#75 - Amy Seymour - The Turmeric Co [Head of Brand & Comms]

0:00Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to Young Founders. Today I am joined by the lovely Amy Seymour, who is the head of brand and comps at the Turmeric Co. Now the Turmeric Co make delicious functional shots focused around their turmeric blend. These come with collagen, ashwagandha, vitamin C, good for immunity, all sorts of things. And I love how the brand was born from Thomas Howell-Robinson-Khanu's own experiences dealing with recovery, injury and inflammation back in his professional footballing days. I think the fact they've built this incredible business and brand and Amy having been part of it for the last four years is just an absolute testament to what they're building.

0:33The shots are delicious and I love how passionate Amy is about what she does. We dig into the highs, the lows, the team she works with, the ins and outs of everything around brand and communication. I think it's a fantastic episode and you're going to love it. So without further ado, let's get on with the episode. We all know that brand is important, right? But what if I told you it can impact growth and customer acquisition costs by up to 50 %? Against Ordinary are a brand agency who help founders, marketing departments, scaling teams ensure their brand is the most powerful tool for growth. From brand strategy, tone of voice and visual identity to helping you get retail ready with ongoing brand growth retainers.

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1:32hello and welcome back to young founders today i'm joined by the wonderful amy seymour so amy can you let everyone know where you work and what your role is please hi guys my name is amy i work at the turmeric co and my role is head of brand and comms amazing so for anyone who's never heard of the turmeric co give us the brand spiel what do you guys do who's involved how long is it going all that good stuff so the turmeric ho we are a functional drinks brand so we make turmeric based shots uh in both 60 mil 420 mil um formats so we're founded by thomas howe robson cano so he was an international uh welsh footballer played in the premier league had an incredible career and years and years ago i think around over 15 years ago when thomas first started using these shots essentially he was playing for arson at the time in the academy and he had really really bad injury so he had two back-to-back ACL injuries completely ruptured doctors said to him you know you're not going to play well they said to his dad I think when he was out there and bless him that you're never going to play to the standard that you know Arsenal expected of you and what is expected of you in general and so that was sort of put to bed Thomas started recovering from his surgeries and he just found that you know the pain was awful he found that you know he couldn't even go up and have a shower without pain you know it had so much inflammation from around his knees when he had his surgeries and he was having adverse side effects to medication so he was on prescribed anti-inflammatories as a lot of footballers actually are and a lot of them actually play with taking these anti-inflammatories it's just awful for your gut but we'll get into that and essentially thomas's dad thought what can we do that can you know have that can aid thomas's recovery that does don't have the side effects of these awful anti-inflammatories not to be sort of crude or anything but Thomas was like urinating blood it was that level of adverse side effects for his body and he obviously was so young at the time so essentially his father Retchy who was actually our co-founder and Thomas started experimenting Retchy was doing loads of research on natural remedies Retchy's father was actually a herbalist so he had a real background in that kind of thing so Retchy used this you know passed down information research he spoke to so many people and then it was all about trial and error so they started making these these magic potions if you will, experimenting with anti-inflammatory ingredients.

3:45And then they landed on, you know, the blend that essentially powered the turmeric co. And then Thomas started taking it. He found that after a couple of weeks of taking it, he was able to move without any pain. It really was incredible for him. So he started taking it a lot. And as then he got back to playing football again, he had recovered well, he was back playing, everyone's a bit like, okay, interesting. Here we go. Let's, let's do it. We're doing it. He's playing. He's good. And then over the years, So Thomas just kept taking this turmeric blend and he would recover quicker than his teammates.

4:15He would get ill less often. He didn't have so much fatigue and he would bring these little bottles of turmeric in. They were actually hand poured at the time by Thomas's dad, bless him. And I think all of the sort of people in the dressing room at West Brom, etc., they'd be like, oh, Thomas, you know, you're doing well for yourself. You're recovering quicker. You're, you know, X, Y, Z. And Thomas, oh, yeah, I've got these shots if you want to try them. And I think sort of the word caught on and blessed in Richie was having to have and pour buckets of the stuff and bring it into the dressing room.

