168: Microbial Magic: Revolutionizing Agriculture from Inside Plants with LPC Naturals’ Jessica Staha

Jessica Staha 00:00:00:

In a controlled sector, you're really pushing those plants to an extreme. Really fast cycle times, beautiful, consistent responses are needed. And then on top of it, you know, packaging, handling, long shelf lives are needed. And these are similar pain points for large outdoor ag, but it's different. And when you pile into all the frame irritation technology, the lighting technology, the H VAC technology, the greenhouse itself, I mean, it's an incredible collection of technology to achieve these just incredible cycle times and response from the plant.

Harry Duran 00:00:43:

So, Jess Stas, CEO of LPC Naturals, thank you so much for joining me on the Vertical Farming podcast.

Jessica Staha 00:00:49:

Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm glad I waited for a taxi with you.

Harry Duran 00:00:54:

That was at the Indoor Icon.

Jessica Staha 00:00:56:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That networking event, the Golf center, which was also very entertaining.

Harry Duran 00:01:01:

Had you been to multiple indoor Icons at this point?

Jessica Staha 00:01:05:

I had back in the day, maybe. Gosh, I can't remember when they started, but I want to say maybe seven, eight years ago.

Harry Duran 00:01:12:

Okay.

Jessica Staha 00:01:13:

I've been to multiples. Yeah, yeah. So that was the first one I had been to in a cool minute.

Harry Duran 00:01:18:

Okay. And how was the experience? I know Suzanne does an amazing job. She's got so much on her plate. And the interesting thing is as soon as the conference is done, she's getting ready for like, CEA Summit East. And now, like, I'm sure they're. I think Kyle's planning speakers for the 2026 event already, so, you know, they've got a lot going on.

Jessica Staha 00:01:39:

Yeah, yeah, they do an amazing job. I thought they did an amazing job. I also thought too early on, it was just new and younger and there wasn't so much indoor. There was a lot of cannabis. Right. And the diversity, both in the technology. There used to be, at least when I was attending, there was a heavy light focus too, you know, and all the newest lighting. And they do such a great job of diversifying both the tech and the discussions on the crops and just the science that's coming to the sector. I. I was really impressed. And then, like you said, they have multiple summits and engagement opportunities for the community, so it's pretty impressive.

Harry Duran 00:02:21:

Yeah, I think ever since Brian and the team acquired from the organizers who were doing it previously, I think the timing was good because it was just as, you know, people were getting more of an interest on the vertical farming side as well.

Jessica Staha 00:02:32:

Sure.

Harry Duran 00:02:33:

So that brought up a lot of awareness. There's been some interesting conversations. I don't know how many of the sessions you attended, but some sober discussions about the realities of where we're at now.

Jessica Staha 00:02:41:

Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:02:42:

Downplaying a little bit of the hype that got people excited in the beginning.

Jessica Staha 00:02:46:

But that's, you know, that is really every industry. I've worked in multiple industries over the years. Like my background is in molecular biology and genetics and I've seen that in multiple industries. But I don't think it should distract from how impressive the industry is and the technology that's going into it is. But it does get a little bit. The last session just on the reality of the situation was, you know, a little bit. Little sad.

Harry Duran 00:03:14:

So let's wind the clock back a little bit. How did you get started and where did that interest come from? Molecular biology? Is that something early on you had a fascination for?

Jessica Staha 00:03:23:

I started in science. Well, to be quite honest, I didn't pay attention in school and the one teacher that told me to just sit down and shut up was my chemistry teacher. And so then I started to pay attention and science was a language that everybody could speak, which I really associated with. And I went off to college and found that I really enjoyed plants, which I know so many people over, you know, years of working in these fields, I've connected with folks and they've commented on just that positive energy. I don't know how to describe it, but in growing plants and seeing them succeed, and I don't know why, but it's very addictive. And so yeah, I started my education in agriculture and. But because it was focused on molecular biology and genetics, I was able to be in multiple industries and still grow in my own personal knowledge. And so like I said, I've seen that with tech, you know, where everybody gets very excited, a lot of money comes in, but it doesn't change that. Technology is very strong and ultimately will find its place.

Harry Duran 00:04:34:

It just.

Jessica Staha 00:04:34:

Sometimes there's a bit of a Right sizing that has to happen.

Harry Duran 00:04:39:

So after university you spent some time at synthetic genomics and also at. Yeah, yeah. So what did you learn there? And as you, you know, obviously sometimes when you, you can get clarity around your path when you look back, but when you're in it, sometimes you're not so sure, like, where am I headed here? And so now that you look back at your previous experiences leading up to your current roles, like how do you think that they sort of kind of molded your thoughts about what you were learning at the time?

