The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - Sima Sistani, CEO of WeightWatchers On Forming Good Habits, Healthy Weight Management, & Finding The Right Life Purpose For You

Episode Date: October 16, 2023

#618: Today, we're sitting down with Sima Sistani, CEO of WeightWatchers. Sima has more than 20 years of experience at the intersection of media and technology. A prolific relationship builder and keen problem solver, Sima has started, operated, and scaled companies from seed startups to multinational corporations. Today, she joins us to discuss all things career progression, how to find a job you love, and how to balance work and family. We also dive into weight loss and hear about her personal journey with postpartum weight loss, how Weight Watchers helped her create balance and fix her eating habits, and how to create healthy habits surrounding nutrition. To View this Episode on YouTube click HERE To connect with WeightWatchers click HERE ​​Head to ww.com/tsc to see if you qualify. If you do, use our code TSC25 to get your first month free plus $25 off your second month. ● Code: TSC25 To connect with Lauryn Evarts Bosstick click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by The Skinny Confidential. This episode is brought to you by the Natural Diamonds Council From Canada to Africa to Australia, the natural diamond industry has transformed local communities from which the diamonds originate with healthcare, education, and infrastructure over the last two decades and is committed to continued progress. Discover so many more natural diamond truths at naturaldiamonds.com/thankyou This episode is brought to you by AG1 If you want to take ownership of your health, it starts with AG1. Go to drinkAG1.com/SKINNY to get a free 1-year supply of Vitamin D3K2 AND 5 free AG1 Travel Packs with your first purchase.   This episode is brought to you by Betterhelp BetterHelp is online therapy that offers video, phone, and even live chat-only therapy sessions. So you don’t have to see anyone on camera if you don’t want to. It's much more affordable than in-person therapy & you can be matched with a therapist in under 48 hours. Our listeners get 10% off their first month at betterhelp.com/skinny . This episode is brought to you by Momentous Visit livemomentous.com/skinny and use code SKINNY at checkout for 15% off your first purchase. This episode is brought to you by Drizly Drizly is the go-to app for drink delivery. Download the Drizly app or go to Drizly.com and use code SKINNY at checkout to receive $5 off or a $0 delivery fee on your next order. This episode is brought to you Primally Pure Primally Pure has harnessed the power of natural ingredients in their complete line of non-toxic beauty products. Visit primallypure.com and use code SKINNY at checkout for 15% off your order. Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to The Skinny Confidential, him and her.

Aha! There aren't enough examples of people later in life becoming entrepreneurs. If you think about what the gold standard of entrepreneurism is, young people who are living off of ramen noodles, like coming up with the next big idea, and it's very glamorous sounding. Not the ramen noodles part, but just like this idea of getting funding and just being able to work on your thing. But that actually makes it harder for somebody like myself, who when we were raising our Series C was eight months pregnant and had spent time at all of these different

companies. And so there's something also to be said for maybe having a few gray hairs, having a little bit of experience and then taking a leap. There's no one way to do it. And I think the more that we can showcase these different examples, hopefully people see themselves in it. Hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Skinny Confidential Him and Her Show. Today, we're sitting down with Seema Sistani to talk all things health, wellness, weight loss, Weight Watchers, debunking myths, going through truths, and just having an all-around conversation about bettering yourself and feeling good. Some of the topics we cover on this show are how to

find a job that you love, losing weight after childbirth, how Weight Watchers works, how accountability contributes to weight loss journey, changing behaviors to create healthy eating habits, and when medical intervention is necessary. This episode goes all over the place. We really enjoy talking to Seema. This is for anyone that wants to level up and just feel great about themselves. With that, Seema, welcome to the Skinny Confidential Him and Her Show. This is the Skinny Confidential Him and Her. I have so many different ways I can go with this conversation. I don't even know where to start. But I think what would help is you've done so

many different career iterations. Talk to us about that. What was your first moment of sticking your toe in a massive career? Your career is like that meme with the map with the guy showing. It's multifaceted. Well, I think if you look at it in hindsight, it makes more sense than as I was going through it. I was sense than as I was going through it. I was less intentional as I was going through it. And I'll tell you why. Actually, I had a managing director, and my first job was at Goldman Sachs after school. And she told me that you are going to spend more time at your job than you are with your family, with your friends, eating, sleeping.

So you better fucking love it. And that stuck with me. And so from then on, I was constantly on a search for growth, curiosity, just waking up every morning excited about the work that I was going to be doing. The last 10 years have been around digitizing social relationships, mostly. The time before that was, I would say, I would describe it as building the foundations of just being a professional. So Goldman Sachs, Creative Artists Agency, I worked at a couple of startups. I spent time at Yahoo and Tumblr. The last thing that I was doing right before joining Weight Watchers, I'd co-founded a startup called House Party, which was a group video chat app. It was really popular,

especially during COVID. We were all about bringing people together in real life when physically apart. And obviously during COVID, we were never more physically apart. Ended up selling that company to Epic Games, which makes the game Fortnite. Your kids aren't old enough yet to be on Fortnite. But that was like the ultimate challenge of digitizing social. That was like the whole third space and the metaverse and thinking about that. And so, yeah, I guess that brings me to today where I'm at Weight Watchers. When you started at startups, what does that look like? Because I think if someone hears the word Yahoo or Tumblr, they automatically think glamour.

And I would love for you to really pull the veil off of it because I know there's a lot of work that goes involved in planning. The veil around just like tech, you mean? Like you're at these startups. You're at Yahoo. You're at Tumblr. It seems like a very glamorous job, but what's the nitty gritty of it? Right. Well, so when I was at Yahoo, I wouldn't call it a startup. Far from it.

