Episode 268: Collagen Sourcing, Alignment in Business & Ethical Consumer Practices with Mae Steigler of Organifi
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Listen on Spotify
Have you ever wondered where your collagen comes from? A recent article on the sourcing of several popular collagen brands has people concerned and feeling less confident in how to identify ethically sourced ingredients. To tackle the topic of ethical sourcing head-on, Erin sat down with Organifi’s CEO, Mae Steigler. Organifi is a company known for the responsible and transparent sourcing of their ingredients, so we knew this would be an insightful conversation.
Join Erin and Mae as they delve into a critical discussion about supplement sourcing during this conversation - including why Erin’s stance has changed on supplementation in general over the years. As two CEOs who run their companies with similar core values, Erin and Mae also explore team dynamics, and how the concept of alignment in business relates to the company’s purpose and community.
Mae Steigler serves as CEO of Organifi, maker of premium, great-tasting adaptogenic blends. Responsible for the brand’s overall alignment, Mae is driven by her passion and responsibility for the development of Organifi’s people and processes, having played a key role in building the company since its inception in 2014 to an average growth of 60% CAGR year over year, since inception. With Mae’s leadership, Organifi has been named one of INC. 5000’s fastest-growing companies, four times, and awarded Forbes Great Places to Work, for the last three years.
In this episode:
The importance of sourcing quality ingredients [10:17]
What to look for in a collagen product [11:08]
Why third party validation matters [13:26]
Glyphosate residue free - what does it mean and why is it important? [16:10]
How supplementation can remove obstacles to health [21:05]
Entrepreneurship, alignment and effective team dynamics [32:03]
Resources mentioned:
Organifi supplement powder (Save 20% on your order with code FUNK - including collagen)
Kion Aminos (Get 20% off monthly orders and 10% off one time orders)
LMNT Electrolyte Replenishing powder (Use code FUNK get a free sample pack with any purchase)
Ned Natural Remedies (get 15% off your order with code FUNK)
Article: Collagen craze drives deforestation and rights abuses
Learn more about Metabolic Health and Business
Related episodes:
264: Quantum Biology and Our Health with Dr. Catherine Clinton
266: Protein Intake & Building Muscle Mass
-
Erin Holt [00:00:02]:
Welcome to The Funk'tional Nutrition podcast. I'm your host, Erin Holt. I'm an integrative and functional medicine nutritionist with a feisty attitude and well over a decade of clinical experience. I work with women all over the world through my online programs, and I'm also the founder of the Functional Nutrition Academy, a school and practitioner mentorship where we help other clinicians level up with functional medicine methodologies. I've got a bone to pick with diet culture and the conventional healthcare model that are both systematically failing so many of us. Creating a new model is my life's work and this is what this show is all about. Please keep in mind this podcast is created for educational purposes only and should never be used as a replacement for medical diagnosis or treatment.
Erin Holt [00:00:47]:
If you like what you hear today, I would love for you to subscribe to the show, leave a review on iTunes, share with a friend, and keep coming back for more. Now give me the mic so I can take it away. Just a heads up before I hit play on this episode, I recorded this conversation on the same day that I recorded my conversation with Liz Wolfe. And for both conversations, my mic was unplugged. But here's the cool thing, I had no idea, so I was talking into my mic the entire time. I'm officially Arty from "Wet Hot American Summer." I really pride myself on good audio in this podcast, so I apologize that my portion of the audio is subpar, but it's a great conversation nevertheless, so I hope you enjoy. Okay.
Erin Holt [00:01:34]:
Yay! I'm so excited about this conversation. I get to talk to Mae Steigler, who is the CEO of Organifi, who have been our most long term, most well loved sponsor of The Funk'tional Nutrition podcast. So this is a long time coming. Mae is, like I said, the CEO of the company, Organifi, as many of you are familiar with, make premium great tasting adaptogenic blends. Mae is responsible for the brand's overall alignment, so I can't wait to tuck into what that means. She's driven by her passion and responsibility for the development of Organifi's people and processes, having played a key role in building the company since its inception in 2014 to an average growth of 60% compound growth rate. I think I'm saying that right. It sounds impressive regardless. Year over year since its inception with Mae's leadership, Organifi has been named one of Inc. 5000's fastest growing companies four times and awarded Forbes Great Places to Work for the last three years. So, Mae, welcome to the show. That's very impressive.
