Awaken The Entrepreneurial Warrior With Rome Za

Hey. Hey.

Welcome back to Bacon Wrap Business. This is Brad, and it is a episode where I am going to be interviewing a good friend of mine who has always blown me away with what he's been able to do physically, mentally, the challenges he's gone through, the insights he has, and he's just one of the most solid guys you'll meet. He's got an incredible backstory and background. He's got a great business that he's running. And there's very few people I come across who are really kind of is in touch with both what's possible for them as well as their limitations, and is constantly on a quest to improve himself, but then also help others. His name is Rome Zah, and he's the founder of Awaken the Warrior Within. So the name of his company. It's the name of one of his companies. We'll talk about some of the others. But I met Rome several years ago at a Mastermind meeting. And we've stayed in contact, we've hung out, we've went hiking, We've had a lot of fun. And every time we did, I always walked away just feeling really elevated from my conversations with Rome. And he's a holistic nutritionist, a neuro linguistic programming practitioner, as am I. He is a Brazilian jiu jitsu professor, as well as a writer, a speaker, and a coach. I mean, this guy has kind of done everything. And since 2011, he has helped transform the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual lives of thousands of people around the world by focusing on healing foods, healing movement, and a healing mind roam. Welcome to Bacon Wrap Business.

Thanks, bro. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. I've been listening to this podcast for a few years now, so I definitely appreciate it, bro.

That's great. It's always fun to have you. And I know whenever we get talking, it, you know, there's some. There's some fun stuff that we. We bring up. And I. And I can guarantee you if you guys are listening to this, this is not going to be all real tactical do this, do that business advice. We're going to go a lot deeper on stuff because I know, Roman, I are big believers that, you know, success always really starts, you know, in the space in between your ears. And if you don't have that right, and if you've got. Whether it's past traumas or just stuff you're dealing with or limiting beliefs, that stuff's going to wreck you. So I don't know where this is going to go wrong, but I'm really Looking forward to it. But before I, you know, before I do, like, I know a little bit about your backstory. I mean, I know that, you know, you. I believe you immigrated. Was it from Chechnya? Chechnya. Right. When you're. How old were you?

I was four and a half. When the war started and they started a genocide, we immigrated to the U.S. right.

And I mean, you. You really. If I. If I remember right, you kind of had a. You had a rough upbringing, probably got into a lot of trouble. But then you. You've come through a lot of that to not only start and run multiple, you know, successful businesses, but doing a. You opened a jiu jitsu school in Costa Rica for underprivileged children. I don't really know where to start, but why don't you kind of take me back? I wanted to pepper that in for all the listeners to just go, all right, this is. May go a lot of cool places, but take me back to kind of the earlier life, the earlier Rome, the one that shaped, you know, who you are now.

When. When we first immigrated to the U.S. i was sent to go to school into yeshiva, which is like a private Jewish school. My dad's Jewish, mom's Christian. The country where I was born is Muslim, like, super extremist Muslim. So I went to yeshiva. I got into fights all the time. I didn't really have any older brothers or sisters, so I had to, like, fend for myself. My parents were always working. Eventually, I went to public school. When it started getting, like, a little religious in public school, I made a decision. I don't want to do homework anymore. They put me in the gifted program in third grade. I made a conscious decision. I'm never going to do homework again. Never did homework after that.

Throughout school.

Throughout school.

Holy crap.

So from third grade till I graduated, eventually high school, I got into a lot of trouble. I got into a lot of fights. I started selling weed when I was 11. I just seen my parents working their asses off and, like, not really having anything to show for it. And consciously I was just like, I don't want to do that shit. I seen all my, like, street friends, like, they were just, like, doing fun stuff at that time. Fun stuff was pretty dark. So I started selling weed. And then I just progressed up that chain. Eventually, I dropped out of high school in ninth grade. And then I had a lot of moments of, like, clarity. And then one moment of clarity I had when I was 17 years old, where it was just like, a huge shift in my Life experience. And I decided that I'm going to graduate high school. I went back to, like, an alternative high school, and I graduated in one year. I only had nine credits, so I made up, like, 40 credits in that one year. Oh, wow. Yeah. Where you. You get to, like, work for your credits in those jobs? So I worked at, like, a congressman's office in New York, emergency room in a hospital. I was an assistant pastry chef. I did, like, weird shit. And, like, I just, like, when I put my mind to something, I'm like a pit bull on a pork chop, you know, Like, I don't give a fuck. Like, it's getting done.

Oh, I've seen you. I've seen you in action. You said you had a. You had an interesting shift at 17 years old. What was that about?

You know, I tried mushrooms for the first time, and I took a massive heroic dose. And it woke me up to all of my. My things that I was doing that were just. Weren't aligned to who I truly was in life. And I was just, like. I purged, like, so much darkness that evening.

Amazing how well those work.

Yeah. In the right setting. In the right setting, did you do.

Them with intention at the time, or did you take a party dose and, like, hey, like, just take so much?

And I was 110lbs soaking wet. I took a quarter of an ounce.

Oh, wow.

And that was a lot.

Yeah.

It wasn't an eighth, it was a quarter. And it was really intense. And I definitely don't recommend it to anybody to do that.

