Since that TikTok video about Celtic Sea Salt went viral, it seems everybody is clamoring to get their hands on what salt aficionados have long dubbed “the best salt in the world”. So, I’ve gone to the source — Selina Delangre, CEO of Selina Naturally, home of the Celtic Sea Salt brand, to give us the scoop. 

We get the lowdown on the health benefits of good salts, and Selina debunks the myths about sea salt and Himalayan salt. It’s all about minerals, alkalinity, and source. Building personal relationships with suppliers and visiting each salt harvesting facility annually, Selina aims to meet the insatiable demand for her products while ensuring her company delivers the highest quality.  

Selina shares how her son’s special needs opened her eyes to what was important. By staying true to her mission to help people, and respecting the values of others while letting go of their expectations, she found more personal fulfillment while growing her company to global recognition.  

Let Selina's story motivate you to pursue your “It Has To Be Me” with passion and purpose to make a positive impact in your community.  

TESS’S TAKEAWAYS: 

• Celtic Sea Salt and other mineral-rich salts support better health. 
• The Difference between Celtic Sea Salt and Himalayan Salt.  
• Focus on quality, integrity, and transparency in your products or services. 
• Cultivate a joyful relationship with food — Let go of guilt, shame, and judgment.  
• Hold yourself and others accountable in business and in life.  
• Do a SWOT Analysis: Assess the strength, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 
• Being mindful of the people that are in your vortex and circle of influence. 
• When looking ahead, celebrate your progress and past successes. 
• Embrace your identity without relying on external validation.  

MEET SELINA DELANGRE 

Selina Delangre, entrepreneur, author, speaker, and philanthropist, is one of the leading authorities on salt. As owner and CEO of Selina Naturally — renowned home of the Celtic Sea Salt brand, Selina has traversed the world sourcing the best sea salts and building strong relationships with global suppliers to deliver the highest quality products. 

Celtic Sea Salt has been at the forefront of the natural products movement for over 45 years. With a “family” of just 75 dedicated employees, the company continues to deliver mineral-rich salts that are prized by health professionals, chefs, and culinary enthusiasts. 

Selina’s book, In Her Element, chronicles her journey from a regular Midwestern girl drinking Coke to CEO of a global wellness company. She covers learning about nutrition and the healing power of salt from her in-laws —the founders of Celtic Sea Salt—and her experience as a mother of three, caring for a son with cerebral palsy.  

Passionate about cultivating relationships and community, Selina enjoys supporting local and global initiatives and organizations that align with her commitment to health and social responsibility. 

CONNECT WITH CELTIC SEA SALT 

Selina Naturally: https://www.selinanaturally.com/ 

Celtic Sea Salt: https://celticseasalt.com/ 

In Her Element: https://www.amazon.com/Her-Element-Surrender-Journey-Whole/dp/B09L4SCB2P/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/celticseasalt/ 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/celticseasalt/ 

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/celticseasalt 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/celticseasalt/ 

Meet Tess Masters:  

Tess Masters is an actor, presenter, health coach, cook, and author of The Blender Girl, The Blender Girl Smoothies, and The Perfect Blend, published by Penguin Random House. She is also the creator of The Decadent Detox® and Skinny60® health programs.     

Health tips and recipes by Tess have been featured in the LA Times, Washington Post, InStyle, Prevention, Shape, Glamour, Real Simple, Yoga Journal, Yahoo Health, Hallmark Channel, The Today Show, and many others.   

Tess’s magnetic personality, infectious enthusiasm, and down-to-earth approach have made her a go-to personality for people of all dietary stripes who share her conviction that healthy living can be easy and fun. Get delicious recipes at TheBlenderGirl.com.  

Connect With Tess: 

Website: https://tessmasters.com/  

Podcast Website: https://ithastobeme.com/   

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theblendergirl/  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theblendergirl/  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/theblendergirl  

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/theblendergirl  

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tessmasters/  

Get Healthy With Tess 

Skinny60®: https://www.skinny60.com/  

Join the 60-Day Reset: https://www.skinny60.com/60-day-reset/ 

The Decadent Detox®: https://www.thedecadentdetox.com/  

Join the 14-Day Cleanse: https://www.thedecadentdetox.com/14-day-guided-cleanses/ 

The Blender Girl: https://www.theblendergirl.com/  

Thanks for listening!  

If you enjoyed this conversation and think others would benefit from listening, share this episode. And, please post your comments or questions below. I’d love to hear what you think.  

Subscribe to the podcast.   

Get automatic updates so you never miss an episode. Subscribe to this show on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast app.   

Leave a review on Apple podcasts.  

Ratings and reviews from listeners help our podcast rank higher so it can reach more people. Please leave a review on Apple Podcasts.

Mentioned in this episode:

Menopause Masterclass

Sign up now at https://www.ithastobeme.com/masterclass

So I'm a salt fiend. I love salt. Some people like to taste wines. I like to taste different salts. I collect them from all over the world. I've always got a bunch of different kinds in my house. I mean, salt just makes food taste delicious, but in order to maintain better health, the quality of the salt that you consume really matters, and nobody knows more about salt than Selena de longre, so I am so excited for you to hear from her today. I had the great pleasure of meeting Selena many years ago, after buying her salt and using high quality salt for years, we had the most beautiful dinner with Donna gates from body ecology, and we just bond it, because the three of us have a macrobiotic background and a lot of things in common with our food philosophy and our love of salt and quality food and helping people reach better health, a beautiful friendship was born. We've been friends for many years now, and I was thrilled when she agreed to be one of my sponsors for my book tours with the blender girl the blender girl smoothies and the perfect blend and helping to educate people about salt has just been one of my favorite things about working in the health and nutrition space. The other thing about Selena that I really love is just her commitment to quality and integrity and the way that she has built her business around her genuine love and care for others, whether it's people in her team, but also all of her customers, and her personal journey with food and her family is just so inspiring. The way that she makes decisions, the way that she navigates challenges, the way that she embraces her it has to be me moments. So let's get the skinny from Selena de long gray, oh, Selena, I am so excited to just cozy up with you today and get messy. For those of you that don't know Selena de longre, she is the owner of Selena naturally and Celtic sea salt, my favorite salt in the world, and really sets the standard for how you should run a company, and the transparency that's involved and the testing that's involved in putting the best salt in the world to market. Gosh, we've been on a journey together, and I continue to be touched by your incredible generosity of spirit. So I'm so excited that you've joined me, I want to ask about where your journey started with health and nutrition, and just to tell us a little bit more about about Jacques and Yvette and how they introduced you to the power of food as medicine? Absolutely,

