Women In Wellness: Jessica and Melissa Medri of FGBG Lifestyle on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Eat healthy and take vitamins: How you fuel your body will determine how your day goes. Providing your body with nutrients by eating healthy and taking vitamins will give you the energy you need.
As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Jessica And Melissa Medri.
Jessica and Melissa Medri are twin sisters and managing members of PharmaCenter, a supplement manufacturing and packaging company in Davie, Florida. Health has always been a priority in their lives, but like most young entrepreneurs and college students, achieving a perfect wellness score was a challenge. That’s why they recently launched Feel Great, Be Great (FGBG), a wellness brand for busy women.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?
During college, we focused our time at PharmaCenter. We were juggling going to classes, studying, working and having a proper healthy lifestyle with meal preps and working out. We always spoke about the irony of being in the supplement industry but forgetting to take vitamins and supplements ourselves. This is when we noticed a major gap in the industry and realized that many millennial women struggle with similar issues as us. We wanted to create a product that is easy to take on the go.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?
Starting FGBG, we wanted to take a different approach than the majority of supplement and vitamins brands. We wanted to remove the “chore-like”, medicinal feeling and we wanted women to feel excited to take their vitamins. That is why we created something that not only tastes great but looks great too. We love that our customers display our products on their kitchen counters and vanities. At first, we were nervous about doing something different, but the main lesson is to trust yourself and take the risk.
Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Our biggest mistake is overthinking. We had been working on the concept of the brand for a few years before we actually launched. We wanted everything to be “perfect” in all aspects, from matching the colors of the box to the packets, to taste and shape of the gummies. Looking back now we realize nothing will ever be “perfect” and we can always make changes as we grow and learn from our customers.
Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?
Our mission with FGBG is to be more than a wellness brand. We embody the philosophy that when you feel great, you are great. We are a whole lifestyle brand, because we support women as they handle everything life throws at them. As busy women juggling work, kids, health, social events, travel and life in general, it is critically important to remember to LOVE YOURSELF, not only by taking vitamins but also making time for other forms of self-love.
Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.
- Eat healthy and take vitamins: How you fuel your body will determine how your day goes. Providing your body with nutrients by eating healthy and taking vitamins will give you the energy you need.
- Enjoy life: Sometimes we can get so caught up with daily responsibilities, that we forget to appreciate the present moment. It’s so important to enjoy life and be grateful for the people and places around you.
- Get sleep: It’s vital to have a routine to end the day so you can get the sleep you need. While you rest, the body goes to work repairing cells and regulating hormones.
- Move the body: Exercise helps release stress and clear your mind. We personally love working out in the mornings. It’s the perfect time for us to focus on ourselves before we take on the day.
- Make time for YOU: When you take care of yourself you allow yourself to be the best you that you can be. Then you can support everyone else.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
We are passionate about a self-love movement. Making yourself a priority and taking care of yourself is extremely important. When you love yourself, you’re unstoppable! We printed “Love yourself” on the back of our boxes as a reminder.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
1) Enjoy the process: We get so focused on the result and forget to enjoy the process, which is actually the most fun part!
2) Trust yourself: It’s easy to doubt, especially if you are doing something different than everyone else. But if you believe in yourself then nothing gets in your way.
3) Don’t overthink it: This was our biggest mistake. We took longer than we needed to because we would overthink every single detail. This is still something we are working on today.
4) It’s okay to make mistakes. This is the hardest one, but at the end of the day, that’s how you learn and grow. We see making mistakes as a learning tool for our whole team.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
We live in a world that is fast paced and so much happens in a day. Mental health needs to be a priority. You don’t know what people truly go through, so we always make sure we are available to our friends and family anytime. You never know when someone just needs a shoulder to lean on.
What is the best way our readers can follow you online?
They can follow us on Instagram or Facebook @FGBGLIFESTYLE
Thank you for these fantastic insights!
Women In Wellness: Jessica and Melissa Medri of FGBG Lifestyle on the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.