Ashton
I'm Ashton Smith. And I'm Jordan Long. And we're coming in hot. We're seventh generation entrepreneurs with a passion for fusing creative expression and business fundamentals to help entrepreneurs powerfully expand their companies.
Jordan
Legacy Creator is a show for creatives, big thinkers, and visionaries who are doing business differently. Together, we unpack topics to help you embody your creative identity, develop as a leader, and powerfully grow your business.
Ashton
In a nutshell, we're calling you out and calling you higher. What if you could turn your ideas into actual profit for your business? Right now, you may feel like you're doing all the right things, and yet your efforts aren't creating more money for your business. Today, that changes. Our free 90-day profit planner has helped Hundreds of creative entrepreneurs transform their income goals into an actualization strategy since 2019. You can download yours for free today. Just visit myawakening.co slash profit. That's myawakening.co slash profit. All right. Hey, Jas, welcome to Legacy Creator.
Jass
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
Ashton
I'm so excited to have you. Like we were saying before we hit record, we've been connected for years now, and I just adore you, like not only as a business owner, but as a person. And I'm so excited for our community to get to know you more, um, and to learn just a little bit about your background, not only as a business owner and entrepreneur, but as a nutritionist, because I think that there is this whole other element when we talk about building a sustainable business and being in this for the long haul, like there is the element of like your body and the way that you take care of it, the way that you nourish it, the way that you move it. And I think that's something you definitely live by. And that's personally like tied to your story as well. So I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but I'm so excited you're here. And for those that don't know you, that haven't met you, could you just introduce yourself? Let us know a little bit about who you are, what you do, and maybe just throw in a couple of fun facts.
Jass
Yeah, so I'm Jass. I am a certified holistic nutritionist and community herbalist. I live in Toronto. And when Ashton, when you and I first connected, I was actually living in BC. So like across Canada, and a different part. And it's so cool to like now be able to just like still be connected after I think four years. So it's been just so nice keeping in touch and being able to kind of like grow together. But yeah, I'm a nutritionist and a community herbalist and I predominantly help women with beating their bloat, getting to the root cause of their indigestion and supporting skin. In my practice, I do a lot of candida and parasite cleansing because it is so common these days. I think a lot of us kind of overlook these two categories or might not even know what a candida or a parasite overgrowth looks like. Um, so a lot of my practice is going through those liver cleanses as well as gut healing. And I really got into this space because prior to going to school for nutrition, I struggled with migraines and headaches all the time and I was never finding the right answer. Um, until I like really started to figure this out for myself, do a ton of research, do some testing on myself and notice how much of a huge difference it made on my body. So I just knew in that moment I had to go to school and Show everyone else that there is light at the end of the tunnel if you just like really take care of yourself from the root So I went to school for nutrition because of my headaches and migraines But I think what really got me into the place of where I am today, which is focusing on digestion and skin and candida and parasite cleansing is when I out of the blue got a skin reaction on my face. It was called perioral dermatitis and I had no idea where it came from. It was so bizarre. I've never dealt with skin issues before and I started to do so much research on it, spent hundreds of dollars on supplements, hundreds of dollars on trying to figure out my diet, my lifestyle and nothing was working. until I did a candida and a parasite cleanse and it completely changed my life. That's why I've become so passionate about it because I think that sometimes we really do have to get to the root of the issue to be able to see things get better. It took me three months, three and a half months to really clear. And since then, I practice them yearly because of how much of a difference it's made on my life and on my clients life. So yeah, I see clients one on one for the most part. I also have a ton of ebooks that kind of go through like Candida, parasite, cleansing and supplements, as well as I have a tea brand. So leaves where we sell a a formula for bloat, skin, and detox. And that's been a really cool part of my journey as well, because that product, the tea, really came from just market demand and knowing who my community is.
Ashton
Oh my gosh, what a story. And you just so beautifully and succinctly wrapped it all up in a beautiful bow. I can tell that's not your first time sharing that story. Oh my gosh. I would love, because I'm sure that some of our listeners are like, okay, tell me more about Candida and parasite overgrowth. Like give us a full breakdown of like, how is, how can we know, how does someone know if this is something that they're potentially struggling with? Cause I feel like it's something that a lot of people aren't educated on, including myself. So give us the full breakdown.
