the bossbabe podcast - 61. Elizabeth Stein of Purely Elizabeth on Holistic Health for Thriving Wellness, Making Time for Health as an Entrepreneur, and Cultivating Your Best Life with Nutrient-rich Living

Episode Date: December 2, 2019

Here at BossBabe, we advocate a holistic approach to life and work. Naturally, we had to have Elizabeth Stein, Founder and CEO of Purely Elizabeth, an all-natural, organic food company with award-winning flavors, as today’s guest on The BossBabe Podcast to share with us on how to cultivate a holistic life for ourselves. If you wish to live a more natural, balanced life, then this is the episode for you! CEO of BossBabe, Natalie Ellis, and Elizabeth Stein gets raw about the reality of making time for health as a busy, ambitious businesswoman and the importance of holistic health for a thriving life. We learn that it’s all about taking the necessary action to find that work-life balance, even if it means moving your company from New York to Boulder, Colorado for a different pace of life - just as Elizabeth did for her company.  Tune in to listen to Elizabeth’s journey to holistic health, running her company, Purely Elizabeth, and everything about using food for wellness to live a thriving life.  This episode is sponsored by Purely Elizabeth. Purely Elizabeth just came out with two delicious flavors of grain-free granola that you have to try! Both the Almond Butter and Cinnamon Peanut Butter flavors are made with MCT Oil. You can find them at your local Whole Foods and on Amazon! Use ‘bossbabe20’ for 20% off all products on their website https://purelyelizabeth.com/pages/collection-shop-all

It was really leaping in with both feet, not knowing how it was necessarily all going to work out, but trusting that it would. I like to do things that challenge me, that make me feel uncomfortable, and then it feels like very rewarding to be able to do it. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, a place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance and learning how to balance it all. I'm Natalie Ellis, CEO of Boss Babe and your host for this week's episode. So I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving and are now back in it ready to leave

your mark on 2019. We've only got a few weeks left of the year and I'm sure you're feeling all that pressure to push towards your goals so here's just a little reminder that Rome wasn't built in a day and you are exactly where you need to be right now. Last week we actually launched our planner and sold out in less than 12 hours which is absolutely incredible like I can't even believe I'm saying that out loud. We do have more ordered though which are going to be arriving in the next couple of weeks so right now you're able to pre-order on the site so you'll get your planner right before Christmas and the holidays so you'll definitely have it ahead of the new year as well so we're expecting with shipment I think in two weeks so feel free to order it's thebossbabyplanner.com

and you'll definitely get it ahead of the holidays it's just been crazy sometimes I'm like why did we decide to launch yet another company on top of our company but it's something that we wanted to do for the longest time is get into product and create products that we wish existed I'm such an entrepreneur through and through and have so many ideas I definitely don't make it but this was one of them that Danielle and I really really wanted to do but just wanted to do it properly wanted to be able to really put the time in and it's not my first econ business I've had one before but definitely at this scale I've never had one at this scale before and so I've learned a lot that I'm really excited to start being able to share there's a lot that goes into creating a product like I remember my first econ

product I was making it in my kitchen at home and then we got a factory and then we got a co-packer and scaled very much ground up. And instead with Boss Babe, we've actually built the audience first and really built a product that our audience have been asking for. And so it's kind of been the opposite way around that we had to go to a factory first and it's been pretty different. And so I've learned a lot about what that looks like and especially a lot about doing on a budget because although we might seem like this massive, massive company, we're actually a tiny team,

just trying our best, figuring it out and kind of Googling things along the way. So I think I've learned a lot about what that looks like and being able to really work with manufacturers on a budget and get them to negotiate. And we've been really negotiating around our packing and shipping and learned a lot around that too. Definitely international shipping is something that we're working on fixing. I know right now we're not shipping to

every single country. We're shipping to a lot, but there might be some that aren't on the list and just know that we're working on it. All of these things, I wish I just came with a rule book of how to do all of it. And I'm sure at some point once we figure it out, we'll release something for you guys. So you can just take it and run with it. But it's been super interesting. And it's just nice to give that perspective as well. Like if you ever look at someone that you think has got everything figured out, just remember that they are Googling it along the way as well.