Jessica Staha 00:05:07:

Well, I didn't realize at the time that I am addicted to startups. I really, I love the energy that comes with startups. I love the enthusiasm, I love working with the teams that thrive on a challenge. And it's not to say, I'm not trying to say that in a larger company you don't see that, but in a startup it's quite a unique experience. And so when I started with synthetic genomics, they had also, I was, I was part of that first team that they hired and I was fresh out of school. I didn't appreciate what I had just signed up for. But yeah, that really set the pace for my career where I ended up finding that I really enjoyed that. I really enjoyed just that raw enthusiasm.

Harry Duran 00:05:57:

And then as obviously coming in, you know, when you're coming out of college, obviously the first experience you had was as a startup is probably much different than going to an established company as well. And but it gave you that taste of it and I guess since you experienced that, it seems like that there is an energy around an entrepreneurship and I've been an entrepreneur since 2015 so like, and I was in corporate for 20 plus years and the dynamic is completely different. You know, one day you go to like having the direct deposit in your bank account from your paycheck and then you go to like the day that, the first day that doesn't appear anymore, you're like, that's the reality call for sure.

Jessica Staha 00:06:35:

Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah. There's a lot of give and takes when you're in, when you're in the corporate, you're well taken care of. There's just, there's a lot of benefits there, there. But yeah, the startup, the entrepreneurial side of things is just again the energy is quite the draw. But you know, when I think back on synthetic genomics too, they focused on microbials and the use of, you know, some of the early patents that either I had or was part of a team that got, were focused around modification of organisms and better understanding how to utilize organisms in communities and what they can accomplish. And that's very much what LPC Naturals does well with one specific organism. But still a big part of our focus is educating on how these communities work with the plant and help the plant. And you know, had I been told a few years ago that I would be linking 20 years worth of energy, I wouldn't have really believed you.

Harry Duran 00:07:45:

You also spent some time with Philos and Local Bounty and I'm curious what those experiences are like because you had a, the CTO role at Filos as well.

Jessica Staha 00:07:53:

Right. So that was another one where I started the company with the two founders, Mowgli and Nishan. When I met Mowgli, they actually Didn't. They didn't have a website.

Harry Duran 00:08:04:

They didn't.

Jessica Staha 00:08:05:

I don't think we even had a name yet.

Harry Duran 00:08:07:

Super early days then.

Jessica Staha 00:08:08:

It was super early. And I'll never forget because cannabis was just start. It was all medical and Colorado was just about to legalize. So the concept of joining the cannabis industry when you had a whole career in biofuels and cancer diagnostics, that was, it was a risky thing at that time. And I remember Mowgli had commented, he was like, well, I have, you know, this is an agriculture company, but we're going to focus on cannabis. And I paused for a second, I just said, well, that's a plant.

Harry Duran 00:08:41:

Yeah, yeah.

Jessica Staha 00:08:42:

What's the problem?

Harry Duran 00:08:44:

Yeah, definitely the stigma attached to that is definitely lessened. I mean, it's such a huge industry now and there's so much to be learned especially I know, from a, I'm sure from a science perspective, like you said, it's still a plant and there's still. It behaves in a, you know, a lot of interesting ways that I think are fascinating and, and there's crossovers. Right, because you're growing in a controlled environment as well. So I think, I'm sure that's a lot of what you learned in that role.

Jessica Staha 00:09:08:

Yeah, absolutely. And you know, for me, starting with molecular biology and starting with a focus on genetics and then working with Phylos and all the other companies, you know, DNA is DNA is DNA. It doesn't matter the organism. And so again, it's this universal language that you can communicate with, but really with Philos. And then ultimately I started a consulting firm and well, I still run the firm, but a little bit busy right now, but I ended up leading teams. I found more and more that scientists really struggle with communicating on what they think is a good idea and also listening to the customer, may that be a literal customer or maybe another team member on what is truly needed. And so I found more and more as my career developed that I was really that liaison that was helping translate what the scientists felt they needed and what the customer truly needed. And that, that really rolled over quite a bit into local bounty and supporting them and their R and D effort.

Harry Duran 00:10:14:

The consulting. Is that the IP flow?

Jessica Staha 00:10:17:

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's my concern.

