Welcome to our live show!

Samantha bailed on us this morning. Adam, I gotta say, I'm really disappointed that you didn't show up for this great conversation. He was at Expo West. Samantha, you and I were talking about that earlier this morning, but welcome. And I'm, I'm so excited to talk about you, first of all, and also your, your brand. And I'm gonna butcher it again, so I want you to tell everybody how you pronounce this.

Okay, so this is Oryx. Desert salt.

Orex salt from the Kalahari Desert, correct?

That's correct. Thank you, Samuel.

Yeah, welcome, welcome, welcome. Um, so thanks for, um, slowing down to take time with me because I know you're a very busy businesswoman. And, uh, happy International, uh, Women's Day.

Thank you, and to you and the rest of the listeners.

Yes, yes. Well, so first of all, Go ahead, go ahead.

Um, so hello from the very southern tip of Africa. Just to let you know, Cape Town, South Africa.

Wow. Correct. So it's now— I always think of great white sharks in Cape Town. Is there great white sharks there?

Um, sadly we've got 2 pods of, um, orcas that have been hanging around for the last couple of years. And they love the shark livers. So there's 2, um, well, there's a couple that are called Port and Starboard, and they've pretty much either eaten the, the great whites or they've chased them away. Um, but they, they come in for the attack and they only eat the liver, and then they left— they leave the rest of the, the shark to just rot.

So you, you, you love that great white— you love your great white sharks and you want them around?

Well, they're part of the ecosystem, really. So it's going to be interesting to see in years to come what happens with them not around. I think there was a beautiful— I don't know if you ever saw that video when they reintroduced wolves into Yellowstone Park, and they got the animals to move and it recreated the ecosystem. So we need all of the— we need the balance.

Oh, totally agree. I mean, I always ask myself, you see, like, from bumblebees to dogs to wolves to eagles, like, we have— like, I'm in Minnesota and we have this population of bald eagles. Like, every day I go out, I see bald eagles, uh, flying around, which is, uh, absolutely wonderful. Well, listen, I would like you to just tell a little bit about yourself, um, your journey. I think it's 14 years as an entrepreneur, if I got that right. But maybe I'm wrong, but give me the right timing.

But probably, probably 40 years of an entrepreneur. But, uh, yeah, about 14 and a half years in this particular, um, yeah, kind of lifetime, uh, book of my, of my life.

I feel like such a novice. I'm 2 years at this. My partner's been doing it for 2 decades. Shout out to Alicia Varga. But tell us a little bit about, uh, your journey. You know, where are you at, Samantha? What is it that you're currently doing? And then we'll talk about your brand or anything else you want to talk about this morning.

Awesome. Thank you. Um, so yeah, I mean, just from my entrepreneurial journey, um, I really have a huge gratitude to my dad for having a complete financial crash and losing his business when I was 13. Um, because that gave me the opportunity. I was like, okay, well, I'll go out and get myself 2 jobs. Thanks, Dad. and started earning my own money. So that was kind of what kickstarted my journey. And then I had a beautiful opportunity. I did a kayaking expedition company to an uninhabited island in Lake Malawi for a couple of years. And then I started a project. It was an NGO or an NPO. I had a vision of 20,000 children in a stadium drumming together, one beat, one heartbeat, as an upliftment empowerment project. And we ended up workshopping 30,000 children around the country. We didn't have the event. And then a friend introduced me to this beautiful salt that comes from the Kalahari Desert. And I had recently left the father of my child, and I had a little toddler on hip, and I needed to get my life back together. I was kind of starting off from scratch. I lived in a tiny little wooden Wendy house in the corner of a friend's garden. with a couch, a tiny desk, a bed in the corner, and a little fridge, a bar fridge. And I used to spend from, you know, when he went to bed at 7 till 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning writing hundreds of emails to all of the restaurants and the retailers around South Africa. And today we're a household brand in South Africa. We own about 3,500 restaurant tables in all of the major retailers and all of the delis and the tourist shops. If— when I'm going to say when and not if— you, um, and, and your listeners, if you haven't been to South Africa, um, I implore you to come to this very, very special corner of the world. Um, excuse me. Cape Town is particularly absolutely beautiful. Um, the little peninsula that I'm on now I can drive, uh, 2— oh, let's say what, uh, 2 miles, um, left and I'm at the Indian Ocean, and I can drive 2 miles, um, to the right and I'm at, uh, the Atlantic Ocean. So I live in this little peninsula. I can choose to go watch sunrise or sunset.

Wow.

Um, wow.

Well, I guess since I know you, I have a place to stay, I'm assuming. Alicia and I are booking our flights right now, Samantha. We're coming. So Excellent.

And we are just absolutely surrounded by beauty here. Every day when I drive, I'm, I'm in awe. There are just beautiful mountains, beautiful beaches. Um, so yeah, so this is where I got my brand started from. Um, and now, um, so COVID was an incredible blessing. I really loved COVID personally. Um, uh, it kind of gave Well, it felt like it gave me the reset that I needed. You know, you've said pre-hour, you know, pre-conversation and again now, it's hard work being an entrepreneur, but it is phenomenally rewarding. I mean, I think the journey is so much more than just building a business or a brand. It's building yourself, the personal journey, the personal development, the personal growth. Comes with building a business is quite something. And so in COVID, we lost 60-70% of sales. And in fact, I went to Expo West in 2019 for the first time, but I was very frustrated. I was stuck on the top corner of the 3rd floor in the last room, and I would pop downstairs and I'd get so frustrated. There wasn't foot traffic. you know, upstairs obviously than there was down on the main floor. But I'm a LinkedIn queen, I call myself. I'm definitely not at the level of some incredible people out there. But I sort of, I'd say 10 years ago now, realized that LinkedIn was a powerful platform and I didn't know how to use it. But I had this mantra, one day I'm going to launch in the USA. And I would sit and I would just— and I mean, the fact that you can search for somebody in an industry in a town, you know, by job descriptions.

