VILLAGEx 2023 Founder Friday: Wake UP & Read the Labels

Founder Fridays is a series that spotlights VILLAGEx founders and their startups

What if I told you that some ingredients in today’s foods, including those marketed as “healthy”, are doing more harm to people's health than they are helping? Jen Smiley, an expert food coach, realized years ago that clean foods can drastically improve one's life and overall health. In 2019, Jen founded Wake UP & Read the Labels, a company with the mission to help people transform their lives by choosing foods with clean ingredients.

In 2018, Jen picked up her phone one evening to the heartbreaking news that a family member was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. The diagnosis was prostate cancer and they would need to lose 30 lbs to assist in healing and recovery. After that call, Jen wanted to help the best way she could. Thanks to her experience as a health advocate and spin instructor, she took matters into her own hands to help her family member shed the extra pounds by way of cleaner eating. Jen started shopping for her family member’s groceries and educating them on the importance of looking at each ingredient on the back of food packages and choosing the foods filled with real ingredients.

“I grocery shopped for him and ensured that I purchased clean swaps for bread, condiments, meats, pasta, dessert, and others. Within three months of eating clean, he was removed from cholesterol and blood pressure medication, lost 35 lbs, and his prostate cancer, which was monitored every 2 weeks through labs, had been decreasing because he was eating clean,” said Jen.

Jen quickly realized through helping her family member, that eating clean not only leads to weight loss but also to improved health.This was the spark that inspired her to start to Wake Up and Read the Labels 6 months after.

As a spin instructor, Jen was frequently asked by women at her gym, "what do I eat?” To help these women, she decided to grocery shop with them precisely as she had for her ill family member.

“I started taking them grocery shopping and filling up their carts with all of the clean brands,” said Jen. “Within days, their sleep improved, moods lifted, weight-dropped, and their inflammation peeled away.”

Thanks to her family members' healing and her clients' transformation, word-of-mouth traveled quickly. Within a month, Jen had 25 private clients hiring her to take them grocery shopping. In addition to grocery shopping, she began cleaning out her clients' kitchen pantries of food packed with unnecessary ingredients that cater to inflammation and sickness.

Today, Jen educates people about the importance of reading ingredient labels  in her “Clean Eating Academy” program, coaching network, and more. Her goal is to educate as many people as possible to ”wake up and read the labels”. 

Q & A 

(Responses have been edited for clarity)

What’s your best piece of startup advice for an entrepreneur in your industry?

Jen: “Keep on selling what customers are asking for by constantly engaging with your customers to ensure you are solving their problem through your product or service.”

Why startup in New Orleans?

Jen: “NOLA has [support organizations, like The Idea Village] with connections to mentors that have tons of experience with growing scalable companies.”

What have been some of the most significant learning curves in running your own business? How did you overcome them?  

Jen: “PEOPLE! It's hard to run a business, hire the right people for the job, check in with their emotions, and ensure everything is running smoothly. Since our team is all virtual, I have made a point to meet with each team member every other week for coffee as a check-in and a weekly in-person team meeting. I also plan, as a plus for my team, a monthly excursion that is non-work related. 

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Wake Up and Read the Labels empowers people to feel good by educating them on clean eating with products, community and a coaching network.