Motherhood and Entrepreneurship with Kate Taylor Martin of Nutbar

Show Notes:

I'm joined today by my dear friend Kate Taylor Martin, who is not only an amazing mother but also the founder of nutbar, a fan-favourite organic, superfood cafe in Toronto. Kate's journey as a holistic nutritionist and entrepreneur has been incredibly inspiring to witness over the past seven years of nutbar's journey. We have a discussion about Kate's passion for integrating mushrooms into nutbar's nutritious menu, the recent launch of their new product, barmilk, and how she balances motherhood and owning a business. 

What I admire most about Kate is her commitment to her own well-being despite her extremely busy and demanding schedule. She shares her advice on defining what truly matters to you, establishing daily routines that support your goals, and her favorite biohacks that help her maintain balance and energy. 

Kate's vision for nutbar is about providing nourishing food and drinks while empowering people to tap into their potential for feeling their best - physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Her dedication to this mission is a testament to her authenticity, wisdom, and genuine care for others. 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

Topics Covered: 

• A moment of reflection on your goals and priorities
• The tension between giving to others and giving to yourself 
• Tips for time management, building a strong team, and staying true to your vision
• Advice for transitioning into business and parenthood
• Kate’s emphasis on quality and nutrient density when choosing foods for her children
• Switching from morning coffee to matcha for sustained energy and focus 
• The role of medicinal mushrooms in nutbar's menu 
• Introducing nutbar’s new product, barmilk 
• nutbar’s growth is a sign of the café's commitment to quality and innovation

Guest Info: 

• Learn more about nutbar: nutbar.co 
• Check out barmilk: nutbar.co/barmilk 

Follow Me:

• Follow me on Instagram: @tonyapapanikolove 
• Follow Rainbo on Instagram: @rainbomushrooms 
• Shop Rainbo: rainbo.com 

Show Transcript 

EXPLICIT

Tonya Papanikolov  00:05

Hi, welcome to the Rainbo podcast. I'm your host, Tonya Papanikolov. Rainbo and I are on a mission to upgrade humanity with fungi and expand the collective conscious. This podcast builds a virtual mycelial network of bold, open minded thinkers and seekers. I chat with experts, thought leaders, healers, scientists, entrepreneurs, spiritual teachers, activists, and dreamers. These are stories of healing, human potential and expansion. Tune in root in expand and journey with us. Hi, welcome to September, which is kind of crazy to say we're nine months into 2023. And I always love this month so much, it's just so sweet. We're all kind of soaking in the last moments of summer and taking and squeezing out all that good, energetic, bustling energy of summer, at least I am anyways, I'm just getting back from a getaway vacation Burning Man. And getting back into the flow of things this week. I love the new energy that September brings along with the sweet, sweet abundance of harvest and foods and the slight change in air. Yeah, just the invitation to do some reflection and this feeling of a fresh start, which you know, is so ingrained in us from probably being kids and going to school. But it really does invite that in me, and I always welcome that. I love that, that energy and that time for reflection. So, I mean, I do this monthly now. But I really love to spend a bit of time in September to reflect back on, you know, what I set out to achieve and the feelings and the states and the things I said were important back in January. And I like to have a little gut check, check in with myself to say, hey, are these things are so important? And they always are? And be? Am I committing? And have I done? What kind of strides have I'm made towards making those are really daily consistent habit? or achieving that goal or whatever it might be? And just getting kind of real with myself to say, is this still important? And is it a priority for this next month or this next quarter, and I just I recommend checking in with yourself and holding yourself accountable. And to those some high standards and just getting real with yourself if you're not doing what you said was really important, and how you can start to steer yourself back into that direction. So it's a bit of self coaching. But today's episode is with Kate Taylor Martin, who is oh my gosh, I don't even know where to start. She's a very, very dear and special friend to me. I cherish her so much we have a very beautiful connection. And just, you know, our lives and our paths have intertwined really beautifully. Over the past seven years, I started working at nutbar right as I graduated holistic nutrition school. And I've seen the major growth of her as an individual as a mother as a business owner as an entrepreneur. And she's a huge expander. For me, she's a mother of three and a business owner to nut bar, we chat about her kind of founding story and why she's doing what she's doing. Anybody who's not familiar with nut bar, if you're Torontonian you definitely are. It is a super food cafe that has the most delicious food barn on quality, and has made it next to impossible for me to ever go to any cafe ever because of how delicious her nut bar nut milk is. And she just launched a super exciting product, bar milk, which is their packaged takeaway nut milk that you can freeze and keep at home and have the deliciousness and high quality of of that nut bar and not milk at home. And you just yeah, if you've been there, you know, and if you haven't been there, you gotta go. But today's conversation is all about motherhood and entrepreneurship and how she finds balance in it and this concept of having it all is it real what does it mean? What does it mean to what person how are we defining it, what her evolution has been like from having her first all the way to her third and growing her business to having four or now five locations in Toronto. And really she's just getting started. So she's super expansive, and you know, has this really beautiful outlook and I really believe it stems from her ability to really commit to herself as part of her morning routines and filling deciding to fill up her own cup first And I think anybody who who's known and committed to morning routine knows that you are 100% better after you've made that time for yourself and you just show up, or people in the most brilliant, authentic, heartfelt way. And obviously, you're still gonna have bad days. But really committing to that time to oneself, especially as a mother is just so vital. So we talk about a lot, we decided to keep this conversation pretty high level in terms of that search for balance. We chatted about it after and all that's to say that there are a lot of chaotic days for her days that don't go as planned is where you know, a kid is sick and has to be has to come home or something happens in the business. So just know that there's a lot of all of it is a balancing act. There are good days, there are harder days. And that's the reality of life, I suppose. In no matter which way you cut it. Yeah, she tells us about some powerful health hacks for a busy life. Her experience with mushrooms and fungi. nutbar is huge on medicinal mushrooms they are, it was actually my as you know, starting Rainbo they were not bar was my first customer which was so meaningful. We've really been there for each other's businesses and journeys. But I will not hold us up. I feel like this is a long intro because I got a little chatty, but let's dive in with Kate, you're gonna love her. And I know you're gonna learn a lot and feel expanded. And let's dive into it. Hi, Kate. Hi. I am so happy to have you here and to be in this format with you, and to share our friendship and stories and to have your wisdom. Thank you for being here.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  06:49

No, it feels quite. When you consider our paths and how we've gotten here. It feels quite incredible to take a moment. I know. Yeah. And just think about how we're here.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  07:00

I know, I was thinking that before we jumped on. Just being like, Wow, 2016 is where it started. And you reached out to me, I was at IGN. And I would like to say the rest is history. But there's been so many things that have happened that we've gotten to share in those experiences together in the process, which is so cool. But I want to save some of that story. And I'd love to start every episode with just grounding and asking you what you're grateful for today.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  07:30

Yeah, I think for me, it's just continuing on what we were just saying that to be in this space with you, but also on a broader level, to have you in my life, it's something I always sort of reflect on and consider because those who know you and listen to this and consume your products, I think you'll feel how special you are. But to have you as a friend is just such a gift. And I'm constantly inspired by you and an all of you. And yeah, I think that you are just such an example for so many people of how to operate in this world. I think if everybody lived their life, even you know, the world would be a much better place. I just, I feel Yeah, I feel very overwhelmed with gratitude to have you in my life. But to be able to sit here and have this conversation and just take a second to recognize like, this is both our life like this is the fact that our reality and our work. Yeah, how lucky are we?

