1 00:00:00,040 --> 00:00:02,560 Well hello ladies and gents, Robert Sykes, Keto, savage.com 2 00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:05,560 and today I've got special guest Chris Mandarino on the line. 3 00:00:05,560 --> 00:00:09,920 He is a formal NFL fullback who has since gone the route of a 4 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:12,560 business entrepreneur. He is the CEO and founder of 5 00:00:12,560 --> 00:00:17,240 Life Fuel which is a plant based Whole Foods meal replacement 6 00:00:17,240 --> 00:00:20,120 shake supplement company. I wanted to get him on the 7 00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:24,040 podcast to pick his brain about his experience and past with 8 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:27,840 playing in the NFL, but then also how that led to him getting 9 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:30,520 into business, what he learned from a nutritional standpoint 10 00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:32,800 and then just really kind of dive into the weeds of business. 11 00:00:32,800 --> 00:00:35,520 So we talked a little bit about building a business, 12 00:00:35,520 --> 00:00:38,360 bootstrapping a business, the supplement industry as a whole, 13 00:00:38,560 --> 00:00:40,880 and just kind of dove a little deeper into that realm. 14 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:42,640 So I thoroughly enjoyed the conversation. 15 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:44,840 I've got no doubt that you will take something from it. 16 00:00:44,840 --> 00:00:48,200 So without further ado, sit back, relax, enjoy the podcast 17 00:00:48,200 --> 00:00:59,840 with Chris. We are live. 18 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:01,960 Chris, how are you brother? Doing well, Robert. 19 00:01:01,960 --> 00:01:02,720 Thanks. How are you? 20 00:01:02,920 --> 00:01:04,560 I'm good, man. I'm excited to be chatting with 21 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:06,680 you because we're going to dive into some nutrition and some 22 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:09,920 business, both topics of which I am very passionate. 23 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:13,880 So let's give the audience a little context here for for to 24 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:17,000 begin with, you are coming from a football background. 25 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:20,080 You were in the NFL, correct? That's correct. 26 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:22,680 Yep, I played. Quickly with the Cincinnati 27 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:26,520 Bengals and Kansas City Chiefs and how long were you doing that 28 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:29,880 for? I've seen the NFL for three 29 00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:34,360 years and I played a year abroad in Italy after before 30 00:01:34,360 --> 00:01:35,960 transitioning into the business world. 31 00:01:36,600 --> 00:01:39,400 Everybody that's like a kid wants to to grow up and be a 32 00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:42,480 football player with the NFL. Was it all that it was cracked 33 00:01:42,480 --> 00:01:45,040 up to be the Did you enjoy that champion in your life? 34 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:47,440 Were you kind of excited to move past that now? 35 00:01:49,200 --> 00:01:51,840 You know, a little of both. I mean is definitely a dream 36 00:01:51,840 --> 00:01:56,400 accomplished and you know, surreal at certain times. 37 00:01:57,320 --> 00:02:00,640 There's also a business side of things which you know, changed a 38 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:03,000 lot for me personally. You know, you're always kind of 39 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:07,040 playing for the love of the game and the element of of business 40 00:02:07,040 --> 00:02:10,600 and politics, you know, makes it a little bit different. 41 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:15,240 But you know, just it's, you know, comes with the territory 42 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:18,000 at that level of any professional sport. 43 00:02:18,560 --> 00:02:21,400 Did it start to feel kind of more like a job than a passion 44 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,440 at one point? Yeah, yeah, I think, you know, 45 00:02:24,440 --> 00:02:26,520 kind of. There was definitely times where 46 00:02:26,520 --> 00:02:30,280 I I kind of caught myself going through the motions, definitely 47 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:33,960 felt more of a job and very labour intensive and physical 48 00:02:33,960 --> 00:02:37,160 job at that. So I guess that's some of the 49 00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:40,640 things that I don't miss is it's really how my body felt, you 50 00:02:40,640 --> 00:02:44,360 know, after practices and games, it's just like playing fullback. 51 00:02:44,800 --> 00:02:47,200 You know, I I beefed up to 240 pounds. 52 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:50,840 That was still considered undersized for NFL standards and 53 00:02:50,840 --> 00:02:53,800 so just took a lot of wear and tear on my body. 54 00:02:53,800 --> 00:02:57,240 And yeah, definitely don't miss that side of things. 55 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,160 Any lingering injuries that you're sustaining now as a 56 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:02,840 result of that or pretty much fully recovered? 57 00:03:03,720 --> 00:03:08,480 Yeah, there's certainly. Things that I'm constantly 58 00:03:08,480 --> 00:03:13,160 challenged with that pop up. I mean, I had a shoulder surgery 59 00:03:13,160 --> 00:03:16,160 way back in high school when I was 15 years old. 60 00:03:16,160 --> 00:03:19,840 Subluxation, so that's definitely got some. 61 00:03:22,680 --> 00:03:27,280 Range of motion mobility issues, most recent one that I've been 62 00:03:27,280 --> 00:03:30,680 dealing with is like a a nagging hip issue and trying to work 63 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:34,320 through through that, but you know, still remain pretty active 64 00:03:34,320 --> 00:03:38,800 and you know made daily movement and fitness a big part of my 65 00:03:39,240 --> 00:03:42,120 routine and kept that up. So, you know, just kind of being 66 00:03:42,680 --> 00:03:47,680 smart about recovery and giving the body a chance to, you know, 67 00:03:48,880 --> 00:03:51,560 adapt and and and try to work through some of those. 68 00:03:52,200 --> 00:03:55,400 Range of motion things and doing some extra PT and stuff to try 69 00:03:55,400 --> 00:04:00,920 to, you know, fix some of that damage that I did while while I 70 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:04,160 was playing at that professional level with the NFL. 71 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:07,640 Is there much discussion from the coaches and administrators 72 00:04:08,040 --> 00:04:10,520 and, you know, professionals that are brought on to help 73 00:04:10,520 --> 00:04:13,080 about nutrition or is that kind of like an afterthought? 74 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:16,880 You know, I'm I'm sure it's changed. 75 00:04:18,440 --> 00:04:23,720 Somewhat today I don't know how much but when I was playing it 76 00:04:23,720 --> 00:04:27,160 was certainly an afterthought. I think there was usually maybe 77 00:04:27,160 --> 00:04:30,520 a dietician or something that was contracted out and you know 78 00:04:30,840 --> 00:04:36,040 accessible but not necessarily you know mandatory part of you 79 00:04:36,040 --> 00:04:40,560 know optimizing for performance recovery and and taking a deeper 80 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:44,480 dive into the individual athletes diet and kind of how to 81 00:04:44,800 --> 00:04:48,840 utilize that to your. Your advantage, certainly the 82 00:04:48,840 --> 00:04:52,760 guys that, or at least a lot of the guys that I played with that 83 00:04:52,760 --> 00:04:57,280 had really good longevity, really tended to take that more 84 00:04:57,280 --> 00:05:00,800 seriously than than others. So, but I think it was, you 85 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:04,760 know, something you really had to seek out individually unless 86 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:08,960 you know you were I guess on the opposite end, struggling with 87 00:05:08,960 --> 00:05:11,760 weight and how to cut weight to to be able to, you know, be 88 00:05:11,760 --> 00:05:15,240 cleared. To get on the field, which was a 89 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:19,360 lot of guys. But yeah, it's I'd be curious to 90 00:05:19,360 --> 00:05:24,600 see, you know, how integrated it is today versus when I was 91 00:05:24,600 --> 00:05:26,520 playing. It's unfortunate, man. 92 00:05:26,520 --> 00:05:28,800 I would hope that like at an elite level of anything, whether 93 00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:31,720 it's sports or like the military, they'd be more of a 94 00:05:31,720 --> 00:05:34,280 proactive approach to nutrition because like if you get that 95 00:05:34,280 --> 00:05:36,280 dialed in, everything else follows suit. 96 00:05:38,080 --> 00:05:41,520 Yeah, you would think so, right. And it's it's. 97 00:05:41,960 --> 00:05:47,240 It's crazy how it's still often gets overlooked or you know just 98 00:05:48,000 --> 00:05:51,280 misinformation or wrong information and and and I think 99 00:05:51,280 --> 00:05:54,440 that's the challenge right. You know, nutrition really does 100 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:59,240 need to be personalized to the individual, especially the 101 00:05:59,240 --> 00:06:05,920 individual athlete to cater to their specific, you know, body 102 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:09,520 and and what they're trying to achieve physically and all those 103 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:12,000 types of things, so. You know you would think you 104 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,640 would have a a team of you know nutritionists and and just 105 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:18,560 people that could help athletes with that more effectively and 106 00:06:18,560 --> 00:06:21,600 not have it just be reserved to the guys that are making multi 107 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:24,960 millions of dollars a year who can afford to pay for their own 108 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:27,640 private nutritionists and chef and and all that. 109 00:06:28,120 --> 00:06:30,760 Yeah 100% ma'am. I definitely want to dive into 110 00:06:30,760 --> 00:06:34,360 nutrition because that's now a major part of your business, but 111 00:06:34,840 --> 00:06:38,480 this may be a a taboo subject. Not really sure but within the 112 00:06:38,480 --> 00:06:40,200 NFL. And the reason I'm asking this 113 00:06:40,240 --> 00:06:42,440 because of the podcast I recorded yesterday was all about 114 00:06:43,040 --> 00:06:46,160 TRTHRT. Is there a pretty significant 115 00:06:46,160 --> 00:06:50,640 prominence of, you know, performance enhancing drugs in 116 00:06:50,640 --> 00:06:53,080 the NFL? Like is that tested for pretty 117 00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:54,360 regularly? This is something that I'm 118 00:06:54,360 --> 00:06:56,440 pretty ignorant on within that sport. 119 00:06:57,600 --> 00:07:02,160 You know, it's tough to say. They definitely have. 120 00:07:02,880 --> 00:07:07,720 You know testing that goes on throughout the year, both in 121 00:07:07,720 --> 00:07:12,920 season and offseason, so you're taking a a pretty significant 122 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:16,560 risk if you know that's something that you know you you 123 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:21,080 choose to use. That said, I think it'd be naive 124 00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:25,160 to say that it doesn't exist. There's certainly guys that that 125 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:26,840 have used it I I think sometimes. 126 00:07:27,560 --> 00:07:30,760 It's a challenge with testing and kind of those performance 127 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:34,720 enhancing drugs or whatever kind of moving target, right. 