Episode 188: Overcoming Challenges, Inventions & Shark Tank: Tiffany Krumins' Incredible Story

Tiffany Krumins entrepreneurial journey started 14 years ago, on the pilot episode of ABC's hit show Shark Tank. She pitched her first invention, Ava the Elephant. It was an idea she created while working as a caregiver for children with special needs. She received an investment from Barbara Corcoran and went on to build a much-loved brand.

Tiffany experienced some incredible HIGHS (being interviewed alongside investor Barbara Corcoran on Dr. Oz, GMA, Today show) and countless lows (70k lost on a retail deal, cancer diagnosis and devastating losses). She grew the business as far as she possibly could and it was acquired 7 years in.

Shortly after her Shark Tank filming she was diagnosed with cancer, at 27. She had surgery and treatments for 3 years and is now cancer free. The type of radiation she had was ingested and was so strong she had to wear rubber gloves when removing the pill from the vial, but then had to eat it. Tiffany was isolated from anything living for 7 days at a time because she was so radioactive.

These treatments wreaked havoc on her digestion and she started learning more about prebiotics & probiotics.

She eventually found a strain that worked best for her, but hated the delivery methods on the market - gummies, pills, chalky powders that had to be mixed in a beverage and juices.

Using what she learned through her first business, she set out to find a factory in the U.S. and started the development of 'Opu Probiotics. An INSTANT DISSOLVE pre + probiotic blend that comes in delicious MINT or MOCHA flavors! Not only is ‘Opu manufactured in the U.S., but their packaging is as well! Tiffany has been building this new company with her 68 year old Dad, a U.S. veteran. ’Opu Probiotics supports young adults with disabilities through hiring participants through their community partner, Lionheart WORKS!

Here's what I cover with Tiffany Krumins in this episode:

1. How did Tiffany Krumins survive cancer, start a business, and become an inspiring entrepreneur?
2. What is the incredible story behind Tiffany’s invention of Ava the Elephant?
3. How did Tiffany Krumins’ struggles with learning challenges lead her to discover her true potential?

You can find Tiffany on LinkedIn and check out OPU’s Website.

Remarkable Quote:

“My father had been an entrepreneur for 35 years after working in the Marines. He’s also very health-conscious. He’s always had a great diet and is very healthy, so we basically decided to go into business together on Opu Probiotics.”

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Transcription:

Welcome back to your next stop. This is Juliet Hahn. In this episode, I speak with Tiffany Krumins. She is an inventor, keynote speaker, survivor, mom of four, and was on the first Shark Tank was on the pilot episode of Shark Tank with her product Ava the Elephant. The story behind how she created Ava is so beautiful. Within that time, her and Barbara, when she won partnered and she was diagnosed with cancer, she had her first child. She had a business that was booming and was diagnosed with cancer at the age of 27. So we really get into the story, how that looked, where she is now with her new invention, which is called Opu Probiotics. Wait to hear the story behind how she decided to come up with this. And it's opu probiotics. You can find them all over the web at get opu. But you can also find them on their website, which is Opuopu Probiotics. You can also find Tiffany on her website, which is Tiffany, and Crummons is Krumins.com. You can find her on LinkedIn. That's where she hangs out the most. If you are interested in trying Opu Probiotics, because really there's so much interesting things. As you listen to this episode, you're going to be like, wait, I need to try this. You can get a discount with the code Your Next Stop. So you guys are really going to enjoy this episode. Also, if you have not heard, I am a storytelling consultant. I help people be able to take their story, connect the dots, to be able to connect deeper with people. There's a lot of parts of people's stories that they don't think are really significant until we dive in and really talk about it and really realize how that part of your story is connect with a deeper audience. So if you want more information, if you want a 30 minutes free consultation, you can reach out to me at info at Juliet Hahn. I am Juliet Hahn. Again, that's [email protected]. Enjoy this episode with Tiffany. Welcome back to your next stop. You guys know I say this every time. I'm so excited to bring you stories of people that have followed a passion and turned it into a business. And I want to introduce you to Tiffany crewmans. How are you?

I'm doing well. Just got my little guy to sleep because I recorded a podcast about an hour before you and was like, hoping that he would go to sleep because this was not one that I could have him jumping on me. That one. He was flushing toilets and playing the piano while I was recording.

