Aspire with Emma Grede - Inside Cymbiotika: How Durana Elmi Built a Wellness Empire

Episode Date: September 10, 2026

Durana Elmi knows how to build a business. Before Cymbiotika, she built and exited four companies. She then took a wellness brand with one employee, one product, and almost no infrastructure and helped scale it into a $150 million business alongside her husband Shahab.In this episode of Aspire, Emma sits down with Durana to unpack the decisions behind that growth. They also get candid about money, marriage, and leadership. Durana shares why financial independence matters deeply to her, what 27 years of building alongside her husband has taught her about disagreement, and how her definition of success has changed from making money to owning her time.You’ll learn:Why Cymbiotika bootstrapped for five years before taking outside capitalWhat infrastructure needs to be in place when a business starts growing faster than you can keep up withThe expensive lessons founders can learn from going into retail too quicklyWhat a $25 million strategic raise brought beyond capitalWhy celebrity investors became a part of Cymbiotika’s growth strategyHow to make decisions when data challenges your instincts

Durana Elmi is the woman behind Symbiotica, one of the fastest growing wellness brands in the country. She helped take the business from its earliest stages to $150 million in revenue. And what makes her story especially interesting to me is that this wasn't her first time building. Before Symbiotica, Durana had already built and exited four companies. So this conversation is really about what repeated experience teaches you. What actually matters when you're scaling? What you learn to stop doing, where to invest, when to invest, when to. move quickly and when success itself can become a distraction. Listen for Durana's three rules for

succeeding in retail, while she believes bootstrapping gave symbiotica the discipline it needed and the expensive lesson she learned from expanding simply because the company could. We also get into money, working with your husband, managing your emotions as a leader and what financial independence has meant to both of us. Toward the end, Durana shares something deeply personal about the cost of becoming more visible as a founder and what one terrifying experience taught her about success, family and what actually matters. Here's my conversation with Durana Elmi.

Durana, welcome to Aspire. Thank you so much. It's an honor to be here. I am so happy to have you because I have been an avid user of your products at Symbiotica for the longest time. And so when you're that invested in a brand, you start doing the digging, well, I do anyway. And I learned so much about this,

incredible business of yours, but I want to ground our audience just in a few things before we start. Now, Symbiotica is growing at a rate that most businesses never, ever will. You've sold over 200 million packets. You're growing 400% in the last, what, three years, and you've been profitable every single year since 2019. And not only that, but you are a serial entrepreneur with four exits behind you. So I have a feeling that me, my audience have an enormous amount to learn from you. I really want to understand today what it's taken, what the systems and the culture is that you've put in place to grow this business to this point because I'm pretty sure that we're about to see your fifth exit. So obviously,

given all of that, you had both the experience and the financial freedom to do exactly whatever it is that you would want to do from the get-go. So why was it that you chose the wellness space? Yeah, great question. And I lost my father. And I think that was the Y for me personally. I was so incredibly passionate to be a part of this journey. My husband lost his grandfather, who was his mentor and his rock and whose, you know, confidant.

And our partner lost his father. So all of us had such a personal, such a deep why as to the beginning, the roots of Y symbiotica. having means, exiting businesses, having capital, I still couldn't save my father. And my partner couldn't save his father and my husband couldn't save his grandfather. And when we reflect back on their journey, their health journey, there were so many opportunities that they could have been preventative with their health, where it would have elongated them being here. And so we became obsessed with how do we change? the way people look at health, how do we change how health is accessible? So that was really like

where the obsession started. And for me, having such a tough childhood growing up with nothing, when I met you, I was so excited. I wanted to lift you up, but I didn't want to ruin your outfit. But we have like woman to woman, like I really relate to you. We've had so much hardship in our lives as children. And so the only way for me to be where I'm at today is the core of how I had to do everything was like being good to myself because nothing else in my life was good to me. I really understand that. Life was tough. And so going through that level and going through the depth of that adversity, you got to self-love. You got to self-heal. And there's no victim mentality. So symbiotica is really a passion project. And I think that's what makes, I would tell

my partner is my husband. Like, that's what makes us dangerous. interest. Like, this is passion for me. Yeah, it's more than just a business. Way more than that. Because you actually came into the business when it was in its early stages, right? But it was like one employee, one product, almost zero infrastructure. And I want to understand a little bit more about how you discovered the business. And what was it about the brand that made you want to just go all in? So after a fourth exit, my husband Shahab and I said, we're not going to start a business. We're going to take some time off. But we said, you know, whatever we do, next has to leave a legacy behind for the children. I have two daughters, 13 and 11, who mimic my

every move today. And so that was my commitment to him and his commitment back to me was whatever we do, it's got to leave legacy. It can't be about the money. My husband read into his high school friend, Shervin, and he was like, hey, I have this company. It's called Symbiotica, but he didn't have the background. He didn't know how to build the bones behind the company. My husband and I are Forte is we know how to build and scale companies. The things that he's great at, I'm not good at. We have very, very different skill sets. And we never try to be the same leader. So we've realized we have a yin and yank. And we have a really powerful thing. We can build businesses together. So when he brought this concept up of symbiotica, what we realized was one, there was a lot of upscale

to scale the company. Secondly, it fell in line with what our goals were, with what our mission was. we can build this out where 10 years from now, where one day this is going to outlive us, this could be the legacy. And so it intrigued and ignited something in both of us to say, let's do this and let's go all in. I've heard you say a couple of times before that you didn't want your daughters thinking that money was the legacy and that you guys being so good at making money was how they should see you and experience you guys as parents. And so I wonder what your perspective is on this now as you continue building this company? So it's interesting. I'm a lot older now. And so with children, children give you wisdom, they give you perspective. The legacy that we can

leave behind in our children is inheriting not a business for them, but inheriting values. I want my children to be good humans. If I can build these two little humans to be incredible human beings, how like our religion as a family is gratitude, how you show up in the world, how do people feel when they're in your company, how do you inspire people, how do you help people, how do you leave this world? Because every day we take, right? We take today, we took yesterday, but how do we leave this world giving more than we've taken? And if I can raise my two daughters to think, live, and move through the world like that, then I know that I'm not just alive, but I'm living. Absolutely. And I feel like you've done so much. I really want to be.

