Why Algae Tablets are the Secret to Surviving Your Entrepreneurial Journey with Catharine Arnston

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like My First Million. Today, we'll be breaking down why algae tablets are the secret to surviving your entrepreneurial journey. To drop these value bombs, I have brought Catherine Arnston into EO Fire Studios. Catherine is the founder and CEO of Energy Bits. She left her 30-year corporate career to found Energy Bits after discovering algae was the most nutrient-dense food in the world with healing properties unknown outside of Asia.

0:38Her mission is to heal the world with Mother Nature's oldest food, algae. In Today's Foundation, we'll talk about all the types of algae and what they do, about the nutrition and the benefits there. We'll talk about how it protects your brain, health, energy, and longevity, and so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Catherine and our sponsors. The Gold Digger Podcast, hosted by my good friend, Jenna Kuchar, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. The Gold Digger Podcast helps you discover your dream career with productivity tips, social strategies, business hacks, inspirational stories, and so much more.

1:17A must-listen episode is one of Jenna's recents on everything you need to know about affiliate marketing. Listen to Gold Digger wherever you get your podcasts. Belay is passionate about helping your business succeed with their simple, flexible staffing solutions. download Belay's bulletproof budget template for free, which is the exact budget template they use to grow from a small startup to one of Inc. 5000's fastest growing companies for nine straight years today. Just text FIRE, that's F-I-R-E, to 55123. Catherine, say what's up to FIRE Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1:58Well, I think entrepreneurs, we're so passionate and so focused on building our company that we put everything else on hold, including our health. And that is something that we just can't do because, and we'll explain later in the interview, without your health, you can't build your company. So putting that on the back burner is not a good idea. Yeah. You need to build it, preserve it at the same time that you're building and preserving your business. Fire Nation's heard me say this a couple of times, Catherine, but I'm going to go ahead and say it again because I'm such a believer in it that the healthy person wants a thousand things.

2:42And that's a great place to be. I mean, the life is your oyster. The unhealthy person wants one thing. All they want is to be healthy. That's all you can think about. So it's hard to enjoy life when you don't have the health. And that's why we're talking today about why algae tablets are the secret to surviving your entrepreneurial journey, Fire Nation. So let's just jump right in and say, what the heck is algae? Well, it's your lifeline to everything because it feeds something called your mitochondria, which are also your lifeline to everything. as entrepreneurs we and I'm I'm right in there with you guys and gals I'm this is my third one and what happens is we get so focused on this work of ours and the passion and the mission that we have to change the world that meals get forgotten or we grab things or we eat things because of taste because we're so, it's an emotional roller coaster, let's face it.

3:45And what happens is, and if you do that over and over again, you aren't feeding your body what it needs to perform optimally. Your brain doesn't perform optimally, your heart, your digestive system, nothing. And what you're going to find out today is algae, which is what we sell, we sell them in tiny tablets that we call bits because they're bits of nutrition. Algae is the most effortless way to gain the nutrition that your brain, your body need so that you can perform optimally. Now, you may think of algae as being something that just closes your favorite beach. And yes, some of that is true.

4:20But the algae we're talking about today is harvested as a food crop. So the first thing you need to know is algae is not a supplement. And yes, there is algae in the ocean. But the algae that you find at Costco or Target or Whole Foods or from us at energybits.com, it's a harvested food crop. It's grown hydroponically in fresh water just like lettuce and tomatoes are and then air dried into a powder and then pressed into little tablets that are effortless to take. And we call it, as I said, we call our bits because they're bits of nutrition. and the effortless part is very critical because again as entrepreneurs we don't have a lot of free time to be in the kitchen cooking stuff up or maybe we do occasionally but this way you could if you can swallow water you can get the nutrients your brain and your body and your mitochondria and your heart need in seconds uh 10 tablets in the morning of spirulina and maybe 10 chlorella at night will flood your body with nourishment that you need to keep going in your journey because let's face it, being an entrepreneur is not a sprint.

