0:02 good afternoon and welcome to the way to while show people making money uh once again my computer does its weird thing that it does letting me know it's going live we we are live uh as as as always here on Wednesdays uh 12:30 pm Pacific 3:30 PM Eastern Time an hour in for Central and Mountain as I see my little you know my little dip in right and um last I just want to um before I introduce uh today's guest I want to mention last week last week my guest was
0:37 um Norm Mitchell Norm has a financial services company he was a an an army veteran who then transitioned into Financial Services has become very successful and he talks about how um you know he came to that point in his life where it was probably going to be like prison and all of that or it was going to be success and how he met that challenge and dealt with it and and got to where he is today where he um spends his time helping everyday people like
1:14 like you and us um gain you know some Financial stability and financial success while also he and his wife uh they're traveling all the time I I see messages from him we're in this place and that place and all over at least all over the the United States so I invite you to go to our YouTube channel and check out uh the last week's episode with with norm and as always if you have any questions uh um my contact information is there and I believe I put a a link to Norms as well he's happy to answer any questions that you have so
1:51 this week I am super excited uh to bring to you Anna Rook Anna and I have known each other for um several years now and we've been trying to connect to have her on the show for gosh I think at least a couple of years and and it's sort of been you know going like this and so we F finally have uh Anna here on the show so Anna first of all welcome to the way to wow people making money thanks thanks for joining us thank you so much for having me I know it's been a long time coming so super excited to be here yeah
2:28 so um just in point of introduction um because I'm going to let uh Anna talk about her background and such I met um Anna when I first started attending a um a health optimization group called Next Health um she she was working there and I I would see her periodically and then one day she disappeared and um I talked to one of her College he said you know Anna is is off um pursuing her own entrepreneurial uh Wellness Venture and and so I
3:03 reconnect re reconnected reconnected with with Anna and and she was and I'm not sure if this is still what you call your your um Venture but she was doing something she called gratitude and food which I think you know almost everybody can relate to to both of those as being very important in our lives especially for our well-being um and and and I I've watched um Anna's Venture grow over the over the succeeding years and and like Norm that I mentioned a minute ago I see
3:39 her traveling seems like all over the place so um so I think you'll be very interested to hear about how all of this developed this is really uh someone who has has built her profession you know really from from the ground up um I I I don't think I don't think you come from a family of uh of um you know people who travel the world entrepreneurs and such right no I actually started traveling um right before I started college and that was like the first bit of travel that I
4:15 experienced um so growing up actually so I'm from Los Angeles and my dad was more entrepreneurial he had a bakery and he kind of taught me like what hard work is from a really young age because he would be working in the bakery some nights till like 2: or 3:00 a.m. would get home for a few hours would be there right back in the morning um so he really taught me about like owning your own business and being an entrepreneur um but I started my health Journey actually in 2013 my dad was diagnosed with lung
4:52 cancer and that was one of the first times that I ever like experienced someone so close to me that sick and I started looking into holistic remedies and that's how I discovered seamos shell which is the main product in my company aasha superfoods and I found that as a way to get mucus out of the body and help clear out the lungs but unfortunately there weren't any good highquality sources of seamoss in the United States people are using it in Chinese medicine and in the Caribbean for thousands of years but it
5:28 wasn't a aailable here and so I kind of always kept it in the back of my head but that's what kind of started my journey into health and wellness and I learned about juicing and smoothies and just high quality food and biohacking and I got really into you know cryotherapy and Fred sauna like everything that next Health has and um unfortunately my dad did pass away and my mom also got very into holistic health as well around the same time so that was very supportive and from there
6:04 I went to college and continued learning about health and I studied food studies in college that was my minor and I majored in Psychology and then after graduating I worked at next health and then I met Alex who was the nurse at next health and we both shared a love of superfoods and Co hit we just had a lot of downtime and I started talking with him about see gel mhm and then he was interested in it too he had been using it and we wanted to become the first retailers on the Shelf to carry to have
6:40 seos um and a high quality one one that we could trust so that's how we essentially long story short started aasa superfoods and I had actually started gratitud and food my freshman year of college as like an outlet on Instagram to be able to share my meals in college I was vegan at the time so that was kind of like how I was sharing my journey with everyone else like to see if anyone could relate or if I could connect with people that were also in a similar boat as me so so let's let's take a little bit of a step back um you said you went to college and studied
7:16 psychology and and food so where first of all where did you go to college I I have a personal interest in this because my daughter um is um interested in um Herbal Remedies and that sort she's she she's done quite a bit of research on it um over the last year or two um and so where where did you go to college that gave you the opportunity to do that kind of dual track that's incredible that she's interested in that um so I went to UCLA and I started off studying economics and just realized it wasn't for me and then
