0:00

after three days on the fourth day I woke up and I thought oh my goodness I'm not obsessing and thinking about death

0:06

dying in heaven and I thought oh it's going to come and the day went on and I

0:13

had clear thoughts I I didn't go back to that place and and so I continued on and I and next day the next day and still

0:20

none of those thoughts I mean I'm sure I had one or two but nothing like you know I was experiencing

0:28

[Music]

0:36

greetings hello and good day wherever you are in the world thank you for joining true Hope cast the official

0:41

podcast of true hope Canada my name is Simon and I am your host trp Canada is a

0:47

mind and body based supplement company that is dedicated first and foremost to promoting brain and body Health through

0:53

non-invasive nutritional means now more than ever people are looking for ways to support their brain health and this is a

1:00

huge part of what we're doing at trueu Hope Canada for more information about us you can visit Tru hope

1:05

canada.com as always we have another Charming lovely guest with us today her name is Stephanie Hall and Stephanie is

1:12

the category manager at Nature's Fair market here in British Colombia Stephanie has been interested in natural

1:19

health for most of her life and has worked in the Natural Health industry for over 30 years Stephanie is also a

1:25

holistic nutritionist chartered herbalist and sports nutritionist a current job with Nature's Fair primarily

1:32

includes the responsibility of all supplement and Body Care um product

1:37

listings and if you've been into any good health store supplementation is always an incredibly important part um

1:44

and getting the right products on your shelves is vital for you know helping customers naturally support their health

1:52

I've got a store just down the road for me in C's literally a couple of minutes away and it's just the most beautiful store stocked up with everything you

1:58

might need and I always find my myself wandering around the supplement section multiple times a week because they just

2:04

carry all the best products they actually carry the whole true hope Canada product line something that we're

2:09

really proud about and it's a really wonderful partnership but um let's um introduce you to Stephanie thank you

2:15

very much for joining us today Stephanie first question as always how are you doing I'm doing very well and thank you

2:22

for having me Simon beautiful thank you for being with us why don't you tell us

2:27

a little bit about yourself and your journey through through the Natural Health

2:33

World okay um well personally I um I'd

2:39

had a challenge with my own health many many years ago and uh whilst I was actually working in the banking industry

2:46

and that caused me to start to uh take a closer look at my own habits and so um

2:53

the more I looked into my own health habits I started to make changes I started to see incredible results

3:00

and I became more and more passionate and I wanted to share what I was learning and doing in my own life with

3:06

other people I decided to leave uh the financial industry and do kind of a

3:13

career change and started working in the Natural Health industry I started working with uh

3:21

practitioners uh actually a medical doctor was my first stent uh he had

3:26

actually opted out of um uh uh the medical um I'm not sure how to put this

3:33

politically correctly but he uh started to introduce naturopathic and holistic

3:39

type products and remedies into his medical practice so I worked with him and then I worked with for a couple of

3:45

natural pass and then I started to work in natural health food stores and I

3:50

opened up some health food stores I managed some health food stores and I also went on the road selling

3:57

supplements to health food stores um so I've kind of done all sorts of things um

4:04

and then also um I wanted to gain more and more knowledge so that I could help more and more people and I thought the

4:11

best way to go about that would be by um increasing my education so I started

4:18

taking courses and that's when I decided to become a holistic nutritionist and

4:24

then from there I got fascinated by herbs and studied herbalism became

4:29

became a chared herbalist and then in my own life I like to work out so I thought well I need to understand supplements so

4:36

took Sports Nutrition and also actually studied Homeopathy so um I just love

4:42

Natural Health I love to help people Empower people onto their natural health Journeys and I've just seen the

4:48

wonderful effects in my family and friends lives as well that's fantastic thank you so much

4:55

for sharing it sounds like I mean it sounds like youve got the perfect job considering your

5:00

background um you know if you go into any decent health food store the vitamin

5:05

section can often be for somebody who doesn't know what they're they're looking for incredibly daunting because you've got thousands of different

5:12

bottles many different companies and in my experience as well as a nutritionist

5:19

not everybody not every company out there is doing a really great job when it comes to the products that they put

