The Irresistible Factor
The Irresistible Factor Podcast focuses on brands in the health and wellness space that want to become irresistible to consumers, investors and retailers. Kristi Bridges is the President and CEO of The Sawtooth Group where she has worked for over 20 years to create innovative, relevant strategies to bring brands and their consumers closer together. She is one of the creators of I-Factor®, the first and only research tool designed to understand today's digital consumer's relationship to brands.
Maïzly with Tim Leclercq
The instinct that makes you a successful founder can become the thing that keeps your brand small.
Founders are wired to see opportunity.
Actually, they have to be.
They see a product that doesn't exist yet and think, Why not?
A retailer shows interest? Go.
A new channel opens up? Try it.
A new product you could make? Let's make it.
That relentless belief in possibility is often exactly what gets a brand off the ground.
But eventually, possibility becomes...
De Soi with Morgan McLachlan
One sentence from my conversation with Morgan McLachlan has been stuck in my head:
"We're outsourcing our wisdom."
It's easy to hear that as an argument against AI. It's not. It's a reminder that technology can accelerate our thinking, but it can't replace our judgment.
As founders and marketers, we're asking AI to write, research, brainstorm, analyze, summarize—even tell us what strategy to pursue. Those are all valuable uses. But somewhere along the way, many of us stopped wrestling with the hard questions ourselves.
That's where judgment is built.Morgan is...
Seattle Chocolate with Jean Thompson
Jean Thompson did not plan to run a chocolate company.
She just couldn’t let it die.
Jean was an early investor in Seattle Chocolate when an earthquake destroyed the building the company was renting.
No earthquake insurance.
Broken machinery.
A condemned building.
A business that might not survive.
So she stepped in. Not because she had a grand plan.Because she loved the brand and didn’t want to watch it disappear. That decision turned into a 23-year journey as CEO.
What started as “maybe I can...
Choulie with Alison Cayne
She had the distribution.
She had the buyers.
She had the product.
And she shut it down anyway.
This week on The Irresistible Factor, I welcomed back Alison Cayne.
A few years ago, she came on the podcast to talk about building Haven's Kitchen.
This time, she came back to talk about something founders rarely discuss publicly:
How she knew it was time to walk away.
What struck me most was that this wasn't a...
Harmony Baby Nutrition with Del Afonso
“We’re Not Building for Scale. We’re Building for Disruption.”
I’ve interviewed a lot of founders, and I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone say that before.
And, it completely changed the way I thought about this conversation with Del Alfonso, founder of Harmony Baby Nutrition.
Because most founders talk about scale as the goal: More stores.More distribution.More volume.
Del talked about changing an industry that hasn’t meaningfully evolved in 100 years.
When you really think about that, it’s kind of sho...
Altar Native with Yasmin Crystal Santos
“Let It Be Easy.”
“Let it be easy.”
That was one of my favorite moments from my conversation with Yasmin Crystal Santos, founder of Altar Native.
Not because building a company is easy.
Clearly, it’s not. She’s dealing with:
inventory shortageschanging manufacturersregulatory hurdlesfundraising decisionsinternational expansionAnd somehow… she still feels calm.
Not passive.
Not naive.
Calm.
And that felt almost more disruptive than the category she’s building in.
Yasmin created a line of herbal alcohol a...
Brutus Broth with Kim Hehir
“If Someone Slams the Front Door in Your Face, Go to the Back Door.”
That was one of my favorite lines from my conversation with Kim Hehir, co-founder of Brutus Broth.
And honestly? It might be one of the best descriptions of entrepreneurship I’ve heard in a while.
Because Brutus Broth didn’t grow into a 20,000-store brand by following the traditional playbook.
They grew because they kept asking.
Kept testing.
Kept pushing.
Kept finding another way in.
Even when people to...
Vine to Bar with Ed Klein and Scott Forsberg
Sold a Little. Learned a Lot.
Most brands try to skip this part.
They go straight to scale.
More distribution.
More spend.
More everything. And then wonder why nothing sticks.
I interviewed Scott Forsberg and Ed Klein on the podcast this week, the founders behind a chocolate brand called Vine to Bar.
On the surface, it’s already a great story:
Upcycled Chardonnay grapes
Science-backed benefits
Better-for-you chocolate
But that’s not the most interesting part.
The most...
Quinta Marugo with Ugo Uberti Foppa
You Don’t Have to Build the Biggest Thing. You Just Have to Build the Right Thing.
Most of the conversations I have on this podcast are about growth.
Scaling.
Raising capital.
Winning in crowded categories.
