July 17, 2024 • 23 mins
Shazi Visram was a successful entrepreneur - but her son's autism diagnosis, coupled with her father's Alzhiemer's diagnosis - shifted her entire reality. On this episode of She Pivots, Shazi talks about her parents’ journey to the United States, her passion for visual arts, the inspiration behind Happy Baby (now Happy Family Organics), what it's like to be a member of the "sandwich generation," and what she is most excited about with her newest company, HealthyBaby.
She Pivots was created by host Emily Tisch Sussman to highlight women, their stories, and how their pivot became their success. To learn more about Shazi, follow us on Instagram @ShePivotsThePodcast or visit shepivotsthepodcast.com.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Shazi Vistrom.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk with
women who dared to pivot out of one career and
into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted
these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Today we
have a truly inspiring guest who's revolutionized the way we
(00:35):
think about children's nutrition and wellness. Shazi Visram is the
founder of both Happy Family and Healthy Baby. You know
those puffs that you see all over every playground. The
premise of this show is to share the stories of
how our personal lives influence our professional lives, and Shazi's
is one that is all too familiar to many people.
She felt the pressures of the Sandwich generation. At the
(00:58):
height of her company's success, her son was diagnosed with autism,
while at the same time, her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
Before she knew it, she was juggling doctors and therapists
with business meetings and high profile commercials. It all became
too much, so she made the decision to sell her company,
a decision she's not sure she's fully at peace with.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
To this day.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
But in that doubt came a new idea, a new
way of thinking about baby products, and a drive to
do more. Shazi threw herself into researching anything and everything
she could about autism and how to help her baby boy,
who she felt like she was losing. Determined and dedicated,
Shazi's first major pivot happened. She decided to sell the
(01:40):
company so she could afford to care for her son.
With a new drive, Shazi was determined to create a
business that holistically addressed a baby's wellness. Having sold her
company to Denne, a food brand, her options were limited,
so she made her second major pivot. She started an
entirely new company, Healthy Baby, this time to make products
(02:02):
like diapers and formula and more to make sure that
babies are healthy right from birth. Her story is deeply
personal and a testament to how the most difficult and
personal parts of our lives impact our professional decision making.
So get ready to be inspired as we dive into
the incredible journey of Shazi Visram, from the challenges she
faced to the triumph she achieved and the future she
(02:25):
envisions for children's health and nutrition.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Enjoy I'm Shazi. I am a reluctant, serial entrepreneur and
a mom of two and a fighter.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Amazing, Okay, perfect.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I can't wait to get into all of those definitions
of you that reluctant, but I just want to back
up so we can set the scene a little bit
that you were born in Canada, y Toronto, and your
parents had a convenience store there.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Right, Yeah, well they've actually so when we moved Toronto.
My dad was from Tanzania and my mom was from Pakistan.
My mom was actually one of the first women in
all of Pakistan that was was like a doctor, but
as they moved around, she was like a bedpan changing
nurse at maximum and my dad was very, very charming,
so the whole thing was really interesting. So they had
(03:19):
an arrangementge moved to London. My brother was were there
and they worked above my dad's brother's convenience store. I
lived above it. And then when they moved to Toronto,
they both well, my mom was a nurse but quickly
got tired of the bedpans and she used to deliver babies,
and you know, she was a doctor now and so
(03:40):
and then my dad never really went to third grade,
but he had a photographic memory, and then they saved
up enough money because in their mind, unless you work
for yourself, there's it's like you don't own your life.
And so they bought this convenience store, and then that's where, yeah,
I think that's when like my mom started learning how
(04:00):
to be a business person. But yeah, they told me
that people would come into the convenience store and that
every once in a while they'd meet Americans, and that
they just like love. They just wanted to be in America.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Soon they realized that dream when they moved down to Alabama,
of all places.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
They bought the motel from a guy I think his
name was Amin Kimani, and he was from the same
village as my dad grew up in Africa, and he
had come to the States much earlier and he had
a bunch of motels and he was in Orlando. So
we drove down, I remember very clearly, contact Lea Mountains, like,
we drove down to Orlando, my brother and I played,
(04:40):
and they sold my mom and had a motel. But
the hotel was in Alabama, outside of Birmingham. So we
drove back up to Toronto and packed up our meager
belongings and then drove back down to Birmingham to live
in the hotel. And I think it was supposed to
be like a Ramada in or some franchise. And I
was three, but I remember the day we got there,
(05:00):
like nobody had told my parents so that it didn't
have like passed all the compliance to keep the sign
and they were like taking the sign off.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
But it was home for Shasi. And despite the grid
of motel life, it was the people who made it special.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
The staff is like your community. I remember this guy Angelo,
and Angelo was like so cool. And there's this woman Geraldine.
