Turning Pain into Purpose: Building a Brand Women Actually Trust with Amy Suzanne Upchurch

0:01John Lee Dumas:Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by High Level, the all-in-one sales and marketing platform. Today we'll be breaking down how to turn pain into purpose, building a brand women actually trust. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought to Amy Suzanne Upchurch in the EO Fire Studios. Amy is a mom of six and founder and CEO of Pink Stork and leads a wellness brand empowering women through every stage of womanhood with clean, purposeful supplements. And today we talk about the military life to mission-driven leadership, faith at the center, supporting women by design, motherhood as a superpower, and oh, so much more.

0:38John Lee Dumas:And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Amy and our sponsors. Cape is a privacy-first mobile carrier built from the ground up with security as the priority. If you care about protecting your digital life without giving up your smartphone, Cape makes that possible. Visit cape.co forward slash fire and use code fire for 33 % off Cape for six months today. Stop duct taping your business together. High Level runs your website, your funnels, email, automation, scheduling, payments, and memberships all in one place. And when you sign up at highlevelfire.com, you get a 30-day free trial plus my exclusive bonus stack that includes weekly office hours with me and much more.

1:15John Lee Dumas:Visit highlevelfire.com, highlevelfire.com. Amy, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with?

1:31Amy Suzanne Upchurch:Hey, everyone. Thank you so much for having me on. I'm so excited to share everything. And I would say to answer your question, being a mom is like my superpower. And I think that that is something that people don't necessarily, you know, lean into enough today, but I would say that's, that's, it's definitely where I think I, I really thrive and has allowed me to kind of do everything that I do at Pink Stork.

2:01John Lee Dumas:Well, Fire Nation, turning pain into purpose is our focus today, building a brand that women actually trust. And I want to start Amy by talking about the transition from military life to mission driven leadership. So your journey from being a military spouse to a mission driven founder, I mean, It's a powerful one. So what experiences from that chapter of your life ultimately led you to launch Pink Stork and serve women through every stage of motherhood?

2:29Amy Suzanne Upchurch:Well, listen, I think, you know, being a military spouse, you get to see a world that not a lot of people get to see. And you get to play a small part in our society. And for me, you know, my husband was obviously gone a lot. He was an officer in the Marine Corps. He was an infantry officer. So he deployed was definitely in, you know, a very, what do I say? You know, he was in Afghanistan, like, you know, on the forefronts of things. And that just gave me such exposure to a life that I had never known. I think it helped equip me to be able to see the world in a different light. And, you know, really, when you're a spouse, you're playing the role of your partner as well as yourself and keeping everything running and also trying to be supportive for what they're going through and what they're dealing with and what they're, you know, dealing with, you know, going through on a day to day basis.

3:34Amy Suzanne Upchurch:So I don't know. There's just so much I could say about it. But I thoroughly enjoyed my time. I started dating my husband when he was in college. And like I said, I didn't have any exposure to what military life looked like. But after getting married and he went to the Naval Academy and then we went straight into Quantico, which was the officer training school there. and we were just thrown right into it all, which was great. But it definitely was a lot to handle. And there's lots of stories that I could go on and on about, oh my gosh, one time I parked in a general, I thought general parking was for people like me.

4:16Amy Suzanne Upchurch:General parking, that's good. They speak a whole different language and I definitely had a learning curve there.

4:24John Lee Dumas:Well, let me first off just say thank you for your service because I mean, military spouse, I mean, you serve, I mean, I was a US Army officer myself for eight years. I did a 13 month tour of duty in Iraq. I was actually 23 at the time. So I was not married, but a lot of the soldiers in my platoon, I was an armor officer leader. So they were all men. It was 16 men, four tanks. There was definitely some married men there. And so I saw like when we were deploying initially, you know, just the fear and the anxiety and the stress. And then I also lived that, you know, for the 13 months that we were deployed over there as well, because, you know, they're, you know, getting on phone calls randomly.

5:01John Lee Dumas:And it's like, you know, there's a mortar round going off in the background. I mean, I remember that actually happened to me when I was talking to my sister and she's like, what was that? I'm like, oh, it was just like some holiday here. They're doing fireworks where like actually just like there was an explosion, like 50 yards from me. So like, just it's a different world that unless you've lived it, it's really hard to understand. So again, you know, thank you for what you've done. I know that it's definitely built who you are today, which is, you know, why I want to talk about faith at the center next, because for you, faith is woven into everything that you do.

5:31John Lee Dumas:So how does it specifically guide your leadership, Amy, your decision-making, and specifically the culture that you've built inside of Pink Stork?