Mae Steigler [00:02:42]:
Erin, thank you so much for having me. It's a treat. You guys have been such incredible partners. You've been an amazing partner to have and I'm excited to jump into this conversation. Thank you for that introduction.
Erin Holt [00:02:52]:
I obviously read your bio ahead of time and I was just feeling so inspired as the CEO of my small little company. I'm like damn, this lights me up, this inspires me. So I'm excited to talk to you about all things business alignment, sourcing, and transparency. So I want to back up. It says you're responsible for the brand's overall alignment and I want to start here because alignment is really a word that encompasses how I run my business and my company. I'm always like what's the vibe? Check here. My HR consultant is also a clairvoyant so she advises me on HR but also reads the energy of every single situation. I make moves based on what feels good, what feels like clean lines. I follow my intuition above all else. We don't interface with brands that don't share our values. Sometimes that means having hard awkward conversations. So that's kind of what alignment within the context of my company means to me and I'm so curious what alignment means to you.
Mae Steigler [00:03:59]:
There's a lot of alignment here Erin because also similarly my right hand team member internally is VP of people and culture and so she is kind of the person that is keeping tabs on energetic levels within our company. You know, where is the team? What is the vibe, to your note there. And it's so important to me and kind of how I define alignment is so much of the energetics. There's a very clear structure in designing a business and successfully running a business that isn't necessarily visible. And I think there's the processes and as noted, yes, I oversee those things, but alignment to me speaks more about how we translate what we're here to do to our community, and it's through our products at this stage at Organifi. And I hope that it's in much bigger ways comes to life in the future. So right now we're just at a physical product level. But I hope that in the future and kind of part of the vision of Organifi is translating that to courses and education. And so much of even the partnership here and with our incredible podcast partnerships, supports and prioritizes education and content and bridging the gap for consumers and what it means to be healthy, even redefining it. So, alignment is definitely more about energetics and even as it is in my bio noted with that alignment it's more like coherence. So when the team is aligned on a mission, things are easy. When there's discord or incoherence within the business, within our mission, within our ways of doing business, if those don't match our mission then things become hard and we don't grow and so I think it's critical. Alignment is energy.
Erin Holt [00:05:42]:
So cool and this is going to pair so nicely. I recently talked to Dr. Catherine Clinton, I don't know if you're familiar with her work but she does a lot with quantum biology and pretty much her entire conversation was about coherence. So it's like we're hitting it from all angles. I love I think, you know, you talked about bridging the gap for consumers and a lot of that has to do with education. And you have a relatively new product, your collagen. And I haven't talked about it on Instagram, I haven't talked it on the show before, I haven't introduced it to consumers because I wanted to talk to you about it first. There was an article published in March, I believe March of this year, 2023. And it was the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, and the title was "Collagen craze drives deforestation and rights abuses." And the investigation, which, as the article says, was the first to connect bovine collagen with tropical forest loss and violence against indigenous peoples. It found over 2000 square kilometers of deforestation linked to the supply chains of two Brazil-based collagen operations. So naturally, people saw this and were like, WTF, myself included, and really wanted to hit pause on my consumption of collagen. And it was around the same time that I don't know if Organifi released your collagen or if they just sent it to me. It was on my radar. And I'm like, whoa, I feel nervous about the sourcing. I trust you guys pretty explicitly. I don't say that about many companies. And so I wanted to dialogue about all of this because naturally consumers are like, okay, so collagen, is that a no? So can we talk about that and specifically how Organifi sources your collagen?
