April 19, 2025 • 30 mins
When Rachel Sanders couldn't shake her post-pregnancy health struggles despite "doing all the wellness things," she discovered a hidden culprit that affects millions of women: cortisol imbalance. This revelation not only transformed her own well-being but sparked the creation of Routine, a company developing science-backed supplements for sleep, stress, and focus.
The former investment banker brings a refreshingly practical perspective to wellness. Rather than promoting elaborate self-care rituals impossible for busy people to maintain, Sanders offers simple, effective solutions that seamlessly integrate into chaotic schedules. Her approach resonates deeply with her audience—particularly women in their 30s to 50s experiencing unexplained symptoms like brain fog, irritability, stubborn weight gain, and chronic fatigue.
What makes Sanders' story particularly compelling is her transparency about the entrepreneurial journey. She grew her Instagram following to 117,000 in just nine months through consistent posting, strategic platform focus, and authentic vulnerability. Unlike many wellness influencers, she doesn't present a perfect lifestyle but instead shares her ongoing experiments with health optimization while balancing motherhood and business leadership.
The conversation explores how modern life creates the perfect storm for hormone imbalance. From constant digital stimulation to artificial lighting and processed foods, our bodies remain in chronic fight-or-flight mode. Sanders explains how this manifests in numerous symptoms affecting quality of life, productivity, and relationships—symptoms many dismiss as normal aging or parenting stress.
Whether you're struggling with unexplained health issues, building a personal brand, or navigating entrepreneurship while maintaining wellness, this episode delivers actionable insights from someone who's successfully walking that path. Discover how understanding cortisol might be the missing piece in your health puzzle and how small, consistent changes can create remarkable improvements in how you feel and function daily.
Thanks for tuning in to this episode of Follow The Brand! We hope you enjoyed learning about the latest marketing trends and strategies in Personal Branding, Business and Career Development, Financial Empowerment, Technology Innovation, and Executive Presence. To keep up with the latest insights and updates from us, be sure to follow us at 5starbdm.com. See you next time on Follow The Brand!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Okay, everybody, welcome to the Federal Grant
Podcast.
This is your host, grantMcGaugh, and for the first time
ever, I'm going to do a show outof Nashville, tennessee, the
grand old Opry right, the homeof the Tennessee Titans.
I haven't been there in a while, but I have been there.
I had a great time when I did.
But we're going to talk to anindustry darling right now, this
(00:27):
Rachel Sanders.
She's doing some phenomenalthings.
She's growing a phenomenalaudience on Instagram.
That is so impressive that it'sgot my eyes just rolling in the
back of my head like, wow, sheis impressive, but what she does
?
Because she's talking aboutsubject or a subject that is so
important today in health andwellness.
(00:49):
She's going to let us know whatshe's doing in that space and
how she's making a realdifference.
Rachel, would you like tointroduce yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yes, I'm so excited to be here.
I'm Rachel.
I'm CEO and founder of acompany called Routine.
We create smart supplements foryour most vibrant health.
Our core product right now isfunctional drink mixes for sleep
, stress and focus.
But beyond being a CEO and afounder, I'm also a digital
thought leader.
I am an influencer in thehealth and wellness space.
I've created an audience of117,000 across Instagram, my
(01:21):
newsletter, which is called Glow, and Elevate, as well as other
platforms, and I'm also a mom oftwo.
So I do all of this whileparenting two little ones, which
is a lot of excitement and alot of chaos all at the same
time.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That's got to be a lot of fun.
That's what it sounds like tome, because you've got to keep
that energy level pretty high tokeep you motivated.
First, talk to us just a littlebit about being an entrepreneur
and being a mom.
That home work balance how doyou do that?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, and trying to live my most healthiest,
happiest, most productive lifeon top of it.
I would say it's really hard,but it's also my inspiration for
everything I do.
So I believe that everybodyshould be able to have simple
tips, tricks that fit into theirdaily life, that really make a
difference in how they feel, howthey show up every day, whether
they're a working parent orthey're a stay-at-home parent.
(02:15):
They have all these tools andproducts at their disposal that
can really help them feel theirbest.
And I know what works and where.
I share my own journey becauseI've been there.
I'm working, I have a crazy job,I have two little kids, I'm
trying all the different toolsand products and brands out
there.
So I really like to bring upeverything that's working for me
(02:38):
, share my own journey andhopefully some of those tips
might work for you.
But the other thing is it's allindividualized, right, so what
works for me might not work foryou, but I'm all about trying to
help you find those simple,easy ways to incorporate
healthier living into your lifeevery single day.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Well, I think you have done a phenomenal job doing
all of those things and youhave grown your personal brand.
Now, Follow the Brand is aboutpersonal branding.
It's about business development.
It's about people who aremaking things happen where other
people kind of have thesechallenges, and I'm sure when
you first got started it was achallenge.
(03:15):
You had to start with anaudience of one that was
yourself.
So let's talk about your why.
Why did you begin this businessand what are you hoping to gain
out of it?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah Well, if we think about routine as a company
or products and everything Ishare online, it all boils down
to my own personal healthstruggles that I was dealing
with as a 30-somethingmillennial mom.
After my second baby, I wasdesperately trying to feel and
look like myself again and,despite doing all the wellness
things from the steps to theworkouts to the proper nutrition
(03:49):
I was struggling.
I was dealing with sleep issues.
I was having trouble losingweight.
I had excess belly fat thatmommy pooch that a lot of people
have.
I was extra moody and irritable, snapping at my kids and my
partner more than I wanted to,and it was frustrating.
I felt really annoyed, I waslost and it was really hard.
(04:11):
Life was just hard Like.
Work was hard, relationshipswas hard, parenting was hard and
, as I do, I dug into thescience and what I saw in
science and research is that Iwas not alone.
Millions of millennial and Gen Xwomen so women late 20s to
early 50s are struggling rightnow.
They're more stressed, they'remore overwhelmed, they're more
burnt out than ever before, andeven CNN has a headline where
(04:32):
it's like millennials are facingthe first decline in well-being
in almost a decade, and this islike a lot of frustrating daily
symptoms are coming out of thisthat I was experiencing the
sleep issues, the stress, thebrain fog and cognition issues
and I really wanted to figureout what was going on.
And I tested my cortisol levels,realized cortisol, which is
(04:53):
your stress hormone, was reallyat the base of a lot of my
issues, and then started addingin changes across my lifestyle,
my nutrition, my supplementationwith our products at Routine
and realized that I could reallymake a huge impact, not just
through Routine, which is acompany we had, but also by
sharing my story online.
So I built this community of117,000 in less than nine months
(05:14):
.
So I started this after Istarted the company.
But it was really inconjunction with this idea of
wanting to make an impact,wanting to help people and
wanting to let others who I knewwere similar to me know that
they weren't alone and thatthere were, like these, simple
options to really make adifference in your life.
