S5 Ep20: Hemp: The Source of Fats that Heal with Mike Fata
“If you have a foundation of good products and good people, more of the world needs to hear about it.” — Mike Fata
Hemp is now considered a superfood! Hemp has a very high nutritional profile and offers plenty of health benefits, including being high in omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and fiber content.
A lot of the misconceptions around hemp is associated with it being closely related to marijuana. However, unlike its counterpart, hemp doesn’t contain enough THC (0.3%), the chemical compound responsible for getting high. Rather, it is high in Cannabidiol (CBD), a phytocannabinoid that helps in easing symptoms of many health issues including pain, inflammation, and a wide range of neurological disorders.
Inspired by his own personal health transformation, Mike Fata co-founded Manitoba Harvest, one of today's global leading manufacturers and brands of high-quality hemp food products. Weighing over 300 pounds, Mike took decisive action to change. He focused his diet on fiber, protein, and healthy fats— all components of hemp. Amazed by his results, Mike made it his mission to spread the word about the power of hemp to as many people as possible.
In this episode, Justine and Mike talk about the health benefits of hemp, where to get trusted resources, the foundation of a successful business, what it's like to sell your business, and how the shift in narrative is gradually changing our current food system for the better.
Connect with Mike:
Co-founding Manitoba Harvest Hemp Foods in 1998, and serving as Chairman of the Board and CEO until 2016, Mike helped guide the strategic sale of the company to Tilray for $419 million dollars in 2019. Since then, Mike has celebrated and supported other business ventures as an entrepreneur, board member, investor, and advisor.
Mike is an award-winning author and keynote speaker. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Fata & Associates and host of the Founder to Mentor podcast. Mike is an investor/advisor to a portfolio of world-class companies, a Lifetime Member (Past Chairman) of the Canadian Health Food Association (CHFA), and a Lifetime Member (Past Chairman) of the Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO).
Connect with Manitoba Harvest:
Episode Highlights:
00:45 Discovering the Health Benefits of Hemp
04:49 What It's Like to Sell Your Business
07:40 Fats That Heal
09:17 The Right Foundation for Entrepreneurship
13:03 We Need More Good Products & Good People
16:19 The Shift of the Narrative
Tweets:
Hemp is now considered a superfood! Join @jreichman and the unstoppable entrepreneur, @themikefata as they share the wide range of health benefits found in hemp and how the change in narrative is gradually transforming the food industry. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #ManitobaHarvest #hemp #hempfoods #essentialfattyacids #healthjourney #entrepreneurialjourney
Inspirational Quotes:
02:26 "I love the natural products industry, because there's all these great foods, great products, founders and entrepreneurs that create those products." -Mike Fata
04:11 "A lot of entrepreneurs don't understand that at the end of the journey, when you sell a business, there's a financial reward which can be life changing. But there's a grieving process that goes along with that." -Mike Fata
05:08 "You should enjoy the journey because the end of the journey isn't necessarily the great part." -Mike Fata
08:35 "You can see fat is not a bad word anymore. And it is the right fat type of diet now." -Mike Fata
09:17 "Whatever product or service you're focusing on, it should be tied to your passion because it's the passion that keeps you going in making your vision a reality." -Mike Fata
13:16 "If you have a foundation of good products and good people, more of the world needs to hear about it." -Mike Fata
16:39 "People are looking for more innovative things. It's much more accepted and expected, and people are looking for it— the narrative has shifted." -Justine Reichman
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman: Good afternoon, and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm Justine Reichman, your host. Today with us is Mike Fata, CEO, Founder of Manitoba Harvest.
Welcome, Mike.
Mike Fata: Yeah, thanks for having me.
Justine Reichman: I'm so glad that we get to connect. I'm excited to learn about you, a little bit about Manitoba Harvest, all the other projects and things that you are part of, and what you're doing representing Mid-Day Squares. We love Mid-Day Squares.
Mike Fata: Thanks for the opportunity. I founded Manitoba Harvest in 1998. I was fortunate to find my why and health a few years before that after I lost over 100 pounds and decided to do something about my health. I was away to 300 pounds when I was 18 years old. And after losing the weight and discovering how healthy hemp seeds are, I got really enamored with the business opportunity and started the company. Over 20 years, grew the business to over 100 million in sales. We were successful in exiting the company. So I learned a lot about agriculture, food manufacturing, and creating a brand. And really, distribution through international distribution. And so we sold the company in 2019. And over the last three years, we have been helping other founders grow their businesses with investment, or sometimes advising them, or mentoring younger entrepreneurs. And so Mid-Day Squares is one of my companies. I have nine companies in my portfolio. And just love the product, love the founders. Happy to support them, both as an investor, but also as their global growth adviser to the founders.
