The Bossticks - #107: Sakara Life Founders Whitney Tingle and Danielle DuBoise - Healthy Vs. Unhealthy Diets, Building a business with minimal resources & Passion Vs. Mission

Episode Date: March 27, 2018

On this episode we are joined by Whitney Tingle and Danielle DuBoise, the founders and creators of Sakara Life. This episode covers a ton of ground in a variety of topics ranging from diet, building a business and brand from the ground up, healthy meal delivery, unhealthy diets and misconceptions and how to build a business with minimal resources.  To learn more about Sakara click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE This episode is brought to you by MATCH.COM. Online Dating can be hard but Match.com is making it a lot easier. Match.com is the #1 online dating platform in first and second dates, leading to more dates, relationships, and marriages than any other app/site. MATCH.COM is offering a 7-day free trial to all TSC listeners- just register & download the app and you'll be on your way to a meaningful relationship.  Go to www.match.com/skinny for a 7-day free trial on the leading online dating platform.  This episode is brought to you by THRIVE MARKET. We use Thrive for our online grocery delivery on a weekly basis. They provide the highest quality products and ingredients delivered straight to our door with unbeatable prices.  Be sure to grab our deal by going to to https://thrivemarket.com/skinny to receive $60 of FREE organic groceries from Thrive Market + free shipping and a 30 day trial!" Keep in mind that Thrive Market's  prices are already 25- 50% below retail because they cut out the middleman. And now they are offering $60 off free organic groceries!  

The following podcast is a dear media production. This episode is brought to you by match.com. Okay, so I feel like there's so many women in the skinny confidential secret Facebook group who just want more than a one-night stand or a random hookup, but at the same time they don't want to get married. Like, they're kind of at that in-between stage, you know? Nothing desperate, just a confident girl who's looking to meet a cool mate. Anyway, it can be hard on the internet out there, so I've heard.

Match is making the situation a lot easier for you guys. Match is the number one in the first and second dates leading to more dates relationships and marriages than any other app or site. If you're single and ready to mingle, it's time to take control of your dating lives through a process of smart matching that is super tailored to the customer. So go to www.match.com slash Skinny to receive a seven-day free trial to all TSC listeners. Just register and download the app, and you'll be on your way to a meaningful relationship. Again, that's www.match.com slash skinny. And if you guys end up getting married, make sure you announce at your wedding that the skinny confidential set you up.

She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. Welcome back to the skinny confidential him and her show.

This week, live from Paris. Well, actually, Lauren and I are live from Paris, but our guests are not because we record these in studio. This week, we have the founders and creators of Sakura Life, Whitney and Danielle. We dive into a variety of topics. This conversation really kind of goes all over the place in a good way, with them including diet, founding of a company, the stress of Wall Street, and a lot more. I really enjoyed the conversation and I know Lauren did as well. So we're live from Paris. You have me, Lauren Everett's, the creator of the Skinny Confidential and my husband Michael Bostic, who is an entrepreneur.

Today's episode has so much value, you guys, and we're in Paris and we got to go get a hamburger at this little place called Ferdie. So we're going to hop right into it. But first, let's talk about Match.com. Okay, guys, so let's talk dating. So there's like 30,000 insane amazing women in the Skinny Confidential secret Facebook group. group and I feel like a bunch of them are single. And if you're wondering how I know this, I am a stalker. I stocker. I stock the group daily. I'm in there like reading and liking and commenting, always creeping like a gargoyle. I know a lot of the women in there are looking for a cool mate

and I just feel like after I'm reading these comments and these posts, it seems harder with social media. So I know there's a lot of meh dating sites out there, but Intermatch.com. So match is legit and streamlines the whole process. You know I love a streamlined process. In fact, if I was single, I feel like I would sign up for match. It's just, it's efficient, it's streamlined, just how we like it. Here's a couple of fun, festive facts for you. One in three dates, relationships, and marriages begin online, which is nuts.

When you know you want more than a one-night stand or a quick hookup, but you don't want to be told who to marry tomorrow, this is the act. app for you. You know, a lot of Michael's friends are on the swipe dating apps, and I just feel like they're there for a good time and not a serious time. They're kind of just on the app for a one-night stand. I think his friends that go to Match.com are there because they want a meaningful relationship. They're a little bit more mature, you know, ready for a commitment. So Match.com is the number one in first and second dates leading to more dates relationships and marriages than any other app or site, which is nuts. I love this fact specifically for the TSC Facebook group. So yes, dating can be

tough. I mean, I don't know, but I've heard and I've seen. So if you're looking for something meaningful and real, match.com is the place to go. It's time to take control of dating and feel empowered with match.com. Really, though, guys, go to match.com slash skinny and sign up for the seven day free trial, register and download the app. Again, that's www.com.com.com dot com slash skinny happy dating all right let's do a quick him and her tip this week so my tip this week is also a tip that comes with an ask it's kind of like a half tip half in is that okay to say did that sound a little pervy a little creepy kind of just realize that okay let's start over my tip this week is something i learned from my friend thomas him and his wife on the wildly popular blog gal meets glam

Anyways, he messaged me the other day and asked if I had heard about AirTable. Have any of you guys heard about AirTable? Anyways, AirTable is an online tool that describes itself as part spreadsheet, part database, and entirely flexible. Teams use Airtable to organize their work their way. So I was immediately intrigued because we have so many different projects going on, and I'm always looking for productivity hacks and organizational tools. And I've heard a buzz around Airtable, but I hadn't gotten around to looking into it. So I'm now diving in because it has a lot of unique functions and integration.