Mae Steigler [00:07:40]:
Yeah, so critical. And I love this spot as a consumer, myself, my family as well. We've been in this space with Organifi for over ten years now. And prior to starting the brand, we were more like an education company. We were making digital content around the power of real foods and juicing and that's actually FitLifeTV, a content company that created Organifi. It kind of spring-boarded the business in 2014. And so much of my background and kind of where I come from, is focused first on consumer education. Without that one, it's hard to value the products we put in our body. And also understand, to your point here in this important discussion today, also understand the quality controls or implications of just proper quality with those products and the implications it has on our body and our health. So, yeah, excited to dive into this today. And I think one, with this new product, I'm really excited to be able to speak to a quality standard that is one of the reasons why we actually made it, so a quality standard that we felt was missing. And then also to speak to a bit of my background. Prior to this business, I studied animal nutrition and I was actually in Big AG focusing on early detection of illness. I was working at farm level on dairies, and I was focused on actually reticulum temperature monitoring. So I was doing automated temperature monitoring cows to be able to detect early signs of mastitis, pneumonia, acidosis, to be able to prevent the overuse of antibiotics in the industry. So kind of my background has some food science, nutrition science, animal science that I then later translated to human health. So there's this really interesting overlap where this collagen conversation is coming from and a key area of personal interest for me. And as you brought up, it's so critical that we help consumers, even ourselves, bridge the gap. Your concern, I've been taking collagen for years as well, and part of why we made this product at Organifi was we wanted to make a high quality one that we could actually express our own quality standards with and trust as well. So it was a really interesting article to read, which I did note it was interesting timing when we launched our collagen. And I thought it's a doozy. And it's such, I think, to zoom out a critical spot to understand and assess the supply chain, but also production means, I would say, of our food supply at any point. Again, when I shifted from animal science to human nutrition and coaching, when I got into working with Drew, the founder, ten years ago, I was really interested in educating consumers on understanding what the quality of food does to your body. When you eat things that you are made to digest well, you are relatively health and you live well, and to understand the food system to better actually improve animal welfare, I thought I could work up the chain a bit in the decision criteria to stop concentrated agriculture. And a lot of the beef operations that we see today popping up all over places like Brazil that are causing deforestation, there's huge, obviously, incentive for, unfortunately, industries to show up like this and to cause really intense repercussions. So with this article and with our collagen, I think as a consumer, there's two things that I would advise and two things that I can speak to. First is where do we source our beef? We have four sources of collagen in our collagen. So it's chicken, two sources of fish and one of beef. And so we have kind of this diverse profile of amino acids and proteins in this. And it's, by the way, our first animal based protein, which is a pretty big deal for, you know, heavy plant based, heavy adaptogen. So this is a space that we just recently leaned into, which is extra interesting to us. And so with the sourcing of our beef collagen, we ensured that it doesn't come from Brazil. So this is the biggest area that this is happening in the world. And I think first, as a consumer, being aware of where, let's say you're buying from a brand, ensuring that that brand is not sourcing from Brazil, I'm saying that as also the assumption that this isn't the only place that deforestation and violence is occurring, but it is the most well known. So as we are becoming aware of other areas and regions, that would be a sound practice as a consumer, just to be aware and to be buying from brands that don't source from regions that that happens in.
Erin Holt [00:12:21]:
And so how would a consumer know this? Could they contact the company? Are companies always transparent about their origin?
Mae Steigler [00:12:31]:
They should be, and consumers should be able to. So there's no reason that a company shouldn't be able to provide the documentation around this. And if they can't, I think it's a good indication that it's probably not a trustworthy brand.
Erin Holt [00:12:48]:
Noted.
Mae Steigler [00:12:48]:
Yeah. And so one, email the company, call the company, right. Make sure they have a contact number first and foremost. So as a consumer, are they trustworthy? Are they responsive? You should be able to email them or call them and request documentation of where they source their beef collagen from. So, really importantly, and then as a brand, what's really critical and kind of from my seat, what's critical is that we're able to have the documentation from any supplier that also validates that we do not source from regions. And as soon as we're aware of more regions where this is becoming a problem, duly so we'd have documentation again. And I'll kind of offer a tiny bit of perspective. We've always leveraged our quality standards as a form of just a quality standard that we could trust. And that would be every product we've made has been USDA organic or has been glyphosate residue free, which is third party tested to ensure that we do not have herbicides or pesticides in any nature in our products. And the certifying bodies have helped us. While we are farm level connected with majority of key ingredients, at least supplier connected, we have a third party that validates that for us as well. So there's kind of two levels of certification. So additionally, as a consumer looking on packaging for third party certifications to ensure that that product has been tested to be what it says it is, is really key.
Erin Holt [00:16:10]:
So I actually want to ask about the glyphosate residue free in case somebody's not familiar with that. So even though a product is labeled as organic, there could still be traces of glyphosate on the product.