Harry Duran 00:10:19:

Well, some of the interesting. When you're in the consulting business, I think something that's helpful is your ability to work in like so many different, maybe industries or companies of different sizes with different pain points and different needs. And, you know, some of the best consultants have to kind of switch Multiple hats, because no one's coming to you with the same problem every time. So I'm curious, was it helpful to just see a lot of different challenges people are having in the space?

Jessica Staha 00:10:44:

Oh, yeah. Well, you know, for example, I had one company that was very young and they just needed help with their investor deck. So speaking about their tech and communicating on a long term strategy that could build over quarters with, you know, an action plan and goals that made sense. Again, you have scientists and they think that it's a good idea, but is it something that an investor is going to be interested in today versus tomorrow and long term? And so helping them do that was unique. And you know, then I had others where it was very much just, you know, I had one where it was helping set up, organizing, building out their lab and that was, you know, completely unique from an investor deck and another one where it was IP management. So it, like you said, it's very different for all of them.

Harry Duran 00:11:36:

So talk to me a little bit about the origin story for lpc. Like when did that idea start brewing and when did it feel like something that you. That feels like was the natural next step for you?

Jessica Staha 00:11:47:

Oh, sure. So I took over leadership for LPC Naturals about a year ago, but LPC actually has been in LPC Naturals has been in business since 2018.

Harry Duran 00:11:59:

Okay.

Jessica Staha 00:11:59:

And the. One of our officers is an agricultural commodities trader and he had seen the effects on the final harvest quality of crops with microbials in use. And when you think about the goal of a commodities trader is to really limit as much risk as possible. Right. And so he just thought, naturally, this is a good idea and if we could get more farmers to do this is good for them, this is good for me. Like, obviously this makes sense.

Harry Duran 00:12:32:

Yeah.

Jessica Staha 00:12:33:

And then just for a lot of different life reasons, it all happened at once. They were looking to take the next leap and reached out. And I just, I remember when I sat down with my husband, we talked about the opportunity and we were just like, it's clear. It's clear as more and more chemicals are being pulled and aren't being allowed to use, be used. It's clear as more and more people are doing a better job at communicating on the efficacy of microbials in the ag and the vertical spaces in greenhouses that, you know, this is the right move. So, yeah, so it started about a year ago and now we've just been working on building and getting that message out, which is the hardest thing with microbials, I feel like.

Harry Duran 00:13:18:

And is this the first time you have the CEO role?

Jessica Staha 00:13:21:

Yes, this is the first time. So I've been. And that's why it was a big discussion for my husband and I, because I've always been CSO or CTO or R and D, you know, and jumping into the main seat was the first time.

Harry Duran 00:13:35:

So what's that experience been like? And did you have to call on like, previous mentors? I'm curious, when people move into like, especially prominent leadership roles like that, what has to shift for you, like, internally?

Jessica Staha 00:13:47:

Yeah, so I definitely called on previous mentors and all of them were like, why are you. Of course, they didn't even hesitate. And then I felt a little bit sheepish because I thought, why am I asking? They didn't even hesitate to say, just, obviously you need to do this, this is a great idea. But you know, it is very different when you're guiding the science or you're guiding technology development because you have a very specific lane to stay in even your IP portfolio when you're managing that, you're working closely with, you know, leadership as well as listening to your investors, listening to your customer base. And it's just a very different role when you're now organizing all of the team's efforts.

Harry Duran 00:14:33:

So for folks that are not familiar with LPC Naturals, how would you describe the current offerings and like, who you serve?

Jessica Staha 00:14:41:

Sure. So we serve all of agriculture. We have two different product lines that have been designed with in a lot of different ways, but one is called Endoglo, it's for large outdoor acreage. And one is called Prime Superior, and that's for indoor greenhouses, high density cultivation, repetitive planting, site planting. But they're unified by the same active ingredient, which is a unique isolate, proprietary isolate, as well as culturing technique of the organism Bavaria Bassiana. So, and a lot of folks are unfamiliar with Bavaria. Some of them might be familiar. But the fact that it grows endothelically as a plant stimulant is a very novel thing. And so like I said earlier, a big part of what we do is honestly outreach and education on. You may have experienced this organism before, but there is 99% of what it can accomplish for you you've never seen in action.

Harry Duran 00:15:43:

Interesting. And so how much of it is an education process, because it almost like speaks to a pain point that farmers may not realize they have and may not realize that this is something that could be beneficial for them. So they're probably looking elsewhere and maybe some of them were looking at some of these hazardous substances to solve their Problems. And so it sounds like there's some education that needs to happen when you're having these initial discussions.

