Wellness In Every Season

Building a Business without Burnout

• Autumn Carter/ Kate Assaraf • Season 1 • Episode 187

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Ever feel like your business is thriving… while you quietly disappear in the background? In this episode, I’m joined by Kate Assaraf, CEO of DIP Sustainable Haircare, for a real, grounded conversation about building a business without losing yourself—especially when you’re also raising kids and carrying the mental load.


Kate shares how her obsession with reducing plastic (sparked during pregnancy and a very unsettling story about plastic pollution) led her to create high-performance, plastic-free shampoo and conditioner bars—without leaning on the typical “must-have” growth tools. We talk burnout that doesn’t just feel emotional—it shows up physically: sleep disruption, nervous system overload, and the confusing reality of “doing everything right” with diet and exercise… and still feeling worse.


You’ll hear what finally became Kate’s turning point, why stress management had to come before “more hustle,” and the boundaries that helped her rebuild her health (including reworking her calendar, switching to lower-intensity movement, and stacking small daily practices that actually work).


Want to explore DIP? Start at dipalready.com and follow @dipalready on Instagram. You can also find Kate online and through her writing, including her Forbes column.

For more wellness tips and exclusive content, join my newsletter! Sign up now at https://wellness-in-every-season.kit.com/5-days-to-mastering-mornings-and-evenings receive a free 5-day guide called "Awaken and Unwind: 5 Days to Mastering Life's Mornings and Evenings."

building a business without losing yourself

[00:00:00] 

Introduction and Episode Overview

Speaker: This is episode 180 7. Today we are talking about building a business without losing yourself. I love this topic. 

Meet Kate Assaraf: Sustainable Haircare Pioneer

Speaker: Today I have with me Kate Assaraf 

from dip, sustainable haircare right there. I'm interested. Today she is talking about how to build a business, how to be sustainable, and make sure that you're not burning yourself out like you're taking care of yourself.

Welcome to Wellness. In every season, we talk all things wellness, to help you align yourself, align with your goals, find balance in your life, and just recalibrate yourself if you are listening for the first time. Welcome, welcome. I'm so glad you're here, and let's get started in the rest of the podcast.

Speaker: She is mom of two and the founder of Clean Beauty [00:01:00] Brand, which I'm excited to talk about

and she's learned how to rebuild after burnout, prioritize wellness without guilt, moms, we have the hardest time with guilt. And how to make business decisions that align with values, not just profit margins. And she's going to be sharing how parents can create success that supports their family life instead of sacrificing it.

So first of all, Kate, welcome to the show. I'm so excited that you're here. Thank you so much for having me. 

The Journey to Sustainability

Speaker: Let's start with the stuff that I'm really curious about tell me about how your haircare brand is sustainable and why others aren't, and then we will really dive into the meat of it.

Speaker 2: Sure I can go. It's sustainable first and foremost, because it's plastic free. I make shampoo and conditioner bars, that are so good that the plastic free part doesn't get talked about in our marketing it's just really, great solid haircare beyond just being plastic free.

'cause it's not that special anymore. There's about 200 bar brands out there. You [00:02:00] know, we're sustainable in the way that we pay our employees. We pay them well over the market rate. I opened my own factory, two years ago and, we ship from our own factory. So there's a very low carbon footprint for the brand because everything's done in one location.

Speaker: Well, I'm looking at your hair. It's shiny. Thank you. It looks healthy and long I don't like my hair getting long. Then it starts tickling me when I'm working out and I'm like, is that a loose hair? And I'm pulling out my actual hair.

I'm not pulling it out, but I'm pulling on it, thinking it anyway, I love that. And as somebody who does all things wellness, I have yet to really clean up my haircare. But I have done that with laundry and I really like using the laundry sheets. 

Speaker 3: Those are great. 

Speaker: And it comes in a cardboard box and it's all sheets instead of this big plastic jug. 

Speaker 3: Yeah. 

Speaker: My kids, I don't have to worry about measuring for them. They could just put it in there and help with laundry. It's like a game 

Speaker 2: changer. 

Speaker: Yeah. [00:03:00] So let's go back. Now we know where you are now. Mm-hmm. So let's rewind that tape.

I'm totally aging myself with that. Okay. But let's rewind and go back to the beginning. 