well, it's, it's a really funny story, because I was, I was 19 years old, moved from Indiana, Muncie, Indiana, to California, and I met Philippe, which was my husband, which we eventually got married. But when he took me out to get something to eat. He said, What do you want? And I said, oh, a Pepsi and this. And he just kind of looked at me like I was, well, I'll pay for it if you want me to. But he was like, hesitant, like, I really don't buy Pepsi. I never even really Tess for me. I had no clue that Pepsi was bad for you. I really, I didn't. So that was my first introduction there. But I grew up with migraine headaches my, you know, since from puberty on, and for whatever reason, I was open to hear what he had to say. And I said, Can you pay for goose No, it's just Pepsi is not really good for you. And I went, Oh. And then that started the conversation of enlightening me, and that was in 1979

Wow, when that was, you know, considered hippie dippie back. Oh, you couldn't,

there wasn't a health food store, you Yeah, little tiny markets every now and then, you know. But there was no whole food, yeah,

yeah. So, so Jacques and Yvette, you know, Yvette introduced you to macrobiotics, didn't she? Because, you know, you and I really connected when we when we met physically for the first time in California, over there, because that's my background as well. So did she start teaching you to cook and really introduce you to all these amazing ingredients, and then you just started to feel better? Did that help you with your migrants? Absolutely.

The first thing was, I didn't know what I could eat. I only knew what I couldn't eat. So that was a little scary, you know. And back then, there wasn't all this education. You couldn't go do a go Google search, you know. So I, that was the first thing. So I just didn't eat hardly anything at all, until I went to their house, but walking into their house the smell of fresh baked bread and their you know, their fire oven and the brown rice cooking and the miso soup and the gemacio that she just made in her Bucha, the the smell sounds

like my happy place I've

never smelled. I've never had the aromas ever. I've never smelled anything like this. Oh, and it aligned with me. I embraced it very quickly, and it was within a week I felt like, Are you kidding me? I didn't realize I could feel so good.

Oh, isn't that the best feeling ever? I mean, I love what you were talking about how immediately you you went to what I can't have, and then when you opened things up with them, you realize that getting healthy is about what you add, not about what you take away. Well,

I'm going to have to say the whole journey and introduction, and I think macrobiotics is known for this. It's a very fear based diet, I do believe. And for me, it was yeah, in my teaching, so there was still a lot of fear, guilt, shame around the food. And I think today it's not like that there. Then it was,

Oh, tell me more about that. Yeah. Tell me more about that. Yeah.

Just Well, first of all, if I didn't feel well, the first thing was, Well, what did you do? What did you eat? You know, so you really had to take responsibility and be held accountable for how you felt, because it was something that you did that made you feel that way, and that's that was so there.

And what did that make you feel like it was interesting in that pressure cook, if I

did have a headache, I did not want to share that I had a headache. Yeah,

so how did that have a flow on effect in your marriage and your relationship with that family? It

was interesting. It didn't it didn't really start affecting until I had my second child, because my second child, Carla, she was the one that, because Dominique, my special needs child, he couldn't talk he, you know, so he ate what I gave him, and he just opened his mouth, and I would feed him, and he would eat. But then the second child, she'd be sitting at the table, and there was a lot of observation with judgment, you know, chew your food. Remember that chewing your food times you're supposed to chew your food, yeah, um, don't eat this first eat that the it was like, and I can remember just saying, you guys know a lot of rules, something enjoyable, not something that they're going to eat one thing and not the other, and there was no bad intention in it. It's just that they believed in macrobiotics so much it was almost like a religion, and they knew it. Yeah,

you know, I can really relate to that Selena, because when I was first introduced to macrobiotics, it was like that for me too. So thank you for reminding me about that, because I too, just like you and Donna, you know that we had that dinner all those years ago, we all really related on this level about how we had moved away from dogma and an extreme approach of macrobiotics because of this very reason. So I really appreciate you reminding me in this moment that that's actually really what it was like for me as well, and that we've both moved into this place where flexibility and and you know, rather than rigidity, you know, is where, where the the magic happens. So tell me about what it was like to give birth to a special needs child. What? What did that feel like for you? What did that bring up for you? What was that it has to be me moment for you? Mm,

wow. Well, first of all, my I had two sisters that were pregnant, kind of within the same nine months, and they, you know, they ate McDonald's. They did whatever they want, you know. But I ate macrobirovi, so I was going to have a soup. Yeah, her child, you know what I'm saying, yeah, oh, yeah. And I remember eating a grapefruit, and my mother in law came in the room. And I hope anyone listening to this, this is not about putting my in laws down, because I would not be who I am if it wasn't for them, but because they believed in the cause and effect of food so much. She's I was eating a grapefruit, and she said, I hope his lips, your baby's lips are not being formed at this time, because it could cause a hair lip. I uh,

so sorry I'm having, like, an outward reaction to that

this, this was the reality of my pregnancy. I but I have the perfect child because I was doing everything that I was being taught that makes you healthy and have perfect children. And all the people we hang out with at the macrobiotic camps French meadow, they all had these perfect, gorgeous children. So when Dominique was born and he wasn't perfect, there was a lot of shame, guilt, anger, frustrated. Confusion, confusion, a lot of it. Yeah,

so did you? Did you feel like you had failed in that mission of being perfect? What did you learn from that? Because you're so not that way now, you went on such a beautiful journey and learned so many lessons from Dominique take us inside that a little bit. That's a great question.

