Amanda Northcutt (00:01)
Hey, hey, you're listening to the Level Up Creators podcast, Amanda Northcutt here, founder and CEO. Welcome to a very special series of the Level Up Creators show where we're featuring participants from the MRR Accelerator Cohort 2. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome my special guest, Amber Berger. Amber is the founder of The Welldrop, a multi-platform wellness brand helping powerhouse women cut through the wellness noise, take control of their metabolism, and reclaim the health, energy, and mental edge that they thought they'd lost.

As a certified holistic health coach, entrepreneur and host of the WellDrop podcast, Amber Lynn's science-backed strategies with ancient wisdom, modern biohacking and a lifestyle first approach to help women thrive in midlife. She also offers her signature 14 day midlife reset designed for leaders navigating the midlife shift who want to take control of their health and energy and step back into their power. Welcome Amber.

Amber Berger (00:50)
Thank you for having me, Amanda.

Amanda Northcutt (00:53)
It is so fun to have conversations like this in a little bit of a different environment. Obviously we work together very closely and see a lot of each other. So it's fun to be in front of the camera and putting something out into the world because the world needs more Amber Burger. So we're glad you're here.

Amber Berger (01:07)
Thank you. I'm excited to share.

Amanda Northcutt (01:09)
You have

such an interesting backstory, ⁓ starting from when you were a pretty young child. So I would love for you to kind of take us back to little Amber and your health crisis as a young person and how you took control at a very young age, which was highly unusual, especially when you and I grew up. And yeah, what happened?

Amber Berger (01:29)
Yep.

So I'll take you back to 1994. I was 14 years old and diagnosed with Crohn's disease. I had surgery during my sophomore year of high school. And basically at the end, the doctor told me that I would be on a steroid for the rest of my life.

I think as a typical teenager, I found frequent doctor's appointments really annoying. I also believe that being on medicine when I was around 11, I had to take coated Bayer aspirin for a year. My right knee was swelling up. I was a competitive dancer. And I thought the combination of that and processed foods is truly what led to my illness. So I didn't like the idea of being on more medicine forever. And something in me just said, absolutely not.

So instead, I turned to the power of food and creating a wellness lifestyle that allowed me to heal myself. And I am happy to report I've been Crohn's free for nearly nearly 30 years. And that experience really taught me two things. One, your body is always talking to you and that you need to tune in and listen. And two, no one can own your wellness better than yourself. And

Amanda Northcutt (02:46)
Hmm.

Amber Berger (02:47)
Because I lived a wellness lifestyle for decades now, long before Instagram made it trendy, I guess the proof is in the pudding.

Amanda Northcutt (02:56)
It is, I don't know anyone else who has Crohn's that has been Crohn's free for really any amount of time. And as a person with autoimmune disease and long-term chronic illness, I know my fair share of folks with Crohn's disease, unfortunately. So, I mean, that's pretty radical. Amber, 90s, know, was holistic wellness was, I mean, barely, barely, barely coming on the scene. I feel like my mom was kind of on the forefront of that. And so we ate differently at our house than anybody else. And I would like run, I know.

Amber Berger (03:23)
So look at you, yes.

Amanda Northcutt (03:26)
but I would go to the neighbor's house and eat their like Twinkies or whatever they had, because I felt like I was being deprived. Definitely did not understand nor did I have like an acute need like that to kind of comply or take charge of my own wellness. So let's talk about your mom a little bit, because I know she played an integral role here and I feel like your self-advocacy and what you have instilled in your kiddos is genetic.

Amber Berger (03:51)
Yes, I can

thank my mom. So basically what led me to tapping into the power of food as medicine was really my mother connecting to our community and trying to find another way. And from her just reaching out to people and kind of saying what was going on, do you know anything that could be different? What can we do? She got connected to a person through my aunt actually who lived in LA.

and she had a client, my aunt owned a retail jewelry store, and a client came in that she knew forever and had just gotten back from this place called the Macrobiotic Institute and also had Crohn's disease and had a profound experience. So I guess we are sort of explorers and naturally curious. My mom and I signed right up, not knowing what in the world that meant, but like this guy had a good experience, so we're gonna go check it out.

And we went to Beckett, Massachusetts in the Berkshires. And it was right before I actually was attending a summer program at the University of Vermont. It was a one week program. I say my entire life transformed in seven days. And it's pretty crazy how quickly you can change in a short period of time. opened, going to the Macrobotic Institute opened the gates of understanding the power of food.

energy, self-care practices. And I met people while I was there who were healing themselves from stage three and four cancers and people who had come back with these amazing, powerful stories. And sometimes I think even when I spoke to my son, you may go to a place and realize everyone puts their problems on the table and everyone's going to go and take their own problems back. Like me having Crohn's disease was really not that big of a deal compared to these other people.

and that if they ate that food and made them better from cancers, the least I could do was try to eat this food and I can heal myself from Crohn's disease. And after being there for just two days, I went off the steroids, which was like a post surgery treatment and never looked back. I think about some of it has to do with the power of mindset, but really the biggest part was sticking to wellness habits consistently every day and really being

aware and connected to my body to listen to the small messages because your body does speak to you. And without it being woo woo, like it literally gives you signals. And we just have to tap in and tune in and listen to it. And if you do, then it can respond accordingly.

