Chai Tea with Nina D.

Many mushroom supplements aren't what you think. Some are grown on sawdust. Some are bulked out with starch that makes them test as more potent than they really are.

This week Nina sits down with Charlotte Cruze, co-founder and COO of Alice Mushrooms, the functional mushroom chocolate brand backed by L Catterton, Unilever Ventures, Pedro Pascal, Kevin Hart, Zac Efron and Tiësto. Charlotte explains what most of the wellness industry won't say: where most mushroom supplements come from, how potency tests can be gamed, and what to check on the label before you buy. Then she shares the real founder story, from packing chocolate by hand to an HBO collaboration that arrived as a cold email.

Follow Nina Dixon & CTND for BTS + daily takeaways:

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WHAT YOU'LL LEARN:

- The difference between functional and psychedelic mushrooms

- What lion's mane, cordyceps, reishi and tremella are used for

- How sawdust and starch hide in mushroom supplements

- The 3 things to check before you buy

- Why Alice's best seller is the one for your sex life

- How they raised money: 150 no's, SAFE notes and an $8M Series A

- How to tell a good idea from a real business

TIMESTAMPS:

0:00 – Trailer: Pedro Pascal, Kevin Hart & Zac Efron Back a Mushroom Chocolate

1:18 – Meet Charlotte Cruze, Co-Founder of Alice Mushrooms

2:14 – No Caffeine, No Xanax: Why Nina Swears by Alice

3:39 – Functional vs. Psychedelic Mushrooms

5:58 – Why Alice Feels Like a Gift

8:06 – Why Is It Called Alice?

11:16 – How Pedro Pascal Became an Investor

13:00 – Brainstorm: A Caffeine Alternative to Coffee

15:38 – Why Chocolate Absorbs Better Than a Pill

16:45 – Lion's Mane, Cordyceps, Reishi & Tremella Explained

17:45 – Cordyceps: The Real Zombie Fungus From The Last of Us

20:33 – Lion's Mane and the Blood-Brain Barrier

22:04 – Reishi for Sleep and Stress

22:49 – Why Functional Mushrooms Take Months to Work

25:27 – Are Mushroom Supplements Legit? Sourcing and Testing

27:27 – Grown on Sawdust: What's Really in Your Supplements

30:22 – How Starch Fakes Supplement Potency

31:52 – Fruiting Body vs. Mycelium

34:03 – What to Check Before You Buy a Mushroom Supplement

34:30 – Is Organic Worth It? The Dirty Dozen

37:30 – Nina's Toxicology Test

38:27 – Party Trick: The Sober-Curious Chocolate

41:10 – Party Trick for Public Speaking Nerves

43:01 – Zen-X: The Chocolate for Stress and Calm

43:48 – Sex Sells: Happy Ending Is the #1 Seller

45:15 – Nightcap for Sleep

47:08 – Zen-X in the Middle of an Argument

48:37 – How Charlotte Cruze Built Alice Mushrooms

49:10 – From Selling Watches to Food Studies at NYU

51:59 – Meeting Co-Founder Lindsay Goodstein on a Text Thread

54:19 – Two Co-Founders, Two Strengths

56:22 – Packing Thousands of Chocolates by Hand

59:27 – Good Idea vs. Good Business: Advice for Female Founders

1:00:19 – Spotting a Gap in the Market

1:03:27 – Done Is Better Than Perfect

1:05:14 – Influencer Marketing With Handwritten Notes

1:06:58 – The QR Code Mistake: 16,000 Boxes, One Cell Phone

1:08:25 – How the HBO Last of Us Collaboration Happened

1:11:51 – An Ice Cream Truck Tour and Coachella

1:12:41 – How to Negotiate a Brand Licensing Deal

1:13:51 – Let's Talk Money: Their First Investor Pitch

1:16:06 – 150 Investor No's

1:16:45 – SAFE Notes Explained

1:18:36 – Celebrity Investors: Silent or Strategic?

1:20:25 – Who You Should Take Money From

1:21:41 – After the $8M Series A

1:22:44 – The Hardest Part of Running a Business

1:24:05 – "You Sell Calm. Are You Calm?"

1:24:35 – Has Her Gut Ever Been Wrong?

1:25:26 – From Risk-Averse to Entrepreneur

1:26:56 – How to Test Your Business Idea

1:30:37 – What She'd Never Hand Over to AI

1:32:09 – Would Alice Ever Make a Psychedelic Product?

1:33:57 – What the Research Says About Functional Mushrooms

1:34:58 – New: Menopause Hero With Dr. Jen Ashton

1:38:15 – Are Mushroom Supplements Safe During Pregnancy?