I was introduced to a book, and I do not know how this was introduced to me. And the name of the book was, happiness is a choice. And who read that? That's a good title. I read that book, and I realized I am completely justified to get all the pity for what has been dealt to me. But I did not want to live that life. I wanted to be happy, and so that was my striving. Was how I was going to find the sunshine in this situation. So that's, that's, that was my that was what I did. I went to find the sunshine and the happiness in this situation, because depression is hard to get out of. And I fell into the depression, yeah, and I realized it's, it's almost like you don't if you've never really had depression, you don't know what it feels like when you're creeping into it. If you have had depression, you know when it's coming on again. But I didn't, so I didn't know what was happening when I fell in the bucket. I couldn't get out. You know, it was really scary. So I realized that you gotta nip it before you fall into the bucket, and you gotta do the little practices of things that can help you not which is, for me, it's just when you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change, and that's it.

Oh, we love that. Wayne Dyer, that's one of my favorites. I

am holding on because of all these people, Wayne dyers and the Bruce Lipton,

oh, yeah, yeah. That's for sure, for somebody, for somebody listening right now, who is in a depression and in that bucket or about to feel like they're going into the bucket they'll never be able to get out of. What are, what are some of the tangible things that you actually did, besides read these books? What were some of the practices that you used.

I, you know, it's interesting. I was so young. I don't really say that I did this, this, this and this. I just say I do know that talking to friends would give me a little bit of relief. But when you when you're depressed and you have a situation that you can't find someone that can relate and give empathy to, it's harder because they can't say, I know how you feel. I know what that's like. So I think the best thing that I would say is I found like a when I would meet another mother that was going to the same thing there was, like, it's yeah, it's hard to say, like, misery, likes comfort or something. I don't know really how to describe it.

Oh, yeah. But so the community, so, so, so staying in community and in conversation and in relationship with people who had a shared experience to you was, was a real lifeline for

you, for a small time test, because when I found out there was support groups for parents with special needs, I started going to them. It was, it was a very victim environment. So I couldn't stay in that place, because it was about poor me. I had to figure out how to find that happy place. And it was really just find the blessings. I would see another special needs child, and I would go, wow, it could be worse. You know, I would just constantly find the reasons to be happy, find the reasons to have gratitude. Because you can, no matter what you're going through, you can find a place for gratitude if you look,

yeah,

but we tend to

look so sorry, yeah, yeah. It's so it's so easy to put the lens on what we don't have, as opposed to what we do, what we do have you have this beautiful chapter in your in your book, in her element, about lessons from Dominique, and how did, how has that informed your relationship with Carla and Colette, your two daughters, these lessons that you learned from Dominic, right? Um,

right? I think it's being able to love unconditionally. And I don't know why this is bringing up some emotions for me, but with Dominique, with when you have someone in your life. That is not the most optimal experience. You want to blame that person for you not being happy. There was nothing to blame with Dominique. He did. He wasn't doing anything wrong, but I but there's something about the relief of blame. It's an interesting thing, you know, when you can blame someone for your misery, oh, my husband's an asshole, or my, you know, all those kind of things, you know, it's almost like the level of, you know, emotions that takes you up another level. With Dominique, I would feel guilty if I blamed him, because it wasn't his fault if you have having 100 seizures a day, you know. So I think for me, it was really just learning how to completely love unconditionally. And I think I just, I did the same thing with my daughters. There was nothing that they could do that could disappoint me, nothing, nothing. And I think that's probably the what I got from having Dominique, was that,

yeah, so you know, I don't know about you, tell me about your experience, but I have found in my life that it's easier to forgive and to see the light in others than myself sometimes. So you talked about the shame and the blame and the guilt and the failure that came along with giving birth to Dominique. How did you move into a place within yourself that you could forgive yourself for anything, that there was nothing that you could do, that that wouldn't be accepting to you like you were doing with your children.

I'm still working on that test. If you really want me to be honest with you, that's something I'm still working on. But

me too, please join me in that space of we're still learning with that one. Oh, I love that honest response, yeah.

But to be honest with you, I think it was, it was three days before Dominic crossed over, when that woman, that was a psychic, brought to my attention that our souls agreed to do this.

I went, Okay, oh, incredible story in your book, yeah?

But 28 years of the shame, yeah, that's it, yeah, yeah. And

that's yeah, that little bumblebee necklace is a pretty incredible story in your book.

You can't make Yeah, so tell us

Yeah, yeah. It's, it's incredible how you felt it you you felt him cross over, and then you continue to feel his presence. Listener, if you're feeling like we're we're leaving you out of the conversation. Here. I was reading Selena's book recently, and there's just this beautiful story about when, when Dominique passed over and and just this, this feeling of that you had agreed to teach each other some really important things that you needed to learn. Um, so tell me about how that affects you as a business owner, a woman in let's be clear, is still a male dominated place. Being a leader in your space, a mentor, a business owner and really a trailblazer in the salt space around the world. Tell me what that was like to take over the company that had been run by by Jacques and abet your your in laws, father in law and mother in law at 45 so what was that like for you as someone who'd grown up as a Catholic girl, you know, didn't feel like you really knew as much as all of them. I mean, that's a huge leap. What was that it has to be me moment like, oh my

gosh, Tess, it was, I think it was just about surrendering. And I think having that when I took over the company Dominic was still alive, so I didn't have the insight of that experience, of seeing that psychic and understanding that our souls actually designed this life before we came. So I didn't have that insight when I took this over, I just, it's like a survival it's like a mother cup survival thing. You know, if it's meant to be, it's up to me and you. And I just dove in and I trusted that God of the year. But what was

it in you, Selena, I mean, you didn't have to take over that company, did

you? Um, I I did not have to. I felt like I wanted to, because this is, this is hard to talk about without putting someone down. But I didn't have the confidence that my husband was going to provide for the family the way we needed. Be provided. So I felt like it was my responsibility, yeah, because

it's expensive to have a special needs child and raise two daughters and that kind of stuff. So so your it has to be me. Was, was exactly like you say. It was about financial survival. I have to put food on the table. I have to provide carers for dominance. I've got to, yeah, send my kids to college or whatever it is like, and I gotta do it. No one's going to back me up here. That

was, that was one of them. And then the other one was, I was good at what I did. I was good at it, and I and it was like my element, really good at it, and I danced with it. So really, that was, those were my What were

you tell me about what you were good at. It was the tell me about what you were good at

radar. So you know, an entrepreneur, if there's a line, they want to see what the line is about, they want to go see what that is. So I have a radar for opportunities, and I would every morning, when I do my my meditation and prayers, I asked to see the world through God's eyes, and I asked for any opportunities to come to me that I'm supposed to be working on, and they would just come to me. But I also live in a little I'm a Cancerian, so there's a little bit of scarcity energy in me. I always had to think of security. So I was thinking, okay, we can get this salt from France. Ooh. What if something happens to that source? I better be finding another source. You can't do this overnight. So I was out there diversifying our sources, saying, You better think ahead. You have to forecast. You have to look at a SWOT analysis all the time, which is, you know, the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. When you're running a business, that's what you constantly have to be in a mode to be looking at. And that's what I've done, and that's why I need to retire, is because I'm exhausted, because I live my whole life in a swat analysis. I'm wake up in the middle of the night the SWAT analysis, and I and I hang out. I hang out in the threats and risk more than I do, because it's quite, I mean, it's how I'm wired.

