People have been enjoying the benefits of saunas for centuries, but it is the recent addition of infrared light that has multiplied their health benefits. HigherDOSE is providing all of those benefits to customers at their 11 locations, 9 of which are in NYC, and the 2 others are in New Jersey and Connecticut. Founders Lauren Berlingeri and Katie Kaps explain how they launched Higher DOSE, and they dive into the science behind the efficacy of infrared saunas, how it improves your body and mood, who can most benefit from them, and what’s next for this growing company.

In this deep dive, you will learn …

What is HigherDOSE and how does infrared help (0:18)

• Infrared spa with 11 locations
• Infrared gets you high, but not like that … actually, it is like that and it is because it lowers cortisol and increases serotonin
• IR detoxes you, increases blood flow and circulation, gives you glowing beautiful skin
• Increases heart rate to the pace of a jog so you are burning calories and releasing endorphins

Getting started and the hustle of startup life (1:52)

• Lauren was recommended infrared sauna by a doctor after experiencing issues relating to hormones and sleep
• Lauren and Katie met through a mutual friend and developed the business together
• Went through startup growing pains and adjusting the business model and the cure, no surprise, was always getting back into an IR sauna and feeling better
• Difficulties in raising funds initially

Who should try an infrared sauna (11:22)

• Everyone, especially those looking to improve their skin, lose weight, reduce stress, those with chronic disease like Lyme disease or MS

How does infrared work (12:23)

• The light and heat penetrates your body three inches deep, which moves water molecules, which then push out the toxins stored deep below the surface
• Speeds up heart rate to increase blood flow and circulation
• Benefits of the sun without the harmful rays
• If you take a cold shower falling an IR sauna, it boosts immunity, provides lymphatic drainage, cardiovascular benefits

The future of infrared (14:39)

• This is just getting started
• IR is part of a larger movement of solutions that make people feel better and people are looking for this
• Sauna use has shown a decrease in mortality rates
• it is normal in countries all over the world for people to have saunas in their home and there will be a trend towards that in the US

What are your personal stacks (17:57)

• Lauren: Infrared sauna, rebounder, workout with bands, dry brush, oil massage, cold shower, coffee colonic, conscious of food intake
• Katie: Treadmill base, dry brush, oils, cold shower, body scrubs, hard workout, infrared sauna, magnesium float tank, intellectual stimulation

The future of HigherDOSE (25:37)

• Other competition is entering, but those are opportunities to sell their product to them
• At-home is a huge market, especially with their sauna blanket
• Their saunas get hotter, are of higher quality, incorporate additional technology
• HigherDOSE should be a trusted brand and household name
• Opening locations in multiple cities, nationally and internationally

Full Transcript

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Lauren B.: HigherDOSE is an infrared spa. We have 11 locations. It’s a spa that’s focused on getting you high naturally and making you look and feel amazing.

Saad Alam: Okay? What does that mean, getting someone high naturally?

Katie K.: So, actually, infrared lowers cortisol and increases serotonin. Serotonin’s one of your main happy chemicals. So, after you do an infrared sauna session, you feel high.

Saad Alam: Really? Literally you feel high.

Katie K.: You literally feel high.

Saad Alam: Okay.

Lauren B.: You feel so good that you feel euphoric and when you feel so good, you’ll also look so good. Not only does the infrared sauna make you feel amazing, but it makes you look amazing.

Lauren B.: It works on the epidermis of the skin. Detoxes you. Increases blood flow and circulation. Makes your skin dewy, glowing, and beautiful. People see that all in one session.

Saad Alam: What else does it do for you?

Katie K.: Well, it’s kind of like a workout without working out because it increases your heart rate to the pace of a light jog. So, that’s actually burning calories and releasing endorphins, which is another reason why it gets you high. You get that runner’s high from the session.

Saad Alam: Okay.

Lauren B.: Effortlessly.

Saad Alam: I’m sorry, say that again.

Lauren B.: Effortlessly. You’re just sitting there relaxing, enjoying music, and you’re getting a workout and burning calories. It’s pretty awesome.

Katie K.: Yeah. You get to be your own personal DJ in our sauna ’cause you can plug in music. You get to choose your medical grade LED light therapy. So, you can choose a blue, which is super calming, a red, which is energizing, a purple, which connects you to your higher spiritual self, a green, which promotes creativity.

