That Gaby Roslin Podcast: Reasons To Be Joyful - Thomas Hal Robson-Kanu

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

In this episode Gaby chats with professional footballer and entrepreneur, Thomas Hal Robson-Kanu. He talks about his unique childhood and what led him into a career in football. He tells Gaby about how his business The Turmeric Co. began in the family kitchen with his father. He talks passionately about mental health within professional football and the importance of healthy diet habits for children. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

And welcome to that Gabby Roslin podcast, part of the A-Cast Creator Network. My guest this week is Thomas Howe Robson Canoo. Now, if you're thinking to yourself, I know that name. Well, you do because he was an international footballer. He played for Wales. He's such an amazing guy. He's also an entrepreneur. He has the turmeric company where you could take your turmeric shots every single day.

And his outlook on life is incredible. He keeps talking about how we are living in the moment and we shouldn't judge and how we are just a being. And that's how he looks at himself. Really incredible to sit and spend time with him. So I hope you enjoy this. Don't forget, you can keep up to date by following and subscribing please to the podcast where a new episode is released every Monday. Leave us a rating on the Apple Podcast app. And whilst you're there, why not leave us a review?

We love to hear your thoughts. Now, on with the show. What a joy. And you're talking to the non-football, Gabby. People do get me and Gabby Logan confused. I know nothing about football. So we're talking about you. How's that?

Sounds good, Gabi. Sounds good. So actually, we will start with football, though, because when I told my husband that you're coming on the podcast, he just went, have you any idea what a brilliant footballer he is? And I said, well, yes, 2016. Even I got that for Wales. I mean, so in your head, because we're going to talk about your business,

in your head, are you a footballer? Is that the first thing that you think of or are you a businessman now? I actually don't, in my head, I just think I'm sort of a being. I don't actually think of, I don't identify with being a footballer, being an entrepreneur, being a business owner. You know, I don't particularly think like that. And that's probably because of my experiences and, you know, how I've grown up, etc and realizing that you know it's not good to identify with something that then you let define you

if that makes sense that's interesting yeah so so in my head what do i think of myself i don't i think myself as a being you know i'm experiencing the life that i'm living and you know trying to give my best and whether that was in football the experiences that i had trying to forge a career having a career then going on to play over a decade at the top level of that profession. It was a massive privilege, but then being able to then step into the world of business and taking a business from zero to sort of multi-million pound business and then servicing consumers needs in terms of health through nutrition is then really empowering. And that's, you know, gives me a passion. And that's what I'm obviously doing currently. And so, yeah, I think everyone knows me in football and, you

know, Hal Robson Cano is, you know, obviously my name in the football world. My real name is actually Thomas. And, you know, Thomas is my first name. Hal's actually not even my name. It's a pet name of Henry. You know, on my birth certificate was Thomas Henry, Robson Canu. So my grandmother gave me a pet name of Hal. And so long story short, you know, it was King Henry's pet name.

So anyway, and that just happened to stick in the football world. And yeah, I obviously had a fantastic career, which I'm really, really grateful about. It's funny because to me, because I've met you through the turmeric company, that's who you were. So the football came second. That's why I was asking because,

and yet there's a producer that I work with who, when he met you when you came into Virgin, I mean, he couldn't speak because he's got posters of you on his walls. He's a Welsh lad. And he has t-shirts with your face. on and your number and so for him that's what defined you so it's interesting that you see yourself as like you say as just a being and that you're not defined by any labels that's incredible that's very rare you know very rare yeah yeah i i 100% agree and you know talking about the world of football

it's a hyper pressurized environment where there is so much attention and so much demand in in a sense where you have to win games. So every time you walk over the white line, you're being judged, you're being, there's an opinion. Everyone has an opinion in football. Oh, I hate that. Yeah, so this, so that level of pressure,

particularly in the world of football, does create a lot of emotions and feelings, which players can't actually communicate to. So what that then creates is a system and an environment where there is, a lot of, well, systemic mental health issues. And that's, and it's rife in football and it's not spoken about because when you're in football and if you were as a player feeling nervous about a game upcoming. And if you speak to the majority of players, you'd say for big games, how do you feel?

Are you looking forward to the game on the weekend? Yeah, yeah, really looking forward to it. But how do you feel? They would say, I feel nervous. I feel anxious. I'm worried. I'm scared. I feel fear.

