Clinical Trials for Brand Growth

Speaker 1: [Music] women are now taking their health into their own hands that's is really inspiring and I'm glad that I can play a small role in these Journeys and especially by empowering these alternative treatments through an evidence-based approach through affordable but still rigorous clinical trials hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the sheb builted experience with Melanie join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it the career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech Innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in thank you for joining us Suzanne you are the founder of a Forbes 30 under 30 company Citrus labs tell us about your business and what led you to start it

Speaker 2: yeah Citrus Labs conducts clinical studies on behalf of consumer Brands like skin care supplements superf foods and also devices so that these Brands can make research back product claims for example 75% reduction in the appearance of finance and wrinkles or 90% felt more energetic so this would be then the product that the claim that they would get out of a research study and our mission really is to make clinical trials more accessible for Brands by providing a more affordable approach to the whole topic and while Citrus ABS provides clinical trials from start to finish like a traditional C contract research organization we run on technology which means that we automated most Paths of the clinical trial process which makes our studies not only more cost efficient but also faster and I have worked in clinical trials Clinical Research in all of my life I mostly worked on big studies concerning indications like Alzheimer's and other forms of Dementia or working in the metabolic area on diabetes and heart disease and a couple of my friends were studying Brands and research part of their brand identity when they were getting quotes from some providers they were fairly High and I was telling them that I would be able to help them to conduct these studies at a fraction of this cost and this is how citus lebs was born I love

Speaker 1: how your business happened naturally and you filled a need what do you think are the most important elements of leadership when scaling a business and

Speaker 2: growing your teams there are really different elements of leadership depending on which stage the business is in obviously it's very important at all times to have a vision and a North star which is leading the way but if you're looking at companies that are just staring out right at the beginning leaders need to be super hands on you're working operationally not being too good for

Speaker 1: anything doing whatever it takes to get the business of the crow reaching traction leaders need to be very adaptable very flexible all trying out many things and being intellectually honest to themselves also of what is working what is not working talking to customers potential customers asking for feedback and building the way into product Market fit and then once a company found something that works it's really about building and developing the team finding hiring the right people which is obviously very crucial for scaling the business and this also goes hand inand with delegating tasks empowering new employees and especially for me delegating was and sometimes still is very hard to me what I'll do is I will always make room for failure letting employees fail because once this happens it's fairly easy to come up with an action plan help them grow and making sure that this doesn't happen again one that is very important to me personally is also I believe in being kind and being empathetic and unfortunately sometimes this gets mistaken for weakness but especially when you're building a team it's very important because it will go a long way empathy and understanding that we are human makes women great leaders in addition to what you talked about doing all the parts of the business then you know how to train your team and develop your team the way you want your business to grow because you've you've done all of the different elements of your business

Speaker 2: absolutely I couldn't agree more you believe in bringing Cutting Edge research to Brands to help growth and to Consumers to help transparency which we all appreciate what do you like the most about what you do and why are you so

Speaker 1: passionate about it I'm so passionate about it because I'm generally interested in what I do and things research I'm excited to help bridge this gap between providers and then also the wellness industry and when you look at for example Women's Health this is a topic that has been neglected by traditional vestern medicine for ages our bodies are complex we have sometimes weird symptoms and some of our conditions are how to diagnose especially when they are not showing up on blood work on blood test and I would assume that many or even like most women have heard the sentence it's all in your head by a provider at some point me included and many women don't feel taken seriously by the medical community and personally I had a health scare in 2019 which actually turned out to be a simple vitamin B12 deficiency but it took three e visits like 10 other doctor visits and actually one doctor telling me that I might have cancer to get to a B12 deficiency diagnosis and to be fair my symptoms they were all over the place I had GI issues felt super lightheaded had shortness of breath I had some weird nump feelings and after two weeks several ultrasound CT scans spat chests one doctor actually decided to ask me about my lifestyle and then ordered a 12 test and it turns out I was highly deficient because I been plant-based since I was 15 and back then I was really feeling helpless desperate nobody took me serious I was actually referred to a psychologist and through my work with craps I can see now firsthand how these alternative approaches are helping women from PMS to PCOS liido men a pause to also see how women are now taking their health into their own hands that's really inspiring and I'm glad that I can play a small role in these Journeys and especially by empowering these alternative treatments through an evidence-based approach through affordable but still rigorous clinical trials it's so interesting because when something's going on with me I think how can I heal this naturally first and we can always do that but how can we start there and then when I look at all the health and wellness because it's such a huge industry you're right Women's Health has been neglected but Health and Beauty Brands and wellness Brands is such a huge industry and you look at the products and social media is telling us it's so good for you and this is going to do X Y and Z how do we tell if that's true it's clinical trials right research studies that evaluate if a product works and that's what it's supposed to do it includes objective data measurement from blood stool skin but sometimes clinical trials can also be just questionnaire based especially if you have products that are looking into pain such as period pain or when you're looking at products that are targeting libido female libido right or anything related to mental health Focus concentration memory this is when questioner based studies are cre actually the gold standard of measuring outcomes but when you're working with supplements sometimes they want to include blood tests into their research and we have worked with many brands that involved lipids checking cholesterol checking blood pressure sometimes even hormones or for skin studies we are often using instruments to objectively measure parameters like hydration or fine line sprinkles we also had a couple of studies that were're looking at Gat microbiome or skin microbiome it all comes down to what the brand wants to measure and what claims they want to make at the end they are different forms of study design and a lot of people think that there's just one form that's the best one which would be the randomized control uh study control trial but they also single group studies and they differ that single group studies as it's in the name they only have one group and then randomized control trials they have two groups or even more groups often testing against the placebo and randomized control studies the gold standard of clinical trials but some Brands don't have the luxury to opt for an RCT randomized control trial and also if you're new brand without a lot of anecdotal data it doesn't really make sense to go with a big RC right from the start and in my opinion a single group study that is welld designed even includes objective data