Justine Reichman: That's wonderful. So 20 years ago, you were young and starting this company, and it sounds like it was a bit of a personal journey.
Mike Fata: Ah, very personal. I still feel like I'm young. Young at 45.
Justine Reichman: I'm gonna say you're young at 45, because I'm young at 49.
"I love the natural products industry, because there's all these great foods, great products, founders and entrepreneurs that create those products." -Mike Fata
Mike Fata: There you go. Yeah. I'm definitely a lot healthier at 45 than I was at 18. But yeah, I grew up on fast food and not knowledgeable about health. And so over the last 25 years, I learned a tremendous amount about diet, nutrition and exercise. And that's why I love the natural products industry, because there's all these great foods, great products, founders and entrepreneurs that create those products. So it's really my lane that I like to stay in focus even though it's been a couple of decades.
Justine Reichman: I was going with 18. It sounds like you were in high school.
Mike Fata: Yeah. To add to the story, I grew up poor with a single mom and decided to drop out of school. And when I was 13, and with my mom's support, I started working. By the time I was 14, 15, I was working full time in a number of different jobs. But in construction. So I learned a lot about how the world works, but more practically in the workforce. And I think that helps position me. So when I was 20, 21, when we started the business, I already had a good understanding of work. But I was not formally educated. Everything's been self taught.
Justine Reichman: Wow, that's amazing. That's amazing. It's inspirational. I can't say that 18 or 21, I had any idea what I was gonna do.
Mike Fata: Uh huh. Yeah. I can't say I have it figured out. But I just found what I was passionate about being healthy. And then I became passionate about business and growth, and really structuring and growing a company and team, and just enjoyed doing that for a very long time and still enjoy doing it. Nowadays, I'm a recovering entrepreneur. So I like to do it with other founders through supporting them and not necessarily being involved actively in the day to day business.
"A lot of entrepreneurs don't understand that at the end of the journey, when you sell a business, there's a financial reward which can be life changing. But there's a grieving process that goes along with that." -Mike Fata
Justine Reichman: Okay. You sold your business. I'd love to learn more about that too. But now, you've sold your business and you're supporting these other entrepreneurs. And so what was the transition for you to do that?
Mike Fata: Well, it's not easy. I think a lot of entrepreneurs don't understand that at the end of the journey when you sell a business, there's a financial reward which can be life changing. But you get a divorce from your business. I think about my business given the man's virus is 23 years old, it's like your child being 23 years old, but they don't come home and talk to or write to you anymore. There's a grieving process. There's an emotional process that goes along with that. I had a triple whammy right at the same time as we were selling the business. My partner and I for 15 years decided it was time to get a divorce and be co parents to our kids. And my mom passed away unexpectedly. So three kinds of things. Triple grieving that really had me searching and finding what was my meaning in life, and purpose in life. And so it wasn't easy. Even a business transition alone, I've seen friends and other entrepreneurs go through it. There's that cliche thing to say like, enjoy the journey. But you really should enjoy the journey because the end of the journey isn't necessarily the great part. Because what you've learned to love and do, you don't necessarily get an opportunity to do that anymore. And you have to reinvent yourself. So I, thankfully for me, I had been thinking about it for a long time and wanted to kind of retire as an entrepreneur to come out of retirement and see what was my 2.0. What do I want to do? I built my career off of giving back. So mentorship and helping support people has been a big part of it. I also just discovered love and a lot of knowledge and expertise around governance. I like being on board. I like advising, mentoring and coaching executives. And so that's what I've been doing since the last three years since I've not had a day job.
"You should enjoy the journey because the end of the journey isn't necessarily the great part." -Mike Fata
Justine Reichman: But I'm sure it keeps you very busy.
Mike Fata: I can be as busy as I choose. Having sold now three companies or three transactions that are all nine figure deals, I'm afforded a lot of opportunity. And so I'm grateful for that. And you can only do so many things in life, but it's no shortage of opportunity especially up to you if you create success.
Justine Reichman: So if we go back to your first company and you look at that experience, and you built that company at a young age, you're still young, you were there. It was kind of, that was a big deal back then. I mean, not that it wouldn't be a big deal now, but it was your early adopter, I would say, in that space. Would you agree?
