Exploring Planetary Health and the Power of Retail Community with David Nelson

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Meet Dave Nelson, an award-winning entrepreneur, lifelong student of health, and co-owner of Inside You in Woodstock and Norwich, Ontario.
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Dave's path has been anything but conventional, spanning technology, fitness, design, naturopathic medicine, and now planetary health.
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In this episode, Bruce Cole sits down with Dave to talk about the future of natural health, the power of community, supplement innovation, and why independent health food stores may be more important than ever.
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That's the other thing that planetary health is exposing is that loneliness is a big problem.
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And the retail health space in my store that helps to offset loneliness.
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I have people that come and stay at the store for half an hour to an hour and just walk around and chat.
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Right?
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Because they want to be in a place of wellness and a place of connection.
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And that's how we're building the big thing now, Bruce, over the next decade is going to be building community at all scales.
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Hi, welcome to In Conversation with.
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So the goal is for us to share these stories in the hope they will ultimately benefit our natural health retailers.
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Because as we say here at In Conversation with, when the retailers win, we all win.
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I'd like to take a moment to thank our sponsors, Proveta, CanPrav, the CHFA and Prairie Naturals.
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Your support is greatly appreciated.
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Thank you so much.
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I just want to take a minute too.
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We're leading up to CHFA in the near future.
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I just want to remind remind people that the entire In Conversation with Podcast team will be at CHFA Toronto, September 26 and 27.
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And we'll be located in the adjacent booth space to Prairie Naturals and Healthology.
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And that's booth number seven 1723.
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So if you're at the show, come by, shake a few hands, get a couple photos, meet the team.
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It'll be great to see you and uh share some of your thoughts with us.
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Okay, let's get on to the program.
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Today we will be in conversation with the award-winning Dave Nelson, co-owner of Inside You with stores in Woodstock and Norwich, Ontario.
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But before we welcome Dave, let's take a moment to hear from our sponsors, Proveda, Camprev, CHFA, and Prairie Naturals.
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Canada's largest natural organic and wellness trade show is that.
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Registered at chfanow.ca.
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Hi, we're back.
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As mentioned earlier, I'm very happy to be joined today in conversation with Dave Nelson from Inside You in uh Woodstock and Norwich, Ontario.
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Dave, thank you so much for joining me and welcome.
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Thank you very much, Bruce.
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It's a uh it's an honor and a pleasure to be on the podcast of someone who's been in this industry for so long that uh you know you're part of the fabric of um of what's happened in this space.
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And I am really looking forward to this because you have a lot of background.
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So it's gonna be fun to do this podcast with you, Bruce.
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Yeah, thank no thanks, Dave.
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That's great.
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Well, I feel the same about you.
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Um uh I just want to just warm up a tiny bit here.
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Dave, it's I think it's 13 and a half years that you have owned uh Inside You with your partner Steve Veltov.
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Uh, as mentioned earlier, you have stores in Woodstock and Norwich, Ontario.
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Um I I Dave, I just have I just have to tell a little story.
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My first visit to Inside You was maybe 10 years ago with Shannon Gentle from Natural Factors.
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Uh you weren't there.
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Uh I remember Shannon saying, Well, there's Dave and Steve, but uh Dave's not gonna be there.
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So we met Steve, gave us a store tour, and then um we went upstairs, and I felt like I'd walked into the middle of a laboratory.
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And um, and Steve said, I'm really sorry you're not here to meet my partner, Dave, because he's on to some incredible things.
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He's and Steve started to explain all this stuff you were doing, and um and uh then I felt okay, now I understand why I feel like I'm in the lab.
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Dave's into a lot of stuff, and I I quickly figured out you're not the traditional traditional natural health retailer.
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Right.
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And um, all these years later it's been confirmed you you are a retailer, but you're so many more things, Dave.
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So Okay, why don't I take a little break and you can you can have a couple of seconds here.
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Well, you know, um my uh I I came by this industry due to family influence.
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So my mom really was the person that started it.
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She's Dutch and brought with her some of the old world remedies, right?
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So we were really poor growing up, you had to make do with what you had.
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We had um, you know, like I'll give you an example.
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In 1980, I was introduced to kefir or kefir.
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So it's hot now in 2026, but 50 years ago or 46 years ago, I was drinking that in our kitchen because the Dutch were the ones that actually brought the sacred formula actually from um uh where Kiefir comes from, which is in the Carpathian Mountains in that area, and uh and brought it to the world.
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And so that's that's a good example.
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My mom also took Shackley vitamins 50 years ago, 45 years ago.
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So she was taking a B vitamin, a multivitamin, and uh a protein powder um back in the late 80s, you know.
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So uh I grew up with that, and we took vitamins, we were vegetarians early.
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Uh, there was a lot of different things that the exposure of the religion that I was part of back then too, which was Seventh Day Adventist, talked a lot about healthy eating and getting out into nature.
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So I kind of was steeped in some of this health, um, some of these health frameworks early on, and I just carried that with me in my life, even though I did kind of fall off the wagon and do a lot of unhealthy things in my life.
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Um, I've really tried to refocus myself on a big the big picture, which is flourishing.
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How can human beings actually flourish, not just be disease-free, you know?
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That that's the that's that's not exactly what we're looking for.
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We're looking for humans to be exuberant, lively, happy, engaged, diligent, things that they can accomplish doing things is flourishing, right?
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As opposed to just being able to walk up and down the stairs.
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That's important, but I don't just want to be disease-free.
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I want to be able to hop up those stairs if I'm able.
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I'm trying to think of the last time I hopped upstairs.
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I've maybe hopped down a few stairs, but um, Dave, that's that's interesting.
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I didn't know that background.
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Um but so you were like you use the word steep, that's a good word.
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And and over the years I met a number of people who have ended up in this industry as a profession, but grew up in a household with um with all those things.
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I remember uh you know, stories about the kind of food the kids were eating, you know, and going to school and the other kids making fun of them, you know, because of the weird sandwiches or the weird breads or the weird smelling cheese or whatever.
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So um, well, what about your schooling?
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How did you how does that tie into this?
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Or does it?
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It does actually, because unbeknownst to people in the industry, um, I actually uh have um a very interesting relationship with education.
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I struggled in school uh substantially, uh elementary school, high school.
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It's likely because I'm neurodivergent, and that's kind of coming to light now about what that really means about how people see the world and how they can process information.
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So school for me was tough.
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You know, high school took me six years to get out of high school.
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Six years.
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So I did graduate, took me six years.
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I went to the University of Waterloo for computer science uh in uh 1994, and I stayed for a year.
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I started a computer company where we wrote video games.
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Uh, so I did that for three years, and then I uh had a spiritual reawakening and decided that I was gonna go back to school and get my undergraduate degree in religious studies, which I eventually did.
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So I studied religious studies and I ended up getting unofficial, so they're not in my transcript, but they're unofficial minors in math, accounting, and ancient languages.
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So I ended up studying ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek, which I found really interesting.
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And that uh I didn't pursue the uh religious studies anymore after that.
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I was gonna be a minister.
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I decided not to do that, that wasn't my thing.
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Um, and I started to work as a personal trainer.
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Uh, there was just a job opening, and I was like, okay, yeah, I can I can do this.
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You know, I'm an athlete, I played soccer, I, you know, whatever.
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So I got trained on um uh uh being a personal trainer.
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So I became a personal trainer for a few years, and then someone introduced me to naturopathic medicine.
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And I thought to myself, oh, that's interesting.
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I have an undergraduate degree, maybe I'll go.
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So in 2008, um, I went back to school and got my science undergrads uh stuff, which is like physiology, biochem, ochem, organic chemistry, stuff that you need in order to understand the language of medicine.
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You need to have that science background in order to understand the language of medicine.
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I didn't end up going to naturopathy school in 2008.
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Um, I uh continued to work, I continued to be a personal trainer, and that's actually when I met my business partner, Steve.
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So the story is really interesting because I was training someone in their home and I recommended they go with the protein powder uh post-workout.
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And so the next time I went over to her house, she had a different protein powder than the one that I recommended.
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And I was like, and usually, and I was writing in the newspaper at the time, so I was the fitness columnist in the local newspaper because someone said to me, Hey, no one's writing a fitness column.
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Should go down to the paper.
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So I went down to the paper and said, Hey, you guys don't have a fitness column.
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Can I do it?
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And they said, sure.
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So I was like the fitness column guy.
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So in Woodstock, there was like 35,000 people at the time, and I'm the fitness column, so I became the most well-known fitness personality and health personality in Woodstock.
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So that's how I got to you know this stuff.
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So this person had this protein powder, and usually when I made a recommendation, because of the fact that I was in the media, you know, but local media only, so I was micro, micro famous, right?
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As micro as you can be.
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And she had a different protein powder.
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So I said, Yeah, but you got a different protein powder.
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What's going on?
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She said, Well, I went to this new store called Inside You, and uh he recommended this one because it's New Zealand way and it's this and that.
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And I was like, it's actually a good recommendation.
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So I went into the store and I met Steve for the first time, and that's how we met.
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We met because I said to him, That was a great recommendation.
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I've heard about your store.
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I just thought I'd come in and you know, whatever, and that's it.
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I shopped and that was it, and I went my way.
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But if you want to know how Steve and I became business partners, this is how I shopped at his store.
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He didn't offer me discounts, I didn't ask for discounts, there was nothing like that.
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I was just a customer, and I had a place I felt I could send people now that I felt Steve was a great proprietor and would really be a good retailer when people went and helped solve their problems and meet their needs.
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But I I truly hated his logo.
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His company logo, I didn't like.
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It looked like a horseshoe.
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The U looked like a horseshoe was in blue, the sign he had out front looked like a ranch.
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And I was like, so what I did, because I'm a hobbyist, I have a lot of these hobbies, and one of my hobbies is graphic design.
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So I designed him a brand new logo and I printed business cards for him, but he didn't know any of this was coming.
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So I just showed up at the store one day and I said, you know what, Steve?
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I really don't like your logo.
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I made you a new logo and new business cards.
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You can do with it what you want.
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Okay, it doesn't matter what you do.
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I just wanted to do this for you.
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He switched everything.