 

Tonya Papanikolov  08:29

I know, I just got like an overwhelming swell of gratitude as well. And I'm going to echo all of that right back to you. I feel like when I met you I was there was a really big Well, it was like a door opening and the door closing at the same time, which of course endings are always beginnings, and vice versa. But it was just this like, really, really juicy time where there had been like a lot of hard stuff up to that point and transitions and leaving jobs and people and like just all of this stuff and ihn which as you know is like crazy. And then I get this gift from the universe, which is Kate Taylor Martin emailing me and telling me about this vision she has and like what came out of that is beyond. It feels like so deep. It's like a it's like I got another family I got best friends. I have traveled with you and your family. I've worked with you. We work together we've supported each other we've gone through like babies and soon marriages and like all of these crazy, monumental, beautiful things. So I am eternally eternally grateful for you. And like just like amazed that our paths have collided in the ways in the ways they have. It's truly a blessing.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  09:51

No, you're right. I think it's interesting to consider how I think for both of us being each other and connecting was sort of an inflection point in All right. Yeah, as you said, starting a new new chapter for each of us in very different ways, but that the common denominator was having each other and what doors opened as a result of that.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  10:12

Yeah, there's like, really actually, few people that I've met anyways, that have like, had that kind of effect, where it's just like, a room of like mirrors and doors, and like, you know, people and just so much came from us coming together, which is just insane. Okay, so you are a holistic nutritionist and the founder of nutbar. And how else your mother, you are so many things, how are you describing yourself? Today these days?

 

Kate Taylor Martin  10:51

Yeah, my mother always feels like the essence of who I am. The founder of nutbar is the official title. But I think for me, it's more like a person who is passionate about helping people tune into how good they can feel, and making it feel relatively easy or accessible or of interest, like just being able to share the learnings that we've gathered along the way from ihn, or from living this sort of lifestyle, to hopefully inspire people to tap into that feeling within them. Because, as we know, like navigating modern day life is crazy. And I think we've forgotten the fact that health isn't just the absence of disease, that we are meant to feel good. We're meant to wake up in the morning feeling rested and have consistent energy levels throughout the day, and a deep restful sleep at night. And so many of us don't, for many different reasons. Yeah, I feel so called to and passionate about sharing whatever wisdom I can to help people tune into that. So that's feeling like a big kind of part of my identity right now. And then I also feel like I'm entering the stage of life of being very curious to learn, like, I just want to soak up everything. And there's a part of me that's interested now, I think it's also post kids, I have three young kids, as you know, to be a little bit more selfish and take time to like, really turn inward, like who am I? What, you know, what makes me tick? Like, even honestly, the question you're asking, like, at the core of all this, when you strip away all that outward labels, who who am I? And what does that look like? So I feel like I'm in a bit of on a bit of a journey to uncover some of those questions.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  12:45

It's cool, because it's, it's never ending, but I feel like because Freddy is going to be five

 

Kate Taylor Martin  12:50

or six.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  12:53

Easy. Yeah. And like, you could probably quite realistically say that those these six years have been so dedicated to birthing them, raising them, like just three in that period is wild and a growing business and all of these things, which we're gonna get into all of that, and like how you manage it. I'm so excited for you. Yeah. And

 

Kate Taylor Martin  13:15

it's interesting, as you say that, like, yes, the last six years have been very much focused outward on keeping his human alive. But also how incredible it is to reflect on how they have opened up a part of me that I didn't know existed and like, eliminated so much that I don't know if I could have known without them. So yeah, it's sort of an interesting, like, tension between Yeah, giving so much outward, but also like seeing all these mirrors. Yeah. Like being who you are, what you care about, you know, how you show up in the world, how to be an example for them all those things.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  13:53

I think the word tension is such a perfect word. I'm not a mother yet, but I can imagine that it is like the wildest expression and experience of love and like new layers that are just like you can't even comprehend it. But also that there is a tension that exists. And I know that we want to chat about some of that in this episode. And like, I am truly amazed every time I think about you, I'm like Kate's doing it. I can do like, like, I would love for you to share how you do that. And like also any tactical, real tips that have helped you in terms of like, a time management, having a team in place, and like just all of these, all of these pieces.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  14:37

Yeah, so I have three young kids. So right now they're one three and five. And I found out I was pregnant with my son Friday, as I was setting up our first number location. So basically the week before the opening. And so yeah, there's always been this. This synergy between growing a business Since growing a family and the two have kind of flown in and out of each other, and it's been a wild, really wild couple of years, because opening a new location entering into this whole other world of operating, you know, physical space and cafe, while growing a baby for the first time. And you know this well, because you were very closely linked to the opening of that bar. And so watch me like stand behind that counter, as my belly would just grow. And I was like, I think you need to stop anymore to like, make this really behind you. And so that was like a fascinating experience. And then we opened our second location Leslieville when my daughter Veronica was only a few days old, which I'll talk about. And then COVID hit when I had these two really young babies. So navigating that and then I had my third Maeve. And we opened our other location. So a lot has happened in a few years. But I think in terms of Okay, so there's a few there's a few things I would say the first is, by no means am I doing this alone. And I think that's so important to call out like this idea of it takes a village is like rings so true for my own reality. I have my husband who is like a very hands on Dad, like he is right in it with me. And I have Karina who's essentially my like, work wife. She's the best. Guys, Karina? Yeah, I think having those two like pillars at home and at work. And then also, my mom, who is, you know, those I think about Kareena Khan, and my mom is sort of these pillars that just really hold down the different aspects of my life. So there's a lot, but the big thing is that there's sacrifice on both ends, like you can't be doing everything at full speed. And so in order for me to want to be a mom, which I very much do, what does that look like in terms of sacrifice for my business? And for me to not be a stay at home? Mom, what does that look like as a sacrifice? You know, I'm spending time with my kids. And I think anytime that I wish for something more in either direction, like I kind of have this feeling of, oh, I wish the business was doing this or I'm upset about missing something with the kids. I like almost zoom out. And I really think like, what do I want my life to look like? And I think that that's the best advice I can give to people considering having a family and growing a business is for you to be so clear on what you want your life to look like whether that's right now or when you look back in 60 years, what was important to me. For me, that is what keeps me grounded and makes me feel okay with the decisions I've made. Because I know that I want to be a present mom like that is something so deep inside of me, I just want to wake up with my kids, I don't want to have a nanny come in and do the whole morning routine with them, I want to be making them their own breakfast. No, I want to be able to go to their school concert, if something comes up, if they're sick at home, like my son's right now downstairs, I want to be the one caring for them. And like whether rational or not, that is something that I just I can't, I can't shake that feeling. And so knowing that and being clear about that, it almost makes everything else fall into place. Because that means inevitably, there's sacrifices with my business, like I can't grow or scale at the pace that somebody without kids could. Because I know that that wouldn't feel good in my body. And it's actually been really interesting to watch. Harry and Amanda are very well my brother and sister in law and tying his closest friends who are the cofounders of other ship, and who don't yet have kids, you know, I get to see very much the ins and outs of what that looks like. And I've had really interesting moments of watching as they're working all through the day and all night and working all weekend and do pubs and traveling places. And you know, they're just so head down in their business. And I have moments of being like, like, what would that feel like, or, you know, a wish that I could do this. And I just have to keep reminding myself that that is a different way of doing things. But at the core of it if I strip away all the labels and all the like received perceptions. I'm living a life very much in alignment of what feels good to me.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  19:27

I love that you bring in the piece about like, as a founder, no matter who you are, we're going to be surrounded by people that are doing things in their own way. And so that comparison piece is inevitable. It's just so real. And I'm just glad you mentioned it because I think every single person can relate to that. No matter if you're a parent or not a parent, it's just like, well that those people are growing like that and it looks like that for them. And then just like that reminder to like come back to your core and I think And, as well, part of what you mentioned about like you getting still with yourself to figure out what feels good in your body. Well, how you want to be a mother, how you want to be a business person. And sometimes when you do that, you have to like strip away all of the things that are around you all the other ways it looks of the ways it's, you know, supposed to look quote, unquote, in your head, or the way that the media makes it look, or whatever the case may be. I think that is so relatable for anybody.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  20:30