Mike Fata: Yeah. 100%. Yeah. We got hemp legal in Canada, and we were one of the first companies to bring hemp foods to the market. So it was very weird. I say that the only thing more strange than selling hemp foods in 1998 is being a guy with a ponytail doing it. Had a lot of haters that just didn't believe that hemp should be a food, or that we weren't going to be successful. Or because I was a high school dropout, I wasn't going to make it as an entrepreneur. Took a lot of that in the early days. People laughing and just walking by and saying, no, that's marijuana. That's a drug. Being confused about that. But for the first five years of the business, a lot of it was standing up for the future knowing I had a clear vision that hemp, because of the nutritional properties of hemp seeds and hemp hearts as people learned about it, they were going to support it and start to want to include them as part of their daily diet, and as part of a healthy lifestyle. And so it was holding up that vision until the world caught up was the challenging part.
Justine Reichman: How did you become such an early adopter to hemp?
"You can see fat is not a bad word anymore. And it is the right fat type of diet now." -Mike Fata
Mike Fata: There were two other Co-Founders to Manitoba Harvest. But part of my journey is when I lost the weight, so I hit 300 pounds. I'm just sick and tired of being sick and tired. Decided to do something about it. I wanted to know about the fat diet, which was popular in the mid 1990's, but learned the hard way that your body needs fat, essential fatty acids. So after I cut the fat out of my diet, I was working out and exercising, and started suffering ill health from what I've learned was essential fatty acid deficiencies. I read the book Fats That Heal, Fats That Kill by Dr. Udo Erasmus, and he promoted how important essential fatty acids were, Omega 3 and Omega 6, and that hemp was the best source of essential fats. But it wasn't available in Canada or in the US, it was only available in Europe. And that's when I met Martin and Alex, the other two Co-Founders, and they were working to lobby the government to legalize hemp. And so I saw the opportunity that things were going to change from the no fat diet to the right fat diet, which I think 25, 20 years later, now you can see fats not a bad word anymore. And it is the right fat type of diet now. I just saw that kind of thing earlier. And I always thought hemp was cool. And it was misrepresented because even though it's a relative to marijuana and the cannabis family, it's not a drug, and it's a healthy food. It's also a fiber that's used for clothing and stuff. And so I was passionate about championing that cause.
Justine Reichman: We have a lot of founders that walk, listen to this, or watch the video casts, and people are really innovating new spaces now. And so I feel like you carved out a space for you in Canada where it wasn't before. What would you say to those founders that are trying to carve out their own niches today?
"Whatever product or service you're focusing on, it should be tied to your passion because it's the passion that keeps you going in making your vision a reality." -Mike Fata
Mike Fata: Whatever product or service, whatever company you're focusing on, it really should be tied to your passion. It's because it's the passion that keeps you going and making a vision a reality. I think because it becomes really hard if you're doing what would be called like a me too product or copying someone else just for the reason of business. I think that's when most of the businesses fail. But you see that people that have their own health experience and then created a health product, or there was a reason for them getting into the business is a good foundation I believe is the right foundation for entrepreneurship.
Justine Reichman: I completely agree with that. And I think that that's really sage and good advice for founders. So I'm curious also, we all have at least founders because I get a lot of questions from all these different founders that are always coming to me and asking me things. And one of the things that they always ask is, they're going to start these businesses. There's a lot of different, I want to say resources out there, and they never know how to vet them. We try to vet them, and we try to share our resources among the community because that's the best thing I know how to do is not necessarily recommend mine, but get everybody to share them. When you were starting out your journey, how did you know how to best get your resources?
Mike Fata: I think part of it was having been in the workforce and starting a community and network. And so I think it's good advisors and good mentors. I've been grateful to have some great mentors along my journey that really helped me show what good looks like, or what world class was, and maybe make some help with some relationships or some introductions. That's why Greg Fleishman and I, Greg's also another natural products industry veteran, after talking to one on one to many people that were mentoring and saying, hey, I have a form, or a tool, or a template that you can use. And sending it to my email, I said, why don't we create this more as a mass mentorship model? And that's what fatafleishman.org is. It's self service. We have basically downloaded our hard drive of all of our forms, tool, templates, investor lists, forecast templates, investment presentation decks, how to structure a board, how to incorporate a business and all these resources that are for free that people can just go access because we feel that we are a trusted voice in the industry. That's probably going to be, for sure. Don't think that people should have to pay entrepreneurship to pay for things that just are foundational tools. So that's one way that I've chosen to give back. But I think whether it's utilizing tools, or templates, or getting a mentor that you can trust that can help show you the way, I think those are, it's critical for entrepreneurs especially when they're just starting out.
Justine Reichman: No, I think that that's great. And that's one of the reasons we're building our community. I couldn't agree with you more, I think. And it can be so isolating. A lot of these entrepreneurs can do it. It can be insular, it can be lonely. So it can be isolating when you're doing it by yourself, unless you have a co-founder. But I do it by myself.
