How This Creator Entrepreneur Is Disrupting Hormonal Wellness | Giselle Orentas, Balangy

0:00Giselle Orentas:Women with hormonal imbalance are typically given two options, medicalize it or quietly suffer through it. This creator is building a third, introducing Giselle Orentas. For over 20 years, Giselle had hormonal migraines every single month, right before her period. The kind that would completely shut her down. So she went looking for something that would actually help. And after years of research, she landed on one ingredient, wild jam. Within weeks of applying it to her skin, her mood swings started to disappear. Within three months, so did her migraines. And Giselle wanted to bring what she found to other women.

0:32Giselle Orentas:So she launched Balangie, a body oil formulated to support hormonal balance using only organic ingredients. And on today's episode of the Hot Start podcast, Giselle tells the full story. Giselle, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you so much for inviting me, Scott. Happy to be here. Yeah, I'm excited to talk about your company, Balangie. But before we do that, I actually want to start with your career as a content creator. because you have been creating content ever since 2013, which is a very long time ago. And you were actually creating content way before it was cool. So I'm curious, what initially inspired you to start creating content?

1:07Oh my God, it's being a content creator is such a rollercoaster. In 2013, it's like more than a decade now. You know, I used to say like, oh, it's been 10 years, but it's now been more than 10 years. And honestly, it really started very organically. I, for many years, I worked at this construction business, you know, selling diamond blades and cord drills, like in that construction, you know, industry. And then I was also going to college. And then I graduated finally took me so long to graduate, by the way, it was honestly, I feel like now I can say at 41, like so many things I did just to validate the approval of my dad, you know or something like there's such a structure of like going to school and finish it like I don't remember anything that that happened in college or that I learned in college by the way but what I do like is that I completed something I feel like if I have to take something of that is that I completed it and then I graduated from college and I'm like no I definitely do not want to stay here and then I was just like I was so lost I didn't know what to do like I just didn't know So I quit.

2:14And then I like I have so many jobs. Like I even worked one year at Starbucks. And then the owner of the company called me after a year later. And I'm like, he's I'm like, I do not want to go back. I just don't want to be in that industry anymore. But he told me something. And my soul was like, you have to be there. And he told me like his dogs had cancer and he started giving them like raw food, like the healthiest food ever for dogs. So that inspired him to eat healthier and go on like a raw vegan diet. And he took what he was doing to the company. So he hired a raw food chef and anybody could join the program.

2:57So he was explaining me all of these things that everybody started selling more because they felt so good. And that is what called me to go back to work there. And my soul needed to, like my soul was telling me like, Giselle, you need this cleanse, you know? So after a week of working and being in that like food program, I just started sharing it. I started, I opened an Instagram. I was sharing my wheatgrass shot, my celery juice. And this was back in 2013. I was showing my carrot juice, my meals. And I started giving tips of spirulina and chlorella and all the popular superfoods, you know. And somebody told me, you know, you should be a health coach.

3:41And I'm like, I didn't even know what that was. And then, yeah, I became a certified health coach and really, you know, rooted giving tips and coaching and online courses and membership and all the things that are digital that are so popular right now. I did it like since that time. That's how it's done. Hey, quick one before we get back to the episode. If you love conversations like this one, you would love The Fame Game, our weekly newsletter in which we break down how celebrities and creators build billion dollar brands. Sign up for free via the link in the description. And now back to the episode.

4:14Yeah, very interesting story. And what type of content did you initially post and how has that evolved over time? I understand like the topic is all about health, but were there specific formats that you were like executing on? No, I didn't actually like there is nothing business oriented. There was nothing execution. There was just literally no strategy. Like back then, I was just, you know, it started sharing what I was eating, health tips, just about wellness in general, the dangers of GMO. That was something that I was very passionate about on the importance of eating organic and no pesticides.

4:49So I was like very like an act to really share of like, you know, like some things of the food industry that I learned and I was in shock. Like, I can't even believe this. And then, you know, it started evolving as me because for one year, I didn't show my face. And then after 10 months, a lot of people are like, we want to see the face like the avatar of the person who's giving all these tips. And then finally, I showed my face. And after that, I started sharing more of like, like, inner thoughts and relationship things that were happening. And then I started like really building the trust and the community.