Were you doing that with the intention of exploring and seeing, you know, to see if you could get something out of it, or were you doing it to say, hey, I'm gonna do mushrooms, and just, like, have fun? And then you had a profound experience.

Honestly, I didn't even know how to spell intention at that point. I was just like, I have a pound of mushrooms that were given to me as a gift. Here you go, friends. Let's all do mushrooms. Let's see. Let's see what happens. That's kind of like how I led my life at that point. It was more like, let's just see what happens, as opposed to here is my intention.

Damn, that's amazing.

Yeah. Then I graduated school, went to college, four years of pre med. I was a nutrition at nutrition major, biology minor, finished pre med. I was going to go to med school, started studying for my MCATs. I was competing a lot in jiu jitsu, was getting really great results, decided to pivot to buy some time because My, I felt like I owed it to my parents to graduate school and become a doctor, which is fucking like, what a, what a shitty mindset going into anything. I owe you. Let me do this.

Yeah, that's probably a really big thing though in most immigrant cultures, especially ones who've, you know, come over front. Like, I mean, you know, that's big in like Asian and Indian and etc. Cultures where like, hey, we've got, we worked really hard to get you here to this country and you expect you to excel. And a lot of their knowledge is just doctors, lawyers and engineers. Right? Yeah, I think that's pretty. Yeah, it's pretty common.

So.

And I know that. I know that Jiu Jitsu was a big thing that turned, turned your life around and being able to focus on that and channel your, both your. The negative energies as well as the positive through that. Right?

Yeah. Well, what happened was then I went to nursing school. I went to like a private nursing school in Long island. And I started to get really massive anxiety and insomnia and like panic attacks. And I couldn't figure it out. Like there were nights where I just couldn't fall asleep at all for like months at a time. And like, it would be like one night kind of sleeping, one night not sleeping. There was like a three month period where I got into two car accidents on the way to like, clinicals and stuff because I was just like falling asleep behind the wheel. I wasn't getting enough sleep. I was like panicking, you know, and like looking back at it now, I was just really afraid of like facing my, my family and telling them, like, I don't want to do this shit. Like, I don't want to be a nurse. I don't want to wipe people's asses for the rest of my life. I was scared that my life would feel that way for till the end. And so I eventually started while I was still in nursing school. I found meditation and Buddhism and I started studying a lot of that philosophy, more from a philosophical perspective than a religious perspective. And I just started going deep. Like I would be meditating an hour a day. I would be trying different. I've tried hundreds of different meditations I've tried. I mean, I'm like a personal development. I wouldn't say junkie, but I'm obsessed. Yeah, I do everything to develop myself, even Jiu Jitsu.

You do go to extremes. Yeah, you get great results. But I mean, you're definitely one who, you know, if you're, if there's something you're interested in. You're going to test out the extreme side of it and go all in.

Yeah, I mean, because, like, if I don't, who will? And if I don't, who's gonna do it for my. Who's gonna do it for my friends and family? Like, who's gonna bring that knowledge back? And I'm like, I've almost died doing some of these things in the last few years. Especially with like detoxes and cleanses and stuff. Like, there's not a lot of information about it. Especially now with Google being like, no more holistic information on Google. So it's like, if I don't do it, who will?

Yeah, no, absolutely. The, you know, one of the things I was telling somebody else this two nights ago, and you just made me think about it, you know, with talking about martial arts and then studying meditation and Buddhism, etc. One of the, you know, for years I studied Tai chi and Shaolin kung fu. And the instructor, one of the, you know, he was pretty spiritual guy, etc. And he and I were talking about just some stuff, and this wasn't part of his normal program, but I brought. I was inquiring about some of the more spiritual practices of martial arts, and he said, or he suggested he recommend that I take the Dhammapada. You familiar with that? Yep. It's like for anybody who isn't familiar with it, the Dhamma. The Dhammapada is like the writings attributed to Buddha himself. So, like, unlike Jesus, who never wrote anything down, Buddha did. And these were his writings. And it's not as big as the Bible, but it's pretty damn big. And my instructor told me, he said, I want you to take this book, get this translation, take this book, and I want you to hand copy it word for word. I'm like, are you kidding me?

He goes, yeah.

And I want you to sit there, like, you know, feet on the floor, practice your breathing while you're doing this, and copy the whole book. And I did. And it took me about a week, week and a half to do it. And I went in and presented, and I was so proud of him, and I actually liked doing it a lot. And he looked through it and he goes, yep, you did this wrong. And he did. He set me up for this. So he goes, look, you scratched out words here because, you know, I'm writing, I'll read a sentence and write it, and sometimes I'll mess something up and have a little scratch. He goes, no, here's what I want you to do. You know, back in the days when these things were copied down from the Bible, when monks did it to all the sacred scripts before the printing press, they hand copied them and they couldn't have mistakes, they couldn't have scratch outs. They were doing this with calligraphy. So the way they would do it is they would read the word the. They put their finger on the word the in the book, and then they'd. They'd write the, and then they'd go back to the word that they just wrote and double check the, and then they'll look back at their word. So every word takes about two seconds each at minimum to write, even when you're going fast. And he goes, I want you to redo the entire book like that. Like, are you kidding me? I didn't say that, but I did it. And it was one of the most. It was one of the most amazing experiences. It was so meditative. But then I integrated the teachings in there and the philosophies so much. I still have that book. It's been probably a good 15 years since I've done this. And this book is like the best handwriting I've ever had. But just going in, going deep into something that I had never studied before and doing it in a very meditative way for martial arts. You just made me think about that because I was showing that to somebody.

