11:00
  As you know, like a lot of us when we're healing our gut are sensitive to dairy.
• 11:05
  Um, so this works really well.
• 11:07
  It's deeply healing to the gut.
• 11:09
  Um, supports, you know, bacterial balance of the gut.
• 11:13
  I love that it like naturally binds to bad things in the gut and gets rid of them, and then it's really supportive to the gut lining too.
• 11:21
  So it is just such a powerhouse and I love it.
• 11:25
  I mean, it's one of my favorite products.
• 11:28
  Probably the most common product that we use with clients is immunoglobulins, and I have, if you're curious, the difference between colostrum and immunoglobulins, I'll link an episode in the show notes where I talk about more of like the science behind that, if anybody is wanting to nerd out on that.
• 11:45
  But you're right.
• 11:47
  Immunoglobulins are, I think, far superior to colostrum for a lot of reasons.
• 11:53
  And one of them being that they're way better tolerated, they're more potent, and they just do so many things for you.
• 12:01
  So really, regardless of what your gut issue is, they will help in some way, shape, or form.
• 12:06
  And so at some point on a journey with us, our clients typically end up using immunoglobulins for.
• 12:15
  However long.
• 12:16
  But talk to us maybe about, the magnesium probably that's something that people use quite a bit for like a longer period of time.
• 12:24
  The immunoglobulins they probably use for longer periods of time.
• 12:28
  Yeah.
• 12:28
  But you mentioned before we recorded that your other top seller was Saccharomyces Boulardii so break that one down for us.
• 12:37
  Why do you think that's also like in your top three products and.
• 12:41
  Is it a short or long-term thing for people and like what would they use that for?
• 12:46
  Yeah, I mean, I love Sac Bii.
• 12:49
  I think I fell in love with this strain when I personally had SIBO and couldn't tolerate other probiotics.
• 12:55
  Yeah.
• 12:55
  And so I just thought, oh, I can't do any probiotics.
• 12:58
  So Saccharomyces Boulardii,is a beneficial yeast train.
• 13:02
  Um, it's really good at getting rid of the bad guys.
• 13:05
  Um, in the gut super gently instead of going on, you know, uh.
• 13:08
  Antimicrobial protocol.
• 13:10
  It's kind of just gently getting rid of some bad guys.
• 13:13
  It's really incredible post antibiotics or if you're traveling and you get terrible travelers diarrhea or montezuma's revenge.
• 13:23
  It's so powerful there.
• 13:25
  We even have some clients, um, who are doing gut testing with, who have really bad things like c diff, um, yeah.
• 13:31
  So it's really good at getting rid of the bad guys.
• 13:34
  And a lot of women that come to us are really looking for a solution like, Hey, I've got quite a bit of gut issues.
• 13:40
  I'm not really interested in doing testing.
• 13:42
  We put them on, uh, a four step protocol that we call the gut fix reset, which is the magnesium, um, the immunoglobulins, our sac bii, and then kind of like an L-glutamine aloe blend.
• 13:55
  Um, so it's really great.
• 13:56
  I mean, just.
• 13:58
  They're all kind of really great at kind of giving you just that little reset that you might need.
• 14:02
  Yeah, I know.
• 14:04
  I love Sacro Myis, ARDI specifically for travel.
• 14:07
  Whenever we have clients that are like in the middle of a protocol and they're like, I have made so much progress, but I'm going to Mexico and I do not want to come back with Montezuma's revenge, like you said, I'm like.
• 14:20
  Pick up some Saccharomyces Boulardii and start taking it before your trip.
• 14:23
  Take it the whole trip, and then, you know, just basically finish out the bottle because it's amazing.
• 14:29
  It's amazing product.
• 14:30
  And the combo of immunoglobulins and scro ballardi together is a powerhouse.
• 14:36
  So, yes, that I imagine is why you made that into your little bundle that you have.
• 14:43
  Um.
• 14:44
  Tell us just kind of some of the, like behind the scenes, like what's it like to own a supplement brand or what have been, I guess, your highest highs and maybe something that was like challenging that you didn't expect and Yeah.