7:51 got into psychology and found out they had a food studies minor and the food studies minor more so was about avail ability of food we T learned a lot about food deserts and then about how our soil has changed over the last you know many years how it's not as nutrient-dense how our modern agriculture system just isn't isn't working out even though it's able to supply as much food as it is um it is messing with our food and we aren't getting as many nutrients as we used to so this is this is something that um you
8:27 know one of your colleagues at next Health used to tell about so and my understanding is um even with or isn't working out even though it's able to supply as much food as it is um it is messing with our food and we aren't getting as many nutrients as we used to so this is this is something that um you know one of your colleagues at next Health used to tell me about so e and my understanding is um even with organic farming and and and those other kind more sort of you know back to you know how things were kind of farming there's
9:03 still this whole sort of um nutrient deficiency in in food these days and my understanding is it's it's it's pretty dramatic would you just expand on that for a minute just so people can be aware of of you know what what's what that issue is about yeah it is pretty dramatic um just over farming and people farming in the same the same ways the same places they're not like spacing it out or um I feel like ever since in the industrial revolution that's when it kind of started and there's a lot less
9:39 like small farms that's why it's so important to shop at the farmers market because when you are getting your produce from the farmers market it does look significantly different than it does in the grocery store and there's an incredible amount of waste too because it's like for grocery stores they throw out everything that you know has a bruise that's like slightly deformed um so it is really important to like support your local farmers and I feel like the produce there is higher quality if you have that available to you um that is the best option but yeah they've really because of these modern
10:16 agriculture systems like our soils are so stripped of minerals and nutrients and that's what the food is growing in so it's just it's less nutrient-dense overall which is probably why they're has been such a high spike in like supplements people can taking supplements because they aren't getting enough you know um Iron B12 like all these different vitamins that they used to be fine with before so I actually get um a large portion of the fruit and vegetables I eat from imperfect produce and
10:52 and you get these sort of weird looking things you know that the the grocery stores won't sell I mean they they taste fine they just strange right potatoes that are kind of bent over and stuff I love imperfect produce such an amazing Mission they are and and it's it's super convenient every other week I get my box you know delivered on my doorstep and and and there it is so um they're great so so you you you you got through college and and then you know out of college so you've got your you know psychology
11:27 degree and and how did you then connect up with the the folks at next Health how where where was that you know where was that connection made to get that that first uh kind of intro in into wellness and also if you would talk a little bit about next Health um um perspective on health because I think it's it's it's interesting and it very much ties into your journey yeah definitely great question so I so the transition out of college was was probably one of the most difficult transitions because here you
12:02 are you graduate from college and they just ex everyone just expects you to get a job you're all of a sudden on your own and it's confusing especially because all of these jobs want you know all these different qualifications I'm like I don't have three years of experience doing XYZ um so it's definitely a challenging time trying to find a job I probably applied to over a hundred jobs had multiple interview Ed so many NOS wow um and next Health was my first yes and I had actually worked across the
12:37 street at sunlife Organics which we now sell our products too and sunlife I worked there for about a year and eight months D while I was in college and I learned so much more about health and wellness you know all the different superfoods they use in their smoothies I loved working with them and I used to do cryotherapy at next health and it was always I always thought wow these people are so cool that work here this is such an amazing job and then the fact that I actually got a yes from them was incredible and I love next health because their whole mission is longevity
13:14 focused and life optimization so so many people they might be living for a long time but are they healthy are you living a life full of Vitality are you just living going through the motions every single day just feeling like every single day or do you feel really good and do you feel energized um and so next health is all about you know feeling your mitochondria which is the PowerHouse of every single cell and just giving your body tons of energy and doing that through different ways especially since today we're faced with many like environmental toxins and
13:50 stresses and environmental stressors um and just daily life so it is important to be able to do these kind of biohacking things if you have that available and that's why I really liked next health is because I was very aligned with you know their mission of living a life of Vitality and Longevity yeah I mean and and um for for various reasons I'm I'm not um with next Health right now um but uh it was it was an incredibly positive um atmosphere to
14:25 be in next Health um and and and and that was one of the things that I appreciated most about it is it wasn't uh like you see these I don't know pelaton commercials where like come on you're lazy it was not like that at all it was really much more of you know the kind of incremental improvements that we all need to be making you know step by step which I think is is much more realistic and much more sustainable um and and in those kinds of um
15:00 life lifechanging processes I find that is a much much better way to go than to try and make these big dramatic shifts that you know we hang on to them for a few months and then they it's just too much so I'm forget it I'm not going to do it and we go back to our old ways definitely and it really is all those small changes that you make every single day or the small things that you do that really you know make a huge impact later on um have you read the book Atomic habits no I haven't okay it talks a lot about how like small things that you do really just like add up and they make