Else the other day.

I hadn't pulled it out in years, and I just thought it was pretty interesting.

That's amazing, bro. Yeah. I mean, what, what an amazing initiation, right? Into like present moment awareness and actually like taking your time to do something excellent. Like, that's something that we're really so far away from in our culture, you know, like, we have the four hour work week, we have the four hour body, we have the four hour everything, you know, four hour enlightenment. And it's like, like we, we don't take our time to like, do things. Excellent.

Yeah. And I've told myself it is funny. Like I've told myself, I need to do that again. I need to pick another. What do you call it? Another text and do that again. Because I really enjoyed the meditative action of it, but I just still haven't done it. It's a lot of times we need that external stimulus, whether it's a coach, an instructor, somebody like that, to kind of get us to do, even when we know that it's good. And it was nothing but good that came out of it. The idea of sitting down and doing it on my own volition. Is really challenging.

Yeah. And with the right intention.

Yeah. Going back to you, though.

So.

And then, you know, one of the things I've always been really fascinated by skipping ahead is, you know, you. You moved down to Costa Rica and you started a jujitsu school. Is it called Hero Academy? Yeah, for kids. And it's free, right?

Impoverished kids? Yeah, it's free. We work on a sliding scale. I mean, some people that can pay, pay. Some people that can't pay still pay something. Because I believe in an energy exchange, and I believe in people stretching themselves to pay for something, like, to exchange energy. Because what happens is I'm not a big fan of entitlement. I'm not a big fan of really enabling people to live in a poverty mindset. And I know that when I pay for something, especially when it's uncomfortable, I pay attention to it a lot more.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So you went down there, you started this school. You guys have had some amazing results from this school, from these kids, right?

Yeah. We have two of the top competitors in the whole country in the first, like, year and a half of competing. We have 140 kids in the academy. We run, like, camps with, like, the Royalty of Jiu Jitsu. They come down every month. We have. We upgraded to, like, a 3,300 square foot space, which is one of the biggest academies in Costa Rica. Yeah, I mean, it's definitely a powerful project. I mean, we're always figuring it out. We're never figured out. But it's just something that definitely brings joy to my heart because I go.

Back and forth now and then, just filling in some more details. You, as you mentioned, you've had a lot of physical issues, whether it was your immune system, whether it was your body, probably a lot of injuries from Jiu Jitsu, I'm guessing, and a lot of stuff. And you. One of the things you go extreme into as well, and I'm saying extreme in the good way you alluded to it, was understanding, like, holistic health and just ways to improve your overall health. And it led you to, I mean, you know a lot about this area, but then it led you to starting a business with Dr. Stern, correct?

Yeah.

Tell us about that.

So, I mean, I was really sick. I was born really sick, and I just moved out throughout life really sick. And that was one of my biggest limitations is, like, whenever I would start training super hard, I would just get sick. I would get all types of infections. And so around the same time that I started meditating, maybe a year later, no coincidences, because I actually started to contemplate my life in a way that I started to ask questions like, do I, do I have to be sick? Like, what if I wasn't sick? What would that look like? What would I have to do? And I started to study different natural ways of healing. Like for example, when I got my tattoo done, I spent 24 hours getting it done in like a three month period. And I went back to teaching Jiu Jitsu and I got a nasty staph infection from the tattoo. Well, because it was an open wound and it's Jiu Jitsu. Jitsu's filthy.

Yeah, you're rolling around.

And so I had like a golf ball sized, like it was like a tumor on my elbow. And I went to the hospital and they were like, you need IV antibiotics. And I actually made a decision six months earlier that I'm not going to do antibiotics anymore because I did like hundreds of cycles throughout the years and it destroyed me.

It wrecks you. Yeah.

So I healed it in a natural way in three days without any negative repercussions.

Really? What were some of the things you did?

I used, I used a really high concentration oregano oil. It was called P73 oregano oil. And I used it topically and internally. And that's it. And a little bit of colloidal silver.

Oh, cool. I've done some oregano oil for some like internally, for some other stuff. Man, those oregano burps are not.

So it's really important to not do it with water.

Okay.

So that's where I fucked up for a really long time because it could destroy your gut. It's really important. Like I do it with a tablespoon of coconut oil and 5 to 10 drops of oregano oil.

Oh, nice. Are you familiar with, we may have talked about this in the past. You familiar with BPC157?

Cool.

Yeah, I've been taking that for when I, when I broke my wrist because it just for my audience's edification. It promotes healing in a lot of different ways, especially on like specific areas. But one of the other things it does is it also is one of the few things they found that really helps protect and reverse some of the damage of like anti inflammatory NSAIDs in the gut because those things really wreck you. And like my wife, you and I were talking about this offline. She, she's got some knee inflammation or some really severe knee inflammation from a lot of repetitive working out in classes. And the doctor prescribed her some, I think with some prescription anti inflammatories or something like that. And I was like, you got to get on this too, because that stuff, really. NSAIDs, antibiotics, etc. It wrecks the gut biome. And that stuff is so important to everything.

