The Rich Roll Podcast - Julie Piatt On Sacred Commerce & SriMu

Episode Date: October 8, 2020

Today the wise & ethereal Julie Piatt -- my wife and partner for the last 20+ years -- returns for her umpteenth appearance on the podcast. But this time we try something different. As longtime listeners know well, Julie is a being of many talents. Although widely lauded for her series of bestselling plant-based cookbooks, the one who goes by SriMati is also an artist, musician, yogi, healer, mother of four and serial entrepreneur. In addition, Julie hosts the For The Life of Me podcast. She reigns over Water Tiger, her online spiritual community. And she’s the ‘Mother Arc’ (her term for founder & CEO) of SriMu, her plant-based cheese brainchild start-up. Over the years, Julie been a recurring source of spiritual wisdom on the podcast, dropping many a pearl on everything from parenting and creativity to navigating conflict, managing relationships, dealing with financial hardship, and countless other subjects. Today's episode, however, is something new -- an exploration of Julie as entrepreneur. Channeling my inner Guy Raz, I give Julie the ‘How I Built This’ treatment — tracing her background growing up in Alaska through her career in fashion. Building a garment line. The pain of shuttering it. The pivot into home construction and interior design. And how all of these experiences inform the business and culture of SriMu, her most successful start-up to date. You can call me biased. I am. But that doesn’t change the fact that she is poised for world domination with what truly is the best, next evolution of cheese. The visually inclined can watch our exchange on YouTube. And as always, the podcast streams wild and free on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Aside from the business bent, this conversation is centered on the power of meeting others — and yourself — in love. As humans, we self-identify with the stories we tell ourselves. We cling to illusions of safety and security. But this moment is challenging the firmness of the ground upon which we stand. Julie reminds us of the impermanence of everything. Embracing this vital truth will bring you greater peace. It will broaden your empathy for others. And help you identify the answers you seek. Hint: they have been inside you all along. Peace + Plants, Rich

I think what we learn as designers or painters or fashion designers or writers is you get to a level of maturity where you understand that less is more. In fact, it's the simplicity that makes something extraordinary. simply showcasing what Mother Nature provides with some alchemy and design and flair and definitely taste. But it's really in the simplicity of what is done and trying to preserve purity in the product. We have the power to create our own reality during this time. And remembering that thoughts are things and what you put your attention on is what you put energy to. And so I believe in all of us. I believe in humanity. Humans are innovative. We are empathic.

We are devoted. We are capable. We are genius. Everybody has a genius within themselves. And so I want to encourage everybody to rise up and go within and understand that you're needed and you have something of value to share and we need you. That's Julie Pyatt. And this is Episode 551 of The Rich Roll Podcast. The Rich Roll Podcast. Hey, everybody, welcome to the show. Really quick, most of you guys know just how dramatically the power of plants has given me this Phoenix-like life transformation.

And part of my whole deal is this commitment to helping others have their version of my experience. I get it, Rich, you're plant-based. That's awesome. But I just don't have the time. I lack the support. I'm all thumbs in the kitchen. Over the years, I've heard it all too many times.

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and peculiar preferences and peccadillos. Selected meals auto-generate grocery lists to make shopping simple, and integrated grocery delivery in most urban areas makes it a no-brainer. We also have cooking instructional videos, and our team of nutrition coaches are always available to guide you every step of the way.

To learn more and to get rolling, visit meals.richroll.com. That's meals.richroll.com. We're brought to you today by Recovery.com. I've been in recovery for a long time. It's not hyperbolic to say that I owe everything good in my life to sobriety. And it all began with treatment and experience that I had that quite literally saved my life. And in the many years since, I've in turn helped many suffering addicts and their loved ones find treatment. And with that, I know all too well just how confusing and how overwhelming and how challenging it can

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When you or a loved one need help, go to recovery.com and take the first step towards recovery. To find the best treatment option for you or a loved one, again, go to recovery.com. Okay. Today, the always wise, the luminescent, the ethereal Julie Pyatt, aka Srimati, my wife and partner for the last 20 years, returns for her 10 zillionth appearance on the podcast. Longtime listeners know Julie well for those new to me and the show. Julie is just one of those people you can't quite categorize because she does so many things. She's an artist, a musician, yogi, healer, plant-based chef,

multiple best-selling cookbook author, mother to four kids. She also hosts the For the Life of Me podcast. She lords over Water Tiger, her online spiritual community, and she's the founder and quote unquote mother arc, her term for founder and CEO of Shreemu, her plant-based cheese brainchild startup. Over the years, Julie's been a reliable source of spiritual wisdom on the podcast, dropping many a pearl on everything from parenting and creativity to navigating conflict, managing think, quite relatable thoughts on the mental and emotional impact of the pandemic on our home life and some rumination on this moment of immense transformation, we then switch gears. Most of you likely know Julie as either a sort of yogi spiritualist or as a cookbook author. What you likely don't know is that she is quite the serial entrepreneur. So the gravamen of today's

conversation is really focused on Julie, the business person. Call it my stab at giving her the Guy Raz, how I built that treatment. We trace her background growing up in Alaska, through her career in fashion, creating her own garment line, later pivoting into home construction, interior design, and culminating in how she became this doyenne of plant-based cheese by dint of her most successful startup to date, Shremo. You can call me biased. I certainly am biased, but that does not change the fact that she is poised for world domination with what truly is the best next evolution of cheese. Aside from the business bent more than anything, I think this conversation is centered around the power of meeting others and yourself in love. As humans, we cling to

illusions of safety and security. We cling to the stories. We tell ourselves stories that the pandemic is shattering. And Julie really helped remind me of the impermanence of everything and how embracing this vital truth will bring you greater peace, greater understanding, and help you find the answers you're looking for, which have been inside you all along. So, this is me and my in-house spiritual guru, partner, and best friend, Julie Pyatt. Julie Pyatt, how long has it been since we've done a podcast? It's been, I think, six months, Rich Roll.

Has it been that long? I think so. Aren't we in quarantine six months now? Yeah, but did we do one at the beginning of quarantine? Right at the beginning. Oh, we did. I wanna say it was maybe like five days in. This might be the longest that we've gone without-

I've missed you. A check-in. I mean, since the beginning of the podcast, you being on episode one and on every initial episode, we've always done a podcast here and there every couple months or so. So this might be the longest interlude. But now you have another lover

that you're doing your Q&As with. With Adam? Yes. Yes, the longest interlude. But now you have another lover that you're doing your Q&A's with. With Adam? Yes. Yes, the roll-ons. It's amazing, it's really, really good. Well, it's nice to see you. Thank you, honey. We could use this as a referendum on our marriage. How do you think our marriage is doing right now?

It's holding up. Is it? Definitely. Yeah, we're six months into quarantine. It's been an interesting ride. It's had its high highs and low lows and everything in between, I suppose. I think that I've had more emotional peaks and valleys with it than you have. You seem pretty consistent.

Well, consistent unless I'm on the frequency of our teenage daughters. Right, well, that's been the challenge. The biggest challenge of this for us and our family really has been trying to help our daughters navigate the vicissitudes of what's being thrown at us. Yeah, or how to realize that our daughters don't want our help in navigating what's going on in quarantine. But it's been really unprecedented, and I think this is a global issue. We were teasing last night about, my son was saying, if every parent of a teen could do some documentary footage and it could be called quarantine. Yeah.

So it's been trying for everyone. And I know I'm checking in with our pediatrician. He's seen levels of anxiety that are unprecedented in our teenage population. Yeah. I mean, for people that don't know or if you're new to the show, there's six of us cohabitating right now, two older boys, 25 and 24, Tyler and Trapper, who moved home at the beginning of quarantine from their apartment in Echo Park, which is kind of in the Hollywood area. And then our daughters who are 13 and 16.

And overall, it's been a delight to have everybody at home, really precious family time. And I always try to keep that in the forefront of my consciousness and my awareness, but it's been really hard for the girls. And also, you know, just bearing witness to the difficulties that a lot of our friends are having with their kids. And it's really, you know, I feel like the emotional mental impact of this on young people

is really not fully addressed in the grand scheme of trying to get through this in a healthy way. Like, yes, we don't wanna get the virus. Yes, we need to do all the things and be safe and protect our children. But there's also a cost to all of this. And we're seeing that cost being borne out.

And it will be interesting to see the long-term implications on this generation, this young generation, and how this experience impacts decisions that they make and choices that they make later in life. Yeah, definitely. And I think it's, like you said, I've been pretty consistent and there's many things about quarantine that I actually prefer. I prefer being at home with my family and creating meals together and, you know, having time to reflect and slow down. And I think that quarantine provides sort of like an Ayurvedic prescriptive healing experience for us. And I do really believe overall that many of us, if we are the ones that don't choose to exit or leave the body, you know, for various reasons during this time, that we will

have gained years onto our life because of the slowing down. You know, we see these benefits to the planet, to the air, to the waters. And yet, we have the perspective of having lived a very full life behind us. We've experienced many things in our lives. And even our sons who are in their 20s, it's very hard to imagine how they must feel reflecting on what their future is going to be like, what's going to be available to them. And it's hard for us to really imagine what all these conditions present in the psyche of a teen, of a young child. And, you know, just recently, one of our daughters, she's very concerned. You know, she was basically telling us we needed to move, that we were not safe.