128 00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:37,080 As soon as one thing gets banned, it seems like the the 129 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:40,520 drugs often times have outpaced you know, what the testing can 130 00:07:40,520 --> 00:07:46,080 detect. So, you know, it's tough to say. 131 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:50,240 I would say, you know, NFL. There's just some people that 132 00:07:50,240 --> 00:07:54,400 are genetic freaks that, you know, they've been blessed by 133 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:58,240 God to just play the sport of professional football and 134 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,880 physically is like way more equipped than, you know, your 135 00:08:01,880 --> 00:08:03,560 average person to be able to do that. 136 00:08:04,280 --> 00:08:09,200 But I I wouldn't say it's prevalent, you know, you know? 137 00:08:10,520 --> 00:08:15,240 Like what we saw was it like 90s or or 2000s like Major League 138 00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:17,440 Baseball, Baseball. Definitely to not. 139 00:08:17,720 --> 00:08:21,360 Not that extent. Just because you can get tested 140 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:25,480 at any time and and and realize and really be jeopardizing your 141 00:08:25,480 --> 00:08:29,480 career and hurting your team if you're getting beamed for any 142 00:08:29,520 --> 00:08:33,000 performance in anti drugs, Yeah, no that makes total sense. 143 00:08:33,000 --> 00:08:36,000 It is kind of murky waters because they're always, you 144 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:38,640 know, like the banned substance list is ever evolving. 145 00:08:38,640 --> 00:08:40,360 But like you look at some of these guys that are just 146 00:08:40,600 --> 00:08:44,280 undergoing these massive, you know, bulking phases, cutting 147 00:08:44,280 --> 00:08:47,000 phases, and they're trying to like hedge against injuries. 148 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:50,200 It's just it's crazy what they're subjecting the human 149 00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:52,000 body to. So it makes sense that a lot of 150 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:55,200 them would reach out for exogenous substance to try and 151 00:08:55,520 --> 00:08:59,440 mitigate the the length of downtime that there are injured 152 00:08:59,440 --> 00:09:02,240 or if they're trying to optimize for a specific performance goal. 153 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:05,000 Yeah, yeah. And I think it's. 154 00:09:05,640 --> 00:09:09,920 Actually, the other side of it too, which is probably more of a 155 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:14,400 problem than often gets spoken about, is you know, the the 156 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:17,720 drugs to deal with the pain. You know, I remember, you know, 157 00:09:17,720 --> 00:09:20,480 Vicodin, painkillers, muscle relaxers, those types of things 158 00:09:20,480 --> 00:09:24,120 were kind of handed out like candy after games. 159 00:09:24,120 --> 00:09:27,920 And guys would just be often times addicted to those because 160 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:32,680 your body's just enduring so much pain all the time and 161 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:37,320 you're just trying to feel. Yeah, normal or whatever your 162 00:09:37,320 --> 00:09:40,040 sense of normal is. So you can go and continue to 163 00:09:40,040 --> 00:09:44,240 put your body through that rigor and and train and perform at a 164 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:46,440 high level. Yeah, totally, totally. 165 00:09:46,800 --> 00:09:49,640 So after you retire from the NFL, you just rolled up your 166 00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:51,960 sleeves and got into the one or four out of business or what did 167 00:09:51,960 --> 00:09:53,480 that, What did that journey look like? 168 00:09:54,320 --> 00:09:59,360 Now it was, it was a bit of a transition, so I think a lot of 169 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:02,720 guys. You you never fully prepared for 170 00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:05,480 that transition. First off you know I I tried to 171 00:10:05,480 --> 00:10:08,600 be, I knew there was a shelf life too kind of time in the 172 00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:13,040 NFLI kind of went into it with a three or four year horizon to 173 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:17,240 you know making what I wanted to make being started being the guy 174 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:20,240 or otherwise moving on and putting my education views and 175 00:10:20,240 --> 00:10:22,440 and kind of doing other things in the business world. 176 00:10:25,160 --> 00:10:29,240 So you know when that day. Did come, you know, although I 177 00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:35,600 had kind of tried to you know network and and have mentors 178 00:10:35,600 --> 00:10:41,120 within the business world, you know, just that the reality of 179 00:10:42,160 --> 00:10:47,120 that chapter coming to a close, you know, it's not so easy to 180 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:49,840 just say, OK, that's done. Now I'm moving on with the next 181 00:10:49,840 --> 00:10:51,760 thing, right. There's so much identity wrapped 182 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:55,560 up in, you know. You as the athlete, you as the 183 00:10:55,560 --> 00:10:58,160 football player that it takes time to to really work through 184 00:10:58,160 --> 00:11:01,640 that and then try to redefine, you know, who you intend to be 185 00:11:01,640 --> 00:11:04,520 in this next phase, the next chapter in life. 186 00:11:05,360 --> 00:11:09,040 So I was actually a lot of it. What I had done outside of 187 00:11:09,040 --> 00:11:12,640 football was more geared toward finance. 188 00:11:12,680 --> 00:11:16,480 I was, you know, studying for my Series 7, but I'd go kind of the 189 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:21,840 wealth management or financial planning route, and that was the 190 00:11:21,840 --> 00:11:26,800 end of 2008. And I got a call from a buddy 191 00:11:27,480 --> 00:11:30,200 who's going over to play football in Italy and Remember 192 00:11:30,240 --> 00:11:34,120 Me talking about that at some point in time during college. 193 00:11:34,520 --> 00:11:36,680 And they were looking for a couple other guys and. 194 00:11:36,680 --> 00:11:40,520 And so I said, yeah, screw this Series 7, I'm going to go, you 195 00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:43,320 know, live in abroad in Italy. There's something I always 196 00:11:43,320 --> 00:11:47,440 wanted to do and if I could use football to do it, why not? 197 00:11:47,560 --> 00:11:50,240 And so for me. That helped to make the 198 00:11:50,240 --> 00:11:53,800 transition a little bit easier psychologically. 199 00:11:56,160 --> 00:12:00,040 It allowed me to play for the love of the game again and and 200 00:12:00,040 --> 00:12:05,680 not for you know, football as as a business and so that I think. 201 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:09,720 Took some of the sting and kind of the bitterness that I had 202 00:12:09,720 --> 00:12:15,040 when I ultimately got released by Kansas City and didn't get 203 00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:19,320 back in and was able to kind of leave football on a more 204 00:12:19,320 --> 00:12:25,880 positive note and then prepare. Or whatever is going to be next 205 00:12:25,880 --> 00:12:29,320 and then start to formulate my plan around what that that 206 00:12:29,320 --> 00:12:31,760 looked like. And it was still very uncertain 207 00:12:32,240 --> 00:12:36,840 because coming back, you know I was kind of looking for a job in 208 00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:38,720 the middle of the global financial crisis. 209 00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:42,360 So you know financial job, real estate, anything that I thought 210 00:12:42,360 --> 00:12:46,240 I'd end up doing. You know not the best time to to 211 00:12:46,240 --> 00:12:50,920 try to get started in that world and think just I don't know if 212 00:12:50,920 --> 00:12:54,440 his destiny or just kind of. Some lot kind of fell into the 213 00:12:54,440 --> 00:12:58,400 business side of of nutrition through mutual Friend who had 214 00:12:58,400 --> 00:13:02,120 followed my football career and just met him at a kids youth 215 00:13:02,120 --> 00:13:06,640 football camp and their business was growing and had an interview 216 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:09,480 and next thing you know, I was, I was there getting my feet wet 217 00:13:09,480 --> 00:13:12,480 in the world of nutrition. Love it, man. 218 00:13:12,480 --> 00:13:15,600 You have a. Wife and kids. 219 00:13:15,720 --> 00:13:18,520 Wife, yes. Working on starting a family 220 00:13:19,480 --> 00:13:20,440 now. No kids yet. 221 00:13:21,000 --> 00:13:23,640 What was her perception throughout all of this 222 00:13:23,640 --> 00:13:26,160 transition? Was she just along for the ride, 223 00:13:26,160 --> 00:13:29,360 or was she kind of, you know, unnerved by it all? 224 00:13:29,360 --> 00:13:32,560 I mean, what was what was it like going from NFL to business 225 00:13:32,560 --> 00:13:37,000 for her? Well, fortunately probably for 226 00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:41,120 hers actually we ended up meeting after that was all said 227 00:13:41,120 --> 00:13:44,520 and done. So we, you know we had both kind 228 00:13:44,520 --> 00:13:49,360 of pursued our individual endeavors and then. 229 00:13:49,720 --> 00:13:54,760 Met later in life. She had moved actually from 230 00:13:54,760 --> 00:14:00,880 Brazil and immigrated to the US and we met in in Southern 231 00:14:00,880 --> 00:14:02,400 California. And still like that. 232 00:14:02,400 --> 00:14:05,680 The football side was never something that she had seen. 233 00:14:06,840 --> 00:14:10,000 She only kind of got glimpses of it. 234 00:14:10,480 --> 00:14:13,800 Through, you know, just reuniting with friends at games 235 00:14:13,800 --> 00:14:17,360 and stuff like that. So yeah, fortunately she didn't 236 00:14:17,360 --> 00:14:21,520 have to go through a lot of those emotional ups and downs on 237 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:23,760 the football side. Now she just gets to endure them 238 00:14:23,760 --> 00:14:28,000 on the entrepreneurship side. There's certainly lots of ups 239 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:29,720 and downs with the entrepreneurial side, so she's 240 00:14:29,720 --> 00:14:31,400 getting a pretty good taste of it there for sure. 241 00:14:32,960 --> 00:14:35,320 Absolutely. Well, tell me about life fuel 242 00:14:35,320 --> 00:14:36,960 man. Like what was the the motivation 243 00:14:36,960 --> 00:14:39,040 behind that company? Specifically, what's the origin 244 00:14:39,040 --> 00:14:42,520 story? Yes, I think it really came 245 00:14:42,520 --> 00:14:49,680 about as a combination between that personal experience, 246 00:14:49,680 --> 00:14:53,120 having, you know, such a strong invested interest in, you know, 247 00:14:53,120 --> 00:14:55,960 optimizing human performance as an athlete and really looking 248 00:14:56,000 --> 00:14:59,920 at, you know, ways to gain that competitive edge and seeing that 249 00:15:00,000 --> 00:15:04,360 nutrition was often ignored by by so many, you know, athletes, 250 00:15:05,200 --> 00:15:07,560 you know, as a real opportunity to kind of lean into that. 251 00:15:08,320 --> 00:15:13,160 But also as I kind of started to gain experience in the business 252 00:15:13,160 --> 00:15:18,320 world of nutrition, especially kind of more on the functional 253 00:15:18,320 --> 00:15:22,040 medicine side and and really you know these concepts around 254 00:15:22,040 --> 00:15:27,480 metabolic health and you know why we largely suffer and help 255 00:15:27,480 --> 00:15:31,680 as a population due to chronic and preventable disease. 256 00:15:32,480 --> 00:15:37,280 And it led me to take a deeper look at that and you know start 257 00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:42,760 to understand how much our food system has changed and and why, 258 00:15:42,880 --> 00:15:44,720 you know, our health is suffering as a result. 