Personal Wellness and Business Balance

Speaker: Let's talk about where you even got this idea from and let's stack on the wellness parts. And then, going from idea to burnout, let's give us that part of the story. 

Speaker 2: My obsession with, reducing plastic started when I was pregnant with my first son around 10 years ago.

My older brother, who had already had four children gave me this book called Boys Adrift. I knew I was having a boy this book was about how to raise boys to, be productive members of society. Something an older Middle Eastern brother would hand to your younger sister, having boys.

I read this book about different aspects like video game usage and, boys not spending as much time in nature. And then one of the chapters is about plastics and it was actually in the Potomac River. In Maryland, there was a plastic factory that had runoff into the Potomac and scientists found that the male fish started to [00:04:00] lay eggs.

I found really. Fascinating and scary at the same time that this plastic runoff could contribute to that kind of species change that you just haven't heard of in history before. And from there I was like, okay, well now. I'm having a baby. At the time, the conventional wisdom was to drink as much water as you can.

And I lived in New York City, so the tap water is known to be great there, but I was also getting bottled water wherever I was, that was just part of the lifestyle now we're finding that not only is plastic accumulating everywhere, it was never really recycled that well in the first place, but now it's really come to the surface, the kind of health risks it puts on people.

And so, back then I started to try and change my habits and I was able to make lots of different changes, you're talking about laundry sheets like that, that one's a great change. I, got rid of saran wrap and didn't, I stopped, microwaving food and plastic, all those things.

But when it came to haircare, [00:05:00] I had a really tough time with the options my shower kind of looks like a graveyard full of bars and I was so frustrated that I was like, you know what? I think I can solve this problem myself. I think I can make really great haircare that still works

my goal was to make it save me money and then make it such that someone wouldn't miss the bottles. That was my goal. 

Speaker: I love that. I am somebody, you guys are gonna be angry at me who are more advanced on the environmental wellness train, but I still love liquid soap because I feel like it cleans better.

Like it doesn't leave that weird residue, and if shower doesn't get that weird residue. But I don't love the bottle idea and I don't love how much space it takes up either. 

Speaker 2: Well, you're like a perfect candidate for someone to go to a refill store. They're around the country. I have one so 

Speaker: which is your refill store?

What's it called? It's actually a co-op it's five minutes from my gym. [00:06:00] So that's actually, I am planning on switching next year to that. When. I can more easily go to that store and spend time there. 

Speaker 3: Yeah. 

Speaker: And I've also, my pickleball partner works there, how is their line of stuff?

Like, does it actually work? But it's absolutely on my list and it's next year when all my kids are in school full-time and I have more time to do that for Aldi and do really dig into that part of my environmental wellness. 

Speaker 2: That's amazing. That's like the best move.

I'll say that the refill store owners, I know that's the retailer I try and support the loudest and dip cells in maybe 75% of the refill stores out there. But they do all the homework for you. They do all the vetting of the products before. You walk in the door.

So it's really nice, like not only are they kind of ingredient snobs, but they're also performance snobs. If anyone listening has a refill store and you're curious about what the options are, that store owner will tell you what is great and what isn't. They'll have great soap for you. I refill hand soap 'cause I have the same [00:07:00] feeling you do about.

Liquid soap. I really love it. And so in my bathrooms, I have refilled soap because I'm with you on that one. 

Speaker: Yeah. And how many times are you washing your hands and it, soap and children, they're already messy enough with regular soap.

I do make my own soap. You do? Cool. I take liquid soap and I add extra water to it Why do you do that? It's Dr. Bruner's. It's more oiled oh yeah, yeah. Don't read the crazy label on there. Yeah. I'm familiar. The stuff that's on there is weird anyway, but I use that and then I add some water to it and I put it in a foaming Oh, cool.

Soap thing. And it's actually an automatic hand soap thing 'cause my kids are small enough that they can't fully depress the lever. And I got sick of that fight. I am all about raising our kids to be self-reliant. I don't wanna have to get up every time to wipe their bottle.

Let's teach 'em how to [00:08:00] wash their hands anyway. 

Speaker 2: Yeah. My son, oldest son, when he was four, got his first whittling knife. We're big on the independent kind mindset for kids. They're so capable. You know? 