Jessica Staha 00:16:08:

Yeah, there's a lot of education that has to happen just in the sense of folks trying to any kind of microbial solution. It's different than what they've previously seen with maybe a single fertilizer or a single chemical where it's a bit of a one trick pony, an excellent, amazing pony, but still one trick. And that's really where microbials differentiate themselves is they create a global response in your plants, in your crop and your facility, and guiding people through what to expect, what to keep an eye out for and then how to appreciate the insurance policy that they just invested in. Because that's really, I mean that's a big part of what it is that these organisms, ours especially, are helping the plants survive through different stresses. May they be biotic or abiotic. And no matter if you're in large outdoor ag with shifting environment or you're in a vertical indoor setting and somebody for that to have the irrigation system running, you know, there's always stresses, there's always life that's going to happen. And so these organisms are incredibly helpful in softening the blow of those stressful situations. But that's again, that's an education process. And so again, a big part of what we do is just talking, educating.

Harry Duran 00:17:34:

Yeah. So when you mentioned microbials several times, how, how big is that family as it relates to like support and helping out like the ag community, you know, how many are we talking about? I know you've mentioned that BBS is one of them, but I think when people hear the term microbials, like how big of a family of species, I guess, or whatever the proper term is that are we talking about quite a few?

Jessica Staha 00:17:57:

So there's not many on the market that are available and the reason being the delivery is difficult and stability can be difficult. So you know, some of these organisms, you, they ship and you need to use them within a week or two.

Harry Duran 00:18:11:

Okay.

Jessica Staha 00:18:11:

And that makes it very difficult. But yeah, it's incredibly diverse from bacteria to fungi. And then also. So this is another part of our educational piece is that people don't appreciate or maybe they do and then they just need some help digesting. The plant has different spheres of organisms, which gets complicated. Right. Certain bacteria and fungi live around the roots, certain bacteria and fungi live inside the plant, certain ones live on the exterior of the plant. And these are different spheres. It's actually rhizosphere, endosphere, phylosphere okay. Just going to nerd out on you.

Harry Duran 00:18:50:

Yeah, yeah, of course.

Jessica Staha 00:18:51:

I can't help myself. But they.

Harry Duran 00:18:53:

Your chemistry teacher did a good job.

Jessica Staha 00:18:56:

Yeah, yeah. He's a very nice gentleman. I tell that story a lot and he's actually a very nice person. But yeah, a big part of it is that there's all these different organisms and understanding which one, what they're going to do for you, where they're located, how they can work together. And if you come back to synthetic genomics and you know, a lot of their work early on, not only in understanding obviously the genetics of the organisms was how do they play together. And that's a big part of introducing these different organisms to the different spheres so that they can collaborate with one another and not eat each other.

Harry Duran 00:19:31:

Yeah. I'm curious, when you start working with these organisms and you have to, like you said, educate the folks on the benefits of it, is there someone that's ideal for this type of application? When people are coming to you and they're like, hey, we need help with our crops, do they need to be a specific size of a farm or is it specific crops that you. That are more helpful, how do you sort of figure out if someone is coming to you for help would be a good fit to work with lpc?

Jessica Staha 00:20:01:

Yeah, it's a great question. So our organism in particular is indifferent to the plant that has to do with its life cycle in general. It cannot be picky. And so we've seen great success across a variety of different crops. But I would say that the folks that I engage with a lot are in the indoor space. They're also generally in the regenerative and organic spaces. And I have quite a few individuals on the conventional side that are looking to find alternate solutions because either tools are being taken away by states and regulators, or they're just tired of using those tools and they'd like to try out some different methods. And so I think that everybody's actually very open. I haven't really come across too much resistance.

Harry Duran 00:20:54:

Okay.

Jessica Staha 00:20:54:

You know, maybe a conventional farmer or two and they're like, this sounds kind of complicated. And I, you know, I'm like, that's fine. You got my number. Give me a call. You know, the team, we'll reach out.

Harry Duran 00:21:05:

I'm curious when you started to become aware of, like, what was happening or the activity happening in the controlled environment space and how that differed from maybe what you had bitten experience in traditional ag, did you see a big difference in terms of, like, their needs or at the end of the day, like you said. Is it. Are they both, like, trying to achieve the same objective?