She was a housekeeper and she was like a woman
who had I think her mother or grandmother had been
an actual slave. Well there's this cook, Randy Crowder. He
was funny. I mean, think of like the South in
(05:37):
the eighties, like the characters it was. It's like, I
think of it as like Confederacy of Duncis you know
that book. It's like Sandy the bartender and Sue the
lady who did the night shift. I don't know, and
your kid, you don't think you're poor, you think you
have one hundred and four rooms.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Despite the quirkiness of the life her parents had made
for them, they knew they wanted to send their kids
to private school, and of course the only private schools
in southern Alabama were Christian schools.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
My parents like, the one thing that they were adamant
about is that I go to a private school. They
didn't know anything about anything, barely speak English, but you
have to go to private school. So first through third
grade I went to a Catholic school. I had a
Catholic uniform and that was interesting, so I learned all
about Catholicism. Really interesting teachers, two nuns, one woman named
(06:28):
Lydia Locker. Like the formative years, I loved learning. I
loved reading. She would read us The Lion, the Witch,
and the Wardrobe. I read all seven like quick. I
was so into it. And then the next year that
was third grade, then fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, I
went to another private school, but it was a Baptist school,
Southern Baptist. At that one. I asked them if we
(06:49):
could read the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and
they said no, that's like the devil's work. And then
also every day at school, someone would tell me that
I was going in help so but I would be
like Mummy and my friend Robin says that that no
matter what I do, I'm always going to go to
help because we're not Christian, so it doesn't really matter
(07:11):
whatever we do, we're going to go to help, you know,
unless I accept the Lord Jesus into our life as
my savior. And then I remember my dad was the
one who really said like he had a cool way,
always like, I mean, this is a guy who did
not go to school, Chelsea, there are different ways to
get where you're going. If one religion is one way,
(07:31):
another is another, don't worry, do your thing. And it
was always like that, and he would always always like
super cool wisdom. And so I think of different religions
as vehicle to get somewhere. But I ended up writing
my college essay on on that. So I think, if anything,
it got me into Columbia.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Right, which is pretty good.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Next by the time I got to Columbia, I just
wanted to be an artist, which you know, clearly I'm
a world renowned modern artist, but.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Look at it, I'm sure I do. I think that backgrounds,
whether it's liberal arts or visual arts or forming arts,
really does change the way you see the world.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Fully, I actually use that all the time. Happy when
I was saying, how baby should have the best first
experience of food in their life. It's like a liberal
arts education and develop a palette. And you did go
on to study visual arts in undergrad Why art? Well,
I thought I loved history, I always have. I think
it's just so interesting to hear stories of the past
(08:28):
and see where things could have been better or different.
Learn And then it seemed to me like it would
give me something to paint about. So I kind of
thought they were my dual degree, but I didn't take
it further than that, although like my parents were so
my mom especially so transactional. Everything's like such a transaction,
and I think that really confused the hell out of them.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I mean, honestly, to major at art, I feel almost
feels like a rebellion.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Well, I was a little rebellious. Well, I just had
a distaste for business because I thought it was transactional
and he thought it was gross. So I didn't like
the idea of it. But then somehow it happened to
me where I realized, actually, I'm really good at business.
I could approach it differently with the idea that whatever
(09:12):
I do, I'm going to like leave the table better
for everyone at the table, and it's creative. And so
then I decided that like, actually building a brand is
a crazy creative building a business a culture where people
are focused on achieving something meaningful, it's like a living,
breathing work of art. And I love that. So I
(09:33):
got over my hatred of business.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Before Shazi knew it, she was studying at Columbia Business
School and looking for the right thing that would become
her living, breathing work of art. After the break, Shazi
shares what inspired her to launch her company in the
middle of her MBA program and what led to her
biggest pivot yet.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
You know, given the weight of what I had on
my shoulders for my parents, I realized that I wasn't
going to be a painter. And I kept thinking, like,
what what can I do that I feel really good about?
And I thought, let me get some tools in my toolbox.
When I have the thing, I don't know how to
do the thing big. And I had a friend who
had twins and she was literally crying about how not
(10:21):
she didn't have the bandwidth the ability to make their
food fresh at home, and she really wanted to from
the farmer's market, and she felt so guilty for feeding them.
You know, this very processed food wasn't even organic, and
I just thought, Wow, I get it. If you start
live healthy, you have a better chance of ending life healthier. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I mean, that's super interesting that you went all in
from somebody else's experience that you saw. Like, I feel
like a lot of the times when people feel so
sure about the thing that they're founding is because they
lived the problem.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah. That's my second company, but my first one was
based on insight, and I think being in the environment
of that like business school environment, I'm like the weirdo
who's like and I'm an entrepreneur to start something new.
They and at the time, entrepreneurship wasn't cool, like now
it is so cool.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
No, I just had the idea and started like making
it happen. I'm really good at visualizing things.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
At the start, Shazi was cooking, packing, and shipping everything
on her own. She began to hit her stride and
business was booming nationally.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
In that first year thanks to Whole Foods, but sales
of about one hundred and sixteen thousand dollars were below projections.