259 00:15:44,800 --> 00:15:50,440 And so life fuel was really born out of that key problem that the 260 00:15:50,520 --> 00:15:54,680 nutrition has been largely stripped from you know, food or 261 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:59,160 what we think of food today and the need to. 262 00:15:59,600 --> 00:16:04,880 Find convenient sources to to replenish those essential 263 00:16:04,880 --> 00:16:11,440 nutrients and doing that in a more comprehensive way, keeping 264 00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:15,000 the the real food synergy intact, not having to you know 265 00:16:15,000 --> 00:16:19,600 take 1520 different supplements a day just to meet those those 266 00:16:19,600 --> 00:16:22,080 baseline needs. And that's something when I was 267 00:16:22,080 --> 00:16:26,440 working, you know that first that first business was 268 00:16:26,440 --> 00:16:29,560 actually. Kind of on the opposite spectrum 269 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:32,680 of health, you know, I was always kind of very proactive 270 00:16:32,680 --> 00:16:37,160 about it and you know, high performance athlete and that 271 00:16:37,160 --> 00:16:41,720 company was created to address the specific nutritional needs 272 00:16:41,800 --> 00:16:44,480 of the bariatric surgery population. 273 00:16:44,480 --> 00:16:47,720 So people were struggling with morbid obesity and and trying to 274 00:16:47,720 --> 00:16:51,840 reverse, you know, a lot of the comorbidities and challenges 275 00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:55,600 with that and one of the the things that kept coming up is. 276 00:16:56,200 --> 00:17:01,720 You know the real challenge around, you know the the 277 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:04,359 supplement routine and how many different things patients would 278 00:17:04,359 --> 00:17:07,280 have to take and when to remember which which pill to 279 00:17:07,280 --> 00:17:09,839 take and and juggling medications and all that stuff 280 00:17:09,839 --> 00:17:13,920 on top of it. And you know, hearing those 281 00:17:13,920 --> 00:17:17,359 stories, we felt you know, there really needed to be an easier 282 00:17:17,359 --> 00:17:20,520 solution. Management was kind of resistant 283 00:17:20,520 --> 00:17:23,319 to doing that because we kind of cannibalize, you know, a big 284 00:17:23,319 --> 00:17:27,440 portion of the product line. And so eventually got tired of 285 00:17:27,680 --> 00:17:32,880 hearing them being no to a very obvious demand in the market and 286 00:17:32,960 --> 00:17:34,760 decided to just go out and do it my own. 287 00:17:35,360 --> 00:17:38,600 I love it man. I think the the real food 288 00:17:38,600 --> 00:17:40,960 synergy is key and I think you know whenever there's a hole in 289 00:17:40,960 --> 00:17:44,280 the market and you feel like you can just tackle it head on and 290 00:17:44,680 --> 00:17:47,080 find a solution to that problem and like that, that's what gets 291 00:17:47,080 --> 00:17:48,600 me excited. That's why I love business so 292 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:51,400 much. So as far as Life Fuel is 293 00:17:51,400 --> 00:17:57,120 concerned, it's predominantly like a plant based like Shake, I 294 00:17:57,120 --> 00:17:58,800 mean what what was the first product skew? 295 00:18:00,040 --> 00:18:01,840 Yeah. So our first product was our 296 00:18:01,840 --> 00:18:06,000 essentials nutrition shake. And so with that we still, we 297 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:09,440 really looked at you know that problem I alluded to. 298 00:18:09,440 --> 00:18:13,480 So, you know, if you look at general population, we're pretty 299 00:18:13,480 --> 00:18:19,680 much overfed, undernourished from, you know, modern diet, 300 00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:22,760 we're getting plenty of calories, but that. 301 00:18:23,240 --> 00:18:26,640 Food that we're eating and sustenance is not providing with 302 00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:30,760 those fundamental nutrients we we really do need. 303 00:18:30,960 --> 00:18:35,360 And that's why you're seeing sixty 7090% of the population 304 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:39,160 insufficient or deficient in one or more D vitamins and minerals. 305 00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:43,400 And these are all fundamental to, you know, the many different 306 00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:47,400 processes in the body that they keep us healthy for longer, long 307 00:18:47,400 --> 00:18:50,720 period of time, right, and really increase health span. 308 00:18:51,520 --> 00:18:55,640 So how can we, you know, age better, longer. 309 00:18:55,720 --> 00:18:59,840 It really starts, you know with with getting what we what's 310 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:01,960 missing from food back into the diet. 311 00:19:02,000 --> 00:19:06,960 And so we looked at what those foundational needs are looked at 312 00:19:07,680 --> 00:19:12,480 doctor brain doctor Bruce Ames, triage theory at aging which 313 00:19:12,480 --> 00:19:16,040 basically supports that. It says you know when you don't 314 00:19:16,040 --> 00:19:20,520 provide your body with a basic. Building blocks essential 315 00:19:20,520 --> 00:19:24,240 nutrients. It flips a switch from long term 316 00:19:24,240 --> 00:19:28,760 health to short term revivable When you don't get enough D3. 317 00:19:28,760 --> 00:19:32,360 Magnesium, iodines, lenium, all these, you know, trace vitamins 318 00:19:32,360 --> 00:19:36,200 and minerals. You just open up Pandora's box 319 00:19:36,200 --> 00:19:39,840 for chronic disease essentially. And it's a deleterious effect 320 00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:41,760 over time, right? It's not something that you. 321 00:19:42,400 --> 00:19:44,960 Wake up and you feel hungover because you didn't get enough 322 00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:47,240 vitamin D You know, the day before. 323 00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:51,800 It's just, you know, it's that slow, gradual decline over time. 324 00:19:51,880 --> 00:19:56,840 And so the essential shake was really created to make that lot 325 00:19:56,840 --> 00:20:00,520 easier, to give people the Peace of Mind that, hey, at least you 326 00:20:00,520 --> 00:20:04,280 know, my baseline needs are met and that I could be more 327 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:07,560 strategic about. You know, if there's other 328 00:20:07,600 --> 00:20:11,320 things that I'm trying to optimize for or very specific, 329 00:20:11,520 --> 00:20:14,360 you know, deficiencies or insufficiency that I have, I can 330 00:20:14,360 --> 00:20:18,840 layer and stack on top of that to, you know, kind of 331 00:20:18,840 --> 00:20:23,800 personalize my diet, my supplement routine around the 332 00:20:23,800 --> 00:20:28,000 goals and and challenges that I have individually. 333 00:20:28,800 --> 00:20:30,800 Yeah, I definitely agree with you in that most of the 334 00:20:30,800 --> 00:20:33,640 population is overfed and undernourished, so anything that 335 00:20:33,640 --> 00:20:36,040 kind of. Shorten the gap there and 336 00:20:36,040 --> 00:20:39,400 improve that stepping stone to make things more sustainable, 337 00:20:39,400 --> 00:20:41,480 more realistic. There's not really any shortcuts 338 00:20:41,480 --> 00:20:45,800 or hacks per SE, but anything that you can do to just lessen 339 00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:49,120 the the obstacles that people are more prone to. 340 00:20:49,120 --> 00:20:51,520 Reaching for a healthier option I think is key. 341 00:20:52,800 --> 00:20:58,360 When did you all launch Marched Some Brand back in late 2015? 342 00:20:58,640 --> 00:21:03,760 Late 2015 so I've. I'm I'm definitely in the 343 00:21:03,760 --> 00:21:06,480 ketospace keto carnivore space. Most of my nutrition is coming 344 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:09,240 from animal based sources. What made you go the direction 345 00:21:09,240 --> 00:21:13,160 of the plant based shake? Great question. 346 00:21:13,160 --> 00:21:14,920 So, so for me there's a few things. 347 00:21:14,920 --> 00:21:18,360 And I guess on the on the topic of Keto, when I was working at 348 00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:21,200 that bariatric nutrition company, we actually had one of 349 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:24,000 the first ketogenic programs on the market. 350 00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:26,920 It was only being used kind of in the medical space before it 351 00:21:26,920 --> 00:21:31,240 really took off and gained steam you know in the general consumer 352 00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:32,840 space. And you know it was really to 353 00:21:32,840 --> 00:21:38,760 being used to as a medical supervised program to try to 354 00:21:39,440 --> 00:21:43,040 lose body fat either prior to the surgery or in replaces the 355 00:21:43,040 --> 00:21:46,600 surgery. So you know there's some really 356 00:21:46,600 --> 00:21:49,800 profound you know benefits to that program. 357 00:21:49,800 --> 00:21:53,240 I think you know, largely being able to control blood glucose 358 00:21:53,240 --> 00:21:56,560 levels and just kick start fat loss for many people. 359 00:21:56,720 --> 00:22:00,400 And so that's something that I was definitely Privy to actually 360 00:22:00,960 --> 00:22:04,680 when I was living in Italy the second time and also coaching 361 00:22:04,680 --> 00:22:06,440 CrossFit. It's something that I kind of 362 00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:10,360 put the Italians through and we monitored the blood heat comb 363 00:22:10,360 --> 00:22:13,200 levels and all that stuff. But the reason why you know we 364 00:22:13,200 --> 00:22:17,960 ended up going the plant based route is when I started to dig 365 00:22:18,040 --> 00:22:22,240 into you know the ingredients that were you know commonly used 366 00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:26,440 to formulate specific products that really you look at the whey 367 00:22:26,480 --> 00:22:31,720 protein space predominantly ultra process can be pro 368 00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:36,560 inflammatory, really, really, really challenging to get a high 369 00:22:36,560 --> 00:22:41,040 quality of source of whey protein. 370 00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:46,600 Additionally, personally, I noticed a lot of gut distress, 371 00:22:47,800 --> 00:22:51,440 other issues that came as a direct result of you know, a lot 372 00:22:51,440 --> 00:22:54,360 of the the heavyweight protein supplementation that I had done 373 00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:59,160 as an athlete, intolerance to certain types of dairy. 374 00:23:00,160 --> 00:23:02,480 And when I removed that I felt a lot better. 375 00:23:02,480 --> 00:23:05,800 I thought a lot of that inflammation start to fade away 376 00:23:05,800 --> 00:23:10,640 and ultimately disappear in the body and was really in leaning 377 00:23:10,640 --> 00:23:13,920 into kind of these plant based sources as the primary 378 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:17,960 nutritional source. Now that said, it wasn't 379 00:23:17,960 --> 00:23:23,520 necessarily about going vegan or you know any specific dietary 380 00:23:23,560 --> 00:23:27,040 agenda. It was simply, you know to get 381 00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:35,200 these essential nutrients and also get all these other 382 00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:39,120 phytonutrients and the therapeutic benefits of that, we 383 00:23:39,120 --> 00:23:42,560 needed to use plant based sources, the cleanest option 384 00:23:42,560 --> 00:23:45,360 available. And the animal based sources 385 00:23:45,360 --> 00:23:51,040 don't have all those vitamin, mineral cofactors essentially 386 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:55,200 that you would need to get that full spectrum of nutrition. 387 00:23:55,680 --> 00:24:00,040 Plus, you know, if you look at most diets, we're getting plenty 388 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:04,400 of animal protein as it is. Often times we don't get enough 389 00:24:04,640 --> 00:24:09,080 plants in that entire rainbow. So simply replacing, you know, 390 00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:12,440 standard American breakfast or one, you know, animal based meal 391 00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:16,040 with something like light fuel, you know, helps to kind of 392 00:24:16,040 --> 00:24:19,720 balance that ratio a little bit more and ensures again you're 393 00:24:19,720 --> 00:24:24,560 getting a nutrient dense meal essentially with that full 394 00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:28,840 spectrum of of health benefits. So you're personally eating, you 395 00:24:28,840 --> 00:24:30,320 know, meat based products as well. 396 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:32,800 You just went this route from a supplemental standpoint because 397 00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:35,960 the quality of the supplements you can source for this product. 