Episode #96:
Accepting Change with Growth with Gaby Oliva
Have you ever felt stuck in life, struggling with insecurities and self-doubt? Today’s episode will inspire you to embrace change and unlock your true potential. We’re joined by the incredible Gaby Oliva, founder of Natural Remedies, who shares her powerful story of overcoming challenges, accepting change with growth, and building a thriving business from scratch.
Gaby’s journey is a testament to the transformative power of believing in yourself. From battling postpartum depression and skin issues to launching a natural deodorant that took the internet by storm, her story will leave you in awe. She candidly discusses how hitting rock bottom fueled her determination to create something meaningful and help others struggling with similar insecurities.
Get ready to be inspired as Gaby shares the power of accepting change with growth. You’ll learn how authenticity, vulnerability, and intentionality can propel you forward in both business and life. Discover the importance of knowing your worth, facing your fears head-on, and turning your flaws into strengths. This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking to embrace change, grow through adversity, and unlock their full potential.
WHAT YOU’LL DISCOVER
How to turn your insecurities into a source of strength and motivation.
The power of authenticity and vulnerability in building a successful business.
Why believing in yourself is the key to overcoming life’s toughest challenges.
How Gaby set intentional prices that reflect the value and worth of herself and her product.
The importance of embracing change and using it as a catalyst for growth.
How Gaby crowdfunded her business by displaying full authenticity.
Strategies for overcoming personal struggles and embracing change as you grow.
TRANSCRIPT
Gaby: It doesn't matter where you come from or who your past is or how smart you are. You could be smart in different areas. It doesn't have to be reading. It doesn't have to be writing. It doesn't have to be any of that. As long as you know what your flaws are, you fix them, and you create something better for yourself, even though you still struggle with those things daily.
Welcome to Becoming Virtuosa, the podcast that encourages you to become your best virtuosa self. Each week Dr. Susan Crockett goes where the scalpel can't reach, exploring conversations about how to be, heal, love, give, grow, pray, and attune. For the first time ever, she's bringing the personal one on one teaching that she shares with individual patients to you on this broader platform. A weekly source of inspiration and encouragement designed to empower you.
By evolving ourselves as individuals. We influence and transform the world around us. Please help me welcome board certified OB-GYN specializing in minimally invasive GYN surgery, internationally in the top 1% of all GYN robotic surgeons, a certified life coach, and US News top doctor, your host Susan A. Crockett, MD.
Dr. Crockett: Hey y'all. Welcome back to The Dr. Crockett Show. I'm your host, Dr. Susan Crockett, a board-certified OB-GYN in San Antonio, Texas, and I am so glad to welcome my very special guest today. This is Gaby Oliva. Welcome, Gaby.
Gaby: Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
Dr. Crockett: Y'all are going to love this show. Gaby is an entrepreneur and a woman after my own heart. She has a women's product line, and we're going to tell you all about it. It's called Natural Remedies 2022. Her website is naturalremedies2022.com. The reason we brought her on the show is y'all know if you've watched me at all. If you don’t then welcome. We're going to give you the short version, the cliff-notes version really quickly.
Our show is all about going where the scalpel doesn't reach. Even though I'm a robotic surgeon at the peak of my game right now, I do women's surgery. This show is about bringing the conversations about wellness from the office to you through the show. We're all about going whole food, plant-based, talking about natural things, getting rid of toxins and all of that.
This is where Gaby comes in because she has made some incredible products and has an incredible story about entrepreneurialism that is going to lift you up as a woman. Even if you're a man listening, you're going to be so inspired by her story today. We're going to talk about how growth happens and accepting change as we go through growth. We're going to do it around the story of her product line. So, y'all stay tuned. It's going to be a good show. So, Gaby, tell me a little bit about what you brought today and what's going on with this?
Gaby: Well, Dr. Crockett, thank you for having me. This is Natural Remedies. Natural Remedies, an all-natural apothecary line started back in 2022. I started with one product and now I have 11.
Dr. Crockett: What?
Gaby: 11.
Dr. Crockett: Wait, where are the rest of them?
Gaby: I have them, but they're not shown right here. These are the main ones.
Dr. Crockett: This is a teaser. They have to go to the website to see 11.
Gaby: Yeah, they have to go to the website.
Dr. Crockett: Okay, but the one product that started it all, you've got an incredible story about that. Tell us about how this all came to be.
Gaby: Well, let's get into it.
Dr. Crockett: Let's get real.
Gaby: So this is the main product. The Hyper Pigmentation Cream. This is an all-natural deodorant that clears pigmentation all over the body.
Dr. Crockett: That is amazing.
Gaby: But it's a deodorant too though.
Dr. Crockett: It has no additives, no preservatives, no aluminum.
Gaby: Absolutely not. Four ingredients. That's it.
Dr. Crockett: What are the four ingredients?
Gaby: It's arrowroot powder, baking soda, coconut oil, and frankincense oil.
Dr. Crockett: Frankincense. Wow.
Gaby: Frankincense oil is one of the best oils in the world. It was given to Jesus by the three wise men. If Jesus uses it, I'm going to use it too. So my story.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah. What happened?
Gaby: Well, back in 2022, because that's when I started the business, I used a store bought deodorant.
Dr. Crockett: Like we all had like forever. That's just what we were raised on, right?
Gaby: Yeah. I mean, my mom uses it. I use it. So I just continued using it. So I bought this store bought deodorant, and I developed an ugly rash, like a really bad rash.
Dr. Crockett: Under your arms.
Gaby: I started Googling. I went to this like deep black hole, and I found out that I'm having a chemical burn.
Dr. Crockett: Wow.
Gaby: So I'm realizing, okay, what kind of chemicals, right? So I looked back at the ingredients of the deodorant that I bought, and I'm reading all these things that I don't even understand. I'm Googling what this word means and this word means and what does it have and contains. I'm just like, I'm sinking into a deeper hole, and I'm freaking out.
Dr. Crockett: Oh no.
