Changing the Conversation Around Periods w/ Amber English

0:00Welcome to the Justin Gradient's podcast. I'm Harlan and here we dive deep into the journey of healing and wellness. If you're ready to learn, feel empowered and take charge of your health, you're in the right place. Welcome back to the show everyone. Today, I'm really excited for our podcast because I'm at Amber at Expo West. I was just walking around looking at all the booths and your booth was so cute. It was like a cowboy pink and glitter. And I was like, pink and glitter, we've got to stop and see what this is all about. And I just loved Amber from the beginning because she is trying to make better choice products out there, but she's giving back so much. And so I wanted her on the show just so that you guys can hear her story. She has an incredible story. She's doing so much good in the world. And so welcome to the show Amber. Thank you so much. Thank you for having us here, Karlin. It is a dream come true. We are so excited to see what you've built. And we just feel blessed blessed to be here.

1:03Oh, well, thank you so much. Okay. I want you to start like from the beginning because I don't think you were like, oh, dreaming about making this company until you were on a hike one day, right? Correct. Okay. So you tell the story. So my husband and I after grad school decided we wanted to travel and we moved to South Korea to teach English for a year. And during that time, we did a lot of traveling after our contract was up. We renewed it for a few months and then we decided to take a six month backpacking trip on the way back home all through Southeast Asia and Europe. And during that trip, we stopped at a children's home to volunteer. We had some connections there and got to know the people and the locals and Cambodia. And that's when I was first introduced to period poverty and how devastating it can be for women. I'd never thought of it before living in a western country with all of the amenities, other fingertips.

2:07And I was just incredibly heartbroken at how devastating it can be for a woman when you don't have access to basic needs. The idea for Pixie Cup did not come from that moment. It was just really impressed in me that this is such a need. Okay. So before you go on more because I know it's a long story, maybe describe to some of us that have never traveled to those countries or have experienced period period poverty. What that really means. Yes. So so many countries don't have access to much of anything when it comes to sanitary products. And because those products aren't manufactured in their country, they're imported. Because they're imported, they're really expensive. And so what women will do is they'll use whatever is available in a lot of times that is unsanitary, rags, clothing scraps, mattress, foam, anything that they can use, whatever's available, whatever's in their area to try to survive as a woman.

3:18But they actually don't have access and because of the lack of access to products, it prevents them from being able to go to work and school. And it becomes a really devastating situation if you are really motivated and you want to try to gain access to products, you have to be able to afford it. And so a lot of women will turn to less than ideal circumstances to be able to afford that care so that they can continue their education. So then continue working. It's heartbreaking. Yeah, that is. Okay. So you saw this. Yes. And you wanted to be a problem solver. Yes. So this was just like in the back of my mind, I wasn't thinking about a solution like how can I change the world? But back home after grad school, we traveled, we started our careers, my background is in health and wellness. So I had my dream job of building a wellness program for a local clinic when employees are healthier, they're more productive and everything is better.

4:24So I was doing that. That's what I studied. I didn't realize that part of the whole background. Yeah, my master's in health promotion, wellness management. Okay. That was my passion. I was so excited to do it. And I loved every part of my job, except not being able to travel two weeks of vacation was very standard. And I just knew at that point in my career for wellness management programs, it was on site, it wasn't virtual. And I just looked into like what my future would look like in 10 years. And I just knew that maybe I could get three weeks of vacation in 10 years. I wanted more flexibility. I wanted to be able to have adventurous and have dreams and explore but also provide value to the world. And that's when I started looking at doing something else. And I wasn't sure if I would go back and get my PhD so I can teach and have summers off or start my own business. And my brother at the time was looking into selling online, doing e-commerce was dabbling in that and had always wanted to do was on the side but always wanted to do more of it.

5:34And I just asked him, I was like, Benjamin, would you ever think about going into business with me? I thought you would say no. Yeah, but he didn't. He said yes. Absolutely. That was amazing. So surprised. That's awesome. And we started product researching. What do we want to do? And I immediately pitched menstrual cups. My sister had introduced me to them and it was a game changer for me. And because I had traveled prior to menstrual cups, I knew the pain point of having to make sure I had products with me. Well, we're backpacking. They take up a lot of room when you're conscious of space. And it was such a game changer for me. I was like, Benjamin, this product is amazing and we could do it better. His reaction was not enthusiastic. I'm sure he's like menstrual cups of all products out there. That's what he wanted to do. Yeah, so he said no, he's like, let's keep looking. Let's do something better. Months and months later, he brought it up.

6:37He's like, hey, remember those cups? He's like, I've been looking into them. We should give this a try. Oh, wow. And for him. Yeah. And I said, Benjamin, if we ever go anywhere with this idea, we need to do something to help women in need. And that was initially the thing because I knew that this was a game changing product for women in developing countries and women in need. Because a menstrual cup will last you for 10 plus years. It's game changing. You don't have to have products that you're buying every single month. You can reuse it. And if you have access to drinking water, which the world does, you can use that with some soap to clean it. And it's life changing. And so we started the business. We did all of the research, did the things a year into launching Pixie Cup. Benjamin was like, hey, Amber, remember when you said you wanted to do something to help women in need? He was like, now's the time. He was like, we're growing. We haven't failed yet.

