Boost Your Mood With Healthy "Candy" Lozenges

Today on The Clean Body Podcast, host Lauren Kelly talks to the founder of kindroot Alisa Pospekhova about adaptogens, functional plants, sensory benefits of aromatherapy and the healing properties of herbs.

Get 20% off kindroot purchases by using the code CLEANBODY20 at www.kindroot.com

What you'll learn: 

• Alisa's first-hand experience with adaptogens
• Irritant ingredients in conventional lozenges
• The impacts of stress on the body
• Why Alisa chose lozenges over gummies
• Benefits of ashwagandha, lemon balm, reishi, lavender, turmeric, clover, cacao nibs, and chia seeds
• Why Alisa chose organic rice syrup as the sweetener for her lozenges
• Benefits of aromatherapy
• Working with a Candy Hall of Fame scientist
• Why anyone is capable of being an entrepreneur
• Why long-term goals aren't always helpful
• How to make sure spices are clean

About Alisa Pospekhova:

Alisa Pospekhova is a health and wellness enthusiast, avid yogi and an aspiring herbalist. Having felt the transformative power of holistic nutrition and plant-based supplements for management of her own auto-immune condition, she set out to develop a line of fun and accessible supplements that people would actually look forward to taking. 

Prior to serving as CEO of Kindroot, Alisa spent 15 years building and managing healthy food, wellness and beauty brands across the globe, having held senior-level marketing positions at Unilever, The Wonderful Company, Nestle and Manduka Yoga.

About Kindroot:

Formulated by a master herbalist and blended by a Candy Hall of Fame scientist, Kindroot Adaptogems™ is the new breakthrough supplement disrupting the category. Combining smooth delivery, sensory benefits of aromatherapy and healing properties of plants - Kindroot aims to help bring a little “reset” to everyday lives with the help of functional plant lozenges.

For more on Alisa Pospekhova and kindroot, visit https://kindroot.com

• Facebook: https://www.kindroot.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kindroot
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kindrootadaptogems

For more on Lauren Kelly and The Clean Body Project, visit www.thecleanbodyproject.com. 

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• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/HolisticLaurenKelly

Transcript

Alisa Pospekhova (00:00:00):

Adaptogens are just this really amazing class of herbs that are non-specific to your body. And there's essentially helping you fight, or they support your system and able to sort of bring down the levels of stress, which I think stress in this whole adrenal fatigue is what kind of influences so much of the diseases. And so much of the unwellness that we're seeing

Lauren Kelly (00:00:23):

Welcome to the clean body podcast. I'm Lauren Kelly, a certified nutrition therapist, and soon to be specialized holistic cancer coach with a certification in cancer biology from UC Berkeley. I am so grateful that you're here. This podcast introduces you to the souls and brains behind some of the cleanest food beverage and lifestyle products on the market, because what you put on in and around your body matters from cookies, bread, and mushroom superfoods to adaptogenic lozenges, clean medicines, organic mattresses, and fluoride-free toothpaste. We'll explore how the brands came to be how scientific studies drove decisions about ingredients and materials. And most importantly, how the products support all the physical and mental microscopic miracles that occur in your body every minute of every day. Thank you for being here. Let's get this started. Welcome back to the clean body podcast. I'm your host, Lauren Kelly. And this is episode four.

Lauren Kelly (00:01:27):

Now, if you all listened to episode three, you learned a lot about adaptogens. Don't worry if you haven't listened to it, it's not a prerequisite, but we dig even deeper into adaptogens. In this episode, I am talking to the founder of kind true Elisa PASPA Cova. She is a health and wellness advocate and enthusiast. She is an avid Yogi and an aspiring herbalist after struggling with her own auto-immune conditions and discovering the benefits of adaptogens. She set out to develop a line of fun and accessible supplements that were just a little different than what was already on the market. She has found a way to package the power of holistic nutrition and plant-based supplements into little candy lozenges with the help of a candy hall of fame scientist, which we talk all about before starting kind drew Elisa spent 15 years building and managing healthy food wellness and beauty brands across the globe.

Lauren Kelly (00:02:28):

Now Alisa works on her kind Rue empire from seal beach, California, and is continuing her education and holistic medicine urbalism and yoga. During the episode, we also talk about the sensory benefits of aroma therapy and the healing properties of plants. We also go through some herbs that you can easily incorporate into your everyday life for a healthful punch. Before we jump in Elisa is offering 20% to listeners. So go to kind route.com, choose which products you want to try and put in the code, clean body, 20 that's all one word, unkind, route.com. And if you're not sure which ones to try it, I highly suggest this news. Okay, let's get into it. Welcome to the podcast. How are you today? I'm doing really well. How are you?

Alisa Pospekhova (00:03:22):

I'm loving the sunshine and kind of transitioning into spring. So I'm really excited about that.

Lauren Kelly (00:03:27):

Yeah. It's been such a strange winter, like some days, at least in Phoenix, like some days it's freezing and freezing to us as 50 degrees and the next day it's crazy hot and I'm sweating. So it's been pretty wild. Like it's only mid February right now. We're warming up, but you know, getting ready for a long warm winter or a long warm summer, that is, but I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. I have been using all the kinder group products that you so graciously sent me. And I have to tell you, snooze makes me pass out. It is glorious.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:04:03):

I'm so glad to hear that. I'm so glad to hear it. It's my favorite. It's actually my favorite of the line, which I know you're not supposed to have like favorite children, but it's the I think it's the one that just came together in the way that just works really, really well.

Lauren Kelly (00:04:18):

Yeah. I mean, it's awesome. And I took it a couple of nights and I was like, man, I am sleeping better than I ever have. Could this be kind rude? And so I gave my friend and my husband and they both had the same experience. And now my husband every night is like, I need a kind route lozenge. And I'm like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa. I only have so many fighting over kind drew.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:04:43):

No worries. I'll send you more. It's actually the one where it completely off stock of it. Right now, cause it's the one where, you know, I kind of thought the sleep one would do be one of our best sellers, but I actually did not anticipate just how popular it would be. So I'm constantly not forecasting it, the production of it correctly. So we're always like running out. But I'll, I'll definitely hook you up with more ones since back.