5:26And now really it's being a content creator as a whole, sharing everything as a human and also as a founder. So yeah, I feel like it's always, you know how women always change? Like it's constantly changing. Yeah. Yeah. Was there a specific reason why you didn't want to show your face? And then also the moment that you start showing your face, did you see that your kind of audience started to exponentially grow? You know, I didn't want to show my face. I think first because of insecurity reasons. Second, I was in a relationship that it was not like the most healthy one. And I was kind of like afraid of the way that it was going to be perceived by him.

6:11You know, even though he knew what I was doing, I think he was happy that I was not showing my face, you know, because he never told me like, yeah, you should show your face. And then one day I feel like and it happened. It was like a click. It was a moment of click when I was becoming a certified health coach and I was like learning that the primary food is really what happens outside of the plate. I was just really scanning my life. And I think when I started noticing that this relationship, everything that I wanted to change in him, I needed to change in myself and really take decisions on my own.

6:45I feel like that's when I decided to show my face. You know, before you could grow so fast. like honestly and right now you can you can too a lot of people like the things that i was sharing they were like whoa like you know a lot of people were not sharing about spirulina about all these things so my my account was growing either i showed my face or or not people were interested on the tips and the things that i was sharing but yeah when i shared my face obviously like there were like other people that wanted to meet me and collaborate other creators and uh and then it started growing like a little faster.

7:19Yeah. And like you've officially built an audience of hundreds of thousands of followers and you've leveraged that to launch your own company. Was that kind of always part of the plan that you eventually wanted to launch your own company? I'm an entrepreneur at heart and I am so creative and I love to create. Like I always like to do different things. Like if I get bored of something, I need to pause it. And then if there's an idea, I just have to like start it, you know, like, I don't know if you know about human design, but my human design is a manifesto generator. So these ideas come to me as the titles, as the name, like Balanji was like literally channeled after a conversation with an amazing mentor.

7:59But I always thought that, yeah, I was going to have a product, but I didn't know what. There was a moment where I was excited to sell vegan protein. I was always sharing my smoothies and I'm like it just makes so much sense that I have my own vegan protein you know brand and then it just I wasn't excited about it anymore I think it was just like everybody had a vegan protein and I'm like I don't know it's like not something that maybe it was calling me anymore but after my divorce I really went into a transformation on all levels, like body, mind, soul. And I was already getting bored of the things that I was doing, like my digital courses, like membership, like I just wasn't feeling very passionate anymore.

8:45And honestly, and all my content was Spanish, by the way. And I was feeling the call to really change it in English. You know, I was born in Miami, but I grew up in Venezuela and then moved back to Miami in when I was 15 years old. So really, the English has always been part of me too. And, and honestly, as when I did the switch, like a lot of things started multiplying. And I also was really taking care of my health because my hormones were all over the place. And that's how biology came, you know, to to my life, I was really looking for things to to empower me to make me feel good. I didn't want to just put like a progesterone creamer or just something, you know, know, because I haven't even taken an Advil in so long.

9:31Like, I'm like, like, I have a like this, and let's take curcumin, you know. And yeah, I, I, that's when it came to me, like, wow, okay, this is, this is what I'm going to share. Because when I tried the, the first ingredient of the body oil while yam, when I tried it in my body, I was just like, I, I don't know, it just, it just, it was literally like something telling me Giselle this is your mission this is your mission yeah I love that and maybe like for the people that don't know what Balangie is exactly okay maybe like explain to them what it is and what is also that kind of aha moment where you were maybe experimenting in your own health journey you came across like a new ingredient and then you were like hey I should actually turn this into like a company?

10:19Yes. So Balangie is a premium body care for hormonal wellness. And it is basically for women to trust their bodies in any phase that we are going through transformation. So it could be, you know, like you're having PMS, you know, how can you hold space in that moment when you're transitioning also to perimenopause or even to menopause. My aha moment was when I was like on a mission, you know, when I'm like ready for something, like let's say I call on the universe and I say, and I know this is, but I believe in, you know, as you speak, you create, you know, it's like, you know, the abracadabra.

