In today’s podcast episode, Dr. Alex is joined by a very special guest, the CEO of Organifi, Mae Stiegler. Mae shares her journey into personalized wellness and how she got into the world of supplements.
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Hello, everybody, Dr. Alex here with you. Welcome back to the podcast. So happy that you are here. And today, I am doing a very special interview with Mae. And she is from Organifi. She’s the CEO of Organifi, which is O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I. I guess in case you are looking for it, which I’m sure you will be after this recording. And I had the pleasure of interviewing Mae and discussing a lot of her thoughts. It was a lot of her transformation, a lot of her experiences. And then of course, I wanted to know how that all translates to someone who’s the CEO of a very successful company doing things that are really aligned and evolved out in the world. Because we’ve known the folks at Organifi for a really long time. And there’s more and more interfacing that we’ve done with people in that company over the years higher and higher up. And we have been so impressed over time, with how much this company is aligned within itself, and then aligned in terms of how they present the identity of the company. And so this was a really fascinating podcast episode because I got to, to ask me so many important questions that apply to so many of us going through our own personal transformation and also as business owners going through our personal transformation, and the stuff that she has lived through is incredible. You will hear that in this conversation that we have. So to introduce, Mae Stiegler serves as the CEO of Organifi, maker of premium great tasting adaptogenic blends, which you will be hearing more about here on the podcast. responsible for the brand’s overall alignment. Mae is driven by her passion and responsibility for the development of organic wise people and processes. Having played a key role in building the company since its inception in 2014, to average growth of 60% CAGR year over year since inception, with Mae’s leadership Organifi has been named one of the incorporations in 5000s, fastest-growing companies four times and awarded Forbes great places to work for the last three years. If that’s not a stellar bio, I literally don’t know what it is. That’s so earth-shattering just from the get-go in terms of the way that may communicate. And that is you’re hearing that from the very get-go. And you’ll see the true alignment within her as she speaks. And it is incredible. I’m so excited for you to listen to this podcast episode. As always, please reach out to us and let us know what you thought. I also want to remind you that we’re doing this in honor of organic by being our podcast sponsors. Yeah. Hey, we’re so so so excited. And because of that, they have offered a deal for y’all. So you get to try out and you get to experience the products. If you haven’t before you’re in for a treat. If you have you know the value of this. So make sure you take advantage of this as it happens because it will go and so check out in the show notes are going to have the link and everything that you need. So check that out and follow it and go over there. And check it out. Let us know what you think of the products. Let us know what you think of the interview. We’re so so so excited for you and really for us because we get to chat with me and it was amazing. So without any further ado, I’m going to kick it over to the podcast episode and I will catch you next time.
Dr. Alex Golden
Yeah, absolutely. All right. All right. Hi, Mae, how are you doing? Thank you so much for being here on the podcast.
Mae Steigler
I’m doing so good. Thank you for hosting. I’m excited for the conversation and grateful to be here.
Dr. Alex Golden
Oh, absolutely. Me too. Me too. I just wanted to kick off today by asking and having you introduce yourself, like what is your story? What got you to today?
Mae Steigler
Well, I grew up on an organic farm in northern California. I mean, from the roots of like, whole nutritious, amazing organic food. And my kind of life journey has been learning the value of that. So I went into big ag, I went into research and development and really got to learn the value of it through actually animal science. That was my background in studying I really learned the value of putting the right foods in our body and nourishing ourselves and setting ourselves up for success. I learned that through seeing what dairy cows do when they’re fed the wrong foods and how, how much we need to support their health when, you know, our food system is not supported well. And so I kind of went through this big learning through and past College, really returning to appreciating what my parents had done raising my sister and I on a beautiful 40 acres in Northern California with fresh, amazing organic food that I only wanted to Eggo waffles when I was growing up, I’m pretty sure so a lot of learning and appreciation and gratitude and moved into human health and, and really focused on education around individualization of nutrition and lifestyle. met the founder drew cannoli of Organa fie at that time and started developing coaching programs with him and really teaching the power of juice fasting and, and whatnot. So my background kind of goes from animal science, food science, health coaching, and then business development, and I’ve been working with Drew for the last 10 years and building this brand and currently sit in the CEO seat and I’m fascinated by human design, personal development, org design, transformation, health, you name it. And here in a huge learning phase and a huge adventure. Three years sitting in the COC.
Dr. Alex Golden
That’s amazing. What fun art. It gets always so interesting to hear how people’s life always has these loops, these cyclical stories that come back time and time again. And in different ways that here on this podcast, we talk about mastery within someone’s life purpose like why does something keep coming up time and time again in my life? Where’s the invitation for mastery here? So I love that you kicked it off already by having that as part of your story. And then I know you personally have a whole sub-story of your personal transformation and health. So tell us a little bit about that. How did you get interested in all of this stuff from your point of view?
