As a part of my series about “Learning To Finally Love Yourself” I had the pleasure to interviewAnne Hulett. Anne is the founder and CEO of Rock Grace, a non-alcoholic beverage infused with crystal energy and adaptogens. She created Rock Grace to fill a gap of there not being anything exciting, healthy and interesting to drink in the non-alcoholic beverage category.
Before her recent Rock Grace adventure, Anne owned a health and wellness lifestyle business and worked in senior product and marketing positions for over 14 years leading results-driven initiatives for early stage health startups as well as Expedia, Inc. She is passionate about living a fulfilled, beautiful, fun and healthy lifestyle she calls the Rock Grace lifestyle. Anne loves to run, play tennis, travel, seek out new experiences in Seattle, plan private events and spend quality time with her family. She graduated from California Polytechnic University with a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition.
Thank you so much for joining us! I’d love to begin by asking you to give us the backstory as to what brought you to this specific career path.
I wanted to improve the quality of my lifestyle by cleaning up my diet and beauty routine and exploring natural health remedies for stress and anxiety.
I found several lovely health and beauty products promoting wellness and balance to use for my daily routine, but couldn’t find a substitute for alcohol that promoted relaxation, positive energy, wellness, and beauty. I saw a huge gap, in a space I define as next generation drinking, for non-alcoholic wellness beverages designed for people that love to drink alcohol and want to start drinking with intention and without the hangover.
I believed non-alcoholic didn’t have to be boring and wanted to add excitement to the non-alcoholic beverage options offered while being social, glamorous, enjoying down time, and taking the edge off. Something to celebrate with that didn’t take away from all of the healthy habits I had put in place and didn’t have all of the negative side effects I experienced from alcohol, but would still help manage stress and anxiety and give me the sensation of taking a break and having a glass of wine.
After extensive research on alternative health remedies, I grew a deep fascination with and passion for crystals and adaptogens and their healing powers. I noticed the power these two energy balancers contained, the harmony they created, combined the two, and what I was looking for was born, Rock Grace.
Are you working on any exciting new projects now? How do you hope that they might help people along their path to self-understanding or a better sense of wellbeing in their relationships?
We are heads down right now working on our new release bottles coming out this summer. It will be our biggest release and we are excited to get our bottles into more hands. Rock Grace is a bottled crystal elixir infused with a variety of crystals, botanicals, and adaptogens that encourage vibrational alignment and stimulate strength, grace, beauty, and love. The energy of the crystals and fine botanical and superherb ingredients enhance the elixir calming anxiety and stress while promoting mental and physical wellness and empowerment. Part of our mission is to encourage self-love and following through with healthy intentions which can be applied to your relationship with yourself and with others.
Do you have a personal story that you can share with our readers about your struggles or successes along your journey of self-understanding and self-love? Was there ever a tipping point that triggered a change regarding your feelings of self acceptance?
After creating Rock Grace, I stopped drinking alcohol. Not drinking alcohol was unfathomable to me, I loved wine and the experience of drinking and wine tasting and was even married in wine country, Napa, Calif., one of my favorite destinations.
My quality of life has improved without drinking alcohol and I feel the healthiest I have ever felt in years. I feel that living the Rock Grace lifestyle is one of the best decisions I have ever made and was life changing for me. Many people can’t drink alcohol without it interfering with their intentions, goals and health. They may want to cut back on alcohol, but they still want to be social and drink beautiful drinks in beautiful glasses in beautiful settings. Rock Grace allows them to do this and gives people the opportunity to imbibe in next generation drinking by providing beauty and wellness crystal elixirs bottled and ready to drink in social settings.
I want Rock Grace to be a healthy beverage option that is associated with everything that comes to mind to most when envisioning themselves with a glass of wine in hand–happiness, joy, love, peace, relaxation, sexy, confident, worry free, beauty, glamour, balance, light, but sadly the reality of drinking too much is problematic, full of anxiety, health issues, mental instability, fatigue, lack of energy, pain, and hangovers.
At Rock Grace, we put our positive intentions and passion into our work to spread the message of strength and grace to others. We offer a product that lives up to its messaging of “drink this and you will feel good now and in the future.” It’s our gift to people actually seeking a positive lifestyle and who want to make positive changes in their life without feeling isolated or uncomfortable. To add the light back to some during a very dark situation if alcohol has caused them problems. Their happy place of drinking, relaxing and socializing can still exist without alcohol.
According to a recent study cited in Cosmopolitan, in the US, only about 28 percent of men and 26 percent of women are “very satisfied with their appearance.” Could you talk about what some of the causes might be, as well as the consequences?
I don’t think enough people are focused on self-care and the importance of taking care of yourself. When you are taking good care of yourself, you are going to be more satisfied with the way you look and feel.
As cheesy as it might sound to truly understand and “love yourself,” can you share with our readers a few reasons why it’s so important?
To love yourself means to put your needs first and make taking care of yourself a priority. It means setting boundaries and not engaging in unhealthy relationships and behavior. If you love yourself, you are going to protect yourself from jeopardizing your mental and physical health. You will take the time to recharge, find your energy, instill and prioritize healthy habits which will make the journey rewarding and ultimately fill you up with more to give.
Why do you think people stay in mediocre relationships? What advice would you give to our readers regarding this?