But if they were to communicate that with the manager, with the coach, even with their teammates, it would be seen as weakness. Oh, see that. It would be seen as insecurity. Yeah, but it's not perceived as that because the infrastructure is coming from a legacy infrastructure of the bravado, macho, you know, testosterone-driven-driven world of competition. So the world of football in terms of the support that it offers the action. the players who are performing week in and week out doesn't actually have the correct infrastructure in place to support their needs truly. And so, yeah, I think going back to the original point of how I perceive myself is because

very early on I identified and felt the pressures involved in being an elite professional footballer from having to perform every single day without fail, having to perform on a weekend when you step over that white line, having millions upon millions of people have an opinion of you and that opinion in their eyes because they identify people with their roles and what their professions are, that then defined you. So if you actually let that external thought process and mechanism into your mind or in, you know, you allow that to penetrate your own being, then all of a sudden you're creating this downward spiral where you're, then influenced by the identity of which you have perceived yourself to be.

So it's like really, it's a real, you know, and so I was aware the pressures and experiencing that. And I very, you know, thankfully, unfortunately, I was able to then detach myself from that from a young age. And I was like, well, why? How were you able to do that? Because so many others, I've interviewed other celebrity footballers. Let's put it that way. So very, very well known, very big names over the years. And they've said similar to you, but they said that they got carried away. The fame, the money, the everything that came with that, you know, the love, the adoration, the criticism, the judgment, all the things you were saying, they got carried away and it got out of control. How did it not, you stop that?

That's amazing that you could do that at a young age. Yeah, I think me personally, I was fortunate in a sense where I read a lot when I was young. so I would always read books. So I was like a bit of a sponge. You know, at one point I was like reading a book every week, you know. And so I was able to absorb a lot of information, which was outside of the environment that I was in. Right. So I was in footballing environment.

As I said, competition, you know, male driven, masculinity, all of this, you know, bravado, utter, you know, rubbish. Yeah. So I then was absorbing. and digesting information outside of that. So, and the biggest book for me growing up, and I think I read this when I was 17, turning 18, was a book called Psycho- Cybernetics by Maxwell Waltz. And this book spoke about how your thoughts can influence ultimately the direction of your life.

And it sounds so simple. And it's like, okay, well, yeah, that's fine. Well, then why isn't everyone living the life that they love? and that they want to live if it was as simple as that. And the reason why is because it's not because you continually are influenced by your external environment. And what that means is if you wake up in the morning and this goes for 99.99% of the population, the world's population, you wake up in the morning and if you look outside

and out of the window you see that it's raining. Oh, it's raining today. And then you head out the door, close the door, into your car, you're driving to work, someone cuts you up. Oh, you're furious. And those, that emotional state for the majority of people sticks with them throughout the day. So then that then becomes a mood. That then becomes a personality.

That then personality then becomes that person's reality. So it's like I was able to sort of digest this book and it really taught me about how you can choose to or not choose to allow external events and external environments to impact how you then feel and how you think. And so that sort of put me on the path. And later down the line, it's sort of turned into what is now sort of known as epigenetics. And, you know, great. And epigenetics is, you know, science. It's been studied and researched extensively. And sort of the leader in this space now is someone called Joe Dispenser,

who is an incredible individual. Epigenetics. Epigenetics. So explain what that is. Yeah. So epigenetics is basically the, it's the methodology of realizing that what you think determines what you feel. What you feel determines what you think.

And then that cycle ultimately then will impact your emotional state to the point where if you, if most people will accept the science that if you're stressed, those stress hormones actually change your anatomy. So they cause changes in your human body, right? So that's from our thoughts, right? So this is going a step further and actually reversing that and saying, well, actually how can you heal? How can you treat? How can you live a happy life? How can you then influence your life in positive ways to then say realize your dreams or impact others or be surrounded

by love and be surrounded by so it's it's the science behind actually understanding that and then applying that to your life. And so yeah, I think that that just so I was sort of empowered internally personally and away from as you've you know, you've, you've, you've, you've, you've sort of mentioned is, you know, my, my identity of being a professional football. I just, like, I just, that was, it was a phenomenal experience, but it's not, you know, it doesn't define me. That's fantastic. I mean, I believe that starting every day with a smile, and no matter how you feel, does change your mindset. It really does. And spread positivity. I get that that's what you're about, though. You're about spreading positivity. We're going to

talk about the turmeric company in a moment, because that utterly, life-changing. And I spoke to you and your dad about it. But I want to talk about your childhood because, I mean, obviously I was doing all my research on you. And one of the things I love that you were brought up in a completely different family and a different way of life than a lot of footballers. I think there's a lot of cliches about footballers and, you know, they were on the estate and they were playing football and somebody. spotted them at a young age and they went off and they escaped their home. And that's the story of many. But yours is very different. You know, there you were, well, living next door to the palace.