The first pivot into cereals called Happy Bellies, then a
puff snack that was the.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
First ever organic puff snack for babies.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
And then yogurt Snacks. Annual sales went to just shy
of seven million.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
What I usually don't tell people about Skyler is that
he's a picky eater. There is a few things hilly
and one of the brands he actually likes is Happy Baby.
He loves their Happy tat Tddlerville And if you look,
he's feeding it to himself, right Skyler.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, and n.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Everything seemed to be going perfectly as Happy Baby, now
renamed a Happy Family, was steadily growing, so was her family.
Shazi had her first son in twenty ten, but when
he was two everything changed.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Well, So I started working on it in two thousand
and three, launched Mother's Day two thousand and six. My
son was born twenty ten. April twenty twelve. We broke
even April twenty twelve, I got an autism diagnosis. He
just turned two. And I mean, like even around eighteen months,
(12:37):
Joe and I would be like, oh my god, it's
amous on fire. He's doing everything faster than all the milestones.
You know, your competitive like it's dumb, Like it's so dumb.
When when you know, parents want their babies to walk
before they're ready to. It's actually better to develop your
brain health to crawl on the floor and bilaterally move
(12:58):
your body organized as your brain. But like you know,
with dad's want their babies to put and see, he
was doing all that stuff. I mean it's like seven
months old. He was, you know, like cruising and he
was everything seemed so great and he's so cute. Yeah,
like he had milestones that you know you'd know them.
Like he was talking and he was dancing, and he
was like so connected and then all of a sudden,
(13:21):
it was like he was in his own world. The
eye contact was gone. He wasn't pointing at the moon
and showing us things and you know, that shared experience.
He wasn't. The words went away. I mean he used
to used to look at a piece of popcorn and
say that octopus. That's creative, you know, and then all
of a sudden it was gone. So it felt very
and then as something sometimes all of a sudden means
(13:43):
like you put your attention to it. Because I was busy,
and I spent most of my time with him at night,
you know, because I was working, like twelve fourteen hours
I had come home and like the time I spent
with him was like sleeping with him at night, breastfeeding
and like being with him and so and it's not
like I ever took him to a playdate. So maybe,
you know, maybe part of it was me not seeing
how the other babies were. But then I was so
(14:04):
confident in myself and you know, I'm the CEO and
founder of an organic baby food company, Like, how on
earth could anything be wrong with my baby? It just
rocked my world. It was a very drastic change. It
wasn't like, oh, I suspected something was wrong, and then
it happened so quickly, and the change was so dramatic,
and I just felt like I was losing him very quickly.
(14:26):
And so that year, actually Sane was diagnosed with autism,
I sold the company, and my dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
This was like a shit sandwich. And well say, they
say our generation is a sandwich generation, so I always
say mine, it's kind of like a shit sandwich.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
The sandwich generation. The catch twenty two of caregiving, and
Shazi was stuck right in the middle while she was
dealing with the challenges and stress of caring for her
beloved father and beautiful son. She was also experiencing some
of her biggest success with Happy Baby, from increased sales
to free commercials.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Well, I mean, American Express would give us like free commercials,
like on the super Bowl super Bowl pregame, they would
show a commercial of me holding Zane up as a
baby and time and how we're changing the world. It
was awesome. Everything was on fire, but my kid was
gone and he was leaving me. I just I felt like,
and I love him so much, and he's so beautiful,
I know how, you know, like your firstborn son. I mean,
(15:26):
he's like my little god, you know. And yeah, and
I just thought, okay, I just I need to get
some money so we can help them. Everyone saying, well,
there's this window and if you don't you know, early childhood,
any diagnosis that is developmental, there's this window of birth
to three where you can actually jump in and start
(15:48):
making massive difference.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
With all kinds of therapies.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
They're you know what, they're very expensive. And I just thought,
I just I couldn't imagine like keeping the company and
doing that, so I just I sold the company, which
was I guess I could say I regret it, but
it made me here today.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So you know, she sold to Denone, but it wasn't
easy handing over her company, especially when she was finally
starting to realize how much of an impact she could
have for future mothers and families beyond just baby food.
When we come back, Shasi talks about how her research
on autism and neurological health led to her pivot.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
And then with autism, I learned so much about what
we can do from a neurological health standpoint, from the
early days prepregnancy, pregnancy, the first three years of life.
That's not just about food alone. And so then all
of a sudden, I learn all of these things and
I have my daughter IVF for three years, the whole
nine you know, anti inflammatory diet like you name it,
(16:55):
I've learned it the hard way, and I steroids like
you everything to have a healthy baby and work with
a Neurological Health Foundation's chief science officer, we developed like
a prenatal regime for me which is now actually our
prenatal at Healthy Baby. And then that happened and I
have a baby, and you know, I kind of feel
like I lost one and say zaying my son is
(17:16):
just radically beautiful and inspiring and like, but it's really hard.
And then new autism rate is one in thirty six.