Gaby: So mind you at that time, I didn't have any money. I didn't have any money to go to a dermatologist to go get myself checked.
Dr. Crockett: Wow.
Gaby: I needed to buy another deodorant. At the time, Dr. Crockett, I didn't have any money. Like I didn't have any money to buy another deodorant. Like whatever I had was what I had.
Dr. Crockett: You just had to deal with it.
Gaby: I just had to deal with it.
Dr. Crockett: Even two years ago, there weren't that many other natural choices available and not anywhere near as what there is available today. It's still kind of hard to find.
Gaby: So yeah.
Dr. Crockett: So what happened?
Gaby: So I went on YouTube, I decided to like look up natural deodorants, and I did all these research. The ones we're telling me to make one with cornstarch, and I was like oh, I don't know if I want to use cornstarch underneath my armpit. So I did an alternative, which is arrowroot powder. I made this all natural deodorant because at that point I didn't have any money for a deodorant.
Dr. Crockett: You're like I'm just going to use what I can get in the kitchen.
Gaby: Yes. Everything I had was in the kitchen. So I whipped up my deodorant, and I started using as a deodorant. But mind you, I'm still dealing with this rash underneath my armpit.
Dr. Crockett: Like, can I just interject and say, as a gynecologist, this is something that a lot of women deal with. So we see rash under the armpits, some from a contact dermatitis or chemical reaction like you had. Some is associated with different medical conditions like diabetes or acanthosis nigricans or the hidradenitis. Some women get those infected like acne underneath there. So this is not just something that affects a few women. This is a very broad topic, a very broad problem. So you looked at it and you were like, I got to do something. I'm a little desperate.
Gaby: Yeah. Not only that, I'm already insecure.
Dr. Crockett: You?
Gaby: Yes. I was already insecure because I already had pigmentation on my armpits. I already had low self-esteems about my skin.
Dr. Crockett: That's what we do.
Gaby: I'm already low in my life because I was already going through postpartum and then I get this rash and then I have dark armpits, and I'm just at the point like what can I do? Right. So I'm putting on this deodorant that I made, and little do I know that my armpit is clearing up. The rash is going away.
Dr. Crockett: So not only did it work to like give you the smell protection that you needed.
Gaby: Yeah.
Dr. Crockett: But you noticed that all of a sudden the rash is going away.
Gaby: Yeah. The rash went away. Then like within two weeks I see the pigmentation on my armpits that I've had for years, my entire life, go away too.
Dr. Crockett: So I think this is really fascinating. As a medical doctor who's interested in clean eating and reducing all the chemicals, and like you said, all the words that you can't pronounce, we're trying to get people to pay attention and not eating those things that have those foods in it. But I think there's maybe two different things going on here. Just one is you're removing things that may be causing the reaction in your skin. So you're removing the ingredients that may be irritating. But the other thing is you're feeding your skin whole food plant-based.
Gaby: I know. Right. At the same time.
Dr. Crockett: Which is allowing your body to heal. Some of those plant, we talked about this on the show I think way back with Dr. Miloy. You'll need to go back and look at some of the talks that we did with him. But in those conversations, we talked about how plants have just a plethora of chemicals in them that are helpful to us. Like they're medicines, but not just one medicine. Every plant has their own unique blend of all these medicines in them. We haven't even begun to scratch the surface about how they're good for us.
So this is not like stunning to me that you would have found this in a plant-based product. I think that's really exciting too, though, especially given what you were going through with the not feeling and being down in the dumps and then trying to figure out a way. Then all of a sudden, not only does it make you smell good, but it's starting to reduce because you didn't expect it to make the pigmentation go away.
Gaby: No. That was not what I was wanting. Because I wasn't even worried about it anymore because I thought that was my life. So I made this deodorant, and at the same time, it started clearing up.
Dr. Crockett: Amazing.
Gaby: It cleared up my rash, and it cleared up my armpits at the same time.
Dr. Crockett: That's crazy.
Gaby: That's impressive to me.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah, me too.
Gaby: I was like these natural ingredients did this for me. I need to show the world. I need to let someone know about this because this is unbelievable. Because I know a lot of people suffer with pigmentation their entire life and spend a lot of money on bleaching or whatever the case is, what they're looking for when there could be something all natural that could possibly help them.
Dr. Crockett: Yep. That's a big message.
Gaby: Yeah. So I started with the natural deodorant, and it cleared up my armpits. Then I made a video about it.
Dr. Crockett: You did on YouTube?
Gaby: On TikTok.
Dr. Crockett: On TikTok?
Gaby: Yeah, on TikTok.
Dr. Crockett: Isn't that amazing?
Gaby: So I knew that this product was so good. I believed it in me, you know?
Dr. Crockett: Wait, wait, wait. That's huge, what you just said. That you believed in you.
Gaby: Yeah, I believed in me.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: For the first time in a very long time, I believed in me because at that point in my life when all of this was happening, I was already sad. I was already depressed. I was already going through stuff in my life, you know? I'm just like oh my gosh, I have this rash. Oh my gosh, I have dark armpits. What is my husband going to think of me? Giving all these things that what are people going to think about me? Or just giving myself that ugliness of insecurities, you know? But I'm doing this to myself, right?
But at that moment when I knew that this changed me, changed my armpit, I was like it has to be shared. Wellness has to be shared. So I made a video on TikTok. Remind you, Dr. Crockett, I had no money. I had no money.
Dr. Crockett: You know what? I think that's really an important point here because so many women who could be bringing forth their own ideas think that it has to be you have to spend a whole lot of money on it, or it has to be like just right to be effective. But you're proving all you needed was a camera and access to the internet, right?
Gaby: Yes.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: Because I'm telling you, I'm going to tell you again, I had no money, maybe in the negatives, right? Let's just be honest. Just be honest. Like I had no money, and I made this video. Mind you, the quality of the video, looking back now, it was not the best quality, but it shows me my growth, right?
