Jeana Anderson Cohen:
If we were on TikTok right now, I'd be referring to myself as an anxiety girlie. And as such, I have tried many, many anxiety coping mechanisms. And recently I discovered the Quiet Mind weighted pillow and I am super in love. Oh, and by the way, this is a sweat lives podcast. We got goals and I'm Gina Anderson Cohen. And joining me today is Mikey Goldman, CEO and founder of Quiet Mind, the original weighted pillow. Mikey, thanks for joining me.
Mikey:
Thank you for having me. I love talking to all things sweat, and yes, the original weighted pillow, the one and only weighted pillow on the market.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh, I love it. And you have three different weights, which we love. Wait, let me go get mine. I'm gonna go, mine's right over there. So I'm gonna use it for the duration of this interview.
Mikey:
All right, beautiful. Yes,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay.
Mikey:
we have three different weights. Weighted pillows, they're similar to weighted blankets, except they obviously come in a pillow format. They didn't exist when I simply wanted to buy one of them. I love weighted blankets. I love how weighted blankets help you, and then thought, hey, maybe it's a little bit easier to use something that's small, squishy, and cuddly, and I already sleep with pillows all around me. So I tried to buy one and could not find it, could not find one on the market, so. After about two plus years, we finally launched QuietMind with the original weighted pillow.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh my gosh, I love the original weighted pillow because I'm guessing there people are knocking you off now.
Mikey:
Not yet, actually, I
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay.
Mikey:
know it's
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Thank
Mikey:
coming.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
goodness. Yeah.
Mikey:
And I was in stealth mode for basically a little over two years because I was so afraid of somebody coming up with the pillow before me where I simply could not believe that a weighted pillow wasn't on the market. And that's why it took me a little bit of time to even get into it because I was like, am I missing something? It's a weighted pillow. Like what, I must be missing something. But there are no weighted pillows in this form where it's a squishy, huggable thing. I mean, You know, they might have a weighted lap pad, or then someone says it's a weighted pillow, but it's more of a not kind of type deal. But the actual form of a weighted pillow that's for the anxiety, calming, inducing, you know, probing, relaxation, they do not have.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Now I'm holding mine, I have a size large, it's the 12 pounder. I love her, her name is Stella, by the
Mikey:
I
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
way.
Mikey:
love that.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
But Mikey, before we jump in, we start every day at A Sweat Life and every episode of this podcast with one question, a very important but simple question, what is good?
Mikey:
What is good? Well, I think what is good is the threads explosion. I've actually been enjoying it quite a lot where I wasn't a Twitter person, you know, my personal Instagram, it's okay, it's nothing crazy. I don't really do it that much. I'm getting quiet mind going. Something about this threads thing I've actually been hooked on and there's one person in particular which... he's kind of captured the essence of threads and why I love it so much. And I hadn't, I didn't know who it was prior to this, but it's at Steven on threads. And he, I guess he has the diary of a CEO with some podcasts out in the UK, but he's figured out this perfect form of, it's short form text, where it's just either positivity, it's simple, it's not, you're not getting links, you're not getting charts too often. And it's just to the point. And he said something great where it was like, Instagram was where beauty shines. threads is where personality shines. And I've just really enjoyed the way he kind of conceptualizes his thoughts into these little threads so well. So that's my kind of my top of mind thing right now where this person in particular I thought is just doing a really good job that has kind of captivated me.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Ooh, I can't wait to follow Stephen. Okay, we'll link to Stephen in the show notes on threads. You'll have to download threads if you haven't already. I'm loving threads too, actually. I am currently running my personal threads and the Aswetlife threads. And on Aswetlife, I've been having a lot of fun. It's just like, just engaging, like talking to people and, you know, like gentle ribbing, nothing mean. But like having a personality, making jokes, having fun, I totally agree. Threads is a lot of fun. It's like 2007 Twitter when it was new and helpful.
Mikey:
Yeah, I mean, he said this thing, if threads continues to make kindness cool, again, it'll be the most important social network in the world.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Mikey:
And there's this kind of chaotic mess where everyone's on it, they don't know what they're doing. And they're just really saying what's on top of mind and interacting
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
with each other. But because they're not saying check out this hashtag or go here and I'm trying to sell
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
you something. It's a lot of positivity and this excitement together where we're like, I don't know what's happening. Let me just post something. But it's been kind of this general shift of, hey, be nice.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
And it is odd how it's taking off. And I think partly because it's just, it's what's on your mind. How do you interact with somebody at the most basic level, which is kind of like a DM attacks, but there's nothing else to it because you don't really put someone, hey, go check out my product. And even the brands, like we're doing the same thing with Quiet Mind. We're not saying, hey, buy these pillows or oh my gosh. It's like. Let me just figure out what the quiet mind, fun, playful voices into this like calm or this chaotic world. And so it has been pretty cool to try out.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I love. Okay, my good thing. Oh, man, I feel like I should just join the threads wagon with you. But I'll say my good thing was this morning, I went for a delightful walk with my dogs. They woke me up, which is not how it normally goes. Normally I wake them up, but we were up early, moving early, felt good to be sort of like out before it got hot. I'm in Chicago. Mikey, where are you?
Mikey:
I'm in Santa Monica, so we
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay.
Mikey:
generally have good weather.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, whatever.
Mikey:
there.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Whatever. Fine. Okay, should we talk about quiet mind?
Mikey:
Let's do it. I mean, we could keep going on health stuff, but yes, we could jump into Quiet Mind as well.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Well, I mean a pillow that releases oxytocin when you squeeze it, that's health, right?
Mikey:
Yes, yes. I mean, it releases all these, all these fun goodies, whether it's so I guess, you know, if we want to jump into that, the weighted blanket science of it, and then go from there. Is that where you want to start? Or how do you want to do this?
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
So you kind of mentioned where Quiet Mind came from, but give me where you were in your life. What was happening when you were like, what do I need to help me?
Mikey:
Yeah, so I was diagnosed with ADHD, math dyslexia when I was in high school. I kind of always knew something was up because I had this sensory processing disorder. Sounds came in differently with me. There was emotion controlling. Just something always was a little bit off. And so getting that diagnosis, it kind of confirmed a lot of thoughts I already had about myself, but also at the time, ADHD was sort of like, hmm, what is that? Is that a problem? You're just lazy or you can't focus. And At the time, I didn't go on stimulants. I was prescribed stimulants, didn't go on them. But when I got to college, I was prescribed stimulants. I went on them. And then this is sort of what started of this over prescribed generation that I was a part of where it was, hey, I'm now not able to sleep. Oh, here, I'm gonna prescribe you a Benzo so you can sleep. I didn't have any anxiety stuff at the time, but here's a Benzo. I'm now crashing at the end of the day. Oh, we'll do Adderall for short-term ADHD. And it was this cycle of... Here are all these different medications we can prescribe you without doing natural solutions. So finally getting off everything, I've always been fascinated by what can I do naturally to kind of alleviate my symptoms ADHD and that got me to weighted blankets. And I was at a different company, I was doing a tech career, I was in Silicon Valley and now I'm in LA and I loved weighted blankets. Are you familiar with weighted blankets and all that?
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
You know it, I have one.
Mikey:
Okay, so weighted blankets are awesome. You know, it was the one of the, out of all the different things I do in my routine to try and alleviate my symptoms ADHD, I'll put a blanket on me, it calms me down, and I really liked the effects of, oh wow, you can use weight to kind of engage your nervous system to do something. And then all of a sudden moving a 20 pound blanket from my bed to my couch, couch to my bed, I was like, this is a pain in the butt. this is heavy, this is just, it's not fun, it's cumbersome. And so it stayed on my bed, and then all of a sudden I would get hot, I'd take it off me or I'd pull it on me if I got cold. And it's just not an enjoyable process, because it is heavy. And so one night I was like, let me get a pillow, and found out pillows do not exist. And so that is sort of how I got into this pillow thing, where it was, I'm in another career, I'm doing something else. I've always been curious. I've always been curious about what works, you know, to naturally alleviate symptoms and then stumbled upon this pillow.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I mean, and I'm currently doing this interview with still with my quiet mind pillow in my lap and it is very comforting to give Stella a hug. So I totally understand kind of how this came to be. So from there, like you had this idea, you were in college, right? When you, when it came to you.
Mikey:
No, so I probably jumped through the timeline. I was, see, I was out down in LA. I've been in LA almost for five years now. And after college was really when this over prescription, I'm on a million things and I'm just sort of at a loss. I'm like, oh my gosh, this can't be the right way to be doing life. You know, yay, I might be successful in my career. I might be hyper-focused, but because of these drugs, You tune out people, you have bad relationships, you push away your friends, you're kind of all over the spectrum of emotions where you're high one day, low one day. And so doing this out of college for a couple years, that was where it was the breaking point of, I'm losing people in my life, I can't do this. So I got off everything. Then I start a new career, I go down to LA, or a new job, sorry. And so I had probably been off of all these drugs for a couple years before the pillow thing came to me. And it was that. you know, getting off the drugs and saying, what can I do naturally to help just, you know, ADHD, anxiety, mental health, wellbeing as like that kind of the common theme.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, and a big part of your story is your ADHD. It's all over the website. You talk about it super publicly. What's it like to share this with people? And I know you have investors. Are you sharing this with them as well?
