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TRANSCRIPTION WITH SPEAKERS
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[00:37] SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Canada's podcast, the number one podcast for entrepreneurs by entrepreneurs.
[00:45] SPEAKER_00: Hey everybody, I'm Phil Bliss and today I'd like to welcome Christina Barbado
[00:51] SPEAKER_00: and I think Christina, maybe you can just give us a little bit about yourself, what you do now.
[01:00] SPEAKER_00: Give us that sort of three to five minute, who is Christina Barbado?
[01:05] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, yeah.
[01:07] SPEAKER_01: So I grew up in the small town of Sarna, Ontario and from there I went to McMaster University
[01:14] SPEAKER_01: and I did a business undergrad there.
[01:16] SPEAKER_01: I went straight into law school at the University of Windsor and then ended up downtown
[01:21] SPEAKER_01: at three sisters living there at the time.
[01:24] SPEAKER_01: And I got a job at Rochon, Genova, which was an up and coming law firm
[01:28] SPEAKER_01: in the class of action and personal injury areas.
[01:32] SPEAKER_01: They had five lawyers there when I started and we had about 18 by the time that I left.
[01:38] SPEAKER_01: And so they gained a lot of successes in a great reputation in class sessions and personal injury
[01:48] SPEAKER_01: while I was there and we call it our G family.
[01:52] SPEAKER_01: It was a great law firm to work with.
[01:55] SPEAKER_00: So there you are, you got your law degree, you're practicing, growing practice.
[02:03] SPEAKER_00: What do you do as an entrepreneur?
[02:06] SPEAKER_00: Why pack that in?
[02:09] SPEAKER_00: And sort of you wanted to founders of SP, why did you do that?
[02:17] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think it was a tough decision for sure.
[02:21] SPEAKER_01: But I think that for most entrepreneurs and definitely for me, the idea of being able to be a part of creating something,
[02:31] SPEAKER_01: something that didn't exist and you were going to be a part of creating something that would then leave it to mark on the world.
[02:40] SPEAKER_01: And that idea that you could be a part of something like that was incredibly enticing.
[02:46] SPEAKER_01: And the other thing I will say is that I was really open to the challenge.
[02:52] SPEAKER_01: It wasn't my background.
[02:53] SPEAKER_01: It was very scientific and it's and turning into a very consumer, consumer and sales kind of product.
[03:03] SPEAKER_01: And none of that is, I didn't know any of that, but it was a challenge.
[03:09] SPEAKER_01: It was something to start fresh, learn new, rise to the occasion and just really be an integral part of creating something.
[03:20] SPEAKER_00: I think it's interesting for everyone.
[03:23] SPEAKER_00: We don't get too many entrepreneurs from the bio industry.
[03:27] SPEAKER_00: Tell us a little bit more about the bio industry and how it exists and evolves and developing.
[03:37] SPEAKER_00: And Toronto and Canada, the Ontario area is really what we're interested in.
[03:44] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think that there are so many incredible people creating amazing, amazing things.
[03:51] SPEAKER_01: And I hope that there's more and more support for entrepreneurs and people really taking a risk to attempt to create these things because they're all great ideas that if they're properly supported and if they're done right, could really end up helping our community and potentially helping the world in terms of those that are more global.
[04:13] SPEAKER_01: In our specific industry, they get in the nutraceutical space.
[04:17] SPEAKER_01: Our mission was that, you know, we wanted to bring a different kind of product to the market.
[04:24] SPEAKER_01: We wanted to bring a validated bioactive.
[04:28] SPEAKER_01: So instead of taking a natural supplement where there was health benefits, but you didn't know what in the bioactive was doing it.
[04:37] SPEAKER_01: And you weren't sure if you were getting the right dose of it.
[04:40] SPEAKER_01: We wanted to start from what's the thing in the natural product that's working for the person or the disease and how much of it do you need in order for it to be effective and to create products that work because you've done the work to prove all of that.
[04:57] SPEAKER_00: So, you know, why here, I mean, I presume you start up, still, you've got investors, but I mean, is the bio-sider things big here? I mean, we have Guelph, I know that, which is a very university from that agro bio-sider things.
[05:22] SPEAKER_00: Is this a good place to kind of, yeah, you said you had a global outlook to build a global business?
[05:30] SPEAKER_01: That's a tough question. I think that we did have a lot of access to grants and to support, especially through our academic connection through Paul and the University of Guelph.