I don't know how you found me, by the way, but you found me on LinkedIn. I think that's how we connected, Samantha, for some reason. Because I was thinking, you know, this can actually go into beverages. I put this in my tea every morning. You told me that because I told you, I said, I don't put salt, by the way, just to kind of change the subject a little bit, but I don't put salt in anything. You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, you— your body needs salt. Your body needs salt, right? But you need the right salt, right? Because I was putting this salt, and, uh, this is not salt. So what— explain to everybody what this is.

Okay, so table salt was actually produced in around 1910, 1911. So it is industrial salt. PVC, C stands for chloride. So, you know, what have I got here that's made from PVC? Salt goes into textiles, into paint, into plastic, into paper. It's a binding agent. And so because they were using it in vast volumes, they needed it to pour freely. So, they added the anti-caking and the free-flow chemicals into it. But your salt should only have one ingredient, salt, nothing else.

Ah.

So, and salt's intrinsic value to the body is that it is hygroscopic, which means it absorbs moisture. And so, it allows the body to stay hydrated. So, if you're eating a salt that's got chemicals that stop it from absorbing moisture, the purslane salt can't do its, its job. And, and what is—

Oh yeah, because I'm reading the ingredients on this is salt, calcium— I'm gonna butcher these names— silicate, uh, dextrose, potassium iodine. Like, it has a bunch of stuff in it.

Exactly that. So, and I think maltodextrose is actually sugar. So there's, um, yeah, iodated refined processed salts have a— have sugar in them. because there's— they need that for the, the anti-caking agents. So just— and, and the fact that you couldn't even, uh, you know, pronounce some of those words— if you can't pronounce them, don't eat them. You know, that's like— that's probably like a baseline rule.

So is this one of the reasons that you found— obviously you talked about your journey and how COVID and the whole bit. Well, how did it— first of all, Who— like, I'm gonna go to the Kalahari Desert and I'm gonna go, I'm gonna make a salt brand. Are you the only salt brand from the Kalahari Desert?

Um, so my supplier has a salt, um, a salt brand in South Africa. We have the exclusive rights to, um, the salt from this particular salt pan, um, for international. Um, and it is the most exquisite, exceptional place. Uh, so The Kalahari Desert is 1.5 times the size of Texas, to give you a sense of scale. So from the closest town, which is non-industrial, we drive 2.5 hours to get to the salt pan. And it's 2.5 hours, and it's 60 kilometers on a dirt road and 10 kilometers on another dirt road, literally in the middle, middle of the desert. And for 2.5 hours when you drive, there's absolutely nothing but sand and sky. And it's just, it's beautiful. And so my supplier was, has been in the industry for 40 years and he was looking for a new source because his business was growing. He's predominantly bulk wholesale. And so he needed to test to see if this 5,000-hectare salt pan was a viable source. And so they got in the geoscientists and the environmentalists, and they, and they did some testing, and they discovered underground a 55-million-ton salt lake, um, or an aquifer. And they then discovered 3 subterranean streams that flow underground through the continent through ancient rock strata called Dwyka, which are tested at 280 to 300 million years old. Um, that flow 100 and 300 feet underground and are constantly replenishing this underground aquifer. So that's miracle number 1. Miracle number 2—

There's a beverage out of this, by the way. You're going to do the Kalahari— we're going to do a Kalahari beverage here soon.

So the second miracle is when we draw it up onto the salt pan, it has not been touched by human hands. Which in this day and age is a phenomenon in itself.

Yeah, you explained a lot of human hands touch this, right? A lot of humans touch this.

Well, it's gone through— it's, um, uh, processed refined table salt is often heated. It's occasionally bleached because they want it white, um, and it's heated up to like, I think it's 1,200 degrees Celsius, which must be you know, 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit or something, it's demineralized. So all that's left is the sodium chloride and the free-flow anti-caking agents. But salt is 97, 96, 98, 99% sodium chloride, and it has a percentage of minerals and trace elements, but those are absolutely what make it a whole food. Um, the body recognizes salt that has not been processed as a whole food. And table salt— and, and it's— it looks like salt, it tastes like salt, but it actually isn't salt. It would be like me—

This is the blood pressure, right? They say this is someone that's causing the blood pressure. I mean, we're not doctors, full transparency here, but this is like blood pressure issues, you know, like take the salt out of your diet.

So I would love to refer you to my website. There's one particular blog which has been very well researched and backed up by science and doctors, and it's called Drink Less Water, Eat More Salt, and explains how your blood pressure goes up because if you're eating a table salt that doesn't have the minerals— so your body is a miracle in itself, and it's always going to try and find balance. Now, if you're giving it a salt that it needs, okay, you need it for your blood volume, You know, salt is sacred. It's in our tears, it's in our blood, it's in our sweat, and we sweat every day. So we need to replace it with a mineral-rich salt which is in a similar balance to our bodies. We are 70% saline solution. So taking a table salt means that the body is actually going to take minerals out of the body into sort of the water component and bring it back into the cells. So it takes the body out of balance and it constricts the the, um, the veins, and it can create— um, eating less salt can increase your blood pressure. So, and, and please go do your research because, you know, we have been indoctrinated and, uh, salt has been so demonized. And there's an incredible human in the industry, Dr. James.

I think that's when my blood pressure went up, that sleep apnea, and then I stopped eating a lot of salt. I talked to you, so I've been putting a pinch of salt in my tea in the morning. I also make like eggs and stuff, and I use this And then I'm throwing this away. I just brought this up for demonstration purposes or just to show and tell a little bit. My partner called out Alicia. She said, happy National Women's Day, Samantha.

Already a big thing.

She sent me— literally, she actually— actually, I tried to tell her to join. Hey, Alicia, you can still come on, man, to say hello just for a drop-in. But she actually took a picture. She ordered like a whole— she had like a whole thing of like, she's your ambassador now and she's going to some friend's house. Did I go down? Oh, uh-oh.

Yeah, you dropped out for a little for a moment.

Oh, this is available at Whole Foods, correct?

