Ep 236- Who Do You Use?

Episode Introduction: Who’s Who in Your Zoo?

Hello everyone. Welcome to “Mentoring with Geraldine and the Bite Sized Podcast”. 

How the devil are you? 

So today I thought I would talk a little bit about the companies that support us as practitioners, and how that can be misconstrued. 

How that can be taken amiss, but how it does actually support us.

Because they do do lots of things for us.  

And yes, they earn money out of us because of that.

But there are all sorts of ways that we can be using them, and still not be used by them, at the same time.

Suppliers – Just Product, or More Than That?:

What have we got?

We’ve got all these big name companies that we use, and that we love. 

They have education available to us – some better than others. 

For a couple of the companies, it’s just selling.

After you’ve been in the business a little while, you go along to their seminars, and they’re just selling their product.

It’s very dull and it’s just all about the products. 

Then there are other companies that have independent speakers.  

The only time you see the product is in the break, as would be the case if you were at any normal conference or seminar. 

The companies that are selling products, generally have all sorts of tiered programs.  

For instance: buy X number, and you’ll get the Xth number free; if you spend a certain amount over X amount of time, you’ll get free admission to seminars, you get free accommodation, and you get all these things. 

So those companies aren’t necessarily the ones that are supporting us in the way that we need to be supported as practitioners. 

With many of the companies, the person in charge (the CEO or the person who developed it) was a Naturopath, but they were very business minded, and they set up a business to sell products.

They created a product, and then they realised there are so many rules and restrictions in Australia, and there are, with the TGA (quite rightly, thank you very much). 

Meaning they had to go commercial and they had to go big so that they could get the AUST L number, and their ARTG, and all of those things sorted – rather than saying it’s a food. 

The majority of products on the market, on the shelves, say “This is a food”, and then they don’t have to jump through hoops, and it means that you don’t really know what’s in the product. 

Suppliers – Jumping Through Hoops:

So we do love our AUST L products, and I think we do have very good reason in Australia, to know and to believe in these companies, because they do jump through those hoops.

I do believe that if you’re in “Strictly Education & Support” (the Facebook group), I do believe you can go and watch the video of me on the short tour of the Herbal Extract Company. Now the Herbal Extract Company was explaining to me, about how they jump through those TGA hoops. 

There are a few American companies that want the AUST L number on their product, and so they pay the TGA to come and inspect their facilities. They’re not just paying the TGA off.  They’re paying for people who rock up at their business, and they sit down with their computers, laptops, or clipboards, and they basically just demand information, and the company has to produce the information.

So simple things like refrigerator temperatures. 

I used to run restaurants back in the day, and the health inspectors would come round. We’d have our own health inspectors, and then the council would come round and inspect, and they’d check the temperature of the refrigerator. They’d check the temperature of the refrigerator, and they would check my thermometers were working. That’s all they checked. 

Now with the TGA, they require (the company) to prove that their refrigerator is at that temperature all the time. So the company will produce a spreadsheet of everyone signing off every day, to say that the temperature remained that temperature throughout the day. Then they’ll say:  

“Well prove that’s correct”.

So all of the things have to be double checked, and triple checked. 

So the TGA sit there – it costs thousands of dollars every 3 to 5 years. 

So once they’ve hit the 3 year mark, the TGA compliance officers rock up, sit down and say:

” Prove it”

So all these companies with AUST L on the front of their product, have had to prove that it really is what’s in there, and that the standard of their facility is really up there.

So we’ve got the best standards. 

So we’ve got the best product.

All of these companies with AUST L numbers are complying. 

Choosing Who to go With?

• So then how do we choose what Company, and what product? 
  • Do we align with that company and with that product? 
  • Do we have the same values as that company?

There are companies that I won’t use, because I don’t believe that their values align with my values. I like to be able to give a discount to clients on products. It doesn’t affect me, as long as I’m not the one holding the product. 

I still have a very small dispensary, but I see the majority of people online now.

The majority of my clients – 99.9% – are online, and so they get their products from a distributor. 

