What's going on? Ladies and gents Robert Sykes
keto Savage.com. And today I have a special guest
to Cory Conklin on the line, we're going to dive into Quito
his transformation, his journey. And then how that's kind of
resulted in played a part, in his development of his own
business. So we can talk Quito and
business all day long. Without further Ado, how are you
boy? Hi, I'm wonderful Robert.
How about yourself today? I'm doing just standing.
My man just dandy. So give the audience kind of a
bio. You reached out to me on through
email I believe then I've come in following your journey ever
since. But kind of give us a little
insight into your transition to Quito kind of how that shaped
your day today and what was the motivation behind that the first
place? Sure.
Most of my adult life. I've been overweight to one
extreme. Another and early on probably in
my early 20s. I tried low-fat more than once
and it would last a couple of weeks and that would be it.
It's like this. This is nasty.
I just can't handle this rice cake suck and I'd throw all of
all the food I bought away. And then just go back to eating
the way that I was. And as I got older, the course
start putting on more weight and then somewhere along the line I
was reading about or heard about Atkins figured, you know, might
as well give it a try and use that along with exercise.
Is to get healthy in my mid-20s. But as usual, my mindset wasn't
correct in that. It was a lifestyle change.
It was just a diet. I'd quit.
I put the weight back on and go up and down.
Once I got married, my poor wife.
I put on a several more pounds. After the fact, and I got up to
about 275 pounds. And we were actually on a
missions trip, helping your friend of ours overseas.
And he said, hey, you know, he suggested trying HCG shots which
I don't recommend to anybody but it was Was something different,
gave it a try. But the interesting thing was
well once you're done with the shots is you're supposed to just
eat low carb and so I actually got from 275, I got myself down
to 188 Pounds in about a year. And then, of course again, it
wasn't the right mindset, it wasn't my lifestyle and I fell
off the wagon as people do and I got myself back up to around 240
pounds and then just been on and off again with low carb.
How does the the HCG shot diet look like I don't I've heard of
it. I know a little bit but I don't
know the details. Sure.
It depends on the, the way to somebody have recommends that
there's drops that you can supposedly take, just put them
in your mouth and or shots. And I was actually doing
injections twice a day I believe.
And it was literally a zero fat or low fat as possible diet.
I would have black coffee for breakfast.
Lunch would be like four ounces of boneless skinless, chicken
breast, a little bit of lettuce with Just vinegar.
I don't even think I could put an oil on it, and then dinner
was the same. And you might have, for example,
like an apple also. So it was 600 calories, along
with the the injections, which are supposed to with the two
together allow you to burn fat. I really wasn't all that hungry
and other people were, but I survived the worst part was its,
hey, if you do this for 30 days, you can lose a lot of weight.
And after about a week or two, you're like this, I need real
food. I think it's the same thing all
the way, you know for a couple of weeks it gets old Quick.
But it did. I mean there was rapid weight
loss? The drawback was, you know, long
it's not long-term viable, you can't continue to do this over
the long term. Again, I always find it
interesting that hey, low carb is what you transition to, as
soon as you're done anyway or even even keto, which wasn't as
that word was in floating around, back, at that time, this
was probably 2011 but that's something that always kept in
the back of my mind going. Well, it's still low carb anyway
so, you know, later on, it's like I just this is how I need
to do it. Not even bother with something
that really just suck. And then what was the, what was
the transition? So if you do the AC/DC HG H CG
shots and then you knew all the while that low carb is kind of
the direction is pointing to. Did you just transition from
that into low carb? I got down to what I got down to
188 Pounds and I assumed it was a holiday.
And as the old saying goes, my holiday and had had something I
shouldn't have and it turned into a hollow week, which turned
into Me a hollow couple of years.
So I probably went home for Christmas with my wife visited
family. And you know, that looks pretty
good. Let me let me have it.
It's only one meal, it's no big deal.
Well, you know, now, we're going to my parents house and oh yeah,
they're making my favorite. I'll have that.
And I can start after the first of the year.
And again, back to not having the right thought processes in
mind sets it. Well, you know, it's a couple
years later and I've put back 50 of those pounds.
It was that caused me to finally, in to step back.
And I tried to do low carb on a semi-regular basis, but I would
always boo. Well, you know, this one meal
won't hurt and I would do that two or three times a month.
Yeah. Actually I just got done
recording a podcast on this, this very subject matter and
it's like, you know, the whole concept of, you know, giving
yourself one meal. I mean, it's truly needs to be
looked at like a drug, like, you don't want to think of Quito as
being very strict, and you have to maintain like a certain super
strict diet, you know, it's easy to say just live a little bit,
you only live once have a little bit of You.
And I mean alcohol is probably say the same thing about
drinking alcohol, you know. Yeah.
And as dr. Westman says, they're finding
now that if you go ahead and have your one cheat meal, it
could be two weeks. According to what?
They're finding that before, you're back into ketosis.
Again, I have back to, when I finally got back to strict,
ketosis is close. As I could, I started
Thanksgiving Day of 2017. That was one of my is a Kenyan
put to. That was one of my see moments,
my significant emotional All events where my wife was like,
hey, who's going to lose 10 pounds?
The fastest and I chuckled, I'm like, well, I already know I'm
going to win that contest because I have a whole lot more
to lose and she didn't need to lose anything and it just hit me
that, okay, I know what to do and I'm not doing it.