Follow Charlotte Cruze & Alice Mushrooms:

@alicemushrooms: https://www.instagram.com/alice.mushrooms/

Charlotte on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/charcruze/

Website: https://alicemushrooms.com/

ABOUT CHARLOTTE CRUZE:

Charlotte co-founded Alice Mushrooms in 2022 with Lindsay Goodstein. She spent nearly a decade in branded content at digital publishers and holds a master's in Food Studies from NYU. Alice is sold at Erewhon and Target.

This episode is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. Talk to your doctor before starting any supplement, especially if you are pregnant, nursing or on medication.

#FunctionalMushrooms #MushroomChocolate #PedroPascal #FemaleFounder

Have you ever softened your opinion, swallowed a question, or toned down your personality just to keep someone else comfortable?

Follow Nina Dixon & CTND for BTS + daily takeaways:

https://www.instagram.com/ninapaldixon

https://www.instagram.com/chaiteawithninad

https://substack.com/profile/183151814-nina-pal-dixon?r=1wzhez&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page

In this solo episode , I'm getting candid about the pressure to be quieter, more agreeable, or less direct to be loved and accepted. I share the moments I've caught myself shrinking, including while interviewing powerful guests on my own show, and what helps me come back to myself. Because even with a big personality, I still have moments when I need that reminder.

Then I call my husband to ask what actually made him fall in love with me. His answer opens up a conversation about ambition, confidence, thoughtfulness, and being appreciated for who you really are.

This isn't about becoming the loudest person in the room. It's about not pretending to be someone else to earn your place in it.

🔔 Subscribe for more elevated conversations:

https://www.youtube.com/@ChaiTeawithNinaD

💻 Watch on YouTube

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Timestamps:

0:00 Squash or Be Squashed

0:51 For Women Who Think Playing Small Works

1:26 "So You Have a Dominating Personality"

3:18 East Coast Direct

3:55 Direct Is Not the Same as Mean

5:04 The Alpha Couple Rides the Waves

6:22 Shrinking Shows Up in Your Body

8:20 The Perfect Little Stepford Wife

8:55 When the Mask Falls Off

10:29 When I Shrank on My Own Show

11:26 My First Clue: Jittery Inside

13:04 "Relax, Smile, Gangster Nina"

14:22 How I Come Back: Drop Into My Heart

15:19 Quiet Is Not Weak

15:59 People Who Need You Small Are Never Happy

17:53 How Did I Get Brian? By Being Me

18:59 Calling Brian: Why Did You Fall for Me?

20:59 "She Secretly Paid the Bill"

21:56 Playing Coy to Get Him to Pay

23:13 What I Want Is Respect

24:48 Shrinking Is a Tax You Pay for Life

26:08 Stop Playing Small

#casekenny #internalfamilysystems #newmindsetwhodis

Watch my FULL conversation with Case Kenny here: https://youtu.be/4tfxZJwqTY8

Follow Nina Dixon & CTND on Instagram for BTS + Daily Takeaways

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Follow Case Kenny on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/case.kenny/

"A part of me feels... and then you fill in the blank."

When Case said this, I had to stop and say it back to him. I say "I feel anxious" all the time. I never once thought of it as just one part of me.

Case hosts New Mindset, Who Dis? and wrote The Language of Optimism, and his whole idea is that optimism isn't a mood, it's a method. Not "everything's gonna be fine." Just believing things can change. And half of that work, he says, is naming the negative, and naming it as specifically as you can. He walks me through why "anxious" is a forest word when your brain needs a tree word, why he writes everything in red, and what Internal Family Systems teaches about the different parts of us that react, some from old hurts and some worried about the future. Then he gets honest about the thing he's still working on himself: not reacting, and giving things 24 hours.

The way you talk to yourself is something you choose every single day. It can start with one small sentence.

🔔 Subscribe for more elevated conversations:

https://www.youtube.com/@ChaiTeawithNinaD

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Timestamps:

0:00 Optimism Isn't a Mood, It's a Method

0:49 Optimism Is Believing Things Can Change

1:39 Half the Work Is Naming the Negative

2:08 Why Case Writes in Red

3:03 Mindfulness Comes Before Optimism

4:06 Forest Words vs. Tree Words

6:04 "I Am Anxious" Makes You the Emotion

6:39 IFS: The Many Parts of You

7:18 Say "A Part of Me Feels..."