Jessica Staha 00:21:27:

They're both ultimately chasing the same objective. The only difference. Well, not the only difference. There's a lot of very big differences. But I would point out that in a controlled sector, you're really pushing those plants to an extreme. Really fast cycle times, beautiful, consistent responses are needed. And then on top of it, you know, packaging, handling, long shelf lives are needed. And these are similar pain points for large outdoor ag, but it's different. And when you pile into all the fertigation technology, the lighting technology, the H VAC technology, the greenhouse itself, I mean, it's an incredible collection of technology to achieve these just incredible cycle times and response from the plant. That is a different conversation, for sure.

Harry Duran 00:22:24:

Obviously, it seems like education is a big part of what you do. And I saw that you recently ran a webinar on is it the dahlia patched?

Jessica Staha 00:22:31:

Oh, yeah, yeah. Jennifer's great and her community is great. Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:22:36:

Were you there as a guest speaker?

Jessica Staha 00:22:40:

Yeah, I actually did a one last night as well for cannabis community here in New York called the Cannabis Farmers Alliance. But, sorry, what was your.

Harry Duran 00:22:49:

No, I was just curious, like, when you're on these webinars, like, do people have the same needs or is it more of an education process for them to kind of. Like, this could be the first time they're hearing of these microbials and as it applies to, you know, what they're looking for. And so what are you learning? Because a lot of times you go in as a speaker. Right. But then based on the feedback you get from the participants, sometimes you learn about specific needs that people are having. So I'm curious, in your recent talks, what you've been learning about, you know, what can be learned from the types of questions people are asking?

Jessica Staha 00:23:19:

Yeah. I gotta correct you. It's not sometimes, it's all the time. They always have new questions each community, and they'll have very specific crop questions. And usually I have to. It's important to me for both myself and for the team to show some humility, too. Just because our organism is a generalist to all these plants, we can't. We have to learn with them. And so sometimes we have to pause and wait for the community to educate us on what their struggles are with that specific crop to then best answer the questions. You know, the question I get a lot for outdoor folks is, how do different organisms work together as a community? But the question I get a lot for, say, indoor or greenhouses, how do different organisms pair with different technologies. So, you know, for example, I was chatting with an individual and they had a vacuum seeder for their seed trays. You know, how is this going to work with our seed trays? How is it going to work in the event of a backflow with their irrigation system? How is it going to respond to lighting that's so many inches away? And so, you know, to your point, each time we give this webinar, we get a different set of questions, and I'd say 90% of the time we have the answer. But sometimes you have to pause and say, I'm going to have to get back to you on that because I need to make sure I understand what you're asking first.

Harry Duran 00:24:41:

When you have conversations with folks who are considering working with you, is there anything that you look at in terms of where they're at in the size of their farm, what, you know, maybe what they're growing? How can they best prepare their environment so they can make the most out of, like, working with these microbials?

Jessica Staha 00:24:59:

Oh, environment preparation. So sticking to the indoor sector.

Harry Duran 00:25:05:

Yeah.

Jessica Staha 00:25:05:

I have a lot of conversations on what are their sterilization and cleaning techniques. Right. Because when you're introducing ours, thankfully, and this is where the functionality is fantastic, is that it is injecting itself into the plant and then living up inside the plant.

Harry Duran 00:25:22:

Okay.

Jessica Staha 00:25:23:

So it is resilient to a lot of the cleaning methods. But I'll have some conversations with folks in the indoor sector and they'll maybe comment like, we tried a microbial and I, we didn't really see a response. But then they'll tell me about their Xerotol practices and their cleaning practices, and it's like, well, you might have ultimately killed that poor little thing before it had a chance to give you that response. And that's human. It's not on us to help educate. But yeah, I'd say with each, may it be indoor or outdoor, they'll. They generally will walk me through what their practices are, or they'll walk the team members through what their practices are, and then we'll better learn and understand what they're trying to solve. And sometimes it's, we're not the right fit, but, you know, sometimes we are.

Harry Duran 00:26:10:

When you attend the indoor icon and you get to see everything that's happening in this space, like, is there anything that catches your eye in terms of, like, innovations or technologies or even possible partnerships? You know, and you said you had attended a couple of times years ago, and then you've recently went again so I'm curious, coming at it with a, with your experience, what is it that you see and that you get value of out of from the conference?

Jessica Staha 00:26:34:

Well, I really like how the conversation is shifting to, and it always has been open to a lot of different crops. But as folks are assessing margins and deciding what crop is the best fit for their facility, the testing of different unique crops within an indoor space that is really, I think gaining some traction in a way it didn't have before. The other thing that I've been really impressed with and enjoyed watching and often noodling on best ways to engage is when you think about the eye on this in the sky data collection, because in these huge farms it's these fractions of yield or survival or packability shelf life, those can make huge margin differences. Right. And those that data collection and then digestion on the back end is so important. So I've really enjoyed seeing that develop in conferences like Indoor Ag where more and more you see that data collection and the impact of that data collection being then turned into tech or refinement for the ops team so that they can just execute that much finer.