10:59That's what it means. Like what you speak, you create. And I was literally just saying to God, to the universe, I am ready to find something that will help me support my body. Like I'm tired and I can't believe this is happening. Like I can't believe I've had hormonal migraines since I was 20. And the only times that I didn't have hormonal migraines were when I was pregnant, when I was pregnant with both of my child. And I was just like, okay, let's do this. And then I started, you know, like information started coming in, you know, it could be from YouTube, from a book, from anywhere, you know, and then I tried it.

11:37I tried wild yam. And the second it touched my skin, I felt something. A week later, I was waking up with so much joy. And I had really bad mood swings, they would like go just very deep that I didn't want to get up and you know, out of my bed and things like that. And I know I went through a divorce and many things. But the thing is, while yam, what happened to me is that I just felt more joy. That like that moodiness, kind of like feeling like very bipolar. And it really can happen like as early in your early 30s. And it could be because of low progesterone or many an imbalance in your hormones.

12:14Honestly, there could be so many meanings of why you feel the lows. But in my case, I felt that it was very hormonal. And what happened too, that there was like, this was the most aha moment. After three months, I realized that I didn't have a migraine. And my migraines, I don't know if you've ever had a migraine. Yeah, my migraines and would hit right before my period. And it would be the ones that I would see like an aura, like I started seeing blurry, like the light, I had to turn off the lights and everything. And I didn't take a pill. Remember, I don't take medicine. So I would have to put like, I would have to get ice, put it in my where I was feeling like the vein and then just go to sleep.

12:57Mind you, I would have to call my ex telling him I having an episode. You have to pick up the girls. I have to go to sleep. There's just no way, you know. So this is still a pinch me moment that I just can't believe, you know, and I'm like, I need to I just need to share this. I need to create it, you know. And like what is the product really became a brand of just awareness and trust in your body. There are herbs that can hold space for transformations and honestly for healing. I don't know. I've been learning a lot of like the legal claims and things like that. But I wish I could like say other words and other things.

13:34But the truth is like there's like so many legal claims out there and a lot of things that I really do want to share. Like I just have to be careful with that wording. But yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. And you launched with One Skew, which is a buddy O. Who's like the perfect target audience and how should they actually use the product? So, you know, at first I wanted it to be a cream. At first I wanted it to be a cream and I contacted a few labs and I was just having a hard time finding a lab that didn't want to put so many ingredients to the cream. because I was already like on a mission. This needs to be fully organic or like at least like very, very clean, non-toxic.

14:15And then yeah, at one point I was just a little disappointed and I thought like this is not going to be like a thing that I can do. It's like this is like very hard, you know, to find a lab that can honor this. But then I found a lab and I told them my idea and I said, you know what, I want to start with a body oil. I want to start with a body oil, less ingredients and actually hormones are made out of fat so it actually makes sense to make a body oil because anything topical and like the wild yam it's going to just work better and it's going to activate better and also women need to connect with their bodies more too so when you are putting on a cream it's you're just not really connecting with your body but when you're putting a body oil, you really need to like touch it.

15:03And by touching and doing that, you also activate hormones. And yeah, you put it two times. A lot of people ask me, Giselle, should I be consistent with it? And I'm like, yeah, put it in the morning and you put it at night. And then when you're menstruating, you don't use it at all because the magic happens, you know, outside of the menstruation phase. And the women that do this and are very consistent, they see the benefits within weeks or the first cycle. And even somebody that is not consistent, they will tell me like, Giselle, I promise you, I wasn't so consistent. And I like the testimonies have been like so beautiful and so powerful.

15:37And that's exactly what Balanji is here for. Yeah. And do you plan to expand to like other products as well? And if so, like what product ranges do I need to think of? Yes, I actually have so many ideas. And yeah, I can't say a lot, But I can tell you that in a few weeks, we're launching our second product, which was supposed to be our third product. But the second product is just taking a little bit longer than expected. So I was just like, no, let's just do the third product. And if you think of a product that has been the number one category of hormonal imbalance because of ingredients like aluminum, what do you think it is?