Mikey:
Yeah, so I guess the part of the reason why I felt so good about doing this company was when I was struggling with all the different prescriptions I was on, my ADHD, I was really helpless and it was one of those things where you're trying to find resources, you're trying to find somebody who just is there a story like mine that hey, someone might have been on a bunch of drugs, they're kind of losing sight of themselves, how do they get off, how do you do it naturally? And I was in a career where I was doing tech marketing and it was something that didn't really, you know, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't this, there wasn't passion, there wasn't purpose behind it. And because of my struggle I had, that was something that was like near and dear to my heart where it was like, hey, I come from this world of ADHD and trying to fit in, try and solve the problem. And when I found these pillows, instantly it was like, wait a second, pillows help people or just I guess weighted products help people. calm down, promote relaxation. And that tie into ADHD and that tie into saying, oh, wait a second, this is something that I can do to myself to help my ADHD. Instantly I had to jump in because of my kind of struggles with what works for me, what doesn't. And then to the part of ADHD and why it's over the website, it seems like it's just now coming to top of mind with people and it's. you know, moving past the stigma of the laziness, the, oh, you're just, you can't focus or your executive bunch is poor. And so wanting to do a company that promoted products to treat ADHD, I was, you know, it was just a natural fit. It was, I could speak about it for hours. I think it's, you know, it's needed. I think the natural side of it is really beneficial. And then, you know, the investor side, when I reached out to, the first investor I had, it was Nick Woodman, GoPro CEO, I knew him from previous work stuff, and I just said, hey man, I have this crazy idea. I think I'm missing something, weighted pillows. What's going on with this? And he was like, okay, explain it a little bit more. And I explained how pillow or weighted blankets, I can go into later what they do and how they promote com. And I explained my story and said, hey, I struggled with these things. This is a way to kind of naturally give a person a solution where maybe it's, you don't take as many meds or maybe you can get off meds entirely because it will calm you down. And especially with sort of the mental health kind of crisis where we're going through right now, he absolutely loved it. And then he said, Hey, even for kids, you know, if kids are being told for 10, 12, 14, you should go on stimulants. You can target that market too. And all of a sudden it came full circle. I was like, that is exactly who I was. I was the kid who was told go on drugs at that time versus, and so it was the kind of the confidence to say, let's go do this. And then plus he also said, hey, if you can't find money for this, I'll invest in you. So having Nick Woodman, you know, the GoPro guy say, he'll invest in me. I was like, I think I got some here. Let's go do it.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
That's called a soft circle,
Mikey:
Yeah,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
investment
Mikey:
yeah, exactly.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
circle.
Mikey:
Exactly.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
That's lovely, good confidence. You can take that into your other meetings.
Mikey:
Yeah.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
And what we're talking about here too, it's called deep pressure stimulation. It's been studied a little more recently, but not a ton of work was done to study this before the last like 10 years, but we're starting to find out like incredible things deep pressure stimulation. So what you experience when you hug a weighted pillow, when you're swaddled or when you have a weighted blanket on you. And there are studies showing, which I'll link to in the show notes that these things benefit kids who are on the autism spectrum, all the way up to folks who are suffering with anxiety. So there is this whole market that you're speaking to all sorts of folks who can benefit from this. Are you familiar with any other studies being done in deep pressure stimulation or are you doing any yourself?
Mikey:
So I haven't done any myself yet, which that's definitely part of the plan. But being able to see how, you know, the whole goal for the company was, wait a second, deep pressure stimulation, it's using your body to create an output. It's using your nervous system, something that's so simple to cause this effect, where by simply, you know, going back into the ADHD thing, where I had this sensory processing disorder, and you know, the earliest thing that I understood, which was, this can't be right, where I'd be sitting in class. I'd be out of sleep over and you hear it's all silent. You hear a clock ticking where it's tick, tick.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
That sound absolutely infuriates me where it completely, it consumes my entire thought process. It goes, it interacts with my brain and just says, nope, we don't like this. And I can't focus on anything else. And I, you know, I slowly boil up. And so knowing that I was going, okay, something's going on here with, you know. The way my nervous system is taking in senses, taking in the sound sense and trying to get that up to my brain, it's not functioning correctly. And so with deep pressure stimulation, you're effectively using your senses, you're using the sense of touch and another one, the proprioceptive where your joints, muscles and tendons to then have pressure goes on top of you, pressure whether it's on your legs, on your stomach, that pressure that touches your skin, it sends neurotransmitters up to your brain, it releases serotonin, the mood boosting hormone. It releases dopamine, the focus alertness one, it decreases cortisol, which is related to our stress, and then it also increases melatonin. So I'm sitting here and going, okay, why is this working so well? And especially from the melatonin side, I mean, you'll put these pillows on and you can sometimes really make yourself pass out from just being so sleepy. So when you said you had a Stella on you, Stella, right?
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yes, Stella.
Mikey:
Yeah, like, well, good luck. Cause I made the mistake. I was on Sunday and I just grabbed one. I grabbed the large as well. So I'm just trying to sit down quickly, put it on. And then, you know, 35 minutes later, I was like, oh man, I wish I didn't do that. Cause it was just, I was so relaxed and calm. But yeah, it's, when I learned that, hey, you're able to take your nervous system with this weight, you're going from sympathetic to parasympathetic, fight or flight, rest and digest, all with the power of weight. I was blown away. I was, you know, it was exactly this formula of something I was looking for it was, hey, you're using your own brain chemistry, you're using your own science with on with within you to make a result. And now seeing people utilizing it and kind of come into the commercial forefront and understanding that, hey, there's ways to use your senses to work for you, your nervous system to work for you. It's just, it's a whole new opportunity than that kind of the way it was in the past where it was. Here's a drug to make you do something.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, and I mean to speak to the stigma piece too. Like there, I'm thankfully, I'm a millennial. I think you are too. I think you started college four years
Mikey:
33.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
after me. Yeah, 37.
Mikey:
Alright.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
So we, our generation was kind of like the first to start talking about these things really. I'm so grateful for Gen Z because they're so open.
Mikey:
Mm-hmm.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
about mental health there. I really like they make me hopeful. I'm on Lexapro, but that doesn't mean all of my anxiety symptoms are managed. I don't want to go on more Lexapro. So
Mikey:
here.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
there's a lot of things I try to do to like cope, calm myself down, like breathing exercises, meditation. And I actually before getting Stella, my weighted pillow, I sleep with a pillow cuddled. And that helps me fall asleep. So if I'm on my side cuddling a pillow, I'm right out. And that's also something that you all wrote about on your website recently, that it can really be helpful for sleep. Anything you wanna speak to there, besides obviously the melatonin.
Mikey:
Yeah, because I mean, that's obviously where it came from for me, where I have a pillow under my arm, I was placing a pillow on top of my chest, you know, other maybe it'd be in between my legs, but it was somewhere on top of me and then another one. And so I had all these pills around me. And it goes into this, you know, for a lot of children, they have a blankie, they have a stuffed animal. There's something A, that's nostalgic about having one of these creatures around you, the pillow, the
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I love you.
Mikey:
stuffed animal. And also it's a sense of security. It's the security that your nervous system takes in and goes, because I had this when I was a child, you cuddle it, you comfort it, and it adds to this whole security level of being in bed. So when you're cuddling something, it's also then releasing oxytocin. So you have the security, the bonding side of it, but that bonding side, which is why we as kids really go towards our stuffed animals, is because hugging something, especially I found this fascinating stat out, when you hug something for six seconds, That's all it takes to release oxytocin. So basically when you're a kid, think about how often you're hugging your doll, your stuffed animal, your blankie, whatever it is, you're developing, and I guess I should back up, oxytocin is the social bonding, the love hormone,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I'm
Mikey:
you
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
still
Mikey:
know,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
not a foreman.
Mikey:
so to speak. And so when you're a kid, you develop this security and relationship with a comforting cuddle buddy, whatever form it's in. And so now as an adult, you're bringing that back into your life. You already had good experience with it as a child, so you know there's the comfort there, and then you're taken to the next level and saying, hold on, if I hug this, if I cuddle it, and then all of a sudden I start releasing oxytocin, I release endorphins, you're able to kind of bring that childhood nostalgia back to life, but give you the sense of security, which makes you fall asleep faster, which makes you have more comfort in the bed. And so the pills really do provide a lot of assistance in sleeping. And even, you know, just the You know, one of our phrases is your new main squeeze, where a lot of people like sleeping in the bed next to somebody and you can you know, it acts as a companion where even just having the sense of touch on the side of you resting on you. That's a whole other aspect where it's it just makes you feel more secure.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, I mean, my husband's there, but like, we have our own space. It's fine.
