Life and Work with Valency Dahlen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Valency Dahlen. 

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Well, let’s just say when a creative and rebellious adrenaline junkie marries a free spirited world traveler things can get pretty interesting. After settling in to our quaint home in Arvada life seemed well…kinda monotonous. I worked a 9-5 job and Erik was doing some contract work. The day in day out just wasn’t our style so we decided to move to Costa Rica. We found Samara, a small family friendly surf town that was listed in the travel book as the “Black Hole Of Happiness” and started making plans to start our new flip flop family lifestyle. Little did we know that I was 5 months pregnant! Yep, 5 months! Without a blink we said ok, well, I guess we’re having a baby in Costa Rica! 

I am somewhat of a Jill of all trades. I started out as an elementary teacher turned massage therapist, turned yogi (and a bit of a personal transformation junkie) and always had a love of connecting with women around health and wellness. 

We knew we needed to figure out our next career moves, so we started playing around with the idea of diving into the baby/motherhood market since I was right in the thick of being a pregnant mom with a toddler. 

It all started to come together. I ran out of my prenatal vitamins and the protein shake I loved, and it was hard to get things shipped consistently let alone successfully to our small town in Costa Rica. I prefered getting my nutrients through whole foods rather than swallowing those awful horse pills, so I started creating my own prenatal green smoothies to get the essential vitamins and nutrients I knew I needed during my pregnancy. 

My first pregnancy was easy peasy, but my second one not so much. Then add on living in a new country while raising a toddler, I did not want to be chopping and concocting smoothies all the time. I just wanted something easy that gave me the nutritional assurance I needed. We searched for a prenatal shake like I was making online or in stores and did not exist so my husband and I decided to create it! 

We started brainstorming and developing our shake with help of Nutritionists, an OBGYN, Naturopaths, real moms and then eventually hired a formulation company to put together the ideal organic, whole food, prenatal nutrition shake. 

It needed to taste awesome and check all the boxes…plant protein, superfood blend (greens/fruits), prenatal vitamins, pre-probiotics, digestive enzymes, DHA, organic, Non GMO. The works! 

My husband, Erik has a biz development and marketing background so he started to teach me the ins and outs of marketing and encouraged me to start developing content, mainly on FB at that time. 

It started to get rough though…I was pregnant, with a toddler then I gave birth to my daughter, resulting in a severe back injury. I Herniated L4, L5 and S1. I was told only surgery would fix it, but I refused to believe that. I knew if I got surgery there was no going back. I knew as a massage therapist that I had options and I would try everything I could to heal. My husband was the behind the scene unsung hero that carried a lot of the weight of the biz while I was recovering. 

We moved back to Colorado to keep the biz going, get help for my back and share our new little girl, Brielle (the inspiration for our new biz, LuvBelly) with our friends and family. I tried everything to heal but nothing really helped. It was a frustrating and painful year long healing process. 

The pressure of living in a new country, raising a toddler and a newborn baby, starting a new biz, with a severe back injury and marital stresses weighing on me was almost unbearable. It was the hardest year of my life. I was drowning on so many levels. Trying to be good at everything, saying yes too much, pushing myself, not listening to my needs, not speaking my truth and not taking care of myself, too worried to address bigger issues in my marriage b/c of all we were invested in. Not the adventure I was hoping for, but just what I needed to get closer to my truth. 

Back In Colorado, the biz continued on and we were advised to order our own ingredients. Normally the manufacturer does all the ordering, tracking, analysis, testing, bottles, samples etc. So we chose to follow the advice given and have a hand in all the above. And while it was interesting and we developed relationships with our suppliers, we were not experts and unknowingly missed key pieces that came back to bite us later. 

We have 14 different suppliers and 19 ingredients. There was so much we did not know. We were told that manufacturers are not the most straight shooting sort of folk. That they are out to make money and we could get easily taken since we were new to the industry. So we tried to take what we could into our own hands… We didn’t know what we didn’t know. It put us in very tricky situations, and started us down a path of several unexpected setbacks. Ugh!! 

We got our first batch sample from the formulation company and it tasted awesome! We were so excited!!! We were off to manufacturing! Yahoo!!! This is really happening! 

Then the manufacturer did all the final testing (heavy metals, etc) and it all checked out fine BUT then when they sent us the final batch to taste, something was off. REALLY off. It tasted different from the original blend. AH!!! NO bueno, especially for prego women! It took us a while to figure out the culprit. Was it the DHA? Was the manufacturer skimping and switching out ingredients for cheaper ones? We finally found out that the weird taste was a result of green blend oxidizing and so the supplier had to reformulate our blend and it took several months. 

Then when we were finally ready to go to manufacturing… BAM….we found allergens (soy, dairy) in the formula. You’ve got to be kidding!!! We had to figure out new ingredients, new suppliers. More time, more money, more headache. 

We had a vision for what we wanted and did not want to settle so we worked tirelessly to correct issues the best we knew how. It took a long time to get things figured out, with designing our label, and ordering new ingredients to replace the ones with allergens. Meanwhile, other ingredients started to expire! 

In the meantime, Erik and I were working on building up our marketing, learning the ropes on the back end. In the midst of all this I learned to speak my truth on a level I never had before which resulted in an emotional healing of my back. 

It’s a longer story, but literally, I had a very deep and real conversation with my husband about things going on in our relationship and the next day the pain that persisted for a year was gone! CRAZY!!! As a massage therapist I had heard about emotional releases but I had never had one myself till now. It was truly a life transforming event. Hence my love and deep personal interest and passion for helping others especially mothers who are so selfless on a journey of self care and self love. 