15:36 the biggest impact like in your business in your life and everything that you do so that's and and I I'm wondering if it's there's a book I read a number of years ago now called practice perfect um and and it had a really interesting idea to it because we've all heard the old adage practice makes perfect and what they found is indeed what practice does is it just keeps us doing whatever it is we're doing and and and it so it'll it can ingrain bad habits as easily as good habits right so
16:13 the key is is to find these small ways to better our lives and practice them diligently to make them to habitualized them right but but to do them as well as possible because that's actually where Improvement comes he talks about I think I think they talk about um like Michael Jordan or whatever um you know he would do these things like thousands and thousands of times to to improve them to get them ever more you know ever closer to perfect and that's really what makes the difference but it was all
16:48 those little things so what is it called again Atomic Atomic habits Atomic habits okay I'll have to check that out I have to check out the book you just mentioned too what was it um it's called um I think it's called practice perfect practice perfect yeah um I I don't recall the I think one of the author's names is Larry somebody if I remember correctly for for those of you who are watching we'll put I'll put links to these books in the show notes after the show post so so you can check them out if you'd like and and and I'll I'll I'll send you the the name of the book um after we're done so so you you
17:26 mentioned you started gratitude and food while you were in college to share um you know the the meals that you were but but you've you've actually built quite a quite a following so how how did you do that because a lot of people I think would love to have you know a tenth of the following you've got on Instagram um but it's it's it's quite impressive so how did all that how did all that come together thank you I just I don't know I just started sharing what I was doing and I realized it was really INSP ins spiring other people and I was following other people in the food space in the
18:02 holistic space and started just becoming inspired by them and connecting with other people and I've actually formed like a pretty amazing community in Los Angeles most of my friends are in like the health and wellness space and I met them on Instagram actually which is really really cool and like truly using social media in the best way possible um but yeah I just started being consistent and I was posting recipes almost every single day I remember in college I was kind of treating it as like a side job
18:37 and I would think of like at the beginning of the week I would write down and think of each recipe that I was going to make and it was very recipe focused and now it's more so like recipe and lifestyle because I'm realizing like life there's so much more to life than just food and I was so focused on food for a while so now it's more so like food mindset healthy living and and also I'm co-hosting Retreats so I'm hosting like more traveling and stuff like that oh okay so where I mean where did you where do you think the focus on food came from that kind of initial
19:13 inspiration that was kind of the first thing that I got into in terms of health and wellness I was already exercising I've been so active as a kid I started playing tennis when I was like four years old so that's never been something like exercise has always been a part of my life whereas food wasn't I was eating like ham like I was just eating very I annoy you what I was eating most meals just very unhealthy I would eat a you know fast food so so often as a child and even leading up to being in middle school and high school and then
19:48 that's when I started like really looking at what I was eating and I became so passionate about like you know just like food as fuel and food as nourishment and truly like the feel for everything you do in life and I realized like when I started eating better I started feeling better I started being able to focus more I didn't drink any caffeine my entire time in college which most people were drinking you know five six cups of coffee a day depending on and I was like one of the only people I knew that didn't drink any Co any coffee but I was making all different kinds of
20:23 tonics and just yeah I was pretty like strict about what I was today I'm less strict about it I'm more so just focused on quality um but yeah that's how I really got into food yeah I mean I went to architecture school where you know routinely we would do all nighters and coffee and Coca-Cola was how we got through I mean how I didn't you know completely rot out my system I don't know um and then in my early 20s I I was I realized I was having trouble sleeping and I stopped
20:59 drinking anything with caffeine in it and and it it solved a large part of my sleeping problems it's it's it's amazing how powerful caffeine is and now once in a while I'll I'll have I'll order a cup of decaf and it'll have some and they'll either they have some residue of caffeine in it or something and and it literally makes me sick for at least a day or two that's how sensitive I am to caffeine now and and I think you know for people who who use it regularly they don't they don't appreciate just how
21:37 stimulative um caffeine is and and there's there's other stuff that can make us you know feel vibrant um that that doesn't and and I'm not I'm not like this oh never drink CA I don't mean that at all but there is other stuff that I think is can make us feel vibrant that uh you know doesn't involve caffeine which it seems to the sort of go-to thing definitely and I feel like the issue is the abusing of caffeine it's like getting multiple cups of coffee a day plus an energy drink I think everything in moderation I mean not everything but most things in moderation are okay like