Mikey:
Exactly. Yeah, not as good. Yeah.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, Stella's my buddy. Okay. When do you, Mikey, when do you use your Quiet Mind pillow throughout the day? Do you have like a little bit of the light pillow, a little bit of the heavy, or what's your routine?
Mikey:
Yeah, it's, I have them all over the place now. It's pretty bad because I have one up in my office where I have the medium in my office and that one I'll throw in my lap when I'm working, when I'm sitting down, especially cause you know, right now I'm standing up and I like to move around. But when I need to sit down and focus, I'll throw that one on my lap. And then my couch has every single size. I think there's five on my couch right now where I have all small, medium, large. I put a medium under my arm or I think under both arms and I put a large now on top of me because I started off with a medium where this was another part of kind of this deep pressure stimulation, your nervous system, learning how you can affect something with weight where I didn't understand, you know, when I started it. But I have a weight guide to generally sort of guide people to which one to get. But if you're familiar with weighted products, then you've already sort of adapted your brain because more weight releases more hormones, more of these neurotransmitters. And so all of a sudden, you know, I'm on the couch, I have these all over me because I put one on top of me, you start releasing more of these hormones, you get more used to it. And so I have the large one because I like that effect the most. I also think it gives you the best bear hug where you can really pull it to your sides and wrap it all around you. And it's just, it's the most comfortable thing. And so I see you're doing, you're holding it with sort of this square position. My
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Mm-hmm.
Mikey:
favorite position is you kind of create a diamond where the one point is sort of under your chin
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh.
Mikey:
and then your arms are able to get around it easier, but then you can pull the sides around you. And so when you're sitting there, it just sort of blankets over you like a blanket, but it's a cozy little cuddly pillow. And so that's my favorite way to hold it. But then when I sleep, I have a medium that I literally just place on top of my stomach and then I'm out.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh man, okay, you've just changed the game. I shifted Stella into a new position. And now I don't know if I can ever go back. Okay, so before we move on, I need to know, did you have a stuffed animal as a kid?
Mikey:
I was a blanky guy.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
You're wear blank
Mikey:
I was
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
again.
Mikey:
a thumb sucker and I was a blanky guy. I had this baby blue blanky and I probably, I mean, I actually still have, my mom decided to frame it for me, I think when I graduated high school and she was like, hey, this is, and it, you know, that picture frame still travels with me from place to place. It's so, it's somewhere down in my bedroom. It's definitely not hanging up, but I do have a, I did have a blanky. And that was my cuddle buddy. Yeah, blanky, some fucking, and it was really nice. What about you?
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I had a blankie and I also had a small purple teddy bear that was in my crib when I came home from the hospital. It came with me to college and survived until my dog took all the stuffing out of it. My husband actually recently restuffed it for Valentine's Day, which was the nicest gift.
Mikey:
Oh, that's cute.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, so purple teddy
Mikey:
Yeah,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
is
Mikey:
that's
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
alive.
Mikey:
cute. Okay.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
She is
Mikey:
Yeah,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
alive
Mikey:
I mean,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
and well.
Mikey:
I remember in college, like there were so many people where in the door in their dorm rooms, I mean, their stuffed animals are sitting on their beds and people
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
you know, there was there was even a great New York Times article about you know, adults asleep with stuffed animals and going into the whole reason that we kind of talked to earlier about hey, this is why they're so comforting but they you know, stuffed animals they're still prevalent people still use them. You know, their kids still use them. So if we're able to offer a pillow, it's kind of a nice substitute and works the same way.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, I wish I could just like put Purple Teddy in here. So I know he's in here. Anyway,
Mikey:
Yeah.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
now it's time for show and tell. Mikey, let's share a tip, a resource, or an article you referenced as we talked through this. What's your tip?
Mikey:
My tip for using the pillows
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Could be,
Mikey:
or just
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
it could be
Mikey:
overall
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
anything
Mikey:
tip.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
really, anything at all. Anything at all.
Mikey:
Well, there was a good article I referenced, this kind of that I wanted to reference that sort of goes into this overall like health and wellness thing. And especially one reason why I was so excited to come on here, because you know, a sweat life and working out, what can you do for health and wellness? And it's just something I've noticed, the general shift towards working out. And it was this Wall Street Journal article and it was fitness means more than losing weight. And it's something that I've noticed over the past couple of years, because I'm a person for my ADHD. I work out all the time. I do it more for the endorphins, more for the sort of that dopamine hit and that routine to just, you know, if I can do it in the morning, I have my first goal that I, you know, accomplish. I have a win and I take that through me. Less about the, oh my gosh, I need to be so jacked or I need to lose weight or I need to look a certain way. And it feels like now working out is actually coming back to the forefront for the health and wellness benefits of it. And that was the whole point of this article. which you're starting to see people writing about, hey, it's not just about, you need to go look a certain way, but there's also this body, mind, spiritual, happy joy connection that working out provides. And I, you know, my parents, they've kind of instilled it in us and, you know, I see it around me, especially being in LA, but people work out because of this, hey, it's good for you, it makes you feel a certain way, it's being able to do something similar to the pillows where you're doing something that doesn't have to be a drug. to cause and effect. And I like seeing all these things about how fitness is, it's coming back because it's not saying, hey, you have to have this bikini body or this ripped six pack. It's no, it's good for your health. It's good for just a happy life. You don't need to do it a certain way. And so that was something that popped up a couple of weeks ago where I was just like, you know what? I like seeing this stuff coming back to the forefront.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Me too, me too. We actually at A Sweat Life, we don't even talk about the aesthetic of working out. We talk about the feel good elements of it all. So I love hearing that too, because I think we've been riding that wave for a while, just sort of saying like, it's not about that. It's not about what's in the mirror. Could be for you if you want it to be, but we aren't gonna talk about that. I love it. I'm gonna find that article, or if you wanna send it to me.
Mikey:
Yeah,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I don't
Mikey:
yeah,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
include
Mikey:
I will.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
it in the show.
Mikey:
Yeah, because it's I mean, you even see now too, which is so great that there's all these other articles that come about how the new status symbol is being healthy and working out where you know, maybe it's a CEOs used to flash a car or flash a wash, but now it's they look in shape. And it's just this shift that's coming out where people for whatever reason, maybe it was negativity towards working out but now it's positivity and saying, oh, instead of having the ostentatious clothes or the watches and stuff, it's like, oh, does that person look like they're in shape or do they look like they're focusing on being healthy? And that can come in many forms. It doesn't just have to be this form of their stick figure or their like muscle ball bar. And so I do like how just overall conversation now, especially with health and wellness is really. health and wellness, the mind, body and soul, what can you do naturally to achieve all these different, you know, feelings of joy, happiness? And it's great that it's less material things.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah,
Mikey:
Minus
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I love
Mikey:
pillows.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
that. Exactly.
Mikey:
and the stillers.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay, my show and tell today is actually thing testing reviews for QuietMind. So I went on thing testing. I love thing testing. It's a great place
Mikey:
These
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
if
Mikey:
are fun.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
you're not familiar with it. Yeah, it's awesome. It's a great place to learn about new products and see what people who have actually tried it think. So I'm gonna read a review from thing testing.
Mikey:
Alright.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
And by the way, you got great reviews on thing testing. It's basically a five.
Mikey:
Yeah,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh
Mikey:
I was nervous about thing testing because
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Were
Mikey:
we
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
you?
Mikey:
actually set the record for highest price point on there, which it's a big discount thing and new brands go on there. And I was like, well, let's just try this and see what works. And so we set a record with highest price point, sold out immediately. And I was,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh my god.
Mikey:
you know, this kind of this five minute panic of is it gonna work? And then it worked. And then yes, the reviews came in and I've been kind of blown away by everything.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, oh my God, I love that. Okay, so Alyssa R's review is great. She's a frequent reviewer, by the way. So she bought it
Mikey:
Oh, good.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
with the discount. She said, I love this weighted pillow so much. I'm a hot sleeper, so every time I try to weight a blanket, I couldn't last more than 10 minutes under it. Ditto, by the way. This pillow is a wonderful substitute. It has a great weight to it. The fabric used has a nice feel. I love using it along with my heating pad during PMS. Hot tip. Love that, love that for
Mikey:
Love
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
you.
Mikey:
that.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Um
Mikey:
Yeah, that was actually something early on people kind of mentioned to us that, hey, this would work really well during PMS and putting them on your lap, whether with a heat pad or without one, where it's just that added comfort level. And we've seen a couple of people now come in with that same general comment, which has been great.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, and also just pressure is great. Pressure, compression for recovery as well, but we could talk about that all day. I'm sure you could talk about that all day. But
Mikey:
Mm-hmm.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
let's talk about something we're loving this week. Mikey, do you wanna go first or second with the something you're loving this week?
