TRANSCRIPT

Adam Callinan (00:54)
Our conversation today is with Amita Massey. She is the founder of Glowbody. It's a nutritional supplement company, revolves around protein that comes from a pretty epic background and story, ⁓ one that nearly took her life. She is not only frankly a delight to talk to and converse with, but she's really, really honest and authentic in ways that are hard.

⁓ and then a lot of people are not, particularly in this, this crazy world of AI and social media. ⁓ we talk a lot about her company, her story, what got her there. The, you know, 80 minute walk that she builds into her time every day as a means of, of mental escape and brainstorm and remaining healthy and resilient to deal with these crazy ups and downs that we take as entrepreneurs. really, really enjoy this conversation again, because her, willingness to be open and raw.

about things that are traditionally you would think would be really personal and private, but she shares them in a way that I think can be really helpful to other people, entrepreneurs and not. So I hope you enjoy the conversation today with Amita Massey.

Adam Callinan (02:05)
let's start at the beginning. What's your story? How did you get to to Glowbody and doing what you're doing now?

Amita (02:11)
Yeah, so I mean, if we want to start.

all the way from the beginning, which we could do. ⁓ So basically, like, well, the premise of my business is it's a wellness brand. My goal is to empower women, specifically mental wellness. But I mean, my personal mission is to really just like empower everyone's wellness and just make sure everyone's taking care of themselves and everyone understands how important it is to take care of themselves. And that came from a personal story when I was in high

Adam Callinan (02:16)
You can go as far back as you want to go. We have time.

Amita (02:43)
school I was diagnosed with a really severe eating disorder and I had it was anorexia and I had I was going through that for about five years super severe anxiety and depression you know if we want to get really dark I did try and like take my own life when I was 17 like there was a lot that happened in those five years and we still don't you know eating disorders are something that's very like

I don't know what the right word is, but people don't really understand them. People think it's that you just want to be skinny and you don't want to eat, but there is so many underlying parts to where an eating disorder comes from. It comes from need for control. It comes from having depression, anxiety, and then needing to find some way to cope with that. And some people choose alcohol. Some people choose to overeat. Some people choose to starve themselves. There's so many different ways that mental...

illness like shows itself. And so mine was in a needing disorder and it was yeah, it just it took me on a five year journey and eventually I kind of, you know, got to a point where I wasn't recovering. I spent about two years like in and out of like hospital visits, you know, really, really, really sick. And it got to a point when I graduated high school that I was like, OK, I

can't really live the rest of my life like this. Like, what if I want to go to university? I want to have, you know, kids. I was in a relationship at that time and I was like, I can't be with another human if I...

hate myself. That's not really, that's not really gonna work out for me. So ⁓ I decided that I was gonna choose the path of recovery and not choose the, you know, other path, which would be to die, basically, eventually. And so I just started to teach myself about like nutrition and I started teaching myself about how to exercise for strength and wellness, not just to be skinny. And I started a little health food blog.

that I called Food Glow and the idea of it was that I was on the search for my glow because I looked sallow and sad all the time. And from there it just kind of started to evolve. really started to enjoy like...

baking and I started using protein powders as a means to like bake with and I would make smoothies for myself to help like put on weight and help recover from exercise and My first business was when I was 18. I started a protein doughnut company And that's when I started to really yeah, I was I was awesome I started to really love the world of consumer packaged goods and you know getting the high from getting into a new grocery store and learning how to wholesale and distribute and

Adam Callinan (05:18)
Sounds great.

Amita (05:30)
That business kind of took a turn in COVID. It was really not a very sustainable business model. ⁓ And then I decided that protein powder was a huge part, always, of my recovery. It was always something that reminded me to care for myself, because every day I would wake up and I would make myself a smoothie or I'd make myself protein oatmeal. And I did that all through my recovery. And it was my reminder to myself that I need to feel my body because I love it. I'm not feeling my body because...

I hate it or I'm not gonna not eat today or it was just always my reminder and I was like, you know, this is such a great way for me to take my story of you know, how a protein powder literally helped me recover from my eating disorder but then also create something, a beautiful product that other people can keep in their homes that remind them every day when they drink it that they are caring for their bodies and that they should do something good for themselves. So that's where I am today. And here we are.