Jass
Yeah, it makes me really happy because I'm starting to notice so many more people talk about candida and parasites. I listen to a lot of podcasts and a lot of mainstream media podcasts and so many of them have been talking about candida and parasites and H. pylori because they've become so, so common. Candida, specifically for women, is really, really common because candida feeds off of estrogen. If you have a candida overgrowth, some of the symptoms you might experience are bloat, brain fog, inability to lose weight, not from like a, oh, I want to lose weight to look good, but just like constantly struggling to lose that weight. Skin issues, so eczema, psoriasis, dermatitis, yeast infections, UTIs, those are all really common causes of candida. The way that you would get candida or parasites are very similar too, so it can be from diet, stress, it can be from foods that you're eating, food poisoning, of course there's like so many things that I'm forgetting right now, but it's very, it's really common for us to get because of just the way that we live our lives today and how like the birth control pill medications and all of that but at the end of the day it's like if if you're taking care of yourself if you have enough stomach acid which i know this might be getting a little bit too in depth but when you have the right amount of stomach acid you're taking care of yourself you should be fine it's more so those people who are having those chronic issues with headaches and brain fog I know most of you are probably listening to these symptoms and you're like, okay, I have all of these symptoms, but it really is more so when you're chronically suffering with it. And so it's super important to remove the candida overgrowth from the body. Candida is normal to the body and it's actually healthy to a certain extent, but oftentimes we have it at an overgrowth. So it's really important to be able to detox it from the body, whether you choose to do it medically or holistically. I focus on the holistic way, which can definitely take a lot more time and patience and work, but it does make such a difference in making you feel better than you have ever felt.
Ashton
That is so crazy. I think I've heard maybe one or two other people talk about this. Yeah. I think on Instagram or on a podcast, of course, I haven't sought it out myself. But I do feel like it's something that I've started to see over the last three to six months, talked about more and more by a few different people. Yeah. And it usually comes from their personal experience of discovering that that's what they're struggling with. And they couldn't figure out what was wrong. And they're going to all these doctors. And they're taking all these supplements. And nothing's working. And they eventually figure out like, that's what it is. So, um, and I know your community is like full of people that are trying to figure out how to holistically heal. And that's a huge thing that you help with. Um, which is incredible. So, and I wonder too, like why this is becoming more and more common. I mean, I'm sure some of it is based on lifestyle and just the way we live and what we consume. I don't know if you have any other speculations on that in particular.
Jass
Totally. I think you literally said it. It's the way that we're living. It's the lifestyle. It's the foods that we're eating. But I really think the biggest thing is cortisol. We're hearing people talk about that all the time because we do live in much heavier stress um lifestyles now than we ever have and it's just because of like the way that we're inundated in information with the way that we're like living this like hustle culture at least within like north america we all notice that um so i think it's really just from like high cortisol making symptoms worse which is just like detrimental to our gut health so yeah it's it's crazy i've noticed it so much and i notice for my clients who are like Severely stressed, we can do everything for reducing candida, removing it from the body, but if you are extremely stressed, you can't get rid of it. It's really like a rooted issue in cortisol.
Ashton
Oh my gosh, that makes so much sense. Totally. And I'm curious too, for maybe yourself or maybe your clients that are like chronically stressed, what, what do you recommend? Like, what do you do? Is that something you support with as well? Like lowering stress levels, because I do feel like that is something that's so common in our space. And just even, it kind of comes along with being an entrepreneur and like figuring out your path, you know, like how you're going to build your business. I know there's some seasons of push and pull, but Um, sometimes we even become addicted to stress and we like live in these stress cycles without even really realizing it because we feel like that equals productive. So anyways, I feel like that's something so many people can relate to. What do you do if you find yourself in that position?