Lauren Kelly (00:05:06):

No, I appreciate that. But yeah, there's mood, there's focus. There's gloves. There's so many good ones. It's just happens to me my top one, but all of them have their benefits, but before we really hop into all of the different products that kinder is making and putting out into the market, I'd love to just hear your story into health and wellness and how you got started.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:05:27):

Yeah. You know, I've always been that person that kind of was really interested in like herbs and things that are natural. You know, I'm originally from Eastern Europe. And so I think things that like full medicine were just very common, you know, it was very uncommon when I was growing up to even have antibiotics or something like that. I mean, if you were put on those, it was because you were like truly, truly incredibly like gravely ill. And so coming to the U S it was just like this awakening for me. I, I came here when I was a teenager and I remember like there was a, basically a pill for everything. And I was so used to like, you know, you took a hot bath if you were feeling sick, cause it was spike the fever and it would call it help you, you know, work through it or, you know, you would take some kind of root vegetable that help you sleep.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:06:16):

So that was always kind of natural to me. I remember in college, like I would spend my money on supplements and I would go, you know, to the health food store and, you know, by first squeeze juice, it was very, very natural. But then, you know, I got a job in corporate America and I kind of got wrapped up in that, you know, go, go, go culture and a lot of travel. And I started to really feel it in my, in my health. I also always struggled with asthma and I think, I didn't realize at that point that it was an autoimmune condition and so much of what you do with stress and environmental factors really, really affected. And I think I kind of got into my mid to my mid thirties and I was really starting to feel like just a lot of symptoms of fatigue, you know, a lot of kind of picking up every single infection that was going around.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:07:06):

And I decided to really focus on myself and work with a naturopathic doctor and I was going to an herbalist and I was working with an acupuncturist and I really started to see really transformative effects of taking some of these really healing you know, roots and vegetables and berries and incorporating them into my diet along with things like meditation and yoga and just overall, honestly, slowing down. I think it's so incredible to see what your body is able to do kind of on its own. If you just sort of like let it, and you don't disturb, you know, the balance. And I was doing all of that. I was really interested. I, I ended up going into like apprenticeship for herbalism and I was studying it. And during that time, you know, I got sick, I was standing on Walgreens. I was going to buy another lozenge and it just kind of hit me.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:07:56):

I was like, you know, it's interesting. I've been buying the same product for the past 20 years. Right? You have like a choice of three brands, some private label, they all taste the same. They all look the same. And I think looking at it through the lens of somebody who was studying, you know, nutrition and all those things, I was like, it's interesting. You know, a lot of them are sugar, high fructose corn syrup based if they don't have sugar, then it's things that are like isomalt or artificial kind of sweeteners that we now are learning are so terrible for your microbiome. And they actually kind of mess up your pallet intends of sugar sensitivity. And then it has things like menthol, which is great in the short run, but it actually makes you more susceptible to rotations. So ended up having to have more of those. So I started thinking about this idea of creating a better lozenge, just from the standpoint of making it really simple, like just simple ingredients you know, the simplest manufacturing process that we can do. And as I was sort of starting work on that, I was also traveling and I had my adaptogenic formulas with me and I had an as a block back because I just didn't think about it and TSA staff, because they're all like, what are all these like cleared powder?

Lauren Kelly (00:09:08):

No, it's just a matter, you're trying to get through security now, man.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:09:13):

And and that's where I'm really, really conducted. And I thought, you know, they actually kind of cool to think beyond just soothing, you're thrilled, but it can, we actually look at a lozenges, you know, delivering beneficial ingredients and kind of being healing and feeling functional. And I started doing more research and it was sort of interesting to me, cause there's so much innovation that was done within like gummies and chews, but nobody has ever done anything, but then sort of the laws and hard candy. And I kind of love the challenge of going in that direction of doing something on my own. So that was the start of this whole crazy journey. You know, about two and a half years ago. And and now, now here we are,

Lauren Kelly (00:09:52):

Let's go back a little bit to, you know, you made a statement that the body is just so incredible and what it wants to do if you don't upset the balance and it is just so true, your body wants to heal. And it's really incredible that your body will force you to stop, to give it time to heal. That's what exhaustion and you know, illness is, is your body being like, Hey, Whoa, I need you to slow down so that I can take care of some things internally and you can get back to it. It's so incredibly smart,

Alisa Pospekhova (00:10:21):

A hundred percent. And I am probably the guilty as person of that. Like I am your total and I'm learning. I'm like trying to re set myself in my thinking, but you know, I grew up, I think thinking that that type a kind of adrenaline junky, like, go, go, go. I work, I travel, you know, I do a red eye and I think what inevitably would happen is like, I could do it for about three months and then I would just crash. Right? Like I would just crash for three to four days to the point where like, I couldn't get off the couch. I was coughing. And I don't think I realized that that time, cause we sort of, I think in the Western science look at it as being a weakness, right. You're like, you're not supposed to be getting sick or needing downtime.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:11:04):

And there's still so much. I think even though I think it's changing, but I think people still kind of glamorize, you know, not sleeping and traveling and how many more projects can you kind of take on. And I see it Xcel a lot without the entrepreneurial community. It's like who can get into more stores and who can like raise the most money it's, you know, a lot of that stuff. And I think I'm happy on the other side to kind of those see the movement towards health and wellness and like wellbeing and, you know, having a more rounded lifestyle and like how much do we actually need if you're not happy if you're not in balance. And I think ultimately for me, I now see the value of like taking Saturday off or taking a Sunday off or taking an afternoon and then coming back to things with just totally renewed creativity after, you know, having a little bit of a downtime. Yeah.

Lauren Kelly (00:11:56):

You can just be so much more sharp and creative, like you said. And there's just so much to be said about that, about slowing down and allow yourself to be bored. You know, like oftentimes great ideas come from being bored and we need to look at life and building our businesses. And what have you is a marathon, not a sprint, you know, instant gratification is just a thing that we want in everything that we do, but we also will glaze over learning lessons if we don't like really pay attention and be present in the moment and allow things to come to us as they're supposed to. So I love that you said that being an entrepreneur, you know, you want to be as successful as you can, as soon as you can, but also to build something sustainable and that like really speaks to your own authenticity and your values. It takes time. But so you told me what inspired kind root, what inspired the name because I love the name.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:12:49):

Oh, thank you. You know, I, so I'm a very intuitive person and just intuitive leader. I kind of tend not to overthink things. And I was literally like sitting on my couch one Friday. I was brainstorming and it kind of came to me. But the, the idea behind it is this, you know, a lot of the nutrients that we're using are coming from plants and roots are just incredibly nutritious. A lot of extra that you look at are usually a lot of them come from the roots of, of, of the plant. And to me, that's sort of like the kindness, the nourishment that the plants give us. So it came together. I literally jumped on trademark. Yeah. And I was like, it was open, the URL was open. The Instagram handle was open. And I was like, I just kind of took it as a sign and bought it, bought it that weekend and went for it.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:13:43):

But I actually still can't believe that, you know, it was, it was available, but yeah, I'll just, I find love it. I think there's also something around, you know having, you know, rooting for yourself and having that self rooted kindness in it. Which I think is all kind of part of the brand motto as well, because we like to think of these little lozenges as people being able to take little moments throughout the day and really just kind of take five, six minutes, think through it, whether it's before bed is you're like, you know, have that snooze in your mouth or whether maybe you just got out of a stressful meeting and you can just kind of take a mood and hopefully close your eyes and reset and kind of root for yourself and kind of get back to it.