Yeah, and I think it's considering what success looks like for you. You know, as I talk about the comparison thing, it's something I always struggle with in my life, I'm always kind of like, grass is greener, what's over there? It's, you know, when I talked about kind of this work I'm doing on myself, I'm really getting to the bottom of just tuning in versus out. But I think we're programmed to think about success in a specific way, in one way, for sure. You know, we're fighting against many different narratives that are like, bigger is better, more is more. And I actually it was interesting. I had coffee last week with Jade who owns yoga who was so amazing. And she's doesn't have kids yet. But we were having this conversation. And she said something like, you know, the way that you're doing it like that is success to me. And I was noticing how that like felt when she said that and how it's so hard to take that in because, yeah, success. When is I guess what is successful? What is it successful life, and being very conscious of how a success to you can be something completely different from the way that we're told succession should look like, for all intents and purposes, I have built a life that is, quote, unquote, successful to me, I'm raising a family and I'm raising a business. But there's just such a tendency, as you said, to think like, should I be doing it faster? Should I be doing it bigger? Should I be doing it more? But just constantly come back to if that were the case? What would that mean for the way that my life looks, and I think that taps into this idea of like, we, we can't have it all, in what traditionally you might think of having it all. So I couldn't be scaling a business rapidly and be a full time present, Mom, I can have it all in the way that having it all feels to me. And I actually always think about a perfect example is when we opened our Leslieville location. As I said, I had just had an emergency C section and my daughter, Ronnie Veronica was six days old. And I went to less than Oh, with her on my body after major surgery. And I did a full day training for 20 people who were about to like onboard for the team, and sat there from like, 8am to 5pm Did the full training and then open two days later. So like, greeted all the customers that came in. And it was so amazing to me how the conversation around that was like, Oh my God, you're Superman. Like, you're Superwoman. Look, you're doing it all. And it felt so icky. Yes, like, it was great. And I actually felt okay doing that. And I was, there was a lot. Yeah, no, yeah. It wasn't like I was pushing to a point. Like, I felt capable of doing that on one hand, you know? Yeah, it did feel amazing. And I did feel really like, wow, I can do both of these things. But it also got me thinking like, isn't the supermom The One Who are you know, isn't another version of a supermom, the one who has a phone on airplane mode. And who's tuned out the world. And who's lying in bed with no outside distraction, just feeding your baby all day and drifting? And I noticed that assures me too because you know, there's there's different and they can operate? Both can be it's like really whatever you know, there's no right answer. It's just that I find that this label of like supermom is often put on the person who is at least appearing to do at all but yeah, at what costs like I would come home at the end of the day feeling exhausted and drained and a little bit guilty because like, it just it's just an interesting consideration of how we view or what labels we put on Mothers and people, business women and yeah, I think it's just worth kind of pausing and considering

 

Tonya Papanikolov  24:20

it's so true. And we have so come to really disengage with the stay at home mom, that's like a faux PA, do you know what I like? But in reality, motherhood is one of the most, if not the literal, most important job on the planet. Because like a not to take a father out of it. But of course, like as you know, the first few years like it's heavy, heavy mama time. And that family unit has the responsibility of raising a generation of future humans. And that is that's like the biggest undertaking we could ever endeavor to take. And yet yeah, It's

 

Kate Taylor Martin  25:00

really exactly the labels that we put on a successful person are often the ones who are, you know, building the million dollar business and scaling quickly. And whatever it is versus like, I don't know, it's just an interesting meditation of what are we all doing here, what's important in life, we are our priorities. And motherhood just invariably does that to you, it just makes you reconsider it all.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  25:25

Well, and the crazy thing too, is that like, I think at the, at the heart, the heart of everything, and that may be at the heart of a lot of our suffering as well is engagement with Yeah, like what you mentioned about labels, and also about our attachments. And our attachments can be our attachments to success, to work, to having things look a certain way to labels to like all of these things, to money, to whatever. And that and our ability to like, hold on to that so tightly, is what kind of causes a lot of disharmony in the mind body system from like a Buddhist perspective, say, but the crazy thing is, even as you were, you know, saying about this tendency for the grass is greener, and, like, so cool that you're doing deep personal work on that. And we all have that. But it's like I had this conversation with many large CEOs, who their grass is always greener is growing slow. And what if I could have more balance? What if I could have slowed down a little bit to enjoy the process. And while I just kind of want to get out of it now, because I'm way over my head, this is not enjoyable. So it's just like that. juxtaposition and balance. It's just like, we are wanting a little bit of that. And they're wanting a little bit of this. And ultimately, we just have to, like, slow down and bring it to presence, right? And to bring it back to this present moment of like, what do I want today? Who can I show up for today, my kids, my work my like, all of these things.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  26:58

And just let just tell you exactly that. There's no, there's no end goal here. Like there's there's never going to be a situation where I reach I'm like, Ah, now I feel like I've nailed it, or I've reached ultimate balance, like, yeah, you're right. I think it's just an inherent part of the human disposition, that it's very hard to be present in your own reality. And I think that's why, you know, many of the sort of ancient spiritual teachings focus on that of only about the journey. That's what I really, really try to focus on is like not wishing any of this away, not wishing for more or less, because what I have right now I have to see is like, for me, is I'm living such a beautiful life. And so don't waste a second of it saying what would it look like if in either direction. And although life is so full and insane, like we've tried, we had to rebook this call, because my kids were throwing up last weekend. Tiled downstairs right now. And we were on a call yesterday, and I had to take on face him to the school like, it's insane. But it's it's all like, joyful, and it's rich, and as you know, lots of ups and downs, but it's a rich experience life. And yeah, I think I think that idea of balance, which often people say to me, or to working moms or parents, like how do you achieve balance, it's like, being really careful that when you talk about balance it, it has to be totally subjective. Like, what does a balanced life look like to me? Because, you know, for some people, like for somebody who is trying to scale a business, my life might look really out of balance, because I spend too much time with my family, or for somebody who's a stay at home, mom might look at my life and be like, that's really unbalanced, because you're spending a lot of time working. But for me, I'm not looking at it as like a balanced day, a balanced hour. It's like, I really focus on a balanced life. And some days I'll be tilting way more into work. Some days will be putting more into family, but I always try and do that, like zoom mode exercise. Like if I'm on my deathbed, hopefully, like 90 years old, looking bad. At least. I take Reishi every day. Wow. Yeah, I think that xumo mindset is actually really grounding and gives you context. And actually, I want to share it an interesting anecdote to that is I took my daughter two weeks ago to go see she's named after my grandmother who passed away and we went to go see my grandmother's sister, and she's 97 now and we sat in her home and she's this like, badass Slovak woman who leaves everyday herself and scrubs the windows and cooks her own meals. Like she might, you know, like, yeah, on making her own noodles from scratch and baking bread. And we sat in her house and I watched my daughter, like, looking at this old person telling stories and talking about her life. And I you know, unfortunately don't have any grandparents left but I left there with like this deep feeling of it's no wonder to me It is used to live as one because it's so important to be close to old people, because it immediately puts your own life in such context. Like, I left it feeling like I'm so young, I have so much more life ahead of me. I'm this like, such an incredible stage of my life to be a young mom, I don't know it, reframed where I'm at in my life in such a beautiful way that I think, being close to people who are at the end of their life, and imagining that mindset of deep, like introspection, and preparation. All of that is really, I think, important for putting a lens or a frame around your own life and the choices that you're making. Yeah, you know how that's going to feel in? Yeah, however many years from now.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  30:49