5:25

on the shelves so having somebody like yourself with such vast experience with sports nutrition with herbs because you

5:31

know a lot of those products on the shelves are you know a herbal

5:36

constituents and also the nutritional aspect as well so I feel great that you're putting

5:43

products on the shelves of Nature's Fair and that people are getting what they need and as I say like not every company

5:51

puts brilliant products out there but I I trust that you you're getting the right ones on there and as I visit the store many many times I can attest to

5:57

that for sure how's it been working how's it been working with um Nature's

6:03

Fair markets how long have you been there for I've been here over three years and I've done a couple of

6:08

different jobs within those three years I actually managed a vitamin Department which was a great

6:14

exposure uh in Nature's Fair which sort of bridged this position for me

6:21

um working with Nature's Fair has been an absolute fabulous experience I love

6:27

the people that I work with I love the organization that I work for I

6:33

feel that all the people that are employed by Nature's Fair seem to have the same passion and the same

6:40

vision uh we all want to help people on their health Journeys um I have great

6:47

respect for our CEO he's a Visionary and he's also passionate about natural

6:54

health and he listens and he hears and he gets the job

7:01

done um he really helps to empower the staff I feel like we're a family we really care about each other and uh

7:08

that's so important especially for right now it's always important but maybe even more important for what is going on

7:14

right now in the world so that you can go to work and be in a safe place where you can share with one another and you

7:20

care about each other and then that spills over into for the customers and they know that we care we care about

7:26

each other and we care about them I feel that Nature's Fair is a very conscientious company as well we care

7:33

about the environment we are a very giving company we give to lots of different local

7:40

um uh businesses um nonprofit organizations we help to feed many

7:47

people that might not be able to get um their meals and their Foods in different ways um and we also are a company that

7:55

walks with integrity and that's really important you know I have worked for many years three decades in this

8:02

industry and I made a decision some time ago that I would not align myself with a

8:08

company or people that didn't have the same uh Integrity as I and so I'm so

8:13

thankful to be at Nature's Fair for that reason um yeah it's been a great experience I'm looking forward to more

8:19

years with Nature's Fair wonderful yeah it sounds like a great place to be and actually just the vibe going into one of

8:26

going to my local store it's you've got beautiful people work there who are

8:31

genuinely passionate to be there and want to and want to serve and want to help and yeah you can I don't know

8:37

personally I can feel that type of environment I think most people can they go into a specific environment and they

8:43

actually feel kind of that warmth and that good energy and yeah everything you're talking about from the CEO all

8:49

the way down everybody's there with integrity and passion to to to be there and to to help people which is wonderful

8:56

um we started this podcast to discuss the many areas within mental health that

9:02

just need really to be opened up and talked about in your experience as a

9:07

practitioner and buyer for Nature's Fair what role do you think does nutritional

9:13

supplementation have in supporting people's mental health be that mild

9:18

stress or something more severe such as you know a diagnosis of ADHD or depression or anxiety

9:25

Etc well nutritional supplementation takes a prominent role um because of

9:31

course even now more and more so we're starting to understand there's a huge connection between the gut and the mind

9:37

and uh it's all starts with what you put into your body and if you put in the right things the right nutrition you're

9:43

going to have a healthy gut and hopefully a healthy or healthier mind uh we also know today that the food

9:51

that we eat is just not nutritionally compact like how it was years ago I know

9:56

myself I keep trying to search for that tomato that tasted how it did when I was young and it's like well maybe I have a

10:03

warp perception of how that tomato used to taste but you know things don't taste the same um and they're not as

10:10

nutritionally dense and that's largely because the soil we know is uh very much

10:16

deprived from minerals and so the food we eat that's grown in the soil today is also deprived from minerals when we eat

10:22

those Foods then now we're deprived of minerals and minerals uh are very very

10:28

important uh they play a major role in our health and a major role I believe in

10:33

our mental health um yeah absolutely I I remember going

10:40

into into my nutritional degree and then the topic of supplements came up and I'd

10:45

never really taken them and I always just thought you know like IAT really well and you know I drink lots of water and you know I don't need to take

10:51

anything to supplement my diet and then you know you start to learn about the soil and about the you know the extreme