I think I lived my life just Googling and trying to figure stuff out. We're all just trying our best. So definitely when you're feeling the pressure towards the end of the year, just remember that no matter how it looks on the outside, we are all just figuring out what we're all just trying our best. So definitely when you're feeling the pressure towards the end of the year, just remember that no matter how it looks on the outside, we're all just figuring out what we're doing. So this week, I'm really excited to kind of interview an entrepreneur whose product I've been buying for a really, really long time and actually get to hear the behind the scenes of her journey as well. Because again, even when you look at someone that you think has this amazing success and is totally killing it and has got it all figured out, it's just really nice to be able to step behind the scenes and hear how their

journey's actually looked, you know, what it was like for them to get their first big order, how they started locking in those customers, what it's been like to build their team. So this week, I'm interviewing Elizabeth Stein, who is the founder and CEO of Purely Elizabeth, an all natural and organic food company whose product I'm sure you've seen stocked on shelves around the country. In this podcast, like I said, we really dive into what it looks like to start a food product business and scale it intentionally. So keeping your customer front of mind always. It was such an amazing conversation. And for any of you entrepreneurs who are wanting to build your own thing, like own physical product, I think this podcast is going to be so, so insightful for you.

So as always, take a screenshot, tag at bosswave.inc at I am Natalie so that I can repost and let me know what you're enjoying. And then also, if you haven't left us a review, I would absolutely love if you could leave us a review. Let's leave this year on a high and definitely get the podcast in the charts for the holidays. I would absolutely love that. So if you haven't, just leave us a review, let us know what you're loving, what you'd like to see more of, who was your favorite guest. And whenever you tag me, I will definitely share it to our stories as well. So massive thank you to all of you for listening, as always, feeling very much in that Thanksgiving gratitude mode. And with that, let's just dive

straight into the episode. A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going and fighting on. She is on a mission to be her best self in all areas. It's just believing in yourself. Confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success. This episode is sponsored by Purely Elizabeth. Now I am so excited that this episode is sponsored by a product that I Now I am so excited that this episode is sponsored by a product that I've been using myself for a really, really long time. So if you've ever been to a Boss Babe event, you'll know that what we serve for breakfast is their cauliflower oatmeal because we know that it helps keep your energy levels high. But on a personal level, if you've

ever seen my Instagram stories, you'll know that this is my staple breakfast. So every single morning, listen up, I mix coconut yogurt with the vanilla almond butter grain-free granola and I mix it with berries so raspberries, blueberries and I also put some seeds in there or cashew or almond butter if I'm feeling a bit fancy and it is so so good. It makes me feel amazing. I have so much energy and it really keeps me full. I'm one of those people that if I don't have a really good breakfast, I will get really hungry an hour or so later. That does not happen with this breakfast. I've also got Danielle addicted to it, even Stephen stealing my granola. So that's when you know it's doing a good job. So purely Elizabeth believes

that good health begins with what you're putting into your body. And we all know that when you eat better, you feel better. They have just came out with two amazing flavors of grain-free granola that you've got to try. So one is the one I mentioned, the vanilla almond butter. And the other is cinnamon peanut butter. I love the fact it's got cinnamon in. I really recommend putting cinnamon in your breakfast because it's really, really good for your blood sugar. And you have to try them. They're also made with MCT oil. So those oils really really good for your blood sugar and you have to try them they're also made with mct oil so those oils are so good for your brain you can find them at any

local whole foods or on amazon and a little treat for you all is that you can get 20% off all products on their website if you use the promo code boss babe 20 so just head to purelyelizabeth.com and use the code boss babe 20 to save 20% on all products. I highly recommend the vanilla almond butter. So pick up a couple of packs while you're at it because I know you're going to be addicted. Welcome Elizabeth to the Boss Wave podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to dive in and get started. I've been doing so much research on your story and I can't wait for everyone to hear it. So I would love to dive in and talk about you as an entrepreneur. What did you do straight out of college? So directly out of college, I actually worked for a skincare and perfume company doing

marketing for them. I love that. And how did that kind of lead you to where you are now? So from there, I actually went to a handbag company and was doing sales and marketing. And at the time, I met my boyfriend who was a big triathlete. He was kind of the person who won the Ironman races and convinced me to get into racing. And I was always into health and wellness, but not to this extent. Like I laughed that I used to hide in the woods during lacrosse practice in high school because I hated to run. But he convinced me that, you know, it was very much more mental and that you could set your mind to doing a marathon and triathlon. And so I did start doing races and I really loved it and found this whole kind of