4:42So the time went by and turmeric started appearing on shelves. Obviously, it's been used for years and years and years in Ayurvedic, in traditional medicines. And it started coming to sort of like Western culture. Thomas saw them on the shelves. I think he was in Selfridges. He was like, oh, my gosh, turmeric, sure. I can, you know, my dad hasn't got to make money more. You know, so many smoothies, vending machines, whatever it is, ruined. Obviously, it's very, it was same turmeric. And he just thought, he tried it and he was like, this is awful. It's synthetic. It doesn't taste good. So they thought, why not bring this blend that has been powering the whole Carnu family for years, loads of players for years.

5:17Everyone's been liking it. Why not bring it to market? Cut a long story short. Samarit Co. was launched in 2018 after Thomas, he went to sort of different manufacturers and said, you know, this is what we make. Can you produce it on scale? A lot of people would be like, no, the materials are very raw. They're very fresh. They're very irritating to deal with from sort of like a scaling perspective. and so Thomas was like okay we're gonna have to manufacture it all ourselves so they turned I think they flattened the family garages made it at home production site again Retchy was hand pouring bless him I honestly can't believe it all that manual labor and obviously the brain work that went into everything and then Thomas basically they bought an HQ in Chatterist the opportunity came up there to scale and buy an actual purpose-built unit and then it was all systems go from there scaled and then here we are today stopped in Sainsbury's who's you know all over the place and we have so many we've got tens of hundreds of of amazing amazing customer reviews it's all going well but it all started and I love this phrase it started from need not greed and then it just so happened that Tamra came into the into the mainstream and there we are it's brilliant I think it's always one of these things of like celebrity backed brands or celebrity endorsed brands it's very easy for people to go oh they've just slapped their name on it whereas like Thomas so integral to being like no this was actually part of my recovery part of my story and journey and I want to share that with more people and we're not just going to slap our name on and go okay you're going to make that product for us it's like no we're actually going to build our own factory and do that I think it's just incredible and it's like real testament to the business and scale that you guys have grown because just because you're a footballer and people know who you are doesn't necessarily mean that translates to sales or business savvy or all these things so I think it's been fantastic to see and for you personally getting involved in it I saw a great post that Thomas shared about you almost being overlooked as a candidate when they were hiring so can you share that story and how you actually saw Teren come and I want to I want to work there and how that hiring process happened because I thought it was an absolutely brilliant story thank you so yeah it was I just really believe in the power of alignment so way back when when I graduated I just finished my master's degree at Sussex University and you know when you're a grad and you're just applying for loads of jobs and I my degrees in well my bachelor's is in media and communications and then my master's degrees in media and cultural studies so everything's very media very you know I love English all that jazz so I'm looking for jobs in that realm on LinkedIn just mass applying and there was a social media role that came up at the term repo and I thought okay brilliant this is a bit of me I'm very naturally into health and well-being I really enjoy that I like sports as well and I just thought oh this brand looks really exciting kind of mentor too so just applied didn't think anything of it because I was massive applying at that time obviously didn't hear anything back but I actually got another role working in the education sector so I was working at an academies trust which I loved it was an amazing first job had an amazing very small team but it was it was lucky it was just a good step from uni and um a year later down the line I got a message from Thomas on LinkedIn saying hi you know you applied for a job a year a year ago however long it was yeah but it was a year actually and we've actually got another role that I think would be really suitable for for the communications manager and so I said okay I'm interested I felt that time I was ready to take that leap out of the education sector I didn't really think it was a bit of me anymore and then yeah had about you know four or five stage interviews with the rest of the team and then I was offered the role as communications manager and that was incredible to think that Thomas had my CV and I kept my CV and knowing him now as well as I do he is an incredibly methodical person and he is very much like organized and it just makes perfect sense obviously CVs that stood out to him even if they weren't correct for that role he has that just like natural thing and thinking there's something here he's and to this day he's very much like that so I understand how it came about but yeah and the alignment was there and here I am all this time later yeah I thought it was brilliant because he was like I let other people do the hiring for me I obviously got involved but it wasn't as involved as I should be we heard someone it wasn't the right fit and then it was suddenly like actually who have we already got in this list oh she looks good and I think the way he it I was like this is great I love like again that attention to detail from Thomas and what you're doing I mean there was news about a sale of the business and like these other amazing things that you guys have done so I think it clearly sounds like a great place to work but digging into you and your background growing up what was it you were like this is where my passion lies this is what I want to do when I'm older and yeah what have you done to to get to where you are?