This one isn’t. And that’s exactly why I love it.
I sat down with Ugo Urberti Foppa, founder of a retreat center in Portugal called Quinta Marugo.
On paper, Ugo’s not my typical guest. No big brand. No massive exit. No “how I scal...
How Rudy Aldana Built PARCH Differently
The brands that win in crowded categories aren’t chasing trends.
They’re built from something real.
In this episode, I sit down with Rudy Aldana (Co-Founder & CEO of PARCH) to break down what’s actually happening in non-alcoholic—and why most brands are missing it.
What we get into:
• Why non-alc isn’t about health—it’s about identity
• The real reason consumers feel “off” when they’re not drinking
• Where most brands go wrong (they keep adding)
• Why PARCH launched with 4 SKUs—and stayed there
• The difference between traction and just more ideas<...
Interview with Michael Ramsey – Co-founder and Co-CEO of Strong Pilates
There are some categories where it feels like the world does not need one more brand.
Fitness is one of them, especially Pilates.
So when I sat down with Michael Ramsey, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Strong Pilates, I wanted to understand how they’re breaking through in spite of that.
This was the line that stayed with me:
The problem wasn’t Pilates. It was everything else people still needed.
That’s the insight behind Strong.
People love Pilates. They bel...
The Future of At-Home Diagnostics with Nanowear CEO & Co-Founder Venk Varadan
Most wearables track one thing at a time: steps, sleep, heart rate. Nanowear is building something entirely new: a single piece of fabric that acts like a full physical exam whenever you wear it.
CEO and co-founder Venk Varadan started the company nearly ten years ago with his father, Dr. Vijay Varadan, after discovering a breakthrough textile that can read the body without adhesives or multiple devices. One fabric-based sensor captures heart, lungs, blood pressure, respiration, and metabolic signals all at once; nothing on the market can do that today.
Rather than rushing a consumer...
Mothering the Mothers with Arisa Katayama of For Her by Arisa
When Arisa Katayama had her daughter in LA during COVID, she did what most first-time moms do: focused on the birth and the baby, not herself. Then the fourth trimester hit. Sleep-deprived, still breastfeeding late into the night, she kept opening a half-empty fridge filled with leftovers and frozen pizza, realizing there was nothing truly nourishing or postpartum-safe for her.
That moment became the seed for For Her by Arisa, a Japanese-born brand now launching in the U.S. with postpartum recovery soups rooted in yakuzan, a traditional philosophy where TCM...
Reinventing Practitioner Commerce with Jon Armstrong
Reinventing Practitioner Commerce with Jon Armstrong
When tech entrepreneur Jon Armstrong set out to simplify his own supplement routine, he uncovered a much bigger problem: practitioners were losing patients, and profits, to Amazon. His answer was GetHealthy.store, a turnkey e-commerce and marketing platform that gives health and wellness professionals custom storefronts, operational support, and access to thousands of vetted, clinical-grade products.
Key takeaways from our conversation:
Built for how practitioners really work:
“We provide fully functioning custom stores for...
Leading from Within with Gary Seelhorst of Prime Peak Executive Coaching
After two decades in biotech and a near-fatal heart attack at 43, Gary Seelhorst realized that success without self-awareness isn’t sustainable. He left corporate life to build Prime Peak Executive Coaching, a practice that helps leaders align peak performance with personal well-being. What started as volunteer work guiding veterans through career transitions has become a fast-growing, referral-only coaching business for executives and founders.
Key takeaways from our conversation:
Wellness drives performance: “When leaders are in an optimal state, that’s when executive business coaching really works.” Gary integrat...
Turning Data Into Healing with Mette Dyhrberg of MuneHealth
Economist turned founder Mette Dyhrberg didn’t plan to enter healthcare; she just wanted her life back. After collecting six autoimmune diagnoses in her twenties, she started tracking everything she was doing, eating, and feeling for months and months. She then used that data to uncover the cause of her symptoms and reverse them within 16 months, something that the medical community was not able to do. That personal discovery turned into MuneHealth, a platform created to help patients with autoimmune diseases find and fix the unique triggers keeping them sick.
Key takeaways from ou...
Taking Cues from Travelocity in Healthcare with Dr. Cristin Dickerson
Radiologist turned founder, Dr. Cristin Dickerson, didn’t plan to run a company, she just wanted to do her job. But after seeing hospital acquisitions triple imaging prices and claims processes fail patients and doctors alike, Dr. Cristin looked to an unlikely category to find a solution. She built Green Imaging: a “Travelocity-style” marketplace that buys unused scanner time, bundles the entire episode of care, and passes transparent savings to employers and patients.
