The Fertility Truth About Men No One Is Talking About

Ronit and Vida are the founders of WeNatal, a prenatal supplement company born not from a business plan, but from heartbreak. Both experienced miscarriages around the same time and were given little to no answers from their doctors, so they decided to take matters into their own hands. What they discovered changed everything, including the fact that 50% of miscarriages are linked to sperm quality, something almost no one is talking about.

In this episode we cover everything from why men need to be equal partners in the fertility journey, how to read a prenatal vitamin label, what "trimester zero" actually means, and why three months of preparation can dramatically change your outcome at any age. We also get into the emotional side of trying to conceive, the power of stress management, sleep, gratitude, and why going back to basics might be the most underrated fertility tool of all.

Whether you're actively trying to conceive, freezing your eggs, going through IVF, or simply want to understand your body better, this episode is for you. And if you've ever felt dismissed by a doctor or alone in your fertility journey, I hope this conversation gives you the hope and the information you deserve.

Connect with WeNatal:

Website: https://wenatal.com/

Blog: https://wenatal.com/blogs/wenatal

Instagram: @we_natal

Connect with Sabrina:

https://www.instagram.com/Sabrina_Soto/

www.SabrinaSoto.com

Transcript

Welcome Back And Why This Matters

Speaker 0:00

Welcome to Redesigning Life. I'm your host, Sabrina Soto, and this is the space where we have honest conversations about personal growth, mindset shifts, and creating a life that feels truly aligned. In each episode, I'll talk to experts in their field who share their insights to help you step into your higher self. Let's redesign your life from the inside out. Welcome back to a special episode of Redesigning Life. I've been on a little hiatus, but I had the opportunity to have my friends Ronit and Vida on my podcast, and they founded We Natal, supplements that I've actually tried. You sent me, I don't even know if you guys know that you sent me stuff, so I have a product here that I love, and I think this is going to be such an amazing topic in general, but also for my audience because I've spoken about infertility before, and I get a lot of DMs about from people being thankful for the information, but also there's so many misconceptions out there. And I know if there are two people on this earth that can speak on this topic for many, many hours, it's you guys. So thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having us. We're so excited. And and just um a little disclaimer, Renee and Vida are a friend of mine too. We've been in women's circles before, before we got started the podcast today, we were talking about, you know, women and not being able to have enough time in our lives to carve out time for us to just unwind and breathe into our own lives. Um, and so that said, because of motherhood, which we'll talk about today, uh, it's just so much to juggle. So, first, I think your origin story of why you even started We Needle is so fascinating to me. So, since I already know, do you guys mind telling my listeners why you even started We Needle in the first place and how you met?

Speaker 1 1:49

Yeah. So we actually met 20 years ago in our corporate careers at Nike. We were young single ladies in LA, climbing the corporate ladder, dating. I mean, we'll save dating in Los Angeles for another podcast, but truly having the best time of our lives and always said we might want to work together, but just probably envisioned it to be in marketing or business where our backgrounds came from, and never envisioned what would come from the heartbreak of our miscarriages. And how our story started was around eight years ago, I was running global events for Nike with impeccable precision. I'm talking about thinking through every single detail that an athlete needs to be great. And knowing that, you know, you don't just go into race day or game day unprepared. You put your best foot forward. And so what was ironic about that is that in my own personal life, when it was time for me and my husband, we were married for three years and we wanted to start trying, I just figured we're young enough, we're healthy enough, let's just go for it. Literally treated it like a casual jog, found myself, found myself pregnant, went in for a routine 14-week checkup, thought I was past the first trimester, so you're told you're safe. And I saw my OBGYN's face drop. I saw the room go silent, and he just looked at me and said, I'm so sorry. There's no heartbeat. And I heard those words that no soon-to-be parent, you know, ever wants to hear. It was devastating, tragic. I was sobbing. I was literally given a pamphlet with no answers and said, you know, try again when you're ready. It's very common. Passed back through that waiting room of glowing bellies and cried so much my jaw ached on my way home and scrutinized, like most women, everything I did from my personal care items to my stress at work to the too much caffeine that I love coffee. I could have picked any one of those things and said maybe it was it. But the reality is I was given no hope and no answers. Lucky for me, Ronit was my best friend. She had just had her first beautiful baby girl. And that dream of having kids together was very shattered at the moment. But she was at that point working for Dr. Mark Hyman, one of the best practitioners in functional medicine. And she really encouraged me to go beyond what quote unquote was normal, the normal labs, the normal losses. And she told me to check my thyroid. I found out I uncovered I have Hashimoto's with targeted nutrition, diet, lifestyle. I really turned that around and six months later had my daughter Dahlia, who's now eight. And, you know, just in that story alone, I learned that what could be normal or normal is not necessarily optimal. We there's more to the story, and you always have to push for your own health. And so I thought, you know, the nightmare was over. I learned so much about prenatal care through her, and we had our healthy baby girls until the spring of 2020. We were trying for our seconds, and I went in for another routine checkup to get that same deafening silence. And there I was just devastated, but went with, you know, it's just common because I knew no better. The only thing that stopped us dead in our tracks was this time Ronique, one week later, called me with the same miscarriage loss. And so there we were, two best friends, two losses, zero satisfying answers. And that's what, like, literally was the beginning to the end.