5:40Amy Suzanne Upchurch:For me, you know, I went through some really rough pregnancies, and at one point I contracted a blood infection, and then I was told I had 24 hours to live. And I just really grappled with like, God, why are you doing this? Like, why is this happening? I didn't understand. I was, you know, very healthy growing up. I was a college athlete. I was used to my body working the way I wanted it to work and perform. And so when I hit these rough pregnancies, I got really angry at God. I didn't understand. And so, you know, looking forward and kind of being able to get the answers to the problems that I was dealing with my health, it just clicked for me.

6:23Amy Suzanne Upchurch:I remember like laying in a hospital bed and just being like, God, why? Why is this happening? I don't understand. And little did I know it wasn't about me at all. It was about being able to understand what other women might be going through and the challenges other people might be facing with their bodies. and having a solution for them. And I'm just the vehicle that God uses to be able to help people here on earth with Pink Stork, with their own bodies, with their own issues and their health goals, their health journey. So yes, that faith is very important to me because I believe that is why Pink Stork exists.

7:05John Lee Dumas:Let's talk about specifically supporting the women that you do by design. I mean, Pink Store, it's known for products that honor the way women's bodies were designed to function. And I love that phrase, to honor the way women's bodies were designed to function. So what does that commitment look like behind the scenes from formulation to philosophy?

7:26Amy Suzanne Upchurch:Excellence is what we strive to do in every aspect of the company. So whether it comes down to product formulations or product testing or customer service or any aspect that the business does. So, you know, we really strive for excellence. So nothing but the best is the standard. And I think that when you can put yourself in the shoes of the customer and think, what does she need today? Like we really go above and beyond to, yes, we have products and offer products. But we also want to make sure that she feels seen and heard and supported in her wellness journey to the answers and to the questions that she's asking us or might be asking herself.

8:12Amy Suzanne Upchurch:And it's our job to help her figure that out. So, you know, it's nothing but the highest standards. And if we don't have what she is looking for, we will own that and we will help her find that. So really going above and beyond. You know, honoring her body is so important. I believe God made our bodies perfectly just because they don't always work the way we want them to work doesn't mean that they're broken or flawed. They might need support and we all need support in life. And so that's really where Pink Short comes in.

8:51John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, we're going to talk about motherhood as a superpower, going from pain to purpose, empowered through community and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Fire Nation, if you're growing fast, your backend can't be stuck in slow motion, bills flying in, approvals getting bottlenecked, vendors chasing updates, that kind of busy work drains your energy and steals your focus. That's where Intuit QuickBooks BillPay steps in. QuickBooks BillPay helps you stay in your zone of genius by automating backend tasks. I'm talking bills, vendors, payments, even 1099s. They all live in one clean, organized QuickBooks dashboard.

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11:51John Lee Dumas:Stop piecing tools together. Start building momentum. Visit highlevelfire.com and start building your something today. Amy, we're back and I want to talk about motherhood as a superpower. I mean, you've built this thriving women-led company that fully supports working moms, which, you know, having a wife with a two-year-old right now, I can so appreciate that. So how has Pink Stork redefined what motherhood and work can look like? Why do you believe motherhood is a superpower, not a setback?

12:25Amy Suzanne Upchurch:I don't know any different. I didn't go to school to start a business. I didn't start a business because I was like, hey, I want to start a business now. I started a business out of, you know, my own issues and my own problems that I was facing while becoming a mother, while, you know, I was dealing with challenging pregnancies. And so I was growing this business while I had little ones all around me or I was pregnant at the time. So it's very natural to me. And I don't think I appreciate it as much as I have now 10 years later when people ask me questions like this. And I'm like, well, this is just how, how I function.

13:05Amy Suzanne Upchurch:And I have to make decisions quickly. I don't know anything different, you know, other than kind of, you know, being able to be decisive because I have six kids at home that are waiting on me that are asking me to do X, Y, and Z. I really prioritize the way I work and how I work. And it looks different than I think a lot of people maybe are used to seeing. And I also, you know, want to provide that experience to the women who work for me as well. So that's a lot of flexibility. That's a lot of autonomy. That's if you need to go take care of X, Y, and Z, like no questions asked. I think, you know, women need to be able to create a world in which you can be a mother and you can also, you know, be a professional that has goals and wants to grow as well.

13:56Amy Suzanne Upchurch:So kind of giving them that flexibility is, is what I had when I was creating Pink Stork and when I was trying to build it. And I want to make sure that we continue to foster that throughout the organization as, as it's growing. And, you know, we need to hire women to help us grow and to achieve our goals as an organization.

14:15John Lee Dumas:So let's talk about going from pain to purpose, because you had a personal battle with health challenges. And that became a major turning point. I mean, you mentioned that earlier. I mean, given just a short amount of time to potentially live, of course, that ended up not being the correct diagnosis. But how did that struggle shape your mission and the impact you're now making for the millions of women who are impacted by Pink Stork?

