Habits and Hustle - Episode 211: Tina Anderson - CEO & Co-Founder of Just Thrive

Episode Date: January 31, 2023

Tina Anderson is the CEO & Co-Founder of Just Thrive. In this episode, Tina talks about the ever-growing issues with the pharmaceutical industry, and how it inspired her to start her own company with her husband. Jen and Tina explore the deep relationship between the gut and the brain, providing expert perspectives on how you can limit stress and maintain a proper diet to live as healthy as possible. Are you looking for new ways to manage work/life balance, treat your body right, and work toward success with a healthy body and a happy mind? With plenty of life advice and scientific data, you won’t want to miss this episode. Your gut, brain, and dog will thank you! Youtube Link to this Episode To check out a few episodes visit travischappell.com/show Use promo code HUSTLE for 15% off sitewide at justthrivehealth.com Find out Jen’s secret to getting anything you want out of life ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Did you learn something from tuning in today? Please pay it forward and write us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts.  📧If you have feedback for the show, please email [e-mail]  📙Get yourself a copy of Jennifer Cohen’s newest book from Habit Nest, Badass Body Goals Journal.  ℹ️Habits & Hustle Website - http://habitshustle.com 📚Habit Nest Website - https://habitnest.com/  📱Follow Jennifer - Instagram - https://instagram.com/therealjencohen - Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/therealjencohen - Twitter - https://twitter.com/therealjencohen - Jennifer’s Website - https://jennifercohen.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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San Antonio, Texas. Alright guys, we made it. We made it to 2023. Happy New Year. This is going to be the best one yet. I'm not a big person in these New Year resolutions because I don't ever believe in waiting until January 1st. I believe in starting right away. Finally my book Bigger Better Boulder has been out now for probably a week and I want to say thank you to everybody who pre-ordered it because it debuted at

number one in business and I am just so grateful and thankful for you guys. I really do believe that we all can be more bold and show up in our life in a real way with a little introspection, a little self-awareness and we can design whatever we want for ourselves. I believe in creating a rich life, and that's not just money you guys.

That's about relationships, meaningful relationships, meaningful experiences. Now, if we're not born being bold, you can learn being bold. I have a workbook in the back of the book. So it keeps people accountable, and you see yourselves getting bolder by doing these little bold moves.

So we are not just acquiescing to a good enough life, but we're actually really going after and chasing the life we want. Want this to be a two way conversation. I want you guys to leave me reviews and comments. Let me know what type of guests you want me to go after, chase after. Let me know what you like, what you don't like. Your words are valuable and they mean something to me. So please let me know.

Check me out. And Habitson Hustle on YouTube now as well. And on Instagram. Facebook now, we have a Facebook community. Here's to 2023 everyone. Let's make it the best one yet. I guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habitson Hustle, crush it.

Today on the podcast, we have Tina Anderson, who is a CEO and co-founder of Just Thrive. Tina's journey into the world of fitness has a very unique start. She used to be a trial lawyer, but because she was so passionate about how the abuses in the pharmaceutical industry were happening, she turned towards the field of natural health and basically found her life's work. She channeled her energy into learning all she could about disease prevention and good health maintenance, which led her to discover the importance of gut health and how connected and crucial it is for overall wellness. To share her discovery with the world,

Tina, along with her husband, created a very unique supplement that contains the superior probiotic strains of renowned researcher Dr. Simon Cutting. And by promoting gut health and probiotics, Tina shares her passion for wellness and helping others live their best physical and emotional lives. We've had a lot of people on the podcast talk about gut health because it's so important for our health.

You know, 70% of our immune system is in our gut and the gut brain connection is really real. And so I always love having these conversations with knowledgeable people who are really making strides in a difference to help us live healthier. I hope you enjoy this podcast. I love this conversation, Latina. Leave me a comment.

Let me know what you think. And hopefully you can learn something that can help you. Enjoy. We have Tina Anderson today on my first episode of the CEO corner, which is what I'm going to be trying to do is highlight and profile a really extraordinary entrepreneur, CEO, who's really making some great moves and disruption in business. And my first one is Tina Anderson, who what I love, we're going to hear her story because she wasn't, this wasn't your business before. Right.

And she created basically a supplement called Just Thrive, which we're going to get all into. And I want to say thank you for being my first person. And welcome to Habits and Hustle. Thanks Jennifer. I'm so excited and honored to be your first person in this episode. So that's awesome. Excited. I'm really happy to have you. So listen, I think your story is really extraordinary because you weren't someone who came from a typical background because you were in someone who came from a typical background in the health or fitness space, wellness space, or you created a supplement called Just Thrive.