But at house parties. Yeah. At that point, the startup life is definitely not glamorous. It's an emotional roller coaster. I mean, you all have been privy to it when you're building a business. It really takes over your life. What it also offers is just like you come from, it's like your baby. You're trying to build something. You're trying to help it grow and put it out in the world in a way that it's just going to have impact. The thing that I love more than even like the actual product is the team and growing

the team and the mission and just having a sense of purpose. But it's not sexy. It's the opposite of that. It's like a lot of times, again, looking back in hindsight, you can see a hockey stick of growth. But if you like pull up, you see it go up and down and up and down and up and down. And each one of those downs is everybody going to the mats, figuring out what's wrong, coming up with a strategy to build back up. And the moment that you've built it back up,

something else hits you. It's a constant cat and mouse game startup life is. When you look at all the companies that you've worked at, what's the common denominator between all of them of what makes them successful or not successful? I think that if you have an amazing operating model, that's like the key to it. You can have the best strategy, the best product, but if you don't have the right team and the right execution, it's not going to happen. What I find so interesting about your career is it's so eclectic and you've been in big organizations, you've founded big companies, you've been hired as a CEO and others. In hindsight, there's a lot of young people that write and say, hey, I'm trying to find my passion or I need to find what I love. And they just don't

know. At what point in your career did you figure out like, oh, this is the kind of thing that I like to do? And how did you do it? Was it something that you stumbled into or is it something you knew all along where you're like, I'm always this kind of operator? Or were you like, you needed to taste a bunch of different things before you figured out kind of what your path was? So I think it's about seeing what's out there. But also in my career, the best ways to learn has been in service of others. So you have to come to every opportunity and every role with a low ego and say, how can I help better this team? How can I help better this work? How can I help better this product? And put yourself all in. Because if you're spending all of your

energy trying to figure out if at that moment, if it's the right thing for you or not, then that's your lens is wrong. Like you're going to, you're constantly calibrating in the wrong direction versus, I think that it's better to be intentional and set kind of milestones for yourself of like, okay, I'm going to check in is how am I feeling about where I am? Am I growing? Am I curious? Am I excited? But until that checkpoint comes, be all in. So for me, it was a little bit of doing everything. I did business development for a while. I did partnerships for a while. I did product for a while. And I sat on different parts of the operating stack, whether that was finance or at the agency, that like a whole different experience in deal making,

understanding those different verticals helped me kind of figure out what I'm, not only what I'm excited about, but what I'm good at. And then the key now as a leader is knowing what I'm not good at and being able to find the right people to help like build the right mosaic for us to execute. The reason I ask is I think Lauren and I are different in the sense that from day one, she kind of like always knew her thing and what her passion was and what she was excited about. And for me, I've kind of had to, I've had an eclectic career where I've had to go around and be like, what do I actually like to do? And when people ask us about how to figure this out, that's kind of been my answer. It's like, I tasted a bunch of different things. Like sometimes

it was finance, sometimes it was manufacturing, sometimes it was talking, sometimes it was product. And it wasn't until I kind of like. Sometimes it was talking. Sometimes it was product. And it wasn't until I kind of like mashed them all together that I figured out my thing. It took a while. It's so individual. Like it's also, it's very dependent on like what Enneagram you are or like what type of person you are. So you and I seem to be similar in that we had to go kind of see the world to end up

where we were at. And you knew right away. And I think that you find that in marriage too, right? I've got friends who married their significant other in college and then others who went out and dated a bunch of different people, had a wide variety of experience and then found their partner after that time. I feel like the professional landscape is kind of similar in that way. Friendships, you know, it's very personal. My story is just like what worked for me. Yeah. I just remember getting so frustrated

when I was younger. It was like, oh, just change it. And I was like, I don't know what it is. And I think a lot of people are like that. Some people are lucky where they're like Lauren and they just know. But for me, it wasn't the case. But I think the key is if you are one of those people who needs to go try it out or if you happen to be a Swiss army knife and you can do a lot of different things, is just to remember to be in the moment. I find a lot of times, especially now working with a wide variety of people, the ones who are the happiest are present. They're not always searching for the next, next thing. It really means about being present, be dedicated, find the moments in what you're doing where you can personally grow,

but check in with yourself. Am I still growing in my job? Am I still curious in my job? Am I still having fun in my job? I think that's incredible advice. I think if you are a really young person and you're listening and you really have no idea, like Michael, what you want to do, a really good tip, and I say this a lot, but it really does work, is getting a service industry job where you work at night, like say you're a bartender or cocktail server, waitress, and then using the day to find what it is that lights you up. I think a lot of people give advice and they're like, well, go work for a bunch of different people as an intern and see what you like. I actually would flip it, make your money in the service industry and use your days to figure out

what it is that that lights you up. And and I think that that it's a great way to be efficient with time because usually the job is from like three to nine, three to 10, and then you have the whole day. Yeah. So I think that's a good tip too for young people. Well, now it's just, there's so much, there's so much opportunity. Right. And you can build in all different kinds of ways and it doesn't take a ton of investment. So I think that, you know, especially now that type of advice like works even better. You can have a lot of leverage off of your day. Yeah. You're right. I think there's never been as much opportunity as there now, but some people get overwhelmed by that optionality. This is like they, you know, they can just jump to so many things where then sometimes you lack

focus. I have siblings and I'm always like, hey, listen, like you got to try something, not just for a couple of weeks or a month. You've got to actually dedicate some time to this before you say that doesn't work and go to the next thing. I had the opportunity to teach a class last week. It was a group of seniors and they were all sort of deciding about what to do next. The advice I gave was don't be afraid to go to a big company because they were all talking about what are they going to build. And I feel like there's something in the water now and that's exciting. But I was like, don't be afraid to go to a big company because they were all talking about like, what are they going to build? And I feel like there's something in the water now. And that's exciting. But I was like, don't be afraid to go to a big company and learn because there are going to be some, you know, you're going to have a ton of opportunities to see the full spectrum of all these various disciplines. And

that in itself could be seed for the thing that you might think you want to build today. Or even there's entrepreneurship. There's things you could do within that company. There is this movement just because of all the opportunity that's out there, I think, for people to just strike it on their own right away. And I worry a little bit because I think that there's so much to be gained by being at a company where you are surrounded by lots of different types of people doing lots of different types of work. And it gives you maybe more perspective of not just from the thing that you might do on your own one day, but what else is out there. Yeah, and there's a lot of really smart people and a lot of really smart ideas that come out of those big organizations. I'll give you an example. When I went to Goldman Sachs,

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, but I was like, well, this is a great way for me to pay back my loans and get an education in being basically a professional, like an executive, learning analytical skillset. What I ended up learning there was media, actually, because it was at a time where, maybe your listeners won't even remember this, but AOL and Time Warner were merging. There was a big media company called Vivendi. It was imploding. And I was on the trading floor. And so these were topics. And I found myself really pulled towards media. And I was like, wow, this is something I really want to do. But I was like this first-generation kid from Alabama.