10:59

tox xic loads that literally didn't exist 20 30 100 years ago so I don't

11:05

think anybody can afford not to be on the right supplements for them and

11:11

that's when you know working with or going to a local store and talking with the very experienced individuals there

11:17

about getting the right thing right product right dosage for you because

11:22

yeah as you say supplementation plays a huge role in everybody's lives whether that's somebody experiencing a

11:29

particular pathology or somebody who um is just looking to kind of maintain their health what is your um what's your

11:37

experience with true hope Canada can you recall the first time it came kind of

11:43

came across your um radar well that's a great question I actually do remember very well I was

11:49

actually uh working in a health food store um down on the coast in in Vancouver area and a woman came in and

11:57

was looking through the store and and I asked her if I could help her and she saides I'm looking for your your true hope EMP product and I said uh wow we

12:07

don't carry that tell me more and uh she says oh well you have to have it because

12:12

I have to have it and I said well tell me more and so she started to explain to me how this product had completely

12:18

changed her life and she expressed um you know in detail what had happened and

12:24

spent quite a bit of time with me sharing and anyways I um we concluded that at that time it wasn't actually

12:29

sold in retail and off she went and as she as she left uh because she was

12:35

determined to buy that I couldn't sell her anything else absolutely not and um

12:41

and then I started to do my own investigation and I looked up online all about you hope and I was oh my goodness

12:48

we need to have this product and it was shortly after that that it came into the retail world I suppose it was being

12:55

worked on at that time and bowns to me and very soon after that it came it was

13:01

available and I started selling it and promoting it to customers that's wonderful yeah and um

13:08

just for people who aren't familiar with our Flagship product EMP power plus it's gone through many different um stages in

13:16

it in its um processing since I think 25 years ago was the original original

13:22

product um an EMP power plus it's a superior broads Spectrum micronutrient supplement which is you know designed to

13:28

provide you with the essential co-actors of life that you know we rely upon on a

13:33

daily basis for maintaining mental and physical well-being do you actually have any personal experience in taking the

13:41

product I do and um I'm so shocked at

13:46

what happened in my own life quite honestly and uh so I was selling the product for quite a few years helping

13:53

lots of people the product was not me and I um

13:59

and I I'm so thankful and I'm blessed um with uh good mental health I haven't had

14:05

a lot of challenges that I've seen some of my friends and even family go through um haven't um been challenged with

14:13

depression um but what happened was my mother who I dearly love and very close

14:20

to and uh helped her in her last six years of her life she came to live with us uh she passed away and um

14:30

I don't know what happened but I became for lack of a better word I shall

14:37

say I became obsessed with death dying in heaven um and I I was consumed with

14:47

death dying in heaven and I don't mean that I was in any way

14:52

suicidal so they weren't necessarily negative thoughts or dark thoughts but

14:58

they were certainly deep thoughts and I couldn't stop these thoughts I I don't

15:04

ever remember a time in my life where I I couldn't stop thoughts when I wake up I think about death dying in heaven and

15:12

um throughout the day it would just be worrying around in my mind and I couldn't stop it I tried everything that

15:18

I knew how to do um and I couldn't stop these thoughts and these persisted for quite some time and uh and then I at

15:28

that time I was actually working in a somewhat of a natural Pharmacy and the sales rep uh for True hope at the time

15:35

came in and uh we didn't actually carry true hope at that time but I was in the

15:41

process of bringing it in that's why we were having that meeting so she came in and we were uh deciding how to bring the

15:47

products in and and all of that and then up in the conversation I started to share with her

15:54

about these thoughts and she said oh my goodness Stephanie you you need to try true hope I said oh for that and she

16:01

said yes and so I um said okay so I um

16:07

got my bottle and I started taking two capsules two times a day and after three days on the fourth

16:16

day I woke up and I thought oh my goodness I'm not obsessing and thinking about death dying

16:22

in heaven and I thought oh it's going to come and the day went on and I had clear

16:28

CLE thoughts I I didn't go back to that place and and so I continued on and I and next day the next day and still none

16:35

of those thoughts I mean I'm sure I had one or two but nothing like you know I was