So I'm making this video, and I'm telling these girls, and it was like 9:30. Because I could tell by the time of when I made that video, it was like around 9:30. I was already almost, I was already about to go to bed. I made this video, and I was just like look, ladies, this deodorant that I'm making helped me clear my armpits. I know that some of you may have insecurities about your armpits and inner thighs or anywhere you have pigmentation. I have something that could possibly help you, and it's all natural and just being vulnerable and talking about my insecurities and showing them my armpits and where I had pigmentation.
Dr. Crockett: You actually put your own armpits.
Gaby: Yeah.
Dr. Crockett: Talking about authenticity and vulnerability. Like that's not the faking it, making it, look how great I am.
Gaby: No.
Dr. Crockett: That is the like I am down in the ditches clawing and scratching and look at where I am and what I'm working on. This is me.
Gaby: I'm telling you before and after my pigmentation, I would always wear little jackets. I would always turn off the lights during intimacy because I never wanted my husband to see me down there because I was insecure.
Dr. Crockett: Wow, wow.
Gaby: I would never put my hair in a ponytail because I was worried about what my people thought about my neck.
Dr. Crockett: Wow.
Gaby: Okay. I did go to dermatologists and doctors, and they said it was an insulin-resistant problem. If my family has it, I have it.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: I didn't want to be a statistic. I wanted to change something. Yeah. You know, I wanted something more for myself. So within reaching that, I had to go through something in my life to build that fire in me to show others.
Dr. Crockett: There you go.
Gaby: That there is something out there that's natural that helped me.
Dr. Crockett: The point at which you were kind of desperate where this came about was what drove you to be like okay, I'm brave enough to make the change and think that I could do something. That's what gave you the courage to get on the TikTok?
Gaby: Well, yes, because I know that there's millions and millions of people that suffer from this.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah. This is me saying the TikTok like I'm older.
Gaby: Yeah. It's just TikTok. It's just TikTok.
Dr. Crockett: It's just TikTok. Yeah. But that's what gave you the courage. So you made that video.
Gaby: So I made the video, and I was like look, ladies and gentlemen, I don't have the money. I'm telling this in my video. I don't have the money to make this for you. But if you go here and you pay here, give me eight to nine days.
Dr. Crockett: So you asked them to prepay for the order.
Gaby: Yes.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: Telling them I didn't have any money, telling them I didn't have none of the product and to give me eight to nine days to make it for you as a pre-order.
Dr. Crockett: Wow.
Gaby: Fell asleep. I woke up to a thousand orders.
Dr. Crockett: Oh my gosh.
Gaby: A thousand orders.
Dr. Crockett: Gaby, that brings tears to my eyes that they trusted you, but then you also followed through with it.
Gaby: Of course. Of course.
Dr. Crockett: But a thousand orders overnight. So you basically crowdfunded the start of your business with your authenticity and a product that you believed in, and that people bought into also.
Gaby: Yeah. I mean, I wasn't expecting that, but like you said, the authenticity was outreaching because I think they understood me from a different level.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: You know what I mean? Like, man, this woman probably does have something good, but she doesn't have the funds to make this. I was there. That was me, but I truly believed in it.
Dr. Crockett: So I think this is really interesting because if you look at kind of how traditional capitalization of businesses happen, that's what people used to do. They would go to the bank and say hey, I have this business idea. I have this plan. Will you lend me some money for it? Banks often made those decisions. Not so much today. Now it's more algorithmic about how much money you have and blah, blah, blah, but still some.
Gaby: I still want a half or a cut.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah. Well, banks, yeah, they have to make their business too, but they do want their cut. But what you did is similar to what, how the banks used to function, which was more on a personal level, I think. There used to be more of that here, I have an idea. Do you believe in it? It was a personal relationship with your banker. I think you did that with the crowdfunding. So tell me what happened after you got this thousand orders. First of all, holy smokes, waking up like that. You're making my eyes water. That was such a response of outpouring of love and support from people.
Gaby: Yeah, that morning, I think I woke up late too. So I woke up, and I was just like what's going on?
Dr. Crockett: How in the world do you feel a thousand orders now? Because you're just making this in your kitchen.
Gaby: Yeah. I'm making this in my kitchen. I only made it for me. I never made it for anybody else.
Dr. Crockett: Wow, so how'd you handle that?
Gaby: So I reached out to bulk buyers. The only place that I could find organic arrowroot powder was on Amazon. I bought from them by the pounds. Then I went to like this other company that does container and packaging. I love them. Thank you, Joseph. He's my broker now for my business. He supplied me with some samples and that helped me to start up my business because he too believed in me.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: I went from there, and I started cooking it. I'm not cooking it, but making it. I'm whipping it in the kitchen with arrowroot powder all over my face. My husband comes in like what's going on? I'm like Ben, this is happening. He's like oh my gosh, I can't believe it. Listen, that's a blessing, Gaby. Oh my gosh. I know. This is the start. From there, it grew from there. I had this fire inside me that I just couldn't stop. So then people were getting their products already for their first order. Then guess what?
Dr. Crockett: Something bad happened.
Gaby: Yes.
Dr. Crockett: I can tell.
Gaby: Yes.
Dr. Crockett: Because you know what? That's really common in business. It's not easy. It's not just a Cinderella story.
Gaby: No, no. I wish it was.
Dr. Crockett: What happened?
Gaby: So I started using glass containers to send the product out for the deodorant, which is this one. I started using glass. Well, due to this heat, and the post office not taking care of them, they were just throwing them.
Dr. Crockett: They broke.
Gaby: Yeah, they broke. Like half of them. Half of those orders broke.
Dr. Crockett: Oh my gosh. Wow.
Gaby: Half of those orders broke. So as a business owner, you have to accept it. It was not fun. It sucked.
Dr. Crockett: You have to fix it.
Gaby: How did you not go bankrupt? Well, because I have profit margins. So there was a good profit margin of what I was already selling. Because you buy in bulk more, you get to have that more of that profit margins. But I use those profit margins to help me in errors or mess ups.
