House of JerMar
Welcome to the House of JerMar Podcast where Wellness Starts Within. The House of JerMar is a lifestyle brand empowering women to live all in through interior design and personal wellness. We are a destination for women ready to reimagine what is possible in their homes and lives and then create it.
Each week, our host Jeanne Collins, will invite guests to share how they focus on inner wellness through home and life design. Jeanne is an award-winning interior designer, published author, mindset coach, and motivational speaker. Her stories and life are examples of how to find wellness within.
If you are feeling stuck, unmotivated, or unsure of how to live all in, together, we can learn to create lush inner sanctuaries that fill us with self-confidence, peace, and a feeling of purpose in this world.
Welcome to the House of JerMar community. We are honored to have you join us on our mission to empower 1 million women to live all-in!
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House of JerMar
Why Women's Wellness Needs a Revolution with MyStart Health CEO
Rethinking about your hard. What if the small hard thing you choose today could spare you from the bigger pain you fear most? This week, we sit down with entrepreneur-turned-wellness-builder Matt Stern to trace the arc from a 300 sq ft pool house to $300M+ in business outcomes—and why he pivoted to women’s health with a new mission grounded in family, freedom, and real results. The story moves fast: early startup lessons in growth, the power of purpose over pure hustle, and the moment he saw GLP‑1 meds not as shortcuts, but as lifelines that help people finally build sustainable habits.
We go deep on the hormone health gap. Matt shares his wife’s frustrating journey to find a clinician who would listen, his mother’s preventable osteoporosis, and how decades-old fear has kept too many women suffering in perimenopause and menopause. We talk about what needs to change: access, evidence-based education, and personalization that meets each woman’s biology and goals. From brain fog and sleep to bone health and even female hair loss, the conversation connects dots that mainstream care often misses—and outlines how a for-women, by-women telehealth approach can center expertise and dignity.
Along the way, we get tactical. A daily walk paired with a positive podcast. Breathwork that doubles as meditation and a nervous system reset. Consistency over intensity. By the end, “choose your hard” sounds less like grit and more like self-respect—a way to make tomorrow lighter by taking a compassionate step today.
If this resonates, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a boost, and leave a quick review so more people can find these tools. Your support helps us move closer to empowering one million women to live all in.
Matt's book recommendation: Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday
More about Matt:
Matt Stern is more than just a growth marketing expert, he’s a self-made entrepreneur, father, and story-driven leader who went from being homeless to generating over $300M in collective business revenue. As the CEO of The Stern Group and MyStart Health, Matt has helped build and scale multiple brands, but his real mission lies in helping others balance business success with life’s deeper challenges.
Whether he's discussing high-impact marketing, the raw truths of fatherhood and resilience, or how a single round of golf can reveal everything about a person, Matt brings authenticity, strategy, and lived experience to every conversation.
https://thesterngroup.com
https://www.mystarthealth.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/thesterngroup/posts/?feedView=all
https://www.instagram.com/the_stern_group/
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Read Jeanne's Book: Two Feet In: Lessons From an All-In Life
WELCOME TO OUR HOUSE!
The thing that really registered with me with the choose your hard kind of like mentality. And I've now I've I feel like I've gotten hit with a lot of that from like top thinkers in the like personal development space. I hear that theme kind of run true. But it's just it is so true that like whatever you're prepared for to take on, and the harder you can take something on, the easier everything else becomes. And so like it's to me way harder to think about sitting in a hospital bed at the age of 70 with heart issues and diabetes than like the daily practices of going for a walk and making the right decisions with diet. And like if you just have that perspective that life is pretty damn short, and I'll be 70 before I know it, um, it's coming. Like, and there's no avoiding that. And so, like, what are the hard things that I can choose every day that are hard, but they're like amazingly transformative too. Like, it was way harder for me to live with a weight on my chest and like every day be like in this fierce state of like anxiety, and that pressure was way harder than anything that I've chosen to do.
SPEAKER_00:Welcome to the House of Germar podcast, where wellness starts within. The House of Germans is a lifestyle brand empowering women to live all in through interior design and personal wellness. We are a destination for women ready to reimagine what is possible in their homes and lives and then create it. We are honored to have you join us on our mission to empower one million women to live all in. I am your host, Gene Collins, and I invite you to become inspired by this week's guest. Welcome to Hazard Jerm R podcast, where wellness starts within. I'm your host, Gene Collins, and today we have Matt Stern on, and I am so excited to talk to Matt. I actually just got introduced to him. So I'm gonna learn, along with everybody, about all the amazing things that Matt does. But first, we're gonna let Matt share his story because his story is really empowering, and then we are going to dig into wellness and his businesses. And get ready, everybody. I'm going to dig into hormone health with Matt. And I am so excited to talk to him. So, Matt, welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_01:Thanks, Gene. So great to meet you today. And yeah, I was looking forward to this. It's exciting.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, this is so fun. So, just to give everybody an idea, I love to tell people kind of how we get connected because I think it helps people recognize that, you know, you should always just ask for certain things. So, someone from Matt's team reached out to me on LinkedIn to connect with me on LinkedIn. And I don't just say yes to anybody anymore because I found it is Matt and I were talking about this, it's messing up my LinkedIn algorithm because I'm getting connected to people that I don't really want to be connected with. And so LinkedIn keeps thinking that like that's who my target audience is, and that's who I want to connect with and be friends with. So I don't automatically say yes, and I do look into people when they reach out and ask to get connected to me on LinkedIn. And I started digging into Matt a little bit, and I was like, oh my goodness, not only am I happy to connect with you, but I was like, I actually want to talk to you. I actually want you on my podcast. And I'm going to bring up one thing that I watched the first video that I watched on your LinkedIn profile, and you are in a pink shirt and you have a baseball hat on backwards, hence, um, feel totally comfortable wearing a baseball hat. And the whole thing is about your why and the fact that your toes are pink. You had me at the why, and we're gonna dig into that a little bit because your why about why you do the things that you do, we're gonna dig into that and wellness. But before we do, on your website, everything about you, it talks about how you went from being completely broke to building, I don't want to get the numbers wrong, people,$300 million in collective businesses. And by the way, folks, he's the CEO of the Stern Group and My Start help. So he's super successful. Can you share a little bit about that journey before we dig into everything else?