How could I ever go do anything in media? And I got great advice. Somebody was like, well, go to Hollywood. Go work at an agency because that's going to be like the graduate school of dealmaking and you'll build a network. And so that's what led me out to LA at the time. But just to say, I don't think I'd ever would have known that that was something I was even interested in had I not been at Goldman, which is a finance company. Yeah. In a lot of ways, I regret, not really, but in some ways, I think I went straight into just being an entrepreneur. I never thought that I had another option for whatever reason. I just thought I have to go do

my thing. And it was tough in the beginning, right. I just thought I have to go do my thing. And it was tough in the beginning, right? I mean, I don't think a lot of people, I think the end is glamorized. Yes. But when you're sitting there in the middle of it and you don't have that job security or that stability or those benefits and you're just sitting there and you're like, and you could lose everything. I think people should talk about that more. Yeah.

Because I don't want to diminish anyone's desire to go and do that kind of thing. But I don't think people talk enough about how hard it actually is. And you know what's interesting? The flip of that is there aren't enough examples of people later in life becoming entrepreneurs. If you think about what the gold standard of entrepreneurism is in the Valley, it's like Y Combinator. And that's a lot of young people who are living off of ramen noodles, coming up with the next big idea. And it's very glamorous sounding. Not the ramen noodles part, but just this idea of getting funding and just being able to work on your thing. But that actually makes it harder for somebody like myself, who when we were raising our Series C, was eight months pregnant

and had spent time at all of these different companies. And so there's something also to be said for maybe having a few gray hairs, having a little bit of experience, and then taking a leap. So I think, again, there's no one way to do it. And I think the more that we can showcase these different examples, hopefully people see themselves in it. I feel like there's like headline syndrome right now where people read a headline about one person that's had a huge hit and they feel like they have to do it that way instead of what you're saying. Like, take your time, get your hands dirty, go work for a bunch of different people, see what fits, see what she was right, and then maybe have the wisdom and do it later on. And that's okay. If you don't know right after school,

or not even go to school and just say, I have an idea. And that's a fine path too, for those people who have that conviction, who have the idea or the the support but if you don't then as lauren was just saying that's totally i feel like i just had to like fail my way up for a while and i don't think a lot of people think about it that way it's not like it was like one win after the other it was like a lot of micro failures to get to you know where we are now but that like going through that at the time like i wish i talked more about that in the early days, because I think if people saw, oh, there's a chance you could just fail for years and years and years until you get there, I think a lot of people would maybe think about different approaches.

Again, not to dissuade anyone, if you're a born and bred entrepreneur, by all means go. But I think glamorizing it, some people like, I will say there's number twos, threes and fours at companies that do a hell of a lot better than me. Right. And are set up, you know, with working with the smartest people. And I think that should be talked about more. Like you can plug into an organization and really add value. The headlines come from all the successes, not necessarily the failures. Right. You have had two children. How have you created this massive career and had two children? What's the balance look like? Is there balance? I was just going to say,

well, that assumes there's balance. Right. I mean, I think I always say like there's always a sacrifice. There's always a sacrifice. In anyone's life, there's going to be a sacrifice wherever it is. Yeah. I don't believe in balance. I think that it's about calibration. There are some days where I am a plus CEO, but I might be getting an F as a mom. And there are other times where I'm feeling like the best mom. This morning before I left to fly out here, I wrote little note cards for my kids to have in their lunch boxes. And, you know, that's why I was like trying to ease my own guilt about not being there in the morning to see them off to school. So those will be the days where, you know, maybe that made me feel like, okay, maybe it's not an F today. It's a C minus, but that's okay. I have

to just decide on basically a week-to-week basis. How's this week going to look in terms of how much is going towards work? How much is going towards kids? And I'm, me is like friends, me is me and my partner, me is me in a book. So, and they just, those bar charts just change on a week to week basis. I don't have any great advice because I feel, I still think I'm working through it. And I ask people for advice all the time of how, how does it get easier? When does it get easier? What can I be doing better? The thing that I found that works for me is just whatever the hat that I have on, I'm present with that hat on. Yeah, that's great advice. I mean, that is great advice. I think we had a very successful entrepreneur on this podcast,

Jamie O'Banion, Beauty Bio. And she said something similar. She said she lays her head down on the pillow at night and she either was a 10 out of 10 mother or a 10 out of 10 CEO. There wasn't, it was never both. And I think that's really real. And I mean, that to me is kind of, it is balanced. I feel the same way.

It's like sometimes it's like a Sunday and I don't have any work to do and I have no distractions. But other days it's like you do have distractions from work. I've just tried to open up dialogue with my daughter and be like, I have to go to work because I have to be able to afford bluey toys for you or whatever her cartoon is at the moment. And I think just talking with her about why I work

has been helpful for her to contextualize it. I think that's great. My son had a lot more grace for me when I worked on Fortnite than the job that I do today, as he really understood that. No, I think that that's just it. And so when I'm with them, I put my phone away. I think that's really important. I know my own tendency is to multitask. I will be in a meeting and I'll be on Instacart trying to send groceries. I find that that's when I'm the worst of both worlds. It happens. It constantly happens. But what I try to do is be really present in the moment that I'm at yeah that means now when I'm with my kids the phone is away if I'm on a date night the you know the phone is away if I am with my team I have to trust kids are great my you know my husband's got it. My mom helps a lot. She's got it. And everything will be okay.

So that I can just give my all to whatever moment I'm in. It's so gnarly. It's like an octopus 24-7. Yeah. And I wonder, and I think that I'd be curious to hear, I mean, your point of view here is that my husband works as well. I think he's better at compartmentalizing than I am. I'll tell you what it is. I said, don't you feel guilty when we have to leave the kids? And he literally straight up, he didn't even miss a beat.

He goes, nope. And he doesn't. I feel terrible being away. Like, we just had to go to L.A. for a few days. And I was facing our daughter and she's crying. She doesn't understand. Yeah, but you don't feel guilty. No, no, I'll explain it.