Can you kind of give me a little bit about your origin story and how you kind of evolved into what you're doing now? Yeah, so I started out as an attorney. So I went to law school and I was in, then I became an attorney. I was in litigation for many years, working crazy hours and not being super fulfilled, really. And it just, it was like crazy. Every Saturday,

every Sunday, I'd be at the office and every, you know, at night, you're there all the time. And you're not, it's just about face time, billable hours, just so not rewarding and gratifying at all. And I just decided that, and then I started to have children. And I'm like, this is not good. I want to be home and spend a little bit more time with my kids.

I still wanted to work, but I didn't want to have that kind of pressure on a day-to-day basis. And so I was fortunate enough to segue my legal career into a family pharmaceutical business where I was the General Counsel for the business and so that allowed it was a smaller business So I had the I wasn't working full-time crazy hours and I was able to be home with the kids a lot more than I would have otherwise and so Then being in that industry for a while I Just started to see a lot of the abuses going on in the pharmaceutical business. I saw a lot of the over-prescribing of medications, the focus that was on treating symptoms rather than getting to the root cause of a

problem. There was never a focus on you know, figuring out like why do you have this? Why do you have high cholesterol? Why do you have high blood pressure? Why do you have it's all about you know how cholesterol? Why do you have high blood pressure? Why do you have, it's all about, how do we treat that symptom? And it wasn't really the way we lived our lives. And I think one of the biggest abuses we saw, which was really scary, was, my husband was in the business as well.

And he had a pharmaceutical rep come in after we won this huge bid by one of the largest hospital systems in the country. And the pharmaceutical rep came in and said, you know what my job now is? My job now is to go to every cardiologist in this hospital system and raise the number that they are lower the number

that they prescribe a particular cholesterol medicine for. So in other words, they were opening up this, they're having like a larger pool of people being prescribed a medicine that they maybe didn't need. And then we started seeing it with relatives. like a larger pool of people being prescribed in medicine that they maybe didn't need. And then we started seeing it with relatives. You know, we started seeing it with, we had one relative who started on one medication because she had like a skin rash and then that caused joint pain and then that medication

that she took for the joint pain caused stomach issues. And before you know, she was on a dozen different medications and never really feeling better and having a lot of side effects from all the medications And so you know, we kind of went into this I went into this industry of like the pharmaceutical industry feeling like this is great We're delivering life-saving medications. I'm making a difference in this world Then to kind of feeling well, you know what there is a place for pharmaceuticals and I never dispute that I mean, you know, emergency type medicine and acute type of situations. But I was more passionate about, you know, prevention and maintenance

of health. And I didn't feel you saw that at all in the pharmaceutical industry. And so we started researching a lot of different things. We started learning about the gut. My husband and I both started researching about different products, different things that we could do to really make a difference. I read a lot of Wayne Dyer, he's one of my heroes and I love to read all of his books. Every message I would get from him was like, I am not doing my, we are not doing our life's work. It's not what is passionate, not moving, you know, moving for us. And natural health was something that was really the way we lived our lives. I'd always kind of let my kids have, let their fever run a little bit, so you know,

it's your body's natural way to fight an infection. So we were, my husband was working with a natural path and he, we've been working at different, on different types of products and one day he called us into his office and he said, you guys cannot believe this. You cannot believe this. But I was just approached with the opportunity to purchase these exclusive strains from London University out of Royal Holloway, London University, from world-renowned expert Dr. Simon Cutting. These are a completely different type of probiotic strain. We would be disruptors in the market. There's nothing else out there like it. It's a whole new story.

It's an upheld battle, but this works. He's like, I know this will work because I know more about the gut than anybody. He goes, there's probably five people in this country that know more about the gut than I do. He's like, this is the real deal. So, we just dove into the research and just, I mean, I didn't know a lot about, you know, natural health and wellness are bringing a product to market, but I did know about research. And so I researched and researched and we just started learning that, you know, there was a huge flaw in the

majority of probiotics that are on the market. We saw that many of them weren't surviving the get the trip to the intestines and getting killed off by the stomach acid. And so through all of this research, we decided to, at a very crazy time in our lives, we had two kids in high school, one in middle school. And we put our life savings into it and purchased these, the licensing right to these strains and launch just thrive. Wow. So how many years ago was that? That will coming up on 10 years. So this may will be 10 years. So yeah, crazy. Well, that's amazing. First of all, I'm like, you're singing my song. I'm like, not I really, it really even bothers me taking an Advil. I think that even that bothers me because I can feel the disruption,

like my digestion, even by taking one or two Advils, if I have a headache, I know it's I don't like digest properly after it. So the side effects that actual like pharmaceutical medicine has is just a porin and people don't realize that you're banned, you're putting a bandaid on one thing and yet you're going to be causing another issue somewhere else, right? So I the fact that like you're you created something that's natural like that to me is is just extraordinary and I'm a I'm a big I mean my background obviously well you maybe you don't know is it's very much in the health and wellness fitness space. So you're like I said, you're singing my song. And God Health is, I think it's it's become and this is what we'll get into it. I want you to tell us about Jess Rive, but you know why I also wanted to have you