Harry Duran 00:27:49:

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I'd be remiss also if I didn't mention tia, who has been very supportive of show and then the Women in CEA movement as well, which I think has been really important. And I'm curious if you've had a chance to engage more with that group. And I think it's just a really great initiative obviously to highlight the folks in that space.

Jessica Staha 00:28:09:

Yeah, I don't know that I've engaged directly with them. I actively follow them and have been very impressed with the movement and obviously I want to support all the ladies out there.

Harry Duran 00:28:20:

Yeah, it's been great to see how big is your team right now?

Jessica Staha 00:28:24:

We're a small team. We're a collection between employees, contractors and consultants. We're around 10, 15 people.

Harry Duran 00:28:31:

Okay, and how would you say like you've adjusted to your role as a leader in terms of have you started to develop like your own leadership style for someone who's been new to the role or is that constantly evolving?

Jessica Staha 00:28:43:

Well, I've been in leadership for probably the past 10, 15 years, just not in this straight CEO leadership role. But I, you know, I go back to when you're smaller, it's nice because you just get so much one on one engagement with people that as you grow, you know, there's that break point at about 20 people, it starts to change at about 50 people and then the 200 mark those ones. You see very real shifts in the culture.

Harry Duran 00:29:12:

Yeah.

Jessica Staha 00:29:12:

Bad. It just. You do. I've seen it multiple times now. And so this is a fun point where the, you know, yes, I can be a leader, but I can also just work very closely with them. And so we're all striving towards the same goal with the same ridiculous amount of energy. I mean, I. So I'm working in the evenings, I'm working on the weekends. I wake up early before the world starts to come online and I'm shooting out emails and they're responding to me and I'm like, stop time at home. Just because I'm crazy doesn't mean you have to be crazy too.

Harry Duran 00:29:45:

Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah. To set those levels of expectation is important early on because especially now we live in a world that's very asynchronous. So you could comment on something and, you know, it's not that you need an immediate response, but you just want to get it off your plate as well.

Jessica Staha 00:29:58:

Yeah, yeah, totally. I've used like Outlook where I'll have the emails not go out until delayed. Eight on Monday. But then sometimes it doesn't work and I'll go into a meeting and I'll be like, what happened? And they're like, what are you talking about? I look at my Outbox and it's stuck there. And I'm like.

Harry Duran 00:30:17:

What'S a tough question you've had to ask yourself recently?

Jessica Staha 00:30:20:

What's the minimum amount of sleep you can survive on?

Harry Duran 00:30:25:

I can definitely relate to that one. Yeah.

Jessica Staha 00:30:28:

Honestly, as an entrepreneur, you're constantly balancing that. How fast can I run and maintain my sanity and not burn out my team? And so I find that the toughest thing is always honestly, where can I fit in some exercise to really burn that anxiety off or that just energy off.

Harry Duran 00:30:48:

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I try to get some 10 to 20 minutes of meditation time in the morning.

Jessica Staha 00:30:54:

Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:30:55:

Before the day starts. I find that usually helps calm the mind. Cause it's almost like I know what's coming. So I just have to have that moment of Zen. Forever lasts.

Jessica Staha 00:31:04:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just a little bit of nothing.

Harry Duran 00:31:08:

Yeah.

Jessica Staha 00:31:09:

Complete, Empty.

Harry Duran 00:31:10:

Yeah. Which is easier said than done.

Jessica Staha 00:31:13:

Yeah, it really is. It really is. Do you have like a go to activity that you do that you know you cannot because you're doing it? You can't think of like, for example, jigsaw puzzles. For me, like, I sit down and for some reason it's just enough focus. Or I'm like, I'm not thinking about anything else.

Harry Duran 00:31:31:

Yeah, for sure. I sometimes I'm trying to stick to my three day a week strength training, like workout and you know, when you're lifting heavy weights, you know, typically at least for those few minutes, you know, you can't think of anything else except making sure.

Jessica Staha 00:31:45:

Yeah.

Harry Duran 00:31:46: S

o I think, yeah, just try to push my body like I think positive stress on the body, you know, just to, you know, to kind of, it helps work out the energy as well, you know, so. And then hopefully that single minded focus is helpful as well. So I think that does help to stay with the workout regimen I found. Helps a lot.