It's not the two hour protocolsor the 20 something skincare
(05:37):
routine that you're seeing onsocial.
It's a real working mom whowent through this herself.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
You said it right.
The authenticity rings truethat you had a problem, you had
a challenge.
You looked down into the market.
You didn't see exactly whatcould help you and your struggle
and what you need to do.
And look what you did, man.
You just you know what.
I'm going to go into the lab.
Let me go into the lab, createsomething, use my talents, my
(06:07):
creativity, my understanding andthen bring something to the
market that I know is going tohelp others.
You had a very strong feelingbehind this.
Now, before you started thatjourney, were you always an
entrepreneur?
Were you working and then kindof became an entrepreneur?
Tell us a little bit about thatjourney.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, I was in the most traditional industry that
you could.
When I started my career, I wasworking in finance.
I did investment banking forfour years, focused on
healthcare and healthcaretechnology, and through that I'd
always been someone who went toholistic health as a solution.
Where I grew up, where my momwould take me to a naturopath or
(06:49):
think about what supplements Iwas taking to heal me from my
cold, and so it was reallyingrained in me from an early
age that what I did with mynutrition, my lifestyle, my
supplementation, really matteredwhen it comes to my health.
And as I was working in bankingand seeing much more traditional
health care so I call it sickcare, but diabetes management,
acute care management, chronicconditions, businesses around
(07:11):
that nature there was this newwave of technology and data
science that was really making adifference in patient outcomes
in this space, and I kind of hadthis light bulb moment where I
was thinking to myself that weshould use all of this
advancement that's helping somany people once they get sick.
Just help people get sick lessor make it so that they don't
get sick in the first place, andthat's really where the jump to
(07:33):
entrepreneurship came is.
I saw this opportunity.
I saw this personal problem andI saw that the opportunity to
make an impact.
And that's really what routinedoes, where we bring a much more
scientific, data-drivenapproach to holistic health,
starting with supplementation.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So routine itself is a supplement.
It's something that you takewhen you're supplementing
something in addition to.
Are you doing this in additionto proper diet, proper exercise?
Talk to us a little bit moreabout that.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah.
So our core product line arefunctional drink mixes for sleep
, stress and focus, and so theseare kind of like a hydration
pack, but functional.
So if you're really stressed,you take this and most people
are feeling calm or relaxationin 20 minutes.
Or you're having troublesleeping, our products melatonin
free to help you fall asleep,stay asleep and wake up rested,
(08:24):
and then focus is really forthat cognitive boost.
So if you're dealing with anafternoon slump which a lot of
people who have cortisolimbalance deal with and or just
working people in general, ithelps your brain work better,
you get through your to-do listfaster.
And all of these aremulti-adaptogen powders.
So adaptogens are naturalherbal supplements that help
(08:46):
bring your body back to balanceand create these effects
naturally quite quickly.
And this is all done inconjunction, of course, with a
proper sleep routine, a routinearound how do you balance your
cortisol levels, a routinearound cognition and brain
health.
But these products just cansupport you and help you get to
(09:06):
where you want to go faster.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
This is so important Getting that energy, getting the
right type of energy, gettingthe balance that you need to
meet the challenges of the day.
Most people have a dailychallenge one way or another and
you've got to have ways.
And you can't afford to be sick.
Who can afford to be sick thisday?
You're down.
Sometimes that means you're notgenerating income and that can
(09:32):
have definitely a detrimentaleffect on you.
So let's talk about financejust a little bit.
Because you develop the product.
You've got that together.
A lot of people have done, youknow, developed product and
developed something, but theystruggle in the marketing arena
and they can't really you knowwhat?
(09:53):
I can't grow an audience.
What were you doing?
What did you do?
Do you feel was your niche,your speciality, to grow such a
huge following in such a shortperiod of time?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I think there's a couple of things.
So, for people who are startingout maybe they have a couple
thousand followers and they'retrying to figure this out the
three core recommendations thatI would do that I may or may not
have done well at the beginning, but is one this commitment to
consistency, where at the start,I had basically zero audience
and I committed to myself that Iwas going to show up online
(10:32):
every single weekday, so fivedays a week, for six months, and
then at six months, I would sayall right, is this working or
is this not?
It's not something where I wasgoing to try it for a week and
see if it worked, or even amonth, or even two months.
That's just not enough time tofigure out the content, how it
all works, the algorithm likewhat's going to make sense for
(10:56):
you, and then doubling down onthat.
So that's the first tip is justcommit to yourself to be
consistent.
The second tip is figuring outthe processes that allow you to
be consistent.
So one of the mistakes that Imade early on is I, because I
was already showing.
I was showing up on like X andLinkedIn, but I wasn't on
Instagram or TikTok, really, andI was like, all right, I'm
going to do four, I'm going todo four channels.
(11:16):
This is someone who really likewasn't doing much in terms of
video at all, and after a week Iwas like I can't do that, Like
I was spending my entire daytrying to figure out what I'm
supposed to be posting, postingit, filming it, finding all the
audios and doing all the things.
And, as I say in marketing,it's the same thing in building
(11:37):
personal brand is you have toreally focus your resources.
Do that like hero productconcept first, which, in this
case, is your hero platform.
What is the platform thatmatters the most to you and
where you can grow your audiencefirst?
Because once you grow youraudience there, you can always
expand into new platforms.
But if you can't be consistentto grow your audience in one
(12:00):
place, it's going to be reallyhard to grow it in four.
And then the third thing that Idid is I really I knew that my
niche was going to be in andaround health and wellness.
At the intersection of my ownexperiences, my story and kind
of this inspirational like hey,you can do this too.
But I didn't know exactly whatthe topics within health and
(12:22):
wellness that we're going to hit.
And so I spent my first monthcreating content across
different topics and differenttypes of content, like carousels
, videos, talking B-roll, justlike figure out all the things
you see on Instagram.
I chose Instagram, I went andtried to create it all.
I did green screen, just figureit out right.
(12:43):
And then I I quickly figured outwhat content would take me less
time, what was more enjoyablefor me to create the content I
could create and still run abusiness at the same time,
because I'm not a full-timecontent creator so I can't spend
three hours on one piece ofcontent type of thing.
And then I doubled down on thattype of content still tested
topics.
(13:03):
And then by month three Istarted seeing some traction
specifically around mentalwellness, around cortisol levels
and this overarching conceptthat I was dealing with.
And then I just continue totalk about that and I shared my
story.
I've been vulnerable about it.
I shared tips and tricks, Ioffer value and do all of those
other things and then grew quitequickly after kind of figuring
(13:26):
out that topic category.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Being vulnerable.
I've learned that from a lot ofdifferent successful people
with when it comes down tosocial selling, social marketing
is that it's not about beingperfect.