Lauren Kelly (00:14:26):

I just love when you stumble across like an idea and like you found the name kinder, the same thing just happened to me. I'm launching one-on-one coaching services for cancer patients to have an alternative approach to healing and holistic cancer care.com was not taken and neither was an Instagram. And I was like, how is this possible? Okay, well, I'm getting all of it. No. And did you think, like

Alisa Pospekhova (00:14:52):

At that moment you were like, this was meant to be like, this is like, I'm a big believer in like serendipity and just things coming together. But it's amazing. Congrats. I mean, I think that that's such a huge such a huge area because I think so much of that again, is focused on like the body and getting your well, but there's such a other side of like surviving a traumatic experience like that cancer and getting through it and getting the support. So I love that you're doing,

Lauren Kelly (00:15:21):

Oh, thank you. Yeah. I mean, just like you were saying, stress has people do not realize the amount that lack of sleep and stress has on your body. It actually increases pro-inflammatory hormones in your body, which is a root cause of chronic illness. So it is all interconnected, but I did hear it in another podcast. You mentioned that a value of kind drew is emotionally connecting with your consumers. And I love that you said that, what does that mean to you? Exactly.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:15:51):

You know, kind of talking about what you said earlier about growing a sustainable business and it taking time. I mean, I made a decision really early on to sell fund this whole thing. And you know, I'm mostly like a one, one woman show with, you know, kind of amazing people who choose to be involved on kind of a freelance basis. And it's definitely not just me. I mean, there's a, there's a team of people that I feel like helped me, but I wanted to grow the business very mindfully. I wanted to connect to consumers. I wanted to understand what worked, what didn't work. I still answer every single customer service inquiry. I answer every single DM on Instagram

Lauren Kelly (00:16:33):

Juggling so many roles.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:16:36):

But I think it's important, especially in the very early, early days to be like truly, you know, rooted in and, you know, pun intended and like truly be conducted and understand where the consumer is. You know, I, I, I get asked a lot by, you know, kind of the industry, like, what's your exit strategy and, you know, like, do you want to sell it? What do you want to do? And I was like, I just find to help people sleep well. And, and then maybe all those things are in the future, but I really am focused on, you know, the product and the community that we're building out. I really hope to do more of that. I want to develop a whole kind of sustainability and corporate responsibility part on kind of route, you know, like things like volunteering and, and, and, you know, working on the community.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:17:25):

And the reason I actually haven't done it yet is because I refuse to do it in the way where I see a lot of brands do it, or they just say like, we donate 1% of sales and it's like a footnote on the website and that's all it is. But I, you know, in my mind I wanted to be like, how many days a week do we will not meet a week, but how many days a month, like do we say, like, Hey, employees get, and we'll go and we'd do something and, or, you know, like, how is it, like, how does it become sort of a living, breathing thing within the company? And like, how do we make sense that it, it means something and what we're doing. So that's important to me and I sort of won't do those things unless I can, I can do them. I can do them right.

Lauren Kelly (00:18:04):

Well, when you're doing them, count me in, I will Angela and come with you. But that is just so important for brands to be thinking about, not just monetarily, you know, like how it's going to benefit their product, but consumers do care. Like they're voting with their wallet and they want to support a company. Who's doing something good and it's not like buried, like, Oh, we do this for the tax, write off. And because we're a billion dollar company. And so giving a thousand dollars is like giving a penny. They really want it. They want to support companies who have a heart and are using their business to do good. So I think that is really great. I do have to ask you a question that I did get from a lot of people on Instagram, and I know you've gotten a million times, but why did you choose laws hinges instead of gummies?

Alisa Pospekhova (00:18:54):

Well, so for me having asthma and just being a consumer of lozenges, I mean, that was really near and dear to my heart. Because I, you know, I was like, okay, the next time I have a throat EJ or, you know, I want something that kind of Suze my throat. I was like, I want to be able to reach for a product that I truly believe in. And I think that was, that was great. But as I started looking into it, I just really got excited by this challenge of nobody doing it. You know, I mean, doing to me felt like sort of battling the sea of competitors, where there was, you know, I mean, there's a gummy for everything from like retinol now to, I mean, you know, whatever. And, you know, within lozenges were really kind of the only ones that are, that are doing this, and I'm excited about, you know, doing something different trailblazing.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:19:43):

And I also think that I'm the ingredient, the delivery side, you know, I think one of the reasons people do really like the melatonin one is because rather than sort of chewing it and, and getting in your stomach and absorbing it that way, it stays in your mouth. And it's a little bit of a slower absorption, which, which I like, which is why, you know, I think we're getting some reports of people saying, like, I don't get the melatonin hangover. It's a little bit gentler in my system. So I think there's just, there's something kind of special about that, that delivery that absorbs through your mouth as well.

Lauren Kelly (00:20:16):

I am trying to be so much more mindful when I have those laws hinges. Like, don't do it, don't do it. Don't, I'm so impatient. So it's like a challenge too. It's like a good mental challenge as well as good for your body. It's teaching you patience. And you know,

Alisa Pospekhova (00:20:37):

It's very interesting, actually, I haven't heard that before, but now that you're saying it is, it is a little bit of like a mind training where you're, you're, you're, you're training yourself to be patient. I kind of love that actually. Yeah,

Lauren Kelly (00:20:48):

It might. That's how I, so let's dive a little bit into the ingredients that are actually in your lozenges and you have incredible ingredients in your lozenges, but I'm curious when you started diving in, you mentioned menthol a little bit and how the conventional brands that are available at grocery stores most often they're really masking what the problem is. They're not really like benefiting your body. They're just giving you a little relief for a little bit of time. And some of the ingredients you use in kind drew actually really do help balance out, and they are good for your body in a variety of ways. But what were some of the things that surprised you as you were figuring out, you know, what you wanted to put into your kind root lozenges about the ingredients that conventional products use and how they impact our

Alisa Pospekhova (00:21:40):

Yeah, no, absolutely. So, I mean, for me, it was interesting just coming at it. I had, I kind of looked at our laws and judges in terms of like base and then active ingredients. And in terms of base, what I thought was interesting is that a lot of them either had these like sugars or sugary substitutes that I was very mindful around, you know, both in terms of people wanting to sort of cut those out, but we also have so much more awareness around, you know, IBS and people not being able to handle like sugar alcohols and some of those substitutes. Right. I think we're also a lot more mindful of on people with vegan diets and what was interesting to me as well is that honey's a great, phenomenal ingredient, but there was a section of population that says, you know, it's not really an ingredient that I'm willing to sort of touch.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:22:28):

And let's just kind of start looking at it. And I was like, well, that's kind of interesting if you're like a vegan with, you know, maybe IBS. So you're, you're following a low FODMAP diet, or maybe you're looking at something gluten free. Like there's maybe not actually kind of an option for you, which is, you know, seems so extremely basic. So those were kind of like the basics that I wanted to look at. I wanted our, our base to be gluten-free. My boyfriend and I both mostly follow kind of a gluten-free lifestyle. He's actually has a true sensitivity to it. Whereas like for me, it's kind of a preference. I wanted the base to be you know, vegan. And I also want it to be low sugar, but natural. I'm kind of a big believer in a have less of the real thing rather than you know, I see a lot of friends talking about how you could eat.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:23:15):

Like you can eat three bags of something and it's only two grams of sugar, but there's a lot of filler in it. And I'm like, no, honestly I'm fine. If our consumer has one or two lozenges a day, like, I think that's enough, have a little sweetness kind of reset the, but I really did want to promote kind of the gluttony of, you know, eating the whole bag or something like that, you know which I guess is great for a lot of brands because consumers are sort of buying more, but I really wanted it to be mindful. So I think those were the three things around the base were just extremely interesting to me that nobody has kind of like look through in terms of stripping it down. And then of course you're faced with things like menthol that can be extremely irritating.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:23:57):

