Today I am talking with Lisa Gawthorne. Co-Founder of Bravura Foods, Vegan entrepreneur, Author and Athlete Lisa Gawthorne is a passionate speaker on the topics of veganism, climate change and animal welfare. Recent appearances include TV include spots on Sky News and BBC News. Lisa has been named one of the top most 50 ambitious business leaders in UK by the Telegraph and has also been awarded the James Henry Cook award from the Health Food Institute for her inspiring support of vegan principles in ...
Today I am talking with Lisa Gawthorne. Co-Founder of Bravura Foods, Vegan entrepreneur, Author and Athlete Lisa Gawthorne is a passionate speaker on the topics of veganism, climate change and animal welfare. Recent appearances include TV include spots on Sky News and BBC News. Lisa has been named one of the top most 50 ambitious business leaders in UK by the Telegraph and has also been awarded the James Henry Cook award from the Health Food Institute for her inspiring support of vegan principles in business and sport.
This series features conversations I conducted with individuals who have dedicated their work and lives to Vegan research, businesses, art, and society. This podcast series is hosted by Patricia Kathleen and Wilde Agency Media.
TRANSCRIPTION
*Please note this is an automated transcription, please excuse any errors or typos
[00:00:00] In this episode, I had the opportunity to speak with co-founder, author and Vegan athlete Lisa Gawthorne on key points addressed were Lisa's. A company that offers full sales, marketing and distribution services for Vegan products. Her book. Gone in 60 Minutes. And her incredible exercise and sports career as a proud Vegan athlete. Stay tuned for my awesome chat with Lisa Gawthorne.
[00:00:35] My name is Patricia Kathleen, and this series features interviews and conversations I conduct with experts from food and fashion to tech and agriculture, from medicine and science to health and humanitarian arenas. The dialog captured here is part of our ongoing effort to host transparent and honest rhetoric. For those of you who, like myself, find great value in hearing the expertize and opinions of individuals who have dedicated their work and lives to their ideals. If you're enjoying these podcasts, be sure to check out our subsequent series that dove deep into specific areas such as founders and entrepreneurs. Fasting and roundtable topics. They can be found on our Web site. Patricia. Kathleen. Dot com, where you can also join our newsletter. You can also subscribe to all of our series on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Pod Being and YouTube. Thanks for listening. Now let's start the conversation.
[00:01:32] Hi, everyone, and welcome back. I am your host, Patricia.
[00:01:35] And today I'm sitting down with Lisa Gawthorne and she she's the co-founder and author and a Vegan athlete. You can find out more about her in the conversation that we have today on her Web site. W w w dot bravura foods dot com that's B R A V U R A foods dot com. Welcome Lisa.
[00:01:55] Thank you. Thanks for having me.
[00:01:56] Absolutely. For everyone listening, I will give you a quick bio on Lisa. But before I do that, a roadmap of today's podcast for those of you that want to a little bit of a transaction were first to look at. We says academic, personal and professional history as well as her Vegan journey kind of gives you a foundation as to how she came to where she is right now. Then we'll turn our efforts into unpacking both River Foods and her book entitled. Gone in 60 Minutes. I'll get into some of the logistics about the who, what, when, where, why, how funding co-founders, all of that. And then we'll turn our efforts to looking at the ethos and the philosophical endeavors behind River Foods. And then we'll look at the book. As I mentioned, you get into some of the ethos. Is that what it offers its readers and what that wisdom it's meant to impart? We'll also look at areas talking about Kovik 19 pandemic and some of the conversation that we soon may be having with her fellow colleagues or even within herself about the changing reality that is upon us. We'll also look at goals that she may have looking into the future regarding her business and her personal endeavors. And we were up everything up with advice that we see may have for those of you who are looking to emulate some of her success or perhaps get involved with one of her current businesses. A quick bio, as promised. Co-founder of River Foods Vegan entrepreneur, author and GCB athlete Lisa Gawthorne is a passionate speaker on the topics of veganism, climate change and animal welfare.
