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The guy in front of me in the pharmacy line is halfway through an incredibly detailed 17-minute story about his gout. A story likely more painful than the gout itself. Next time, save yourself the pain and let Amazon pharmacy deliver your meds right to your door. Amazon Pharmacy, health care just got less painful. Good morning and welcome to essential ingredients. This morning, I have the distinct pleasure of having Meredith with me. She is the founder and CEO of the Peachy Spoon. Welcome, Meredith. Thanks for having me. I'm so glad to chat with you today. Oh, me too. I'm really excited to learn a little bit more about the Peachy Spoon, what inspired it and what you're working on. But before we dig deeper into this and we get in all sorts of topics to explore, I'd love for you just to let our community know, those that are watching and listening, what the Peachy Spoon is. So, it started out just, I was really passionate. I'm really passionate about blood sugar balance. I've had some blood sugar issues in my whole life. So I just, it started as an Instagram, like a recipe blog in 2019. I was like, I'm just going to start, go for it and start an Instagram and start sharing these movies. It made me feel really good and these recipes that have helped yield my body. But the behind like calling it the Peachy Spoon literally, I just thought it sounded cheerful and southern and I'm in the south and nobody had it on Instagram yet. So there's not a lot of like meaning behind it. It just sounded fun and not like a diet or anything like that. So I just grabbed it and it's evolved into a business, like it was a coaching business and then now I have a product and it's still a recipe blog too, but that's kind of what the Peachy Spoon is right now. So initially, you really just creating content to share with people what was working for you as it related to blood sugar. Yes. So over time, it became less of a hobby and more of a functioning business. Yes. Absolutely, connect with people, support them, coach them and offer them a product based on your experience. Yes. That's right. Wow. Okay. And I have two cookbooks now too. So yeah, so it's turned into I just really am passionate about simplifying nutrition and helping others because I think, you know, I think blood sugar is an issue for like a lot of Americans. And I don't think you realize it. Like I didn't realize it because I was a healthy weight and a healthy, but I had hypoglycemia and inflin resistance and I just didn't know. And so I feel like you can't live out your best life and fulfill your passions and be a good spouse or mom or dad or whatever and worker if you don't feel good. So yes, I'm super passionate about helping others. Totally agree. I mean, if you don't feel good, you can't really function in the same way, right? You're tired or whatever it is, you're not terribly motivated. Yeah. And your focus is really that you want to feel better or that you don't feel well. It's not even that sometimes that you want to feel better, that you just feel like that's going to happen. But in that moment, you're just focused on the fact that I don't feel a lot. I can't do anything. Yeah. It's like your parents. So let's go back a minute. Let's just start with what's your background in? So I was my first job, like after school was I was a personal trainer. And then I got married and had kids really, you know, back to back and that kind of thing. And so this like starting the peachy spoon and my, the holistic nutrition coaching and all of that and the recipe blog, but kind of like a second season of life. I just, I just, my journey with my food and healing my insulin resistance and hypoglycemia. It just kind of turned, I just had this passion and I know knew I wanted to do something. And so, and I knew I wasn't the gym. I didn't want to be at the gym counting reps anymore. That wasn't really like a passion. And so that's when I started the Instagram. So. Wow. Yeah. Well, I think that's amazing. And I'm curious, you know, so do you look at food as the source that helped you cure some of these issues, whether it was insulin or otherwise that you're talking about? I really do. And I mean, I feel like food is medicine, but for me, I, you know, did whole 30 in paleo. So like the type of food for me wasn't the missing link because when I was eating, you know, for over a year, eating paleo, that was when I got diagnosed with insulin resistance. So I think, you know, blood sugar is super individual, but for me, I create recipes that are refined sugar free and usually unrefined sugar free too, because I can't do like maple syrups and honeys and those types of things much because I still spike my blood sugar. I wear glucose monitor off and on all the time. I've worn one for years and I've tested on our recipes with one. And so that's just one of those things where for me, it just depends, it's the food balance and the food quality. And I'm also passionate about like your relationship with food and, you know, like wellness without obsession. And that's individual too. So I'm not about like fear mongering, but of course, like whole foods are best and all of that stuff. Anyway, but that's kind of on your kick that's off. You kicked off your Instagram