7:39Let's do it. And that is when our buy one Giflin program was launched. That is incredible. Okay. So let's explain to everybody the what the buy one Giflin is. Yes. So for every single menstrual cup that we sell, we donate one to a woman in need. It's really simple. It's the Tom's model that I just loved growing up. And I was like, we can do this for for women. And so for every single cup, no matter if you buy two cups, we give two cups. And we donate them to women in need. We partner with nonprofits all over the world. Our big thing is education. A major barrier to menstrual cups is just education knowing how to use them. If you receive a menstrual cup and you have no idea what it is or how to use it, you're not going to use it. I could see that. I could see that. Won't change your life. And so we partner with organizations who have feet on the ground who prioritize, organising education and working with women and educate those organizations on how to use menstrual cups so that they can,

8:40as they're distributing them, utilize education to the women. Oh, I love that. I love that. Okay, so we're talking like what parts of the world all over? All over. So we donate both here in the United States to impoverished schools, to shelters for women, and then also internationally. Days for girls is one of our big partnerships and they have communities all over in their huge on education. We have connections. One of our very first connections was in Kenya, Africa. Someone from our local hometown, Southwest Missouri, had a vision as a high schooler. She wanted to bring school supplies to kids in Kenya. Oh wow. So she started a nonprofit. I think she was 16 years old. Oh my gosh. And for her. So she was doing, on her first trip over there, she was passing out school supplies, and she heard about period poverty.

9:42And she wanted to do something about it. And so she came back and she started partnering with women who had hands over usable pads to take those over. And she wanted to have menstrual cups because she used one and wanted to be able, but she had reached out to some companies, didn't have any of them. my own research, meantime, on organizations that we could partner with, because I'm like we need to be able to partner, like we're not going to be the experts to be able to launch a pipeline. Get Kenya and exactly. So I was doing research and I found her website not even realizing it was in our same town. Wow, that's incredible. Such a God story. Yeah, that is. That's a little coincidence. That's not a coincidence. Yes. I love that. Okay, so now you've donated thousands of menstrual cups to help women. Hundreds of thousands, hundreds of thousands. That is incredible. Did you ever think you would do this? No, no. I did not see myself as a business owner, not in my wildest dreams, what I have imagined being here and pixie becoming what it is, but at the same time, it's been my favorite

10:47journey. I feel so blessed and so lucky to be able to grow something that I'm passionate about, that is helping women and changing lives and then also just helping customers through our products and our team members. Our mission statement is to empower others, give back and live free. Oh, I love that. With our products, with our team members, with our customers and with our buy one Giflin program. Oh, I love that. Okay, so if people haven't heard about pixie cup, do you go by pixie cup or just pixie? So we started out as pixie cup. Okay. So we have quickly like we are a customer first company. We listened to our customers and we knew starting out in feminine care. As a small business, we would need to do something different to be able to be competitive and succeed. And the one thing we decided to do was focus on extremely incredible customer service. And so from day one, we care about our customers. If a customer is going to reach out to us, it's usually because there's something going

11:48on. That is an incredible touch point that you get with a customer. And so we want to do whatever we can to turn their day around and make it as good as possible. And so we will go above and beyond radical hospitality and generosity with our customers. And because we started that way, we've also grown with our customers as they would ask for other products and more needs. And what we realized is that menstrual cups work for most people, but not everybody. And that's okay. And so we wanted to be able to serve all women, no matter where they're at with their journey and health. And so a few years ago, we launched organic cotton top sheet pads. And we just launched a few weeks ago our organic cotton tampons for women. Kind of completely. Oh, I love that. And you were saying the entire thing. The string, the core, everything. And so quite a few companies will say made with organic cotton.

12:50And what it means is it's not 100% but ours are. Oh, that's incredible. So we try to do clean as much as we can. We care about our customers and we want to offer affordable products with the best quality. So that's kind of meeting in the middle. But we want what's best and we don't want to to make it to where all women have access to healthier products that are safe for them and good for them. Good for you guys. This is incredible. Okay, can we talk about a menstrual cup though? Yes. Because there are a ton out there and they all fit different. And some I'm not going to lie. I feel like they're going to fall out. Probably too much info there for some people. But so I know some people love them and some are like, eh, so what's the trick? If you've never tried one, the trick is to be brave. Fone a friend and give it a try. If you've tried some, I think the trick is really being comfortable with getting to know

13:52your body and your anatomy because a lot of women have a retroverted uterus to where it makes a fit a little different. We're all unique. And so what we've done at Pixie Cup is we have five different sizes from extra small to extra large. And we also launched a menstrual disc several years ago, which is one of our best sellers. And it's similar to a cup. It's a different shape. And so for women that sometimes a cup won't work out because of your anatomy, a disc can be a better option. But if you're kind of able to get familiar with your body and phone us, text one of our customer service members, they are so great at walking women through what's going on. But it does take a bit more of an intimate approach to if it's not a success right off the bat kind of figuring it out because I feel like, and that's one thing that we're really passionate about at Pixie, is education.

14:54I feel like there's a lack of education with our own bodies, especially for women. It's lacked in the healthcare system, just studying women's health. And so what we try to do is we try to provide education for women because it's empowering. And if it's not working out, then we can learn which empowers us to know more about their body, which is always a good thing. Yeah. I know it's not even just a Pixie cup or a menstrual cup that people need education on. It's all the hormones as well. Like some of the basics of our hormones, I'm like, why don't they teach that in these fifth grade maturation classes? They just don't even teach the basics. Like I went a couple years ago with my daughter and I'm like, oh my gosh, can we even talk about you need to get rid of your extra estrogen every month? We've got to pee and poop it out. Like we've got to make sure we're eating healthy and gain enough fiber to do this or sweating. And yeah, there's just a lot of basics I wish I could. We could all know. But we're being a part of that change. That is true.