Jessica Staha 00:32:02:

Yeah, well and also I don't know if you've experienced this but as I've gotten older and you know, progressed I realized everybody says exercise is important and you know, when I was younger I thought maybe it's, you know, it's going to help solve the problems. But the fact is it doesn't make the problem go away or you know, make you happy or sad. It just calms the energy and makes it more digestible, which I think that's such an important, I mean honestly, if you want to talk about leadership technique, it's constantly reminding your team like if you're going to give up anything, don't let it be the exercise. Like continue to do that. Get it in.

Harry Duran 00:32:36:

Very smart advice. So I'm curious Justin, like let's say we're having this conversation a year from now. I'm curious when you think about where the industry is headed and goals that you have specifically for lpc, like what would success or progress look like for you?

Jessica Staha 00:32:55:

I mean obviously we want to see placement and more and more people appreciate the advantages of our specific isolate and our microbial. Really I would say success is getting it more into people's hands and having them get that word out. Right. Because right now we already have a following in some sectors from maybe farming or for example cannabis, definitely a bit in indoor. But growing that and seeing that development where more and more people are educating each other on this and the beauty, I mean and not just, and I go back to too, that microbials have an incredible capability. Obviously I'm biased, but if I could see more people just have a favorite microbe that they're using. I know that the end industry, but indoor and outdoor are recognizing the importance and the value and that is a huge success for all of us in my opinion.

Harry Duran 00:33:58:

Yeah, so it seems like more of an education process around because to your point, there's probably people who don't understand the benefits of microbials, what the different strains are that are available, what each one does, what's their specialty. And it seems like there's a lot of opportunity, and it seems like you're doing it with the webinars, just educating people how it's possible, especially as we're moving away and thankfully so away from the use of a lot of these hazardous chemicals.

Jessica Staha 00:34:24:

Yeah, yeah, well. And so many times the team will talk to folks or I'll talk to folks and they'll say, oh, this just sounds over my head. And then we'll talk through it. And they're like, oh, that's actually not that complicated. I'm like, no, it's. It's pretty. It's pretty straightforward.

Harry Duran 00:34:37:

Yeah.

Jessica Staha 00:34:37:

Like, well, yeah, let's have a go. Okay, great.

Harry Duran 00:34:40:

One of the things I've tried to do here with the podcast is create more of a forum for collaboration with people in the indoor farming industry. So I've been leaving some time towards the end of the interviews for any thoughts you have. We have a lot of your peers in the space, other C level execs who listen to the show, and we're always trying to say, hey, it's not so much about, like, protecting like the secret sauce that everyone knows it's not so secret, but. Which is the funny part. But what are your thoughts or anything that comes to mind in terms of, you know, in the spirit of collaboration, you know, anything for this community.

Jessica Staha 00:35:17:

You know, I always welcome the opportunity to collaborate more on both grower led and university trials because microbials, ours does fantastically within the plant and it can work independently. But as we've talked about through the whole discussion, this is a community response similar to the human gut. It is a communal thing. And so the more that we can collaborate on running trials where you trigger that community response, the better. And so, yeah, I'm very open to that. Please reach out.

Harry Duran 00:35:51:

We'll make sure that definitely all your contact info is in the show notes as well. You're in Buffalo, right?

Jessica Staha 00:35:55:

I am, yeah. We're based in Buffalo, New York.

Harry Duran 00:35:58:

Were you raised there?

Jessica Staha 00:36:00:

No, no, I. We were in Montana before this and actually I was in Oregon for Philos and I was raised in San Diego, so I've been around a bit of a nomad. Hopefully not anymore.

Harry Duran 00:36:14:

I grew up in Yonkers, New York, so I'm familiar with New York. Yeah, yeah. So. And I went to. I did a year and a half at Syracuse, so definitely familiar with upstate. But it's And I'm in Minnesota now, so cold related. I think we're probably at the same level in terms of like extremes.

Jessica Staha 00:36:31:

Yeah, the lake effect is a very real thing. And you know, everybody recognizes a lot of the snow. But I mean, right now we're going through a massive rainstorm. Right. And it's just the lake effect happens, I didn't know, all year round. And it, it reminds me of kind of like a tropical rainforest. It's so humid and just intense rain or intense snow. Yeah, it's pretty epic. I remember when we first moved here, my husband and I were chatting with some folks and they had said, yeah, sometimes it says so much that you can't open your door and very like, well, how are we going to get out of the house? Like we. That that concept was new for us. And they said, you know, you keep the shovel inside your house. And I said, what? They're like, yeah, all the emergency stuff can't be in your garage because you're not going to get to it.

