Love Bottle, and beyond

Mike

Well, thank you so much for joining us today.

Minna

Sure. My pleasure.

Mike

Can you introduce yourself and what do you do?

Minna

Okay. My name’s Minna Yoo, and I’m the founder of Love Bottle. We started back in San Francisco in 2007, 2008. And we’re all about the way our connection to water, the water that we drink, the water that’s in our body, and the water that’s in our planet. And when we launched, we started with reusable glass water bottles because it’s the vessel that we intake our water from. And we looked for a bottle that was the healthiest for the planet and for our bodies. And we’ve been trying to improve on that ever since. And now, we’re moving more into the education part of our experience and connection to drinking water and our stewardship of water on this planet.

Mike

Amazing. Talking a little bit about your pivot, because I know that was a big decision for you. Can you tell me a little bit more about why you’re making that change and what does that look like? What are you hoping to accomplish?

Minna

So, we’re transitioning away from manufacturing bottles into more the education of our connection to water. And that’s multi-purpose. I’m an environmentalist at heart. And even if you make an environmental product, there’s always a footprint. There’s a footprint in manufacturing, in the required materials. And then there’s packaging and then there’s shipping, and then there’s the cost that is limiting to people of different incomes. And so, I found that even though I made, you know, the most affordable, nicest bottle I could, it was still not affordable to everyone. And when I started this company, I was looking for a way to improve health on a fundamental level that was affordable and accessible to everyone. And when you have a product that’s not really realistic, we have people who will email from, you know, different countries around the world asking for shipping to their country. And it’s so expensive.

And it really impedes our ability to share a message, internationally. And so, moving beyond the bottle, it just opens up everything because you don’t need only our vessel to connect to water. You can connect to the water that you drink regardless of what you’re drinking out of, whether it’s a ball jar, your hands out of, you know, a faucet, a hose, a clean canteen, a Nalgene, a Love Bottle, whatever it is. We can turn whatever you’re making into a Love Bottle. We can deepen your connection to the water that you’re drinking. And then suddenly, it’s not cost-prohibitive to anybody and it’s accessible to everyone without an environmental footprint. So, that’s really what kind of led to this transitional change. And we do have bottles left. We have a little treasure trove that I’m very excited for, to live their highest purpose, to really stand for the best possible use where it can, you know, create awareness of different causes, have amazing partnerships, collaborations with artists, you know, bring community together. That’s what I hope for the remaining bottles.

Mike

Thanks. I think something that I have personally just really appreciated in getting to know you is the appreciation that I’ve learned about the intention of drinking water and what water is for us as people, and health, and wellbeing. As you’re moving into more of like the educational space, can you tell me a little bit about, like, what that message is that you’re hoping to pass to a bunch of people? What’s the education gonna look like?

Minna

So, there’s kind of two parts. Bringing awareness to what happens when we mindfully hydrate. So, mindful breathing is pretty well-established and well-known. People have studied and know the effects that if you take a mindful breath, it can lower your blood pressure, it can lower your heart rate. It can decrease your cortisol levels versus our regular breathing that we do all day long without really too much thought or connection, how different that they can affect our body, how differently. And then the same thing with mindful eating, people say if you mindfully eat, you’re less likely to down a whole bag of potato chips. You’re more likely to enjoy the flavor. You’ll have improved digestion. You’ll have less overeating. And so, all of those things are known and studied around mindful eating, and yet mindful hydration really remains largely un-investigated.

And there’s so much potential there. Water’s the main ingredient of all of our cells, so the main ingredient in our body. We’re 60% to 70% water. When we’re babies, we’re 80% water. The surface of our planet is also 70% water. So, there’s this huge connection to our planet and our bodies, which I think is really powerful as well. And the age of water is something most people aren’t aware of, but the majority of water on our planet was in space when our solar system was being made. So, a lot of the water on the planet is older than our sun, which is billions of years old. And I think that’s so cool to imagine that the water that we drink has this history, and story, and has lived so many lives. If you could, you know, write a story about a drop of water, it would be incredible.

And so, I love that the water that we drink that becomes our body has this huge history from the beginning of our solar system. And so, I love that aspect about it. And then the whole idea of drinking with knowledge about how good it is for you, we’re all told you should drink water. We all know you have to drink water or you’ll die, and you should drink water for health. But it’s this like, must do, kind of scoldy, gotta do it, gotta do it. And then I wanna shift it from like a must do to, like, I want to. I want to because I know water is one of the healthiest things I can do for my body. Our cells crave clean, fresh water. You know, if it comes from a like a beverage that’s sugared and stuff, you’ll get some water from that but it’s not the same thing.

