Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, I'm Carla Campos for the Entrepreneur Mom's Podcast. Connect
with us on Facebook at facebook dot com slash entrepreneur
Mom's CLOK. Today we have Liz Holland, CEO of Cozy
Products and a lifelong sensory processing disorder expert and survivor. Hey, Liz,
can you tell us more about sensory processing disorder and
(00:21):
what that is?
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Well, it's actually very new in the way that doctors
didn't know how to diagnose it, and they also even worse,
they didn't know how to treat it. There's no drugs,
so it basically means one or more or all of
your senses, including kind of sense of balance, sense of equilibrium.
You know, there's deeper senses than justified. Are super sensitive
(00:46):
or really ridiculously less sensitive, but mostly super sensitive. And
what happens is that it affects your nervous system so
much that you can shut down completely. You've heard a
fight or flight. There's a deeper level of trauma called
freeze where you just you know, I've experienced it many times.
It's kind of catatonic. Why can't I I'm thirsty, Why
(01:08):
can't I get my water? That's reasure so I've struggled
with this all my life, but I had a pretty
rough childhood and so they certainly didn't care about my differences.
And you know, my whole life, people said, what's your problem,
You're so piggy, want to just get over it, And
you know, I'd be in myself saying get over it.
(01:28):
Get over it, Liz. You can get over it, but
it's not like something you can get over. So in
discovering that, it was real for me and all of
my senses are super sensitive. And one of the results
is I have had headaches every day in my life,
my adult life. And so while the century is part
of that, it's not all of that, but that being
(01:52):
knocked down so much, having one hit you and then
the next and then the next. As soon as you're
triggered by one sense, the other ones are on high alert,
you know, and something that wouldn't necessarily trigger you get
triggered in Domino and Domino. So as people as adults
that are have been diagnosed or not diagnosed in the
(02:16):
last decade or struggled their whole life. You know, when
I was first diagnosed, I went online to figure out
what I could do, and everything was for children, absolutely everything,
and it was eight nine years ago, so it was like,
what do I do it. Fortunately, my therapist at the
time had SBD two and she's the one that diagnosed me,
(02:39):
and so I had help from her right away. But
you know, I discovered that we're kind of on our
own and that I also had been I was raised
by an inventor. I'm an industrial designer, product designer, won
a bunch of international design awards, and so I realized
that I'd been making things for myself my whole life,
(03:00):
kind of secretly because I had to handle it on
my own, not let other people know because the feedback
was so harsh and negative. But then it was like, wait,
I've been making all of these things. I should share
them with the world. And you know, originally it was
four people like me, So what first? And I figured
I wanted to go as wide as possible. You know,
(03:20):
being warm if it's one of those things that most
people can relate to, and a lot of women, especially
have issues of being cold and having trouble getting warm,
and so with this it was like I looked at
those products that made hundreds of millions of dollars, the
one that has sleeves, and you know, I'm like, it's
(03:41):
like wearing a rode backward. Why wouldn't you just put
a robe on? You know? And again, hands and feeder up.
And there was a Shark Time Top five where you
were supposed to tuck your knees into a big oversized
fight shirt, Like who can do that for any length
of time? And again, nobody's dressing the hands and feet
(04:01):
and the extremities. You get the extremities warm and then
the rest of you gets really warm. So I really
wanted this product to be the first one to help
people shine a light on spdyes, help people with SPD yes.
But we all have nervous systems, and we all get
triggered by a whole range of things. Come home from
a crappy day, maybe on road rage, you know whatever,
(04:24):
we're triggered. And I get triggered by all those things too.
It's not just the sensory stuff. But I found after
I've made this, it was like, yeah, in this thing,
and it's like an adult swattle. When was the last
time we were swaddling?
Speaker 1 (04:38):
It looks colored and warm.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
It has hand and feet pockets for the people can't
see the hand pockets have finger and thumb openings, so
you can hold almost anything, you know, not like food,
you know when I get it dirty. It's two sided,
so you have good fabric on inside and the outside
two sided at your palms, so the seams are all within,
and then it has a polar fleece lining behind it,
(05:03):
and then two more layers, so it's basically five layers
of the highest quality fleece out there. It's dense but
really soft, like I said, machine washable, and you know
it's just is destined to be your favorite blanket forever.