15:54That is true. That is true. We're educating women through producing content on social media. That's fun, engaging and shareable. And it is so exciting to be a part of a movement where periods aren't the stigma that was for our grand mom. Grandparents or even my mom. Yes. Okay. So I'm curious, why are you concerned about using the best fabrics like 100% organic cotton? It comes down to health, which I love that we share. I'm so, so, so grateful. My parents have eight kids. We live in Southwest Missouri and they raised us to be. I feel like eight kids also. That's crazy. So fun. Yeah. Big families. Yes, they're amazing. They raised us to be health conscious. My parents actually met at a gym. Oh, that's fun. They were in college all those years ago. All those years ago. So growing up, we had a home gym and they taught us to work out and eat healthy.

16:56We had our own garden. We ground our own flower. We didn't ever have refined sugar in the house. And we were homeschooled. And so we didn't have screens. And our childhood, I just am so grateful for the childhood that I had. We would get down with our school as quickly as we could and go out and play with our cousins. My grandparents were actually entrepreneurs. They sold their business in San Diego in the late 70s, packed up and retired. My mom was 16. Wow. Big drove east and fell in love with the Ozark Mountains and bought a thousand acre ranch. Oh, wow. And so my family has lived there ever since and it's been such a blessing. That's so fun. Growing up outside, just the things that I'm learning now, being grounded and how important that is, I'm just so grateful for the healthy background that I was raised with because it's allowed me to live, give me an incredible foundation, and allow me to live a healthy life because of the way I was raised. And so then that's giving you the motivation to make sure that we're using 100% organic

17:59cotton. Yes. I want all women to experience that. And it's a learning education. It's for everyone. It's starting small. What can we do? Whether simple swaps we can make? How can we as a company make that easy for our customers? Oh, I love that. Okay, so what are some of the biggest issues out there with feminine products? One of the biggest problems we see would be transparency. The FDA doesn't have a lot of really incredible guidelines or regulations around feminine care products. And so what they don't around supplements either. So I know what you're talking about. What we've decided to do because we want to empower women to make healthy choices for themselves. And so we aren't abiding by the minimum requirements. We're going above and beyond for every ingredient that we have in our product. We have full transparency around what they are and why we chose to include them in our products so that women can because it's hard to read and to learn to read ingredients. For sure. How can we make that easier?

19:00How can we help women do that? Put the ingredients on there and put what they are and why have more information on our website so that it's easy to find information so that we're not hiding it. We want to be transparent. We want women to be educated so that we can make better decisions. Okay, so in the supplement industry, what's on the label might not necessarily be what's in the pill. Like there's no one regulating that. And so you have to have a third party tested just to know that, okay, the label is what it says. And so you can basically hide things. So is that the same? Like you can just basically hide stuff in there and no one really knows. The government doesn't even require that you add ingredients to feminine care products. So you don't even have to list it on the label. You don't. Oh, wow. So they could put whatever they want in there or on there or whatever preservative or whatever fabric, softener, whatever. And you don't have to list it. You don't. So what we've done is we've gone above that.

20:01And I think what exactly what you're saying happens for sure and feminine care. And so what we want to do is we want to provide because it makes finding the right product for you really difficult if you can't even find it on labels. Yeah, well, in the source. So they don't know if they're being bleached these things. They don't know if they're being sanitized deodorized some way, some, like I said, softener in there. Yeah. Okay. That's incredible. Isn't that ridiculous? What we were finding when we were beginning the manufacturing journey is because it's not required. It's so difficult to actually find out what is in them, how they're being. And so we try to be experts in our own industry. So we need to learn and take that ownership as a company. Let's figure this out ourselves. Let's make sure whatever's going into our products or what we say it is and that we can share what we're learning as a business with our customers. Okay. That's the same way, even with food products for me, like bringing in ingredients, it might

21:02be a bone broth. But if you don't check really carefully, there could be some oil mixed in with that bone broth. Like you have to just test and test and just look at every single ingredient and what it's being mixed with. And so, yeah, that is crazy. So it's happening in your industry as well. It is. Yeah. But we're being a part of the change and women wants this. Yeah. And it's exciting to be a part of that in a movement that's taking place. And I really believe that this will change and regulations will change in our country. I don't know how quickly, but in the following decades, and we're excited to be up the forefront of that. Well, women need to be empowered because if the government's not going to fix it, you've got to just fix it yourself. Yes. Like we can't be dependent on them. And what I love, though, too, is I think women are learning that that area where we put feminine products is very absorbable. It absorbs all the chemicals and things that are going up there. And so, is that one of the reasons you are concerned about the not organic tampons and

22:04things like that? Yes. And that's one thing with using a menstrual cup is women experience reduced cramps. All of these symptoms that they had, they're experiencing. And I would love to dive more into and get involved with studies being done on this because there hasn't been enough research. But women experience, and I experience that myself reduced cramping all of these symptoms that went along with PMS are much resumed because you're using something that's medical grade. It doesn't absorb. It doesn't throw off the pH balance. And you're able to just keep everything intact. And that is what is really helpful with organic cotton and makes a difference. So about, I want to say maybe like seven years ago, I started telling people like you guys switched to organic cotton. It's been like a game changer for me because this was even really before menstrual cups got that popular. And the amount of DMs that came in saying like, I've switched to my cramps are totally gone or my cramps were way less or the bleeding was way less like it was literally thousands