SPEAKER_01:Hey, T Gene. Yeah, um, happy to. I uh, you know, like everyone, I feel like I'm still just kind of starting and figuring out this journey, but I'm 20 years now with perspective into building businesses, which is wild to think about. But yeah, I love that that first video connected with you because that that is where I'm at in this phase in life, right? This phase and this next phase of you know being in your 40s and having a family and now trying to restart companies in this phase is completely different than the previous phases that I've been through and the why shifts as well. But now there's nothing else that gets me up in the morning besides my daughter and my family. So yeah, I think going back 20 years, I guess a little further than that, but coming out of high school, I had everything growing up. You know, like when you think about my my journey really starts with being super privileged, um, honestly. And so, like most of my gratitude, I think, stems from having two amazing parents that loved me fully and raised me with a lot of love and compassion for other people. And that's kind of, I think, the foundation of how I was built. But unfortunately, my dad battled demons that we didn't know about when I was a kid. My dad at one point was diagnosed bipolar, and it explained a lot of the things that we dealt with as a family as I grew up, where he would go through periods of uh just like everything, you know, being on top of the world, right? And like everything being amazing and then being then very disconnected and guarded in these kind of ups and downs that he went through. You could see it through over years of that would pass and like our family's history. And it all came to kind of a head. My senior year of high school, he had seemingly, I you know, what I've come to a conclusion now is like been out of work for a long time. He had been an entrepreneur, had created multiple businesses, but was never very good at managing his money. And I think he had just one venture on top of us buying a home and re and doing construction on that home, which he had no business managing, where he just got totally over his head. And he wound up taking out debt and my name, my mom's name, obviously in his, and uh really burying our family in financial debt. And at that point, my parents sold the house and my mom and I had nowhere to turn. And I look at that kind of as my starting point because we were taken in by family friends. My mom and I moved into a pool house that was about 300, 400 square feet, where some friends of our family built a wall in the middle of this pool house and put put in a little like kitchenette um where we had a plug-in stove, electric skillet. And my mom and I moved in there, and that's where I spent my freshman year of college. So instead of going off to school and you know, doing what all my buddies were doing uh at all the big universities, I was home living across the wall from my mom. And yeah, I've been back there since, and it gives me chills, uh, like literally brought me to tears the second I walked down this little road to the house and saw the pool house. And so I think the pool house is where I've kind of anchored myself from uh like emotional strength perspective and said, like, I'll never be back there, right? Like that's where I, you know, I'll never be back there. And from that moment forward, I committed myself to just doing everything as well as I could do it. Um, so working it my ass off, um, you know, getting a 4.0 in school, I wound up getting a full ride to go to Cal Berkeley and graduated from there, which I never thought I would do. And then, you know, that just the way life works. I had no idea what I wanted to do after. I thought I was gonna be a lawyer because that's what my cousins did and thought that was kind of the path. Like made sense to me. I liked like critical thinking. I liked uh speaking. I I liked argumentation. Uh, but like the actual thought of signing up for debt and getting$200,000 in debt or whatever law school was gonna cost me uh when I had just gotten a full ride to go to school and had worked my ass off to get through it without debt made no sense to me. So I was like, I'm gonna see what's out there. And I wound up finding these, finding these guys. There were four guys in an office in Soma, San Francisco. And the CEO got on the whiteboard, he was a cow guy too, and just drew this diagram of the whiteboard. He said, We're gonna build a platform that understands the lifetime value of a customer from the first time they see an ad online to the last time they interact with that brand. And from that, we're gonna have the ability to optimize the entire journey of a customer online. And I was like, I have no idea what that means, but that sounds really cool. I'm in. You want what do you want me to do? Um, and so they paid me 30 grand a year and I was answering phones, I was writing web copy, but I was working for the founders of the company. And that was like my MBA in digital marketing. That's you know where I learned it all because I got to see literally what do you describe from the advertising piece through the call center, through our merchant process, every piece that goes into running a digital business or an e-commerce business. I was on the ground floor and we went from zero to 60 million over three years. We were incredibly successful. And so I got to see the company go from four employees to a hundred employees and zero to sixty million. And overnight we were moving buildings and we were going through the whole like Silicon Valley dream, right? It was amazing.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. And hopefully you got paid more than 30 grand.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, not for a long time. No, they paid me nothing, but like it didn't matter because I loved it so much. I felt like I was a part of something that was really special. And that's something that like now in my new businesses, I really want to create for the people that I'm bringing on board because I can feel how how special that energy was when we were just like 24 and trying to prove ourselves and like we're willing to do whatever it takes to make that business successful, is really powerful. Um, yeah, eventually I made more money, but like it was it was years into it before like I really earned significantly more, like what would be what would be a living wage today. Because but we just loved it and we were all invested in the business. We were all rolling together, and it was really exciting and fun. And then 2009, I had the opportunity to go out on my own and start my own um business, and that's what I did. So at 27, I started my first company um with an incredible business partner who was a mentor to me and kind of like big brother to me. We did that for nine years, uh, where we invested in companies and grew businesses using our strength in digital marketing. And that's where that$300 million number comes from, right? It's like we continually used our expertise in growth marketing to latch on to businesses where we thought they had incredible potential, but didn't really know what they were doing from a digital execution perspective. And that's what we had. We had a team of experts that were at one point, like 20 folks that were experts at what they did in digital growth. And we continue to replicate that business by business. And that's been the formula that I've continued to grow and and build from. So that brings us forward to today and and what we're doing with my start. And yeah, it's been a it's been a ride. It's wild to think about.