Mae Steigler
Yes, actually kind of unconventionally, I would say, growing up again, I’ll kind of start there growing up, I was a really active child, we had 40 acres, and I was running all over the place all the time, wasn’t that interested in food. And so I was just this little, tiny, tiny child. And even through high school, I played a lot of sports. And so I was naturally active. And my health journey didn’t really come into focus until I was, you know, made college, when I started to realize that if I wasn’t moving my body, and I wasn’t giving myself good quality food like there is a repercussion of this. And that was the first time I think I really learned that or started to learn that I’ll say in a very simple way. And through studying animal science and nutrition, I really got my first preview of what you know, what the body is capable of, and the most fascinating way and that was in so many animals systems, training for a triathlon and working with a close friend of mine training for an Ironman, I really got to apply that to human nutrition for the first time and my own included. And it was a huge learning experience in the translation of my animal science background as pre-vet, went through the school setting of our research and development, and really had this like, I think, the first assumption that I really got it. I clearly did not but at the time. Thanks so much, sense.
Dr. Alex Golden
that first layer always seems really obvious, right? Oh, yeah. Come on guys getting together. Yeah. And I think I
Mae Steigler
was really, I was really applying the animal science perspective, which is so kind of formulaic too, it’s actually like developing animal food rations, and it’s very formulaic and simple. And so really, you know, my, my first awakening was actually moving into personal training. And I won’t say first awakening, I’ll just say like a real like, reality check was wow, like how much I didn’t know when I started to coach more people and how to get a hold of their personal health in the same way that I simply did prior with the triathlon training. And even for myself, I realized that only worked for a little while. And there was so much more learning for my personal journey and with my clients. And I really got a preview of this, more of the mindset and perception around how we treat our state of health. And I was, in many ways, just so surprised to witness myself go through different phases of adherence, I guess, to the plans, I even wrote out for myself, and I really got to witness that with all of my clients, I would have, you know, the same coaching, same cues and the same program for multiple clients. And I would see one, you know, do really well and the other one needs something completely different. So,
Dr. Alex Golden
I really got to learn through doing and miserable trip. Yeah, like,
Mae Steigler
so much more advanced in the same way that, you know, we say, our level of consciousness, you know, many people believe it’s higher than animals. I actually don’t, I think we all have our own superpowers. But there’s this like, almost superiority that, you know, humans could have. But I think it’s also one of our biggest challenges because we have so many mental I would say obstructions and obstacles that we create around our path to wellness. And I’m consistently reminded, even having, you know, pets, my husband, I have a dog and a cat, and how easily they’re able to receive medicine and heal when they’re given the right you know, whether it’s medication or something alternative, how much easier they’re able to receive the benefit. And the medicine works and to recognize in a kind of on more of a little bit of a woo-woo energetic level, how how much more limiting our human state can be just because we have our own developed limiting beliefs around receiving that medicine or if it’s good for us and our doubts and our, you know, being able to take it consistently or something whether that be literally a supplement a medicine or even doing you know, regular exercise, it’s good for us. There aren’t those limitations with animals. So it was a rude awakening, I realized how much more conflict costly also complex, not complicated, but how much more complex human health is. And that was really early on and really asked to answer your question. And so, my journey into my personal individualized wellness was really started when I was learning in some ways for my clients. I was trying like I was doing a paleo diet at the time, I was doing intermittent fasting. This was about 15 years ago, 10 years ago, as a personal trainer, and I would do these 30-day programs. My husband, at the time we were dating, he would often have a focus for three days like hey, we’re going to drink more water for Three days, we’re going to track how we feel. We’re going to do intermittent fasting, which I did for a lot longer than 30 days, and was exercising six to seven days a week because a lot of that was actually my career. So, I had gone through these two phases growing up as a young active child, being an athlete, going into college, recognizing I needed to, like go to the gym and or be active by design, having challenges there for sure. experiencing some disordered eating, actually, during college and those years. And coming through that by designing performance nutrition for triathletes, and myself and going through triathlon and into personal training, it became my job. So I had all these kinds of different stages of recognizing how health became either harder or easier based on my lifestyle, and very clearly as a trainer like as it’s part of your job, you can exercise seven days a week, and it’s no big deal. What was happening though, and my really like first abrupt learning and kind of hearing my body language was exercising nearly seven days a week strength training in a fasted state intermittent fasting, and I totally lost my cycle. I was 25 years old, no reason that I would have amenorrhea where you just basically your cycle disappears. And I totally freaked out. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, I was doing all the right things. I was eating a paleo diet and intermittent fasting. And by right I mean, all the conventional,
Dr. Alex Golden
you’re doing all the right stuff, right? Yeah. Yeah, super extremely healthy things.