[05:43] SPEAKER_01: And all of that, I would say, is a great system that is set up here, where I have found it difficult in Canada is on costing and competitiveness when we come to things like importing ingredients, manufacturing costs, and then managing logistics in terms of freight and importing and exporting and the cost of that.
[06:10] SPEAKER_01: So, as we study, whether or not to eventually move to a model where we manufacture in the United States, for example, or elsewhere, that's where I find it difficult, where Canada is perhaps not as competitive.
[06:25] SPEAKER_00: Is that a tax thing? Is it an income thing? I mean, you know, everybody wants manufacturing, which is what you are when they're all said and done. Where do we fall down? I mean, I mean, what people to hear that?
[06:40] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's not being a manufacturer knowing all those costs, but there are the customs and the importing of ingredients is definitely more expensive. Also, there's a lot of ingredients that are created or imported and then wouldn't need as much freight costs because they're already in the United States, whereas they're not here.
[07:03] SPEAKER_01: We're having to get them from the United States because we can't find them here. There's other ingredients that could be imported from other countries and then distributed to companies here, but it's just not as prevalent as in the United States.
[07:17] SPEAKER_01: And then on the manufacturing front, you know, I imagine it's a lot of things, equipment costs, labor costs, regulatory costs.
[07:27] SPEAKER_01: So, yeah, I think if manufacturing could be more supportive and more competitive, then more companies would be able to stay here.
[07:36] SPEAKER_00: What's been the greatest challenge you faced to date?
[07:40] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I would say that we're getting the kind of regulatory that we approvals that we want in a timely manner.
[07:50] SPEAKER_01: So, that advance our business quicker, that was coming from the private sector. It was difficult to accept seven or eight months, wait time for certain things.
[08:04] SPEAKER_01: That seems like a lifetime to me.
[08:07] SPEAKER_00: Well, having said that, you know, it has that, you know, you've got that pharmaceutical name, even though it's natural products.
[08:19] SPEAKER_00: It's not a good thing. I mean, don't you feel that without that regulatory kind of side of things that it could go too fast with potential consequences?
[08:31] SPEAKER_01: Yes, and I, the NNHPD in Canada, health Canada's natural health product division is a fabulous fabulous addition.
[08:43] SPEAKER_01: And what they have done is they're working towards better and more regulated natural health products, which is definitely the way we can go for two reasons.
[08:53] SPEAKER_01: Firstly, it's going to, it's going to end up providing people with better choices and more information.
[09:00] SPEAKER_01: And so you can take the supplements that you just take because they make you feel good. That's great.
[09:07] SPEAKER_01: But you should also have some choice around some natural options for prevention and treatment.
[09:13] SPEAKER_01: They're out there. The nature has all kinds of things that can help us as humans that we're not utilizing.
[09:22] SPEAKER_01: And we could be. And, you know, it, it's, and they're safer and they're just, you know, they're, they're a step that we're missing before getting sick and going into pharmaceutical intervention.
[09:36] SPEAKER_00: What's your biggest challenge in the future as an entrepreneur?
[09:41] SPEAKER_01: I think getting the sales and the, and the education to consumers right. So, so reaching who we need to reach in a way that that tells our story and communicates the benefits of the product in a way that people understand.
[09:59] SPEAKER_01: There's a lot really complicated science behind it and trying to simplify that down so that people can understand its benefits.
[10:06] SPEAKER_01: Or is a difficult thing to do.
[10:11] SPEAKER_00: I'm asking this question because I think it's people have processes and other people can learn from that. Those processes.
[10:18] SPEAKER_00: So when you're faced with unexpected challenges, which we all are, do you have a kind of process? How do you handle them typically?
[10:26] SPEAKER_00: Is it, do you have a thing, being, being kind of thing where you, you, you go through a process or do you just hit it head on to anything?
[10:35] SPEAKER_01: You know, I think that's where it's been, you know, when I first became co-founder of this company, I didn't worry that my skill set, especially at the beginning, at the beginning of this, perhaps wouldn't be translatable or wouldn't be useful.
[10:50] SPEAKER_01: I actually found the opposite that we had a lot of scientists and coming at problems from a different perspective, especially because, you know, I was at a law firm that handled, you know, defective medical devices and defective drug cases.
[11:07] SPEAKER_01: And so coming at it from that perspective of, for example, sitting in a lab meeting where the preclinical was only going to have male mice and saying, well, why are we only having male mice?