5:24It is a marathon. And so you have to have the energy and the focus and the nutrition to match the drive that you have to build what it is that you're building. Now, you did a great job with the what, but I want to move into the why, because algae is considered the most important food of the future. And this is by the United Nations and NASA. So think about that, Fire Nation. So why? Why algae? The United Nations, 50 years ago endorsed spirulina algae as the answer to world hunger. Why? Drum roll, because it has the highest protein in the world. It has three times as much protein as steak. Ours is 64 % protein.

6:05We call our spirulina energy bits. Yeah, who would know, right? It also has the highest chlorophyll. We'll talk about that in a minute. It has the highest collagen in the world. So why is it the most important food for everyone, but particularly entrepreneurs? Because the reality is we are so malnourished. Yes, we're eating, but we're not getting the nutrients. Our soils have been overcropped for decades. So there's no minerals left in the soil for the poor old plants to pull up. So you're eating fiber and you're getting calories, but you're not getting the nutrients you need. At the same time, our world is flooded with toxins.

6:42The average adult now has 700 toxins in them and our immune system simply aren't able to sustain that kind of toxic load. So what's happening is, A, we're not getting the nourishment we need to feed these things called mitochondria, which are what give you energy, which feed your brain, your body, your heart, everything. And because there's too many toxins, the toxins interfere with the optimal performance of your body. And an algae that we're going to talk about called chlorella pulls out heavy metals, glyphosate, all the toxins that are there, Lyme, so that it builds your immune system. So the two of them, it doesn't matter where you live these days, but particularly in North America, we have food that's over processed, we have food that's not nourishing.

7:28And this is what's contributing to the disease and also causes problems for entrepreneurs because we don't have time to linger over long meals and also, but yet we're doing important work. We need to be nourished. And that's what I want to dive into next because there are actually two types of algae, two main types. So what are they and what do they do? The two main that we're talking about, and these are microalgae. Macroalgae is that seaweed that is in the ocean. That's not what we're talking about. It's good for you because it's lots of fiber, but it doesn't have any nutrients. We're talking about microalgae.

8:02Spirulina, which is a blue-green algae. It's called blue-green because it has two pigments. One is the green one you know called chlorophyll. The other pigment is a blue pigment called phycocyanin, only exists in spirulina. Anyway, so we're talking about spirulina, a blue-green algae, and chlorella, which is a green algae. Now, algae was the first life on Earth four billion years ago, and it's still here, so it must be doing something right. But these two algae do completely different things in your body, and they're critical for entrepreneurs because of the benefits that you get from them that aren't available from any other food, period.

8:40period. Fire Nation, this is where it gets exciting. And I will tell you that I'm watching this documentary on Netflix right now. It just came out. It's the new one about life on this planet. And I actually, they actually go into that a little bit, Catherine, when they talk about the first actual life forms, you see it being created and you just look at it. You're like, that is life. That is energy. You know, that is amazing. And that's what I want to move into next, because you're speaking to Fire Nation. This is my audience of entrepreneurs, small business owners. So how does algae protect and improve an entrepreneur's brain, health, energy, and of course, our longevity?

9:17Well, they do completely different things. So I'll walk you through the two different algae. So spirulina, which is the blue green algae, it is known and has always been known for having the highest protein in the world and is loaded with B vitamins, which convert the protein into glucose, which give you energy. So when, and this is different from a stimulant, stimulants like caffeine, chemicals, and sugar just speed up molecules from your brain to your body. So you get a rush and then a crash. Spirulina, because of the, and so, and when you take a stimulant, it's like putting paper on a fire.

9:50When you take algae like spirulina, which generates a slow burn of cellular energy, it's like putting a log on the fire. So very steady, not that rush or crash. So you get energy in the moment for your brain and for your body, but most importantly, spirulina generates what's called cellular energy. I won't get too geeky on you, but the cellular energy is required for everything you do, breathing, sleeping, talking, walking, lymphatic system, your neurotransmitters, absolutely everything is propelled by cellular energy. And as you age, and the cellular energy is generated for you by these cells called mitochondria.