Amanda Northcutt (06:33)
Yes, my goodness, yes. What an incredible and unique experience as a 14 year old. So, okay, what did life look like at camp right after that? And then henceforth, right? What did your life as a teenager look like compared to your friends and how did you stay in remission?

Amber Berger (06:49)
Yeah, so that summer, so basically when I went there, I learned about not eating meat. So no chicken, no beef. And for Macrobatics, it was fish maybe once a week. So I basically became vegetarian overnight with a little bit of fish. And I was, so it was interesting. I was like that for a very long time and I knew stress was my big trigger. I think everyone has to figure out like, what is the trigger for you? Everyone's different.

So for me, I can sort of internalize the stress and then that would give me a stomach ache. ⁓ But I also would turn to food as a healing mechanism and I always knew where the organic markets were. Like I was shopping organic stores when they were sort of like small smelly cafes. My friends would come with me and be like, Amber, where are we going? Like my day revolved around making sure I was nourished and fed at least three meals a day.

and I always had snacks on me. I could never go too long without eating. So I had to really just make sure that I took care of myself. And that summer, I guess I was so lucky. saw those friends are still some of my best friends today. They were so supportive and came with me to those stores. Like I never felt alone in that experience. I had such like a wonderful, even though they were new friends at the time, just supportive people around me. it wasn't, they sort of joined me on it.

And I'm sure they'll admit now, like I definitely rubbed off on them by explaining to them why I'm doing certain things. I think when you bring others along for the ride, like it helps elevate those around you too.

Amanda Northcutt (08:27)
Yeah, and just to have some community and support. What a cool, wonderful group of girls, now women, that you, wow, that's really neat. Okay, well, fast forward a little bit. So you made it through your teenage years, you're into your twenties, you're still really into wellness, and it seems like you just kept, you have insatiable curiosity around wellness and health and wellness practices. So walk us forward a little bit and how did you, all the way up to how you got started with the WellDrop?

Amber Berger (08:56)
Yeah, so like I said, I've always done things a little bit differently than my friends. But I think one of the biggest defining moments that I could still remember was being a mom and standing in my kids' nursery school and looking at the snack table. And there were juice boxes on the table and those bright orange colored crackers. And I couldn't even handle because you can't read the ingredients. I couldn't pronounce them. And my gut reaction was like, no way. I spent...

years healing my body through food and lifestyle, there was not a chance I was feeding my kid the same processed food that I grew up with that I felt made me sick too. And what I realized is that most parents and teachers, didn't even think about what was actually in those snacks. So I got to work educating the school, the families, partnering with other parents and swapping out processed food for fresh organic fruits and vegetables all on the same budget. And my kids,

Definitely have fewer sick days, more energy and better moods than others. And you could see the direct relationship between food and your wellness at such a young age. ⁓ But I'm also all about getting it done. Working, mothering, finding out efficient ways to keep things moving. And what really hit me was watching the other moms exhausted and just trying to get through the day.

And I sort of became that first phone call for them when their kids would get sick and they would ask me what to do and what to take. And it really wasn't until after my second child, so my kids are about three years apart, that I feel like the wheels really came off for most people. And balancing work, two kids, family life, I think these women I was surrounded by, they really started to lose their spark.

And so I knew I needed to step into a bigger capacity outside of my circle. And that was a moment I pivoted out of the fashion and jewelry world and officially stepped into the wellness sector. And this was back in 2017. And it started with launching Salt House, which was the first social wellness concept in New York City. And today with The Well Drop, where I bring the same clarity to high performing women in midlife.

helping them to cut through the chaos and understand their body signals and take back control over their health with a roadmap that includes practical everyday habits that fit into the real life.

Amanda Northcutt (11:23)
Awesome. Let's talk about your relentless dedication to experimentation on yourself. You are the guinea pig for everything that you recommend. You've pursued certifications and training and you, mean, just again, insatiably curious to know anything and everything about wellness. And then of course, through the WellDrop, your podcast, your Instagram account, LinkedIn, you are sharing what you know with others and now specifically helping professional women make it through midlife. Tell us about

Amber Berger (11:52)
Yeah.

Amanda Northcutt (11:53)
experiments on yourself and why you do that and how you share that information with your community.

Amber Berger (11:59)
Yeah, so I think that, you know, even with my solid foundation in wellness, midlife truly humbled me. It was around like 42, I hit a wall, my energy, my focus, my metabolism started shifting, and the routines that had worked for me for decades suddenly stopped delivering the same way.

And I realized that there was no roadmap for women in this stage. So I had to reevaluate everything from my sleep, my workouts, my daily habits, all to understand sort of what did my body need now. Hence kind of leading to the midlife experiments and also creating the well drop. I wanted to create a clear roadmap for women that cut through the chaos and reduce the confusion and take back control of our health. You all of the people around me, that's all we would talk about.

and that's all still people talk about, but there was no path. So I said, I'm always very open to trying new things. Like I said, I'm an early adopter and I pretty much just shared openly the different experiments that I started doing on myself while I was creating this roadmap for women in midlife.