[00:03:25] Recent appearances include TV include spots on Sky News and BBC. Lisa has been named one of the top most 50 ambitious business leaders in the UK by the Telegraph and has also been awarded the James Henry Cooke Award from the Health Food Institute for her inspiring support of Vegan principles in business and sport. The Grocer magazine has also named Lisa as one of the 10 most influential people shaping the plant based market in the UK. Lisa is also the author of the Health and Fitness Book. Book. Gone in 60 Minutes, a bite sized health and fitness savior sold on Amazon, which is sold out.
[00:04:09] We're gonna get that fixed. So as I just mentioned, I am an avid reader, but I don't care because I'm going to pepper you with questions anyway.
[00:04:17] All about the book. Book. Before we get to all of that, I'm hoping that you can provide a platform of your academic life or your personal professional history, your Vegan story, anything that kind of brought you to launching preverb foods and writing the book.
[00:04:34] Yes, absolutely. And the beauty about that is that it's all very much interlinks as well. So a quick short summary of what I did when I was younger at school and college. I was very good at business and the academic side of things. So I did a business degree shortly after doing that. Business suits and a new wanted to be in the world of marketing. And I set myself up with some really good jobs in the north west of England where I lived, where some great brands like to. It's them. So Cadbury's all these great film kind of kids, confection and kids, soft drinks brands did that for a number of years. And before I actually made the decision round about two thousand five, two thousand six, I really wanted to make that moral kind of change and decision to work for a company that had the Vegan a vegetarian specific products and now having been vegetarian since age six. And a quick story on my you actually 10 vegetarian age six, because I saw a little flip came to the post and it basically just explains and battery hen farms and also the conditions that cows are kept in. And then it was then that I made that complete connection that said to my parents, is it true, you know, is meat actually a cow? And the parents were very open and honest with me and said, yes, you know, this is what it is. And being a strong, well, six year olds, I said to them, don't ever put me on a plate ever again. And they supported me. They were worrying for the first few days as a father. And but then they supported me and we went out and we we reconfigured my diet, so to speak. So I'd been a vegetarian pretty much as far back as I could remember. Always with the aim to go vegan. I do a lot sports, which I'll I'll come on to later on, but I won't. It's always going to be you know, we're just waiting for this set of products on the markets to be able. For me to be able to make that change without a missed note on key nutrients, etc.. So fucking so the story of a career in about 2004, 2005, I decided it's really important. I've got quite a strong moral compass. I want to work for an aviation company. So I approached the then distributor of LB Electric Vehicles to health and basically just very, very briefly introduce myself. So the M.D. who didn't have a job for me? Well, after interviewing me and seeing how passionate I was about doing things with the brands in the portfolio, he can be made a position for me. And then after two or three years of work, my way up to being head of marketing in that division. And we then merged with another company called BBR Healthcare. I forged quite strong partnership with the head of sales call Morris together. We were growing a lot of the brands together and we decided, you know what, it's time for us to go out on our road, which is back in 2011. We created reviewal suits with the aim of giving consumers on the UK market a real cool choice of unique and ethical phone and a great taste in Vegan products right across Ambiens and Chill's and every other category in the market that you can think of that we really want to get in soon and bring more exciting products to the market.
[00:07:48] Yeah, I want to climb into that. So I think I understand, but it feels like you offer kind of a multitude but also neach different services.
[00:07:56] So on the Web site, it says that you offer a full sales, marketing, distribution service for Vegan and vegetarian products. And I wonder if you can kind of map out for the audience listening what a potential 10 year like that looks like. Do you take people who have just launched with a product? You take people who are seasoned. Do you take both? And how do you carry them all the way through? Do you put them in retail environments to help them with their online sales? Can you do both? How does all of that work?
[00:08:23] Yes, sure. Great questions.