She doesn't understand why I can't just like be there in 10 minutes. Like I got to go to get on a plane and I got to, it's a whole thing. She's so young. But I think, and this is maybe a male, female thing. Men have not had the same kind of pressures from society that women have had, in my opinion, when it comes to working, right? I think a lot of women are guilt-tripped at times because they choose to be a mom and have a career, where men don't feel that same pressure.

Other men are not turning to me like, you have a nanny? Or you're working? No one's ever asked my husband if he has a nanny. And we work the same amount. No, but not that women are doing that directly to you, but some women, and I've seen this online with my wife, sometimes put an air out like, oh, you're not at home with your kid or you have a career where I don't think men do that. So I think one, probably that needs to change. But two, I think men inherently just don't feel that guilt because it's just a given that we would go out and be working and doing these things.

Does that make sense? There's something primal. Like, I feel like I should be at work posting an Instagram podcasting with my baby on my back. Like, there's something, there must be something like primal in the air with women where we feel like we need to like,

like put a strap the baby in a papoose. I think it is primal. I mean, I think, well, when you birth your kids, your heart now lives outside of your body. Right. And it's still connected in this really weird way. And so as much as I sit here and say, my goal is to be present, it's very hard to do that in practice.

And I remember getting ready for an earnings call, and my daughter called me crying because she wasn't feeling well. My husband's there. My mom's there. I know they've got it. I was so shook. Yeah. I do. How old are your kids? Six and 10. You know, it's funny. Lauren and I work the exact same. We're doing the show together right now. And I've never once had anyone come to me like, oh, you have child care or nanny. But I've seen

people do it to her. And I find it strange because we're literally here together of course we need it when we're not around we have no family I also and I feel like you will but I've never been guilt-tripped is what I'm saying I have I would not be a fulfilled person if I didn't have my own work going on that's not to say that that's for everybody I'm talking about myself like I wouldn't be my best self if I was staying at home all day. So I feel like to show up for my kids in the way that I need to show up, I have to work. So that's where the guilt comes in. Well, I think the guilt is most likely in most cases, we put it on ourselves because we're Taipei people who want to excel at whatever it is, the thing that we're doing.

And so that shows up with school or sorry, with our kids. And so I was actually just thinking about school where there was a bake sale. I could just say no. So I say yes. And I went and bought all this stuff from Trader Joe's. And then I put it into these little homemade looking containers. And I was like, here's bake sale. You do what you can do. That's efficient. And so, but I could have just said no,

but then it's the night before and I'm making myself feel guilty because I'm doing this as opposed to actually baking. And, you know, it's, it's my own circus that's happening in my mind, but, and I have all of these amazing friends and I say, thank God for mothers who do work at home. Because let's be honest, if you're at home, you are working. And they're helping keep those communities together. They're doing all of the work. I was just having to call a friend to help with pickup because I wasn't around. Like I, I, I have so much like gratitude for, for, for that role as well. It's not my role. There are sometimes I feel like you, like I'm so, I'm, I'm really glad that I'm, I'm, you know, in this world and that's how I know I'm going to show up the best, but there are definitely days where I wake up and I'm like, yeah, I wish I wasn't doing any of this.

And I was just like at home with my babies. Oh, it's such a tug and pull. You know what though? I have empathy for that. I will say, and this is, I think about this a lot now. I think having children has made me a better businessman because I think like when the weekends come around, everyone's excited for the weekend.

I love to be with my kids. I'm like, oh, this is hard. Like I can come to the office. It's not nearly as stressful. I have way more patients here. Having children, when you see if your child's sick or something going wrong, that level of stress is way different. Something goes wrong in the business compared to a child getting sick. The business stuff is a cakewalk. And I think what it's done for me is it's really put in perspective of what's really important. And with that, I'm able to take a lot of the emotional stuff out of work. Does that make sense?

Yeah, definitely. So my mom always worked. And so she role modeled that for me. And when I was growing up, she was also going to school. In fact, my mother graduated with her PhD the same time that I graduated my undergrad degree. Wow. Look at that. Doing your thing later in life. Yes, totally. Full circle. Full circle. I think it normalized like that that was also just the expectation that I was going to have out of myself because I saw her doing it.

And I'm going to bring this full circle even further. So now, actually, when I took this job, I had a talk with my family about, am I going to become a public company CEO? Because this is going to be really intense for our family and our calendars. And my mom had just earned her, kind of the pinnacle of her career, which she had become chair of her department at the university. She has her PhD in food science. She's a registered dietitian. She's a professor. And she was like, I'm going to retire because I can come help and I want you to keep going. Wow. That's amazing. And maybe your daughter will come to you and the same thing will happen.

Yes. That's so cool because you saw her work the whole time and now she's coming back to maybe live out her stay at home mom dreams. Zaza is maybe listening to this right now. Maybe Zaza is going to come ask me when she grows up. You never know. Do you know that you can tell the difference between a laboratory grown diamond and a natural diamond? I'm learning new things every single day. So lab-grown diamonds are mass-produced in factories in just a few weeks, and they're easily detected due to their distinct patterns. While natural diamonds are over a billion years old, and they

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That's betterhelp.com slash skinny. Betterhelp.com slash skinny. So after all of the success that you had, why make the decision to go to Weight Watchers and become a CEO of a publicly traded company? Because to your point, that's a lot of pressure. It's a lot of time commitment. What was the draw? And especially because it was such a shift in industry. Yeah. It's interesting. I mentioned my mother is a registered dietitian. She has her PhD in food science. I grew up with healthy habits in our family. It was, I mean, and she, as I mentioned,

graduated around the same time that I did. So she was also studying all of these things always next to me while I was studying. I remember we used to plan our vacations around these nutrition conferences. I never struggled with weight. I always moved a lot. I was athletic. And after I had my first child, I gained 60 pounds in my pregnancy, and I had a hell of a time losing it. And you hear like, oh, I just like nursed and I lost the weight. And I nursed. That weight did not come off. I chased my kids around

and the weight fell off. No, no. What was that like? I remember being pregnant and being feeling really big and being like, I'm going to have the biggest baby ever. And then he comes out and he's like the smallest baby ever. I thought I was giving birth to Michael and that didn't happen either. I gained 60 pounds too. We talked about this off air. What was it like as a type A person who wants to succeed in every single area gaining 60 pounds? That's a trip. It was more that I felt like, am I doing something wrong? Because I had examples around me of women who just bounced back really quick.