on is because God Health is such a major part of someone's health and sometimes people don't realize the brain gut connection is real. So tell us what just thrive is and why the strains that you got is so extraordinary. Yeah, and I think even when you touched on the importance of gut health and it is so important. And I love that you brought me on to like share this with your listeners because it is so important. And I think people don't really understand that. I think a lot of people are understanding that oh I have some gut imbalance going on you know I have I have gas or bloating diarrhea and constipation but that's just one

sign of having some gut imbalance. I mean you have a skin rash you have acne you have you know you're you have mood issues, anxiety, depression, like you had mentioned the gut brain access. So there are allergies, autoimmune issues, our immune system, how we're able to fight infections, how we're able, one of those people that gets sick all the time, or at least one of those people that don't, all of these things are literally dictated by the health or unhealth of our gut. And we take vitamins and supplements, people take vitamin D, vitamin C,

and multivitamins, very important things to be taking. But foundationally, if your gut is inflamed, it's not absorbing those nutrients. So the number one thing we need to be focusing on is our gut health. And unfortunately, the world we live in is so disruptive to our gut health. I mean, we are doing things every day that are killing our bacteria. You know, we are 10 times more bacterial cells than we are human.

So it's really hard for people to grasp that. I mean, we actually are more bacteria than we are human. 10 times more. And yet we live in this world that's so antibacterial from antibacterial hand sanitizers to antibacterial soaps to, you know, the household products that say kills 99.99% of the bacteria. In fact, there was a study that came out that households that use products that say kills 99.99% of the bacteria actually had children with a higher incidence of allergies because we know that allergies are caused by a lot of imbalance going on and are gut microbiomes. So really important to like remember that all these household cleaning products, all these, you know, a lot of our, um, whatever. Oh my gosh, like,

you know, hair products and those types of things are all really disruptive to our gut health, as well as antibiotics. And not just a single course of antibiotics can wreak havoc on your gut for up to two years. But totally. Yeah, and antibiotics are actually in our food supply too. They're in the meat products that we're eating. Glyphosate, which is the active ingredient in Roundup, is sprayed all over our produce.

And yet we're eating this on a daily basis. And I would arguably say that glyphosate in roundup is actually worse than antibiotics because glyphosate only targets the bad bacteria. I mean, sorry, only targets the good bacteria. So it's actually only killing off the beneficial bacteria. So stress is another huge offender to a gut health and we all know the world we're living in is so stressful.

So it's really sad that we're living in this world. But there is good news. You know, we can heal our guts. And there are different things that we can be doing, you know, in addition to just taking a probiotic, but there are lots of good news. And we can heal our gut. And that's what we have to remember.

But that's why I'm always so passionate about how foundational gut health is. And that when you're on your health journey, it is the most important place to start is your gut. I agree. And I think you said something that is really important that people I think sometimes get lost in because the truth is there's a lot of information out there about God health and the importance of having and the gut brain connection and the microbiome. I think it's become very, very hashtag friendly, right? The problem is a couple of things. Number one, too much information.

People don't know what's good, what's not good, and how to really heal the gut. That's the first part. The second part is what you said is that people don't know a lot of times that if you have, if your gut or your microbiome is disrupted, you cannot digest. You can be doing everything right. You can take an every proper supplement. You can be sleep, you can be trying to do the right things, but if you're not digesting what you're supposed to be digest, the nutrients that you're, like, if you're eating properly, let's say, and taking the vitamin D and

new amigas, but you digest, you can't digest it. What's the point? It's a total waste of time. So what I really want to get to with you is that how do you differentiate with all the noise out there? Like what makes just thrive more effective than something else. Yeah, well, we based everything on research. You know, we're all, we're like, you know, there's a lot of good supplement companies out

there, but nobody is researching. Nobody's doing double-blind human clinical trials. Nobody's doing gastric survivability studies. So when we launched the first study that we did was something called a gastric survivability study. So the big thing with a probiotic is it needs to arrive alive in the intestines. It doesn't need to be alive in the refrigerator. It doesn't need to be alive when you take it.

It needs to be alive when it gets to the intestines. And that is probably one of the biggest myths out there that a probiotic needs to be refrigerated or that's a better probiotic. And I understand where that came from. It came from the fact that you need a live microorganism, but it needs to be alive when it makes that journey from the refrigerator to your house, into your mouth, down your intestine and trick, and then hitting the stomach acid, which is very acidic and meant to be the gastric barrier and getting into the stomach acid, which is very acidic and meant to be the gastric barrier

and getting into the intestines. The overwhelming majority of probiotics on the market just don't make that journey to the intestines alive. So the biggest thing is that with just thrive, the score-based probiotics actually make that journey from the mouth to the intestines 100% alive. And we've studied this. We've studied this over and over again. We have third-party labs, independent third-party labs that have studied the majority of

