Ara Katz: Pioneer in Storytelling

This week, Rachel Zoe is joined by the incredible entrepreneur and co-founder of SEED probiotics, Ara Katz. Ara has an amazing story from an early career as a film producer to building a tech start up and eventually co-founding her massively successful business Seed. From losing her mother in her teens to leaning into her interest in human biology, Ara’s journey is truly inspiring. Enjoy!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:22):
in the details. Hi everyone, I'm Rachel Zoe and you're
listening to Climbing in Heels. This show is all about
celebrating the most extraordinary superwoman who will be sharing their
incredible journeys to the top, all while staying glamorous. Today

(00:44):
with me, I'm joined by the most incredible entrepreneur and
co founder of Seed Probiotics, Era katz Ear has the
most amazing story from very early in her career as
a film producer to building a tech startup and eventually
co founding her massively successful business Seed. From losing her

(01:05):
mother in her teens to leaning into her interest in
human biology, Era's journey is truly truly inspiring. You will
not want to miss a minute of this one, so
let's get right into it. I'm very excited to talk
to you, but I do like to just touch a

(01:25):
little bit on the beginning, just because I think it's
important to understand, like who you were, like where you
grew up, and what kind of kid were you? Were
you like shy and super academic, which I would imagine.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
So I was, you know what I wasn't? No, I wasn't.
I was like a little adult. I was like but
loved play. I mean loved play and loved I built
things interesting and I built and made a lot of
things and in a lot of ways. Look, I've always
I've considered myself an artists. I've always been All I

(02:00):
did was like create and build things and maybe more
a designer is a better way to think about that,
which is I was the kid that a really good athlete.
So sports was a really big part of my life,
but so was building, and so was academics. But academics
were never hard for me. So I didn't tried. I

(02:23):
wasn't try. Yeah, I didn't try, but I definitely I
really excelled and that was not the part. I never
had anxiety about academics ever, I think I loved learning
and I loved immersing, and I never felt I never
had a challenge like I wasn't like worried about a
test or stressed out about it because I really deeply

(02:45):
knew the material or I really always felt like I
got that part. Sports was a bit, I think a
big part of just like having early confidence and just
being able to And I was really a tomboy, like
for sure in elementary school Homeboy and you in New York,

(03:05):
and I was a tomboy. I was in public school
until sixth grade until a teacher who really saw me
and really understood me. I started to get very bored
starting in fourth grade, and I started to act out
because I was so bored. And missus Edie Tenzer, who
was the head of the gifted program at my school,

(03:26):
came to my parents and she had a beautiful relationship
with her, and she came to my parents and she said,
you got to get this kid out of here. I
love her, but I can't. And I going to her
gifted program was like the highlight of my day. It
was like we would build oceans. I got to immerse
to independent study projects, like I got to really learn
and then most of my weekends were spent me and

(03:47):
my dad would make movies. I learned my dad was
a photographer, so like I was just and he was
an athlete too, so it was like an interesting like
obviously like a lot of sports, but also like we
just every Saturday and Sunday morning we were making movies
or we were building things. It was when I would
buil a lot of models like I got, I would
be I was. I wanted to be an architect. I
learned very early on how to make balsa wood models
of things, so I would emulate Frank Lloyd Wright houses

(04:09):
and I would make my parents think me totally normal
for an eleven twelve year old, right it was, Yeah,
it was just like and there was. But I also
had a very early and this is maybe not always
maybe a positive. It didn't serve me then, but certainly
thing served me in life, which is a lot of
parenting stuff is you see so much, especially now because
there's so much parenting content out there. I was the

(04:30):
kid that was like super rebellious. I had a lot
of conviction and I pretty much didn't understand the word no,
and I wasn't spoiled at all. I wasn't like Brad.
It was just that someone said that you can't do something.
I was like, I will do that right now.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
But I think that to your point, I think that's
exactly who you are, and that's I think what really.
I think most CEOs would probably say they're not people
that accept no, right, that's not really an option. My
dad used to say that about me, like you could
sell anything to anyone, and.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
No was not an option.

Speaker 1 (05:03):
And I never really understood what he met until I
got older and would look back and be like whatever,
Like they want to send me in private school and
I was like, now I don't want to gather some
much romework, and then like they didn't and they actually
listened to me, And I'm like, why'd you listen to me?
And my parents were like, because the hell that you
would have put us through for the next six years.

Speaker 2 (05:22):
I didn't want to go here.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
So I was like, okay, because it wasn't really cool
back then to listen to your kids.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Yeah, not at all. And I also and I do remember,
it's funny, like I think back I was really rebellious.
When I finally did get put. It was interesting too,
because I started my first little business in fourth grade.
I was selling. It was an impact business. I was
selling rainforest t shirts to give back to an organization
that was doing conservation work. My dad and my family

(05:48):
was very into like nature, conservation and environmental stuff in nature. Everything.
I remember like I would sell this. I remember just
feeling that the agency that came from like having your
own business, and it was interesting saying. And it really
did come out of the fact that their parents really
didn't understand were not good with money like I didn't.
They didn't. I grew up like middle class, but it was,

(06:08):
but I was surrounded by extraordinary well, of course, and
so I think it definitely it gave me a crazy
hustle like that chip on your shoulder can like. And
I wasn't like angry about it, but I definitely was like,
I am never going to be in this place ever,
and if I ever have children, they are not going
to feel like this. And I definitely had. I definitely

(06:30):
had like I used to like when I remember I
don't remember you of course you remember this because of
the turning But remember the turning point in like Denham
where all of a sudden, denim was one hundred dollars.

Speaker 1 (06:40):
Yeah, by the way, best best right, but like seven
gans right if you remember when that, ye, yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (06:50):
And but even it was interesting. I do remember that
just because I had to like not eat at lunch
at school to save money so that I could gout right,
and it was just interesting, like or I would figure
out how to make money, and so it was just
interesting because like I was, I think it just gave
me you can have all the things we're talking about.
But I also think I always sometimes think about where

(07:11):
as a creative person, like where'd the hustle come from?
Of course, because you can have drive and you can like, yes,
in sports, you can want to win, sure, but there
is like a kind of hustle that I do think
came from that period of time when I went into
a private school and I was just surrounded by so
much that was like a brand new world. What school

(07:32):
was that I went to? Harstman, Oh Jesus, you were
like you.

