Latest / Hurdle with Emily Abbate / 109. Lo Bosworth, Founder & CEO Love Wellness

Transcript

109. Lo Bosworth, Founder & CEO Love Wellness · Hurdle with Emily Abbate

0:00
Speaker 1: Nobody knows what we should be doing right now, and
0:02
Speaker 1: so like, if you have feelings, just feel them, allow
0:05
Speaker 1: your body to process the emotion and to at least
0:07
Speaker 1: get it out of your body. So like, don't keep
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Speaker 1: that energy pent up, because that's when things start to
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Speaker 1: turn ugly on you.
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Speaker 2: Hey, Hurdler's Emily a body here with episode one nine
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Speaker 2: of Hurdle, a wellness focus podcast where I sit down
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Speaker 2: with inspiring individuals to talk about everything from their big
0:37
Speaker 2: wines to how they've gotten through some of life's toughest moments.
0:41
Speaker 2: On the show, you can expect vulnerability, motivation, and candid
0:45
Speaker 2: discussions with everyone from top athletes to aspiring entrepreneurs on
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Speaker 2: what it really takes to follow your passions.
0:52
Speaker 3: My mission is simple.
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Speaker 2: To inspire you to be your best self, move with intention,
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Speaker 2: and have some fun a lot the way. This week
1:01
Speaker 2: I am talking with Lowe Bosworth. She is the CEO
1:05
Speaker 2: and founder of Love Wellness, and many of you may
1:09
Speaker 2: associate her with MTV classics like The Hills or Laguna Beach.
1:14
Speaker 2: We talk about God everything from what life was like
1:19
Speaker 2: back then, dealing with some of the struggles that went
1:22
Speaker 2: hand in hand with being a college freshman and simultaneously
1:26
Speaker 2: on a top television show. And then we also chat
1:30
Speaker 2: about her decision to up and move to New York
1:32
Speaker 2: City post college. To feed that entrepreneurial bug, Lowe tells
1:38
Speaker 2: me about her stint in culinary school and the health
1:40
Speaker 2: issues she struggled with that eventually led her to founding
1:45
Speaker 2: her company. Now, if you've never heard of Love Wellness,
1:47
Speaker 2: we will dive into exactly what it is in today's episode,
1:50
Speaker 2: and we do use big scary words like vagina, so
1:55
Speaker 2: just a warning. And on that note, if you identify
1:59
Speaker 2: as male, I actually love to hear from you, which
2:01
Speaker 2: I know sounds kind of funny, but I mean it.
2:04
Speaker 2: Most of the audience here, about eighty percent of the
2:06
Speaker 2: Hurdle audience at this point are ladies, so I'm curious
2:11
Speaker 2: what keeps the guys coming back to Hurdle. I mean,
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Speaker 2: I can talk myself up a whole bunch, but I
2:17
Speaker 2: want to hear from you. So what is it that
2:18
Speaker 2: you like about the show? Why do you lean into
2:21
Speaker 2: this show versus other shows? What other shows are you
2:24
Speaker 2: listening to? I would just love your feedback, So if
2:28
Speaker 2: you could message me over on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook.
2:31
Speaker 3: Or email any of the things. I am all ears.
2:34
Speaker 2: Of course, as always, it's at emilay Body and at
2:37
Speaker 2: Hurdle podcast on social. Now, before we get to this
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Speaker 2: week's episode, I want to take a moment to thank
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Speaker 3: At Curdle Podcasts. Exciting launched last week.
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Speaker 2: thank you so much. One last ask for the week
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Speaker 2: It's Emily at Hurdle dot us. And with that, let's
5:56
Speaker 2: get to hurdling. Today, I am sitting down with Low Bosworth.
6:07
Speaker 2: She is the founder and CEO of Love Wellness and
6:11
Speaker 2: you may recognize her name from past stints on Laguna Beach,
6:18
Speaker 2: the Hills many things. Do You always laugh when people
6:25
Speaker 2: bring it up to you now.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, but I mean it's just a part of you know,
6:33
Speaker 1: my past and my history, and you know, it's a
6:36
Speaker 1: cultural touch point for a lot of people, and so
6:40
Speaker 1: you know.
6:41
Speaker 3: It is what it is.
6:43
Speaker 2: It's just funny because I was thinking about this after
6:45
Speaker 2: we chatted last week about how I'm sure so many
6:47
Speaker 2: people tell you, like I grew up with you, but
6:50
Speaker 2: you and I are the same age almost. So it's
6:55
Speaker 2: just like it's just something that we think about as
6:57
Speaker 2: nostalgia and happy times. Especially right now. It's nice to
7:01
Speaker 2: think about those times.
7:03
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Yes it is. I I don't even
7:06
Speaker 1: have words for what's going on right now.
7:08
Speaker 4: It is, uh, I was. I was speaking with my
7:10
Speaker 4: dad about.
7:11
Speaker 1: It this morning, and you know, his grandmother lived through
7:14
Speaker 1: the Great Depression, and you know, he said, this is
7:18
Speaker 1: going to have a profound impact on your life for
7:20
Speaker 1: the rest of your life, and it's gonna, you know,
7:23
Speaker 1: change our culture. You know, and and the way that
7:26
Speaker 1: we see the world and the way that we operate.
7:28
Speaker 1: And I sort of already knew that, like deep inside
7:31
Speaker 1: my heart, because it's been weeks of isolation and working
7:34
Speaker 1: from home and life already feels really different. But I
7:37
Speaker 1: do think that we are going to have cumulatively, you know,
7:41
Speaker 1: sort of like a shared outcome that is different, and
7:44
Speaker 1: we're gonna just feel differently after this. I obviously I
7:48
Speaker 1: don't know in what ways exactly yet, but I just
7:53
Speaker 1: don't think that there's like going.
7:54
Speaker 4: Back, you know what I mean?
7:56
Speaker 2: I agree now, I totally know, and I think personally,
7:59
Speaker 2: I am just so excited to hold another human dear
8:05
Speaker 2: Lord me too. Oh my god, personal contact. I miss
8:09
Speaker 2: it oh so much. I'm gonna I'm gonna jump us
8:13
Speaker 2: off here by pointing out that we have a few
8:15
Speaker 2: things in common. First of all, we both have podcasts.
8:19
Speaker 2: You guys over at Love Wellness recently launched a podcast
8:22
Speaker 2: called I Love Wellness. How has that been going for you?
8:26
Speaker 4: It's wonderful.
8:28
Speaker 1: We have amazing people come on the show, you know,
8:31
Speaker 1: Melissa would, doctor Dennis Gross, all kinds of people, and
8:34
Speaker 1: everybody comes on essentially and shares sort of their wellness
8:38
Speaker 1: journey because most people that work in that category have
8:42
Speaker 1: a story to share. Something has happened in their life
8:45
Speaker 1: that requires them to make some kind of big change
8:49
Speaker 1: or go down a certain path, and so people come
8:52
Speaker 1: on and share those stories and they're really moving and
8:54
Speaker 1: very insightful, and everybody always has really great tips to share.
8:59
Speaker 1: And so it has been a pleasure to be able
9:02
Speaker 1: to create content specifically around what I love. And before that, actually,
9:07
Speaker 1: for a number of years I had a separate podcast
9:09
Speaker 1: with two friends called Lady Lovin.
9:11
Speaker 4: It was pretty popular at the.
9:12
Speaker 1: Time, and you know, three of my girlfriends we lived
9:15
Speaker 1: in New York City, you know, we were sort of
9:16
Speaker 1: like in our late twenties then.
9:19
Speaker 4: So yes, I've been podcasting for quite a while.
9:21
Speaker 2: You are a podcaster extraordinaire. We were both also in
9:26
Speaker 2: Kapa Kapa Gama in college.
9:28
Speaker 4: Sisters within the Bond, look at that.
9:31
Speaker 2: Things I never talked about on the podcast, My history
9:34
Speaker 2: with sorority life.
9:35
Speaker 4: What university did you go to?
9:38
Speaker 2: I went to the University of Connecticut, where Kappa is
9:41
Speaker 2: no longer on campus. How many people talk about greek
9:44
Speaker 2: life today and they're like, now, my sorority or fraternity
9:46
Speaker 2: is no longer on campus, but had some of the
9:49
Speaker 2: best memories of my of my days as a kappa
9:52
Speaker 2: at Yukon. Where did you go to school?
9:54
Speaker 4: I was at UCLA.
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Speaker 2: Oh so it was.