Yes, yes. So that was my COVID blessing. I'd gone to Expo West. I didn't have the footfall, but I had reached out to people on LinkedIn before I went, and I ended up meeting a beautiful gentleman, Mike Mike Bach, I don't think you're listening, but always sending you huge gratitude. We just, you know, our conversation sparked and I was like, obviously I want Whole Foods. So I had built my following, food editors, food bloggers, food media, food press for 5 years. And Mike was one of those people that I'd reached out to and he got me the email address for the buyer of Whole Foods. And so in COVID, and I had emailed him, but you know how things go in business. You're often working in your business and not on your business. And that was my COVID blessing. I left the warehouse, my team were kind of carrying on with a little bit that they were doing, and I was at home. I was fortunately on a beautiful farm, so I had space and an organic veggie garden and thoroughbred horses. And, and I had, you know, it was beautiful. Um, and I really— it gave me perspective. What is going to get us out of this hole that we're now in? Because we've taken all over— we've taken COVID loans Lost 60% of sales because we were more than 50% in hospitality and tourism, and now we had none of that. And I was like, what is going to get us out and scale us and take us to the next level? And it's like, I want Whole Foods. And it was just that one-pointed focus where nothing— I wanted nothing else but Whole Foods. And I emailed the buyer, and you know how you're like, okay, is it the right moment or not the right moment? You've got to check your energy. How are you feeling in this moment? You don't want to be desperate. You want to be You know, you want to be in a good space. And I wrote to him 3 times over about 7 or 8 weeks, and then 3 weeks later he wrote back and he said, my apologies for my delay in getting back to you. And I was like, wow, okay, something— there's something here. Buyers don't usually apologize. Anyway, it took me 5 months to get in a presentation, and then 5 months later I got the listing. And 7 months, 8 months later, we launched. So we've been on the shelf for 3 and a half years, um, with our beautiful grinder. And, um, let's do this.

Samantha, you want to do it? Can you hear me, Samantha? Because I've been dropping on the internet. Can you hear me?

I've got you.

Okay, so, uh, this is how it happens when you go live, raw and real. So I'm gonna be calling MediaCom again today, uh, because I keep on dropping. But, uh, I dropped again, didn't I?

You did, yes.

Okay, I'm gonna— what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna transition to my phone and, uh, bump off the internet. So let's just hang tight with me for a minute. Uh, while we're on a commercial break, why don't you tell the why don't you do a little bit of show and tell about your product? Tell me you have a pepper and a whole bit, and then I'm gonna come back in a sec.

Yes. Okay, amazing. So the one exciting thing that I've been spearheading with the Oryx is that this white mechanism inside is ceramic. And so our motto is you only need one, refill, not landfill. So you only buy one, and then you just buy the refill boxes and you just keep refilling. So there's a little, Logo on the side, refill, reuse, real value. And if you were to buy one grinder in 4 boxes and refill it 10 times versus buying 10 other grinders that have a plastic or a polycarb grinder head on, it would probably save you about 50%. And all other grinders that are polycarbon plastic and you grind them, you will listen and they are very cranky and scratchy. And what that's doing is the salt is grind is abrasive and it's hard and it's grinding the plastic teeth into your food and you're eating them, but not with our ceramic grinder. So this will last. I've had in fact I keep giving my grinders away, but my tooth isn't starting. Okay, we've got three. Okay, that's me joining. That's me joining.

I'll be back.

Morning.

I'll be back.

Okay. There you go. Hi, Samuel, welcome back.

I'm here.

That's better. Awesome. Um, so yeah.

So you're talking about, uh, go ahead and finish. You were talking about your—

Yeah, so it's a really smooth grind. It's saving you money. Last year we saved about 817,000 bottles and heads from landfill because our consumers and our restaurants are refilling and not rebuying and throwing into or having to be recycled and ending up in landfill. And then our beautiful pepper is from small-scale farmers in Madagascar. So very, very good quality pepper, making a difference in communities. And besides all of our sales, we give a percentage back to the First People of the Kalahari, the indigenous communities. As well as a beautiful project called Project Biome that was ignited by Rachel Curl and Dr. Zach Bush in South Africa, sort of constellating very beautiful on-the-ground regenerative projects, reconnecting, you know, people with nature and food. And so we give a percentage of sales. So yeah, everything that we do is about making a difference.

Oh wow. You— did you explain this? Maybe I missed it when you were talking, but the actual quality of the lid, the grinder, did you talk about that?

Yeah, yeah.

And it's funny, when you sent this to me, I'm like, I can't find my grinder, I don't know where it is. You're like, I put it in the box. I thought my wife threw it away. And somehow, in the very back of the cabinet, I actually, uh, I found my, my grinder, which I was happy about. Can we go back to the pepper though? So you have a pepper you mentioned. So is there— tell me about the pepper a little. I know salt's like your main thing, I assume, but the pepper, is there something about the pepper that you do this versus a normal pepper? Like this is a black pepper grinder. It's just a pepper.

Yeah. So this is— it's from small-scale farmers in Madagascar. So sort of hand-harvested. So it says close to Africa. Madagascar is, you know, A little piece that, you know, fell off how many millions of years ago. There are some sort of corporate big suppliers from the East, Sri Lanka, Vietnam. So just so that you all know, pepper might have spiked on shelf, and that's because there has been pepper increased by 147% last year. Vietnam, the main supplier, something went wrong with their crops. I think they had a drought, and so there was less pepper to go into the market, and so the price spiked. So just in case you've noticed that, don't blame the brands. It is at source.

Wow. Can we transition on a couple things?

Sure.

So, um, you've been an entrepreneur for 40 years. I apologize, earlier you talked about, you know, your journey on—

Take away my age.

14 brand— um, 14 years. Um, with all the entrepreneurs watching out there, including myself, that's part of this, you know, what's been— you talked about a little bit, but what are the kind of 2 to 3 things that have been the the biggest struggle for you in your life that maybe you want to share with folks? And then what is it that you've had to do to overcome those struggles to get you where you're at today? And it seems like one thing I'm thinking about when we talked this morning is, uh, I believe an entrepreneur needs to figure out how to slow down because burnout is real, right? And, uh, so maybe just share a little bit about that would be— I would love you to share that with Awesome.