22:13 especially if you're very conscious of it and intentional it's like your cup of coffee in your morning is your way to have time alone and you just focus on that like you don't need it to live you're not dependent on it I think that it's fine but I think it's just the way that we've kind of normalized hustle culture so much just work as hard as you can sleep less and you can just get through your day with caffeine I just don't it's not sustainable in the long run our bodies that's why we have so much so much like disease and illness absolutely my uh
22:51 daughter goes to high school I was at a PTSA meeting um maybe about a month ago now and they have the district that she's in has a wellness committee that that deals with Wellness issues in the schools and it's it's interesting because they were talking about diet and exercise quite a bit at the meeting and afterwards the the fellow comes and I kind of pulled him aside I said hey you know what about sleep I said we're talking about teenagers who probably have some of the worst sleep habits of of any human beings on the planet and they're also setting their patterns for
23:26 the rest of their life you know starting in their teen years and he says yeah he says I know sleep is important but I don't know we just don't really deal with it I'm like wow right sleep should is like one of the most fundamental things of health and it's probably what most people should look at first when they're looking to get healthy especially today I feel like so many kids and even adults like we're looking at our phones so much and all that blue light especially before bed I'm sure kids are scrolling on Tik Tok before bed and that just completely disrupts sleep and who knows how high quality your
24:03 sleep you're actually getting how many hours you're really getting and that's when our bodies really have to recover so you bring up such a great Point yeah I'm I mean I um uh Michael Bruce who you I don't know if you know him he was the one who referred me to nextal so he helped develop the aura ring and and it's my my my sort of go-to thing so you know each morning when I get up I look what was my sleep quality will I do find it's pretty accurate if it says I didn't have good sleep maybe now it's like a pav reaction but I do find that it you
24:38 know when I don't have good sleep according to my aura by you know midaf afternoon I'm I'm dragging so I've been meaning to get one of those I've heard such great things yeah so I if you want by the way I'll I'll be I can send you a link um and they'll give you I think it's $50 off or something because you're referred in so love that thank you sure yeah you're welcome um you know got to spread the word yes yes no I've heard so many great things about it and I've often wondered like how is my sleep anyway you know so that I can make changes because there's so many things that you can do now to improve your
25:15 sleep yeah and I mean they've Advanced it not not this is not a commercial for Ura I have no you know financial interest in Ur at all but they added a a new feature I think about a year ago that tracks your body temperature and um just to digress for moment last week I got run over by a car um and and so I'm been in recovery mode normally I would be standing for this interview but I'm actually sitting because I can't I can't stand for you know very long at all because I have a broken foot now and I've noticed that midafternoon my temperature spikes and and I see it I see it
25:53 recorded you know in the UR ring data um because the the thermometer I have is not sensitive enough you know and I can't I can't be constantly taking my thermometer so you know the aura ring it it tracks it you know throughout the day so there's other great you know health information that you get from it they're making it ever more sophisticated so it's it's really it's really a terrific Wellness device that's how I look at it as help me you know helps me focus on my Wellness throughout the day so right it allows you to like actually see results and like be able to track it yeah which is so important I'm so sorry about that
26:29 that's thanks fortunately happened in Beverly Hills where emergency services are are you know they get there within three minutes and they they were there within literally two and a half minutes the the paramedics were there so that's so scary I'm so so glad that you're okay yeah you know it's it I was out there exercising and it was raining and kind of dark and I think I I I I I feel bad for the driver I I I I mean I don't think he hit me on purpose I think he probably just didn't see me and I didn't see him and he was freaked out he got out of his car turns out I think he was a doctor CU next thing I know my head's
27:05 in his lap he's checking me for broken he's like are you okay are you okay I don't know oh my gosh paramedics lift me into their unit I'm like I'm like trying to crack jokes so I you know break down right but they were really they were great so best case scenario even out of worst case so so let's let's move on now
27:42 you're you're doing gratitude and food you've got this following now and and I I I I will say um and we'll I'll put a link into your Instagram uh account so so people can can check that out but I mean the the first of all that the food you you in your Instagram feed really is amazing looking um it it it really is just beautiful but and I've seen lately like you said youve you've gone into more lifestyle stuff so talk talk to me if you would first of all how you made the transition from just doing gratitude and food into your your food company
28:18 where where you're selling it did you say seos was it I'm sorry you're gonna have to pronounce the name for me because I'm yes aasha superfoods aasha superfood so how did how did you get that go oh there you go oh terrific these are our capsules and then we actually just launched a facial spray that's absolutely incredible so this is our new product does it say probiotic on the facial it's a Prebiotic so it feeds the good bacteria on the skin so it essentially helps build up a a skin microbiome and to build a strong Skin
28:54 Barrier um because today we're using so many products and different acids chemical peels all these like harsh facial products that are completely destroying our skin microbiome um and this is actually pretty much the only product that I use every single day I don't wear any makeup and I just use the Prebiotic skin mist and then like a little hoba oil and that's that's it and it's so clean you could literally drink it um all the ingredients are super super clean in it we use a kelp alkaloid which is the Prebiotic um so it's an extraction from seelp and um there's this app called