And also, I wasn't feeling good. I felt tired. I wanted to get back in my clothes because I was going to go back to work, and I didn't want to have to buy a new wardrobe. And then at postpartum, you're losing your hair. You lose that beautiful pregnancy glow. And I just didn't feel good. And I tried every snake oil that was out there. I did whatever cleanse. I tried all these different things. And my mom was finally like, if you're not going to listen to me, just do Weight Watchers. And Weight Watchers worked for me. And so I always had this very positive association with the program. Come back to my second child, same thing happened again. And by the way, keeping the weight off also became

more difficult for me. And I think I found out with my second child, I also went back on Weight Watchers, but I was also diagnosed with thyroid disorder. And so I ended up realizing I had, medically, it made it harder for me to lose weight as well. So now I'm on Synthroid, I've figured that out. But Weight Watchers ended up being this accountability program for me to keep the weight off. And it was around, let's say, it was COVID. It was 2020 because I was walking around my neighborhood. I remember in order to close the day, I would take a walk around my neighborhood because I was working from home anyways. And I was listening to Oprah's podcast and she had on Tina Fey on the episode

that I was listening to. And Tina Fey is a lifelong Weight Watcher. And she had said on the podcast that she wasn't on any social media, but she loved Weight Watchers because it was like this really beautiful community. And she could post like a photo of a banana with Cool Whip. And, you know, people will be like, that's awesome. We love that. And it was this really positive experience for her. And it was like this aha moment for me. I'm building house party at this time. I'm thinking about ways to make social better, make social more empathetic. And it occurred to me that this whole time I'm on Weight Watchers, that that's actually the OG social network.

It was this way that people would get together as their truest selves with exposing a big vulnerability for a lot of people talking about their weight is a vulnerability. And you have the shared interest, though, with all these other people who are also struggling. And it creates this unique dynamic of reciprocity where people support each other and creates this peer to peer accountability. Anyways, it was like this big aha moment for me. I actually reached out to the company at the time and thought, hey, I love this program. I love this product. If you want to talk about ways to take it into a digital first era, I'd love to talk to you. Because the one thing that I did feel was I wanted to throw my phone against the wall. The user experience wasn't that great for me,

but it still worked. I happened to meet the CEO at the time. She introduced me to the board. I actually ended up talking to a few of the people. I even talked to their chief product officer at the time. And this was all done from a place of curiosity, excitement for what they were doing. Two years later, I get a call that's like, would you be interested in interviewing to be the CEO? So it was this wild, I think it goes like when people talk about manifesting, what it really means is just like putting yourself out there and not expecting anything in return. That's what had happened two years prior and then had come to mind for them. That is a really cool story. And you're so right. There are so many people that ask, ask, ask instead of give, give, give, ask when it comes

to a job. And even when I'm interviewing people sometimes, the energy of the interview is what's in it for me. And why would you want to bring someone on a team like that? It's almost like you give without expectation and then you get a really great, incredible opportunity and your ask gets met, but you're giving first. The nice thing was I just went into it with zero expectation because I was like, here's what I would do because I had been a member first. So I had a very clear eyed vision of where I'd want to take the company. You were a practitioner of it.

Yeah. How exactly, like walk us through, say someone needs to lose 60 pounds, did you utilize the app to do that? Like explain from a granular level. Because for me, when you say you lost 60 pounds with Weight Watchers, what does that mean specifically? Are you like counting points? Are you eating a certain calories a day?

Like help me understand the systems that you took with Weight Watchers to get to lose the 60 pounds. It's what you talk about. It's habit stacking. Plain and simple. It's behavior change. Have you heard of Blue Zones? Sure.

Yeah. But explain it for people that haven't. I would also need like a refresh of that. Okay. The of blue zones? Sure. Yeah. But explain it for people that haven't, because I would also need like a refresh of that. Okay. The blue zone? Yeah. So blue zones are the places in the world where people have the most longevity. They live to be centenarians. They live to be a hundred. And the research that has been done about blue zones has shown that it's not just about what you eat or how you move. It's your social circles. And so what Weight Watchers does is, yes, it's going to teach you how to eat and how to move. But more importantly, it's going to create the accountability. It's going to create the circle for you.

So it's a behavior change program. The points program, it just gamifies eating. It makes it so that you understand what you take in impacts your body. How many points is a glass of wine? Six. How many points is a margarita? No salt. Skinny no salt is going to be five or six depending on reposado versus not. How many points is a piece of sourdough with butter? That's a good one. I think that I'm going to use this version

that I do at home, but I believe that's about four points because I get the thin slice sourdough. And does everybody have the same points? Yeah. Does everyone have the same points? Yeah. Well, no. The food value is all the same points. How many points did you have? I have 26 points a day, but then I also have amount of weekly points. So I bank those weeklies for wine most of the time. But wine, those are a lot of points. They add up, but there's also zero points. So like bananas, fruits, lean proteins, vegetables, all zero points.

So you could have a full day where you have zero points. It's not just about calories in, calories out. What we're trying to do is also measure nutrient density. We take into account things like saturated versus unsaturated fats. Like you asked me butter. If you'd said olive oil, it would have been different on that piece of sourdough bread. Fiber. All of these things get kind of calculated in the points algorithm. But more important than like how

many points you're actually taking in or not taking in is the habit stacking. I talk to people all the time who are like, I didn't realize how much I was like late night snacking. Or I didn't realize how much that like those coffee drinks were adding up. And they could make some small calibrations to stay in their points budget. And I've had people who realized, oh, you know what? It inspired me to move more. Because when you move, you earn points. So if I go to Orange Theory, I know I'm going to get a certain amount of points from it versus if I take a one-mile walk. How much is weightlifting? How many points do you get back? Well, just it depends

how long you did or and again, and then your your personal. So if I weightlifted for an hour, I think my points back is going to be like five points. But like if Michael did, it would be different. So it's all sort of it's personalized. So people are going to weightlift to get their margarita with no salt. So outside of, it sounds like, you know, people are using the platform first to come and potentially, you know, manage their weight. But when you guys start working with clients, are there, is there a common thread where like, maybe people don't understand their food intake or they don't understand healthy habits around exercise? What are the main things that you help people with?