Katie K.: You can really have a lot of fun with that element of the experience.

Saad Alam: Wonderful. What inspired you guys to start this?

Lauren B.: I came across infrared maybe four years ago. I, at the time, was struggling with acystic acne. I was working out way too much. I was having all these hormonal and, I guess you can say, like stress issues. So, I would wake up in the middle of the night needing to drink something just to put myself back to sleep.

Lauren B.: I was introduced to this amazing doctor that was like, ‘You really need to try the infrared sauna and work out less because you’re going to get the same feeling without having to put your body through that stress’. It actually does the opposite, instead of fight or flight, puts you in rest and digest.

Lauren B.: Tried the sauna, absolutely fell in love with it. My skin was glowing. I slept like a baby that night and was immediately hooked. So, I researched it and then I couldn’t believe the list of amazing benefits that it did for people. I didn’t understand why everyone didn’t know about this. How is everyone not doing this?

Lauren B.: It was that day that I knew I wanted to start something with infrared and that’s when I met Katie.

Katie K.: Yeah.

Katie K.: Lauren told me about her idea, which I thought sounded super interesting. Then I actually tried the sauna one time and I felt like I’d run six miles without doing anything.

Katie K.: So, I was immediately addicted and was super excited that Lauren picked me to help her with this.

Saad Alam: How did you guys know each other before?

Lauren B.: We didn’t, actually. I used to work at a startup called Aloha and one of the colleagues, one of my colleagues there, actually met Katie at a restaurant. He was telling her about his idea and he’s like, ‘You really should come to this meeting with me’. I’m like, ‘Perfect’.

Lauren B.: So, I showed up. I listened to their meeting and then afterwards I told her about my idea. It just resonated with her a lot more, I think. She went and tried it, like she said, and fell in love just like I did. It was like, that was it. We were business partners the very next day and we haven’t stopped working together all day everyday since.

Saad Alam: There wasn’t like a co-founder dating phase at all?

Katie K.: We just jumped right in.

Lauren B.: I mean, there’s always like a co-founder dating phase. If at any point things weren’t going to work between us, then it’s not gonna happen. But, Katie and I went through this whole process and I think the one thing that we always found in common is anytime we were stressed out, we didn’t feel like the business was going to go anywhere, we didn’t have any money, we both were giving up a lot to do this company, we would go in the infrared sauna and both fall in love with it over and over and over and over again.

Lauren B.: It was the most biggest sign that you could ever have is when we can’t stop telling each other how much we love our infrared sauna.

Katie K.: We still talk about it.

Lauren B.: Yeah.

Katie K.: We’re still like, that session was so great. Can’t believe how I feel.

Lauren B.: Can’t believe I haven’t done it in three days.

Saad Alam: How did you guys build this business?

Katie K.: Well, I’m not gonna lie, the early days were tough because first of all, our business model was not exactly what it is today. We originally started off installing infrared heating systems into yoga studios. After doing that for a few months, we realized it wasn’t a great model because yoga studios don’t tend to have a lot of excess cash to invest in something like this and every job’s a custom job.

Katie K.: So, it just, it really wasn’t scalable. It was really hard to prove out that model. We are also talking to investors and it took us probably like 70 or 80 meetings with investors before we got our first small chunk of cash.

Katie K.: So, that was definitely a trying period. But, I’m glad that we stuck with it and we pivoted our model to something that brings in more cashflow immediately. Yeah, I think now we’re on to something.

Lauren B.: Yeah. It was also really hard and I think a lot of entrepreneurs can resonate with this, but Katie and I both have very strong backgrounds in very different avenues in, in lines of work. I’m a nutritionist, health coach. I was a TV host and had a little experience in startups.

Lauren B.: Katie was investment banker. She has a lot of experience in startups. She was second in command at the San Francisco Marathon. So, for us to both give up that and focus 100% on this was very heavy for the both of us, especially at the very beginning when you’re not actually making any money, for the first what year and a half, two years?

Katie K.: Yeah. Year and a half probably.

Lauren B.: So, that was a very interesting time and it actually brought us closer together and now we’re the most solid ever.