Amanda Northcutt (13:08)
Love it. Self-guinea pigging. Okay, tell us about your global travels. If we can talk about Brandon, I think that would be great. And I mean, you've really, really gone to the literal ends of the earth in search of wellness and the best health practices. So walk us through situation with Brandon, your wonderful son, and your experiences all over the world seeking healing.

Amber Berger (13:33)
Yeah, so my son was actually diagnosed with Crohn's disease in, it was right before 2020, so like December of 2019. And he was, like I said, never sick, healthy child, and out of nowhere, it's like the floor just came out from under him. And because I inherently believe that the body's ability to heal, I immediately got to reaching out to my community and to research.

And that research, the initial research led to learning about enteral nutrition, which was a liquid diet that is the first protocol used outside of the US in order to try to help heal Crohn's disease. Because his journey looked completely different than mine. The location of his Crohn's was in his small intestines, and mine was in the more traditional area, like the ilium. So his was much more complicated, ⁓ with less room for error, I would say.

And through all of my research, we tried that. It worked for a little bit, but it wasn't necessarily like the end all be all answer for him. For some reason, he had systemic inflammation that just would not go away. And I have like the most amazing wellness advisors in my circle. And once they sort of were at a loss of...

what's going on, I knew like, wow, like we gotta like keep digging further. So that basically led me to India where we again reached our community. And we were told about this doctor in India in Goa specifically, Dr. Upur who had helped friends of ours, but it was COVID so we couldn't go. And then once India opened up, we sort of put it back on the table. And...

It's funny in hindsight, I only realized this once I was there. was sort of like I was repeating my past in the sense of we went to go see this doctor in India, not knowing anything, like what we were doing. Then once we got there, we learned we were doing a Ayurvedic cleanse that's called a Panchakarma. I didn't even know that before I went. And we went and did a 10 day cleanse, which was so amazing and learning about

It was nourishing meals. was not some sort of detox that was leaving you feeling empty. You really felt like it nourished and you also had daily massages with oils. So it was very similar in the self-care practices that I learned back in the day through macrobiotics. But now this was like through India. We've also gone to London. We've gone to Japan. We've traveled the world. I mean, we are travelers and I really always infuse.

wellness ⁓ exploration with culture at the same time, I would say.

Amanda Northcutt (16:25)
Amazing. And for everybody listening here, go listen to this episode where Brandon is Amber's guest on The Well Drop. That episode was released fairly recently in summer of 2025. You want to talk about the model of possibility for a young man. This guy is in junior high and is so well-spoken, so intelligent, an absolute testament to your mothering, Amber. But that was just one of my favorite episodes of your show so far. So everybody needs to definitely check that out. We'll link that up here as well.

Amber Berger (16:52)
Thank you.

Thank you. Yeah, I mean, wherever I go, mean, I'm always, I mean, that's why I have the podcast. I love asking questions. I love learning. I'm super curious. Like, I'd love just to hear from other people in other cultures. What works? What do you do? What is, you know, being in India felt like for me the birthplace of humankind. And they've been doing these practices like our doctors, grandfather and great grandfather would go to the mountains and pick herbs.

And this is what was infused into the oils that they were massaging within us. Like there's such a beautiful element that before there was even such a thing as a doctor, right? They had to rely on nature to heal and help. And in modern day, while we have so many amazing things in consumer tech and I love blending the two, we've sort of somehow like lost that like first step in the elements of like tapping into nature and really tapping into just ourselves as like the first step.

Amanda Northcutt (17:49)
Yes, yeah. Do you wanna talk about that? Kind of mind, body, ⁓ gut, brain connection a little bit and kind of how to tap into your intuition and actually listen to your body? Because most of us don't. I struggled with that for a long time. I listen now.

Amber Berger (18:01)
Yeah.

I know it's really hard. mean,

listen, technology is great, but it takes us so outside of ourselves. And, you know, it's been years now, I try to think, okay, when I graduated, like, when did you get, like, kids are getting their phones now so early, hopefully there's a new movement to make it later. But kids are born with a phone in their hand, essentially. We didn't get phones probably until like end of high school, college, depending on your age.

So it's just a very different time and that technology can do amazing, great things. But one thing it does do is it pushes you outside of yourself. And the biggest thing that is most important, like I said, how your body speaks to you and that there's messages and it's not about being woo-woo and out there, but it's a real thing. Like someone can feel, like my daughter, always get like butterflies when she's nervous. Like there is like.

your stomach or if your heart's racing because you're excited or scared, like that is your body speaking to you. And especially in midlife, everything changes. Like, I don't know about you, Amanda, but I didn't grow up knowing about this perimenopause phase of life, did you? Yeah, we were never at, my husband just said it to me, I think literally last night of like,

You never talked about this until just a couple years ago. was like, because I didn't even know this was a thing. Like all we knew, we get our period and you prepare for a baby. And then there's this thing called menopause that happens like down the road, like some time in your 50s, who knows who even paid attention to it. But then you wake up all of a sudden you're in your 40s and this thing called midlife. And now there's so much amazing education coming out and conversations.

about our body. Listen, we were never even studied until 1993. mean, that still shocks me. It's not that long ago. So there is no roadmap out there. And because of tech, and we're so outside of ourselves, and in the Google era, and now chat GPT era, right? We're outsourcing, outsourcing, outsourcing, where we need to just take a minute to be.