want the audience to understand your entrepreneurial journey. So will you just talk to me a little bit about your background and what you did prior to symbiotica? So prior to symbiotica, my husband and I worked both together. So first I worked at T-Mobile, straight out of college, went to UCLA. And then I got recruited at T-Mobile. So I worked there for, gosh, over 12 years. Like in a regular corporate job? Yeah, regular corporate job. I was like a sales girl. I would fill up my car with a bunch of collateral. And my first job was Vons, paper or plastic. I was the girl, funny, sorry, still in the khaki pants. And I would push, you know, 20, 30 cards and people would feel bad because I couldn't

even push them. That was my first job. So I'm not afraid to work hard. Like, I have no other choice. Success is my only option. And so when I meet young people, what I tell them is you and I, we have the same 24 hours. What you decide to do with those 24 hours, that's going to determine your outcome. That's going to determine your future. So you get up today and you'd be better than you were yesterday. That's like that 1% mama mentality. Yeah. So I did corporate America. Parents were going through a divorce. I supported my mom financially. It was a very, very tough time for us because my older brother was at Berkeley. I had two younger brothers. Parents had a very, very nasty divorce. And my mother is my rock. She's my everything. And so I wanted to financially support her. And I hope to talk about

this later because I think women having financial education and financial backing and that backbone is really important because my mother could never leave because she couldn't afford to. Dorana, you're on the Aspire podcast. We are going to get into the money. Don't you worry? Yes, we will. So seeing my mother go through that, not have the choice to leave, inspired me to work really hard and I never really cared about what my job was. And I always believed in myself. So I would be the first person in the office, the last person in the office, and I made every point to ensure that every executive knew my name and knew that like Dirana left a footprint. So T-Mobile it was, started out as a sales associate, then went into operations marketing,

left my career there as a senior director in marketing overseeing all of California, Hawaii, Nevada. So did everything. So you really climbed the ranks in that time. Really 12 years. Like you went from Salzgal and you went up and up and up. There was a few years where I got promoted every year. Amazing. Yeah. And I had no children. And again, for me, in order to know where I'm going, I have to always reflect on where I've come from. I'm an Afghan American. I'm a girl that was born in Afghanistan. The women of my country have no rights today. So every day that I get up to go to work, it's an absolute privilege. And I'm going to make the most of it. And I'm going to win every day because I don't believe in failure. Team Mobile, I worked there. My husband actually worked at AT&T at the time.

He would love the story. But when he first met me, he said, I'm going to marry you one day. And I looked at him and I said, is that the line that you tell the girls? And then what happens next? They give you their phone number. And I said, I leaned into him and I said, you know, you need to save that line for the chicken heads in the lounge. I'm not interested. So anyway, so we, we met right around my second year of college. We were at a dinner for him. It was at AT&T dinner, and the CEO was there. And no one had ever asked me, what do you do, Ms. Elmi?

And it was a very long rectangular table. And the CEO, when he would talk, it was like quiet. And he looked over and said, Miss Elmi, what do you do? And I was like, oh, my God. This is like Mr. Mrs. Smith. Right? I'm at T-Mobile. He's at 18T.

And I thought in that moment, I've got to be honest. and I got to just own it. I said, as he was Ralph Delavega, I said, Mr. DeLovaga, I work at T-Mobile. And I said, what are you doing here at my table? Right, right. He was actually so nice. He didn't make me feel uncomfortable. And he said, he already knew that, by the way.

So it was really more of like an integrity and honesty track. And he said, wonderful, we got to figure out how to get you over on the side. And I was like, oh, my goodness. Did you make the move? Yes, I did. I made the move about two years after my husband, that was the journey and the spark of when we identified that we can work together. Wow. So take me from there. So you've got this job where you're 12 years in corporate.

Yeah. How do you make the jump into founder, entrepreneur? Like, what happens there? Started a family. Started learning about the first steps of my daughter through the cameras of my phone. And then I realized that pre-kids, my definition of wealth was a lot of really nice bags. I love shoes. Like, I'm really a fashion girl. And so my definition of like, success and wealth was going into a retail store and saying, oh, I'll take two of those, not worrying about the price tag. But when I had children, I was like, whoa, my priorities screwed. My definition success changed so rapidly. Success to me was being able to own my own time. And I didn't own my own time. Corporate America did. And that wasn't a bad thing because at that time, pre-kids,

I didn't have children. So it's okay. I could dedicate myself to corporate America. But my priorities changed. I wanted to be there for my children. And becoming an entrepreneur, I enabled you to do that. It did. So what was your first rodeo? Tell me, like, what did you do? God, first rodeo, we, so we both quit on the same week, and we decided that we were going to invest in ourselves. Start with yourself. I know someone that wrote a really great book. And so we started with ourselves. We invested in ourselves and we opened our own retail store. It was called Cricket Wireless. So AT&T had a non-contracted business. It was Cricket Wireless. We

start our first retail store, we scaled it over 150. And it was an overnight, of course. But like, this was again where like, we were like, wow, we can do this. You are the numbers guy. You're the finance guy. You know how to build, scale. My husband's brilliant. And then I'm more like on the creative side. I'm the people. I have the culture. I know how to, he can give me an idea and has a vision. I know how to execute it. So it was a really beautiful balance. So that was the first entrepreneur journey. How incredible. I mean, looking across your career, what's clear, is that you have been excellent in sales. And sales is just one of those kind of overlooked things in business

that everybody has to touch at some point in their business journey. What do you think the three things are that have enabled you to be so successful at retail? Because when I look at Symbiotica, you really are in all of the places and the spaces that you would want to be. But that takes a certain skill set. And I'm imagining that your entire career building both T-Mobile and AT&E, and T really gave you a lot of chops to be able to be pretty proficient in sales. Beautifully said. I love the way you talk.

Everything just sounds beautiful. First, I would say you have to become obsessed with the customer. And there's two layers of customer. There's, for me as founders, your customer is your team. They're my first customers. And then it's your community, the customers that buy into your product. So no matter what your product, I would say your product subset is, you've got to become obsessed with the people internally and externally. So that's always been my jam. I love people.

I always say that doesn't matter what line of work you're in, you're selling something. You're selling an idea. You're selling yourself. You're selling a product. So first I would say that. Then I would say education. Education is critical. It's been our foundation at Symbiotica since day one. We've never been obsessed with selling a product. We've been obsessed with building a brand that customers want to be a part of. building a brand that can outlive us, building a brand that could be a legacy. And so customer has been number one for us, culture. Most people don't realize, but culture is the heartbeat of your company. And I know we work in an environment today where it's hybrid or remote. The magic behind Somatica is the team. And it's the culture that we built. Because again, we want everyone to show up. Everyone has a seat at

the table and we want everyone to get to that table fast and have an opinion. Absolutely. So talk to me about that first exit, because that is always a magical moment for any founder, but you've exited multiple times. And I'm sure that's informing so many of the decisions that you're making with symbiotica today. But tell me about the first one, that moment that, you know, you get some cash, you've built something, you get to exit something. And how does that inform what you do today? So I would say first, it gave me confidence that I can do this again. It was a reflection and inflection point to identify. What were the things that we learned? What could we have done differently? And what's really beautiful about our journey is because this one's a passion project,

we will talk about financing. But like for us, this one's so different. We were very, very cautious and careful that we didn't take financing at symbiotica because this was a different product subset. We were actually going to be a part of people's health, their daily routine, their daily ritual, So we wanted to be bootstrapping. Being bootstrap forces you discipline. Oh, yeah. And most people don't realize that. And then also, the entrepreneur journey forces you to face every unheeled part of yourself.