16:41

experiencing and uh so I went through the entire bottle and I felt great and I just felt I even felt better than before

16:48

I always thought I felt great but now I even felt even better and uh so finish off the bottle and I thought okay I

16:54

guess I'm good um I'll go back and find another multivitamin that's that's good

17:00

and so I went found one that I'm also very fond of and within in about a less

17:06

and a week's time all these thoughts started flooding back in my mind and I I couldn't control it once again and I

17:13

thought oh my goodness so I went back bought some more EMP uh went on the product again I

17:20

remained on that product for I can't recall exactly but many months I'd say

17:25

at least 8 to 10 months and um and then I thought well I'm going to try the

17:31

experiment again and I changed to a different

17:36

multivitamin and um never had those thoughts again I mean I often think

17:41

about my mother and uh and Heaven in a wonderful way but I don't have those

17:47

obsessive thoughts anymore and I attribute that to EMP

17:52

absolutely thank you so much for sharing that yeah I think um whenever anybody goes through something of significant

17:59

trauma that's really close to home like a death in the family it certainly

18:04

triggers and Sparks different areas of the brain and different thoughts and when it's coupled with such high levels

18:12

of emotion it can be very difficult to control it you know as as you mentioned

18:18

and those thoughts ruminate they become more strong those Pathways in your brain become you know reinforced and it can be

18:25

very difficult to change that way of thinking and obviously there's a

18:30

difference between thinking about those types of things and then thinking about the you know the positive memories of of

18:35

of your mother and so many people go through their own tragedies and and

18:41

traumas and again you know they they do suffer these reoccurring thoughts that

18:46

really completely change somebody's internal State they start feeling differently behaving differently and I'm

18:54

so I'm so happy that you're able to find that product or that product found you at the right time and yeah I'm so

19:02

thankful that I actually went through that because what that did I mean I believe that we go through things so

19:08

that we can of course uh help ourselves be better people uh but more importantly

19:15

than that so that we can go and then help other people and so that really opened up another Avenue that I'd never

19:20

thought about in recommending that product for people so when customers were coming in and sharing things

19:26

similar I would now start recommending EMP for that where I wouldn't have prior

19:32

to that so it was really a shall I say a blessing in disguise yeah amazing yeah

19:37

such a wonderful product for people who are experiencing experiencing some really high levels of stress or even

19:43

just that something new and like lowlevel and just want to kind of get their thoughts under control because we

19:49

know that our thoughts can really um change how we feel and change our behaviors and really really change our

19:56

personalities in ways that we might may not um think authentic to our true selves have you have you recommended EMP

20:03

Power Plus to anybody else you mean anybody else besides all

20:08

the consumers that I've waited on for years yeah yeah maybe someone like maybe a friend or family oh so

20:16

many so many people um yes I'd say 70%

20:21

of my family is on EMP and uh for various reasons I've recommended EMP for

20:27

a lot of my friends down in Vancouver I don't currently live in Vancouver but I used to and many many people down on the

20:33

coast uh really are challenged with seasonal affectiveness disorder and I

20:38

that she recommended EMP for that uh to friends I that she recommended EMP to a

20:44

lot of the staff of Nature's Fair now don't misunderstand me the staff are are

20:50

healthy fine and they love working at Nature's Fair but as we know and particularly this last year has been a

20:56

challenge for many many people and a lot of the staff would come to me or other um vitamin employees and just say what

21:04

would you recommend and our go to is always EMP for mental health and clear

21:11

mind clear thinking and even I recommend EMP to people who are just looking for a

21:17

very well-rounded multivitamin um this because of the

21:23

formulation of the multi vitamins and minerals particularly the minerals it just makes makes sense to be on this uh

21:31

rather than a lot of the other multivitamins that are out there on the in the marketplace absolutely yeah as

21:36

you say it's broads Spectrum micronutrient and you don't have to be going into a supplement store with you

21:42

know a particular concern or an issue it can be something that's really helpful for maintaining your health I hope I can

21:49

I can say this um I actually recommended EMP for my daughter and uh my daughter

21:57

is actually pregnant as we speak do to deliver any moment amazing and um she's

22:03

been on EMP for quite some time and when she became pregnant she thought okay maybe I I should come off EMP and go