• 15:00
  Um, give us the behind the scenes.
• 15:02
  Yeah.
• 15:02
  I mean, all of my education is in nutrition, so I took one business class.
• 15:08
  It was entrepreneurship 1 0 1.
• 15:10
  Same.
• 15:11
  Right?
• 15:12
  Oh my God.
• 15:12
  We have literally the same stories.
• 15:14
  I love it.
• 15:14
  And it was terrible because it was nothing about entrepreneurship.
• 15:18
  I think they were telling you, you know, about like classes of business, you know what I mean?
• 15:23
  Like or what class your business would fit into.
• 15:26
  I ridiculous.
• 15:28
  And, um, I love being an entrepreneur.
• 15:30
  I love being an entrepreneur.
• 15:31
  When I had my private practice, the vision that I set for Gut personal was really to help millions of women.
• 15:36
  You know, I love supplements and.
• 15:39
  I believe in the power of them.
• 15:40
  I, I wanted to help women in a bigger way.
• 15:43
  What I didn't know, um, about starting a supplement company or a physical product company in general, it's super expensive.
• 15:51
  You know, I have to purchase.
• 15:52
  We have, um.
• 15:54
  5,000 prenatals coming to the warehouse today.
• 15:58
  Like that's tens and sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars that you have to put out before you make any money.
• 16:04
  And so I think with, you know, not, not having a business degree, whether that would help or not, I.
• 16:12
  Um, has been challenging, but also really fun.
• 16:15
  Um, I think the finances side of it is harder.
• 16:19
  To me, it was harder than having a private practice.
• 16:21
  I had so many expenses.
• 16:22
  We have so many expenses.
• 16:24
  Um, but the payoff is really.
• 16:28
  To help more people and then also to build a business to sell.
• 16:33
  Um, that is also a reason I started Gut Personal and we actually have 30 female angel investors.
• 16:40
  Women, you know, just like you, who are business owners and entrepreneurs who want another space to put their money other than, you know, the typical stocks in real estate.
• 16:49
  And, um, growing wealth for women is actually a really big mission of mine too.
• 16:54
  Um, because, you know, I wanna be part of the big conversations of building a business, even, even though I don't have a business degree and I'm a woman.
• 17:03
  So, um, it's been really fun, but I mean, can be very challenging.
• 17:08
  And then adding children into that, um, makes it even more challenging.
• 17:13
  Yes.
• 17:14
  So let's chat about that.
• 17:16
  So you are a mom of two, we'll just call it two since you're pregnant and expecting and yeah, throwing children into the mix when you own and are growing a business definitely creates.
• 17:30
  A little bit of chaos in mostly the best way possible.
• 17:34
  And so talk to us about that.
• 17:36
  Like I imagine you started your business before kids, and I imagine having kids totally change things for you.
• 17:44
  And actually, the way that we connected was.
• 17:47
  We weren't in the same cohort, but we were in the same mastermind for women who are in business that are moms specifically, and that's how we got connected.
• 17:57
  So yeah.
• 17:58
  How has that journey been for you and from even like a gut health standpoint, like why is that important to you as well?
• 18:06
  You know, when you think about for me, when I'm pregnant, I'm like, I'm passing down my microbiome to my children.
• 18:11
  Like that's really important.
• 18:12
  So anything like that that's kind of stuck out to you on your motherhood journey?
• 18:18
  Yes.
• 18:18
  Oh my gosh.
• 18:20
  Where to start?
• 18:21
  I mean, I think I'm the microbiome.
• 18:24
  I'll start with that first.
• 18:25
  I, um, am still breastfeeding my daughter.
• 18:29
  I'm pregnant with our second, um, my first daughter who's 20 months, does not want to stop breastfeeding.
• 18:35
  So, um, that has been tricky from a microbiome standpoint because I think after having my first daughter, it things really shifted.
• 18:44
  Um, I think, of course, you know, there's so many things that impacted the, the bur.
• 18:49
  Uh, being pregnant labor itself.
