Episode #011 — Transforming Anxiety into Herbal Empowerment

Melanie Branch: Hello and welcome to yet another episode of trailblazers rising where we share stories from standout entrepreneurs and discuss strategies for scaling beyond limits today I'm so excited and fangirling I may say this about a lot of people on the show but I'm really going to be specific about fangirling over this guest.

Sanaz you have not only a fantastic company and an amazing product but the way you have really built your company and your business is something that I really look to as like the standard of how a woman entrepreneur neuro spicy highly driven highly educated can go about building you know the empire step by step and be authentic to themselves while doing it.

So welcome Sanaz I'm so happy to have you here and we will dive right in with the first question which I ask every single guest which is can you spill the beans on your journey to becoming an entrepreneur what was the thing that happened that made you say I can't do this anymore I have to start my own

Sanaz Bahrami: business.

So I actually didn't it was by accident for the most part I finished my master's and I was working I finished my master's in biomedical engineering and I was working at a restaurant working on my mental health because I was really not doing well I was heavily medicated on antidepressants anxiety meds and Adderall ADHD medication all at the same time.

And I was just like this numb empty blob so I had a lot of weird terrible things happen to me during my master's a stalker broke into my house that I went to school with I was blackmailed by a stranger who got a topless picture of me from my ex long story short I was in and out the mental hospital and I was repeatedly told to just quit my masters and just give up and that was not my case.

So I forced it and finished and graduated and once I did I told everyone to get off my back and leave me alone so that I could heal before I went into working somewhere my mom was devastated by it because she's like why are you wiping people's tables with a master's degree but I just simply did not care.

So while I was working at the restaurant I had a lab made during my masters who had taught me about plant medicine and I had slowly started to incorporate some things and then once I was working at the restaurant I slowly secretly not telling anyone else to do this but as a scientist I slowly secretly took myself off medication by substituting it with plants.

And I developed formulations that worked for me and my needs perfectly I talked to pharmacists and other herbalists and a naturopath and came up with the formulas and started using them daily as I was working on healing at the restaurant and then COVID hit and the restaurant got shut down and those people were like family to me.

So we ended up actually all getting laid off work and when we did all of my co workers were like yo can I have some of that stuff you make like I'm really anxious I don't know how to cope right now and So I started giving it to all the staff there the staff started telling the regulars it was a really small knit local bar.

So like everyone knew everyone so then by the time we reopened all the regulars and all the staff were taking it daily and swore by it and then once we opened there was people walking up the street being like hey are you the girl with the oils is the girl with the oils here can I buy 5 units can I buy two units?

And it just organically became a business but at the time I was broke I was serving I could barely pay my rent in a creepy basement suite with a roommate like terrifying so I didn't really have money to figure things out I Would keep the CERB money or curb money or whatever that like government funding from COVID I got it and used it because I was obviously not working as much at the restaurant so I got it and used it towards starting my business.

So thank you Daddy Trudeau sugar Daddy in the league and with that I ended up launching it to the point where at least it had like a brand really half ass website it had labels and a product that I was cooking myself in a crock pot in a test kitchen and then when I launched obviously there was like no one on my website because like how was I marketing it?

So a course popped up about how to grow and monetize a TikTok and against my goodwill I made a TikTok and it blew up my business and now two years later I've got a whole team that helps me run things but yeah it was a very random story

Melanie Branch: so the product she is talking about her company is called melts infusions.

And I stumbled across you and your product on Tik TOK where I am most active for my business I don't actually use social media for personal use anymore everything that I do now is for my business which helps me harmonize and balance god but I started seeing and I was like who is this beautiful angel on my FYP talking to me about adaptogens and all this other what are we talking about here?

Cause I am very hippy dippy in my heart of hearts right I have not medicated for ADHD since about 2014 it really shuts off my creative flow and it didn't seem worth it to me anymore to be taking the stimulant medication so that my house was clean if my brain was not fun you know it was just like well I was like I think I'd rather have a kind of messy house and be myself and enjoy myself than deal with all this.

So when I started taking your product you know I take a lot of supplements I'm a supplement girly I literally it was same day it was instantaneous instantaneous I was like oh oh it works okay so the power the power of being intentional with my life right and not being on autopilot as much as possible.