Mae Steigler
And I ended up working with a naturopath, I really had, to get a kind of big gut check. And second, guess what I thought was healthy. And like the, you know, the most extreme version of healthy is not actually the best, most of the time, there’s this benefit bell curve to everything. And I definitely surpassed the peak of that benefit and it was really experiencing even higher, my body composition wasn’t improving, I was actually probably not in a healthy physical condition.
Dr. Alex Golden
Like a high cortisol kind of stays super high cortisol
Mae Steigler
really early morning. High blood sugar too. So I was using a glucometer and looking at my blood sugar, and all the things.
Dr. Alex Golden
Yeah, all the things Yeah, that intermittent fasting crowd does.
Mae Steigler
Totally and self experimenting, I think was such an important part and has consistently been such an important part of my health journey. And worked with a naturopath, six, six to eight months later, got my cycle back did a ton of like, less exercise more eating less fasting. So it was such a learning that like, you know, I really have a lot to learn. I really don’t know, and if I’m not listening to my body, I’m sure so many signs before I lost my cycle that I was unaware of. Right. And so yeah, just that was a really important first I think Wake up call. And such a humbling understanding that that that ideal kind of ways of being optimally healthy still needs to be individualized. And so even 10 years later, you know, My lifestyle is vastly different, obviously not a personal trainer anymore. I am a CEO and my lifestyle is crazy. And my learning most recently was actually losing some of my sight and my left eye because of high cortisol again and so it’s something called like fluid on your macro ma but essentially it happens in high-stress chronic situations. And I stepped into the CEO role really not knowing what I was taking on and really being I think drastically overwhelmed and wanting to my mode of working has been prior having been really wanting to take on everything myself and kind of go it alone and it was really dysfunctional. And so it showed up by high cortisol and actually losing some of my vision in my left eye and it was such an again a wake-up call. That must have been scary. Yeah, really scary. And it took about a year to I just got it just went back to the optometrist and got a clean bill of health and took a year of kind of learning how to slow down again how to ask for help, how to even like just the perception of those stress levels something being out of balance is what I’m right now learning how to redefine so in this new year looking ahead and 2023 and defining like you know what, what could have been the signs of some of that outside of just the basics you know, sleep energy, mood libido, hunger cravings cycle, of course, but I’m just going through a new stage of learning for sure and so grateful that was able to kind of downshift and and and learn that again. But that’s a very answer to your question.
Dr. Alex Golden
I love it. I love it. Honestly, we always joke but we are long-winded around here because we’re all about the shades of gray right transformation is such a nuanced thing. And we all learn it kind of the tenant of what’s most personnel is most general. I love when people have such depth to their stories, right? I love hearing all that because there’s so much that we can talk about, there’s so much to unpack there. And I love how you tied in the consciousness of animals, and then went right into the intuition around, you know, we can follow a checklist of the good healthy things to do, and still get into massive trouble. And then we can also even get better at that. And still writing still have a point where the continuing alignment between purpose and what it looks like day to day, still need some shoring up. And the process of transplanting through that relies so much on things like intuition. It is something that we have in animals model so beautifully. I’m with you on the consciousness, because I always am looking to, like animals and kids are so wonderful to learn from because of that because they really feel it. Yeah, they feel it and they do it. And they are so clear on who they are being and what they are seeking. Right that the outcome that is in and to learn that intuitive sounds like your journey have really been to know yourself more and more into intuitively give yourself the things that you need.
Mae Steigler
Because of a great summary. Yes. Was just
Dr. Alex Golden
a mate. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. So much else. Yeah. So what at this point, since you’ve gone, it’s clear, you’ve gone through multiple multiple rounds of this, like, what does transformation mean to you at this point, because when kind of the reason I’m asking that, because I want to go into the more practical aspects back again, you know, we’re going high level and then bringing it back down. Because there are questions on when you’re doing that. And you’re going by intuition. There are great supplements out there, how much do you take them? How often do you test? How do you know when to do it? Or when do you know that you’re doing it out of a place of alignment, and you’re just forcing yourself, right? So I want to dig into all of that. And, but it’s going to be from the foundation of what we are transforming more and more into who we truly are. So with that as the base, then we decide what it looks like. So what does transformation mean to you?
Mae Steigler
Transformation right now, to me means being able to listen to my own body language, you know, there kind of those two themes and those big moments, those big aha moments for me are really like, wow, I wasn’t actually listening to my body. And this is then the result that I could have, oh, there’s so many I think signs before that. And many of them, it’s kind of twofold, actually. So learning kind of like my body language, you could say what this like, you know, I have such a, I’m an OB what our bodies are capable of there is just immense wisdom and, and capacity, right, that our human bodies are capable of consistently. handling stress and maintaining homeostasis in our ever-changing just reality is nuts to me. So I’m just in awe of what our bodies are capable of. So learning that language is a huge, huge piece of transformation for you right now. And then it’s really the perception of, of where my kind of mile markers are. So and those are two kinds of key areas that I’ve often talked about, even in the early days of developing the business in coaching and with clients. And I think to bring this down to something practical and, and tangible for listeners and even to discuss here in that first, that first kind of piece, which is like learning how to your own body language. I think it’s as basic as evaluating pretty consistently like how am I sleeping? And even on a scale of, you know, dissatisfied, dissatisfied, like what’s my level of satisfaction with my sleep right now, with my energy levels?