SPEAKER_00:And I love that. And there's so many things that you said that are so interesting, you know. A, which is you started out having no idea where you were going, which I can truly appreciate because so many of us don't. And so many people as entrepreneurs, we ebb and flow and we grow and we get interested in different things and we change paths and we start stuff and we stop stuff and we start stuff and we start stuff. And you know, that's kind of what we do as entrepreneurs. I'm on, like, as someone said to me the other day, you keep reinventing yourself. And I was like, I don't know if that's a compliment or not. I'm not sure. I don't really know.
SPEAKER_01:That's a big time compliment.
SPEAKER_00:I kind of feel like I'm on, you know, business number five in five years.
SPEAKER_01:But I relate to that too. Yeah. My wife used to say I was starting a new business every week. And I was like, I'm not starting a new business every week, but I am so interested in business that I was always like into different things and like researching and going deep on different topics, really trying to figure out where I wanted to go deep. But to her, on the surface, it looked like I was, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It looked like you always were. Yes. Well, then you also talk about like really understanding something that you're really good at and then like diving all in with something that you're really good at and something that you're really passionate about bringing to the marketplace, which I think as an entrepreneur is so important. And I think as soon as you are not passionate about it or it doesn't spark that within you, then it is time to move on to do something else. Because that passion is what helps entrepreneurs grow businesses and attract the right energy to bring the right customers and the right opportunity to them.
SPEAKER_01:I think that's really well said. Yeah. And I think that's still until this point, like until this latest business, which we'll get into and talk about, I think that was still really lacking for me in a lot of the other businesses. They were so driven by, like we talked about in the beginning, the why of like making money and proving myself and never living in the pool house again. And like that whole fear factor that drove me from a financial perspective wasn't also steered towards building businesses that had a lot of value creation in the world and businesses that I felt super passionate about. It was like, didn't matter. It was like we can sell it, so we're gonna do it. And it led us down a path of creating a lot of transactional success, but I would say not a lot of internal, what I would call success.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yes, and it's so important. Now, your daughter, is she in kindergarten? Am I getting that called?
SPEAKER_01:Almost. Almost. We got one more year of pre-K. She's four and a half.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. All right. So she's she's getting there. Oh my goodness. So pre-K is still, she's out of the house for a couple of days.
SPEAKER_01:No, it's full schedule. They're they're game on. Yeah, these, yeah, these pre-K's in San Francisco. They're yeah, not messing around. Yeah, I love that. Two working parents, we're full time. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Oh my goodness. That is so good. You know what? And honestly, she needs it. It's so good for her. Now, when did you start your company, My Start? My Start Health. When did you start that?
SPEAKER_01:I started working on it last June. Um, we launched last August, so we're officially like what past the one year mark, which I think is really exciting. And we have a ton of momentum right now. So it's yeah, we're hitting this like inflection point that is extremely exciting. So now it becomes less of like the fear factor of is this gonna work? to like, okay, how do we really make it successful? Um, and we're like on the verge of taking that next leap, and I'm loving it. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I love that. Yeah. Before we talk about what it is, what made you, or let me rephrase this. What's the correlation between becoming a father, becoming a parent, and moving this shift into wellness and everything else that we're gonna talk about?