The Missing Half Of Fertility

Speaker 2 5:10

And for me, this was my second pregnancy, but first miscarriage. And like Vida mentioned, I was working with Dr. Mark Hyman. I was entrenched in the wellness space and thought I was doing all the right things. And when I had my miscarriage, I was 41. And so my doctor looked at me when I said, What can I do to improve my chances for a healthy pregnancy next time around? She looked at me dead in the face and said, There's nothing you could do. It's just your age. And it didn't make sense to me, Sabrina, because I looked young, I felt young, I never even age was not even a factor for me. And um, luckily I didn't listen to my doctor. And I started to dive into the research, dive into PubMed, and talk to all of our friends who are basically doctors and nutritionists, people that are top of their field. And I learned a piece of information that back then shocked me and really is what propelled us to start We Natal. And that is that 50% of miscarriages happen because of sperm quality. And here we were, two best friends that were scrutinizing is it the fact that I went to Lake Tahoe with Ed and went sledding and went on an airplane? Is it because I was in the middle of a book launch and I was super stressed? I was literally scrutinizing every little thing that I did, but here we were ignoring 50% of the equation, our husband's health. And so what we decided to do as two couples is commit to what we call trimester zero, this conscious way of preparing for pregnancy. And what that meant was um leveling up our supplements, antioxidants for our husbands, which we know 5x the chances of a healthy pregnancy. It's um going to acupuncture. And for the for our husbands, it's really living a low-tox life, which by the way, they were not living. All of the things that are common and legal in Los Angeles, marijuana, smoking, all of these alcohol, all of these things are harmful of fertility. And so our husbands obviously like coming out of a loss, they were desperate to really try and do anything. And so we committed to this three months of this trimester zero boot camp. And I got pregnant on my first try and gave birth to Emma at the age of 42, four days after my birthday. And then Vida gave birth to her daughter three months after me. So we had this essentially experiment of two geriatric couples that tried naturally and had success because we had the right inputs. And this was we had no IVF, no needles. It was literally the right nutrients for both partners and doing all the right things. And so we honestly couldn't stop there, Sabrina. Like we had our success stories, but we were so passionate about um, you know, our outcomes and sharing what we learned with more and more people because nobody was talking about men's health and fertility. Nobody was talking about the power of nutrients and diet and lifestyle and the power of trimester zero, like how it can really not just create a uh blueprint for a healthy pregnancy, but it literally is the blueprint for a healthy life for your child's entire life. Your child's entire life, their IQ, how strong they are, their blood sugar, their mental state, like all of these things. And so here we were, you know, two best friends, and this basically loss gave us our lives' mission.