Dr. Alex Golden
With my think? High? Do you think someone does that? Sorry to jump in. I just I kind of immediately heard what the follow-up question would be, which is, if you’ve been forcing it for a while, sometimes people are like, it’s hard to track because then I get so in the numbers.
Mae Steigler
Why, and I totally can relate to that I’ve definitely come from, you know, some disordered eating some Yeah.
Dr. Alex Golden
Right. You know,
Mae Steigler
weighing all your food. I have a high sensitivity to that, and a huge respect to say, like, let’s not do that, actually, let’s give it more intuitive. And I actually really like journaling practice. So something I’m really really enjoying right now is just actually at end of day check and it’s simple, you know, evaluating and it’s really light rating and data and metrics and like touch, like literally just like my perception of like, Hey, how did my body feel today? One out of 10 How was my energy want to attend? How was my sleep one out of 10 So really, you can do one out of five or something but very light right good? about whatever you want to do or good or or
Dr. Alex Golden
I love that idea, just a little, little bit more light touch.
Mae Steigler
And I think for me, that’s also an expression of a bit more grace with myself and some more like tender self-care, I would say I’ve definitely again had a history of being really regimented. And like, we’re going to do this workout plan to me, we’re doing this workout plan. And, and over-exercising or pushing myself too far. So this feels right to me. And I think, potentially a solution and that question you asked is, How do you? How do you kind of balance out and or mitigate it feels it feels too tactical, it feels like control
Dr. Alex Golden
measured? So how do you still deal with feelings of guilt or anything on days when you’re doing the evaluation, and you are not loving what you’re putting down? Or has that largely passed for you?
Mae Steigler
That’s largely passed. And I think there’s still the area that I’m still working on, actually is redesigning my strength training, which is so funny coming from working out like seven days a week as a personal trainer, right now, I actually play pickleball, I do a lot of activity during the week. And there’s this like, knowing that I like it’s really important to me that I do consistent strength training, and I’m not doing it. So the guilt I have is a little bit more and when I’m evaluating how my body felt, which is like craving, craving, some progressive strength training, and some progressive challenge to really support actually the longevity of my pickleball playing because I enjoy it. That’s awesome. But yeah, that’s kind of the application of that wisdom from personal training that like, hey, you know, especially as I’m getting older, mid-30s and more than when I was in my mid-20s strength training and muscle building is really critical, I believe. And so it’s kind of the just the guilt, that there’s something that I know that I’m not supporting my body and yet, unaligned Yeah, got the rest of it. If I’m not sleeping, well, I really feel like kind of answering the question Did I do my best to get get the most by could have the best energy I can today, you know, really support my emotional needs? And that’s more like the mood category. And like really listening to this last year and kind of even more deeply answering that question. This last couple of years, I’ve really taken time to ask like, Is this the best thing for me today, if my day was super stressful, I would say hey, strength training is not the best for me right now, or going out and doing like a run, because it would elevate my cortisol even more so slightly. Yeah, the best thing to do right now is actually like go sit in the sauna, or go for a nice walk and maybe call my sister or, you know, really tune into what I need at the time. And that’s the second part of this, which is kind of in transformation, how can I best set myself up for success, and there is so much energy behind that one that feels more like Grace, patience, slowing down tuning in, not necessarily doing what you know, I think I should do but doing what I feel I should do, which is very much the difference between like, you know, thinking and feeling, which is really my personal transformation that I’m working on right now. Or I’m focusing on right now and making space for and giving time to
Dr. Alex Golden
Wow, I love that that is so true of you kind of catch it coming and going in that sense, you’re supporting all of the parts of what makes up who you’re choosing to be, which is, of course, I’m adding what my definition of it is, which is you know, choosing identity but yet and I love how those things come together. And thank you for sharing that kind of practical, sneak peek into your life and being vulnerable around that. Because that’s such a big thing for people on the I know that I have tried the strategy of if I just do it harder, more, take away more foods, take more supplements. If I just do that, then I’ll do it because it’s it worked in work. It worked in school at work and in sports. So it seems to track out so then we apply that but in health, it just keeps kind of eluding us. And so at some point, it just seems like how letting the transformation take you on that, which is from regimented to being willing to see how it goes and flow with the punches and use your intuition and says no, thank you. That authority can tell me that but I’m going to not take that and I’m going to do this and said it also it can feel a little bit like you’re going crazy is at least has been my experience. And I hear that from people all the time. They’re like it life used to be clear. Yeah. And now It’s like I’m free-floating in this thing that I’m making up. This is great, because we’re in empowerment, but it can also be really scary. And I think vulnerability. The reason I appreciate it so much that you are sharing that is that without that insight, sometimes it’s easy to sit back and go, gosh, there must be something wrong with me personally, I’m doing it wrong. Whereas you listen to anybody. Most of us are like, well, I don’t really know exactly what I’m doing. But this is feeling right for me now.