Adam Callinan (06:24)
I mean, that

is an incredible, I mean, you just covered 20 plus years and well, like four minutes, but that is an incredible synopsis. If we can, I want to, we're not going to spend this whole time going down deep dark rabbit holes. We're going to go down some rabbit holes, but we'll, we'll only spend it. Yeah. We'll only spend a little bit of time because I think there, there's a lot, there's a lot in there and there are probably some, some really valuable gems.

Amita (06:31)
Pretty much. ⁓

It's a big story.

Adam Callinan (06:51)
in there, when you made the choice to, to make that change and like, it sounds like you kind of got to a fork in the road. was like either we're going down the dark one or we're gonna, we're going to make some significant changes and you know, and, and, go down the light one. Was that, was that because of an event that happened? And it looks like I see this in other things. Like I've, I have friends and I've interviewed other people like,

Amita (07:06)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Callinan (07:15)
got in a plane crash and like lost a leg and that took him down a totally different path and he's a different person as a result. Or, you know, just these highly traumatic events that I learn a lot from.

Amita (07:17)
you

Yeah.

Honestly, like I don't think there was there was not really one specific moment where it just kind of like clicked in my head It was it was very gradual It was like, you know I would get up from a chair and feel like I was gonna pass out and like I would I just like I got tired of feeling the way I was feeling or like I couldn't like I couldn't

I wasn't allowed to exercise. Like I literally wasn't even allowed to go for walks. I was so, like my body was so depleted. And so it just kind of got to a point where I was just tired. I was like, I don't want to like...

I don't want to feel like I'm gonna collapse at any moment in the day and you know lots of things got taken away from me because I like you know I wasn't allowed to exercise I wasn't allowed to stay home by myself I wasn't allowed to drive anywhere by myself I wasn't allowed like if I was eating I had to have someone with me like I was constantly being watched all the time and people were scared of like what I was gonna do to myself so I was always being chaperoned and it just got to a point where I was like I can't like I'm not gonna do that

You know, I was like, I was turning 18 and I was like, I'm like gonna be an adult now. I can't, you know, have my mom watch me every time I eat.

Adam Callinan (08:38)
So it's like the culmination of a lot of things sort of piled onto each other. That totally makes sense. So let's talk protein. How do you make a protein powder? I mean, I take a ton of protein I have for a very long time, so I totally get it. I've never really like thought through the process of how do you make a protein?

Amita (08:40)
Yeah, yeah, it was very gradual. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓

Yeah, it's...

It's honestly like, it's funny. feel like I have like, there's, everyone's like, this is exactly how you do it. I literally woke up one day and it was like, I had like a download. I was like, I'm starting a protein powder company. So I literally Googled it. I was like, how do you start a protein powder company? Like, I know I can't make it myself because I didn't know how to do that. And I literally just Googled it. And I was like, how do you make a protein powder company? And the first thing that came up was you need to find a manufacturer. So then I Googled.

Adam Callinan (09:11)
Perfect.

Amita (09:26)
protein powder manufacturers in Canada. ⁓ And then I called a bunch of manufacturers and eventually I found one I really liked and then I did create the formula. Like that was something I just had the knowledge. I had tried every protein powder out there. I knew what I wanted in the product. I just didn't know how to.

Adam Callinan (09:46)
Do you mean

like from a macronutrient standpoint or?

Amita (09:48)
Yeah, add

ingredients. like, you know, I knew I wanted a grass-fed whey, I knew I wanted collagen in it, sucralose-free, like I knew all those things. I took everything I didn't like about every other protein pattern was like, you know, kind of did that. But ⁓ yeah, I Googled it. That's how I started a company.

Adam Callinan (09:59)
Yeah.

I love that because you said something at the beginning of that is that like everybody has their own version of you have to do it this way you have to do it that way. And I don't know if you can see the sign on here. It literally says question everything because of that. Like I wholeheartedly believe that if you have something from somebody where they're, saying it has to be done a certain way that to me is a massive red flag. Like, no, they just can't. I can't possibly follow that path. So, and from a resourcefulness standpoint,

Amita (10:27)
Yeah. No.