Lauren B.: But, I can tell you there was times where we were fighting in the streets and arguing and she was upset at me because I was going away for three days and I wasn’t going to tell her, but I just needed to get away. I’m upset at her ’cause she hasn’t answered emails and in a few days.

Lauren B.: Whatever it was, there was always something. It’s just really difficult when you don’t have the success. You don’t have the money. You don’t have the fame of having a cool company and you’re just putting so much into this and you don’t know if it’s gonna work out.

Lauren B.: So, hopefully that’s helpful to anyone, but we both went through a lot.

Katie K.: Yeah. I think it’s good that we went through all that early on because we learned how to fight, if you will, which is important with the co-founder. It’s like you, you understand what triggers the other person. You understand each other’s habits and then you can kind of anticipate your working patterns and what’s gonna, what are pain points for each of us.

Katie K.: So, now I think we just have a good understanding of each other. If we do disagree on something, we address it right away and talk about it. We don’t let things bottle up and become big problems.

Lauren B.: Yeah. And we’re aligned in front of our staff always. That’s always a big thing.

Saad Alam: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Saad Alam: I can remember the first time I raised capital, the first $50,000 check that came in, how I felt like we just cracked a huge code. After that first one, they just started kind of just rolling in. For us it was two years before we made a drop.

Saad Alam: You’re just like, you’re sitting out there, what the fuck am I doing? There’s $2 million on my balance sheet. I haven’t shipped a product yet.

Saad Alam: What’s one of those stories where you felt like everything was just falling apart but you guys decided to stick it out? What does that, what does that coming to Jesus moment? I’m guessing, guessing you’ve had a couple of those.

Lauren B.: Yeah. A lot of it was actually money related. It’s really hard to raise money without proving out the concept. So, it was like the chicken or the egg, right? They want you to prove out the concept, but yet you have no money.

Lauren B.: So, I think initially, it was the hardest to try to get friends and family on board. That for me personally, that was really hard for me to ask. Tons of ego, but also, I don’t have a crazy track record of selling off all of these companies.

Lauren B.: So, for me to start and ask friends for money, it’s very difficult. For me, I think that was probably the moment where I really had to get over a lot of insecurities and get over my ego and just sit there and really sell my dream and that I was the right person for it. We had a lot of friends and family that did invest, which allowed us to open up our first location.

Lauren B.: But, looking back on it, if I had to do that again, oh my God. It’s so exhausting.

Katie K.: I think I, yeah, I don’t know if we’d have it in us again. Maybe. If the idea’s good enough.

Katie K.: But, yeah, I mean, I think there were probably almost close to like a year after we met, we still hadn’t got our first check. We were still taking meetings all the time. We ended up installing a heating system in the studio in Seattle and they ha-, they returned it, so we ended up losing like 20 grand on the deal.

Katie K.: The only thing that we just kept pushing and we were writing articles for mindbodygreen. That was the biggest thing we had going. I, I remember I was like, I had a conversation with Laura and I’m like, ‘I just don’t think I can do it anymore. Just buy me out for like 10,000 dollars’ or something like that.

Lauren B.: I was like, ‘10,000 dollars!’

Katie K.: You’re like, ‘I don’t have to have 10,000 dollars’. No, I’m just kidding.

Katie K.: Then, I, at that time a friend reached out and she was like, ‘I just wanted to let you know that I bought a treadmill desk because of you and you’ve inspired me’. I got that text message right at the right time where I’m like, ‘Okay. People care about what we’re doing. This is gonna work. We just have to keep going. This is good for people’.

Katie K.: So, I think it was important to get those messages from the universe at the tough times.

Saad Alam: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Saad Alam: What have other people said after they use this?

Lauren B.: Addicted.

Katie K.: Obsessed.

Lauren B.: High.

Katie K.: Coming back tomorrow.

Lauren B.: Yeah.

Katie K.: Feel like you’re floating.

Lauren B.: My skin … They’re like, people compliment me on my skin immediately, after one session. That’s always the biggest. It’s like, ‘Oh’. For me personally, going into the sauna, I can come, go in there like anxiety, stressed out, miserable, not happy and I come out floating like an angel.

Lauren B.: I’m like making eye contact and I’m like, everything for me, all the stress just melts away. I feel so calm and connected and I see that happen to every single one of our clients that comes out after, whether they know it happened or not. A lot of them are not aware that that happened.