Aligning Values:

Obviously I am choosing my product on my values, on my ethics, because it’s all about me. My values are different to yours, and to your neighbours, and to your aunties.

Just as yours are different to mine, because often we don’t know someone else’s internal values. 

* Spoiler Alert *

Values are something that will be coming up in my book that’s being released later in the year, so that we can understand our values. 

• When we think about our products – we look at our products …
• Do we align with that company?
  • Yes, we do, or 
  • No, we don’t

By using a distributor

I can choose within that distribution company 

which companies I am then going to use 

which means that I don’t have to stick to one brand

By using only their product for my client, I’d have to have a whole system of their product for my client, however that’s not necessarily the best product.

That’s the thing with multi-level marketing – to gain the money, you have to sell that brand, you have to sell that product. 

So that doesn’t align ethically with any professional. 

That’s why that’s against APRA rules. 

It’s against many Association rules, because you have to align yourself with one brand.

Avoid Aligning with One Brand Only:

• We have to avoid aligning ourselves with one brand
  • because it means that we are not looking outside the square
  • because none of our clients fit the square do they?

That’s why they’re seeing a natural therapist in the first place, because they’re currently not fitting into “the square” of modern medicine. So they’ve come to see a natural therapist to be “outside that square” –  to fit that square peg into that round hole. 

So we need to use different products from different companies, and a distributor is actually a great way of doing that. 

Distributors Operate Differently Also:

With the distributors, some of them share your information, and what you’ve bought, with the companies, and many don’t.

So that can be a good thing and a bad thing. 

For me, it’s a great thing. I like it. 

But at the same time, it’s a bad thing – that the company doesn’t know. 

It means I don’t get any of their bonuses, if they have bonuses. 

• One of the big companies that has herbs and products – you join up, and you sell a certain amount, and then you get ‘whatever’. 

• One of the other companies, you’ll get free seminars, you’ll get free accommodation, but they’re selling seminars so I don’t want to go anyway. 

• One of the other companies that’s ethically amazing – if you buy directly from them, you get 5% off.
  • So if you have your home dispensary, it’s worth purchasing directly for them for that 5% discount
  • If you want to, you can pass that 5% on to your client or gain the extra 5%. 

When we think about the companies that we use, we really need to think:

Is this company aligning with my values? 

Is this company supporting me as a practitioner?

• I’m supporting them by buying their product, so how are they supporting me? 
  • What are they offering me that I can then use – learn from – pass on to my client?
  • What is the point of this company for me? 
  • Do I want to put them at the top of my learning list, or will I stick with my distributor? 

My rep from the distributor will come out and talk to me about all of the products they’re distributing, so I get to learn across a whole gambit of products. 

They tend to teach you about new products that have come into their lines, so there tends to be a bias there as well, but that’s okay because we’re learning about new products, we’re learning about new companies, and then we can go and investigate them ourselves.

Choosing Our Own Distributors:

We know they’ve got the AUST L number on the front, so we know it’s a good quality product, which takes away a lot of that background research. 

We don’t have to do the research about the company itself. 

We don’t have to do the research about their quality control standards because the TGA has done that for us.

• We can then be looking at 
  • the values, and the ethos and the ethics of that company 
  • what they’re offering 
  • what their behaviours are
  • whether we align with them or not
• So we choose to use that brand or not

So we’ve chosen our brands across the board, and it means that because we’ve got so much to choose from, our client will have a better outcome because we’re able to choose the product that suits their problem.

It’s not like an online shopping mart thing, where you type in:

“Zinc” 

Then at the bottom of the page it says: 

“Everyone else who bought that product also bought this product”

“Why don’t you buy this product too?” 

There’s none of that with us going to distributors.

If my client needs zinc, the distributor probably carries 5, 7, 9 different zincs, and we find the zinc that is the right one for that client depending on what’s going on with them.

They might have an MTHR SNPs or whatever it is – they might need a particular zinc.

All the companies make zinc, and they all make it slightly differently – some with cofactors, some without.

Iron is another one.

Over the counter, they’re all given an AUST L number, in the pharmacies.