• 18:53
  Um, the stress of having a newborn, the lack of sleep and the lack of, um, like rest your digestion gets, right.
• 19:04
  Constantly snacking.
• 19:05
  I mean, there's so many things that in pregnancy and early motherhood that just screwed up, screw up any woman's gut, but kind of screwed up mine.
• 19:13
  So, um.
• 19:15
  About a couple months ago I did a GI map and it showed me there was a lot going on and I said, okay, great.
• 19:21
  I'm gonna stop breastfeeding before I get pregnant with my second, got pregnant with my second before I could address some really bad guys that were in my gut.
• 19:32
  Um, so that's been.
• 19:34
  A little challenging, honestly, mentally, because I, you, you know, you and I as practitioners, we know there's, we pa we're passing along everything.
• 19:43
  I mean, we're passing along our microbiome.
• 19:46
  We're helping, you know, I'm growing another daughter.
• 19:49
  We're helping her grow her eggs for her fertility.
• 19:52
  You know what I mean?
• 19:53
  There's so many things that I'm doing to support her right now and um, it's been a little screwy with my mind knowing that my gut is not a hundred percent.
• 20:02
  And so we kind of got pregnant a little earlier than we thought, um, which is a blessing.
• 20:07
  So that's been a little tough.
• 20:10
  Um, and then, you know, with the business, I am a super optimistic person and I'm.
• 20:16
  Not risk adverse in the lease.
• 20:18
  So starting a business was great and the vision of scaling it was great.
• 20:22
  When I was pregnant, um, I actually spoke on a lot of stages.
• 20:26
  It was really important to me to show this pregnant woman, you know, us moms doing it really differently.
• 20:32
  And I thought that would just continue into having a child, you know, she's just gonna come along with me to all these events.
• 20:39
  And while some of that is true.
• 20:42
  There's, there was a lot more challenge and a lot more of me integrating into her life that I thought, oh, she'll just integrate.
• 20:50
  Perfectly into mine and I didn't realize how much, you know, I would need to integrate into hers, you know, and, um, that was challenging.
• 21:00
  And, uh, when she was 10 months old, we moved across, basically across country, um, and started our life here in North Carolina.
• 21:09
  We were in Boston before, so there were all these big life shifts that were super positive, um, but were, you know, a little mentally tough.
• 21:20
  Yeah, I love that.
• 21:21
  And I mean, I think that's such a good reflection of like you integrating into hers and her integrating to yours.
• 21:27
  It's never a one-sided thing ever, which is so beautiful, you know, in so many ways.
• 21:34
  Um, and yeah, as moms, I think it's just, there's so many layers too, of.
• 21:40
  Just stuff.
• 21:41
  So you had some stuff on your GI map that you wanted to address and you got pregnant.
• 21:50
  Yeah.
• 21:50
  There's lots of things that you can do for your gut while pregnant.
• 21:54
  So let's talk about that because I think, like you said, you're a super optimistic person.
• 21:59
  We often work with tons of moms, whether they are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to conceive in between having children.
• 22:08
  Um, for good reason.
• 22:10
  Moms have GI issues for all the reasons that you mentioned.
• 22:14
  So if someone's listening to this and they're not in a place where they can go through some kind of intense gut protocol, I mean, that's what I'm in right now.
• 22:25
  I'm breastfeeding and I have a almost five month old.
• 22:28
  What can you do or what would you, what are you focusing on being that you're nursing and you're pregnant?
• 22:34
  I.
• 22:35
  Yes.
• 22:36
  So, and I would love your thoughts on this.
• 22:38
  Um, I, I'm doing a double dose of our immunoglobulins.
• 22:43
  I'm on our, um, spore based probiotic, a double dose of that.
• 22:48
  Um, I actually had eczema pop up.
• 22:51
  I.
• 22:51
  Uh, over my eyelid, and that's what actually got me to do the GI map.
• 22:56
  So my gut issues were showing on my skin, which they had never, never, never, never before.
• 23:01
  So no surprise to us, but a shock to, you know, a lot of people is like, wow, my gut issues are causing my skin issues.