I mean, so my philosophy was from the very beginning was go slow to go fast. Like, don't, you know, be, be the tortoise and not the hare. Um, so, you know, we've only had Whole Foods for 3 and a half years. Um, I guess I could have, you know, gone and got a whole load of other, um, wholesalers, or rather, you know, retailers. But it's been, it's been such a big thing working out the UNFI and the supply and the chargebacks and all of those things. And then of course when you scale, you know, then you need a whole lot more people. And I would say people have been the greatest challenge in the business. Finding the right team is so absolutely paramount to building, you know, building your business. We've got to— can only do it in a team and you need the right people. And it feels like we've really come together this last year and we are ready to take to the next level. Um, so obviously cash flow is always, for every entrepreneur, it's such an interesting one. You know, I already 7 years ago, I was having conversations with my business partners that needed to put more money in, and I suddenly realized how many successful businesses and brands must have collapsed and folded, um, and gone under because of their success, because they weren't in a position to Um, you know, bring in, bring in cash flow and, or bring in capital. But we're in such a different stage with, you know, of evolution really with these incredible, incredible and dreadful devices. Um, the fact that here we are live, you know, we're 10 hours behind one another, it blows my mind.

Well, thank God I had this phone because my internet keeps on bouncing off and This has happened the last couple weeks, so I apologize for that. That's all right. But I kind of enjoy it because your expression's like, oh, where did he go? He froze, right? But yeah, the reality is it's an incredible thing that's happening. My dogs are going to lose their mind in a second too when you go live. When FedEx shows up here, they start to bark. So we're going to hear that in a second. I apologize.

No, no worries. So I mean, we've got this, you know, LinkedIn is really powerful if you're, you know, your listeners have got brands and are building their own personal brand. LinkedIn is the platform to be on. Um, and it's scary, but I mean, I'm, I would actually say I'm an introvert more than an extrovert. I never used to post on Facebook or Instagram, but I've got quite active on LinkedIn, and the community of people I have met and grown and the friends and the connections and the network is just off the charts phenomenal. And I wouldn't— Oryx could not be where it is today in America without LinkedIn, without, you know, sharing with this community of people. So, okay. Hello, FedEx.

Can you hear me?

Gotcha.

Yeah, just trying to let the— trying to get in front of the dogs. But LinkedIn has been a, it's been a wonderful, um, uh, tool for me to make, uh, wonderful friends and, uh, connections as well. I couldn't, I couldn't agree more. Um, so what do you do to slow down? What are you doing to slow down? Like, what do you, like, what things do you do just to find peace in your life?

Yeah, so I, I, we, last year was, uh, incredible and probably one of the, the hardest years, just in that I just never took a break. If, if that break is not in your diary, it doesn't happen. So already I've booked my 10 days, um, in Mozambique on a beachside with my son, um, and in September I'm going for 2 weeks, uh, I'm walking, I'm doing the Portuguese— Portugal Camino, 2 weeks of the Portuguese Camino, um, and actually at the beginning of last week, um, I cancelled all of my meetings except for this live. for 2 weeks. And I just want— I just needed some breathing space. And I also realized, you know, I've planted so many thousands of seeds on LinkedIn meetings, meetings, podcasts, and sometimes that field needs to lie fallow. And if you keep walking over the field, you're going to trample on those seeds and those little, you know, seedlings. Um, and they can't grow. And sometimes you need to just— so I'm talking to myself as well. I've realized, and this week, I mean, there are, uh, 2 incredible things that happened this week that came to me, um, that I planted seeds, uh, it was a seed that I planted, you know, 2 years ago, and it sprouted this week while I've taken time out.

Wow.

And I've had an experience before, many years ago. I went away with my son for 5 days on his school camp, and I got a massive order from Saudi Arabia. And I remember saying to myself, oh, you should go away more often, Sam. And, and this week I've done that. And then the other thing is I've taken off that silly little notification on all of my, my LinkedIn, my emails, and my WhatsApp because I just found myself looping. And I've had to get really— I've had to get quite stern with myself. And LinkedIn now is half an hour or an hour from 2:30 to 3:30 in the afternoon. I'm not going to be trawling. I'm not going to do it last thing at night. I'm not going to do it first thing in the morning. Um, and now that— and it's so interesting, I know—

I'm sharing with you, I do it first thing in the morning, before I go to bed, I do it at night. I need to— the universe is speaking to me through you, as I told you this morning. The universe is saying, Sam, go live your life, go have some fun, go out there, you know.

And also, you know, I think the world is just— it feels like it's spinning out of control. So how do I mitigate that speed? And I chatted to my team on Wednesday, and at least on Monday, um, I popped into the office. And this coming week, we're going to sit down and we're going to go, how do we slow our world down without compromising our service? Um, and, and for me, it's, you know, maybe just replying to an email 24 hours later and not within an hour, which is what I like because I'm impatient and I want an answer now. So, um, so just, you know, and it's like, I love driving fast. I've got a Q3. I love driving very fast.

Oh wow.

And instead of, you know, I, I, I do kilometers, um, not miles, but just taking my foot off the gas just that little bit to— and in fact, this year, this week, I have driven— I don't think I've ever driven this slowly. I was actually like Sam, what's going on? You know, I was literally— I had cars piled up behind me because I was driving slowly. Um, but it did something for my nervous system. It just allowed me to— so I've walked slowly and I've driven slowly, and now I'm not talking so slowly, but I've been speaking slowly and doing everything slowly. And, ah, you know, I feel like—