Speaker 1 9:32

Yeah. And that's literally we met at a local Whole Foods. We opened a Google Doc called BestiCo, and it was so simple. The mission was the best prenatal care for her and him, and really mustering up the energy and the passion and the optimism that we weren't given. And so our mission was really education over fear and really community over the isolation that we felt, and ultimately equal biology, equal prep. We both have to treat fertility like a team sport and put our best foot forward. And now we look back, and while those miscarriages were the most heartbreaking, the most devastating thing that's ever happened to us, it has now opened up. Like we said, our life mission to now we've already helped over 30,000 people become parents. We are on the road to millions of things. Yes. And we're just getting started. I mean, we hope to share with you the next time we're back on that we've helped millions. And no matter what route, whether you're young and freezing your egg or sperm, whether you're going through IVF, IEY, there's so much amazing technologies. We're here to give you the optimism about the things that are in your control that will just help any of those situations. So many of my girlfriends froze their eggs and never did anything differently, never even were told to prep for it, like they prep for pregnancy. So many of our friends are doing IVF and we'll share some amazing customer examples of it didn't work, but when they prepped their body, when both partners got involved, the IVF actually was successful. And so, whatever route you take, we're here to empower people with what is in their control and the steps that will make any outcome more successful.

Speaker 11:10

Yeah, because I think I have had many friends who've done IVF. I was also a geriatric mom. I had Olivia right like a month before I turned 39. And I think we are we are told to take the prenatal vitamins, but never was there a conversation about his health or what he was doing. And I think that, you know, there's just we don't know. And I and I I know my friends who were in IVF, they were going through so much of the shots, you know, their body was going through so much that they were not ever told anything about supplementation in that way or they're or what they're eating or not drinking, or you know, fill in the blank. So what is obviously the supplementation of the wee natal supplementation, but is what would you say is the weenatal plan?

Speaker 2 11:58

That that's a great question. And I would say from a high level, the pr plan is really focusing on the idea of trimester zero and preparing for pregnancy. So, what does that look like? It looks like remove in the most basic, simple way, removing the things that harm your fertility and adopting the things that support and improve your fertility. And so, what are what do those look like? Let's start with our environment, our household. Like our kitchen and our bathroom are probably the most toxic places in our house. Um, when you look at plastics, fragrances, um, and so looking at the environment that you're living in and detoxing it, what opening your windows in your house, uh, walking in your home without shoes, because that brings in a lot of toxins. There is an amazing documentary on Netflix now called Um The Plastic Detox. I don't know if you've seen it. Haven't seen it yet. It's um with Dr. Shauna Swan, who it researches the impact of BPA and phthalates on fertility. And basically the TLDR for your listeners is she looks at, I think it's like four or five couples and helps them detox their houses from plastics and essentially measures their BPA and phthalate levels in their body. All of these couples are having infertility, they're struggling with infertility. And basically, after three months, she measures their BPA and phthalate levels in their blood again after she does this detox. And I believe three or four of those couples at the end of the documentary get pregnant. And so there is a massive impact of environmental toxins and fertility. And the PSA is like when you watch the documentary in the beginning, it's like a little like overwhelming. You're like, oh my God, like they're talking about like we all have like plastic and microplastics in every cell of our body and it's in our arteries. But the the big PSA is there's so much you could do just by being a little bit mindful. It doesn't mean that you have to throw out everything that you own. It really means taking those, just being mindful. Like if you're warming up food, putting it in a glass container, not warming it up in plastic. If you have a plastic chop cutting board, switch to bamboo, little things that make a big difference, like receipts in shops.

Speaker 14:47

Like I know, I know that because a friend of mine told me how toxic those receipts are that you are touching.

Speaker 2 14:55

I mean, Sabrina, I will literally be at a Costco and will tell the cashier, can you wear gloves? Like you shouldn't be touching these receipts. Like they're touching it all day long. Yeah. And um, it's just about the education. So, like, environment is one big one that we look at. Stress is another one. When you're stressed, your body is not gonna prioritize reproduction. And again, we are living stressful lives. Stress is not going away, but how can you manage stress? How can you live with it in a way or find pockets of um ways to de-stress, like going to women's circles, you know, or having a gratitude journal that um, you know, when you when you're focused on gratitude, even if you're stressed out, it it does have a physiological effect where it reduces that cortisol in your body. And so there's the stress is a big one. Um, and then what are the things that you can adopt? So we always say lowest hanging fruit is taking a prenatal supplement because unfortunately our foods aren't as nourishing as they used to be. So you can't, even if you're the healthiest eater and you're eating for your fertility, you cannot get everything that you need to build those nutrient reserves to create a healthy baby. Um, and same with men. As I mentioned, men who take antioxidants have a 5x chances of getting their partner pregnant and having a live birth. So, why like all men should be on a prenatal using antioxidants like CoQ10, NAC, B vitamins, things like that. Um, and then obviously you can't supplement yourself out of a bad diet, right? So you can't, you know, be eating the standard American diet, which we know 70% of Americans are eating ultra-processed foods and they're underfed. I mean, they're they're undernourished but overfed, meaning they are struggling with obesity and blood sugar imbalances. And so focusing on a diet that's anti-inflammatory that reduces um the the um inflammation and balances blood sugar is a big game changer in fertility.