I'm having these, you know, every couple of weeks while this
is no big deal, not necessarily cheap meals, I didn't see him as
a cheat. It was just I kept giving in and
not concentrating on my health. So, Thanksgiving Day of 17 I
finally said, okay, we're starting We cooked a full
Thanksgiving meal. It was all low carb across the
board and since that time, I have twice that I can think of
where I said, you know, it's a busy day, I'm on the road, we're
just going to go out to eat today and I didn't care what I
ate. And then the next day, I
actually took a customer out to lunch and same thing happened.
It's like he said, let's go to a Mexican restaurant and I should
have said, no, because the the chips and salsa, just it tastes
too. Good thing for two, for two
weeks, I was my me, the inflammation came In the next
day, it hurt. My knees were killing me.
My, my back hurt. Intestinal distress.
I quote unquote, gained 10 pounds in a day.
Now, grind, it was all water weight, but it took over two
weeks to get back to normal. It just reminded me.
This is why I don't want to cheat one of the many reasons
because it's not worth the pain quite literally.
Yeah. And then I mean, it's it's
interesting. I've got several clients that
have been, you know, over weights and were incredibly
insulin. Assistant and whenever they have
like a cheat meal they're obviously going to respond much
different than some of that's that's very insensitive and not
overweight and it is not it's not a rare thing for them to
gain you know 10 15 maybe even like 20 pounds over the course
of 24 hours when they go off the rails.
But then they're faced with this just wall.
I'd like just stress and emotional heartache in having
that huge weight gain even In though, they can very often
times lose that water weight nearly as quick as they gained
it just simply having that huge wall in front of them.
And look at the scale seeing 20 pounds up 10 pounds up.
It's like that almost is enough to break the break the stride
and just giving completely and it does I've done it myself.
So I understand completely what people are feeling with that
happens, you look at the scales and go, I blew it.
I'm just going to eat what are what I want now and you waste
all of that hard work. You know, you don't sit there
and see The overall picture I've lost 50 pounds or 70 or 100 and
then say well, you know, okay, it's only 10 pounds, it's even
if it's 25% of my weight loss, I can stop now and go back at it.
Part of. It is also, I don't think people
realize is water weight. They just see 10 pounds ago.
Oh my goodness. I've gained weight.
Yeah, but do your, your close-fitting tighter, because
if you put 10, 10 pounds of fat, back on your body, your parents
are going to fit. Tighter your shirts going to fit
tighter. Your belts going to be a notch
bigger and they I pay attention to all of that.
It's the shock of, oh, my goodness.
And like I said, I've done it. You give in and say, oh well
forget it, it's not worth the hassle anymore.
So I think that's something that really needs to be taught along
with just, you know, the basics of low-carbon Quito is hey, if
the you do cheat this is what happens.
Pay attention to your body, especially with the pain, the
aches, and the pains that come back, pay attention to that.
Now, ask yourself, do I really want to deal with this again?
And I think it really could help motivate people to go.
Okay, I screwed up. Let me step back and start all
over again. And really get back on track.
I've really been trying to dive into the psychology of the human
race. Like I'm trying to think about
how people think and why they think the way they do and how
that results in the actions they take.
So in your opinion, if someone know, I mean you knew when you
had those two instances that were off course that you would
have the inflammation, you would gain the way you would have that
initial water retention that. You wouldn't feel as good, so
why? Why do you why do you think
people go off the rails and do that?
Like, I'm trying to reverse engineer this and actually
deconstruct people stopped process.
I think part of it is perspective.
They're on a diet that it's not, it's not a lifestyle.
That's something that I've really changed on my thought
processes. I'm not on a diet anymore.
This is my life. I tease people and they ask, you
know, well, what are your goals? I want to look like Mark Sisson
when I'm 65 years old, that's my goal.
I've got a long way to go, and it's now it's Completely
different perspective, it's not. I want to lose weight.
I honestly don't care if I lose another pound, the rest of my
life. That's how good I feel.
I'm paying attention to my body now and realize I sleep.
All whole lot better. I wake up almost every day.
Unless I have a late night at 6:00 6:30 in the morning, ready
to go, I get up, I go downstairs, do a little bit of
reading, start my exercises, grab my coffee and I go I didn't
if you had told me in my 20s and 30s that I'd wake up every day
at 6:00 ready to go at all. I laughed at you again, the lack
of inflammation is a big factor for me, but also long-term, I'm
looking at, okay? I want to be there for my
grandkids. I want to be able to go running
around with them, playing with them, taking them places in my
60s and 70s and Beyond. I don't want to sit there go.
Yeah, love you kids. But Grandpa's kind of tired.
I can't go out today. I don't want dementia.
I don't want Alzheimer's. I don't want any of these
degenerative diseases that I truly believe a result of diet
today. So with other I don't think they
really step back and have that thought process of.
Why am I doing this? Simon sinek in his book, start
with white and his Ted Talk which both of which were
recommended by can also have been very helpful.
It's a why do you want to do what you want to do?
And when you have a good why that that is greater than your
what? They're really helps.
You be more successful. So my wise they change often.
So is my what like I said? I Mike, what do I really want to
lose weight? Yeah, but that's really not what
I want to do. Now, is just stick to living
low-carb keto, so that I can be healthy the rest of my life.