Mae Steigler
And there’s a critical, I think, perception or mindset shift, their mindset shift in that, that, that I think is important. And it’s instead of being focused on the feedback loop towards your goals, which is what I want to accomplish, whether it’s a weight goal, and this kind of the importance of like the right measurement in my mind, if you’re measuring just the outcome, which is like, am I you know, 110 pounds? I’m a small lady, am I 110 pounds, 110 pounds? What you’re missing? And like, what has changed for me is I am focusing on learning, right? So I’m super curious more than that feedback loop that isn’t a feedback loop, but the loop that something is wrong with me, and I’m not getting the results. I’m asking them, I wonder why and what does my body actually need to produce the results? Instead of like, kind of forcing your body to get the results? I’m asking what does my body need to produce those results, or to create that outcome, which is quite different? And it’s more of a, I’m curious and learning about what could be sustainable. And what could be enjoyable for a long time? That’s kind of how I’m defining sustainable because I’m just not very appealing, but like, what can be enjoyable for a long time for me? And that’s very different from an oil contrast, you know, 10 years ago, looking at goals, I was like, How do I get this outcome as fast as possible, and I wasn’t even considering, do I want to keep doing what I’m doing right now to get that result for the next six months, two years, five years. And that changes a lot of the perception around the way in which path in which I take and even the perception that I’m being successful with that path. So it’s a contrast in that mindset, results-focused outcomes focused versus sustainability enjoyment, even learning focus, curiosity focus, that helps, I think, bring in a way of transformation that doesn’t have as much of the kind of sharp edges around it that feels like self-doubt and even a lot of judgment. Right.
Dr. Alex Golden
I love that. I love that. And it seems like not a very big distinction like that, where the distinction lies is how different you feel thinking that thought. Right, but the words that you just said, and if anybody wants to go back and rewind, the difference in the actual wording Wasn’t that obvious. But when you said it the way I felt that when I put it through my emotional compass, and was like, What is this telling me? It was a vastly different feeling. One was like, Oh, God, I hope I do that. And the other one was, hey, look, look at me and go kind of that that expansive, I am growing into who I’m becoming, and that’s okay if it looks XYZ or messy, or whatever it is. So yeah, I love that. And I like how questions like that can really get us started. Because sometimes when we’re lost in the weeds, the, what I call the mental Gremlins, which are just all the self-doubt, and everything that we’ve practiced for a while, is kinda loud, and to localize back and one of the things that I hear the most, and people that I talked to that transform a lot and have over decades, is that it tends to be those smaller nuanced differences on the surface that don’t look like you’re doing much, but because the motions are so different behind that the results are vastly different. And it’s interesting how people seem to come full circle to actually getting results quickly, which is what they were trying so hard to do in the beginning anyways. But they have to come all the way full circle through the expansion of it to come back around and be like, Oh, that was easy. I just kind of had a stop the BS, of all the stories and interpretations in the past that I was kind of letting play out. So with that in mind, you clearly have you’re very clear on your goals, and then what you do so with that light touch, what do you identify as being the highest yield like small things that add up to the biggest thing results for you these days?
Mae Steigler
It’s interesting. I’m kind of fascinated by just consistently having a healthy foundation a healthy, normal, and healthy default. And so right now and like just it was gratitude reflecting on my lifestyle, I sleep really well have great energy, you know, great libido, a great mood typically like a lot of balance and so awesome. The area. Yeah, I’m very, very grateful for that. And so much of that has to do with the normal in my household, my husband’s also in the health and fitness space, and we just have so much support built into our household. So really grateful for that. So a super strong foundation. And the areas I’m leaning into are the spaces where I’m still feeling that resistance, which is interesting. And so as I was highlighting it, it is more around the for me right now my very clear focus, just hey, let’s develop some strength training as the area that I haven’t been able to really support myself as well as I could. And it seems silly that I that I’m not so it’s like that obvious space to focus and get curious as to like, I wonder what’s behind the challenge for me in this space? Because the one
Dr. Alex Golden
spot Have you identified that already? Not yet. No.