Speaker: I think two of my four kids could probably handle that.

Speaker 2: The other 

Speaker: one, yeah. My youngest son, 

Speaker 2: my youngest son was a little leader in that department, but my oldest son, you know, he's pretty good. 

Speaker: Yeah, I love this idea and that it's bringing me more to the forefront of the things that I can change.

On my own vision board that I've created it has that sustainability. And my affirmation question instead of regular affirmation is, how am I improving the toxic level in my house is basically how yeah.

Goes. And I love that. This can be my next step. Using up those bottles, how can I now transition? And I am glad that I found the refill store where I could easily get other things. I found my favorite deodorant there. [00:09:00] Shout out to the Humble brand. 

Speaker 3: Love that deodorant.

Speaker: Yes, I use the Frankincense one. I love it. It's hard to find anywhere else, so I love when I find stuff like that and it's close by. When I first moved here, I could not find stores like that. Okay, you have this concept now. 

From Burnout to Boundaries

Speaker: How did you go from burnout? And you said that you struggle with this for many years, not taking care of yourself, and in the last year you have set up boundaries and have been more firm on them with your self care.

So let's talk about your journey through that and just how bad did it get? 

Speaker 2: Sure. So I started a dip on the heels of closing a previous business. Closing any business. I was in a partnership. The ending was not fun. And then, you know, we closed it.

By the time we had closed it, it was 2020 I was. Usually coasting at, around 150, 160 pounds. I was 118 pounds. I'd [00:10:00] lost a lot of my hair from stress and I had an eye patch 'cause I had double vision. Thank God. I never left the house. Because it was COVID, so I could pull off the eye patch and show up in photographs and look normal I guess people identify thin with fit.

But at that time I was gaunt I just couldn't eat and I couldn't sleep and my teeth were chattering all the time. It was real. I was pulling out clumps of hair from stress. We were financially in a horrible place. I remember just like even going to the supermarket, I wasn't sure whether I could like afford meat at the time.

It was financial distress during 2020 and it was horrible. When that business shuttered I was like, what am I gonna do now? What are we gonna do now? We have to do something. So I took a consulting. Job. The thing about starting from scratch is your confidence is just gone.

Take away all of those feelings that you have your own scaffolding that keeps you upright with your chin up. And all of that was gone. I knew I could. Rebuild and I kind of had to rebuild. So I took a consulting job, I socked away a little bit of money.

And [00:11:00] luckily the expensive parts about building a beauty brand were things that my both my husband and myself could do. So I could do the marketing and I could do the copywriting and he was an industrial designer so he could do the package design and the logo.

So between the two of us, we worked around the clock building and rebuilding. 

Rebuilding and Rediscovering Health

Speaker 2: I never really got out of that stress mode. Three years into the business, we launched in 2021, and then I caught myself at the beginning of this year. I started at 118 pounds, but suddenly I was almost 200 pounds.

I looked at myself in the mirror and I was like, oh, I don't even wanna show up places anymore. My joy is running in the woods. I haven't even been finding any peace I started to realize I let the business take over my life, but not my family just my health.

It was like bulldozed over my health. I'm a big fan of functional medicine I went to traditional doctors and they weren't listening to me. They're like, oh, you're probably just going through menopause. Or per menopause.

And I'm like, I don't think so. I think it's something deeper, a little bit of PTSD from the other thing a getting over the [00:12:00] humiliation of having to start again and building that's the thing I know only I'm feeling, but I felt like it was kind of like a plaque

body that I couldn't get rid of if that makes sense. 

Speaker: At first, I was thinking plaque, 

Speaker 2: It felt like my body became you know when you walk into a house that's been abandoned it's not the same as a house that's been loved and lived in.

I felt my body in that way it was still a body, but it was just not what it was supposed to be. I had to put a lot of work into stress management, resetting the vagus nerve making sure that, was working properly again, and meditation,

that to me, when my doctor was telling me like, okay, you need to do a gratitude journal and you need to do yoga, be outside and breath work. I rolled my eyes as a high performance person who usually runs marathons and that kind of thing.

I, I. I couldn't believe I couldn't fix what was going on without. I couldn't fix it with running and I couldn't fix it with just kind of like relaxing, either There was like something, there was a different method of healthcare that I needed 

Speaker: [00:13:00] slowing down on purpose. 