It's about being authentically,to tell your story and sharing
some things that you normallywouldn't share, that are pretty
(13:52):
personal, but that are importantbecause people are experiencing
these things and you're likeyou know what.
No one's really talking aboutthis.
You know it's kind of a gap.
You know in the in the uhmarketing arena that if I fill
that gap, I can gain significantmarket share in a short period
(14:13):
of time, because people liketalking to people.
People don't understand thepower of the word of mouth.
It's not like she just all of asudden just threw out a bunch of
stuff and then people juststarted, you know, tuning in.
It's all of a sudden, theirfriends started talking about it
, Then their friends and friendsstarted talking about it.
All of a sudden their friendsstarted talking about it.
Then their friends and friendsstarted talking about it and all
of a sudden it's growingorganically but it's growing
(14:36):
authentically.
And then, before you know it,you've got six figures of people
.
You know tuning in.
Now that creates its ownproblem.
All of a sudden, now you've gotthis great following and
there's a demand for yourproduct.
You're scaling.
How do you, how do you, how doyou keep up with that growing
demand?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
yeah, I mean the more .
Every time you're successful,there's another challenge that
comes, but those are champagneproblems, as I like to call it.
Um, but we as a business, we'reset up for scale uh, we always
have been, and so that hasn'tbeen as big of a challenge for
us yet.
But of course, there's alwayschallenges that come as we
(15:17):
continue to scale.
From a content perspective, oneof the challenges that I
personally face is all right,this is working, so how do we
double down on it?
So for me, that means okay, howare we growing?
How am I growing to talk now,because I ignored to talk for
forever, but it's definitely aplace where I should be showing
up.
It's a place where maybe it's anew audience, but it's, it's a
(15:38):
similar message.
So how do I grow to talk fromzero to 100k in a quick fashion?
And so it becomes all right.
I figured this out a little bit, so like, let's continue to
double down on that.
But what else and that's kindof the plight of anyone that's
ambitious, it's building abusiness, building a personal
brand, et cetera is when you getcomfortable.
(16:00):
It's then that you try to takeon that next challenge and then
it becomes uncomfortable allover again.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
So important and I like how you stated hero
platform, and that's what apersonal brand is all about.
You know you have to be theface of the brand.
It's got to speak for thebusiness, because people don't
really buy into what people sayabout a product or service, but
they do buy into the individualand then if that individual is
believable, they can be trustedand they have knowledge and
(16:31):
they're sharing, especially inyour case, some vulnerable
information.
I'm not sure what cortisol isor what it does, but it sounds
like it's interesting giving theaudience a little bit more
context about what that is,because they're like you know
what I might need that, whatthat is because they were like
you know what I might need that.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
So cortisol is your.
It's most commonly referred toas your stress hormone and it is
a major hormone in the body.
It affects a lot of differentprocesses and if your cortisol
is imbalanced, so it can be bothhot, too high and too low.
Most people it's too high butthat can create everything from
brain fog issues to extramoodiness and irritability, more
easily overstimulated, extrabelly fat trouble, losing weight
, adult acne, chronic fatigue,kind of waking up and feeling
(17:18):
exhausted despite sleeping,sleep issues, racing thoughts
trying to fall asleep or wakingup at 2 am and not being able to
go back to sleep.
It can really impact literallyyour whole life if it's out of
whack to sleep.
It can really impact literallyyour whole life if it's out of
whack.
And most people, especially asthey're entering more of their
midlife, have cortisol imbalancebecause we're constantly being
(17:39):
thrown like stressful situationsare constantly being thrown at
us from work, from the newscycle, from social media, where
we know creators are creatingcontent that's more divisive
because they know that gets moreviews and so that creates these
like gives you stress.
And then even the food we eat tothe lights that we're under,
(18:00):
being under artificial light isa physical stressor.
Eating a lot of sugary, highprocessed foods creates a
physical stressor in the bodybecause there's basically the
more blood sugar imbalance youhave, the more it impacts your
cortisol levels or your stresshormone levels.
And so all of these thingsmodern world life things are
(18:23):
creating stress and putting ourbodies in this chronic fight or
flight mode it's supposed tohave.
Like cortisol is supposed to bethere, fight or flight is
supposed to be there.
From when, like if you run intoa tiger or you need to lift up,
lift up a car, but just likesitting here every single day.
Your body shouldn't be in thatstate and if it if it is it
creates all sorts of problems.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So like adrenaline, right, you know it's.
It's there.
People realize that certainsituations you could pick up a
card, but, wow, how did thathappen?
You summon that energy, but,like I said, it's for a short
period of time.
But if you've got this going onfor a longer period of time, I
can see that problematic.
Now you found your solution.
(19:04):
You're marketing that solution.
Here's the thing People have.
There's this perception aroundmillennials Like they're
different from others.
Right, you know like.
Oh, you're one of those.
You know Like.
So that's wild when I thinkabout it.
(19:25):
Now I'm a little older.
I have children that are in the20 to 30, almost 40 area.
I think that's the millennialsegment.
Why do you think that segment?
Now?
Do you think because they seein you, they see themselves in
you, and is your audiencepredominantly on TikTok,
(19:48):
instagram and that's what'sgravitating to you, or is it
different?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So the audience that I really speak to I would say 80
, I think it's 85% of myaudience is over 30.
And that's from 30s eventhrough to like 65 plus, which
is the oldest age group thatInstagram gives you.
And it's really as life comesat you.
As you live more life, yoursymptoms start.
(20:16):
You enter into your late 20s,early 30s and you don't feel
like you did in your early 20sanymore.
You can't drink the alcoholthat you did, you can't sleep
for four hours and be asproductive as you used to, and
so people are searching forsolutions.
And then, in terms of ourcustomers specifically, and my,
the people that I speak to,they're mostly on Instagram.
(20:37):
Our customers specifically, andmy, the people that I speak to,
they're mostly on Instagram.
So when I picked the platformthat I was going to go on
Instagram or TikTok all of ourcustomers are on Instagram, some
of them are on TikTok, and soit was easy to choose Instagram
first and then grow into TikTok.
There's other situations whereyour entire audience is going to
be on TikTok and then only someof them are on Instagram.
(20:58):
That's mostly if you'retargeting younger, the younger
kind of 20s and below generation.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
This is interesting because it sounds like you have
a very good handle on technology, not only from marketing, or we
call it MarTech, but also froma health tech perspective.
How did you get into thetechnology realm and seem like
you're pretty adept at it?
Speaker 2 (21:28):
A lot of what we do so routine.
We originally were much more ofa personalized nutrition, even
further, and we've actuallydeveloped a lot of technology in
and around the category,everything from blood testing to
personalized supplementation,which we also have as well.