And so the kids that are bouncing off the walls
and you're let they desperately need a nap, just go
(05:25):
get in your cozy cozy all come and read to
you in a minute, and then you get there in
their fast sleep because you know it settles their nervous
system in the same way. But we will keep that
a secret from the kid if they know, it's just
amazing and love putting their hands and feet in their pockets.
You know that feels exciting and right to them. And
(05:47):
it also makes the best fort building material.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
It's multi functional. So tell me where did the idea
of a blanket aka fort come to.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Be as a designer. I've been very pissed, honestly at
really crappy designs selling by the hundreds of millions, and
I'm just like, can't people see that that's not going
to really work? And you know, it really work because
it doesn't extress the extremity, doesn't go around the shoulders,
(06:17):
the one that was the road backwards. Your shoulders are exposed,
and you know, if you're cold, you really want to
get warm. It's because it's such a universal experience. Everybody
can relate to the experience of being cold. Everybody can
relate to a time that they were so cold that
you know, they just like they're nervous, do nothing, can
(06:38):
relax because you're so cold. And because my range of
comfort is very, very narrow, I love the flexibility because
too hot is actually worse than too cold, because it's
harder to turn around, you know, like when you're super hot,
it's it's hard to come up with things. We don't
have air conditioning here in the Bay Area, California, because
(07:00):
with the fog is air conditioning. But you know, handful
of days a year it's over eighty and you're like, oh,
this is so hard.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
I'm in Florida, I'd be like, yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
Wanted to solve this problem. And these two are the
blankets to start. Cozy Rosy is the adult version and
it's Cozy throw and then like the emojiszz or dash thesez,
so we pronounced that as the cozy Rosies and then
the Cozy Cozys. So in the spring we'll have the
Cozy Gosy, which will have a waterproof one hundred percent
(07:35):
waterproof hood too, so you're warm from head to toe.
You could be in rainstorm completely dry from head to toe.
And because it's a rectangle, it makes the best picnic
minket ever because it's you think the grass is dry
enough and you sit on it, and then you get
the wet button. You're like, it wasn't dry enough. You
can stow your good your belongings in the pockets and
(07:58):
you know it's just lives in the back of your car.
You go to your kid's soccer match and it's warm
at the beginning, and cold is it?
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Yeah, because all the parents are in those folding chairs
and they're sitting there and it's like they don't want
to bring the big blankets from home. Grat cozy throw
would be perfect.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Yeah, the cozy Cozy Gozy. It rolls up and has elastic,
rolls up really easily handle and you just carry it.
And then we have a cozy tozy's coming too.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
What is that one?
Speaker 2 (08:28):
That one when you do it goes around the foot
of your bed all the way around with belt, connects
with belcrow sheet fabric all the way around, and then
there are two pockets, individual fleece pockets that you can
just put your feet in and out. If your feet
are hot, you rest on top of the one hundred
percent cotton really soft because that's what I need because
(08:50):
you don't want to touch this if you're too hot,
so there's a place to handle it on top, you know.
Or if your partner never gets full feet, you know,
man are like I'm fine, or vice versa. You know,
you can do your thing and they can do their
thing in and out. When your feet are warm enough
for me, I take them out in my sleep, you know,
I just intuitively know it to take it out in
(09:12):
my sleep. My daughters sleep all night with their in there.
But you have that room to move around and you're
not bringing wearing sock, kicking off the sock, you know,
when your feet are warm enough, and then finding the
sock somewhere in your bed next day.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
You know, indeed, indeed, And it sounds like the invention
came from lots of nights turning and turning and tossing.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
I invented on a night that I couldn't sleep because
my feet were too hot, and I'm lying there trying
to sleep, and I'm like, this is the problem that
needs to be solved, because I also can't get to
sleep on my feet are too cold. So you know,
that's when I first started the whole cozy line. It's
funny because that will probably be the last to launch.
(09:53):
Whoever gets want one of them will want all of them.
And I've had people I had a Kickstarter campaign earlier
this year and more than half ordered more than one.
We had, you know, half of those people order several
more than three or four. I've had one guy who
ordered three, then got his ordered two more, then ordered
(10:16):
two more after that, and he's like, everybody in my
family needs this, so because then they're.
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Gonna start fighting for them. Though, no, you get through
and you know they can pay for themselves. Really in
the winter, because you don't need the heat.