9:57
Speaker 4: It was fun. But the one thing about UCLA.
9:59
Speaker 1: That it was disappointing in college is that they separate
10:03
Speaker 1: the sororities and the fraternities and then they're on the
10:05
Speaker 1: opposite side of campus, and like campus is like four
10:08
Speaker 1: miles all the way around, so there's no traditional Greek
10:12
Speaker 1: row at UCLA.
10:14
Speaker 4: Probably for the.
10:15
Speaker 1: Better, to be honest, but yeah, we were always kind
10:18
Speaker 1: of disappointed that we were far away from the boys.
10:21
Speaker 2: The last thing worth highlighting is you and I both
10:24
Speaker 2: share the same quote unquote good side.
10:26
Speaker 4: I noticed, Oh that was the left side.
10:31
Speaker 2: The left side is the good side. Before we really
10:33
Speaker 2: dive in today, why don't you tell me a little
10:36
Speaker 2: bit about what love Wellness is and then we'll dial
10:40
Speaker 2: it back. So kickstart me by filling me in on
10:42
Speaker 2: all things love wellness.
10:45
Speaker 4: Absolutely so.
10:46
Speaker 1: At Love Wellness we make clean body positive personal care
10:49
Speaker 1: products for women, everything from vitamin supplements to vaginal suppositories
10:55
Speaker 1: to safe personal cleansers for women. And I started the
10:59
Speaker 1: business in twenty sixteen, when I myself was not that well.
11:04
Speaker 1: I was suffering from pretty bad vitamin deficiencies that I
11:07
Speaker 1: was not able to like uncover for a long period
11:10
Speaker 1: of time, and that led to depression and anxiety because
11:15
Speaker 1: a lot of the stuff that I was suffering from
11:16
Speaker 1: was neurological. And then also at the same time, I
11:21
Speaker 1: was dealing with a gut imbalance that sort of created
11:24
Speaker 1: just a system wide imbalance. You know, the gut is
11:27
Speaker 1: the home of the immune system, and so I was
11:29
Speaker 1: like getting infections all the time and at the obgim constantly,
11:32
Speaker 1: and so I was at the drug store all the time,
11:35
Speaker 1: and it really became just so clear to me that
11:39
Speaker 1: the legacy brands for women were not making products that
11:44
Speaker 1: were really safe, effective and body positive, right, because we
11:49
Speaker 1: have really moved into this space where we want clean
11:53
Speaker 1: products made with ingredients that we actually know, ingredients that
11:57
Speaker 1: actually work, and brands that support us through a positive.
12:02
Speaker 4: Message, right.
12:03
Speaker 1: And so it was at the drug store all the
12:05
Speaker 1: time and just you know, looking at all of these
12:07
Speaker 1: legacy brands and just feeling like so much shame when
12:11
Speaker 1: I needed a product from one of these companies and
12:14
Speaker 1: the products never really worked. That great to begin with,
12:16
Speaker 1: and you know, you'd always have to put them in
12:18
Speaker 1: two CBS bags because you'd be so embarrassed. And I
12:21
Speaker 1: just felt like there was such an opportunity to improve
12:25
Speaker 1: on the women's personal care category as a starting point,
12:29
Speaker 1: and so that's what we did back in twenty sixteen
12:32
Speaker 1: and launched five personal care products for women that essentially
12:38
Speaker 1: were made to kind of replace what was already on
12:40
Speaker 1: the shelf, or they sort of acted like new products.
12:44
Speaker 1: And so, you know, we have a suppository that you know,
12:47
Speaker 1: goes up against like monostat. We have a probiotic that's
12:51
Speaker 1: made specifically for women's health that helped support healthy urinary
12:54
Speaker 1: tract function and vaginal tract function so that you don't
12:57
Speaker 1: get infections like east infections, UTIs, cetera. And then a
13:01
Speaker 1: whole host of other products that kind of support women's
13:04
Speaker 1: personal care. And you know, when we first started, I
13:07
Speaker 1: would say that the most difficult thing about it was
13:09
Speaker 1: that there was still a lot of misinformation about the category,
13:13
Speaker 1: and people were confused on why should I use this,
13:16
Speaker 1: why should I use that?
13:16
Speaker 4: Why do I even need this?
13:18
Speaker 1: And thankfully, you know, four years later, we have kind
13:21
Speaker 1: of moved through that period and I think women, because
13:24
Speaker 1: of like great journalism and great education, have sort of
13:27
Speaker 1: come to learn more about how their biology actually works
13:30
Speaker 1: and kind of understanding what products work well with the
13:32
Speaker 1: body and what products do not work well with the body.
13:36
Speaker 1: And so that was kind of the starting point from
13:38
Speaker 1: the brand, and as it continued to grow, we developed
13:41
Speaker 1: into a total body care brand. And so now if
13:43
Speaker 1: you go on the site, you can get all kinds
13:45
Speaker 1: of products right like by by bloat, you can get
13:47
Speaker 1: mood pills, all types of things for women's health specifically,
13:52
Speaker 1: and later this year we are launching into some new
13:54
Speaker 1: categories that are really exciting, like pregnancy and metopause, and
13:58
Speaker 1: so we're really trying to you know, be the go
14:01
Speaker 1: to total bodycare company for women of all ages as
14:06
Speaker 1: we move.
14:06
Speaker 4: Into the future.
14:07
Speaker 1: And so that is kind of the story of Love
14:10
Speaker 1: Wellness and why I started the business and what I
14:13
Speaker 1: do full time now.
14:15
Speaker 2: Of course, well, I'm sure you didn't just one day
14:18
Speaker 2: wake up and you were like, I'm going to create
14:20
Speaker 2: the next go to wellness company for work. So I
14:24
Speaker 2: want to dial it back and talk to me about
14:27
Speaker 2: your upbringing. And also before we do that, I just
14:29
Speaker 2: find it so important to say that. It's so interesting
14:33
Speaker 2: that when we're young and like, I remember the first
14:35
Speaker 2: time that I had to go buy like a feminine
14:38
Speaker 2: care product. I went with my dad because my mom
14:41
Speaker 2: was a nurse and she was working overnights. And I
14:43
Speaker 2: remember feeling so much shame and like feeling so scared
14:48
Speaker 2: and embarrassed. And I totally sympathize with the idea of
14:52
Speaker 2: the double bagging of the product. The double bagging is
14:57
Speaker 2: a signature, a signature move. Okay, so so let's wind
15:01
Speaker 2: it back. Talk to me about growing up for you,
15:04
Speaker 2: have you always been in to help them all us.
15:06
Speaker 2: I know you're quite active today as well, So talk
15:08
Speaker 2: to me about growing up in California.
15:11
Speaker 4: Yeah.
15:11
Speaker 1: So I had a very typical.
15:16
Speaker 4: American childhood.
15:18
Speaker 1: I grew up in Laguna, which, yes, like is extraordinary.
15:22
Speaker 1: But my parents, you know, both worked really hard. My
15:28
Speaker 1: mom's an immigrant. You know, we just had a normal life.
15:31
Speaker 4: You know.
15:31
Speaker 1: We went to Costco, We ate craft blue box macaroni
15:36
Speaker 1: and cheese. We took antibiotics anytime we had a problem.
15:41
Speaker 1: You know, I was born in nineteen eighty six, and
15:44
Speaker 1: so you know, when I was growing up, we were
15:47
Speaker 1: really living through that time of uh you know, like
15:51
Speaker 1: ease and accessibility, you know what I mean, lots of
15:54
Speaker 1: I love.
15:55
Speaker 2: The two cornerstones of a quote unquote normal life are
15:58
Speaker 2: I went to Costco and I took antibiotics.
16:03
Speaker 1: It seems I mean, I think for our generation, like
16:05
Speaker 1: that is that's pretty typical. Right. It was Price Club
16:08
Speaker 1: back in the day. Though it's Costco now, But do
16:10
Speaker 1: you remember when it was Price Club?
16:14
Speaker 2: Oh man, it used to be different.
16:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, like I grew up as a kid.
16:19
Speaker 1: Where you know, my mom and I would make dinner
16:22
Speaker 1: together every day after school. But like if you looked
16:24
Speaker 1: in our pantry, it was like, you know, gushers and
16:27
Speaker 1: goldfish crackers and all this stuff that you know, we
16:30
Speaker 1: were like amazed to be able to have you know,
16:32
Speaker 1: like cool snack food on demand and Nickelodeon and uh
16:38
Speaker 1: you know WWF because we walked across all the time
16:43
Speaker 1: at my house, and I would say that sort of
16:47
Speaker 1: like the outlier for us was, Yes, we lived at
16:49
Speaker 1: the beach, and so we had amazing access you know,
16:52
Speaker 1: to nature into the outdoors, and so we could go
16:54
Speaker 1: out and play every single day.