And this is a very real emotional state that children are experiencing, that we're all experiencing in different ways. Yeah, the mental emotional fallout is very real. And at least with respect to our 16 year old daughter, she's not interested in any prescription coming from us. She's trying to craft her own identity and contradiction to us. Like she's trying to figure out who she is by pushing the boundaries of kind of our lifestyle

parameters and part of that's healthy because that's how she figures out who she is. But also it makes it challenging when we're all cohabitating and we're trying to be helpful to her and she's resistant to hearing anything from us. That's right. Well, it's healthy for her

and very challenging for us, trying for us. But there are beautiful moments within that journey and I find the energy going up and down a lot more rapidly. Like within a week span, there's a lot of different colors of experience that I'm having within the family. And I think the beauty is being able to go on that journey and just be present in the moment to what's happening. So sometimes there's a lot of screaming and tears and, you know, bumping up against rough edges and then other times-

Doors slamming. Yeah. There's a lot of sweetness though, too, and moments that are just stolen that never would have happened if we weren't sequestered, if we weren't quarantined. So, there are a lot of treasures that are available to us. It's an intense time for sure. Yeah, I vacillate between being totally fine with the whole thing and despairing. Like I miss the travel. I miss being able to plan adventures

and have things to look forward to on the calendar. And when one day just bleeds into the next, everything starts to feel a little bit mundane. And that's when I get into a funk, but you really are able to surf it more gracefully than I do. And I suspect a lot of that has to do with your own spiritual practice

and these kinds of rituals that you've set up. Like you get up at three or four in the morning and you do a fire ceremony, and then you're out, we have an outdoor tub and you're out in the bathtub under the star. You do a lot. Like before anybody else wakes up in the morning, you've already lived like an entire day. It's true. I mean, those are, for me, I don't know where I would be if I didn't have my deep connection to my faith and the spiritual perspective of what is going on. I don't know how I would feel without that. It has been really a treasure of connection to understand that there is a greater plan, that this is a moment of immense transformation and believing and living in evolution and also creating a brighter world,

a higher vibrating experience for humanity, for animals, for the planet, and even beyond this realm. So how do you remain grounded in that conviction when you open up your phone and start scrolling through, you know, the various versions of vitriol and dissonance and discontent and argument that seems to be kind of the touchdown of 2020, especially as we, you know, near this election and with the fires that we've been dealing, like there's so much upheaval right now across the world. And it's easy to say, well, this is a moment of transformation and this is an opportunity. But I just know for myself, like exposing myself to too much of that really starts to become disheartening to me. Yeah, but that's true. And so there's a lot of it, right? Like unprecedented

darkness being revealed in all areas of our life. And what I think this does is it starts to communicate to us that we've been living in illusion. We were maybe thinking that we were living a different life than what we really were living. So in my awareness, it's sort of like the light goes on and you're seeing everything scurrying around, but it was always there. It's not like it just is existing now. It's sort of like the result of our collective actions, of the aspects of what it means to incarnate in planet Earth with all of its polarity and all of its contrast. And so, it's sort of revealing the truth of what is. And I think the opportunity is to understand that everything is being gaslit. Every single perspective that is being presented

has the potential to have been manipulated. And so, what do we do with that? Yeah, it's really hard to find your footing. Yeah. You know, who can you trust? What channel are you going to trust? What person are you going to trust? And in my spiritual journey of my life, it has led me to know that we can only trust our true inner compass, which is our own heart. And how do we know how to trust our own heart? We have to spend time in communion with our own life form, our own direct connection to source. And for me and for many of us, this will come in as a feeling tone in the body. So we have to train ourselves to understand that just because somebody writes something or because somebody says something doesn't make it so. And we are very expansive technologies, the human being, and we have more senses than five senses.

feel into situations and being in touch with your body gives you the connection. Your supreme intelligence is in your heart, not in your mind. It's not your intellect, it's your feeling. And we're going to have to develop this ability to trust what is right for us. Well, that's a practice. I mean, I think there are, you know, and that's something that you have, I mean, I think there are, you know, and that's something that you have, you know, developed over many years by virtue of the things that you do. I feel like most people are pretty disconnected from who they are and they see in their Twitter feed and then adopting that philosophy and regurgitating it without really spending that time to reflect on the veracity of it or to develop that sense of interconnectedness with oneself

to have the acumen to understand whether that is resonating with you on a fundamental, very real way, or whether it's just some idea that you picked up in the atmosphere somewhere and decided to repeat. Right. It's true, but we have to begin now. And so for me, what's happening on the planet are things that I've been aware of for many years. And I've been the crazy person who has this perspective, but the gift of this is now we can really start to look at what is. So we can really see that in our society, there are a lot of forces that are not operating for the benefit of humanity. They are not what I

would call life-affirming agendas or intentions. And so it's about reclaiming our own power, understanding just how powerful the human being is who knows itself, who actually has a connection to source. And this goes back to developing a yoga practice, you know, starting to sit with yourself, going off of Twitter, you know, connecting with nature, starting to feel how you could cultivate loving compassion in every situation. How could you start to perceive all of life as sacred? Starting with yourself, which is very challenging because we have a lot of judgments about ourselves, our bodies, you know, I would say the internal dialogue of, you know, the average human or most humans is one of not kind communication. So we're usually telling our body like, we wish you weren't like that.

We wish you were different. You know, there's a lot of self-judgment. And so one of the techniques that I use and that I have used and I use with my clients and my spiritual community, Water Tiger, is we do mirror work. And so you actually sit in the mirror breathing and gazing into your eyes. And a lot of stuff comes up when you engage in that practice. Kamal Ravikant talked about that when he was on the podcast. That's like a core aspect of his Love Yourself program. Yeah, I think it might be one of the most powerful and one of the ones that is the most confrontational

for most people. So to actually look at what is a very powerful practice and technique. And in the beginning, you may feel all kinds of emotions. A lot of people cry, they see relatives who have been deceased. But after a while, after you get through the discomfort, you can start to really look at yourself in the truth of who you are and start to receive yourself as sacred, as something that's divine, that is alive for a purpose, and that is loved and valued by creation, you know, infinitely and eternally. And so, it's a powerful, powerful means. And one I recommend, and hopefully

everybody listening to this podcast has a mirror, and you can go meet yourself in the mirror. And what does that practice look like specifically? Well, you should be in a private area, you know, where you can be with yourself. You don't want to do it in a public bathroom? No. where the light is a little bit lower, to actually just sit and you would gaze into the third eye point between the eyes, relaxed and breathing connected to your breath and attempt to keep your eyes open. You won't be able to, your eyes will burn and you'll need to blink them, but at least intend to keep the eyes open and soften the gaze in that area and see what comes up for

you. And so I recommend starting off with maybe five minutes and then maybe increase that to 10 minutes and maybe journal and really observe and reflect on the emotions, you know, get in touch with how you're feeling about your physical. So the first stage is really developing an understanding of what is looping in your mind, right? Like first you have to be able to be objective about what that is before you can start to deconstruct it and, you know, construct a new narrative. Yeah. And also what emotions are you feeling? What does that bring up for you? You know, And also what emotions are you feeling?

What does that bring up for you? You know, what are the memories or the feelings or the attitudes or thoughts that come up for you when you sit and really receive yourself? And how does that look? There's a kernel of Zen Buddhism to this. the idea that the best way for you to be a force of positive good in the world is to reflect inward and focus on developing, you know, the best version of who you can possibly be, right? How do you square that with a sense or a call to take a stand on an issue or a feeling that, you know, this is a moment where we can't be quiet and we need to, you know, exert ourselves or have our voices be heard on some of these issues that culture is grappling with right now. So, I mean-

Because those are two different things. Right. I mean, by this practice, I'm not suggesting that we all go to the mirror and all of our problems will be solved and- Right. It's like being in the cave versus being in the world. No, no. So I think this is a really amazing opportunity for us to stop doing this human tendency, which wants to choose one way.

So we want to say this or that. What I'm going to say is this time is asking us to say yes and both. So both. So, both. So, what these practices do, this practice of mirror gazing, or I would highly recommend a yoga practice for everyone and anyone in any form you can get it. The practice of yoga will bring you into communion with the observer that is watching you in your life, and it will allow you to use the asanas, the practices, and also meditation to be in stillness into this place of neutrality, which is neutral, loving compassion. One thing that's confusing for us is a lot of times when we're a human who is in the doing, we reflect on the beingness as being irresponsible or opting out

or hiding in the cave. Or unproductive. Right, or unproductive. But what we're saying is that if you can be in neutral, loving compassion, which I always talk about being the Jedi, so you're in the Jedi, so you're merged with your awareness of source, but a lot of stuff can be happening from that state of awareness. So you can go to a protest in that state of awareness. You can express yourself. You can stand up and speak out for what you care about. But the ground of that is in a great vast anchoring of the nature of life, the totality of life. And this brings a point that I wanted to bring up that has really been present for me and is present for me in these

alchemical fire ceremonies that I light in the middle of the night and different practices that I engage in, and that is the aspect of the mystery of life. So we will never know the totality of life, of the choices that are made, of why certain souls choose different times to exit. You just never know. You and I are having this conversation. I could leave my body after this interview when I'm driving home. We don't know. No one has the capacity to know that. And so for me, there is great power in developing a reverence for the mystery of life, for understanding that everything is so fragile. It's not within my personality's choice to know what the highest outcome is. I can't see the vast play from the area of source or the vantage point of consciousness.