Lauren B.: But, that’s the most gratifying thing is to see people come out and just floating, especially living in New York City. It’s so hard to live here, you know? It’s so hard to just stay calm. I always leave New York and then I’m so calm living in LA for a little bit. I’m like, ‘I’m gonna bring this back and keep this energy while I’m, ’cause I’m feeling so good’.

Lauren B.: Then, it goes away immediately. It’s just so hard to keep that energy here.

Saad Alam: Whats, how, who are the people that use this?

Lauren B.: Everyone.

Katie K.: Yeah. Infrared, literally, has so many benefits that there’s something for everyone. So, like Lauren was saying, it makes your skin look amazing. It helps with weight loss. So, it’s popular amongst a lot of entertainment people and models, industry folks.

Katie K.: But, it also distresses you and calms you and gives you a clear mind. So, it’s popular amongst stressed out business people, sales people, finance people.

Katie K.: Then it was really helpful for those that unfortunately have a chronic illness like Lyme disease or MS. It helps detoxify you of whatever’s going on in your body and helps ease those symptoms.

Lauren B.: It’s so gentle and so safe that even if you’re, you have a chronic illness, you can still use it up to two times a day, which is such a beautiful thing to have such an impact, but also have something that’s so gentle, too, at the same time.

Saad Alam: Do you guys, and we don’t have to film this, do you guys understand the mechanism of action and how this thing works?

Lauren B.: Yeah, I would hope so.

Saad Alam: Yeah. Okay.

Saad Alam: So, how does it, how does it actually work?

Katie K.: Infrared’s an invisible light. It’s on the light spectrum and it’s also heated. It’s basically penetrating your body three inches deep and that is actually moving water molecules under the surface of your body. Then those water molecules are pushing out toxins that are stored deep below the surface.

Katie K.: And at the same time, it’s speeding up your heart rate to the pace of a light jog. So, that’s increasing blood flow and circulation to all different parts of your body. So, it’s great for muscle recovery. That’s what’s making your skin look amazing, et cetera.

Lauren B.: Yeah. Like Katie, Katie said, it’s ultimately a light therapy, right?

Saad Alam: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lauren B.: So because it mimics the sun’s rays, you get a lot of the benefits that you would get from the sun, but without, without the harmful UV rays. So, your eye picks up on the invisible light spectrum. It releases serotonin, just like it does in the sun, which is such a beautiful thing, right?

Saad Alam: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lauren B.: You know when you’re outside on a sunny day, the sun starts to warm your body, how the pain and aches kind of go away. You feel calm and relaxed. It’s why we all spend the money to go lay on the, in the sun in Miami, you know? It’s not just the suntan, it’s actually the feeling.

Lauren B.: You know how sometimes you, you feel happier when you’re in the sun, too. It takes away seasonal affective disorder and, and, but then, there’s all the bad things that come with the sun, where this has actually zero bad.

Lauren B.: So, you can do it over and over again and you won’t get a sunburn. You won’t find that it’s gonna ruin your eyes or whatever negative things come from the sun. We get all the positive things with infrared.

Saad Alam: Tell me, how do people, do they … Can they stack it with other modalities? Do they use this by, by itself? How often do people actually come in and use it?

Katie K.: Well, we’re a big fan of hot and cold therapies, so we recommend an ice cold shower after your infrared sauna session because that’s just gonna make you feel even higher. It’s gonna boost immunity. It’s basically taking the blood flow that’s just been circulating all throughout your body and bringing it back to your internal organs.

Katie K.: So, all of that’s helping with cardiovascular help, health, lymphatic drainage.

Lauren B.: Inflammation, which is a big one.

Katie K.: Inflammation.

Lauren B.: And just elevating your mood, ultimately. Who doesn’t want to feel better, right?

Saad Alam: Yep. Who doesn’t.

Saad Alam: Where do you see this industry going? Is this like a fad [crosstalk 00:14:39]?

Lauren B.: No, this is just the beginning. I think, more than ever, I see people talking about what they’re eating, how they’re working out. I’m meditating. I just did this breath work. All of this stuff has now become cool.

Lauren B.: I feel like people connecting to their consciousness and realizing that they have the choice to feel good and, and look a certain way that they want is, it’s so freeing. It’s so powering to people.