9:38My first love was acting and performing arts I went to the Sound of Music in the West End with my mum and my dad when I was really young and I remember seeing the kids in it and the Von Trapp children and I thought oh my gosh they're on stage doing this a couple of them were sort of my age I want to do it so I sort of said to my mum how do I do this she did the research found a local performing arts school for me and essentially when every Saturday loved it dance drama singing really really enjoyed it and was lucky enough to do some professional pieces as well as I grew up but my mum always said you know you've got to have a plan b because it's very similar to you You know, things like being a professional footballer, it's an amazing role, but it's, you know, it's not guaranteed that you're going to be successful in it and make a living of it.

10:19So mum always had in my head, you know, you've got to go to uni or have a plan B or something like that. So I did the performing arts, obviously, alongside my studies at school. And then I had a gap year, actually. And I sort of experimented with things like presenting, blogging, all this sort of stuff, writing blogs. I really enjoy writing. And I remember thinking nothing's really picked up acting wise. I've had a couple of good jobs, but it's not super, you know, regular. And then it was the day before deadline day of applying for uni. I'd done all my A-levels. So I had my results. I just thought, you know, I'm just going to apply for Sussex Uni.

10:50It's local to me. I'm from Brighton. And then, yeah, I ended up just going to university. And then it sort of rolled on from there. And I actually started a journalism course. That was my first course that I was enrolled in because I love the presenting side of things. So I was like, I can, you know, interview some people. It's sort of satisfying that I love the media. I love, you know, filming things, getting creative. I really enjoy that side of things. And even so in my role now at the Turmeric Co, I creatively sort of ideate a lot of our campaigns. And it's so nice because I get to like itch my drama performance side of things and reflect that into my role.

11:25So, yeah, that was my first love. And then it just rolled from there. I've always loved English. Always, always loved writing. When I was at school, I remember in junior school, I would write plays and then I'd get my friends to act them out in the playground. it was it was always a passion of mine so I always knew that I wanted to do something wordy and I think it all sort of mashed into one really when I was at uni I realized journalism it was a bit uncomfortable having to speak to random people and try and get them to do an interview with you I found that quite um not not great bit scary and then yeah I decided to swap to media and communications and just enjoy things like yeah that was one of my modules really enjoyed that and when I end up doing my master's really enjoying it loving a bit of cultural studies I really really find different cultures and and the things you can learn from different cultures really fascinating just talking about it out loud now though how funny that you know the term it really reuses like I said earlier really really ingrained in traditional medicines which is obviously a very interesting cultural things yeah all sort of mash into one my love for for performing and then things like that I still haven't lost I really enjoy that sort side of things if it could be a hobby I would but I'm just so busy at the time Rick Co but I love my job so I'm not complaining.

12:36I love that and I think especially with Thomas and I'm sure his book of friends and contacts keeps you in that limelight a little bit so I'd love to know working with Thomas like when anyone has that public persona people know who he is they could have been die hard football fans at any of the teams that he's played for or I mean LinkedIn his content's always great because it's very uplifting and empowering and he's doing really good things what's it like working with him and from a like a boss perspective is he like right I need this from you or do you have free reign and he trusts you because from the post it was very much I wanted someone who I could just go yeah crack on with it and let's work together I think yeah you've hit the nail on the head so Thomas is not a micromanager he really does trust that you can do your job and that is why you've been hired Thomas is a person is probably the most unique human being I've ever met in my life I think it kind of reflects from his playing at the level that he did he is just high performance mindset consistently.