Yeah. And it sets you up for future failure even deeper because those specialist injuries, the only way they can be avoided is to diversify your movement patterns as well as balance out the imbalances that you already have. So if you're consistently running, that's a problem. Like, people think running is good, nothing is good, nothing is bad. But if you do too much of anything, it becomes detrimental to your health.

Yeah, exactly. So then we're leading up to where. You know the Dr. Stern company.

Yeah. I mean, Dr. Stern put me back together. I met him. I had four herniated discs. I had two torn rotator cuffs, like, one on each side. I had. I had almost a grade three sprain on my ankle. I mean, I had, like, so many injuries. I was a wreck for sure. And he helped put me back together with, like, with. I mean, he's a chiropractor, he's a clinical nutritionist. So he was able to, like, really help direct my health and also, like, lead me deeper into this obsession with, like, testing stuff on myself. Like, I was raw vegan for two and a half years. Yeah. Did you get.

Did that start to adversely affect you after a while?

Yeah, it can be really good for.

A while, but then long term, it can.

Yeah, it healed a lot of issues that I had at that time. It was because, like, it was a very extreme transition from, like, eating relatively, like, fitness based, like, diet, if that makes sense, like chicken breasts and rice and all that shit, to raw vegan, where I was, like, sprouting my own sprouts. And it was just like. It was intense. But with that said, like, about a year and a half in, I noticed my recovery started to really plateau and I wasn't able to train as hard and. Yeah, I mean, it's just all testing. Like, we're all different at every phase of our life, and we all need different nutritional requirements at different points of our, like, who we are essentially at that moment. Because we're always changing.

Right. So then in working with Dr. Stern, how did that lead you to partner up with him and create a line of products which I've taken and had tremendous results with, especially back when I was. When I was healing from this broken wrist.

Yeah, well, the genesis of that, I noticed that he was making his own formulas, a lot of his own formulas, like, Mixing a lot of herbs and, like, giving them to people. And he was also selling a lot of supplements. And at that time, I started my own supplement company because I looked at my. My credit card statement, I noticed that I had a few hundred dollars a month in supplements. So I was like, I could just sell my own supplements. And it became really successful. But I realized that, like, first of all, it was boring to work by myself. And second of all, I knew that Dr. Stern was making a massive impact. I mean, he's on this practice for 25 years and, like, actively, like, he is, like, literally like the epitome of a fucking healer. It's incredible, like, how, like, when you walk into his office, you just feel better. Like, he doesn't even have to touch you.

Something going on that.

Yeah, his energy. He's almost 50, and he's, like, literally built like an athlete in his 20s.

That's great.

And he doesn't do any. Any, like, external stuff except, like, the.

Supplements that he's not in there pounding iron.

And I mean, he works out a lot. He works out like a professional athlete.

Oh, I got you.

He just doesn't take any. Like. Like, at his age, most people are taking tests. Most people are taking hgh. He hasn't, like, needed it. He's been active this whole time.

That's amazing.

And. And he works like. People fly across the country just to get an adjustment from him, like professional athletes. So I was like, okay, let's. And we were aligned. And, like, we don't want any additives or fillers or any negative things that short term might not make a difference, but long term will accumulate in the body. So we created stuff that wasn't available.

Yeah. So what are. What are some of the best sellers that you've got? I know. I've taken the ones that are. What was it Relax? Is it Relax and regenerate? Generate?

Yeah.

I was thinking rejuvenators. Regenerate. Yeah.

So regenerate is super powerful for reducing inflammation and repairing joints because it has. It has 800 milligrams of concentrated, like, at 95% turmeric, as well as mumiya, which is. They also call it shilajit, which is like black tarry substance from the Himalayas.

Yeah, I used to take that. I had a forget which one it was, but, yeah, it's like a little tar. I'm like, man, what am I doing? It was recommended.

Oh, it's gross. But, yeah, we put it in capsules. We're the only company that puts all these things together. And we don't have any binders or any of that other stuff. We have a really powerful probiotic and more. So like everything's like in integrity in the sense of like our probiotic we sell on Amazon, but we don't send it to Amazon because Amazon doesn't have temperature controlled facilities. So all of our stuff has to be, especially the probiotics have to be in a temperature controlled facility. So. So when you get probiotics, they're actually still alive.

So in general, it's not a good idea to buy products on like prime products, like probiotics on Amazon for that reason for sure.

150%.

That's good to know. Yeah, that's good to know. So what have been some of the, you know, the ways that you've grown that business? Because I mean, starting off a supplement business can be, um, I mean you're competing with a lot of different companies, et cetera. Have you done anything to really kind of stand out or to get traffic? I mean, has it just been like media buys? Has it been like, is it, have you done anything really in particular to achieve the growth that you guys have seen?

One of the things that we consistently do is word of mouth. That's a, that's like the most powerful agent for any type of growth. It's very organic. But with that said that word of mouth is translated into testimonials and we use media buying to pour gasoline on the fire of testimonials.

Yeah. Have you done anything in particular besides just having a really good, effective product line? Have you done anything in particular to encourage the word of mouth?

Is there any relationship building and caring about other people? You know, it's funny, somebody asked me that that's running a martial arts academy or, or they're about to start a martial arts academy and they're like, what's like the differentiator between success and not success? And I was like, you just have to care more than other people. Like there's the magic formula, is there is no magic formula and that there's sweat equity involved in relationships. And it's like listening to people, you know, giving a shit about your product, about your people.