Yeah. No, it was a unique experience and it was obviously my grandfather was vicar of Kensington. And so they lived in, you know, the vicarage which backs on to Kensington Palace and is literally next door adjacent with sort of billionaires row which is you know just it's a different world completely and so i spent a lot of my childhood there and you know experiencing certain things and this was you know so we're talking 30 30 years ago now but kensington was a very different place then in a sense where there was but i think this goes for the majority of places in london um in a sense where it was a real community, but that it was connected through,

at that time, through religion. And I'm, I'm, obviously, I was brought up as a, you know, Christian, you know, I'm now sort of, I would, I feel, you know, gnostic. And, and, you know, it's, it's beyond a single religion or, you know, identifying with a single, you know, God or, or thesis. It's, it's just realizing, as I said, you know, that everyone's sort of a, being everyone's a spiritual being and has you know is experiencing the the world that we live in but that's sort of by-to-by but at that time the community was very much connected through

the church and and if you ever have been to kensington which i'm sure you have you know kensington high street st mary abbott's church is the you know the church which are massively it's a phenomenal church and on the corner of of um church road and kensington high street and so I remember have vivid memories of walking down down Kensington High Street with my grandparents and they would literally be stopped in the streets like celebrities but not in a arrogant way or not in today's celebrity like actually celebrated

you know so the actual term of what celebrity is not the the modern day you know glamorisation of of it they were they were celebrated truly but because you know my grandmother or my grandfather if they saw anyone homeless and a big part of what they did was around, you know, underprivileged, homeless individuals, abused individuals and their support structure which they offered them, which I'm sure still probably is in place now, but it was just phenomenal. So I have vivid memories of walking down my grandmother and seeing a homeless person on the street and my grandmother

would stop, kneel down and actually speak with them and, you know, spend time 15 minutes and I was just there stood as a child next to them, next to that. And so, and on a flip side, again, you know, you're then sort of coming across royalty, you know, Princess Diana, all of these. And so, yeah, it was a really sort of unique experience, which I'm really grateful for. But it was your, but that, it, that again, doesn't define you, but this is what, that was your normal. That's what you. That's what you. knew. It didn't make you different. You know, it's just now how people perceive it. So it's, you know, the way I, I mean, the stuff I was reading, you know, oh, he was privileged, he was this.

I thought, no, you just, that was your normal. You didn't know any other way. Those, how you're got, your grandparents sound amazing. What amazing people. But this is the life that you grew up in, but you were still determined, you was still focused, you were reading your books, you wanted to play football. You were good at football. You were spotted. You played football. But you, I get from this that you, that there was something else always there, even though the football, you loved football as a child, that you knew that there was a bigger calling. That makes it sound very grand. And I don't think, I don't mean, oh, I'm coming to save the world. But it's as if you knew there was more to life than just what it was there right in front of you. Yeah. I think, um, ultimately, you know, what is what is life? Like, whatever,

Every life you're living, you have to have a purpose and you have to be passionate about something. It could be anything. You know, even that's why even, you know, you love train spotters. You know, they love trains and it's like, you know, birdwatchers. They love, but like, it's their passion. So, and I think that's lost on a lot of people in today's generation and society, even the older generation now, but living in today's world, it's lost. It's like if you were to stop someone on the street and say, what's your passion? they'd go um because because life is really tough yeah yeah it is really tough for a lot of people

yeah yeah it's definitely it is but at the same time like finding your passion is actually finding your purpose and can be that release from that you know the toughness and the the challenges that we're everyone's experiencing you know particularly in today's world um so i think yeah it's um it's it's really just having that purpose and that passion and mine has you know always been around bringing value and positively changing