And shit, if you got like, if you got some things going on, you're going to face every single one of those. The other thing that we learned was at first, you know, obviously when things don't work out and you have failures, it's very personal. But then you, as you mature, I think with age, as you mature with businesses, as you mature with scale, you realize that failure is the admission of success. And so we learn to, you know, accept failure. We learn to accept and let go of control. We learn how to hire better leaders. And we just learn the magic behind scaling businesses.

But really understanding that, you know, your brand, you have to have a differentiator. Education is key. The customer journey is everything. and you've got to believe your why has to be the anchor of how you do what you do every day, and it's got to be your North Star. After I've been away for a long stretch, whether that's work trips or family travel, one of the things I genuinely look forward to is getting home and making a proper meal in my own kitchen. Not something complicated, just the kind of dinner that makes me feel like I'm back in my routine.

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Yeah, me too. I'm Vivian, your H-B-F-F, and on Net Worth and Chill, we're bringing you game-changing guests who've cracked the wealth code and are spilling their secrets. We're sitting down with your favorite celebs, industry experts, and influencers to talk all things, money. From salaries to taxes, nothing is off the table. Listen to Net Worth and Chill wherever you get your podcasts or on the Your Rich BFF YouTube channel. So how after building so many businesses and successfully exiting so many businesses, why was your decision to go into another one? Because I feel like so much happens in each and every business.

And when you do that multiple times, like it's draining. you get tired. Like, what was it in the first four that you love so much that you were like, we got to do this again? I think, like, the journey of getting to know people, all of them were so different. So one was cell phone, what was an accessory business? We went into the music business. So all of them were very different. I think that... And nothing in the kind of health care and wellness space. Interesting. But we've always been into health and wellness. So I think this one aligned with us the best in terms of who we were as people. And then we, We also were at this crossroad of, like, getting older and realizing that, like, real wealth

wasn't the exits. It's how we feel every day, how we show up, how we move our thoughts. And that changes so much, as you say, like, as you get older and as you have kids, when you look across the portfolio of businesses that you've had and you kind of look at what you're doing today, what are the common denominators? Like, what doesn't change? Because you guys are clearly very good, sophisticated operators. Yeah.

Or you wouldn't be able to have that success. And I'm wondering what skills you're able to take from one thing into the next thing. Because again, it's like an accessories business is very different from the wellness business. And so what are you able to actually extrapolate from everything that moves with you into the next thing? So I'll say the most important relationship in all of these businesses is the relationship and the dynamic and the love and respect between my husband and I. If that isn't constant, none of these businesses would survive. Like every day, we obviously work in the office. We drive in together.

You do? We do. Oh, I refuse to drive in with my husband. We do. Because then don't one of you get on the phone and then the other ones are having to wait to get off the phone? I can't do that. Yeah, yeah. I know, we do that.

We do that. I'll nudge him. Wow. I have a conference call. You're a better woman than I am. You know, but it's a short drive. It's a very short drive. It's only like 12 minutes.

I mean, I have a 25 minute drive and I can't stand it. So, I don't know. And sometimes. How long have you been together? 27 years. Oh, Lord. We just celebrated 27. Congratulations to you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Work and progress every day. But I'll tell you, that has had to been the most constant thing. And I tell my kids the same thing.

Do you know, we'll sit at the dinner table and I go, do you know who I love here? And they're like, me, mommy, me. And I'm like, no, daddy. Daddy. Yeah. So that has been the most constant foundation to every single business. It doesn't matter what the business has been. If the love and the respect between him and I have been strong and that's like the grand. that I walk on, then I believe we can get through anything together. No doubt. And I think that that belief and that kind of, you know, simpatico relationship between the two of you has to be so important. But there's also like an operational layer to all of that, right? What is the, I'm just trying to understand, like, what you guys have? Like, what's the secret source that you've been able to weave

between everything that you've done and now into symbiotica? So one, I think that you've got to, tech has got to be a big part of your company. infrastructure is really, really important. We've always had everything in-house. That's kind of our magic thing is, I think in-house is very, very important because there's no way you can be obsessed with the customer and outsource things. So what does that extend to? When you say in-house, like, are you talking like warehousing and like how much is in-house?

Girl, all of it. Get out. Fulfillment, warehouse, operations, financing, marketing, digital, tech, AI, customer experience. And the reason why, so we just moved into a 60,000 square foot headquarters. The reason why is, again, it goes back to the fundamentals of our belief. If you are truly obsessed with the customer journey, every single time that a customer reaches out to marketing or reaches out to customer experience, that's your customer touchpoint. Right? So I, to me, my customer experience team, they're the one.

that's really shaping our brand. And so I want to have a very close relationship with all these departments. Every time we've brought a function closer, we've been able to move with speed. We've got data. There's been accountability. And so there's that speed of trust for us. Yeah. And it's all right there in your office. It's really impressive. So take me back to the early days. You discover this brand. You and your husband decide that you are going to, are you in, like, did you have to invest in the brand? Or were you able? Okay, so tell me there, what did you initially invest in Zymbiotica? And then how did you decide and allocate like where the money was going to go,

especially considering that this wasn't a space that you knew much about, even though you were very great business people. Yeah, so first we lived in the East Coast. We decided that if we were going to do this, we were going to build out of headquarters and really build an infrastructure and build a team. So we moved from the East Coast over to the West Coast. That was like the first real investment that we made. then obviously in order to build and scale, you need capital.

So we took the investments that we had had in our prior businesses, and we invested in a symbiotica. The reason we did that is because we really, really believe, like, we both, again, all three of us had this, like, deep why as to, like, we've lost people that we can't bring back that have been such a big part of our lives. So now let's create a movement where health is accessible. You have easy information to understanding, you know, how your body absorbs certain things. So for us, we invested in symbiotica because we believed in the mission. And so my husband and I put in the financial capital. And the thing was is when we dissected the category, there was a lack of transparency. There was a lot of products that were used with synthetics, artificial sugars.