Mae Steigler [00:16:25]:
Yeah. So it's kind of a secondary level. It's a layer deeper, you could say, than USDA organic. And it's only recently become available. But it's been a after finished product testing format that's allowed us to also validate that there is no specifically glyphosate, which is the number one most heavily used herbicide in the whole entire world. It's hard to find it not somewhere. So it's really helpful for us to test to ensure that there's below a certain level of glyphosate, if any, in our products. And so it's just a layer deeper beyond USDA organic.
Erin Holt [00:17:02]:
Got it. Okay.
Mae Steigler [00:17:03]:
Yeah.
Erin Holt [00:17:03]:
So kind of a big deal.
Mae Steigler [00:17:04]:
It's a really big deal. And it's still really new. I think, again, there's a consumer education gap here. And if anything could not be certified organic, we're really used to the space where it always can be because we create plant based whole food products. And so if they're grown in the ground, they can be certified organic. If you're working with, let's say, a mineral. So, for instance, we just created a magnesium product. There's no such thing as organic or non organic magnesium. It's an element. And so there isn't necessarily something that can be tested. And so we still will use a glyphosate residue free badge and test that finished product regardless. And same with our collagen. So it's just a second layer great, certifying body. You can go to detoxproject.org and look up the brands that certify glyphosate residue free. So it's an additional layer that personally, as a consumer, I find incredibly valuable just to ensure the things that I'm ingesting don't have heavy herbicides in them. And it's been tested to be so.
Erin Holt [00:18:10]:
Super helpful to know about that glyphosate residue free, because that's not a label that I see on a lot of things at this point. So I love that Organifi is doing that and then back to the collagen to kind of close the loop for people on the collagen. We kind of breezed over how unique the collagen is because it is four different sources of collagen. Can you just say a little bit more about that before we move on?
Mae Steigler [00:18:32]:
Yes. And it is a really cool product, so I'm glad you asked.
Erin Holt [00:18:36]:
We breathed by it.
Mae Steigler [00:18:37]:
We're like, oh yeah, don't worry about this. Yeah. There's two things that I think are worth mentioning that I value as a consumer and prior to making our own at Organifi, I was looking for another products. I won't mention the brands that I was using prior to making our own, but I would look for grass fed. And so this is a way in the same value position that Organifi has always been focused on USDA organic grass fed, also related to animal based products, has me confident that they are being raised in a manner these cows are being raised in a manner that is natural to them and they are eating grass as they were designed to and healthily do that. And so it's a much more sustainable operation just inherently because it's grass fed. And there's a lot of brands that are offering this quality standard. I think it's a minimum to look for when you're looking for collagen brands. And so I would make sure that when you're sourcing your collagen to choose that you're looking for grass fed and you're looking for brands that can also speak to the country of origin today.
Erin Holt [00:19:40]:
Is there a reason that you design this with more than just bovine or cow collagen?
Mae Steigler [00:19:46]:
Yeah, and so it gives us a diversity of amino acids. And because we're not just sourcing from, let's say, beef collagen or not just chicken or not just fish, you're getting a more diverse benefit. So as this was kind of our first protein, we wanted to give this a more well rounded approach. We did the same with our plant based protein. We actually had pea, we had hemp, we had multiple sources of proteins just as a benefit for diversity. If this is something that as a primarily maybe plant based diet, someone's including as a supplementation, it's going to be really nice to have a little bit more diversity of protein sources.
Erin Holt [00:20:26]:
You know, you had said something earlier that Organifi started out as more of a consumer education company and I'm curious if it was, you know you were the educator or Organifi was the educator in that situation. But as educators, we also learn a lot about the needs of the people that we are educating. And I will say that my stance or my belief or honestly even some of my dogma maybe has really changed over the years. And I don't know if that's a product of age or just the fact that I interface with thousands of people in my work, but I used to really believe when I started my career that whole foods were whole foods, and that was the most important thing. And any product that was trying to mimic or recreate a whole food was less than or secondary. So I really didn't subscribe to the idea of using protein powders, for example. And I didn't realize how much I had changed until a recent, I would say at some point this year I was running a group nutrition program and somebody asked that very question like why would you recommend protein powders? They're not whole foods. And I'm like, oh, such a good question. And I think now in my career I am more likely to meet people where they're at or I really believe in putting more tools on the table for people rather than taking things away from people. In the reality of the situation where we are with our health, these products like what your creating in Organifi might make the difference between somebody doing it and not doing it. Somebody consuming the greens or not consuming the greens, somebody getting the red polyphenols or not getting the red polyphenols. And I am just more about like let's just throw all the tools at people. And I'm curious if this has come up throughout the years of Organifi. Kind of like meeting the demand of people and giving them tools, essentially.