And even when I created Salt House back in 2017, like our tagline was pause to breathe. And the goal was come in and just take a minute. And there was no tech in the room. It was a sensory deprivation in a sense of just, need to like remove all the noise and just feel ourselves. Just feel like a pulse, feel something. And there's such a power when you start to do that.

Probably for some people the first time might be the hardest, but then once you do and get that connection and you actually kind of focus on it and prioritize it, the easier it is and the faster you can get there, which gets exciting. But that is for me really the first step for most people is just to take a moment to become aware. Be aware of how are you feeling? Are you feeling alert? Are you tired? Are you excited? Are you sad? Like what are you actually feeling?

Because as mothers, as you know, we're always last on our to-do list. It's about everyone else. We're such caregivers, which is great, but we tend to lose. We know how everyone else is feeling in the household, but probably if someone said, dad, how are you feeling right now? You'd be like, I don't know. Right? You're going to be feeling, you only feel as good as you're like least sick child or person in the household. Like that would be the answer. It's fine. But in midlife, because everything changes,

We have no choice but to actually take a minute and connect back to ourselves because we are the rock and the foundation usually for at work, at home. And we want to be just as strong at home as we are in the office, right? We still can like fake it till we make it and we could power through during the day in the office and in those board meetings. But then when we come home, we are empty. But like, we don't want to be an empty gas tank. We still want to be filled with fuel.

Amanda Northcutt (22:06)
Yes. Okay. We have to talk about how, but first, before we get into some more nitty gritty, tell us what you set out to do here with the well drop. What is your long-term vision and mission? What do you bring forward into the world?

Amber Berger (22:20)
Yeah, so with the well drop, mean, my main goal is to really empower women to own their wellness. know, the well drop, pretty much connects the dots where the medical system today often treats each symptom in isolation. But I look at things as a whole and that is really my gift. I've been doing it for decades of just not being distracted by the noise and now

offering a roadmap to understand the changes that are happening in midlife and exactly how to navigate them. And it's about giving drops of wisdom and helping you to build your personalized midlife stack. Because if you think about a house, and we talk about this all the time, we speak the same language, you need a solid foundation first to work from. And then you can start adding from there.

But the foundation is your core and that is really what's missing out there and that leads to endless confusion and frustration. And women are just sitting there plugging and like things are exploding all over the place. And they're really solving things in a patch and go model and also they're doing things backwards. So with the Welldrop, I wanna offer simple strategies that you can integrate into your real life, even on your busiest days.

cut through the noise and focus on what a woman truly needs in midlife to thrive by giving clear, actionable protocols that fit into your schedule and deliver measurable results.

Amanda Northcutt (23:52)
Yeah. And you've been, I mean, as you know, the vast majority of my team are women in midlife. have others in the cohorts, obviously, that are women in midlife. And so you've been such a wealth of knowledge and information. You've got me on peptides and that's awesome. We really enjoy what you're bringing forward. And, you know, when you and I first started talking earlier this year, I was a little skeptical about like, is this, you know, kind of client relationship going to work? Because typically we're working with

subject matter experts who come from the business world. Their expertise lies in business and then they're repackaging their skills that they did as an individual contributor in corporate and we're building boutique coaching and consulting firms to sell in to B2B environments. And so this is a little bit, it's like a little bit of work and effort for us to kind of land on what's gonna make sense here. But.

I knew, you know, from the first time we spoke, I like, I got to find a way to work with this woman. mean, she's incredible and brilliant and extremely ambitious. Go get her. And kind of that like light bulb moment for us, I think was, you know, I'm struggling with this enormously with perimenopause and the impact that it has on my ability as a founder and CEO. And I work with women of this age all the time who say the same things. All of my friends, my professional friends say the same things. I was like, ⁓

Of course, let's position Amber to work with women like me where, mean, my God, you already said this, but we're just so inundated with noise and disparate pieces of information and the lack of a holistic solution. And for God's sake, we just need someone to tell us what to do. And so you are here to take the holistic picture and you're a pattern matcher, Amber. mean, you're your brain.

Amber Berger (25:12)
You

Amanda Northcutt (25:37)
lights up all over the place when you see seemingly disparate things and then can put them together and create coherence and continuity and something that actually makes sense. So your program, your methodology, your philosophy is ripe for women in midlife who are struggling professionally because we're not sleeping as well. Our brains aren't working like they used to. We're putting on weight completely inexplicit, inexplicably, inexplicably. How do you say that word?

Amber Berger (26:02)
and explicitly,

you did it, you got it.