10:30And as you age, you have fewer mitochondria. And if you don't eat properly and get and give the nutrients that your mitochondria need, they mutate and don't function properly. This is why you end up with brain fog. This is why you end up with difficult digestion, low energy. And we know as entrepreneurs, our brains have to be firing all the time. And you have 2 million mitochondria per cell in your brain. Think about that. Two million of these little mitochondria per cell. It's crazy. And spirulina is proven to build and protect your mitochondria. So the first thing that you get from spirulina is improved focus.

11:10That's why we fuel NHL teams, Olympic teams, triathletes, and they love it for the energy physically, but most importantly, for the focus. It also satisfies your hunger, and if you're like a lot of us, you don't have time to eat when you're busy building a company. So you can take 30 of these for a meal replacement down the hatch in seconds, and you haven't missed a beat. So spirulina, energizing, nourishing, feed your mitochondria, brain food, brain food. By the way, a lot of people eat fatty fish because of the omega-3 in the fish, right? And I remind them, well, where do you think the fish got the omega-3 from?

11:48They got it from algae. So cut out the middleman, go straight to the algae. By the way, omega-3 fish oil goes ransom by the time you've bought it, and that never happens with algae. So you're saving yourself time, money, effort, everything. You don't even have to cook this stuff. Just open your mouth down the hatch, boom, you're good. Spirulina, energizing, nourishing, feed your mitochondria, brain food. Chlorella, which is a green algae, it evolved a billion years after spirulina, it is a wellness detoxing algae. Its claim to fame is that it has the highest chlorophyll in the world. Chlorophyll builds your blood.

12:23It's in fact virtually the same chemical composition. It heals your cell walls and it kills bacteria. In fact, it kills bacteria everywhere, your mouth, your colon, and lots of colon cancers are due to too much bacteria and toxins down there. But chlorella's big claim to fame is it pulls out toxins, heavy metals, lead, mercury, radiation, aluminum, alcohol, by the way. So if you ever have any few drinks at the end of the evening, it takes a handful of chlorella and you'll be sober in an hour and a half and you'll never have a hangover. So chlorella pulls out toxins, builds your immune system, heals your gut because it does have fiber.

13:05So it's very much a wellness algae. And by the way, your immune system, 80 % of it is in your gut. So it's very much a cleansing, detoxing gut algae, whereas spirulina is a nourishing, energizing brain food. By the way, your brain and your gut are connected by something called the vagus nerve. So as you heal your brain with spirulina, it will automatically start healing your gut. And when you start healing your gut with chlorella, we call ours recovery bits because it helps you recover, it will automatically help your brain health. So these two things, your brain and your gut, are the keys to keeping you alive, healthy, energized, focused.

13:45And because we know as entrepreneurs, we don't have sick days, right? There are no sick days for us. It just keeps on rolling. So you need your energy, you need your brain to be protected, and you need your health to be protected. And these two, spirulina and chlorella, I say they're like your, it's not just nutrition insurance, it's your health insurance. These will keep you healthy and energized. It's like having a trust fund. Think of these two algae, spirulina and chlorella, as a trust fund. Would you turn down a trust fund? I don't think so. Why would you turn down these two nourishing algae that will do everything that you need and they do it quickly, efficiently, but the trick is you have to get it from a good source and that's one of the things that we do best.

14:28Fire Nation, calm down. Calm down because before you go off and do something crazy, We're going to talk and see if there's actually any science behind this when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Artificial intelligence is at the top of everyone's news feed. So we all know there are plenty of business pros out there benefiting from AI. AI can help you save time, bring some ideas and tackle your to-do list. But knowing about it and putting it into practice are two different things. So what's the first step? If you find yourself spending hours each day on content creation, then meet HubSpot's new AI-powered campaign assistant, a totally free-to-use AI tool tailor-made for marketers and business builders who spend hours each day on content creation.

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15:48Every client, every decision, every detail, it's all up to you. But there comes a time when your potential for business growth depends on you letting go and hiring a team who can help. I know, easier said than done. But Belay actually does make it easy. Belay has helped thousands of business owners make the leap to scale their businesses with their simple, flexible staffing solutions. Belay's exceptional virtual assistants and accounting professionals can partner with you to help you grow your business and take control of your time. They have the nation's largest pool of US-based talent ready to work with you from anywhere and scale with you as you grow.