23:07of DMs that were coming in. And I was like, this is ridiculous that we've been sticking these tampons in us for years and years that are full of chemicals and pesticides and all sorts of things. Yeah. We during the R&D process of creating our tampons like we were buying all of the ones on the shelf opening them, dissecting them, figuring out and like we are like what are these things made of? What are they putting in those? Yeah. That is crazy. Okay. So all women should at least switch to 100% organic cotton and then try the cups because those might even be better for you than an actual cotton. Absolutely. It works out for you. It's such a game-changing product. You can wear them for 12 hours which for a woman provides so much period freedom being able to put it in in the morning, go out your entire day. As super tampon will hold 10 milliliters of fluid, a pixie cup, 30. So you're interesting. Holds a lot more and you can go the entire day and it's reusable and lasts you for so

24:13long years and years. So better for the planet and you can put it in in the morning, go work out, go the gym, go shower, go do all your things. Leak free, we get so many incredible questions like can I swim in it? Can I sleep in it? What about gymnastics? Absolutely. So the way it works you asked that earlier is it's a silicone cup and when I first got one in the mail, my immediate reaction was oh my goodness, that's huge. How is this going to work? And I just took a deep breath. The reason I decided to try one is my sister, my other sister got me into them. She said Amber, it's the best $40 I've ever spent my whole entire life. And I was like, well, that's quite the statement. Yeah, that is. All at least give the try. Yeah. So I was quite motivated to give the try and look at the little instructions. You fold it, you insert it. It creates a leak proof seal around your vaginal walls so that you don't have to worry about spilling and leaking. And then you can wear it for 12 days. It works for me immediately.

25:14Some women, it often takes about three cycles to kind of get the hang of it. And that I think a lot of times comes down to just your internal anatomy where you're either a sits making sure the cup sits below your cervix so it catches the menstrual flow. But it was a game changer for me. I was so excited. And I haven't worn pads or tampons in 14 years. Wow, that's incredible. So if you guys been around that long, we started 10 years ago, but I used to spend a cup for a while before that. Okay, good for you guys. Yeah, that's exciting. Okay, you said 12 days, but I think you meant 12 hours. 12 hours on this. Yes, okay. Thank you. You can wear the cup for 12 hours. Not 12 days, don't do that. Day or night. Day or night. Okay. Do you want to tell about something that's in your pipeline coming out? Oh, so many exciting things. The one product I am really excited for are 100% organic cotton period underwear.

26:15Oh, that's exciting. Very exciting. Period underwear are incredible. They're incredible for teens and twins because they're easy to use. You can wash them. They're reusable. And they're also great as a backup, just so that you have confidence and protection just in case whether you're learning to use a menstrual cup for the first time or want a little bit of extra protection. But they're incredible. And no one is making 100% organic cotton period underwear. There are a few companies that are doing the 95%-5% elasting. That kind of helps it be a little stretchier. But we love single-source fabrics and we really want to do this and make them well. So they're in the pipeline right now. And I'm super excited. That is super exciting. One, we just had Hannah Dunning on our show who is all about clean clothing and trying to help manufacturers do better choices with their fabrics and everything.

27:16So she was a big advocate of 100% organic cotton. So this is really exciting after learning all about that. But then I just had a aha moment because I always look at those period underwear and I'm like, eugh, gross. I would never use that. But then when you said tweens, I'm like, oh, duh, those little 10, 11-year-olds who maybe aren't ready to do a cup. That is a perfect solution for them. Yes. Okay. It's incredible. They can have a pair throw it in their backpack. They start at school. They've got underwear that will make them feel confident and they don't have to worry about anything. I love that. Let's take a quick break to hear from our show sponsor. Active skin repair uses a proprietary formulation tested in hospitals featuring hyperchlorous acid, a molecule that mimics the body's natural immune response to cleanse, soothe irritation, reduce inflammation, and support healing. Their hydrogel version creates a protective moisture-rich barrier to keep skin hydrated,

28:19but faster healing and provide a cooling, soothing effect for irritated or damaged skin. They've also launched the Active Skin repair hydrating daily sunscreen SPF 50. A lightweight, non-greasy, EWG verified mineral sunscreen that provides broad spectrum, protection while helping maintain the skin's moisture barrier, making it ideal for sensitive or healing skin. Trusted by over 1 million customers and clinicians with thousands of five star reviews, Active Skin repair offers a simple, clean solution for the whole family's skin health needs. To learn more and get 20% off your order, visit ActiveSkinRepair.com and use code Justing Gradients. You can also find Active Skin repair on Amazon and at your local CVS. Now back to the show. So I love that you're a woman founder and that you're trying to do good out in the world, that your story is fascinating because there is another side of your story that we haven't even shared about. And that is the daily trials that you do so well, I should say, with a smile on your face

29:24and a positivity with a huge trial with your husband. So will you tell the listeners about this? Yes. My husband is just the most incredible person and we just celebrated our 15-year anniversary. Oh, awesome. Congrats. So exciting. But three years ago, I received a call from my brother and Jared was in an accident. He was mountain biking. We lived a really active lifestyle. Avid snowboarders, mountain bikers, this particular day, I had just gone to the bike park with him the day before. It was the Sunday. He was going out with his guy friends and he said, Amber, you need to come with me right now. And I said, is he still alive? And he says, we don't know. And so we get there right as the EMTs. We're getting there at the bike park. It's about five minutes from our house. He had fallen off of the feature, broken his neck and back. He was with my other brother, Ethan. And thankfully, my brother, Ethan is also an entrepreneur, a business person, figures things