SPEAKER_01:Wow. Well, the wellness journey for me started really when my dad got sick. He he passed away when he was 64 and I was 27. So my wellness journey and my connection to my health really started that, where I really shifted everything and was like, I'm not gonna go down that path because his was all tied to not being healthy and not having access really, I'd say, to health care that he was connected to that could actually move the needle for him. So that's always been there for me for the last 17 years, call it. Um like a long time, like right, where I've really cared. But the connection to having a child takes it to a whole nother level where like now you want to, at least for me, I want to be here forever. Like I want to live to 120 because I want to go through all of this. I want to see it all for her, right? I I want to be here and do it all. Um, so yeah, I mean, getting up and working out in the morning and caring about that really matters. And then creating something that has lasting value in the world as well, I think is hugely connected to having a child because you start to realize that like you want to have something to leave behind, a something that's a legacy that she can point to and be proud of as well. Like, my dad built this and like that's really cool. And hopefully it inspires her, right, to go and do great things and be brave and try things. And so, yeah, I think that's tied to everything that I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00:Which I love. And so thank you for answering that because I think the way that you answered it just says a lot about you as a human being. And I've seen the video and I understand your why because I've, you know, done a bunch of research on you and feel connected and that I know you already. But I think the way you answered that said so much. And I'm gonna summarize it for everybody. And I encourage you all to go and follow Matt on LinkedIn and Instagram and go find the video with him in the pink shirt and the pink toes. And because you said two things about your why, which is why it's so resonated with me personally, and the why has moved to family and freedom. And so I feel like everything that we talked about before we even started recording so aligns with family and freedoms and really doing things that are giving back to others. And yes, you make a living, you want to make a living, you need to make a lot of money. That's all really important. But feeling purpose-driven with those businesses, I find is such an incredible pivot for entrepreneurs that pivot into that space. So I thank you for answering that because you gave a glimpse into you as a person and the way you answered it.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you. I appreciate your acknowledging that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, which is so good. All right. So let's talk about this business. Like, how did this all start?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, this business is really I call it the culmination of everything I've ever done in business and in life. It really is something that I couldn't have done 10 years ago. Uh, I couldn't have done it 15 years ago. The market was arguably there. Um, but my readiness, I think, as a leader and business person wasn't there. This business really evolved out of what I had spoken about earlier, that I had all this experience in e-commerce and in building what I would call Me Too businesses. Like, you have a great idea, we have a competitive product, I can just sell it better than you and compete you, I'll compete you on advertising and media. So we're gonna like do that over and over again and replicate that formula because it works and we can win. And so we did that very successfully for many years. And then I actually got a taste of kind of the healthcare telehealth world in that business as well, where we had started a company in that space and it didn't work. But what I found through that failure was that the application of what we do, what I say we do, like what I do from a digital marketing perspective to any industry, I felt like was most powerfully displayed in the healthcare industry. Because you have an industry that's historically completely broken in terms of like the amount of money that we spend on healthcare, the outcomes that it creates, and the amount of inefficiency that just across the board is happening in the healthcare ecosystem. And so what I found was our ability to spend money on the internet and really efficiently measure that against patient outcomes was the most powerful thing that like industry, I'd say that we could apply that kind of math and science to. And in doing it, then getting a product where you can also create incredible health outcomes to me just amplifies the value creation that you have in that marketplace. So when I said it's a culmination, it's like, okay, we have this great ability to go out and market and acquire people. We have a completely inefficient and like broken system. And then we have a product that absolutely changes people's lives. And when I found that, it was this light bulb moment for me that I needed to get back into healthcare. And I kind of like also had this opportunity because I saw other people that had similar skill sets to me jumping into the space. And so it kind of touched on what I said before. It's like, oh, well, I can still out-compete you for the exact same thing. And I can see what you're doing, and this is an incredible product. And the incredible product is GLP1 weight loss products, like these medications. I saw changing family and friends' lives all around me. And these incredible stories of people like one of my best friends sat across from me at Christmas dinner and was like, you could tell there was like a little energy about him, and he was like excited, and I was like, What's going on? And he was like, I gotta tell you, I'm on your stuff. And I was like, No way. That's amazing. And it literally, like, he's tried everything, right? To like be healthy, lose weight, and and these medications gave him a new lease on life where he's got two young kids, and he's like, I I thought I was never gonna make it. Like, I didn't think there was any way to get past this, and now I have hope and you could see it. And then it sparks momentum in his life, and he's walking every day and changes life. So, like when I saw those things happening around me, and then I saw the opportunity to build a business with it, it was like, I have to do this.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. And I have to say, when I went to your website, I was like, ah the concept of Ozempic and taking these medications to lose weight, I think started out with a lot of stigma, sort of as like, oh, you're gonna cheat your way towards it. And I would at least say where I live now, it is commonplace. People are talking about it everywhere because you know, it's like it's accepted that sometimes you need help. And this isn't cheating. And the people who really dive into it, they start to lose weight and then they just they feel better about themselves, they start making smarter choices, they start embracing wellness in its totality. Like wellness looks like for you and I, and we're gonna talk about that too. But it is, I've seen it change so many people's lives, and people are now, and I'm happy for this, willing to say that yes, that's how they got the help they needed because I think it takes the stigma off of it, which we need as a society.