It's like two thousand and eighteen. It was one in
sixty eight, then twenty twenty. I think he went to
one in fifty nine, then one in forty four, and
then in April one in thirty six. It's crazy. And
so then you sit there and you're like watching this
(17:39):
living it. You found your own solutions, and they wanted
to bring that into happy and do all these other things,
but Danon only sells food. Yeah, I mean, I think
having a child with autism and like recognizing the beauty
of the way his brain works, but then also really
desperately wanting him to be able to share his gifts
with the world is what led me to start Healthy Baby,
(18:01):
because it's everything I knew would actually or could actually
make a difference from preconception prenatal and then like the
years in diapering, the years in diapering are like insane,
like your baby's making over a million neural connections a second.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Already having the experience of building a successful baby company
under her belt, Shasi approached this new idea with even
more vivacity. This time it was personal and she was
committed to creating a company and products that prioritized healthy babies.
So in twenty twenty one, she launched Healthy Baby First
with a revolutionary new diaper.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
It's the only EWG verified diaper. It's only new one
that's made according to a standard that is safe for
human health. It's the only one in the world and
everybody likes. There's so many brands that just confuse parents,
and I'm so anti that because we have enough stress
as it is. You just don't need to feel convinced
or also like the alarmist. But at the same token,
(18:58):
don't you want to know what you're buying. I mean,
in America there's just not that much regulation, but in
Europe they have a lot of regulation of these. They
found formaldehyde in most.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Diapers, but you did something about it.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
That's the thing, Like I you know, I think when
life gives you those moments where it's either you like,
sit down cry and then don't get out of bed,
or you sit down, cry, don't get out of bed
for a couple of years, formulate a plan and say,
like I'm going to channel this into something beautiful and
creative because otherwise I'm wasting this experience because I know
(19:33):
I can help other people, and like you're kind of
I don't. Personally, I feel it is my duty and
if I didn't do it, then what else missos to do?
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Well? What are you excited about with Healthy Baby?
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I'm really excited that Healthy Baby launched at Target. The
D two C experience of Healthy Baby is really special though.
You get personalized agent stage developmental information with every box
of diapers and all the other ancillary things you get,
so like one shampoo concentrate makes two hundred bottles, two
hundred bath times of shampoo and a stainless steel bottle,
(20:04):
So like, I really kind of I'm proud of that experience.
But then it's so fun to see us at Target,
where like they really have embraced the authenticity of the mission.
Our prenatal vitamin is the most it's by trimester preconception
from mister one, two, three, and four, but it's the
most comprehensive in the world. And I know when someone
takes it, they and their baby will come out way
(20:27):
healthier because it's that good.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Is there something at some point that you thought, h like,
this is really this is really a low point for me.
I don't know that I can get out of this,
and now you view it as having really launched you
into the success that you've become.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I mean I've mentioned a number of my low points.
I mentioned one time that I didn't have enough money
on my credit cards to buy a swipe on the subway.
I mean, you know, I think I think the lowest
point I've ever had was trying to understand what was
going on with my son. I weighed eighty eight pounds,
was flying out, yeah, and I felt like a failure.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
And then how do you think it changed her perspective
to launch you into the person who are now?
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Well?
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I think you need to be inspired to protect others
who don't have a voice, and it happens to your
child and their voice is gone, but you know they're brilliant.
I'll do anything to hear his voice. And then it's
happening to so many other people, and then I'm creative, so.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
I can't help it.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I have all these really good ideas and nobody like
from a business standpoint, I don't. None of the other
baby brands like they're great, wonderful. There's some really beautiful
brands really, you know, authentic founders, and there are a
lot that are all that are not authentic, and it's
just about making money. And I just I feel like
I know I can make something better. That's it.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Thank you so much for coming. I loved having her.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
That's my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I love meeting. It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Shazi lives on the East Coast with her husband, son,
and daughter, and it's continuing her mission to dis up
to the baby industry and provide products that prioritize the
health of the mom and the baby. Before we close
out this episode, I want to let you know that
after this amazing interview with Shazi, I became a proud
investor of Healthy Baby. As a mom, peace of mind
(22:15):
is everything, and I believe in the mission and the
product Shazi is making and Shazi's leadership. I feel so
lucky that through this show, I'm able to invest in
another amazing woman owned brand like Shazi's, and then I
get to do my small part to help these women
embrace their pivots to shop. Visit healthybaby dot com and
find her products and target. That's all for now. Talk
(22:36):
to you next week. Thanks for listening to this episode
of she Pivots. If you made it this far, you're
a true pivoter, so thanks for being part of this community.
I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you did
leave us a rating, please be nice and tell your
friends about us. To learn more about our guests, follow
(22:56):
us on Instagram at she pivots the podcast line up
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talk to You Next Week Special thanks to the she
pivots team, Executive producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate producer and
social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson, Events
(23:21):
and logistics coordinator Madeline Snovak, and audio editor and mixer
Nina pollock I endorse she Pivots.
