Maintaining Routine During Uncertainty

As a personalized supplement brand, consumer wellbeing is a top priority for Care/Of. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Millennial-favored brand is extending its services to the digital world, with the release of an aesthetically pleasing app called Routines. As the name suggests, the app helps bring regularity back into consumers' lives, while celebrating small wins and tracking the progress along the way. To learn more, Trend Hunter had the opportunity to speak to Maggie Luther, Care/Of's Medical Director & Formulator and Craig Elbert, Care/Of's Co-founder and CEO.

Can you tell me a little bit about yourself and how you got involved with Care/Of?

Dr. Maggie Luther: I am someone who has been into a natural lifestyle and learning about natural healing for the past two decades. I am trained as a Naturopathic Doctor and have formal training as an Herbalist. I absolutely love helping people find more joy in their lives by learning how to take health back into their own hands. I’ve worked both with people one on one, and as a formulator in the supplement industry. Generally when working in the supplement industry, you formulate to the masses. What drew me to Care/of is the personalization that can come with some smart ingenuity, including a quiz that integrantes your daily dietary and lifestyle habits, as well as your health goals.

Can you speak to the correlation between mental wellbeing and one’s overall health?

Dr. Maggie Luther: Mental wellbeing has a direct impact on our health. When we are not mentally well, say we have more anxiety, overwhelm or depression, then we tend to forego the things that are important to keeping ourselves physically healthy. We tend to have poor habits instead of healthy habits. We may let go of our exercise routine, make poor food choices, drink more alcohol, and do other things that inadvertently make us feel worse. On the other hand, when we are able to shift our mental health toward one that can let go of anxiety, overwhelm and sadness we have a more positive impact on our everyday health. By using everyday tools to keep our mental wellbeing healthy, such as a gratitude journal, meditation, and expressing appreciation for others, then we tend to be more inclined to also do the things that keep us physically well.

Can you speak to the positive relationship that technology can play in keeping one happy and healthy?

Dr. Maggie Luther: Technology can serve as an important tool to be able to build new habits. The key to having good health long-term is to create habits that you don’t have to think too much about during the day, you just do them. Think about brushing your teeth and showering. Those are positive habits that at some point in your life you had to learn to develop into something you just did. Similarly, you need to create positive habits around food, exercise, sleep, and stress reduction, to name a few, if you want to truly be healthy. Utilizing tracking apps that allow you to set up your goals, and then provide you with daily alerts and/or reminders can be extremely beneficial to fast track your ability to make that habit a part of your daily life. Technology is truly allowing us to seamlessly meet the body’s need for repetition to make those habits stick.

How is this app positioned to help consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Dr. Maggie Luther: For a few months now, our team has been building and trying out this new app internally, and it’s been especially helpful for us in terms of keeping to our wellness routine and tracking how we’re feeling each day (especially this past month when we all began WFH because of the COVID-19 outbreak). We found that it was super helpful to have a reminder to check in with our feelings at the end of each day and to receive personalized data on what routines are working best for ourselves.

Whatever your health goals are improving sleep, supporting energy, or managing stress, it can be hard to know which habits will be impactful for you unless you have some kind of data to look back on. That’s the main idea that drove us to create our new Routines app. With it, users can create routines to stick to, and then receive the tools and personalized data they’ll need to measure the impact those habits have over time. Receiving specific insights about each person’s routine each week makes it easier to identify what’s working for each individual.

What do you envision for the next 5-10 years in your industry?

Dr. Maggie Luther: People will be calling for more transparency as well as companies that are following sustainable practices for both their products and their employees. Quality of formulas and highest quality of raw materials through purity testing of products will become increasingly important. Supplements will continue to grow in popularity as more and more people are using them to help support their health and well-being.

How can the app make a difference in the lives of consumers?

Craig Elbert: The uncertainty and challenges we face can be overwhelming. It can make us anxious. As a team, though, we've found there is a real power in consistency and routines. It helps ground us. Be it a daily meditation or just sticking with a consistent bedtime, these small things can make a real difference in our mental health. We accelerated the launch of our new Routines by Care/of app to meet this need, and make it a little easier to implement and stay accountable to healthy habits. Along the way, we hope the app will help people gain an even greater understanding about what they need to feel their best.

What’s next for Care/Of?

Craig Elbert: At Care/of, we’re always working to be in consistent communication with our customers. We want to help to make it easier and, maybe a bit more fun, to live healthy. As part of that, we get a sense for where they are looking for help. That’s what led to our recent Skin & Hair product line, which we’ve seen a great reception for. Coming out of that, we’re looking to focus on some key benefit areas that our customers are working to tackle - although we’re keeping specifics close to our chest. In the meantime, we continue to evolve our product line and, in particular, our digital offering.