I was— I did this interview with, uh, it was Miller at the time brewing for like a director of of category management or something, I can't remember, but you had to take this psychological test. And so I got the feedback on the psychological test actually with the psychologist or the person that was doing the test. And he said, the number one thing you need to do is to slow down to speed up. You know, and that's, you know, people use that term all the time. And my partner will appreciate this 'cause we're both running a million miles an hour, especially me. I'm working on this program, that program, this collaboration, this network, this company, this brand. And if you can just like seed those things, to your point, and not trample over them, I love that. Seed it, don't trample over it. And then that seed, let it, you know, nurture it, fall back up with it, let it grow. And my partner does this, just to call her out. I love calling Alicia out. But what she does is we'll have a lot of brands come to us as an example, and we'll say, here's our services, this is what we do. They're like, okay, but you know, we can't afford you. And I'm like, that's okay, we'll help you in this way. Connected to this opportunity, but that seed is sitting there now because now they know who we are. And inevitably what happens, just like you talked about, like, you know, the, the one from the, the, um, Saudi Arabia, I think, and the big order coming in, is they're going to come back eventually because at some point they're going to grow to a certain level, they're going to be able to afford us, or they're going to have failed launches or whatever. So I just love— I just, I wanted to call that out. I love the— That, you know, don't trample over your seeds, if I understood you correctly.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think, um, the next sort of strategy that I'm going to do is I'm going to take my, you know, a month calendar, and I'm going to leave a week where I do not— I don't put meetings in because that's just constant. Like, it feels like we— there's always something that's going to happen. There's no space where you can just land and kind of catch your breath. I mean, I had the idea last year already, and then I didn't implement it. But as of this next period, I'm absolutely going to. So, you know, those 3 weeks, fit in, squeeze those. I mean, life feels like a Tetris puzzle these days. Okay, I can squeeze you into the gap, and if I move you down, I can— you know, it's wild. But if there's one week where, you know, that meeting that week is clear, you can catch up on things that are, you know, that you haven't got to That end up leaking because they're spinning around, got it, you know, sitting on your shoulder going, get me, get me, you know. Are you—

back to your business, Samantha. Are you the only one? So you have partners, I'm assuming, but are you the only one running this business, or do you have like a CEO, CFO? Are you— I mean, what is your— is it all you? Are you doing all this?

No. So now I've got a beautiful team now. So I've got a warehouse manager, um, I'm gonna pause and just mute for a second. I need to scream for my child.

I got you.

I think it's his bath below. 2 moments. Okay.

Ooh!

Ooh!

You didn't mute. There's no mute, but that's okay. This is the native bird call of Australia— I mean, of South Cape Town, Africa.

My battery is almost— your power. Sorry guys, I'm on my son's computer. Yeah, so I had a pet hate with my mother standing at the end of the corridor and screaming my name as a child. Um, so my dear son, his name is Kieran, which means ray of light, and I hate going, Kieran, you know. So I developed this call, which is all those parents.

Samantha, that's why we do it live, raw, and real, because we're authentic here. There's no, like, there's no AI talking in your place. I mean, it's just you and I having a conversation this morning. So, I mean, I learned the native bird call of South Cape Town, Africa this morning, which is absolutely brilliant.

We have fun here. So, yeah. You know, if you do make up a call for your children, it's really easy. Like in a supermarket when they're going, Mom! And you go, is that me, Mom, or another mom? Or, you know, and if you've got a little call, make it up. It travels far and, and you, and you can find each other in big crowds. It's actually, it's quite phenomenal.

I love it that my voice breaks every time I do it.

Oh yeah, yeah, no, it was very— it has been funny listening to my teenager who ended up sounding like a, like a penguin.

So you're talking about you had a beautiful team while you're getting plugged in and doing your thing. Uh, yeah, I'll let you do that. But on your team you have a warehouse manager, You've built this thing over 14 years and you're doing all these things. So you're at the helm of this team that you're leading. Who, like, you know, I actually agree with you. It's funny I ask that because I've talked to a lot of founders. My friend Danielle Goss, I'll call her out this morning, or Jackie Berkland and many, many others. But Danielle founded a company called CoolMox. And CoolMox, what's really interesting is we had a call like this. And she goes, how many people do you think are on my team? I said, 20. And she goes, no, I'm a one-man show. And she built this business, you know, and she's— and Colmox is doing really well now. She has Jenny, um, uh, on her team now. Maybe she has some other people. But, uh, that's why I was curious, like, who's on your team? Because it was probably just you running this thing for many years, but now you've got a place where you've scaled this business where you can afford a team.

Yes, exactly. So, I mean, we actually, when we Got the listing for Whole Foods, had to move warehouses. The the team that were the sort of business next door to us who were packing our products. Sorry, it's not working, my love. I need your help. So they didn't have international food safety, so we needed to get international food safety. Gotcha. And I'm not sure why, just check again. And so I've got a, I've got a GM who runs, um, the, the team, somebody who takes the orders. I've now got a logistics person who does all of our imports and our exports. Um, so the team is— so I've actually got about 35 people, but I think 20, like 30, yeah, about 6 salespeople in South Africa, um, and 25 people who are packing products.

Wow.

Wow.

And then you do all the international stuff, Samantha? You do all—

So I drive, I'm growing the business, so I, I open markets, I do NPD, and we've got these 2 beautiful products. Um, uh, this is a— then yeah, this used to be on, uh, Whole Foods shelves but in a different product. Um, if I do die, then I'll get onto my phone, just I'm not quite sure what. working. But I, you know, I have been disturbed by the amount of plastic. And I mean, if you, you know, so that's the other thing is the Orexit Source has no microplastic in it. And so this is our fine. So it's crushed, it doesn't have any free-flow chemicals. But even so, this isn't in the US yet, but I'm gonna get it there. Even this is cardboard. So when this is done, you can get some of that.

Can you, can you, can I get some of that?

I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm excited.

And that's how much better is this? Is this an upgrade from this, or is it an upgrade from that?

No, it's just fine. So you can stick it into your pasta water, and you can bake with it. You know, you need salt for baking. You don't want to sit there and grind it. So it's the fine version.

Okay, so it's a better version of this.

Yes, quite right. Yeah.

Okay.

So this is free from barbecue. We don't— most barbecue spices blends, a portion of it is fillers, so it's wheat or it's maize, so that they don't have to spend the cost on salts and spices and herbs. So ours is all salt, spices, and herbs. Do you bring recipes?

Do you do recipes? Like I do, I'm a Traeger guy, so I cook things. Well, my— okay, my wife is a Traeger woman, so, but I bought the Traeger so I can call myself the Traeger guy. But we'll do like ribs and stuff and we'll put like a dry rub on it. I'm assuming that would be an excellent dry rub to add to it.

Exactly, yeah. So this is available on our webshop, so rxdesertsalt.com. Um, and it's not in this packaging, but it's in a little glass one. But it's, it's exceptionally good on everything— vegetables, lamb, chicken, you name it.