16:56
Speaker 2: So and when you were younger, what did you think
16:58
Speaker 2: that you wanted to do when you grew up.
17:01
Speaker 1: So as a kid, I actually always wanted to be
17:03
Speaker 1: a doctor, and so obviously that didn't happen. I'm an
17:08
Speaker 1: entrepreneur instead, but running a wellness company, I get to
17:13
Speaker 1: work with doctors every single day, and so they get
17:15
Speaker 1: to pass on their insight and knowledge to me, which
17:17
Speaker 1: is really wonderful because I'm fascinated by biology and the
17:20
Speaker 1: human body. That stuff is just so sticky in my
17:23
Speaker 1: brain and like, I love it and I understand it,
17:26
Speaker 1: and it fascinates me. And so I would say that
17:31
Speaker 1: I'm so thankful that, like, I'm an entrepreneur and get
17:33
Speaker 1: to operate this business but still get to be interested
17:36
Speaker 1: in the things that I'm interested in, you know what
17:39
Speaker 1: I mean?
17:39
Speaker 2: Of course, And you went to college at UCLA, so
17:42
Speaker 2: you obviously loved the California vibe. You wanted to stay
17:46
Speaker 2: as close to the beach as possible, a little bit
17:50
Speaker 2: of a pivot over here in New York. But when
17:53
Speaker 2: you went to UCLA, was it at all interesting to
17:57
Speaker 2: you to like show up And I mean, I'm assuming
17:59
Speaker 2: by this point and people definitely knew who you were,
18:02
Speaker 2: So was that a weird experience for you? Getting to
18:04
Speaker 2: college and dealing with Oh my gosh.
18:06
Speaker 1: High school for me was like cool, you know, it
18:11
Speaker 1: was like normal, had great friends, and I got to
18:14
Speaker 1: college and my whole world just turned upside down my
18:18
Speaker 1: first week of school, I actually went to UC Santa
18:20
Speaker 1: Barbara before I went to CLA, so I ended up transferring.
18:23
Speaker 1: My very first week of classes when I was a
18:27
Speaker 1: freshman was when the first episode season one of Laguna
18:31
Speaker 1: Beach premiered, and so I was at school for like
18:35
Speaker 1: two days as a normal person, quote unquote normal before
18:39
Speaker 1: I became that girl that was on that show, and
18:43
Speaker 1: my life completely changed overnight. And it was a very
18:48
Speaker 1: isolating experience because I've always been at ease making friends
18:53
Speaker 1: and you know, being social. That has never really been
18:57
Speaker 1: much of a challenge for me. And I sort of
19:02
Speaker 1: became an outcast immediately, and kids would yell at me
19:06
Speaker 1: when I would walk down the street, and when I
19:08
Speaker 1: would go to parties, they would play the Laguna Beach
19:10
Speaker 1: theme song when I walked it. And I didn't know
19:14
Speaker 1: that until a few years after the fact, when some
19:16
Speaker 1: of my friends were like, you know that they would
19:17
Speaker 1: play that Hilary dep song when you would like come
19:19
Speaker 1: to parties. I was like, no, Thank goodness, I didn't
19:22
Speaker 1: realize at the time, because I would have left in tears,
19:25
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And children, because when you're
19:28
Speaker 1: in college, you're you're still a kid. Children can be
19:31
Speaker 1: particularly cruel, as we all know. And so for me,
19:35
Speaker 1: I would say that those four years of college, you know,
19:38
Speaker 1: between Santa Barbara and when I went to UCLA were
19:41
Speaker 1: very challenging for me emotionally because I had to navigate
19:46
Speaker 1: an entirely new social landscape.
19:50
Speaker 4: With the weight of.
19:51
Speaker 1: The show on my shoulders, and people didn't really know
19:54
Speaker 1: what to do with me. To be honest, UCLA it
19:57
Speaker 1: was better, I think, because we were in La you know,
20:00
Speaker 1: the entertainment capital of the world. You see people on
20:03
Speaker 1: campus all the time, so it's sort of like less
20:06
Speaker 1: weird to you know, have a background in entertainment to
20:11
Speaker 1: a certain degree.
20:13
Speaker 4: But you also have to.
20:14
Speaker 1: Realize at that time social media didn't exist, and so
20:19
Speaker 1: somebody that wasn't entertainment was just kind of an outlier,
20:22
Speaker 1: you know, Like now you can like access Ariana Grande
20:25
Speaker 1: on her Instagram and you feel it feels so like
20:28
Speaker 1: real and personal.
20:29
Speaker 4: Do you know what I mean? And so yeah, I
20:31
Speaker 4: was truly like.
20:32
Speaker 1: That like weird Girl on Campus that was on that show.
20:36
Speaker 2: How thankful are you looking back on it now that
20:39
Speaker 2: social media wasn't a thing, because I can only imagine,
20:42
Speaker 2: and I mean I struggle with this and my audience
20:44
Speaker 2: is a drop in the bucket compared to yours. But
20:47
Speaker 2: being so upfront and out there with what's going on
20:50
Speaker 2: in your life and sharing so much, i mean, night
20:53
Speaker 2: and day compared to when you were going through this
20:55
Speaker 2: already difficult time back then, and what you deal with now.
20:58
Speaker 1: You know, it's it's actually interesting to answer that question
21:02
Speaker 1: because social media is very curated and you're kind of
21:06
Speaker 1: in control of what you share for the most part,
21:09
Speaker 1: unless you're a you know, major STILLIB and you're on
21:11
Speaker 1: the gossip blogs on TMS all the time, and you know,
21:14
Speaker 1: people are sort of like exposing the things that you do.
21:18
Speaker 1: When I was on the show, it sort of felt
21:20
Speaker 1: like that, you know, I was not in the editing room,
21:23
Speaker 1: and so I could not control what the directors were
21:26
Speaker 1: putting onto television, and so I was always uncomfortable by,
21:31
Speaker 1: you know, behavior performance on the show because I didn't
21:34
Speaker 1: really have any say over it. I could control myself,
21:38
Speaker 1: you know, in the moment when we were being filmed,
21:41
Speaker 1: but I couldn't actually control what was happening in the
21:43
Speaker 1: editing room, and lots of things can happen in the
21:46
Speaker 1: editing room, if I makes sense. So social media these
21:49
Speaker 1: days is kind of an interesting place where you can
21:52
Speaker 1: control your own narrative.
21:54
Speaker 2: What a cool perspective. I like, my heart hurts a
21:58
Speaker 2: little bit to know that you struggled with that kind
22:01
Speaker 2: of stuff in college, because I feel like college as
22:03
Speaker 2: it is, is such a difficult time.
22:07
Speaker 4: I mean where you yeah, like I understand, and I
22:10
Speaker 4: thank you.
22:11
Speaker 1: But also everybody has their thing in their life that
22:14
Speaker 1: they struggle with. So just because my story is potentially
22:20
Speaker 1: an interesting one because maybe you saw me on TV
22:22
Speaker 1: so it piques your interest, it doesn't mean that, like
22:25
Speaker 1: my struggle is particularly unique or special, you know what
22:28
Speaker 1: I mean, Like a lot of people deal with bullying
22:31
Speaker 1: and with social issues. Yeah, like I have this story
22:36
Speaker 1: and it's it's very interesting. But I also wouldn't go
22:39
Speaker 1: out on a lamb and say that like it's particularly special,
22:43
Speaker 1: because like tons of people deal with this kind of stuff,
22:46
Speaker 1: you know, Yeah, it's kind of part of like growing
22:48
Speaker 1: up and figuring it out, so.
22:50
Speaker 2: You continue to grow up and then I am a
22:53
Speaker 2: little lost on my timeline, so if you could assure,
22:56
Speaker 2: because I know, like after season one aired, there was
22:59
Speaker 2: more to come. So how did that kind of intertwine
23:02
Speaker 2: with what was going on in your like irl?
23:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, so season one of Laguna was my freshman year
23:07
Speaker 1: of college. I transferred to UCLA my junior year because
23:11
Speaker 1: in the UC school system you can transfer your junior year.