Speaker 1 (07:35):
Were like I was like, babe, you were like in
the heart of Gossip Girls.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
A thousand person. It was interesting. Now you have to
remember I was never it was not. Yes, it was
eye opening from that perspective, but I loved it because
it felt like I was going to college like the
teacher education was everything. Holiver of education was like, I
was like you could have these conversations with teachers, and
I think by again, like a lot of the rich

(08:01):
kids that were there were like always complaining about homework
and complaining about it, and I'm just like, yo, like
this is like great, this is great, this is crazy.
And I just remember, just when I know how hard
my parents work to figure that out and I financially
and all the other things, I don't have such an
appreciation as yes, oh, like a thousand percent that I

(08:23):
really credit I say to my dad. And my mom
died when I was sixteen, but I say to my
dad all the time, that decision changed the trajectory of
my life. Wow, it really did. And it wasn't just
because of the education. I think it was because of
the hustle I got. It was because of the exposure.
I think it was because I wasn't bored anymore. I
wasn't acting, I wasn't acting out on to day. I

(08:44):
was like a not a teenager. But I think that's important.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Actually, your your point, because I think we see it
so much in kids now, and it's it's kids that
are so intelligent that are not challenged enough act out
and then they get labeled. They get a hundred labels
of ADHD or they're just look sick or and by
the way, many of them may be true or not true,

(09:08):
but a lot of times it's just an extremely intelligent
kid who's bored out of their mind and he's too
young to express the fact that they're bored. And to
your point, I think, listen, I think there are kids
that really need what you clearly needed, and I think
that the motivators, because it's definitely a question like where

(09:29):
your ambition comes from. And I love what you said
earlier because I have a very successful friend, entrepreneur like
just I watched her go from being an assistant in
like PR to basically being a CEO of three companies
and all this stuff, and she comes from nothing like
ghettos of London, and she had multiple siblings, and she

(09:50):
was like, I was so clear from the age of
nine that I was never going to live like this
as an adult and that my children would never feel
like I feel right now. And so I think that
in and of itself. But you had wonderful parents and
still have wonderful father. But so it's not about love.
It's just about what's around you and what you need.

(10:12):
But it's interesting. So then, okay, so you go through school,
you stay, you're in private school all through till you
go to college.

Speaker 2 (10:18):
And you went to going to Tucks such a good school.
I never saw it till the day I got there.
But my mom died. My mom died when everyone was
going to college, and that was another thing where like
I thought, I'll just be like a thousand dollars an hour,
like college counselors and cool. There's been some disruptions, yeah,
a little bit, given some of the things that have
happened since. And I like everyone getting sat too, and

(10:38):
so I actually just never went through that process because
my mom was dying, and so I never got to
see colleges. I never really and so tough Soft fored
me to play tennis there and so I went for tennis.
And my mom's two best friends, you're like my godmothers,
were both in Boston. So it just I felt like
a little bit of a softer lending. When I look
back at going to school. It was funny because I

(10:58):
didn't going to high school and year I did a
lot of things very early growing up in New York.
I think a lot of New York kids for a
lot of things, skivy kids. Yeah, you grew up real quick.
So I had done like a lot of the things
that a lot of people doing college for the first time.
And by the time I was sixteen, and so when
I got to school, I was like, I don't like

(11:19):
get blackout drawn. I'm like, I'm here. I was just like,
I'm ready to work. I'm trying to like make things
in the world. And so I was just like I
was done, and so I really just wanted to work.
And so I actually I would just like internal the time,
I would build my own build my own minor. I
was just like always working. I spent most Friday Saturday
nights like honestly in the library, like watching films and

(11:40):
learning like I did.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
About social Did you have a lot of friends or
not so much?

Speaker 2 (11:44):
My mom had just died, and so I did have friends,
and I had a lot of friends in the Greek system,
and I had a lot of friends outside of that system.
I tried to be in a sorority, which is back
sometimes I think I made me lasted like twenty a second,
but it was really just I think, an effort to
try and feel a little community my mom had just died,
but that was definitely not for me. And I think
that I've always been like a loner that has a

(12:05):
lot of good friends, but not like big groups of
friends together. Right, That's always been when I look back
at like the pattern of my life. I've never had
that like one group, which is something that I think
is a beautiful thing when it happened, but just for
whatever reason, it hasn't been the way my friendships had developed.
And so I did have a lot of really good friendships,
but they were not like I wasn't like had my crew.

(12:27):
And also to speak, and I ended up and I
also ended up dating someone really seriously starting like my
junior year, so I was he was in Boston and
I'm not as tough, so I was with him quite
a bit. Yeah, I was born that way. I think
it's why I always spend so much time and really
gravitated towards the grown ups and adults when I was younger.
I just would like always love to spend time with
grown ups and learn and just I just always felt

(12:48):
much more connected to grown ups when I was younger.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
When did your first you've always had And by the way,
I very much relate to it. If my parents were like,
you don't have to go to college, you can just
start working, that I would have one hundred percent taken
a thousand person. I was so much more interested in that.
And you know, I would argue to say that I
learned more in the first six months of working. You
know that I did in school. But so then you

(13:12):
didn't go to grad school, right, you didn't do any
of that.

Speaker 2 (13:14):
I didn't go to grad school, but I was. I
did two fellowships and programs. They ended up in them
during high school. Sorry, during college, I did teach myself
to code on websites. So that was the way that
I was making money.

Speaker 3 (13:26):
I feel like what I was doing. So I was
like I.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Was always like into tech. I was always into tech,
Like my whole life, I've been like obsessed with technology
and like design, and so I did learn and also
just it was how I would make money. People pay
me to make their websites, and so I learned graphic design.
I learned I learned just like basic coding at that time.
Of course, what I used to have to code of course,
now you can just go to Canva or whatever I
would say it make it yourself. But used to have
to code all of those things in HTML, which is

(13:53):
like I which is what I used to do, and
so I would have like clients and stuff during school,
and so I loved it. Yeah. Oh I love buildings.
I just love building things. I just love building things,
and like design. Yeah, I love doing design, but I
did after school. So after working for a while, I
did a visiting fellowship at the MIT Media Lab and
I helped establish a group there called the Center for
the Future of Storytelling, which is really I think we

(14:15):
become the through line of my career, which is like
just the interesting storytelling being like a weird word for
like design tech, like how you translate things really complex
things to people, but of course how you tell and
make that connect on a human level and that. And
then I also did a CCA fellowship in Human centered

(14:35):
design as well, So those were like formal grad schools,
such an under retriever era. But it was interesting. I
really I fell into some of the none. I wouldn't
want anyone listening to this to think that I somehow
plotted this on a chart. I think there are some
people who are like, I have goals and this is
how I'm going to achieve person, But happened very all

(14:56):
of this again, or think beautifully unfolded and compounded on
itself to trivial over time, because during this period of time,
I was really mostly working in like Hollywood, making film.
I was making movies during this period of time, and
I started in media. I just happened to be able
to like I was early in media, but also early
in tech, so like Hollywood hadn't caught up the tech,
so I ended up having a skill set that like

(15:17):
made my work like in design and tech like different
unique at that time because Hollywood in the film world
was very late to that space.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Right, So how okay, so let's talk about that for
a second. Let's talk about being early. Yeah, sure, because
timing really is everything, and sometimes early and being the
first or being one of the first is it's not
always the greatest, right, And I get asked that question
a lot, and I there are real pros and real

(15:47):
cons sometimes and I'm curious, like how after school and
after so you moved out here right away you came
to California.