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He changed all the business cards, all the branding, went to the new logo, put uh uh uh one of those canvas uh kind of like uh awnings uh in front of the building with the new branding on it and everything.
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And so uh then nothing happened for like two, three months.
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And then he calls me up and he says, Hey, my accountant's uh doing year-end for the store.
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Can you come in and sit in on the meeting?
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So I went in and sat on the meeting.
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This is all very strange, right?
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Like we don't have a business relationship, we're not even friends, really.
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So he sits in on, I sit in on this meeting and we're talking about the business financials, we're going over the PL, problem loss, all the financials.
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And Steve turns to me, and his other business partner was in the room at the time, and he turns to me and he said, What percentage would it take for you to join this company?
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And right and I just without even thinking, I said, Well, I really couldn't do it for more less than 30%.
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Like I'd need 30% of the company to really sink my teeth into it.
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You know, and he goes, Okay, that's it.
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Never talked about anything for four months, five months.
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So then I get another call, and Steve says to me, then we're developing our relationship at this point, right?
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So Steve says to me, Hey, I've tried twice to get into Health First Network.
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Our sales are, and at that point they were 425,000 or 475,000.
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At the time, the cutoff for Health First Network was 500,000.
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You had to have 500,000 in annual sales in order to get into the network.
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So that's since changed, but that's that's what we had to do.
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And he said, We're we're almost there.
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We're like at 470 or 480, we're really creeping up.
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We're gonna cross, or he was gonna cross the 500.
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We weren't business partners, remember?
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I didn't get a discount, I was just helping him.
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That's who I am.
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When someone needs help, I want to make sure that I'm there for them.
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If I have a skill set that pairs well with what they need, so he calls me up and he said, Can you come to Health First Network head office with me?
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Meet the CEO, Dave, at the time, Dave Freeman.
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And uh, whatever.
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So we drove up to Burlington.
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This was his third try.
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And so we're there, and Dave's introducing us to everybody, and you know, whatever, and we come into the boardroom and we sit there, and Steve's Dutch.
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I'm Dutch, right?
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So one of the things about the Dutch community here in southwestern Ontario is we have some there's a culture behind the the Dutch part here.
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It's like you know that that person's gonna like show up and do the work that they say that they're gonna do.
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It's kind of a cultural thing.
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So I knew Steve was going to do really well with retail, it's just that hell first didn't understand his vision yet, I don't think.
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So I translated that to Dave Freeman, and we sat in the boardroom, and after I gave him uh about a 10 or a 15 minute, you know, spiel, I said, I'm gonna throw the gauntlet down on the table, Dave.
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Like, is this what we are we gonna make it into Health First Network or not?
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And so Dave was like, you're in.
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So that's how we got into Health First Network.
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That's a great story, right?
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So that's just the ongoing nature of the business relationships, and we love Health First Network.
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So I'm just gonna put a plug in for that because that's a really, really important community, not just from a buying perspective and a warehouse perspective and an operations perspective, but it's important from a social perspective.
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The social nature of that is it it it creates belonging.
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Uh, it's an in-group, it uh gives you a place you can call someone if you have some try, and anyone will talk to you about what they're doing, right?
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So I I really appreciate that.
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So that brings us actually to 2013.
00:19:29.119 --> 00:19:31.680
That's that that was when we got in Health First Network.
00:19:31.759 --> 00:19:33.759
Our first AGM was Kelowna.
00:19:34.160 --> 00:19:43.119
And then starting in 2014, January, I started to go to the Canadian Naturopathic College.
00:19:43.839 --> 00:20:01.440
I uh had applied um a couple months before, I was accepted, I had done all my prereqs, and that started my uh four and a half year journey in naturopathic medicine, which um I completed, but I do not hold the license, and I am not regulated in the province of Ontario for that.
00:20:01.839 --> 00:20:31.759
Um so uh so my wife, though, is an atropathic doctor, and I met her at uh the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine doing uh rounds, and um so we were looking for an atropathic doctor, and so uh I hired her the first day that uh that I met her, and um, she was from Kitchener, had no desire to move to Cowtown Woodstock, which is the dairy capital of Canada.
00:20:32.240 --> 00:20:38.240
No desire to move to Woodstock, but I rolled out the red carpet, I gave her her own office, like we weren't together or anything at the time.
00:20:38.319 --> 00:20:41.920
I just felt she was a very, very good naturopathic doctor.
00:20:42.400 --> 00:20:50.160
Um, and uh so, anyways, about uh six months later, um we uh we started dating.
00:20:50.319 --> 00:20:56.319
She um she invited me over to her house for football, and uh the rest kind of went after that.
00:20:56.799 --> 00:21:02.720
So um so the my retail inside you has been central to my life, actually.
00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:08.640
So it's the reason I'm married, it's why I do what I do, it's uh so many other things.
00:21:08.799 --> 00:21:17.680
And after that, after um naturopathic medicine, uh in 2019, 2018, I got into planetary health.
00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:33.119
And actually, that is now what I do academically at the Nova Institute for Health in Baltimore, where I'm invited faculty with a number of scholars, fellows, academics, and uh and people working on some really, really neat stuff.
00:21:33.359 --> 00:21:36.079
Um actually, that's my next question.
00:21:36.319 --> 00:21:41.759
Um you call yourself a planetary health interdisciplinarian.
00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:46.319
Um and I thought maybe you could just take a minute to explain what that is to our listeners.
00:21:46.720 --> 00:21:47.440
Yeah, sure.
00:21:47.680 --> 00:21:59.039
So planetary health is a is a is a is a term that was actually coined by a Canadian group um in uh the 80s, friends of the earth.
00:21:59.279 --> 00:22:02.880
And In 2015, it was actually put in a publication.
00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:14.559
The Rockefellers, uh, Rockefeller, uh, the uh the Lancet received a Rockefeller grant to launch a new journal called um a journal planetary health.
00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:24.160
And uh and they kind of minted some new PhDs uh who had uh planetary health, planetary health background.
00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:41.440
So it's only about 11 years that it's been kind of in the literature now, but it is really truly picking up steam because the World Health Organization has launched something called the One Health Platform, which means health is not merely the absence of disease, but the expression of vitality.
00:22:41.599 --> 00:22:43.279
And then how do we get that?
00:22:43.519 --> 00:22:54.640
Planetary health was originally launched due to climate change, but it turns out that climate change is a small part of what planetary health really looks to address.
00:22:54.880 --> 00:23:08.799
And it looks to address things on three different levels person, so that's individual, place, so that's geolocation or community settings, and then planet, which is the the planetary scale.
00:23:09.119 --> 00:23:13.359
And so health actually runs through all three of those layers.
00:23:13.519 --> 00:23:32.400
And what I hope to do actually is bring planetary health to this industry because what we do in this industry is about planetary health, we just don't know that yet, and I want to help bring that translation and that transformation to people.
00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:34.480
Dave, that's that's cool.
00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:39.519
This is really going in order because my next question is uh planetary health.
00:23:39.759 --> 00:23:46.960
How is this translating into your work right now at Inside You and even outside uh your work at Inside You?
00:23:47.359 --> 00:23:49.759
How does it impact everything else you do?
00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:52.799
Yeah, that's a great question, and it impacts everything.
00:23:52.960 --> 00:23:59.440
And I and I know that's a huge statement to make, but we have some things that we need to confront in our industry.
00:23:59.599 --> 00:24:02.799
So I'll I'll give you a really, really good example.
00:24:03.039 --> 00:24:09.599
Um ultra-processed food is a planetary health issue.
00:24:10.240 --> 00:24:16.480
Conscious food systems are planetary health issues, glyphosate is a planetary health issue.
00:24:17.200 --> 00:24:24.480
Um poverty is a planetary health issue, and I'll say why poverty is a planetary health issue.
00:24:24.720 --> 00:24:26.160
The data is very clear.
00:24:26.480 --> 00:24:34.480
Uh in Western civilizations, poverty uh decreases your ability to get appropriate nutrition.
00:24:34.720 --> 00:24:38.640
Your caloric macronutrient ratios tend to be skewed.
00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:44.799
Uh, you tend to potentially live in a food desert where there may or may not be an actual grocery store.
00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:54.720
Um if you remember the shooting that happened in Buffalo about five years ago at a grocery store where a number of people were killed.
00:24:55.039 --> 00:24:57.599
The reason that was tragic was twofold.
00:24:57.839 --> 00:25:07.200
It was tragic because people died, but it was tragic also because that grocery store had just opened and it was the only grocery store in the area.
00:25:07.759 --> 00:25:13.440
So um it's really interesting when you start to look at things full circle.
00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:17.599
Why do we have so many nutrient deficiencies?
00:25:17.839 --> 00:25:24.079
Why do I have customers that require D3, B12, magnesium?
00:25:24.319 --> 00:25:24.880
Why?
00:25:25.119 --> 00:25:26.799
Why is stress rampant?
00:25:26.960 --> 00:25:29.519
Why is anxiety on the rise, right?
00:25:29.680 --> 00:25:36.960
Why are complex conditions like POTS, positional orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, why are they on the rise in younger populations?
00:25:37.119 --> 00:25:39.519
So these are all planetary health questions.
00:25:39.599 --> 00:25:43.519
So it's the health of the planet is also our health.
00:25:43.680 --> 00:25:49.200
And when we're not healthy, we actually behave poorly and we make bad decisions.
00:25:49.599 --> 00:25:53.200
And that's why climate change is a problem, because we're making poor decisions.
00:25:53.359 --> 00:25:58.160
And you know, greed is a problem, uh, othering is a problem.
00:25:58.720 --> 00:26:05.599
And so where where I'm going with this, I'm part of two different centers in terms of planetary health.
00:26:05.759 --> 00:26:10.079
The first one is the Nova Center for Justice and Mental Well-being.
00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:12.240
So I'm going to explain that in a second.
00:26:12.480 --> 00:26:23.920
Then the other uh center that I'm part of is the Nova Center for um planetary consciousness and global flourishing.
00:26:24.799 --> 00:26:28.079
And these very much intersect uh in a way.
00:26:28.240 --> 00:26:37.839
So I'll use the um uh I'll I'll tell you about the uh the um crime and uh and mental well-being.