Speaker 1 17:22

Agreed. Yeah. And I think there's some underrated things. Like I learned, sleep is probably the most underrated tool. And a lot of these things that we're mentioning in the we natal ecosystem is free. Practicing gratitude. We have a beautiful journal, but you could do it a few minutes every day. Prioritizing sleep is something that restores your whole body, the immune system. As, you know, as a nation, we're sleeping less, we're doom scrolling more, we have artificial light from our screens. And just that small act of prioritizing your sleep can dramatically improve your fertility. And like Roni mentioned, there's all these things. We actually have a free guide because we were so passionate about telling you yes about the supplements, but the whole ecosystem. And our free guide is on We Natal's website, Weenatle.com/slash guide, to just share those simple, easy tasks, whether it's clean water filters, um air filters, you know, bringing in plants in your home, opening windows, eating better. The Mediterranean diet is the most studied for fertility. And so we are here to help couples with all those microacts that will have big impacts in their overall goals.

Stress Relief And Sleep Basics

Speaker 18:25

Yeah, uh, the Roni and the and Vida were talking about the women's circle because uh last week we went to a women's circle and I walked in. I was saying before we started the podcast, I walked in feeling fine. And all of a sudden, when the women asked, like we went around and we were able to speak, I started crying. And truly, I I didn't realize how stressed I was until I stopped down. And that is something, whether or not you're trying to conceive or not, I think as women, we're we are just so overwhelmed with our schedule, with our families, with our social circle, with everything on our to-do list that we don't stop down enough. So your journal of just being able to pause for a minute to have gratitude, even if you only have five minutes, is so powerful. And I think as women, especially, we forget that we need our own time too, in order to reset our nervous system.

Speaker 2 19:17

A hundred percent. And honestly, it's something that we struggle with still today. I mean, I'll look at my aura ring um reports and it'll be like, I feel totally fine, I feel relaxed, but it's like six hours of extreme stress in your day. And I'm okay, but like I'm fine. And no, you're not fine. Like, so it really is about finding what works for you. And the journal is actually our mutual friend Lillian, is the author of the journal, and it's so beautiful because um she went through uh a conversion before she got married to Judaism. And from her conversion, she learned about all these practices of um things that you could do with your partner before you conceive, um, like talking about who's gonna, who's gonna watch our kids or how do we imagine our dinners? How do we, who's gonna help us with this, that, and the other? And so many times we go into, you know, marriage and and you know, growing your family without even talking about the basics. So that journal helps you do that, but also has an amazing section where it's like, what is your gratitude for yourself? Um, what are some loving thoughts for your partner? What are some loving thoughts for yourself? And that is an amazing three-minute practice that can really help change your mindset and your physiology on a daily, daily level.

Speaker 20:50

I I believe in the power of gratitude journals because when I saw you ladies at that circle where I was crying so much, I realized during that those few weeks, I stopped doing my normal routine of waking up in the morning and I would get Olivia ready for school, like breakfast. But then I, while she was eating breakfast, I would write in my gratitude journal and I realized that I hadn't been doing it. And I know that just those little exercises that you stack up every day really do make an impact in your stress level. So I believe that anyone could really benefit from that small little exercise every single day.

Speaker 1 21:31

I agree. We're all trying to do way too much, myself included. We're all type A. We think we can multitask for 18 hours of the day. And the reality is, like, I had to get myself mentally okay with the fact that sometimes doing these things will be more productive for the long run. But you know, sometimes you feel that guilt of like, if I'm not productive every second of the day. And really, it's a reframe because to your point, I had that same portion of my life where every time I actually stepped foot in Lillian's home, I was in. Tears because I was like, it was like a safe space where I can like stop for one second. And we need to be more in tune with our body. We need to give ourselves those breaks. And quite literally, it's not just for fertility, it's for always. These are the practices that we should be setting in stone so we can be the amazing, high-functioning people that we want to be. And doing nothing is doing something. I know. It's not always about, you know, filling your day with every available minute.