Speaker 2: Slowing down on purpose.

Yeah. I couldn't run my way out of it normally. It just didn't work that became more stressful. I'm putting on weight. I don't look like myself. I look tired. Even a tiny thing would go wrong and my heartbeat, I could feel it like it was almost like adrenaline coming through my.

Veins for no reason. I know this is not a big deal, but my body is going into crisis mode. I don't know if anyone else has felt that before, or if you've experienced that. It is a weird feeling when you feel fight or flight happening for no reason 

Speaker: and you have to try and calm your body down, but at the same time you're thinking, well, maybe my body knows better and it's trying to tell me something.

And you have that internal fight. Yes. 

Speaker 2: It's a very weird feeling to feel like a smart individual and feel like your body is fighting your brain 

Speaker: if you were to go back in time. What would you [00:14:00] say your first indication was? That you should have listened that things aren't right. 

Speaker 2: I don't know if there was one, because I think it was more like the frog and the boiling water.

I think it happened so gradually that I didn't notice, there's no like point. But it was when I started to come out of the cloud of busyness. When you're starting a business, you're launching something and doing most of the work on your own.

So the first 18 months, it was around the clock working and parenting, one or the other. If I wasn't working, I made sure to be a present parent. But once you take a step back and get higher help you're like, oh my God, where is the person I am in my head the person I'm seeing. Like when I walk by any reflective surface, and it's strange. It's strange. And it's something I don't think is unique to me. I think a lot of entrepreneurs go through this journey.

Speaker: You are absolutely my ideal client that way because it can be [00:15:00] so hard. To know, okay, well here's all the things I can do or should do. How do I put this in place when I still have a business to run? I still have my family, I have my significant other that I've been neglecting for 18 months.

We need to reconnect just as friends, let alone romantic partners. That's like two different things right there. It's hard. 

Speaker 2: Yeah. And I was able to do a lot of the balance for everything else except for my own health. Now I have different systems.

I would take meetings every day of the week and have my calendar open all day. One of the best things I ever did, I was just like moved my meetings like they're never before 11:00 AM so I have time to do long walks outside and meditate, they're only on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

That's the only time I open up my calendar to other people in meetings Tuesdays and Thursdays are kind of like my toughest energy days, but it allows me to have those other days to plan more freely and to hyper focus on the [00:16:00] tasks that really need focusing.

Speaker: And it's hard because you feel like, well, maybe I'm saying no to money, or I'm saying no to opportunities by doing this, but for anybody else who's feeling that way, there's also the realization that you're saying no to yourself and no to your health. 

The Importance of Health Over Wealth

Speaker: Yeah, and one thing that I've been talking about recently with different clients and on my podcast and today kayaking with a friend is mm-hmm.

We fail to realize as a society, it's all about money, right? And money is the investment, but you can have all the money in the world. If you don't have your health, what's the point in money? You're not gonna live long enough to enjoy it. The same with your family and relationships. The biggest investment you can actually have in yourself is your health.

Speaker 3: Yeah. 

Speaker: By your health, I don't mean just your physical weight. Because that is right [00:17:00] there. I wanna circle back to that, for this part of the conversation of how many times can, oh, you look great 'cause you lost so much weight and it's, how are you doing? Because it could be something catastrophic that has caused them to lose weight.

Totally. And then they have that moment of, oh, well I guess maybe it's not so bad. No, no, no, no. Let's find out how you're doing. And for everybody, there is the ideal weight that your body wants to be. Not what magazines tell you you need to be. 

Speaker 3: Exactly. 

Speaker: And for me, I can tell when my body's like mm-hmm.

I'll start to feel more sick. It's a sweet spot and it's within really 10 pounds that my body wants to be, if I'm not looking at a scale or paying attention to how tight my clothes fit my body has right here, and most people have that, they just don't realize.

Speaker 2: Yeah, I totally agree with that. And I'm not on this constant journey for weight loss, but it was one of those things where I was so far off in both directions that it was really crazy. 

Speaker: Yeah. 

Speaker 2: It was in such a short [00:18:00] time 

Speaker: Going back, you were talking about having plaque and there are people who are healthy using the air quotes here that have plaque in their veins.

