Passion and Power: Craig Latimer

Recently, I had the chance to head up to Katal HQ to spend the morning with Craig Latimer, CEO of Katal Energy, a Co-Founder of Aeon Future Health Clinic, among much, much more.

Katal Energy works with nanotechnologies to reduce emissions in diesel engines. Their drop-in product works with existing equipment and fuel to create a cleaner and more efficient combustion.

Aeon Future Health Clinic is the first Canadian health clinic to offer evidence-informed technology and protocols to help you be as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

Who is Craig?

I’m an oil and gas brat by nature, I started working in oil and gas. Darcy and I got together in 2002, and we haven't had a business where we weren't responsible for getting paid by that business since 2000. The way it works is Darcy and I split everything we do 50/50. It's like 25 years of being responsible not only for the paycheck of yourself but also for all your employees, it’s stressful, right? It’s the classic ‘Oh, well, we can't make payroll, so we better put it on the line of credit’ cause you can’t have your employees know that you can't make payroll, right?

And so, my thing in terms of the dynamic with Darcy is the sales guy or the relationship guy. Darcy is very cerebral and he's a great architect of businesses, I’m the guy who gets people excited to invest or come to the team or ecosystem. I believe everybody has one superpower really, very rarely do people have two. One of the things we look at when we do business is instead of making someone half-ass at something they're not good at, we have them do what their great at. Like if you were not good at financial modeling in spreadsheets, for instance, why would we force you to try to be half decent at it? You’re never going to be great at it. Let's let you do the thing you’re great at, and then augment the other skills.

I actually think your superpower is kind of ingrained in you since birth and everyone's got one. I think that's something that's changed over the last 20-30 years in business, they used to make people do shit they weren't good at.

What is your superpower?

My superpower is relationships, I got my first job because of it. I was at the golf course, and the VP of the company played there. And we get talking, and I’m like ‘Well I've got a history degree’ and he's like ‘Oh, we drill oil wells’, like, that doesn't match. But he says ‘Well, you're coming to work for me’, just because of that relationship.

Growing up, I always felt the things that I was good at weren’t what I needed for business, but I’m starting to realize the way to leverage them. 

I was the same way.

It sounds kind of cheesy, but you can take these tests on the internet and they're shockingly good at telling you what your strengths are. And they'll test people and 20, 30, 40 years later, they're almost always within the same traits, they never materially change. So if you've been that way since you've been a kid, that's going to continue throughout your career. You just need to find out how those fit, because whatever it is, it’s going to add a benefit

So you’re finishing up school in History, how did you learn about this? (About what Katal does)

I don't know anything about this, I just know how to put it together. One of the strengths of any CEO is team building. The other is being able to raise capital, ha. Putting those things together is key. There’s a billion-dollar idea sitting on the shelf of every university in the world that somebody doesn't know how to do anything with, this is one of those ideas.

And you come in and bring it to market.

And get the business model and value prop. If you get our scientists talking about nanotechnology with other scientists, they could have the smartest conversations in the world, but they wouldn’t know what to say to a businessperson. So, with this idea, we came in and brought it to marketing. I think about taking the idea and infiltrating the market to make a difference - and a social difference. We have always tracked the social impact along with the economic impact. When you look at it that way, you can feel passionate about it because you're doing something good. We always look at social benefit businesses with economic ties.

Do you just chase your interests? 

Yeah, or some things come to me, to us, like Tate came to us. When Tate came to us with ZayZoon we didn't know that market, but once we heard about the social benefit, we became passionate about it. And about Tate. Now, the healthcare clinic Aeon, that's very much chasing a passion. I was having massive death anxiety, which I seem to roll around in every six or seven years. And so I thought ‘Well, what are the richest guys in the world doing to live longer?’. And it turns out they're doing a lot of shit. Like Bezos is doing a lot of stuff. I mean, look at him now from 20 years ago. He looks like a freaking beast because he's on TRT.

The genesis was selfish, I wanted to live as long and healthy as possible. But we make money on it by providing the same service to other people. We created Aeon because of this selfish goal of mine.

But did I ever set out to like to make fuels more efficient and cleaner? No, but did we identify a spot in the market where there was an opportunity for a real social and economic benefit? Yes. It’s one of those things where everyone would love to work on their passion, and we get to Because we have Aeon and the non-alcoholic beer and stuff, but with the other stuff we have passion for the cause, and we know that the economics make sense.

You’re really passionate about health and longevity then

Yeah, yeah. I started off with the biohacker stuff back in 2019. My bed was slightly tilted forward, breathing machines, weighted blanket, IV treatments, that stuff. And then, I started to go down the rabbit hole, and with my death anxiety, and we figured we could spend a million bucks and make a pretty cool clinic.

Nutrition has always been pretty good for me, I'm a high protein guy, and I think that's key. I don't think anyone actually gets enough protein. I mean I try and get 250 grams of protein a day, which is hard to do. And high-quality protein, right? I do TRT, being an entrepreneur since 2002, my cortisol levels got pounded cause stress is always so high.

You think being an entrepreneur has a biological impact?

Massive, physical effect and relationship effect. I don't know if you saw the Jensen Wang video where they asked him if he would do it again, and he’s like no chance. He’s got probably the second most successful company in the world now, and he said he wouldn't have done it again because of the physical toll on him and his family.

In a way, in the entrepreneurial role, the work becomes you.

Really interesting point I think you have. That was like us for a long time, we became the work. Darcy and I had to sit down and be like the work is not you, the work does not become you. Because you can lose sight of a lot of things, right? But it really depends on what you want out of your life. So, if you want to Elon Musk it and have nine kids from six different wives and have no personal relationships, then it’s a path.