30:29out even when he's never done them before. And he was right behind Jared after he had fallen. So freak accident, a pop up rain shower came and just made the ramps and the features really slippery right as he was going on one. So his bike slid out and he fell down and landed on a big pile of rocks about 15 feet below. My brother got there and just realized that he was turning purple and he had never done rescue breaths before. But he got on his phone, you tube it and figured out how to administer rescue breaths for 25 minutes before the EMTs got there. It was up on the hillside, not easy access. And as soon as he gave the first breath, Jared said more. That was all. And he was, we didn't know it at the time, but completely paralyzed from the chin down. And so Ethan kept him alive for 25 minutes until they got there. Until they got there. When they got there, you know, what we've learned and we've had quite a bit of experience

31:29with the medical system, but you really have to take charge and be in control because not you expect the experts to know what to do, but they don't always. And so Ethan had to continue administering rescue breaths even after they got there because they weren't quite sure what to do. And he was again losing all of the oxygen going on in all of consciousness. We went up to the nearest ICU. They couldn't send in a chopper because of the storms. Oh my gosh. So we went via ambulance 45 minutes. It was a whole process, but learned that he had broken his neck and sustained us of your spinal cord injury. And that hope of recovery was very slim. And so we were in the ICU for several weeks and then they said we need to go to a specialty hospital, a spinal cord injury facility. And there were several around, but the one in Denver, Colorado was Craig Hospital and

32:29it's known it's been around the longest and known as being best. And so we were really just praying that we would get in and we did and they life-flighted us out to Denver Hospital where we stayed for six months. When we got to the hospital, they did all of the tests and scans on Jared. He was diagnosed as a complete Aja A, which means no movement whatsoever below point of injury and no hope of recovering any movement. But the night of Jared's accident, I had a dream. I never dream. I never remember my dreams, but I had a very vivid dream. And I woke up right afterwards and I wrote it all down. And we were on a boat on the lake. Jared was almost done with his recovery. He was knee-boarding, hanging on with his hands. And we had a daughter and she was five years old. And I had never dreamt about children before. We had talked about starting to have a family and that just really changed my heart.

33:34And I held onto that dream, but I prayed. I was like, God, if this dream isn't from you, please take it away. Let me know because I don't want false hope. And I just really felt like that dream was given to me, to encourage me and to be a grounding point during the season that was coming up. And I remember when we get to, we got to credit the hospital. There was no hope of recovery. They did all the tests, the SNF tests, the X-rays to check his diaphragm. He was on a ventilator. They said he would be on the ventilator the rest of his life. No chance of him coming off. And we just prayed. And I remember riding on the whiteboard in his hospital room that Jared would walk out of Craig Hospital. And I did that to give myself hope even though it felt like everyone, but it was crazy. But I desperately wanted hope. And I truly believe that God gives all of us the ability to believe in the impossible.

34:39And if we don't believe it will likely never come. And so we were there for weeks and weeks. And Jared started moving his toe. And then he could move his legs a little bit. And the first thing that started working were his legs. And he just a little bit of movement that came. And he couldn't move his hands or his arms at all. And so we just continued praying. And then eventually he was able to move on this left side a few of his fingers. And it started coming back. And I was thinking about that dream. I was like, in the dream he was hanging on with his hands were working. And so the big thing was the ventilator. I was like, all right, this dream was a crazy story. But how my brain works and all that was going on, and I was like, he was in the water. Like you can't be on a ventilator. And the water ventilator's life support. And it was a whole process of learning all of the things. And if anything happens to the ventilator, it's an emergency situation to keep some on the life. We decided that we wanted to try ventilator weaning sessions to take him off the ventilator.

35:43And I knew I was doing study, like researching everything. The longer you're on a ventilator, the less likely you are to get off. OK. And if your body is not trying to work on something, if something's being done for it, if you're the ventilator's breathing for you and you don't have to breathe, you'll never learn how to breathe. So we argued with the hospital. They didn't want, they're like, all the tests are done. This is impossible. And I had a conversation with them. I said, if you don't want to try this, we'll go to a different hospital. So I know that there are other ones out there that are pioneering different training techniques with respiratory breathing and ventilator weaning. And this is something we want to test. As soon as I said that, they're like, OK, OK, we'll try it. We can try it. We don't think it's going to work, but we'll at least try and Jared for weeks and weeks and weeks would go through just excruciating experiences of trying to breathe without the ventilator. If they just turn it off for 30 seconds a minute at a time, he said it was like being underwater, just drowning.

36:45You're trying to breathe and you can't. Wow. But one of those sessions, things changed. And his diaphragm started working. And all of the doctors said there's no way it's his accessory muscles, which he didn't have. But they're like, he's using like his neck muscles to breathe. But the respiratory therapists were like, this is a miracle. Wow. Something has changed. And Jared went for two minutes without the ventilator and then he went for 10 minutes. And then the next day it was 20. Wow. The doctors are, they're like, this is impossible. There's no way this is. And to this day, Craig Hospital has done huge case studies with Jared because that has never happened at their hospital where someone was ventilator dependent for a month and months and then instantly. That's incredible. That's incredible too. And so over the course of a few months, he came off the ventilator completely. When we checked out, they wanted to send us home with one. And I think they did and we canceled it before we got home. But he's praise the Lord, able to breathe completely on his own.