Amanda Northcutt (26:03)
And explicitly,

that didn't sound right coming out at all. See, that was perfect. I did not do that on purpose. ⁓ Our bodies are changing and it's so frustrating to get piecemeal information from people if you're not sure if they're credible or not. And then Amber comes on the scene and Scott like holistic solution and program. So tell me exactly what to do. You know, I'm your archetypical ideal client profile.

Amber Berger (26:10)
midlife dreams.

Amanda Northcutt (26:33)
and a lot of the women listening are as well. So what the heck do we do?

Amber Berger (26:39)
Well, the first step is to do the midlife reset. I really created that because I think the best creations are created out of a need, right? I needed it. Like, even though had my foundation was really strong, like I believe in wellness at home, like I have the right mattress, I have the right air, I have the right products, I had a really strong solid foundation. And even with all that,

I still needed to evolve my habits. We are just creatures of habit. But I think what no one warns us about is that in your 40s, you need to actually take a moment to reevaluate your habits and then just shift them. So instead, we're just working blindly where we don't even know where to start. And the starting point for me, I love data and tracking. And I think most professional women love that. We're used to reports and numbers is...

throwing on a glucose monitor and my midlife reset really walks you through and educates you and also empowers you on the little ways that you can make a shift on the power of blood sugar. And that is really how I've like connected the dots. give all the things like what is the source of where it starts to go awry. And this is before your hormones are gonna show up in your bloodlans as being off. This is before any...

problem and chronic disease is going to pop up in your 50s and 60s. All roads to me lead from sugar dysregulation. And how do we know when it changes? Because you don't feel it actually unless you track it. And we're in such an amazing time where now I partnered with an amazing new ⁓ company that is doing continuous glucose monitors. But the most important part is that you have a personalized dashboard.

and you get an amazing, you can take quick pictures of your food and then it uses AI to pattern match that to your sugar. And it gives you a score to see how it's dysregulating. And through the reset, I also explain how your sleep affects your blood sugar, how you start your day and what you're doing affects your blood sugar. And it's a nice way where I try to really simplify it and make it simple and actionable so that you don't...

Amanda Northcutt (28:41)
Nice.

Amber Berger (28:59)
feel overwhelmed. Like I don't want to add to the noise. I want it to be so basic and what drove me crazy. I'm even in the process of getting certified for perimenopause right now and everyone talks about they know that sugar doctors, everyone will agree sugar causes all these problems. But nobody is telling women and giving them a path of what to do about it. Because it's sort of this blind you can't feel it. You don't know it's happening.

And then almost when it shows up on a blood test, it's a little late. Like it's already been causing problems. So that's how I really created the reset was now we have access to getting a glucose monitor before it was prescription only. And the one that I'm using is practitioner grade. So it's even a higher level. I was playing around for two years with different glucose monitors popping off in my workouts if I got too sweaty and you know, it would hurt. This one is not thick, it's thinner.

the sticker it stays on in your workouts. So I really played with it for a while and tested it with myself and I sort of wrap it all into this 14 day program that is the easiest first step. There's no excuses. You don't even need the glucose monitor in order to do it. That's just a bonus add on if you would like, but you just need access to your email for 14 days to read it. And we all read our email every day. there's no reason that you can't sign up.

to just, it's an easy way to educate yourself on sort of what's going on and beyond education, because sometimes there's just too much education out there, is telling you what to do. Like I felt like that was the biggest gap in the market. Nobody was saying what to do about it. They're saying what the problems are over here and there's like a lot of amazing documentaries and panels and talks and education, but what's, tell me what to do. Like how do I fix this?

And the starting point is really learn what your sugar is. Because I will tell you, I've been tracking mine now for a couple of years, that even from last spring to this fall, my blood sugar completely went crazy. This whole fall, my sugar was spiking. I was eating the same. I was doing my food pairings. And out of nowhere, just my blood sugar went nuts.

But I would never have known if I wasn't tracking my blood sugar at least quarterly. Sometimes I actually do it more than that, but you don't need to do it that much. Like if you want to do it quarterly at a minimum, that's great. But like, let's just start with one time. Like my mission is to get every woman to throw on a glucose monitor at any age. And for sure, by the time you hit 35, you need that check-in with yourself. And it's about setting that baseline so then you know when things start changing. Because if you never check in,

You will never know where you were to where you are today.

Amanda Northcutt (31:49)
Mmm. I've got a little catch up today. Thirty to do. Thirty five was a while ago. I have tried a glucose monitor before and got really frustrated because I spent a lot of time in the sauna as part of my detox protocols for my chronic illness and it just wouldn't last any amount of time. So I need to try the one that you're recommending for sure. Yes, yes.

Amber Berger (32:08)
We will do the test to see. Yes. And it's never

too late to throw one on. Actually, I'm doing a whole wellness makeover for my father. He's 81 years old and he is not the vision of health. He has high blood pressure. Shockingly, he somehow has no diabetes, even though he loves to eat Krispy Kreme donuts. ⁓ It's amazing that I grew up in his household, but he is drinking wheatgrass every morning, which, you know, little things rub off.

