Creating an herbal nutraceuticals brand for women’s health – Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Hey there entrepreneurs My name is Sushant and welcome to Trep talks. This is the show where I interview successful ecommerce entrepreneurs, business executives and thought leaders and ask them questions about their business story and also dive deep into some of the strategies and tactics that they have used to start and grow their businesses. And today, I’m really excited to welcome Maddy miles to the show. Mary is the founder of Peace, Love hormones, which is a company that produces herbal nutraceuticals to support women’s menstrual health. Other product offerings include a menstrual health app, a podcast and ebooks. And today I’m going to ask Mary a few questions about her entrepreneur journey, and some of the strategies and tactics that she has used to start and grow her business. So thank you so much for joining me today.

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

Eddie, of course, thank you for having me. This is a nice change of pace. Usually, I’m on health and wellness focused podcast channels, which I love, obviously, I’m in that space. But I have yet to be until right now I have yet to be on a more like business focused entrepreneur focused podcast. So thank you so much for having me. I’m really excited to talk about that side of what I do on a daily basis.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Yeah, I mean, you’re definitely you’re definitely an entrepreneur and business owner, and I don’t know how you describe yourself, but you’re very, very curious to know about your company. I mean, as a male, I’m not too familiar with this defense of products. So maybe you can explain a little bit about what your product is what actually is herbal nutraceuticals? And how is it helping women?