And then the instant pick me up an instant reaction and results that I got from your product there's a day product and a night product that I was like this is legit this is legit and that's when I started reaching out to you on social media and trying to be cool I don't know if that happened but I remember reaching out to him being like do you have an affiliate program?

I've been all up and down your website I didn't see anything about it so I figured I would just reach out so how did you start learning about these particular adaptogens did you rabbit hole it like a good ADHD er

Sanaz Bahrami: yeah so I initially learned about them during my master's when things were really hitting the fan and I was incredibly mentally unwell with the stalker situation.

I was scared to leave my house so I spent a lot of time inside alone pretty much and a lab mate of mine that I actually is now 1 of my best friends still Alex his mother was a herbalist and he constantly was like yo try these try these it'll help you anxiety and there was an herb shop 2 blocks away from my house.

Just yeah randomly so we walked after school one day and he's like let's make this tea and we can smoke a J with it and you know combine them and it'll be so calming and I was like say less so we walked bought these like herbs that he recommended the ones that he knew were the very generic basic ones like holy basil ashwagandha things like that that everyone really hears about often ish and we made this like little pot of tea and we waited 30 minutes for the medicinal properties of the ingredients to really soak into the water and we each had a cup and it was just the most calm my brain had ever felt.

Without feeling numb or crazy I just felt like myself but a calm version of myself which was something that I hadn't felt in years like genuinely I hadn't felt that way in like 10 years I was like whoa and I looked at him I was like dude these actually work and I was like scientists were taught that plants are placebo and it's nonsense so for years I refused to try it because I was like no like.

My doctor consistently told me I was so far gone that I wouldn't survive without the meds which is exactly what was reassured to me every time I waited an hour late to try them and take my meds and I would feel so unbalanced and unhinged that I was like no this is going to be me for the rest of my life.

Like there's no other way so that's kind of how I initially found out about them and then I was taking that little tea blend but I'm not a tea person I'm not a like do it yourself person that was a lot of effort so when I moved back home to Vancouver I was like okay how do I take these and make it a situation where I can take it daily?

So I wanted to create something that could be taken daily and I just figured that a tincture drops were the easiest way for me capsules kind of were difficult at the time for me to swallow I have seen moss capsules but that's just because gel is not a thing for me but when it came to the oils I just thought that an MCT oil based tincture that could just drop right under my tongue was the easiest way to administer it so that I could take it every single day without fail.

And then when I moved back home there's a shop called Gaia Garden on Broadway here in Vancouver and they have a ton of herbalists and naturopaths that work there and they're so informative so I would just go in every day and like ask them questions what would go well together what would help me with my mood?

What would help me with this that and the other and eventually I just tried different things and read a bunch of different books went down the rabbit hole of scientific research and came up with formulations and then tested those formulations and tweaked them every week and saw what was working what wasn't.

And eventually after like five six months I came to a formula that was like perfect for me and that's when I slowly started to come off my medication and use that to kind of balance out the withdrawal and negate any negative side effects and I did it super slowly like it took me three months from the day I started weaning off to fully be off of them.

And yeah now a lab but it's my formulations in my brain but there's a lab and a manufacturer that actually develops them now in New Jersey

Melanie Branch: yeah so then how would you say since we are speaking to fellow entrepreneurs neurodivergent entrepreneurs we know that balancing the creative and the strategic sides of entrepreneurship can be a very like it's a real juggling act.

How do you keep all those balls in the air like how do you handle all of the I mean between marketing social media you've built a team right so how how can you suggest to our viewers that they balance all that

Sanaz Bahrami: I would say the best thing you can do is work on your mindset because everything else aligns.

So I write everything down it's called a method called scripting and it's pretty much you write everything that you want to have or your goals that you want to attain but you write them in the future present tense and you write them as if you already have them and then you vibrate as that person so you show up in the world as the person that you want to be that already has achieved all of those things.

And you just see very very clearly what your goals are and eventually the universe just aligns a lot of things I would just pray about and like I worked really hard I knew where I wanted my business to go I knew what my goal was to help other people that struggled the same way I used to struggle.