Jass
Yeah, as you were saying, as I was like talking about the cortisol, I was like, this is the perfect place to talk about this because I know being an entrepreneur or thinking about having a business stress comes with it, especially when you're not maintaining it. I think that's actually something that I've really had to learn for myself is like, Okay, I can eat all the healthy foods. I can work out. I can hydrate my body. I can do all the things properly. But if I'm not focusing on stress reduction, nothing's going to tie together. You're always going to be in this fight or flight mode. And so I would say, I think the biggest thing I would say is creating a routine. So something I say to my clients a lot is if they have so much on their plate or they've had a family situation, emergency happen, you can't necessarily just take that stress away. You can't just be like, yeah, I'm just going to go down to part-time hours or whatever it may be. That stress or that heaviness in schedule or heaviness in your emotions is going to stay there. It's more so the way that you adapt to it, I think. I'm sure you've heard people talk about this a lot, but blood sugar regulation is a really like hot topic right now is like talking about blood sugar, reducing sugar spikes. And it is for a good reason because the higher our blood sugar spikes, the higher our cortisol is. So I think really just making sure you're eating enough foods. If you're going through a season of really stressful, like, you know, like even like really like good stress, you've like picked up in work, things are getting super busy, or you're launching your products. you do really want to be mindful of that stress not going so severely that your body's starting to compromise for it. So I think routines are really big and also eating enough. So like I was saying, just making sure that you're sitting down to eat your meals, having enough food. I know oftentimes if we're feeling stressed out, we tend to skip meals. I just started working with a client too who was talking to me about how She'll just have coffee throughout the day and she's like, I'll feel hungry, but then I'll just have a cup of coffee and then it'll just like satiate my hunger. And I was like, okay, why don't we, because I'm like, she has so much on her plate. I'm not just going to be like, quit coffee. You're good. Like we're going to be fine because that is the most frustrating thing to hear. And also she's going to be like, okay, I don't want to work with you anymore. And I've just learned through working with clients for so long that you have to make it attainable to them. So I was like, okay, instead of having coffee throughout the day, let's like, at least try to have a snack. If it's a handful of almonds and then have your coffee. If it's like, okay, I'm just going to sit down and have a smoothie. And then I'll ask myself if I need a coffee, there's certain things that you can do that are just going to help to stabilize cortisol so that when you're having that coffee, it's not exactly just like spiking your stress levels. I think that's really important to be mindful, whether you reduce coffee, switch it to matcha, or just at least eat enough prior to having a coffee. And then another thing that I was saying is routines. I think routines are so important, especially if you work for yourself or you're working on a business, you could work 24 seven, but I think it's so important to have like certain structures. And so for myself and something that I say to my clients is like, have at least an hour to two hours to yourself in the morning. It doesn't mean you have to have this crazy morning routine, but just don't wake up 30 minutes before you have to start work or 30 minutes before you have to head out the door. Getting sunlight first thing in the morning or a walk or a workout in which I know you do is so important and it just sets your body up for success. So many people, um, often my clients will be like, I don't, I don't want to work out in the morning because I'll get tired. But now like when you work out in the morning, you notice you end up actually having so much more energy throughout the day. And you probably notice that too. I feel like you've been working out in the mornings ever since I've known you.
Ashton
Yeah. I'm like a morning person through and through. Yeah.
Jass
Same.
Ashton
So if I try to work out in the evening, it's just like I'll have the intention, but it will never, ever happen. Never. Same. So yeah, I work out in the mornings. And that works for me. Sometimes I do hit a slump right after. If I do a really tough workout, I'll be super tired. But then once I have my breakfast and I get into my day, that energy does pick up. And I feel that difference throughout the rest of the day for sure.
Jass
Yeah and I think it's like it helps you like sustain your energy throughout the day as because like you're getting your brain moving you're getting your body moving whereas like if you were just waking up and getting right into work sometimes I'll be honest sometimes I do that if I have clients in Europe and we have early calls but then I always give myself at least an hour to just like wake my body up. It doesn't mean you have to have this crazy routine, but just allowing yourself that time and space to take care of yourself prior to going in and supporting other people.
Ashton
It's so true. I feel like the way you start your day, it just sets the tone for the rest of the entire day. And I know it looks different for everyone and I'm over here like eight plus months pregnant. So I will have like a child that I'm sustaining. And so I'm sure my morning routine is going to be different. Like I have the luxury right now of being able to have like a long, like super spacious morning routine. And I probably do things that I maybe won't be able to do in the future or for a period of time, but I do feel like getting up like I like to make my bed first thing, like set the tone, get things organized and then like go outside. Ideally, if it's not like freezing cold, go outside and move my body. Even if that's a walk, it's a stretch. Um, it's a full blown workout. Like I don't care if it's 10 minutes that always like just sets the tone for the rest of the entire day. So I love that. I love too, that you hit on making sure that you're eating enough because, Oh my gosh, there's just so much to even cover within that one topic. Um, I, when, when Josh and I were trying to get pregnant, um, there were a few months where we didn't get pregnant, which isn't really that bad. You know, there are people that it takes a really long time or they really struggle. And, you know, I'm super mindful of that and super grateful that we were able to get pregnant after a few months, but there were a few months where we were struggling. And I was like, why? Like, I'm like super healthy. Like I'm doing all the right things. My friend had recently accidentally got pregnant too. And I'm like, what the heck? What's wrong with me? Like, why am I not getting pregnant? And one of the things that I did the month that we ended up conceiving as I started eating a lot more. Um, and having a lot of like healthy fats and protein, um, at that time I was fasting. I don't know why I had just kind of got gotten used to it. Um, and I'd like to start my day with a bit of fasting and then I would eat something mid morning, but that wasn't working for me. Like I wasn't getting enough. nutrients. And it was like, as soon as I made that change, we ended up getting pregnant. And I was like, Oh my gosh, it could be like as simple as that. I know not maybe for everyone, but it just goes to show the role that like nutrition and eating enough plays. I know so many entrepreneurs that. Yeah. Like skip meals. Don't eat breakfast. Don't even dare to eat lunch. And then you have like this one big meal in the evening, maybe, and you're drinking coffee all day. And so no wonder, like you were, I feel like stressed out because of that as well. Yes. That spikes stress, right?