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

Yeah, and thank you for having me for that reason, too, right. I think, you know, more often than not, we think like, oh, this is a a woman’s issue when it comes to women’s health and menstrual health, so we’re just gonna leave it to them. And I think that’s a huge part of the issue, right, and like, it fuels the taboo and the stigma around it all. So having men be a part of the conversation is really, really massive. Anyone who’s followed me on social media or you know, listens to my own podcast knows that men are very, very much so part of the equation. So anyway, thank you for you know, for not being like afraid of this topic. And you would, you would, you’d be surprised at how many men are still very uncomfortable. And even women as well, very uncomfortable talking about something that is a huge part of us. It makes us who we are, it’s innate. And it’s how all of us come to be right. Like women need to have menstrual cycles, they need to ovulate, they need to get pregnant, in order for all of us, regardless of your gender, or your gender identity. All of us are here because of women in our cycle. So my business came to be I’m obviously I’m a born female, I have all the female reproductive parts identify as a woman, I really struggled with my health ever since I was about eight years old, very anxious kid, I had sleeping issues, I was diagnosis, insomnia, I had anorexia, I had just like a bunch of diagnoses thrown at me from a very, very young age. So to a certain extent, medicine and health and wellness have always been a really, really vital forefront, piece of my life. And while everyone was going to school or you know, party, not that I didn’t party when I was younger, but I was honestly for the most part, either in a hospital bed, or I was in some some sort of inpatient, or outpatient partial hospitalization program. So that was my you know, those were my like, early, younger years, my teen years. And it wasn’t the last time that I was actually hospitalized. And I was in a hospital bed, I was hooked up to a feeding tube that I approached my parents and I said, Hey, I get it, I see that I’m really sick. And that all of these things that I want to do with my life, go to college, start a business, fall in love, have children, you know, travel the world, all of these things, I will not be able to if I’m sick, however, what we’ve been doing up until this point, which has been the very the conventional way of healing, and we were in and out through like the conventional medical system, it just wasn’t working, you know, like I and their eyes in the conventional medical model. I was recovered if I was a certain weight, especially with an eating disorder, everything was based off weight and the BMI and they never really addressed any of the imbalances going on within my body. They never addressed the root causes of why I was so anxious why I was experiencing panic attacks why I wasn’t sleeping, why I you know, was so anxious ridden that I couldn’t even eat a meal, you know, so no one ever addressed that and said it was just feeding tubes and shoving, you know, fake food down my throat and I gained enough weight and I’ve relapsed right after I got out of whatever program, you know, we went through. And so that was when we all all three of us went back to the gym I’m bored, we found this integrative medicine clinic in Chicago. That’s where I’m from originally. And we found this integrative medicine clinic, it was the first time that I was approached by medical professionals who weren’t prescribing medications to me. And they’re actually talking about nutrition and how the way that I eat really, really impacts, you know, they weren’t getting as technical with me at the time of, you know, we did down the line, but essentially, they’re just like, you’ll feel happier, calmer, you’ll sleep better, all these things, if we just target nutrition first, that’s one of the foundations of true health. So, you know, long, long story short years and years of healing, condensed and just to a few minute introduction, I Healed my body, I went back to school for Nutrition and Dietetics still realized it was very, you know, this like kind of black and white, stereotypical Western medical model. And so after graduation, undergrad, I went into an integrative health and medicine program specifically for women. I was really, really passionate about that I went to school also, to be a clinical herbalist herbs came into my life, around 18 years old, when I was suffering with Lyme, had contracted Lyme disease, was really feeling ill, I was also having a bunch of side effects from the Ambien and the Xanax that I was prescribed for my panic attacks and for my sleep issues at the time. So I, you know, from this integrative medicine clinic in Chicago, they had me on a bunch of different herbal protocols. And that’s when I became super passionate about herbs specifically. So, you know, I’m still learning and I, I’ve dedicated my life to just forever learning, right? Because, you know, women were left out of all medical and fitness and health research studies until 1993. And we still are very Miss represented in these research studies and in these trials, so, you know, it’s still a forever learning process, right? Like, I learned something new every single day. And it’s, I’m always sharing it, sharing it to my audience on social media, sharing it within my private wellness practice sharing it within my podcast. So it’s very important to me that, you know, I think it’s important that everyone is constantly learning, and they always have this curious nature. So with that, amidst all of this, I was stopping hormonal contraceptive, which I was on for six years total. And it was really the last leg to my personal healing journey. So I had done all of this tremendous work, you know, I had seen this integrative medicine practice in Chicago for four years at that point, we did some really monumental work with my health, but I still wasn’t sleeping the past I was still getting panic attacks. And I just thought, you know, the only thing that I’m taking right now that is unnatural, and not perhaps not suiting my body is this hormonal birth control pill every single day. And I really wonder how much that’s impacting you know, shutting off ovulation shutting down my brain over communication and shutting down my natural hormone production, which we know is needed for, you know, gut health, or your brain health, your neurotransmitter production, everything. It’s what makes us who we are either these amazing chemical messengers, I was like, well, let’s just do some research. Let’s see, you know, what the pill is really doing. So I just became totally, like obsessed, for lack of better terms with you know, just doing all this research, I couldn’t stop like listening and reading and talking to other people in the space talking to other women who I knew I was still an undergrad at the time. So talking to my friends who were on the IUD or on the pill, or whatever it was, and realizing that we all shared something in common, we all felt like shit. And we didn’t really feel like ourselves. So i That’s why I went into the women’s specific program. Everything that I’ve done to this day is very, very focused on women. You know, having an integrative medicine background, of course, I know how the body works in general, but we also know and I, I know specifically