It's those things. But a lot of times it's just the ongoing accountability. Like I said, there's programs within the app itself. And then people can post about how they're doing. You can keep track of your various body analysis, whether I have a full body analysis scale, you can get them for your Weight Watchers connected to your Weight Watchers app such that it gives you not only your weight, but also hydration, bone density, muscle mass, all of these things. We have a diabetes program. People are tracking their A1C. So we want to take into consideration the beyond the scale metrics as well.

But the point being that it's just about awareness. And I think that that's the main thing. I remember when I was on Weight Watchers feeling very embarrassed that I was tracking my points. I'm just being very conscious. And this is a way for me to keep a budget. And how's that any different from keeping a financial budget? Why are people so concerned though what other people are doing? I don't understand why anyone cares how you're tracking your points with Weight Watchers. Well, welcome to 2023. People care. If that's what works for you, I don't understand why people can't mind their own business with that. But to your point, i think there's a few things that just you know people don't learn growing up and that

one of them is finances another thing is basically proper nutrition and how to eat i didn't know you know i talked about the whole time like i haven't struggled with weight fortunately but i have poor eating habits and i had to figure that out along the way and it's by talking to people like poor eating habit what are you talking about you had some chips in bed what's up i can't wait to hear eating habit was like i didn't understand how much protein i didn't understand okay i didn't understand like you didn't understand protein alcohol consumption you don't realize this motherfucker has never in his life had a craving and i've known him since he was 12 i've never heard him say it's like my husband oh i'm craving like this yeah but but there's other like outside of weight there's there's you can have a poor diet and have other things manifest and

other things happen right it's not just i think that you could you would come from a real place of privilege to basically assume that somebody has understands the education around nutrition well that's what i'm saying and we've turned diet into a bad word where diet literally means habitual nourishment. And I understand there's a lot of negativity around diet culture and for good reason. But that's really about a preoccupation with thinness. That's very different than being like, I need to understand how to eat well and how to live healthfully that's that's what i'm saying is like i didn't totally different i didn't understand that right and i was just like just eating kind of whatever you want whenever you want and you

know listen here's the thing i tell this a lot of the young people listening once you pass 30 you know it catches up to you you can't just do whatever you want so i mean the hangovers these days that's like i'm like a 70 year old man if i have a drink. If I smell alcohol, I'm hungover for three weeks. But you know what's interesting, Michael, about what you're talking about is that goes to, I think, the course correction that our whole industry needs to have right now and what we're trying to be very honest about is what you're describing is biologically, you have less food noise. You don't have cravings. You've been able to eat a bag of chips at night. You don't have insulin resistance. All of those things, right? And what we're realizing now

because of the clinical interventions, basically, which is weight loss medications, is that, you know what? It's not just a matter of willpower. For a lot of people, living with overweight is actually a biological condition. It's a hormonal condition, or it's a genetic condition, or it's environmental, by the way, because think about all of the obesogens in our society now. And so the expectation that you can just eat differently, move differently, and lose weight on its own. For some people, that's just not the case. For me, it was. So Weight Watchers Behavior Change Program worked. But for others, they're going to need a clinical intervention. And so we have broadened our

spectrum of solutions. So now through what we have a virtual clinic that basically can decide if it's medically appropriate for somebody to be on the medications and actually give them a prescription. But I think that what's more important is for us to take away the shame and stigma in that conversation. And Lauren, that's what you were just saying is like, why do people care so much? Why is this in the headlines so much? Why are we trying to judge how people lose weight if that's what they want to do? I just feel like it's their own prerogative with how they want to do it. And I really don't think

it's anyone's business. It's a health thing. Either way you look at it, it's their own healthy journey. And I feel like everyone's is different and everyone's going to get there in a different way. You mentioned medication. When you say medication, are you talking about the GLP-1? Yes. Which is like semiglutide and ozempic? Yeah. So ozempic is basically the trade name for semiglutide. It's also wagovi and rhabelsis. There are different trade names for the medications. And there's also some other medications that are considered GLP-1s where the active ingredient

is called trizipatide. That's Manjaro. So it's a class of next-generation medications, which basically address the connection between your gut and your brain and help people who have that food noise, who have genetic, biological underpinnings of living with overweight and obesity. It helps them to basically calm that food noise. It helps them to feel full so that they can actually adopt the lifestyle changes that you and I were able to do with hard work, with a lot of hard work after we had our babies. But for some, it's just like impossible without the medications. And that, I think,

is a really key point because some people are like, oh, I'm just going to take the medications. No. What the medications do is it makes it easier for you to then go adopt the lifestyle changes, the lifestyle interventions you need to actually lose the weight and keep it off over time. Quick break for me to share some information that is absolutely going to change your life. And that is with our new partner, Momentus. If you have not tried the Momentus Sleep Hacks, you are missing out. We just did an episode with the CEO of Momentus, Jeff, on this show, talking all about the benefits of these sleep hacks. For those of you that want to know more, the sleep hack is a meticulously crafted blend of three natural ingredients,

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Visit PrimallyPure.com slash skinny for 15% off your order. Visit PrimallyPure.com slash skinny for 15% off your order. We've talked about this a lot on the show. I think the, and we've had people like Peter Attia come on. And I think to your point, there are some people that are medically candidates for this kind of stuff. But what we also see, especially coming from LA, that's where we came, there's a lot of people that may not be candidates that are like, Hey, I need to lose that 10 before the wedding, or I want to to lose 15 or and they're using this stuff they're getting a doctor to prescribe it when they may not be a candidate again i don't necessarily care who what path you choose but i think some of that some of those people are making these decisions without having enough information and i think that becomes Well, that's what's the headlines.