Welcome back to she Pivots. I'm Shazi Vistrom.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Welcome to she Pivots, the podcast where we talk with
women who dared to pivot out of one career and
into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted
these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. Today we
have a truly inspiring guest who's revolutionized the way we
(00:35):
think about children's nutrition and wellness. Shazi Visram is the
founder of both Happy Family and Healthy Baby. You know
those puffs that you see all over every playground. The
premise of this show is to share the stories of
how our personal lives influence our professional lives, and Shazi's
is one that is all too familiar to many people.
She felt the pressures of the Sandwich generation. At the
(00:58):
height of her company's success, her son was diagnosed with autism,
while at the same time, her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
Before she knew it, she was juggling doctors and therapists
with business meetings and high profile commercials. It all became
too much, so she made the decision to sell her company,
a decision she's not sure she's fully at peace with.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
To this day.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
But in that doubt came a new idea, a new
way of thinking about baby products, and a drive to
do more. Shazi threw herself into researching anything and everything
she could about autism and how to help her baby boy,
who she felt like she was losing. Determined and dedicated,
Shazi's first major pivot happened. She decided to sell the
(01:40):
company so she could afford to care for her son.
With a new drive, Shazi was determined to create a
business that holistically addressed a baby's wellness. Having sold her
company to Denne, a food brand, her options were limited,
so she made her second major pivot. She started an
entirely new company, Healthy Baby, this time to make products
(02:02):
like diapers and formula and more to make sure that
babies are healthy right from birth. Her story is deeply
personal and a testament to how the most difficult and
personal parts of our lives impact our professional decision making.
So get ready to be inspired as we dive into
the incredible journey of Shazi Visram, from the challenges she
faced to the triumph she achieved and the future she
(02:25):
envisions for children's health and nutrition.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Enjoy I'm Shazi. I am a reluctant, serial entrepreneur and
a mom of two and a fighter.
Speaker 3 (02:40):
Amazing, Okay, perfect.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
I can't wait to get into all of those definitions
of you that reluctant, but I just want to back
up so we can set the scene a little bit
that you were born in Canada, y Toronto, and your
parents had a convenience store there.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Right, Yeah, well they've actually so when we moved Toronto.
My dad was from Tanzania and my mom was from Pakistan.
My mom was actually one of the first women in
all of Pakistan that was was like a doctor, but
as they moved around, she was like a bedpan changing
nurse at maximum and my dad was very, very charming,
so the whole thing was really interesting. So they had
(03:19):
an arrangementge moved to London. My brother was were there
and they worked above my dad's brother's convenience store. I
lived above it. And then when they moved to Toronto,
they both well, my mom was a nurse but quickly
got tired of the bedpans and she used to deliver babies,
and you know, she was a doctor now and so
(03:40):
and then my dad never really went to third grade,
but he had a photographic memory, and then they saved
up enough money because in their mind, unless you work
for yourself, there's it's like you don't own your life.
And so they bought this convenience store, and then that's where, yeah,
I think that's when like my mom started learning how
(04:00):
to be a business person. But yeah, they told me
that people would come into the convenience store and that
every once in a while they'd meet Americans, and that
they just like love. They just wanted to be in America.
Speaker 2 (04:11):
Soon they realized that dream when they moved down to Alabama,
of all places.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
They bought the motel from a guy I think his
name was Amin Kimani, and he was from the same
village as my dad grew up in Africa, and he
had come to the States much earlier and he had
a bunch of motels and he was in Orlando. So
we drove down, I remember very clearly, contact Lea Mountains, like,
we drove down to Orlando, my brother and I played,
(04:40):
and they sold my mom and had a motel. But
the hotel was in Alabama, outside of Birmingham. So we
drove back up to Toronto and packed up our meager
belongings and then drove back down to Birmingham to live
in the hotel. And I think it was supposed to
be like a Ramada in or some franchise. And I
was three, but I remember the day we got there,
(05:00):
like nobody had told my parents so that it didn't
have like passed all the compliance to keep the sign
and they were like taking the sign off.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
But it was home for Shasi. And despite the grid
of motel life, it was the people who made it special.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
The staff is like your community. I remember this guy Angelo,
and Angelo was like so cool. And there's this woman Geraldine.