Speaker 3: Yeah. 

Speaker: And a lot of that can actually be stress, not just diet, because they can be eating very healthy. Very vegan, very little to no meat no oils, 

Speaker 2: yeah. I was one of those people, my blood work was so bad, like, so bad and, I was a runner who did endurance running and I ate really, really well.

You know, and didn't really drink very often, maybe drink like six to eight times a year, which is not a lot for someone in New Jersey. It's a big drinking state I couldn't understand how I was falling apart, but also being so healthy at the same time.

Speaker: You talked about it being a big drinking state. Wasn't that the state you could go to during the prohibition? 

Speaker 2: I think so. 

Speaker: Well, there you go. Kind of like [00:19:00] Florida can be really, depending on what generation you're in, it's a high smoker. 

Tobacco fields were there. They probably still are in some areas, so kinda makes sense.

Here's my question for you, and it's a leading question. How was your sleep during this time? 

Speaker 2: It was terrible. I didn't sleep well, so stress, 

Speaker: So I would wake up, go together. 

Speaker 2: Yeah. I would wake up probably like, one in the morning. Always wake up at one in the morning and then I was officially up.

At four, and I would just call it my productive time. So I'd just wake up and start working. But I also wasn't going to bed until like 11, so I wasn't getting very much sleep at all. And there was nothing I could do about it. 

Struggles with Stress and Sleep

Speaker 2: And during the high stress before I started the company, I wasn't sleeping at all.

I literally just lay awake with my teeth shattering. Like it was a really weird time. I think people that go through either a business divorce or a marriage divorce, a lot of them go through that feeling too. It's just tough. It's tough on the human spirit, you know?

Speaker: There's someone I'm working with who has been going through that. 

Speaker 2: Yeah. 

Speaker: And, the teeth [00:20:00] chattering. When I am more emotional, I'm colder. 

Speaker 2: Me too. 

Speaker: Yeah. 

Speaker 2: Mm-hmm. 

Speaker: Or if I don't get enough sleep, I'm colder. So that's when I put my socks on and then partway through the night rip 'em off. 

Speaker 2: That's exactly right.

Speaker: Yep. And I wake up enough to put 'em outside of the bed. Otherwise, who knows where they are in the covers. 

The Correlation Between Sleep and Stress

Speaker: But it's very interesting because sleep and stress are very correlated. Look at any scientific study or just look at yourself.

It makes sense because that is the time when our body is reprocessing things. When it's really getting rid of that waste. It can really work through your veins, your brain. Just flush that toilet like I like to say. It just gets rid of all of that. You can look at inside out, it's a great movie for it.

You're being put in the right place. You're forming pathways deeper. It's your chance to fight off infections and viruses. So much happens in your [00:21:00] sleep. 

Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. 

Speaker: And you are reprocessing things in therapy, like think more that way. Yeah. EMDR is very similar to your dreams.

You are reprocessing things. It's allowing your brain to help store things so it's not trauma. 

Speaker 2: Yeah, 

Speaker: and if your dreams are staying a certain way, that is trauma and you should see a therapist so that you can get your dreams back in the correct state.

When you get to a certain point, and you definitely show this in your stress journey, that it's hard to get yourself out of it. 

The Turning Point: Seeking Help

Speaker: So for me, the question is, what was your, okay, I'm done. Moment. You said looking in the mirror, I'm sure that took a little bit beyond that, but what was your just like, okay, this is the straw that broke the camel's back.

I am done. I'm getting help. 

Speaker 2: It was the frustration of. 

The Role of Exercise and Diet

Speaker 2: An hour in the morning, I would be on the Peloton and then go for a jog. I was eating [00:22:00] salads and just getting heavier and heavier. Because I'm a problem solver, so I'm like, okay, well I'll eat less and exercise more.

Like that's gotta fix it, and it actually didn't, it made me way more stressed. It put more stress on the body because I was also intermittent fasting and I guess that puts more stress on the body. The stress hormone kicks in full throttle when you're not feeding your body and doing endurance workouts.

So I was doing all the things that I knew would shed, and I was getting so frustrated because I couldn't, and the frustration was like, how? The hell is this not working? It makes no sense to me. And I would go to doctors and they were also like, well, it's just simple. It's input, output.