Speaker 22:25

Because that's- I think it's actually gonna get worse because now with AI, it's giving us the capability to even get more done. And so it's almost worse.

Speaker 2 22:35

Your brain, I mean, uh, this is this was me last week. Like I started using Claude Cowork, and then my brain couldn't stop thinking about how else I could use it. And so here I was literally going to sleep almost like I go to sleep generally speaking at like 8:30, 9 p.m. I was going to sleep like at midnight. Like I was like on Claude Cowork, like getting buying more credits because I was, it was crazy, crazy, crazy. I feel so seen.

Speaker 23:06

I was the same way. Nate was like, are you gonna come to bed? I'm like, I just I just want to find set up one more skill.

Reading Prenatal Labels The Right Way

Speaker 2 23:12

It's like, what am I doing? Insanity, insanity. All of it to say is like going back to the basics for our health is so critical right now. Health and fertility, you know, the basics. Going back to the basics that are free, you know, spending time with people, movement, you know, getting out of the house, getting some sunshine, eating food in community, all of those things are important for trying to conceive, but also for us who are just trying to like live life and thrive for us to conceive our own lives.

Speaker 23:52

When it comes to supplementation, I think a lot of women, I I could speak for myself. When I was trying to get pregnant, I just picked, you know, whatever honestly the most expensive prenatal prenatal on the market because I was like, it must be good. But I realize that that's not necessarily the case, and there's some traditional ingredients that people may assume that are beneficial to conceiving, but may not be as ideal. So do you have any thoughts on some of the ingredients or some things that people should not should stay away from? Obviously, the normal carcinogens, but anything in supplementation that people should look into.

Speaker 1 24:33

Can I also just tell you why we created a supplement? Because it was never in our DNA. Like this wasn't something we dreamt of when I was 12. I thought, I'm gonna open a supplement company. Actually, quite opposite. When we had the aha, I remember where I was standing in my kitchen when Ronnie called me with the men's side. And so, our quickly our first idea for We Natal was like, we need to create a men's prenatal. Literally, zero people are talking about it, and there's so much evidence about these high dose antioxidants can dramatically help men. Okay, so we started there and we thought the women's world has thousands of prenatals, it doesn't need another one until you pull back the covers. And why I want to educate around this is because most of us, and I was told, take a prenatal, they're all the same. It was literally what my doctor told me. And that couldn't be further from the truth. When you look at the options out there, before we started We Natal, there were two camps. There was really expensive ones, probably one you were taking, hard to get, really clinical, perhaps eight to ten capsules a day. For most of us, like me, I could barely stomach that. And then you have the more accessible ones, maybe available in your local stores, that don't have the right ingredients, definitely not the right dosages. And then there was a whole world I wasn't even aware of. There's a paragraph of other ingredients that should never be there. So the same way we have to be advocates in what we put in our mouth, the food, the overprocessed food, the seed oils that we're all looking for, we have to look at supplements the same way and turn them behind, see what's in the supplement facts and what forms they're in. And we also have to learn that the other ingredients have additives, fillers, and the supplement world is not regulated by the FDA, which means anyone can put out anything. And if your part, if your supplements that you're ingesting are not third-party tested and validated, there is a whole world where it could actually be getting you do more damage than good. It could have heavy metals, it could have toxins, it could be rancid. And so why we need it was created with the utmost integrity was to literally put research and we've looked at meta-analysis of over 200 clinical research studies on the best optimal dosages for pre-pregnancy, pregnancy and postpartum. So we came out with the best formula for her and him. And we have that added level of protection of the third-party testing on every batch to ensure there is nothing except the supplement facts of what we put into it. It's the greatest dosage, and there's no additives, fillers, or junk that you don't want, especially during this crucial time.