Dr. Crockett: That’s so smart.
Gaby: So it helped.
Dr. Crockett: Right. So you knew enough to not just barely make it by. So a lot of times when I see young entrepreneurs, I see them just barely putting their price point above their cost with a very small profit margin. So you were smart enough to be able to figure out a profit margin that fell within the range of what your consumer would buy, but still gave you that.
Gaby: Leverage too if there was anything that was going to happen or in between the product, it would still cover the product.
Dr. Crockett: How did you know to set your price point there?
Gaby: I want. So basically, so this product right here. Right? I'm going to be honest with you. It's $35 retail price.
Dr. Crockett: Okay.
Gaby: I make it for $6.
Dr. Crockett: How did you know to set it at the $35? Why didn't you try to sell it at 12?
Gaby: So the thing is that we need to do time, right? How long it takes me to make. How long, each container the container costs 35 cents. This lid itself costs 45 cents. This induction seal that it comes with is another 35 cents, right? So everything has a price, right? Plus the sticker, and the sticker is more expensive than anything. It's like 50 cents.
Dr. Crockett: Okay.
Gaby: So then we got to do time, right? Then we talk about the difference, the quality that we're using. We're not using just any arrowroot powder. We're using organic arrowroot powder.
Dr. Crockett: So, you're spending money on your products, and you're calculating in your time.
Gaby: Yes.
Dr. Crockett: But I'm more curious about how did you pick that price point? Did you compare other products? Did you have somebody advise you? Because.
Gaby: I had no advisement. None whatsoever.
Dr. Crockett: I wouldn't know to do that. I would probably like said double it. That sounds good to me. You know, how did you know to do that?
Gaby: I don't know, Dr. Crockett, to be honest.
Dr. Crockett: I think that’s really cool.
Gaby: I think it's more of the, I'm trying to value my worth. Okay.
Dr. Crockett: That's huge.
Gaby: I want to value my worth. You could buy a deodorant that $7 that has chemicals in it, but yet, again, you could get an all-natural deodorant that this will last you six months or three months, and it's all natural.
Dr. Crockett: But that's the other part is you're knowing your value.
Gaby: Yeah.
Dr. Crockett: Check you out.
Gaby: Thank you.
Dr. Crockett: How did you get to there? How did you get to knowing your own value? Were you always like this?
Gaby: No, most definitely not.
Dr. Crockett: No.
Gaby: No, it takes a lot. I always cry about this, but I don't think we know our value until we've hit a certain point in our life to realize it.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah. I agree.
Gaby: I suffered with a lot of things in my life that made me better for the person that I am now. I always had a fire in me. I was always a good seller. I always wanted more, but I didn't know what it was for me.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: I know that I would be working the nine to five job, and I always wanted more. I was always thinking about concoctions or ideas or these other things and sitting down working for the doctor's office, but I always wanted more. I think I knew my worth when this happened, the all-natural deodorant.
Dr. Crockett: You had some validation happen.
Gaby: Yeah.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: So I have a lot of issues in my life still to this day that I still deal with every single day. I suffer from dyslexia. I'm not a really good reader, and I'm embarrassed to say that. It affected me in my life.
Dr. Crockett: But look at what you're doing now.
Gaby: I know.
Dr. Crockett: That's so inspiring. It's astonishing. Well, you speak so eloquently now, you speak with such intention. Like how did you make that transformation? How did you change and grow from somebody that was insecure? You know what, it makes me think of like your armpit story and he story of your dyslexia and reading are kind of similar, right? Like you were down about yourself.
Gaby: Yeah. I mean, it was just causing more problems.
Dr. Crockett: So how did you overcome that?
Gaby: It's knowing your worth, right? So dealing with dyslexia, not able to read, write or pronounce words. Like you could hear me now. I can't pronounce a lot of words, but it's –
Dr. Crockett: I can't hear anything.
Gaby: Thanks. But it's literally taking a step back and realizing what my flaws are and really accepting it. Like I have dyslexia. I cannot pronounce words right. I can't read right. Those are hard words to say as a woman, right? Because we want better for ourselves and our children. It's more of the fact that like it's just being honest.
Dr. Crockett: Once you did that.
Gaby: Once I did that, I fixed it. I started reading more. I started reading things not about dyslexia but things about that I love.
Dr. Crockett: That's so cool.
Gaby: That helped me with my reading more. Now with my pronunciation and the way that I talk. I take a step back, and I don't talk just to talk anymore or say things that just come out of my mouth.
Dr. Crockett: You carry yourself very well, and your speech is very intentional.
Gaby: Thank you. That's something too. I don't speak just to speak. I speak with intentions to either heal, touch, show affection, and I think that's led me to where I'm at now. It's led me to a really good business because it shows authenticity. It shows that hey, it doesn't matter where you come from or who your past is or how smart you are. You could be smart in different areas.
Dr. Crockett: Absolutely.
Gaby: It doesn't have to be reading. It doesn't have to be writing. It doesn't have to be any of that. As long as you know what your flaws are, you fix them and you create something better for yourself, even though you still struggle with those things daily. So I thank you for that comment, but I do struggle every single day. When I do talk, I take my time with talking, and I talk with intention, not just to talk.
Dr. Crockett: I think that's so inspirational. I really appreciate you coming on the show today. This has just been like a beautiful segment. I thought I was having somebody come on to talk about the natural products, which, I mean I love talking about those things. I love the time that you've put into creating a quality product. We were kind of talking about that downstairs before the show when we were eating about how I had the ranch dressing that is the vegan ranch mix ready to go. I'd forgotten it.
It didn't take me that much long to have the intention to eat the way I want to eat with intention to just do it. I think it's similar to you having the thought about the intention about your speech and just slowing down and focusing on it. I think as we, especially as women, but men too but as we look at our lives and where we want to go and where we want to be, the advice that you're bringing today and the example that you bring is so far above and beyond what I expected to find on the show today.