There's a lot of colors. There's a lot of colors, artificial colors. There's a lot of artificial fragrances, and then there's a lot of, kind of like fillers and binders that are added to it as well. And if you look at our laws and Jimmy, and it's extremely simple, you have like the base of the organic rice syrup. You have the active ingredients, we add a little bit of malic acid for tartness and some of them. And then we add natural flavors. So I actually believe, and this is not like a true statement, but I believe that we have like the shortest ingredient list of most laws, interests that are sort of on the market that, you know, make them yellow or green or red. And I just, I was like, I'm fine if it looks Brown because of the ashwagandha that we put in it is Brown.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:24:42):

And I'm like, I think that's okay. And I think it's okay if people see like green specks of lemon balm because they actually see what's, what's in it. I don't think we have to sort of cover it up and, you know, I'm fine with it kind of being really, really stripped down and, and direct. And the other thing we did that I actually thought was different too, is that if you look at the back of our package, we have a serving size of one. Because I'm always frustrated when I look at the dock and it's like 2.75 surveys, or, you know what I mean? And I'm like, am I supposed to really go through and do math right now and figure out what it is? And I think a lot of times it's done to either make certain things appear like there's less, or make certain things appear like it's more. And I just kind of was like, we're going to do one. And if people have one, they know what they're having. If they choose to have two or three it's easy multiplication, but I don't want to trick anybody into you know, looking at it and thinking they're consuming less or more something that can be in it. So transparency is definitely one of the core values of the brand and the product. Yeah.

Lauren Kelly (00:25:48):

That's pretty incredible. When you start a journey of learning about nutrition, how you see companies manipulate the nutrition label, you know, like they really do. There is some, I don't want to say dishonesty, but there are, there's intentional Foolery that happens like even with sugar, you know, they have like four different names for sugar on one package and it's all just being processed in your body as sugar. But it can be really, it can, it can be intimidating for consumers who don't want to be healthier, but they don't understand, you know, what all of these compounds and ingredients are and how they affect your body. And just like you said, about artificial coloring, I was making faces because I recently read studies about artificial coloring and it staying in your body and dying your fat. And I'm just like, Oh, please stop chugging those Gatorades. Like,

Alisa Pospekhova (00:26:45):

I mean, I think we have to move away from this idea that food always has to be like super pretty. And I mean, it can be. And I mean, I think a lot of like natural salads and stuff you make, like, you can make them really beautiful and colorful, but

Lauren Kelly (00:27:00):

Tumeric, you know, if you want it to be yellow use Kimery, don't use yellow five.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:27:05):

Exactly. Or you can use like Rose extract and things like that. But I think also a lot of things, once you sort of dry them, I mean, a lot of colors and natural things come from, you know, these like compounds that are sort of like alive and very fresh, but once you dry a lot of stuff, it does tend to be kind of a, a gradient of Brown. Right. And you can sort of get like dark green to the Brown. And I think that's okay too. Like not every drink has to be Instagram perfect. And you know, and blue and pink and whatever. Like, it's fine to just have something that's not pretty, it can still make you feel good and be really beneficial. Yeah.

Lauren Kelly (00:27:41):

I don't think the color of lozenges has ever like opening years. I don't think I've noticed at all like, Oh, this is clear, this is Brown. Like, that's not what I'm looking for you with it. So I don't think that's impacted my decision-making whatsoever. And it was really interesting. I, you are doing a great job of passively communicating that you should only have like one or two lozenges throughout the day, or like, that's what you would suggest like a mindful consumption, because I have never considered even popping like ripping up eight and just like having them all at the same time. Like, I've not, that's never been a thought. So your packaging is really subconsciously doing that job for you because you do individually wrap them, which communicates that, like it's, you know, have one and enjoy one or like have two, if you want to, but it's not like an unwrap all of them and have a whole bag of, you know, sleep snooze, logic laws, engineers at one time.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:28:40):

No, definitely. No, definitely. I mean, that's where I think, you know, on my end, when I see brands kind of pushing like only one gram of sugar per whole bag, I mean, that is like, I think a very sort of a passive way of incentivizing people to eat the whole bag because you're saying like, it's okay. And I just, I really want us to move away from that messaging generally, hopefully as that, you know, as an industry. Cause I just think it's really, it's misleading. I think it's, to your point, it's a little bit of a trickery designed to get people to eat the whole thing. And I really want us to just have less of good real stuff. Yeah,

Lauren Kelly (00:29:19):

Yeah. I'm right there with you now. I think you kind of touched on it. At least I picked up on it, but one of my questions was why did you choose organic rice syrup to be one of the sweeteners in your, in your lozenges?

Alisa Pospekhova (00:29:33):

Yeah, I know. So it really was when we were looking for it and testing, you know, the key things were gluten-free vegan and something that, you know, didn't have a really strong taste, so we didn't have to go through and like mask. Cause that's another thing you sometimes, you know, see if you're using an it base ingredient that has something that's really potent, then you have to sort of add a lot more and organic rice syrup, you know, obviously then you're basically guaranteed that there's, you know, no pesticide to use things like that. And we test all of our ingredients that come in and regardless of that but it hasn't really, really mild taste. We were able to use a dextrose level that was really low in sugar, but still worked in, in manufacturing. And when we were, and then, you know, we looked at tapioca, we look at rice, there were sort of like multiple contenders, but this one was the one that kind of worked the best, was the easiest to work with. And we really, really enjoyed the taste of

Lauren Kelly (00:30:32):

That's great. I want to dig into a little bit more the specific ingredients that you use in various products. And I just love to hear your input of how those have health benefits for people. So I'm just going to kind of run through them and tell us, give us all your knowledge, but let's start with reishi.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:30:53):

Yeah. So reishi mushroom love it. I mean, I think mushrooms are just having such a moment right now where people are kind of embracing them from being this like you, and it's kind of amazing to hear how much kind of hate there is for mushrooms in the world. Like people have really kind of strong feelings, Michael

Lauren Kelly (00:31:10):

Phobia, Israel. Oh my God.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:31:12):

And it's so sad because there's truly, truly incredible species that I think even beyond nutrition, we're now, you know, figuring out that mushrooms are able to like eat plastic, right? So like there's just such a future for using them and packaging and then the whole ecosystem. So I'm a huge, huge fan, but, you know so I would even before kind of jumping into Reishi, you know, I think the idea behind lozenges and having adaptogens in it is that adoptions is just this really amazing class of herbs that are non-specific to your body and there's essentially helping you fight or they support your system and able to sort of bring down the levels of stress, which to your point, you know, I think stress in this whole adrenal fatigue is what kind of influences so much of the diseases. And so much of the unwellness that we're seeing.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:32:02):

So all of the blends have an adaptogen in it. Some of them have to, in addition to another active ingredients. So Reishi is incredibly powerful great for EVM system, but also influencing things like, you know, mood, support, resilience you know, and kind of overall kind of homeostasis in your body. So we actually have it in two of our blends. It's both the name unity where it works together with, you know, vitamin C and then we also blended it in the moot skew, along with Maca, which Maca roots and other to Jen, it's kind of an adopted and for like a reality, it truly gives you that like energy. And then you have Rishi, that's a little bit more of a balanced one. And again, they both work on, you know, your Homeland hormone levels, they break down your stress levels, supporting your adrenals. And you know, a lot of mood issues do happen because of, you know, stress and the cortisol. So much of mood now we're finding out is actually also happening in your gut microbiome, right? Like most of your serotonin is actually produced in your gut.