Um, uh, you can share. Do you wanna, you know, uh, with the last few minutes we have, do you— you have the ability to share your screen? You can share here if you wanna bring up on the screen to talk about some of these products. Do you have anything? If you're not prepared to do that, that's fine too. But do you wanna Um, and, and 2, I'd be remiss not to say this, is, uh, if you could put in the chat, or I'll— when I publish this, I'll give your contact information. Now, full transparency, Samantha's not answering for the next week, so you might not hear from her. But if you want to put your contact information, um, out there, happy to do that. And then your website, maybe a little bit about your brand, or maybe I can include like a couple pages about, you know, which you think you sent me a couple things. I'd love to include that as well.

Well, I'd love to. I can put a one-page of all the, you know, the about the salt pan and the sauce and various things. We're on Amazon, of course. You know, unfortunately, we, you know, we feed that beast and hopefully it serves people and it serves us in the future. It's been hard work. Still not there, but still not paying for itself. But hopefully in the future it will.

Do you run like, you know, Eric Martindale? Do you know who Eric Martindale is? No, I'll have to connect you. So he's, you know, Eric, I'm probably gonna butcher this man, but he, he has brands within his company, helps drive the Amazon marketplace with those brands. Okay, I'm happy to connect you. He, we were just on a podcast with Firebelly Social a couple weeks ago and I've known Eric for a while, actually. Interesting, I met him on LinkedIn as well, and we had pancakes one Sunday, virtual pancakes. He was with his kids.

That's super fun.

But it'd be interesting if LinkedIn's— if Amazon's not driving you money, it might be an opportunity for you to talk to him because he's definitely familiar with the marketplace and what happens there. But maybe you're using someone like that.

We've just taken on a new agent, so we just— we literally had 2 weeks ago, we had our sort of intro call. Just one thing, I'm gonna invite your audience and challenge you same time, is get yourself a grinder from Whole Foods or Amazon or from our webshop, which is wholesale, so you have to buy in bulk.

Okay.

But grind some Orex onto your hand and have a taste, and then grind whatever other grinder you have in your kitchen onto your hand and have a taste, and taste the difference. There is— you can actually taste the difference. You can feel the difference of the grinder, you know, and please, like the smallest biohack, I'm sure many of you have heard of that terminology biohack, but how the little things you can do to really upgrade your physiology and your performance is put a couple of grinds of Orex into your drinking water, into your coffee, into your— I've never heard about it in tea, but Yeah, that's another one. But even, you know, you can take— you can open the grinder, you can grab a couple of crystals, put them underneath your tongue, especially if you performance endurance, you need a lot of salt. We are not eating enough salt. So I call this a guilt-free salt. Eat as much as your body is telling you. Your body is innately miraculous. and it will, it will talk to you. If you are craving salty, the first thing that I say, and I realize with me, is like drink water, make sure you're always hydrated, because I think we, a lot of us are dehydrated. Stick some salt in, you know, drink yourself a liter or an ounce. Um, that's very salty while I'm chatting.

Um, and I did a whole thing of it. I got my salt for the next 2 weeks to Now, but yeah, um, so in fact, there's—

you should be having 13 grams of— 5 grams of sodium, which is equivalent to 13 grams of salt. So if you love your salt in your food, please don't feel bad. Your body needs it and it's asking for it.

So, um, that is, uh, that is absolutely, um, amazing. I mean, I'm heading up to Whole Foods. I got to get the pepper. Now, in the US, what's available right now? You can get it, you're global, but within Whole Foods, what can you get? You can get the pepper and the salt?

Yeah, salt, pepper, and the refills. Then on our website and Amazon, you can get a very beautiful smoked salt, um, cold smoked over French oak shavings, and our free-from barbecue salt.

All right, so I'm going to be going on today to do that, and I'll certainly put on the people at the end of the podcast how you can, um, get and kind of connect, connect your company and actually order these amazing, uh, products.

Right.

So kind of, you know, I would like to, you know, maybe in, in summation, have you just tell us— you shared your journey, 40 years, 14 years with this. You know, it's interesting, you said something I've always caught this with a lot of entrepreneurs. I don't know, do you think— can you guess what I'm going to say? You probably can't, but I, I can tell you, um, there's 2 things I'm gonna say. One is every successful entrepreneur I've met, they came from a family of entrepreneurs.

Ah, okay, really?

Really, it's really interesting to me. Like, yep, my dad had his own business, and I have a few high school friends that I grew up with, and interesting enough, they both end up becoming entrepreneurs because their fathers were entrepreneurs. And it seems like it's like, it's almost like being in The Matrix. You, you don't, you don't get plugged in. You don't have this false pretense that having a job— and, you know, I'm not, I'm not poo-pooing having a job by no means. I was a person for 38 years having a job very proudly, but it's not a guarantee of your livelihood, you know. And you're, as a, as you're working, you're building someone else's dream, and you too can go build your dreams.

Yeah.

is great that you built your dream, but 2 is, you know, credit to your parents actually opening your eyes to it, because it took me a long time to understand that you don't need to have— be an employee. You can actually have your own business if you're willing to put the time and work in to do it. That's one. 2 is, do you know the difference between success and failure?

Success, you just keep on going because your success could be around the corner if If you, if you, if you drop out today, it could be your failure, but tomorrow could have been your success, right?

Number one thing founders say is it's not giving up. Keep going. Because, you know, it's like you get to that, you're getting to that point where you're getting ready to like have success, right? Because it's like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like you talked about, or you're planting all those seeds as you see along the way. You're like, nothing's coming my way, nothing's happening. But over 40 years, how many failures did you have? Like, I mean, you had to have lost more than you've won.

Um, well, I mean, I— the, the kayaking, Kayak Africa, and on Lake Malawi, I had partners who were bullish, and I lost my island, and I lost everything I put in. But in a way, that was my university fees. I still miss my island.

I'm still, still, yeah, kind of Wait a minute, you owned an island?