[00:08:25] And when we first asked the business back in 2011, we were solely a distribution business at that point in time because the actual brand we started off distributing was pounds like rich. And you may you may know that is quite big in the US as well as being big in the UK. And then from there, that was a platform for us to bring in all that distributes products like Freedom Mallow's, which is the U.K. leading, and Jellison that marshmallow. And then having that kind of portfolio of growing products. We then made that decision to start developing some of our own products as well. So the two divisions actually work side by side. We've got a number of distributor brands that agree that in existence in all the countries or in the UK that we then take kind of title and ownership of as a brands and do all the sales and marketing, the PR, the digital campaigns and the logistics and warehousing and on the muscle, whether it's a broom that we distribute or whether it's a brand we make, a virus policy manufacturer, all of those products are subject to the same retail strategy. We're very, very successful in the UK marketplace with the likes of all the supermarkets, high street retailers, everyone from homes and Barak to Tesco to to assets, to boots, to deviate Schmitt's except trust a wall of these products. And they made the way down the retail chute into the high street and grocery outlets. And since COVA, that's changed slightly in that we are certainly looking more focused into increasing our digital footprint in the marketplace because a lot of consumers obviously are increasing spend online as well, particularly in the Vegan the vegetarian market. So when we're looking to to manifest that in. So our future plans as well.
[00:10:09] OK, and who was let's get into some of the just the logistics for all of this founders' listening and biting at the chop to know your story. Who's your co-founder? What year did you found it? Did you take funding or did you bootstrap?
[00:10:24] Cofound is called Morris, also a fellow Vegan. And so we've known each other now for about 12 years, worked together for two years before going out on our road. We started the business back in 2011.
[00:10:37] And we did take funds and from the bank at the beginning, put on usually unlike many old astar soaps, because we were taking the distribute to them the distribution contracts, trucks from a previous company. We had guaranteed revenue in place across multiple retail structures. So that basically meant that we didn't have to have a massive reliance on external solms and that it was almost a change of ownership, should we say, from one distributor business to another. So that really helped us out with regards to the early days, because unlike most of the stores we were sourcing with well over two million pounds worth of business from day one.
[00:11:19] Absolutely. Did you ever consider Worth Accelerator's even around back then? Was there any type of a system that you guys ever wanted to run it through?
[00:11:27] You had this already proven wealth of income, and I know the angels and things like that are more of a scarcity, you know, in Europe than they are in my hometown of Silicon Valley. However, I'm wondering if there was any of that going on in 2011. I don't know in the UK what the environment was like with startups.
[00:11:47] And it was definitely not as noisy as it is today. I mean, I think it's fantastic.
[00:11:52] Now, every retailer on the mall has an incubator scheme and there's lots of collaborations going on with smaller challenge brands in the UK. Young Simms's is one of them in the UK, which I think is phenomenal. And if anyone wants to look that young Trudi's is a collection of amazing challenge brands that really are making an impact on the mall in the marketplace. They all start in pretty embryonic small kinds of growth brands. The tensions among the brands within two to three years. So a really, really good one to follow.
[00:12:26] So I'd say we didn't really have that many opportunities in the early stages. We did, as we always have, and opportunities of external investment from from Beebe's equity house, things like that. But we were very, very specific, particularly in the early days, about really trying to hold on to what we'd been built in because we'd been building it in our own minds for many years price. We saw it. And we both have a very positive outlook on life with folks Vegan we're both about saving the planet were both, you know, eco warriors. I mean, I'll spare time. So it was very important to kind of keep that fluidity in the business. Back then, it was also quite difficult to find people, specifically investments to an investment that carried those same ideals, although that has changed somewhat that, you know, you've got beyond invest. Investment is a great example of that. But there was definitely a scarcity back then of opportunities.
[00:13:21] Yeah, I find that to be true.
[00:13:23] I was in Ireland about six years ago and I remember thinking it was too few and far between from my blood.
[00:13:29] And I just felt like there wasn't a lot of there's too much to go in the chamber.
[00:13:33] You know, I'm more comfortable when they're sucked in. I'm wondering, do you do you vet any companies or potential clients that come to you for services? Are there people that you wouldn't find to be a good fit or have you ever had that issue?
