We recently connected with Iliriana Balaj and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Iliriana, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

10 years ago I was working as a personal trainer at an elite gym in New York’s Rockefeller Center. I obtained my NASM certification and continued education in order to train people and give basic nutrition help. I worked as a trainer for a couple years before I noticed my health started to take a decline. I always felt I had the knowledge and physique of someone who was healthy. I worked out for a living 5x a week, ate out moderately and focused on my macro nutrients. Around 23 years old I started to experience chronic bloating, cystic acne, scalp eczema/dandruff, chronic fatigue, irritability, chronic migraines and very painful periods. I had many of these symptoms for a while but not enough to interfere with my day to day until now. I quickly went to my doctor who ran numerous tests on me, nervous something major would come back because of how poorly I felt. My bloodwork came back normal. He proceeded to send me to specialist after specialist. I went to dermatologists, endocrinologists, neurologists, you name it, I went. I underwent numerous types of testing and to my surprise, everything came back normal. With these normal diagnoses also came numerous prescriptions, which confused me. If no one knew what was wrong, then why was I being sent home with medication?

This lead me down a path of self education on things I was completely oblivious to. I started to read up and collect books on our food system and food additives and how they can be affecting our health. I started to notice a lot of the fitness supplements I was consuming contained artificial ingredients that were linked to some of the symptoms I was experiencing. I began reading labels and realized these ingredients were found in many of the things I was consuming which completely destroyed the preconceived notion I had about me eating ‘junk food’ moderately. I began to share on my social media account what I was learning in real time and slowly started making switches to healthier things. Over the course of 6 months I noticed my symptoms starting to subside. My skin began to clear, my bloating was getting better and my migraines were going away.

I started to dedicate my page to help people find healthier substitutes for things they were consuming and products they were using. This began to build my account and attract a niche group of people who also had a similar experience to me and also wanted to heal. As my page grew I attracted the attention of many brands that wanted me to work with them and promote their products. With my new found knowledge and research I created my own standard I call “Healthillie approved” and would review products based on this rule. Any products I promote cannot contain artificial sweeteners like aspartame, Ace-K, or sucralose, they cannot contain ambiguous flavorings, no harmful additives and no synthetic fragrance. Many brands would reach out with their fancy marketing but with my standard I created recommendations people can whole-heartedly trust.

At this time Covid hit and I was living with my then boyfriend, now husband and I got fired from my safe job. Until now social media was just my hobby but I took this free time to further my education and get certified in integrative nutrition so I can coach more people one on one. Within the next couple months my account grew, more brands wanted to work with me and I couldn’t keep up with how many people needed help swapping products out. I had an idea, what if I created a storefront that only help products approved by me? My husband worked in sales at the time and was willing to help me make this a reality. With his background in sales we created a system in which we would wholesale brands that reached my standard and ship them directly to the consumer from one place. This saved people money on shipping but also they knew they wouldn’t have to spend hours reading labels or searching for brands, I would be doing all the work for them. Live Healthillie was soon created in 2021.

We started our wholesale operation in our guest bedroom in the Bronx with only 7 brands. We quickly sold out of everything immediately and over the next 3 years we have moved to Florida, grown into 2 warehouses, and hold over 50 brands and 500 products and counting. I have managed to create a standard that does not exist to this level of clean, low tox small brands that people can conveniently shop for themselves and family.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a holistic health coach and FDN-P in training and I own my own e-commerce called Live Healthillie. It is a one stop shop for people who are looking for clean, effective, low tox products from shampoo to body wash to protein powder. I scour the internet high and low for small brands that most of the time you cannot even find on Amazon so that people can have access to them all in one place.

As someone who has been directly effected by the harmful additives and toxic chemicals in products sold at stores I wanted a place where it was easier for people to make positive changes in their life without sacrificing quality. For example, we know that synthetic fragrance that comes from detergent, candles, plug ins, car fresheners can contribute to migraines, allergies and even hormone disruption but many people aren’t fully ready to give up their home smelling nice. I have found multiple brands that make safer alternatives with transparent ingredients so you can have both, a good smelling house thats also low tox.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

My entire business is on social media and I knew nothing about it when I started. I feel like I missed the big social media boom that made many first comers super famous now. Building a brand from scratch is not for the weak, you will receive a lot of criticism but when you are passionate about what you are doing, there is always a greater purpose outside the haters. What I did consistently was show up everyday and talk to my audience, I gave them insight into my life and feelings as I was going through it and I created content that I would have wanted to see if I was new to this.

Any thoughts, advice, or strategies you can share for fostering brand loyalty?

I have about 160,000 followers and I spend a good portion of time every single day responding and talking to my audience. I think many people forget there are humans like ourselves behind the screen and even if we cant get physically in front of everyone, being able to answer questions and have conversations will take you very far as a business owner. People are more likely order from you if they feel they know you and can trust you. Since I started my page I always responded to people and almost 5 years later I still talk to many of those people and they are now loyal customers and supporters of mine. I feel like they are my friends and vice versa and honestly some of them have given me amazing feedback and honest critique when needed.

Contact Info:

• Website: livehealthillie.com
• Instagram: @healthillie

Image Credits
@lenanikolaj @thenatlens