Um, I— we had the concession to live on the island and take travelers out to this uninhabited, um, freshwater lake island. Um, and my partners, yeah, they— anyways, another story, another lifetime. Um, so yeah, this is, this is my now. My, my Oryx is my, my story now, and I I know that I'm going to be in it for many years to come. I'm loving— I love switching people on to this salt. Um, it's got a very— so I actually went up to the salt pan 2 years ago to go do a mini documentary, and we were only there 48 hours, and we were gifted a Kalahari thunderstorm of epic proportions. Quadraphonic lightning. It was just— and which we managed to capture from the drones. Actually, actually, if you go onto our website, there's a on YouTube. You just Google the Oryx Desert Salt, the source. And, um, and it— like, the rain just absolutely plummeted down for 20 minutes, and then it passed, and the colors in the sky was absolutely sublime. And there were double rainbows over the salt pan.

Holy cow! You can see this on the website. There's a video. I can go— we can go watch that.

Yes. And, um, and I realized how elemental the salt is. So I suddenly, I was there on the salt pan experiencing the elements, the wind and the rain and the hot sun after, you know, as the clouds passed. And also, no, not all salt has got moisture actually. So table salt is heated to high degrees, so there's no moisture in it. But our salt is sun-dried and not oven-dried. And so All moisture actually, all water has memory. It imprints with what's around it. So our salt is literally imprinted with the sun, the moon. In fact, because it's— the other miracle, I didn't share that with you. When we pour up the brine onto the pan, it is oversaturated. It's 120% saturation, which means that it crystallizes in only 4 weeks, which is in one lunar cycle. So literally under a full moon, a dark moon, under the stars and the desert wind, Samantha, I'm gonna give you another business opportunity, by the way. Okay.

All right, so after you take your week off and you reset and the whole bit and block your calendar, you need to become an ingredient in beverages. Your salt needs to become an ingredient, uh, you know, hands down. Because you talked about when you put in like all these functional beverages, everybody has like mushrooms to vitamin B12 to you know, all these adaptogens, right? This is probably the most important one that needs to go in there. And people are placing— even beer companies like Sam Adams is placing some salt in their products, kind of like a hydration beer.

Really?

Yeah. So think about all the Na products and Na beers that are out there. It'd be really interesting, uh, and happy to make some connections for you, uh, within that business from an ingredient business or actually have this Like your name, like on the can. Like, you know, you too can get Heineken 0.0. And maybe the Heineken folks are listening right now and has that as an ingredient in there, like an ingredient in their beer. Because what's going to happen is the NA space for beer— sorry.

Yeah, I'm gonna just carry on chatting. I can hear you. I want to just show you something.

Yeah, yeah. So the NA space for, um, beer I actually think the next evolution of that is adding more ingredients as an offering. So it's just not another NA beer, you know, because their whole marketing right now is like 0.5, you know, proof, 0.0 proof. But there you go, you have something right now. Okay, there you go. What is this?

So this is a beautiful— the most delicious tomato juice you'll ever taste. It's not in America yet, but yes. So it's got the RX Desert Salt logo on it, um, and they use apple cider— they use only good quality apple cider vinegar, and then And then this is— so this, uh, uh, logo here is actually taken from the ancient alchemical symbol for salt, which is a circle with a line in the middle. So 2 semicircles, which is perfect balance, which is what salt is to the body.

It creates— So you're already doing it. You're already an ingredient in— how many products are you an ingredient in right now? Just one, or are you looking to get into more?

No, about 130 in South Africa.

Okay, and that one's the South African product?

Yeah, yeah. So nothing yet in the US.

All right, all right. So this is a seed right now, right? So I won't trample over the seed, but I think there might be a business opportunity here, um, to actually take these brands with your product and bring them across the globe. Maybe you're already doing it, but so we represent like a little brand, it's called Sangrita, and it's all natural. So it's like a tomato juice with sangrita out of Mexico. And, uh, so we're taking that one, you know, across the country. It'd be really interesting to actually introduce you to the Sangrita folks and actually put your salt as an ingredient there. And I can actually do that with the founder, Adrian. And I can't promise, obviously, you and Adrian need to talk.

Of course.

But exactly what I'm saying is you're an ingredient in it and you tell the salt story. And I'm thinking, you know, beverages, people like, why does Beverage Man Sam have Samantha on Drink Up? Exactly that thought.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what's so fascinating about salt is that it is the smallest ingredient in any meal, and yet it is the most important. You don't put salt in your meal, it's going to be very bland. And that same power of salt in your— as an ingredient in your recipe is, is as important to your body. So it's still the smallest ingredient you're putting into your body, but it has the same massive impact on your health. So really choosing the right salt for your body is absolutely intrinsic to your well-being. And, you know, we're electromagnetic beings, you know.

Yes.

You can, you know, when you get that shock, if you've been in the supermarket using the trolley and then you touch one another and you get that electric shock. So electricity, our sort of salt and cellular cells and intercellular fluid act as a medium for the neurons and the electric charges in our body. And so you need a good quality salt. So like your brain needs salt to fire and sharpen it. At the end of that day, that 2, 3 o'clock slump that you have and you're feeling like, I need a nap, grab yourself a glass of water, chunk some salt in that, and take that. And see how you feel after that. It's gonna, it's gonna give you a lift. It's gonna get your, your, your synapses firing again. And you know, when, when women are pregnant, you require 30% more blood. So when women are pregnant, their taste buds disappear. Their salt taste buds disappear because the body is needing more salt.

Wow.

So they don't taste, or they keep wanting more salt because you need it for the amniotic fluid and your, the blood volume. So especially you ladies out there breastfeeding, go mad on your salt. You need it.

Wow.

Experiment. Listen to your body. Like, play around, put some more in and see how it makes you feel. And so I was saying, this beautiful gentleman, James DiNicolantonio, he's a cardiac researcher. And he said the wrong white crystal got the bad rap. So they pointed— the sugar industry pointed their fingers at salt because it's a white crystal.

Yeah.