And I would just say it's up to you universe show me how good life can get and like I literally do it to this day I was just doing it while I was waiting for you to come onto the zoom I write scripts about how I want to show up in the world and I do the work and I hope that the universe aligns it and it always works out.

Yeah that is one

Melanie Branch: of the affirmations and mantras that I say to myself all the time is show me how it gets better everything is always working out for me and I just I literally act as if I have nothing to worry about

Sanaz Bahrami: exactly and that's exactly how I live my life to the most part like obviously there's days where I get a little bit overwhelmed because it is a lot to like run a now you know very successful business.

There's a lot of balls that I'm juggling in the air there's a lot of people every morning that need me or need advice or need a finalization of a decision and I maintain calm by just saying it's all working out in its best interest and when things don't work I just say it wasn't meant to happen and we just keep it pushing because it Life will never give me a level down unless it's a lesson.

I really need to learn so

Melanie Branch: yeah so when it comes to time management which can be you know a real drag especially for us neuro spices how do you keep organized how do you keep the train on the track

Sanaz Bahrami: my assistant to be honest like I would say my assistant is pretty much my babysitter and my mom like she keeps me on track but before I had an assistant my want to help people and my In my heart knowing that I was never meant to be broke my whole life literally was the thing that pushed me because I knew one it's a great freaking product to it helps people and my message helps people.

And three I just knew that it should be a household name so until I got there it was hard for me to I'm just like that it's really hard for me to give up on things I grew up as an athlete went to a lot of schooling so a lot of those things teach you time management and for me personally I want to be the greatest version of myself and I want to be great in general.

And I know what I'm capable of achieving and I think I can achieve every single thing I've ever dreamt of so until I get there I'm not going to stop I don't know how I would say I time manage because a lot of times I don't really have great time management I take mental health days all the time if I'm not in the mood.

I say I'm not in the mood there's no rush to scale my business as long as things are running and things are smooth there's days where sales are a bit down and I don't care and I take a day to just walk with my dog or go to the beach with my friends or go for a bike ride and I don't feel guilty about that stuff because I think that my mental health matters more than anything and when I'm good.

The business is good so in terms of time management I would say I know what my goals are but in order to achieve them I'm easy on myself and I allow myself grace when there's days that I don't feel like pushing through.

Melanie Branch: I'm sorry it like went away for the last part of it what is happening okay so you're you're easy on yourself which is something that as a business mindset coach it makes me so happy to hear because that is one of the biggest struggles for my clients and my community is that really harsh internal dialogue internal critic like just there's no reason.

To talk to ourselves the way a lot of us are sitting here talking to ourselves and I was a big culprit of it before I started my mindset work and when I was working in a restaurant cause I was working in restaurants pretty much my whole professional life either property management or restaurants.

And I left my restaurant job of five and a half years to do my business my coaching business exclusively in 2021 and my my ability I would say to not spiral and have to talk myself off the ledge so to speak was really like you just come face to face to it all of a sudden you know like I used to stub my toe and I would cuss myself out.

I'd be like God damn it why are you cussing me out and I like literally one day I just went why am I talking to myself like this like I wouldn't let my kids talk to themselves like this I wouldn't want my husband to talk to him I wouldn't want my best friend to talk to herself like this why am I beating myself up?

It doesn't make any sense so I love to hear that and it runs into we know that running a business can be stressful right I'm running two businesses you're running a business how do you what is your self care practice to keep you sane and centered and grounded is it those just random self care days off.

Or are you intentional about it

Sanaz Bahrami: regularly so I try to journal every day and I've actually been journaling pretty much every single day since before I launched my business when I was just struggling with my mental health so it's really beautiful to see one like your goals kind of starting to achieve.

It's beautiful to see your mindset starting to shift and change it's just cool that when I sell melts for 500 million and I like put it public there's going to be a day of my struggles of my like ups my downs what I went through who I was talking to who I had to cut off to level up all that so I definitely swear by journaling.

I go to hypnotherapy once a month she helps me with my subconscious mind and my self concept and then she actually makes me guided audios personally made for me that I go to bed and wake up to so the 30 minutes before bed 30 minutes when I wake up I turn on guided affirmation audios and hypnoses that are directed to me.