Gosh, it served you, yeah, gossip, gosh, though it served you in in just growing this company and at the same time maintaining integrity within that. I want to go into that a little bit, if you don't mind this. So the company was already successful in the sense of that people really loved this salt, you know, and it had this incredibly loyal following. And then you took it to a whole other level. So So talk me through what it was like where all of the suppliers in Brittany and France, you were getting the salt from this amazing region in France, and they knew Jacques and respected him, and they knew Philippe, and you didn't speak the language. What was it like when you first went over there and you knew you had to forge your own relationship with this supplier and you weren't sure how they were going to receive you? You are going deep. What was that it has to be me moment for you? You're going

really deep, aren't you? Um, that was so humbling. I was scared to death, and I was really scared because my my husband said they're not going to sell salt to you because they're more loyal to me and my father. Because it was not an easy divorce. It took five years, and I was scared of what I was going to walk into. But I don't know how much time we have to tell you the story how I went there, because I've met this attorney in San Francisco, and at a bachelorette party. And he had had a write off while he was him and his friend were visiting from Belgium, and I got his contact information. I said, Listen, I gotta go to Brittany, France to meet with the salt people. I don't speak French and and he goes, I'll go with you, you know. So this was like this completely off the cuff meeting that I met this two attorneys at a bar at a bachelorette party at three o'clock in the morning to justify us coming to California. And I said, Well, I have a business act like we did this. And I kept his contact, and I called Vincent, and I said, Listen, I gotta go to Brittany, and this is not going to be easy. He says, You fly into Belgium. I'll drive you down. We'll, we'll kind of brainstorm the whole trip down, the three hour drive down. And he represented me, spoke the language at the end of the day. They rolled out the red carpet, because business is business, and they they really wanted the business so it that's what happened, and it was and it turned out really good. But you know what, Tess, you can tell that I had angels in my life all these times, the fact that I met this attorney, like five years prior. You know what I mean? I mean, what's the chance of that? And we're still friends. You.

Uh, incredible, incredible. So was that, that experience where you were scared to death and you went, it has to be me anyway, I'm doing it. I have to because you got to keep this company afloat. You've got to build this relationship. Was that a template? Then that experience that served you well in other times where you felt terrified, and when it has to be me anyway, I gotta do this. Did you? Did you draw from that where it's like, business is business, you know what? Even if somebody tells you, then you know they're not going to tells me, they're not going to do it. I'm going to, I'm going to make them see me. Was that something that carried you

forward? Yes, that did. And also, what I realize is, and I don't know if other people have the same experience, it's the anticipation of that, of what's going to happen is worse than actually, when I get in there, I It's like, I get fired up. It's like, you know, a person on stage, all of a sudden, they're like, whoa. And that's what happens to me. It's like, I just get this download, and I become this power woman in the meeting, and I don't know where, yeah,

so, oh, it's so fabulous, but you are so right. The fear that we have is attached to the outcome, not the actual act. So we're afraid that the outcome is going to be terrible and destroy us, instead of that it will be wonderful for us, or that we will be able to make it a good thing for us, or we'll be able to go with the flow no matter what happens. So you talked about how you've got this incredible ability to forecast and assess the risks and see ahead and anticipate the next move and be make sure that you and your team are prepared, which I think is really one of your big superpowers. There's been a lot of things in your business that have really, you know, forced you to really step up. So you talked about diversifying your salt sources, not just getting it from Brittany. What if? What happens? If something happens to this region and we don't have any salt so talk me through how you've been able to diversify so successfully and get that beautiful salt from Hawaii and, you know, and Portugal and some of these other incredible areas of the world and and forge those amazing relationships with those supplies. Because one of the things that I really love about you is your commitment to excellence. Like you will visit every single one of these places, you will, you will delve into their harvesting process. You will help them make the changes that are necessary to meet your extremely high standards for what a quality salt is

absolutely and I think that brings me one of the most pleasures of all of it, to be able to say, I'm going to be a resource of revenue for these people that are, you know, harvesting the salt that feels so good. It also feels good that I've, yeah, and I've, you know, actually improved their their harvesting by having the people from France come to help them and do different techniques in the harvesting method. And I have turned some salt down because it was not up to my standards of of quality. So as a matter of fact, I'm leaving Wednesday to go to Guatemala, because business has grown so much, Guatemala is going to start packaging my salt in the bags, but I gotta go inspect it and see how it's going to be done before I allow them do it. Because, you know, we get the salt in bulk and we package it so we can see everything that goes in there, you know? So I gotta make sure they're gonna, yeah,

oh, look, listen, I What anytime, because I use your salt in everything that I do, and so does so many people in my programs. And who, who got my cookbooks and make the recipes, etc. Is that any time that I see an article or somebody writes to me and says, Oh, well, I heard that Celtic sea salt has lead or plastic or I shouldn't be doing it, and I shouldn't be doing this, and Himalayan crystal salt is better. And blah, blah, blah, and I write to you, you and your team always shout out to Stephanie, your niece, always send me back with complete transparency third party testing, a complete analysis of your salt versus the salt versus that salt that I'm able to then pass on with full transparency to anybody that writes to me, which I really appreciate. I I'd love to just share with our listeners the difference between really high quality salt and other salt. Can you just educate us about why it's not just the sodium and sodium chloride, but the magnesium, potassium, the calcium, the magnesium, all these other incredible minerals, and why the quality of your salt matters so much.