Mae Steigler
And it’s, I’m the feeling is it’s related to prioritization around work. And because with pickleball, I’m normally there’s really positive peer pressure. So I like to kind of look at the architecture behind what works for me and like, there is positive peer pressure because I’m playing with other people. So I’m committed to other people. And that exercise strength training is just me and me, right? So there’s always the option of like, Oh, I could even have like a home gym in our garage, and I’m like, I can go downstairs, literally downstairs, I could go down there and do a workout. Or I could wrap up, you know, the OKRs review for our team for the end of the year, right for initiatives. So that’s kind of right? Yeah, the self-awareness there is designing strength training, probably with somebody else. So let’s have a partner that I work out with for 2023. And kick-off that way to have some built-in positive accountability, because that is what has worked, and even probably what is tying me into delivering for my team and for Organa phi over and above my strength training. So as I started to talk that through Thank you.
Dr. Alex Golden
I love strategy. I love talking strategy. So I love how it’s very clear, you’re applying what has worked in one area to cross cover, like, you know, the positive peer pressure. And I know that works. Why do why wouldn’t it work here? That’s so cool.
Mae Steigler
And what’s interesting is, I think in any of the areas that we’re focusing on, it’s so helpful to look at what format has worked best and why and that is still the individualization of health, which is fascinating to me, it’s like looking at how do you set yourself up for success knowing yourself so well, and there’s literally no one that knows you better. So really play to that strength and consider. And in the same way that we were talking about, you know, designing goals and even how we become healthier and go through a transformation. So much of it is the benefit of getting to know yourself and building self-awareness, you know, there’s this infinite benefit as we become more and more self-aware, both from and to your point, the energy that we choose to make the change from which is the difference in the questions we ask, you know, how can I set myself up for success? What do I need to make this you know, what does my body need my lifestyle need to make this easy? And, did I do my best to get to bed early, you know, get my best rest to have the most energy today, that shift in the energy in which you know, we kind of approach our transformation in our change and can change everything and it’s super simple to your point. So roundabout to answer your original question. That’s great. The things that make the biggest difference in my life right now are more around lifestyle, and it’s small, small changes, so 1% better looking at like right now, you know, we have a really consistent pickleball schedule my husband and I and that’s really wonderful and we think hey, how can we maybe add an additional day in or, or maybe play for a little bit longer? And then you know, how can I maybe ensure that I’m drinking a little bit more water before we play even the day before so that I don’t occasionally get a headache from over-exercising these days, and probably under hydrating and so it’s the small tweaks and being really curious around how to make that easy and I’ve always been really fascinated with and curious around the more like lifestyle architecture and part of what you know, just consistently makes me appreciate working for organic and with an organic sigh as is the mission to remove those obstacles and make healthy easy and delicious. And so, so much of what I believe in comes from the expression of our brand and what we stand for. So there is that I am that I’m always looking for like hey, what if the obstacles weren’t there? What if it was extremely easy? What if it was really enjoyable? What if we did this new habit and this you know, identity that I’m looking to the architect was extremely approachable?
Dr. Alex Golden
Yeah, that’s amazing. And I do love that the focus is not just good health for those products, that they are formulated in a way that someone can accurately self-reflect and with awareness say, This feels good as an addition. And I will say that that is the whole reason we’re having this conversation now is that for the last couple of years, part of Megan and I’s transformation has been to really understand that, in addition to the physical body, and just how important that is that the mental, emotional and spiritual bodies are often vastly underrepresented, and people don’t have the support structure and the resources in their own lives to feel good in those areas. And so that’s why they’re kind of stuck, figuring out and coercing their physical body into doing that stuff with them. And that is why for a while, we were kind of cool, on discussing supplements, because we needed that we needed the space away from it, not because we had any problem with it, it was just the time for the pendulum to for us to explore so much more of who we were. And now it’s, it’s been really, really cool to come back to and see through that a completely different filter in the lens to say, I’m seeking companies and building relationships that cultivate that within society because it’s not about me getting mine. But it’s about all of us learning to think differently, which will help us feel different and create and cultivate a more loving world, which is I truly believe what we all want. Right and so so that is such cool. So thank you so much for what you do. That’s awesome. And thank you for coming on here. I do want to ask what habits and micro small ways you instill that self-awareness, because a lot of times people with self-awareness, know what they need to do. But the trick is that they’re not necessarily asking themselves the questions or have the habit surrounding cultivating self-awareness, to begin with.