Still, but just through my ownpersonal experience, I've tested
, tried, done like all thehealth tech things, all the new
(21:51):
things I see.
I'm someone who sees it first,tries it first and just like
learns about it.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
This is interesting.
You know, I'm going further nowbecause one of the biggest
stumbling blocks that I've seenin my audience have seen is that
as they scale, they go intobusiness, they're
entrepreneurial, they're doingall these things and then all of
a sudden there's this otherthing that comes to mind and
that's money and understandingfinance, and understanding what
to invest in and what not toinvest in and how to work
(22:24):
through those gaps in cash flowand things like that.
Has that been an on the joblearning for you, or did you
come in with a pretty good depthand breadth of financial acumen
?
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Starting my entrepreneurial journey, I was
probably more adept from afinance perspective because I
worked for four years ininvestment banking, which means
I spent most of my days 12,15-hour days in and around
financial statements, but thatdoesn't mean that there wasn't a
lot of on-the-job learningaround cash flow management and
making those really criticaldecisions around what are you
investing in now versus what areyou waiting, and I think that
(23:00):
is something that you just can'tknow until you've been in a
leadership position at a startupand or a business where you're
bootstrapping and you're cashstrapped and you have to make
these really critical decisionsaround resources and you're in a
cash constrained situation.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
These are so important.
So we now understand that youunderstand finance.
You have a great understandingof marketing.
You have a great product You'resolving.
Now you've solved a problemthat you personally were
experiencing with routine.
I want you to talk to ouraudience now.
I want you to talk to thatperson that you just described
(23:50):
some of the conditions ofcortisol and I like how you
framed the story, like at onepoint in time you could do these
things.
You could run around the block.
You know 15 times.
You know on four hours of sleepand drinking, and let's just
say and.
But now that's changed.
You're going through a lifechange.
There is a life change thatdoes happen and you know a lot
(24:10):
of people understand, like thegrowth spurt.
You know, when you're ateenager, you're becoming an
adult.
When you're a teenager andyou're becoming an adult.
But there's another challengethat happens 20s to your 30s,
probably in your 30s to your mid30s, where it starts to really
you know there's some thingsgoing on, but I don't think
there's a lot of goodinformation around it.
But I think you've discoveredthat.
(24:30):
But I want you to talk to thatperson that's now just starting
to say, hey, something'sdifferent.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yeah, I mean I always recommend that if something's
different, if you'reexperiencing any one of the
symptoms I talked about, tryingto understand your cortisol
levels is a great place to start.
It's one of the major hormones.
So if you're a female dealingwith like sex hormone issues,
like the estrogen andprogesterone, or you're a male
dealing with similar hormoneissues, a lot of those can
actually stem to a deeper root,which is in cortisol and or
insulin and blood sugar.
(25:01):
So, looking at your cortisollevels so what does your stress
look like?
And looking at your blood sugar, what does your metabolic
health look like are the twoplaces that I would start.
The cortisol testing is a greatway to do that.
We do have an at-home cortisoltest that you can do, but
there's other opportunities forthat.
If that's not something, that'seither accessible whether it's
(25:23):
not something you want to do orfinancially it's not accessible.
I would also just like look atthe symptoms, because trying to
figure out natural stressmanagement techniques is not
going to hurt you.
So start to learn.
All right, what are some ofthese simple things that I can
do to start my day?
For example, I drink 40 ouncesof water with electrolytes
before I have my coffee, becausewhen you wake up your body's
(25:43):
the most dehydrated it is.
That's a physical stressor, sothat's an easy five-minute just
add that to my day solution andthere's a lot of things across
nutrition or how you're workingout, et cetera that you can
start to implement.
And then the other thing is thisconcept of metabolic health,
which basically just meansfiguring out if your blood sugar
is stable, if you'remetabolically healthy or if
(26:07):
you're trending towardspre-diabetic, which can cause
all sorts of other issues.
The best way, in my opinion, tounderstand the blood sugar is a
continuous glucose monitor or aCGM.
There's a bunch of companiesout there where you can just
order them and they'll ship themdirect to your house.
Wear them for a couple of weeksand you can understand how food
is affecting your body and ifthat's kind of an underlying
(26:29):
cause of some of these symptomsthat you're dealing with.
Another thing is sleep.
But glucose and cortisol impactsleep, so if those are
problematic you could be havingtrouble sleeping.
If you don't have either ofthose and you're having trouble
sleeping, fixing sleep can fix alot too.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Good sleep.
That sounds like a winner forme, for certain.
Now let's say let's continue onthis customer journey, the
customer experience Someonewho's now tuning into this
podcast or listening to you andthey're like, okay, I see that
there might be something there.
What is the next step?
(27:05):
You know how do they to acquirethe product?
Do they get a sample first.
Talk to them about what theyshould do next.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Yeah, so if you want to get access to our products or
try them, you can find us onAmazon Prime two day shipping.
There are 10 packs there thatare fairly affordable.
And then we also do offersample packs on our site, so you
can get a free sample withpurchase right now, and our site
is R-O-O-T-I-N-E dot C-O andwe'll do various specials around
samples as well, and, of course, you can purchase them online.
(27:35):
And then we're also coming soonto more retailers, as we
continue to roll out the retailchannel.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Now it sounds like there's a variety there.
You said 10 packs, so there'spacks for different symptoms.
Talk to me a little bit moreabout that.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Yeah, so there's a stress, a sleep or a focus, and
we have them in two differentsizes, so you can get all each
of those in either a 10 pack or24 count 24 pack, depending on
the size that you want topurchase how you felt about this
(28:21):
experience of being interviewedby me, getting an understanding
of what this was about andbeing on the platform being able
to tell your story.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Just tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
I love the interview.
I've done a lot of these andthis is a great one.
It's always great to talk topeople who know what they're
doing, and it's clear you're agreat host and you've done this
many times before I love it.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I love it.
I don't always get to talk toguests like you.
I talked to a lot of greatguests, but everybody is unique
in what they do and how they doit and what motivates them.
I'm intrigued by your storybecause you can either sit in
certain situations and blamesome external circumstance
instead of like you know what,what can I do to solve this
(29:03):
problem?
And use some critical thinkingand use some tools at your
disposal to begin to come upwith solutions instead of more
problems or excuses.
That's what I like about yourbrand.
Your brand to me speaks volumes.
I think you've spoken volumesduring this show.
(29:24):
I cannot wait for the audienceto really interact with
everything we just talked aboutand get them a chance to try
your product.
So, before I let you go, tellthem again how to get a hold of
Routine.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I let you go tell them again how to get a hold of
Routine.
You can check out our websiteat Routine R-O-O-T-I-N-E dot co.
You can find us on social atRoutine underscore co.
And, of course, you can find uson Amazon.