and I preach this way that you know, the female anatomy and the male anatomy are incredibly different. So I stay in my realm I stick with women for sure. However, I did dis release a second herbal product that can be used by men and women. Um, but yeah, I you know, I stopped hormonal birth control and I didn’t have any gynecologist or doctor or practitioner support me in it, it felt like a very scary world. So I was like, I’m just going to become my own and I’m in school I’m doing this all to ultimately heal myself and realizing that you know, so many other women and men traitors, they need me, they need this knowledge. So I did like a total 360 With my social media, which at the time was like just a health and wellness blog. You know, I was posting about delicious recipes and it was travel is kind of just like, I don’t like the word influencer, but um, I think it’s got a weird rep now, but essentially a guy was an influencer and So I did like a total 360 With my Instagram page, and all social media and is like we are talking about a woman’s health, about menstrual health, how to safely come up with hormonal contraceptive, why you should consider coming up with hormonal contraceptive natural ways of preventing pregnancy, all of the things right? Like, this is what we cover. And I had started a podcast and I at the end of every podcast, I would say, until next time, peace love hormones. And so my brand designer who listened to every single one of my podcast episodes, we know while we’re trying to decide, like, what should we call my business. And she was like, You should call it piece of hormones, because you always say it, and I first actually hated it. I was like, that’s, I don’t think I like that. And then I slept on it for a few days. And I was like, You know what? I really do like that. I think it’s fun. It’s funky and quirky. But it also like, describes what who we are, you know? And yeah, so I have two herbal products right now. One, my first one sued. I started off ordering 100 units of soup, and I thought I was gonna be able to package up everything myself, I was really scared. I was like, I don’t think, you know, this is going to be successful. I mean, this was an herbal remedy that I picked up and started using when I was healing after hormonal contraceptive because there are horror stories out there. You know, people say like, well, if you stop, you’re gonna get, you’re gonna gain weight, you’re going to get hormonal acne, you’re all of these things, right? And I was like, well, I already feel like shit on the pill. So I’m just going to try and hop off and hopefully that actually helped me out. So um, I, you know, I turned to herbs because I’ve, I’ve turned to herbs so many times throughout my healing journey. And I was like, I’m going to go back to herbs and, you know, women, specifically, herbs are the source truly the source of health and medicine, like all the, you know, OTC medications and everything that we have today, they stem from herbs and how these plants work in the plant constituents. So I knew that they were really powerful. I had seen it myself and I had seen it in studies. So I turned back to herbs. And I didn’t have any of those, you know, really unfavorable post birth control syndrome symptoms, I got my flow back relatively quickly. And I just wanted to share that with people. So I spent a year and a half formulating and testing and working with a team of other herbalist and naturopath doctors across the whole board, right, there’s a huge team of us working on this, I was able to get that finished a little bit over a year, started selling it last July, like I said, ordered 100 units planned on packaging of everything outside of my own apartment. And very quickly, obviously sold out. And I was so surprised it was only 100 unit, but I it felt like a lot to me. And I was like, already sold out. And like I’m you know, I can’t package everything up myself, it’s taking up a lot of time. So very quickly, it’s actually going to be a year in about four days. So July 9 will be exactly your selling sooth. And our most previous order that we just submitted was 10,000 units. So we went from 100 units to ordering 10,000 units within the matter of 11 to 12 months. So it’s been such a journey, to say the least, right? Like so many. So many ups and so many downs. But like, you know, if you really zoom in, yes, of course, there are downs, right? That’s what comes with owning a business that comes what comes with life, right. But there have been so many ups. And those ups are what I hold on to and what keeps me going and I have them every single day. So looking at it, you know, zoomed out versus zoomed in. It’s just all been this beautiful journey of extreme highs and connecting with women all over the world. And helping them even if they don’t, you know, consume, soothe, because maybe, you know, soothe isn’t for everyone, right? Everyone is unique and bio individuality. So outside of just soothing my products, you know, people’s messages. To me, a lot of them make me cry because they’re just like, I finally feel like heard and understood. And I finally feel like I can get somewhere. I felt so sick for you know, so many years. And I listened to your podcast, and now I actually know what to do. So it’s like, those type of messages and that feedback that keeps me going every single day. And I’m just such a nerd like I you know, I love research. I love reading and I love learning. And I get kind of bored if I’m not learning so, you know, it’s just the right space for me to be in and being a woman being someone with a menstrual cycle being someone who’s struggled with her health for so, so, so long. It really hits home to me. So that is how Peace Love hormones came to be it’s only been a year and we just we just are getting in our second product, which is a bitters herbal formula. And it helps with digestion and detoxification, and you’re supposed to take it before meals. So it’s an ancient tradition that we’ve really lost. In today’s world, we don’t really have a lot of bitter foods, especially over in the States. I mean, the most bitter food that people usually consume his coffee, but then they’re adding sugar and cream to it, so you lose that bitter effect from it. And bitters are, it’s a really important part to have of our, of the way that we eat right, our diet, and we have a lot of sweet foods, we have spicy foods, some sour, not so much sour, but we’ve really lost bitter. So I’m trying to bring back the ancient tradition of bitters. And that is something men can use to which everyone, all of my male friends, my brothers, my partner, everyone’s like, yes, there’s finally something we can use.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Yeah, I mean, I’m a big coffee drinker black coffee. So I’m, I’m thinking, let me ask you this. So your target market for the for the product to integrally Gremlin, or, you know, people who are who wants to get off of birth control pills? And then this will help them to the transition? How do you promote that message? And like, what is the is the message that you know, come off the pills and use some of the alternate contraceptive methods? Like, how do you how do you help these women get off the pill? And only specific kinds of women who are actually having are some symptoms or some issues? Or is it like is your main message you know, that nobody should be using the pill? And, you know, something else?