23:14
Speaker 1: And by that time, The Hills had begun, and so
23:17
Speaker 1: I moved to LA and I joined that show, and
23:22
Speaker 1: I needed a job.
23:24
Speaker 4: And you know, we got.
23:24
Speaker 1: Paid a little bit of money for season one and
23:26
Speaker 1: season two of Laguna, you know, like a couple thousand dollars.
23:29
Speaker 1: And by the time The Hills was on, I think
23:31
Speaker 1: that the first season had already premiered and was pretty popular.
23:34
Speaker 1: And so it felt like a good opportunity and a
23:38
Speaker 1: good job because I could go to school and then
23:42
Speaker 1: I could I could work for you know, a few
23:45
Speaker 1: hours every week. And to me, at that point, it
23:48
Speaker 1: was really kind of an escape because socially, like the
23:52
Speaker 1: environment at school was so uncomfortable at that point that
23:54
Speaker 1: like it did feel like an escape to be able
23:57
Speaker 1: to go and you know, see people on the show
24:00
Speaker 1: and film and feel like, you know, I was like
24:02
Speaker 1: appreciated in some way, you know, like I was like
24:05
Speaker 1: part of something. And so it was that balance between
24:09
Speaker 1: school and work. And then by my senior year, you know,
24:12
Speaker 1: the show was really kind of at its peak of
24:14
Speaker 1: popularity and viewership. I graduated in two thousand and eight,
24:20
Speaker 1: and then for a few years after, you know, working
24:24
Speaker 1: on the Hills was my was my full time job,
24:28
Speaker 1: and you know got paid, you know, was paid to
24:32
Speaker 1: reflect that and it was It was great, apart from
24:35
Speaker 1: sort of just the continuous weird social aspect of it.
24:38
Speaker 1: And at that time, you know, like Perez Hilton was
24:42
Speaker 1: becoming a thing and gossip blogs were becoming a thing,
24:45
Speaker 1: and so that sort of became the new struggle socially,
24:49
Speaker 1: you know, and like we were in LA and paparazzi
24:52
Speaker 1: started to follow us and stuff. It was so weird,
24:55
Speaker 1: and so that kind of became the new norm with
24:59
Speaker 1: its own set of struggles, I would say. And the
25:02
Speaker 1: show ended in twenty ten, and by twenty twelve, I
25:05
Speaker 1: was like, all right, I'm out of here.
25:06
Speaker 4: I'm moving to New York.
25:07
Speaker 2: Wow. So that's the catalyst for you making that big
25:11
Speaker 2: move to New York and when you make that move,
25:13
Speaker 2: obviously you have to adjust to all that is. Living
25:17
Speaker 2: in Manhattan a very different lifestyle than living in LA
25:22
Speaker 2: Talk to me about what that was like for you.
25:24
Speaker 1: So I have this one story that feels monumental to me,
25:29
Speaker 1: and it probably is not as significant to other people.
25:32
Speaker 1: But I remember when I first moved to New York.
25:35
Speaker 1: You know, New Yorker's had this attitude, right, and I
25:38
Speaker 1: definitely have it at this point because I've lived here
25:40
Speaker 1: for almost a decade, but just this confidence, you know
25:44
Speaker 1: what I mean, And you know, it's like a no
25:47
Speaker 1: bullshit kind of attitude. And I remember walking into a
25:49
Speaker 1: coffee shop one morning when I had first arrived, and
25:53
Speaker 1: I got up and I realized that it was cash only,
25:55
Speaker 1: and I didn't know that before I went in, and
25:57
Speaker 1: I was so horrified that I didn't know that it
26:00
Speaker 1: was this cash only coffee shop. And so, you know,
26:03
Speaker 1: like I left and I took, you know, like I
26:06
Speaker 1: did my order and I ran out like when I
26:08
Speaker 1: got cash and came back, and I just remember being
26:09
Speaker 1: so embarrassed because I thought that New Yorkers were so
26:12
Speaker 1: cool and so intimidating, and I had already like messed
26:15
Speaker 1: up in my like local little coffee moment, you know,
26:18
Speaker 1: with a kind of like kind of mean barista behind
26:21
Speaker 1: the counter and the long line behind me, and I
26:25
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, I'm in New York. Now, I gotta,
26:29
Speaker 1: I gotta, I gotta figure out how to survive at
26:31
Speaker 1: these cash only coffee shops.
26:33
Speaker 2: Oh my god. I mean it could be worse. You
26:35
Speaker 2: could have like accidentally upstood someone for a cab and
26:39
Speaker 2: like stood in front of them, or I'm sure I
26:41
Speaker 2: have so many New.
26:42
Speaker 1: York I'm sure I've made all the mistakes. But you know,
26:47
Speaker 1: for me, moving to New York was really just like
26:49
Speaker 1: a breath of fresh air and an escape. And I
26:51
Speaker 1: had been a number of times over the previous few
26:54
Speaker 1: years working with MTV because TRL was in Times Square
26:58
Speaker 1: and you know, MTV was head ordered in Manhattan, and
27:01
Speaker 1: so we got to come, you know, pretty often. And
27:04
Speaker 1: so my love affair with New York City started, you know,
27:07
Speaker 1: in my early twenties, and I moved, yeah when I
27:10
Speaker 1: guess I was maybe turning twenty five or twenty four,
27:14
Speaker 1: and it just it was the first few years were
27:17
Speaker 1: so magical. New York is an amazing place, and like
27:21
Speaker 1: being in New York City right now during this pandemic
27:24
Speaker 1: and recording this episode, and like thinking about the time
27:27
Speaker 1: that I have spent here like truly just makes my
27:29
Speaker 1: heart hurt a little bit, you know, because like the
27:32
Speaker 1: city is like sick right now, and it just makes
27:34
Speaker 1: me feel so overwhelmingly sad because I feel like like
27:40
Speaker 1: I'm such a part of the fabric at this point
27:42
Speaker 1: because I've been here for so long. Anyway, But when
27:46
Speaker 1: I when I first moved to New York, I found
27:50
Speaker 1: a summer rental that was listed in the New York Times.
27:53
Speaker 1: Because street Easy didn't exist back then.
27:56
Speaker 2: I literally just made a hand gesture and then I
27:58
Speaker 2: realized that no one can see that, but wow, a
28:01
Speaker 2: New York Times summer rental listing.
28:04
Speaker 1: Yeah, And it was on Bethune Street in the West Village,
28:09
Speaker 1: And it was an apartment that my friend and I
28:13
Speaker 1: charmingly called the cat Hotel. It was the third floor
28:16
Speaker 1: of Brownstone on Bethune Street, but it was a totally
28:21
Speaker 1: like decrepit rundown brown Stone, And there was a woman
28:25
Speaker 1: that lived on the first floor who you know, was
28:28
Speaker 1: in her older years and she loved cats and she
28:32
Speaker 1: would let her cats roam the hallways of the building,
28:36
Speaker 1: and so at night we would like hear her cats
28:38
Speaker 1: scratching at our front door and like meowing to try
28:40
Speaker 1: to get in. And her daughter actually owned the third
28:43
Speaker 1: floor apartment and rented it every summer, and so it
28:46
Speaker 1: was fully furnished and all of like the furniture and
28:49
Speaker 1: art and everything was all cat themed. Oh my god,
28:53
Speaker 1: the doorbell was like a cat doorbell. The internet password
28:57
Speaker 1: was tons of Cats Abounding zero. And the woman who
29:03
Speaker 1: owned the building was also a hoarder, and so it was.
29:08
Speaker 1: It was it was like a very interesting introduction to
29:11
Speaker 1: New York.
29:11
Speaker 4: City that was like so raw and real and so
29:14
Speaker 4: New York.
29:15
Speaker 2: Everything that has been waiting for you right here totally.
29:20
Speaker 1: And my mother came to visit me once and the
29:22
Speaker 1: toilet had stopped working, and they had taken the toilet
29:26
Speaker 1: out of the bathroom and it was sitting in our
29:28
Speaker 1: like quote unquote living room, and the woman from the
29:31
Speaker 1: first floor was up and like in her pajamas, Like
29:34
Speaker 1: the cats were like walking around our apartment, and my
29:37
Speaker 1: mom was like, what are you doing here?
29:40
Speaker 2: Your poor mother was probably like, I had no idea
29:42
Speaker 2: it was this bad. Wow.
29:45
Speaker 1: Actually, when the toilet stopped working. We got a hotel
29:48
Speaker 1: room for a few nights, and I was so relieved
29:51
Speaker 1: to be with her at her hotel because this apartment
29:54
Speaker 1: was so dirty and.