• 23:09
  Um, so I'm doing that.
• 23:12
  Those are the main things I'm doing for my gut.
• 23:13
  And then of course, my prenatal, um, which we added, we actually added a littlescSaccharomyces into our prenatal.
• 23:19
  Okay.
• 23:20
  I was actually gonna ask you about that.
• 23:21
  Mm-hmm.
• 23:22
  So, that was one of the things when I was pregnant, you were so kind and you sent me your prenatal vitamin, which I took, and I love that it is six capsules and not anymore because it's.
• 23:36
  Hard to take a prenatal when you're sick and you're nauseous and all the things.
• 23:40
  And also if you're trying to take other stuff, like I took immunoglobulins for a lot of my pregnancy also.
• 23:47
  And you know, you might have other vitamins or things that you wanna take, so it just becomes overwhelming, like the amount of capsules or powders or whatever.
• 23:55
  Why did you decide to add the Saccharomyces Boulardii to the prenatal?
• 23:59
  I love it personally, yes.
• 24:01
  But I'd love to hear from you.
• 24:02
  Oh, well, thank you.
• 24:03
  I mean, it's an i I love that.
• 24:05
  You love it.
• 24:06
  Um, I, you know, as I was thinking about like a pregnancy journey, I was really thinking about, you know, get passing along, you know, your microbiome.
• 24:15
  And I think so many women go around and have bad things in their gut and they just don't know about them.
• 24:22
  So, you know, my reasoning was a low level of Saccharomyces, boulardii might support the body in gently getting rid of, um, some of the bad guys and boosting the good.
• 24:31
  Yeah, I think it's great.
• 24:33
  Thank you.
• 24:33
  If somebody is pregnant, like what are some of the baseline products that you have that you recommend?
• 24:39
  So we've talked about the magnesium.
• 24:41
  Yes.
• 24:42
  We've talked about the prenatal.
• 24:43
  That's, that's obvious, but what are some other things that you think can be beneficial to add in, you know, based on maybe circumstances that someone might be struggling with?
• 24:53
  Yeah, we, um, I also love, you know, fish oil.
• 24:57
  Yes.
• 24:57
  Um, EPA and DHA.
• 24:59
  We have a fish oil, like super well tolerated.
• 25:03
  Um, so that's called the omega.
• 25:05
  So I love those three are like the must-haves.
• 25:08
  And then I think we also have, um, the women's probiotic, which is a specific, two specific strains that help reduce group group B strep, um, mm-hmm.
• 25:19
  Yeah, so, you know, I kind of battled with adding that one or adding SAC mys into our prenatal.
• 25:25
  I go back and forth, to be honest.
• 25:26
  I'd love your candid opinions on that after the show.
• 25:30
  Um, but, you know, um, so we have support for group B strep, so I'll start taking that.
• 25:35
  I.
• 25:35
  Soon too.
• 25:37
  Um, those are my biggest things.
• 25:39
  I mean, in vitamin D in the winter, especially third trimester, although I love, um, if you can get your vitamin D checked every trimester, um, and just pay the$50 that insurance won't pay for it.
• 25:53
  Um, those are my, those are my big things.
• 25:56
  Yeah.
• 25:57
  No, keeping it super simple, not complicated.
• 26:00
  Yeah.
• 26:00
  Still supporting the gut.
• 26:01
  I love it.
• 26:02
  Yeah.
• 26:02
  Good.
• 26:03
  Okay, so we've chatted about entrepreneurship, motherhood, building a supplement line.
• 26:11
  What is next?
• 26:12
  Or what do you think kind of like see on the horizon or what do you maybe even like wrapping up as you prepare to have baby number two or Yeah.
• 26:20
  What's next?
• 26:21
  Yeah, I think I feel so far away from wrapping up, so thank you for even like projecting that question because I'm like.
• 26:29
  We will be wrapping up here soon.
• 26:31
  Um, so I'm due October when we're recording this.
• 26:34
  It's April.