I

Adam Callinan (10:34)
Google can answer most questions. you know, or chat GPT at this point, like the slight, better version of Google. Like that's really cool. I love that.

Amita (10:35)
They were great!

Yeah. Yeah, and it was

just, it just...

It was so interesting because I just kind of had told myself, I was like, if this is meant to happen, like, it's gonna happen. And the worst thing of me not trying to start this is that I'm never gonna start it. So I'm gonna just try. Like, I was 19 and I was like, have, you know, $14,000 of savings and I'm gonna put all of that into a run of protein powder. And I Googled my way through.

Adam Callinan (10:58)
Yeah. Yeah.

Amita (11:12)
it.

Adam Callinan (11:13)
So you found a

manufacturer or maybe did you, was it a couple and then you like whittled it down to one or did you just find one and ran?

Amita (11:20)
I

really just found one. I ended up kind of narrowing it down to two and then what was the...

Deciding factor was the samples. I got samples from each of them ⁓ And then the the first one like I was really glad that I kind of thought of this but the very first one they were really trying to upsell me everything so They were like put your powders in tubs. You need to custom print this you need to order this like they were very much like wanting me to start big ⁓ And then the other manufacturer was like we're gonna do one label on a mylar bag We're gonna do you know moq of a hundred like

They were very much willing to work with the size I was at. then their products were like, they had good quality sourcing and then that was how I chose them.

Adam Callinan (12:08)
Amazing. So you were direct to consumer starting out? Are you entirely direct to consumer today or are you doing some distribution as well?

Amita (12:14)
I'm doing,

so actually most of my business is like wholesale distribution. ⁓ My e-commerce business is like on the...

Adam Callinan (12:19)
⁓ okay.

Amita (12:24)
up and coming. But because of my protein, ⁓ my protein donut business, I had gone direct to grocery stores. So I had, it was very easy for me to pivot to grocery stores with the protein because I knew them all already. Like I knew all the contacts in Calgary. So right away I started selling in stores, ⁓ which I mean, it's not great for your margins right off the bat. Like, I mean, I was grateful. I had a lot of good connections here that they were willing to

you know, some did consignment with me and like, you know, they were willing to kind of be nice about it, but ⁓ a lot of it was grocery stores at the beginning.

Adam Callinan (13:03)
So you, did you, from this protein business, not the protein donut business, did you pop up like a Shopify store or something like that at the beginning? And is that growth, even if it's small relative or smaller relative to the wholesale, has that grown just organically or have you been doing some paid media stuff in there?

Amita (13:06)
Hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, so actually up until last month, it's been all organic.

Just like word of mouth through pop-ups through Instagram like about 90 % of the traffic that comes to my Shopify site comes directly from our Instagram ⁓ Which is interesting because we only have like 4,000 followers, but they're all incredibly like engaged which is which is really nice ⁓ So yeah, it's really I'll just come come through Instagram because from the my previous business I just turned that Instagram into the new one so I had all these followers already and then it just kind of became integral

Adam Callinan (13:41)
Yeah, it's great.

Amita (13:54)
body but ⁓ about a month ago I recently just started writing Facebook ads ⁓ which has been a really interesting journey but but yeah it's been all organic up until now

Adam Callinan (14:06)
How you say it's been an interesting journey. have, I have some significant history in scar tissue operating Facebook ads. Um, I mean, my last company bottle keeper, built entirely on Facebook ads. And I mean entirely to tens of millions of revenue entirely on Facebook. But this was 2004. mean, we got acquired in 2021. So this is 2014 through then, which was like the hay day of Facebook. I mean, we're like from 14 to probably 17, we almost couldn't spend it fast enough.

Amita (14:16)
Wow! That's amazing.

Crazy. ⁓

Wow.

Yeah.

Adam Callinan (14:35)
So it's totally different world there

today. But so I'm interested in, in what you're seeing coming at it from the standpoint of starting B2B. We didn't go into B2B until like year four. We were completely direct to consumer. So you're doing it the opposite, which I think is a, is today as a much smarter way to do it. think being entirely paid media related is dangerous. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's like a blend, right? I mean, there, everything in life is sort of revolves around a balance to some extent, like being at the extremes.

Amita (14:46)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Really? ⁓ my god, sometimes I see it.