probiotics on the market, sold at the top-selling ones out there that die by the time they get to the intestines. And the strains and just thrive actually survive 100%. They get to the intestines 100% alive. And when they get there alive, they actually stay there for about 21 to 28 days whereas most probiotics you just if they did get their alive if any of them did get their alive they would just pass through similar to food. So the best analogy I could give in this situation is if you envision a garden and the garden has been stepped on and trampled on and there's weeds going all over that garden and then you kind of compare that to your gut. In your gut, you have pathogenic bacteria,

then you have beneficial bacteria. So kind of equate those to the good plants and the weeds. So the, overwhelmed, those conventional probiotics you find out there, you throw those seeds into the garden and most of them never even get there. But let's say they did get there. Maybe one will plant a pretty new plant in there, they'll do something, but then they leave the garden.

They're not doing anything with the weeds in the garden. They're not doing anything with the plants that have been stepped on and trampled on. Whereas the strains and just thrive, these bacillus spore-based strains, you throw them into that garden, they get their 100% alive, they attach to the soil, so they attach to your intestinal cell wall. Then when they get there, they have the ability to help

get rid of the weeds in the garden. So, these bacillus strains get to your intestines, they have the ability to reduce the amount of pathogenic bacteria in the gut. Then, on the flip side, they go in there and take those plants that have been stepped on and trampled on and help bring them back to life. So, in your gut, they're going in there and they those plants that have been stepped on and trampled on and help bring them back to life. So, in your gut, they're going in there and they're helping bring that bacteria that's already belongs to you, that's there, and helping it bring back to life. And why this is so critically important and why it's so different than any other probiotic you'll find on the market is that these create diversity in the gut.

The Human Microbiome Project was launched by the National Institutes of Health about 10, 15 years ago. It told us more about the gut that we ever knew before. And now what we found from that is that diversity is key. In order to be healthy, you need to have a diverse microbiome. And by these strains, the bacillus spore strains get into the intestines and they have the ability to create more diversity because they're bringing your own bacteria back to life. And that is really the key.

They're creating more of our bacteria. You could take a probiotic with 15 different strains, 20 different strains, 50 different strains. But they're not making any impact in that gut. The way you need to make an impact in diversity in the gut is by taking care of your own bacteria that already belongs to you. And that's why we see such profound results, because we are literally changing the makeup of the ecosystem of our gut bacteria with these strains. Blazing deals, boundless options. It's Hot Grill Summer at Whole Foods Market from June 14 through July 4. Fire up the grill with

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while being forced to come together in new ways as they confront their past and reckon with who they want to be in the future. FX is the bear, all episodes now streaming only on Hulu. You know, one question I always am curious about is, is it something that once you kind of fixed if you have like digestive issues or bloating or if you have, like you said, I think rash is like, I have eczema and I think it was because I had gut issues but I never put the two together, right?

So you have, right? So a lot of people may, like we were saying at the beginning of this is that you may have some type of autoimmune or skin condition or whatever it is and you're not connecting the dots, that's something to be checked. How is there a way you can check to see the health of your gut or is it just trial and error

and just think, well, maybe I have this because of my gut? Like is there an actual way that people can scientifically see how their gut is disrupted or there are stool tests out there. And I just we haven't really found one that we love because the problem with stool tests is you know the analogy I like to make is like if you take the city of Chicago and you go to the west side of Chicago and you yeah you find this part this is that that one section doesn't represent the whole city of Chicago and that's what's happened that's one of

the problems with stool tests. The other test is testing leaky gut so the way you test if you have a leaky gut is you measure LPS toxins in the bloodstream and we did this we actually did a double-blind human clinical trial on leaky gut you know measuring LPS which is lipopolysac, right? There's all the S toxins that's deep into the bloodstream. That is just not- I'm looking notes. Okay, it's good.

But that test is just not readily available. You can't go to a quest and, you know, take that test. That was done in a research setting. But, you know, there are estimates out there that say 80% of the adult population has a leaky gut and doesn't know it. I mean, chances are because of this world we live in that it's so offensive to our gut health, the majority of us have some level of dysbiosis going on, whether you have outward symptoms or not. And the interesting thing about the leaky gut study we did is it was done on 100 college students.

They took 100 college students who were healthy. They had no, they were not on any medication. They had no symptoms, nothing like that. Young healthy. 55% of them had a leaky gut and didn't know it. And again, that was measured by the LDS toxins that were going into the bloodstream. And so now we have this, we have 55% of them. We sent them home, half of them with the placebo, half of them with the spores that were found and just thrive. And we saw a 42% reduction in the LPS toxin.