So there is a reverence, there's a devotion, and there's a giving over to that great mystery of life. And in that devotion and that commitment and returning to that communication over and over and over again, it provides a connection to something that is miraculous, that is beyond the solutions that we see in our culture today. There's always a wild card. There's always the miracle, the miraculous. And that is what I count on. See, what I think I do and what I think most humans do is I keep the fear at bay by trusting in structures and deluding myself into this idea that certain things have a permanence that they actually don't, right? Like we live in a democracy and this is the way the world works.

And this is what I do. And this is where I fit in. And with all of that, I feel safe and I can sleep at night. And what you're suggesting is to understand and step into a greater awareness of the Maya of all of that, right? Like these are all just mental constructs that we fabricate in our minds to make us feel okay.

But in truth, none of them are real. They're social contracts at best. And what we're seeing right now is a great kind of deconstruction and dismantling that's occurring in many different ways all across the globe. And that's fomenting a lot of fear because it's challenging people's ideas around the permanence of things

and the fragility of not just our own corporal, physical bodies with respect, vis-a-vis to this virus, but the planet's fragility in light of, you know, how humans have tread on it over the last couple hundred years, puts us all in a delicate headspace that makes us trigger happy when we open up our Twitter feeds, right?

Like we're like ready to pounce because we're not even consciously aware of the extent of the kind of fear that is created by that level of uncertainty, the growing awareness around that uncertainty. Yeah. Well, I mean, what we're really avoiding is death, right? I mean, ultimately, it all leads back to fear of death. That's where the treasure is right there. And so, the best thing that we could do is go face our death,

get clear with that, get as close to that as you can. Imagine what that is, face it, sit with it, commune with it. And again, these structures are really super helpful and also necessary in this life. Like it wouldn't be okay if we just ignored what was going on and laid on the couch and said, well, whatever. I don't like seeing humanity suffer. I want us to suffer less. I want there to be more love in the world. I'm going to do everything that I can to at least feed the lesser of the evils to try to break the fall as much as I can. because I am a modern woman. I'm a mother. I'm a wife. I'm a business owner. I'm in this world. I'm not in a cave on a mountain. I'm here. I'm here in the culture. But what I would say is that I feel that on social media and in the community and energetically, there is an agenda to separate us and tear us apart. I have family members that voted for Trump. I am not an advocate of him or

the energy that he represents. That might get me in trouble on your show. I don't know. But I have no problem saying that. People are going to come out. They're going to come after me now. People are going to come out. some form of curiosity so that I can understand why they had that perspective. We were talking about, we knew an individual who became a flat earther. And this individual, we have known him to be a kind and loving and meaningful member of our community. And so while I don't adhere to that, And so while I don't adhere to that, and that seems rather ridiculous to me, why is the response so aggressive and so canceling? It's the cancel culture. You know, whatever you say, you know, you're afraid to say anything because if you say something, then somebody will find some position that then cancels that perspective. And what I'm saying as a spiritually devoted person, what I know is that life is diverse and there are billions of perspectives, not only in our cultures, but in the universes, in the multiverses. And so it's unintelligent to cancel another perspective. That is not a life affirmingirming energy or position or, I guess, emotion. So what I think would be very, very healing for us as a culture would be to be in awe and wonder and to ask people, how did you get to that perspective? And what are your life experiences? And what do you you fear and what do you love in life and what have you suffered from?

Why did you make that choice? Yeah, I mean, I think the kind of compassionate, healthy response to somebody who's offering an opinion or a worldview with which you disagree with is to say, tell me more, right? Like, how can I engage that person from a perspective of really with is to say, tell me more, right? Like, you know, how can I engage that person from a perspective of really genuinely trying to understand not just that idea, but what led them to that idea

is always a better tactic than attacking. But I think to play devil's advocate a little bit, because everything feels so fractured right now, there is at least, and I'm speaking only for myself, but I'm witnessing this more broadly, there's this desire to figure out where solid ground is. And when somebody is out there advocating for something that's so patently and blatantly

and obviously counter to the truth, the vigorous reaction to that, I think comes from a place of a desire that like truth matters, facts matter. And in this world where everybody's screaming at each other, like it is important what's real and what isn't. And we need to be able to come together and agree on a certain idea.

A certain realness. Yeah, because otherwise we're lost. But the thing- So that's my response. This is an argument that we've had. And you're like, well, let's just, everybody has their own, everybody's right from their own perspective. And I'm like, okay, but the earth is not flat.

And so why are we giving that person as much credence as the person who says, no, the world is not flat. Well, we're maybe not, but maybe we're- You know we shouldn't be doing that. But maybe we're just not being unkind or canceling- Okay, I grant you that. Or violent against that life form. That individual need not be canceled

and eradicated from society, but perhaps they could be better educated about what's going on. Maybe loved into another perspective. And it's kind of similar how we are with plant-based eating is I've created almost 500 recipes in the plant-based world. And I have a lot of friends that are not plant-based and I don't come at them with judgment or preaching to them

or showing them pictures of violence. I just be loving and keep cooking amazing foods and keep making amazing cheese. So my point is, it's feeling very much like in our culture, we have different views about different things. And there's a lot of very intense things going on right now. Like we should all be very paying attention right now. It is not a moment to go to sleep. Right, but it's also not a time to be reactive and out of balance.

It's a time to really cultivate that inner Jedi warrior. Well, and then the danger of that is that we've gone on social media and posted a bunch of things and commented and said all this stuff. And then we feel within ourselves that we've done this great public service. But the question is, have you really? What is really going on on social media? Who are we actually really connecting with? Who is agreeing with you? Do you even know the quality of that life form that thinks you're so amazing? And so it's a very kind of crazy world that we're

in and you and I are products of that. And I have a community, a spiritual community, Water Tiger, which I got completely through social media. And we do have a subscription community where we go deeper and discuss these kinds of things. But, you know, overall, I'm sure like many, like most of us, I have very mixed emotions about the whole platform of social media. And is it really helping us? I kind of feel like I'm gambling and thinking I'm winning

and I'm probably not winning. Of course not. Well, we both watched the social dilemma and people that watch or listen to this podcast know that I just did a whole podcast with Adam Skolnick where we kind of broke down that movie and shared our perspectives. But yeah, it's disturbing and disheartening

when you pull back the curtain and you have a better understanding of how these platforms function and operate, the extent to which we are the product and we are being mined and manipulated to such a vast extent. And at the same time, both you and I have cultivated and crafted careers that support our family as a result of these platforms. So it's not necessarily a black or white thing, but it does, you know, that movie has really reshaped the relationship that I wanna have with these platforms.

And, you know, you've been saying this forever, but I'm more mindful of this now than ever, this idea that like when you have an instinct to share something, it's like, okay, why am I doing this for what purpose? Like, what is the greater good or what is the aspiration behind doing this? Like, what is the why behind why you feel compelled to put something up on one of these platforms?

Yeah, and I mean, maybe I need to be a little bit more like you because I'm quite sensitive and, you know, go into darkness to find my connection in the middle of the night. And there's a lot of times I'm supposed to post content. I just can't do it. Like, it's not in my body. I can't, I've tried to get on like a schedule so that I'm consistent. You know, you've- I've never done that.

You've been such an amazing consistent, but I mean, with your podcast. Yeah, but now like I really just, I use it to share new episodes of the podcast. It's pretty rare that I use it for anything other than that. And unless I just feel, I wake up and I feel like, oh, I have something cool that might be helpful that I feel good and I feel like sharing it,

but I don't feel compelled to just be, you know, sharing my life all the time on there. I don't think that's healthy. I mean, you were in the early days, but not now. Yeah, so, and the other thing is, is it's not just that we've built, you know, a career. We have thousands of people that we have had deep, meaningful life experiences through.

So social media for you and me has not been a light thing. It's been a very deep thing. Yeah, and I've met incredible people as a result of it. And a lot of the guests that I've gotten on the podcast, I've been able to do that because of social media. Yes, yeah. So it's tricky. It's tricky, but I think now that we have a greater perspective,

it's up to us to choose to use the tool and make sure that we're not being used by the tool. So it's- Well, we're being used by it no matter what. If you're using it, you're being used by it. That's the truth, right? And that's the disturbing reality. But I mean the level or the extent. Right.

But I think the pernicious aspect of it is that when you think you have a healthy relationship with it, you're still not fully aware of the extent to which you're being manipulated and used by it. And that was the real message of that movie. Like, even if you think like, oh, all I do is do this, or I do, you know, that's not what's going on here. Yeah. You know, it's a much darker reality. And the, you know, I just, I know for myself, the solution isn't to just, you know,

basically delete all my accounts, because this is how we make a living and communicate with the world. So how do you do that in a safer and healthier way? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, a few months ago, I hired Ollie, a friend that had come on a Plant Power Atelier retreat, and he's been creating an online platform for a subscription that wouldn't be even part of Squarespace. It would be its own sovereign technical platform. And that's not a replacement for social media,

but it has been in my awareness of the fact that there may be a world in not too far off future where we have our content on our own individual platforms. Well, I'm in the process of putting that together as well. I mean, you have Water Tiger. I've teased this out. I haven't talked about it at length, but this fall on an undisclosed date,

because we're still building it right now, I'm gonna be launching a subscription service. And a big part of it is for that very reason. I wanna take these communities, not offline, but off of these platforms where it's a safer, healthier environment for the people who are interested in the things that I care about and that I speak to on the show and beyond

to gather and commune in a way that where they're, you know, they're not being data mined and they're not being manipulated in that way. Yeah, we hope so. We hope we can create that. Yeah. Well, let's take a quick break and we'll be back with more. Well, let's shift gears a little bit.