00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:56.880
We now have not only credible evidence, we've published at least uh probably 15 papers in the space over the last five years that link nutrition to um aggression and impulsivity in the context of crime.
00:26:57.839 --> 00:27:01.599
So there was some early work that was done in the late 70s and 80s and 90s.
00:27:01.680 --> 00:27:11.839
Stephen Schoenthaler in the US is one of those people who noted that B vitamins uh helped people's mood and they helped their aggressiveness in prison settings.
00:27:12.079 --> 00:27:15.279
Um, prison food is notoriously terrible.
00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:20.720
Um, there's a brand new book out that just won an award by one of my fellow invited faculty, Leslie Sobel.
00:27:20.880 --> 00:27:26.319
It's called Eating Behind Bars, and it's about the state of the prison food in the United States.
00:27:26.559 --> 00:27:33.039
And you'll find that it's actually really difficult to try to rehabilitate someone when they have poor nutrition.
00:27:33.359 --> 00:27:34.880
And we know this, Bruce.
00:27:35.119 --> 00:27:36.640
Have you ever been hangry?
00:27:36.960 --> 00:27:38.160
I've been hangry.
00:27:38.319 --> 00:27:44.720
So your blood sugar goes down, and you end up getting emotionally tied up in the hunger.
00:27:44.880 --> 00:27:47.200
So hangry is hunger and angry.
00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:53.119
So you get frustrated, you get irritated, you're hungry, your blood sugar's low, inflammatory markers rise, your brain changes.
00:27:53.279 --> 00:27:54.559
We see this in kids.
00:27:54.799 --> 00:28:00.720
You know, give them certain foods and they're tearing up the place, running off the walls, jumping up and down, everything else.
00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:05.920
You give them healthy food, they're calm, they're settled, they're emotionally regulated.
00:28:06.559 --> 00:28:38.079
So these are things that I'm looking at now, and the big, big, big, big, big, big, big thing, which a lot of people listening are gonna know about, but not know that we've we really have some interesting fidelity in the data now, is the gut-brain axis in the microbiome, which is where a lot of my work falls now on what is happening with the microbiome and how can we better interact with literally our ancient friends, as as Sir uh Graham, uh, what was his last name?
00:28:38.400 --> 00:28:38.880
Uh Rook.
00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:41.599
Graham Rook uh called them ancient friends.
00:28:41.680 --> 00:28:45.519
He's a UK uh microbiologist who's who's pretty famous.
00:28:46.720 --> 00:28:47.519
Dave, you know what?
00:28:47.599 --> 00:28:58.240
We've got so many more things to discuss, but so why don't we just take a little break and we'll hear from our sponsors, Proveta, Camprev, and CHFA, and uh we'll delve into a whole bunch of new and exciting things.
00:28:58.400 --> 00:28:59.839
We'll be we'll be right back.
00:29:00.160 --> 00:29:01.440
Sounds great.
00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:09.279
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00:31:20.480 --> 00:31:23.039
Hi, we're back with Dave Nelson from Inside You.
00:31:23.279 --> 00:31:24.880
Dave, I think it's going really well.
00:31:24.960 --> 00:31:26.160
We've covered lots of great things.
00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:26.799
How are you doing?
00:31:26.960 --> 00:31:28.240
You getting through this okay?
00:31:28.559 --> 00:31:29.519
Oh, yeah, definitely.
00:31:29.680 --> 00:31:30.880
It's uh it's always fun.
00:31:31.039 --> 00:31:32.240
I always appreciate Bruce.
00:31:32.319 --> 00:31:34.319
We see each other at least once a year in person.
00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:38.000
So this is a treat for me to be able to have another conversation with you.
00:31:38.079 --> 00:31:39.839
Uh, so that's really nice.
00:31:40.240 --> 00:31:53.039
Well, yeah, and also, you know, knowing a bit of your background and um now sort of really unraveling it, I I find it just so interesting because you're so enthusiastic about everything.
00:31:53.359 --> 00:31:56.400
Now, Dave, I just want to read a couple little things here.
00:31:56.640 --> 00:32:00.640
Um so I'm gonna sort of jam these all together.
00:32:00.799 --> 00:32:11.839
Among your many interests and activities, you've listed your top skills as planetary health, complexity theory, research skills, evidence synthesis, complexity science.
00:32:12.079 --> 00:32:16.720
And then let me go back a little bit here because I uh I got a couple other things.
00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:27.680
Um you've been described or described yourself as an entrepreneur, a polymath, a dedicated advocate of complexity thinking, and I mentioned planetary health.
00:32:27.839 --> 00:32:40.319
Also, this is the part I like magician, mathematician, computer scientist, minister, entrepreneur, financial planner, personal trainer, and graphic designer, wellness advocate, and invited columnist.
00:32:40.400 --> 00:32:42.000
I know you're right in CNHR.
00:32:42.240 --> 00:32:49.759
Um Gabe, how how is all of this, how are all of these things tying into what you're doing?
00:32:50.160 --> 00:32:53.599
Yeah, that's a I mean, that's a that's a great question.
00:32:53.920 --> 00:33:02.640
My life didn't follow a straight line, you know, and I don't think anybody's life really follows a straight line, but I think that some lines are straighter than others.
00:33:02.720 --> 00:33:15.440
You know, my sister, for example, she went to elementary school, went to high school, went to university, got her undergrad in business administration, went and got her CMA, CPA, became an accountant, went and worked in industry.
00:33:15.839 --> 00:33:17.920
Um, always did well in school.
00:33:18.079 --> 00:33:20.480
She she just she was great at that.
00:33:20.720 --> 00:33:25.759
And she just recently, three years ago, left accountancy, went back or got her RP.
00:33:25.839 --> 00:33:28.000
So she's a registered psychotherapist, and there she is.
00:33:28.240 --> 00:33:28.559
Me?
00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:33.519
I could, I, I, I would marvel at people that could get their homework done.
00:33:33.680 --> 00:33:35.279
I didn't know how that was possible.
00:33:35.440 --> 00:33:37.119
I didn't have it in me to do it.
00:33:37.200 --> 00:33:38.160
I I don't know.
00:33:38.319 --> 00:33:41.119
The the way that traditional education works doesn't work for me.
00:33:41.359 --> 00:33:47.839
So as a result of that, I had to try a whole bunch of things out to see, you know, where I was gonna land.
00:33:48.319 --> 00:33:55.759
So I I wrote video games, I was a software developer, I uh I got introduced to magic in grade nine.
00:33:55.920 --> 00:34:02.400
I joined the International Brotherhood of Magicians, um, and I started to do magic shows, birthday parties.
00:34:02.559 --> 00:34:11.519
I met David Copperfield a number of times, uh few people that I knew ended up in Vegas doing shows, um, just stuff like that.
00:34:11.679 --> 00:34:18.559
But what happened for me in magic, what what got me for magic was things aren't always what they seem.
00:34:18.719 --> 00:34:23.760
And when I was seven years old, I saw this box at the store.
00:34:24.159 --> 00:34:31.199
And if you open the box, there could be like a handkerchief or a pen or something in the box.
00:34:31.360 --> 00:34:47.360
But if you closed it and you knew the secret, which was to pull a little bit on the back of the box and then reopen it, a second drawer underneath was hidden so you could open it and show the box is empty and then close it again.
00:34:48.239 --> 00:34:50.000
So that intrigued me.
00:34:50.079 --> 00:34:54.000
And I'm a curious person by nature, so I always take things apart.
00:34:54.159 --> 00:34:57.440
I want to know how they work, I want to understand the relationships between the parts.
00:34:57.599 --> 00:34:58.719
Why is it doing this?
00:34:58.880 --> 00:35:00.079
What is happening here?
00:35:00.239 --> 00:35:07.519
I can't really take superficial explanations, which is why I struggled in naturopathic medical school.
00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:14.320
Because unfortunately, some of the stuff there is a little bit outdated or a little bit.
00:35:16.480 --> 00:35:19.280
I'll be gentle here, but it's not up to date.
00:35:19.599 --> 00:35:20.480
It needs a little bit more.
00:35:20.559 --> 00:35:24.239
And I remember sitting in class thinking to myself, ah, this is frustrating.
00:35:24.880 --> 00:35:26.559
So, where did magic come in?
00:35:26.880 --> 00:35:32.719
Magic taught me to look for other ways that things can be done.
00:35:33.440 --> 00:35:44.239
So when you look at something and you're totally in disbelief, then you need to look at what other what other things could contribute to the way this is being done.
00:35:44.480 --> 00:36:02.800
And I think that it's really important to talk about this now, especially for our kids, because miss and disinformation is going to be something that people are gonna have to try to juggle due to either AI-generated slop or um competing narratives about the truth, right?
00:36:03.039 --> 00:36:06.159
So you I'll give you an example, like multivitamins.
00:36:06.559 --> 00:36:12.880
For years they said multivitamins don't work, they don't increase lifespan, they don't do this, they don't do that.
00:36:13.199 --> 00:36:18.400
But I saw my mom, you know, that's an N equals one, and I thought, wow, she's doing really well.
00:36:18.559 --> 00:36:19.280
There's a lot of things.
00:36:19.440 --> 00:36:20.480
What's hidden here?
00:36:20.559 --> 00:36:22.800
What's what's not being shown?
00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:24.239
What's the sleight of hand?
00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:29.840
Because there's sleight of hand in science that happens all the time where someone's pushing an agenda.
00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:32.000
Just look into the Alzheimer's research.
00:36:32.239 --> 00:36:38.480
So, you know, that was they're now expanding Alzheimer's research to include the gut.
00:36:38.800 --> 00:36:42.239
And it turns out that Alzheimer's usually start, it starts in the gut first.
00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:44.960
It just happens to translocate to the brain.
00:36:45.280 --> 00:36:49.280
So the the idea, I wanted to know what's the smoke in mirrors?
00:36:49.440 --> 00:36:50.559
What's behind the curtain?
00:36:50.719 --> 00:36:53.840
How do you move the little lever on the box to show the other thing?
00:36:54.000 --> 00:36:54.320
Right?
00:36:54.559 --> 00:36:56.960
So that's where magic was influential to me.
00:36:57.199 --> 00:37:01.440
Computer science was influential because it's logical and sequential.