[11:20] SPEAKER_01: We need, we should have 50, 50 male female because what if there's, you know, what if it causes damage in a female organ? I mean, that's something that we would want to know.
[11:29] SPEAKER_01: And it was something we're in science. Sometimes that's not a consideration because they know, you know, in the future there's going to be human studies, but in that moment, it's like, well, if we're putting forth regulatory based on this preclinical, we want it to be the best preclinical it can be.
[11:45] SPEAKER_01: And so, you know, and so decisions were being made from both perspectives of what's what's normally done in in the scientific community or in this particular case.
[11:57] SPEAKER_01: And what can we do to sort of better that process to better protect the quality of what we're doing?
[12:05] SPEAKER_02: This podcast is sponsored by eBay Canada. eBay Canada is powering Canadian small businesses go to eBay.ca forward slash up and running, Chopen your new global e-commerce business.
[12:19] SPEAKER_00: So just move on to some kind of lessons learned, you know, if you knew what you know now, what would you have changed in terms of when you started the business?
[12:30] SPEAKER_01: I think one of the biggest things at the beginning of all of this was that we probably over sought a lot of the, especially the regulatory, we were always going for the absolute best in everything.
[12:49] SPEAKER_01: Sometimes that ended made us take longer. For the same result, we probably didn't need to do as much as we did.
[12:57] SPEAKER_01: So we probably, we've become more efficient as we've learned and gone through this process a few times.
[13:05] SPEAKER_00: What's the best piece of advice that you've ever received that you keep on using?
[13:12] SPEAKER_01: Well, one of the one piece of advice I got early on that I took very seriously is you only have one reputation.
[13:20] SPEAKER_01: And so you do everything you can to protect it. So integrity in every decision that you make and agree person that you're dealing with is critically important.
[13:32] SPEAKER_00: So we don't have some rapid fire questions now. That's not to know the deep stuff.
[13:39] SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's have some fun stuff. So you are a lawyer still. You never stop being a lawyer.
[13:45] SPEAKER_01: No, I still pay my dues.
[13:48] SPEAKER_00: If you weren't doing what you're doing now, what would you be doing instead? Would it be law? Would you be looking for another, another venture?
[13:58] SPEAKER_01: I think I would be in law. At the end of the day, it's what I love to do.
[14:04] SPEAKER_00: What book are you currently reading, listening to? Is there anything, any books or book that you would say, you gotta read this.
[14:15] SPEAKER_01: I recently finished Glendon Doyle's Untamed and I would say that is a book that everyone should read and it is incredibly enlightening.
[14:25] SPEAKER_01: And I also read Truth Be Told, which is the story of Beverly McLaughlin.
[14:31] SPEAKER_01: That's her longstanding Chief Justice and that was also a really eye opening book to read.
[14:38] SPEAKER_00: You were mourning or a night person?
[14:41] SPEAKER_00: Night. Definitely.
[14:46] SPEAKER_00: There's definitely kind of, there are 80% people seem to be mourning people that I am.
[14:51] SPEAKER_01: No, my family knows not to talk to me too much before my coffee.
[14:58] SPEAKER_00: If you had to pick a word to describe yourself, what would it be and why would you choose that word?
[15:05] SPEAKER_01: Oh, one word. I would say positive.
[15:09] SPEAKER_01: And I guess that's just, I try to see the good and everything and try to, I don't know, add happiness and good spirits to everywhere I go.
[15:19] SPEAKER_01: I just don't really see a point in doing otherwise.
[15:23] SPEAKER_00: What's keeping you up at night?
[15:25] SPEAKER_01: Oh gosh.
[15:27] SPEAKER_01: The pandemic.
[15:29] SPEAKER_00: That's it.
[15:30] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, the pandemic and everything I read, I feel like out of the United States of America.
[15:37] SPEAKER_00: Yeah, please get it.
[15:39] SPEAKER_00: We're all suffering.
[15:41] SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's dominating our lives.
[15:43] SPEAKER_00: It's terrible when like something you can't control, dominate your life.
[15:48] SPEAKER_00: I'm asking this, but it's not, it's a good memory thing because our favorite person in the world is currently Ontario and Toronto.
[15:56] SPEAKER_00: But what's your most favorite place in the world in terms of places you visit is on that.
[16:04] SPEAKER_01: I might be biased, but it's the Malfi coast in Italy.
[16:08] SPEAKER_00: It's a pretty good place.
[16:14] SPEAKER_00: You know, in terms of routines, it's something good to chat about routines.