and your blog and you started sharing your recipes at what moment did it turn from a hobby into a full fledged business? What with that moment like for you? And when you realize, like, what was that aha moment? Yeah, I don't think I've still wrapped my brain around it. Like I'm still like, wait a minute, do I own a business? This is happening, you know, like, so I don't, I don't know if there was like a moment, but it definitely has evolved because for a while there, I was doing one to one nutrition coaching for a while, but I got overwhelmed with that and couldn't keep up because I'm a little bit of an introvert. So that was hard for me. And so I made Well Made Academy, which is an online course. So that felt business-ish. But now that I have like my protein powder and I have a product, I feel like it's another step in that. Okay, this is like really a business and I have a product and it just feels, it's really fun. I've never, I'm not really a go-getter like that, I can't believe I'm out of business but it's fun. Well, right? Sometimes you're like, is this really me? Is this really happening? There's a bit of that sort of like incredulous kind of checking in with yourself, right? To be like, okay, what am I really doing here? But you went from being a trainer to being a business owner, not to say that as a trainer you can't be a business owner because you can run your own business and have many clients. But now in addition to selling a service, you're also selling a book. You also wrote a book and you're also selling product. So walk me through that journey because there must have been a lot of learning on the job that you have to do to be able to create a product, test a product, sample a product, work with suppliers, all sorts of things and regulations and it doesn't sound like, you know, it's not like you came from that world. So what we're trying to jump into that? Definitely, yeah, we're definitely learning as we go, I have my husband is working with me now too and so that's been great because I can't do it on my own. And I think that might be an aha moment where I'm like, okay, wow, we really own a business now because he's working with me because at first it was just a little side hustle and fun, you know, my Instagram. But yeah, so my first book I self-published and then my second book I had a deal with the publisher. So I've done both of those like I feel like I just learned as I went with both of those. And then with the product, honestly, my husband's in sales and so he's more of like a people person and can talk to anybody, he knew I had on my heart that I wanted to have a protein powder because I love a protein supplement daily because I don't love me that much and I love how protein and how I feel. So anyway, he just would pick up the phone and call like he just, we just called manufacturers, we just have learned it's literally just learning as we go. And then like we found somebody that, you know, the bag designer and then she knew somebody that was in marketing and it's been like just evolving and learning as we go. But it's been great so far, but definitely, yes, just learning, you know, learning on this journey. I don't know a lot about it. Folks that might be interested in starting their own, you know, CPG product, if you will. Coming from your experience with no experience per se in this, what are maybe three things that you might recommend to them that they keep in mind or that they think about while they're doing this so that they could maybe feel more efficient because they have wisdom from you who's done it. I would just say make sure that your product is different and could stand out in the market because it's, you know, a lot of money. It's a big decision to do this kind of thing. And then also, yeah, just don't be rushed with it. I would say, I just think it's really important to have peace about the decision and make sure you know that you're moving in the right direction because it is like, once again, it's a bit, it's a lot and it's a big commitment and it's a lot that goes into it to selling and the website. There's just so many things that I didn't know. So I'm learning as I go, but I feel like it is a lot and it's a lot of work. So that would be something else too. I don't know about number three. Is there anything that you might say that as an introvert, you might recommend to other introverts that are starting a business that might be really helpful for them? Really have your boundaries with that kind of thing because I can get really overdone, overtired, you know, like hustling too much, but I think it's helped, especially like Instagram to me, like talking to my phone doesn't feel as overwhelming because it's like, it's just my phone. Nobody's talking back to me or making, you know? So that's helped. I think it really does help too to, you know, have a team to have some employees or, you know, somebody to run the business with you that is more of an extrovert so that y'all can bounce off of each other and balance that out because that's familiar with me with my husband. So absent your husband for folks that maybe are doing this on their own, are you, you're recommending, you know, to find a partner or somebody that maybe has the skillset you don't have? Is that kind of what I'm hearing