Mae Steigler [00:22:37]:
Yeah. This, this is actually the origin of the brand Organifi. So I can speak to a perfect parallel for that. We were coaching hundreds of clients actually through juice fasting. And so Erin, can totally relate and appreciate where you are today because we started that way too, which is like, hey, juicing is the most direct way to revolutionize your health. Go buy a juicer, juice for the next 6 hours and you're going to be great. Have six juices today and quit your job because you're going to be juicing all day to do that and you'll be awesome.
Erin Holt [00:23:13]:
Never mind clean juicer. That's like cleaning the juicer. I'm like forget it.
Mae Steigler [00:23:18]:
I know. I agree with you that there is such incredible value in whole foods and I absolutely with that clarity kind of started out this health journey. I was a personal trainer years ago, would talk to people about like I was so confused why they couldn't just eat healthier. I'm like, oh, it's so straightforward, just start eating healthier and eat whole foods and eat less processed foods. But the reality is, and even through the business, what we learned really early on with educating is the more we can remove obstacles to being healthy and make it actually in any way enjoyable, I mean, God forbid convenient, it's more likely to happen. And so we really looked at change psychology. I learned a lot about that through coaching individuals and really trying to unpack what worked and why. And so much of it was one, the belief -, so importantly, believing that doing something for your health is going to work. You got to believe in what you're doing. But then I think it's so important to take, the more, I would say, realistic approach to say, how can I actually make this work? Is this going to work for me? And juicing six times a day doesn't work for very many people for very long. It's a very time consuming thing. So the idea of Organifi was actually created from exactly that spot. We thought, how could we help remove the obstacle? And again, we were teaching juice fasting ten years ago. Now I believe in the power of whole foods more than ever, and in a funny way, am the CEO of a supplement company. And so how that came to be was exactly the way you brought it up, was actually learning that more important than having people dogmatically follow a plan, I'm really passionate about and why Organifi exists, is to remove the obstacles to being healthy and make it enjoyable. We spend an inordinate amount of time making the products taste good without cutting corners, like adding sugar and a bunch of crap in there. We literally have a small amount of ingredients and no more than 3 grams of sugar in anything we make. And that's monk fruit. It's whole food sugars. It's not something that we're adding that's negative. And so I think, really importantly, knowing that it's more important that you find a path to health that you enjoy than trying to make it perfect. We created the greens powder as our first product because so many of our customers would stop getting great results when they got really tired of spending a lot of time cleaning their juicer. It was like our marketing line was like, stop shopping and chopping and cleaning and juicing, and this is the solution to that. And so obviously, we've come a really long way from that. We definitely don't focus on juicing anymore as the reason that we make superfood blends and adaptogens. And I'm excited by that evolution, but it was the origin story for us. It was recognizing that the more you can find a path that's convenient. It is probably if you're having a really hard time getting consistent protein in. Even today, I find being busy, I'll skip lunch a lot. And so it's really important for me to actually make sure I have a quick protein shake, because I'm not getting the grams of protein in that I know is good for me today. Five years ago, it was pretty easy. I could do even four meals a day. Right now, it's like two and a half. So supplementation becomes really critical.
Erin Holt [00:26:42]:
Right, I know I pack a lot into a protein shake or a smoothie, lots of calories, because I'm not about skipping meals here. Running companies, man, we got to fuel these brains.
Mae Steigler [00:26:55]:
It's really important. High performance. It starts with what we put in our body.
Erin Holt [00:27:00]:
Absolutely.
Erin Holt [00:27:01]:
You also have made the switch away from plastic containers. Recently, I was like, I knew that you were doing that. And then when I got my latest shipment. I'm like, oh damn, it has happened.
Mae Steigler [00:27:12]:
It's happened.
Erin Holt [00:27:14]:
That's awesome.