renewed sense of health and wellness. And during that process, I felt like I wanted to find something in my career that was more aligned with this passion that I was discovering. And I ended up stumbling upon the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. And they had 10 questions to answer on their website if you were interested to sign up for their program. And I remember leaving my cubicle at work and calling them immediately. And I signed up knowing that this was exactly what I wanted to do. And so in 2007, I did their program. And during that program, really learned about the connection between what you eat and how you feel and food as medicine. And so part of that program was also

learning about many different dietary theories. For me, I started experimenting eating a gluten-free diet and learning about all of these kind of unknown superfood ingredients. So things like chia seeds and coconut oil and quinoa, ingredients that in 2007 really were not known, certainly weren't being used in food products. And so I just started incorporating these ingredients into recipes that I was making for clients. And I think somewhere subconsciously, I thought that it would be really amazing to start a food company. I was searching for gluten-free products for myself and for clients. But what I found when I went to Whole Foods was that so many of the products on the shelf at the time were super unhealthy, loaded with refined flours and sugars and just products that I wouldn't want to consume myself.

So there was definitely some subconscious idea there that there was a problem and there wasn't really a solution on the market. But I ended up going to a local triathlon to participate in the race and also to have a booth at the expo the day before the race when everyone's kind of walking around and getting their numbers. And I had a booth there for my nutrition practice to try to get clients. And the night before the race, I figured, you know what, I need to have some kind of food sample to entice people to come and talk to me because this is 2008 and people weren't really that excited about talking about health and wellness.

And so I made this batch of blueberry muffins. And they were loaded with millet flour, almond flour, chia seeds, coconut sugar. And as it turned out, nobody cared about signing up for my nutrition practice. They just wanted to know where they could buy these muffins. And so eventually, when person after person kept asking the same thing, eventually, the light bulb went off. And that was kind of the aha moment. And by the end of the day, I just started telling people that when they signed up for

my newsletter, I would let them know when the products would be available, totally making it up on the spot. And I ended up going back to the race a year later. So it was October of 2009. And I thought, you know what? I have this captive audience. I will put together some mixes and sell them here. And this will just be a side project.

And sure enough, I sold out at the race. And then about three days later was contacted by Daily Candy, which back in the day was the site for the latest and newest products. And their email blast went out. And within about three hours, I had $10,000 of orders. And I had absolutely no idea how to fill the orders. I love that. So you kind of you're working working full time at another job and you just went ahead and tested this out. And was it someone that walking by your stand from Daily Candy that saw you and contacted you from there? No, it was actually a friend of mine from nutrition school

had posted my website that I just, you know, figured out how to put together. And I put this website on WordPress and she had posted on her Facebook page about my website launching and somebody in her network worked at Daily Candy and saw it and contacted me. Got it. So you were still working full-time and you just pulled up this website and was your first product that you were making the muffins or was it the granola? No, it was. So we had three muffin mixes and a pancake mix. Got it. Okay. So, and you were still working full time at this point? Yes. Yep.

So what happened from getting these $10,000 worth of orders to actually fulfilling them and trying to balance that? Well, I vividly remember I was living in New York City at the time and I was taking the subway down to my sister's downtown and just seeing these orders come through on my phone. And I remember getting on the subway and just starting hysterically crying out of so much emotion that A, I had no idea what I was doing and how I was going to figure it out. And then B, having this intense gut feeling knowing that my life was about to forever change. And it did. And for the next about three weeks, I was very fortunate to have my mom, some of her

friends and friend from high school who weren't working at the time. And we just worked around the clock in a commercial kitchen in Philadelphia, which is where I'm from. And so I would go back and forth from New York to Philadelphia and we would fill the orders. And it took about three weeks to finally get out all of the orders to the customers. Wow. And how long was it from kind of having this idea to quitting your job? How long did that take? So when I was working full time, I was actually working full time doing my nutrition practice at that point. So I had left my job, I would say about six months before that.