Lauren B.: So, I feel like this is just the beginning. I feel like we only have a fraction of the amount of things that we, we only have a fraction. We only have a certain amount of knowledge and things that are out there, but there’s so many amazing things out there that actually make you feel great and look great. Infrared’s just one of them. It’s been around for over 30 plus years.

Lauren B.: It’s not something that’s new, it’s just been used when people get sick. I think now that there’s this big movement around not waiting until you get sick in order to do something about it, but rather how do we optimize? How do we feel our best? How do we continue to feel our best? How do we prevent disease?

Lauren B.: These are all new questions that actually everyone, I shouldn’t say everyone, but a lot of people are really getting into. I think that this is only the beginning and it’s just about to explode.

Katie K.: Yeah and so many studies are coming out about how regular sauna use it decreases the risk of cardiovascular death. It decreases overall mortality rates. So, now we know that it’s actually just this amazing way to heal naturally and it’s very preventative.

Katie K.: If you look at Europe, say Finland, Germany, one in four homes has a sauna in it and we see that eventually the US will catch up. So, we do really see this as the beginning.

Lauren B.: It’s Russia, Turkey, Canada, a lot of countries all around the world have been using hot and cold therapy for centuries. This is not a new thing.

Lauren B.: The difference between female biohackers and male biohackers, what men are trying to do and their goals versus what women are trying to do. Katie and I feel like there’s such an opportunity to really talk about that because it is very different. I’m not doing five sets of five, heavy lifting to my max. It’s not interesting to us.

Lauren B.: We do talk more about PRP and face lasers versus needing to be on this ketogenic diet and maybe intermittent fasting is actually not that good for female endocrine systems and hormones. So, there’s so many questions out there and we feel like we’re totally female biohackers.

Lauren B.: We don’t always like the name biohacker because it kind of gets a little twisted, especially for women because we look at it and we’re like, ‘Oh, that’s awful. It’s so extreme. Is it really good for you? Are you gonna be relying on it’? There’s so many more questions that women tend to ask versus what men tend to ask.

Lauren B.: So, we consider ourselves to be female biohackers and the reason why we really haven’t done much more, other than infrared, it ’cause there’s not really that many therapies and technologies out there that we fully 100% believe in with our whole entire body. There’s some that are out there that are kind of good for this type of person or do this testing and figure out if it works for you.

Lauren B.: But, the infrared sauna, it’s good for everyone.

Saad Alam: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Saad Alam: What are the … So, I kind of look at it as a stack. So, [inaudible] from products, modalities, therapies that anyone is using at any given time. What are your personal stacks?

Lauren B.: With the, around the infrared sauna?

Saad Alam: Just you, anything.

Lauren B.: Okay.

Lauren B.: My favorite stack would be, I do the infrared sauna. I jump on my rebounder at home. I’ll do-

Saad Alam: What’s a rebounder for people?

Lauren B.: It’s a trampoline that drains your lymphatic system. So, work out-

Saad Alam: Mm-hmm (affirmative). So, you jump up and down in your living room?

Lauren B.: Yeah. Well I, yeah, I have bands and everything at home. So, I’ll do a band workout, takes like 40 minutes. Then I have my rebounder and I do that in between and then at the very end. Then I go in my infrared sauna and I do dry brushing while I’m in there.

Lauren B.: Then I go into the shower and I do the oil massage. Then I try to end with it cold and then I’ll do a coffee clonic.

Saad Alam: Okay. Then what about, how do you eat? Are there any other supplements you’re taking?

Lauren B.: I mean, eating for me is a lifestyle. I don’t even think about it. It’s never a diet or trend or a detox. I used to be much more obsessed with that. But for me, I naturally want to eat well all the time.

Lauren B.: So I’m, I’m not plant based only, but I like grass fed, organic, highest quality. I eat maybe 70% vegetables. I eat maybe five to ten percent fats, based on my genetics, and a ton of water. I really am not a big fan of sugar. I do have fruit.

Saad Alam: Okay. What about, how do you sleep? Any kind of mindfulness techniques you use?

Lauren B.: I’m an amazing sleeper. I’ve always been an amazing sleeper. I feel it’s a result of a very healthy lifestyle. I’m not a big person, I don’t care to be on my phone past six or seven o’clock. My brain doesn’t work that wells and I don’t, I feel exhausted. It takes me five times as long to write an email than it does in the morning.