00:37:01.599 --> 00:37:06.880
I can read research and go through every piece logically and sequentially.
00:37:07.119 --> 00:37:12.480
It forces your brain to process information in a certain way.
00:37:12.639 --> 00:37:15.519
So that's what the computer science gave me.
00:37:15.840 --> 00:37:18.559
Um, I did do financial planning.
00:37:18.639 --> 00:37:19.599
That was really interesting.
00:37:19.679 --> 00:37:21.760
I only did that for about two years.
00:37:22.000 --> 00:37:27.440
Um, and I was licensed for like SEG funds and accidents, sickness, disability.
00:37:27.599 --> 00:37:33.599
Uh, you know, I did a whole bunch of different stuff and insurance, but it really that wasn't my that wasn't my gig.
00:37:33.760 --> 00:37:39.599
But what it really taught me actually, the insurance gig taught me um something really interesting.
00:37:39.760 --> 00:37:52.079
And that was I got to see the health differences of people applying for life insurance and then the way that actuaries crunch that data in order to like determine whether or not someone's healthy.
00:37:52.320 --> 00:37:57.039
So that influences planetary health for me and flourishing, right?
00:37:57.519 --> 00:38:10.239
So everything is connected, and that's what we're finding in planetary health is that if you do pull on one of the threads of the sweater, the whole thing is the same thread, right?
00:38:11.039 --> 00:38:25.519
It's just where you are on the thread and what part that piece of thread was actually important for in knitting that particular garment, but it's all related, and that's the thing about planetary health that I find so interesting.
00:38:25.840 --> 00:38:45.360
So now the microbiome is really exposing the nuances of why certain medications only work for certain portions of the population, coupled their with their physiology, or why certain foods, some people are good at it, some people are good with those foods, other people aren't.
00:38:45.599 --> 00:38:55.840
Food sensitivities, ultra-processed food, emulsifiers in the food, disabling the gut barrier, and changing gut barrier physiology and the biophysics of the gut.
00:38:56.079 --> 00:39:02.159
These are things that my now in the in in high school, I was a big chemist.
00:39:02.400 --> 00:39:03.599
I loved chemistry.
00:39:03.679 --> 00:39:06.239
It's my it's the love of science for me.
00:39:06.480 --> 00:39:20.639
So now the chemistry that I had is really informing me about microbial metabolites, postbiotics, prebiotics, fiber, omega-3s, these are all chemical molecules with special shapes that dock differently.
00:39:20.800 --> 00:39:34.159
So when you start to unlock how these things are working in the body and where natural, organic, and wellness, which is how the CHFA kind of that's their framework, let's plug into that.
00:39:34.320 --> 00:39:35.920
Let's plug into the nature.
00:39:36.000 --> 00:39:37.280
We gotta get back to nature.
00:39:37.440 --> 00:39:40.719
Nature deficit disorder is a real thing, right?
00:39:40.880 --> 00:39:43.840
You get and you can get a nature prescription in Canada.
00:39:43.920 --> 00:39:44.719
Did you know that?
00:39:44.960 --> 00:39:48.000
Your MD can now write a nature prescription.
00:39:48.159 --> 00:39:53.599
And if you take that to a federal park, you get in for free.
00:39:54.079 --> 00:39:54.800
Is that right?
00:39:55.039 --> 00:39:58.639
Yes, BC Parks does this, Ontario Parks does this.
00:39:58.880 --> 00:40:02.960
So getting back into nature, and what's interesting about that is you're getting nature's microbiome.
00:40:03.199 --> 00:40:04.400
You're getting all that fresh air.
00:40:04.480 --> 00:40:07.199
There's microbiome in the air, that's the aerobiome.
00:40:07.360 --> 00:40:10.079
You're surrounded by the things that keep us alive.
00:40:10.239 --> 00:40:15.920
And then organic organic talks about ecosystems, right?
00:40:16.159 --> 00:40:30.639
It's not just that we didn't spray, it's that the soil's healthy, the plant grows in a healthy place, and the echo of that is that human beings have less toxic exposure to commercial food production.
00:40:31.840 --> 00:40:34.480
And then wellness is really flourishing.
00:40:34.719 --> 00:40:37.760
They're just two sides of the same coin.
00:40:38.320 --> 00:40:49.360
So we are intimately, intimately um ready for this planetary health message in our industry.
00:40:49.519 --> 00:41:03.760
The thing that I'm worried about is people trying to profit too much off this as opposed to actually heal people so that we have a healthier baseline of physical and mental health.
00:41:03.840 --> 00:41:05.039
That's what I want.
00:41:05.760 --> 00:41:12.480
In fact, that's a little bit of questioning I have uh uh a little later on, but uh because I do want to talk about that.
00:41:12.719 --> 00:41:19.920
Um, but just sort of to talk about all these other things, magician, um, mathematician, all those things.
00:41:20.079 --> 00:41:22.239
Um, you work in a health food store.
00:41:22.320 --> 00:41:31.599
I mean, I know you're doing lots of stuff, but how much time do you spend on the on the floor, on the sales floor, talking to customers and sharing some of this stuff?
00:41:31.760 --> 00:41:34.000
Um at least five hours a week.
00:41:34.400 --> 00:41:51.039
So I spend five hours every Saturday from 12 to 5, and my customers, 48 out of 52 Saturdays a year, will find me in the store with hopefully a nice Hawaiian shirt because it's it's what I try to wear all the time in the store.
00:41:53.119 --> 00:42:02.159
And um, are you able to convey all these things you have going in your head in a in a nice simple way that most people will understand?
00:42:02.400 --> 00:42:03.760
Are you freaking people out?
00:42:03.920 --> 00:42:05.039
Which one is it?
00:42:05.599 --> 00:42:10.159
No, you know, and and so I I do some consulting on the side with some supplement companies.
00:42:10.239 --> 00:42:13.440
So I formulate for Health First Network and also for some other brands.
00:42:13.519 --> 00:42:25.119
And what some of the brands in the past, maybe three years ago, they were really concerned that their customers weren't gonna know the word microbiome, so they didn't really want to use it and whatever.
00:42:25.280 --> 00:42:34.000
I've been using the word microbiome for the past four years in the store, and I'm gonna tell you right now, in the past 18 months, like all my customers shake their head.
00:42:34.159 --> 00:42:37.920
They know they want to know more information about the microbiome.
00:42:38.320 --> 00:42:40.639
Customers are ready for more education.
00:42:40.800 --> 00:42:57.920
Uh, people come in pre-educated a lot of times about um, you know, certain things, and they just want me or someone, a part of my team or another uh health food store um team to help them just understand it a little bit better.
00:42:58.079 --> 00:43:11.519
I am I continue to be amazed at how many customers come in the store with a condition they've been diagnosed with, and no one has ever explained it to them at all.
00:43:11.920 --> 00:43:12.480
Wow.
00:43:12.719 --> 00:43:19.599
They get five minutes with the doc, they get a drug and they're out the door, and no one explains to them exactly what's going on.
00:43:19.679 --> 00:43:32.400
And they're giving, they're given very short, you know, eat healthy, exercise, you know, whatever, all the things that we know we're supposed to say, but pulling those things off is actually a little bit more difficult um than you would think.
00:43:32.559 --> 00:43:38.000
And so I'd find myself right now kind of in a very interesting place.
00:43:38.159 --> 00:43:45.039
I feel like the store is cheers a lot, you know, and and if you remember cheers, people came together.
00:43:45.199 --> 00:43:46.239
It was a community.
00:43:46.320 --> 00:43:48.400
They talked, there was therapy there.
00:43:48.719 --> 00:43:53.199
Um, and people were happy and excited to see when you walked in.
00:43:53.280 --> 00:43:59.599
You know, remember when you if you remember the show for those of us that have gray hair, you know, when Norm walked and it's like, Norm, you know.
00:44:00.079 --> 00:44:01.199
Like I do that at my store.
00:44:01.280 --> 00:44:03.679
When someone walks in the door, I just say their name out loud.
00:44:03.760 --> 00:44:05.679
I don't care if everybody hears them there.
00:44:06.000 --> 00:44:07.440
I want them to feel welcome.
00:44:07.599 --> 00:44:13.039
That's the other thing that planetary health is exposing is that loneliness is a big problem.
00:44:13.280 --> 00:44:18.800
And the retail health space in my store that helps to offset loneliness.
00:44:18.960 --> 00:44:24.880
I have people that come and stay at the store for half an hour to an hour and just walk around and chat.
00:44:25.360 --> 00:44:25.679
Right?
00:44:25.920 --> 00:44:29.760
Because they want to be in a place of wellness and a place of connection.
00:44:29.920 --> 00:44:39.119
And that's how we're building the big thing now, Bruce, over the next decade is going to be building community at all scales.
00:44:41.519 --> 00:44:45.119
And that's another question I have for you later in the program, Dave.
00:44:45.280 --> 00:44:52.000
I love how we're so in line with this, except we have a slightly different order of asking questions.
00:44:52.239 --> 00:45:00.880
But um, I want to ask you about um almost 12 years now you've been on the supplement formulation team at Health First Network.
00:45:01.039 --> 00:45:04.960
Isn't it funny that you guys had to fight so hard to be to join Health First?
00:45:05.039 --> 00:45:08.239
And now you've been on the formulation team for 12 years.
00:45:08.400 --> 00:45:14.800
So you're working on new product formulation, uh, nutraceutical supplement development and doing some research.
00:45:15.199 --> 00:45:17.039
How did you get interested in this?
00:45:17.199 --> 00:45:20.079
And um how did you learn to do it?
00:45:20.400 --> 00:45:22.079
Yeah, that's that's that's a good question.
00:45:22.159 --> 00:45:28.719
So the naturopathic training, of course, augmented that because you get three years of herbal medicine, which which really does help.
00:45:28.880 --> 00:45:40.559
Um, my chemistry background makes uh a really big difference too because um uh because if someone said, like, I understand why oil and water don't mix, right?
00:45:40.719 --> 00:45:43.280
Like I actually understand that cognitively.
00:45:43.519 --> 00:45:47.599
So that chemistry back background gives me some insight into supplement formulations.
00:45:47.679 --> 00:45:49.840
Really, supplement formulations are recipes.