Well, especially in today's day and age, how it's actually probably been like this forever, but it's really pronounced in a service business and everything is kind of a service business. I mean, you've got customer service. Really, ultimately it's a service. There's so much mediocrity and people who just don't care. Like I told clients of Mine, who? Let's say they have a service business. Like I said, you want to be world class at what you do. Simply, simply meet expectations. If you do nothing but meet expectations, so few other people are doing that. Like just, you know, call people back, just respond to their customer service requests. That alone just doing what customers would expect you to do sets you above the average. But then if you actually do give a shit and you actually do put some love and care into it, then you're unstoppable because so few people do. And that kind of reminds me of a joke that George Carlin used to say, which was, think about how stupid the average person is and then realize that half the people are stupider than that. That's the definition of average. But in this case, I don't mean stupid. I mean, like, think about how, how much the average company cares and realize that half of the companies out there care less than that. And if you can be on the other side of that, it can be really powerful. It'd be the most powerful marketing strategy that you can do.

Yeah. I mean, the first person we hired was a customer service person. Dr. Stern literally would answer every single messages. Every single message. And like, it would be like in depth coaching advice for people that just bought like a $50 bottle of supplements. He would send them like a diet plan for like, their problem or like things that they can do. And he just, like, he cares. And we care. And like, we have a rule for our customer service to answer the messages in all of our social media domains and emails and phone in a specific time frame. Because, like, we treat people according to the golden rule from product to service. Yeah. And that's, that's how we got traction and that's how we continue. Want to continue moving forward or will continue moving forward. Because, like, we just care. Like at the end of the day, like, this is more than just like a supplement company. It's like, it's something that we're passionate about. It's a mission. Yeah. We want people to have access to high level health. Not just information, but wisdom that's time tested and not just like some Google article that somebody in the Philippines or India wrote according to other articles that somebody in the Philippines or India wrote according to other articles. You know what I'm saying? Like, it just becomes so watered down. And this is like literally from the source. Like, this guy has been doing it for 25 years and he loves every single human being that walks into his office equally. And I was like, I want to get behind that. Like, I want to be the fuel behind that fire.

That's amazing. Yeah, I love that. I love working with others entrepreneurs. Anybody doesn't even have to be an entrepreneur. Anybody who does inspire you and makes you like, man, I want to kind of get behind this. I want to put my shoulder into. Was fun when I was working with Jesse Itzler and I was, you know, consulting with him on his stuff. And if people don't know who he is, I'll put a link in the show notes. But one of the most inspirational, amazing entrepreneurs out there. And it was just fun to say, look, I believe in what you're trying to do and what the messages you're trying to bring into the market. Like, I'm excited to help you grow this. I've got, you know, some clients in the past where it was, yeah, it was a paycheck, right. I was like, all right, I'm going to, I'm going to work with this client. I'm going to make some money. But I could really have cared less about what they're doing. And there is magic in that, you know? You know, working with inspirational people. I know, in fact, like with myself, I always have a hard time setting really tangible tactical goals for my, for my life. Like, I can set little goals like this quarter or whatever, little initiatives. But I always said, like the three things I want, I want to be fully engaged, enjoying what I'm doing. I want to work with people who inspire me and that I really love and inspire me and I want to make really good money. And none of those are, none of those are quantifiable, but they're, they're qualifiable. And it's, you know, if I'm, I want three out of three, ideally, you know, I think the two most important pieces are if I'm fully engaged and working with inspirational people. The money part kind of seems to take care of itself for sure.

Especially when your self worth is, or at least you're aware of whatever that self worth conversation is and you ask for more than the self worth conversation allows you to ask or tries to stop you from asking.

Yeah, I know that self worth and whatnot is a big deal. I also know that you've been recently going through some coaching and some personal development stuff on your own. You've had a really, you had a really tumultuous year last year emotionally and whatnot. And you've recently, and I'll let you tell us more about this, but you've recently discovered some other methodologies that have Given you a lot of peace. In fact, when we were chatting the other day, you're like, man, I'm in one of the best places of my life. Yeah, let's talk about that journey, you.

Know, for a long time. Yeah, I mean I was for a long time. Like I knew all the right things to say and I knew all the right things to do, but I just wasn't feeling those things in my being. Like I was able to create massive results, right? Like for example, like we started a pet supplement company like two and a half years before a specific time. And then we exited out in May and we got a substantial figure for like exactly what we were looking for. And I was just like, I didn't feel fulfilled, I didn't feel happy, I. I didn't know what was wrong. Like I was doing everything that I was supposed to be doing, but like my being was still empty because I couldn't feel. I didn't even allow myself to celebrate things. I would get all these massive wins and I just didn't enjoy it because I felt like it still wasn't enough. Like I still wasn't enough. Like I still wasn't like being like who I needed to be. And I heard about this emotional intelligence program from my ex and she enrolled me in this program and I was like, alright, I'm in. And I started going through the program, I started to realize that I had like a really big cage or wall around my heart. Like I never had a true heart to mind connection. Like it was just close. Like I didn't feel like boys don't cry. Like whenever I was sad I would just get angry to like get out of it. And I would never acknowledge like what I'm really feeling. And I would just like brush it under the carpet, so bottle it up.