Our bodies are not craving orange juice in the same way that they want clean, fresh water. They have to do a lot of processing to get the water out of that. And so, when you take a sip of water, knowing that it is, like, one of the most cleansing, nourishing good for you things to do is really powerful. I think it kind of harnesses the power of the placebo effect. The placebo is so powerful because we think it’s doing something good. And then the power of the placebo’s removed because you find out it’s just a sugar pill. Well, when you are educated about how good water is for you and how necessary it is, there’s no pulling away that power because that’s just all true. It’s just all real. So there’s no like, haha, just kidding. Water’s just a sugar pill.

It’s like, no, water’s still really life-giving, the best thing your cells want. It improves digestion, improves energy, improves weight loss, and skin glowing and, you know, all these things. The list of ailments you can get when you are dehydrated is so long. About 75% of people are dehydrated. It’s such an easy thing to correct. In fact, one out of every three children born will get diabetes or obesity. And to sub in water and pull out sugary beverages is like the easy little switch that doesn’t cost money. We’re not saying buy a $30 supplement every month for the rest of your life. Buy only organic foods, and meats, and stuff like that. It’s like sub in water, pull out, you know, high fructose corn syrup drinks or high sugar drinks, caffeinated beverages, and then not entirely. Sure, enjoy a Coca-Cola every so often but start with water. Foundation is water.

And so, that kind of education piece, I think if we get it into children at a younger age is so powerful and can make a big difference, and will really help our health-care system. The weight that obesity and diabetes, like, lays on our health-care system is really intense. And so, that’s kind of one of the education pieces. And then that’s the basic healthiness of hydration. And then in my background, my whole, like, neuroscience, clinical research, nutrition journey, I was noticing that people want physical health, but they also want emotional health. And so, finding how water can provide, not just the physical health benefits, but these emotional health benefits as well, I created this, like, recipe of how to make water that comes with love. And that’s why I started Love Bottle. And so, my recipe really is, it’s kind of like a water ritual and it’s got three ingredients of breath, and water, and gratitude.

And you take those three ingredients and I’m all about triads. So you take three breaths, you remember three things about water, that it’s the healthiest thing for your body, that it connects us to the planet, and that it connects us to time in history. And then the third thing is gratitude. So, grateful for the water that we have. Clean, fresh water is like the biggest gift. If you’ve ever been without water for an extended period of time, you quickly learn how incredibly vital it is and how it becomes your entire focus of, I need to get water. So, being grateful for the clean water you have. And then I like to bring gratitude in towards our cells. People don’t appreciate their cells. It’s a different thing to say thank you cells for all that you do. We have over 3 trillion cells in our body working hard all the time.

And so, gratitude in and then gratitude out towards the world. And so, it can be gratitude for nature. It can be gratitude towards a person, to a pet, to your community, your job. So, just like a breath in and out. I like to bring gratitude in and out. And I like to think of gratitude as like a keyhole to love, the feeling and emotion of love. And so, when you have this kind of recipe, you’re kind of embodying and bringing in this experience of love and mindfulness around water, which can be really powerful, especially when done on a regular basis.

Mike

Brilliant. Wow. Wow. Now I’m really thirsty. When we have our meetings in our B Corp cohort and we start our meetings every month with exactly what you’re talking about, intentionally having the water. You lead us through like a guided meditation, breathing. You start talking about how the earth or the water is as old as it is, and it comes from the stars, and I just can’t help but transport myself to this meta-view of life. And it’s brilliant.

Minna

Thank you. I’m glad that I’m… This transition of moving from a product. My idea to start this company was definitely driven for health and wellness. And then when I got this idea and struck by this, like, I gotta make this company, I literally felt like I was struck by lightning. I bought the domain name that night. I gave notice the next day, and I really thought, and I saw all these people drinking water. I knew the name Love Bottle, they’re so happy. And I thought it was about the vessel. And so, we launched with the product a year later. But when you have a vessel or when you have a product, there’s this very established path in U.S. business that is consumerism, you know, consumer product goods that I started walking down. And we got into all these stores, Whole Foods, New Seasons, Target, and it seemed like, okay, this is great. And the further and bigger we got, the more I realized that our message was getting watered down, no pun intended, and that my whole vision and purpose for doing this was getting further and further away.