It integrates with Slack, Trello, and Google calendars, which we're already using as a team. So I thought that would be super useful to all put it into one place. You can customize it for product release dates, for your bloggers, editorial calendars, marketing campaigns, podcast schedules. So right up our alley, right? Anyways, I'm in the early phase of kind of figuring out the platform to see if it's a fit for our team. And just to kind of play around with it and see the different functions and how we can, use it. So you can also use it as an individual, try Airtable, and let me know what you think.

If any of you are using it already and find it to be useful, please shoot me an email or message. Let me know all the tips and tricks around it. I told you this tip wasn't pervy. It's all about an actual tool. And so that's it. My tip is to try this new tool, air table. It's getting a lot of buzz. A lot of people are saying a lot of really great things about it. It integrates with all of the different tools that we're currently using. And as I dive into it, later this week, we'll learn more functions. But if you guys are using it, please let me me know and let me know how you're using it. That's my tip this week. Tip actually from my friend Jackie Schimel of the bitch Bible. So Jackie is a huge fan of

Rose Hip and Rose Water Spray. She picked up the tip in London, I think, from her grandma. Basically, it's this magical spray that balances your skin and improves the texture and tone, which, you know, I just really need that with my hyperpigmentation sun mustache. So you guys know I love skincare. It's obviously no surprise that I'm a fan of this. Rose hip oil is loaded with essential fatty acids, antioxidants, and vitamins to hydrate your skin. It's also very, very soothing. I might add. I even add it to my neck and my hands and my arms, you know, all over my body. You can use it as an all overbody moisturizer and after sun skin mist or an anti-aging body treatment. I personally like to use it when I'm traveling. You know this if you follow my

Instagram story. I just feel like everyone needs a mist. Like you got to carry it. When we were traveling recently to Paris, I kept it on my carry-on and sprayed it all over Michael's face when he wasn't looking. It's like this little bottle that you can add to your carry-on because it's under three ounces. I'm very specific about which kind I use. There's two brands I like. So I love the Kopari one. It's pretty and looks cute on the vanity. And I also like this other organic brand, which, drum roll please, you guys can get for free.

So back at it again with Thrive, they're extending you guys $60 in free organic groceries plus free shipping and you can add this organic rose hip oil to your cart. You can shop it at thrive market.com slash skinny. So not only will you guys get your own organic rose hip and rose water spray, you'll also get $60 in groceries with free shipping. So when you're adding your free $60 of groceries to your car, make sure you add the nourishing organic rose hip spray. They also have an argon oil and a face toner. So much goodness. If you're looking for more items to add to your cart, you can throw in a

tongue cleaner. You know how I feel about that. I love a tongue cleaner. I do it every single morning and I make Michael do it. Also get some raw apple cider vinegar. Their boom boom popcorn is so badass. And I love their Aztec healing clay mask. You can make it. mix that with the raw apple cider vinegar and make this heavenly mask. It's great. If you want to get even more excited, the same brand that makes the rose hip spray also makes a rose butter, which is heaven in the shower. So you can take a shower in rose butter, come out and mist your face with rose hip spray. What is actually better? I'm all about helping the skin be all moisturized, and this brand, like I said, has a bunch of different standout products.

They're all available on Thrive. You can basically just go and get all your skin care essentials with a tongue cleaner on Thrive for free. I seriously give this link out to everyone in the Skinny Confidential Facebook group. I give it to all my friends, my family. I gave it to my dad. My dad's trying to get the dog to use it. The link Thrive is extending to you guys. like I said is Thrivemarket.com slash skinny. Again, it's freaking free $60 in groceries plus

free shipping. Get the spray, get the mist, get the butter, enjoy. So Curl Life girls, Whitney and Danielle, were fed up. We'll get to why they were fed up, but basically the food industry was making them sick. They started delivering clean, organic meals by bicycle to their friends. Fast forward today and they have recruited an incredible team of 80 and delivered 48 states across the country, helping people transform their own lives through the power of food. The Sakara Life Organic Meal Delivery Program is based on a whole food, plant-rich diet that includes fresh, nutrient-based, and delicious ingredients. I sure love their watermelon jerky. Their nutritional pillars form the basis of each and every meal that arrives straight to your door. In this interview, you'll get to know the two

badasses behind Sakara Life who knew there had to be a better way to eat. And with that, let's hear about their journey to provide everyone with fresh, organic, plant-based meals. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. So what was life like for both of you before you had your own brand? Give us all the juice. We call those the dark days. No, well, you know, Sakara didn't start out as a business. It started out because we both were struggling. and hit rock bottom. So, you know, they were times of a lot of lessons and a lot of learnings, but it was definitely some dark times.

I moved to New York to study medicine, and Whitney came shortly after to work on Wall Street. Yeah, which, you know, that's a whole different lifestyle in itself. And so Danielle and I grew up together in Sedona, Arizona, very different from New York City. Have I there of you guys been? Yeah, we went there. Oh, yeah.

Where do we stay? What's the hotel? La Beards? Lebears. The barge is amazing. And enchantments really beautiful, too. But it's a very spiritual, hippie. We grew up with kids that only eat sunshine.

They call them the Aryans. It's like new age. Lots of people meditating out on the rocks, doing yoga. In my school, I grew up, we didn't have PE class. We had Tai Chi instead. That's pretty cool. It was pretty cool. It's very different.

And I thought it was normal. I thought that everybody got to do Tai Chi instead of PE class. But, you know, and then we came out to New York and it was totally different. It was just that fast-paced, go, go, go, nonstop, fell into the 80-hour work weeks right off the bat. You're running out trying to find something to eat for lunch. You have 15 minutes and you're already exhausted for making decisions all day. And then so you make wrong decisions when it comes to what you're eating. And then you're stressed out.