8:24 Non-Negotiables: The Power of Pausing

#CaseKenny #Optimism #Mindset

Watch my FULL conversation with Case Kenny here: https://youtu.be/4tfxZJwqTY8

Follow Nina Dixon & CTND on Instagram for BTS + Daily Takeaways

https://www.instagram.com/ninapaldixon/

https://www.instagram.com/chaiteawithninad/

Follow Case Kenny on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/case.kenny/

"The brain literally can't find what it can't name." Case Kenny hooked his brain up to monitors at a friend's lab and ran his own prompts: "if I achieve this goal" against "when I achieve this goal," the future in the future tense against the future in the past tense. The readings were night and day. He says you can't fake them, because they pick up subconscious brainwaves.

"Remind yourself of your effort. That's the sauce."

🔔 Subscribe for more elevated conversations:

https://www.youtube.com/@ChaiTeawithNinaD

💻 Watch on YouTube

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🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts

Timestamps:

0:00 The Brain Scan That Tested "If" vs "When"

1:20 Optimists Speak in Verbs, Not Adjectives

1:59 The Prompt: "I'm the Kind of Person Who..."

2:28 Your Brain Can't Find What It Can't Name

3:18 The Fifth-Grade Praise Experiment

4:14 Why a Quality Makes a Brittle Identity

4:52 Rewrite Your Affirmations Around Effort

5:41 "Will I" Beats "I Will": The Anagram Study

7:29 Intrinsic vs Extrinsic Motivation

9:08 Nina: Why High Performers Get Tripped Up

9:30 Ambition, Playfulness, and the Sweet Spot

I thought I grabbed my phone out of boredom. One unplanned Monday showed me what I was really doing.

Follow Nina Dixon & CTND for BTS + daily takeaways:

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https://substack.com/profile/183151814-nina-pal-dixon?r=1wzhez&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page

My husband asked me to do yoga with him after my five-mile walk. I said yes, did 45 minutes of yin, knocked out my Zoom calls, and then picked up my phone and realized I hadn't checked it all day. One of the texts waiting was from him, saying the days he does yoga, he never checks his phone. So it's not always boredom. I reach when I'm avoiding something: my to-do list, the dog crate, the prep for my next Zoom call. Yoga isn't magic. Catching the reach is the win.

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Follow Nina Dixon & CTND for BTS + daily takeaways: https://www.instagram.com/ninapaldixon https://www.instagram.com/chaiteawithninad

Forbes Riley has sold more than $2.5 billion in products on television, moved 64,000 SpinGyms in a single day, and has taught pitching to 284,000 students. They call her the Queen of Pitch. In this episode she breaks down the craft itself: the first tell that a pitch is about to fail, which she says shows the second someone opens their mouth; why "stop telling people what they need" is the rule that changes everything; the belief you have to clear before anyone will buy; what she does in the first five minutes in a room full of strangers; why desire changes what people will pay; the biggest networking mistake; how she pitches her own kids; and the night one webinar with 25 people made $25,000 after she stopped selling the product and started teaching the skill.

Chapters: 0:00 Trailer 1:13 Two and a Half Billion in Product Sales 1:30 The Reality Show That Made Her Look Greedy 3:25 Betting the Mortgage on a Product Nobody Wanted 4:36 Two Minutes of Airtime to Prove Them Wrong 5:46 They Call Her the Godmother of TikTok Shop 7:29 21 Million Views, and the Mrs Beast Line 9:04 The British Agent She Invented 9:58 An Unexpected Job in 1980s Times Square 14:34 The First Tell of a Bad Pitch 16:24 The Water Bottle Demonstration, Live 17:46 Stop Telling People What They Need 18:36 The Belief You Have to Clear First 20:26 The Years Nobody Could Understand Her 22:05 Her Father's Accident and Going Hungry 23:07 Winning Miss Teenage New York 24:20 Sell Me This Pen 27:52 Special, Weird, and an Outcast 29:55 Get Your Idea Out While You Still Can 34:24 How She Pitches Her Own Kids 37:59 Desire Changes What People Will Pay 39:20 Networking Is Not a Numbers Game 40:39 Give Yourself Permission to Take Up Space 43:43 The Biggest Networking Mistake 45:27 Starting From Zero With Only a Phone 50:20 What Selling Live on TV Taught Her 53:35 You Have a Brand Whether You Like It 56:01 What We Get Wrong About Famous People 57:31 Coming Up in a Man's Industry 1:01:50 Leaving the Work Persona at the Door 1:05:13 The Losses She Could Barely Function Through 1:06:55 Pitching a Studio to Blow Up Her House 1:09:53 Why She Stopped Selling Products 1:12:17 The First Webinar: 25 People, $25,000 1:14:13 How Did You Get Good at Rejection? 1:18:45 What Her Daughter Calls Her Out On 1:22:08 AI, Pitching, and What Is Coming 1:24:37 Aging on Camera, and the Hospital Scare 1:27:18 You Wouldn't Have Liked Me at Thirty 1:30:25 The Little Girl in Long Island

