Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Lauren Alexander . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Lauren, thanks for joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

Maya Angelou once said, “Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it,” and she couldn’t have been more spot on. This is the quote that comes to mind when I think about success in my business. Everyone is blessed with their own unique talents and callings, and when you live and operate as your true authentic self, success can’t help but follow. I feel a lot of people get caught up in the corporate world with selling, making or promoting certain products that they don’t stand by, most likely for financial gain. When money becomes more important than the mission, then the mission needs to be reevaluated- because that is not true success. When you’re being your authentic self, meaning you’re not trying to be someone you’re not, your not trying to sell or stand by something you don’t believe in, there’s room for you to step into your true calling. If you’re solid with yourself and absolutely love what you do and how you do it, that’s all you need. The rest will follow. Many people don’t realize this so they end up building on the wrong principles from the beginning, but if you stay true to yourself and let your individuality and uniqueness shine, you’ll be unstoppable. Every individual just has to tap into it. Everything is energy, so if your intentions are pure- what you think, write, speak & envision will come to you.

Lauren, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’ve always had a deep love for the earth; plants and animals, which ties into my name, Ital Wellness (pronounced ‘eye-tal’). Ital is organic. It’s from the earth, free of chemicals, growth regulators, pesticides, gmo’s and toxins. It’s clean and unprocessed. To me, ital is a way of life. It’s energy, divinity, pure love for mother earth and all of her inhabitants. It’s what I represent and stand for; it’s who I am. I specialize in herbal teas because I believe so strongly in plants. Everything I use is all organic and or self-harvested, sustainable/wildcrafted. This includes the apothecary products I sell as well. For example my palo santo is ethically & sustainably sourced from Peru and SERFOR certified (National Forest Service and Wildlife). When I’m working with crystals and gemstones I ensure I’m getting the highest quality (nothing dyed or artificial) and I hand make everything myself.
I take pride in providing people with healing and authentic products that I can trust and stand by.

My mission is to help as many individuals as I can and share my products with all who can benefit from them. When you respect the land/inhabitants and live by that, you see things differently. I believe there’s a plant remedy for every ailment; I want to change the way people care for themselves. It’s about what we’re putting into and onto our bodies. Nature has all the answers and if we can get back to that, we’ll be alright.

My man Robert and I also implicate these standards with our food business Ital Wellness Eats. I’ve been with Robert for many years and he’s been my biggest supporter, advocate, and best friend. His resilience is unmatched and he’s such an inspiration to me. We balance each other out and I can say he’s pushed me to do things I thought weren’t possible, even when I doubted myself.
We do pop-ups together for both businesses, meal preps and custom orders; everything is vegan as well. We create beautiful drinks & dishes using natural plants and healing tea blends. Our dream is to have a walk-in place where we can serve up our high-vibrational meals while also providing the apothecary space for my herbs, teas, crystals and self-care products.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The covid 19 crisis impacted my business in a few different ways. First, things slowed down because I wasn’t able to get out there and do events since most were canceled or put on hold, so I had to rely on my online presence for sales. I really enjoy interacting with customers/clients in person- it allows me to meet a variety of people and hear their stories so that I can properly recommend my products. With covid, I’ve seen an increased number of people panicking about their health, whether it be friends, family or strangers. My mission remains the same- to help people through plants and to spread awareness before the individual gets sick. Since then, I’ve taken the extra steps and I’m currently back in school to become a CMH (clinical master herbalist). I feel that I can expand my knowledge in health and wellness to further grow my career and business by taking these courses.

This will allow me to help more people in the future; I’ll be able to see patients and make recommendations while still producing helpful products. I’ll be accredited by the (AADP) American Association of Drugless Practitioners and I couldn’t be more excited! Now more than ever, people need to get back to nature. Back to our indigenous ancestor’s practices. The world we live in today, especially the health industry, profits off of sickness and disease. Instead of healing people, the standard protocol is to prescribe pharmaceuticals to cover up and mask the problem instead of getting to the root cause. They are ‘treating not ‘healing’. Most so-called health professionals do not evaluate diet or even take the time to identify a proper solution, which in turn leads to more sickness and pain. When we bring ourselves back to nature, combined with proper knowledge of chemistry, I believe we can live and thrive off of plants. Covid was a downfall for communities as a whole, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Now more than ever people need natural remedies and all the healing- and I’m here for it.

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

Social media-where do I start?! It’s funny, I remember when I had a vision of what I wanted for my business I wrote it all down in my book. I planned out, wrote and drew what I wanted to create and sell, my mission statement etc. The next step was to make an instagram. I’ll never forget how excited and nervous I was at the same time, asking myself things like “what if noone likes my products, what if people don’t buy my stuff, what if they think I’m trying to copy someone else in the world”, but that was just fear based thinking, not accurate at all. Then I had to bring myself back to why I wanted to do this in the first place- because the products I sell, the things I create- they bring me joy and they help me- and in turn I hope they’ll do the same for others as well. So I took the next step and made a social media. I wondered how people would find me and how I’d be able to reach more people that were truly interested in what I had to offer. I remember a few days in and I has 43 followers. I was excited with each new person, hoping that they’d see my page and learn something from it or maybe even purchse a tea! I’ll never forget, a girl I was talking to in person about my products wanted to follow me, and when I gave her my Instagram she said “wow 43 followers you’ve gotta get that up. If I were you I’d buy followers like I did so it looks like you have an audience. I have 2k followers”. I was so shocked-paying for followers?! Or getting an app that gives you random followers?! For what?! I was completely turned off because I knew I would never do something like that just to make it ‘look’ like I had an audience. I’m glad to say I worked my way up from the bottom. I posted about my products daily; the benefits, information, life lessons, etc. and I enjoyed it too. I would never want a fake audience who isn’t genuinely interested in what I have to offer. It’s better to have a small following that are true to you, than a large following who doesn’t even know or care about what you do.

I honestly feel like a lot of my followers also came from in person reactions. I started signing up for events and pop-ups in my city and various surrounding areas to try and reach a many people as I could. Even if someone didn’t buy anything at my booth I’d make sure to make a connection and give out my business card to everyone in my reach. That way they’d have my social media, email, info and ways to reach me. That’s what I care about at the end of the day; making genuine connections and helping people through my craft.

My advice for those just starting out with their business, stay true to yourself and what you’re doing. This isn’t a competition & we should really be looking to others as inspiration. Do as many events as you can and be genuine with your interactions. Always have your business cards or deck and give them out wherever you go. Take advantage of different social media platforms and post as much about your products as you can. Promoting certain posts will also help people find you. And remember, if you operate as your authentic self, success will follow.

Contact Info:

• Website: italwellness.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/ital_wellness
• Other: linktr.ee/italwellness ital_wellness.square.site