So in them it's like My my TikToks go viral and help millions of people's per day my business is helping the world like heal and so with that it helps me kind of just subconsciously believe in everything that I script out and then again I do scripting I believe in the law of attraction and the power of the mind I talk to myself nicely I make a habit of that I cut out any negative stimuli.

So I used to listen to a lot of rap music I still love rap but I've definitely cut down on it a lot because the message is not something I often agree with so I've substituted that for a lot of Afrobeats music that's more about love and light and positivity and blessings so I watch more positive TV now.

I've cut out as much of like the crime dramas I used to watch I've cut out talking to friends I have cut Or lowered my interactions with toxic family members I've pretty much cut out anything that was not helping me vibrate at a high frequency and then I also go to hot yoga a few times a week to balance my mind help with my physical activity and then my mindset.

And I take cold showers a few times a week that are good to increase dopamine for the neurospicy ADHDers that are lacking dopamine so I do a lot

Melanie Branch: you must have just been stalking my TikTok channel because every single one of those things is what I make all of my clients do so I'm so excited to hear you say that.

And you know have you been thinking about getting a cold plunge pool

Sanaz Bahrami: yeah my future home I definitely want to have an infinity pool a hot tub and a cold plunge like in my backyard but that's like my two year plan hopefully a husband and a child will also accompany me so we'll see how that's going down.

Yeah there's a

Melanie Branch: really cool one tony Robbins has a documentary on one of the I don't know Netflix or whatever and I watch it every once in a while because while I don't want to be Tony Robbins and I don't necessarily agree with everything he does I have mad respect for his His drive and his ambition and his ability to carve out his own community right?

And do things his way and really impact people and he has in his Beverly Hills home he can open his sliding glass door in his bedroom and you know he's like nine feet tall and he has a cold plunge built in so like literally it's in the ground and he literally drops in it and disappears and then comes back out and he's ready to go about his day.

And I said bitch that is it's like that visual of him you know just coming out I said absolutely hashtag motherfucking goals right then and there so Yeah you know and cold exposure is super duper effective at rewiring the nervous system regulating the nervous system and giving us that what I call extended release dopamine right?

Because we know Oreo is quick release dopamine right I can go have two Oreos bang bang boom I'm going to be ready to knock out this email in 20 minutes but we also know it's going to go away really fast right so and so it's like Vegas hits of dopamine and then those extended release hits of dopamine which is if we can find that balance and that harmony in between both of those we'll be a lot better off.

So we know that you are not one to settle for the status quo obviously you stumbled upon this business and you're building this company at such a unbelievably beautifully amazing rapid rate how do you stay ahead of the curve and keep your business pushing boundaries and breaking barriers

Sanaz Bahrami: so in late November early December I actually hired a business mentor.

He's a serial entrepreneur and in my perspective you should definitely because I got to a point where at the end of the day I'm an engineer and a scientist and I understand the human body the brain I understand our inner functionings and science I'm not a business person I'm getting there I'm learning but I don't report to be the end all be all and I know I'm not there's a lot of things that I don't know.

So for me the best thing I could have done and the best thing you can do as an entrepreneur when you get to a point where you feel almost like you can't grow any further is to start reaching out to people that have knowledge that you don't have so one growing my team and to the main thing was hiring a business consultant who is a serial entrepreneur who has owned 10 to 15 different businesses multimillion dollar businesses.

He's owned generic restaurants that a lot of people know of he's owned things that he started completely on his own he is got his hand in a few other random businesses and he helps with the infrastructure and the organization of everything in order for us to scale even more and I think that's super powerful to have an asset like you or.

Whoever you may find is helpful for your business but I think having an advisor or a mentor or someone who's done it before and done it better than you at this current point is super powerful to grow and to scale

Melanie Branch: absolutely everybody needs some sort of coach mentor consultant somebody like that to keep them moving in the right direction.

So we know with neurospiciness and being a woman just in general that imposter syndrome is the worst we know imposter syndrome is the worst but I'm interested to hear from you how you fight those feelings of self doubt and how do you stay confident in your vision I know it sounds

Sanaz Bahrami: weird but like I don't really have self doubt as much because I've always in my heart known I was different.