Absolutely. Um, right now I can't, I cannot say that there are, you know, white papers or actually case studies saying that before and after effect with someone eating a mineral salt and their health. But I can say that when Jacques founded the company and started educating me, it wasn't about you. Um, making eating the salt so that you had a supplement of magnesium, potassium and calcium, it was you cannot take just pure sodium chloride. You need the delivery system for it to work in your body, for it to communicate properly. So you need the magnesium and the calcium and all and phosphorus and all these other trace minerals. Also over 70 trace minerals to have the sodium and the chloride work properly in the body and, and basically, that's it. So when I go look for a salt, I the first thing that I do, and, and, well, like the the Mackay salt was introduced to me. I was at a trade show. This pharmacist came to me and gave me a little 10 CC vial of this white salt. And I went, this is not going to be any good. It's white okay,

because we already do the gray salt. That's what Jack taught us. He

got me, but he got my attention, because he said, this comes from water that is crystallized, and the water is comes from 2000 feet below the surface of the of the ocean. Whoa, I gotta see what this is. I sent it to the lab, and my Carl, my lab guy, calls and goes, we need to do another test. Can you get more of this? Because this doesn't look right. He goes, the alkalinity is 10. It's off the charts with the calcium. He says, I've never seen a salt like this, and that's really and that's that profile of that salt from Hawaii. Every salt that has come to me, I didn't go look for it. It came to me. It's like the angels were bringing the salts to me, and I did the due diligence to explore it, but the first thing I do is send it to the lab, if the lab comes back where it's in that profile, and what I look for is, I don't like sodium chloride in the 90% I like it in the 80s. So like the light gray is like 82% sodium chloride. And people would say that doesn't seem like it's that much, but I'm trying to explain to people, these are not supplements. It's not a magnesium, calcium and potassium supplement. It's a delivery of your sodium chloride in the proper way. That's all this is. So you don't need to have a whole bunch of magnesium and sodium, you know, all those things. So when I go and I look for a salt, that's what I look for, is those ranges. And I do have three analysis of the Himalayan salt, because I was very curious what it was all about. But the analysis I kept getting was not up to the standards of what I wanted. So I just, and I wasn't going to go to Pakistan, so I just kind of let the Himalayan I kept going, Oh, that's going to go away. I had not a clue it was going to explode the way it did. I still don't know how something was so little backing exploded the way it did. I don't know how it happened. I I've it's revolutionary

food trends. Food trends can continue to baffle right? I mean, I get this question every single day about Himalayan salt, why don't you use Himalayan salt? Well, let me tell you why I don't. Um, so can you let's, let's share with everybody why we don't use Himalayan salt. Let's talk about the difference between the profile and what you found in your testing, as opposed to these really mineral rich salts that that you put to market? Well,

the alkalinity was not as alkaline as ours. Ours is about 7.5 and the the Himalayan salt was 6.2 so it just wasn't as alkaline as ours. Was one, and the sodium chloride was, I have three different samples, and it was 97.6 92 92 point something, and 90 Wow, yeah, so that was a sodium chloride. So I just said, I'm not going to do it. Um, it just doesn't make sense to me. Um, but I was all about it. Tess. I mean, in 1996 there was an article in the Prevention magazine that talked about this pink Himalayan salt. And I ordered some. And it came to my warehouse, but nobody had ever heard of it. Nobody ever seen it. They sent boxes and boxes and boxes of lamps and candle holders and soap dishes and and I went, I guess what?

Before that was a trend everywhere.

And I just, I mean, that sat on a pallet for, I don't know how long, and I said, Oh, whatever. And then the call started coming in about the Himalayan salt, because I didn't pick it up, because I send it to the lab to have it analyzed, and it wasn't the profile I wanted. I had not a clue over don't worry about it. And, you know, I even started, I even started to try to go up there and have the the debates of what's better not. And I didn't like that energy or that vibration, so I backed off, and I never talked bad about Himalayan again. I just said, it's that's i It is not my responsibility to educate people on Himalayan. I will educate people on what I know and what i. Doing. I don't need to put anything else down to tell how good what I have is. It's just not necessary. Well,

you certainly don't have to, because things got viral during covid and you just could not keep up with production. So let's talk about that. It has to be me moment where you got, had to figure it out where that video went viral, and everyone wanted your salt, and you could not keep up with the demand. I

was in production 10 hours.

Let's talk about that. My

gosh, Tess, when it started happening, we're going, Oh, what the heck happened? I mean, I wrote my book actually.

Let's just, let's just, let's take everybody inside what actually happened, so that we're all listening to the same story like so there was this viral video, and it went bananas, and it went bananas

and but, but the interesting thing was, it went out there the same time I started doing podcasts for my book, and so I was very full of myself, saying, dang, that podcast really made some stuff, but then I realized, I was like, Well, I'm full of myself. But at the same time, the video went out. Oh, it wasn't my book.

I mean, that Barbara O'Neal video, i Everybody wanted that. Wanted your salt. I mean, I was getting emails that same week going Tess, I can't get the salt. I can't get it anywhere. What's going on? I said it's because of that video, like when a video goes viral. But, you

know, Barbara O'Neil was part of our company years ago. She actually used to talk to Jacque de Lanre on the phone. Yeah, years ago, yes, that's before she got

so, oh, how. How did you respond to that when people who had been buying your salt for years, everybody wanted it, how did you respond to that, when it when you just could not meet the demand, you could not give people the product? Um,