00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:56.880
You got to find out the synergies between the ingredients so that you can get a one plus one is three, hopefully, out of that.
00:45:58.320 --> 00:46:06.000
And so what happened was um I approach things a little bit differently, I guess.
00:46:06.159 --> 00:46:07.920
I approach things very personally.
00:46:08.079 --> 00:46:16.079
Anytime I talk to a customer or design a supplement, I pretend if I'm designing it for someone who's ultimately very close to me.
00:46:16.400 --> 00:46:19.119
So Health Network has a memory formula.
00:46:19.519 --> 00:46:31.599
My mom had a bad accident uh about 15 years ago where uh she uh unfortunately drove a jet ski up on shore and she ended up falling off and hitting her head with a really bad brain injury.
00:46:31.920 --> 00:46:34.639
And so um, and her memory was suffering.
00:46:35.119 --> 00:46:43.840
So uh I designed um the memory uh supreme uh formula for Health First Network with my mom in mind.
00:46:44.079 --> 00:47:01.599
And so all these formulations that I do, I think about people I know in the store, people who need the solution, making sure that the chain of custody on the ingredients is clean, making sure that there's no secondary things in there that are gonna be problematic.
00:47:01.840 --> 00:47:07.039
Um and then also figuring out where the market might be going.
00:47:07.199 --> 00:47:08.559
So, what do I mean by that?
00:47:08.800 --> 00:47:18.639
It's like, what are the needs that are gonna expose themselves in the future that we're going to need to be able to um intersect with?
00:47:18.960 --> 00:47:21.039
So gut health is a big one, right?
00:47:21.440 --> 00:47:26.239
So um what we're learning is that um the microbiome eats first.
00:47:27.039 --> 00:47:30.960
So I'll give you a good example of where this goes, Bruce, when I do supplement formulations.
00:47:31.119 --> 00:47:33.519
The data, the research is out on beets now, right?
00:47:33.679 --> 00:47:35.599
Beets help with blood pressure, for example.
00:47:35.679 --> 00:47:39.679
They're a they're a they're a uh a nitrite donor, okay?
00:47:39.840 --> 00:47:42.559
So they they donate to the nitric oxide system.
00:47:42.719 --> 00:47:44.559
They give some of the precursors.
00:47:44.880 --> 00:47:46.239
Um, beets are known for this.
00:47:46.320 --> 00:47:48.400
But here's the here's the the the magic.
00:47:48.559 --> 00:47:56.800
If you're formulating a supplement for beets, okay, if you look at the literature, if you take capsules, you will get a certain effect.
00:47:57.199 --> 00:48:03.039
But if you do beet crystals in water and you drink it, the effect is more pronounced.
00:48:03.360 --> 00:48:04.639
You want to know why?
00:48:06.159 --> 00:48:16.639
Because the beet juice hits your oral microbiome first, then you swallow it and it goes into your stomach and then to your intestinal tract.
00:48:17.440 --> 00:48:26.880
That hit to your oral microbiome helps to lower blood pressure more than if you just take the capsules alone.
00:48:27.360 --> 00:48:30.079
That's what I love about formulation.
00:48:30.880 --> 00:48:48.880
It's figuring out those strategies that align with your physiology so that we can move from dis-ease, which is a lot of people take supplements for dis-eases, and move over here to supplements that encourage more flourishing.
00:48:50.239 --> 00:48:54.639
And so where I go with this is this is where creatine comes in, right?
00:48:54.800 --> 00:48:58.400
Creatine can move the needle from neutral to more flourishing.
00:48:58.719 --> 00:49:03.280
Choline can move the needle from more neutral to more flourishing.
00:49:03.519 --> 00:49:04.079
You see?
00:49:04.320 --> 00:49:12.159
So these are important things that we need to know in supplement formulation because supplements are going to be now have the whole gamut.
00:49:12.480 --> 00:49:20.159
We're gonna deal with a really diseased population over here, but we're also gonna be taking some supplements to encourage flourishing.
00:49:20.320 --> 00:49:24.960
Because it's actually people suggest that you can do this without supplements now.
00:49:25.199 --> 00:49:28.639
And I actually don't know if I agree with that anymore.
00:49:28.800 --> 00:49:43.760
I used to, but I don't know if I do because I wonder if the environment is becoming so toxic, it's very difficult for us to stay resilient and be in consistent, flourishing homeostasis for a long period of time.
00:49:43.920 --> 00:49:52.559
I actually think that supplements help to give you um uh a little bit of advantages over time.
00:49:52.719 --> 00:49:55.199
They're like micros that stack up, right?
00:49:55.360 --> 00:50:00.880
One plus one plus one plus one ends up being ten as opposed to just five, six, or seven.
00:50:02.880 --> 00:50:09.280
Um, babe, I don't know if you want to address this, but I I have to raise it because I'm a journalist.
00:50:10.239 --> 00:50:12.960
Not an award-winning journalist, just like a regular run-of-the-mill.
00:50:13.039 --> 00:50:17.599
But have you been approached by other people to do formulations outside of the health first?
00:50:18.639 --> 00:50:23.840
I do uh formulate, but on the DL, on the down low.
00:50:23.920 --> 00:50:31.599
For um, I I generally sign non-disclosure agreements that I I I'm asked not to talk about it.
00:50:31.760 --> 00:50:39.199
So uh, but yes, I definitely do that, and I definitely have done it for brands that every single person who's listening to this would be familiar with.
00:50:39.440 --> 00:50:43.519
Health First Network is the one I talk about openly, the other ones I don't talk about openly.
00:50:43.599 --> 00:50:46.239
That's the nature of the relationship that I have with the companies.
00:50:46.400 --> 00:50:47.440
But thanks for asking that.
00:50:47.519 --> 00:50:49.280
So, yes, I definitely do that.
00:50:49.679 --> 00:50:55.280
And and in all honesty, it's none of my business, but I uh again being a hard.
00:50:55.519 --> 00:51:03.360
No, I appreciate I appreciate the ask because if there's someone out there that that that you know might want to ask me some questions, send me a message.
00:51:03.440 --> 00:51:05.119
I'm happy to discuss it with you.
00:51:05.280 --> 00:51:10.000
You know, uh one of the companies that I'm working with right now, they're uh they're down in California.
00:51:10.400 --> 00:51:14.880
And what they're doing is they're looking at the biophysics of the gut barrier.
00:51:15.119 --> 00:51:20.239
They have a product actually that looks like it's gonna help with um something to do with that.
00:51:20.320 --> 00:51:36.320
They're not a supplement company, they're more like a health tech company, but they need people like me who have that chemistry, biology, naturopathy background, but then I also read, you know, one to ten research papers a day.
00:51:36.480 --> 00:51:41.280
I mean, I'm I'm kind of a nerd that way uh and proud of it, to be honest with you.
00:51:41.360 --> 00:51:43.679
I know that back in the day, Bruce, we're old enough.
00:51:43.760 --> 00:51:44.800
Could we have enough gray hair?
00:51:44.880 --> 00:51:46.960
Like nerd was a bad word way back in the day.
00:51:47.039 --> 00:51:53.519
You were socially isolated and had weird behaviors and didn't shower and all those things that kind of went along with it.
00:51:53.679 --> 00:52:02.480
Um, but my nerdism now, I think the the nerd thing is kind of like a badge of honor now where people are like, You're you're nerding out on this, and you're absolutely I am.
00:52:02.639 --> 00:52:08.320
I couldn't be happier to go into detail and to and to research this more and more and more.
00:52:08.719 --> 00:52:11.920
Yeah, you know, I I think this whole podcast is about nerding out.
00:52:12.320 --> 00:52:12.960
Yeah, totally.
00:52:13.119 --> 00:52:13.760
Of course it is.
00:52:14.000 --> 00:52:19.599
It feels like every guest we have, we we can get into the nitty-gritty and uh the real nuts and bolts.
00:52:19.920 --> 00:52:31.920
Um, Dave, we don't have to spend a lot of time on this next question, but given all you've done, all your experience, all your passion, and all the things you like to do, I'm not surprised you're involved with the regulatory movement.
00:52:32.079 --> 00:52:34.079
Um what role are you playing?
00:52:34.159 --> 00:52:36.079
Like how much are you going to Ottawa?
00:52:36.559 --> 00:52:37.519
Things like that.
00:52:37.840 --> 00:52:52.320
So I started to do regulatory work because um actually Davide from Health First Network wasn't able to make it uh because the Health First Network AGM was at the same time as uh they were doing Hill Day.
00:52:52.400 --> 00:52:54.559
The CHFA was doing Hill Day.
00:52:54.639 --> 00:52:56.639
So Davide asked me if I would go.
00:52:56.880 --> 00:52:58.320
I said 100%, I'll go.
00:52:58.400 --> 00:52:59.119
I drove up there.
00:52:59.199 --> 00:53:03.760
I usually drive up to Ottawa so I can listen to like six hours of podcasts because I'm about six hours away.
00:53:03.920 --> 00:53:07.039
So I drive up and drive back this podcast time.
00:53:07.119 --> 00:53:14.400
And I started to do that uh with Jules and Aaron and Sonia um and uh and Lindsay and the team up there in Ottawa.
00:53:14.639 --> 00:53:19.679
And so yeah, we uh so I met with my own personal MP when we were doing Save Our Supplements.
00:53:19.840 --> 00:53:26.239
I've been up to Ottawa for um a number of different times uh to do uh lobbying work.
00:53:26.559 --> 00:53:29.119
And um yeah, I do it every year.
00:53:29.280 --> 00:53:30.639
I'll go again this year.
00:53:30.800 --> 00:53:34.880
Uh I did some lobbying actually for the Canada Organic Trade Association too.
00:53:35.039 --> 00:53:39.599
I did a talk last year for them on World Soil Day on the importance of soil.
00:53:39.760 --> 00:53:42.079
Um I helped them put a framework together.
00:53:42.159 --> 00:53:45.440
This is for the CODA, so Canada Organic Trade Association.
00:53:45.679 --> 00:53:54.320
They uh consulted me on um hydroponics and how hydroponics needs to interface with an organic uh certification.
00:53:54.559 --> 00:54:02.960
And it turns out that I believe, personally, I believe that organic should be terrestrial crops, it should not be aquaculture.