people's lives and I think you know I was able to experience that in a positive way in my career and the successes that we had and obviously playing for Wales and achieving what we did you know we helped shape a generation that must be cool I mean going back to that and

was it Euro yeah 2016 I mean that it was big yeah that must be such a thrill to hold in your heart. Yeah, it was, you know, that those moments in your life are life changing because the experiences where, you know, you,

you really, you cannot describe the emotions that you're feeling at that time. And then realizing the joy that you've then brought to thousands upon thousands of other people is, is a phenomenal, a phenomenal thing. And I think that whole experience of what we were doing as a nation

where we, had qualified for a major tournament the first time in, you know, over four decades. We were then going as heroes to this tournament and we then started off with a win. We got that momentum. We end up being the last home nation in the in the competition. England have been knocked out. Ireland have been knocked out. And then we end up facing the number one ranked team in the quarter finals.

And obviously I score myself scoring that goal. But as a nation and as a team, we end up. beating the number one ranked team in the world. Your smile is magical. You know, in the courts of finals. And subsequently go on to the to the semifinals of a competition as, you know, and a Mino team. And we, there was a stat as well.

I'd done an interview a few weeks ago about it. And the presenter said there was a stat that Wales were the odds on, they were odds on favourites to not. score in the whole tournament. No. Yeah, yeah. So it's like who, what team is is least likely to score in the whole tournament? That was it. And it was, it was Wales.

And so we ended up, yeah. Look what we do. Yeah. Let's, because we are talking about football again, let's talk about what the lionesses have done. I mean, it was incredible how it garnered the whole country. I don't know why they weren't given a bus, but I don't, what that? And why weren't they at number 10?

Anyway, let's not get into that. annoys me. But wasn't that fantastic. And now when you talk about football, I think football, I don't, my, my youngest daughter has always played football. She loves it. But never thought, never thought that she wouldn't or couldn't, which is great. She's 15. But now when you say football, I don't just think men's football. I think football. Do you think it's, do you think people are going to, do you think this, this excitement and it was obviously a, few months ago now. But do you think that excitement is going to stay?

Are we going to be able to keep that? Hold on to it. Well, 100%. I think really what it's done for Britain as a whole has allowed again those children to dream. You know, and now it's those, not only is it the little boy having the dream, it's those little girls who can now see. You know, and it's like sometimes you do need to see what's possible in order to believe it. Like, you know, and so that has now happened. So for the home nations now, it's a massive duty to really champion women's football,

women's sport in general. And I think ultimately the bridges, I think there was a statistic which came out again around, you know, the money that the players received for winning, right? So they've won a major tournament. They're European champions. and I think someone came out with a stat that what each player earned for winning the tournament was the same as a day salary for Christiana Ronaldo. No!

Yes. And so it's like when you hear stuff like that, then it does make you sort of realize that there is still such a significant divide or gap in terms of the level of men's sport and then men's football and the level of women's football. And I think it's, for me, it falls on the Football Association, on the Premier League, on UEFA to really begin to bridge that gap. And, you know, from a commercial perspective, understanding the commercial side of the men's game versus the women's game, right? So, okay, how much revenues does gate receipts, sponsorship, you know, the commercial side of each club, from a men's perspective. How much does that draw in?

Okay, well, that's a significant amount. Compare that to the women's, okay, well, there's obviously a big, big gap there. So for me looking at it now, it's the associations and the men's teams' responsibility to begin to build that parity. Because there's no reason why women's football cannot sell out week in and week out at Old Trafford, at Stanford Bridge. you know, and so and the, but the only way that it's going to happen is if the current structures support it and there has been little support and they will say, okay, yes, you know, well, five years ago, half of the, half of the teams in the Premier League didn't even have women's teams, you know, United only five years.

United only just recently got a women's team. It was less than five years ago, right? So it's like, and yeah, so it's, so it's really realizing that it's, firstly, it's creating accountability. Like who is responsible for this? And for me, it's the associations and the teams themselves. And then it's saying, okay, well, what actually needs to happen? And the support structure, there needs to be support in terms of whether it's funding, whether it's, you know, resources really contributed towards women football.

Because I've got two daughters, you know, and my youngest daughter is, you know, super wild, loves kicking a ball around. She has no idea what she's doing. when she watches something like the women's European final, where England are playing against Germany and win, and they see the celebrations, it lets her believe precisely. So, but actually, you know,

the support infrastructure hasn't been there. So again, there's a massive, massive untapped opportunity, which has to, you know, really happen and it really does need to happen now. Right. Let's talk about the turmeric company. So that's how you and I first met.