well, it started out having, you know, like, some back orders in the system. And I would let you know that my production team would come in and go, Can we go home early today? And I look at my back orders, I go, Yeah, go ahead and you guys got this. That's that. That's not happening. I have over ten million with the back orders in my system right now. I mean, it's, it's really, it has not slowed down at all. So the reality of that, I thought, Okay, first of all, I had 10, maybe 13 people in production, and I, me and my sister, which is my CFO, we started working in production to try to get these orders out. We weren't even making a dent. We were like working so hard, not even making a dent. Then we ran out of salt, because it takes eight to 10 weeks to get our salt from the source. We didn't have any forecasting for this big blowout, so we ran out of different salts from different times the phones were reading off the charts. And my beautiful Ian, that used to work for us, actually, it was too much for him. He lost it. And this is real. This is a reality. He we have pleased our customers for so many years. They they request, we give, they request. We couldn't, we didn't have the capacity. The phones were ringing. 500 calls a day, off the hook, and Ian couldn't keep up, and he was waking up at three o'clock in the morning trying to answer emails and and it was to he he really became ill because it was so stressful, because we care so much, we you know what I'm saying? Like, well, my doctor just told me, You don't understand. I don't want to have to get back on my blood pressure medicine. I need this salt. I need this the pressure was It was horrifying. It affected my health because I was not handling the stress very well. And I hate to say it, but now it's almost like the new normal for us is we will get it to you as, yeah,

yeah. So, so, because of your superpower is forecasting ahead, analyzing the risk, all that sort of stuff. And it consumes you. What are you going to be doing to meet this new normal, to meet the production you would, you would, told me recently how you were expanding, how you were going to pack it, the facility, all that sort of stuff. Tell us about how you're expanding. Well,

for the first time ever, we're bringing co packers in, which is very scary for me, because I feel like it's a, you know, it's losing control of my quality, and that's very scary, but, you know, we have, you know, explored the CO packers pretty well. We put a scorecard together so that all of our customers that are getting supply from the CO packers, they can score it to make sure they tell us how they are doing and reply very. Very quickly if it's not working, what a learning curve. I'm telling you, is a huge learning curve. But now we have three co packers. Right now, we want to bring on probably three more to help with this demand. But we're getting really creative tests. I'm telling you, it's just, it's, it's amazing what we're able to do and what like we're going to start having our international our brand, Celtic sea salt, is registered in 18 different countries all over the world. And so we have, we have distributors all over the world, in Dubai and Malaysian Singapore and Canada, the UK, all of Europe, Hong Kong, China. So what we're doing is we're having our French supplier package the salt for them, and now we're going to put the orders in at the source, and they're going to make it in cases and send it directly to our international customers, so we don't even have to touch it. Well, when we put this in place test, we said, Okay, you have to, if this is going to work, you have your minimum is to order a 40 foot container. That's 20 pallets that okay, that's 42,000 pounds. That's your minimum order. Listen to this. They were putting two and three container orders in. As soon as we told them we're going to start this, I don't know what's going on. I just keep waking up. Boy, the salt is the

best salt in the world. That's what's going on. Dream. I'm

going to wake up and go, you're not going to believe what I just there was a movie that came out two Octobers ago, two Halloweens ago, called hocus pocus, and my niece calls me, and she goes, your salt is on this movie? And I go, No, it's not. I'm sure it's worked. I mean, it's like, upfront close up that these witches are taking the salt off the shelf at Walgreens. Walgreens didn't even carry our soul. They just staged it for this movie. People are calling How much did you pay for that placement? I said I didn't even know what happened.

Well, I mean, it really is such a it's such a great example of you just focus on the quality, and you focus on caring, and you focus on your honesty, your integrity. I mean, it's just such a beautiful example of this. And, you know, as popular as this salt has gotten, it is absolutely everywhere. You know, it's such a huge recognized brand now it still feels like this family company. So Carla, your daughter works with the company. Stephanie, your niece, your sister is your CFO, your friend, you know. And you really do treat all of your employees like family. You're in, you know, Asheville, North Carolina, and in this sort of beautiful space. Tell me about the relation this, this really important relationship you have with your sister, you know, running this company. She's like, you know, your your partner, your right hand person. Tell me more about that relationship in the business.

And it's interesting, because I've talked to a lot of business mentors, and they've advised me that the best person you want in your financial department is is like a family member, because they will watch your back. And that's what my sister has been for me. We're both single parents and have been and so we kind of just partnered together and said, this is this is all about us doing it. And both of us have learned just every day, not knowing what we were doing, but had to learn. And I'm so proud of her, of everything that she's done, but there are times that she comes in and she's she's shaking, and she's shaking, and she's trying to hold a piece of paper. And I go, what's she goes, the sales tax people just call her. And I didn't realize that I was supposed to do this. And I did this. It's okay. It's okay. You see what I'm saying. So we have, like, been through hell and back again, like when we my company, the flood, the flood storm. You know, this was my so I got the divorce, I tell everybody, but I paid my husband off. You know, we, you know, we had the company appraise. I paid him off for the value and for his, for the half that we both own, 5050, and so not even three to four weeks after the divorce was final, and I was in debt. Like you don't believe the there was a dam that broke in Asheville, North Carolina, and my whole company was underwater. Literally, really, like I was in France doing my what I do there every year, to go look at the supply. And my sister calls me and says. Uh, there's been a flood. And I went, why are you calling me in France? I said, don't get a wet vac. And she goes, No, Selena, I am in a canoe looking in the window of the second floor. So Tess, there is nothing in my imagination that you get that visual I just

done that was effective.

I'm in the mountains. I'm not in Florida. You know. And, but we were completely underwater and, and the only thing that saved us was our server was up on a wall, and it was like, this far away from the water. So we still had our database, and we, you know, had to send our catalog out. That's when I had, like, over 4200 products that I used to buy from people and put in my catalog and the newsletter and all of that,

another one of your superpowers, and

then the flood and all of the products were gone. And so we had it was crazy. It was really crazy. We had to pivot very quickly. So at that time, I realized we gotta get into distribution. I went to the SBA, the FEMA Foundation to help people flood victims, sat there, wrote a business plan right in front of them, and said, This is what I'm doing. And I was able to get $250,000 at 2% interest to help us get through that from the SBA. Wow. Wow, but that was after I just paid my husband off.