Oh, my gosh. Well, this is what I love about this so much. So Tiffany is an inventor. You were on the first Shark Tank with Ava the Elephant, which I totally remember, which I love. You also are a keynote speaker. You're a survivor of cancer, and you're a mom of four like I am. I love this. And so right now you have a new product called Opu, which we're going to get into, but I would love for you just to give a little background of who you are, where you grew up, if you went to university, and then we'll get into the rest of the story.

So I grew up here in Georgia as part of a military family. My dad was in the US. Marine Corps and he became an entrepreneur when he came out of the military. And that's kind of, I guess, what inspired me. I didn't realize it at the time, but we grew up very poor because he came out of the military without any degree or any kind of clear path in life. It's much different now. People leave with great degrees and great purpose. Then it was more like you're done, and there wasn't a lot of advice on what to do. So he started a business, grew up here, not wanting for much, even though we didn't have that much. We had a lot of love in our family. So that part of my life was fantastic. And then I did not go to college, actually struggled terribly in school with some learning challenges of my own. I still struggle with and fell into this role of being a caregiver for children with special needs. Fell in love with the community of people and found my place in the world. And while I was working with one of them, he had a really hard time taking medication. His name is Gibby. He's still in my life today. He's like this tall now.

I love it.

And one night I went home. I just had this light bulb moment of he really struggled with medicine. I'm talking like, we'd have to restrain him and hold him down to give him Tylenol or just simple things. And it was the connection with that dropper. He was fearful of that dropper. If he saw it come out, he'd run the other way. And so I made this little elephant. I tried to hide it with a stuffed animal. Basically, I wanted a face on it versus the dropper. And I put the insides of a recordable greeting card on the back of it because I wanted it to have a voice. So I recorded a voice on it and stuck it on. And there was no intention to have a product. Shark Tank didn't exist at the time. People weren't even really talking about entrepreneurship then. It wasn't a thing. And I used it on him the next day. It worked like a charm. He went from terrified to, okay, I don't see the dropper anymore and this talks and it's cute. I'll take my medicine. And I sat on that for months. We used that little cloth version. It was made out of sponges and fabric, and we washed it and used it. And then a friend that knew the story of how that had worked for him, sent me a Craigslist ad, of all things. They were casting for Shark Tank, which didn't have a name at the time. It was the pilot. And it said, do you have the next million dollar idea? Are you sitting on a big idea? And I was like, maybe I do. And I knew that a lot of kids struggle with medication, not just children with special needs. And so I sent a video, the VHS tape at the time, I think it was yeah, it was VHS tape. And so I just had to record myself at home. I told the story, I shared the prototype, mailed it off, come to find out later. Mark Burnett, who is the executive producer of the show, he worked as a nanny when he first moved to the States. That was his job, one of his jobs he had. And he saw the video as part of that initial casting because it was very small then and was like, if they don't give her the money, I will. And so, needless to say, I got in with the show, was on that pilot episode, and my entire life path completely changed, which is so amazing.

And I love there's so many correlations. I know for I mean, I want to say years, people have said to me, you have to have Tiffany on, you have to have Tiffany on. And we connected. And then we just never really lined up because we're both obviously busy. But one of the things that I love so much, my dad was in the military. I am dyslexic that's like one of my things. So I really struggled in school. I hated school. However, I played two sports, so I went the path. I got into college because of my athletics, but that's where my whole world changed, because I then went into communications, and that's where I was like, oh my gosh, I am smart. And stories and the way because I always could communicate with people when people know my story, it was really when teachers and I spoke, they were like, oh, my God, this is going to be great. You're so intuitive. You have all this knowledge. And then I would have to do a paper or test, and they were like, you're not trying. What's wrong with you?

It gives me chills. You saying that because you lived such a big chunk of your life thinking you're stupid, even if people didn't directly tell you. I thought I was terrible at everything that was intellectual. And come to find out, it wasn't until I was 35, almost 40 years old, that I went, wait a minute, I got something pretty special here. I'm okay. I'm not that way, but I'm okay.

And that's what's so important. And that's why one of the reasons why I do this podcast so much is because of stories connect us. They really, really connect us. And just that little bit that you just told us and about how you had a creative mind. And so you also thought, how can I help this little boy make things a little bit easier? And the fact that in your VHS tape that you were the nanny part, that's what connected you to the gentleman, that was like, if they don't fund her, I'm going to. And it was just one little thing.