13:30So throughout the whole, just over four years, I've known him. He is an incredible leader and he leads by example. He is relentless. I think he can survive on like four hours sleep. He is just a superhuman. And to think that, you know, he didn't go to university, he didn't do anything like that. He's just been in sport. The brain on Thomas is just so admirable and he is the best uplifting, firing person to work for. And I think that that is probably the reason as well why I've stayed at the business for so long and grown because I've been exposed to so many different areas of things because Thomas isn't isn't like precious like that he's very much growth mindset learn what you can I'm going to foster that and allow you to grow as a person yeah he is really amazing to work for and I think that it's very unique you're never going to meet someone like Thomas and I think if you've ever heard him speak publicly and and at the events he does he is just sort of like very majestic in the way that he is he's very there's time for people and he's so himself and I think that is really important in a leader to have those interpersonal skills and be able to speak to people and remember things that he does it just it's really really fascinating to see and every day is learning with Thomas he's always learning something new he is basically self-taught to be production minded fulfillment minded marketing minded all of these things and it is just so fascinating to see that one person can have a brain with this much diversity in it it's it's great and he has definitely sort of led that into the into the way the business is run so he runs things on a meritocracy so if you work hard you will you know be successful he just leads by example he is relentless on on quality and relentless on making things happen so yeah you just can't help it absorb everything that he does and have that mindset so I think I've definitely inherited as much like a few things from him in terms of leadership style and the way that I approach work.

15:21And it is refreshing to be led by someone who has that work ethic and isn't precious about things. I think when you're a CEO and because it's been so unique, the way that the company was formed and how the product came about, of course, you can be tempted to be really precious about it. But he's very much like, you know, you've shown you can do X, Y and Z. Here you go, do it. You know the brand and just perform at your best. When I was at uni, I used to do sort of work at like retail shops. you know you just get a part-time job to keep things going and I remember that the managers that at one place in particular were just so horrible and they were so narrow-minded very micromanaging and so going into work I say proper work but like full-time work doing something like this I remember at the beginning I was always very nervous of having that experience again and I'm just very blessed that the two bosses that I've had in both of my roles since graduating have just been really uplifting but yeah in short Thomas is amazing to work for he is really incredible human being and I think he's only just getting started if I'm being honest yeah no we'll dig into that next but yeah I was just gonna say I met Thomas at um bread and jam like he did one of his talks and we just had a chat afterwards we spoke a little bit online but again it's just the time he had for not only me but people who are like just literally starting a brand and all sorts of other things and you can just see he cares and he's interested and it's not like a falsity it's like a genuine interest and I think that goes a really long way you go and go oh okay because again when you put a football halo over things people will either put them on a pedestal above everyone else and assume that they're going to have that view looking back down and go no you're not as good as me or just not care be like oh i'm not into football but i think it's it's great that as we've very much established how involved he is with the business now for you coming in having been there four years like head of brand and communications what does a typical kind of week look like for you and to anyone listening who's like oh i quite like the idea of getting into like comms and marketing and brand but I'm not sure what skills there is what kind of an average week or month look like for you because I know I'd ask a day but every day is different even in sales and marketing like whatever you do yeah um so just for a little bit of background sort of when I started the business when I was comms manager the business went through a couple of changes and just like how the team was so I managed to wear loads of different hats within the realm of marketing so I've done a little bit of PR a little bit of partnerships quite a lot of partnerships actually and all of that sort of things.

17:38I actually say I feel like I'm the worst line manager I have because I've done everyone's role. So I know what can be done and what can't. So with that in mind, obviously now I've got an amazing team, brand and comms and social team. So a lot of my week or month will obviously be checking in with them, making sure that everyone's firing the best they can, everyone feels supported, which is really great. And that's something that I've done more so of now as head of brand and comms, I obviously manage a team. So that is a big, big part of my every day. Partnership conversations have always still been a bit of like sort of phasing out now that we've got a partnerships manager, but that's been such an exciting part of this role, being able to go to different sports teams and talk about, you know, how our products can help.