You go out after work. You're drinking. You're networking. You're trying to keep up with all the big boys out there. and not sleeping. I would get into the office at 7.30 in the morning. And then at around 6.30, my boss would say, all right, Whitney, it's time to go down to the bar. And that would be the continuation of work where just doing it down from the bar and networking and drinking.

And I put on about 15 or 20 pounds just right off the bat working in New York. And you think that's from stress or drinking or eating a combination? A combination. It was the food. It was the drinking. it was the not sleeping, the stress, all of that just started to pile up. And what exactly was your job title at that time? But, you know, I was the low man on the totem pole.

I was 22 years old, had just gotten out of school. It was the title of I'll do whatever you need me to do. Yeah. And is it finance? Or was it? Mm-hmm. Okay. So I got a job at Merrill Lynch.

Okay. And that was in 2008. Oh, best year to get a job in finance. Exactly. But it was crazy. times literally somebody came in one day and locked the windows we were up on the 41st floor in the world financial center and they came in they locked the windows because people were getting that stressed out they wanted to make sure nobody would be jumping but I mean times were bad times

were really really rough but you know and for me what I got to see was what that type of lifestyle really looks like and what what people are going through what I was going through um and you know I I ended up, like I said, 15 or 20 pounds heavier than when I started and terrible cystic acne all over my face. And I had been battling with this acne since we were in high school, really. But at that point, it was just at its worst, big red cysts all over my face. But I thought, you know, I'm in New York City. Somebody here is going to cure me.

And I know you've done a lot of skin treatments. And now, Michael, you're getting into a here. I'm working on it. We're trying to pull his forehead out of it. get away from the old weathered saddle look. No, it looks good on men. It's not fair. It does.

You know, a little bit of wrinkles. We're going to be friends. Everyone keeps trying to get these needles in my face. And I'm like, not today. Just baby Botox. Just a little bit of baby. We had dinner last night and I had another advocate and she was like, no, you don't, you don't need to do that. Okay.

All right. Well, I literally tried everything out there. I was doing, you know, I bought all the creams and everything off of the infomercials. I did all of the. the lasers. I did this one laser where they put this leviulonic acid on your skin, which is a naturally produced acid from your body. And then you sit in front of this light. And it basically burns a layer of skin off your face. It's used for people with skin cancer, right? Right. You know. The whole time you never thought, maybe it's what I'm putting in my body

and the life. Oh no. We thought that too. You thought that too. Yeah. And, you know, I was trying other things. I was trying acupuncture. I was trying taking different vitamins. I had eliminated dairy and nuts. So you were trying different things? Oh my God. I had tried everything. This is like a decade old thing now at this point. Right. It tried a lot. I tried a lot over a period of a decade and none of it would work. And I even did acutane, which, you know, dermatologists these days just hand out acutane prescriptions for acutane like it's nothing. But Accutane is a really serious drug. And with the acutane, they also gave me a prescription for Prozac because suicide is a common

side effect. And they put me on two forms of birth control and synthetic hormones and had me sign a contract saying that if I got pregnant, I would have to have an abortion because my baby would come out with birth defects. And all of this just to solve some pimples on my face. And yes, it was, you know, it was really affecting my life. It affected my confidence. It affected how I was at work, how I was in my love life, and it was painful.

But, I mean, what I went through trying to fix it was serious. And but nobody was talking to me about, you know, what are you eating? Are you going to the bathroom every day, which is a vital son. and I wasn't, but none of the doctors I was talking to was asking me that question. Nobody was asking if I was stressed out or if I felt fulfilled in life. I think all of those different things play a role in skin and in acne. And so, you know, I found myself in the lowest of lows, trying to find this solution and getting frustrated by all of these different doctors just wanting to hand me another

prescription, another prescription for acutane, another prescription for antibiotics, And finally, just this voice inside of me said, don't do it. It's not the answer. You need to go inside and find the root cause. What is causing all of this that are just symptoms? There has to be a root cause. And so decided to go back to my Sedona roots and partner up with Danielle. We were roommates at the time.

And I was just graduating from studying biochem and I was about to go to med school. And my story is much more around body image issues. I've been dieting, I think, since I was like nine years old. I have this memory of going to Costco with my mom. And we were walking through the vitamin aisle and I saw these diet pills and I tried to hide them in the cart. And, you know, obviously I was not a sneaky child because it's Costco and you can only buy like 4,000 pill things. So I got caught. But it's just so telling to me that at a young age,

I didn't feel like I looked pretty enough or thin enough or enough just in general. And so the way that manifested over my life over the following, you know, 10, 15 years was dieting. What do you think the root cause of that is? Is there like some event or something that happened to that age that made you start thinking that way? Yeah, for sure. You know, like kids are mean. Like I remember my mom would pack me these when he has these stories to you, but my mom would pack me like healthy lunches and there'd be like a banana and an orange. I remember this kid making fun of me because my lunches were really big.

And so then that got into my head. And then, you know, you're just as a young girl and more and more boys too. But as a young girl, you're surrounded by images of what you're supposed to look like. Even if you're too young to really understand, you think that one day you're supposed to look like that. And girls were also talking about it. Like girls at nine years old when I was that age were talking about dieting. And, you know, we were reading the magazines and all the magazines were like, how to get abs. Like you're nine years old. And so I didn't know what to do. And so I didn't know

how to get that body that I thought I had to have or that I didn't have. And so I just turned to, okay, well, it must be what I'm eating. And so I tried everything. I was a vegan. I was a raw foodist. I was on Atkins. I was on the master cleanse. I was on the cookie diet, which is not as fun as it sounds. The cookie diet. Yeah. They used to be able to get these cookies at Walgreens or something like that. And you would just get, you would have like two a day or something like that.