Education wasn't there. And there really wasn't a category leader, to be quite honest with you. And for us, we wanted to hone in on a specific advanced delivery system, which was liposomal. Liposomal encapsulates the nutrients, delivers the highest bioavailability, I feel like an infomercial, and then your body absorbs it. I read in the beginning, you know, the company's doing sub-1 million dollars, and in those years, like 2019, 2020, you grew the company from a million to five million. That takes a lot.

And I wonder what it took to actually meet that type of demand in the business right out of the gate. Well, I'll tell you, lots of trade-offs, trade-offs of not spending time with my family, tradeoffs of missing so many opportunities at the kids' school. But what it took was a level of discipline because people see the end result, even they look at $1 million to $5 million, $5 million to $10 to $40, we failed so much in the journey. We failed, we would get up, we would pivot,

we would make quick decisions. The one thing I would say was constant was we were always in office. We brought in leaders that we trusted. We brought in capable people that were. we're already experienced and we're already doing where we wanted to go. But yeah, I mean, we just, we failed a lot. And but we also just never gave up. The consistency and the discipline were two constants that for us, no matter what the variable outside of that was, we would show up every day, have the discipline and be consistent. When you look back over the last two years where the

growth has been so insane, what do you think the biggest growth enablers have been for symbioticers like overall growth? Oh gosh, overall growth, I would say first is infrastructure. Then it's when we realize that a decision is the wrong decision, very quickly taking the data, accepting it and moving into the right direction. Very quickly being the thing. Very quickly. We always say the data doesn't have a bigger seat at the table than our egos. And so being able to make quick decisions and being able to pivot very quickly. I would say the other thing is building redundancies, being able to scale and know that for us, like retail these past two years, has been pretty explosive. It's been a goal of ours. We really, really expanded our retail footprint. But we wanted to make sure that, one, it didn't

compromise the efficacy of our products. Secondly, we had redundancies to be able to scale at the speed. I would say speed isn't the challenge. You've got to be able to build an infrastructure that could keep up with the speed. You've got to be able to build an infrastructure that could keep up with the speed. You've got to be able to build a team that, you know, knows where you're going and that's capable leaders, right, that can build teams below them. Early on, we, as founders, we had the vision, but now where we're at is we need leaders that can expand our vision. We need leaders that can build teams and infrastructure and everything isn't so founder dependency. Yes. So, Duranah, what do you think the best piece of advice is that you could give someone whose business is actually

growing faster than they can keep up with right now? I would say build an infrastructure, hire leaders that have already been where you are trying to get to, trust them, let go of control because I think that I'm very much into every detail, but letting go control actually gave us velocity and speed and then reinvest back in the business. You've got to reinvest back in the business. And you've got to believe in your hardest moments, you've got to know your So you obviously bootstrapped the business for the first five years. What changed and made you feel like, okay, now is the time to raise? Because I have conversations with so many people and they're like, when is the infliction point? What are the signals? What are the signs? And how do you know the moment is right?

Well, I would say if we were to reflect back, we probably would have gone to market sooner. Really? Really. We're a little too expensive now, right? So one is it was really, important for us because, again, this is touching people's health. It was really important for us to have discipline, really learn through our mistakes. We didn't want to take financing and learn on other people's money. We wanted to learn on our own. So that was first. Secondly, I would say is once we were able to prove it out for ourselves, we then said, let's go raise. And what we did is we did a very small, very strategic round with our good friend, Dave Grubman. Love Dave.

Love Dave. Love Dave. All of them. We were just with them in Miami for style saves. But Dave was instrumental where he said, guys, like, there's so many instrumental people in this ecosystem where they're living this lifestyle. Haley Beaver. God, there's so many.

Gunna, peso pluma, alasso, marshmallows. Shalizi. I mean, the names go on. Sounds like a Coachella, like, line up to me. Kendall Jenner, right? Alex Earl. And so like there was an ecosystem of people that were already living this life. Yes. So when we did this $25 million raise, we didn't do it for the capital. What we needed is air coverage.

God. So wait a minute, they're 25 because I really want to get this right, right? So it's like you first did almost like a friends and family raise with Dave. That's the $25 million raise. Yes. Okay. And that included all the celebrities and all the artists and all the very influential people. Which was my next question, because that to me feels like one of the things that really sets you apart, aside from really superior product and this kind of very new way that people are taking supplements because it is still kind of new in the grand scheme of things. Why, Dave, like what did he bring that somebody from a kind of more traditional capital background couldn't?

Yeah. So Dave first and foremost. Apart from the fact that he's just absolutely lovely, but that aside, this was your baby and your business. Yeah, he's lovely. Dave has become our family. We trusted Dave. Dave was using our product. So he really understood the product from the inside. And there is such a bridge of trust with Dave. Like we knew he was going to bring in the right people that believed in our mission. We never wanted to and we never will let go of the controls of the company where it compromises our efficacy and we move away from our mission. For us, like, Dave believed in what we're doing. He believed in this, like, we're going to build a legacy. We're going to build a movement. And so that is what kind of ignited us to work with Dave.

And again, no one bettered in the work with someone who's your friend and your family and our families know each other, kids know each other. And somebody who's an actual user of the product. How much- Dave, by the way, his superpower, which I was like, Dave, you're going to get into this whole their business, he's such a connector because he's so well respected, because people know him. And like, Dave, you know Dave, there's no way Dave's going to stand behind something if he doesn't believe in it. And he'll call your shit out if he, like, doesn't believe it's quality, it's made a difference. So I think there's also this like realism of like Dave. Like if Dave recommends it, you know it's good. Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. How much of bringing him on board

was an intentional marketing tactic. Because, of course, as you say, with Dave, comes the sphere of influence, comes all of the great friends, come some of the incredible people that are on your cat table now. So how much of that was deliberate on your part? A lot of it, most of it.

Absolutely. Because, again, it wasn't the capital that we needed. What we needed, the air coverage from these very influential people. You look at Gunna and the transformation of his body, it's like his rip and sip daily ritual. I love when he does the post of, like, breakfast, and it's four products.

it's so aspirational to see all these different people and these different walks of life. And the one commonality that they have is rip and sip. The one commonality they have is self-love. It's taking care of yourself. It's what are you putting in your body. And so that's what we needed from this strategic group that we brought on was that air coverage, was them telling their story in a very organic, authentic way of how symbiotica has made an impact in their life, how symbiotica allows them to travel and show up and get on stage.

and be the best version of themselves to not just their fans, but to themselves and everyone around them. And how valuable have those endorsements been to you in the business? Like, did they actually work? Incredibly valuable. Yeah. I mean, we've been able to establish beautiful friendships out of it, to be honest with you. And I'm still on, inspired by, like, Haley's kindness. I always tell everyone she's dropped dead gorgeous, but like her kindness as a girl, what a girl's girl she is, is even more beautiful. And I'm assuming she shifts in. units too. Yeah, she does. Absolutely. And so like it's, it's wonderful because we don't pay any of these guys to post. We also don't have them on any kind of posting schedule. It's all organic. Yeah.