Mae Steigler [00:29:13]:
Yeah, a couple of years ago, even our canisters have been basically sugar cane derived. So we've done a remarkable job, even from the beginning, really focusing on just environmental impact. In the same way that we look at every ingredient we source that's USDA organic. I'll bring it back to ingredient quality. First is perpetuating, a way of growing food that's sustainable. We're mindful of soil health. We don't want to have monocultures stripping the soil of critical nutrients and depriving future generations of high quality food. And so we know how much that's already happened. And so really critically, only sourcing USDA organic food glyphosate residue free whenever we can. Those ingredients play into the future of our environment and food. how we package it - there's so much packaging that is wasteful and detrimental to the environment. And so we prioritized sourcing and investing. It costs more investing in sugar cane canisters. And now we have invested in these pouches. You'll see the products are coming in bags now and there's less stick packs. And so really mindful of consistently reducing our impact and then also allowing our consumers to feel good about investing in the products that we produce. And so I can feel good about the products that we make and so can my family, really critically, it's interesting to be able to, as a consumer, have the capacity to vote for that. So thanks for calling that out.
Erin Holt [00:30:40]:
Even the stick packs too. It's like when I think about because ideally you're thinking stick packs for travel, like gym bag and stuff, but anytime I travel, I'm just throwing the whole kit and caboodle in. You know what I mean? You can put one of those pouches in your suitcase or in a jam bag or wherever you want to go. You don't really need the stick pack.
Mae Steigler [00:30:59]:
We've always tried to walk the line of consumer convenience to the point that we were just talking about, which is like, hey, if it's easy, if you can easily integrate adaptogens in your diet every day, you will see tremendous results, hands down. If it's tough and if they taste like garbage, you probably won't enjoy them and you won't take them consistently. It's like human psychology. So with the transition away from these stick packs, the individual packets, we still have them, but we are not selling them up front and not encouraging consumers to buy them in mass quantity, instead shifting to bags to your point, they are actually easier to travel with. So I originally would try to travel with the canisters instead, and they're pretty bulky and they don't fit well in suitcases together and very hard to if you only are gone for like two days to bring a whole darn canister. So the bags roll up really easily and they were part of the transition plan. So I'm glad you've already experienced that.
Erin Holt [00:31:54]:
Yeah, it's great, cosign on, that for sure.
Mae Steigler [00:31:57]:
Advisory board keep coming up.
Erin Holt [00:32:00]:
I am being mindful of our time here together and I do want to ask a question more on the business side of things. As a CEO of this super cool, quick growing company, I would say that I have a very entrepreneurial spirit. I've never had like a traditional job and I love the fact that I get to run my own company. And as I train other business owners, I do some business coaching, I work with other practitioners. I understand that not everybody needs to be an entrepreneur in order to do a job or have a job or a career that they absolutely love. And it's interesting as I build careers and I hire people and I add to my team to really see this to be true. And I would love to hear because it seems like at some point in your career you kind of were doing the entrepreneurial thing. You mentioned personal training at one point. Do you feel that you're, well, I should guess I should say do you feel like you have an entrepreneurial spirit, number one. And number two, do you feel like that can thrive? You can allow that to thrive while still working within another company?
Mae Steigler [00:33:16]:
Yeah, that's interesting. Yes. And I think that it's kind of like the way that I look at being an entrepreneur and how I define it for myself is a gosh innate or unstoppable curiosity to solve problems and related to the business that I am working in or building myself or you name it. So over the years, that's been really consistent in, I think about it, the way that my brain works. And so it is consistently trying to mishmatch problems and solutions and seeing opportunities. And I think it can be defined as visionary to some degree as well by people. But I think it is just that problem solving curiosity in the space that you are hopefully passionately working in. I think, as you mentioned, growing over the years and building teams, what I find really fascinating is just the proper not proper, but the effective team dynamic that makes a successful business. Because I don't believe entrepreneurial spirit is always required at all. And I think that there are many different archetypes within a business that are absolutely essential, especially at different phases. And so, to be more specific, in the very early days when it was just the founder, Drew, and myself, I was very much a operator, right? He was key visionary, I was operator. I could pace his thought pretty quick, though, so I could follow where he wanted to go, and I loved building. So I was very much like an internal entrepreneur in that business dynamic. As we built more teams, I aimed to build that same dynamic within the business unit. And there's the books like "Rocket Fuel" and there's even "Predictable Success" by Les McKeown, who talks about these team dynamics. We always did team assessments to help us understand, as we brought in new key team members, what kind of critical characteristic or archetype they were bringing in. Because there was kind of these three and I really like Les McKeown's, there's actually four. It's like visionary, processor, operator, synergist. And so I kind of evolved from an operator to a synergist. I started doing internal team building and department building over the years and then I bounced back to visionary. And so it was kind of like the lead role from that operator seat. And yeah, I've been really comfortable in a lot of different roles and I think that could also be the kind of evidence of entrepreneurship, is like you're just interested to build in the spots that you're in.