It was absolutely terrible. It would have like a 10 year shelf life on them. Yeah. It was like the worst. No refrigeration needed. I remember Slim Fast. And you know, my mom, when she had me, she was 40. So she was also of an older generation where, you know, it was still like low fat.

So you could have anything that was low fat. Nobody was talking about, you know, what are the ingredients? What are the preservatives? organic sugar, any of those things. So it was also a household where I was sticking to what my mom had learned and that didn't work. And so by the time Whitney and I were living in New York together, it was just at it, I was in an all-time low. I tried everything. I felt like an alien in my body. Food had really become the enemy because after over a decade of dieting, you learn that food is about calories and carbs and points and pounds.

And if that's the case, then less is always better. So finally, I did a diet that put me in the hospital. It was this retreat in Southern Arizona. And it was 21 days. And the first seven days were a water fast. So you're just having water. No juice, nothing. Just water.

And it's like 120 degrees, Southern Arizona, meditating for six hours a day. What age was this? 22? You've been like, I'm a little bit older. Like 23, 24. How do they get away with that? You know, what's funny is that I would go back now because I think that it's, if you have a healthy relationship to your body and to your plate, that it can actually be quite

transformative and the spiritual experience, which I had just not in the way I thought I would. And so, you know, it was medically. You would go back for the, just for the mental clarity? You would go back to the same diet because she has a completely different relationship with food now. And I wouldn't look at it as a diet. Like when I went at that age, it was like an excuse like, oh good, I won't have to worry about food for 21 days. And obviously, like, it's a water fast, so I'll lose weight. And, you know, all of my neuroses and my issues around food kind of culminated in that moment of making the decision to go basically starve myself for 21 days.

And so I got really, really sick. I did it. Yeah. You can hardly walk. I got back to New York and I could barely walk. And how much weight dropped? Like in those seven days? I know that's not healthy, so it's probably. A lot. I don't know. I had stopped looking at the scale because it was not my friend.

Yeah, I'm asking more for the reason just like to lose to not eat for that long and then lose it kind of weight. It really can't be good for you. And I just want to like see how drastic it was. It was drastic, but it wasn't. Like, I didn't look malnourished. Actually, everyone around me was like, oh, you look amazing. Like, your skin's glowing. And, you know, there are people that believe in the medicinal powers of water for a few days.

And then the following two weeks were all raw food. We were, like, living off the land. But, you know, I just, I knew that all of my issues had bubbled up in that moment. That, like, I couldn't hide behind them anymore. I couldn't hide behind a diet. It was like it almost stripped me bare in this really important way. Now I understand. But at the time, it was probably one of the toughest times of my life.

And I get back to New York and Whitney's like, I'm taking you to the hospital right now. Like you're sick. You're clearly not okay. And she wasn't getting better. Yeah. I just, I couldn't keep food down. I kept getting like cold after cold after cold. And so I went to the hospital. I had a major gut issue and imbalance and I had pneumonia. So they had to put me on antibiotics and I had to go on all this medication.

And it was just my aha moment where, you know, It really scared me because I realized how far I was willing to go and how much I was willing to hurt my body to get this body that I thought I didn't have. So that was when I changed my path. And instead of going to med school, I went to study nutrition. And throughout that following year is when Whitney and I just devoted that time to getting better ourselves. You know, we weren't talking about starting a business. We were like, we need to heal. So I was learning a lot of cool stuff in school, you know, like,

the study of the microbiome and the six pounds of bacteria in your gut that's dictating everything from your hormones to how many calories you absorb from your food, your sex drive. You know, like 95% of serotonin is made in the gut, so how happy you are in the world. And what matters for your gut is what you eat. And, you know, that was before anyone was really talking about it. Yeah, but what I realized was through this process, I realized, I didn't have a skin problem. I had a gut problem. And if I could heal my gut, I could heal my skin.

I hope everyone out there that's listening that has any skin problem can hear what you just said because I think that's so important. Can you expand more on the gut? Like I want to hear everything about it. Like if someone's starting out like what's a good place to start healing the gut? Yeah. It really starts with what's on your plate. Yeah.

You know, the gut, the gut, the only thing that the bacteria in your gut eat is, fiber and that's what they need and getting the right kinds of fiber from foods is really important so that doesn't necessarily mean just eating fiber crackers um but gg crackers aren't going to cut it i mean they certainly don't hurt and they certainly help and they're certainly better than you know nothing yeah a fiberless cracker for sure um but eating a plant-based diet and for us you know that means eating mostly plants um basing your plate basing your diet off of plants and is the number one thing you can do to have a healthy microbiome. Everyone is looking at you.

What's new? A Shake Shack hot dog yesterday is not doing anything for your guy. I had a burger. That's true. No, listen, I'm not the best eater for sure. I'm not going to, no surprise here. Okay, if you're doing mostly plant base, any meat, fish? Yeah.

Yeah. I eat some meat and some fish. It's really about listening to your body and getting it to a place where you can listen to it. And so that means cleaning out the things that are sending you the wrong messages. Food can actually hijack your brain. If you're eating Cheetos and Doritos, these things are some of the, I consider them some of the most sophisticated foods on the planet because millions of dollars have gone into creating the formula to get them to just the right amount of cheesiness and meltiness so that it hits the bliss point in your brain and actually makes you feel addicted

and high and want more of them. But if you can start stripping down some of that noise, some of the bad signals, then you start listening to your own signals in your body. And your body will tell you what it needs. It'll tell you when you're hungry, when you're full, and actually which ingredients you need to be eating too. We've had a lot of, I'd say, experts at this point on the subject of,

let's call it diet, but it's more food because, you know, diet's a way of eating, not a food, specifically. What is some really good advice that you think that you can apply to everyone? And what is some really, really bad advice that you hear all the time? So I guess we'll start with the good. Yeah, well, good. I would say the, oh, good.