Jass
It adds so much more. And it's funny because I actually think about my entrepreneur friends and even myself for the first few years of business, I was doing the same thing. I was like, oh, I'm not hungry in the morning, so I'm just going to have coffee on an empty stomach. And then I'll eat whenever I eat. And it would be grazing all day, which again, you're getting no nutrients, no protein to sustain you. I know that so for myself like I didn't eat in the mornings for the longest time and I would say in the past like year and a half I've been like very very intentional about eating breakfast like just making sure that I do not have a coffee until I have breakfast and It's like crazy to even think because it's like, well, yeah, that's like normal living. But I think we've just gotten to this place where there's so much information about nutrition, about diets, about like the way you should be living your life that it's hard to know like who to listen to and what to do. And so anyways, I when I started to get intentional about this, I would have breakfast and I would be so full, like like that, like really groggy, full feeling that like you get on a call with a client and you just feel not great, you know? And so I know so many people will say to me, like, I don't eat in the mornings because I get nauseous or I get full or I get groggy. If that's you, oftentimes if you're not hungry in the morning, it's because you're getting a super high cortisol spike. As I'm talking, I'm like, this conversation is so about cortisol and it so makes sense because, like, all of us are working, just working towards a better life. And with that comes stress sometimes. Um, so I would get really stressed. My cortisol would be super high. And so if you're someone who's not hungry in the mornings, it's super important to eat in order to level that out. If you're feeling like you're just not hungry or you're feeling groggy, have something like digestive bitters prior to a meal. This really helped me feel so much better after eating meals and not feeling super full. Um, there's, um, organic, have you heard of organic Olivia?
Ashton
I don't think so.
Jass
Okay, I'm thinking so in Canada, we have St. Francis Canadian bitters. Those are incredible. They're my favorite bitters out there, but there's also an alternative. You can sometimes get them in the U.S. I like make all my clients get them in the U.S. We like find loopholes, but Organic Olivia has a really great digestive aid as well. If you just take a few drops of this prior to a meal, it helps to secrete stomach acids, and really gets your digestive juices flowing so that you feel hungry and your body digests the food better so that you don't have that feeling of not feeling hungry and truly having breakfast first thing in the morning, especially if you're working, you're going to be able to sustain that energy all throughout the day without feeling like you need those few cups of coffee. So I just wanted to point that out because the amount of times I hear I'm not hungry in the morning or I'm nauseous in the morning, It's so valid, but we have to get to a place where our bodies are getting nutrients prior to having a really heavy work day, you know?
Ashton
For sure. So we do keep coming back to this concept of cortisol spikes. Yeah. So I'm curious, from your perspective, having worked with so many clients, and even thinking about your clientele that's maybe business owners, because I know that you support you know, people outside of that, but you also do help other business owners that are building their business in the nutrition realm. So someone coming from that background, like what are the most common factors that you see creating those cortisol spikes right now?
Jass
Yeah, so like how business owners are getting stressed out? Yes. So I would say like definitely having this like hustle mindset like of like just going into business and like going really hard into it without like taking breaks or acknowledging the fact that like you have to have this type of balance. I'm sure you relate to this. I know I relate to this. When I first started my business, I just didn't have a life like I worked 24-7. And sometimes it can be like that too still if you like, like you said, there's like push and pull seasons of business. Sometimes it's you're able to kind of relax a bit. Other times there's things going on and you're working so much more. So I think not having that balance can cause all these disruptions and also just not taking care of yourself. Like as I was saying before too, it's like if you are super stressed out, let's say you're on calls nine to five, which I remember when we first started working together, I would take like seven calls a day and it was, I can't even imagine doing that today. Um, but even if you do have that and you're super busy and you've, you have to take these calls taking the time to take care of yourself and having space for yourself prior to getting into work is going to make such a difference. And I just think that we're in a space maybe where it's harder to take care of yourself because in your mind, you're just focused on the business so often.