Mikey:
You go first.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay, excellent.
Mikey:
I'll switch it for you on this one.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay, great. The thing I am loving this week. So selfishly financially, a sweat life qualified for the ERC credit. We don't talk about money all the time, but it's nice when things happen. So we used a service called ERC Specialists. They are not paying me to talk about this. I just want you to know it worked, it came through. So if you're thinking about applying for that credit, which is essentially like a... a refund of employee federal employee taxes or federal employment taxes you paid as a reward for keeping people employed through the pandemic. Like do it apply. We got
Mikey:
Oh
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
it.
Mikey:
wow.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
It came through. So go get yours.
Mikey:
Oh wow, that is a good one. Okay, I
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah,
Mikey:
like
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Mike,
Mikey:
that.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
what are you loving this week?
Mikey:
So mine actually goes into matcha. And I don't know if you're a coffee or a matcha drinker.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Both. I
Mikey:
Okay.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
actually like them together.
Mikey:
Oh, I actually that's funny. You mentioned that I was reading an article yesterday about matcha like bullproof matcha coffee and matcha and I was I didn't know either existed. I didn't know people even mix the two. That's unbelievable that you do mix.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
But so I'm a matcha drinker I it goes into the sort of this whole finding things that work for me in my ADHD and coffee with my ADHD, it was super high and then a massive drop off and it just made me kind of chaotic, gave me a lot of anxiety, did not work well with me and matcha works really well with my system. It's, you know, there's L-theanine in it. So you get the caffeine, but you stay calm. And so for this week, you know, I've been on the, I've been drinking the same matcha for maybe five years now and finally on Sunday. I was trying to figure out what was going on with my matcha, how to spice it up. And then I was putting it into a cold mug. All of a sudden, the most simple hack where I thought, hey, why don't I put this into a burning mug, heat the mug up in the microwave? The amount of flavor that comes through in your matcha, if you heat the mug up and especially really heat it up when you pour the hot matcha in, it's a whole new world. So any matcha drinker, I mean, I know this also goes for coffee as well where... You save a lot of that flavor with a hot mug. So that is something that this week has been a complete game changer for me, is the heated mug for my morning matcha. It's an absolute, an absolute treat.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh, I love that. And I knew you were going to talk about L-theanine the second you started talking about matcha. We love, we love, love L-theanine and drinks that include it.
Mikey:
Mm-hmm.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
We actually, so that is why I like mixing matcha with coffee because it has the same effect. So
Mikey:
Interesting.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
you can still, so L-theanine, as you know, creates this sort of like moderating effect for caffeine.
Mikey:
Mm-hmm.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
So instead of just blocking the sensor in your brain, that allows you to uptake the chemicals that tell your brain to sleep, which is why you get big crashes, Ulthianine sort of moderates the response to it, which is why caffeine from green tea is so good for you. We've written about it on a SweatLife, I'll link to it in the show notes. And there are also a ton of scholarly articles about it too. So if you have neurodivergence in any way, matcha is it for you or if you're just like an anxious person, coffee might
Mikey:
Mm
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
not
Mikey:
hmm.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
cut it.
Mikey:
Yeah, I mean, I take theanine, L theanine before I go to bed to it's part of my sort of nighttime supplement routine where, you know, I'll take two of them, I think 200 milligrams. But if I'm really, you know, anxious or not able to sleep or too hyped up or on my phone too late, I'll take a little bit more and it is such a great way to naturally calm you down. You know, almost put you out. Yeah, I love L theanine. I think it's a great a great little body hack.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, I love that. Anything else you take before bed, I can talk you through my whole nighttime routine.
Mikey:
Oh God, yeah, I'm a huge, there's so many different supplements. Let's see, there's L-theanine. I actually take one for hair just because I like my hair. And I like,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
You want
Mikey:
I've
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
to
Mikey:
always
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
keep
Mikey:
been
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
it?
Mikey:
really nervous. So it's called a Nutri-Full, which
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
there's a hair supplement in that. And then they also have a stress supplement in it. So I'm like, hey, we'll keep that. I take, was that a puppy?
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Two of them they're talking to each other and to us
Mikey:
Oh, good for them.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
We
Mikey:
Good for them.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
yeah, we just moved so they're like very talkative.
Mikey:
What
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
They
Mikey:
kind?
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
waited till the end though. Okay, keep going. Keep going neutral
Mikey:
Okay, so I take that for the hair. I take fish oil for ADHD and having those fatty acids, fatty acids, god, now I'm gonna blank on what as the nine thing, oh, I take a vitamin C, I take a vitamin D, I take L-theanine, fish oil, omega-3s. I know I'm blanking on some, but I do know that when, you know, on another sleepless night or if you know, I'm having trouble, there's a sleep gummy that has GABA HTTP five and melatonin and then I just use melatonin, but a little bit of GABA is kind of the perfect combination with the L-theanine where I think the two play really well together and add that extra level of kind of comfort relaxing before bed. Oh, and magnesium is the other one,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I
Mikey:
which
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
knew it. I was like, where's
Mikey:
yeah.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
magnesium in that mix? Before that, I take magnesium. I take CBD, a little bit of THC.
Mikey:
Yep. Wait, which brand do you use? I'd actually be really curious on this.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay, so I really like the brand 1906.
Mikey:
Okay.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
It's beautiful packaging and also like a really like micro dose, so it's... It's five milligrams of THC and five milligrams of CBD. And then if I need more CBD, I'll take that. I find that it just really helps with sleep. And then I'll add in some melatonin if I'm not sleeping super well that week for whatever reason. I also, I take my lexaprobe before bed. Everybody has like different timing that they take theirs. I need to add, I feel like I need to add L-theanine before bed. because I haven't been taking that before.
Mikey:
Yeah, L-theanine is a treat. That's funny, I actually, I take CBD as well. There's a company called Fab CBD, which I love, where sometimes I'll take a CBD and it actually keeps me up. And so whichever one with Fab, it works well. They're nighttime gummies or they're regular CBD. And it's just, it's such a great little, you know, calm down at the end of the night. But I've wanted to jump into the THC a little bit just to give that extra boost of
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
kind of relaxation. So I'll check that out. Cause I like all that kind of end of night stuff.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, and then 1906 Midnight Edible, it has like, they've created this fast acting THC and it also includes CBN, which is the like sleep cannabinoid. I mean, CBD
Mikey:
Yeah.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
is great, but CBN is
Mikey:
Okay.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
awesome for sleep. So CBN, even if you just add that, we can talk about this all day. Before we go, Mikey, what do you want people to know about Quiet Mind or where can they find you?
Mikey:
Yeah, so I guess the main thing with QuietMind and what I've noticed after going live and coming to market is people, when they hear weighted pillows, they're confused at first and they almost go, wait, what is that? Because everyone knows weighted blanket, especially blanket, is something you put on top of you. And weighted blanket has been out in the market for so long now that it's really synonymous with calm or weighted pillows. People are still coming up to them, figuring out what they are. And it's... It's really just a way where if you have problems with weighted blankets, weighted blankets are hot, they're cumbersome, they can be claustrophobic, and they're very hard to move around. So the pillow is taking all the great science we talked about with DPS and putting it into this amazing little pillow form that also gives you the added benefit of something you can hug. It's similar to a stress ball for your body where when I was going on this path, I go, well, why doesn't the body have a stress ball? So if you like a stress ball for your hand, You're gonna like a body stress ball because it's big and comfy. And it really is, it's just an alternative to weighted blankets and it's a way to naturally induce calm and promote relaxation for yourself without having to jump into drugs, you don't have to go into prescriptions and it's a way to naturally do it. And then also just because of the benefits with dopamine. It's great for working. It's great as using as a lap pad. It's great for putting your laptop on it. It's great for that extra focus, even for watching a movie getting more focus. And so there's a lot of benefits of these weighted pillows that are portable, easy to move around. And so anyone looking for a way to kind of calm themselves down naturally, I highly recommend the weighted pillows, you can go to one quiet mind calm. That's O Ne quiet mind calm and Instagram, we are quiet mind. So I know it's a little confusing, but it's quietmind on Instagram and onequietmind.com to check out our weighted pillows.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Amazing. You'll also find Quiet Mind on our gift guide this year, because I love it.
Mikey:
Oh, lovely.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
But this has been another episode of We Got Goals, which is an Aswetlife.com production. Thanks to Mikey for joining me today, Mikey Goldman, CEO and founder of Quiet Mind. Thanks to Ryan Deffit for editing. And thanks to all of you, our listeners, for subscribing, rating, reviewing, doing all the things you do with podcasts wherever you get yours. Bye.
Mikey:
Thank you so much for having me. This was awesome. It was great chatting with you. I'm glad you are enjoying your pillow and your Stella. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
And thanks for Stella.
Mikey:
Yeah.