Speaker 2 (15:54):
I was going back and forth between New York, Boston,
and LA because I started independent in film producing basically
in school, right and I was able to start as
a producer just simply because I learned that kind of
the hustle. I was able to raise money from people
like early like I was just able to raise no, no,
trust me. I've come to really understand me.

Speaker 3 (16:17):
Gift.

Speaker 2 (16:17):
Yes, So I was able to raise I was able
to raise money, and so I was able to just
start as a producer like I didn't work for anyone.
I did have internships. I did Intron a bunch of
film companies, but I never really had a job. I
just I started producing right out of school, during school,
and then just continued after school. And it was interesting
speaking of first I ended up and I don't if
you remember this, like the early I ended up meeting

(16:40):
and becoming embedded in this group of like young South
American filmmakers. And I loved film like film was like
my like as I said, I was in the library.

Speaker 1 (16:49):
I did not know fause film has always been I
was a filmmaker like if you were a tech science
yeah no, but.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
The film was really my first is and was I
think started as my first love. And that really came
from honestly, like a lot of high school, Like I
learned that sitting in a dark room with movies was
like a therapy for me, always like connecting to the
human experience in a way that like no other art
form that does it for me. In lovets and have
appreciation for music and art, but like film to me

(17:16):
is this is a journey that I think has always
stuck with me, and you see it in a lot
of the things I've done, even outside of film. And
so I ended up embedded early on his group is
House American Summer version was right when if you remember
when Alfonso Plarone and all these in Ariko, all these makers,
no one have heard of these people, No one in
Ario like a Morris Perros and like all these early movies,

(17:37):
like no one knew like any of these filmmakers. Yeah,
and I ended up producing a Bolivia actually with this
young Bolivian filmmaker that was part of that crew, ended
up producing his first film and it went on to
be like the first film that was ever nominated like
and ever submitted for an Oscar from the country of Bolivia,
which is like crazy, and it was just like this
amazing and it would just launched me into the world

(17:58):
of mostly like the independence world. But at the time,
the end of the independent film world was like the thing.
It was really remember like some like you Your Words,
which I feel like really talks about no, and so
that was just like that was my world for a
whole time. And they made a bunch of films I produced,
if you remember Potage of Ten Paris, I Love You,
and that made like all these like crazy interesting movies.

(18:21):
And I put Emma Stone in one of her first films.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
It's just it's just fat that I never knew about you,
like and yeah it's crazy.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
Yeah, it's a you can do on IMDb.

Speaker 3 (18:32):
Okay, So wait, so how did you flip? Because I
feel like that's like a hole.

Speaker 2 (18:36):
So what was the like, I'll tell you, yeah, I
can tell you. So it was I had produced the
last film that I produced. So the book. There was
a book that changed my life in high school and
it was called The People's History of the United States.
It was written by Howldon. You remember the scene in
Goodwill Hunting when Matt Damon picks Robin Williams takes a
book off the shelf and hands it to Matt Daemon

(18:57):
and he says, you want to read a real book
before knock you out in your ass. Yeah, that book is.
Matt Damon had the rights to it forever with Ben
Affleck because they both knew Howard's In from Boston, and
Howard's In is like one of the most extraordinary professors
who has always taught the true history of this country.
And I read it and mister Giovaris's class in Elent
created a Horstman that changed my fucking life, and I remember,

(19:21):
and so I had the opportunity to go produce. Matt
and Ben had been trying to get that made for
a very long time, and I had become friendly with
Chris Moore if you remember Project Greenlight and like Chris
Matt and then they had all done that together, and
I became friendly with Chris, and Chris said, make this
with me, and we were we it was like and
we were working. We did it out of Jadabram's offices,

(19:41):
and so this movie was like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen,
like Lupe Fiasco, like John Legend, like Josh Brolin, Vigil Mortons,
and Marissa told me Carrie Washington, it was like every
extraordinary artist that Eddie Vedder, You ever that I ever
would want to work with, and I was like, I
can drop the mic now, right, And so we made
the film. I was working on a Dagram's offices and

(20:01):
I think that at the same time there had been
some really interesting and this is around the time when
I met you, actually, because I had always had my
fingers in tech, but this was when MySpace had just
sold to to Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. And they
and my friend a couple of guys that I knew
were starting, were working out of the incubator that Ruver

(20:23):
Murdoch had set up, but that News Corp. Had set
up to say what's next in tech? Sure, I think
thinking about like the evolution of all there there are
news platforms, et cetera, and they're just like, listen, we
need to go create. The guys a lot of the
tech guys who had started like MySpace were like, why
don't you come with us? We're going to do that.
They We're going to start something in e commerce. And
I was like, I just want to get out. I

(20:43):
now have lead the film I wanted to make. But
I also really had the tech bug, and I was like,
why don't I just do it with the people who
started my space. That sounds interesting, and we that's when
we started Beachman and we got they literally flew up.
Norris got five million dollars from any A, came back
and I Will found team and we like you know
the rest. But that was my like education, not that
I cared about God, not that I cared about as

(21:07):
you know me, I wasn't, not that I was the customer,
because we had for anyone who doesn't know listening. That
was We had worked with a number of celebrities to
really start these different brands on subscription commerce brands in
different verticals with Mary Kate, Nashley Olsen and Kate Bosworth.
Was the most successful that was in jewelry, and so
that was like my first and I just got to
build the whole thing with them, and it was it

(21:27):
was really exciting exceptional experience. Again, not that it was
the thing that I would have was like what my
heart was like aligned with putting out in the world.
But it was like the most extraordinary experience. And I
learned so much about tech. I learned so much about
building on the internet. I got to take all my
filmmaking create all this content, really understand like the content commerce,
how people buy things on It was really my interweb experience.