Ashton
Oh my gosh, I so So really, I just created a piece of content recently where I was reminiscing on the fact that I used to also take a good amount of calls each day. Some days it would be like between six and seven calls that are hour long. You're sitting at your desk, you know, you're coaching, you're supporting in between, you know, you're just trying to find time to go to the bathroom. Yeah. And I would not eat. Like I would start my day. I think with working out, but I would have some sort of like protein shake, which is, which is fine, but that's all I would have. I would not have lunch. I would get to the end of the day. I would have all of these notes that I would have to compile and get back to people. Yeah. And you know, it'd be like seven or eight and I haven't eaten, I haven't taken a break and I feel so sick to my stomach, so nauseous. It's like no wonder because like you have not taken care of yourself. And I know that that sounds like To some people listening, that might sound like, well, yeah, that's nice. That's such a luxury to be able to take care of yourself. But actually, no, it's really, really not. I do not care how busy you are. Like I think of someone like a Tony Robbins. He gets up at like four in the morning. to be able to do his routine of like cold plunge, sauna, workout, eat, and then go have a huge day of work where you're in meetings and you're, you know, doing speaking engagements and whatever it is that you're doing. It's like the bigger your vision and the more that you want to do, I feel like truly the more you have to figure out how to take care of yourself. And it doesn't have to mean like we're going to have like an hour of self-care and you're going to journal and we're going to like have your fancy coffee with you. And no, it's just like move your body, eat food and figure out like a semblance of balance for your season. And I personally think that balance looks different for every person in every single season. It's finding what is that for you right now? If you're in a push season and you have a ton of meetings and maybe you are like super excited about what you're doing, or you need the cash to like fund your business. That's a very real thing. That's totally fair. And I'm never going to deny that, but you have to figure out around that. How are you taking care of you? Even if it's like, a half an hour block here, a 15 minute block there. If you don't do that, you won't be here doing what you're doing one, two, three years from now.
Jass
It's so true. And I feel like I could talk about this for days because it's so common to just really hustle in the business and forget about everything and be like, OK, I'm going to take care of myself once I get to this point, or once this launches, or whatever it may be. But it just ends up declining so much more. And even as a nutritionist, when I first started getting super busy at work. I was like, okay, I am just going to focus on my clients. I'm going to focus on the work I have to do. And then I'll take care of myself when I have a few months of time to do it. And then that's when I was fasting. I was relying on coffee. And I was like, okay, number one, I have to practice what I preach. And two, This is so not sustainable. I got to a place where I was like the busiest I've ever been. I was making the most money I've ever had in that moment and I was like this isn't even worth it. I feel horrible. You know that feeling when you like wake up right before, like maybe half an hour before a call, you have a coffee, you have like some water and you have like a bagel or whatever it may be for breakfast. And then you just feel like you're running off of sugar all day. That's how I felt within that entire time frame. And since taking care of myself, I feel totally energized for the day when I start my day at eight or nine, but it's really like what you do prior. And sometimes that means like doing nothing, going for a walk, no headphones, or maybe you're listening to a podcast but you're just like honing in on yourself and not on social media and what's going on in the world too. Or like as you said with Tony Robbins too, it's like he cold plunges, he does this and that. Know that you do not have to do that. You can do a cold shower. You don't even have to do that. I don't even do that. I like focus on other things that make me feel really good that I really enjoy because I think too like something that makes it unattainable for people is that health and wellness these days seems so expensive and like a luxury because of the cold plunges and because of all these like meditations and you know all of that stuff, the fitness classes and as much as I love that, I live for that stuff, I also want people to know like you can do so much for free too. You don't have to be spending $300 a month to have a membership somewhere, you can just go for a walk. Walking is a life-changing hack for anyone, whether you're a business owner or if you're unemployed, it doesn't matter.
Ashton
Oh my gosh, it's so, so true. And I think, too, it just goes to show the level of life that you're living, the level of business that you're building, those routines and habits can always build and they can always grow. So maybe you have that dream where you're like, I would love to cold plunge one day, which I'm like, you're crazy. My dad does it. My husband does it. He wants to get an official plunge because we only have a pool and it's just not cold enough here throughout the year. He loves it. I'm like, man, y'all are crazy. I just don't know if I can get into it. I'm like, maybe I could do some red light therapy or something like that. But I haven't gotten into those practices. And it is expensive. It can get insanely expensive. So the whole point is you don't have to do all of these extravagant things. It's figuring out. What is the thing or the things that you can do that you want to do that, you know, you need to do in this season right now, like do what you can with what you have. And if that's going for a walk, that's awesome. If that's like using your yoga mat, that's great. Like whatever it is, but you got to do something.
Jass
Yeah, exactly and even like as we were talking about before like maybe the actual hack to feeling better is one less cup of coffee so like there's things that you can always include but there's also certain things that you can remove as well and You know like for those who are doing the cold plunges the sauna the meditation classes the fitness classes the whole 30 diet But are still like super high stress, that's where the issue is like it's going to be so you really have to focus in on the stress because you can do all these other modalities. They're incredible for your health. There's so many amazing benefits. But mentally, you have to make sure that that cortisol is down as well.