Speaker 2 (10:33):
On is high, you know, and energy prices that just
keep it on going up and up. So keep your
house a little bit cooler when everybody's sitting around watching
TV or whatever, and that makes a big difference. And
in your office if you work from home, you know,
I do it over my chair. I have it right there,
ready to go. And all of these practical applications are
(10:54):
just the best, and you keep on discovering more. I
even discover more and I invented the damnit. But like
different ways to use it. It's really it's really fun
and they're really exciting hearing from people how much it's
been a game changer for them and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
It definitely sounds like a versatile product. What's the price range.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
They're a little over one hundred. This one's one eighteen
and the cozy cozies want is ninety eight and so yeah,
they're not a cheap blanket. But they're made, like I said,
best quality fabric, really beautiful construction. It's not like typical
flea spanket you pick up for twenty bucks. It's something
that you know. The second that's the other thing that's
(11:37):
really nice to hear from people because it's so many
people are like, oh my god, it's so much better
than I even imagined. And I love that, you know,
it's even like what I I keep on being delighted
by it. Definitely will expand the color range where looking,
expanding kind of the texture on the outside one, so
(11:57):
all kinds of ideas.
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Yeah, I totally get ideas flowing like crazy as an
entrepreneur animal. So tell me, how does it being a
mom affect you.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
As an entrepreneur, you know, as an entreprenorial woman, you know,
and as a mom. I kind of discovered myself through
being a mom. As I said, I had a pretty
rough childhood, but the animal we always had two dogs
and two cats. I just hid at the back of
the house with the animals. And I feel like I
(12:28):
was raised by wolves, very raised by by animals because
they taught me so much about unconditional love. And I
was a dog parent before I was a human parent.
You know. I just decided very clearly to apply the
same unconditional love experience that I learned from the animals
and break the patterns of my parents. But I found
(12:49):
pretty instantly how capable I was, and by being a
mom there was a point where I was like, God,
you know, when it comes to decisions for her, it's
always seems so clear what the right path is because
it's the most loving path I can imagine, not just
for her, but for everybody involved. And I'm like, I
(13:09):
wish I could have clear decisions like that and the
rest of my life because it's always clearer for her.
And then I said, okay, well, if I fool myself
and say everything has something to do with her, then
my marriage, my business relationships, my friendships, everything does affect her,
because you know, if I step up who I am
(13:30):
to be the most loving person I can imagine, then
that affects her. Now she's in the other arm, actually
just momentarily, and she's thirty three and I have a
twenty four year old too.
Speaker 1 (13:42):
Oh I understand how that means.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Somebody told me that their full pre front full cortex
doesn't develop all the way until twenty five or twenty six,
and so they can't you know, you just have to
kind of wait that out. They think they know everything,
and you're like, okay, fine, live your lives. Go on
and then get a blanket, you're my house, get in
(14:05):
the you're always a mom. You're always the mom.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
And how did the process look like? I know you
said you have inventors in your family and you were
kind of learned from that. How did you do it
being a mom? I think that's what a lot of
the audience sometimes.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
Right, Well, it's it is. First, my dad died when
I was twenty, so I didn't get He held over
one hundred patents, and every night around the dinner table
we talked about what he did. But he I didn't
get to pick his brain later in life. And so,
but I was the only one in the family, the
youngest of four, to kind of go into something that
(14:47):
was connected, that was related to him, which was industrial design,
product design and so. But then I also became a
jewelry designer for years. So I've had many different career paths.
But along the industrial design path, I won a bunch
of my products, won a bunch of international industrial design
awards for Prince Tennis, and you know, it was the
(15:08):
best job ever because I'm an avid player, and you know,
getting designed tennis rackets that you know were innovative was
just the best. You know, when I'd go to China
and work with the factories different trips, working with bags
and things, designing like tennis bags, making sure women's bags
weren't just pink men's bags, and so all of that
(15:33):
gave me a whole understanding of from a you know,
idea to prototype to final product to production to marketing,
manufacturing first and then distribution, the whole life cycle. I
was involved in so many aspects of it.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
How did you go from working for a company to
becoming an entrepreneur?
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Only the diagnosis was a big part, because it's like,
this is real, and you know, even in the materials
that you would find where they did mention adult SPD,
they were like, oh, it's very rare in adults, and
if adults have it, then they have likely come up
with solutions. And I'm like, no, we have it, No, no,
(16:22):
and belittled for our entire life and you know, no,
we need some help too, you know, maybe even more
so I love the children, or you know, we're understanding
it and children. It's important, but there are parts of
it that are passed down genetically most likely. But so
if your kids having it, you probably have some level yourself.