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

Yeah, I’m happy that you asked that. So my, when it comes to, there’s so many great questions in that and I’ll try to dissect one at a time. But when it comes to like my stance and my message on the pill and as as a brand piece of hormones, we don’t shame anyone for being on hormonal contraceptive. So we don’t shame but we are pro education. And sadly, it’s just a matter of fact, that majority of us an alarmingly high amount, 80% or more, go into the doctor’s office, and we’re prescribed the pill for anything and everything underneath the sun. So whether it’s, you know, hormonal acne, or perhaps you have received a PCOS, diagnosis, endometriosis, you know, something as extreme as that and something as small and as normal for a teen girl of like having some breakouts, the pill is always the answer. So that’s my first problem with the pill in the second one. And my second issue with the pill is that we’re not educated on how it impacts us. On a physiological and neurological level. I mean, it shrinks our brain, it depletes us of essential nutrients, it impacts our livers ability to detoxify, it really deteriorates our gut health, which is our gut is, you know, some say it’s our first brain. And because it is the first to be developed when we’re a little embryo, and it’s very vital, it’s vital for hormone metabolism, it’s really crucial for our neurotransmitter production. So everything is interrelated, right? Like, you know, I hope that everyone can throw up that notion that like the mind and the body aren’t connected, everything is constantly communicating to each other every single second of every minute, of every hour of every day, etc. So to be prescribed a medication, any medication, whether it is hormonal contraceptive, or you name it, and not be educated on what it’s doing to you and possible side effects is, I think, just so incredibly wrong. I truly see it as a crime because many women including myself, really, really struggle from it. And some women have died, some moon have literally died from being on hormonal contraceptive. And, you know, these products are still on the market. And I mean, finally, they, you know, included like a pamphlet of all the potential side effects, but no one reads those and it’s literally this big, like, this big no one reads them. And it should be something you know, just like how cigarettes have it on the outside of their package, it should have it outside of the package like this can kill you because it truly can and everyone needs to weigh out their pros and cons. Now also a third thing is, you know, a part of being pro education is there is a major issue with our sex education in the United States, only about 18 states are legally require that the sex education within schools be medically accurate. So that’s a huge issue right there too, right? Like young girls and boys are not properly learning about their bodies about how conception work. And the, you know, the responsibility of preventing pregnancy and also getting pregnant when a couple is ready to get pregnant and always falls on the woman. And that is also an issue that I want to address as well. Because, you know, as a part of my education, I love seeing people’s reactions when they find this out. But women aren’t fertile every single day. So that’s a huge part of, you know, the education and teaching you about your, your cycle. And you know, specifically about fertility awareness based methods, because it’s all about tracking your daily biomarkers. And pinpointing when you’re exactly fertile, you only ovulate once per cycle, in those five or so days before you ovulate. You know, everything is changing within your your environment, your vaginal environment, that it can actually keep sperm alive. Hence why there’s a window where you can conceive, but outside of that window, it’s literally impossible. It’s not possible to get pregnant, you can’t get pregnant, there’s no egg, right. Um, so anyway, that being said, I’m very passionate about education and so education on like alternatives to the pill education on, you know, what the pill does to fertility awareness based methods, specifically, the symptom, thermal method, all of these things are provided pretty much daily via our podcasts via our social media. Now, soothe soothe is more so for I don’t recommend that anyone takes it when they’re on hormonal contraceptive, which I know a lot of people are bummed about because like I mentioned before, many women who are on the pill or on the IUD feel like absolute crap, you know, they have a ton of side effects. And I usually, I mean, of course, everyone can do what they choose to do, I do not, you know, put on my on our website, like you can take this on hormonal contraceptive. And I wouldn’t put one of my patients that I work one on one with, because some of the herbs can actually worsen the efficacy of hormonal contraceptive, that’s how powerful the herbs are. So that’s why we usually say, you know, wait until you’re you come off the pill. And when you come off the pelvis is something really great to start, because there’s some really great liver supportive herbs in there. So it will aid your liver in detoxifying. So packaging up those synthetic hormones and detoxifying them, getting them out of your body out of your bloodstream. It’ll also help to regulate your cycle to bring it back to reestablish that brain over communication. So we say to do it, you know, start taking suits, after hormonal contraceptive. But I mean, I, we have so many customers and subscribers at this point, I’m sure there are I think there are a few who maybe are on hormonal contraceptive and they love it because it helps them mitigate a lot of the symptoms that they’re feeling from hormonal contraceptive. But again, we definitely we don’t advocate for that, because it can decrease the efficacy of your pill, or whatever hormonal contraceptive you’re taking, whether it’s an implant, it’s a shot, etc. So i Same with the IUD. That’s why we usually don’t if you’re on the copper IUD, you can take it and then the bitters which is about to release, I mean, that’s something anyone of any age, any gender, you know, whether you’re on hormonal contraceptive or not anyone can take that that’s just to support your digestive juices and digestion and absorption.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

So from a business perspective, can you share a little bit about you know, so you had, you know, found and the natural herbs and, you know, in your own journey useful and you wanted to bring that as, as products for other people? Also, can you share a little bit about, you know, how, you know, once you had that idea, how did you actually bring that idea to fruition? You know, you said first you created like, 100 bottles, and then everything sold out. So, so that was kind of like, you know, idea validation process for you. But can you share, like, was there a lot of investment from yourself in terms of, you know, getting the business started, or was it like, pretty straightforward, like, you know, process didn’t require a lot of investments