Pieces. Yeah. And it's crazy to me because I never would have thought I'd do the things that I've done now. Like I said, barely graduated high school. So to be in this position now, to go and speak at schools and talk about my strong suit, which is creativity and that being my biggest strong suit, is kind of a pinch me thing. It's like, okay, I'll just run with that the rest of my life. That's okay.

Right? And that's the thing. My oldest is Dyslexic. My dad's Dyslexic. My sister's dyslexic we have a very long history of Dyslexia. So I was very fortunate they didn't know that that's what I had when I was growing up, because they didn't put labels on that until later.

But it was like, do you know Barbara's Dyslexic, too?

I don't think I knew that. Yeah. You know what? I might have, now that you just said that. Now that I said no. But then I was like, Wait a second. I do kind of think I did.

Know that she had nuns. Tell her she was stupid in her Catholic school and really bothered her, too, for many years.

Yeah. My dad this is crazy. My dad's brother was and I'm going to get it wrong, but he basically went to Harvard and Yale. He's an attorney. Brilliant man. And then my dad was so dyslexic that they wouldn't even let him into religion class because they said he was stupid. And he went into the military at a young age because he was like, okay, if I'm not going to add up to this, and there's so many different things in education, there's so much that needs to change in education. That's a whole nother story that we could talk about, but it really is. When people say to kids, why aren't you doing that? Right. Kids are not doing that on purpose.

It's up to the parents, too, though, to really hone in on what their kid is good at. I've never put because I'm grateful for my challenges, because it's caused me as a mother to really look at my kids and go, how does this child learn? I don't put any other expectations on them. My oldest daughter's, like, book smart in there making, like, the perfect bubbly handwriting notes. And my other daughter's like me, just spacing around the room while she tells me stuff, and it's okay. I know that's harder in public school because sometimes the teachers can't adjust for that, but that's one of the reasons why I do a home school hybrid. So my kids go two days a week. They're taught by teachers, they're with kids, they're socializing, and then they come home a few days, and that way I can kind of adjust to whatever they need.

I love it, which is so smart. Now, when did you start doing that? Homeschooling, was it?

I didn't start that until actually I did it on and off through my business one other time, but they've been doing it for the past about a year and a half. And I love it. It gives us so much more flexibility. I'm able to take them on field trips and take them on business trips. I just took my son the other day on a trip. So, yeah, it works for us as.

A family anyway, which is so amazing. And that's what I think people need to know, because there was a point in my life I was like, I would love to homeschool them, but I know with how I learn, I'm not a teacher like that.

Well, if I come across one of my children having the same challenges, I will have a hard time because it would be the blind leading the blind. Again, my older two don't have those issues, so if I come across that on my third, I wouldn't be able to be the teacher because it would be both of us bumping heads. You know what's really profound, though, about the whole ADHD and Dyslexia and everything? I never got treated for some of the challenges I had. And I remember I went to a doctor about six months after I started my first business. I was falling apart because I had to do like, the bookkeeping and the founding of the company and all these things that were just so overwhelming to me. And I said, I think I need to get on something for the first time in my life, I'm, like, willing to take medication. He said, do you think you'd have this company and everything you've created up till now if you had been medicated? And I was like, no. And he said, I don't think you should. I mean, the one doctor that says, don't take anxiety medicine and everything else. And I'm so glad and so happy for that doctor because he made me see my value the way I am.

And that's the thing, learning how to and that's why I think it is important. I don't knock medicine. I actually use homeopathy. I have a doctor that I do herbal medicines, which really works for my family. But I always say to people, you have to think what works for you. But I'm the type of person, I don't want to just jump into one thing. I want to look around. I'm curious. I want to see, wait, what are the side effects on there? How is that going to affect me here? What is that going to do? So I think it's really important that everyone does what's good for their family, but really not just kind of be like, okay, this is what's good. But really look and ask questions.

Will it change your personality, or will it take the best parts of you? And what are you trading that for? So for me, it wasn't a fair trade, and I'm so glad that I didn't do that.

And what an amazing doctor. I mean, what an amazing doctor, because that does not always happen. So from there after what was it like when you got on Shark Tank? If you can take us through that.