And so they're on the cap table, right? So it's like it's part of their, you know, they're there. They do what they do. They love the product and they're incentivized because they're part of the business. Yeah. And some of them are board members as well. Incredible. Yeah. Who's on the board? Give me the names. Haley Brewer. Yes. David Guttman. Shervin Pershiver, who started, you know, And so we wanted people with a lot of like specialized expertise that would be able to provide us like, oh my gosh, another one, Damon John, another one of my favorite humans. Love Damon. Yeah.

So I mean. Alex Earl more recently. Alex Earl, yeah. So we're just incredible people to be honest with you. And I think the most beautiful part of the whole journey was the fact that the user products, which was kind of a non-negotiable for us. And then secondly, they believe in what we're doing and what we're trying to accomplish. So once you take the $25 million of investment, you're scaling, you're growing, you have the momentum of everybody else that's on the cap table, the business continues to thrive, to go into retail, you manage to kind of, you know, be very clear about what you're doing and very focused. What are the next steps and where are you guys now? Do you go and then raise more capital? I'm just like interested in the journey for people to really understand what it looks like to build something like this. Because I have like no doubt that you're

are on the way to your fifth exit, right? That's not a... Girl, come on. My mouth to God's ears. Yeah, absolutely. That is absolutely the goal. So one is we did a full rebrand. You're going to see our retail packaging is so proud of this. We are going to really, really get into experiential. I think the way people remember your brand is through the experience that you deliver to them. On a personal note, if I have a party at my house, and I invite you on Friday for a Saturday party, I get 100% attendance. And the reason

why is because I'm into every detail and I care about the experience. So for us, this journey of people purchasing our products, bringing it into their lives is very personal. We're launching two incredible products and there's going to be, I would say, tremendous amount of growth in retail. We're going into Walmart this October, Sam's Club is before the end of the year, and then Costco next year. I mean, look at you. Girl, I am fired up. You know, we talked a little bit earlier about Oprah. Like, I, you got 46 years old, girl.

I used to say like, God, that's kind of old. But I'll tell you, I have never felt more in my power than I do today. And I feel like I'm just getting started. I have no doubt. I mean, honestly, I feel like I can see that. I really, really want to talk to you about money. Yeah. Because what I love about you is that you speak very openly about it and you have a very specific opinion.

And I want to understand how you feel because obviously you're a married woman, but you have financial independence. Has having your own money changed the way that you actually move through the world? 100%. Yeah. And again, this is not an indictment to women who don't work or mothers who stay home. But I will say that people think that first off, when you're married, Wanting to know and educate yourself about the finances doesn't mean you're doing that because you're worried that the marriage is going to fail. I actually think the opposite. When women know about the finances and women build that backbone for themselves, whatever it is, you move differently. You move with confidence. And for me, it's always, I've had such a strong backbone that my husband

and I, like, he always, we always have this running joke, but like, I, I can afford. afford to leave. I would never leave. I love the man. But it gives me that freedom. It gives me that confidence. It gives me that agency. So I think it's very important for a woman to know about finances. And I think times have changed today. Right. And so for me, if we're building something and we as my husband and I, I want to be alongside him brick by brick. Because shit, you know you're not going to break that down when you've been building that brick by brick. And so the reason why our relationship's so strong is because he knows, you know, I've built this with you, baby boy. So, and my mother always says, takes a lifetime to build something and you can crush it overnight.

But because we've built it together, the likelihood of us breaking it apart, no, I don't think so. We're going to work at that every day. I, after you've had all of this success, like, how important is the money piece to you? Because I hear what you said at the top of this interview. And it's clear, it's not like you're just doing this for the money. But, you know, you're a woman with amazing jewelry and gorgeous clothes and you like nice things and you live a good life. How important is it that you reach a certain benchmark or you meet the full realization of this company? Like, how do you think through that right now?

So again, because I grew up so poor. it'd be a lie if I told you that money wasn't important to me as a child. It was very important for me. I saw what my mom sacrificed. My mom stayed in the house because she didn't have the money to go. So she had to compromise her self-respect. She had to compromise so much her youth. As a young girl, I never ever wanted to be in that position. But now having two daughters, having a beautiful, healthy relationship with my husband and best friend, money to me gives me freedom, freedom to think what I want to think, freedom to decide who's going to be my friend, freedom to like do what I want to do. And so money's so important for me, but it's just shifted.

And I don't think it's the most important thing, but you've got to have money. Like anyone that says that you don't need money, that's like, I don't know if I agree with that. You need money to be able to do what you want to do one day. And today I'm in a position where I could do what I want to do, but I'm not done building. And money is in everything, and I want to teach my daughters that. And how I do that is take them to style saves, make them work the events. By giving back, giving back is such a, like, I love giving back. I always say if gratitude is your religion and you give back, you get tenfold without even realizing. I give, but I get back in ways that I can't even tell you, like my spirituality, the people that come into my life, that I know is God giving back

to me every single day. And I feel so grateful for that. And as an Afghan woman, you must think so much about that in relation to where you're from, the give back, the philanthropic peace. 100%. Ever since my very first job at the age of 16, I've always given back. I've built three schools in Afghanistan. I want my legacy to be how many women that I can touch and inspire. I would tell my little girls are today, not on Instagram, but I say, you know, one day you'll realize what the blue checkmark is. And the real blue checkmark, baby girl, it's how other women feel in your company. It's how you inspire and ignite them. And like, I would.

want that to be my legacy. I want the women around. You saw I showed up with like my crew of women. I love women. I love girls. I want them to sit in this seat and do it better than I did. And if I, if I'm doing that to me, that's the legacy, right? It's not about the money. It's not about how many companies, but it's about how many lives we can change. It's about empowering women. And then again, coming from Afghanistan, where today in this exact moment, the woman of my country have no rights, that fuels me. So when we talk about enough, I want to be. I want to be. be able to do more for them. Yeah. And I, you know, one of the goals in building this like generational wealth is how much I can help my women back home and here, and not just the women

of Afghanistan, but women around the world. I've had some incredible female mentors. And I know like being in this seat today, Emma, I dreamed of being in rooms with women like you. And so I want other women to feel that same way. And I want other women, not to get emotional, but I want other women to know that they can do. Yeah, that's real leadership. I mean, and it was amazing seeing you turn up with your like literal girl gang today. I was like, you are really deep. Like all of these amazing women, everybody knows exactly what they're doing and they know their role. So when you think about leadership, I mean, listen, we all evolve as leaders over the years. When you think about your style of leadership and things that have evolved,

What have you had to unlearn in the last six years since you've had this company? I think I've had to unlearn that being wrong is okay. It's okay. It's not ego. It's just take the data. I've learned to be less emotional. And I'm still practicing that,

the art of not allowing my emotions to take over me. It's hard. That's a hard one. It's so hard. I'm like, Oprah, we need a moment together. I've learned that the most expensive thing that I own are my thoughts. It's the thing that I tell my children every day when I drop them off at school. What's the most expensive thing you own, Yasmin, Ariana? And they go, they roll their eyes.

