Welcome to the #piratebroadcast: 

Connect with Cathy Nesbitt on LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/in/cathynesbitt

For more information visit her website:

cathyscomposters.com

cathyssprouters.com/

cathysclub.com/ (Company Website)

Connect with Russ Johns on LinkedIn:

linkedin.com/in/nextstepnext

For more Information visit his webites:

russjohns.com/

thepiratesyndicate.com/

nextstepnext.com/

Russ Johns 0:03
Welcome to the #piratebroadcast, where we interview #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings where you can expand your connections, your community. #Kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let's get this party started. How are you today? Thank you so much for being here.

Cathy Nesbitt 0:25
Thank you.

Russ Johns 0:27
It's amazing. It's amazing. I just want to thank everyone for joining us #piratebroadcast today. We have #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings every single day, every five days a week at least. I just want to thank and applaud you guys for in the community for connecting with each other, making introductions, sharing information, and building this up in a kind sort of way.

The world needs a little more kindness and we have the opportunity to deliberate every single day. Alone, a little bit goes a long ways. You never know where it's going to travel. Just go out there and do some some random Kinect today and share a few smiles too, because in talking about smiles, I have a guest here that is we're going to talk about smiles and laughter and a little organic sustainability and a lot of different things. I'm super excited to talk to Kathy today. Kathy, how are you today?

Cathy Nesbitt 1:32
Thank you so much Russ. I'm doing great. Yeah. Nice introduction. Thank you.

Russ Johns 1:37
Well, it is really important for us to understand that. You know, you have just to give kind of a little backstory for everyone. Kathy likes yoga, and she likes laughter yoga. Now I have a friend in Houston that truly believes that smiles and laughter physically Changes individuals, you can physically change your attitude just way of being through laughter. Cathy's gonna talk a little bit about that. Then the other side of the equation, something that is near and dear to my heart is composting, soil, and sustainability. That part's gonna, we're going to talk about something that people don't think about a lot of times is worms, and which is a huge part and volumes of the way composting can take place. This is two real, very different topics that we're gonna be talking about, and we're gonna tie it together because how do people What do people call you Kathy?

Cathy Nesbitt 2:48
My working title is Kathy Crawley laughing bean Queen.

Russ Johns 2:52
Yes. I didn't mention the beans. Maybe you'll have to talk about that but so about Five years ago, you got into laughter yoga, and what prompted you to get into laughter yoga. Were you into yoga before that? I mean, you already started the yoga and begin that process.

Cathy Nesbitt 3:12
I actually don't even do yoga. I just do laughter yoga. Yeah, Which is fine. Laughter yoga is not about fancy pants or poses. It's intentional laughter exercises designed to oxygenate our whole body. We've all heard that laughter is the best medicine.

Russ Johns 3:31
Yeah.

Cathy Nesbitt 3:32
Is it really is, you know it. The laughter is in our control. It's waiting in us to burst out but we stifle our laughter often. I'm just encouraging everyone just let it out.

Russ Johns 3:44
Let it out.

Cathy Nesbitt 3:47
How do they come to me? Well, you talked about the sustainability part. My I'm a worm advocate. I had started my own business in 2002. It indoor composting with worms. Not everybody wants worms in the house. I can't believe so to help me stay on my mission. I mean, we're going to talk about the worms in a bit but to help me stay on my mission and really stay on track. I was introduced to laughter yoga in 2015. I immediately grab I'm a natural laughter I loved it. I couldn't believe that thing. laughter yoga.

Russ Johns 4:25
Well, I didn't actually know that it was a thing. It's fascinating to me, because I enjoy laughing I enjoy laughter I enjoy creating happy moments and everything else, and I'm not necessarily a comedian, however, I do, like laughing and it's one of those things that you can actually make observations and think that's funny. That's interesting. Then you can laugh about things circumstance, and whatever it happens to be. What prompts you Is it just the physical act of laughing that You start and you process or is it something you think about and then you focus in on like focusing your intention on something, and then laughing about a topic or something like that walk us through the process because to me, it's fascinating.