And not not have to worry about some of those degenerative
diseases that we see today. So many people that are
suffering with. I think people really need to
get that thought process ingrained into them to make the
changes, I completely agree. It's, you know, thinking of it
as a lifestyle versus thinking of it as a diet, I believe is
like the before. The crossroads so to speak where
people are either going to you know, fall off the wagon, have
those cheat meals and just never really reach the goal versus
actually reaching the goal. And I mean, it, we say that it
sounds so obvious like people, you know, know that they need to
fully commit and make it a lifestyle, but people have so
much of a difficulty in doing that.
And it's, it's confusing to me because, you know, I love
cinnamon roll. I love a piece of cheesecake.
I love all that stuff. Just as much as the next person.
Yeah, but I don't love that like nowhere anywhere as close as I
love, you know, the long-term health benefits the, in the
moment benefits, like, just on a 24-hour revolving basis.
I know that if I go off the rails and have a ton of carbs,
I'm not going to perform worth a damn.
In my day-to-day business tasks much less my performance code.
So that that alone is enough of a reason to not even, you know,
flirt, The Edge and go that way. But then I think about The
long-term effects of like you're saying like them to dinner, the
generative diseases and, you know, Alzheimer's and Dementia.
Like if there's anything I can be doing now, they can have a
compounding effect on my livelihood, to avoid those
later. I'm gonna do it, I can send its
no questions about it. Like I think this whole
philosophy of, you know, you only live life once just go for
it, you know, have that piece of cake, I think that's just a very
weak mindset and people might cruise for me.
Crucify me for Saying that. But at the end of the day, I
mean a piece of cake is not worth it, you know?
No, it's not. I mean, especially when you can
find plenty of other recipes if you really want something, you
can find a way to have it and keep it low carb.
I'm not going to say it will necessarily keep it key do with
with terminology but you want cheesecake.
I could make it cheesecake, the taste pretty good.
And it'll, it'll fill that Niche.
That you have just pay attention to serving sizes and eat a
serving. That's another reason I try to
avoid even Kito treats because man, I you give me something
sweet and I don't want to stop. I'd rather eat the whole thing
than that one. You know, sixteenth of a slice
of a whole cheesecake, same with nuts.
For example, they're a great snack, but I'll eat a whole jar.
There goes my day. Yesterday on a jar at nights.
So paying attention in. Yeah, there may be times.
I know some people that. Yeah, okay.
It'll help them, but eventually, you'll get to the point you go,
I don't want it, I don't need it.
It, the Cravings will disappear. It just takes time for your body
to adjust. Yeah, it completely 100% agree.
It's it's, it's kind of like, you know, I was talking earlier
about this today, actually, as well.
You know, when I first started the diet, I was really Keen to
try all the different. You know, pseudo look-alike
meals, have all the cheesecakes, all the cookies and whatnot
because you can make those in his all the recipes out there
form. But then the more deeply adapted
you get, the more you just tend to phase those out.
And I feel People like if people just, you know, committed to
Quito and it's true, pure form for six months straight and then
decided they wanted to introduce some stuff.
They would have so much more willpower than if they just
totally, you know, went off the rails from the get-go.
I mean, if I mean, anybody can do anything for six months, you
know. It just takes a little bit
discipline and willpower if they do that, then the at least see
the light on the other side of the tunnel.
And if you didn't make the decision to, just go against
that and that's on you. But at least give your body and
mind the, you know, Leti performance, it's do and get
that far before you decide to go off the rails.
Yeah, I mean, pay attention. I mean, I encourage all of my
clients, you know, pay attention to the non scale victories
again, how you feel? You're close fitting better and
everything out, the mental Clarity.
I mean, it's I thought that was crazy and then it's like, I
can't believe how much better I can think in the the ideas that
I came up with. It's like so much better.
Just, okay, sleep. When I go out, I go out, I sleep
so much better. Pay attention to all the
benefits. You're gaining and then weigh
that against the opposite and put it on the set of scales and
go. Okay, which is better for me,
which do I prefer? Like you said, do I want that in
the moment piece of cheesecake or do I want that lifetime of
Better Health and there's a, if people are honest, what they
want and what they'll do or do different things.
But I think most people want the long-term Health, they just like
you said, give it that six wants to get adjusted.
I mean, example, that I use is if you put a bad guy, tank of
gas in your car, are it's going to run really bad for a while
until it finally Burns through that bad gas.
And it's now burning, you know, a cleaner fuel because it took
time to get through it. Our bodies are the same way
except we've been burning, bad fuel for in my case, 40 years
and it took time to really adjust to get used to a cleaner
fuel source and said, oh, I feel so much better now.
Why did I not do this in the first place at?
Totally agree and that's a great segue.
To the next thing we'll talk about here which is When you do,
you know, take it to the next level with your nutrition and
you you have that kind of, aha moment you recognize, how much
better you feel. Then you start to see
opportunities and needs, you just see life through a
different lens and you you feel like you've accomplished this
and and now, you know, the world is your oyster, you can, you can
do so much more and you actually believe that you can accomplish
it. So, with that said, how is, you
know, your foundation and your success with keto kind of blood
into other Aspects of your life and force you to kind of
recognize and move forward on other goals of yours.
Yeah, good question. I was, I one of my belly, the
passions of mine, it's not keto specific, but it's great.
For Quito is smoking meat. I know that you enjoyed that
also. And in the past again, back to
the the proper perspective in mind set, I would go to the
store. Buy a barbecue rub.