from you? Yeah, because I think that can really help. It's just, it's a lot to do it all on your own and to have it on your shoulders just because it's emotional because you are passionate about it. But also at the same time, you know, like, just there's a lot on the line with all, you know, with being a business owner and pouring a lot of money into a product and the testing and all of that because there's, you know, we had to do R&D and go back and forth with samples and then, you know, it's just everything takes a lot longer than you expect. And so, so yes, talk to you a little bit about you developing this product. You know, it's your first time creating a product, who did you have to partner with to make sure that you could create a good protein powder that was unique and different to make it viral in the market? Yeah. So I was really, I really wanted it to be tested for impurities. So we had to find a manufacturer that would do testing or I can do, you know, I've done third-party testing just since it is something I eat every day. So I'm passionate about it. A lot of people in my community, my family, they eat it, approaching supplement daily. And so just making sure that I could do that third-party testing for the molds and heavy metals and any impurities and that kind of thing. So we did find a manufacturer for that. So that was one of the things. And then also just the quality standards of like premium ingredients and just making sure also that it tastes good, you know, I mean, so it was a lot back and forth, you know, I landed on Stevia, but I wanted to do alulose or monk fruit for the sweetener. So there was a lot of back and forth, but the monk fruit ended up having a weird odor with the vanilla. Like it was, you know, it's just, you just kind of learn as you go. You know, I was like, there's not a protein powder on the market with alulose. I thought that would be so fun and it just didn't work out. And so I'm happy the Stevia tastes really good and it's been, you know, so tested for so many years for safety. So yeah, I was quite a journey with all of that, but I just really wanted my product to stand out and be different and, you know, a hundred percent grass-fed way, twenty-five grams also because I'm in perimenopause now. And so for muscle health and all of that, I just wanted to simplify nourishment. Like where's a protein powder that's like all muscle building protein, you know, with that, the highest leucine, the amino acid leucine, 2.6 milligrams, I think, isn't it? And then also a lot of my recipes are baked goods and all protein powders aren't created equal like texture wise, like plant-based or beef protein or collagen, you know, some of those don't work great with baked goods. So I really wanted to have one that yields like that perfect, like cake texture and brownies and all of that. So there was a lot of factors going into the manufacturer and really going back and forth with the samples and finding one that was just perfect, but it worked out. We go back to what you had said about being perimenopause and being on a high protein diet, which, you know, I've had conversations with people about menopause and doctors. Did you speak to any doctors about nutrition and diet as it relates to perimenopause and what role did that play in your research and development? Really just with myself and then the holistic nutrition coaching I was doing all these years, I just feel like I learned a lot, just women in perimenopause and I'm going through menopause just with, you know, estrogen regulates our insulin, so it's really common to have insulin resistance along with menopause, so with those high protein blood sugar friendly recipes and meals, like my general plate structure I came up with just reversed all, you know, my insulin resistance and hypoglycemia and all that. So it can really be helpful and I, you know, just that protein forward diet just helps to make you feel satisfied too and just for that skeletal muscle health as we age and then also the more muscle we have, there's more room to store that glucose so you have more balanced blood sugar. So there's just so many benefits to our muscle health and making sure we get enough of those complete proteins every day and so that's kind of my why behind this supplement is that I wanted to just make it simplify so that we can easily hit our protein if we don't want to always eat eggs and, and meet every time we eat. Right. M&A, it's the ultimate high stakes game, biggest investment, biggest risk, but when you nail it, total game changer for your business. I'm Keith San Patel, host of the M&A Science Podcast where we cut through the noise and dive deep into what really makes M&A work. We're talking real conversations with top practitioners, no fluff, just hard hitting insights you can actually use. Stay ahead of the curve and learn what it really takes to close deals. Catch M&A Science on your favorite podcast app. Here's to the deal. So talk to me a little bit about the, the team that you've put together at the peachy spoon. Who just likes food? Okay, great. So it's me and my husband with, he's like the shipping department and doing all that with the protein, but I also have a registered dietitian on staff that's gone through, you know, all of my well-made