But what's so interesting is how you started this company and why you started this company. It comes from a very personal reason. Yeah, no, it does. And it's again all around purpose. And they often say, you know, innovation is born out of necessity. And I was in a place where I needed a solution to my health. You know, and I was, as a 15-year-old,

I had gone through two-serville. surgeries. I had been told by the surgeon that I would never play without pain or restriction again. I mean, heartbreak, for a 15-year-old to hear that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was, you know, really challenging times, lots of nights crying myself to sleep, you know, lots of fear, insecurity, doubt, worry. But I was determined and I was willing to persevere through that to come out the other side, hoping for better tomorrow. And so by the time I was 17, I'd gone through two years of these surgeries

of this recovery, but every time I'd go for a jog, my knee would swell up. You know, I'd get home and then it would lock up. I wouldn't be able to walk up the stairs anymore. So at the time, I was restricted in terms of playing to any decent level. The physios and the doctors at the club

were aligned with the surgeon that I would have to basically deal with this for the rest of my life and one of their solutions was prescribing me anti-inflammatories and painkillers. So as a 17-year-old, I was then prescribed these anti-inflammatories and painkillers which I then subsequently went on to pop like smarties. So I was having these drugs which I had no concept of what I was taking really at the time, which after about seven days of using began to take the edge off in terms of dampened down the symptoms that I was experiencing.

The symptoms were still there, my knee was still swelling, but I was not in as much pain. But, as I said, after seven days, all of a sudden I started passing blood in my urine, I had severe nausea, couldn't sleep.

And my body basically had an adverse effect to these drugs, rejected them completely. And so it got to a point where I'd then, you know, finished a, tried to play in a game, only lasted about 15 minutes. My dad had taken me, drove me back to mine. And I went to walk up the stairs and I literally physically couldn't. And I remember breaking down on a step, crying as a 17-year-old and just saying to my dad, there must be a solution.

And from my dad, you know, my dad knew how passionate I was and how determined I was to have a career as well. So I know that that would have really torn him up inside, seeing that. You know, I was his boy, I had a dream. It was now being, you know, pretty much on the edge of being taken away from me. It had been taken away. And so we just said there must be a way. Like, there must be a way for me to recover.

Like, what can we do? And so we then basically went on this research binge and realized, well, actually, you know, if synthetically these drugs actually don't, aren't, you know, aren't working for me and are being rejected by my body. like where did these drugs come from? Like, you know, what, what, what, what would happen a hundred years ago, you know, 500 years? What, what was the solution? You know, what was happening before the world that we live in today of, you know, the prescription medication, the, the, the, the drugs, etc. So we basically went on a massive research binge around natural ways to reduce pain, inflammation and recover.

And then we began to basically come across all of these raw natural ingredients, which all had antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, um, um, anti-ineate analgesic, I think that's how you say it, properties where it was all around raw natural nutrition. And so it was

things such as pomegranate, pineapple, because of its bromuline, ginger because of its ginger oil, watermelon. Wintermelon. Yeah. Yeah. Whole watermelon and turmeric. But it was the format in what, how you consume these. And, and, and you had to consume some of these raw ingredients with other raw materials, you know, such as black

pepper, such as, you know, a fat soluble like olive oil or flax oil in the correct combination. And it would have reported really beneficial benefits. And so these weren't drugs, these weren't medicines, they were foods. But for whatever reason, we're taught and we're brought up in a way where we don't directly identify nutrition, food, with health. Well, we should. We should. This is what I've been banging on about for years because of my dad's bowel cancer 26 years ago. And I wanted to learn everything.