So to answer your question, there isn't a great study out there. And but we do know that most people are suffering from some gut dysbiosis. And it's kind of like that drippy faucet. Like you've got this little bit of, like those college students all had a leaky gut and didn't know it, but it doesn't mean

that things aren't seeping into that bloodstream on a constant basis. So you were saying earlier, you could eat all these healthy foods and you're not absorbing the nutrients. Yes, absolutely, that's one aspect of it. The other is if you have leakyness in the gut and your food particles starts seeping into your

bloodstream, your immune system reacts and starts this inflammatory response and you don't want that to be happening. So, you know, we could eat kale. Kale doesn't have a long in the bloodstream. You know, you could eat broccoli. It doesn't belong in our bloodstream and that's what starts happening when you have this leakyness of the gut. So is this something that you think we can fix and then we just move on and not like, are you saying you're going to take pro, this something that you think we can fix and then we just move on and not like are you saying you're going to take pro this is that so just drive is a probiotic so correct so right so just in case people miss that piece. Yeah right. Yeah is it something that you can take for a finite period of time and then be done or you're are you basically saying that people

have to be on a probiotic like all the time? Okay, so can you fix it and move on basically? Yeah, it's always, you know, of course everybody wants to fix an issue and then move on. You could always go to a maintenance dose and that's fine. The thing is that we have to remember is the strain, these basilis strains are the same types of strains that our ancestors got in the environment. These basilis, yeah, I'm looking at your thing. Yeah, they came from.

Go ahead, I'm looking at this while you're talking. Yeah, no problem. They came from our environment. And so our ancestors were eating, they would eat roots and tubers off the land, and they would get these strains on a daily basis. So in our eyes, this is almost like a functional food, meant to be consumed on a daily basis,

or on a regular basis. It doesn't have to be every day. If you feel like I'm feeling really good, I eat clean, I do, I'm pretty healthy. But just because of this world we live in that is constantly disrupting our microbiome and the foods that we're eating and the chemicals that are around us

and the stress that we have on a daily basis, we would recommend taking it on a regular basis. That could, regular could be different. Every third day is fine, every other day. Or I think what I think also can happen, which is what I do. I mean, this is what I've done, is I take it, and then I feel, once I feel like I'm having some,

like, gut issue again, I start taking again. Like I kind of go on and off of it, depending on what I'm doing in my life. But you have a, don't you have like one for a pet? Yes, yes, because dogs have leaky, that's what's so crazy. We did a study on that. Dogs actually have leaky gut as well.

And dogs, especially because dogs are in parks and they're sprayed with glyphosate, with sprayed with roundup, and the poor dogs are getting, they're just having unprecedented amounts of cancer and all kinds of digestive issues. And it's because they're eating these glyphosates on a regular basis. And yeah, so we have, we actually have a study on leaky gut for dogs and found that these

strains are helping with leaky gut and dogs. And so I mean, it's super popular. I mean, people are like, I was going to ask you. I was going to say, is the, is the leak, is the just thrive for dogs actually more popular than for people? Because people like their dogs more than themselves and people. Right, no, not yet, not yet. No, I'm surprised. No, maybe because we first launched the human product.

So, right, right, right. You know, people love me. Yes, it's like, oh, people love their dogs. And I mean, you know that. Beyond, beyond. I mean, like, I'm telling you, I it's like, oh, people love their dogs. And I mean, you know that. Beyond, beyond. I mean, I'm telling you, I don't have a dog, but I have two kids who beg me for a dog. But I know I'd be taking care of the dog

and I don't have time right now. But what I was gonna say is I literally have friends who feed their dogs better than they feed their own children. I'm not joking. I know, I know, I've seen it. I mean, I'm not joking. I know. I know. I've seen it. I mean, it's the opposite. I know.

Yeah, I don't get me started. I'm like, the kids' bills and things like that. And I'm like, and then, but then they're taking care. They're giving this organic food for their dog. And their kids are going to get the kids' meals that we're ever McDonald's or wherever. I know. I feel your pain.

It's crazy. I mean, I'm not joking. That's a market in itself. I mean, I would like to know, like, so let's get to the business piece of it for a moment because I'm very curious. So, how are you, like, promoting and competing with the big people out there? Because, like, you're dealing with a lot of people who have a lot of money, right? You started this with your husband, correct? You guys are partners, you said. You started 10 years ago.

How do you compete? How do you market? How do you get the word out? I mean, yeah, you're doing podcasts and here, you know, stuff like that. But these people have like budget of like hundreds of millions of dollars that they basically feed into these campaigns.

Yeah, no, great question. The way we started was literally I was cold calling health food stores and small independent retailers and I would call them and they would hang up and I'd call them and they'd hang up and I just kept going and kept going and nothing was above me. I was like, I just got to call these people

and then all of a sudden, I remember the first door and they were like, this makes so much sense. I never thought it made sense for all these pro bags to be in the refrigerator. And your studies on this product are amazing. And so the first store got it and it became quickly their number one selling product in the store.