29:32 Yuka yuk Ka and you can scan have you heard of it no I haven't you can scan different beauty products and health food products in your house and it'll give you a rating of like essentially like It'll point out like which ingredients are bad or which ones are good and different chemicals in your skincare products and we actually just received a score of 100 out of 100 on this which is amazing um so yeah it's truly extremely clean and I discovered it actually when I was in St Lucia at our seamoss farm and over summer wow so
30:12 that's where we get our seamoss from and we were at the farm and we were staying at this Airbnb that was all open I had no idea it was going to be all open and the mosquitoes were ruthless we're just getting eaten alive I had mosquito bites all over my entire body and I had all this natural bug repellent like I don't use anything with chemicals and my business coach Lauren she was on the trip with us she was like you have to try this spray that I sent you over a year ago because she's the product developer of the spray along with this biochemist and um I tried it and it was
30:48 the only thing that gave me relief and it started healing the bites wow and while we were on the trip I was like we have to develop this product under CAU it how is this not being sold all these things so yeah we got it we just brought it to Market um it's a truly incredible product and we did a 90-day independent skincare trial with people burn victims eczema psoriasis acne and these people had incredible results just in 30 60 and 90 days so we have that all on our website as well I'm sorry that was a
31:23 total tangent wait no no no not at all that's fantastic I'm gonna be buying that product because unfortunately I get eczema um and and it it it is just the worst getting rid of it if you spray this on your eczema two to three times a day you'll notice over a couple weeks it will start to peel and then completely heal wow it's absolutely incredible I know it sounds like sounds like it's very like too promising almost too good to be true but you just have to use it very consistently so so I mean so
31:59 what what's so interesting is a lot of these um healing products you know I wonder if they existed 200 years ago right and we're lost right and now we're we're you know we're finding we're rediscovering the healing processes of so many things um that are so much better for us than you know whatever it is we might you know put on put on our bodies so and and it sounds like that's very much about what is aasha aasha aasha it sounds very much
32:34 like that's what aasha is is about am I on the right track there or that is correct we are an ocean-based so there's plant-based animal based we're an ocean-based superfood company and we're more so focused on nutrients and helping replenish the body of nutrients that are lost in our soil so we get them from the ocean which is why our main product is sea moss and then we also o have other products like the seek help which is very abundant in nature there's so much of it um so we can use like the power of the ocean to heal ourselves and I think
33:10 you bring up a really great point because I feel like it's not that we used to not have any issues years ago it's just it was a completely different time I feel like there was so many different factors like today we're just being bombarded with technology and I feel like there's way more stress in our lives than ever before the environment there's so many different it's just a completely different time and we were even talking I was talking about this with my friends last night at dinner I grew up and we had to plug our computer like to get Wi-Fi we had to plug it into
33:46 with an ethernet cable and then it would still take forever to load and then how do we have these phones that now load everything in a quarter of a second so fast like our bodies have haven't even adapted to be able to take on that technology so I feel like that's even a threat to our health it has to be I I I think so I I sometimes wonder because now we're talking about Ai and machine learning and all these things that can advance technology even more rapidly perhaps than human beings can and I
34:21 wonder how are we going to keep up with all of this it just it's it's mindboggling I mean when I grew up there was there was no internet there were no personal computers um I mean when I went to high school so we we had a computer science class it was we had to use cards you know like Punch Cards you know that's we we learned a little bit of basic which was the computer language that was around then you know and my dad took me on a tour of his workplace and they had a computer there it was literally an entire room
34:57 that probably that you know that computer in that entire room probably did you know a fraction of what you know you could do on a cell phone today right so it's just it has seemed so so overwhelming um I don't know how we're gonna and and I look at my my daughter she was born um right when the iPhone just just before just after the iPhone came to market right she knows nothing other than essentially Wireless you know technology so she's she's used to it and
35:33 I watch her manipulate and I'm just amazed that she can do it but she grew up with it but eventually it'll hit some level where you know she'll be like me with respect to the current technology I assume so I don't know it's it's it's a really I think um difficult challenge for Humanity to deal with definitely yeah know it's like how are our B is going to adapt and also I mean how is it affecting younger Generations too in school with AI too it's all just there's
36:08 so much to unpack there so if if if I can I I think there's you know a lot of people would love to do what you've done they have an idea for how to make life better um and and and they get stuck like how do I where do I find you know the startup funds where do I find the people I need to work with where do I find you know like you I think you mentioned you have a um a farm in St Lucia is that was that it right how did you find all of these resources that you
36:44 put together to form aasha and and make you know make your business a a reality yeah so I would say it's many things so I fully believe in manifestation and really just putting it out there what you want and so I visualize these things I'm focused on them I feel like my vision is so strong of like helping as many people as possible with their health whether that's through my products or just inspiring people to even like change