16:19And Belay is passionate about helping your business succeed, so they're offering Fire Nation a free download of their Bulletproof Budget Template. This is the exact budget template that Belay used to grow from a small startup to one of Inc. 5000's fastest growing companies for nine straight years. Text FIRE, that's F-I-R-E, to 55123 to download the Bulletproof budget template and streamline your business with Belay today. Catherine, we're back. And before the break, I told Fire Nation to calm down because they were probably getting a little overexcited about everything that you were sharing. So I want to get to the science.

16:53Is there any that proves this? Well, this is what's so funny. there's almost too much science and i think this is why nobody until me or my company energy bits has come along to do this there are a hundred almost a hundred thousand studies in medical libraries around the world documenting everything that i talk about whether it's protecting heart you protecting you from heart disease protecting you from alzheimer's or dementia reducing inflammation, improving your energy, improving your athletic performance, and every kind of performance, by the way, improving your skin, your hair, your beauty.

17:31It's all based on science. I don't say anything I don't have an NIH article for. But as I explained to other people, the reality is scientists like to talk to other scientists. If you have any science friends, you know they geek out on you and they love it when they can find another PhD and they talk in almost formulas And us mere mortals, we don't really understand what's going on. And I started this company because my younger sister had breast cancer. And I have an MBA, but I certainly didn't have a science degree. So I had to teach myself what was going on in the science world. So I know what it's like not to know any science.

18:07So one of the things I have done is I spent 13 years digging through the science, basically taking nuggets that I can pull out and explain to people in a much simpler fashion. because if you understand what your body needs and you understand how algae gives it every single thing it needs and I can give you the science reference you won't be afraid of it you'll want to you won't want to walk you want to run to go get some because it will it will protect you and your family and your brain and your longevity in ways that you could only imagine and the science is there except it's like you know if you don't you don't if you don't have a red car you don't notice red cars until you have one.

18:46So once you now learn about algae and how it can improve your health, your brain, your longevity, I encourage you and I invite you to start researching it because you'll see that everything I'm telling you here is completely true. And the crazy thing though is that there's all these studies and science that backs this up, but for a lot of people listening right now, this is the first time they're hearing about a lot of this. So if it's so good, if it's so important, why is it the first time that some people are hearing about this. I know it is crazy. Well, 99 % of algae is grown in Asia and 99 % of it is consumed there.

19:22So they have absolutely no motivation to share all the knowledge that they have with the rest of the world. It's sort of a joke if I say, well, the French keep the best wine to themselves. They only export the stuff they don't want. It's almost that way in Asia. So we only know what you are familiar with. And here in North America, we might drive on a road or on a bicycle and we'll see corn fields or wheat fields or tomato fields or something. But we sure don't see any algae farms. But in Asia, you can't ride your bicycle, take a train or go to work without driving by an algae farm. So A, the Asians haven't had any motivation to educate you about it, number one.

20:03Number two, you didn't grow up with it. So why would you even know about it? But think about it. Until recently, maybe you didn't know about chia or matcha or kiwa or even collagen powder until some entrepreneur, even though these had been used for centuries in other countries, until some entrepreneur, yay for the entrepreneurs, took it upon themselves to maybe import it and educate you about what it was, why it was good for you. The one example I like to refer to is Vital Proteins, which built the collagen powder market pretty much single-handedly. And now you can't go to any store without seeing collagen powder.

20:43There's a thousand brands, although they were the first one. And so even though algae has been around for 70 years and it's been sold here for 60 years, it's never caught on because no one explained it to you. No one also made sure that the quality was high, which is what we do. And also, I design all the branding. I make it very attractive so that you don't think it's weird. It looks like everything else that you're familiar with. So it's understanding what the consumer needs. And as an entrepreneur, that's our job. Find a way to help your market understand what your solution is. So I've worked very hard on the branding.