I was on the pilot episode, which is crazy. It's been 14 years now. They're about to film their 15th, I think, season. I lose track. But because it was the pilot, we had no idea what the show was called. We didn't know who the investors were, which was a blessing for me. I went on completely naive. They handed me five sheets of paper. They said, this is who you're pitching to. And I'm like, okay, I have no idea who these people are. I didn't know who mr. Wonderful was or Barbara or anybody. And they were all in other states and, well, very high achievements and all this, but I knew my space, which was children with special needs. And I loved them so much and I loved this idea so much that I just kind of went on as myself. Walked down that shark tank lined hallway. They opened the elevator and said, stand there and do your pitch. You get one shot. And I hate that saying. The rest is history, because a lot happened since. But it really did change my whole life. It sent me into a path of basically being a product developer, because once I got that investment for Barbara Corcoran, I had to go home and start all of the hard part. Oh, I'm launching an FDA registered medical device. What do you mean? This is just a toy over a dropper. No, it's not. And all the manufacturing side of it and the distribution and the marketing. So I basically took a crash course. Unfortunately, in the middle of that crash course, I was diagnosed with cancer at 27. So I had a new baby at home, my first baby, and had to basically grow my business while battling cancer. And I battled that for about three and a half years before I was finally considered cancer free. And then I have been ever since. So that's very exciting.

I mean, that's amazing. And I mean, yes, the congratulations on that. But if people just stop and think about and this is what people can hear and listen, I think there's two different things. You could hear someone's story and be like, oh, that's great. But if they really listen and really put themselves in your shoes, you're jumping into something completely new, completely over your head. You have a new baby that adds something to that level. Anyways, and then you're diagnosed with cancer at 27 years old.

Yeah, it was a lot you know what, though? In a lot of ways it saved me because had I just been home with a baby and been diagnosed, I might not have had that desire to keep pushing or fight, knowing that I was building this business and I was changing lives, and I had that motivation to keep going. And the best thing that came from it, everybody who ever survived cancer will tell you this is that perspective. It basically made me set the tone for my company from that day forward and what it would take from me and what I would give to this company and what I would not. And so that's why I've always taken my kids, for example, on business trips, there's no apologies if I want to take and of course, there's meetings where it's not appropriate, and I don't. But if I can, I make a memory of it, because I had those moments of sitting there going, am I going to see my little girl have her first crush? Am I going to see her go to kindergarten? I was so scared of all that stuff, right?

And being so young. I mean, really being so young. But we talk about this a lot on the podcast. And I believe in God. But whether you believe in God or the universe, sometimes he has to or she again, whatever you believe in has to yell at you to really be like, okay, this is the path I want, and I'm going to come in hard and loud because you're not getting it. Or I need to give you such a lesson because you're meant to be doing bigger things. And your path helping special needs kids. I mean, Ava the elephant, I totally remember that. I remember being like, oh, my God, that's brilliant. And you were so young at the time, but had such passion and heart behind you. I mean, you really did me so sad, though.

I was, like seven years into that company, running the thick of it, and it was exhausting by that point because it's a single skew product. The margins were tiny. I had a lot of success with the product, don't get me wrong, but it was just so challenging as a single skew product. It needed to grow as a brand. And so when it was acquired seven years in, I got to take a step back. And that was the first time it was really clear to me because I was always like, I want to be back at that nanny job. I want to be working with individuals with special needs. It's what brings me the most joy. It's where I'm happy. And when I wasn't there for those seven years, I thought I'd pretty much failed. I wasn't able to hire any of them, do the things I wanted to do. But now I'm there, it's all come in this giant circle to where I own a much bigger and higher potential company. Shockingly that I'm already doing that with less than a year in. I have an employee, a young adult with autism, on my team, and it's like, okay, now I see the big picture, why I had to go through all of that to get here, and now it makes sense.

But what a beautiful thing. So when you were in that seven years, surviving cancer, raising your kids, how many kids did you have within that seven year span, too, after you were clear?

Okay, two of the four. So then I finally had well, no, just the one in the diagnosis and treatment part. And then I had another one five years in, and then the company was acquired. I took a bit of a pause, and then we've had two children since, and we are done.

I'm exhausted.

You know, with three, it's a lot, right? And I'm old. I'm like I'm about to be 43. So that's not happening. No more new businesses, no new babies.