Yeah.

Adam Callinan (15:04)
on either side tend to be dangerous. ⁓ So yeah, what are you seeing so far in the Facebook world? Are you noticing the dollars that you're spending there? Are they being impactful to the business or is it too early? So just kind of figuring it out.

Amita (15:04)
Yeah.

Yeah, it's really interesting because I like originally kind of embarked on the like, know, running Facebook ads by myself again.

Google, I was like, I just Googled it all ⁓ and I didn't quite understand the whole testing part of ads and looking at the ad library and see what the other people are doing. I really was just like, okay, I need to just take my Instagram reels and post them on Facebook ads and I'm gonna get a bunch of sales. But then I'm, which is not how it works. So, exactly.

Adam Callinan (15:29)
Yeah.

No, no, it's not. But you don't know that until you try it, or I guess unless

you Google it and someone tells you.

Amita (15:57)
Exactly

Google was not helpful in that that case ⁓ But I eventually I actually just randomly found someone apparently I had met them in high school but ⁓ They are kind of a whiz in Facebook ads and they just said to me like you need to be making new ads and testing like it's your full-time job kind of thing and so I For the past month I make ads every single day and I post ads every other day and I'm obsessed

with my Facebook ads dashboard and I stare at it probably more than I stare at my own reflection. And it's been really interesting because the ads that you think are gonna hit are never the ones that hit. And like one hits and then you double down on what you did on that one and then that one doesn't hit. And it's just, it's, yeah, I just don't, like I'm so.

Adam Callinan (16:41)
Yeah, of course.

Amita (16:51)
confused about it all still.

Adam Callinan (16:54)
Yeah.

Amita (16:54)
But

my kind of motto moving forward with it is like, never, again, with the protein, like you never know until you just do stuff. So I just make new creatives in different angles every day and just try and find what's gonna work. And I've had some ones that have hit and I've got great, you know, like return on my investment in them and they've profited. And then there's been some where it just, you know, spends $200 and I get no sales from it. So, yeah.

Adam Callinan (17:23)
Yeah,

it's such a, there's this interesting blend inside of paid media that's part art and part science. The art is the stuff that you're creating. The science is what happens after that. And that it's, it's all really, really data driven. And it's, I always have a hard time. mean, I have a hard time with this literally every single day. What's obvious ⁓ to me is only obvious to me. And I have to like constantly remind myself of that. And at the end of the day, particularly in paid media, it's the data.

Amita (17:29)
Yeah.

Adam Callinan (17:50)
Excuse me. The data is what answers the questions. What I thought like we built a beer product company for guys our age, like in their thirties. And that's not who bought our product. Our product was purchased by women between 35 and 65 was like 70 % of our online sales were women's 35 to 65. So like what you think is going to be is rarely like what actually becomes right.

Amita (17:52)
Yeah.

Yes.

Adam Callinan (18:16)
And it's at the end of the day, it's the people spending money that are that are answering the question. They're the data point.

Amita (18:20)
Yeah.

Yeah. It's crazy because that's actually that's something I noticed with mine is like, I'm a bodybuilder. Like I compete in bodybuilding. It's like very much my world. And that's who I like thought this brand was going to market to. and the Pilates girls, the Pilates girls are my market and I don't do Pilates like ever.

Adam Callinan (18:38)
Amazing.

Amita (18:40)
I think I've taken one Pilates class, but every ad that has something to do with Pilates or Pilates girl protein or like anything to do with that, that's the ad that hits. And I'm like, I don't even, okay. I gotta start doing Pilates. Pretty much. Yep, yep, yep. ⁓

Adam Callinan (18:56)
You got to get into Pilates. Yeah, you're, yeah. Now you're a professional Pilates instructor. Okay, perfect. Yeah. No, I mean, you got to do what I

mean, it's literally what it is. We started to create a bunch of ads for women. Like it's who's buying the product is the, that's who your customer is. So you gotta, you gotta meet them where they're at. That's amazing.

Amita (19:09)
Yeah.

Yeah, So yeah, I frequent

all the Pilates events in Calgary now, because I'm like, those are my girls.

Adam Callinan (19:18)
That's awesome.