And shove it way down concrete.

And it would come out in a lot of weird ways, whether it was my health or whether it was like I would explode on people. And like, I've been meditating for a really long time now. It's like 11 years, 12 years now. And you know, it's like it's gotten me to a certain point. But now that this thing was unlocked in my heart, I can go so much further and deeper. Even in my meditations and more importantly my relationships with other people. Like, I realized that my true power comes from the vulnerability of like who I am at that moment. Because, you know, like, if I'm not honest with myself and others, like truly honest, like how I'm feeling, like everything's not awesome all the time. Like, everything is not fucking great. I'm not okay all the time. And by telling people that I'm just brushing something underneath the carpet, that. That eventually that carpet piles up and I trip over and I break my fucking neck.

Yeah.

And, you know, I. I went through this program and I created massive results. I've healed, like, 50 to 60 relationships in my life. I wrote a book in 12 weeks. It was a book of poetry. It was like personal development poetry. I helped to have to. I helped my team. I was like the wind, the vulnerable wind beneath their wings to help them upgrade whatever they were doing in the company. I went through. I would say, like, I don't want to say a divorce, but I would say, like, a very conscious separation.

I've heard it referred to as a conscious uncoupling.

Yeah, conscious uncoupling. That's the word I was looking for, for where we still have a great relationship and we're super supportive of each other and, like, we're co parenting. I moved to Vegas and, like, those were the things that, like, I was able to create. And I graduated as, like, the leader of the team. They call it Torchbearer. And now I went back in intensity, like, at 100% to coach.

Of course you did.

Because, like, that's just like, what I want to show up as. Because, like, I had so many massive revelations and discoveries about, like, the conversations that were going on in my head that were impeding everything that I truly wanted. Because what I realized was, like, everything that I want and everything that I want to be. The only thing that's standing in my way is me. There's nobody else in my way. There's just me. And it's a really painful realization because it's like, fuck. Like, I can't believe I've been, like, in my own. Like, I was just making everything so much more complicated than it was.

Yeah, I have that. I have that habit as well, of making it way more complicated as it is. The. You know the interesting thing about this, too, back to one of the things you said a minute ago about how, yeah, look, not everything is okay. It's not all great. I find that even maybe more true or more poignant when you're looking at high performers out there, because a lot of high performers, people who do really well, have something going on in their background that's driving them forward. Whether it was a trauma, a pain, something to prove to themselves, to somebody else, but some kind of a fuel that is pushing them instead of pulling Them. Right. And it's, and the more often, oftentimes the more use of the success you see on the outside, the more driven by inner tumult it is on the inside. And like, I've always, you know, I've suggested to people like, you know, be careful, you know, who you idolize and admire. Like, and sometimes the higher achiever somebody is, the unhappier they really are deep down. And it's unfortunate but like our society, I mean, it's kind of built into human nature. We look at the people who've succeeded at the highest levels and we think, I want to be just like them. I want to have what they got, do what they've gotten, et cetera. But they often don't realize the enterprise that people are paying to have massive success.

Yeah, it's funny that you just said that. Have what they've got and do what they've done. But they forget the third part, which is be who those people like are being. And it's like, I, like, there's no way I want to be that person. Like, I want to be me in the most smoothest sense of the word. Like, I want to go through life, obviously there are going to be breakdowns, but I don't want to live in those breakdowns that are caused by me. Like, I don't want to be, in my own way, I don't want to build that dam, I just want to like release it and just smoothly. Like, if it was simple, what would it look like? That's a question that I've been thinking a lot about because I feel like my life just keeps adding on layers of complexity and you know, I think.

I heard Tim Ferriss say that the first time I've heard it. I think it was Tim Ferriss. But like if, yeah, if this was easy, what would it look like? And it's such a great question to ask because it allows you to go, well, it's not easy, but okay, but if it was, here's what it would look like. Yeah, you know, another, another little verbal trick and you know, with your, this isn't nlp, but with, you know, I know you probably appreciate the power of language, etc. In, in the world of innovation and design thinking, which is, it's very methodical process. There's a, there's a word, a three, a three word sentence that is used all the time. And as I started to adopt it both in my business that with my clients, it's created a lot of really cool answers and opportunities, which is the Words, how might we. So you want to accomplish something if you say, how? You know, let's just say you want to make Dr. Stern line the number one brand of supplements in the world for, you know, whatever, you know, products you're doing for. If you go, how do we. That's like a.

That's a.

Like, how do we do this? That's a big question. And. Right. It immediately makes you go, like, fuck, I don't know. Like, there's a lot of things like, how do we. How can we. How could we. And all of those come with almost baggage of pressure. Pressure. Yeah. The minute you say how might we do. Removes some of that pressure and you go, well, we might do this. We might do this because it removes the necessity to actually do it or even removes the necessity of it being possible. Like, well, we might do this, we might do that. And it. It unlocks the ability to brainstorm things like, how might we do this? If it was easy would be another, I guess a combination of that. I've never. I love that kind of combine those. But, yeah, it's really well known in the circles of innovation is, you know, how might we address this? If I was to say, you know, how. How does Bacon wrap business become the number one podcast and blow past Joe Rogan on itunes? Like, in a million years? I would like. I don't know. I don't know if it's possible, but if I were to say, how might we. It opens up a world of fun, like planning. Cause I'm not committing to doing the things. I'm just committing to putting them out there. And every once in a while you strike gold and you go, I'll be damn. Like, we might not get. I might not beat Joe Rogan, but I can probably 10x my listenership or something of that nature.