Key takeaways from our conversation:
Unused capacity, fair bundles: “We started buying the extra time on the scanner, our radiologists read it...
From CPG Founder to Investor with Kelly Spillane
“It was very hard to accept, but I had to face the reality that our business was never going to give us the return we deserved. That was a mature set of decisions, to give up on dreams and accept defeat,” she says.
As you can see, Kelly Spillane has lived both sides of the CPG journey. She started in Ireland as a founder, building a jam and marmalade company with her sister and even landing on supermarket shelves and high-end delicatessens in Paris, London, and New York. But after years of incredibly hard work, she faced a to...
Building a Global Wellness Movement with Matt Soule, Founder of Cold Club
What began with Matt’s own martial arts injury grew into a business model that now includes international instructor training, wellness retreats, and tailored protocols for everyone from elite athletes to entrepreneurs. His story is both exciting and inspiring.
But building Cold Club hasn’t been easy. Matt has had to navigate the realities of entrepreneurship, scaling globally, wearing every hat, and planning for sustainable growth in a crowded wellness industry.
3 Key Takeaways
1. Building Requires Vision and Systems
“Tons of challenges. I need a bigger team. That’s step on...
How an overlooked health issue became a real business. An interview with Emily Stein, Co-Founder and CEO of Teef and Primal Health
For Emily Stein, the path from Stanford scientist to startup founder wasn’t straightforward. What began with a deeply personal motivation, preventing her grandmother from losing more teeth after a stroke, has turned into building Primal Health, an international company tackling one of healthcare’s most overlooked problems: oral health.
Emily has led Primal Health through the challenges of launching products in both the human and pet markets, raising capital in a tough environment, and educating consumers and practitioners about a brand-new approach to oral care. Emily intended to build Primal Health, a human oral health brand, but...
Advice on selling in the Healthcare Space with Brendan McAdams, Founder of Kiinetics
If you’re trying to sell ideas, products, and technology in the Healthcare industry, this podcast is for you.
For Brendan McAdams, sales in healthcare isn’t about pushing products, it’s about creating real fit, listening deeply, and helping founders build businesses that last. As the founder of Kiinetics, Brendan has worked with health tech startups and entrepreneurs to navigate one of the toughest industries out there: selling into hospitals, payers, and health systems.
With a career spanning UnitedHealthcare, WebMD, and startups across the health space, Brendan has seen firsthand what works (and what doesn’...
Turning Burnout Into a Business: Aisha Chottani’s Mission With Drink Moment
After nearly burning out at her high-pressure job, Aisha Chottani knew something had to change. She swapped caffeine for meditation, cut sugar from her diet, and started paying attention to how she felt. The results were transformative, and they sparked the idea for Drink Moment.
Launched in 2020, Moment is a functional beverage brand inspired by the feeling you get after meditating. With no caffeine, alcohol, or added sugar, each can is infused with adaptogens to help reduce stress, support cognitive clarity, and reset your day.
“Wellness isn’t about not doing hard...
How intuition led this founder to start a business and a movement with Roger Ford
When Roger Ford heard the word “move” during a late-night meditation, he didn’t expect it to uproot his life. But within weeks, he and his wife had sold their healing center in the UK, bought a home in California online, and launched a brand-new chapter.
That leap of faith became Healing in America, a nonprofit dedicated to making energy healing more accessible and more credible within the U.S. healthcare system. “We teach people to follow their intuition,” Roger says. “So we had to live that ourselves.”
Rooted in more than four decades of practice, Roge...
How a boutique brand competes in a crowded global market. A topic all brands looking to scale can learn from with Lisa Boduch.
Lisa Boduch is taking it head-on, with a career that began in the salon and evolved into national leadership roles. She understands both sides of the beauty industry. Now serving as VP of Sales and Education at Alfaparf Milano, Lisa is applying decades of experience to drive growth for a professional Italian brand that’s stayed intentionally boutique.
Her approach? Clear identity, disciplined storytelling, and meaningful innovation. In an industry often crowded by copycat products and big-box noise, Lisa is focused on long-term brand equity, operational excellence, and empowering the professionals at the heart of the business.
...Reshaping Healthcare. A 90-Day Workout for Practitioners with Shareef Mahdavi
“PX stands for patient experience,” says Shareef Mahdavi, founder of the PX Movement. “My mission is to change the way that patients experience going to the doctor.”