37:47He's to the point where he makes me want to cry because I did not know this part of the story. So it just makes me want to cry. Like, there's no denying God in that. No. No. And there were people who were watching this happen who decided to believe in God because the miracles that they saw with their own eyes that were undeniable. That is incredible. Such a story. That is such a story. Okay, but you are such a strong, powerful woman to stand up for your husband's hope. I mean, you had so much hope, but then you're like, no, we're going to work on this. And I want you to challenge him and try this. So good for you. And I'm learning, okay, anyone that is listening, I am learning you have to do that because my 24 year old son just went and this is a side topic. Really quick. Went through a major surgery this past year. And afterwards when he was in recovery, one of the nurses wanted to do something that I thought was absolutely absurd. And she was like, no, this is protocol and we need to do this. And I was like, over my dead body, are you going to do that?

38:49That will not be done. And so I was like, I want to talk to your head person. Like we're not going that route. And so you and who knew that you can actually say that and that will write control. And it was such a better process of what we went through. But long story short, because of this story. Don't be afraid to stand up for what you feel in your gut is right. Be your own advocate. Yeah. No one else you think when you go to a hospital, you're there so they can take care of you. That is not the case. They have the tools, but you need people in your corner who can advocate for you. You do. Because there are lots of different options for things. It's not just always one way. And that's what I was trying to tell the practitioner. Anyways, back to your story. But you do have to take care of him quite a bit. Yes. Yeah. He's made so much recovery and he's able to walk now with a walker. Oh, is he really? His legs are a lot stronger than his hands. OK.

39:49But because you use your hands for everything, your hands really are your independence. He is still completely dependent, except when he's in his power wheelchair. That is his independent. He's able to get along. When he was first in a power wheelchair, the only thing he could do was sip and puff, which is you have a straw. And that's how you control your chair is through the straw. But he's now able to drive with a hand control in his wheelchair and can go anywhere in his chair. It's incredible. And it's so incredible that he's regained all of the recovery that he has so far because it's so important for bone health and muscular health and overall health if you can weight bear and do some of those things. So he walks, we've got an incredible full-time caregiver while I'm at work, he comes and takes care of my brother-in-law and God sends us an angel. It's amazing. Oh, that's incredible. And he is with Jared 9-5 while I'm at work.

40:51But because his left hand works quite a bit better than his right hand, but it takes a lot of dexterity and man, the spinal cord and our neuro system is so complex. When there's damage to it, it is just a whole other world. But because of all the complexity it takes to eat. I'll still feed him and take care of him, help him get into the chair in the morning and shower, brush teeth, all of those things. But the function that he does have is absolutely incredible. And he works so hard every single day, he does shenan does all of the stretching and all of the things so that he can maintain and not lose flexibility. And then he will get up and walk to his chair across the house every single morning and then do all of these exercises and he still goes to therapy multiple times a week to work. And with the neuro system, there's a lot that's not knowing about it, but it is the slowest healing tissue in the body. It takes a long time and because the norm is that it's so slow or nothing will happen,

41:56there's not a lot known. But there are extreme situations where people have regained function. Well, what's the difference? What's going on? I think a lot of it is mindset. I don't know, but it seems to be like we were at Craig Hospital and everyone there is going through a very similar situation. It's so easy to lose hope in that situation. And what we're so grateful for is just our faith in God and having hope that is beyond ourselves to continue working no matter how hard it is to use what we have. We both believe we're here on this earth for a reason. And it's our responsibility to do the best that we can with the gifts that we have, the resources that we have, even when life's hard and to be able to show up. And because of that, we've been able to be such an encouragement to so many people through

42:57this hardship. And that's one incredible thing about faith is it takes what can be a devastating situation. And God can use that to bring life and love and hope like nothing else can in the midst of, and you know, with tragedy, the lows that come with that, there is a depth that we get, that's a gift that comes from experiencing extreme tragedy, that we wouldn't be able to have in the other way. And for me, it's allowed me to love deeper, to be more empathetic, to be more in those are all gifts that I have that I wouldn't have had if we hadn't gone through what we've been through. You are incredible. You have amazing perspective. And I'm going to cry. Wow, I'm on crying mode today.

43:57It's an incredible story, but I'm like thinking about you, like you didn't plan on feeding your husband every day and showering him every day, that couldn't have been easy at first. Yeah, it was really difficult. And I'm so grateful for our incredible team at Pixie. They stepped up in an incredible way to take over my role completely so that I could be with Jared in the hospital and not have to worry about work. And then just being able to have the flexibility we live on the ranch, our office is right there, so be able to go up, work in the office, come home from lunch and be Jared and then go back and just being able to do that. And it is our life looks completely different than it did before the accident. We are here in beautiful Utah and the year of his accident, Jared and I, we're talking about how incredible it would be one day to have a mountain home. Where would we want that to be? Well, let's just, in the winters, go to a different location and just experience.

45:01And so the year of his accident, our plan was to come up here to Salt Lake and just spend a few months and check out all of the ski resorts. Check out all the mountains. We love the mountains and we love the adventure. But our life looks very different and the incredible thing and the thing I love to share with people is if you had told me what my life would look like right now, I would not imagine happiness and joy. But what I experienced is the happiness and joy is the same if not better. Even though my life looks completely different and what it comes down to is incredible relationships and perspective. We do a lot of like old people activities and it's amazing and it's grounding and we spend time in nature and we watch the birds and we're getting into art and all of these things that we had never in a million years dreamt that we would have gotten into. But they are fun and fascinating and we're learning and we're educating and there's so many things that we can do.