22:09

onto a prenatal and she soon found that um the prenatal just wasn't sufficient

22:15

enough for her in areas and so um with the help of her midwives and her medical

22:22

practitioner uh they um decided that she could actually stay with EMP of course

22:29

they looked um at changing her iron intake and her folic acid intake but

22:34

she's actually maintained an extremely healthy pregnancy and um of course I'm

22:39

going to have the smartest uh grandchild on the planet because of EMP um but

22:45

she's yeah she went through her whole pregnancy with the EMP and just felt wonderful that's wonderful yeah my wife

22:52

is well with our first child um took EMP through her pregnancy and um yeah we

22:57

have a incredibly energetic rambunctious beautiful healthy looking

23:03

child and yeah absolutely pregnancy can be quite a tricky tricky stage and

23:08

getting the right supplements that are easily absorbable obviously you are

23:14

we're not what we're eat we're we're what we absorb so making sure that that product is something that you know your body's going to be able to to uptake and

23:20

utilize is obviously very important um yeah I hope your I hope your daughter

23:26

doesn't go into labor in the next 20 minutes but that's exciting thank you um

23:31

so with 30 years 30 plus years in the industry have you seen anything be as

23:38

effective as EMP Power Plus um in regards to as you say like it's it's

23:44

kind of a go-to at Nature's Fair for supporting mental health you know I've had the opportunity

23:50

to sell many products and there's lots of different uh products that that help

23:57

a lot of people for mental health health absolutely um there's some single and

24:02

some combination formulas that I often recommend but I can honestly say I

24:08

haven't seen anything work as well as EMP for mental health

24:13

um you know I don't even think I've ever had a return on EMP now that I think

24:18

about it I mean um I I don't ever remember someone coming back and saying this is out this is amazing for me to

24:25

say this actually I don't think I've ever had anybody back and say this product doesn't work for me um or I had

24:31

an adverse reaction um I'm just going back to my memory bank right now and I I

24:37

can honestly say I haven't um I

24:45

um the the other thing that I've seen with EMP probably more than a lot of products that do also work well is I

24:52

don't think I've seen anything work as quickly as EMP um so many times people come back

25:00

within a very short period now I don't want to send false messages out there um some people it'll take quite some time

25:06

it just depends on the person's body or how long they've been dealing with their challenge but so many times people come

25:13

back just like my experience within a few days and say oh my goodness I can't believe how well I feel I've also seen a

25:21

lot of people come off pharmaceutical drugs with the help of their practitioners um in a very healthy way

25:29

um you know slowly diminishing their pharmaceutical uh drug intake and increasing EMP again with the help of

25:36

their doctor um and that's been very very impressive and I've seen that more

25:42

with EMP than anything else yeah that's wonderful and as as we kind of spoke about before EMP has got

25:48

such a so absorbable that we use the ingredients are are very very specific

25:55

and the dosaging is very very specific because you we we want that product to

26:00

be you get home you start taking it and it be be effective yeah I've heard I've heard people say that the same the same

26:06

day they' felt just a little bit different a and a little bit better and um yet that just goes to show that you

26:13

know this product really does work yes let me also add that um you know often

26:19

if you know if we're out of a certain vitamin C on the Shelf it's you know it's maybe disconcerting for the

26:25

customer but mostly we can find something else very similar suitable for them but with the EMP we never want to

26:32

be out on the Shelf because we can't say oh that's okay we'll just you know we'll just give you this it's like no EMP or

26:39

nothing for many many people that's wonderful and and it sounds like you probably get pretty good

26:44

responses for for our products in your store absolutely we we have a lot of

26:50

people that come in we recommend it they get good results and then they tell their friends and family and then those

26:56

people come in and say oh you know my friend was was in you recommended this product where is it what can you tell me

27:01

about it MH wonderful well um a couple of years ago true hope Canada we created

27:07

an online university where employees in retail stores can learn more about our

27:13

products they can actually take quizes to help reaffirm their learning and and hear from our customers on just how our