Lauren Kelly (00:33:10):

Nope. Amine has also produced they're all these neuro-transmitters, they're all coming from, well, not all, but a lot of them are coming from your gut.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:33:18):

Yeah. So it's like, if you're not eating healthy and that's outside of balance, there's so much, so much things that you can kind of take. Right. So the, you know, our focus was really on, it's a, long-term, you know, it's not necessarily that you're taking one loss engine, you're going to, you know, feel incredible within, you know, kind of 20 minutes. And nor do we think that's the only thing you should be doing. Right. I think it should be done in conjunction with, you know meditation, you know, you should be eating healthy, you should be managing your stress levels. So I never want to be one of those sort of supplement brands that are saying like, we're the answer to everything and you know, you, you don't have to change anything else it's really meant to be meant to be a compliment to your lifestyle. But yeah, I mean, I think Rishi is amazing just because it spans so many different things and it's able to support everything from your mood to your energy, in a non very kind of jittery, crazy cafe in way down to, you know, immune system, which it's really, really known for as well. And it's actually known as the mushroom of immortality as well. Oh really? Yeah.

Lauren Kelly (00:34:26):

I did not know. Yeah. And like I said, everyone is going to have a different reaction, although everyone I've given snooze to has the exact same after the first use, but you know, no guarantee everybody's body is completely different. And like you said, what you eat or drink in conjunction, how you live your lifestyle, how much stress is in your lifestyle, all of these things will impact when and how you feel the difference from adaptogens and like, you know, myself, I can feel things from food very quickly because they eat whole clean. So I can feel differences now. When I try a new product or I eat poorly, you know, then I can feel it really fast, but someone who's just getting into the health and wellness space and starting to experiment and driving and cultivating a closer connection with their body and understanding their body, you might not feel it right away. And so it does take a little bit of time of cultivating that habit for you to see results. So that is important to say, like, you can't just take somebody and expect that you're going to be all Zen in 20 minutes. It might not work out.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:35:33):

Yeah, no, absolutely. I'm on same page. Yeah.

Lauren Kelly (00:35:38):

And you do have some aroma therapy in your lozenges, like lavender. I love also the flavor of this news one. I know I keep going in on this, but I just love that it has that lavender tastes, I think most people for aroma therapy, they think of essential oils or you know, diff diffusers. They don't think about the benefits of aroma therapy orally. So I'd love for you to kind of talk to us about that. You have lavender and rosewater and what are the impacts that aroma therapy can have when taken safely orally.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:36:17):

Yeah, absolutely. And what I think is interesting about aroma therapy is that again, I think we've been trained to think about it as like, it has to be an essential oil, right? It's, it's something that like, you need sort of like a product for that. And I would actually probably caution against you know, drinking a lot of these oils because they do tend to be extremely concentrated. And I think

Lauren Kelly (00:36:40):

Central oils in your home, don't just like go drinking.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:36:44):

And even then, I mean, you know, they, they are very potent. I mean, they're natural, but they're rear potent. So I always say, you know, and just, I think with anything that's verbal and natural as well you know, kind of approach it callously and see how your body body reacts. Cause they can be kind of pretty powerful. But I think, you know, we, I wanted to the laws and just to be kind of a full body experience. And so the flavors were developed on the principles of Roma therapy in the sense that, you know, you can smell, like why do we like smelling the roses? Well, they smell good of a why is that is because, you know, they do have some of these dramatic compounds that kind of come off of it. They enter our sinus system and they kind of like influence our, you know, influence our brain.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:37:27):

So you can pretty much do that with food. You know, like I love the smell of cilantro. You know, why do we like these citrus margaritas, you know, because such as has that idea ability to kind of energize us, right? So again, I don't think you necessarily need essential oils for, you can really dig in your fridge. If you're feeling like you have a, you know, afternoon slump, you know, just take an orange, eat an orange or, you know, smell an orange and more than likely like you will get a little bit of that pickup. So we kind of approached it the same way. You know, I think for snooze lavender vanilla, I'm a huge fan of vanilla and lavender and I want to put lavender into like everything. And, you know, the idea was like, you kind of put it in your mouth, you sort of close your eyes a little bit and you start to smell through your mouth.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:38:14):

Cause it's all kind of connected. It's one sinus system. You start absorbing a little bit of that smell and hopefully it works the same way as like lighting a candle in a lavender vanilla candle in your room would be right. It's sort of like gives you that little moment when I was formulating it, I was traveling a lot and I would take a lot of like overnight flights and I would always feel so hectic on the plane cause there's just like people everywhere. And I really like my vision for snooze was that I could like get on the plane. I could put my mask on my air phones and I can pop a law's engine and I can close my eyes and I could just have like a little moment within myself and kind of turn inward and not see anybody. And that's the same idea with, you know, litchi rosewater, you know, rosewater and Rose in general is kind of known for being really relaxing, uplifting something really, really that helps with your mood. And so we put it in our mood skew. It's the same idea of somebody who kind of puts it in your mouth has a little bit of that uplifting effect that they might, if they were to, you know, smell a Rose or maybe if they were to have a little bit of a roasty.

Lauren Kelly (00:39:26):

Yeah. It's a little bit of a sensory experience aside from just tasting the lozenge. But it all kind of weaves in with the theme of what we've been talking about in terms of slow down. So you said, grab an orange, eat the orange, or smell the orange, maybe a new habit for us to cultivate, you know, a lot of people scarf down their meals and they eat really fast and you should be slowing down. And instead of saying, like chew your food 15 times, which is like, I'm going to count every bite 15 times. Maybe it's just enjoying smelling your food for a couple of seconds and smelling the ingredients and taking that in because it does contribute to the experience you're having when you're consuming your food and make it more enjoyable, just like

Alisa Pospekhova (00:40:09):

A hundred percent. And this is why, you know, you know how sometimes, like you're not hungry, but you will smell somebody else eating something. And all of a sudden, like you're hungry for that. I mean, it's basically the same effect, right? It's just like your body and your brain kind of recognizing it. And then they know that it's something that's, you know, delicious. And I think interesting, I think in our, the production of food that we have, that's so industrialized, the scent and the smell is actually something that's missing quite a lot. You know, if you smell kind of conventional strawberries, a lot of them just kind of don't have a scent sort of at all, right. Because they're like picked when they're not ripe. And then they kind of ripen them up in the warehouses. But I was actually at a farmer's market this morning and I bought some strawberries and like I was washing them and just the water, like hitting the skin and releasing all of those aromatic compounds. Like my whole kitchen was smelling like strawberries and it was just sort of amazing. And then I went down this route of like, now I want strawberry ice cream, but it's, it's very, very true. I mean, food is not just about tasting and food is so much about smelling and kind of having that full, full sensory experience.