If we were on TikTok right now, I'd be referring to myself as an anxiety girlie. And as such, I have tried many, many anxiety coping mechanisms. And recently I discovered the Quiet Mind weighted pillow and I am super in love. Oh, and by the way, this is a sweat lives podcast. We got goals and I'm Gina Anderson Cohen. And joining me today is Mikey Goldman, CEO and founder of Quiet Mind, the original weighted pillow. Mikey, thanks for joining me.
Mikey:
Thank you for having me. I love talking to all things sweat, and yes, the original weighted pillow, the one and only weighted pillow on the market.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh, I love it. And you have three different weights, which we love. Wait, let me go get mine. I'm gonna go, mine's right over there. So I'm gonna use it for the duration of this interview.
Mikey:
All right, beautiful. Yes,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay.
Mikey:
we have three different weights. Weighted pillows, they're similar to weighted blankets, except they obviously come in a pillow format. They didn't exist when I simply wanted to buy one of them. I love weighted blankets. I love how weighted blankets help you, and then thought, hey, maybe it's a little bit easier to use something that's small, squishy, and cuddly, and I already sleep with pillows all around me. So I tried to buy one and could not find it, could not find one on the market, so. After about two plus years, we finally launched QuietMind with the original weighted pillow.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh my gosh, I love the original weighted pillow because I'm guessing there people are knocking you off now.
Mikey:
Not yet, actually, I
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay.
Mikey:
know it's
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Thank
Mikey:
coming.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
goodness. Yeah.
Mikey:
And I was in stealth mode for basically a little over two years because I was so afraid of somebody coming up with the pillow before me where I simply could not believe that a weighted pillow wasn't on the market. And that's why it took me a little bit of time to even get into it because I was like, am I missing something? It's a weighted pillow. Like what, I must be missing something. But there are no weighted pillows in this form where it's a squishy, huggable thing. I mean, You know, they might have a weighted lap pad, or then someone says it's a weighted pillow, but it's more of a not kind of type deal. But the actual form of a weighted pillow that's for the anxiety, calming, inducing, you know, probing, relaxation, they do not have.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Now I'm holding mine, I have a size large, it's the 12 pounder. I love her, her name is Stella, by the
Mikey:
I
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
way.
Mikey:
love that.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
But Mikey, before we jump in, we start every day at A Sweat Life and every episode of this podcast with one question, a very important but simple question, what is good?
Mikey:
What is good? Well, I think what is good is the threads explosion. I've actually been enjoying it quite a lot where I wasn't a Twitter person, you know, my personal Instagram, it's okay, it's nothing crazy. I don't really do it that much. I'm getting quiet mind going. Something about this threads thing I've actually been hooked on and there's one person in particular which... he's kind of captured the essence of threads and why I love it so much. And I hadn't, I didn't know who it was prior to this, but it's at Steven on threads. And he, I guess he has the diary of a CEO with some podcasts out in the UK, but he's figured out this perfect form of, it's short form text, where it's just either positivity, it's simple, it's not, you're not getting links, you're not getting charts too often. And it's just to the point. And he said something great where it was like, Instagram was where beauty shines. threads is where personality shines. And I've just really enjoyed the way he kind of conceptualizes his thoughts into these little threads so well. So that's my kind of my top of mind thing right now where this person in particular I thought is just doing a really good job that has kind of captivated me.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Ooh, I can't wait to follow Stephen. Okay, we'll link to Stephen in the show notes on threads. You'll have to download threads if you haven't already. I'm loving threads too, actually. I am currently running my personal threads and the Aswetlife threads. And on Aswetlife, I've been having a lot of fun. It's just like, just engaging, like talking to people and, you know, like gentle ribbing, nothing mean. But like having a personality, making jokes, having fun, I totally agree. Threads is a lot of fun. It's like 2007 Twitter when it was new and helpful.
Mikey:
Yeah, I mean, he said this thing, if threads continues to make kindness cool, again, it'll be the most important social network in the world.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Mikey:
And there's this kind of chaotic mess where everyone's on it, they don't know what they're doing. And they're just really saying what's on top of mind and interacting
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
with each other. But because they're not saying check out this hashtag or go here and I'm trying to sell
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
you something. It's a lot of positivity and this excitement together where we're like, I don't know what's happening. Let me just post something. But it's been kind of this general shift of, hey, be nice.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
And it is odd how it's taking off. And I think partly because it's just, it's what's on your mind. How do you interact with somebody at the most basic level, which is kind of like a DM attacks, but there's nothing else to it because you don't really put someone, hey, go check out my product. And even the brands, like we're doing the same thing with Quiet Mind. We're not saying, hey, buy these pillows or oh my gosh. It's like. Let me just figure out what the quiet mind, fun, playful voices into this like calm or this chaotic world. And so it has been pretty cool to try out.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I love. Okay, my good thing. Oh, man, I feel like I should just join the threads wagon with you. But I'll say my good thing was this morning, I went for a delightful walk with my dogs. They woke me up, which is not how it normally goes. Normally I wake them up, but we were up early, moving early, felt good to be sort of like out before it got hot. I'm in Chicago. Mikey, where are you?
Mikey:
I'm in Santa Monica, so we
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay.
Mikey:
generally have good weather.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, whatever.
Mikey:
there.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Whatever. Fine. Okay, should we talk about quiet mind?
Mikey:
Let's do it. I mean, we could keep going on health stuff, but yes, we could jump into Quiet Mind as well.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Well, I mean a pillow that releases oxytocin when you squeeze it, that's health, right?
Mikey:
Yes, yes. I mean, it releases all these, all these fun goodies, whether it's so I guess, you know, if we want to jump into that, the weighted blanket science of it, and then go from there. Is that where you want to start? Or how do you want to do this?
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
So you kind of mentioned where Quiet Mind came from, but give me where you were in your life. What was happening when you were like, what do I need to help me?
Mikey:
Yeah, so I was diagnosed with ADHD, math dyslexia when I was in high school. I kind of always knew something was up because I had this sensory processing disorder. Sounds came in differently with me. There was emotion controlling. Just something always was a little bit off. And so getting that diagnosis, it kind of confirmed a lot of thoughts I already had about myself, but also at the time, ADHD was sort of like, hmm, what is that? Is that a problem? You're just lazy or you can't focus. And At the time, I didn't go on stimulants. I was prescribed stimulants, didn't go on them. But when I got to college, I was prescribed stimulants. I went on them. And then this is sort of what started of this over prescribed generation that I was a part of where it was, hey, I'm now not able to sleep. Oh, here, I'm gonna prescribe you a Benzo so you can sleep. I didn't have any anxiety stuff at the time, but here's a Benzo. I'm now crashing at the end of the day. Oh, we'll do Adderall for short-term ADHD. And it was this cycle of... Here are all these different medications we can prescribe you without doing natural solutions. So finally getting off everything, I've always been fascinated by what can I do naturally to kind of alleviate my symptoms ADHD and that got me to weighted blankets. And I was at a different company, I was doing a tech career, I was in Silicon Valley and now I'm in LA and I loved weighted blankets. Are you familiar with weighted blankets and all that?
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
You know it, I have one.
Mikey:
Okay, so weighted blankets are awesome. You know, it was the one of the, out of all the different things I do in my routine to try and alleviate my symptoms ADHD, I'll put a blanket on me, it calms me down, and I really liked the effects of, oh wow, you can use weight to kind of engage your nervous system to do something. And then all of a sudden moving a 20 pound blanket from my bed to my couch, couch to my bed, I was like, this is a pain in the butt. this is heavy, this is just, it's not fun, it's cumbersome. And so it stayed on my bed, and then all of a sudden I would get hot, I'd take it off me or I'd pull it on me if I got cold. And it's just not an enjoyable process, because it is heavy. And so one night I was like, let me get a pillow, and found out pillows do not exist. And so that is sort of how I got into this pillow thing, where it was, I'm in another career, I'm doing something else. I've always been curious. I've always been curious about what works, you know, to naturally alleviate symptoms and then stumbled upon this pillow.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I mean, and I'm currently doing this interview with still with my quiet mind pillow in my lap and it is very comforting to give Stella a hug. So I totally understand kind of how this came to be. So from there, like you had this idea, you were in college, right? When you, when it came to you.
Mikey:
No, so I probably jumped through the timeline. I was, see, I was out down in LA. I've been in LA almost for five years now. And after college was really when this over prescription, I'm on a million things and I'm just sort of at a loss. I'm like, oh my gosh, this can't be the right way to be doing life. You know, yay, I might be successful in my career. I might be hyper-focused, but because of these drugs, You tune out people, you have bad relationships, you push away your friends, you're kind of all over the spectrum of emotions where you're high one day, low one day. And so doing this out of college for a couple years, that was where it was the breaking point of, I'm losing people in my life, I can't do this. So I got off everything. Then I start a new career, I go down to LA, or a new job, sorry. And so I had probably been off of all these drugs for a couple years before the pillow thing came to me. And it was that. you know, getting off the drugs and saying, what can I do naturally to help just, you know, ADHD, anxiety, mental health, wellbeing as like that kind of the common theme.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, and a big part of your story is your ADHD. It's all over the website. You talk about it super publicly. What's it like to share this with people? And I know you have investors. Are you sharing this with them as well?