(21:49):
I understood like technology before then, but that was like
Internet in a way that it was very different than
what I knew and were right I had no I
was totally yes or whatever at the exactly at the
beginning of that exactly I had met Actually it's interesting,
I had met uh when I was at working at

(22:09):
day Room's offices and I now husband, the father of
two children, came over there for lunch to meet me
for a meeting, which is like a business meeting. That's
how we met. Get out of here.

Speaker 1 (22:20):
Of course, you would meet your husband at a business
and businessman and that would make perfect.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Sense, Like how it's incredible with a guy, it's incredibly
It was very cliche, and it was funny because he
was starting He also was in tech and he had
started Vidi at the time, which was like like it
was if you remember Vidy and Vine came up around
the same time. It had this huge offer from Twitter,
like they had one hundred million music. It was just

(22:46):
like we were both kind of riding this like tech wave.
It was crazy experience. And then and then I really
had the opportunity. I think I'd gotten that to a
certain place and I realized that that was when the
iPhone was really like ye up, and I really had
this itch to really understand like the mobile world. They
talk about being first, right, it was like and even
an e commerce I was very early first. It was

(23:08):
incredibly exciting, like subscription, like these new way of doing things.
Then it was like the phone was coming along, and
I've always was like, oh, this is going to zero
to one everything, this is going to fundamentally change ye
the way we do every everything. And so I founded
with two with three co founders in New York. I
found its spring, which was this mobile commerce company, and
that was my I got to launch Apple Kay with Apple.

(23:30):
We were like we were up there on the screen
with the first fifteen the brands on the Apple keynote,
and it was super exciting and I got to really
understand and learn mobile, which I think was incredibly interesting.
But again another thing where it was like selling things
and doing something that I did it for the intellectual like,
oh this is interesting, I want to understand phone. This
is challenging my brain. I don't care about helping people

(23:53):
buy things. Online like it was like it felt. And
I'm only saying that because I definitely did things that
I felt were not necessarily from an alignment perspective. Wasn't like, oh,
this is the thing I want to put out in
the world, but there was absolutely an intellectual and deep
understanding that it was like this learning. It was like
this continual learning.

Speaker 1 (24:11):
Because I was going to say that about you, I
think there is something slightly contradictory about an obsession with
tech and an obsession with film and an obsession with building,
and because it's funny everything about you, like obviously your
obsession with learning and challenging your mind, and I think

(24:33):
this like amazing admiration for tech, right, So I totally
get that because tech is something that has transformed all
of our lives in every possible way. But you the
person that I know, it's like you would be the
person that would still like handwrite everything if you could,
or like never carry a plastic bottle or.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
You know, everything and not that's tech.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
But I guess what I'm saying is like I would
see you still in an act actual typewriter if there
was an option, just because that fits you.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
It's a funny it's a really funny. I know it's funny.
It's that I would. It's funny like I would. It's
I want starlink but live in the forest.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Right, It's really interesting, right, dichotomy there, But that's partially
why I like to understand these things.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
It's I never wanted technology to happen to me. I
wanted to play a role in figuring out how it
was going to get walk into some way. Yeah, but
but it was also it was it wasn't even like
defensive as much as it's I think that we live.
There's a beautiful quote that I will watch that like
we that I think it was Carl Sagan said we
live in a society that we don't fully understand. Yes,
and I think that we have. I think there's another

(25:40):
quote that he did not say someone else dead, which
is we have these paleolithic minds living in a world
that we don't that very small percent of us actually
fundamentally understand. And it didn't. It's not really a contradiction
when you think about what I care about existentially, right,
which is like I deeply and it goes back to film,
which is I deeply want to understand the human experience,

(26:02):
and I would be the pioneer. It's like when you're hiking,
it's there's always someone at the front, right, And I
want to be that person at the front, because it's
the pioneering that I think actually is like the most
interesting to me. And whether that is launching Apple pay
or just being at the front of the hike, I
think that and there's an existential need for me not

(26:24):
to be like, oh, I don't want the technology to
take over me, Like it's much more of a I
want to so deeply understand these things because I actually
believe that they can then ultimately make a tremendous impact
in our lives. They need to be humanized and they
need to be like deeply understood to be able to
do that. And it is You're definitely right that there's

(26:45):
like a there's it would seem to be like a
very kind of like dichotomy of like contradiction, but in
a lot of ways, like I it's funny, like there's
certain things that I want to be very assicious at,
like right like time and like how you think about

(27:05):
those things. But then I also really the building piece
is very fascinating to me and the way that you like,
really think about creating and understanding your context. Look, we
see it play out every single day right now, right
the algorithms are controlling like our entire understanding and experience
of what's happening in the world right now.

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Speaker 2 (28:04):
Like our children, we are all and by the way,
we're all consuming this advertising platforms. So if you really
just and our whole realities are constructed and so for me,
like it is actually all very existentially the same, because
I feel like when you pioneer things, you can feel
and be at the forefront of something that at least

(28:27):
even in my own little.

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Way, guides it towards what I hope it could. And
you're not letting it take you.

Speaker 2 (28:32):
You're taking absolutely and it would never just be it's
look at AI right now. That's what everybody says, because
that's the first response if you don't immerse yourself in
it and start to deeply understand what is it, how
is it right? And if the same thing with what
we're experiencing in world events, the people who are sitting

(28:53):
back and taking a second to deeply understand. And then
there's of course the immune response that is happening with response.
But no, of course, but yeah, of course everybody. Everybody
gets all fired up, and it's really there's a there's
you're right, and it's an interesting contradiction that you'd think,
but it's also I pioneering piece and being at the

(29:14):
front front of things is something that could feel like
very techy and then contradictory, Oh I care about the
environment or I don't care car this water bottle, but
there's a there's like a look, technology is going to
save our planet. Yes, we have to advance invest in
early stage science and technology, to find the things that

(29:36):
are going to sequester carbon, to find the things that
are so like for me to me like they you
have to deeply understand these things because those are the
things that are also going to save us and are
really meaningfully and I and so in a lot of ways,
like I see why you would think it's very contradictory
to me.

Speaker 1 (29:55):
But you, but it does go back to what you
originally said, which is, you are a designer.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
You are in our you are a creator.

Speaker 1 (30:01):
And I want to go to one of the most
important things because I think it's such a big part
of who you are and how I got to know
you even better, which is seed. And I want to
talk about it because I think it's so important. It's
years ago, there was all this outbreak of probiotics. Probiotics,
these gummies. Oh my god, if you can take these,

(30:23):
it'll change your digesting, It'll change your stomach, it'll change
your whole being, your skin and this and that, and
of course we all buy all these chewy gummies filled
with sugar, give them.