And then, to learn more aboutme, I'm on Instagram at Rachel
S-O-P Sanders, and you can findmy website way to sign up for my
newsletter and all the thingsthat I'm doing directly through
my link in my bio and myInstagram.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Wow, and that is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful,
and I invite your entireaudience to check out all the
different episodes on FollowBrand.
We've got close to 200 of them.
This is a knowledge share.
This is a library ofinformation for everybody to get
better at what they do.
There's many, many, manydifferent segments.
I would say I put them in theseason, so there's executive
(30:22):
presence, there's personalbranding, there's brand mastery,
there's career and businessdevelopment, there's technology,
information and financialempowerment, so you can start to
get a better understanding, notjust for me, but from the
people who have lived it, justlike Rachel is living her
experience.
This has been wonderful.
Thank you again for being onthe show.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Welcome.
Okay, everybody, welcome to the Federal Grant
Podcast.
This is your host, grantMcGaugh, and for the first time
ever, I'm going to do a show outof Nashville, tennessee, the
grand old Opry right, the homeof the Tennessee Titans.
I haven't been there in a while, but I have been there.
I had a great time when I did.
But we're going to talk to anindustry darling right now, this
(00:27):
Rachel Sanders.
She's doing some phenomenalthings.
She's growing a phenomenalaudience on Instagram.
That is so impressive that it'sgot my eyes just rolling in the
back of my head like, wow, sheis impressive, but what she does
?
Because she's talking aboutsubject or a subject that is so
important today in health andwellness.
(00:49):
She's going to let us know whatshe's doing in that space and
how she's making a realdifference.
Rachel, would you like tointroduce yourself?
Speaker 2 (00:59):
Yes, I'm so excited to be here.
I'm Rachel.
I'm CEO and founder of acompany called Routine.
We create smart supplements foryour most vibrant health.
Our core product right now isfunctional drink mixes for sleep
, stress and focus.
But beyond being a CEO and afounder, I'm also a digital
thought leader.
I am an influencer in thehealth and wellness space.
I've created an audience of117,000 across Instagram, my
(01:21):
newsletter, which is called Glow, and Elevate, as well as other
platforms, and I'm also a mom oftwo.
So I do all of this whileparenting two little ones, which
is a lot of excitement and alot of chaos all at the same
time.
Speaker 1 (01:33):
That's got to be a lot of fun.
That's what it sounds like tome, because you've got to keep
that energy level pretty high tokeep you motivated.
First, talk to us just a littlebit about being an entrepreneur
and being a mom.
That home work balance how doyou do that?
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah, and trying to live my most healthiest,
happiest, most productive lifeon top of it.
I would say it's really hard,but it's also my inspiration for
everything I do.
So I believe that everybodyshould be able to have simple
tips, tricks that fit into theirdaily life, that really make a
difference in how they feel, howthey show up every day, whether
they're a working parent orthey're a stay-at-home parent.
(02:15):
They have all these tools andproducts at their disposal that
can really help them feel theirbest.
And I know what works and where.
I share my own journey becauseI've been there.
I'm working, I have a crazy job,I have two little kids, I'm
trying all the different toolsand products and brands out
there.
So I really like to bring upeverything that's working for me
(02:38):
, share my own journey andhopefully some of those tips
might work for you.
But the other thing is it's allindividualized, right, so what
works for me might not work foryou, but I'm all about trying to
help you find those simple,easy ways to incorporate
healthier living into your lifeevery single day.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
Well, I think you have done a phenomenal job doing
all of those things and youhave grown your personal brand.
Now, Follow the Brand is aboutpersonal branding.
It's about business development.
It's about people who aremaking things happen where other
people kind of have thesechallenges, and I'm sure when
you first got started it was achallenge.
(03:15):
You had to start with anaudience of one that was
yourself.
So let's talk about your why.
Why did you begin this businessand what are you hoping to gain
out of it?
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah Well, if we think about routine as a company
or products and everything Ishare online, it all boils down
to my own personal healthstruggles that I was dealing
with as a 30-somethingmillennial mom.
After my second baby, I wasdesperately trying to feel and
look like myself again and,despite doing all the wellness
things from the steps to theworkouts to the proper nutrition
(03:49):
I was struggling.
I was dealing with sleep issues.
I was having trouble losingweight.
I had excess belly fat thatmommy pooch that a lot of people
have.
I was extra moody and irritable, snapping at my kids and my
partner more than I wanted to,and it was frustrating.
I felt really annoyed, I waslost and it was really hard.
(04:11):
Life was just hard Like.
Work was hard, relationshipswas hard, parenting was hard and
, as I do, I dug into thescience and what I saw in
science and research is that Iwas not alone.
Millions of millennial and Gen Xwomen so women late 20s to
early 50s are struggling rightnow.
They're more stressed, they'remore overwhelmed, they're more
burnt out than ever before, andeven CNN has a headline where
(04:32):
it's like millennials are facingthe first decline in well-being
in almost a decade, and this islike a lot of frustrating daily
symptoms are coming out of thisthat I was experiencing the
sleep issues, the stress, thebrain fog and cognition issues
and I really wanted to figureout what was going on.
And I tested my cortisol levels,realized cortisol, which is
(04:53):
your stress hormone, was reallyat the base of a lot of my
issues, and then started addingin changes across my lifestyle,
my nutrition, my supplementationwith our products at Routine
and realized that I could reallymake a huge impact, not just
through Routine, which is acompany we had, but also by
sharing my story online.
So I built this community of117,000 in less than nine months
(05:14):
.
So I started this after Istarted the company.
But it was really inconjunction with this idea of
wanting to make an impact,wanting to help people and
wanting to let others who I knewwere similar to me know that
they weren't alone and thatthere were, like these, simple
options to really make adifference in your life.
It's not the two hour protocolsor the 20 something skincare
(05:37):
routine that you're seeing onsocial.
It's a real working mom whowent through this herself.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
You said it right.
The authenticity rings truethat you had a problem, you had
a challenge.
You looked down into the market.
You didn't see exactly whatcould help you and your struggle
and what you need to do.
And look what you did, man.
You just you know what.
I'm going to go into the lab.
Let me go into the lab, createsomething, use my talents, my
(06:07):
creativity, my understanding andthen bring something to the
market that I know is going tohelp others.
You had a very strong feelingbehind this.
Now, before you started thatjourney, were you always an
entrepreneur?
Were you working and then kindof became an entrepreneur?
Tell us a little bit about thatjourney.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah, I was in the most traditional industry that
you could.
When I started my career, I wasworking in finance.
I did investment banking forfour years, focused on
healthcare and healthcaretechnology, and through that I'd
always been someone who went toholistic health as a solution.