Cathy Nesbitt 5:17
Yeah, so it's really not jokes or comedy. It's just laughing. It really is intentional laughter exercises. As a laughter teacher, the role is to encourage the participants to laugh through little silly games, it really is just instilling that childlike sense of play and wonder. Our brain knows that we're laughing and it might feel weird, but our body does not our body does not know the difference between real and imagined. Laughter So if you're just putting it on. Your brain, like why do I feel weird but the body is like, wow, dopamine and serotonin, the love drug

Russ Johns 6:01
Yeah, no kidding.

Cathy Nesbitt 6:03
There's when we're stressed and we're secreted cortisol. Somebody cuts us off in traffic and we see like, Ah, so instead of that when somebody cuts me off now it actually triggers me to do my laughter yoga. I'm like, Oh, thanks for cutting me off. Then I start doing my laughter yoga.

Russ Johns 6:24
What a great response. It's like, Okay. I always think that somebody might be more, they might be in a bigger hurry than me. I don't know. It's like, go ahead, take. There's no front of the line here. I don't know. I don't know. It's kind of crazy. Hey, I want to say hi to Michael Evans. He jumped in. He said, Good morning, Michael. How are you doing? Good morning from Metro Detroit. And Olivia is here. Good morning Ross and Kathy so that's very cool. Then laughter is the best medicine actually. salutely laughter is the best medicine.

I love that. You go through and you have this laughter process and then you can trigger a little more dope been in a little more, because you're like you say your body doesn't know the difference between real actor and intention intentional laughter right? It's one of those things that it doesn't really know the difference. How long does the effect last? I mean, do you have an interval that you attempt to during your daily routines or anything like that you recommend?

Cathy Nesbitt 7:39
I do encourage so 10 to 15 minutes of sustained belly laughter where you're laughing follow on is equivalent to about 300 setups. 1 2 3 oh laughing is much easier.

Russ Johns 7:55
Laughing is Much easier. And it's a lot more fun. Yeah.

Cathy Nesbitt 7:59
It's a A lot more fun and it really is contagious. In a class, the classes of maybe 30, to 30 to 60 minutes, and you go through different exercises, you start standing, then you go sitting, and then you end with a laughter meditation where, if everybody's able, you're laying on the ground, fully connected, and you've all locked together. Now the laughter meditation is your chance to just laugh hold on for as long as the meditation goes, and then you're just like, fully oxygenated. You asked, How long do the effects last? That whole day? Your body, like your cells are having a party? And then you sleep well that night?

Russ Johns 8:45
I would imagine. I guess if you just probably did a Google search, you could find people that are involved in laughter therapy and laughter, yoga and all kinds of things. This is the beautiful thing about the #Piratebroadcast and being a pirate in the community is there's so many different careers, experiences ways of living and ways of being that. It's really fascinating to me how people arrived at that point. You probably had some experience in that brought your attention to that. I think, was it. The laughter came first or the worms came first.

Cathy Nesbitt 9:34
The worms came first so 2002 I started my web business. Okay. In two. So here's how that came about. Oh, my gosh.

Russ Johns 9:43
Yeah. Tell us the backstory on that one.

Cathy Nesbitt 9:45
Yeah, long before that. I was afraid of words. I'm afraid of what am I afraid of? I'll start a business in that no

Russ Johns 9:56
laughing about it later. There's a story there Kathy

Cathy Nesbitt 10:08
The landfill for the Greater Toronto Area. I mean, in just north of Toronto, and they got the land tougher for the Greater Toronto Area closed in 2002. And we started shipping garbage to Michigan. Yikes. I'll let that stop for a second. Well, like 1000 trucks a week 1000 trucks leaving the Toronto area every week. Honkin transport trucks not like cute little garbage trucks 18 wheelers Wow. Wow. That's broke it on so many levels. Like I would say, I do a lot of school workshops and I say to the kids, can you imagine shame on us as Canadians for shipping our government, the country sorry here but double shame on the Americans for accepting our garbage for cash.