What's the benefit? One of the things I've talked with a lot of our mentors, a lot of 75-year-old successful guys, and they all said our biggest regret is ‘We could have been home more and got the same very similar results.’ Now what home means, you might be working from home after the kids go to bed. Some of the comments were, ‘I went to travel for meetings when I could’ve not gone and it would’ve had the same difference’. One year I had 50 round-trip flights. I didn’t have kids at the time, but if I did with the little guys I have now, it would’ve just been a gongshow. 

You can be a super entrepreneur and not lose sight of what's important, but you have to be cognizant of it. You just have to be creative in how you do it. And you must have an accountability partner that calls you on your shit.

The thing that Darcy and I and Tate are cognitive about is providing people a good livelihood to be successful and not have to have the pain and suffering of the risk.

Do you feel like it’s a responsibility or almost a burden? 

Oh yeah. So I measure my daily everything. So last night I got 8 hours of sleep and my readiness score is 64 which is terrible. My heart rate normally is about 50 resting but for some unknown reason, last night was 63. So that’s a stress impact. Right now actually, talking to you, I'm green, which is shocking is I've never green. How much is in the relaxed zone? Never. Friday, boom, hammered. It’s weeks and weeks and weeks of that.

You mentioned your death anxiety, how do you think anxiety has impacted you? I’ve also dealt with it and am trying to find a way to harness it I guess.

Oh yeah, I medicate for it. I had some anxiety issues, I was the skinny kid, I played football, and basketball, but was like 6’1”, 150 pounds. My coach would say ‘You gotta run around the shower to get wet’, and I'm the quarterback in front of 60 kids, you know. I was told 'Maybe if you ate a cheeseburger you could play at the next level.' And it messes with the way you see yourself.

But when I was in my mid-30s, I woke up and my breathing was all messed up and I didn’t know what it was. Then I started getting like ‘How are we gonna figure this out?’ and ‘What's the point?’. The earth’s been spinning for 5 billion years and our lifespan is like that in a 24-hour clock.

So I went down this crazy rabbit hole outside and tried different medications and that whole process. And I went off it because I was the classic ‘Hey, three years in, I'm pretty good.’ And everything went sideways. I've been on and off it. I went off it in 2018, and that’s actually why we started Aeon, cause my death anxiety came right back.

When I first started medication for it, I was one of those people that thought I would ‘lose my sparkle’. But I kinda realized I didn’t really have that sparkle. 

Yeah, so what you do is you talk yourself into this is going to make me a certain way. But it just makes the bad a little less bad. I don't find the highs any less high. It’s changed my life. And as an entrepreneur, I've probably talked to 10 people about my story and how it’s gone for me, and they’ve then considered it.

It kinda seems like a personality thing, or like an over-stimulated brain that creatives or entrepreneurs have. 

I think it's a fine line. I think the most brilliant people in the world, there's good efficacy around that some of the best CEOs in the world have severe ADHD, which is really closely related to anxiety.

How important is staying physical to maintaining your mental?

Having instinctual things like physical activity is very grounding, especially as an entrepreneur. In my world having workouts is non-negotiable. Even my family, they just know that has to happen. This ideology Darcy and I have adopted is Self, Family, Job. The theory is, that if you don’t look after yourself, you can’t look after your family. And if you don’t look after your family, you can’t really work well. And most entrepreneurs go Job, Family, Self. But that’s not doing anybody good. It's just it's like that old saying if you don't love yourself. There’s something to that. If you don't like yourself, who else is gonna like you? Cheesy, but there’s something in it.

If I could tell my younger self anything it would be that. Self, Family, Job.

What do you think is a core tenet you carry into your work?

Take action, if you ask anybody about me, it’s that I take action. Whether it's right or wrong, at least I try to do something.

I think #2 is trying to leverage my network for successful outcomes. We're trying to build that renewable fuel plant in Manitoba. We’re gonna use garbage to make jet fuel. It's a $800 million plant, and they're like ‘What the hell are you doing that for?’. Well, because I think it’s a good idea and because we have a network that can help facilitate us actually doing it. And be aggressive. How many people do you know are trying to build a $800 million plant? One of the things we always say is, if you're not a bit crazy, or if there's not somebody at the table that's not a bit crazy, you're probably not going to do anything worthwhile. If you want to do something crazy, you have to have a network to rely on. And that comes from time and trust.

What have you been reading?

I’m a terrible reader. What I don't read is business books. What I do read is a ton of news and a ton of sports. My family is a huge sports family, so it’s been ingrained. I know a lot about sports, it's kind of my escape from reality when I'm stressed out about other things. I read insatiable amounts of news and specifically business, I can tell you what the sustainable practices in India are. I’m a news junkie and you gotta be careful being a news junkie cause of the sources, so I try and read a bunch.

This is interesting: so I did a ton of business in Houston, and I would go in and ask where they went to school. And they would say ‘UT’ or wherever, and I would ask them if Vince Young was there when they went, and they loved it. I could tell you about the most random thing about the Houston Texans, and that would help develop my relationship with them. I would develop great relationships with these people, but the reason I got that relationship is because I found out he went to Oklahoma and freaking loves Bo Jackson, right? So I use my topical, pop culture, sports, business, and news knowledge to help my network. And then they invite you to dinner over at their house. And that’s social engineering.

But if you wanna learn something, go read a history book.

Thank you Craig. 

Writer and Photographer | Sam Doty