She was a housekeeper and she was like a woman
who had I think her mother or grandmother had been
an actual slave. Well there's this cook, Randy Crowder. He
was funny. I mean, think of like the South in
(05:37):
the eighties, like the characters it was. It's like, I
think of it as like Confederacy of Duncis you know
that book. It's like Sandy the bartender and Sue the
lady who did the night shift. I don't know, and
your kid, you don't think you're poor, you think you
have one hundred and four rooms.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
Despite the quirkiness of the life her parents had made
for them, they knew they wanted to send their kids
to private school, and of course the only private schools
in southern Alabama were Christian schools.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
My parents like, the one thing that they were adamant
about is that I go to a private school. They
didn't know anything about anything, barely speak English, but you
have to go to private school. So first through third
grade I went to a Catholic school. I had a
Catholic uniform and that was interesting, so I learned all
about Catholicism. Really interesting teachers, two nuns, one woman named
(06:28):
Lydia Locker. Like the formative years, I loved learning. I
loved reading. She would read us The Lion, the Witch,
and the Wardrobe. I read all seven like quick. I
was so into it. And then the next year that
was third grade, then fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, I
went to another private school, but it was a Baptist school,
Southern Baptist. At that one. I asked them if we
(06:49):
could read the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and
they said no, that's like the devil's work. And then
also every day at school, someone would tell me that
I was going in help so but I would be
like Mummy and my friend Robin says that that no
matter what I do, I'm always going to go to
help because we're not Christian, so it doesn't really matter
(07:11):
whatever we do, we're going to go to help, you know,
unless I accept the Lord Jesus into our life as
my savior. And then I remember my dad was the
one who really said like he had a cool way,
always like, I mean, this is a guy who did
not go to school, Chelsea, there are different ways to
get where you're going. If one religion is one way,
(07:31):
another is another, don't worry, do your thing. And it
was always like that, and he would always always like
super cool wisdom. And so I think of different religions
as vehicle to get somewhere. But I ended up writing
my college essay on on that. So I think, if anything,
it got me into Columbia.
Speaker 3 (07:48):
Right, which is pretty good.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
Next by the time I got to Columbia, I just
wanted to be an artist, which you know, clearly I'm
a world renowned modern artist, but.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Look at it, I'm sure I do. I think that backgrounds,
whether it's liberal arts or visual arts or forming arts,
really does change the way you see the world.
Speaker 1 (08:06):
Fully, I actually use that all the time. Happy when
I was saying, how baby should have the best first
experience of food in their life. It's like a liberal
arts education and develop a palette. And you did go
on to study visual arts in undergrad Why art? Well,
I thought I loved history, I always have. I think
it's just so interesting to hear stories of the past
(08:28):
and see where things could have been better or different.
Learn And then it seemed to me like it would
give me something to paint about. So I kind of
thought they were my dual degree, but I didn't take
it further than that, although like my parents were so
my mom especially so transactional. Everything's like such a transaction,
and I think that really confused the hell out of them.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
I mean, honestly, to major at art, I feel almost
feels like a rebellion.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
Well, I was a little rebellious. Well, I just had
a distaste for business because I thought it was transactional
and he thought it was gross. So I didn't like
the idea of it. But then somehow it happened to
me where I realized, actually, I'm really good at business.
I could approach it differently with the idea that whatever
(09:12):
I do, I'm going to like leave the table better
for everyone at the table, and it's creative. And so
then I decided that like, actually building a brand is
a crazy creative building a business a culture where people
are focused on achieving something meaningful, it's like a living,
breathing work of art. And I love that. So I
(09:33):
got over my hatred of business.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
Before Shazi knew it, she was studying at Columbia Business
School and looking for the right thing that would become
her living, breathing work of art. After the break, Shazi
shares what inspired her to launch her company in the
middle of her MBA program and what led to her
biggest pivot yet.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
You know, given the weight of what I had on
my shoulders for my parents, I realized that I wasn't
going to be a painter. And I kept thinking, like,
what what can I do that I feel really good about?
And I thought, let me get some tools in my toolbox.
When I have the thing, I don't know how to
do the thing big. And I had a friend who
had twins and she was literally crying about how not
(10:21):
she didn't have the bandwidth the ability to make their
food fresh at home, and she really wanted to from
the farmer's market, and she felt so guilty for feeding them.
You know, this very processed food wasn't even organic, and
I just thought, Wow, I get it. If you start
live healthy, you have a better chance of ending life healthier. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I mean, that's super interesting that you went all in
from somebody else's experience that you saw. Like, I feel
like a lot of the times when people feel so
sure about the thing that they're founding is because they
lived the problem.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
Yeah. That's my second company, but my first one was
based on insight, and I think being in the environment
of that like business school environment, I'm like the weirdo
who's like and I'm an entrepreneur to start something new.
They and at the time, entrepreneurship wasn't cool, like now
it is so cool.
Speaker 4 (11:08):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
No, I just had the idea and started like making
it happen. I'm really good at visualizing things.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
At the start, Shazi was cooking, packing, and shipping everything
on her own. She began to hit her stride and
business was booming nationally.
Speaker 5 (11:23):
In that first year thanks to Whole Foods, but sales
of about one hundred and sixteen thousand dollars were below projections.
The first pivot into cereals called Happy Bellies, then a
puff snack that was the.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
First ever organic puff snack for babies.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
And then yogurt Snacks. Annual sales went to just shy
of seven million.
Speaker 4 (11:43):
What I usually don't tell people about Skyler is that
he's a picky eater. There is a few things hilly
and one of the brands he actually likes is Happy Baby.
He loves their Happy tat Tddlerville And if you look,
he's feeding it to himself, right Skyler.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
Yeah, and n.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Everything seemed to be going perfectly as Happy Baby, now
renamed a Happy Family, was steadily growing, so was her family.