Speaker 2 26:55

And then to get into like more of like the nuance of like the ingredients to answer your question, um one ingredient that we're very passionate about is folic acid versus folate. There's a big debate uh on this. Folic acid is the synthetic form. And we use methylfolate, which is the bioavailable form. And the reason why we do this is because 40% of the population have a genetic um mutation called MTHFR, and they cannot convert um the synthetic form, folic acid, into the bioavailable form. And so we just use the bioavailable form, which means no matter what your genetics looks like, you can utilize these nutrients. And so all of our B vitamins are methylated, which means they're in the bioavailable form. The other ingredient that we're super passionate about is choline. Choline is critical for baby brain development. And there are studies that show that women who are pregnant and take adequate forms of choline have children with better IQ levels. So you want to make sure that what you're consuming is obviously supporting your baby's brain and entire physiology. And so our prenatal has 400 milligrams of choline. They're prenatals on the market that don't have choline in them or have very minimal dosages. And it's this is this one is an important one. So when you're to your audience, when you're looking at your nutrition facts, you want to make sure that it has, as Vida mentioned, no additional ingredients. Then it has methylfolate or 5 MTHF, it has at least 400 milligram milligrams of choline. And then you can count your ingredients because we have 24 key ingredients in We Natal. We wouldn't remove one of them. And a lot of the prenatals on the market have like 10, 12 ingredients, and you need all 24. So that's kind of from a high level how to read the supplement facts of a prenatal vitamin.

When To Start Preconception Prep

Speaker 29:11

What is the timeline realistically that people should start taking supplementation before?

Speaker 2 29:18

Well, it's never too early, but we all know that, like, you know, people are having kids later in life now. And so once they're ready to have kids, they're like, we want to have kids yesterday. So we say at the very least, three months. And there's a very important reason why three months is the sweet spot for both men and women. So for men, they have this constant ability to regenerate sperm, and the sperm cycle is essentially 72 days. So in 72 days, you're the man can completely transform their sperm quality with the right inputs. So for men, so we say three months essentially, because that's within that like 72-day time frame. And then for women, the egg that we ovulate takes a hundred days to mature. And in those hundred days, what's happening with um, you know, the your environment makes a big impact on how that egg matures. So you want to make sure that you're maturing an egg with the right, you know, d chromosomes and all of that good stuff. So essentially it's 100 days for women, 72 days for men. On average, it's three months for the couple. Okay.

Speaker 1 30:43

And what's so cool is like most of us women are told we're stuck with the eggs we have, or if you're 40 years old, your eggs are 40. But no one really taught me, at least, that those three months before I can dramatically improve the quality. I might not be able to change the quantity, but there is so much we can do. And even for men, they're told they have no biological clock and they can have kids until they're 80s because we see celebrities doing it. But the reality is for men too, these antioxids are so important because as they age, there are more abilities for chromosomal errors. And so there is this golden window of opportunity. And if you're just, you know, at a like an adult age and you want the antioxidant benefits and the immunity benefits, it's never too early to start building your nutrient reserves. And we're probably in the camp where we're done having kids, but we stay on a high quality prenatal like we needal because of the health benefits. Yeah. And so no matter what stage your community is in, there are dramatic proof of why it's so important to be on a high quality multi like Weinatal.

Speaker 31:39

I mean, not that you need something else on your to-do list, but after um we're done just building this empire, can you start working on like the menopause era?

Speaker 2 31:47

Oh, Sabrina, we're an a rater. I mean, thank God. Be in touch about that one. I'm your guinea pig. Oh, we we we can both be the guinea. You and I are basically the same age. And I will say that like when I gave birth to Emma, I was 42. And then about a year later, my OBGYN was like, You're in perimenopause. I'm like, no, I'm in postpartum. I mean, I mean, I was so fertile. I got pregnant with Emma right away. There's no way I'm in perimenopause. And then literally, I was like in denial. And then I went back to her office and I was like, oh yeah, you're right. I am in perimenopause. Give me all the HRT. And so we are, it's it's definitely on our radar because women are having kids later in life and they are going through this like weird transition of like postpartum and perimenopause all at the same time, and it's very confusing. Yeah.

Speaker 32:42

Yes. Yes. I actually have a friend of mine who's due any day now, and she's 50.