Ashton
So true. In that same vein, I'm curious if you have any favorite health practices to promote that stamina and sustainability, specifically for the entrepreneur. And it could even be the small things, like removing a cup of coffee a day. It could be some of the bigger things. But what are some of the things that you're recommending to your clients? What are some of the things that have worked for you over the years?
Jass
There's a, I feel like the longer I'm in practice, the more I'm starting to realize like the beauty of just simplicity and like really getting down to the roots. I think when I first started practicing and when I first got into the health field, I was someone who had like a list of 40 things of like, can these do this, this and this, I need to take these supplements. And I've realized that removing so much of that has actually caused Has released so much stress and has allowed me just to feel so much more free Even like when I used to travel I would like take all these supplements with me do this entire practice and now when I travel I'll like take a few things and I just enjoy my time and I feel great because My stress is so much better less so much less severe. But I would say one thing that you can do if you are someone who is drinking coffee and you're feeling like it's just not working for you anymore, you could switch to matcha. I really like switching the coffee for a matcha. I have matcha I would say every day. But I will also have a coffee in the morning. So if I like need something in the afternoon, I'll have a matcha And what I like about matcha is that it's not giving you that like spike in energy Sometimes I just can't do a coffee because it'll give you that like jittery feeling or that feeling of like hyper focus Which I feel like is better used at like a workout as opposed to me sitting at my desk working or being on a call and So I really like how much is sustained energy. It's gonna keep you balanced throughout the day It's gonna give you energy, but it also provides you with so many antioxidants. So it's just supporting your body on a hydration level and on a cellular cellular level as well in terms of Brands, I really love a photo. It's super high quality super like tastes amazing and it's very premium. Another thing I would say, I know we like go back to walking, but taking walks in between the day. So if I have like a 30 minute kind of break, I'll just either go outside or go for a walk without earphones, just like kind of like in my thoughts and like releasing energy. When you're walking, it's so much easier for you to release stagnant energy because you have movement going. And it's so easy to just kind of like sit at your desk for the 30 minutes, prepare for the call, which sometimes you have to do. But I think just walking out getting fresh air is really helpful. Another thing I've been recently incorporating is electrolytes because it depends on like if you're drinking filtered water, if you're drinking tap water, and if you're exercising, if you're walking, if you're stressed, you're removing a lot of electrolytes from your body. I really like Elemente. Have you tried it?
Ashton
I have because my friend has it, but I actually have it on my list to get because I like need it for like birth and postpartum and all the things. But yeah, that brand is so delicious. It's yum.
Jass
yeah yeah it's so good i love how it's like super salty so i've been having that um usually like in the evenings and i just find like in between like finishing the day off to dinner it just gives me like a really good balance in like blood sugar and like natural energy where it's like there's no um like increase like output or anything. It's just, it just helps to balance me out. And then I think like also having herbal teas throughout the day. I think a lot of us drink a ton of water and we focus on having so much water, but at the end of the day, water is hydration, but it's also a diuretic. So what can we add to our water to give us better nutrients, better minerals and just support the body better. So For example, having like an electrolyte drink is great. Just having sea salt in your water can be enough or having an herbal tea that actually gives you some kind of benefit. So if it's peppermint to reduce blow to cool the body, I don't know if anyone finds this helpful, but I, in like really hot seasons, I love drinking cold peppermint tea because it just like naturally cools your body down. So especially for, I remember when we, We're living in BC in one of our places. We didn't have air conditioning So we would just drink cold peppermint tea and it felt so like it was actually genuinely like cooling. It felt so nice And yeah, I'd say I have like one to two herbal teas a day because they really do support whether it's your skin your digestion your liver To just kind of like bring you back to balance
Ashton
Oh my gosh, all of that is so good. And now that we're talking about tea, like we have to talk about your organic tea company. So you are not only a nutritionist, so you help people with candida, parasites, etc. You also help business owners building their nutrition business. And then on top of that, like, why not? Let's just add something else. And you have a company. So tell us about that company and like, what inspired you to start it? What is it like? I mean, just give us the full shebang.