They tell me how cringe I am. They say, mommy, my thoughts. So I practice that every day. That is a great way to teach kids and to frame it as them as something that not only did they own, but it's expensive if you get it wrong. Because the stories we tell ourselves, that will shape our entire reality. Yeah. Isn't that true? It's a reading. It's a really. It's a really, really great way to talk to young children about that. I'm going to steal that off of you. 100%. That's coming home with me. The supplement category has changed a lot in the last few years and one of the shifts that actually matters is around absorption. It's not just what's on the label, it's how much of it your body

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If you have an iPhone, head to ladder.fit slash aspire and take a quick quiz to find your perfect ladder plan. Use my link and get a free seven-day trial with no credit card and $10 off your first month if you join. I read somewhere that you do all the final hiring and final interviewing yourself. I think it is just crazy, but I love this because I know you have a hell of a lot of stuff. Why is it so important to you that at this stage of the business, you still do that? Because the right leader will propel my culture and the wrong one, conversely, will destroy it.

Right. First off, those interviews are about seven minutes long. So you're in and out. You're final. They're not an hour. I actually don't even want the resume. No, no, no. So I think resume tells you about someone's.

experience, but what I want to know is about your character. I want to know about the adversity you've gone through in your life. How did you handle it? I want to know your perspective. I want to know about your family. I want to know about how you show up for yourself. Those are the questions you ask to hire for character. Yeah, yeah. Those are the most important thing for me. I want to know how you you show up for yourself. I want to know how you define self-discipline and self-love. And, you know, so what's the thing that triggers you? What's a good answer for you? I like if someone takes the time to take care of themselves. Because to me, it's not about you going to the gym or being fit,

but it tells me that you have discipline. If you have discipline with yourself, you can have discipline at work. I think the other thing is being inspired and being motivated. And I love when someone can recognize that they've gone through adversity, have accepted it, and they can go right through it. Yes.

Because we're going to go through a lot of adversity. So I need to know that you are strong enough that you can go through more. And here's the other thing. So I call it like soul searching. I did an audit on my soul and on my frequency many, many years back. Stop it. Like I kind of detached myself from all things in the world.

And then I would slowly like reintroduce and hang out with someone and be like, their frequency made me feel good. I felt inspired. Or like they don't make me feel good. So the other part of it is, is like, how does this person make me feel? Right? Because that's a really important thing. I'm going to be with this person every single day.

Like Rainy, who is sitting right here with her beautiful face, like her energy is electrifying. I mean, like, you can't even have a down day. This girl comes in, she's like practically does a back foot with just an idea. I love that kind of energy. Like, I'm like, how do I make 100 rainies? So for me, like, I also want to know what kind of frequency do you show up with? So you want to show up to work every day in a good mood, but you do work with your husband.

So let's just talk about that a little bit. Because as you know, so do I, another place where we have a similarity. How do you navigate disagreements when you are. spouses and business partners. Oh, well, it's been work in progress is the honest truth. That's what actually I think now again, over the years, what I've learned is part of the magic is disagreeing. I am not the wife that says yes to everything. I'm a wife that wants to challenge him. And the reason why is because I think the way I think, I look out for him and I catch the blind spots that he's not thinking about. We again are very, very different leaders. And so when we have

agreements where we don't align, I would lie to you if I told you that we didn't go home with it. And I'd be like, you could be making dinner tonight. I don't make you anything. But I just know at the end of the day, our goals are the same in terms of where we're trying to get to. So it's a framework that I'm trying to work on now, which is when I'm upset, I want to step away from what I'm upset about because I don't want my emotions to make a decision. And so if I'm upset about something or I don't agree with something, I put it aside, I don't want to discuss it until I'm a better state of mind, which is like most, most of the time it's the next day. And that's what you do. You're literally step away from the problem for a second. I have to. Take a beat and return to it later.

Yeah, because I feel like as women, we're like emotional beings, right? Also, what's the genius behind us? We've got that EQ. I have never made a good decision when I've been emotional. I've only had a trigger response because it's my emotion telling you to do that. But my emotion isn't always the answer. So I want to make sure that I make like a wise decision. Tell me about a decision that you were absolutely convinced was the right thing for the business and it turned out to be wrong and how you know when it's time to just like change course. Oh, I think for me, I've always been really passionate about experiential and marketing has really changed. So there was a time where I took a just, yeah, I kind of stood to my team and said, listen, like the marketing agency is,

changing today. We have to do things differently. Marketing is no longer the paid ads. It's no longer meta. It's the experience. And so I think that's one thing I stood my ground on and it took me a while to kind of turn the corner with the team and do some experiential where I can prove out the ROI. But that's something that I've like really firmly believed in since day one. Yeah. I think experiential is everything. It's how people remember you when they come into your home. It's how people will remember your brand. And it's how you can capture the emotion where you become unforgettable. You're right. And I think it's really difficult for people to make those changes within their business because we've all seen that, right? We've all seen that traditional digital isn't working

and, you know, giving us the R-O-Y, the return on our investments like it used to. But moving off of something that's worked for so long and taking a bet on something else is scary for a business, especially when you have to do it at the scale you're doing it. So what do you look for from a conviction point of view to know like, okay, we're going to really go into experiential. Because of course, you have been in this digital marketing space. You've obviously done a lot of work with influencer and celebrity. And for the longest time, that was all like working, working, working. As it dissipates and you have to do something else, talk me through like the decision making process and how you go, you know what?

I'm going to bet on that. So we had an event last year. We were launching an Alta, which was the first time that we were intersecting beauty and wellness. So I wanted to throw an event here in L.A. and I wanted to be experiential. There were four products we were launching with. And I wanted each room to evoke a different emotion within the community, within the influencers, within everyone that showed up. So it was upwards of a million dollar investment. And in four hours, we had over three, billion impressions. And that's a market value of roughly $29 million. And so for me, I was really, really passionate about proving this out to my team that you have to evoke an emotion. Like, it's not, you have to teach people how to integrate their products into their daily lives. That's how they're going to remember for it to become a ritual. So that alter party for us was, I would say, a really massive turning point. It was a proof point that experiential is a new wave of marketing. I want to put every detail in those moments because it's those moments that people remember.