Lauren Kelly (00:41:15):

Yeah, it is. You said multiple things here that I like had like strawberries. I mean, I'm actually doing an interview with a hydroponic strawberry farmer. I just happened to buy his strawberries at sprouts. And I was like, Oh my God, these are so good because grown differently, you know, and they use less water and less oil. Some of them are grown in coconut husks. I'm not sure what he grows his in. I haven't done that interview yet, but it's super fascinating. Yeah. and then what was the other thing that you said that I was like, Ooh, Oh, farmer's markets. I love farmer's markets. I do too. You went to a farmer's market this morning. That's all I wanted to say.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:41:54):

I go every Sunday, that's like my, my little slow down. Like I just love, I love my ritual of just going there and like buying it from people who grow them or, you know, the distribute them. And then I just find new things that I kind of challenged myself. Like I will look and a lot of it again, it's that whole eye connection, but I will see something that I have no idea how to cook. I don't know what it is, but it's just like a pretty purple color. And I'm like, I must have it. And then again at home, I'm like, I have no idea what to do with it, but it looks like pretty in my shirt,

Lauren Kelly (00:42:26):

Google image search, like, what is this thing for farmer's market? So on your website, it says that these were formulated by an herbalist, which I'm assuming is you and a candy hall of fame scientists. Please tell me more about what this is.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:42:44):

So I, in terms of the herbalist, I mean, I am I dabble in it, I'm kind of an apprentice, but I actually worked with a couple like true what I would consider true clinical herbalists to help me refine the blends and with a candy hall of fame scientist. So the thing is that when I sort of dreamt up this product and you know, the ingredients of how I want it to come together, I could not find a manufacturer that wanted to work with me. Like I was just hearing no, no across the board. Because the industry is pretty old school. Like it's, they sort of make it the way that they make it. And I would have had to make a lot of sacrifices to produce the product. So I, in a crazy way to just decided to start by self manufacturing, it but I, and I was trying, I was like making, I was like on Pinterest and looking up laws and recipes.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:43:33):

I was like making my own kitchen setting off alarms, burned sugar is like crazy. Like it's insane. And so I just, I was like, you know what, I really need help for somebody to help me figure out how to like actually put it all, put it all together. Cause I was like kind of getting there, but I think I was. And so what's interesting about making candy and lozenges is that like, these scientists are truly like chemists. Like there's a very specific process to make it hard. And then you have to hit a specific like boiling point. And if you're under it, won't set, if your ovary will be burned. And I found this woman who you know, is she has like several patents. She retired from her shoes. She was with them for like 30 years and I just kind of called her up and I, you know, and it was just like me.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:44:24):

And I sent her the deck at that point of what I wanted to do and she called me back and she was like, you know, I usually do much consulting projects, but I allocate some time to work with startups because I just love him so much. And she said, you know, I've never done a product like this. But I think I can figure it out. And I was like, I just started it. I was like, I love like, because that is just like my attitude, somebody who's like super honest and direct, but also says like, but I can do it. And like, that's all I need. And it was incredible. I mean, she, you know, she and I worked over about four months of kind of putting all the blends together and tasting them like perfecting the flavor recipe. And then I actually initially was hand-making them in a small commercial kitchen here in LA.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:45:13):

You know, we were like hand depositing them. And then we, I had like, my friends would come over and they will help me wrap every single one of them. So it was an absolutely crazy process. I completely underestimated how much time, like manual hand production would take. We could make like 12 bags an hour, like it was insane. But I just decided to kind of do it. And I was like, you know what, I'll figure out how to scale it later. And, you know, lucky for me, I think once we scaled and I had like a website and we already had like a product that we could send to different factories. And I had a couple of retailers that pick that up. I think people were a lot more excited to like talk to me, cause I somewhat was a little bit more legit I guess.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:45:57):

And so I actually ended up finding a little candy factory that like loved the product and wanted to work with me. And so we actually moved into their facility over the summer. So they're now like hand, half hand produced, half machine formed. And that, you know, completely like changed our ability to actually start advertising and promoting and selling into more retailers because before, even if people would come to me, I would be like, I can't actually make enough for you to like sell it. Like if you have four stores, I can actually make enough of them. So it was sort of a crazy time, but I'm kind of thankful for it because it made me learn the whole entire process. And I sort of know what exactly happens if you're three degrees over what exactly happens if you like misjudged a formula, you know? So I feel like I am able to be extremely knowledgeable about the product that I'm putting out there, which I think is important.

Lauren Kelly (00:46:53):

I love your story so much. You had to take so many risks and take the bull by the horns and not take no for an answer and just keep pushing and trust your gut instincts, which is so scary. I mean, what are some things you learned from that experience? I just, I'm so impressed by you. Like, as you tell your story, you were hitting all these road bumps and the universe opened up these opportunities to you, but because of the work you were putting in and the belief you had in your product, and you've just found creative to solve issues so dedicated, I just am so impressed.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:47:35):

I, you know, I think it's one of those things like looking back, I kind of look back and I'm like, well, this seems kind of crazy, but when you're in the middle of it, I think, I do think when you're starting a company, like there are these like blocks that you face that you sort of have to work around. And you know, I think I just, yeah, I w I was gonna launch it regardless. And I think that it

Lauren Kelly (00:48:01):

Wait for permission, you needed permission.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:48:04):

I was like, I'm just gonna launch it. And I think one of the things I kind of had to retrain myself cause I have a business background and I think what you're taught a lot of ways is like five-year plans and ten-year plans and how you scale and all those kinds of things, which I actually think are very detrimental to our starting business. And I'm asked a lot in interviews, like, you know, do you think your MBA helped you? And I really want to stay away from that because I don't want people to feel like if you don't have business credentials that you can't launch a business, I actually don't think it helps you at all in the beginning because the problems that you're solving are very different and it really just comes down to like work ethic and grit and willing to kind of solve them.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:48:46):

So I just kind of want to move away from that rhetoric that I think we have a little bit of that you have to have it all figured out and you have to have, you know, venture capital backing and all of that stuff. Like, I really don't think you, you sort of do. And so I was retraining myself to really take it one day at a time and it was like, okay, well today I just have to figure out how to make it in the lab. And then, you know, once we figure it out, I was like, okay, well now I just have to figure out how to make like, just a little bit of them. So I could like need to sell them in a couple of stores. And I was like, and then we'll figure out how to, you know, move it into a factory.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:49:19):

And then once we were doing that for about six months, I was like, okay, well now I've been shipping the product myself. I'm like, okay, now I'm going to figure out how to move it into warehouse and have somebody else do it for it. So I just want to like, kind of like make it okay for people to understand that, like, you don't have to know how you're going to do things three years from now, like just figure out today, figuring out tomorrow and like everyday just little sustainable steps and the business will, will keep growing. And I actually think it's a much healthier kind of way of of approaching, approaching the business. But entrepreneurship is crazy. Like when you look back at it and you're like, think through it, it's it is. But I also think it's like, it's the hardest, but also the most rewarding thing when you know, the things that are happening and, you know, you get those wins. I think nothing feels as good.