No, which is amazing. But I love that perspective that you had, that you see the circle, and not everyone believes in it, but I do. We were just sharing a story about one of my children in an injury, and I know there's a bigger reason why this happened at this time. I don't know what it is, but I can feel that it's something big, that there's something that's going to come out of it that's big, whether he just is stronger and better and more rooted in what his passions and purpose are in life, and he's getting protected.

Maybe he goes on a trip with the team and something happens. I mean, you just don't know what that protection is until it happens later. It's very hard to see when you're young. Obviously, a teenager is going to have a hard time grasping it, but sometimes as adults, it is too. Right. I've had so many of those memories in my journey, though. One of them I shared the other day was got on the phone with a producer. She wanted me on a big morning show, and I was telling her I told her about Ava at the time, and it was very brief because I'm just not good at selling my own stuff for some reason, but other people's I am. And then she said, well, do you know any other mom inventors? And I was like, oh, you have to I think it was Amy Baxter of Buzzie to Be. She's also in Atlanta. And I started going on about this lady and her accomplishments and the grants she had received. And so then I don't hear back from this producer, and I'm like, Well, I don't know. And then I see the segment. It was a mom focused segment, and she's on it. She had no clue that I pitched her when she took my spot but she took my spot because I sold her, and I was heartbroken. I was like, what did I do? I'm so stupid. Shut your mouth and talk about your own company. And literally within a day, I got a phone call from ABC to go film with Dr. Oz doing a one on one interview with me, Barbara, and Dr. Oz, and they highlighted our brand and what we were doing, and it was like, okay, if that doesn't give you chills, that that was where I was supposed to be that week. I literally would have missed it. And it was a much bigger opportunity. It wasn't one of six products. It was my own interview that I've used for years. And it wasn't until I really took a step back from that one mentally, it was like, okay, let it go. And then that happened. So you you watch for those moments. They'll get you well.

And that's the thing. And that's why, again, I say all the time, you have to be curious, but you also have to be aware, and don't let life just kind of keep passing you and be fed. Like, if something keeps kind of hitting you in the face or you keep hearing something or you keep getting this.

Feeling there's a reason, right?

And explore it. Don't just sit on it. Okay? Then you sold the business seven years in, and then what happened in kind of that middle span.

So I sold the business. I was a probiotic user already when I sold Ava. The reason I was was because of the treatments I had for cancer. So the type of treatment I had, I had to ingest radiation. So some people get beam radiation where they shoot it into your body. Mine was an edible thing, and it was so strong that I had to wear gloves. I always share the story. It freaks me out even still, to take it out of this vial. It was like this big radiation vial. You had to open it, wear rubber gloves to touch the pill, and then eat it. And I'm like, I'm about to eat this, but I can't touch it. So I had to take that, go into isolation for seven days at a time every time I took it, and it destroyed my digestion. My gut was a mess, and I started learning more about the gut, and I didn't know it was gut health then or any of that. It wasn't, like, a cool thing. It was just I wanted to feel better. And I found a probiotic, a strain of probiotic that worked well for me. It was called vasillus subtillis. And because of my cancer, I started researching everything. Like, once you've had that, you become either very flippant to it, or you become very obsessed. And so I started learning more, like, why does this work for me? What's different about it? And I was using what is now my competitor brand for years. I would order it either through their subscription or I'd go to the store and get it. And after I sold Ava, I took a pause, took a little break, and then it kept kind of, like you said, smacking me in the face, and was like, I can do this better. I want a different delivery. Because this was one where you poured the chalky powder into a cup. You mix it up, and you chug it down, and you get some of it out of the milk, and it just wasn't ideal. It wasn't fast. I couldn't run out the door with it. I didn't like the chewables. And so I searched for a probiotic manufacturer. I found one in my home state of Georgia. I was shocked. A really good one that had been doing it for years.

That's amazing.

We manufactured opu. Well, we actually started the development for Opu about two and a half years ago and hit the market a year ago, and so now my dad and I are actually in this business together. So that's really cool.

I know, and I love that. And tell us how that came about.