Speaker 1 32:47

So I love that. And by the way, where most of us, you know, I was called geriatric in the doctor's office, it was very disheartening. But more women today are having kids in their 40s than their 20s, and I'm so excited about your friend. And we need to celebrate that there's like amazing to have careers, to go to college, to do all the things and have kids later in life when you're maybe more established, or that's when you met true love. And so I want to just celebrate that, like, there isn't one way to do this. No matter what your age, there are options. There's so much in our power. And I just want to reverse the script if like more of us are having kids in our 40s and our 20s, and very exciting for your friend. And we actually have a team member on Team We Natal who had a child at 56 and with egg donor, but she carried full term. She delivered and she breastfed him for two years. And so that my point about options and keeping your health up, no matter what route you take, is just gonna be so advantageous. And yeah, it's never off the table.

Pregnancy Later In Life And Perimenopause

Speaker 33:46

It's so exciting. Okay, I'm gonna make a very sharp left in this conversation, but I also think that it's really uh impressive what you guys have built and the fact that you were both executives at a huge company. So now we've talked about like, you know, starting families later and just and how to prepare yourself. If somebody is listening to this, how did you uh get how did you make that leap to leave this uh huge corporation to uh start being entrepreneurs? That's such a great question.

Speaker 2 34:19

And actually both of our, we we did it both very differently. So I left working with Dr. Hyman to start We Natal. I wanted to fully focus on it, but then I was like extremely poor for four years, and that was uh uh that was my sacrifice. Like, no, I was living in Pacific Palisades, and everybody around us was going on vacations, living in beautiful homes, and here I was like literally just heads down focused on work.

Speaker 1 34:53

Um, and then Vida, I was still a Nike for, you know, I ended that chapter actually just last year. So I was there for 20 years. Wow. And it was a little bit harder to leave those golden handcuffs, as you know, and also a teeny tiny startup. Ronit and I couldn't both like like I couldn't be a burden to the company from day one. I was financially financially, yeah, because I'm definitely not a burden. But I mean is like I had a very stable career. I had grown there, and I was also the breadwinner in my family. I was also the insurance and more of the stability. My husband also owns his own business, and there's up and downs there. And so we took two levels of sacrifice. I was working literally two jobs around the clock for three years. She, you know, took the sacrifices financially as well, but it actually worked for us because what we so lucky we have each other. We ebbed and flowed together. And I just left last year and now full-time we need all, and we're just about to have our fourth birthday. And so it was two routes, and there isn't one size fits all. But like we always say, the best part of working together is having that accountability partner and finding someone to do the things that you don't love to do. And so we're pretty yin and yang in that sense. We love to do the things the other one doesn't love to do. Um, but it's a sacrifice and there isn't one way to get there. Really growing, like sorry, we're bootstrapped. And so growing slow and sustainable, like we didn't have VC money paying us our corporate salaries. Some people can do that from day one, right? But that wasn't our journey.

Leaving Corporate Life To Build WeNatal

Speaker 2 36:23

And for us, I think it's also that we so believed in our brand and in our mission that for me it was also okay to have that financial sacrifice because I knew that there was gonna, there was no doubt in my mind that there was gonna be a light at the end of the tunnel. Right. You know what I mean? So I we we went into this with such passion and conviction that okay, no big deal if I don't go on vacation for four years. Like not a big deal. We go on a vacation later. Exactly. And we knew that that time was gonna come. And so I think to your audience, you know, there's no one way, and also there's no perfect way. You know, we launched with, you know, we started with this Google Doc. We started to write out our ideas, we had no business in being in supplements, but we found experts, we leveraged our relationships, we um, you know, and and when we start, even though I did go to business school, we didn't really have a business plan to how we launched We Natal. We really launched it from a place of like, what would we need? What did we not have when we were going through this journey? And we created that for our consumer. And so, on one hand, we created these beautiful packages that were like, okay, we don't want to be able to, we don't want to hide our supplements in our cabinets. We want to have a beautiful journey. We want to be able to put our jars in our kitchen table so we don't forget to take it. But what that did when we launched We Natal is people were buying it on posting on social media. And all of a sudden, influencers were unboxing We Natal. That wasn't like our intent in creating beautiful packaging. We really wanted the consumer to have this beautiful packaging. And so we did a lot of subscription, for instance. We launched We Natal as a subscription business because you need this product for at least a year, right? So we wanted to make it easy for the customer. Um, but obviously that's like a smart business model, but that's not why we did it. So I think it's like when you do things with the right intention, the the business all lines up and it all aligns and it all works out.