Lauren Kelly (00:50:13):

I love that. You said that about the five-year and ten-year plan. I think that's relatable to anything, not just business relatable to your life. Like I no longer have five and 10 year plans because I don't know who I'm going to be in five years. I don't know where going to be in five years, you know, I have ideas and I have passions and goals that I work towards in my twenties. I had very defined five and 10 year plans. And I think I ended up closing saying no to opportunities just because he looked a little different than what I expected them to look like for me to manifest my ten-year plan. But that is literally just an idea of what I think my life is supposed to be. That's not necessarily what it's going to be. So you have to stay open to opportunity and explore and things might come your way that, like I thought I was going to be a fricking actress when I was in my head.

Lauren Kelly (00:51:03):

I'm like, no, get me as far away from Hollywood as possible. Like I have different aspirations. And so, you know, you can't get to, if you do plan five ten-year plans, like you can't get too attached, you have to stay open and you have to be ready for anything that gets thrown at you because everything I think gets put in, in your path for a reason. And so you just got to stay open. So I love that you said that for listeners, I was curious since you are so knowledgeable about plants and flowers and adaptogenics, what are some must have things that you have that you think most people like really easy to put on your food or include in your recipe needs that are really nutritious and nourishing for your body.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:51:47):

So I love when you talked about, you know, like using tumeric or you know, for coloring something. And so I think that when I was something becomes a trend, I think w people who kind of jump in on it, you know, initially are like kind of the more hardcore, you know, whatever it is. Right. And so I think a lot of people find, I find when I talk to people, they feel like, you know, this herbs and plants are like really, really intimidating. And they're like, I go into the supplement aisle and there's like 20 different plans. Like, which one do I need to take? Like, what is it going? And I kind of always say like, don't go there, like start with cooking. Like you're already cooking and you're actually already kind of using herbs in your food. You just think that they're called spices.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:52:34):

But really it just hurts. Like, it's the exact same thing. Right. So to me you know, I think, you know, if you have a little bit tumeric at home I think doing a golden latte with, you know, tumeric a little bit of honey, if you're able to, you know, have honey in your diet and, you know, some milk or not milk great, great way of, you know, incorporating something that's like, you know, cancer-fighting great for your immune system. Just great kind of overall, very, very easy. You can also put a little tumeric on your chicken, making Curry chicken, here's your other option for sort of, you know, incorporating something in your diet. That's, you know, very, very, very easy lavender, just like we have you know, in the snooze lozenge, I mean, you can ha you can add a little bit of dried lavender to your teas.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:53:22):

You know, you can kind of sprinkle that on your salad. So just think of like easy ways of incorporating things into your daily lifestyle that don't require a special ritual, which is where I feel like people initially kind of fail, right? Like if it's something where you're like, I never have a smoothie, but now I have to create a fourth meal with a smoothie. It was all of these ingredients that I never buy. Like, you'll do it for four days and then you will stop. Or majority of people will stop. If you're already having like an afternoon tea every single day, then, you know, maybe get a little like powder into it that you can kind of incorporate. And maybe you're getting a little bit of like red Clover. That's great for immune system. And you're just like, steeping it in with your regular you know, tea bag or something like that.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:54:07):

Right. Or if you're having salad for lunch every single day, you know, maybe sprinkle some flax seed on it. You know, so I, I just, I really want people to get into it in a very easy and approachable way. And then as we started to feel like a little bit more confident, you know, maybe then you move on to a lozenge or a gummy. And then maybe down the line, like you start getting knowledgeable enough to where, like, now you can really make, like, you can start taking like tinctures or making smoothies for different founders and like mixing them, but just don't feel like you have to get into it in a way that's so like medicinal. And so hardcore. And so like requiring of a change of a behavior. Cause I feel like that's where people ultimately fail and give up.

Lauren Kelly (00:54:52):

That is such good advice. You can make small little changes to the things you're already doing that will have a nutritional benefit to your body. So like you said, flax seed and chia seeds are great sources of healthy fats and a little, you know, plant-based protein. You can, I always add cacao nibs to my yogurt for antioxidants or yeah, the only thing I would say is a lot of people don't know this and I didn't know it for a long time, but when you're buying spices, make sure you flip around that label and it just says turmeric, or it says ground black pepper because they actually do put a lot of preservatives and fillers in spices too. So just flip that around and make sure it just says what you think you're getting.

Alisa Pospekhova (00:55:37):

Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah. I love that you brought up spices because I think spices is like in a di like, I mean, obviously there's lozenges, but it's interesting. Just how kind of dirty the spice industry is. And I think that's the one, I think that's a category that's really, really prime for innovation and there are some companies that are doing really good work and I think we'll start seeing more and more so like clean blends that are out there. I mean, nothing kind of irks me more where I see like proprietary spice blend or savory spice blend. And I'm like, what is it exactly like, is it garlic and onion? Is it just, you know what I mean? Like just tell me what's in it. You know, don't, don't kind of look mask different ingredients. And again, I think it goes down back to just such a better of irritants and people having food allergies and people following like FODMAP diets and things like that. So I think consumers are demanding just more transparency through from the industry. And I'm just extremely excited about that.

Lauren Kelly (00:56:38):

Yeah. And I mean, it can be really difficult to know what the root cause of your maybe bloatedness or gassing is, is I was talking to a friend just earlier today who uses a lot of milk alternatives and she's not, she's trying to do everything she can to figure out why she feels heavy and bloated. And I was like, well, what, what line, what of, you know, dairy alternative are you using? And let's look at that label. And there are like emulsifiers and fillers in it, like which for some people it doesn't drive like a huge problem, but that might be irritating for her that might be causing some dis-ease in her body because it can't, it doesn't understand what guar gum is. It doesn't know what to do with it. And so it's causing a reaction that is manifesting as bloating and gas.

Lauren Kelly (00:57:29):

So like maybe, you know, find a brand that is really clean. Like I'm going to be interviewing a brand called good milk and they, yeah, it's an alternative. Yeah. And, but they don't put any of that in their products. So like maybe switch to a brand that doesn't have those ingredients and just see if that starts resolving it because it is a little bit trial and error to figure out what exactly. And every body is different. I think I say in every single podcast episode, every body is different. So you it's a journey, but you know, it's a journey that's worth taking. But before I get into the quick hit questions with you and to wrap this thing up so you can get outside or do some work and just stop talking to me. What plans do you have for the brand? Any, anything exciting coming up or anything that you're hoping to do in the future?