Erin Holt [00:35:51]:
So I'm just always so fascinated by how we built this story, like the behind the scenes. So what role does Drew, the original founder, play now?
Mae Steigler [00:36:00]:
So actually it's interesting, in this very moment, we're reintegrating him back in the business. So there was kind of three key team members in the very early days, two co founders, Djamel and Drew and myself, as a founding executive. And we have all had time being CEO, which is interesting. Yeah. Drew originally was CEO for probably three years. Djamel was COO. Then Djamel was CEO, and I was COO. So kind of that key relationship as I called out visionary, integrator. And then I've been CEO for two and a half years now, and we're bringing Drew back in and kind of resorting what this next chapter at Organifi looks like. You know, we've always kind of had the three of us as active members to some degree, even if it was just board members with that key team member. And so Drew and Djamel have recently been board members to me, and with Drew being ready to come back in with content and education, like, I'm really excited to reintegrate and kind of reshift our roles again. So yet to be determined, but I'm really excited to kind of reintegrate. And he's primarily been just a very strong visionary, and so being kind of the future focused further out than kind of anybody I've ever seen focusing in that seat.
Erin Holt [00:37:18]:
Oh, it's so exciting to me. I always think of the Henry Ford. If people ask me what they want or if I asked people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse. It's like, I just love the visionary, and the futuristic thinking is so cool to me. It's very inspiring.
Mae Steigler [00:37:38]:
I mean, I hope it's appropriate, but I'd love to turn that kind of back to you to answer, which is know, I always think about that future focus is, like, what problem are you most passionate to solve? And so for you, Erin, right now, as you look ahead, what problem in the industry or what opportunity are you most eager to support or problem to fix?
Erin Holt [00:37:57]:
This is a really great time as my work is taking a little bit of a shift. Chronic health mystery syndromes. I believe that autoimmunity is on well, it is on the rise. I don't believe that. And I see that people are being tragically underserved, not just from a conventional medicine standpoint, but also from a functional medicine and alternative health standpoint. People are being dropped in a bucket, and they're just like, we don't know what to do with you. Good luck. We don't know why this is happening. We don't know what to do with you. We're trying our best, but people are being underserved and literally creating a new path and a new model of healing. That's, like, where my passion is. I do have that futuristic. I don't know if you've ever done gosh. What is it called? The Clifton StrengthsFinder? Love that one.
Mae Steigler [00:38:51]:
Futuristic all the time.
Erin Holt [00:38:54]:
Yeah, it's like top five, easy, and execution. So that's kind of like a lethal combo. Like, I'm a silent assassin.
Mae Steigler [00:39:02]:
No, it's perfect.
Erin Holt [00:39:04]:
And the follow through, like, I'm coming with it. And so I'm glad that you asked me that question because I see a very clear problem, and, man, do I have some solutions to offer people.
Mae Steigler [00:39:17]:
We need it, yeah, I'm so excited to hear that. And it's such an interesting spot that is underserved, and I'm grateful that people like you, Erin, are passionate about it and leaning in with education and yeah, your community is lucky. So thank you, that's awesome.
Erin Holt [00:39:34]:
Thank you so much for being here. Obviously, there's a lot of, dare I say, alignment. We're in lockstep with a lot of stuff we do, which is why it makes sense that we're such great partners. So, I love you guys. I'm so excited to see everything that's coming out of you in the future. You're a brand that not only has solid core values, but you also produce really wonderful products, too. So it is a nice thing to see. So I just super appreciate your time, and thank you so much for coming on the show and everything that you do for us here.
Mae Steigler [00:40:07]:
Erin, thank you. It was a treat. Great conversation. Thank you for just having me on and for serving your community. I'm really grateful for it.
Erin Holt [00:40:20]:
Thanks for joining me for this episode of The Funk'tional Nutrition podcast. If you got something from today's show, don't forget to subscribe, leave a review, share with a friend, and keep coming back for more. Take care of you.
