Exploring Life & Business with Amanda Crisel of Amanda Michelle Wellness, LLC & Skoshify

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Crisel.

Hi Amanda, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Like many wellness professionals, my path began with a desperate desire to help other women avoid challenges I faced firsthand. I founded Amanda Michelle Wellness and co-founded Skoshify on the back of personal experience and a call to share the clarity and well-being I found after years of trial and error.

After graduating with my doctor of pharmacy degree from Purdue University (go Boilers!) in 2002, I completed a residency at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and a fellowship at Eli Lilly in Indianapolis, where I was eventually hired on to support global market access for the early-stage oncology portfolio. I went on to work in the biopharmaceutical industry – when not busy with babies – for 20 years.

Then, at 39, I went through menopause (also called premature ovarian insufficiency), which literally changed everything. This was nine years ago, when menopause (let alone “perimenopause”) was still wildly misunderstood, so no one suspected my debilitating symptoms might be a result of a transition that (we thought) only affected women in their 50s.

So I spent five years trying to manage debilitating mental, cognitive, and emotional symptoms that were impacting every aspect of my life. Lots of specialist visits, multiple misdiagnoses, and several (so many!) prescriptions later, I had cobbled together enough strategies that I began to feel human again. And as I continued to find my way to thriving, I felt deeply called to share with others what I’d learned the hard way.

So I left a relatively comfortable career in the biopharmaceutical industry and built Amanda Michelle Wellness, which is dedicated to helping other women who are struggling in particular with the cognitive, emotional, and mood symptoms that often accompany the menopause transition. My goal is to help women optimize their health and feel and function at their very best during perimenopause and beyond.

While I was in the thick of building Amanda Michelle Wellness, my husband, Nate – a chemist by training, also with a long career in biopharmaceuticals, was becoming very interested in the neuro-cognitive space, testing several supplements in an effort to improve his own cognitive performance. He quickly became dismayed by the inconsistency, lack of transparency, and in many cases, ineffectiveness of available supplements, so he decided to do what chemists do and experiment (in our kitchen!) to try and find a formula that was pure, built on high-quality science (peer-reviewed, human studies), and that worked on an ‘as needed’ basis to avoid the need for every day use. So he began mixing, and I began sampling, and by round three, I knew he was on to something. With high confidence that his (now patent-pending) formula could help others (and low knowledge of just how challenging it would be), I convinced Nate to make his creation (Think Tank) available to anyone who might benefit, which is how Skoshify, our small supplement start-up out of Niwot, Colorado, was born.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Someone I love dearly said to me the other day, “I wouldn’t have started my own business at your age.” So yes, leaving the relatively comfortable world of corporate to build my own business was nothing short of terrifying.

One of the biggest challenges I faced was not knowing where to start. I felt the call, and I knew my training and personal experience would be a huge benefit to helping other women; I just didn’t know how to package and deliver what I had to offer. So did a lot of research, took course after course, found a coach and mentor, and just kept putting one foot in front of the other.

Another challenge emerged as perimenopause began to gain enormous amounts of (long-overdue and well-deserved) attention. While this was a hugely positive development for women, from a business perspective, I was forced to reevaluate how I could provide value to women who were now being inundated with ALL the information and data about how to optimize their health in perimenopause. It turns out, though, that the joy and fulfillment that come with following your passion will eventually outweigh the fear every time.

We’ve been impressed with Amanda Michelle Wellness, LLC & Skoshify, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My goal is to be the resource for women that I needed 10 years ago. My top three priorities as a wellness provider and founder of 2 wellness brands are to: 1) ensure women have access to high-quality, clear, up-to-date information about what is happening in the brain and body in milife and what the latest science says about optimizing health and well-being after 40, 2) help women identify practical strategies and tools that work in the context of their specific circumstances to address symptoms like memory loss, stress, insomnia, word-finding challenges, and declining mental energy, and 3) provide opportunities for women to connect, share experiences, ask questions, and develop a strong sense of community through small group experiences, workshops, and now monthly “Hot Flash Happy Hour” events. I recently launched <i>”Reclaim Your Brain,”</i> which is specifically designed to support women who are not only struggling with symptoms like memory issues, brain fog, and mental fatigue but who feel like they are losing their confidence and sense of self. We identify and address the root causes of their symptoms (e.g., hormones, inflammation, stress, microbiome) and develop a personalized, comprehensive, evidence-based approach to improve their brain health, cognitive functioning, and overall quality of life.

Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I expect the wellness and supplement industries will continue to grow and evolve rapidly as people become even less satisfied with healthcare and health insurance and more interested in prevention of disease and finding ways to live happier, healthier, longer lives. With this growth, I anticipate that quality, transparency, and the availability of clinical data will begin to emerge as key differentiators for successful wellness and supplement providers, as increasingly skeptical consumers (of which I am one) demand to know that what they are spending their money on will work for them.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.amandamichellewellness.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amanda.pharmd
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-crisel-a076761/