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

and so forth. Yeah, great question. So I’m actually 100% self funded. I, I’ve always just been my dad calls me a hustler. Ever, you know, even an undergrad, I was always I always had a job. I was always you know, I enjoy life. I have fun and I spend my money that I work hard for but I also am very cautious about like saving up. And I have always just worked and had jobs and internships and was very, was very money conscious. And so I actually am completely self funded. And you know, if I would have ordered 10,000 units a year ago, I probably would have needed some help. And luckily, you know, to be completely honest, my I’m the only person in my family that in the medicine, the health and wellness space, everyone else is an investment banker pretty much. So if I did need funding, it would stay internal. You know, not that there’s any, I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with, you know, investing getting investments right up. I just, you know, to be quite honest, I had no idea, I had no expectation that this would turn into this massive business, you know, I really just wanted to have something to call my own. And I thought that my private wellness practice seeing patients one on one, I thought that that would be my main thing. And I love writing books. And so I was like, you know, I have, I have my books, I have my private wellness practice, that’s really where I’ll make a living in and make an income. But hey, I love herbs, I make herbal tinctures and herbal remedies all the time, I may as well package them up. And you know, that way, like, I can have my patients take them or whatever it is, you know. So everything was complete, I only bought enough that I could afford, really, and it was it was a conservative, conservative amount at that. And then, you know, everything that I made from the business, I was funneling it back in to resources. So, you know, I again, because I didn’t feel like I needed to take a cut from the business. The first, you know, six months of it, every single dime that I was making was going into buying more product was, you know, buying supplies, so you know, our boxes, all of our shipping materials, and then also paying my team. So I have customer service, I have someone who runs our social media, and does a lot of like, design work for us. I have my bookkeepers and all my accountants, and then I have my actual warehouse who they’re shipping everything out for me. So everything was just going to pay for that. But I mean, we scaled so quickly, and we’ve run out of stock five times, that’s how much we have scaled this and have create such an amazing, following off of it and haven’t paid for one ad everything is through word of mouth. Everything’s through social media. And I’m

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

sorry, go ahead. Oh, no,

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

I was just gonna say because of that, I’ve been able to be 100% self funded, but if I did have some investment, you know, I would definitely, I would be able to, I mean, I’ve thought about this a lot. Like, you know, if I had an investment, like, you know, I could do X, Y and Z, and I’m like, But what would I really even do with it, because I have a small team and I prefer it that way, I don’t have a million people that I need to like, talk to and manage every single day, I have two full time employees. And then I have you know, my warehouse, I have my herbal manufacturers as well, which I don’t, you know, they they’re not peace, love hormones, employees, they’re their own entities, and we all work together. So you know, I love being virtual, I love having a small, very intimate team where we can get very close to each other. You know, I don’t, it gives me less work to do, because I didn’t want to, you know, spend four hours of my day managing other people. And so everyone’s very, you know, independent, hardworking. And so I’ve kind of thought of a Buddha even do with, you know, if I did get a big investment, and how would I even spend it and I was like, I really don’t know what I would spend it on. So that’s why I haven’t asked for it yet, because I just haven’t had a need, you know, we redid our website, it looks so beautiful and amazing. That was completely out of business funds. You know, ordering more product and ordering, you know, cool shipping supplies, I try to be very eco friendly. So, you know, I don’t want to have like this crazy unboxing experience where someone’s having to throw away like a baby trees worth of paper. Everything is very, you know, kind of virtual, you have like a really cute sleek insert card with a QR code. And that takes you to more information it takes you to our YouTube channel where we’re explaining how to use the product. So yeah, you know, which actually reminds me I need to create a new insert for our bidders. But I mean, other than that, you know, like, I haven’t needed investment. So it’s been very, it’s all internal. And it’s, you know, small. I mentioned before, we haven’t spent $1. On ads, we don’t run ads. Again, yeah,

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

I mean, I mean to that was I was very interested in do you think that because you haven’t spent any money on ads? Is it that you had already? No, you know, you mentioned that you were already an influencer before creating the business. Was it that you had already built your audience enough that all you had to do is simply you know, use that momentum and you push the product and they took off from there and then what are some of the things that you’re doing right now you know, if not paid to really bring new customers in your funnel is all driven by YouTube and Instagram, or is it coming? Also coming from like SEO? Can you share a little bit about your, you know, how you’re acquiring new customers and so forth?