I'm super grateful that you came to be on The Dr. Crockett Show. I hope you'll continue to have success and incredible growth in your business. If you want to find Gaby, you can go to naturalremedies2022.com. Here's to being authentic and intentional and moving forward.
Gaby: Yes, of course. Thank you so much, Dr. Crockett.
Dr. Crockett: Great job. We'll see you next week on The Dr. Crockett Show. I love y'all.
Gaby: Bye.
Dr. Crockett: Bye y'all. Like, subscribe, and all the things, and we'll see you next time. Take care. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Becoming Virtuosa. To learn more, come visit us at DrCrockett.com, or find us on YouTube for the Dr. Crockett Show. If you found this episode helpful or think it might help someone else, please like, subscribe, and share. This is how we grow together. Thanks, and I'll see you next week. Love always, Sue.
Welcome to Becoming Virtuosa, the podcast that encourages you to become your best virtuosa self. Each week Dr. Susan Crockett goes where the scalpel can't reach, exploring conversations about how to be, heal, love, give, grow, pray, and attune. For the first time ever, she's bringing the personal one on one teaching that she shares with individual patients to you on this broader platform. A weekly source of inspiration and encouragement designed to empower you.
By evolving ourselves as individuals. We influence and transform the world around us. Please help me welcome board certified OB-GYN specializing in minimally invasive GYN surgery, internationally in the top 1% of all GYN robotic surgeons, a certified life coach, and US News top doctor, your host Susan A. Crockett, MD.
Dr. Crockett: Hey y'all. Welcome back to The Dr. Crockett Show. I'm your host, Dr. Susan Crockett, a board-certified OB-GYN in San Antonio, Texas, and I am so glad to welcome my very special guest today. This is Gaby Oliva. Welcome, Gaby.
Gaby: Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
Dr. Crockett: Y'all are going to love this show. Gaby is an entrepreneur and a woman after my own heart. She has a women's product line, and we're going to tell you all about it. It's called Natural Remedies 2022. Her website is naturalremedies2022.com. The reason we brought her on the show is y'all know if you've watched me at all. If you don’t then welcome. We're going to give you the short version, the cliff-notes version really quickly.
Our show is all about going where the scalpel doesn't reach. Even though I'm a robotic surgeon at the peak of my game right now, I do women's surgery. This show is about bringing the conversations about wellness from the office to you through the show. We're all about going whole food, plant-based, talking about natural things, getting rid of toxins and all of that.
This is where Gaby comes in because she has made some incredible products and has an incredible story about entrepreneurialism that is going to lift you up as a woman. Even if you're a man listening, you're going to be so inspired by her story today. We're going to talk about how growth happens and accepting change as we go through growth. We're going to do it around the story of her product line. So, y'all stay tuned. It's going to be a good show. So, Gaby, tell me a little bit about what you brought today and what's going on with this?
Gaby: Well, Dr. Crockett, thank you for having me. This is Natural Remedies. Natural Remedies, an all-natural apothecary line started back in 2022. I started with one product and now I have 11.
Dr. Crockett: What?
Gaby: 11.
Dr. Crockett: Wait, where are the rest of them?
Gaby: I have them, but they're not shown right here. These are the main ones.
Dr. Crockett: This is a teaser. They have to go to the website to see 11.
Gaby: Yeah, they have to go to the website.
Dr. Crockett: Okay, but the one product that started it all, you've got an incredible story about that. Tell us about how this all came to be.
Gaby: Well, let's get into it.
Dr. Crockett: Let's get real.
Gaby: So this is the main product. The Hyper Pigmentation Cream. This is an all-natural deodorant that clears pigmentation all over the body.
Dr. Crockett: That is amazing.
Gaby: But it's a deodorant too though.
Dr. Crockett: It has no additives, no preservatives, no aluminum.
Gaby: Absolutely not. Four ingredients. That's it.
Dr. Crockett: What are the four ingredients?
Gaby: It's arrowroot powder, baking soda, coconut oil, and frankincense oil.
Dr. Crockett: Frankincense. Wow.
Gaby: Frankincense oil is one of the best oils in the world. It was given to Jesus by the three wise men. If Jesus uses it, I'm going to use it too. So my story.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah. What happened?
Gaby: Well, back in 2022, because that's when I started the business, I used a store bought deodorant.
Dr. Crockett: Like we all had like forever. That's just what we were raised on, right?
Gaby: Yeah. I mean, my mom uses it. I use it. So I just continued using it. So I bought this store bought deodorant, and I developed an ugly rash, like a really bad rash.
Dr. Crockett: Under your arms.
Gaby: I started Googling. I went to this like deep black hole, and I found out that I'm having a chemical burn.
Dr. Crockett: Wow.
Gaby: So I'm realizing, okay, what kind of chemicals, right? So I looked back at the ingredients of the deodorant that I bought, and I'm reading all these things that I don't even understand. I'm Googling what this word means and this word means and what does it have and contains. I'm just like, I'm sinking into a deeper hole, and I'm freaking out.
Dr. Crockett: Oh no.
Gaby: So mind you at that time, I didn't have any money. I didn't have any money to go to a dermatologist to go get myself checked.
Dr. Crockett: Wow.
Gaby: I needed to buy another deodorant. At the time, Dr. Crockett, I didn't have any money. Like I didn't have any money to buy another deodorant. Like whatever I had was what I had.
Dr. Crockett: You just had to deal with it.
Gaby: I just had to deal with it.
Dr. Crockett: Even two years ago, there weren't that many other natural choices available and not anywhere near as what there is available today. It's still kind of hard to find.
Gaby: So yeah.
Dr. Crockett: So what happened?
Gaby: So I went on YouTube, I decided to like look up natural deodorants, and I did all these research. The ones we're telling me to make one with cornstarch, and I was like oh, I don't know if I want to use cornstarch underneath my armpit. So I did an alternative, which is arrowroot powder. I made this all natural deodorant because at that point I didn't have any money for a deodorant.