Speaker 38:50

Yes, I I I completely can see that it's not a and I think that people chase, especially on social media, people chase this formula. Like if you hook people this way, then you'll get these followers. And it's like when you actually just do it from your heart and from good intentions, then the people will come. You know, then you're right, cut consumers, customers will come to you, and that's what you guys did. You did it for the customer, not for your for the influencers.

Speaker 1 39:19

And we had three years of literally zero paid media. It was all word of mouth, it was all doctors recommending us, it was all incredible virality through the formula. People would take the formulas to their doctors, their doctors would be would be impressed, acupuncturists, doulas, midwives. I mean, the network grew literally because people believed and finally found something that combined like six products they were taking into one, or you have a lot of supplements who will literally give you a subpar formula and then sell you more choline, more iron, more vitamin D. It's like wild. Exactly. And that's again back to being an advocate. Like you really have to do your own research because there is a lot of fancy marketing out there. And as marketers ourselves, we appreciate that our there are brands who are claiming, you know, transparency and really trying to be a better brand experience. But you also have to pull back the covers and read the labels and do your own homework.

Speaker 2 40:13

And and just to add one more thing, like we're super passionate about education because we are living in the Wild West of going back to like Claude and Chat GPT, there's so much information coming at you on a regular basis. And so what while we were kind of getting ready for launch, we were we didn't want to sit on the information that we had. So we started to put out information and content on social. We were sending people a free guide on what they could do now to support their fertility. And as a result, we were able to build a pretty robust mailing list before launching. And so I remember the moment that we launched and we basically had a wait list and we pushed live on the wait list. And Penny, who works with us, was like, you know, you could go on to Shopify Live Worldwide View and see how many people are on your website. And I wish I knew, I mean, I wish I recorded my screen because I couldn't believe how many people were on our website buying the moment we pushed live. And again, it's not like we had projections and we thought that like we're gonna build this newsletter list and all these people will then convert. Like that really wasn't what we did. We we like you said, we created this pro the best possible product from our hearts, and people needed it. There was a need in the marketplace.

Speaker 41:45

I am so uh impressed by what you've built, but I'm I feel so blessed that you're in my circle. You guys are such badasses, it's amazing. So if anyone is listening to this and want more information, where do they go?

Where To Learn More And A Hope Story

Speaker 2 42:00

Our website, we natal.com. On social, we're at we underscornatal. We love answering DMs. If anybody has questions, I will reply with a voice note. I'm big on voice notes. Um, our guide, we nadal.com slash guide. Um, we have an amazing blog with literally information for every phase of your fertility journey, postpartum, pregnancy, GLP ones and pregnancy, et cetera, et cetera.

Speaker 1 42:28

Um, so yeah, and I just want to end, if I can, with one customer story. By the way, we have the most incredible, heartwarming reviews, testimonials. But just for everyone to know, whatever stage you're in, to never lose hope, we had our customer Cassie, and her blog is actually her story is written on our blog. The long story short, it's a beautiful, inspiring story of someone who went through 14 rounds of assisted reproductive technology, IUI, IVF, had multiple losses. And as a last resort, her doctor kind of encouraged her to look at diet and nutrition, lifestyle. We'll talk about why that should not be last resort, it should be first resort. However, she found we natal, she found functional medicine, her and her partner leveled up their health, had their healthy baby daughter, thought IVF was her only chance, and finally, thank God, she had her baby. And the second time around, she thought I have to go through IVF again. It failed, but she literally, when she just when she thought, I'm gonna just take a break and stop trying, she had her healthy baby son. And so the point is like, you could be in it. You could be through these amazing technologies, wishing your baby, but doing all these small things and also the mental aspect that none of us are talking to, the lifestyle, like do that and then have hope because not everything's within our control, but there are people with really inspiring stories to share with you. So I hope that if anyone wants to become a parent, we're here for you. You can email us, DM us, and please keep hope because there are so many different ways. And I mentioned our team member who had a baby. At 56, but they're infinite amount of possibility. Thank you so much, ladies.

Speaker 2 44:05

Yeah, thank you.

Speaker 44:06

And if anyone's listening, I'll put how to get in touch with the ladies on the show notes, we needle dot com and their DMs, but everything will be if you're driving, it'll be in the show notes for you. Thank you guys for joining. Thank you.