We have a little bit of a show and tell here. If you're watching this on video, you can see like all this plant-based cheese here. But before we even get into the latest with Shreemu, I think one thing that gets lost in your story as somebody who's been on this podcast a million times and is always sharing deep thoughts and these spiritual practices is the fact that, and you

alluded to it a minute ago, the fact that you're like this serial entrepreneur and always have been, like you're a powerful business woman, like setting aside Shreemu, which we're going to get into. I mean, you had, you know, this garment line for years and years and years, like pre-internet where you were doing direct to consumer before it was a thing. And you had this robust interior design business. Like you've had a lot of chapters in your business career that have delivered you to this place to, you know, create this new venture that you're working on right now. So I thought it would be cool to share that side of you a little bit, because that, I don't know that we've really fully explored that on the podcast. Yeah, cool. Thanks for that. It's kind of interesting to hear you describe me like that.

Thank you so much. I received that. You're a startup founder. I kind of am. No, I actually am. You've had multiple startups. My main mission. Well, okay. So, Rich is going to judge me because I have a business degree from an inferior university. I don't have a business degree at all. But you went to really good schools. I went to Arizona State, everyone. Hey, man. And I have a business degree.

I actually went there because I was frozen after having been raised in Alaska. So I think I just entered like a certain climate into this computer and it gave me these options. And I'm going there, it's dry and hot. Yeah, I was like, I'm going to where the sun shines every day. And I didn't have good SAT scores or anything like that. So anyway, I went to Arizona State. I had never been to Arizona.

And within that four year period, I also lived in France for six months, which was a phenomenal experience where I learned to speak French fluently and created a whole community there that was amazing. But I came back and graduated from business school with a degree in international marketing. And the crazy thing is, is that my mom, so she's from Chile, and she was from a sort of high society part of life there. And her father left her mother when she was 16 years old and he was a healer like I was and moved to the South

and spent his days out actually as a healer. He was very much like me and I never met him, but she would always tell me, my father would have loved you. Like we're very alike. His name was Ernesto. So my mom really wanted me to have business nailed. And my dad ended up marrying her. Because of that instability? Yeah, that instability and the fact, you know, she then supported her mom and her sister and she spoke English quite well. and she became a secretary. And then

that's how she ended up meeting my dad eventually, and they moved to the United States. He was a Texan who was down mapping the jungles. He was mapping the jungles of the Amazon. My mother was engaged to an American engineer, and this engineer drowned a month before their wedding. And my father was his replacement. It's a crazy story. Crazy story. Like somebody has got to make a movie about it someday. But anyway. And he's a bush pilot, hunter, fisherman from Amarillo, Texas. So it's very much a green acres thing. Like he meets this kind of high society Chilean woman

and takes her back. Did they go back to Texas first or Colorado? Yeah, they went to Texas first. And like, there was a big article about my mom in the paper because she was like the first Latin- It's like this exotic creature. Yeah, exotic creature that had arrived. It was sort of like, you know,

they'd found the dinosaur bones or whatever. Yeah, and then they moved to Colorado and she gave birth to five children. I'm her youngest and I'm named for her mother. And so I'm Julie Rosado, named after Julia Rosado. And your mom had a dress shop for years and years and years in Anchorage, right? Yes, 30 years. So is that where you first learned business?

Yeah. So I went to East Anchorage High School and my mom had a dress shop and I was way overdressed every day of high school because I would just open the boxes up and take like the best looking thing that happened to be there. So I worked with her and I would go on buying trips with her to L.A. And she really wanted me to learn business. And when I got my high school transcripts, I always took like business law or real estate law. You could take that in high school? I didn't have classes like that in high school. East Anchorage High was really amazing.

You should have seen what was going on there. Wow, that's quite something. So when I went, I realized from my high school transcripts, I had only ever taken one art class, Wow. That's quite something. tool again until I was like 20, in my late 20s. I had become, so I went to Arizona State, lived in Paris, then graduated. And my sister was working in the garment business, my sister Vicki. In LA. In LA. And I didn't know what I was going to do, but I had no intention of going to LA. And she introduced me to this guy named Michael Bush. And he was a garment salesperson and he interviewed me and hired me. So I came to LA and went right to downtown to the LA Martin, started working. And he taught me how to sell.

He said, this is what you do. You show the line and then you look at the buyer and you say, can I have the paper? It was like you asked them very directly for the papers. So I said, okay. So we had this show and I did exactly what he asked me to do. And I handed him like $100,000 worth of business. And he was like, what did you just do? And I was like, well, I just did what you asked me to do. And so instantly a salesperson was born and I ended up having this amazing experience in garments. I worked for the notorious Alan Schwartz who owned ABS, which are some of the most hilarious and-

He's like king of the knockoffs. Yeah, and yeah, quite an extraordinary eccentric person, but much sexual harassment and things going on during those years. Yeah, it was a big, like if that was happening, I mean, the Me Too aspect of that world is out of control. I could have sued so many people. I mean, I was locked in my showroom at different times, not by Alan. This was a different boss. But anyway, so I ended up becoming the West Coast

sales manager for Shelly Siegel, who's an amazing designer, lovely, lovely human being. Do you remember the actor Robbie Benson? Yeah. That's his sister. So she was quite talented. She designed a line called Laundry and Shelly used to invite me in to edit her line. She wouldn't let anybody else in. And so in my late 20s, I decided to go back to fashion design school as a professional. And I got my fashion design degree in a year. And I picked up a pencil and discovered that I had a natural talent for drawing that I never knew. And I was so bummed because I felt like I spent all of these years of my life not developing what I'm made to do. But in the end, it worked out because I had

both business and creative. I was able to get up to speed creatively more quickly. So, I created my own fashion line and I took it to iMagnon and sold it and got on the cover of their Christmas catalog and that launched my collection. Julie Pyatt Collection. Julie Pyatt Collection, right. And it hung in bridge and I was hanging with it. What does that mean, hung in bridge? It's lingo for being in the garment industry. It's basically like it's not super cheap, but it's not designer.

It's like a bridge line. So it's between. And I hung with lines like Anna Sui, Mark Eisen, DK, Calvin Klein, which is called CK. So I was in this really beautiful section. And like everything, which is kind of cool that you're asking me about this, is when I create something, I usually do it pretty luxuriously. And so rather than starting with a t-shirt or something that was simple, I designed 36 piece jackets with like crystal buttons from Austria. So when you're making that in LA,

there are like 12 subcontractors that have to touch that jacket before it emerges. And so it was a very complex business that I ended up going into. Well, the hilarious thing, I mean, first of all, it's worth saying, like everyone knows you as like this cookbook author

and this person who's created all these recipes, but it's fascinating to hear that the roots of this are in a completely different industry. And you've told stories over the years of just how insane the fashion industry is. Like no other business would function the way that this functions. Like you would come up with this design and you'd create the pattern and then you take it to these various subcontractors and

say, this is how I want it. This is how you sew it. This is how it goes. And then they would just return it to you completely different. Like if you say, I want A, they just give you Z and then they look at you blankly. Like, what are you, and you're like, this is not what I ordered. And they're like, well, this is what it is. Oh, it's highly complex. I mean, you can't even do that. First of all, you're a small manufacturer. And so they're sewing companies that are massive. So you have to go in and develop a personal relationship with the subs to somehow convince them to sew your small lot. Because it's just not worth their time. It's not worth it. Yeah. So it's all personal. And if you leave them, I remember the first time I lied to the buyer at iMagnet and told her that I was like,

had full production facilities. I'd never produced one thing in my entire life. So I had the order, which was a good problem to have. And they don't pay you ahead of time, right? No. They're like, we want this many of this, and then it's on you to go and create it. Yeah. It's usually net 30. They don't pay you until way later, if at all. Actually, if they pay you, if they pay you. That's the other thing, like they don't even pay you.

No, it's crazy. And you have to watch it every step of the way. I remember being in South Central and dropping off my first lot and I was just driving away hoping like, I hope this place doesn't start on fire. Like it's there in the morning and you have to check in with them

because if they're sewing a thousand blouses and they're sewing the left blouse, the left sleeve to the right armhole, like, that's a big problem. So, you have to catch it before. So, there's a lot. There's so much that goes into garment production, especially when you're a small person, small manufacturer. I learned so much from that experience. And I was basically me and one part-time employee who was my pattern maker. It was a lot of work that I put in. Yeah. And you were in some of the other stores too, not just iMagnet. No, I was in all the bridge stores. So I was in Fred Siegel, Nordstrom,

all the bridge stores. So I was in Fred Siegel, Nordstrom, Barneys, Macy's, Bergdorf Goodman, Imagnon, Saks. Like I was legit. Right. But it's a classic example. Like you have this idea like, oh, well, if you're in all these stores, you must be crushing it, right? And meanwhile, you're like dying. No, it took me six years actually to learn that all the guys, all the men that came to work in Ferraris were leveraged to the hilt. Like they actually didn't have the money to own that Ferrari. It's all lifestyle presentation. Yeah, it's all like smoking mirrors sort of type thing. And I mean, some people really hit it big, but you got to stay in, you know, got to be in and relentless.