The clickbait has been about that conversation. And I think that unfortunately it's taking away from the one that we should be having, which is that these are life-saving medications. I mean, the trials have just come out are showing that 20% of the people who are on these medications, and these were population that didn't have diabetes, they were 20% of the people who were on these medications, and these were population that didn't have diabetes, they were 20% of them were less likely to have a heart attack, stroke. So we're talking about life-saving medications that are getting qualified as vanity drugs. Is there any downside that you guys have seen throughout these drugs? Well, there are the symptoms that people have

shared that the pharmaceutical companies have talked about. And that's why it's really important to do it alongside high support from a clinician. Unfortunately, most physicians aren't trained in any kind of nutrition or obesity management. It sounds like you guys are committed to this one niche thing. Whereas like if you get a general doctor, they don't know a lot about maybe obesity. Well, they don't know. And I can say this with no shade because my brother is a doctor and he will tell me he only had one nutrition class his entire tenure of medical school. And not only that, but they also aren't in a position to succeed because this is a medication

that requires high support. You have to titrate throughout your journey. So the dosage should shift and you need a lot of lifestyle intervention alongside of it. In order to make sure you're not losing muscle mass, you need to make sure you're eating a protein-rich diet. You have to stay hydrated so you don't have GI issues. There's a lot of important lifestyle instruction alongside of the actual clinical support. And so that's where, you know, that's why we acquired Sequence, which is the telehealth company. It's, you know, now the Weight Watchers virtual clinic because it provides that high support. We know now that all of our clinicians are trained

in these protocols. So not only can the system, the platform itself do all of the insurance support, which is important because these drugs are incredibly expensive, but it's a care team in your pocket. You get the registered dietitian, you get the fitness expert, you get the Weight Watchers program. You're doing all of the things alongside the medication so that you will hopefully have fewer symptoms so that you will have a good experience on the medications and that you can hopefully maintain for longer. It sounds like you guys give someone the toolbox to lose weight with all the tools. And it sounds like the medication is like one tool in there if you want to use it and to access it. What is a story, because I'm sure you've been around them all the time, that has really moved

you when it comes to weight loss? Like you've seen all these stories as a CEO. What's one that you can pinpoint that you're like, this was like my favorite? I mean, it happens to me every week because I still go. And the most wonderful thing about, you know, I've worked on digital products my whole life. And so Weight Watchers is now, it's very much a digital first solution. 80% of our memberships are digital, but 20% still show up in person. And so I can go sit in the back of a meeting with my hat on and nobody will know who I am. And I can hear the stories from our members, first person. And I moved in every single workshop I attend. I was just in one where somebody was talking about how they were diagnosed, they were pre-diabetic, and she was saying that her A1C had lowered.

And they were celebrating her. There's a story recently I heard about somebody who had felt, you know, they'd been on the Weight Watchers program. It hadn't worked for them. They would yo-yo dieted their whole life. And that suddenly that us embracing actually these, this clinical pathway, that it helped them, you know, feel like, oh, it's not just me. It wasn't just me. And actually in that case, I'll be fully honest, like Weight Watchers failed that person. We were only providing behavior change. We didn't know. And now that the science has evolved and we've evolved and we've said it loud and proud that, you know, that we need to be out there talking about a full spectrum. She came back through sequence and has seen success and lost 63 pounds. So those are the stories where I'm like, wow, we're actually helping move health outcomes.

And that's why everybody who comes to work at our company, that's why they show up every single day is because of our purpose, of our mission. Who is a candidate? Say there's someone listening that wants to lose five pounds, 10 pounds, 30 pounds, 200 pounds. What's the perfect candidate? Well, or they want to lower their A1C or they want to get stronger or they want to like there's all of those different dynamics at play. But if you're talking about who is the right candidate for Weight Watchers, I mean, anybody, because we have a full spectrum. So for some people, maybe you only have 10 pounds to lose, then the Behavior Change Program,

we're going to help you habit stack. We're going to help you think about being more intentional about what you eat or how much you're moving, or you're going to have a community of people who are like-minded and supportive, you know, for somebody who, you know, comes in and is clearly had, you know, struggled with weight their whole life and visits with a clinician, and it turns out it's medically appropriate for them to be on the medications, then that would be a new pathway that we can offer now. There's also, you know, what we call like the functional pathway, somebody who has diabetes and is trying to manage their A1C. And so that's a very specific pathway and it's full spectrum. And it's really about the person and whether this is a journey or a need that they have. Speaking of habits,

informing habits, what are like maybe three of the most common, I guess, I don't want to say bad, but maybe poor habits that Weight Watchers helps people break? Eating late, is it eating the wrong kind? Or is it across the board different? Well, I would also say the thing about Weight Watchers is I think it's really important that none of these decisions are moral failing, right? And that there is nothing that's not on the menu. And that's the whole thing is like, like I said, I save up my points for wine. You know, my go-to indulgence is those chili lime chips from Trader Joe's. Oh my God. Stop.

Why do you tell me about that? Now I want that. They're so good. See, Michael doesn't have a craving. Michael's like, ugh. Those sound good. You know, I would say that a lot of the aha moments that we see where people have is the late night eating, the coffee drinks.

Like the Starbucks. Like the sweet. We have a lot of dupes now for Starbucks for people who are like, I love this. And it's like, okay, well, here's the low point version of that drink that you love. Ton of sugar in those drinks. There's a ton of sugar in those drinks. I feel like you were like a Frappuccino guy when I first met you. No, no, no.

I was a white mocha, but close. Yeah. Oof. Oof. And then the other one is just like not having a balanced plate, right? It's easier. The way our food system works now, it is so much easier to eat high point foods, right? It's so much easier to eat processed foods. It's so much easier to eat things that are high in fat, high

in sugar, high in carbs. And when you start to be more intentional about what you eat and realizing, you know, zero point foods, grabbing the apple, you know, doubling down on the salad. My lunch today was a salad with chicken. It was a huge salad with chicken and it was zero points. Even the chicken, zero points. Except for the olive oil I poured on it. Yes, the chicken was zero points. Okay, so protein sources are zero points. I think this is so smart though because you are retraining or teaching people how to do it themselves and how to eat, but you're also mixing in the community element of in-person. It's in a weird way. It's got a little bit of an AA element to it, but AA is like one of the most successful people or one of the most successful programs