398 00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:40,320 We're better catered towards the plant based, absolutely. 399 00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:44,120 And it's the same kind of approach taken with with food 400 00:24:44,120 --> 00:24:46,640 too. It's not just, you know, I'm, 401 00:24:46,680 --> 00:24:50,480 I'm fine eating any type of meat, right? 402 00:24:50,480 --> 00:24:58,040 I'm willing to spend a premium to get only meat that complies 403 00:24:58,040 --> 00:25:00,640 with our level of quality standards, right? 404 00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:03,960 So I need, I need to know and trust the source. 405 00:25:03,960 --> 00:25:08,480 I need to know that it's, you know, 100% grass fed grass 406 00:25:08,480 --> 00:25:13,680 finished, No soy, no corn. I feed you know ethically 407 00:25:13,760 --> 00:25:17,160 slaughtered all those things matter to me and trying to get 408 00:25:17,160 --> 00:25:19,920 that locally right produce same thing. 409 00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:22,200 You know I'm not buying conventional produce. 410 00:25:22,200 --> 00:25:25,400 We're going we're getting going to the farmers market as often 411 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:31,040 as possible or getting a local organic box of produce delivered 412 00:25:31,040 --> 00:25:34,240 to us. And so that's really the level 413 00:25:34,280 --> 00:25:38,520 of detail and effort that we go to, to source really nutrient 414 00:25:38,520 --> 00:25:41,840 dense food because it's I think that's the problem that we're 415 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:46,080 trying to solve is maximizing nutrient density doesn't matter 416 00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:50,520 if it's plant or animal, I'll you know nutrient dense can that 417 00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:54,640 meal be and how you know can you provide your your body with 418 00:25:54,640 --> 00:25:59,640 those essential building blocks from food to look, feel and 419 00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:01,880 perform your best. Yeah, I totally agree. 420 00:26:01,880 --> 00:26:05,240 I think nutrient density should be paramount and from like a 421 00:26:05,240 --> 00:26:08,680 bioavailability standpoint there's certainly a lot pointing 422 00:26:08,680 --> 00:26:13,160 direction of animal based foods. But I don't feel like like I 423 00:26:13,160 --> 00:26:16,120 don't feel like the the vegan route necessarily is. 424 00:26:16,520 --> 00:26:19,560 Going to be the healthiest option for the vast majority of 425 00:26:19,560 --> 00:26:22,600 people, and I don't think from an ethical standpoint, going 426 00:26:22,600 --> 00:26:25,440 vegan makes a lot of sense. But if you're going to have a 427 00:26:25,440 --> 00:26:28,680 mixed diet and you're sourcing both your meat and your produce 428 00:26:28,680 --> 00:26:32,600 from quality, you know, quality sources, quality ranchers, 429 00:26:32,840 --> 00:26:35,640 quality farmers like that, that should be the motivation of all. 430 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:38,640 Absolutely, yeah. It's just getting back to those 431 00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:42,760 core principles and really, you know, consuming mindfully and 432 00:26:42,760 --> 00:26:45,520 understanding to help impact, right. 433 00:26:45,520 --> 00:26:49,400 If you do go on vegan, you have to understand that there's some 434 00:26:49,400 --> 00:26:52,040 trade-offs that are being made from a health standpoint. 435 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:54,920 You know, there's definitely some nutrient gaps that you need 436 00:26:54,920 --> 00:26:59,440 to be aware of to do that effectively or not, you know 437 00:27:00,640 --> 00:27:02,720 have your health suffer as a result. 438 00:27:02,760 --> 00:27:06,480 So certainly easier if you're eating, you know omnibore diet, 439 00:27:06,480 --> 00:27:10,000 both plants and animals to to get all that the nutrients you 440 00:27:10,040 --> 00:27:13,120 need. But again it comes down to bio 441 00:27:13,120 --> 00:27:16,440 individuality and personal beliefs in certain things as 442 00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:20,200 well. So, but saying one is right or 443 00:27:20,200 --> 00:27:24,480 wrong, I think that's really what we need to get away from in 444 00:27:24,480 --> 00:27:27,880 America is like these just like senseless diet wars, 445 00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:31,120 essentially. Because you know it's 446 00:27:31,120 --> 00:27:34,920 nonsensical, right? I can't sit here and say without 447 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:39,520 knowing you know what your your goals are, your genetic makeup. 448 00:27:39,760 --> 00:27:45,000 Your taste preferences, what's going on in your microbiome to 449 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:49,200 say that you know my program is going to you know, 100% work for 450 00:27:49,200 --> 00:27:52,320 you, right? So really need to understand 451 00:27:52,320 --> 00:27:57,240 this idea of bio individuality, that what works for one person 452 00:27:57,240 --> 00:28:00,200 can be entirely different from what works for another. 453 00:28:00,200 --> 00:28:03,760 However, you cannot ignore these core tendencies. 454 00:28:03,760 --> 00:28:10,400 Core principles of how to identify what a you know a real 455 00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:14,400 food is or you know a nutrient dense food is. 456 00:28:14,400 --> 00:28:18,280 And so when you focus on that, those core principles instead of 457 00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:22,320 is it vegan or is it keto, I think you're going to be able to 458 00:28:22,320 --> 00:28:25,360 achieve a ton of success and anybody's going to respond to 459 00:28:25,360 --> 00:28:29,600 that no matter what that ratio of plant personal ultimately is. 460 00:28:29,880 --> 00:28:33,960 Yeah, I totally agree. I think the the dogmatic, siloed 461 00:28:33,960 --> 00:28:37,240 thinking that has gone on with the nutritional War space is. 462 00:28:37,760 --> 00:28:42,600 The single biggest set back to many making any progress within 463 00:28:42,600 --> 00:28:48,200 the realm of nutrition for sure. When it comes to plants as a 464 00:28:48,200 --> 00:28:51,880 nutrient there's been like this massive popularity growth in 465 00:28:51,880 --> 00:28:56,240 carnivore obviously you know as a subset of keto and with that 466 00:28:56,240 --> 00:29:00,760 there's been a lot of talk about the phytochemicals and you know 467 00:29:00,800 --> 00:29:04,000 anti nutrients so to speak in these plant based sources. 468 00:29:04,000 --> 00:29:06,280 Have you gotten much pushback from that demographic? 469 00:29:07,760 --> 00:29:09,600 It's an interesting subject for sure. 470 00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:14,240 I think that all comes down to preparation and processing. 471 00:29:15,720 --> 00:29:19,280 I think, you know, depending on what you were doing before and 472 00:29:19,280 --> 00:29:23,000 what you're doing after, you know, if you're if you're doing 473 00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:25,560 a Standard American diet and you go carnivore your Standard 474 00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:28,320 American diet, you go vegan, you know, whatever it might be, 475 00:29:28,320 --> 00:29:29,960 you're probably going to feel better. 476 00:29:29,960 --> 00:29:32,440 You're probably going to see some results, especially if 477 00:29:32,440 --> 00:29:34,200 you're cutting out the ultra processed food. 478 00:29:34,200 --> 00:29:37,840 A lot of the, you know, highly processed, you know, seed oils, 479 00:29:37,840 --> 00:29:41,080 and you know pretty much all that junk that the body 480 00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:44,600 physiologically does not respond well to. 481 00:29:45,360 --> 00:29:51,240 So yes, is it? Is it potentially problematic? 482 00:29:51,480 --> 00:29:55,560 It can be if those things are not prepared or processed. 483 00:29:55,560 --> 00:30:00,400 However, the simple art of you know, fermentation or soaking 484 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:03,640 your beans before cooking them and all these different you 485 00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:08,160 know, preparation methods that you know many cultures around 486 00:30:08,160 --> 00:30:12,800 the world have used since the dawn of time really eliminate a 487 00:30:12,800 --> 00:30:15,920 lot of those concerning anti nutrients. 488 00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:20,200 But if you're out there eating, you know, raw kale salads, you 489 00:30:20,360 --> 00:30:23,880 know, every day, it's probably some, some reason for concern. 490 00:30:23,920 --> 00:30:28,440 And so you know what we do at Life Fuel, we're very aware of 491 00:30:28,440 --> 00:30:31,440 that. We're constantly looking for 492 00:30:31,440 --> 00:30:36,520 ways to kind of reduce those while optimizing, you know, all 493 00:30:36,520 --> 00:30:39,520 those amazing phytonutrients and other health benefits. 494 00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:43,800 And our position is really that the net impact, the benefit that 495 00:30:43,800 --> 00:30:47,800 you're going to gain from these protective antioxidants, 496 00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:54,920 phytonutrients are going to outweigh any trace amount of 497 00:30:54,960 --> 00:30:59,800 potential anti nutrients that you may see in in small doses. 498 00:30:59,800 --> 00:31:03,880 But yeah, I think it's it's certainly complex and there's 499 00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:06,240 you know the whole category of lectins and other things. 500 00:31:06,240 --> 00:31:10,720 But again, we're leaning more into some of these processes 501 00:31:10,720 --> 00:31:13,320 around fermentation and sprouting and and some of those 502 00:31:13,320 --> 00:31:16,760 things to unlock the full nutritional value while 503 00:31:16,880 --> 00:31:19,240 diminishing or removing entirely. 504 00:31:19,280 --> 00:31:22,520 You know any concerns around anti nutrients I. 505 00:31:23,280 --> 00:31:23,800 Love it? Yeah. 506 00:31:23,800 --> 00:31:26,840 I think there's certainly a lot of nuance and context around 507 00:31:26,840 --> 00:31:29,840 that conversation, because. You know, something consumed in 508 00:31:29,840 --> 00:31:32,520 the raw state that can't be broken down or absorbed by the 509 00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:35,040 body is certainly going to have a different effect than 510 00:31:35,040 --> 00:31:38,880 something that is fermented properly or soaked properly or 511 00:31:38,880 --> 00:31:42,080 just processed properly, all while avoiding all the ultra 512 00:31:42,080 --> 00:31:44,800 processing that is going to strip it of its nutrients. 513 00:31:44,800 --> 00:31:49,280 So there's just so much context. And I'm, I'm not a hardcore 514 00:31:49,280 --> 00:31:51,840 proclaimed carnivore. I mean, that's definitely kind 515 00:31:51,840 --> 00:31:55,640 of the vast majority of what I consume and a lot of that. 516 00:31:57,160 --> 00:31:59,680 You know, dialogue makes a ton of sense to me, and I tend to 517 00:31:59,680 --> 00:32:01,600 lean that way. But I don't ever want to become 518 00:32:02,040 --> 00:32:06,240 dogmatic in that thinking to the point where I view all plants 519 00:32:06,240 --> 00:32:09,640 and anything green as being, you know, the Antichrist. 520 00:32:09,640 --> 00:32:11,560 Because there's certainly some people that have gone that 521 00:32:11,560 --> 00:32:14,240 direction and some people are incredibly sensitive to some of 522 00:32:14,240 --> 00:32:17,360 those foods, in which case that may make a lot more sense for 523 00:32:17,360 --> 00:32:18,880 them. But yeah, it kind of goes back 524 00:32:18,960 --> 00:32:21,520 to what you were saying earlier about the individuality 525 00:32:21,520 --> 00:32:24,240 component and just figuring out what makes the most sense for 526 00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:26,120 the individual, what their digestive system. 