Where I grew up, where my momwould take me to a naturopath or
(06:49):
think about what supplements Iwas taking to heal me from my
cold, and so it was reallyingrained in me from an early
age that what I did with mynutrition, my lifestyle, my
supplementation, really matteredwhen it comes to my health.
And as I was working in bankingand seeing much more traditional
health care so I call it sickcare, but diabetes management,
acute care management, chronicconditions, businesses around
(07:11):
that nature there was this newwave of technology and data
science that was really making adifference in patient outcomes
in this space, and I kind of hadthis light bulb moment where I
was thinking to myself that weshould use all of this
advancement that's helping somany people once they get sick.
Just help people get sick lessor make it so that they don't
get sick in the first place, andthat's really where the jump to
(07:33):
entrepreneurship came is.
I saw this opportunity.
I saw this personal problem andI saw that the opportunity to
make an impact.
And that's really what routinedoes, where we bring a much more
scientific, data-drivenapproach to holistic health,
starting with supplementation.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
So routine itself is a supplement.
It's something that you takewhen you're supplementing
something in addition to.
Are you doing this in additionto proper diet, proper exercise?
Talk to us a little bit moreabout that.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah.
So our core product line arefunctional drink mixes for sleep
, stress and focus, and so theseare kind of like a hydration
pack, but functional.
So if you're really stressed,you take this and most people
are feeling calm or relaxationin 20 minutes.
Or you're having troublesleeping, our products melatonin
free to help you fall asleep,stay asleep and wake up rested,
(08:24):
and then focus is really forthat cognitive boost.
So if you're dealing with anafternoon slump which a lot of
people who have cortisolimbalance deal with and or just
working people in general, ithelps your brain work better,
you get through your to-do listfaster.
And all of these aremulti-adaptogen powders.
So adaptogens are naturalherbal supplements that help
(08:46):
bring your body back to balanceand create these effects
naturally quite quickly.
And this is all done inconjunction, of course, with a
proper sleep routine, a routinearound how do you balance your
cortisol levels, a routinearound cognition and brain
health.
But these products just cansupport you and help you get to
(09:06):
where you want to go faster.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
This is so important Getting that energy, getting the
right type of energy, gettingthe balance that you need to
meet the challenges of the day.
Most people have a dailychallenge one way or another and
you've got to have ways.
And you can't afford to be sick.
Who can afford to be sick thisday?
You're down.
Sometimes that means you're notgenerating income and that can
(09:32):
have definitely a detrimentaleffect on you.
So let's talk about financejust a little bit.
Because you develop the product.
You've got that together.
A lot of people have done, youknow, developed product and
developed something, but theystruggle in the marketing arena
and they can't really you knowwhat?
(09:53):
I can't grow an audience.
What were you doing?
What did you do?
Do you feel was your niche,your speciality, to grow such a
huge following in such a shortperiod of time?
Speaker 2 (10:09):
I think there's a couple of things.
So, for people who are startingout maybe they have a couple
thousand followers and they'retrying to figure this out the
three core recommendations thatI would do that I may or may not
have done well at the beginning, but is one this commitment to
consistency, where at the start,I had basically zero audience
and I committed to myself that Iwas going to show up online
(10:32):
every single weekday, so fivedays a week, for six months, and
then at six months, I would sayall right, is this working or
is this not?
It's not something where I wasgoing to try it for a week and
see if it worked, or even amonth, or even two months.
That's just not enough time tofigure out the content, how it
all works, the algorithm likewhat's going to make sense for
(10:56):
you, and then doubling down onthat.
So that's the first tip is justcommit to yourself to be
consistent.
The second tip is figuring outthe processes that allow you to
be consistent.
So one of the mistakes that Imade early on is I, because I
was already showing.
I was showing up on like X andLinkedIn, but I wasn't on
Instagram or TikTok, really, andI was like, all right, I'm
going to do four, I'm going todo four channels.
(11:16):
This is someone who really likewasn't doing much in terms of
video at all, and after a week Iwas like I can't do that, Like
I was spending my entire daytrying to figure out what I'm
supposed to be posting, postingit, filming it, finding all the
audios and doing all the things.
And, as I say in marketing,it's the same thing in building
(11:37):
personal brand is you have toreally focus your resources.
Do that like hero productconcept first, which, in this
case, is your hero platform.
What is the platform thatmatters the most to you and
where you can grow your audiencefirst?
Because once you grow youraudience there, you can always
expand into new platforms.
But if you can't be consistentto grow your audience in one
(12:00):
place, it's going to be reallyhard to grow it in four.
And then the third thing that Idid is I really I knew that my
niche was going to be in andaround health and wellness.
At the intersection of my ownexperiences, my story and kind
of this inspirational like hey,you can do this too.
But I didn't know exactly whatthe topics within health and
(12:22):
wellness that we're going to hit.
And so I spent my first monthcreating content across
different topics and differenttypes of content, like carousels
, videos, talking B-roll, justlike figure out all the things
you see on Instagram.
I chose Instagram, I went andtried to create it all.
I did green screen, just figureit out right.
(12:43):
And then I I quickly figured outwhat content would take me less
time, what was more enjoyablefor me to create the content I
could create and still run abusiness at the same time,
because I'm not a full-timecontent creator so I can't spend
three hours on one piece ofcontent type of thing.
And then I doubled down on thattype of content still tested
topics.
(13:03):
And then by month three Istarted seeing some traction
specifically around mentalwellness, around cortisol levels
and this overarching conceptthat I was dealing with.
And then I just continue totalk about that and I shared my
story.
I've been vulnerable about it.
I shared tips and tricks, Ioffer value and do all of those
other things and then grew quitequickly after kind of figuring
(13:26):
out that topic category.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
Being vulnerable.
I've learned that from a lot ofdifferent successful people
with when it comes down tosocial selling, social marketing
is that it's not about beingperfect.
It's about being authentically,to tell your story and sharing
some things that you normallywouldn't share, that are pretty
(13:52):
personal, but that are importantbecause people are experiencing
these things and you're likeyou know what.
No one's really talking aboutthis.
You know it's kind of a gap.
You know in the in the uhmarketing arena that if I fill
that gap, I can gain significantmarket share in a short period
(14:13):
of time, because people liketalking to people.
People don't understand thepower of the word of mouth.
It's not like she just all of asudden just threw out a bunch of
stuff and then people juststarted, you know, tuning in.
It's all of a sudden, theirfriends started talking about it
, Then their friends and friendsstarted talking about it.
All of a sudden their friendsstarted talking about it.
Then their friends and friendsstarted talking about it and all
of a sudden it's growingorganically but it's growing
(14:36):
authentically.
And then, before you know it,you've got six figures of people
.
You know tuning in.
Now that creates its ownproblem.
All of a sudden, now you've gotthis great following and
there's a demand for yourproduct.
You're scaling.
How do you, how do you, how doyou keep up with that growing
demand?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
yeah, I mean the more .