16:21I would have no idea. A deodorant. okay so our second product is going to be not like regular deodorants out there it's going to be a night ritual like overnight deodorant while you sleep you're cleaning your underarm so the next day you don't need to wear a deodorant you don't need to mask anything all the cleaning is happening when you sleep and this has been tested for so long that even like boxing like like studios like gotham all of them have tested it including men and they're like so impressed like they're so they can't believe it you know and even i didn't know men were gonna like it because the the texture is a little softer than regular deodorants but i just want to and and this is how i am you know on the first product i had to make a lot of education because it's a new category and on this one i'm gonna have to also do a lot of education because we have been programmed, let's say, that we have to wear a deodorant during the day after this or before this so you don't smell.

17:28But the truth is we are not supposed to smell. We're not. So that's going to be the second product. Yeah, very interesting. And yeah, at the beginning, we already talked that you are a content creator too. You have built an audience of hundreds of thousands of followers. How have you been able to leverage that platform to launch and scale Balanji? You know, I'm so grateful because even though I had no idea that this was coming to my life, you know, Balanji, it's been also a learning journey for me where I had to educate a lot. And even at the beginning, a lot of people thought I was the creator for Balanji.

18:03And that had made me also think like, hold on, I need to share more content as the founder. And, you know, it's really funny, but sometimes ungluing what you've been doing for so long can be so tricky. It's not as easy as it sounds. So for me has been like a journey of of learning to talk as the founder of Balanji, you know, so it's kind of like something that I'm still learning. But my community has been so supportive and also a lot of new people have come, you know, from like word of mouth saying like, hey, I tried Balanji. So I'm so happy that I'm following you, you know, so it's kind of like an ecosystem.

18:44And I'm feeling like very, very grateful because sometimes in the content creation world, sometimes you are doing, doing, doing. And there comes a moment where you're like, hold on, but what I'm doing. And then I had to take a step back and then be like, oh, hold on. Yeah, I am doing something. I am doing something very, very special. Yeah. And content is obviously definitely helping with sales. Like the moment you talk about it, like more people see it and more people go to your website. And hopefully that is going to convert into sales. But I actually want to talk about that called community.

19:15How are you also leveraging that community in other aspects? Are you, for example, asking them feedback or like suggestions on naming, packaging, flavors, new products or whatsoever? You know, I haven't done it so much. I do want it. The thing is like, you know, you know how some brands just show everything behind the scenes and really do everything for me has been like, oh, my God, I'm doing so much that I don't even know how to, you know, and I feel like every founder is different. You know, some people do everything like like they don't share anything. I do little pieces here and there, you know, for somebody to know what I like, they would have to be following me on every and everywhere, you know, like on my podcast, YouTube, Substack, Instagram, TikTok, because I do a little bit of everything like in each platform.

20:01But to be honest, I actually want to do it with the deodorant. I'm going to do that. I'm going to do that because the deodorant has two things. One, it's not going to have essential oil. It's not going to have a smell because on this first round, I wanted everybody to understand that this deodorant doesn't have fragrance, doesn't have essential oil, and it will do the job. So that's going to be like the first round. And after that, I would love to know from the community if they want the same smell as the body oil because everybody loves it so much. Or if there's a particular smell that they would like to have like before they go to sleep, you know, Even though we don't use a lot of essential oil, like the percentage is very low.

20:43So yeah, I want to get that feedback if somebody likes more like lavender for going to sleep or things like that. And yeah, and to see how the feedback by being a stick is. So there's going to be a lot of involvement with the process of the packaging with the community very soon. Before we continue, I wanted to share something quickly. At Hot Start PC, we exclusively invest in brands founded by celebrities and creators. Think Selena Gomez, Jake Paul, Katy Perry. If you are an accredited investor and want to co-invest alongside us, we just launched Hot Start Angels, allowing you to invest in the same companies we bank, starting at just 5k per deal.