Mikey:
Yeah, so I guess the part of the reason why I felt so good about doing this company was when I was struggling with all the different prescriptions I was on, my ADHD, I was really helpless and it was one of those things where you're trying to find resources, you're trying to find somebody who just is there a story like mine that hey, someone might have been on a bunch of drugs, they're kind of losing sight of themselves, how do they get off, how do you do it naturally? And I was in a career where I was doing tech marketing and it was something that didn't really, you know, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't this, there wasn't passion, there wasn't purpose behind it. And because of my struggle I had, that was something that was like near and dear to my heart where it was like, hey, I come from this world of ADHD and trying to fit in, try and solve the problem. And when I found these pillows, instantly it was like, wait a second, pillows help people or just I guess weighted products help people. calm down, promote relaxation. And that tie into ADHD and that tie into saying, oh, wait a second, this is something that I can do to myself to help my ADHD. Instantly I had to jump in because of my kind of struggles with what works for me, what doesn't. And then to the part of ADHD and why it's over the website, it seems like it's just now coming to top of mind with people and it's. you know, moving past the stigma of the laziness, the, oh, you're just, you can't focus or your executive bunch is poor. And so wanting to do a company that promoted products to treat ADHD, I was, you know, it was just a natural fit. It was, I could speak about it for hours. I think it's, you know, it's needed. I think the natural side of it is really beneficial. And then, you know, the investor side, when I reached out to, the first investor I had, it was Nick Woodman, GoPro CEO, I knew him from previous work stuff, and I just said, hey man, I have this crazy idea. I think I'm missing something, weighted pillows. What's going on with this? And he was like, okay, explain it a little bit more. And I explained how pillow or weighted blankets, I can go into later what they do and how they promote com. And I explained my story and said, hey, I struggled with these things. This is a way to kind of naturally give a person a solution where maybe it's, you don't take as many meds or maybe you can get off meds entirely because it will calm you down. And especially with sort of the mental health kind of crisis where we're going through right now, he absolutely loved it. And then he said, Hey, even for kids, you know, if kids are being told for 10, 12, 14, you should go on stimulants. You can target that market too. And all of a sudden it came full circle. I was like, that is exactly who I was. I was the kid who was told go on drugs at that time versus, and so it was the kind of the confidence to say, let's go do this. And then plus he also said, hey, if you can't find money for this, I'll invest in you. So having Nick Woodman, you know, the GoPro guy say, he'll invest in me. I was like, I think I got some here. Let's go do it.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
That's called a soft circle,
Mikey:
Yeah,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
investment
Mikey:
yeah, exactly.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
circle.
Mikey:
Exactly.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
That's lovely, good confidence. You can take that into your other meetings.
Mikey:
Yeah.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
And what we're talking about here too, it's called deep pressure stimulation. It's been studied a little more recently, but not a ton of work was done to study this before the last like 10 years, but we're starting to find out like incredible things deep pressure stimulation. So what you experience when you hug a weighted pillow, when you're swaddled or when you have a weighted blanket on you. And there are studies showing, which I'll link to in the show notes that these things benefit kids who are on the autism spectrum, all the way up to folks who are suffering with anxiety. So there is this whole market that you're speaking to all sorts of folks who can benefit from this. Are you familiar with any other studies being done in deep pressure stimulation or are you doing any yourself?
Mikey:
So I haven't done any myself yet, which that's definitely part of the plan. But being able to see how, you know, the whole goal for the company was, wait a second, deep pressure stimulation, it's using your body to create an output. It's using your nervous system, something that's so simple to cause this effect, where by simply, you know, going back into the ADHD thing, where I had this sensory processing disorder, and you know, the earliest thing that I understood, which was, this can't be right, where I'd be sitting in class. I'd be out of sleep over and you hear it's all silent. You hear a clock ticking where it's tick, tick.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
That sound absolutely infuriates me where it completely, it consumes my entire thought process. It goes, it interacts with my brain and just says, nope, we don't like this. And I can't focus on anything else. And I, you know, I slowly boil up. And so knowing that I was going, okay, something's going on here with, you know. The way my nervous system is taking in senses, taking in the sound sense and trying to get that up to my brain, it's not functioning correctly. And so with deep pressure stimulation, you're effectively using your senses, you're using the sense of touch and another one, the proprioceptive where your joints, muscles and tendons to then have pressure goes on top of you, pressure whether it's on your legs, on your stomach, that pressure that touches your skin, it sends neurotransmitters up to your brain, it releases serotonin, the mood boosting hormone. It releases dopamine, the focus alertness one, it decreases cortisol, which is related to our stress, and then it also increases melatonin. So I'm sitting here and going, okay, why is this working so well? And especially from the melatonin side, I mean, you'll put these pillows on and you can sometimes really make yourself pass out from just being so sleepy. So when you said you had a Stella on you, Stella, right?
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yes, Stella.
Mikey:
Yeah, like, well, good luck. Cause I made the mistake. I was on Sunday and I just grabbed one. I grabbed the large as well. So I'm just trying to sit down quickly, put it on. And then, you know, 35 minutes later, I was like, oh man, I wish I didn't do that. Cause it was just, I was so relaxed and calm. But yeah, it's, when I learned that, hey, you're able to take your nervous system with this weight, you're going from sympathetic to parasympathetic, fight or flight, rest and digest, all with the power of weight. I was blown away. I was, you know, it was exactly this formula of something I was looking for it was, hey, you're using your own brain chemistry, you're using your own science with on with within you to make a result. And now seeing people utilizing it and kind of come into the commercial forefront and understanding that, hey, there's ways to use your senses to work for you, your nervous system to work for you. It's just, it's a whole new opportunity than that kind of the way it was in the past where it was. Here's a drug to make you do something.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, and I mean to speak to the stigma piece too. Like there, I'm thankfully, I'm a millennial. I think you are too. I think you started college four years
Mikey:
33.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
after me. Yeah, 37.
Mikey:
Alright.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
So we, our generation was kind of like the first to start talking about these things really. I'm so grateful for Gen Z because they're so open.
Mikey:
Mm-hmm.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
about mental health there. I really like they make me hopeful. I'm on Lexapro, but that doesn't mean all of my anxiety symptoms are managed. I don't want to go on more Lexapro. So
Mikey:
here.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
there's a lot of things I try to do to like cope, calm myself down, like breathing exercises, meditation. And I actually before getting Stella, my weighted pillow, I sleep with a pillow cuddled. And that helps me fall asleep. So if I'm on my side cuddling a pillow, I'm right out. And that's also something that you all wrote about on your website recently, that it can really be helpful for sleep. Anything you wanna speak to there, besides obviously the melatonin.
Mikey:
Yeah, because I mean, that's obviously where it came from for me, where I have a pillow under my arm, I was placing a pillow on top of my chest, you know, other maybe it'd be in between my legs, but it was somewhere on top of me and then another one. And so I had all these pills around me. And it goes into this, you know, for a lot of children, they have a blankie, they have a stuffed animal. There's something A, that's nostalgic about having one of these creatures around you, the pillow, the
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I love you.
Mikey:
stuffed animal. And also it's a sense of security. It's the security that your nervous system takes in and goes, because I had this when I was a child, you cuddle it, you comfort it, and it adds to this whole security level of being in bed. So when you're cuddling something, it's also then releasing oxytocin. So you have the security, the bonding side of it, but that bonding side, which is why we as kids really go towards our stuffed animals, is because hugging something, especially I found this fascinating stat out, when you hug something for six seconds, That's all it takes to release oxytocin. So basically when you're a kid, think about how often you're hugging your doll, your stuffed animal, your blankie, whatever it is, you're developing, and I guess I should back up, oxytocin is the social bonding, the love hormone,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I'm
Mikey:
you
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
still
Mikey:
know,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
not a foreman.
Mikey:
so to speak. And so when you're a kid, you develop this security and relationship with a comforting cuddle buddy, whatever form it's in. And so now as an adult, you're bringing that back into your life. You already had good experience with it as a child, so you know there's the comfort there, and then you're taken to the next level and saying, hold on, if I hug this, if I cuddle it, and then all of a sudden I start releasing oxytocin, I release endorphins, you're able to kind of bring that childhood nostalgia back to life, but give you the sense of security, which makes you fall asleep faster, which makes you have more comfort in the bed. And so the pills really do provide a lot of assistance in sleeping. And even, you know, just the You know, one of our phrases is your new main squeeze, where a lot of people like sleeping in the bed next to somebody and you can you know, it acts as a companion where even just having the sense of touch on the side of you resting on you. That's a whole other aspect where it's it just makes you feel more secure.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, I mean, my husband's there, but like, we have our own space. It's fine.