Speaker 2: measurement from biomarkers can be as rigorous to collect evidence as an RCT especially for your young Brands without a big amount of anecdotal data now one thing that I want to add here is that in skincare there is something called a consumer perception study and many brands in skincare are utilizing this versus an actual clinical study and they basically ask steud participants if they agree or disagree with the statement do you agree or disagree that your dark circles and your eye improved and then you have a lier scale asking strongly agree you disagree or agree this is basically the lowest form of a clinical study which is based Al not an actual clinical study but a perception study

Speaker 1: tell us about your technology and how does that work within the clinical trial

Speaker 2: space we put technology where humans used to manage each step of the process that makes our studies faster more coste efficient you know when you're looking at a clinical study there are three parts the first part is study startup the second part is execution and then the third part is all about data collection analyzing data and then writing a clinical study report we automated the entire execution PA from recruitment data collection and

Speaker 1: analyzing results that's so amazing especially for emerging Brands yeah I so

Speaker 2: too that like you said not need such a large clinical study yeah exactly but that doesn't mean that we can't run ler clinical studies we can run larger clinical studies as well but I think it's it's very important to mention that there's not just one form of a clinical trial and many people that are not scientists that are not involved with research they always think that there's only one way to do research which is random control study but there are also other study types and perception study we can talk about that it's often just basically marketing thing but a single group study single group clinical trial is still a clinical trial there are so

Speaker 1: many supplements offered today like we talked about before how do you suggest we read the labels to make sure that we're getting good quality products for

Speaker 2: ourselves yeah so first of all deciding which supplements to take depends on several factors and it shouldn't be an influencer telling you to take this it includes health needs includes diet lifestyle deficiencies for example I take a multivitamin that actually doesn't contain vitamin C because I get that through my diet But it includes B vitamins amongst others B12 it includes iron vitamin D and magnesium and I exercise a lot and I'm plant-based and this multivitamin then makes a lot of sense for me and then in terms of which brands to I would always look for a company that conducted a clinical trial I don't expect to see 2003 500 people randomized control study because I know that they are still fairly expensive especially if you include BL work but I do expect to see a pilot study these type of Studies have smaller sample sizes typically single group and the thing is that many supplements rely on existing research which is fine but putting your own products to the test through clinical trial even if it's just a pilot study shows that the brand has confidence in their product and I would also look at how transparent brands are about their studies instead of just posting something like based on a thirdparty clinical study I would look for a brand that is actually citing their source and to me the two three most important things are who conducted the study what was the methodology and ideally also what was the stud population on which the product was tested on again I don't expect for the research to be published in a peerreview journal but I do expect to learn more about the research especially more than just the

Speaker 1: claims what are your favorite green Beauty Brands and how do you suggest we look for brand transparency I really

Speaker 2: like say beauty it's a great product especially because they products are marrying skin care with makeup elements but generally like when it comes to whole skincare and pewd regimen I'm really a bare minimum person I actually only use three products and for me the most important one is sunscreen and especially in Beauty it's important to have a close look at the study type because many of them are perception studies and especially if the claim is something in the 100% like 100% agree that the product is doing this and this then it is fairly likely that this was not a clinical study and perception studies are not following the same rigor as an actual clinical study very interesting some of our clients actually disappointed when they get anything under 90% for their claims also with instruments which is crazy because if your wrinkles objectively objectively measured by skin analysis improved by 30% and this is huge but obviously in a perception study that same company will probably get a claim that says 100% agree that their fine lines and wrinkles appear smoother

Speaker 1: I asked this question at the end of every she built it episode magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business brings us joy and I see some ribbons behind you as we're talking how do you make sure you find and live

Speaker 2: your joy yeah it's very simple it's living a multi-dimensional life obviously I'm an entrepreneur working on some really exciting things with Citrus laps but as you see the ribbons I'm also a competitive equestrian competing in horse shows all over California in three different different disciplines and trage show jumping and cross country and I'm also a runner I run marathons all over the world and generally train a lot and having this diversity in my life also diversity of people like different people different backgrounds my friends are entrepreneurs business people but also equestrians and also all the athletes it's it's really amazing that they all bring new impulse to each aspect of my life and I think we are all guilty of living in a bubble but life gets more colorful and joyful when

Speaker 1: you have more than just one bubble you have been so much fun to talk to today what we put in our bodies and on our skin is so important and you've taught us so much today about what to look for and the next time I'm thinking about taking something now I'm going to look deeper into the clinical trials and Stu so thank you for sharing that information with us can you tell us how

Speaker 2: and where we can find you yeah you can find me on LinkedIn suzan mitki you can just type in Citrus it's probably easier and then find me there or you can send me a message on suzan that is s NE Citrus labs.com

Speaker 1: thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello shea.com on our Sheil it website or at Sheil it on social thank you to my editor Rich trolino who always makes us sound good until next time let nothing stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave [Music]