 What's the coolest feedback you've ever received? That it literally changes people's lives. And I'm humbled to say that I get that pretty frequently. It's really cool. Tanya Zuckerbrot, founder of F Factor. You ready to answer some questions? Ready. Eat carbs, dine out, drink alcohol, work out less. Who writes your copy? I do. What's the difference between building a fad and a brand? A fad is going to be hot in the moment, so it can be disruptive, but just for disruption's sake. If you want it to have legs, it needs to be based on something factual like science. Did you study the diet health business before you jumped into it, the business? I had no business background, which is why it took me so long to get here. What's your male to female split? It's pretty close. It's pretty 50-50, which is unique for the weight loss industry. Typically, it's used towards one sex or the other, but we're pretty gender neutral. What do you think of keto? It's effective. My question to people who follow it is, is it sustainable? Because even if you are getting benefits from it, anything you do temporarily, so are the byproducts. Could you ever see yourself selling f-factor? Yes. Why isn't everyone on f-factor? They just don't know about it yet. How do you decide to start a diet? It's a personal decision, and sometimes it comes from a comment from someone else, or sometimes you see a picture of yourself, or maybe it's a doctor's recommendation, but the will has to come from within. How do you decide to pivot from practitioner to business owner? It's something that you don't decide. It is a byproduct of necessity. So you literally couldn't take enough people, and so you had to scale with a platform? I think I was in the service industry first because my passion is to help others, and as I recognized the value of the brand, it became a business rather than just a service. What's next for you? Continue to scale. We're pretty well known on the East Coast, and I'd like the company to have greater national recognition for the sole goal of just helping more people to look and feel their best. Do you practice what you preach 100% of the time? I think that's the beauty of a factor that you don't have to practice 100% of the time. It's a lifestyle where there's a philosophy that you embrace, that you are making smart choices that honor your intentions to look and feel your best, but you have the opportunity to have mindful indulgences, so I guess with that being said, I do practice it. How much of where you are right now is something you had visualized? All of it, and I especially see the end game. I'm not where I thought I would be though as far as my timeframe. I'm still a little bit behind, but I see the future as bright and I'm getting closer. What's your social media strategy? Authenticity. The biggest game changer for me was Instagram switching from just a feed to the stories, and through the stories I've been able to share, and some people would say maybe even overshare my life because I do walk the walk and talk the talk, and by being able to showcase my life so authentically, people really understand that a factor is something that you can do with your family, your friends during travel, so I think it let people into the brand and they realized this is easier than it may seem. When did you come up with the name? I can't take credit for the name, the publishers gave me the name. I sold the program called the F4 diet to the publishers and they thought that it was too salacious, so the publisher changed it to F Factor, which I fought hard against, but looking back, one of my favorite sayings is rejection is God's protection, and it worked because I think F Factor is just a stronger name now. When did you have your breakout moment? I'm not sure I had it yet, but I'm hoping if I think about a piece of press that really sort of put me on the map, the New York Times did a feature about me, but what was interesting was it didn't land in the science section, the business section, it was in the style section, and that makes me smile and give me a lot of pride and joy because when you were to question like, how is F Factor different than the billion dollar brands that you're competing against and we know who they are, I wanted F Factor to be more lifestyle driven, I wanted to cater to a younger millennial audience that was fashion forward, and it was very lifestyle driven, so that piece of press blew up F Factor. How many people fail F Factor? I think it's really low, I mean we brag that we have a 99% success rate, but it's really based on the individual's discipline and drive. What platform do you feel you're under leveraging? I feel that our digital presence could be greatly improved, our app needs a lot of improvement, and I think once that gets going, it's gonna kill it. What is the key to your brand? It's effective. What's your biggest business challenge? Growth, I have not raised any capital, it's been self funded and bootstrapped this entire time, so I think for us to really grow and to see that hockey stick growth, we need to add personnel and more marketing dollars. Who are the key partners or hires that helped you go from successful dietician to successful company and brand? My chief operating officer, his name's Peter Costello, and it took me 15 years to find him. If you could have one magical power, what would it be? To be in two places at once. If someone said I want to be you, what would be the first thing you'd tell them? Don't do it. Whose career do you model your own after? He caught me there. It's okay, I've never thought of that. What do you love about yourself? My teeth. My humor, my resiliency. What is a piece of advice you live by? When you take care of the needs of others, God takes care of your needs. Who is one person you'd love to have coffee with, dead or alive? My grandma Claire, she passed. How do you make sure F-Factor lives on without you? By calling it F-Factor, not Tonya Zuckerbrot Nutrition. The brand is bigger than me. Could someone healthily be on F-Factor indefinitely? Yes, I am a perfect example of that. I've been on F-Factor for 20 years. It's not just about weight loss, it's about weight management and improving your health. What's the coolest feedback you've ever received? That it literally changes people's lives and I'm humbled to say that I get that pretty frequently. It's really cool. Does the packaging of your food even matter as long as it says F-Factor? Yes, because people eat with their eyes first, whether it's in a restaurant or pulling something off the shelf. So I am very visual, I'm a leaver, so aesthetics mean a lot to me, which is why even the brand has that fashion forward feel. What are the key indicators you look for to determine the health of your business? Growth and engagement on social media. If you had one marketing dollar to spend, where would you spend it? On sampling, because once you taste these products, you're in. Are you lucky? I think I work my ass off. Little luck, I'm sure never hurt, but I believe more in God's blessings than luck. What does Sunday look like to you? Really just relaxing, just trying to spend time with my family. I feel really overstimulated all the time, so it's my day just really to shut down. What's been the biggest moment in the company's history? The launch of products. It's really where we went from a service business into a consumer package of good business and our reach really expanded. What was the hardest thing you had to learn on the job? To hire with my head instead of my heart. I hired a lot of people because I like them and I could picture going for cocktails after work with them and didn't do a great job checking references or understanding if they really were right for the position. What brands do you look up to? I look at brands that took something sort of traditional and made it sexier, like Shobani did a great job with yogurt, Equinox did a great job with working out. What's the worst feedback you've ever gotten? Taste is subjective, you can't please everyone, so sometimes people just don't like the product, the way it tastes. How will you know you've made it? Certain days I feel that I already made it because if my goal in life was to make the world a better place and inspire people to be their best selves, then I've made it. If it's about exit, then when I get acquired. What do you hate about yourself? I have to do better interrupting people. I think I talk over people sometimes, so that's a bad habit. What makes you special? My heart. What keeps you up at night? Not being enough. How has the marketplace changed since you launched? People don't want to diet anymore. Dieting feels punitive, it's what your mother did, what your grandmother did. People just want to be healthy, but people also don't want to be overweight. You want to offer a solution that feels lifestyle driven but removes the feelings of deprivation and denial from people's experience. What part of the business sucks? I care so much about every client, about every customer, and I'm such a people pleaser. If I had thicker skin, I could be more indifferent about it, so I guess if just worrying about people's experience. PR or influencers? Both. If you had to choose? Influencers. Who do you consider your competition? No one. I recognize that there are billion dollar brands in my space that I've complete reverence for, but we're speaking to different audiences. Favorite three Instagram accounts that aren't people? Betches, The Fat Jewish, and Inspirational Quotes. Tanya Zuckerbrot, founder of F Factor, thank you so much for being here. Thank you. I'm Ian Wishingrad, and I'll see you next time on I'm With The Brand.