[00:13:50] Yes, absolutely.
[00:13:51] And I'll be honest, as we've grow wiser and older with our business efforts, we we can't take everyone's problem, Don, because, you know, at the end of the day, we've got to maintain efficient, same productivity and we've got to be able to deliver the service that we're well known for in the industry. So we don't. We no longer take all the brands that haven't really got a guaranteed revenue stream. So we like to work with brands now that probably being out in the marketplace, but somewhere between six and 12 months of started to prove themselves. And then we can offer them a lot more by giving to scale a mass, by saying we can take you out. So big retailers structures, we can have all national account management team. What would you want? Joint business plum's and sex atrocities. We can work with you across digital platforms and looking at Marks and Plum's right into operations, demand management and everything else that comes out of that. We have been approached by some great brands that I personally have wanted to take on and also call and met in many circumstances book. And a lot of them were kind of put back out and say, come back when you take these boxes, etc., and you've done that.
[00:14:55] Otherwise, it can become quite a messy end to say that it will detract away from dealing with the business that you need to do for your main suppliers. And you made key principles over the years as well. So we tend to just say prove yourself, prove that you've got momentum, and then we'll take over and be a new whale on the on the vehicle.
[00:15:15] Yeah, I like that. I think that the people who are selective make better pairing. You know, it saves not just yourself, but your client a lot of hardship.
[00:15:23] And I feel like, you know, v.C is not the only people that should be vetting each other. Everyone should be vetting one another, you know, hopefully due diligence on all ends.
[00:15:31] And I want to turn towards looking at your book, Gone in 60 Minutes. And I'm going to read a quick summary that we script from online. Most likely Amazon. So it says, banish your old tired health and fitness regimens regimes and explore the only four factors you need to shred, shred, fat, lose weight, stay healthy, be happy and get that dream body. This bite sized book is split into four quadrants that can be read in just one hour, complete with a perpetual 16 week training calendar. Diet management tips the low down on supplements and a look at how to stay motivated. Gone in 60 Minutes offers the most simple and effective advice to achieve a better body. It's the one health and fitness book you simply can't afford to miss out on. So I'm wondering, first of all, can you tell us when it was published and what your goal for writing it was?
[00:16:28] Yeah, sure. I think it was back in 2011 or 2000s, actually, 2012.
[00:16:35] And now the specific aim for me with with with writing this particular book is that over the many years of me being a member of various gyms, sports clubs spit in the Census and Leisure and Health that institutes, I was always approached by people asking the same questions over and over again. And it's one of those things. One, something that happens once is never going to happen again. So it's not strikes Streit's bounce off of bad time. And when it was getting into account of tens twenties, there's these people asking the same questions I actually thought was a mark here to develop something very simple. And that saves people going out and having to read 20 different books and subscribing to 18 different magazines and just puts it in very, very simple settings and specifically aims at everyone who is time pool because we're all so, so living in this stressful scenario, no one's got the time to read anything. So hence the book was Tam's Gone in 60 Minutes because the whole thing can be bad in just 60 Minutes is a small bite size. Health and fitness savior is split into four quadrants. And those four quadrants were the things that I got asked about the most I can give a lot of responses to with regards to personal case study. So the first section is very much about fitness. So it looks at getting rid of some of these myths about Colegio being the best thing and really kind of trying to get people into the whole level of stones and lifting weights is from the best things you can do for your body metabolism, you biobank and everything else that goes with it. I'm really trying to break down those myths. And Bobby, is that people may have an odyssey from the old days of seeing body bells and thinking, oh, if I lift a weight, I'm going to end up being a chunky monkey, so to speak. So there's a section on that. And with that was a 16 week factual Collins on a full exercise library and on the supplements and website. And people can go on and they can do all the work out. So about that last one. Then the next part tackles diet, which very much is focused on pump based fitness and also looks at and particularly pinpoint in pump based success in the athletic well. So looking at things like people like Serena Williams call. Just pick pinpoint to them out and let people know that you can achieve a law on that on them. A Vegan or a plant based diets. The fat section is about supplements. And because people always ask what supplements the best two types of things, like everything from energy to better sleep. So it's a fat loss except so mechanical that some of those things that it's not a one size fits all, but it gives some really good advice. So the things that are being used in personal case studies accept trucks. And then the last question is about motivation, which is a really important part of the book. I'm not really hammers home how to say on truck what to do to keep your fitness kind of fresh. What to do to keep yourself motivated, says on how to achieve your goals. And it's just simple stuff that I literally took. Everything I've learned that I know has worked for either myself or a lot of people around makes results, proven techniques, and just put it into an easy to understand format rather than trying to puzzle people with science. Thousands of pages, which I don't think is most meters now, and plenty of other people have done that.