18:21That's a big, big part of what we do. Internal comms is a large, large part of my role, especially as our marketing team and quite a few of our teams are remote. So keeping everyone aligned with the vision and aware of what's going on throughout the business is a huge, huge thing for 2026. We're doing a lot more events. So sort of keeping my eye out on things and making sure that I'm working with our community and events lead to tap into our community more and host more events and plan these things. That's a really exciting part. and then having lots and lots of conversations with our with agencies that we work with making sure there's alignment there and you know if there's a product launch coming up that's a big part of my role making sure I'm managing everything and all sort of touch points and any cross-channel things that we need to do filled it's my role is so so varied but it's a lot of brand management as well something that I've always been very proud of in the way that I approach work is I'm very detail oriented quality wise I used to proofread my friend's work at uni I really enjoy that side of things so I think that really is a good skill to have when you're a brand manager I think sometimes brand managers can mean different things in different businesses but for us it is basically making sure that the way that we turn up when we speak to our customers is very consistent and I think naturally where I have that detail like just easy I can proofread something and point out straight away it's not aligned it's a really big part of the role so I think much to I'm sure some of my co-workers irritation when I say oh no we need to we can't put that out right now because we've got to change it so do that I think that's that's a big thing that is that is pretty much every day I know not not two days are the same but that is a big thing and yeah at any events I need to attend any stakeholder meetings we're working with the PR agency it's lots of traveling to London which I do actually quite enjoy because I've got a blank street so I love the I love the matcha always look forward to it to London um yeah it just really does vary but a lot of it is that making sure that the brand is in everything that we do is is turning up the same and thought and at the moment strategizing for 2026 which is very exciting lots of good things to come yeah i feel like there's so many like roles and titles and unless you're working in it and know it sometimes like you'll meet someone and you're like i don't actually know i mean like i know what i know what brand is i know what comms is but it's like how that actually like translates I think that was really good.

20:46And in terms of you said you now manage a team, how big is the actual Turbant Co team? Obviously, you're going to have a bit of a manufacturing team side, but like from a company size or like employee size day to day, like how many people are you working with? So for day to day, our marketing function, it's essentially sort of split into two. So we have one side that handles the retention and acquisition, and then we sort of want the branding side. So on my side, we have a lovely marketing admin assistant, we've got social media manager we have a community and events lead we have partnerships manager as well and also a lovely graphic designers that's sort of by every day I always talk to my team every day um and then obviously we've got commercial director on the leadership team got the lovely stuff and then Thomas is very much involved with sort of the marketing side of things too as a CEO and I think it's quite unique in his um sort of in his position because he we do position him as the face of the brand I think that's something that is really special and if you can do it you should do it I think a lot of sort of founder content is big at the moment and employee generated content is only just getting more and more exciting.

21:49Yeah, lots of like I don't talk to Thomas as much as I used to, obviously, because we're all so busy. But he's so much very involved in the everyday or the weekly. But we have, I don't know, I think upwards of like 50 below 100 employees and counting the on-site staff. So they're the real superstars behind actually making the product. yeah um i i think it's around that number so it's not super big i still feel like we're mini kind of startup but not really we're like transitioning we're small business but yeah still very much there's it's easy to talk to and know who does what it's not you know you know 100 people working in customer service we're very much a streamlined team no i love that and you you touched on earlier about mpd being a big part of your role and if you go on your profile at the moment it's all about the the collagen shot for those who haven't seen it or don't actually know about the range that you guys do what products is it that are available and also what's your favorite amazing love this question because i'm such a fan of our raw turmeric vitamin c and d3 shot it's amazing for immunity we've done clinical research on it and it's been proven to obviously reduce upper respiratory symptoms but also help with gut health which i think is really special all of our shots essentially powered by turmeric so they've all got this really lovely raw turmeric root that is it's naturally anti-inflammatory we can't actually say that obviously in our marketing because of the MHRA and the ASA because it hasn't got paracetamol in it honestly it could go on for ages but yeah so they've all got the anti-inflammatory benefit so um we I'll start with our sort of like core range if you will so we've got the raw turmeric original shot very much what it says on the tin it's a raw turmeric shot it's got watermelon pineapple and everything has something we call a Biomax uptake blend in it.