Look at the jar and it'll say, zero, carbs, zero sugar, then
you go to the ingredient list, the first ingredients brown
sugar, but the nutrition label says there's On in here and it's
how I watched your YouTube video with dr.
Ken Berry talking about that 20% and they can round up and they
can round down and they intentionally keep the serving
size so small that the percentages are where they can
say, oh, there's no sugar in this.
So, in the past, I would say, oh, okay, no big deal, it says
zero carbs. I'm good.
And then fast forward to December of 2017 and I stood at
a, at the store, they this eight-foot wide rack.
Be 6 foot High full of barbecue rubs and all of them were full
of sugar. I'm like, okay, no, this is my
lifestyle. Now.
I can't do this no matter what the nutrition label says, and I
quite literally stood in the grocery store and said, okay,
I'm I'm starting my own business selling trigger, free
additive-free, spices and rubs, because I'm not the only one out
there that wants this. There are, you know, millions of
people out there that want to live and get healthy, whether
they're low carb, their keto, they're vegetarian or vegan.
Just want to remove sugar and junk from their diet, and I've
stood there and said, okay I'm going to change this.
And as a result, I started at that time, the name of the
company at that time was going to be Quito Pig.
BBQ but through working with one of your former guests can Canyon
long story short, I was listening to your podcast with
him on my way to work. One day stopped where I was
going found out. I was in the town that he lives
in, gave him a call, and now we're working together and he
pointed out. Yeah, that's a kind of a narrow
Focus for the name. Of your company.
You need to open it up a little bit and so I created select
Savory seasonings, where we sell Gourmet fresh, sugar-free
additive-free spices and rubs so that people can enjoy their
Smoked Meats and their foods and everything else, without the
worry of. Well, what's in here?
There's nothing in here, except for spices, it's all good for
you. That is so cool man.
Like you, I don't often times bring people in the show so they
could talk about their product or, you know, their business,
whatever it is. Because Want to come across as
like, I just push and stuff but that is the exact opposite of
what you're doing here. Like you you were on the K2
lifestyle, you saw a hole in the marketplace.
You you were looking for seasonings yourself to use
recognize. There is an opportunity, there
are potential and just freaking went for man and that's like
I'll do everything I can to promote that kind of thinking
because that is that is what more people need to be doing,
right? And you know, I tell people all
the time it's like I believe my stuff.
It's great. It Tastes amazing.
The which was something that really blew me away.
Once I started getting into this, it's like fresh spices
taste. So much better than or freshly
bottled spices compared to what you're buying in the store and
you have no clue how old that is.
It's got an expiration date, while you still don't know when
they bottled it. So it adds so much flavor and
variety of your food and I'll tell people, you don't have to
buy my stuff. I realize you don't need selects
a every seasonings to be successful in Quito, or like a
lot of these products out there that say, oh, you have Use this
or you're never going to know. I didn't get into it.
The force it on people. It's a help.
It's a tool. You can add to your kitchen
cabinet in this case instead of a toolbox.
Well, I guess in your case, it would be a toolbox that you have
in the kitchen full of spices and it adds variety of to your,
you know, I get on one of the complaints I hear from people
is, well, keto and low carb or boring.
It's the same thing over and over again.
Okay, well, in my family. Yeah, it's the same Basic Foods,
but I've got 35 or 37 different spices and blends I could cook a
hamburger every day of the week and it's going to be different
every single time and all I did was change the spices you can go
from, you know, a chili powder one day to garlic herb.
Seasoning. The next two and you add variety
simply by changing the flavor profile of your food and it
helps tremendously with with that aspect of it.
Also, it is it is amazing man. Like I'll because I look at the
ingredients. Listen, everything, like I don't
buy a single food item, or spice or sauce or anything without
looking beneath the nutrient profile.
Macro profound looking at the actual ingredients because it is
astonishing like me you know making the keto Brooks and being
in the food industry I've kind of gotten a you know, first
first line view of how how crazy the food industry truly is and
that whole 20% margin thing is true and companies will do some
pretty Pretty to saving things just to make a quick buck and
it's sad, but it's true. So it's our responsibility as
consumers. The, you know, take that into
our own hands. We can't expect companies to not
try and make a dollar because people just don't have that
Integrity, unfortunately. But you look at foods that that
do say, zero carbs, your sugar, and the first ingredient is
sugar and your kind of left standing like what do I do?
Do I eat it or not, eat it. But with with yours, I mean, you
sent me like a sample pack and that stuff is freaking delicious
man. Like I put that on the venison
that I killed this past couple weeks ago.
I've been putting it on my steaks and put it in my ground
beef and like having seasoning adds a whole world of flavor can
like you were just saying but I ate a pound of ground beef every
single day and I'll get tired of ground beef occasionally but a
pound of ground beef with like a different seasoning.
That's on, like a five-day rotational basis.
I don't think I'd ever get old ever get tired of that.
You know, yeah, exactly that. And that's one of the reasons I
wanted to start the companies to help people with that.
Is that understand? Hey, it's not just, you know,
plain old hamburger, you can add a lot of variety to it.
I also interested with working with Ken started a another
brand, which is a the creative key to cook trying to teach
people how to Simply cook on a day-to-day basis, their food to
how to live ketose, take heed o. Now, I know A lot of recipes and
stuff out there but they get really complex and I just I
wanted to keep it simple. I want to stick with the kiss
method and keep it simple stupid or keep it super simple
whichever one you prefer and it's you know it's basically a
pick your meat, you pick your protein, think you're fat and
pick your vegetable and then how are you going to cook it?