Did you have something? No, no. Oh, I would say the universal piece of advice is get at least six cups of greens. Leafy greens. Leafy greens into your diet every single day. So if you're making a smoothie in the morning, throw a hand. handful of spinach into that smoothie. If you're eating your Shake Shack burger, can you put some hot dog? No, burger. Burger. I'd a bite of the hot dog. She doesn't believe you. Yeah, you know,

can you put some leafy greens on that too? And studies show that the way your body and specifically your microbiome deals with foods that we might typically think is bad foods, so burgers, hot dogs, whatever, that the way your body assimilates that food and digest that food changes based on what else you've eaten, even that single day. So I think a lot of times people think, you know, especially dieters like myself, I thought like once I fell off the wagon, I might as well just fall off the wagon and eat whatever I wanted. And it's really not true. And that's really what we try and help people understand is that there's no such thing as the wagon. There's no such thing as eating perfect. Just try and get as many plants into your diet every single day. And that will

fundamentally change your biology and how your body digest food. That's a common theme across all the podcasts that we've had, people say get as many greens as you can get in to push other things, not off the plate, but to... What is the stuff I just got? It's like not, because I try to, I'm trying, I'm working my way up to the greens, but I got this like powder that, and you get it in sprouts. But it's, um, she doesn't love them. Mike, you know, what the hell is it called?

I just got it. It's like green vibrance or something. Green, yeah, yeah. It doesn't, I like that. It certainly doesn't hurt at all. It's put my water in the morning. But, yeah, that certainly doesn't hurt. And I think that's a great addition.

Baby steps. Baby steps. But eating fresh leafy greens is the number one thing you take. Because remember that your microbiome needs that fiber, that plant-based fiber and water that you're getting from those greens. Okay. And bad advice. Well, bad advice, I would say, is a lot of people like to focus on what you need to be removing from your diet. And, you know, when they hear that I've had this skin transformation that I was able to cure my acne, they want to know, oh, what did you eliminate from your diet?

What was the key thing? And I say, no, it wasn't what I eliminated. It was what I was adding in. I wasn't getting enough nutrients. I wasn't getting enough of that plant fiber, those live living foods into my body and of hydrating foods. So we thought we were eating healthy. We were eating high fiber cereals.

We were eating, you know, with almond milk. We had cut out dairy. We were eating Ezekiel toast with coconut oil on it. But these things are really dehydrating to your body. It takes hydration out of your system in order. to digest the foods instead of eating foods like leafy greens or broccoli and things that'll add hydration, cucumbers that actually add hydration into your body and flood yourselves with that hydration. And that was really, you know, my transformation around food was I spent a lifetime

thinking about calories and carbs and points and pounds and what not to eat. And my switch after, you know, eating this way was if you think about food as nourishment, instead of food as the enemy, then you actually think, am I getting enough every single day? And that switch in my brain was what really helped me learn how to, you know, have a good relationship to my plate and even better relationship to my body. How important in this equation is your daily probiotic? Is that something that's very important? It is very important.

It is very important. But, you know, Whitney eats well. So one thing is like they're usually probiotics are not the things. that are going to go into your gut and stay around. The bacteria that's in your gut now and from when you were born is usually the stuff that sticks around. And so you need to, one, crowd out the bad bacteria. And the only way you do that is by starving it.

And you starve it by not eating so much of the sugary foods or the processed foods or whatever. And then you can help crowd it out by getting good bacteria, but that good bacteria only sticks around if you're feeding it the right things, which is getting enough plants. every single day. So it's just part of the equation. It's part of the equation. It's not the answer and it has to be matched with a healthy diet. So if they're out there, they're listening, which probiotic should they get? Is there one that you guys give your stamp of approval on? We actually offer one on our website that is a probiotic, prebiotic and digestive enzyme in one. I like to take a prebiotic too to help

feed that good bacteria in your gut. And then the digestive enzyme helps to digest any left over food in your digestive system that could be creating bloat. And then ours actually has an enzyme in it that helps with candida. So candida, it really sticks into your intestinal walls. And this enzyme helps break down that what's binding it into your wall so that it can be eliminated out of your system. We'll leave that link in the show notes because I want that. It's just it's one pill that has all three things in it. Yeah. And you take you take two to four a day depending and that's an amazing like every day um you know like we take it every single day yeah it's maintenance there are other ones that are really powerful that you can get from your pharmacy um that

you know we call it like a probiotic bomb like if you really need to fundamentally change the bacteria in your gut um that it's great to do a couple weeks of those too i want to go back to the beginning when you guys decided that this is what you were going to do yeah i want to i want to hear the process of how you guys worked this huge idea out. Did it start as something that you knew would turn into what it is now? Well, it started because Whitney and I both had that aha moment about three weeks after eating this way. And that was a year after my schooling.