Russ Johns 11:00
Right, right, right.

Cathy Nesbitt 11:02
This is government doing this.

Russ Johns 11:04
Yeah.

Cathy Nesbitt 11:06
I knew there was a better way. This is indoor composting. Toronto area, I'll use Toronto again as a larger center 6 million people, 6 million half living in apartments condos without space to do outdoor composting. Until all of their organic matter was going to landfill, it didn't make sense that this is these are resources that we can use

Russ Johns 11:30
This insanity.

Cathy Nesbitt 11:33
Insanity, that's what I should say.

Russ Johns 11:34
Yeah.

Cathy Nesbitt 11:36
Right.

Russ Johns 11:40
There are ways that we can recycle and compost. I used to build compost bins when I had outdoor space and currently I I don't do that because I don't have any planets. I don't have any animals. I don't have any. I'm not farming or gardening right now. Because in Arizona, it's 110 degrees. However we can do indoor it's not impossible. It's something we have to think about in this sustainability in reducing our output. Because if you can take a say half your trash and compost it, and then recycle it and grow something from it. That's amazing thing, right?

Cathy Nesbitt 12:27
Magic.

Russ Johns 12:28
It's magic. It is magic.

Cathy Nesbitt 12:30
It's magic. It's nature's magic.

Russ Johns 12:33
And it works. And it works. And it turns into black gold. This is black gold when when you have composting worms working, and it's just, you open it up and it's like, Where did that all go? Where did it went? It's just amazing how the process works and people don't understand or realize the potential that we have. It seems like once you get a worm, they call it colonies or do they call them?

Cathy Nesbitt 13:02
Yeah, we're calling.

Russ Johns 13:04
Yeah, we're calling these. Uh, once you get that batch going, it just continues to grow and then do you separate your colonies and into new colonies or?

Cathy Nesbitt 13:14
Yes, so we're selling worms by the pound actually.

Russ Johns 13:19
Okay. Selling worms by the pound

Cathy Nesbitt 13:28
five parts each, each worm has five parts. Wow.

Russ Johns 13:35
five parts of five parts worm, one part compost. Well think about it, how much we could reduce and reuse. If we all had our own little. I kind of think in like aquarium in the house. What are your indoor worm? colonies look like? I'm trying to try to picture that, like aquariums,

Cathy Nesbitt 14:08
sort of, I mean, the worms don't like too late. So you wouldn't want to have an open container. The system that I have actually right now is doubles as a piece of furniture. It's a stool. It's got two trays to operating trays. When the one tray fills up holes in the bottom of each tray, we just set up tray and then the worms follow that.

Russ Johns 14:32
Okay.

Cathy Nesbitt 14:33
Yeah, super cute.

Russ Johns 14:35
That is genius. So it doesn't take up that much space.

Cathy Nesbitt 14:38
It does not No, no, it's like two feet by two feet and maybe two feet tall.

Russ Johns 14:45
It's cute. So feeding, do you do you prepare the worm food before it goes in a certain way or?

Cathy Nesbitt 14:56
What I tell people is whatever you're doing right now. Like with your scraps, I mean, you just want to kind of chop them up if you let them decompose a little bit first and then add them in, that's going to be that's going to speed up the process. Also you can manage your moisture that way. It's all of your food and all your fruit and vegetables, coffee, tea costumize and then your paper scraps. You're looking at two things from the waste stream that can go into your worm bin and then turning it into as you said, into black gold. Then you can grow more nutrient rich food, you know, our food is broken. Oh, what a lot of food. Then the food that we're getting like the soil is broken. If the soil is broken, the food can be cool. How could it?