And it never stops. Like even everything's old the minute you put in, you know, got to be in and relentless and it never stops. Like even everything's old the minute you put in the showroom, it's old. So you have to go right back to the design board. And it's this very manic, relentless, you know, pressure of having to be innovative. I remember years and years ago, there was a documentary about Isaac Mizrahi. Do you remember that documentary? I think I do. And that was my introduction to kind of a glimpse behind the scenes of what the fashion industry is really like.

And what I recall, it was so long ago, but I do remember being amazed at how manic it was. And like, you just can't breathe for a second because you're always, the next line and the next line and it always has to be different and different and different. And it's incredible that anybody succeeds because it's just a recipe for burnout, right? And the other thing I think is unique, that's unique to this business and

correct me if I'm wrong, is that in most businesses, you can kind of just grow slowly and organically, you know, just like every year, a little bit better, a little bit better. But in fashion, slowly and organically, you know, just like every year, a little bit better, a little bit better. But in fashion, you could take your line to a certain point, but you're just going to be starving and manic forever unless you get a massive infusion of capital to then get over the hump and become like a Tommy Hilfiger, right? Like that doesn't happen by increments. It only happens with like gigantic cash infusions. That's the only way that you can grow. It really is.

It's very, very treacherous and requires more energy, more consistent energy and sort of this relentless mania in order to get to that place. And the reason that I made a decision to close my company- Well, before we even get to that, you make this pivot to doing it direct to consumer. Oh, yeah. Let's talk about that. Because I think that informs the sensibility behind Shreemu also. Like pre-internet, you just decide, I'm going to circumvent all these stores and I'm just going to go right

to the customer. And how do you even do that in an era when it's all about retail? Yeah, it was so interesting. So I just, what happened is during, okay, so I was doing Julie Pye Collection and selling all those stores. And then Priscilla Presley came to me, which is another part of my history.

A friend of mine was saying like, I hope you're putting this in your book. Like I almost forget. Priscilla came to me through another producer that I knew and she asked me to co-design a line with her for home shopping network. And I really like Priscilla a lot. She's quite a beautiful woman and I really, really enjoyed her. And so I was like, okay, this is a great opportunity, you know, and I spent six months with her. We worked together diligently for about a six-month period and the contracts were being drawn up.

And the night before I was supposed to sign the contract, I started vomiting. And everything in my body was like, you cannot do this arrangement. And I called her at home and told her that I was unable to sign the agreement. And the reason was, the resistance was what? The resistance was, is that she was this celebrity and I was doing all the work. It was basically like I was going to have to bleed like we just talked about, right? And she was going to get all the credit. And she also had a manager that would brief me on how I should speak to her. So like every time I would talk to her, he would call me and say, don't like, don't talk about it like that. Say it like this. And I was young and fiery and it just really made

me angry that he would talk to me like that. And I just was like, it was more like that thing that I was talking about in the beginning. It was in my body. Like my mind didn't know because who wouldn't want to be partners with Priscilla Presley? And I liked her a lot. So my body finally got to this point was like, uh-uh, you cannot do this. It's almost like if I had done it, it would have made me sick. And when I called her to tell her, she was just like, no, no, Julie, like we can work it out. We can work it out. And I was like, I said to her, I said, I'm an artist. Like, I'm not interested in doing a line that you have your name on. I'm like, I'm the one that's going to be bleeding. That's going to be doing all this work. I was like, I want to do it for me. And so I gave her my line free. I said, take the line. I don't want anything. She went on air. She went on air. She did.

She went on air once and then that she never did it anymore. And I ran into her recently at the Humane Society, well, some years ago. And I was able to go up and say hi to her. I was like, do you remember me? She's like, yes, I remember you. So it was sweet to see her. So how does that then translate into this pivot?

It's like this trunk show thing that you started to do. Okay, so if you're in stores, it's a big markdown dance. Once you get your foot in the door and you're sort of in the department, then it becomes like if they don't sell enough, then they hit you back with what you didn't sell. So it's this really deal with the devil. Like it's never clear. It's never fair. And you're always at the disadvantage. Like leasing a car or going into the devil. Like it's never clear. It's never fair. And you're always at the

disadvantage. Like leasing a car or going into the casino. Like it's stacked against you. Or you're paying for shelf space and then you're paying, you know, it's just, it sort of feels like you can not find any way out of it. And at the time, you know, and still today, I had a really strong network of people that I'm connected with, and they loved my stuff. And so I had this crazy idea. I was like, what if I call my six best friends in these major cities around the country? I'll ask them to bring 50 people to their homes. I'll get a model.

I'll do a size range of muslinslins and I'll fly in and do a presentation and I'll charge them 100% of the order upfront and I'll drop ship it to their offices 12 weeks later. What's interesting about that is that it sounds like an idea that would work now, but at the time that just was insane. Nobody was doing that. And I'm sure everybody told you, but at the time, that just was insane. Nobody was doing that. And I'm sure everybody told you, nobody's going to pay for that. Nobody's going to do that.

I don't even know. I mean, I had this beautiful Southern model named Nancy Green, and I did this whole presentation that included a video of I Love Lucy modeling in Paris. I can't remember exactly what my shtick was, but I opened up the evening with these 50 women showing them this video and then talking about fashion. And it worked actually quite well. I had no problem selling in advance, 12 weeks in advance.

My issue was when I got back from this world tour, this six- How many cities did you go to? I did like six cities total. I worked so hard and I was pregnant with Trapper at the time. So, I was a pregnant woman basically doing it and had a one-year-old at home. So, I remember I would come home after working and take a bath and just have to breathe to get myself back into the energy because I would go out in the evening and do these trunk shows because I had to, then I produced the inventory and I had to sell into it and it was just me.

So it was an extreme amount of effort. What I didn't factor in is that it would take me, I had now a thousand orders to process where otherwise you would get like one sheet of order with a bunch of styles, right? And the other thing I realized is that I lost all of my profit in the extra sizes that nobody bought. So like you get the person and they're like, you know, I want the pant in a 12 in pink. And as a designer, you're like thinking, you're not going to wear that pant in pink. What I should have said is you're forbidden to wear that pant in pink, but I didn't. So what happens is you try to produce for everybody and then you lose the profit is in just those. Right. Because unless you're doing it at some level of scale, when you're doing one-offs,

you're never going to get out from under. And I did everything from t-shirts to evening gowns and fake fur jackets. I would go to LAX in my Jeep and pick up fake fur from Germany and drive it on the roof of my car to the studio. Like the amount of commitment that it takes to do that, you have to be young and insane. And so anyway, I did that for about a year and then I burnt out and I read Calvin Klein's autobiography and Donna Karan's autobiography and I realized that this was never going to stop. It doesn't matter how big you get or how successful, it's still like this crazy manic. Exactly. And I was like, I can't. And I had been picked up by a very reputable accounting firm who was supposed to be guiding me. And I had done a big fashion show at the Pacific Design Center. And I had over 100 styles in that show.

By the way, I had women from the real estate community that I knew modeling for me. I had some professional models, but I also brought real people into the show. And it was this beautiful night. And I remember my father's jaw was on the floor. He couldn't believe that I had done all of that. One of the times that he was so proud of me. But I was pregnant with Trapper. And I walked out on the runway at the end with Tyler in my arms and Trapper in my belly.

And I had just managed this like Herculean thing. And so after Trapper was born, you know, I don't know, maybe six months after he was born, I made the decision to close the company because I was like, I just can't do it. And I was heartbroken, literally. And I was heartbroken, literally. I got sick for like four weeks and I had left with like $150,000 debt. Like when the train stops and everything hits the wall and the whole thing. It all catches up with you.

And I was so unseasoned in business that I took that so personally that I couldn't repay some of those things. And I would go see my subs and they would say, Julie, it's okay. Like, this is business. You're going to be back. Like, it's fine. But it literally was like really soul crushing. So when you look back on that, do you have any regrets? Do you ever imagine what it would have been like? Like, let's say somebody did come in and say, here's, you know, I love what you're doing.

You just need structure and you need help. Like here's X number of dollars to get you rolling and hire staff and create some infrastructure here. Yeah, I mean, I was a prolific designer, literally never out of creative ideas. And my line was beautiful. When I look at photos today, it's still beautiful. It's not like it was a fad. It just wasn't meant to be. And I guess the silver lining for me is that when I did close the company and went through like a four-week collapse,

after that, I found yoga and I started practicing yoga. Even though I was still spiritually connected because we were following Deepak Chopra's seven laws of spiritual success. Like I had my team and my people, we were always inspiring them in that kind of way, like altruistic living. And you did Tony Robbins a bunch of times. Oh yeah, I did Tony Robbins during,

I did all Tony Robbins programs, all the mastery, financial mastery, Unleash the Giant Within, whatever it is. I fire walked with him. I fire walked with him totally. It was great. My partner in those was Chuck Norris's sidekick on the show.

His name's, is his name Clarence? I don't remember. Anyway, super fun. He was my partner in one of the advanced programs. So it was really cool, but literally broke my heart. After that, I became a house contractor and I built a home that overlooks all of Malibu. That's the highest point. That was the home that I had with the boy's dad. And then after that, I built the home that you and I are in now. So, and everybody was like, oh, building, isn't that stressful? I was like, no, it's just one house. It's not 10,000 sleeves. So, I had, you know, a really- The idea that building a house would be simpler

than manufacturing a line of clothing. Way simpler. Ironic and hilarious. Yeah, way, way, way simpler. And I love it. And if anybody gets a chance to do that, it's a wonderful, wonderful experience. I really loved it.