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

Sure. So looking at our Google Analytics, you know, it’ll be interesting to see how things changed over like the next month or two, now that we have a brand new website that’s very SEO optimized. Whereas before, I mean, you know, SEO and just like those, you know, website, Google searches, we weren’t really popping up. So all of our all of our sales have come through Instagram, predominantly, we are on tick tock, and we’ve gone viral a handful of times on tick tock and have a great following on tick tock, but it’s different, it’s a very different it’s a different platform, you know, I would say it I have found for our brand, personally, it’s easier to go viral on Tiktok. But to acquire customers not so much. So with with people Peace, Love hormones, our business is a funnel. So I like to think of it as of course, there are those people who will find us on social media, and right away, they’ll just go and purchase the product. But usually it goes through a funnel of like, they see us on social media, they all of a sudden binge a bunch of our videos and be like, Oh my gosh, I love this. I’m learning so much. I never knew this about my own body before. And then they hop over to our podcast, and they listen to our podcast, and they see, okay. Maddie knows what she’s talking about. She knows what she’s talking about. She’s very passionate about this, I feel connected to her, which is always my goal. And then they decide is this product, you know, should I purchase this product, and then they buy the product, and they feel confident in it? Right? Right. Because, you know, for something like a phone case, which you know, I’m just picking like a random products. But you see those ads all the time, right of like these cool phone cases on Tik Tok or on Instagram, that is a very low risk purchase, you know, you’re spending maximum $20, it’s usually five to 20 bucks on a phone case, as long as you know, it’s the right size for your phone, it’s super low risk. However, when it comes to health and wellness, and especially herbal medicine, I would consider that a medium medium risk, right? Like, you want to make sure that it’s something that you need, that’s something that’s going to agree with your body and whatever you’re currently dealing with. So that’s why we have our social media, we have podcasts, because it’s going to take way more than just seeing one ad to know if this is right for you. So we have leveraged our incredible community. And you know, I have a minor in marketing. And same with every single person on my team, very into marketing. So we know, you know, we’d look at our analytics, we have a meeting every single week, and we look at social media and we go okay, what videos really did well, last week, and let’s dissect those videos. So, you know, oh, this video did really well. And we did a recipe or whatever it was right? We did a hormone healthy recipe. So let’s do that again this week, because that’s the type of content that our followers like. And you know, having. I have 50,000 followers on Instagram alone, with peace, love hormones account, because we have two accounts, it’s about 60,000 followers. Now, not all of those people have purchased from us, I wish that would be awesome to have 60,000 customers every single month, but we don’t So honestly, you know, we grow naturally, because we show up every single day, we’re consistent with our content. You know, we post podcast episodes, two to four times a month, like we’re consistent where we consistently show up in support. But you know, and so naturally, we’re growing, right? But it would be awesome. And this is what we focus on is like the current community that we have right now of 60,000 on Instagram, and 20,000 on tick tock so 80,000 people we have watching our content, how can we convert the current followers into customers? And how do we do that we show up we be consistent. So the same method for growing, right. It’s educating, it’s being ourselves being authentic, and also being relatable, because people are much more comfortable buying from a brand who they know who’s behind the brand, they know their story, they can relate to them, versus a faceless brand, who you’re like, I have no idea who this person is, I feel no connection to them. And I’ve been really open with peace, love hormones, the whole journey from the very start, you know, everyone saw videos and, and photos of me, you know, packaging up the orders myself out of out of my kitchen. And they now see us in a warehouse. So you know, we’ve always been super transparent with people. We’re transparent about where herbs come from, how they’re made, how they’re third party tested for purity and potency. Like everything is so transparent. And I’m really passionate about doing that because I I, as a consumer, myself, of food, of clothes of all these things, I only buy from brands like that as well. And so I wish there was more of them. Because there’s not a lot, it’s really hard to find. But that’s why I’m passionate about what I do. And that and that’s the funnel, right? Because, again, my product is so different than just buying a headband or a t shirt, or something that’s so low risk, you know, when it comes to your health and wellness, it’s something that deserves the time and attention. And you know, you should learn about it. But of course, we have those customers who just, they see one post of ours, they’re like, oh, they have something for PMS, and for, you know, hormonal acne, and that’s me, and I’m going to order this. And then they’re so amazed at how, you know, well, it works for them. But I still always hope at the end of the day, even those people who you know, don’t really care about the the purchase, and they right away despite it, I really hope that at the end of the day, they’re still listening to our podcast, and they’re learning how to eat for their health. They’re learning how to move their body for their cycle, and all of the things that are helping compasses. Right. So that was a long answer to your question.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Oh, yeah. No, that’s great. I, what I’m very curious to know about, I’m actually on your Instagram page, which looks really great. I think your personal Instagram and also your business, Instagram, can you share a little bit like, just the process of creating like this content? Of course, there’s a strategy here and your, you know, some sort of thought process around this. I would even be interested to know like, what kind of camera you use? And like, can you share, like your whole life? A little bit about your process of you know, I mean, even your personal Instagram or business, Instagram, how do you go about, like, even the people who are on your business, Instagram? Or they’re your friend? Or like, are you working with other like, models? How do you put this together?