23:33So it's a trade secret. And essentially, it just powers the blend to be absorbed better by the body. So turmeric is very poorly digested by the body. And you've got to make sure actually after you put it in your mouth and swallow it, it actually gets to your gut to be absorbed properly. So a Biomax uptake blend basically carries it into your gut and makes everything work better. So it's not just black pepper, it's a spice mix. So it's something that we're really, really proud of to be able to put into all of our blends. And then we've got the raw turmeric and ginger, self-explanatory. Got a lovely ginger root in there, which is, you know, amazing for digestion, amazing for recovery.

24:07Really, really great for recovery in all senses. So a lot of people who have, say, arthritis, a lot of people who have anti-inflammatory diseases, they really like this one because it sort of powers two very potent roots together. You've got our raw turmeric and beetroot, which athletes love. Obviously, nitrate's amazing for blood flow, heart health, which is really, really important when you are, you know doing strenuous activities when you want to recover from that in that sense so performance wise each shot is a you know a real winner and then like a section earlier we've got our lovely raw turmeric vitamin c and d3 shot which we we use it's an immunity stew if i'm ever traveling to london and you know the train people are always coughing they're not covering their mouth it drives me crazy on the tube you know that i love to mix a raw turmeric and ginger and a raw turmeric vitamin c and d3 together if i'm traveling especially so that you get that extra anti-inflammatory boost and also you know the coughs and the flus are kept away so touch wood I do not get ill as nearly as much as I used to just taking that but yeah if I'm ever traveling and I know that I'm going to be in a public space with people who may not cover their mouths that's a real winner and then more recently we've got our Vortimerick and ashwagandha shot that's a really exciting shot it's quite new I think ashwagandha is kind of quite new to the market amazing for sort of mental health support and yeah we that that's got a bit more of a sort of like a fruitier taste i would say compared to the others it's got magnesium and zinc which is just amazing for focus for mind for cognitive so yeah that's a it's a real winner it's one of my mom's favorites and we've got our raw turmeric and extra ginger which is our raw turmeric ginger with extra ginger it's really fiery it's crazy i'm not very good with spice so i do struggle but loads of people love it because it you feel the singe you feel the burn then finally we have our broad turmeric and pro collagen shot this is my favorite shot we've literally just launched it in both 60 mil and 420 mil um essentially when we were looking at developing this product we did think about using bovine and marine collagen as sort of like the booster in the bottle and what we did find after looking at lots of different suppliers etc is that first of all marine kind of has that fishy taste and bovine it kind of has a bit of a weird meat I say meaty taste from the smell of it I bet it I don't eat animals yeah you just kind of get that vibe and looked into it and there's a there's a risk of metal contaminants from from these collagens as well it's very unmediated in that sense whereby the quality may not be as good because it is such a you know I feel like anything that's a trend or a buzz companies will try and make it as quickly as they can kind of skip on quality and yeah so So that was just something that we didn't really want to explore as such.

26:43So we went back to the drawing board and found something called Vicalal, which is a plant-based amino acid complex. And essentially it mimics human type 1 collagen. So it's really well absorbed by the body. Your body doesn't have to interpret it like it does have to do with animal collagen. So it was a bit of a no-brainer for us. It doesn't have the risk of metal contaminants, free of any sort of nasties. It's very controlled the way it's made and it's completely natural as well. so it just aligned with our brand purpose beautifully we have that as our newest blend it is incredible we've had such amazing feedback already we launched it with a really exciting launch event which we haven't done before and yes so it's it's essentially a skin support collagen support blend it can reduce wrinkles it can reduce cellulite over time i think eight weeks is sort of like what the science is saying regular consumption of so obviously daily consumption that's really important with all of our shots yeah so that's our that's our lineup as it stands we're hoping to bring you know a couple of exciting additions in 2026 but but who knows everything that we have has an occasion so one thing we really wanted to do especially with marketing the products is it has an occasion that people can understand this does this so you know if you want a bit of energy support turmeric and turmeric original does that for you if you want something for your skin if you're sort of conscious of losing collagen and you want to boost that obviously the raw turmeric and pro collagen shot and then if your immunity is really bad you've got the raw turmeric and vitamin C and D3.