And that's basically what I do. It's those three items, it's not
as difficult. As people think that it is, it's
just kind of like my wife, the my poor poor wife when we got
married had no clue how to cook low carb.
She Was a casserole Queen and it's like, sorry.
I'm not eating it. You'll have to learn how to
adjust. Now, she comes up with stuff,
you know. So it's again, it's it's too
hard to, you know, we've been doing this long enough, I'll
come home, she's like, hey, what do you think of this?
And oh by the way, you have to guess which of your spices I
used in here, and I've had a couple of that was pretty good
and I, you know, wrote it down, added it to the, to my website.
So, hey, other people can now enjoy it.
How do you, how do you have? There's two different
directions. I won't take this have one on
either. I want to dive into both.
I want to dive into the business.
Then I was going to Diamonds like the actual culinary.
You know, art of cooking and preparing food.
It's simple art. But is it art nonetheless?
So what, what are some of your go-to is?
I mean, he's, he's hitting ground beef with a different
seasoning, but you know, what are some quick and easy, go to
techniques and and cuts that you you gravitate towards for the
Beats. We generally stick with skin on
chicken thighs. They when we pay attention to
Whether on sale, you can get them for 60 to 70 cents a pound.
Buy it in bulk and freeze it ground beef.
Obviously, we love going with roast.
Throw it in the Crock-Pot, put your foot, put a stick of butter
and some spices on there. Come home, eight hours later.
And you're done again, pay attention to one stuff's on
sale. You can get a good roast for
299, 2349 a pound. I also like to get one bigger.
Then we're going to use maybe twice as big for dinner that.
Now I've got Leftovers for lunch, for myself, for the kids
and for my wife is a, a lot of leftovers are one of the best
parts of living key do because you just open the fridge ago.
That's good. And you eat it.
It's just left over from the day before on occasion will do fork.
And now with if you have a smoker, I love doing a pulled
pork on a regular, on a semi-regular basis and some
ribs. Look good.
What's your smoking technique? What kind of smoker to use?
I have a Big design. It's not it's not a green egg
but it's one of those Acorn kamado style.
So uses charcoal and would eventually I want to buy a
pellet smoker just for the Simplicity but I've just not
there yet. It's I pay attention when
charcoals on sale and for the price, I paid for this smoker, I
about stole it, so it works. Well, it tastes a little more
maintenance as compared to a pellet smoker but it holds the
heat really well. And once I get it set, it's just
a matter of Keep an eye on it every couple hours to make sure
the temperature doesn't you know swing too high or too low.
Ironically I've got three pork butt sitting in the freezer to
be smoked in two weeks for a church function.
So I'm pretty sure I'm not going to have any of that coming home
with us. No leftovers.
Yeah, no leftovers. No leftovers.
I love smoked meat smells like Smoked Meats.
Are like, my that's what I gravitate towards hundred
percent. But I I've never used a pellet,
the pellet grill but I'm assuming that's probably the The
for just ease of use to me, that's pretty much a set.
It and forget it technique, right?
Like, you don't have to make sure your charcoal is or good.
You just pretty much put it on the dial you need and then it
come back when it's done. Basically, right?
Yeah. It has.
Most of the, the better ones will have a thermometer that
sets inside. So it'll it'll set the temper
and adjust and it'll also have a probe, the go into the meat so
you can sit there and check in, okay, what's the temperature of
the meat? 12 hits?
What you're looking for? You're done.
Actually, I was teasing Danny and he got rid of one of his
smoker but those who don't know who I'm talking about.
Danny Vega. And I tease them on Instagrams.
Like I'll take your old one but we live a couple of states away
and I didn't have the money. So they're went that idea.
He-he's get that a trigger and believe I think he loves it.
So yeah with Bose is there difference in flavor?
Like because I mean I'm pretty hardcore traditionalist without
with a lot of things is that like any any loss and flavor
whatsoever from with using that versus like a traditional smoke.
That will come down to the quality of the pellets that you
buy, you buy cheap pellets. It's not going to taste as good.
But from what I've seen, and talking to other people, it's,
it's close. I mean, there are some people
that are just, you know, I can always tell the difference, but
when you come, when it comes to weighing, okay, I've got to,
I've got to watch this all day or I can set it and forget it.
And there's a slight taste variation when you don't have
time, just the slight difference in taste, you know, he's not
going to outweigh the time that it takes because there are days.
I'm if I'm going to smoke a brisket, I got to get up at 4:00
in the morning, and I can't leave the house.
I've got to be home for the next 10 to 12 hours, to make sure.
I don't ruin the meat. Yeah, that's a.
That is quite the task for sure. What about it.
So, with regard to the season, that's just kind of dive into
those. You have how many different
seasoning varieties. Now, I think it's 37.
I had, I just ordered for new ones that I quite literally was
putting on my website right before we started this.
So it's 35 to 37. Different, seasonings and
spices. And how does that?
How does that structure? Like the you basically just, you
know, combine these, you know, in your own kitchen, kind of
pick apart the flavor profile, figure out what you like and
then order based off of that or how does that set up.
Actually there is the company that does all the work.
The bottle me and everything for me, the individual spices that
they are what they are. So for example, cinnamon or
granulated onion or garlic, or salt or pepper, they're just
individual spices. This It's a matter of just
labeling them with select Savory seasons and going, but they also
offer a couple, some sugar-free and additive-free blends.