Yeah, we've lost a lot of the elders and like our proximity to them. And of course, some of its like, grandparents in general, they pass and like, they don't always get to meet their great grandchildren, or whatever the case may be. But it is. I mean, like, our society as a whole has definitely like deprioritize the wisdom of elders, we put them in homes. We, there's like so much to that. But that's, that's so nice. And I can only imagine Ronnie just like chatting up a storm.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  31:16

Oh, she. Yeah, she was like, why? Like, why do your hands up like that? Wow. Yeah, but just really like listening to the story. And as she was sort of telling some of these stories, there was this photo on her wall behind her of her in her mother's lap with my grandmother. So their mother was holding the two girls in her lap, and the two girls were about Ronnie, and maybes age. And that's me holding my girls right now. And one day these girls are going to be 97. Yeah, like, it's just, it's, I mean, we know this, but to see it up close. Yeah, it was a really wonderful day.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  31:59

I think it's so beautiful to be like shucking up a bit, right? And like to get that awestruck Ness nervous to us as often as we possibly can, which, as you know, is something one of the reasons why I'm so passionate about fungi in nature, and their ability to like, help create that, because I think, exactly like you mentioned, like you had a perspective change, your mind opened in a new way to be able to show you the brilliance of what you have now how much is ahead of you. And we all need that like just as often as possible, that perspective. And where you can find that is like there's endless places you can find it, but it's like real medicine, and you can tap into it often. And like so good to feel. I want to switch gears a little bit and hear maybe about you covered so much amazing stuff about how you find balance and the concept of having it all. Is there anything like Hindsight is 2020? Is there anything you would look back on or words of advice that you would give to people kind of considering to make the transition? Things that have helped you move through this? I know you mentioned having your key pillars? Is there anything else?

 

Kate Taylor Martin  33:14

I think I would start by just being very clear on what you want your life to look like. Just grounding in that idea and being very mindful of entering this new chapter and what it entails because you are no longer living a life where you're just thinking about yourself like instantly you're

 

Tonya Papanikolov  33:32

did you do that like with navbar? Or were you surprised with fret? Like, at what point with nutbar were you like, well, just because it's all been so simultaneous? So did you have to kind of reach a point with Freddie where you're like, Okay, this is feeling a lot I need to reestablish,

 

Kate Taylor Martin  33:48

no, and I think one of my honestly, like, biggest gifts that I've realized about myself is that I'm not paralyzed by indecision. You

 

Tonya Papanikolov  33:58

are so decisive. I love this about the Taylor's

 

Kate Taylor Martin  34:02

mom, okay, my mom Mom was epically, like almost to my mom is amazing. But I can waver sometimes. But I mean, like, something like having kids and the business. I'm 100% going by like, right

 

Tonya Papanikolov  34:17

gun single. And like,

 

Kate Taylor Martin  34:19

I knew always that I wanted to be a mom, I knew I was growing this business. That would never be a rational thought, for better or worse for me to be like, I have to wait until the business is profitable to have a kid or like, yeah, you know, I'm opening this thing now is probably not a good time. I just, I knew I would figure it out. I know that I'm capable of taking on a lot. I knew that I would figure it out in terms of like, get support in different places where I needed it. But yeah, that's that's what works for me. It's just very much like, I just sort of I feel like I'm led by this idea of knowing what what I want and just knowing that it's, I'm gonna figure it out whether you know, whatever that that looks like and I think a big thing for people to realize is there's no good time. Like, when people say, I'm just waiting for this and waiting for that, like, I really believe there's never going to be a time when everything kind of opens up. And it's like, now is a perfect time. Like, that doesn't exist. So I think, at least if you are kind of grounded in what you in the decision, and you know that this is what you want, like, just knowing that it just works itself out. Because if you have a baby, and you for example, like you just feel that you want to be at home way more than you thought like working itself out could mean that Rainbo goes a little slower than you hope for that you bring in somebody that you weren't anticipating, or vice versa, if you have a baby, and you're like, wow, I actually had way more capacity than I thought I don't need to take as much of a mat leave, Simon can be home, I can get help. Like it just works out as long as you're not focused on a specific outcome, but rather like

 

Tonya Papanikolov  35:55

I do think women are there must be something in our genetic code that runs through us that's like so instinctual. And I don't want to maybe like lump all women into this because obviously everybody's gonna have a different experience. But it's interesting, in my experience of this is like, I feel the exact same way as you in that I'm fully trusting. And if I were to get pregnant today, I would roll with it and be like, this is this is incredible. And counter to that I have a partner who's like super, just much more masculine and much more like this in place, and then this in place, and then this in place, and I kind of come in and like shatter that up, because I'm like, Oh my gosh, like that doesn't need to be there. And like, this order doesn't exist, like the order is going to come whenever it comes. And we have to be able to like roll with those punches, but also feel this, like, really deep and inherent ability to trust. And then you think about single mothers and like, that is I mean, beyond my wildest imagination of of like strength and power and perseverance and like everything that that takes and how they can also do that. And how we can also do that is like just blows my mind. But I do think that there's some level of like something that runs through our code that is able to hold this for our future, in that like we can manage it, we can make it happen. We know how to rely on the village, we know how to ask for help when it comes to these things. And that that's like something that is very in our nature.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  37:33

It's the coolest thing, like the process of becoming pregnant and having kids of feeling those deep, deep, primal feelings and instincts. Yeah, there's It honestly feels like there's just this voice where you just know what to do. And actually, that's kind of an interesting like side thought is, that's one of I don't want to say problems with like, modern day parenting. But one of the things I take issue with is, I feel like we've taken all of that away from others, like we're telling them. There's just so much like messaging and marketing noise around to do it this way. Motherhood where, yeah, whereas I really feel like if you can tune all of that in, it's amazing what comes up in you. What feels good.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  38:22

Yeah. Yeah, it's,

 

Kate Taylor Martin  38:23

I mean, the thing that you said about waiting for a time, it's kind of like what we're saying about having the business waiting for it to wanting it to look a certain way. Like you never arrive at that destination. It's like constantly moving and flowing. And and I actually think it's also worth like mentioning that we also can never take for granted. Oh, I want to have a baby now. Sure, no problem like being in this this age and stage seeing the amount of people I know who have struggled with fertility and who spend years and years and years trying to have children with never something that we can take take for granted.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  38:58

Absolutely. So, so true. So how will you tell us a little bit about your food habits? Sometimes I think about like what does Kate eat in a day? What do you feed the kids as your fridge filled with nutbar all the time. Tell us about

 

Kate Taylor Martin  39:16

okay, well I love that you think that makes you feel like everyone in the world and so you eat every day. Yeah, okay, so my Yes, well, my freezers filled with not milk which all yeah are like famous milk. It's you most creamy and delicious, made from scratch organic, like labor of love product in the entire world.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  39:39

And also I will add that in that bar. I am no longer able to go to any cafe literally in the world. I wish I wish I was kidding. asked Simon. Like, I don't go to cafes anymore period. I have to make a drink at home and it emulates not Burnett milk and It is truly the best product, the best milk I've ever, ever had. Hands down.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  40:07

