Women In Wellness: Tylar Brannon of Optimal Bio On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing
An Interview With Candice Georgiadis
Focus on proper nutrition. Food is a drug, and whatever you are eating is either hurting or helping you. Processed foods cause anxiety, depression and of course, physical illness.
As a part of my series about women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Tylar Brannon, CEO of Optimal Bio.
Tylar Brannon grew up in Cary, North Carolina and attended NC State University for her undergraduate degree. It was during this time that she realized she enjoyed helping businesses grow and decided to further her education at the University of South Carolina School of Law, receiving JD/MBA dual degrees to set her up to do just that. After grad school, she moved to DC for a few years and was eventually called home to help the then budding business of Optimal Bio. She worked to create processes, organize the business, and ultimately make life easier for the staff, vendors, and most importantly the patients. It didn’t take her long to realize that running this business was her passion. Since becoming CEO in 2018, she has expanded the company to five locations (Cary, NC; Wilmington, NC; Charlotte, NC; Charlottesville, VA and Charleston, SC), doubled patient count, and continues to work closely with future and existing patients to help them achieve healthier and more balanced lives.
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?
Growing up, I always thought I wanted to be a doctor, so it’s pretty full circle that now I am part of a medical company. While I’m an attorney by degree, going into law school, I knew I wanted to end up on the business side. I received my MBA while in law school and after graduation, I worked in Washington, D.C., before moving to Raleigh, NC where I joined Optimal Bio. When I first joined Optimal Bio, I thought I would be there temporarily to help them while I was applying for jobs. However, after putting new processes in place and taking over the finances, I was advised to “stay and create my own company.” Now I’m so proud we have grown to six offices, with plans to continue to expand.
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?
What day isn’t interesting when running a company? A few months ago, we had an HR issue. I immediately took action, but more importantly- stayed calm. I reached out to one of my good friends from law school for advice on how to thoroughly handle the situation with due diligence. This gave me confidence in myself as a leader and how I handle situations, and reminded me to be grateful for my friendships. I kept calm, steady and focused during a stressful time, while continuing to do my job.
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?
The biggest mistake I made when I first started was not listening to myself. Since I was young and had never led a company, I did not yet have the confidence to trust myself and defend my thoughts and decisions. A key lesson I learned was to trust my gut in letting people go sooner and hiring people sooner. Building a team you can create something with, not be restricted by, is critical.
“Learn from others who have walked the path before you, but be smart enough to know when to cut your own trail.” — Narciso Rodriquez
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?
Health and wellness are foundational to a happy, successful and enjoyable life. As Arthur Schopenhauer said, “We do not become conscious of the three greatest blessings in life, such as health, youth and freedom, as long as we possess them, but only after we have lost them.” At Optimal Bio, we practice preventative healthcare. We give you the tools and resources to prevent sickness and disease, and for your body to function the way it was created to. We specialize in Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT). As we age, our hormones decrease, and because of environmental factors, our hormones are now decreasing at a much quicker rate. Testosterone and estrogen are hormones with over 500 functions in our bodies, and almost every cell in our body has a hormone receptor (brain, skin, heart, nerve, bone, vascular). If our hormones are out of balance, our bodies can’t function properly, resulting in symptoms such as fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, depression, menopause in women and more.
Females are more than twice as likely as males to suffer from anxiety and depression. Why? Testosterone yields protective benefits against both. Males with decreased levels of testosterone have a significantly higher prevalence of anxiety and depression. Many studies show that testosterone-replacement therapy greatly improves mood, alleviates anxiety and mitigates symptoms of depression. Additionally, BHRT may protect against heart attacks, disease, dementia, and osteoporosis, and help heal PTSD and TBI.
It’s important to take note of your blood work. Many ask, what is the normal range? The normal range is the average of the population, and each year it decreases. Do you want to be in the average range of a sick population?