I mean, but you know, I was thinking about I was thinking about you preparing for our conversation and reading your book, and they're just a certain words that come to mind when I think about you. And it is faith, it's resilience, it's hope, strength, integrity, transparency, honesty, love. I mean, I want to go back to something that you talked about before, when you said, this is why I have to retire, because I'm exhausted. So what's your plan moving forward so that you can settle in to turning those superpowers on, restoring you for this next chapter with your grandchildren passing the legacy on to Carla and and the next generation of powerful women in your family. Like, what does that feel like as you prepare for that using your superpower of forecasting the future and figuring out what this next chapter looks like? What does that feel like for you? Right? It

is I go back and forth of actually, I have been even experiencing some depression in this because this company is my identity, and if I don't have it, then who am I? So I'm really on myself to say, Who am I without this company, because we tend to identify ourselves from what we do, not just who we are. You know,

tell me more about that. How else do you identify yourself? Like, what else is tied to your identity, besides the company? Yeah, what's been coming up for you as you explore that? Um,

possibly, you know, being the mother of my my daughters, being the daughter of my mother. But it's interesting that I don't know if everyone's if everyone listening has the same thing, but without another person being a mirror to your reflection. To you, what is your identity? Who are we without each other? You know what I mean? At the end of the day, it's kind of like if a tree falls in a forest, nobody's there to is there any sound, you know? So,

so the mirrors that you look into, that you feel are the clearest and they're not a distorted view of who you are and who you want to be. Who are those people for

you? Probably the people that love me unconditionally and don't have an agenda, you know, when they meet me, when you when you reach a certain level of success. And I'm, I'm the one that's doing this, you I tend to, I kind of got this analogy in my download, but it's like, I will cast the bait out there, and the bait is this, Hi, I'm Selena. I own a company. It's worth as much money, and I have all these resources and everything. Well, the person that took the bait saying, Wow, you must have told me that for a reason. I kind of would love to have you help me do this. And can you help me do that? Okay? But I threw the bait out there. Then I resent them coming to me asking for how. Help, but it's my identity. It's like, and that's what I'm trying to do now. Hi, I'm Selena. I'm enough. Ooh, stop there.

Yes. Okay, yes. So, so yeah, you are, yeah, you are. So what would be the bait that you would throw out now

I can hold space for

me to take if I was going to meet you right now and I didn't know that you were Selena. From Selena naturally in Celtic sea salt. What bait would you throw out for us to start our conversation? I

think it would probably be. I am enough. I am. I would love to be able to explore what our interaction is without any of my resources on the table. That would be it. And I and I actually have a coach counselor, and he gave me three affirmations to work on as I'm going through this. And the first one is, you have fulfilled all of your obligations. Stop it. Stop thinking you're responsible for everyone's needs. Number two is, trust yourself. Don't always feel like you have to go out and ask advice from everybody, and then you then you're really confused, because you're asking advice from everybody. And then number three is the devil is in the details. But basically, he was what he was talking about was because of the way your brain is wired, you tend to want to know exactly how everything is going to a timeline of how everything is going to lay out, and that's just exhausting. You let it go and surrender and don't feel like you gotta figure out all those details. So those three little things I've been using to try to help myself say, Hi, I'm Selena, I'm enough.

Yeah, gosh, it's so interesting. As I'm as I'm you're making me think about my own resources, you know. So when I think about you, and anytime I want to talk to you, and I think about your resources, I never think about the company resources. I always think about your heart, your intelligence, your life experience, your mentorship, your compassion, your insight. You know, I think of those as your resources. You know that that I want to, I want to get messy with that I want to talk about that I want to Well, well, that I want to look into the mirror of that's going to help me understand more about who I am and who I want to be. So, oh, gosh, I can't wait. But

that says a lot about you, Tess, because not everyone can see someone with that many resources without saying, Oh, interesting. I've had this Maybe she can help me develop this product. Maybe she can help you. Know, do you see what I'm saying? So that says a lot about you, that you're not coming to relationships in a needy way. You're coming complete, you know,

yeah, look, I do. Thank you. I do. I do love the saying I am whole and together women. Oh, I love that,

see, yeah, yeah. And that's the mirrors that I need to look into. And I have to be mindful of the people that are in my vortex, that are in my circle of influence. I have to be very mindful. I think we all do. But I think because my resources might be financial, but there's also other people that, oh, I'm going to go make dinner for you, and I'm going to clean your house for you. I'm going to, you know, I you know, everyone does it in their own way. What can I do for you? What can I do for you? And then I go, they're always asking me for help. Or you're the one that said, What can I do for you?

I do. I do. Really

love this message of what is the bait that you are throwing out? So it better be the bait that you want to hook somebody, because they're going to grab onto that and you're going to reel them in. It's not their fault. Yeah, yeah. I really love this message. Thank you for that. So what do you hope the legacy will be moving forward with Celtic sea salt, with Selena naturally, when you're not there anymore, what do you hope

that Celtic sea salt has its own destiny, and anybody that takes this position that I'm in, they're just a steward of it. So I hope that it will continue expanding in its in its own destiny, and continue to help other people prosper, whatever way, from health, revenue or whatever, in its expansion and its destiny. But the main thing is continue to understand that the life blood of this company are people like you. That is the life pulse and blood and plasma of this company. If you look at my spreadsheets, you will say, how did they get to be where they are and not spend any money on advertising? It's because of people like you.

We just love the songs. I mean, I mean, I mean seriously, like I carry it in my purse to restaurants I care. I mean, I just stick it on my tongue if I've got a dry mouth, I and it just had such spectacular flavor and and has changed my life from a health perspective as well. So, yeah, it's just, it's just a great product, and you're just really great people. So I always close every episode with the same question, so I will ask it to you as well, which is for somebody listening to our conversation and your incredible story and successful business story, but also growth journey as a human being who's got a dream in their heart right now, but they're not quite sure that they feel like they don't have what it takes to make it happen and go after what they want. What would you say to them?

I would say that people should not count on their physical resources. They need to tap into supernatural resources. And they are out there, and it's real, this dimension, this 3d dimension, is just barely giving us the resources we need. We need to tap into another dimension to get the power that we can be and that's what people understand. It's not about your power and your strength. It's about surrendering and tapping into the power that can come through you. Ooh,

tell me a little bit more about that. How do you tap into that? I know that you are a proud woman of faith, and so tell me a little bit more about that. Well,

I mean, I am of faith. I'm not a religion at all. I, you know, I don't go to church and I but I don't judge anybody that does. But I do know that even in the simplest scriptures, such as when Jesus Christ said, You guys are going to have just as much power as I do, maybe more. Why would Jesus say that? If he didn't mean it? So I'm just believing what Jesus said, because that's what I believe, that Jesus was an example of the power that we do have. I mean, Tess, you know, you've seen healers. You've seen people be totally healed, and, and, and everybody acts like Jesus was the only one. You know, that's, that's my theory. I so that's, that's my thing is you gotta tap into a supernatural power. Anybody can call it whatever they want. They can call it the universe. They can call it God. They can call it whatever you want, but it's real and and I think people need to understand that and tap into it. How do you tap into it? You ask for it. You just, you just, Ooh, I love that. You know, it's kind of like they're just waiting to be asked. Just ask, you know, and it and it will come through. I'm a testament of it.