00:54:03.119 --> 00:54:05.599
Aquaculture should be captured under something else.
00:54:05.840 --> 00:54:11.519
Soil is too important to remove from the uh ecosystem of a plant.
00:54:11.760 --> 00:54:15.440
So uh, and that's kind of the way that I that I framed it with them.
00:54:16.000 --> 00:54:19.280
Um and so yeah, and you know what I found out?
00:54:19.519 --> 00:54:23.599
I found out that we have to lobby.
00:54:23.920 --> 00:54:26.079
People don't know what they don't know.
00:54:26.400 --> 00:54:35.760
And when you go and you meet with MPs in Ottawa, um they have two sides to them.
00:54:36.000 --> 00:54:44.480
Number one, they have to tow the party line, but at the same time, like at least half of them have a supplement story.
00:54:44.719 --> 00:54:45.920
Like, I'm not even kidding.
00:54:46.079 --> 00:54:54.559
I had someone, and I won't mention any names, but I was in this person's office, and um this person cried.
00:54:55.280 --> 00:55:05.360
They cried because of how a supplement had saved their life when nothing else worked when they were 15.
00:55:07.199 --> 00:55:13.599
And so, you know, when you when you're in that moment, you realize this is why I'm doing this.
00:55:13.840 --> 00:55:20.480
I'm advocating because all of my customers need to be able to have access to things that matter to them.
00:55:20.639 --> 00:55:30.800
And the people that are making the decisions in Ottawa need to understand that in this industry, we're really serious about quality control, regulation.
00:55:30.960 --> 00:55:33.039
We don't mind any of these things, right?
00:55:33.199 --> 00:55:35.280
We don't, we don't mind these things.
00:55:35.519 --> 00:55:41.920
But what we do mind is when it's done without stakeholder involvement or consultation.
00:55:42.400 --> 00:55:44.320
And that's why we went to Ottawa.
00:55:44.400 --> 00:55:50.559
We want to be consulted, we want to be involved in this because we see it on a regular basis.
00:55:51.199 --> 00:55:53.199
So um, that's why I go.
00:55:53.280 --> 00:55:57.599
It's why I meet with people like Adam Gibson, you know, and uh and and people like that.
00:55:57.760 --> 00:56:01.280
We have good conversations about the state of the network.
00:56:01.440 --> 00:56:12.079
And if I'm just gonna do one quick pause and just tell anyone, anyone that's listening, you should read Adam's white paper on curcumin and hepatotoxicity, okay?
00:56:12.239 --> 00:56:15.599
Because that's something that there's some threats coming now, right?
00:56:15.679 --> 00:56:17.119
You see this in other countries.
00:56:17.280 --> 00:56:20.960
We're Australia's limited B6 now that might be coming to Canada.
00:56:21.119 --> 00:56:24.400
We have to lobby to make sure these things don't happen.
00:56:24.480 --> 00:56:25.679
I don't want those restrictions.
00:56:25.760 --> 00:56:27.199
We can't restrict turmeric.
00:56:27.440 --> 00:56:29.039
We can't restrict curcumin.
00:56:29.119 --> 00:56:32.239
People with hepatotoxicity ended up having a genetic issue.
00:56:32.480 --> 00:56:34.000
Adam put that in the paper.
00:56:34.159 --> 00:56:34.800
It's there.
00:56:35.039 --> 00:56:36.960
So that's why we have to go lobby.
00:56:37.039 --> 00:56:39.440
We have to tell the MPs things they don't know.
00:56:39.599 --> 00:56:48.800
Regardless if they're towing party lines, you have to appeal to the humanity, the wellness, the burden of disease on our country.
00:56:49.039 --> 00:56:50.480
Need we can help with that.
00:56:50.559 --> 00:56:54.079
We're not going to fix everything, but we can at least help with it.
00:56:55.360 --> 00:56:56.000
Yeah.
00:56:56.320 --> 00:56:57.360
No, that's good, Dave.
00:56:57.440 --> 00:56:58.639
I'm glad you're involved.
00:56:58.880 --> 00:57:02.639
Um, I hey the next little part of the of the program.
00:57:03.119 --> 00:57:04.880
I I'm going to put the spotlight on you.
00:57:04.960 --> 00:57:11.119
I'm sorry to do this, but um, off the top of the show, I said we're going to be talking to the award-winning Dave Nelson.
00:57:11.199 --> 00:57:19.519
And uh, I was in Whistler in May when um you were awarded the Health First Network Brock Elliott Solid as a rock award.
00:57:19.599 --> 00:57:22.480
Uh, that was earlier this year at the Health First AGM.
00:57:22.719 --> 00:57:25.519
Uh, congratulations on on that award.
00:57:25.840 --> 00:57:26.880
Thank you, Bruce.
00:57:27.119 --> 00:57:32.159
I will uh just let the listeners know that you have also won this award.
00:57:33.039 --> 00:57:37.119
Well, when you have a podcast and you I was there, Bruce.
00:57:37.199 --> 00:57:38.960
I clapped for you when you got that award.
00:57:39.039 --> 00:57:40.559
I remember that night, man.
00:57:41.280 --> 00:57:42.559
Yeah, that was good.
00:57:42.639 --> 00:57:46.159
Well, when when you have your podcast, you can have me on and we'll talk about that.
00:57:46.239 --> 00:57:46.559
Perfect.
00:57:47.039 --> 00:57:53.280
As of right now, um, I thought it was unbelievably perfect that you won that award.
00:57:53.440 --> 00:58:04.320
Um, you know, the award goes to someone who's reliable, dependable, steady, a leader, knowledgeable, committed to something bigger than themselves, uh, someone the entire Health First community can lean on.
00:58:04.480 --> 00:58:07.519
Uh, Dave, you've done so much for the Health First and the industry.
00:58:07.679 --> 00:58:15.519
As I said, advocacy, sharing your knowledge, willingness to share everything you know, uh, education, formulation, industry support.
00:58:15.599 --> 00:58:16.800
It just goes on and on.
00:58:17.039 --> 00:58:23.280
So um, I I was so happy for you because you're uh you don't love attention.
00:58:23.360 --> 00:58:25.920
You don't do any of this stuff for attention.
00:58:26.159 --> 00:58:31.360
You I mean, it seems to me as the years go on, you get buried deeper and deeper in the industry.
00:58:31.440 --> 00:58:36.239
And it was nice for someone to reach in and pull you out like a rutabaga and say, hey, look at this guy.
00:58:36.480 --> 00:58:38.880
Um I I just thought it was wonderful.
00:58:39.039 --> 00:58:53.519
And it gave me a couple moments, if you don't mind, to to talk a little bit about Brock Elliott, who um No, I I would love you to do that, Bruce, because one of the things that I think is super important is we need to know where we came from in this industry.
00:58:53.840 --> 00:58:58.880
We need to know the history because it's very difficult to figure out where you're going unless you know where you came from.
00:58:59.039 --> 00:59:07.840
And it provides context to what the ethos, the almost spiritual nature of what we're doing, what is that?
00:59:08.079 --> 00:59:13.599
Because it's not merely about profit, it's about actually making the world a better place.
00:59:14.960 --> 00:59:17.039
Yeah, no, I I agree with you.
00:59:17.199 --> 00:59:21.840
Um, it was it was this year, Mark's 26 years since Brock passed away.
00:59:21.920 --> 00:59:22.719
He was pretty young.
00:59:22.800 --> 00:59:24.800
I think Brock was in his early 50s.
00:59:25.039 --> 00:59:29.119
He uh owned a health food store in uh Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
00:59:29.360 --> 00:59:32.480
Um, he was the chair of the Canadian Health Food Association.
00:59:32.639 --> 00:59:40.960
Again, I mean, the Sunflower Natural Food Store in Antigonish is a tiny little store in a tiny little town in a in a little province.
00:59:41.119 --> 00:59:44.400
And Brock was like a towering figure.
00:59:44.559 --> 00:59:50.880
Um, he was one of the founders of the United Health Merchants, which we now call the Health First Network.
00:59:51.119 --> 00:59:56.559
Um, the thing that most impressed me about Brock, I mean, he was a great guy and he was really kind.
00:59:56.639 --> 01:00:02.559
And uh, we had a couple of business dealings, and uh he was always first class, he treated everyone so well.
01:00:02.719 --> 01:00:05.599
Uh, he was a powerful guy, but he was so kind.
01:00:05.920 --> 01:00:20.719
Um, when Brock passed away, I went down to Anti-Ganesh for his service, and I was absolutely floored by the turnout of the people in his community and hearing the people come up and speak about Brock and what he meant to the community.
01:00:20.880 --> 01:00:34.559
And this was a man who owned a local health food store, but he was so integral to his community and also our community as a as an incredibly active member of the CHFA and a founder of Health First.
01:00:34.639 --> 01:00:38.639
I mean, um one other story I have to tell you.
01:00:38.800 --> 01:00:44.159
I was uh I was playing, you know, in the church baseball league years ago, and I had on a St.
01:00:44.320 --> 01:00:50.239
Francis Xavier t-shirt, which I got in Antiganish when uh I went to visit Brock.
01:00:50.320 --> 01:00:51.599
And um, I had this St.
01:00:51.840 --> 01:00:53.519
FX shirt on at baseball.
01:00:53.679 --> 01:00:55.599
And the woman said, Did you go to St.
01:00:55.840 --> 01:00:56.320
FX?
01:00:56.480 --> 01:00:58.239
I said, No, no, I didn't.
01:00:58.480 --> 01:00:58.880
I didn't.
01:00:58.960 --> 01:00:59.360
Did you?
01:00:59.440 --> 01:01:00.320
She goes, Yeah, I did.
01:01:00.400 --> 01:01:00.639
I did.
01:01:00.719 --> 01:01:02.719
She goes, Well, where did you why do you have the shirt on?
01:01:02.800 --> 01:01:08.079
I said, Well, I have a friend down there who owns a store in town, um, Brock Elliott.
01:01:08.159 --> 01:01:09.360
She goes, You know Brock?
01:01:10.400 --> 01:01:11.039
Wow, yeah.
01:01:11.199 --> 01:01:17.760
I said, Yeah, I I mean, I was this woman just been a student at the university and moved back to Toronto.