With PX90, he’s applying his decades of experience in healthcare and customer service to help practices rethink their environments, retrain their teams, and rebuild trust, starting with a 90-day, exercise-themed program that includes warm-ups, cool-downs, and strategic “workouts.”
At its core, PX90 is about the mindset of the physician. “That’s really the goal of this: to help doctors see things from their patients’ perspective,” Shareef says. “We want to remind them w...
Alively Is Changing How Companies Approach Employee Wellness with Lou Zameryka
“You should always be heading toward something you’re proud of,” he says. “Something that feels like a meaningful contribution.”
That’s why, after a career negotiating some of the biggest deals in the travel industry, Lou Zameryka decided to build something with a much deeper impact.
That mindset led Lou and his co-founder, Andrew, to the much-discussed notion of healthspan. Instead of asking how long people can live, they started asking: How well can they live? The answer: Alively, an incredible platform, focused on helping employees build better habits to live a more vibrant, healthier lif...
Nodal Brings Ethics and Technology to Surrogacy with Brian Levine
Dr. Brian Levine wears two hats: founder of Nodal and founding partner at CCRM New York. His career began with a passion for genetics, but over time, it grew into something bigger, helping families. “I’d have to say, it’s been one of my greatest achievements, having the opportunity to work here and provide care to patients,” he shares.
At Nodal, Levine set out to challenge an industry that was burdening hopeful parents with high fees and long waits. He saw an opportunity to build a transparent, tech‑driven solution that works better for...
If you can’t find it, build it! With Peter Conroy
After struggling to lose weight and finding existing fitness apps confusing or ineffective, Peter Conroy, former investment banker and now healthcare advocate, decided to build his own solution. That decision led to The Difference App, a predictive, AI-powered tool that helps users track weight with greater accuracy and personalization.
Conroy’s approach centers around TrueBurn™, a proprietary algorithm that adjusts your estimated calorie burn based on your actual daily weight changes and other unique personal factors. The result? An app that tells you what you’ll weigh tomorrow, today—and whether you’re truly maki...
The Scale Was Only The Beginning For A Company With A True Purpose with Paul Buckley
For Paul Buckley, U.S. Director of Sales and Marketing at Withings, joining the company was about more than a new role. “I wanted to do something that makes a difference in people’s lives—and Withings does that every day,” he says.
Withings has been innovating since 2009, when it launched the world’s first smart scale. Today, the brand is known for pushing the boundaries of connected health, creating devices that help people track and understand their bodies well before problems arise.
Key takeaways from our conversation:
Data that matters: Withing...If you can’t find it, build it! With Peter Conroy
After struggling to lose weight and finding existing fitness apps confusing or ineffective, Peter Conroy, former investment banker and now healthcare advocate, decided to build his own solution. That decision led to The Difference App, a predictive, AI-powered tool that helps users track weight with greater accuracy and personalization.
Conroy’s approach centers around TrueBurn™, a proprietary algorithm that adjusts your estimated calorie burn based on your actual daily weight changes and other unique personal factors. The result? An app that tells you what you’ll weigh tomorrow, today, and whether you’re truly ma...
No shortcuts, just smart execution with Anthony Kjenstad.
“There is no secret sauce of overnight success—it’s just a constant ‘what’s next.’” — Anthony Kjenstad, Founder & CEO of Firefly Recovery
Anthony Kjenstad didn’t set out to build a consumer brand. But after a career in medical device distribution and a request to solve a real problem, helping patients prevent blood clots post-surgery, he developed a wearable recovery device now used by elite athletes across the country.
Today, Firefly Recovery serves college and professional sports teams, weekend warriors, and post-op patients alike. From an appearance on Shark Tank to grassroots distribution via trainers and NIL a...
Are Robots the Future of Massage? with Eswar Priyadarshan
Aescape isn’t replacing therapists—it’s expanding access. And for health tech founders, it’s a masterclass in engineering innovation that sticks.
At Aescape, innovation isn’t theoretical. It’s tactile. Their intelligent massage tables, powered by robotic arms and therapist-recorded movements, are about to transform how we recover, relax, and train. With over 60 installations across luxury hotels, fitness clubs, and elite sports facilities, Aescape is proving that robotics can deliver human-quality touch at scale.
But it took eight years to get there.
From navigating hardware partnerships to reshaping user expectations, Eswar Priyadarshan...
The Business of Birth: Scaling Smart, Compassionate Care at Partum Health with Emily (Steinberg) McCareins
"Our aim is really to find mechanisms by which we can reach more families." — Emily (Steinberg) McCareins
What started as a pandemic-era pilot has become one of the most ambitious care models in maternal health. Partum Health delivers a full suite of perinatal services, from doula care and pelvic floor therapy to lactation and behavioral health, through an innovative hybrid model that meets families where they are.