37:20 their mindset or even just get outside more um so I feel like I'm very like connected with my vision and like what I want and what I see for myself and what I see for other people I feel like that's really what keeps me going and I feel like because that's where my intentions are I've been able to attract certain people in my life that have gotten me to where I am um so say like I started working at next health and met Alex who's also very aligned with pretty much everything that I am in terms of health and wellness and business and you
37:55 know living with integrity and creating a business built upon that and so I feel like I attracted him into my life and he wanted to start a business with someone else as well and then I connected with my seamos Farmer through a family friend who worked at aroan who had a roommate who had family in St Lucia and I was telling him about it and he's like oh I'll connect you with my with my roommate and immediately the next day I was on the phone with two different farmers in St Lucia went with one who I completely trusted so I feel like it's just I've been
38:30 putting myself out there so much but also very like intentionally and knowing what I want in a sense and I've been able to like attract these relationships we pretty much started with no money and was very ignorant I knew nothing about the food space I didn't study business just started learning one thing after the other and I would say that my best advice is just to start somewhere we started our first label we made in canva the free version we didn't even have the premium version we had them
39:05 printed locally we were printing like 200 labels at a time just with whatever we could work with we were making it work and we just kept putting in the work and we're continuously being consistent and going to as many wellness events as possible connecting with other people in the space and then eventually it just started to take off so I think that as long as you just have the right intentions and you stay consistent and you really have something that keeps you going something that's so strong and meaningful to you then I think that you will be perfectly fine if you're looking
39:41 to start a business so you are absolutely the best follow-up guest I could have today because I do another show on Tuesdays called business lessons from the military where I take things that you can learn from military Doctrine or or like historic military text Etc and the the three principles I talked about it's it comes from of all things Marine Corps Warf fighting Doctrine and I convert it for business use is Clarity self- knowledge and knowledge of the
40:16 competition and and what I'm hearing from you is you have extremely good Clarity on what it is that that you want to accomplish and with that Clarity which comes from self- knowledge who I am and and what I want to be in this world the integral person I want to be you you you become like a magnet for for all the things that you need to make this happen yes you just said that perfectly I swear I don't even believe in synchronicities anymore it's like I
40:52 almost expect these things to happen because I'm living so in alignment with why with with myself and with what I want to do that it's just it's magnetic it really is so um so you you you put together these products um and and then how did you work out the distribution channels for them so that you know people can actually buy them right because in the end in order to be useful we have to make what we're doing available to as many people as possible how work that
41:27 out so Alex and I first started actually making stuff just in my kitchen in my house and I started selling just through Instagram Direct messages um seos back in 2020 still a lot of people had no idea what it was people still have no idea today still very new um and so I was driving around Los Angeles just dropping jars off at people's houses and they were venmoing me so it was very it was just completely different and then we started we applied to Awan Market online in August didn't hear back
42:05 until December found out we got accepted into Aran and we were like wow this is was my biggest dream ever came true and so then we were like all right we have to move out of my kitchen and move into a commercial kitchen because we need the licenses and the permits and Etc so we we're both working at next Health still and we started making the product in the commercial kitchen sometimes till almost 2: a.m. would then go back home wake up super early by 6:00 AM we'd start doing the deliveries to all the airan markets in LA because we
42:42 were hand delivering it wow yeah so that went on for about three months and it started to pick up we started gaining some traction on social media and I would say that part of it is because I've formed so many amazing relationships with people in the health food space and other influencers so it's been really I've had so many so much support and I really wouldn't be here today without them in terms of where the businesses and so then we started reaching out to different co-packers
43:18 reached out to so many no one wanted anything to do with our product because it's so weird and it's so labor intensive there's so much washing involved you're using this like moss and it's so much washing so much blending we finally got one yes from someone so they're up in Northern California and we've been having our product made there for about a year and a half now almost two years and we have it brought down on a freight every week and dropped off at a distributor our main challenge right now is our shelf life which we are moving into a different form of seos
43:54 that will we will be using instead of the gel since we have a 42-day shelf life currently um but it is a raw product so it could go bad sooner it could last longer it really is just pretty unpredictable so I've learned every single one of these steps along the way I had no idea how distribution worked I didn't know that retail stores take as much percentage as they do um but yeah we're in some retail stores across Southern California and then you can find all of our products online too okay and we'll we'll I'll we'll post
44:29 your uh your website again in the show notes so people can check that out so so I mean airwan is is sort of the um you know the Tiffany of of of the health and wellness markets I I it is to me anyway I know there was there's one that's opened up um just down the street from from my trainer um and I love going in that store there's always really interesting things there um what is it like to deal with um a major retailer like that and and I'll I'll tell you the the reason for the question
