Hey, guys. Blaine from DTCPod here. And I've got something you're gonna like. Keeping up your momentum this year starts with the right selling tools. And if you're looking to increase revenue, grow faster, build more pipeline, and close more deals, check out the all new sales hub from HubSpot. You'll be able to manage your whole sales process. Plus, my favorite part, the reporting. It's super intuitive, powerful and customizable.

Plus, the whole thing is powered by AI, so your teams can spend less time on tedious, time consuming stuff and more time on developing relationships. Also, no one likes a clunky platform that takes months to onboard onto. But getting set up on Saleshub is really quick and easy. It's free to get started. The pricing will scale with your business, and with more than 1300 integrations and add ons, you can tune it to your exact needs. Visit HubSpot.com sales to start selling with sales hub. What is up, DTC pod? Welcome to today's episode. Episode where we have the pleasure of speaking with the founder and CEO of Sweet Laurens, Lauren Castle.

So, Lauren, I'll let you kick us off. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself, the brand that you've built, and then we can get into all the nitty gritty.

So I'm Lauren. I started the company over ten years ago. So this is not, you know, it's that ten year overnight success story of, really, blood, sweat and tears, but also an amazing ride. And I'm from New York City. I started the business in New York City, but I actually moved to Los Angeles two weeks before COVID hit. So I've been in LA for the last four years. I then got married and now have two little girls. So my life has just changed even more over the last four years.

And I started the business really out of a personal need. I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma when I was 2022, which was devastating. It was two months after I graduated college, so I was really feeling on top of the world, ready for anything. Pretty invincible, as any 22 year old feels. And woke up one morning, the lymph nodes in my neck were really swollen. Went to the doctor, was diagnosed with this type of cancer, and had to go through chemo for six months. And all the testing that had to go around that, you know, that was really what inspired me to start sweet laurens, because I started to realize how precious life was, how important health is. Like, it's everything.

If we don't have our health. We have nothing. And how much food played such an important role in my mental and physical and emotional well being. Like, I just was happier when I was eating delicious food. My body felt stronger when it was eating more nutritious food. And, you know, we eat multiple times a day. Just, I realized it's the fuel to us as human beings. And so food became much more than just food for me.

It was like, how do I make this the most delicious, enjoyable, make every cell in my body, you know, happy and inspired and at the same time, you know, nutrients into myself to give myself the strength mentally and physically, to not only overcome this cancer, but, you know, just live a thriving, healthy life for the rest of my life. So I started, I have a huge sweet tooth. I've always had a huge sweet tooth. And there just was nothing in the market that was delicious and made of really natural ingredients. And it really pissed me off because I also wasn't. I was in New York City, and, you know, if it's not in New York, it's probably doesn't exist, you know, so I. I just couldn't believe it. There were so many delicious bakeries, but there was nothing really rooted in better for you, less processed.

So I started studying nutrition and take cooking classes, and I just kept learning about less processed real food, whole food ingredients, better quality oils, better quality salts, better quality flowers, things like that. And just. I mean, it took hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tries, but I finally got to a chocolate chip cookie recipe that I thought was the best I'd ever had. And then my sister thought it was the best she ever had, and friends and family kind of fell in love with it. And that was kind of the aha of, like, everyone I give this to loves this. It's not just me. I think everyone is looking for a healthier way to satisfy their sweet tooth. And, you know, I think the world would love this.

And so that's what really kind of inspired me to start sweet Laurens.