29:57
Speaker 2: So run down, Oh my goodness.
30:00
Speaker 1: But also probably one of the best summers of my
30:02
Speaker 1: whole life. You know, come to New York, you're like
30:05
Speaker 1: twenty five. You know it's hot outside, You go to
30:09
Speaker 1: the Hamptons, and you ever, just life changes, you know
30:13
Speaker 1: the best.
30:14
Speaker 2: What are you doing for work at that time?
30:17
Speaker 1: At that point, I was working on another startup with
30:22
Speaker 1: a friend of mine, and that was sort of like
30:24
Speaker 1: the quote unquote reason we moved to New York. We
30:26
Speaker 1: were like, you know what, the environment is really friendly
30:29
Speaker 1: for female entrepreneurs in New York City right now, and
30:31
Speaker 1: let's let's go do it there. And it's a it's
30:35
Speaker 1: a funny idea. We were trying to sell this like
30:38
Speaker 1: party in a box concept, and it was in twenty twelve,
30:41
Speaker 1: and so it was before any of the stores had
30:43
Speaker 1: cute disposable party stuff, like literally the only option was Party.
30:47
Speaker 4: City and everything there. Well, you know what it's.
30:49
Speaker 1: Like there, and so we thought that we have this
30:52
Speaker 1: great idea, and it turns out it is very challenging
30:56
Speaker 1: when you don't have a great supply chain to put
30:58
Speaker 1: you know, like twenty things into a box at an
31:01
Speaker 1: affordable price point, and like maintain your margins and ship
31:05
Speaker 1: it in a box that's small enough, et cetera, et cetera,
31:07
Speaker 1: et cetera. And also back then, like none of this
31:10
Speaker 1: amazing technology existed, like Shopify didn't exist. Back then, you
31:14
Speaker 1: couldn't just like go build an e commerce site in
31:16
Speaker 1: five minutes. You actually had to have somebody build you
31:19
Speaker 1: a website. And so it was a struggle and the
31:24
Speaker 1: business failed, but we chipped away at it for a
31:27
Speaker 1: few years, and I took so many lessons away from
31:31
Speaker 1: that experience and applied them to what I was starting
31:35
Speaker 1: with Love Wellness that actually have you know, saved me
31:39
Speaker 1: so much time and energy, and so even though it
31:42
Speaker 1: was a failed business experiment, it definitely taught me many
31:46
Speaker 1: many lessons. It kind of felt like going to business
31:48
Speaker 1: school at the time without actually getting a business degree.
31:53
Speaker 1: And then when we wound that business down, I decided
31:57
Speaker 1: to go to culinary school because I've always had a
31:59
Speaker 1: really deep passion for cooking and for food, and you know,
32:03
Speaker 1: part of that played into the party in the box
32:04
Speaker 1: thing because we were creating like menus and recipes and
32:07
Speaker 1: like a whole experience within the system. And also at
32:12
Speaker 1: that time, my television agents had been talking to like
32:16
Speaker 1: Food Network and Cooking Channel and they were looking for
32:19
Speaker 1: new talent, and you know, we had sort of extended
32:22
Speaker 1: conversations with them about potentially me moving onto one of
32:26
Speaker 1: those platforms and to cook for them. And so culinary
32:31
Speaker 1: school for me was sort of like the next big
32:33
Speaker 1: project that was tied to my career in a certain way.
32:38
Speaker 4: You know, It's kind of like my next big opportunity.
32:40
Speaker 2: It's always so interesting to come to terms with the
32:42
Speaker 2: fact that you love cooking and you love food, but
32:45
Speaker 2: as a New Yorker you're also dealing with the smallest
32:48
Speaker 2: amount of kitchen space ever.
32:50
Speaker 1: Oh my god. So when I was another fun apartment story.
32:54
Speaker 1: When I was in culinary school, one of my ex
32:58
Speaker 1: boyfriends and I had just broken up and I moved
33:00
Speaker 1: into the smallest apartment. It's on Prince and sixth Avenue,
33:06
Speaker 1: and I didn't even have a kitchen. Like my kitchen
33:10
Speaker 1: sink was like a bathroom sink, and I think it
33:13
Speaker 1: got It had two burners and no counter space, and
33:17
Speaker 1: it was like in the living room, which was very small,
33:22
Speaker 1: and so I only cooked when I was at school
33:26
Speaker 1: every day when I lived there, because I literally could
33:29
Speaker 1: not cook in my apartment. But god, that was got
33:32
Speaker 1: another awful apartment. I think like the main theme of
33:35
Speaker 1: New Yorkers is awful apartments.
33:38
Speaker 2: I remember before I moved to the apartment that I'm
33:41
Speaker 2: in now, I was shown an apartment on the Upper
33:44
Speaker 2: West Side and it was literally an apartment that a
33:47
Speaker 2: college student would live in. It was like a college
33:49
Speaker 2: dorm room. There was no kitchen at all as well,
33:53
Speaker 2: and it had a hot plate. And I looked at
33:56
Speaker 2: the broker after we walked in, and there was like
33:58
Speaker 2: a girl sitting on her law did bed who was
34:00
Speaker 2: about to move out. And I said, I am in
34:03
Speaker 2: my late twenties. What made you think that I wanted
34:07
Speaker 2: to move into this apartment? With all, with all respect sir,
34:13
Speaker 2: this is not what I told you that I was
34:15
Speaker 2: looking for.
34:17
Speaker 4: Okay, times can be tough.
34:20
Speaker 2: It's hard to find an apartment the New York apartment scene. Okay, Okay,
34:24
Speaker 2: So you're in culinary school and how does that go
34:28
Speaker 2: for you?
34:29
Speaker 1: It went wonderful, probably like one of the best years
34:34
Speaker 1: of my whole life. It was so exciting, and for me,
34:39
Speaker 1: I really thrived on just the routine, to be honest
34:42
Speaker 1: with you, and I've always been a good cook, and
34:46
Speaker 1: so this was an opportunity for me to just really
34:49
Speaker 1: learn and expand upon my skill set and really thrive
34:52
Speaker 1: at something. Then like negotiations with Food Network Cooking Channel
34:57
Speaker 1: like came to a halt. They decided that they didn't
34:59
Speaker 1: want to move forward with me on any projects, and
35:01
Speaker 1: so I felt like, oh, my gosh, I've invested so
35:04
Speaker 1: much time and energy and love and passion into food
35:08
Speaker 1: and now like my my dream is over, you know
35:12
Speaker 1: what I mean. At that point, I had been creating
35:13
Speaker 1: so much food content on YouTube and on my blog
35:16
Speaker 1: and it.
35:16
Speaker 4: Was going really well.
35:19
Speaker 1: People were really interested in it. And even now when
35:21
Speaker 1: I Instagram stories when I'm cooking, I get hundreds of
35:25
Speaker 1: thousands of viewers. That's my most popular content. But you know,
35:30
Speaker 1: like I've always just had this love for cooking, and
35:32
Speaker 1: then the dream sort of fell apart. And it was
35:36
Speaker 1: at that point that I was starting to not feel
35:39
Speaker 1: my best, and so everything kind of like collided and
35:44
Speaker 1: collapsed at once.
35:45
Speaker 4: I would say, wow.
35:47
Speaker 2: That sounds really overwhelming.
35:49
Speaker 4: Yeah, it was.
35:50
Speaker 1: You know, like you're working towards this goal. You know
35:52
Speaker 1: for years, you've been in touch with these people, you
35:55
Speaker 1: know that you like think you're going to have this
35:56
Speaker 1: great new job. You've been putting in all this effort,
36:00
Speaker 1: you know. Thankfully, when I was a culinary school, and
36:02
Speaker 1: this really lends itself to my life now and my
36:05
Speaker 1: business now, I did a firm to table program in
36:09
Speaker 1: addition to kind of just like the traditional French cuisine,
36:13
Speaker 1: and so there was a really big emphasis on nutrition
36:17
Speaker 1: and on food sourcing and really understanding how to make
36:23
Speaker 1: nutritious meals that were just delicious. And so I started
36:29
Speaker 1: to gain a pretty good understanding of nutrition and how
36:34
Speaker 1: food could be used as medicine. And one of my chefs,
36:39
Speaker 1: like the professors at school, you know, had shared with
36:43
Speaker 1: me that her partner at what time had had cancer,
36:44
Speaker 1: and so she started to cook only macrobiotic food and
36:49
Speaker 1: help that person get a lot better. And so I
36:51
Speaker 1: started to really learn about food and the power of food.