Emily joined Partum after years in healthcare consulting and an MBA from Kellogg, drawn by the complexity of maternal care and the urgency of closing systemic gaps. Today, she...
Rebuilding Telehealth from the Inside Out, with Mark Noble
“We’re saving people’s lives every day, and that’s the driver behind what we do.” — Mark Noble
Mark Noble isn’t leading a startup; he’s reinventing a legacy. As CEO of ViTel Net, one of the earliest telehealth companies in the U.S., he’s helping health systems deliver smarter, faster, more integrated care.
With patented tech that embeds directly into hospital EHRs, ViTel Net enables everything from telestroke and telepsychiatry to full-scale, cross-system workflows. The goal? Make hybrid care seamless and accessible to the patients who need it most.
After decades in hi...
Giving Cancer Patients More Than Care with Michele Gannon
Every once in a while, I meet someone who makes me pause. Someone who reminds me why I started this podcast in the first place. Michele Gannon is one of those people.
She’s the founder of Mary’s Place by the Sea, a nonprofit home in Ocean Grove, NJ, that offers women with cancer something most of them don’t even realize they need: permission to stop. To rest. To not be strong for everyone else. To just… be. What began as a persistent thought in Michele’s mind has, 16 years later, become a safe haven where over...
What Founders Can Learn From Building A Successful Business—And Doing It Again, with Dr. Samuel Hetz.
“You just need to start. That first step leads to a second, which leads to a third. You just need to start moving in the direction you want to go.” — Dr. Sam Hetz
Mergers, exits, new launches. Dr. Sam Hetz has built two businesses by betting on what the healthcare system is missing and what many patients are willing to pay for.
After scaling a successful medical aesthetics clinic that became part of Dermapure, Canada’s largest group of aesthetic practices, he’s now tackling something bigger: preventative, personalized longevity care....
The Startup That Pays You to Log Off—and Why Founders Should Pay Attention, with Corey Scholibo.
What if you could build a business around less screen time, not more?
That’s exactly what Corey Scholibo, co-founder and CEO of Dayo, is doing. Dayo is a digital wellness app that pays users $5 a day to stay off social media. Go over 30 minutes? You start losing money. Stay under? You save and spend on deals from brand partners who are tired of paying Meta.
“What happened was these companies made you the product—and not the product the product.” — Corey Scholibo
In this episode, he shares:
Why resear...The Business Case for Guaranteeing Weight Loss, And Delivering It, with Dan LeMoine.
Most wellness companies shy away from guarantees. Re:vitalize Weight Loss & Wellness built their business on one.
Dan LeMoine, Co-founder of Re:vitalize, offers every client a clear, measurable promise: real weight loss, fast, and sustainably.
“We typically guarantee a minimum of 20 lbs on our 40-day metabolic reset and weight loss program.” — Dan LeMoine
In this episode, he shares:
Why personalization drives better outcomes than prescriptionsHow they support clients recovering from GLP-1 side effectsWhat it takes to stand behind a results-based promiseFor founders, it's a bold reminder: if you ca...
Redefining Cardiac Rehab: How RecoveryPlus Is Saving Lives Without Leaving Home, with Peter Niemi
After a heart attack or surgery, cardiac rehab can be the difference between recovery and readmission. But for a variety of reasons, 80% of patients never go.
RecoveryPlus.health was built to change that.
The company delivers virtual, insurance-covered cardiac rehab to patients in 47 states. They have live sessions, remote monitoring, and real human care, all from home. And the impact is impressive: their readmission rate is just 1.4%, compared to the national average of 25%.
On The Irresistible Factor, Co-founder and CEO Peter Niemi shares how they built it a...
The Clinic That Solves What Others Can’t—By Only Doing What Matters, with Dr. Clayton Skaggs.
“When you stop managing symptoms and start solving root causes, everything changes.”
Most clinics treat symptoms. Dr. Clayton Skaggs built CIHP to solve root problems, and his results are drawing patients from around the world. Forget high-volume throughput. Skaggs’ model is unique, deliberate, and data-informed. Patients undergo hours-long assessments, build personalized protocols, and stay connected virtually without losing clinical quality.
“This isn’t about finding what’s flashy. It’s about finding what works, and doing only that.” – Dr. Clayton Skaggs
In an industry chasing speed, CIHP is betting on accuracy, and it’s paying of...
