Behind Her Empire Yasmin Nouri

Katlin Smith is the founder and CEO of Simple Mills, a healthy food company that only uses simple whole food ingredients.
Katlin founded Simple Mills after cleaning up her own diet and seeing incredible results. In 2012, Katlin was working as a management consultant, traveling often, and relying on convenient packaged foods to suit her on-the-go lifestyle. She wasn’t feeling her best and decided to switch to a primarily whole foods-based diet to see if her food choices were to blame. After witnessing her own transformation and then feeling restless in her job, she began experimenting in her kitchen with grain-free, paleo-friendly muffin recipes to create healthy alternatives to sugar-packed treats. A buyer at a nearby Whole Foods agreed to sell Katlin's muffin mixes and placed an order for twelve bags. Initially, Katlin hand-mixed ingredients in food-grade barrels due to a lack of funds for a mixer. She demoed her mixes in three Whole Foods stores and, seeing the demand, quit her day job to focus on Simple Mills. Over a decade later, Simple Mills leads in the cracker, cookie, and baking mix categories, selling in over 30,000 stores.
In this week’s episode, Katlin emphasizes the importance of self-belief and shares advice on building the courage needed to take significant leaps. She discusses the challenges of creating her first product without a baking background, perfecting the taste, and getting Simple Mills into retailers while working full-time. Katlin shares her corporate experience and the realities of running her business on the side, including dropping out of business school, early funding strategies, and dealing with difficult conversations with misaligned investors. She also provides insights on avoiding burnout, common misconceptions about starting a business, her evolving leadership style, and more.
In this episode, we’ll talk to Katlin about:
* The importance of self-belief in Katlin’s journey. [03:10]
* What helped Katlin during times of uncertainty. [06:06]
* Katlin’s childhood and upbringing. [08:26]
* Katlin’s early entrepreneurial spirit. [11:47]
* Creating the first product in her kitchen despite having no background in baking. [18:16]
* Hurdles in perfecting the food taste. [21:06]
* Getting the product into retailers while having a full-time job. [22:37]
* The origin of the name Simple Mills. [29:40]
* The impact an influencer had early on in her business. [31:39]
* Funding the business and the fall-out of their first potential investor. [34:23]
* Getting $200,000 from her parents and going all in. [40:24]
* How Katlin avoids burnout and stays grounded. [44:22]
* Misconceptions about starting a business. [47:50]
* Lessons learned in the Simple Mills journey. [49:36]
This episode is brought to you by Beeya:
* If you or anyone you know have been struggling with hormonal imbalances and bad periods, go to https://beeyawellness.com/free to download the free guide to tackling hormonal imbalances and to learn more about Beeya’s seed cycling bundle.
* Plus, get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIRE10
Follow Yasmin:
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/
* Website: https://www.behindherempire.com/
Follow Katlin:
* Website: https://www.simplemills.com/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/simplemills/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

It's true, women need more sleep than men, and hormonal changes throughout our lives can make it challenging to get the deep sleep we need. In today's episode, we dive into sleep and other ways we can optimize our brain health, emotional resilience and overall longevity through our daily habits.
In this episode you’ll learn: 
* Why women need to pay attention to brain health
* The best sleep aids that benefit the whole body
* How many hours of sleep we actually need
* The truth about alcohol, sleep and brain health
* What to consider before taking melatonin
* How to exercise for better cognition 
* And more…
Neurophysiologist and human performance coach, Louisa Nicola is the founder and head performance advisor of Neuro Athletics - a consulting firm that boasts the best athletes in the world. By using science driven data from EEG scans, labs tests and cognitive assessments, Louisa has a first class ticket inside the brain of elite NBA and MLB stars. Louisa graduated from the University of Sydney medical school with a master of medicine in neurophysiology and is currently completing her doctorate under the guidance of Dr. Tommy Wood at UW, studying the effects of resistance exercise on the brain.
This episode is brought to you by Beeya:
* If you or anyone you know have been struggling with hormonal imbalances and bad periods, go to https://beeyawellness.com/free to download the free guide to tackling hormonal imbalances and to learn more about Beeya’s seed cycling bundle.
* Plus, get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIRE10
Follow Yasmin:
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/
* Website: https://www.behindherempire.com/
Follow Louisa Nicola:
* Website: https://www.neuroathletics.com.au/hybridcoachingprogram
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/louisanicola_/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michelle Wahler is the co-founder and former CEO of Beyond Yoga, a company that’s on a mission to give every body the luxury-level comfort they deserve from activewear.