Shazi had her first son in twenty ten, but when
he was two everything changed.
Speaker 1 (12:17):
Well, So I started working on it in two thousand
and three, launched Mother's Day two thousand and six. My
son was born twenty ten. April twenty twelve. We broke
even April twenty twelve, I got an autism diagnosis. He
just turned two. And I mean, like even around eighteen months,
(12:37):
Joe and I would be like, oh my god, it's
amous on fire. He's doing everything faster than all the milestones.
You know, your competitive like it's dumb, Like it's so dumb.
When when you know, parents want their babies to walk
before they're ready to. It's actually better to develop your
brain health to crawl on the floor and bilaterally move
(12:58):
your body organized as your brain. But like you know,
with dad's want their babies to put and see, he
was doing all that stuff. I mean it's like seven
months old. He was, you know, like cruising and he
was everything seemed so great and he's so cute. Yeah,
like he had milestones that you know you'd know them.
Like he was talking and he was dancing, and he
was like so connected and then all of a sudden,
(13:21):
it was like he was in his own world. The
eye contact was gone. He wasn't pointing at the moon
and showing us things and you know, that shared experience.
He wasn't. The words went away. I mean he used
to used to look at a piece of popcorn and
say that octopus. That's creative, you know, and then all
of a sudden it was gone. So it felt very
and then as something sometimes all of a sudden means
(13:43):
like you put your attention to it. Because I was busy,
and I spent most of my time with him at night,
you know, because I was working, like twelve fourteen hours
I had come home and like the time I spent
with him was like sleeping with him at night, breastfeeding
and like being with him and so and it's not
like I ever took him to a playdate. So maybe,
you know, maybe part of it was me not seeing
how the other babies were. But then I was so
(14:04):
confident in myself and you know, I'm the CEO and
founder of an organic baby food company, Like, how on
earth could anything be wrong with my baby? It just
rocked my world. It was a very drastic change. It
wasn't like, oh, I suspected something was wrong, and then
it happened so quickly, and the change was so dramatic,
and I just felt like I was losing him very quickly.
(14:26):
And so that year, actually Sane was diagnosed with autism,
I sold the company, and my dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.
This was like a shit sandwich. And well say, they
say our generation is a sandwich generation, so I always
say mine, it's kind of like a shit sandwich.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
The sandwich generation. The catch twenty two of caregiving, and
Shazi was stuck right in the middle while she was
dealing with the challenges and stress of caring for her
beloved father and beautiful son. She was also experiencing some
of her biggest success with Happy Baby, from increased sales
to free commercials.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Well, I mean, American Express would give us like free commercials,
like on the super Bowl super Bowl pregame, they would
show a commercial of me holding Zane up as a
baby and time and how we're changing the world. It
was awesome. Everything was on fire, but my kid was
gone and he was leaving me. I just I felt like,
and I love him so much, and he's so beautiful,
I know how, you know, like your firstborn son. I mean,
(15:26):
he's like my little god, you know. And yeah, and
I just thought, okay, I just I need to get
some money so we can help them. Everyone saying, well,
there's this window and if you don't you know, early childhood,
any diagnosis that is developmental, there's this window of birth
to three where you can actually jump in and start
(15:48):
making massive difference.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
With all kinds of therapies.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
They're you know what, they're very expensive. And I just thought,
I just I couldn't imagine like keeping the company and
doing that, so I just I sold the company, which
was I guess I could say I regret it, but
it made me here today.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
So you know, she sold to Denone, but it wasn't
easy handing over her company, especially when she was finally
starting to realize how much of an impact she could
have for future mothers and families beyond just baby food.
When we come back, Shasi talks about how her research
on autism and neurological health led to her pivot.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
And then with autism, I learned so much about what
we can do from a neurological health standpoint, from the
early days prepregnancy, pregnancy, the first three years of life.
That's not just about food alone. And so then all
of a sudden, I learn all of these things and
I have my daughter IVF for three years, the whole
nine you know, anti inflammatory diet like you name it,
(16:55):
I've learned it the hard way, and I steroids like
you everything to have a healthy baby and work with
a Neurological Health Foundation's chief science officer, we developed like
a prenatal regime for me which is now actually our
prenatal at Healthy Baby. And then that happened and I
have a baby, and you know, I kind of feel
like I lost one and say zaying my son is
(17:16):
just radically beautiful and inspiring and like, but it's really hard.
And then new autism rate is one in thirty six.
It's like two thousand and eighteen. It was one in
sixty eight, then twenty twenty. I think he went to
one in fifty nine, then one in forty four, and
then in April one in thirty six. It's crazy. And
so then you sit there and you're like watching this
(17:39):
living it. You found your own solutions, and they wanted
to bring that into happy and do all these other things,
but Danon only sells food. Yeah, I mean, I think
having a child with autism and like recognizing the beauty
of the way his brain works, but then also really
desperately wanting him to be able to share his gifts
with the world is what led me to start Healthy Baby,
(18:01):
because it's everything I knew would actually or could actually
make a difference from preconception prenatal and then like the
years in diapering, the years in diapering are like insane,
like your baby's making over a million neural connections a second.