So I'm as passionate about this. I haven't started up a company with it, but I'm as passionate as you are. And that comes across in your product and the way you talk about it. And it literally, and I'm using that word properly because I know everybody, users literally all the time, but you literally changed your life by taking your shots, didn't you? Yeah. So my dad effectively, you know, we went on a research binge and we were looking at the public library, we were looking at, you know, herbs for medicine. We were looking at plants for medicine, like all of these like books and there was an incredible book. It was basically like a glossary of

every raw ingredient and what its properties were. We've still got it at home. You know, I definitely want to, you know, create awareness around it because actually I think it's been discontinued now, which is wild anyway. All of these raw ingredients, how do I get into a format which I can consume? So my dad basically began going to the local markets, sourcing to the supermarket, trying to source these raw, relatively exotic, certainly not mainstream ingredients. And after a day or so, he'd sourced all of them together and he began creating this blend of all of them combined. And where I was quite fussy as a kid and then, as a teenager, you know, my diet consisted of pasta, baked beans and chicken.

That's all I ate, ate. And, but I was quite fussy with taste, so I wouldn't go outside that. So my father created a few iterations over a period of a few days. And I would sort of sip it and be like, no, couldn't have that regularly. No, it couldn't have that regularly. It's a bit better, a bit better. To the point where after about a week of trial and error, he had created this golden elixir. And he gave it to me in a small sort of cup.

and I drank, sipped it was like, okay, cool, drank it all and it knocked my socks off. It was like a rush of goodness into my system and I was like, okay, well, it's different. I've never had anything like that before. You know, my body was clearly nutrient deficient, which because of the amount of processed foods that we eat in today's society, the majority of people are just nutrient deficient full stop. So after a day or so, I immediately noticed I had a little bit more energy after a few weeks. I noticed that I wasn't taking as long to recover. And it was about six weeks of taking this golden elixir on a daily basis a couple of times a day

where my usual routine was wake up, jump out of bed, not jump out of roll out of bed, go into the shower. And I was in the shower and I realized that that was the first time in over two and a half years I had woken up without pain or restriction in my knee. And it was just a light bulb moment for me where I was like, wow, like, that has that actually, that is what the solution. Like we've, I basically treated the issue which the doctor, surgeon, physio said would be there for the rest of my life. And I was pain free that morning. And so went to training, you know, felt good in training, recovered, still had a little few twinges here and there, but persevered with taking this golden licks on a daily basis.

And within a few months, I ended up making my first team debut, a year later, made my Premier League debut, a year after that made my international debut. And it's all thanks to Turmeric and your dad. Precisely, yeah. And I used this blend as my secret weapon throughout my whole career. And so I then began realizing that I would recover quicker than my teammates. I wouldn't get run down during flu season as quickly or, you know, I'd feel relatively fresh. also head, isn't it?

Yeah, precisely. Mental health. Mentor, yeah, precisely. So, and I realized that a lot of this was down to this product. And what we then began to do was give it to my teammates, give it to friends, give it to family. And then we began sort of getting feedback like, you know, I had arthritis in my fingers. It's gone after a few months of use. You know, I had really bad back pain.

You know, had severe, you know, so it was just crazy. So we realized that we had this real natural, amazing blend. And we were in a retail store in London in 2016. And at this time, my father was creating probably about 100 of these little shots a week, you know, in our kitchen, various kitchens, still doing it in the kitchen. But it was being distributed for me, for friends and family. And I saw a turmeric shot on the shelf. And I was blown away.

I was like, yes, finally. someone's realized the power of this raw natural ingredient and has delivered it on shelf and excitedly bought a number of these turmeric shots from this retailer, took them to my dad's, straight to my dads and excitedly showed him and we were like, brilliant, because this means that we don't have to make it anymore. There's no more stained fingertips, stained utensils, ruined blenders. You know, we'd probably ruined over three or four dozen blenders over the last decade. So we went to, you know, cracked it open, drank it and we had to spit it out. We couldn't

believe how inferior it was to what we were making in our kitchen. And it was only when we spun the bottle around where we looked at it and it said apple juice. It then was, you know, turmeric powder. It was then like three or four percent turmeric as opposed to, you know, 30 grams of the raw root in a bioavailable form. And so we really really, you know, we really. that this product was what was being offered to consumers and as a consumer, you're purchasing this liquid food for benefit, for purpose. You're not purchasing it to relinquish thirst, you know, to quench your needs, to hydrate you, you're buying it for a purpose. And what was being delivered on shelf had zero to little purpose. It was basically an apple juice

masquerading as a functional health shot. And so we looked into the market and realized that there were multiple products out there like this. And there was no true product which was born ultimately out of necessity and offered true function to the consumer. So when did you launch? So we launched in 2018. So, gosh, that's that recent? Yeah, yeah. And you've now massive.