Harry Duran 00:37:19:

Oh, man, that's smart. Yeah. Yeah. It was a bit of a learning curve for me because I was in New York and then previously to here I was in LA, which 55 is the lowest it gets. And yeah, I had to up level my boots, my coat, and minus 20 is just next level type stuff. So.

Jessica Staha 00:37:36:

Yeah, yeah. When it gets that cold, it's not. People ask me like, what do you prefer hot or cold? And I'm like, I don't want negative 10 and I don't want 110. Everything else I'll just deal with.

Harry Duran 00:37:48:

Yeah, yeah. It's given me more appreciation for the seasons here too, because now we're going through like a heat wave and it's going to hit 90 this weekend.

Jessica Staha 00:37:54:

So it's pretty crazy, right? Yeah. There's a lot of chatter on the heat wave coming especially. I just saw some posts on like, how Ontario greenhouses. It's like, watch out, you know, they're really going to struggle.

Harry Duran 00:38:05:

Yeah, it seems like that ties it all together when you talk about extreme weather and the need for controlled environments and managing that. Yeah, it's so interesting.

Jessica Staha 00:38:14:

Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, and that's the other thing about Controlled Ag is that it is. Absolutely. There's so much more control than the outdoor environment. I completely agree with that. But everybody in Controlled Ag knows that there are still seasons, there's still shoulders that they have to design too. There's still discussion on picking varieties that will ride the shoulders better and there's no reason that they shouldn't also be considering products that are going to also help them ride those shoulders more effectively.

Harry Duran 00:38:44:

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Well, I appreciate the fact that we just. Sometimes these happen randomly. Like, I'm at these conferences and just, you know, there's a group of folks there and I think Tia was there and she introduced us or something like that. And it's always. I always appreciate. And that's why I love going to the conferences, because you meet people that you would otherwise have not have met if it had just been left to, like, online connections. And just so fun to learn what people are doing in this space and to hear your story, especially, like, I don't know if you can think about it now, looking back, but how your path has led, all the different choices you made and all the experiences you've had sort of led you to this moment now where you can pull all those experiences to bear in your current.

Jessica Staha 00:39:23:

Absolutely, absolutely. I would imagine you kind of have a similar story as well. Yeah, yeah.

Harry Duran 00:39:29:

I mean, in terms of, like, the podcast that just something that was an interest came on my radar because I started out in the podcasting space in 2014, and I own a podcast agency. But one of my clients had given me the book Abundance by Peter Diamandis, and it was about the future of food. And then small snippet about. I think it was Dixon Despal's book the Future is Vertical Farming, which I immediately downloaded and read in one sitting. And I'm like, hmm, I want to learn more. But as a podcaster, my first go to is to start a podcast. And thankfully I said, I want to speak to the folks who are making waves in the space, so make focus on CEOs and founders. And I gave it the most obvious name in the world, Work with market Podcast. The domain was available and just off and running, and it sort of picked up steam. I happened to come in 2020 when it was a lot of, like, you know, some hype and with a lot of interest in the space. And so I think it helped me, like, ride a positive wave. And I've made a lot of great connections. And now we're partnering with IGROW News. We've created the AgTech Media Network. So we're really doing a lot for folks in the space. We're in the process of starting a new show on Greenhouses, for example, greenhouse Success Stories, which is something we're working on as well. So, yeah, it's been interesting just to learn as I go, and having these conversations has been extremely helpful for me because in the beginning I come at it from a curiosity perspective and as a podcaster we're comfortable with long form conversations. But with each conversation you just learn more and just like, oh, why do you do that? And how did you do that? And now I feel like, you know, it's just I'm getting education from the smartest minds in the industry and it's been really fascinating to watch.

Jessica Staha 00:41:01:

Well, it's neat too, that like you're pausing and listening and learning and then digesting and building. That's you. That's what we all hope we can accomplish, right? You clearly are executing.

Harry Duran 00:41:12:

Yeah, for sure. Well, thanks again for your time. We'll make sure we have what's the best place for folks to connect with you?

Jessica Staha 00:41:19:

You can reach out to our main site at LPC Naturals and I'm on LinkedIn. We're pretty easy to find.

Harry Duran 00:41:25:

Okay, I'll make sure all the links are in the show notes as well. Thanks again for sharing your journey. I'm glad we got a chance to connect.

Jessica Staha 00:41:30:

Of course. Thank you. Thank you for the opportunity.