SPEAKER_01:100%. Yeah, there's so many areas from I mean, we can go mental health to right to Ozempic, but like there's so many stigmas that are just absolute bullshit in our world today that are based on old stuff that like as a society we have to let go of and just get real about like what matters in this world, what matters in our lives, and and surround ourselves with that. So yeah, I think this is one of those things, and we'll go into the next one that I think is like so topical for where where that like old stigma has been and how it's just completely bullshit.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it so is. So let's dig into that because when we first got on, I asked you kind of like what's coming up, what's important, what do you want to make sure we talk about? And you started going down this whole road, and I was like, oh my goodness, we can absolutely talk about hormone replacement therapy, we can talk about menopause. I am so in perimenopause, menopause. I talk about it. I've posted videos about it because I truly believe now that I am like in the middle of it, this is a subject that once again has a stigma, is not discussed enough, people don't talk about it, and there are too many women that are out there going through this journey alone. And I am so happy that there are people like you, plus a lot of the people that you know that we started talking about that are really trying to bring this subject to the forefront and help women feel empowered to deal with this stage of life that is natural and it is happening, and you shouldn't have to suffer. So talk to me about where you are excitingly trying to take your business next.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and talk about an area where the experts have just completely gotten it wrong for the last 30 years. And I look at my mom's experience in aging. Um, my mom's 77 now and has um a bunch of things, but the osteoporosis that she deals with is like top of mind. When I finally started learning this stuff, I was like, that's it. Like that was so preventable. But she was in the 90s a part of that whole evolution of people telling women that hormone therapy causes cancer. And so there's no way she had no access. She had the she had doctors telling her that it would cause cancer, so not even an option. And yeah, it's just wild. So what I've seen in kind of this evolution of the business is uh most mostly women are drawn to the GLP1 weight loss products that we have. So we have like a population of five, six thousand patients right now in my start. And of those, about 85% of them are women uh between the ages of 35 and 70. Um, the average age is in the in their 50s. And so when I started to think about other things that would be beneficial to their longevity and to their lifespan, hormone therapy just started rising to the surface. And this has been probably the last six months that I've been paying attention to it. And as I started to pay attention to it, I started to see that the experts that are out there on the topic are really women like yourself that have been through it, that can share their stories because the doctors still don't know. Right. They're still lost in like the old traditional medical world that like doesn't want to acknowledge that this is a thing. And then it came, slap me like right in the face, besides the story about my mom, it slapped me right in the face with my wife, who had our daughter four and a half years ago and has battled ever since to get her brain and her body back and has been to doctors and has multiple times done blood work, and the doctor comes back and says, You're great, you're healthy. And she's like, No, not no, I'm not sleeping well. I I don't have my brain back, I don't feel like myself. I don't know about like, no, that's not the answer. And so it took her going through this journey of talking to a lot of different alternative health experts and finally finding a doctor that would come alongside her and partner with her. And it took her two years to find that solution. And now I'm sitting here learning like what I'm actually getting it. It's like it's clicking for me. And I'm realizing that it's it's her, it's my mom, it's every woman that I'm connected to is going through this experience. And the only way you can get access to education about what matters is by being on TikTok or being on Instagram and like listening to the stories of other people. So I think we have an incredible business opportunity in this space, but more so, I think it's just something that is coming. Like it's the next, in my mind, revolution that's going to happen for women's health. And I want to be a part of it. However, I can, you know, empower women to be the experts on the topic. I think I've been critical of other telehealth businesses, and then I'll stop talking for a second. But I've been critical of other telehealth businesses because they're like buy men for men businesses.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Like you have hims and hers. And it's like okay, the hers thing they strapped on later. You have row.co now, which, you know, got this big publication with Serena Williams recently about her being on GLP1s and her husband being on the board of the company. But like that company when it started was one of my biggest competitors. It was called Roman. And it was black and red, black and red branding. And like it was by men, for men. It was a son and father that started it, and it was all men's products. And it was like, then they rebranded as Ro to like soften it up and make it like, you know, for women too. You know, I think my start has the opportunity to really be a, you know, I'm not like obviously it's I created a company, but I think it really has an opportunity to be for women, by women, and like bring in experts on the topic that can really empower and really create content and community around these topics that really matter for women. And if I can build the technology and empower them with the platform to do it, like that would be a home run for me.
SPEAKER_00:I am personally so excited for you. Because I have to tell you, it is, I and I will just personally share, it is such a challenging journey. And I am fortunate that I have a gynecologist that's like all into hormone replacement therapy. He has patients in their 70s and 80s who are still on it. However, it is still really a journey because not everybody's the same. And I tell him what's happening with me, and he's like, You're doing great. And I'm like, why am I having this battle with my body still? If I'm not, I don't feel like I'm doing great. And he's like, You are, you're doing great. And so now I am on that journey of trying to investigate what else should I be doing? What else should I be trying? I've I've hired a nutritionist, I've done so many different things, but I still am personally having a battle with my body. And I know so many women that are in this same space, and it's just really hard to know where to go to get the right information because as you're saying, it's you're getting information from Instagram and TikTok, really, because which you're being told you shouldn't.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, but you're like, there's like no one else, there's nothing else. So, like, I'm gonna trust other women that have been through it the way I've been through it, and like that exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and that's it. And and I will tell you, the other normally male dominated industry, which is actually becoming a very large problem for women, and just uh if you haven't heard this yet, hair loss. Women hair loss. Like, I cannot even tell you what happens after 45 with that. And that is a subject that is very rarely spoken about for women, but yet is a really common problem for women. And it's deemed as a whole male industry where women feel so self-conscious and so terrible. Like, I have hair extensions as a result of it, and I tell everyone, like, this is this is my hair because I paid for it. But, you know, all these issues are serious issues for women, and our health system is not helping women by giving them a network and ways that they can find out the truths or more truth.
SPEAKER_01:I think my take on that today, and I welcome your input. My take on that today is that the hormone piece will help, I think, get ahead of some of the hair stuff. Because hair, as like an industry or hair loss and hair growth as an industry hasn't really changed that much in the last 20 years. Like it's kind of the same medications that are prescribed. So I'm hopeful that the hormone piece helps, like, right? It kind of is something that empowers you to hold on to some of that into later years of your life where you start it earlier and you get ahead of it when you're going through this shift in parametopause, that like going into menopause, then it's not as impactful. Um, but I do think there's some cool solutions that are kind of combining different therapies that have been out there for the last 20 years that we can make available, we will make available through our platform. But that's a really good insight by you.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, which is exciting. I just know for me personally, like I didn't even know there were medications I could start taking. And all of a sudden someone started telling me about some of them. And I was like, I thought that was only for men. And they're like, oh no, it's like a whole new thing. And I was like, so where do you even? I, you know, and I was like, I consider myself pretty well educated, you know, like I'm a pretty well educated. Person and I have access to pretty well educated people. And yet here I am, up until six months ago, had no idea and didn't even know what questions to ask, or that this was even part of the hormonal process, that he was even tied together. And so it just as you're talking about trying to bring this to the masses, I'm just thinking to myself, I am a case study of one that's here to say I'm a really well-educated person. I have access to a lot of information. And yet I still don't feel like I have enough access to enough education and enough facts and enough science and enough resources. Because even here, it is really hard from a hormone perspective. If you want to go see a hormone specialist, it's even really hard to find one that will take you here.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. Which is really hard.