It's this weird feeling that I've had since I was a child that I never thought I would get a nine to five I never like for some reason I just didn't and even when I didn't think I would ever start a business I knew that I was special and my life was going to be grandiose and I didn't really understand.

Oop you froze again oh there you are hello I knew that I was special

Melanie Branch: that's what I heard

Sanaz Bahrami: I felt different and because of that I've never backed down from what I think I can achieve and I listened to a lot of Gary Vee podcasts and a lot of it is just if anyone else has ever done anything on this earth why can't I?

And at the end of the day I am super educated I come from a good family I have all of the resources possible I am really like attractive at least in my opinion and I have all of the tools that any other person that does great things needs would need so why can't I also achieve greatness I

Melanie Branch: love that.

Oh my god I love that so much so then I have one more like official question and then we'll get into the fun lightning round rejection sensitivity right so rejection sensitive dysphoria rejection sensitivity dysphoria is one of the most common comorbidities with A DHD and whether that is because of our C-P-T-S-D or whether that's because a child an undiagnosed a DH child a DHD child has heard the word no at like 300 times more than a non A DHD child by the age of five right?

Like it's whatever it stems from how do you overcome rejection sensitivity when it rears its ugly head

Sanaz Bahrami: so I mean I think it's normal to feel a little bit gutted when something you've really wanted does not work out but for me personally I know that life universe God creation whatever you believe in Will never level you down.

And if you look at your own life which I tend to always look at my own life even any man I've rejected has never been a worse man come into my life it's always been a better man and it's every time I don't ever look back and think Oh I still wish I was talking to that person because every single time a human a situation or anything left my life.

It's always been to elevate me so at the initial moment of course I feel gutted of course I feel like oh why me but I usually come out of that by journaling and just realizing that everything is in my greater good everything has always been in my greater good and a lot of times when things leave it's bigger blessings that the universe wants to give me.

And because I'm 33 I think I've just lived through that so many times I've been pretty much living on my own and supporting myself since I was 19 I have not had a support system whatsoever so I've always had to nurture and kind of raise myself from a younger age and I think that helped a lot with me just being okay with rejection because I've always known that the better things happen when I guess you let the universe take control.

I know what my goals are and I know that the universe is guiding me there when I'm ready to receive it last year I tried to make a push to start wholesale for my business and get us into storefronts and whatever we did it just was not working and now this year now we're made and manufactured in a lab at mass quantities.

I have a business advisor who's teaching me the proper infrastructure of how to go about wholesale wholesale cold calling emailing all that good stuff and then I hired one of my childhood best friends who's a science teacher as our wholesale rep so now the infrastructure is just so much better laid out that I'm like whoa back then we really weren't ready.

Thank God it didn't work out because it could have been an epic fail that would have done something negative maybe impacted negatively our business so there's just I just always believe that the universe has greater things for me and obviously the instantaneous moment of rejection is hurtful for most.

And it's hard to kind of turn off that negative feedback loop of just thinking about it but I'd say the main thing I do is just believe in the universe and believe that if I wanted I can achieve it and it's coming it's you're

Melanie Branch: so inspirational and I know everyone listening is just gonna have their life totally changed by listening to this actual episode.

So before we get into the lightning round of the fun ADHD questions I want to give you the opportunity to plug your spot of course your website and your socials and everything are going to be linked below for everybody to get to but you know tell us again where we can find you and how they can start benefiting almost immediately from your incredible products.

Sanaz Bahrami: So I have two oils right now as well as CMOS capsules cMOS is a plant based multivitamin so if you're not getting a perfect vegan whole grain raw diet then you will benefit from the energy boost and the vitality of CMOS and then the two liquid extracts all developed by me are an uplift uplifting formula for the daytime that helps with energy focus for us neuro spicy ADHers and an unwind formula that I don't necessarily take every night anymore because I used to have really bad anxiety which I don't have.

And so the unwind helps you just Stay calm and relax after a long day and melt into your couch and potentially fall asleep so those are all at www meltsandfusions com my handles are all meltsandfusions everything to do with me will come up at meltsandfusions if you type in melts on TikTok I do have three accounts.