Mikey:
Exactly. Yeah, not as good. Yeah.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, Stella's my buddy. Okay. When do you, Mikey, when do you use your Quiet Mind pillow throughout the day? Do you have like a little bit of the light pillow, a little bit of the heavy, or what's your routine?
Mikey:
Yeah, it's, I have them all over the place now. It's pretty bad because I have one up in my office where I have the medium in my office and that one I'll throw in my lap when I'm working, when I'm sitting down, especially cause you know, right now I'm standing up and I like to move around. But when I need to sit down and focus, I'll throw that one on my lap. And then my couch has every single size. I think there's five on my couch right now where I have all small, medium, large. I put a medium under my arm or I think under both arms and I put a large now on top of me because I started off with a medium where this was another part of kind of this deep pressure stimulation, your nervous system, learning how you can affect something with weight where I didn't understand, you know, when I started it. But I have a weight guide to generally sort of guide people to which one to get. But if you're familiar with weighted products, then you've already sort of adapted your brain because more weight releases more hormones, more of these neurotransmitters. And so all of a sudden, you know, I'm on the couch, I have these all over me because I put one on top of me, you start releasing more of these hormones, you get more used to it. And so I have the large one because I like that effect the most. I also think it gives you the best bear hug where you can really pull it to your sides and wrap it all around you. And it's just, it's the most comfortable thing. And so I see you're doing, you're holding it with sort of this square position. My
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Mm-hmm.
Mikey:
favorite position is you kind of create a diamond where the one point is sort of under your chin
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh.
Mikey:
and then your arms are able to get around it easier, but then you can pull the sides around you. And so when you're sitting there, it just sort of blankets over you like a blanket, but it's a cozy little cuddly pillow. And so that's my favorite way to hold it. But then when I sleep, I have a medium that I literally just place on top of my stomach and then I'm out.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh man, okay, you've just changed the game. I shifted Stella into a new position. And now I don't know if I can ever go back. Okay, so before we move on, I need to know, did you have a stuffed animal as a kid?
Mikey:
I was a blanky guy.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
You're wear blank
Mikey:
I was
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
again.
Mikey:
a thumb sucker and I was a blanky guy. I had this baby blue blanky and I probably, I mean, I actually still have, my mom decided to frame it for me, I think when I graduated high school and she was like, hey, this is, and it, you know, that picture frame still travels with me from place to place. It's so, it's somewhere down in my bedroom. It's definitely not hanging up, but I do have a, I did have a blanky. And that was my cuddle buddy. Yeah, blanky, some fucking, and it was really nice. What about you?
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I had a blankie and I also had a small purple teddy bear that was in my crib when I came home from the hospital. It came with me to college and survived until my dog took all the stuffing out of it. My husband actually recently restuffed it for Valentine's Day, which was the nicest gift.
Mikey:
Oh, that's cute.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, so purple teddy
Mikey:
Yeah,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
is
Mikey:
that's
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
alive.
Mikey:
cute. Okay.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
She is
Mikey:
Yeah,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
alive
Mikey:
I mean,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
and well.
Mikey:
I remember in college, like there were so many people where in the door in their dorm rooms, I mean, their stuffed animals are sitting on their beds and people
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
you know, there was there was even a great New York Times article about you know, adults asleep with stuffed animals and going into the whole reason that we kind of talked to earlier about hey, this is why they're so comforting but they you know, stuffed animals they're still prevalent people still use them. You know, their kids still use them. So if we're able to offer a pillow, it's kind of a nice substitute and works the same way.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, I wish I could just like put Purple Teddy in here. So I know he's in here. Anyway,
Mikey:
Yeah.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
now it's time for show and tell. Mikey, let's share a tip, a resource, or an article you referenced as we talked through this. What's your tip?
Mikey:
My tip for using the pillows
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Could be,
Mikey:
or just
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
it could be
Mikey:
overall
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
anything
Mikey:
tip.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
really, anything at all. Anything at all.
Mikey:
Well, there was a good article I referenced, this kind of that I wanted to reference that sort of goes into this overall like health and wellness thing. And especially one reason why I was so excited to come on here, because you know, a sweat life and working out, what can you do for health and wellness? And it's just something I've noticed, the general shift towards working out. And it was this Wall Street Journal article and it was fitness means more than losing weight. And it's something that I've noticed over the past couple of years, because I'm a person for my ADHD. I work out all the time. I do it more for the endorphins, more for the sort of that dopamine hit and that routine to just, you know, if I can do it in the morning, I have my first goal that I, you know, accomplish. I have a win and I take that through me. Less about the, oh my gosh, I need to be so jacked or I need to lose weight or I need to look a certain way. And it feels like now working out is actually coming back to the forefront for the health and wellness benefits of it. And that was the whole point of this article. which you're starting to see people writing about, hey, it's not just about, you need to go look a certain way, but there's also this body, mind, spiritual, happy joy connection that working out provides. And I, you know, my parents, they've kind of instilled it in us and, you know, I see it around me, especially being in LA, but people work out because of this, hey, it's good for you, it makes you feel a certain way, it's being able to do something similar to the pillows where you're doing something that doesn't have to be a drug. to cause and effect. And I like seeing all these things about how fitness is, it's coming back because it's not saying, hey, you have to have this bikini body or this ripped six pack. It's no, it's good for your health. It's good for just a happy life. You don't need to do it a certain way. And so that was something that popped up a couple of weeks ago where I was just like, you know what? I like seeing this stuff coming back to the forefront.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Me too, me too. We actually at A Sweat Life, we don't even talk about the aesthetic of working out. We talk about the feel good elements of it all. So I love hearing that too, because I think we've been riding that wave for a while, just sort of saying like, it's not about that. It's not about what's in the mirror. Could be for you if you want it to be, but we aren't gonna talk about that. I love it. I'm gonna find that article, or if you wanna send it to me.
Mikey:
Yeah,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I don't
Mikey:
yeah,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
include
Mikey:
I will.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
it in the show.
Mikey:
Yeah, because it's I mean, you even see now too, which is so great that there's all these other articles that come about how the new status symbol is being healthy and working out where you know, maybe it's a CEOs used to flash a car or flash a wash, but now it's they look in shape. And it's just this shift that's coming out where people for whatever reason, maybe it was negativity towards working out but now it's positivity and saying, oh, instead of having the ostentatious clothes or the watches and stuff, it's like, oh, does that person look like they're in shape or do they look like they're focusing on being healthy? And that can come in many forms. It doesn't just have to be this form of their stick figure or their like muscle ball bar. And so I do like how just overall conversation now, especially with health and wellness is really. health and wellness, the mind, body and soul, what can you do naturally to achieve all these different, you know, feelings of joy, happiness? And it's great that it's less material things.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah,
Mikey:
Minus
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I love
Mikey:
pillows.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
that. Exactly.
Mikey:
and the stillers.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay, my show and tell today is actually thing testing reviews for QuietMind. So I went on thing testing. I love thing testing. It's a great place
Mikey:
These
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
if
Mikey:
are fun.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
you're not familiar with it. Yeah, it's awesome. It's a great place to learn about new products and see what people who have actually tried it think. So I'm gonna read a review from thing testing.
Mikey:
Alright.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
And by the way, you got great reviews on thing testing. It's basically a five.
Mikey:
Yeah,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh
Mikey:
I was nervous about thing testing because
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Were
Mikey:
we
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
you?
Mikey:
actually set the record for highest price point on there, which it's a big discount thing and new brands go on there. And I was like, well, let's just try this and see what works. And so we set a record with highest price point, sold out immediately. And I was,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh my god.
Mikey:
you know, this kind of this five minute panic of is it gonna work? And then it worked. And then yes, the reviews came in and I've been kind of blown away by everything.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, oh my God, I love that. Okay, so Alyssa R's review is great. She's a frequent reviewer, by the way. So she bought it
Mikey:
Oh, good.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
with the discount. She said, I love this weighted pillow so much. I'm a hot sleeper, so every time I try to weight a blanket, I couldn't last more than 10 minutes under it. Ditto, by the way. This pillow is a wonderful substitute. It has a great weight to it. The fabric used has a nice feel. I love using it along with my heating pad during PMS. Hot tip. Love that, love that for
Mikey:
Love
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
you.
Mikey:
that.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Um
Mikey:
Yeah, that was actually something early on people kind of mentioned to us that, hey, this would work really well during PMS and putting them on your lap, whether with a heat pad or without one, where it's just that added comfort level. And we've seen a couple of people now come in with that same general comment, which has been great.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, and also just pressure is great. Pressure, compression for recovery as well, but we could talk about that all day. I'm sure you could talk about that all day. But
Mikey:
Mm-hmm.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
let's talk about something we're loving this week. Mikey, do you wanna go first or second with the something you're loving this week?