Cool. Obviously I'm cutting that audio blasting that all over our social media. Thank you. That's really nice to say. And I am it's the product I'm most proud of. And actually, I think kind of what sets that bar apart is that we make sure our milk from scratch and it's a blend of organic cashew, almond and coconut. It's it's like 30% Organic nuts. Nothing in it, except beautiful, organic, whole food ingredients. But yeah, so for what I do, I have a really solid foundation at home, like have my lemon water first thing when I wake up and then make Actually, speaking of you being inspirational, I used to have a coffee every day. And since we got together in March, we were talking about how you switch to matcha. I've only done well, my matcha elixir in the morning, I know. And a big reason for that is I was feeling I usually I mean for many years felt great with coffee, but I was feeling my mornings with the chaos of the kids and getting ready, ready and out the door. I would get into my car after jumping off to school and just be like, like my adrenal glands are going to explode. And so the connection between coffee and cortisol and just like ramping up your body in that way, I just, it was not working for me anymore. So I urge people to actually just take a pause and consider how morning coffee makes you feel for some, it's great. But for some I do think that we just have too much stimulus. And coffee is certainly not contributing to sort of parasympathetic calming mode. So I switched my morning elixir to matcha. And it is like my grounding. Like a holy grail. I feel like if I have that I'm set for the day. So I do my chat or housemaid nap are not milk Reishi your Reishi. And so I actually think of I'm curious to know your thoughts, the comparison of like Chaga and Reishi is a little bit like coffee and Masha to me. Because Chaga is like King of the medicinal mushroom family like vitality, energy, power. Power. Yeah. And Rishi is like calming like adaptogenic nourishing. And I always used to turn to Chaga because I was like, huh, vitality like that. I want to start my day. And after I noticed just how like coffee was making me feel. I start my day with Rishi. And it just feels like I'm giving I think about it is like my daily armor. It's like setting myself up for success to kind of be able to handle it comes my way in a very gentle way. And as we know, Matcha is like clear, calm, focused energy. Monks can Sumatra for really long periods of meditation, and has caffeine but it's just a sustainable release of jitter free energy. So to have my matcha with Rishi and my nap are not milk and then I also put collagen in there. My naturopath was recently telling me especially me like post kids, my hormones were a bit out of whack. And she was saying how important it is to consume protein pretty quickly after waking to help stabilize your hormones. So I get like 10 grams of protein from my collagen. And then our net milk has seven grams of protein a cup. So my Yeah, collagen. Not much. It's just like, as you noted, even the process of making much it's a ceremony. It's like creating a little bit of pause and intention in your day before all the craziness.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  43:34

And you wake up looking forward to it. I literally go to sleep. And I'm like, thinking about my match in the morning. Oh, when I make some I'm gonna make a reel for you when you share the news. But my matcha Kate is one leader. I'm not no it's not No, no, no, this. This is why I was laughing when you were saying that because I was like, holy. I just like it just registered to me that that's not normal. For most people. My matcha is one leader.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  44:01

Wait, how much more? Like are you just putting a lot of water in it? Are you getting a lot of matcha? Is your ratio out of whack?

 

Tonya Papanikolov  44:08

I'll just like a lot of milk, a lot of water, a lot of matcha to college and 20 grams of protein. Oh, and the thing is like it sustains me for so long, and I just I can't get enough.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  44:22

How much matcha do you take in the morning like a teaspoon or

 

Tonya Papanikolov  44:25

I probably like it's probably two teaspoons. Maybe like, if it's a bit smaller. It might be like one but I do if it's if it's that big, then it's like probably closer to two teaspoons.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  44:34

But don't you find that that like, you know, it takes a couple minutes. But that's something I feel passionate about sharing with people and I think this idea of like morning routines. Maybe it's just in my head that it's gotten a bit of like a label of like, Oh, come on. Yes, it's time for that. But it's so easy and it can have a really profound effect on how you show up in the world. Like starting your day with something like that. And you know, that's not accessible for me. Everybody, but some variation of like, you know, a green tea that you're making with intention versus kind of, like, panicking, getting the coffee ready and putting a ton of sugar and cream in it. Like, it just it feels very different in your body. And yeah, the idea of like, which we can talk about an hour later, the morning routine is like, save my life with kids. So please tell us that a second. Okay. The rest of your day? Yeah. And then after my matcha actually, somebody asked me recently, a similar question like, What do you eat in a day, and it took me like, so long to get past the morning routine. I can't, I gotta go. I gotta go. But we don't need to, because really, the only constant is my morning. I like stack everything into the morning, because then I kind of feel like free to do whatever I need to do for the day. But yeah, I have that. And then I do the drop offs with the kids and usually come back home. And that's when I have my morning smoothie. And that kind of changes every day. But what I love to remind people is to have a huge heaping handful of organic greens in your smoothie. Because I think many of us just put like, you know, a banana and yogurt and strawberries or something. But it's such a great way to get in greens. And it doesn't change the taste, but it just like, I don't know, I have this feeling like myself as being like, Ah, thank you. So huge heaping handful of greens. And then you know, kind of any combination of like, berries or chia seeds in either something lighter like lemon and water or something heavier like coconut yogurt and flax oil and all that kind of stuff. But yeah, once I have like that foundation, I feel pretty good. Sometimes I'll go to number after and be lucky and eat there all day, like, you know, salads and toasts and all that. Some days, I just feel like a big old like piece of sourdough toast loaded with butter, butter, and like, all the things. So I actually am not very rigid about what I eat, I always food

 

Tonya Papanikolov  47:05

been so balanced. And that way like such an inspiration for me,

 

Kate Taylor Martin  47:08

I do feel that way that I just love food, I really have never assigned like a guilt to eating one way or the other. Because my foundation is really good. Like, if I'm making food at home, it's really nourishing. I don't would never cook with white sugar, white flour, or anything sort of artificial, I feel so great about the foundation, I've laid it home for me and my kids. So if we are out like, yeah, you're enjoying it in a while, everything I'm enjoying. And that's totally fine. And I try and do the same thing for my kids of, I don't want to charge food too much like I don't want them to feel like if they're at a birthday party and have a cupcake. It's like the worst thing. Although it's been kind of an interesting thing. Like I really like adopted this mentality with my kids of setting a really good foundation at home. The really big thing is teaching them how food makes them feel. To me, that's everything because that like that kind of sets them up for success in their own life of having those tools to like tune in. So you know, Friday, we'll have something at a kid's birthday party, and they'll eat it. And if I'm gonna be like, mom that was or he'll have, you know, a couple bites and be like, this isn't making me feel great. Like it's too much sugar. And I I used to be a little bit more casual about kid stuff in the way I talked about it. And I can't tell if that's because I was too, like, nervous to stand on my own power, but trying to be kind of easygoing of like, oh, how many trician is but it's fine. Like, yeah, you know, I'm cool about it. And recently after learning more, I'm like, I think it's, to be honest, a little bit crazy that in this day and age, we're still giving kids like white sugar. I just, there's so many alternatives out there and so many options that like, you know, for especially those that have the means. Why are we still doing that? Like it's toxic for children. And I don't really want to be like casual about that anymore. Like, you know, I am because that's the world we live in. But I'm starting to feel a little bit like angry about going to birthday parties or walking down the grocery store aisle and just having this absolute garbage that we're putting in these tiny, tiny bodies. And I can tell you like the way I see it affects my kids. It's It's like we're I mean, we are giving them a drug. Like my son is very well balanced like self regulating care. He eats something we were at a birthday party the other day and they were getting like mini doughnuts and he had a few of them. And it's honestly like he was on like a mushroom trip like he was on the ground spinning around his body. Oh, and I was watching being like what, like what how did we get here this has seen this last week and I can see him not quite being able to regulate himself. His emotions are all out of whack and like, you know, especially for Ronnie, she's three She's literally this bit If, and I don't know if she'll be getting an ice cream in the summer, and if I didn't kind of like whisper to the ice cream guy like, can you give her like the tiniest tiniest bit of ice cream that you can? She would be getting the same size portion as my husband who's like a massive man. Yeah. So yeah, I don't know. I'm starting to feel a little bit like, Yeah, can we just can we just all like collectively agree that we're not going to do this anymore, that we're not going to buy gold fish for kids, but like, yellow dye in it. And you know, all these like, hormone disruptors and toxins, like, let's just do better, because we know better and their options now. So yeah, that's something that's been on my mind a lot lately. And, yeah, so the way I do it for my kids is really balanced at home, make them realize how good good food can make them feel and how bad foods that are made with in a factory can make them feel. And that that's okay, but just like noticing that. And then also, the huge thing is portion size. Like, if they're having a treat, like I smartsuite is a great option. But instead of giving them a bag of smart sweets, I'll give them like two little gummies. And kids don't know any different. Like they're like, so happy to get a tiny little Yeah, they're like, that's great. So