[16:18] SPEAKER_00: What do you think kind of will have a morning routine?
[16:22] SPEAKER_00: What are you not three, not three does that mean three, but you're non-negotiable in the morning.
[16:28] SPEAKER_00: Is it coffee is a peace and quiet one, what is it?
[16:34] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, my coffee is definitely the priority.
[16:38] SPEAKER_01: And it's different.
[16:40] SPEAKER_01: Once you become a mom, I feel like you don't, you don't really get to dictate what you get to do.
[16:46] SPEAKER_01: But you know, early on, I set rules around getting dressed and having breakfast before anything else gets done.
[16:54] SPEAKER_01: And once I implemented that rule for everybody in the house, everybody got places on time.
[16:59] SPEAKER_01: So that was a good one.
[17:02] SPEAKER_00: I mean, the female entrepreneur doesn't get enough credit.
[17:07] SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm interested to know, always to know what your perspective of that is.
[17:17] SPEAKER_00: Is it improving? Is it as bad as ever?
[17:23] SPEAKER_00: You know, your, I can't say anything about it.
[17:28] SPEAKER_00: I need your reflection on it basically.
[17:31] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what I will say about that is that I don't think we have achieved equality.
[17:38] SPEAKER_01: And I say that because because my co-founder is male, what I have experienced a few times, and he was baffled by it too, is I am the CEO of the company.
[17:49] SPEAKER_01: And I send an email.
[17:52] SPEAKER_01: And that email gets responded to Paul.
[17:56] SPEAKER_01: And so that happened on a few occasions where it was pretty mind boggling.
[18:00] SPEAKER_01: And what you want to do is say, you know what? I'm going to do with you.
[18:06] SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, okay.
[18:08] SPEAKER_00: We've got a lot to do.
[18:12] SPEAKER_00: So I know that you've still in the business world.
[18:16] SPEAKER_01: Absolutely. I feel that there is progress though.
[18:19] SPEAKER_01: I feel like the conversations that have been had especially over the last four years.
[18:24] SPEAKER_01: I do feel that there have been people listening and that there is behavior that is changing.
[18:30] SPEAKER_01: I will say that.
[18:32] SPEAKER_00: So we do this desert island thing.
[18:34] SPEAKER_00: I don't know whether you listen to everything right to the end.
[18:38] SPEAKER_00: But at the end of each session we say, you know, we drop you off on a small desert island, tropical island.
[18:47] SPEAKER_00: There's only one phone booth. Remember what a phone booth is.
[18:51] SPEAKER_00: There's absolutely no internet. There's no technology.
[18:54] SPEAKER_00: You can pick up the phone at any time and call us on the book.
[18:58] SPEAKER_00: And we'll come and get you.
[19:00] SPEAKER_00: What do you do along to your last?
[19:03] SPEAKER_01: How long do I last on the island?
[19:05] SPEAKER_01: Oh, you don't have to last any time.
[19:08] SPEAKER_00: Is that something you want?
[19:10] SPEAKER_01: I feel like I would probably I would probably go a few days, but it would be terrified that some animal would get me.
[19:21] SPEAKER_00: Okay, well, you know, thank you for the end. It was really good.
[19:26] SPEAKER_00: Absolutely. You really did enjoy it.
[19:28] SPEAKER_00: And you know, we have a lot of people that both look and listen to the podcast.
[19:34] SPEAKER_00: How can they get a hold of you?
[19:36] SPEAKER_01: Yeah, email is probably the best.
[19:39] SPEAKER_01: So it's just Christina dot Barbato at spneutra.com.
[19:43] SPEAKER_00: Well, Christina, thanks for coming on podcast podcast.
[19:46] SPEAKER_00: Very interesting.
[19:48] SPEAKER_00: I love the bio the bio industry.
[19:50] SPEAKER_00: I know it's very, very interesting.
[19:53] SPEAKER_00: Thanks very much.
[19:54] SPEAKER_01: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
[19:57] SPEAKER_02: This podcast is sponsored by eBay Canada.
[20:00] SPEAKER_02: eBay Canada is here to help.
[20:02] SPEAKER_02: They've been supporting Canadian small business retailers for 25 years.
[20:06] SPEAKER_02: And their up and running program is getting Canadian businesses online today.
[20:11] SPEAKER_02: Visit ebay.ca forward slash up and running.
[20:15] SPEAKER_02: Stay local and sell global with eBay.