Perfect. What comes next? What is your protein lineup like now? And how does it evolve? How do you evolve the product?

Amita (19:27)
Like all my

Yeah,

That's actually a great question because that's something that I'm currently, I made a post on LinkedIn today kind of about like where the business is at right now and sort of in that like hockey stick growth and we're like in the little like that little dip just swinging back and forth because the...

Adam Callinan (20:30)
your inflection point.

Amita (20:31)
Yep,

that's, yeah, and it's interesting place to be because, mean, I think we're gonna talk about this later with taking care of yourself, but I personally feel like the worst I ever have in running the business, just drained, because it's in this rocking back and forth point of, okay, it's gonna grow, and then it's like, ⁓ it's like, okay, and the supplement industry is like...

kind of like that. You have to be innovative and be thinking of new things all the time in order to keep being relevant in front of people. Originally when I had started the business I was like, I'm going to create a million dollar, multi-million dollar business off of a whey isolate collagen blend. But as the business has evolved, mean the protein does extremely well. It's one of a kind, it's whey isolate with collagen, it's sweetened with all natural sweeteners. ⁓ But as I'm starting to get more into the industry I'm really

that like that is not a product on its own that's gonna create a business. It's a commodity item, like Way Isolate's been around since before I was born. it's, you know, like a lot of other people are doing Way Isolate, you know, fine already. And so to scale the business to where I want it to go, I think this is answering your question, but like there does have to be some innovation. And, you know, that for me might look like, you know, a ready to drink protein with something, you know, more functional.

it might come from doing more like consumable like snack kind of foods ⁓ instead of just the supplement side of things. it's kind of something that I'm really like having to sort of think about like what the identity of the business is gonna look like as this little curve stops doing this is like, are we gonna keep just being powdered supplements or like is, you know, coming out with a bar or something gonna take us here or is coming out with something else gonna take us, you know, so.

Adam Callinan (22:20)
You

Amita (22:23)
Yeah, I think that answered your question. might have just rambled there.

Adam Callinan (22:26)
No, that's great. know it really is. That's great.

It makes incredible sense. And there are a ton of parallels in into the things that we did with bottle keeper and the struggles we had. And frankly, we did not innovate our product line fast enough and we paid for it. We had we had a tough year in 2019 basically because we did not. I believe that this single product was like, that's all we ever have to make. And then by the time I realized

Amita (22:45)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Adam Callinan (22:54)
Well, we got a problem. Like it took a year, it took a year and half to get out the next like really good product. So in your case with like, you know, looking at bars or other consumables, other products that your Pilates women and surely some men are gonna love, is it easy to test those things? Or like, do you have to commit and do like a full run of, you know, a bar for example?

Amita (23:01)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's not. Usually, a lot of times, for example, with the current products, every time I've launched something new with the current products, I kind of test it, honestly, just by talking to different people that I know are huge brand fans. And I'm like, OK, when I was launching the Amino, I was like, what do you guys think if I launch a Stevia-Sweetened essential amino acid supplement?

and everybody's like, my god, I've been looking for a clean essential amino, and then it, and I launched it, and it's doing extremely well. So it's like, I honestly just talk to people.

Kind like how I just Google things. ⁓ Because it can be really difficult to, especially in the supplement space when you're not allowed to make, like you can't make stuff on your own, just like in your kitchen, because Health Canada doesn't allow that. You do have to like do a run. ⁓

Adam Callinan (23:58)
Yeah, no.

Amita (24:16)
But in terms of the bar space, from what I've, who I've chatted with, most of their minimums are like 100,000 or 500,000, because it's a smaller unit. So ⁓ yeah, I don't really know. mean, if there is somebody out there who makes samples, let me know. So.

Adam Callinan (24:35)
Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, I think, you you're, sounds like you're on very much on the right track of like, you talk to the customer, they'll tell you what they want. That's what we did. I mean, yeah.

Amita (24:44)
Yeah.