527 00:32:26,920 --> 00:32:29,360 Is able to handle what benefits they're noticing. 528 00:32:29,360 --> 00:32:31,680 So, yeah, I'm on the same page with you there, for sure. 529 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:36,600 Yeah, absolutely. And ultimately, too, I think you 530 00:32:36,600 --> 00:32:38,320 can't. I mean, we can get in this kind 531 00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:45,200 of vacuum of what is optimal from a health standpoint. 532 00:32:45,680 --> 00:32:48,280 But at the end of the day, if you're mental health and 533 00:32:48,280 --> 00:32:51,800 suffering because you're so restrictive around what you can 534 00:32:51,800 --> 00:32:54,720 and can't eat, I think that becomes challenging too. 535 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:59,520 Or if you don't like certain things or you're sick and tired 536 00:32:59,520 --> 00:33:03,240 of eating meat all day, which you may or may not be, you know, 537 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:06,480 sometimes some of those plant sources can can add a lot of 538 00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:09,680 variety and a lot of, you know, flavor and different things to 539 00:33:09,680 --> 00:33:12,000 food. So again, it it all comes down 540 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:16,040 to the individual you know and what works for one person you 541 00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:17,080 know. You can't just make the 542 00:33:17,080 --> 00:33:20,160 assumption that it's going to work for for everyone. 543 00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:23,000 Yeah, totally. The timing of this podcast is 544 00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:25,840 interesting, man, because I am. I'm in a competition prep right 545 00:33:25,840 --> 00:33:28,240 now, so I'm tracking everything. I'm. 546 00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:30,600 I'm not really introducing any new supplements, but. 547 00:33:31,160 --> 00:33:35,320 I am a huge fan of listening to certain podcasts, of which I've 548 00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:38,480 been listening to a lot of Huberman Lab, Tim Ferriss, and 549 00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:43,640 Joe Rogan, all three of which are massive proponents to AG1. 550 00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:45,600 Like you can't listen to a single one of their podcasts 551 00:33:45,600 --> 00:33:50,840 without them promoting AG One. And truth be told, I I got some 552 00:33:50,840 --> 00:33:53,520 of that. I don't know man. 553 00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:57,000 Probably a couple years ago now and I was not consistent with 554 00:33:57,000 --> 00:33:59,360 taking in. The only thing I noticed at the 555 00:33:59,360 --> 00:34:03,320 moment was just an increase in my toilet paper bill, so I don't 556 00:34:03,320 --> 00:34:06,760 really know, but I don't feel like I gave it an honest try, so 557 00:34:06,760 --> 00:34:10,159 I ordered some more prior to even knowing about this podcast 558 00:34:10,159 --> 00:34:12,920 with you and I. Maybe I I took the wrong step 559 00:34:12,920 --> 00:34:15,600 there, but I ordered some more and I'm going to try to 560 00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:19,239 consistently consume it for at least a month, maybe more, to 561 00:34:19,239 --> 00:34:22,920 see if I can have any measurable, tangible change 562 00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:24,760 whatsoever. Because I'm tracking everything, 563 00:34:24,760 --> 00:34:28,040 I'd be able to, really. Fine tune that and know with a 564 00:34:28,040 --> 00:34:30,159 pretty high degree of certainty if there is any measurable 565 00:34:30,159 --> 00:34:33,000 changes. But on that note, you know 566 00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:36,800 they've done a a stellar job at their affiliate outreach 567 00:34:36,800 --> 00:34:39,120 program, whatever, because all these podcasters are promoting 568 00:34:39,120 --> 00:34:43,000 their stuff. But as I dove deeper into what 569 00:34:43,000 --> 00:34:46,520 their formulation was, what they included, there's several 570 00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:50,480 companies that are making a greens blend of some form or 571 00:34:50,480 --> 00:34:51,760 fashion. So what? 572 00:34:52,159 --> 00:34:54,400 What is different with life? What? 573 00:34:54,400 --> 00:34:56,199 What sets you all apart? How are you all doing things 574 00:34:56,199 --> 00:34:57,440 differently? I know there's like A blog 575 00:34:57,440 --> 00:35:00,320 article page on your site that kind of compares and contrasts 576 00:35:00,320 --> 00:35:04,520 you to other, you know, plant based, comprehensive 577 00:35:04,520 --> 00:35:05,280 supplements. So. 578 00:35:05,320 --> 00:35:07,320 So what direction did you all take that's different than the 579 00:35:07,320 --> 00:35:11,000 others there? Yeah, it's great question. 580 00:35:11,080 --> 00:35:14,200 I can dig into this further because I've spent a lot of time 581 00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:17,520 kind of reverse engineering their process. 582 00:35:17,520 --> 00:35:21,440 And you know I've got an entire Excel model that I've used to 583 00:35:21,440 --> 00:35:25,360 build out our formulations and I've got pretty much every one 584 00:35:25,440 --> 00:35:29,680 of our closest competitors that you know is relatively in, in 585 00:35:29,680 --> 00:35:32,960 the same space. And so you know we we are the 586 00:35:32,960 --> 00:35:35,200 most complete solution to daily nutrition. 587 00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:39,360 And I can say that because when you think about it, you know 588 00:35:40,600 --> 00:35:43,120 like fuel is something essentially you could live on 589 00:35:43,280 --> 00:35:48,360 because it does provide all your protein nutrients that the body 590 00:35:48,360 --> 00:35:51,360 needs. Something like AD one does a 591 00:35:51,360 --> 00:35:58,000 great job of making a multi vitamin more appealing I guess, 592 00:35:58,120 --> 00:36:00,040 right? So you're getting a pretty 593 00:36:00,080 --> 00:36:04,960 decent spectrum of vitamins and minerals, a lot of which you're 594 00:36:04,960 --> 00:36:07,040 probably already getting enough of through the diet. 595 00:36:07,040 --> 00:36:11,080 So it's high in like vitamin C and some of the B vitamins and 596 00:36:11,880 --> 00:36:15,600 it's missing some of the core tenets of you know what you 597 00:36:15,600 --> 00:36:20,000 would actually need. So D3K2, you have to take that 598 00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:24,600 as a separate product, right? It's a liquid deal that they 599 00:36:24,600 --> 00:36:28,120 give to you when you buy their $150.00 Greens powder, right. 600 00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:32,520 So there's now two products that you have to take separately that 601 00:36:32,560 --> 00:36:37,000 you're getting in life, fuel plus, you know, I think protein, 602 00:36:37,120 --> 00:36:39,480 right. Anybody who understands anything 603 00:36:39,480 --> 00:36:44,760 about metabolic health knows that the best way to start your 604 00:36:44,760 --> 00:36:49,200 day is with a protein rich meal. So if all you're having is a 605 00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:53,200 green shake, OK, that's fine. If you're trying to do, I guess 606 00:36:53,560 --> 00:36:56,920 saying a fasting mimicking state or something and it's been that 607 00:36:56,920 --> 00:37:03,440 fast longer or something, but you know, not great if you need 608 00:37:03,560 --> 00:37:07,160 that, you're breaking your fast and you know, providing yourself 609 00:37:07,160 --> 00:37:10,560 with that first meal of the day. So from a had nutritional 610 00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:14,040 standpoint, life is like people are essential. 611 00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:18,400 Shake is the most nutrient dense option and most complete option 612 00:37:18,640 --> 00:37:22,040 out there. I always say I do find it 613 00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:23,680 fascinating. They've done a great job and I 614 00:37:23,680 --> 00:37:26,080 think you know part of that I think the founder of ethnic 615 00:37:26,080 --> 00:37:30,920 Koreans had a a good friendship with Tim Ferriss early days and 616 00:37:30,920 --> 00:37:35,480 that kind of allowed them to to get on a lot of those podcasts. 617 00:37:35,480 --> 00:37:37,920 And I think they continue to lean into it and and build their 618 00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:41,200 brand in that direction which kudos to them because it it 619 00:37:41,360 --> 00:37:45,520 really hit a home run in terms of success with that and it's 620 00:37:45,520 --> 00:37:51,280 just a single product. So yeah, I'm always curious to 621 00:37:51,400 --> 00:37:55,520 you, you mentioned like is it doing something for me. 622 00:37:56,160 --> 00:37:59,760 I'm curious to understand like the consumer psychology and what 623 00:37:59,880 --> 00:38:07,200 the perceived benefit is of like the greens, you know category 624 00:38:07,680 --> 00:38:10,760 beyond like a glorified multi vitamin. 625 00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:14,920 Because often times they are missing some of these additional 626 00:38:16,040 --> 00:38:18,560 the essential nutrients that we're packing into life fuel 627 00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:23,160 that most will have either ignored the science on or or 628 00:38:23,160 --> 00:38:26,760 just care not to to do it in a single product. 629 00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:29,920 Yeah, it seems like they've kind of gone there at just more of 630 00:38:29,920 --> 00:38:32,800 the the multi vitamin approach, whereas yours is more like the 631 00:38:32,800 --> 00:38:38,200 actual meal replacement with protein, which which makes total 632 00:38:38,200 --> 00:38:40,120 sense especially if you're trying to target the demographic 633 00:38:40,120 --> 00:38:43,760 that is going to be. You know, like they're 634 00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:45,800 struggling with their weight. They're just trying to replace 635 00:38:45,800 --> 00:38:47,520 one food for another. Like they're going to have a 636 00:38:47,520 --> 00:38:50,600 better option grabbing yours than a, you know, make make 637 00:38:50,600 --> 00:38:52,440 muffin drive through or something like that. 638 00:38:54,360 --> 00:38:56,840 Yeah, absolutely. So but like on the, if you dig 639 00:38:56,840 --> 00:39:00,760 in the micronutrients, you'll see that basically our product 640 00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:06,800 has AG One in it plus, plus, yeah, plus protein plus some 641 00:39:06,800 --> 00:39:09,360 other things that you're not going to get through AG one. 642 00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:13,240 And they've actually been, I've spent the past three years now 643 00:39:14,000 --> 00:39:16,880 working on an updated formulation that just surpasses 644 00:39:17,440 --> 00:39:19,800 anything in the marketplace. And and that's really where 645 00:39:19,800 --> 00:39:25,200 we're leaning into this concept of real food nutrition. 646 00:39:25,280 --> 00:39:28,600 And so we've we've been able to do this on our essentials bars 647 00:39:29,080 --> 00:39:31,880 and we'll be doing this in our essential shakes. 648 00:39:31,880 --> 00:39:36,000 So pretty much 99% of the supplement industry relies on 649 00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:39,800 synthetic vitamin and mineral inputs to kind of create those 650 00:39:39,800 --> 00:39:42,920 fancy labels that make it seem like you're giving getting a ton 651 00:39:42,920 --> 00:39:46,760 of nutrients right. AG one is you know one of the 652 00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:49,000 biggest brands that that does that. 653 00:39:50,400 --> 00:39:54,360 The challenge with that is most sympathetic based vitamin and 654 00:39:54,360 --> 00:39:58,640 minerals start with they're synthetically created and 655 00:39:58,640 --> 00:40:01,440 allowed to mimic what happens in nature and a lot of them are 656 00:40:01,440 --> 00:40:03,960 petroleum derived or petroleum based. 