I was feeling better but still not mentally functioning at peak performance with responsibilities of being a SAHM, hormones going crazy, learning curve with biz. etc. It took me quite a while to get in sync with everything and I was still learning as I went. 

Resolving issues with our formula lead to almost all our ingredients expiring. We tried to get extensions but do dice. All that was left was our green superfood blend – At least we have that! 

So…TA DA!!!! We are now releasing a pre/post natal green superfood powder called GOODNESS GREENS in 3-4 months! Whoo hoo!! 

We were actually going to release a green blend after the prenatal vitamin shake, as one of the key nutrients women are either missing or low in are greens. So it is a switch-a-roo, but that is just fine. 

We decided not to add any flavors so that it can be used in many different ways. It will add that much needed nutritional boost from pregnant and breastfeeding moms to a mother of three on the go. It can be added to smoothies, as well as any favorite soups and sauces. 

In the meantime we are reformulating our original Prenatal Nutrition Shake due to be released shortly after. It is truly a positive twist of fate as we have learned a lot and a lot has changed in the nutritional supplement industry the last 4 years since we started this journey. Now we can make our original shake even better than initially planned! 

It has been a journey of steep learning curves, perseverance, and dedication. Our formulation is better than we had started with but with a big cost to our pocket books and hard on our relationship as a couple in biz together. Fortunately, we have held strong as a company, biz partners and a married couple despite all the setbacks. We have done a lot of growing and are excited for what is to come! 

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Definitely not! Not knowing a lot about the industry and not sure who to trust was the biggest challenge. From faulty and incorrectly formulated ingredients, to maneuvering through the ups and downs of a business partnership as a married couple… all while trying to raise little humans… it has been rough to say the least. But, we have a vision and a commitment to release a product we’re proud of and we are doing whatever it takes to make sure our product rocks! With all the unexpected challenges we had to keep our cool and pivot, BIG time! 

Any advice for other women, particularly young women who are just starting their journey?
Stay true to what you believe in and don’t settle till it is right. Do your best to take care of yourself along the way so you don’t lose you. No biz is worth losing your health, relationships and integrity. BREATHE! Everything will work out, just maybe not the way you had planned. It may be even better than you could imagine. 

We’d love to learn more about your work. What do you do, what do you specialize in, what are you known for, etc. What are you most proud of as a brand, organization or service provider? What sets you apart from others?
I started out as an elementary teacher. I love kids and love teaching, but a full-time classroom of kids just was not a great fit for me. I always had a love of the healing arts, so I went to massage school and soon after got my yoga teacher certification in Hatha Yoga. Through these trainings and struggles with some health issues I developed a deep personal knowledge and love of health and nutrition. I learned how to heal myself in many ways through food, and various self care practices such as meditation, dance, breath and energy work. I believe that food, love and truth can be medicine for the body, mind and spirit. 

What am I known for? 

I would say that I am known as a connector. I love people and the stories that connect us. This is probably because I traveled a lot as a kid and had to make new friends everywhere lived. We lived in Samoa, Honolulu, Maui, and several mainland states. I truly enjoy learning about new cultures and experiencing new ways of thinking and living. Being a person who can connect someone with an idea, or a situation that will help them to get closer to living a life they love is very fulfilling for me. In most stories I hear from people (specifically mothers), there is usually a gap between where they are at in life and where they want to be. I feel a calling to help bridge that gap so they can not only live a life they love but then share their gifts with their families, communities and the world. I believe the world needs all of us to step in to our light and shine brightly so that we can lift each other up. 

I love the ongoing adventure of parenting. My kids are my gurus and parenting is my spiritual practice. Through miscarriages, pregnancies and severe postpartum struggles, self care has truly become my passion project. I believe that pregnancy is a powerful experience that can lead to mastering the self care necessary to survive AND enjoy parenthood. So in tandem with our Prenatal Nutrition Shake, this has lead me to help women design pre and post natal self care plans that allows them to have the best experience possible. 

A complimentary side project I am really enjoying is what I call a Content Co-Op group called Role Mamas. It is a private Facebook Group of Mama-preneurs who work together to support one another through various social media platforms. Motherhood while rewarding, can be very challenging especially when paired with being an entrepreneur (not to mention household duties and such…whew!) It’s just way more fun to engage with other women who are in similar situations working towards similar goals. I believe women/mamas need each other. There is a beautiful thing that happens when people (in this case mothers) come together with a common goal in support of one another. 

Our brand and product is dedicated to the self care of mothers. We offer lifestyle tips and easy and convenient ways to get premium pre/postnatal nutrition so women can get out and enjoy the adventures of parenthood. 

What advice would you give to someone at the start of her career?
It sounds cliché, but I truly believe that one should do what one loves. The possibilities are endless. If you love to sing there are many ways to make that work for you. Take off the myopic blinders that limit your opportunities. You may or may not become a famous star, but if you keep an open mind and stick with it, doors will open and show you a world you never knew existed. You and what you have to give is unique unto you. There is no one like you nor will there ever be again. Don’t be stingy! Share your gifts with the world. It needs them! 

Pricing: 

• 10 Day Prenatal Smoothie Challenge https://prenatalsmoothiechallenge.luvbelly.com/optin-28087812

Contact Info:

• Website: www.luvbelly.com
• Phone: 720-440-3911
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luv.belly/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LuvLuvBelly/

Image Credit:
Mitch Maitland and Stephanie Joy

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