academy, like my online course info and all of that, just because I wanted to make sure to check all the boxes just so that have this, all the knowledge to be correct with all the blood sugar and all that, because that can be more of like medical nutrition advice. And so I just want to make sure, you know, legally I'm doing all the right things. So talk to you about the well medical that you have there, that, that coaching or that online experience that people have. So just to clarify, you created this program. And then you brought on your dietitian to say, can you go through my program and make sure that I'm not missing anything, that it has everything, that it's valid so that you have her stamp of approval. So it's not just you who did the holistic nutrition counseling, but you also have a registered dietitian. So you've got two people with a little bit different background partnering or collaborating to make sure that those that are going through this product really understand why and how to do this. Am I correct? Yes, that's right. So well-made academy is my online course, it's self-paced, but it just goes through anything you would need to have healthy blood sugar and, you know, like the most thriving metabolism you can have an age and there's different modules. I just had all these pain points from the one to ones I did. So there's modules for if you have thyroid issues or if you're in pain, menopause or if you're pregnant in nursing, you know, like my general plate structure works for everything, but there's tweaks to it to make sure you're fully nourished. But yeah, I have my registered dietitian on staff that has gone through just to make sure all of it was just exactly the right info that I wanted to share to help others. And then also with my personal training background, you know, I go through exercises that we can do that are optimal for metabolism health and muscle health and aging and that can tweak to depending on hormone stressors, you know, like even intermittent fasting. There's modules for all of that and it's very individualized and you have lifetime access to it. So I'm really proud of that course. It's been great. Okay. So is it fair to say that basically you created these different programs based on your experience and your knowledge, your education, whether as a holistic nutritionist or as a trainer, but that you brought on this dietitian to give it the medical stamp of approval to make sure that you've dotted all your eyes and crossed your teeth so that as you developed this and the product, you were working in collaboration with somebody with a more traditional medical background. Yeah. In my second book, my new book, The Blood Sugar Bounce Cookbook that just came out, there's a lot of science in the front about insulin and blood sugar hacks and all of that. And so I wanted to make sure that all of that was approved by registered dietitian too. Okay. So as a business owner and somebody developing this, would you say that it was really important for you to be able to root yourself in medicine, surround yourself with those experts so that while you had insight that you wanted to share and experience, that you had that additional medical supports? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think just for peace of mind and legal stuff, you know, each state has different laws, but yeah, I just wanted to make sure that I was checking all the boxes and giving everybody great info. Because you can only go so far like, you know, I can explain what healed me and reverse me, but I also want it to be, you know, wellness is always individual. So I want it to make sure to cover all the bases to make sure that it can really help each person. So as you then, you know, started to hire your dietitian and craft this protein powder and develop your recipes, what were you hoping to achieve on a very large scale? I don't have huge like goals, I don't think, but in my mind, I just think about the pain point of helping one person, like helping somebody maybe that doesn't like to cook. All my recipes are easy. I don't like to cook either. I always think it's funny that I have to cook books, but like just somebody that can feed their family, but also keep their blood sugar stable and not be on a diet or fix their kids something different than their eating and just that pain point of easy breakfast with smoothies and that kind of stuff so that you're not having afternoon binges and carb crashes like I used to have. So just really, I'm just focused on helping just one person at a time. And I feel like if I'm making a difference with that, then I'm super thankful. You have any stories you can share from folks that you've helped by using your recipes or protein power and that you're able to share the impact of how, you know, and what happened for them as a result of changing their diet or incorporating your recipes. Oh, sure. Yeah, I get messages like daily, yeah, daily on Instagram of people just even like their lab work at the doctor, you know, six months in of eating more blood sugar friendly recipes, like everything cholesterol, blood sugar, I mean, blood pressure, all that stuff can be back in the healthy range just from lowering overall and inflammation and taking care of your body better. But it's also with like a