And I think with that, that was a really big leap where I felt like teetering in between, do I stay? Do I go after this dream of starting my own nutrition practice? And I felt like if I didn't take that step and lean in, that it would not work out and trusting the universe and thinking that if I leave this job behind me that I'm not happy with, then taking the step to start my own practice, that it will all come full circle. And so it certainly did. I love that. So once those orders came in, and you're fulfilling them, did orders just keep coming in from there? Did it just kind of one of those things that grew overnight? How did that

work? It did. I mean, I was so fortunate to have this online presence that it kind of started to snowball. So I was contacted by Oprah Magazine and Food & Wine, and it was an incredible start to it. And so we continued to get great press. And for that first year, really just focused on selling online. As I said, it was traveling back and forth from New York to Philadelphia, which is about a two-and-a-half- hour drive. So it was a lot from that standpoint to and really spent that time in those two stores demoing as much as I could so that I could get feedback from customers and make any adjustments

that were necessary. I love that. And so what kind of big milestones did you hit since from that beginning, you know, the 10,000 orders on Daily Candy to being featured? What were the other big milestones? I know, you know, being stocked in Whole Foods, how did all of that come about? And what did that feel like? It was crazy. So I would say after that first year, I decided that in order for the business to really move forward, I needed to find a manufacturer. And that I was kind of getting in my own way, if we stayed in the co-packer, there was only so much we could produce. So once I kind of put that

out to the universe, I went and I found a co-packer manufacturer. And I decided that I wanted to attend a natural food trade show pretty early on. So right after year one. And I felt like it was a great way to validate the business. A lot of people might not spend that money up front, but I felt like I'd rather do that right away and know if this is truly a great concept rather than wasting time. So we did go to our first trade show after a year. And at that point, I had just come out with a cookie mix, and the mix won top five best new product at the show and just got incredible feedback from the industry, from buyers, from brokers, from distributors, like all names that

I did not know what any of that meant. But what I did know is that it validated the products, it validated the interest in the brand and our packaging and the ingredients. And that was really, I think, what took things to the next level, that once we were able to get our products manufactured, attend that show, and from there, started to really go out and sell it into the marketplace. I love that. And since I know you've just had your 10 year anniversary, so congratulations. And you've got over 20 employees. So you know know it's came so far from this idea of let me just put some muffins here so people will sign up to my practice to actually a brand that everyone knows and recognizes and I know one thing that you really talk about is the importance of

holistic health and so how does that come into play for you as being an incredibly busy ambitious female entrepreneur and also making time for health holistically? How do you balance that? Yeah, that's a great question. I think I feel so fortunate that I did the nutrition program now almost 12 years ago and getting that foundation, you know, in my earlier 20s to know what, how I needed to really take care of myself in this business. And I will say certainly early on, I did not take care of myself. I didn't have an office, I was working from home. And so there were many days that you got up, you wore your sweatpants and never changed the rest of the day. And like exercise felt like taking 45 minutes wasn't a priority. And so I think probably after the first,

I almost want to say three years is finally when I three or four years when I finally realized that I needed better work life balance. And part of that was actually, I moved the company and myself from New York City to Boulder. And I felt like I wanted a different pace and to be in nature and not feel so much external stress from being in the city. So that was a big factor. And I think now, certainly, realizing that in order for me to be my best, I really need a lot of downtime and a lot of self-care. And for me, that looks like a ton of baths. I'm a big bath person. But also just making sure I'm exercising in the morning, I feel so much better mentally from that. And then when I'm home, which I'm on the road a lot, so it's really getting in as much kind of

self-care at home and cooking for myself and getting out here into nature which is always fixes everything let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform Kajabi you know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place so it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect

time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend Kajabi to all of my clients and students. So if you're listening and haven't checked out Kajabi yet, now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering Boss Babe listeners a 30-day free trial. Go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial. That's kajabi.com slash boss babe. Yeah, being in nature just is incredible. And when I chat with a lot of entrepreneurs, they kind of say the same thing in that the first few years was a lot of hustle and there was very little work-life balance. And after that, they kind of got to take a breath a

little bit and incorporate it. Do you think that your business would have been as successful if you'd had that balance from the beginning? Or do you think it needed you to have that hustle mentality? I would say I think it needed that hustle mentality. I mean, I think the other part of it too, is that certainly from a resources perspective, I didn't have a whole team. And so it does all rely on you. I also think though, that in the beginning stages, everything is just so exciting that it all happened so fast that it almost didn't even feel like a decision. It was just like, I want to go and I need to figure this next step out. And so there was so much momentum behind it. But I don't think having