[00:19:57] I'm wondering, you're we talked a little bit off the record before we started recording, and you're a distance runner.
[00:20:03] You explaining to me this specific kind of race that you get into. And I was explaining back to you that I would be very, very bad at said race. And I'm hoping you can kind of elaborate or enumerate on this run bike run race the format that you're into and kind of talk to some of the.
[00:20:24] The widely held misperceptions and beliefs about, you know, being a distance athlete in a Vegan.
[00:20:31] Yeah. Yeah, for sure.
[00:20:33] So I've always run on all my kinds of athletic heritage is being involved in my particular favorite disciplines, all five K and 10K on. And so at the moment, just to give people an idea, my five kepi, these eighteen thirty nine and I'm a 10 kopb is thirty eight. Forty eight. So pretty fast. Well what a day. Not the fastest. We're setting up the slowest. What about that. Proving to people that you know you can get on the podiums in these local races and you come back to yourself and you can get a faster and strong gusts.
[00:21:04] And saying that I just have an injury brought about probably about six years ago, a slight injury Monday and part of my rehab so not was to do more cross training, which enabled me to to land the wonderful world of the bike. And so after investment of what bike and a road bike, I did a lot more cycling and slept in a week. Rather than that being a hundred percent learning, I must be open to 60 percent wanting 60 percent cycling. I wanted to look for a sport that combined the two and Özlem was that very Scholes. So instead of Rome Bike, Rome and triathlon, it's one bike. So you from bike, swim and triathlon. It's run bike run in June alone. So it's five K run that are doing to stop then 20 K on the bike and then at two and ask all five cavewoman worms.
[00:21:51] Depends on which distance to do. So I've been represented in my age group and team G.B. now on both European and the World Championships and its employees. I've been everywhere from Canada to Denmark to Spain to Romania. This year I'm set to go to Holland. Things cross if it's all in September to the world championships. And I think that that's really given me a credible platform to let people say that festival Vegan is definitely not weak. We are absolutely full of energy and people call me all the time and we say things like Gimel, psychostimulant, you must be on low to creatine or you must be young Torino caffeine. And I don't take any of them completely stimulants. Right. Have been since two thousand seven. And that is a and a conscious decision of mine. I literally feel on walls, so I think it's all I need. Occasionally I'll use isotonic seven minute long breaks, but I get everything I need from just pure hydration and don't need to have any of that kind of extra stimulation. People can't get over that because they say, wow, that is unbelievable, that you are surviving on natural energy and survive on much energy, but winning races, winning and vehicle times as well. So I think it's showing people that you can have really high energy levels on a plant based diet is really important. Letting them see that you're not weak. Let them see the strong. I mean, I go to the gym and I can rep as much as some of the men are in there. And it may only be small in stature and an incredible strong pound for pound. I'm extremely strong with regards to that. And so I think that's also important as well to let people see that strong and full of energy. You're not weak and you're not. And, you know, there's a lot of myths out there that people think, oh, you must be deficient in calcium or you must be deficient in V12. Well, I have had vitamin and mineral and nutrient testing every year yet because we do it for my own benefit and to make sure that I'm getting all the right targets with it, with all of my school nutrition expert on fitness side of things, not once have I ever been deficient in one vitamin. Now I do take a couple of vitamins showing the diet pill. I've got to be honest, even if it didn't take them, I still don't feel as if I'd be deficient because there's so many fortified foods on the market now. You've got bread, cereals and milks that roll falsified and vitamin D, B1, V12, etc. You really, really shouldn't feel that you're deficient when there's so many great fortified foods out there. So I think that's a massive fallacy and something that I'm always keen to let people know. And I think one of the best things that I feel and I can do is use this platform as a Vegan athlete, as a successful Vegan we'll know one of the things you Offaly on a Vegan cycliste and let people know that, you know, if anything, it's it's not about holding you back. It propels you forward. And it can be a massive secret power. And, you know, it's Testament's to when I go to races where I am in the world, I'm going to interview one of the vets. You know, I do get Chemnitz from people saying go Vegan and stuff like that. But you also get people comments afterwards and that's you shake your hands and say, brilliants, well, don't put it out there and letting people say it because you're part of a change and you part of that network that's driving the positive movement. And to me, that is just it's phenomenal, say that kind of favor.