14:37Amy Suzanne Upchurch:We all deal with stuff in life, right? Like we all, everyone has a story to tell. And my story, you know, was my health complications when I was pregnant, but being able to find the answer to those complications and those issues that I was dealing with was the solution. And being able to gift that to other women who are dealing with their own struggles and their own journeys with their own bodies is really what it's all about. So taking that pain, that struggle, and helping them find the solution for their body, that That way they can go fulfill their purpose in life, whether it's starting a company, whether it's raising little kids, whether it's, you know, being the best version of herself she can be.

15:25Amy Suzanne Upchurch:That's really what it's about at Pink Stork is being able to give them the hope that you can do this. We're here to come alongside you and help you. This isn't the end of your story. This is just, you know, a plot twist along the way. You're just on the journey to getting to your goals, to your purpose, to your best self in life.

15:47John Lee Dumas:So I want to talk about empowered through community because Pink Stork has built this incredibly loyal community. So how do the shared stories, the encouragement, the connection to help restore hope, health, and confidence, this is for women in every season of their life. Like how does this help? How does this benefit? How do you encourage this?

16:08Amy Suzanne Upchurch:I like to say at Pink Stork, we're really deep. We go deep. We're not surface level. We're not here to put a Band-Aid on an issue. We really want to go deep with the woman. We want to understand, yes, her physical body that we have products for, but also her mental, her emotional, her spiritual self. And so, you know, creating a community where women have given us so much, they've trust us with so much. And then you hear these empowering stories. You can't help but just everyone. I think it happens very organically when you get women together who have maybe overcome something and they find a solution.

16:52Amy Suzanne Upchurch:They want to help someone else. And so it's just, you know, taking one person at a time at one stage of their life with one issue in their life and then you build upon that. And I think that trust is so important for our customers, for our brand, for our company. I mean, just today I had a woman come into the office and I didn't know her, but she stopped by the office and just told me how much, you know, a product has changed her life. And she's going through some hormonal changes right now in menopause. And she just feels like herself again. So it's just amazing to see these stories and to think like the impact that the brand is having around, you know, just creating a product with a few simple ingredients.

17:42Amy Suzanne Upchurch:I always say that sometimes like the simplest answer is the best answer. But man, it makes such an impact in these women's life that trust us with looking for the answers to their issues.

17:54John Lee Dumas:I mean, until I became a father, I didn't realize how unfortunately common postpartum can be for, you know, both the mother and the father. But of course, more specifically for the mother who just went through, you know, that massive, you know, hormonal shift and is dealing with all these things. So I'm kind of putting you on the spot here. So you can take a second if you want to think about it. We don't need to share any specifics or names or anything, but like, what's one story that you just love from maybe the past six or 12 months? And, you know, you shared like a micro one with an individual coming into your shop today or your office.

18:26John Lee Dumas:What's like one story that you think will really impact our listeners today?

18:31Amy Suzanne Upchurch:Oh, that's great. We use Slack and we have a channel dedicated just to testimonials. And we receive hundreds of testimonials daily about women that have taken our products and it sounds so cheesy, but they say it's changed their lives. And I understand that. It did for me. That's why I started this company. There's this one woman that had, I think, something around 17 or 18 miscarriages and was just really down on herself. And we just found out that she just had a baby. And so it's just so exciting to see these women who, you know, everyone's going through something, right? We all have something that we're dealing with.

19:20Amy Suzanne Upchurch:And when you see, you get to see firsthand the experience of people using a product that you had a little part to play in helping them achieve some of their goals in life. And it's so incredible. And I'm so honored and blessed and humbled that God continues to use Pink Stork as a vehicle of good for, you know, for women's lives here on earth.

19:45John Lee Dumas:So for the women who are listening and they're navigating motherhood, and also, of course, for those fathers out there like myself who are navigating fatherhood, let's talk about one message that you want to leave for them today, specifically around what you do, of course, with Pink Stork.

20:00Amy Suzanne Upchurch:Yeah, I would say a message of hope that, you know, just where you are today isn't the end. You're just on a journey. So I encourage people to take action, to empower themselves with knowledge and resources to getting to where they're trying to go, what their goals look like for their lives. You know, I don't believe in passively sitting back. Trust me, I've been there in the hospital bed when you just want to give up and doctors are telling you, yep, you've got 24 hours to live. Like you can't give up. I would say really hold on to hope and know that, you know, this is just part of the journey and it might stink right now, but this is not where it ends for you.

20:46John Lee Dumas:Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And you've been hanging out with ASU and JLD today, so keep up the heat. and Amy if Fire Nation those listening right now they want to connect with you if they want to take the next step what is your call to action for our listeners today?

21:05Amy Suzanne Upchurch:Check out pinkstork.com you can follow us on all of our socials so TikTok, Instagram you can check out my personal socials as well I love to share behind the scenes and you can get a real authentic look at my life and behind the scenes with the kids the family, the work, all of it at amy.suzanne on TikTok and Instagram as well.