And it was about getting into 5,000 stores. It was about selling a million bottles and more and more and more. And I just felt, but the message was getting less and less and less. And so, I just felt I had to switch gears. I had two very young children at the time, and it just seemed like I didn’t know why I was doing all this for something that wasn’t living my purpose. And so, I switched gears, which was very scary. But now, I’m a lot smaller of a company, but it’s so much more meaningful and so much more purposeful. And I think the reach and effect I can get can be more powerful even though I’m smaller. And so, it’s interesting, you know what success looks like. There’s kind of established ideas of success and then there’s the success that we make ourselves.

Mike

All right. So, we were just talking about the shift to doing business differently, doing the whole path of consumerism in a different route. Just tell me a little bit more about that epiphany.

Minna

That was terrifying because I had already done so much work, so many years of, like, you know, going to trade shows, establishing sales channels. I had a sales staff for retail. And so, to recognize that I didn’t wanna just get bigger, bigger, more and more meant a big shift. A very, like, 180 kind of transition in what the business was like. And so, that was really hard. I shared it with the team. They were amazing. We tried to give as much bandwidth as possible for everyone to find new jobs and stuff as we transitioned away from the way we were doing things. They even helped us move the warehouse house and transition to a fulfillment company. We had a great little family. And so that was sad and bittersweet, but also, it was incredibly amazing at the same time because everybody could see that that was the true purpose of the company.

And it happened right before COVID, which was almost, like, amazingly fortuitous because I don’t know how we would’ve made it through COVID otherwise. And so, I was home for the kids. I was working from home before COVID. So, it was really fantastic. I called the next two years in, like, COVID time, kind of like I was cocooning, sort of in this transition stage, metamorphosis or whatever. And I didn’t know what Love Bottle would kind of emerge as it came out of that cocooning stage. And now that we have, I realize that the bottle itself was kind of like the caterpillar and now, the message of Love Bottle still has a bottle or a vessel and then it has, like, wings because it can kind of be set free to be not so limited by just, you know, one physical vessel, but it can kind of be free to fly around and share this message on a different level.

And ultimately, it’s not something that should be just, like, anytime someone drinks that way, I’m gonna make a dollar off of you. And it’s something that is like a free thing for the world. You know, I would love to just share this message. If people are able to have a warm, glowing experience when they drink water, that’s incredible. You know, the net positive to this planet, and to our community, and humanity, I have this dream about doing a global cheers for love, right? We all obviously have different views on all sorts of things, but we’re all humans. We’re all mainly water. We all have this shared history. And I think when you cheers together this, there’s this really unifying moment. People usually don’t cheers with water. I think cheersing with water is very special because it’s like your main ingredient. And so, I think this idea of doing a global cheers could be so cool and I am still kind of envisioning how it might play out. But, like, it’s like a moment for love through global cheers and, hopefully, we can help make it happen.

Mike

That’s great. I’m gonna kind of repeat some things just to get other sound bites out of it. But the message, can you just give me in, like, two sentences, the message of Love Bottle is…

Minna

The message of Love Bottle is, when we take a moment to connect to the water that we drink, it’s really powerful.

Mike

Mindful hydration is…

Minna

Mindful hydration is when you take a moment to bring your awareness around the action of drinking water.

Mike

If somebody was watching this video and they receive one of these bottles in the mail from Funnelbox, what do you want them…? What is the message you want them to hear?

Minna

If someone receives a bottle from Funnelbox, a Love Bottle, I want them to know that not only is it just a physical object, but it’s a way to create a water ritual. It’s a way to create a new kind of connection, relationship to the water that we drink. It’s a reminder. There’s a little heart on the chest of every bottle. It’s a reminder to wear your heart out, share it with the world. It’s really easy to forget about it. You know, it’s like a little faint and subtle. And I think the same thing with us. It’s really easy to forget about, you know, leading heart first and sharing our heart with the world.

Mike

Awesome. What’s the connection between Love Bottle and Funnelbox?

Minna

I spoke at BLD and then I think I met Joel after, like, at the drinks after BLD possibly. But I met him at a B Corp event. And Funnelbox created a video. And so, I’ve been on the B Corp board for about three years. Next year will be my fourth year. And I love the B Corp community. As soon as B Corps were on my radar, I was like, oh my gosh, I’m already doing all this stuff. These are my people, how do I be part of it? And so we’ve been B Corp certified since 2017. And I haven’t really met anyone in the B Corp community that I don’t like. They’re all awesome people wanting to do their part to improve this planet and change how business functions.