We came together and we're like, okay, you know, you're learning all this stuff. I'm learning all this stuff. Let's put it into a meal plan for each other because we're not getting any better. And so we, they're now called our pillars of nutrition and it's all the things we're talking about, you know, mostly plants, getting enough greens, organic produce. And we ate that way for about three weeks and we spent all of our time either in the grocery store or in the kitchen. So it was a lot of work, but we had a transformation in three weeks. And that was that moment that Whitney said, you know, I don't have a skin issue, have a gut issue. And I realized that it was, food had to be about nourishment in order to really help me.

create my best body. And at the same time, we had friends around us asking, like, what are you guys doing? You look different. You seem different. And we had one friend in particular. It was like, whatever you're doing, I want it. Can you just deliver it to me? And so we thought, okay, we'll just try delivering it. And then one friend turned into two. And very early on, we realized that we had a huge transformation. and we felt like we had found the answer and it was too big to keep to ourselves. And so we had no idea. We were young. We were broke.

We didn't really have any business experience. We had no idea how to go from that thought of this food is the answer to how do you get it in the hands of people all across the country. But we did have this really strong conviction that we were onto something and that we felt really tied to this mission of people want to. feel better. And we met a ton of people that wanted to feel better. All our friends wanted to feel better, but nobody really knew how. People were, you know, trying Atkins, they were on the juice cleanses, they were on all these things just like I was. Or ordering Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem. Yeah. People that I worked with on Wall Street who had plenty of money were very well-educated people and they were eating boxed frozen foods in order to lose weight because, you know, they had certain

issues and they needed to lose weight in order to feel better. And they didn't have any other solution. And this was crazy to me that people were going to eat fake foods in order to get that result because there was no other option. What's crazy to me, and I'm working on getting better, I know yesterday is not a good example. It's actually a terrible example, but working on getting better is you have all these high performers that are, you know, like you said, successful, smart people, all the resources in the world. And when it comes to their diet or their fitness, they're completely out of whack. Yeah.

But then if you ask, you know, in the professional life, they're killing it. It's like what I'm learning and the reason that it's super interesting to me now is if you fix the nutrition and you fix the fitness and the diet, then you're going to be better at everything else. Absolutely. And then you think if I don't fix it, then all the stuff I'm doing is going to be worthless anyway because it might not be around too long. Yeah.

Yeah. And the body's amazing. You know, it adapts to circumstances quite quickly and quite well. And so if you're not eating well, like it's going to do. best to get you by and get you through. And I always say one of my aha moments building this company was I didn't realize how many of us were walking around being okay with just feeling okay. You know, and that people didn't know that you could feel better. I mean, I certainly didn't when I was hopping from diet to diet. I thought I always was just kind of supposed to feel tired and

like crap and bloated and all of these things. And, you know, part of our mission is just to help people understand that you deserve to feel like your best self. And, you know, we can get you 90% of the way there just by changing your diet. Yeah, but what I was saying on Wall Street was that people were very well educated where they even knew what they were supposed to be eating, but making the decisions or getting access to it was difficult. And so, you know, when we first started Sakara, we thought about should we just create a blog, should we write a cookbook? But we, we had read all the blogs and we owned all the cookbooks and it didn't solve our problem until we had the food ready to go right in front of us and where all we had to do was open it up and eat it

and so we decided that that was going to be our service to the world was to make this food for other people so that it was easy enough all they had to do was open it up and eat it so let's let's talk about the business a little bit in first steps there's a lot of young people out there that were probably in the same position that you were in back then obviously massively successful now, what were some of the first steps that you guys took in the beginning when you had those little resources? There's a lot of people think they can't do it because maybe they don't have the resources. I know a lot of us didn't have resources when we started. So what would you tell those people? A few things. I always say, you know, people come to us and they're like, I want to start a business and here's what I'm passionate about.

And one, first I always say, like working for an incredible brand is just as rewarding and being an entrepreneur where you get to have. autonomy and you get to help grow a brand you believe in. That's the best word. Yeah. Entrepreneur. Yeah. And it doesn't, you know, being an entrepreneur is like the new celebrity. And I'm like, I don't think it should be because then people think that it's, it's idolized in this way like it's easy. And, you know, Whitney and I have given, you know, eight years of our life, like blood, sweat and tears. It's been the hardest thing we've ever done. Obviously, incredibly rewarding. The other thing I say to people is, you know, you can find your passion. I don't know if your passion really like keeps you going in the darkest days. Your passion is usually something you really enjoy doing.

It's something you feel connected to. But early on Whitney and I felt like we were on this mission. And the mission is really different because it's bigger than you. So early on it was like we're on this mission. So whether or not we're successful or not, it's like it's not about us. It's not about our success. It's not about, you know, doing all these things that, you know, you think you typically need to do. when you build a business, it's, we just have to keep going no matter what, even when it was

so incredibly hard, because delivering, I will tell you, delivering fresh organic food to people all across the country in 48 continental states, not frozen, not processed is probably one of the most difficult businesses in the world. And so there have been really, really tough days, weeks, months. And what keeps us going is we're on this mission to help people understand the power of food as medicine. And you get, you receive that back. You know, you receive that back in the form of testimonials of how, you know, you've helped a new mom going through cancer or you've just helped a new mom feel like herself again. The spectrum is quite large. And so that's what keeps you going.

You need something deeper and bigger than yourself and your own passion to keep you going. You have a why. With a way. Yeah. No, I think one of the my favorite things you said in there out, I like a lot of which said they're extremely smart. On this show, we try to not always preach entrepreneurship. I actually very careful. There's a lot of great people that work for us

and that are killing it. And I think that's important to acknowledge as well. I think putting it out there that everyone has to have their own business and being an entrepreneur is a very dangerous formula. And I get really off put. And we've got a lot of requests for the show that we've denied of like the life coaches

and the people that are selling these courses for everyone to be their own boss. There's not, not everybody wants to do that. I mean, I would say 95% of what I do is putting out fires and dealing with shit all day, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Some problems all day long. And there's nothing wrong with that. I think that that's the position I like to be in and I'm equipped to handle it emotionally. But not a lot of people want to do that. Like a lot of people want to show up and do a kick-ass job and then go back and do something else. And I think it's important for people to understand that that's not just okay. That's great.