Yeah. Well, yeah, we're doing well. We're changing people's lives. Soonly Christian. How many do you produce then? A few hundred, about 100,000 a week, yeah. Oh, that's fast.

To me that seems really fast. It might not feel fast to you. Yeah, well, no, like we want to, you know, we've got growth ambitions. You know, we want to keep changing people's lives. We've had over 10,000 positive customer reviews of the product changing people's lives. We supply the likes of, you know, Tottenham,

Liverpool, buy our product for their players and for their staff. we supply majority of elite sports. There's thousands of athletes who will use our product on a daily basis. So all the stuff, because on your socials as well, you talk about mental health, you talk about physical health, you talk, you know, internal health.

You know, internally all our organs, our mind, everything. I just get, what I get from you is that you want to do good out there and that you ain't going to stop. It's like until you, make people feel better? And what a wonderful gift to be able to pass on to people. Yeah. No, it is phenomenal. And as I said, it links back to then that purpose. And,

you know, we're fundamentally changing people's lives. And obviously, we're supporting, as we said, elite athletes, but then the majority of our online subscribers are 35 and 45 plus male and female. So it's people who, you know, have maybe experienced some form of pain, discomfort, immunity issues, or just want to be living their healthiest, happiest life all of the time and have now turned to the power of natural nutrition. And we're not a medicine. We're not licensed to make any form of claim as a brand or as a business because you're not a licensed medicine.

But the famous quote by Socrates is, let food be thy medicine and let medicine be thy food. What we put into our bodies is medicine, the food that we eat. And I think there's now this detachment. in terms of food and health, which I'm working on bridging and bringing back and making people realise that actually if you start your day with a turmeric shot, with a product like Simprove, with a healthy meal for lunch, with a balanced diet over the course of the week, of course, enjoy yourself, have snacks, have treats in between, but make sure that these processed

foods aren't staple parts of your diet. How do you see your company? Because obviously you and I have spoken about the sustainability of plastic bottles and I know we can send them back to you, which is great. Where do you see your company in a few years? I'm not a business analyst at all. You know, I'm an entertainment presenter. But where do you see all of this for you? Yeah, I think for us, you know, our passion is fundamentally about creating positive change.

So for every customer, positive customer review that we receive, we win. You know, we're championing that. And that's visible throughout the whole company. We try and create visibility on that through our community. So we're, for us, it's, you know, it's not about how large or how big we become. It's more about how many positive impacts we have throughout the world. And at the minute we're serving UK with our product range, we're going to be doing a lot of work around that education side and building education on nutrition, right? So that positive,

you know, so that that's a really exciting element. But also for me, in terms of healthcare, like why is nutrition not a fundamental part of healthcare? It's not. So these health insurance companies, the, you know, national health insurance, private health clinics, like you should be, nutrition should be a core fundamental element of your practice because whether it's, and if it's as simply as education on nutrition, it's better than what is currently. Because at the minute, there's none. It's prescription, drugs, and that's it pretty much.

But there are people who are getting the message out. You know, lovely Dale Pinak, the medicinal chef, and Melissa Hemsley and Amelia Freer, and all of these people who have quite a good influence, social media influence. And there are people, obviously, you know, mentioned Simprove and I love it. But that influence is sort of getting out there.

But I think you're right. It starts with education. It starts with the young people and it starts with everybody just being a little bit more daring because if you say that to somebody and you know when I say oh I have ginger every day

I have turmeric every day and beetroot every day they look at me oh why because I feel better for it and they go oh and that's as simple as that and I think it's taking it back down

to the simple I do you know you are I'm so pleased that we actually got to meet face to face and do this because you glow. You do have a glow about you and you can hear it when you talk and you can see it when you talk and your eyes sparkle and you're obviously very passionate but you want to do good and I like

people who want to do good so thank you for being on this. Yeah no thank you so much for having me have it. Absolutely pleasure. Thank you so much for listening. Coming up next week, Ian and Jeremy or as you all know them all on the board. Yes, they're London Transport workers who have changed everybody's outlook when they travel to and from tube stations. That Gabby Roslin podcast is proudly presented to you by Cameo Productions with music by Beth Macari. If you wouldn't mind, could you give us a like, a follow, a subscribe and please leave a review? We read them all and love to see what you've got to say. See you next week.