21:22I speak on podcasts nationwide, and I dig all through the science to make it understandable. But you don't know about it because no one told you. Fire Nation, you are being told, so understand the fact that you have been warned. And your LG tablets are called Energy Bits, and they're considered the best. And you actually have something pretty cool for Fire Nation. So share with us why they're the best and where we can get them. Sure. Well, as I mentioned, yes, there is algae in the ocean, but that's not what we sell, and that's not the kind of algae you would be getting from whether it's whole foods.

22:02Almost all of the algae, spirulina and chlorella, is harvested as food crops in fresh water. So I just want to assure you, no toxins. And now what makes us best is there's a number of things. First of all, growing algae is not like growing broccoli. It's more like growing wine. And with wine, it's affected by a number of things. One, the angle of the sun. Two, the production processes. So we grow ours in Taiwan because Taiwan is known for having the gold standard of algae, both in terms of the concentrated nutrients and also because it's very, the certification for good manufacturing processes is very rigorous because it's a very large agricultural crop there.

22:50The company that grows it for us has been doing it for 50 years, so they know their stuff. So what makes us special, number one, is that we use the highest quality strains of algae because just like anything, there's different strains. I mean, Kobe beef is certainly not like hamburgers that you would get from McDonald's. So we start with the highest quality strains, which mean you'll get the highest concentration of nutrients. Number two, the water that we grow it in is triple filtered. Remember, algae will absorb whatever's in the water. That's why algae shows up when there's an oil spill or toxins because it kills bacteria and will absorb whatever toxins are there.

23:28We triple filter our water to ensure there are no toxins in the water so it will preserve your health. And as an example of that, we do third-party lab tests here in the United States by an FDA-approved lab. As we sell our algae, we're the only algae company that sells our tablets through doctor's offices, naturopaths, homeopaths, functional medicine. They need to be sure that the nutrients we say are in there are indeed there and there are no toxins. So number two, clean water. Here's the most important one, though. Most of the other algae that you can find at Costco or Target is less expensive.

24:05But because they're less expensive, they need to sell more in order to make money. And so they cut corners to ensure that that happens. One of the corners they cut is they use high heat to dry the algae. Makes sense to me, right? The problem with algae, however, is that when you use high heat, you deactivate many of the most critical nutrients that are in there. And we don't use high heat, so ours is still a raw food. It has not been touched by high heat. And I'll just give you two examples of two nutrients that are deactivated by high heat that unfortunately you won't be getting probably with a lower priced algae.

24:45So one of them, it's a mouthful, I warn you, it's called superoxide dismutase, also known as SOD. And if you want to Google that, you'll find out that this particular nutrient is an antioxidant that stops free radical damage of your mitochondria. That is so important because as your mitochondria get damaged, they can't provide you with that cellular energy that makes your brain work, that makes your digestion work, that gives you energy for your day, for your business. So protecting those mitochondria is critical, and this antioxidant called superoxidismutase is found in the highest concentration in our algae in the world.

25:24By the way, you can't get this superoxidismutase from any other food, period. But the good news is your body makes it for you from the moment you're born, but it stops making it after the age of 30, slows down after 30, and by 40 you have none. that's exactly when disease hits most chronic disease hits most people and that's probably when most entrepreneurs are finally hitting their stride you don't want to slow down just because your body isn't making this protective antioxidant any longer this is when you want to speed up but it's just the nature of what happens if you don't have this particular antioxidant your mitochondria will get damaged and your energy will slow down it's just what happens so our algae has that active antioxidant to protect you.

26:11So that's one of them. The other nutrient that is damaged by high heat, I'm only pulling out two, there's many. Again, in spirulina is that blue pigment. It's another mouthful, sorry about that. It's called phycocyanin, and that's spelled P-H-Y-C-O-C-I-Y-I-N. Anyways, this particular pigment does not exist anywhere else in nature, nowhere else, just in spirulina, but it's damaged and deactivated by high heat. What does phycocyanin do? Well, in a healthy cell, it speeds up the production of that cellular energy called ATP. So just when you want to start accelerating your own entrepreneurial journey, it's going to give you more energy for your brain, for your body, for your digestion, for everything.