S04E07: May Sresthaporn, Founder of MSHAPPYDIET and PLANTOGENIC, Thailand

The model of this business is you get sponsorship from other people. But I realize that I don’t want to take a lot of this sponsorship because if it’s a big company that tries to brand themselves as healthy [products] using influencers and I don’t want to be part of it. And that’s when I know that I need to start my own product or service to be my main source of income because I cannot depend on these sponsors. I started doing consulting work, online courses, and workshops. And two years ago I launched PLANTOGENIC, a product-based business where it generates legit money.

May Sresthaporn

In today’s episode, I am speaking to May Sresthaporn who is the founder of MSHAPPYDIET and PLANTOGENIC in Thailand. 

She started a blog sharing her own journey, first about losing weight that she had gained after coming back from the US and later, chronicled her health explorations with food and nutrition. 

This was some 10 years ago and her blog readership grew organically, bringing sponsors knocking on her door. However, she soon got into a dilemma as she wanted to remain true to her values and didn’t want to become an influencer “just for the sponsorships”.

Her first company, MSHAPPYDIET is a community of “healthy foodies who love to eat, play in the kitchen, get fit and have fun”. Her second business, PLANTOGENIC, resulted from her followers asking for products to help them live healthier lives. It was also spurred by the fact that May felt uncomfortable touting sponsored products that weren’t as healthy as they could be. 

We talked about the dilemmas of entrepreneurship, what success means and how do work and life fit into everything that we want to do as entrepreneurs. 

She admitted that she was a perfectionist when she was younger and at one time, she got so upset in the midst of a school play that she started having a nose bleed. Thankfully, those days are behind her now and May says she is a lot better now and able to let go of what’s not helping her. 

Women don’t really prioritize themselves. They’re born to serve others whether it’s parents, the kids, their husbands. And if you yourself are not fulfilled, it’s hard to fulfil others. Like you can do it for a certain amount of time, but you’re going to lose that energy to do it for a long time. So it’s important to take care of yourself first.

May is deeply inspired by her grandparents, especially her grandmother. She also recommended two books that she loved a lot – The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz and Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. These two books have helped her change how she thinks about life and become better. She says she even recommends her students to read The Four Agreements as it is such a life-changing book. 

May is extremely proud of the 10 years that she has grown MSHAPPYDIET because she says it is 10 years of inspiring (Thai) women to take care of their minds and bodies. 

Selling is hard. It’s still hard now because natural methods take longer than chemical ones. And now modern people are like they want something fast now and want to see the result now, but then if it’s natural, your body needs to adapt, need to recalibrate. 

And if you listened closely to our conversation, May is looking to export her PLANTOGENIC products so if you’re interested in distributing her products, check out her website https://www.plantogenic.co

Connect with her: Instagram @mshappydiet 

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