I think people are creatures of habit and do what they know. They have been molded a certain way and aren’t ok with being uncomfortable. Once they realize it is ok to be uncomfortable and that what they want may be outside their comfort zone, it will be easier for them to expand who they are and going for a relationship that is more than what they currently have. People need to set their expectations higher and believe that those expectations can be met. The stronger one’s love for themselves, the more they will want and expect from a relationship.
When we talk about self-love and understanding we don’t necessarily mean blindly loving and accepting ourselves the way we are. Many times self-understanding requires us to reflect and ask ourselves the tough questions, to realize perhaps where we need to make changes in ourselves to be better not only for ourselves but our relationships.
What are some of those tough questions that will cut through the safe space of comfort we like to maintain, that our readers might want to ask themselves? Can you share an example of a time that you had to reflect and realize how you needed to make changes?
My biggest questions would be 1. Are you acting like the person you want to become? and 2. Are you modeling a person you respect? If the answers are no to either of these questions, it is time to make some changes in your life. There was a point in my life where I could answer no to both of these changes and I knew I needed to improve my quality of life. For me, not taking care of myself was having a negative impact on those around me and I wasn’t able to act like the person I wanted to be or become. I didn’t have the energy required to reach my goals and be that person that I looked up to.
So many don’t really know how to be alone, or are afraid of it. How important is it for us to have, and practice, that capacity to truly be with ourselves and be alone (literally or metaphorically)?
Being alone is where you can follow your heart and really listen to your intuition. Outside influences can be so powerful and manipulative so if you don’t take for yourself to get grounded and recharge and find your alignment and harmony it makes finding and loving yourself more difficult.
How does achieving a certain level of self-understanding and self-love then affect your ability to connect with and deepen your relationships with others?
Once you are to a place of understanding and loving yourself, you have so much more to give. Your clarity allows you to be more engaged and supportive of others. You also become extremely inspiring to others so you will get more from others because they look up to you and respect you.
In your experience, what should a) individuals and b) society, do to help people better understand themselves and accept themselves?
- Individuals need to follow their heart, listen to their gut and really shut off outside noise. They need to stop caring what others think and start doing what is right by them and what feels good for them. A lot of times we do what we think others want us to do and this can create a bad cycle of never being fulfilled and put other’s needs before our own.
- I think society has started to do this more, but share your story and don’t fall into marketing traps of a glamorous, ideal lifestyle. Create a lifestyle that works for you and makes you feel good and learn from what others have been through and being open minded to what has worked for others to improve their lifestyle.
What are 5 strategies that you implement to maintain your connection with and love for yourself, that our readers might learn from? Could you please give a story or example for each?
- Set my mindset for each day- what I’m excited about, who needs my A-game, and what is important to me for each day
- Set my goals and priorities- list my top 3 goals and priorities for the day
- Exercise- I take a barre3 exercise class every day that empowers me from within and makes me feel balanced and strong
- Mindful eating and drinking- I am extremely mindful about what I put in my body. I know that my body isn’t built to process too many unhealthy foods and drinks and that I won’t be feeling my best if I’m not nourishing myself
- Meditation- I take 3 minutes every day to focus in on what is important to me and to breathe
What are your favorite books, podcasts, or resources for self-psychology, intimacy, or relationships? What do you love about each one and how does it resonate with you?
- Dare to Lead by Brené Brown- This book is all about going for it and loving yourself along the way
- High Performance Habits by Brendon Burchard- I love this book because it highlights the importance of putting the work in to create your ideal life and that self-love and taking care of yourself is key to success
- Brave Enough by Cheryl Stayed- This book is full of wonderful life changing quotes to encourage you to think differently
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? Maybe we’ll inspire our readers to start it…
This falls in line with exactly what I’m doing. I want people to find their Rock Grace happy place. Where you feel empowered and there is no desire for escape. Reality and fantasy are one of the same. It is a place that is authentic and pure, where your mind is healthy and clear and you feel beautiful and strong from within. Our goal is to let people know this place exists and inspire others to discover their Rock Grace happy place.
Rock Grace is not only a beverage, it’s an experience and a lifestyle that promotes an improved quality of life. It inspires you to live your best life and supports your intentions to do so. Living the Rock Grace lifestyle means you are taking care of yourself and being mindful about what you are putting in your body without feeling deprived or isolated. It is a desire to feel good in the moment and in the future and to live a fulfilled, healthy and beautiful lifestyle.
Many people can’t drink alcohol without it interfering with their intentions, goals and health. They may want to cut back on alcohol, but they still want to be social and drink beautiful drinks in beautiful glasses in beautiful settings. Rock Grace allows them to do this and gives people the opportunity to imbibe in next generation drinking by providing beauty and wellness crystal elixirs bottled and ready to drink in social settings. Their happy place of drinking, relaxing and socializing can still exist without alcohol.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote” that you use to guide yourself by?
Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life and how our readers might learn to live by it in theirs?
“Love many, trust few, and always paddle your own canoe”. This was relevant in my life because it is all about finding your energy and the power to take control of your life. Self-care is energy and power and by protecting ourselves and being loving and creating our own path and taking the driver’s seat we can reach our goals and where and who we want to be.
Thank you so much for your time and for your inspiring insights!