Russ Johns 15:46
Yeah, yeah, well, there's some soil that is not it is no longer soil. They just use sprayed on nutrients and chemicals to grow whatever is happens to be in that dirt and it's not soil. It's dirt.

Cathy Nesbitt 16:02
Yeah

Russ Johns 16:03
There's a big difference. I don't think a lot of people realize or even think about the differences between soil and dirt. Because soil is so rich in nutrients it's so i mean it's it's like you dyed your hands in this soil and it's and I've made compost beds and I've grown gardens and tilled soil and it brings back a lot of good memories. The reality is, well, of course the weeds grow first. Like eating the vegetables and the fruit and the things that you can grow in your orchard or your garden and it's just amazing. It's the flavors and the taste. We used to grow heirloom potatoes, and people don't realize the diversity in what there is in potatoes compared to what is in a store. sold.

I mean, there are a lot of varieties, I think we had 50 at one point in time we used to sell well, we used to sell at the farmers market, and then blueberries and things like that. The deer, like the blueberry is better than the birds of the deer. It's like, okay, it's a battle.

Cathy Nesbitt 17:24
They gotta eat too

Russ Johns 17:25
They gotta eat too. It's just fascinating to me how little things like this in the world can make a difference in a shift in what we're doing. I think it's an attitude to because it does take some time to think about how you want to do this. You could take your chop your vegetables and throw it in a coffee can and stuff like that and allow that to like you say, adjust the moisture, and then you can use that feed the worms and then it takes a little time to feed that one. Do you have any? Do you have a ratio of worms to food?

Cathy Nesbitt 18:05
Yeah, so the worms eat about half their weight per day once they're established. So if you had a pound of worms at three to four pounds of food waste per week

Russ Johns 18:19
Then so I took say, like, I took a three pack coffee cansof kitchen wastefairly

Cathy Nesbitt 18:29
Juicey

Russ Johns 18:30
Yeah, the other right juiciness, right. As you do that, it might take 30 days a month, two months to convert to compost.

Cathy Nesbitt 18:41
Yes, exactly. That's right. It's a process. There some of the scraps will be processed and then some will still be there and then you add more and when you add your second layer on the system that I have, some will stay some will be like, Yay, new adventure. So they go On upstairs and the ones that are stay downstairs, they'll finish what's happening. Now the volumes reducing if it's not touching the holes, the worms aren't able to climb upstairs. So those worms that stay downstairs that are like, oh, we're good. Once they're mentally ready to go upstairs, they're like, oh, how did those other guys get upstairs but it's not touching anymore. So most people is embrace change or be consumed by the system. Okay.

Russ Johns 19:33
Do you layer with like, paper or anything like that? Good.

Cathy Nesbitt 19:39
Yeah,

Russ Johns 19:39
I know, I know, when I was looking at it years ago, because I was looking at the same thing. I was like, this could be kind of cool selling worms and they're doing their thing over there. Just got to feed them once in a while and make sure that they're okay. Then, you know, ship him off when I need to and it's just I looked at layers and how they layer and different different, I guess sessions or like, different phases of how they compost food where they go. It is truly fascinating. I'm just so impressed by the fact that I finally caught up with somebody that knows a little bit more about I can talk to and laugh about it. This is fascinating.

We got a few more people in the world in the show here we got Olivia when it was last time you had a good laugh. Oh, and then she tagged a few people. Fantastic. I love this. And then Olivia, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate that Yeah. Good morning. You should be here. Claudio thank you so much for the Kathy. Good morning. warms by the pounds. Love that. Wendy says, Thank you, Russ. We needed Kathy on the pirate ship.

Cathy Nesbitt 21:05
Oh, Wendy.

Russ Johns 21:07
Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that awesome? I like that. I like that. So let's talk a little bit about where you're going with this. You've got a new mentioned also, you do sprouts, right?

Cathy Nesbitt 21:18
Yes.

Russ Johns 21:19
Okay, so that ties right into good soil. I mean, nutrients in the soil, you got clean, just amazing. Soil and nutrients. Then I would imagine that you're selling sprouts as well.