And I was like, I don't think so. I think something else is going on. I understand that because I studied math and science and economics. I understand what you're saying, but I'm telling you in real life I'm pretty disciplined. And I'm pretty good at like, I would journal what I was eating.

Count up the calories. I had the Pelotons counting every calorie. [00:23:00] I'm outputting as well. Like you can't fake the Peloton stuff. So I couldn't understand. I went with all this pride to this hormonal specialist doctor. I got blood work, I got a glucose monitor and like my blood sugar was really high a lot of the time and would spike, or go really, really low in the middle of the night and set off alarms and wake me up I was like, Hey, here is every bit of data I have on my lifestyle.

It's not adding up to what is happening to me. And the doctors were kind of like, it's very easy to fake a food journal. It's very easy to be in denial about this stuff. I was starting to go crazy. I had gone to this functional medicine doctor before and I called her up and I was like, I need your help.

You listen to me and I need your specific help. I can't go to another doctor. 

The Importance of Managing Stress

Speaker 2: She worked with me very closely about managing stress. 

Speaker: And it makes sense if you look at the data, it's so hard because modern medicine is telling us, no, the patient's lying.

This is what you need to do. But if you look at science data, like all the way [00:24:00] back then you were in fight or flight, your body was doing exactly what it was supposed to do. Right? Because you wanna store all of that because you might be making a long trek. 

Speaker 2: Yeah.

Speaker: Or you might be having to fight that lion tooth or nail you don't know where your next meal is coming from, of course your body's holding onto that and you were doing high intensity workouts, 

Speaker 3: right? 

Speaker: Where the one you need to be doing is low intensity, steady state. 

Speaker 2: So just low intensity workouts, they're so frustratingly slow for me as a runner, I was very annoyed with the advice I was given by my functional medicine doctor.

Even though I just did it, because I was like, okay, I'll play the game, I'll do this. I was in denial that like, that would help. But it did help. So 

Speaker: that was great. It's hard because I have somebody else that I'm working with who. She's done the weight loss clinic. She went away for three months to do it and all of this, and she put the weight back on trying to [00:25:00] explain to her that it's actually stress.

And how are you sleeping? We need to manage your stress. 

Speaker 3: Yeah. 

Speaker: And her husband was there and he's like, I don't think so's like. I promise you. 

Exploring Stress-Relief Techniques

Speaker: And I plan on doing a soul episode all about stress because that is really the biggest thing. And we live in such a society where we don't realize how much stress we have, even if we are living a low stress lifestyle, which has not been you at all.

Speaker 3: Right. 

Speaker: So for people who are listening and taking notes. There's low steady state, so lis, LISS instead of hit. So go for Lis. You are making sure you're in the fat burning. Wear a heart monitor, have your watch, whatever, following that. Getting enough sleep. 

Speaker 2: Yeah, 

Speaker: I think you mentioned meditation in there.

Speaker 2: Yeah, reluctantly at the very beginning. So it's not really my style, but I've been trying to do it more and more yeah. Guided meditation. Otherwise, 

Speaker: my a DD goes, so I love when they're like, and come back. Yes. 

Speaker 2: [00:26:00] Yeah. 

Speaker: What else have you added in? 

Speaker 2: The journaling. So it was journaling and then nature you had in there.

Nature, yeah. I spent a lot of time walking outside. I was a trail runner, so I'd always run in the woods and now it is a stroll in the woods, which I prefer the jogging, but I do the walking. 

Speaker: It sounds like you'll be able to get there, 

Speaker 2: getting to a better state. Have you heard of true Vega 

Speaker: Uhuh?

Speaker 2: A thing, it's like a. Electronic device you put on your neck for two minutes and it resets your vagus nerve, you can do it first thing in the morning and before you go to sleep, but it actually resets it and makes it so that you have the peace to go to sleep.

It only works for like 20 to 40 minutes. Have you seen that movie office space? Okay, so there's this moment where the man that hates his job is hypnotized and you watch all the stress, leave his face. That's what this device does.

My doctor recommended it to me and I thought it was hokey and stupid and it had a 30 day money back guarantee. It was [00:27:00] expensive. I was like, you know what, at this point I'll try anything. And I tried it. So zaps your neck two minutes, and then you suddenly feel peace and you feel enough peace for enough time that you can go to sleep if you're stressed.