27:20

products have have changed their lives in so many different ways I've had the pleasure of going to shows and recording

27:27

people tell us story about their their life before EMP their life afterwards

27:32

and for the same product the story is always wildly different which just goes

27:38

to show this product can really support so many different people um H have you

27:44

done the true hope University training and what did you think of it absolutely I've done it um people know me as being

27:50

an information junkie but I I just think the more information I have of course the better I can help other people um I

27:57

took the program I thought it was excellent um what I really liked about it was it was easy to comprehend it was

28:04

very informative and yet very professional um I um it I would

28:11

recommend it in fact I did recommend it to all my staff I was actually at the working at the store at that time and um

28:18

I would never recommend anything to my staff that I first wouldn't try myself so I went through it and then I told all

28:23

the staff oh my goodness everybody needs to to uh take this education

28:29

um and it's just valuable you one of the things that you'll find with Nature's Fair I I will say is that the staff is

28:36

very well educated and very passionate about um increasing their knowledge of

28:42

products and product lines and so um I know that all my staff at the FR tellal

28:48

you at the Vernon store took this training and uh what we saw is just a a really in an increase in in able to help

28:55

people even in a better way and more formative way and um it's a really good

29:01

program very well put together like I said beautiful yeah you know hear it true Canada we're obviously all about

29:08

making great great quality products to help people but that's sometimes just not enough you know we there is a lot of

29:14

products out there and a lot of companies and you know it's it's our duty to make sure that the people who

29:20

are you know on the on the on the store floor have got the have got the knowledge and got the skills to be able

29:26

to yeah talk a little bit extra about about our products in order to really

29:31

connect with what that customer is telling them and um yeah I I kind of

29:36

headed up that project and I saw a lot of Nature's Fair uh employees um coming

29:42

onto it which is which is wonderful I think not only you know the the information about the products were

29:49

important but also the story behind the product I most people in our industry in

29:55

the Natural Health industry were were known as very touch feely people and we're all about heartfelt stories and we

30:02

like to know the story behind the company of the products that we represent and promote and uh troop hope

30:10

has an amazing story and for me when I was uh helping customers I would always

30:17

direct them I would explain a little bit about the story direct them to the website so that they could understand

30:23

why this particular product came about that's very very important and also so

30:28

that people could understand the family behind this product and

30:34

um just their authenticity yeah it's a remarkable story and um yeah it's got many

30:41

different layers over many different years and if you're unfamiliar with it you can actually go and listen to a podcast we did a couple of weeks ago

30:47

with David stefen um and he'll and it's a really wonderful story and he's he'll

30:54

be he'll tell you all about it so make sure you go and check out the episode but if you're lucky to live in BC and

30:59

you've got an Nature's Fair close by you can you know visit a store and go and check it out for yourself and you you'll

31:04

know what I mean when um I say you go in there and you feel really well well taken care of and the energy in that

31:10

place is is wonderful before I got a coffee machine at home I would I was looking at the clock waiting for waiting

31:16

for 8:00 to be able to drive down and get a coffee and say hi to everyone um but they were waiting for you too

31:23

probably probably yeah um but they've they've got some really amazing amazing on their website nf.com really amazing

31:30

health tips their in in store magazine is is awesome as well I really get a lot

31:36

of good information from that some good recipes some some really good articles on supporting your health and it's very

31:41

very seasonal so it's very um you know depending on the on the time of year the information is spot on they're also on

31:48

Instagram Facebook and YouTube you just need to search Nature's Fair and they've got a really great um marketing team

31:53

that's doing a really great job really beautiful social media um pages but thank you again Stephanie for being

32:01

with us and talking to us today taking the time to share about your experiences with um EMP and true hope and um

32:08

obviously was I'm I'm super happy that you're in the position that you are in hsf to make sure that people are getting

32:14

the right information and getting the right product so thank you so much for taking the time again today my pleasure

32:20

thank you for having me all right well thank you everyone for listening um for more information about anything we've

32:26

spoken about in this episode please check out the show notes thank you so much for listening this is true Hope

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cast the official podcast of true hope Canada I hope you've enjoyed this episode and we'll see you next week

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goodbye [Music]