28:08So that's one thing that we really wanted to do with the product range is make it very clear what does what and what the benefits are. Yeah, no, it's so important. And I think it's what I love about all of this is you can easily just take a supplement, a tablet, like a pill. It's very easy to do that. But we can get it actually from real foods, real ingredients and have that natural process. Not only do you kind of get that enjoyable taste and like, oh, I actually have had something really nice there. It's just it's a better source. And yeah, we're we're huge in that obviously with packed being organic and it's literally just frozen there's no additives nothing added it's just great produce so i think what you put in your body is so important i think with the rise of things like glp1 and zempic and all these things where actually getting bang for your buck when it comes to nutrition and health and wellness actually going back to whole foods is such an important thing and i think this these functional shots is just such a great way of being able to do that and i know if i do a lot of talking especially like podcasting trade shows or whatever i actually find the ginger shots or the terrible ones actually help my voice rather than being that like raspy tickly i actually find whenever i do a trade show i will definitely have some kind of like a shot some sort of electrolyte like just for those periods where i'm like i know this is going to help recovery so yeah that's that's kind of how i fit them in i think it's it's interesting as well what you say about having a food first approach a lot of turmeric products you know like the capsules you get and the powders they just aren't effective essentially because the body like i said earlier about absorbing and and how turmeric is really poorly absorbed by the body these these capsules these powders they're ultra processed so the actual nutrients in the turmeric has been sort of burnt and it's great if you you know if it makes you feel i think a lot of it can have that placebo effect if it makes you feel a certain way that's awesome but if you actually want something that's effective i think sticking with raw fruits vegetables and products that have that food first approach is the best avenue to explore because just because it's a tablet that says it's turmeric doesn't mean it's turmeric turmeric is a great it's a you know you go to your local supermarket you go in the spice section turmeric's beautiful and curries get it as a powder as a spice it's a good flavor but if you're looking for health benefits you really have to be very savvy on the source and the quality of what you're consuming i think even the quality of those spices and powders varies across the board because you can have the bulk very cheaply made very old things or you can have a super fresh.

30:25Like if you ever have a fresh cinnamon powder, a fresh turmeric powder, you go to a spice market, if you've ever been to like Morocco and just walking through this place and seeing and smelling everything, like I open a jar, it doesn't smell that, it doesn't taste like that. So yeah, I think it's very, very important. Now I'm wary of time, but I'd love to now dig into when things haven't gone to plan and looking at a tough time where you're like, oh, that was a tough day at the office and this is how we got through it or what I learned from it. I think being able to pivot and think fast and be a problem solver is such a valuable skill in this industry.

30:58And in general, I think a good example would be it's always when you're sort of working externally that those are the issues that I think I've come across more frequently. And I think that that's fine because when you're working with people who are from all companies or you're working together, like there are going to have different, there's going to be somewhat different priorities. so for example sometimes with with a partner if football fans i think are relentless they can be so fickle and and really take things the wrong way so there was a time where we were sort of looking to go live with a really important campaign and it kept getting pushed back because the football team in question weren't doing very well and the fans don't react well so instead of the team sort of going which i think is is a good thing they wanted the campaign the announcement of the partnership to be really impactful they just kept pushing it back because they were doing so badly they're like you know we can't put this out on social media we can't say anything about this because fans are just going to eat us alive because they're not doing very well so I think it's like that and just sort of taking a step back and talking with the team and being like okay let's pivot let's do this another time or let's put something else out then I think yeah that's that's always it's it's a challenge that I do quite enjoy I really enjoy problem solving so if anything like that happens it's a bit like okay let's just do something else let's take a different approach or let's just do something different so that's always I think stakeholder management is definitely definitely a skill to have um but yeah it's just an obstacle at the end of the day and I think there's no point in getting beat down about something because it's not going to plan I think if you do have that sort of light touch pivot mindset Thomas always says like come and come to me with solutions not problems and I think it's a really good way of phrasing things and approaching things so yeah luckily nothing crazy has happened that I can really think or say but yeah I think just having that light touch pivot with pace enjoy it problem solve I think you're when I went up.