• 26:35
  Um, so I'm really preparing for a long, um, long quote unquote maternity leave.
• 26:41
  I'd love to take the year off, so that would be like 10 weeks off.
• 26:45
  So we're preparing for that now.
• 26:47
  Um, we are fundraising actually for gut personal right now, so that's, you know, something I had never done before.
• 26:54
  Like I said, we have.
• 26:55
  All female.
• 26:56
  Mainly all female angel investors.
• 26:59
  And um, so we're really working on fundraising before I head out and, um, really working on growing our community.
• 27:07
  You know, we're in a really big season right now of growth and um, it's really exciting, but can also be really scary.
• 27:16
  You know, we're building all of this momentum right before I have my second girly, so.
• 27:23
  Yeah.
• 27:23
  Um, it's, it's somewhat scary.
• 27:25
  Mostly really exciting.
• 27:27
  And, um, yeah, thanks for asking.
• 27:29
  It's, it's an exciting next chapter.
• 27:32
  I think you're having a baby at like the perfect time of the year.
• 27:36
  I've had a September baby and then I've had a November baby and like you're right smack dab in the middle of that and it's perfect because like the weather is good.
• 27:45
  You can go on walks.
• 27:46
  Then you just like kind of ease into the holidays.
• 27:49
  It truly, the fall is the best time to have a baby.
• 27:53
  I will argue that all day long it is the best time.
• 27:56
  Amazing.
• 27:57
  My last girl was smack dab in the summer.
• 28:00
  Oh yeah.
• 28:00
  No, it was kind of brutal because also with like our supplement company, black Friday's really big and so I had to like get back into the swing right before Black Friday.
• 28:10
  This time I'm gonna be like.
• 28:12
  Friday is figured out in July.
• 28:15
  So that's been a funny thing too, with the difference of a, a service base versus a product base.
• 28:19
  We like plan things so much further ahead.
• 28:21
  Like, I love the, Hey, are we doing a masterclass next month?
• 28:25
  You know.
• 28:27
  Hey, I'm gonna launch this like, you know, program and it's gonna start in two weeks.
• 28:31
  Yeah.
• 28:32
  Yes, yes.
• 28:33
  I still do that to my team sometimes, and they're like, okay, chill it out.
• 28:38
  We're gonna need like five more team members before we can, you know, do this vision.
• 28:43
  So.
• 28:44
  Totally.
• 28:45
  Anything that we didn't chat about that you wanna share or you feel like would be important for anybody listening to hear?
• 28:52
  Yeah, I mean, one of our, one of our beliefs that got personal is that you deserve to feel amazing.
• 29:00
  I, I know that you believe that because of the work that you do and is so important.
• 29:06
  Um.
• 29:08
  I think as women, especially mothers, if you're a mother listening to this or you wanna become a mother, knowing that putting ourselves first and putting our oxygen mask on is so important, but also knowing that we don't just deserve to feel okay, we really deserve.
• 29:24
  To feel amazing and knowing that investing in that, whether it's immunoglobulins or gut tests, you know what I mean, really investing and putting your energy where you need to to feel amazing.
• 29:39
  So I'll just urge anyone who's listening, um, to, to move in that direction, to take action to feel better.
• 29:47
  It's so true.
• 29:48
  I mean, we see it all the time.
• 29:49
  I was on a call with a woman yesterday and she's like, I have two kids, and I am so bloated.
• 29:55
  I'm so constipated, I'm so exhausted.
• 29:58
  She's like, I can barely take my kid to the park because I am self-conscious of the bloating.
• 30:04
  I like, don't wanna be away from a bathroom.
• 30:07
  You know?
• 30:08
  You have to fix this for your kids.
• 30:10
  If anything.
• 30:12
  If that's how you have to think about it.
• 30:14
  Like you have to fix this for your kids and also for you of course, too, but it's like your kids deserve the best version of you and that that requires you to take care of yourself and put yourself first, even though maybe you might feel like you don't have time or resources or whatever.
• 30:34
  So.
• 30:36
  I love that so much.
• 30:37
  It really is so important.