And, and then I found another one. And then we started, next thing you know, we're like in five to seven different stores. And we actually had a little business going because these are repeat customers and that kind of thing and then we started getting into larger chains and and but we weren't doing we just stayed to who we were you know I couldn't we don't have the margins in the product like a lot of these big companies do I mean these company you know a lot of these companies are buying the Supplements for two or three dollars and selling them for 50 or 60 and it's like yeah Just didn't have the margins and now I see why they have those margins because you have to compete out there like with marketing and all of that

But we didn't have that you know We didn't have a budget. We didn't have that. We just literally told our story and would have it and the product works So that was really the best marketing we could do is like you have a product that works everybody was talking about it And you know other store owners were talking about it then we started getting into stores and then about about three years into the business. I mean it was a slow, very slow build and about three or so years into the business we maybe four years we started to crack the online piece. You know we got on Shopify, we were never even on Shopify. That's how like backwards we were in the beginning. We got on Shopify, we started learning about that, we learned about email marketing and the

importance of that. We were sending emails all the time because we're so passionate about research and education that we were sending emails, but we weren't ever asking them to buy our product. You're just giving information. Then we started learning about marketing through email, which has been really, really beneficial to us. Then we started, you know, just talking to different influencers. I remember like one of the first podcasts that I got on was The Wellness Mama, and that was huge. I mean, that was just, she loved our products.

I met her at an event, and she was like, oh my God, I love your products. I've heard so much about it. I'm like, you love my products, you know, and it was, it just kind of snowballed from there. And I think when you have a product that works, it really does do a lot of the marketing for itself. But then you have to market. I mean, that was the one thing I didn't know anything about marketing or, you know, I didn't know anything about that aspect of our business. And then we just hired people. I didn't hire people for many years, actually. And then we started hiring people. I didn't, we didn't hire people for many years actually. And then we started hiring people and that is one piece of advice I would love to

give entrepreneurs is you got to hire people because when you start hiring people, it allows you to really do the real, not the real work, but the big picture work. So you're winding down with the podcast. Sounds like you have no plans to leave the couch tonight. Nope. You just want to unzip your jeans, slip on a pair of fuzzy slippers, and rip open a bag of skinny pop popcorn. Because the only place you're going tonight is the bottom of this bag of popcorn.

You're getting a diploma. You can't eat a diploma, but you can eat wings and chiles. Get 23% off in the order of 30 or 50 piece wings when you use promo code 23 grad at charlie's dot com. That's promo code 23 GRAD at charlie's.com. That's promo code two, three, GRAD at Charlie's.com. Charlie's as we. You got to delegate to elevate is what I always say. Love that. Yes, you have to. And it's hard to do.

And you know, when you don't have a lot of money, you kind of feel it's hard. It gets hard, but then you're stuck in the minutia of a lot of stuff, and then you're not able to focus on things that really grow your brand. Yeah, right? Yeah, no, I know, I know one of the things my husband, this may will be 30 years that we've been married. Congratulations. Thank you. I'm really love, I've three amazing kids, now one my daughter oldest just got married. I mean, we our family is like that is my wealth. I mean, I can't tell you how passionate I am about like,

you know, like everybody is, but I just I I'm so proud of like what we built together. And then so we started this business. And I said to you know, we were older at the time. And I said, you know, this is got we cannot let this disrupt what and I said, you know, this is got, we cannot let this disrupt what is so important to us. Like this is exciting that we've got this opportunity and we're going to put into it, but we can't let that happen. So what happened is I ended up like working crazy hours. I mean, I'd be to every one of my kids games, all three of my kids like college sports. I met my, at the games with like, lap, my laptop in hand. I'm, you know, working at up at three in the morning, doing all kinds of stuff. I mean, it was crazy and I let myself go and it's like, you know, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,

I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,

I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like,

I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I would caution every entrepreneur, anyone that's starting out there, is just take care of your health in the process. It will cost you more if you don't take care of it now, because it really does make a difference. I mean, you have to have the energy, because then you burn yourself out so badly that you just can't function. And I mean, that happened to me. I mean, that happened to me at one point. I was like, I couldn't even write an email. I was like, so overwhelmed.

And I'm like, here I am. I'm podcast talking to everybody,, I couldn't even write an email. I was like, so overwhelmed. I'm like, here I am. Like, you know, on podcast, talking to everybody and I can't even function. So I would say, keep it all in, you know, it's important to keep everything in perspective while you're growing your business but take care of your health first and foremost. Like we success measured in so many different ways. Financially is one of them, but, you know,

your relationships need to stay strong, which I was good about that. And your health needs to stay strong as well. Right. Health, I mean, I know it sounds very cliche, but health is wealth, right? If you don't have your health, you have nothing. You can't do anything. People don't realize, you know, like when you, when you even have a cold, right, or a cough, you know, it slows you down so increment, like so much, right? Like, and people forget that. And so I agree, and again, you're preaching to the choir.

