Talking Hydration, A.M. Rituals, and Staying Grounded With Zigii Founder Alli Schaper
We sat down with Alli Schaper, founder of wellness bundle startup, Zigii, to discuss the importance of hydration and morning routines (hers is a good one). Plus, we unpacked what goes into selecting brands and products for her company Zigii’s wellness bundles (Liquid I.V. being one of them), as well as the impact of the pandemic, and what’s next for the wellness industry as a whole.
Before we dive in, here’s a bit of background. Zigii launched as a travel wellness company in 2019. The business model was to deliver bundles of thoughtfully curated wellness products, like Hydration Multiplier, to travelers at their destinations. When the current pandemic halted non-essential travel, effectively grounding the majority of Americans, the company’s operations pivoted from far-off destinations to residential doorsteps. Today, Zigii has expanded its offerings to include a corporate partnership program, which allows employers to send healthy wellness essentials like Liquid I.V. to team members working remotely—W(ellness) From Home, if you will. Read on to find out more about our new retail partner, and get insider wellness intel from founder Alli Schaper.
Zigii’s brand ethos is ‘live more, compromise less.’ What exactly does that mean?
It shouldn't be difficult to feel amazing. We wanted to make that more accessible to people. Zigii originally launched as a travel wellness company. Obviously, we've pivoted since then, but that was the core ethos, and it translates to everything we're doing today as well.
Please share a bit about your personal wellness philosophy:
I think that living your life in balance, whatever that means to you, is core to optimal happiness—which I actually think is correlated with wellness. People tend to put those terms in different categories, but I actually think the happier you are, the more well you are, and vice-versa.
What goes into selecting the products you include in a Zigii bundle?
There are three different criteria:
- Our team has to love the product. Everything that goes into a Zigii bundle is something that we would personally use as savvy wellness consumers.
- Everything that goes into a Zigii bundle will never have gluten or dairy, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, trans fats, hydrogenated oils, basically all the bad stuff. There are no fake healthy products.
- We really want to pick brands that people identify with. We say, ‘brands that we vibe with, so you will too.’
Why was it important to include a hydration product like Liquid I.V. in your bundles?
Optimal hydration is key to our belief in holistic well-being, and unfortunately most people are chronically dehydrated. Since we launched, Liquid I.V. has been a staple product in our wellness bundles and is always a crowd favorite.
Are there any daily wellness rituals you swear by?
I’ve been obsessed with studying morning routines for the last few years, and I’ve got mine down to a science. I've learned so much about the fact that you really need to get your body moving right away. When I roll out of bed, I do 50 baby pushups before I lay in child's pose and recite a Dalai Lama quote to myself. That gets me grounded and ready for the day.
Next, I take a freezing cold shower for 90 seconds. I love all things Wim Hof. I think cold water therapy is one of the greatest things ever, it's totally changed my life. Then I do 20 minutes of coconut oil pulling, which I'm obsessed with. While I'm doing that, I'll do my artist's journal pages, which are basically three pages of free handwriting. It gets all of the weird thoughts in my head—from either the day before or my dreams, or whatever—out on paper, so that they don't show up in other areas of my life that day.
How are you staying grounded while working from home?
I love getting up, stretching, and doing five minute meditations when I’m feeling overwhelmed and stressed out. I think it's so important to get little points of perspective throughout the day. As your day goes on, things get more and more serious and we start to take ourselves more and more seriously. If you've just done your incredible morning routine and you're feeling amazing at 8:00 AM, by 4:00 PM, all the things that bother you have somehow crept back into your brain.
How do you think the current pandemic will affect the way people view wellness?
It's been such a hard, horrible thing to go through as a nation (and globally), but I'm just wildly optimistic that we'll all be better on the other side of it. I've had a lot of really great conversations with people who have realized what's important to them during this time. Overall, I think COVID-19 and quarantine have given people the chance to really slow down and become more minimalistic in the way they approach their life and their wellness, and then intentionally reintroduce things.
Well LIV fam, what do you think? We love hearing from like-minded experts working to shake things up in the wellness industry. After all, perspective is the best medicine of all. So try a cold shower or start your day with a few pages of freewriting. Whatever you choose to do, remember this: It doesn’t have to be difficult to feel amazing!