So, actually the Blends that I have right now where there's
eventually when I have time, which I don't know.
Is you understand? I'll ever have time with running
my own business? The goal is to come up with some
other blends of more for the, the meat, smoking side of
things, combining different salts, and peppers, and garlic
stew. Like for a brisket Get the salt,
pepper, garlic rub, that would be, is a couple things I've got
in mind. So I have that option to do.
But right now, that's, they already had stuff that they
offer to people. And I took advantage of it and
ran like it. I like it.
Yeah, the trying to think, I think yesterday, I had the meat
seasoning that you sent with the ground beef and I'm not sure
what all that has in it. I'll top of my head but it's
like that red based meat seasoning but it's absolutely
delicious. Yeah, friend friend of mine, she
put that Some country ribs through in the Crock-Pot and the
kids are like, Mommy, that's the best you've ever cooked that and
I was teasing her that, well, really I cooked it but you know,
he just laughs - yeah, it was your spices I get it.
Yeah, I'm thinking man, like I need to, I've got an instant pot
and I never really use an instant pot, except I use it
like, as a big bowl to suvi stakes in it, which is not what
the purpose is for it all, but I need to start using that and
then just, you know, going back to Simplicity sake, you know,
getting a row sticking it in there with that meat seasoned
Going to be good to go. That's one of the devices.
I haven't gotten yet but from what I've read it's like within
an hour, you've got a whole roast that's just literally
falling apart. I'm like okay that's next.
I got my sous vide. I've been playing with that.
My wife is starting to love steak just because of that and
actually I did use that to make a roast.
Also, how do you use the suvi? I just throw it in it, depending
on the template I'm looking for 135 to 140 5.
Cook it for a couple hours and then I'll heat the grill up.
The Seer a little bit. I've tried using a cast iron
pan, I don't know if it's me but we always I always smoke out the
family, doing it in a pan. So I just usually heat the grill
up real hot and put some nice sear marks on the outside of it.
And I did the same thing that every time I was using the cast
iron with the Su V State and smoke at the family.
And by that, I mean people and then but it hurts me to get a
whole thing of charcoal going and have like enough charcoal to
grill, an entire meal, just to put it on there for like 30
seconds. Each side to get to see her.
And I've I have a gas grill for those quick times where the kids
want burgers and dogs. Yeah, that makes sense.
So that's why I just keep that thing up as hot as I can get it
and kind of roll it across as you go.
So, you can see her and another hot spot and see her.
And I get those nice cross marks on the outside.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's an amazing cooking meat.
I don't know, like, we're all Kyo here.
We all love cooking eating meat but it's like the imputed to
have a perfectly you know, playing Charred and seared
steak. I mean it just it's hard to beat
that. Oh yeah.
Okay my mouths. Watering we need to stop.
Yeah, it's gonna be like the dine and dash podcast.
People going to listen to this thing.
Go get something to eat. So talk about the businessman.
You've been doing this now. For how long in total, I think
actually started the process started just over a year ago and
then the actual product, probably launched.
I think in it was May or June of this year.
This year. So six to eight months is when
I've actually had product out on the market and it's been it's
like anything. You gotta getting the tractions
fun, getting your name out there.
So I've been attending, local vendor events just to get people
to see and get to know. So I've got it's night, it's
neat. I have some local customers that
will call me every couple of weeks and say, hey, I need some
stuff. Can you maybe somewhere?
And then through different online, forums, low carb groups
and stuff like that. There's a couple Where the the
people running the group of said, hey if you post whatever
you want go ahead and promote your stuff.
We want you to be successful. So now that has helped out
tremendously also. And again, it's it's really need
going to some of these low-carb support meetings and I was at at
one this past Saturday lady lady looks me, she goes for you Cory.
Yeah, Conklin yeah. Spice guy.
Yeah. I love your spices as practical
man you before because it's really neat.
I know you've probably dealt Out with that also where you just
and I'm getting used to it. It's like you've these people
come up to, you know, like hey thanks we appreciate what you're
offering. It's been helpful to me.
Yeah. There's honestly nothing,
nothing more rewarding than to be able to like make something
that you believe in and stand behind for I mean, honestly,
just just for your own use more than anything.
I mean, you made it because you saw a hole in the marketplace
you recognize that this is something that you could benefit
from. So you set out to make it but
then to have it benefit, not just you, but so many others
than have them. You that I mean, that is almost
like the coolest thing ever. Oh, yeah.
I mean, yeah. I'll never get over it.
So now, it would like you were asking about the business now,
it's just a case of building the brand, which again, working with
Ken candy and on that, and trying to get, get the name out
there, reaching out to people such as yourself.
Now, I'll admit that was hesitant to reach out initially
just because I and I understand the thought process of hey, we
don't want people on just to push a product, because that's
not the ultimate goal. But when you Had that request on
your 7 set Sunday or Monday? Whichever day it was but hey,
I'm looking for sugar, free spices and looking for a sugar
free, deer jerky rub. I was like hey I think I can
hook him up on this one and figured, you know, Now's the
Time to ask because you now have the product, you've tried it and
something I'll probably be doing more with other people that are
in for the ones. Who are saying, hey we at least
give it a shot and see what you think and if you like it maybe
we can work together for, you know, down the road and see then
that is huge man. Like I'm To double down on my
influencer marketing strategy as well, but, you know, finding
people in the space, you know, reaching out to them, you know,
hitting them up, with a DM, or an email, put down the leg, work
getting product in front of them and not seamen pushy or sales.
