Inspiring Conversations with Dr. Amy Czyz of Intent Brands

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Amy Czyz.

Hi Dr. Czyz, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I’m an eye doctor, and I am absolutely terrible about drinking water. That’s my confession… really great about taking care of others, but when it comes to self? Not so much. My childish refusal to drink plain jane water, combined with the joy and love of caring for patients, brought me to the realization, which was more like an intervention, that I need to take better care of myself, give greater purpose to drinking water, and make hydrating a more pleasurable experience. The concept and challenge to create INTENT® began about three years ago, and it started with focusing our how to help people beyond the four walls of my examination room.

Keeping our immunity strong, optimizing health, making the most out of our choices in what we eat and drink, it’s a daily task. We’re parents to three amazing daughters, as well as our fourth “child”… our Havanese, “Maddie.” Busy is our first, middle, and last name. There is so much happening these days, between pandemic stress, Zooms, blue light tech overexposure, it’s no wonder our natural sleep-wake cycle has taken a hit! I wanted to stop just hearing about it, and do something about it. Make it easier to combine the benefits of science and nature and make beverages work for our bodies throughout the day and night. That’s why I created INTENT®, the first of its kind Circadian Beverages to help keep in sync with our natural rhythm.

If we want to feel, look, and do our best with whatever we do every day, we really need to give our natural body clock, our Circadian Rhythm, a little more TLC. That’s how INTENT® came to be. Every day I hear about patients’ struggles with energy, focus, sleep, stress and keeping their immune system strong, and a desire to make positive change. There weren’t healthy, organic, great-tasting drinks available that address our natural sleep-wake cycle, providing Clarity & Energy, Focus & Endurance, and Calm & Restore. The things we need every day but are too busy to stop and do for ourselves.

Together with my fellow co-founders, my husband Tom, and brother Nick, we started our company and the journey to bring the first Circadian Beverages™ to market, as three unique, smooth and freshening functional waters that give the body what it needs, when it needs it… morning, noon & night. INTENT® is now available on the shelf at AJ’s Fine Foods in the greater Phoenix and Tucson regions, select specialty grocers and delis, and online at www.haveintent.com.

Helping people who care about the quality of what they put into their bodies, want great-tasting beverages to do more for them, is my jam. There’s only so much time in each day, so why not make sure that when we hydrate, it’s a really nice experience that refreshes, boosts immunity with organic honey, and infuses plant-based adaptogens to bring purpose to what we’re drinking, and what we’re doing… that’s what drives INTENT®.

It’s been an incredible journey so far, hearing from professional athletes in football, basketball, baseball, racquetball, from models to mamas who love how clean, light and refreshing INTENT® drinks are, it’s hard to choose a favorite! Lingonberry/Acai is enhanced for Clarity and Energy, Cucumber/Jasmine brings Focus and Endurance, and Vanilla/Chamomile is the perfect wind-down to Calm & Restore, to replenish and refresh for tomorrow. There’s something for everyone with INTENT®!

No journey is complete without friends, and that’s really what fills my soul with gratitude. We love hearing from fans how INTENT® helps them play better, work better, sleep better, and this continues to drive our team to develop and bring INTENT® to more people and help make a difference in their lives too.

Focusing on helping each other better ourselves and our world is our mission and mindset… a perfect beginning to 2022!

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
COVID definitely put a damper on our plans to reach customers.

Farmers’ markets, grocery store buyers, events were all limited, and that has made it much more difficult for customers to find INTENT® for sure. As large companies with super deep pockets moved online, advertising and marketing costs skyrocketed there too, so it’s definitely hard to be family-owned, local, and a small company with a commitment to high quality in today’s marketplace.

Just as people care about what they put in their body, as a doctor, I do too, and that’s why we decided early on to make USDA certified organic INTENT® functional waters. It would have been cheaper and easier to compromise on quality, but we made the decisions as co-founders to stand behind what we make using the healthiest ingredients we could source naturally.

We’ve been impressed with Intent Brands, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I’m Co-Founder & CEO of Intent Brands, creators of INTENT® certified organic, clean label, refreshing functional waters with plant-based adaptogens and honey to bring purpose to hydration… morning, noon & night. We make drinks that help people live happier, healthier lives, so we can better ourselves and the world around us. We’re a small, family-owned company honing in on ways to help people activate and achieve their intentions, sunrise through sunset.

Being an eye doctor for over twenty years has provided me the opportunity to care for people, to find ways to improve the everyday lives of my patients. Listening and learning from my patients about how technology has become so prominent, disrupted focus and sleep. The fact we are too busy makes it more difficult to use the powerful botanicals nature provides can. help us in so many ways.

By combining the best in nature and science, and the expertise of our team, we are uniquely responding to challenges we face with more technology, more stress, more risks to our health, and the growing problem that these things sap our energy and make it really hard to sleep and replenish, Intent brands are developing healthy drinks that infuse micronutrients designed to help our bodies manage these challenges better, simply by infusing medicinal herb botanicals and nutrient-rich honey into waters. We currently offer three smooth and refreshing beverages, optimized for the morning, noon & night, and enjoyable any time of day.

INTENT® is a first-of-its-kind Circadian Beverage™ that keeps you in sync with your natural sleep-wake cycle, your Circadian Rhythm. That gives you more natural clarity, energy, vitality, endurance, sleep, and helps you reduce stress and boost immunity. We’re known for making really light, great-tasting drinks with low sugar, less than thirty calories, so hydrating can taste and feel really good, as it should. You can find INTENT® at locations on our website www.haveintent.com and we ship everywhere in the continental United States.

We’re proud that INTENT® focuses on what we share in common, every sunrise and sunset. That all of us, every last one of us, has incredible power and potential. We bring people together and create drinks to be your best-supporting actor in life.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
A friend once nicknamed me “pounds for pounds!” Apparently, feisty Sicilian roots run deep. Something people may not know about me is that my favorite childhood book was “Cosmos” by Carl Sagan, which completely shaped my life even to this day. I began university as an Astronomy/Astrophysics major, detested optics, and became an Optometrist- which requires me to use optics on nearly a daily basis.

I’m truly grateful that I kept an open mind even with something I didn’t like initially, optics became the foundation for me to help over 75,000 patients in my career. There was a line in “Cosmos” that has stayed with me since the seventh grade. It went something like this…

“We are all made of the stuff of stars.”

That’s my guiding principle throughout my life, it’s how I see people, whether they may be patients, my children, customers, we all have incredible inner power and potential. Every one of us is beautiful and valuable.

Pricing:

• https://www.haveintent.com/discount/VOYAGE.
• 30% Promo Special Exclusively for Voyage Readers.

Contact Info:

• Email: support@intentbrands.com
• Website: www.haveintent.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haveintent/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/haveintent
• Twitter: @haveintentnow

Image Credits
Troy Nebeker, Cam Vickers, and Rhonda Rajsich