Dr. Crockett: You're like I'm just going to use what I can get in the kitchen.
Gaby: Yes. Everything I had was in the kitchen. So I whipped up my deodorant, and I started using as a deodorant. But mind you, I'm still dealing with this rash underneath my armpit.
Dr. Crockett: Like, can I just interject and say, as a gynecologist, this is something that a lot of women deal with. So we see rash under the armpits, some from a contact dermatitis or chemical reaction like you had. Some is associated with different medical conditions like diabetes or acanthosis nigricans or the hidradenitis. Some women get those infected like acne underneath there. So this is not just something that affects a few women. This is a very broad topic, a very broad problem. So you looked at it and you were like, I got to do something. I'm a little desperate.
Gaby: Yeah. Not only that, I'm already insecure.
Dr. Crockett: You?
Gaby: Yes. I was already insecure because I already had pigmentation on my armpits. I already had low self-esteems about my skin.
Dr. Crockett: That's what we do.
Gaby: I'm already low in my life because I was already going through postpartum and then I get this rash and then I have dark armpits, and I'm just at the point like what can I do? Right. So I'm putting on this deodorant that I made, and little do I know that my armpit is clearing up. The rash is going away.
Dr. Crockett: So not only did it work to like give you the smell protection that you needed.
Gaby: Yeah.
Dr. Crockett: But you noticed that all of a sudden the rash is going away.
Gaby: Yeah. The rash went away. Then like within two weeks I see the pigmentation on my armpits that I've had for years, my entire life, go away too.
Dr. Crockett: So I think this is really fascinating. As a medical doctor who's interested in clean eating and reducing all the chemicals, and like you said, all the words that you can't pronounce, we're trying to get people to pay attention and not eating those things that have those foods in it. But I think there's maybe two different things going on here. Just one is you're removing things that may be causing the reaction in your skin. So you're removing the ingredients that may be irritating. But the other thing is you're feeding your skin whole food plant-based.
Gaby: I know. Right. At the same time.
Dr. Crockett: Which is allowing your body to heal. Some of those plant, we talked about this on the show I think way back with Dr. Miloy. You'll need to go back and look at some of the talks that we did with him. But in those conversations, we talked about how plants have just a plethora of chemicals in them that are helpful to us. Like they're medicines, but not just one medicine. Every plant has their own unique blend of all these medicines in them. We haven't even begun to scratch the surface about how they're good for us.
So this is not like stunning to me that you would have found this in a plant-based product. I think that's really exciting too, though, especially given what you were going through with the not feeling and being down in the dumps and then trying to figure out a way. Then all of a sudden, not only does it make you smell good, but it's starting to reduce because you didn't expect it to make the pigmentation go away.
Gaby: No. That was not what I was wanting. Because I wasn't even worried about it anymore because I thought that was my life. So I made this deodorant, and at the same time, it started clearing up.
Dr. Crockett: Amazing.
Gaby: It cleared up my rash, and it cleared up my armpits at the same time.
Dr. Crockett: That's crazy.
Gaby: That's impressive to me.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah, me too.
Gaby: I was like these natural ingredients did this for me. I need to show the world. I need to let someone know about this because this is unbelievable. Because I know a lot of people suffer with pigmentation their entire life and spend a lot of money on bleaching or whatever the case is, what they're looking for when there could be something all natural that could possibly help them.
Dr. Crockett: Yep. That's a big message.
Gaby: Yeah. So I started with the natural deodorant, and it cleared up my armpits. Then I made a video about it.
Dr. Crockett: You did on YouTube?
Gaby: On TikTok.
Dr. Crockett: On TikTok?
Gaby: Yeah, on TikTok.
Dr. Crockett: Isn't that amazing?
Gaby: So I knew that this product was so good. I believed it in me, you know?
Dr. Crockett: Wait, wait, wait. That's huge, what you just said. That you believed in you.
Gaby: Yeah, I believed in me.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: For the first time in a very long time, I believed in me because at that point in my life when all of this was happening, I was already sad. I was already depressed. I was already going through stuff in my life, you know? I'm just like oh my gosh, I have this rash. Oh my gosh, I have dark armpits. What is my husband going to think of me? Giving all these things that what are people going to think about me? Or just giving myself that ugliness of insecurities, you know? But I'm doing this to myself, right?
But at that moment when I knew that this changed me, changed my armpit, I was like it has to be shared. Wellness has to be shared. So I made a video on TikTok. Remind you, Dr. Crockett, I had no money. I had no money.
Dr. Crockett: You know what? I think that's really an important point here because so many women who could be bringing forth their own ideas think that it has to be you have to spend a whole lot of money on it, or it has to be like just right to be effective. But you're proving all you needed was a camera and access to the internet, right?
Gaby: Yes.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: Because I'm telling you, I'm going to tell you again, I had no money, maybe in the negatives, right? Let's just be honest. Just be honest. Like I had no money, and I made this video. Mind you, the quality of the video, looking back now, it was not the best quality, but it shows me my growth, right?
So I'm making this video, and I'm telling these girls, and it was like 9:30. Because I could tell by the time of when I made that video, it was like around 9:30. I was already almost, I was already about to go to bed. I made this video, and I was just like look, ladies, this deodorant that I'm making helped me clear my armpits. I know that some of you may have insecurities about your armpits and inner thighs or anywhere you have pigmentation. I have something that could possibly help you, and it's all natural and just being vulnerable and talking about my insecurities and showing them my armpits and where I had pigmentation.
Dr. Crockett: You actually put your own armpits.
Gaby: Yeah.
Dr. Crockett: Talking about authenticity and vulnerability. Like that's not the faking it, making it, look how great I am.
Gaby: No.
Dr. Crockett: That is the like I am down in the ditches clawing and scratching and look at where I am and what I'm working on. This is me.
Gaby: I'm telling you before and after my pigmentation, I would always wear little jackets. I would always turn off the lights during intimacy because I never wanted my husband to see me down there because I was insecure.