46:01Instead of looking at all of the things that we can't do because there are a lot of them, we try to look at the things that we can do and the world is huge and it's full of life and generosity and there's so much when you choose to change your perspective. And life is better when you have a positive perspective, at least it is for me and I'm just so grateful and we focus on that and it has added joy and depth and conversation and relationships that we wouldn't have had our lives were too busy before that to take the time to put into the depth and the energy it takes into some more quiet activities. Wow. For those that are listening because you have a great perspective and a great perspective on life and happiness and joy but did you have to teach yourself this or were you always a positive person with a great perspective? I am so so so grateful for my childhood and the way that my parents raised me.

47:04My mom raised us kids that we could change the world and I believe that for everybody you can change the world no matter where you're at or what you're doing. You can change your part of the world and make this place better. So I was raised with that which I think is really really helpful but one thing I'm really grateful for and it was all divine providence. When I was 16 years old we had our family had enrolled in Taekwondo and it was so much fun and active and my instructor started teaching boxing classes and so I signed up for that as soon as I could try it and it gave me a confidence that I didn't have before both in because it was all about physical health and I was struggling with some depression at the time it turns out it came from sleep deprived. Oh interesting. Depression and I wasn't sleeping. I was very working as soon as I turned 16 working to part time jobs trying to do the

48:07home schooling thing and just go go go. I was sleeping enough and I got a lot of healing through being physically active and that's how my journey and health or six years studying health in my education came from was my desire to help other people but through that time boxing I learned the on a whole new level the power of positive self thought and self talk and I had ten different fights and I won all of them. Oh my short flu amateur a three year boxing career. I never thought you were a boxer. I love that. What it taught me is like in this sport there are lots of sports and you can work really hard to be the best but in boxing if you don't do your best you get beat up and I didn't

49:08want my face to get punched. I love it. I let it just consume me and every like eating I just saw everything that I was doing it was either going to help me when I fight or it helped me lose. I wanted to do everything I could to help me win. So I was very into eating, sleeping, doing all of the things and talking to myself so on the way to these fights in the car and I really do think it was just divine intervention. I would talk to myself out loud you can do this you've got this amber let's go I did this non stop and that is to this day I still do this inside my internal monologue is extremely positive. It's taken me years I'm only just now coming to understand this is one of the superpowers that I have and I think it was kind of instilled in me when I was 16 years old and I still have this you can do this amber you've got this goddess for you he's not against you let's go

50:10and I talked to myself all of the time and I think a lot of the success and lifestyle and positive outlook has come from that and there are a lot of people that don't have a lot of positive self-talk and it's heartbreaking and it's one of those things that we can change but it does take a lot of practice and I'm just glad I had that really on. You are incredible I just had Dr. Manning on here who is all about self-talk and how your brain doesn't know if what you're telling it is a fact or a lie and so if you're telling your brain I can't do it I'll never be able to walk I can't then your brain believes that as a truth it doesn't know the difference and so I love that you're talking about this because we just aired his episode and he is like tell your brain three specific things and it will be able to do those very specific things and so that is like really what you're saying like I'm telling my brain I can do it I can do hard things I've got this and so your brain that's all it knows that's all it believes and so occupying that space and

51:15that's what he talks about you would occupy this room for anything else and I do that constantly and I am just I don't know really I can't take any credit for where it came from but I have that and I'm so grateful because it's so helpful and I think a lot of it comes from my mom she's a very confident woman she was very healthy and I remember growing up and everyone would come up her because she was fit and she had eight kids everyone's like oh my gosh you're so lucky it must be genetics and I remember thinking as a kid it was like no one in our family is healthy this is not an genetics her parents don't look like this and so I just remember like realizing like she that's that's something different it required action to kind of get to where she was but she had a positive self image and instilled that in us and I think a lot of it kind of came came from the way I was raised I'm so grateful for that I love that well you are incredible the

52:15self-talk that you've learned how to do has been life-saving to you through this hard time do you still play the same role at pixie as you did before the accident or no my role switched some when I was removed completely for six months they thrived it was incredible maybe I need to remove myself for six months just kidding and I was like wow so I don't need to have all of the control I don't need to be the final say our team members are just incredibly incredible people and when they were forced to step up to the plate they did so with excellence it changed my perspective hmm I'm like how can I use this like what am I doing that's maybe preventing them from growing in their own roles how can I change how can I have a different role and empower them to be even better versions of themselves and help them grow that's what I'm doing for myself like

53:18as a business owner you're constantly doing a million different things and learning and growing and it's one of my favorite things and how do we empower our team members to have that same mindset to take ownership of their own role and to empower them to make incredible decisions and at pixie we encourage failing forward we weren't business owners we had no idea what we were doing sometimes we still don't and relate I can relate so many questions we don't have answers to but how do we learn we make our best judgment and move forward and if it's a failure let's learn from that because as long as we're learning it's a positive experience and we can take that and make better decisions going forward so how do we install that in our team members and I think it helped us kind of have that mindset and it's been a good thing well I love that motto of failing forward meaning we'll fail but we can still move forward yeah and that's good advice in life

54:21doesn't have to just be a company life is new to all of us each year is a new year the you know like you're saying you had an own to company and you don't know what the next thing is but that's like life also you know what I mean yes so that's incredible okay so talking about tweens I'm actually curious like being a part of this whole period industry what advice would you give to moms to these to first tell their tweens about having a period this is a good question what we love to do is empower moms to think back to what it was like when they first had their first period and share that story with your daughter and also just share I wished I would have had XYZ and then do the XYZ whatever that is and I think just starting that conversation with this is what it was like for me I kind of wished that my mom had shared with me a little bit more education