And also just being part of the industry. it's something I post

about a lot on LinkedIn is like if you are selling your product, like you need to be like walking your walk and talking your talk. And that's how you're going to figure out what the right thing is to sell. Like I probably every month make like five thousand dollars in like e-transfer sales, literally from just going to the gym every day. And like you and I and I learn from people, right? Like I learn what people want and I hear what people have to say about.

you know, the things they need to support their wellness. it's, yeah, there's so much, ⁓ I feel like people think that you have to like, you know, chat, GPT things to find, you know, studies and papers on researching, but there's nothing better than researching by yourself and like literally going into the world of which you live in and why you created the product. Like I created this product because I found a problem because I'm an active individual who needs a protein powder and supplements to support my goals. So I should be hanging out around those people to figure out.

what they want as well. So, yeah.

Adam Callinan (25:45)
that I mean, that's a, that's a great, like, I feel like AI is forcing us all to like knee jerk back to just being human beings. And I mean, honestly, that's one of the reasons why I'm doing a podcast is because like the world of AI, everything is AI this and AI that. And although I use it for stuff, I use it actually quite a lot. And I can accomplish things that six months ago, I couldn't have particularly from like a development standpoint, I'm not a developer and I can now I'm like an 80 % developer. It's crazy with, but I think

Amita (26:04)
Mm-hmm.

Adam Callinan (26:16)
the way that AI is influencing communication and everything, like really knee jerks us back to exactly what you just talked about, which is like literally walk into the gym and have a conversation with a human being. They will tell you what they want. There's so much beauty in that like human to human engagement and value.

Amita (26:26)
Yeah, yes.

Totally

and I like I mean this might be me just being like super woo-woo but like I like I feel like like people like Tell you things and you can like feel when something feels right like if someone's talking to me about you know I really wish there was a you know

protein gummy or something, which now there are. But let's just say, for example, I sit and I think about that and I'm like, okay, someone obviously said that to me for a reason. Is that something that I should think about? Now, then do I need to go to Google or chat GBT and research it? I just feel like you also retain things and you think about things more when someone says them to you versus if you just read it online, because you interpret things so differently.

Adam Callinan (27:14)
Yeah, it's part of the relationship. Even if it's just a passing one, it becomes part of your life and psyche. That's great. There's again, I think that we as humans are pulling hard back into that direction. And I think it's an important positive pull. shifting gears a little bit, I think you're the perfect person to go down the, how do you take care of yourself? What are the things that you do?

Amita (27:16)
Yeah.

Yeah.

So much, yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Adam Callinan (27:42)
I mean, I have a whole list of them for myself. So, but I got to that from being in some not great places mentally in some not great places. And I also, have my sister's bipolar. So my, my family has some pretty significant history with mental health. And I am acutely aware that it is far more prevalent than, I mean, people are starting to talk about it a lot more now, but it's a big thing. So I have, I have been there myself.

Amita (27:43)
Mmm.

Adam Callinan (28:08)
What do you do today? You know, it sounds like exercise is a huge piece of that, which is incredible and important. What do you do today to keep yourself resilient and durable through these like big swings? You you're in that inflection point teeter totter right now. Like, what are you doing to mentally deal with that?

Amita (28:21)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean I cry a lot. ⁓

Adam Callinan (28:30)
It happens. Yeah.

Amita (28:31)
⁓ No, I mean, to be honest, mean, this is probably like one of the spots, like since my eating disorder that I've found it the hardest to take care of my mental health, like right now, because the business does demand the most it's ever have and a lot for me. And but then I'm also am trying to balance like the care I want to give to myself. And it is really difficult.

like right now to be like, okay, I don't know what eggs to put my basket in, but I have to constantly tell myself that like, I am the basket. Without me, like there is nothing. And so if I'm, you know, like stressing about the business and not prioritizing my wellness, the business isn't gonna work. And I'm really just starting to learn now that like, you know, that I'm really just starting to learn.

that now, like that you are your business and if you're not healthy, your business isn't healthy. And I think like currently what I'm doing right now is I have just like non-negotiables. And so every day my non-negotiable is I go for an hour and 20 minute walk, which sounds like a really long time, but it's, but it is a non-negotiable. And if you talk to anyone in my life, they hate the walk because they know that if you're, if you're dying,

Adam Callinan (29:48)
Sounds great.

Ha ha.