 

Tonya Papanikolov  51:13

those are good lessons. It is I yeah, I can't imagine how hard it is because like, all I know, is what I think today. And then you have kids and like they have friends and there's parties, and there's schools and sharings of length, like you know, like I can't I can only imagine the complexity and the kind of balance between like, suddenly being like, stop at or not so suddenly being like, What the fuck, versus like, trying to also the balance of like, not creating so much rigidity. And food is like woof. It's a big one.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  51:50

And the thing is we're working against a massive system. Yeah, yeah. As you said their friends lunches, the aisles in the grocery store. The any commercial on TV, it's just, I think as parents, we just really have to believe in the importance of this and be willing to kind of fight again. Yeah, you know, honestly, even Halloween, it's like, are we honest? Are we still doing this? Yeah. Are we still sending a tiny, tiny kids to go collect white sugar from house to house like, no, let's Yeah, let's move the needle forward a little bit less. It makes our kids crazy. And then we're like, oh, I can't control my kid. They're being contained. Of course they are. We're giving jacking them with something that is doing

 

Tonya Papanikolov  52:35

their brain. Yeah, like Yes. Like, and whole physiology. Yes, it is crazy. Yeah, I think I'd probably be pretty intense about it. But just like you said, I think like in the same way that you've created so much of a foundation for you, you're doing the exact same thing for them. That is like such an important takeaway, right for so and it's all we can do, the external world is gonna like be what it is to them and for them and like you're giving them the foundations and the basics. So yeah, what are some examples of what they're eating? Like what are you breakfast, packing them for lunch.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  53:07

Breakfast, I do some combination of like a steel cut oats with soy a great like things I have that blend of chia seeds, flax seeds and hemp parts that I try and sprinkle in everything that they're eating so you know gives them really good healthy fats and fiber and protein. Food tastes are different. If I'm making a steel cut oats. I'll mix that in with cinnamon and like some nut bar granola on top and fresh berries. Or I'm making scrambled eggs or I'm doing like an organic sourdough toast with like a French toast and a little bit of maple syrup or like a yogurt parfait thing. Lots of veggies. Thankfully, my kids like veggies have just kind of been always like Friday, we'll open the fridge and just grab like a giant red pepper and start eating like an apple. So lots of veggies and then just simple things, but just giving them that healthy twist. So there's a pastor that I love. It's called Maria's where it like, operates like a completely normal white flour pasture but the only ingredient in it is like organic chickpeas, organic red lentil

 

Tonya Papanikolov  54:12

I love that one. It's like has a funny shape or like just a

 

Kate Taylor Martin  54:16

yes. So guess maybe Yeah, and so that's a great example of like, no more effort. It's just kind of being conscious of what I'm putting in their body. So that was even some like olive oil and nutritional yeast and veggies on the side is like such an easy dinner for them or whatever fish and rice and vegetables are. Yeah, I keep it pretty simple. Some days it has to be just very like as I said, a quick pasta and veggies. Some days it can be a little bit more complicated, but a really big thing we do is eat together as a family like, I don't feed the kids and then Khan and I eat after they've gone to bed. We're all eating the same thing and it's one meal so like nobody is start starting to like I don't want that and make me something else. It's like this is our family meal. We're eating it At the same time, and we're all having the same thing, like, even the babies eating the same thing is so cool to hear. Yeah. And I think that's one of those things that you have to start young. And just don't give them another option. There's just no no other option. So, you know, I think that's a big thing I've learned with kids is you can really create the reality and the normal. Yeah. And if from the early days, you're making them their own meal, or you're saying like, if you eat this last veggie, then you can have something you're, you're like, charge them suddenly they know that like, oh, vegetables, or something like I should be bribed to eat. Whereas like, if this is just the meal, and that's what's in front of them, then they're eating it. So yeah, that's that's an important kind of pillar for houses. Meals. There's a little bit of like ceremony around it since like, since Freddie was like three years old, he would be like, Mom, can we have a little bit of ambiance, little candles as we did it. And that light came from what my mom did, like my mom always said candles and played classical music and the meal was important that were important. And so I'm trying to learn that through. So at least we have those kinds of moments throughout our day.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  56:15

That's so beautiful. I love that so much. Okay, so will you tell us a bit about your morning routine? Well, first, first, quick question is, what's your current favorite? Biohack?

 

Kate Taylor Martin  56:25

Okay, well, that's a great question to lead into my morning routine, because it's the cold shower. So I'll start by saying, four years ago, my husband, like he has done cold showers for a long time. And I remember looking at him one day as he got up at like five o'clock and to get, you know, cold showers like, think you're a serial killer. Looking, get up in the morning out of bed willingly and take a cold showers and say, like, how would I ever get to that? level. And around that same time, it was pre COVID, my brother and sister in law that I talked about hearing, Amanda started to form the idea for other ship, which is just, I mean, I think a business that's going to take over the world. But at the cornerstone of it is hot and cold therapy. And so they started to talk a lot about it in our home, not introduced me. But you know, there would be like we're going to a friend's and having an ice bath in his backyard. Or we're going to the cottage in January, and we're going to do a like pledge. And so these conversations were around me, and I just really was noticing how it made me feel of this like, almost like right up against a wall of like, I could never ever do that. Like, how do people get to the point where they're getting an ice water. And then COVID hit. And we spent some time at a place up north with hearing Amanda, where it was April, and they were doing a lot of cold plunging. And that was like my first experience of getting into a cold lake. And Harry is amazing at like, kind of disarming and just like gently suggesting what the science shows why it's so good for you and leading you to a breath work, challenging your mindset. And he helped me be able to do it once. And I remember this feeling of like, something opened up in me. First of all, the physical feeling is like nothing I've ever felt in my life, but also was immediately shown, like me saying I can't is just a story that I'm telling myself. And just like how interesting that is that, that you actually can, you're just telling yourself that that you can't. And so that mental component was so intriguing to me that I like challenged myself to to do a cold shower every morning for the month of April 2020. And obviously that was three years ago, I haven't I've barely missed a day since the Cold Shower is like it's I can honestly say that it's completely change my entire life. One is that it's created this like space for morning routine for me, which I'll talk about but above all, what it does for my mind to be able to flex that resilience muscle every single day. When do we have discomfort in our life and override a feeling of discomfort to say like, I don't want to but I'm going to do that like everything in our life is so easy, right? Like there's always an outlet for for it and to have something every single day where I'm like really cultivating willpower and flexing resilience, muscle feels really powerful. And it's done something for my mindset to show me that. As I said, things that we say we can't do are just stories and like that applies to the culture. But I've I've extended that out to so many different parts of my life has been like, what are the narratives where forever I've just been the type of person or told myself and the type of person that like I just don't do that or I just couldn't do that. And so yeah, it sort of unlocked a lot of things for me of getting past a story that I hold myself for many different years, for many years, so yeah, I start my day the big thing is setting my alarm not beside my bed. Because if you do that it's so tempting to press snooze 8000 times. So I charge my phone away from my bed in our washroom. So when my alarm goes off at 515 It's not a conscious thought of like, Oh, I'm cozy, I don't want to get up I, you know, you're kind of like you hear the alarm. And before you know it, you're in the bathroom, turning it off. So yeah, out of bed, which I find is the hardest part for people to have a morning routine, like, you can't consciously think about the fact that you have to get up otherwise, it's impossible. So again, I right away, turn on the shower to hot so I have like a 10 minute hot shower. And then at the end, I set like my phone on my counter. So I can see when it gets to 10 minutes. Because that like having an objective stop time. And I have to turn it to cold at 10 minutes. So think about that, like is way easier than you know, having an sort of ambiguous like, Okay, should I go to cold now I don't want to I'm cozy like, you just see the 10 and it's non negotiable to cold. So I have a two minute cold shower. And I get out and like, I could scream this from the rooftops every morning, I get out and I'm like, I just want everybody to feel this of like, the blood is coursing through your body it you know, we know the things that it does for it boosts your mood. You never habituate. No matter how many times you do it, it's increasing your attention and your vigilance and your focus. It's improving longevity, it has like both significant reduction in inflammation and is hugely beneficial for the immune system. It's great for metabolism increases most powerful antioxidant systems in your body by 50%. First of all, I shouldn't be an ambassador. Like how am i