Cathy Nesbitt 21:35
Yes, I actually have a super simple stroke for kind of looks like a little spaceship. hydroponic, it's not grown with the soil, it kind of goes together, because it's about sustainability. Yeah, it's just hydroponics. So it's got a little water in the bottom, and then it's got a little dome on it. So it's like a little microclimate.

Russ Johns 21:57
Yeah.

Cathy Nesbitt 21:58
It's super fast. Russ I met the gentleman that designed that in 2002. It was a big year for me. started my work with sprouts. Yeah, and I eat sprouts every day I start my day with two tablespoons of these sprouted beans. Most times, up to 100 units, digestive enzymes and raw sprouts and vegetables.

Russ Johns 22:22
Nice. Yeah. I like sprouts. I get the phase where I've moved so many times that you and you get into your routine wherever you live. Depending on what's around you and what's available and everything else, so I need to start thinking healthy. Well, I'll start thinking healthier. Then look, look for ways to do that. hydroponics is another area that is fascinating to me because vertical farming is I think the way that we're going to shift from our one way We could shift from corporate cultivation.

Yeah, and it's really important for us to understand that there's other ways to grow food that we can have available to us. And it doesn't require us to ship it from another country to be here and a lot of people have no idea about agriculture and farming and sustainable farming in plants and and how it all fits together. Where do you see that going? What do you what do you anticipate what are what would you like to see take place in the next few years in terms of education and understanding?

Cathy Nesbitt 23:47
You know it well, when I started my business, my goal was to put words in every living space. Right every house, every classroom, every business, so we don't need to truck around this wet material anymore.When people are out and about, they would have their banana and they'd be like, Oh, where's the work, then I'm just tossed right in. That's not happening fast enough for me. For me, I think I would just like to continue educating people to let them know, I think you said that you need to have a shift in your thinking. Because right now we just throw it in the garbage. It's easy. You throw it away, the magic truck comes along, takes it away, and it's like, oh, it's gone, good to buy garbage. Right. But if we have a shift, and we're like, oh, I want to grow my own food. If you want to grow your own food, you better make your own soil because the industry is not regulated. Right? soil, it's not regulated. So what you're getting

Russ Johns 24:49
Well, another thing that people don't realize, at least in the US here, and you nailed it when you talked about it earlier is like all a lot of the plastic Recycling that we used to have in the US was essentially shipped in empty containers going to China. Then they would build stuff and create stuff and then ship it back to us so we can buy it, and then dispose of it and ship it back for recycled, right? That's not happening right now. There's a buildup of plastic recycles and recyclables that are not going anywhere. The cost of picking that up, recycling it in the traditional way we've been doing is not cost effective. At some point in time, there's going to be a class and you I don't know there's a big campaign years ago about recycling and not littering and things like that.

However, it's a much bigger issue that I think that people need to be educated about, and say, Hey, every time you throw your plastic coke bottle in there, it has to go somewhere. Elon, we're paying for transportation for that. Now we can't, we can't compost with worms with plastic that I'm aware of. I don't know if, unless we got super worms right now. But I think we just need to think about how we can remove and reduce some of that from our lives and from our environment. In restaurants they got away from styrofoam. Except in Texas, they still use styrofoam in some states. Just little steps like that. Just little incremental steps, paper containers versus plastic containers. Then if we all had warm boxes on every corner, or community gardens we had a community garden every three miles it would make a huge difference because then people in apartments can go participate in these gardens. I don't just ideas like that, and just start thinking about Okay, how do we how do we actually actively participate in this in this action to remove waste? I don't know, it's a subject worth talking about. A bunch of pirates are going to talk about it.

Cathy Nesbitt 27:15
I hope so. planting seeds, right, planting seeds. We can't. Yeah, we don't if you know what I say is, without awareness, action is impossible. I came up with that little slogan because of my business. I was like, if you don't know about worm composting, you're not calling me.