Amita (29:57)
I'm not coming to your funeral because I gotta go for a walk. That walk is like the super important part of my day because it's also the part of my day where I get a lot of my creativity and ideas when I'm walking. So that's huge. I have non-negotiable there and my other non-negotiables. have to gym, go to the gym every single day. And it doesn't like, move my body every single morning. And especially me being like a very type A person, if I...

myself that's something that has to get done and I like make it like almost a rule that we wake up every morning and we move our bodies then I know it's gonna get done like I would feel bad if it doesn't and I know when I do that I get my best ideas I feel happier I feel better like it it sounds like it's almost like you have to kind of I sometimes I like trick myself and I'm like no I don't have time to go on this block like I have so much work to do

But then I'm like, no, but the walk is kind of actually working at the same time though. So yeah, it's creating those non-negotiables. And ⁓ the second thing is also having a life outside of my business, which is a new thing I'm trying to teach myself. ⁓ I have always, like again, I've had my own business since I was 18. I've always been like a hustler. Like that's my thing.

And my business has always been my identity. And I learned that, you when I'm out in a social setting, people don't know what else to talk to me about except for my business. And I really noticed it after ⁓ COVID when we started to go out more and socialize with people. And I would like, or I would meet new people. And the only thing that people knew how to talk to me about was my business because I had nothing else. There was nothing else?

Adam Callinan (31:39)
Yeah.

Amita (31:48)
about me, like, you know? And so ⁓ that's when I started to kind of realize, like, OK, I need to have hobbies and I need to have an identity outside of the business so that, you know, maybe while I'm in this teeter totter and maybe one month something, you know, the business isn't doing well, that I don't feel like I'm not doing well. I have other things that can make me feel like I'm a good human being besides, you know, how much revenue I've made. So.

Every year I try and learn a new skill. So last year I learned how to rollerblade, the year before I learned how to skateboard, this year I learned how to play pickleball. So I try and find little hobbies that make me feel like I'm learning something and make me feel good about myself so that I, if for some reason my revenue's down, I'm like, but I can play pickleball, so it's fine.

Adam Callinan (32:38)
Yeah, there's,

there's so much important in that being able to separate. I, this doesn't get into the, the, the very potentially woo topic of like work, work life balance and all of that, which is a whole other thing. Being able to separate yourself from the company is really important and really helpful. ⁓ it's really difficult. And I mean, I deal with, I'm dealing with this right now. Like it's really difficult to.

Amita (32:56)
Yes, super.

Adam Callinan (33:04)
to take a step back and look at what's happening inside of a company when you're like, head is so buried in it. I mean, it's impossible, you can't do it. So being able to separate yourself from that is, it's great that you've had that realization and are putting pieces in place to kind of force that. On your 80 minute walk, this is fascinating, I love this. What do you do? Like, do you listen to headphones? Do you take notes on a note taker? Or is it like no tech, just brainstorm?

Amita (33:12)
No.

you

Yeah.

Yeah,

it depends on the day. Usually I listen to a podcast. That's my favorite. I love listening to like a health podcast that like scares me about like, you know, how we shouldn't eat oatmeal anymore or something. Like, love one of those.

Adam Callinan (33:40)
Gosh, I want to

bring that back. I'm coming back to that because I this happened to me recently with my wife and I'm it's so insane.

Amita (33:48)
Oh, yeah,

I'm like I drink everyone's Kool-Aid like liver King. I have a heart. There's still a heart in our freezer I bought a heart. I watched like I love that I never ate it. I never ate it. It just sits there But yeah, I'll listen to a podcast my mom she she owns a school so in her summer she's off so in the summer I like to take her on my walks and we'll just talk about like

Adam Callinan (33:57)
Well, is good for you. Let's be clear, it's a muscle. Yeah. That's hilarious.

Amita (34:16)
life and she has her own business as well so it's really nice. just talk, we also talk about business a lot and she really helps a lot with like the mental part of things because she's also been through it all like in her business as well and so she's multiple chit chat. ⁓ I'll call my sister or like yeah I kind of just decide how I what I need that day to fill my cup. Sometimes I take work calls ⁓ or sometimes I just walk and I just ponder

life. Like if I have a lot on my in my head that day like just like yeah silence is great. Yeah.

Adam Callinan (34:48)
Amazing.

Got it.