[00:25:14] Absolutely. And I think it's important to have positive icons in representation that's across all genres. As a woman, as you know, as a Vegan, like as everything that you are, as a business owner, as a co-founder. I'm curious on a personal level.
[00:25:30] Like, oh, what do you find not the majority of your diet is ruled by. Are you equal? Are you doing grains?
[00:25:38] Are you doing breads? You mentioned cereals. I love to talk about how fortified everything became because we stripped everything out of it, more so here than in Europe. We stripped our breads of any sort of fiber the second the 60s hit. And so we had to put things back into it, which only made it more fattening. And it's a diatribe. But I'm wondering for you personally, do you find a certain percentage being vegetables, fruits? What does your diet look like when you're training?
[00:26:07] It's a question in fads.
[00:26:09] Paul, until recently with it, with plum base on base fitness. Now they're on their own in style. You can check out they actually did a life story a day in the life. She clocked everything that I have in my diet because, again, it's not a question that a lot of people ask when you get your energy from. Is it more kinds of carbs? Is it is it more red grains or is it more kind of proteins? I try and eat as much protein as account on a vegan diet. At the moment, my microbe splits any woman's interest. It is 50 percent cops and those cops tend to be coming from the bases of oats, barley, rice, grains, Cain wall, sweet potato, and then it's twenty five cents fats. For that I will use things like a call doughs, not flax and olive oil, things like that. And then the remains and the remains. Twenty five percent is proteins. And for that I am, I am tofu queen. I love doing so. I have to do with everything it really does. It's such a versatile ingredient so you can scramble it and you can have it instead of fries. I have it on solids. So in suits we make Korey's with it and it really is a great product. So I'm kind of split between sisu and a little bit of the town as well and which have been that making from home over the last few months as well. Not that's great. Obviously we can't have gluten intolerant because it's made from wheat gluten. But again, very, very high in protein. It's over 75 percent protein content to sit down so fantastic together in the diets and just make sure that the big things, I mean with nutrition is to try and lock on the things that make you feel good. And if I have any foods that make me feel either uncomfortable digestive wise or if they affect my mood in any way, shape or form, we'll just call them out on that very quickly. I'm quite good at reading what works for me, what promotes good energy, what promotes positivity and things like that. Anything that's really important to people to get to grips with that, as well as rotating foods and keeping a varied mix of sources, all those foods.
[00:28:22] Yeah, I completely agree. And I think that when you start Fine-tuning, that you start to play with the tincture of your livelihood in a way that's so invigorating and powerful.
