Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Dakh.
So, before we jump into specific questions, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease called ulcerative colitis back in 2017.
At the time, my doctor told me that I was going to be ‘married to this for life’, and that diet and lifestyle had nothing to do with my condition. It infuriated me, which gave me the motivation to start searching for answers, but on my own…
The reason why I embarked on this solo yet isolating journey was because of the embarrassing symptoms attached to my condition. The symptoms are easily seen as ‘weird’ or ‘gross’, and so they were burdening me with shame, which only made my relationship with my body worse.
It wasn’t until I overcame my emotional obstacles of judgment and shame, that I was able to find alternative solutions that would heal my digestive tract, and put my ulcerative colitis into remission.
And so with that, I started the ‘conversation’…
Once I began opening up to people about what I had, it led me to the right professionals who helped me on my journey to better health. I knew that if I was able to continue the conversation with other people, I could create a community encompassing transparency, which would empower individuals to talk about their digestive disorders too.
On my journey, I connected with my co-founder Louise. She is also a health junkie, particularly passionate about the gut/brain axis. Louise had dealt with hormonal issues and chronic fatigue. Louise’s motivation for moxie was inspired by the refreshing, open conversations that she has had with other people about digestive health, and also her personal challenges of maintaining a healthy lifestyle in New York City.
That was the beginning of moxie.
Together, we carefully crafted a business model that focusses entirely on an integrative, holistic approach to digestive health. Our primary objective is to fight inflammation and empower, nurture and build confidence within individuals suffering from digestive conditions so that they can have control over their own bodies again.
Our business model not only educates, but it also practices transparency. Louise and I are passionate about changing the way that society talks about shit (quite literally) because if society does not challenge these ‘ugly stigmas’ then how are we ever supposed to know if something is wrong?
Right now, we’ve just released the first-ever poop scanner. This app (the moxie poop scanner) can scan your poop then determine whether you’re healthy or not. And soon, we’ll be launching an ant-inflammatory supplement line.
So stay tuned!
Let’s change the conversation together…
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Reflecting on the growth of moxie as a brand, I believe that everything has been extremely fluid. The development of the name, brand identity, content, voice, and socials, etc. has been extremely easy and so much fun, because not only am I a copywriter, but moxie reflects everything that I am, and who I want to be – so naturally, it has been quite a fruitful and exciting beginning.
However, for the growth of any brand that wants to evolve into a business, challenges will be faced. This includes the foundations of setting up a proprietary limited company. Also, researching the legalities of launching a supplement line and understanding the logistics of an e-commerce model. My business partner is, fortunately, an attorney, so filing paperwork and doing research comes naturally to her.
Louise and I don’t ever perceive ‘struggles’ to be actual struggles, rather opportunities to stretch our imagination and continue learning more about the industry that we’re so passionate about.
I also think it’s extremely important to be flexible around the idea of ‘pivoting’. If a strategy or campaign isn’t working, then become flexible and pivot! At the end of the day, as long as you achieve your goals then it doesn’t matter how you get there.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Moxie Health – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of and what sets you apart from others.
Moxie is a gut health movement that gives a crap about digestive health.
Our tagline is ‘a gutsy approach to digestive health’ and that’s exactly what we’re doing by breaking down ugly stigmas attached to gut health problems. We’re educating our community about an anti-inflammatory lifestyle so that they can feel empowered, while we nurture them to better health.
Honestly, I am so proud of everything that we’ve accomplished so far.
One of my proudest achievements is the community that we’ve developed through discussing the most explicit detail about gut health. Surprisingly, people actually want to listen to the gory, weird stuff! They find it fascinating. And we find it even more fascinating when they feel comfortable enough to open up about their digestive health issues too. It’s really empowering. It’s a legitimate movement.
Our other biggest achievement would have the new, and first-ever poop scanning app, that we’ve launched. It’s called ‘the moxie poop scanner’. My husband is a software engineer and he helped us build it from the ground up. It’s a web app that uses AI (artificial intelligence) to classify your poop to determine whether you’re healthy or not. It has been trained on thousands of photos of poop (which he and I spent hours looking at. Very romantic stuff.)
Eventually, our anti-inflammatory supplement line will support our gut health movement while offering our community an array of supplements that help target different digestive health problems.
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
At the moment, we’re already busy working on future plans.
As previously mentioned, we’re launching a supplement line in the near future. What we’re excited about is that we’re working very closely with a herbalist and formulist in coming up with a tailor custom-made supplement to help target digestive inflammation. We’re learning so much about the ‘alternative medicine’ field, which is helping further expand many other ideas.
The web app that we’ve just launched will eventually become a fully functional app that will allow our community to not only have access to information about their poop but eventually, there will be an integrated poop diary and access to functional medical practitioners endorsed by moxie.
Lastly, our BIG dream will be to open a gut health cafe!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://moxie.health/
- Phone: 917 717 0888
- Email: sarah@moxie.health
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/moxie.health/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/moxiehealth_
- Other: https://poop.moxie.health/
Suggest a story: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