So for sure, like an imagineer, like a Walt. Like a Disney imagineer, like, they would keep. They would go to a different room to imagine stuff as opposed to plan stuff.

I actually, the very first episode of Bacon Wrap Business is about that exact process. It was. And I learned that during my NLP studies. And Robert Diltz talked about that in Strategies of Genius, where he's like, we've got three offices, you know, and this was all inspired at Disney, which was the Dreamer's Office, the Realist Office, where they plan it out, and then the Critics office, where they find out all the stuff that goes wrong with it. And they just realized, go to different offices, go to different places in order to do each of these and get in different mindsets. Like, don't add new. Don't. If you're dreaming what's possible, don't try to plan it and don't critique it. Just dream it fully. And then when you're planning the dream, like, what has to happen to get this done? Don't add new stuff to the dream and don't critique it. But then when you're done, take it to, you know, put a critical eye on it and go, what am I missing? What could go wrong? What is all this other stuff? But what I loved is it, it makes you do all three things separately. Like, give them each their time and don't crowd them out, because that's like.

A room for infinite possibilities. Yep.

And I actually do this when I'm working on with clients. So whenever I do one of my VIP days and client either flies in to be with me for a day or two, depending on what we're doing, or if they fly me out to visit with them, is one of the very first things I teach them is that exact same method. Because I go, you know, at different times, we're going to be thinking of what's possible, then we're going to be doing an implementation plan, and then we're going to think about all this stuff that's wrong. You need to understand that I'm only ever in one of those rooms, like one of those thought processes at the same time. So when I tell you, Rome, step into the dreamer's office with me, I've got an idea. What that allows you to do is say, okay, we're not going to plan how it's possible or critique it yet, but we're going to get to later, and I'll do that with my team. Like, if your team doesn't know that, I highly suggest teaching your, your team that little epic, that little technique. As I said, it's the very first episode of Bacon Wrap Business. If anybody wants to listen to it, I'll put a link in the notes. But it's just. Yeah, it's just little things like that are so powerful to unlock, you know, what, what's possible in between our ears 100%. So right now, when you're working with people on the, on the coaching side and you're trying to, you know, work with folks like who are the, who.

Are the people.

That you really would love to work with and get your hands on in a way that, you know, the people that you think you can help?

Really high performers. Yeah, really high performers in business. Really high performers in sports.

What Are some of the symptoms they're feeling in their life that might indicate that they should probably talk to you?

Overwhelm. Overwhelm is a really, like, big symptom for a lot of high end executives and high end entrepreneurs, like high performers. The feeling of like, it's never enough. A feeling of no satisfaction. A feeling of. Not like, essentially the intention is let me prove my worth as opposed to coming from worth. A feeling of being scattered. For a lot of entrepreneurs, that's a big deal. A feeling of success on one end of the spectrum when it comes to finances and running a business. But on the other end of the spectrum, with relationships being in complete turmoil and not understanding empathy and understanding how. Not just understanding cerebrally, but from the heart, understanding, like how to connect. So I guess the word would be disconnected, right? A feeling of not having a feeling. Okay, does that make sense?

It a hundred percent does. And I mean, what's great about that is, I mean, these are all the things that you've experienced in your life and obviously have been able to, you know, overcome so you can recognize the people that you can help because you were that person.

Yeah, for a really long time. Like when we sold the company, and literally the day that the funds transferred into my account, I was crying in a bathtub listening to Peter Gabriel's Don't Give Up. Like, legit should have been like, one.

Of the best days of your life. Right. And it was zero.

I mean, I just realized, like, it doesn't. Like, I can't buy, like, that feeling. Like, no matter how much money I have, like, I either come from that feeling or I don't. But, like, no matter what I achieve, it won't give me that feeling unless I, like, there's nothing, there's nothing externally outside of myself that I need in order to feel worthy. And there's nothing that's externally outside of myself that will actually make me feel worthy. Because no matter what, my unconscious mind will consistently find ways to make me feel unworthy and not good enough.

Right.

And until I get in front of that conversation, which requires a lot of coaching because we don't even realize, like, our linguistics and our thought patterns and the way that we approach life. Because essentially how you do something is how you do everything. So. And I'm not saying if you're successful in Jiu Jitsu, you should be successful in dance, but what I'm saying is how you approach Jiu Jitsu is how you will approach dance and how you will approach business and how you will approach relationships. Because just because you found success in something doesn't mean that it's like where your intention is coming from. Because, like, you can find success in anything and still feel like shit.

100%. So what does it look like to work with you?

Well, I created an online program, my first online program. It's a six week course on meditation. I'm working on a few other programs for movement and nutrition. And it's just fundamental so we don't have to like, so it's accessible to everybody. But like, as that pyramid goes up, I want to work with high performers in a small group setting and one on one, like, that's what I do. We get really clear on the vision, like, so we have an introductory call. We get very clear on the vision, essentially. We get very clear on the obstacles, we get very clear on the patterns that have been showing up that have stopped you to achieve that vision. And essentially we go through breakthroughs and breakdowns together. So essentially breakdowns to breakthroughs together. That's great because you can't get to a breakthrough without a breakdown. And like, it's a great moment to celebrate when you're in a breakdown.