45:05 so I have a friend who used to manufacture pies um not not health food by the way and he was he was doing really well and then he got what he thought was sort of the you know Mecca of of orders from Walmart and but Walmart of course is huge and it dramatically increased the size of his business but as you hear him tell the story now he'll tell you it was actually it was the end of his business because trying to service this huge account became essentially impossible
45:42 for him so what is it now of course airan is not you know Walmart so what is it like to deal with you know a retailer like that I totally see I totally understand um how that happened because I've even noticed from we got a large order from a store in Texas actually that our product wasn't able to remain cold enough for them to receive it so all that product had a go to waste um especially with a perishable perishable product like a pie or a gel it is
46:19 difficult because there is only a short selling window for the product um overall like awan's been amazing to communicate with very easy but it's the retail space in general that is very challenging because they do take a large percentage and people will see the product on the shelf and just say like this is so expensive but they really have no idea how little the profits are it's so little it's it's like insulting um but I'm so grateful to be on the shelves of these stores because that's
46:54 how people find out about the product but really there really is like very little profit um involved so I understand why the pi situation happened and it's also these manufacturing facilities have such high mqs where if you don't have the capital to put up for it then you're not going to be able to purchase any inventory which you need inventory for your business to sell and then these Distributors pay you out after 60 90 days so you're waiting for payment for a
47:29 pretty long time um so I'd say like lead times and then the time it takes for the distributor to actually pay you that's there can be like very tight cash flow and what is anq um a minimum order quantity so yeah some facilities will say like oh our mqs are 15,000 units or 20,000 units or 100,000 units and that really is so much money for a company to be putting up that's just a startup right right so there's a lot that
48:04 involved in running a business in the food space and just in general very steep learning curve I imagine yeah yeah oh I'm learning things every single day never ends my uncle was telling me that I should be going to business school and I was like I feel like I'm in the best business school right now yeah with due respect to your uncle I think yeah I so when I start I never went to business school I went to architecture school and when I started my first company um you know I I made so many mistakes and I remember one in particular it was a contract that probably would have made me and this is
48:40 back in the um mid 80s I think like $25,000 or something like that which was a huge amount of money for me yeah and and I and I made some mistakes and didn't get it and I was I was really upset and then I I started thinking about it I was like well you know that's I guess basically a semester at the Wharton business school you know which would not have taught me to avoid that mistake but now I know to avoid you know that mistake and so it's probably a you know a better a better value for me um than than having gone to business school so I think there is no teacher like
49:17 actually doing it and and and what you said before about you just got to jump in so I have a friend who says the real motto of people's lives should should be just say yes because we were we've been in this just say no culture for so long you know because of the anti-drug campaigns but he's he's his whole career and he's now um a senior medical medical guy at Nasa of all places um in fact he's in charge of the medical side of the Artemis Mission um his philosophy is just say yes which I think is just it's so beautiful and you're you are the
49:54 embodiment really of of that philosophy you and you and Alex um thank you yeah yeah sometimes you just have to jump right into it without even thinking about it because if you think about it too much you're going to develop too much fear around it and then by that time it too much time has already passed yeah too that's even we I put on my first retreat with two of my friends actually um a couple weeks ago in Bali and we were debating for like two weeks should we put down the money for the Retreat Center should we do it should we do it because it's a huge risk what if
50:30 we can't find anyone to come on this Retreat and we lose all of that money and we finally just decided to do it and it was one of the best decisions that I've probably made in the last year because people had one of the most amazing experiences of their life and people came on the retreat people loved it we already have people wanting to come back for the second one wow really yeah it's it's amazing what happens when you take take the risk and just say yes and just do it anyways so I we have just a few minutes left unfortunately because I feel like we could go on for another hour so tell
51:06 me a little bit more about the Retreats because I think I saw some of the pictures I think you posted some pictures from it on on your Instagram account but talk about how that fits into you know your overall um you know picture for for uh you know lifestyle yeah definitely so I um met these two guys Jason and Sasha they own a company in Los Angeles called motion LA and they started hosting uh workouts and wellness Wellness experiences during covid and they were all Out outdoors so it was a way for people to connect even during a
51:42 time when there was no connection in person but it was all outside um so it was safe and it allowed for multiple people specifically like entrepreneurs that's the kind of crowd that it was attracting people that just wanted to continue networking and meeting other people and so I started going to their workouts and I fell in love with it and I was just like it was just my favorite thing to do every single weekend because I met so many friends there and lots of connections for my business and we hosted like a friends trip last year in Costa Rica because we