Like you don't want to put yourself in a position where you're unhappy. I'm happy as dealing with that shit. And I think Lauren is too. But not everybody is. I know, I think a lot of people say they want to be their own boss because they want to get away from. their boss and they think that if they start their own business that they're not going to have to deal with people and these issues but it gets worse you you're in charge of managing all the relationships then not just one directly with your boss but all of the relationships in the

company with your employees with your investors with your vendors and you have to deal with lots of different types of personalities and it doesn't turn off is the other piece Listen, the number two at Facebook's doing just fine. Yeah. And I think that there's a lot of value in being on a really great team. It doesn't matter what your role is in the company. If you are enjoying the people that you're around and you're on this mission and you enjoy the work that you're doing every day, that's really rewarding. Yeah, and I also think people have this idea that like, oh, I just want to be happy in my job.

So I'm going to work for myself. and that's certainly not the formula. Like working for yourself is harder. It gets harder. And, you know, those things that you had or have at your job right now that are issues for you, they will follow you. So it's not like just because you don't have a boss that those issues you had in the workplace don't follow you.

You know, Whitney and I talk about leaning into what's uncomfortable, leaning into what's really hard, which usually means, you know, that it's personal. I think that work and personal life are meshing in this crazy way, and especially with this new wave of wellness and spirituality and people wanting to better themselves. It's like in the workplace, you know, if you're having an issue with Jane, it's like, what are you doing? And as a boss, you know, we have 100 employees now. And I will say that managing people is absolutely the hardest thing that I think we've ever done. I was just going to ask you what your hurdles are. Can you kind of expand on that?

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, we have an incredible, incredible team, and we would absolutely not be here without them. And we care about them. And so they all come with their own hopes and dreams, how they like to be communicated with, how they like to be spoken to, how often they need to be told they're doing a great job,

or do they want really, you know, straight feedback or some people need it a little sugar-coded. And, you know, not everyone runs a business like that. You know, you can be more militant where there's just kind of this sweep of how you manage. But, you know, there's 30 women in our office. And, you know, how do you run a business that is coming from a more feminine place, not necessarily just from women, but from a more feminine place where, you know, I think about business being typically masculine because it's been built by men for the past many years.

and it tends to be more 90-degree angles, and the feminine approach tends to be more circular. And so how do you manage in a way where you still have incredible productivity? You have incredible relationships with your team. But, you know, there's a little bit more give and take. It's a little more fluid. And so you do worry about people and think about people as individuals instead of having this one way of managing across 100 people. I think it's important when you're running a business and managing people to just set, up a, like, I look at my job as setting up a framework for these people to be as successful

as they can possibly be within that organization to build the organization, but you give them the reins to build them, to build their departments or build their team or whatever it is, to have as much success as they can have to help the overall brand. Because as the head of something, that obviously benefits you in the business. But to be able to give people that freedom to really scale themselves in their creativity and their productivity, and not do it in a way where you're like limiting them and putting them in this box. I think that that's where I see a lot of, you know, you're talking about like how men built things. Yeah.

People start business and think, oh, that's how it used to be done and you got to show up at this certain time and you got to do it this way. For me, I know a lot of the people I bring on are much better at whatever they're doing than I am. Right. That's like, that's why I want them to be on the team because they can do that element hopefully better than me. And so then the only job is how do I help them thrive? How do I create an environment that makes them feel inspired and successful and driven? I think that's good management, not this thing where it's like putting them in a box and saying, this is how it's done, it's my way. As an entrepreneur, you might have an idea of the direction where you need to go, but your way may not be the right way.

Absolutely. And, you know, there's no school for that. There's no school for going from, you know, Whitney and I started with $700. You know, with three people, we ended up hiring our first-time employees. a year in, three of us, we built it to a multi-million dollar company with $700. But then from that point to now, three people to 100 people, there's no school. There's no lesson on how to go from being an entrepreneur at that stage to an entrepreneur at this stage.

And I think one of the biggest lessons has been you can't keep things too tight. You can't say, oh, well, this is my baby and this is what it has to be. you hire the experts and you hire people that are smarter and better than you are in certain areas. And exactly what you're saying, you give them the tools they need to have autonomy and to really run with it. As an entrepreneur, I want to know how you guys balance your personal life with this because I have a real big problem. And I would love your tips and tricks. It's hard. It's nice to have each other.

It's nice you guys have each other. Sometimes. Sometimes he's a little annoying. We go back and forth and like when do you, when you turn it off? Well, I will give you guys props because I don't think I could ever start a business with my husband. Yeah, at midnight when he's asking you questions about finances. I mean, it's like, you know. It doesn't stop.

It doesn't stop. Danielle and I, we would go out for drinks with friends and we'd be, you know, it'd be midnight and we're talking to each other and we're talking about business. And our friends would be like, you guys are with each other all day long. How do you still have something to say to each other? You're just talking nonstop. Like, it's a way never stopped. Yeah, and we're passionate about it. We really are and we care and goes back to that mission where we feel like we have something that we have to put out into the world. This is our purpose.