Speaker 3 (30:33):
To your kids, give them or whatever.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
And then we get on the phone with you and
you proceed to tell Roger, and I like, okay, hey,
and you start breaking down and all of a sudden,
this big word that I feel like for you is like.

Speaker 2 (30:45):
Saying hello, microbiome.

Speaker 1 (30:48):
But I also think Seed combines all your passions and
all your things, right, But it is so vastly different
and groundbreaking in every possible way from science and obviously
like it broke down many walls in many things and
is unlike any other product out there, which is why

(31:09):
it's been so successful. But it's funny because I was
talking to my producer earlier and she was like, one
of the greatest things about Seed is when someone takes it.
So the packaging, which I want to talk about as
well at some point, is it's so unique.

Speaker 2 (31:21):
Right.

Speaker 1 (31:21):
So seed is such an important message and it's so impactful,
and I think it's product first, right, But I think
what's so cool about it is not only does it work,
but it's also cool to take seed, and that's like
a very hard thing to do. And we've seen really
prominent people not paid taking the seed and living and

(31:42):
swearing by seed. And it's funny because she said to me,
I know who takes seed. You see it in their instagrams.
Because it's like on their counter and you can see it,
you know. So it's very interesting. So I want to
talk about seed and why you started seed because I
think it's really important. I think everyone, if they don't
know about seeds, should know about seed.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
Yes, the part of my trajectory that we didn't talk
about that will make seed snap to some sort of
grid in the story is that in high school, so
it was really interesting. My mom was diagnosed with pancratic
cancer at forty eight years old, which is like both
very early, very unusual per a woman. She lasted three

(32:22):
hundred and sixty one days from diagnosis to dying. And
ironically and interestingly, she worked at Memorials on Kettering ironically, which,
if anyone knows, greatest cancer hospitals and institutions in the world.
But what had happened during that period of time, and
I would say, even maybe prior to that a little bit,
just because I was an athlete, is that I had

(32:45):
developed like an extraordinary fascination with like human health, with
like our bodies. And I really was so fascinated. And
in high school when she was sick, I learned to read,
I learned to research clinical trials, and I learned to
read scientific papers. Obviously not to the that maybe I
can do today, but it certainly was like my first

(33:07):
window into how does science happens and then how does
it make its way to humans? And how do we
make all these decisions? You remember, you and I come
out of the generation of the cholesterol generation, and that
is bad. And this is all like all these ideas,
and we also come out of the end of it

(33:27):
actually where the bats were given sense candy, and so
I just developed this. I always it's very similar to
what I was saying earlier. I just want to know everyone.

Speaker 1 (33:37):
And I'm never very curious, to be honest, Like my
doctor would say so, and this is way.

Speaker 2 (33:41):
Before integrated and functional medicine was where it is today.
My doctors would say things and I'm like, I just
don't believe you. I don't believe And that not because
I was like upset that my mom was sick, but
I was like, I don't believe that you're working from
a full set or full understanding of this, and it
feels like you're just saying the thing you said in
the life patient or what five papers did you yourself

(34:03):
breath this past week to enrich your own understanding. And
I became very frustrated with the medical professions lack of
keeping up with science in some fascina, I became very
frustrated with how people who need science I eat clinical
trials and clinical research. At that time. You remember, of course,
it's much better and more sophisticated now found their way

(34:23):
to even good science and find their way to clinical
trials because it was very not centralized on the internet
the way it is today. And I also just started realizing,
like how many decisions we make every day for our
health that are informed by stupidity. And then when all
of the fat and cholesterol, like all that stuff, and

(34:44):
I would watch how like lobbying or like lobbying groups
would just basically like control the way the American public
understood something like sugar or like smoking or and you know,
you have to remember I was a very as I said,
I was a very subversive of very combative, very rebellious
kid and teenager, and I was just like, I just

(35:05):
don't buy any of this. And that became like I've
somehow became over many years the person that would never
not dispense medical advice by any stretch. But people would
just start asking me things because I was good at
researching them. Sure, that was it? What do you think
of this? And I remember college people had asked me
this supplementation wasn't what it is today? Right? He would
ask me about this or and I would just do

(35:27):
a lot of research because it was fascinating to me.
And so my side hustle, like just in my was
always like just wanting to understand this stuff. And then
when then my I got a taste of much closer
glimpse into biotech and pharma with my ex boyfriend because
he worked at a number of pharma companies, and I
started to really understand the way that drugs were developed,

(35:49):
and I got very close with the number of like
truly extraordinary scientists that he was working with at that time.
It was like in my multiple maeloma research, and I
started to understand how clinical trial has worked. And I
think just over, I think for a long time, and
one really important point, when my mom was sick, even
though she of course came out of a very western
medical system because she was working at Memorial Stone Kenny,

(36:10):
when you're dying, you will literally try anything. There were
people coming in with I had reiki heelers coming through
our house. We had like crazy like bovine supplements coming
from like Belgium, like we had mo people like my
mom's friendly flew to Paris to go get some crazy
thing that she was going to try, like you will
try to know what, no matter what you believe, you

(36:32):
will literally try anything. And so I got a much
closer than at that time, also up glimpse into the
more integrated and functional. At that time, people would call
it Woo Wu or Eastern World, because of course she
was trying everything, and so I started to also look
at the disparity between the East and the West, so
trying to understand and reconcile why they were at such

(36:53):
odds with each other too, And so then it was
very interesting. I cut forward to being working at Spring,
having a very fast growing mobile app, being very sexy
funded by lvmage and like all love sexy, sexy that
I say sexy, knowing I have air quts for all
people listening sexy things that one would. But also in
being a woman in tech, some of those things like

(37:16):
were meaningful, right, Like I got to you've become a
role model for a lot of It's hard, certainly now easier,
but like at that time, it was also still a
little bit challenging. And I had a miscarriage and it
really was like, which, by the way, I'm one of
the rare people that kind of think those are one
of the more beautiful biological things that can happen. Of course,

(37:36):
it's very sad if you have a wanted child, of course,
but the idea that our own biology knows that that
it'sn't viable is an extraordinary gift that and and and
a wisdom that our biology offers us. And so it
wasn't that. Yes, I was, of course sad, but I

(37:57):
also felt that it was like there was something that
triggered for me that that life, that that life wasn't viable,
but like the life I was living wasn't viable. There
was something that felt out of alignment, didn't feel right.
I was killing myself for a mobile app. I was like,
I'm so much smarter than what am I doing, Like
I need to go doesn't mean anything to me, Yes,

(38:20):
this doesn't mean. I mean now the people I worked
with me that then things to me. I care. It
was meaningful in the sense of being the early and
being the pioneer piece. There's an intellectual piece, but from
a heart and existential place, that's not what I want
to create. And I think you get to a point
where you've made enough things or you've done enough things,
whether it's jobs or just lived some more years, and

(38:41):
you're just like, what the fuck am I doing? I'm
just like, literally, what the fuck am I doing?

