Skip to content

Women In Wellness: Victoria Thain Gioia Of Perelel On the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Mental health is a cause that is very dear to me. It has certainly been a wild ride these last two years and there has been so much pressure on us all, but especially caregivers, mothers, working parents, and working mothers. It has been a lot to manage and personally I have struggled to find time and space for supporting myself through it all. It is so important to do so, to take care of yourself and your emotional balance. For everyone, no matter what their circumstances, yes, it could always be worse, but it is ok to need support for whatever you’re going through.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Victoria “Tori” Thain Gioia.

Victoria “Tori” Thain Gioia is the co-CEO and co-founder of Perelel, the first OB/GYN-founded wellness company that offers women dynamic prenatal vitamins and supplements, resources and community tailored to the varying stages of motherhood.

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?

I grew up as a third child in a very competitive family of four.I was a bit of a nerd growing up, very focused on school and eventually majored in math in college. After graduation I started my career in finance wearing pantsuits every day, consumed by numbers, and working 100 hour weeks. Eventually I realized I wanted to work for an actual brand that resonated with me , and have a real role shaping the business, which led me to startups. I went to business school to make this transition, and used that to land finance, strategy & operational roles at a handful of wellness oriented startups including Olive & June, Honest Co., and Carbon38. Once I became a mom though, I really wanted to work for companies I felt passionate about and eventually my experience through motherhood, fertility and all of the ups and downs of parenthood led me to founding Perelel.

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?

When I was working in finance, I interviewed at a fund where I really wanted an investment role. One of the partners told me point blank that if he had two equal candidates, but one was a woman and one was a man, he would hire the man because the woman was likely to take the “mommy track” and need time off. I was infuriated, but from that moment on have sought to prove that moms can still be competitive, MVP employees. Or founders! This comment has come up again and again in different ways over the last two years as my co-founder Alex and I were two pregnant co-founders, launching a brand at the onset of the pandemic, and it continues to fuel our fire. We want to hire moms, give women time off and ultimately know that a mom can multitask like no one else, get their work done, be efficient with time management and ultimately be founders, C-suite executives, and incredible employees for any company.

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?

I came from and joined a very structured, linear career environment and assumed every career choice had to be part of some resume building narrative. The world has changed so much and there is no such thing as a standard career path anymore. Every experience is important and can be a growing and learning opportunity if you can view it that way. My lesson learned has been to try and take something away from every experience versus putting pressure on yourself to make it fit some ideal narrative on some ideal path because life doesn’t work that way either.

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 statement is to create a world with more healthy, supported women every step of the way. Through our relationships with our customers, building a community of women who are supporting one another through life’s most joyous and sometimes most sobering moments, and through our product donations to underserved women who lack access to high-quality prenatal care, we’re hoping to make an impact.

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.

As a mom of three and co-founder of a new business, I have had to focus more on life hacks than lifestyle tweaks, these are a few that I swear by:

  • Taking phone calls as a walk
  • Using calendly to schedule meetings
  • Adding focus work blocks as holds on my calendar
  • Turning lunch pickups into regular catch ups with my co-founder
  • Scheduling my weekly workouts to hold myself accountable and block the time

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Self-care and not feeling guilty about it. It sounds trite and it may be a bit overused right now, but ultimately you have to take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else.

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

  • The lows are never as bad as they seem in the moment.
  • The journey is the destination — you always feel like you’re just trying to get to the next milestone, but really it should be caring about the process
  • You will hear 10 no’s for every 1 yes, but the yes’ are all that matter
  • Lean on your village and don’t feel bad about it
  • Sleep makes a big difference

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

Mental health is a cause that is very dear to me. It has certainly been a wild ride these last two years and there has been so much pressure on us all, but especially caregivers, mothers, working parents, and working mothers. It has been a lot to manage and personally I have struggled to find time and space for supporting myself through it all. It is so important to do so, to take care of yourself and your emotional balance. For everyone, no matter what their circumstances, yes, it could always be worse, but it is ok to need support for whatever you’re going through.

What is the best way our readers can follow you on social?

@perelelhealth and @vat26

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Victoria Thain Gioia Of Perelel On the Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.