657 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:10,160 So you know that said obviously not the most natural and 658 00:40:10,160 --> 00:40:13,720 certainly not the most bioavailable, but bioavailable 659 00:40:14,240 --> 00:40:18,040 for the human body. And so that's where we really 660 00:40:18,040 --> 00:40:22,120 intend to be a leader in in the space is around this idea and 661 00:40:22,120 --> 00:40:25,440 this concept of real food nutrition. 662 00:40:26,960 --> 00:40:32,520 And if you look at kind of our, our bars now that mix of really 663 00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:35,480 nutrient density comes from stuff that you can pronounce and 664 00:40:35,480 --> 00:40:38,280 recognize and even grow in your own backyard is coming from 665 00:40:38,280 --> 00:40:42,560 mushrooms and cranberry and sweet potato, which I think is 666 00:40:42,680 --> 00:40:44,480 amazing. And I think connects this 667 00:40:44,480 --> 00:40:48,600 conversation back to what we were discussing earlier is like 668 00:40:48,960 --> 00:40:52,960 sourcing matters, quality matters and knowing where your 669 00:40:52,960 --> 00:40:57,520 food ingredients and nutrients come from really does matter. 670 00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:01,400 And the closer we can reconnect to nature, the better off we're 671 00:41:01,400 --> 00:41:06,160 going to be as a result. And so yeah, that's exciting. 672 00:41:06,240 --> 00:41:08,360 I mean we're we're pretty close to getting that launched. 673 00:41:08,360 --> 00:41:12,160 Hopefully Q1Q2 next year we'll finally have the market and 674 00:41:12,640 --> 00:41:16,120 really leaning into some of these other things to further 675 00:41:16,120 --> 00:41:19,160 unlock the bioavailability because it's not, you know, on 676 00:41:19,160 --> 00:41:23,400 paper doesn't matter if you're getting you know 1000% of some 677 00:41:23,400 --> 00:41:26,320 nutrient, if your body is not actually absorbing and utilizing 678 00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:29,400 that nutrient like you said, you've got really expensive 679 00:41:30,080 --> 00:41:33,640 toilet paper or or urine at the end of the day doesn't matter, 680 00:41:33,640 --> 00:41:36,560 right. So that's where our focus lies 681 00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:42,160 really around the uptake of those vitamins and minerals at 682 00:41:42,160 --> 00:41:47,440 the cellular level and also really conscious and aware of 683 00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:51,920 how we can kind of lean into this larger problem of metabolic 684 00:41:51,920 --> 00:41:55,240 health and you know giving people the right tools from a 685 00:41:55,240 --> 00:41:59,920 nutritional standpoint to to help course correct that that 686 00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:02,920 challenge that a lot of people are faced with. 687 00:42:03,680 --> 00:42:07,800 What do y'all do to test the absorption of the the 688 00:42:07,800 --> 00:42:10,120 supplements that are in the bars in the shakes? 689 00:42:10,120 --> 00:42:14,440 Like is there a good quality standard for companies to be 690 00:42:14,440 --> 00:42:17,760 able to test how much of their products is truly getting 691 00:42:17,760 --> 00:42:22,080 absorbed by the in consumer that is consuming it to see what is 692 00:42:22,080 --> 00:42:24,080 actually being used versus just passing through. 693 00:42:25,520 --> 00:42:28,040 You know, a lot of that unfortunately is, you know, it's 694 00:42:28,040 --> 00:42:32,440 kind of marketing or leaning on the research of the individual 695 00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:37,400 nutrient companies because trying to do that tested thing 696 00:42:37,400 --> 00:42:40,680 given like a controlled clinical trial, there's just like too 697 00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:45,080 many different variables right to to try to control for 698 00:42:45,720 --> 00:42:47,800 demonstrate hey this is more effective. 699 00:42:47,800 --> 00:42:50,200 But there's there's some interesting research papers that 700 00:42:50,200 --> 00:42:53,280 I've read. And again, I think even just 701 00:42:53,280 --> 00:42:58,520 going back to a more intuitive kind of process of, you know, 702 00:42:58,520 --> 00:43:02,200 what is going to be more recognizable by the human body 703 00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:05,000 in better received. Is it something that is 704 00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:10,240 completely and truly natural is a bad word but it is you know 705 00:43:10,240 --> 00:43:15,000 natural or from nature or something that's been chemically 706 00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:18,040 created in a lab to mimic nature. 707 00:43:18,160 --> 00:43:23,320 And I think the easiest you know, conclusion we can, we can 708 00:43:23,440 --> 00:43:28,120 you know use around that is just look at any pharmaceutical drug, 709 00:43:28,680 --> 00:43:31,320 right. You know you take a drug to you 710 00:43:31,320 --> 00:43:34,160 know try to fix one thing, you've got 15 different 711 00:43:34,160 --> 00:43:38,040 potential symptoms that that pop up or ultra processed food 712 00:43:38,040 --> 00:43:41,920 that's you know laden with chemicals and all the challenges 713 00:43:42,120 --> 00:43:45,960 along that side. So it's it's challenging to do. 714 00:43:45,960 --> 00:43:50,360 I think it goes back to individuality though, right? 715 00:43:50,360 --> 00:43:55,760 So your experiment with AG1, what is the control? 716 00:43:55,760 --> 00:43:58,080 What is the baseline? Is there something that you're 717 00:43:58,080 --> 00:44:00,400 trying to fix? Are your vitamin D levels low? 718 00:44:00,400 --> 00:44:03,160 Is your magnesium low? Like what is what is that 719 00:44:03,160 --> 00:44:06,120 problem that you're trying to solve by introducing that 720 00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:08,120 product? Make sure you start with the 721 00:44:08,120 --> 00:44:12,600 baseline, so go get, go get your individual blood work done and 722 00:44:12,600 --> 00:44:16,920 then run that control over the next 30 days, 60 days and being 723 00:44:16,920 --> 00:44:19,480 religious about taking that product every single day. 724 00:44:20,120 --> 00:44:21,880 And did those biomarkers improve for you? 725 00:44:22,000 --> 00:44:25,440 If they did, that's awesome. The product is working as it 726 00:44:25,440 --> 00:44:27,360 should. Your body's, you know, receiving 727 00:44:27,360 --> 00:44:31,200 it, absorbing it, utilizing it, that's great and should continue 728 00:44:31,680 --> 00:44:35,120 doing that. If not, something's not working 729 00:44:35,280 --> 00:44:37,240 right. So is it the supplement, is it 730 00:44:37,240 --> 00:44:38,720 something lifestyle, diet related? 731 00:44:38,760 --> 00:44:41,960 Is there some sort of resistance at the cellular level that's not 732 00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:44,920 intaking those? That's where things get a lot 733 00:44:44,920 --> 00:44:47,440 more complex. But that's how I would 734 00:44:48,040 --> 00:44:49,400 personally think about it, right? 735 00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:51,680 I got all my blood work done recently. 736 00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:53,960 I take my essential shake every day. 737 00:44:54,480 --> 00:44:56,680 Everything looks good. I'm just going to keep doing 738 00:44:56,800 --> 00:45:00,440 what I'm doing right? So that's how I approach it. 739 00:45:00,600 --> 00:45:02,840 Yeah, I think that's key, man. So many people, they look at 740 00:45:02,840 --> 00:45:05,360 supplements as this, you know, quick fix thing and then they 741 00:45:05,360 --> 00:45:08,360 change so many things so frequently that there's no 742 00:45:08,360 --> 00:45:11,000 control, there's no baseline. And they don't really know 743 00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:12,440 what's working and what's not working. 744 00:45:12,440 --> 00:45:15,960 So people just need to, you know, stay steady for a length 745 00:45:15,960 --> 00:45:19,080 of time so they can truly get those markers and be objective 746 00:45:19,080 --> 00:45:22,080 to what their body feedback is. And that that holds true with 747 00:45:22,080 --> 00:45:24,000 any change, whether it's training, nutrition, 748 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:27,240 supplementation. I wish more people would be, you 749 00:45:27,240 --> 00:45:29,840 know, you got to treat yourself as a scientific experiment. 750 00:45:29,840 --> 00:45:31,000 What can be measured can be managed. 751 00:45:31,000 --> 00:45:33,320 But if you're changing too many variables at once, there's an 752 00:45:33,520 --> 00:45:36,800 impossibility to honing in on what the change is actually 753 00:45:36,800 --> 00:45:39,480 being reflected. Absolutely. 754 00:45:39,480 --> 00:45:44,160 And I'm so super skeptical about any supplement because I've seen 755 00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:47,160 the industry. I see kind of what goes on 756 00:45:47,160 --> 00:45:50,840 beyond the curtain and I understand how to identify and 757 00:45:51,240 --> 00:45:54,400 look out for quality parameters and all these things, right? 758 00:45:54,400 --> 00:46:00,080 And I think that's probably the more unique part about what 759 00:46:00,080 --> 00:46:03,440 we're doing at Life Fuel is yes, we've got our, our line of 760 00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:06,120 products which are, you know, tools at the end of the day to 761 00:46:06,320 --> 00:46:09,320 to help people kind of fill these nutritional gaps. 762 00:46:09,320 --> 00:46:13,560 But I've always said that we're a transformation company first. 763 00:46:13,560 --> 00:46:16,880 You know, that's why my, my wife's a certified holistic 764 00:46:16,880 --> 00:46:19,360 health coach, a culinary nutritionist. 765 00:46:19,360 --> 00:46:22,360 We've really leaned into that expertise and my expertise as a 766 00:46:22,360 --> 00:46:26,320 former athlete to you know, provide the coaching, the 767 00:46:26,320 --> 00:46:29,960 leadership and you know the accountability that oftentimes 768 00:46:29,960 --> 00:46:31,440 people need. Like if you're if you're not 769 00:46:31,560 --> 00:46:34,000 sleeping well, if you're not moving your body, you know no 770 00:46:34,000 --> 00:46:36,800 supplement, no diet is going to out hack. 771 00:46:37,240 --> 00:46:40,200 You know those core principles, those core things that we all 772 00:46:40,200 --> 00:46:43,440 need to be doing to maintain health, right? 773 00:46:43,440 --> 00:46:46,160 Because if you're not sleeping properly, hormones are going to 774 00:46:46,160 --> 00:46:47,400 be a mess. You're going to be more 775 00:46:47,400 --> 00:46:50,240 triggered to seek out, you know, junk food and all those 776 00:46:50,240 --> 00:46:53,280 different things, right? Unless you're just not going to 777 00:46:53,280 --> 00:46:56,760 be very fun to be around. You know, if you're not moving 778 00:46:56,760 --> 00:47:01,040 your body right, you probably, you know, have some other things 779 00:47:01,040 --> 00:47:04,120 going on, maybe on the path to insulin resistance, some sort 780 00:47:04,120 --> 00:47:05,520 of, you know, metabolic disreference. 781 00:47:05,520 --> 00:47:09,360 There's just key principles that we need to get back to 782 00:47:09,360 --> 00:47:12,680 integrating that. A lot of people would probably, 783 00:47:12,920 --> 00:47:17,600 you know, have profound results from just these these basic 784 00:47:17,640 --> 00:47:21,640 things before trying to, you know, add a ton of different 785 00:47:21,640 --> 00:47:24,760 supplements to their daily routine to to just, you know, 786 00:47:25,000 --> 00:47:26,560 out hack. That's all. 787 00:47:26,560 --> 00:47:28,680 The things that are are simple, but they're not doing. 788 00:47:28,960 --> 00:47:31,600 Yeah, I'm in complete alignment with me, with you there for sure 789 00:47:32,640 --> 00:47:34,800 from a business standpoint, I come with a dive into that. 790 00:47:34,800 --> 00:47:37,760 So you launched in 2015. What have been some like the 791 00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:42,520 major pitfalls and just some of the major wins that Y'all have 792 00:47:42,520 --> 00:47:44,440 experienced as a company, like what what are Y'all doing that's 793 00:47:44,440 --> 00:47:46,680 really working well from like a marketing standpoint for 794 00:47:46,680 --> 00:47:49,720 instance? Gee, it's been a roller coaster 795 00:47:49,720 --> 00:47:52,200 for sure. I mean you know, this has really 796 00:47:52,200 --> 00:47:58,240 been my first venture, you know as a founder and product formula 797 00:47:58,240 --> 00:48:00,640 and all the wearing all the different hats that you 798 00:48:00,640 --> 00:48:04,240 ultimately have to run is wear as a a founder. 