SPEAKER_01:I think we're we're in a little bit of a bubble, right? And being in San Francisco and right next to Marine County, like there's a ton. Even then, it's hard to find one that you really like connect to and that gets you and that will get you like on the right journey. So I think what you said in the beginning that women's health is complicated and there's no one solution for everyone. I think that's the business challenge that we're taking on. Um, is that we're gonna have to get really personalized and understand how we literally get down to the individual patient level and how we're prescribing and how we're kind of moving people through their different programs. Yes. Um, that's a big business challenge that we're gonna take on. But yeah, I mean, access across the country is minimal.
SPEAKER_00:Minimal. Oh, yeah, right. We live in big metropolitan areas. So we have more access than most people do.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, imagine the rest of the country. It's not there. Um, so the education is zero online. It's starting to come, like it's starting to bubble up, like you and I were talking about before we hopped on. Um you're seeing the FDA hold panels with women experts and like so it's the topics are starting to bubble up to the mainstream, but even so, like they're not being covered by what I would say. Like, I guess we just sat an SF examiner article here locally um talking about hormone replacement therapy. So it's getting there, it's it's bubbling up, but you know, there's still a ton of space.
SPEAKER_00:It is a long way to go. I am excited to see where you are going to take it for sure. And I'm happy to become a customer.
SPEAKER_01:Let's do it.
SPEAKER_00:Let's do it. Okay. So we're going to be able to do that.
SPEAKER_01:We're gonna have to get you a little more than that. A little more. We gotta get you like in the community. We gotta get you helping other women. I gotta figure that piece out. Maybe you can help me.
SPEAKER_00:Happy to help. You know, I am I really it has been one of the greatest gifts to start a podcast and really be able to connect with people and just really help people have access to information and to ideas and to getting inspired by what other people are doing because the internet is a big space and there are so many people out there on the internet. And so sometimes finding that person who you can connect with, who you can help is harder to do. So I feel um very grateful to have a public platform to be able to do that with. So happy to be a part of anything that you do. So thank you. I would also love to talk about wellness for you because I think it is important for people who, you know, kind of see people like yourself and myself, and yeah, we look healthy and we exercise and we have these great businesses and we're successful. And but one thing that I think everyone that I've found that is like yourself and myself, and many of my guests, is that wellness is an absolute priority in life. It is a non-negotiable. And I think it's important to share what my individual guests do for wellness to show people that everybody's got different ideas of wellness and you got to pick what works for you. So could you mind sharing a little bit? What does wellness look like for you personally to take care of yourself?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, uh, absolutely. When I'm journaling consistent consistently, which is not consistent these days, but when I'm consistent, it's one of the first things I write down that I am exercising and meditating. I'm quote, doing something every day. And doing something every day to me was like something that was created probably 10 years ago when business was really like busy and like there was every excuse in the world to not prioritize my health. I basically created some acceptance of if I can do 20 minutes a day, I can check that box. And it was actually it maybe less than 10 years ago. I for the first time had like a tracking watch. Yes. Um, I had a Fit, I had a Fitbit. There was a whole background story around why I never wore watches, and like the Fitbit became something that my wife made me wear because I needed an alarm clock that didn't wake her up when I wanted to get up. So I started wearing a Fitbit. Um, but what the Fitbit does, it's really cool, is like it literally checks that box for you. So like if you do 20 minutes, check like on the app and on the watch, it does that. And I thought that was really cool to like inspire people to like count it. Like I think people get too critical about I need to go for an hour or I need to do two hours or I need you know like for it to matter. And the reality is if you get up and move and do something for 20 minutes, like you can create a ton of momentum around your health because the 20 minutes turns into 30 minutes, and then you have a day where you have more time and you do an hour, like it all kind of compounds in how I look at wellness and health. And I've just seen it over and over again as I've trained for races, uh, running races or bike races or triathons. Like it just, it's all about compounding effort. And to me, it applies to everything that I do, right? It's my relationships, it's my business. It's like compounding effort is the like epitome of how I'm wired. So it really started there for me when my dad got sick and I felt like I had to make my health a priority. I started signing up for races, and that would force me to just commit a little bit of time all the time to build up to that moment. And now I don't need that. I don't need that like thing holding over my head. It definitely helps when I just put something on the calendar. But every day I'm doing something that makes my mind and body stronger.