However some of those are really poorly absorbable, and the client will get constipated and have black poo, because they’ve got really nasty, cheap iron from over the counter.

Whereas we have got so many different irons to choose from, and they don’t have those side effects. 

We’ve got liquid iron for children. 

We’ve got chewable iron, for people who don’t want to swallow tablets and don’t want to drink a liquid. 

We’ve got capsules, we’ve got tablets. 

We’ve got a massive selection, because the companies look at the other companies and decide:

“Oh, there are no other liquids. We’ll create a liquid”

“Oh, there are no chewables. We’ll create a chewable”. 

“Oh, these capsules, they can be split open and emptied into something, so maybe we’ll do a tablet so it’s easier to swallow”

“Oh, none of these have a herbal co-factor. Let’s stick nettle in here because we know that nettle helps the uptake of iron”

They do those sorts of things – they’re all looking differently.

It means because we’re not following one company 

but rather we are using all these different distributors

we’re able to choose the best product for our client overall 

to support their health and to get them on the road to recovery faster 

than we would otherwise be able to if we just stuck with one product 

and that wasn’t tested and accredited 

and we had to worry about quality of the product 

as well as quality of the company supplying that

So Who is Out There?:

So I just thought I’d have a little go about companies.

I did want to remind you that there’s lots out there.

• There’s Rena – Perth
• There’s Obourne – Sydney and Melbourne
• There’s Aria – Townsville 
• Vital.y

They’re for everyone all over the country. 

You don’t have to live in those States – because I don’t live in any of those states and I use all of those companies. 

• There’s Integria, which is a brand, so it’s not a distributor. 

So I’m trying to talk about distributors, aren’t I?

Then we’ve got companies that make herbal tinctures for us as well. 

I’m struggling to remember the name of one of the companies, so I’m not going to mention those, but there are companies that mix herbal tinctures for us, and there are companies that will compound for us as well.

So we’ve got a lot of options in distribution companies and facilities, and it’s worth having a look, and it’s worth signing up for them. 

Sign Up Yourself:

You can, as a student, sign up – it used to be in your second year, you could sign up to distributors – so make sure you check. 

You normally have to belong to an Association, or you send them in your Uni particulars to get yourself a distribution account.

It is worth signing up to the companies so that you’ve got a really good selection of products.

Some of the product companies have paperwork that you can use for your clients. 

Yes, that does mean that you are looking at that branding, and it may subtly in the back of your mind, make you waiver towards that product. 

I have a tendency to waiver towards the product that I’ve been using for years, that works.

I have a tendency to use the older companies that have been around a bit longer, simply because they’ve been around that bit longer, and I’ve been using them for that bit longer, and I’ve had really good results from their products. 

But it does mean I mix and match for every client.

It means that distributors are really, really helpful to me and I’m not aligned with anyone. 

Remember to Consider:

It’s something you do need to think about. 

You do need to look at the companies.

What do they stand for? 

What are their values? 

Do they support you as a practitioner – with paperwork – with an education centre?

Do they reach out to you?

Make sure you’re mixing and matching. 

That means you will get the very best for your client, as opposed to if you just stick with one company.

Signing Off:

So that’s it for me today. 

I hope you’ve enjoyed today and I hope it’s got you thinking.

That’s the reason for many of these podcasts … it is just to get you cogitating over some of these things, and think to yourself:

“Yeah, yeah, I do that. Yeah, I do that”

“Oh, no, I hadn’t thought about that. I just need to get on and think about that”. 

So you know the deal, if you’ve enjoyed it, please subscribe and rate and review. 

I’d love a few more reviews. If you’ve got a minute, just scroll down on the app that you are using and leave a review. 

So it’s been great chatting.

I hope you have a good one and I’ll catch up with you soon. 

See ya. 

Thanks so much for joining me today. Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe to the podcast, for the weekly episodes. If you’d like even more support and learning, then The Academy is for you. Here, you’ll find part 2 of the herbal discussions, more clinical learning, and case studies, to support your clients in practice. 

Bye for now.