36:54
Speaker 1: And you know, that experience in and of itself, I
36:58
Speaker 1: didn't know it at the time, but would really we
37:00
Speaker 1: lend itself well to kind of developing this wellness company.
37:05
Speaker 1: And in regards to the supplements that we make because
37:08
Speaker 1: you know the ingredients that we use, our organic herbs
37:11
Speaker 1: and digestive enzymes and things like that, and so, you know,
37:15
Speaker 1: in a weird way, I couldn't see it at the time,
37:17
Speaker 1: but everything had. You know, you do everything for a
37:19
Speaker 1: reason in the long run.
37:27
Speaker 2: Taking a break from today's episode to give some love
37:30
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37:32
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37:36
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38:42
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38:50
Speaker 2: passions into your next project. Before you made that hard pivot,
38:55
Speaker 2: were you trying to think of other ways to utilize
38:59
Speaker 2: what you had learned in culinary school.
39:01
Speaker 1: You know, I think for me, when I make decisions,
39:07
Speaker 1: I'm really good at diving in head first because I
39:12
Speaker 1: strongly believe that if you make a decision and you
39:15
Speaker 1: hate it, you can very easily make another decision. So
39:18
Speaker 1: I'm never somebody that has been held back by fear
39:21
Speaker 1: in that regard. And so, you know, the experience with
39:26
Speaker 1: culinary school and with food only really supported what I
39:32
Speaker 1: was doing next. And to be frank with you, I
39:36
Speaker 1: was so unwell after kind of the series of disappointments
39:43
Speaker 1: that I wasn't really doing anything for a period of time.
39:46
Speaker 1: I was creating content, you know, and still continuing to
39:50
Speaker 1: work with brands to create content to support myself financially.
39:55
Speaker 1: But I was so unwell that I really wasn't doing anything.
40:00
Speaker 1: I was living with a previous partner and it was
40:03
Speaker 1: a bad relationship, and I was so depressed. I was
40:05
Speaker 1: so sick every single day, you know, Like mostly what
40:09
Speaker 1: I would do is like get up and like take
40:11
Speaker 1: the dog out and like walk around Tribeca and like
40:14
Speaker 1: try to put something out in the world to publish
40:16
Speaker 1: that felt genuine. And it wasn't until I made the
40:20
Speaker 1: switch and finally started to talk about what I was
40:23
Speaker 1: going through physically, mentally, emotionally that I kind of got
40:28
Speaker 1: inspired to move into the next thing, which was love wellness.
40:33
Speaker 2: And when you have this idea, and I think this
40:35
Speaker 2: can be a point of disconnection for a lot of
40:38
Speaker 2: people because you have this idea, you're having this experience,
40:41
Speaker 2: you want to do something with it. But how do
40:44
Speaker 2: you take what is an idea for love wellness and
40:47
Speaker 2: make it into a viable product, a viable thing, something
40:51
Speaker 2: that you can actually pursue.
40:53
Speaker 1: Sure, So for me, I think first and foremost it
40:56
Speaker 1: kind of goes back to what I just said. When
40:58
Speaker 1: I make a decision, I make a decision, it's it's
41:00
Speaker 1: not that hard for me. I don't really second guess
41:03
Speaker 1: myself and I kind of just go for it but reasonably,
41:07
Speaker 1: so like I feel like I have a good sense
41:09
Speaker 1: of like.
41:10
Speaker 4: What's a good decision, what's a bad decision.
41:13
Speaker 1: And so, you know, for me, I'm really good at
41:16
Speaker 1: building stuff. I think I can even tie that back
41:22
Speaker 1: to cooking, like that's building stuff. You know. I'm really
41:25
Speaker 1: good at opening up the fridge and seeing what's in
41:27
Speaker 1: it and taking anything that's in there and like making.
41:29
Speaker 4: A cool meal.
41:31
Speaker 1: And you can kind of think about building a business
41:34
Speaker 1: in the same way. It's like, what are all of
41:36
Speaker 1: the pieces of the recipe that I need, you know,
41:41
Speaker 1: to to create something. And so when I first started,
41:47
Speaker 1: the products came first because my doctors had introduced me
41:53
Speaker 1: to products that were available from you know, kind of
41:57
Speaker 1: like really small, kind of like mom and pop companies
41:59
Speaker 1: that were more naturally derived kind of like stuff that
42:03
Speaker 1: you could get at like a Natural Paths office. And
42:07
Speaker 1: so I had some things that were kind of starting
42:11
Speaker 1: points in terms of what I wanted products to be.
42:15
Speaker 1: And really it was just kind of like the awakening
42:18
Speaker 1: to the idea that was what was available in mass
42:23
Speaker 1: for women.
42:24
Speaker 4: Was just not working for women.
42:26
Speaker 1: You know, like cleansers for women like.
42:29
Speaker 4: Are bad for you.
42:31
Speaker 1: But if you still want to use the cleanser that's
42:33
Speaker 1: like a personal care cleanser, Like it should be made
42:36
Speaker 1: with all natural ingredients and it should be pH balanced
42:39
Speaker 1: to match the vaginal microbiome and there should be no
42:42
Speaker 1: fragrance in it that's irritating to that part of the body.
42:45
Speaker 4: But nothing like.
42:46
Speaker 1: That existed, and so I was like, well, I can
42:49
Speaker 1: make something like that, Like I'll work with my doctors
42:52
Speaker 1: in a great chemist to like put together a formula.
42:55
Speaker 1: And so it was sort of like knocking these products
42:58
Speaker 1: down one by one, things that likested for a really
43:01
Speaker 1: long time that just didn't really work for women or
43:03
Speaker 1: serve women, and had been marketed towards women in like
43:06
Speaker 1: a low key anti feminist way forever. And so I
43:11
Speaker 1: kind of like built this list of like, Okay, you know,
43:14
Speaker 1: these are products that like I have discovered work or
43:17
Speaker 1: things that you know, we think will work. And so
43:20
Speaker 1: that was really kind of like the first baseline was like, Okay,
43:24
Speaker 1: if I were to dream of things that I wish
43:26
Speaker 1: that I could buy in the store myself, what would
43:28
Speaker 1: they be? And created kind of just that first baseline
43:32
Speaker 1: of products and then from there figured it out by
43:36
Speaker 1: myself with my cell phone and the internet, like how
43:39
Speaker 1: to get them manufactured, and from there it all kind
43:42
Speaker 1: of just fell into place.
43:44
Speaker 2: It's really, I think, inspiring and impressive to many people
43:48
Speaker 2: again who have these big ideas but just don't know
43:51
Speaker 2: how to run after them or to go for their
43:53
Speaker 2: big dreams. That you, again, like you just said, with
43:56
Speaker 2: your cell phone and the internet, figured out the best
43:59
Speaker 2: now steps. You talked about feeling really run down after
44:04
Speaker 2: everything fell through with Colin near your school, and I
44:06
Speaker 2: can only imagine when it's just you and your cell
44:08
Speaker 2: phone and the internet, that there had to be a
44:11
Speaker 2: time or two, especially at the beginning, when you felt
44:14
Speaker 2: knocked down. Is there anything specific that you think about
44:17
Speaker 2: when I ask you about those early quote unquote failures.
44:21
Speaker 1: Probably the biggest challenges for me in the first year,
44:26
Speaker 1: year and a half or that was that I was
44:30
Speaker 1: operating the business by myself, and I didn't have any
44:34
Speaker 1: touch points or like data to compare what I was
44:38
Speaker 1: doing to like other companies out there, to know if
44:40
Speaker 1: like what I was doing was like successful, or you know,
44:44
Speaker 1: is my conversion right good? Whatever you know things that
44:46
Speaker 1: like I know like the back of my hand now
44:48
Speaker 1: because it's been four years, and you know, I didn't
44:50
Speaker 1: get better right away, you know what I mean, Like
44:53
Speaker 1: I was i started the business, but I was still
44:55
Speaker 1: not feeling well, you know, like when when you're deal
45:00
Speaker 1: with the deficiencies I was dealing with and with depression
45:03
Speaker 1: and with anxiety. It's not like this overnight fix, and
45:07
Speaker 1: anybody that has dealt with it knows that it can
45:10
Speaker 1: be like a lengthy process. And so for me, Love
45:14
Speaker 1: Wellness was like a like this amazing thing for me
45:22
Speaker 1: to focus on day to day, but there were times
45:25
Speaker 1: when I still felt so unwell that I wouldn't pay
45:28
Speaker 1: attention to it, you know, and like the orders would
45:30
Speaker 1: just come in and the fulfillment center would just fill them.