01:01:18.000 --> 01:01:18.400
Wow.
01:01:18.639 --> 01:01:19.760
And I said, You know Brock?
01:01:19.920 --> 01:01:21.679
She goes, Everybody knows Brock.
01:01:22.079 --> 01:01:25.199
And um, and that that said a lot about him.
01:01:25.440 --> 01:01:43.679
So this this award named for him is so perfect because of all that he meant to our industry, to his community, which as um as people in the industry, you sometimes forget that you know, especially in the retail side, everybody is so important in their community, the role they uh they play.
01:01:43.840 --> 01:01:52.800
So uh when you were when you were announced as a winner, I was you know overjoyed and happy knowing you know how you do things sort of in the down low, as you said earlier.
01:01:52.880 --> 01:01:59.119
And uh I mean that must have kind of blown your mind to being because you were surprised.
01:01:59.519 --> 01:02:05.119
I I was really surprised because um I'll be honest.
01:02:07.519 --> 01:02:23.119
You know, maybe I don't I figured I needed a few more years in the industry to to have something like that bestowed upon you um by a group of peers.
01:02:23.519 --> 01:02:28.159
So I I I deeply respected that.
01:02:28.480 --> 01:02:36.639
The thing about getting the award, Brock, that that is interesting is it just supercharges me to continue to work hard for people.
01:02:37.039 --> 01:02:40.400
You know, I do this for so many different reasons.
01:02:40.639 --> 01:02:42.320
My children are one of them.
01:02:42.400 --> 01:02:54.000
I want them to grow up in a world uh that has uh stuff that they can use so that they can be healthy and happy and connected, right?
01:02:54.159 --> 01:02:58.000
Like and if it if not us, then who's gonna do it?
01:02:58.639 --> 01:03:00.480
If it isn't us, who who's gonna do it?
01:03:01.119 --> 01:03:18.719
So somebody has to step up to the plate and do so with enthusiasm, do so with credibility, uh, do so with integrity, and and lead in a way that we all should be pursuing things with truth, with integrity, with alignment, with connection.
01:03:18.960 --> 01:03:21.039
You know, those are the reasons that we do it.
01:03:21.119 --> 01:03:22.400
It doesn't have to be for attention.
01:03:22.480 --> 01:03:23.599
I don't want attention.
01:03:23.760 --> 01:03:31.440
I want I want attention when it's necessary to to to propagate a message, okay?
01:03:32.400 --> 01:03:34.719
If you don't have attention, then the message doesn't get out.
01:03:36.960 --> 01:03:42.639
But really, what needs attention is the planetary health.
01:03:42.719 --> 01:03:44.000
That that's what needs attention.
01:03:44.320 --> 01:03:46.000
What needs attention is loneliness.
01:03:46.079 --> 01:03:49.679
What needs attention is the the food supply, conscious food systems.
01:03:49.840 --> 01:03:56.800
What needs attention is things like herbs that are potentially endangered.
01:03:57.440 --> 01:03:59.679
What does that mean with our industry?
01:03:59.760 --> 01:04:07.360
You know, there's a lot of things that we need to consider in our industry, and so that's that's why I do what I do.
01:04:07.519 --> 01:04:15.039
It's just I I I you know, Bruce, a lot of people have inspired me in my life, right?
01:04:15.280 --> 01:04:23.280
And I want to do the same for other people because uh we all need each other to get the work done.
01:04:23.519 --> 01:04:39.119
If if the save our supplements campaign with the CHFA is any indication of the power of working together, you got to remember they received a million postcards from Canadians in Ottawa about Save Our Supplements.
01:04:39.280 --> 01:04:43.440
It was the biggest postcard campaign in the history of Canada.
01:04:44.400 --> 01:04:44.800
Right?
01:04:45.039 --> 01:04:52.000
So we need to we need to continue to work hard for our fellow Canadians because our fellow Canadians are working hard for us.
01:04:52.079 --> 01:04:56.880
They're just in other industries, they're making things, they're doing things, they're farming things, right?
01:04:57.039 --> 01:05:04.639
So when those farmers come in, when those shift workers come in from Toyota who are in Woodstock, like, I want to make sure I service them.
01:05:04.719 --> 01:05:10.000
They have families, they have people they have to go home and be responsible for, responsible to.
01:05:10.239 --> 01:05:15.360
They need to be healthy, they can't take time off necessarily because you know, times are tight.
01:05:15.519 --> 01:05:21.039
So we all have to step up to the plate and get our elbows dirty and working together.
01:05:21.199 --> 01:05:25.280
It's the togetherness in the community that really drives me too for this.
01:05:26.239 --> 01:05:26.719
Yeah.
01:05:26.960 --> 01:05:40.800
In fact, Dave, thank you for the intro, though, because my next uh question for you is something I I think you said to me once about the future of retail has to be about community, but you also added community is everything.
01:05:41.039 --> 01:05:45.199
Why don't we talk a little about community, your definition and what it means to you?
01:05:45.440 --> 01:05:45.840
Sure.
01:05:46.000 --> 01:05:48.559
I'd love to break down the word community first.
01:05:49.039 --> 01:05:50.880
Commune and unity.
01:05:52.000 --> 01:05:53.840
You're in commune, right?
01:05:54.000 --> 01:05:58.559
A bunch of people together, maybe doing different jobs, but you're in unity.
01:05:58.639 --> 01:05:59.760
That that's it, that's a town.
01:06:00.159 --> 01:06:00.559
That's a city.
01:06:00.639 --> 01:06:01.519
That's a whatever.
01:06:01.679 --> 01:06:03.360
You're all in this community.
01:06:03.519 --> 01:06:08.400
You're doing different things, but you're actually all doing the same thing in a sense, right?
01:06:08.719 --> 01:06:08.960
Yeah.
01:06:09.119 --> 01:06:13.280
So when we need hubs that people can plug into.
01:06:13.360 --> 01:06:21.119
So the hubs are coffee shops, recreational facilities, gyms, churches, spiritual venues, retail health food stores.
01:06:21.360 --> 01:06:29.280
I'm amazed actually at how many people come in to a retail environment and and treat it like cheers.
01:06:29.440 --> 01:06:38.400
I feel sometimes like I'm a bartender with a bunch of supplements there, and people are coming in to order a you know a drink, which might be a tonic or what I, you know, whatever.
01:06:38.639 --> 01:06:40.880
And and you're just listening to their problems.
01:06:40.960 --> 01:06:44.000
You're listening to their daily lives.
01:06:44.159 --> 01:06:46.000
I know people's kids.
01:06:46.400 --> 01:06:49.840
I I know when they get married, when people die.
01:06:50.000 --> 01:07:01.039
I know, you know, when people get unfortunate diagnoses and they come in and you know that they're they're gonna be struggling and they're gonna be suffering.
01:07:01.679 --> 01:07:03.840
You gotta show up for people, you know.
01:07:03.920 --> 01:07:05.440
So that that's part of the community.
01:07:05.519 --> 01:07:16.559
I'm just so we can't the future is not gonna be as good if we don't dedicate time to community.
01:07:19.039 --> 01:07:29.440
Yeah, and and as I touched on earlier, you know, in my twisted mind, I get to talk to you and I get to talk to people on the west coast, and I get to talk to people down east.
01:07:29.679 --> 01:07:31.280
And to me, that's my community.
01:07:31.440 --> 01:07:34.559
It's it's spread from from coast to coast.
01:07:34.719 --> 01:07:44.880
And uh whether it's people on the vendor side or the retail side, and and you know, you probably know I've traveled the country and visited, I don't know how many stores, but that's my community in this industry.
01:07:44.960 --> 01:07:46.960
But you you have a double community, Dave.
01:07:47.039 --> 01:07:57.519
You know, you're working, you're working in the same community as me, more or less coast to coast, but you've got these people coming in to see you every day, and and they have questions and they have concerns.
01:07:57.599 --> 01:07:59.599
And uh well, you know what, Bruce?
01:07:59.760 --> 01:08:11.280
That's a really good point that you make there, and I'll drill down on that just a little bit, because I think that it's really important that we understand that belly to belly and eyeball to eyeball still really, really, really matters.
01:08:11.360 --> 01:08:18.319
And not only does it still really, really matter, I think it actually matters more in the age of AI than it ever has in history.
01:08:18.880 --> 01:08:24.239
And so being present and local is is very, very important.
01:08:24.399 --> 01:08:30.159
But at the same time, community is not geographically bound, right?
01:08:30.479 --> 01:08:36.479
It can be bound by ideology, it can be bound by culture, it can be bound by your pursuit.
01:08:36.720 --> 01:08:40.880
And so that's important to cultivate community wherever you go.
01:08:40.960 --> 01:08:42.319
And really, what is community?
01:08:42.479 --> 01:08:43.760
What is community?
01:08:44.079 --> 01:08:47.119
You have an offering that you're willing to bring to the table.
01:08:47.279 --> 01:08:51.920
You're a blacksmith, or you're you're great with native.
01:08:52.079 --> 01:08:54.800
Um, you know, you mentioned Shannon Gentle before.
01:08:54.880 --> 01:08:57.760
Shannon is one of my favorite reps of all time.
01:08:57.920 --> 01:09:00.079
I love Shannon, she's amazing.
01:09:00.319 --> 01:09:08.159
And uh little known secret about her is she does native habitat restoration with indigenous plants to like southwestern Ontario.
01:09:08.399 --> 01:09:17.760
So you get you talk to people, they have all these cool hobbies in the background that align already with what they're already doing in their in their work life.
01:09:18.000 --> 01:09:26.399
And so yeah, I I I think that those things are important, and we have to go and have these multiple communities in many different places, you know.
01:09:26.560 --> 01:09:29.199
Um those things are really important.
01:09:29.279 --> 01:09:31.279
I'm just I'm big on community.
01:09:31.920 --> 01:09:40.000
No, well, you kind of said it, and I and I wrote it down when you said it to me, you know, community is everything, and where would we be without community?
01:09:40.239 --> 01:09:50.800
And uh Dave, I know we don't have a ton of time left, so I um I thought I might just ask you about uh something you and I talked about recently.