Well, I think what's great about those stories that you just shared is that they all inform kind of what you're doing now. And people will look at you and say, those stories that you just shared is that they all inform kind of what you're doing now. And people will look at you and say, oh, now she's the Doyenne of vegan cheese, but look what backed it up. Like there's a whole career, decades of experience

that you garnered doing difficult things in the business world and succeeding and failing and trying again. So when you look back, when you reflect on those experiences, what did you learn that has informed your approach to, you know, SriMu and what you're doing now? Well, I mean, I think what I've learned is that in order to create something that's very powerful,

the vision has to be very unified, like very, very true and very real. So I knew when I was creating Shreemu, it was sort of had to be this expression of beautiful design, highest quality, purest ingredients, and really done in the way where I consider Shreemu to be a beauty brand. We haven't seen it. There's more going to be coming. Cheese is leading, but it's really a beauty brand. I'm offering Shreemu as an invitation to a beautiful life. And that beautiful life comes from eating a high vibrational, not cheese product, which I call the next evolution of cheese. So I'm

not asking us to give up our love of cheese. I've just made it better. So it's better for our health, our bodies. It's better for the animals. It's better for the planet. And it's ultimately better for our children. And so for me, meeting Brian O'Hara, who is the amazing artist who did this coding, which I have these tattoos go out with Shreemu shipments. And this coding, Brian has written backwards and read backwards his entire life. And so he developed this branding for me. This says devotional offering. This is what is within this coding. And it's part of my label and my brand. And so I guess for me, it's like I had to start at the peak of the artistic expression, knowing that this is a global brand.

And I have over 40 recipes of cheese where I can tell you anyone that ate them would be, you know, falling on the floor in ecstasy or being very excited about the flavors. But Shreemu now is at the top of that. And then as I go, there will be more mass products and there's many more aspects of the business and the vision. So perhaps I'm overestimating how aware the audience is about what you are doing at the moment. Probably is worth providing a little bit of background. So you co-authored a couple of cookbooks with me, which were really your cookbooks.

Like my name is on them. Let's just be honest. For being honest, like you, in solidarity with my decision to go plant-based and train for these races, you showed up and infused our kitchen with a tremendous amount of creativity to initially to support me, but then it became its own creative inspiration for you.

The result of that is everything that we've co-created together, including the Plant Power Way cookbook, the Plant Power Way Italia cookbook, which is a nod to the retreats that we do where we take these groups of people to this beautiful agriturismo in Tuscany and have a seven-day experience of food and meditation and community. And in addition to that, you authored another book called This Cheese is Nuts. You became obsessed with trying to figure out

how to create plant-based cheese. And this was many years ago, this wasn't yesterday. And you basically went into the kitchen, treated it like a lab and set about cracking the code on trying to create like the next evolution, the next level of what a plant-based cheese could taste like. Because at the time, there were plenty of brands in the store, most of them not so good.

Most of them taste kind of the same, relatively bland. And you thought there's gotta be a better way to do this. And over many years and a lot of experimentation, you really figured, I have to say, like you completely figured it out I have to say, like, you completely figured it out and you created this book, which basically tells people how to do this themselves at home. You continue to iterate and learn and experiment and grow. And then it got to this place where people were like, well, I love the book, but you know, I'm just never going to do this at home.

Like, can you just make, because you would make it and we would bring it to dinner parties or we would share it with friends and people would just flip out. Like they would just lose their minds. They just couldn't believe that there wasn't dairy in this cheese. Cause this isn't just, this isn't like American slices of cheese.

This is like high end, very fine artisanal wheels of cheese that are reminiscent of, you know, the Parisian flavors that you're so familiar with, whether it's a brie or a camembert or those kinds of exotic, very cheesy iterations of cheese. And people would say like, just can you just make, like, I'll buy it. Like, I'm never gonna, I'm too busy.

I'm not gonna make this. Will you just make it? And you were like, I'm not gonna do that. But then, you know, it dawned on you at some point, I'm interested at what that point was, where you just decided, okay, maybe I can do this. And you set about like creating this line of cheese called Shreemu, which is now a full-fledged startup. We're going to get into what's happening currently with it, but you've turned it into this really beautiful direct-to-consumer product line.

Yeah. So, well, it took, yeah, thanks. I Yeah, so- Super proud of you. Yeah, thanks. I mean, it took, first of all, I mean, I have friends of mine that live in Paris half the time, Lucy and Jan Welters, and he's a fashion photographer, she's a stylist, and they eat French cheese. Like, they speak French, their kids speak French. Like, they live in Paris half the time,

and they were freaking out over my cheese. So they would just be, you know, inhaling it saying, you have to make this, you have to make this. And, you know, I took a long time, you know, I have to say, I had a lot of pain over what I attempted or what I experienced with Julie Pye Collection. I was like, I know what production is. I'm not at a loss at what that is. And I started to sort of meditate on what it would take to launch this food company. And quite frankly, it's a lot simpler. It's a lot more direct. And it has a greater capacity to make a global impact that will be a legacy for me. I mean, something that would actually transform people's lives from within their kitchens. And I've done that with my cookbooks. And I know that food is an energy, recipes are an energy. And I believe that when I infuse these

recipes with my love of source connection that this somehow makes it into whoever is eating the food. And so with Shreemu, the vision was to make a beautiful brand that was crafted in devotion with the best ingredients and was made with the purest intentions. So truly, truly made for the purpose of supporting animals, supporting creating more love on the earth, supporting our bodies. I have a very sensitive stomach. I can't eat dairy. I can't eat a handful of nuts. I mean, I can eat dairy, but I have a stomach ache after. So let's be clear, you know, before when I wasn't vegan. But even if I eat a handful of nuts, I have a stomach ache right away. So working with these cheeses and curing them and soaking them and adding the cultures and processing them, I never had a stomach ache any of the time. And I was absolutely stunned at the quality of cheese experience that I've been able to create.

And the reason I think that I was able to create it is that I literally worked on my own in an experience of exploration. And I just went for it and tried things. There were a lot of fails before I figured it out, but I've really figured it out. Yeah. Well, a couple of things. The first thing is there were a lot of people who said, well, why don't you just go to the farmer's market and set up your booth and like sell it? And you're like, I'm not doing that. Like I did a version of that when I had my fashion line. I'm not interested in that. I'm only interested in creating something that I can scale. And secondarily, there's this idea

when you raise the issue of like a plant-based cheese, people immediately think fake cheese and their mind turns to all these processed chemicals that a lot of these companies use as binders to create the flavor and the texture that people are used to with cheese, right? And that's like a hurdle that you've had to address and overcome because there is none of that in what you do. I mean, there's actually very few ingredients in this product. Yeah, they're very pure. This is not a gooey, creepy vegan cheese that tastes horrible that you want to

gag. It's very pure and authentic. And I think if I, you know, what I've learned as a designer, you know, you asked, what did you learn? Well, I think what we learn as designers or painters or fashion designers or writers is you get to a level of maturity where you understand that less is more. In fact, it's the simplicity that makes something extraordinary. And so if my recipes stand for anything, they stand for the ability to be simply showcasing what mother nature provides with some alchemy and design and flair and definitely taste. But it's really in the simplicity of what is done and trying to preserve purity in the product.

Yeah. So one of the things that really struck me about this journey that you've been on is that you really took your time. Like you for months and months and months were in this incubation phase where I would be like, are you ever gonna like introduce this to the world? But you were very patient.

Like you really wanted to be sure about the name and what was the mission statement and how are you going to package these things and what recipes were you going to lead with? And to me, I just thought, just make a decision and start doing this. Like, what are you waiting for? Now I see in retrospect that paying off because the level of like care and intentionality that you invested in making sure that you were making those decisions correctly for you and what you really want. Like, I guess what I'm saying is you were like,

I could do it many different ways, but I don't wanna look back on this five years from now and say, why did I do it this way? I should have done it this way. And I think I would, you know, I'm projecting, but I would suspect a lot of that was informed by not wanting to end up where you ended up with Julie Pyatt Collection,

where you were in this manic thing and not enjoying your life. Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's not lost on me what production entails. And, you know, the other thing is the amount of waste that is incurred during fashion production. And so I had to think and really meditate on this long and hard, whether

I really wanted to step into this space. And I would say the driving factor that really, really made the decision for me is the opportunity that I have to make a global impact. And I saw how food transforms our lives. when people are cooking out of our cookbooks, we're literally living in their kitchens. They're eating the same food. And food is also a ritual. It's also a ceremony. And so I really truly know that all of the intentions and hopes and dreams and visions that I have for humanity, for the earth, for the animals are really in these cheeses. It's really true for me. Had I not had that spiritual aspect, I would have never done it. I don't need to just do a business to feel, you know, to see my name on a label. This is truly a mission for me. And in my experience,

because I'm an artist, I needed for my own alignment to start with a product that was at the pinnacle of what I could do. So I wanted to create the most extraordinary that I could, to create the most extraordinary that I could, knowing that there will be future sublines. You know, the world is vast and there's, you know, I have a Velveeta substitute that will just slay. I mean, it's amazing. So if I can go all the way in the different levels and fully intend to, and already have all those recipes proven and tested. Yeah, but you come out of the gate with the highest of the high end. It's the Tesla model,

like Elon Musk first introduces this like Lotus car that was like, I think it was like $250,000, that first car that Tesla came out with. But the idea was you come out with that and then each iteration, you start to work your way down until you get to scale and are able to produce something that's widely affordable. Right. But it's that same idea. Like you set the brand tone with the highest caliber version of what you can possibly produce.