So just find the one you prefer because TikTok keeps playing oh all of them I keep making more so yeah that's how you can find me and if you send us a message on Instagram likely me or my assistant will respond within three to five days yes it's fantastic

Melanie Branch: you can also I will include my affiliate code as well which is a mindset Melanie.

That's my affiliate code everywhere for all the products that I love and cannot live without so we will oh I got excited so now my dog's getting excited go lay down Mr I cannot it's real life over here everybody so make sure you follow her on all of her accounts because again we know sometimes TikTok can be finicky as somebody who's had to regrow accounts before as well.

So now it is time for the five fun questions that I ask every single person that is on the show the first one what's your favorite social media platform

Sanaz Bahrami: tikTok love hate love hate ship

Melanie Branch: love hate we get it anytime I'm scrolling TikTok and I'm like I should probably take a break let's go to Instagram.

I'm there for 10 seconds I'm like it's so boring here and it's right back to TikTok so we get

Sanaz Bahrami: it and I go back to TikTok and Instagram it's just important to talk to people these days for me at least

Melanie Branch: yeah seriously let me check the DMs on Insta and then let me go back to TikTok second question what is the most recent rabbit hole you've gone down?

Sanaz Bahrami: Conspiracies about the medical system

Melanie Branch: so when we get off this call let's continue that conversation because I'm involved in that too third question! And the hints why we get banned third question! What is your favorite emotional support show

Sanaz Bahrami: I really like Housewives it is mindless numbing drama but like Housewives of Beverly Hills you get to see beautiful homes that you can manifest yourself living in.

You get to see beautiful outfits you can manifest yourself wearing you get to see other really successful individuals maybe their husbands maybe them but it's people I'm sorry there's a little glitch but it's people that have attained to some form the success that I wish to achieve so for me that's what I like to watch.

It's just mindless reality TV housewives of Atlanta Beverly Hills Salt Lake City and Potomac are my favorites mine

Melanie Branch: are Beverly Hills OC and New York I've

Sanaz Bahrami: never watched OC I need to watch OC

Melanie Branch: I watched OC since the beginning like when it came out in like 2007 or 8 or whatever it was like it was a long time ago.

I remember watching it and I remember being like This is something but I believe the same thing that you can watch shows about people who have what you want and it will help you manifest and get on that level so oh also by the way new episode of Succession comes out very very soon so I will be watching that one.

Fourth question have you had any water today

Sanaz Bahrami: you're literally propped up on my water bottle yeah

Melanie Branch: look at that emotional support cup that is beautiful days cold

Sanaz Bahrami: for 12 hours like ice cold this is the best it's not cheap but it is the best water bottle a human being can have and I swear by it.

Corksicle that is beautiful I love it my opinion and

Melanie Branch: it's pretty we love it all right last question what is your current dopamine snack snickers I'll agree with you there there's always dopamine in a Snickers I'm not going to lie there's always dopamine there mine right now are Oreos for

Sanaz Bahrami: sure.

For sure stuffed and there was just too stuffed that's

Melanie Branch: too much I was like it's too much

Sanaz Bahrami: out the experiments and like put them aside and just like I was like I should have gotten the thin ones this

Melanie Branch: Soft yeah absolutely but I I mean I hear that sound in my sleep because teenagers in my house we've even we can't even leave them out anymore.

Cause if we walk by and see them nobody's able to not grab any so we have to like make it something like an ordeal to go and get we can at least appreciate them so my wonderful beautiful friends and as I want to thank you so much for being here and for doing this interview I know this is going to be so impactful on our my listeners with the neuro spiciness and the desire to build companies that are incredible.

So any parting words you want to leave us with before I stop the recording

Sanaz Bahrami: my main thing in life is if you think it then it will happen so be nice to your brain be nice to yourself the voice inside your head is a roommate it is not a symbol of who your soul is it's a symbol of what you've learned from the day you were born to the date that you are living currently.

If you don't like the voice reprogram it and it will change your life

Melanie Branch: oh my god I love that I couldn't have said it better myself so we love everybody okay bye!