Mae Steigler
Yeah, and I thank you for that, I really love leveraging wearable technology was helpful. So if I’m, for instance, like whoop, I wear it. And I really like the insights that help me also shift my perception around. Just being curious, right, and being interested in all the complexity behind my state of health. So more than just saying, you know, did I sleep well or not, I’m also interested in all the details, like, I wonder how long it took me to sleep, to go to sleep, I wonder, you know, how rested do I really feel so really getting deeper information and looking more closely at those wearable tech has been a way that I’ve I’ve enjoyed doing that, whether it’s an aura ring, or you know, the whoop band, or any of those kind of pieces of equipment. And I think using those really to shift my perception and focus is really what I like, rather than trying to get the numbers right and being as we talked about before, the tracking. So like very mindful of that relationship with this technology serving me to be more tuned in to support even connecting that with my intuitive wisdom, which is like, hey, is this accurate? And if it feels inaccurate, that’s still missing, like, oh, at least I’m more tuned in than I was yesterday, or at least I’m using that as a way to connect. I love them. Yeah, and so that’s one tool that I really like and even, you know, have a long history of self-experimentation with, you know, even a glucometer or a continuous, you know, blood glucose measure, you name it. And I, I like those tools with that intention. And very mindful of the other side of that. So those are habits. So I do like just the habit of waking up in the morning we met when I have an eight sleep as another example. And we just like to look at the day-to-day we’re interested. Part of our morning conversation is, you know, how do you sleep last night? How do you feel? So we’re always talking about that. So a lot of I guess a lot of the habits are more the questions that are embedded in my lifestyle. A good example of this and more of the relationship and energetics behind my marriage would be like before my husband goes to work. I’m always asking him, what are you excited about? You know, and he’s always asking me what we’re looking forward to. And they’re just yeah, they’re nice directional focusing questions. I think it’s so easy to otherwise focus on what’s not working, and what isn’t going well. You know, the kind of common conversation dynamic so we use questions to intentionally set our focus and it’s not to say that We don’t like a status not working. And believe me, we definitely do.
Dr. Alex Golden
But it’s nice to have Gosh, you’re blowing my mind, man, this is amazing. I love this.
Mae Steigler
I’m glad. And it’s, I’m sure we learned it from like a podcast we heard or something. But it’s also and I guess more on this during our kind of our, our weekly rhythm our Friday and Saturday nights, if we’re home, we’re up on a rooftop by our firepit. And we’re normally having a nice cocktail or enjoying, you know, a great organic sign drink like gold before we go to bed or sleep support product. But we’re also asking each other like reflecting on the week and or the things that we loved and asking, like, how can we do more of that? How can we enjoy that more? How can we be you know, closer to that? So there is this nice rhythm of the questions we’re asking ourselves. And if we had a really good time at like a pickleball tournament, we’re like, I wonder how we could do that more often. Or I wonder how that could become more of our lifestyle. So it’s consistently kind of iterative in that way. So there is more of the habits, I think it’s more of a rhythm that is very, very helpful. And then in the daily habits and kind of tools that I use, in what I learned from being a personal trainer, and more on to the topic of having a really healthy default. My husband and I pretty much have the same we have we’ve had the same breakfast for like 10 years. And not to say that we don’t mix it up. But our default is eggs and vegetables with a little bit of ginger in the eggs. And before we even start our kind of routine, we’re having actually a cup of miso soup, chickpea miso soup, and a little bit of arugula in there. We always have our organic products, I balance and stuff in the morning, but sounds so good. And we have that before our coffee, which we love. And it’s something that I think just the defaults are really healthy, and so that we can make adjustments, and I can, you know, add in new habits really easily. For instance, I just started taking some more magnesium, I hadn’t taken it for a while. And we already kind of have this nice habit of taking a couple of capsules are supplemented in the morning. So it’s super easy to add it in. And that’s I guess, kind of more of the science of like habit stacking. Yeah, like what are the things you already do that you’re just you’re adding to rather than focusing on what you can consistently be removing or, or stopping or doing less of, which is still a valuable exercise, I suppose.