Coming from the fashion world, Michelle realized the need for a body positive brand with pieces that flatter a wide range of women’s bodies. After creating her own line which started as a side hustle, she met and then partnered with Jodi to build Beyond Yoga in 2005. Michelle has built the product and brand from the ground up and served as its CEO for nearly 20 years. What started as a mere concept led to a global wholesale business, ecommerce site and opening of six retail stores, selling tens of millions of units around the world. She also led the negotiations and her team through the brand’s acquisition to Levi Strauss & Co in 2021 for a reported $400 million dollars.  
In this week’s episode, we talk to Michelle about how the idea for Beyond Yoga started, the initial challenges and investments involved in getting it off the ground, and the importance of staying profitable and reinvesting in the company for long-term success. Michelle shares insights into the early strategies that led to incredible success, including the introduction of their popular space dye fabric, and the lessons learned from partnerships they pursued. She walks us through how Beyond Yoga lost over six million dollars in revenue in one week and how she navigated the business through such challenging times. Michelle also offers valuable advice on avoiding burnout, how they ended up selling to Levi’s despite never wanting to sell the business, and so much more.
In this episode, we’ll talk to Michelle about:
* The importance of giving yourself grace. [03:42]
* Sustainable and profitable growth of Beyond Yoga. [05:15]
* Michelle's upbringing and her relationship with her parents. [07:40]
* Initial work experiences and starting her first venture, Unsweetened. [09:50]
* Meeting her business partner, Jodi. [11:05]
* Biggest learnings from Unsweetened. [16:54]
* Funding the business and finding the right contractors locally. [20:14]
* A major inflection point: Introducing space dye fabric. [29:16]
* Hiring her husband as the COO/CFO. [31:31]
* Michelle’s learnings as a leader. [36:19]
* Michelle’s experience of motherhood. [39:15]
* Saving Beyond Yoga during COVID and millions in lost revenue.[46:03]
* Selling Beyond Yoga to Levi Strauss & Co for $400 million. [54:03]
* Re-investing and her first experience with investors. [59:39]
* Advice she would give her younger self. [01:02:26]
This episode is brought to you by Beeya:
* If you or anyone you know have been struggling with hormonal imbalances and bad periods, go to https://beeyawellness.com/free to download the free guide to tackling hormonal imbalances and to learn more about Beeya’s seed cycling bundle.
* Plus, get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIRE10
Follow Yasmin:
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/
* Website: https://www.behindherempire.com/
Follow Michelle:
* Website: https://beyondyoga.com/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beyondyoga/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelle.wahler/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week’s episode, we’re re-airing one of our top episodes from last year with Fawn Weaver. Fawn is a serial entrepreneur and NYTimes bestselling author, and when she learned about the story of Uncle Nearest Green — the slave who taught Jack Daniel how to distill whiskey — she decided to create a company that would bring his legacy to life.
After learning about Uncle Nearest and Jack Daniel's interconnected history, Fawn followed the story down to Tennessee, which led her to purchase the 300-acre farm in Lynchburg, Tennessee, where Nearest taught Jack how to distill. She initially thought of honoring Nearest's story with a book or movie, but decided the best way to preserve his legacy was with a bottle of the best Tennessee whiskey she could make. With no background in distilling, she threw herself into an industry mostly dominated by white men and a few major corporations. Since they launched, Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey has become the fastest growing whiskey brand in US history, and has over $100+ million in revenue.
In our conversation, Fawn discusses the importance of confidence in leadership and success, and what we can all do today to build more confidence in our lives. She shares her early life challenges, from homelessness to suicidal thoughts, and how she overcame the toughest of times and the biggest learnings she had along the way. Fawn talks about the serendipity around her launching her business and the biggest factors that have helped create the incredible growth they’ve seen, and so much more.
In this episode, we’ll talk to Fawn about:
* How Fawn has cultivated her confidence in the darkest of times. [03:09]
* Faith's role in Fawn's confidence. [04:58]
* Practical approach to how Fawn overcomes any fear in her life. [06:23]
* Handling bad days; giving herself space and having a pray-first approach in everything. [10:16]
* Fawn's most impactful experience: Leaving home at 15, third homeless shelter [15:55]
* Fawn's perspective on boundaries and outgrowing people. [26:24]
* The pivotal moment when Fawn learned about Uncle Nearest and Jack Daniel's interconnected history and how it inspired her journey. [30:46]
* Fawn's whiskey venture epiphany without prior experience. [39:50]
* Having an all-women leadership team in a male-dominated spirits industry. [42:10]
* Early brand awareness tactics and business growth factors. [46:52]
* Fawn’s experience fundraising and how she managed the rejections early on. [50:41]
* Finding the gem inside failure and how it builds confidence and strength. [57:07]
* The importance of knowing your "Why” when it comes to starting a business. [59:07]
This episode is brought to you by beeya: 
* Learn more about beeya's seed cycling bundle at https://beeyawellness.com/free to find out how to tackle hormonal imbalances. 