• 30:38
  So, and you know what?
• 30:40
  I just wish sometimes people could understand how good they can feel.
• 30:44
  You know, we had a client recently who's like, why didn't you tell me how good I'd feel?
• 30:49
  I was like, I did, I just can't force you to take action.
• 30:53
  You know what I mean?
• 30:54
  She wishes she would've done what she did, you know, gut testing and supplements years ago.
• 30:59
  And I think, you know, for you and I as practitioners and healers and we see the transformation.
• 31:05
  We do our best to scream it from the rooftops, but at the end of the day, we need you to say yes for us to help you.
• 31:13
  Totally.
• 31:14
  Which actually to like tie up a loose end, how long did it take you to find relief from the chronic stomach pain and constipation and things that you described when we first started chatting?
• 31:28
  What's a realistic, for somebody like you and I.
• 31:32
  That struggled with it probably our whole lives.
• 31:34
  Like what did that journey look like time-wise for you?
• 31:38
  Yeah, I think I felt better each month, right?
• 31:42
  Like a little bit better each month.
• 31:44
  It really took.
• 31:46
  Six months for a most of the symptoms to go away in a year.
• 31:50
  It took like a year to fully feel better.
• 31:54
  And I always say, and I wonder if this is something along the lines of what you say, it'll take one to two months for every year.
• 32:01
  You felt bad?
• 32:02
  Yes.
• 32:03
  That is what I tell people all the time.
• 32:05
  I'm like, at least a month for every year, you know?
• 32:09
  Right.
• 32:09
  Which doesn't mean, I love that you said I felt better every month because Yes.
• 32:14
  I think often we can think, oh great, I've been constipated for 20 years.
• 32:17
  It's gonna take me almost two years to feel better.
• 32:20
  But that doesn't mean you're not gonna feel better along the way.
• 32:23
  It's just that gut health is never linear and it's also not a destination like, it's not like you do the protocol and you never have to do anything again.
• 32:32
  We always are having to take care of ourselves.
• 32:35
  Like we always need to be investing in whatever it is to keep things healthy.
• 32:43
  That's just part of the deal.
• 32:45
  So.
• 32:45
  Yeah, that's, you know, that was exactly my story.
• 32:48
  I, 12 years ago was the, that initial healing of my gut.
• 32:52
  And then six years later I had a super stressful time in my life.
• 32:55
  So gut symptoms came back a little.
• 32:58
  And then in another six years, which is right now, I'm going through gut stuff, you know, because I have another big life change of being pregnant, you know, twice in a row.
• 33:07
  So, yeah, totally.
• 33:08
  Yeah.
• 33:09
  Gotta keep working on it.
• 33:10
  Always.
• 33:11
  So that leads me to my last question, which I always ask, which is, how do you love your gut?
• 33:17
  Or what's one way that you are loving your gut?
• 33:20
  I'm taking my supplements every single day.
• 33:23
  I figured that would be the answer, but you know, you bet.
• 33:27
  It's the easiest, most simple thing you can do.
• 33:30
  Yes.
• 33:31
  Okay.
• 33:31
  Well tell all the people where they can find you, where they can hear all the things, purchase the supplements, all that.
• 33:38
  Yes.
• 33:39
  So I'm Bridget Malson on Instagram.
• 33:41
  If ever anyone wants to come say hi or if something resonated with you, I'd really love to know.
• 33:46
  I love feedback and.
• 33:48
  If, if anything sat with you that'd be great, um, on Instagram or gut dot personal gut personal.com/dr.
• 33:56
  Heather, we'll get you a discount and you can go check out the products that we tried, check out the gut fix reset, um, and yeah, let me know if you have any questions.
• 34:06
  Awesome.
• 34:07
  Well, this was so helpful, I think just in so many ways, whether somebody is wanting to start a product business, whether you're a mom, whether you're curious about supplements.
• 34:16
  So many good things.
• 34:17
  So thanks so much for joining me.
• 34:19
  Oh my gosh.
• 34:19
  Thank you so much for having me.
• 34:21
  I.