55:27about my body and so I didn't have that but I'm learning it right now and I really want to teach that to you can we learn together and so one thing we've done at Pixie Cup is we're just so passionate about education and so we try to come up with social media videos for empowering education for women but we've also have some products that really help with that and we launched two years ago our my first period kit it was written by and developed by the moms on our team oh I love it for their daughters and its education it has a booklet and a journal to teach young tweens and also it's a it's a beautiful box and it has all of the things that they need are organic cotton top sheet pads and a little heating pad that's filled with black seed and lavender and everything that they need to be prepared for their first cycle but also to celebrate it because I think that's one thing that we missed out on in our generation is celebrating womanhood it's such an incredible

56:33gift it's such a superpower that has some unnecessary shame around it that doesn't need to be there and so if we can help our daughters understand how incredible the changes are in their bodies and start them out with some really basic education we're giving them a good foundation oh I love that approach that is great your story is incredible like I said I was moved to tears listening to it and you're just really inspirational like I'm thinking oh I can do better as a owner and a CEO of my company like empowering people but also as a mom like I need to empower my kids more so and teach them to have this positive perspective in life and to teach that with hope anything is possible it really is with hope and faith and your story I just it's an incredible story so thank you for sharing it thank you for being vulnerable and just discussing it because it is a hard story but I love that you shared the positivity out of it so thank you oh

57:35thank you I'm I'm so grateful to be able to share sharing this power it really is and I feel like we sometimes when we don't share we are subject isolation and there is no heal or it's hard for healing to happen well and there's so many yeah and there's so many people going through hard times it doesn't have to be a accident like that it can be so many other things but the mindset and the hope and the faith and the perspective is the same yes so thank you for sharing all that will you tell my listeners where they can find your products yes you can go to it's pixie.com and find all of our products and then also follow us on social media if you want to laugh and learn about periods and tell them the name on social media instagram my pixie cup okay perfect I'm excited for you followers and listeners to go try her products you've heard how amazing they are and maybe have your daughters try them especially the new underwear but maybe teach your daughters

58:36how to use a cup or maybe you yourself need to go try a cup a few more times so thank you so much for being here it's been such an honor having you here on the show and I always end my podcast by asking five quick questions okay so are you okay with these okay here we go number one what emerging health topic are you most excited about right now oh this one I would say it's a bit unique but rest and I know it's not necessarily an emerging health topic but I kind of feel like it is in the busy western world that we live in taking time to rest and unplug and ground ourselves for me has been so important especially after Jared's accident and just realizing how busy our lives were and if we really want to thrive we need to be filled on the inside and that comes from unplugging relaxing taking a full day of rest once a week every single week and that's been

59:36incredible and I think more people are talking about it these days there are a lot of people talking about that rest day like they talk about for exercise but even you know a lot of Christians obviously are saying take the Sabbath off as a pure day of rest to really unwind but I think people needing it mentally just it is so go go go yes just unwind for one day yep it came from a book I read right after Jared's accident the ruthless elimination of hurry by John Mark Comer oh I have not read that one oh so good it was like I more than anything I need this okay I'm gonna add that to my list all right question number two what's a piece of advice you give your younger self I think I would probably encourage myself especially younger in my early teen years growing up in the big family it's easy to kind of get lost and at all and my older sister is just incredible and I look up to her with everything I am but just encourage myself that it's all right you've got this you got

1:00:36it I love that number three what's the one health practice you'll never compromise on no matter how busy life gets this would be the mindset of embodying a healthy lifestyle and being a healthy person I don't think there's any one health practice or activity that I would be like no matter what I will never compromise because I've been through so many different seasons and life can look very different in really dramatic seasons of trial where it's okay to have a lot of compromise but to embody a spirit of I am a healthy person and maybe I don't have the time to exercise right now on a regular basis but I am going to make sure I get extra steps in I'm going to do this and not that and just thinking through I am a healthy person in this season of life what can I continue to do that's healthy whether the small things I can do because I practice a lot of the healthy things I've never had something where like no matter what I'm going through I'm only going

1:01:40to do that one thing I try to adjust and be positive that's that great mindset you have and great perspective you have I'm learning so much just from sitting here by you oh question number four what's your favorite Justin gradients product and why I love the energy drinks the brain energy so amazing we first had them when we met oh that's right that's right they're incredible I actually just bought um we're having our team retreat come up and so for the whole team retreat everyone's having oh that's awesome energy drinks so I'm so excited thank you all right last question what's the best ingredient you've found to life for me I think it's relationships it comes down to the meaning of life and why we're here on earth and how to make the most with the time that we have is quality relationships spending time with the people that we love and care about and investing in those and it makes life incredible and rich and rewarding when we have healthy thriving relationships

1:02:47and they take a lot of time effort and energy but it is so so incredibly worth it I love that they do take a lot of effort a lot of time and we live in a world where people are letting go of relationships left and right whether it's friends or family or spouses or whatever it might be and so I do love that and they are hard relationships aren't easy so well again thank you so much for being here I have learned so much I've been inspired to do better just by talking to you and so thank you for taking the time to be here I know it's hard to leave your husband to come and so thank you for making the sacrifice oh thank you for happiness thank you for being here and being part of this community don't forget to subscribe to the Just Ingredients podcast we've got so much more to share with you and if you're not already come join us daily on all social media platforms at just.ingredients until next time keep choosing what nourishes you

1:03:53you