balance probably would have worked. Yeah. And I will say today, I certainly have more work life balance in the sense of how I need to take care of myself. But I wouldn't call it necessarily balance from the perspective of like I'm still working at night and I love doing it or on the weekends like it never turns off for me. Yeah I think that's the thing as entrepreneurs it's not that we can just turn off because it's so exciting and we love it and it feels like fun and so it's being able to be like, okay, I also get to do these things for my health, as well as having this fun, exciting project that doesn't feel like work. And so you've grown a team of 20 people. And how was that learning how to be a CEO and learning how to hire? How was that

journey for you? It's definitely something I never did before. So it's been really interesting, because it's definitely an area that's been a lot of work for myself first I'm an introverted person so that makes it difficult I think and over the last even three months we've actually grown from 16 to 25 as of today so it's a lot of change. But one of the biggest things that I've really realized, and of course, everyone talks about culture, and that's kind of a term that gets used loosely used of the importance of it. But I think it hasn't really been till this phase when we've had this many more people, how important that truly is, and that somebody can be a great fit from a work perspective on what they put out and what they're capable of doing. But if they're not a great fit from a cultural

perspective, then that's not going to work. And that is truly like such the foundation of our business at this point and making sure that everyone is aligned and feeling like they're part of the team that they're appreciated and rolling up their sleeves and it's still this very much startup kind of mentality so it's definitely taken a bit of adjusting over the last couple of years to learn all of that but I feel like at this phase we're now getting into a really great place. Yeah I love that and my guess is that you're also a bit of a creative person you know you were the one that came up with these ideas I'm sure you have so many ideas and how do you balance being that creative kind of entrepreneur with also having to be a CEO and you've got logistics

and a business to run do you find yourself having to balance those things? It's definitely a balance, but I think that I definitely tend to lean more on the sales and marketing side. So actually today we're doing a photo shoot at my house with the marketing team for our content. And so I get to lean in and do fun things on the creative side like that. And then also sit with our ops and finance department and have that much more, you know, business minded strategic lens. So I guess that's part of loving, you know, what I'm able to do is having both sides of that brain. Yeah, that makes total sense. So I would love to kind of find out a bit about your daily routines. So I would love to find out what you eat in a day because your products have actually become

a staple for me, my husband. So every morning I have coconut yogurt with the grain-free granola. I love the vanilla almond butter and I have berries and it keeps me full until noon. And I would love to find out what you eat in a day because I want more tips. I love your products and I would love to know what that looks like for you. Thank you so much. I do love our new vanilla almond butter grain free too. I feel like it kind of tastes like Teddy Grahams a little bit. It's so good. And I remember it was quite a few months ago, I started looking for grain-free granola. I didn't even know it existed. And I found yours and I bought one flavor and I

tried it and I'm like, oh my God. And now we have every single flavor you can imagine because it's so good. And it's very, very different to a lot of products that are out there. And I'm not just saying that. Thank you so much. So a typical day when I'm home, I would say I'm an early riser. I definitely thrive in the morning. So now that it's colder, I don't start my day with a hike, although in the summer, I love that. So I'm a big Peloton user and get up early and do a ride on the Peloton. I feel like it's just fun, energizing, and I get a great workout. And then lately, I would say as far as what I'm eating post Peloton ride is our Kali Oats. So it's a grain-free cauliflower oatmeal. I don't know if you've had a chance

to try it yet, but this product launched in July. And really, I was searching for a grain free oatmeal alternative, which there was not really anything on the market. And one night laying in bed, it kind of hit me that cauliflower was being used for everything, certainly from pizza to crackers and thought, why could it not mimic oats, just like it's mimicking rice? And so we use a freeze dry diced cauliflower. And it really mimics the mouthfeel and taste of an oatmeal. And it's in a convenient to go cup. So that's, to me, one of the best things because I feel like even though I wake up early, somehow, I'm always in a rush by the time it comes to getting to the office. So I love to just either have it hot or cold like an overnight oats and put some berries in it and take that to the office as an on-the-go breakfast.