Yeah. So my dad was an entrepreneur for 35 years. When he got out of the military, he started a company on his own, like a water testing company that was required by the is still required by the government, and he ran that for 35 years. He didn't close that company until my mom sadly lost her battle with an autoimmune liver disease. And when he closed that again, he's stuck in life going, now what? I've had this business. It wasn't one that could be acquired because of how his contacts were out there. And I wanted to do this. And so we talked about it. Should we do this together? Now? He had to go back to work full time, so he started working for the county, same county he was already connected with and their water treatment stuff. So he's working full time. But we basically decided, let's go into business together on this, because he's also very health conscious. He's always had a great diet and very healthy. And so we went into business together on Opu, and I'm hoping if we do well enough this year, that he can come home and work full time with me, and he might end up doing more like grandpa fun trips with the kids. But we do the marketing and branding stuff together, and we have so much fun. He's constantly calling me with Taglines because we have the same personality. So it's been really cool to do that with my dad, and I hope that we can do it on a bigger scale. But I want to show you really quick what sets ours apart. So, like I said, the other powders were different. This is our mocha flavor. We have mocha and mint.

Okay.

And what you do is you just tear open our packets. And you just pour them directly on your tongue and I won't do the well, I can do the whole thing.

Yeah, do it.

It's always look funny, like, moving around my tongue, but you probably saw some of that going to there. It's a very light and airy powder. It's bacillus of tillis, the one I told you about. That strain is known to be very resilient, so it doesn't die in your stomach acid. It makes it through to your intestines where it needs to be to actually populate and help your health. But ours is instant dissolved. So that's how people take them. They just take those little packets with them when they throw them in their car, their purse or whatever. They can be stored anywhere. And it just leaves behind the taste of mocha or mint.

That's amazing because I am health conscious as well. So I do know some about probiotics. And one of them was that a lot of probiotics, they enter, but because of your acids and everything in your body, they kill it before it actually gets where it's supposed to go. And so there only are certain ones that are strong enough, that are strong enough, that can make it through.

Not even the Cfus. I think that was where I was confused until I met with this factory and learned more. Some people are taking more and more and more. They're like 50 billion, 100 billion. It just keeps going up. Ours has 5 billion in it. And we've had people time after time, come to us and go, I've tried everything. I won't name the other brands, but I've tried all of these and they've not worked for me. Yours is the first that worked for me. And it's because of that specific strain that makes a difference. It's robust and it doesn't die in stomach acid.

I love that. Okay, so a couple of things. I have a thousand questions.

Yeah.

Someone listening saying, okay, well, I have I think I have good, you know, gut health. I go to the bathroom, I don't have issues, and they don't take probiotics. What are the benefits for someone that thinks everything seems fine, I feel healthy, but I'm not a probiotic taker. Why would what should they well, the.

First thing is I would take a step back because most people, unfortunately, don't feel healthy in that sense. More people are constipated or the opposite than you realize. And I know that now by messages, private messages we've received. Sometimes I'll get reviews that just say, I finally and then it's the poop emoji. And they're like laugh things or hands, because people aren't realizing just how they were not regular until this product. And suddenly they're going every day at the same time and they're like, wow, I didn't realize my gut health was out of whack. And so the way I basically put it to people on the daily perspective of probiotics, because you think about it. When your kid has a virus, the doctor says, go get some culture l. And they run to the store and they get some. But they don't think about their gut health in the same sense that they do. Vitamin C, vitamin D, all of these vitamins, they'll take those, they'll take fiber, but they won't take a healthy bacteria that will basically make their gut healthier and improves everything in your body. So it's not just digestion. One of the things that I found just blew my mind. This last Christmas is my whole family is on this except for the baby. Because it's two plus. Our product is two plus. And we went to Disney World and we have, there are six of us, four kids, and me and my husband. And I thought, we're going to be sick. We're going to get something. It's Christmas, it's cold, flu season, it's Disney. We're touching everything. And nobody got sick. Not one of us got sick. And I know we preach that our company and Brand talks a lot about immune health and probiotics, but I was like, that cannot be ignored. The fact that we're on this and none of us got sick is pretty profound. And we've been on probiotics, so we're all regular and we don't get sick very often. We also don't get all the stomach sicknesses that everybody gets most of the time. When you have little kids, somebody's vomiting like once a month, it seems like, or at least my friends, and we knock on wood or knock on sheet rock in this case, don't get all of that. And I think it's because our guts are healthy, right?

Because you focus me if I'm wrong. There are certain people that are just more prone for not having healthy guts. And then some people, everyone has their weak spot, right. Some people have it more. But so it is one of those products that even if you are healthy and you have a healthy gut, you're still going to find the benefits to it.