And I think that’s so cool to be part of this community that wants that. Within our B Corp community, there’s B Local PDX and there’s these CEO cohorts. And I’m in your cohort, Mike. And it’s been such a great experience. A lot of the cohorts now are moving into the CEO cohort chair. And I love that everybody thinks their cohort is the best because each cohort should think that. But I think ours is the best actually. But no, I love our groups, and I think it fosters so much support for business owners when you’re going through different things like transition or, you know, growth or moving or, you know, hard struggles to have other business owners who can support you, who understand where you can be vulnerable, where you can be honest, and have that kind of place and peer support of that way, and friendships. I feel like it’s a great experience and it’s a great group.

Mike

How do I follow you? Like, it sounds like since you’re transitioning this business. Should people still go to the Love Bottle website?

Minna

So, we’re still at lovebottle.com. I don’t think we’re gonna change our name. And more things will start joining the website. It’s still kind of a sales platform as we sell through different bottle designs. And I think as this transition continues, hopefully like how to be part of our water study, we’ll be part of there, or like a little one-minute video on mindful hydration or, you know, maybe a guided mindful hydration that I do, will join as 2024 continues. But in the meantime, you can always get in touch with us through our website. You can join our mailing list and you can still buy bottles.

Mike

Excellent. Let’s see here. Anything else?

Minna

So, last year I started teaching third to fifth graders at KairosPDX, which is a charter school in North Portland, that’s trying to close the education gap that’s due to discrimination towards people of color. And so, it’s amazing their focus on learning and creating these young leaders, really looking at the whole child and their love of learning. And so, getting to be part of their Wednesday morning cast program has been really incredible. So, I have 15 students for my first class and then 15 for a second. And I’ve done that three times last year. And I started again this year and I’ll have three more this year. And it’s been such an incredible experience. My one-hour mindful hydration workshop, they asked me to kind of stretch into 10 weeks.

And so, I’ve been able to really engage these kids about the water in our bodies, the water on this planet, how to be activists about protecting our water, what we can do as an individual and a community, what we can do to improve our health. Ultimately, I wanna give these kids some tools that are free and available. Lots of these children won’t or don’t have a lot of power and control in different aspects of their life. And so, giving ’em things that they can have… Like, no one can ever say, “Don’t take a mindful breath.” Like, if they try to tell you that, they don’t have control over that. That’s yours to own and choose to do. Same thing about take a sip of water. No one can really tell you to do that because you’ll die without water. And so, it’s all these things that we have in our pocket.

So, to take a mindful breath… So, all these kids lead different mindful breaths, it’s amazing. We all do a cheers every day. We all drink a bunch of water in our class together. And then to practice gratitude with it. Gratitude is something else that nobody can take away. No one can tell you not to be grateful. And it can really change the way you feel in a given moment. Each time you experience gratitude is a win, whether or not like what it’s long, you know… Any moment you’re feeling that glow is a net positive. So, kind of just having these opportunities with them to build these combined neural networks because really, I wanna braid these three breath, water, gratitude into this, like, neural network. And the more you repeat it, the more that pathway reinforces itself. And so, the more reinforced it gets, when you do one thing, like take a sip of water, you remember, oh, I should take a breath.

Oh, I should say thank you to my cells, you know, and stuff like that. And so, now, that I’ve been drinking water this way since 2000, you know, like, I don’t take every sip that way, but I certainly will, like, remember, you know, I’ll take a sip and I’ll be like, “Oh, have I, you know, taken a breath? Have I taken a moment?” And so, it helps to… Repetition, you know, builds habits. And so, one of my favorite ones is after exercising or a run, I’ll go through and as I drink, I’ll thank all, like, you know, if I just ran through Hoyt, I’m like, “Thank you ankles. Thank you feet. Thank you heels. Like, I didn’t fall on that route that I stumbled on, like, thank you knees,” like, all the parts that allowed me to do that run. And by the time I’m done that bottle’s empty and I want another one, you know?

And so, I feel like it’s such a health… I’m not saying this makes it so you’d never need medicine, but as a foundation like, to do first, and then add all the vitamins, add all the healthy foods, add all the medications you might take. But as a foundation, it’s such a powerful thing to do for free. It just requires attention, and participation, and a little education. And it’s free. So, I think that’s why I’m kind of pivoting to, all right, how do I share this message, and honor the bottles that we’ve made, and let them live their biggest purpose while also sharing this message of connecting to water with as many people as wanna hear it.

Mike

Fantastic. Thank you for being here.