SPEAKER_00:Can we talk about breath work for a minute and the role breath work has played in your life because it's one of my favorite life-changing things that I got introduced to this year. And I love any guest who has gotten involved in breath work to share what breath work means to them and what they do.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Life changer. I had a friend, uh, Jimmy Spencer, also very successful executive um in the sports space, and he had sent me uh the Wim Hof app. And I'm always like you, it seems like trying different things and biohacking and like trying to feel like what feels best for me. And I just committed to, he was doing it and he was sending me like his stats. And so I'm very competitive. Um, and I was like, okay, I'm just gonna, I'm gonna try it, right? Because Wim Hof lends itself perfectly to that. It's 30 breaths in and out, and then you hold your breath and you see how long you can hold it for. And then what you find is when you go to round two and round three, you can hold it expansively more. And then if you're consistent over weeks, like it continues to compound. Like we said, your ability and your to manage your lungs, but it's really your brain, right? Your ability to shut off and be present, I've found is the best form of meditation that I can do. Um, when you're holding your breath and you have no lifeline and you just have to be still and be focused. Like if you do it for 30 seconds or you do it for a minute, or like I've gotten up to two minutes at a time in moments when I'm like rolling, I can get over two minutes. And like those two minutes are so focused and so still that like it's the best meditation you can get. So wow, like I started getting anxiety when I was 18, 19, going to Berkeley. Like it was overwhelming to me how smart all these people were and how much work I had to do and how to reading it, like totally overwhelmed me.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:It's probably anxiety I had my whole life, but like it really bubbled up and was paralyzing in that stage in life. And I got on Xanax and that managed it. And then through like my early stages of my career, I just leaned on medication and it never fully went away, but it was manageable. And then I started breath work now, like three, four years ago, pretty consistently, and it's gone. Like it'll bubble up. Like I'll I'll go through stressful times and that anxiety bubbles up. But if I go back into just the foundations of like, I'm gonna do breath work in the morning, I'm gonna get into like, yeah, at some point in the day, I'm gonna get into it. Wow, I can control it, I can manage it. And I haven't been on medication in years. So powerful.
SPEAKER_00:It's just amazing, amazing. And it's nervous system regulation, is what it really is. And what I love about what you just talked about, two things. The first thing is you're not talking about having to sit down for half an hour in dead silence to meditate in order to get benefits of nervous system regulation and the power of breath to be able to control anxiety and control what's going on and reduce your stress. You're talking minutes that you can do absolutely anywhere. There's no no equipment required, right? Like you can do it anywhere, anytime.
SPEAKER_01:He has a video on YouTube that's absolutely free that walks you through it. I pay$60 a year for the app, which I feel like is a no-brainer.
SPEAKER_00:It's still a bargain. Yeah. But like you can be sitting on a plane. The person next to you doesn't even need to know what's going on. You could just be doing it.
SPEAKER_01:And it's a little weird.
SPEAKER_00:They might think it's a little weird, but who cares?
SPEAKER_01:I see people on the beef like they're like, I know what they're doing, but I don't that's okay though.
SPEAKER_00:That I think is good. That you and you have a video on one of your platforms, you actually have a video of you breathing, which I think is great. And so I think it's so important. And it's something that is so simple that a lot of people don't try. And I just found breath work, you know, almost a year ago. And I said, I never realized I didn't know how to breathe. I did not know how to breathe properly. And it has been a game changer in terms of that. So the other thing you said is it like when you are holding your breath, you it is the greatest form of meditation because you really I find when I do that and I hold my breath, even if it's 30 seconds or a minute, is kind of like where I sort of start to max out. But I am so focused on holding my breath. And when I do it, I'm so focused on connecting to what I am feeling in my body that there is no other thought going on. There is nothing else. And so it is the beginning of really being able to learn how to meditate. If you can first learn how to breathe properly, it makes meditation that much easier because meditation, at least for me, is not about not thinking. It's about having a thought and letting it go and learning how to have that happen. And it's not to say that while you're sitting there holding your breath, you're not thinking, like, oh my God, is this over? Is this over? Are we there yet? You know, because you might be. Like, is when are they gonna say? When's the timer gonna go off? But it's about learning to let it go and just really dial in.
SPEAKER_01:I would just add that just for people like listening to our conversation, that also it's not easy. Like it sounds simple, but to actually commit to it every day and go through the like three rounds, even one round, right? Like, and it's not easy. I fall out of it all the time. Like, I know it's the best thing I can possibly do with that like eight minutes that I have, but I still don't do it sometimes because it it's like challenging to get settled and get in that space and go through it. It's like physically a challenge too. I I think, at least for me, that's my experience of it. And meditation, same thing, right? Like it gets frustrating as someone who's competitive to be like, I can't just it, but it's exactly what you said. It's the ability to reconnect to that stillness and let the thoughts go and that practice of just consistently failing and then reconnecting and failing and reconnecting and failing and reconnecting. And that's been my framing that I've gotten and to enjoy meditation a lot more has been that acceptance of failure and restarting as as like a theme that just runs through everything that we do in life.
SPEAKER_00:Right, exactly. Don't expect perfection. And also you talk about this, I think, somewhere online somewhere, I'm not sure where, but I remember hearing you talk about picking your hard, right? Like what's gonna be your hard thing that you're gonna do today? Like, what is the hard thing? And maybe it is breath work for eight minutes or three minutes or five minutes, and maybe it is finding half an hour to go for a walk and just, you know. But I think having a commitment every day to doing something that is for your personal wellness that might not be, you know, easy. It doesn't have to be exhausting. Like you don't have to be on the floor dead after a half an hour run, but just finding something that stretches you, whether it's stretching your time, stretching you mentally, stretching you physically, I think is a really good thing to do because then it makes everything else just a little easier.