for breaking addiction. So it makes sense to me that there would be an in-person community aspect of Weight Watchers because some people do have addictive behaviors around food. Well, and only 20% of our membership shows up in person. So we have to, you know, the important thing is that community aspect that you were just talking about also exists online. So you can have that, you know, share your struggles and your, you know, and what's working and what's not working or sharing recipes, people being like, let's get together and, you know, I need a walking buddy who, you know, those are the things that I think a lot of people have a hard time finding others to share a health journey with. And you know, you're coming to a place

where everybody else in this community is on a similar pathway to you. If someone's listening and they have a resistance to losing weight, but they want to do it, where would you tell them to start? Like, what's the first step? Maybe just resistant to it in general. Maybe there's noise from their parents in their head. What's the first tangible, easy step that they can take in the right direction that's not overwhelming? It's such a personal, again, going back to no judgment, no stigma, it's such a personal thing. So I'm going to take the resistance, meaning like they've just, they're overwhelmed versus like their resistance to wanting to do it. Because if that's the case,

then they don't want to, right? And so that's fine. But I think the most important thing when you're thinking about it is affirmation, honestly, because there's so much internalized they don't want to. Right. And so that's that's fine. But I think the most important thing when you're thinking about it is affirmation, honestly, because there's so much internalized like weight bias and and feeling like I can't do it, getting over that. And that's where the community aspect is so helpful is other people saying, yes, you can. You're giving me Louise Hay vibes. You are saying you can't do it over and over. You may say it once a day, but then you say it every day for 365 days a year. You can't do something. You better bet your ass you're not going to be able to do it if you keep telling yourself that. It's so true. The internalized noise in your head to be able to start having a

more productive conversation with yourself really does set the tone. And I actually think that that's why it's so interesting that in that moment when somebody like actually commits to the journey, that is when they're the most motivated. And where we actually talk about going back to just like the product aspects of this is activation. It's like how do we help somebody succeed in those first 30 days so that they're so pumped about what they're doing that they are incentivized, excited, motivated, optimistic about the habits that they're creating and really thinking about how what we build in our program and our product

can help somebody succeed. You know, it's funny, like doing this show for as long as we've done it now, I find the people that write in and ask questions can be around any subject that are maybe the most overwhelmed or the most stressed. It's just like, it's a lack of firstly information and then maybe other people that you're doing it with. And I say like we just did this whole podcast around starting a health journey. And one of the pieces of advice is like find somebody that you can do it, and that's going to hold you accountable and that you're going to feel good, like going to an exercise with or going on a walk with or whatever it is. And I think as soon as like, you know, Lauren and I provide a lot of information, you're talking to people like yourself, but it's really like just pointing people in the right direction so they can get that information. Cause it's the same thing around financial literacy. If you just don't know, the ignorance, and I mean that with just like a lack of knowledge, is what is the most stressful. Well, and I want to build on that.

What's even harder is the misinformation. Yep. There's so much misinformation out there, especially about these medications. And people are self-diagnosing on TikTok and then going out and ordering stuff from compounded who knows what, if it's actually some agglutide or not. And I feel like that is actually a major responsibility that we've taken in. This has been a company that's been around for 60 years. And what I can say about that is that 60 years has come with being like the most, the evidence-backed program

that there is, and also a brand that people trust and recognize. And so we take very seriously that we need to be able to be a place to harness all that noise and actually give people the right sort of support and care to understand whether this is a medication that is appropriate for them or not. Because right now, people all over the internet are saying all kinds of wild things. Yeah, you can just take these medications and eat all the hot dogs and pizza that you want. And I was

like, that's wildly incorrect. And so that's, I think, a critical part of this is just ensuring that we're a place of trust where people can come and get medically sound advice. Yeah. It's funny because we know personally a lot of people that are doing this with great success using the medication, but they're working with a doctor and they're thinking about their muscle and they're doing a lot of the right things, but they're working every month with the clinician.

And then unfortunately, I know, again, coming from LA, plenty of people who are just taking this stuff with no direct advice and just kind of doing whatever they want. I worry about that. Yeah. Yeah. I think you should. But to your point, I think there are some people that are candidates. I think this is where the internet is so crazy because there's going to be success stories and then there's going to be some stories that go off the rails. But again, it comes down to information and where you're getting your source. I really wanted to have you on, Seema, because you are such a great example of someone who's really nailed it with the entrepreneurial journey. And I think it's full circle for

you after hearing your story to be the CEO of Weight Watchers. The house party stuff makes more sense now. I wanted to understand to this, I think that this program can really help a lot of people who are struggling with weight. You were kind enough to give us a code. You guys can head to www.com slash TSC to see if you qualify. And if you do, you can use our code TSC25. You get your first month free. That is so nice. Plus $25 off your second month. So that's code TSC25 to get your first month free plus $25 off your second month. Seema, where can everyone find you? What if they want to message you? What if they want to go on the platform and find what you're eating and find your hot pot recipes?

Home address and social security. I am on Instagram. I'm at Seema. I'm on TikTok at Party Seema. Love it. Are we calling it X these days? I guess. Now I'm reading that bio, by the way. It makes more sense.

We're calling it X because once you read the bio, it'll make sense why it's X. I think X is cool now after I've got the context around it. Well, he's been trying to make X. He tried to make PayPal X a long time ago and wanted it to be the, and I think that's what he's doing now. Anyways. I believe I'm at Seema Sistani. I'm mostly on Instagram and TikTok these days. And if people want to join Weight Watchers and they want to find your page on Weight Watchers, can they connect with you on there? Absolutely. So you're just search your name. Yeah. Just search it's just search, search my name, WWC my there. And so the fun thing about being the CEO of this company is I get members to come along the ride with me. And so it was so great because it just felt like I had a

team with me. Like weight loss can be a team sport at times. And so I love interacting with our members there. Baby, you've been my team. You've helped me. He's helped me stay accountable. We've driven to the gym together. I see those hot Cheetos going in the mouth at 10 PM. I'm like, no. Don't do it. The internet will eat you alive for saying that. They'll say, fuck. Thank you for coming on. They've said it all about me already. What else are they going to do? Thank you for coming on. Take care. Thanks, guys. Thank you guys for tuning in. As a reminder, Weight Watchers has generously offered a code to our audience. Head to www.com slash TSC to see if you qualify. If you do use our code TSC25 to get your first month free plus $25 off your second month. Again, that's www.com slash TSC

and code TSC25.