Every time you're successful,there's another challenge that
comes, but those are champagneproblems, as I like to call it.
Um, but we as a business, we'reset up for scale uh, we always
have been, and so that hasn'tbeen as big of a challenge for
us yet.
But of course, there's alwayschallenges that come as we
(15:17):
continue to scale.
From a content perspective, oneof the challenges that I
personally face is all right,this is working, so how do we
double down on it?
So for me, that means okay, howare we growing?
How am I growing to talk now,because I ignored to talk for
forever, but it's definitely aplace where I should be showing
up.
It's a place where maybe it's anew audience, but it's, it's a
(15:38):
similar message.
So how do I grow to talk fromzero to 100k in a quick fashion?
And so it becomes all right.
I figured this out a little bit, so like, let's continue to
double down on that.
But what else and that's kindof the plight of anyone that's
ambitious, it's building abusiness, building a personal
brand, et cetera is when you getcomfortable.
(16:00):
It's then that you try to takeon that next challenge and then
it becomes uncomfortable allover again.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
So important and I like how you stated hero
platform, and that's what apersonal brand is all about.
You know you have to be theface of the brand.
It's got to speak for thebusiness, because people don't
really buy into what people sayabout a product or service, but
they do buy into the individualand then if that individual is
believable, they can be trustedand they have knowledge and
(16:31):
they're sharing, especially inyour case, some vulnerable
information.
I'm not sure what cortisol isor what it does, but it sounds
like it's interesting giving theaudience a little bit more
context about what that is,because they're like you know
what I might need that, whatthat is because they were like
you know what I might need that.
Speaker 2 (16:55):
So cortisol is your.
It's most commonly referred toas your stress hormone and it is
a major hormone in the body.
It affects a lot of differentprocesses and if your cortisol
is imbalanced, so it can be bothhot, too high and too low.
Most people it's too high butthat can create everything from
brain fog issues to extramoodiness and irritability, more
easily overstimulated, extrabelly fat trouble, losing weight
, adult acne, chronic fatigue,kind of waking up and feeling
(17:18):
exhausted despite sleeping,sleep issues, racing thoughts
trying to fall asleep or wakingup at 2 am and not being able to
go back to sleep.
It can really impact literallyyour whole life if it's out of
whack to sleep.
It can really impact literallyyour whole life if it's out of
whack.
And most people, especially asthey're entering more of their
midlife, have cortisol imbalancebecause we're constantly being
(17:39):
thrown like stressful situationsare constantly being thrown at
us from work, from the newscycle, from social media, where
we know creators are creatingcontent that's more divisive
because they know that gets moreviews and so that creates these
like gives you stress.
And then even the food we eat tothe lights that we're under,
(18:00):
being under artificial light isa physical stressor.
Eating a lot of sugary, highprocessed foods creates a
physical stressor in the bodybecause there's basically the
more blood sugar imbalance youhave, the more it impacts your
cortisol levels or your stresshormone levels.
And so all of these thingsmodern world life things are
(18:23):
creating stress and putting ourbodies in this chronic fight or
flight mode it's supposed tohave.
Like cortisol is supposed to bethere, fight or flight is
supposed to be there.
From when, like if you run intoa tiger or you need to lift up,
lift up a car, but just likesitting here every single day.
Your body shouldn't be in thatstate and if it if it is it
creates all sorts of problems.
Speaker 1 (18:43):
So like adrenaline, right, you know it's.
It's there.
People realize that certainsituations you could pick up a
card, but, wow, how did thathappen?
You summon that energy, but,like I said, it's for a short
period of time.
But if you've got this going onfor a longer period of time, I
can see that problematic.
Now you found your solution.
(19:04):
You're marketing that solution.
Here's the thing People have.
There's this perception aroundmillennials Like they're
different from others.
Right, you know like.
Oh, you're one of those.
You know Like.
So that's wild when I thinkabout it.
(19:25):
Now I'm a little older.
I have children that are in the20 to 30, almost 40 area.
I think that's the millennialsegment.
Why do you think that segment?
Now?
Do you think because they seein you, they see themselves in
you, and is your audiencepredominantly on TikTok,
(19:48):
instagram and that's what'sgravitating to you, or is it
different?
Speaker 2 (19:53):
So the audience that I really speak to I would say 80
, I think it's 85% of myaudience is over 30.
And that's from 30s eventhrough to like 65 plus, which
is the oldest age group thatInstagram gives you.
And it's really as life comesat you.
As you live more life, yoursymptoms start.
(20:16):
You enter into your late 20s,early 30s and you don't feel
like you did in your early 20sanymore.
You can't drink the alcoholthat you did, you can't sleep
for four hours and be asproductive as you used to, and
so people are searching forsolutions.
And then, in terms of ourcustomers specifically, and my,
the people that I speak to,they're mostly on Instagram.
(20:37):
Our customers specifically, andmy, the people that I speak to,
they're mostly on Instagram.
So when I picked the platformthat I was going to go on
Instagram or TikTok all of ourcustomers are on Instagram, some
of them are on TikTok, and soit was easy to choose Instagram
first and then grow into TikTok.
There's other situations whereyour entire audience is going to
be on TikTok and then only someof them are on Instagram.
(20:58):
That's mostly if you'retargeting younger, the younger
kind of 20s and below generation.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
This is interesting because it sounds like you have
a very good handle on technology, not only from marketing, or we
call it MarTech, but also froma health tech perspective.
How did you get into thetechnology realm and seem like
you're pretty adept at it?
Speaker 2 (21:28):
A lot of what we do so routine.
We originally were much more ofa personalized nutrition, even
further, and we've actuallydeveloped a lot of technology in
and around the category,everything from blood testing to
personalized supplementation,which we also have as well.
Still, but just through my ownpersonal experience, I've tested
, tried, done like all thehealth tech things, all the new
(21:51):
things I see.
I'm someone who sees it first,tries it first and just like
learns about it.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
This is interesting.
You know, I'm going further nowbecause one of the biggest
stumbling blocks that I've seenin my audience have seen is that
as they scale, they go intobusiness, they're
entrepreneurial, they're doingall these things and then all of
a sudden there's this otherthing that comes to mind and
that's money and understandingfinance, and understanding what
to invest in and what not toinvest in and how to work
(22:24):
through those gaps in cash flowand things like that.
Has that been an on the joblearning for you, or did you
come in with a pretty good depthand breadth of financial acumen
?
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Starting my entrepreneurial journey, I was
probably more adept from afinance perspective because I
worked for four years ininvestment banking, which means
I spent most of my days 12,15-hour days in and around
financial statements, but thatdoesn't mean that there wasn't a
lot of on-the-job learningaround cash flow management and
making those really criticaldecisions around what are you
investing in now versus what areyou waiting, and I think that
(23:00):
is something that you just can'tknow until you've been in a
leadership position at a startupand or a business where you're
bootstrapping and you're cashstrapped and you have to make
these really critical decisionsaround resources and you're in a
cash constrained situation.