Speaker 3 (38:47):
It's so true.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
I think at every decade or every period of time,
you have these just what the fuck am I doing?

Speaker 1 (38:53):
When I had when I had Sky, when I had
my first son, and then solidified when I had my
second son. Absolutely, and what's taking you from your life?

Speaker 2 (39:02):
Right absolutely that time? And what is the life say
you want to cultivate? And I think I think especially women,
because you there's a lot of there was a lot
of in particularly in the world. I was in your
identity also, and you your identity is your brand is
literally your name, right, Like your identity is really tied

(39:23):
up into of this stuff. And it wasn't because I
was like some egomaniac. It's just that your identity becomes
like if I'm not doing this, then like really who
am I? What am I? What does that mean? But
I think that for whatever reason. Sometimes you have these
moments that like whether it was the miscarriage or was
the timing, and it was the controlance of things. It
was a pivotal trigger, the catalysts that became for me,

(39:44):
what do I want to create? And it was very interesting.
Around that same time. I actually got pregnant very shortly
after that, And it was around that same time that
I met my co founder Rajah and started had been tracked.
I had been tracking the microbiome again, just as somebody
who was nerdy in that space and tracking the microvie
for a while. He had been tracking it since two
thousand and six. And I think we just met each

(40:05):
other at a moment where I realized and I felt
very similar to the mobile phone. The microbiome to me
was like this framework change, right, this entirely new way. Look,
we've studied human biology for centuries money actually, and it

(40:26):
was like we were only looking in part of us,
and yet fifty percent of the cells in our body
are not human. And I was like, oh, there's another
half of us that we don't know about that we're starting.
And I was like, this is it, This is it.
And the more I understood it, and the more I
immersed in it, and the more he and I spent

(40:46):
understanding what that was going to look like and what
we predicted for the future, which, by the way, I'm
proud to say when I go back to our early decks,
it's all happening. It fundamentally is. I was like, I
could spend the rest of the life in this field
if I needed to. This is going, this is going to,
this is going to but it's not even this is
going to change.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
It's like this, I'm making a difference in.

Speaker 2 (41:10):
The absolutely, but it was just like and also the
like the revelation of understanding of our bodies of disease,
of the way we need to live. And then of
course the seed, which is how we got our name.
I was pregnant when we started the company, and seeding
is the process by which you first receive your foundational
microbes that basically become the blueprint for your gi and

(41:32):
immune sestin and of course set in place that you're
partially your health trajectory of what your life is going
to be from a health perspective, and the idea that
and we started off really focused on the early window
of life where you can make a huge impact that
work will hit in the next couple of years. It's
been a long kind of our R and D process

(41:53):
became to me. I was like, well, I could create
a company, take all my tech brains and then put
a platform create like the biotech piece of this, which
is the part of our company that most people know,
our Green Jar. And then below the below the water,
the ice Everyone sees the iceberg, They're like, oh cool Instagram,
great green Jar, awesome product. Below the water is like

(42:14):
a biotech company that develops drugs. Had one of the
best bioinformatics teams in the world, works had one of
the most robust scientific microbiome boards in the world. Works
on all kinds of crazy future stuff. And of course
it's probably the part that I'm the most proud of.
But above the above the water and in the part
that you talked about and what it's on social media
and people know us, which is so important. Yeah. Absolutely,

(42:38):
that has that been like my most beautiful like storytelling
exercise of my life. Great the opportunity to bring together
the things I deeply care about, but obviously to do
it all from the place of I get to impact
people's lives every day, like I get to impact people's house.
That is like truly the most extraordinary and exciting. I
think part of it, which is like it's no longer

(43:00):
about converting someone to like a purchase rights. It's like
I get to look at every day like at just today,
like I could pull up our Slack channel five more
people being like this changed my life. And I think
that the ability to combine. Of course, I couldn't have
done it without my coel founder who oversees like all
of the R and D and science programs that we
do that and when I think about that, I was

(43:24):
able to call that in and we as you said,
timing is everything, and we met at a moment where
the field was just taking the velocity of this field
was taking up and then the opportunity to take what
I really am proud of is like a really new
approach and taking all of my tech brain and the
design and all these things that just come together through
the lens of this new world of the Microbytom. I

(43:47):
do pinch myself every day because I truly get to
create the future. And that's like a beautiful thing.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Like whenever Roger and I get to talk to you,
where I was like I can't wait to talk to
Eric to figure out how her world domination, what's next?

Speaker 3 (44:02):
What is she changing in my life? What is she
changing in the world?

Speaker 2 (44:05):
And I can't change anything for Roger next, but I
can tell you that it's going to change a lot
of women's lives next.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
I am so excited. And it's funny because I can't
tell you how many times I've been in a room
where people are like, oh my god, you guys, I
was feeling so not well, and I started taking this
thing called seed if you heard of it, and I'll
literally just feel like I love it.

Speaker 3 (44:28):
Because I think what starts.

Speaker 1 (44:30):
I think part of being an entrepreneur is starting with
an idea, finding enough people that believe you, and then.

Speaker 2 (44:39):
Watching it grow like a seed.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
Right, yes, and so I just watching this grow from
the beginning, and obviously having known you from different parts
of life and work, but it's just to me, it's
the most unique to you and so on brand for Eric, which,
by the way, anyone who called.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
You Aura that is not right.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
It is Era and so I have to completely retrain myself.

Speaker 2 (45:06):
By the way, thank you for saying that. I hope
you but you do appreciate that like, it's funny. You
probably had this too, where people give you compliments when
they say those things. But I believe you, but I
don't believe you.

Speaker 1 (45:18):
I believe you, but that's cute. Like I think you're
like great, honey, but I'm like, do people.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Really say that? Because you you always want it at
the beginning, the top is not I don't even see
the top of the mountains, And it's funny. It's a
funny feeling.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
You don't see the top. And I don't think anyone,
I really don't think. I have very few people in
my life that perceive themselves as being at the top,
because I think most people that are at the top
want to go to a higher top, right, But I
think that's the beauty. Like I always say, my anxiety

(45:54):
is my superpower, right because the minute I get complacent,
h I'm here, I'm good.