And so I'm excited as we talked about the revamp that we're doing. We're doing a repackaging. We're launching a very, very big campaign with Ratner and OBB that I am so excited about. I love the whole Ratner, OBB, James, like the entire team. They're my favorite. They're an amazing group of people doing really exciting things. Yeah. So again, like an untraditional partnership, perhaps if you just like laid it out on the table,

but that's what makes it so interesting. And to me, there's no surprise that experiential is what we're seeing as like the wave of what's working in businesses because people are craving being in person and being together. I think we've all understood that we don't want to live entirely inside a machine. And so if we can get people together in real life, that makes us feel good. Everyone needs people, right? Like women, women need women to support them. Women need women to rally up and lock arms.

But same thing. I mean, I think in a company within your brand, community builds advocates and advocates builds legacy and legacy builds a movement. Demo, it does. You've got over 4,000 doors. We're talking Target, Alter, Sprouts, Whole Foods. Each of those are very, very different ecosystems and equally, I'm sure, each have their own challenges of how you do business. How have you been able to be successful? And will you just talk me through perhaps some of the challenges that you have experienced? for people that are listening that are hoping to go into retail or are in retail and facing some of that stuff right now. So now over 89,000 distribution points worldwide. That's insane. Yeah. One, I think you've got to have the capital if you're going to expand into retail. You've got to be able to release inventory and not expect that money to come back. You have to very, very important. You've got to be willing to wait the 120 sometimes 150 days. Yeah, yeah, very

true. And then also, you don't need to necessarily go into every retailer with the same skews. You need to really understand their customers. And Target, we went in with six skews. You've got to test it out. And then sometimes, I think it sounds very glamorous to say, I'm in all stores nationwide. But you should really kind of pilot the markets to understand the customers, to understand the retail landscape. Yeah, say that again. Yeah. You don't need to go into all doors, even if you're you're offered all doors, right? It's like, understand it, learn that business, see how they roll, see if your product resonate, see what's resonating, and then expand. If the offer was there, it'll always be there. It'll always be there, right? And I think, again, it's a very expensive

mistake just because they offer you to go into the door. I mean, you've got to do what's right for your business. The other thing is, if you're a category leader like we've been in the advanced liposomal delivery, you have to make sure that before you go into retail, your consumer's know what you are, what differentiates you, because you only got a few seconds on the shelf. So there's got to be a differentiator. And then I think price architect is really important. So for us, you know, we started out the business heavily in D to C. Our retail packaging was D to C. Our price points, our 30 counts. As you launch into retail, you've got to look at it differently. Customers, like, I love to go into a target. So I'm not going to buy a 30 count.

I may want to buy a 12 count. So you need to really think about your price architect, your skew counts that's going to cater to that specific retailer. What do you think that people misunderstand most about your business in your category right now, considering it's also new? All supplements are created equal. They're not. Most of the time, people are told to take a handful of supplements.

They don't know why they're taking the handful. They don't know how their body's absorbing it. So I think absorption rate is the first thing that's highly, highly misunderstanding. understood, the delivery system, understanding how products are made. We've never outsourced anything. We actually don't even outsource our manufacturing. We do everything here in the United States. We're very, very proud of that. So I would say the efficacy and the delivery system and then how your body absorbs it. I want to double back because we spoke a little bit about money and wealth. And you recently experienced something really frightening and scary with your family. And I only

mentioned this because you've spoken about it a little bit publicly, but there was a robbery incident. And I wonder how that's changed the way that you think about safety, the way you think about wealth for you and your family and being visible as a founder. Like, where are you at with that right now, given the horrendous experience that you went through? I've actually haven't like publicly come on a platform like this and never talked about it. It was probably the hardest thing that I've ever experienced in my life and to have my children wake up at gunpoint is truly unfathomable. It's tough today, right? Because we live in a time where people want to know the founders behind the brand. And so we have a responsibility to like be out there. And what happened

in cons, I wasn't out and about on the streets and partying with my things. Actually, we were going to a few fashion shows. So I had prepared for the Dolce Gabbana show, which was one week long. We were going to the Amiri show in Paris. There were all these different kind of events that were happening. So I packed up for it. And thank God, thank God that I met Oprah that day, because her and I exchanged a few words. And she gave me a power and a strength that day. I left her around 2 o'clock and you know had an incredible event with OBB there came home early and was like on such a high like I wanted to unpack my day with my husband I'm like let's hurry up and get in bed let's I gotta tell you about Oprah and the way she made me feel and her energy and then you know we talked about our day and how incredible was the amazing people we had met and then 315 we woke up to screams my my chief of staff was also in the house with us. And, you know, I learned a lot about my own strength because in that moment, I looked at the guy and I said, do you believe in God? Please put your gun down.

Like, I'll give you everything. You learn in that moment that nothing matters besides your family. You know, of course, I have regrets because I'm like, did my success put my children or my desire for success, put my children in this position. Then I realized that they took for me what I had built, what I had earned, what I had. Sure, I like nice things, but like my wedding ring, you know, my first ring was like such a little small diamond. Like this is over the years that my husband and I, this is like years of like life we've built, memories and, you know, my push gift. And so it wasn't just stuff for me. You took memories, you took hard work, you took things of mine that weren't replaceable. And over time, I've learned to heal and accept it. And what I tell my little girls is

they took things of ours that we wanted, but they needed it. And I'm okay with that now. I'm okay with that. And I just realized that, yes, I'm going to probably never, ever say a villa ever again. I think that it's very, very irresponsible and unfortunate for the French government to not come out and put a travel warning because a week after that happened, there was another girl that got robbed. And there's a responsibility that we have to tourists, a responsibility. If you're going to draw in billions of dollars and all these events. Like, we brought in wellness to Kahn's Lion. And so you have a responsibility to protect the people that are bringing in all this

incredible stuff into your city. I definitely am more aware of my surrounding and probably would bring security from the U.S. versus relying on security that's there. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I really do believe that those things that happen are inside jobs, unfortunately. And what it taught us as a family was, shit, how strong we are. My daughters, I'm so proud of them. I used to always say to my husband, what adversity will our girls ever go through?