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

Yeah, so our peace, love hormones Instagram account. The faces that you’ll see most on there are my own. And then autumn, who is our full time, she’s, she’s pretty much a, she’s like my right hand woman like she is me, but just in a different form. So we do a lot of the same stuff. She’s on there a lot, she manages the whole, I don’t even hop on that Instagram account. Very rarely do I. But she completely manages that. So everyone else though, all other faces that you see on their actual suit users. So they’re not just like random models that we hired. It’s like people who are already using sube. And they willingly send us a photo of themselves with food. Or maybe we ask them, like, hey, we see that you, you know, use suits for the last three months, like, do you want to send in a selfie or whatever it is? So, you know, I told autumn from the very start of her joining us, like, you know, we have the most incredible community. And all we have to do is ask, right so most of the time, we’re going to get tagged in stories, we’re going to be sent amazing reviews and, you know, photos and all these things. But also, you know, it doesn’t hurt to ask if someone’s you know, tagged us in a story when you’re messaging them, thank you so much protagonist in the story. Also send another message saying like, Hey, do you want to be featured on our page, so everything has been super authentic. You know, we do photo shoots, but again, it’s like, you know, very few women. I’ll invite Tinder all my friends here in Austin, Texas, and they take suit as well. So it’s very authentic, very real. As for my Instagram, I in terms of the camera that we use me to do their iPhones, I have the newest iPhone, I’m on the Apple upgrade program. So I always have the newest latest iPhone and the camera is you know, I realized that because I do have a legit Sony eight, a seven, three, a really nice camera. And I used to use it but you know, I was like I don’t need a perfectly beautiful curated Instagram feed because that’s not why people follow me. And people don’t follow me for you know, photography, they follow me to learn about their body and how to feel healthy. So I realized that I was still growing even though I didn’t have this beautifully curated feed and honestly when I gave up that desire to have like this perfect feed my I feel like my feet just looked better. My Instagram feed did like it just seemed more raw and real. And I mean just, you know, me as a person as well I do enjoy nature. I enjoy photography. I love all of that stuff. I just took pressure off of it. So instead of me like forcing myself to create, create create all the time. I just do it when it feels natural. And so I have a backlog of a lot of photos that I can use for cover photos. But honestly, I mean for anyone who like are even notice my work or who’s about to happen to my work and learn more about it. I plan and create content around certain times of my cycle. So right now I’m in what’s called the follicular phase. It’s, you know, with the way that our brain is structured and activated during this time, and our energy levels due to increase in hormones, I feel energized, I feel creative to create content. Now, when I’m at the later parts of my cycle, and I don’t feel that I don’t create because it feels too forced. So it’s this awesome, you know, the female body, it’s just so flippin incredible, but I optimize the parts of my cycle where I’m feeling extra creative. And like, I want to be in front of a camera and I create I batch create a bunch of content. So you know, I have a running list on my iPhone notes of different types of topics that I want to talk about. And then, you know, just being on Instagram, or Tiktok, or wherever you are, you notice like trending audios. So honestly, it’s become a game for me of like taking a trend in audio no matter what it is, and being like, how can I make this about women’s health and menstrual health and periods? So you know, for me, it just it comes like, it comes pretty naturally. I love creating content, I love being up on the air. Of course, I need breaks. You know, I don’t think anyone should be on social media all the time. But for the most part, it’s just super fun for me. Now, if it’s not fun for you, like a business owner, that’s totally okay. And you can hire someone to do that, right? I just My recommendation for any entrepreneurs who are like, we want a good social media presence, we want to be authentic and real. We want to show the founders and the team. But perhaps that founders like, I don’t want to be like creating content that like I don’t even know how to use it. I just say hire someone, right? Like hire someone to do it for you. Have them sit down with you once a week, or maybe it’s once a month and plan out your content calendar, like what are the major things that you want to educate on over the next four weeks, and come up together with different content that you can create around that, and then have them do the actual editing and the posting and the engagement? I do that off for myself. But that’s because I thoroughly enjoy it. And I love connecting with people. So it’s a learning process, right? Especially with these apps, they keep changing, like their technology and like how to edit things. So you’re always having to learn. But, you know, like I said, you hire out what is not your area of expertise, and you do what fuels you and what you know, gets you up out of bed in the morning. And then I truly believe that if you are doing something so in line with who you are as an individual, and you know, you are really really only doing what you are like a pro at then your business will thrive because it’s just going to be a real it’s not going to be forced.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Yeah. So since we’re running out of time, I’m going to move on to the rapid fire segment and in the segment, I’m going to ask you a few quick questions and you have to answer them maybe one word

