IAM655- Founder Publishes Test Results of Dietary Supplements

Calloway Cook is the founder and President of Illuminate Labs, a dietary supplements eCommerce business located in Northampton, Massachusetts.

• CEO Hack: Turning off phone notifications while working
• CEO Nugget: Try to raise a larger round of funding at the onset of the business
• CEO Defined: Having own business and a steady stream of income

Website: https://illuminatelabs.io/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/illuminatelabs
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/illuminatelabs/

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello. Hello. Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today Calloway Cook of Illuminate Labs. Calloway, it's awesome. Have you been on the show?

Calloway Cook 0:39

Happy to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:40

Super excited to have you on and what I wanted to do, which is read a little bit more about Calloway so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Calloway is the founder and president of Illuminate Labs, a dietary supplements e-commerce business located in Northampton, Massachusetts, Calloway are you ready to speak with the I AM CEO community?

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Calloway Cook 0:58

Yeah, absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 0:59

Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to get started with a business?

Calloway Cook 1:07

Yeah, so the story behind Illuminate Labs is, you know, kind of a background that I'm sure you've heard before. But basically, I recognized a problem that, like I as a consumer was facing, did some market research and determined there was no one else solving this problem. So basically, I began taking dietary supplements about two years ago, to treat high blood pressure, I'm generally a healthy guy that's just a genetic thing. And I was like, okay, I'm getting into my late 20s. And I want to take this seriously. But before taking pharmaceutical medications, I'd prefer to try something natural, for prefer to try something without side effects.

And then, you know, if I can't treat it, I can move on to pharmaceuticals. So, I started doing research, I was combing through PubMed, which is a free government resource for published medical studies, I don't have a background in this. But I probably spent literally 10,000 hours, just reading published medical research on herbal compounds that would treat high blood pressure. And so I built this supplement stack, which I still take to this day everything from all of the extract to flaxseed oil, coQ10, just a bunch of different compounds that are proven to have no side effects that actually benefit general health and also lower blood pressure.

So I got the desired effect, which is good, I did reduce my blood pressure, but kind of in the process of researching and taking the supplements is when I learned that the US supplement market is totally unregulated. And so I didn't know what I was taking, I knew that I was getting the desired effect, right? But I didn't know necessarily that all of the supplements I was taking, were accurately labeled, I didn't know if some of them had heavy metals you can still get the desired effect, you can get a cholesterol reduction of blood pressure reduction, but also be increasing your heavy metal intake, which isn't something that you'd want to do. And so, you know, I was getting a big concern.

And I was reading a bunch of these third-party articles, about different, supplement companies having to take their product off the shelves, a lot of third-party testing, showing that, basically, a lot of these supplement companies just weren't accurately advertising their products. And so I began to reach out to the supplement companies themselves, I would say, Hey, can you send me some of the testings, because, at this point, I was kind of medically literate enough to interpret it. And not a single company with literally not a single company who sent me their testing, which is pretty crazy. And I was like, this is, this is crazy.

And I found a couple of other sites, ConsumerLab, Lab door, that would give kind of ratings for supplements, but it's I still wasn't able to see the data. And so I decided to launch Illuminate Labs as the solution to that problem. And, we can speak later about kind of how we solve that problem. But that was the backstory behind the bread.

Gresham Harkless 3:42

Nice, no, I definitely appreciate you for sharing that. And a lot of times, I'll say sometimes, I'll say like you, you are your best doctor. And a lot of times, you can go to doctors, and I'm pretty much the same way where I try to take something natural, if at all possible, and try to do my research and due diligence, try to test it out on myself. I don't know if I'm supposed to do that. But that's what I do. And then you try to figure out exactly what will work. But I love that you've been able to do that for yourself, but then take been able to kind of take it a step further and be able to help so many other people with illuminate labs. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about that. And I know you talked about the problem that you're solving. How's that? Can you do that? Can you drill down a little bit deeper? Tell us a little bit more about that.