Definitely. And also just for me as a being, as an artist, I had to do it this way. And the only thing that's different is that unlike Tesla, I didn't have a financial team on board. So basically what I did is I guessed at what the box was going to cost me to produce, having never had a production kitchen or a paid workers' comp or- Before we even get to that, what was the decision? Walk me through the decision to make this a direct-to-consumer product rather than taking it to the supermarkets. I think it is informed by my experience of fashion, of not wanting to be in a markdown paid shelf space experience.

With 20 middlemen all taking a cut. Exactly. And also the other thing that I really cherish is the communication with the community. So the ability to actually speak to global issues, speak to spiritual issues, speak to health issues and have a dialogue with this group of people. So for me, it's about sort of calling all these souls together so that we can collect our energies and then all go out and make a better world, create a brighter world. So it was really that community aspect, the community aspect around food that really informed my decision to go subscription with this product. Right. So you make these top level decisions. You're able to raise like an angel round of funding to get you up on your feet and rolling. You get into a commercial kitchen space in

downtown Los Angeles. You hire a bunch of people and you're rocking and rolling and you're starting to build your subscription base and make a name for yourself and then boom, pandemic. COVID. Yeah. So how has this experience impacted you as a business person and how you're trying to manage throughout all of this? Yeah, it's been challenging and I'm extremely blessed that we are an essential business because we are a food business. And also, we are perfectly positioned for home delivery to actually offer this cheese experience into people's individual homes or into their safe community bubbles. So as a category, I see it as an opportunity. Of course, we experienced shipping failure with UPS and FedEx with them not guaranteeing shipments at all. And then they failed to ship over three months 20% of our shipments.

The shipping has just been insane. It's been insane. Seeing you try to figure out how to untie that knot. Right. It's been insane. It's been insane. Seeing you try to figure out how to untie that knot. Right. And of course, because I created this, you know, high-end box that weighs quite a lot. And one thing I did do right is, you know, I chose the box size.

And after a lot of research and going back and analyzing the size, I really chose the right size. Like there isn't a different configuration that would have made it cheaper. It's all about scale, really. And also packing products that actually can keep the product colder for a longer period of time. So during COVID, we've been shipping literally overnight

to make sure that people receive their shipments because it's just been about making sure they receive. So going forward, we have different packing rating materials that keep the package cold for three to four days. So that changes a lot for us. But one thing that I want to share is I found out, I hired a financial analyst. So what I did is I was already in this process before COVID hit, doing a lot of research, meeting with every single expert and genius that I know, just getting people's feedbacks on financial decks and on strategies and these type of things. And then COVID hit and I hired a financial analyst and

we've spent all these months going through every single cent, every line item, every process. And what we discovered is that I was undercharging for my box. So for the sacred altar box, I was charging $130 just because I was like, well, I kind of did it on a paper and was like, maybe that's the price. And what we've discovered looking at the margins and everything else is that that box is actually $174. So I want to mention that anybody that has a current existing subscription of Shreemu and has supported me, we are going to grandfather those rates in for you as long as you keep your subscription current. But then I moved to, I wanted to offer some more products. So what I did is I created a four-wheel box and then a three-wheel box. And you don't get the fresh flavor. So there's fresh mozzarella that comes in a jar that's-

In the big box. In the big box, in water. And then there's the smoked almond cheddar, which is not your grandma's cheese ball. It's like insanely good. But the wheels you can get in the three wheel or the four wheel. And so we're very excited. We're actually launching with the three and four wheel. The three wheel is $88 and the four wheel is $117.

And I've got two new flavors also that I've- So we have a little, we have like a show and tell here. So should I go around? Why don't you go do that now? If you're not watching it on YouTube and you're listening, dial up to YouTube so you can see the presentation of all these crazy cheeses here, but it's not what you would imagine or suspect

when you think about plant-based cheese, I can tell you that. Yeah, so- So what do we have? Okay, so what we have on the board here, we have four wheels and we have our bonfire. So we have, this is not your grandma's juice ball. Yeah, it's called Bonfire.

It's a smoky almond cheddar, absolutely delicious appetizer. And you can also put it into tacos. It also makes really beautiful little, you can form it into little no-meat balls and add them to your pasta. It's irresistibly delicious in every way and it's shipped in this beautiful cheesecloth inside a jar. Then over here, we have one of our new flavors. It's called Dolce Vita. And this is inspired by Gorgonzola Dolce. And the blue is actually an antioxidant of blueberry, which just makes the beautiful pattern. This is our creamiest cheese.

It's made with coconut and cashews and tastes very cheesy, not sweet like coconut, but it gives it that kind of creaminess. Then we have our sort of hero of the cheese board, which is called Birdie. It's camembert inspired. This is like the French, you know, truffle infused taste of the bistro that we all love as cheese lovers. And then we have also Spire,

which is inspired by blue cheese, but it's way better than blue cheese. And the blue is from Spirulina. The modeling that you see. Yeah, the modeling. And each one is done by hand, so it's a work of art. And we're really, really loving the way the cheeses are coming out. And then we have this really extraordinary flavor called Gold Alchemy. It's a turmeric, black pepper, and smoky infused cashew wheel. And this is where that extra something, the mystery of life has come through the flavors because when I formulated it, I had my flow masters and a management team come over and I was like, you guys have to taste my new flavors.

And Becca took a bite of this and she was just like, it's so nostalgic, it's so nostalgic. And what we determined is that this flavor tastes exactly like ham, cheese, and mustard. It tastes, the craziest thing is you'll taste it, I can verify this 110 is you'll taste it. I can verify this 110%. You'll taste it and you'll be like, that's delicious. What does that taste like?

Like you can't identify it. And then when you say that it clicks in and you're like, oh my God, it tastes to me, it tastes exactly like ham and cheese with like mayo and a little mustard on white bread. Like that sandwich that your mom would make you, you know, when you were in elementary school. Yeah, and like, how did that happen?

I don't really know how it happened. It's the weirdest thing because it's made with turmeric and cashews. Yeah. It shouldn't taste like that at all. The ingredients don't line up. And I certainly didn't say, oh, I'm missing ham. You know, let's make that.

But again, this is that part of life and creativity of the unseen. It's being devoted to the unseen. And I fully believe that there are nature elements that are part of this, where you could try to copy this, like, or make it at home. It's not going to be the same. It's just not going to be. And this is sort of like where the sum of the parts are greater than what is in the recipe. So I'm really, really excited to share that with you guys. So I wanted to just show you. So this is the existing altar box. It's in this beautiful, reusable, it says Shreemu Do Life, which is devotional offerings for life. Mm-hmm.

Do Life, which is devotional offerings for life. And it's an invitation to a beautiful life. And here we have Brian's coding here. And then here we have four wheels. And then in this one, so in the altar box, we're going to do Spire, Dolce Vita, Birdie, and Gold Alchemy. So those are the, they're static we don't have the capacity just pull one of those out and show people what it looks like when you

yeah so this one is Spire that's Spire right that's my favorite right so it comes like that and then you have

two jars and this is what the Bonfire comes in and the the Cloud Nine. Cloud Nine is the fresh mozzarella, which is quite amazing. It's wet and it comes in salted waters and it makes a caprese and it makes a beautiful cream cheese as well. So it's quite awesome.

Now, this box, the insert comes out and you can use this box for all kinds of things, for sacred tea, as a sacred altar box, a lingerie box, many things. That's what I use it for. Rich puts all his lingerie in there. So here's the smaller one too, right? Yeah, so these are the three and four wheel.

So you see there are these amazing box. And this is a very heavy box. So these cheeses are legit. So you're getting quite an amazing authentic serving. So this is four wheel. So in the four wheel, we're doing a Bertie, which is the camembert. We're doing a Gold Alchemy, which is the ham and cheese. We're doing a Dolce, which is the new coconut with blueberry antioxidants and spire.

And then it's the same box, but it has an insert in it and it's just, oops, it's just a three wheel. So here we have Gold Alchemy, we have spire and we have elder. And elder is not on this board. It's a lot like Brie, and it's really good to use in cheesecakes as well. And on our website, we have quite an array of recipes that you can use these cheeses in. And I'm very blessed with my team. I have amazing managers, Becca Reif and Chloe Stein, who are both vegan chefs, and also Aaron O'Neill, who is also a chef as well. And so- And the boys, Tyler and Trapper have been working in the kitchen. Yeah, so our sacred makers are now our boys. Slide back over there. And Harry.

Well, it's really cool to see this happening. And I know it's just the start, but I can't imagine a better time for, like your timing is incredible. Like there could not be a better time for something like this. There was just an article in Bloomberg, I think it was yesterday or the day before.

And it was a long article about just the ascendancy of the plant-based milk space and the kind of vegan plant-based alternatives to dairy products in general. And it had all these graphs and you can just see the skyrocketing consumer markets exploding for this kind of thing. Danone just spent $10 billion in 2017 to buy White Wave,

which is a plant-based company. Like the business aspect of this is bananas right now. And it's been interesting to see the dairy industry kind of like dig its heels in resisting, you know, what is inevitable at this point as people become more and more interested in getting off, you know, lactose based products. And I know you ran into this a little bit just in figuring out your labeling. Like you can't call it cheese and don't use this and you can't say that. And you kind of steered completely clear of all of that by coming up with these unique names

that are not wed to any kind of food at all. But didn't you have, like, didn't what, didn't like the health department came by and said you can't use this on your label or something like that? No, we were in for quite a while. They were withholding our retail permit. Actually, I want to announce that we are going to be going into Air One markets. When is that happening soon? It's happening soon. I'm just

waiting for this custom cheese paper because I need messaging to communicate because these wheels have authentic cheese cultures in them and they will continue to age in your refrigerator. And so they may develop traces of a white rind and this is completely safe to eat. It's part of the process. And that I can communicate to my subscribers, but if it's in the store, I can't.