Dr. Crockett: Wow, wow.
Gaby: I would never put my hair in a ponytail because I was worried about what my people thought about my neck.
Dr. Crockett: Wow.
Gaby: Okay. I did go to dermatologists and doctors, and they said it was an insulin-resistant problem. If my family has it, I have it.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: I didn't want to be a statistic. I wanted to change something. Yeah. You know, I wanted something more for myself. So within reaching that, I had to go through something in my life to build that fire in me to show others.
Dr. Crockett: There you go.
Gaby: That there is something out there that's natural that helped me.
Dr. Crockett: The point at which you were kind of desperate where this came about was what drove you to be like okay, I'm brave enough to make the change and think that I could do something. That's what gave you the courage to get on the TikTok?
Gaby: Well, yes, because I know that there's millions and millions of people that suffer from this.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah. This is me saying the TikTok like I'm older.
Gaby: Yeah. It's just TikTok. It's just TikTok.
Dr. Crockett: It's just TikTok. Yeah. But that's what gave you the courage. So you made that video.
Gaby: So I made the video, and I was like look, ladies and gentlemen, I don't have the money. I'm telling this in my video. I don't have the money to make this for you. But if you go here and you pay here, give me eight to nine days.
Dr. Crockett: So you asked them to prepay for the order.
Gaby: Yes.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: Telling them I didn't have any money, telling them I didn't have none of the product and to give me eight to nine days to make it for you as a pre-order.
Dr. Crockett: Wow.
Gaby: Fell asleep. I woke up to a thousand orders.
Dr. Crockett: Oh my gosh.
Gaby: A thousand orders.
Dr. Crockett: Gaby, that brings tears to my eyes that they trusted you, but then you also followed through with it.
Gaby: Of course. Of course.
Dr. Crockett: But a thousand orders overnight. So you basically crowdfunded the start of your business with your authenticity and a product that you believed in, and that people bought into also.
Gaby: Yeah. I mean, I wasn't expecting that, but like you said, the authenticity was outreaching because I think they understood me from a different level.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: You know what I mean? Like, man, this woman probably does have something good, but she doesn't have the funds to make this. I was there. That was me, but I truly believed in it.
Dr. Crockett: So I think this is really interesting because if you look at kind of how traditional capitalization of businesses happen, that's what people used to do. They would go to the bank and say hey, I have this business idea. I have this plan. Will you lend me some money for it? Banks often made those decisions. Not so much today. Now it's more algorithmic about how much money you have and blah, blah, blah, but still some.
Gaby: I still want a half or a cut.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah. Well, banks, yeah, they have to make their business too, but they do want their cut. But what you did is similar to what, how the banks used to function, which was more on a personal level, I think. There used to be more of that here, I have an idea. Do you believe in it? It was a personal relationship with your banker. I think you did that with the crowdfunding. So tell me what happened after you got this thousand orders. First of all, holy smokes, waking up like that. You're making my eyes water. That was such a response of outpouring of love and support from people.
Gaby: Yeah, that morning, I think I woke up late too. So I woke up, and I was just like what's going on?
Dr. Crockett: How in the world do you feel a thousand orders now? Because you're just making this in your kitchen.
Gaby: Yeah. I'm making this in my kitchen. I only made it for me. I never made it for anybody else.
Dr. Crockett: Wow, so how'd you handle that?
Gaby: So I reached out to bulk buyers. The only place that I could find organic arrowroot powder was on Amazon. I bought from them by the pounds. Then I went to like this other company that does container and packaging. I love them. Thank you, Joseph. He's my broker now for my business. He supplied me with some samples and that helped me to start up my business because he too believed in me.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: I went from there, and I started cooking it. I'm not cooking it, but making it. I'm whipping it in the kitchen with arrowroot powder all over my face. My husband comes in like what's going on? I'm like Ben, this is happening. He's like oh my gosh, I can't believe it. Listen, that's a blessing, Gaby. Oh my gosh. I know. This is the start. From there, it grew from there. I had this fire inside me that I just couldn't stop. So then people were getting their products already for their first order. Then guess what?
Dr. Crockett: Something bad happened.
Gaby: Yes.
Dr. Crockett: I can tell.
Gaby: Yes.
Dr. Crockett: Because you know what? That's really common in business. It's not easy. It's not just a Cinderella story.
Gaby: No, no. I wish it was.
Dr. Crockett: What happened?
Gaby: So I started using glass containers to send the product out for the deodorant, which is this one. I started using glass. Well, due to this heat, and the post office not taking care of them, they were just throwing them.
Dr. Crockett: They broke.
Gaby: Yeah, they broke. Like half of them. Half of those orders broke.
Dr. Crockett: Oh my gosh. Wow.
Gaby: Half of those orders broke. So as a business owner, you have to accept it. It was not fun. It sucked.
Dr. Crockett: You have to fix it.
Gaby: How did you not go bankrupt? Well, because I have profit margins. So there was a good profit margin of what I was already selling. Because you buy in bulk more, you get to have that more of that profit margins. But I use those profit margins to help me in errors or mess ups.
Dr. Crockett: That’s so smart.
Gaby: So it helped.
Dr. Crockett: Right. So you knew enough to not just barely make it by. So a lot of times when I see young entrepreneurs, I see them just barely putting their price point above their cost with a very small profit margin. So you were smart enough to be able to figure out a profit margin that fell within the range of what your consumer would buy, but still gave you that.
Gaby: Leverage too if there was anything that was going to happen or in between the product, it would still cover the product.
Dr. Crockett: How did you know to set your price point there?
Gaby: I want. So basically, so this product right here. Right? I'm going to be honest with you. It's $35 retail price.
Dr. Crockett: Okay.
Gaby: I make it for $6.
Dr. Crockett: How did you know to set it at the $35? Why didn't you try to sell it at 12?