Speaker 2 (18:16):
Already having the experience of building a successful baby company
under her belt, Shasi approached this new idea with even
more vivacity. This time it was personal and she was
committed to creating a company and products that prioritized healthy babies.
So in twenty twenty one, she launched Healthy Baby First
with a revolutionary new diaper.
Speaker 1 (18:38):
It's the only EWG verified diaper. It's only new one
that's made according to a standard that is safe for
human health. It's the only one in the world and
everybody likes. There's so many brands that just confuse parents,
and I'm so anti that because we have enough stress
as it is. You just don't need to feel convinced
or also like the alarmist. But at the same token,
(18:58):
don't you want to know what you're buying. I mean,
in America there's just not that much regulation, but in
Europe they have a lot of regulation of these. They
found formaldehyde in most.
Speaker 3 (19:08):
Diapers, but you did something about it.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
That's the thing, Like I you know, I think when
life gives you those moments where it's either you like,
sit down cry and then don't get out of bed,
or you sit down, cry, don't get out of bed
for a couple of years, formulate a plan and say,
like I'm going to channel this into something beautiful and
creative because otherwise I'm wasting this experience because I know
(19:33):
I can help other people, and like you're kind of
I don't. Personally, I feel it is my duty and
if I didn't do it, then what else missos to do?
Speaker 3 (19:41):
Well? What are you excited about with Healthy Baby?
Speaker 1 (19:44):
I'm really excited that Healthy Baby launched at Target. The
D two C experience of Healthy Baby is really special though.
You get personalized agent stage developmental information with every box
of diapers and all the other ancillary things you get,
so like one shampoo concentrate makes two hundred bottles, two
hundred bath times of shampoo and a stainless steel bottle,
(20:04):
So like, I really kind of I'm proud of that experience.
But then it's so fun to see us at Target,
where like they really have embraced the authenticity of the mission.
Our prenatal vitamin is the most it's by trimester preconception
from mister one, two, three, and four, but it's the
most comprehensive in the world. And I know when someone
takes it, they and their baby will come out way
(20:27):
healthier because it's that good.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
Is there something at some point that you thought, h like,
this is really this is really a low point for me.
I don't know that I can get out of this,
and now you view it as having really launched you
into the success that you've become.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
I mean I've mentioned a number of my low points.
I mentioned one time that I didn't have enough money
on my credit cards to buy a swipe on the subway.
I mean, you know, I think I think the lowest
point I've ever had was trying to understand what was
going on with my son. I weighed eighty eight pounds,
was flying out, yeah, and I felt like a failure.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
And then how do you think it changed her perspective
to launch you into the person who are now?
Speaker 4 (21:11):
Well?
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I think you need to be inspired to protect others
who don't have a voice, and it happens to your
child and their voice is gone, but you know they're brilliant.
I'll do anything to hear his voice. And then it's
happening to so many other people, and then I'm creative, so.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
I can't help it.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
I have all these really good ideas and nobody like
from a business standpoint, I don't. None of the other
baby brands like they're great, wonderful. There's some really beautiful
brands really, you know, authentic founders, and there are a
lot that are all that are not authentic, and it's
just about making money. And I just I feel like
I know I can make something better. That's it.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Thank you so much for coming. I loved having her.
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (21:49):
That's my pleasure.
Speaker 3 (21:50):
I love meeting. It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
Shazi lives on the East Coast with her husband, son,
and daughter, and it's continuing her mission to dis up
to the baby industry and provide products that prioritize the
health of the mom and the baby. Before we close
out this episode, I want to let you know that
after this amazing interview with Shazi, I became a proud
investor of Healthy Baby. As a mom, peace of mind
(22:15):
is everything, and I believe in the mission and the
product Shazi is making and Shazi's leadership. I feel so
lucky that through this show, I'm able to invest in
another amazing woman owned brand like Shazi's, and then I
get to do my small part to help these women
embrace their pivots to shop. Visit healthybaby dot com and
find her products and target. That's all for now. Talk
(22:36):
to you next week. Thanks for listening to this episode
of she Pivots. If you made it this far, you're
a true pivoter, so thanks for being part of this community.
I hope you enjoyed this episode, and if you did
leave us a rating, please be nice and tell your
friends about us. To learn more about our guests, follow
(22:56):
us on Instagram at she pivots the podcast line up
for our newsletter where you can get exclusive behind the
scenes content, or on our website, she Pivots the podcast
talk to You Next Week Special thanks to the she
pivots team, Executive producer Emily eda Velosik, Associate producer and
social media connoisseur Hannah Cousins, Research director Christine Dickinson, Events
(23:21):
and logistics coordinator Madeline Snovak, and audio editor and mixer
Nina pollock I endorse she Pivots.
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