45:33
Speaker 1: And so I would say that it really required me
45:37
Speaker 1: getting better emotionally physically, or like ninety percent better to
45:43
Speaker 1: get to a place where I decided that I wanted
45:47
Speaker 1: to focus on love Wellness full time and commit all
45:50
Speaker 1: of my time and energy to it, if that makes sense,
45:54
Speaker 1: Because when I launched it, it was still kind of just
45:56
Speaker 1: like a project, you know what I mean.
45:58
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it's something that you can put your energy
46:01
Speaker 2: into But I mean, at the end of the day,
46:03
Speaker 2: it's that classic saying, if you don't put on your
46:05
Speaker 2: oxygen bask first, then you can't help somebody else.
46:09
Speaker 4: Totally, yes, And your exact.
46:11
Speaker 2: Mission with love Wellness is to be able to help
46:14
Speaker 2: women and help women decipher and figure out how to
46:17
Speaker 2: help themselves.
46:18
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly.
46:20
Speaker 2: So now Love Wellness, I think I read has an
46:24
Speaker 2: office and fifteen people on staff.
46:27
Speaker 4: Yes, so we are based in Soho.
46:30
Speaker 1: Well, we've been working from home now since March twelfth,
46:33
Speaker 1: but normally we're based in Soho in the heart of
46:37
Speaker 1: New York City. And yeah, we're about fifteen people right now,
46:41
Speaker 1: and the business has just grown so quickly. It's grown
46:46
Speaker 1: three thousand percent in two years. We broke eight figures
46:50
Speaker 1: of revenue in twenty nineteen, and so's it's like it's
46:54
Speaker 1: really happening, which is just mind blowing and humbling to
46:58
Speaker 1: me and really remarkable to see that we can make
47:02
Speaker 1: an actual difference in people's lives, because that's what I
47:05
Speaker 1: set out to do, and so to see that manifest
47:08
Speaker 1: is like overwhelming sometimes.
47:10
Speaker 2: And where can people buy the Love Wellness products?
47:14
Speaker 1: So we have a few distribution channels, lovewlleness dot com.
47:18
Speaker 1: It's like, you know where you can get all of
47:21
Speaker 1: the stuff, and we also sell kits sort of like
47:23
Speaker 1: exclusively on lovewlleness dot com, so we bundle different products together.
47:27
Speaker 1: You can get everything on Amazon and then you can
47:31
Speaker 1: also buy us at Olta Beauty. We were Alta's twenty
47:35
Speaker 1: nineteen Emerging Brand of the Year, which is really exciting,
47:39
Speaker 1: and so I know that. And if you're listening to
47:41
Speaker 1: this during sort of like the shutdowns, the Olta Beauty
47:45
Speaker 1: retail locations are closed for right now, but Ulta dot
47:48
Speaker 1: Com is still up and running obviously, and you can
47:51
Speaker 1: get love Wellness there.
47:53
Speaker 2: Also, when you look back on everything that has happened
47:59
Speaker 2: thus far with love Wellness and you think about the
48:04
Speaker 2: advice that you've been offered in building this company and
48:08
Speaker 2: this brand, what would you say has been one of
48:10
Speaker 2: the best pieces of advice that you have been offered?
48:15
Speaker 1: You know, I think more than anything, it's to just
48:19
Speaker 1: follow your gut. I knew from the beginning that there
48:23
Speaker 1: was a market for this and an appetite for this,
48:26
Speaker 1: even before I think a lot of women knew that
48:29
Speaker 1: because it was an experience that I went through myself
48:32
Speaker 1: and I hoped and prayed when I started the business
48:34
Speaker 1: that I was not alone. So like it was a hunch,
48:36
Speaker 1: but it was a really good hunch. And I have
48:40
Speaker 1: kind of taken that or those gut instincts forward as
48:46
Speaker 1: I have continued to develop the brand and develop products
48:49
Speaker 1: and specifically develop like our brand pillars and who we
48:52
Speaker 1: are and what we stand for and how we communicate
48:54
Speaker 1: with our community, because I think that we do it
48:57
Speaker 1: in a really remarkable way, Like we are kindness at
49:02
Speaker 1: its core. Our ethos is to love yourself well. And
49:06
Speaker 1: I see a lot of brands in the personal care
49:09
Speaker 1: space that are that you know, sit on like one
49:14
Speaker 1: end of two ends of the spectrum, as like old
49:17
Speaker 1: school like Legacy don't know how to market to women,
49:20
Speaker 1: and on the other end of the spectrum like hyper
49:22
Speaker 1: feminist like shout vagina from the rooftops kind of thing.
49:27
Speaker 1: And you know a lot of women or the majority
49:30
Speaker 1: of the women aren't comfortable on either end of the spectrum.
49:33
Speaker 1: They're kind of comfortable in the middle. Right At love Wellness,
49:35
Speaker 1: we just want you to feel good about taking care
49:38
Speaker 1: of your body. If you want to share that with
49:40
Speaker 1: your friends, great, we love that. If you still want
49:44
Speaker 1: to keep your experience private and personal. Great, We're here
49:47
Speaker 1: for that too, and so, like I said, like, we
49:50
Speaker 1: are kindness at our core, and our goal is just
49:52
Speaker 1: to support women and to educate them and to help
49:55
Speaker 1: them feel positive about taking care of their bodies.
50:00
Speaker 4: So you know, that's that's really what we do.
50:04
Speaker 2: Where where along the journey of founding Love Wellness and
50:10
Speaker 2: growing the brand would you say that you felt as
50:12
Speaker 2: though your personal health really turned a corner.
50:16
Speaker 4: I would say.
50:19
Speaker 1: About the start of twenty eighteen, because I launched the
50:23
Speaker 1: business in October of twenty sixteen, that's like when we
50:25
Speaker 1: went live, and so by the beginning of twenty eighteen,
50:30
Speaker 1: I was really starting to feel good. And I had
50:33
Speaker 1: actually spent some time in California. After I launched the brand,
50:37
Speaker 1: I went through a really, really bad breakup that didn't
50:39
Speaker 1: help either, and so spent some time in California to
50:44
Speaker 1: kind of like rest, recover, recuperate. It was during that
50:47
Speaker 1: period that I was like, Okay, I'm like all in
50:49
Speaker 1: on this Love Wellness thing, and then moved back to
50:52
Speaker 1: New York City and it was at that point that
50:56
Speaker 1: I really started to feel good and energized and like
51:00
Speaker 1: I had something to like really work on every single day.
51:03
Speaker 2: There's nothing worse than feeling like you can't figure out
51:07
Speaker 2: what's going wrong with your own body.
51:09
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's it's terrible.
51:12
Speaker 1: I would say, to be honest with you, like I
51:14
Speaker 1: started the business to help other women because I felt like,
51:20
Speaker 1: oh my god, my doctors have really helped me kind
51:22
Speaker 1: of seen the light. And it turns out that the
51:25
Speaker 1: business really saved me.
51:27
Speaker 2: That's a beautiful revelation.
51:29
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it changed my life and it just
51:31
Speaker 1: gave me purpose every single day, and so like, I'm
51:34
Speaker 1: so thankful even during this moment that is really difficult
51:37
Speaker 1: for everybody to be able to do what I do
51:41
Speaker 1: every day.
51:43
Speaker 2: When people come to your social media page, they might
51:47
Speaker 2: see someone that they think they know and a beautiful
51:50
Speaker 2: soul both on the outside and the inside. When you
51:53
Speaker 2: wake up every day and you look in the mirror,
51:55
Speaker 2: what is it that you seeing looking back.
51:58
Speaker 1: At you, Well, my answer would probably be different if
52:04
Speaker 1: we were not experiencing a pandemic.
52:09
Speaker 4: Right now.