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

or one sentence. Okay, sounds good.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

The first one is one book that you would recommend to entrepreneurs or business professionals in 2020 to

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

the four hour workweek

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

an innovative product or idea and the current ecommerce retail or tech landscape that you feel excited about.

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

Sorry, what was that one it cut out a little bit

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

innovative product or idea in current ecommerce retail or tech landscape

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

are homeopath I’ll do

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

a business or productivity tool or software that you would recommend or a productivity tool

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

I would say to time block no matter what gender you are just to time block out your day and to work less but work smarter so instead of you know working an eight hour day and every you know 30 minutes or picking up your phone and getting distracted by social media or whatever it is just time block and then if you are a woman or someone who has a menstrual cycle, optimizing the phases of your cycle for different things so like I had mentioned earlier I have so many podcast episodes on this as well so you can link those up for your listeners if they’re interested.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Startup or business in E commerce retailers that you think is currently doing great things

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

can you repeat that one more time please?

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Another another startup or a business that you think is doing great things?

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

I really love bye Braxley bands and I’m a little biased because I know the founders and I love them dearly but they use recycled plastic to make Very comfortable stretchy Apple watch bands, Fanny packs that they have EMF blocking technology in which is really important for overall health. And then they plan to treat for every every band sold. So that is honestly a really, it’s been a brand that I love their design, I love their creativity, and their authenticity. But I also really love and inspired how they give back to the planet. Because it can be really easy. And you see a bunch of CPG online businesses, and they’re just making a bunch of money and they’re not giving back in that is really sad to me. So I am all for the brands that are sustainable and eco friendly and giving back to Mother Earth

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

appear entrepreneur or business person whom you look up to or someone who inspires you.

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

Myself and 10 years, I guess I don’t know i It’s so funny that you know, this is podcast, I’m happy that we’re doing this. But I I’m happy because I really my head isn’t so much in the business side of things over here. It’s much more like the research and the development. So to be quite honest, I don’t read a whole lot of books or listen to podcast on like business and in growth and all of that I have a team member who does that for us. So you’ll have to ask me that the next time and I’ll probably have an answer for you.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Okay, and the last question, best business advice you ever received or you give to other entrepreneurs.

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

The hands down the best one that I ever received was to read that four hour workweek and to adopt those principles because I was overworking myself. And I started to lose that fire in that love that I had for what I did, because I it’s just natural, right? If you’re not sleeping, and if your health is sacrificing, because you can’t make the time to even make yourself a meal because you’re working so much, then it’s not worth it, at least not to me. So you know, to hire out people to help me with the work instead of being so stubborn and wanting to do it all myself, like hiring people to help me and working less and having a balance of like, okay, I’m going to again, put everything away except for this one thing that I need to do, and I’m going to work at it. instead of it taking four hours, it usually takes an hour with you really just focus on it. So that’s my biggest advice to people I think, you know, we live in this society where a lot of like the big, big entrepreneurs and very successful people, you know, are like, I never left my office, I slept underneath my desk, right. And I think that’s so unhealthy. And that is so not good for individuals, but as a society as a whole to have that in your mind. You know, I’m all about health first. And with health if you’re truly healthy and happy, whatever you want to do in terms of travel, family, personal life, business life, it’s all going to fall into place if you’re taking care of yourself first.

Sushant Misra of TrepTalks  

Perfect, that definitely makes sense. So that was those were all the questions that I had for today. I wish I had more time with you. But thank you so much again for sharing your story sharing your business strategies and tactics. So thank you again, Maddie for joining me today. Trep talks.

Maddie Miles of Peace. Love. Hormones.  

Thank you. Thank you