32:44Yeah, absolutely. I'd also argue if you're not having too many problems, then you're either avoiding them or just completely oblivious to what could be going wrong. So it's very good when things do go wrong, because you learn from them and go, let's not do that again. But yeah, keep that attitude going. And then on the other spectrum, now you've been there over four years, what's one of your proudest moments or proudest campaigns or things you've done? Like I'd love to kind of end on a high and go like, yeah, looking back at my time there, really proud of this. I would definitely say launching in Sainsbury's, it was a huge retail, it was a massive step for the business.

33:16We hadn't been listed in a major retailer before and the campaign was really well received. We got, you know, press coverage across socials. It did really well as well. And we were the best selling new product in Sainsbury's the month that we launched. So that was a massive, massive, you know, pal on the back. And at that time, we didn't have the team that we have. Like stage, I was literally, you know, like three of us in the marketing team. one of those people was Thomas. It was crazy what we could do. And I think it was a real testament to us that we didn't have the resources we have now. We didn't have the budget we have now.

33:45And we still achieve these amazing things. I think definitely the Sainsbury's launch was such a standout for me. And I'm so proud of what we did. And yeah, we definitely took learnings from that and just implemented going forward. Yeah, no, brilliant. I love that. I think it's amazing when you don't have budget and you don't have a resource, you're like, okay, how can we do this scrappy? And then as soon as you have a bit more, you're like i still want that same mentality because you can throw money to make it better it's like actually let's let's go take it back to the core like what can we do and yeah i think if you've experienced that and then you're growing together i think it's great and that's why i wanted to get you on the podcast just after seeing how highly thomas spoke of you and knowing the brand i think this has been fascinating to dig into um so this is the music question that i ask everyone it's uh what song pick like what song represents your working journey or is there a turmeric song co like a turmeric co song that is like that's our go-to i'm gonna say two if i can so the first one is life is the highway the rascal flats version from cars life is a highway like this whole journey's been up and down up and down but it's great and you're gonna stay on it and then i also think all i do is win by by dj khaled we win a lot our hands are gonna stay up love it that's the market we have like very positive self-talk that's the vibe of the turmeric cove and all we do is win we love it i love that yeah you've got you've got to believe in yourself you've got to keep keep putting out there i think it's everyone's always looking at they're like oh yeah these this represents this tough time so no let's have the high that's yes we're winners let's keep winning and for anyone who wants to get hold of you where is the best place to do that linkedin always linkedin i love my linkedin always post on linkedin i want people to talk more linkedin it's a good space but nicely i think talk nicely on it because a lot of people out each other and there's lots of cancel culture and i don't like that i think be uplifting talk to me through linkedin comment on my stuff i'll comment on yours but yeah always inboxes are always open i completely agree with that i said one day linkedin will sponsor this because every episode it's just feeding back to linkedin so i'm coming for you this year linkedin we're gonna get you love linkedin but for anyone who wants to now try the products get hold of them is the website the best place and then various stockists like where where would you say people should find it so website is great we've got a seven shot sample box as well if you want to try the whole range i think it's a great introduction um and see what your sort of favorite is we are stocked in sainsbury's we've got a really cool three pack in tesco which i just love it's like a little carrier case i love the packaging and that one uh we're in david lloyd's clubs we're in whole foods we're in planet organics you know come try enjoy on our website as well we do have a sort of a map of stockists so you can see exactly where we are so it saves your journey and disappointment if you're going somewhere and you can't find us but yeah and selfridges fantastic no it's been absolutely brilliant loved you sharing so openly and thank you so much for sharing your time with us thank you for having me it's been fantastic love what you do so thank you and to everyone listening thank you we will see you on the next episode goodbye