[00:28:32] TOMSULA That personal dialog, everyone's made slightly different, you know. And I love the idea of developing that deeper relationship and speaking to that and wondering if you've had a personal or professional dialog among colleagues, fellow athletes or even just yourself. Regarding the covered 19 pandemic that's hit, there's a lot of different for friends here that vegans have engaged on. You know, there is there isn't a conclusive hypothesis in this podcast, is it about developing one? There is. It's definitely brought to light wet markets and things that, you know, most vegans have a huge issue with. However, that's not necessarily the only conversation to have. There's a humanitarian thread that I keep promoting that gets brought up where we need to analyze our food source, know we need to look at sustainable measures. We need to requestion it. And you can have as many documentaries in what the and you know, and knives ever for again. And all of these with the health, all these things come out. But I think the pandemic is the final. We need to discuss this, you know, as a moment at least person to person, person among one's own self, have a conversation about whether or not you are signing off on what your food is, what's in it and where it's from. And so I'm wondering you personally, so there's mine. I'm wondering you personally, if you've had any revelations, if you've had a redistribution or reanalysis of your relationship with veganism or anything like that due to the covered nineteen pandemic?
[00:30:01] Yeah, I mean, it's interesting your points about how interesting I am, I connect to them a lot because a lot of them are married by things that I've been going through myself. So it's quite interesting, the set and things that seems to happen in time that make my phone go crazy. I'm one of those was the game changes when the game changes fast. Came out, Mike, so went mental. For weeks people were getting in touch that I never thought would commit veganism. I'm talking about bodybuilders. I'm talking about big belly men that said, no, no, it's always safe to make people eat. You would never think would want to adopt a vegan diet. Got such a mean said that's it. Watch game change is I know what it can do for my health. It's all about my health. And they really wanted to take that on board now for me personally. There is an element of shock there because I'm an animal activist and everything that I've ever done in terms of my choices for veganism has all been about protecting the animals and all about a better life for the animals. So I always get frustrated a little bit Kofman my that personally as to why people don't necessarily have that same affinity and instead they will be driven by environmental reasons or health reasons. Books, as I've matured over the last few years particularly, and seen the pump based movement being driven by flexitarian zone from bases as well as Meagan's, anyone must reducing them content. I've been a little bit more open to one's guns and it doesn't have somebody mahsa what the people out there feel is their souls to wanting to go Vegan whether it's because that will be over health or worries over the animal welfare as long as I'm making positive steps. That's a big thing. I'm going back to that whole kind of my phone rang again. Again, very similar to what you were saying when this first hit. I did have a lot of people getting in touch with me, particularly on social media, and saying, wow, I didn't even know what what markets existed. It's actually made me think more about animals per say in terms of cows, in terms of pigs. I want to learn more. Can you tell me what your favorite cheese is? The best. Milk is the best. Let me say is in a lot of that kind of came out in other bucy about the world we live in now is it's so easy for me to recommend foods, because if you are a meat eater that really wants the taste of me, I can recommend Broms that tastes like meats, if you will. Someone that doesn't want that you almost like a roadie. You get to reveal just what any remnants of meat. I can also recommend things down because there's so many pockets of people motivated by different things. It's actually roll around. I would say I'm a more positive and then constructive and holistic movement. So what I've seen is people, as you've said, question and more. I'm just thinking about food, food, sustainability, ingredients, integrity, provenance, food, wanting to know the back story, where has it come from? And I think a lot of people are starting to really now understand and I'd be shocked as well by just how much food travels around the world to get two here in the UK, as it does probably in the US and everywhere else. What? There's no reason why we can't make that on our home grounds. So I think we're going to see a resurgence of that over the coming years in terms of resurgence, Buchan's domestic manufacturing and doing things closer to home that we can control.