And I said, Dab, we're gonna like put on a glucose monitor and let's just see. I'm not telling him, it's not about don't eat the things that you love. It's about how do you hack your health? So keep eating what you love, but then it's about the food pairings. Add some fat to it. Be a little mindful. Like, okay, I wanna have that dessert tonight. Cool. Don't eat it as the first part of the meal. Have it at the end. And if your blood sugar happens to spike, I was just talking with a client the other day. I said, add some...

you know, yogurt, sour cream, olive oil, throw it on top and see if that helps. Cause everyone's different. Like you could have a piece of cake and it won't bother you. I could have the same cake and it might drive me like over the moon, but everyone's different. So I think in the era of personalization, this is such an easy way for you to see what works truly for you because what works for you and me, your friends, your mom, we're all different.

So we can have this blanket advice. Like this is really the starting point of her personalized medicine for yourself. And with the powers in our hands, like we have access now. Like this is like such an exciting time in today's day that we can have these things at our fingertips. We just need to know how to use them.

Amanda Northcutt (33:36)
Yeah.

Yes. And holistically and understand what the glucose monitor results mean and what the blood test results mean. I mean, okay, what you said a few minutes ago was really interesting about like, I've been tracking my blood sugar for a long time and I was eating the same thing and then it went haywire. And so I think it's also important to remember that this is not a kind of one time thing. This is, I mean, you, Amber equip, enable, and empower women to take simple steps to transform their health and take ownership of their health.

and have the knowledge to know what to track and what it means and therefore what adjustments to make over time. I mean, this feels like the experiments that we talk about running in the accelerator all the time. It's like once you've got kind of your business foundation set up, you're just running a series of experiments toward the end of conversion rate optimization. So this is like a series of experiments for women to optimize their health markers. Is that analogous? Is that correct? Okay.

Amber Berger (34:40)
What?

Literally nails. Exactly. I think especially

as women in the workforce, we are such ninjas in the office. We are like at the top of our game, especially when it comes to midlife, which comes with a load of stress. And stress is what can set off our blood sugar the most. And then when that is set off, you're not sleeping so well, that sets it off even more than that leads to the weight gain. It's all connected. And so I help you to connect all of those dots.

where I find traditionally everyone's going to specialist to specialist to specialist and everyone's taking all these supplements that they're getting, Instagrammed all the time, where for me it's all about actually do less, do nothing, don't add anything. Just for your, it's a two week thing usually for any glucose monitor, you buy mine or you buy another one. The first week, I just want you to create awareness. Just take a look at what's going on.

So you can just start to see how your habits are affecting your blood sugar. And then the second week, you start to make those like small shifts in the tweaks. But like I was saying, how we sometimes just need to take a moment to like connect back to ourselves. Like we just need that moment. And in those 14 days, it's a complete game changer. It opens your eyes. I always say, once you see, you can't unsee. But I'm just trying to get you to open your eyes to see in like a very easy accessible way.

Amanda Northcutt (36:16)
Yes. And I like this sort of, mean, I, having had similar, you know, health stuff as you at a young age, you know, learned to advocate for myself and in the doctor's office and make demands and stand up and say things that were hard and awkward, ⁓ that I never really had any problems saying in a business setting, which is so interesting, but I feel like, that just conditioning that we are supposed to go in there and like take it, whatever the doctor says is gospel truth. And that's that, even though as professional

complete like ass kicking women. don't take shit from anyone or.

Amber Berger (36:51)
We need

to bring more of that office energy into the doctor's office. I just actually had an interview prior to this and we were discussing like, we are so smart. We have so much information at our fingertips. I say, when you go to your next doctor's appointment, and this is even part of my intimate coaching cohorts that I give you.

a list of the labs that you request from your doctor. And you say, I want these labs. I want to check this and come prepared with questions for your doctor. And so don't just in the era of Google, like utilize it, use ChatGPT. Come in. What are the top five questions I should be asking my doctor today in regards to XYZ, whatever your problems are. Give it a good prompt. I'm sure we all know prompting by now. You use it all day long in the office, but use it in your doctor's appointment. And it's not even

Amanda Northcutt (37:22)
Yes.

Amber Berger (37:46)
Some of it is not even the doctor's fault. It's really the academic institutions. They're not taught it. So you want to come at it the way that you come at it at work. You want to come at it with your own health. Be an investigator, right? Don't just jump at the first thing. Let them give you the information. Digest it. Research it. Just take a minute. It doesn't take that much time. And really advocate for yourself and think for a minute.

Use some common sense. Like, is this the best thing for me right now in my body? Does this make sense? Or is there a better solution out there?

Amanda Northcutt (38:24)
Yes. Yes. I've, I've started, ⁓ I get all manner of tests done on my body pretty frequently. And I've started like putting those into chat GPT so that I can have far more informed conversations with my medical team. And it is so freaking empowering to go in and know what this meant and what this connects to this and this caused this. And this is likely indicative of a deficiency here and this treatment didn't work. So we need to shift.