Mikey:
You go first.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay, excellent.
Mikey:
I'll switch it for you on this one.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay, great. The thing I am loving this week. So selfishly financially, a sweat life qualified for the ERC credit. We don't talk about money all the time, but it's nice when things happen. So we used a service called ERC Specialists. They are not paying me to talk about this. I just want you to know it worked, it came through. So if you're thinking about applying for that credit, which is essentially like a... a refund of employee federal employee taxes or federal employment taxes you paid as a reward for keeping people employed through the pandemic. Like do it apply. We got
Mikey:
Oh
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
it.
Mikey:
wow.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
It came through. So go get yours.
Mikey:
Oh wow, that is a good one. Okay, I
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah,
Mikey:
like
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Mike,
Mikey:
that.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
what are you loving this week?
Mikey:
So mine actually goes into matcha. And I don't know if you're a coffee or a matcha drinker.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Both. I
Mikey:
Okay.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
actually like them together.
Mikey:
Oh, I actually that's funny. You mentioned that I was reading an article yesterday about matcha like bullproof matcha coffee and matcha and I was I didn't know either existed. I didn't know people even mix the two. That's unbelievable that you do mix.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
But so I'm a matcha drinker I it goes into the sort of this whole finding things that work for me in my ADHD and coffee with my ADHD, it was super high and then a massive drop off and it just made me kind of chaotic, gave me a lot of anxiety, did not work well with me and matcha works really well with my system. It's, you know, there's L-theanine in it. So you get the caffeine, but you stay calm. And so for this week, you know, I've been on the, I've been drinking the same matcha for maybe five years now and finally on Sunday. I was trying to figure out what was going on with my matcha, how to spice it up. And then I was putting it into a cold mug. All of a sudden, the most simple hack where I thought, hey, why don't I put this into a burning mug, heat the mug up in the microwave? The amount of flavor that comes through in your matcha, if you heat the mug up and especially really heat it up when you pour the hot matcha in, it's a whole new world. So any matcha drinker, I mean, I know this also goes for coffee as well where... You save a lot of that flavor with a hot mug. So that is something that this week has been a complete game changer for me, is the heated mug for my morning matcha. It's an absolute, an absolute treat.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Oh, I love that. And I knew you were going to talk about L-theanine the second you started talking about matcha. We love, we love, love L-theanine and drinks that include it.
Mikey:
Mm-hmm.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
We actually, so that is why I like mixing matcha with coffee because it has the same effect. So
Mikey:
Interesting.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
you can still, so L-theanine, as you know, creates this sort of like moderating effect for caffeine.
Mikey:
Mm-hmm.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
So instead of just blocking the sensor in your brain, that allows you to uptake the chemicals that tell your brain to sleep, which is why you get big crashes, Ulthianine sort of moderates the response to it, which is why caffeine from green tea is so good for you. We've written about it on a SweatLife, I'll link to it in the show notes. And there are also a ton of scholarly articles about it too. So if you have neurodivergence in any way, matcha is it for you or if you're just like an anxious person, coffee might
Mikey:
Mm
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
not
Mikey:
hmm.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
cut it.
Mikey:
Yeah, I mean, I take theanine, L theanine before I go to bed to it's part of my sort of nighttime supplement routine where, you know, I'll take two of them, I think 200 milligrams. But if I'm really, you know, anxious or not able to sleep or too hyped up or on my phone too late, I'll take a little bit more and it is such a great way to naturally calm you down. You know, almost put you out. Yeah, I love L theanine. I think it's a great a great little body hack.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, I love that. Anything else you take before bed, I can talk you through my whole nighttime routine.
Mikey:
Oh God, yeah, I'm a huge, there's so many different supplements. Let's see, there's L-theanine. I actually take one for hair just because I like my hair. And I like,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
You want
Mikey:
I've
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
to
Mikey:
always
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
keep
Mikey:
been
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
it?
Mikey:
really nervous. So it's called a Nutri-Full, which
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
there's a hair supplement in that. And then they also have a stress supplement in it. So I'm like, hey, we'll keep that. I take, was that a puppy?
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Two of them they're talking to each other and to us
Mikey:
Oh, good for them.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
We
Mikey:
Good for them.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
yeah, we just moved so they're like very talkative.
Mikey:
What
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
They
Mikey:
kind?
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
waited till the end though. Okay, keep going. Keep going neutral
Mikey:
Okay, so I take that for the hair. I take fish oil for ADHD and having those fatty acids, fatty acids, god, now I'm gonna blank on what as the nine thing, oh, I take a vitamin C, I take a vitamin D, I take L-theanine, fish oil, omega-3s. I know I'm blanking on some, but I do know that when, you know, on another sleepless night or if you know, I'm having trouble, there's a sleep gummy that has GABA HTTP five and melatonin and then I just use melatonin, but a little bit of GABA is kind of the perfect combination with the L-theanine where I think the two play really well together and add that extra level of kind of comfort relaxing before bed. Oh, and magnesium is the other one,
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
I
Mikey:
which
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
knew it. I was like, where's
Mikey:
yeah.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
magnesium in that mix? Before that, I take magnesium. I take CBD, a little bit of THC.
Mikey:
Yep. Wait, which brand do you use? I'd actually be really curious on this.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Okay, so I really like the brand 1906.
Mikey:
Okay.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
It's beautiful packaging and also like a really like micro dose, so it's... It's five milligrams of THC and five milligrams of CBD. And then if I need more CBD, I'll take that. I find that it just really helps with sleep. And then I'll add in some melatonin if I'm not sleeping super well that week for whatever reason. I also, I take my lexaprobe before bed. Everybody has like different timing that they take theirs. I need to add, I feel like I need to add L-theanine before bed. because I haven't been taking that before.
Mikey:
Yeah, L-theanine is a treat. That's funny, I actually, I take CBD as well. There's a company called Fab CBD, which I love, where sometimes I'll take a CBD and it actually keeps me up. And so whichever one with Fab, it works well. They're nighttime gummies or they're regular CBD. And it's just, it's such a great little, you know, calm down at the end of the night. But I've wanted to jump into the THC a little bit just to give that extra boost of
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah.
Mikey:
kind of relaxation. So I'll check that out. Cause I like all that kind of end of night stuff.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Yeah, and then 1906 Midnight Edible, it has like, they've created this fast acting THC and it also includes CBN, which is the like sleep cannabinoid. I mean, CBD
Mikey:
Yeah.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
is great, but CBN is
Mikey:
Okay.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
awesome for sleep. So CBN, even if you just add that, we can talk about this all day. Before we go, Mikey, what do you want people to know about Quiet Mind or where can they find you?
Mikey:
Yeah, so I guess the main thing with QuietMind and what I've noticed after going live and coming to market is people, when they hear weighted pillows, they're confused at first and they almost go, wait, what is that? Because everyone knows weighted blanket, especially blanket, is something you put on top of you. And weighted blanket has been out in the market for so long now that it's really synonymous with calm or weighted pillows. People are still coming up to them, figuring out what they are. And it's... It's really just a way where if you have problems with weighted blankets, weighted blankets are hot, they're cumbersome, they can be claustrophobic, and they're very hard to move around. So the pillow is taking all the great science we talked about with DPS and putting it into this amazing little pillow form that also gives you the added benefit of something you can hug. It's similar to a stress ball for your body where when I was going on this path, I go, well, why doesn't the body have a stress ball? So if you like a stress ball for your hand, You're gonna like a body stress ball because it's big and comfy. And it really is, it's just an alternative to weighted blankets and it's a way to naturally induce calm and promote relaxation for yourself without having to jump into drugs, you don't have to go into prescriptions and it's a way to naturally do it. And then also just because of the benefits with dopamine. It's great for working. It's great as using as a lap pad. It's great for putting your laptop on it. It's great for that extra focus, even for watching a movie getting more focus. And so there's a lot of benefits of these weighted pillows that are portable, easy to move around. And so anyone looking for a way to kind of calm themselves down naturally, I highly recommend the weighted pillows, you can go to one quiet mind calm. That's O Ne quiet mind calm and Instagram, we are quiet mind. So I know it's a little confusing, but it's quietmind on Instagram and onequietmind.com to check out our weighted pillows.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
Amazing. You'll also find Quiet Mind on our gift guide this year, because I love it.
Mikey:
Oh, lovely.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
But this has been another episode of We Got Goals, which is an Aswetlife.com production. Thanks to Mikey for joining me today, Mikey Goldman, CEO and founder of Quiet Mind. Thanks to Ryan Deffit for editing. And thanks to all of you, our listeners, for subscribing, rating, reviewing, doing all the things you do with podcasts wherever you get yours. Bye.
Mikey:
Thank you so much for having me. This was awesome. It was great chatting with you. I'm glad you are enjoying your pillow and your Stella. So thank you, thank you, thank you.
Jeana Anderson Cohen:
And thanks for Stella.
Mikey:
Yeah.