Russ Johns 27:35
Yeah, without awareness. It's impossible.

Cathy Nesbitt 27:39
Possible. It's impossible.

Russ Johns 27:41
Yeah. I want to make sure that people Wendy says, Oh, here we go. Razvan said good morning, Kathy and Russ. Thank you so much for being here. azmin Hello, pirates windy. How are you? She's so awesome. We still have we still have a coffee. date or something we got to work out. Wendy. I started cutting out sodas two and a half years ago and have fewer sugar cravings now fewer cavities. Nice. Yeah, I'm not a big banana peels are great for my hydrangeas. Okay. Very good. Very good. Sorry, you have to go. wish you a wonderful day. There Karen Joseph. Hello, Karen Joseph.

She's amazing individual here in Phoenix, then arcot howdy pirate guys. Good morning, everyone. I really want to reflect on this little bit where we're thinking about being considered to others. I really preach kindness and the ability and the opportunity to, you know, spread a little, a little joy around the world and it doesn't take it doesn't take much effort at all. It's so what can we do, Kathy? To bring that awareness to the table and and promote you know some more information about words. laughter and some of these wonderful things you're putting together.

Cathy Nesbitt 29:16
Kathy's composters calm is my website my name, you could find all of my offerings there. I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn. I'm kind of all over social media. Yeah. I would love to encourage everyone just to have a conversation. If this is the first time you heard about worm composting, go and tell a couple of people so that they can hear about it for the first time. Right. And then people get intrigued. I say it's about a three year sales cycle. Once people are first introduced to worms, and then I see them again, they're like, oh, I've been thinking about you since I saw you last year. I'm like, I know. A couple years.

Russ Johns 29:58
Yeah, a couple of years. I'm just kidding. knock on your door.

Cathy Nesbitt 30:02
Yeah.

Russ Johns 30:05
That's fantastic. I know that there's probably different resources. There are organizations that promote worms and everything. I guess we could Google this and find out if there's resources available education available and things like that. Are there any sites that you recommend that we could

Cathy Nesbitt 30:29
There's in North Carolina, there's, if people Google Rhonda Sherman, she is she puts on a worm composting conference every year. It kind of was changing. I'm not sure if it's going to be August or October this year, though, right. Yeah. I might be online, who knows? But that's a great resource. Anybody that's thinking about getting into this or doing it.

Russ Johns 30:56
That's a great resource. That's fantastic. Well, nama state all arcot says, kindness rocks, lovely restaurants. I love you, Karen, thank you so much. Let's connect soon. Then Good morning, Cathy Russ. Fred cos always, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate everyone that's been here. Kathy, this has been a breath of fresh air for me and it kind of shifted my thought proces things. As with most things in life, nothing is constant, everything is changing.

That's the whole magic of composting. Converts from one thing to another thing, and we have these, these things that we call worms that are doing the workforce the heavy lifting, and creating that black gold. It's important for us to understand that there is possibilities out there that we had not considered and I want to repeat PETA one more time awareness. Without awareness action is impossible. Without awareness, action is impossible. I love that. If you want to share any knowledge, #nuggetsofknowledge or legacy wisdom with us, what would you suggest we think about as we go forward in our day Today,

Cathy Nesbitt 32:20
I would like to encourage everyone to add laughter to their life. Like if you're thinking, Oh, I feel sad or I'm stressed, start smiling and then dopamine and serotonin will start succeeding, you'll feel better just laugh every day.

Russ Johns 32:35
just laugh every day, Gabriel. Good morning, everyone. We could go on forever about this. However, I know that we all have something to do. I just really want to encourage everyone to think about what you're doing over the weekend and having a little bit of activity that brings a little light and laughter in your world. And because #kindnessiscool #smilesarefree. Thank you, Cathy. I just wish everyone the very best in their day in their adventures. You #enjoytheday. Thanks. Cathy.

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