What if you just think of the word, like even just a breakthrough, I mean, the word break, you don't go, you don't just go through. You break. And you know, breaking is not always fun. Breaking is, sometimes it's fun, but sometimes it's, I mean, it's, it's violent sometimes. And I don't mean violent in, you know, bloody way, but it can feel like you're getting beaten up for sure and you have to kind of go through that. I mean, I've done it in the past and it's, it's at those moments where, yeah, you feel, you know, completely vulnerable and it hurts. But you come out of there, you know, you come out the other side much stronger. I mean, I'll tell you this just from, from having been friends with you for so long and seeing your journey, I mean, I can, I know I can wholeheartedly recommend working with you because you bring a really interesting sensibility to you. There's a, there's a lot of people out there purporting to be life coaches and different kinds of coaches and whatnot.

Who.

You know, unfortunately, there's a lot of people are just like, I like giving advice and making money, and I'm going to do both of those and see where it goes. But their level of experience throughout their life is so shallow compared to somebody like yourself who's had the background who's been through hell and back and health and illness and.

Financial.

Poverty to financial success and has experienced a roller coaster of emotions throughout it and come out in a really, really good place. I know when I'm looking for a coach, a mentor or some help like that, I always want to know that that person has kind of been through the things that I'm going through too, and that they're in a place that I want to be mentally and physically, et cetera. So I'm giving you my wholehearted endorsement for anybody listening who wants to, you know, see what more they're capable of.

Yeah, I'm just obsessed with, with personal development for myself and, and for the clients that I work with, essentially. Like I want them to succeed just as much, if not more than I want my own success. Like I'm obsessed with helping them hunt down those patterns that aren't working for them and getting in front of them. That's amazing. You know, like it's hard without feedback from an external source to really see what's popping out of your shadow on a regular basis and what's literally causing turmoil in your life. And those breakdowns are very necessary in order to see a lot of those things. But if you're repeating the same breakdowns over and over again, if you keep running into the same relational problems or the same physical problems or the same health problems, you know, like you're wasting this precious gift that we have of life where you can be enjoying this stuff or getting to the next breakdown instead of repeating the same one. And that's essentially what I want to help people do. I want to help them become more self reliant throughout this journey of life. Because, you know, it's not easy. I know it's not easy. Like, it's not easy. And Instagram and Facebook make it look easy. But in reality, like a lot of us suffer lives of quiet desperation and disconnect. And I want to be that light, that lighthouse for others, especially high performers that can make a massive impact on others because they have followers and their followers get to get to really benefit from their growth.

Yeah, where, where if people want to explore more about everything you've got to offer, what's a good way to either get a hold of you to go explore more? Do you?

They can find me on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Romesa. They can find me. We'll add a link to the six week meditation course and then they'll get added to a group and we can communicate there. Or they can contact me on My email, it's just rome crmail.com and if.

They want to get themselves some of Dr. Stern's super healthy stuff, just Dr. Stern.com or what is it?

Dr. Ian stern.com-r I a n s t e r n dot com. Yep.

I should have known that. Well, I love it. And Rome, that kind of brings us to the end of this episizzle. You know, other podcasts have episodes. We have episizzles here at Bacon Write Business for sure, but because they're just too hot. But man, I really appreciate your time here with us today, being so open about all the sides, the ups and the downs and every other part of the success. And I encourage everybody to go, you know, get in contact with Rome, follow him, see what he's got. Try the Dr. Stern medicine. I tried that. I'm gonna get some more for my wife. As I mentioned, she's got, uh, she's been on some prescription anti inflammatories for her knees, but the regenerate. I totally forgot that. That's probably perfect for her.

Yeah, I can make a coupon for your listeners. We'll. We'll make a coupon. It'll be called like bacon or something.

I like it. I love it. Let's do that. But man, thanks again. And it's a shame you're no longer living in San Diego, but next time you're back out here, let's go do another hike.

Vice versa. I mean to you too, bro. I got Red Rock 25 minutes away and I got a four bedroom new crib.

So Red Rock is a little bit better than the hiking here.

So. Not too shabby, bro. Not too shabby. So you always got a place to stay when you're in Vegas, bro.

Love it, man. I love it. Well, to all my listeners, thank you for tuning in. I appreciate you guys listening and talking about the show, spreading it. As Rome mentioned earlier, one of the best ways to grow a business is to actually care and to get word of mouth. Well, hopefully you can tell that I care about the guests I bring on here, the topics we do, and you know, what we talk about here for you, I would love nothing more than to have you tell your friends and followers to subscribe to Bacon Wrap Business. And if you have any questions for me, if you want to get a hold of me, you can do that in a couple ways. You can go directly to baconratbusiness.com and there's a link on there to either subscribe to the newsletter where you can respond or push a button and leave me a voice note, a little voicemail. As always, you can email me at askbradaconrapped business.com and I am greatly looking forward to hearing from you. Rome, thanks again for being on the show, bro.

I appreciate you so much and I love you for everything that you are and everything that you do. So thank you for having me.

Much love back to you and we'll see you guys on the next episizzle.