01:09:50.960 --> 01:09:57.439
And um do we love each other enough and are we caring about each other enough in this crazy world?
01:09:57.600 --> 01:09:58.239
Yeah.
01:09:58.800 --> 01:10:05.039
Um you know the answer is no.
01:10:05.199 --> 01:10:10.159
I I don't think that we love each other enough, and no, I don't think we're caring about each other enough.
01:10:10.399 --> 01:10:14.319
However, I think that that's actually changing.
01:10:14.720 --> 01:10:31.439
And I think what happens is that uh uh even in Canada, external forces are having Canadians refactor what they find valuable and what they want to invest in and connect with.
01:10:31.920 --> 01:10:41.039
And so we're developing Canadian community again due to external pressure, and I think that that's really important.
01:10:41.600 --> 01:10:56.000
What also is important is that one of the side effects of this is the love that my customers and the care that my customers are bringing to my store.
01:10:56.159 --> 01:10:58.880
And do you know want to know what that love and that care is?
01:10:59.199 --> 01:11:08.239
Buying local, not buying it through a particular platform, coming in and having the conversation, spending the extra.
01:11:08.560 --> 01:11:13.039
I I I worked on Saturday, so I had a lady in there and she's like, I used to buy this on Amazon.
01:11:13.119 --> 01:11:17.119
You're two dollars cheap, you're two dollars more expensive, but I'm paying the extra two dollars.
01:11:17.359 --> 01:11:19.279
I said, Oh, that's really nice to be.
01:11:19.600 --> 01:11:22.399
She said, I want you around in the future.
01:11:23.199 --> 01:11:24.399
Like our store.
01:11:24.640 --> 01:11:28.399
I want you guys to be here, so I need to invest in you.
01:11:28.880 --> 01:11:33.520
So customers are to they're caring for us, and we're caring for them.
01:11:33.680 --> 01:11:43.760
They're bringing the resources in, which is money uh money, and spending it in our store so that we can continue to do what we do, right?
01:11:44.239 --> 01:11:46.000
So it's it's bi-directional.
01:11:46.079 --> 01:11:54.000
The customers and us, we have this relationship because entrepreneurism in the future, Bruce, isn't about just making money.
01:11:54.079 --> 01:11:55.920
It's actually a triple bottom line.
01:11:56.000 --> 01:12:00.000
And the triple bottom line is your company has to make money, right?
01:12:00.159 --> 01:12:02.800
Like the company has to be profitable at some level.
01:12:03.039 --> 01:12:07.840
Number two, your customer has to get a result, right?
01:12:08.000 --> 01:12:11.600
Like the product is to do something beneficial for the customer.
01:12:11.840 --> 01:12:18.239
And number three, we need to make sure that we have the earth in mind with anything we do.
01:12:18.880 --> 01:12:32.720
So we can't, you know, unilaterally take from nature in order to make sure the company's profitable without reinvesting anything back into the resource we've extracted.
01:12:32.960 --> 01:12:34.319
And we see this a lot.
01:12:34.479 --> 01:12:42.159
So I think our industry has actually a lot of opportunities to not greenwash at all.
01:12:42.319 --> 01:12:45.119
I don't want to greenwash, but actually do things right.
01:12:45.199 --> 01:12:46.800
I'll give you a good example of this, okay?
01:12:46.960 --> 01:12:48.560
Full circle, because you mentioned St.
01:12:48.640 --> 01:12:49.039
Francis.
01:12:49.199 --> 01:12:49.680
Love St.
01:12:49.760 --> 01:12:51.520
Francis, love Paul and Caitlin.
01:12:51.840 --> 01:12:55.119
And I was just up there with the CHFA uh executive.
01:12:55.279 --> 01:13:00.399
So I went up there with Aaron, with uh with Sonia, with Jules, and with Lindsay.
01:13:00.560 --> 01:13:02.000
And we got a tour of St.
01:13:02.159 --> 01:13:08.000
Francis, their new um, their new facility, uh, the fields, the farms, and everything.
01:13:08.079 --> 01:13:13.920
And you stand there, Bruce, and you feel the nature.
01:13:14.079 --> 01:13:17.680
It it's it's around, it's around you, it's encircling you.
01:13:17.920 --> 01:13:31.359
And you're there with people of like mind in community with with Paul and Caitlin and an intergenerational farm and commitment to making high-quality products and taking no shortcuts.
01:13:32.640 --> 01:13:44.720
And you realize that you're in the right place, you're aligning with the right people, that if we all can do something like this, Canada and the world will get better.
01:13:45.039 --> 01:13:48.319
We will cultivate these relationships and build community.
01:13:48.479 --> 01:13:56.399
The earth will like their fields are beautiful, all the insects everywhere, all the flowers everywhere, even though they're growing their herbs.
01:13:56.560 --> 01:14:00.479
You know, like it's just amazing to go to the mullen over there and you can just see.
01:14:00.560 --> 01:14:05.119
You know how they you know the amazing thing is, like what they do with their mullen.
01:14:06.079 --> 01:14:17.439
Their mullen comes from fire-ravaged forests where mullen grows very rapidly post-fire, and they have people that go wild harvest that mullen, and that's what goes in their tinctures.
01:14:18.479 --> 01:14:19.920
It's incredible.
01:14:20.159 --> 01:14:29.359
So you get this full circle of the ecosystem of the community and all that other stuff, and we just need to continue to encourage one another to do great work.
01:14:29.680 --> 01:14:31.760
Yeah, they're great people.
01:14:32.000 --> 01:14:32.880
They're fantastic.
01:14:34.239 --> 01:14:36.079
Yeah, salt of the earth, you know.
01:14:36.319 --> 01:14:41.840
Yeah, I've been up a few times to their place, and uh yeah, it's it's good to see that passion, right?
01:14:41.920 --> 01:14:48.159
Uh, you know, Paul's parents started the business, and then and for him and Caitlin to take it over, and they're they're totally rocking it.
01:14:48.319 --> 01:14:51.600
You know what, Dave, sadly, I guess we're just about out of time.
01:14:51.680 --> 01:14:54.079
I'm sorry to say that, but oh, that's so Bruce.
01:14:54.159 --> 01:14:59.039
We can always do another one at some other point when something other when something pops up that's interesting.
01:14:59.359 --> 01:15:00.319
No, I I agree.
01:15:00.479 --> 01:15:04.239
I would love to do this with you again, only this time you host and you ask me questions.
01:15:04.399 --> 01:15:05.039
Yeah, I'd love that.
01:15:05.119 --> 01:15:05.600
That'd be great.
01:15:05.760 --> 01:15:08.560
I don't I don't really have any knowledge, so it'll be a pretty empty show.
01:15:08.640 --> 01:15:10.319
It'll be like you can get some instruments out.
01:15:10.399 --> 01:15:11.279
Maybe we can, you know.
01:15:11.439 --> 01:15:13.279
I've seen you play, you're great.
01:15:13.680 --> 01:15:16.960
I um I was almost brought my harmonica today, but I didn't.
01:15:17.359 --> 01:15:18.960
Oh, cool, that would have been nice.
01:15:19.119 --> 01:15:22.319
Well, Dave, we uh we talked about so many things.
01:15:22.399 --> 01:15:24.000
I really appreciate you shedding lights.
01:15:24.159 --> 01:15:27.039
I I feel like we could have honestly done this for eight hours.
01:15:27.359 --> 01:15:28.239
Yeah, absolutely.
01:15:28.479 --> 01:15:41.039
But you know, Bruce, having good conversation and to just to recap, you know, we talked about community, we talked about planetary health, we talked about being curious, we talked about being kind, caring, and loving.
01:15:41.279 --> 01:15:47.279
If anyone takes anything away from what we just talked about, those are the six qualities I think that are really, really important.
01:15:47.439 --> 01:15:56.720
If we can continue to cultivate those things in this industry and the world that, you know, in our everyday community relationships, things will get better.
01:15:57.359 --> 01:15:59.279
Beautiful, beautiful ending, Dave.
01:15:59.439 --> 01:16:02.319
Um, I just want to thank Dave Nelson for joining me today.
01:16:02.479 --> 01:16:06.000
I'm sorry, the award-winning Dave Nelson from Inside You.
01:16:06.239 --> 01:16:08.560
Um, we talked about so many great things today.
01:16:08.640 --> 01:16:10.640
And Dave, we have to do this again one day.
01:16:10.720 --> 01:16:11.520
That would be great.
01:16:11.760 --> 01:16:12.640
Thank you, Bruce.
01:16:12.880 --> 01:16:19.840
I I'm just gonna sign off by thanking the podcast team, Hannah, who uh does a great job getting the podcast across all platforms.
01:16:20.000 --> 01:16:23.680
Me Shak does a great job editing everything and put getting it in shape.
01:16:23.840 --> 01:16:25.600
Lori Ingram, Dave, who you know well.
01:16:26.239 --> 01:16:26.479
I do.
01:16:26.720 --> 01:16:27.680
Lori's awesome.
01:16:28.239 --> 01:16:33.359
She is awesome, she's a great teammate, and she's a person that brings on all our great guests like you.
01:16:33.439 --> 01:16:36.560
In fact, I think it was Lori's idea to bring you on, Dave.
01:16:36.640 --> 01:16:37.359
Not that we wouldn't have.
01:16:37.760 --> 01:16:38.399
That's awesome.
01:16:38.640 --> 01:16:43.039
But uh, and of course, our producer Rajikara, who's the guy that brings it all together.
01:16:43.199 --> 01:16:47.439
Uh, thanks to our sponsors, Pravita, Camprep, CHFA, and Prairie Naturals.
01:16:47.520 --> 01:16:49.119
We appreciate your support so much.
01:16:49.279 --> 01:16:51.039
Thanks to everyone who tunes in.
01:16:51.199 --> 01:16:55.680
And please share this podcast with everyone you know, especially those in our retail community.
01:16:55.840 --> 01:16:59.840
We just had a great session with Dave, who's living the retail experience every day.
01:16:59.920 --> 01:17:03.840
He's living it at different angles than some people, but it's it's all helping.
01:17:04.079 --> 01:17:07.119
Um, so please share this out, especially to the retailers.
01:17:07.279 --> 01:17:10.720
And until next time, thanks for joining me on in conversation with