Yeah, the goal is to have a diet that is rich in pre and probiotics. That is what we want all of our customers to do. But the truth is, Americans just don't. We just don't. Or a lot of people don't. Now that's another thing I think our family is good at because of my cancer diagnosis. We do have a healthier diet. But if you are that person that's and especially even young people, they don't realize like they should be regular and all these things, but they're eating terribly and they're in their twenty s and they're eating McDonald's every day, and they need to have something like that in order to have a healthy gut.

Right. It is one of those things that you don't think about and then you think of a product and the fact that it kind of was one of those things that you needed it because of your cancer. And you were so young. You had just created Ava the elephant. You just sold it, and you were now like, well, were you thinking, like, what's next? Or was it really just one of the things that just kept hitting you in the face?

Again, I was using my competitor for all those years, and I knew product development, and I had that on my mind of how I could build a brand. But it wasn't until I kept thinking about, like, there's got to be a better way. I didn't really love the delivery methods. When I first went and met with that factory, I actually was talking to him about a different kind of juice, like a juice, and then put it in, and then we talked about this instead, like, could we do something that's literally instant? And I was like, okay, yes, this would be even better. So I love that both of my companies started from a real need and that we're not money making ventures to me to start. Yes, of course. This is now this is what I want it to be as a business that sustains my family. But it started only out of me using my competitor and that strain and just wanting to make theirs a bit better.

Right? Oh, my gosh. And I do in the beginning of our episode, I kind of take everyone through where they can find you, but if you can just kind of remind them again, I know on your website, but where can they find Opu?

So it's getopoo.com or opu probiotics and that's opu. All of our socials are get opupro. We also have the other, but it just came out better on Instagram and whatnot. And then LinkedIn, if you're an entrepreneur or someone that likes to connect on that platform, I absolutely love LinkedIn. I think it has been such a valuable tool for all of us. So you can find me on there. It's just my name. My name. So I'd love to connect with you guys there.

Wonderful. And then also you have your website, right, so people can find more about a little bit of your history and everything. Well, I mean, I love this. You're two years in. You said two and a half years in.

Well, no, we started development two and a half years. We just started shipping product this month last year. So we're having our birthday this is our birthday month of Opu. So we're very excited about that.

Oh, my gosh. And I can't wait. I'm excited. Excited to even I was just thinking to myself, I'm pretty regular. My kids are pretty regular. But I was like, I need to dive in a little bit more to see. Really? Yeah.

I'll send you a box for sure. I want you to try something.

Oh, my God, you're so sweet. Well, because the kids are their teens, and as you said, I'm like, I can't control all the time what they eat?

And are they regular? Like, do they even talk to you about it? I think that's another thing, is most.

People well, your boys probably do well, kind of everyone. We're a very open house. We're a very open house. And I'm sure there's times where the kids are like, oh, mom, we don't really care when you go to the bathroom. It is actually a very funny thing, but it's one of those things, again, that you could always it's something that's going to improve it's going to improve your diet. So even if you have a good diet, it's not going to hurt you. It's just going to help even get things better.

And I think people don't think about it for travel. It's a massive thing for travel. If you're going and you're being exposed to bacteria you're not usually exposed to, or you're going on a cruise ship or you're going even on an airplane, and you're being exposed to bacteria from all over the world, the better your gut is prepared for that, the better for you. If you're putting good bacteria in there, even when the bad gets in, it really can't fight it. Can't overtake your gut.

Yes. Well, I just have to say thank you so much for joining Your Next Stop and sharing your story. I'm so glad that we finally connected and I get to hear all the things that you're doing and just keep it up. So you guys, you know what to do. Like rate review. You might be listening to this episode and being like, oh, that was so cool. But someone else needs to hear it. Someone else right now is either in a spot where they are looking to kind of create something themselves, they don't know where to start. You can follow Tiffany on all the things that she's done, but also, someone might right now need some probiotics. They really might need Opu, and this is the perfect time for them to do it. So share this with as many people you can do.

And we can do a code. Let's do oh, yeah, let's do a code. What should we do for a thing? We could do your next stop. Yeah, let's do your next run it all together, all cap so you can write it in. We'll do a discount code, for sure and get them a hefty discount so they can try it.

And I'll even share that in the beginning, too, so people can do that, but that's great. Your next stop. And again, thank you so much for joining.

Absolutely.

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