Lauren B.: So, getting off technology at a certain time, that’s a big one for sleep, I feel like. But, just being all around, I think healthy helps you really optimize sleep.

Saad Alam: What about you Katie? What’s your stack?

Katie K.: I’ve tried to put together a little routine that I can do at home, so that even before I leave my house, I’ve got a little bit of a buzz going. Usually I wake up, have water or coffee and then I actually have a small, just treadmill base in my apartment.

Katie K.: So, I’ll just try and get in even half a mile, a mile, while I’m doing emails on my phone. It’s just a good way to get a little pep going. Then like Lauren, I’m now addicted to dry brushing and oils, so I will dry brush and then put on a castor oil before I get in the shower. Or do an ice cold shower and then use all kinds of coffee body scrubs and peppermint body scrubs. That’s just gives you this effervescence, right?

Katie K.: Then when I get out of the shower, I put on more body oil and then that’s kind of my at home pick me up. Then I love to get in some kind of hard workout during the day. So, maybe it’s running a couple miles, doing the stair stepper, doing SLT, which is a really intense Pilates workout.

Katie K.: Then, I like to recover either with the infrared sauna or I’m big into magnesium float type things. So, I like to get body scrubs with a lot of magnesium or I like to do the float tank. Then, watch Gaia TV, which is my new crunchy granola.

Lauren B.: I knew she was gonna say that.

Katie K.: It’s my latest obsession is quantum communication. So, I just then try and get as weird as possible intellectually. Yeah, that’s it.

Saad Alam: Respect that.

Saad Alam: What is it that you would look to optimize next on yourself, with yourself?

Lauren B.: Everything. I mean we’re women. It’s obvious. I think women always think about a few things. Beauty is a big one. So, looking younger and fresher and glowing and hydrated, I think is a big one.

Lauren B.: Then for me personally, I’m always working on being softer and warmer and empathetic and more caring versus actually what is very easy to me, which is aggressive, getting things done, very hard on myself, hard on other people. Which is why I don’t like a lot of these biohacking things like intermittent fasting while drinking fat coffee ’cause I’m insanely aggressive.

Lauren B.: She knows. So, I’m working on that energy and then optimizing my brain, too, is a big one. I want to optimize energy, brain concentration, focus, and just being present.

Saad Alam: What about you, Katie?

Katie K.: Yeah, I think, along the lines of just energy, I think it’s really important to have some kind of a gratitude practice. It just makes us feel healthier and more inspired.

Katie K.: So, I’ve been trying to focus on that and then also giving back, realizing that we’re women that have done well and trying to set a good example for other female entrepreneurs or people that are less fortunate. I think we want to use the business as a platform to give back, which I know that doesn’t seem directly correlated to health, but I think it’s our emotional health is such a big part of our physical health.

Katie K.: So, I want to focus on those emotions.

Saad Alam: Do you guys use BestSelfCo by any chance?

Lauren B.: I love journaling and I love the, the practice of gratitude. I think it’s absolutely amazing. I just introduced Katie to the six phase meditation, which is big around gratitude as a big part of the practice.

Lauren B.: So, journaling’s also really cool, too, but you can do it in any journal. You don’t really need a branded journal.

Saad Alam: ‘Cause, ’cause, I think if you were incredibly deliberate in figuring out where you want to be, you can completely get yourself.

Lauren B.: Totally.

Katie K.: Wow.

Saad Alam: Completely.

Lauren B.: I’m, I’m all about that. It’s knowing exactly what you want and you’ll get it.

Saad Alam: Yes.

Lauren B.: It’s their number one rule, the rule of manifestation. I think that it takes time to connect with yourself to really figure it out what it is that truly drives you, what makes you the happiest, the most fulfilled. You need sometimes a therapist and journaling and meditation and Ayahuasca and whatever it is to get you there.

Lauren B.: But, when you do know what that is and you’re clear on that and you’re everyday driving towards that and you’re like, ‘Is this taking me closer to the, to that goal or is it not? Is it a wasting my time’? You will get that. It’s the number one thing of manifestation is just knowing what you want.

Lauren B.: I don’t think people truly understand that.