 

Tonya Papanikolov  1:01:44

You are I mean, you are like official. Also, like you said, it is I think in this time it is like, I think like just like spiritually we live in we live in this time where it's like you and you, it's like you are your teacher we are there's courses you can like remember yourself reparent yourself like it is you and your relationship with you. And so if you can face yourself every day, and that face that you get to meet in the morning, or whenever you're going to have your cold shower is like absolutely not don't do today, like tomorrow today, like just not today. And every day you do that and you challenge yourself and there is like some plasticity of your mind that starts to you start to develop this relationship with and you start to like, have a dialogue with that little voice in us that's constantly telling us like, no, don't do this. No, don't do this. This is uncomfortable. Don't go this way. And you build that grit and discipline.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  1:02:44

Absolutely. Yeah. And it helps. It's not just in that moment it's for in your life. And I've noticed that so much like I just find that I now have kind of a pause between stimulus and response that I didn't have before like I'm able to really sit like I can handle stress so much better because I do that practice every single morning of as you said noticing that narrative of like you know you did other ships yesterday's you actually don't have to have a cold lunch today or like it's really cold out today. Like it probably counts if you're doing this or like you woke up tired this morning you didn't have a good sleep you don't like every day I try to talk myself out of it every single day for three years. And so to override that and handle stress has done something for the way show up in the world where like I just noticed that there's a pause now between how I react to stress or resistance in general. Yeah, so I just I could not recommend it to people enough it is the most like powerful free wellness thing that I have ever done. And then I get out and I do my I know it's weird to do my like lymphatic brushing after but it feels so good on your skin that's like freezing cold to do the brushing it's like just feel the blood like coursing through your body. And that my phone's on airplane mode this whole time like I keep my phone off for this this whole thing and then I'm really lucky because the sun rises into my bedroom. And it's so funny for so many years I was like I was the sunset I love the sunset like it's so you know whatever. And something with this morning routine switch and I was like what a gift I live on a park and have the sun rise right in front of my bedroom window. So I have my little meditation cushion right there. And I sit for like 10 to 15 minutes right after that feeling. So I once I sit down the blood is just going I have this like improvement in mood and then to sit and stillness with the sun coming it's it's heaven on earth. And then I try and do some kind of like really just really quick like five minutes of light moving something I think you actually said this that I'm now telling everybody was a your quote or you had learned from someone where it said you're you're only as young long as your spine is limber, yeah. So every morning I think about that, and I do my like spine rotating exercises cat cow. I know that sounds kind of like a long routine, but it's not. And those few foundational things set me up like, honestly, I feel like, because I've carved out that space for a morning routine for myself, taking care of myself, like, I go downstairs and make my matcha. And then I can kind of hear the kids starting to get up. I'm so excited to have them wake up. And like, I feel like I've totally taken care of myself, I've done the like mind, body and spirit thing. And I just feel like I have this incredible foundation to be able to handle anything that comes from I honestly think that morning, like that I've cultivated allows me to be able to handle all the things that come at me during the day. So I understand how a morning routine can feel a little bit like, okay, come on, like who's gonna, you know, get up at five and have a cold shower. But I just urge, you know, a reframe to, to just handling living into those and 23 is insane for the human body like pesticides on our food pollutants in our skincare product noise pollution, light pollution, like we've never mediately is it's actually like a wonder that human beings are surviving at all. And so to be able to do anything that tunes it all out and tunes back into a little bit of how human beings are meant to live, like being in touch with themselves and your mind and watching the sunrise and feeling cold water. Like I actually think it's kind of essential for for us in this day and age.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  1:06:41

I mean, it's full, full blown, like, put your safety mask on first before you can help anybody else. And I'm so incredibly inspired and excited to share that. And I can't imagine I can't, I'm sure like as you know, you've been practicing it for three years, it's not easy. I'm sure there's some days where you really want to snooze and you're tired or whatever the case may be, but to hear it being possible, and just like a bit of prioritization and reorganization, but also like what you're doing physically and mentally and spiritually allows you to show up for your kids, for your business for yourself or your family in like the most profound way just because you're like truly taking care of your nervous system, which like if you start to move your spine like why are we taking care of our spine? Why are we doing any movement whatsoever. The spine is a conduit system and elec electrical system for the nervous system for us to experience the world through and like to feed that for longevity nervous system like daily health, all of these things like that just gets me real revved up and happy because I just think it's so essential. And I wish I wish it could be experienced by every parent every human

 

Kate Taylor Martin  1:07:59

need to have especially parents because we handle an incomprehensible amount. Like sometimes I wish somebody could see my more than with my kids. It's absolutely insane. Like, I'd love to come over here getting them dressed up. Like it's just yeah, like I just wish somebody could see this. But you're right. I think it's almost like a duty to take care of ourselves. Yeah, I used to think I went through this phase for a while where I'm like, Isn't self care, just self indulgent. Like, we also live in a world where so much of the conversation and narrative is about ourselves, like, what are we wearing? What are we doing? What's our wellness? And I'm like, What happened to kind of looking outward? Like how are we taking care of community? And how are we considering other and I went like I was grappling with that a little bit. But I've really realized that like the ultimate act of like thinking kind of beyond herself is to take care of ourselves first, because as you said, the ripple effect of how I am with my kids like my like calmness and groundedness when they wake up in the morning after I've done that versus like, waking up to like mom and be like, Oh, well, we're late, like just yet, like, your nervous system can't handle three little kids like,

 

Tonya Papanikolov  1:09:14

like, it's just, yeah,

 

Kate Taylor Martin  1:09:15

if I didn't have that foundation, I would be a very different parent, I would then go into work. And if something happened, I would be freaking out. I'd be, you know, a short fuse with everyone there that would affect the way that they're dealing with the customers every day. Like it's, yeah, it's such a ripple effect. And as you said, it is a priority and there is sacrifice, like in order to get up at 515 I'm going to bed at 959 30 Like I just I don't have a lot of capacity for many other things. But I also am okay with that. Because like this is the stage of life. That and so I have to do that to be able to handle it.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  1:09:51

Yeah. Thank you for that. I want to ask you about your relationship with fungie funghi mushrooms fungie I did yeah, I'm using them interchangeably. No, I had. A lot of people say fungie Like a lot of like the mycologist say fungie. But it's a funky, you could say, hurt to hear first syrup. They say Foom gi

 

Kate Taylor Martin  1:10:14

biases. phunki Wait, what do I say?

 

Tonya Papanikolov  1:10:18

Fun funky is like also appropriate. And that's what like, you know, the

 

Kate Taylor Martin  1:10:23

word has lost all meaning.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  1:10:25

Oh my gosh, you haven't heard about the debate. It's like a big, like, logical debate. Yeah. Okay. It's like how do you say it? Oh, you say like that? So if I'm like in the No. I mean, you might be saying if you're really in the note, I think you're probably saying it. Bungee. Wow Wow. I'll try it. So let's start over. No, I just I would love for you to tell us a bit about Yeah, I mean, mushrooms are such a big part of the menu at nut Barnett it huge part. But you they've been integral since the get go. I know you're really passionate about medicinal mushrooms. So I'd love to hear how your Yeah, your experience with them how you use them?