Dr. Alex Golden
Yeah, that’s amazing. Yeah, I’m totally gonna steal that. Because that the thing that you said about asking questions that help you focus on what you are moving towards, rather than what you’re moving away from? Because that’s what I hear, right? It’s, it’s not How is your day after and evaluating what sucked and moving away from it. It’s setting the dome before you even leave, what is my reticular activating system looking for out in the world, and I’m setting that to move towards excitement. And in my questions, I can help even someone else’s subconscious-based search look for excitement just by how I’m communicating with them through the questions that I asked. So I love that thank you so much, I will be stealing it. It’s really cool,
Mae Steigler
really, that really quickly to more of the Health Transformation side. And for a long time at the company, we were coaching groups of clients in looking for and focusing on 1% better. And because we know that transformation, and especially health transformation takes consistent time, effort, and focus, I was so important because it’s not going to happen overnight. For the most part, it’s so important to look for the tiny improvements and look for the tiny changes. So on that same note, you know, with the, with the focusing for the day, and the questions, even if an in between the points of progress, whether it’s your weight that you’re looking to transform or ideally like your mindset or something in an in a huge way. But you’re looking for what got improved. So what I did, what did I do better, and it could be as something as simple as well, I drank a little more water this week, or today I drank more water or I intentionally got to bed, you know, 10 minutes earlier. And being able to both celebrate and see those spots of improvement is so so critical as the perception of progress, that I think for the most part like we’re unfortunately so conditioned to only look at the huge milestones that happen rarely and it’s very hard to maintain motivation between the spots otherwise. So giving yourself you know, maybe it’s that journaling exercise but you’re looking for and the highlighting as kind of that gratitude list but more specific to your transformation. What went well, you know, what did you do 1% better and you’re looking for that tiny improvement because that is you know, the compound effect and so much of the things that actually create transformation
Dr. Alex Golden
it’s so true. It’s true and anybody who’s been listening to this podcast for a while has heard me talk at length about why that is true for brain rewiring, right? The regions that are set up in the brain and the neural networks between them. If you want to feel good at the end of losing weight, you have to learn how to feel good in the process of doing it. So that it is hardwired to become that identity. It’s, there are no two ways about it, those two neurons better be touching. Yeah, and they can only be touching if you actually feel that way. And so I love that you reminded us of the reality that if we want the transformation, we have to become the person who does it. And it’s interesting how much resistance can come up to positively transforming, you would think it wouldn’t be that hard to convince your own brain. But since that sucker is set to efficiency and survival, and not your, you know, not your strength training, we have to get strategic about how we interact with ourselves and how we set up those and I love that we wrapped up here today with the small micro habits, we can talk about all these huge transformation and identity. But at the end of the day, we have to show up for ourselves and actually live the life that we say we want, or it will just continue to be a little bit of a pipe dream in, in some future. But thank you so much for coming on. I love love, love this conversation. And thank you so much for everything you do with Organa phi.
Mae Steigler
Absolutely, Alex, thank you for hosting. And, and I’m really grateful to get to share again, if I and just in this conversation kind of where that connects is the origins for the brand, really removing the obstacles to being healthy. So really designing, taking, taking a lot of time to design delicious, very high-quality adaptogens and superfood blends. And starting with a really high level of quality baseline, which is you know, all organic glyphosate residue-free, and then clinical doses of the key ingredient for the base the benefit of the product. So from there, then as we talked about today, so much of the journey becomes easier. And really the important focus is individual individualization of your health journey because you’re removing all of those obstacles beforehand. So and that’s a lot of the work, which we talked about mostly today, which is actually like that the meat of it.
Dr. Alex Golden
It’s true. Well, the reason that we can talk about all of these much more results-oriented topics is that high-quality stuff like that exists, and the problem has been solved. And a lot of people are running around trying to solve a problem that has already been solved. And it’s the mindset that says it has to be hard for me to get what I want. And the second that we begin to be courageous enough to break that and to say, Yeah, but I actually am not getting the results. So I don’t know why I keep telling myself that story, I’m gonna actually have the courage to do things differently, then we get to say, actually, my health is worth it, I’m going to invest in the things that feel good and make it easy. And then I’m going to direct my energy to give myself more of what I want, which is all the good stuff we actually say. So, you know, I’m far from the days when I used to spend hours in the kitchen every single day making things from scratch and doing all this. I’m grateful that I did that. That was great. But honestly, it made me miserable. I missed out on so much stuff. This is why now my return to approaching my health is so different and so much more fun. And really, I spend so much less money overall and because I get stuff that’s already been someone’s already answered the problem, then I just like I get to focus on doing the things I love and quite honestly, the whole my whole life then works more smoothly. I’m not losing time doing something I hate, which makes me resentful and bitter. And who wants that anyways?
Mae Steigler
No, and it’s so much just like self-awareness to set yourself up for success and I think you know, in our lives how can we do that more and more and, and invest in those areas that we really have the opportunity to so and then make the rest as easy as possible because healthy can be delicious, healthy, it can be easy, healthy, it can be like the best thing ever. Yeah, our limiting beliefs make it totally hard.
Dr. Alex Golden
Yeah, right because I believe totally I already changed that too. It should be delicious. Like my I’m that I’m past the can. I’m like, Yeah, I’m like it should I I’m tired of putting things in my mouth that I don’t enjoy. Like I did that for so long. I’d be like, Yep, there’s this pickled ginger covered and sardine oil is great. Do you know what I mean? Like I would sacrifice everything just because someone told me to do it and at no point am I I willing to go through that again because the disrespect to myself was too. Too high. It’s good food, but I’m gonna to do it a different way. So great. Thank you for making those. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. Appreciate you. Where can people come to find out more?
Mae Steigler
Yeah, they can always find me on LinkedIn and DM me, that’s the best spot better than social media. And then, of course, check out Organifi on Instagram and Organifi.com
Dr. Alex Golden
and I’ll link it up in the show notes as you check it out over there.
Mae Steigler
Thank you, Alex, so much. I really enjoyed the conversation and so appreciate what you and Megan are creating here.
Dr. Alex Golden
Yeah, thank you. Appreciate you, have a good day.