52:18 all became really good friends and people started messaging us and saying when are you hosting another Wellness trip even though it was just our friends trip so then we decided to put one on in Bali and these trips are different because they're less spirituality focused and more so focused on adventure and just bringing together a group of like-minded people people that are interested in fitness and health and just becoming a better version of themselves so it's less of us telling you what to do and like there is structure but it's less of us like preaching something and more so
52:54 self-discovery for yourself and and whatever you're going into the trip with is what you're going to get out of the trip but it is like we organize the entire trip put together the itinerary and everyone connected very well because everyone's there for the right reasons for fitness and to better themselves and improve themselves um so yeah it was an amazing trip each day we did some sort of physical activity so whether it was go to a different gym or do a workout at the retreat center and then we would do some sort of Adventure
53:30 and see a different part of Bali or the culture or a different part of um the country so wow wow and that that really ties that ties into what I'm doing with aasha because it is about helping people feel their best and show them what's possible and live a better life and also I think it's a great way for other entrepreneurs like it's something for them to come on the retreat and kind of get an experience and a reset from like day-to-day life really is I didn't realize just how
54:06 aligned what were I mean I I focus of course on people's professional lives but the larger thing that I deal with through the three pillars of attainment is is is very very much in line with uh you know W with what you're doing I I had no idea how how closely aligned we are that's really it's fantastic to uh so cool hear that yeah yeah you know to meet to I mean I I I always felt kind of an you know an affinity for you and what you're doing but it's it's even more so now just absolutely fascinating well gosh you know
54:45 unfortunately the time is uh the time has has just flown away so I you know hopefully I'll have you back um and you'll be able to to update us on on how things are going and and offline there I think there's a couple of people I know that you should meet one of them is a long-standing friend of mine named Craig Noel who was who was a guest on a show um quite a quite a number of months ago now I think and he's he's in this same space although I think he's a little bit farther along than you are and he's been in business for a long long time um and
55:22 I I think he might have some uh you know some ideas for you that will kind of help you take things to the next level um and and I and and he's also but he's also in the sort of Wellness food and wellness space is is really what what he's dealing with now so um I wantan to I'd like love to connect you with Craig and and there's a couple of other people that are sort of rolling around the back of my head whose names aren't coming up that uh would would love to connect you with them because what you're doing with aasha I think is is is really fantastic and and I think there's it it's very
55:57 much where you know health and wellness needs needs to go we need to be looking for different solutions so definitely thank you so much Kevin I really appreciate that thank you and before I before I we sign off here so I just want to um reiterate that uh we are here every every Wednesday 12:30 pm. Pacific time uh 3:30 PM uh eastern time and an hour in for the other two time zones I can't always you know promise you a guest is as glowing as Anna is she's she's a perfect advertisement for her own product because I I
56:32 mean it's unbelievable you're not wearing any makeup thank you yeah absolutely just just just glowing um but uh but but you know our our information will uh will hopefully be as good and as as inspiring I I just want to recount a couple things that we we glean from from talking to to Anna today and one is is Clarity is so important to to your success and I would argue not just our professional success but our our success in life you want to be have successful relationships we need to have real
57:08 Clarity on who we are what we can offer another person and and hopefully then that person will be inspired to open up to us and and give us back the kind of clarity we need about that person to really engage ever more deeply with them and and and and cl 2 in in whether it's the spiritual realm or or whatever facet of our life is so crucial and and then you know how Anna reinforced uh the the message that Bob brought to us a few weeks ago just get out there and and start working on it right I mean the
57:44 worst thing that happens is you you fall on your face and you learn some lessons you pick yourself up and you you find a better way to do it next time there you know some of that boldness I think really is is necessary and and and Anna is ABS Anna and her partner Alex are absolute examples of that and and and I and and look what she's been able to accomplish um really you know in her in her way changing where how things are working in this world of ours which I think we'd all like to to have as as at least part of our Legacy and then
58:19 finally I think and and this is what I I perhaps I most admire is your focus is on helping other people and really responding to what can make their lives better and again I think that lesson applies across whether it's our professional success our relation succession relationships really success in ourselves if we want to have a firm clear identity of who we are a lot of that is going to come from how we're relating to other people and understanding that so so I I I invite
58:54 you to uh share share um Anna's uh episode with with your friends who especially if they're kind of struggling with what they want to do and or they they they think I want to do a business but I don't know how to do it this is a this is a perfect perfect example of how you can be successful and what the fundamental principles are there for you so Anna thank you again for coming on I'm G to sign off as I always do by putting it out there for my my my dear dear friend who made such an impact in my life my dear Marie darling you are
59:29 and ever will be my Belle so thank you all very much for joining us and I look forward to seeing you next week thank you