Jass
Yeah, there's as if like there isn't enough on my plate already, but it's honestly truly out of so much passion It's been so much fun and like obviously so much work and like so many things that have never come to the surface that people see um, but it's been so like, um Just incredible. I love it. So I yeah, so I have a tea company and it's herbal organic teas that really are made for purpose So we have one for bloat one for skin and one for detoxification As I was saying, I work with a lot of candida and parasite cleansing, so the detoxification one is one of the best formulas for my entire community. But it really started from when I first started doing a candida cleanse, I was doing a lot of research on herbs and like what to take to support candida to remove candida and parasites from the body. So I created this formula that I was having every single day. And one of my friends after a while was like, you should make a tea like you should sell one like I feel like people would love this. And I remember in that moment, this was in 20 19, 20, 2018. And I was like, no, like, I don't, I don't know if I should. And then I like took a look at everything. I was like, Hey, what's like the minimal vile product that I can create to just like get it out on the market and see if people would want this. And I remember getting the cost and it was like $480, like something along those lines to just like get the first few out there. And I remember being like, I can't afford that right now. Like I am trying to pay off Like over $50,000 in school debt. I am like trying to pay rent, like all these things. And I was like, I'm not going to do it. And then after a while, I was like, Hey, I'm just going to test it out. I'll just do it. This is going to be an investment, but we'll see. And it ended up selling out in presale right away. And so I just like ran with it. And I kept like I went from I think we've had three iterations now of like the design. But I just like kept formulating it. I had like a small company that small business that was helping me create it. I was formulating it, they were creating it. And then we just like really ran with it. And it was doing so well that in 20 23 of last year, we did like a full rebrand to really bring it out to the market and be able to wholesale, have it at shops, have it at cafes, and just be able to like support people more. So the two things that I noticed that my audience was struggling with were bloat, of course, which was our number one formula and the best seller. And then skin was a huge one, as well as detoxification. So we brought those two out on the market after testing them for months. And they've been working so synergistically together, which has been amazing.
Ashton
Oh my gosh. I love it. That's just so incredible. I love that it started as your own personal journey. And then your friend is like, Oh my gosh, you should create a T and you should like sell it. And it's just this passion project. And I think even going back to your roots of like, man, $400, like that's too much. I can't do it. And it just goes to show that like, sometimes things just take time to like, get in place and like you have to have that patience. And I'm so glad that you stuck with it and you pursued it because your community loves the teas and they're so beautifully branded as well. Like I'm going to make sure we have everything linked in the notes. But I'm curious, since we're talking about stress management, What is it like for you running multiple companies and just even the difference between a service-based business and a product-based business? Because I know we have a lot of people in our community that are in service-based industries, but they have this passion for some sort of product. So any advice, anything from your personal journey that you want to share?
Jass
Yeah. Okay. So I was actually going to say, I think, didn't you have products before too, the mugs, right? I still have that mug.
Ashton
So before this company, I ran a print publication. So that was like my big product based business. And then our mug is like, it's really just for our clients and inside. Okay.
Jass
Okay, fair. I love it. Yeah, no, it is so different. The energy is vastly different compared to like, in compared to working one on one or even group programs versus the product. But I really like that I've come to realize that I am just multi passionate. And I always remember being like, okay, just like figure out what you want to do and just stick to one thing. But I've now realized that It's actually one of my strong suites is having a ton of things that I'm passionate about and being able to kind of like jump around and see what feels best in like certain seasons. So for example, with leaves, I know like there's certain seasons for tea, right? Like there's, we're coming now to a season where it's not super busy. So we're promoting our cold brew teas, but I'm also like this is a perfect time for me to hone in on other stuff while leaves is working for itself versus the holiday season or the winter season where it's like all hands on deck. And so for me, I find that it's really important to have certain days where I'm working on different projects, you actually helped me so much with this and just being like, choose two days of the week where it is just leaves. And if things happen in nourish with jazz, you're just going to focus on that the next day, of course, unless it's like urgent. And that's really helps me kind of like, no, okay, Mondays is nourish with jazz, which is my consulting business. And then Tuesdays is a full day for leave. So then I just like create tasks for each week and just know what works and like time batching and it just helps me like disperse my energy into what needs um its most energy as well as i don't know if this helps for anyone too but i've also i think you do this too ashton but for One-on-one calls, I have specific days where I schedule those. I'll never have like a random one-on-one call on a Monday. It's always either Tuesdays and Wednesdays because I know I'm going to that call and I'm showing up 100%. Even with our call today, I scheduled it specifically on a day where I know I'm not doing anything but focusing on my clients or calls. So I find that's really helpful. I'm definitely not the type of person who can bounce around to like different tasks. And I don't think any of us are. I think it's so important to feel in tune with like the tasks that you're doing.
Ashton
It's so true. Like any way that you can stay in the same or similar energetic space. And if that's like all interviews, that's a certain type of energetic space versus content creation, copywriting, or whatever it may be, client work. So yeah, I do the same thing and I had to learn that the hard way because I didn't originally. And if you don't and you are jumping around so much, you just feel frantic. It's like that frantic energy.