Saad Alam: I couldn’t agree more and I think that when I figured out what it was that I want, it’s like you have complete clarity. Everything else has is just pushed aside and every single day when you wake up you’re like, ‘I know the kind of person I’m supposed to be’.

Lauren B.: Yeah.

Saad Alam: ‘Got a million texts last night. I had weird conversations a day before with business partners’.

Lauren B.: Yeah.

Saad Alam: ‘Don’t let those emotions cloud you in. Just focus on who that person is-

Lauren B.: Yeah.

Saad Alam: … and focus on surrounding yourself with the people that help you’.

Lauren B.: Exactly. That’s an even bigger one.

Saad Alam: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Lauren B.: We don’t realize how many energy vampires are around us and how we waste our time just trying to be polite and, and you could still be polite but you don’t have to go out and network we used to 10 years ago in New York. It just doesn’t happen like that. We always talk about alignment over force and if you’re just in the right place, doing the right things with the right intentions, how that attracts in exactly what you need.

Saad Alam: What’s the alignment right now in this business? ‘Cause, ’cause you’re being very, it feels like, you’re being very deliberate in the way that you’re building this business and it has a very specific feel to it. Right? I have a friend that just bought three infrared sauna clinics in Austin and there’s another kind of, we’ll say big box retailer in southern California that’s pushing these across the southwest.

Saad Alam: What’s the feel that you want to go for here?

Lauren B.: Yeah. So for us, number one alignment is, Katie and myself being aligned. If we weren’t aligned, that would be exhausting for the both of us. So, we realize that everyone’s opening up infrared sauna spas, and we’re not trying to stop anyone because we feel like everyone needs to be doing that. Right?

Lauren B.: What we feel like we do the best is we have the best sauna and we also have the best sauna blanket. We hope all those people that open up locations come to us because our saunas get hotter. They go to one seventy four. They release heat shock proteins, which is huge.

Lauren B.: Ours have medical grade chroma light therapy. They are more commercially made and they have a swivel iPad in there for amazing high frequency content that Katie and I are going to curate and create ourselves. Those are some big points, right?

Lauren B.: For all the people that aren’t starting businesses with them and just want one for their home, if you’re an extremist like myself or many other people out there, if you’re sick, having an infrared sauna in your home is key.

Lauren B.: But also, if you’re, if you don’t have the space for it or you don’t have the money for it, our infrared sauna blanket is the ultimate solution to have the access to infrared in your own home.

Lauren B.: So, we want to make infrared a household name. We want everyone to be doing it because, like Katie said, if you do-

Katie K.: We want HigherDOSE to be a household name.

Lauren B.: Okay. We want HigherDOSE to be a household name because ultimately if you’re doing infrared three, four times a week, like Katie said, it’s so good for your heart. So good for Alzheimer’s, dementia, downing all cause mortality, detoxification, relaxation, amazing skin.

Lauren B.: This is not something that is a fad. This is something that’s here and we’re here to help bring it to the world.

Katie K.: Yeah. And I think we’ve stayed really focused because we are fanatical about quality and what actually works and what kind of experiences we deliver to the customer. So, we’ve turned down a lot of opportunities that we just don’t feel like fit with our brand in terms of a location that’s not right. We’re very specific about who our partners are.

Katie K.: So, ultimately we want to be a trusted brand for infrared and also for products that get you high naturally. Pretty much at a certain point, just focus on bringing that into people’s homes, in their everyday life.

Saad Alam: This is … How many, so how many facilities do you guys have now?

Katie K.: 11.

Saad Alam: 11. Where are you guys looking to go next?

Lauren B.: In terms of city or in terms of business?

Saad Alam: City … I can already see when the way you’re talking about where you’re going to go next with the business. I have a, I have a, I have a guess.

Saad Alam: Where do you go in terms of locations? Where do you guys go with the business?

Katie K.: We’re really interested in building flagships in major metros. So LA, Chicago, Miami-

Lauren B.: San Francisco, London-

Katie K.: Toronto, London.

Lauren B.: For us personally, it’s been very time consuming to build our own locations and drop a lot of money in there when we could be putting that resources into other things.

Lauren B.: So for us, creating key partnerships, like Katie said previously, is the most important so that we can open flagships in luxury hotels and create amazing experiences and focus on the client. Then on the reverse, on the other side of the business, mainly like on our amazing products.