* Get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIRE
Follow Yasmin:
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/
* Website: https://www.behindherempire.com/
Follow Fawn:
* Website: https://unclenearest.com/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unclenearest/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fawn.weaver/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

There’s a lot of attention on rapid weight loss at the moment, but we need to talk about the long term impacts. In today’s episode, we sat down with Michelle Shapiro, a functional registered dietitian who shares her experience of losing over 100 lbs and what she wishes she knew.
In this episode you’ll learn: 
* The biggest mistakes people make when trying to lose weight
* How rapid weight loss impacts the body in the long term
* The truth about acid reflux and how to overcome it
* What menstruating women need to know about carbs
* The connection between blood sugar and anxiety
Michelle Shapiro is an Integrative/Functional Registered Dietitian from NYC with over 8 years of experience serving more than 1000 clients. She specializes in reversing anxiety, healing longstanding gut issues, and approaching weight loss lovingly and in a body-neutral way. Michelle aims to bridge the gap between functional nutrition and body positivity, working with clients one-on-one in her virtual private practice. Utilizing humor, nuance, and compassion, she helps clients access their liberating self-awareness.
This episode is brought to you by Beeya:
* If you or anyone you know have been struggling with hormonal imbalances and bad periods, go to https://beeyawellness.com/free to download the free guide to tackling hormonal imbalances and to learn more about Beeya’s seed cycling bundle.
* Plus, get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIRE10
Follow Yasmin:
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/
* Website: https://www.behindherempire.com/
Follow Michelle:
* Website: https://michelleshapirord.com/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/michelleshapirord/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sara Happ is the founder of Sara Happ Inc., a beauty company that creates luxury lip products and is best known for launching the first-to-market lip exfoliator called the Lip Scrub.
While lip scrubs are a no-brainer for all the beauty gurus out there, it wasn’t always this way. Sara began experimenting with the "lip scrub" recipe while working for ESPN, where the freezing Connecticut winters left her lips chapped. Seeing that there was a massive hole in the market, Sara drained all $10,000 from her savings account, started formulating her lip scrubs with sugars and edible essential oils bought from Whole Foods, and created the first batches of her new invention in her own kitchen. She was doing all of this as a side hustle until one day in 2006, her products were featured in People Magazine, and she came home to thousands of orders. That’s when Sara realized that she was on to something that would completely change the trajectory of her life.
In this week’s episode, Sara talks to us about how she managed moments of adversity over the past two decades of running her company, how she made a complete pivot from her stable corporate job at ESPN to creating her infamous lip scrub. She dives deeper into the early vision for the brand, how she creatively got it into the hands of celebrities like Reese Witherspoon in the very early days when she was still making it out of her kitchen, and what it was like to have her website crash while getting thousands of orders. Sara also shares how she managed the competitors that came into the space and what she did to build momentum for the brand despite more players entering the market. She also opens up about how she dealt with burnout, the challenges and lessons that COVID brought into her life, the eventual sale of the company in 2023, and so much more. 
In this episode, we’ll talk to Sara about:
* Managing low moments and adversity. [03:35]
* Influence of Sara’s upbringing. [07:05]
* Breakthrough moment and ESPN lessons. [08:59]
* Origin of the lip scrub idea. [11:48]
* Sara’s early vision for the brand. [15:05]
* Reese Witherspoon trying the product and gaining attention. [22:40]
* Major inflection point: thousands of orders. [24:04]
* Leaving her job to focus on the brand. [24:58]
* Gender dynamics in the corporate realm. [28:48]
* Creating the next best-selling product, Lip Slip. [32:48]
* Handling competitors in 2012. [41:31]
* Dealing with burnout and advice to her younger self. [48:26]
* Journey through COVID and selling the company in 2023. [51:05]
* Embracing the founder role and controlling her time. [58:26]
This episode is brought to you by Beeya:
* If you or anyone you know have been struggling with hormonal imbalances and bad periods, go to https://beeyawellness.com/free to download the free guide to tackling hormonal imbalances and to learn more about Beeya’s seed cycling bundle.
* Plus, get $10 off your order by using promo code BEHINDHEREMPIRE10
Follow Yasmin:
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yasminknouri/
* Website: https://www.behindherempire.com/
Follow Sara:
* Website: https://sarahapp.com/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahapp/
* Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahappherself/

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.