How Joe Mousa built NootriMind around mental wealth
Joe Mousa is the founder of NootriMind, a veteran-owned Mental Wealth brand offering third-party tested supplements for stress, focus and long-term mental performance. The conversation looks at how personal experience shaped the business, why transparency matters in a skeptical market, and how learning the numbers changed his approach to advertising.
Build trust by being clear about what you offer and who you serve, then learn your unit economics before spending on customer acquisition. For NootriMind, honest reviews, repeat customers and transparency matter more than vanity metrics.
How did the business start, and what makes it different from others in your space?
NootriMind® started with my father. He passed away from dementia in 2016, and watching that changed how I think about the brain. During my time in the Army, a seizure led to a medevac that ultimately ended my service. After I got out, I lived with brain fog and hit a low point, and I rebuilt myself through purpose, training, and a deep dive into mental health and wellness. NootriMind® came out of that recovery.
What makes us different is how we think about the mind. We are a veteran-owned Mental Wealth brand, which means we treat mental performance like wealth: something you build steadily, not something you buy in a single pill. Every product is third-party tested, I am a trained integrative health coach through the University of Health and Performance, and every order on our website supports the Alzheimer’s Association, The Headstrong Project, and ACSMH.
How did you win your first customers, and where does most new business come from today?
My first customers were people who knew me: friends, family, fellow veterans, and people I met in person who believed in the mission and were willing to leave honest reviews. That early trust mattered more than any ad could. Today most new business comes from Amazon, our website, and wellness clinics around Indianapolis that carry our counter displays, along with networking and word of mouth.
What is one decision that changed the direction of the business, and one mistake that taught you the most?
The decision was pausing my MBA to complete the integrative health coaching program at the University of Health and Performance. It changed how I talk to customers. I now focus less on ingredients and more on sleep, stress, habits, and purpose, and that made NootriMind® a coaching-led brand instead of just another bottle on a shelf.
The mistake was handing my Amazon advertising to an outside agency and trusting their reports instead of my own. When I finally pulled the numbers myself, I was spending more on ads than they were bringing in. I ended the relationship, took advertising in-house, and learned my unit economics line by line. Now I don’t make a spending decision without looking at the data first.
What has changed in your industry or in what customers expect, and how have you adapted?
Customers are more skeptical than ever, and they should be. The supplement space is full of big promises and influencer hype. People want to know what is in the bottle, whether it has been tested, and who is behind it. We adapted by leading with transparency: third-party testing, a founder who shows up personally, and a free 20-second Mental Wealth Pattern Assessment at try.nootrimind.com that helps people understand their own patterns before they buy anything. We also talk openly about sleep, stress, and movement, because supplements work best as one part of a bigger picture.
If someone were starting a business like yours today, what should they do first, and what should they ignore?
First, know your numbers. Before you spend a dollar on ads, understand your cost per unit, your fees, and what you can actually afford to pay to win a customer. Then get clear on why you exist and who you serve. Ignore vanity metrics and the pressure to look big fast. Follower counts and trending tactics don’t pay the bills. Trust, repeat customers, and honest reviews do. I built NootriMind® fully self-funded, and that forced me to focus on what actually works.
Thank you to Joe Mousa and the team at NootriMind for sharing what actually worked with Leaders Perception readers.
Want to tell the story behind your business?
Leaders Perception publishes interviews with business owners and leaders every week. Five questions, about ten minutes, no calls. It is free and every completed interview gets published.