Speaker 3: That's amazing. 

Speaker 2: It's really crazy. I hope, I don't find out it's bad for me in a few years, but I don't use, the vaping 

Speaker: of the vagus nerve. 

Speaker 2: Well, it is bizarre. But it does make you feel so normal. What helped me with that specific device is that it reset and gave me a normal baseline, like I had been stressed for so long.

That I didn't realize what even normal felt like. And so it gave me that. I think that is something that I recommend to people. I am not a doctor, but if someone is telling me that they have stress, I'll be like, oh, use this thing and see how you feel after.

And they're like, whoa, that is crazy. 

Speaker: Is there one thing that made the biggest difference for you out of all of that? Or did it need to be stacked? 

Speaker 2: No, it had to all be stacked. I was eager for the stress to go away, so I did all of the things, even though the first few weeks felt very [00:28:00] silly.

'cause I don't really like yoga. Meditation and journaling. I don't love. Doing those things, but I do love the outcome they're supposed to promise. So I did them and they worked well. 

Speaker: You eat salads, so I guess you would still do it. Yeah, you're gonna eat a salad because you like the outcome.

There's that, which is so many good things for salad, including fiber. I'm gonna have to check out the vagus nerve one that was next on my list of I wanna do this for myself and I'm curious if it would work for my one kid who gets dysregulated the most. When I was struggling with my own stress, I did a positive intelligence course for coaches, loved it, but felt like I needed something more.

I was plateauing with therapy. I had just signed on my first paid client, and I could tell my stuff was coming up. That's a huge no-no. I've done so much work since then and it doesn't come up [00:29:00] anymore. Then I met a somatics coach in a mastermind group and started working with her.

Privately that made the biggest difference. She had me trying things that felt super stupid, like just humming, just go in the car. Just hum. But it activates this area, which also is the vagus nerve. I got into more yoga along the way. For me, I've. Enjoyed it because I've gotten to the point where I can like really drop in on myself and like, where am I at?

Yeah. I also play pickleball, so I have ying y yang here. But it's really helped and I love when they do the ohms for the same reason. Like whenever they skip it, for some reason I'm just like I'm looking forward 

Speaker 3: to that. 

Speaker: Yeah. It's. Such a difference for me on my own journey, and I've had to dive in more on my own wellness journey because I am preaching it so much.

And also I have to have this really big. [00:30:00] Bank account of wellness, because I have to drop into it to help other people. Like here's your deposit from me, to help you. And because I have one kid in particular who gets dysregulated easily and he can dysregulate the other three, I have to have a lot more.

Balancing Parenthood and Business

Speaker: And I am curious if that's also the same for you being a mother business owner. 

Speaker 2: What specifically 

Speaker: that you feel like you need to have more of your self-care routine in place because you are also a mother and not just a business owner? 

Speaker 2: Yeah, a little bit. I think. Because they're of school age, a lot of my day is predetermined by them not being around, so I can handle most of the things I need to during that time.

But I think if they were smaller. Or, pre preschool, I think it would be a lot harder and a much different journey in trying to make it work and trying to get myself back to homeostasis, whatever that is supposed to be for me. [00:31:00] 

Speaker: That is hard when we've been out of it for long or maybe even our whole lives.

If we had a hard childhood of what is homeostasis for me? It is different for each person. And it brings up another question because you were a business owner before when your kids were really young. What advice would you give to those people who have young ones at home still? 

Speaker 2: It depends on what kind of business you're running.

And what your support system is like. Those variables change the advice. But if you can manage owning a business and having little kids, go for it because there's nothing that frees you of stress more than creating your own schedule.

There's a beauty to creating your own schedule and it's a luxury, it's very difficult to become an entrepreneur. But it's also really difficult being an employee.

I think both of those lanes are really hard when you have kids. I don't think there's any easy path in that way. I mean, you said you have four children. You're being drawn and quartered in many different directions, all the time. [00:32:00] That's a lot of responsibility and a lot of time management.

What's their age range? 

Speaker: Four years old and until 10, about to be 11. Oh man. 

Speaker 2: That's so cool. I always admire someone that has so many kids. 