So I have the special messaging that's going on that packaging, but we'll be going in all five stores. Are all Air Ones in Southern California? They're all in Southern California, yeah, right now. So we're going to be going in all those five stores. Air One is sort of the highest standard of health food market that exists in the country. I'm honored to be collaborating with them.

that exists in the country. I'm honored to be collaborating with them and I'm hoping for a long alliance to actually introduce people to Shreemu. Of course, it's a limited selection in Air One, so you can't get everything that you get in our subscription there. They'll only have three flavors of the wheels for now. Anyway, so we did finally get our permit. We were able to create the label that I wanted to and actually want to thank Good Food Institute and Bruce for helping me with that. Yeah. Helping me and being just super supportive. And now the thing that I'm a little challenged with is the rates that I'm having to pay for workers' comp. They are making me categorize as a dairy company. And so that's also one of the challenges of small business. Which is so crazy. Like they're like, you can't use... It's like I'm not using any dairy.

They're speaking out of both sides of their mouth because on the one hand, they're like, you can't call it cheese. You can't say that you can't have a picture of a cow. You can't do any of this stuff, but you're a dairy company. And so you're going to have to adhere to all these strict requirements that are really just about keeping things safe because dairy decomposes in a certain way, right? Yeah. Well, it's more treacherous, right? It's more dangerous. There could be things that... And one of the things that I am very... I want to mention is that all of our packaging is recyclable. We actually have a FSC rating on our box, which we have a little stamp on the bottom. And the only thing that is not recyclable is the cheese paper because it's touched the cheese

and it gets the oils in it and you can't recycle that. So anyway, it's an exciting time. I am in the sort of mindset of creating my own reality. And I think this is an opportunity for all of us right now. And it ties back into the beginning of our conversation. And that is that we have the power to create our own reality during this time. And remembering that thoughts are things and what you put your attention on is what you put energy to. And so I believe in all of us. I believe in humanity. Humans are innovative. We are empathic. We are devoted. We are capable. We are genius. Everybody has a genius within themselves.

You know, we have to work. The work is in creating a different mindset when we have so many factors that are pressing on us. We have to do whatever we can to change that lens so that we can be amplifying love and creativity and hope and the new systems. And so I want to encourage everybody to rise up and go within and understand that you're needed and you have something of value to share and we need you. So I am embarking right now. I'm going out for my first raise, my first proper raise. And so we're going to be raising 3.3 million for a four-year strategy that's going to take us to do about 24 million. And so I am aligning with my beautiful angel. I actually want to give him a shout out, Steve Barr. What's up, Steve? I have the most beautiful human being who is my angel.

He is just an extraordinary light on this planet. And I feel so blessed to have him close. Also want to give a shout out to Chris Murphy and Save Earth and Chris Blair, who also supported me in the early days. So now here we go. We're going to be really looking for that person or group of people that are really aligned and hopefully strategically aligned because I have the capacity to go wider with this. I mean, what we see on this board is just the very beginnings. And I'm the artist, I'm the founder, I'm the creator. I will

hold the spiritual frequency and I am dedicated with every aspect of my being to making this a global brand. And I am open for that other team of individuals who have the resources, skill set, genius that can collaborate with me to really bring Shreemu to the planet. Spoken like a true startup founder who believes in her mission and her product. I love it. I'm so proud of you. It's super exciting. I know it's going to be wildly successful and it is great. And you have made really wise choices about the people to associate with and, you know, the two Chris's and Steve Barr. I mean, they're just, they're all like amazing, wonderful people. So you are guided by deft hands.

Thank you so much. So if anybody out there, if you think you're that person. Is that a hiring call? I have a new email address actually. Just for hiring prospects? Yeah, juliepyatttshrimu.com. You can send me an email.

You're gonna get quite a few emails, I think. I always like it when I give out my email on your show. It always turns into something amazing. Well, that's very cool. I'm excited for you. And like I said, it couldn't be a better time. People are pivoting in this direction. And even, I did also wanna mention that Miyoko,

Miyoko's Creamery, Miyoko's a friend and she's built this amazing company in this space. And she just fought this battle because she was told by the state of California that she couldn't use the word butter, lactose-free or cruelty-free on any of her product labels. And there was this whole lawsuit. The state was demanding that she cease using those terms.

And she, there was also like a picture of her hugging a cow. Remember when you had that picture too? Yeah. And she prevailed. So great. So this is, I think it's just indicative, it's a symbol, it's representative of changing times

and changing consumer trends as people look to live more cruelty-free, more sustainably and obviously healthier. Definitely. And also just, you know, great respect for her because she is really the pioneer, the first person that was creating plant-based cheese. And it's because of her that I was able to sell my book.

And anyway, she did amazing work for us in this space and we're here to stay. This is only going to get bigger and the taste is here. So. Yeah. So closing, imparting words of wisdom for the young, imparting words of wisdom for the young aspiring startup founder? Well, it's always a spiritual adventure for me. I don't think there's a separation. And I think understanding that each one of us was created in this complete unique blueprint. None of us are the same. And so if you can really identify what it is that you love, what it is that is unique to you, that is so unusual or so authentic, I would feed that and I would really stay true and understand that cultivating that connection will prove out, will benefit you. It might not go exactly the way you think it's going to go,

but understand that you know a lot. And if you cultivate the practices to go within and really find out what you want to dedicate your life to and why you've taken a body, what it is you want to express and share, then that will be supported. And you will be further along than if you compromise or go outside of yourself and try to do it

like another person does it. I think, again, it comes down to those moments in the middle of the night by the fire in the alchemical ceremony. What time did you wake up this morning? Three. in the alchemical ceremony. What time did you wake up this morning?

Three. When I came in this morning, I could smell the fire. So I knew something, some kind of witchcraft had gone down. It's safe, by the way, it's right by a huge body of water and there's nothing around it. So it's well kept. Well, thank you for sharing. Thank you for having me on your show, Rich. I love it. I love you. I love you, honey. I you for having me on your show, Rich. I love it.

I love you. I love you, honey. I'm excited for what is to come. For everybody out there who is digging on Julie and wants to learn more about her universe, there's plenty of outlets to do just that. To learn about the cheese, srimu.com, S-R-I-M-U.com.

That's where you can see all the stuff and become a subscriber julie also has a podcast you want to talk about it's called for the life of me yeah yeah and so check in with me there for upcoming podcasts on spiritual perspectives of current events it's usually just me rarely i have a guest on but it's usually just me reflecting on current events or spiritual perspectives of how we can truly live a life divine. And if you wanna really dive deep

into the spiritual universe with her, check out her community, Water Tiger. You do these monthly calls and you really spend a lot of time cultivating that community. Yeah, it's- You can learn about that on your website at juliepiet.com.

Yeah, it's very deep and it's for everyone, by the way. So don't feel intimidated. There is no hierarchy in spirituality. We are all spiritual beings having a human experience. But Water Tiger, I have to say I'm quite proud

with my design of that because it's designed and crafted to give individuals techniques to lead them deeper into the sense of who they are. So it's not about building a tie to me or any ideology that I have. It's about empowering you to be a free being. And so those techniques and meditations are ones that I develop to support you in that connection. All right. How do you feel? I feel pretty good. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you for sharing to be continued at some point in the not too distant future. Awesome. Love you, babe. Love you. Thank you. Peace. Plants. Namaste.

How are you feeling? Are you feeling the feels? That was a good one, I thought. Isn't Julie a luminescent presence? Hope you guys enjoyed it. If you're new to the show and you're digging on Julie, she's been on the podcast a bazillion times. So check the show notes for links to some of her previous episodes. You can find more about her at juliepiet.com. Also,

subscribe to her podcast, For the Life of Me. You can sign up for her Water Tiger spiritual community on her website. And definitely, definitely check out her incredible, mind-blowing plant-based cheeses at srimu.com, S-R-I-M-U.com. You can find Julie on the socials, so let her know how this one landed for you at Srimati. We have another roll-on AMA coming up in the next couple of weeks. If you would like your question answered,

leave me a voicemail at 424-235-4626. And if you'd like to support the work we do here on the show subscribe rate and comment on it on apple podcasts on youtube and on spotify share the show or your favorite episodes with friends or on social media and you can support us on patreon at richroll.com slash donate thank you to everybody who helped produce today's show jason camiello for audio engineering production show notes and interstitial music blake curt Curtis for videoing and editing today's show for YouTube and all the clips we share across all the social media platforms, Jessica Miranda for graphics, Allie Rogers for portraits, DK for advertiser relationships and theme music by Tyler Trapper and Harry, my two step-sons

and my nephew. Appreciate you guys. guys thanks for the love thank you for your attention thank you for listening all the way to the end does anybody listen to this all the way until it's over probably not but if you're still here i appreciate you see you back here soon in a couple days with another great episode until then be well. Peace, plants, namaste. Thank you.