When you are a mom and you have kids, like I have my kids are also like, the daughter's in competitive dance, and my son is in like a million different sports, competitive soccer. I mean, like it is really hard to do that. And like, that's why I was going to ask you what your routine is because you are the CEO,

you're growing a company. I mean, yeah, it's been around, but it's like, it's a grind. Like, you're working to build and grow. And you have your family, and you have the kids, I mean, now they're older, you said. But how do you, how do you able to do everything? Like how did you kind of get yourself back on track

to be healthy? Well, I started hiring bigger roles in the company where they were really taking over a lot of my day-to-day tasks. That was huge. I always tell our, he's now our COO, I told him he saved my life. It's like he took so much off my plate at the time. But, you know, I would really, I'm an early person,

so I'd wake up and I would just, I would do my, what time, meditation, pardon? What time do you wake up? Now like six, but before when my kids were like, going to like my daughter's swim and she would wake up, you know, she'd have practice at six in the morning. So I'd be up at five a.m. So, but six, But now I try to, I'm trying to sleep a little bit more. I'm, I'm, I'm empty nest or now actually. So that's crazy to think. Right.

Now you have all the time in the world. Yeah. I don't really like it, you know. Oh my gosh, the Christmas was so great having everybody home. So, and I've got one in college that comes home in the summer. But I try to get around six'30, I try to get up and do my, I love that alone time and just doing my meditation or my deep breathing. I do some sit-ups in the morning because I don't like doing sit-ups so I like to get it out of the way.

And just drink my lemon water. And I do, I'm a big walker, I walk all outside. Even in Chicago through the winter, I walk almost every day. Unless it's like dangerously cold or icy, I walk pretty much every day. And that's my go-to, just zen time. I just love to walk outside, I love being in nature, I think it's super important. Even if it's in a neighborhood, I just love the outside, even if it's gray and gloomy here, I'll do it.

So, it's fresh air still. It is fresh air. It is still fresh air, exactly. So I always ask people what their healthy habits are, of course, because the podcast is called habits and hustle. And so you're saying walking, lemon water, you meditate, you wake up around 63630. Is there any, anything, any, can you give us from all your learnings? I mean, you're growing a brand that's around gut health.

Any kind of tips where people could try to improve their gut health, their overall health, without taking anything. Do you have you found one thing? Are you gonna say sleep? Are you gonna, we already talked about overall health and well-being, but is there anything actionable they can do now?

Besides taking just thrive, probiotic, right? For their dog and themselves. Right, right. Oh, yeah, I've got lots of things. You know, like we said, meditation, you know, just being knowing that there's this gut brain access. The gut is sending signals to the brain and the brain is sending signals to the gut. All the time, you know, there's a reason why we get butterflies in our stomach when we're excited and why you have to go to the bathroom when you're nervous.

I mean, that's real. There are signals going back and forth to each other all the time. So the calmer you are, your brain will send signals down to the gut. So changing your lifestyle, if it's super stressful and trying to make, you know, changes in your lifestyle or just our calmer. The other thing is intermittent fast. I'm a fan of intermittent fasting. I know that could be controversial to some people and I only think you should do it if it works for you but there are studies that show that that time that you're not eating actually creates diversity

in the gut. Some of the bacteria will proliferate when they are being starved. So having that time, intermittent fasting is a hack for your gut health as well. And then on the flip side of that, when you do eating a very diverse group of foods, even going to ethnic grocery stores and getting different types of vegetables and eating lots of diversity as a society we eat,

I think it's like on average six to 12 different types of food throughout the whole year whereas before our ancestors used to eat hundreds of different types of food on a on a regular basis on a yearly basis so trying to eat diversity will actually help with diverse creating diversity in your microbiome. And then of course like that's a great by, don't even, that is a great tip. I have to stop you right there because that's one I've never heard anybody say. So, that's a good one. That's a good one.

I've never heard that. That's great because we do eat the same foods. I don't mean to interrupt you, but I'm so happy that you said something like that because, you know, a lot of times you hear people say and droid on about the same thing you hear over and over again. And very rarely do you get something, you're like, oh my God, I never heard that. But it makes perfect sense.

If you have to have a diverse microbiome and gut, right? It makes sense that you have to eat a diverse, you should be eating a diverse diet with much, and to that point, I think I became intolerant to a lot of foods because I was eating them over and over and over again for so many years and I was so specific and particular. Yeah. It ruined my gut.

Yeah, absolutely. And we also live in the society where you're labeled. Are you pale or are you vegan? Are you, you know, what are you, you know, I mean, I am more of this mindset of like trying to be a lot of different types of foods. And I think that is definitely more beneficial. And we know it's more beneficial for our gut. I love that. Oh, good. I'm good. Yeah.

And it's so simple to do that. I mean, it's really simple. Even if you don't go to the, you know, ethnic grocery store, it's just going to your regular grocery store and just trying to find organic. I, you know, of course, I'm a huge fan of organic foods just because we don't want those glyphosates. We want to minimize them. Nobody can make, it's hard to make huge changes, but baby steps. If we start doing some of these baby steps, you start to, you know, you preach this all the time, but the baby steps really do create profound results in your gut. And your gut can be healed.