We love it. And actually, we did a Boss Babe event a couple of months ago with hundreds of women. And we had those cauliflower oat pots for everyone because I'm really specific about the food that people eat at our events because if we give them sugar in the morning, I will not have their attention by noon. It's really important that we think about what they eat

and how we keep them going. And so we had the cauliflower oats there. And then we also run retreats for our high-level mastermind women. And we always have cauliflower oats when they come in as their breakfast because I know if they have kind of a low-carb breakfast, also run retreats for our high level mastermind women and we always have cauliflower oats um when they come in as their breakfast because I know if they have kind of a low carb breakfast their brains are going to be turned on they're going to be really really energized and I can get more time

out of them before we send them for lunch so fun fact I love that yeah I love that they are half the carbs of a regular oatmeal and there's definitely people who are probably skeptical thinking like, oh, cauliflower for breakfast, but it's incredible how it doesn't taste like cauliflower. And it's great for the airplane, which for me, traveling a ton, it's the perfect solution. Just easily ask for water on the plane and you're good to go. Oh, I didn't even think about that. That's genius. You just have to remember a spoon. Sometimes I get halfway prepared, I get the water and then I'm like, shoot, I forgot the spoon. I love it. Okay, so we've got cauliflower oats for breakfast,

then what does lunch and dinner look like? And do you have any snacks? I do have snacks. So I usually have that in the morning and then by like 11 o'clock, I'm a little bit hungry for a snack. And I will have a nutso nut butter packet. It's a seven nut and seed nut butter. The founder is also one of my closest friends, which is wonderful to have a friend in the industry who can support you. And so we actually also have an oatmeal product, collagen protein oats that has a nutso nut butter packet. So sometimes I take the packet out of the topper of that oatmeal cup and have that as my 11am snack to give me some energy. And by lunchtime, I've either packed my lunch or I go to a local shop about two blocks away and get either a smoothie bowl or a cooked salad, if you will.

It's a cooked cabbage, kale, poached egg, hemp seed pesto with a truffle hot sauce. I love it. And then the afternoon is pretty crazy when I'm in the office. So it's usually back to back meetings. And by then, I'm pretty tired, I would say. And so there's always something in the office that everyone's nibbling on in the afternoon. And so we'll kind of always be snacking there. And for dinner, I love to come home and cook. And that to me is just relaxing and meditative. My go-to is anything with tomato sauce. That's like the craving that I always have.

I love Rayo's tomato sauce. Their Arbiada sauce is my favorite. And so we'll do some kind of either Capello's fettuccine. If you've ever had that, they're delicious grain-free noodles like a zucchini noodle and then a bunch of different veggies with that I love that yeah and I'm the same I love coming home and cooking it's such a good way to switch off from work and kind of settle into being home again and it feels so nice and do you have any kind of routines or rituals that you do in a morning or evening that really help keep your energy up or

help you sleep better anything like that I would say definitely at night my routine is to take a bath and that definitely helps my sleep it just helps me unwind and I don't have the phone anywhere near the bath and really just try to take that time to relax. I will read something usually, and that's my way of trying to not be work related and read something else. I also sometimes try not to read anything and just feel like not be stimulated at all, but really light some candles

and just have that total relaxation. And even if it's only five minutes, and that's, I think, one thing that I used to do where I was like, I don't have a half an hour or whatever this longer length of time, but the reality is, is just getting your mind and body a five minute break. People say that five minutes of meditation does wonders. And so to me, that's kind of my meditation and in the bath of that quieting my mind and body. Yeah. And probably you typically find, okay, if I've only got five minutes, then once you get in,

you're like, no, I can probably find an extra 10 minutes or 15 minutes. It's just that deciding to do it. One thing that you mentioned was being an introvert, which I thought was super interesting. And I get this question a lot from people in our community of how do you also network as an entrepreneur if you're introverted or how do you deal with being around people a lot if you're more introverted so how do you balance that it's definitely hard I would say that I now kind of look at it that I like to do things that challenge me that make me feel uncomfortable. And then it feels like very rewarding to be able to do it. And so going in with that mentality, I think really helps. But I will say it is tiring, like when we have a trade show, for example, and I'm on all day, I always joke to our team that I'm

like, we can't go out to dinner with anybody because I need to just like be with our team and relax and not feel so emotionally charged from it. So I think it's finding the balance of taking care of yourself and how you need to best feel energized yourself. And then also putting yourself out there that is an uncomfortable position, but looking at it from that perspective of like, well, yeah, I can do this and it might not be comfortable, but it's great to feel uncomfortable. Yeah. And I guess that permission to decide seems like the theme. Great. And so what advice would you give to other entrepreneurs who are maybe in that phase of wanting to start a business, not really sure where it's going to go or if it's even a good idea, what would you say to them?

