Behind the business: Blair Norfolk

Blair

BEHIND THE BUSINESS: Norfolk

Meet Blair Norfolk, founder and CEO of Activated Probiotics…

AS the son of a food chemist, I always found experiments exciting. My father and I would spend late nights in the kitchen working on science projects that the next day I’d proudly share with my peers. After university, I moved to London. The city was a revelation to me, an exciting multicultural and diverse melting pot which would lead me on many adventures, entrepreneurial pursuits and eventually into the world of biotechnology and clinical research.

The people I met along this journey, not only opened my eyes to my current purpose in life, but, as a collective, inspired me to want to make change, improve not only my own quality of life but also work toward helping others achieve the same.

My journey took its most recent turn in founding Activated Probiotics, a practitioner-only natural medicine brand, backed by gold standard clinical research. I knew that with Activated Probiotics I could not only help people live healthier lives, I could also share my new-found knowledge on the gutmicrobiome through educating medical practitioners and health experts the world over.

Building a business means I do work very long hours. The majority of my spare time goes to my wife and little girl. Outside of that, it’s usually spent reading; books, studies, clinical trials, forever learning and searching for innovation. Often ‘time on’ and ‘time off’ is blurred, I always bring my family on all my work trips. I feel lucky I’ve found something I truly love doing, so it doesn’t feel like work to me. However the work life balance is something that I’m constantly work on!

Prior to working in the natural medicine business I worked across the USA and Europe in the fashion industry as a model. It’s a long way from where I am working now! It was an incredible experience, traveling all over the world, working with some of the big names in fashion design and photography. The creative side in me was always excited to be surrounded by other like-minded people and I have brought that creative side into all of the research and education we now work in.

Like many people in the holistic health sector, my interest started out of personal necessity.

I was diagnosed with not one, but two incurable autoimmune diseases, Vitiligo and Ulcerative Colitis (IBD). Like many others working in natural medicine, I was disenfranchised with modern medicine’s approach to my health conditions, and I was looking for answers.

As is my way, my search for answers led me to jumping on a plane and going to meet with all of the leading medical researchers in the field of autoimmune diseases and eventually, the gutmicrobiome. After spending many months with leading gastroenterologists, microbiologist and researchers at top universities and institutions throughout Europe and North America, I felt a sense of responsibility to bring this new research to the world and so, Activated Probiotics was born.

In the early days of our research and development, we were fortunate to have been involved in a number of clinical trials using very specific and specialised probiotics strains for the treatment and management of conditions such as osteoporosis, depression, nutrient absorption, asthma and eczema. As we were first in the world to have access to such amazing research, we saw it as our responsibility to act and to produce products to help the numerous patients with these conditions. As with my own health conditions, medication does not provide an adequate solution. For us it is something of a crusade, being able to share this innovation, developing safe and effective probiotic products that can have a positive impact on the quality of life for those who are suffering.

The next challenge came when we started questioning the existing manufacturing techniques and quality in the supplement industry, the stability of products and also the survivability (efficacy) in a patient’s stomach and eventually their gastro-intestinal tracts. This next rabbit hole forced our team and partners to develop new types of packaging, new ways to test efficacy of probiotic products and most importantly our patented micro-encapsulation technology. This has all culminated in our products being five times more efficient in delivering live viable bacteria to the large intestine compared with any other with any competitor’s naked strains.

The creative side in me was always excited to be surrounded by other likeminded people and I have brought that creative side into all of the research and education we now work in

Once we had all of this exciting new science and technology, we knew that traditional marketing would not suffice. So instead, we set out to build an education company to share this journey with health experts the world over.

The education process has been one of our biggest challenge. We knew we had the highest quality products with the most research behind them, regardless of this it just takes time for the education to resonate with the audience. Once health professionals and their clients know who we are, learn to trust the science behind us and then finally have a positive experience with our products, then momentum builds.

Access to investment is also a big challenge for start-up founders like myself. We have raised over $8m to date to fund our business and keep the lights on. This is very hard to do when you’re in the early stage business, you’re asking people to take a big risk on you and your passion. However, over time, much like with our education program, familiarity breeds confidence and the balance shifts, making securing capital more straight forward.

Over the next few years, we want to help people live healthier lives and educate a great many more people about preventative medicine. We have one of the most passionate teams in the industry, driven to make a global impact. Our goal is to be the leading brand in education in our field and to further the efficacy and reach of clinical research in natural medicine.

One thing I’ve learned is that we are all students. We need to question and keep an open mind. I try to not plan too far ahead, which drives my family and friends crazy! I like to say yes to whatever opportunities are presented, I believe this has played a major role in getting me to where I am today. Leaving the comfort zone of my home town was the most liberating thing I did in early life; through travelling and meeting different types of people I’ve gained a better appreciation of who we are and what we really value most. n

Activated Probiotics are available through our practitioner wholesale partners www.amritanutrition.co.uk and www.naturaldispensary.co.uk

iFor those who are not already registered, Amrita Nutrition are offering exclusive access to all Holistic Therapist Magazine readers via this link: www.amritanutrition.co.uk/account/register using the invite code A2019P.