This is what's so exciting. It can be healed by doing some of these baby steps. Tina, you're, this was really, I was really happy you came on this podcast. I really loved this conversation. Thank you. This was a breath of fresh air really, because I love when I hear something

that's not the same information over and over again and you can you or you're gave it to me. So I really thank you for being on the podcast. Oh, thank you. I'd love to be in here. You're an awesome host. And thank you for hearing this knowledge with your audience because I just feel like and for anyone listening, it's like you just want to say like good for you for listening to like a topic that's so important for our overall health, because I'm passionate, like you are about empowering people, like, take control of your health. Like, and you were asking about other probiotics out there. I don't really, I know our probiotics the best, but I'm happy that anyone's going to

any probiotic at this point, because my, like, competition is not other probiotics. It's big pharma. I want people to, you know, start empowering themselves about probiotics, about gut health. And, and when a doctor says you have this, and you need to go on this medicine, ask why? But why do I have this? And how can I get to the root cause?

Maybe be on that medication for a little while. But then, how do we get to the root cause of it? And then the root cause almost always leads to the gut. So I am all about just empowering people and that's why we focus heavily. Our blogs are all researched. We have a lot of research on there and we want people to really empower themselves

to take control of their health and feel their best. I love that, I love that. Where can people buy it? Like where can they find it? Where can they buy it? I know you said that health know health stores obviously your website. Yeah, that's probably the website's probably our best spot It's just thrive health.com We also have a product coach if you want to call I want to hear a hundred number. She's awesome Emily

You could talk to her if you have any questions specific about the products. I always recommend people starting with the probiotic. And you know, there's a 90 day, I do love the idea. Sometimes people feel a difference within a couple days, but to see those true changes, you probably want a couple months on the product. So we have a 90 day that's a pretty good deal that you could get.

But I think the other thing is, we were talked about side effects within the pharmaceutical industry earlier, I think, and I always laugh, because side effects of this product are increased mood, your better mood, like better sleep, better weight management. I can't tell you the amount of people who are like, oh, I started taking this because I had gas and bloating,

but I started losing a few pounds. And it's like, well, yeah, when you start going to the bathroom regularly It's amazing what happens, you know, you start to get rid of those toxins. You're able to metabolize your food better You know, it's your microbes that are dictating that so It's just it's so exciting what happens when you start on this product because you start seeing all these other benefits as well Right the byproduct of the product basically. Yes that's as well. Right, the byproduct, the product basically.

Yes, yes. Yes, I love that. I love that. I love that. You might want to start slowly though. Sometimes like it is powerful, so you sometimes start slowly. You might want to go one capsule every other day or even a half a capsule. You could open the capsules and mix it with food so you could do a half a capsule every

day. Just for like a couple days to see how you tolerate it. If you have any type of gastrointestinal discomfort, that's a great sign. That means it's killing off, it's because something called die off. So it's actually killing off the pathogenic bacteria and your body's just kind of uncomfortable.

So that's why we say just go slowly, but that's a good sign. It means you've got some pathogenic bacteria going on and you're getting rid of it. So don't be scared away from that, but that's why we just, it's you've got some pathogenic bacteria going on and you're getting rid of it. So don't be scared away from that, but that's why we just, it's only like 10 to 20% of the people that actually have that. But if you have it, don't be scared. That just means that more that it's working. But go slowly. And it's great for kids. Like I was saying, you could open it up and mix it with their food. They won't even know it's there. It's tasteless, colorless, odorless, super easy. If you don't want to, you know,

swallow the capsule, but so easy. Just take one with food every day and it's super easy. I love that. Well, thank you so much. I'm going to jump. I feel like I feel like this was a lot of information. It was good. So I appreciate you. I appreciate you being on this podcast. Well, thanks, Jennifer. Thank you for having me so much fun. I appreciate you being on this podcast. Well, Heather Monahan, host of Creating Confidence, a part of the YAP Media Network, the number one

business and self-improvement podcast network. Okay, so I want to tell you a little bit about my show. We are all about elevating your confidence to its highest level ever and taking your business right there with you. Don't believe me. I'm going to go ahead and share some of the reviews of the show so you can believe my listeners. I have been a long time fan of Heather's no matter what phase of life I find myself in. Heather seems to always have the perfect gems of wisdom that not only inspire, but motivate me into action. Her experience and personality are unmatched,

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subscribe to this podcast. It has not disappointed and I cannot wait to listen to as many as I can as quick as I can. Thank you Heather for helping us build confidence and bring so much value to the space. If you are looking to up your confidence level, click creating confidence now. Now. car and you get paid on the spot. Dallity 7 Car Bingo. Or find carbingo.com today on the World Wide Web. Make a decision that everyone can respect.