Gaby: So the thing is that we need to do time, right? How long it takes me to make. How long, each container the container costs 35 cents. This lid itself costs 45 cents. This induction seal that it comes with is another 35 cents, right? So everything has a price, right? Plus the sticker, and the sticker is more expensive than anything. It's like 50 cents.
Dr. Crockett: Okay.
Gaby: So then we got to do time, right? Then we talk about the difference, the quality that we're using. We're not using just any arrowroot powder. We're using organic arrowroot powder.
Dr. Crockett: So, you're spending money on your products, and you're calculating in your time.
Gaby: Yes.
Dr. Crockett: But I'm more curious about how did you pick that price point? Did you compare other products? Did you have somebody advise you? Because.
Gaby: I had no advisement. None whatsoever.
Dr. Crockett: I wouldn't know to do that. I would probably like said double it. That sounds good to me. You know, how did you know to do that?
Gaby: I don't know, Dr. Crockett, to be honest.
Dr. Crockett: I think that’s really cool.
Gaby: I think it's more of the, I'm trying to value my worth. Okay.
Dr. Crockett: That's huge.
Gaby: I want to value my worth. You could buy a deodorant that $7 that has chemicals in it, but yet, again, you could get an all-natural deodorant that this will last you six months or three months, and it's all natural.
Dr. Crockett: But that's the other part is you're knowing your value.
Gaby: Yeah.
Dr. Crockett: Check you out.
Gaby: Thank you.
Dr. Crockett: How did you get to there? How did you get to knowing your own value? Were you always like this?
Gaby: No, most definitely not.
Dr. Crockett: No.
Gaby: No, it takes a lot. I always cry about this, but I don't think we know our value until we've hit a certain point in our life to realize it.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah. I agree.
Gaby: I suffered with a lot of things in my life that made me better for the person that I am now. I always had a fire in me. I was always a good seller. I always wanted more, but I didn't know what it was for me.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: I know that I would be working the nine to five job, and I always wanted more. I was always thinking about concoctions or ideas or these other things and sitting down working for the doctor's office, but I always wanted more. I think I knew my worth when this happened, the all-natural deodorant.
Dr. Crockett: You had some validation happen.
Gaby: Yeah.
Dr. Crockett: Yeah.
Gaby: So I have a lot of issues in my life still to this day that I still deal with every single day. I suffer from dyslexia. I'm not a really good reader, and I'm embarrassed to say that. It affected me in my life.
Dr. Crockett: But look at what you're doing now.
Gaby: I know.
Dr. Crockett: That's so inspiring. It's astonishing. Well, you speak so eloquently now, you speak with such intention. Like how did you make that transformation? How did you change and grow from somebody that was insecure? You know what, it makes me think of like your armpit story and he story of your dyslexia and reading are kind of similar, right? Like you were down about yourself.
Gaby: Yeah. I mean, it was just causing more problems.
Dr. Crockett: So how did you overcome that?
Gaby: It's knowing your worth, right? So dealing with dyslexia, not able to read, write or pronounce words. Like you could hear me now. I can't pronounce a lot of words, but it's –
Dr. Crockett: I can't hear anything.
Gaby: Thanks. But it's literally taking a step back and realizing what my flaws are and really accepting it. Like I have dyslexia. I cannot pronounce words right. I can't read right. Those are hard words to say as a woman, right? Because we want better for ourselves and our children. It's more of the fact that like it's just being honest.
Dr. Crockett: Once you did that.
Gaby: Once I did that, I fixed it. I started reading more. I started reading things not about dyslexia but things about that I love.
Dr. Crockett: That's so cool.
Gaby: That helped me with my reading more. Now with my pronunciation and the way that I talk. I take a step back, and I don't talk just to talk anymore or say things that just come out of my mouth.
Dr. Crockett: You carry yourself very well, and your speech is very intentional.
Gaby: Thank you. That's something too. I don't speak just to speak. I speak with intentions to either heal, touch, show affection, and I think that's led me to where I'm at now. It's led me to a really good business because it shows authenticity. It shows that hey, it doesn't matter where you come from or who your past is or how smart you are. You could be smart in different areas.
Dr. Crockett: Absolutely.
Gaby: It doesn't have to be reading. It doesn't have to be writing. It doesn't have to be any of that. As long as you know what your flaws are, you fix them and you create something better for yourself, even though you still struggle with those things daily. So I thank you for that comment, but I do struggle every single day. When I do talk, I take my time with talking, and I talk with intention, not just to talk.
Dr. Crockett: I think that's so inspirational. I really appreciate you coming on the show today. This has just been like a beautiful segment. I thought I was having somebody come on to talk about the natural products, which, I mean I love talking about those things. I love the time that you've put into creating a quality product. We were kind of talking about that downstairs before the show when we were eating about how I had the ranch dressing that is the vegan ranch mix ready to go. I'd forgotten it.
It didn't take me that much long to have the intention to eat the way I want to eat with intention to just do it. I think it's similar to you having the thought about the intention about your speech and just slowing down and focusing on it. I think as we, especially as women, but men too but as we look at our lives and where we want to go and where we want to be, the advice that you're bringing today and the example that you bring is so far above and beyond what I expected to find on the show today.
I'm super grateful that you came to be on The Dr. Crockett Show. I hope you'll continue to have success and incredible growth in your business. If you want to find Gaby, you can go to naturalremedies2022.com. Here's to being authentic and intentional and moving forward.
Gaby: Yes, of course. Thank you so much, Dr. Crockett.
Dr. Crockett: Great job. We'll see you next week on The Dr. Crockett Show. I love y'all.
Gaby: Bye.
Dr. Crockett: Bye y'all. Like, subscribe, and all the things, and we'll see you next time. Take care. Bye.
Thanks for listening to this episode of Becoming Virtuosa. To learn more, come visit us at DrCrockett.com, or find us on YouTube for the Dr. Crockett Show. If you found this episode helpful or think it might help someone else, please like, subscribe, and share. This is how we grow together. Thanks, and I'll see you next week. Love always, Sue.
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