Speaker 3 (46:00):
No no, no, no, what's max? You got to do more?
Like we got to do more, we got to do better.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
But at the same time, I think that the way
I look at your path is every single bit of
your from a very young age, whether it's sports, your education,
public school to private school, all the things. The thing
that I think is really important to note is that
every part of that has been a brick in the

(46:27):
house that you're living in now.

Speaker 2 (46:29):
Absolutely, and I would like to know, certainly before we go.

Speaker 1 (46:33):
I'd really love to know, like, what has been really
for you one of the greatest challenges that you've had,
Like what sort of keeps you awake at night?

Speaker 2 (46:44):
Because you are a high strung person.

Speaker 1 (46:46):
You're a very bohemian zen person, but you're also high
strung and like this driven force that like really is
not stoppable. So I feel like, what are the things
that what has been the great challenge you and I
have talked about too many men in the room and
then when there was women in the room, those women
pretended to want to support you but actually didn't because

(47:07):
I know I've experienced that. But so, what has been
your greatest challenge? If there's one, or it could be two,
or it could be none, but I'm curious.

Speaker 2 (47:16):
It's a few things. I think one of them is
that there are so many things that I want to
do with Seed because I see so many opportunities for impact. Yeah,
and you can't do them all.

Speaker 1 (47:29):
You can't, you can, but like one at a time, yes,
because that's I think as an entrepreneur, that's the sort
of thing that I think we trip over the most.
It's like too many things at once because your brain's
about to explode.

Speaker 2 (47:41):
And I think I have to get comfortable with what
happens when you're larger and you're maybe making a bigger impact. Yeah,
but it doesn't I am a Raja and myself are
both like what we would call individuals. Will be calling
the company world individual contributors, which is a way of

(48:03):
saying which is a way of saying that we would
be horrible to be managed. Yeah, but that doesn't but
we love to do things ourselves. Yes, And this is
a typical pain. I think that a lot of founders
see when you scale. But I think that it's there
are certain things that you have to like go of
so that you can actually make a greater impact. I

(48:26):
think that's certainly one one thing that I will sleep
over because there's so many things that I believe we
could be doing that I really like to be doing,
or I like to be doing faster. I think that
that's certainly that's yes, But I do have that then
part of me, like that grounded part of me that
also does believe that you do things as you need.

(48:49):
I don't mean this in like the universe like way,
because I'm too controlling for to think the universe the
universe that the things does anything. But I think that
is something that I have to reconcile as a creator
for sure. And then I think the second thing has
probably much more to do with being just being a

(49:10):
parent actually and doing seed, which is I think has
a lot more to do with like all the things
that I want to be doing for my children and
how I feel like I would like to be showing
up and really like the reconciliation of what I am
able to do in this moment and getting okay with that.

(49:31):
I think that in some ways takes up more of
my grain. And that's the most really a very honest answer,
and like realizing that, like what really loses out, and
I'll give you the most honest answer is my relationship
is my marriage because you have I have seed and
I have children, and it's and then you're just like

(49:52):
and my showers are on my calendar and you're like
a shower at midnight, Yeah, so do I. It's also
like my happy place makes you have a bother's day,
So it's like Uh, it's more like ten thirty in
my house, but like it's the same idea and it's
there there is for someone who needs to it's not

(50:14):
even about winning, but who wants to keep going and
has things to build, there is a moment where you
have to reconcile, like where you have to stop. Of course,
certainly even just in a day, right, and what time
to go to sleep? Can you show up to this
child's thing? And this does he? Yeah, exactly, And I

(50:36):
think it's just like that ongoing negotiation and getting to
a place of peace with it that you're just like,
you know what, I'm going to do what I can
do today, which actually is my greatest contradiction if you
want to talk about contradictions, because I am the person
that's no, let's just get to the next camp site
by the Sunday sunset. We can do it, versus being like,

(50:56):
let's just set up camp here. It's okay, right, Just
an analogy. I think that I think children are beautiful
teachers in this way, like they're the greatest teachers, and
I think that I have my greatest like inks really
comes from. It's not the wanting to do it all
like typical trope. It's just like it's very like, it's

(51:19):
very challenging, of like, it's much more of a way
that I would let it's letting go in some ways
of just saying that in this particular moment, and I
take it in small increments of time. I try to like,
for the next three to six months, this is the
reality of where my limitations are sure, and that's a
hard thing for me to acknowledge.

Speaker 1 (51:40):
It's I would pretty much say that it is the
most common thread that a challenge would be, that pull
and that guilt on all sides between a mom and listen.
I think it was Serena Williams that said it when
she had to quit right because she wanted to have
another baby, and she was like, if I was a guy,

(52:02):
I wouldn't have to make this choice right now. And
I remember when she said that because I was like, huh, yeah,
that's one thousand fucking percent true. And it is most
definitely my greatest challenge, of course, I think since since
I had kids, it's like, how do you be this
one hundred percent present mom, right, and how do you

(52:24):
be this one hundred percent present coo or whatever you are?
And the reality of it is most of the time
you actually can't. And it's so you're going to feel
to pull on either side. And I think, but it's
to your point, it's how do you reconcile that? And
I do think that the husband for sure gets what
does Roger always say, short end of stick?

Speaker 3 (52:47):
Yes, Hi, I'm short end of stick.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
And I'm like, yes, but you got me for eighteen.

Speaker 3 (52:53):
Years to yourself, and when they go to college, you
have me back. Just give me a little bit right here.

Speaker 2 (53:02):
There's also and then there's like just the existential part
of it as a woman, right as somebody just like have.
But there's also there's a beautiful quote by Carl Young
that says the greatest burden on a child is the
unlived life of the parent. And there's another part of it,
which is I think there is the like do it all,
and there's one level of that, but there's also like

(53:22):
an aspect of like you, Rachel, as a human, as
a woman, as a creator, as an artist, you have
things that you not just for building a business, but
as a human, things you want to like, oh, just
for yourself that you want to be And it was
funny I received it email from PAX's science Sorry, my
eight year old's science teacher. Recently, he said, Pax just

(53:45):
told me about all the amazing research that you're doing
in with microbes. And he said that you send some
microbes up to Stace that apparently plastic, and he also
mentioned that you're doing some other environmental research with microbes,
and he just sorry, he just turned ate. So he
said this when he was seven, and she went on
and on about all the things that Seed is doing.
And then I had this moment that I was like,

(54:07):
this also means something to my children.