799 00:48:04,360 --> 00:48:06,400 And so there were certainly challenges you know 800 00:48:06,760 --> 00:48:09,680 bootstrapping the business maybe being a a big capital 801 00:48:09,680 --> 00:48:14,920 constrained from the start. We were kind of on this, you 802 00:48:14,920 --> 00:48:17,640 know I call it credit card roulette, right. 803 00:48:17,640 --> 00:48:20,960 You're trying to wait till the last opportune moment and and 804 00:48:20,960 --> 00:48:24,320 trying to forecast you know inventory and stuff because you 805 00:48:24,320 --> 00:48:25,560 don't want to run it out of product. 806 00:48:25,560 --> 00:48:28,200 But also you don't have like great cash flow you know early 807 00:48:28,200 --> 00:48:31,360 days. So that certainly was 808 00:48:31,360 --> 00:48:35,800 challenging and and probably it was a bit of a an Achilles hill 809 00:48:35,800 --> 00:48:38,760 on on growth out of the start out of the gate. 810 00:48:39,280 --> 00:48:41,560 But the industry also looked very different than it does 811 00:48:41,560 --> 00:48:45,120 today. There was you know a lot fewer 812 00:48:45,520 --> 00:48:49,920 manufacturers that were willing to take on smaller minimum order 813 00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:53,760 quantities and and give us a chance like I I would door knock 814 00:48:53,760 --> 00:48:56,720 because I probably talked to 20 different manufacturers. 815 00:48:56,720 --> 00:48:59,320 I would go to supply side West and natural products Expo just 816 00:48:59,320 --> 00:49:03,120 trying to get somebody to give give us a shot at the beginning 817 00:49:03,120 --> 00:49:06,680 of the day. But you know most people wanted 818 00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:09,760 you know these crazy high minimum order quantities and it 819 00:49:09,760 --> 00:49:12,480 was just really challenging to get that process started. 820 00:49:12,480 --> 00:49:15,800 I think it's probably almost a year and a half, two years of 821 00:49:15,800 --> 00:49:18,800 just working through that process and finally getting a 822 00:49:18,800 --> 00:49:21,880 manufacturer to that we could then run with. 823 00:49:21,880 --> 00:49:25,040 And you know those early days like I created the the landing 824 00:49:25,040 --> 00:49:29,120 page by myself is like a blast on Facebook, the friends and 825 00:49:29,120 --> 00:49:32,440 family just basically any context that I had trying to get 826 00:49:32,440 --> 00:49:35,920 on you know aware that hey I just launched this, this brand 827 00:49:35,920 --> 00:49:40,760 and and things have certainly changed dramatically in terms of 828 00:49:40,760 --> 00:49:44,600 how we market and and kind of you know just easy access to to 829 00:49:44,600 --> 00:49:47,600 all this today. So those are probably the newer 830 00:49:47,600 --> 00:49:49,400 challenges. You know we've been able to work 831 00:49:49,400 --> 00:49:52,480 through a lot of those supply chain challenges. 832 00:49:52,480 --> 00:49:56,160 I mean, there's always stuff that that pops up COVID and all 833 00:49:56,160 --> 00:49:59,320 the constraints that came around that certainly wasn't easy. 834 00:49:59,320 --> 00:50:05,240 But you know, we we survived and now it's really how do we get, 835 00:50:05,480 --> 00:50:09,640 you know, this messaging in front of the right audience? 836 00:50:09,640 --> 00:50:14,280 How do we cut through the noise of, you know, when you're. 837 00:50:14,640 --> 00:50:19,040 Yes, yeah, one of your closest competitors is in AG One or 838 00:50:19,040 --> 00:50:22,160 Kachava that's raised hundreds of millions of dollars and they 839 00:50:22,160 --> 00:50:26,920 can afford to pay Huberman 50 grand to be on his show. 840 00:50:27,440 --> 00:50:30,920 We can't do that. So we got to get a little bit 841 00:50:30,920 --> 00:50:35,960 more creative in terms of you know our margin strategies and 842 00:50:35,960 --> 00:50:41,920 and we're still you know focused on bottom line profitability and 843 00:50:41,920 --> 00:50:46,120 so we're fine you know growing slowly, growing organically and 844 00:50:46,120 --> 00:50:49,920 and making sure you know we have a sustainable business at all 845 00:50:49,920 --> 00:50:53,080 scale. And I think that's really just 846 00:50:53,080 --> 00:50:57,040 you know my comfort level and then you know what I guess our 847 00:50:57,040 --> 00:51:00,360 team is comfortable, comfortable with and continue to grow that 848 00:51:00,360 --> 00:51:03,440 and getting out of the business what we put into into it. 849 00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:07,000 But it's challenging. It's an extremely competitive 850 00:51:07,000 --> 00:51:09,600 space. But I think that's where we have 851 00:51:09,600 --> 00:51:13,880 to kind of lean back on these core principles, really continue 852 00:51:13,880 --> 00:51:18,960 to refine and define these core value props that set us apart 853 00:51:19,160 --> 00:51:24,920 from other people in this space, other supplements and and what 854 00:51:24,920 --> 00:51:30,720 we're doing now is we're pushing more into this concept of 855 00:51:30,800 --> 00:51:35,120 transformation, really building that platform to empower people 856 00:51:35,120 --> 00:51:38,120 to take back control of their health and and give them the 857 00:51:38,120 --> 00:51:41,920 tools, resources, coaching, accountability that they need to 858 00:51:42,080 --> 00:51:44,640 to do that. And I think that's really 859 00:51:44,640 --> 00:51:47,440 profound and a lot more impactful than just you know, 860 00:51:47,440 --> 00:51:51,720 selling widgets online. It's it's really, you know, you 861 00:51:51,720 --> 00:51:54,560 know, makes a meaningful difference in in people's lives 862 00:51:54,560 --> 00:52:00,320 and the more of that we can do then I think will be rewarded as 863 00:52:00,600 --> 00:52:03,400 as a business for doing things the right way. 864 00:52:03,720 --> 00:52:06,680 Yeah, I totally agree man. I think growing slowly, but 865 00:52:06,680 --> 00:52:11,280 bootstrapping it and being more organic and just consumer 866 00:52:11,280 --> 00:52:14,240 direct, consumer focused, so that you're actually focused on 867 00:52:14,240 --> 00:52:18,560 relationships as opposed to just numbers is always the way to go. 868 00:52:18,840 --> 00:52:22,800 And you know if you're growing organically, but it's slower, 869 00:52:22,800 --> 00:52:25,720 but it's more natural like that you just have a much better 870 00:52:25,720 --> 00:52:28,880 pulse on the company, so. I think that just builds for a 871 00:52:28,880 --> 00:52:32,560 more resilient, robust company. Foundationally speaking anyways, 872 00:52:34,040 --> 00:52:36,600 absolutely. And I think the challenge too is 873 00:52:37,000 --> 00:52:43,840 if you do it quickly and we're in a good growth cycle now it's 874 00:52:45,800 --> 00:52:49,240 you know, just trying to make sense often times of the data 875 00:52:49,240 --> 00:52:51,280 and trust in the data. I think that's one of the 876 00:52:51,280 --> 00:52:54,520 biggest things that we're wrestling with is how much do we 877 00:52:54,520 --> 00:52:57,560 trust, you know, what's Google, Google's reporting or what 878 00:52:57,560 --> 00:53:00,760 matters reporting in terms of you know, return on ad spend. 879 00:53:00,760 --> 00:53:04,760 And we've even leaned into kind of a lot of these third party 880 00:53:04,760 --> 00:53:08,240 attribution channels who have raised you know 10s of 1,000,000 881 00:53:08,240 --> 00:53:10,640 if not hundreds of millions of dollars to figure this out and 882 00:53:10,640 --> 00:53:15,080 still imperfect data. So you know what's the level of 883 00:53:15,080 --> 00:53:18,000 confidence you're kind of putting into the assumptions 884 00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:21,520 that you're you're drawing from the analysis on the business 885 00:53:21,600 --> 00:53:25,560 that really kind of gears that overall marketing and growth 886 00:53:25,560 --> 00:53:28,880 strategy. So, yeah, it's not an easy thing 887 00:53:28,880 --> 00:53:31,640 to do and you want to have a pretty high level of confidence. 888 00:53:31,680 --> 00:53:34,320 You know as you're increasing you know the size of those, 889 00:53:34,360 --> 00:53:38,880 those bets or investment dollars to make sure you know that's 890 00:53:38,880 --> 00:53:42,000 that's showing up in the, in the results of the business at the 891 00:53:42,000 --> 00:53:44,520 end of the day. And you're, you know, achieving 892 00:53:44,520 --> 00:53:48,000 growth was still, you know, a healthy level or a colorable 893 00:53:48,000 --> 00:53:52,400 level of profitability at the end of the day, a. 100%, Have 894 00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:57,360 you all done much for like getting into stores and doing 895 00:53:57,360 --> 00:53:59,240 like wholesale? You're just mostly focused on 896 00:53:59,240 --> 00:54:02,720 direct to consumer. We've largely focused on direct 897 00:54:02,720 --> 00:54:05,760 consumer. We've got fare up on, on 898 00:54:05,760 --> 00:54:10,600 Shopify. So people that have gyms or you 899 00:54:10,600 --> 00:54:14,520 know natural organic, you know retailers and stuff, that's a 900 00:54:14,520 --> 00:54:16,880 channel that we can easily serve. 901 00:54:17,280 --> 00:54:22,840 We were in air 1 market early days and that required a ton of 902 00:54:24,600 --> 00:54:28,320 physical time and and you know capital resources because we're 903 00:54:28,320 --> 00:54:31,840 kind of required to do demos like on a weekly basis. 904 00:54:31,840 --> 00:54:34,040 And so there's like a whole street team that we had to start 905 00:54:34,040 --> 00:54:36,480 to build out. And you know when we did the 906 00:54:37,120 --> 00:54:40,920 evaluation on that, you know it's probably early for us and 907 00:54:40,920 --> 00:54:45,080 to try to be chasing that as a channel, the same amount of 908 00:54:45,080 --> 00:54:48,600 resources from monetary standpoint and time standpoint 909 00:54:48,600 --> 00:54:51,800 deployed into like a digital marketing campaign, the ROI was 910 00:54:52,360 --> 00:54:55,720 so much greater. So you know I think those 911 00:54:55,720 --> 00:55:00,400 opportunities will come in terms of like bigger box retail over 912 00:55:00,400 --> 00:55:03,680 time. I think a lot of it comes by way 913 00:55:03,680 --> 00:55:06,960 of just like growing that brand recognition. 914 00:55:06,960 --> 00:55:10,200 And I think that makes it a little bit easier to to fly off 915 00:55:10,200 --> 00:55:13,400 shelves versus, you know, just being in Whole Foods and nobody, 916 00:55:14,120 --> 00:55:17,480 you know, actively seeking out. You know, I think a lot of 917 00:55:17,480 --> 00:55:21,600 people can make that mistake and then you only get one chance, 918 00:55:21,600 --> 00:55:23,200 right? Like you don't sell through and 919 00:55:23,200 --> 00:55:24,920 you're off shelf and then then what? 920 00:55:25,120 --> 00:55:27,200 Right. You're back in the same place 921 00:55:27,200 --> 00:55:29,440 trying to figure out your digital marketing strategy. 922 00:55:29,440 --> 00:55:34,960 So yeah, it's definitely in line with I think I think the 923 00:55:34,960 --> 00:55:38,000 approach that we've taken to overall business grow slowly, 924 00:55:38,000 --> 00:55:42,720 test the waters, certainly entertain you know those 925 00:55:42,720 --> 00:55:47,240 opportunities as they surface. But be selective about it and 926 00:55:48,360 --> 00:55:54,080 ensure that we've got the the proper resources to deploy so 927 00:55:54,120 --> 00:55:59,080 that you know as we need to scale and can scale it, you know 928 00:55:59,080 --> 00:56:03,520 it doesn't create overall chaos or disruption to other parts of 929 00:56:03,520 --> 00:56:05,840 the business that are are doing well, right. 930 00:56:06,120 --> 00:56:11,960 So like if we all of a sudden got a great retail channel going 931 00:56:13,800 --> 00:56:16,920 and they need like 10X or 5X you know what we're currently 932 00:56:16,920 --> 00:56:20,000 producing that that throws some bottlenecks in our supply chain. 933 00:56:20,000 --> 00:56:23,760 We've got to figure that out, plan for that and you know just 934 00:56:23,760 --> 00:56:27,080 make some adjustments to the business to to properly prepare 935 00:56:27,080 --> 00:56:31,120 and you know I think we're we're on that path, but it's not 936 00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:34,000 something that we're like spending a ton of time, it's 937 00:56:34,000 --> 00:56:37,840 more kind of inbound as opposed to an aggressive outbound sale. 938 00:56:37,840 --> 00:56:39,480 Strategy. Gotcha. 