Follow Forbes Riley https://www.instagram.com/forbesriley https://forbesriley.com

🔔 Subscribe for more elevated conversations: https://www.youtube.com/@ChaiTeawithNinaD 💻 Watch on YouTube 📱 Watch on Spotify 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts

Follow Nina Dixon & CTND for BTS + daily takeaways: https://www.instagram.com/ninapaldixon https://www.instagram.com/chaiteawithninad https://substack.com/profile/183151814-nina-pal-dixon?r=1wzhez&utm_campaign=profile&utm_medium=profile-page

Three guest rooms she could not walk into for twelve months. Fixing them took two days. This episode is about what those months cost: the laundry basket you watch until it's full, the checkup you never book, the to-do list women never forget. Her verdict: "The thinking is not the work." But the cost is the same. Where the load comes from, why you snap at him when he walks in, and three ways out: do it, ask for help, or admit you don't want to.

Chapters: 0:00 Intro: Who This Episode Is For 0:15 Three Guest Rooms and How Women Think 0:52 The Laundry Basket Test 1:36 Thinking About It Instead of Doing It 3:04 Two Days, Bach, and 80% Done 3:45 "I Unlocked Something" 4:40 For the Moms: The Default Logistical Parent 6:23 The Thinking Is Not the Work 7:21 My Mom and the Multivitamins 8:31 Where's the Guest Room in Your Life? 9:50 Knock It Out When It's Top of Mind 10:41 Everyone Else's To-Do List Comes First 12:05 Oxygen Mask: Put Yourself First 13:58 A Game Between the Heart and the Mind 15:16 Learn From the Male Mind 16:23 Delegate. Nobody Is Handing Out Medals 17:49 If It's Stressing You Out, It's a Tax 18:34 Admit You Don't Want to Do It 19:25 Bottom Line: Reel It In

🔔 Subscribe for more elevated conversations: https://www.youtube.com/@ChaiTeawithNinaD 💻 Watch on YouTube 📱 Watch on Spotify 🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts

Follow Nina Dixon & CTND for BTS + daily takeaways:

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Kamal Hotchandani built Haute Media Group into an ecosystem spanning luxury media, private aviation and real estate. But his story didn't begin with access. Born in Belize to an Indian family, he was sent to boarding school in the United States at nine and learned early how to build relationships from nothing. Nina sits down with Kamal to unpack how he built credibility with Rolls-Royce and Louis XIII, built a luxury community money alone can't buy access to, and what the ultra-wealthy consider the greatest luxury of all.

Chapters:

0:00 Trailer

1:44 How Haute Living Became a Household Name in Luxury

3:33 Why He Chose Luxury

4:33 The Ultimate Luxury Is Controlling Your Time

5:55 Inside the Haute Ecosystem: Media, Real Estate, Jets, Travel, Wealth

9:04 Born in Belize to an Indian Family

10:32 The Day His Parents Left Him at Boarding School

11:34 His First Business at Nine Years Old

15:25 Senators' Sons, Scholarship Athletes, and the T-Shirt Hustle

18:34 Boston University and the Dot-Com Bet

20:28 The Hardest Decision: Leaving IT for Media

21:19 The Rolls-Royce Case Study: A $2,500 Start

25:43 The Secret Sauce: Eddie Lampert and the Seat Next to Dwyane Wade

27:48 The 100-Year Louis XIII Partnership

28:55 No Outside Capital, No Board

29:57 The Stories Haute Living Turns Down

31:17 Surviving the Dot-Com Crash, 2008, and COVID

34:46 The Mentor Who Called Him the Hip-Hop Hindu

35:53 Indian Roots, the Temple, and an Orphanage in India

37:14 Off the Clock: Why AI Has Him Fired Up

39:51 Will AI Wipe Out Publishing?

41:20 Why Human Connection Gets More Valuable

44:16 The Human Need for Luxury

45:17 Giving Back: The Chairman's Challenge and We The Best

49:27 Advice When Your Work Is Not Getting Recognized

50:14 What He Would Tell the Nine-Year-Old

50:49 What Legacy Means

Follow Kamal and Haute Living

https://www.instagram.com/kamal/

https://www.instagram.com/hauteliving/

https://hauteliving.com

🔔 Subscribe for more elevated conversations:

https://www.youtube.com/@ChaiTeawithNinaD

💻 Watch on YouTube

📱 Watch on Spotify

🎧 Listen on Apple Podcasts