Jass
Yeah. And you feel like you didn't get anything done, you know, like it's like when you have, I love the feeling of knowing, okay, I'm just showing up for my calls. I'm doing 120% per client and then I can focus on everything else the next day. And I think that also comes with like having the like ability to make your own schedule, but there's so many things that we can do just to like, change the schedule a bit to be able to show up. And then on top of that, how I really show up for the business every day is like the things that I do before work and after work to make me feel really good, whether that's like preparing my meals so that I am actually having lunch and actually having breakfast, to working out, to walking, hydrating, all of those things as well. And when you take care of yourself, when you actually give yourself that time to nourish, you can show up even on the toughest days because your body is sustaining itself.
Ashton
It's so true. I love too that you mentioned just embracing the ebb and flow between the different companies and different projects that you're working on. I feel like people in our space are so obsessed with this fantasy of a linear trajectory. We're always just going up, up, up, up. Every month is better than the previous. Every quarter is better than the previous. Every year is better. We're doubling and tripling revenue. And it's just like, there are some seasons of business where it's going to be like that. And you ride that wave, and you love it and then celebrate it while it's there. But there is going to be an ebb and a flow. And there's going to be a push and a pull. That's so true in product-based businesses. I think it's applicable across the board, but especially in product-based businesses. So it's just knowing sometimes you have to ride those waves and be willing to continue to foster the vision that you have. Your passion for leaves isn't any less just because people might be a little bit slower to purchase in the summer. We're just going to find creative, fun ways to sell in the summer. And then we know that like fall and winter is about to be like all hands on deck, all the things happening. And you have to be bought into your vision enough to ride those low seasons, just as much as you do those like high, like big, revenue and big momentous seasons too.
Jass
Totally. And it's like you always have to take yourself back to your why. If your why isn't strong enough, it's going to be so easy to just quit and be like, okay, that sucks. I think I'm ready to move on to something else. But if you really see your why, it's hard to want to quit. And I think too, like something that I focus on is like, I know because I've been doing, uh, because I've been working in leaves for a while, I know that the summertime is always just a slower month for every tea company. Um, so instead of like focusing on the sales there, I just focus on education, like educate your people because when you educate them, they intuitively want your product or want your services because they feel seen. They feel like you're actually speaking to them and they feel like they're a part of your community. I can relate to this in so many ways. Whenever I purchase something like I am so careful with the way that like I really watch the way that I purchase product in order to kind of relate it back to like the customer journey. And it's always think about Instagram. Instagram pages that you follow that are just products, small product based. If they're educating you on there and they're having fun and they're like really captivating you, you're going to continue staying on their page and buying their products. But if it's just like to sell or if it's just kind of like beautiful photos, it's harder to stay on there. So even for like with your page, Ashton, like there's so much information on there that like someone could spend hours on there and like learn so much and I think that's what's so important about being a business owner is like educating first and knowing that like the sales or the strategy is gonna come after you just have to like be there for your people first and not get so ahead of the game.
Ashton
Oh my gosh, it's so good. Be there for your people first. It's like such a simple concept, but seriously so powerful. And it's what makes I feel for a loyal community and a loyal customer base too.
Jass
Yes. Yeah. And I think like, especially when I work with nutritionists, I think one of the things that I notice so quickly and I totally feel it, I understand it so much, but there'll be like, well, I just don't want to like give stuff away for free or I don't want to like, spend so much time like educating on this when I could be getting paid and I'm like But you have to show your people who you are prior to them wanting to work with you You know like you I think like in order to have like a really incredible community you have to be giving back to them, too
Ashton
Absolutely. So good. I feel like we covered so many bases in this conversation and this is going to be so impactful for our listeners. I'm so excited to share. Um, I want to make sure that we have everything linked for you, but while you're here, tell our listeners, how can they connect with you? Like, where should they go? Plug all the things, anything upcoming that we should know about? Just let us know.
Jass
Yeah, you can find me on Instagram and TikTok at nourishwithjass, J-A-S-S. I also have a podcast, The Nourish Podcast. If you're curious about candida or parasite cleansing or just gut health in general, I have so many episodes on that. I like to do like Q&A listener episodes. So a lot of them are just like questions from my community and have been so impactful. And then, yeah, you can find me at nourishwithjass.com for everything else in my website.
Ashton
Yeah. And then everything for like the teas is linked through that brand as well. So I know if they want to find that too. Yeah. Cool. Amazing. Amazing. Well, thank you so much for your time, Jess. This was so incredible.
Jass
Thank you so much. It was so nice reconnecting with you.