 

Kate Taylor Martin  1:11:12

Yeah, so I'd love to maybe loop that answer in with kind of how I arrived where I did with nav bar, because it's they're sort of connected. So in 2015, I was working at St Mike's hospital doing their like PR and media, and was very struck by working in a healthcare setting a traditional health care setting. I just felt this like deep calling to learn more about tools, and tips and tricks that I could take on to be able to like take accountability for my own health. So I enlisted in the Institute of holistic nutrition, as you talked about earlier, and I remember sitting in nutrition fundamentals, nutrition one or one or whatever it was called fundamentals, and hearing about medicinal mushrooms. And it honestly felt like something just cracked open in me where I was like, this isn't just like a nice, you know, side project. This is really my life's purpose and passion is to be able to share nature's wisdom and, you know, healing powers and be able to kind of turn back to how did nature intend us to eat? And so yeah, like through kind of discovering about medicinal mushrooms and all these other superfoods the idea for an app bar came into place where I knew I didn't want to open a full scale restaurant, but I wanted to open a healthy coffee shop. And that's something like 80 or 85% of Canadians get their coffee or tea outside the home every day. And speaking of our morning, elixirs, I was like how incredible need to create a really beautiful healing, nourishing space for people who get something like that on the go. And especially as at that time, there was nothing like that on the market. So after a lot of conversations and research and huge leap of faith, I opened navbar at the end of 2016. And actually, that's where you came into play, which is so interesting, because you weren't even doing Rainbo at that point. But I remember looking for somebody to take photos of our menu and just help with launch. And somehow I came across your website or something that you had done. And I remember instantly being like, I must know this person. And so I sent you an email me like, I'm opening this essay, we should find that email, but we would love to meet. And you and I sat and we had a coffee and there wasn't even a roll. I didn't even know how you were gonna help. I just knew that I wanted you a part of it in any way possible. And the timing aligned. You're graduating Hi, Jen. And you did initial photoshoots for us and then worked in the cafe for a little bit. And that's like where Rainbo started to really take place and that bar was actually the first wasn't won't be the first cafe.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  1:13:57

Yeah, yeah. 100%.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  1:14:01

And, yeah, so since then, you know, our menu has evolved but mushrooms I feel like I've always been sort of central to like who we are today. Yeah, bar latte. Yeah, we can you can add Chaga Reishi lion's mane or Cordyceps into any smoothie, any hot drink any matcha. And, yeah, that's always been to me like a very pivotal part of our menu. But you know, and also in explaining who we are like, we are not just another healthy coffee shop. Quality is at the absolute center of everything we do like we are ruthless about our suppliers our quality. It's why we make our own nut milk because we just couldn't find anything. You know, as good all the food is organic. It's all made in house. It's super food focused. It's basically the most nutrient dense food that you can get on the go. And the idea that you can add Chaga into your morning matcha on the go is like what just lights me up so much because our team is educating people who come and go like what are I think is medicinal mushrooms like I've heard about them. I think some people are expecting like a button mushroom to be thrilled. But for our team to be able to educate somebody on like, what adding Reishi could do to their morning, chai latte, and then having that person, see and feel and experience those benefits, and then buy your mushrooms from us in store, and then go and tell their friends to also like, it's like the most beautiful little ripple effect ecosystem that we're creating of helping people feel good, and really nourishing them for modern day life. So mushrooms, to me are many things. It's like, as I said, what really cracked me open. And like lit this fire inside me to share this knowledge. To me, mushrooms are incredibly symbolic of nature's wisdom and beauty and healing powers. Yeah, they're I mean, I don't mean to call you. Have you heard the memo. But even something as simple as like, the fact that you know, when you're 1111 Mix mushrooms have a synergistic property. So they're more powerful combination with one another, like, to me that's just like, such a metaphor for nature and for life and for human beings. And I think there are a lot of lessons that we can take from mushrooms, and yeah, just studying them on its own, and then also the effect that they can have on us.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  1:16:33

Oh, it's love hearing people share how they've come to find them. And like, it never gets old. It never gets old. It's like It's like any reminder that I think we just perpetually need to hear about our interconnectedness in this web and all of the pieces. But yeah, it's been it's like we were kind of mentioning at the beginning, just like our so much of the intricate webbing of our the last six years have been really closely tied in so many beautiful ways. Social networks. Exactly. Oh, and here we are. Truly. Okay, can you tell us a couple last things? What is next for nutbar? What's on the horizon? I know there's a big thing coming. What can you tell us? Yeah, so

 

Kate Taylor Martin  1:17:23

we just opened our fourth location at Adelaide and brand beside other ship, which is kind of an A dream come true to open beside my brother's business. So if you live in Toronto, it's really fun to do the circuit of the hot and cold plunge and then get a pre and post mothership tonic from that bar and come and nourish yourself. And then I guess by the time this episode comes out, we've just launched a major new CPG products in the CPG world is very new to me. But recognizing how many people were asking us for our nut milk, but we didn't want to compromise the nutritional integrity of the product at all. So we really were resistant towards any kind of processing like HPP, or like filtration or anything. Didn't want to add any fillers or preservatives, stabilizers. So we actually launched a product called bar milk, which is our nut milk in Frozen individual size packs. So you can you know, stock your freezer up with literally the world's most luxurious organic milk. And when you make your at home Alexa, you just take one of the packets out of the freezer, put it in the fridge overnight to thaw or run it under warm water and add some water to it because it's a concentrate and you have literally the freshest, most delicious uncompromised that milk. So we are very excited about that product. It's been about four years in the making. So yeah,

 

Tonya Papanikolov  1:18:44

r&d is crazy. I am so and like, I mean, the intricacy of that product of frozen product the the like, I cannot I will I know the parts and bits of the story of what this is taken to bring to life. And I can't tell you how excited I am. Like truly truly this is as I as I told you, you can't really go anywhere anymore. So to have this available in my home is it is like I'm so excited. Is there going to be plans for like, cross Canada.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  1:19:17

Absolutely. Distribution plans for Rainbo bar milk. Oh,

 

Tonya Papanikolov  1:19:22

oh my gosh. 100 200% of reciate bar milk. Oh, are you kidding? Oh my gosh. Yeah. That sounds so so good. Okay, well, I love this conversation so much. I feel like it's the first of many I would love it to be and I would love to just hear I asked every guest to leave us with a thought a prayer a wish some some sort of intention to encapsulate your message for our audience.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  1:19:53

My wish for people is that they can find a way whatever way resonates with them to tap into how good they can feel. And I think once you experience that real vibrance and vitality, it sets you on a path of seeking it and cultivating it and holding on to it because you realize how differently you show up in the world.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  1:20:23

It's beautiful. I think about Judy's What if it were easy. Love, I love that. And yeah, so beautiful. Thank you so much for this chat for your friendship, your business partnership, all that you do all that you are your willingness to like, honestly, continually change and evolve and approach the unknown and build like an incredible business with so much integrity. It is your true true, true inspiration. Thank you.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  1:20:59

That means a lot coming from you.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  1:21:03

Okay, thank you so much for coming. And this was just the best.

 

Kate Taylor Martin  1:21:07

It was the best. It was the absolute best I could talk to you for hours and hours. What a gift to 

spend an hour and a bit with you.

 

Tonya Papanikolov  1:21:15

Likewise. With deep gratitude, thanks for tuning into this episode. If you liked it, hit subscribe and leave us a review that is always very appreciated. Mushrooms transformed my mind and body. And if you're interested in bringing medicinal mushrooms into your life and health journey, check out Rainbo.com for our meticulously sourced Canadian fruiting body mushroom tinctures. Until next time, peace in and peace out friends

 

Keywords:

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