Living the life that they do. Well, damn, did I speak that into universe? But my kids showed me how strong they were. I never forget my daughter saying to me, Mommy, please calm down. He has a gun. running at you. And so I learned about strength through my daughters. And I also learned that as a family, we are resilient. No doubt. I mean, first of all, thank you for sharing that story, because I do think it's so important. And I'm so happy that you're all safe and you're all okay and it was

only possessions. And yet, I think it set off such a conversation. certainly with somebody like myself, other founders, other women who are at the forefront of their businesses about how much of a forward-facing role is safe to take. And in the past, we have spoken so much about, you know, the upside of being at the forefront of our business and then what kind of comes back to you. And usually that's, you know, it's words, it's judgment, it's the media. and this is a very frightening side of it. And so I am really grateful that you would speak so openly and really I'm so happy that your children,

despite having gone through something absolutely awful, that you've been able to frame it to them in such a way that they understand what their family is made of and who you guys are as people. I think that's really important. You have to, like in that moment, you find God through that. There's a lot of why's that happen. Why?

But I also also really wholeheartedly believe that in order to get to the level success that I desire my ambition, God's going to put me through some real hard times. If I really want to get there, I'm going to have to get through this first. And this was one of them. This was one of them. It's unfortunate that my kids had to go through it. But at the same time, my kids learned a lot about us as a family, mommy, came back into town, right back into work on Monday. and I just show them that, like, you know, we can't victimize ourselves to what happened. And also, we at dinner would pray for the guys that robbed us. Like, we pray for you. I tell my girls, like,

how sad that you had to stay awake until three in the morning so that I would fall asleep so that you could take my belonging. I'm actually really sad for you. Like, I'm sad for the life that you have, that you have to do that to others. So I pray for them. I pray for them to find a better path. Because I think that, you know, robbing someone of something that they have is obviously not okay. And there's a karma to that. But, yeah, you know, we're going to get through it. And obviously, I'm more cautious now of what I post, when I post. And I think the other part of it that was really painful was first, like the news publication came out.

We had, I don't know, like, 500,000 dollars a car. I was something ludicrous. We didn't have anything that they. said, like reported. We hadn't even talked to anyone. But also how sad of a time we live in where people during such a dark, low time of my family's life can be so judgmental. Like you deserve to get robbed. Actually, how sad is your life and how miserable are you that you felt empowered to write a comment like that? It's wild. It's wild. It's, you know, I will be really,

really honest because I was very attuned knowing that I wanted you on the show and I followed the brand and your story for so long as soon as it happened. You know, I read about it and I read the stories and I read the comments and I am always horrified at what people will put into writing with their name there and what people want and how they want to be seen in what they say. And so I think that you take the right attitude to it, like how terrible for them, but it never ceases to amaze me ever. You have given so much incredible information and been so transparent and open about your journey and what you're building. For somebody that's listening right now, what is the one thing that you want them to take away from your story? Is that nothing has been

easy? Nothing. My relationships and my life haven't been easy. Showing up to work every day, I have a thyroid condition. So I actually organically wake up very tired. I don't wake up and I'm like, let's go. You know, I'm like, where's that vitamin D? Where's my, where's my arm or thyroid? Like, I wake up very tired. So nothing is easy. And we live in this like world today where everything is a highlight real. Look, my own social media is a highlight real. But the truth is, nothing has been easy since my childhood. And I think that's what makes it so beautiful. And so if you're willing to accept that nothing that you're going after is going to be easy and you have the willpower and the desire and you know your why and you're passionate, then if we can move forward and accept all

that's going to come with it, failure is the admission of success. You're going to face every unheeled part of yourself because that's part of that journey and you're going to fail. Damn it, nobody talks about how many times you and I have failed through the journey. We've failed a lot. It's been ugly, but you've got to just believe in what you're doing. And surround yourself with women that are your... anchors that believe in you, that inspire you. And I would just say that, just never stop believing. As kind of cliche as that sounds, belief is such a powerful, powerful tool. Yes, it is. I couldn't agree with you more. What do you still aspire to, to either to be or to become?

Honestly, this sounds so silly to say, but, like, my inspiration is to have, like, the Oprah energy, where I could walk into a room and people can just feel my energy without me saying a word because that's how she made me feel. Doesn't she have that? When I left her presence, I felt that I can conquer anything

and everything. I mean, my husband was actually really afraid. He was like, did you know? Yeah, like, did you guys, did you take shots or something? Are you okay? I mean, I was like, aunt, I couldn't even explain

what this like adrenaline of like power and belief that she just instilled in me. And so I want to be able to have that kind of aura. That's my dream. Oh, I love that. Yeah. She has it all right.

I mean, I don't know what she's doing, but she's doing something. Yeah. God knows what she's taking. Yeah, it's a lot of sharing. Some people are just special. Yeah. That's it. Some people are just special.

Yeah. But she also has like so much grace and gratitude and has like really like embrace all of her hardships and has said this is meant for me. And I believe in that too. Like I would say if I had to repeat my life all over again and get my ass kicked as a kid, I would do all of that all over again because it's made me who I am today

and that is what I'm most proud of. You should be. You should be incredibly proud. I'm going to take you to some rapid fire. Yes. Okay. What's the one supplement everyone should add to their routine? Glutothion.

I'm so glad you said that. I take that. What's one habit that's non-negotiable for you no matter how busy you get? Moment of gratitude. If you were packing for vacation and you could only bring three items, what are they going to be? Symbiotica, definitely a pair of heels, and my Bergen. Oh, she's good. She's naked, but she's good.

What's a book that changed your life? Start with yourself. Seriously, start with yourself and I would say the power of now. I love that book. Yeah. I really, really love that book. And now that's an Oprah one. Yeah.

She put us all on to that. Yeah. Really did. Durala, thank you so much. Thank you for the gift of your time. Thank you, my love. That was great. If you're loving this podcast, be sure to click follow on your favorite listening platform.

While you're there, give us a review and a five-star rating and share an episode you loved with a friend who'll be so grateful. Aspire with Emagreed is presented by Audice. I'm your host, Emma Greed. Our executive producers are Ashley McShan, Derek Brown and me. Executive producers from Odyssey are Asha Saluja and Leah Reese Dennis. Producer KK Sublime. Stephen Key is our senior producer. Sound design and engineering by Bill Shorts.

Angela Paluso is our Booker, original music by Charles Black. Video production by Phil Sweetek and Carlos Delgado. Social media by Olivia Holman, Catherine Bale. Special thanks to Brittany Smith, Sydney Ford, my team's at the lead company and WME. Josephina Francis, Hillary Schuff, Eric Donnelly, Kate Hutchinson Rose,

Tim Mekyll. Evan Cox, Kurt Courtney, Andrew Steele, Sean Cherry and Lauren Vieira. If you have questions for me, you can DM me at Aspire with Emma Greed. Greed is spelled G-R-E-D-E, that's AspI-R-E-E with Emma Greed. Or you can submit a question to me on my website, emigreid.me.