And it feels so much more aligned with who I am. I don't ever like to be on the back foot and ignorant. I want to show up as the person that I am at work, honestly, everywhere because that's where I am most myself is at work. And ⁓ I know a lot of the women listening can identify with that and we feel like we come into our own, again, kicking ass, taking names. And that has got to translate over to our health because no one else is going to figure this out and do it for us.

except for Amber Burger. thank you.

Amber Berger (39:21)
And we need to like dig

in harder than ever in midlife and you don't know when it's going to hit you, right? Like when I turned 40, it was like amazing. And your 40s is amazing and it should continue to feel amazing. But then at 42, like something shifted, was like, Oh God, what's going on? And everyone sort of hits their wall at different times. And it's just, it's hormones decreasing. It's if you're not paying attention to your sugars, you're not

evolving your habits, you need to change your everyday habits. Like I have a whole set up your bedroom for success, sleep like a baby. Like you have to start shifting. Otherwise it's going to get you and then you're not going to be able to show up both at home and at the office the same way.

Amanda Northcutt (40:08)
Yeah. Okay. Well, let's talk a little bit about your other offerings. Cause it's not just the 14 day reset, which I've seen the program. It's incredible and very high value. And I really especially appreciate Amber, your level of empathy that you have for your clients. You know, we are insanely busy. It's very overwhelming to think about undertaking an entirely new program. And we do just want to be told what to do from a trusted source that has a holistic solution. And then it's not overwhelming. So, I mean, I know you offer

group programs, one-on-one coaching, which I think is great for high-level executives who do not have a second of additional time and really need things integrated into their lives and small change over time. But tell us a little bit more about what you offer beyond the 14-day reset.

Amber Berger (40:52)
Yeah, so beyond the 14 day, I also have six week and three month coaching programs. And we do small groups, I think the power of hearing other women's issues. It one makes you feel less alone and to also either you might also be feeling those things or to kind of know and expect things to come because we're really not I always say we're never warned about all these things.

So sometimes you might feel like you're the only person dealing with them, but it might be the most common thing. There's over 84 symptoms in midlife. So it's very convoluted and complex. So it's easy for people to feel like they're the only ones going through it. So sometimes it's nice to hear what other people are doing and how other people.

Like I can give the advice of how I optimize and how I run my schedule in my life. And other people might have other ideas and you kind of bring it all to the table and you can hear how to optimize best for yourself, right? You listen and then you're going to take action to what you are your own. Talking about businesses, you are your own company. So you are the CEO of your body and you need to make the best decisions for yourself. And, so.

Basically in those different, we can hit different markers and then there's also follow ups that go on with that as well with the coaching because it's a constant evolving game. And so in order for it to not be overwhelming, we sort of take it step by step and then you kind of have the check-in and we can use different labs and markers to sort of see where things are going and where things are headed. And I think that's the exciting part is sort of integrating the different data points in there so you can feel good.

that like you are making forward progress. Because otherwise you're really kind of working in the dark and blood work is not the end all be all. It's really combining that with other things out there. And I think we're just so used to, the labs are fine. Well, guess what? My labs look great too, but my brain was saying something else.

Amanda Northcutt (42:55)
Yes. And I will also say this is sort of like a secondary benefit of being in your orbit, Amber, and also in one of your group programs. You're a connector and you know a lot of incredible high powered professional kick ass women. And so, you know, I spend about $70,000 a year on executive coaching mastermind programs and like continuing to

evolve my health, you know, at our companies, we bring in consultants to help us like do this too, right? So you can achieve peak performance and feel like yourself and not have brain fog and have word recall issues or be called to the table to make a big decision and then freeze because your brain won't freaking work for you that day. And so, I will just super vouch for Amber. Amber has got her shit together. It works and she has such an incredible wealth of knowledge and

Amber Berger (43:42)
Yeah.

Amanda Northcutt (43:50)
It's almost like your group programs are almost like a mastermind in and of themselves because you're meeting these other amazing peer professional women.

Amber Berger (43:54)
Yeah, say it's like

your midlife MBA, basically.

Amanda Northcutt (44:00)
Yes.

Yeah. Yeah, that's perfect. So, I mean, there's just lots and lots of kind of full circle things beyond just the program and what's offered. There's just a lot to what you're doing and what you're offering. So I am pumped for that. I'm so enjoying our work together in the accelerator. And would you share a little bit about, and we only have a few minutes left, but I already spoke about, you know, kind of we talked about early on, how are we going to work together? How are we going to make this work? What makes sense?

What about the accelerator was really appealing to you and what was most intimidating?

Amber Berger (44:34)
⁓ I really thought that it was, well, it was something that I was looking for and I guess I found it at the right time. I really wanted to systematize my business. I didn't want this to be just, you know, a hobby. I really wanted to make, be an impact leader. It wasn't about being some, you know, influencer. I wanted to shift the narrative of being a thought leader for

women's wellness in this stage of life. meeting you and Accelerator was a huge investment that was needed. And I had looked into other programs before, which over-promised, under-delivered. So I was definitely skeptical. But I am an early adopter. And I did like that it was a startup. And knowing that you guys had a proven framework, and I really believed in you. I know that.

me and you really connected and you had experience building sustainable value driven businesses really obviously spoke to me because that was my end game. And building something with recurring revenue was essential to me. I wanted a model that supported my lifestyle, not something that burnt me out. And I knew that you and your team, you understood my goals from day one and exactly how to bring them to life. So I said it was the year of betting on me and

Amanda Northcutt (45:59)
Yeah. Hell

yeah.