We have to build this. We have to tell people about it about this knowledge and understanding that eating this way can change your life. And so I think that really drives me. And so when I think about balance, it's always a moving thing and it's finding your edges and knowing where your burnout point is and making sure that if you're on your way to that burnout point, that you have your tools for getting back to that place of balance so that you swing the pendulum in the other direction. And for me, you know, food is my best tool where if I am not eating the right foods, I swing out of balance. I get low energy. I get, you know, I'll start to get a breakout. I'll start to get sick. And so having really good healthy food, eating my

cicara meals helps keep my body in balance so that I can be better in work and in life. Yeah, for me, I mean, it's been interesting even being pregnant for the first time and trying to find balance. And I think it's hit me that, like, as an entrepreneur, and especially in your case and in our case where it's like you're also the face and the soul, of what we're doing. It's like if I'm not feeling good, then I'm not being authentic and I'm not on my mission. And I, it's harder to get through the day. And so it's hard to, it's been hard.

And I'm just learning this lesson six years later that part of my work is actually taking care of myself. And I think that's true for everyone. But especially when you're front facing, especially when, you know, you have to go out and speak to people about how to have balance and how to eat really well, making sure, like, I'm coming from this authentic place that I've done the work myself. And so I think it's, you know, everything is, I think about things in terms of priorities. And there are a lot of things I have to get done every single day that are really important. And then some of the things, I think, you know, is it better if I just take this hour to go do a Pilates class? Is it better if I just

step outside and take a walk. And it's forming new habits, especially for me where, you know, we're in an office and we have food in the fridge all day. So like we never have to leave. We never really have to do anything. Everything's there for us to really think about what are the things that make me feel really good and how do I make sure they're part of my time every single day? Yeah, scheduling it into your calendar in advance. How do you guys really practice self-care? Do you meditate? Give us some little tips and tricks that they can do at home. Yeah, I like to do, I like to go to classes. I find that if I go to somewhere and I put it into my calendar first, then it locks me in. I'm accountable. I actually show up. I make the time I do it. And you don't have to think. I feel like all day long as an entrepreneur you're thinking.

And then at a class, they can just tell you what to do. They take the wheel. Yeah, exactly. So I like to go to different types of classes. I love yoga. I love Sivananda yoga. I don't know if you guys have. I've never heard of Sivananda yoga.

It's a little bit far out there. It's more religious type of yoga, but it starts with pranayama breathwork and with chanting. Okay. And it really gets you into the zone first before you do yoga. And for me, it just, it totally clears my mind. I'm able to get into my body more. And by the end, I'm just on a completely different wavelength. My body's vibrating at a different level. I want to try that. Yeah. How do you practice? one out here. They do? Yeah. I want to try that. You'll have to send me the information. They have different ashrams all around the world. I would love to try that. What's next for you guys?

What's next? Well, so we've created our nutrition program and then we give different types of products along with the nutrition program. I know you've tried our beauty water before and we have our detox water. We just launched these brand new plant-based protein bars, which are amazing. We were trying all the different bars out there because we travel a lot. And so when you're running to the airport or wherever else, you need something that you can just toss in your bag. But we were really disappointed with the options out there with the ingredients, with the taste. And so we created these bars to not just be something that we can snack on on the run, but to actually be functional too. So we have a detox bar that has blue spirulina in it. It's bright blue. Sometimes it scares people because it's bright blue, but it's really good for you. And it helps with detoxing the body, which is great for on an airplane, that radiation and air quality. You need that detox

process. And then an energy bar. I feel like you'd love our energy bar, Michael. Yeah, hook it up. Yeah, it has neutropic vitamins in it. So B vitamins, L-thian. It's great for that afternoon slumber before you go to work out. So like ditch the hot dogs. and get the bar. Listen, I have one fuck up, okay? I'm back on the water. It's okay, you can just eat a detox bar.

It'll help clean that up. I love your watermelon jerky more than life. I make it for Michael for dinner. I told you guys this earlier. I put it on a plate, squeeze a little lime, add a little cayenne, and it's like a home-cooked meal. Now just add greens. Yeah, add greens, right?

Yeah. I want to know about all the little snacks that you guys have because you have zucchini chips, which I have. What else do you have that people can snack on? Yeah. And I think that, This is, you know, we want to be able to give people little tools throughout their day so that they can still live their daily life and be healthy. Well, little tools throughout the day, but, you know, if I think about where we're going, it's, you know, we have our nutrition program and it's powerful and we deliver to all 48 states.

And, you know, at this point, we've delivered millions of meals. And it's just that not everyone either wants to do a meal delivery or they can't afford it. And so what does it, how do we help those people? How do we help those people, you know, feel the transformative effects of food is medicine? So you have to meet people where they are. So that's really where the snacks and the bars and the supplements come in is, you know, just going from a crappy bar to a bar that's not full of crap is actually a really big change. And I think, you know, I'm definitely somebody, you know, because I have that dieter in me,

I'm like, okay, what is it? I'm going to do it all. and I want to do it perfectly. I want to eat perfectly, but not everyone is like that. And, you know, I want to make sure people understand that making little changes actually really, really matter. Because back to our earlier point of if you can just get healthy foods into your diet also, that changes fundamentally how your body digest and assimilates nutrients.

What's one meal that you guys would recommend everyone has to try that you serve? Well, our red beet burger. Ooh, that sounds good. Is a fan favorite. One of my favorites is called the mermaid salad, and it has like all this seaweed and norey, a bunch of greens, but then it has this insane truffle dressing that is just...

We're getting you a beet burger. Screw shake shock. Beat burgers and truffle oil. Where can everybody find you guys? You just go to our website, sacchar.com, s-a-a-r-com. And what are your Instagrams? I'm at Whitney Tingle.

And I'm at Danielle Dubois. And we're both at Sakara Life. You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. This was so fun. That was really fun. You guys are great.

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