But which is the white crystal that's actually really causing damage in your health? And I've been off— my son, my beautiful 17-year-old son, has been off all sugar for about 14, 15 months now. Like, nothing has passed his lips. I'm not quite as good as he is, um, but for this year I haven't been having much sugar. And I went into my warehouse last week, and I was gonna fast on the Wednesday, which was— is my day in the warehouse. but we had a lovely, uh, like a baby shower for one of my team. And so there was cake and there's sweets, and I ended up starting my day on sugar. And Thursday morning I woke up and I got out of bed and I was like, ow! And I felt all stiff and inflamed and cranky. And that was because the day before I hadn't had much protein. All I'd been on was sugar. And I was like, wow, that was, that was powerful to experience. So sugar's You know, go point sugars, uh, your—

I'm down 15 pounds, um, because I was putting honey on everything, by the way. And a woman told me that, uh, it's like a health coach, she said take the honey out, just have the yogurt with some blueberries, and then watch your refined carbs as well. Uh, you know, my wife, my wife loves refined carbs, so I mean, pizza last night arrived on my, my plate. I'm like, and out of respect, the pizza was good, but I'm like And I really don't. I'd rather have like the salad with some like, you know, and by the way, what you're describing is really hard. So hats off to your son because it's really hard to go on a no sugar diet, by the way.

It is, it is. And yet once you, once you make the switch, uh, the, the difference in the aliveness and the stiffness and the inflammation and all of that like really drops. So one of my favorite meals, my son and my favorite meals is Full cream double thick yogurt and a big, like a heaped teaspoon of good quality cinnamon and macadamia and almond nut butter with blueberries. And so you're just really getting your oils and your nuts and your yogurt.

Can you send that recipe to me? Like text it to me or email me? I would, I'm always looking for things. Well, so I'm gonna give you a chance to close it out with us and then stay on the line with me after I go live. I got a couple other things for you, and I usually hit stop here, but just for the audience, so what do you want people to go away with? I mean, obviously, thanks for these health tips because you're absolutely talking to me. I'm like, okay, Susan, I'm nothing but this salt. I'm dumping out this salt, and this goes into all our foods. But, um, yes, really, what do you want to leave them with?

Yeah, so, um, I'd say 2 things. The power of intention. You know, if you're going to climb Mount Everest, you need to know you want to get to the top of Everest. And so you will align with the skills, the tools, and the equipment you need to get to the top of Everest. If you don't know that that's where you want to go, you're not going to get to the top. So really, I knew that I always wanted to be in Whole Foods. I also know that I want to be— I want Oryx, not me, to be the next global household brand of salt. So that's my mission. Um, and then the power of gratitude, always just like, wow, you know, such an incredible opportunity. Thank you, Samuel, for being on this, on your lovely live podcast. Um, really, really appreciate, um, chatting and sharing my story with your, with your audience. Um, and just, yeah, all of those tiny little, um— I just discovered that you could do hearts on this thing.

Oh my God.

Oh, really? Oh, I haven't seen that. What's happening? Mine's not doing it.

Do you see the hearts coming?

Wow, that's cute. That's brilliant. Is that the first time you discovered that?

Having a destination, you know, being clear where you're going, and the power of gratitude.

And appreciating every step along the way, every moment. Like, so, like, each of us, we are souls having, having a human experience. Like, just trust your soul. Trust that this is a journey. Where you're at right now is part of what your soul needs you to— where you need to be. And so sometimes, like, if you look at it from a, like, a bigger perspective, um, you know, my son is, uh, institutionally adverse. Um, you know, 4 years of nightmare with school. He doesn't do school now. And it was the hardest part was me shifting from needing him to go to school. He didn't want to hang out with kids smoking and drinking and vaping and what have you. He's not really— he's not a crowds person. He likes his own space and he likes one-on-one friendships. Um, so the hardest thing was me switching, but my mantra has been trust the soul of my, my boy. He knows where he's going, and I'm so curious and excited to see how, how life informs his journey. I didn't study Um, you know, the way life, you know, even, you know, my business partners today, I met the wife of one of the business partners on a 10-day silent retreat. I'd been looking for a business partner, I'd had lots of meetings, but then I met them on a, on a meditation retreat in silence. I mean, hello, like, I could not have planned that. So just so it can take that little bit of that, you know, take your foot off the gas That little bit, just take that stress just a little bit more into trust, surrender, and gratitude, um, that you are where you're meant to be.

That's my partner. I hope my partner is geeking out on this because first of all, she has a candle that she burns and she has these rocks that she has behind us, and we always talk about energy, right? And you talked about energy and, and then trust that your son's soul is doing the right thing because, you know, and one thing I've discovered out of all this is that positive energy finds positive energy, and the devil is a negative energy that we have to push out. And the power of meditation— and my partner and I always talk about this, by the way— is you have to, you have to, like, like, you got to be able to see the universe. And Alicia, maybe give me some talking points. I wish you were here. But the power of the universe is now. You got to manifest what you want. And, and that's what we do every day. And amazing things happen. You came into my life. You have something you're going to share, a book.

Yeah, no. So this is an oryx, and it comes from the beautiful Kalahari Desert. So I, I did a 120-kilometer walk, and, and they actually, for real, they have a heart on their head. Just, I wanted to show you the kind of, you know, what the animal looks like. And I was sitting on a sand dune, and I watched 2 bulls chasing each other. And, uh, and the desert is like 360,000 square kilometers. and these 2 bulls ran up the hill like in my path. And, and I've only just really— it's only just really— and that was, you know, that was 20 years ago— like realized, you know, that yes, that, you know, they, they came into my path. So this is, this is part of my journey. This is part of my soul journey. Um, and, you know, Samuel, you giving this platform to me, you know, this is As long as we're giving back, as long as we're giving, we're giving more than what we're taking, we are, you know, we create, we're in creation. Um, so yeah. Um, man, thank you.

So, so, so thank you so much. Thank you everyone for joining, uh, Drink Up and my friend Samantha. I'll put in the, uh, credits information on this when we actually publish this as a, uh, a podcast, which will be Here probably by the end of the day or week. But thank you so much, and everybody have a happy Saturday that join us. And that is a wrap.

Thank you. Have a beautiful day, beautiful week, beautiful life.

Yep. So just stay on me for a little bit. So I got you have to stay on, or at least leave your phone on this because I got a download. You have 72%.

Absolutely.

So and then what happens?

Thank you, Samuel.

Yes, I've been, I've been struggling with this go live the last couple weeks, but it'll work out just fine because people actually— that's what people are telling me they like about it is the rawness of it, of talking. So how did you feel about it? Was it good with you? Were you— were you— did you enjoy it?

I loved it. Thank you. You're so organic and so real, so authentic. Really amazing.