[00:33:15] Yeah, and seasonal, you know, eating and things even as good as someone who's been in the game for a long time, you know, and under that, I've been under this Vegan umbrella for ten years and I've been prolific in my studying and researching, hence this podcast. And it's a changing dynamic for me daily. You know, it's it's a constant conversation. I spoke with someone just recently, a guest on the show, who mentioned, you know, eating seasonally, a chef who said in the UK, she said it's not the same as the greenhouse ground. Just because we could produce the food year round didn't meant we were meant to or that it would taste the same or even do the same thing for our bodies. And I love that. Going back to the reconsideration and the ease that kind of came about in the 70s, in the 80s, with this globalization of food and how it destroyed economies and whatever you believe about macro economics aside, it did change the structure of how we even perceived food. We just stopped questioning it, where it came from. It lived like before, who was farming it, what they put on it as they farmed it. All of this things just went away and now are reemerging. And so, yeah, I agree with what you're saying. I'm wondering as you're kind of moving through this this this time in this process with, you know, the pandemic is is here. And and as we hopefully are on the horizon of a vaccine and things of that nature, do you see any changes that you will implement for your business, for your athletic life or anything like that moving forward? Because as or as a result of this.
[00:34:45] Yes, absolutely.
[00:34:47] And from a business point of view, it's definitely revealed to us that we need to do more digitally. And so we've always been very strong bricks and mortar level with all the retailers on the High Street. And in our Tom Fox except Jebal, we've really kind of always thought we'll get to digital in the future or, you know what we'll do? We'll kind of do an hour on Friday, which now seem to realize it needs to have a dedicated team, a dedicated strategy. And we actually do social media very well. So linking social media into a digital platform, you know, it works well for us. We've already started the ball rolling on. That would be the biggest step change that we'll be seeing them go into the future in terms of having more digital presence as a business that I'm working with on the ground zero zero broms on that.
[00:35:35] I think personally kov, it's this this whole kind of lockdown scenario for me personally. It's done something for me that actually has been beautiful on a personal empowerment level, but also really useful for the schools as well. And that has its ground. It makes. It's made me realize how little I need to survive. It's made me realize just what is important in life. And it's made me prioritize better, give myself more time for myself. And I'm really kind of just get to grips with things and make time for things that haven't necessarily had time go in the past. So just little things like I'm a keen photographer, McCain, be like yourself, a bit of a book web and bought, you know, over the last two years, particularly when business has been so stressful and so fast pace. I've probably read two books the year. I used to be two books in a week. It's crazy. So since lockdown, I've gone back to read the law. I've gone back to self education, self empowerments. And only on the weekends I was on a self empowerment circle with five of the right individuals. That was great. We all learn a lot from each other and it's just made me believe about life is very short. We should be doing things that really are about positive movements and spreading positive energy and joy. And I'm that kind of fits into the kind of character that I am anyway, because I've always done crystal healing and I've always been a big believer in positive meant lots to. And then Alpay and CVT and all those kind of great things that we can use. So I think it speaks for the one thing I would say if I had to smoke one word. For me personally, I would say I'm grateful.
[00:37:18] Yeah, that's wonderful. I mean, that's an amazing thing to come out of this kind of tragedy.
[00:37:24] I try to be very I'm a little bit more shy with things that I find of beauty or things in that in this time of, you know, sadness and global despair. And so I'm I'm very tender with it, but I'm not sure that that's the right course. You know, I think that we need hope and we need to also revel in things like you're talking about and the humanity behind those things. Yeah. That unites all of us and is directly, I believe, in in core value with them, the Vegan world, you know, and and for some analysis that it's around.
[00:38:00] Well, we are out of time. But I just want to say thank you, Lisa, so much today. I really appreciate you coming on and giving us your candor for anyone who wants to follow your instead. Do you have an Instagram or Twitter handle that you prefer?
[00:38:11] Yeah.
[00:38:12] Yeah, I've got an Instagram is Leece that on the school Gulf oil and Twitter is gone in 60 minutes.
[00:38:21] Yay!
[00:38:21] So, everyone, thank you so much, sir, for coming on. I appreciate your time and your story and your candor.
[00:38:28] My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
[00:38:29] Absolutely. And for everyone listening, we've been speaking with Lisa Gawthorne. She is co-founder, author and Vegan athlete. You can find more about her company at Bravura Foods dot com. And thank you for giving us your time today. I appreciate it. Until we speak again.
[00:38:46] Remember to eat clean, eat well, stay safe, stay in love and always bet on yourself. Sanjay.