Like so many companies, just send out a blast email or DM to
a bunch of people that registers on a search engine, which is
totally the wrong way to do it. But like actually going in, you
know, find these people's emails, you know, hitting them
up on the DM on Instagram, making it personal given them
the time of day like that is, that is what it takes.
And the cool thing about it is since it takes effort, few
companies do it. So if you're one of the people
that is the Hustler is a grinder, you go and do that and
it stands out. So you're going to get a lot of
knows for sure. But I mean, you keep you keep
doing that and you keep pushing yourself and do so, in a
non-invasive, like, genuine way, I mean, people want to see you
succeed, like I want to see you succeed.
That's why I was so glad. Get you on a podcast you know
like you've reached out to me we correspond before you hook me up
with the deer jerky seasoning. It's like, hey man, I want I
want to do whatever I can to make this work for you, you
know. Yeah.
And like you said it's being genuine, it's being honest.
I mean everyone I reach out to it's like here's my story I try
to keep it as concise as possible.
Here's why I'm offering what? I'm offering here's why I think
I hope that you would like to at least try my seasonings give me
feedback at the very least if you do nothing else.
But you know, I've had several people.
People in an that have said, wow, I love these.
How can we work together until I?
Some of us finalize? Well, I'll hold off as to who
but I one of the mailing boxes is probably going to put at
least a couple times next year. We'll have some of my stuff in
there to help people out and say, hey, here's a new product.
Give it a try and a couple along with a couple of other big name
people that they like, this is amazing.
How can we work? It's like anything once you get
out there. I mean, like, you know, you
built your brand and then of course, When you launch your
keto brick, what everybody already knows who you are.
So now you've got the product to go with it which by the way if
you know somebody willing to pay extra I have like one or two of
the cinnamon left. I could sell for a price not
just getting the black market for the brakes, man, that's
crazy. I've had I've seen people, I've
seen people trying to sell the bricks on eBay for like double
the cost, man. It's weird.
My people do some weird stuff. Yeah, it just people out there,
try me. Now I want to make a buck but
you know, There's a there's a right way and a wrong way to do
it. Yeah.
Kind of going back to that Integrity thing.
There's been several people here lately that have made like
knockoff bricks, you know and tried to sell them on the market
and like, you know, just just really shady stuff and I get
that there's going to be competitive and actually make a
video on that. I'm going to talk about
competitors because competitors aren't bad.
Like it pushes you to, you know, up your game and make sure that
you're on your toes and and hustling and not getting
complacent. But the same time.
There's a difference between having In competitors in the
marketplace and having people that are just so lazy and
lacking in creativity that they try and replicate your thing.
Exactly. And then show all disrespect to
you like that. I don't have time for.
Yeah. It's just it's true.
Hey, I see something. Let me try to undercut it.
It's like come on the a little bit of creativity and
forethought not just Bottom Dollar.
How can I, how can I copy somebody else and make money?
Yeah, that drives me nuts and see honestly.
And this is going to be what I talked about in that video, I'm
Amazed But even those people, you know, that are that are just
in it to make quick book, and get into the market, while
there's a hyper on a certain product, like the keto brick,
for instance, and, and leverage that traffic that I've
generated. And then play off of that.
Like, those people can freaking, you know, let it let him jump
in, let them, let them get what they came.
Because my people are loyal to me because I've, I've been here
from the beginning. When I had nothing, I put in the
work and I stayed up and put in the hours.
And that's why the people I have Are there in the first place.
So yeah. You know these competitors that
are just in it for the short-term like they're never
going to put in that work. They're never going to, you
know, sacrifice the sleep. And the time to do that.
So they're just going to be a flash in the pan then they're
gone. So let them be that flashed up
and let them lack and throw away their integrity.
I'm going to be here long after they're gone.
Yeah, they're going to dump their customers and run to the
next, you know, big thing or then the next, you know, Buck
basically that they're going to chase after, you know it people
keep thinking Meanwhile keto May Wane over time maybe as a name
but hey, we're still going to be here.
We're supposed to be helping people and providing a service
and or product that has long-term benefits.
Not just like you said jumping in while it's hot and then
jumping out as it cools off. Yeah absolutely.
I mean, Kita dakedo like everything else and everything
else goes in waves there's gonna be a time where Quito is not the
typed word on the Internet by any means but I'm still going to
be key to because I recognize well it's done for me and the
people that are you know like a lot of the people That I've
gotten on the diet, like those to be a lot of companies will
disappear, but a lot of the people that have actually
benefited from it and you know, they've lost weight, they've
experienced a transformation, they've improved their
metabolism or they've, you know, kind of removed a lot of these
diseases from their life. I mean, that they have no reason
to leave. So, they'll still be here.
Exactly. And I know we'll be here to help
them. I mean, whether it's through
products with like bricks and Seasonings or stew Services
through coaching, obviously you have a completely different
clientele Of coaching as compared to me and I'm not going
to be able to to train somebody to do a show.
But I'll work, you know, I'm here to work with those people
that are like me who, you know, as the creative keto cook.