939 00:56:39,480 --> 00:56:41,280 Gotcha. Have you had much luck with the 940 00:56:41,320 --> 00:56:45,080 fair outlet within Shopify? I've seen that advertised a few 941 00:56:45,080 --> 00:56:46,640 times. It looks intriguing, but I've 942 00:56:46,640 --> 00:56:49,440 not used it myself. That's good. 943 00:56:50,120 --> 00:56:53,800 You know, I think like with anything, you know, you kind of 944 00:56:53,800 --> 00:56:56,080 need somebody to proactively manage it. 945 00:56:56,640 --> 00:57:01,400 We've gotten some just random organic business from it just 946 00:57:01,400 --> 00:57:06,640 simply by being on the platform. But I think having somebody kind 947 00:57:06,640 --> 00:57:11,040 of lean into that with a more focused approach and and maybe 948 00:57:11,480 --> 00:57:15,320 using it to try to activate retailers or you know having 949 00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:19,000 some sort of marketing communication strategy around, 950 00:57:19,240 --> 00:57:24,680 you know trying to grow that as a channel would probably make it 951 00:57:25,480 --> 00:57:28,520 a larger part of the business. And I think just from a 952 00:57:28,520 --> 00:57:34,120 simplicity standpoint to layer on wholesale to the business, I 953 00:57:34,120 --> 00:57:36,160 think it's great. Anybody that's on the Shopify 954 00:57:36,200 --> 00:57:41,200 ecosystem, it just makes it super simple to kind of pass 955 00:57:41,200 --> 00:57:46,240 those orders through to Shopify, syncs with the inventory and 956 00:57:47,200 --> 00:57:52,360 yeah, just really has changed things in terms of like the way 957 00:57:52,360 --> 00:57:56,160 you can manage and wholesale as a business. 958 00:57:56,720 --> 00:58:01,800 And I recently they just I think increased their partnership, you 959 00:58:01,800 --> 00:58:06,320 know, so exciting to see what that looks like over time if 960 00:58:06,320 --> 00:58:09,520 there's additional opportunities that will continue to surface 961 00:58:09,520 --> 00:58:11,440 from it. Very cool, very cool. 962 00:58:11,440 --> 00:58:14,160 Well, what are you excited about man, as far as like the business 963 00:58:14,160 --> 00:58:17,080 goes, far as the nutritional research goes, like what's got 964 00:58:17,080 --> 00:58:19,440 you, what's got you waking up excited to start the day. 965 00:58:21,120 --> 00:58:25,240 Yeah, so lots, there's always something which is great. 966 00:58:25,240 --> 00:58:30,800 But I think finally getting closer to some of these projects 967 00:58:30,800 --> 00:58:34,040 that I've been working on for for really quite some time now. 968 00:58:34,040 --> 00:58:38,400 I mean these you know multi year projects, one I alluded to is a 969 00:58:38,400 --> 00:58:41,720 reformulation of our Essentials nutrition shake and you know 970 00:58:41,720 --> 00:58:47,080 what that's going to be is I think really cool and and being 971 00:58:47,080 --> 00:58:50,560 able to lean into some of this new technology around that real 972 00:58:50,560 --> 00:58:55,200 food narrative and the fermentation and just being the 973 00:58:55,320 --> 00:59:00,280 the market leader in nutrient density. 974 00:59:00,280 --> 00:59:02,760 And I think that's something I'm really proud about and excited 975 00:59:02,760 --> 00:59:06,200 to to launch. The transparency of those 976 00:59:06,200 --> 00:59:10,080 ingredients too and the lengths at which we've gone to to source 977 00:59:10,080 --> 00:59:13,360 them I think is also really special and we want to you know 978 00:59:13,360 --> 00:59:16,880 make that more visible on our our website and our 979 00:59:16,880 --> 00:59:19,920 communication strategy. It's some of these, some of 980 00:59:19,920 --> 00:59:23,440 these growers and and people that I've gone to over the past 981 00:59:23,440 --> 00:59:29,320 several years traveling the world and getting my hands dirty 982 00:59:29,320 --> 00:59:35,120 in terms of going to cacao plantations or in Bali and in 983 00:59:35,120 --> 00:59:37,920 different places. So that you know making that 984 00:59:37,920 --> 00:59:43,320 part of the brand come to life is, is exciting and part of that 985 00:59:43,400 --> 00:59:50,200 is a completely rehaul of our existing website that really you 986 00:59:50,200 --> 00:59:54,160 know makes it more dynamic, solves some of the you know, 987 00:59:54,160 --> 00:59:57,640 latency and slow speed that we've been dealing with on the 988 00:59:57,640 --> 01:00:00,960 legacy site that we've had. And and just kind of working 989 01:00:00,960 --> 01:00:05,720 through some of those challenges and bringing, you know, I've 990 01:00:05,720 --> 01:00:10,680 always said my vision fully to life like had I had the 991 01:00:10,680 --> 01:00:13,960 resources or had we gone out and raised money, you know, from the 992 01:00:13,960 --> 01:00:18,280 start? I'm probably, I would have 993 01:00:18,280 --> 01:00:22,520 launched like your what it's about to look like back then and 994 01:00:22,520 --> 01:00:25,920 it's taken us eight years to get to this point. 995 01:00:25,920 --> 01:00:29,080 So it's been a a heck of a journey. 996 01:00:29,080 --> 01:00:32,240 I've learned a time And so I'm just really excited to finally 997 01:00:32,240 --> 01:00:36,920 kind of put forward what we've really envisioned the brand to 998 01:00:36,920 --> 01:00:38,640 be in and share that with the world. 999 01:00:39,120 --> 01:00:41,080 No, I love it, man. I mean progress over perfection 1000 01:00:41,080 --> 01:00:43,120 around like with business. Absolutely. 1001 01:00:43,120 --> 01:00:46,240 The founder and the CEO, like you've got all these grand ideas 1002 01:00:46,560 --> 01:00:48,440 and you can see where you want to take things. 1003 01:00:48,440 --> 01:00:52,400 But like the day-to-day grind may not, you know, manifest 1004 01:00:52,400 --> 01:00:53,840 itself as quickly as you'd hoped. 1005 01:00:53,840 --> 01:00:56,200 But as long as you're making that progress, that's the main 1006 01:00:56,200 --> 01:00:57,600 thing man. And sounds like you certainly 1007 01:00:57,600 --> 01:00:59,880 are. Yeah, exactly. 1008 01:00:59,880 --> 01:01:03,160 And I think it's just you know patience in that process and you 1009 01:01:03,160 --> 01:01:07,480 know the we've been fortunate to be able to grow a nice business 1010 01:01:07,480 --> 01:01:10,800 and and you know we've got to be happy about that and not just 1011 01:01:10,800 --> 01:01:14,560 just chase growth at all costs, but do it in the right way. 1012 01:01:14,560 --> 01:01:19,160 And yeah, just continue to enjoy it. 1013 01:01:19,240 --> 01:01:22,520 You know we didn't, we didn't create the brand with the quick 1014 01:01:22,520 --> 01:01:25,880 exit in mind. You know, it's really been a 1015 01:01:25,880 --> 01:01:29,120 blessing for myself and my family and you know everybody 1016 01:01:29,120 --> 01:01:32,640 involved in it to to see it grow and blossom over time. 1017 01:01:32,640 --> 01:01:35,760 And you know we pretty confident that we're just scratching the 1018 01:01:35,760 --> 01:01:37,400 surface of what's possible with it. 1019 01:01:37,400 --> 01:01:41,800 And so to be able to you know use this platform to give other 1020 01:01:41,800 --> 01:01:44,840 people opportunities and and allow them to kind of chase 1021 01:01:44,840 --> 01:01:48,520 their dreams and goals both within the business and and 1022 01:01:48,520 --> 01:01:54,080 externally, our customer base has been really cool to see that 1023 01:01:54,080 --> 01:01:55,720 coming alive. Yeah, Yeah. 1024 01:01:55,720 --> 01:01:58,840 Now the vehicle, like the business business is a great 1025 01:01:58,840 --> 01:02:02,520 vehicle for creating opportunities amongst your 1026 01:02:02,520 --> 01:02:05,600 employee base, your families. I mean like like business done 1027 01:02:05,600 --> 01:02:08,440 right and done ethically while maintaining your integrity. 1028 01:02:08,840 --> 01:02:13,360 Is just like a a testament to what you can use to find true 1029 01:02:13,360 --> 01:02:14,640 fulfilment in life. Like there's so many 1030 01:02:14,640 --> 01:02:17,320 opportunities it creates. I I love it, man. 1031 01:02:17,320 --> 01:02:19,400 Like I can sit here and talk business with you all day long. 1032 01:02:19,400 --> 01:02:21,600 So this this is fun? Oh, absolutely. 1033 01:02:21,600 --> 01:02:25,160 I think it brings up a great it's that that pursuit and that 1034 01:02:25,160 --> 01:02:28,680 outlet for creative creativity. I think, you know, that's 1035 01:02:28,680 --> 01:02:31,560 something that's innately human and we're all kind of looking 1036 01:02:31,560 --> 01:02:35,680 for a way to express that. For me, business brings so many 1037 01:02:35,680 --> 01:02:41,560 different things together that you know little talent, skill 1038 01:02:41,560 --> 01:02:44,680 sets that I've either maybe had as a child or developed over 1039 01:02:44,680 --> 01:02:47,200 time and interest. And so that's that combination 1040 01:02:47,200 --> 01:02:49,880 and culmination of all those different things that I'm able 1041 01:02:49,880 --> 01:02:55,720 to use and apply through this platform, this vehicle and 1042 01:02:55,720 --> 01:02:58,600 that's my my canvas. So it's it's been awesome and 1043 01:02:58,600 --> 01:03:02,840 being able to share that with others, it's even more inspired 1044 01:03:02,840 --> 01:03:04,880 and powerful. Yeah, no, 100%, man. 1045 01:03:04,880 --> 01:03:05,720 I love it. I love it. 1046 01:03:05,720 --> 01:03:10,640 Well, I'm definitely going to have to give the the life fuel a 1047 01:03:10,640 --> 01:03:13,520 test after I. I'll do like a legitimate 1048 01:03:13,520 --> 01:03:16,960 comparison test between that and AG one as I'm testing all these 1049 01:03:16,960 --> 01:03:21,520 markers and we'll we'll see which one works better but so 1050 01:03:21,520 --> 01:03:25,840 are you gonna be are you gonna be taking the separate was it 1051 01:03:25,840 --> 01:03:29,480 the serum did you get that in addition to your green shake or 1052 01:03:29,480 --> 01:03:31,240 you just doing the the green spotter? 1053 01:03:31,640 --> 01:03:36,400 They're they're D3 serum D3K2. Yeah 'cause you're gonna take it 1054 01:03:36,400 --> 01:03:37,800 separately, 'cause it's not in the. 1055 01:03:38,440 --> 01:03:40,720 The shake, Yeah, yeah. I haven't even opened the box 1056 01:03:40,720 --> 01:03:41,840 yet. I won't do this until after my 1057 01:03:41,840 --> 01:03:43,960 prep's over. But they sent me the box and I 1058 01:03:43,960 --> 01:03:47,600 think it's got that K2D3 formulation in there. 1059 01:03:47,600 --> 01:03:49,720 So yeah, I'll. I don't know. 1060 01:03:49,720 --> 01:03:53,000 I might be better off just testing the powder itself in 1061 01:03:53,000 --> 01:03:56,320 isolation as they have it, and then your powder in isolation as 1062 01:03:56,320 --> 01:03:57,360 you have it. Probably, right? 1063 01:03:58,280 --> 01:03:59,200 Yeah. Yeah. 1064 01:03:59,200 --> 01:04:01,920 I mean, that's the fairest apple to apple comparison. 1065 01:04:02,120 --> 01:04:05,680 But we've already got the D3K too, so it just simplifies it 1066 01:04:05,680 --> 01:04:07,440 too. Yeah, well, I'm all for simple, 1067 01:04:07,440 --> 01:04:09,600 man. That's the way to go exactly. 1068 01:04:10,080 --> 01:04:12,000 Very cool Chris. Well, I have certainly enjoyed 1069 01:04:12,000 --> 01:04:14,440 the conversation man. Where can people go to find out 1070 01:04:14,440 --> 01:04:16,880 more about you, try out life you, and just dive deeper? 1071 01:04:18,400 --> 01:04:23,520 Yeah, so directly at our website itslifefuel.com and it's life at 1072 01:04:23,520 --> 01:04:28,680 the YLYFEFU el.com. It's really the best place for 1073 01:04:28,680 --> 01:04:30,720 somebody to start their journey with us. 1074 01:04:31,120 --> 01:04:32,560 Awesome, man. Well, I will link that to that 1075 01:04:32,560 --> 01:04:33,920 and make it easy for people to find you. 1076 01:04:33,920 --> 01:04:35,200 And let's definitely keep in touch, man. 1077 01:04:35,200 --> 01:04:36,720 Like I said, I can talk business all day long. 1078 01:04:36,720 --> 01:04:38,240 So we'll just keep the conversation going. 1079 01:04:39,440 --> 01:04:41,480 Yes, it's been great. I can go on for hours. 1080 01:04:41,480 --> 01:04:45,360 So we won't right now. But yeah, thank you. 1081 01:04:45,400 --> 01:04:48,240 Thank you for the opportunity. It was great to to be on the 1082 01:04:48,240 --> 01:04:51,680 show and to hope your audience will get some value out of this. 1083 01:04:51,920 --> 01:04:53,600 Pleasure's all mine, Chris. You take good. 1084 01:04:53,600 --> 01:04:54,800 Take care, man. Have a good one. 1085 01:04:55,880 --> 01:04:56,600 Thanks. He's well. 1086 01:04:56,920 --> 01:04:57,600 Appreciate it, Robert.