A week ago, 10 days ago, I'm bringing us back to the health podcast. My wife, my family and I have two young kids and my wife and my kids were, were on a road trip and it was a six hour drive. And so she plugs in a podcast and it's a super entertaining. It's like the skinny something. I don't know. It's a husband and wife. They're, they're hilarious. They're entertaining. The guest on the first podcast is Dave Asprey, who's super interesting guy, very strong opinions.

He's like, everything is going to kill you. Literally. If you think, if you think greens are good for you, think again, you're going to die and you're going to get a ton of bladder infections. And because oxalates and kale literally our entire garden is kale, spinach, shard, like all these things. He's like, you're dead raspberries. Yeah. You're going to die. The next podcast we listened to is the mental. I remember his name. His name was Andrew something he like is a no, it's not Andrew here.

Amita (35:35)
You're done. Yeah. ⁓ god.

Kuberman? ⁓

Adam Callinan (35:49)
I like him.

Amita (35:50)
Okay.

Adam Callinan (35:51)
This guy's like, literally he came on and said the exact opposite. He's the one that he, this is terrible. It's going to make for really good podcast content. he like, he's a medium. He's like the health medium. He just pulls the stuff out of the ether and what he says is interesting. And he's also really strong opinions. The exact opposite. Spinach is your friend. You have to eat spinach, make spinach soup. Literally the exact opposite on the same podcast. How is that possible?

What are you supposed to do with that information?

Amita (36:19)
That's

so funny. Yeah, I like, ⁓ man, yeah. I'll fall into all that. I don't eat kale anymore. I specifically don't eat kale, because Dave Asprey told me not to kale, so I don't eat kale anymore.

Adam Callinan (36:29)
I just can't. ⁓ Like, look, unless you can show me some data and some actual like good science behind it, I'm just not gonna pay attention to it. And they're both for complete opposite reasons, spouting incredible amounts of information, none of which has like any hard, or at least much hard data or science behind it. So that's where I put up my guardrail.

Amita (36:30)
Yeah. I, uh... Yeah.

No.

No. Yeah. yeah.

Yeah,

it's funny because my boyfriend will make fun of me because there's like, I guess there's this thing going around on Instagram right now where if you have a girlfriend that's like me, who's very obsessed with, you know, health and wellness, you call her your almond girlfriend. And that means, you know, like you're the girl that wakes up in the morning and drinks lemon water and sits in front of her red light therapy lamp and guashas her face and drinks like electrolytes and mushroom coffee and...

So it's a thing going around on Instagram. And so he will send me those videos and he's like, why is this you? Why is this you? is this you? Because someone tells me I need, I've got my red light therapy lamp right next to me here. And I sit in front of it every morning and I don't know what it does for me, but heard on the podcast. So, yeah.

Adam Callinan (37:19)
That's amazing.

All right, what, is there anything you wanna share? Where can people find you? ⁓ Yeah, we'll put links and everything in the show notes, but where do you want people to find you?

Amita (37:42)
Yeah.

Well,

you can find me lots of different places. Instagram is usually the most fun place because I hang out there the most. So it's at Drink Glow Body is the business Instagram and then at Glow With Dot Amita is my personal Instagram and I post lots about my bodybuilding and about business stuff and the food I like to cook on there. So you can learn about that there. And then business is the Drink Glow Body. My website is

Glowbody.ca. You can connect with me on LinkedIn. I love to talk about my, you know, journey on there and buy my products because you're love them. They're all across Canada.

Adam Callinan (38:29)
And that's amazing.

Are you distributing in the US? Not yet, okay. Got it. Perfect. All right, don't hang up, because we gotta let this thing upload all the way, but thank you so much for coming and being honest and telling your true story. I think that's where all the value is. I do.

Amita (38:34)
Not yet, no. I would like to. One day. Yeah.

Cool.

Thank you. Well, thank you for having me. I was so

honored when you asked me to be on your podcast. I was like, ooh, okay. Sorry I couldn't shower before I came. Exactly. That's what I told myself on the way here. I was like, it's all authentic. We're all good.

Adam Callinan (38:57)
No, it's great. Awesome. Cool. Yeah. No, again, it's authentic. We're looking for authenticity and that's what we get. It's perfect.

Go ahead.