Calloway Cook 4:20

Yep. So all you really need to do to solve this problem, right? It's a transparency problem, right? Where some companies are probably actually doing accurate testing, like internally, and not publishing it. But the problem is that since no companies essentially publish, the tests of their products, then as a consumer, I don't know which ones are safe is just marketing. So all that we do is essentially We test every batch of the finished product, and we send it to a third-party laboratory, right because even if we internally tested there's kind of economic bias if you're a consumer,

I don't really know how much I personally trust manufacturing company's own tests, even if that would be a step above what you get now which is just nothing but the way to totally eliminate any sort of economic bias is to send it out to a third party company to do the testing, because they have no reason to miss report the results one way or the other. So we partnered with a nonprofit organization called the US Botanical Safety Laboratory. They're a division of UNC, and they test all of our products. It's more expensive to do it this way. But that's kind of our USP and then we publish that testing right on the product pages of the website itself. So no one else is doing that. And, you know, it just solves a very big problem.

Gresham Harkless 5:32

Yeah, it's definitely a huge problem. And I, I'm super surprised that is not something that's prevalent amongst the entire kind of industry where in this day and age where transparency, and sometimes people can be able to find so much information that people aren't kind of taking it a step further to be able to just go ahead and publish that information. Just because to me, it helps you to connect more with the brand, the company everything that they're doing. So I appreciate you for being a trailblazer in that right?

Calloway Cook 6:00

Yeah, for sure.

Gresham Harkless 6:01

Yeah, no problem man, and I know you touched on what I would call your secret sauce, did you have anything else that you would add that you feel kind of either sets either you apart personally, or your business as well?

Calloway Cook 6:12

Yeah. So we also publish the medical research on the product pages that went into the formulation, right? So we don't want to sell anything, that's not actually proven to work. That doesn't mean it's going to work for everyone. Of course, everyone has individual genetics, but we don't sell products that aren't proven on average to work, right? So for example, ashwagandha extract in the potency that we sell is proven to reduce anxiety, but it doesn't mean it's going to reduce anxiety for everyone. But it's something that for me, if I had anxiety, I would prefer to try that before, you know, an SSRI which can have pretty crazy side effects. And so you know, that's another thing you can go on, we have 10 plus research studies on every single product combining both like the efficacy and the safety because we're even if it's effective, we're not going to sell something like kava that has, a bit of addictive potential. So the most important thing really is making sure the compounds say first, and then making sure it's, it's effective on average.

Gresham Harkless 6:46

Yeah, absolutely. And it kind of sounds like, correct me if I'm wrong, for the people that can go and look. And they sound like a lot more empowered, because they get that information that gets that knowledge, and you get to decide whether to make that decision or not to make that decision where on the contrary, what we were talking about before if you don't even have the information, you pretty much are kind of left out, I guess in the dark, so to speak.

Calloway Cook 7:29

Yeah, exactly. I mean, if you go on Amazon, and you look for Ceylon cinnamon extract, which is a product that we sell, you could just compare the different marketing materials, or with our company, you can go on actually see the research, see the test results. So it's definitely two kinds of strong value propositions that we offer for sure.

Gresham Harkless 7:47

Yeah, that makes so much sense. So, appreciate that. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So that could be like an apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Calloway Cook 8:02

That's a good question. Um, I'll probably go with and I know, this isn't the kind of most high-tech or sexy answer but I think that totally turning off all phone notifications makes me so much more effective. It's something that I didn't use to do. So I don't I'm not trying to text people, when I'm working, I just want to be focused like 100%, on what I'm doing. And, in the past, kind of when I started the company, I was still always online, I'd be texting people, I'd be making plans, whatever. Checking events, all that stuff. And it's, it's just very easy to be distracted. All these apps are built to be addictive, right? So for me just kind of checking my phone and saying intervals I leave my, ring on, because obviously if it's a business call, I need to take it, but my friends don't call me, I text people. And so that's something that has made a noticeable impact on my productivity.

Gresham Harkless 8:53

Yeah, I would definitely agree with that. And I think there's a statistic or something that it takes you like 15 to 20 minutes when you leave one task and go to something else to get back to where you were so, important, and not being kind of caught by those notifications that as you said, the whole psychology of them, they understand exactly how to distract you, and get paid to use their product. So to be able to just kind of unplug and get away from those things to be able to kind of draw it out and do the work that needs to be done.

Calloway Cook 9:25

Yeah, for sure. And I think that that's something that isn't only good for business owners, I think that if you're an employee too, I've seen firsthand that people can be very distracted on the job by their Instagram and stuff like that. So probably good for anyone working.

Gresham Harkless 9:41

Yeah, absolutely. Instagram and Facebook, they have they have the science figured out for sure how to distract you. So, the best way to do this is just sometimes how to pull away and cut off those notifications. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget, so that could be like a word of wisdom or piece of advice, or if you can happen to a time machine. What would you tell your younger business self?