Speaker: Really helpful during the pandemic 

Speaker 2: because 

Speaker: I had built in Playmates.

Speaker 2: Yeah. 

Speaker: But there are times where it's like, oh man, what was I thinking? But then I look at them, who would I choose to not have? It varies depending on who's annoying me the most. But overall, you know that moment where it's like, I could deal with that. Your sass right now but overall, yeah, no, absolutely not.

They each, they make up our family and they each have their own unique personalities, but it also is a lot to, we know we're maxed out at four. We wouldn't have any more children because. We would not be able to know them as individually as we do. My husband's five of six kids and he felt like his parents didn't know him very well.

He was older and [00:33:00] started sharing who he was. And even still, no one's gonna know him like I do. We've married 16 years. He's my best friend. There's times where it still shocks his brother who lives 30 minutes from us.

Like, oh no, that's Drew being himself. And he'll just do a double take and, oh, I didn't know that about you, where I don't want that for my kids. I want to really know them, know their personalities. 

Speaker 3: Yeah.

Speaker: Know them well enough that I can see this is the choice that you're gonna make and kind of giggle when they do make that choice, so for me, that's important in my own business journey, is making sure that I have that space for them. But I will tell you during the summer, I feel like I'm gonna go crazy.

I've joked about wanting to go to one of those padded rooms where I could be left alone. And as I was saying it to whatever friend I was saying it to, I had that moment of, actually, no I don't. 'cause I'm pretty sure they still bother me. It'd be like ICU and they're bothering you while you're trying to sleep, so maybe I'll just get a hotel room and it'd probably [00:34:00] be cheaper.

And I remember that friend laughing going, that's probably a better idea. Last year, we had a ton of snow days out of nowhere but like you were saying, it is helpful that they are getting older. They can go off and play and that I can have backup plans in place.

Like here's the bin for the snow day of stuff they haven't seen for a while so that's really helpful, but it's hard to get to that point if I'm not taking care of myself so that I can think creatively, so that I can plan ahead. And I think that's really what you were getting at with different things that you're saying.

With that if you're not taking care of yourself, it's so fight or flight that you can't get there. 

Speaker 2: Yeah. 

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Speaker: Give us your last thoughts and where we can find you and your product. 

Speaker 2: Sure. I love the direction that this went and I think it's really cool.

Just to tie it back into wellness, I built my company not only to give myself a life, that allowed me to be a parent and also allowed me to, figure out my resetting [00:35:00] and all of those things about stress. I also wanted it to take away the scariness of what to choose for your family, especially ingredients wise and performance wise.

The bars work for all hair types, so if you have a family with. A lot of showers, different, textures or curl patterns you only need one set of bars in your shower. That to me is really important especially now as we're going into this crazy economy the best place to find dip is in a store near you. You can buy it online@dipalready.com, but I really urge you to go into a refill store near you that has done all the vetting the ingredients and all the homework and like really the people that own those stores. Desperately care about your family's health and the health of the planet and the environment.

If you can buy dip in store, that would mean the world to me. You can also ask questions. You'd be scared to ask me online is it really good? Or any of those things they'll know. You can find them in stores or on dip already.com. And if you want to find me, I'm Kate srf.

You can find me on LinkedIn or at Dip already on TikTok or Instagram. 

Speaker: [00:36:00] Perfect. Thank you. I loved going into mine. I found things much cheaper than at the grocery store. Mm-hmm. And like the sunflower seeds. And I like to get them unsalted. Yeah. It's so hard to find things unsalted.

And I could find my favorite deodorant. I just, I felt like I was in a, like a candy store, but it was a health store instead. So I love this yeah, I found the people there very helpful. Even the one who said, it's actually my first day, but I think blah, blah, blah, blah. He was very helpful still, That's amazing.

Yes. Thank you for this conversation and for taking the time to have it with all of us. 

Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing your platform with me. And for being so generous with your time. 

Speaker: Thank you.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. I hope that you found the answers that you needed, and you had some amazing aha moments. Please share this episode with others because it helps us align ourselves and then better align the world so that we can seek the healing that we really are looking [00:37:00] for as part of the legal language.

I am a certified life coach with a Bachelor's in Applied Health. That is what I am leaning on for this. This is general advice. Take it as such. See you in the next episode.