SPEAKER_01:That's it. Right. Then that's that's the thing that really registered with me with the choose your hard kind of like mentality. And I've now I've I feel like I've gotten hit with a lot of that from like top thinkers in the like personal development space. They I hear that theme kind of run true. But it's just it is so true that like whatever you're prepared for to take on, and the harder you can take something on, the easier everything else becomes. And so like it's to me way harder to think about sitting in a hospital bed at the age of 70 with heart issues and diabetes than like the daily practices of going for a walk and making the right decisions with diet. And like, if you just have that perspective that life is pretty damn short and I'll be 70 before I know it, um, it's coming. Like, and there's no avoiding that. And so, like, what are the hard things that I can choose every day that are hard, but they're like amazingly transformative too. Like, it was way harder for me to live with a weight on my chest and like every day be like in this fear state of like anxiety and and yeah, that pressure was way harder than anything that I've chosen to do.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yes. So, talking about hard, I have two more questions, and then you've taken you've given us so much of your time, so thank you. But two more questions. If someone's listening to us and they are just thinking, you know, I am struggling with weight, I'm struggling with anxiety, I am struggling with hormones, I'm struggling with my mental health, I'm struggling with my job, I'm struggling, and they feel like they're struggling in every area of life. And you and I just casually talk about all these things that we do, it can be a little bit overwhelming for people. Yeah. So based on your life experience and your professional experience, if someone were to choose one thing to start today, what would that one thing be to help them with their personal wellness?
SPEAKER_01:A daily walk. To me, it's the simplest. It's like put on something positive that you love to listen to in your headphones, grab onto any of the amazing thinkers that are out there, whether it's like Brandon Bouchard or Tony Robbins or Mel Robbins, like there's just there's so many incredible thinkers out there on like the state of being a positive human in the world, and like grab onto something positive or a book that you love, put it in your ears and start to walk. And I think like that daily practice of creating space for yourself and putting positivity into your ears for a moment, whether it's 10, 15, 20 minutes, whatever you can do, I think will create those initial steps that you need.
SPEAKER_00:I couldn't agree more. And it's about making yourself a priority in your own life, which is something that is um so hard to do for a lot of people. And that's something I'm very passionate about trying to help women find is find themselves within their own lives, because a lot of women lose themselves in their lives, especially as they start to get older. Um and so it's learning to pause and find even the smallest moments of time, whether it's 20 minutes, half an hour, 15, 10, whatever it is, somewhere in the life that you make yourself the center and the priority and have it tie to your wellness, I think is the greatest place to start. So I'm so glad you said that as your answer. So thank you. Absolutely. So before I let you go, I always ask all my guests if there is a book that they would like to recommend, booker books that they would like to recommend, or an author that they recommend that has changed or impacted themselves personally and professionally, because I'm a true believer that books can inspire and change lives. So, what book, books, author would you like to recommend people check out?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, that's a good one. Um I I think my brain turns to Ryan Holliday.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:He not just from a book perspective, he's written a ton of books, um, but he has two newsletters that I just tie to daily. That one's called The Daily Dad and the other one's called The Daily Stoic. And so, like, if you have three minutes, I don't know, in a to like get his email, um I love that because it gives you a theme that like you can connect to in in the day. And I love the Daily Dad one too, because it ties into those stoic principles. Uh, the last book I read of his is Ego is the enemy. And I think that one I flew through because it just ties to so many of the principles that I stand on. My, you know, my principles are like being self-aware and like checking your ego at the door. Um, you know, so self-awareness and emotional intelligence are the two pillars that I've built my entire life on. And that's what he's preaching nonstop, right? Is that all these great leaders that have come before us and people that have changed the world uh were all about what can I do for others and how can I be of service. And, you know, I think that's it. That's and he's just every day producing content that speaks to that, which I think is super impressive.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I think that's so important. I think when you start doing things, yes, we all need to make money, we all need to have a career, we all want to be making an impact. But I think when you start doing things from the heart, it shows and it comes through your passion for trying to help people and empower people and your commitment to wellness and health. It it shines through as you speak. So I thank you so much for sharing that. I am so excited for where your business is going. We will absolutely stay connected. I'll put in the show notes every way that everybody can follow you, get connected with you, see about your businesses, and I hope everybody will follow and like and subscribe to your newsletters and follow everything that you're doing. And I thank you so much, Matt, for all the time and for making this work and for letting me wear a baseball hat because I am going to go out for a walk after this. So therefore, I'm wearing and you have a hat. You always have a hat on Instagram and stuff. So I love that. So thank you, Matt, so much for your time. And it's an honor to get to meet you. So thank you for being on the show and wishing you all the best.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much. It was great to meet you, and I'm excited to continue our conversations.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you. Have a great day. We'll stay in touch. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the House of Germar podcast, where wellness starts within. We appreciate you being a part of our community and hope you felt inspired and motivated by our guests. If you enjoyed this episode, please write us a review and share it with friends. Building our reach on YouTube and Apple Podcasts will help us get closer to our mission to empower one million women to live all in. You can also follow us on Instagram at House of Jurmar and sign up to be a part of our monthly inspiration newsletter to our website, houseofgermark.com. If you or someone you know would be a good guest on the show, please reach out to us at podcast at houseofger.com. This has been House of Germar productions with your host, Jim Conn. Thank you for joining our host.