21:20Interested? Sign up at hotstart.vc slash angels

21:23Giselle Orentas:or find the link in the description. Accredited investors only. And now back to the episode. Yeah, I love that. And I think that's a very smart move. You're not the first creator that has launched your own company. Many celebrities and creators are nowadays launching their own company. What do you make of that whole trend? I believe. I believe that you can't force yourself to just sell something. It will come to you. It will come to you. Like I just think, you know, and I have incredible mentors and advisors and they're like investors too, you know? So a lot of them are just following my journey and none of them have told me, this is the formula, do this and you're going to rock the world.

22:04You know, no. they all are telling me what's the what's the quote now i forgot but like this look the slow wins the race i don't know there's like a quote i forgot about it but and they always tell me that every founder is going to go through their own journey so really there's no formula for for everybody everybody's going to have and more when it's a new category you know but i think that when you feel the call that you have something you know you should just do it and sometimes it doesn't have to be the best packaging to start you don't have to be and I'm talking I'm a very perfectionist person sometimes that with this deodorant I needed to drop that because I was like either I wait six more months to sell this deodorant or I'll just do a soft launch with a travel deodorant stick and let my community help me with how this is going to turn on.

22:57So I feel like there's no right way or wrong way as long as you really are passionate about it. It's something that you need to love and use. So it could be easy. I couldn't imagine if I didn't really use the body oil or didn't have my story. Sometimes we're sharing our story. Oh, because I'm a health coach And I've, you know, empowered so many women with their health that I can't share my story. I'm not allowed to have a human experience. No, we all go through changes and transformations. So it is okay to share your story. And from that, you can create a product. Why not? If it's truly, you know, aligned with what you believe.

23:43And yeah. Yeah, I think you're spot on. And I actually just wrote an article about this because one of my biggest frustration is that like after seeing the successes of like Hailey Bieber with Road and Kim Kardashian with Skims and George Clooney with Casamigos, almost every celebrity and creator was like, oh, I also want to launch my own company. And instead of thinking about, hey, what is that deep purpose and passion that I have? They were just about like, hey, what works well? Where can I kind of slap my name on? What can I white label and then be successful? And a lot of these celebrities and creators have no idea what's inside their products.

24:17and I think what I really like about your story is that and this is something I also read in an interview about you is like you really wanted to be high standards only organic ingredients so also when you started to reach out to a lot of manufacturers they were like sorry we can't help with this you've been also searching for two years for the right partners to actually help you develop this is it then sometimes frustrating for you to see a lot of these celebrities and creators trying to take shortcuts and launch companies that kind of no one asked for or doesn't come from any purpose or passion.

24:49Does it bother me? Yeah, especially because you have spent so much time on doing it the right way. Yeah, no, it doesn't bother me at all. Everybody has their own journey, like I said. And if somebody tomorrow decides to do something and they get a great partnership or something, that's their story, right? I think for me, I really wanted to go like, you know, I've received emails like I want to buy Balanji, but I want you to still be the face, you know? And I'm like, no, no, there's like a much larger purpose here. And I want to learn everything about the company. And one day I'm not going to be the CEO anymore.

25:37And I'm looking forward to that day, by the way. But I needed to live the experience. So I'm actually excited to really be in this journey. And if somebody doesn't have to go through this journey, I mean, that's fine too. I mean, maybe there are steps that I could have jumped, but I just don't feel that I've missed something. You know, I have like good people advising me and mentors and just kind of like following my journey. And yeah, I think we're doing it right. And if somebody partners, as easy as it sounds, I know there has been so much work behind just content creation and being a celebrity in general.

26:24There's just so much behind the scenes that God will not reward you with something that you're not ready to hold. And I feel that I've had to also earn in this life the capacity to subconsciously reprogram myself to hold space for all the things that are coming because it's very big. Yeah. Are there any celebrity or creative entrepreneurs that you take inspiration from? You know, you mentioned Kylie Bieber. And, you know, even though like it's yeah, it's like Kylie Bieber. And it's the I actually find it very even if it like I just I like the way that she is. I like the brand, even though I don't use the brand, you know, I'm very inspired by by the brands.