I think the biggest thing looking back for me was that taking the leap without having everything figured out and that so many people get caught up in needing everything to be perfect, like needing the business plan to be written, needing three steps ahead when not even knowing what three steps ahead might look like to be mapped out. And I think a lot of people can get paralyzed in that state. And when I both left my job at the handbag company, moved on to start my holistic nutrition practice and then starting this, it was really leaping in with both feet, not knowing how it was necessarily all going was able to do that was that I just finished the nutrition program. And in that program, they were so wonderful of making you feel confident and that you feel that way and give you the encouragement to go after what you want because ultimately there's no reason not to. So true. And along the way, did you have any mentors or anyone that gave you guidance on what you were doing or was Google your best friend? Google was definitely my best friend at the beginning. I think I definitely had several people, not just one necessarily, but several people in the beginning. I met Justin from Justin's Nut Butter, and he gave me his contact for a manufacturer.

And that was actually the first time I came out to Boulder was from that reason. And so there were several people along the journey who helped with the different pieces of the business. And I will say, I think early on was just asking as many questions because I knew nothing about this industry at all. I didn't know what a distributor was, a co-packer, a broker, and all of that was just chipping away like one by one, taking those small steps and not getting overwhelmed of, okay, I'm starting a natural food company. What does that mean?

But just, okay, so I need to make a price list. Let me figure out what that is. And I think that makes it not quite as overwhelming. Yeah, that's so great. And I think it's so important to be okay with not knowing everything and just going out and asking and chances are people are willing to help you. That's something that we've found. We have always gone to people that have kind of, we've looked at doing it and just asked for some support or mentoring or guidance and they'll generally help you or point you in the

right direction if they can. Is there any kind of books or resources, podcasts, anything you listen to that's been really helpful for you? I love your podcast. Thank you. Yeah, I'm a big podcast person for sure. So I love, you know, kind of listening to a variety, I would say, of those that are both totally health and wellness focused. And so getting on the latest on that, like a mind body green or listening to those that are more business oriented, as well as that kind of health support is like yours or how I built this is a great one. And just hearing that entrepreneurial story.

So my iPod is definitely filled with a lot of podcasts. I love how I built this. It's so good. And it's so great hearing people's journeys. I think there's so much motivation in that. There definitely is. I love this. It's so good. And it's so great hearing people's journeys. I think there's so much motivation in that. There definitely is. I love it. Well, could you let everyone know where they can find you and also more importantly, where they could find your products, whether online or in stores? Yeah, so we are in grocery stores nationwide from everything from Whole Foods, Target, we're actually now in Walmart too. And online, we are on our own

website, purelyelizabeth.com. We're available on Amazon, on Thrive, on Facebook, and on Instagram. We're purely underscore Elizabeth. Someone beat us to purely Elizabeth. And if you had to recommend just one product for someone new to your brand, which one would you choose? I'd have to say our original Ancient Grain Granola because that's what I started with and that's our number one seller. I love it. Well, thank you so much for being a guest on here.

This has been such a great conversation. Thanks so much for having me. If you loved this episode, please subscribe, download a few more and please leave us a review i really want to hear what you enjoyed what your main takeaways were and i also want to know what you want to hear us talk about next to say thanks for leaving us a review we'll send you a copy of the boss babe 25 the boss of 25 is the 25 essential resources you need for personal and professional growth it covers everything from our favorite rituals books and hacks if you want a copy just is the 25 essential resources you need for personal and professional growth. It covers everything from our favorite rituals, books, and hacks. If you want a copy, just leave us a review,

screenshot it, and send to podcast at bossbib.com. We will then email you a copy ASAP. And since we love Instagram, you can go to the hashtag thebossbibpodcast and find our latest post and leave a question in the comments. We love reading through the comments and we'll make sure to answer it on our next podcast.