Speaker 1 (23:21):
These are so important.
So we now understand that youunderstand finance.
You have a great understandingof marketing.
You have a great product You'resolving.
Now you've solved a problemthat you personally were
experiencing with routine.
I want you to talk to ouraudience now.
I want you to talk to thatperson that you just described
(23:50):
some of the conditions ofcortisol and I like how you
framed the story, like at onepoint in time you could do these
things.
You could run around the block.
You know 15 times.
You know on four hours of sleepand drinking, and let's just
say and.
But now that's changed.
You're going through a lifechange.
There is a life change thatdoes happen and you know a lot
(24:10):
of people understand, like thegrowth spurt.
You know, when you're ateenager, you're becoming an
adult.
When you're a teenager andyou're becoming an adult.
But there's another challengethat happens 20s to your 30s,
probably in your 30s to your mid30s, where it starts to really
you know there's some thingsgoing on, but I don't think
there's a lot of goodinformation around it.
But I think you've discoveredthat.
(24:30):
But I want you to talk to thatperson that's now just starting
to say, hey, something'sdifferent.
Speaker 2 (24:40):
Yeah, I mean I always recommend that if something's
different, if you'reexperiencing any one of the
symptoms I talked about, tryingto understand your cortisol
levels is a great place to start.
It's one of the major hormones.
So if you're a female dealingwith like sex hormone issues,
like the estrogen andprogesterone, or you're a male
dealing with similar hormoneissues, a lot of those can
actually stem to a deeper root,which is in cortisol and or
insulin and blood sugar.
(25:01):
So, looking at your cortisollevels so what does your stress
look like?
And looking at your blood sugar, what does your metabolic
health look like are the twoplaces that I would start.
The cortisol testing is a greatway to do that.
We do have an at-home cortisoltest that you can do, but
there's other opportunities forthat.
If that's not something, that'seither accessible whether it's
(25:23):
not something you want to do orfinancially it's not accessible.
I would also just like look atthe symptoms, because trying to
figure out natural stressmanagement techniques is not
going to hurt you.
So start to learn.
All right, what are some ofthese simple things that I can
do to start my day?
For example, I drink 40 ouncesof water with electrolytes
before I have my coffee, becausewhen you wake up your body's
(25:43):
the most dehydrated it is.
That's a physical stressor, sothat's an easy five-minute just
add that to my day solution andthere's a lot of things across
nutrition or how you're workingout, et cetera that you can
start to implement.
And then the other thing is thisconcept of metabolic health,
which basically just meansfiguring out if your blood sugar
is stable, if you'remetabolically healthy or if
(26:07):
you're trending towardspre-diabetic, which can cause
all sorts of other issues.
The best way, in my opinion, tounderstand the blood sugar is a
continuous glucose monitor or aCGM.
There's a bunch of companiesout there where you can just
order them and they'll ship themdirect to your house.
Wear them for a couple of weeksand you can understand how food
is affecting your body and ifthat's kind of an underlying
(26:29):
cause of some of these symptomsthat you're dealing with.
Another thing is sleep.
But glucose and cortisol impactsleep, so if those are
problematic you could be havingtrouble sleeping.
If you don't have either ofthose and you're having trouble
sleeping, fixing sleep can fix alot too.
Speaker 1 (26:45):
Good sleep.
That sounds like a winner forme, for certain.
Now let's say let's continue onthis customer journey, the
customer experience Someonewho's now tuning into this
podcast or listening to you andthey're like, okay, I see that
there might be something there.
What is the next step?
(27:05):
You know how do they to acquirethe product?
Do they get a sample first.
Talk to them about what theyshould do next.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
Yeah, so if you want to get access to our products or
try them, you can find us onAmazon Prime two day shipping.
There are 10 packs there thatare fairly affordable.
And then we also do offersample packs on our site, so you
can get a free sample withpurchase right now, and our site
is R-O-O-T-I-N-E dot C-O andwe'll do various specials around
samples as well, and, of course, you can purchase them online.
(27:35):
And then we're also coming soonto more retailers, as we
continue to roll out the retailchannel.
Speaker 1 (27:42):
Now it sounds like there's a variety there.
You said 10 packs, so there'spacks for different symptoms.
Talk to me a little bit moreabout that.
Speaker 2 (27:50):
Yeah, so there's a stress, a sleep or a focus, and
we have them in two differentsizes, so you can get all each
of those in either a 10 pack or24 count 24 pack, depending on
the size that you want topurchase how you felt about this
(28:21):
experience of being interviewedby me, getting an understanding
of what this was about andbeing on the platform being able
to tell your story.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
Just tell us a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (28:30):
I love the interview.
I've done a lot of these andthis is a great one.
It's always great to talk topeople who know what they're
doing, and it's clear you're agreat host and you've done this
many times before I love it.
Speaker 1 (28:40):
I love it.
I don't always get to talk toguests like you.
I talked to a lot of greatguests, but everybody is unique
in what they do and how they doit and what motivates them.
I'm intrigued by your storybecause you can either sit in
certain situations and blamesome external circumstance
instead of like you know what,what can I do to solve this
(29:03):
problem?
And use some critical thinkingand use some tools at your
disposal to begin to come upwith solutions instead of more
problems or excuses.
That's what I like about yourbrand.
Your brand to me speaks volumes.
I think you've spoken volumesduring this show.
(29:24):
I cannot wait for the audienceto really interact with
everything we just talked aboutand get them a chance to try
your product.
So, before I let you go, tellthem again how to get a hold of
Routine.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I let you go tell them again how to get a hold of
Routine.
You can check out our websiteat Routine R-O-O-T-I-N-E dot co.
You can find us on social atRoutine underscore co.
And, of course, you can find uson Amazon.
And then, to learn more aboutme, I'm on Instagram at Rachel
S-O-P Sanders, and you can findmy website way to sign up for my
newsletter and all the thingsthat I'm doing directly through
my link in my bio and myInstagram.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Wow, and that is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful,
and I invite your entireaudience to check out all the
different episodes on FollowBrand.
We've got close to 200 of them.
This is a knowledge share.
This is a library ofinformation for everybody to get
better at what they do.
There's many, many, manydifferent segments.
I would say I put them in theseason, so there's executive
(30:22):
presence, there's personalbranding, there's brand mastery,
there's career and businessdevelopment, there's technology,
information and financialempowerment, so you can start to
get a better understanding, notjust for me, but from the
people who have lived it, justlike Rachel is living her
experience.
This has been wonderful.
Thank you again for being onthe show.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Welcome.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.