Amber Berger (46:01)
I was willing to like jump in.

Amanda Northcutt (46:05)
Awesome. And we're really glad that you did and you bring such positive energy and helpfulness and to everyone in the group. And so again, super glad to have you. What was, I mean, was the price point the most like terrifying thing?

Amber Berger (46:22)
Yeah, probably. mean, that was like a big, you know, I was a self-funded startup before. And so it was similar to like, I created like a whole wellness studio and space from that. And I'm just going to like invest in my, basically in my personal brand. but I knew in order to take things where I wanted it to go, it involved really buckling down and taking things to the next level and meeting your team felt like the right fit.

Amanda Northcutt (46:50)
Yeah, and the guarantee helps. ⁓

Amber Berger (46:52)
And the guarantee helps to write. Obviously they always

say that when someone like can like get behind, you know, whether it's like full refund or the guarantee, I mean, that definitely showed that you believe in your work as much as I believe in mine. And so, you know, I was willing to say that I just knew that we would be able to create something great together going off of my instincts.

Amanda Northcutt (47:13)
Yeah, that's right, our intuition. We've got to be able to listen to that and tap into that ⁓ for our own sake and health. But you and I are very like-minded in a lot of the programs and gurus and influencers that provide all this disparate information about midlife health. And maybe you're again talking about problems, but don't have solutions or they have one solution, but it's isolated, just like a specialist physician, they're only looking at one thing.

And I started this company and our accelerator to do the full holistic business building from ideation all the way through, you know, like 30 K or more in MRR. And that's because it's the holistic approach that actually works, that actually moves the needle. And when you've got someone on your side who knows the landscape has been there, done that, got the t-shirt, they have the roadmap, they understand the nuance, they understand that if this, then this kind of branching logic, it's a completely different ball game than, you know, if I were just,

coaching you on how to do LinkedIn or something or how to build your offers or something like that. There's so many other pieces of business just like there's so many pieces of women's health that you have to look at as a cohesive unit and data set and it just doesn't work as well to go and try and piece it all together.

Amber Berger (48:29)
Yes, I think I was done for sure trying to piece it all together. And you know, the way I looked at wellness, you said it perfectly. The way that is the same way that you looked at business. So it felt like a natural fit for one another to sort of make a legit business out of it and take things to the next level.

Amanda Northcutt (48:49)
Yeah. Tell me what you think about our cohort model and your cohort members.

Amber Berger (48:54)
Oh, everyone is great. I love them. You know, it's really nice and similar, like I said about even for like my intimate group coaching sessions, like to have others together. think that it's great to hear what other people are going through, talk about your successes, talk about your failures. And it helps you without even realizing it. Like you start like I, I dating for your own self through some of these conversations. And it helps to like give you ideas of way.

Amanda Northcutt (49:21)
us.

Amber Berger (49:23)
things that you wanna do. There's many light bulb moments I would say that go on without it even being intentionally. It's just a matter of actually being in a group of people. We all have different backgrounds and bring different things to the table, but there's a lot of great stuff that you can pull out from that.

Amanda Northcutt (49:40)
Well, thank you so much, Amber, for taking the time to join me. I would love for you to just share where everyone can find you online. And if you have a parting shot, please go for it.

Amber Berger (49:49)
Yes, so you can check out [thewelldrop.com](http://thewelldrop.com/). You can also connect on LinkedIn, Amber Burger, and on social media and Instagram at A-Star Burger, A-S-T-A-R-R Burger. Star is my middle name. People are always like, what is Star? Yeah, and I just, I'm excited for every woman throwing a glucose monitor. That is my number one mission and that will enable you to own your wellness.

Amanda Northcutt (50:18)
Amazing. Thank you so much. Can't say enough good things about you, Amber, and your level of expertise and just how you show up in the world and interact and empower and equip other women. So I hope that we're able to help you achieve your long-term vision and completely change the landscape of how professional women in midlife are able to show up and be the like vamps that we are everywhere and keep our minds about us and sleep and not gain weight unnecessarily and all those things. So thank you again.

Amber Berger (50:47)
Thank

you. Thank you. It's such a pleasure.

Amanda Northcutt (50:50)
And thank you to our listeners. know that time is precious and we appreciate you sharing a little bit of yours with us. If you're a subject matter expert looking to build a fully customized business in a box with a five figure MRR guarantee, head over to MRR [accelerator.com](http://accelerator.com/) to learn more. And don't forget to follow me, Amanda Northcutt on LinkedIn for daily consulting insights. That's it for today. We'll see you next time on the level up creators podcast. I'm going to say that last sentence. That's it for today. We'll see you next time on the level up creators podcast. Okay.