Mike Fata: If you need community, I say all the time, it takes a village to raise a family. It takes a nation to raise an entrepreneur. You need a good community of resources and others. You can talk to people that are going through similar challenges. And thankfully, social media makes connectivity a big LinkedIn fan. And there's other kinds of ways to connect. But not everyone has that start when they're just getting going. And so it's foundational for sure.
Justine Reichman: Yeah, I would agree. So now as you embark, you have been embarking in the last three years on your next journey. Now that you've sold your businesses and you're investing, what are you looking for in your, as you put together in your portfolio for your investments and the companies that you mentor.
"If you have a foundation of good products and good people, more of the world needs to hear about it." -Mike Fata
Mike Fata: Yeah. My investment thesis is quite simple. It's products that I enjoy in my house and that I like. That I meet the founders, and they're good people. I think that they have growth potential. Because I think from there, raising capital and growing the business, if you have a foundation of good products and good people, it's just more of the world needs to hear about it. That's how I go about things. There's a lot of people pitching me saying, hey, I have this idea for you to invest in. There's just too much opportunity. So I go back to like, products that I enjoy and people that I want to hang out with, talk with, and respect, and stuff. And that hasn't served me wrong. I made nine investments. I have nine companies in my portfolio in the last three years, and they're all doing outstandingly well. And just because it's a great product, and great founders, and great entrepreneurs behind it. Some of my money, and some of my mentorship, or advice, or expertise is really more fuel to their flame.
Justine Reichman: So yeah, I think that that's it. That's the way I look at it too. We're putting together a NextGen Food Fund, and we're making investments and putting some opportunities together, and we're meeting with some of these companies. And for me, it's all about the founders. I'm investing in the founders.
Mike Fata: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do better on the horse, or on the jockey. Kind of got to do both. The horse, maybe he's the product and the jockey is the operator. To be an entrepreneur and grow a business to a meaningful level so that you can have a return for shareholders is a lot of personal growth. There's no other way about it. It's going to take growing, and learning, and failing, and getting up, and going at it again over and over for years. So it's about the people. You can usually tell if entrepreneurs have it in them to grow personally, or if they're gonna have an issue with taking advice or organizing themselves in that way. And yeah, I'm a big jockey person too. The founders got to be a great fit.
Justine Reichman: I agree. So I'm curious, what do you see? What's new and next in the food space? I know you probably see a lot of businesses come your way.
Mike Fata: Yeah, yeah, I think, hey, there's been trends that have started, and they continue on. I mean, the plant based movement is huge and just continues to grow. I was involved with Sol Cuisine as a Chairman of the board investor. We just sold that business for $125 million. We closed in February. The plant based movement, both on the meat and dairy alternative used to be just a small part of the category. And now, because of flexitarians, it's becoming a larger and larger share of the category and the grocery store. I think down that line, foods that are made with more simple whole food ingredients, I think there's a trend to go there. I think there's also a need for states intensified with COVID, but like immune boosting, immune supporting and stimulating supplements, and beauty products, and things that are satisfying consumers need states are all categories in areas of product that will continue to develop. And it's exciting to watch actually. Being in the industry now for 25 years, 25 years ago, the innovation was a lot less than the opportunity you couldn't go. Now you can go to any one of your stores, you shop and get great natural and organic food and other products. And it's just going to become a larger and larger part of the food industry.
"People are looking for more innovative things. It's much more accepted and expected, and people are looking for it— the narrative has shifted." -Justine Reichman
Justine Reichman: I also think it was different 25 years ago. I remember 25 years ago, I'm born and raised in New York. So my mother was ahead of the curve. She was very into the natural food space. We go to every natural food store, and everything was organic. She was ahead of the curve. But it was taboo in some conversations and elsewhere. Whereas now, people are looking for more innovative things. It's much more accepted and expected, and people are looking for it. So it's the conversation. The narrative, I think, has shifted.
Mike Fata: It's much more mainstream. I agree with you. I think it used to be like, hey, natural foodies and organic foodies were hippies. Not everyone wanted it. Granola or whatever. And so nowadays, you're like, no, those are just health minded people who wouldn't want to be health minded people. And that's why the adoption of organic fruits and vegetables in every major grocery store and all the products are available, because there's not that stigma that it's a bad thing. It's actually, why wouldn't you want to be healthy? If you're the junk food eater, those are the people that probably need to check themselves and maybe adjust the diet. Especially, again, you get times when people are more concerned about getting sick or whatever.
Justine Reichman: Yeah. Mike, thank you so much for joining me. I appreciated learning about what you're doing, and for you sharing your insights and your story on Essential Ingredients.
Mike Fata: Yeah, thanks again for having me.
Justine Reichman: I really appreciate it.