Yes, you got really been great in school. I

was actually, I think I was, like, voted to be the least to to succeed in school. I mean, and it's okay, it just goes to show you, it's not about our own physical attributes. It's about how do we tap in and be a portal for the supernatural powers that we can tap into. That's what I think it is.

I just love the just us, yeah, just ask. I mean, it's just that simple. I mean, I just feel, I feel like, I feel like I've been making it way too complicated.

I think that we do tend to do that and and, like I said, it's almost like that second wind, or that you get on the stage and you become a different it's not you anymore. You don't know where it's coming from, right? You've experienced this, right? And it just kind of comes through. Well, where is it? Who is that? What is it that makes us do that? I don't know. Yeah,

you know, I for me, I always feel like I tap into the greater energy, higher power, you know, whatever, whatever words we want to use for. Our, our individual sense of that, and then it merges with my internal power and my my strength, you know? And I put those things together, and that's how I get up and speak in front of 1000s of people. That's how I find the strength to to act when I'm terrified about something. But you know it what's so? What is? What's so wonderful about life and wonderful about human interaction is that we all when we give ourselves permission to have our own experience, whatever that means, and whether anybody else understands it, whatever it is that makes us make sense of the world is ours. And for me, as I get older, the more permission I give myself to do it my way, the more luck I have. You know what I mean in the sense of and and for when I look at your story, you have very much discovered how to do things your way. And that inspires me.

But we also have to remember we should never judge anyone for doing it their way too, because judgment is big. I do it and I don't I go, I look at something and I hear my thoughts. I go, What the heck? Why did you just judge that? You know, even if it's, yeah, I don't know what it would be, but we're, we're in constant judge mode. But if we started to look at the eyes and just look to the eyes of God, you could say there's nothing to judge. It's just an observation. It's all just observation. If we could just observe with no judgment, can you imagine what kind of beautiful world it would be? It would just be such a great, great place. And I'll tell you, being a business owner, that's an attribute that I think everyone should really try to embrace, is, is the kind of do not judge, do not judge people. They're doing their very best. You know, give them the affirmation. I know you did your very best. But I have to do say, I really have to say, also, I'm an entrepreneur and a visionary, and I'm learning, I just read this book called Rocket fuel, and I'm learning that I don't make a good CEO, because a good CEO holds people accountable, and I don't do that very well. Look, their desk is a mess. I'm going to rip and clean it up. But my daughter Carla, she totally holds people accountable. She got it, man. She's She's a Taurus, so she does a little bit better than I do.

Oh gosh, I tell you. Well, we cannot back that all day long, because I'm a Doris.

That's just it. When you're building a business, there are so many layers and elements to make it successful, so many there's so

many layers and elements to make this successful. I mean, we can just apply that to anything. It's, yeah, wow, wow. Oh, thank you for joining me. What a beautiful conversation. I cannot wait to see what? Oh,

thank you so much. I want to leave with this cute little quote that I heard. I read this book because I was kind of struggling, and it's the cutest little book. Can you see it is? It glared, it's yeah, and there's, it's called the boy, the mole, the fox and the horse. And it's just these cute little sketches throughout the whole book with a little saying on them. But I love one of the sayings that really helped me when I was going through this whole back. Or you can't really see it, but the little boy is on the horse, and he says to the horse, oh, horse, we have so far to go. And the horse says, oh, but look behind you how far we've gone. Look how far we've come. Yeah. And I think we all need to remember that when we think, gosh, we have so far to go, let's just look back and look at our little successes that we've been able to accomplish.

I love that.

I love you too. It's a beautiful world you're creating tests by these interviews. Thank you for doing this. For

Oh, it's a beautiful world we're creating together. So thank you for Oh, absolutely

anytime. Mm, I

hope that conversation has gotten you fired up to use quality salt in your life and really research what's in the salt that you're using. It was really interesting when she was talking about the third party testing and getting the salt analyzed for the alkalinity and the mineral composition and how we need all of those minerals like calcium, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, you know, in order to utilize the sodium for better health. So definitely use the show notes and read some of the resources on Selena's websites, because they're really helpful on a personal level. So many key takeaways, you know, the power of doing things your way. And trusting your intuition and figuring it out as you go along, and being really mindful of the people that you have in your vortex and your circle of influence, and letting go of the fear and the shame and the guilt and the blame in life, in business, in your personal life, with your food journey, that it's about flexibility and joy, you know, and enjoying things and finding those reasons to be happy and find gratitude, you know, and trusting yourself that it's a strength to ask people for help, but often you have the answer, and just trusting that you do and that It doesn't need to be validated by anybody else and observing without judgment that we're all doing the best that we can. And when you think that you've got so far to go with a goal, to just look back and celebrate the successes that you've already had and really celebrate how far you have come. When she told that little story at the end that really, really spoke to me. I'm going to be thinking a lot about the conversation that we had about identity, and what I tie my identity to, and how I make sense of myself. And I invite you to do the same. It's a really interesting thing to really be thinking about. You know, as you get older and as we move through life, there are interesting conversations to have with others as well. The other thing that really resonated for me was when she was talking about, what is the bait that you're throwing out? And you better be sure that it's bait you want others to pick up on. You know that you don't want to resent people because you've thrown something out and then they want to use it right? That that's something I'm going to be thinking about and the SWOT analysis. I mean, it's such a great thing to do in business, but assessing the strengths, the weaknesses, the opportunities and the threats is a great strategy when you're thinking about any of your it has to be me moments. So I'm interested to hear what your key takeaways are, so share them in the community.