‘The red lining in my professional career is that I’ve had the privilege of being asked to take on various roles I’d never done before and turn them into successes’: Sandra Deira, Global Director of Health Tribe

“We are a Dutch company that is designing a world where people come first and where people can still finance their health, educate their children, care for their parents and others in need, and live the lifestyle that they value.”

Living a healthy lifestyle is important for anyone who wants to feel their best and stay healthier as they get older. Physical fitness is not the sole basis of being healthy; being healthy means being mentally and emotionally fit. Sandra Deira, Founder of Health Tribe, is one such award-winning entrepreneur who is dedicated to making the world more aware of a healthy lifestyle. "If you want to make the world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the change," quoted by Michael Jackson, best suits her as she is designing a world where people come first and where diversity and inclusion are embraced through her company, Health Tribe. Health Tribe is a family-run business that provides healthy supplements for people who want to improve their lifestyle, their appearance, and their overall health.

Sandra Deira, Global Director of Health Tribe, spoke exclusively to The Silicon Review about how she and her company are helping people get healthier, look better, and feel better.

Interview Highlights

Q. How would you describe your professional journey so far? Tell us about a few roadblocks and learning lessons that helped you grow through the years.

It has not been without challenges, but all the better as challenges fuel your creativity, force you to be proactive, and keep you on a continuous learning curve to do better and also personally develop. The red lining in my professional career is that I've had the privilege of being asked to take on various roles I'd never done before and turn them into successes.

Another aspect of this is the ability to deliver under special circumstances. At some point, we weren’t able to deliver a very popular and generally known product because of the poor quality of an ingredient. We did not accept it, disapproved of it, and simply didn’t take the product into production, even though we knew that regular consumers would desperately wait for it or, even worse, look for a substitute from another brand, and we would lose sales. Ultimately, this turned out to be one of our best decisions going forward in terms of earning our customers' trust, and they rewarded us with huge revenue the moment the product was back on the market. It grew in popularity even more and is one of the brand’s cash cows.

An amazing service on every level has also been key. Fueling that feeling that our company continuously sees the individual, goes above and beyond, and incidentally adds services to its package to illustrate, we were recently forced to innovate another very popular product due to changes in the regulation of an ingredient. The demand was high, and it has been out of stock for many months. To serve customers, we channeled what was left in various regions and distributed it to individuals. People easily put up with a label in a foreign language when they want it, as long as they are served with transparent information.

Q. Trust is one of the most important currencies of leadership that requires authenticity and consistency to maintain. What’s your take on this?

Trust, as well as honesty and transparency, are key elements. It's everything when it comes to doing business. It not only defines your leadership, it also defines who you are and what you stand for—the brand that you stand for, the business that you stand for. It is the foundation of your professionalism and the development of long-term, fruitful relationships.

Q. As the Global Director of the company, what are your major roles and responsibilities?

One of the most important tasks is to develop and maintain (new) businesses on a global scale, as well as further ingratiate them with the larger industry and establish their positioning in specific areas. Look at regions where we might not be operational just yet and learn from previous failures, which, for instance, could have to do with less focus on cultural and regional aspects, which are essential for continued business success.

Q. What can you tell us about Health Tribe? What are its focus areas?

We are a Dutch company that is designing a world where people come first and where people can still finance their health, educate their children, care for their parents and others in need, and live the lifestyle that they value. We are a business that not only provides healthy supplements for people who want to improve their lifestyle, their appearance, and their overall health, but given this time and age we are proud to also provide an interesting business program with exclusive technical tools for entrepreneurs and partners to work with and integrate in an existing business. We ship directly from our warehouses to our consumers and partners. We have developed overtime to grow in scale, with our focus on developing Europe, the UK, and the USA even more in 2023.

More on the business opportunities front, we, as noted above, offer a very affordable and accessible business program for people to tap in.

Q. Can you introduce us to your products? What are their key features?

Our product line complies with the highest level of natural products; its nutritional supplements are without synthetic additives. The complete product range is GMO-free, vegan, and clean label and covers a wide range of different products. Our products are consistently under independent supervision and subject to multiple innovations. Because it's of the highest quality and registered as doping-free, we see that a lot of A-athletes find their way to us, as well as people in the medical field, because the full range is registered in the Dutch version of the PDR.

Q. How do you see Health Tribe changing in five years, and how do you see yourself creating that change?

I see more sustained business in both Europe and the USA. We are well-known for the high quality of our products, but I like to think that we are even better known for the insights that we share and the way we educate our consumers to not only look at price but to really think for themselves, read the product labels, see the coherence, see the logic, and understand which informed choices they have to make when it comes to the quality that they want and deserve. My commitment and efforts to create change are mainly focused on collaboration with partners in various regions. We collaborate with partners who share our vision and understand why we focus on designing a world where people come first and where we put the future back in the total control of the client, the consumer, by bringing people together.

Sandra Deira in Her Own Words

I look back on a 25-year background in corporate and in 2011, I decided that I wanted to be of significance and have an impact on people’s personal lives directly. I migrated to Europe at a very young age (18 months), and health and wellness is something I grew up with. I am of the “cod liver oil” generation, so health in general played a significant role in our home, where it contributed to a survival mode of not being able to afford that children would fall ill and one could not go to work. In those days, agriculture, growing crops, etc. were so much different from now. Hardly any pesticides were used; cultivation with GMO, derivations, pressure through consumer demands, etc. either did not exist or were not as intense as they are now. I believe it has become essential to understand what is at stake for the individual’s health, our planet, and our food, and what the individual can do or accomplish for himself or herself as well as for the next generation.

Born in a country where 94% of the land is forest, nature, and the Amazon, the Health Tribe takes its name from my ancestors, one of the oldest Indian tribes in South America and where nutrients were sourced in nature, and we still use these ancient herbs and fruits in supplements, medication, and daily food today.

The logo symbol: Aya - a West African Adinkra symbol of wisdom, endurance, and resourcefulness.

Meaning: “An individual who wears this symbol suggests that he/she has endured many adversities and outlasted many difficulties.”

In my development as an entrepreneur, my family has been crucial. They share my concern for health. I am the mother of three wonderful individuals who are successful in their respective fields as a marketer, lawyer, and in sales. My youngest is also an athlete and is the current national champion (American Football for the Dutch AFBN League) and also 2022 champion of the first and new BNL League. He plays for the Amsterdam Crusaders and is looking to join the new ELF (European League of Football). My husband still practices kickboxing and is trained by former professional kickboxers.

“We are a business with a holistic approach that provides healthy supplements for people who want to improve their lifestyle, their appearance, and their overall health.”

“Our product line complies with the highest level of natural products; its nutritional supplements are without synthetic additives.”