Speaker 3 (54:10):
I'm doing something right and this and like getting.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
And he understands like what I do and care and
cared and felt proud of it. And she also said,
he's so proud of you. And it was just like
and so I do have moments like that where I'm
also just really reminded that the doing of what I'm
doing also feels impactful, even if it takes away time

(54:35):
of certain other things that are really meaningful. And what
I also know is, and you probably listen, you can't.
You just you can't make everybody happy all you can.

Speaker 1 (54:45):
And it's the hardest lesson to learn, I think for
women it is I really do, and I think we
don't ever stop learning it, and I don't know that
there's a point we just throw our hands in the
air and be like, I'm sorry, fuck off for now,
because this is all I can do right now. You
just go so I can do right now. So sorry,
keep hold. But I think you're doing great. You're changing

(55:05):
the world. You're changing the lives and the health of
so many people in so many ways. And I'm lucky
that I do have a little bit of a window
as to what's next. But I can't wait for what's next,
and I can't wait for the rest of the world
and all the Seed die hards. And if you're not
a diehard Seed person, you need to be a diehard
Seed person because it changes the way you feel every

(55:27):
single day. I really do. My dad's even taking them down. Amazing,
My dad is taking seed. Just started first thing my
dad's ever actually done for his health.

Speaker 2 (55:36):
By the way, it's me. I hear a lot of
I hear so many people say I literally can't get
my parents to do any of the things that I
tell them to do. True, but I got them to
take seed.

Speaker 3 (55:47):
Isn't that amazing?

Speaker 2 (55:49):
Yeah? Funny, Yeah, and I have a lot of beautiful
story that we hear from the children of like older
people who talk about the impact on their parents' life,
which is really cool. I love it, Era.

Speaker 1 (55:59):
I love and adore you as a human, as a
badass in all the things, and I love your brain.

Speaker 2 (56:04):
Thank you.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
It's that time in the show and I answer to
listener questions, So let's see what we have today. Okay,
what TV shows are you watching currently? And do you
like The Crown? Honestly, you will laugh so hard it's
so embarrassing. I have a tween ager, which I say
that as if it's my excuse, but I really am

(56:31):
a closet tween ager when it comes to shows and movies.
I'm currently rewatching gossip Girl and I'm actually even more
obsessed with it the second time, which is even more embarrassing.
I have already watched Outer Banks twice. I have watched
The After series, which is like literally like a teenage
book series, and Bridgerton multiple times both seasons. Can't wait

(56:55):
for the third, and I think that's about it. I
have seen The Crown. It's all the beginning. I don't
know how many seasons there are, but I have not
watched the most recent season, but it's always weird for
me when actors are switched, Like it's very hard for me.
I've always struggled with that, like when they do that
in movie like trilogies or series, Like, it's weird for

(57:17):
me to get into a new person pretending to be
the same person from the last season. So I feel
like that's kind of bothering me a little bit, even
though I think she probably looks a little bit more
like Princess Diana. So I have not watched the most
recent but I definitely think I will. But I will
say this very admittedly, when it comes to TV shows,
I really need to watch things that aren't dark and heavy.

(57:40):
It's very hard for me because life is really dark
and heavy in a lot of ways, and I have
always I don't watch a lot of TV. So I
find that if I have the privilege of getting into
bed quietly at like eleven o'clock, I'll literally turn on
something and when it's really good and like kind of mindless,
and I can just like fall into like a silly

(58:00):
love story, like a boy man's girl romance, I'm so happy,
because sometimes you really just want to see a happily,
ever hufter or relive your teenage romance life.

Speaker 2 (58:10):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (58:10):
I was a big teenage romance person in my real life,
so I think part of me just really enjoys that. Okay,
so next, what is my Starbucks order? I've been asked
this so many times over the years, and I have
to tell you you are going to be so upset
with the answer because it couldn't be more boring. It's
literally a venty English breakfast tea. I cannot drink coffee

(58:32):
because of my acid reflux, although I do love it
and would actually swim in a river of coffee if
I could, but I can't.

Speaker 2 (58:38):
It just hurts me too much.

Speaker 1 (58:40):
So I drink venty tea with a little bit of
half and half or sometimes some almond milk. But yeah,
not exciting, but it really works and I really enjoy
it and I feel very English, but not really. Okay,
don't forget to submit your questions for next week's episode.
All you have to do is dm us your questions
to at Climbing in Hills pod on Instagram and I
might just answer your question. Thank you so much to

(59:09):
Era for coming on the pod. Her story honestly I
thought I knew a lot about her, and I actually
knew nothing about her. I find it so incredible with
some of these really successful women and truly, like, you know,
Era is a truly unstoppable force for all the best reasons.
And I think we really talked about everything from you know,

(59:31):
growing up in Manhattan and you know, feeling like she
really didn't have very much compared to kids that she
was surrounded by, and that her jump from public to
private school, even though was a huge strain on her parents,
ultimately did change her life. And I think that what
really sets Era apart from so many people that I

(59:51):
know is that her intellectual curiosity really about so many things,
from like film and building and you know, athletic to
microbiome in the body and how it changes everything about
your overall health. But coming from tech and successful at
tech at that is so fascinating to me because she's

(01:00:12):
pivoted from so many different things, and not because she
necessarily needed to, but because she had such an overwhelming,
polarizing desire to do something that felt fulfilling from a
human perspective and just sort of needed to really fill
her cup more in terms of like what her overall
mission in life was and I think as someone who

(01:00:32):
is most definitely a workaholic and a mother of two
boys and has a husband, you know, I think she
very honestly talks about the struggle being very, very real,
and I think not that many people talk openly about
that because it is real, and it is real, and
someone is going to get hurt and someone is going
to fill left out, because I think as one woman,
you cannot be all things to all people. And that
means your kids, that means her husband, that needs your job,

(01:00:55):
that means us a school mom, That means as a CEO,
that means your team, and you know, an air case
certainly with investors and a board, and it's a lot
to carry.

Speaker 2 (01:01:03):
It's a lot to carry.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
And I think it's very important to highlight those things
because I think it's important to know that not everyone's
picture is perfect, and the struggles are real and everyone
has them. It's just everyone's looked different. So if it
looks easy, I can tell you it's not. And I
loved talking to Era. I learned so much today. She
is I don't know, she's mind boggling and mind blowing

(01:01:25):
and so impressive, and I just admire her so so
so much. If you want more Clemian Hills content, follow
me on at Rachel Zone at Clemian Hills Pod on
Instagram for more updates and upcoming guests, episodes, and all
things Thereator.

Speaker 2 (01:01:39):
I will see you all next week and luck