(16:45):
So you're dancing between being there for them and understanding it.
In yourself and claiming it for yourself because most people
are just kind of hiding it to their friends and family.
And I'm going to come over, and we went into
the kitchen barbecue. She's like, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
I just can't eat other people's foods. I just can't.
(17:07):
It's not that I don't want to. I was like, boy,
did you come to the right house? First of all,
that's fine, I totally get it. And then I got
to teach her some things. This is obviously a really
big thing for her, and in her family's culture, it
was all around food and stuff and they just put
her down all the time. And it's like, no, we
need help to understand this and to claim it. And
(17:31):
you know, the understanding for me, the best thing, the
first top tier thing to do, is to not experience
the trigger in the first place, so you know your triggers,
Like I don't walk out of the house without a
hat even if it's foggy, because who knows it I
might need the hat, and it's a big deal if
the sun comes out and I don't have a hat,
(17:52):
So you know, stop it before it happens and understand
the different triggers. I cut all the tags out of
clothes a second I get home. I really honestly think
I do about one hundred things a day to live
in this very unrelenting body. It's not but, but it's
(18:12):
given me a skill set that recognizes stuff early and
can fix it. You know, little I had a necklace
on I talked about. It was just a little gold
chain with a pendant, tiny little neckness, and the class
was just pickling me, and I kept on kind of
it's fine, let's get over it. And I was like, oh, yeah,
(18:33):
there's that voice that says, I'm not supposed to be
experiencing my experience. Take the damn necklace off, because if
I don't, then there's something else, and then there's something else,
and things can come in the door. I had to
open a package one day when I had a massive headache.
I was already triggered in other ways, open it up,
wafting toxic smell, and it just knocked me off my
(18:57):
feet and I couldn't function for full twenty four hour.
And so you know that happens. I can't get mad
of myself for that. I have to you know, if
I had bought things earlier that day, maybe I was
out in the world, which is a little more challenging
than home. So the skill set of noticing your nervous system,
that's my request of the world that people that have these,
(19:20):
whether you have SPD or not, notice your nervous system.
Notice when it's amped and sometime when it's amped, wrap
yourself up and notice the difference. If it helps, awesome,
You have a tool that will help you with it's
that's great. But there's other tools. But you know, that's
what a lot of people do. Check their nervous system.
(19:40):
Most people first don't check, don't have any clue. If
they do check in with it, they don't think it
is what it is. They can't do anything about it.
And my request is like, what if you could, what
if you could bring your nervous system down in a
consistent way. Is that good for you? Of course it's
good for you. Is it good for your family? Of
course it's good. Is it good for the world, your community?
(20:03):
Are you If you're able to function better because you
did something about your nervous system, then yay, we all
can kind of get to the things we're supposed to
be doing in this life. The things that are positive
to you, that you soak up a little bit higher,
maybe you can have even more of them. And then
the negative has become really clear, and it's like, well,
(20:24):
can we limit the amount of focus, time, energy, love
that we give to those negative things and gently kind
of push them out, because if you push them away hard,
I finally come back meaner. So increase in any way
you can the things that bring you joy. When I
first started this vision, I was at the lowest point
(20:45):
of my life. My younger daughter was like, well, why
there are things going to get better? And she was
in high school at the time. When I'm like, I
don't know, sweetie, I don't know, but I do know
they will and I know we will get there, and
we through this process we have I've loved each other fiercely,
been there for each other, and we will have that
when we get to the end of the stark tunnel
(21:06):
and I'm like, at least no one has cancer, no
one's been shot. You know, there are were We don't
live in a war zone, there are worse things out there.
Let's just keep on loving each other fiercely. And then
literally two weeks later, my older daughter gets diagnosed with cancer.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I'm sorry to hear.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
She just had her eleven year anniversary. We got to
ten years and now just eleven years. So you know,
but it's like at that point, that's a that's a
negative that I cannot push away. I have to deal
with that, and so yeah, so you know, it got
me really skilled at pushing the way the other negatives,
(21:42):
like the.
Speaker 1 (21:42):
Teaching voice for other women. Now, so that's amazing. I mean,
I love that. How can people find you? What's your website?
What are you on social media? Your handles?
Speaker 2 (21:50):
My website is cozies dot com, cozyzzz dot com, and
love Cozy's is most of them. The TikTok i had
closed to a million views.