By using BioIdentical Hormone Replacement Therapy (BHRT), you can mitigate negative side effects that synthetic hormones may cause. BHRT uses all-natural hormones that are identical to the hormones made by your body to ease the degenerative side effects of medical issues, environmental factors and aging. The goal is to re-establish the hormone levels that your system was designed to maintain. Your BHRT dose is based on your bloodwork, height and weight, so it’s the dose that your body needs to get into the goal range — which is very personalized to you. This goal range is the average level of testosterone just fifty years ago.
The work we are doing at Optimal Bio is literally changing lives. As a population, we are getting sicker each year — both physically and mentally. At Optimal Bio, we offer a solution by treating the person’s root cause of issues. Giving bodies these tools to function properly and treat the root cause of illnesses leads to less disease and sickness, and a more productive and happy society with less healthcare costs.
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.
1. Focus on proper nutrition. Food is a drug, and whatever you are eating is either hurting or helping you. Processed foods cause anxiety, depression and of course, physical illness.
2. Workout in the morning. Schedule your workout on your calendar like any other meeting. Exercise provides energy, clarity and happiness to start the day.
3. Work hard to improve yourself. Don’t become complacent. Read books, listen to podcasts, and have hard conversations to become a better version of yourself.
4. Go outside. Take a walk, go for a hike or sit on the beach. The negative ions in nature are very calming.
5. Spend time in stillness being alone.
If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?
This movement would be patient advocacy and education. There is so much information about health and wellness out there that is incorrect and making our population sicker. We grow up going to the doctor and listening to what they say, but we need to learn to be advocates for our health. We know our bodies and how we feel best. Our team provides resources for advocacy in health and wellness to put patients in charge of their health. A few years ago, I had my own health issues, and it took me being at rock bottom to learn how to become my own advocate and find the answers. I went to many doctors until I found the right one for me. I want to help people avoid feeling hopeless or crazy, because I have discovered there is in fact a solution to feeling better.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?
1. Forge your own path. I think leaders currently have a unique opportunity to define our roles as such, and how our companies run as a whole. Companies and job descriptions can become stagnant if leaders always play it safe when running their businesses. I want to be the leader that my company and team needs, and not one that someone may think a CEO should be or has been in the past.
2. Create boundaries. I am a person who has a tendency to take on other people’s problems and emotions, but this leads to feeling burnt out and not at my full potential. Overtime I have learned the power in saying no and creating boundaries.
3. Trust yourself and take risks. Your gut tells you a lot, so listen to it. If you don’t take risks, you won’t achieve your full potential. At Optimal Bio, we are creating something different in the healthcare space. By wanting to be different, I have to take risks to be better and grow. Each new office location, marketing company, and daily decision, as well as creating a culture and team, all comes from trusting myself and taking risks.
4. Turn off your email notifications on your phone. In August of 2020, I went on a trip out West to Wyoming, South Dakota and Montana, so I decided to set up an out of office email and turn off my email notifications. Within two minutes of turning off my email notifications, my stress level dropped. Upon returning home from vacation, I realized I didn’t need my phone to keep notifying me of my emails, when I already check my emails within a timely manner. My email notifications are still off more than a year later.
5. Have a mentor and keep learning. I’m in a group of talented business owners and leaders which helps me learn, grow and stay challenged, as well as create relationships to support one another. Optimal Bio and myself as a leader would not be where we are today if I didn’t have mentors or if I didn’t continually try to learn, take risks and be better. Learning through experience and other’s experiences cannot be compared to a textbook.
Sustainability, veganism, mental health, and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?
Of these causes, mental health and environmental changes are the dearest to me because this is what we focus on every day at Optimal Bio. We see the impacts of the plastics in our water, and xenoestrogens and chemicals in our food sources, which lead to mental and physical health problems. We want to be a resource and solution for people to be aware of what’s going on, why they feel a certain way and how to live optimally.
What is the best way for our readers to further follow your work online?
Optimal Bio website: Optimalbio.com, Instagram (@optimalbio) and Linkedin (Tylar Brannon + Optimal Bio)
Thank you for these fantastic insights! We wish you continued success and good health.
Women In Wellness: Tylar Brannon of Optimal Bio On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.