52:11
Speaker 1: I'll be totally honest with you. I see somebody that
52:13
Speaker 1: is like emotionally exhausted and just trying to do my
52:16
Speaker 1: best every single day. If you had asked me this,
52:18
Speaker 1: Like a few weeks ago, i'd be like somebody who
52:21
Speaker 1: feels really good about the future. But we are experiencing
52:26
Speaker 1: just you know, the most upside down thing. I think
52:28
Speaker 1: of our lives thus far, say from like nine to eleven,
52:34
Speaker 1: and so truly, like right now, I just I feel
52:36
Speaker 1: emotionally exhausted and honestly Love Wellness still right now is
52:42
Speaker 1: like why I'm able to get through my days. So like,
52:44
Speaker 1: I'm just so thankful that I have this thing to
52:49
Speaker 1: work on and to continue to iterate. And we really
52:53
Speaker 1: have built a wonderful community of women Love Wellness customers.
52:57
Speaker 1: People are interested in the brand, my team in and
52:59
Speaker 1: of itself, and truly it's that community that is getting
53:04
Speaker 1: me through this moment more than anything else. So yeah,
53:09
Speaker 1: I look in the mirror and I'm just I'm so tired.
53:13
Speaker 2: I am right there with you. I'm in this. I
53:17
Speaker 2: need to find out what the square footage of my
53:18
Speaker 2: apartment is. But I'm in this one bedroom apartment on
53:21
Speaker 2: the Upper east Side, day in, day out, and I'm
53:23
Speaker 2: just thinking to myself, like, there is good that you
53:26
Speaker 2: can do from there. You have a purpose, just keep
53:29
Speaker 2: going and keep pushing.
53:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I know that there is light at
53:35
Speaker 1: the end of the tunnel, right, because all things have
53:38
Speaker 1: to come to an end, and this also will end
53:41
Speaker 1: or change in some way at some point over the
53:44
Speaker 1: next few months. I think the hard part about it
53:48
Speaker 1: is like when is that? And like, as humans, we
53:51
Speaker 1: don't really operate very well when we don't have good
53:53
Speaker 1: information or like you know stuff, or like have goals
53:57
Speaker 1: in sight, and so I think like that's part of
54:00
Speaker 1: why this is so particularly challenging for everybody is that
54:04
Speaker 1: there's just so much unknown out there, Like every quantity
54:09
Speaker 1: is unknown currently, you know what I mean.
54:11
Speaker 4: Like, yeah, well I still have this job, will the.
54:13
Speaker 1: Business still be in business? Like can I pay my rent?
54:16
Speaker 1: Will my parents get sick? Like there's so many anxieties
54:20
Speaker 1: like hanging around us right now, and so all I'm
54:23
Speaker 1: trying to do every day is just like do my
54:25
Speaker 1: work and stay healthy and try to.
54:26
Speaker 4: Keep other people healthy.
54:28
Speaker 2: How do you inspire your team to stay well during
54:31
Speaker 2: this time?
54:33
Speaker 1: Well, we have established a really great schedule day to day,
54:37
Speaker 1: and Slack has been like our technology hero, so thank
54:41
Speaker 1: god that platform exists. We do team conference calls every
54:46
Speaker 1: morning for about forty five minutes, where everybody jumps in
54:48
Speaker 1: says hello, gives their daily update for the day, and
54:51
Speaker 1: then we also do check and calls with our team
54:53
Speaker 1: leads at the end of the day also, And so
54:55
Speaker 1: just being able to see people's faces even though it's digital,
54:59
Speaker 1: is really really helpful. And one of my primary roles
55:03
Speaker 1: in this moment is to be a cheerleader for everybody else,
55:06
Speaker 1: even if I have to fake it, Like I know
55:09
Speaker 1: that that is my responsibility, you know, like I keep
55:13
Speaker 1: the team together, and it's my job to boost morale
55:16
Speaker 1: and to keep everybody moving forward, even if I could
55:19
Speaker 1: use the morale boost myself. And so just being able
55:23
Speaker 1: to connect with everybody every day is really important.
55:26
Speaker 2: So to be that source of confidence and strength for
55:30
Speaker 2: other people. How not just right now, but typically do
55:34
Speaker 2: you give back to yourself?
55:38
Speaker 1: Hmm, Well, I'm pretty good at self care, I would say,
55:41
Speaker 1: I'm kind of this kind of the queen. I like,
55:45
Speaker 1: am happy to take two baths a day, a steam shower, exercise,
55:50
Speaker 1: eat lots of vegetables, drink lots of water. So I'm
55:53
Speaker 1: really good at taking care of my physical body.
55:56
Speaker 4: But I didn't always used to be this way.
55:58
Speaker 1: I had to become good at it through you know,
56:02
Speaker 1: my I don't want to call it illness right because
56:05
Speaker 1: like vitamin deficiencies, like you can get better from that.
56:07
Speaker 1: But from when I was not well, like I really
56:10
Speaker 1: had to learn and adopt a totally different lifestyle. But
56:13
Speaker 1: since I have, I really rely on all of these
56:16
Speaker 1: things to help me get through the day. But I
56:19
Speaker 1: would also say that, like it's also okay to be
56:22
Speaker 1: like an emotional mess and to break down, and like
56:25
Speaker 1: the past few days, like I have been on the brink,
56:27
Speaker 1: to be honest with you, you know, like I'm away
56:30
Speaker 1: from my family, I'm totally isolated, and it's really challenging.
56:34
Speaker 1: And so as much as like self care is great,
56:37
Speaker 1: it's also okay to lean into your feelings and to
56:40
Speaker 1: just like sit in the shower and to just cry,
56:42
Speaker 1: because like nobody knows what we should be doing right now,
56:45
Speaker 1: and so like, if you have feelings, just feel them,
56:47
Speaker 1: allow your body to process the emotion and to at
56:50
Speaker 1: least get it out of your body. So like, don't
56:52
Speaker 1: keep that energy pent up, because that's when things start
56:55
Speaker 1: to turn ugly on you.
56:56
Speaker 2: I love that piece of advice. The other day, I
56:58
Speaker 2: was taking a class and the instructor, just hold space
57:01
Speaker 2: for yourself, to feel. And I thought that was so
57:04
Speaker 2: poignant and important because so often we feel as though
57:07
Speaker 2: we should be a certain way, but right now there
57:10
Speaker 2: is no rule book whatsoever on what we should be
57:13
Speaker 2: doing or how we should be feeling.
57:16
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's no right way.
57:18
Speaker 2: All right, I'm going to wind us down here. Right now,
57:20
Speaker 2: you have an opportunity to offer yourself a piece of advice.
57:23
Speaker 2: When you feel like your world is crumbling around you,
57:27
Speaker 2: you're not sure how to move forward, you're fresh out
57:30
Speaker 2: of culinary school and figuring things out, you have an
57:33
Speaker 2: opportunity to offer yourself one piece of advice. Looking back
57:36
Speaker 2: on that, now, what do you tell yourself?
57:39
Speaker 1: I would tell myself that no state is permanent, nothing
57:44
Speaker 1: is forever, and I think that that is equally as
57:49
Speaker 1: important to remember right now through this difficult moment, and
57:54
Speaker 1: I wish that I had understood that in the same
57:57
Speaker 1: way back then. However, it did allow me to achieve
58:02
Speaker 1: quite a bit, you know, because from like the really
58:04
Speaker 1: dark places, you get a lot of energy and a
58:07
Speaker 1: lot of inspiration, and it's when a lot of really
58:10
Speaker 1: good work happens.
58:13
Speaker 4: So I would just yeah, yeah.
58:16
Speaker 1: Just like you will get through this. There is light
58:18
Speaker 1: at the at the end of the tunnel.
58:21
Speaker 2: I love it. Thanks so much for your time today.
58:25
Speaker 4: Thanks Emily, it's great.
58:26
Speaker 2: Please take a moment and leave a quick review of
58:29
Speaker 2: the podcast by clicking the link or the description to
58:31
Speaker 2: this episode. We all face hurdles in life. I want
58:34
Speaker 2: to hear about yours. Reach out to me at Emily
58:36
Speaker 2: at Hurdle dot us, connect with the podcast, Instagram and
58:40
Speaker 2: Twitter at Hurdle Podcast Low Where do they find you?
58:43
Speaker 2: Where do they keep up with love Wellness? Give me the.
58:46
Speaker 1: Details absolutely so you can find me on Instagram at
58:50
Speaker 1: Low Bosworth. My Instagram's not that exciting though, so it
58:53
Speaker 1: definitely recommend checking out the love Wellness instagram which is
58:56
Speaker 1: at love Wellness and head over to lovewlleness dot com
58:59
Speaker 1: to see what we can do for you.
59:01
Speaker 2: I am at Emily a Baddi at Hurdle Podcast. Another
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Speaker 2: hurdle conquered. Catch you guys next time.