Calloway Cook 10:04

It's a good question. Other than to sell all my cryptocurrency by 2017? That's a good question because honestly, I'm pretty content with how things have gone. But that doesn't mean obviously that everything could have gone well, um, I think one thing for this business that I would have done is I would have probably tried to raise a larger funding round at the start. So I raised, you know, a pretty small funding round, and it was enough, to get the business off the ground. But, at that outset period, it basically it's very time intensive to raise funding, right, so to raise one round of funding, and then plan to be like, Okay, well, soon after we launch, we can raise another round.

If I just raised a larger round at the outset, when there wasn't any overhead, then right now, we're trying to raise funding it's a pretty crazy time to raise money, that's a separate issue. But, it takes a lot of time, and it's time that I could be spending on the business. And obviously, again, like at the outset, there's no overhead now there is overhead, we have warehousing, we have fulfillment. But that I mean, that's easier said than done. At the time, I was happy to raise any funding at all. And it didn't include a salary for me, but just being able to kind of get the business off the ground was important. So, that's kind of the only thing that immediately comes to mind. But even that, again, is easier said than done.

Gresham Harkless 11:32

Yeah, no, I appreciate you for sharing that. And I always feel like you're in a good place, if you'd have trouble with the answer to that question, for sure. But I know that one of the things that I always heard and he never really at least I didn't fully believe, is that you always need twice as much money and twice as much time as I think you have so easily in the beginning, it's always like, if you go back, I would have done, you know, try to get more this and that. And that's why it's good. I think that, the other thing I heard as well as to make sure that you get those resources before you actually need them. Because when you need them, it's going to be even harder to get them. So you want to kind of be ahead of the game. But it's great that you have that foresight, and you are automatically kind of doing that as well now, too.

Calloway Cook 12:21

Yep.

Gresham Harkless 12:22

Awesome. So now I want to ask you my absolute favorite question, what's the definition of what it means to be a CEO? And we're hoping to have different quote unquote, CEOs on this show. So Calloway, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Calloway Cook 12:34

Um, I think it just means having to me it just means having your own business and stream of revenue doesn't necessarily mean that you have to have a corporation, you don't even have to be incorporated LLC or anything. I think that if you're, a social media influencer and you make your own money, and you don't have a boss to answer to your CEO, I think if you day trade stocks, you're a CEO, I know that the connotation of like CEO, everyone loves to, to be Colisee. Yeah, but I would also say, like don't just focus more on making a steady stream of income and don't care too much about being a CEO, I know that the channel is called I AM CEO and that makes sense. You want to interview people who are more doing interesting things, but just speaking to the actual business owners I think there may be an over-emphasis on it.

Gresham Harkless 13:22

That makes so much sense. Now, I appreciate you for talking about that. And that's kind of like the goal of the show is really to try to interview people that are doing interesting things, seeing all those people that you talked about day trading, or in our social media influencers, getting a holistic look at entrepreneurship and business and not getting as caught up in the title, and exactly what it is that you're doing. But make sure you're kind of fulfilling your goals and you're hitting that kind of app crushing those obstacles that you might have.

Calloway Cook 13:52

Yeah, it's hard, man. I mean, it's it's, it's hard to get go from an idea to having a steady stream of income for sure.

Gresham Harkless 14:00

Yeah, exactly. It makes so much sense. So Calloway truly appreciates that definition in that perspective. And I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get on a view and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

Calloway Cook 14:18

Yeah, so illuminate labs, our website is illuminatelabs.io. We're hoping to acquire the.com soon but that's a crazy process. So maybe when this is life will be a .com You know, you can find us on social media, Instagram and Twitter are both Illuminate Labs, and Facebook is Illuminate Labs supplements. And apart from that if you are interested in investing in a company with a very strong value proposition, you definitely can reach out to me directly or you can contact me through the website. And apart from that I can't think of much man I really appreciate you having me on.

Gresham Harkless 14:53

No problem. I appreciate you for taking some time out and all the awesome things that you're doing as well too. We will have the links and information there in show notes as well too, so that anybody can follow up with you and make it even easier. But appreciate you Callaway and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Calloway Cook 15:00

You as well, man, I'm definitely going to keep up with I AM CEO I love you know, just kind of hearing people's stories. We're kind of doing things, especially in different spaces than me so yeah, man. Thanks for your time.

Outro 15:18

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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