no food off limits approach. So it's not like crazy where you're not allowed to have fruit or something like that. You know, it's super balanced and doable, but yeah, I get messages all the time. Yeah. Well, what I guess what I'm asking more specifically is there one or two stories you can share and the impact that it had for that individual. So for example, if I tried your recipe and I was like, okay, well, you know what? I didn't get that three o'clock swamp. I'm just making it up. Do you have any stories like that that you could share and not about the three o'clock swamp, but about the impact that you've had with those people that you could share? Mm hmm. Gail me think. Oh, I have to think about three. One or two. I don't eat three. Okay. Yeah. So I know for sure, you know, breakfast that kind of sets the tone for hunger for the day for a lot of women. And so I get story after story of people starting to do my warm cally bowls or the protein oatmeal or a smoothie when my loaded smoothies for breakfast. And they realize, you know, I can go those four to five hours, maybe even six hours without even thinking about food. And you have that stable blood sugar. You don't feel like you need the snack after two hours and it really helps with cravings in the late afternoon. So I do. I feel like I get that message on repeat that it's like, I can't believe I didn't even think about food, which is, I love that's my passion to make you be able to just conquer your day and I always think about what you get to eat next. I think, you know, if we're always hungry, we're always thinking about food and that's exhausting. So, um, so I do have like, I get that message over and over and then also just the easy balance dinners. I feel like I hear constantly it was like a win, like the balance chili or the pot roast and the slow cooker, you know, like the husbands are loving it and then the kids actually eat it. And so I feel like that's always a win. Super easy recipe and you're able to feed your family of that M and A. It's the ultimate high stakes game, biggest investment, biggest risks, but when you nail it, total game changer for your business. I'm Keith San Patel, host of the M and A science podcast where we cut through the noise and dive deep into what really makes M and A work. We're talking real conversations with top practitioners, no fluff, just hard hitting insights you can actually use. Stay ahead of the curve and learn what it really takes to close deals, catch M and A science on your favorite podcast app. Here's to the deal. Why is it a win for them besides being easy? What win are they expressing aside from it being easy? Because being easy is great, but I want to hear how they're feeling or the impact that it's having for them that otherwise they might not have. How would they be feeling if they weren't doing this? Yeah. I think the higher protein, the higher protein recipes for dinner just make you like sleep better. Then if you're sleeping better, you feel better. I feel like it will sleep to one of those big hormone stressors, like if we're not sleeping, it affects everything, it affects our cravings, our hunger, just so many things, sleep is so important. After eating, being really nourished and having, like, under your body and having a thriving body with these high protein blood sugar friendly recipes here over and over, people just sleeping better and feeling good and just being able to conquer their day. Great. Awesome. So as you've built this company up a little bit and you've created the product, are there more products that you're looking to create? Maybe I do. I feel like I always have ideas and I kind of have ADD, so I'm like, "Squirtle, I always have an idea and it's like I have to just really pause and be mindful about it and be like, you know, take my time with it and be like, "Is this really a good idea?" Because, you know, there's like a love electrolytes, there's so many electrolytes out there. You know, like I just want to be smart, business wise, but definitely more flavors. The peachy spoon protein powder right now is chocolate and vanilla and I'd love to have a bunch of fun flavors. Although on my website, I have like over 60 smoothie recipes that are all different flavors and just only using chocolate and vanilla, so I do love to change things up. I feel like you can do a lot with just chocolate and vanilla, but I would love to have, yeah, more flavors, maybe some supplements, and then it's always on my radar too. Like, I think it'd be so fun to have a smoothie shop, but that is a whole 'nother Reese that we don't know anything about either, you know, so I'm like, just have all sorts of ideas. I don't know if anything will happen, but right now we're just focusing on the proteins since it just launched in September, so it's still new. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you. So if you go back to the supplement, is this something that you'd work with a chemist or, you know, somebody on or are these just supplements that you think are you appreciate and you find useful in your diet that you'd want to include? Definitely would work with like a food chemist to like, you know, to do the right ratios and all that stuff, but I try to be a supplement minimalist, but I do have some favorites, like, Berberine has helped with my blood sugar, and then I have this cocktail I take before bed that helps me sleep. So yeah, I would just have to see like what would be a good idea, but I think I'm also creatine, creatine, or creatine, and I don't know how to say it, but I feel like that's a big one right now for muscle health, impairment of health and brain health, and so just kind of looking into all of that and trying to find, you know, high quality, already have a manufacturer and all that, but just trying to stand with the next steps are for sure. And can we expect another book? Maybe that I'm just launched, so I just feel like I just finished that. So maybe eventually that, yeah, it was fun. It was fun. It was a lot. All the recipes are not on my website or Instagram, so they were their book exclusive. So I had to create a hundred recipes that are only for that book, so it took some time, but maybe one day we'll see, it's been fun. So you told us that initially you self published the first one, but then you've had a book deal for the second one. I'd love to learn a little bit about that process and what that looked like for you and how you went about doing it since you never got a book published before or had a deal. Yeah, it was great. So I think the self published one, especially with a cookbook with the colored pictures, like you have to, it's like called print per copy, and so you have to pay for each copy that gets printed and then it ships to the person. For a cookbook, and it's not a novel for a cookbook, it is really expensive to pay for the color ink. So I don't make any money on those. It's an expensive cookbook. It's like $60 to print. That's how much it costs. It's a very expensive book. So I was super excited. I just got a message on Instagram, which I get messages all the time that are like spam and not real, but it was a publisher and she said we'd love to do. We're doing the blood sugar bounce cookbook, they already had the title, and they chose me to write it. And so that was really fun. So that wasn't even on my radar, I wasn't ever gonna, it wasn't like a goal to publish a book, but it happened and it was really cool and I just learned as I went with that editor and it was a great experience. Are there any takeaways that you have from that experience of doing the book deal that you might share with others that are working on a book deal right now? I would just say it's like having a baby. It was a lot more work than I thought. I thought, oh, I can do that. I won't be a big deal. It was a big deal and it was a lot. It was a lot of edits. It was like a year and a half of a lot of work. So it was fun, but yeah, I really poured my heart into that book. I'm proud of it though. All right, but is there anything like any lessons that you learned during the process that you could share? For me, I think it's maybe a smaller publisher, so I had to like PR, I've just done everything on my own. So I think it just depends on the publisher that you have. So like, I mean, just all of the advertising and all of that is just I've done that on my own. So a lot of that's been more work than I expected. I mean, I'm doing some book signings and that kind of stuff, but I guess you just get out what you put into it is what I've experienced. So it's been good, but I've had that on top of the protein that all came out, my book launched and the protein powder came out within the same week, and that wasn't on purpose. So I think it's kind of my own fault that it was a lot at once. Well, maybe, you know, it was a good baby that's to cross-pollinate both? Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I've been able to. Yeah, it was a big fall for the peachy spoons. So it was great. Yeah, it worked out. Yeah. It sounds like it. So, you know, you're progressing now, you're selling books, you're selling product. If people wanted to, you know, get in touch and ask any questions or learn more about some of your recipes, what's the best way for them to connect with you? Definitely on Instagram. I'm the peachy spoon and peachy's with an IE, but I answer all my DMs, I am on there all the time. I also have my website with, there's like a recipe blog and all that and the protein powders on there, and there's like a search bar where you can search recipes. You can search chicken and all the chicken recipes pop up. You can search, you know, a type of fruit. You can search chia seeds like you can search anything and there's so many recipes just and it's all, they're all free and therefore you, but Instagram is where I am a lot. Awesome. Meredith, thank you so much for joining us today and I really appreciate your time and congratulations on everything that you're doing. Thanks, Jessie. Right, pleasure. And I want to thank our guests for tuning in, whether they're watching the videocast or listening to the podcast, for those that are watching the videocast, don't forget you can download our podcast at iTunes or wherever you listen to your podcast at essential ingredients. And for those that are listening to the podcast, don't forget you can watch our videocast at NextGen purpose on YouTube. And so we look forward to continuing these conversations with you and see you again here next week. 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