My goal is to help people who are sick and tired of being sick
and tired by showing them how to Simply cook, good tasty food,
that's good for them, so they can lose weight and feel
amazing. I know I want to help the people
that that they are now where I used to be and say, look, this
is where I'm at. You can get here, you can lose
weight. Can get stronger, it takes time,
it takes effort. There will be pain involved but
you can do it. Here's here's my before and
after I was not, I never exercised I can't say never
there was one time for about a year I exercised a long time ago
and then that was it and now I'm you know II know it's like
earlier this year back to some of the benefits I was sitting on
the couch I said words that I never thought I would say, I
need to join a gym and it wasn't because I need to lose weight.
I had energy. I'm sitting there like I have to
expend this energy somehow and I didn't join a gym.
I found dr. Ted name and instead and
exercise at home, and it's it's interesting seeing the body
change and adjust and all I'm using is my body to do it.
I'm getting stronger. It's amazing.
Yeah, I mean and that's that, that's absolutely true.
You don't have to have, like, people like to paint, you know,
progress into these boxes. Like, in order to lose weight,
you have to join a gym and do X or you have to You do this.
So this but I mean, you know, if you're if you're pushing
yourself beyond your original Self perceived limitations, and
when you do that, you're going to be seeing progress, whether
it's with your, you know, body composition, your nutrition,
your business. I mean, whatever that may be
just push yourself in some form or fashion and force a change in
the right direction and then you're coming out ahead.
Wait, you know, a little bit every day and a little bit
everyday compounded over years. That's what makes a difference,
you know. Exactly.
I mean, I like your point, Of your the points in your emailed
this week on your training tip, you know, do what you can now.
I know in your case you're referring to.
Okay? I have to adjust because of the
back pain. In my case it's it's you know or
with other people who are just severely overweight do, what you
can go for a walk, you got two feet.
If all you can do is walk to the end of the block and come home.
Do it do what you can. I can't do push-ups.
Okay, put your hands against the wall and push the wall away from
you eventually get to where you can get on your knees and do a
push. Up.
Do what you can by doing something over time.
You will get stronger. You'll get faster before you
know what? You're going to turn around and
go. Oh my goodness, I'm losing
inches. And I'm gaining muscle.
This is amazing. Just do what you can and people
don't see that. Yeah.
And then when that happens, you just you believe in yourself.
Again, you become motivated and reinvigorated and then then you
want to start doing this stuff that you previously dreaded, you
know? Yep, exactly.
I love it. I love it with koi.
I'm definitely going to be a I love to sit here and talk longer
man, but I'm not the cook some food, man.
You've got my mouth moderate water and right now that I've
got leftovers, I just hope that the family didn't eat all the
leftovers, or at least the ones I was looking for.
Hopefully I didn't go for the smoked brisket or something.
That'd be my first pick leftover chili that actually had smoked
pork belly in it who they're still speaking of Chile real
quick. How do you how do you, how do
you make your choice? I love chili but I mean all the
chili recipes out there have you know beans or obviously.
Not kiddo. What?
What is your, what? Forms?
The base of your chili? I always Minds always a beamless
chili and it depends on what I feel like doing.
It's, I use our chili seasoning for the Heat and the spice, but
like the one I just did I use leftover turkey from
Thanksgiving. That was in the freezer.
I had actually smoked some pork belly, but, you know, cook up
bacon and then ground beef. I usually the I like three
different Meats in there and then, I like to do it the easy
way, I'll just use it by two jars of marinara sauce, like
mosquitoes or Rouse, that are there straight up tomatoes and,
and maybe some spices. So, there's like five carbs per
serving, dump them in throw them in the Crock-Pot, from there.
It's okay. Which vegetables do you prefer?
I like onion. And maybe some pepper some
yellow or red peppers or green peppers to add some color to the
to the chili. You could use zucchini.
You could put you could cut green beans, a little bit of
texture from there. It's a matter of okay, what
would you prefer more than anything else?
I just I know some people all day.
They love the texture of the beans.
So that's or maybe a chicken or a turkey, can add some of that
texture that you're not going to get with a beef.
Very similar to a bean, but like I said, hopefully, I still have
some left in there, but that's what, that's what I did last
night through in the Crock-Pot. Let it simmer for, you know, Six
to eight hours on low and it was just a steamy yummy.
And with a 30-degree temperatures, we had it.
Kept us warm too. Very nice, very nice.
So I'm gonna, I'm not make me to it, and I think that's get me.
Nice. Got me craving chili.
Awesome. Awesome Okoye work.
What can people go to find out more about you and get some
seasonings ma'am? Sure, two, two, two websites
creative, keto cook.com. And for most of my social media,
just search for Creative, keto, Cook Instagram, Twitter and
Facebook. Bye.
Seasonings the website is Select, seasonings.com also for
your listeners. If they type in the promo code,
keto Savage they'll get 15% off their first order.
So they type in Quito Savage all make it all one word, not to, in
the promo, code section for the 15% off and that's just select
seasonings.com and they can reach out.
Ask questions. I'm always open to suggestions.
And as two new products, I got a couple of things in the works to
Add that aren't spice related, but they're still food-related.
So we'll keep an eye out for that.
Kind of stuff too. Very cool.
Well, link out to all those. Make it easy for people to find
you. And I'm gonna go, rustle me up,
some some grub right now and throw some that seasoning in
there man. Sounds good.
I will do that. Do that myself.
Well I appreciate the time chords been a pleasure.
Yep. Thanks man.
Thank you. Have a good one.