Alisa Pospekhova (00:58:25):

I mean, I think we are, you know, this last year was really sort of focused on setting everything operational kind of, kind of in place. I feel like this is really their year to, you know, really grow our consumer base, get awareness going. So I'm excited to get them more out there. We have some exciting plans with increased kind of retail distribution, which I think will be great. Cause I think was a new brand it's hard online. Right? Cause there's so much like out of very little advertising budget and when you're going against some of the big competitors, it's just like, it's hard to get noticed. We're also planning some really fun content series where, you know, we'll be bringing like more education and information to our fans and our community as opposed to, you know, just you know, just kind of talking about the product. And I think finally, you know, what I mentioned to I really want to start working on incorporating volunteering and just some of that kind of community outreach within the brand as well, which I think is just so within the DNA of what I created. But I just, haven't had a chance to sort of look into it and, and do it right. But I think we're at a point where I'm ready to go in that direction

Lauren Kelly (00:59:38):

As we enter this post pandemic world. I think the one thing they all need is connection with one another with good brands, trying to make a difference in the world. So I hope everyone listening, supports kind true and is, is, is a big, you know, fan and get the product and does all the things they can. But let's wrap this up. I've got a couple of quick hit questions for ya. What does it mean to you to have a kind bar, a clean body, almost like kind product, because that sounds good too, but what does it mean to you to have a clean body?

Alisa Pospekhova (01:00:12):

I mean, I think it's just feeling well for me, it's energy. I feel really quickly when I eat something or if I'm not treating my body correctly. I think to me it just really gets reflected in energy. You mentioned, you know, I think some people feel it in like bloatiness or whatever it is, but I think to me, it's not about, you know, one of my herbalist teachers, you know, one of the things she constantly says, it's she says, you can't tell how healthy somebody by their body composition. So she says, you know, we really need to move away from this idea that if somebody is like, you know, skinny and muscly and looks fit, that they're actually healthy, they, you know, they might be starving themselves or eating a lot of artificial things or, you know, or somebody who's, you know, more plus sized or whatever it is. So to me it's really about the inner, the energy and the, the site, the, how I feel when I kind of get off every day.

Lauren Kelly (01:01:04):

What are some other diet and lifestyle habits you have that you just could not live without?

Alisa Pospekhova (01:01:11):

I it's really important for me to exercise every day or just get movement going. I think as I get older, the idea of like exercise in terms of like weights in gym I'm kind of shifting that and I I've been like walking a lot more in this pandemic and I just like, love it. It's like put a podcast on which there's one on Spotify that I'm kind of obsessed with now it's called, it's like a conspiracy theory one and they go in and they take like a popular conspiracy theory and they either like, prove it or they debunk it and I'm like a hundred risks then like second to it. But yeah, I mean, I think like walking, moving, you know, playing tennis, just doing anything for movement to me, I feel the huge difference and like, it's interesting how stagnant I feel if it's a couple of days and I get too busy and I'm kind of unable to do that.

Alisa Pospekhova (01:02:01):

And then I think the second one is really truly, you know, eating nutritious, eating as clean as I can. It doesn't mean that I like cut things out, I think are used to be there. And I'm kind of much more in the maybe even not 80 20, but like 70 30, because I think restriction is just not good. And I need to enjoy some of those bad things, as long as I allow myself to understand that, Hey, it's fine to indulge and then let's move, let's move away and get back to your sort of like baseline. And then I think the final thing, which has been so hard over the past year, I think for all of us, but I think human connection and just having that support system around you is just key. I mean, I could not have done the entrepreneurial journey without, you know, having you know, strong boyfriend at home who likes supports me or my friends who just, you know, sometimes like, you know, I haven't down moments and they're like, Hey, we'll just come over. You know, we'll, we'll hang out or, you know, we'll go for a walk and it helps me kind of reset and, you know, come back to it with a much better outlook. So in my mind, those are the three things is, you know, movement, nutrition. And then I think social support system.

Lauren Kelly (01:03:14):

Great. Yeah. I love that. It's, you know, movement, anything, like you said, you don't need to stress yourself out and you don't need to hate your workouts. That's actually not benefiting you because you're just raising your cortisol homerooms and you're stressing your body. So just getting any movement, I'm the same recently, if I'm like not feeling a workout, I'll just hop in the pool and swim around for a while because it's just like, just get movement. That's all you need. And you'll just feel so much better after, so you don't have to do some like crazy high intensity, like sweat until you drop workout, just like get out there and move your body and make it more of like a moving meditation then something that just sucks. And you hate last quick hit question for you. What are some other brands that you are loving on? Who should I reach out to next?

Alisa Pospekhova (01:04:03):

Well first I think there's just so many incredible brands out there. Like just all those small little entrepreneurs that I think they're hustling and bring just like really, really incredible products out there. I am very, so there's a new pistachio milk brand that's out there or Tasha. I'm not exactly sure, but they just launched and I'm kind of, I'm really curious about, about them just because I think we've been hearing so much about oatmeal milk and you know, there's been cash on everything, but nobody has kind of done the pistachio side. And I was like, Oh, I'm really, really excited about that. A friend of mine has that a bar that's called BTR, like better bar. And they're all of these really, really stripped down simple breasts, simple energy bars that use adaptogens, but, you know, similar to kind of root, like they don't use any kind of like emulsifiers or like things in it. It's a very, very clean strip down and it's female founded. So I love, you know, supporting other female entrepreneurs as well. So those are like the two that, that come to mind that I've been lately kind of curious and also obsessing about what not we'll get

Lauren Kelly (01:05:18):

A milk next. I know, I know every month there's a new nut that makes the milk and I'm like, okay, well, great. Let's, let's check it out. So last let's just this is your time, shout out. How can people get their hands on kinder products? How can they interact with you and the brand? Anything you want to say? Yeah, absolutely. No, thanks for having me here. I feel like it was such a good chat and like all the questions were like spot on things that I'm thinking. So it's it was just, it wasn't, it was amazing. So I love anything health and wellness and fitness. I always love chatting about, but yeah, I mean, I think in terms of kind of route it's kind of redact com our Instagram handle is kind route. And then I have one that's egg in many baskets because I feel like I'm always spread over so many different things.

Lauren Kelly (01:06:14):

And you can find us you know, we're urban Outfitters Anthropologie. We just launched on thrive market. Gosh, I did not know any of that. That's so exciting. No, it's been really, really fun that that was the story of when they came to us and they were asking for products and I'm like, you can have samples, but I can't actually make it enough for you, but we figured it out in time. And we're working on getting on Amazon and just being kind of available in more and more places. But I think our site and then our Instagram is where you see you know, kind of a lot of our news and sign up for a newsletter cause we'll be developing our content series very soon and sharing it with our community too. That's great work in all the models, B2B DTC on anywhere.

Lauren Kelly (01:06:58):

That's, that's the whole point world domination. Well, thank you so much. You were such a joy to talk to just like you. I just love talking about these things. Like I don't think I've ever done anything in my life that I love more than this podcast right now. So I just really appreciate you and entrepreneurs like you, who are trying to make a difference in the world and working from a place of heart and kindness. So kind through everyone, I will put all the links to social media website, where you can buy the product and the show notes. And if you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out, but thank you so much. I really appreciate you and enjoy the rest of your Sunday. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me. Hi everyone. I hope you enjoyed that interview. Don't forget. Kindra is offering 20% off to clean body podcast. Listeners, just go to kind route.com and typing clean body 20 at checkout, to get the discount. As a reminder, this podcast is for educational purposes. Only. It is not a substitute for professional care from a doctor or otherwise qualified health professional. This podcast is provided on the understanding that it is not a replacement for medical or other health-related services. If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified practitioner, see you next time.